in the beginning of this Parliament accepted of one for the Countie of Yorke Gave His People to understand That Hee had awarded the like Commissions into all the Counties of England and Dominion of Wales to provide for and secure them in a legall way lest under a pretence of danger and want of Authority from His Majestie to put them into a Military postuâ—e they should bee drawne and engaged in any opposition against Him or His Just Authority But 21. June 1642. The Lords and Commons in Parliament Declaring The Designe of their Propositions of raising Horse and Moneys was to maintaine the Protestant Religion and the Kings Authoritie and Person and that The Forces already attending His Majestie and His preparations at first coloured under the pretence of a guard being not so great a guard as they themselves had constantly for 6. moneths before did evidently appeare to bee intended for some great and extraordinary designe so as at this time also they doe not charge the King with any manner of action of Warre or any thing done in a way or course of Warre against them and gave just cause of feare and jealousie to the Parliament being never yet by any Law of God or man accounted to be a sufficient cause or ground for Subjects to make a Warre against their Soverainge did forbid all Mayors Sheriffes Bayliffes and other Officers to publish His Majesties said Letter to the Citie of London And declare that if Hee should use any force for the recovery of Hull or suppressing of their Ordinance for the Militia it should bee held a levying Warre against the Parliament and all this done before His Majestie had granted any Commission for the levying or raising of a man and lest the King should have any manner of provision of Warre to defend Himselfe when their Army or Sir John Hotham should come to assault Him Powder and Armes were every where seized on and Cutlers Gun-smiths Sadlers and all Warlike Trades ordered not to send any to Yorke but to give a weekely account what was made or sold by them And an Order made the 24. day of June 1642. That the Horses which should bee sent in for the Service of the Parliament when they came to the number of 60. should bee trayned and so still as the number increased 4. July 1642. The King by His letter under His signe Manuall commanded all the Judges of England in their circuits to use all meanes to suppresse Popery Riots and unlawfull assemblies and to give the People to understand His Resolution to maintaine the Protestant Religion and the Lawes of the Kingdome and not to governe by any Arbitrary way and that if any should give the King or them to understand of any thing wherein they held themselves grieved and desired a just reformation Hee would spedily give them such an answer as they should have cause to thank Him for His Justice and favour But the same day a Declaration was published by both houses of Parliament Commanding That no Sheriffe Mayor Bayliffe Parson Vicar Curate or other Sir Richard Gurney the Lord Mayor of London not many dayes before having beene imprisoned for proclaming the Kings Proclamation against the bringing in of Plate c. should publish or Proclaime any Proclamation Declaration or other Paper in the Kings name which should bee contrary to any Order Ordinance or Declaration of both houses of Parliament or the proceedings thereof and Order That in case any Force should bee brought out of one County into another to disturbe the Peace thereof they should bee suppressed by the Trayned Bands and Voluntiers of the adjacent Counties Shortly after Sir John Hotham fortifieth the Towne of Hull whilest the King is at Yorke seizeth on a Ship comming to Him with provisions for His Houshold takes Mr. Ashburnham one of the Kings Servants Prisoner intercepts Letters sent from the Queene to the King and drowneth part of the Countrey round about the Towne which the Parliament allowes of and promise satisfaction to the owners 5. July 1642. They Order a subscription of Plate and Horse to bee made in every Countey and list the Horse under Commanders and the morrow after Order 2000. men should bee sent to relieve Sir John Hotham in case the King should besiege him to which purpose Drummes were beat up in London and the adjacent parts to Hull The Earle of Warwick Ordered to send Ships to Humber to his assistance instructions drawne up to bee sent to the Deputie-Lievetenants of the severall Counties to tender the Propositions for the raising of Horses Plate and Money Mr. Hastings divers of the Kings Commissioners of Array impeached for supposed high Crimes and misdemeanours and a Committee of five Lords and ten of the house of Commons ordered to meete every morning for the laying out of ten thousand pounds of the Guild-hall moneys for the buying of 700. Horse and that 10000. Foote to bee raised in London and the Countrey bee imployed by dirction of the Parliament and the Lord Brooke is furnished with 6. peeces of Ordnance out of the Tower of London to fortifie the Castle of Warwick And 9. July 1642. Order That in case the Earle of Northampton should come into that County with a Commission of Array they should raise the Militia to suppresse him And that the Common Councell of London should consider of away for the speedy raising of the 10000. Foote and that they should bee listed and put in Pay within foure dayes after 11. July 1642. The King sends to the Parliament to cause the Towne of Hull to bee delivered unto him and desires to have their answer by the 15. of that moneth and as then had used no force against it But the morrow after before that message could come unto them they resolve upon the Question That an Army shall bee forthwith raised for the defence of the Kings Person and both houses of Parliament and those who have obeyed their Orders and Commands in perserving the true Religion the Lawes Liberties and the Peace of the Kingdome and that they would live and dye with the Earle of Essex whom they nominate Generall in that Cause And 12. July 1642. Declare That they will protect all that shall be imployed in their assistance and Militia And 16. July 1642. Petition the King to forbeare any preparations or actions of Warre and to dismisse His extraordinary guards to come neerer to them and harken to their advice but before that Petition could bee answered wherein the King offered when the Towne of Hull should bee delivered to Him hee would no longer have an Army before it and should bee assured that the same pretence which tooke Hull from him may not put a Garrison into Newcastle into which after the Parliaments surprise of Hull Hee was inforced to place a Governour and a small Garrison Hee would also remove that Garrison and so as his Magazine and Navy might bee delivered
King CHARLES the First no Man OF BLOOD BUT A MARTYR FOR HIS PEOPLE OR A sad and impartiall enquiry whether the King or Parliament began the Warre which hath so much ruined and undon the Kingdom of England and who was in the defensive part of it Exoritur aliquod majus è magno malum Nondum ruentis Ilij fatum stetit SENEC Traged in Troade Act 3. Printed in the Yeare 1649. King CHARLES the First No Man of Blood BUT A Martyr for his People THAT there hath beene now almost seaven yeeres spent in Civill-Warres aboundance of Blood-shed and more Ruine and Misery brought upon the Kingdome by it then all the severall Changes Conquests and Civill-Warres it hath endured from the time of Brute or the first Inhabitants of it every mans wofull experience some only excepted who have beene gayners by it will easily assent unto No mervaile therefore that many of those who if all they alledge for themselves that they were not the cause of it could bee granted to be true might eyther have hindred or lessned it would now put the blame of so horrid a businesse from themselves and lay it upon any they can perswade to beare it And that the Conquerours who would binde their Kings in Chaynes and their Princes with fetters of Iron and thinke they have a Commission from Heaven to doe it the guilt of it being necessarily either to bee charged upon the Conquerors or conquered are not willing to have their triumphant Chayres and the glories as they are made beleeve that hang upon their shoulders defiled with it but do all they can to load their Captives with it But howsoever though the successe and power of an Army hath frighted it so farre out of question as to charge it upon the King and take away his life for it by making those that must of necessity bee guilty of the fact if he should have beene as in all reason hee ought to have beene acquited of it the only Judges of him It may well become the judgement and conscience of every man that will bee but eyther a good Subject or a Christian not to lend out his Soule and Salvation so much on trust as to take those that are parties and the most ignorant sort of mens words for it but to enter into a most serious examination of the matter of Fact it selfe and by tracing out the foote-steps of Truth see what a conclusion may be drawn out of it In pursuance wherof for I hope the originall of this Sea of blood will not prove so unsearchable as the head of Nile Wee shall enquire who first of all raysed the Feares and Jelousies Secondly represent and set down the truth of the matter of Fact and proceedings betwixt the King and Parliament from the tumultuous seditious coming of the People to the Parliament and White-hall untill the 25. Aug. 1642. when he set up his Standard at Nottingham from the setting up of his Standard untill the 13 Sep. 1642. when the Parliament by their many acts of hostility a negative Churlish answer to his propositions might well have put him out of hope of any good to be obteined from them by messages of Peace sent unto them Thirdly whether a Prince or other Magistrate labouring to suppresse or punish a rebellion of the People be tied to those rules are necessary to the justifying of a warre if it were made betweene equalls Fourthly suppose the warre to bee made with a neighbour Prince or between equalls whether the King or Parliament were in the defensive or justifiable part of it Fiftly Whether the Parliament in their pretended magistracy have not taken lesser occasions to punish or provide against insurrections treasons rebellions as they are pleased to call them Sixtly Who most desired Peace and offered faireliest for it Seventhly Who laboured to shorten the Warre and who to lengthen it Eightly Whether the Conditions proffered by the King would not have beene more profitable for the People if they had beene accepted and what the Kingdome and People have got insteed of it CHAP. I. Who first of all Raised the Feares and Jealousies THE desiring of a guard for the Parliament because of a tale rather then a plot That the Earle of Crawford had a purpose to take away the Marquis of Hamiltons life in Scotland the refusing of a legall guard offered by the King and His Protestation to bee as carefull of their safety as of the safety of His Wife and Children The dreame of a Taylor lying in a ditch in Finsbury fields of this and the other good Lord and Common-wealths men to be taken away The trayning of horses under ground and a plague plaister or rather a clout taken from a galled horse back sent into the house of Commons to Mr. Pym A Designe of the Inhabitants of Covent-Garden to murther the City of London News from France Italy Spaine and Denmarke of Armies ready to come for England and a supposition or feaverish fancy That the King intended to introduce Popery and alter Religion and take away the Lawes and Liberties of the People and many other the like seditious delusions the People so much as their misery will give them leave have now found out the way to laugh at either came from the Parliament partie or were cherished and turned into advantages by them For they had found the way and lost nothing by it to be ever jealous of the King And whilest he did all he could to shew them that there was no cause for it they who were jealous without a cause could bee so cunning as to make all the haste they could to weaken Him and strengthen themselves by such kind of artifices But hee that could not choose but take notice that there were secret ties and combinations betwixt his English and Scottish Subjects the latter of whom the Earle of Essex and Sir Thomas Fairfax themselves understood to be no better then Rebels and therfore served in places of Command in His Majesties Army against them That Sir Arthur Haselrig had brought in a Bill in Parliament to take the Militia by Sea and Land away from him saw himselfe not long after by a Printed remonstrance or declaration made to the People of all they could but imagine to bee errours in his government arraigned and little lesse then deposed The Bishops and divers great Lords driven from the Parliament by Tumults Was inforced to keepe his gates at Whitehall shut and procure divers Captaines and Commanders to lodge there and to allow them a table to bee a guard for him and had beene fully informed of many Trayterous Speeches used by some seditious mechaniques of London as that It was pitty Hee should raigne and that The Prince would make a better King was yet so farre from being jealous or solicitous to defend himself by the Sword and power which God had intrusted him with as when he had need reason enough to do it he still
Negative voyce The levying of Warre against the Personall commands of the King though accompanied with His presence is not a levying of Warre against the King but a levying Warre against His Lawes and Authority which they have Power to declare is levying of Warre against the King Treason cannot bee committed against his Person otherwise then as Hee was intrusted They have Power to judge whether hee discharge His trust or not that if they should follow the highest precedents of other Parliaments paternes there would bee no cause to complaine of want of modesty or duty in them and that it belonged only to them to Judge of the Law 27 of May The King by his Proclamation forbids all his Subjects and trayned bands of the Kingdome to Rise March or Muster But the Parliament on the same day Command all Sheriffs Justices of Peace and Constables within one hundred and fifty miles of Yorke to seize and make stay of all Armes and Amunition going thither And Declaring the said Proclamation to bee void in Law Command all men to Rise Muster and March and not to Muster or March by any other Authority or Commission and the Sheriffs of all Counties the morrow after Commanded with the posse Commitatus to suppresse any of the Kings Subjects that should bee drawne thither by his Command Secure and seize upon the Magazines of the Counties Protect all that are Delinquents against him make all to bee Delinquents that attend him and censure and put out of the house of Peeres nine Lords at once for obeying the Kings summons and going to him 3. June 1642. The King summoning the Ministery Gentry and Free-holders of the Countie of Yorke declared to them the reasons of providing himselfe a guard and that he had no intention to make a Warre and the morrow after forbad the Lord Willoughby of Parham to Muster and Trayne the Countie of Lincolne who under colour of an Ordinance of Parliament for the Militia had begun to doe it 1â— June 1642. The Parliament by a Declaration signifying That the King intended to make a War against his Parliament invited the Citizens of London all others well affected as they pleased to mis-call them within 80. miles of the City to bring money or plate into the Guild-Hall London and to subscribe for Men Horses and Army to maintaiâ—e the Protestant Religion the Kings Person and Authority â—ree course of Justice Lawes of the Land and priviledges of Parliament and the morrow after send 19. propositions to the King That the great affaires of the Kingdome and Militia may bee mannaged by consent and approbation of Parliament all the great officers of Estate Priâ—y Councell Ambassadors and Ministers of State and Judges bee chosen by them that the Grvernment Education and Marriage of the Kings Children bee by their consent and approbation and all the Forts and Castles of the Kingdome put under the Command and Custody of such as they should approve of and that no Peeres to bee made hereafter should sit or vote in Parliament without the consent of Parliament with severall other demands which if the King should have granted would at once in effect not only have undone and put his Subjects out of his protection but have deposed both himselfe and his posteritie and then they would proceede to regulate his Revenue and deliver up the Towne of Hull into such hands as the King by consent and approbation of Parliament should appoint But the King having the same day before those goodly demands came to his hands being a greater breach of his Royall Priviledges then his demanding of the 5. Members and Kimbolton if it had not beene Lawfull for him so to doe could be of theirs granted a Commission of array for the Countie of Lecester to the Earl of Huntington and by a letter sent along with it directed it for the present only to Muster and Array the Trayned-Bands And 13. June 1642. Declared to the Lords attending Him at York That Hee would not engage them in any Warre against the Parliament unlesse it were for his necessary defence wherupon the L. keeper Litleton who a little before had either beene affrighted or seduced by the Parliament to vote their new Militia The Duke of Richmond Marquis Hartford Earle of Salsbury Lord Gray of Ruthen now Earle of Kent and divers Earles and Barrons engaged not to obey any Order or Ordinance concerning the Militia had not the Royall assent to it And fourteenth of June 1642. Being informed That the Parliament endeavored to borrow great summes of money of the City of London and that there was great labour used to perswade His Subjects to furnish horse and money upon pretence of providing a guard for the Parliament By His letter to the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Sheriffes of London disavowing any purpose of making a Warre declared That He had not the least thought of raising or using of forces unlesse Hee should bee compelled to doe it for His owne defence and forbiddeth therefore the lending of money or raising of horses And within two dayes after the Lord Keeper Duke of Richmond Marquis Hartford Earle of Salisbury Lord Gray of Ruthen with 17 Earles and 14. Barons the Lord Chiefe-Justice Bancks and sundrie others of eminent qualitie and reputation attest His Majesties Declaration and profession that Hee had no intention to make a Warre but abhorred it and That they perceived no Councells or preparations tending to any such designe and send it with His Majesties Declaration to the Parliament In the meane time the Committee of Parliament appointed to make the propositions to the Cittie of London for the raising of Horse vizt. 15. June 1642. Made report to the house of Commons That the Citizens did very cheerfully accept the same there being for indeede there had beene some designe and Resolution a yeare before concerning the melting of plate to raise monies already great store of plate and monies brought into Guild-Hall for that purpose and an Ordinance of Parliament was made for the Earle of Warwick to bee Lord Admirall and keepe the Navy though the King had commanded him upon payne of Treason to deliver up the Ships to Him And the Lord Brooke sent downe into Warwick-shire to settle the Militia 17. June 1642. A Committee of both Houses was appointed to goe to the Citie of London to enquire what store of Horse Monies and Plate were already raised upon the Propositions 18. June 1642. The King by His Proclamation Disclaiming any intention to make Warre against His Parliament forbiddeth all levies of Forces without His Majesties expresse pleasure signified under His Great-Seale And 20. June 1642. Informing all His Subjects by His Proclamation of the Lawfullnesse of His Commissions of Array That besides many other Warrants and Authorities of the Law Judge Hutton and Judge Crooke in their arguments against the Ship-money agreed them to be Lawfull and the Earle of Essex himselfe had
granted them that he might not seem to deny what might but seeme to bee for the good of his People every thing they could reasonably aske of him or hee could but reasonably tell how to part with though hee could not be ignorant but an ill use might be made of them against himselfe As the putting downe of the Starre-Chamber and high Commission Court the Courts of Honour and of the North and Welch marches Commissions for the making of Gun-powder allowing them approbation or nomination of the Lievetenant of the Tower and did all and more then all his Predecessors put together to remove their jealousies And when that would not doe it stood still and saw the game plaid on further Many Tumults raised many Libels and Scandalous Pamphlets publiquely Printed against His Person and Government and when hee complained of it in Parliament so little care was taken to redresse it as that the Peoples comming to Westminster in a Tumultuons manner set on and invited by Pennington and Ven two of the most active mechanick Sectaries of the house of Commons it was excused and called a Libertie of Petitioning And as for the Libels and Pamphlets the Licensing of Bookes before they should bee Printed and all other restraint of the Printing presses were taken away and complaints being made against Pamphlets and seditious bookes some of the Members of the house of Commons were heard to say the worke would not bee done without them and complaints being also made to Mr. Pym against some wicked men which were ill affected to the Government Hee answered It was not now a time to discourage their Friends but to make use of them And here being as many jealousies and feares as could possibly be raised or fancied without a ground on the one side against all the endeavours could bee used on the other side to remove them Wee shall in the next place take a view of the matter of Fact that followed upon them and bring before you CHAP. 2. The Proceedings betwixt the King and the Parliament from the Tumultuous and Seditious comming of the People to the Parliament and White-Hall till the 13 of September 1642. being 18 dayes after the King had set up His Standard at Nottingham VVHEN all the King could doe to bring the Parliament to a better understanding of Him did as they were pleased to make their advantage of it but make them seeme to bee the more unsatisfied that they might the better mis-represent Him to the People and petition out of his hands as much power as they could tell how to perswade him to grant them and that hee had proofes enow of what hath beene since written in the blood and hearts of His People That the five Members and Kimbolton intended to roote out Him and His Posterity subvert the Lawes and alter the Religion and Government of the Kingdome and had therefore sent his Serjeant at armes to demand their persons and Justice to bee done upon them instede of obedience to it an order was made That every man might rescue them and apprehend the Serjeant at armes for doing it which Parliament Records would blush at And Queene Elizabeth who was wont to answer her better composed Parliaments upon lesser occasions with a Cavete ne patientiam Principis laedatis and caused Parry a Doctor of the Civill Lawes and a Member of the house of Commons by the judgement and advice of as sage and learned a privy councell and Judges as any Prince in Christendome ever had to bee hang'd drawn and quartered for Treason in the old Palace of Westminster when the Parliament was sitting would have wondred at And 4. January 1641. desiring only to bring them to a legall-tryall and examination went in Person to demand them and found that his owne peaceable behaviour and fewer attendants then the two Speakers of the Parliament had afterwards when they brought a whole Army at their heeles to charge and fright away eleven of their fellow Members had all manner of evill constructions put upon it and that the Houses of Parliament had adjourned into London and occasioned such a sedition amongst the People as all the trayned bands of London must guard them by Land when there was no need of it and many Boats and Lighters armed with Sea-men and murdering-peeces by water and that unlesse Hee should have adventured the mischiefe and murder hath beene since committed upon him by those which at that time intended as much as they have done since it was high time to thinke of his owne safety and of so many others were concerned in it having left London but the day before upon a greater cause of feare thâ—n the Speakers of both Houses of Parliament in July 1647. to goe to the Army retires with the Prince his Sonne whom the Parliament laboured to seize and take into their custody in his company towards Yorke 8. January 1641. A Cimmittee of the house of Commons sitting in London resolved upon the question That the actions of the City of London for the defence of the Parliament were according to Law and if any man should arest or trouble any of them for it he is declared to be an enemy to the CoÌ„mon-wealth And when the King to quiet the Parliament 12 Jan. 1641. was pleased to signifie that for the present he would waive his proceedings against the five Members and Kimbolton and assures the Parliament that upon all occasions hee will bee as carefull of their Priviledges as of his Life or his Crown Yet the next day after they Declared the Lord Digby's coming to Kingstone upon Thames but with a Coach and six horses in it to be in a Warlike manner and disturbance of the Common-wealth and take occasion thereupon to order the Sheriffes of all Counties in England and Wales with the assistance of the Justices of Peace and trayned bands of the severall Counties to suppresse any unlawfull assemblies and to secure the said Counties and all the Magazines in them 14 January 1641. The King by a second Message professeth to them hee never had the least intention of violating the least priviledg of Parliament and in case any doubt of breach of Priviledges remain will bee willing to cleere that and assert those by any reasonable way his Parliament shall advise him to But the Designe must have been laid by or miscarried if that should have beene taken for a satisfaction and therefore to make a quarell which needed not they Order the morrow after a Charge and Impeachment to bee made ready against Sir Edward Herbert the Kings Attorney-Generall for bringing into the House of Peeres the third of that instant January by the Kings direction a Charge or Accusation against Kimbolton and the five Members c. In February 1641. Seize upon the Towre of London the great Magazine and Store-house of the Kingdome and set some of the trayned-bands of London commanded by Major Generall Skippon to guard
August 1642. being some dayes after the Earle of Bedsord had marched with great forces into the West that His Subjects might bee informed of His danger and repaire to His succour seteth up His Standard at Nottingham being a thing of a meere legall necessity if Hee would have any at all to come to help Him and not forfeit and surprise those that by tenure of their Lands or by reason of offices fee's or annuities enjoyed under Him were more immediately bound to assist Him And yet here Hee must weepe over Jerusalem and once again intreate the Parliament and His Rebellious Subjects to prevent their owne miseries and therefore sends the Earles of Southampton and Dorset to the Parliament to desire a Treaty offering to doe all on His owne part which might advance the Protestant Religion oppose Popery and Superstition and secure the Lawes and Liberties of his Subjects and just priviledges of Parliament Which after severall scornes put upon those noble Messengers as denying the Earle of Southampton to come and sit in the house of Peeres a right by birth and inheritance due unto him and causing the Serjeant at Armes of the house of Commons to goe before him with the Mace as they use to doe before Delinquents They refuse to accept of unlesse the King would first take downe his Standard and recall his Declarations and Proclamations against them To which the King the 5. Sept. 1642. notwithstanding the Earle of Bedford had with great forces in the meane time besieged the Marquis of Hartford in the Castle of Sherbâ—râ— in Dorset-shire replying That hee never did declare nor â—â—er intended to declare both his houses of Parliament to bee traytors or set up his Standard against them much lesse to put them and the Kingdome out of his protection And utterly protesting against it before God and the World offered to recall his Declarations and Proclamations with all cheerefullnesse the same day that they should revoke their Declarations against those had assisted him and desiring a Treaty and conjuring them to consider the bleeding condition of Ireland and the danger of England undertakes to bee ready to grant any thing shall bee really good for his Subjects which being brought by the Lord Falkland one of his Majesties Secretaries of State and a Member of the house of Commons and not long before in a very great esteeme with them all the respect could bee afforded him being to stand at the Barre of the house of Commons and deliver his Message unto them had only an answer in a printed Declaration of the Lords and Commons returned unto him That it was Ordered and Declared by the Lords and Commons in Parliament That the armes which they have beene forced to take up or shall bee forced to take up for the preservation of the Parliament Religion and the Lawes and Liberties of the Kingdome shall not bee laid downe untill his Majestie shall withdraw his protection from such Persons as have beene voted by both houses of Parliament to bee Delinquents or that shall by both houses of Parliament bee voted to bee Delinquents which after their mad way of voting might have beene himselfe his Queene or his Heire apparent and leave them to the Justice of Parliament according to their dâ—merites to the end that those great Charges and damages wherewithall the Common-wealth hath beene burdened since his Majestie departed from the Parliament might bee borne by the Delinquaâ—ts and other Malignant and dis-affected Persons and that those who by Loans of money or otherwise at their charges have assisted the Common-wealth or shall in lâ—â—e manner hereafter assist the Common-wealth in times of extreame danger and here they would also provide for future freinds and quarrells may bee re-paid all sums of money â—ent for those purposes and satisfied their charges susteyned out of the estates of the said Delinquents and of the Malignant and disaffected partie in this Kingdome And to make good their words 8. of September 1642. Before their answer could come unto the Kings hands Ordered certaine numbers of horse and foote to bee sent to Garrison and secure Oxford and the morrow after before the King could possibly reply unto it their Lord Generall the Earle of Essex marched out of London against Him with an Army of 20000. men horse and foot gallantly Armed and a great traine of Artillery to attend him notwithstanding all which and those huge impossibilities every day more and more appeared of obtaining a Peace with those were so much afraid to bee loosers by it as they never at all intended it The King must needs send one message more unto them to try if that might not give them some occasion to send Him gentler conditions and therefore 13. September 1642. Being the same day they had impeached the Lord Strange of high-treason for executing the Kings Commission of Array and Ordered the propositions for furnishing of horse plate and money to bee tendred from house to house in the Cities of London and Westminster and to bee sent into all the Shires and Counties of England to bee tendred for the same purpose and the names of the refusers to bee certified Mr. May one of the Pages to the King comes to the Lords house in Parliament with a message from Him bearing date but two dayes before That although Hee had used all wayes and meanes to prevent the present distractions and dangers of the Kingdome all His labours have beene fruitlesse that not so much as a treaty earnestly defired by Him can bee obtained though Hee disclaimed all His Proclamations and Declarations and the erecting of His Standard as against His Parliament unlesse Hee should denude Himselfe of all force to defend Him from a visible strength marching against Him That now Hee had nothing left in His power but to expresse the deepe sence Hee had of the publique misery of the Kingdome and to apply Himselfe to a necessary defence wherein Hee wholy relied upon the providence of God and the affection of His good People and was so far from putting them out of His protection as when the Parliament should desire a treaty Hee would piously remember whose blood is to bee spilt in this quarrell and cheerefully embrace it But this must also leave them as it found them in their ungodly purposes for the morrow after being the 14. day of September 1642. Mr. Hampden one of the 5. Members by this time a Collenell of the Army brings letters to the house of Commons from the Parliaments Lord Generall that hee was at Northampton in a very good posture and that great numbers of the Countreys thereabouts came in dayly unto him and offered to march under him and that so soone as all his forces that are about London shall come unto him which hee desires may bee hastened hee intended to advance towards His Majesty and it was the same day voted That all things sealed by the Kings Seale since it was carried away by the
for want of the sustenance they had taken from them Husbandmen had their corne and hay spoiled in the field and the barne their sheep cattel and provisions devoured houses ruined or burnt and their horses thay should help to plough and doe other workes of Husbandry taken away in so much as some were inforced to blinde and put out their horses eyes that they might not bee taken from them Churches that escaped defacing prophaned and made Stables or Goales or Victualing or Bawdy houses Monuments defaced and Sepulchers opened as were those of the Saxon Kings at Winchester and the Priests and Ministers not so much as sustered to weepe betwixt the Porch and the Altar but their benefices and livelyhood taken from them by Wolues put in the Shephards places had their bookes burned and all their meanes and maintenance plundred from them and those that were newtralls and medled on neither side but lived as quietly as they could either totally undone or cast in prison not for that they did them any hurt but because they might doe it and if they were not imprisoned their Lands money or goods were sure to bee in the fault and taken away from them Vt bellum illaesa conscientia geratur necesse est ut adsâ—t intentio bona there ought to bee a good intention to make the Warre conscionable which in this appeares to faile also For the Charge against the five Members is now as true as it was then they meant to ruine the King and they have don it and to alter the Government subvert the Religion Lawes and Liberties of the Kingdom and they have don a great part of it and as fast as they can are pulling down the remainder Quaerere debemus victoriam rationibus honestis ne salutem quidem turpibus Wee ought to pursue victory and the just ends of Warre by honest and Lawfull meanes and not to doe foule and dishonest things to procure our safety from the latter of which the made feares and jealousies which the Parliament made use of to usher in their pretences their fayning of victories and scandaling the King and his actions not to insist upon their buying the Kings servants and secrets Battells Townes and Garrisons and making too many Judases of all that were about him will hardly bee able to free them or if they could the making use of men and money intended for the support of Ireland and leaving them wallowing in their blood for seven years together whilest they were ruining their King that would have helped them violating of their oathes of allegiance and Supremacy which many of their members had taken six or seaven times over breaking their oathes taken in their protestation and Nationall Covenant and not so few as 100 solemne promises and undertakings in their severall Petitions Remonstrances and Declarations forcing the People to take the Protestation and Covenant and compell them as soone as they had taken it to breake them and by cosening and forcing them into Rebellions and perjuries cheate them out of their Religion Loyaltie Lawes and Liberties will without very good advocates bee sure enough to condemne them and if the great Turke carrying the Covenant which Ladislaus the unfortunate King of Hungary was perswaded to breake with him as an ensigne of publique detestation in the bettell wherein hee slew him invoked the God of the Christians to help him to revenge so grrat a treachery there will bee more reason now for all that are but Christians or but pretende to any morality to carry in their banner the pourtract of the Kings bleeding head as it was cut from his shoulders and make Warre in revenge of the maisterpiecee and totum aggregatum of all manner of wickednesle and perfidiousnesse who besides all their owne and the Peoples oaths taken to defend him when those they called Delinquents some few onely which were specially named and excepted for obeying the knowne Lawes of the Land as well as their oaths and Consciences were never questioned for their lives but suffered to compound for their estates would not suffer the King that was neither a Delinquent or Excepted Person to enjoy either his Life or Estate though to save his people and keepe them from killing one another hee yeilded himselfe and became a Prisoner upon the publique faith of the Kingdomes of England and Scotland Paxaequa non est recusanda Licet victoriae spes adsit saith Besoldus A good or fitting Peace is not to bee refused though the victory were certaine And in this also the Parliament will bee as farre to seeke for a justification as in the other For instead of offering any thing which was likely to bring it they caused men and women in the first yeare of their Warre to bee killed because they did but petition them to accept of a Peace and in the third and fourth yeare of their War plundred robbed others that petitioned them but to hearken to it and put out of office and made all as Delinquents in the seventh yeare of their War that did but petition them for a Treaty with the King and refused all the Kings many very many Messages for Peace not only when hee was at the highest of his successe in the war but when hee was at the lowest and a Prisoner to them and conjured them as they would answer at the dreadfull day of Judgement to pitty the bleeding conditions of his Kingdomes and People and send propositions of Peace unto him quarters and halfe yeares and more then a whole yeare together after the battell of Naseby insomuch as their fellow Rebells the Scotch Commissioners did heavily complaine of it were at severall times trifled away and spent before any propositions could bee made ready though those which they sent to Oxford Vxbridge Newcastle and Hampton-Court were but substantially and materially the same with their nineteâ—ne Propositions which they made unto the King before the Earle of Essex was made their Generall and in all the Treaties made Propositions for themselves and the Soveraignty and great offices and places of the Kingdome but would neither for Gods sake or their Kings sake or their Oathes or Consciences sake or the Peoples sake or Peace sake which the People petitioned and hungred and thirsted for alter or abate one Ioâ—a or tâ—ttle of them but were so unwilling to have any peace at all as 6 or 7 Messengers or Trumpeters could com from the King before they could be at leisure or so mannerly as to answer one of them but this or that Message from the King was received and read and laid by till a weeke or when they would after and the Kings Commissioners in the Treaties must forget their due titles of Earles Lords or Knights because the King had made them so since the beginning of the Warre or else must bee neither Treaty nor Peace there At Vxbridge the time of the Treaty limited for 20. dayes and at Newcastle for 10. and though the King
maintaine an Army against Him and many of his Subjects daily imprisoned sequestred undone or killed can bee blamed if hee had a great deale sooner gone about to defend both himselfe and his People For who saith St. Jerom did ever rest quietly sleeping neer a viper et lex una perpetua salutem omni ratione defendere haec ratio doctis necessitas Barbaris mos genâ—ibus feris natura ipsa prescripsit et haec non scripta sed nata lex saith Tully that great master of morality Reason Necessity Custome and Nature it selfe have made selfe preservation to bee warrantable Nemo exponere so debet periculis obviam offensiom eundum non modo quae est in actu sed quae est in potentia ad actum justus metus justum facit belium say the Civill Lawes and where there was not unda cogitatio or a bare intention only to ruine the King but so much over and over againe acted as might well occasion more then a feare and apprehension in him of what hath since beene brought to passe against him no man certainly without much blindnesse or partiality can think it to bee a fault in him to seeke to defend himselfe when the Parliament did not only long before hee raised any forces to defend himselfe but at the same time when hee was doing of it make the people beleeve his Person was in so much danger as they must needs take up armes to defend Him And how much more warrantable then must it bee in the Kings case when it was not only an endeavour to defend himselfe but all those that have beene since slaine and undone and ruined for want of power enough to doe it Defence is by the civill Lawyers said to bee either necessary profitable or honest Nec distingui vult Baldus sive se sua suosve defendar sive prope sive posita longé a man is said to defend himselfe when it is but his owne goods estate or People whether neere or furtherof Necessaria defensio ejus est et factum ad necessariam defensionem contra quem veniat armatus inimicus et ejus contra quem inimicus se paravit It must needs bee a necessary defence against whom an armed Enemy is either marching or preparing Vtilis defensio quum nos movemus bellum verentes ne ipsi bello petamur when wee make a Warre to prevent or bee before hand when Warre or mischiefe is threatned or likely to come upon us For as Nicephorus the Historian saith Hee that will live out of danger must occurrere malis impendentibus et autevertere â—ec est cunctandum aut expectandum c. meete and take away growing evills and turne them another way and not to delay and bee â—â—ock in it Honesta defensio quae citra metumâ—ullum periculi nostri nulla utilitate quaesita tantum in gratiam aliorum suscipitur When for no feare of danger to our selves and for no consideration of profit to our selves but meerely in favour or help of others the Warre is undertaken Wherefore certainly when the King may bee justly said to tarâ—y too long before hee made the second and third kindes of defences either to prevent the danger and fury of a Warre against himselfe or to help those that suffered and were undone in seeking to defend him and was so over much in love with Peace as hee utterly lost it and could never again recover it and was so much mistaken in the love and religion of his Subjects and Parliament promises and the impossibilities of such horrid proceedings against him as all his three Kingdomes were in a flame of Warre and strong Combinations made by two of them and the Pulpits every where flaming Seditious exhortations against Him his Navy Magazines Ports Revenues Mint strongest Townes and places seised on Armies marching against him and hee only and a few friends and followers pend up in a corner had an enemy and a strong Towne at his back readie every day to surprize him and severall Armies marching and in action before and round about him before hee granted out any Commission for Warre or liad or could make any preparation for it and had so many to help and defend besides himself It would be too much injury and too great a violence to all manner of reason and understanding to deny him a Justification upon the first sort of defences if the two latter will not reach it for the first cannot by any interpretation goe without For haec est necessitas saith Baldus quae bellum justificat quum in extremo loco ad bellum configitur Or if with Grotius wee looke upon it another way and make the Justice of Warre to consist 1o in defensione 2o in recuperatione rerum 3o in punitione The King before ever hee went to demand Hull or before ever he desired a guard of the County of Yorke had cause enough and enough to doe it and it would be hard if a great deale lesse then that should not bee able to deliver him from the censure or blame of an offensive or unnecessary Warre When that which was made by David upon the Children of Ammon and that of the late glorious King of Sweden against the Emperour of Germany the former for misusing the latter for encroaching upon him and not receiving his Ambassadors found warrant and necessity enough to doe it But what could the King doe more in his endeavours and waiting for a Peace or lesse in his preparations or making of a War when the least or one of the hundred provocations or causes wee dare say plainly here set downe in the matter of fact hath hitherto among the wisest Princes and Common-wealths in the World beene reputed a just and warrantable cause of warre Homicide by the Lawes of England shall bee excused with a se defendendo when the assaulted hath but simply defended himselfe or retired in his owne defence so farre till by some Water or Wall hee bee hindred from going any further Death and destruction marching towards the King Hull fortified kept behind him and all manner of necessities compassing him in on every side could then doe no lesse then rouse him up to make his owne defence and hee must bee as much without his sences as care of his owne preservation if hee should not then think it to bee high time to make reaedy to defend himselfe and necessity enough to excuse him for any thing should bee done in order to it The Parliament and hee as this case stood could not bee both at one and the same time in the defensive parte For they had all the Money Armes Ammunition and strength of the Kingdome in their hands and multitudes of deluded People to assist them and so hunted and pursued him from place to place as it was come to be a saying and a by word among the apprentices and new levied men at London they would goe a King-catching
conditions the King made unto them may make it to bee as needlesse to enquire of them as for a man to aske where to find Pauls Steeple in London when hee is in Pauls Church-yard or to enquire for the Sunne in the dog-dayes when hee and every man else may see or feele the effects of it wee shall bee content to consider what the King offered and what the Parliament would have had him to grant What the King would have done and what the Parliament have done and by that see which would have beene the better bargaine The King like a pater patriae offered over and over to grant all manner of Lawes and Liberties which might bee good and wholsome for his People and only denyed to grant those things the granting whereof as hee said himselfe would alter the fundamentall Lawes and endanger the very foundation upon which the Publique happinesse and welfare of his People was founded and constituted or to give them Stones instead of bread or Scorpions insteade of Fishes But the Parliament meaning to feede the People neither with bread nor Fishes ask the Royall-Sword Crowne and Scepter Coronation-Oath and Conscience and an Arbitrary-Power to Governe and Domineere over their fellow Subjects and to enslave those that trusted them And though the King had already granted enough to preserve the Lawes â—ives Religion and Liberty of the people and was so willing almost at any rate to purchase a peace for himselfe and his people as hee was content to part with his Sword and Militia and divers other parts of his Regality during his life Yet that would not serve the turne 't was Naboths vineyeard not Ahabs Fast made all the businesse the Parliament that pretended so much to deny themselves and to dote upon the people doe notwithstanding all they can to continue the Warre and to cozen and force the Peoples blood estates and conscience out of them and they must never give over paying of taxes fighting and fooling till they enable them to imprison their King and not only murther him but thousands and many ten thousands of their fellow-subjects and the Lawes Religion and Liberties of the people And now that they have don more then the men of the Gunpowder-treason intended to do and all England are become like Sheep without a Sheepheard wandring on the mountains and thousands of Wolves by votes and ordinances and mis-called Acts of Parl. appointed to feed them 4 or 5 years sad experience in the Warres of the Parliament against the King and almost as much more time spent in setling and subduing the people making them like Camels to kneel down to take up their burdens labour and travell hard and endure hunger and thirst under them yet yeild up their veines to bee prick't for blood to enable their drivers to furnish them with a new supply of burdens when they shal be discharged of what they have laid upon them May easily shew us a difference as big as a mountaine betwixt our old good Lawes and Liberties enjoyed under a gracious King who had an Estate of inheritance large enough of his owne besides an Oath to obliege him to protect us and a Hell upon Earth and the most Slavish of all the governments were ever yet put upon a Nation by men of as little wit and Estates as they have honestie having no other obligations upon them but their owne abhominable designes and interests For which of the People unlesse those that have traded in their neighbours blood and ruine but hath made their complaints of their undoing The Religion of the Kingdome once so glorious is now cut into fancies and blasphemies the Churches where God was wont to bee worshiped either defaced or pulled downe or made Stables for horses the Lawes of the Kingdome that were consonant to the Word of God and had in them the Quintessence of all could bee found to bee extant in the lawes of nature Nations Civill lawes or rectified reason and whatsoever the wisdome and care of all former Kings in Parliament or the usage and customes of this or any other neighbouring Nations could bring to it's perfection and were wont to nourish and preserve peace and propertie among us voted out or into that sense or tother interest to that every thing or nothing or to that non-sence according as the Lawlesse Unlimited Unjust and Ignorant will of fellow Subjects shall please to misuse them in the voting-house or place of bandying aies or noes for a Parl. which in it 's legall and primitive institution consisting of King Lords CoÌ„mons the right use of it is so venerable as no man as our Laws say ought so much as to speak or thinke dishonorably of it we cannot without violence to the Laws and our own reason and understanding call it where Publique orders are made without hearing of all or any parties interessed a peece of a cause heard by some none at all of it by others votes and parties made and picked and lent to one another before hand and the best of the Faction and juglers carry all the businesse as they have a mind to it A way of Justice worse then that if there were any in it of a lawles Court said to be kept yearly on a Hill betwixt Raleigh and Rochford in Essex the wednesday after every Michaelmas-day where the Steward or Judge sitteth in the Night after the first Cockcrowing without any light or Candle and calleth all that are bound to attend the Court with as low a voice as possibly he may writes orders with a coals and they that answer not are deepely amerced For that being a particular punishment long agoe inflicted upon the tenants of certaine Mannors in Raleigh hundred for a conspiracy against a King is but once a yeare and some shift or change or mercy of the Steward or an appeale may take away the inconveniency of it A way of government worse then to bee Subject to the rule of so many fooles for they might perchance doe that would bee just or so many Knaves who but in playing the Knaves one with another or for reward might sometimes do that which was right or Mad men which at intervals might doe something which was reasonable worse then for every Subject of England to bee put to play at dice for his life or Estate or any thing else hee should crave a Justice to get or keep for then hee might by skill or chance obtaine some thing In fine worse then any example or way of Government the World hath as yet produced and can have nothing worse but Hell it selfe The Parliament and priviledges of it are destroyed and every mans Life and Estate in no better a condition then at the pleasure of the next pretenders to it All the Charters and Liberties of Citties and corporate Townes Corporations of Trade and Companies of Merchants made voide all the Merchandise Trade and manufacture of the Kingdome laid open and in common to