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
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
thus made the unsearchable Providence of God all hands were set to work to demolish and throw down that goodly structure and Fabrick of Government under which this Nation had so long flourished upon the Support and Bâ—sis of the Three Estates The King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal To the Ruine of all which these New Modellers proceeded in this Method most prophetically foretold by that incomparable M. Hooker Hook Eccles Pol. Lib. 8. init under the Embleme of a stately and well-spreaded Tree consisting chiefly of 3 great Boughs to all which it seemed not at first expedient to offer the Edge of the Axe at once but rather to single them and strike at the weakest first making shew that the Lop of that one Dolus Intervalla scelerum poscebat Tacit. shall draw the more abundance of Sap to the other two that thereby they may the better prosper This was put in practice by our Deformers and the Bishops first designed to the Fatal Stroke the weighty Fall of whom was sure to draw down the other two with any the least touch together with them For a Parliament being called in Nov. 1640 with as much Clamour as Impudence did these Factious Incendiaries of the Puritan Party affront and assault the Members of both Houses thrusting their Demands into the Two Houses under the Title of Petitions being backt with armed Force and Violence several tumultuous Rabbles came swarming down to Westminster by the Kings Gates at White-Hall others in Boats and Barges armed likewise by water obtruding their unknown Caprichio's and conceits upon the Parliament many of whom were so far from checking or resisting so dangerous a Torrent which had overflowed the Banks of either Modesty Loyalty or Christianity that they rather abetted sided with and countenanced those treasonable Attempts nor did these Tumults cease till the King was forced to abandon his own House to save Himself His Honour and Conscience But before they began this great Enterprize upon a whole Order so rooted and setled by the Laws their Dignities and Revenues so reverenced and esteemed for their individual Persons and Worth by all men of Wisdom and Honour so supported and defended by the King and his Authority which at first they durst not grapple with his chief Ministers of State his Judges and for the greatest part of the Nobility they cast about how to effect their Tragical Intentions and Designs another more cruel but plausible way and indeed otherwise then so they could not possibly or at least probably have accomplished their Mischiefs Therefore they began with the Terrible Outcries of Justice of calling Delinquents and the Kings evil Counsellers words of course with Traytors to condigne punishment Many there were whom they had put down in their black List for such and many violent Speecâ—es were made by the Faction in the House of Commons concerning them that what they wanted in the matter substance of the Charge or guilt they might make up in the number quality of those whom they pretended to be guilty Divers of them to avoid the popular Fury knowing themselves to be marked out by the chief of the Faction for Ruine and withal that the grearness of their places could not consist without some little Offences which their enemies had opportunity to aggravate withdrew themselves out of a wise confideration of the prevalency and overbearing power of those men But some whose Honour and Innocency could endure no such Eclipses and betwixt whose greatness and Verrue they scorned the Vulgar and hopeless peopâ—es Oblequy should so interpose as to darken and obscure their Glory and Lustre stood still in their Orbs and Stations and shone with the same brightness of Integrity The pretended Crime was a dutiful Observation of the Fifth Commandment which lay in the way to their designed absolutenesse the Faction was engaged against all Power or Authority but that of their own Wils and could allow no render Consciences to the Second Table which having prophaned in the first and most important Command they easily contravened and abrogated the rest in murdering plundering and adulterating the Affections perjuring and insaâ—iably covering the Goods and Lives of their Fellow-Subjects who may deservedly be canonized for Martyrs for Confessing and Maintaining to their death so precious and so commanded a Duty of Loyal Obedience Amongst the first of these was the Earl of Sirafford a Person whom the Faction knew to be a firm Friend to the Bishops and a great Lover of that Sacred Function and Order one that had manifested that Affection to them in his Administration of the Government of Ireland a wise yea the wisest Subject in the Kingdom who stood as a Bulwark and Defence against all Invasions Plots and Conspiracies against either Church or State and without whose Removal they well knew they should effect nothing The King had summoned this very Parliament by his Advice concurring with others of his Council having called him out of Ireland somtime before to assist him in the War against the aforesaid Rebellious Scots as Lâ—Gen to his Army then upon the Borders from whence he was no sooner come to London and at the opening of the Parliament taken his Place in the House of Lords but a Charge of High Treason was exhibited against him by the Commons and thereupon he was committed to the Black Rod and from thence to the Tower of London This was the first Parliament wherein the Faction was predominant not that their particular number made them so but they closed with all Interests that were any way offended at the Government and some well-meaning men there were too that were led by the Nose by these forsooth good Patriots but having by these means got the Vote of the Commons in their own management they resolved noâ— to abate the least Ace of that Power The King in the beginning of the Parliament to remove all Distrust and Jealousie of him had granted them whatever they had demanded had signed the Bill for a Triennial Parliament had Enâ—cted that he would not dissolve this without the Consent of the Lords Commons themselves so that there rested nothing of the Kings part which Reasonable men could desire for him more to grant or they to ask therefore he took it very unkindly that in the midst of these Favours and Grants they should so unhansomly affront him in challenging his Prime Minister of State in so high a manner But they were resolved to passe the Limits of all Duty and Obedience and having the King so engaged as beforesaid and necessitated also for Money to put and impose any thing upon him though never so disagreeable to his honour and Conscience nay to common Reason To this purpose after the Charge was exhibited the Faction in the House and their Agents and Partisans in the City who had their Correspondents also in the Country as appeared afterwards by several Petitions brought out of divers Counties of England drew down a confused Râ—bble
Honourable When the Long Parliament first sate these two Gentlemen with the rest of the Kingdom rejoyced to see that day and stood at gaze as greedily as any expecting what acts of Bounty what Relief of Grievances the King would through their hands convey unto his Subjects And while they kept in the Sphere of their Duty and Allegiance were as forward to applaud them as any but after the Publication of the Remonstrance wherein the Parliament so abominably slandered the Kings Government which was the Ground-work of the Rebellion and the Critical time being come in which men must either declare themselves either for or against their Soveraign though the City was deeply leavened with disloyal Principles yet these Gentlemen and the major Part of the Citizens of whom they were chief were the Kings most faithful Subjects They were men of good esteem plentiful estates known Integrity and true Children of the Church of England who seeing the miserable condition of those places where the Rebels bore sway and beginning to be sensible of the same Bondage under Col. Essex entred into a Consultation how to put the City of Bristol into the Kings Possession and Protection To this purpose they dispatcht an Agent to the Court to inform the King that he had many good Subjects in Bristol and withal to signifie their desire to deliver up his own City to himself if he would send some of his Forces thither to take it The Inducements and Reasons of this Design were these First Conscience to God not to resist the King knowing they that do shall receive unto themselves Damnation Detesting that abominable Sect of the Hothamites those State-Hereticks who accounted it their duty to keep the Kings Towns for the Kings use by shutting the Gates against the Kings Person Secondly the frequent Affronts given to His Majesty by scandalous and disloyal Speeches on all Occasions belched out against him by Protestations Declarations Messages Contempt of his Gracious Offers before the Face of his Messengers as to instance in Sr. Baynham Throckmorton whom the King sent to Bristol requiring the Mayor and Aldermen not to give admittance to any of the Parliament Forces promising that he himself would not impose any on them together with tender of the promise of his Favour yet did the Mayor and Sheriffe two Boutefews in that City send 4 Pieces of Ordnance at that very instant to Marleborough to be employed against the King Lastly Out of regard to their own security and to quit themselves of those Oppressions and Grievances under which they suffered and these were many 1. The often repeated Taxations and Loans of Money unto the King and Parliament as they were pleased to twist them upon the thredbare Security of the publick Faith the illegal exactions employed for repairing the Castle building of Forts and maintaining a Garrison against the King 2. By urging upon them new and treasonable Votes and Protestations if not fully in words yet in the use and interpretation of them directly opposite to the Oath of Allegiance the Oath of every Citizen when made a Freeman with a paticular Engagement to resist Prince Rupert the Lord General the Earl of Forth and Brainford the Lord Marquesse Hertford the Earl of Newcastle Sr. Ralph-Hopton and their Forces 3. By their disarming all such as were any way suspected to bear duty and Affection to his Majesty unlesse they would take the aforesaid Protestations 4. The perpetual Scorn and Obloquy to which they were exposed being reproached every day as they passed the streets with the names of Malignants and Papists 5. The General Contempt and Prophanation of Gods holy Worship and Service tearing the Common-Prayer-Book c. Lastly Because upon the Point they were confined to Bristol not daring to go out of the City for in all places where the Commands and Ordinances of the Two Houses prevailed they had given a List of the Names of those that durst appear for the King to the end that if any of them came thither they might be apprehended and sent Prisoners to Taunton Barkley Castle as Delisâ—quents to the Parliament It was no wonder therefore that a City thus robbed of its Wealth and Liberty groaning under an insupportable Yoke of Bondage and Tyranny should endeavour by restoring the King to his Rights to restore themselves to their former Freedom Upon these Motives therefore they engaged in a Loyal Confederacy to deliver the City from its Captivity into his Majesties Protection if possible without any bloodshed as afterwards by their Examination appeared 'T is therefore true that these two Gentlemen with their Associates had an Intention to cast out the Rebels and to secure Bristol for the King and ro seize the Governour and some of the Chief Rebels but not to kill them and to that end a Commission was got and sent to Mr. Yeomans to raise Forces and constitute Commanders for the Kings Service whereupon a Protestation was drawn by Mr. Bowcher to be taken by all the Partakers in this businesse which fully exprest their Intentions in this undertaking which being in general Terms for the Assistance and Defence of the King against all Forces raised without his Command need not here be inserted After Communication of Counsels and many Messages interchanged between Oxford and Bristol drawing to the Design some of the Parliament Officers under Coâ— Essex who loathed and condemned themselves for being in their Service in was resolved that upon Monday Mar. 7. 1642. Prince Rupert with a Party of the Kings Forces should face the City on Durdan-Down distant not a full Mile from the City while they within should possesse and make good Froom Gate and Newgate seize the Court of Guards open the Gates and give the Signal thereof for the Kings Forces to make their Approach by Ringing of St. Johns and St. Michaels Bels. Accordingly Prince Rupert came expecting the Signal by Five of the Clock in the morning and the Ports to be opened but the Combination was discovered and these two Gentlemen with others apprehended there being found several Armed men with them in their Houses which being signified to the Prince he marched presently away Having them thus in their power they clap Irons upon them tie them Head and Feet together make them close Prisoners deprive them of all Comfort to be administred by their Wives Children or Friends and used them with that Barbarousness and Inhumanity as is not imaginable could be practised by one Christian upon another and after 11 weeks hard Imprisonment frequent Examination barbarous insulting over them especially by Nathaniel Fiennes they were brought to their Trial at a Council of War where upon the Articles exhibited against them by Advocate Walker they were condemned to die but first Mr. Yeomans received this Judgment The Judgment upon Robert Yeomans Upon due Consideration of the Articles exhibited on May the 8th by Clement Walker Esquire Advocate to this Council of War against Robert Yeomans and others the late conspirators in this
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
Bloud I did willingly undergoe but now finding by too certain proofs that this my continued Patience would not only turn to my personal ruine but likewise be of much more prejudice then furtherance to the publick good I thought I was bound as well by natural as political Obligations to seek my safety by retiring my self for some time from the publick view both of my Friends and Enemies And I appeal to all indifferent men to judge if I have not just cause to free my self from the hands of those who change their Principles with their condition and who are not ashamed openly to intend the destruction of the Nobility taking away their negative voice and with whom the Levellers Doctrine is rather countenanced then punished And as for their Intentions to my person their changing and putting more strict Guards upon me with the discharging most of all those Servants of mine who formerly they willingly admitted to wait upon me doth sufficiently declare Nor would I have this Retirement misse-interpreted for I shall earnestly and uncessantly endeavour the setling of a safe and well-grounded Peace wherever I am or shall be that as much as may be without the effusion of more Christian Bloud for which how many times have I desired prest to be heard and yet no ear given to me And can any reasonable man think that according to the ordinary course of Affairs there can be a setled Peace without it Or that God will bless those who refuse to hear their own King Surely no Nay I must further add that besides what concerns my self unless all other chief Interests have not only a hearing but likewise just satisfaction given unto them to wit the Presbyterians Independants Army those who have adhered to me and even the Scots I say there cannot I speak not of Miracles it being in my Opinion a sinful Presumption in such cases te expect or trust to them be a safe or lasting Peace Now as I cannot deny but that my personal security is the urgent cause of this my Retirement so I take God to witness that the publick Peace is no less before my eyes and I can find no better way to express this my Profession I know not what a wiser may do than by desiring and urging that all chief Interests may be heard to the end each may have just satisfaction As for example the Army for therest though necessary yet I suppose are not difficult to content ought in my judgment to enjoy the Liberty of their Consciences have an Act of Oblivion or Indempnity which should extend to all the rest of my Subjects and that all their Arrears should be speedily and duly paid which I will undertake to do so I may be heard and that I be not hindred from using such lawful and honest means as I shall chuse To conclude let me be heard with Freedom Honour and Safety and I shall instantly break through this Cloud of Retirement and shew myself really to be Pater Patria Hampton Court Novemb. 11. 1647. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore c. He was no sooner come into the Isle of Wight but Hammond gave notice thereof to the Parl. who were now overawed by the Army Eleven of their Members being impeached of High Treason as they called it for their Loyalty and Affection to his Majesty many not daring to appear in the House Cromwel and his Faction Jan. 30. the black Forerunner of that his day of Martyrdom the next Year ensuing voted those destructive and cruel Resolves of no more Addresses which were published with a Preface in these words being the hinges on which the sad Revolutions succeeding so direfully turned The Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament after many Addresses to his Majesty for the preventing and ending of this unnatural War raised by him against the Parliament and Kingdom having lately sent four Bils to his Majesty which did contain only matter of Safety and Security to the Parliament and Kingdom referring the Composure of other Differences to a Personal Treaty with his Majesty and having received an absolute Negative do hold themselves obliged to use their utmost Endeavours speedily to settle the present Government in such a way as may bring the greatest security to this Kingdom in the enjoyment of the Laws and Liberties thereof and in order thereunto that the Houses may receive no Delay or Interruptions in so great and necessary a work they have taken their Resolution and passed these Votes following Resolved by the Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament That no Application or Address be made to the King by any Person whatsoever without leave of both Houses Resolved That the Person or Persons that shall make Breach of this Order shall incur the Penalty of High Treason Resolved That the Lords and Commons do declare that they will receive no more any Message from the King Resolved That no Person whatsoever do presume to receive or bring any Message from the King to both or either of the Houses of Parliament or any other I shall not descant on the unparalelled unreasonableness of these Votes but reflect only on that story of Ahashuerus recorded in Esther to whom no person of what degree soever durst approach or address himself without he held forth his Golden Scepter whereas here were Subjects yeâ— Christian Subjects holding their Soveraign off at the Swords point denying him Access to them and debarting him Converse with any Persons but the Instruments and Officers of their barbarous disloyalty Upon these Votes the Army close with the Parliament declaring that they would live and die with them in the pursuit of their Resolutions and now this Pious recluse Prince all humane hopes failing being shut up a Prisoner and none of his friends admitted to come near him betakes himself to the Divine Assistance spends his sad hours in meditation devotion which heightened and perfected in him that Christian Courage and resolution with which he so nobly triumpht over the utmost malice of his Enemies This sweetned and alleviated those sorrows and unspeakable distresses he went through this afforded him a Calmness and Serenity of mind amidst the Storms and Tempests of his impetuous and angry Fate this made him infinitly more to prize the Crosse then the crown witnesse those most incomparable soliloquies which the Prison wals ecchoed to Heaven such were these I care not to be reckoned among the unfortunate so I be not in the black List of sacrilegious Princes Again As I have leisure so have I cause more then enough to meditate and prepare for my death for I know that there are but a few steps between the Prisons the Graves of Princes But so great and excellent is his variety of divine Consolation and Instruction that I will not lose the Reader in my Maze of Collections but refer him wholly to the Original particularly to what he hath written concerning this very Subject But it may be a
Country for to clear my self both as an honest man a good King and a good Christian I shall begin first with my Innocency In troth I think it not very needful for me to insist long upon this for all the world knows that I never did begin a war with the two Houses of Parliament and I call God to witness to whom I must shortly make an Account That I never did intend for to incroach upon their Priviledges they began upon me it is the Militia they began upon they confest that the Militia was mine but they thought it fit for to have it from me and to be short if any body will look to the Dates of Commissions of their Commissions and mine and likewise to the Declarations will see clearly that they began these unhappy Troubles not I so that as the guilt of these Enormous crimes that are laid against me I hope in God that God will clear me of I will not I am in Charity God forbid that I should lay it upon the Two Houses of Parliament there is no necessity of either I hope they are free of this guilt for I do believe that ill Instruments between them and me has been the chief Cause of all this bloudshed so that by way of speaking as I find my self clear of this I hope and pray God that they may too yet for all this God forbid that I should be so ill a Christian as not to say that Gods Judgments are just upon me Many times he does pay Justice by unjust Sentence that is ordinary I will only say this that an unjust Sentence * that I sufferred to take effect Strafford is punished now by an unjust Sentence upon me this I have said to shew you that I am an Innocent man Now for to shew you that I am a good Christian I hope there is * Pointing to Dr. Juxon a good man that will bear me witness That I have forgiven all the world and even those in particular that have been the chief causers of my death who they are God knows I do not desire to know I pray God forgive them But this is not all my Charity must go further I wish that they may repent for indeed they have committed a great sin in that particular I pray God with St. Stephen that this be not laid to their Charge nay not only so but that they may take the right way to the peace of the Kingdom for my Charity commands me not only to forgive particular men but my Charity commands me to endeavour to the last gasp the Peace of the Kingdom Turning to some Gentlemen that wrote So Sir I wish with all my soul and I do hope there is some here will carry it further that they may endeavour the Peace of the Kingdom Now Sirs I must shew you both how you are out of the way and will put you in the way first you are out of the way for certainly all the way you ever have had yet as I could find by anything is in the way of Conquest certainly this is an ill way for Conquest Sir in my opinion is never just except there be a good just Cause either for matter of Wrong or just Title and then if you go beyond it the first quarrel that you have to it is it that makes it unjust at the end that was just at first But if it be only matter of Conquest then it is a great Robbery as a Pirat said to Alexander that he was the great Robber he was but a Petty Robber And so Sir I do think the way that you are in is much out of the way Now Sir for to put you in one way believe it you will never do right nor God will never prosper you until you give God his due the King his due that is my Successors and the People their due I am as much for them as any of you You must give God his due by regulating rightly his Church according to his Scriptures which is now out of order For to set you in a way particularly now I cannot but only this A National Synod freely called freely debating among themselves must settle this when that every Opinion is freely and clearly heard For the King indeed I will not then turning to a Gentleman that touched the Ax said Hurt not the Axe that may hurt me * Meaning if he did blunt the edge For the King the Laws of the Land will clearly instruct you for that therefore because it concerns my own particular I only give you a touch of it For the People and truly I desire their Liberty and Freedom as much as any body whosoever but I must tell you that their Liberty and Freedom consists in having of Government those Laws by which their Life and their Goods may be most their own It is not for having share in Government Sir that is nothing pertaining to them A Subject and a Soveraign are clean different things and therefore until they do that I mean That you do put the people in that Liberty as I say certainly they will never enjoy themselves Sir it was for this that now I am come here If I would have given way to an-Arbitrary way for to have all Laws changed according to the power of the Sword I needed not to have come here and therefore I tell you and I pray God it be not laid to your Charge that I am the Martyr of the People Introth Sirs I shall not hold you much longer for I will only say this to you that in truth I could have desired some little time longer because I would have put this that I have said in a little more Order and a little better digested then I have done and therefore I hope you will excuse me I have delivered my Conscience I pray God that you do take those courses that are best for the good of the Kingdom and your own Salvations Dr. Juxon Will Your Majesty though it may be very well known your Majesties Affections to Religion yet it may be expected that you should say somwhat for the worlds satisfaction King I thank you very heartily my Lord for that I had almost forgotten it Introth Sirs My Conscience in Religion I think is very well known to all the world and therefore I declare before you all That I die a Christian according to the Profession of the Church of England as I found it left me by my Father and this honest man * Pointing to Dr. Juxon I think will witness it Then turning to the Officers said Sirs excuse me for this same I have a good Cause and I have a Gracious God I will say no more Then turning to Col. Hacker he said Take care they do not put me to pain and Sir this and it please you But then a Gentleman coming near the Axe the King said Take heed of the Axe pray take heed of the Axe Then the King speaking to
was not done for the Lords stuck at it Some of which having not extinguished all the sparks of honour did by the light thereof discover the injustice of so foul a practice together with the danger might befal themselves if once disfavoured by the Grandees of that potent Faction A thing so stomacked by the Commons that after some evaporations of their heat and passion which broke out into open threats they presently drew and sent up an Ordinance to the Lords tending to dispossesse them of all power and command in their Armies But fearing this device was too weak to hold they fall upon another and a likelier project which was to bring the Lords to sit in the Commons House where they were sure they should be inconsiderable both for power and number And to effect the same with more speed and certainty they had recourse to their old Arts drew down Sir David Watkins with his general muster of subscriptions and put a petition in his hands to be rendred by him to the Houses that is themselves wherein it was required among other things that they would vigorously proceed unto the punishment of all Delinquents and that for the more quick dispatch of the publick businesses of the State the Lords would please to vote and sit together with the Commons On such uncertain terms such a ticklish Tenure do they now hold their place and power in Parliament who so officiously complied with the House of Commons in depriving the Bishops of their Votes and the Churches birth-right And this was it which helped them in that time of need For by this though stale and common Stratagem did they prevail so far upon some weak spirits that the Earls of Kent Pembroke Salisbury and Bullingbrooke the Lords North Gray of Wark and Brews a Scotchman but an English Baron and generally called the Earl of Elgin resolved to yield unto the current of so strong a stream and thought they had made a gaining voyage if by delivering the Lord Arch-Bishop to the Peoples fury they might preserve themselves in the Peoples favour And we know well both who it was and what end he came to who though he knew that the accused party was delivered him out of envy only and that he found no evil he was guilty of yet being wearied with the clamours and the Crucifiges of the common people and fearing that some tumult would be made about it delivered him unto his enemies to be put to death And for those other Lords who withdrew themselves and neither durst condemn nor protect the innocent though far the major part as it is reported it is not easie to determin whether their consciences were more tender their Collusion grosser or their courage weaker All I shall say is only this that Claudius Lysias in the Acts had been as guilty of Saint Paul's death as any of the forty who had vowed to kill him if upon notice of the Plot which was laid to murther him he had brought him down unto the people or not conveied him with a strong guard to the Court of Felix The journies end must needs be foul which such lewd and crooked waies do conduct unto And it is worth your observation that the same day the fourth of January in which they passed this bloody Ordinance as if therein they would cry quittance with his Sacred Majesty who on the same accused the six guilt Members they passed another for establishing their new Directory which in effect was nothing but a total abolition of the Common-Prayer-Book and thereby shewed unto the World how little hopes they had of setling their new form of Worship if the foundation of it were not laid in blood The Bill being thus dispatched in the House of Lords if still they may be called Lords which are so over-loaded by the Common-people there wanted yet the Kings Assent to give life to it which they so far contemned they had more reason to despair of it that they never sought it They had screwed up their Ordinances to so high a pitch that never Act of Parliament was of more authority and having found the Subjects so obedient as to yield unto them in matters which concerned them in their goods and liberties it was but one step more to make trial of them whether they would submit their lives to the self-same tyranny And this they made the first experiment in this kind both of their own power and the peoples patience he being the first man as himself noted in his Speech which words are purposely omitted in Hindes Copy of it that was ever put to death by Ordinance in Parliament but was not the last as we have too sadly experienced Certain it is that by that Ordinance they then made themselves the absolute Master of the Subjects lives and left them nothing that they could call their own but ruine and destruction Just as it was observed by our Gracious Soveraign upon occasion of the Ordinance for the 20th part that the same power which robbed the Subject of the twentieth part of their Estates had by that only made a claim and entituled it self to the other nineteen when soever it should be thought expedient to hasten on the general ruin In which His Majesty proved but too true a Prophet And though perhaps some of the people were well pleased with this bloody Ordinance and ran with joy to see it put in execution yet all wise men did look upon it as the last groan or gasp of our dying liberty And let both them and those who passed it be assured of this that they who did so gladly sell the blood of their fellow Subjects seldom want Chapmen for their own in an open Market And here as it was once observed that the predominant Party of the United Provinces to bring about their ends in the death of Barnovelt subverted all those fundamental Laws of the Belgick liberty for maintenance whereof they took up Arms against Philip the Second so would I know which of those Fundamental Laws of the English Government have not been violated by these men in their whole proceedings for preservation of which Laws or rather under colour of such preservation they did bewitch the people unto that Rebellion It is a Fundamental Law of the English Government and the first Article in the Magna Charta that the Church of England shall be free and shall have her whole Rights and Priviledges inviolable yet to make way unto the condemnation of this innocent man and other the like wicked and ungodly ends the Bishops must be Voted out of their place in Parliament which most of them had held far longer in their Predecessors than any of our noble families in their Progenitors And if the Lords refuse to give way unto it as at first they did the people must come down to the House in multitudes and cry No Bishops no Bishops at the Parliament doors till by the terror of their tumults they extort it from them It
himself upon the Scotch Army then lying at the Siege of Newark The News of his Departure from Oxford was no sooner known to the Parliament but supposing he would come to London and rely upon the Affections of the City who were reclaimed from those wild Exorbitancies by having emptied those veins of Wealth which were expended in the War and at last found themselves never the nearer those things they fought for but were every day affronted both by the Parliament and Army therefore they caused it to be proclaimed that it should be Treason for any to harbour the Kings Person which makes every place of his Residence a Court and a kind of Sanctuary and thereupon the Lord Mayors House was searched as for a Malefactor Oh unheard of Impudence of Subjects to their Soveraign But they were quickly eased of this fear by an Expresse from their Commissioners in the Scotch Army that he was arrived there This put them upon new Counsels so they agree if they could not get him out of their hands by Treaty to obtain him by purchase as our Saviour was sold before by his own And very satyrical if true as it is reported to be was that Saying of Monsieur Bellieure the French Ambassador who came to the King then at Newcastle upon his dismissing the Convoy that brought him into the Parliament Quarters having a half Crown in his hand he asked one of the Souldiers how much it was that Judas sold our Saviour for who replying 30 Pieces of Silver just so much saith he take among you for selling your Lord and Master and therewith gave him the half Crown in conclusion for 200000 Pounds the King was bargained for and brought by the Order of the Parliament who sent Commissioners to attend him to Holmby one of his own Houses where he was so strictly guarded that none of his Friends nor his Servants but who must passe the Allowance of the Two Houses were permitted to wait upon him they were very few and inconsiderable besides Being thus lockt up and waiting the Pleasure of the Parliaments Consideration of him who minded him no more then as if he had been one of their Fellow Subjects he was in the night time hurried away from thence by Cornet Joyce June 4. 1647. to Childersley thence to New-Market thence to Royston to Hatfield to Windsor to Cavesham to Maydenhead to Latimer to Stoke to Oatlands to Sion House and lastly to Hampton-Court being forced to shift his Abode at the pleasure of the Army who near his Person with feigned Overtures of Loyalty and as in order to his Safety and Service kept alwaies their Head Quarters when the Design was meerly by his Presence with them of so great Reverence and Concernment are and ought to be Princes though devoyded of all Power both in Rebels and Subjects esteem as the King himself excellently in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 observed in this juncture to counterbuffe and balance the unlimited usurped Power of the Parliament and to shew them that they might not expect to be absolute or masterless as long as Interest and the Sword could serve them Thus was the King driven about having no place to rest his Head in which presented it not with diversity of sad thoughts and cares till for some time the space of three Moneths he remained and was continued at Hampton Court in some shew of Regality During which time several Contracts and Disputes arose between the Parliament and Army who then appeared as the Kings Friends but in truth were no such matter but used his Name as the Parliament did in the beginning of the War to shrowd their Trayterous designs against him and to strengthen the weak beginning of their Future projected Attempts as the Parliament afterwards in their declination to bring up themselves and that Respect Veneration and esteem they had so wretchedly forfeited the King serving only as the Beam to the Scales and Balances of each Faction and Party which for a while went up and down counterpoysing each other till at last the heavy and sad weight of the Armies Faithlesseness and unparallel'd disloyalty and Rebellion brought him down to his Grave For the King having staid at Hampton Court about the time afore specified debating the Propositions of the Parliament who were instantly and uncessantly called upon by the People for a speedy Composure and Compliance with his Majesty the Grandees of the Army thought it high time to obviate the happy Opportunities of a Settlement which they saw all good men so desirous of by the Kings Residence any longer near the City of London with whom they had lately had a Bickering and through which they had insolently in triumph marched to the Affront and Regret of the Citizens the Grugde whereof they well knew was yet fresh and recent and wanted but the Advantage of the Kings Person and Presence Therefore with devilish Policy by an Instrument and Engine of their own Col. Whaley they give the King a kindly forsooth Notice and Information of an attempt and Assassinate intended against his Person if he should venture to stay any time longer at this his Mannour and therefore out of Duty and Affection earnestly wisht and obtested his Majesty to consult and provide for his safety elsewhere This sudden news weighed with its probable Circumstances and the passionate manner of the Discovery and the King being in the custody of a most perdite sort of men begot a Resolution of speedily withdrawing himself from the Danger Alas how many Vexations and Miseries did this good Prince pass in his way and progress to more These men that resolve to murder him publickly make this impudent Essay of his Courage and Patience by a counterfeited Parricide to be perpetrated privately By this Achitophel the King is wrought out of this secure and advantageous Mansion and by a swift flight in company with Two of his Servants recovered the Isle of Wight where Col. Hammond Brother to the most Loyal and Reverend Dr. Hammond and whose Father was one of the Physitians to Prince Henry and therefore the rather confided in was Governour for the Parliament At his Departure from Hampton Court he left behind him a Paper which for its sad and pensive matter but yet as himself in a Cloud reflected with Majestick Rayes of pietcing Elegance wherewith the Spirit of that good Prince was over-burdened and distrest I have thought fit to insert The Kings Letter left behind him at Hampton Court in his Flight to the Isle of Wight C. R. LIberty being that which in all times hath been but especially now is the common Theam and Desire of all men common reason shews that Kings less then any should endure Captivity And yet I call God and the World to witness with what patience I have endured a tedious restraint which so long as I had any hopes that this sort of my Suffering might conduce to the peace of my Kingdoms or the hindring of more effusion of
this pretended Court but also that no Earthly power can justly call Me who am your KING in question as a Delinquent I would not any more open My mouth upon his occasion more than to refer My self to what I have spoken were I alone in this case alone concern'd But the duty I owe to God in the preservation of the true liberty of My People will not suffer Me at this time to be silent For how can any free-born Subject of England call Life or any thing he possesseth his own if power without Right daily make new and abrogate the old fundamental Law of the Land which I now take to be the present case Wherefore when I came hither I expected that you would have endeavoured to have satisfied Me concerning those grounds which hinder Me to answer to your pretended Impeachment but since I see that nothing I can say will move you to it though Negatives are not so naturally proved as Affirmatives yet I will shew you the Reason why I am confident you cannot judge Me nor indeed the meanest man in England for I will not like you without shewing a reason seek to impose a belief upon My Subjects * * Hereabout I was stopt and not suffered to speak any more concerning reasons There is no proceeding just against any man but what is warranted either by Gods Laws or the municipal Laws of the Country where he lives Now I am most confident that this dayes proceeding cannot be warranted by Gods Law for on the contrary the authority of obedience unto Kings is clearly warranted and strictly commanded both in the Old and New Testament which if denied I am ready instantly to prove and for the Question now in hand there it is said That where the word of a King is there is power and who may say unto him what dost thou Eccles 8.4 Then for the Laws of this Land I am no lesse confident that no learned Lawyer will affirm that an impeachment can lye against the King they all going in His Name and one of their Maximes is That the King can do no wrong Besides the Law upon which you ground your proceedings must either be old or new if old shew it if new tell what Authority warranted by the fundamental Laws of the Land hath made it and when But how the House of Commons can erect a Court of Judicature which was never one it self as is well known to all Lawyers I leave to God and the World to judge And it were full as strange that they should pretend to make Laws without King or Lords-House to any that have heard speak of the Laws of England And admitting but not granting that the People of Englands Commission could grant your pretended power I see nothing you can shew for that for certaintly you never asked the question of the tenth man of the Kingdom and in this way you manifestly wrong even the poorest Ploughman if you demand not his free consent nor can you pretend any colour for this your pretended Commission without the consent at least of the major part of every man in England of whatsoever quality or condition which I am sure you never went about to seek so far are you from having it Thus you see that I speak not for My own right alone as I am your KING but also for the true liberty of all My Subjects which consists not in sharing the power of Government but in living under such Laws such a Government as may give themselves the best assurance of their lives and propriety of their goods Nor in this must or do I forget the Priviledges of both Houses of Parliament which this dayes proceeding doth not only violate but likewise occasion the greatest breach of their publick Faith that I believe ever was heard of with which I am far from charging the two Houses for all the pretended crimes laid against Me bear date long before this late Treaty at Newport in which I having concluded as much as in Me lay and hopefully expecting the two Houses agreement thereunto I was suddenly surprised and hurried from thence as a Prisoner upon which I account I am against My will brought hither where since I am come I cannot but to My power defend the ancient Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom together with My own just right Than for any thing I can see the higher House is totally excluded And for the House of Commons it is too well known that the major part of them are detained or deterred from sitting so as if I had no other this were sufficient for me to protest against the lawfulnesse of your pretended Court. Besides all this the Peace of the Kingdom is not the least in my thoughts and what hopes of settlement is there so long as Power reigns without rule of Law changing the whole frame of that Government under which this Kingdom hath flourished for many hundred years nor will I say what will fall out in case this lawless unjust proceeding against me do go on and believe it the Commons of England will not thank you for this change for they will remember how happy they have been of late years under the Reign of Queen Elizabeth the King my Father and My Self until the beginning of these unhappy Troubles and will have cause to doubt that they shall never be so happy under any new And by this time it will be too sensibly evident that the Arms I took up were only to defend the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom against those who have supposed My power hath totally changed the ancient Government Thus having shewed you briefly the Reasons why I cannot submit to your pretended Authority without violating the trust which I have from God for the welfare and liberty of my People I expect from you either clear Reasons to convince my judgment shewing me that I am in an Error and then truly I will readily answer or that you will withdraw your proceedings This I intended to speak in Westminster-Hall on Monday 22 January but against Reason was hindred After that horrid Sentence his Majesty was hurried from their Bar As he passed down the stairs the common Souldiers laying aside all Reverence to Soveraignty scoffed at him casting the smoak of their stinking Tobacco in his face no Smell more offensive to him and flinging their foul pipes at his feeâ— But one more insolent than the rest defiled his venerable Face with his spittle for his Majestry was observed with much patience to wipe it off with his Handkerchief and as he passed hearing them cry out Justice Justice Poor Souls said he for a piece of money they would do so for their Commanders That Night being Saturday January 27. the King lodged at White-hall that evening a Member of the Army acquainted the Committee with the desires of the King that seeing they had passed Sentence of Death upon him and the time of his Execution might be nigh that he might see his Children
information I thought fit to propose and do humbly crave their pardon if this weak and mean endeavour cannot reach that grandeur of Spirit with which they constantly endured their fiery tryals and dreadful and doleful sufferings I observe the order of time and not of Dignity and shall begin with the right Honourable the Lord Finch of Fordwich who being Lord Keeper of the Seal upon their arbitrary proceedings against the life of the Earl of Strafford wisely withdrew himself and endured banishment and exile from his own Country for sixteen years and then returned and died in Honour His faithful serving his Soveraign in that great employment being all his charge and accusation Mr. Secretary Windebanke who pursued the same course to avoid the Popular fury and died abroad The Right reverend Father in God Matthew Lord Bishop of Ely who with eleven more of his Sacred Order were committed to the Tower in 1641 from which imprisonment he never â—irred till the end of the year 1659 at which time by the means of the ever renowned Lord General the Duke of Albemarle he was set at liberty from thence in kind remembrance of those fatherly counsels and happy advice the said noble Duke had during his restraint in the same place for the same account of Loyalty received from this reverend Bishop who is now reestablished in this same Diocesse to the Honour and support of this restored Church Doctor Featly a very Learned Religious and grave Divine to whom this Church oweth much for his accurate defences of its Doctrine and Discipline being for no other cause committed to Peter House by an Order of Parliament languished there a year and a half and with much importunity was at last removed to Chelsey Colledge for the aire but he died there within three weeks after his coming being too far spent by his barbarous misusage Sir Robert Heath Lord Chief Justice of England known so well for his integrity and moderation and as famous for his constant Loyalty of whom quarrelsome John Lilburn a sworn Enemy to the Royal Party gave so noble a character before his Judges at Guild-hall forced to abandon his Country fled over towards the expiration of the War into France being by the bloody prevalent Faction at Westminster excepted from mercy not long after the Kings death with grief and anxiety of mind to see the miseries and ruines of the King and his Country he himself died at Caen in Normandy and was received no doubt into mercy Judge Bartlet who weathered the same Storm being the first committed of that reverend Robe and long survived their high and insignificant charge and accusation This gives us an Evidence of the intended Justice of the Reformers who would first put out the eyes of the Law that the Subject might see the better Sir Ralph afterwards Lord Hopton who so couragiously and prudently and as an Expert Captain commanded for the King in the West and had so many notable successes after his disbanding in Cornwall he took Shipping with the Prince our now Soveraign into the Island of Scilly and from thence into France following the Kings hard Fortune in all his peregrinations till Death arrested him at Paris and put an end to his Travel Judge Jenkins one of his Majesties Justices in Wales brought to the Chancery Bat for some misdemeanours of Loyalty where he denied the Authority of the Court for that the Seal was contrary to Law as well as the Commissioners whereupon he was sent to the Tower where he persisted in his integrity published several Presidents and Statutes and argued them Rebels and owned the same again at other bars did what he could to set the Army and the Parliament together by the ears desied them and their threats and asserted the King and the Laws against their usurpation was continued a close Prisoner till they were weary of him and then was sent to Windsor in the same quality where he continued of the same mind till without thanks he was permitted the liberty of the Town This brave stout person is yet living but when dead his memory shall endure for evermore Mr. Secretary Sir Edward Nicolas who constantly abode with the King from the beginning of his troubles and afterwards continued the same Service and Office to his present Majesty in all his troubles abroad by no less trouble than Honour having faithfully and prudently managed that employment to the happy effect of his Majesties Restitution Sir Edward Hide now the Right Honourable Earl of Clarendon Lord Chancellour of England the Counsel-Favourite of his late Martyr'd Majesty and therefore no wonder so hated by the Faction at Westminster and traduced by their scandalous Votes being excepted likewise out of their mercy He not only continued the same advice but also saw it in conclusion attain that successe to which it had alwaies been directed but had missed of approbation till the general applause and shouts of our Deliverance The Lord Wilmot afterwards by King Charles the Second made Earl of Rochester who throughout the War particularly at Roundway Down neer the Devizes so valiantly behaved himself passed over with the Prince and my Lord Hopton into Scilly and accompanied his Highnesse in all those difficulties he passed more especially at Worcester and in his Majesties happy conveyance from thence which he principally managed And here I must not omit the Duke of Buckingham with an honourable reference also to his noble Brother my Lord Francis Villers who young at Kingston as in the primitive times gave early testimony to this cause the valiant Earl of Cleveland the Lord Wentworth his Son and other Gentlemen in that Expedition who suffered for their assistance and obedience to his Majesty in those commands As also my Lord Gerard now Captain of his Majesties Life-guard who bore part afterwards as well as before in the calamity and misfortune of the Kings adventures in forrein parts My Lord Wilmot unhappily died a little before the Kings restitution and hath left behind him the sweet favour of a most Loyal affection to his Majesty Nor without due observation can I pass by the Earl of Norwich my Lord Loughborough Bernard Gascoign Col. Far Squire Hales and the rest engaged in that design at Colchester nor Sr. John Owen for the same endeavour in Wales being condemned with the said Earl of Norwich by the High Court of Justice but must give their names and memories their veneration Nor likewise the right reverend Dr. Shelden now Lord Bishop of London and the famous Dr. Hamond who were a long while in restraint and threatned with more cruelties at the same time expecting to have been transported to some forreign plantations Dr. John Berkenhead who so hazardously and in so very great dangers and several imprisonments asserted his Majesties cause in its lowest extremities this Gentleman is so deservedly well reputed that this mite will signifie nothing Sr. Marmaduke Langdale now Lord Langdale a Person not inferiour to any of his Majesties