well affected to Monarchy in general as well as the Memory of those two Princes are yet prone to suspect they might have some Inclinations that way and for their Satisfaction more especially it is I give them and my self this Trouble To shew therefore how little Ground there was or is for this Suspicion King Iames call'd Parliaments as often as any Prince ever did and courted them as much perhaps more than was requisite considering the Temper they were of And so did his Son at first as Ludlow owns 'T is true he call'd some in the first Years of his Reign But then makes this malicious Reflection The People soon perceiv'd he did it rather to empty their Purses than redress their Grievances The Truth of it is there was such a Spirit of Innovation and Faction got abroad such groundless Suspicions and Distrusts every where not only whisper'd but openly proclaim'd throughout the Nation as 't is equally unaccountable how Men should have the Confidence to forge such gross Untruths and the People suffer themselves to be so absurdly impos'd upon Altho as to this latter nothing can seem incredible to such as observ'd what a Fright the whole Nation was abus'd into the other Day as if between two and three thousand Irish for that was their utmost Number could fire all their Habitations and cut all their Throats Yet by such Artifices as these altogether as groundless and improbable the People were kept up in a continual Ferment so foolishly prejudic'd and so freakishly peevish as no Reason could be heard nor Truth prevail upon them whereunto both the foremention'd Kings were too forward to appeal and too condescending in giving an Account of themselves and Actions by frequent Proclamations Declarations c. considering they had to do with the most petulant malicious Generation ever any Age or Climate produc'd As to the present Charge of affecting Arbitrary Power I cannot but remark in the first place the different Method these two Kings are suppos'd to propound in order to bring about the same King Iames by Fraud King Charles by Force As to the former whatever King-Craft he pretended to every discerning Eye hath all along discovered him to be the most open easie Prince this Nation ever had studied nothing but his People's Peace and therein his own Quiet the Enjoyment of himself Such a bold I may say desperate Undertaking must have a Prince that is active daring and resolute of a subtile Head and hollow Heart understanding all the Arts of Dissimulation and Wheadle so as to fool the People out of their Mony and therewith maintain an Army to support his Usurpation with many such like bad Qualities as opposite to Iames's Temper and Genius as one Pole to the other For to speak freely he laboured under the contrary Extream wanted Courage to exert his just Rights stoop'd Majesty too low would expostulate and reason where he ought to have commanded which blind Side the Faction in his several Parliaments once finding out grew wresty thereupon would neither lead nor drive but their own Pace and Way What I remark in the second Place is the Inducement our Author assigns of King Charles's attempting the same by Violence the nearer View of a Despotick Power in his Iourny to France and Spain What will not a Republican's Rebel Spite catch hold of His Iourny was not in but thorough France which he consummated in ten or twelve Days and riding Post had great Opportunities of being taken with Glittering Shews and Imaginary Pleasures c. And his Business in Spain was of another Nature and took up so much Time as he had little Leisure to make Observations and less Reason to be enamour'd with any thing there observ'd to be sure upon Enquiry he could not but find that the several Courts or Councils there have as great a Restraint upon the Crown as our Parliaments have here though they are a sober wise Nation and seldom or never found to extend their Privileges beyond Right and Reason I shall not reflect upon the Prudence and Policy of that Design only observe it was hard for a young Amorous Prince to attend the tedious Delays of old Statesmen wherewith having been so long kept in Suspence this Adventure was thought the only Expedient for a final Issue Desperate enough which notwithstanding he manag'd so dexterously as to weather all Difficulties and come off with Honour and Safety contrary to the Expectation of the whole World I cannot forbear to mention the Account Rushworth gives of his Deportment there The Prince for his part had gain'd an universal Love and was reported by all to be a truly noble discreet well deserving Prince His grave Comportment suited with the very Genius of that Nation and he carryed it from the first to the last with the greatest Affability Gravity Constancy and at his Farewel with unparallell'd Bounty Yet this excellent Prince we murder'd and forc'd his Sons to travel for Security of their Lives and if during that Royal Exile they depended chiefly upon Papists for their Subsistence and observ'd how a Neighbour Prince weathering the like Storm from his three Estates as their Father met with for all Rebellions do not prosper as in England took the Government solely into his own Hand I say if upon these Obligations and Observations they return'd home less affected to the Protestant Religion and our Old Establishments of civil Government than could be wish'd Who can we blame but our selves Upon the Prince's Return home and making a Report to his Father what slippery Statesmen the Spaniards were especially as to his Sister 's Concerns King Iames at the earnest Request of the Parliament brake off that Match who engaging him in a War for Recovery of the Palatinate promis'd all the Assistance could be desired which was soon after by his Father's Death devolv'd upon King Charles and a Parliament thereupon summon'd de novo whom he bespake with all Affection and Tenderness imaginable acquainting them how The Eyes of all Europe were upon that his first Attempt and what a Blemish it would be to sustain a Foyl Hereupon a Supply was voted which serv'd the present turn and that was all For in the next Session which was at Oxon that unquiet Spirit which had been so troublesome most part of his Father's Reign began to let him see what little Hope there was of better Terms from them Immediately those old Cavils of Grievances evil Counsellers and what not were brought upon the Carpet and of these the first insisted upon was the Increase of Recusants the Growth of Popery which was presented in a Petition shewing the principal Causes of their Increase and properest Remedies to suppress them whereunto his Majesty gave an Answer so full and satisfactory that all undesigning Members were abundantly satisfied therewith and resolv'd to acquiesce therein and fell immediately upon a Supply which the adverse Party unable to oppose seemingly comply'd likewise but with a Back Blow
care taken of them as 't is beyond expression to relate how miserably they suffered for want of Victuals Stores Clothes Pay indeed whatever was requisite to their subsistence as Men or accommodation as Soldiers The Parliament being so wholly intent upon their English Rebellion could spare no time nor charge to prosecute that just War upon which scandalous neglect all Parties concerned more especially the Commanders and Soldiers earnestly begg'd leave of the King that they might be remov'd and engag'd against any Enemy whatsoever but Hunger And this amongst other inducements was the chief of that Cessation Ludlow inveighs so bitterly against p. 65. as likewise that the Earl of Leicester staid so long and did not go at last for he was always hastned by the K. and every thing restor'd more than he had occasion for or was really design'd thither But he meeting with many complaints from thence and observing how difficult it was to get a Supply by his Solicitation here and how much worse when gone thither upon that account did not stir What Ludlow further saith as to the Cessation that the King agreed to it contrary to his Engagement with both Houses not to treat with the Rebels unless they concurred p. 65. is of no validity that agreement was before the English were in actual Rebellion and his Majesty thought such compliance might prevent it but falling out otherwise 't is a pretty Supposition that when a Prince hath two Nations in Rebellion he must ask the one whether he shall treat with the other 'T is also absolutely false that this Cessation in Ireland induced the Parliament to treat with their Friends in Scotland to march to their assistance into England 't was the Prospect thereof induced the King to the Cessation which he was always advised of that notwithstanding the Condescentions he had yielded to and Protestations made by them they design'd only to take breath and would be ready at the first clinking of the English Money and if they had pretended no more there might have been something said as they were men of Fortune by way of Apology that having not repented their Rebellion the Lucre thereof might oblige their continuance but to continue the making Religion their property to Rebel against their King for imposing the English Liturgy or somewhat like it and now invade his Kingdom to impose their cursed Covenant is such a procedure as none but their own Country can give an instance of At Uxbridge Treaty the Irish concern was one main head wherein the Parliament as indeed in all other matters were so refractory and haughty as to exclude the King from being any ways concerned either in the management of War or Peace he must not so much as nominate his Deputy or one single Officer which therefore coming to an end without effect his Majesty had all the reason in the world to press that Cessation into a Peace wherein the Duke of Ormond and several of his Friends there were imploy'd as likewise Commissioners from them treating at Oxon but what with the Nuncio's Insolence and Bigottry of the Ecclesiasticks all came to nothing whereas would that Priest-ridden Nation have understood their own Interest and acted for their safety they might have expiated somewhat for their former bloodshed whereof many of their own Party were very much asham'd obtain'd a reasonable Liberty of Conscience with other immunities and prevented that utter desolation they were afterwards so justly brought into On the contrary they shuffled at such an idle rate play'd the Bogtrotters in Politicks too imposing upon every necessity they saw his Majesty really or likely to be under and so shuffled off and on till they lost him and in him themselves to a most deplorable condition as bloody Savages as they were And if there yet wants a farther confirmation of this our Martyr's Integrity and Detestation as to the premisses take this farther account Dr. Nalson in the Preface to his Collections mentions a Letter still to be seen in the Paper Office intercepted by a Party of the Parliament Army very much a propo it was from the Lord Digby by the Kings order to the Irish Catholicks as they must be termed or no treating with them wherein he lets them know how prejudicial their standing off had been to his Affairs and most prophetically foretells that Destruction the prosperous Rebels here wou'd bring home to their own doors Declaring withal that were the condition of his Affairs much more desperate than it is he would never redeem them by any concessions of so much wrong to his Honour and Conscience and yet his Affairs were now at a very low Ebb this being written soon after the Fatal blow at Naseby The Dr. relates farther that he found this Letter had been before the Committee which perus'd such as might most expose the King by being Printed and Indors'd with Rushworth's own hand that faithful Collector of whatever tends to Treason and Mischief Quere as to the Printing this Letter and a little after needless to be Printed 'T is much they did not order it to the Fire since 't is an irrefragable Testimony of the most unbyassed Sincerity any but the King of Kings could propound to walk by and this will stifle the last Effort of our Author 's rancorous spite in reference to the Irish Affairs who tells us the Earl of Glamorgan was impowred by private Instructions to promise the Liberty of the Romish Religion with diverse other advantages to the Irish Rebels c. P. 163. the Earl of Glamorgan was a zealous Romanist and had put himself very forward to be tampering in that Affair but still the Marquiss of Ormond was Supream in that Government and finding him to exceed his Commission confined him as Guilty of High-Treason and whatever he writ to his Lady had not all things gone to confusion would never have been able to justifie his proceedings nor Ludlow that vile suggestion that the Officers and Soldiers in Dublin obliged the Marquess of Ormond to treat with the Parliament Commissioners for putting that City into their hands P. 164. I know not what flam stories Sir Francis Willoughby might think to gratify Ludlow withall when he was Paramount in Ireland but cannot believe it was in his power to deliver that Castle without the Marquess's consent To be sure the whole matter was adjusted between the King and him some time before things came to the Extremity for we find in Doctor Burlace this intimation of his Majesty's pleasure That if it were possible for the Marquess to keep Dublin and the other Garrisons under the same intire Obedience to his Majesty they were then in it would be acceptable to his Majesty But if there were or should be a necessity of giving them up to any other Power he should rather put them into the hands of the English than the Irish which was accordingly done An Evidence even to Demonstration that though the King treated with the Irish and might
Sir Edward Coke to Harangue the Lords upon the same Subject whose first and chief Exception was that 't was ordered after their Summons a sufficient Proof there could be no ill Design by it although it might likewise be considered that the Parliament was not so free to grant the King Supplies as he to Summons them and further yet that there were several Projects propounded to the King which he would never rashly close with but refer to the Consideration of his Counsel no mean Instance of his Prudence and Goodness too above what we deserv'd to recommend such as their Wisdoms and best Iudgments should find to be most convenient in a Case of this inevitable Necessity For those be the express Words in the Commission And hereto agrees what the Lord Keeper reported to the House of Lords That their Lordships had reason to be satisfied with what was truly and rightly told them by the Lords of the Council that this Commission was no more but a Warrant of Advice which his Majesty knew to be agreeable to the Time and the manifold Occasions then in Hand but now having a Supply from the Loves of his People he esteems the Commission useless and therefore though he knows no Cause why any Iealousies should have risen thereby yet at their Desires he is content it be cancelled and hath commanded me c. Yet I know this Reply will not pass tho upon his Majesty's Royal Word unless we can take off that potent Allegation of 30000 l. remitted over to Sir William Balfour and Dalbeir in Holland to raise a Thousand German Horse to enforce the Payment of this Excise and aw the Parliament soon to be Assembled as most of the Libellers expresly declare That such a Sum was remitted to raise Horse is certainly true but to be imploy'd here at home to the Ends aformention'd as certainly false to the making good whereof I must observe that the Low-Countries were at that time not only the School but Shop of War which furnish'd all the rest of Europe even the Spaniards themselves for a good Market with Arms Ammunition and whatever else was requisite to that Bloody Trade Neither was any thing more usual in Queen Elizabeth's Time than to take such English Forces as had been exercis'd and flesh'd in their Service when upon any great Expedition against Spain or elsewhere and supply them with new rais'd Men to maintain their Garrisons According to this Method the Lord Wimbleton was supply'd about two Years before in his Expedition against Spain And these 1000 Horse were doubtless design'd upon some Enterprise in defence of Rochel or otherwise to Annoy the French which upon new Councils and perhaps a Prospect of Peace for about that time it began to be secretly Agitated was laid aside To be sure had his Majesty design'd any thing of force upon this Nation he made choice of very improper Instruments in those two Commanders who notwithstanding their great Obligations to the King when the War brake out in 41. took Imployments under the Parliament because they had most Mony I presume and did them cursed Service The Defence saith Dalbeir was a Papist to reflect upon the King doubtless without considering what he did afterwards for his Parliament of 40. He was a German and had serv'd under Count Mansfield so that 't was more likely he was Lutheran or Calvinist But of what concern is that Man's Religion who Acts without a Principle of Gratitude or Common Honesty And therefore to attend the Fate of this unworthy Person a little farther when he had wrought Iourny-Work for the Parliament as long as the War lasted he was laid aside which regretting as a Souldier of Fortune ought to do engag'd upon the King's Account with the Duke of Bucks Lord Holland c. in that Design at Kingston which miscarrying they were persued to St. Neots in Huntingtonshire where some escap'd some were taken but Dalbeir was cut in pieces by his Brethren the Parliamentarians because he had been of their Side If Balfour did not come to the same End 't was pity for he was a true Covenanting Scot betray'd the King in the great Trust of the Tower committed to him and from thenceforward sided with the Parliament I had not been so Prolix in my Account of these two Men but to shew that had there been any such Design as an Excise and these German Horse to enforce the same 't is impossible but the two chief Commanders must have been privy thereto and would have consequently divulg'd it to their Patrons the Parliament indearing themselves more thereby than all their other Bloody Services I must beg leave to make this one Observation farther That it had been altogether as impossible for one Thousand Horse to enforce a General Excise as double the Number of the foremention'd Irish to Massacre the whole Nation Yet they had a more impertinent Maggot in 41 that there were Forces kept in Grots and Caves under Ground that should in the Night break out into the City and cut all their Throats And what was more prodigious and though ridiculous yet saith my Author had not a few Believers in London That there were Designs by Gun-Powder to blow up the Thames and choak them with the Water in their Beds May it not be here a necessary Quere Whether the Invention or Credulity be more Astonishing CHAP. V. No reason to complain of Favourites and evil Counsellors FAvourites and evil Counsellors were another of their Common-place Complaints with how little Reason or Truth is next to be made appear The Lord Bacon in his Essay of Friendship observes as a strange thing The high rate great Kings and Monarchs have set thereon and that not only the Weak and Passionate but the Wisest and most Politick that ever Reign'd whereof he gives several Instances To be sure at this time most Courts in Christendom had particular Favourites who notwithstanding the great Figure they made were really Participes Curarum as the foremention'd Lord judiciously terms them Drudges of State Screens of popular Odium and Discontent as in most if not in all Places they were made to find And hereunto amongst the rest King Iames seem'd very much dispos'd as appear'd by one or two in Scotland And in process of time his Inclination continued the same Bend here whereof one Car a Scotchman his Page was the first Instance who having a comely well built Outside the King hop'd he might be as well furnish'd within and accordingly took much pains in the Improvement of his Mind directed him in his Studies and all other things requisite to the Accomplishments of such a Person as he wish'd and hop'd he might prove All which is an extraordinary Instance of a good Master and a good Nature too And yet to make him appear a better Prince when he found all he had done was in vain that this new Creature of his was a Blockhead Insolent Ill-natur'd wretchedly Penurious and intollerably
free exercise of their Religion and the abolition of such Laws as render the Catholicks uncapable of any Office Place Commodity or Profit to the extraordinary decay of their Estates Education and Learning From whence it is clear That tho' the design was laid before yet as to the Conduct and Management thereof they exactly copyed their Neighbours the Scots and the Devil could not furnish them with any other Precedent more proper for their Design The King likewise was proportionably abus'd in his Concessions and Favours for the leading men in this Rebellion having appear'd against the great Earl of Strafford and been countenanc'd by our violent Factions here in their Complaints of Grievance and Heavy Impositions the Lords Iustices who were then in the Supream Power must be order'd to caress the Gentlemen and comply in whatever insolent demands they should insist upon by which means some of the Popish Lawyers Members of that House of Commons the better to carry on that Rebellion they had in design were so impudent as to lay down these Maxims and vouch them for Law 1. That any one being killed in Rebellion tho' found by matter of Record would give the King no forfeiture of Estate 2. That tho' many thousands stood up in Arms working all manner of Destruction yet if they profess not to rise against the King that it was no Rebellion 3. That if a man were Outlaw'd for Treason and his Land rested in the Crown or given away by the King his Heir might come afterwards be admitted to reverse the Outlawry and recover his Ancestor's Estate These and many such like Rebel Tenents were publish'd that Session after the Murder of the Earl of Strafford an abundant confirmation how requisite his strict Hand was for such a loose People which to astonishment the Government did not see or would not take notice of till the Knife was at their Throats and many thousands of them cut although they must have all a-long observ'd how uneasie the Irish had been under their Conquest tho' better govern'd perhaps than had it been in their own hands how strangely influenc'd by their Priests and bigotted upon that account so that they might alledge the same pretence of Religion and Property with their Neighbours and have just the same reason to Rebell that is none at all But that which surpriseth me most is that these People should have liberty to sit in Parliament Comptrol and Vote against whatever Sanctions had been or were farther to be enacted in order to keep them the better in subjection the freedom of their Consciences might surely have been thought enough but the Freedom of Governing too must bring all to confusion as it here happen'd to a horrid degree But 't is not my Province to take notice of this or any of their other Rebellions farther than the Reputation and Memory of our Royal Sufferer is concern'd whose treatment as to these Irish Affairs was more barbarous and inhumane than all the rest as well from the Forgeries on their side to inveigle and abuse the People as the villainous spreading of them here where it requir'd some time to procure a right Information We must know therefore That when the Faction here had actually drawn their Sword against their Sovereign amongst many other Calumnies and Detractions laid to his charge in the several Declarations and Answers they sent abroad there were few without some secret Reflections as if the Rebellion in Ireland began by his Knowledge and Connivance from which intimations their impudent Agents and Emissaries the allow'd Scriblers and News Prints the Pest of that and all other Ages where permitted would have those many Massacres and Murders laid at his Door which the Good Man's Heart more unfeignedly lamented than all the Members of both Houses Nevertheless as His Majesty himself foretold concerning the many Iealousies rais'd and Scandals cast upon him by his Enemies his Reputation like the Sun after Owls and Batts have had their Freedom in the Night and darker times brake forth and recover'd it self to such a degree of Splendor as those Feral Birds griev'd to behold and were unable to bear for as no good man believ'd any of those Calumnies at first so the next return or two of Post or Ship they were blown away with the same Wind which brought them hither and the Faction forc'd to rack their Wits for a fresh reproach wherewith the Devil never fail'd to supply them But that after several years of happy Sunshine another Sett of those nasty Birds should appear again hooping and howling the same notorious falsehoods to a Generation which was not then born and too little considering the mischiefs then wrought looks very ominous and God grant it doth not bode a greater darkness than any we then lay under The first reproach which this false and feather Bird Ludlow howls forth against the King is That whilst in Scotland he had News of the Irish Rebellion how the Papists throughout the Kingdom were in Arms c. and then closeth the Relation with this Villainous hearsay The News of this Rebellion as I have heard from persons of undoubted Credit was not displeasing to the King though it was attended with the Massacre of many thousands of the Protestants there p. 17. Though we are not to take his word for the Credit of the persons who related this yet we may take our measures from his relation that they were equally to be credited with himself that is not all for all this is gratis dictum without the least Authority any thing of a reason or so much as probable conjecture for so hellish an Aspersion Whereas there is express matter of Fact even to demonstration that never any thing more sensibly affected him in that upon the first notice thereof he sent Sir Iames Stewart to the Lords of the Privy-Council at Dublin with Instructions what he thought most proper to be done and furnish'd them with all that Money his present stores could supply He mov'd also the Parliament in Scotland to a speedy help but they desir'd to be excus'd till the States of England were consulted who if they thought fit to use any of their men propositions should be made in order thereunto designing to make a Market to themselves of their Neighbour Nations miseries wherein notwithstanding many of their own Countrymen were concerned At the same time likewise he sent Post to the Parliament of England where several Resolves were taken and Votes made but little effectually done till the King's Return To speak truly had Ludlow's reflection been made upon them there had been much more Credit for it since they laid hold of all advantages thereby not only to slander and abuse his Majesty but to help themselves forward in that Rebellion they were just ripe for acting as will by and by be made appear With the same Owl-light Credit he proceeds and tells us About this time great numbers of English Protestants flying from the Bloody hands