Selected quad for the lemma: parliament_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
parliament_n	house_n	sir_n	william_n	3,051	5	7.6129	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89875	A check to the checker of Britannicus: or, The honour and integrity of Collonel Fiennes, revived, re-estated, and cleared from certain prejudices and mistakes, occasioned by late mis-reports. The proceedings of the honourable Councell of War, according to the article of war justified. The pardon of his Excellencie the Lord Generall Essex asserted, and the grounds of it declared, and presented to the consideration of all. With certain considerable queries of publike concernement. Britannicus for his eminent service to this cause, Parliament, and kingdome, encouraged and vindicated from a late aspertion, in this occasion by a grose, seditious, and abusive pamphlet, called, a check.	Nedham, Marchamont, 1620-1678.	1644 (1644)	Wing N382; Thomason E34_18; ESTC R22954	18,456	36

in regard of the difficulties in making a retreate so as those thinges inpartially considered though they excuse not the Colonell a toto yet a tanto from transgressing against the Article of warre yet they do take off from the malignity and degree of the Crime And it seems a diviner Law had the greater influence upon the Colonels soul at that time then the Law of war he would not do so much evill that good might come thereof and he was loath to set up such a fire to the Kingdome and to light up the first Beacon of Desolation and Devastation to the countrey and I cannot but say this we stand now upon more advantageous ground and may now take a better prospect and have a clearer Lantskipt of the effects and consequences and inconveniences then hee could have at that time it being an easie thing to mistake the passage of Counsels and the fairest landing-places of Designes in Exigencies and Distractions of that Nature Though he did it not without advice of his Counsell of warre too And for the Article of warre it is the Summum Jus and no question but Lawes and Ordinances of warre have their Policy as well as Equity and there is an interpretative Justice which they admit off as in the case of the late pardon after sentence they are made and contrived by that power which hath an eye to his Supremacie in being able to dispense and qualifie the Justice of that Law which a These are to authori●e you to print for the use of the Army the Lawes and Ord●nances of Warre by me established ESSEX Novemb. 25. 1643. he makes himselfe for if the Letter did not admit of these saire and mercifull interpretations it were a killing Letter and we know this State hath bin long in debate concerning the giving way to the Justice of War or mercifull Law being almost afraid to admit of a Law so sharply pointed but that the necessity which is the supream Law called for it Argument VIII THE last Argument with me is the pardon from his Excellency which is not only an act of power and grace or illustration of the judgement and sentence and an honourable sheathing of the sword of Justice but it is rationall and argumentative and bottomed on certaine foundations and principles which I shall onely draw forth like arrowes out of their owne quiver and give them into your hands to levell as you please THE PARDON VVHereas Colonell Nathaniel Fiennes late Governour of the City of Bristoll hath been questioned before a Counsell of war held in St. Albans from the 14. day of December till the 23. of the said moneth 1643. by William Pryn and Clement Walker for the surrendring unto the Enemy the sayd City and Castle of Bristoll And whereas the sayd prosecutors themselves during the said triall have delcared that their meaning was not that the said Colonell had delivired up the said City by any premeditate malice or Intelligence with the Enemy And whereas the said Colonel hath bin cast by the said Counsell of war only according to the letter of the Article of the Lawes and Ordinandes of war because he the said Colonell hath not held the said City and Castle of Bristoll to extremity And whereas the said Colonell hath been condemned by the said Counsell for this offence c. In consideration of the premisses and of the excellent gifts and endowments wherewith it hath pleased God to enable the said Colonell for other employments in the service of this State and in regard of my own experience and confidence I have of the said Colonels Integrity and constant affection to the common cause of Religion Lawes and Liberty which he hath given full testimony of in sundry negotiations entrusted unto him by both Houses of Parlament and especially in that negotiation with the Kingdome of Scotland Anno Dom 1641. And in respect of his courage and valour shewed in divers services and in particuler in regard of the good testimony given to me by Sr. William Belfoor Leivtennant Generall of the horse in the behalfe of the valorous carriage of the said Colonell in Kainton feild riding up to the very Ordinance of the Enemy with and neere the said Sir William Belfoore I have by vertue of an Ordinance of both Houses of Parliament given and granted and by these presents I give and grant unto the said Colonell a free and full pardon of all manner of offences errours and oversights committed in the said surrender of the City and Castle of Bristoll discharging hereby the said Colonell from the-execution of the capitall punishment imprisonment restraint and likewise from all further impeachment and prosecution concerning the said surrender ESSEX Given under my hand and Seale the sixt of Jan. 1643 in London The Argumentative Principles of this Pardon FIrst that the prosecuters themselves during the said try all have declared that their meaning was not that the said Collonel had delivered up the said City by any premediate malice or intelligence with the enemy This acquits him from all umbrages of Treachery his Prosecutors it seemes declining any such charge 2 That the said Colonell hath been cast by the said Counsell of War only according to the Letter and Article of the Lawes and Ordinances of war This argues him only guilty of a disproportion of the Article and Letter of the Law to that ultimate and supream extremity which the iustice of War exacts 3 In regard of the excellent gifts and endowments wherewith it hath pleased God to enable the said Colonell In regard of my own experience and confidence I have of the said Colonels Integrity and constant affection to the common cause of Religion Laws Liberty Which he hath given full testimony of in sundry negotiations entrusted unto him by both Houses of Parliament And especially in that negotiation with the Kingdom of Scotland An. 1641. These are all seals and confirmations and honorable testimonies enough without any varnish in their plain and noble asseveration and attestatiou from a person of such eminent quality and trust in this state and Kingdom to reestate his reputation againe and his honour in our opinions and iudgements 4 Especially in that particular in regard of the good testimony given to me by Sir Wil. Balfoore Lievtenant Generall of the Horse in his behalfe the valorous cariage of the said Colonell in Keinton field riding up to the very Ordnance of the Enemy with and neer the said Sir William Balfoore This discharges our thoughts from all preiudices from all mistakes that some uniustly conceived concerning his rosolution he cannot be charged of cowardise who charged so valiantly and in the company and sight of so gallant a Commander as Sir Walliam Balfoore whose deserts in our publike cause hath raised him into an unquestionable testimony and in disputable reputation with us But more of this anon Having now given you a gener●ll and particular account and not concealed any thing which was

any being but seven or eight foot broad and foure or five foot deep nor could he make any reliefe or reserve without which according to the maximes of war it is impossible to keepe any place much lesse such a weake and indefensible place which indeed rather seemed a Landskipt of fortification than one indeed and reall and besides the weaknesse of the Towne the Castle which should have been the only reserve and refuge in such a supream extremity was so old and crasie that the wals thereof were not likely as was deposed before the Counsell of Warre to endure the shaking of great Ordinance and was in as much danger to the violence within as without and so surrounded with Churches and Steeples and Houses and so commanded from them that no souldier could stand to his guard in any place nor doe his duty but in continuall hazard to be rebuked to death by the enemy nor could the Gunners stand to their Ordnance but the enemy had the command of their backs within Musket or halfe Musket shot and so weake and untenible in many other respects that it could not hold out three or foure days in the judgment of any Souldier according to the description therof given into the Counsell of Warre upon oath and though it had been more tenible yet it neither commanded the Port nor the Key nor the Towne and it was so situate from the Line too that within three or foure days it might have been secluded from any possibility of Reliefe if it had been worthy of a relieving after the Town and Shipping and trading thereof had been destroyed for which only it was worth presorving and without which it was not so considerable as to burne all the other to ashes for the saving of it or rather the reprieving it for a few days longer to the same destruction if not from themselves I yet from the enemy Argument V. ANother Argument with me is the concurrence of some particulars in his condition in that exigency First want of men the Garrison being too wide for the Souldiers and the Line too vast a Circumference for so small an Infantry not being able to endure the violent shakes of a numerous enemy as they were the works so large so weak and so weakly manned much lesse a siege as he must needs have done succours being so remote and distant Secondly want of a place of defence in any sort tenible by the Rules of War when the principall Rampart of the Towne was entred and the enemy lodged within it severall Regiments of Horse and Foot Thirdly want of obedience in some of his Officers and a great part of his Souldiers when the Line was entred so that he could not beat out the Enemy againe or make any further resistance some of his Officers and Souldiers refusing his commands and the greatest part of his Souldiers deserting their Colours and divers of them running over to the Enemy and refusing to make any further defence Fourthy despair of succours Sir William Wallers Army being wholly ruined and his Excellencies in so weak and sick a condition which was known to Col. Fiennes before he entertained a parley Argument VI. ANother strong motive with me is his declining the government of the Towne never undertaking to make good that place with the force hee found or was ever able by his own endevour to raise in it but on the contrary declared continually by his Letters and Messages that hee neither could nor would be answerable for it unlesse certaine Propositions might be granted him which he could never obtain and therefore desired severall times to be freed from the employment yet hee was willing rather to part with his own Judgement and desires and suffer them to be commanded in the service by the Parliament and his Excellency while hee continued there and taking care that it should be furnished and Ammunition for a defence or siege or rather that the reports of such preparations might keepe the enemy from entertaining a designe against it being it was in it selfe so indefensible Argument VII ANother prevailing Argument with mee is the substance and form of the sentence which is thus from the originall DECEMBER 29 1643. St. Albons The Honorable Councell of War being ful and the Prosecutons Mr. Prinne and Mr. Walker being present the sentence against Collonell Nathaniell Fiennes was pronounced by the Advocate de scripta as followeth COllonel Nathaniel Fiennes you have beene arraigned convicted before this Honorable Councel for surrendring and delivering up of the Towne and Castle of Bristol with the Forts Magasines Armes Ammunition victuals and other things thereunto belonging and for not having held the same to the utmost extremity according as by your duty you ought to have done for which offence this Honourable Councell hath adiudged you to be executed according to the tenor of the Article of War by having your head cut from your body Copia vera Jsaac Dorislaus Advocate of the Armie Argument VII IT appears by this that the Article of Warre is the hinge upon which this sentence only moves here is no Concomitant expression of Cowardize or Treachery so as the guilt is externall and not internall a guilt of disproportion and want of Commensuration to the Article and whereas there is this clause That hee held not the same to the utmost extremity that is according to the tenour of the Article for extremity is here considerable under a double notion as extremity is commonly understood and received hee held it to the height of that notion as I have cleerly remonstranced but as extremity is received in a Martiall interpretation relating to the very Article of War there and only there hee is criminall and upon this hee was condemned for not comming up to the height of that extremity and though the Martiall Justice allows of no plea in that disproportion yet there is a morall equity to be considered here which qualifies his not c●mming up to the last extremity and this his Excellency considered in his pardon First he must have burned the second City of the Kingdome to the ground contrary to the constant practice and policy of War to the principles and rules of the Parliaments Protestations and proceedings and to all the violencies and villanies which are the sad consequences of an enraged Enemy entring such a City by force having been exasperated before by the losse of above a thousand of their men and amongst them foure Colonels and divers of quality besides by such an act a considerable body of horse foot must necessarily have been broken which by terms of competition might and by the Articles were to be preferred for the service of the Parliament in a time when we all knew they had so great need of men Sir William Wallers Army being ruined and his Excellencies very weak and besides all this many of the towne resolving to joyne with the ●nemy to prevent it and having great opertunities to doe it in

of errours which fell on the outside of the Designe or Intention the old Law had provided an Expiatory o● City of Refuge and though the Cities be ruined and gone yet the Judiciall and Morall foundation stands firme and we have still a superstructure Pardons of Course and Reprieves and they that undermine these offend against the grand Charter of the Cities of Refuge against the glory of Authority and commit an offence on the otherside of the Law even against mercy the best kinde of Prerogative and it is a kinde of putting Justice out of joynt a spraining it by an over-reach and believe it Mercy in some Cases is the best execution of Justice and one attribute may thus be made to expound another and thus the equity proves sometimes to be better Law than the Letter and the Civilian and Canonist avow the excellency of Justice to be seated Candidiore benigniore legis interpretatione and if this were not the Picture of Justice would want the best part of her Embleme and wee should see her only with her Sword but without her Scales and this is that which is our best Argument now in our late proceedings and we part the Law thus with our Adversaries they take the Letter and we the Equity and f●irer side of it and even in the best examples where Justice is in her purest Hieroglyphick wee shall finde this indulgency and dispensation and benignior interpretatio as in Iona hans Case who was condemned by the Martiall Law of Saul for a crime at the tip of his rod and yet of publike prejudice too but the people in sense of former services and publicke acts rescue him and cry out Shall Ionathan die and on the like ground the people got a Reprieve for the Centurions son pleading to Christ that he was worthy for whom hee should do this For he hath loved their Nation nor is it an act unsutable to our thoughts at this time The Angel staying the sword of Abraham from execution because there was an Isaac lay in the danger of the stroak But I now arrive at those Arguments and Particulars which perswaded mee and in my prospect seated his reputation and integrity as cleer now as before Argument I. WHereas it hath ever beene the designe of Delinquency to walk out of the way of tryall and examination to make escapes and seek subterfuges rather than appeals and provocations This Person sought out his Adversaries sought for a Tribunal for Justice and especially that which had the sharpest edge and heaviest stroak who would not think it unreasonable that any man of prudence should take so much paines to condemne himself and to court an arraignment of his crime Sure here was innocency in the Hyperbole for I presume a guiltinesse durst not adventure to this height and provocation of Justice nay sometimes it is the Case of Innocency it self and Integrity to be involved by some misfortune or designe into the Labyrinths of some seeming Crimes and it is even affraid of Appeals and Tribunals lost Justice see not so cleerly through Informations and testimonies as it sees it selfe and therefore when I consider the Appeal of this Gentleman I cannot but raise an Argument of eminent Integrity which was it seems so disingaged and absolute as carried him into these open persecutions of himself when he might have withdrawne and sat secure from Censure and when the cloud had been over appeared as serene in his reputation again as before Argument II. THe second Argument which moves and perswades me is the care courage and faithfulnesse which this Colonell expressed in his first going to Bristoll by an order from his Excellencie where by the providence of God having discovered a Designe compounded of treachery within and forces without hee defeated and disappointed The Conspiracy and the successe of this was sealed to him by a Letter of publick Thanks from both Houses of Parliament and his Integrity was signed with this honorable Testimony and to this I must adde his uncessant care and paines in fortifying and strengthening it with all things necessary for a siege or enemy Argument III. I Am further assured from such his constant care vigilancy to the field and outside of it being always provident to prevent dāgers afar off by cleering the coasts parts about contributing not a little to the taking of Malignant Insurrections in the very bud at severall times in several places of Wiltshire Somersetshire Dorsetshire with the Isle of Portland with the relief of Glocester too at his first comming to Bristoll and to all these his furnishing Sir Wil. Waller from time to time with large supplies of men moneys and Ammunition having recruted him with above two thousand foot foure hundred horse eight thousand pound in money and about a hundred barrels of powder with bullet and match proportionable and to all this I must adde his resolutions at that extreme exigencie when God was pleased to give the forces of that Noble Commander Sir Wil. Waller up to a discomfiture which exposed Bristoll at that very time to so much danger and such an unavoidable hazard that the Gentlemen themselves which had lost the field gave in Bristoll to the sad Catalogue of being lost too and thought it not tenible after such a sinew was cut and these were men of so much judgment honour and understanding the very naming them is enough with mee Sir William Waller and Sir Arthur Hastelrigg in a Letter under their owne hands yet Colonel Fiennes though thus devested and deserted on all sides first by that unfortunate defeat than by a totall declining of the Counties and many of the Deputy Lievtenants and principall Gentlemen thereof gathered up his resolutions carefully collected the remayning sparks of that dying City and of the whole West striving to blow life againe into them hazarding his own person day and night and laying out himself in places of greatest danger as some of the Gentlemen in the Catalogue have witnessed ingageing likewise his estate and credit for the taking up great sums of money for raising and arming souldiers that if he had thought it possible he might have preserved that City which was of so great importance to the Parliament Argument IV. THe next Argument is this that the losse of this City was surely by a providentiall misfortune and an incapacitie in it selfe to be defended to extremity and some other unavoidable exigences For first hee could never raise men enough to make good the line so as the souldiers did not stand within musket shot one from another in some places and not numerous enough in any place being stormed in nine places at once and being liable to be stormed in all places and promising a fair successe to the besiegers at every assault the workes being rather like to those of a Quarter intrenched then of a Town fortified very slight without any ditch at all in many places and dry narrow and shallow where there was

and yet no such notise no such complaints no such aggravations no such prosecutions no such markes of treachery or cowardize upon them And though I am loath to go for Justice to Oxford and to seek presidents in the enemies Tents yet the Justice of Warre is there too Was not Hereford as well ptovided within of men to defend as the besiegers to assault without yet delivered without conditions into mercy the Commanders never questioned still used incouraged employed Was not Reading though Garrison'd with 4500 foot and 500 horse the Army without not so many as before Bristoll succours at hand yet surrendered The Commander Fielding a souldier condeuined indeed onely to boy up the reputation of the other side lesthall should disband yet not executed and so far from being laid aside that he is still there and employed Bristoll not so well to be defended with double the number of men yet had but seventeen hundred foot and 300 horse and the most part of them raw men raked up in the streets To this we may add Malmesbury delivered up to Sir Wil Waller who testified of it in his Letter that is was the strongest inland piece in England where there was no want of men to defend it and Sir Wil. Waller ready therupon to leave it he having not so many men without it to assail it then there were within it yet Lunsford a good Souldier delivered it up without conditions to mercy who was afterward employed in command not laid aside but commanded at Bristoll where he was slain The like at Higham House more within it then assailed it yet delivered up to mercie none laid aside for it they know how to make better use of their Cards then to fling them away for one lost game In a word we see Cities and Townes delivered up and surrendred upon composition and yet fall short of the justice of the Article of War too and of the utmost extremitie and this we may read both in our own practice and our enemies and yet no stain of Cowardize or Treachery no traducing of any signall president not pressed nor prosecuted nor aggravated with the circumstances of perillous times the Gentlemen and Commanders as divers of them well deserve honoured employed preferred and must this Colonell suffer under the sentence of justice irrecoverably irrepairbly is the judgement of our Courts like that of the Medes and Persians irrepealable must all former deserts and eminencies a conjuncture of so many vertues be all intombed in a bad successe shall errors be writ in Marble and deserts in sand shall so noble a Family that hath laid such ingagement upon the publick that hath boyed up this State and Religion in the times when their were such overflowings of Prerogative and poperie be now laid aside shall wee think the right stating of an offence to be a traducing of any signall president or an act of mercie and pardon to be a sleight passing over a crime when as justice hath had a free course in a free triall and a pardon granted with a cleer Declaration of the reasons and causes I remember Jonah when he impeached and pronounced sentence on the Ninivites and God afterwards pardoned them Ionah was very angry he thought it seems if he came off so cleer from the sentence they should not come off so cleer in the reputation of a Prophet but I have done and wish onely that these few and plaine Expressions may be read and received with the same candor and ingenuity they are writ for I hope I have fairly published and not painted the truth Certain Queries very considerable and of p●●●…ck concernment touching the prosecution and prosecutors Col. Nathaniel Fiennes 1 WHether the prosecutors of Colonel Nathaniel Fiennes be wittingly or ignorantly put on by some Malignant and Jesuiticall spirits to foment Divisions by prosecuting one of his interests and relations as affairs stand now and so to stir up parties and sidings if possible in this juncture of time 2 Whether the prosecuting of his Excellencies pardon with such sleightings and reproaches from the prosecutors both in their late Petition and Pamphlet be not of dangerous consequence to the publick and the casting a bone betwixt the Parliament and his Excellencie and so to promote Divisions whether ought this Designe to be enquired into 3 Whether the prosecutors doe not make use onely of the honourable name of the Parliament and Lord Generall and the Counsell of Warre to save and shadow their own names and reputations the better by weaving their own particulars into those universall notions and publick ingagements to make their own p●sse better 4 Whether the prosecutors owne interest and ingagements and reputation be not the chief motive of this their prosecution because they affirme in their late petition that his owne private summons and provocations onely ingaged them to the triall they were involuntarily engaged and why have they let so many other places of publick concernment which have been surrendred passe unquestioned and the Governours and Commanders thereof who are yet imployed and intrusted for the publick and why doe they ever and anon intrude a Remembrance of themselves and their deserts placing their own names under the notion of petitioners before either the Parliament or Lord Generall or Councell of War as appears in the clauses of their last Petition 5 Whether it be not an insufferable insolencie for any man to tax the house of Peers for what they have done and to call them to accompt for leaving Master Prynne out of the bill for Auditors and questioning any of them for having a Negative or affirmative Vote in that House as is done in the Check and hath he not in this and other things lately violated the Priviledges of Parliament as dangerusly and in as high a degree as hath been done by any this Parliament 6 Whether there is not a vast difference betwixt the Straffords Case and Col. Fiennes Strafford being attainted and executed for overthrowing the Lawes of our Kingdome for introducing Popery into our Religion for setting up Iniustice Tyranny and oppression for endevouring to engage two Kingdomes in a bloudy war and all this on purpose with all possible Artifice and Designe and this Col. Fiennes who had ever had the reputation of godlinesse of serving the State very happily and advantageously before in severall publick employments till this unfortunate losse of Bristoll though proved to be only a disproportion to tho Article of War a misfortune by consequence not at all by any designe or complot with the enemy 7 Whether the pardoning of this Collonel can be of such danger to the publike as the prosecutors would make us believe seeing it is an extraordinary act and grounded upon extraordinary reasons and eminent deserts as his Excellencie makes appear and so none can promise or assure themselves of any such indulgence or pardon which is a meere arbitrary act and so cannot encourage themselves to any treacherous act upon