Selected quad for the lemma: parliament_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
parliament_n	king_n	power_n	prerogative_n	4,869	5	9.9586	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48472	The picture of the Councell of State, held forth to the free people of England by Lieut. Col. John Lilburn, M. Thomas Prince, and M. Richard Overton, now prisoners in the Tower of London for bearing testimony to the liberties of England against the present tyrants at White-Hall, and their associates, or, a full narrative of the late extrajudiciall and military proceedings against them ; together with the substance of their severall examinations, answers, and deportments before them at Darby-house, upon March 28 last.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.; Prince, Thomas.; Overton, Richard, fl. 1646.	1649 (1649)	Wing L2155; ESTC R10562	40,210	29

Harrison the Generall being but their stalking Hors and a Cipher and there trayterous faction ** For the greatest Traytors they are that ever were in this Nation as upon the losse of my head l Ioh. Lilburn will by law under take to prove and make good before the next free and just Parliament to whom I hereby appeal having by their wills and Swords got all the Swords of England under their command and the disposing of all the great places in England by sea and land andalso the pretended law executing power by making among themselves contrary to the Lawes and Liberberies of *** For the people being in reason justice and truth as well as by the Parliaments late votes the true fountain and original of all just power they ought not only in Reason Right and Justice chuse their own law makers but all and every of their law executors and to obey none what soever but of their own choice and it is not only their right by reason and justice but Sir Ed. Cooke in his second part Institut published for good Law by this present house of Commons declares and proves Fol. 174. 175. 558. 559. that by law it was and is the peoples right to chuse their Coroner Justices or conservators of the Peace as also their high Sheriff and Verderors of Forest and saith he there expresly for the time of War there were likewise Leaders of the Countreys Souldiers of Ancient time chosen by the Free-holders of the county but it 's true the chiefest of these things were expresly taken from the people and invested in the King by the Statute of the 27. Hen. 3 chap. 24. and therefore Kingly government being abolished the right is returned into the people the king or fountain of power and cannot be exercised as a new devise by the Parliament although they were never so legally and Justly chosen by them without a conference with them thereupon a power deputed to them for that end as Sir Edward Cooke declares in the 4 part of his Institutes chap. High Court of Parliament Fol. 14. 34. therefore I do hereby declare all the present Parliaments Justices Sherifs c. to be no Justices Sherifs c. either in law or reason but meer tyrants invadors and usurpers of their power and authority and may very well in time come to be hanged for executing their pretended offices England all Judges Justices of Peace Sheriffs Bailiffes Committee-men c. to execute their wils and tyranny walking by no limits or bounds but their own wils and pleasures And trayterously assume unto themselves a power to levie upon the people what money they please and dispose of it as they please yea even to buy knives to cut the peoples throats that pay the money to them and to give no account for it till Dooms-day in the afternoone they having already in their wills and power to dispose of Kings Queen Princes Dukes and the rest of the Childrens Revenues Deans and Chapter lands Bishops lands sequestered Deliquents lands sequestred Papists lands Compositions of all sorts amounting to millions of money besides Excise and Customs yet this is not enough although if rightly husbanded it would constantly pay above one hundred thousand men and ●urnish an answerrable Navy thereunto But the people must now after their trades are lost and their estates spent to procure their liberties freedoms be sessed about 100000. pound a month that **** But saith there own Oracle Sir Ed. Cook in the 4 part of his instutes chap. High Court of Parliament Fol. 14. 34. It is also the Law and custome of Parliament that when any new device is moved on the Kings behalf in Parliament for his aid or the like the Commons may answer that they tend●ed the Kings estate and are ready to aide the same only in this new device they dare not agree without conference with their countries whereby it appeareth saith he that such conferences is warrantable by the law and custome of Parliament and this was do●e in the Parliament of the 9. Ed. 3. nu●b 5 but the present Parliament assume unto themselves the regall office in the height and therefore ought not to be their own carvers in reference to the peoples purses but ought to demand and obtain their consents especially in time of peace before they levie either 90000 pounds per month or any such like new device what ever and therefore I know neither law equity or reason to compel the people to pay a penny of it unlesse they have a desire to bring themselves into the same condition in reference to the present Parliament that the Egyptians were to Pharoah when Joseph was so hard hearted as to make the Egyptians to pay so dear for b●ead-corn that it cost them all their money and all their cattle yea all their lands and also themselves for his slaves Gen. 47. 14. 15. 16. c. for which tyranny God plagued him and his posterity by making them slaves to the Egyptians afterwards so they may be able like so many cheaters and and State theeves to give 6. 8. 10. 12. 14. 16000. pounds apeice over again to one another as they have done already to divers of themselves to buy the Common-wealths lands one of another contrary to the duty of Trustees who by law nor equity can neither given or sell to one another or two or three yeers purchase the true and valuable rate considered as they have already done and to give 4 or 5000l per annum over again to King Crumwell with ten or twenty thousand pounds worth of wood uponit as they have done already out of the Earl of Worcesters estate c. Besides about four or five pounds a day he hath by his places of Lieut. Generall and Colonel of Horse in the Army besides the extraordinary advancement of many of his kindred that so they might stick close to him in his tyranny although he were at the beginning of this Parliament but a poor man yea little better then a begger to what he is now as well as other of his neighbours But to return those Gentlemen that would have had us bailed lost the day by one vote as we understood for all their wicked oath of secrecy and then about 12. at night they broke up a fit hour for such works of wickednesse John 3. 19. 20. 21. and we went into their pretended Secretary and found our commitments made in these words our names changed viz. These are to will and require you to receive herewith into your custody the Person of Lieu. Col. John Lilburn and him safely to keep in your Prison of the Tower of London untill you receive further order he being committed to upon suspition of high Treason of which you are not to fail and for which this shall be your sufficient Warrant given at the Councel of State at Derby-house 28. day of March 1649. To the Lieu. of the Tower of London Signed in the name

one word more and that is this I am not onely in time of peace the Courts of Justice being all open fetcht and forc't out of my house by multitudes of armed men in an hostile manner and carried as a captive up and down the streets contr●ry to all Law and Justice but I am by force of Armes still kept in their custody and it may be may be intended to be sent to them again who are no Guardians of the Law of England no nor so much as the meanest Administrators or executors of it but ought to be subject to it themselves and to the Administrators of it as is cleer by the Petition of Right c. yea the General himself And truly Sir I had rather die then basely betray my Liberties into their martiall fingers who after their fighting for our Freedoms would now destroy them and tread them under their feet that have nothing at all to do with me nor any pretended or reall civill offender in England I know not what you intend to do with me neither do I much care having learned long since to die and rather for my Liberties then in my bed It s true I am at present in no capacity effectually to dispute your power because I am under guards of armed Masketiers but I intreat you if you will continue me a prisoner that you will free me from the military Sword and send me to some Civil Gaol and I will at present in peace and quietnesse obey your command and go And so I concluded and was commanded to withdraw which I did and then Mr. William Walwin was called in and while he was within I gave unto my Comrades Mr. Prince and Mr. Overton and the rest of the people a summary account of what had past between me and them And within a little time after Mr. Walwin came out again and Mr. Overton was called in next And at Mr. Walwin's coming out he acquainted us what they said to him which was in a manner the same they said to me and all that he said to them was but this That he did not know why he was suspected To which Mr. Bradshaw replyed Is that all you have to say And Mr. Walwin answered Yes So he was commanded to withdraw And after M. Overton was come out M. Prince was called in and after he had withdrawn they spent some time of debate among themselves and then I was called in again So I marched in Sutable to my first posture and went close to M. Bradshaw who said unto me to this effect Lieut. Colonel Lilburn this Councel hath considered what you have said and what they have been informed of concerning you and also of that duty that lies upon them by the command of the House which enjoynes them to improve their utmost ability to find out the Author of this Book and therefore to effect that end they judge themselves bound to demand of you this question Whether you made not this Book or were privie to the making of it or no And after some pause and wondring at the strangeness of the quesion I answered and said M. Bradshaw I cannot but stand amazed that you should ask me such a question as this at this time of the day considering what you said unto me at my first being before you and considering it is now about eight yeers ago since this very Parliament annihilated the Court of Star-chamber Councel board and High Commission and that for such proceedings as these * See the Acts that abolished them made in the 16 C. R. printed in my Book called The peoples Prerogative p. 22. 23. 24. 25. And truly Sir I have been a contestor and sufferer for the Liberties of England these twelve years together and I should now look upon my self as the baseft fellow in the world if now in one moment I should undo all that I have been doing all this while which I must of necessity do if I should answer you to questions against my self For in the first place by answering this question against my self I should betray the Liberties of England in acknowledging you to have legall Jurisdiction over me to try and adjudge me which I have already proved to your faces you have not in the least And if you have forgot what you said to me thereupon yet I have not forgot what I said to you And Secondly Sir If I should answer to questions against my self and so betray my self I should do that which not onely Law but Nature abhorrs And therefore I cannot but * And well might I for M. John Cook and M. Bradshaw himself were my Counsel at the Lords Bar against the Star-chamber the 13 of Feb. 1645. where M. Bradshaw did most excellently oppen the Star-chamber injustice towards me and at the reading of their first Sentence he observed to the Lords that that Sentence was felo de se guilty of his own death the ground whereof said he being because M. Lilburn refused to take an oath to answer to all such questions as should be demanded of him it being contrary to the Laws of God Nature and the Kingdom for any man to be his own Accuser whose words you may more at large read in the printed Relation thereof drawn up by M. John Cook and my self p. 3. But he that condemned it in the Star-chamber now practiseth it in the Councel of State but the more base and unworthy man he for so doing wonder that you your selves are not ashamed to demand so iilegall and unworthy a thing of me as this is and therefore in short were it that I owned your power which I do not in the least I would be hanged before I would do so base and un-Englishman like an Action to betray my Liberty which I must of necessity do in answering questions to accuse my self But Sir this I will say to you My late Actions have not been done in a hole or a corner but on the house top in the face of the Sun before hundreds and some thousands of people and therefore why ask you me any questions Go to those that have heard me and seen me and it is possible you may finde some hundreds of witnesses to tell you what I have said and done for I hate holes and corners My late Actions need no covers nor hidings they have been more honest then so and I am not sorry for what I have done for I did look well about me before I did what I did and I am ready to lay down my life to justifie what I have done And so much in answer to your question But now Sir with your favour one word more to minde you again of what I said before in reference to my Martiall imprisonment and truly Sir I must tell you Circumstantials of my Liberty at this time I shall not much dispute but for the Essentials of them I shall die I am now in the Souldiers custodie where to continue in silence and

my self in again amongst them being scarce able to contain myself that so I might have gone five or six stories higher then I did before yea as high as I intended when I came to their door and to have particularly paid Cromwel and Haslerig to the purpose for their late venome not onely against me in the House but my whole Family Haslerig saying as I am informed in the open House There was never a one of the Lilburns Family fit or worthy to be a Constable in England though I am confident there is not the worst of us alive that have served the Parliament but he is an hundred times more just honest and unspotted then he himself as in due time I shall make it appear by Gods assistance I hope to his shame But the fair carriage of the Gentlemen of the supposed Councel to me at the first took off the height of the edge of my Spirit and intended resolution which it may be they shall have the next time to this effect Y●u your selves have already voted the People under God the Fountain and Originall of all just Power and if so then none can make them Laws but those that are chosen impowred and betrusted by them for that end And if that be true as undoubtedly it is I desire to know how the present Gentlemen at VVestminster can make it appear they are the Peoples Representatives being rather chosen by the Will of him whose head as a Tyrant and Traytor they have by their Wils chopt off I mean the King then by the People whose Will made the Borough towns to chuse Parliament men and thereby robb'd about nineteen people of this Nation of their undubitable and inherent right to give to a single man in twenty for number in reference to the whole Nation a Monopoly to chuse Parliament men dis-franchising thereby the other nineteen And if so in any measure then upon their own declared Principles they are no Representative of the People no nor was not at the first Again the King summoned them by his Writ the issue of his will and pleasure and by vertue of that they sit to this hour and so are rather his Parliament then the Peoples Again the King by his Will and pleasure combines with them by an Act to make them a perpetual Parliament one of the worst and tyrannicallest actions that ever he did in his life to sit as long as they pleased which he nor they had no pow●r to do in the least the very constitution of Parliaments in England being to be once every yeer or oftner if need require Q●aere Whether this Act of perpetuating this Parliament by the Parliament men themselves beyond their Commission was not an act in them of the highest Treason in the world against the People and their Liberties by setting up themselves an Arbitrary power over them for euer which is the greatest slavery can be exexcised upon the sons of men Yea and thereby razing the foundation and constitution of Parliament it self And if so then this is null if at the first it had been any thing Again if it should be granted this Parliament at the beginning had a legal constitution from the people the original and fountain of all just power yet the Faction of a trayterous party of Officers of the Army hath twice rebelled against the Parliament and broke them to pieces and by force of Armes culled out whom they please and imprisoned divers of them and laid nothing to their charge and have left onely in a manner a few men besides 12 of themselves viz. the General Cromwel Ireton Harrison Fleetword Ri●h Ingalsby Haslerig Constable Fennick Walton and Allen Treasu●er of their own Faction behind them that will like Spanel-doggs serve their lusts and wills yea some of the chiefest of them viz. Ireton Harrison c. yea M. Holland himself stiling them a mocke Parliament a mocke power at Winsor yea it is yet their expressions at London And if this be true that they are a mocke power and a mocke Parliament then Quere Whether in Law or Justice especially considering they have fallen from all their many glorious promises and have not done any one action that tends to the Universal good of the people and absolutely degenerate into pure tyrany and thereby have lost the essence and soul of authority and are become but a dead and stincking Carkess Can those Gentlemen sitting at Westminster in the House called the House of Commons be any other then a Factious company of men trayterously combined together with Crumwel Ireton and Harrison to subdue the Lawes Liberties and Freedoms of Ergland for no one of them protests against the rest and to set up an absolute and perfect Tyranny of the Sword will and pleasure and absolutely intend the destroying the Trade of the Nation and the absolute impoverishing the people thereof to fit them to be their Vassels and Slaves And if so then Quere Whether the Free-People of England as well Souldiers as others ought not to contemn all these mens commands as invalid and illegal in themselves and as one man to rise up against them as so many professed traytors theeves robbers * For Magistacy going beyond its bounds and limits and setting up their wills and lusts are no more Magistrates but Beares and Wolves and so may be resisted for these three things out of the Parliament and Armies Declarations I will prove to be good and sound doctrine consonant to reason and scripture viz. first that all Magisteriall power in England what ever are at most but Officers of trust and expresly bound up with this limitation to be exercised for the good and wel fair of the trusters Secondly that it is possible that all or any of the several Magisterial trustees may forfeit their or its trust Thirdly that in case of forfeting the Magisterieal trust the trusters the people are disobliged from their obedience and subjection and may lawfully doe the best they can for their own preservation and their Magistrates punishment See the first part of the Parliaments Declarations pag. 81. 150. 201. 207. 264. 267. 270. 276. 304. 492. 494. 629. 690. 694. 696. 699. 700. 701. 726. 728. See the Armies booke Declaration pag. 26. 34. 38. 39. 40 41. 60. 61 62 66. 141. 143 144. See also King James opinion betwixt a Real King and a Tyrant in his speech to the Parliament 1609. See my Book called The Out-crys of oppressed Commons pag. 16. 17. 18. and regall Tyranny pag. 32. 33 34 35. c. 59 60. 61 62. but to behead the King for Tyranny and Treason who was fenced about with the Letter of multitude of Lawes puts this out of all dispute high way men apprehend secure and bring them to Justice in a new Representative chosen by vertue of a just Agreement among the pecple there being no other way in the world to preserve the Nation but that alone the three forementioned men viz. Cromwel Ireton and

the State the Army derived their Government by Martiall Law which in Judgment and Reason could be no longer binding then the Authority which gave being thereto was binding to the Army for the denyal of the authority is an Abrogation or Nulment of all Acts Orders or Ordinances by that Authority as to them And upon this account your Excellency with the Army long proceeded upon the Constitution of a new Councell and Government contrary to all Martiall Law and Discipline by whom onely the Army engaged to be ordered in their prosecution of the ends to wit Their several Rights both as Souldiers and Commoners for which they associated Declaring agre●ing and promising each other not to Disband Divide or suffer themselves to be Disbanded or Divided without satisfaction and security in relation to their Grievances and Desires in behalf of themselves and the Common-wealth as should be agreed unto by their Councell of Agitators And by vertue and under colour of this Establishment all the extraordinary Actions by your Excellency your Officers and the Army have past Your refusall to Disband disputing the Orders of Parliament Impeachment and ejection of Eleven Members your First and Second March up to London your late violent Exclusion of the major part of Members out of the House and their imprisonment without Cause declared c. which can no way be justified from the guilt of High Treason but in the accomplishment of a righteous end viz. The enjoyment of the benefit of our Laws and Liberties which we hoped long ere this to have enjoyed from your hands Yet when we consider and herewith compare many of your late carriages both towards the Souldiery and other Free-People and principally your cruel exercise of Martiall Law even to the Sentence and execution of Death upon such of your Souldiers as stand for the Rights of that Engagement c. And not only so but against others not of the Army we cannot but look upon your defection and Apostacie in such dealings as of most dangerous consequence to all the Laws and Freedoms of the People And therefore although there had never been any such solemn Engagement by the Army as that of June 5. 1647. which with your Excellency in point of duty and conscience ought not to be of the meanest obligation We do protest against your exercise of Martiall Law against any whomsoever in time of peace where all Courts of Justice are open as the greatest encroachment upon our Lawes and Liberties that can be acted against us And particularly against the Tryal of the Souldiers of C. Savages Troop yesterday by a Court Martiall upon the Articles of Warre and sentencing of two of them to death● and for no other end as we understand but for some dispute about their pay And the reason of this our Protestation is from the Petition of Right made in the third yeer of the late King which declareth That no person ought to be adjudged by Law Martiall except in times of Warre And that all Commissions to execute Martiall Law in time of Peace are contrary to the Lawes and Statutes of the Land And it was the Parliaments complaint That Martiall Law was then commanded to be executed upon Souldiers for Robbery Mutiny or Murder Which Petition of Right this present Parliament in their late Declarations of the 9. of Feb. and the 17. of March 1648. commend as the most excellentest Law in England and there promise to preserve inviolably it and all other the Fundamentall Laws and Liberties concerning the preservation of the Lives Properties and Liberties of the people with all things incident thereunto And the Exercise of Martiall Law in Ireland in time of Peace was one of the chiefest Articles for which the Earl of Strafford lost his head The same by this present Parliament being judged high Treason And the Parliament it self neither by Act nor Ordinance can justly or warrantably destroy the Fundamentall Liberties and Principles of the Common Law of England It being a maxime in Law and Reason both that all such Acts and Ordinances are ipso facto null and void in Law and binds not at all but ought to be resisted and stood against to the death And if the supreme Authority may not presume to do this much lesse may You or Your Officers presume therupon for where remedy may be had by an ordinary course in Law the party grieved shall never have his recourse to extraordinaries Whence it is evident that it is the undoubted Right of every Englishman Souldier or other that he should be punishable onely in the ordinary Courts of Justice according to the Lawes and Statutes of the Realme in the time of Peace as now it is and the extraordinary way by Court Martiall in no wise to be used Yea the Parliaments Oracle S. Ed. Cook Declares in the third part of his Institutes Cap. of Murther that for a General or other Officers of an Army in time of Peace to put any man although a souldier to death by colour of Martiall Law it is absolute murther in that Generall or Councell of War 〈◊〉 Therefore erecting of Martiall Law now when all Courts of Justice are open and stopping the free current of Law which sufficiently provides for the punishment of Souldiers as well as others as appears by 18. H. 6 Ch. 18 19. 2 3. Ed. 6. Cha. 2. 4 5. P. M. Chap. 3. 5. Eliz. 5. 5. Jam. 21. is an absolute destroying of our Fundamentall Liberties and the razing of the Foundation of the Common Law of Eng 〈◊〉 the which o●t of duty and Conscience to the Rights and Freedoms of this Nation 〈◊〉 we value above our lives and to leave You and all Your Councell without all ex 〈◊〉 we are moved to present unto your Excellencie Earnestly pressing you well to consider what you doe before your proceed to the taking away the lives of thosemen by Martiall Law least the blood of the Innocent or the blood of War shed in the time of peace and so palpable subversion of the Lawes and Liberties of England bring the reward of just vengeance after it upon you as it did upon the Earle of Strafford of old for innocent blood God will not pardon Gen. 9 5. 6. 1 Kings 2 v. 4. 5. 28 29 30 31 32 33. and what the people may do in case of such violent subversion of their Rights we shall leave to your Excellency to judge and remaine Sir Your Excellencies humble Servants Iohn Lilburn Richard Overton From our Causelesse unjust and Tyranical Captivity in the Tower of London April 27. 1649. POST SCRIPT And that for the present General or his Councel to put any man to death in time of peace by Martiall Law is not only Murder but Treason is undenyably proved in Capt. John Ingrams Plea and M. William Tompsons Plea and M. Joh● Crosmans Plea all of which are printed at large in Lieut. Col. John Lilburn's Book called FINIS