pleased over the King 's Natural Subjects but he must mock and deride with the ignorant multitude the Danish Ambassadors also and use them with all the despight imaginable for it seems they knowing his former meanness in Swedeland made no great Court to him which raised his Fury this was quickly perceived by some about the King whom the Earls Practices and Insolence had disobliged and who failed not to let the King know it and for all the Earls Ascendency made him somewhat to decline in Favour which another accident gave a helping hand to for Sir Francis Russell upon some disorders that fell out upon the Borders happening to be slain of the English side Mr. Woton the English Ambassador who stood in competition with the Earl for the King's Favour took occasion to lay the blame upon him alledging that the Laird of Fernihast who was Warden of the Scots Borders had Married the Earl of Arran's Brothers Daughter and that the said Earl had caused the slaughter to be committed that the Borders might break loose Wotton was seconded by others in this complaint so effectually that the Earl was committed prisoner to the Castle of St. Andrews where having remained for a few days he got by the intercession of the Master of Gray whom he won with fair promises to be his Friend It 's strange he should find any who had disobliged every Body leave to retire to his own House and here the King played a Noble prank but whether he used it as Lex talionis for the sham-Ring Arran had put upon Walsingham as aforesaid and which he durst not otherwise punish I am not certain but it looks like his little tricks which notwithstanding he dignified with the name of Kingcraft for when the Earl was upon his journey homeward he sends to him with all possible diligence for to lend him a great Gold Chain which he knew he had got from Sir James Belfour which weighed 57 Crowns to be given to the Danish Ambassadors which if the Earl had refused to do he would it's likely have lost the King and in delivering of it he lost his Chain Arran being thus retired makes several attempts to recover his former station and the King it was observed retained a Favour for him and would have been content to have Himself and Kingdom still Governed by him he was once again admitted to Court but others had stepped in and the King had not power to remove them so that the Earl after long retirement and discontent was surprized at last by James Douglass at Parkhead and slain by him in revenge of the death of the Earl of Morton his Unkle and but little care taken to punish the same many thinking it indeed strange that he should be permitted so long to live who had carried it so arrogantly and insolently towards all Men in the time of his Ascendency at Court but several other Accidents intervened before the Earls Exit The next Man that had the chief Credit and Management of Affairs was Mr. Wotton the English Ambassador but tho' the King begun now to be Governed by a Favourite and a Forreiner under this Character yet it did not end here as you shall hear by and by when the Scene is transplanted into England Wotton knew as well as any Man alive how to humour him in his pleasures and such familiar access had he at all times to his Person that he attempted to have brought in the banished Lords whose Interest he had espoused not without the direction to be sure of the English Court secretly into his presence in the Parish of Sterling at such a time as they should have so many Friends at Court that he must have remained once more at their Devotion but all things did not so concur as to put this Enterprize in practice so it was laid aside and Mr. Wotton essayed a Second but more desperate attempt which was to Kidnap Jemmy out of the foresaid Park into England see Sir James Melvill but Sir Robert Melvill coming to a timeous Knowledge hereof took measures to prevent it which made the English Ambassador withdraw home without bidding of them once a good night the Lords for all this enter the Borders being assisted by the Lords Hamilton Maxwel Hume and several others and advance to the number of Three thousand Men towards Sterling entring the Town without any opposition where they were no sooner arrived but there appear'd two Factions with the King in the Castle the one favouring the Lords whose part the King took as if he had really desired the Lords should have come thither in this manner to tear his Minions from his Heart and so once more the King is in their Power which they exercised with great moderation only a few were committed for the present to the custody of some Noblemen and so a Parliament was called as the best expedient to heal all their breaches Things continued in some sort of Concord for a little while and the Convicting and Beheading of the Queen his Mother in England seemed to possess all their Minds with amazement at the Fact for the present tho' I do not find he did at all resent it but this was no sooner over but there appears a new Faction at Court headed by the Earl of Huntley whose aim was at the removing of the Master of Gray and Maitland the Chancellor with their Adherents but finding it was not so easily to be effected Huntley Bothwell and others contrived to seize the King's Person and to keep him in their custody but this proving Abortive the noise of the Spanish Invasion which was dreaded in Scotland as well as in England seemed to lay all Animosâ—tâ—es aside for the present but this blowing over the King's Thoughts seemed to be taken all up about Marrying the Sister of the King of Denmark was the Lady proposed and Queen Elizabeth consulted with thereupon who disswaded him therefrom and said she had Interest with the King and Princess of Navarr and that she would imploy the same for effectuating of a Marriage between him and the said Princess but the King was bent upon the former and because he found the Chancellor and some others oppose it he could not or would not be seen openly to controul them but dealt secretly with some of the Deacons of the Craftsmen of Edenburg to form a Mutiny against the Chancellor and some of the Council threat'ning to kill them in case the Marriage with the Daughter of Denmark were hindred or any longer delayed whereupon the Earl of Marshal was sent thither with Power to Treat about the said Marriage but withal in so stinted and limited a degree contrived by the Craft of the Chancellor and his Faction that he was necessitated to send the Lord Dinguall back from thence to desire either liberty to return hence or to have sufficient Power to conclude the Treaty when he came he hapned to find the King at Aberdeen without the Chancellor c so
Salisbury Worcester Suffolk Sir George Carew and Sir Julius Caesar to Interrogate with Cobham upon the said Head Cobham protested he never did nor could accuse Sir Walter but said That Villain Wade after a long Sollicitation so to do but not prevailing got him by a trick to write his Name upon a piece of Paper which he dreaming of no harm did so that if any Charge came under his Hand it must have been forged by Wade by Writing something above his Name without his Consent or Privity The Lords returning to the King made Salisbury their Spokesman who elusively said Sir My Lord Cobham hath made good all that ever he said and so the matter rested Sir Walter being no ways relieved hereby but the King further possest with his guilt but surely the baseness of those Lords and the King's credulity were unpardonable Crimes Soon after this Hodge-podge of a Plot the King and Queen were Crowned in great Pomp at Westminster And the same year a Conference was managed at Hampton-Court between the Prelatical and Puritan Party the latter conceiving great hopes that because of the King's Education in the Scots Discipline he would be of their side but they mistook quite their mark for he was by that time become Heart and Soul Episcopal and to give evident Demonstration of his entire Conversion issues out a Proclamation of which no Prince was ever so prodigal and which at last as naturally happens were as little regarded for Uniformity in Religion according to Law Established then at length comes a Parliament between whom and the King notwithstanding some mutual Caresses for a time arose several Jars and Jealousies but the discovery of the Gun-Powder Treason attributed to the King's Wisdom and Foresight seemed for a time to heal all the Breaches which hellish Contrivance against the King and Kingdom will fall pertinently enough to be noted in this place The Popish Party finding their Petition for a Toleration of Religion rejected grew enraged thereat and now nothing would serve but the Destruction of King Prince and the Representative Body of the whole Nation in Parliament and to that end they hid 36 Barrels of Gun-Powder under the Parliament House the principal Contriver whereof was Robert Catesby a Gentleman of a plentiful Estate who made choice of Thomas Piercy Winter Grant Ambrose Rookwood I am told the Ancestor of the late Ambrose Rookwood executed for Conspiring the Death of our Renowned Sovereign King William Wright Tresham Sir Everard Digby and others who are all bound to Secresie by those Sacraments which are the greatest Ties upon the Soul and St. Garnet the Jesuit was their Confessor Piercy was to hire the Cellars under the Parliament House to lay Wood and Coals in for his Winters Store and Guido Faux a desperate Ruffian who was to give Fire to the Train was appointed to be his Man to bring in Wood and Coals The Gun-Powder bought in Flanders was brought in the Night from Lambeth and covertly laid under the Wood and every thing made ready against the 7th of February whereon the Parliament was to meet but the Parliament being providentially Prorogued to the 5th of November following this dispersed the Conspirators for the present and made them almost at their Wits end but reassuming again their former Courage they resolve to carry on their Villany and to bear up with Patience till the day came They were sure the King and Prince must perish with the blow as for the Duke of York Piercy undertook to dispatch him but the Lady Elizabeth they resolved to save that under her Minority and Innocency they might the better establish their Bloody Principles of Piety and Policy and to that end they appointed a great Hunting Match to be at Dunsemore-Heath in Warwickshire to be nearer the Lord Harrington's House where the Lady Elizabeth then was on the 5th of November aforesaid Thus Solacing themselves in this Bloody Expectation and thinking all Cock-sure one tender-hearted Murderer among the rest writ a Letter to the Lord Monteagle wishing him to have a care of himself and to forbear his Attendance at that Parliament for God and Man had concurred to punish the Wickedness of the time and they should receive a terrible blow and yet not see who hurt them The Lord Monteagle thinking there might be something in the Letter oâ— dangerous Consequence though he understood it not carried the same to the Earl of Salisbury who also could not tell what to make of it but upon the King 's coming to Whitehall from Royston where he had been Hunting of a Hare he shewed him the Letter who being naturally of a fearful Temper and suspicious Mind ordered the Earl of Suffolk and Lord Monteagle to make a search about the Parliament House who entring into the Cellar and observing the Stores as aforesaid enquired of the Wardrobe Keeper Mr. Winyard who was also House-keeper whose they were Winyard replied he had let the Cellar to one Thomas Percy and close in a Corner there stood Faux who being asked who he was said Percy 's Servant The Lords for the present left all things as they found them but departed full of Suspicion the Lord Monteagle assuring himself the forementioned Letter must come from Percy for there were some little intimacy between them and gave the King and Council a Relation of their Proceedings who resolved that night to make a further search and committed it to the management of Sir Thomas Knevet a Gentleman of approved Fidelity and who with a suitable Assistance coming to the Cellar about midnight met Faux at the Door on whom he presently seized and proceeding in his search pulled out the Core of all that Horrid Contrivance whereupon Faux confessed all being only sorry it came not to perfection and saying God would have concealed it and the Devil only discovered it In his Pockets they found a Watch which were not common then and a Tinder-Box Engines to minute out his time to strike the fatal blow The Conspirators finding all detected hastened for all that to the Hunting Match aforesaid furnishing themselves with Horses by breaking open several Stables and taking their choice but the Sherriffs of Warwickshire and Worcestershire pursued them so hard that at last they were forced to earth themselves at Littleton's House at Halbech where Percy and Catesby were slain with a few more and the rest taken Prisoners and afterwards Hanged This happy Deliverance was Celebrated with great Joy and Foreign Princes though Popish would Congratulate the Discovery and the Parliament made an Act for the perpetual Solemnizing of the day of Deliverance with publick Thanksgivings So things continued for a time and the King of Denmark the Queen's Brother coming over to visit the King and his Sister the Summer following added a greater gust to the Recreations and Pastimes of the Court now wallowing in all sensual Pleasures as if the Devil was quite laid and ne'er more Storms to be feared from any Quarter but the
Members of Parliament from one Prison to another that they might not have the benefit of their Habeas Corpus's and the Constables of Hertfordshire from one Messenger to another is himself sifted Prisoner from one place to another without any hope of an Habeus Corpus And as he before by his absolute Will and Pleasure would without any Law seize his Subjects Goods and commit them to Prison as also raise Ship-money in an Arbitrary manner so he cannot now enjoy his own Estate in his own House nor has one Ship to command Soon after this the Parliament and Army began to be jealous of each other and the latter having no face of Authority to recur unto the Presbyterian Members in both Houses being three to one what do they do but send Cornet Joyce with a Party of Horse on the 4 th of June 1647 to take the King out of the Parliaments Commissioners hands and to keep him in the Army which however he might take it was not designed for his advantage tho' they seemed to lament the hard conditions the Members imposed upon him not only in his Liberty but in keeping him from his Children and Friends and now they allow him both professing they would never lay down Arms until they had put the Scepter into his hands and procured better Conditions for his Friends And in order hereunto they seem to joyn the King's Interests with their own and in their Declaration for Redress of Grievances declare for the King and People that the Members prefix a certain time for their Sitting and charge 11 of the leading Members that had been most forward to establish the Covenant with being guilty of High Treason and most of them fled for it The Covenanters could not but see whither these proceedings tended and therefore they had upon the 4 th of May settled the Militia of London in the hands of the Presbyterians but upon a Letter from the General or the 10 th of June to the Parliament that the Militia of London might be put into the hands of Persons better affected to the Army the Commons tamely Submitted to it and repealed the foresaid Ordinance of the 4 th of May. But the City-Men in Common Counsel Petition the Commons against this insisting upon their own Right to dispose of the Militia The Lords upon the Reading of the Petition revoke the Ordinance of the Commons of July 23 and confirm that of the 4 th of May according to the Cities desire and kept back some of the Commons till the Members within had agreed to it and enforced the Speaker to pass a Vote that the King should come to London and so both Houses Adjourned for four days In this Interval the Members who favoured the Army and the Speakers of both Houses went to the Army and there complained of the Violences put upon the Parliament and the Houses after the expiration of the four days Adjournment meet and chose new Speakers and Voted 1. That the King should come to London 2. That the Militia of London should be Authoriz'd to raise Forces for the defence of the City 3. That power be given to the same Militia to choose a General 4. And that the Eleven Members Impeach'd by the Army should take their Seats in the Parliament The Citizens hereupon proceed to raise Forces which tho' Numerous yet being raw and not fit to cope with an old Experienc'd and Victorious Army they were forced to come to Terms and comply with the Army in their demands so that in short the Speakers and Members returned again and recinded all that was done since the 26 th of July and Voted several Lords guilty of High Treason and the Lord Mayor with several other Citizens were committed Prisoners to the Tower upon the same account The King could not but conceive some hopes from these Broyls that might tend to his Advantage and indeed both Parliament and Army seem to Court him now and the Parliament sent propositions of Peace to him at Hampton-Court but Cromwel was as fearful the King should agree with the Parliament as the King was unwilling to agree to them and therefore Cormwel gave the Commissioners instructions that if the King would assent to Propositions lower then those of the Parliament that the Army would settle him again in his Throne hereupon the King returned Answer to the Parliament that he waved now the Propositions put to him or any Treaty upon them flies to the Proposals of the Army and urges a Treaty upon them and such as he shall make professes he will give Satisfaction to settle the Protestant Religion with Liberty to tender Consciences to secure the Laws Liberty and Property and Priviledges of Parliaments and as for those concerning Scotland he would Treat apart with the Scots Commissioners Upon Reading of the King's Answer a day was appointed by either House to consider of it and in the mean time they order'd the same to be communicated to the Scotch Commissioners It was affirmed in those times that Cromwel had made a private Article with the King that if the King closed with the Propositions of the Army Cromwel should be Advanced to a degree higher than any other as Earl of Essex and Vicar-General of England as Thomas Cromwel in Henry 8 time was But it seems he was so uxorious that he would do nothing without communicating it to the Queen and so wrote to her That tho' he assented to the Armies Proposals yet if by assenting to them he could procure a Peace it would be easier then to take of Cromwel than now he was the head that govern'd the Army Cromwel who had his Spies upon every motion of the King intercepts these Letters and resolved never to trust the King again yet doubted that he could not manage his designs if the King were so near the Parliament and City at Hampton-Court Therefore Cromwel sent to the King that he was in no safety at Hampton-Court by reason of the hatred which the Adjutators bore to him and that he would be in more safty in the Isle of Wight and so upon the 11 th of November at night made his escape having Post-horses and a Ship provided for him at South-hampton to that purpose But when he came to the Island he was secured by Collonel Hammond who gave the Parliament notice of it from whence the King sent to the Members for a Personal Treaty of Peace at London which after much debate was agreed to upon four Preliminaries which the King utterly rejected and so incensed the Houses that they Voted that they would make no further applications or addresses to the King That no other presume to make any application to him without leave from both Houses That whoever Transgressed in that kind should be guilty of High Treason That they would receive no more Messages from the King and that none presume to bring any Message from him to either or both Houses of Parliament or any other Person These were hard
lines to this unfortunate King who now had no more to do then patiently to submit to what time produced but how pleasing soever these Votes were to the Army the Scots and diverse parts of the English Nation were not content with them and so they rise in Arms in Essex Kent Suffolk Norfolk Wales and the North and declare for the King and People Part of the Fleet also Revolted to Prince Charles but all these Revolts were quelled by a Victorious Army in a short time But while the Army was busied abroad the Members having gotten possession of the Fleet and the City of London being well affected to them they joyn with the Scotish Commissioners and rescine the Votes of the Non-addresses to the King and appointed a conference with him at Newport in the Isle of Wight to continue for forty days and to that purpose take him out of Prison and allow him the Liberty of the Island and the King upon the matter with reluctancy enough grants the Scots and the Members their own Demands But no endeavours of his Subjects nor the joynt desires of the Scots and Members could protect this unhappy Prince from his approaching Ruine for the Army now every where Victorious over the Scots and Royalists draw together and make a Remonstrance against all Peace with the King that Justice might be done upon Him the Crown-land and Church-land might be sold to Pay their Army and that the present Parliament be Dissolved and another Called But the Members were intent upon the King's Answer to their Propositions and laid aside the Armies Remonstrance which they take as a slighting of them and then seized the King in the Isle of Wight and make Him a Prisoner in Hurst-Castle an unhealthy place and March to London putting Garrisons in Noblemen's Houses and Whitehall and Post themselves about the Pallace-yard But the Members for all this Met upon the First of Decemb. 1648. and Voted the King's Concessions to be a sufficient ground for a Peace and then Adjourn'd for a Week yet when they were to Meet again they found all the Avenues to the House beset with Soldiers who Excluded all that were not of their Faction from entring the House which were not one fourth part and made the residue Prisoners This Juncto called afterward the Rump Parliament having in this manner Purged the House Assume to themselves the Supream Power of Ordering the English Affairs Confirm the Votes of Non-Addresses and raze the Votes of having a Conference with the King and the Declaration that the King's Concessions were a sufficient ground for a Peace out of the Journals of the House and Vote First That all Power resides in the People Secondly That the Power belongs to the Peoples Representatives in the House of Commons Thirdly That the Votes of the Commons have the Force of a Law without the King Fourthly That to take up Arms against the Representatives of the People or the Parliament was High-Treason Fifthly That the King Himself took up Arms against the Parliament and therefore was guilty of all the Blood shed in the Civil War and ought by His own Blood to expiate the fame But the Ordinance for the King's Trial being sent up to the Lords for their Concurrence they Rejected it January the 2 d and Adjourned for 10 days but first sent back that they would give Answer Whereupon the Commons search the Lords Journal-Book and find these Votes 1. To send an Answer 2. That their Lordships do not concur to the Declaration 3. That their Lordships Reject the Ordinance for Tryal of the King But the Commons for all that go on and Vote the Lords Dangerous Order the King to be brought to London under a Guard Read and Ingrossed the Ordinance for his Tryal on the 6 th of January and the Manner was referred to the Commissioners who were to Try Him and to that end to Meet in the Painted Chamber on Munday January the 9 th who Resolved that Proclamation should be made in Westminster-Hall that the Commissioners were to Sit again to Morrow and that all those who had any thing to say against the King should be heard In this manner Mr. Denby who was Sergeant at Arms to the Commissioners Rode into the Hall with his Mace and some other Officers all bare attended with Six Trumpets on Horseback who Sounded in the midst of the Hall the Drums of the Guard in the mean time Beating without in the Pallace-yard at the Old Exchange and in Cheapside The Mayor Aldermen and Common Council of London Petition'd the House of Commons for Justice against the King to Settle the Votes that the Supream Power was in them and the City resolved to stand by them to the utmost and because nothing should obstruct the intended Work Hillary Term was Adjourned for Fourteen days and Proclamation made thereof in the Cities of London and Westminster and other Market-Towns but that this poor Prince might have some glimmering of hope the Scots Parliament begun January 2 d. understanding what was done at London in reference to the King's Tryal Dissent from the said proceedings and Direct some Papers To William Lenthall Esquire Speaker of the House of Commons which the House took as an Affront and Denyal of their Authority and so thought not sit to Read them but yet Voted to send Commissioners into Scotland to preserve a Good Correspondence between both Nations Several Ministers from their Pulpits Declaimed also against the Proceedings against the King's Person some of the Nobility offer'd themselves Pledges in his behalf and January 19 the Scottish Commissioners deliver'd some Papers and a Declaration from the Parliament of Scotland wherein they express a dislike of the present Proceedings and declare That the Kingdom of Scotland had an undoubted Interest in the King's Person who was not deliver'd to the English Commissioners at Newcastle for the Ruine of his Person but for the more speedy Settlement of the Peace of his Kingdoms That they extreamly Dissented and Declared against the Tryal of Him in regard of the Great Miseries that were like to ensue thereupon and desired leave to make their Personal Addresses to Him The like Papers were also Presented to the General but all signify'd nothing for the Commissioners for the Tryal proceeded to make all things in a readiness and to that purpose Order'd that the Sword and Mace tho' they had the King's Arms thereon should be brought into the Court at His Tryal and the King to be brought from St. James's where he was then a Prisoner to Sir Robert Cotton's House at Westminster They erected a Tribunal called The High Court of Justice over which was appointed One hundred and fifty Judges at the upper end of Westminster-Hall the Courts of Chancery and Kings-Bench being ordered into one and these Judges were impower'd to Convent Hear Judge and Execute Charles Stuart King of England All things being now fitted up the King on Saturday the 20 th was brought from St. James
through the Park in a Chair to Whitehall and from thence carried by Water under a Guard to Sir Robert Cotton's House at the back end of Westminster-Hall the Judges in the mean time met in the Painted Chamber attending upon their President Serjeant Bradshaw in his Scarlet Robe who had the Sword born before him by Col. Humphrey the Mace by Serjeant Denby and twenty Men with Partizans for his Guard When they came into the Court the President sat him down in a Crimson Velvet Chair of State fixed in the midst of the Court with a Desk before him and a Cushion of Crimson Velvet thereon and the Seats on each side of him were Benches covered with Scarlet-cloth And after silence made the Great Gate of the Hall was set open for any to enter in after which Col. Thompson was commanded to bring forth the Prisoner who was conducted with twenty Partizans and other Guards and was by the Serjeant with his Mace received to the Bar where was a Red Velvet Chair set for him He looked sternly upon the Court and up to the Galleries then sat him down but presently got up again and looked downward on the Guard and multitude of Spectators not shewing the least regard to the Court all the while then was the Act of Parliament read over for the Trial of Charles Stuart King of England by the Clerk who sat on the right side of the Table covered with a Turky Carpet placed at the feet of the President upon which lay the Sword and Mace and the several Names of the Judges in the Roll were called over and Eighty answered to their Names When that was over then the King's Charge was brought wherein he was accused in the Name of the People of England of Treason Tyranny Murders Rapines c. and more especially for levying War against the Parliament And the President stood up and said Sir You have heard your Charge containing such matters as appears in it and in the close it is pray'd that you answer to your Charge which this Court expects The King replied By what Authority did they bring him to a Trial who was their King against the Publick Faith so lately given him when he commenced a Treaty with both Houses of Parliament Urged them to shew what Lawful Authority they had to call him to an account which if they did he would readily answer otherwise advised them to avert the Judgments that might hang over their heads for such their proceedings against him The President rejoyned that he was called to an account by the People of England by whose Election he was admitted King The King here insists upon his inherent birth-right and that the Kingdom was Hereditary for above a thousand years and that he stood more apparently for the Liberty of the People of England by rejecting an unlawful and arbitrary Authority than the Judges or any other whatsoever did by asserting of it That no Lords appear'd there who to constitute a Parliament should have been present and some King also but that neither the one nor the other nor both the Houses of Parliament nor any other Judicature on Earth had any Authority to call the King of England to account much less some certain Judges chosen by his accusers masked with the Authority of the Lower House and the same proculcated However he wills them again to produce their Authority and he would not be wanting to his Defence for as much as it was the same offence with him to acknowledge a Tyrannical Power as to resist a lawful one But the President made answer That he was not to question the Jurisdiction of the Court that they were satisfied with their Authority as it was upon God's Authority and the Kingdom 's in doing of Justice and that this was their present work To which the King said That it was not his own nor their apprehensions neither that ought to decide it and so the President ordered the Prisoner to be taken into Custody and then the Court adjourned till the Monday following being the 22. of January to the Painted Chamber and from thence to the same place again and the King was carried back in the same manner as before to St. James's The Court accordingly met on Monday in the Painted Chamber and there considering the King's Resolution to deny the Jurisdiction of the Court or of that which did constitute it of which debate they had no proper cognizance nor could they being a derivative power which made them Judges from which there was no Appeal they therefore order that if the King offer to dispute the same again the President should tell him That the Commons of England Assembled in Parliament had constituted that Court whose power might not be permitted to be disputed by him and that if he refused to answer it should be accounted a Contumacy to the Court that if he answered with a Salvo his pretended Prerogative above the Court he should be required to give a Positive answer yea or no that he should not have a Copy of his Charge till he owned the Court and declared his intentions to answer This being concluded on the King is again brought to the Bar in the same manner where the Solicitor Cook moved that the Prisoner might make a positive answer or that the Charge might be taken pro Confesso and so the Court proceed to Justice and the President did briefly repeat the passages of the last day and commanded the King to answer to the Articles of Charge unless he had rather hear the Capital Sentence given against him But the King still persisted to Interrogate concerning their Authority that he had weighty Reasons why he should not acknowledg this new form of Judicature that they had no Law for it and that they could not have an extraordinary Authority Delegated from the People seeing they had not consulted so much as every tenth Man in that matter But the President put him in mind of his doom and told him the Court was abundantly satisfied of their Authority nor were they to hear any Reasons that should detract from their Power And when the King urged to give in his Reasons in Writing it would by no means be admitted and so the President commanded the Prisoner to be taken away The third Days Trial which was Tuesday was in effect the same as the last mentioned in respect to the Court's demands and the King's answer so that the Court adjourned till next Morning at Ten of the Clock but the Examination of Witnesses and other intervening business prevented their then sitting so that it was Saturday Morning January 27. before they assembled and 68. of the Judges answered to their Names As the King was brought into the Court the Soldiers cried for Justice and Execution and the King desired to be heard a few words and so goes on to shew how a sudden Judgment could not be soon recalled c. But the President magnified the Patience the Court had had
that our History may appear to be all of a piece and void of Breaks as much as may be Walter therefore had a Son named Alane who as they say follow'd Godfrey of Bullogn into the Holy Land in the Year 1099. Alexander was his Son who begat Walter Stuart he had Issue Alexander whose Son was John the Father of Walter Stuart that marry'd the Daughter of King Robert Bruce and begat on her Robert Stuart call'd in the Scotch Chronology Robert the second King of Scotland but he was the first Stuart that was advanced to the Throne of that Kingdom But before we can fairly come to give you an exact Account hereof it will be necessary to premise a short Scheme of the Contests between the said Baliol and Bruce because somewhat interwoven with the Affair of this Family Upon the disastrous death of Alexander the Third who broke his Neck as he was gallopping his Horse at Kingcorn over the West-clift of the place near the Sea-side and left no Issue but had only a Grand-child by his Daughter in Norway very young and who died soon after Scotland fell under an Interregnum for the space of six Years and nine Months as Buchanan computes it for so long it was between the Death of Alexander and the declaring of John Baliol King of Scotland and in the mean time you may be sure there wanted not Pretensions to the Crown and the case briefly was thus William King of Scotland had a Brother named David Earl of Huntington and great Uncle to this Alexander the III. which David had three Daughters Margaret marry'd to Allan Lord of Gallaway Isabel to Robert Bruce Lord Annadale and Cleveland and Adda to Henry Hastings Earl of Huntington now Allane begat on his Wife Margaret a Daughter named Dornadilla marry'd in process of time to John Baliol after King of Scotland and two other Daughters Bruce by his Wife Isabel had Robert Bruce Earl of Carrick as having married the Inheritrix thereof but as for Huntington he laid no manner of Claim Now the question was whether Baliol in right of the eldest Daughter or Robert Bruce being descended of the second but a Male should have the Crown he being in the same Degree and of the more worthy Sex The Controversie was tossed up and down by the Governors and Nobles of the Kingdom for a long time but at last upon serious deliberation it was agreed to refer the whole matter to the decision of Edward the I. King of England which he was not a little glad of For resolving to fish in these troubled Waters he stirs up eight Competitors more that he might further puzzle the Cause and at length with twenty four Councellors half Scots half English and a great many Lawyers so handled the Business that after a great many cunning delays he secretly tampers with Bruce who was then conceiv'd to have the better Right of the Business that if he would acknowledge to hold the Crown of him he would adjudge it in favour of him But he generously answering That he valued a Crown at a less rate than for the wearing of the same to put his Country under a Foreign Yoke Edward turns about and makes the same motion to Baliol who did not stick to accept of it Baliol having thus gotten a Crown as unhappily kept it for he was no sooner invested with it and done Homage to King Edward according to Agreement but the Aberthenys having slain Mackduff Earl of Fife he not only pardon'd them the Fact but gave them a piece of Land that was in Controversie between them Whereupon Mucduff's Brother being enraged makes a Complaint of him to King Edward who sent for him used him so that he made him rise from his Seat at Parliament and go to the Bar and answer for himself He hereupon was so enraged at this manner of Usage that when King Edward sent to him for Assistance against the French he absolutely refused it and proceeded so far as to renounce his Homage to him This incensed King Edward to the quick and so with an armed Power he hastens to Berwick where he routed the Scots took and kill'd to the number of Seven Thousand of them among them most of the Nobility of Fife and Lowthian and some time after gave them also a great Overthrow at Dunbar which occasion'd the immediate surrender of the Castle of the said place into his Hands After this he marches to Montross where Baliol was brought to resign up both himself and his Crown to King Edward all the Scotch Nobility at the same time doing him Homage The Consequence whereof was that Baliol was sent Prisoner to London and from thence after a Years detention into France But while Edward was possess'd of all Scotland one William Wallace arose who tho' but a private Man bestirred himself in the publick Calamity of his Country and gave the English several notable Foyls This brought King Edward into Scotland again with an Army and falling upon Wallace routs him who was overcome with Emulation and Envy from his Countrymen as well as power from the Enemy upon which he laid by his Command and never acted after but by slight Incursions but the English Army after this being beaten at Roslin Edward comes in again and takes Sterling and makes them all render him Homage Robert Bruce Son to the foresaid Bruce that contested with Baliol for the Crown was in King Edward's Court and him the King had often promised to put in possession of the Crown But Bruce finding at last that all his promises were illusory and nothing but smoak he enters into a Confederacy with John Cummin sirnamed the Red how he might get the Kingdom but being basely betray'd by him to King Edward he had much ado to make his escape and when he was got into Scotland the first thing he did was to stab Cummin at Drumâ—reis and then got himself Crown'd King at Scone Never did any Man come with greater disadvantage to the possession of a Crown or underwent greater Hardships for the sake of it He was beaten over and over by King Edward's Troops forced to flee to the Highlands with one Companion or two and to lurk in the Mountains in great misery as if he had been rather a Beast of prey than a rational Creature And while he was in this miserable State it is storied of him by Fourdon That being in a Morning lying down on his Bed in a little Cottage whither he was glad to retire and make the same his Pallace he espies a Spider striving to climb up into her Web which she had spun to the roof of the House but failing of her purpose the first time she attempts it the second and third time and so on to the sixth and last wherein she accomplishes it and gets in the King who as well as his Companion had all the while view'd the Action said Now let 's get up and hasten to the Lowlands to try our Fortunes
name of John for that forsooth was ominous for John King of France was a Prisoner in England but by the name of Robert It 's true there is no great matter in the thing it self either one way or other for an Alias or a double name cannot prejudice an honest and vertuous Man and when Judge Catiline took exception at one in this respect saying that no honest Man had a double name and came in with an Alias the party asked him what exception his Lordship could take to Jesus Christ Alias Jesus of Nazareth The Father was scarce well cold in his Grave or the Son warm in his Throne but his Progeny begot by him in the heat of his Blood began in their Stations to act their Tragical part This King in his Fathers life-time had the misfortune to be kicked on the Leg by an Horse of Sir James Douglass of Dalkeith and so lamed his Body as he was lame in his Intellectuals being a dull stupid Man and unfit to Govern insomuch that he had but the name of King the whole Administration being lodged in his Brother Robert Earl of Fife who did what he pleased with him and his as you 'll see by and by Alexander the youngest brother and Earl of Buchan a Man of a Fierce Nature could not long contain it but he begins to disturb the Government of his Brethren upon a slight displeasure conceived against the Bishop of Murray and seeing he could find no opportunity to kill him he revengfully sets fire to the Cathedral Church which was the stateliest Pile of Building in all the North of Scotland A Son he had whose name was Duncane or Dunach ten times more profligate if it were possible than himself and guilty of the basest and most degenerous actions He upon the death of his Grand-father lets the Reins loose and supposing now there was room for Rapine and Villany Heads a strong band of Thiefs and comes down to the Country of Angus spoils and ravages the Country as if he had been a professed Enemy and being elevated by some petty success they had against Walter Ogilby and Walter Lichton who opposed them they proceeded to perpetrate greater Villanies than before till at last being dispersed by the Earl of Crawford many of them were persued and slain and the rest taken and suffered condign Punishment King Robert had now Governed by his Governour for the space of Light Years when a Parliament was held at Perth wherein to manifest his Favour he made his Eldest Son David who was then Eighteen Years of Age Duke of Rothsay and his Brother the Governour Duke of Albany Virgin Titles that till this time had been unknown in Scotland saith Buchanan and which boded no good success to the Masters of them but generally proved very ominous About some three years after dyed Queen Annabella and Walter Tralie Archbishop of St. Andrew's the one while he lived keeping up the Ecclesiastical Discipline in the Church and the other the Dignity of the Court so that the death of two such useful and Illustrious Persons ushered in great Calamities in the Land and such a Tragedy as can scaâ—ce be met with in the Records of Time The Queen in her life-time had had a particular eye over and care of the Education of her Son David Duke of Rothsay and by a severe Discipline restrained his boisterous and untoward nature in a great measure But now the check was taken off he gave himself over to all manner of licentiousness His Fathers indulgence to him proved an incitative to his Lust and lack of Authority despoiled him of that Reverence that should have been paid unto him and made his admonitions of none effect So that at last he grew to that height of outrageousness and impiety that laying aside all manner of fear and shame he made it his business to defile mens Wives dâ—flower Virgins Nuns and all other kind of Women and where he found opposition he made use of Force and Violence These Tragedies could not go long undiscovered and therefore several complaints were prefered against him to his Father who at last perceiving it beyond his power to restrain those exorbitant Courses and that such violations would unavoidably bring both Father and Son to utmost Contempt and might have a very bad Consequence to attend them he Writes to his Brother the Governour and now Duke of Albany to take the young Man into his own governance and keeping till such time and in expectation he should be reclaimed and brought to a better temper This was that which the Governour for a long time had lacked as thinking if he were once taken out of the way his passage to the Crown might in time be made smooth and easie and therefore leaves no stone unturned to get him into his bloody Clutches at last he contrived the matter so that he seized him upon the Road near St. Andrew's and conveyed him to the Castle of the said place which he had taken into his own hands upon the death of the Bishop a little before under pretence of securing of it and in a short time after removed him thence into his own Castle of Falkland making him there a close Prisoner And now resolved he was to be rid of him and he could think of no method more expedient to effect his devilish design than by starving of him But that life which the barbarous cruelty of the Unkle had destined for a most miserable death the compassion of two young Women prolonged for a time One of them was daughter to the Governour of the Castle and who had the charge of the young Duke who as often as she had an opportunity to go into the Gardens adjacent to the Castle did put into him some oaten Cake folded up in a Vail which she carelesly wore on her head to keep off the Sun through a small chink rather than a Window The other was a poor Nurse who through a long Read fed him with the Milk from her own Breasts When the young Man's Punishment as well as his Life had by this hard shift been for some days prolonged which rather served for the increasing than allaying of his hunger the Women were at last discovered by the Spies they had every where about them and were both villanously put to death the Father shewing as much unhumane cruelty towards his daughter as she had shewn mercy to his Royal Prisoner bitterly cursing her perfidy as he called it as endeavouring thereby to shew himself faithful to a faithless Brother Unkle and Governour The young Man being thus deprived of all humane relief was constrain'd through the violence of hunger not only to eat all such filth as he could find within his Prison but at last to set upon his own flesh and to gnaw off his own Fingers and so ended his wretched life and died as I may say a double Death This barbarous act needs no Comment it bespeaks Villany to the height in
chesit to be Governor quan we were fallen into decrepit age to our Subdittes and Realme beseekaund thy hieness thairfore to be sa favarable that this Bearer James our second and allanerlie Son may have to liefe under thy Fayth and Justice to be some memory of owr Posterity knuwaund the unstable Condition of mans life sa sodanlie altered Now flurisaund an sodenlie falling to utter consumption Forthir beliefe well quhan Kings and Princes hes na other beild bot in thair owin folkes thair Empireis caduke and fragill for the minds of common People are evir slowaund and mair inconstant than wind Èœit quhen Princes are robarat be amited of othir uncowth Kings thair brathir and neighbowris na adversitie may occure to eject thaim fra thair dignitie viall Forthir gif thy hieness thinke nocht expedient as Gad forbeid to obtemper to thir owr desires Èit we request any thing quhilk was ratisijt in owr last trewes and conditioun of Peace that the supplicatioun made be ony of the two Kings of Ingland and Scotland sall staund in manner of saufe conduct to the Bearer And thus we desire to be observat to this owr allanerlie Sonne and the gracious God conserve thee maist nobill Prince When King Henry had read this Letter he deliberated with his Council what was most expedient for him to do upon this occasion at last considering there were divers English Rebels harbour'd in Scotland he resolved to keep Prince James as his Prisoner but yet in such Honourable State that he could not have met with such Treatment and Advantages of a Princely and Liberal Education in his own native Country The immature and violent Death of Prince David as has been already noted had sunk King Robert's Spirits very low but when the dreadful News of Prince James being made Prisoner in England reached his Ears which was as he sat at Supper he had like to have died in the Arms of the Standers by his Heart was so overpower'd with Grief and Melancholy as to admit of no manner of Consolation exclaiming against his hard Fortune in marrying a Woman of so mean a degree to the disparagment of his Blood as was Queen Annabel by whom he had these Sons which as he took it was the only Cause why Forreign Princes as well as his own Subjects had him thus so much in Contempt So being carried into his Chamber what with wilful Abstinence and violent Sorrow he died in three Days after having reign'd about sixteen Years Anno Dom. 1408. A Man he was of a mighty stature but had not an Heart proportionable to his Bulk as appears manifestly by the Circumstances of his Death which tho' not procur'd by violent Hands yet was sufficiently tragical and herein discover'd himself to be far from the Temper Senecca speaks of Nihil tam acerbum est in quo non aquus animus solâ—tium inveniat The Death of King Robert introduced an Interregnum in Scotland for the space of near Eighteen Years for so long a time was James detain'd a Prisoner in England and there was no way left but to confirm the old Governor in his Station again who held it for the space of fifteen Years longer and at length died a natural Death but 't is strange he should that had been so unnatural to his own Nephew by famishing him to Death and done so many barbarous actions for to clear himself and to palliate his horrid Fact He was succeeded in his Estate and Honours by Mordo his eldest Son who was also chosen Governor of the Kingdom a Man full of Repugnant Vices and so unfit for the management of that high Office he was entrusted with that he was not capable to rule his own Family He had three Sons Walter James and Alexander who abusing the Lenity and Foolish Indulgence of their Father and playing many Outragious Tricâ—s to the Offence and Prejudice of many and one of them at length being displeased with his Father in that he would not give him a Falcon he had for a long time greatly desired he stept unto him and audaciously plucking the Bird from off his Father's Fist wrung his Neck from his Body before his Face whereupon the Father being somewhat enraged with such presumptuous Doings of his Son said Walter for so was his Name seeing it is come to that pass that thou and thy Brothers will not be ruled by my soft and gentle Government I shall ere long bring him home that shall chastise both you and me after another manner and from hence forwards he made it his whole Business to get King James redeem'd from the Hands of the English and to set him on the Throne To this purpose he call'd a Parliament at Perth where it was unanimously agreed to send a solemn Embassie to the King of England to demand the Restitution of their King and to offer Terms for his Releasment James had contracted some Friends in England during his Captivity especially by the means of the Lady Jane Daughter to the Earl of Somerset whom he had taken to Wife so that in a short time the Terms for his Liberty were agreed on and so he sets forwards towards Scotland Where he was no sooner arrived but he was encountred with diverse Complaints against several Persons and especially Walter Stuart the Son of the Governor aforesaid who was sent to Prison in the Bass and in the next Parliament convened at Perth Duke Mordo himself with Alexander another of his Sons were arrested and committed to safe Custody the Duke to Carlaurock and his Dutchess to a place call'd Tantalloun Not long after James Duke Mordo's third Son to hasten the fate of the Stuarts being moved with great Indignation that his Father and Brethren were thus as he conceived unjustly imprison'd came suddenly with a good Band of Men to the Town of Dunbritton sack't and burn the Place killing one Stuart more to wit John sirnamed the Red as Buchanan says and the King's Uncle with two and thirty Persons besides But he was so straitned by the King's Arms and pursued so close that he was forced to flee into Ireland and soon after died there an exile The same Year the King call'd a Parliament at Sterling whereing Mordo with his two Sons Walter and Alexander and Duncan Stuart Earl of Lenox four of them at one clap were convicted of High-Treason and the two Sons the very same day were beheaded in the open place before the Castle and next Morning Duke Mordo and Lenox run the same Fate in the same place It 's a constant Fame saith Buchanan tho' I find it written no where that the King sent the Heads of the Father Husband and Children to Isabella Wife to the said Mordo his Cousin-Germane to try a barbarous Practise whether she who was known to be a fierce Woman would as mostly it happens through excess of Grief discover the Secresie of her Mind upon such an occasion But she notwithstanding all that grievous and unlook'd
Man as the Chancellor and without delay raises Forces and Besieges him in Edenburg Castle He perceiving the danger had no other way left but to send to the Earl of Dowglass for his Assistance Dowglass disdains them both and would not be concerned The Chancellor seeing this agrees with the Governor and he was still to keep the Castle and his Chancellorship Not long after died Dowglass and was succeeded by his Son William who kept a greater port and retinue than his Father But things could not hold long in this State for the Chancellor disdaining that the Governor should take the whole Administration upon him leaves him and the King at Sterling where he then was and repairs to Edenburg and there imploys all his Wits how he might recover the King from the Governor and after he had well thought of it he rides one morning with four and twenty Men in his Company to the Park of Sterling where he knew the King was a Hunting and that the Governor was absent at Perth He found the King with a very small retinue and saluted him very dutifully and finding him in some surprize at the Company he exhorted him in a few words as the time would permit to be of good cheer and fear nothing that they were come to deliver him from his Captivity that he might be no longer under the Government of another but take the Administration into his own hands and much to the same purpose All which the King received with a pleasant aspect either because the motion pleased him as desirous to Rule or to dissemble the fear he had of the Chancellor and so went with him to Edenburg The Governor upon his return was horribly surprized at the News but being now unable to remedy the matter by the means of friends he and the Chancellor came to an Accommodation again and the result was that the Governor should still continue in his Office and the King remain in the keeping of the Chancellor as at first So that the freedom before tendred to him and with which he seem'd to be well pleas'd was now but a meer illusion being as much a Captive as ever And if the King was no better for this Agreement It proved fatal to the Earl of Dowglass Both Governor and Chancellor dreading his power now conbine together to ruine him and to that End a Parliament must be called where several Complaints were made against Dowglass and his followers But they two perswade the Parliament to send for the Earl in a friendly manner and not as a delinquent to take his place in that Assembly And by the Governors contrivance Honourable Letters were directed to him in the Name of them all full of soothing expressions intimating his own Person was so far from being in any danger by such his attendance in Parliament that if any of his Friends or Family had chanced to be guilty of any disorders all should be frankly remitted This bait took the young Gentleman and so with his Brother David and an handsom retinue sets forward for Edenburg the Chancellor the better to cloak the Treachery rode out many miles from Edenburg to meet him Caressed and Entertained him splendidly on the way at the Castle of Creichton and to blind him the more there in the most friendly and tender manner in the World began to advise the Earl in what concerned his Duty towards his Prince and the Honour and Glory of his Family and this showed him on to Edenburg tho' things could not be carried on so coverlly between the Governor and Chancellor in the management of this intrigue but that some of the Earls Friends began to smell a Rat and advised him not to go to Edenburg But finding him quite averse to Counsel and void of all suspicion they urged him to send his Brother David back to the End he might not hazard the whole Family under the fortune of one stroke as his Father had before admonished him upon his Death-Bed But all in vain and so to Edenburg Castle they came where the Governor meets him and Carressed him highly and because he should now think his Entertainment every ways suitable to the semblance made of it all along he was set to Dine at the King's Table but latet Angus in herba the Earl before he hâ—d well half Din'd was strangely surprized with the sight of a Bulls Head set before him which in those Days was a certain sign of Death whereat being about to rise from the Table he and his Brother David were immediately seized by Armed men set there for that purpose carried into the Court yard and there forthwith beheaded It was said the King in whose presence this was done and who now was entring into years of Maturity and Discretion lamented his Death bitterly for which the Chancellor severely rebuked him but however it was in this case it 's most certain he afterwards most barbarously murdered one of this Earls Successors with his own hands as you 'l see by and by This Earl of Dowglass was Succeeded in his Estate and Honours by his Unkle James Dowglass Baron of Abercorn who is Succeeded by his Son William who to prevent the division of the Inheritance Married the only Sister of the last William Beheaded who was Stiled the fair Maid of Gallaway This Earl flourishing in Estate and Honours and finding the King take the Administration of the Government upon himself came to Sterling and in a short time grew into high Favour with him insomuch that through his perswasion the Chancellor and Governor were not only discharged from their Offices but put out of the Council and their Friends banished the Court and themselves Summoned to appear before the King and upon default proclaimed Rebels so that now the Tables are quite turn'd Dowglass Rules all and the King suffers minority under him in his Just Age as he really did under the others during his nonage himself and his Kindred and Friends possessing all places of profit and Preferment in the Kingdom But the Earl having I know not what crochet in his brain must needs go into Italy and a Noble retinue he had with him but leaves his Estate during his absence to be managed by his Brother the Earl of Ormond His back was no sooner turned but his Enemies set all their Engines on work to put him out of the Kings Favour and good Esteem and prevailed so far upon him as to put out an unreasonable Summons requiring the Earl to appear within forty Days or else he should be put to the Horn and so his Lands were seized on to the Kings hands The Earl being advertised hereof returns with all speed and was again received into Favour But happening to go into England without leave this incensed the King highly against him yet upon submission was again reconciled But there was nothing could reconcile him and the Chancellor Creichton envy brought them to make attempts upon each other's life and at last the Earl
Morning his Carriages must go through the City on the Sabbath-day before with a great deal of clutter and noise in the time of Divine Worship which coming to the Ears of the Lord Mayor he commanded them to be stopped and this carried the Affairs of the Carriages with a great deal of violence into the Court and having represented the business to the King with as much asperity as Men in Authority crossed in their Humors could express the same it put the King into a great Rage Swearing He thought there was no more Kings in England but himself but after he was a little calmed he sent a Warrant to the Lord Mayor commanding him to let them pass which he obeyed with this Answer While it was in my power I did my Duty but that being taken away by a higher Power It 's my Duty to obey which the King upon second Thoughts took so well that he thanked him for it And now the Troubles of his Daughter and Son-in-law by assuming the Crown of Bohemia come on apace which ended not only in the loss of that Crown but even of his own Patrimony the Palatinate and together with the Match with Spain for his Son Prince Charles perplex'd the remainder of his Reign and wrought him continual trouble having spent more Treasure upon Embassies when the former then would have raised and maintained a sufficient Army to recover his Son-in-law's Patrimony owning in his Speech to the Parliament Jan. 20. and the Eighteenth year of his Reign that my Lord Doncaster's Journey upon that account had cost him Three thousand five hundred Pounds but he was very modest and minced the matter being indeed ashamed to tell the whole Summ which amounted to a far greater proportion and may be guessed at by the following Relation When he Landed at Rotterdam his Expences the first Morning before he went to the Hague in the Inn where he lay came to above Two hundred Pounds now this splendid and expensive Living coming to be known by the Inn keeper of the Peacock at Dort c. hoping he would make that place in his way to Germany made great preparations for him of his own head without any other Order but my Lord taking his way by Vtrecht the Inn-keeper followed him complaining heavily how he was baulked in his expectations and what Charge he had been at to provide for his Lordship which at length coming to the Lord's Ear he commanded his Steward to give him Thirty Pounds and never tasted of his Fare and it was credibly assured by some of his Retinue that his very Carriage could cost no less than Threescore Pounds a day for he had abundance of young Nobles and others in his company so that upon a modest computation of the whole expence of his Journey it could amount to no less than Fifty or Threescore thousand Pounds while he was at the Hague some advised old Maurice Prince of Orange our King William's Great Unkle to Feast him Yes Yes said the Prince Bid him come when the Steward had notice hereof how the Prince took no farther notice of the matter he attended the Prince and told him there would be great preparations expected for the Ambassadors Ordinary Meals were Feasts and he had a very numerous and splendid Train of Nobles and Gentry that did accompany him Well said the Prince Prepare me a Dinner such as I used to have and let me see the Bill of Fare when the Steward brought the Bill the Prince liked it very well but the Steward said Sir This is but your ordinary Diet now you should have something exttaordinary because this is an Extraordinary Ambassador the Prince thinking what the Steward said to be something reasonable and finding but one Pig set down in the Bill commanded him to put down another Pig and that was all the additions he would make for knowing the Ambassador to be a Scotch Man and that they generally hate Swines flesh it seems he thought nothing a fitter Entertainment for him than a couple of Pigs but the King 's mincing of these matters his many Carresses Huffs and Protestations would not do with the Parliament for there was such a multiplication of Grievances and infringments of the Peoples Liberty and such a backwardness from the Court for the redress of them that at length they were dissolved in displeasure and this set every Man's Tongue loose upon him that tho' the King loved Hunting above all other exercises and had many good Hunters about him yet all these and the strength of a Proclamation to forbid talking of State Affairs could not refrain them from mouthing it out that Great Brittain was become less than little England that they had lost strength by changing Sexes and that he was no King but a Fidlers Son otherwise he would not have suffered so many disorders at home and so much dishonour abroad and the story of David Riccius saith Wilson written by Buchanan the King 's own Tutor had been like to die in every Englishman's Opinion if it had not had a new impression by these miscarriages These Domestick Troubles together with the many delays and dissatisfactions he received from Spain and Rome about the Spanish Match begot him so much trouble and vexation of Spirit that pressing upon his Natural Temper it wrought some Fits of Melancholy in him which those about him with facetious Mirth would strive to mitigate and having exhausted their store or not making use of such as were more pregnant Buckingham and his Mother instead of Mirth fell upon Prophaneness thinking thereby to please him and perhaps says Wilson they were only mistaken in the unseasonableness of the time being not then suitable to the Humour for they caused Mrs. Aspernham a young Gentlewoman of the Kindred to dress a Pig like a Child and the old Countess like a Midwife brought it into the King in a rich Mantle And then Turpin who had Married one of theâ— Kindred whose Name was renowned for a Bishop in the Romances of the Emperor Charlemaigne was drest like a Bishop in a Sattin Gown Lawn Sleeves and other Pontifical Ornaments who with the Common-Prayer Book began the Words of Baptism one attending with a silver Bason of Water for the Service The King hearing the Ceremony of Baptism read and the squeeking noise of the Brute Animal which he most abhorred turned about to see what Pageant it was and finding Turpin's Face which he very well knew drest like a Bishop and Buckingham whose Face â—he most of all loved stand for God-Father he cried out Away for shame what Blasphemy is this and turning aside with a frown turned all the sport and jollity they expected to a cold damp of Spirit Neither did the Prince's going into Spain any ways mend the matter but made it every way worse and worse for in stead of Consummating he and Buckingham quite broke off the Match which King James had so much set his rest upon but what was worst of all
the Duke did so wind himself into the Affections of the Prince that he governed the Son now as Despotically as ever he had done the Father and this had another Misfortune attending of it that the rising Sun was now Worshipped and the old King neglected which yet he had not power to redress and which no doubt hastned his Fate as we are now just ready to relate unto you The King who was the most impatient of all Men to be told of his Faults was so out of love with Parliaments for that very Reason that by his Good-Will he would never have called another but Dire necessity which has no Law brought him once more to it and so a Parliament was Summoned to meet on the Twelfth of February Anno 1623. but that same morning as a kind of Presage of his own Destiny the King missed the Duke of Richmond's Attendance who being a constant observer of him at all times the King did now as it were want one of his Limbs to support the Grandeur of His Majesty at such a Solemnity and calling for him with great Earnestness he dispatched a Messenger to his Lodgings in all haste where the King's Command and the Messengers importunity made the Dutchess his Wife somewhat unwillingly go to his Bed-side when drawing the Curtain she found him Dead in his Bed the sad News whereof was carried with that violence to the King that he would not Adorn himself that day to Ride in Pomp to the Parliament House but put it off till the nineteenth of February Dedicating some part of that time to the memory of his dead Servant The Parliament sate at the time appointed and upon Buckingham's fine Narration about the Spanish Match advised the King to break off the Treaty with Spain which the King himself seemed forward to promote being now got quite into the Prince and Duke's Toll and sets a Treaty of Marriage on Foot with France But before the entire Consummation of the same as the Duke of Richmond was the long so now the Marquess of Hamilton was the short forerunner of the King's Death both which 't was believed were forwarded by the same hand The Marquess Died with very presumptuous Symptoms of being Poisoned his Head and Body swelling to an excessive bigness and the Body being all over full of great Blisters with variety of Colours the Hairs of his Head Eye-brows and Beard came off with a touch and brought the Skin with them great Clamour there was about it in the Court so that Doctors were sent for to view the Body but the matter was hudled up and little said of it only Doctor Eglisham a Scotch Man was something bitter against the Duke as if he had been Author of it 'T is certain That the Marquess's unwillingness that his Son should Marry the Earl of Denbigh's Daughter the Duke's Niece made a difference between them with some other concurring Accidents which however did not in this King's time break out into a Reflection upon the Duke being bound up close more as it was thought by his Power than his Innocence Not long after this the King going to his last Hunting Journey to wit the last of the year as well as of his Life he fell sick of a Tertian Ague which if we believe the Proverb is not dangerous in the Spring and had a few Fits of it having this Ague upon him the Countess of Buckingham who Trafficked much with Mountebanks and whose Fame had no good savour tampered with him in the absence of the Doctors and the Duke her Son when in the Judgment of the Physicians the Ague was in the decline did apply Plaisters to the King's Wrists and Belly and did also deliver several quantities of Drink to him and told him they were approved Medecines though some of the King's Physicians did disallow thereof and refused to to meddle further with the King till the said Plaisters were removed which the King much complained off and was glad to have it pulled off tho' with part of the Skin along with it It 's certain the King found himself much worse after the said application and that an high Fever Droughts Raving Fainting and an intermittent Pulse followed thereupon and 't is manifest he was himself suspicious of foul play upon him for when one of his faithful Servants saw him in one of his Fits and to comfort him said Courage Sir this is but a small Fit the next will be none at all He answer'd Ah 't is not the Ague that afflicts me but the Black Plaister and Powder given me and laid to my Stomach by Buckingham And he would often say to Montgomery whom he trusted above all Men in the time of his Sickness For God's sake look I have fair Play When he was near the point of Death as Buckingham entred the King's Chamber one of his honest Servants said to him Ah my Lord you have undone us all his poor Servants altho' you are so well provided for you need not care With which words the Duke was so stung for where there is Guilt it will quickly appear that he kickt at him who caught his Foot and made his Head first come to the ground where presently rising he ran to the King's Bed-side and cryed Justice Sir I am abus'd by your Servant and wrongfully accus'd At which the poor King Mournfully fix'd his Eyes upon him as if he would have said Not wrongfully yet without Speech or Sence But before his Departure he called for the Prince his Son who rising out of his Bed something before day and presenting himself before him the King rouzed up his Spirits and raised himself up as if he meant to speak to him but Nature being exhausted he had not strength to express his Intentions but soon after Expired being upon Sunday Morning the 27th of March 1625. at Theobalds in the Eight and fiftieth year of his Age and the Two and twentieth of his Reign compleat there being more than a Presumption that he run the same Destiny with his Ancestors whose Deaths were Violent as well by Father as Mother's side which we have more particularly noted for Henry Stuart Lord Darnley his own Father was Strangled and carry'd out of his House and set under a Tree and then his House Blown up with Gunpowder his Grandfather Matthew Stuart Earl of Lenox was Shot at Sterlin of which Wound he some days after died and his Great Grandfather John Stuart Earl of Lenox was slain near Linlithgow in a Conflict he had with the Hamiltonians and the Douglasses about the Enlargement of James the Fifth The Duke 't is true did afterward endeavour to Purge himself from the foremention'd Application by alleadging he had receiv'd both the Drink and Plaister from Doctor Remington at Dunmore in Essex who had often Cured Agues and such Distempers with the same yet they were Arguments of a complicated kind and not to be easily unfolded considering that whatsoever he receiv'd from the Doctor in the
Country he might apply what he pleas'd to the King at the Court and besides had the Medicine been the best in the World the Act was Daring and no ways Justifiable in him because he wanted the Consent of the King's Physitians thereto and one of Buckingham's great Provocations was thought to be that the King now being weary of his too much Greatness and Power was about to set up Bristol his deadly Enemy against him to pull him down The Application of this Medicine was one of the 13 Articles charged afterward upon the Duke by the Parliament who rarely accuse upon false Rumour or bare Suggestion and surely he will have work to do that takes upon him to excuse the King his Successor in this Matter for Dissolving the Parliament to preserve one that was accus'd by them for Poisoning his Father especially if it be consider'd that the Commons had then Voted him Four Subsidies and Four Fifteenths which they had not time to pass into an Act. What did farther increase Mens suspicions was one Doctor Lamb a Fellow of a most Infamous conversation his frequenting to and being much imploy'd by the Countess and her Son which did at length so incense the People against him that finding him in the Streets of London An. 1628. they set upon him with Stones and Staves and knocked out his Brains as also one Butler an Irishman that pretended to be a Chymist and was very intimate with the foresaid Company I mean the Duke and his Mother and indeed the Story of his Death as was then reported is a very convincing Evidence of some secret Machination betwixt the Duke and him which made the Duke be desirous to be rid of him For Mischief says Mr. Wilson being an ingrosser is unsecured unsatisfied when their Wares are to be vented in many Shops This Man was by the Dukes means recommended upon some plausible pretence to some Jesuites beyond the Seas where he was entertain'd with a great deal of specious Ceremony and Respect in one of their Colleges and at Night being attended by them into his Chamber with much Civility which was hung with Tapestry and had Tapers burning in stretched-out-Armes upon the Wall when they gave him the Good-night they told him they would send one should direct him to his Lodging and they were no sooner out of the Room of Death but the Floor that hung upon great Hinges on one side was let fall by Artificial Engines and the poor Vermine Butler dropt into a Precipice where he was never more heard of To conclude King James was Learned and had fine Notions in Conception but could bring but few of them into Action tho' they tended to his Honour and Safety for this was one of his Apothegms which he made no timely use of Let that Prince that would beware of Conspiracies be rather jealous of such whom his extraordinary Favours have advanc'd then of those whom his Displeasure hath discontented these want Means to execute their Pleasures but they have means at pleasure to execute their desires But a late Learned Author has exprest as much contempt of his Learning as Ben Johnson did of his Poetry saying It was a Scandal to his Crown meaning his Writings against Bellarmine and Perrone about their King-killing and King-deposing Doctrines and it seems Henry 4. of France had not a much better opinion of the same who when he heard some Men Celebrating of him with these Attributes answer'd truly enough That he was a fine King indeed and Wrote little Books King James was Succeeded by His Son Charles in all His Dominions but much more so in all His Misfortunes for this was one of the unhappiest Princes that ever Swayed a Scepter There is little remarkable concerning this Pâ—â—â—ce in his Infancy only he was noted as Lilly says to be very wilful and obstinate by the old Scottish Lady his Nurse and even by his own Mother Queen Ann who being told on a time he was very Sick and like to die said He would not then die but live to be the Ruine of himself and the Three Kingdoms through his too much Wilfulness And it seems the Symptoms of his Fore-Fathers Destiny appear'd in his very Face for his Picture having been presented to the then Duke of Tuscany the first sight and inspection thereof made him sâ—art and say He saw something in it that Presag'd a strange and violent Exit Moreover if what the said Author says be true That Laud at His Coronation at Westminster alter'd the Old Coronation Oath and framed another New one for him in the room of it it was a foul stumble at first dash It rarely happens and I think but very few Instances can be given that one and the same Person proves a Favourite to Two Princes together but it seems nothing could resist the Charmes of the Glorious Buckingham who now Governs the Son more Despotically than ' er he had done the Father and put him upon those very Expeditions that with other concurring Mismanagements made Shipwrack of His Honour at home procured him scorn and contempt abroad and hastned those Calamities which at length resolved in his own sad Catastrophe and Ruine But surely it argu'd a very mean and poor spirit in him to take him into his Bosom and to be govern'd by one that had twice in his Father's time so highly affronted and disdain'd him the first at Royston before many People by bidding of him in plain terms Kiss his A And the second time at Greenwich in the sight of about 400 Persons when lifting up his hand over his head with a Ballon Brasser and saying in most undutiful terms to him By G. it shall not be so you shall not have it The Prince answer'd What my Lord I think you intend to strike me It 's true to have forgotten and never to revenge such Injuries when he had been King had been worthy the Noble Mind of a Prince but it also became him never to have suffer'd him to come near his Court to be upbraided with the sight of so much scorn that had been so publickly offer'd him and some Criticks at Court at that time did not stick to read his future Destiny At King James's Death the Nation was rent into Four Factions viz. the Prerogative Popish Puritan and Country Party which in a short time was reduc'd into two the two former uniting their force against the other two and one should have thought it had been the business of the New King to have composed those first rather then make War abroad But King James his Body was scarce cold when Buckingham put King Charles upon a War with Spain Both of them when in that Kingdom had receiv'd so many Civilities from his Catholick Majesty that they now resolve to Invade his Country with a Powerful Fleet and a Land Army under the Command of my Lord Wimbleton but in their passage they met with a Furious Storm which so scatter'd the Fleet that of
Eighty no less than Fifty Ships were missing for seven days But this was but the beginning of the Misfortunes of this Miserable Expedition for the Confusion of Orders was such as the Officers and Soldiers scarce knew who to Command or whom to Obey so that when they came to Cadiz a Conquest which would have paid the Charge of the Voyage and to the Honour of the English offer'd it self for the Spanish Shipping in the Bay lay unprovided of defence so as the surprising of them was both easie and feasible but this was neglected and when the Opportunity was lost Sir John Burroughs Landed the Army and took a Fort but was forced to quit it because of the Disorder and Intemperance of the Soldiers who upon that return'd on Board again and sailed away for England re insecta which occasion'd no small clamour from the People and especially in that none was punished for Mismanagement But how dishonourable soever this Expedition was the King and his Minister lost much more Reputation by lending a Fleet to the French King to beat that of the Rochellers under Monsieur Sobiez the Great Duke of Roan's Brother whereby a foundation was laid to ruin the Protestant Interest in France and which all the power that e're they could afterward make when the Tables were turned could not relieve though the Duke himself who was much sitter for the Delicacies of a Court than the toyls and stratagems of War was at the head of it and perished by the hands of Felton at Portsmouth just as he was ready to Embark the second time in person for that purpose It 's true the design was pursued by the Earl of Lindsey who several times attempted to force the Barricadoes of the River before Rochel but all in vain or if he had it would have been to no purpose for the Victuals wherewith they should have been relieved were all tainted and all the Tackle and other Materials of the Fleet defective so that they could not stay long there The many and unheard-of Violations of the Priviledges of the Subject by Loans Benevolences Ship-money Coat and Conduct-money c. with the continual Jars between this King and all his Parliaments during his Reign so as that there has been scarce three days of mutual harmony between them throughout which cannot be said of any other King since the Conquest how bad soever his Imprisoning Fining and banishing of the Members and his riding the Nation for above fifteen years together by more than a French Government because they are noted else where I think no where so well as in the History of the four last Reigns Written by that Learned Gentleman and my worthy good Friend when alive Mr. Roger Coke I shall not recite the same in this place as not falling exactly under the notion of this Treatise Tho I am to imform you these were the things together with the imposing the Service-Book upon the Scots where the Quarrel was begun by an Old Woman casting her Stool at the Priest when he was reading of it as they said that were the foundation of those dreadful Wars waged so many years within the Bowels of the three Kingdoms which do not fall under our present consideration neither and of the King 's subsequent destiny the Particulars whereof with some other concurring and intervening accidents we shall give you at large After the War had been manag'd between the King and Parliament with various fortune for some years and several Treaties set on foot to compose those unhappy and fatal Differences at last came the fatal day wherein the Quarrel came to be decided between them at Naseby in Northamptonshire which was on Saturnday June 14. 1645. Sir Thomas Fairfax was the Parliaments General and the King commanded his own Army in Person who in the beginning of the Fight prevailed for Prince Rupert Routed the Parliaments Left Wing commanded by Ireton but Pursuing to far left the Kings Left Wing open to be charged by Cromwel who falling furiously on and the rest Rallying obtained a most absolute Victory But among the vast number of Prisoners and Horses taken with Arms and Ammunition that which was even a greater loss to the King then the Battle was that one of his Coaches with his Cabinets of Letters and Papers fell into the Parliaments hands whereby his most Secret Counsels with the Queen which were so contrary to those he declared to the Kingdom were discovered For in one of his Letters he declared to her his intention to make Peace with the Irish and to have 40000 of them over into England to prosecute the War there In others he complained he could not prevail with his Mungrel Parliament at Oxford so he was pleased to call those Gentlemen who had stuck to him all along to Vote that the Parliament at Westminster were not a Lawful Parliament That he would not make Peace with the Rebels the Parliament without her approbation nor go one jot from the Paper She sent him That in the Treaty at Vxbridge he did not positively own the Parliament it being otherwise to be constru'd tho' they were so simple as not to find it out and it was Recorded in the Notes of the King's Council that he did not acknowledge them a Parliament Which Papers the Members took care to Print and Publish to the World and shewed by a publick Declaration what the Nobility and Gentry who followed the King might trust too and I dare say this stuck so close in the Minds of many that nothing contributed more to his Ruine then this double dealing of his Now the King's Garrisons surrender by heaps Oxford was the last which being blocked up by the Parliaments Forces the King thought himself in no security in it For the Parliament refused to admit him to come to London unless he signed their propositions wherefore the French Ambassador in the Scots Quarters advising him to throw himself into the Scots Power it was Hobson's Choice one even as good as the other and so being accompany'd by one Hudson a Minister and Mr. John Ashburnham he threw himself into the Scots hands who having got him into their Power resolve to make a double Bargain of him viz. to have him to order Montross to disband his Army and retire into Scotland and then to Sell him to the Parliament for as much Money as they could get for him The first is no sooner ask'd but granted but the bargain for the Sale of him and surely never was any King in this World so unhappy as to be sold by his own Subjects before himself being a mighty business to the Scots it lasted from the 5 th of May 1646 to January following when being concluded the Parliament who now had a full right to him after they had bought him confine him to â—oldenby-house an House of his own in Northamptonshire under a select Guard of their own choosing So that as Mr. Cook observes he that before had sifted the worthy
towards him advised him now at length to submit otherwise he should hear the Sentence of Death resolved on by the Court against him but he still refused to plead and desired he might have liberty to say some things for the good of the People before both Houses but the President said this would but delay and retard Justice But the King answered that he had not sought occasions of delay else he would have made a more Elaborate contestation of the Cause but that there could be no hurt in a delay of a day or two rather than precipitate Judgment which might lay the Nation under perpetual Miseries and so desired to withdraw and the Court to consider The King was carried to Cotton-house and the Judges withdrew to the Court of Wards and in half an hour returned and when the King insisted still that he might be first heard before his Parliament and not prevailing the President went on and shewed how contumacious he had been how hateful his Crimes were and asserted the Parliamentary Authority producing Examples both Domestick and Foreign especially out of Scotland wherein the People had punished their Kings and then affirmed that the Power of the People of England was not less over their King That the Guilt of this King was greater than of all others as being one who according to Caligula's wish had attempted to cut off the neck of the Kingdom by waging War against the Parliament for all which he was in his Charge called Tyrant Traytor Murderer and a Publick Enemy to the Commonwealth and that it had been well if that any of those terms might have been spared At which words the King said How Sir but the other went on and argued that Rex est qui bene regit Tyrannus qui populum opprimit and so lodged Arbitrary Government on him which he sought to put upon the People That his Treasons were his breach of trust to the Kingdom as his Superior and was therefore called to an account Minimus majorem in judicium vocat That his Murders were many as being guilty of the Blood shed in the War between him and his people which could not be cleansed but by the Blood of him who shed that Blood he wished him to have God before his Eyes and called God to witness that the Court came meerly out of the Conscience of their Duty to that place and imployment which they were resolved to effect and called for God's assistance in his Execution Here the King made a motion to speak but was told his time was now past and his Sentence was coming on which the President commanded to be read under this form Whereas the Commons of England in Parliament have appointed them an High Court of Justice for the Trial of Charles Stuart King of England before whom he had been three times Convented and at the first time a Charge of High Treason and other Crimes and Misdemeanors was read in the behalf of the Kingdom of England c. as in the Charge which was read throughout to which Charge he the said Charles Stuart was required to give his Answer but he refused so to do and so exprest several passages at his Trial in refusing to answer for all which Treasons and Crimes this Court doth adjudge that the said Charles Stuart as a Tyrant Traytor Murderer and Publick Enemy shall be put to death by severing his Head from his Body And then the President said the Sentence now read and published is the Act Sentence Judgment and Resolution of the whole Court to which the Members of the Court stood up and assented by holding up their Hands Then the King was taken away and the Court broke up As the King was lead along some of the Mobb carried it very rudely and unchristianly towards him and that Night which was Saturday January 27. he was Lodged in Whitehall next day the Bishop of London Preached before him in his Chamber and the same day the President and all the Members of the High Court of Justice fasted in the Chappel at Whitehall On Monday Morning he was conveyed to St. James's and in the mean time Sir Hardress Waller Colonel Harrison Colonel Dean Commissary General Ireton and Col. Oaks were to consider of the time and place for Execution and the President and Judges met on Monday Morning Jan. 29. in the Painted Chamber who together with the Committee resolved that the open Street before Whitehall was the fittest place that the King should be there Executed on tho next day between Ten and Two a Clock upon a Scaffold covered with Black The King who was now apprehensive of the approach of his fatal end exprest his desires by a Member of the Army That in regard Sentence of Death was past upon him and that the time of Execution might be near that he might see his Children and so receive the Sacrament and to prepare himself for Death and that the Bishop of London might pray with him in private in his Chamber all which was granted him When the fatal day appear'd which was Tuesday Jan. 30. about Ten of the Clock in the Forenoon he was called upon to come forth from St. James Palace now his Prison and was Conducted on Foot over the Park to Whitehall Guarded with a Regiment of Foot part whereof marched before the rest behind with Colours flying and Drums beating his private Guard of Partizans being next him Dr. Juxton Bishop of London on the one side and Col. Tomlison on the other they went up by the Stairs to the Park Gallery and so into his Cabinet-Chamber where he continued at his Devotion and refused to Dine only about Twelve-a-Clock he Eat a Bit of Bread and drank a Glass of Claret From thence he was conveyed into the Banquetting-House and the Great Window Enlarged out of which he ascended the Scaffold the Rails whereof were hung round and the Floor covered with Black with the Block and Axe set in the middle and the Executioners wearing Vizzards standing by He looked round about upon the People who were kept a considerable distance off by the thick Guards and Troops of Horse that beset the Scaffold and turning to the Officers and more particularly to Col. Tomlison begun with what necessity there lay upon him to say somewhat lest his silence might be made an argument of his guilt and with a Protestation of his innocency in reference to any design he had to retrench the just Priviledges of Parliament yet acknowledged his punishment to be just from God and instanced only in his giving way to the death of the Earl of Strafford appealed to the Bishop of London who stood by for his forwardness to forgive his Enemies yet professed a great concernedness for the Weal of the Kingdom shewed how the then Managers of the State were in the wrong to think to govern by the Sword advised them to restore his Son to the Inheritance of his Ancestors and the People to their Rights and due Liberties
to the abrogating of which by the enormous power of the Sword because he could by no means be induced he was brought thither to undergo a Martyrdom for his People Then he prayed and being minded by the Bishop to satisfie the Spectators as to his Religion he said that he had deposited the Testimony of his Faith with that holy Man meaning the Bishop That his Life and Profession had been well known and that now he died in the Christian Faith according to the Profession of the Church of England as the same was left him by his Father of Blessed Memory And then turning about to the Officers and professing the hopes he had of his Salvation he began to prepare for the Circumstances of Death The Bishop put on his Night-cap and uncloathed him to his Sky-coloured Sattin Wastcoat he delivered his George to the Bishop's hands and charged him to remember to give the same to the Prince and having prayed again he stooped down to the Block and had his Head severed from his Body at one Blow about Two of the Clock in the Afternoon the day aforesaid in the year 1648. dying the same death as to kind as his Grandmother Mary Queen of Scots had done sixty two years and eight days before at Fothringham Castle in Northamptonshire and I think was no whit inferior to her in the misfortunes of his Life And to note a few his three Favourites to wit Buckingham Laud and Strafford undergoing a violent death and the two latter falling by the Axe as forerunners of his own destiny And as to his own Personal errors when Bristol was cowardly surrendred by Fines had he then marched to London as he might have done very well all had been his own but loytering to no purpose at Gloucester he was soon after well banged by the Earl of Essex When he had worsted Essex in Cornwall he neglected the like opportunity of getting to London Guilty he was of the same oversight in not commanding the Duke of Newcastle to march Southwards toward the Metropolis of England before the Scots entred the English Borders and in not doing the like himself after he had taken Leicester for there was nothing then that could have hindred him to become Master of the City The same ill success he had as to his Treaties about being restored And in short he was generally unfortunate in the World in the esteem not only of his Enemies but in some sort of his Friends too for as the later were n'er pleased with his breach of Faith so the former would say he could never be fast enough bound and the Blood that some years before dropt upon his Statue at Greenwich and the falling off of the Silver Head of his Cane at his Trial were interpreted as dismal presages of his disastrous fate His Head and Trunk after the Execution were immediately put into a Coffin and conveyed to the Lodgings in Whitehall and there Embowelled and from thence conveyed to St. James House and Coffined in Lead About some fortnight after the Duke of Lennox Marquess of Hartford Earl of Southampton and Bishop of London got leave to bury the Body which they conducted to the Chappel at Windsor and Interred it there in the Vault of Henry the Eight with this Inscription only upon his Coffin Charles King of England And herein he was more unhappy than his Grandmother Mary for whereas her Corpse were some years after her death taken up by her Son King James and Reposited with all the Funeral Pomp that could be in the Chappel of King Henry the Seventh her Great Grand Father This King's Remains notwithstanding the Commons had Voted in 1669 the Sum of 50000 l. for the Charge of taking it up a Solemn Funeral had of it and a Monument for it yet lay neglected as if it had been blasted by fate King Charles the Second his Son they said forbidding of it A Physician that made inspection into the dissection of the Body related that nature had designed him above the most of mortal men for a long life but Providence ordered it otherwise for he was cut off in the Forty ninth year of his Age being his Climacterical and twenty fourth of his Reign leaving six Children behind him three Sons Charles Prince of Wales James Duke of York and Henry Duke of Gloucester whereof the two Elder were Exiles and three Daughters Mary Princess of Orange Elizabeth a Virgin who not long survived him and Henrietta Maria born at Exeter Charles his Eldest Son who was then at the Hague when he heard of his Father's disastrous fate assumed the Title of King of England c. tho an Exile and without any Kingdom to command He was born at St. James's May 30. 1630. it was said a Star appeared over the place where he had been born in broad day which in those times was interpreted to prognosticate his happiness but the Ecclipse of the Sun which happened presently after was no less a presage of his future Calamities There was little remarkable in him or concerning him till the year 1639 when the unhappy disaster of breaking his Arm befell him and that not long after he was afflicted with a violent Feaver accompanied with a little of the Jaundice but having at length recovered his perfect health and the fatal differences begun long before but now daily increasing between the King his Father and the People he accompanied him into the North of England where he was a Spectator of that dismall Cloud which tho small at its first gathering yet was pregnant with that dreadful storm which in a short time spread it self over him his Father and three Nations For going to take possession of Hull as they thought they were by Sir John Hotham denied Entrance and forced to wait several hours at the Gate all in vain From this time forward the War increasing between the King and Parliament he was first spectator of that successless Battle to his Father's Arms at Edgehill staid some time after at Oxford From thence returning to the Field and the King's forces in the West under the command of the Lord Hopton of which the Prince was nominally General being routed by General Fairfax he was necessitated to retire to the Isle of Scilly and from thence betook himself into France To whom his Father now depriv'd of Command himself sent a Commission of Generalissimo of those few Royalists that survived the late unhappy overthrows and this brought him to the Isle of Guernsey where he possest himself of some Vessels that lay there and having joyned them to those he had brought with him out of France he sailed from thence into the Downs where he seized several rich Merchant-Ships and expected some Land-forces from Holland raised by the Prince of Orange for his Service But alas he was as unfortunate now in his Warlike attempts as his Father had been before and was still in his Treaties of Peace for Poyer and Langhorn who made a
rising in Wales were soon beaten so were the Surry Essex and Kentish Forces without any reinforcements from him as was designed and when he Landed some forces for the relief of Deal-Castle they were vanquished almost as soon as Landed This with the taking of Colchester by Sir Thomas Fairfax sent him back again to his Sister the Princess of Orange to the Hague Here it was that he was first Entertained with the horrible news of his Father's Tragical death and then saluted by the name of King but a forlorn Man and without any Subjects to govern for now the Rump Parliament ruled the Roast in England and had assumed to themselves the Supream power of the Nation by the name and title of the Commonwealth of England but this procedure of theirs did not relish well with the Scotch Covenanters and especially now they found that those Persons in the English Parliament that had been most forward in establishing the Solemn League and Covenant between both Nations were not only laid aside but clapt up into nasty PRISONS Wherefore being willing to lay hold on any Twig the Scots resolve not to put up the supposed injury tamely but to try their Fortune with the Rump by Arms and to that end agree to invite the King over to take Possession of his ancient Kingdom of Scotland but yet tye him so by vertue of the Treaty with him to take their Solemn League and Covenant as a Testimony of his sorrow for his Father's Sins and to banish all those out of his Court who would not take the Covenant or bare Arms for his Father But they could not have found a Plant as Mr. Coke observes more unlikely to produce the Fruit of Repentance or to establish Presbytery than himself however over Shooes over Boots prepare he does to waft himself over for Scotland To be a King in fact he desired above all other things and in June 165O landed at the Spey in the North having scaped a scouring for some of the Rump Ships lay in wait for him as he passed the Sea and narrowly mist him In some time after he was solemnly Crowned at Scone but alass it was no long-liv'd Dignity and he had but little Joy of his Crown for Cromwel had entred Scotland with the English Army and having beaten the Scots in several smaller Rencounters did at last upon the 8 of September utterly overthrow the much more numerous Kirk Army at Dunbar commanded by old General Lesley killing 3000 of them in the Battle and pursuit and taking 9000 Prisoners with all their Baggage and Ammunition with above 200 Colours To augment these Miseries the King who was very squeamish in Religion and could not submit to the rigid discipline of the Kirk runs from Scone towards the High-lands after whom ran Montgomery promising if he would return the Kirk would remit part of the Discipline and so he came to St. John's Town But here was no lasting Tranquillity for him for tho' in this time he raised a very numerous Army yet the Kirkmen being beaten at Dunbar as aforesaid by the English began to rail bitterly against those who had called the King in too hastily before he had given true signs of Repentance and they assumed the Kingly Authority so far as to make such Generals of the Kirk Army as they thought sit But Cromwel in the mean time prevails in his Conquests and tho' Scotland were a cold Climate yet he made it too hot for the King and his Army to hold long there and therefore he slips with them to England by the way of Carlile but was followed close at the heels by Lambert and Harrison and soon after by Cromwel himself with the main Army But he arrived at Worcester City with little opposition and there Cromwel came up with him where they joyned Battle but as all his attempts before in his Fathers Cause had proved succesless he met with no better Fortune now he fought in his own Cause nor indeed hardly ever did in all his Life-time by Arms for here his Army was utterly Routed by Cromwel that very day twelve Month he had beaten the Scots at Dunbar 3550 whereof were killed with Duke Hamilton and General Forbes and 5000 taken Prisoners of which number were the Earls of Rothes Kanworth and Kelly the Lords Sinclaer and Monâ—gomery General of the Ordinance and soon after David Lesley who fought not or but little in the Battle was Routed by Colonel Lilburn and together with Lauderdale the Lords Kenmoure and Middleton taken Prisoners The poor King seeing all now irrecoverably lost about six in the Evening marched out at St Martin's Gate leaving all that was valuable but his Life behind him as a prey to the Enemy and being come to a place called Barbon-Bridge he consults with the few followers he had with him what to do among whom it was resolved he should endeavour to get back into Scotland and one Walker who belonged to the Lord Talbots Troop was made choise of to be his Guide Northward But Walker being at a loss when he came to Kinver-Heath and not knowing which way to go the King consulted with the Lords yet about him whither he might repair with most safety to take a few hours rest in regard he found himself quite worn out and spent whereupon the Earl of Derby advised him to go to Bosoobel where in his Flight from Wiggan to Worcester he met with a trusty Person and where there was great conveniency of Concealment This being agreed to Mr. Gifford who knew the way best was appointed to conduct him thither but he proposing to carry him first to White-Ladies a house about half a mile from Boscobel where he might repose himself a while and then take farther Resolutions this was consented to and thither they immediately repaired and were readily entertained by George Pendrel the youngest of the five Brethren By this time the King found himself extream hungry and very much tired with his long and hasty march and here it was that he rubbed his hands and face with the foot of the Chimney had the locks of his hair disorderly cut off and was stripped of his blew Ribbon buff Câ—at and other Princely Ornaments which to prevent a discovery were buryed under Ground and his Case now was not imparallell to his Great Ancestor Robert Bruce King of Scotland who for fear of Edward I. King of England was forced to sculk in the High-Lands and there to live for a time more like a Brute Beast then a Man much less a Prince as we have noted towards the beginning of this History The Kings fine Shirt was also exchanged for a course Canvass one borrowed of one Martin and a suit of Cloaths answerable to it of Richard Pendrells put on by him and then he assumes the name and imployment of a Woodman and so with Richard with a Bill in his hand he went into the Wood while the other Brothers went out to scout It was not above
to run away with the prey from both of them The People of England were no more satisfied before with their imaginary happiness in the King's Restoration but they were now upon the ill management of Affairs the much Treasure that had been spent to so little purpose and more especially upon our Conjunction with the French to the manifest hazard of the Protestant Religion as well as the Civil Rights of Europe as much uneasie and suspitious of the Court-proceedings And it did not a little incense them that the French made such a Progress in Flanders and got all by Land while we got nothing but Blows at Sea and therefore the House of Commons on the 31. of October 1673. Voted that considering the present State of the Natition they would not take into further Consideration any Aids or Charges upon the Subject except it did appear that the obstinacy of the Dutch did render it necessary nor before the Kingdom should be effectually secured from Popery and Popish Counsels and other Grievances redressed which procedure thunder-struck the King and his Frenchified Council so as that a Peace with the Dutch was quickly huddled up and so he then set up for a Mediator of Peace between the rest and the Treaty spun out to a very great length at Nimeguen and was at last concluded after some years Conferences without King Charles consent by Beverning the Dutch Agent which spared him a labour of entring into an actual War with Franee as the Parliament would have had him and to which he was as unwilling as he had been before forward in his engaging against the Dutch a Protestant State The remainder of his succeeding Reign was as uneasie to himself and to the Nation upon the account first of the Popish Plot the many endeavours to stiffle it the Bill of Exclusion and the Division of the Nation into Whig and Torry hereupon then that called the Presbyterian Plot both Plots they said against his life which if true he was the more unhappy for which last the Noble Lord Russel suffered and the Great Earl of Essex had his Throat Barbarously cut in the Tower of London the King's Prison and King Charles had the unhappiness to be there that day where he had not been hardly in twenty years before And last of all the forfeiture and seizure of Charters which tho carried on with great fury in his Reign that thereby he might have a Parliament of his own choosing as Cromwell had and so do what he pleased yet he did not live to compleat his designs Tho' the Censures upon the manner of his Death are various yet most are agreed says the Author of the Introduction to King Charles II. Character there was some fraud in it some ascribing it to the intreagues of France who as they Undid his Father by a Wife Ruined the Son by a Mistress and therefore alleadge that the French King being weary of feeding him with Pensions and dreading his natural Parts if upon any disgust he should come to unite with his Parliaments against France he thought it his Interest to take him off and make way for a Successor who as he made open profession of his own Religion would be more pliable to his dictates Then as touching the method of effecting it they say that the Dutchess of P. who bewitched him with her Amours and had not only drained the substance of his Body but likewise the substance of his Purse either of which being once accomplished the Love of a St â—t to her Paramour vanishes so that having a mind to change Gallants or seeing no more hopes of former advantages she gave him such Provocatives as made him act beyond his natural Strength and threw him into those Apoplectick Fits which carryed him off There are others who ascribe his Death to the Romish Faction who being angry at his having so often deceived them and impatient till they came to a tryal of skill for establishing their Religion while Lewis XIV was in the height of his Power and Glory did therefore administer the fatal Dose which sent King Charles II. a Packing and brought his Brother to the Throne under whose auspicious Conduct they made no question of restoring the Church of Rome to the full possession of all she had formerly enjoy'd in these three Kingdoms It 's certain there were some accidents fell out some time before the King's Death that raised some Jealousy in the breast of the Romanists who thought by that he would upon the presenting of the first opportunity face about as they found by experience he had more then once done and fall in with the Interest of a Party he now for some years by their instigation had been endeavouring to destroy and root out of the World And what rendred their suspitions of him the more incurable was that a Pamphlet having been spread abroad a little before Christmas 1684. setting forth that the Earl of Essex had not cut his own Throat but had been Murdered by Russians set on by the Papists c. the King upon the hearing of it should say Well I am resolved to examine Essex's Cause once more And that he might meet with no obstruction in the way he ordered the Duke his Brother to prepare to go for Scotland which the other whether smelling the design or that the train to blow the King up was already layd by him absolutely refused to do this occasioned high words between them insomuch that the late M. of H. who was well known to be a great favourite coming on the Sunday before the King Dyed to wait upon him after Evening Service he found him in his Closet alone under great concern of Mind puffing after a more then ordinary rate and looking pensive with his Face towards the ground which the M. observing made him stand still till the King looking up asked hastily How now my Lord How do you do to which the M. answering the better to see his Majesty well and soforth the King returned again to his former posture but at length broke forth into these Words My Lord will you be ingenious with we and answer me one question to which the Marquess replying he would if he could Then said the King I charge you upon your Alleagiance to tell me how I stand affected with the People of England The M. after some pause answered Sir you have been always ranked among the mercifull and Clement Princes and have given evident Testimonies of your being so upon various occasions but I must tell your Majesty that of late your Government has been somewhat uneasy to your People Well said the King one thing I am resolved on I 'll once more throw my self upon the People of England and to that end will go this week into the City and I 'le call a Parliament at the Guild-Hall the M. was somewhat surprized at these words and said Sir If that be your Resolution I pray God to bless it but let me beg of
Parliaments stiffness to supply their Court Extravagancies in time of Peace and rejection of the King 's much desired proposal to unite both Nations by a Naturalization of the Scots without they would come under the English Laws and Government was some allay to his Delights At last an accident broke out which wrought in him no small disquiet as you have already heard while King James was only King of Scotland that he was entirely at his Favourites Devotion which as has been related had many Tragical Effects you must know he was become no changling now he was King of England and among others one Robert Carr a young Man of no fortune in the World and who it seems had been formerly one of his Pages in Scotland coming to Court in a good Garb and being a comely Person was taken notice of by the King and in a short time was Knighted by him made Gentleman of his Bed-Chamber Viscount Rochester and at length Earl of Sommerset and over-topped all the rest of his Favourites abundantly even to Cope with the Prince himself who disdaining to be thus bearded by an upstart of yesterday would not afford him a good look nor speak to him and some said that some love Jealousies the Prince being now in his Puberty encreased the Emulation between Carr and him The Countess of Essex then a top Gallant Lady in the Bloom of her years and disdaining the Company of the Noble Earl her Husband being the Bane of Contention between them but be this as it will the Countess was enamoured on the Favourite and cast her Love-Anchor there but I should think the Prince above all these Thoughts by the following passage for being on a time Dancing among the Ladies and the Countesses Glove falling down it was taken up and presented to him by one that thought he did him acceptable Service but the Prince refused to receive it saying publickly He would not have it it was streatched by another meaning Carr then Viscount Rochester But things could not continue long in this State for as the Court were full of Rejoycings upon the Palsgrave's arrival in England to Marry the Lady Elizabeth there was a damp struck upon the Hearts of all true Englishmen upon the suddain immature and I doubt violent death of the Noble Prince Henry in the flower of his years Sir A. W. says his death had been foretold by one Bruce a famous Scotch Astrologer for the which the Earl of Salisbury caused him to be banished who left this farewell with the Earl That it should be too true but that his Lordship should not live to see it The Earl dying in Day and the Prince in November following to the infinite grief of all but Sommerset and the Family of the Howards who by his death thought themselves secured from all future dangers for he being an open Prince and hating all baseness would often say He would not leave one of that Family to piss against a Wall I do not know why Sir Anthony might not have put the King himself into the foresaid number I am sure he shewed but small symptoms of Sorrow at his death which happened as was said but then in November by his commanding no Man should appear at Court in Mourning in the Christmass Holidays following the Jollity Feasting and Magnificence whereof must not be laid aside upon any account whatsoever it is certain that the Princes Court was frequented more than the King 's and by another sort of Men so that the King upon seeing of him once at a distance in the Park with a far more numerous Train than himself was heard to say What will he bury me alive jealousie is like a fire that burns all before it and that fire is hot enough to dissolve all Bonds that tend to the diminution of a Crown Don Carlos Prince of Spain and Henry's Contemporary not long before this for wishing himself but one day in his Father's Throne fell soon after into the hard hand of an immature fate However it were the manner of the Prince's death was variously rumour'd some saying he was poison'd with a bunch of Grapes others with the venemous scent of a pair of Gloves presented to him and some again that a French Physician gave him poison and it was observed that poison was never more in fashion than at this time but surely there was something black enough in it for when Sir Thomas Mouson a long time after who was one of the Countess of Essex's Agents in the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury had past one days Trial at Guildhall the Lord Chief Justice Coke vented some expressions as if he could discover more than the death of a private Person saying God knows what is become of that sweet Babe Prince Henry but I know somewhat and blessing himself at the horror of such villanies as came to his knowledge and 't was believed that in searching the Cabinets he had lighted on some Papers that spake plain in that which was ever whispered and what strongly increased the suspicion was that Monson's Trial was laid aside he quickly set at liberty and the Chief Justices wings clipt for ever after And no less jealousie did something relating to the Earl of Somerset's Trial for the said Murder of Overbury create in Men's Minds about this matter for when the Lieutenant of the Tower according to Custom gave Somerset notice of his Trial next day he absolutely refused it saying They should carry him in his Bed that the King had assured him he should not come to any Trial neither durst the King bring him to any this was an high strain and a Language not understood by Sir George Moor the Lieutenant and tho' otherwise esteemed a wise Man it reduced him to his Wits end After some pauses he at last resolves to go to the King then at Greenwich as late as it was being Twelve a Clock at night he bounced at the Back Stairs as if he had been mad to whom Jo. Leveston one of the Grooms came out of his Bed and enquired the reason of that unreasonable distemper Moor tells him he must speak with the King immediately Loveston answered He was quieted meaning in his Scottish Dialect He was fast asleep but Moor said he must awake him and so was called in and left alone with the King in his Bed-chamber where he tells him those passages that happened between Sommerset and himself and desired to be directed by the King what he should do for he was gone beyond his Reason to hear such bold and undutiful Expressions from a faulty Subject against a Just Sovereign Hereupon the King falls into a fit of Tears and said On my Soul Moor I wot not what to do thou art a Wise Man help me in this great streight and thou shalt find thou dost it for a faithful Master with other sad Expressions to the same purpose Moor leaves the King in that Agony but first assured him he would strain his Wits