the advice of his Privy Councel dispatcht a command to the Earl of Bristol not to deliver up the Proxie unlesse the businesse of the Palatinate were concluded also The expectation whereof not being answered by Successe a Parliament is summoned to begin on the sixteenth day of February then next following to the end that all things might be governed in this great Affair by the publick Counsel of the Kingdom Not long after the beginning whereof the Duke declared before both Houses more to the disadvantage of the Spaniard then there was just ground for how unhandsomely they had dealt with the Prince when he was in Spain how they had fed him with delaies what indignities they had put upon him and finally had sent him back not onely without the Palatinate but without a Wife leaving it to their prudent Consideration what course to follow It was thereupon voted by both Houses that his Majesty should be desired to break off all Treaties with the King of Spain and to engage himself in a war against him for the recovery of the Palatinate not otherwise to be obtained And that they might come the better to the end they aimed at they addresse themselves unto the Prince whom they assured that they would stand to him in that War to the very last expence of their lives and fortunes and he accordingly being further set on by the Duke became their instrument to perswade his Father to hearken to the Common Votes and desires of his Subjects which the King prest by their continuall importunities did at the last assent to But in the conduct of this Businesse the Prince consulted more the Dukes passion and the pleasing of the Commons in Parliament then either his own or the Regall interesse For there is nothing more unsafe for a King of England then to cast himself upon the necessity of calling Parliaments and depending on the purse of the Subject By means whereof he makes himself obnoxious to the Humour of any prevailing Member in the House of Commons and becomes lesse in Reputation both at home and abroad The Commons since the time of King James have seldome parted with a peny but they have paid themselves well for it out of the prerogative And this appeared by their proceedings in this very Parliament For though they had ingaged the King in a War with Spain and granted him three Subsidies and three Fifteens toward the beginning of that War yet would they not suffer that grant to passe into an Act of Parliament till the King had yielded to another against Concealments Insomuch as it was affirmed by Justice Dodderidge at the next Publick Assizes held in Oxford that the King by passing that Act had bought those Subsidies and Fifteens at ten years purchase Nor dealt they otherwise with this Prince then they did with his Father those very Commons who had ingaged him in the Warre and bound themselves to make good that ingagement with their lives and fortunes most shamefully deserting him in the first Parliament of his Reign and after working more and more upon his necessities till they had robbed him of the richest Jewels in the Regal Diadem 1624. But to proceed the Treaty with Spain being like to come to a Rupture it was judged necessary to counterballance the Power of that King by negotiating a Match with the Princesse Henrietta Maria the youngest Daughter of France first set on foot by the Mediation of the Earl of Holland who found that Court inclinable thereunto and afterwards concluded at the coming over of the Earl of Carlile joyned in Commission to that purpose It was reported that when she was told that the Prince of Wales had been at the Court and was gone for Spain she Answered that if he went to Spain for a Wife he might have had one nearer hand and saved himself a great part of the trouble And I have read that receiving at one time two Letters from England the one from King James and the other from the Prince she put that from King James into her Cabinet and that from Prince Charles into her Bosom Of which King James being told he was exceedingly pleased with it saying that he took it for a very good Omen that she should preserve his Name in her Memory and lodge Charles in her heart 1625. During these preparations for War and Marriage King James departed this life at Theobalds on Sunday the twenty seventh of March Anno 1625. Immediately upon whose death Prince Charles was proclaimed at the Court-Gates to be King of Great Britain France and Ireland c. The like done presently after at London and by degrees in all the other Cities and Towns of the Kingdom with infinite rejoycings and Acclamations of the People The Funeralls of the deceased King were celebrated on the seventh of May his body being brought from Somerset-House with great Magnificence to Saint Peters Church in Westminster where he was interred the King himself being principall Mourner Which though it were contrary to the Custome of his Predecessours yet he chose rather to expresse his Piety in attending the dead body of his Father to the Funerall Pile then to stand upon any such old Niceties and points of State The Funerall being past he thought it was time for him to quicken the coming over of his dearest Consort to whom he had been married on the Sunday before at the Church of Nostre-Dame in Paris the Duke of Chevereux a Prince of the House of Guise from which House King Charles derived himself by the Lady Mary of Lorain Wife to James the fifth espousing the Princesse in his Name On Trinity Sunday late at night she was brought by a Royall Fleet of Ships from Bulloign to Dover which being signified to the King who was then at Canterbury he went to her betimes the next morning and received her with great expressions of Affection professing that he would be no longer Master of himself then whilest he was a Servant to her The same day He brought her to Canterbury where he gave himself up to those Embraces to which from that time he confined himself with such a Conjugal Chastity that on the day before his death he commanded his Daughter the Princesse Elizabeth to tell her Mother that his thoughts had never straied from her and that his love should be the same to the last On the Thursday after being the sixteenth of June they came from Gravesend to White-hall in their Royal Barges attended with an infinite number of Lords Ladies and other people who could get Boats to wait upon them the Ordnance from the Ships which were then preparing for the Wars those from the Merchants Ships and the Tower of London thundering her Welcome as she past But in the heat of these Solemnities and entertainments the King forgat not the main Concernments of himself and the Kingdome and to that end began his first Parliament on Saturday the eighteenth of June which fell out not unseasonably that
noise of a Declaration which they had then upon the Anvil he dissolved the Parliament on the eighteenth day of June then following No sooner was he freed from this but the necessity of his Affairs involved him in another Embroylment The French Priests and Domesticks of that Nation which came into England with the Queen were grown so insolent and had put so many affronts upon him that he was forced to send them home in which he did no more then what the French King had done before him in sending back all the Spanish Courtiers which his Queen brought with her But the French King not looking on his own example and knowing on what ill termes the King stood both at home and abroad first seized on all the Merchants ships which lay on the River of Burdeaux and then brake out into open war So that the King was fain to make use of those Forces against the French which were designed to have been used against the Spaniard and to comply with the desires of the Rochelers who humbly sued for his protection and Defence But the Fleet not going out till after Michaelmas found greater opposition at the Sea then they feared from the Land being encountred with strong Tempests and thereby necessitated to return without doing any thing but onely shewing the Kings good-will and readinesse toward their assistance 1627. But the next yeare this design was followed with greater vigour by the Duke of Buckingham who hoped thereby to make himself of some consideration in the eyes of the people The gaining of the Isle of Re which lay before the Town of Rochel and imbarred their Trade was the matter aimed at and he had strength enough both for Sea and Land to have done the work if he had not followed it more like a Courtier then a Souldier suffering himself to be complemented out of the taking of their chief Fort when it was almost at his mercy and standing upon points of Honour in facing those Forces which were sent from the French King to raise the siege when he might have made a safe retreat unto his ships without losse or danger In the mean time his Majesty neither neglected his Affairs at home nor his Friends abroad At home he found the Puritan faction to be much increased by the remisnesse of the goverment of Archbishop Abbot whom therefore he suspended from all his Metropoliticall Jurisdiction and confined him to his House at Ford in Kent committing the exercise thereof to the Bishops of London Durham Rochester Oxford Bath and Wells by Letters Patents bearing date the 9. day of October Anno 1627. Abroad he found the Princes of Germany wormed out of their Estates one after another by the Emperours Forces the King of Denmark whom they had made the Head of their League being driven out of the Countrey by Count Tilly and hardly able to defend his own Dominions No Prince so fit for the prosecution of that cause as Gustavus Adolphus King of Sweden whom therefore he elects into the Noble Order of the Garter and solemnly invests him with it in the midst of his Army then lying at the Siege of Darsaw a Town of Pomerella belonging to the Crown of Poland on Sunday the twenty third of October of the same year also At which time he laid the grounds of that Confederacy which being seconded by the French the States of the Vnited Provinces and the distressed Princes of the Empire brought that King into Germany where he gave the first great check to the Emperours fortunes and had restored the Prince Elector Palatine to his ancient Patrimony if he had not fallen unfortunately at the Battell of Lutzen 1628. Being thus ingaged and embroiled he gave a beginning to his third Parliament on the seventeenth of March and freely declares to them the necessities under which he lay in Answer whereunto the Commons voted five Subsidies but meant he should pay dearly for them before he had them Such grievances as they thought fit to insist upon were cast into the mold of a petition by them called a Petition of Right which if the King granted he must lose his prerogative if he denied it he must lose all hopes of their supply in his great extremities The consideration of which last induced him to yield to their desires and confirm that petition by Act of Parliament the Prerogative never so much descending from Perch to popular Lure as by that concession But though this Act of grace might have given satisfacton even to supererogation as one well observeth yet the Commons were not so contented but were preparing a Remonstance to take away his Right of Tonnage and Poundage as disclaimed by him in that Act which coming to the Kings knowledge on the twenty sixth of June he adjourns the Parliament till the twentieth day of October then next ensuing In the mean time the Duke prepares for the relief of Rochel both by Sea and Land and being ready to set sail was suddenly cut off at Ports-muth by the hand of one John Felton a discontented Officer of the last years Army alledging no other reason for that bloody act but that the Duke had been declared an Enemy to the Common-wealth in a Remonstrance tendred to the King in the former Session But such was the constancy of the Kings temper and the known evenness of his spirit that this sad Accident made little or no stop in the proceedings of the Fleet which at the last set forwards under the command of the Earl of Lindsey who found the Haven of Rochel so strongly barred that it was utterly impossible for his Ships to force their way though it was gallantly attempted and give relief to the besieged who thereupon set open their Gates and received their King into their Town without more delay To smooth his way to the next Session of Parliament adjourned again till the twentieth of January Arch-bishop Abbot is admitted to kisse his hand by whom he is commanded not to fail of his attendance at the Councel table Dr. Barnaby Potter a through-paced Calvinian is made Bishop of Carlisle and Mr. Mountagues book called Appello Caesarem for which he had been questioned and molested in the beginning of the Kings first Parliament must be supprest and called in by Proclamation But this little edified with the faction in the house of Commons who not onely took upon them the reforming of the Church and State but called the Customers in question for levying Tonnage and Poundage not then granted nor ever likely to be granted as it had been formerly by Act of Parliament and distraining such Merchants goods as refused to pay it And in this point they went so high that fearing they should be dissolved before they had vented their own passions in that particular upon the second day of March they lockt the Doors of the Parliament-house kept the key thereof in one of their pockets and held the Speaker by strong hand in his Chair till they had
thundred out their Anathemaes not onely against such as should dare to levie it but those also who should willingly pay it The news of which riotous proceeding being brought immediately to the King he sent his Band of Pensioners accompanied by his ordinary Guard to force open the doors and going himself to the House of Peers he dissolved the Parliament not having continued in that Session above forty dayes At the end of the former Session he had admitted Sir John Savill of Yorkshire a busie man in the House of Commons but otherwise a politique and prudent person to be one of his Privy Council created him Lord Savill of Ponfract and made him Comptroller of his Houshold in the place of Sir John Suckling deceased And a little before the beginning of the following Session he took into his Council Sir Thomas wentworth of Wentworth Woodhouse in the same County whom be created Viscount Wentworth and made Lord President of the North and within two years after Lord Deputy of Ireland also A man he was of prodigious Parts which he made use of at the first in favour of the Popular Faction But being gained unto the King by Sir Ri. Weston then Chancellour of the Exchequer afterwards Lord Treasurer and Earl of Portland he became the most devout friend of the Church the greatest Zelot for advancing Monarchichall Interesse and the ablest Minister of State which our Histories have afforded to us On the judgement of these two his Majesty did much rely in Civil matters as he did on the advice of Doctor Neile then Bishop of Durham and Doctor Laud then Bishop of Bath and Wells in matters which concerned the Church These last he had called unto his Council in the beginning of April 1627. and finding them to be of as great abilities to advise as sincere affections to his person he advanced the first to the See of Winchester and afterwards to the Archbishoprick of York Anno 1631. the second to the See of London and from thence to Canterbury Anno 1633. 1629. But whilest it was such hot weather at home it grew cold abroad the breach betwixt him and France being closed up at the same time by the prudent and seasonable intervention of the State of Venice And not long after he concluded a Peace also with the King of Spain all things being left on both sides in the same condition in which they were before the war but that the Spaniard did ingage that he would make use of all his Interest with the Emperour for restoring the Prince Elector Paâ—â—â—ine to his lost Estate And now the King having thrown away his Crutches which had as often deceived him as he trusted to them he began to stand on his own legs and in short time became more considerable in the eyes of the world then any of his Predecessors The Spaniard sent hither yearly in English Bottoms no lesse then six hundred thousand Crowns in Bullion for the use of his Army in the Netherlands redounding very much to the Kings benefit in the coinage and no lesse to the profit of the Merchants also most of the money being returned into Flanders in Leather Cloth Lead Tinne and other the manufactures and Native Commodities of this Kingdome The Dutch and Easterlings looke upon London as the safest Bank not onely to lodge but increase their Treasure so that in short time the greatest part of the Trade of Christendom was driven up the Thames 1630. To make him yet more estimable in the sight of his People God blest him with a Son the presumptive Heir of his Dominions on the twenty ninth of May Anno 1630. and seconded that blessing with the birth of a Daughter on the fourth of November in the next year after as afterwards with a plentifull issue of both Sexes 1633. Nor did he meet with any check in his Prosperity till the year 1633. at what time the Coles of Faction and Sedition which seemed for some years to have been raked up in the ashes of contentment kindled the next combustible matter and brake forth again to the inflaming of both Kingdoms Scotland burneth first and takes fire on this occasion In the minority of King James the Lands of all Cathedrall Churches and Religious Houses which had been setled on the Crown by Act of Parliament were shared amongst the Lords and great men of that Kingdome by the connivence of the Earl of Murray and some other of the Regents to make them sure unto the side And they being thus possessed of the said Lands with the Regalities and Tithes belonging to those Ecclesiasticall Corporations Lorded it with pride and insolence enough iâ— their severall Territories holding the Clergy to small stipends and the poor Paisant under a miserable vassalage and subjection to them King Charles ingaged in War at his first coming to the Crown and having little aid from thence for the maintenance of it by the advice of his Council of that Kingdome was put upon a course of resuming those Lands Tithes and Regalities into his own hands to which the present Occupants could pretend no other Title then the unjust usurpation of their Ancestors This he endeavoured first by an Act of Revocation but that course not being like to speed he followed it in the way of a legal processe which drew on the Commission for surrendering of Superiorities and Tithes to be retaken from the King on such conditions as might bring some profit to the Crowne some Augmentation to the Clergy and far more ease and benefit to the common people But these proud Scots chuse rather to expose their Countrey to the danger of a publick Ruine then to part with any of that power it might be called a Tyranny rather which they had exercised on their Vassals as they commonly called them and thereupon conspired together to oppose the King in any thing that should be offered in the following Parliament which had relation to the Church or to Church-affaires But because Religion and the care thereof is commonly the best bait to catch the vulgar they must find out some other means to divert the King from the prosecuting of that Commission then the consideration of their own personall and private interesse and they found means to do it on another occasion which was briefly this King James from his first coming to this Crown had a design to bring the Kirk of Scotland to an uniformity with the Church of England both in government and forms of worship And he proceeded so far as to settle Episcopacy amongst them naming thirteen new Bishops for so many Episcopal Sees as had been anciently in that Church three of which received Consecration from the Bishops of England and conferred it on the rest of their Brethren at their coming home Which Bishops he armed also with the power of an High Commission the better to keep down the insolent and domineering Spirit of the Presbyterians In order to the other he procured an Act to be passed
the pleasure of the Houses are extorted by tumults And by the terrour of the like the Act for Knighthood is repealed and the imposition for ship-money condemned as an illegall Tax and abolished also The like Acts passed against the office of the Clerk of the Market the Court of Stanneries his propriety in the making of Gun-powder the authority of the Council-Table the Courts of Star-Chamber and High Commission the jurisdiction of the Ecclesiasticall Courts as also the Presidiall Courts held for a long time in York and the Marches of VVales And finally that he might lose both his strength in Parliament and his power with the People they extorted the passing of two Acts the one for taking away the Bishops Votes and place in the House of Peers the other for disclaiming of his power in pressing Souldiers enjoyed by all his Predecessors for defence of his Person and the Realm And that they might the better awe the King to their Concessions the Army of the Scots must be maintained with pay and plunder till there was almost nothing left for them to crave or the King to grant But being at the last sent home his Majesty followed not long after to settle his affairs in that broken kingdom where to oblige that Nation to him he confirmed not onely all his former concessions by Act of Parliament but all such things also as had been acted by them in their Assembly held at Glasco And more then so he parted with so much of his Eoyall Prerogative invaded usurped by them in the late Confusions that he had allmost nothing left remaining to him but the empty title the having of a Sword carried before him and some other outward pomps of Court which signifie just nothing when the power is gone This good successe of the Scots encouraged the Irish Papists to attempt the like and to attempt it in the same way as the Scots had gone that is to say by seizing his Towns Forts and Castles putting themselves into the body of an Army banishing or imprisoning all such as oppose their practises and then petitioning the King for a publick Exercise of their Religion The 23. of October Anno 1641. was the day designed for the seizing of the City and Castle of Dublin and many places of great importance in the Kingdom But failing in the main design which had been discovered the night before by one Ocanelle they break out into open arms dealing no better with the Protestants there then the Covenanters had done with the Royall party in Scotland Of this Rebellion for it must be called a Rebellion in the Irish though not in the Scots the King gives present notice to his Houses of Parliament requiring their counsel and assistance for the extinguishing of that flame before it had wasted and consumed that Kingdome But neither the necessity of the Protestants there nor the Kings importunity here could perswade them to levie one man towards the suppression of those Rebels till the King had disclaimed his power of pressing souldiers in an Act of Parliament and thereby laid himself open to such acts of violence as were then hammering against him Which having done they put an army of Scots their most assured Friends into the Northern parts of Ireland delivering up into their hands the strong Town and Port of Carickfergus one of the chief keys of that Kingdom and afterwards sent a small body of English to preserve the South which English forces having done notable service there against the Rebels were kept so short both in respect of pay and other necessaries by the Houses of Parliament who had made use of the mony raised for the relief of Ireland to maintain a War against their King that they were forced to come to a Cessation and cheerefully returned home again to assist the King in that just War which he had undertaken for his own defence The ground and occasion of which War we are next to shew At such time as he was in Scotland and expostulated with some of the chiefs among them touching their coming into England in an hostile manner he found that some who were now leading men in the Houses of Parliament had invited them to it And having furnished himself with some proofs for it he commanded his Attorney Generall to impeach some of them of high Treason that is to say the L. Kimbolton a Member of the House of Peers Mr. Hollis Sir Arthur Haslerig Mr. Hambden Mr. Pym and Mr. Strode of the House of Commons But sending his Serjeant at Arms to arrest their persons there came a countermand from the House of Commons by which the Serjeant was deterred from doing his office and the Members had the opportunity of putting themselves into the Sanctuary of the City The next day being the 4. of January his Majesty being no otherwise attended then with his ordinary Guard went to the House of Commons to demand the five Members of that House that he might proceed against them in a way of justice but his intention was discovered and the birds flown before his coming This was voted by the Commons for such an inexpiable breach of priviledge that neither the Kings qualifying of that Action nor his desisting from the prosecution of that impeachment nor any thing that he could either say or do would give satisfaction Nothing must satisfie their jealousies and secure their fears but the putting of the tower of London into their hands together with the command of the Royal Navie as also all the Forts Castles and the Train-bands of the Kingdome all comprehended under the name of the Militia which if his Majesty would fling after all the rest they would continue his most loyall subjects On this the King demurs a while but having shipt the Queen for Holland and got the Prince into his own power he becomes more resolute and stoutly holds on the denyal Finding the Members too strong for him and London by reason of the continuall Tumults to be a dangerous neighbour to him he withdraws to York that being in a place of safety he might the better find a way to compose those differences which now began to embroil the kingdome At Hull he had a Magazine of arms and ammunition provided for the late intended war against the Scots and laid up there when the occasion of that War was taken away Of this Town he intended to possesse himself and to make use of his own Arms and Ammunition for his own preservation but coming before the gates of the Towne he was denyed entrance by Sir John Hotham who by the appointment of the House of Commons had took charge of that place The Gentry of York-shire who had petitioned the King to secure that Magazin became hereby more firmly united to him The like had been done also by the Yeomandry and those of the inferiour sort if his proceedings had not been undermined by the Committee of four Gentlemen all Members of the House and all of them
he had the worst of the day and had much ado to save his Canon and march off orderly from the place followed so hotly the next morning that his own Horse which were in the Reere were fain to make their way over a great part of his Foot to preserve themselves Being returned to Oxford with Successe and Honour he Summons the Lords and Commons of Parliament to attend there on the twenty second day of January then next following and they came accordingly And for their better welcome he advances Prince Rupert to the Titles of Earl of Holdernes and Duke of Cumberland and creates James his second Son born the Thirteenth day of October Anno 1633 Duke of York by which name he had been appointed to be called at the time of his Birth that they might sit and vote amongst them But being come they neither would take upon themselves the name of a Parliament nor acted much in order to his Majesties designs but stood so much upon their terms and made so many unhandsome motions to him upon all occasions that he had more reason to call them a Morgrel Parliament in one of his Letters to the Queen then they were willing to allow of 1644. And now the Summer coming on and the time fit for Action he dismisses them to their severall dwellings and betakes himself unto the Field The frequent traverses whereof the interchangeable taking and losing of Towns by the chance of war are too many in number to be comprised in this short Abstract It must suffice if I take notice of those onely which are most considerable His Majesty prevaling in the North and West 'T was thought fit by the ruling party in the Houses of Parliament to crave aid of the Scots whom they drew in the second time by the temptations of entring into Covenant with them for conforming of this Church with that sharing amongst them all the Lands of the Bishops and sacrificing to their malice the Archbishop of Canterbury as formerly they had done the Earl of Strafford But besides these plausible allurements the Commissioners of that Kingdome were to have so great a stroke in the Government of this that the Houses could act nothing in order to the present war no not so much as to hold a Treaty with the King without their consent Upon these baits they entred England with a puissant Army consisting of one and twenty thousand men well armed and fitted for the service and having made themselves Masters of Barwick Alnwick and all other places of importance on the other side of the Tweed they laid Siege to York where they were seconded by the Army of the Earl of Manchester drawn out of the associated Counties and the remaining York-shire forces under the Command of the Lord Fairfax The news whereof being brought to Oxford Prince Rupert is dispatcht with as much of the Kings forces as could well be spared with a Commission to â—aise more out of the Counties of Cheâ—ter Salop Stafford Darby Leicester and Lancaster So that he came before York with an Army of twelve thousand Men relieved the Town with all things necessary and might have gone away unfought with but that such Counsell was too cold for so hot a stomach Resolved upon the onset he encountred with the enemy at a place called Marston-Moor where the left Wing of his Horâ—e gave such a fierce Charge on the right Wing of the enemy consisting of Sir Thomas Fairfax his Horse in the Van and the Scots Horse in the Reere that they fell foul on that part of their own Foot which was made up of the Lord Fairfax his Regiments and a reserve of the Scots which they brake wholly and trod most of them under their Horses feet But the Princes Horse following the execution too far and none advancing to make good the place which they had left the enemy had the opportunity to rally again and got the better of the day taking some Prisoners of good note and making themselves masters of his Canon So that not being able to do any thing in order to the regaining of the Field he marched off ingloriously squandred away the greatest part of his Army and retired to Bristol After this blow the Affairs of the North growing more desperate every day then other York yielded upon composition on the sixteenth of July being a just fortnight after the fight the Marquesse of Newcastle and some principall Gentlemen past over the Seas and the strong Town of Newcastle was taken by the Scots on the nineteenth of October following In the mean time the Queen being with child began to draw neer the time of her Delivery And it was generally believed that the Earl of Essex with his Forces had some aim on Oxford as the Seat Royall of the King the Residence of his Court and Council and the Sanctuary of a considerable part of the Nobility Gentry and Clergy In which respect it was thought fit that the Queen should remove to Exceter as a place more remote from danger and not far from the Sea by which she might take shipping for France as occasion served On the sixteenth of April she began her journey the King bearing her company as far as Abingdon where they took leave of one another neither of them having any the least presage that the parting Kisse which they then took was to be their last Convoi'd with a sufficient strength of Horse for her security on the way she was received there with as much magnificence as that City was able to expresse and on the sixteenth day of June was safely delivered of a Daughter whom she Christened by the name of Henrietta Assoon as she had well passed over the weaknesses and infirmities incident to Child-bed she committed the young Princesse to the Lady Dalkeith a Daughter of Sir Edward Villiers one of the half Brothers of the Duke of Buckingham and wife unto the Lord Dalkeith the eldest Son of the Earl of Morton Which having done according to some instructions which she had received from the King she took shipping at Pendennis Castle on the fifteenth of July and passed into France there to negotiate for some supplies of money Armes and Ammunition for the advance of his Majesties service and to continue howsoever in the Court of the King her Brother till she might return again in Honour and safety And to say truth her Removall from Oxford was not onely seasonable but exceeding necessary at that time the Earl of Essex and Sir William Wâ—ller with their severall Forces not long after her departure drawing neer to Oxford on whose approach his Majesty leaving the greatest part of his Army for defence of that place marched on directly towards Wales Upon the News whereof it was thought fit by the two Generalls to divide their Armies it being agreed upon that Sir William Waller should pursue the King and that the Earl of Essex should march toward the West for the regaining of those Countries And now
the mystery of iniquity appeared in its proper colours For whereas it was formerly given out by the Houses of Parliament that they had undertaken the war for no other reason but to remove the King from his evill Counsellours those evil Counsellours were left at Oxford unmolested and the Kings Person onely hunted But the King understanding of this division thought himself able enough to deal with Waller and giving him the go by returned towards Oxford drew thence the remainder of his Army and gave him a sharp meeting at a place called Cropredy bridge where he obtained a signal victory on the twenty eighth of June and entred triumphantly into Oxford This done he marched after the Earl of Essex who had made himself master of some places in the West of good importance During this march it happened that one of the Carriages brake in a long narrow lane which they were to passe and gave His Majesty a stop at a time of an intollerable shower of rain which fell upon him Some of his Courtiers and others which were neere about him offered to hew him out a way through the hedges with their swords that he might get shelter in some of the Villages adjoyning but he resolved not to forsake his Canon upon any occasion At which when some about him seemed to admire and marvelled at the patience which he shewed in that extremity His Majesty lifting up his Hat made answer That as God had given him Afflictions to exercise his patience so he had given him patience to bear his Afflictions A speech so heavenly and Divine that it is hardly to be paralell'd by any of the men of God in all the Scripture The carriage being mended he went forward again and trode so close upon the heels of the Earl of Essex that at last he drave him into Cornwell and there reduced him to that point that he put himself into a Cock-boat with Sir Philip Stapleton and some others and left his whole army to his Majesties mercy His Horse taking the advantage of a dark night made a shift to escape but the Commanders of the Foot came to this capitulation with his Majesty that they should depart without their Arms which with their Canon Baggage and Ammunition being of very great consideration were left wholly to his disposing Immediately after this successe his Majesty dispatch'd a message from Tavestock to the two houses of Parliament in which he laid before them the miserable condition of the Kingdome remembring them of those many messages which he had formerly sent unto them for an accommondation of the present Differences and now desiring them to be think themselves of some expedient by which this issue of blood might be dried up the distraction of the Kingdom setled and the whole Nation put into an hope of Peace and Happinesse To which Message as to many others before they either gave no answer or such an one as rather served to widen than close the breach falsely conceiving that all his Majesties Offers of Grace and Favour proceeded either from an inability to hold out the War or from the weaknesse and irresolution of his Counsels So that the Trage-Comedy of the two Harlots in the first of Kings may seem to have been acted over again on the Stage of England The King like the true Mother compassionately desired that the life of the poor infant might be preserved the Houses like the false Mother considering that they could not have the whole voted that it should be neither mine nor thine but divided betwixt them But if instead of this Message from Tavestock his Majesty had gone on his own errand and marched with his Army towards London it was conceived that in all probability he might have made an end of the War the Army of Essex being thus broken and that of Manchester not returned from the Northern service But sitting down before Plimouth and staying there to perfect an Association of the Western Counties he spent so much time that Essex was again in the head of his Army and being seconded by the Earl of Manchester and Sir William VValler made a stand at Newbery where after a very hot fight with variable success on both sides each party drew off by degrees so that neither of them could find cause to boast of the victory Winter comes on which though it be not ordinarily a time of Action will notwithstanding afford us some variety which will not be unworthy of our observation And first a Garrison is formed at Abington a Town within five miles of Oxford by order from the two Houses of Parliament under the command of Colonell Brown the King and Councill looking on and suffering the Intrenchments to be made the Works to be raised and the Ordnance to be planted on the same It cannot be denyed but that Sir Henry Gâ—ge Governour at that time of Oxford and many of the chief Commanders which were then in and about that City offered their service to the King and earnestly desired leave to prevent that mischief which by the Intrenchments of this Town must needs fall upon them But the Lord George Digby not long before made principall Secretary of Estate had perswaded the King unto the contrary upon assurance that he held intelligence with Brown and that as soon as the Town was fortified and furnished with Victuall Arms and Ammunition at the charges of the Houses of Parliament it would immediately be delivered into His Majesties hand In which design he was out-witted and consequently exposed unto some losse of reputation with all sorts of People For Brown having brought his project to the highest round of the ladder as himself expressed it thought it high time to turn it off and to declare himself for the two Houses against the King printing not long after all the Letters which passed between him and the Lord Digby upon this ocasion After this followed the taking of Shrewsbury a place of very great importance to the King as the Gate which opened into Wales situate on a rising ground and almost encompassed round about by the river Severn that part which is not invironed by water being wholly taken up and made good by a very strong Castle By the loss of which Town the Kings former entercourse with His loyall Subjects of North-Wales was not onely hindred but a present stop was given to an Association which was then upon the point of concluding between the Counties of Salop Flint Chester Worcester c. to the great prejudice of the Kings Affairs in those Parts of the Kingdome Then comes the lamentable death of the Arch-bishop of Canterbury kept for four years a prisoner in the Tower of London as before was said but reserved onely as a bait to bring in the Scots whensoever the Houses should have occasion for their second coming as formerly on the like temptation they had drawn them in with reference to the Earl of Strafford The Scots being come and doing good service in
being broke open before the Common Council of Athens one of which was subscribed to the Queen Olympias was returned untoucht the whole Senate thinking it a shamefull and dishonest act to discover and betray the Conjugall secrets betwixt man and wife A modesty in which those of Athens stand as much commended by Helladius Bisantinus an ancient Writer as the chief leading men of the Houses of Parliament are like to stand condemned for the want of it in succeeding Histories But we return unto the King who having saved himself by flight gathered together some part of his scattered Forces but never was able to make head against the conquerors losing one place after another till his whole strength was almost reduced to Oxford and some few Garrisons adjoyning I shall take notice onely of some of the principal viz. Chester Conway Hereford Bristol and Exeter on which so great a part of his affairs did most especially depend Chester first comes within the danger a City of great importance in those parts of the Kingdom To the relief of this place then besieged by Sir William Brereton Collonel Jones and others of that party and at that time brought to some distresse he made all the convenient speed he could but was pursued upon the way and charged in front by the besiegers betwixt whom this small Army was routed at a place called Bauton-Heath and the Lord Bernard Stuart newly created Earl of Lichfield killed upon the place the last of three brethren that had lost their lives in their Princes quarrell On this discomfiture the King draws towards the North-East and commands the Lord Digby with the Remainder of his Horse to march for Scotland and there to joyn with the Marquesse of Montrosse who with small strengths had acted Miracles in that Kingdome But at a Village in Yorkshire called Sherbourn a fatall name but pointing to another place where he surprized 700 of the Parliaments Foot he he was set upon by Collonel Cotly his Forces made drunk with the good fortune of the day very easily mastered and he himself compelled to fly into Ireland never returning since that time to his Native Country But notwithstanding the Kings misfortune before mentioned which happened on the twenty ninth of September the Lord Byron who had the command of the Garrison in Chester held it out gallantly till the first of February and then perceiving that there was no hopes of any Succour came to an honourable composition and gave up the Town the greatest part of the Countrey falling into the same condition with their mother City Before we leave the North-west parts we must look upon the fortune of the Town and Castle of Conway a place of principall Command on that narrow Channell which runneth between the County of Carnarvon and the Isle of Anglesey Before this Town being then besieged by Collonel Mitton came Doctor John Williams formerly Lord Keeper of the great Seal of England and at that time Arch-bishop of York Who to ingratiate himself with the Houses of Parliament and to save the charges of compounding for Delinquency came with some forces to the aid of the Besiegers some say in Armour and encamped there till the place was taken to the Amazement of the world and the eternall infamy and Reproch of his Person Bristol comes next a place conveniently seated for the Trade of Spain the River capable of great Ships and the port well guarded At the taking of this City by the Kings Forces to such strengths as before it had there was added a Fort Royall as they called it then conceived impregnable into this City Prince Rupert who had spent there too much of the year before had put himself at the present and was besieged not long after by Sir Thomas Fairfax who came before it on the twenty fourth of August and had it surrendred to him without any memorable resistance together with the old Castle and Royall Fort on the thirteenth of September The quick surrendry of which place being so well fortified and furnisht with victuall Arms and Ammunition and the weak defences which were made to preserve the same created some suspicion of disloyalty in Prince Rupert towards the King his Uncle There had before passed some Letters betwixt the King and him touching the Kings coming to a speedy agreement with his Houses of Parliament in which the King was prest so far that he seemed to be displeased at it And now this news coming on the neck of those Letters startled him into such a distrust of his Nephews Loyalty that he dispatcht a messenger with all speed to the Lords at Oxford to displace Collonell William Legg one of the Confidents of Prince Rupert who had succeeded Sir Henry Gage in the Government of that City and to put into his place Sir Thomas Glenham a Gentleman of known extraction and more known fidelity Nor were the Lords of the Council lesse amazed at the news then his Majesty was who thereupon when Prince Rupert and his Brother Maurice returned to Oxford commanded them to be disarmed and would not suffer them to walk the streets with their Swords by their sides as they had done formerly though afterwards by the Kings great goodnesse they were restored to all apparences of favour though not to any speciall places of Command or Trust Hereford followes the same fortune which having in vain been besieged by the Scots from the 13 of July to the first of September was suddenly surprized by Collonel Birch and Collonel Morgan this last then Governour of Glocster on the eighteenth of December Exceter holds out longest and was last attempted such blocks as lay in the way between Fairfax his Army and that City being first in the course of war to be removed Which took up so much time that it was the twenty fifth day of January before Fairefax could come neer enough to give it a Summons and being summon'd it held out till the thirteenth of April and then was yielded upon as honourable Conditions as any other whatsoever all other Garrisons in the West being first surrendred the Princes forces worsted at Torrington not long after disbanded upon Composition and he himself retired into France for his personall safety All these mischances thus hapning on the neck of one another all the Kings hopes and expectation rested upon the coming of Sir Jacob Astley created Lord Astley of Reading two years since Who having kept together some Remainders of the Kings Forces since the Fight neer Chester and increasing them with the Accession of some fresh supplies marched towards the King and was to have been met upon the way by Sir John Campsfield with the Oxford Horse But either through the want of intelligence or the necessity of fate or some occasionall delayes it was so long before Campsfield was upon his march that the newes came of the Lord Astleys being vanquish'd at a place called Donnington neer Stow on the Wold on the 21 of March In which fight
himself was taken prisoner and with him all the Kings hopes lost of preserving Oxford till he could better his condition 1646. In this extremity he left that City in disguise on the 27 day of April Anno 1646. and on the fourth of May put himself into the hands of the Scots then lying at the siege of Newark After the taking of which Town they carried him to Newcastle and there kept him under a Restraint The news hereof being brought to Oxford and seconded by the coming of the whole Army of Sir Thomas Fairfax who laid siege unto it disposed the Lords of the Council and such of the principall Gentry who had the conduct of the Affair to come to a speedy Composition According whereunto that City was surrendered on Midsomer day James Duke of York the Kings second Son together with the Great Seal Privy Seal and Signet were delivered up into the hands of the enemy by whom the young Duke was sent to Westminster and kept in the House of S. James under a Gard with his Brother and Sisters the Seals being carried into the House of Peers and there broke in pieces But long these young Princes were not kept together under that restraint the Princess Henrietta being in a short time after conveyed into France by the Lady Dalkieth and the Duke of York attired in the habit of a young Lady transported into Holland by one Captain Bamfield The Scots in the meane time being desirous to make even with their Masters to receive the wages of their iniquity and to get home in safety with that spoil and plunder which they had gotten in their marching and remarching betwixt Tweed and Hereford had not the patience to attend the leisure of any more voluntary surrendries They therefore pressed the King to give order to the Marquesse of Ormond in Ireland and to all the Governours of his Garrisons in England to give up all the Towns and Castles which remained untaken to such as should be appointed to receive them for the Houses of Parliament assuring him that otherwise they neither could nor durst continue him in their protection To this necessity he submitted but found not such a generall obedience to his commands as the Scots expected For not the Marquesse of Ormand onely but many of the Governours of Towns and Castles in England considered him as being under a constraint and speaking rather the sense of others then his own upon which grounds they continued still upon their guard in hope of better times or of better conditions But nothing was more hotly pressed by the Scots then that the Marquesse of Montrosse should lay down his Commission who with small strength in the beginning and inconsiderable forces when they were at the best had acted things in Scotland even unto admiration For besides many victories of lesse consequence he had twice beaten the Marquesse of Argile out of the field followed him home and wasted his Countrey with Fire and Sword He vanquisht Baily one of the best Souldiers of the Faction commanding over a well-formed Army in a set battell fought between them followed his blow and made himself Master of the City and Castle of Edenburgh releasing divers of his Friends who had been seized and imprisoned there when he first took Arms Had the Lord Digby's Horse come to him he had not onely perfected but assured the conquest of that Kingdome But instead of those aids which he expected he was unexpectedly set upon and his whole Army broken by David Lesley sent from the Scots Army in England with six thousand Horse to oppose the progresse of his fortune whose coming being known to the Earl of Roxborow and Traquair in whom the King continued still his wonted confidence was purposely concealed from him to the end that he being once suppressed and in him the Kings power destroyed in Scotland they might be sure from being called to an account of their former Treasons however he began to make head again and was in a way of well-doing when he received the Kings command to disband his Forces to which he readily conformed took ship and put himself into a voluntary exile These Obstacles removed his Majesty conceived some thoughts of finding Sanctuary in Scotland the Scots having first assured him as he signified by Letter to the Marquesse of Ormond before he put himself into their hands that they would not onely take his person but so many of his party also as repaired unto him into their protection and stand to him with their lives and fortune According to which hopes on his part and those assurances on theirs he had a great mind to return to his Native Countrey his Ancient and Native Kingdome as he used to call it there to expect the bettering of his condition in the changes of time But the Scots hearing of his purpose and having long ago cast off the yoke of Subjection voted against his coming to them in a full Assembly so that we may affirm of him as the Scripture doth of Christ our Saviour viz. He came unto his own and his own received him not The like resolution also was entertained by the Commissioners of that Nation and the chiefe Leaders of their Army who had contracted with the Houses of Parliament and for the summe of two hundred thousand pounds in ready money sold and betrayed him into the hands of his Enemies as certainly they would have done with the Lord Christ himself for halfe the money if he had bowed the Heavens and came down to visit them By the Commissioners sent from the Houses to receive him he was conducted to Holdenby a fair house of his own and one of the goodliest Piles in England scituate not far from Naseby to the intent that he might be continually grieved with the sight of the fatall place of his overthrow but kept so close that none of his Domestick servants no not so much as any of his own Chaplains were suffered to have Accesse unto him In the mean time a breach began betwixt the Presbyterian Party in both Houses and some chief Officers of the Army which growing every day wider and wider one Cornet Joice with a considerable party of Horse was sent to seize on his Majesties Person and bring him safe to their head Quarters There at the first he was received with all possible demonstrations of Love and Duty some of his Chaplains licensed to repair unto him and read the Book of Common-Prayer as in former times and the way open to all those of his party who desired to see him This made the Animosities between those of the two Houses and the Army to be far greater then before the City closing with that party of the Houses which desired the Kings coming to the Parliament and going down in a tumultuous manner required the present voting of a Personal Treaty This made the Speaker and such of both Houses as either held for the Army or had no mind to see the Kings Return
to London to quit the Parliament and to betake themselves to their Protection incouraged wherewith they resolved upon their march towards London to restore those members to their Houses and those Houses to the Power and Freedom of Parliaments Upon the noise of whose Approach the Citizens who before spake big and had begun to raise an Army under the Command of the Lord Willowby of Parham sent their Petitions for a peace and gladly opened all their works between Hide-Park Corner and the Thames to make an entrance for the Army who having placed their Speakers in their severall Chaires and supprest those of the opposite party made a triumphant passage through the chief Streets of the City with Trumpets sounding Drums beating and Colours flying The King removed from one place to another was brought in the course of those Removes to Casam Lodge an House of the Lord Cravens not far from Reading where he obtained the favour of giving a meeting to his Children at Maydenhith and there they dined together the Generall willingly consenting and the Houses then not daring to make any denyall From thence he was at last brought to his own Palace of Hampton Court where being terrified with the Apprehension of some Dangers which were given out to be designed against his person by the Agitators who for a time much governed the lower part of the Army he left that place accompanied onely with two or three of his servants and put himself unfortunately into the power of Collonel Hammond in the Isle of Wight where no relief could come unto him Being secured in Carisbrook Castle Propositions are sent to him from the Houses of Parliament as had been done before at Newcastle and Holdenby-House to which he returned the same Answer now as he did before their Demands being nothing bettered and his condition nothing worse then before it was Provoked wherewith the Houses past their Votes of Non-Addresses to his Majesty and take the Government upon themselves as in the times of Vacancy and Inter-regnum in the State of Rome wherein they were confirmed by a Declaration from the Army binding themselves to stand to them in defence of those Votes During the time of these restraints he betook himself to meditation and then composed that most excellent Book entituled {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or the Pourtraiture of his sacred Majesty in his Solitudes and Sufferings The Honour of this work some mercenary Sticklers for the two Houses of Parliament have laboured to deprive him of and to transfer it to some other though they know not whom But it is well known to all that knew him that his Majesty had alwayes a fine stroke with his pen which he practised at all times of leasure and recesse from businesse from before his coming to the Crown to these last extremities By which means he became Master of a pure and elegant Stile as both his intercepted Letters and those to Mr. Henderson at New-Castle in the point of Episcopacy where he could have no other helps but what he found in himself do most clearly evidence 1648. And now the Subjects of both Kingdoms which before had joyned in Arms against him began to look upon his Estate with Commiseration and seeing they could obtain no favour or freedom for him in the way of Petition they resolved to try their fortunes in the way of Force And first a very considerable part of the Royall Navy encouraged by Captain Batten formerly Vice-Admirall to the Earl of Warwick was put into the power of the Prince of wales to be made use of for his Majesties service in that sad condition and next the Kentish who twice or thrice before had shewed their readinesse to appear in Arms on his behalf put themselves into a posture of War under the conduct of one Master Hales an Heir of great hope and expectation and after under the command of George Lord Goring Earl of Norwich The â—arl of Holland whom he had cherisht in his Bosome and who unworthily deserted him in the first beginning of his troubles repenting when it was too late of his great disloyalties began to raise some small Forces in the County of Surrey Langhern Poyer and Powel who before had served under the pay of the Houses seized on some strong Towns and Castles in South-VVales and declared against them the Castle of Pomfret was surprized by Stratagem and kept by them who had surprized it for his Majesties service And finally the Marquesse of Hamilton not long before created Duke Hamilton of Arran having raised a strong Army of Scots confederated himself with Sir Marmaduke Langdale and Sir Thomas Glenham and others of the Kings party in the North and having Garrisoned the Towns of Berwick and Carlisle past into England with his Forces under colour of restoring the King to his Crown and Liberty But these eruptions in both Kingdoms though they might give hiâ— Majesty some hopes of a better condition yet did they not take him off from looking seriously into himself and taking into Consideration those things which had formerly passed him and which might seem most to have provoked Gods displeasure against him And what they were which most particularly grated on his Conscience appeareth by the Prayer and Confession which he made for the times of his Affliction and is this that followeth viz. Almighty and most mercifull Father as it is only thy goodnesse that admits of our imperfect Prayers and the knowledge that thy mercies are infinite which can give us any hope of thy accepting or granting them so it is our bounden and necessary Duty to confesse our Sins freely unto thee and of all men living I have most need most reason so to do no man having been so much obliged by thee no man more grievously offending thee that Degree of knowledge which thou hast given me adding likewise to the guilt of my Transgressions For was it through ignorance that I suffered innocent blood to be shed by a false pretended way of Justice Or that I permitted a wrong way of thy worship to be set up in Scotland and injured the Bishops in England O no but with shame and grief I confesse that I therein followed the perswasions of worldly wisdome forsaking the Dictates of a right-informed Conscience Wherefore O Lord I have no excuse to make no hope left but the multitude of thy mercies for I know my repentance weak and my Prayers faulty Grant therefore mercifull Father so to strengthen my repentance and amend my Prayers that thou maist clear the way for Thine own mercies to which O let thy Justice at last give place putting a speedy end to my deserved Afflictions In the mean time give me Patience to endure Constancy against temptations and a Discerning Spirit to chuse what is best for thy Church and People which thou hast committed to my charge Grant this O most mercifull Father for thy Son Jesus Christs sake our onely Saviour Amen Now as the King thus
the French Lords might see with what Royall Magnificence he was attended by the Peers Prelates and other Officers of State besides his own Domestick Servants to the Parliament-House At their first meeting he put them in mind of the War in which they had ingaged his Father and of the promise they had made to stand to him in it with their lives and fortunes that both his Land and Sea-forces were now in readinesse to set forwards and that there wanted nothing but a present supply of money to quicken and expedite the Affair In Answer whereunto the Commons past a Bill of two Subsidies onely so short of the excessive Charge which the maintenance of so great a Fleet and Army required at their hands that being distributed amongst the Officers Souldiers and Mariners it would scarce have served for Advance-money to send them going Which notwithstanding the King very graciously accepted of it taking it as an Ernest of their good Affections in reference to the greater Summes which were to follow But the Plague growing hot in London the Parliament on the eleventh day of July was adjourned to Oxford there to be held on the first of August at what time the King put them in mind again of the necessity of setting forward his Fleet and that the eyes of his Confederates were fixt upon it But the Commons had other fish to fry and began to quarrel at the greatnesse of the Duke of Buckingham whom in the last Parliament of King James they had idolized above all men living But he had served their turn already and now they meant to serve their own This was the first Assault which the Commons made upon this King though not directly on his Person wounding him through the sides of his principal Minister they were so well verst in the Arts of a Parliament-war as to take in the Out-works first that so the Fort it self might lie the more open to continuall Batteries Concerning which and the sad consequents thereof take here the words of a Letter written to the King from an unknown Person These men saith he either cannot or will not remember that never any Noble man in favour with his Soveraign was questioned in Parliament except by the King himself in case of Treason or unlesse it were in the Nonage and tumultuous time of Richard the 2. Henry the 6. or Edward the 6. which hapned to the destruction both of the King and Kingdome And that not to exceed our own and Fathers Memories in King Henry the eight's time Wolsies exorbitant power and pride and Cromwels contempt of the Nobility and the Lawes were not yet permitted to be discussed in Parliament though they were most odious and grievous to all the Kingdome And that Leicesters undeserved favour and faults Hattons insufficiency and Rawleighs insolence far exceeded what yet hath been though most falsly objected against the Duke yet no Lawyer durst abet nor any man else begin any invectives against them in Parliament And then he addes some other passages intervening that it behoves his Majesty to uphold the Duke against them who if he be but decourted it will be the corner-stone on which the demolishing of his Monarchy will be builded For if they prevaile with this they have hatched a thousand other Demands to pull the feathers of the Royalty they will appoint him Counsellours Servants Alliances Limits of his Expenses Accompts of his Revenue chiefly if they can as they mainly desire they will now dazle him in the beginning of his Reign How true a Prophet this man proved the event hath shewn and the King saw it well enough and therefore since he could not divert them from that pursuit he dissolved the Parliament by whose neglect I will not call it a perversenesse the Fleet went out late and returned unprosperously In which conjuncture if he had clapt up a Peace with Spain which the Spaniards had as much reason to accept as he to offer he might have prevented the following Rupture betwixt him and France and freed himself from the necessity of calling Parliaments till he had no necessity for a Parliament to work upon and then he might have found them as pliant to him as he could reasonably require But he resolves to try his fortune in another as soon as he had performed the Solemnities of his Coronation which was celebrated on the second of February commonly called Candlemas Day then next ensuing In the externall Pomp whereof he omitted his triumphant riding thorow the City from the Tower to White-Hall the Charge whereof would have stood him in sixty thousand pounds as some compute it and he had then more necessary occasions to expend his money then Money to answer those occasions In the sacred part of it there was nothing altered but the adding of a clause to one of the Prayers which had been pretermitted since the time of King Henry the sixth and is this that followeth viz. Let him obtain favour for the People like Aaron in the Tabernacle Elisha in the Waters Zacharias in the Temple give him Peters key of Discipline Pauls Doctrine Which clause had been omitted in time of Popery as intimating more Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction to be given to our Kings then the Popes allowed of and for the same reason was now quarrel'd by the Puritan Faction As for the Coronation-oath it was the same which had been taken by his Predecessors as appears by the Records of Exchequer Not made more advantageous to the King and lesse beneficiall to the People by the late Archbishop though both the long Parliament in the year 1642. and the lewd Pamphlets of that time did object the contrary The Coronation being passed over he began his second Parliament on the sixth of the same moneth in which he sped no better then he did in his first The Commons voted some Subsidies to be granted to him but they never past them into Act that bait being onely laid before him to tempt him to give over the Duke to their pride and fury against whom they had framed a large impeachment ushered in by Sir Dudley Diggs prosecuted with six bitter invectives made by the best Speakers and most learned Lawyers of that House and finally concluded by Sir John Eliot who brought up the Rear 1626. But the King easily perceived that his Royal Father and himself were as much concerned in it as the Duke their favours being made his crimes and their authority in bestowing Offices and Honours on whom they pleased not obscurely questioned But the storm went higher then the Duke some part of it falling down-right on the King himself it being openly affirmed in the House of Commons by one Mr. Coke a true chip of the old block that it was as good to die by a forraign Enemy as to be destroyed at home Of this reproach tending so much to the dishonour of his Government he complained in a Speech before both Houses but without any remedy And being further incensed by the
in the Assembly at Aberdeen Anno 1616. for composing a Liturgy and extracting a new book of Canons out of the scattered Acts of their old Assemblies At the Assembly held at Perth Anno 1618. he obtained an Order for receiving the Communion kneeling for administring Baptisme and the Lords Supper in private Houses in cases of extreme necessity for Episcopall confirmation and finally for the celebrating the Anniversaries of our Saviours Birth his Passion Resurrection and Ascension and the coming down of the Holy Ghost All which he got to be confirmed in the following Parliament So far that wise King had advanced the work of Uniformity before his engaging in the Cause of the Palatinate His Breach with Spain and the War which did insue upon it took off his thoughts from prosecuting that design which his son being more intangled in Wars abroad and Distempers at home had no time to finish till he had setled his Affaires and attained to some measure both of Power and Glory But being it was a businesse which was to be acted leisurely and by degrees not all at once he first resolved upon passing of an Act of Ratification of all that had been done by his Father and then to go in hand with the introducing of a publick Liturgie In the effecting whereof at such a time as he went into Scotland to receive that unfortunate Crown he found a stronger opposition in the Parliament of that Kingdom also about the passing of that Act of Ratification then he had reason to expect But carried it at last by a far major part of that Assembly This gave him the fist taste of their disaffection to his Person and Government but he went forward notwithstanding in pursuit of those purposes which he brought thither with him For not long after his return into England he gave order to the Dean of his Chappell Royall in Edenburgh that Prayers be read therein according to the English Liturgie that a Communion be had every moneth and all Communicants to receive the Sacrament on their knees that he who officiated if he be a Bishop perform it in his Rochet and other Episcopall Robes and that he do it in his Surplice if a common Presbyter and finally that not onely the Lords of the Council but the Lords of the Session and as many of the principall Magistrates of that City also as could conveniently fail not of their attending the Divine Service there on Sundayes and Holy-dayes For by this means he gave himself no improbable hopes that the English Liturgy passing a probationership in the Chappel Royall might find a plausible entertainment in the Churches of Edenburgh and be received by degrees in all the rest of the Kingdom But the Presbyterian Scots not ignorant of the Kings intentions insinuated into the minds of the common People that this was a design onely to subject that pure Kirk to the superstitious Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England and therefore that it did behove them to stand together as one man to oppose their entrance The Lords and Gentry of that Realm who feared nothing so much as the Commission of Surrendries before mentioned laid hold on this occasion also And they being seconded by some male-contented spirits of that Nation who had not found the King to be as prodigal of his favours to them as his Father had been before endeavoured to possesse them with Fears and Jealousies that Scotland was to be reduced to the form of a Province and governed by a Deputy or Lord Lieutenant as Ireland was The like done also by some Lords of Secret Council who before had governed as they listed and thought their power diminished and their persons under some neglect by the placing of a Lord President over them to direct in chief So that the people generally being fooled into this opinion that both their Christian and Civil Liberty were in no small danger became capable of any impression which the Presbyterian Faction could imprint upon them Which visibly appeared by a virulent and seditious Libel published in the year 1634. wherein the King was not only charged with altering the Government of that Kingdom but traduced for very strong inclinations to the Religion of the Church of Rome The chief Abettor whereof for the Authour was not to be found was the Lord Balmerino for which he was legally convicted and condemned of treason but pardoned by the Kings great goodnesse and by that pardon kept alive for the mischiefs following The fire thus breaking out in Scotland it was no marvel if it had laid hold on England also the Puritans of both Nations working themselves about this time into a Body and from henceforth communicating their Counsels and designs unto one another The King not long after his return thought fit to renew his Fathers Declaration about lawfull sports on the Lords Day the principall motives whereunto were the increase of Popery in some parts of the Kingdome occasioned by interdicting all honest Recreations on that day and the rest of the Holy-dayes the tendency of the Sabbatarian Doctrine to down-right Judaisme some orders made by some publick Ministers of Justice for suppressing the Annual Feasts of the Dedication of Churches commonly called Wakes and finally the bringing of Dancing Running shooting and other harmlesse Recreations within the compasse of the Statute made in the first Parliament of his Reign against all unlawfull exercises and pastimes in which no such thing was ever intended And though the Kings intention in it was onely to ease the people from that yoke of superstition which many of their Preachers had laid upon them yet by the practise of those Preachers it made more noise among the People and wakened more to appear in defence of that which they call Religion then all the Geese in the Capitoll Nor did His Majestie speed much better in another of his pious intentions concerning the Conformity of Parochiall Churches to their Mother Cathedrals The Dean and Chapter of S. Pauls as Ordinaries of the place had appointed the Communion-Table in St. Gregories Church to be placed Altar-wise at the end of the Chancel where it had stood and by her injunctions ought to stand in Q. Elizabeths time Against this some of the parishioners appealed to the Dean of the Arches the Dean Chapter to the King The cause being heard before His Majesty and the Lords of the Council on the third of November Anno 162â— it pleased his Majesty having first shewed his dislike of all Innovations to declare that he well approved and confirmed the Act of the said Ordinary and also gave commandement that if those few parishioners before mentioned do proceed in their said Appeal then the Dean of the Arches who was then attending at the hearing of the Cause shall confirm the said Order of the aforesaid Dean and Chapter On this encouragement the Archbishop of Canterbury in his Metropoliticall Visitation beginning in the year next following and the Suffragan Bishops in
Natives of that Countrey sent thither purposely in a new and unprecedent way to lie as Spies upon his Counsels and as controllers to his actions Some Messages there were betwixt him and the Houses of Parliament concerning the attoning of these differences whilst he was at York But the XIX Propositions sent thither to him did declare sufficiently that there was no peace to be expected on his part unlesse he had made himself a cypher a thing of no signification in the Arithmetick of State And now the War begins to open The Parliament had their Guards already and the Affront which Hotham had put upon his Majesty at Hull prompted the Gentlemen of York-shire to tender themselves for a Guard to his Person This presently voted by both Houses to be a leavying of War against the Parliament for whose defence not onely the Train-bands of London must be in readinesse and the good people of the countrey required to put themselves into a posture of armes but Regiments of Horse and Foot are listed a Generall appointed great summes of Money raised and all this under pretence of taking the King out of the hands of his evil Counsellours The noise of these preparations hastens the King from Yorke to Notingham where he sets up his Standard inviting all his good Subjects to repair unto him for defence of their King the Lawes and Religion of their Countrey He increased his Forces as he marched which could not come unto the reputation of an Army till he came into Shropshire where great bodies of the loyall and stout-hearted Welch resorted to him Strengthened with these and furnisht sufficiently with Field Pieces Armes and Ammunition which the Queen had sent to him out of Holland he resolves upon his march towards London but on Sunday the twenty third of October was encountred in the way at a place called Edge-Hill by the Parliament Forces The Fight very terrible for the time no fewer then five thousand men slain upon the place the Prologue to a greater slaughter if the dark night had not put an end unto that dispute Each part pretended to the victory but it went clearly on the Kings side who though he lost his Generall yet he kept the Field and possessed himself of the dead bodies and not so onely but he made his way open unto London and â—n his way forced Banbury Castle in the very sight as it were of the Earl of Essex who with his flying Army made all the haste he could towards the City that â—e might be there before the King to â—ecure the Parliament More certain â—gns there could not be of an absolute â—ictory In the Battel of Taro between the Conâ—derates of Italy and Charles the eight â—f France it hapned so that the Confederates kept the Field possest themselves of the Camp Baggage and Artillery which the French in their breaking through had left behind them Hereupon a dispute was raised to whom the Honour of that day did of right belong which all knowing and impartiall men gave unto the French For though they lost the Field their Camp Artillery and Baggage yet they obtained what they fought for which was the opening of their way to France and which the Confederates did intend to deprive them of Which resolution in that case may be a ruling case to this the Kiâ—g having not only kept the Field posseâ—â— himself of the dead bodies pillaged the carâ—iages of the enemy but forciâ—â—y opâ—â—eâ— his way towards London which the enemy endeavoured to hinder and finally entred triumphantly into Oxford with no fewer then aâ— hundred and twenty Colours taken in the Figâ—â— Having assured himself of Oxford foâ— his Winter Quarters he resolved on hiâ— Advance towards London but had made so many halts in the way that Essex was got thither before him who had disposed of his Forces at Kingston Brentford Acton and some other places there abouts not onely to stop his march but to fall upon him in the Rear as occasion served Yet he goes forward notwithstanding as far as Brentford out of which he beats two of their best Regiments takes five hundred Prisoners sinks their Ordnance with an intent to march forwards on the morrow after being Sunday and the thirteenth of November But understanding that the Earl of Essex had drawn his Forces out of Kingston and joyning with the London Auxiliaries lay in the way before him at a place called Turnham-Green neer Cheswick it was thought safer to retreat towards Oxford while the way was open then to venture his Army to the fortune of a second Battel which if it were lost â—t would be utterly impossible for him â—o raise another At Oxford he receives Propositions of peace from the Houses of Parliament but such as rather did beseem a conquering then a losing side But being resolved to treat upon them howsoever he found the Commissioners so straitned in time and so tied to such particular instructions as the Houses had given them that nothing could be yielded to which might conduce to the composing of the present Distempers At the opening of the Spring the Queen came to him who had landed at a place in York-shire called Burlington-Bay in the end of February and now brought with her unto Oxford some supplies of men with a considerable stock of Powder Arms and Ammunition 1643. The next Summer makes him master of the North and West some few places onely being excepted The Earl of New-castle with his Northern Army had cleared all parts beyond Trent but the Town of Hull of the enemies Forces And with his own Army under the command of Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice two of the younger Sons of his Sister Elizabeth Queen of Bohemia he reduced the Cities of Bristol and Exeter the Port Town of Waymouth and all the Towns of any importance in the Western parts except Pool Lime and Plimouth So that he was in a manner the absolute Commander of the Counties of Wilts Dorset Somerset Devon and Cornwall And though the Towns of Plimouth Lime and Pool still held out against him yet were they so bridled by his neighbouring Garrisons that they were not able to create him any great Disturbance The noise of these successes was so loud at London that most of the leading men in both Houses of Parliament prepared for quitting of the Kingdome and had undoubtedly so done if the King had followed his good fortunes and advanced towards London But unhappily diverting upon Glocester he lay so long there without doing any thing to the purpose that the Earl of Essex came time enough to raise the Siege and relieve the Town though he made not hast enough to recover London without blowes For besides some skirmishes on the by which fell out to his losse the King with the whole body of his Army overtook him at Newberry where after a sharp fight with the losse of the Earl of Carnarvon the Earl of Sunderland and the Lord Viscount Falkland on his Majesties side
armed himself against all future events in the middle of these hopes and expectations so the Houses of Parliament were not wanting to themselves in their care and diligence to destroy those hopes and make those expectations fruitlesse and of no effect For the Storm thus breaking out on all sides Lieutenant Generall Cromwel with some part of the Army is ordered to march into Wales where he reduced such Towns and Castles under his command as had before been manned against them the three chief Captains above named yielding themselves upon the hopes of that mercy which they never tasted This done he hasteneth towards the Scots whom he found in Lancashire discomfits them takes all their Foot with their Canon Arms and Ammunition The Duke or Marquesse with his Horse which had escaped out of the fight were so closely followed by the diligence of the pursuers that most of his Horse being slain or taken himself was sent Prisoner unto London Following his blow Cromwel bestowes a visit on Scotland suppresses all those in that Kingdome who stood in any sort suspected of the crime of Loyalty the Towns of Berwick and Carlisle being delivered into his hands without blowes or Blood-shed An expedition which he made good use of in his following Counsels discovering by this means the weaknesse and condition of the Countrey the irreconcilable Factions and part-takings amongst the great ones of that Realm on whose divided wills and pleasures all the rest depended and on what side they lay most open and assaultable when any further occasion should be taken as there after was to attempt upon them In the mean time some Troops of the other part of the Army scatter the weak forces of the Earl of Holland who flying towards the North is taken at Saint Neots in the County of Huntingdon and sent Prisoner unto London also The Kentish being either scattered or forced over the Thames put themselves into the Town of Colchester and are there besieged by Sir Thomas Fairfax himself with his part of the Army The issue of which Siege was this that after some extremities endured by the besieged the place was yielded upon composition the Townsmen to be safe from plunder the Souldiers and their Commanders to yield themselves Prisoners absolutely without any Conditions The Principal of these were the Lord Capel Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle all of them of approved valour and fidelity of which the two last were shot to death upon the place the first reserved for the Scaffold on which he lookt death in the face with as much magnanimity as Hamilton and Holland who suffered at the same time with him entertained it with a poorness and Dejection of Spirit And which was worst because it lost some Reputation to the Prince in his first Attempt the Marriners growing discontented that Prince Rupert was appointed to be their Admirall instead of the Lord VVilloughby of Parham by whom they desired to be commanded fell off with many of their Ships and returned again to their old Admirall the Earl of VVarwick By the withdrawing of which Ships he was rendred the lesse able to do any thing considerable on the Sea and landing with some Forces neer Deal-Castle in Kent sped not so fortunately as both his Friends hoped and himself expected But notwithstanding these Successes the Houses seeing how desirous the whole Nation was of a Personall Treaty recalled their Votes of No-Address and ordered that a Personall Treaty should be held with his Majesty at Newport in the Isle of VVight to begin on the eighteenth day of September next following But the Commissioners which were sent to mannage this Treaty spent so much time upon each Nicety and Punctillio of the Propositions before they drew towards a Conclusion that they gave the Officers of the Army too much opportunity to frame and publish a Remonstrance bearing date at S. Albans on the sixteenth of November In which it was declared that the King was the sole cause of all that blood-shed which had been made in the Kingdome that he was incapable of any further trust in the publick government and that nothing could be more expedient to the safety of the Common-wealth then to bring him to the Bar of Justice Nor staid they there but in pursuit of this Design some of the Officers were appointed to go into the Isle of Wight and having seized upon his Person to bring him over to Hurst Castle in Hampshire from whence they brought him by degrees to VVindsor and at last to VVestminster And on the other side the Independent Party in the House of Commons holding intelligence with the Army voted his Majesties Concessions to be so unsatisfactory that no well-grounded Peace could be built upon them In the next place a care was taken by the Army to purge the House of all those members to whom his Majesties condescensions had given satisfaction Which done a New Court called the High Court of Justice is to be set up a President of the same appointed certain Commissioners nominated to Act as Judges and a set time designed to call his Majesty to a Tryall in an unprecedented way before his Subjects It is reported that at his going from the Bar one of the Souldiers most barbarously spit in his face and used very reproachfull words against him Which though his Majesty suffered with his wonted patience yet the Divine vengeance would not suffer it to go unrevenged that wretch being not long after condemned in a Court of War for some endeavours to make a Mutiny in the Army and openly shoâ— to death in S. Pauls Church-yard And now Saturday the 20 of January the day of his appearing being come his Majesty was brought from the Palace of Saint James unto VVestminster Hall to appear before the new Judges and answer unto all particulars which are thought fit to be objected His appearance could not be avoided in regard he was under a constraint but no constraint could force his will to make him acknowledge their Authority or submit himself unto their judgement He would not so betray the Liberty of the English Subject as he plainly told them to any arbitrary and lawlesse Power as he must needs do by submitting unto their proceedings and therefore since the Laws and Liberties of the Land were now in question he stood resolved to dy a Martyr for them both For which contempt having stood resolutely on the same term as oft as he was brought before them he was sentenced on Saturday the twenty seventh of the same moneth to lose his life by the dividing of his head from his body That fatall morning being come the Bishop of London who attended on him in that sad exigent read the morning Prayers and for the first Lesson thereof the 27 Chapter of S. Matthews Gospel relating the History of our Saviours Sufferings under Pontius Pilate by the practise of the chief Priests the Scribes and Pharisees and others of the Great Council of the Jewish Nation