Edw. Baineton Io. Corbet Tho. Blunt Tho. Boone Aug. Garland Aug. Skinner Io. Dickeswel Simon Meyne Io. Brown Io. Lewry Esquires c. John Bradshaw Esq Serg. at Law Lord President of the Court Councellors Assistant to the Court and to draw up the Charge against the King Dr. Dorislaus Mr. Aske Mr. Steel Attorney General Mr. Cook Sollicitor General Mr. Broughton Mr. Phelps Clerks to the Court Officers of the Court Sergeant Dandy Sergeant at Arms and Mace bearer Col. Humpreys Sword-bearer Mr. King Crier of the Court Mr. Walford Mr. Radley Mr. Pain Mr. Powel Mr. Hull Messengers and Dore-keepers with tip-staves ON Saturday being the twentieth day of January 1648. The Lord Bradshaw President of the High Cout of Justice with about seventy of the Members of the said Court having Col. Fox and sixteen Gentlemen with Partizans and a Sword born by Col. Humphry and a Mace by Serj. Dandy with their and other Officers of the said Court marching before them came to the place ordered to be prepared for their sitting at the West end of the Great Hall in Westminster where the Lord President in a Crimson Velvet Chair fixed in the midst of the Court placed himself having a Desk with a Crimson Velvet Cushion before him The rest of the Members placing themselves on each side of him upon the several Seats or Benches prepared and hung with Scarlet for that purpose and the Partizans dividing themselves on each side of the Court before them The Court being thus set and silence made the great Gate of the said Hall was set open to the end That all persons without exception desirous to see or hear might come into it upon which the Hall was presently filled and Silence again ordered This done Colonel Thomlinson who had the charge of the King as a Prisoner was commanded to bring him to the Court who within a quarter of an hours space brought him attended with about twenty Officers with Partizans marching before him there being Col. Hacker and other Gentlemen to whose care and custody he was likewise committed marching in his Rear Being thus brought up within the face of the Court The Serjeant at Arms with his Mace receives and conducts him streight to the Bar where a Crimson Velvet Chair was set for the King After a stern looking upon the Court and the people in the Galleries on each side of him he places himself not at all moving his Hat or otherwise shewing the least respect to the Court but presently rises up again and turns about looking downwards upon the Guards placed on the left side and on the multitude of Spectators on the right side of the said great Hall After Silence made among the people the Act of Parliament for the Trying of CHARLES STUART King of England was read over by the Clerk of the Court who sate on one side of the Table covered with a rich Turkey Carpet and placed at the feet of the said Lord President upon which Table was also laid the Sword and Mace After reading the said Act the several names of the Commissioners were called over every one who was present rising up and answering to his Call The King having again placed himself in his Chair with his face towards the Court Silence being again ordered the Lord President stood up and said President CHARLES STUART King of England The Commons of England Assembled in Parliament being deeply sensible of the Calamities that have been brought upon this Nation which is fixed upon you as the principal Author of it have resolved to make inquisition for Blood and according to that Debt and Duty they owe to Justice to God the Kingdome and themselves and according to the Fundamental Power that rests in themselves They have resolved to bring you to Trial and Judgment and for that purpose have constituted this High Court of Justice before which you are brought This said M. Cook Solicitor General for the Common-wealth standing within a Bar on the right hand of the King offered to speak but the King having a staff in his hand held it up and laid it upon the said M. Cooks shoulder two or three times bidding him hold Nevertheless the Lord President ordering him to go on he said Cook My Lord I am commanded to charge Charles Stuart King of England in the name of Commons of England with Treason and high Misdemeanors I desire the said Charge may be read The said Charge being delivered to the Clerk of the Court the Lord President ordered it should be read but the King bid him hold Nevertheless being commanded by the Lord President to read it the Clerk begun The Charge of the Commons of England against CHARLES STUART King of England of High Treason and other High Crimes exhibited to the High Court of Justice THat the said Charles Stuart being admitted King of England and therein trusted with a Limited Power to govern by and according to the Laws of the Land and not otherwise And by his Trust Oath and Office being obliged to use the Power committed to him For the good and benefit of the People and for the preservation of their Rights and Liberties Yet nevertheless out of a wicked design to erect and uphold in himself an unlimited and Tyrannical Power to rule according to his Will and to overthrow the Rights and Liberties of the People Yea to take away and make void the Foundations thereof and of all redress and remedy of misgovernment which by the fundamental Constitutions of this Kingdom were reserve on the peoples behalf in the Right and Power of frequent and successive Parliaments or National meetings in Councel He the said Charles Stuart for accomplishment of such his Designs and for the protecting of himself and his adherents in His and Their wicked practises to the same Ends hath Traiterously and maliciously levied War against the present Parliament and the people therein Represented Particularly upon or about the thirtieth day of June in the year of our Lord One thousand six hundred forty and two at Beverley in the County of York And upon or about the thirtieth day of July in the year aforesaid in the County of the City of York and upon or about the twenty fourth day of August in the same year at the County of the Town of Notingham when and where he set up His Standard of War And upon or about the twenty third day of October in the same year at Edg-Hill and Keinton-field in the County of Warwick And upon or about the thirtieth day of Nov. in the same year at Brainford in the County of Middlesex And upon or about the thirtieth day of Aug. in the year of our Lord One thousand six hundred forty and three at Cavesham-bridge near Reding in the County of Berks And upon or about the thirtieth day of October in the year last mentioned at or near the City of Glocester And upon or about the thirtieth day of November in the year last mentioned at Newbery
CHARLES I. KING OF ENGLAND c. England's black Tribunall Set forth in the TRIALL OF K. CHARLES I. At a High Court of Justice at Westminster-Hall Together with his last Speech when he was put to death on the Scaffold January 30. 1648. To which is added the several dying Speeches and manner of the putting to death of Earl of Strafford Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Duke Hamilton Earl of Holland Lord Capell Earl of Darby Sir Alex. Carew Sir John Hotham Capt. Hotham Mr. Nath. Tomkins Mr. Chaloner Col. Jo. Morris Cor. Blackburn Col. Andrews Sir Hen. Hide Col. Gerrard Mr. Pet. Vowell Col. Penruddock Capt. Hugh Grove Sir Hen. Slingsby Doctor Jo. Hewet The fourth Edition corrected and enlarged London Printed for J. Playford 1660. TO THE READER WHereas there has been printed of late years many severall impressions of the Relation of the Tryall of King Charles the 1 st and of the manner of the putting him to Death many of which have been very imperfect having had most of the remarkable passages left out But in this Edition some paines and care has been used to have it exact and perfect the which the Reader will find made good if he compare it to any of the former Printed copies Also an addition of the dying speeches of such of the English Nobilite Clergie and Gentry as has been executed for the cause of the late King from 1642. to 1659. of all which these following are true and exact Copies as no doubt will appear to the reader in the perusuall thereof I. P. A Table of the matters contained in this Book AN Act for the Tryall of the King Pag. 1 The first days proceedings Pag. 6 The Charge drawn up against the King Pag. 8 The second days proceedings Pag. 17 The third days proceedings Pag. 25 The fourth days proceedings K. Charles conference with his children His speech on the Scaffold His letter to his Sonne a little before his death An Elegie on the Death and sufferings of K. Charles A Table of the Speeches The E. of Straffords speech to the Court after his sentence Pag. 49 The E. of Straffords speech on the Scaffold Pag. 53 Mr. Nath. Tomkins Elegie Pag. 58 Mr. Chalenors speech at his Execution Pag. 61 Sir Alex. Carews speech on the Scaffold Pag. 65 Capt. John Hothams speech on the Scaffol Pag. 68 Sir John Hothams speech on the Scaffold Pag. 69 Arch Bishop of Canterburys speech on the Scaffold Pag. 72 Duke Hamiltons speech on the Scaffold Pag. 84 Earl of Hollands speech on the Scaffold Pag. 98 Lord Capells speech on the Scaffold Pag. 124 Col. John Moris speech at his Execution Pag. 121 Cor. M. Blackburn speech at his Execution Pag. 125 Col. Andrews speech on the Scaffold Pag. 126 Sir Hen. Hides speech on the Scaffold Pag. 134 E. of Darby's speech on the Scaffold Pag. 147 Col. Gerrards speech on the Scaffold Pag. 159 Mr. Peter Vowells speech at his Execut. Pag. 170 Col. Penruddocks speech on the Scaffold Pag. 175 Capt. Hugh Goves speech on the Scaffold Pag. 184 Sir Hen. Slingsbys speech on the Scaffold Pag. 185 Dr. John Hewets speech on the Scaffold Pag. 186 KING CHARLES HIS TRYALL Began Saturday January 20 th and ended January 27. 1648. An ACT. An Act of the Commons of England assembled in Parliament for erecting of an High Court of Justice for the Trying and Judging of CHARLES STUART King of England WHereas it is notorious That Charles Stuart the now King of England not content with those many incroachments which his Predecessors had made upon the People in their Rights and Freedoms hath had a wicked design totally to subvert the ancient and fundamental Laws and Liber-of this Nation And in their place to introduce an arbitrary and Tyrannical Government with fire and sword levyed and maintained a cruel war in the Land against the Parliament and Kingdome Whereby the Countrey hath been miserably wasted the publick Treasury exhausted Trade decayed and thousands of People murthered and infinite of other mischiefs committed For all which High and Treasonable Offences the said Charles Stuart might long since justly have been brought to exemplary and condign punishment Whereas also the Parliament well hoping that the restraint and imprisonment of his person after it had pleased God to deliver him into their hands would have quieted the disturbers of the Kingdom did forbear to proceed judicially against him But found by sad experience that such their remissives served onely to incourage him and his complices in the Continuance of their evil practises and in raising of new Commotions designs and invasions For prevention therefore of the like greater inconveniences And to the end that no Magistrate or Officer whatsoever may hereafter presume traiterously and maliciously to immagine or contrive the inslaving or destroying of the English Nation and to expect impunity in so doing Be it ordained and enacted by the Commons in Parliament assembled and it is hereby ordained and enacted by the Authority thereof That Thomas Lord Fairfax General Oliver Cromwell Lieutenant General Henry Ireton Commissary General Phillip Skippon Maior General Sir Hardress Waller Colonel Valentine Walton Col. Thomas Harrison Col. Edw. Whalley Col. Tho. Pride Col. Isaac Ewers Col. Rich. Ingoldsby Col. Rich. Dean Col. John Okey Col. Robert Overton Col. John Harrison Col. John Desborow Col. Will. Goffe Col. Rob. Duckenfield Col. Rowland Wilson Col. Henry Martin Col. William Purefoy Col. Godfrey Bosvile Col. Herbert Morley Col. John Barkstead Col. Matthew Tomlinson Col. John Lambert Col. Edmund Ludlow Col. John Hutchinson Col. Robert Titchborn Col. Owen Roe Col. Robert Manwaring Col. Robert Lilburn Col. Adrian Scroop Col. Algernoon Sidney Col. John Moore Col. Francis Lassells Col. Alexander Rigby Col. Edmund Harvey Col. John Venn Col. Anthony Stapley Col. Thomas Horton Col. Tho. Hammond Col. George Fenwick Col. George Fleetwood Col. John Temple Col. Thomas Waite Sir Henry Mildmay Sir Thomas Honywood Thomas Lord Grey Philip Lord Lisle William Lord Mounson Sir John Danvers Sir Thomas Maleverer Sir John Bourchier Sir James Harrington Sir William Brereton Robert Wallop William Heveningham Esquires Isaac Pennington Thomas Atkins Aldermen Sir Peter Wentworth Thomas Trenchard Jo. Blakston Gilbert Millington Esquires Sir Will. Constable Sir Arthur Hasilrigg Sir Mich. Livesey Richard Salway Hump. Salway Cor. Holland Jo. Carey Esquires Sir Will. Armin Jo. Jones Miles Corbet Francis Allen Thomas Lister Ben. Weston Peter Pelham Io. Gusden Esquires Fra. Thorpe Esq Serjeant at Law Io. Nut Tho. Challoner Io. Anlaby Richard Darley William Say John Aldred Jo. Nelthrop Esquires Sir William Roberts Henry Smith Edmund Wild Iohn Challoner Iosias Barnes Dennis Bond Humphrey Edwards Greg. Clement Io. Fray Tho. Wogan Esquires Sir Greg. Norton Io. Bradshaw Esq Serieant at Law Io. Dove Esq Iohn Fowk Thomas Scot Aldermen Will. Cawley Abraham Burrel Roger Gratwick Iohn Downes Esquires Robert Nichols Esq Serjeant at Law Vincent Potter Esq Sir Gilbert Pickering Io. Weaver Io. Lenthal Robert Reynolds Io. Lisle Nich. Love Esquires Sir
answer them King No Sir I deny that President If you acknowledge not the Authority of the Court they must proceed King I do tell them so England was never an Elective Kingdom but an Hereditary Kingdom for neer these thousand years therefore let me know by what Authority I am called hither I do stand more for the Liberty of my People than any here that come to be my pretended Judges and therefore let me know by what lawful Authority I am seated here and I will answer it otherwise I will not answer it President Sir how really you have managed your Trust is known your way of answer is to interrogate the Court which beseems not you in this condition You have been told of it twice or thrice King Here is a Gentleman Lieut. Col. Cobbet ask him if he did not bring me from the Isle of Wight by force I do not come here as submitting to the Court I will stand as much for the priviledge of the House of Commons rightly understood as any man here whatsoever I see no House of Lords here that may constitute a Parliament and the King too should have been Is this the bringing of the King to his Parliament Is this the bringing an end to the Treaty in the publick faith of the world Let me see a legal Authority warranted by the Word of God the Scriptures or warranted by the Constitutions of the Kingdom and I will answer President Sir You have propounded a Question and have been answered seeing you will not answer the Court will consider how to proceed in the mean time those that brought you hither are to take charge of you back again The Court desires to know whether this be all the Answer you will give or no. King Sir I desire that you would give me and all the world satisfaction in this let me tell you it is not a slight thing you are about I am sworn to keep the Peace by that duty I owe to God and my Country and I will do it to the last breath of my body and therefore you shall do well to satisfie first God and then the Country by what Authority you do it if you do it by a usurped Authority that will not last long There is a God in Heaven that will call you and all that give you power to account Satisfie me in that and I will answer otherwise I betray my Trust and the Liberties of the People and therefore think of that and then I shall be willing For I do avow That it is as great a sin to withstand lawful Authority as it is to submit to a Tyrannical or any other wayes unlawful Authority and therefore satisfie God and me and all the World in that and you shall receive my Answer I am not afraid of the Bill President The Court expects you should give them a final Answer their purpose is to adjourn till Monday next if you do not satisfie your self though we do tell you our Authority we are satisfied with our Authority and it is upon Gods Authority and the Kingdoms and that peace you speak of will be kept in the doing of Justice and that 's our present work King Let me tell you if you will shew me what lawful Authority you have I shall be satisfied But that you have hitherto said satisfies no reasonable man President That 's in our apprehension we think it reasonable that are your Judges King 'T is not my apprehension nor yours neither that ought to decide it President The Court hath heard you and you are to be disposed of as they have commanded Two things were remarkable in this days proceedings 1. It is observed That as the charge was reading against the King the silver head of his staff fell off the which he wondred at and seeing none to take it up he stoop'd for it himself and put it in his pocket 2. That as the King was going away he looking with a very austere countenance upon the Court without stirring of his Hat replyed Well Sir when the L. President commanded the Guard to take him away and at his going down he said I do not fear that pointing with his staff at the sword The people in the Hall as he went down the stairs cryed out some God save the King and some for Justice O yes being called the Court adjourned till Monday next January 22. at 9. in the morning to the Painted Chamber and from thence to the same place again in Westminster Hall January 21. Being Sunday the Commissioners kept a Fast at White-hall there Preached Mr. Spigg his Text was He that sheds Mans bloud by Man shall his bloud be shed next Mr. Foxely his Text Judge not least you be judged Last was Mr. Peters his Text was I will binde their Kings in Chains and their Nobles in fetters of Iron At the High-Court of Justice sitting in Westminster-Hall Monday Jan. 22. 1648. O Yes made Silence commanded The Court called and answered to their names Silence commanded upon pain of imprisonment and the Captain of the Guard to apprehend all such as make disturbance Upon the Kings coming in a shout was made Command given by the Court to the Captain of â—he Guard to fetch and take into his custody those who make any disturbance Mr. Solicitor May it please your Lordship my Lord President I did at the last Court in the behalf of the Commons of England exhibit and give into this Court a Charge of High Treason and other high Crimes against the Prisoner at the Bar whereof I do accuse him in the name of the People of England and the Charge was read unto him and his Answer required My Lord he was not then pleased to give an Answer but in stead of answering did there dispute the Authority of this High Court My humble Motion to this High Court in behalf of the People of England is That the Prisoner may be directed to make a positive Answer either by way of Confession or Negation which if he shall refuse to do that the matter of Charge may be taken pro confesso and the Court may proceed according to justice President Sir You may remember at the last Court you were told the occasion of your being brought hither and you heard a Charge against you containing a Charge of high Treason and other high Crimes against this Realm of England you heard likewise that it was prayed in the behalf of the People that you should give an answer to that Charge that thereupon such proceedings might be had at should be agreeable to justice you were then pleased to make some scruples concerning the Authority of this Court and knew not by what Authority you were brought hither you did divers times propound your Questions and were as often answered that it was by Authority of the Commons of England assembled in Parliament that did think fit to call you to account for those high and capital misdemeanours wherewith you were then charged Since
ever I took defended my selfe with Arms I never took up Arms against the People but for my People and the Laws President The command of the Court must be obeyed no answer will be given to the Charge King Well Sir Then the Lord President ordered the default to be recorded and the contempt of the Court and that no answer would be given to the Charge And so was guarded forth to Sir Robert Cotton's house Then the Court adjourned to the Painted Chamber on Tuesday at twelve a clock aod from thence they intend to adjourn to Westminster Hall at which time all persons concerned are to give their attendance Resolutions of the Court at their Meeting in the Painted Chamber Lunae Jan. 22. 1648. THis day the King being withdrawn from the Bar of the High Court of Justice the Commissioners of the said High Court of Justice sate private in the Painted Chamber and considered of the Kings carriage upon the Saturday before and of all that had then passed and fully approved of what the Lord President had done and said in the managing of the businesse of that day as agreeing to their sense And perceiving what the King aimed at viz. to bring in question if he could the Jurisdiction of the Court and the Authority thereof whereby they sate and considering that in the interim he had not acknowledged them in any sort to be a Court or his Judges and through their sides intended to wound if he might be permitted the Supreme Authority of the Commons of England in their Representative the Commons assembled in Parliament after advice with their Councell learned in both Laws and mature deliberation had of the matter Resolved That the King should not be suffered to argue the Courts Jurisdiction or that which constituted them a Court of which debate they had not proper Conusance nor could they being a derivative Judge of that Supreme Court which made them Judges from which there was no appeal and did therefore order and direct viz. Ordered that in case the King shall again offer to dispute the Authority of the Court the Lord President do let him know that the Court have taken into consideration his demands of the last day and that he ought to rest satisfied with this Answer That the Commons of England assembled in Parliament have constituted this Court whose Power may not nor should be permitted to be disputed by him That in case the King shall refuse to answer or acknowledge the Court the Lord President do let him know that the Court will take it as a contumacy and that it shall be so Recorded That in case he shall offer ot answer with a saving notwithstanding of his pretended Prerogative above the jurisdiction of the Court That the Lord President do in the name of the Court refuse his protest and require his positive Answer whether he will own the Court or not That in case the King shall demand a Copy of the Charge that he shall then declare his intention to Answer and that declaring his intention a Copy be granted unto him That in case the King shall still persist in his contempt the Lord President do give command to the Clerk to demand of the King in the name of the Court in these words following viz. Charles Stuart King of England you are accused in the behalf of the People of England of divers high Crimes and Treasons which Charge hath been read unto you The Court requires you to give a positive Answer to confesse or deny the Charge having determined that you ought to Answer the same At the High Court of Justice sitting in Westminster Hall Tuesday Jan. 23. 1648. O Yes made Silence commanded The Court called Seventy three persons present The King comes in with his Guard looks with an austere countenance upon the Court and sits down The second O Yes made and silence commanded Mr. Cook Solicitor General May it please your Lordship my Lord President This is now the third time that by the great grace and favour of this High Court the Prisoner hath been brought to the Bar before any issue joyned in the Cause My Lord I did at the first Court exhibit a Charge against him containing the highest Treason that ever was wrought upon the Theatre of England that a King of England trusted to keep the Law That had taken an Oath so to do That had Tribute paid him for that end should be guilty of a wicked design to subvert and destroy our Lawes and introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government in the defence of the Parliament and their Authority set up his Standard for War against his Parliament and People and I did humbly pray in the behalf of the people of England that he might speedily be required to make an Answer to the Charge But my Lord in stead of making any Answer he did then dispute the Authority of this High Court your Lordship was pleased to give him a further day to consider and to put in his Answer which day being yesterday I did humbly move that he might be required to give a direct and positive Answer either by denying or confession of it but my Lord he was then pleased for to demur to the jurisdiction of the Court which the Court did then over-rule and command him to give a direct and positive Answer My Lord besides this great delay of justice I shall now humbly move your Lordship for speedy judgement against him My Lord I might presse your Lordship upon the whole That according to the known Rules of the Law of the Land That if a Prisoner shall stand as contumacious in contempt and shall not put in an issuable plea Guilty or not Guilty of the Charge given against him whereby he may come to a fair Tryall That as by an implicite confession it may be taken pro confesso as it hath been done to those who have deserved more favour than the prisoner at the Bar has done but besides my Lord I shall humbly presse your Lordship upon the whole Fact The House of Commons the Supreme Authority and jurisdiction of the Kingdome they have declared That it is notorious That the matter of the Charge is true as it is in truth my Lord as clear as Chrystal and as the Sun that shines at noon day which if your Lordship and the Court be not satisfied in I have notwithstanding on the people of Englands behalf severall witnesses to produce And therefore I do humbly pray and yet I must confesse it is not so much I as the innocent blood that hath been shed the cry whereof is very great for justice and judgement and therefore I do humbly pray that speedy Judgement be pronounced against the prisoner at the Bar. President Sir you have heard what is moved by the Councel on the behalf of the Kingdome against you Sir you may well remember and if you do not the Court cannot forget what delatory dealings the Court hath found at your hands
in the County of Berks and upon or about the one and thirtieth day of July in the year of our Lord One thousand six hundred forty and four at Cropredy-bridge in the County of Oxon And upon or about the thirtieth day of September in the last year mentioned at Bodmin and other places near adjacent in the County of Cornwall And upon or about the thirtieth day of November in the last year mentioned at Newbery aforesaid and upon or about the eight of June in the year of Lord One thousand six hundred forty and five at the Town of Leicester and also upon the fourteenth day of the same moneth in the same year at Naseby-field in the County of Northampton at which several times and places or most of them and at many other places in this Land at several other times within the years afore mentioned And in the year of our Lord One thousand six hundred forty and six He the said C. Stuart hath caused and procured many thousands of the Free-people of the Nation to be slain and by Divisions parties and Insurrections within this Land by Invasions from Forraign parts endevoured and procured by Him and by many other evil wayes and means He the said Charles Stuart hath not onely maintained and carried on the said War both by Land and Sea during the years before mentioned but also hath renewed or caused to be renewed the said War against the Parliament and good people of this Nation in this present year One thousand six hundred forty and eight in the Counties of Kent Essex Surrey Sussex Middlesex and many other Counties and places in England and Wales and also by Sea and particularly He the said Charles Stuart hath for that purpose given Commission to his Son the Prince and others whereby besides multitudes of other persons many such as were by the Parliament intrusted and imployed for the safety of the Nation being by Him or His Agents Corrupted to the betraying of Their Trust and revolting from the Parliament have had entertainment and Commission for the continuing and renewing of War and Hostility against the said Parliament and people as aforesaid By which cruel and unnatural Wars by Him the said Charles Stuâ—rt levyed continued and renewed as aforesaid much Innocent Blood of the Free-people of this Nation hath been spilt many Families have been undone the publick Treasury wasted and exhausted Trade obstrusted and miserably decayed vast expence and damage to the Nation incurred and many parts of the Land spoyled some of them even to desolation And for further prosecution of his said evil Designs He the said Charls Stuart doth still continue his Commissions to the said Prince and other Rebels and Revolters both English and Forraigners and to the Earl of Ormond and to the Irish Rebels and Revolters associated with him from whom further Invasions upon this Land are threatned upon the procurement and on the behalf of the said Charles Stuart All which wicked Designs Wars and evil practises of him the said Charles Stuart have been and are carried on for the advancing and upholding of the personal Interest of Will and Power and pretended prerogative to Himself and his family against the publick Interest Common Right Liberty Justice and Peace of the people of this Nation by and for whom he was entrusted as aforesaid By all which it appeareth that he the said Charles Stuart hath been and is the Occasioner Author and Contriver of the said Unnatural Cruel and Bloody Wars and therein guilty of all the Treasons Murthers Rapines Burnings Spoils Desolations Damage and Mischief to this Nation acted or committed in the said Wars or occasioned thereby And the said John Cook by protestation saving on the behalf of the people of England the liberty of exhibiting at any time hereafter any other Charge against the said Charles Stuart and also of replying to the answers which the said Ch. Stuart shall make to the premises or any of them or any other Charge that shall be so Exhibited doth for the said Treasons and Crimes on the behalf of the said People of England Impeach the said Charles Stuart as a Tyrant Traytor Murtherer and a publick and Implacable Enemy to the Common-wealth of England And pray that the said Charles Stuart King of England may be put to answer All and Every the Premises That such proceeedings Examinations Trials Sentence and Judgment may be thereupon had as shall be agreeable to Justice IT is observed that the time the Charge was reading the King sate down in his Chair looking sometimes on the Court sometimes up to the Galleries and having risen again and turned about to behold the Guards and Spectators sate down looking very sternly with a countenance not at all moved till these words viz. Charles Stuart to be a Tyrant and Traytor c. were read at which he laughed as he sate in the face of the Court Charge being read the Lord President replyed President Sir you have now heard your Charge read containing such matters as appears in it you finde That in the close of it it is prayed to the Court in the behalf of the Commons of England that you answer to your Charge The Court expects your Answer King I would know by what power I am called hither I was not long ago in the Isle of Wight how I came there is a longer story than I think is fit at this time for me to speak of but there I entred into a Treaty with both Houses of Parliament with as much publick faith as 't is possible to be had of any people in the world I treated there with a number of Honourable Lords and Gentlemen and treated honestly and uprightly I cannot say but they did very nobly with me we were upon a conclusion of the Treaty Now I would know by what Authority I mean lawful there are many unlawful Authorities in the world Theeves and Robbers by the high wayes but I would know by what Authority I was brought from thence and carried from place to place and I know not what and when I know by what lawful Authority I shall answer Remember I am your King and what sins you bring upon your heads and the Judgment of God upon this Land think well upon it I say think well upon it before you go further from one sin to a greater therefore let me know by what lawful Authority I am seated here and I shall not be unwilling to answer in the mean time I shall not betray my Trust I have a Trust committed to me by God by old and lawful descent I will not betray it to answer to a new unlawful Authority therefore resolve me that and you shall hear more of me President If you had been pleased to have observed what was hinted to you by the Court at your first coming hither you would have known by what Authority which Authority requires you in the name of the people of England of which you are Elected King to
you were pleased to propound some Questions you have had your Resolutions upon them You were told over and over again That the Court did affirm their own jurisdiction That it was not for you nor any other man to dispute the Jurisdiction of the Supreme and highest Authority of England from which there is no appeal and touching which there must be no dispute yet you did persist in such carriage as you gave no manner of obedience nor did you acknowledge any Authority in them nor the High Court that constituted this Court of Justice Sir I must let you know from the Court That they are very sensible of these delayes of yours and that they ought not being thus Authorized by the supreme Court of England to be thus trifled withall and that they might in justice if they pleased and according to the Rules of justice take advantage of these delayes and proceed to pronounce judgement against you yet neverthelesse they are pleased to give direction and on their behalfs I do require you that you make a positive Answer unto this Charge that is against you Sir in plain terms for Iustice knows no respect of persons you are to give your positive and finall Answer in plain English whether you be guilty or not guilty of these Treasons laid to your Charge The King after a little pause said When I was here yesterday I did desire to speak for the Liberties of the People of England I was interrupted I desire to know yet whether I may speak freely or not President Sir you have had the Resolution of the Court upon the like Question the last day and you were told That having such a Charge of so high a Nature against you and your Work was that you ought to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the Court And to Answer to your Charge Sir if you Answer to your Charge which the Court gives you leave now to do though they might have taken the advantage of your Contempt yet if you be able to Answer to your Charge when you have once Answered you shall be heard at large make the best Defence you can But Sir I must let you know from the Court as their commands that you are not to be permitted to issue out into any other discourses till such time as you have given a positive Answer concerning the Matter that is Charged upon you King For the Charge I value it not a Rush it is the Liberty of the People of England that I stand for for me to acknowledge a new Court that I never heard of before I that am your King that should be an example to all the people of England for to uphold Iustice to maintain the old Laws indeed I do not know how to do it you spoke very well the first day that I came here on Saturday of the Obligations that I had laid upon me by God to the maintenance of the Liberties of my People The same Obligation you spake of I do acknowledge to God that I owe to Him and to my People to defend as much as in me lies the ancient Laws of the Kingdome therefore untill that I may know that this is not against the Fundamental Lawes of the Kingdome by your favour I can put in no particular Answer If you will give me time I will then shew you my Reasons why I cannot do it and this Here being interrupted he said By your favour you ought not to interrupt me how I came here I know not there 's no Law for it to make your King your Prisoner I was lately in a Treaty upon the publick Faith of the Kingdome that was the known the two Houses of Parliament that was the Representative of the Kingdome and when that I had almost made an end of the Treaty then I was hurried away and brought hither and therefore Here the President interrupted him and said Sir you must know the pleasure of the Court King By your favour Sir President Nay Sir by your favour you may not be permitted to fall into these discourses you appear as a Delinquent you have hot acknowledged the Authority of the Court the Court craves it not of you and once more they command you to give your positive Answer Clerk Do your Duty King Duty Sir The Clerk reads Charles Stuart King of England you are accused in the behalf of the Commons of England of divers high Crimes and Treasons which Charge hath been read unto you the Court now requires you to give your positive and finall Answer by way of confession or denial of the Charge King Sir I say again to you so that I might give satisfaction to the People of England of the clearnesse of my proceeding not by way of Answer not in this way but to satisfie them that I have done nothing against that Trust that hath been committed to me I would do it but to acknowledge a new Court against their Priviledges to alter the fundamental Laws of the Kingdome Sir you must excuse me President Sir this is the third time that you have publikely disowned the Court and put an affront upon it how far you have preserv'd Priviledges of the People your Actions have spoke it but truly Sir mens intentions ought to be known by their Actions you have written your meaning in bloody Characters throughout the whole Kingdome but Sir you understand the pleasure of the Court Clerk Record the default and Gentlemen you that took charge of the Prisoner take him back again King I will onely say this one word to you if it were only My own particular I would not say any more nor interrupt you President Sir you have heard the pleasure of the Court and you are notwithstanding you will not understand it to finde that you are before a Court of Iustice Then the King went forth with his Guard and Proclamation was made That all persons who had then appeared and had further to do at the Court might depart into the Painted Chamber to which place the Court did forthwith adjourn and intended to meet in Westminster Hall by ten of the clock the next morning Cryer God blesse the Kingdome of England Wednesday January 24. 1648. THis day it was expected the High Court of Justice would have met in Westminster Hall about ten of the clock but at the time appointed one of the Ushers by direction of the Court then sitting in the Painted Chamber gave notice to the people there assembled That in regard the Court was then upon the examination of Witnesses in relation to present affairs in the Painted Chamber they could not sit there but all persons appointed to be there were to appear upon further Summons His Majesties Reasons against the pretended Jurisdiction of the High Court of Justice which He intended to have delivered in writing on Monday Jan. 22. 1648. but was not permitted HAving already made My protestations not only against the illegality of this pretended Court but also that no Earthly power
them and reserved to themselves to alter as they shall see cause Sir it is very true what some of your side have said Rex non habet parem in Regno This Court will say the same while King That you have not your Peer in some sense for you are Major singulis but they will aver again that you are Minor universis and the same Author tells you that in exhibitione juris there you have no power but in _____ quasi minimus This we know to be Law Rex habet superiorem Deum Legem etiam Curiam and so saies the same Author and truly Sir he makes bold to go a little further Debentei ponere fraenum They ought to bridle him and sir we know very well the stories of old Those Wars that were called the Barons Wars when the Nobility of the Land did stand out for the liberty and property of the Subject and would not suffer the Kings that did invade to play the Tyrants freer but called them to accompt for it we know that truth That they did fraenum ponere But sir if they do forbear to do their duty now and are not so mindfull of their own Honor and the Kingdoms good as the Barons of England will not be unmindfull of what is for their preservation and for their safety Justitiae fruendi causa Reges constituti sunt This we learn the end of having Kings or any other Governors it 's for the enjoying of Justice that 's the end Now Sir if so be the King will go contrary to the end of his Government Sir he must understand that he is but an Officer of trust and he ought to discharge that Trust and they are to take order for the animadversion and punishment of such an offending Governor This is not Law of yesterday Sir since the time of the division betwixt you and your People but it is Law of old And we know very well the Authors and Authorities that do tell us what the Law was in that point upon the Election of Kings upon the Oath that they took unto their People and if they did not observe it there were those things called Parliaments The Parliaments were they that were to adjudge the very words of the Author the plaints and wrongs done of the King and Queen or their Children such wrong especially when the People could have no where else any remedy Sir that hath been the People of Englands case they could not have their remedy elsewhere but in Parliament Sir Parliaments were ordained for that purpose to redresse the grievances of the People that was their main end and truly Sir if so be that the Kings of England had been rightly mindfull of themselves they were never more in Majesty and State then in the Parliament but how forgetfull some have been Stories have told us We have a miserable a lamentable a sad experience of it Sir by the old Laws of England I speak these things the rather to you because you were pleased to let fall the other day you thought you had as much knowledge in the Law as most Gentlemen in England it is very well Sir And truly Sir it is very good for the Gentlemen of England to understand that Law under which they must live and by which they must be governed And then Sir the Scripture says They that know their Masters will and do it not what followes The Law is your Master the Acts of Parliament The Paliaments were to be kept antiently we finde in our author twice in the year That the Subject upon any occasion might have a ready remedy and redresse for his Grievance Afterwards by several Acts of Parliament in the dayes of your Predecessor Edward the third they must have been once a year Sir what intermission of PARLIAMENTS hath been in your time it is very well known and the sad consequences of it and what in the interim in stead of these Parliaments hath been by you by an high and Arbitrary hand introduced upon the People that likewise hath been too well known and felt But when God by his Providence had so brought it about that you could no longer decline the calling of a Parliament Sir yet it will appeare what your ends were against the Antient and your Native Kingdome of Scotland The Parliament of England not serving your ends against them you were pleased to dissolve it Another great necessity occasioned the calling of this Parliament and what your designes and plots and indeavours all along have been for the ruining and confounding of this Parliament hath been very notorious to the whole Kingdome And truly Sir in that you did strike at all that had been a sure way to have brought about that that this laies upon you Your Intention to Subvert the Fundamental Laws of the Land For the great bulwark of Liberty of the People in the PARLIAMENT of England and to Subvert and Root up that which your aim hath been to do certainly at one blow you had confounded the Liberties and the propriety of England Truly Sir it makes me call to minde I cannot forbear to expresse it for Sir we must deal plainly with you according to the merits of your cause so is our Commission it makes me call to minde these proceedings of yours that we read of a great Roman Emperor by the way let us call him a great Roman Tyrant Caligula that wisht that the People of Rome had bad but one neck that at one blow he might cut it off and your proceedings hath been somewhat like to this for the body of the people of England hath been and where else represented but in the Parliament and could you have but confounded that you had at one blow cut off the neck of England but God hath reserved better things for us and hath pleased for to Confound your designes and to break your Forces and to bring your Person into Custody that you might be responsible to Justice Sir we know very well That it is a question on your side very much prest by what Precedent we shall proceed Truly Sir for Precedents I shall not upon these occasions institute any long discourse but it is no new thing to cite Precedents almost of all Nations where the people when power hath been in their hands have been made bold to call their Kings to account and where the change of Government hath upon occasion of the Tyranny and Mis-government of those that have been placed over them I will not spend time to mention France or Spain or the Empire or other Countries Volumes may be written of them But truly Sir that of the Kingdome of Arragon I shall think some of us have thought upon it when they have the justice of Arragon that is a man tanquam in medio positus betwixt the King of Spain and the people of the Country that if wrong be done by the King he that is the King of Arragon the Justice hath power to reform the
wrong and he is acknowledged to be the Kings Superior and is the grand preserver of their priviledges and hath prosecuted Kings upon their miscarriages Sir What the Tribunes of Rome were heretofore and what the Ephory were to the Lacedaemonian State we know that is the Parliament of England to the English State and though Rome seem to have lost its liberty when once the Emperours were yet you shall finde some famous Acts of Justice even done by the Senate of Rome that great Tyrant of his time Nero condemned and judged by the Senate But truly Sir to you I should nor mention these Forreign examples and stories If you look but over Tweed we finde enough in your native Kingdome of Scotland If we look to your first King Fergustuâ— that your stories make mention of he was an elective King he dyed and left two Sons both in their minority the Kingdom made choice of their Unkle his Brother to govern in the minority afterwards the Elder Brother giving small hopes to the People that he would rule or govern well seeking to supplant that good Unkle of his that governed then justly they set the Elder aside and took to the Younger Sir if I should come to what your stories make mention of you know very well you are the 109 King of Scotland for to mention so many Kings as that Kingdome according to their power and priviledge have made bold to deal withall some to banish and some to imprison and some to put to death it would be too long and as one of your Authors sayes it would be too long to recite the manifold examples that your own stories make mention of Reges say they we do create we created Kings at first Leges c. We imposed Lawes upon them and as they are chosen by the suffrages of the People at the first so upon just occasion by the same suffrages they may be taken down again and we will be bold to say that no Kingdome hath yeilded more plentiful experience then that your Native Kingdome of Scotland hath done concerning the deposition and the punishment of their offending and transgressing Kings c. It is not far to go for an example neer you your Grandmother set aside and your Father an Infant crowned and the State did it here in England here hath not been a want of some examples they have made bold the Parliament and the People of England to call their Kings to account there are frequent examples of it in the Saxons time the time before the Conquest since the Conquest there wants not some Presidents neither King Edward the second King Richard the second were dealt with so by the Parliament as they were deposed and deprived and truly Sir who ever shall look into their stories they shall not finde the Articles that are charged upon them to come neer to that height and capitalnesse of Crimes that are layed to your charge nothing neer Sir you were pleased to say the other day wherein they discent and I did not contradict it but take altogether Sir if you were as the Charge speaks no otherwise admitted K. of England but for that you were pleased then to alledge how that almost for a thousand years these things have been stories will tell you if you go no higher then the time of the Conquest if you do come down since the Conquest you are the 24 King from William called the Conqueror you shall find one half of them to come meerly from the State and not meerly upon the point of Discent it were easie to be instanced to you the time must not be lost that way And truly Sir what a grave and learned Judge in his time well known to you is since printed for posterity That although there was such a thing as a Descent many times yet the Kings of England ever held the greatest assurance of their titles when it was declared by Parliament And Sir your Oath the manner of your Coronation doth shew plainly That the Kings of England and though it 's true by the Law the next person in bloud is designed yet if there were just cause to refuse him the People of England might do it For there iâ— a Contract and Bargain made between the King and his People and your Oath is taken and certainly Sir the Bond is reciprocal for as you are the leige Lord so they leige Subjects and we know very well that hath been so much spoken of Ligantis est duplex This we know now the one tye the one Bond is the bond of perfection which is due from the Soveraign the other is the bond of Subjection that is due from the Subject Sir if this bond be once broken farewell Soveraignty Subjectio trahit c. These things may not be denyed Sir I speak it the rather and I pray God it may work upon your heart that you may be sensible of your miscarriages For whether you have been as by your Office you ought to be a Protector of England or the Destroyer of England let all England judge or all the world that hath look'd upon it Sir though you have it by Inheritance in the way that is spoken of yet it must not be denyed that your Office was an Office of Trust and an Office of the highest trust lodged in any single person For as you were the grand Administrator of Justice and others were as your Delegates to see it done throughout your Realms if your great Office were to do Justice and preserve your People from wrong and in stead of doing that you will be the great wrong-doer your selfe If instead of being a Conservator of the Peace you will be the Grand Disturber of the Peace surely this is contrary to your Office contrary to your Trust Now Sir if it be an Office of Inheritance as you speak of your Title by Discent let all men know that great Offices are seizable ond forfeitable as if you had it but for a year and for your life Therefore Sir it will concern you to take into your serious consideration your great miscarriages in this kinde Truly Sir I shall not particularize the many miscarriages of your Reign whatsoever they are famously known it had been happy for the Kingdom and happy for you too if it had not been so much known and so much felt as the story of your miscarriages must needs be and hath been already Sir That that we are now upon by the command of the highest Court hath been is to try and judge you for great offences of yours Sir the Charge hath called you Tyrant a Traytor a Murtherer and a publick Enemy to the Common-wealth of England Sir it had been well if that any of all these termes might rightly and justly have been spared if any one of them at all King Ha President Truly Sir we have been told Rex est dum bene regit Tyrannus qui populum opprimei and if so be that be the definition of
people that came to be Spectators very great The King being come upon the Scaffold it was expected he would say somewhat to the people the which he did But because we have no other Relation of what his Majesty then spake save what was taken in short hand on the Scaffold by three several Gentlemen who were very exquesite in that Act nor had his Majesty any copy being surprized and hastned by those who attended him to the Scaffold save only a few heads in a little scrip of Paper which after his death the Soldiers took from the Bishoo of London to whom he gave it therefore the Reader must be content with this Copy which was by them upon joynt comparing of their copyes published some few words being altered to make the sense perfect The King being come upon the Scaffold and looking about him upon the people who were kept off by Troops of Horse so that they could not come neer to hear him omitted what he had purposed to have spoken to them as 't is thought and turning himself to the Soldiers and Officers the Instruments of the Regicide spake to them to this effect The King being come upon the Scaffold look'd very earnestly upon the block and asked Col. Hacker if there were no higher and then speak thus directing his Speech cheifly to Coll. Thomlinson King I Shall be very little heard of any body here I shall therefore speak a word unto you here indeed I could hold my peace very well if I did not think that holding my peace would make some men think that I did submit to the guilt as wel as to the punishment but I think it is my duty to God first and to my 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 cleerly 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 Parliment there is no necessity of either I hope they are free of this guilt for I doe believe that ill instruments between them and me has been the chief cause of all this blood-shed 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 judgements are just upon me Many times he does pay Justice by unjust Sentence that is ordinary I will onely say this That an unjust Sentence * that I suffered for to take effect is * Strafford punished now by an unjâ—st Sentence upon me that is so for I have said to shew you that I am in innocent man Now for to shew you that I am a good Christian I hope there is a good man that will bear me witness That I have forgiven all the world even those in particular that have been the chief causers of my death who they are God knows I doe 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 endevour to the last gasp the Peace of the Kingdom So Sir I doe wish with all my soul and I do hope there is some here will carry it further that they may endevour the Peace of the Kingdome 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 any thing 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 goe 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 onely 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 doe 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 onely 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 Ax that may hurt me For the King the Laws of the Land will cleerly instruct you for that therefore because it concerns my own particular I onely give you a touch of it For the people and truely I desire their Liberty and freedom as much as any body who soever but I must tell you that their Liberty and freedome 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 Libertie 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 Arbitrarie 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 onely 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 doe take those courses that are best for the good of the Kingdome and your own salvations Dr. Juxon Will your Majesty though it may be very well known your Majesties affections to Religion ye it may be expected that you should say somewhat for t 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 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 Colonel Hacker he said Take care they doe not put me to pain and Sir this and it please you But then a Gentleman coming near the Ax the King said take heed of the Ax pray Take heed of the Ax then the King speaking to the Executioner said I shall say but very short prayers and when I thrust out my hands Then the King called to Doctor Juxon for his Night cap and having put it on he said to the Executioner Does my hair trouble you who desired him to put it all under his cap which the king did accordingly by the help of the executioner and the Bishop then the King turning to Doctor Iuxon said I have a good Cause and a gracious God on my side Doctor Juxon There is but one Stage more this Stage is turbulent and troublesome it is a short one But you may consider it will soon carry you a very great way it will carry you from earth to heaven and there you shall find a great deal of cordial joy and comfort King I goe from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown where no disturbance can be no disturbance in the world Doctor Juxon You are exchanged from a Temporal to an Eternal Crown a good exchange The king then said to the executioner is my hair well Then the King took off his Cloak and his George giving his George to Doctor Juxon saying Remember Then the King put off his Doublet and being in his Wastcoat put his cloak on again then looking upon the block said to the executioner You must set it fast Executioner It is fast Sir King When I put my hands out this way stretching them out then After that having said two or three words as he stood to himself with hands and eyes lift up Immediately stooping down laid his neck upon the Block and then the Executioner again putting his hair under his Cap the King said thinking he had been going to strike stay for the sign Executioner Yes I will and it please your Majesty And after a very little pause the King stretching forth his hands The Executioner at one blow severed his head from his body the head being off the Executioner held it up and shewed it to the people which done it was with the Body put in a Coffin covered with black Velvet for that purpose and conveyed into his Lodgings there And from thence it was carried to his house at Saint James's where his body was embalmed and put in a Coffin of Lead laid there a fortnight to be seen by the people and on the Wednesday sevennight after his Corps embalmed and coffined in Lead was delivered cheifly to the care of four of his Servants viz. Mr. Herbert Captain Anthony Mildmay his Sewers Captain Preston and John Joyner former Cook to to his Majesty they attended with others cloathed in mourning Suits and Cloaks accompanied the Herse that night to Windsor and placed it in that which was formerly the Kings Bed-chamber next day it was removed into the Deans Hall which Room was hanged with black and made dark Lights burning round the Hearse in which it remained till three in the Afternoon about which time came the Duke of Lenox the Marquesse of Hertford the Marquesse of Dorchster the Earl of Lynsey having obtained an order from the Parliament for the Decent Enterment of the King their royal Master provided the expence thereof exceeded not five hundred pounds at their coming into the Castle they shewed their Order of Parliament to Collonel Wichcott Governour of the Castle desiring the Enterment might be in St. George's Chappel and by the form in the Common Prayer Book of the Church of England this request was by the Governour denyed saying it was improbable that the Parliament would permit the use of what they had so solemnly abolished and therein destroy their own Act To which the Lords replied there is a difference betwixt destroying their own Act and dispensing with it and that no power so binds its own hands as to disable it self in some cases all could not prevail the Governour persisting in the negative The Lords betook themselves to the search of a convenient place for the Burial of the Corps the which after some pains taking therein they discover a Vault in the middle of the Quire wherein as is probably conjectured lyeth the body of King Henry the eight and his beloved wife the Lady Jane Seamor both in Coffins of Lead in this Vault there being Room for one more they resolve to inter the body of the King the which was accordingly brought to the place born by the Officers of the Garrison the four Corners of the Velvet Pall born up by the aforesaid four Lords the pious Bishop of London following next and other persons of Quality the body was committed to the earth with sighs and tears especially of the Reverend Bishop to be denyed to do the last Duty and Service to his Dear and Royal Master the Velvet Pall being cast into the Vault was laid over the Body upon the Coffin was these words set KING CHARLES 1648. A Letter worthy Perusal written by King CHARLES to his Son the PRINCE from Newport in the Isle of Wight Dated November 29. 1648. Son BY what hath been said you may see how long We have laboured in the search of Peace Do not you be discourag'd to tread those wayes in all those worthy means to restore your self to your Right but prefer the way of Peace shew the greatness of your mind rather to conquer your enemies by pardoning then by punishing If you saw how unmanly and unchristianly this implacable disposition is
Wednesday the fifth of July 1643. in Corn-hill just against the Royal Exchange Presently after Mr. TOMKINS was Executed about tenne of the clock Mr. CHALLENOR was carried from New-gate accompanied with Mr. PETERS and some other Divines and conducted by two Troops of Horse to Corn-hill where a Gibbet was erected against the Royal Exchange about which was a Guard consisting of two of the Trained Bands When he came to the place of Execution being upon the Ladder after many Teares of hearty Contrition he spake as followeth GENTLEMEN IT hath pleased God to bring me to this place God hath how returned my prayer upon me my prayer was that if this Design might not be Honorable to him that it might be known God hath heard me and it is discovered that same very thing hath satisfied me that I was in an errour and that I am confident I was in a great deal of fault And I confesse I doe now die justly and I pray God that I may now glorifie the Lord. I shall onely thus much declare to the world that they may take off the aspersâ—on that was laid upon my partner and my wife which neither of them did know of this Design I have declared my conscience freely to God and the world in every particular that concerns the business thus much I shall say for my own particular There were three things laid to my charge which there was some mistake in Concerning the Kings Letter whereas it was thought to be another way I thank God it was not that way Then concerning the Seal I had no hand in the procuring of it nor knew not of it till the Friday There is another thing that is concerning the seizing of the Magazines which I had no hand in neither But I die justly and I deserve this punishment But now to you all that are here let my example be to you that you never take your self to any thing but what you have warrant for from the Lord I had no warrant I vow to God that hath now satisfied me that the Lord I hope will forgive me I have heartily repented and I beseech you all to take this as a warning And whereas there is now a great deal of distraction and division in the City and that we now make difference between Gods Ministers and Gods Ministers despise no meanes I acknowledge my fault I did make some difference and I now acknowledg it and desire the Lord to forgive me I have received more comfort from such men then ever I had before I shall not now have much to say But I desire heartily that the whole world would forgive me I do beg of my God and of my Christ who I have not honoured so much as I should have done that he would have mercy upon me And now to you all I speak I do now as freely forgive you as I trust my Saviour Jesus Christ hath forgiven me And so Lord Jesus into thy hands do I commend my spirit for thou hast redeemed me O Lord God and so the Lord take me and the Lord receive me Then his Father tendred him the Kings pardon Saying Here is the Kings gracious pardon To which Mr. Challener replyed Sir I beseech you trouble me not with it Pray speak to my friends to take care of my corps and carry me home Whereupon Mr. Peters said to him You are now before the Lord of Heaven if you have any thing about the Lords you spoke of so often last night I beseech you speak your Conscience Mr. Challenor answering thus Gentlemen It is the happiest day that ever I had I shall now Gentlemen declare a little more of the occasion of this as I am desired by Mr. Peters and to give him and the world satisfaction It came from Mr. Waller under this notion that if that we could make a moderate party here in London to stand betwixt the gap and in the gap to unite the King and the Parliament it would be a very acceptable work for now the three Kingdoms lay a bleeding and unlesse that were done there was no hopes to unite them withall I made this Reply Sir if I could assure you of three parts of London none of them should stir unless we had the countenance of the Lords and Commons To this he replyed You shall have to countenance this business the whole House of Lords except three or four you shall have divers of the House of Commons we were promised we should speak with these Lords And in truth except we had spoken with these Lords nothing could have been done for Mr. Abbot Mr. Blinkehorne Mr. Luntloe Mr. King and my self agreed that we would not stir til these Lords had declared themselves and would be ingaged And now Gentlemen I have another thing to declare which shall be in the behalf of those that are condemned As Mr. Waller was the mouth from the Lords as he did declare so I was the unhappy instrument from Mr. Waller to the rest the sentence is now past I desire if it might be that it might be moved to the House that no more might suffer in the cause This is all I have to say and desire your hearty prayers to God for me Then one Mr. Smart said unto him Mr. Challenor if you were to live longer would you ever have done the like again Mr. Challenor Answered I am thus far confident that if it had pleased God to lend me life I think I should have run another course and I am confident of it I hope this is the happiest day I ever saw and I hope God is reconciled to me in my Saviour Jesus Christ that hath given me repentance and I am confident he will return my prayer for me Then at his request Mr. Peters prayed very fervently and devoutly with him after his prayer was ended Mr. Challenor spake these words Gentlemen I do from my heart forgive you and all the world desiring you and all the world â—o forgive me also and so I commend my soul into the hands of my God Sir Alexander Carew Baronet his Trial together with his Speech upon the Scaffold on Tower-hill immediately before his execution on Munday Decemb. 23. 1644. ON Tuesday Novemb. 19. 1644. By the Court then sitting in Guild-hall London Sir John Corbet being President of the Court Sir Alexander Carew Baronet was tryed The effect of the Charge against him was that he the said Alexander Carew being Governour of the Island of St. Nicolas near Plymouth and of the Forces therein for the Parliament did hold correspondency with the Enemy both by private Treaties and by Letters and endeaveured the yeilding of that Island and Fort to the Enemy as appears by divers of his Letters to Colonel Edgcombe and Major Scowen of the Enemies party which Charge was grounded upon the 2. and 7. Articles in the Ordinances of Parliament for Martial Law Secondly that whereas Sir George Chidleigh was pitcht upon as Governour for that Island and for
that purpose he had a Commission from the Earl of Essex and by deputation from him by consent of Parliament the Charge and government thereof was intrusted upon Sir Alexander Carew but by the said Alexander Carew as is justly proved by divers Witnesses the designe was plotted contrived After his heart was possessed with these Treaties with the Enemy it soon vented it self into outward expression First by openly declaring his resolution to hold this Island for the King then by indeavouring to put that resolution in practice Many other circumstances were alleaged against him to this purpose and made good against him by divers Witnesses viz. Mr. Frances the Mayor of Plymouth Mr. Willis and Mr. Randall both Ministers Robert Roe Captain John Hancock Mr. Perce Mr. Deep Merchants Arthur Skinner besides divers of his own Souldiers All which by their several Depositions did clearly prove his said design to betray the Island to the Enemy Many of which actions as aforesaid though clearly proved and testified upon oath the said Sir Alex. Carew denied and pleaded that the Ordinance of Parliament did look forward and not backward and that he ought not to be tryed by them Unto which Mr. Mills Advocate of the Court replied 1. That your defence was grounded upon the Ordinance of Parliament which they hold not onely insufficient but to reflect upon the wisdome and justice of the Parliament 2. That the exception grew upon a great mistake for the two Articles which they proceeded against you is upon the second and seventh Articles which are very clear against you viz. the second and seventh Whosoever shall plot c. as in the Article both look back as well as forward and these Articles do not create a new but only declare the punishment of that was before which by all the Laws Civill is death and treachery and treason which is your case which is a Law to be taken notice of and known by all commanders in Armies For the Proviso in the Ordinance it is plain in it self After which the Sentence of the Court was pronounced The Sentence against Sir Alexander Carew Baronet Sir Alexander Carew Baronet You have been arraigned and convicted before this honorable Court Martial That you being a Commander in the service of the Parliament and particularly Commander of St. Nicolas Island and the Forces there have traiterously deserted your trust and persidiously plotted and combined and indeavoured to betray the said Isle and Forces to the Enemy For which the honorable Court Martial doth adjudge you to death by having your head severed from your body According to which Sentence of the Court upon Munday 23. of December 1644. Sir Alex. Carew Baronet was brought from the Tower by the Lieutenant and his officers to Tower-Hill attended by three Companies of the trained Bands of the City where being come upon the scaffold after some conference with the Ministers he addressed himself to the people there present Sir Alexander Carew's Speech on the Scaffold Gentlemen I Hope you will in consideration of my weak body not expect that I should speak much to you neither is it my part to discourse nor my desire of my actions and to justifie my self but I shall rather confess as the poor Publican did God be mercifull to me a sinner I desire your prayers to God for me and I pray to God for you that no one drop of my blood may be required at any mans hands I forgive all the world with as full and free heart as mortall man can and I beseech God in heaven to forgive me mine the God of heaven and earth that seeth heareth and beholdeth knowes that I lie not I have desired with unfained desire and hearty affection to be dissolved and to be with Christ knowing that it shall be better for me being assured thereby to be freed from the miseries of sin and enter into a better life It was the last words of my Grandfather and here of my Father the assurance of their eternal peace and happinesse after the dissolution of this body of theirs in which they lived here on earth it is mine likewise I have no more to say but humbly take my leave of you Upon the conclusion of his Speech he desired the People then present to joyn with him in singing the 23. Psalm which he read very distinctly to them and joyned with them with much fervency therein The Psalm being ended he put on his Cap and unbuttoned himself and with much resolution laid his head on the block The Executioner at two blows severed his head from his body Captain Hotham's Speech on the Scaffold on Tower-Hill immediately before his Execution Wednesday January 1. 1644. Gentlemen YOU see here in what condition I stand you all come here to look upon me as a Spectacle of shame and Justice And I believe a great many of you are possest with very great Crimes that I have committed of Treason against the Parliament Those things I must declare to you all that this Conscience knows no guilt of I did ingage my self in the Parliaments cause I did them service in possessing of Hull I preserved their Forts and Magazines I preserved their Towns and Forces wheresoever they came and never miscarried It hath pleased God to bring me to this end for my sins to him which I acknowledge to be just but not for any sins that I have committed in Treason against the Parliament Neither do I know any Treason or intention of Treason in my poor Father that lies in the same condition that I do whatsoever other men do call Treason This I testifie to you all here some few words more he spake to this purpose After the Executioner did his office Sir John Hotham's Speech on the Scaffold on Tower-hill immediately before his Execution Thursday January 2. 1644. HE being come upon the Scaffold with Mr. Peters and other Ministers and his Friends Mr. Peters spake these words on his behalf to the people near the Scaffold Gentlemen It is the desire of Sir John Hotham That since he hath in his chamber fully discovered to divers Ministers his mind fully and clearly that many questions may not be put to him here but that he may seriously and quietly speak what he is guilty of and what he is guiltless in and so the Lord direct him Sir John Hothams Speech Gentlemen I Know no more of my self but this That I deserve this Death from God Almighty and that I deserve damnation and the severest punishments from him As for the business of Hull the betraying of it from the Parliament the Ministers have all been with me and given me good counsell I thank them Neither was I any waies guilty of it that 's all I can say to that Act. For other offences rash words anger and such things no man hath been more guilty I beseech God to forgive me I have received as many favours as any man from God and I have been as ingrateful as
with God least of all in matter of Religion and therefore I desire it may be remembred I have always lived in the Protestant Religion established in England and in that I come now to die What Clamors and Slanders I have endured for labouring to keep an Uniformity in the external service of God according to the Doctrine and Disciplice of this Church all men know and I have abundantly felt Now at last I am accused of high Treason in Parliament a crime which my soul ever abhorred this Treason was charged upon me to consist of two parts An endeavour to subvert the Law of the Realm and a like endeavour to overthrow the true Protestant Religion established by those Laws Besides my Answers which I gave to the severall Charges I protested my innocency in both Houses it was said Prisoners protestations at the Barre must not be taken de ipso I can bring no witnesse of my heart and the intentions thereof therefore I must come to my Protestation not at the bar but to my Protestation at this hour and instant of my death in which as I said before I hope all men will be such charitable Christians as not to think I would die and dissemble my Religion I doe therefore here with that caution that I delivered before without all prejudice in the world to my Judges that are to proceed secundum allegata probata and so to be understood I die in the presence of Almighty God and all his holy and blessed Angels and I take it now on my death that I never endeavoured the subversion of the Laws of the Realm nor never any change of the Protestant Religion into Popish superstition and I desire you all to remember this Protest of mine for my innocency in these and from all manner of Treasons whatsoever I have been accused likewise as an enemy to Parliaments no God forbid I understood them and the benefits that come by them a great deal too well to be so but I did indeed dislike some misgovernments as I conceived of some few one or two Parliaments and I did conceive humbly that I might have reason for it for corruptio optimi est pessima There is no corruption in the world so bad as that which is of the best thing in it self for the better the thing is in nature the worse it is corrupted and this being the highest and greatest Court over which no other can have any jurisdiction in the Kingdome if by any way a mis-government which God forbid should any ways fall upon it the Subjects of this Kingdome are left without all manner of remedy and therefore God preserve them and bless them and direct them that there may be no mis-conceit much lesse mis-government amongst them I will not inlarge my self any further I have done I forgive all the world all and every of those bitter enemies or others whosoever they have been which have any wayes prosecuted me in this kind and I humbly desire to be forgiven first of God and then of every man whether I have offended him or no if he doe but conceive that I have Lord doe thou forgive me and I beg forgivenesse of him and so I heartily desire you to joyn with me in prayer The Bishop of Canterburies first prayer on the Scaffold O Eternall God and mercifull Father look down upon me in mercy in the riches and fulnesse of all thy mercies look upon me but not till thou hast nailed my sins to the Cross of Christ look upon me but not till thou hast bathed me in the blood of Christ not till I have hid my self in the wounds of Christ that so the punishment that is due to my sinnes may passe away and goe over me and since thou art pleased to try me to the uttermost I humbly beseech thee give me now in this great instant full patience proportionable comfort a heart ready to die for thine honour the Kings happinesse and the Churches preservation and my zeal to these farre from arrogancy be it spoken is all the sin humane frailty excepted and all incidents thereunto which is yet known of me in this particular for which I now come to suffer I say in this particular of Treason but otherwise my sinnes are many and great Lord pradon them all and those especially whatsoever they be which have drawn down this present Judgment upon me and when thou hast given me strength to bear it then doe with me as seems best in thy own eyes and carry me through death that I may look upon it in what visage soever it shall appear to me and that there may be a stop of this issue of blood in this more then miserable Kingdome I shall desire that I may pray for the people too as well as for my self O Lord I beseech thee give grace of repentance to all people that have a thirst for blood but if they will not repent then scatter their devices so and such as are or shall be contrary to the glory of thy great name the truth and sincerity of Religion the establishment of the King and his Posterity after him in their just Rights and Priviledges the honour and conservation of Parliaments in their ancient and just power the preservation of this poor Church in her truth peace and patrimony and the setlement of this distracted and distressed people under their ancient Laws and in their native Liberties and when thou hast done all this in meer mercy for them O Lord fill their hearts with thankfulnesse and with religious dutifull obedience to thee and thy Commandments all their daies So Amen Lord Jesus and I beseech thee receive my soul to mercy Our Father which art in Heaven Hollowed be thy Name Thy Kingdome come Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil Amen When he had finished his Prayer he gave his Paper to Doctor Sterne saying Doctor I give you this that you may shew it to your Fellow-Chaplains that they may see how I am gone out of the world and Gods blessing and his mercy be upon them Then turning to Master Hinde he said Friend I beseech you hear me I cannot say I have spoken every word as it is in my Paper but I have gone very neer it to help my memory as well as I could but I beseech you let me have no wrong done me Hinde Sir you shall not if I doe any wrong let it fall on my own head I pray God have mercy on your soul Cant. I thank you I did not speak with any jealousie as if you would doe so but I spake it onely as a poor man going out of the world it is not possible for me to keep to the words in my paper and a phrase may doe me wrong I did think here would have been an
and to him who is yesterday to day and the same for ever against whom the powers and principalities the gates of Hell shall never be able to prevail lift up and fasten your eyes now upon Christ crucified and labour to behold Jesus stand at the right hand of his Father as the Protomartyr Stephen ready to receive your soul when it shall be separated from this frail and mortal body Alas no man would desire life if he knew beforehand what it were to live it is nothing but sorrow vexation and trouble grief and discontent that waits upon every condition whether publick or private in every station and calling there are several miseries and troubles that are inseparable from them therefore what a blessed thing it is to have a speedy and comfortable passage out of this raging Sea into the Port of everlasting Happiness We must passe through a Sea but it is the Sea of Christs Bloud in which never soul suffered shipwrack in which we must be blown with winds and tempests but they are the Gales of Gods Spirit upon us which blow away all contrary winds of diffidence in his mercy Here one acquainting the Earl his servant was coming he answered So Sir And turning to the under-Sheriffs Son said Cambridg Sir you have your Warrant here Sheriff Yes my Lord we have a Command Cambridg A Command I take this time Sir of staying in regard of the Earl of Denbighs sending to speak with me I know not for what it is he desires me to stay Dr. Sibbald I presume Mr. Sheriff will not grudg your Lordship a few minutes time when so great a work as this is in hand His Lordships servant being returned and having delivered his message to the Earl of Cambridg privately he said So it is done now and then turning to the front of the Scaffold before which as in all the rest of the Palaces there was a great concourse of people he said Cambridg I think it is truly not very necessary for me to speak much there are many Gentlemen and Souldiers there that sees me but my voyce truly is so weak so low that they cannot hear me neither truly was I ever at any time so much in love with speaking or with any thing I had to express that I took delight in it yet this being the last time that I am to do so by a divine Providence of Almighty God who hath brought me to this end justly for my sins I shall to you Sir Mr. Sheriff declare thus much as to the matter that I am now to suffer for which is as being a Traytor to the Kingdom of England Truly Sir it was a Country that I equally loved with my own I made no difference I never intended either the generality of its prejudice or any particular mans in it what I did was by the Command of the Parliament of the Country where I was born whose Commands I could not disobey without running into the same hazard there of that condition that I am now in The ends Sir of that Engagement is publick they are in Print and so I shall not need to specifie them Dr. Sibbald The Sun perhaps will be too much in your Lordships face as you speak Cambridg No Sir it will not burn it I hope I shall see a brighter Sun then this Sir very speedily Dr. Sibbald The Sun of Righteousnesse my Lord. Cambridg But to that which I was saying Sir It pleased God so to dispose that Army under my Command as it was ruined and I as their General clothed with a Commission stand here now ready to dye I shall not trouble you with repeating of my Plea what I said in my own Defence at the Court of JUSTICE my self being satisfied with the commands that is laid upon me and they satisfied with the Justnesse of their procedure according to the Laws of this Land God is just and howsoever I shall not say any thing as to the matter of the sentence but that I do willingly submit to his Divine Providence and I acknowledg that very many ways I deserve even a worldly punishment as well as hereafter for we are all sinful Sir and I a great one yet for my comfort I know there is a God in heaven that is exceeding merciful I know my Redeemer sits at his Right Hand and am confident clapping his hand to his Breast is Mediating for me at this instant I am hopeful through his free grace and all-sufficient merits to be pardoned of my sins and to be received into his mercy upon that I rely trusting to nothing but the Free Grace of God through Jesus Christ I have not been tainted with my Religion I thank God for it since my infancy it hath been such as hath been profest in the Land and established and now 't is not this Religion or that Religion or this or that Fancy of men that is to be built upon 't is but one that 's right one that 's sure and that comes from God Sir and in the free grace of our Saviour Sir there is truly something that had I thought my Speech would have been thus taken I would have digested it into some better method then now I can and shall desire these Gentlemen that do write it that they will not wrong me in it and that it may not in this manner be published to my disadvantage for truly I did not intend to have spoken thus when I came here There is sirs terrible aspersions has been laid upon my self truly such as I thank God I am very free from as if my actions and intentions had not been such as they were pretended for but that notwithstanding what I pretended it was for the King there was nothing less intended then to serve him in it I was bred with him for many years I was his domestick servant and there was nothing declar'd by the Parliament that was not really intended by me and truly in it I ventured my life one way and now I lose it another way and that was one of the ends as to the King I speak onely of that because the rest has many particulars and to clear my self from so horrid an aspersion as is laid upon me neither was there any other design known to me by the incoming of the Army then what is really in the Declaration published His person I do profess I had reason to love as he was my King and as he had been my master it has pleased God now to dispose of him so as it cannot be thought flattery to have said this or any end in me for the saying of it but to free my self from that calumny which lay upon me I cannot gain by it yet Truth is that which we shall gain by for ever There hath been much spoken Sir of an invitation into this Kingdom it 's mentioned in that Declaration and truly to that I did and do remit my self and I have been very much laboured for discoveries
of these Inviters 'T is no time to dissemble How willingly I was to have served this Nation in any thing that was in my power is known to very many honest pious and religious men and how ready I would have been to have done what I could to have served them if it had pleased them to have preserved my life in whose hands there was a power They have not thought it fit and so I am become unuseful in that which willingly I would have done As I said at first Sir so I say now concerning that point I wish the Kingdoms happiness I wish it peace and truly Sir I wish that this bloud of mine may be the last that is drawn and howsoever I may perhaps have some reluctancy with my self as to the matter of my fact for my suffering for my fact yet I freely forgive all Sir I carry no rancour along with me to my grave His Will be done that has created both Heaven and Earth and me a poor miserable sinful creature now speaking before him For me to speak Sir to you State-business and the Government of the Kingdom or my opinion in that or for any thing in that nature truly it is to no end it contributes nothing My own inclination hath been to peace from the beginning and it is known to many that I never was an ill instrument betwixt the King and his people I never acted to the prejudice of the Parliament I bore no Arms I medled not with it I was not wanting by my prayers to God Almighty for the happiness of the King and truly I shall pray still that God may so direct him as that may be done which shall tend to his glory the peace happiness of the Kingdom I have not much more to say that I remember of I think I have spoken of my Religion D. Sibbald Your Lordship has not so fully said it Camb. Truly I do believe I did say something D. Sibbald I know you did 't is pleasing to hear it from your Lordship again Camb. Truly Sir for the profession of my Religion that which I said was the established Religion and that which I have practised in my own Kingdom where I was born and bred my Tenents they need not to be exprest they are known to all and I am not of a rigid opinion many godly men there is that may have scruples which do not concern me at all at no time they may differ in Opinion and now more then at any time differing in Opinion does not move me not any mans my own is clear Sir The Lord forgive me my sins and I forgive freely all those that even I might as a worldly man have the greatest animosity against We are bidden to forgive Sir 'T is a command laid upon us and there mentioned Forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us D. Sibb 'T is our Saviours rule Love your Enemies Bless them that Curse you pray for them that persecute you do good to them that despightfully use you Camb. Sir it is high time for me to make an end of this and truly I remember no more that I have to say but to pray to God Almighty a few words and then I have done Then kneeling down with D. Sibbald he prayed thus MOst Blessed Lord I thy poor and most unworthy servant come unto thee presuming in thy infinite Mercy and the Merits of Jesus Christ who sits upon the Throne I come flying from that of Justice to that of Mercy and Tenderness for his Sake which shed his blood for sinners that he would take Compassion upon me that he will look upon we as one that graciously hears me that he would look upon me as one that hath Redeemed me that he would look upon me as one that hath shed his blood for me that he would look upon me as one who now calls and hopes to be saved by his All-sufficient merits For his sake Glorious God have Compassion upon me in the Freeness of thy infinite Mercy that when this sinful soul of mine shall depart out of this frail Carcass of Clay I may be carried into thy Everlasting Glory O Lord by thy Free Grace and out of thy infinite mercy hear me and look down and have Compassion upon me and thou Lord Jesus thou my Lord and thou my God and thou my Redeemer hear me take pity upon me take pity upon me gracious God and so deal with my soul that by thy precious merits I may attain to thy joy and bliss O Lord remember me so miserable and sinful a creature now thou O Lord thou O Lord that dyed for me receive me and receive me into thy own bound of mercy O Lord I trust in thee suffer me not now to be confounded Satan has had too long possession of this soul O let him not now prevail against it but let me O Lord from henceforth dwell with thee for evermore Now Lord it is thy time to hear me hear me gracious Jesus even for thy own Goodness Mercy and Truth O Glorious God O Blessed Father O Holy Redeemer O Gracious Comforted O Holy and Blessed Trinity I do render up my soul into thy hands and commit it with the Mediation of my Redeemer Praising thee for all thy Dispensations that it has pleased thee to confer upon me and even for this Praise and Honour and Thanks from this time forth for evermore D. Sibbald My Lord I trust you now behold with the Eye of Faith the Son of Righteousness shining upon your soul and will cheerfully submit unto him who hath Redeemed us through his Blood even the Blood of Jesus Christ that you may appear at the Tribunal of God clothed with the White Robe of his Unspotted Righteousness the Lord grant that with the Eye of Faith you may now see the Heavens opened and Jesus Christ standing at the Right Hand of God ready to receive you into his Arms of Mercy Camb. Then the Earl turning to the Executioner said Shall I put on another Cap Must this Hair be turn'd up from my Neck There are three of my servants to give satisfaction D. Sibbald My Lord I hope you are able to give all that are about you satisfaction you are assured that God is reconciled unto you through the Blood of Christ Jesus and the Spirit of the Lord witnesseth to you that Christ is become now a Jesus unto you My Lord fasten the Eyes of your Faith upon Jesus the Author and Finisher of your Salvation who himself was brought to a violent death for the Redemption of Mankind he chearfully submitted to his Fathers good pleasure in it and for us Blessed and holy is he that hath part my Lord in the first resurrection that is in the first Riser Jesus Christ who is both the Resurrection and the Life over him the second death shall have no power 'T is the unspeakable joy of a Believer that at the hour of death his soul
hath an immediate passage from this earthly Tabernacle to that Region of endless glory yea to the presence of God himself in whose presence is fulness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore Then the E. of Cambridge turning to the Executioner said which way is it that you would have me lie Sir Execut. The Executioner pointing to the front of the Scaffold the Earl replyed What my Head this way Then the Under-Sheriffs son said my Lord the Order is that you should lay your head towards the High Court of Justice The E. of Cambridge after a little discourse in private with some of his servants kneeled down on the side of the Scaffold and prayed a while to himself When he had finisht his prayer D. Sibbald spake to him thus My Lord I humbly beseech God that you may now with a holy and Christian courage give up your soul to the hand of your faithful Creator and gracious Redeemer and not be dismayed with any sad apprehension of the terrors of this death and what a blessed and glorious exchange you shall make within a very few minutes Then with a chearfull and smiling countenance the Earl embracing the Doctor in his Arms said Camb. Truly Sir I do take you in mine Arms and truly I bless God for it I do not fear I have an assurance that is grounded here laying his hand upon his heart Now that gives me more true joy then ever I had I pass out of a miserable world to go into an eternal and glorious Kingdome and Sir though I have been a most sinful creature yet Gods mercy I know is infinite and I bless my God for it I go with so clear a Conscience that I know not the man that I have personally injured D. Sibbald My Lord it is a marvellous great satisfaction that at this last hour you can say so I beseech the Lord for his eternal mercy strengthen your Faith that in the very moment of your Dissolution you may see the Arms of the Lord Jesus stretched out ready to receive your soul Then the Earl of Cambridge embracing those his Servants which were there present said to each of them You have been very faithful to me and the Lord bless you Camb. Then turning to the Executioner said I shall say a very short Prayer to my God while I lie down there and when I stretch out my hand my right hand then Sir do your Duty and I do freely forgive you and so I do all the world D. Sibbald The Lord in great mercy go along with You and bring You to the possession of everlasting life strengthning Your Faith in Jesus Christ This is a passage My Lord a short passage unto eternal glory I hope through the free grace of Your gracious God You are now able to say O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy Victory and to make this comfortable answer Blessed be God blessed be God who hath given me an assurance of victory through Christ Jesus Then the Earl of Cambridge said to the Executioner Must I lie all along Execut. Yes and 't please your Lordship Camb. When I stretch out my hands but I will fit my head first tell me if I be right and how you would have me lie Ex. Your shirt must be pinn'd back for it lie too high upon your shoulders which was done accordingly D. Sibbald My Lord Now now lift up Your eyes unto Jesus Christ and cast Your self now into the everlasting Arms of Your gracious Redeemer Then the Earl having laid his head over the Block said Is this right D. Sibbald Jesus the Son of David have mercy upon You. Execut. Lie a little lower Sir Camb. Well Stay then till I give you the signe And so having layn a short space devoutly praying to himself he stretched out his right hand whereupon the Executioner at one blow severed his head from his body which was received by two of his servants then kneeling by him into a Crimson Taffaty Scarf and that with the body immediately put into a Coffin brought upon the Scaffold for that purpose and from thence conveyed to the house that was Sir John Hamiltons at the Mews This execution being done the Sheriffs Guard went immediately to meet the Earl of Holland which they did in the mid-way between the Scaffold and Westminster-Hall and the Under-Sheriffs son having received him into his charge conducted him to the Scaffold he taking M. Bolton all the way in his hand passed all along to the Scaffold discoursing together upon which being come observing his voice would not reach to the people in regard the Guard compassed the Scaffold he said Henry Lord Rich Earl of Holland His Speech on the Scaffold immediately before his Death March 9. 1649. Holland IT is to no purpose I think to speak any thing here Which may must I speak And then being directed to the front of the Scaffold he leaning over the Rayls said I think it is sit to say something since God hath called me to this place The first thing which I must profess is what concerns my Religion and my Breeding which hath been in a good Family that hath ever been faithful to the true Protestant Religion in the which I have been bred in the which I have lived and in the which by Gods grace and mercy I shall dye I have not lived according to that Education I had in that Family where I was born and bred I hope God will forgive me my sins since I conceive it is very much his pleasure to bring me to this place for the sins that I have committed The cause that hath brought me hither I believe by many hath been much mistaken They have conceived that I have had ill Designs to the State and to the Kingdome Truly I look upon it as a Judgement and a just Judgement of God not but I have offended so much the State and the Kingdome and the Parliament as that I have had an extream vanity in serving them very extraordinarily For those Actions that I have done I think it is known they have been ever very faithful to the Publike and very particularly to Parliaments My Affections have been ever exprest truly and clearly to them The dispositions of Affairs now have put things in another posture then they were when I was engaged with the Parliament I have never gone off from those Principles that ever I have professed I have lived in them and by Gods grace will die in them There may be Alterations and Changes that may carry them further then I thought reasonable and truly there I left them But there hath been nothing that I have said or done or professed either by Covenant or Declaration which hath not been very constant and very clear upon the principles that I ever have gone upon which was to serve the King the Parliament Religion I should have said in the first place the Commonwealth and to seek the
hath forgiven and too readily drunk in by others whom I pray God to forgive As for my crime as some are pleased to term it which was objected against me by the Council of war for Bootle's death was never mentioned against me there that being onely secretly used to raise a prejudice against me in the judgments of such as did not know me my crime I say though I hope it deserves a farre better name was that I came into my own Country with my own lawfull King I came in obedience to his Majesties call whom both by the laws of God and the laws of this land I conceived my self obliged to obey and according to the protestation I took in Parliament in the time of that blessed Prince his Father so if it be my crime I here confesse it again before God Angels and men that I love Monarchy as the best government and I die with Love and Honour and for the Love and Honour I bear to my Master that now is CHARLES the second of that name whom I my self in this Countrey proclaimed King the Lord blesse and preserve him and incline the hearts of those that have power in this Nation to accept him to his Fathers Throne with Honour and Peace for certainly as I believe this Nation will never be well contented never throughly happy without a King so I believe also that King CHARLES the second our now lawfull King were he a stranger to this Crown were the most fit and most accomplisht Prince that this day lives to take the government of this people his admirable piety vertue justice great valour and discretion far above so few years doth now make him in all places he comes highly beloved and will hereafter make him honourable among all Nations and I wish the people of this Nation so much happinesse when my eyes are closed that he may peaceably be received to the injoyment of his just right and then they shall never want their just rights which till then they will always want As for my being in armes in the beginning of this war I professe here in the presence of my God before whom within a few minutes I must make an account for this profession I onely fought for peace and setling the late King my Master in his just rights and the maintenance of the laws of this land and that I had no other designe intent or purpose for my then taking up armes and for this last ingagement I professe here again in the presence of the same God that I did it for the restoring of my lawfull Soveraign into that Throne out of which his Father was most unchristianly and barbarously taken by the most unjust sentence of a pretended Court of Justice and himself against law and all Justice kept out and dispossest of and this was all my reason For as for estate or quality I wanted not a sufficient competency neither was I ever ambitious to enlarge either for by the favour of my King's Predecessors my family was raised to a condition well known in this Country and now it is as well known that by his enemies I am adjudged to die and that by new and monstrous laws as making me an enemy to my Country for fighting for my Country as a Traitor to the laws for endeavouring to preserve the laws But Oh! God give me grace to consider him who suffered such contradictions of sinners and O my God assert the King to his Fathers Throne assert the laws to their former honour and restore thy own religion in its purity that all these shadows and false pretences of religion may vanish away and our childrens posterities may serve thee in spirit and in truth Good friends I die for the King the laws of the land the Protestant Religion maintained in the Church of England all as which I was ready to maintain with my life so I cheerfully suffer for them in this welcome death I am sentenced to death by a Council of Warre after quarter for life and assurance of honourable and safe usage by Captain Edge I had reason to have expected the Council would have justified my Plea which hath been Ancient Honourable Sacred and Unviolable untill this time that I am made the first suffering President for I dare affirm it that never Gentleman before in any Christian Nation was adjudged to death by a Council of war after quarter given I am the first and I pray God I may be the last president in this case I must die and I thank God I am ready for it Death would now be my choice had I the whole World in competition with it I leave nothing behind me which I much care for but my King my Wife Children and Friends whom I trust the never-failing mercies of my God will provide for I beseech God shew mercy to those who neither had mercy nor justice for me my blessed Saviour taught me by his example and command both to pray for my enemies and to so give my enemies I forgive them freely even those that contrived my ruine and pursued me to death I thank God I never personally offended them to my knowledge in my life and let me not offend against them at my death I forgive them freely and pray God for Christs sake to forgive them also Of my Faith and Religion I shall not I hope need to say much herein I hope my enemies if now I have any will speak for me I professe my faith to be in God only from whom I look for my salvation through the precious merits and sufferings of my blessed Saviour Jesus Christ which merits and sufferrings are applyed to my soul by the blessed Spirit of comfort the Spirit of God by whom I am assured in my own Soul that my God is reconciled unto me in Jesus Christ my blessed Redeemer I die a Dutiful Son to the Church of England as it was established in that blessed Prince my late Masters Reign which all men of Learning and Temperance will acknowledge to be the most pure and agreeable to the word of God and Primitive government of any Church within 12. or 1300. years since Christ and which to my great comfort I left established in the Isle of man God preserve it there and restore it to this Nation And O blessed God I magnifie thy name that thou gavest me the happinesse and mercy to be born in a Christian Nation and in a Nation where thy truth was professed in purity with honour to thy name and comfort to thy people I ascribe the comforts of thy Holy Spirit which I feel in my bosome to the Ministery of thy Word and Sacraments conveyed unto me in thy Church and made effectual by the operation of the same blessed Spirit In this faith good people I have lived and in this I die pray for me I beseech you and the God of mercies hear your prayers and my prayers for mine and your salvation Presently after the tumult was
that coming on the road to Exon he the said Captain Crook told me Sir Joseph Wagstaffe was a gallant Gentleman and that he was sorry he was not taken with us that then he might have had the benefit of our Articles but now said he I have beset all the Country for him so that he cannot escape but must be hanged He also questioned me as I passed through Salisbury from London whether he had given me conditions Which I endeavouring to make appear to Major Butler he interrupted me and unwillingly confess 't it saying I profered him four hundred pounds to perform his Articles which had been a strange profer of mine had I not really conditioned with him And I told him then having found him unworthy I would have given him five hundred pounds believing him to be mercenary To make it yet farther appear I injure him not by styling him unworthy after these Articles were given he profered to pistoll me if I did not perswade another house to yield which then were boldly resisting To which my servant John Biby now a prisoner replyed I hope you will not be so unworthy as to break the Law of Arms. Thus much I am obliged to say to the honour of the Soulderie that they have been so far from breaking any Articles given to others that they have rather bettered them then otherwise It is now our misfortune to be made presidents and examples together but I will not doe the Protectour so much injury as to load him with this dishonour since I have been informed that he would have made our conditions good if Crook that gave them had not abjur'd them This is not a time for me to enlarge upon any subject since I am now become the Subject of death But since the Articles were drawn by my hand I thought my self obliged to a particular Justification of them I could tell you of some souldiers which are turned out of his troup for defending those conditions of ours but let that passe and henceso ward in stead of life liberty and estate which were the Articles agreed upon let drawing hanging and quartering bear the Denomination of Captain Crooks Articles However I thank the Protectour for granting me this honourable Death I should now give you an account of my Faith But truly gentlemen this poor Nation is rent into so many severall opinions that it is impossible for me to give you mine without displeasing some of you However if any man be so criticall as to enquire of what faith I die I shall refer him to the Apostles Athanasius and the Nicene Creed and to the testimony of this Reverend gentleman D. Short to whom I have unbosomed my self and if this doe not satisfie look in the thirty nine Articles of the Catholick Church of England to them I have subscribed and do own them as authentick Having now given you an accompt concerning my self I hold my self obliged in duty to some of my friends to take off a suspition which lyes upon them I mean as to some persons of Honour which upon my examination I was charged to have held correspondency with The Marquesse of Hartford the Marquesse of Winchester and my Lord of Pembrook were the persons nominated to me I did then acquit them and do now second it with this protestation That I never held any correspondency with either or any of them in relation to this particular businesse or indeed to any thing which concern'd the Protectour or his Government As for the Marquesse of Winchester I saw him some twelve years since and not later and if I should see him here present I believe I should not know him And for the Earl of Pembrook he was not a man likely to whom I should discover my thoughts because he is a man of a contrary judgement I was examined likewise concening my Brother Freke my Cousin Hastings Mr. Dorrington and others It is probable their estates may make them liable to this my condition but I doe here so far acquit them as to give the world this farther protestation that I am confident they are as innocent in this businesse as the youngest child here I have no more to say to you now but to let you know that I am in charity with all men I thank God I both can and doe forgive my greatest persecutors and all that ever had any hand in my death I have offered the Protectour as good security for my future demeanour as I suppose he could have expected if he had thought sit to have given me my life certainly I should not have been so ungratefull as to have imployed it against him I do humbly submit to Gods pleasure knowing that the issues of life and death are in his hand My bloud is but a small sacrifice if it had been saved I am so much a Gent. as to have given thanks to him that preserved it and so much a Christian as to forgive them which take it But seeing God by his providence hath called me to lay it down I willingly submit to it though terrible to nature but blessed be my Saviour who hath taken out the sting so that I look upon it without terrour Death is a debt and a due debt and it hath pleased God to make me so good a husband that I am come to pay it before it is due I am not ashamed of the cause for which I die but rather rejoyce that I am thought worthy to suffer in the defence and cause of Gods true Church my lawful King the liberty of the Subject and Priviledge of Parliaments Therefore I hope none of my alliance and friends will be ashamed of it it is so far from pulling down my Family that I look upon it as the raising of it one story higher Neither was I so prodigal of nature as to throw away my life but have used though none but honourable and honest means to preserve it These unhappy times indeed have been very fatall to my family two of my Brothers already slain and my self going to the slaughter it is Gods will and I humbly submit to that providence I must render an acknowledgment of the great civilities that I have received from this City of Exon and some persons of quality and for their plentifull provision made for the prisoners I thank Mr. Sheriff for his favour towards us in particular to my self and I desire him to present my due respects to the Protectour and though he had no mercy for my self yet that he would have respect to my family I am now stripping off my cloaths to fight a duell with death I conceive no other duell lawful but my Saviour hath pulled out the sting of this mine enemy by making himself a sacrifice for me And truly I do not think that man deserving one drop of his bloud that will not spend all for him in so good a cause The Truth is Gentlemen in this Age Treason is an individuum vagum like the wind in the
Gospel it bloweth where it listeth So now Treason is what they please and lighteth upon whom they will Indeed no man except he will be a Traitour can avoid this Censure of Treason I know not to what end it may come but I pray God my own and my Brothers bloud that is now to die with me may be the last upon this score Now Gentlemen you may see what a condition you are in without a King you have no Law to protect you no rule to walk by when you perform your duty to God your King and Country you displease the Arbitrary power now set up I cannot call it government I shall leave you peruse my Tryal and there you shall see what a condition this poor Nation is brought into and no question will be utterly destroyed if not restored by Loyal Subjects to its old and glorious Government I pray God he lay not his Judgements upon England for their sluggishnesse in doing their duty and readinesse to put their hands in their bosoms or rather taking part with the Enemy of Truth The Lord open their eyes that they may be no longer lead or drawn into such snares else the Child unborn will curse the day of their Parents birth God Almighty preserve my Lawful King Charles the second from the hands of his Enemies and break down that wall of Pride and Rebellion which so long hath kept him from his just Rights God preserve his Royal Mother and all his Majesties Royal Brethren and incline their hearts to seek after him God incline the hearts of all true English men to stand up as one Man to bring in the King and Redeem themselves and this poor Kingdom out of its more then Egyptian slavery As I have now put off these garments of cloth so I hope I have put off my garments of sin and have put on the Robes of Christs Righteousness here which will bring me to the enjoyment of his glorious Robes anon Then he kneeled down and kissed the block and said thus I commit my soul to God my Creator and Redeemer Look on me O Lord at my last gasping Hear my prayer and the prayers of all good people I thank thee O God for all thy dispensations to wards me Then kneeling down he prayed most devoutly as followeth O Eternall Almighty and most mercifull God the Righteous Judge of all the world look down in mercy on me a miserable sinner O blessed Jesus Redeemer of Mankind which takest away the sinnes of the world let thy perfect manner of obedience be presented to thy Heavenly Father for me Let thy precious death and bloud be the ransome and satisfaction of my many and haynous transgressions Thou that sittest at the right hand of God make intercession for me O holy and blessed Spirit which are the comforter fill my heart with thy consolations O holy blessed and glorious Trinity be mercifull to me confirm my faith in the promises of the Gospel revive and quicken my hope and expectation of joyes prepared for true and faithful servants Let the infinite Love of God my Saviour make my love to him stedfast sincere and constant O Lord consider my condition accept my tears asswage my grief give comfort and confidence in thee impute not unto me my former sinnes but most mercifull Father receive me into thy favour for the merits of Christ Jesus Many and grievous are my sins for I have sinned many times against the light of knowledg against remorse of conscience against the motions and opportunities of grace But accept I beseech thee the sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart in and for the perfect sacrifice oblation and satisfaction of thy Son Jesus Christ O Lord receive my soul after it is delivered from the burthen of the flesh into perfect-joy in the sight and fruition of thee And at the generall resurrection grant that my body may be endowed with immortality and received with my soul into glory I praise thee O God I acknowledge thee to be the Lord. O Lamb of God that takest away the sinnes of the world have mercy on me Thou that sittest at the right hand of God hear my prayer O Lord Jesus Christ God and Man Mediatour betwixt God and Man I have sinned as a Man be thou mercifull to me as a God O holy and blessed Spirit help my infirmities with those sighs and groans which I cannot expresse Then he desired to see the Axe and kissed it saying I am like to have a sharp passage of it but my Saviour hath sweetned it unto me Then he said if I would have been so unworthy as others have been I suppose I might by a lie have saved my life which I scorn to purchase at such a rate I defie such temptations and them that gave them me Glory be to God on high On Earth peace Good will towards Men. And the Lord have mercy upon my poor soul Amen So laying his Neck upon the block after some private Ejaculations he gave the Heads-man a sign with his hand who at one blow severed his head from his body The Speech of that piously resolved Hugh Grove of Chisenbury in the parish of Enford and County of Wilts Esquire beheaded the 16. day of May 1655. in the Castle at Exon. Good people I Never was guilty of much Rhetorick nor ever loved long Speeches in all my life and therefore you cannot expect either of them from me now at my death All that I shall desire of you besides your hearty prayers for my soul is That you would bear me witnesse I die a true son of the Church of England as it was established by King Edward the sixth Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles the first of ever blessed memory That I die a Loyall subject to King Charles the second my undoubted Soveraign and a lover of the good old Laws of the Land the just priviledges of Parliaments and Rights and Liberties of the People for the re-establishing of all which I doe undertake this ingagement and for which I am ready to lay down my life God forgive the bloudy-minded Jury and those that procured them God forgive Captain Crook for denying his Articles so unworthily God forgive Mr. Dove and all other persons swearing so malitiously and falsely against me God forgive all my enemies I heartily forgive them God blesse the King and all that love him turn the hearts of all that hate him God blesse you all and be mercifull to you and to my Soul Amen And so meekly laying his neck to the block and giving a signe his head at one blow and a draw of the axe was severed from his body The manner of the Execution of Sir Henry Slingsby on Tuesday the 8. of June 1658. With the substance of his speech before his Death ABout Eleven of the clock Sir Henry Slingsby was brought from the Tower to the Scaffold on Tower-Hill whither being come he fell upon his knees and for a short space prayed