interposeth and very often whilst the Presbyterians were at the helm disturb the religious meetings of the other Sectarians by hurling of Stones amongst them The liberty of a great many being contrary to expectation restrained the Parliament settle the Presbyterian government onely for three years that in that time they might have a tryal how it would fadge This Novelty set mens humours wonderfully a working The Politicians and Lawyers were highly offended that there were as many Judicatures established as there were Parishes in England and these almost arbitrary putting the Rule into the hands of unskilful men and for the most part incapable of government and began to foresee at a distance I know not what calamities ready to spring from thence in Families Parishes Counties nay and in the whole Kingdom also Most part of the people grumble to be put again to School and to be taught the Rudiments and Principles of their Religion wherein they thought themselves already very well instructed Those that were zealous for Episcopal government and the Service-book bite the bit But none repined more than the Independants Anabaptists and the other Sects who saw their beloved liberty of Conscience in danger for which they had at first taken up Arms against the King hazarded their lives in so many battels and suffered so much labour cost watchings and danger Nevertheless the Government went bravely on in London but so and so in the other Cities and populous Towns and but very coldly in the Country so that the triennial Essay being over and no new Act made to confirm it it had much ado to keep life And thus far concerning Church-affairs which we thought fit to relate together though they happened not all at the same time Let us now return to the other arts whereby they wheadled the Scots Amongst which it was of greatest moment no less for endearing the Scots to them than for raising their power and authority amongst the Natives to sell the Bishops Lands at very easie rates so that Purchasers flocked in from all quarters who with the materials of demolished Palaces and the Timber they cut down having paid for their Purchases got large and entire Mannors almost for nothing And that once for all I may tell it they lay Excise Customs and such heavy and continual Taxes and Impositions upon the people as none of all the Kings that ever sat upon the Throne of England durst ever before that time impose and such as were not onely sufficient to defray all publick expenses but in some measure also the insatiable avarice and voraciousness of their Factors and Agents besides what they got by plundering sequestration and other ways The Scots being allured by these Morsels are tooth and nail for the interests of the Parliament The Scots the declared enemies of Episcopacy fearing the worst if the King should obtain the victory over the Parliament and being drawn in by the aforementioned baits enter into Articles of a Confederacy among which to give a colour of honesty and integrity to the rest the chief was That no hurt be attempted against his Majesties person nor prejudice done to the Rights or Heirs of the Crown an Oath being likewise taken by the Members of both Houses and all the Inhabitants of both Kingdoms being forced to do the same This they call the Solemn League and Covenant and in it promise That according to their Places and Callings they shall endeavour the preservation of the reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government The reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the example of the best reformed Churches and shall endeavour to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in Religion c. That they shall also endeavour the extirpation of Popery Prelacy Superstition Heresie Schism Profaneness c. That they shall mutually endeavour to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms and to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties person and authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms That the World may bear witness with their Consciences of their Loyalty that they have no thoughts or intentions to diminish his Majesties just power and greatness That they shall endeavour to discover all Incendiaries and Malignants branding with those aspersions all that favoured the Kings Party that they may be brought to publick tryal and receive condign punishment That they shall endeavour that the Kingdoms may remain conjoyned in a firm Peace and Vnion to Posterity shall assist and defend all those that enter into that League and Covenant and shall zealously and constantly all the days of their lives continue therein No inconsiderable Authors of entering into this Covenant were the Independents Anabaptists and Republicans and the chief and most severe in forcing it upon others who were unwilling to take the same though many of themselves purposely refrained from swearing it lest upon that account they should oblige themselves to the defence of the Kings person It is also to be observed that the clause of defending the Kings Majesties person and authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms was by their artifices foisted in contrary to the sence and tenour of the Covenant under colour forsooth that the safety of his Majesties person was sufficiently secured by other Oaths that the repetition of the same promise would but harden the Kings mind against the Parliament and make the People scrupulous in obeying the same But in reality as appeared afterward that all obstacles being as much as might be removed they might make way for the murther of the King These things being contrived and carried on betwixt the factious Scots and English those who took that Covenant with an honest purpose as many good men did being won over by fear delusion or false hope called themselves Presbyterians other Factious of less note as Independents Anabaptists and other Fanaticks not disdaining to list themselves in the same Cause These cruelly persecute all Dissenters who will not engage in that holy Covenant though they had acted nothing before against the Parliamentary Faction though they had not refused to pay any Taxes and Impositions nay though they had freely contributed for the pay of the Parliament-forces The Parsons especially who enjoyed fat Benefices are sequestrated and deprived of their Houses Goods and Livings put into Prisons and Dungeons for many years together nay and put on board of Ships upon the Thames in the heat of Summer in order to transportation without being either accused or heard where they suffered all the incommodities of hunger watching and nastiness By the Religion of this Covenant Children were taught to persecute inform against and
Argile with the Forces he had raised being no less an Army at home than Cromwel was abroad reduced them in a short time to such streights that the Army which had been raised by order of Parliament was forced to lay down Arms and submit to the discretion of Argile's Faction Then was a new Parliament called all being excluded who had taken up Arms or voted for engaging in a War for the delivery of the King In this the Acts of the last Parliament were recinded the War declared to have been unlawful Cromwel had the publick thanks and Argile privately engaged as Cromwel himself boasted that he would concur with the Oligarchicks of England and root out Monarchy when occasion offered in Scotland as well as in England Besides many Ships the Tyde turning according to the innate levine of Seamen prepare to make defection from the Prince casting themselves into the protection of the Earl of Warwick who had won their hearts by frequent Largesses and who was set over a new Fleet for a time that he might draw over the Seamen again to the obedience of the Parliament but being beset with the Spies Of the Oligarchick Rebels and having done their job he justly received the usual Reward from these Masters that is he was turned out and laid aside Whilst the Army is busied in these Wars the Members of Parliament being a little rid of the yoak of the Army and Cromwel that were now at a distance and seriously considering how ill all the People of the Kingdom would resent the injuries done to the King and how ticklish their own affairs stood they begin to think of Peace and growing wise behind hand against the advice of the Oligarchick Republicans they rescind the Votes of None Addresses by the unanimous consent of both Houses They appoint a Conference with the King for composing Differences but by Commissioners and that in the Isle of Wight For this purpose they commissionate five Lords for the Vpper House and ten Commoners for the Lower The Propositions to be debated in that Conference are prescribed to the Commissioners ¶ That the Translator relates all which verbatim though it be contrary to the designe of this Work and of the Author who hath onely entred the short Articles marked with the numbers I. II.III I hope the Reader will not dislike since the Articles at large contain so excellent a description of the Changes that were then intended to be made in the Government of England that it is thought very fit to publish them according to the perfect Copy printed by order of both Houses the 29th of August 1648. May it please your Majesty WE the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England in the name and on the behalf of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland in the name and on the behalf of the Kingdom of Scotland Do humbly present unto your Majesty the humble desires and Propositions for a safe and well-grounded Peace agreed upon by the Parliaments of both Kingdoms respectively unto which we do pray your Majesties Assent And that they and all such Bills as shall be tendered to your Majesty in pursuance of them or any of them may be Established and Enacted for Statutes and Acts of Parliament by your Majesties Royal Assent in the Parliaments of both Kingdoms respectively I. WHereas both Houses of the Parliament of England have been necessitated to undertake a War in their just and lawful defence and afterwards both Kingdoms of England and Scotland joyned in Solemn League and Covenant were engaged to prosecute the same That by Act of Parliament in each Kingdom respectively all Oaths Declarations and Proclamations heretofore had or hereafter to be had against both or either of the Houses of the Parliament of England the Parliament of the Kingdom of Scotland and the late Convention of Estates in Scotland or Committees flowing from the Parliament or Convention in Scotland or their Ordinances and Proceedings or against any for adhering unto them or for doing or executing any Office Place or Charge by any Authority derived from them and all Judgments Indictments Outlawries Attainders and Inquisitions in any the said Causes and all Grants thereupon made or had or to be made or had be declared Null suppressed and forbidden And that this be publickly intimated in all Parish-Churches within his Majesties Dominions and all other places needful II. That his Majesty according to the laudable example of his Royal Father of happy memory may be pleased to swear and signe the late Solemn League and Covenant and that an Act of Parliament be passed in both Kingdoms respectively for enjoyning the taking thereof by all the Subjects of the three Kingdoms and the Ordinances concerning the manner of taking the same in both Kingdoms be confirmed by Acts of Parliament respectively with such Penalties as by mutual advice of both Kingdoms shall be agreed upon III. That a Bill be passed for the utter abolishing and taking away of all Archbishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans and Sub-Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons Canons and Prebendaries and all Chaunters Chancellors Treasurers Sub-Treasurers Succentors and Sacrists all Vicars Choril and Choresters old Vicars and new Vicars of any Cathedral or Collegiate-Church and all other their under-Officers out of the Church of England and Dominion of Wales and out of the Church of Ireland with such alterations concerning the Estates of Prelates as shall agree with the Articles of the late Treaty of the date at Edenburgh 29 November 1643. and joynt Declaration of both Kingdoms IV. That the Ordinances concerning the calling and sitting of the Assembly of Divines be confirmed by Act of Parliament V. That Reformation of Religion according to the Covenant be setled by Act of Parliament in such manner as both Houses have agreed or shall agree upon after consultation had with the Assembly of Divines For as much as both Kingdoms are mutually obliged by the same Covenant to endeavour the nearest Conjunction and Uniformity in matters of Religion That such Unity and Uniformity in Religion according to the Covenant as after consultation had with the Divines of both Kingdoms now assembled is or shall be joyntly agreed upon by both Houses of the Parliament of England and by the Church and Kingdom of Scotland be confirmed by Acts of Parliament of both Kingdoms respectively VI. That for the more effectual disabling Jesuits Priests Papists and Popish Recusants from disturbing the State and deluding the Laws and for the better discovering and speedy conviction of Popish Recusants an Oath be established by Act of Parliament to be administred to them wherein they shall abjure and renounce the Popes Supremacy the Doctrine of Transubstantiation Purgatory worshipping of the Consecrated Hoast Crucifixes and Images and all other Popish Superstitions and Errours and refusing the said Oath being tendred in such manner as shall be appointed by the said Act to
be a sufficient Conviction of Popish Recuâ—ancy An Act or Acts of Parliament for Education of the Children of Papists by Protestants in the Protestant Religion VIII An Act or Acts for the true Levie of the Penalties against them which Penalties to be levied and disposed in such manner as both Houses shall agree on wherein to be provided that his Majesty shall have no loss IX That an Act or Acts be passed in Parliament whereby the practices of Papists against the State may be prevented and the Laws against them duly executed and a stricter course taken to prevent the Saying or Hearing of Mass in the Court or any other part of this Kingdom or the Kingdom of Ireland The like for the Kingdom of Scotland concerning the four last preceding Propositions in such manner as the Estates of the Parliament there shall think fit X. That the King do give his Royal assent to an Act for the due observation of the Lords Day XI And to the Bill for the suppression of Innovasions in Churches and Chappels in and about the Worship of God XII And for the better advancement of the preaching of Gods holy Word in all parts of this Kingdom XIII And to the Bill against the enjoying the pluralities of Benefices by Spiritual Persons and Non-Residency XIV And to an Act to be framed and agreed upon by both Houses of Parliament for the reforming and regulating of both Universities of the Colledges of Westminster Winchester and Eaton XV. And to such Act or Acts for raising of Moneys for the payment and satisfying of the publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom and other publick uses as shall hereafter be agreed on by both Houses of Parliament and that if the King do not give his Assent thereunto then it being done by both Houses of Parliament the same shall be as valid to all intents and purposes as if the Royal Assent had been given thereunto The like for the Kingdom of Scotland And that his Majesty give assurance of his consenting in the Parliament of Scotland to an Act acknowledging and ratifying the Acts of the Convention of Estates of Scotland called by the Council and Conservers of the Peace and the Commissioners for the common Burthens and assembled the two and twentieth day of June 1643. and several times continued since and of the Parliament of that Kingdom since convened XVI That the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of England assembled shall during the space of twenty years from the first of July 1646. arm train and discipline or cause to be armed trained and disciplined all the Forces of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and Dominion of Wales the Isles of Guernsey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed already raised both for Sea and Land-service and shall from time to time during the said space of twenty years raise levy arm train and discipline or cause to be raised levied armed trained and disciplined any other Forces for Land and Sea-service in the Kingdoms Dominions and places aforesaid as in their Judgments they shall from time to time during the said space of twenty years think fit and appoint and that neither the the King his Heirs or Successors nor any other but such as shall act by the authority or approbation of the said Lords and Commons shall during the said space of twenty years exercise any of the Powers aforesaid And the like for the Kingdom of Scotland if the Estates of the Parliament there shall think fit That Moneys be raised and levied for the maintenance and use of the said Forces for Land-service and of the Navy and Forces for Sea-service in such sort and by such ways and means as the said Lords Commons shall from time to time during the said space of twenty years think fit and appoint and not otherwise That all the said Forces both for Land and Sea-service so raised or levied or to be raised or levied and also the Admiralty and Navy shall from time to time during the said space of twenty years be employed managed ordered and disposed by the said Lords and Commons in such sort and by such ways and means as they shall think fit and appoint and not otherwise And the said Lords and Commons during the said space of twenty years shall have power 1. To suppress all Forces raised or to be raised without authority and consent of the said Lords and Commons to the disturbance of the publick Peace of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and Dominion of Wales the Isles of Guernsey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed or any of them 2. To suppress any foreign Forces who shall invade or endeavour to invade the Kingdoms of England and Ireland Dominion of Wales the Isles of Guernsey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed or any of them 3. To conjoyn such Forces of the Kingdom of England with the Forces of the Kingdom of Scotland as the said Lords and Commons shall from time to time during the said space of twenty years judge fit and necessary To resist all foreign Invasions and to suppress any Forces raised or to be raised against or within either of the said Kingdoms to the disturbance of the publick Peace of the said Kingdoms or any of them by any authority under the Great Seal or other Warrant whatsoever without consent of the said Lords and Commons of the Parliament of England and the Parliament or the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland respectively And that no Forces of either Kingdom shall go into or continue in the other Kingdom without the advice and desire of the said Lords and Commons of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of the Kingdom of Scotland or such as shall be by them appointed for that purpose And that after the expiration of the said twenty years neither the King his Heirs or Successors or any person or persons by colour or pretence of any Commission Power Deputation or Authority to be derived from the King his Heirs or Successors or any of them shall raise arm train discipline employ order mannage disband or dispose any of the Forces by Sea or Land of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland the Dominion of Wales Isles of Guernsey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed Nor exercise any of the said Powers or Authorities in the precedent Articles mentioned and expressed to be during the said space of twenty years in the said Lords and Commons Nor do any act or thing concerning the execution of the said Powers or Authorities or any of them without the consent of the said Lords and Commons first had and obtained That after the expiration of the said twenty years in all cases wherein the Lords and Commons shall declare the safety of the Kingdom to be concerned and shall thereupon pass any Bill or Bills for the raising arming training disciplining employing mannaging ordering or disposing of the Forces by Sea or Land of the Kingdoms
should lay it upon the two Houses of Parliament there is no necessity of either I hope they are free of this Guilt but I believe that ill Instruments between them and me have been the chief cause of all this Bloudshed So that as I find my self clear of this I hope and pray God that they may too Yet for all this God forbid that I should be so ill a Christian as not to say that Gods Judgments are just upon me many times he doth pay injustice by an unjust Sentence that is ordinary I will say this That unjust Sentence that I suffered to take effect is punished by an unjust Sentence upon me So far I have said to shew you That I am an innocent man Now to shew you that I am a good Christian I hope there is a good man here pointing to the Bishop of London that will bear me witness that I have forgiven all the world and even those in particular that have been the chief Causers of my death who they are God knows I do not desire to know I pray God forgive them But this is not all my Charity must go further I wish they may repent for indeed they have committed a great sin in that particular I pray God with St. Stephen that this be not laid to their charge and withal that they may take the way to the Peace of the Kingdom for my charity commands me not onely to forgive particular men but to endeavour to the last gasp the Peace of the Kingdom So Sirs I do wish with all my Soul I see there are some here that will carry it further that they endeavour the Peace of the Kingdom Sirs I must shew you both how you are out of the way and put you in a way First you are out of the way for certainly all the ways you ever had yet as far as I could find by any thing is in the way of Conquest certainly this is an ill way for Conquest in my Opinion is never just except there be a just and good cause either for matter of Wrong or a just Title and then if you go beyond the first Quarrel that ye have that makes it unjust at the end that was just at first for if there be onely matter of Conquest then it is a great Robbery as a private Souldier said to Alexander That he was a great Robber himself was but a petty Robber And so Sirs for the way you are in I think you are much out of the way Now Sirs to put you into the way believe it you shall never go right nor God will never prosper you until you give God his due the King his due that is my Successour and the People their due I am as much for them as any of you You must give God his due by regulating rightly his Church according to the Scripture which is now out of order and to set you in a way particularly now I cannot but onely this A National Synod freely called freely debating among themselves must settle this when every Opinion is freely heard For the King indeed I will not the Laws of the Land will clearly instruct you for that therefore because it concerns mine own particular I onely give you a touch of it For the People truly I desire their liberty and freedom as much as any body whomsoever But I must tell you that their liberty and freedom consists in having government under those Laws by which their lives and theirs may be most their own it is not in having a share in the government that is nothing pertaining to them A Subject and a Soveraign are clean different things and therefore until you do that I mean that you put the People into that liberty as I say certainly they will never enjoy themselves Sirs it was for this that now I am come hither for if I would have given way to an Arbitrary way for to have all Laws changed according to the power of the Sword I need not have come here and therefore I tell you and I pray God it be not laid to your charge that I am the MARTYR of the People In troth Sirs I shall not hold you any longer I will onely say this to you That I could have desired some little time longer because I would have put this what I have said a little better digested than I have done and therefore I hope you will excuse me I have delivered my Conscience I pray God you take those courses that are best for the good of the Kingdoms and your own salvation Being thus about to conclude his most innocent and meek Speech the Bishop of London gave him a hint That if his Majesty thought fit he would say somewhat as to his Religion not that any man living suspected that of which he had given so clear proofs during the whole course of his life but that he might according to custom satisfie the People To which the King replied I thank you very heartily my Lord for I had almost forgotten it In troth Sirs my Conscience in Religion I think is very well known to all the World and therefore I declare before you all That I die a Christian according to the Profession of the Church of England as I found it left me by my Father and that honest man I think will witness it Then turning to the Officers he said Sirs excuse me for this same I have a good Cause and I have a gracious God I will say no more But a little after I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown where no disturbance can be no disturbance in the World Afterwards kneeling down by the Block as at a Desk and having said a short Prayer he most humbly resigned his sacred head to his Maker to be struck off by a masked Executioner which was quickly done at one blow So fell CHARLES and so with him expired the Honour and Soul of Great Britain Nor are they satisfied to have exercised their Rage and Cruelty against him whilst he was alive they dishonour his martyred Body wash their hands and dip their sticks in his Bloud set to sale the Block cut into pieces and the Sand underneath it moistened with Royal Bloud and make money also of his Hair All which were by the Spectators bought up upon different motives some as dear Pledges and Relicks of a Prince whom they adored others that they might never want a Cure for the Kings Evil a Prerogative which our Kings are believed to enjoy but many also that they might have and shew in triumph the Spoils of their Enemy Cromwel that he might to the full glut his traiterous eyes with that Spectacle having opened the Coffin wherein the Body was carried from the Scaffold into the Palace curiously viewed it and with his fingers severed the head from the shouldiers as we have been informed by Eye-witnesses Afterwards they give the Body to
contains this clause I will bear Faith and true Allegiance to his Majesty his Heirs and Successors and him and them will defend to the uttermost of my power against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatsoever which shall be made against his or their Persons their Crown and Dignity and make known unto his Majesty his Heirs and Successors all Treasons and traiterous Conspiracies which I shall know and hoar of to be against him or any of them c. But lest any one being advanced to the high Honour and Dignity of consulting with the King and sharing in some part of the Government should forget that he is still a Subject the better to keep him within the bounds of duty he is to take another Oath of Supremacy in these words I A. B. do utterly testifie and declare in my Conscience That the Kings Highness is the onely Supreme Governour of this Realm and of all other his Highness's Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or causes as Temporal and that no foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Preeminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm And therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all foreign Jurisdictions Powers Superiorities and Authorities and do promise from henceforth I shall hear Faith and true Allegiance to the Kings Highness his Heirs and lawful Successors and to my power shall assist and defend all Jurisdictions Priviledges Pre-eminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highness his Heirs and Successors or united or annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm So help me God and by the contents of this Book Being thus obliged to their duty upon their entry into this auspicious Honour by the Votes of the Lower House according to the Kings designation or nomination a Speaker is chosen whom they accompany to the King beseeching his Majesty to approve their election which the King readily grants This being done the Speaker in the name of himself and of all the Commons thanks the King and begs of his Majesty that they may enjoy their Priviledges and have the freedom of debating and that if any one in the heat of discourse should speak too warmly his Majesty would not take it ill nor be offended and that they may have free access to his Majesty and the Upper House so often as occasion shall require Which being granted they are dismissed All men heretofore were admitted to petition this August Assembly provided their Petitions were preferred within six days after the opening of the Parliament and by the hands of some appointed by the Upper House it belonging to them to judge what were fitting to be presented in Parliament and to reject such as were trivial or seditious Each House has power to consult debate and form Bills about the matters proposed by the King or concerning the making or abrogating of Laws so that what is agreed upon in the one House is by Messengers to be sent to the other and if both concur in judgment after the matter hath been debated the Assent is marked over the head of the Bill if it be in the Lords House in this form of words Les Seigneurs out assentes The Lords have consented And in the House of Commons thus Les Communes out assentes The Commons have consented But if they disagree many times both Houses or Committees chosen by them meet in conference in a convenient place which is called the Painted Chamber where the Lords covered and sitting in solemn manner receive the Commons standing uncovered and both argue the matter in debate If in such Conferences opinions disagree as it happens sometimes the thing is laid aside but if they concurr the Bill is carried to the King which if he approve of it is written upon Le Roy le veut The King wills it whereby as by a Soul infused into the body it receives life and passes into a perfect Law to be afterwards promulgated to the people If on the contrary the King approve not the Bills brought to him he uses to write over head Le Roy s'avisera The King will consider of it sometimes he utterly rejects them and then they are wholly laid aside But matters of Religion which require the Kings more especial care are not so intirely committed by him to the Parliament but to the Convocation of the Clergy to be handled unless for the sanction of Parliament to give them the authority of a Law which otherwise they could not sufficiently have The Deans Archdeacons two Prebendaries commissionated by the several Chapters and as many Priests out of every Diocess meet in an appointed place to consult about affairs of that nature where having first chosen a Prolocutor they settle points of Religion Ceremonies and other matters belonging to the Church and the imposition of Subsidies also in name of the Clergy yet in these latter times their Acts bind not the People until as we said before they be passed into a Law by the King with consent of both Houses of Parliament And so cautious have our Kings been that Laymen should not meddle in such affairs that as it is recorded in History Queen Elizabeth severely checked the Parliament for having appointed a Fast without â—sking her leave nor would she be satisfied till they begg'd her Majesties pardon for it That we may return to the Authority of Parliament each House hath its several and distinct Priviledges The House of Lords not onely concurs in Council and making of Laws but hath also power of Judicature and giving Judgment and so of administring an Oath especially in weightier Causes as in the corruption of Judges and Magistrates and in highest Appeals which yet the Lawyers say cannot lawfully be brought to a tryal without the consent and warrant of the King and is never done unless the Judges of the Law do assist The House of Commons claims to it self the priviledge of petitioning and proposing Laws or of prosecuting but never of judging unless within its own walls and over the Members of their own House nor that neither beyond a Fine and Imprisonment By ancient custom that House was so far from pronouncing any Sentence much less in cases of Life and Death in the name of the People against the meanest Servant in England that it never took to it self the power of administring an Oath It is also extant in the Rolls to this purpose Vpon the humble supplication of the House of Commons that whereas all Parliamentary Judgment belongs to the King and the Peers and not to the Commons unless by a Grant and Permission from the King it would please the Kings Majesty that they be not contrary to custom obliged to give Judgment whereupon the King for the future excused them from that trouble reserving the Parliamentary power of Judging for the time to come to the King and
Counties to wit of Buckinghamshire and Essex are egg'd on that being armed in several bodies they might come and petition that their Members might have free liberty of voting and that their Priviledges might be kept inviolate Although the Kentish-men who came to supplicate on the other side were denied liberty to enter the Gates of London and others who were about to do the like were restrained by threats and reproaches So that by polling and in a manner mustering the people they give the signal to War The accused Members abscond in London until they might feel the pulses and stir up the Citizens to draw out for their Guard and conduct them to the House in arms and triumph The King being advertised of this though at that time by the care and contrivance of Gurney the then Lord Mayor many valiant and loyal men offered themselves to mix with the Croud and being scattered through the streets like Spectators to oppose the Army if they attempted any thing against the King yet his Majesty hoping that these storms might break and spend themselves by giving way to them he with the Queen removed to Windsor-Castle But afterwards the Quarrel rising higher having sent the Queen beyond Sea under pretext of accompanying her eldest Daughter lately married to the Prince of Orange over into Holland but in reality that she might pass the Winter secure from the future storm and having sent for the Prince whom as he was informed the Factious did intend to seize by authority of Parliament he moves towards York but not before he wrote to the Parliament giving them the reasons of his departure perswading them by all means to Peace and desiring them That whatever it was they so much desired that he would grant and do for them they would set it down in writing that without ambiguiety they would state what the Parliament and People claimed and what on the other hand was to be granted to the King and he religiously protests that he would have the Rights of others no less to be inviolate than his own and that he would most willingly give his consent to all things that might contribute to the restoring of Peace and the just Rights of his Crown and Kingdom They not onely slight but caluminate this goodness of so gracious a King as if it were contrary to the Priviledges of Parliament to be informed what was fit to be done and that their consultations should be interrupted by Letters It can hardly be exprest how much the House of Commons proud of the favour of the Multitude pretended to be scared at these admonitions to Peace as portending new dangers and ruine in disguise Hence laying hold of the opportunity the House of Commons being onely the third and lowest Estate of the Kingdom the Lords being as yet averse from so unjust a desire had the boldness to demand that the power of all Castles and Forts and of the Militia should be put into their hands When they could not obtain this from the King they move all the Towns and Corporations that sided with them that as of their own accord they should make musters train up the Youth in Military Discipline and divide them into Companies which was afterward confirmed and approved in the House of Commons as done according to Law They pass also a Vote in their own House that by Authority of Parliament Deputies should be named in each County To exercise arm draw out and muster the Youth and those that were fit to carry Arms that they might be ready upon the future Orders of Parliament for suppressing Rebellions resisting Invasions c. Having at length by their known Arts prevailed with the Lords to give their consent both Houses joyn in an Address to the King That it was a thing not onely expedient but necessary to be done as well for himself as for the State pretending fears from France Germany and Spain who then were all in Arms and the intelligence they had from Paris Venice and Rome that the restless Papists and ill men were plotting and contriving how they might overset the Parliament of England and the reformed Religion The King willing to grant any thing for Peace sake yields them a share in the power of the Militia for a certain time reserving to himself the supreme Authority whereby he might be able to maintain the Dignity of the Crown and the Rights of Parliament He approves also the Deputies appointed by them some Londoners excepted and does pathetically exhort and adjure them That at length laying aside vain fears and mutual jealousies they would calmly and seriously consider by what means the troubled State divided into several Factions and torn almost into pieces by it self might be united again into one and that since no former Prince had made greater Concessions to his Subjects they would peaceably enjoy them But they slighting this Indulgence of the King and his sound Admonitions impose upon the rest with their bugbears of Fears and Jealousies They ordered strict Watch to be kept in suspected places the Beacons to be watch'd and prepare Pilots as for a War The People are dayly stirred up with false Rumours spread amongst the Multitude On Sundays when they are in Church at their Devotion they are put into panick fears as if the Papists who were to come no man knew whence were ready to burn their houses and to mingle their Bloud with their Prayers and by and by again that their throats were to be cut by enemies lurking in the Woods and Vaults under ground And many though not the wisest of the Londoners were perswaded that the River of Thames was to be blown up by Gunpowder to drown the City in the night-time so ridiculous were the surmises that gave occasion to most fatal changes By these and such-like tricks the Populace is frightened out of their senses and resolved to do any thing to rid themselves of these apprehensions Amongst the other preparatiss to War all the particulars whereof it is not our designe to trace the cunninger sort smelt a Plot as if the King in his progress to the North intended to seize the Town and well-provided Magazine of Hull which might be of great consequence in carrying on the War That they might prevent this the Factious of their own head without any authority from both Houses give the government of the place to Sir John Hotham which he instantly secured with a Garison and the assistance of some Towns-men So soon as the King had notice of this he marched thither attended with his Nobles and Servants but the Gates being shut and Souldiers planted upon the Walls he is denied entrance The King being highly offended commands the Governour to let him enter attended onely with twenty Gentlemen on horseback but he refusing to let him in unless alone is proclaimed a Traytor and the King by Letters to the Parliament
were made specious pretexts for their following ill designes And by these pretences they endeavour but in vain to engage that wise King in a War until Prince Charles seconding their Addresses and the Emperour refusing to agree to reasonable terms of Peace he was rouzed up to Arms. War being thereupon proclaimed whilst preparations were making and all Europe expected great matters from England the Parliament upon I know not what slight Grievances Jealousies and Suspicions leave the King in the lurch so that unless King Charles upon the death of his Father would make himself ridiculous to the World he was necessitated to raise money by his own authority laying on unusual Taxes and Impositions by virtue not onely of old dormant Laws but also of new interpretations without calling a Parliament which is customary on more urgent occasions This incensed the People and afforded a plentiful crop of Murmurs and Complaints and inclined good and honest Subjects who were far from any thoughts of Innovations but alarmed with the fears of Arbitrary Government and the loss of the Liberty of the Subject as they imagined to plot and combine with the Factious Malecontents for curbing the power of the King All these Sects at first though differing in opinions and designs were called by the name of Puritans During the rage of the Civil War after that the Scots came to the assistance of the Parliament and many had been noosed into the Solemn League and Covenant the Presbyterians were powerful both in wealth and number raise their heads above the rest Nor can they be excused from Rebellion who having abolished the Church-government and Liturgie introduced the Presbytery and Directory in place thereof aiming at the change of Civil Government also from Monarchy to an Aristocracy though they pretended to retain the name and person of a King and making use of the assistance of the other Sects who fought openly under their Banners though they cunningly concealed their designes Next came into play the better sort of Independents and some of the Tribe of Anabaptists who wished for no setled National Church-government and who liked a Democracy best yet still retaining the name and person of a King But the chief was a Faction most properly so called consisting of the rigidest sort of Presbyterians and a medly of many other Fanaticks who having destroyed the Monarchy and the Royal Family root and branch were some of them for an Oligarchy others for Anarchy and most for a Democracy I may also adde a Christocraty that Fifth-monarchy which not a few longed for wherein worldly Powers Magistrates and all profane Authority being brought down and trodden under foot Christ with his Saints might exercise dominion over the wicked and ungodly of the Earth These are they who are in a more particular sence to be called Rebels and Traytors to the Government who though they all looked different ways and served in the Presbyterian Armies for some time yet they were the fire-brands that kindled civil Dissensions among them till getting the power in their hands into which by degrees they had screwed themselves they had the boldness to fall off from the rest set up for themselves in their own names and publickly to magnifie their own Atchievements At first whilst the clouds of Troubles were but a gathering these factious Rebels were hardly distinguished by any name but skulk'd under the cloak of good Patriots and the godly Party But in the mean time they carefully watched all occasions of blowing up the fire of a Civil War and so soon as the War flamed out and the State was all in disorder lest differences might be taken up they used all arts to make the King jealous of his Parliament and the Parliament again of the King every where throwing in Bones of Contention and as it is the custom of all Demagogues distracted the thoughts of the giddy and light-headed Multitude with jealousies and fears By this their indefatigable industry in calumniating the King and exposing of him in all things to the hatred of the people they first alienate the minds of the Multitude from their Prince and then from Peace When they observed any Proposals made by the Parliament to the King or by the King to the Parliament which in probability might heal the wounds of Contention and War and restore a solid Peace they slily perplex and disturb the Negotiation when they prosper they swell in their demands lest what they had already got by force of Arms they might seem to acquire precariously and by concession but if fortune frowned upon them then were they for rouzing despondent minds That in that condition they would not think of making Peace when in their low fortune they must of necessity submit to harder Conditions nor that they would so far abase the honour of Parliament as to seem to do any thing through fear or force Nay and by false Reports counterfeit Letters and suborned Witnesses they pretend to discover strange Plots and monstruous Dangers disguised under the specious mask of Friendship They adjure others by the bowels of love and pity to the Commonwealth by their affection to the publick and the Cause of Christ and in long Speeches and Arguments plead That in carrying on the War they should rather expect to know the will and pleasure of God so they thought fit to speak in a matter of so great consequence than to make Peace with the King upon unsure Conditions prejudicial to the Publick The easie and credulous who are apt to suspect any thing and those also who were conscious of their own guilt being intangled by these Artifices they propose so hard Conditions to the King that he could not with a safe conscience honour and the safety of his Friends consent to them whilst they slighted and rejected his Majesties Letters and most just Proposals almost twenty times sent to them In the mean time these good men whilst they boast of their extraordinary zeal for the publick Liberty and the pure reformed Religion making use of the War for their own private advantages step into the greatest and most profitable places of the State And then having got deeper rooting by degrees they win upon others and draw them into the Conspiracy making great progresses both in the Parliament and Country in this stirring up the Mobile to prefer Petitions or rather putting the peoples names to Petitions framed by two or three of their own Faction and in the other by cunning and knavery accommodating the Authority of Parliament to their own arts and devices By this means it was no difficult matter either at midnight or early in the morning when the other Members that differed them appeared not or were absent about their own private affairs to snatch an opportunity of carrying things by vote and to lay hold on occasion by the forelock so that the less but more
vigilant part by degrees circumvented the greater but less sedulous If any thing were moved in Parliament that they would not have pass or which at a distance they foresaw might be hurtful to their practices they vigorously opposed it or by shams evasions scruples started in the heat of debate and the like arts got it put off till another time If the greater number of Voices were against them they brought in some other Bill over head and shoulders that might invalidate the former and elude the intention thereof If they contrived any thing that might give suspicion to their Adversaries or that they despaired to obtain in a full House they send the Presbyterians of an Errand into the Country either about real and urgent business or feigned necessities In the unavoidable absence or supine neglect of whom they got any thing voted and past with a nemine contradicente Nor did their private Clubs and Cabals a little promote their designes where having laid their heads together they took their best measures before hand how they should behave themselves in publick and what Province every one was to undertake By these and such-like arts that branch of the Rebels being advanced to no small power and separated as we said before from the Presbyterians under the name of Independents who would have no Head make head against them This Title did well quadrate to all the other Sects in general and was used by them because depending on the government of no National Church nor Civil Power they ordered all things relating to Doctrine and Church-Discipline in their private Congregations Not that most part of them had any concern for Religion but that that specious Profession giving a comprehensive latitude to all Sects Anabaptists Quakers Millenaries and all other Fanaticks they might swell the number and power of their Faction whom others in derision called the Holy Brethren a name they themselves affected Nevertheless that they might enlarge their Party and by a hypocritical humanity and readiness to condescend hook in the good will of many they sollicitously strike in with men of all Perswasions and by allurements suitable to their tempers feel their Pulses To the godly they promise Reformation of Divine Worship sweeten the Preachers with the hopes of the Revenues of the Bishops Deans and Chapters and of establishing Presbytery by Law allowing still liberty to tender Consciences do really grant indemnity to Hereticks and Schismaticks draw in the Ambitious by honour and titles feeding the Covetous with money under the notion of Pensions or Rewards for good services they threaten the Obnoxious protect Malefactors and in a word no man resolutely opposed them but was by Emissaries and Spies whom they had in all places Letters intercepted misinterpreted words and actions brought into suspicion and danger Whoever they admitted into their friendship and service though the most infamous and flagitious wretch living yet in all things they protected him and amongst others the Speaker of the House of Commons who being a man for their turn when he was accused of Bribery they brought him off gave him money and gain'd him to their Party as one that would be no less serviceable to them for all that and the more faithful to their Party as he was the more obnoxious and guilty They tamper also with the Earl of Essex who being dejected by his defeat in Cornwall they thought might be grown more tractable and therefore they put it to him if he would for the future be for a down-right Commonwealth Upon which condition they promise To put him at the head of a new Army to be payed monthly and supplied with Ammunition and all necessary Provisions But he refusing it was said that the same Conditions were privately offered to other Noblemen not that they had any respect for the Lords whom shortly they intended to turn out and to level with the Commoners but that they might poyson them with their own venom and rise to greater authority by drawing more over to their side But they being of a contrary mind and more inclinable to the Kings Party no sooner rejected the offers but the Rebels cast their eyes upon another By a new and specious Ordinance whereby they said they would reform the Parliament and restore it to its integrity to which they gave the title of the Self-denying Ordinance they clipt the Presbyterians wings and confirmed their own strength For by this Ordinance it was provided that none of either House after a limited day should bear any Office Military or Civil whereby it was brought about that many of the emulous Faction were obliged to resigne the places they held This gives them a fair opportunity of altering the whole Civil State and new modelling the Army as they called it to the administration of which the Candidates of that Faction are for the most part preferred nor could some Republican Lords long refrain from the ambition of the rest hunting after all opportunities of Preferment and turning the Self-denying Ordinance into an Act of pure Self-love Essex who suited not so well with their temper being laid aside they give the command of the Army to Sir Thomas Fairfax onely Son to Fardinand Lord Fairfax a valiant man indeed and of a good natural disposition but easie and forward to undertake and execute any thing that he was put upon as a sure Tool to work the effect which was designed by the hand that managed it wherefore he was the more readily chosen by both Parties To him they joyn Cromwel with the Title of Lieutenant-General but with intention of being his Governour by whom some Officers at first desired onely to be commanded for a time though afterwards contrary to the intent of the Self-denying Ordinance they were established and commissionated by authority of Parliament This last having wholly run out his Estate which was not very great resolved to trade in Religion for repairing his broken Fortune and for that end became the Ringleader and Stickler for the Schismaticks and by means of these he was chosen a Member of Parliament Would you see him painted to the life in his natural colours and such as his own Party have drawn him in in their publick Writings He was a great Master in Hypocrisie and Dissimulation who lifting up his eyes to Heaven and laying his hand upon his breast would invoke the Name of God weep pray and bewail his sins till he stabb'd him he spoke to under the fifth rib I mention not his Ambition Avarice and Pride which the Republicans who were before his Brethren and Companions afterwards openly charged him with The Colonels Captains and inferiour Officers are for the most part chosen from among the Schismaticks or those that were no great enemies unto them In the mean while Cromwel's Son-in-law and his other Relations and Friends have the chief Commands in the Army bestowed upon them These having got so fair
but all their said several preferments places and promotions shall be utterly void as if they were naturally dead nor shall they otherwise use their Function of the Ministry without advice and consent of both Houses of Parliament Provided that no Laps shall incurr by such vacancy until six months past after notice thereof 6 Qualification That all persons who have been actually in Arms against the Parliament or have counselled or voluntarily assisted the Enemies thereof are disabled to be Sheriffs Justices of the Peace Mayors or other head-Officers of any City or Corporation Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer or to sit or serve as Members or Assistants in either of the Houses of Parliament or to have any Military employment in this Kingdom without the consent of both Houses of Parliament 7 Qualification The persons of all others to be free of all personal censure notwithstanding any Act or thing done in or concerning this War they taking the Covenant 8 Qualification The Estates of those persons excepted in the first three precedent Qualifications and the Estates of Edward Lord Littleton and of William Laud late Archbishop of Canterbury to pay publick Debts and Damages 9 Qualification Branch 1. That two full parts in three to be divided of all the Estates of the Members of either House of Parliament who have not onely deserted the Parliament but have also voted both Kingdoms Traytors and have not rendred themselves before the first of December 1645. shall be taken and employed for the payment of the publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom Branch 2. That two full parts in three to be divided of the Estates of such late Members of either House of Parliament as sate in the unlawful Assembly at Oxford and shall not have rendred themselves before the first of December 1645. shall be taken and employed for the payment of the publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom Branch 3. That one full moity of the Estates of such persons late Members of either of the Houses of Parliament who have deserted the Parliament and adhered to the Enemies thereof and shall not have rendred themselves before the first of December 1645. shall be taken and employed for the payment of the publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom 10 Qualification That a full third part of the value of the Estates of all Judges and Officers towards the Law Common or Civil and of all Serjeants Counsellors and Attorneys Doctors Advocates and Proctors of the Law Common or Civil And of all Bishops Clergy-men Masters and Fellows of any Colledge or Hall in either of the Universities or elsewhere And of all Masters of Schools or Hospitals and of all Ecclesiastical persons who have deserted the Parliament and adhered to the Enemies thereof and have not rendred themselves to the Parliament before the first of December 1645. shall be taken and employed for the payment of the publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom That a full sixth part on the full value of the Estates of the persons excepted in the sixth Qualification concerning such as have been actually in Arms against the Parliament or have counselled or voluntarily assisted the Enemies thereof and are disabled according to the said Qualification be taken and employed for the payment of the publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom 11 Qualification That the persons and Estates of all Common Souldiers and others of the Kingdom of England who in Lands or Goods be not worth two hundred pounds sterling and the persons and Estates of all Common Souldiers and others of the Kingdom of Scotland who in Lands or Goods be not worth one hundred pounds sterling be at liberty and discharged Branch 1. This Proposition to stand as to the English and as to the Scots likewise if the Parliament of Scotland or their Commissioners shall so think fit Branch 2. That the 1 of May last is now the day limited for the persons to come in that are comprised within the former Qualifications Provided that all and every the Delinquents which by or according to the several and respective Ordinances or Orders made by both or either of the Houses of Parliament on or before the 24th day of April 1647. are to be admitted to make their Fines and Compositions under the rates and proportions of the Qualifications aforesaid shall according to the said Ordinances and Orders respectively be thereto admitted and further also that no person or persons whatsoever except such Papists as having been in Arms or voluntarily assisted against the Parliament have by concealing their quality procured their admission to Composition which have already compounded or shall hereafter compound and be thereto admitted by both Houses of Parliament at any of the rates and proportions aforesaid or under respectively shall be put to pay any other Fine than that they have or shall respectively so compound for except for such Estates or such of their Estates and for such values thereof respectively as have been or shall be concealed or omitted in the particulars whereupon they compound and that all and every of them shall have thereupon their Pardons in such manner and form as is agreed by both Houses of Parliament That an Act be passed whereby the Debts of the Kingdom and the persons of Delinquents and the value of their Estates may be known and which Act shall appoint in what manner the Confiscations and Proportions before-mentioned may be leavied and applied to the discharge of the said Engagements The like for the Kingdom of Scotland if the Estates of Parliament or such as shall have power from them shall think fit XIX That an Act of Parliament be passed to declare and make void the Cessation of Ireland and all Treaties and Conclusions of Peace or any Articles thereupon with the Rebels without consent of both Houses of Parliament And to settle the prosecution of the War of Ireland in both Houses of the Parliament of England to be managed by them and the King to assist and to do no act to discountenance or molest them therein That Reformation of Religion according to the Covenant be setled in the Kingdom of Ireland by Act of Parliament in such manner as both Houses of the Parliament of England have agreed or shall agree upon after Consultation had with the Assembly of Divines here That the Deputy or chief Governour or other Governours of Ireland and the Presidents of the several Provinces of that Kingdom be nominated by both the Houses of the Parliament of England or in the intervals of Parliament by such Committees of both Houses of Parliament as both Houses of the Parliament of England shall nominate and appoint for that purpose And that the Chancellor or Lord Keeper Lord Treasurer Commissioners of the Great Seal or Treasury Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports Chancellor of the Exchequer and Dutchy Secretaries of State Master of the Rolls Judges of both Benches and Barons of the Exchequer of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and the Vice-Treasurer and the
the treachery of the Irish to deliver up to Jones Dublin with the whole Garrison and all that continued in their Duty From that time the Pope's Nuncio Commanded in Chief except in those places which were under Jones Coot and Monck which espoused the Party of the Rump-Parliament He took to himself the whole Power made Laws pronounced Judgments drew up and mustered Armies managed the War and imposed money with an absolute and despotick Authority But by this means he became both hated and despised so that having received one blow after another especially Preston's Forces being defeated by Jones he grew weak both in Men and Authority This opportunity was laid hold upon by Clanricard who Commanded one Army in Vlster and Taff who Commanded another in Munster who having consulted with Inchiqueen resolved upon it as the most expedient course to implore the Royal Assistance again Unite together into one and to send forthwith to the Queen and Prince of Wales to acquaint them with what they had done confessing that the Truce was not faithfully observed and discovering those by whose fault and instigation it was broken They moreover most humbly beg that the Marquess of Ormond may be sent over with Authority and Supplies and engage upon conditions which were not disliked by the King to fight under his Banner till the broken Forces of the Rump-Parliament should be utterly destroyed and his Majesty and they themselves fully restored to their former peace The Popes Nuncio suspecting that matters would fall out so and that the storm which his Government had raised would break over his own head forbids any farther Treaty threatens the Contraveeners with dire Punishments and at length strikes those that persisted in their purpose with the usual Weapon of Excommunication But that blunt Thunderbolt scared no body for they march against him and besiege him in the Town of Galloway Whilst in the mean time the Lord O-brian diverts the Succours that Ouen-Ro-Oneal designed to bring to his Party Then the Pope's Nuncio despairing of relief capitulated for a dishonourable Retreat and departed Whilst these matters were acting the Glorious King Charles the First Murdered by the Hands of Rebel Parricides Crowned his Death with Martyrdome Nevertheless the Marquess of Ormond being rid of that difficulty and having a new Commission and Instructions from King Charles the Second repairs to Corke and shortly after to Kilkenny where a Parliament or Convention of the States of Ireland was then kept and after long Debates on each side they came to a great many Articles of Agreement of which this was the substance After a Recognition whereby they owned his Majesty for Soveraign and lawful King of Ireland and that they would to the utmost defend him with their Lives and Fortunes they agree That the King should give the Irish free liberty of their Religion That if it seemed fit to the Deputies or Commissioners who were appointed to the number of eighteen a Parliament should be called within two Months wherein Papists as well as others should have liberty of free Voting and that the King shall confirm their Acts provided they be not grievous to Protestants All Acts and Decrees past since August 1641 that might be dishonorable to the Irish Nation shall be repealed That all Law Suits Sentences Actions or Processes commenced or determined since that time be wholly abolished and that the Irish be restored to the Lands and Estates whereof they had been dispossessed That all Impediments be removed that were wont to barr the Irish Papists from sitting in Parliament That all Debts be reckoned to be in the same state as they were in in the Year 1641 and that no body be molested nor troubled upon that account That the Lands of the Barons and Nobles in the Counties of Toumond Clare Tipperrary Limmerick Kilkenny and Wicklo be adjudged to the ancient Possessors and their Titles made good by new Acts. That Inns be Erected for the Students in Law wherever the Lord Lieutenant shall think convenient and where Degrees also in the Law may be taken as well as in England That Places and Titles of Honour and beneficial Offices may be free both to Papists and Protestants That the use and Exercise of Arms Commands and Governments may be in the power of the same and that during the War five thousand Irish Foot and two thousand Horse be kept in pay That the Court of Wards be abolished and in lieu of it twelve thousand pounds a year payed into the Kings Exchequer That no Peer have liberty to Vote by Proxy That the Nobles be obliged within five years to purchase Lands a Baron to the value of two hundred pounds a year a Viscount four hundred an Earl six hundred a Marquess eight hundred and a Duke a thousand That they may be free to treat of the independance of the Parliament of Ireland upon that of England That those of the Kings Privy-Council shall meddle with no Affairs but the Publick That Suits about Titles be referred to the Judges of the Kingdom to whom it belongs to try them That the Acts against the Exportation of Irish Wool Tallow and other Goods out of the Kingdom be repealed That they who have been under any pretext Fined or Punished in the County of Ulster since the first of King James shall be relieved according to Equity That the Inhabitants and Citizens of Corke Youghal and Dungarban be restored to their Possessions that they were turned out of in the beginning of the War provided they give Security for their Loyalty and that they shall not be troublesome to the Garrisons That an Act of Oblivion be past of all things before committed those excepted who stand guilty of Barbarous and Inhumane Crimes That it be lawful to none of the Nobles to Farm the Customes That Laws be made against Monopolies That the Jurisdiction of the Court called Castle-Chamber be moderated That the Law be abrogated which ordained That Horses should not draw the Plow by the Tail and that the Straw should not be burnt to separate the Corn from it That Law Suits about Sea Matters shall be decided in the Chancery of Ireland That for the future all Actions about the want of Title shall be suppressed if the owners have from ancient times possessed the Lands by any Right That also all Interest for Moneys since the beginning of the Troubles be discharged and that for the following years it exceed not five per Cent. a Year That the Deputies or Commissioners shall impose sufficient Taxes for carrying on the War both by Sea and Land either by way of Excise or any other way that they shall judge most convenient for the Publick That Justices of the Peace shall have Power to determine Suits under the value of ten Shillings That the Governours of the Popish Perswasion enjoy the Governments and Commands that they are at present in possession of That the Tenths of taken Ships and
Impositions upon Commodities shall remain in the hands of those to whom they have been granted until further order be taken about all these things That the Commission of Oyer and Terminer Grand Assizes and Goal-delivery shall have Power according to the standing Laws of punishing Murders Felony Thefts and Robberies until the twentieth of May following That Courts be established according to the Will and Pleasure of the Deputies or Commissioners in matters belonging to themselves That the Romish Priests who behave themselves modestly shall not at all be molested but shall enjoy the Salaries paid them by the Laicks for their maintenance and the enclosures of the ancient demolished Monasteries and Abbeys As to other matters that the King with consent of his Parliament shall order them For expeding of those Conditions the Papists chose about fifteen Deputies or Commissioners that as so many Mediators betwixt the King and the People they might bring back the Confirmation of them So dear did a frail and transitory Peace with Rebels cost the King But necessity is a prevalent Orator that perswades Men even to unbeseeming and many times to dishonourable Resolutions Nevertheless the Lord Lieutenant whether willingly or unwillingly agrees to these Articles And the Peace is instantly proclaimed by the Heralds But Ouen Ro-Oneal and the Native Irish that were on his side refused to acquiesce to these Conditions of Pacification under pretext that their Religion was not sufficiently secured Jones also and others find fault with the Commissions as too ample and as they gave it out unseasonable and that likewise they were patcht up with the King without the Authority of Parliament But the Lord Ards with the rest of the Scots who abominating the Rump-Parliament first favoured and then struck in with the Kings Party bestir themselves bravely in taking in the Castles and Garrisons which held out for the Rebels in Vlster The Lord Lieutenant being General in the mean time had many and great Affairs to mind Men Arms Money Ammunition and all Military Provisions are wanting which nevertheless were to be raised amongst Men of contrary Interests different Perswasions and who mutually hated one another The English indeed were of themselves ready to undergo any danger but they were but few in number and of bad Correspondence with the Irish by reason of their ancient Feuds and Animosities And suspecting their Courage no less than their Loyalty they decline to serve with them under the same Ensigns The Irish again being in a great part Treacherous Bloody and Perfidious divided amongst themselves into several Factions were more apt to sheathe their Swords in one anothers Bowels than to fight against the Common Enemy Nevertheless by his own Presence Wisdom Diligence and at his own Charges being assisted with seven or eight trusty Commanders he luckily mastered all these difficulties He found the Magazines of Ireland exhausted the Treasury empty and the Citizens and Inhabitants in whose Hands was all the money of the Kingdom very unwilling and sparing to contribute and the Roman Clergy opposing and undermining his Designs Wherefore in the beginning he got together a small Army which being increased in number by the conjunction of Inchiqueens Forces and the rest of the English his fellow Souldiers for the first Months he provided them pay either of his own money or what he could borrow from others Thus being pretty well provided with Men and Ammunition he marches through Queens County streight against Jones and by the way takes in some Castles belonging to Ouen-Ro-Oneal of which the most remarkable were Kildare and Talboth Jones having had certain intelligence of this March advanced to meet the Lord Lieutenant But being informed by his Spies that he was coming with a greater Army than he was able to encounter and distrusting his own Souldiers he forthwith returns to Dublin The Lord Deputy in the mean time passes the River Liff where having called a Council of Inchiqueen Taff Dillo Preston and the rest of the Principal Commanders they consult what was best to be done whether they should besiege Dublin or directing their course another way take the Towns about or else rather block up the City and at the same time have an eye upon the other places Being as yet doubtful what to do they advance to view Dublin and so to take a resolution upon the spot But Jones expected them with an Army without the Walls but under the Cannon of the Town Both Armies were drawn up but without any Skirmishing That night the Lord Deputy Quartred at Finglass three miles distant from Dublin Next day all the Papists both Men and Women that were unfit for War are thrust out of the Town and the Cavalry that were needless in the Siege are sent to Drogheda at the mouth of the River of Boin that they might incommode the Enemy in the Rere and take care to send Provisions into the place So soon as the Lord Lieutenant had notice of this he sends the Lord Inchiqueen Lieutenant-General to pursue Jones's Horse and if opportunity offered to take in the Towns on all hands In the mean time he thought it not convenient to divide his Army but to encamp and entrench himself with his whole Forces near Dublin that he might intercept the Provisions going into the place and entice the Souldiers and Citizens to desert it not doubting but that the Souldiers would be easily inclinable to do so Affairs being doubtful his Neighbourhood affording opportunity and the City being straitned for want of Provisions and the rather knowing that most of the Souldiers who were in Garrison had formerly sworn to be true to him This he found to be a successful resolution for about two thousand by stealth and as every one best could taking occasion to get out came over to his Camp Nay he was not wanting to essay Jones himself by many fair Promises which he made him one after another But he that he might oppose Art to Art having threatned the Deserters with most severe Punishments pretended a willingness to comply with honourable Conditions and shuffled off the Treaty with shifts and delays though sometimes he seemed to be at a stand and uncertain what to do However he sent private intelligence to the Rump-Parliament and the General in what dangerous straits he was earnestly beseeching them to hasten the sending him Relief In the mean time he surrounds the Walls views the Works repairs what is defective casts up new Works plants Palisadoes drives sharp Stakes into the ground and did what lay in his power to fortifie the place Nay and having sallied out upon the Enemies Camp near Finglass he took amongst other Prisoners a Relation of his own whom for a terrour to all others that they might not desert he caused to be hanged Inchiqueen on his part falls in upon a Troop of Jones's Horse and beat them in their Quarters and next morning pursuing the rest that were Commanded by the
of the Council That the Christian Religion as it is contained by Holy Scripture should be the Publick Profession of the Nation and that those who were to have the Care thereof should have their Support from the Publick so that it be with some other more convenient Maintenance and less subject to Envy than by Tythes That no Man shall be by any Fine or Penalty whatsoever forced to Comply with the said Publick Profession otherwise than by Persuasions and Arguments That no man Professing Faith in Christ should be prohibited the Exercise of his own Religion so that he disturb not any other but that neither Popery or Prelacy should be permitted the least Favour or Licence and that all Laws to the contrary should be void That all Agreements made by Parliament should be firm and stable All Articles of Peace made with Domestick Enemies made good That all Protectors in their Order should be obliged by Oath at their first taking upon them the Government by all means to procure the Peace Welfare and Quiet of the Commonwealth by no means to violate the present Agreements and lastly to his Power to administer all things according to the Laws Statutes and Customs of England To these Conditions Cromwell swears and then cunningly chuses his Privy-Counsellors which he so dexterously pack'd that though they differed in Quality and Inclinations amongst themselves yet all were equally at his devotion Of every Sect he chuses some Leading Men by whose means he might gain the rest of the same Stamp Officers also of the Army especially the Higher and those who were most in Favour and Authority with the People Amongst them were Anabaptists Independents and Presbyterians Irish and Scots all sorts of Republicans and until all Liberty of Ingenuous Minds was restrained some Royalists also The Reins of these so many and different Opinions Factions Nations and Sects the skilful Driver being himself of no Faith nor certain Profession took into his Hands and turned them at his pleasure now inclining to one side now to the other sometime approving the greater and sometime the smaller number of Votes being ready at every turn to dismiss those that were head-strong And thus assisted by his Counsellors he takes upon him the Administration of the Commonwealth Out of fear few withstand this so great a Change in Affairs and many applaud it Those who are of a contrary Opinion stand in amaze and conceal their Thoughts Presbyterians Independents Royalists Neutralists and all chuse rather to acquiesce under his Government than eternally to be enslaved to the Pleasure of mad Fanaticks The exulting Soldiers are cock-a-hoop Now Colleges are freed from the fear of Ruine the Common-Laws are secured from danger the Nobility though maimed yet still seemed to be in being the Presbyterians secure of their Tythes and Discipline though not coactive triumph nor are the Royalists much grieved being now sure of a Single Person and hoping that the Scepter and Crown after one or two Turns more would at length be setled upon the right Basis the Royal Family Every Commander of the Army talks of Golden days as if now their Places were to last for ever nor does the meanest Soldier despair but that by degrees he may mount to the top of the Government But Lambert and other Chief Officers besides the plentiful Estates wherewith they are enriched at present skip for joy that they are admitted into a share of the Government hoping within a little after the death of the aged Protector to be raised higher Amidst these Domestick Revolutions at home England wanted not a Foreign Enemy they had a heavy War with Holland upon their Shoulders which being begun two years before and till then continued seemed like to terminate in the Ruine of one of the two Nations had not God othewise decreed The Dutch were netled at the Letters of Reprisal which being promiscuously granted Pyrats from all Places who liked better to live by Rapine than by honest Courses infesting the Seas had taken above Fourscore Sail of Ships as also at the Order of Parliament That no Goods should be Imported from abroad unless in English Bottoms or Ships of the Country where the Commodities were originally to be had And that People were too late foolishly bent upon War For when it was in their Power to have assisted the King against His Rebellious Subjects then would they neither aid Him with Counsel Money Intercession Credit nor any other way nay I wish it might not be said that some of them assisted the Rebels But now when the Princes of Europe vailed their Crowns and Scepters before the Parricides they think themselves able to make Head against them and vie for Pre-eminence Nothing now is to be heard amongst them but forthwith resisting Force by Force The Publick Places resound with Ballads and Songs against the Villanous Regicides and Sectarians and Booksellers Shops are adorned with Pictures The Flushingers exceeded all the rest in Folly who boasted that their own Ships alone were able to beat the English But the High and Mighty States were not of that Judgment they were divided into Three Parts One Part was not onely for entertaining a Peace and good Correspondence with the Regicides but also for Leaguing into a stricter Amity Others favouring the Popular Opinion did all that lay in their power to thwart that and that Confederating with Neighbouring Princes they should endeavour to restore the King of Great Britain to the Throne of his Ancestors A third Party taking a middle way thought it best to mind their own Interests carry fair and civilly with the Rebels thereby to secure their Trade and the free use of the Seas but in the mean time if the Parricides carried it high and slighted their Friendship that with a well-appointed Fleet of an hundred and fifty Men of War they should forthwith quell them The last Opinion prevailing Four Embassadours for Pacification are appointed to go into England the Heer 's Catz Schaep Vandeperre and Neuport who had long been resident there They renew the Treaty which St. Johns had broken up beginning at the same Article where he had left off The Oligarchicks hereupon seem sorry for what was past and presaging a future Coalition with the English into one Commonwealth carry very civilly and kindly receive them Then the Dutch Ambassadors without denouncing of War make some mention of an hundred and fifty Men of War which they had in readiness to scowr the Seas from Pyrates and securing Navigation but without any Intention to molest us which was far from their thoughts But in the heat of the Treaty it unluckily fell out that a great Fight hapned betwixt Blake and Trump the Admirals of both Nations but I am uncertain who gave the first Provocation We alledged That the Dutch refused to strike Sail which is a Mark of Prerogative and Dominion that we demand of all Foreign Ships and that Trump being warned to do
States make and unmake Laws Prosâ—ribe Forfeit and take to themselves the absolute Power over the Lives and Fortunes of all The Articles or Engagements that they entered in were to this purpose That all should enjoy their Liberties and Properties That there be a fixed and determinate proceeding in Law That all Crimes relating to the change of Government be abolished That all Statutes and Ordinances remain in force until the contrary be Enacted That Publick Debts be punctually paid That no Man believing in the Father Son and Holy Ghost and acknowledging the Holy Bible for the Word of God be debarred from the profession of his Religion except Episcopal-Men and Papists That a Zealous and Powerful Ministry be by all means cherished That Colledges and Schools be reformed That at present Fleetwood have the chief Command of the Forces both by Sea and Land That for the future the Parliament have the Legislative Power and the Council of State the Executive That the Protectors Debts be paid and that he have a Liberal Pension of Ten thousand pounds yearly during Life and ten thousand more in Inheritance And that his Mother also during Life have eight thousand pounds yearly out of the Exchequer The Parricides being bound to these Articles take their Seats again in the Parliament-House but how much they valued them they make it quickly manifest In the mean time many of the old Members to the number of above three hundred who had been secluded heretofore by the Officers of the Army though they believed the Parliament to be dissolved by the Death of Charles the First and the Abrogation of the House of Lords yet that they might avoid other Inconveniencies desiring to be readmitted are carefully kept out Some few Days after they send Commissioners to Richard to ask him the Question How he liked the change of Government and what Debts he owed that wheadling him with the hopes of kind usage they might draw from him a voluntary renunciation of the Authority He makes answer That he thought it reasonable that he should submit to their Authority from whom he must expect protection that his Steward should give them an account of his Debts But nothing but a formal and express resignation would please them to which he seemed chearfully to give his assent And now at length he is commanded to deliver up all the Goods and Houshold Furniture not so much as reserving to himself any Gold or Silver Jewels or Hangings Linnen or any other Goods that might have been pack'd up in a small bulk all are adjudged to the Exchequer Thus stript of all he is commanded to depart out of Whitehall liable to the Actions of all his Creditors and perhaps to have been tried for his Life had they not had other Fish to fry Behold the perfidiousness of Mortal Men and a wonderful instance of Divine Providence which presides over and alters Humane Affairs and Governments as it seemeth Good to the Amighty He who just now swayed the Scepter of three Kingdoms forced by the Calamities of a tedious Civil War to truckle under his Vicegerents three old Commanders to wit his Brother Brother-in-law and a third whom Cromwell had obliged by many and great Favours he I say in the short space of one year is craftily turned out of all and now stript of his borrowed Plumes he becomes the object of the Raillery of Poets and Painters and being sufficiently lasht with the giibes and reproaches both of the Parricides and Rabble as of old the Dictator was called from the Plough so now the Protector is sent back to the Plough A Chronological Table FOR THE SECOND PART MDCXLIX DOrislaus by some Scots killed in Holland The Marquess of Ormond Lieutenant of Ireland makes a Truce with the Irish Having raised an Army he besieges Dublin Jones routs his Forces and raises the Siege Cromwell General of the Rebels in Ireland arrives at Dublin Cromwell takes Drogheda cruelly abusing his Victory MDCL Cromwell takes Kilkenny the Seat of the Irish Council by a Surrender Leaving Ireton his Son-in-Law in Ireland he returns to England Ascham Embassador from the Regicides is killed at Madrid The Marquess of Montross Commissioner of Scotland overcome in Battel is betrayed and taken And basely used by the Scots is put to death at Edinburgh King CHARLES having Articled with the Scots sails into Scotland Fairfax laying down his Comission Cromwell is declared General of all the Forces in England Scotland and Ireland Cromwell leads an Army into Scotland Eusebius Andrews is beheaded at London Cromwell defeats the Scots in a bloody Battel at Dunbar William Prince of Orange dies MDCL LI CHARLES the Second is Crowned in Scotland He enters England with an Army of Scots Easily possesses himself of Worcester James Earl of Derby is by Lilburn routed at Wiggan The Scots being beat by Cromwell at Worcester the King escapes Cromwell in triumph enters London The King after many dangers at length arives in Normandy The Isle of Jersey reduced by Haines James Earl of Derby Lord of Mann is put to death His Lady Carlotta generously but in vain defends the Isle of Mann Henry Ireton Son-in-law to Cromwell dies at Limerick in Ireland MDCLI LII Aiskew takes the Island of Barbadoes by surrender An Act of Oblivion is past in the Rump Parliament St. Johns and Strickland are sent to Holland The first fight at Sea between Blake and Trump Aiskew beats the Dutch at Sea near Plimouth Blake beats the Dutch again MDCLII LIII The English and Dutch fight in the Streights Cromwell dissolves the Rump Parliament after twelve years Tyrannical Vsurpation Yet he calls a new one to which he commits the Government The Dutch send four Embassadours into England to treat of Peace Monck in a great Sea-engagement beats the Dutch Trump being slain Some Portuguese commit a Riot in the New Exchange in the Strand The Mock Parliament resigns up the Government to Cromwell Oliver Cromwell with the Title of Protector takes upon him the Administration of the Government MDCLIV Cromwell makes Peace with the Dutch Don Pantaleon Sa brother to the Portugal Embassadour and John Gerard are beheaded Cromwell calls a Mock Parliament which meets at Westminster Cromwell makes the Members swear Fealty to him King CHARLES leaving France goes to Colen He sends for his Brother Henry Duke of Glocester MDCLIV LV. Cromwell dissolves his Mock-Parliament The Cavaliers stir but in vain in several places of England Wagstaff possesses himself of Salisbury Penruddock and Groves are beheaded at Exeter Henry Cromwells younger Son made Deputy of Ireland The Marquess of Leda the Spanish Embassadour comes to London Pen and Venables Commanders of the Fleet and Army take the Island
and under the command of so great a General desire the signal to march Having now confirmed the Souldiers and the Garrison of Edinburough-Castle he put the command of Berwick Leeth Air St. Johnston and other Castles and Citadels into the hands of trusty Officers He turned out in the mean time all suspected Sectarians especially the Anabaptists the Plague of Mankind whilst many of his Horse addicted to the errour or humours of the English Army of their own accord desert him and leave the Foot and the rest who were truer to their Trust He remaintained in their places many of his own Officers who had been lately casheered by the London Council of War which gained him their affection and Fleetwood and Lambert their hatred The report of this Storm coming from the North was quickly brought to London and all things made greater as it is usual at such a distance than really they were This distracted the Councils of the Rulers and put them into no little anxiety However they arm against Monk and appoint Lambert elevated by the overthrow of Booth's Party General of the War and Head of their Faction who was now to engage in another kind of a War and with anothergets General But seeing they stood much in awe of the prouess and conduct of Monk and had him in great admiration they thought fit first to essay him by Treaty Wherefore Fleetwood sent unto him Clarges nearly allied to him and Colonel Talbot who served in the Scottish Army and in great favour with the General to mediate a Peace and Reconciliation With the same purpose of Pacification Colonel Goff and Colonel Whaley followed after with Carril and Barker the great Oracles of the Independents that the Artifices of Preachers might not be wanting in laying of Snares Monk received them all civilly He had many secret Conferences with Clarges To the rest he publickly professed that he had no Quarrel with the Colonels commanding in England about Religion That his whole designe was to revenge the Indignity done to the Parliament and to proceed no farther That if they had rather take up the matter at London without bloud he was willing to allow time for Conferences The Ministers with affected flattery preached up the advantages of Peace presaging from more than one instance that the divisions of fellow-Souldiers would be pernicious to themselves and very advantageous to the publick Enemy intimating the King and indeed their Presage proved afterward to be true But the mercenary and canting Tongues of those preaching Mediators wrought no effect upon an old Souldier who was so well acquainted with their juggling tricks He civilly sends back these Agents of Peace with the same security as they came Clarges in the mean time was before gone to London with more secret Instructions And though Monk now perceived that all Agreement with the Colonels of the English Army would prove fallacious and unsafe yet all things not being as yet sufficiently ordered for securing the more remote Garrisons of Scotland he made his advantage of what was cast in his way by chance and labours for the convenience of his own affairs to protract the time of Treaty He therefore dispatches to London Wilks Knight and Cloberry as Commissioners for the Treaty from the Army in Scotland with Instructions how to delay time where for some time we 'll leave them in Wallingford-house with more complement than freedom debating with Fleetwood's Officers though I am not apt to believe that the desire of Pacification was sincere on both sides Lambert marching against Monk was already got as far as York with twelve Regiments of men he was weak in Foot but strong in Horse Here he found Morgan Major-General of Monk's Army recovering out of a fit of the Gout a man that at that time was judged inferiour to none in Military skill Lambert who was his old friend and knew him to be dear to Monk sent him into Scotland to promote the business of Peace He having followed Monk to Edinburrough in a military manner declared his business and what he was come about but preferring Monk's cause and honesty he took command under him when because of the many Commanders lately turned out and others that had deserted he was made very welcome Monk in the mean time having pretty well composed the affairs of his Army invites the Scottish Nobility to Council first at Edinburrough and then at Berwick where he discovered his designes unto them beseeching them for the sake of their Country and of himself that they would keep Scotland in peace and raise moneys to pay the Army that now was upon the march into England The Scottish Nobility very readily promised him money nay and to assist him with men and Arms in the expedition which was an accession to Monk's good fortune that when he might have made use of so great assistance from Scotland he did not stand in need of it For being a man of a sharp wit he was not willing that Scotland should come under the power of another the Inhabitans being armed nor that they accompanying him into England might render his coming ungrateful at home Trusty Officers being left to command the Garrisons of Scotland the Souldiers rightly modelled and all things in a readiness for the expedition of a sudden news is brought to Edinburrough that the Peace was confirmed but upon so hard and uneasie terms that Monk with anger in his looks severely checked the Authors of the hateful Reconciliation upon their return telling them That if the honesty of some certainly the prudence of all of them was to be suspected and committed Wilks to prison for transgressing his Commission The truth was Monk's Commissioners being by Fleetwood's Officers with a shew of honour narrowly observed and in a manner confined ignorant of the Stirs abroad and imposed upon by false reports of the diminution of Monk's Forces with more haste than judgment had clapt up an unjust Peace In the mean time Monk having had certain intelligence from Clarges a faithful man that Fleetwood was daily more and more despised at London that at York Lambert 's Army was divided and full of Faction judging a delay more convenient for himself than for the Enemy industriously protracted the Treaty Having therefore sent Letters to Fleetwood he acquainted him That the news of a Pacification was very acceptable to him but that he found some things doubtful in the Conditions and other matters not rightly transacted by his Commissioners that therefore that the agreement might be more solid all Officers being removed he desires the number of Commissioners to be increased and Newcastle as a more proper place for their meeting Fleetwood condescended more out of fear than choice but Lambert whose whole ability consisted in charging an Enemy rashly and fatally deluded to his own ruine accepted also of the delays of Treaty Lambert in
Churches under their government The King answered With a willing and devout heart I promise and grant my Pardon and that I will preserve and maintain to you and the Churches committed to your charge all Canonical Priviledges and due Law and Justice and that I will be your Protector and Defender to my power by the assistance of God as every good King in his Kingdom in right ought to protect and defend the Bishops and Churches under their government Then the King arose and was led by the Bishops of Duresme and Bath and Wells to the Communion-Table where he made a solemn Oath in sight of all the People to observe the Premises and laying his hand upon the Bible said The OATH The things which I have here promised I shall perform and keep So help me God and the Contents of this Book On the eighth of May a new Parliament met which continued many years Since the year before the Regicides had been brought to condign punishment the three Estates of Parliament now condemned to the flames the Solemn League and Covenant the Bond of the English and Scottish Conspiracy and Sacrament of the Presbyterian Villany The same was done by the Parliament of Scotland and Ireland and that which had raised a Civil Combustion and propagated the same all over Britain and Ireland is now burnt by the hand of the Hangman and by its own ashes expiated at length the wickedness of three Nations This year was concluded or the new begun by the further punishment of Regicides For by Order of Parliament Mouson an upstart Lord Sir Henry Mildmay heretofore Keeper of the Jewels to the late King and therefore the more criminal and Robert Wallop on the seven and twentieth of January the day whereon the blessed King had been condemned were in Hurdles with Halters about their necks dragged to Tyburn and back again to Town being sentenced to perpetual imprisonment It was sufficiently made out that they had been Members of that execrable High Court of Justice but because they had not signed the Warrant for the Kings execution they were onely punished by Bonds and Imprisonment Hazelrigg in the mean time one of the bitterest of all the Traytors being sentenced to the same punishment pined away with anger and grief and unable to bare his disgrace prevented the dishonour and his captivity by a timely death in the Tower of London The same punishment was inflicted upon the Traytors who as we said before came in upon the Kings Proclamation For being brought to the Bar because waving all defence they humbly acknowledged their Crime and that they were a Crew most part of them of silly seduced Rascals drawn in either by the arts or threatnings of Cromwel they redeemed their necks from the Gallows which they had so often deserved by a perpetual imprisonment to which being closely confined they lived to see their Villany punished by Infamy But fortune was more favourable to the Traytors that came in at home than to those who fled abroad for about that time Sir George Downing being Embassadour in Holland had intelligence that three of the Fugitive Regicides Barkstead Okey and Corbet being come back out of Germany lurked in Delf He therefore having obtained a Warrant from the States General seized them and sent them over to England where being brought to a tryal they were condemned for High-Treason and April the nineteenth executed at Tyburn They went all to death with a fanatical ostentation of Piety But Barkstead and Corbet approaching to their end after many ugly delays and cups of Strong-waters unwillingly put their trembling necks into the Halter which quickly put an end to the Wretches half dead already for fear But Okey being a man of an undaunted mind and making use of his courage to the last went off with the bravoury of a Souldier and not undecently had he so died for his Country Corbet was heretofore an inspired prating Lawyer more skilful in the Principles of Fanaticks than in the Laws he got to be a Member of that long and black Parliament and no man was more professedly an implacable Enemy to the King The low extraction of Okey is buried in obscurity Being a Tallow-chandler in London and weary of his poor condition he followed the profitable Wars of the Parliament where his daringness advanced him to the place of a Colonel and at length to be one of the chief Judges in trying and sentencing the King Barkstead was heretofore a whifling Goldsmith in London and had raised himself upon the Ruines of his Country But those who knew the cunning of Oliver in chusing his Magistrates wondered that he preferred so silly and idle a fellow even to be a Colonel and Lieutenant of the Tower of London besides other Offices But that kind of stupid fierceness was more useful to Cromwel than the cunninger knavery of others for the Tyrant himself for the most part looked another way and commanded the Villanies which he would not behold so that this fellow no doubt was privy to the furious Councils of Cromwel and a trusty Minister of his Protectoral Cruelty And so long as he was chief Jaylor to Oliver the barbarous Villain was never startled at the sight of the Murders and Imprisonments of so many Nobles and worthy Subjects His head was set upon a Gate of the Tower whereof heretofore he had been Governour that upon the same Stage where he acted his greatest Crimes he might suffer his greatest Punishment The first Prodigy of the Regicides was their matchless impudence in putting to death the King and their next their obstinacy to the last For when they had murdered the best of Kings to the shame of Christianity the infamy of the Reformation and the universal reproach and malediction of Fanatick Zeal these godly Regicides were ashamed when Treason stuck in their breasts to confess their hypocritical pretending Religion even at the last gasp Nay their Godliness made them so impudent as rather to know themselves guilty and deny it to save their reputation amongst their Brethren than humbly and modestly to acknowledge their Crimes The Authority of Parliament was the onely thing that all of them alleadged to justifie their Parricide as if a Gang of fifty Robbers who had so often violated that Authority had been worthy of that name when there was neither the colour nor resemblance of a House of Commons left Nec color Imperii nec frons fuit illa Senatûs But since they could live no longer to do mischief their whole care was at their death to harden the minds of their Party by a fanatical assertation of dying good men when it was rather the highest Judgment of an offended God to let them fill up the Cup of their bold Indignities by a desperate end It was time now for the King who was a Batchelour to think of Marriage that he might leave a Posterity for the future
security of his Kingdom and therefore communicating his intentions to the Parliament he addressed himself to the most Illustrious Catharine Daughter of Portugal descended from the ancient Race of the Family of Braganza with the universal Applause and Congratulation of the Estates And a Fleet was sent to Portugal to bring over the Royal Bride who having had a favourable passage to the English Coast was by his Royal Highness the Duke of York met and saluted with Naval Solemnities at the Isle of Wight The King received his Bride at Portsmouth and was with great Solemnity in presence of many Nobles there married the Office of Matrimony having been performed by Gilbert Sheldon Bishop of London The King from thence conducted his Royal Consort to Whitehall where after the reiterated festivity of the Royal Nuptials the dutiful Complements of the Great men and the Presents of the Lord Mayor and chief Citizens of London slighting the wanton Pleasures of a Court by the innocence of her Manners and an exemplary Piety of Life she consecrated the trancient Delights of a Palace to the severer Sanctity of a Monastery A Queen that wanted nothing to render her self and us happy had she been as fruitful as good On the second of June the last of the Traytors Sir Henry Vane after a two years imprisonment is brought at length to the Bar where after he had defended himself by shifts and strained querks of Law rather than by any colourable Plea he is found guilty of High-Treason The first advance he made in the career of his Villany was in the death of the Earl of Strafford afterwards being a great Incendiary in the Civil Wars and equally ungrateful and perfidious to Charles the Martyr he cherished and strengthened the Party of the Traytors and though more cautiously than innocently he was not present at the Condemnation of the King yet after the Murder of Charles he was very active in changing the Monarchy into a Commonwealth and in abolishing for ever the Government of Kings But at length when Cromwel got into the Supreme Power being ill-affected and envious against all Government by a single Person he was neglected and laid aside But when the Rump came again into play with the pretences of a Brutus or Cassius he stept again to the Helm of Government and was one of the Committee of Safety He was as to Religion a man of an inconstant and unsetled mind who professedly hating the name of a King was treacherous to Charles the First and envious to Charles the Second January the fourteenth being brought to a Scaffold on Tower-hill with a most affected shew of a composed and sedate mind as the rest of the Traytors had already done he insisted upon the Supreme Authority of Parliament and spake much of the Presbyterian Covenant the Engine of all our Evils which heretofore when he was a far more refined Heretick he had so often despised and laughed at And whilst he still persisted in asserting his own innocence not without reproaching his Judges Sir John Robinson Lieutenant of the Tower wanting patience to hear any more interrupted him Being vexed at this like a mad man he tore the written Speech that he had in his hand and though he had never shew'd great resolution amongst his Party yet resolutely or rather ragingly he submitted to the blow of the Executioner and fell a Sacrifice to the Ghost of the Great Strafford and to the Subverted Monarchy But Lambert who stood indicted with Vane had better luck and behaved himself with so much modesty in his looks and words at his tryal that though he suffered the Sentence of Death as deserving the utmost Rigour yet he tasted the Kings Mercy and ransomed his Life by a perpetual Imprisonment About the middle of Summer the Duke of Ormond went over to Ireland as Lord Deputy of that Kingdom there to give as great instances of Civil Prudence as heretofore he had erected Trophies of Military Glory during the Irish War The Parliament now sitting the Convocation of the Clergie sate also and the Licentiousness of Fanatical Sects increasing made the distressed Church look to the King and Parliament for relief It was therefore enacted by the King in Parliament That the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper and the publick Prayers and Liturgie of the Church should be celebrated after the ancient manner of the Reformed Church of England the Fanaticks on all hands crying out against it and refusing to conform For though they enjoyed Impunity with the rewards of their Crimes yet no gracious condescensions of the King could oblige them The Clemency of the Prince was maliciously interpreted by the Sects and the Power of this indulging Monarch was grievous to these Fanaticks Nor had the King granted so much to Traytors but that they still thought they might take to themselves more and the brazen-faced Sectarists demand of the Son the same liberty of Religion which had undone the Father And without any respect or reverence to Majesty and the Laws frequent Conventicles of seditious men were kept Meetings were to be found everywere in Towns and Villages and the Insolence of the Rabble growing greater by the boldness of their Preachers and the Lenity of the King there was nothing but a mustering of Parties boasting of strength and polling of heads amongst the Factious all which seemed to threaten imminent Dangers The year before the Fifth-monarchy-men under Venner raised the first Stirs amongst the Preaching Rout but their Fury like the thundering Rage of Marius of old was confined within the City and there expired the fiercest of the Traytors being killed upon the spot and others at length brought to the Gallows But this year a darker and therefore more dangerous Conspiracy was hatched the same being the cause of this as of all other Plots to wit a loose and obstinate licentiousness in Religion Many of all Sects were concerned in it several Officers of Cromwel's late disbanded Army Members of the late rump-Rump-Parliament and many who were turned out of the Kings and Churches Lands which they had heretofore sacrilegiously purchased And a secret Committee at London had the direction of all their Councils and Actings The chief designe of their Villany was to kill the King and Duke of York murder the Duke of Albemarle set fire to the City seize the Tower of London rifle the Exchequer and through the Bowels of the Nation drive on a new Fanatical Government In the mean time to make way to the bold Attempts of these Rascals it was resolved that impudent Libels should be scattered about but the Papers being seized at the Press the Printer was hanged and payed dear for his officious medling But the licentiousness and boldness of the Conventiclers growing greater and greater daily the Parl. made an Act to put a stop to the seditiousness of the People commanding the doors of the Meeting-houses to be
Fortifying an old Castle near the Walls The Counsel took But the work not as yet finished Jones unexpectedly fall in upon thâ—m And having defeated all the Forces of the besiegers obtains a great Victory Part of the Kings Souldiers fly to Drogheda The Lord Lieutenant to Kilkenny And thâ—n to Drogheda And delivers it from the fear of Jones And also Fortifies other places In the mean time Cromwell slighting Munster arrives aâ— Dublin With fifteen thousand old Souldiers Of whom he marches wâ—th ten thousand to Drogheda Which was defended by Sir Arthur Aston and the Flower of the Kings Army Cromwell forthwith batters the Walls He himself commanding the attack makes his way into the Town and kills all he meets The sad spectacle of the Town taken The number of the slain The Garrisons about either deserted or easily surrendred The Lord Lieutenant is deserted by many of the English Souldiers But yet not by all The Irish ill affected towards him Yet he raises an Army Huson put into the Government of Dublin Cromwell marches to Wexford Summons it to render Then making an attack he first takes the Castle And then the Town Thence he marches to Ross with an Army sick and much weakened Of which Taff was Governour having just received a supply of fifteen hundâ—ed men Yet upon the first attempt he surrenders the Town and marches to Kilkenny with fifteen hundred men Peace betwixt the Lord Lieutenant and Oaen Who shortly after dies The Princes Rupert and Maurice with six Ships hover upon the Irish Coast and Blake pursuing them they fly to Kingsale Being blockt up there they escape through the Enemies Fleet and set Sail for Portugal Estionege being taken Cromwell makes a Bridge of Boats over the Barrow He takes Carick and Passage He attempts Waterford but in vain Now at length he bethinks himself of Winter Quarters All Munster revolts The Treachery long ago â—ssâ—ied at Youghal Is now accomplished at Cork Where Inchiqueen's Lady and Children are imprisoned And Cromwell puts his Men into Winter Quarters Jones dies The Lord Lieutenant calls a general Council and persuades Dissenters to Vnion Which they all pretend He endeavouors to recover Passage by Farell Who by Zankie is intercepted and put to flight In vain imploring the assistance of the Waterfordians Inchiqueen being about to recover Wexford is hindered by Nelson Cromwell having received Recruits from England divides his Forces and marches against the Enemy He easily takes a great many Garrisons Calls Huson with his Pâ—ers to joyn him They jointly take Gora Then they march to Kilkenny the place where the Committee of the Estates met Which having made a brave Resistance at length yields upon Condition The Siege of Clonmel Reynolds is sâ—nt to hinder the Lord Lieutenants Levies With good success Broghill takes the Bishop of Ross coming to the relief of Clonmell and hangs him up The Garrison forsake Clonmel and make their escape by night Whom Cromwell in vain pursues He easily subdues several smal places The Exploits of the Elder Coot in Ulster Who takes the Bishop of Cloger the General of an Army and hangs him up Husons Victories Cromwell Ireland being almost subdued within the space of a year is recalled for the Scottish expedition He leaves his Son in Law Ireton General in Ireland to whom Waterford being Besieged yields upon Conditions And in the same manner Carlow and Duncannon The Papist Clergy basely affected towards the Lord Lieutenant From whom they endeavour to alienate the mind of Inchiqueen As also the Lord Lieutenant from Inchiqueen The Lord Lieutenant exhorts to Concord and Obedience Being ready to renounce the Government for the Publick good The Irish at present seem sorrowful But presently again fall to Calumniating Thuamensis Clonfertensis And declare his Government void He thâ—refore yields and appâ—ints Clanricard his Deputy Who having made new Levies Goes on prosperously Till Axtel who upon the first encounter had retreated that he might procure Recruits Beat him out of his Camp fortified by two Lakes and put him to flight Why the Irish so Cowardly They are compared with the English Souldiers A treaty with the Duke of Lorrain But fruitless Clanricard stops all the passages for the enemy into Connaght Yet Coot by stratagem having past the Collough mountains got into it Ireton passes the river Shannon at three places Athalone with other Garrisons are presently taken Farell being forced to retreat Coot attacks Galloway Ireton besieges Limmerick Which upon Artiâ—les agreed upon but not signed is surrendered to him He causes the Bishop of Ferne and some others to be hanged The death and character of Ireton Galloway prest Coot Is taken And also consumed by the Plague Ireland being now totally subdued is governed by four Commissioners Who first suppress the Tories Publick enemies It is consulted about a Successor to the late Ireton Lambert is chosen Deputy of Ireland Whose Commission whilst He is commanded to supply onely the place of a Commissioner Lambert refusing Fleetwood is sent His Character The broken remnant of the Irish forces yield to Broghill And Ludlow Having first obtained liberty to go beyond Sea The first Authors of the Rebellion are brought to Tryal Especially Phi-Oneal and Luke-O-Tool Who at their death acquitted the King from a false and scandal◠〈◊〉 report The Plague rages in Ireland Especially at Dublin And a grievous Famine also Both English and Irish are burdened with Taxes The Souldiers in the mean time live at their ease and the Commanders grow rich All Law in a manner Arbitrary Some Forts surprised by the Rebells are recovered by Reynolds The distribution of the Irish Lands as a punishment for their Rebellion Many of the Kings Party fall under the same censure The Popish Nobles are condemned of Treason The Neutrals are fined in a fifth part of their Estates Strife betwixt the new and old Souldiers about dividing the Spoil Is at length composed The way of measuring the Lands invented by Sir William Petty a Doctor of Physick The Sectarians flocking together in Troops Cromwell calls home Fleetwood from Ireland As being too favourable to them And sends his Son Henry at first as his Substitute Who in the first place takes upon him the care of Religion Of the Preachers And of the Colledge As also of Civil affairs of Justice And Trade The Royalists being received more mildly His Assistants and Counsellers Cromwell calls a Parliament at London The Irish are commanded to Abjure Popery Henry's clemency as to that particular The Irish are enjoyned to transplant themselves into Connaght And what was the cause of it Yet it is by many cunningly evaded Henry neglecting both his own and brothers interest Delivers up the Government to the revived Rump-Parliament A Petition of the Magistrates of London to the Rump-Parliament for their Citizens turned out of the common Council Is rejected with contempt The attempts of King Charles the Second for himself and his Subjects By asking help from Foreign Princes By