Peace sake makes such Concessions that the major part of the House after many hours debate came to this Vote That His Majesty's Concessions to the Propositions of Parliament upon the Treaty are sufficient Grounds for settling the Peace of the Kingdom And happy had it been for the whole Nation if they had passed such a Vote some years before upon what the King offered them they had prevented the wasting of abundance of Blood and Treasure but alas their Eyes were in their Heads now too late the Army was now too much poysoned with Common-wealth and destructive Principles and therefore notwithstanding all their former Assurances of Submission and Faithfulness to the Parliament they make bold to let them know they have been under the Jurisdiction of better Masters and have learned another Lesson and therefore when the House met again they very fairly lay violent hands upon their Persons and forcibly pluck them from their Duty and confine a great part of them keeping them under a strict Guard What follow'd after this is known to all the World The Great the Good the Wise the Condescending King his Person is seiz'd by order of the Army he is brought up to London try'd and condemn'd by a Mock-Court of Justice against all Law Justice Honour Oaths and Promises and at last barbarously murthered by his own Palace And thus died Charles the First the Glory of the English Monarchs the Mirror of Patience the great Pattern of Religion and Devotion and whose Name among good and unprejudic'd men hath ever since blossom'd in the Dust and may the Judgments that have followed the Nation since be the last upon the account of that horrid and unheard-of Murther Amen Amen POSTSCRIPT READER I Have reserved an Answer to some particular Objections which are commonly made by this Great Man's Enemies against him by way of Postscript having not had a fair occasion to bring it into the Body of this little Book only before I make it I must beg leave to tell thee what I have observed concerning the men that are now so busie in defaming and scandalizing this Great and Pious Prince namely That they are most of them persons that were not born when the Horrid Murther of the King was committed and that have not read his Story at all but are only put on by old Foxes that lost by the Restauration of Charles the Second what they never had a legal Right to and therefore long to be dabbling again in Crown and Church-Lands which indeed is the true Notion of these mens Liberties and Properties of the Subject First They considently say That he was a Papish or at least Popishly inclined and therefore by way of Scorn nothing is more usual than to hear them saying That the late King James was the best of the Three meaning King Charles the First and his two Sons that reigned after him Now by way of Answer to this base and false Imputation I will not trouble thee Reader with any tedious and long Defence for they that hear this Scandal after they have looked into the Life and Conversation of this Great man must both scorn and pity the Malice as well as Ignorance of such as lay such an Aspersion at his Door And for an eternal confutation of it I beg of thee to take good notice of this true Story His Majesty being to receive the Sacrament in 1643 at Christ-Church in Oxford from the Hands of the Lord Archbishop of Ardmagh rising up from his Knees and beckoning to the Archbishop said My Lord I espy here many resolved Protestants who may delare to the World the Resolution I now make I have to the utmost of my power prepared my Soul to become a worthy Receiver and may I so receive Comfort by the Blessed Sacrament as I do intend the Establishment of the True-reformed Protestant Religion as it stood in its Beauty in the happy Days of Queen Elizabeth without any Connivance at Popery I bless God that in the midst of these publick Distractions I have still liberty to communicate And may this Sacrament be my Damnation if my Heart do not joyn with my Lips in this Protestation And he that will continue to scandalize this Great Person after he has read this Story upon this account is resolved to be an incurable Secondly Another thing they lay to his charge at this time is That he set on foot and encouraged the Irish Rebellion Ans They that talk at this rate I am sure have never read his Story or if they have it has been with an invincible and resolved Prejudice His frequent and publick Detestations of it his groaning under the Miseries and Murders of his poor Protestant Subjects there his offering to go in Person to subdue the Rebels are sufficient Vindications of him against this vile Defamation and will ever be received as such amongst good men But to strike this Objection dead over and above all those Defences the King made for himself and the Scorn and Defiance he gave to the pretended Broad Seal to countenance the Rebellion which is Forgery all over give me leave to lay before the Reader these two things The Lord Macquire a great and bloody Rebel being taken Prisoner and conveyed to London and there tryed for his Life at the King's-Bench-Bar for High Treason where being found guilty he had Sentence pronounc'd against him as a Traytor which Sentence was particularly executed in the presence of the Sheriff and it 's believ'd of Fifteen thousand Spectators Now when he came to Execution the Sheriff abjur'd him by the dreadful Tribunal of God before which shortly he was to appear and for the clearing and easing of his Conscience that he would then ingenuously confess whom he knew guilty of the same Crime namely the Irish Rebellion upon which the Criminal though the Rope was about his Neck and he half way up the Ladder yet by Name he acquitted King Charles from being any ways privy to it Nay says my Author being cast off the Ladder and when he had tryed what Hanging in part was being reprieved and had no small hopes given him of a Pardon he still persisted in the same Protestation And that which further convinces me and so it will any unprejudic'd man besides of the truth of this is That when they came to draw up the Charge against him in order to his Trial and Condemnation though their business was to blacken him with all the foul Imputations their Malice could rake up and they did so yet not one word in the whole touching his abetting or countenancing the Irish Rebellion which certainly they neither could nor would have omitted if they had had any Grounds to believe and to charge him with it Thirdly The last Objection against him is his Divine and Holy Book It is not to be imagined with what Industry they have within this last year endeavoured to perswade the World it was a Forgery and not of his compiling and there is a
assurance that he would comply with them as any man may satisfie himself that converses with the History and Transactions of those times But alas all these Condescentions would not do and tho' he good man flatter'd himself with an easie Belief that he had done what was fitting for a gracious King to do in order to still the voice of further Complaints yet for all that when for necessary reasons he took a Journey to Scotland these men whose Requests he had thus largely answered in his absence to shew their gratitude for what was done before appoint a Committee who being pick'd and chosen men drew up a Remonstrance wherein they made the most bitter Reflections upon his former Government and exposed him to the censure and ill thoughts of his less-discerning Subjects and which was so very unmannerly as well as false that when it came to be delated in the whole House after sitting up all night and thereby wearying many of the ancient Gentlemen and being protested-against by many learned and worthy Patriots in the House and carried only by eleven Votes yet it was ordered to be printed on purpose to enflame the Nation against him Notwithstanding which affront to his Person and Government after he had fairly answered it and vindicated himself from those horrid Aspersions wherewith they had loaded him fairly proving that the present Miseries and future Dangers of the Nation lay at their door and not at his I say notwithstanding this he continues still to sollicite them by Message after Message to offer any thing to him wherein the true Interest of the Kingdom was concerned and he would be ready to gratifie them by giving it the Royal Fiat And when through Tumults and too-much-countenanc'd Riots he withdrew from Whitehall being under apprehension of Affronts design'd to be offered to his Person if not something worse yet he ceases not to call upon them to consider the Nations Good and the settling it upon such Foundations as neither the Monarch might invade the just Rights of the People nor the People encroach upon the Rights of his Crown and Dignity And so he tells them upon their presenting their Petition at Theobalds and afterwards at New-market in the same month when after hearing their Declaration read he expostulated in these words What would you have Have I violated your Laws Have I denied to pass any one Bill for the Ease and Security of my Subjects God so deal with me and mine as all my Thoughts and Intentions are upright for the maintenance of the true Protestant Profession and for the Observation and Preservation of the Laws of this Land Expressions surely that do not in the least savour of that Tyranny and Oppression with which at this time by many wicked persons his Memory is charged 'T is true these Applications from the two Houses at this time were for nothing less than the Militia but Can any man accuse him for a Tyrant because he would not part with that which his Ancestors alwaies enjoy'd and without which a King is indeed but the shadow of a King especially not to part with it at that time when so little a Regard had been paid to his Person nay so many Indignities had not only been promoted but encouraged too by those very men whom nothing now could satisfie but the whole Power of the Sword Well the King continuing stedfast to his Resolutions and deaf to all their Importunities telling them he would not part with his Militia for an hour which any wise man that considered the present posture of Affairs would judge he had great reason to do the Parliament falls into great Passions and Resentments and resolve to be as stiff on the other side and not to abate him an Ace of their Demands and so intent are they upon this very thing that though the King sent to them to digest into one body all the Grievances of the Kingdom and to send them to him promising his favourable Assent to those Means which should be found most effectual for Redress wherein as he says he would not only equal but exceed the most Indulgent Prince words which do not use to drop from the Mouth of a Tyrant as he is falsly called by some at this day Yet all this was nothing the Militia they must have or the Nation is undone and rather than fail they will take it into their Hands by force And so they did after they had sent the King a downright Message That if his Majesty did not agree with the two Houses to settle the Militia that then for his and the Kingdoms safety they shall be constrained of themselves without His Majesty to settle the necessary business of the Militia And they were as good as their words seize it they did in spight of all the King could say or proclaim to the contrary But before the War actually broke out the King was gone to York and made it the place of his Royal Residence hoping thereby to cool the Heats that were at London and in some little time to be invited thither to live with more Honour and Safety than he did before Now while the King staid at York what Protestations he made to the Gentlemen and Citizens of that that County and City what Assurances he gave them of his Resolutions to govern by Law and no otherwise and of his protecting and countenancing the Protestant Religion may be easily known by any man who will but look over the faithful Historians of those Times The same Assurances he gave to the Inhabitants of Lincoln-shire and Leicester-shire and when he was forced to raise an Army which was after the Parliament had voted the Necessity of a War with him and after they had seized his Militia as far as they could why to let the World then see what he aimed at he does assure the Gentlemen whose Loyalty engaged them early on his side Sept. 19.42 and does promise them in the presence of Almighty God and as he hopes for his Blessing and Protection that he would to the utmost of his Power defend and maintain the true Protestant Religion establish'd in the Church of England and by the Grace of God in the same he would live and dye The Truth is to repeat all that he said of this nature in several Counties and to several Parties would be endless and not at all suit with my disigned Brevity And now we come to another Scene of Action and God knows a very melancholly one For through the High and Imperious Demands of the Parliament to which the King could no ways without stripping himself of every thing but the Name of a King the Sword the Unhappy Sword is drawn and the poor Kingdom instead of being an Island of Peace and Plenty is made a Field of Blood and the Father appears against the Son and the Son against the Father our Plough-shares are turned into Spears and our Pruning-hooks into Instruments of Hostility And methinks it should grieve
both King and Parliament the one to see and hear of the Destruction of his own Children as I may justly call them and the other to hear so frequent Tidings not only of the loss of their Fellow-Subjects Lives but also of the ruine of their Lands and Houses Do not they both strive which should most court each other to Peace And do not they abate of their former Demands as well as stiff Adherencies Methinks the Cries and Losses of the poor innocent Inhabitants of the Kingdom should pierce their Ears and melt their Hearts and make them forget all their former Passions and Resentments Why truly to give the two Houses their due they did at this time send Proposals as if they had been truly assected with the Nations Miseries but in the mean time I am sorry I can say no otherwife they were such Proposals as they could upon all reasonable and fair Considerations and Debates with themselves expect no good Success of because they could not but know before-hand they would be denied insomuch as the King had told them again and again where he would stop and how far he would go especially as to Church-Affairs Nothing less in these Proposals would satisfie them than the abolishing by Act of Parliament the whole Hierarchy to which he was sworn by his Coronation-Oath settling the Militia as they pleased themselves the King 's disbanding his Army made up of the best Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom and withal which was a greater Assront to Majesty than could be supposed to them in coming to demand the five Members He must be obliged as it were and in effect to beg those Members Pardon for wronging them with what he thought and could by good Evidence prove Matter of Truth Which certainly was but to seem to desire Peace and at the same time to resolve to continue the War But now the next thing to be considered is after these Proposals how the King manages himself and what steps he makes towards a Peace and truly I think according to my poor Judgment he now acts according to what he alwaies pretended and solemnly avowed to wit as a true Father of his Country for he proposes That his Revenue Magazines Towns Ships and Forts may be restored to him that what hath been done contrary to Law and his Right may be recalled and that he will consent to the execution of all Laws concerning Popery or Reformation Nay he further tells them That he had given up all the Faculties of his Soul to an earnest endeavonr of a Peace and Reconciliation with his Subjects So that to me hitherto the Fault lies not at His Majesty's door say the Enemies to his Memory what they please for let them but abate of the rigour of their Demands and not ask him things wholly inconsistent with his Honour and Conscience with his Crown and Dignity and the issue of Blood is stopped presently and the Nation restored to its former state of Peace for still he stands ready and prossers again and again to sign any Bill that in his own and the Judgment of many Wise and Good men about him who were true lovers of their Countrys Licerties and Properties was necessary for making the Nation more happy in its Privileges than it had been in all Ages before And truly it so I see no Cause for continuing a Destructive War in the Bowels of the Kingdom nor for standing upon their Points at that rigid rate they did especially when so many of their Brethren and fellow-Members of both Houses upon great dissatissaction at their Proceedings had left their station and took in out of Principles of Loyalty and Duty with their Master's Cause venturing both their Lives Families and Estates upon it which no man can believe wise men would have done if they had not seen great Reason to question the Integrity of the prevailing part of the Parliament So that hitherto there appears no just Reason for those many scandalous Reflections that in Coffee-houses and other places of publick Intercourse or private Communication are made upon this great and excellent man And thus ended the year 42 all the King's Proposals and Condescentions being neglected and slighted The year 43. begins with a Treaty for Peace at Oxford Commissioners for the Parliament being the Lord Northumberland the Lord Wenmain Mr. Peirepoint Mr. Hollis c. who were civilly treated both by the King himself and many of his great Officers which Treaty was managed not by Commissioners on the King's side but by himself And truly he that reads it over must needs confess that His Majesty deserved the Commendation Mr. Whitlock who was one of them in his Memorials gives of him to wit That in this Treaty the King manifested his great Parts and Ability strength of Reason and quickness of Apprehension with much patience in hearing what was objected against him wherein he allowed all Freedom and would himself sum up the Arguments and give a most clear Judgment upon them This is Mr. Whitlock's Character And to let all the World see his readiness to do every thing which might reasonably answer the Kingdoms Expectation and make it happy he tells these Commissioners That he hath nor denied any one thing proposed to him by both Houses which in Justice could be required of him or in reason expected And the Truth of it is had not their Demands been so very high in this as well as in other Treaties which a man must think were made on purpose by the prevalence of a designing self-interested Party to continue the War I am certain Peace had ensued upon this Treaty for the King still like a tender Father groaned under the Oppressions of his Honour and Conscience were not concerned in order to put an end to that desolating War And therefore that this Treaty had no better effect was not the King's fault but of those that bound up their Commissioners to such narrow limits that His Majesty without doing Injustice to the Essentials of Regality could not comply with the Proposals that were offered And this he complains of himself That they bound up their Committee in that manner as to Time and Power as might wholly render it ineffectual 'T is true after the Commissioners returned home the Lords and Commons put out a Declaration upon the Proceedings of this Treaty which I shall no ways reflect upon but only tell the World the King presently put out an Answer to it which whosoever will be pleased to read will find His Majesty the same person still a man of true Honour and Conscience and ready to serve all the Needs and Conveniencies of his Country and no ways deserving those Reflections which were made by his Subjects at that time to render him odious to his People and I do desire the present Maligners of this Great Person to read over his Declaration in answer to the Parliaments and then tell me whether he designed any Tyrannical and Arbitrary Power and was
not ashamed openly to intend the Destruction of the Nobility and who had changed and put strict Guards upon him with the discharging most of all those Servants of his whom formerly they willingly admitted to wait upon him After he had said all this with a great deal more â—s the Reasons of that Retirement he concludes the Pâ—… with these words Let me be but heard with Freedom Honour and Safety and I shall instantly break through this Cloud of Retirement and shew my self really to be Pater Patriae And here I cannot forbear again to ask What Tyranny is there in all this and With what Face is this Great man reflected upon so barbarously at this day as he is by some men in all parts of the Kingdom an unheard of thing considering that those that sprung from his Loins are in the Throne Certainly they either never read his Story or if they did they are resolved against Conviction and keep alive in their Breasts such Resentments on purpose to help them to serve another turn when opportunity which God forbid shall offer of the same nature The next News after this we hear of His Majesty is from the Isle of Wright under the Command of Hammond the Governor into whose hands he had committed himself And pray let us see how he carries himself there and whether he did not make all Essays for Peace and the Settlement of the Nation upon a firm and lasting bottom that so King and People might enjoy what belongs to them both without future fear or danger Yes yes we find him again at the same Work labouring with all his Might for Peace For tho' he left Hampton Court but the 11th of Nov. 47 yet on the 17th he sends Propositions for Peace wherein he grants again what he had done before so greatly to the Contentment and Satisfaction of the Citizens of London but alas it seems to be too late now for he had lost his Power and the Faction resolved never to part with it again they had tasted the sweetness of Usurpation and the relish would not casily go out of their Mouths and therefore as he sell low in his Offers so they rose higher and made bigger Demands and to shew their great Desires of Peace or indeed which hath more Truth in it of continuing themselves in Places of Trust and Honour which they thought they could not do without making the Breach betwixt the King and themselves wider and wider therefore the more crafty and subtile Party of the House of Commons which were the Independent Party who had got at that time too great a sway both in the House and Army procure four Bills and Propositions to be sent to the King to sign ready drawn up together with the Heads of 23 more which whosoever will be pleased to read may easily judge of the Spirit that then reigned and the wicked and destructive Designs then on foot Bills that they were assured beforehand if the most solemn Protestations on the King's side could convince them he would never pass and indeed which upon bare Principles of Conscience he could never pass without an utter overthrow of the Peace and Satisfaction of his Mind And so cunning were they to make Demands at this time that might have no effect that the Bills they sent which they could not but foresee the Scots Commissioners protested against to the King and therefore they proposed ahem so high that the King might deny them and the War be thereby prolonged The Answer His Majesty makes to these four Bills is great and admirable to transcribe the whole would be too tedious in short he tells them That he believes it clear to all Understandings that these Bills contain as they are now penned not only the divesting himself of all Soveraignty and that without a possibility of recovering it either to himself or Successors except by repeal of those Bills but also the making his Concessions guilty of the greatest Pressures that can be laid upon the Subject as in other particulars so by giving an Arbitrary and Unlimitted Power to the two Houses for ever and after much more said upon that Subject he concludes his Answer thus That His Majesty is very much at ease within himself for having fulfilled the Offices both of a Christian and a King and will patiently wait the good Pleasure of Almighty God to incline the Hearts of his two Houses to consider their King and to compassionate their fellow-Subject's Miseries Which Answer and Refusal of his to sign these four Bills so causelesly enslam'd the then Lords and Commons that as if they were sole Masters in Israel they vote That they will make no further Addresses or Applications to the King nor that any Address be made to him by any other persons without the Leave of both Houses And to shew their Absolute and Uncontroulable Power they vote That whoever shall make Breach of this Order shall incurr the Penaties of High Treason Nay to pin the Basket up they vote They will also receive no more Messages from the King and enjoyn all persons to receive and bring none from him Here is your Loyalty indeed This is to act as becomes humble and dutiful Subjects with a witness what pity it is that these great Heroes Statues are not set up in every Corner of the Kingdom with this Label at their Mouths No more Addresses to our King But What says the Good man to all this What Resentments hath he upon this great Honour done to him thus to be as it were dethron'd by those who were under the Obligation of Oaths of Fidelity to him and his Posterity Good man he presently makes a Declaration in Answer to these Votes and begins Am I thus laid aside and must I not speak for my self No I will speak and that to all my People and so goes on with Reflections upon his Condition enough to melt the Hearts of any but those who made those hard-hearted Votes or those of the same Principles Now I am under a Necessity of of Brevity or else I would transcribe the whole whereby I am sure I should force Tears from all tender persons Eyes I referr therefore the Reader to the Papers themselves only tell him he concludes it thus It may be easily gathered how these Men intend to govern who have used me thus And if it be my Hard Fate to fall together with the Liberty of this Kingdom I shall not blush for my self but much lament the future Miseries of my People the which I shall still pray God to avert whatever becomes of me After this how these Votes were recalled and a fresh Treaty agreed upon in the Isle of Wight how the Treaty was managed what Strength of Reason and Judgment the King manifested both in his Debates about Church as well as State-Affairs any man may satisfie himself that reads the Accounts from August to December in the year 48 where he will find at last His Majesty for