fact or to any purpose that may advance their Designes They intercept a Letter directed to the Queens Majesty from the Lord Digby before the War began and declare it would be dishonourable to His Majesty and dangerous for the Kingdome if it should not be opened and thereupon with unheard-of presumption they open and peruse the Letter Her Majesty being within a daies journey of them And when the King caused Sir John Hotham's Letters to be opened which were intercepted after he was in Rebellion They declare that it was a high breach of Priviledge which by the Laws of the Kingdome and by the Protestation we are bound to defend with our lives and fortune One Master Booth a Gentleman of quality of Lincolnshire delivered a Petition to the King at Yorke in which he complained of certaine Gentlemen who as Deputy-Lieutenants had put the Ordinance for the Militia in execution in that County and set forth in his Petition severall Actions done and words spoken by them at that time and both himself and one Master Scroope made affidavit before a Master of the Chancery that the Information in the Petition was punctually and precisely true which Petition and Oath being printed the House of Commons frankly declared That it was false Not to speak of their declaring that the Kings comming to the House of Commons was a trayterous design against the King and Parliament and that His Proclamation which He published for the apprehension of those Members was false So that this sole power of declaring would not stand in need of any other power to subvert the whole frame of Government and so dispose of the intire rights of Prince and People according to the variety of their appetites and humour For they say as some presidents of their Predecessours ought not to be rules for them to follow so none can be limits to bound their proceedings And in truth the inconstancy and contradiction in their rules and resolutions is no lesse observable then the other extravagancy In their Petition of the 14 of Decem. 1641. they declared that the King ought not to manifest or declare His consent or dissent approbation or dislike of any Bill in preparation or debate before it be presented to Him in due course of Parliament yet within few daies after in the Petition that accompanied the Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdome they desired His Majesty that He would concur with them for the depriving the Bishops of their Votes in Parliament the Bill for that purpose being still depending in the Lords House and then not like to passe By the Order of the 3 of January 1641. and many Declarations after they declared that if any Person whatsoever shall offer to Arrest or detain the Person of any Member without first acquainting the House that it is lawfull for him to stand upon his defence and make resistance and for any other Person to assist him in so doing but in their Declaration of the 2 of November following they deny that they had said so and acknowledged that a Member in the cases of Treason Felony or the Peace may be Arrested and detained in ordine to his appearance before the Parliament There would be no end of these instances not to speak of those where the House of Peers have declared the Law one way and the Commons an other as in the Order of the 9 of September 2. The next Charge is the private Articles agreed in order to the Match with Spaine and those other private Articles upon the French Marriage so prejudiciall to the Peace Safety Laws c. What those private Articles were or are is not expressed which doubtlesse would have been if a reasonable advantage might have been hoped from it all those Papers being seized and perused by those who have neither respect to the dignity of their Soveraigne or regard of the honour of their Country The Articles with both Kingdomes were transacted by the great wisdome of King James and cannot be imputed to His Majesty that now is neither is there in one or the other any one Article that was not in the Kings power to agree to in the manner in which he did agree and that neither of them were prejudiciall to the Peace Safety Laws and Religion here established is most evident for that Peace and Safety were never more visible nor the Laws and Religion established did ever flourish more in any age then from the time of those Articles to the beginning of this unhappy Parliament which no discourse of correspondence with Rome can hinder from being acknowledged 3. The third matter objected is a Discourse concerning the Death of King JAMES in which there is mention of a Clause in the Impeachment carried up against the Duke of Buckingham by the House of Commons in the 2 year of this King that the King came into the Lords House and took notice of that Charge and said He could be a Witnesse to clear him in every one of them and that shortly after the Parliament was dissolved and they conclude that they leave it to the world to judge where the guilt remaines During the life of King James and to the hour of his death there was no earthly thing He took equall joy and comfort in as in the obedience piety of His Son who was not more reputed and known to be Heire apparent to the Crown then to be the most dutifull and pious Son in the Kingdome and was never known to displease His Father in His life The King died in the 59 year of his age after many terrible fits of an Ague which turned to a quotidian Fever a disease usually mortall to persons of that age and corpulency of body which K. James was of After His death in the 1 year of His Majesties Reigne there was a Parliament called during which time there was never the least whisper or imagination of the King's death to be otherwise then naturall and yet the King had many great persons in His Councel and there were more afterwards in that Parliament who did not pretend any kindnesse to the Duke of Buckingham many of whom must necessarily have observed or at least have been informed of any Arguments for such a notorious and odious practice and would not have suffered any jealousie that could reflect on the Duke to be untaken notice of By that time the Parliament in the 2 year of the King began one George Eglisham an infamous Scotch-man and a Papist having an ambition to be taken notice of as an Enemy to the Duke transported himself into Flanders and from thence about the beginning of that Parliament sent over a small Pamphlet in the form of a Petition in his owne name to the Parliament accusing the Duke of Buckingham of having poysoned the Marquesse of Hamilton and King JAMES which Pamphlet was industriously scattered up and down the streets in the City of London and the House of Commons being
as any other part of the discourse there being said only by Captain Chudleigh who it seems believed it not by His engaging Himself to the Parliament from that time as the better Pay-masters and was highly valued by them 20. It seems they take it as granted that their frivolous and malitious allegations will serve turne in stead of proofs and therefore they take the boldnesse to tax His Majesty with breach of honour and faith and to reproach Him for calling God to witnesse and making so many solemn protestations against any thought of bringing up the Northern Army or of leavying Forces to wage war with His Parliament or of bringing in forain Forces or aids from beyond the Sea which they say Himself said would not only bury the Kingdom in sudden destruction and ruine but His own name and Posterity in perpetuall scorne and infamy If these Gentlemen would deale faithfully with the world and confesse what troubles them most they would acknowledge that their grief is that the King is so punctuall and severe in keeping His word and protestations not that He is apt to fall from them If He would have practised their arts of dissembling and descended to their vile licence of promising and protesting what He never meant to think of after He might have prevented them in many of their successes but the greatnesse of His mind alwaies disdained even to prosper or be secure by any deviations from truth and honour and what He hath promised He hath been religious in observing though to His own damage and inconvenience He hath made no protestation about bringing up the Northern Army or of leavying Forces against the Parliament or for the Rights of the Subject which was not exactly true and agreeable to the Princely thoughts and resolutions of His heart The occasion of His Majesties using that expression concerning forain Force which is here remembred by them was this In the Declaration delivered to His Majesty from the two Houses at Newmarket on the 9 of March 1641. they told Him that by the manifold advertisements which they had from Rome Venice Paris and other parts they expected that His Majesty had still some great designe in hand and that the Popes Nuntio had solicited the Kings of France and Spaine to lend His Majesty four thousand men apiece to help to maintain His Royalty against the Parliament were some of the grounds of their fears and jealousies To which His Majesty made answer in these words What your advertisements are from Rome Venice Paris and other parts or what the Pope's Nuntio solicited the Kings of France or Spaine to do or from what persons such informations come to you or how the credit and reputation of such persons have been sifted and examined We know not but are confident no sober honest man in Our Kingdomes can believe that We are so desperate or so senslesse to entertain such designes as would not only bury this Our Kingdome in sudden destruction and ruine but Our name and posterity in perpetuall scorn and infamy That this Answer was most prudently and justly applied to that extravagant and senslesse suggestion cannot be doubted but because the King at that time before the War or a declared purpose in them to raise a War against Him held it an odious and infamous thing to thinke of bringing in foraine Forces upon His owne Kingdome that He might not therefore think it afterwards necessary and find it just to call in forain Succours to defend Him from a Rebellion that besides mixtures of all Nations was assisted by an intire forain Army to oppresse Him and His posterity no reasonable man can suggest or suppose and yet how far He hath been from entertaining any such aide the event declares which it may be many wise men reckon amongst His greatest errours and oversights and which no question if He had not been full of as much tendernesse and compassion towards His people as these men want He would have found no difficulty to have practised They proceed to improve this most groundlesse and unreasonable scandall by another instance that when His Majesty Himself and the Lords made a Protestation at Yorke against leavying Forces He commanded His Subjects by Proclamation to resist the Orders of the Parliament and did many other Facts contrary to that Protestation the particulars whereof are mentioned and shall be examined and answered The Act which they call a Protestation by the King the Lords at Yorke passed on the 15 day of June 1642. being six and twenty daies after both Houses had declared that the King intended to leavy war against the Parliament and thereupon published their Propositions for bringing in Money or Plate for the raising and maintaining an Army The King conceiving so positive and monstrous an averment might make some impression upon and gain credit with his people called the Peers together who attended Him and taking notice of that wicked Declaration declared to them That He alwaies had and then did abhor all such designes and desired them to declare whether being upon the place they saw any colour of preparations or counsels that might reasonably beget a belief of any such designe and whether they were not fully perswaded that His Majesty had no such intention whereupon seven and thirty Peers who then attended His Majesty being double the number that at that time or since remained in the House of Peers at Westminster unanimously declared under their hands which was published to the Kingdome that they saw not any colour of preparations or counsels that might reasonably beget the belief of any such designe and did professe before God and testifie to all the world That they were fully perswaded that His Majesty had no such intention but that all His endeavours did tend to the firm and constant setlement of the true Protestant Religion the just Priviledges of Parliament the Liberty of the Subject the Law Peace and prosperity of the Kingdome notwithstanding which clear evidence they made what haste they could to raise an Army and to engage the people against their Soveraigne Lord the King That His Majesty intended not by that profession on His part nor the Lords thought themselves obliged on their parts to give any countenance to or not to resist the Orders which then issued out every day from those at Westminster who called themselves the two Houses needs no other evidence then His Majesties Declaration published two daies before 13 of June in which amongst other particulars He declared to the Peers That He would not as was falsly pretended engage them or any of them in any War against the Parliament except it were for His owne necessary defence and safety against such as should insolently invade or attempt against His Majesty or such as should adhere to Him And that very day the very same Peers whereof the Earl of Salisbury was one engaged themselves to the King under their hands That they would defend
it was done and in both cases by the help of God and the Law he would have justice or lose his life in the requiring it so that certainly the King never concealed or dissembled his purposes and accordingly he did indeed toward the middle of Iuly go with his Guards to Beverly having some reason to believe that Sir Iohn Hotham had repented himself of the crime he had committed and would have repaired it as far as he had been able of which failing to his own miserable destruction without attempting to force it his Majesty again returned to Yorke Having made it now plainly appear how falsly and groundlesly his Majesty is reproached with the least tergiversation or swarving from his promises or professions which no Prince ever more precisely and religiously observed it will be but a little expence of time again to examine how punctuall these conscientious reprehenders of their Soveraigne have been in the observation of what they have sworn or said In the first Remonstrance of the House of Commons of the State of the Kingdome they declare that it is far from their purpose or desire to let loose the golden reines of discipline and government in the Church to have private persons or particular Congregations to take up what forme of divine Service they please for they said they held it requisite that there should be throughout the whole Realme a conformity to that Order which the Laws enjoyne In their Declaration of the 19 of May speaking of the Bill for the continuance of this Parliament they say We are resolved the gratious favour His Majesty expressed in that Bill and the advantage and security which thereby we have from being dissolved shall not encourage us to do any thing which otherwise had not been fit to have been done In the conclusion of their Declaration of the 26 of May 1642. apprehending very justly that their expressions there would beget at least a great suspition of their loyalty they say They doubt not but it shall in the end appear to all the world that their endeavours have been most hearty and sincere for the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion the Kings just Prerogatives the Lawes and Liberties of the Land and the Priviledges of Parliament in which endeavours by the grace of God they would still persist though they should perish in the worke In their Declaration of the 14 of Iune 1642. the Lords and Commons doe declare That the designe of those Propositions for Plate and Money is to maintain the Protestant Religion the King's Authority and Person in His Royall dignity the free course of Iustice the Laws of the Land the Peace of the Kingdome and Priviledges of Parliament As they have observed these and other their professions to the King and the Publique so they have as well kept their promises to the people in their Propositions of the 10 of Iune 1642. for bringing in Mony or Plate the Lords and Commons do declare That no mans affection shall be measured according to the proportion of his offer so that he expresse his good will to the Service in any proportion whatsoever the first designe was to involve as many as they could in the guilt how small soever the supply was but on the 29 of November following the same Lords and Commons appointed Six persons who or any Four of them should have power to assesse all such persons as were of ability and had not contributed and all such as had contributed yet not according to their ability to pay such summe or sums of mony according to their estates as the Assessors or any Four of them should think fit and reasonable so as the same exceeded not the twentieth part of their Estates Infinite examples of this kind may be produced which are the lesse necessary because whosoever will take the pains to read their own Declarations and Ordinances shall not be able to find one protestation or profession made by them to God Almighty in the matter of Religion or to the King in point of duty and obedience or one promise to the people in matter of Liberty Law and Iustice so neer pursued by them as that they have ever done one composed Act in Order to the performance of either of them which very true assertion shall conclude this Answer to that reproach of his Majesties not having made good his Protestations 21. The next Charge is That His Majesty proclaimed them Traytors and Rebels setting up His Standard against the Parliament which never any King of England they say did before Himself His Majesty never did nor could proclaime this Parliament Traytors he well knew besides his own being the head of it that four parts of five of the House of Peers were never present at any of those trayterous conclusions and that above a major part of the House of Commons was alwaies absent and that of those who were present there were many who still opposed or dissented from every unlawfull act and therefore it were very strange if all those innocent men of whom the Parliament consisted as well as of the rest should have been proclaimed Rebels and Traytors for the acts of a few seditious persons who were upon all occasions named and if the Parliament were ever proclaimed Traytors it was by them only who presumptuously sheltred their rebellious acts under that venerable name and who declared that whatsoever violence should be used either against those who exercise the Militia or against Hull they could not but believe it as done against the Parliament They should have named one person proclaimed Rebell or Traytor by the King who is not adjudged to be such by the Law The King never proclaimed Sir Iohn Hotham Traytor though it may be he was guilty of many treasonable acts before till he shut the Gates of Hull against him and with armed men kept his Majesty from thence and besides the concurrent testimony of all Judgments at Law it appears and is determined by the Lord Chief Justice Coke published by the House of Commons this Parliament in his Chapter of High Treason That if any with strength and weapons invasive and defensive doth hold and defend a Castle or Fort against the King and His power this is leavying of War against the King within the Statute of the 25 year of Edw. 3. The King proclaimed not those Rebels or Traytors who Voted That they would raise an Army and that the Earl of Essex should be Generall of that Army what ever he might have done nor the Earle of Essex himself a Traytor upon those Votes untill he had accepted that title and command of Captaine Generall and in that quality appeared amongst the Souldiers animating and encouraging them in their trayterous and rebellious designes as appears by his Majesties Proclamation of the 9 of August 1642. by which he was first proclaimed Traytor and there was no other way to clear the Earle of Essex from being
spent at Uxbridge is published to the world in which the last observation made by the King's Commissioners must not be forgotten That after a War of neer foure years for which the defence of the Protestant Religion the Liberty and Property of the Subject and the Priviledges of the Parliament were made the cause and grounds in a Treaty of Twenty daies nor indeed in the whole Propositions upon which the Treaty should be there hath been nothing offered to be treated concerning the breach of any Law or of the Liberty or Property of the Subject or Priviledge of Parliament but onely Propositions for the altering a Government established by Law and for the making new Laws by which almost all the old are or may be cancelled and there hath been nothing insisted on of the Kings part which is not Law or denied by the Kings Commissioners that the other required as due by Law For the Protestation which they say was entred about the time of this Treaty in the Councell-Book and of which his Majesty gave the Queen account it is known to be no other then a Declaration that by calling them a Parliament there could be no acknowledgment inferred that he esteemed them a free Parliament which few at that time did believe them to be and they have since upon as small reasons confessed themselves not to be They alleage as a wonderfull testimony of their meeknesse and good nature that after His Majesties Armies were all broken so that in disguise He fled from Oxford to the Scots at Newarke and from thence went to Newcastle they tendred to Him at Newcastle and afterwards when the Scots had left Him to the Commissioners of Parliament at Hampton-Court still the same Propositions in effect which had been presented before in the midst of all His strength and Forces which is rather an Argument that they had at first made them as bad as possibly they could then that they were good since and considering the natures of these Declarers there cannot be a more pregnant evidence of the ilnesse and vilenesse of those Propositions then that they have not made them worse nor is the condition in which they have now impiously put His Majesty for His refusall worse then it had been or would be His Personall liberty only excepted if He consented to them and in one consideration it is much better because it is now a confessed act of violence and treason upon Him which if He once consent to their Propositions they will when ever they find occasion appear legally qualified to do the same They have once again out of their desire of his Majesties concurrence descended to one other addresse to Him and they said they did so qualifie the said Propositions that where it might stand with the publique safety His wonted scruples and objections were prevented or removed and yeilded to a Personall Treaty on condition the King would signe but foure Bils which they judged not only just and honourable but necessary even for present peace and safety during such a Treaty and upon His deniall of these they are in despair of any good by addresses to the King neither must they be so injurious to the people in further delaying their setlement as any more to presse His consent to these or any other Propositions What the former Propositions and Addresses to His Majesty have been and how impossible it hath been for Him to consent to them with His Conscience Honour or Safety appears before and how inconvenient it would have been to the Kingdome if He had done it they themselves have declared by making such important alterations in respect of the English interest in those presented at Newcastle from the other treated on at Uxbridge it will be fit therefore to examine these foure Bils which were to be the condition of the Treaty One of these Bils is to devest His Majesty and His Posterity for ever of any power over the Militia and to transfer this right and more then ever was in the Crown to these men who keep Him Prisoner for it is in their power whether they will ever consent that it shall be in any other and to give them power to raise what Forces they please and what Mony they think fit upon His Subjects and by any waies or means they appoint and so frankly exclude Himself from any power in the making Laws There need no other Answer why it is not fit or possible for the King to consent to this then what the Commissioners from Scotland gave to the Houses when they declared their dissent If the Crownes have no power of the Militia how can they be able to resist their Enemies and the Enemies of the Kingdomes protect their Subjects or keep friendship or correspondence with their Allyes All Kings by their royall Office and Oath of Coronation are obliged to protect their Laws and Subjects it were strange then to seclude the Crown for ever from the power of doing that which by the Oath of Coronation they are obliged to perform and the obedience whereunto falleth within the Oath of Allegiance and certainly if the King and His Posterity shall have no power in making Laws nor in the Militia it roots up the strongest foundation of honour and safety which the Crown affords and will be interpreted in the eyes of the world to be a wresting of the Scepter and Sword out of their hands Nor can this just and honourable Assertion be answered and evaded by saying that the Militia was the principall immediate ground of their quarrell in order to the preservation of Religion and the just Rights and Liberties of the people and that the Scots Commissioners have often agreed with them in it and that the Kingdome of Scotland fought together with them for it and upon the ground thereof and that now they argue against their injoying it almost in the very same words as the King did at the beginning of the War in His Declarations It is no wonder that what these men have done and the horrid confusion they have made have evinced many truths which appeared not so manifest to all understandings by what the King said or that they have not so good an opinion of those who tell them that there is another and a more naturall way to peace and to the ending the war then by Agreement namely by Conquest As they had of them who with all imaginable solemnity swore that they would sincerely really and constantly endeavour with their estates and lives mutually to preserve and defend the King's Majesties Person and authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdomes that the world may bear witnesse with their Consciences of their Loyalty and that they had no thoughts or intentions to diminish His Majesties Power and Greatnesse which Engagements might perswade many that their purposes were other then they now appear to be For that other power they
of any kind of peace and security to them and that as they have upon the matter dissolved the noblest structure and frame of government in Church and State that hath been at any time in the Christian world so that they are too much transported with passion and guilt and of too little interest experience and understanding to devise and settle a new form or to mend any defects in the old Besides that they plainly discern that they are not the Ministers of their Country for whom they were chosen and deputed but for the Army whose dictates they are obliged and forced to follow so that if their inclinations were good they have not power to execute accordingly And are like the Eagle in Esdras when the voice went not out of her head but from the midst of her body The mutuall confidence between them and their Army is totally dissolved it being not possible for the Houses ever to repose trust in any Army for they can never believe any Army to be more at their devotion then they had reason to think that under Sir Thomas Fairfax nor for the Army to pay a full submission to the Houses for admitting that Party which is most powerfull in the Army for the present is of the same mind and opinion with that Party which is most powerfull in the Houses yet being both still Rivals for the Soveraigne power they can never intirely trust or intirely submit to each other Though the Houses should consist of none but such who were glad at that time that the King was taken from Holmby and that the Army did not disband yet they will alwaies remember that the one was done without their Order or consent and that the Army may do the like again when they think fit and when it may not turn so much to their advantage And that they did not onely not disband at that time but have declared by their solemn Engagement of the Army 5 of June That they will not Disband nor divide nor suffer themselves to be divided or disbanded till they have first security and satisfaction in those things they have desired in such manner as shall be agreed upon by a Councell to consist of those generall Officers of the Army who have concurred with the Army in what they have done and what they have demanded with two Commission Officers and two Soldiers to be chosen for each Regiment who have concurred and shall concur with them in the premises and in this Agreement so that it is evident that the Army will be governed and disposed of only by themselves for which they have very great reason and without which indeed they can have no security for how complying soever the Houses are for the present the Souldiers cannot forget that they were once declared Traytors but for preparing a Petition and they wisely observe that what was done may be done again and by the demurs which have been made concerning the safety and immunity of the Speakers and those faithfull Members who were driven away by violence and the immunity of the Army in advancing to London notwithstanding the publick acknowledgment and thanksgiving to God for it They discern that they are only safe by the want of power in the Houses of what party soever they consist the ambition injustice and tyranny of both being equall The Army have already fully declared against their late Votes and resolutions and therefore it must be presumed they will never concur or contribute to the supporting them The Generall himself in his Letter of the 6 of June from Cambridge to the Speaker tells him That as it is his most earnest and humble desire so he found it to be the unanimous desire and study of the Army that a firm peace in this Kingdome may be setled and the Liberties of the people cleared and secured according to the many Declarations by which they were invited and induced to ingage in the late War And in the Declaration and representation from the Generall and the whole Army of the 14 of June to the Parliament they tell them plainly and honestly That they were not a meer mercenary Army hired to serve any Arbitrary power of State but called forth and conjured by the severall Declarations of Parliament to the defence of their owne and the peoples just Rights and Liberties and so they take up Armes in judgment and Conscience to those ends and have so continued them and are resolved according to the first just desires in their Declarations and such principles as they had received from their frequent Informations and their own Common sense concerning those fundamentall Rights and Liberties and to assent and vindicate the just power and rights of this Kingdome in Parliament for those common ends premised against all Arbitrary power violence and oppression and against all particular parties or interests whatsoever And in their Remonstrance of the 23 of June from S. Albons they say That the Kingdom calls upon them not to disband till they see the Rights Liberties and Peace of the Kingdome setled according to the many Declarations by which they were first called forth and invited to ingage in the late War Now what those ends desires and principles were in their Declarations are set forth before and known to all men who have or will read their Declar to be no other then the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion the King 's just Prerogative the Lawes and Liberties of the Land and the Priviledges of Parliament in which endeavours they said they would still persist though they should perish in the work And they were so far from avowing that they would not send to or hear from the King or not suffer His Majesty to come to them that they declare that as they never gave Him any just cause of withdrawing Himself from His great Councell so it had ever been and should ever be far from them to give any impediment to His return And in their Declaration in Answer to the Kings after the Battle at Edghill concerning the allegations that the Army raised by the Parliament was to murther and depose the King they say They hoped the Contrivers of that Declaration or any that professed but the name of a Christian could not have so little charity as to raise such a scandall especially when they must needs know the Protestation taken by every Member of both Houses whereby they promise in the presence of Almighty God to defend His Majesties Person And by that Protestation of the 22 of October 1642. remembred before they declare in the presence of Almighty God to this Kingdome and Nation and to the whole world That no private passion or respect no evill intention to His Majesties Person no designe to the prejudice of His just Honour and Authority engaged them to raise Forces and to take up Armes So that these being the desires ends and principles in their Declarations by which the
offices of friendship It may be worth the labour briefly to set down the truth of that matter and the proceedings thereupon About the time of His Majesties Marriage with the Queen the French King had many designes upon Italy and a particular difference and contest with the States of Genoa and upon conclusion of that Treaty and renewing the antient League and amity confirmed strengthned by this Marriage His Majesty was content to lend the Vantguard and to give licence that six or seven Merchant Ships might be hired if the Owners were willing to serve the French King in the Mediterranean Sea and upon a precise promise that they should not be imployed against those of the Religion in France Accordingly the Vantguard and no other Vessell of the Navy Royall was delivered and the Merchants Ships likewise hired by the French Agents with the full consent of the Owners One of which or one by their nomination Commanded each Ship and carried the same into France and there themselves delivered the Ships into the possession of the French After these Ships were thus engaged in the French service and joyned to their Fleet in which were 20 Ships of Warre likewise borrowed of the Hollanders commanded by Hauthaine the Admirall and Dorpe his Vice-Admirall who it is very probable nor their Masters were privy or consenting to that enterprize and with which they were much superiour to those of the Religion though the English Ships had been away they fell upon the Rochel Fleet and took and destroyed many of them The King was no sooner informed of this then he highly resented it by His Ambassadour and the French King excused it upon those of the Religion who He Alleaged had without cause broken the peace the Duke of Subese having when all was quiet seized all the French Ships at Blauet which very Ships made the best part of the Fleet he had now incountred and broken And that the King of England ought to be sensible of the injury the peace thus broken having been made and consented to by the French King upon His Majesties earnest mediation and interposition Notwithstanding which His Majesty justly incensed that His Ships should be imployed contrary to His pleasure and the promise made to Him immediatly required the restitution of His and all the English Ships the which was no sooner made then to publish to the world how much He was displeased with that Action He entred into Hostility with France the chief ground of that quarrell being that the English Ships had been imployed against those of the Religion contrary to the expresse promise made that they should not be used against them as appears as well by the Manifest of the Duke of Buckingham dated 21 July and printed since this Parliament as by the Records of State of that time Let the world now judge with what colour the losse of Rochel which as is said before hapned not till neer or full two years after the return of the English Ships can be imputed to the King 5. The fifth Article is the designe of the Germane-Horse Loanes Privy Seales Coat and Conduct mony Ship-mony and the many Monopolies all which are particularly mentioned in the first Remonstrance of the House of Commons of the 15 of December 1642. as the effects of evill Counsellours and with a Protestation in that Petition which accompanied it to His Majesty that it was without the least intention to lay a blemish upon His Majesties Royall Person but only to represent how His Royall Authority and trust had been abused And finding that the vile language and aspersions which they cast upon the King were generally censured and ill spoken of The Lords and Commons afterwards in their Declaration of the 19 of May tell the people that if they should say that all the ill things done of late in His Majesties name have been done by Himself they should neither follow the direction of the Law nor the affection of their owne hearts which they say is as much as may be to clear His Majesty of all imputation of misgovernment and to lay the fault upon His Ministers and then finding fault with those who make His Majesty the Authour of evill Counsels they use these words We His Majesties loyall and dutifull Subjects can use no other Stile according to that Maxime of the Law The King can doe no wrong but if any ill be committed in matter of State the Councell if in matters of Iustice the Judges must answer for it So that if they would guide themselves either by the good old or their own new laws from which in truth they swerve no lesse then from the other they have themselves answered and declared against this Article but since that is not currant examine the particulars The time when this designe is supposed to have been was when His Majesty had a War with the two greatest Kings of Christendome France and Spaine and therefore if He had purposed to have drawn auxiliary Forces into His Service it had been no wonder nor more then all Princes use yet in truth there was never any designe to bring in Germane Horse only in those unquiet times when the Kingdom was so much threatned from abroad amongst other expedients for strength and defence such a proposition was made or rather some discourse upon it which the King rejected and did never consent that it should be put in practice and therefore it may seem strange that this designe should be now objected against His Majesty who alone refused and hindred it and that Balfore and Dalbiere who were the principall if not the only Projectors of it should be in such high reputation and esteem with the Declarers The Loanes Privy Seales and other courses of raising Money were upon extraordinary and immergent occasions and of the same nature that have been in all times practiced upon reason and necessity of State And Monopolies are weeds that have alwaies grown in the fat soile which long peace and plenty makes and of that kind they may find a larger Catalogue in their Journall book of the 43 year of Queen Elizabeth a time that no sober man complaines of then in any time since and which was not then nor reasonably can be imputed to the Crowne since new inventions have justly so great encouragements and priviledges by the Law that if those Ministers through whose hands such grants are to passe are not very vigilant it is not possible but upon specious pretences many things unwarrantable of that nature will have the countenance of the Kings hand yet those particulars were no sooner complained of to His Ma ty then He willingly applied the remedies w ch were proposed before these troubles began passed such excellent laws for the prevention of the like inconveniences for the future that a better security cannot be provided So that men must think this Rebellion to have been raised on the behalf of not against those exorbitances which
of Ireland nor is there the least colour to affirm the same what directions the Rebels give in their Letters of Mart or whether they gave any such directions as are alleaged is no way materiall as to His Majesty and for Officers and Commanders who left their trust against the Rebels it is sufficiently known that the Earle of Leven who by His Majesties consent was sent Generall of the Scots into Ireland against the Rebels was called from thence to lead an Army into England against His Majesty and when the King's Commissioners at the Treaty at Uxbridge alleaged and complained that many Officers both Scots and English had in the beginning of that War left that Service and been entertained by the two Houses against the King all the Answer they could receive was That they were not sent for This being the case as without any possibility of contradiction it is these Gentlemen had no more reason to believe the Rebels when they did so often swear they did nothing without good authority and Commission from the King then the Rebels had to believe them when they swore on the 22. of October 1642. That no private passion or respect no evill intention to His Majesties person nor designe to the prejudice of His just honour and authority engaged them to raise Forces and the next day gave His Majesty battle at Edge-hill Nor is it more materiall that Sir Phelim Oneale would not be perswaded that Generall Laesly had any authority from the King against the Rebels then that these Gentlemen should be perswaded in the same houre to believe that an Army should be raised for the safety of the King's person and to sweare that they would live and die with the Earl of Essex whom they nominated Generall to lead that Army against the King What information was given divers Months before to the Archbishop and others of the Kings Councel of a designe amongst the Papists for a generall Massacre of all the Protestants in Ireland and England c. is no objection against the King and as the Archbishop was imprisoned divers Months before that Rebellion brake out so it is not like if they had been able to have charged Him with any concealment that they would have forborn accusing him with it at his Triall when they so much wanted evidence against him that they were faine to make his Chaplains not licencing such Books against Popery as they thought did discredit the Protestant cause an Argument of his Treason and they would likewise now have named the others of the King's Counsell if they could have alleaged any matter that could have reflected upon them or their Master Next follows a huddle of the Kings Letters to the Pope when he was in Spaine and of others since on the behalfe of the Duke of Lorainge and of the King 's having an Agent at Rome which it is knowne he never had some Months before the Irish Rebellion all which are so obscurely mentioned and so ridiculous as to any charge against the King that they are not worthy any Answer yet because how impertinently soever by the licence of these times much hath been scandalously discoursed of a Letter written by the King when he was Prince and in Spaine to the Pope and such a Letter translated printed out of a Copy published in the French Mercury it may not be amisse to say somewhat of that businesse The Prince being by the command of his Father sent into Spaine to conclude a Marriage with the Daughter of that Crowne which had been long treated of could not but be obliged whilst he was there to perform all Ceremonies which were requisite to the compassing the businesse he went about The Kingdome where he was had a fast friendship with Rome and such a kind of dependence that a dispensation from thence was thought necessary by the wisdome of that State to the marriage in treaty towards the procuring whereof though the Prince would not contribute the least application of his owne yet he was not reasonably to do any thing which might make that dispensation the more difficult to be procured The Pope that then was writ a Letter to the Prince which was delivered to his Highnesse by his Minister there resident It was a Letter of respect and in the interpretation of that State of great kindnesse and it would have been thought a very unseasonable neglect if the Prince had vouchsafed it no Answer on the other hand it was easier to resolve that it was fit to write then what in the mean time they who were officious that it might be done prepared the draught of a Letter and brought it to him the which when his Highnesse had perused with his own hand he expunged those clauses which might seem to reflect upon the Religion which he professed and having so altered and mended it he caused it to be sent to the Pope Copies of the first draught were spread abroad by which that was inserted in the French Mercury which is so carefully translated and printed and dispersed these late ill years and now is given in evidence against His Majesty But admitting it were the same and that the Prince being in a forain Kingdom with the policy whereof he was then to comply had written that very Letter which is printed with what colour of reason can any man make that an Argument of his inclination to Popery who at that time and ever since hath given the greatest testimony of his affection to the Protestant Religion that any Prince or private person hath done The Authours of this Declaration would not think it just that from their very loving Letters to the Bashaw at Argyers and his to them in which He thanks God that the Agent of the Parliament of England is come thither to make a peace and love betwixt them to the end of the world as appears by the relation of that businesse fol. 15. published by their authority and from the amity with them to that Degree that they have given the Turkes men-of-war the freedome of their Harbours men should conclude that they are resolved to turn Turkes and yet such a conclusion will more naturally result from those Letters and that strict correspondence then of the King's affection to Popery from that Letter to the Pope It is said that the same designe was laid in England at the same time and that many thousands were appointed to cut the Protestants throats in this Kingdom also when the King went into Scotland and that it was confessed by some of the principall Rebels that their Popish Committee with the King had communicated that designe with many Papists in England by whose advice though some things were altered yet it was generally concluded that about the same time there should be the like proceedings of the Papists here all which if true as no sober man believes it to be does no way reflect upon the King and that Popish Committee was sent more to the
be wasted to reply to them 18. The next Charge is the Commissions granted to the Earle of Newcastle and Colonel Legg for attempting Newcastle and Hull which they say occasioned them to provide for their security to which their intelligence of forain Forces from Denmark contributed and then they take great paines to make that jealousie of Denmarke reasonable and fit to sink into them The Commissions granted by the King to the Earle of Newcastle and Colonel Legg were no other then by Law He might grant neither did He grant any such before He was assured the leading Members in the House of Commons had it in their purpose to procure an Order for the seizing that Towne and after they had caused a power to be placed about the Tower of London both by land and water under the Command of their new Officer Skippon who was required not to suffer any provisions to be brought in thither by what Authority or Warrant soever If there had been any expectation or apprehension of forain Forces to be brought from Denmarke that could be no warrant for them to seize on Hull without and against the King's leave whose peculiar jurisdiction and right it is to provide against forain Invasions but as that discourse of Forces from Denmarke was then looked upon as most ridiculous by all men of sense so experience hath since made it apparent that there was not the least colour for it And the arrivall of that Vessell with Ammunition and Armes for there came no Commanders in her near Hull was near six Months after the Houses had put a Garrison into Hull and neer three Months after Sir John Hotham had shut the Gates of it against His Majesty and if it had not been for that rebellious Act that Ammunition and Armes had not been sent The Invasion of the King of Denmark's Dominions by the Swedes was above two years after the seizing of Hull therefore that could not be any interruption to that designe if it had been intended but that a frivolous report of a discourse between a Servant of the Lord Digby's that was never named with a Mariner whom he had never seen before to conduct a Fleet into England from Denmarke or an intercepted Letter from the Hague to Secretary Nicholas which is pretended to be written the 26 of Novemb. after the Battle of Edge-hill and in which is mention of Armes for ten thousand Foot and for fifteen hundred Horse should be thought of moment to justifie a rebellious jealousie of the King's purpose of countenancing an Invasion of His owne Kingdome is below the folly and sottishnesse of any to whom satisfaction ought to be applied The imploying of Colonel Cockram to the King of Denmark was after the Rebellion was begun and when the Earl of Essex was marching with his Army against His Majesty and the principall instruction given to him was to presse that King to assist His Majesty with Mony Armes and Ammunition the two Houses having seized all which belonged to His Majesty and that the same might be sent by some Ships of that Crowne because all the King 's owne were taken from Him and lay in wait to intercept any Provision that should be sent to His Majesty and it is no wonder if the King indevoured by His instructions to His Agent to make His Uncle of Denmarke as sensible as he could of the injuries and indignities offered to His Majesty nor was that very clause with which these wicked men so insolently and rudely reproach His Majesty without good grounds it being known that they ordinarily whisper'd many things then in their private Caballs which they durst not publiquely avow of which nature were their discourses of the Death of King James which they are now grown up to the wickednesse to publish and the other which was mentioned in that instruction They say they repeat this rather because when they declared their intelligence that Cockram was sent into Denmarke to procure Forces thence the King disavowed it calling it a vile scandall in His Answer to their Decl. of the 22 of Octob. 1642. Their charge upon the King in that Declaration of the 22 of Octob. was That Sir John Henderson and Colonel Cockram men of ill report both for Religion and Honesty were sent to Hanborough and Denmarke as they were credibly informed to raise Forces there and to bring them to Newcastle and to joyne with the Earle of Newcastle c. To this the King made Answer That He had never greater cause to be confident of security in His owne Subjects and therefore He could not believe so vile a scandall could make any impression in sober men And it is known He did desire no other aide or supply at that time from Denmarke or from any of his Allies but Mony Armes and Ammunition but if He had not been confident in the security of His owne Subjects He would have been justly to be blamed if He had not endeavoured to get any forain succours to preserve Himself His Crowne and the Kingdome from being over-run and subdued by the power and strength of His rebellious Subjects In the same instructions to Cockram they say the King declared that He then expected assistance from His neighbour Princes and Allyes in particular the greatest part of the States Fleet from Holland which if it were truly set forth needs no Answer it being very reasonable that the King should have expected that all His neighbour Princes and Allyes should have assisted Him against so odious and horrid a Rebellion and it may be many of them may live to find the inconveniencie of not being sensible of the assault which hath been made upon Soveraignty especially if in stead of assisting the King they have contributed toward the oppressing the Regall power but these men are such enemies to ingenuity that in the very repeating what hath been said or done by the King they will leave out any words that will make the sense otherwise understood then fits their purpose though any man that will take the pains to examine it will quickly find the truth so they who will peruse these instructions by what means soever they came by them published by themselves will find that the King mentioned the Holland Fleet only as allowed by the States to give Her Majesty a Convoy into England which these men would have understood as lent to assist the King against His rebellious Subjects whereas it is too well known that at that time the two Houses found more respect and assistance from those States then His Majesty did and what His Majesty then said of His neighbour Princes and Allyes which they would perswade the people to relate to some present engagement from them to send Forces to Him being only grounded upon His reasonable hope of the sense those Princes would have of the indignities offered to His Majesty His words being He expects and hopes that all His neighbour Princes and Allyes will not look
guilty of Treason by that act of his within the expresse words of the 2 Chapter of the 25 yeare of King Edw. 3. but by declaring that by leavying war against our Lord the King in his Realme which in that Statute is declared to be high Treason is meant leavying war against the Parliament and yet Mr. St. Iohn observed in his Argument against the Earle of Strafford printed by Order that the word KING in that Statute must be understood of the King 's naturall person for that person can onely die have a Wife have a Son and be imprisoned The Lord chief Justice Coke in his Commentary upon that Statute saith If any leavy War to expulse Strangers to deliver men out of Prisons to remove Counsellours or against any Statute or to any other end pretending Reformation of their own head without any warrant this is leavying war against the King because they take upon them Royall authority which is against the King and that there may be no scruple by that expression without warrant the same Author saies in the same place and but few lines preceding that no Subject can leavy War within the Realm without authority from the King for to him it only belongeth Preparation by some overt act to depose the King or to take the King by force and strong hand and to imprison Him untill he hath yeilded to certain demands this is a sufficient overt act to prove the compassing and imagination of the death of the King for this is upon the matter to make the King a Subject and to disspoyle Him of His Kingly Office of Royall government as is concluded by the same reverend Authour and likewise that to rise to alter Religion established within the Kingdome or Lawes is Treason These Declarers cannot name one person proclaimed a Rebell or Traytor by the King who was not confessedly guilty of at least one of these particulars and being so the King did no more then by the Law He ought to doe and Mr. St. Johns acknowledged in his Argument against the Earle of Strafford that he that leavies War against the Person of the King doth necessarily compasse His death and likewise that it is a War against the King when intended for the alteration of the Lawes or Government in any part of them or to destroy any of the great Officers of the Kingdome For the setting up the Standard it was not till those persons who bearing an inward hatred and malice against his Majesties Person and Government had raised an Army and were then trayterously and rebelliously marching in battle-array against his Majesty their Liege Lord and Soveraigne as appears by his Majesties Proclamation of the 12 of August 1642. in which He declared His purpose to erect His royall Standard and after they had with an Army besieged his Majesties antient standing Garrison of Portsmouth and required the same in which the King's Governour was to be delivered to the Parliament and after they had sent an Army of Horse Foot and Cannon under the command of the Earle of Bedford into the West to apprehend the Marquesse of Hertford who was there in a peaceable manner without any Force till he was compelled to raise the same for his defence and to preserve the peace of those Counties invaded by an Army and then when his Majesty was compelled for those reasons to erect his Standard with what tendernesse He did it towards the two Houses of Parliament cannot better appear then by His owne words in his Declaration published the same day on which that Proclamation issued out which are these What Our opinion and resolution is concerning Parliaments We have fully expressed in our Declarations We have said and will still say they are so essentiall a part of the constitution of this Kingdome that We can attaine to no happinesse without them nor will We ever make the least attempt in Our thought against them We well know that Our self and Our two Houses make up the Parliament and that We are like Hipocrates Twins We must laugh and cry live and die together that no man can be a friend to the one and an enemy to the other the injustice injury and violence offered to Parliaments is that which We principally complaine of and We again assure all Our good Subjects in the presence of Almighty God that all the Acts passed by Us this Parliament shall be equally observed by Us as We desire those to be which do most concern Our Rights Our quarrell is not against the Parliament but against particular men who first made the wounds and will not suffer them to be healed but make them deeper and wider by contriving fostering and fomenting mistakes and jealousies betwixt body and head Us and the two Houses whom We name and are ready to prove them guilty of High Treason c. And then his Majesty names the persons This was the King's carriage towards and mention of the Parliament very different from theirs who are now possessed of the Soveraigne power the Army who in their Remonstrance of the 23 of June last use these words We are in this case forced to our great grief of heart thus plainly to assert the present evill and mischief together with the future worse consequences of the things lately done even in the Parliament it self which are too evident and visible to all and so in their proper colours to lay the same at the Parliament Dores untill the Parliament shall be pleased either of themselves to take notice and rid the House of those who have any way mis-informed deluded surprized or otherwise abused the Parliament to the passing such foule things there or shall open to us and others some way how we may c. which would not have been mentioned here if they had been onely the extravagant act and words of the Army but they are since justified and made the words of the two Houses by their declaring in their late Declaration of the 4 of March in Answer to the Papers of the Scots Commissioners That if there be any unsound principles in relation to Religion or the State in some of the Army as in such a body there usually are some extravagant humours they are very injuriously charged upon the whole Army whereof the governing part hath been very carefull to suppresse and keep down all such peccant humours and have hitherto alwaies approved themselves very constant and faithfull to the true interest of both Kingdomes and the cause wherein they have engaged and the persons that have engaged therein so that this Remonstrance being the Act of the Generall Lieutenant-Generall and the whole Councell of War which is sure the governing part it is by this Declaration fully vindicated to be the Sense of the two Houses 22. The setting up a mock Parliament at Oxford to oppose and protest against the Parliament of England which his Majesty and both Houses had continued by Act of Parliament is in the
they were brought to that great exigent that they were ready to rob and spoile one another that their wants began to make them desperate That if the Lords Justices and Councell there did not find a speedy way for their preservation they did desire that they might have leave to go away that if that were not granted they must have recourse to the law of nature which teacheth all men to preserve themselves The two Houses who had undertaken to carry on that War and received all the Mony raised for that Service neglecting still to send supplies thither the Lords Justices and Councell by their Letters about the middle of May advertised the King That they had no Victuall Cloths or other provisions no Mony to provide them of any thing they want no Armes not above forty Barrels of Powder no strength of serviceable Horse no visible means by Sea or Land of being able to preserve that Kingdome And by others of the 4 of Iuly that his Armies would be forced through wants to disband or depart the Kingdome and that there would be nothing to be expected there but the instant losse of the Kingdome and the destruction of the remnant of his good Subjects yet left there This was the sad condition of that miserable Kingdome to whose assistance his Majesty was in no degree of Himself able to contribute and His recommendation and interposition to the two Houses whom He had trusted was so much contemned that when upon their Order to issue out at one time one hundred thousand pounds of the Monies paid for Ireland to the supply of the Forces under the Earl of Essex albeit it was enacted by the Law upon which those Monies were raised that no part of it should be imployed to any other purpose then the reducing the Rebels of Ireland His Majesty by a speciall Message advised and required them to retract that Order and to dispose the Monies the right way the necessities of Ireland being then passionately represented by those upon the place they returned no other satisfaction or Answer to his Majesty but a Declaration That those directions given His Majesty for the retracting of that Order was a high breach of priviledge of Parliament When His Majesty perceived that no assistance was or was like to be applied to them and that the Enemy still increased in strength power He referred the consideration and provision for themselves to those whose safeties and livelyhoods were most immediately concerned and who were the nearest witnesses of the distresses and the best Judges how they could be borne or how they were like to be relieved and so with the full advice and approbation of the Lords Justices and Councell there and concurrent opinion of all the chief Officers of the Army that Cessation was made by which onely the Protestants in that Kingdome and His Majesties interest there could at that time have been preserved Of this Cessation neither His Majesties good Subjects in that or this Kingdom have reason to complain Examine now the peace which they say was afterwards made on such odious shamefull and unworthy conditions that His Majesty Himself blushed to owne or impart to His owne Lieutenant the Earle of Ormond but a private Commission was made to the Lord Herbert to manage it Whilst the King had any hope of a tolerable peace in this or a probable way of carrying on the War in that Kingdome He never gave a Commission to conclude a peace there and it plainly appears by the relation of the Treaty at Uxbridge to the truth of which there hath not been the least objection the Acts of the Commissioners of both sides being extant that there was no expedient proposed though desired often on the King's party for the proceeding in that War but that His Majesty would quit absolutely all His Regall power in that Kingdome and so put all His Subjects there English and Irish out of His protection into that of the two Houses of Parliament here who at the same time were fighting for the same Supremacy in this and who had at the same time disposed a greater power thereof to the Scots then they reserved to themselves it concerned the King then in piety and policy in His duty to God and man to endevour to preserve that Kingdom by a peace which He could not reduce by a war and to draw from thence such a body and number of His own Subjects as might render Him more considerable to those who having put off all naturall allegiance and reverence to his Majesty looked only what power and strength and not what right He had left The peace that was concluded was upon such tearms and conditions as were in that conjuncture of time just and honourable and when it could not be continued without yeilding to more shamefull and lesse worthy conditions the Marquesse of Ormond his Majesties Lieutenant of that Kingdome who had the sole and intire authority from his Majesty to conclude a peace and against whom all their envy and all their malice hath not been able to make the least objection best knowing his Masters mind chose rather to make no peace and to trust providence with his Majesties Rights then to consent to such Propositions nor had the Lord Herbert ever any Commission to make a peace there but being a person whose loyalty and affection to his service the King had no reason to suspect and being of the same Religion with the Enemy might have some influence upon them was qualified with such a testimony as might give him the more credit amongst them to perswade them to reason His restraint and commitment was very reall by the whole Councell board there though when it appeared that his errors had proceeded from unskilfulnesse and unadvisednesse and not from malice he was afterwards inlarged by the same power The unnaturall conclusions and inferences these men make from what the King hath said or done applying actions done lately to words spoken seven years before cannot cast any blemish upon the Kings Religion which shines with the same lustre in Him as it did in the primitive Martyrs and even those Letters taken at Nazeby which no wise Rebel or gallant Enemy would have published will to posterity appear as great Monuments of His zeale to the true Protestant Religion in those straits in which He was driven by those who professed that Religion as any Prince hath left or have been left by any Prince since Christianity was imbraced And if that Religion should prosper with lesse vigour then it hath done and the Christian and Pagan world have lesse reverence towards it then they have had these Reformers may justly challenge to themselves the honour and glory of that declension and triumph in the reproaches they have brought upon the most Orthodox Church that hath flourished in any age since the Apostles time These Charges and reproaches upon the King which have been now particularly examined and answered and of which
to cancell and overthrow all the Lawes and Government of the Kingdome all which must be done before their cause or their manner of maintaining their cause can be justified and if that were not perversly blind to their owne interest they would know and discerne that such an act is as pernitious to themselves as to truth and reason their own security depending on nothing more then a provision that no others for the time to come shall do what they have done nor can they enjoy any thing but on the foundation of that Law they have endeavoured to overthrow The King hath often offered an Act of Oblivion which will cut down all Gallows and wipe out all opprobrious tearms and may make the very memory and mention of Treason and Traytors as penall as the crimes ought to have been they who desire more aske impossibilities and that which would prove their own destruction and who ever requires their cause to be justified can have no reason for doing it but because he knows it is not to be justified The end of the third Bill is to dishonour those of His own Party whom He hath thought fit to honour and to cancell those Acts of grace and favour He vouchsafed them which is against all reason and justice for if He had no power to confer those Honours there needs no Act of Parliament to declare or make them void if He had power there is no reason why they should be lesse Lords upon whom He conferred that honour the last year then those He shall create the next nor is this Proposition of the least imaginable moment to the peace of the Kingdome or security of a Treaty though it be of no lesse concernment to His Majesty then the parting with one of the brightest Flowers in His Crown The last Bill is to give the two Houses power to adjourn to what place and at what time they please which by the Act of continuance they cannot now do without the King's consent though there is no reason they should attribute more to His Person in that particular then they doe in other things to which His assent is necessary and if they do indeed believe that His Regall power is virtually in them they may as well do this Act without Him as all the rest they have done The King in His Message of the 12 of April 1643. rather intimated then propounded the Adjournment of the Parliament to any place twenty miles from London which the Houses should choose as the best expedient He could think of for His owne and their security from those tumultuous Assemblies which interrupted the freedome thereof to which though they returned no Answer to His Majesty yet in their Declaration after that Treaty at Oxford they declared the wonderfull inconvenience and unreasonablenesse of that proposition the inconveniences that would happen to such persons that should have occasion to attend the Parliament by removing it so far from the residency of the ordinary Courts of Justice and the places where the Records of the Kingdome remaine That it would give a tacite consent to that high and dangerous aspersion of awing the Members of this Parliament and it would give too much countenance to those unjust aspersions laid to the charge of the City of London whose unexampled zeale and fidelity to the true Protestant Religion and the Liberty of this Kingdome they said is never to be forgotten and that they were wel-assured that the loyalty of that City to His Majesty and their affections to the Parliament is such as doth equall if not exceed any other place or City in the Kingdome which reasons being as good now as they were then the King hath followed but their own opinion in not consenting to this Bill In a word All the world cannot reply to His Majesties owne Answer upon the delivery of these four Bils or justifie their proceeding That when His Majesty desires a Personall Treaty with them for the setling of a peace they in answer propose the very subject matter of the most essentiall part thereof to be first granted and therefore the King most prudently and magnanimously declares That neither the desire of being freed from this tedious and irksome condition of life He hath so long suffered nor the apprehension of what may befall Him shall make Him change His resolution of not consenting to any Act till the whole peace be concluded for in truth nothing is more evident then that if He passe these Bils He neither can be able to refuse any thing else they shall propose for He hath reserved no title to any power nor can have reason to do it for having resigned His choicest Regalities it would be great improvidence to differ with them upon more petty concessions and having made all honest men guilty He could not in justice deny to refer the punishment of them to those who could best proportion it to the crimes So that a Treaty could afterwards be to no other end then to finish His owne destruction with the greater pomp and solemnity whereas the end of a Treaty is and it can have no other upon debate to be satisfied That He may lawfully grant what is desired That it is for the benefit of His people that He should grant it how prejuditiall soever it may seem to Himself and that being granted Himself shall securely enjoy what is left how little soever it be and that His Kingdome shall by such His concessions be intirely possessed of peace and quiet the last of which cannot be at least His Majesty hath great reason to suspect it may not without the consent of the Scots who peremptorily protest against these Four Bils And say that it is expresly provided in the 8 Article That no Cessation nor any Pacification or Agreement for Peace whatsoever shall be made by either Kingdome or the Armies of either Kingdome without the mutuall advice and consent of both Kingdomes or their Committees in that behalf appointed which is neither Answered or avoided by saying that no impartiall man can read that Article of the Treaty but He must needs agree that it could be meant only whilst there was War and Armies on both sides in being and that it must of necessity end when the War is at an end for besides that war is not nor can be at an end till there be an Agreement and if it be why is there so great an Army kept up in the Kingdome by the same reason that Article was so understood as it is now urged by the Scots before their comming into the Kingdome it may be so understood after they are gone and that the Houses themselves did understand it so in the beginning of January 1643. before the Scots Army entred appears by a Declaration Mr. St. Johns made at that time in the name of the Houses and printed by Order to the City of London at Guild-hall upon the discovery of a cunning Plot as they said to
same time he brought a specious Message of renewing a Treaty was instructed how to manage that bloudy Massacre in London which was then designed by vertue of the Kings Commission since published Before any thing be said of that Plot it is known that Gentleman was imprisoned many daies before there was any mention of a Plot and the House of Peers solemnly expostulated the injury done to them in it and in vaine required his inlargement which they would not have done if there had been any other objection against him then the comming without a Passe from their Generall which was never understood to be requisite till the House of Commons very few daies before declared it to be so albeit themselves sent Messengers to the King without ever demanding a Passe Now to the Plot it self They have indeed published a Narration of that Plot which served their turn barbarously to put two very honest men to death and to undoe very many more and it is very probable they made that relation as full and clear as their evidence enabled them to do and yet who ever reads it cannot conclude reasonably that there was ever more in it then a communion between honest men of good reputation and fortunes and desirous of peace how they might be able to discountenance that disorderly rabble which upon all occasions protested against peace by appearing as strong and considerable in numbers as they and which certainly ought to have found as great countenance and encouragement from the Parliament as the other these discourses produced a disquisition of the generall affections of the City and that a more particular computation and estimate of the inclinations of particular men and so mention of severall things which in such and such cases would be necessary to be done and these discourses being by the treachery of a Servant discovered to those who could compound Plots and Conspiracies out of any Ingredients they joyned those and a Commission they had likewise met with together and so shaped a Conspiracy that they used as a Scar-crow to drive away any avowed and publique inclinations for peace the pressing whereof at that time was like to prove inconvenient to them but those discourses and that Commission had not the least relation to each other nor was there one man who was accused of or privy to those discourses whose name was in that Commission or indeed privy to it which had issued out a good time before and was to have been made use of being no other then a fair legall Commission of Array in English if the Kings motion with His Army towards those parts gave the people so much courage to appear for Him nor can there be a sober objection against the Kings granting such a Commission when they had their Ordinances ready upon all occasions to be executed in the Kings Quarters and had named Commissioners for that purpose in all the Counties of the Kingdome But to proceed in the Overtures for peace from the end of the Treaty at Oxford which was in April 1643. they never made one Overture or Addresse to his Majesty towards peace till the end of November 1644. in the mean time what approaches the King made towards it must be remembred After the taking of Bristol when his Majesties strength and power was visible and confessed in the West and in the North and the Enemies condition apparently low and in many of their opinions even desperate the King albeit His last Messenger was still in Prison and no Answer to his Messages by His Declaration of the 30 of June again renewed all the professions and offers He had before made and told them that revenge and bloud thirstinesse had never been imputed to His Majesty by those who had neither left His government or nature un-examined with the greatest boldnesse and malice and therefore besought them to return to their Allegiance what passed from his Majesty himself and from the Lords and Commons at Oxford in March following and with what importunity they desired there might be a Treaty by which some waies means might be found how a peace might be procured and how peremptorily and disdainfully they rejected that desire in their Answer to his Majesty of the 9 of March because the greatest and the greatest number of the Peers of the Kingdome and the greatest part of the House of Commons then with his Majesty at Oxford seemed by Him to be put in an equall condition with them at Westminster though they had been content since to put the Officers of the Army into at least an equall condition with them by treating with them is to be seen and read and needs no repetition In July following which was in the year 1644. after He had routed the best part of Sir William Waller's Army and taken his Cannon his Majesty sent from Evesham another Message to the two Houses to desire them that there might yet be a Cessation and that some persons might be sent to Him with any Propositions that might be for the good of His people and He would condescend to them to which they never returned Answer Two Months after on the 8 of September when He had totally defeated the Army of the Earl of Essex in Cornwall taken all their Cannon Armes and Baggage the King again sent to them that the extraordinary successe with which God had blessed Him in so eminent a manner brought Him no joy for any other consideration then for the hopes He had that it might be a means to make others lay to heart as He did the miseries brought and continued upon this Kingdome by this unnaturall war and that it might open their ears and dispose their minds to imbrace those offers of peace and reconciliation which had been so often and so earnestly made unto them by Him and from the constant and fervent endeavours of which He resolved never to desist and so conjured them to consider His last Message and to send Him an Answer To this Message likewise they never sent Answer and these were the tenders made by his Majesty which they say were never fit for them to receive we shall now proceed to those they thought fit to offer and accuse his Majesty for not accepting On the 23 of November 1644. the Committee from the two Houses brought the Propositions to the King which they say were agreed on by the Parliaments of both Kingdoms not only as just but necessary also for the very being of these Kingdoms in a setled peace and safety And which required his Majesty to resigne up all His Regall power in His three Kingdomes to those who sent those Propositions to take their Covenant and injoyne all others to take it and to sacrifice all His owne Party who had served Him honestly and faithfully to the fury and appetite of those who had cast off their Allegiance to Him and to leave Himself the meer empty name of a King How the twenty daies were afterwards