Tyrant It would be too tedious to entertain the Reader with what His Majesty made by way of Answer to these Propositions and besides swell this Paper beyond its designed bulk therefore I do refeâ—r the Reader to the Royal Papers themselves only thus much I must tell the World That His Majesty thought nothing at this time would so soon conduce to a Peace as a Personal Treaty which therefore he pressed hard for not doubting but by that means they might come on both sides to a true understanding of one another and therefore that he might not fail of having this Request granted him he ends his Letter to them with these words To conclude 't is your King who desires to be heard the which if refused by a King to a Subject he would be thought a Tyrant for it and for that end which all Men profess to desire wherefore His Majesty conjures you as you desire to shew your selves really what you profess even as you are good Christians and Subjects that you will accept this his Offer which he is confident God will so bless that it will be the readiest means by which these Kingdoms again may become a Comfort to their Friends and a Terrour to their Enemies Which words are not the words of a Monster or a Man of Blood as some vile men are now ready to call him the greater is their shame but the words of a truly-compassionate Father of his Country whose Heart bled for the Wounds of his Children and the Miseries of the Nation After all this the Scots notwithstanding all their Promises and Obligations sell him to the English Parliament and His Majesty is put into the Hands of Commissioners appointed to keep and watch his Person and brought by them to Holdenby-House in Northamptonshire where his Conversation was so agreeable and sweet his daily Discourses so strong and convincing that he changed the Opinion of many that were about him so that they became constant Admirers of his Virtues ever after and great Bewailers of having had an Hand in bringing him into those Streights out of which they could not now extricate him Now while he was here let us see what further Offers he made for Peace The first Message to both Houses from this place acquaints us with his bad Condition that his Servants were denied access to him unless it were a very few whom they appointed themselves and that it was a declared Crime for any but the Commissioners or such as were particularly permitted by them to converse with His Majesty or that any Letters should be given to or received from him a condition no man much less a Prince could be proud of Yet he tells them and therefore would not stand upon that That he preferred a Right Understanding betwixt him and his Parliaments of both Kingdoms which might make a firm and lasting Peace in all his Dominions before any Particular of his own or any earthly Blessing And to shew he was in earnest he then makes such Concessions to them as certainly would have been accepted of by any sort of men but such as had not yet satisfied their own Avarice Ambition and other Lusts and therefore were resolved to perpetuate the Distractions of the Kingdom in order to continue themselves in Places of Wealth and Power For he offered to settle their Church-Government for Three Years and at the same time the Assembly of Divines at Westminster and the Directory provided His Majesty and his Houshold were not hindered from the Form of God's Service which they formerly had Further he offers another Act for the better observation of the Lord's Day He consents that the whole Power of the Militia both by Sea and Land for the space of Ten Years be in the Hands of such Persons as the two Houses should nominate giving them a full Power during the said space to change or else to continue the said Persons in their several Offices Which when he had offered he conjures his two Houses of Parliament as they are English-men and Lovers of Peace by the Duty they owe to His Majesty their King and by the Bowels of Compassion they have to their fellow-Subjects that they will accept of this His Majesty's Offer whereby the Joyful News of Peace may be restored to this languishing Kingdom Which Offers had so great an eftect upon the Citizens of London tho' they had none at Westminster that they forthwith petitioned the Lord Mayor and Common-Council and tell them thereby That taking into serious consideration how Religion His Majesty's Honour and Safety the Privileges of parliament and Liberty of the Subject were at present greatly endangered and like to be destroyed and also sadly weighing with themselves what means might likely prove most effectual to procure a firm and lasting Peace without the further effusion of Christian English Blood have therefore enter'd into a solem Engagement and do humbly and earnestly desire that the whole City may joyn together by all lawfull and possible means as one man in hearty Endeavours for His Majesty's present coming up to his two Houses of Parliament with Honour Safery and Freedom and that without the nearer approaches of the Army there to confirm such things as he hath granted in his last Message in answer to the Propositions of both Kingdoms Which Petition you must understand was not presented by them called the Cavalier Party but by such as had ventured their Money and Plate for the Cause and had taken the Covenant and many of them exposed their Persons to fight for that which they through mistake apprehended Religions and the Nations Cause yet these men were so far from thinking His Majesty such a Bad man as some designing men now report him to be that they looked upon his Concessions as every ways answering that for which at first they took up Arms. Well after this the King upon more than ordinary grounds to believe that his Person was in danger at Hampton-Court whither the Army after they took him by force from Holdenby after many removes had carried him makes an escape from them by night but withal leaves a Paper behind him upon the Table wherein he gives an account with what patience he had endured a redious restraint which so long as he had any hopes that this sort of Suffering might conduce to the Peace of his Kingdom or the hindrance of more effusion of Blood he did willingly undergo but finding by too-certain Proofs that this his continued Patience would not only turn to his personal Ruine but likewise be of much more Prejudice than Furtherance to the Publick Good he thought he was bound as well by natural as political Obligations to seek his Safety by retiring himself for some time from the publick view both of Friends and Enemies And after he had appealed to all indifferent men to judge whether he had not just cause to free himself from the hands of those who changed their Principles with their Conditions and who were
assurance that he would comply with them as any man may satisfie himself that converses with the History and Transactions of those times But alas all these Condescentions would not do and tho' he good man flatter'd himself with an easie Belief that he had done what was fitting for a gracious King to do in order to still the voice of further Complaints yet for all that when for necessary reasons he took a Journey to Scotland these men whose Requests he had thus largely answered in his absence to shew their gratitude for what was done before appoint a Committee who being pick'd and chosen men drew up a Remonstrance wherein they made the most bitter Reflections upon his former Government and exposed him to the censure and ill thoughts of his less-discerning Subjects and which was so very unmannerly as well as false that when it came to be delated in the whole House after sitting up all night and thereby wearying many of the ancient Gentlemen and being protested-against by many learned and worthy Patriots in the House and carried only by eleven Votes yet it was ordered to be printed on purpose to enflame the Nation against him Notwithstanding which affront to his Person and Government after he had fairly answered it and vindicated himself from those horrid Aspersions wherewith they had loaded him fairly proving that the present Miseries and future Dangers of the Nation lay at their door and not at his I say notwithstanding this he continues still to sollicite them by Message after Message to offer any thing to him wherein the true Interest of the Kingdom was concerned and he would be ready to gratifie them by giving it the Royal Fiat And when through Tumults and too-much-countenanc'd Riots he withdrew from Whitehall being under apprehension of Affronts design'd to be offered to his Person if not something worse yet he ceases not to call upon them to consider the Nations Good and the settling it upon such Foundations as neither the Monarch might invade the just Rights of the People nor the People encroach upon the Rights of his Crown and Dignity And so he tells them upon their presenting their Petition at Theobalds and afterwards at New-market in the same month when after hearing their Declaration read he expostulated in these words What would you have Have I violated your Laws Have I denied to pass any one Bill for the Ease and Security of my Subjects God so deal with me and mine as all my Thoughts and Intentions are upright for the maintenance of the true Protestant Profession and for the Observation and Preservation of the Laws of this Land Expressions surely that do not in the least savour of that Tyranny and Oppression with which at this time by many wicked persons his Memory is charged 'T is true these Applications from the two Houses at this time were for nothing less than the Militia but Can any man accuse him for a Tyrant because he would not part with that which his Ancestors alwaies enjoy'd and without which a King is indeed but the shadow of a King especially not to part with it at that time when so little a Regard had been paid to his Person nay so many Indignities had not only been promoted but encouraged too by those very men whom nothing now could satisfie but the whole Power of the Sword Well the King continuing stedfast to his Resolutions and deaf to all their Importunities telling them he would not part with his Militia for an hour which any wise man that considered the present posture of Affairs would judge he had great reason to do the Parliament falls into great Passions and Resentments and resolve to be as stiff on the other side and not to abate him an Ace of their Demands and so intent are they upon this very thing that though the King sent to them to digest into one body all the Grievances of the Kingdom and to send them to him promising his favourable Assent to those Means which should be found most effectual for Redress wherein as he says he would not only equal but exceed the most Indulgent Prince words which do not use to drop from the Mouth of a Tyrant as he is falsly called by some at this day Yet all this was nothing the Militia they must have or the Nation is undone and rather than fail they will take it into their Hands by force And so they did after they had sent the King a downright Message That if his Majesty did not agree with the two Houses to settle the Militia that then for his and the Kingdoms safety they shall be constrained of themselves without His Majesty to settle the necessary business of the Militia And they were as good as their words seize it they did in spight of all the King could say or proclaim to the contrary But before the War actually broke out the King was gone to York and made it the place of his Royal Residence hoping thereby to cool the Heats that were at London and in some little time to be invited thither to live with more Honour and Safety than he did before Now while the King staid at York what Protestations he made to the Gentlemen and Citizens of that that County and City what Assurances he gave them of his Resolutions to govern by Law and no otherwise and of his protecting and countenancing the Protestant Religion may be easily known by any man who will but look over the faithful Historians of those Times The same Assurances he gave to the Inhabitants of Lincoln-shire and Leicester-shire and when he was forced to raise an Army which was after the Parliament had voted the Necessity of a War with him and after they had seized his Militia as far as they could why to let the World then see what he aimed at he does assure the Gentlemen whose Loyalty engaged them early on his side Sept. 19.42 and does promise them in the presence of Almighty God and as he hopes for his Blessing and Protection that he would to the utmost of his Power defend and maintain the true Protestant Religion establish'd in the Church of England and by the Grace of God in the same he would live and dye The Truth is to repeat all that he said of this nature in several Counties and to several Parties would be endless and not at all suit with my disigned Brevity And now we come to another Scene of Action and God knows a very melancholly one For through the High and Imperious Demands of the Parliament to which the King could no ways without stripping himself of every thing but the Name of a King the Sword the Unhappy Sword is drawn and the poor Kingdom instead of being an Island of Peace and Plenty is made a Field of Blood and the Father appears against the Son and the Son against the Father our Plough-shares are turned into Spears and our Pruning-hooks into Instruments of Hostility And methinks it should grieve
guilty of the Stubborness that he is falsly accused of by Designers against Monarchy at this time for hearing nothing for a Month together by way of Message after he had parted with the Commissioners he Good man in order to a Compliance sends another Message to them and in it requires as they will answer to God to him and all the World that they will not longer suffer their fellow-Subjects to welter in each others Blood that they will remember by whose Authority and to what end they met in that Council and send such an Answer to His Majesty as may open a Door to let in a firm Peace and Security to the whole Kingdom And after this that if possible a stop might be put to this Bloodshed in the Bowels of his Kingdom he sends another Message for another Treaty wherein he promises them after he had expressed a becoming Pity for the Miseries of the Nation that no Endeavours or Concurrence of his shall be wanting and that he might give infallible Proof that those Desires of his were not feigned and pretended but real and hearty after his defeat of Waller at Croptedy-Bridge he even then by a Message courts the Lords and Commons to a Peace and tells them in these words That from an earnest and constant endeavouring of Peace as no discouragement given him on the contrary Party shall make him cease so no Success on his shall ever divert him Words spoke like a man of true Bowels and Affection to his People And after this from Travestock when he had defeated the Earl of Essex in Cornwal and made so advantagious a Conquest yet so far is he from being puffed up with that Success so far from shewing any inclination to enlarge his Power above what was for his Subjects good that he even then in the midst of his Laurels and Triumphs sends to the two Houses and tells them It having pleased God in so eminent a manner to bless his Arms in those parts with Success yet he did not so much joy in the Blessing for any other Consideration as for the hopes he had that it might be a means to make others lay to Heart as he did the Miserie 's brought and continued upon the Kingdom by this unnatural War and that it may open their Ears and dispose their Minds to embrace Offers of Peace and Reconciliation Which Message after so great a Success certainly argued not the Spirit of a Tyrant as our present Common-wealths-men call him but the Compassion of a tender Father whose Bowels yearned for the Miseries his Kingdom laboured under especially if we add what he a little after said in a publick Proclamation where after he had complained of receiving no Answer to the two former importunate Messages he tells the World he desired a Treaty for Peace in which he does assure all his People upon his Royal Word and the Faith of a Christian which was the greatest Security he could give them that he would insist only upon the Settling and Continuation of the true Reformed Protestant Religion his own undoubted Rights the Privileges of Parliament and his Subjects Liberties and Properties according to the known Laws of the Land And what besides this was truly necessary for the Peoples Happiness truly I cannot divine And thus far things went and these Condescentions the King made when his Affairs were very prosperous and the Scale seemed to be turned on his side which I think was an Argument of Sincerity on his side and will take off all Objections made against his future Offerings for Peace as if bare Necessity drove him when Success fell upon the Parliaments Forces The two Houses therefore at this melancholly juncture apprehending themselves in danger and fearing a severe account hereafter wanting as they thought Forces in England to stemm the Tide which was coming in so furiously upon them they therefore send Commissioners into Scotland to invite the Subjects of that Nation to come in to their assistance and rather than fail notwithstanding all their Protestations and Votes formerly not to alter the Essentials of the Church-Government whereby they swore to dissolve the Frame of the Church as it had been by Law established ever since the first excellent Reformation notwithstanding they knew it was not in their Power according to the known Laws of the Kingdom without the King's Consent And take it they did and by that means procured Twenty thousand of their Brethren as they called them to invade England against the King's Proclamation to the contrary by vertue of which Act I mean taking the Covenant they shut up all the Doors against Peace for they knew at the same time the King was resolved and had often so declared against altering the Government by Bishops as a thing which was directly contrary to the satisfaction of his Conscience and which he could no more recede from than from his Life it self And therefore from this I cannot but perswade my self they were resolved to continue the War and engross all into their own hands let what would become of the King or those Noble Persons that took in with and adher'd to his Just and Righteous Cause But yet that they might pacifie the Minds of a great number of the Nation who groaned under the Miseries of the War and began to see too much of a private Spirit under publick Pretences they afterwards in some precess of time consent to a Treaty and Vxbridge was the place pitched upon for it to which place the King agreed and accordingly sent Commissioners men of Honour and Honesty men of Fortunes and Estates men of great Parts and Endowments who understood the business they went about and were very fond of healing the Nations Breaches and putting things into such a posture as might settle the King upon his just Rights and the People upon their ancient Privileges together with the addition of more such as were necessary for that Time and Season And with what Temper they managed the whole Conference what Offers in the King's Name and by his Authority they made such as our Ancestors never enjoyed nor indeed ever thought necessary to ask let any man judge of by reading the Conference it self It would swell this Book into too great a bulk to run through the whole and I shall therefore give the Reader a taste by which he may guess at all the rest 1. As to Church-Affairs they offered That Freedom be left to all persons of what Opinion soever in Matters of Ceremony and that all the Penalties of the Law and Custom which enjoin these Ceremonies be suspended 2. That the Bishops shall exercise no Act of Jurisdiction or Ordination without the Consent and Counsel of the Presbyters who shall be chosen by the Clergy of each Diocess out of the gravest and most learned of the Diocess 3. That the Bishop keep his constant Residence in his Diocess except when he shall be required by His Majesty to attend him on any occasion and
prosound Respect to his Royal Grandchildren now happily in the Throne think good to abuse him withal Now after all this the very month following tho' he tells them he needs make no Excuse if he sends no more Messages to them because he knew very well he ought not to do it if he stood upon Punctilio's of Honour yet nothing being equally dear to him to the preservation of his People His Majesty passes by many Scruples Delays and Neglects and once more desires them to give him a speedy Answer to his last Message for His Majesty believes it doth very well become him after this very long Delay on their side at last to utter his Impatience since that the Good and Blood of his Subjects cry so much for Peace Which words how much they look like the words of a Tyrant or a Villain as he is commonly called by our present pretending Patriots I leave any man to judge And in the month following in another Message he says thus Notwithstanding the unexpected silence instead of Answers to His Majesty's many and gracious Messages to both House whereby it may appear that they desire to attain their Ends rather by Force than Treaty which may justly discourage His Majesty from any more Overtures of that kind yet His Majesty conceives he shall be much wanting to his Duty to God and in what he owes to the Safety of his People if he should not intend to prevent the Inconveniencies that may any ways hinder a safe and well-grounded Peace Which words certainly are not the words of a Tyrant Well after these Messages from Oxford His Majesty for Reasons best known to himself leaving Oxford in a disguise and committing himself to the Scotch Army then by Newark pray let us see what he does when in his Enemies Hands Why Good man still he breathes nothing but Peace as you may see by the following account for from Southwell he writes to the two Houses and tells them That he withdrew from Oxford only to secure his own Person and with no intention to continue the War any longer nor to make any Division between his two Kingdoms but to give such Contentment to them both as by the Blessing of God he might see an happy and well-grounded Peace thereby to bring Prosperity to these Kingdoms answerable to the best time of his Progenitors And that he might satisfie them he was in good-earnest and designed no Tricks by way of Postscript he tells them That being dasirous to shun the further Effusion of Blood and to evidence his Real Intentions to Peace he is willing that his Forces in and about Oxford be disbanded and the Fortifications of the City dismantled they receiving Honourable Conditions which being granted to the Town and Forces His Majesty will give the like Order to the rest of the Garrisons And pray let the honest Reader judge where lay the fault now and who rid the Nation and prolonged its Miseries the King or those whom our present Pretenders to the only Loyalty to Their present Majesties call The Old Blades The Brave Fellows The noble Defenders of their Laws and Country though at the same time they trampled them all under their Feet and set up their own Wills in opposition even to Magna Charta if self And surely he that hath but half an Eye may see who were the Continuers of the War and for what reason namely To ride upon the high places of the Earth to kill and take possession And after this the Great and Good man sends a Letter to the City of London in which he tells them That nothing is more grievous to him than the Troubles and Distractions of his People and nothing on Earth is more desired by him than that it Religion and Peace with all the comfortable Fruits of both they may henceforth live under him in all Godliness and Honesty And this Profession says he to the City we make for no other end but that they may immediately know from himself his Integrity and full Resolution to comply with his Parliament in every thing for the settling of Truth and Peace Words becoming the Excellent and Religious Temper of this Great man After this he sends another Message from Newcastle to the two Houses in which among many other things he desires them That the Propositions of Peace so often promised and so much expected may be speedily sent to him that upon consideration of them he may apply himself to give such satisfaction as may be the founddation of a firm Peace And to convince every man who would be convinc'd that he was in all his Desires for Peace the very same man that is True and in Earnest the same day he writes this Letter to the Houses he sends another to the Governours of his remaining Garrisons telling them That having resolved to comply with the Desires of his Parliament in every thing which might be for the Good of his Subjects and leave no means unessay'd for removing all Differences between them therefore he had thought sit the more to evidence the Reality of his Intentions of settling â—… happy and firm Peace to require them upon honourable 〈◊〉 to quit those Towns Forts and Castles iâ—…ed to them by him and to disband all the Forces under their several Commands And pray what Tyranny is there in all this And upon what account is this Great man so basely accused as he is at this time by Thousands of this Nation Certainly when they read all this they must needs fall foul upon themselves for being guilty of so much Unworthiness and Dishonesty to the Memory of so great and good a man as he was But now some may say You talk all for the King here Pray what said the two Houses to all these Messages Were they wholly deaf to his Offers Did they â—…orn any Answer to his Proposals No no that they might seem to be for Peace they sent Propositions to the King at Newcastle but I must tell the Reader they were such as would make any man that wishes well to his Native Kingdom sick to read them such Demands as no man that had any sense of Honour could possibly grant For first he must justifie by an Act of State all that they had unjustly done to him he must be obliged to take the Covenant and sign an Act for others to do so too he must part with the Power of the Sword and indeed be thereby but a meer Cypher in the Kingdom and that which must needs grate upon a generous and noble Spirit such as his was he must pass an Act to except from Pardon and to lay at these mens merciless Feet the best and truest Friends he had in his Kingdom such as from Principles of Honour and Duty had ventured both their Lives and their great Estates in his Service And Good man because he would not sign all these together with many other unreasonable things he must forsooth be called then and now also a