Question whether their reiterated Proposals which contained alwaies the same unjust and unconscionable Demands even to nauseate any man of Reason or Honour were not more regretful and troublesome to him then this publick Sullenness and dumb Solennity of laying him aside Sure we may be while that Spirit thus possest the Houses his confinement and restraint was enlarged into an Heavenly Oratory wherein he maintained a constant Intercourse with the Divine Majesty who soon after revived his Cause and though it gave him not Victory in the Field yet made him Conqueror over the Affections and Prejudices of many his seduced Subjects For the Loyal Party ceased not still to assert what they had maintained by Arms and the Irregular Illegal Proceedings of the Parliament and Army every day undeceived numbers who first adhered to them Petitions upon Petitions are presented to the houses for a Personal Treaty with the King for the disbanding the Army and for removal of all other grievances Major General Langhorn Collonel Poyer and Powel active men formerly for the Parliament declare themselves for Him several Towns together with the greatest part of the Navy return to their obedience The Scots with a numerous Army wherto joyned Sir Marmaduke Langdale with a considerable party of English entred by Berwick The Kentish men rise in a body of 10000 men part of which afterwards was beleaguered in Colchester The Prince his now Majesty came into the Downs with a Fleet of War well equipped so that the King appeared almost as formidable as at any time during the War But through the unsearchable providence of God who had ordered a more happy and glorious Crown for him free from those cares and discontents which in all probability would have attended his Reign here under the management an administration of his Subjects which was to be the price of his and his Kingdoms Peace all those endeavours and Martial Enterprises succeeded not but in the middle of the year 1648. all things except the fleet were reduced again under the Parliaments power and command These dangers however learnt them this wisdom that it was not safe to trifle longer and rely wholly on the Army the people being generally averse to them wherefore it was concluded by them to null those former Votes of Non Addresse and to make application to his Majesty which was performed by the Earl of Middlesex and two Commoners who acquainted the King with the desires of the Parliament whereupon a Treaty was agreed on to be held in the Isle of Wight whereto five of the House of Peers and ten Commoners were appointed the King declared to be in full liberty and to signifie to the two Houses what place in that Island he would particullarize for the Treaty Here attended him also such persons he sent for and were of use to him in the management thereof September the 18. it began at Newport in the said Isle where the King valuing the peace of his Subjects above all concernments of his own except his indispensable obligations of honour and conscience condescended so far and with reason so prevaild upon the Commissioners that they came to some near conclusion the rest being referred to the Parliament The Treaty ended the 27th of November and on the fifth of December the House of Commons voted the Kings concessions satisfactory whereon to ground the settlement of the Kingdom Hitherto the bright side of that cloud presented it self which with Funeral black soon overcast the three Kingdoms For the Army upon notice of the likely forwardness of the Treity desired by all good men who were sensible of the wicked contrivances and machinations of Cromwell and his Complices drew up a large Remonstrance which was agreed on at Windsor and presented it to the Parliament wherein they desired that the King might be tryed by the Laws and brought to their Justice and all further Treaty with him to be forborn and forthwith divided themselves the main body to London to overcome the Houses and the rest to seize the King and take him into their custody But before that the General gave order by his Letters to Collonel Hammond to render up his command to Collonel Eures who was to take charge of the King but the Parliament countermanded all those orders and voted the Kings person to reside still in that Island Whereupon the very day the Treaty ended of which they had as sure intelligence as the Houses they put on their Pharisaical vizor of piety and kept a Fast by themselves to seek for that they never found a blessing in their Counsels which were in spight of an Oracle to the contrary to murther and destroy sacrilegiously and rebelliously to seize on the goods and Estates of the King the Clergy and all Loyal Subjects The effect of their Prayers shewed to whom they were directed for immediately and violently as if acted by Satanical impulses while the House was considering and debating the Kings condescentions and were but just come to a resolution of acknowledging the Kings Grace and favour in his condescentions in the aforesaid Treaty as may be seen at large in Mr. Prins Speech to his eternalhonour they fall upon the Parliament December 6 1648. seclude above 140 Members drive away through fear of their exorbitancies many others and pack up a Juncto of the remaining Members to serve their own designs and cruel ignorant Ambition Herein how observable is it that God suffered not the Kings most righteous Cause to pass unevidenced and justified by its adversaries that how gloomy soever it were in rising and in its course yet it should set in glory and have some kind of acknowledgment though wrapt up in the ambiguous obscure words of that Treaty from its very Enemies who having their eyes opened would when too late have found the way to our and their common Peace and greater Testimony cannot be given The King as was partly said before was now delivered into the hands of Collonel Ewers Hammond ingratefully as disloyally betraying the bountiful Patron and cherisher of his family and contrary also to the orders of Parliament into the hands of the Army who conveyed him out of the Isle of Wight to Hurst Castle where they first began their barbarous and ruder incivilities From Hurst Castle the King was conveyed to Winchester where the poor loyal Inhabitants according to custom or to hold up the reputation of that Majesty which those fellows so scornfully and spitefully abused caused the bells to be rung the Mayor and his Brethren the Aldermen going out of Town to meet the King being in the midst of a Troop of Horse in the miry way would have presented him the keys of that his City with the usual ceremony but they were soon put from their duty thrown in the dirt and beaten for their affection December 21. From thence he was conveyed next day to Farnam with the same Military Guards and thence to Windsor where they locked him up and kept as strickt
the Executioner said I shall say but very short Prayers and when I thrust out my hands Then the King called to Dr. Juxon for his Night-cap and having put it on he said to the Executioner Does my hair trouble you who desired him to put it all under his Cap which the King did accordingly by the help of the Executioner and the Bishop then the King turning to Doctor Juxon said I have a good Cause and a Gracious God on my side D. Juxon There is but one stage more this Stage is turbulent and troublesom it is a short one But you may consider it will soon carry you a very great way it will carry you from Earth to Heaven and there you shall find a great deal of cordial Joy and Comfort King I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown where no disturbance can be no disturbance in the world Dr. Juxon You are exchanged from a Temporal to an Eternal Crown a good Exchange The King then said to the Executioner Is my Hair well Then the King took off his Cloak and his George giving his George to Dr. Juxon saying Remember * It is thought to give it to the Prince Then the King put off his Doublet and being in his Wastcoat put his Cloak on again then looking upon the Block said to the Executioner You must set it fast Executioner It is fast Sir King When I put my hands out this way stretching them out then After that having said two or three words as he stood to himself with hands and Eyes lift up immediatly stooping down laid his Neck upon the Block and the Executioner again putting his hair under his Cap the King said thinking he had been going to strike stay for the sign Executioner Yes I will and it please your Majesty And after a very little Pause the King stretching forth his Hands the Executioner at one blow severed his Head from his Body the head being off the Executioner held it up and shewed it to the People which done it was with the Body put in a Coffin covered with black Velvet for that purpose and conveyed into his Lodgings there And from thence it was carried to his House at St. James's where his Body was embalmed put in a Coffin of Lead laid there a Fortnight to be seen by the people and on the Wednesday seven-night after his Corps embalmed and coffined in Lead was delivered chiefly to the care of four of his Servants viz. Mr. Herbert Captain Anthony Mildmay his Sewers Captain Preston and John Joyner formerly cook to his Majesty they attended with others cloathed in Mourning Suits and Cloaks accompanied the Herse that night to Windsor and placed it in that which was formerly the Kings Bed-Chamber next day it was removed into the Deans Hall which Room was hanged with Black and made dark with Lights burning round the Herse in which it remained till Three in the Afternoon about which time came the Duke of Lenox the Marquess of Hertford the Marquess of Dorchester the Earl of Lindsey having obtained an Order from the Parliament for the Decent Interment of the King their Royal Master provided the Expence thereof exceeded not five hundred Pounds at their coming into the Castle they shewed their Order of Parliament to Col. Whichâ—ott Governour of the Castle desiring the Interment might be in St. Georges Chappel and by the Form in the Common-Prayer-Book of the Church of England this Request was by the Governour denied saying it was improbable that the Parliament would permit the use of what they had so solemnly abolished and therein destroy their own Act. To which the Lords replied there is a difference betwixt destroying their own Act and dispensing with it and that no power so binds its own Hands as to disable it self in some cases all could not prevail the Governour persisting in the Negative The Lords betook themselves to the search of a convenient place for the Burial of the Corps the which after some paines taken therein they discover a Vault in the middle of the Quire wherein as is probably conjectured lieth the Body of King Henry the Eighth and his Beloved Wife the Lady Jane Seamor both in Coffins of Lead in this Vault there being room for one more they resolve to interre the Body of the King the which was accordingly brought to the place born by the Officers of the Garrison the four Corners of the Velvet Pall born up by the aforesaid four Lords the pious Bishop of London following next and other Persons of Quality the body was committed to the Earth with Sighs and Tears especially of the Reverend Bishop to be denied to do the last duty and Service to his Dear and Royal Master the Velvet Pall being cast into the Vault was laid over the Body upon the Coffin was these words set KING CHARLES 1648. I cannot let pass this Horrid Act of treason without letting the world know of the Damnable hypocrisie of that Arch Traytor Oliver Cromwel The Day assigned for Murdering of the King being come the Council of War sate which then managed all A Letter without name was addressed to the Council to represent to them by Reasons Conscience of and Prudence the formidable Consequence of so strange and execrable an Execution Cromwel seemed to be much toucht at it which caused some then present to suspect that he had a hand in procuring it and proposed it to the consideration of the Council many of which began to relent and lean toward Compassion Cromwel observing it made a Turn toward the Door and sent one of his Confidents to those to whom the Execution was committed to command them to dispatch the business then returning to the Council-Table made a large discourse shewing the Inconvenience of this Execution and advised them so to secure the Person of the King that he might neither do nor receive hurt which Discourse was seconded by others and re-assumed by himself with a great many words to lengthen out the time until one briskly entring into the Chamber told them Gentlemen you may cease to consult the Work is done the King is executed upon which Cromwel fell down upon his Knees with great Devotion and made an Eloquent Prayer giving Glory to God and acknowledging his Divine Justice A Letter worthy Perusal written by King Charles to his Son the Prince from Newport in the Isle of Wight Dated Nov. 29. 1648. Son BY what hath been said you may see how long We have laboured in the search of Peace Do not you be discouraged to tread those waies in all those worthy means to restore your self to your Right but prefer the way of Peace shew the Greatness of your mind rather to conquer your Enemies by pardoning them then by punishing If you saw how unmanly and unchristianly this implacable disposition is in our ill-willers you would avoid that Spirit Censure Us not for having parted with too much of Our own Right the Price was great the
Commodity was Security to Us Peace to Our People And We are confident another Parliam would remember how useful a Kings Power is to a Peoples Liberty Of how much We have divested Our self that We and they might meet again in a due Parliamentary way to agree the bounds for Prince and People And in this give belief to our Experience never to affect more Greatness or Prerogative then what is really and intrinsecally for the good of your Subjects not satisfaction of Favorites And if you thus use it you will never want means to be a Father to all and a bountiful Prince to any you would be extraordinarily Gracious unto You may perceive all men trust their Treasure where it returns them Interest and if Princes like the Sea receive and repay all the fresh streams and Rivers trust them with they will not grudge but pride themselves to make them up an Ocean These Considerations may make you a great Prince as your Father is now a low one and your state may be so much the more established as mine hath been shaken For Subjects have learnt We dare say that Victories over their Princes are but Triumphs over themselves and so will be more unwilling to hearken to Changes hereafter The English Nation are a sober People however at present under some Infatuation We know not but this may be the last time We may speak to you or the world publickly We are sensible into what hand We are faln and yet We bless God We have those inward Refreshments that the malice of Our Enemies cannot perturb We have learnt to own our self by retiring into Our self and therefore can the better digest what befals Us not doubting but God can restrain our Enemies malice and turn their fierceness into his Praise To conclude if God give you success use it humbly and far from Revenge If he restore you to your Right upon hard conditions whatever you promise keep Those men which have forced Laws which they were bound to observe will find their Triumphs full of Troubles Do not think any thing in this world worth obtaining by foul and unjust Means You are the Son of our Love and as We direct you to what we have recommended to you so we assure you We do not more affectionately pray for you to whom We are a Natural Parent then We do that the ancient Glory and Renown of this Nation be not buried in Irreligion and Phanatick humour And that all Our Subjects to whom VVe are a Politick Parent may have such sober Thoughts as to seek their peace in the Orthodox Profession of the Christian Religion as it was established since the Reformation in this Kingdom and not in new Revelations And that the ancient Laws with the Interpretation according to known practises may once again be an hedge about them that you may in due time govern and they be governed as in the fear of the Lord. C. R. The Lord Capel beheaded March 9. 1949. in the Palace yard Westminster THis Noble Lord Noble in his Life nobler in his Death and Memory noblest in his Posterity who fill the trumpet of Fame that summons all men to render them their deserved honours though he was not like some of our foregoing Martyrs viz. Sr. Charles Lucas and Sr. George Lisle murthered in the instant of the rendition of Colchester having quarter for life given him by the General yet did not long survive their hard fate being brought with more solemnity more perfidiousness though alike glory to his Death which he suffered with a Christian and no Roman but Colchester Spirit and resolution He was no great Captain nor ever undertook such a charge serving without any signal command in his Majesties Armies though no doubt sufficient thereto yet he is no less to be eternized for his indeavours his courage constancy and faithful adherence to the King when deserted by a great part of the Nobility parting with and hazarding a great and ample Estate which was sequestred from him and in conclusion laying down his life so that he may justly be stiled one of the Worthies of the English Nobility and his name ever to be honourably mentioned according to that of the Psalmist Psal 112.6 The Righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance He was Son and Heir to Sr. Arthur Capel of Hadham Hall in Herefordshire a Gentleman of Great Estate and who loved and followed the old mode of our Nation kept a Noble and bountiful House and shewed forth his Faith by his charity extending it in such abundant manner to the poor that he was bread to the hungry drink to the thirsty eies to the blind and legs the the same so that he might justly be stiled Great Almoner to the King of Heaven As this diffusive charity and bounty spread it self abroad no less did his Relative love and Paternal affection bestow it self on this his Son whom he most liberally educated to a perfection in Learning as his rich expressions and elegant stile in his Book Printed after his death and in other letters do best evidence Sr. Arthur dying as this Noble Lord inherited his Estate so did he his Virtues his pious bounty appearing so conspicuous that some envious persons who hate good works in others because they will do none themselves have maliciously traduced him as inclining to Popery But as such aspersions amongst persons of understanding signifie nothing more than the speakers malice so wrought it in others a deserved commendation of this Noble Person especially in those times and our own are worse when Charity lay bed-rid and Faith only and such hungry notions were talkt of whereas his Faith appeared by his works From the degree of Knight the ancient Dignity of his Family now advanced to the Earldom of Essex he was made Baron Capel of Hadham a little before the time the Earl of Strafford received his Tryal which in this brave Lords conscientious Judgment of himself was his original condemnation in foro coeli During the Rebellion and those differences between the King and Parliament he constantly and faithfully adhered to his Majesty contributing both in purse and person to his aid and assistance being appointed in that time for his eminent wisdom and prudence Councellour to the Prince by the King his Father whom he abandoned not till the disbanding of my Lord Hopton's Army in Cornwall from whence his Highness took shipping to Scilly giving my Lord an honourable but sorrowful dismission and conge to return home and attend though his heroical mind spur'd him on to pursue his most unworthy fate For at his coming home upon those Articles having scarce warmed himself there after his long absence from thence but some hopes appearing of the King's restauration to his former Authority by the coming in of Duke Hamilton with a potent Army as also by the Welch Insurrection and the rising of several Counties who declared for the same purpose he with a select number of his friends acquaintance and
will make my conclusion with it that is That God Almighty would confer of his infinite and inestimable Grace and mercy to those that are the causers of my coming hither I pray God give them as much mercy as their hearts can wish and truly for my part I will not accuse any one of them of malice truly I will not nay I will not think there was any malice in them what other ends there is I know not nor will I examine but let it be what it will from my very Soul I forgive them every one And so the Lord of Heaven blesse you all God Almighty be infinite in goodnesse and mercy to you and direct you in those wayes of obedience to his Commands to His Majesty that this Kingdom may be an happy and glorious Nation again and that your King may be an happy King in so good and so obedient a people God Almighty keep you all God Almighty preserve this Kingdom God Almighty preserve you all Then turning about and looking for the Executioner who was gone off the Scaffold said which is the Gentleman which is the man Answer was made He is coming He then said Stay I must pull off my Doublet first and my Wastcoat and then the Executioner being come upon the Scaffold the Lord Capel said O friend prethee come hither Then the Executioner kneeling down the Lord Capel said I forgive thee from my Soul and not only forgive thee but I shall pray to God to give thee all grace for a better life There is five pound for thee and truly for my clothes and those things if there be any thing due to you for it you shall be fully recompenced but I desire my bedy may not be stripped here and no body to take notice of my body but my own Servants Look you Friend this I shall defire of you that when I lye down you would give me a time for a particular short Prayer Lieu. Col. Beecher Make your own sign my Lord. Capel Stay a little Which side do you stand upon speaking to the Executioner Stay I think I should lay my hands forward that way pointing fore-right and answer being made Yes he stood still a little while and then said God Almighty blesse all this people God Almighty slench this blood God Almighty stench stench stench this issue of blood this will not do the business God Almighty find out another way to do it And then turning to one of his Servants said Baldwin I cannot see any thing that belongs to my Wife but I must desire thee and beseech her to rest wholly upon Jesus Christ to be contented and fully satisfied and then speaking to his Servants he said God keep you and Gentlemen let me now do a business quickly privately and pray let mee have your prayers at the moment of death that God would receive my Soul L. Col. Beecher I wish it Capel Pray at the moment of striking joyn your Prayers but make no noise turning to his Servants it is inconvenient at this time Servant My Lord put on your cap. Capel Should I what will that do me good Stay a little it is well as it is now As he was putting up his hair And then turning to the Executioner he said honest man I have forgiven thee therefore strike boldly from my Soul I do it Then a Gentleman speaking to him he said Nay prethee be contented be quiet good Mr. be quiet Then turning to the Executioner he said Well you are ready when I am ready are you not and stretching out his hands he said Then pray stand off Gentlemen Then going to the front of the Scaffold he said to the People Gentlemen though I doubt not of it yet I think it convenient to ask it of you That you would all joyn in Prayers with me That God would mercifully receive my Soul and that for his alone mercies in Christ Iesus God Almighty keep you all Execut. My Lord shall I put up your hair Capel I I prethee do and then as he stood lifting up his hands and eyes he said O God I do with a perfect and willing heart submit to thy will O God! I do most willingly humble my self and then kneeling down said I will try first how I can Lye and laying his head upon the Block said Am I well now Execut. Yes And then as he lay with both his hand stretched out he said to the Executioner Here lie both my hands out when I lift up my hands thus lifting up his right hand then you may strike And then after he had said a short Prayer he lifted up his right hand and the Executioner at one blow severed his head from his body which was taken up by his Servants and put with his body into a coffin I Shall omit Duke Hamilton not only because of another Nation though a Peer of this but because it is in question whether he suffered not for obeying the commands of the Scotch Parliament and Kirk who sent him as General in that Expedition and that the Kings Interest was but collateral Let him therefore rest in his honourable grave while we softly and reverently pass over it to that of the Earl of Holland Henry Earl of Holland beheaded on the Scaffold in the Palace-yard at Westminster at the same time THis Lord in the beginning of the Reign of King Charles the Martyr was his special favourite and peculiar friend so that after that assassinate upon the Duke of Buckingham he was made Chancellor of the University of Cambridge having been newly before from Baron Rich of Kensington raised to the Honour of the Earldom of Holland and sent Colleague with the Earl of Carlisle in that splendid Embassy into France about the marriage of the Queen Mother Notwithstanding all these favours so freely conferred on him so uncertain variable and unobligeable are the minds of men for I cannot impute his siding with the Parliament to have been from any disgust or dislike he received from the King especially when Religion becomes the bone of contention he was one of those Lords that remained at London and made up a House of Peers although he never took up Arms Command or Employment against his good Master and Soveraign About the middle of the War sceing how unreasonably the Parliament persisted in carrying on the War being so often fruitlesly courted by the King to an accommodation he and the Earl of Bedford forsook their part and quarrel and escaped to the King at Oxford where finding not that kind and favourable reception they expected being looked on shily by the Court there especially this Lord he privately departed to London again having left a fair account of himself to the King But when the War was ended and the Parliament had refused to treat with his Majesty and so to settle the Kingdom he then took up Arms in earnest in the Kings behalf being real and cordial on this his last undertaking and engaged with him the Duke of
standing and had not yet put off their blood-died Robes in expectation of this Grand Contrivance which should make them farther work Mr. Love being one of the chief was first Tried afterwards some others who recanted and humbly besought the Parliaments mercy as Mr. Jenkins and Potter but Mr. Love's submission such as it was for they required Confession and discoverie too came too late and to no purpose so that he and this Ms. Gibbons a Taylor was condemned by that High Court for the same businesse lost their Heads on Tower-hill as aforesaid The Earl of Derby beheaded at Bolton in Lancashire Octob. 15. 1651. WHosoever shall look upon the sad Historie of this Princely person must be armed against all humanitie if he condole not this miserable Traggedie every circumstance whereof is a Scene of sorrow which alike moves indignation and compassion If we deduce him from his glorious originals we see him descended from a most ancient and illustrious Family in which Loyaltie was one of the Gentilitions in herent vertues derived in the succession of those Heroes who to this day adorn'd the noble name of Stanley so memorated and famed in our Annals especially in the Reign of Henry the 7th direct Ancrestor to his present Majestie The signal Services done at that time to this Crown and Kingdom both by Victorie and Advice in the blessed union of the Houses of York and Lancaster were so placed that they seem to have directed only the imitation of their most Honourable Posteritie without the affectation of any thing but duty For those Heroick actions have been ever since as Spurs and Incentives to the same Grandeurs of Loyaltie manifested in all occasions and Affairs of the Crown through the whole current of Succession But this Noble Earl whose unworthie Fate we now deplore came nearest that great Pattern the Times concurring with the activity of his mind afforded him the advantage of employing and exercising that stock of Prudence and Valour which had so long been treasured up in the loines of his Princely Progenitors and yet to the scandal and reproach of that Age rewarding all his Honourable Attchievements with a most lamented Catastrophy If we also consider therefore his great and personal merit and obligations upon this Kingdom we shall find his Services not to come short of those of his Ancestors though clog'd with the burdensome glory of giving a Crown in designment and attempt however they failed of their most probable effects But to mitigate the Envy of his Fate to innocent Posteritie I will not presume with so rude a Pen to write their Monument and at large relate them He that hath heard of a Latham-House and Marston-Moor as I suppose all men have will easily confess his glories which shone brightly in the Sphear of all Military worth to the setting of Charles his Wain In those gloomy and black dayes he withdrew himself to a shelter in his Royaltie of the Isle of Man awaiting a new opportunity of serving his present Majestie which not long after offered it self and was with all readiness of duty encertained by him For the King having resolved Cromwel being gotten into Fife in Scotland to pass into England over Sterling-bridge by the advantage of three daies march gave present intimation thereof to the Earl who in order to some other design had some forces in readiness with these according to his instructions upon the Kings advance that way he landed in Lancashire where his Interest and Power lay and joined with his Majestie who leaving him some forces to aid and assist him in his new Levies against the Parliaments Forces then marching thitherward to suppress them marched directly for Worcester As soon as the King was departed Col. Lilburn was upon him and at Wiggon in that County with thrice his number fell upon the Earls small party not amounting to above 600 men and after a sharp encounter which favourably promised Victory at the first but through want of Reserves failed the Earl in conclusion put him to the rout where a many gallant Noble men and Gentry were slain and taken as my Lord Widdrington and others and the Earl himself hardly escaping to the King at Worcester being in the way forced to shelter at Boscolet the receptacle afterwards by my Lords direction of the King himself who being worsted at Worcester by the Rebels under Gromwel where his Majestie and his Nobilite discharged the place of brave Captains and Warriours particularly this undaunted Earl not yet wearied with his ill fortune was constrained to abandon that City and betake himself to a swift flight in Companie with this faithful Lord and other Honourable Persons At White-Ladies whither by the direction of the Earl the King was guided he took his leave of his Majestie having first taken care of his security where also he himself might have found a subterfuge but that he would not hazard his Majesties safty by a divided care of his Guardians for two and that number though but so small might not betray him At his departure he fell on his knees and wept and then conjured the Pendants to be faithfully careful of his Majesties person dearer to him then ten thousand lives and so betook himself again to flight in company of the same retinue who made after the road the Scotch horse they had taken under David Leshly At Newport in Shropshire they overtook them but with the same Col. Lilburn at their heels who fell into the Town and after a short dispute dispersed and took most of the party among the principal whereof was this Noble and unfortunate Earl the Earl of Landerdale Lord Sinclare and others the Duke of Buckingham strangely making his escape Becoming thus the prey of those barbarous rebels he was a while detained there till at last Orders came for his removal to Chester where shortly after he was convented by instructions of them at Westminster where the Earl desired to be heard in person before a Council of War all of them base and mechanick fellows and of no great Command in their army a barbarous shame that the Honour of so great a personage in a Country where he was so well esteemed reputed and reverenced both for his own superlative vertues of liberality and bounty and the continued obligements of his Ancestry should be so violenced and profaned by a rascally sort of men who assumed to themselves and arrogated the power of life and death upon a Peer of such magnitude and veneration an indignity worse by far then those outrages committed and perpetrated by Jack Cade and Wat Tyler and the rest of those rabbles who in their mad fury did such-like pranks whereas here thâ—s murther was countenanced by a colour of Law Martial and done in the form and process thereof but in this he imitated his dearly beloved Soveraign who was reviled contemned and mocked in the same manner at their irreverent High Court of Justice which no question did much sweeten that
an overture was made by other Lords then about the King for a Peace with the Scots which soon after taking effect the King returned to Westminster where he had summoned his Parliament according to the advice of this Lord and the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury both whom they rendred odious to the People upon the very account of being Enemies to Parliaments The very first thing of consequence done at the first Sessions was a charge exhibited by the House of Commons against this Earl which consisted of 28. Articles of high Treason Feb. 16 1640. The substance of them all was That he had endeavoured to subvert the fundamental Laws and Governments of the Realms of England and Ireland that he had done ill Offices betwixt the King and the Scots and betwixt the King and his Subjects of this Kingdom that he had advised the King to bring up the Army out of the North and overawe the Parliament and that he had informed his Majesty that he had an Army of 10000 men in Ireland ready to be transported for the same Service His Tryal thereupon April 13. ensued which was done with all solemnity a Court being made for the purpose with seats for both Houses and a Canopy for the King with a Terrasse before it The Earl of Arundel was Lord High Steward his Accusers were Pym St. Johns Whitlock Sr. Walter Earles Serjeant Glyn Maynard Stroud Mr. Selden Hambden c. The Lieutenant warded all their blows defending himself bravely and learnedly so that there was no hopes of prevailing against his innocence by the Law before the Lords that were his Judges But the implacable fury of the House of Commons since chey could effect nothing this way put them upon another which was to draw up a Bill of Attaindor and present it to the Lords whereby the matter of Fact was declared to have been sufficiently proved and then as to Law that he had incurred the censure of Treason the Lords stumbled at this way of proceeding as a path leading to their own destruction it being a course unsuitable to the practice and state of the Kingdom and their own safety and against Common Justice To this it was replied by the Commons that if the Lords would not joyn with them in this way they feared a rupture might follow for that the People would not be satisfied without Justice done upon the Earl as the Author of all their grievances The Lords stood for a while to their first determination and heard the Earl by his Council at their Bar as to matter of Law this made the House of Commons though the King in a set speech to them had cleared the Earl from any design of Treason or consulting to any arbitrary Government nor could he concur to punish him as a Traitor the more eager Whereupon the Londoners came down in Tumults crying Justice and threatning the Lords as aforesaid so that at last the said Bill ushered in by a Protestation passed the whole House of Commons nemine contradicente but the Lord Darby and one or two more and presently after the House of Lords where were present 45 26 against him and 19 for him most of his friends absenting themselves for fear of the multitude Immediatly the Kings assent was required to the Bill who consulted with the Bishops who all but the Bishop of London now his Grace of Canterbury and who as the King observed in his Book fared the best of all advised him against it but that which most swayed the King to sign it which he bitterly afterwards repented was a Letter of the Earls to his Majesty which being too long here to insert I shall only give you that Passage wherein he desires his Majesty to passe the Bill And therefore in few words as I put my self wholly upon the Honour and Justice of my Peers so clearly as to beseech your Majesty might please to have spared that Declaration of yours on Saturday last and intirely to have left me to their Lordships so now to set your Majesties Conscience c. at liberty I do most humbly beseech you for the preventing of such mischief as may happen by your refusal to pass the Bill by this means to remove praised be God I cannot say this accursed but I confess this unfortunate thing forth of the way towards that blessed agreement which God I trust shall for ever establish betwixt you and your Subjects Sir my consent herein shall more acquit you to God than all the World can do besides to a willing man there is no injury done c. I have also here inserted for their excellency and elegancy these two following Speeches the first at Westminster Hall to the Lords at the conclusion of his Trial the other at the Scaffold which are as follow MY Lords There yet remaines another Treason that I should be guilty of the endeavouring to subvert the fundamental Laws of the Land that they should now be Treason together that is not Treason in any one part of Treason accumulative that so when all will not do it is woven up with others it should seem very strange Under favour my Lords I do not concieve that there is either Statute Law nor Common-Law that doth declare the endeavouring to subvert the fundamental Laws to be high Treason For neither Statute-Law nor Common-Law written that ever I could here of declareth it so And yet I have been diligent to enquire as I believe you think it doth concern me to do It is hard to be questioned for life and honour upon a Law that cannot be shewn There is a Rule which I have learned from Sir Edward Cooke De non aparentitibus non existentibus eadem ratio Jesu where hath this fire lain all this while so many hundred of years without any smoak to discover it till it thus burst out to consume me and my children extreme hard in my opinion that punishment should precede promulgation of Law punishment by a Law subsequent to the Acts done Take it into your considerations for certainly it is now better to be under no Law at all but the will of men than to conforme our selves under the protection of a Law as we think and then be punished for a crime that doth precede the Law what man can be safe if that be once admitted My Lords it is hard in another respect that there should be no token set upon this offence by which we should know it no admonition by which we should be aware of it If a man passe down the Thames in a Boat and it be split upon an Anchor and no booy be ser as a token that there is an Anchor there that party that ows the Anchor by the Maritine Laws shall give satisfaction for the damage done but if it were marked out I must come upon my own peril Now where is a mark upon this crime Where is the token this is high Treason If it be under water and not above water no humane
the time and place of this Regicide also proved This Information was first made to the House of Lords and avowed by the said two Gentlemen whereupon Rolfe being apprehended in Bishopsgate where he had like to have been torn in pieces by the multitude of people had it not been for their very strong Guards they sent for him was carried in a Sedan to the Gate-house whence he was sent against the Assizes to Winchester where at his Arraignment the whole matter was punctually proved against him yet for all that both by Judges and Jury the then Lord Chief Baron and some packt desperate Wretches of that County he was to the wonder and astonishment of all the world acquitted and freed and soon after set at Liberty Next followed the Inditement and Arraignment of this our Martyr which was layd for levying war against the King to which he duly and of Right and Conscience pleaded Not guilty Tâ—e matter of Fact which was proved against him was that he had beaten up Drums in the Isle of Wight to raise men for to assist the King against the Parliament such a Contradiction in it self that had but Reason and Loyalty been at market there had been no such desperate Chapmen in the Country for without more ado these wretched Fellows bring him in guilty of High Treason and the Judge gave Sentence accordingly which was presently after executed We will consider Thirdly that this manner of Trial was never offered before to the Subjects of this Kingdom those men they murdered upon the Score of Loyalty during the war were either taken away by their Illegal Ordinances or Courts Marshal and Councils of war they not daring to refer their case to the decision of the Law but here assoon as they had reduced the King they thought it an easie work to reduce the Laws and though his Majesty would not comply with their unlimited demands they would bend the Law to their Lusts and most absolute will and Tyranny so that he is the first who suffered as a Martyr of the English Freedom Intercessions were made on all hands for his Life his poor wife even drowned in tears imploring their mercy but there was no Relenting or Compassion to be found among those men So Feb. 10. being come the day of his blessed Exchange he full of Christian Resolution and Comfort with Earnest Prayers to God for the King and Kingdoms Restoration to their former and lasting Happiness willingly resigned his Spirit to God sealing his Glorious Cause with his last Breath and Bloud Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle shot to death at Colchester by a Council of War upon the Rendition of the same Town THese Gemini of Valour and Honour as well as exact Loyalty I could not well divide in this Martyrology being so joyned in their deaths honourable Burial and Funerals and being both of them so equally eminent in their Generation for all true worth and Vertue Sr. Charles Lucas was descended of a very Ancient and Illustrious Family he who knows not the Name of Lucas knows nothing of Gentility but if this Noble Person had derived no Honour from his Ancestors yet his own purchased Glory and the Relative Merits of his two Famous Brethren the Lord Lucas and Sir Gervas formerly Governour of Belvoyr Castle in which three Nature and Education had summ'd up a Perfection will without any other Additaments transmit him to Posterity as a worthy and English Heroe He was a Person assisted with a resolute Spirit of an active disposition and a surable discretion to manage it strict and severe in his Commands without any pride or surliness free in his Rewards to persons of Desert and Quality in his Society and with his Friends he was affable and pleasant in his Charge serious and vigilant remiss in nothing that might any way improve or expedite his Dispatch in the Affairs of VVar as he is well charactered by a good Pen. We will therefore view him only in the Camp in which he gloriously lived and died excusing his Learning and other rare Endowments from the imputation of Crime and lay all the Load of his miserable Fate aggravated by the Name of an enemy to the Kingdom upon his Loyal carriage and magnanimity abstracted from all other Considerations In the beginning of the Tumults and Preparations for War in Scotland against their Native pious Pr. he raised a Troop of Horse in London and like an Expert and Resolute Commander behaved himself in that uncertain Service being a profest Enemy to the Insolencies and Rebellious Designs of that Nation That Broyl ceasing through the great condescentions of the King to the unreasonable Demands of that Kingdom which kindled the Combustions in this the King being necessitated to take up Arms to defend his Person and the Authority of the Laws against the like Rebellion at home Sr. Charles readily engaged on his Soveraigns side against the pretended 2 Houses The first place where he signally shewed his Valour in that just Cause omitting Exployts of less concernment as not to our purpose was at Auburn Chase and Newberry Field where the first memorable Battel was fought here Sr. Charles Lucas with many other Gallant Gentlemen behaved themselves with undanted courage and Resolution which so far engaged him in that dangerous Business the fight being obstinately maintained that he received some desperate wounds that fatal day but the Blood he lost there was but an Earnest or prognostick stillations drops of that mass of Bloud which was afterwards to flow out with his Life for the same Cause His next Appearance to the terror of his Enemies his Valour having gained him a frighting name amongst them was in his deserting of Cawood Castle assaulted by the Parliaments Forces whence with good conduct and as true Courage he forced his way through their Quarters to such places as he thought convenient and came at last in safety to York His Bravery in charging at Marston Moor and enduring the Brunt of his Enemies when the Fortune of that day declined on the Kings side as it then challenged the Praise of all men so it deserves everlasting Remembrance His discreet and military Management of the Affairs at Newark where he manifested himself an absolute Souldier both in Discipline of war and personal Action to the great satisfaction of the Governour and Garrison which alwaies consisted of Gallant and truly Noble Persons merits a Record to serve as an Example to Future Times His brave and successeful Attempt in his March from Berkly Castle with part of his Regiment betwixt Slymbridge and Beverston Castle upon Col. Masseys Garrisons together with his incomparable Gallantry in the pursuit of his Design at Tedbury was work for noble Imitation But all these Particulars signifie nothing to his Heroick Magnanimity in defence of the Town of Colchester beleaguered by a potent and victorious Army This was as the Corollary the summing up of all his Atchievements in the times and circumvallations
against St. Faith's Door a good and suitable prop to such constant Loyalty which he resolutely maintained to his last and so bravely exposed himself to their bullets Collonel Poyer shot to death in Covent Garden I Cannot deny this Gentleman a room in this Martyrology those that came the eleventh hour shall find entertainment though he was formerly for the Parliament especially because he was mainly concernd in this aforesaid businesse of Pembroke He rendred at mercy and by order of a Council of War drew lots with the other two for his life which fell upon him and thereupon he was shot as aforesaid The execrable and horrid Murther of our late Martyred Soveraign King Charls the First of ever blessed memory I Intend not to write the History of this Pious Prince so excellently and curiously drawn by himself and those who have traced his memorials and remains not taking a far prospect of him which was fair and beautiful and pleasant in the beginning of his Reign but viewing neerer at hand the black and dismal cloud which wrapt up and enveloped his setting glories now by Divine Justice and favour risen again to their full and radiant lustre We shall retrospect no further than the beginning of the Scotch War at which time the Symptomes of a general Rebellion first appeared For what the Scots covertly implyed in their undutiful Papers Declarations and Remonstrances was soon after avowedly insisted on by the prevailing Faction of the long Parliament The King was loaded with an heavy imputation of being led by evil Councellors that their design was to introduce Popery to erect an arbitrary Government as in the businesse of Ship-money Patents and Monopolies That he declined Parliaments as the boundaries of his unlimited Prerogative to the great burden and oppression of his Subjects No sooner therefore had he composed the Scotch War but to take away and remove all jealousie and distrust of him in his People though all along his Reign he had found some popular leading Grandees to be the untractable and unsatisfiable Enemies of his Kingdoms Peace he summoned his last the long Parliament in November 1640 which by a gracious Act of his was not to be dissolved or prorogued without their own consent and if that should so determine a Bill also was signed by him for a Tâ—iennial or perpetual Parliament that so his Subjects might rest confident and assured in the due manage and administration of the Government But these favours gave the Faction no other satisfaction then that they saw they might presume to add other demands and by how much more gracious his Majesty was to them they judged they might be the more impudent towards him in which they failed not a tittle dasiring as their only safety from the danger of the Prerogative the Militia in their own disposal the only defence and the unseparable right of his Crown To attain this they most insolently by their partisans in the City tumult him at his Court at White-hall from which to avoid both the danger and dishonour that rebel rout threatned he was compelled to withdraw to see if by his absence that rage and madnesse might be allayed and the two Houses set at freedom which by his presence was the more enflamed and the Priviledge of Parliament prostituted to the licentious and mad frenzy of the multitude But this afforded them their desired advantage from hence they calumniate the King that since he could not dissolve the Parliament he would invalidate their Authority and render them uselesse and unserviceable to those great ends for which they were called by refusing to concur with them and departing from that his great Council With these and such like suggestions they so filled the minds of men who were predisposed by some former discontents and who had their Authority through some disuse of it in great reverence that every where but especially in London parties were framed intelligencies and correspondencies held Divers Petitions presented in the pursute of these designs to the Parliament offering to stand by them with their lives and fortunes to the attainment of those ends held forth in their Declarations and Resolves which in conclusion were summed up in that unhappy Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom by the Lords and Commons remaining at Westminster divers of both Houses either out of fear of the rabble or conscience of their duty absenting themseves and retired home or followed the King's Fortune who having traversed some ground about London from one of his Royal Palaces to another in hope the distemper would abate and the People return to their reason and obedience together at last finding his hopes frustrated by more unreasonable demands every message to him from the two Houses came burdened with he resolved to go for York and secure his Magazine at Hull But Sr. John Hotham being newly sent thither by the Parliament refused the Kings admittance into that Town unless himself with some few of his retinue would please to enter the King passionately complained of this to the Parliament but with as little redress as his demand of Justice against the Authors of the Tumults this was the Inrroduction to those after violences of his Royal Person and Authority For the Parliament forthwith raised an Army under the command of the Earl of Essex and the County of York humbly professed themselves to the Service of his Majesty whereupon August the 22 1642. he set up his Standard at Nottingham whence after he had marched into Shrewsbury and having raised a considerable Army thereabouts was on his way to London he was overtaken by the Earl of Essex at a place called Edge Hill where ensued a fierce Fight with equal loss on both sides October 23 1642. where God was pleased to cover the Kings head in the day of Battel and permit him to fall by their execrable hands in the time of Peace to which he so often solicitously wooâ—d them In their Generals Commission they had tyed him up with a limitation the preservation of the Kings Person but left their bullets at random A subtil time-serving distinction between the Cannon and the Axe which afterwards they trayterously lifted up against his Annoynted and sacred Head The Parliament to strengthen their Cause treat with the Scots and for the better mutual assurance and to difference their abettors and fautors from the Kings Leige People as well as to lay a baite for all sacrilegious and covetous minded men to invite them to supplies of money in this rebellion enter into a Solemn League and Covenant the main design whereof was the utter extirpation as previous and necessary to the Kings destruction of Episcopacy and the established Government of the Church of England Popery being added also for the greater colour of this engagement against which the King issued forth his Royal Proclamation laying open the mischievous design thereof being resolved to maintain the Religion so long and so happily professed and sealed by the blood of
Buckingham Earl of Peterborough Lord Francis Villers and Lord Peter who with a gallant company of men rendezvouz'd at Kingston where immediately Sr. Michael Livesey set upon them and routed them The Earl fled to St. Neets in Bedfordshire where in his Quarters he was taken by Collonel Scroop's Regiment of Horse where Collonel Dolbier was killed and by order of the Parliament sent Prisoner to Warwick Castle He continued there for the space of six moneths in pretty good health both of body and mind but as soon as he heard of the murther of the King his heart failed him and sickness seized on him so that he never dawed day afterwards nor could endure to stir out of his chamber lamenting the loss of his gracious Master and providing for his own violent dissolution the same way which being condemned by the same High Court of Iustice with my Lord Capel and Duke Hamilton he suffered on the same Scaffold His Lordships Speech on the Scaffold immediatly before his Death March 9. 1649. Holland IT is to no purpose I think to speak any thing here Which way must I speak And then being directed to the Front of the Scaffold he leaning over the Rayls said I think it is fit to say somthing since God hath called me to this place The first thing which I must profess is what concerns my Religion and my Breeding which hath been in a good Family that hath ever been faithful to the true Protestant Religion in the which I have been bred in the which I have lived and in the which by Gods Grace and Mercy I shall die I have not lived according to that Education I had in that Family where I was born and bred I hope God will forgive me my sins since I conceive it is very much his pleasure to bring me to this place for the sins that I have committed The cause that hath brought me hither I believe by many hath been much mistaken They have conceived that I have had ill Designs to the State and to the Kingdom Truly I look upon it as a Judgment and a just Judgment of God not but I have offended so much the State and the Kingdom and the Parliament as that I have had no extream vanity in serving them very extraordinarily For those Actions that I have done I think it is known they have been ever very faithful to the Publick and very particularly to Parliaments My Affections have been ever exprest truly and clearly to them The dispositions of Affairs now have put things in another posture then they were when I was engaged with the Parliament I have never gone off from those Principles that ever I have professed I have lived in them and by Gods Grace will die in them There may be Alterations and Changes that may carry them further then I thought reasonable and truly there I left them But there hath been nothing that I have said or done or professed either by Covenant or Declaration which hath not been very constant and very clear upon the Principles that I ever have gone upon which was to serve the King the Parliament Religion I should have said in the first place the Common-wealth and to seek the Peace of the Kingdom That made me think it no improper time being prest out by Accidents and Circumstances to seek the Peace of the Kingdom which I thought was proper since there was somthing then in Agitation but nothing agreed on for sending Propositions to the King that was the furthest aim that I had and truly beyond that I had no Intention none at all And God be praised although my Bloud comes to be shed here there was I think scarce a drop of Bloud shed in that Action that I was ingaged in For the present Affairs as they are I cannot tell how to judge of them and truly they are in such a condition as I conceive no body can make a judgment of them and therefore I must make use of Prayers rather then of my Opinion which are That God would bless this Kingdom this Nation this State that he would settle it in a way agreeable to what this Kingdom hath bin happily governed under by a King by the Lords by the Commons a Government that I conceive it hath flourished much under and I pray God the change of it bring not rather a Prejudice a disorder and a confusion then the contrary I look upon the Posterity of the King and truly my Conscience directs me to it to desire that if God be pleased that these people may look upon them with that Affection that they owe that they may be called in again and they may be not through bloud nor through disorder admitted again into that power and to that glory that God in their birth intended to them I shall pray with all my soul for the happiness of this State of this Nation that the Bloud which is here spilt may even be the last that may fall among us and truly I should lay down my Life with as much Chearfulness as ever person did if I conceived that there would be no more Bloud follow us for a State or Affairs that are built upon Bloud is a Foundation for the most part that doth not prosper After the Blessing that I give to the Nation to the Kingdom and truly to the Parliament I do wish with all my heart happiness and a blessing to all those that have been Authors in this business and truly that have been Authors in this very work that bringeth us hither I do not only forgive them but I pray heartily and really for them as God will forgive my sins so I desire God may forgive them I have a particular Relation as I am Chancellor of Cambridge and truly I must here since it is the last of my Prayers pray to God that that University may go on in that happy way which it is in that God may make it a Nursery to plant those persons that may be distributed to the Kingdom that the souls of the people may receive a great benefit and a great advantage by them and I hope God will reward them for their kindness and their affections that I have found from them * Looking towards Mr. Bolton I have said what Religion I have been bred in what Religion I have been born in what Religion I have practised I began with it and I must end with it I told you that my Actions my Life have not been agreeable to my Breeding I have told you likewise that the Family where I was bred hath been an exemplary Family I may say so I hope without Vanity of much affection to Religion and of much faithfulness to this Kingdom and to this State I have endeavoured to do those Actions that became an honest man and a good Englishman and which became a good Christian I have been willing to oblige those that have been in trouble those that have been in Persecution and truly
Subjects for industry and personal Valour which he for the desence of his Sacred Majesty and his Restauration deserves to be had in everlasting Remembrance But above all the sad visitations of the Universities deserves remembrance that the guilt and danger of such barbarity may make posterity to tremble at the thought of it being the comprehensive design of all those evils they after perpetrated making those Sources and Fountains of Learning and Piety as broken Cisterns that should hold no water and the place become a meer puddle a mare mortuum that should send forth pernicious sents as might insect the Kingdom To enumerate all those excellent persons who were forced out of their Fellowships and other Collegiate Emoluments and places will require a Work of it self and so I pass that sad Story and beadrol though with that due compassion to those who though now Augâ—as stable be swept yet cannot find the Manger After the two Universities which afforded sufferers enough to make up a Catalogâ—e as big as this whole Book the next place is due to the Martyr'd City of Worcester the Scene of ruin'd Loyalty which would fill many pages with Red Letters whose Citizens might all be transcribed into this Cannon who besides their constant adherence to the Royal Cause from the first when the honest Mayor Mr. Soles hardly escaped a gallows set up for him at his own door held out to the last for King Charles the First not rendring without his Order and had the honour to entertain King Charles the Second in Fifty one where he was with great solemnity and greater joy proclaim'd and in that fatal defeat suffer'd with him and for him devoting their estates and lives as a ransom for his Majesties safety whilest the streets at the Rebels entrance resounded with the Peoples cries Oh! save the King save the King Sr. John Stowel a Somersetshire Gentleman and Knight of the Bath of a very great estate and as much loyalty who adhered vigourously to the King during the War till the surrender of Exeter upon whose Articles he came to London to make his composition where contrary to that capitulation the Committee at Goldsmiths-Hall tendred him the Negative Oath before any admission to compound He withstanding this unjust and perfidious dealing and pleading the benefit of the said Articles was reported to the Parliament as a Contemner of their Authority and an Enemy and thereupon committed to the Serjeant at Armes thence to New-gate from whence he was brought to their High Court of Justice where with much adoe he escaped with life being remanded to the Tower and all his Estate amounting to seven or eight thousand 1. per Annum sold by a pretended Act of Parliament as forfeited for Treason He now survives all those losses and miseries and may he like Job be rewarded trebble in the future of his life for his constant and stout integrity And here I could make a record of that black Bill and List that passed for Acts of Parliament against several of the Nobility and Gentry by which their estates were forfeited and sold by Trustees thereunto appointed for this only fault of Loyalty but shall forbear Let the Purchasers blush at their shame and folly while honest Loyalty keeps its countenance and wears out the sudden braves of staring Rebellion I must also pass over the old Earl of Kingston Father to the right Honourable Lord the Marquesse Dorchester who being surprized by the Parliaments Forces and by them put in a Vessel disigned for Hull was shot by some of the Kings Forces at his passing by Gainshorough the Rebels offering him if the Royalists would venture to shoot upon the Deck to their Bullets by which he sell immediately The noble Marquesses of Winchesters Newcastle and Worcester deserve a more durable Register than the scantling and shortnesse of this little breviary having divided all the sorrows of life viz. imprisonment distresse banishment deprivation of Estate and other discommodities of those wretched times among them without any Intermission of that which weak men term insupportable misery Dr. Barwick now the Reverend Deâ—n of Sr. Pauls who lay Prisoner in the Tower of London while he was near famished by the cruel Order of the Long Parliament soon after the Kings death and was scarce able to stand when Col. West the then Lieutenant gave him his Liberty on Parol to render himself at a certain time soon after which he performed but the Lieut dying his wife set him at perfect Freedom and gave him his Conge it being the method of those Tyrants to bury men in their Prisons unless they had that against them which would presently reach their Lives And upon this Account I hope to be excused if I cannot retrive other Loyal Persons from those Obscurities and Dungeons and the Depths of Villany and bring neither them nor their Memories into Light What should I mention the general calamity of the Clergy Loyal and Orthodox more especially the Fathers of the Church since nothing can be more evident to us and Posterity but yet I cannot forget that most cruel Edict of Oliver which by restriction of their Function nay their particular Abilities took clearly away from them all hopes of sustentation and Maintenance of Life The Honourable Col. John Russel Brother to the Earl of Bedford who served all along his Majesty in his Armies and suffered all along afterwards in the Usurpers Prisons being one of the first that upon any the least occasion of their fear was presently secured and tossed from one Custody to another till the happy Revolution of his Majesties Return Col. John and William Ashburnham the former so well known in our Annals both signally Loyal and honest were served in the same manner and in conclusion sent away to remote Castles and Islands and there debarred of any Intercourse or Correspondence with their Friends meerly upon suspition as to proof of any thing whatever was in the bottom The Right Honourable the Lord Bellasis in the very same Predicament no where more resident or constant then in their custody nor could go or travel any where without a Passe or safe Conduct from the next Officer to the place of his Abode for many years together and perpetually in danger of being betrayed out of his Life Sr. Humphrey Bennet formerly a Brigadeer in the Kings Army an eminent Person for his Loyalty seized and secured as a partaker and confederate in that unfortunate business of Col. Penruddock at Salisbury being of that Country as aforesaid was kept in Prison at the Tower of London from the time of that Rising till Olivers next Plot in 1658. upon Sr. William Slingsby c. which was near 3 years and then brought before the High Court of Justice with those Gentlemen where after some dayes attendance their preparations of his Charge not taking with their Intentions he was superseded from his Trial and remitted again to his Confinement For the Honour of the City of Lond. S.
of Apprentices Seamen and others intermingled with so me of the leading Grandees who were to instruct this many-headed Monster what they should cry out for or what they should do upon any emergency who coming to Westminster-Hall made a violent cry for Justice against Strafford which continued so many dayes together till at last not seeing the businesse go on with that disparch they wished and being informed by their Members of the Faction in the House that the Bill of Attainder stuck with the Lords and that they refused to passe it they proceeded to that Impudence as to stop the Lords Coaches as they went to the House and threaten them if they would not consent to his Condemnation to hinder them from entring into the House and that they would turn them back withal they posted up the Names of those Lords who would not consent to this cruel and barbarous way of proceeding against the said Earle calling them Straffordians and enemies of their Country with this menacing Subscription This and more shall be done unto them c. If this had been meerly the Rage of the Multitude the Fate of this worthy and Noble Person had been something the lesse lamentable by how much injuries of violence are lesse terrible and imputable then those of Deliberation but here was the bloudy hand of the Puritan Preacher most apparently concerned who now thought to wreak himself of all those Silencings had been put upon their Seditious Mouths by this cry for bloud which no Horseleech ever more greedily sucked so by these Prophets the Word was put into the mouth of the multitude Many Enemies and those the ablest Lawyers of the Kingdom and Eloquent Orators also this Noble Earle was combated with against whom neverthelesse he most rationally politely and learnedly without any the least Passion confidence or Fear being alike distant from them both but in an even and excellent temper of mind so well defended himself that his Peers could not find where to fasten his Charge which because of the extraordinary manage of it and that he is the Protomartyr take a view of in this short Account An Account of the Life Tryal and Death of that Loyal PROTO-MARTYR THOMAS Earle of Strafford Lord Deputy of Ireland Beheaded May 12. 1641. VVHat was tauntingly said by the French concerning this great and prudent Statesman that the English were mad having but one wise Head to cut it off was Truth enough and too sadly experienced All Essaies of describing those great Abilities and comprehensiveness of his mind are therefore unfeasable because none but himself could pourtraict them to any Appearance or Semblance of that Life and Quicknesse which manifested it self even in that unsearchable and profound depth of his Counsels and Actions so that he hath left nothing transmittible to our Imitation but his Loyalty wherein we and his Enemies agree in this that we have nothing else to lay hold on his other superexcellent qualities being above our and their reach and understanding The Reason undoubtedly why he was assaulted with the new Engine of accumulative and constructive Treâ—son He hath for his honour and glory a most illustrious character given him by King Charles of blessed memory in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in these words I look upon my Lord of Strafford as a Gentleman whose abilities might make a Prince rather afraid than ashamed to employ him in the greatest affaires of State c. so that all that can be added to his memory and renown by any other pen will be but a superfluous labour but because that good Prince only considered him in his setting wherein he was as unhappily concernd as he was happily in the raising of him it is thought requisiâ—e to take a farther view of him and deduce him from his Ancestry to whom he hath contributed more honour than he received from them He was born in Yorkshire of the illustrious Family of the Wentworths and educated according to the greatnesse of his Family which had brought forth many famous men As soon as he came of age he was chosen a Parliament Man where he presently gained the reputation of a States-Man and good Patriot by stickling against the Prerogative which mist not the Courts observation By King Charls the First out of honour to his merit and great parts he was made Bâ—ron Wentworth of Raby and soon after other Titles were conferred on him together with places of trust which he discharged to the Kings great content the services he received from him ballancing his favours bestowed on him which he never abused but continued to his death a most prudent Councellour Loyal Subject and faithful Friend being taken into the Kings bosom and most retired secrets Soon after he was created Earl of Strafford he was made also Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in which Government he exceeded in policy and good Laws and careful management in advancing the Kings revenue and ascertaining it for the future all that went before him He did also take care for the Church established the Protestant Religion countenanced learned men and preferred them and setled a constant revenue for them in that Kingdom of which prudent and pious action the now Clergy there do reape the fruit Some offences were taken at him by the Irish whom he kept in a very hard but orderly subjection suppressing their out-laws and Tories and reducing them to a perfect entire obedience to the Kings Authority and the Laws Unlesse the strings be wound up hard we cannot look for good Musick he repressed and beat down the insolent Lordings of the great ones over the Commons whom he sweetned and arctized into the English from their wild and barbarous Customs which caused him no great Love from the Irish Nobility who understood the design was by such artifices to take from them the absolute power they had over their poor Vassals and Tenants when they should find the difference between the English Manners and Laws and those of their own Country Herein notwithstanding the great opposition he meâ— in the obstinacy and indocibility and prejudice of that opinionated Nation he made a good procedure and no doubt had he continued longer in the Government and those times had not fallen out which soon put all into a confusion had obtained his end The Scotch War breaking out first as aforesaid he was called out of Ireland to assist the King with his Counsel in those Exigencies which had so unpreparedly surprized him to which work like a Noble Friend he set his head his hands and his purse advancing by subscription which the rest of the Nobility followed according to their estate twenty thousand pounds with which aid and the large supply of the Clergy who granted the King four shillings in the pound for six years together which was effected by his influence that King raised that Army against the Scots The Earl of Strafford was sick at the Defeat given the English at Newburne under my Lord Conway whereupon