their Election You are to labour that the Five Articles of Perth be held as indifferent strive that the admissions of Ministers may continue as they are you may condescend that the Oaths of their Admission be no other than is warranted by Act of Parliament You are if you find that it may any wise conduce to Our Service to enact and publish the Order made at Holyroodhouse by Our Council the fifth of July last for discharging the use of the Service-Book Book of Canons and the practice of the High Commission You are to protest against the abolishing of Bishops and to give way to as few restrictions of their power as you can as for the Bishops not being capable of Civil Places you must labour what you can to keep them free You may give way that they shall be accountable to the General Assembly which you shall indict at the rising of this against that time twelve month As for the Bishops Precedence you are not to admit them of the Assembly to meddle therewith it being no point of Religion and totally in the Crown If the Bishop of St. Andrews or any other be accused of any crime you are to give way to it so they may have a free Trial and likewise the same of whatsoever person or Officer of State It is left to your discretion what course Bishops shall take that are for the present out of the Country You are to advise the Bishops to forbear sitting at the Council till better and more favourable times for them Notwithstanding all these Instructions abovementioned or any other accident that may happen still labouring to keep up Our Honour so far as possibly you can you are by no means to permit a present Rupture to happen but to yield any thing though unreasonable rather than now to break C. R. London the 27th July 1638. But with this His Majesty ordered him to see That the Country were again settled before he indicted the Assembly that the Moderators named by Bishops in Presbyteries might be again reponed and according to the Act of the Assembly 1606. they might be held necessary Members of the Assembly that all Ministers turned out since these Stirs began might be again restored and that all Ministers admitted without Bishops might desist from the exercise of their Function That all people might keep their own Churches and that Bishops and Ministers who took not the Covenant might live quietly without disturbance and have their Stipends paid them His Majesty also so gave warrant That if need required he might call a Parliament against April next and with these Instructions the King wrote to the Council the following Letter CHARLES R. RIght trusty and well-beloved Cousin Councellour and Commissioner The Kings Letter to the Council and Right trusty and well-beloved Cousins and Councellours and trusty and well-beloved Councellours We Greet you well The great Distractions which have of late arisen both in Kirk and Commonwealth in that Our Ancient Kingdom of Scotland have much troubled the minds of many good and loyal Subjects there and these Distractions have fallen out among them upon Iealousies and Fears of Innovation in Religion and introducing of Popery and not without some Fears conceived amongst them as if We Our Self were that way inclined Vpon occasion of these Fears they have of late signed a Covenant or Bond for conserving the Religion established and the Laws of the Country but this Bond being not subscribed by Royal leave and Authority as was that in Our dear Fathers time must needs be both null in it self and very prejudicial to the ancient and laudable Government of both Kirk and Common-wealth which though We must declare unto you yet out of Our inborn Love to that Our Native Country and Loyal Subjects there and for the obviating of these causeless Fears and to satisfie your selves and all Our loving People We do hereby under Our hand let you know that We are and have ever been satisfied fully in Our Iudgement and Conscience both for the Reformed Religion and against the Roman and that by Gods Grace and Goodness We purpose both to live and die in the belief and practice of the Religion now established and to preserve it in full strength according to the Laws of that Our Kingdom and to the end that this may appear to Posterity how firm and settled We are in that Our Religion We require you Our Commissioner and Council to see these Letters registred according to course Given at Our Court at Oatlands Iuly 30. 1638. His Majesty signed also the following Declaration CHARLES R. THE great Distractions which of late have risen both in Kirk and Commonwealth in this Our ancient Kingdom and Declaration have so troubled the minds of many of Our good and loyal Subjects there that they have been possessed with Fears as if Popery had been intended to have been introduced and as if We Our Self were that way inclined upon occasion of which Fears a Covenant or Bond of late hath been drawn up intended by the Subscribers as doth appear by their Supplication presented to Our Commissioner the 26th of June last for conserving the Religion and Laws of the Country but it not being done by Royal leave and Authority as was that in Our dear Fathers time must be both null and void of it self and much prejudicial to the ancient and laudable Government of Kirk and Commonwealth Therefore We for obviating those Fears which have been misconceived both against Our Person and Profession for matters of Religion and to satisfie not Our loving Subjects only but all the Christian World that We do and by Gods Grace ever will maintain the true Christian and Reformed Religion established in this Our Kingdom and to let the World see that this shall be done in and with all freedom according to the Laws of Our Country have signed the Confession of Faith established by Act of Parliament An. 1557. with this Bond following in defence of it and Royal Authority Laws and Liberties of the Country and do also require the present Subscription of this Confession and Bond by all Our loving Subjects that it may remain in force to Posterity that they may know how careful We are and have been to preserve the integrity of Religion and the freedom of Our Laws Here the Confession of Faith was inserted which is to be seen in the Acts of Parliament An. 1567. and therefore it being of great length the Reader is referred to the Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland Thereafter followed this ensuing Bond. with the Bond to be signed We and every one of us underwritten do protest and swear in the presence of God Almighty that we are truly and fully resolved in our Consciences that this is the Confession of the true Faith of Christ established by the Laws of this Country and that by the Grace of God we will profess and maintain the same all the dayes of our Lives and because the
of his Letters to Sir John Clotworthy sayes that the Trumpet sounded to the Battel and all cryed Arm Arm with many other bold scandalous and seditious Passages very derogatory from the Duty and Affection which We are most confident Our good Subjects of that Our Native Kingdom bear to Vs. To this purpose they traduce Vs with raising and making War against Our Parliament of having an Army of Papists and favouring that Religion of endeavouring to take away the Liberty and Property of Our Subjects and upon these grounds they have presumed by a Publick Declaration to invite Our good Subjects of Our Kingdom of Scotland to joyn with them and to take up Arms against Vs their Natural Liege Lord. Lastly to this purpose they endeavour as well in Publick as by secret Insinuations to beget an apprehension in them that if We prevail so far here as by the blessing of God to preserve Our self from the Ruine they have designed to Vs the same will have a dangerous influence upon that Our Kingdom of Scotland and the Peace established there and that Our good Laws lately established by Vs for the Happiness and Welfare of that Our Native Kingdom will be no longer observed and maintained by Vs than the same Necessity which they say extorted them from Vs hangs upon Vs but that We will turn all our Forces against them a Calumny so groundlesly and impiously raised that if We were in any degree conscious to Our Self of such wicked Intentions We should not only not expect a dutiful Sense in that Our Native Kingdom of Our Sufferings but should think Our Selves unworthy of so great Blessings and eminent Protection as We have received from the hands of the Almighty to whom We know We must yield a dear Accompt for any Breach of Trust or failing of Our Duty toward Our People But as We have taken special Care from time to time to inform Our good Subjects of that Our Native Kingdom of the Occurrences here particularly by Our Declaration of the 12th of August wherein is a clear plain Narration of the beginning and progress of Our Sufferings to that time so the bold and unwarranted Proceedings of these Desperate Incendiaries have been so publick to the World that Our good Subjects of Scotland could not but take notice of them and have observed that after We had freely and voluntarily consented to so many Acts of Parliament as not only repaired all former Grievances but also added whatsoever was proposed to Vs for the future benefit and security of Our Subjects insomuch as in truth there wanted nothing to make the Nation compleatly Happy but a just sense of their own excellent Condition a few discontented ambitious and factious Persons so far prevailed over the Weakness of others that instead of receiving that return of Thanks and Acknowledgment which We expected and deserved Our People were poysoned with Seditious and Scandalous Fears and Iealousies concerning Vs We were encountered with more unreasonable and importunate Demands and at last were driven through Force and Tumults to flee from Our City of London for the Safety of Our Life After which We were still pursued with unheard-of Insolences and Indignities and such Members of either House as refused to joyn in these unjustifiable Resolutions were driven from these Councils contrary to the Freedom and Liberty of Parliament insomuch that above four parts of five of that Assembly was likewise forced and are still kept from thence Our Forts Towns Ships and Arms were taken from Vs Our Money Rents and Revenue seized and detained and that then a powerful and formidable Army was raised and conducted against Vs a good part of which was raised and mustered before We had given Our Commissions for Raising one Man that all this time We never deny'd any one thing but what by the known Law was unquestionably Our Own That We earnestly desired and pressed a Treaty that so We might but know at what price We might prevent the Miseries and Desolation that were threatned That this was absolutely and scornfully refused and rejected and We compelled with the assistance of such of Our good Subjects as came to Our Succour to make use of Our Defensive Arms for the Safety of Our Life and Preservation of Our Posterity What passed since that Battel hath been given Vs Our Own Person and Our Children endeavoured to be destroyed those unheard-of Pressures have been exercised upon Our poor Subjects by Rapine Plundering and Imprisonment and that Confusion which is since brought upon the whole excellent Frame of the Government of this Kingdome is the Discourse of Christendom We are very far from making a War with or against Our Parliament of which We Our Selves are an essential part Our principal Quarrel is for the Priviledges of Parliament as well those of the Two Houses as Our Own if a few Persons had not by Arts and Force first awed and then driven away the rest these Differences had never arisen much less had they ever come to so bloudy a Decision We have often accused these Persons against whom Our Quarrel is and desired to bring them to no other Trial than that of the Law of the Land by which they ought to be tried As We have been compelled to take up these Defensive Arms for the Safety of Our Life assaulted by Rebellious Arms the Defence of the true Reformed Protestant Religion scornfully invaded by Brownists Anabaptists and other Independent Sectaries who in truth are the principal Authors and sole Fomenters of this unnatural Civil War for the Maintenance of the Liberty and Property of the Subjects maliciously violated by a vast unlimited Arbitrary Power and for the Preservation of the Right Dignity and Priviledges of Parliament almost destroyed by Tumults and Faction so what hath by Violence been taken from Vs being restored and the Freedom of Meeting in Parliament being secured We have lately offered though We have not been thought worthy of an Answer to Disband Our Army and leave all Differences to the Tryal of a full and peaceable Convention in Parliament and We cannot from Our Soul desire any Blessing from Heaven more than We do a peaceable and happy End of these unnatural Distractions For the malicious groundless aspersion of having an Army of Papists though in the Condition and Strait to which We are brought no man had reason to wonder if we received assistance from any of Our Subjects of what Religion soever who by tâ—e Laws of the Land are bound to perform all offices of Duty and Allegeance to Vs yet it is well known that We took all possible Care by Our Proclamations to inhibit any of that Religion to repair to us which was precisely and strictly observed notwithstanding even all that time We were traduced as being attended by none but Papists when in a Month together there hath not been one Papist near Our Court though great numbers of that Religion have been with great alacrity entertained in that Rebellious Army
as also that many of the Covenanters were broken in their Estates so that if Justice were patent some of the most troublesom of them might be driven away but chiefly the settling them again in Edinburgh looked like a resolution of going on with a Treaty of which it was fit they should be persuaded till the King were in a good posture for reducing them He tried what assurance he might have of the Lords of the Session being fixed to their Duty Divers of them who were no ill-wishers to the Kings Authority yet durst not own it being threatned by the Covenanters of some he had all reason to hope well yet the greater part of that Court what through fear what through inclination was so biassed that he saw little hope of prevailing with the Colledge of Justice whether Judges or Lawyers to declare the Covenant seditious or treasonable and he was secure of none who sate on the Bench save Sir Robert Spottiswood President Sir Iohn Hay Clerk-Register and Sir Andrew Fletcher of Innerpeffer Halyburton of Fotherance and one or two more the first of these was among the most accomplished of his Nation equally singular for his Ability and Integrity but he was the Archbishop of S. Andrews his Son and so his Decision in that would have been of the less weight On the 16th of Iune the Covenanters came and presented their Petitions to the Marquis craving a present redress of their Grievances The Covenanters press speedy satisfaction otherwise they said they would be put off no longer by delays and they desired he would propose the matter to the Council and give them a speedy Answer He told them that His Majesty did resolve to call both an Assembly and Parliament for the redress of all Grievances but if this was not yet done they had nothing but the Disorders of the Country to blame for it which should be no sooner composed but all their Desires should be fully examined They went away no way satisfied with this Answer but the Marquis found all the Lords of Council inclined to the granting of what they demanded so that he durst call no Council about it lest they should have avowedly sided with the Covenanters of which he advertised His Majesty shewing him that persons of all ranks pressed him to represent to him that the Covenant was not illegal and that if His Majesty would allow of the Explication of the Bond of mutual Defence Many move that an Explanation of the Covenant might be received which they offered that they meant not thereby to derogate any thing from the Kings Authority for whom they were ready to hazard their Lives all might be settled without more trouble either to the King or Country and that otherwise it must needs end in Blood He desired His Majesty would consider well in what forwardness his Preparations were before he hazarded on a Rupture lest if they had the start of him all his faithful Servants in Scotland should be ruined ere he could come to their rescue England wanted not its own Discontents and they in Scotland seemed confident that they had many good Friends there France had not forgot the Isle of Rhea and had certainly a hand in cherishing those Broils in Scotland He also added the Covenanters resolution was upon the first Rupture to march into England and make that the seat of the War Upon all this he craved His Majesties Pleasure which he would punctually obey and ended begging pardon for the fair hopes he had given him in his last protesting that his desire of seeing Royal Authority again settled without a bloody Decision for which he was gladly willing to sacrifice his Life made him too easie sometimes to believe what he so earnestly desired Thus I give the most material Heads of the Marquis his Dispatches to His Majesty for though the Originals of them be in my hands yet they are not inserted both because of their being too long and too particular for publick view as also that the substance of them may be seen in the Kings Answers which for many reasons are set down at their full length But to this I shall adde a surprising thing that I find the Archbishop of S. Andrews was for accepting an Explanation of the Covenant for a draught of it yet remains under his Pen which follows The Archbishop of S. Andrews his draught of an Explanation WE the Noblemen Barons Burgesses Ministers and others that have joyned in a late Bond or Covenant for the maintaining of true Religion and purity of Gods Worship in this Kingdom having understood that Our Sovereign Lord the Kings Majesty is with this our doing highly offended as if we thereby had usurped His Majesties Authority and shaken off all Obedience to His Majesty and to His Laws for clearing our selves of that Imputation do hereby declare and in the presence of God Almighty solemnly protest that it did never so much as enter into our thoughts to derogate any thing from His Majesties Power and Authority Royal or to disobey and rebell against His Majesties Laws and that all our Proceedings hitherto by Petitioning Protesting Covenanting and whatsoever other way was and is onely for the maintaining of true Religion by us professed and with express reservation of our Obedience to His most Sacred Majesty most humbly beseeching His Majesty so to esteem and accept of us that he will be graciously pleased to call a National Assembly and Parliament for removing the Fears we have not without cause as we think conceived of introducing in this Church another form of Worship than what we have been accustomed with as likewise for satisfying our just Grievances and the settling of a constant and solid Order to be kept in all time coming as well in the Civil and Ecclesiastical Government which if we shall by the intercession of Your Grace obtain we faithfully promise according to our bounden duties to continue in His Majesties Obedience and at our utmost powers to procure the same during our Lives and for the same to rest and remain Your Graces obliged Servants c. His Majesties Answer follows Hamilton I Do not wonder though I am very sorry for your last Dispatch to which I shall answer nothing concerning what you have done or mean to doe because I have approved all and still desire you to believe I do so untill I shall contradict it with my own Hand What now I write is first to shew you in what Estate I am and then to have your Advice in some things My Train of Artillery consisting of 40 Peece of Ordnance with the appurtenances all Drakes half and more â—f which are to be drawn with one or two Horses apiece is in good forwardness and I hope will be ready within six weeks for I am sure there wants neither Money nor Materials to doe it with I have taken as good order as I can for the present for securing of Carlisle and Berwick but of this you
with you in a safe and good posture and your self to come hither in person to consult what Counsels are fit to be taken as the Affairs now hold And so wishing your Lordship a speedy passage I rest Your Lordships most humble Servant and faithful Friend H. VANE From the Camp at Huntley-field this 4th of Iuly 1639. To this His Majesty added the following Postscript with his own Hand HAving no time to write my Self so much I was forced to use his Pen therefore I shall only say that what is here written I have directed seen and approved C. R. How great the Marquis his surprize and trouble was when he received this cannot be easily expressed The Marquâ—â— goes to the King though it was but what he always looked for and before the King left Whitehall he told him in the Gallery none but Sir Henry Vane being present that few of the English would engage in an Offensive with Scotland However he was too well taught in Obedience to question or delay it after such positive Orders and therefore could neither give a satisfactory answer to the Earl of Airly who at that time wrote to him presâ—â—ng him to come to the North in all haste otherwise the Kings Party there would be presently overrun nor to my Lord Aboyne's Letter who desired fresh Supplies of Men and Moneys though the refusing of both these was after that alledged against him Yet the last being dated the fourth of Iune met him on his way to the King the other could be no sooner at him being of the 26th of May and in the Postscript excuse is made that it was of an old Date for want of a sure Bearer both these are yet extant But most of all it appears how groundless that great and crying Accusation was which as it made up no small part of his Charge to be mentioned in its proper place so was it in the mouths of every person that he betrayed His Majesties Service in the Frith which could not be better cleared than by giving this particular Deduction of every step of it where he finds a Treaty begun About the time that the Marquis arrived at His Majesties Camp the Covenanters sent a Petition by the Earl of Dumfermline to the King desiring a Safe-conduct for such of theâ—r number as they â—hould send to His Majesties Camp with their humble Desires and Offers for a Treaty This was granted and their first Meeting was appointed to be on the â—leventh of Iune at Arundel's Tent. So they â—ent the Earls of Rothes Dumfermline and Lowdon the Sheriff oâ— Tevioâ—dale Mr. Alexander Henderson and Mr. Archbald Iohnstown who first proposed their Desires in general That Religion and Liberties mighâ— be secured upon which they should behave themselves as good Subjects and then the Marquis his affection to his Country made him imploy his whole Interest with the King for procuring a Gracious Answer to them offering that if the King found it suitable to his Honour and fit for his Service he should not be displeased though His Majesty did disown his former Actions and let the load of Obloquy and Censure fall as heavy upon himself as the King pleased But in this His Majesty was positive judging the owning of what he had done the former year to be both for his Honour and Interest However the Marquis did show the King that while the fire-edge was upon the Scotish Spirits it would not prove an easie task to tame them but would be a Work of some years and cosâ— much Money and many Men he therefore desired the King would consider if it were not fit to consent to the abolishing of Episcopacy and giving way to their Covenant till better times and that as the chief Leaders had entred upon that Course being provoked by some Irritaons and Neglects they had met with so it might be fit to regain them by Cajolery and other Favours And to perswade the King to this Course was the easier that both his Reason and his Affection to his Subjects did cooperate with it a great strengthening coming to it by my Lord Canterbury's Opinion who saw a Pacification absolutely necessary for the Kings Service and did advise it So on the thirteenth of Iune His Majesty returned Answer That he supposed Religion and Liberties were abundantly settled by his former Proclamations but if any thing was wanting wherein either Religion or Liberties were concerned none should be more zealous for it than himself The Covenanters insisted That the Assembly of Glasgow might be ratified but His Majesty rejected that adding That he was willing to call a new Assembly and ratifie what should be legally established by it in the following Parliament The Commissioners were willing to yield to this provided His Majesty did not oblige them to renounce the Assembly of Glasgow to which they resolved to adhere His Majesty said He should not press them to that but that Assembly should not be mentioned on either hand They moved next about Lay-elders in the Assembly The King referred himself in that to the Laws of the Land They next moved That Episcopacy should be abolished The King answered He would not prelimit his Vote by declaring what it should be in the ensuing Assembly Finally after all things had been debated divers days not without some heat wherein the Earl of Rothes got new Irritations from some warm expressions of the Kings to him at length on the eighteenth of Iune all was concluded which is within few days concluded First His Majesty signed the following Declaration of which the Original is extant CHARLES R. WE having considered the Papers and humble Petitions presented to Vs His Majestieâ— Declaration by those of Our Subjects of Scotland who were admitted to attend Our Pleasure in the Camp and after a full hearing by Our Self of all that they could say or alledge thereupon having communicated the same to Our Council of both Kingdoms upon mature Deliberation with their unanimous Advice have thought fit to give them this Iust and Gracious Answer That though We cannot condescend to ratifie and approve the Acts of the pretended General Assembly at Glasgow for many grave and weighty Considerations which have happened both before and since much importing the Honour and Security of that true Monarchical Government lineally descended upon Vs from so many of Our Ancestours yet such is Our Gracious Pleasure that notwithstanding the many Disorders committed of late We are pleased not only to confirm and make good whatsoever Our Commissioner hath granted and promised in Our Name but also We are further Graciously pleased to declare and assure that according to the Petitioners humble Desires all matters Ecclesiastical shall be determined by the Assembly of the Kirk and matters Civil by the Parliament and other inferiour Iudicatories established by Law and Assemblies accordingly shall be kept once a year or as shall be agreed upon at the next General Assembly And for settling the general Distractions
the Enacting of what they had designed the former Year and their Acts though of great importance yet meeting no opposition were quickly dispatched all which with a Prologue and Epilogue of two high Declarations were sent in the Packet to the Earl of Lanerick with the following Letter written by a Committee of Lords they had left to sit at Edinburgh Right Honourable IT is not unknown to your Lordship with what difficulties this Kingdom hath wrestled this time past A Letter from the Committee of Parliament to Lanerick in asserting their Religion and Liberties against the dealings of bad Instruments with His Majesty to the contrary The Means which they have used have been no other but such as they humbly petitioned and obtained from His Majesty a Free National Assembly and Parliament The Assembly went on in a fair way and was closed with the liking and full consent of His Majesties Commissioner but the Parliament indicted by His Majesty was prorogated till the Reasons of the Demands of the Estates were rendred to His Majesty which having done by their Commissioners they kept the second of June the day appointed by His Majesty for the sitting of the Parliament An. 1639. And after diligent Inquiry hearing nothing from His Majesty nor His Commissioner neither by their own Commissioners or any other sent from His Majesty which might hinder the Parliament to proceed to the settling of their Religion and Liberties after mature Deliberation and long waiting for some signification of His Majesties Pleasure they have all with one consent resolved upon certain Acts which they have judged to be most necessary and conducible for His Majesties Honour and the Peace of the Kingdom so far endangered by Delays and have committed to us the Trust to shew you so much and withall to send a just Copy of the Acts that by your Lordship His Majesties principal Secretary for Scotland they may be presented to His Majesty The Declaration prefix'd to the particular Acts and the Petition in the end contain so full Expressions of the Warrants of the Proceedings of the Estates and of their humbly continued Desires that no word needs to be added by us We do therefore in their Name according to the Trust committed to us desire your Lordship all other ways of Information being stopt with the presenting of these Acts of Parliament to represent unto His Majesty against all Suspicions Suggestions and Tentations to the contrary the constant Love and Loyalty of this Kingdom unto His Majesties Royal Authority and Person as their Native King and kindly Monarch and that they are seeking nothing but the establishing of their Religion and Liberties under His Majesties Government that they may still be a free Kingdom to doe His Majesty all the Honour and Service that becometh humble Subjects that their Extremity is greater through the Hostility and Violence threatned by Arms and already done to them in their Persons and Goods by Castles within and Ships without the Kingdom than they can longer endure and that as His Majesty loveth His Own Honour and the Well of this His Ancient Kingdom speedy course may be taken for their relief and quieâ—ness and that if this their faithful Remonstrance which as the great Council of the Kingdom they found themselves bound to make at this time for their Exoneration be passed over in silence or answered with delays they must prepare and provide for their own Deliverance and Safety We are very hopeful that your Lordship as a good Patriot and according to the Obligement of your Place will not be deficient in that Duty for your Native Country and send us a speedy Answer as we shall in every Duty be careful at all occasions to shew our selves Your Lordships humble Servants Signed Balmerino Burghly Napier Thomas Hop J. Murray J. Hamilton G. Dundas J. Smith Ed. Eggar Tho. Paterson Ja. Sword Edinburgh 17 June 1640. The Covenanters did also sign a Bond among themselves for adhering to these Acts and prosecuting of those who had been the Incendiaries from the beginning of the these Stirs the Marquis and Traquair being the chief of them The King is highly offended But all this gave great Offence at Court the King looking upon it as a bolder Attempt than any yet made which struck at the root of His Authority and overturned the Fundamental Laws of Scotland and therfore he judged himself bound to repair this Affront with the Sword God had put in his Hands An. 1640. At this time the Marquis got the following Memorial sent him from my Lord Lowdon out of the Tower of London written all with Lowdon's Hand and yet extâ—nt Memorandum for the Lord Lowndon TO speak to the Marquis of Hamilton Lowdon moves for his Enlargment that according to that Interest of Bloud and the Confidence which the Lord Lowdon reposeth in him his Lordship may be pleased to intercede seriously with the King that His Majesty may be Graciously pleased to consider of the Petitions and Informations which have been tendered to His Majesty from the Lord Lowdon and for him from Scotland which do abundantly clear his Innocency concerning that French Letter in respect of the time and occasion of writing that Letter the Letter it self being onely for Mediation and Intercession as is clear by the Instructions yet extant to have been sent with that Letter which are the true Commentary of the Letter The Letter it self was never sent nor used but rejected and no other Letter sent It was written long before the Pacification wherein His Majesty was Graciously pleased to pass all preceding Deeds in Oblivion The Lord Lowdon came hither upon His Majesties Own Warrant which is sufficient for his Indempnity and Return till he be exonered of his Imployment He came from the Parliament with Commission from them to shew His Majesty the Reasons of their Demands trusting confidently in His Majesties Iustice and Goodness and with most Loyal Affection and Ardent Desires to have given His Majesty satisfaction and to have returned with no less Fidelity and Forwardness in carrying and pressing His Majesties Royal and Iust Commands during which time he could expect nothing less than that he would be called in question for a prior Deed all which are most manifest by the Petitions and Informations presented to His Sacred Majesty Therefore I most humbly beseech that His Majesty may be Graciously pleased to consider of the former Petitions and true Informations which being pondered in the Balance of His Majesties Righteous Iudgment I am most confident my Innocency will appear clearly to His Majesty and that I will find such a speedy delivery as may give demonstration to the World of His Majesties Iustice and Goodness and as may not onely from the Conscience of my Duty but likewise from the sense of His Royal Benignity encourage me ever to contribute my best Endeavours for furthering of His Majesties Service And if His Majesty be not fully satisfied with my humble
Petitions and true Informations of my Innocency and Loyalty but doth notwithstanding thereof harbour any opinion of my Disloyalty or casting off my dutiful Obedience and Subjection to His Majesty or offering Subjection to any other King or Potentate in the World I am content to undergo the most exact Trial which is agreeable to the Laws of that Kingdom by which onely I ought to be judged rather than lie under such a heavy Imputation which to me who am conscious of my own Innocency and of my most tender and humble Duty towards His Majesty is more grievous than my Sufferings which can onely prejudice and hurt me and my private Estate but can no ways conduce for advancing of His Majesties Service but rather be a hinderance to the Accommodation of Affairs whereas my Liberty or lawful Trial will serve for the Illustration of His Majesties Iustice to the World and will make His Subjects without fear of danger to tender their humble Suits and Remonstrances at the Throne of His Royal Iustice. An. 1639. Upon this the Marquis pressed the King much for my Lord Lowdon's Enlargement since the Covenanters made great noise with it in all their Complaints The Marquis treats with him by the Kings Order and pretended that they durst send up no more Commissioners and therefore they sent their Acts in the Packet He did also shew His Majesty that he knew by the Lieutenant of the Tower that Lowdon was very fearful wherefore he desired permission from the King to try what this Fear could draw from him and to see if his Enlargement with the hopes of a Noble Reward could engage him to the Kings Service which if obtained might prove of great advantage since the Irritations he had received would make his Advices less suspected in Scotland His Majesty approving this he treated with Lowdon and found him abundantly pliant and so on the 26th of Iune he agreed with him on these Terms which he got under Lowdon's Hand in two Papers yet extant THE Lord Lowdon doth promise to contribute his faithful and uttermost Endeavours for His Majesties Service and furthering of a happy Peace and shall with all possible diligence and care go about the same and shall labour that His Majesties Subjects of Scotland may in all humility petition that His Majesty may be Graciously pleased to authorize a Commissioner with full Power from His Majesty to establish the Religion and Liberty of that His Majesties Native and Ancient Kingdom according to the Articles of Pacification and that by a new Convening or Session of the Parliament without cohesion or dependence on what hath been done by themselves without His Majesties Presence or of a Commissioner to represent His Majesties Royal Person and Power That if there be not an Army already convened in Scotland in a Body he shall endeavour that they shall not convene nor come together during the time of Treaty in hope of Accommodation and if they be already convened in a Body before his return he will labour that they may dissolve and return to their several Shires or dispose so of them that they remain not in one Body as may best evince that they intend not to come into England but may carry themselves in that respective way as may best testifie their Duty to His Majesty and their Desires of Peace That if General Ruthwen shall happen to become their Prisoner they may as a testimony of their desire to shun every thing which may provoke His Majesties displeasure preserve him and that the Lord Lowdon will shew how far he is engaged for his Safety That when Affairs shall be brought to a Treaty in Parliament and that His Majesty shall be Graciously pleased to settle the Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom according to the Articles of Pacification he will endeavour that the Kings Authority shall not be entrenched upon nor diminished that they may give a real demonstration to the World how tender and careful they are that His Majesties Royal Power may be preserved both in Church and State That what is done or imparted to the Lord Lowdon concerning His Majesties Pleasure shall be kept secret and not revealed to any here further than His Majesty shall think expedient That the Lord Lowdon shall as soon as conveniently he can return an account of his Diligence There was given with this another Paper which follows An. 1640 Memorandum of what passed betwixt the Marquis of Hamilton and me 26 Iune 1640. BEcause no great matters can be well effectuated without Trust Fidelity and Secrecy therefore it is fit that we swear Fidelity and Secrecy to others and that I shall faithfully contribute my best Endeavours for performance of what I undertake and that my Lord Marquis doe the like to me Our desires and designs do tend mainly for Preservation of Religion Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom the Kings Honour and of His Royal Authority and for establishing of a happy Peace and preventing of Wars and we are to advise and resolve upon such ways and means as may best conduce for these ends If after using of our utmost Endeavours it be not Gods will that we may be so happy as to obtain such a Peace in haste as may content the King and satisfie his Subjects till differences draw to a greater height and beginning of Wars to resolve what is fit to be done in case of such an Extremity for attaining a wished Peace and to condescend what course we shall take for keeping of Correspondence If my Endeavours and Service which doubtless will put me to a great deal of expence and pains shall prove useful for His Majesties Service and Honour and the Good of the Kingdom which are inseparable the Marquis will intercede really and imploy his best Endeavours with the King to acknowledge and recompence the Lord Lowdon 's Travels and Service in such manner as a Gracious King and Master should doe to a diligent and faithful Servant Upon this Lowdon was enlarged next day Lowdon is enlarged and permitted to go down to Scotland but those who did not know the Secret of this thought the King had weakened himself much by letting go an Hostage of such importance and this gave new Suspicions of the Marquis his Tamperings with the Covenanters His Majesty commanded the Earl of Lanerick to write by the Lord Lowdon the following Answer to the Letter sent up by the Lords of Scotland with the Acts they had lately passed My Lords BY my former of the Date the 23th of June Lanerick 's Answer to the Committee in Scotland His Majesty was pleased to promise by me to let you know within few days His further Pleasure concerning those Proceedings and Desires of the Noblemen and Barons and Burgesses which you sent me to be presented to His Majesty whereupon he hath now commanded me to tell you that the not proroguing of the Parliament in a Legal and Formal way was not for want of clear
this Kingdom respectivè and which His Majesty since by so many Declarations and deep Protestations hath Sworn to maintain inviolably Thirdly That your Lordships may be pleased to consider that as nothing will more diminish His Majesties Greatness than that this Kingdom should consume in Civil War so nothing will more conduce to the Suppressing of insolent Papists malignant schismatick and Disloyal Brownists and Separatists the special if not the sole promovers of these unhappy Misunderstandings than that heartily and freely without respect of worldly and secondary Considerations we give to Christ what is Christ's and to Caesar what is Caesar's by means whereof the Truth and Purity of Religion shall be established to the utter Confusion of all these Sectaries true Monarchical Government firmly setled by which likewise Laws and Authority shall retain their ancient vigour and force to the Suppression of all Commotions and tumultuous Conventions the bane and overthrow of all true Religion and Policy Fourthly Although there be nothing farther from our minds than to presume to question or crave of your Lordships an account of your Actions knowing perfectly by the inviolable Laws and Customes of this Kingdome that to be only proper and due to the King and Parliament from whence you have that great Charge and Trust delivered unto you yet we hope your Lordships will give us leave in all Humility to remember your Lordships of your Deliverance June 1642. and are confident that the said Lords the Petitioners neither have nor shall have necessity to trouble themselves nor the Council with Supplications of this kind and that your Lordships in your Wisdom will take some Course for preventing all occasions which may in any sort disturb the Peace of this Kingdom or make Division among the Subjects thereof This Petition was signed by a great many Noblemen and Gentlemen Many sign it but though they took much pains to get Ministers to concur in it yet none of them could be drawn to it This Petition was presented with many hands at it to the Council and it was observed that as it was written by a trusty Friend of the Marquis's so also all his Friends signed it which made the Author suspected and did shew that his Friends adhered hitherto to their Duty and his Example All the Answer the Councellors returned to it was that they should be careful to proceed as they should be answerable All the Ministers condemn it But the Preachers threatned Damnation to all the Authors and Subscribers of it and detestable Neutrality became the Head on which they spent their Eloquence The Commission of the General Assembly passed a severe Censure on the Cross Petition in a Remonstrance they gave in against it which was answered by a Counter-remonstrance Upon these cross tides of Petitions that were offered to the Council the Conservatours of the Peace resolved to send some Commissioners to London Commissioners sent to Treat betwixt the King and the Two Houses to Mediate betwixt the King and the Two Houses and endeavour chiefly the Uniformity of Church-Government for which end the Commission of the Kirk was also to send their Commissioners to second them in it and no resistance could be made to this that was able to obstruct it They also moved that the King should be desired to call a Parliament in Scotland The Marquis and his Friends opposed this vigorously not that he was against a Parliament but judged the Motion unseasonable and thought the Time prefixed at the last Parliament for the next to wit after three years needed not be anticipated It was also put in their Instructions to their Commissioners to press the King to put all Papists from his Person The Marquis and his Friends also opposed this not upon the account of the thing it self but because it seemed to cast a Scandal upon the King as if his Religion were to be suspected But the Church-party was strongest in this Meeting of the Conservatours and so carried every thing in it The Safe-conducts being come they named their Commissioners the Chancellour being the chief of them and though Lanerick in the Kings Name excepted against the Lord Waristoun and produced the Kings Warrant for it yet they named him but were so wise as not to send him They were also so discreet that they appointed the Commissioners to go first to the King Things being thus determined Lanerick took the start of them but they were at Court before him he being detained by a Garrison of the Parliaments for some days In the end of February he came to Oxford Lanerick goes to Court and discovers the inclination of the Church-party where he gave the King an account of the present state of the Scotish Affairs and that it was the Advice of His Majesties truest Friends in Scotland that he should entertain the Commissioners with the best words he could give them but should not by any means suffer them to go to London since there were great grounds to fear they would engage too deep in the Quarrel if they went thither This Advice agreed so with the Kings Inclinations that it could meet no resistance in his thoughts When the Commissioners arrived they delivered their Message but the King repeated what was formerly told them That Scotland and England had different Laws and Interests and therefore it was to give the one Kingdom too great an advantage over the other to suffer them to come and be Vmpires in the present Differences They pressed their Desires as warmly as they could but all was in vain for the King would by no means suffer them to go to London and in particular he told the Earl of Lowdon what grounds He had to believe they designed to raise an Army for the Parliaments Quarrel and that some of his fellow-Commissioners would prove Incendiaries rather than Mediators But Lowdon with great Protestations denied that they designed to raise Arms and said to the King These were but the Misrepresentations with which the Marquis and his Brother abused His Majesty As for the Calling a Parliament the King said he saw no reason for it and therefore would not anticipate the Day that was already prefixed for it But to the Commissioners from the Assembly the King gave the following Answer which I set down in his own Words having it written all with His Majesties own Hand HIs Majesty commends the Zeal of the Petitioners for the advancement of the true Reformed Religion against Heresy Popery Sects Innovations and Profanity and always shall use His best and uttermost endeavours for Advancing the one and the utter Suppressing the rest For the Vnity in Kirk-Government His Majesty knows that the Government now established by the Laws hath so near a relation and intermixture with the Civil State which may be unknown to the Petitioners that till a composed digested Form be presented to him upon a free debate by Both Houses of Parliament whereby the Consent and Approbation of the whole Kingdom
against Vs and others have been seduced to whom We had formerly denied Imployment as appears by the examination of many Prisoners of whom We have taken Twenty and Thirty at a time of one Troop or Company of that Religion What Our Opinion is of that Religion Our frequent Solemn Protestations before Almighty God who knows Our Heart do manifest to the World And what Our Practice is in Religion is not unknown to Our good Subjects of that Our Native Kingdom And as We have omitted no way Our Conscience and Vnderstanding could suggest to be for the promoting and advancing the Protestant Religion so We have professed Our readiness in a full and peaceable Convention of Parliament to consent to whatsoever shall be proposed by Bill for the better Discovery and speedier Conviction of Recusants for the Education of the Children of Papists by Protestants in the Protestant Religion for the prevention of the Practices of Papists against the State and the due Execution of the Laws and true Levying of Penalties against them so We shall further embrace any just Christian Means to Suppress Popery in all Our Dominions of which Inclination and Resolution of Ours that Our Native Kingdom hath received good evidence For the other malicious and wicked Insinuations that Our Success here upon the Rebellious Armies raised to destroy Vs will have an influence upon Our Kingdom of Scotland and that We will endeavour to get loose from those wholsom Laws which have been enacted by Vs there We can say no more but Our good Subjects of that Kingdom well remember with what Deliberation Our Self being present at all the Debates We consented to these Acts and We do assure Our Subjects there and call God Almighty to witness of the uprightness and resolution of Our Heart in that point that We shall always use Our utmost Endeavours to defend and maintain the Rights and Liberties of that Our Natiâ—e Kingdom according to the Laws established there and shall no longer look for Obedience than We shall govern by the Laws And We hope that Our zeal and carriage only in Defence of the Laws and Government of this Kingdom and the subjecting Our Self to so great hazard and danger will be no argument that when the Work is done We would pass through the same Difficulties to alter and invade the Constitutions of that Our other Kingdom We find disadvantages enough to struggle with in the Defence of the most upright innocent just Cause of Taking up Arms and therefore if We wanted the Conscience we cannot the Discretion to tempt God in an unjust Quarrel The Laws of Our Kingdom shall be always Sacred to Vs We shall refuse no hazard to defend them but sure We shall run none to invade them And therefore We do conjure all Our good Subjects of that Our Native Kingdom by the long happy and uninterrupted Government of Vs and Our Royal Progenitors over them by the Memory of those many large and publick Blessings they enjoyed under Our dear Father by those ample Favours and Benefits they have received from Vs by their Own Solemn National Covenant and their Obligation of Friendship and Brotherhood with the Kingdom of England not to suffer themselves to be misled and corrupted in their Affections and Duty to Vs by the cunning Malice and Industry of those Incendiaries and their Adherents but to resist and look upon them as Persons who would involve them in their Guilt and sacrifice the Honour Fidelity and Allegiance of that Our Native Kingdom to their private Ends and Ambition And We require Our good Subjects tâ—ere to consider that the Persons who have contrived fomented and do still maintain these bloody Distractions and this unnatural Civil War what pretence so ever they make of their Care of the true Reformed Protestant Religion are in truth Brownists and Anabaptists and other Independent Sectaries and though they seem to desire an Vniformity of Church-Government with Our Kingdom of Scotland do no more intend and are so far from allowing the Church-Government by Law established there or indeed any Church-Government whatsoever as they are from consenting to the Episcopal and We cannot but expect a greater sense of Our Sufferings since the obligations We have laid on that Our Native Kingdom are used as arguments against Vs here and Our free consenting to some Acts of Grace and Favour there which were asked of Vs by reason of Our necessary residence from thence have encouraged ill-affected Persons to endeavour by Force to obtain the same here where We usually reside To conclude We cannot think that Our good Subjects there will so far hearken to the Treason and Malice of Our Enemies as to interrupt their own present Peace and Happiness and God so deal with Vs and Our posterity as We shall inviolably observe the Laws and Statutes of that Our Native Kingdom and the Protestations We have so often made for the Defence of the true Reformed Protestant Religion the Laws of the Land and the Iust Priviledges and Freedom of Parliaments With these Publick Orders His Majesty also sent the Marquis a Patent to be a Duke The King sends the Marquis a Patent to be Duke as a recompence of the great Services he was then doing and had formerly done him Scarce were these Lords come to Scotland when one Walden an Agent sent from the Two Houses to Scotland The Lords pursued as Incendiaries upon the pretence of the Treaty about Ireland gave in a Complaint to the Council against them on the account of a Letter that was intercepted signed by them all at Latham the Earl of Darby's House in Lancashire where they were as they came down in which they gave the Queen some Informations and Advices about the State of the Kings Affairs in that County This was charged on them as Incendiarism and Walden desired liberty to pursue them on that Head whereupon they first drew some Defences but because these would have been found more guilty of the alledged fault than the Letter it self they being made up of a Justification of the Kings Armes in England they answered this Complaint by a Petition wherein they declared they had never instigated the King into a Breach with his Two Houses and that there was nothing on earth they desired more earnestly than to see a happy Settlement betwixt them therefore they intreated that no Misrepresentations might be received or listened to against them The Church-party saw this would be a good way to be rid of the Trouble and Opposition they feared from these Lords and â—efore cherished Walden's Motion but they were told that they could not fix any Censure on that Matter without judging of the whole Business for if the Kings Quarrel was just those Lords acted as became faithful Subjects whatever might be in that none in England could challenge them for Serving him in it till themselves had declared against it which was not yet done The force of this Reasoning constrained them against their
and Argyle as also to fix themselves at Sterlin as a secure place and convenient for maintaining their Army and for raising the whole Country on the north of Forth or fighting if occasion should offer At Linlithgow the Earl of Cassilis with about four or five hundred Horse was almost surprized but by the darkness of the night he escaped towards Burroughstownness and the Queens-ferry and so to Edinburgh Lieutenant-General Lesley with his new Army followed upon the others Rear near Linlithgow but was loth to engage having little Confidence in his Men although he was hard pressed to it for preventing the danger Argyle might fall into at Sterlin and Sir George Monro would willingly have turned upon him but that he was earnest once to be at Sterlin where he hoped to fall upon Argyle and his Party and therefore hasted forward At Larbour he was assured that Argyle with about sixty Horse and a thousand Foot all Highlanders was in the Town of Sterlin and fell on Argyle at Sterline keeping a Committee and treating with the Castle wherein was the Kings Garrison commanded by Norman Levingstoun for a Surrender upon that Sir George hasted on with the Cavalry commanding the Foot to follow in order as fast as they could which they did at a good pace A Gentleman coming from Sterlin met Sir George about St. Ninians and told him that the Barras-port was shut and manned and that he must pass through the Park round about the Castle to gain the Bridge and prevent Argyle's Flight and as he came near the Castle the Governour displayed the Kings Colours upon the Walls and caused the Cannon to play upon the Bridge where he perceived some of Argyle's People withdrawing The difficulties Sir George met with in opening the Park-Gate and breaking down some Stone-walls to make a passage for the Horse gave time to the Marquis of Argyle to get himself and his Troopers mounted They pass'd the Bridge in haste a very little before Sir George who with five Horsemen pursued them a good way the Highlanders marching close together to pass after their Lord were assaulted by the first Troop that came up after Sir George they made some sort of confused resistance but were instantly trod down and scattered and forced to call for Quarter about a hundred were killed and drowned attempting to swim the River the rest taken Prisoners being betwixt eight or nine hundred Upon this Orders were dispatched from the Committee of Estates for raising all the sensible men in the Northern Shires to joyn with those at Sterlin and Lanerick went to Perthshire to invite the Nobility to joyn Upon which the Lord Ogilvy and the Lord Drummond came with some Propositions to the Committee of Estates yet all means were essayed to bring the Matter to a Treaty The Earls of Crawford and Glencairn had drawn the Earl of Buckleugh and Mr. Robert Douglas and Mr. Robert Blair two leading Ministers from Edinburgh to a private Conference with them where Crawford and Glencairn moved that the Committee sitting at Edinburgh might come and reside there for perfecting of the Treaty whilst their Forces should continue at Sterlin A Treaty is pursued which was flatly denied them Here the Ministers were very earnest with these Lords that matters might be accomodated The Lords moved That nothing might be done to derogate from the Authority of Parliament and Committee of Estates That the Officers and Souldiers then in Arms by their Authority might be provided for and entertained That at least if there was no further use for their Service the Articles agreed to by the Parliament for these Forces that came from Ireland might be duly kept to them and that some consideration might be given to the rest of the Forces that were to be disbanded That none who had entred into that Engagement might be questioned for it but enjoy still their Offices Honours and Fortunes and other Civil Places That an effectual Course might be agreed on for the Relief of their Friends detained Prisoners in England and finally That the Committee might sit with Freedom in the ordinary Place and by advice of the Church consider of the dangers of Religion of his Majesty and his Posterity and and of the Peace and Safety of his Kingdomes that so by joynt advice such ways might be taken as would best secure Religion preserve his Majesty and his Posterity and quiet the Distempers of the Kingdom The Ministers on the other hand proposed That all Armies whether in the Fields or in the Garrisons of Berwick or Carlisle should be presently disbanded That the securing the Interest of Religion might be referred to the General Assembly or their Commissioners and all Civil Differences to the Determination of a Parliament to be speedily called That in the mean time there should be a Committee of Estates in which none should be admitted that had concurred in the late Engagement but withall they gave them good assurances both for the Prisoners in England and for themselves that no Prejudice should follow on any for their accession to the Engagement and when the Earl of Glencairn said perhaps nothing would be kept of all that should be agreed to Mr. Douglas answered that if but a tittle of the Agreement were broken all the Pulpits in Scotland should declare against it But now Argyle having escaped from these who pursued him was joyned to the Western Forces commonly called Whiggamores and he being irritated with what befell him at Sterlin was for severer Methods They resolved to invite the English Army to their Assistance to which Cromwel was not backward both that he might recover Berwick and Carlisle and destroy all the Kings Friends The Whiggamores did also know well how averse the Committee of Estates were from Engaging into Action and that they intended to make Peace on any terms therefore they grew high in their Propositions and at Sterlin the other Party was much divided for most of the Committee of Estates were for a Treaty and most of the Officers of the Scotish Forces were Capitulating for themselves The chief Arguments proposed to perswade the necessity of this Agreement were the improbability if not impossibility of resistance if Cromwel should joyn the Enemy who had already invited him to Edinburgh by a Message sent him to Berwick by Argyle Elcho and other two Commissioners which they doubted not but he would accept The fear this Conjunction would beget in the Country would hinder their Rising and drive their Army either to a want of Subsistence or to destroy their Friends and turn them Malecontents first and then Enemies but above all some pretended the fitness of preserving the Kings Friends and Favourers to a better opportunity for his Service which they hoped would quickly offer it self It was objected against the Treaty That the Relief of their Prince from such a cruel Captivity was a just cause That they had Law and Authority upon their side and so ought not to be
the Accompts of his Trustees at that time Upon the Kings Pleasure that was signified by the Archbishop of Canterbury the Marquis emitted a Proclamation for the Sessions sitting down on the second of Iuly at Edinburgh The Session sits again at Edinburgh and thither he went that day to intimate to them His Majesties Goodness for them in noâ— putting them to the trouble and expence of removing their Families elsewhere wherefore he recommended His Majesties Service to them and that if any thing came from the Tables they should not fail to pass that Censure on it which was according to Law Next he called for the Covenanters Petitions which he promised to present to His Majesty and return them an Answer betwixt that and the fifth of August with which they were satisfied for that time On the fourth of Iuly he held a Council and presented the Kings Declaration to the Councellours and having before-hand prepared most of them with a great deal of industry he got it signed by them all an Act passed The Kings Proclamation is published and protested against that the Subjects ought to rest satisfied with it It was immediately sent to the Market-cross and proclaimed but notwithstanding all the Grace it contained it met with a Protestation from the Tables But upon the back of this the Marquis met with one of the most troublesome passages of his whole Negotiation There were some Councellours who were not satisfied with the Declaration and those he got to be absent from Council that day but divers of thosâ— who had signed the Act that the Subjects ought to rest satisfied with the Declaration came afterwards to him telling him that he had pressed them to what they had not well considered when they did it but upon second thoughts they found they had wronged their Consciences wherefore they desired he would call a new Council The Council is inconstant that they might retract what they had done This he studied to divert by all means representing how contrary it would be to their Honour and to the Kings Service and Good of the Country and so he shook them off that night but next day those and many more came to him with the same Desires and say or do what he could nothing would prevail with them for they told him plainly if he called not a Council they would find another way to make their Retractation well enough known and that was to subscribe the Covenant The Marquis having spoken with the whole Council apart found that three parts of four would immediately fall off if he gave them not satisfaction and judging that such a visible breach with the Council would ruine the Kings Affairs therefore since the Act was not registred but onely subscribed he thought the Course that had least danger in it was to tear it before them by this means he got that storm calmed All this while that he had been in Scotland he had not forgot the Kings Orders about his Castles The Marquis takes care of the Kings Castles Dumbriton was secured though it run a risque the Constable being at London and the Under-keeper taking the Covenant but he called home Sir William Stewart who was Constable under the Duke of Lennox to wait on his Charge and this delivered him from that hazard As for Edinburgh-Castle which was then in the Earl of Marre's hand it cost him more trouble Divers of the Earl of Marre's friends who had much credit with him being not well inclined and much being trusted to the Constable he durst not in the Kings Name require him to yield it up lest that had hasted on a Rupture and he could not prevail by fairer ways at first but the issue of this shall be told in its due place This being done the Marquis took his Journey He takes Journey and on the way he had the following Letter from His Majesty Hamilton I Hope that this will find you on the way hitherward wherefore remitting all business till I speak with you these Lines are only to hearten you in your Iourney for I think that it will be very much for my Service So desiring you to make as much haste as the weather will permit I rest Your assured constant Friend CHARLES R. Greenwich the 9th July 1638. POSTSCRIPT Forget not to bring with you the Copies of all the Proclamations and Protestations that have been made When he came to Court he gave the King a full account of all had passed in Scotland and of the strength and fury of the Covenanters and gives the King an account of Affairs together with the inconstancy of many of the Council and how His Majesty had been abused in the hopes he was put in of the readiness of his Preparations in England which I gather from some little Notes he took of things and the Copies of his Letters He next told His Majesty that nothing prevailed so much on the Vulgar in Scotland as the cursed insinuations were given of His Majesties staggering in the Protestant Religion wherefore he proposed that His Majesty might cause renew the Confession of Faith which was established at the Reformation and ratified in Parliament An. 1567 and to that His Majesty did readily consent At length His Majesty having considered for some days of the whole Affair and having fully debated every particular with the Marquis and my Lord of Canterbury in end His Goodness and Paternal Affection for his poor Subjects overcame all that Indignation which their Actions had raised in him wherefore he resolved on enlarging his Instructions which he did as follows CHARLES R. YOV shall try by all means to see if the Council will sign the Confession of Faith established by Act of Parliament and gets new and fuller Instructions with the new Bond joyned thereto but you are not publickly to put it to Voting except you be sure to carry it and thereafter that probably they will stand to it If the Council do sign it though the Covenanters refuse you shall proceed to the indicting of a free General Assembly and though you cannot procure the Council to sign it yet you are to proceed to the indicting thereof if you find that no other Course can quiet business at this time You shall labour by all fair means that the sitting of the Assembly be not before the first of November or longer if you can obtain it for the place We are pleased to leave it to your election for the manner of indicting you must be as cautious as you can and strive to draw it as near as may be to the former Assemblies in my Fathers time You must labour that Bishops may have Votes in Assemblies which if you cannot obtain then you are to protest in their Favours in the most formal manner you can think of As for the Moderator in the Assembly you are to labour that he may be a Bishop which though you cannot obtain yet you must give way to
instructed They continued treating about this till the 20th of August but still declined to execute those particulars that were commanded and threatned to call an Assembly and Parliament themselves wherefore the Marquis craved again the space of twenty days to go and bring an Answer from His Majesty which he did to gain more time and to shew the King into what extremities they were now run and that it was necessary He should immediately break with them or give way to the full Career of their zeal The Marquis goes again to Court and so he took Journey on the 25th to Court But the first night he stopped at Broxmouth to consider with the Earls of Traquair Roxburgh and Southesk what advice to offer His Majesty who agreed on the following Articles taken from the Original penned by Traquair Articles of advice offered to His Majesty SInce the cause and occasion of all the Distractions which of late have happened both in Kirk and Polity seems to proceed from the conceived Fears of Innovation of Religion and Laws and that the Service-Book Book of Canons and the unbounded power of Bishops in the High Commission never yet warranted by Law was that which first gave ground and occasion to the Subjects Fears and seeing the said Books are offered to be proved to be full of Tenets and Doctrines contrary to the Reformed Religion professed and established within this Kingdom and the same introduced against all form and custom practised in this Church it were an Act of Iustice well beseeming so Gracious and Glorious a King absolutely and fully to discharge the same And seeing likewise this High Commission hath given so great offence to so many of Your Majesties good Subjects and as is constantly affirmed is of so vast and illimited a power and contrary to express Laws by which all such Iudicatories not established by Act of Parliament are declared to be of no force it would much conduce to the satisfaction of this People if this Iudicatory were discharged till the same were established by Law The practice of the Five Articles of Perth hath been withstood by the most considerable part of the Subjects of all qualities both Laity and Clergy whereby great Divisions have been in this Church and are like to have an increase if Your Majesty in Your accustomed goodness and care of this poor Kirk and Kingdom shall not be graciously pleased to allow that the pressing of these Articles may be forborn until the same may be considered of in an Assembly and Parliament and although we conceive Episcopaâ—y to be a Church-Government most agreeable with Monarchy yet the illimited power which the Lords of the Clergy of this Kingdom have of late assumed to themselves in admitting and deposing of Ministers and in divers other of their Acts and Proceedings gives us just ground humbly to beg that Your Majesty may be pleased to remit to the Consideration of the Assembly this their unwarranted Power The sense and apprehension of these foresaid Evils hath sâ—irred up the Subjects without warrant of Authority to joyn in a Bond and Covenant to withstand the foresaid Innovations and for maintainance of the true Religion the Kings Majesties Person and of one another in the defence thereof If Your Majesty might be graciously pleased in supplement hereof to allow or warrant such a Confession of Faith with such a Covenant or Bond joyned thereto as that signed by Your Majesties Father and by His Command by the Council and most part of the Kingdom we are very confident the same would be a ready and forcible mean to quiet the present Disorders at least to satisfie most part and if Your Majesty shall condescend to the foresaid Propositions we are hopeful if not confident it shall give so great contenâ— to so considerable a number of Your Majesties good Subjects of all qualities that if any shall stand out or withstand Your Majesties Royal Pleasure after the publication thereof they may be overtaken by Your Majesties Power within this Kingdom without the help or assistance of any Force elsewhere And because it is to be hoped that all that hath past in this business and all the Courses that have been taken herein by the Subjects hath proceeded from the foresaid Fears of Innovations and not out of any Disloyalty or dissatisfaction to Soveraignty and that Your good People may still taste the fruits of Your Grace and Goodness we wish Your Majesty may be graciously pleased upon the Word of a King to pardon what is past and never so much as to take notice of any of the Actions or Proceedings of what person soever who after this shall carry himself as becomes a dutiful Subject and in testification thereof shall give his best assistance for settling the present Disorders And if Your Majesty may be pleased to condescend hereto we conceive all Your Majesties Subjects Petitioners or Covenanters should acquiesce and rest heartily satisfied therewith and if any shall be so foolish or mad as notwithstanding this Your Majesties grace and goodness still to disturb the Peace of Your Majesties Government we in testification of our hearty thankfulness to our Soveraign by these humbly and heartily make offer of our Lives and Fortunes for assisting Your Majesty or Your Commissioner in suppressing all such Insolences or insolent persons Signed Hamilton Traquair Roxburgh Southesk From Broxmouth he went forward to wait on His Majesty and did shew him that unless he enlarged his Instructions he was to treat no further The Marquis advises the King to renew King Iames his Covenant since he saw the Contempt was like to be put on the last Instructions so visibly that he durst not make use of them lest he should thereby have exposed His Majesties Goodness to new Affronts And as he represented this to His Majesty so he told him nothing seemed so likely a Course for removing of Jealousies and settling all things as the Authorising the Covenant that upon King Iames his command was drawn up by Mr. Iohn Craig An. 1580 containing the renunciation of all the Articles of Popery which was the ground of the present Covenant The King reasons against that His Majesty did utterly disrelish the Proposition of signing that Covenant usually called the Negative Confession for he remembred how his Father had resented his doing of that as rash and indeliberate And it seemed strange to him that so many Negatives should be sworn to especially with such aggravations of Epithets as if one might not be firm enough to the Protestant Doctrine unless he not only abjured Popery in bulk but also by retail in so many particulars some whereof might be both uncertain and indifferent And it seemed tyrannical over tender Consciences to require such an Oath from all Persons but more especially from Women and simple People who could not judge well and so were not fit to swear in such nice points therefore the King said he looked upon the Remedy proposed as full
his Holy Water Baptizing of Bells conjuring of Spirits crossing saning anointing conjuring hallowing of Gods good Creatures with the superstitious opinion joyned therewith his worldly Monarchy and wicked Hierarchy his three solemn Vowes with all the shavellings of sundry sorts his erroneous and bloody Decrees made at Trent with all the Subscribers and Approvers of that cruel and bloody Bond conjured against the Kirk of God and finally we detest all his vain Allegories Rites Signs and Traditions brought into the Kirk without or against the Word of God and Doctrine of his true Reformed Kirk to the which we joyn our selves willingly in Doctrine Faith Religion Discipline and use of the Holy Sacraments as lively Members of the same in Christ our Head promising and swearing by the great Name of the Lord our God that we shall continue in obedience of the Doctrine and Discipline of this Kirk and shall defend the same according to our vocation and power all the dayes of our lives under the paines contained in the Law and danger both of body and soul in the day of Gods fearful Iudgement and seeing that many are stirred up by Satan and that Roman Antichrist to promise swear subscribe and for a time use the Holy Sacrament in the Kirk deceitfully against their own Consciences minding hereby first under the external Cloak of Religion to corrupt and subverâ— secretly Gods true Religion within the Kirk and afterward where time may serve to become open enemies and persecuters of the same under vain hope of the Popes Dispensation devised against the Word of God to his greater confusion and their double Condemnation in the day of the Lord Jesus We therefore willing to take away all suspicion of hâ—pocrisie and such double-dealing with God and his Kirk protest and call the Searcher of all hearts to witness that our minds and hearts do fully agree with this our Confession Promise Oath and Subscription so that we are not moved for any worldly respect but are persuaded onely in our Consciences through the knowledge and love of Gods true Religion printed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit as we shall answer to him in the day when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed And because we perceive that the quietness and stability of our Religion and Kirk doth depend upon the safety and good behaviour of the Kings Majesty as upon a comfortable Instrument of Gods Mercy granted to this Country for the maintenance of his Kirk and ministration of Iustice among us we protest and promise with our hearts under the same Oath hand-writ and pains that we shall defend his Person and Authority with our Bodies and Lives in the defence of Christ his Evangel Liberties of our Country ministration of Iustice and punishment of Iniquity against all Enemies within this Realm or without as we desire our God to be a strong and merciful Defender to us in the day of our Death and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all Honour and Glory eternally Amen WE underscribing and considering the strait link and conjunction betwixt the true and Christian Religion presently profest within this Realm The Bond joyned to it and our Soveraign Lords Estate and Standing having both the self-same Friends and common Enemies and subject to the like event of standing and decay weighing therewithall the imminent danger threatned to the said Religion the Preservation whereof being dearer to us than whatsoever we have dearest to us in this Life and finding in His Majesty a most Honourable and Christian Resolution to manifest Himself to the World that zealous and religious Prince which he hath hitherto professed and to imploy the means and power that God hath put into his hands as well to the withstanding of whatsoever foreign Force shall mean within this Land for alteration of the said Religion or endangering of the present State as to the repressing of the inward Enemies thereto amongst our selves linked with them in the said Antichristian League and Confederacy have therefore in the presence of Almighty God and with His Majesties Authorizing and Allowance faithfully promised and solemnly sworn likeas we hereby faithfully and solemnly swear and promise to take a true effauld and plain part with His Majesty amongst our selves for diverting of the appearing danger threatned â—o the said Religion and His Majesties State and Standing depending thereupon by whatsoever foreign or intestine Plots or Preparations and to that effect faithfully and that upon our Truth and Honours bind and oblige us to others to convene and assemble our selves publickly with our Friends in Arms or in quiet manner at such Times and Places as we shall be required by His Majesties Proclamation or by Writ or Message directed to us from His Majesty or any having Power from him and being convened and assembled to joyn and concur with the whole Forces of our Friends and Followers against whatsoever foreign or intestine Powers or Papists and their Partakers shall arrive or rise within this Island or any part thereof ready to defend or pursue as we shall be authorised or conducted by His Majesty or any others having his Power and Commission to joyn and hold hand to the exeâ—ution of whatsoever Mean or Order shall be thought meet by His Majesty and His Council for suppressing of the Papists promotion of the true Religion and settling of Hâ—s Highness Estate and Obedience in all the Countries and Corners of this Realm to expose the hazard of our Lives Lands and Goods and whatsoever means God hath lent us in the defence of the said true and Christian Religion and his Majesties Person and Estate against whatsoever Iesuits and Seminary or Mass Priests condemned Enemies to God and His Majesty to their utter wreck and exterminion according to the Power granted to us by His Majesties Proclamation and Acts of Parliament to try search and seek out all Excommunicates Practisers and other Papists whatever within our bounds and Shire where we keep residence and delate them to His Highness and His Privy Council and conform us to such Directions as from time to time we shall receive from His Majesty and His Council in their behalfs and so specially so many of us as presently are or hereafter shall be appointed Commissioners in every Shire shall follow pursue and travel by all means possible to take and apprehend all such Papists Apostates and Excommunicates as we shall receive in Writ from His Majesty And we the remanent within that Shire shall concur and assist with the said Commissioners with our whole Friends and Forces to that effect without respect of any person whatsoever and generally to assist in the mean time and defend every one of us another in all and whatsoever Quarrels Actions Debates moved or to be moved against us or any of us upon Action of the present Bond or other Causes depending thereupon and effauldly joyn in defence and pursuit against whatsoever shall
their number to wait on him Some come aboard and treat with him which being granted Southesk and Innerpesser came to him with a very bare Message asking what he had to propose he said it was contained in the Proclamation to which he could neither adde nor change They represented to him the Rage in which all People were and how hard a Work it would prove either to reclaim them by Reason or conquer them by Force unless way were given for some time to their Follies On the 13th day he received a Letter from His Majesty which follows Hamilton THe length of Henry Vane's Dispatch will shorten this not being willing to trouble my self with writing nor you with reading of Repetitions This I must observe to you that whatsoever either he or I writes at this time is no absolute Command but meerly Advices to help your Knowledge that you may the easier judge what is best for my Service Vpon this ground I send you here a Discourse of Mr. Thomas Hamilton's wherein many things to my seeming are very well said but how far practicable or when I leave you to judge as likewise upon the whole matter I give you my Opinion that if you find it not fit to land all your 5000 men upon Lothian-side then it may be counsellable to send most of your Land-men to the North to strengthen my Party there As for your landing in the South I shall onely name two Places besides Tentallon to wit Sterlin if that be not too far off to be relieved and Dumbar as for Tentallon I shall command the Marquis of Douglass to send one to agree that business with you So longing to hear from you and wishing you good luck I rest Your assured constant Friend CHARLES R. Newcastle May 8. 1639. To this shall be added the Paper mentioned in the Kings Letter A Paper of the Ferries in Scotland THE River of Nesse is large and deep falleth out of a Lake named Nesse 24 miles long and 5 or 6 in breadth into a great Bay of the Sea On this River standeth the Town of Innernesse which hath a strong Castle in the keeping of the Marquis of Huntley as yet not taken if in this Town and Castle were put a competent Garrison with a Ship and Pinnace in the Bay you might break the Ferry-boats and stop all Passages from Northward of that River The River of Tay falleth out of a Lake ten miles long and one and an half broad from whence the River hath the name which is the main and onely Passage between the North and the South parts of the Kingdom This River falleth into the East Sea below Dundie the biggest Town almost in Scotland At the entry to the Sea it is two miles broad and continueth the same breadth upward till within three or four miles of Saint Johnstown between which Town and Dundie there are 16 miles and above at no part whereof there is any Passage but by Ferry-boats If a few Ships would ride at the mouth of this River below Dundie and send up some small Pinnaces they might break all the Ferry-boats and stop all the Passages that could be made over at any part between the North of the River and the said Town of Saint Johnstown above which to the said Lake the River is not ridable but at some few Fords the Passages whereof might be kept by the Noblemen who stand well-affected to His Majesties Service and whose Estates do lie thereabouts in Strathern such as the Earls of Airly Perth Tullibardin and Kinnowl who if they were sent home with a competent number of Souldiers to attend them all those of their Name their Friends and Tenants gathered unto them might stop all Land-passages whatsoever from North to South And in case the People of Fife who dare not now cross Forth-river in regard of your Majesties Ships should march with Supply by Sterlin-bridge to Lothian these Noblemen with their Forces might be in some narrow Passage in their way and if they could not force them to retire yet they might fall upon their Country in their absence so that they could not both be able to defend their Sea-coasts and secure them from danger on their backs neither durst they all turn back on Strathern for fear that those of the Fleet should land on their shores in their absence The Shire of Perth would be a Rendezvous and safe retreat to all those of Fife Angus Strathern and Highlands who upon this Proclamation shall abandon the Covenanters Party and stand for His Majesties Service These four Noblemen with the number Your Majesty will send with them might be sent almost to their Dwellings by Sea on the said River If the Town of Sterlin were seized these River-passages made sure and the Town of Aberdeen secured in regard of Your Majesties Forces in the North no harm could be expected from benorth Leith The 13th of May the Marquis received the following Letter signed but not written by the Earl of Rothes Please your Grace I Should have been far better contented to have seen you here at the Parliament with His Majesty The Earl of Rothes his Letter to the Marquis or holding that indicted as His Majesties Commissioner than with a Navy and Army to constrain us beyond these just limits of Religion and lawful Obedience which we were always willing to perform It was far by my Expectation and your Graces Oath and Promise that you should ever come in any chiefCommand against your Native Country Whereas your Grace doth challenge our coming in such numbers to attend this Parliament I hope you conceive that this Navy and Army upon the Borders and the Invasion threatned in the West do sufficiently warrant our Preparations to defend these places and divert such dangers That Proclamation that is said to carry so much Grace and Goodness is as destitute of that as your Invasion is of a good Warrant which persuades me that neither of the two proceeds from His Majesties own Gracious Disposition I cannot stand here to answer all these misconceived particulars contained in your Graces Letter but if I had the Honour to see your Grace before any more mischief be done I dare engage my Honour and my Life to clear all these Imputations laid on our Proceedings and I can demonstrate how hardly we have been used without any just reason I dare not be answerable to God Almighty and to that Duty I owe my Prince and Country if I do not shew your Grace that your going a little further in this violent and unjust way will put all from the hopes of Recovery for which both a great deal of Blame from Men and Iudgment from above shall attend you as the special Instrument which I wish you labour to evite If our Destruction be intended we are confident in that Majesty who owns this Cause and is able to defend it and if onely Terrours to fright and prepare us to accept of any Conditions will
of that Our Ancient Kingdom Our Will and Pleasure is that a Free General Assembly be kept at Edinburgh the sixth day of August next ensuing where We intend God willing to be personally present and for the Legal Indiction whereof We have given Orders and Command to Our Council and thereafter a Parliament to bâ— holden at Edinburgh the twentieth day of August next ensuing for ratifying of what shall be concluded in the said Assembly and settling such other things as may conduce to the Peace and Good of Our Native Kingdom and therein an Act of Oblivion to be passed And whereas We are further desired that Our Ships and Forces by Land be recalled and all Persons Goods and Ships be resâ—ored and they made safe from Invasion We are Graciously pleased to declare That upon their disarming and disbanding of their Forces dissolving and discharging all their pretended Tables and Conventicles and restoring unto Vs all Our Castles Forts and Ammunitions of all sorts as likewise Our Royal Honours and to every one of Our good Subjects their Liberties Lands Houses Goods and Means whatsoever taken and detained from them since the late pretended General Assembly We will presently thereafter recall Our Fleet and retire Our Land-Forces and cause Restitution to be made to all persons of their Ships and Goods detained or arrested since the aforesaid time whereby it may appear that Our Intention in taking up of Arms was no ways for invading Our Own Native Kingdom or to innovate the Religion and Laws but mainly for the maintaining and vindicating of Our Royal Authority And since that hereby it doth clearly appear that We neither have nor do intend any Alteration in Religion and Laws but that both shall be maintained by Vs in their full Integrity We expect the performance of that humble and dutiful Obedience which becometh loyal and dutiful Subjects and as in their several Petitions they have often professed And as We have Iust Reason to believe that to Our peaceable and well-affected Subjects this will be satisfactory so We take God and the World to witness that whatsoever Calamities shall ensue by Our necessitated suppressing of the Insolencies of such as shall continue in their Disobedient Courses is not occasioned by Vs but by their own procurement After this the following Articles were signed THe Forces of Scotland to â—e disbanded and dissolved within eight and fourty hours after the Publication of His Majesties Declaration being agreed upon His Majesties Castles Forts Ammunition of all sorts and Royal Honours to be delivered after the Publication so soon as His Majesty can send to receive them His Majesties Ships to depart presently after the delivery of the Castles with the first fair Wind and in the mean time no interruption of Trade or Fishing His Majesty is Graciously pleased to cause to restore all persons Goods and Ships detained and arrested since the first of November last There shall be no Meetings Treatings Consultations or Convocations of His Majesties Lieges but such as are warrantable by Act of Parliament All Fortifications to desist and no further Work therein and they to be remitted to His Majesties Pleasure To restore to every one of His Majesties Subjects their Liberties Lands Houses Goods and Means whatsoever taken and detained from them by whatsoever means since the aforesaid time Next the Commissioners signed the following Note IN obedience to His Majesties Royal Commands we shall upon Thursday next the 20th of this June dismiss our Forces and immediately thereafter deliver His Majesties Castles and shall ever in all things carry our selves like Humble Loyal and Obedient Subjects Signed Rothes Dumfermline Lowden W. Douglas Al. Henderson Arch. Johnstown The Treaty being thus ended The Treaty is variously censured all parted with great expressions of Joy But few wise men expected it should be followed with a lasting Agreement the Covenanters being peremptory not to part with a hoof so that whatever Concessions came not up to all their Desires were not like to prove satisfactory Those who understood not the true state of the English Army wondered that the King should have let this opportunity out of his hands whereby they judged he was able to have broken and subdued Scotland And according to the vulgar Civility of of all Censurers of Kings Actions his bad Counsellours bore the blame whereof the far greatest share fell upon the Marquis But others who saw beyond those superficial Observers acknowledged there was an equal temperature of Wisdom and Goodness in His Majesties Concessions not denying a proportionable share of the praise to his good Counsellours The Covenanters judged they had scaped well who got off so easily for it would have been impossible for them to have maintained the great Bodies they had gathered together any longer except they had marched into England to which they had no mind unless forced by necessity But some made another Observation though of less moment yet not unpleasant upon Mr. Henderson's signing the former Paper That it was strange to see a Church-man who had acted so vigorously against Bishops for their meddling in Civil Affairs made a Commissioner for this Treaty and sign a Paper so purely Civil so strongly does Passion and Interest biass and turn men When the Commissioners came back to the Camp A Paper is given out for the Conditions of the Agreement though not agreed to they gave an account of their Negotiation and besides the Articles of Treaty they produced another Paper which passed among all for the Conditions of the Agreement It was a Note containing some Points which were alledged to have been agreed to at Berwick verbally though not set down in the written Treaty which was made up of some down-right Mistakes and of other things which the King in discourse had indeed said but not positively nor as a Determination on which he had concluded However the Army made a Declaration that their accepting of the Kings Papers wherein the Assembly of Glasgow was called the pretended Assembly did not infer their accounting it so which they could never do Yet all the Forcâ—s withdrew most of them laying down Arms but still keeping in great Bodies together and a Proclamation was sent to the North to Montrose on the one side Aboyne on the other to lay down Arms for all this while there had been a Body of about 2000 that had stood for the King in Aberdeenshire who were commanded by my Lord Bamf against whom my Lord Montrose was sent and these Orders were obeyed by them both and indeed they came in good time to Aboyne otherwise he had been sore put to it On the 22th of Iune the Marquis was ordered to go to the Castle of Edinburgh The Marquis receives and furnishes the Castle of Edinburgh and take possession of it in the Kings Name and relieve the Marquis of Huntley and put Ruthwen now created Lord Estrick in it and also to furnish it with store of Provision and Ammunition out
course of the Assembly until We be advertised For the better facilitating of Our other Services and the more peaceable and plausible progress in all Businesses recommended to you We allow you at any time you shall find most convenient after the opening of the Assembly to declare That notwithstanding Our Own Inclination or any other Considerations We are contented for Our Peoples full satisfaction to remit Episcopacy and the Estate of Bishops to the Freedom of the Assembly but so as no respect be had to the Determination of the Point in the last Assembly But in giving way to the abolishing of Episcopacy be careful that it be done without the appearing of any Warrant from the Bishops and if any offer to appear for them you are to inquire for their Warrant and carry the Dispute so as the Conclusion seem not to be made in prejudice of Episcopacy as unlawful but onely in satisfaction to the People for settling the present Disorders and such other Reasons of State but herein you must be careful that Our Intentions appear not to any You shall labour that Ministers deposed by the last Assembly or Commiâ—sions flowing from them for no other cause but the subscribing of the Petition or Declinator against the last Assembly be upon their Submission to the Determinations of this Assembly reponed in their own Places and such other Ministers as are deposed for no other faults that they be tried of new and if that cannot be strive that Commissions may be directed from this Assembly for Trying and Censuring them according to the nature of their Process That immediately upon the Conclusion of this Assembly you indict another at some convenient time as near the expiring of the Year as you can and if you find that Aberdeen be not a Place agreeable let Glasgow be the Place and if that cannot give content let it be elsewhere The General Assembly is not to meddle with any thing that is Civil or which formerly hath been established by Act of Parliament but upon His Majesties special Command or Warrant We will not allow of any Commissioners from the Assembly nor no such Act as may give ground for the continuing of the Tables or Conventicles In case Episcopacy be abolished at this Assembly you are to labour that We may have the Power of chusing of so many Ministers as may represent the 14 Bishops in Parliament or if that cannot be that 14 others whom We shall present be agreed to with a Power to chuse the Lords of the Articles for the Nobility for this time untill the Business be further considered upon We allow that Episcopacy be abolished for the Reasons contained in the Articles and the Covenant 1580 for satisfaction of Our People be subscribed provided it be so conceived that thereby Our Subjects be not forced to abjure Episcopacy as a point of Popery or contrary to Gods Law or the Protestant Religion but if they require it to be abjured as contrary to the Constitution of the Kirk of Scotland you are to give way to it rather than to make a Breach After all Assembly-business is ended immediately before Prayers you shall in the fairest way you can protest that in respect of His Majesties Resolution of not coming in Person and that His Instructions to you were upon short advertisement whereupon many things may have occurred wâ—erein you have not had His Majesties Pleasure therefore and for such other Reasons as occasion may furnish you are to protest that in case any thing hath escaped you or hath been condescended upon in this present Assembly prejudicial to His Majesties Service that His Majesty may be heard for redress thereof in his own time and place We will not allow that either by the Commissions already granted nor upon no other Bill or Petition any part of the burden of the Charges of the last Business be laid upon any of Our good Subjects who have stood by Vs and have refused to subscribe their Bonds and Covenants That you stop the Signatures of the Rights of Kintyre Abbacy of Dear Abbacy of Scoon and generally all Acts in favours of Covenanters so far as you can without stopping the ordinary course of Iustice and you are to consider withall how His Majesties Right to any of the aforesaids may be put on foot without making interruption to the present Business in hand You shall take a course whereby the Rents of all such Bishopricks as are vacant be detained and either by Warrant of the Incumbent or by Demission may be collected and when any person shall be provided to these Benefices so vacant Our Will is that you take the same course with the Rents of these as by these We do command you to doe with the rest of the Rents of the Bishopricks of Scotland which is this to cause draw up a formal Assignation to the whole Rents Fruits Customs c. belonging to the Bishoprick whereof they are Bishop to be subscribed by them to and in Our Favour upon return whereof to you you shall give Power and Commission to such Persons as you shall receive under every one of their Hands to collect and intromet with the aforesaid Rents of the several Bishopricks and to deliver and be accomptable to you for the same and upon your receipt thereof you are to issue them out immediately again to the aforesaid Bishops or any having their Warrant to that effect You shall hear the Complaints or Petitions of any of Our Subjects or against any of Our Subjects but such as you know to be Sufferers for refusing to joyn with the Covenanters in the Covenanting way and you shall protect all such Persons by all the fair ways you can and particularly Sir John Hay and Sir Robert Spottiswood If any thing occur either in Civil or Ecclesiastical Iudicatory wherein you have not Our express Will and Pleasure signified unto you wherein you see clearly Our Royal and Princely Power and Authority prejudiced We will you to acquaint Vs therewith before any Proceeding be made You shall pay weekly for defence of Our Castle of Edinburgh an hundred Souldiers at eight pence per diem besides the English Gunners and Artificers at the Rates set down by the Marquis of Hamilton And as for Ruthwen himself you shall assign him the Rents of the Castle and you shall likewise keep a competent number ofWorkmen for completing the Fortifications already begun and shall withall provide the Castle with 6 moneths Victuals for the foresaid number of Souldiers and other Officers And as for Dumbriton you shall pay for the Defence thereof Souldiers at eight pence per diem to the number of 40 allowing the Rents and other Customs thereof for paying the Captain and other Officers At Berwick the 27th of Iuly 1639. These were the Instructions given the Earl of Traquair of which the Marquis wrote to a Covenanter That if they were not worse than Devils they would rest satisfied MEMOIRES OF THE LIFE and ACTIONS OF James
can befall me And for your further satisfaction know that nothing can grieve me more in this World than to be sent in any Hostile manner against my Friends Kindred and Country where at the best though I may merit something from His Majesty to whose Goodness I owe much besides the Duty of a Subject yet I shall never be called other than the Destroyer of them and what cause of Sorrow this will be to a kind-hearted Scotsh-man I leave to you to judge Therefore I assure you that if either my Industry Intreaties nay Prayers prevail no such Charge will be imposed on me my inclinations having always led me in this rather to follow your Advice and absent my self in case things come to the worst than to accept of that Employment though I must tell you it may bring along with it His Majesties Displeasure and so consequently certain Ruine Yet I do intend to put that to the hazard and if it happen I will have the Vanity to say it will neither prove advantageous to the Country nor to those in it who once did me the Honour to esteem me their Friend To conclude this point consider if a Navy come probably I must be miserable for what can I gain by it if employed a Discontented Life ever hereafter If the King should impose the Charge on me and I refuse it what the better would you be an abler would be employed in it and I need never look for His Majesties Favour thereafter after and without that in his Kingdom will I never live If I had no other Reasons but these but I could write you fourty more consider if I have not cause to endeavour Peace and believe me I will do it For the Danger that His Majesty will run if he enter into this War I do acknowledge with you it may be great but that certain Ruine must follow I cannot confess yet I must say that his Gain will be but small when he hath gâ—â— that by Force which is his or ought to be his already but what remedy He conceiveth a Kingdom to be lost and two will be hazarded to regain that if they continue in the Course they are in For the Assistance you mention God hath provided for you elsewhere that is conceived to be used as an argument to fright us For from whence can it come From a Party in England Trust not to that nor give credit to a few Factious Spirits with whom perhaps Correspondence may be kept From France Reason and the knowledge of their Affairs make us confident that no great matter can come from thence Reason for they will not assist the Rebels for so you will be called of a King for examples sake and the necessity of their Affairs for we know they have enough to do elsewhere From Sweden Though they perhaps be willing yet it is known they have not men to do it in these Parts From Holland The Body of that Estate hath by their Publick Ministers disallowed your Actions and hath given assurance that they will be far from either giving Countenance or Assistance to you what private men may doe by way of Stealth is little regarded or to be esteemed Thus I freely write what is thought of the Assistance you are like to get from abroad of which Opinion I shall still be unless you can make it more clearly appear therefore I will use the old Proverb to you Beware that your stout Hearts make not your Heads dry a Gutter and make you neglect the receiving of His Majesties Pleasure with all thankful Obedience which for any thing I know nay I durst Swear will be no other than stands with the true Protestant Religion and the Laws of the Kingdom What pity is it then that these mistakes should continue but how much more will it be that they should encrease to a Bloody War If all amongst you would rightly consider what true Religion and Piety is and lay that only before their Eyes there are yet not only good hopes but certain assurances of a peaceable Conclusion of those unhappy Troubles and as you have advised me so let me you which perhaps may be the last time that on this Subject I shall write to you endeavour Peace which if gained the effusion of much Christian Blood will be saved the Country preserved Scotsh-men esteemed Valiant Iust and Loyal not only in this Kingdom but through all Europe and no man happier than Your now much troubled and affectionate Brother HAMILTON POSTSCRIPT For Answer to your Postscript I am not in dispair but to bring it to a good pass if your own carriage do not marre it for His Majesty is content to sign the Signature but iâ— is to remain in my hands and not to be delivered except your Carriage do deserve it as well as Crawfords who knows not as yet how far His Majesty hath condescended This Letter is not fit to be long keeped therefore it will not be amiss it be burnt Let me hear from you with the first occasion and thereafter I care not how seldom if matters come to the worst Since the writing of this the Letter which Rothes wrote to the Chamberlain by Dumfermline was this day publickly read at Council-board His Majesty being present it hath produced contrary effects to what I believe he expected for not only doth the Chamberlain swear that there is not one true word in it but hath beseeched His Majâ—sty that Rothes may be called to an account for the traducing of him in so high a nature to use his own words nay to make him if it were in his Power appear to be a greater Traytor than himself In a word the whole Table was much scandalized with the Letter and no wayes satisfied with the Writer of it even though it had been all as he expressed I profess I have loved Rothes and am sorry when any misfortune befalls him and likewise I thought fit to mention this that you may see what those of this Country will doe when it comes to an issue therefore I hope not only he but the whole Country will take example by this and grow wise while there is time This Letter he carried to the King and at the end of that Copy he retained yet extant His Majesty with his own hand wrote I have perused this Letter and have not only permitted but commanded that it should be sent CHARLES R. Whitehall 2 March 1639. This is set down to shew what his Correspondence with his nearest Friends was and how warranted by His Majesty But that the Reader may not be wholly in the dark about the Grounds of this Confidence the Covenanters had The Grounds of the Covenanters Confidence I shall set down what I had from some Persons of great Honour who were fully informed about it When the Earls of Dumfermline and Lowdon came to London a Person of Quality of the English Nation whose Name is supprest because of the Infamy of this Action
to Scotish business yet I judged it a crime to let any of the Reliques of that Princes Pen perish How it came into the Marquis his hand I know not it is an Answer to a Remonstrance sent to the King by the Two Houses at Westminster in the end of this year I Having taken to my serious Consideration the late Remonstrance made to me by Both Houses of Parliament do make this Answer I take in good part your care for the Preservation of the true Religion established in this Kingdom from which I will never depart as also for your tenderness of my own Safety and security of this State and Government It is against my mind that Popery or Superstition should any way increase within this Kingdom and I will restrain the same by causing the Laws be put in due execution I resolve likewise to provide against the dangers of Iesuites and Priests setting forth a Proclamation with all speed commanding them to depart the Kingdom within one month whereof if they fail or shall return then they shall be proceeded withall according to the Laws Concerning Rosettie you must understand that my Wife hath always assured me that to her knowledge he hath no Commission but only to entertain a persâ—nal Correspondence betwixt Her and the Pope of things requisite for the exercise of Her Religion which is warranted to Her by the Articles of Our Marriage which give Her a full Liberty of Conscience yet I have so perswaded Her that since the misunderstanding of this person's Condition gives offence She will within a convenient time remove him Moreover I will take special care to restrain my Subjects from resorting to Mass at Denmark-house St. Jame 's and the Chappels of Ambassadours Lastly concerning John Goodman the Priest you must know the reason why I reprieved him is that as I am informed neither Queen Elizabeth nor my Father did ever avow that any Priests in their times were executed meerly for Religion which to me seems to be this particular case yet seeing that I am pressed by Both Houses to give way to his Execution because I will avoid the inconvenience of giving so great a discontentment to my People as I perceive this Mercy may produce I remit this particular Cause to Both Houses but I desire you to take into your serious Considerations the inconveniences which as I conceive may upon this occasion fall upon my Subjects and other Protestants abroad especially since it may seem to other States to be a Severity with surprize which I having thus represented to you think my Self discharged from all ill consequences that may ensue upon the Execution of this person Anno 1641. THe Marquis notwithstandiâ—g all the malice he knew some of his Country-men bore him did not slacken his endeavours to bring things to a final Settlement An. 1641. and the high language which was now spoken at Westminster furnished him with too strong Reasons for enforcing the necessity of agreeing with the Covenanters The King yields to all the Demands of the Covenanters At length the King weary of contending so much resolved to yield to most of their Demands For the first of publishing their Acts though it was contrary to the practice of Scotland to hold a Session of Parliament unless the King were present by himself or his Commissioner yet it was represented that was but a point of Form for as they Sate by the Kings Summons so they did not pretend their Votes were Laws without the Kings Ratification and their Sitting in this manner though disorderly could not be so derogatory to the Kings Authority as at first view appeared since it was the constant practice of the Two Houses in England to Sit and Vote in the Kings absence The King was willing all these Acts should be of new voted promising his Royal Assent to them but they were stiff and the King yielded For the Reparation of Losses the King remitted them to the Two Houses who considered their Accompts and gave them a large Brotherly Assistance For the disposal of the Castles the election of the Councellours Officers of State and Judges which the Covenanters desired should be done with Advice of Parliament they went very harshly down with the King But they alledged divers old Laws for their Demands which seemed now necessary to he revived since His Majesty was so seldom in Scotland The Kings great apprehension of this was that it would give a Copy to England for making the like Demands to which it was answered that the Kings residence in England made the case to differ vastly the Scotish Lords engaging upon their Honour to declare in case the Two Houses should make the like Demands they were unreasonable in so doing In a Word the King granted all they demanded only he thought it unjust and unreasonable to grant an Indempnity to the other Party and let his Friends be secluded from it wherefore he pressed nothing so earnestly as that the Oblivion might be without exception and the List of those who were summoned upon the pretence of being Incendiaries was so great that he thought to abandon so many of his Faithful Servants to the violence of the Times was so dishonourable that he could not answer for it neither to God nor man The Covenanters to yield somewhat reduced their great number to five persons who were the Earl of Traquair the Bishop of Ross Sir Robert Spotswood Sir Iohn Hay and Doctor Balcanquell but the King thought he could not yield to that Demand were there but one excepted and told them that though he had better Grounds to pursue some of themselves as Incendiaries yet being willing to dispense with these his Resentments he had reason to expect the same Condescendency from them But they pretended their Bond and Oath for prosecuting of them and though it was told them that an ill Oath was worse kept yet they were stiff and the temper found was that their Processes should go on but their Censure should be remitted to the King and that the Scots should be satisfied with his Assurance that he should imploy them no more in Scotish Affairs without consent of Parliament And thus all things were agreed on and His Majesty determined to go in Person to Scotland to settle matters there but at this time the Scotish Commissioners began to Cabal with the Male-contents in the Two Houses and in particular concurred with them in the pursuit of the Earl of Strafford The Friendship betwixt the Marquis and that Gallant man had been great and intire and as his Testimony in those matters about which he was examined was among the Evidences Strafford had in his Defences so his Confidence in the Marquis did appear by the following handsome Letter he wrote to him a few days before his Death May it please your Lordship HItherto I judged it not fit to endanger your Lordship by any Intelligence betwixt us which might have turned much to your prejudice in a time when
all so that no clear Proof being brought the Parliament could come to no other Decision but that the Lords had good reason to withdraw themselves and so they were invited to return to their place in Parliament But he is again in His Majesties favour This was a tedious business and put a great stop to the Settlement betwixt the King and the Nation but further Particularities are thought needless to be set down since this Matter vanished no effect following on it The Marquis quickly recovered his former â—oom in the Kings Affection so that there remained not so much as a vestige of this cross Adventure Things in Scotland took presently a Settlement and those were called Plotters and Banders after examination and a delivering up of their Bond which was burnt by the hand of the Common Hangman were set at Liberty after some time of further Restraint but the Process of the alledged Incendiaries was to go on yet they were to enjoy their Liberty and undergo no other Censure but the loss of Publick Imployment which though yielded at London was long resisted in Scotland they pretending their Oath to bring them to condign Punishment But as the King was going on with the Settlement of one Kingdom The Rebellion breaks out in Ireland he got the saddest News that ever were heard out of Ireland of the desperate Rebellion and Massacre had broken out there whereupon His Majesty recommended to the Parliament of Scotland the Relief of his oppressed Protestant Subjects in Ireland which they undertook very willingly But because of the interest England had in Ireland Commissioners were appointed to Treat with the Parliament of England for Concluding a Peace betwixt the two Nations and Settling of Trade and particularly about the Terms upon which they should engage in the War of Ireland and so about the middle of November the King having granted to the Scotish Nation all they could demand ended the Parliament there and returned to London about the end of that month But before the Marquis left Scotland he by the Kings particular Command entred in a close Friendship with Argyle considering that besides the great Power of that Family his Interest with the Clergy and Covenanters was such that none could be so useful to His Majesties Service as he And this Friendship was to be twisted closer by a Bond of a near Alliance betwixt their Children But from all the Letters that passed betwixt them yet to be seen it is as clear as can be that all the Marquis his design in this Friendship was for the Kings Service and that all that time Argyle expressed a hearty concurrence in it To gratifie the Covenanters the more the King had created him a Marquis Lowdon was also made Chancellor Lesley Earl of Leven and Lindsay put in a fair way to be Treasurer Traquair being turned out The King at his return to London The King returns to London where he finds matters worse found the Edge he had left on some of their spirits was no way blunted but growing into more sharpness When the Marquis was in Scotland a Member of the House of Commons laying out their Grievances among other things inveighed against Monopolies and spoke so plainly that all understood he meant the Marquis as a Person that deserved to be accused as well as either Strafford or Canterbury but others of that same Cabal took him up sharply And now upon the Kings return his Enemies finding their designs against him could not take with the King in whose Favour he was as much as ever they took a strange Course to destroy him which was to set on some Members of the House of Commons to accuse him as the Incendiary betwixt England and Scotland who had engaged England into all that Expence who had also invited the Scots to march into England and had been always the third in Strafford's and Canterburie's Counsels who had advised the Dissolving of the former Parliament and had oppressed the Subjects by the grants of many Monopolies which he had This was smelled out even by some of the same Cabal who perswaded their Friends to desist shewing them That for his Carriage betwixt England and Scotland an Oblivion was passed in the late Treaty which was ratified by the Parliament of England That for other things though his Engagement in the Court had carried him along to some extreme Counsels yet they said it was well enough known how moderate his Inclinations were how great an Instrument he had been in the late Settlement of Scotland and how much he was hated upon that account and that this was a design to destroy him either out of malice or because some feared his moderate Counsels in England as much as they hated them in Scotland This seems to have flowed from the Friendship which divers of the Leaders in the House of Peers had for him whom he had often obliged and as they were not unsensible nor forgetful of his good Offices so they seem to have had a particular kindness for his Person And while he was in Scotland he kept Correspondence with Mandevil Essex and others and chiefly with the Lord Say and Seale but all their Letters shew that his greatest business with them was to prepare them to a better Correspondence with the King But when the Marquis smelled out the design against him he gave the King an account of it and told him that if His Majesty intended to go on in his Affairs in a Kingly way he would wait on his Commands and expose himself to the displeasure of the House of Commons but if His Majesty intended to settle Matters by an absolute Compliance with the Parliament then he conceived it was fit that his Servants should use their endeavours for their own Preservation that so they might be afterwards useful to his Service yet he said he would do nothing for himself but by His Majesties Allowance and Direction being it is like taught more caution by the Jealousies had been taken from his care of vindicating himself in the Parliament of Scotland The King upon this allowed him to use all means for his own Preservation which he so managed that the designed Accusation came to nothing This particâ—lar His Sacred Majesty vouchsafed to tell the Writter adding that he had it from the Queen His Mother Anno 1642. An. 1642. THe Tumults and Disorders about Whitehall and Westminster rose to that height that the King withdrew to Windsor in the beginning of the year The Scotch Commissioners continued Treating about their engaging for Ireland The Sâ—ots Commissioners animate the Houses to press the change of the Laws about Church-Government which the King pressed forward very earnestly but some of the Commissioners begun to tamper with those who were most opposite to the Court in the Two Houses and in stead of Moderating them were instigating them to persist in their Demands about Religion to get Episcopacy brought down and Presbytery set up To
idle in so stirring Times and therefore His Majesty would consider how to make use of them lest otherwise they may be engaged and with them the Kingdom Shew that it will be impossible longer to delay the Meeting of the Commissioners for Conserving of the Peace and what my Part hath been therein and therefore to Consider if it were not fit they were called by His Majesties Warrant Shew that I could not think of a better way to serve Her Majesty for the present than by procuring an Invitation from the whole Kingdom for Her return which Proposition if His Majesty conceive fit for His Service and be acceptable to Her Majesty I doubt not of the effectuating it otherwise it shall here end Shew that though I can be of no great use to His Majesty any where yet I conceive more here than at York for albeit I still say I can undertake for nothing yet I may possibly be able to prevent Evil if I can do no Good Shew the miserable Condition of my Fortune which occasioneth the not sending as yet the Moneys for entertaining the Horse which if the sale of Land can procure shall be quickly remedied In August following there was an Assembly to which the King sent the Earl of Dunfermline Commissioner Dunfermline Commissioner to the General Assembly with full Assurances of His Majesties Resolution to adhere to what was now settled by Law and to encourage all good Motions for advancing of Piety and Learning and it was also recommended to him as his chief Work to keep the Assembly within their own bounds that they might not meddle with England nor interpose in the Differences betwixt the King and the Two Houses But this was not to be done except by Authority backed with Force for there came a Declaration from the Parliament of England which was very welcome to them and had such a Return as they of England desired For the Assembly declared Prelacy to be the great Mountain that lay in the way of the advancement of Religion The Assembly declares against Episcopacy in England which must first be removed before the Church and Work of God could be established and nothing the Kings Commissioner said was able to divert them from this so irresistible was their Zeal They also sent a Petition to the Council desiring them to second their Address to the King for an Uniformity in Church-Government in all his Dominions and likewise desired that by reason of the Commotions were in England the Council would call together the Conservatours of the Peace this was a Court established by the late Parliament to see to the Preservation of the Articles of the late Treaty with England The Council upon this recommended Uniformity in Church-Government by a Letter to the King wherein they desired also Warrant to convene the Conservatours of the Peace the Assembly wrote also to the King to the same purpose The Marquis represented to His Majesty that their Zeal for this Uniformity was so great that no Art could hinder them from Petitioning for it but if they could be preserved from Deeds Many desire Uniformity in Church-Government and that the Conservators of Peace might meet their big words were to be answered with smooth Language But as for the Meeting of the Conservatours of the Peace he laid out the hazard of it to the King for if he refused to convene them it would raise Jealousies in the Peoples minds and there was ground to fear they would meet of their own accord if they were not called which would be an affront to the Kings Authority and might precipitate a Rupture But on the other hand there was no small danger in their Sitting for of that number some were likelier to disturb than conserve the Peace To the Letters from the Assembly and Council the King wrote the following Answer CHARLES R. BY your Letter to Vs of the 19th of this Instant August We find you concur with Our late General Assembly The Kings Letter about Uniformity of Church-Government in their Desire to Vs about Vnity of Religion and Vniformity of Church-Government in all Our three Kingdoms which cannot be more earnestly desired by you than shall be really endeavoured by Vs in such a way as We in Our Conscience conceive to be best for the flourishing Estate of the true Protestant Religion But as for Ioyning with Our Houses of Parliament here in this Work it were improper for Vs at this time to give any Answer for since their Meeting they have never made any Proposition to Vs concerning Vnity of Religion or Vniformity of Church-Government so far are they from desiring any such thing as we are confident the most considerable Persons and those who make fairest Pretences to you of this kind will no sooner embrace a Presbyterial than you an Episcopal And truely it seems notwithstanding whatsoever Profession they have made to the contrary that nothing hath been less in their minds than Settling of the true Religion and Reforming such Abuses in the Church-Government as possibly have crept in contrary to the establish't Law of the Land to which we have been so far from being averse that We have by divers Declarations and Messages pressed them to it though hitherto it hath been to small purpose But when-ever any Proposition shall be made to Vs by them which We shall conceive may any way advance the Vnity of the true Protestant Religion according to the Word of God or establish the Church-Government according to the known Laws of this Kingdom We shall by Our chearful Ioyning with them let the World see that nothing can be more acceptable unto Vs than the furthering and advancing of so good a Work So we bid you Farewell From Nottingham the 26th of August 1642. All in Scotland called for the Conservatours Sitting and said that they must be on their guard The Chancellor calls a Meeting of the Conservators of the Peace when War was like to be on their Borders whereupon the Council ordered the Chancellour to convene them At this time all the Scotish Commissioners returned from London every thing that concerned the Treaty being expeded but the Council thought it necessary to send the Earl of Lindsay and Sir Iohn Smith to lie there for Correspondence of which they gave the King notice With this His Majesty was highly displeased for he said they were either sent to Treat by vertue of the Commission from the Parliament in which case they were not a Quorum or by the Councils Authority if so then he asked who warranted them to do that without his Order yet to take away any ground of Heats or Jealousies he impowered them to go that they might see to the preserving the Articles of the Treaty As for the Conservators of the Peace he gave the Earl of Lowdon Warrant to convene them against the 22th of September and sent Mr. Murray of the Bed-Chamber afterwards Earl of Dysert with Instructions Mr. Murray
sent to Scotland to inform them of all had passed betwixt him and the Two Houses whose account of the state he found things in follows in a Letter to my Lord Lanerick My much honoured Lord who informs about the State of Affairs there WHen I arrived here your Brother was in Argyle but upon knowledge of my coming came himself and brought that Marquis with him to Hamilton whither the Chancellor went likewise and there I attended all three I found them with the same Affections and Desires your Lordship left in them but as they conceive not so able to Act as they were then They apprehend the Parliament of England will be much higher in their Demands than at that time as understanding now both the Kings Power and their own which were then but upon forming and promised a greater Equality The Kings two Messages to the Parliament have likewise so discredited His Majesties Affairs in this Country that they fear many forward enough before will now unwillingly engage in any way which may displease the Parliament yet they are resolved to do their best and I believe say little less in this inclosed Letter signed by all three His Majesty must expect in point of Religion to be prest for Vniformity in Church-Government and if His Majesty may be moved to publish some handsome Declaration satisfactory in that point it would infinitely advance all his Affairs in this Country and from hence have a powerful influence upon that The Parliament hath gained much here by their last Vote and there is a very fine Answer expected to their last Message sent by the Lord Maitland which will extraordinarily confirm the former Correspondence if the King do not something plausible in the same kind timeously and unconstrained the two Kingdoms will shut upon him in despight of what his best Servants can do Here is no Order for publishing His Majesties Declarations and great care taken to the contrary which occasions great prejudication in the common Peoples minds and were very fit to be amended I am looked upon here with great Iealousie yet it lessens because they see I am not busie I am advised by your Brother and the rest for avoiding of suspicion to go up to Court which having dispatched some particular business I have of my own I am resolved to do They have entrusted me with these particular Queries of which they desire His Majesties Resolution if your Lordship find opportunity you may acquaint His Majesty with them They desire likewise your Lordship may be sent down with a Letter to the Commissioners full of Confidence and allowing them all Freedom in their Consultations In respect of this great Meeting your Brother cannot make his Iourney to Holland no Act of that nature being now to be done their Opinion and Authority not consulted but I find them all right set in the thing and truly so respective to the Queens Person it did my Heart good to hear them All the Lords Conservators which are with you will receive Summons but it is not desired they should come down and truly I believe their Presence will do more hurt than good I must intreat your Lordship to acquaint His Majesty with these Particulars to receive his further Commands and convey them to My Lord Your Lordships faithful humble Servant M. MVRRAY Edinburgh 10th Sept. 1642. POSTSCRIPT The King must send to New-Castle Directions concerning his Ships for their Victuals are quite spent my poor opinion is they should be sent to Holland where they may be safer and attend the Queen What the Queries mentioned in this Letter were appears not to the Writer but for the Letters and Declarations the King sent to Scotland they are all of one strain and because the clearest and fullest was sent the next Summer I shall refer all to that which shall be set down in its proper place Only I have here inserted an account of the Kings Affairs with the Two Houses written by Lanerick to one in Scotland whose Name I find not set down but believe it was to Mr. Murray and corrected with His Majesties Pen in some places SIR AS you desired me I moved His Majesty for a Copy of the last Message to the Houses of Parliament which you will herewith receive An account oâ— Affairs in England His Majesty hath not as yet had any Answer from them but we are informed here His Messengers have been far otherwise received than he expected since they were the Carriers of so good a Message for the Earl of South-Hampton a better Poster than the Earl of Dorset came to the House upon Saturday last and as he was going to take his place he was called to to withdraw He said he had a Message to deliver them from His Majesty but received no other Answer than still a Command to withdraw which at last he obeyed then they sent the Black Rod to him requiring him to send the Message to them by him which he refused having Commands to deliver the Message himself to the House But they again pressed it yet he still refused at last they declared that if any Evil did arise from the not delivering of his Message they were free of it whereupon he sent it to them by Mr. Maxwell to which he received no other Answer than their absolute Command immediately to remove from Town The House of Commons were something more favourable to Sir John Culpeper who after some Debate was admitted into the House though not to his Place but as I am informed delivered his Message at the Bar and thereafter was commanded to withdraw It was then taken into Consideration whether or not he should any more be admitted as a Member of that House which was voted in his favours so that it is like their Answer will be returned by him which I hear will only be to let His Majesty know that so long as his Proclamations are out against the Earl of Essex and such others their Adherents of whom they account themselves to be as Traytors and the Standard up for raising of Men to suppress them they account themselves as out of His Majesties Protection and so incapable to Treat By this the World will see whether His Majesty or they be the occasion of this War and of all the Blood which is like to be shed in this unfortunate Kingdom His Majesty hath left no means of Accommodation unessayed for he hath even descended to make the first Offer of a new Treaty so careful is He of His Subjects Lives that for their Safeties He is even prodigal of His Own Honour and certainly he hath not a Subject that hath Honour but will be sensible of the Extremities he is now reduced into I wish our Countrymen may take it so to heart as not to neglect this occasion of witnessing their Affections to His Majesty by making some Overtures for such a Treaty or offer of their Service to Him since His Majesty is absolutely resolved to send no
wherein it is represented that your Lordships late Warrant for Printing His Majesties Letter hath occasioned great Grief and heavy Regrate of all who tender the Glory of God His Majesties Honour and procuring Vnity of Religion and Vniformity in Church-Government the continuance of Peace and Vnion betwixt the two Kingdoms and fearing if at this time we should be silent your Lordships should conceive us and the rest of the Kingdom to be involved with them in the like Desires Iudgements and Opinions and lest by our silence our Gracious Soveraign the Kings Majesty should believe us wanting in the Duty and Allegiance which by so many Tyes and Obligations we owe to Him our Native King or that our Brethren of England should apprehend the least Intention â—r Desire in us to infringe or any ways to encroach upon the Brotherly Vnion of the two Kingdoms so happily united under one Head We presume in all Humility to clear our selves and our Intentions to your Lordships and to all the World and therewith to represent our humble Wishes and Desires for Establishing His Majesties Royal Authority and continuing that happy Vnion betwixt the two Kingdoms which can never truely be conceived to be intended to weaken the Head whereby it is knit together and without which it can have no subsistence The happy Vnion of the two Kingdoms under one Head our King doth so much add to His Majesties Greatness and Strength of both Kingdoms that we British Subjects cannot choose but wish that the said Brotherly Vnion be heartily entertained and cherished by all fair and reasonable means to which we conceive no one thing will so much conduce as that the late Articles of the Treaty of Peace and Conclusions taken thereupon about Vnity of Religion may be carefully and timeously prosecuted wherein as our Commissioners then so we now without presuming or usurping to prescribe Rules or Laws of Reformation to our Neighbour-kingdom Civil Liberty and Conscience being so tender that it cannot endure to be touched but by such as they are wedded to and have lawful Authority over them notwithstanding seeing the duty of Charity doth oblige all Christians to pray and profess their Desires that all were of the same Religion with themselves and since we all acknowledge that Religion is the base and foundation of Kingdoms and the strongest Bond to knit the Subjects to their Princes in true Loyalty and to knit their Hearts one to another in true Vnity we cannot but heartily wish that this work of Vnion so happily begun may be crowned and strengthened by the Vnity of Church-Government and that your Lordships with us may be pleased to represent it to His Majesty and Both Houses of Parliament as an expression and Testimony of our Affections to the good of our Brethren in England and of our Desires to make firm and stable our Brotherly Vnion by the strong chain and Bulwark of Religion but as we have said no ways intending thereby to pass our bounds in prescribing and setting down Rules and Limits to His Majesty and the Two Houses of Parliament their Wisdom and Authority in the way of prosecution thereof The sense we have of the great Calamities and irreparable Evils which upon occasion of these unhappy Distractions and Mistakes betwixt the Kings Majesty and the Two Houses of England which if not speedily removed cannot but produce the fearful and prodigious effects of a bloody and Civil War obligeth us in the duty of Christians and as feeling members of what may concern our Common Head the Kings Majesty and the Good and Happiness of our Brethren of England humbly to represent to your Lordships That as we will not be wanting with our Prayers and our faithful and best Endeavours to assist in the removing of these unhappy Mistakes and Misunderstandings so we heartily wish and humbly Petition your Lordships that from the deepness of your Wisdom such happy Motions may flow as upon that tender care of our Soveraigns Person and Authority Peace and Truth may be settled in all His Majesties Dominions Although we will not presume nor take upon us to prescribe Laws and Rules to your Lordships yet in all Humility we intreat your permission to represent such Particulars as we conceive and are very confident will conduce much to the removing of all â—hese Mistakes betwixt His Majesty and His Two Houses of Parliament and be a ready mean to facilitate a happy and wished Peace and continue the Brotherly Vnion between the Two Kingdoms And first that in answering the foresaid Petition your Lordships may be pleased to do no Act which may give His Majesty just occasion to repent him of what Trust he so Graciously expressed in his Letter of the Date the fifth of December He reposes in us His Subjects of His Ancient and Native Kingdom for we cannot think that our Brethren in England or any other can believe that the ground of this Mutual Vnion of the two Kingdoms by the several and respective Vnions to our Prince and Head should weaken the strong Bond whereby it is knit and by which we are so firmly tied by so many Ages and unparalelled lineal descents of an hundred and seven Kings Neither can we suppose that any good Protestant or true member of our Church can imagine far less seduce others to believe that by the late Treaty of Peace or Act of Vnion we as Scotish Subjects are in any sort liberated from the Dutiful Obedience which as Scotishmen we owe to our Scotish King or from that due Loyalty which as Scotish Subjects we owe to our Native Soveraign for Maintenance of His Person Greatness and Authority or that thereby we are in any other Condition in these necessary Duties to our Soveraign than we and our Ancestors were and have been these many Ages and Descents before the making of the said Act or before the Swearing and Subscribing of our late Covenant by which we have solemnly sworn and do swear not only our mutual Concurrence and Assistance for the cause of Religion and to the utmost of our power with our Means and Lives to stand to the Defence of our Dread Soveraign His Person and Authority in the preservation of Religion Liberty and Laws of this Church and Kingdom but also in every Cause which may concern His Majesties Honour we shall according to the Laws of this Kingdom and Duty of Subjects concur with our Friends and Followers in quiet manner or in Arms as we shall be required of His Majesty or His Councel or any having His Authority Secondly That if your Lordships think it fitting to make any answer to the Parliament of England their Declaration your Lordships may be pleased not to declare enact or promise any thing which may trouble or molest the Peace of this Kirk and Kingdom which by God's special Grace and His Majesties Favour and Goodness we enjoy and have established unto us according to our Hearts desire by the Laws Ecclesiastical or Civil of
Breach might follow betwixt him and his Native Kingdom but on the other hand he could not permit them to go both because of the Reasons he had alledged and the Fears he had of their engaging with the Parliament and chiefly that all his Councellours and Officers at Oxford were so far against it that he heard it was whispered amongst them that they would all forsake him if he gave them leave since they held themselves assured that the Design of their going was to bring an Army from Scotland wherefore he intreated Lindsay would serve him in that Particular which he undertook frankly though he added he had small hopes since he had already attempted as much as he could with no Success But as he left His Majesty he made a Visit in his way to his Lodgings where he met the Earl of Crawford who told him plainly That though the King should consent to their going to London thither should they never get for a great many were resolved to lie in their way and cut them all to pieces ere they were many miles from Oxford This he confirmed to him with many Oaths adding that as the King knew nothing of it so it would not be in his power to hinder it and out of kindness to my Lord Lindsay he advised him not to go though the Chancellour went With this Lindsay came to his Lodgings and shewed the Lord Chancellour the hazard not only their Lives would be in but of the irreparable Breach would follow upon it which being considered by them it was resolved they should pass from their Desires and crave the Kings Commands for Scotland since they would not offend him by the importunity of an unacceptable Mediation which they accordingly did to His Majesties great satisfaction And so they took leave the Chancellour with the other Commissioners going for Scotland only Lindsay returned to London Upon this His Majesty sent all the Scotish Lords then at Court to Scotland to serve him there who were the Earls of Morton Roxburgh Kinnoul Annandale Lanerick and Carnwath but before they could be dispatched he sent Mr. Murray to Scotland with an account of his opinion about the Services his Friends might do him there who came by York and brought from the Queen the following Letter to the Marquis in answer to what he had written to Her Majesty which though written in French as all Her private Letters were yet I shall set down translated in English that all may run more smoothly Cousin I Received your Letter with the assurances of the Continuance of your Aâ—fection of which I hold my self secure and make no doubt to see both the effects of it and of that which you promised me at your parting concerning my Lord of Argyle Will. Murray came yesterday from Oxford as for News from hence I refer you to Henry Jermine who will give you an account of them I shall only tell you that the Scotish Lords who were with the King are on their way for Scotland so likewise are the Commissioners that were with the King You will know from Will. Murray the Kings Answers to the Propositions which you made me at York I am very glad to know by Your Letter as likewise by what my Lord Montgomery hath told me the Protestations General Lesly makes concerning the Armies in Ireland and now when all the Kings Servants shall be together you must think of the means for preserving that Army for my part I know not what to say farther about it I am now upon my going to the King and hope to part hence within ten dayes If there be any thing that hath occurred of late I shall be glad to know it and that you will believe how much I am Your affectionate Cousin and Friend HENRIETA MARIA R. About the beginning of May Lowdon and the other Commissioners came down and a day after them came the Earl of Morton who told the Marquis They proceed to final Resolutions in Scotland that in a few days he should see the Earls of Roxburgh Kinnoul and Lanerick with the Kings Instructions but by reason of Kinnoul's Infirmity and Roxburgh's Age they moved slowly On the 21th of May the Iunto of the Church-party moved that there might be a Joynt-meeting of the Council and Conservatours of the Peace and Commissioners for Publick Burdens to consider of the present State of Affairs The Marquis and Morton resisted this all they could but they were over-ruled and so these Judicatories met to them it was proposed that considering the hazard the Nation was in by reason of Armies which were now levying in the North of England there was a necessity of putting the Kingdom in a posture of Defence which could not be done without a Convention of Estates or a Parliament wherefore it was moved that a Convention of Estates should be presently called The Marquis argued much against it shewing that this was to encroach upon the Kings Prerogative in the highest degree and so would be a direct Breach of the Peace with the King and against the Laws of the Land adding Was this all the Acknowledgment they gave the King for his late Gracious Concessions for this struck at the root of his Power In this he was seconded by my Lord Morton but most vigorously by Sir Thomas Hope the Kings Advocate who debated against it so fully from all the Laws and constant Practice of Scotland that no Answer could be alledged and indeed discharged his Duty so faithfully that the Marquis forgave him all former errors for that dayes Service But it was in vain to argue where the Resolution was taken on Interest more than Reason so it was carried that the Lord Chancellour should summon a Convention of Estates against the 22th of Iune A Convention of Estates is called This Resolution being taken they gave Advertisement of it to the King in the following Letter which all who Voted against it refused to sign Most Dread Sovereign THe extreme necessity of the Army sent from this Kingdom by Order from Your Majesty and the Parliament here against the Rebellion in Ireland the want of means for their necessary Supply through the not payment of the Arrears and Maintenance due to them by the Parliament of England the delay of the Payment of the Brotherly Assistance so necessary for the relief of the Common Burdens of this Kingdom by reason of the unhappy Distractions in England and the sense of the danger of Religion of Your Majesties Royal Person and of the Common Peace of Your Kingdoms have moved Your Majesties Privy Council the Commissioners for conserving the Peace and Common Burdens to joyn together in a Common Meeting for acquitting our selves in the Trust committed to us by Your Majesty and the Estates of Parliament and having found after long Debate and mature Deliberation that the Matters before-mentioned are of so Publick Concernment of so deep Importance and so great Weight that they cannot be determined by us in such a
Hearts to yield much more than the Authority of the Kings Commands who having got notice of it from the Earl of Lindsay wrote down to Scotland peremptorily commanding them to desist from any such pursute if it were begun requiring also his Advocate to appear for them in His Majesties Name if they were pursued The Earl of Lanerick wrote to the King what follows May it please Your Majesty I Shall here Humbly presume to let Your Majesty know that before any of Your Scotish Servants who lately parted with Your Majesty at Oxford Lanâ—rick 's account of Affairs to His Majesty could possibly come hither the Chancellour had made his Report to the Council and Conservatours of the Treaty and Mr. Henderson to the Commissioners of the General Assembly of their Employments to Your Majesty where Your Answers to their Desires were found not satisfactory and thereafter Your Majesties Council Commissioners for the Treaty and Common Burdens having joyned together for giving of Security for such Moneys as should be levyed for the Maintenance of Your Majesties Scotish Army in Ireland they thought fit without admitting of any delay until Your Majesties Pleasure were known to call a Convention of the Estates as their several Acts and Proclamations to that effect here inclosed will more particularly shew Your Majesty And for the present Your Majesties Servants who came lately hither having only met with three or four of those whom Your Majesty appointed them to consult with have thought fit to advise with some others of the same Affection and Forwardness to Your Majesties Service before they presume to give Your Majesty any Advice upon the present Occasions being matters of so great Weight and so highly concerning Your Majesties Service but they have taken the readiest and most speedy Course they can think upon for Meeting and Consulting with them and thereafter are immediately to return hither from whence they will with all diligence offer unto Your Majesty their humble Opinion In the mean time I have dispatched Your Majesties Letters to such Noblemen and Burroughs as Your Majesty was pleased to direct me shewing Your Resolution of preserving here what you have been pleased so Graciously to establish in Church and State not having been able to deliver Your Majesties Letter to Your Council who were dissolved before my coming and my Lord Chancellour is gone out of Town without whose Appointment there can be no extraordinary Meeting so that I believe Your Majesties Gracious Declaration to Your Scotish Subjects cannot be published before that time nor till then can I be able to give Your Majesty any further account of Your Affairs here though in the mean time I shall study to serve Your Majesty faithfully according to the Duty of Your Majesties Most humble and most faithful and most obedient Subject and Servant LANERICK Edinburgh 18th May. 1643. In the end of May there was a Meeting of about thirty Noblemen where these two Questions were proposed The Lords consult what to advise His Majesty First if it were fit for the Kings Service that the Convention should be suffered to hold Next if it held whether those who were well-affected to the Kings Service should fit in it There were three or four Days spent in debating upon these Heads some moved that since by the calling of this Convention the other Party had so far encroached upon the King they should presently break with them this Motion came chiefly from other Lords who would not come to that Meeting But it was answered that the King as he would not give Commissions for raising an Army in England till he knew the Parliament had first done it on their side so it was his positive Pleasure that his Party should not make the first Breach which the King judged so much for his Honour that no Consideration could move him to dispense with it yet these who made that Proposition were desired to lay down ways how it could be made effectual since it was Madness and not Courage to hazard the Ruine of the Kings Service and Friends without at least a likelyhood of being able to carry it through with some Success All things being examined it was concluded that the following Message should be sent to His Majesty which was set down in a Paper dated the 5th of Iune but because of the War in England they committed it verbally to a Trusty Bearer lest it had been intercepted A Convention was indicted by the Chancellour and such others of the Council as have signed His Majesties Letter thereabout with the Advice and Concurrence of the Committees for conserving the Treaty and Common Burdens to be kept at Edinburgh the 22th of June whereby it is conceived His Majesty suffers exceedingly in His Regal Authority in the Calling thereof without his Special Warrant A Proclamation for the Indicting thereof is likewise issued forth in His Majesties Name expressing a danger to Religion His Majesties Person and the Peace of this Kingdom from Papists in Arms in England which in that appears to be contrary to His late Declaration sent to Scotland Hereupon divers Noblemen and Gentlemen well-affected to His Majesties Service met at Edinburgh and after three or four days Debate considering the exigency of Time the present posture of Affairs and the disposition and inclination of the People of this Country did not conceive it fitting that His Majesty should absolutely discharge that Meeting which certainly would be kept notwithstanding of any Discharge from Him which would both bring His Authority in greater Contempt and lose more of the Affections of the People whereby the Power of His Majesties Servants would be lessened but rather that His Majesty should so far take notice of the Illegal Calling thereof and His Own Suffering thereby that the same remaining upon Record may be an evidence to Posterity that this Act of theirs can infer no such Precedent for the like in the future but afterwards His Majesty or His Successors may Legally question the same And that His Majesties Servants here may be better enabled and strengthened with the assistance of others of His Majesties faithful Subjects who truly and really intend nothing but the Security of Religion as it is here established and are altogether averse from and against the Raising of Arms or Bringing over the Scotish Army in Ireland whereby His Majesties Affairs or their own Peace may be disturbed they conceive it fit that His Majesty should permit this Convention to Treat and conclude upon such Particulars as may secure their Fears from any danger of Religion at home without interessing themselves in the Government of the Church of England And in respect that the Two Houses of Parliament have not sent Supplies for Entertaining the Scotish Army in Ireland whereby they may have some colour or ground for recalling them it is conceived necessary that this Convention should have a Power from His Majesty to advise and resolve upon all fair and Legal wayes for Entertaining the
glad to get it carried on at any rate But many judged the oddest part of it all was their Oath to maintain the Priviledges of both Parliaments since that was never defined and was scarce capable of a Definition and the Priviledges of the Parliament of England were far enough from the knowledge and divination of the Scotish People who in this case must believe all that to be Priviledge which they called so The Covenant was carried up by those trusted with it to the Two Houses to be approved by them and being returned to Scotland the Committee of Estates did by their Printed Act of 22th of October ordain it to be Sworn and Subscribed by all the Subjects under the pain of being punished as Enemies to Religion His Majesties Honour and the Peace of these Kingdoms and to have their Goods and Rents confiscated and they not to enjoy any Benefit or Office within the Kingdom and to be cited to the next Parliament as enemies to Religion King and Kingdoms and to receive what further punishment His Majesty and the Parliament should inflict on them At this time His Majesty sent Mr. Mungo Murray to Scotland to assure his Friends of his Confidence in them who brought the following Letters from the King and Queen to the Duke Hamilton Letters from the King and Queen to the Dukâ— I Find there hath been a great Mistaking about that mark of Favour which I thought fit to bestow upon you the particulars I have commanded Mungo Murray to tell you only this I assure you that my Confidence of you is not lessened from what I commanded your Brother to assure you of in my Name for you shall find me Your most assured real constant Friend CHARLES R. Cousin AS soon as I had occasion since my Arrival hither to write to you I have resolved to do it both to assure you of all that I said to you when I was at York as also to tell you that I am none of the least sharers in rejoycing at the Honour the King hath put on you This is a mark of the Confidence He hath in you which I am assured you will make the World see was founded on very good reason The Bearer is a Person who will tell you more than I can write to him I refer my self and shall say no more but that I am Your affectionate Cousin HENRIETA MARIA R. Oxford 28th August The Kings Friends had gone to the several places where their Interests lay to see what likelyhood there was of Raising any Force for advancing the Kings Service by extreme ways and to put a better colour on their Gathering of People together they carried with them the following Letter which was Signed by His Majesty and of which Lanerick was ordered to give an attested Copy to all who were well-affected CHARLES R. RIght Trusty and Right well-beloved Cousin and Councellour The Kings Letter to His good Subjects in Scotland We Greet you well Since nothing on Earth can be more dear to Vs than the Preservation of the Affections of Our People and amongst them none more than those of Our Native Kingdom which as the long and uninterrupted Government of Vs and Our Predecessors over them doth give Vs just reason in a more near and special manner to challenge from them so may they justly expect a particular Tenderness from Vs in every thing that may contribute to their Happiness but knowing what industry is used by scattering Seditious Pamphlets and employing private Agents and Instructions to give bad impressions of Vs and Our Proceedings under a Pretence of danger to Religion and Government to corrupt their Fidelities and Affections and to engage them in an unjust Quarrel against Vs their King We cannot therefore but endeavour to remove these Iealousies and secure their fears from all possibility of any hazard to either of these from Vs We have therefore thought fit to require you to call together your Friends Vassals Tenants and such others as have any dependance upon you and in Our Name to shew them Our Willingness to give all the Assurances they can desire or We possibly grant if more can be given than already is of preserving inviolably all those Graces and Favours which We have of late granted to that Our Kingdom and that We do faithfully promise never to go to the contrary of any thing there established either in Ecclesiastical or Civil Government but that We will inviolably keep the same according to the Laws of that Our Kingdom and We do wish God so to bless Our Proceedings and Posterity as We do really make good and perform this Promise We hope this will give so full satisfaction to all that shall hear of this Our solemn Protestation that no such persons as study Division or go about to weaken the Confidence betwixt Vs and Our People and justly deserve the name and punishment of Incendiaries shall be sheltred from the hand of Iustice and all such others as shall endeavour Peace and Vnity and Obedience to Vs and Our Laws may expect that Protection and increase of Favours from Vs which their Fidelity deserves So expecting your Care hereof We bid you heartily farewell From Our Court at Oxford the 21st of April 1643. These Lords appointed at parting to meet again about the end of August The Lords whom theKing employed meet and send Propositions to the King which accordingly they did and when they met divers told they found much coldness among their Friends Many professed a cordialness to the Kings Service but they had neither Armes nor Ammunition nor saw they a place of Security for a Rendezvouz nor of Safety for a Retreat in case of a Misfortune so that divers of the Noblemen said It was not in their power to bring any with them to the fields but their own Domesticks Whereupon it was agreed by them all to send one Neal Servant to Mr. Murray of the Bed-Chamber to the Marquis of Newcastle to desire him to seize on Berwick which was of great Importance and was at time without a Garison that it might be the Place whither they might bring what Forces they could draw together which was indeed the most proper Place for them since the Counties that lay next it were best-affected They likewise desired my Lord Newcastle to send them such Arms and Ammunition as could be spared them out of the Kings Magazins which were then in his hands they also ordered Neal to go forward from him to Oxford to give the King an account of their Desires that they might be presently supplied He was dispatched on the 29th of August but on the 4th of September my Lord Newcastle wrote back to them a short answer referring them to Neal who in a large one both which are extant told them that my Lord Newcastle said he could spare them neither Armes nor Ammunition and as for Berwick he could not seize on it without bringing Ruine on himself and his Posterity unless
hazards The Propositions were brought from the Two Houses about the middle of Iuly and a speedy answer was craved to them The Propositions are brought to the King But for an account of His Majesties Thoughts of them I cannot give it better than by setting down a written account of them in a Letter sent to the Earl of Lauderdale at His Majesties Command by Sir Robert Murray THe Duty which I conceive every good Subject owes His Majesties first Thoughts of them to use his utmost Endeavours how weak soever for the furtherance of the happy Peace of these afflicted Kingdoms hath made me take the boldness to talk with the King upon the Propositions to see how far he can be induced to yield to them And although to every particular I cannot promise you an exact account because there are divers things in them which neither He nor I understand yet to the main Points I shall and such as I hope may be a good ground-work for happy Conclusions First then for Religion I find His Majesty really Conscientious and not superstitiously Scrupulous wherefore until He be better satisfied the uttermost He can be brought to is that He will be content that Presbyterial Government be generally established within this Kingdom by Act of Parliament for three years provided that He and all those of His Opinion may freely enjoy their Consciences according to the practices in Queen Elizabeth 's and King James 's Times Now how to do this would be too long for a Letter but as there are Examples so I doubt not to shew you more than one way to do it so willing ears may be brought to such a Motion and I assure you His Majesty is most willing to hearken and seek after information to the end He may be satisfied how with a safe Conscience He may give you full satisfaction herein but this Proviso that His Majesty grants will probably be but temporary For the Militia I can neither see inclinations in His Majesty to relinquish nor can I find Arguments to perswade him to it nevertheless I perceive so great inclinations in Him to strain to the uttermost to give His Subjects all just Satisfaction especially in what concerns the securing of their Fears that He will be content for Ten years the Two Houses should dispose of the Militia by Act of Parliament in the hands of such and so many persons as they shall name as likewise to change them within the said time and appoint others in their Places as they shall think fit but after the expiration of the said Time to return to the Crown as Queen Elizabeth and King James enjoyed it Concerning Delinquents His Majesties Opinion is that a good Act of Oblivion is the best way to bind up a Peace after Intestine Troubles it having been the Wisdom of other Kingdoms most usually and with good success to grant general Pardons with very few or no Exceptions whereby the numerous Discontentments of all sorts of People which are the seeds and fuel to future Disorders might be totally extinguished and His Majesty further conceives that He cannot desert so many gallant Persons of Condition and Fortune who have engaged themselves with Him only out of a sense of Duty without a perpetual and irrecoverable Dishonour As for Offices though His Majesty judges that the Disposal of them is a necessary Flower of the Crown yet He is content for this time to accept of the Nomination of them from the Two Houses to be enjoyed by these persons quam diu se bene gesserint so that after Vacancies they return to be disposed of as before I unwillingly mention Ireland because His Majesties Publick Faith being engaged how dare I speak to Him to violate that which is and must be all our Security but even in this will I pawn my Life He will prove Himself a zealous Protector of Protestants and a constant Maintainer of Sovereign Power My Conclusion is that if upon these grounds a Conference may be had betwixt His Majesty and the Two Houses I will engage any thing that an Honest man can that these Kingdoms will be shortly happy in a firm Peace which if it should fail on our part for our not hearing of our Soveraign it would be an unparalelled Misfortune not without Infamy These were His Majesties private Thoughts but His publick Answer inclined more to a Denial which when it was brought to Westminster was entertained both with Joy and Sorrow The King does not yield to the Propositions according to the inclinations of the several Parties The Independents and those of the Army feared nothing so much as the Kings granting them for in that case they saw there could be no colour for keeping up an Army and in the House of Commons when Thanks were Voted to the Commissioners that had been with the King for their pains one Member whispered another in the ear that they owed more Thanks to the King than any body and in another corner an honest Member saying to another what shall become of us since the King refuseth these Propositions the other answered nay what had become of us if He had granted them The Independent Party upon this moved The Houses go on to high Resolutions but are stopped by the Scotish Commissioners that no more Addresses should be made and that His Majesties Person should be demanded and the Army commanded Northward to see it executed which had been infallibly done had not the Scotish Commissioners given them in some Papers complaining of many Violations of the Treaty and the Arrears due to the Army The King had also desired a Personal Treaty near London and the Scots seconded it but the obtaining it was impossible for all this time the Scotish Commissioners and the English whereof the greatest part were of the Independent Faction were in no good terms As for the Arrears of their Pay the Two Houses talked of offering five hundred thousand pounds Sterling whereof an hundred and fifty thousand should be paid presently that so they might be rid of their Army which they said was no more necessary in England and a Complaint being made against some who spoke and wrote in prejudice of the Scotish Nation an Ordinance was debated for punishing them The Independents Imployed all their Strength against it Cromwell spoke most vehemently that it was to discourage their Friends and to encourage their Enemies but Hollis took him up so sharply for calling base Libellers Friends that he was glad to recant When it went to the Vote it run near an equality for 102 were against it and 132 for it so quickly were the Services of their dear Brethren of Scotland forgotten At this time the King sent my Lords of Argyle The King employes Argyle at London for obtaining a Personal Treaty Lowdon and Dumfermline to London Their Instructions were to deal for a Personal Treaty near London to get some of the Kings faithfullest Servants to be suffered
a most happy Agreement This I believe is not much neeâ—ful to satisfie your Iudgements for I am not ignorant how really yâ—ur Commissioners at London have endeavâ—ured a satisfactory Answer to My Message as likewise what good Instructions have been sent them â—ut of Scotland so that the force of Power more than the force of Reason hath made you so instant with Me as you have been with which I am so far from finding fault that what you have done I take well knowing it proceeds out of the abundance of your Zeal to My Service therefore as you see I do not mistake you so I am careful not to be mistaken by you Wherefore again I desire you to take notice that I do not give a Denyal My Desire being only to be heard as likewise that you will take things as they are since neither you nor I can have them as we would wherefore let us make the best of every thing and now as you have fully performed your Duty to me so I cannot doubt but you will continue to press those at London to hear Reason And certainly you can little expect fair dealing from those who shall reject so much Reason and of that sort which you have and I hope will offer to them Not to stay you too long upon so unpleasing a Subject I assure you that nothing but the Preservation of that which is dearer to Me than My Life could have hindred Me from giving you full satisfaction for upon My word all the dangers and inconveniences which you have laid before Me do not so much trouble Me as that I should not give full satisfaction to the Desires of My native Country especially being so earnestly pressed upon Me. And yet here again I must tell you for in this case repetitions are not impertinent that I do not give you a Denyal nay I protest against it and remember it is your King that desires to be heard To this Paper I shall adde another given by His Majesty to the Committee then at Newcastle but by the Copy extant written with Lanerick's hand it doth not appear when it was sent them The Paper follows My Lords Another Paper of His Masties to the same purpose 'T Is a very great grief to Me that what I spoke to you Yesterday and offered to you in Writing concerning Religion hath given so little satisfaction yet lest the Reasons I then told you should not be so fully understood I think it necessary at this time to set them down to you in this Paper I then told you that whatsoever was My particular Opinion I did no ways intend to perswade you to do any thing against your Covenant wherefore I desire you to consider whether it be not a great step to your Reformation which I take to be the chief end of your Covenant that Presbyterial Government be Legally settled It is true I desire that My Own Conscience and those that are of the same opinion with me might be preserved which I confess doth not as yet totally take away Episcopal Government but then consider withall that this will take away all the superstitious Sects and Heresies of the Papists and Independents to which you are no less obliged by your Covenant than the taking away of Episcopacy And this that I demand is most likely to be but temporary for if it be so clear as you believe that Episcopacy is unlawful I doubt not but God will so enlighten Mine eyes that I shall soon perceive it and then I promise you to concurr with you fully in matters of Religion But I am sure you cannot imagine that there is any hope of Converting or Silencing the Independent Party which undoubtedly will get a Toleration in Religion from the Parliament of England unless you joyn with Me and in that way I have set down for the re-establishing My Crown or at least that you do not press Me to do this which is yet against My Conscience until I may do it without Sinning which as I am confident none of you will perswade Me to do so I hope you have so much Charity not to put things to such a desperate Issue as to hazard the loss of us all because for the present you cannot have full satisfaction from Me in Point of Religion Not Considering that besides the rest of the Mischiefs which may happen it will infallibly set up the innumerable Sects of the Independents nothing being more against your Covenant than permitting of those Schisms to encrease As for the Message which I think fit at this time to send I have chosen rather to mention the Point of Religion in a general than particular way lest not knowing all these Reasons which I have set down to you which are most unfit for a Message it may give less satisfaction than I desire Nevertheless I do conjure you by that Love and Loyalty you have always professed unto Me that you make use of what I offered Yesterday in Writing with these Reasons which I have now set down to you and those further Hopes I have now given you for the best advantages of My Service With this particular Explanation That whereas I mentioned that the Church-Government should be left to My Conscience and those of My opinion I shall be content to restrict it to some few Diocesses as Oxford Winchester Bristol Bath and Wells and Exceter leaving all the rest of England fully to the Presbyterian Government with the strictest Clauses you shall think upon against Papists and Independents POSTSCRIPT I require you to give a particular and full account hereof to the General Assembly now sitting in Scotland shewing them that I shall punctually make good My last Letter to them and that this is a very great step to the Reformation desired not only by the present putting down all Sects and Independents but likewise presently establishing Presbyterian Government â—oping that they as Ministers of Gods Word will not press upon Me untimeously the matter of Church-Government and Discipline until I may have leisure to be so perswaded that I may comply with what they desire without Breach of Conscience which I am confident they as Church-men cannot press me to do The Duke left nothing unsaid that could be devised The Duke seeing matters desperate resolves to retire out of Britain to prevail with the King for satisfying Scotland in the point of Religion assuring him that he found a great willingness in them to serve him in all other things should he yield to them in that one That for the point of the Militia they would study to bring it to what the King desired and in the point of the Delinquents they would labour to get it brought to that in which the Process of the Incendiaries in Scotland had ended that they should only be secluded from Trust but he assured him he found it impossible to make them abate a tittle of the Demand of Religion Yet His Majesty continued on his former
least you will find that according to My Professions I am Your most assured real constant Friend CHARLES R. His Majesty also expressed His Concerns for Traquair in the following Letter Lanerick ALbeit I am confident that you will further all My Friends Affairs yet I must not be so negligent in Traquair's behalf as not to name his business to you for admittance to his Place in Parliament of which I will say no more but you know his Sufferings for Me and this is particularly recommended to you by Your most assured real constant Friend CHARLES R. Newcastle 17th November 1646. POSTSCRIPT I account writing to you or your Brother all one They consult in Scotland how to dispose of their Armies But the main Business was what to do with their Armies that were in England The Kingdom was groaning under a heavy and unsupportable Burden for their Maintenance so disbanding was a very plausible Motion and all desired that only such Forces should be kept up as were necessary for the Preservation and Security of Scotland The Duke and his Brother regrated much that so many Gallant Men should be disbanded who might be very useful for the Kings Service therefore they opposed all these Propositions arguing that till a final Peace were settlâ—d in England they might look for no Security to Scotland And in their Letters to His Majesty they continued to represent the desperate estate of Affairs if he did not quickly satisfie them in the business of Religion and that the Money for the Pay of the Army was now coming in daily at London and would be quickly ready and after that was sent down they could not keep the Army any longer in England without a present Breach to which they found no inclinations in the Scotish Parliament as long as they were not satisfied in what was so earnestly desired But the King was firm to his first Resolution Master Lesley at his return to the King brought him such assurances of the Affection and Duty of both the Brothers that the next Dispatch carried the following Letters to them Hamilton I Remember yet so much Latine as an old Proverb comes to which is quod valde volumus id sacile credimus This I apply to Robin Lesley's report of your Carriage in My present Service concerning which I will only say that you shall not more certainly make good what he hath promised Me in your Name than I will to you what he hath said in Mine and even in something by way of speaking beyond My Power I doubt not but to make it good as concerning your French particular But I shall leave all things not only of this nature to this honest Bearers relation but likewise whatsoever else may concern the Service of Your most assured real faithful constant Friend CHARLES R. Newcastle 24th Nov. 1646. Lanerick I Have according to your Advice given a quick Return to this Trusty Bearer having instructed him fully in what I conceive necessary to My Affairs wherein in many things I have given him a Latitude to govern them according to your Directions wherefore I will say no more because if I should enter into Particulars I would not know how to end but that with Contentment I find daily more and more cause to be Your most assured real constant Friend CHARLES R. Newcastle 24th November 1646. POSTSCRIPT I recommend particularly the Earl of Morton's Affairs Matters were now ripening unto much Confusion and Mischief which made His Majesty think of a full Answer to the Propositions but before He sent it to London He communicated it to my Lord Lanerick in the following Letter Newcastle 4th Decemb. 1646. Lanerick The Kings Letter about His Answer to the Propositions ACcording to My Promise by little Nobs I send you here inclosed the Answer which I have resolved to send to London wherein you will find a Clause in favour of the Independents to wit the Forbearance I give to those who have Scruples of Conscience and indeed I did it purposely to make what I send relish the better with that kind of People But if My Native Subjects will so countenance this Answer that I may be sure they will stick to Me in what concerns My Temporal Power I will not only expunge that Clause but likewise make what Declarations I shall be desired against the Independents and that really without any reserve or equivocation yet know that no Perswasion or Threatning whatsoever shall make Me alter a tittle of any thing else in it nor that neither but upon these Assurances The end therefore why I send you this before it go to the English Parliament is to try before-hand how I can procure it to be countenanced by My Scotish Friends for which you are to use all possible industry not seeking a full Approbation but taking what you can get absolutely commanding you not to hazard it in a Publick Way unless you be sure that I shall receive no rub in it For this I conceive it were a wrong to you to use any Arguments to make you do your best but to tell you this is Coup de partie assuring you that I shall not judge you by the Event but by your Endeavours which I am confident will be according to your Professions and for Gods sake do not so much as expect much less linger after any other or further matter from Me whereby to serve Me in this great Business for upon the Faith of a Christian you shall have no more than what is now laid before you And know that I rather expect the worse than the better Event of things being resolved by the Grace of God and without the least repining at him to suffer any thing that Injury can put upon Me rather than sin against My Conscience of which upon My credit you see the furthest Extent in relation to the present Affairs I say no more but difficilia quae pulchra and so God bless your Endeavours Your most assured real constant Friend CHARLES R. POSTSCRIPT In order to that I have written and sent you herein I have commanded this Trusty Bearer Sir James Hamilton to tell you as many things as I can remember whom I desire you to return to Me or some other Trusty Messenger assoon as you may with what I am to expect from thence The inclosed Paper is marked on the back by the Kings Hand thus The Answer to the Propositions which I have resolved to send to London which I insert because it is not among His Majesties Printed Messages His Majesties Answer to the Propositions tendered to Him by the Commissioners from the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of England at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland CHARLES R. AS it is His Majesties chief desire to make such a Return to the Propositions The Kings Answer to the Propositions as may speedily produce a blessed firm and lasting Peace in all His Dominions so He hath employed His uttermost endeavours
to give a full and particular Answer to every Branch of them But the more He considers the nature of them together with the high Importance and variety contained therein not without some ambiguity as well in the several Propositions as also in comparing the one with the other so much the more He finds it necessary to desire the help of Explanation Debate and Conference concerning some of them as he touched in His Paper whereby His Vnderstanding may be informed in those things which as yet are not clear to Him His Reason may be more fully convinced and His Conscience so satisfied that without offence to either of them He may make such a particular distinct Answer as may best attain His Desires of satisfying them and though for the present His Majesty at this distance from His Two Houses wants the view of many necessary Papers and other Assistances yet at what disadvantage soever He will apply Himself to give all the satisfaction that is in His power desiring He may not be mis-interpreted in any thing He shall say or omit His Majesties Answer to the first Proposition is That upon His Majesties coming to London He will heartily joyn in all that shall concern the Honour of His two Kingdoms or the Assembly of Estates of Scotland or of the Commissioners or Deputies of either of them and particularly in those things which are desired in that Proposition upon confidence that all of them respectively with the same tenderness will look upon those things which concern His Majesties Honour Concerning all the Propositions touching Religion His Majesty says that He has often and solemnly professed His Opinion concerning Episcopacy to which He refers Himself yet considering the present Distractions about Religion which are so great and of that nature that Perswasion as well as Power must be used to restore that happy Tranquillity which the Church of England hath lately and miserably lost for certainly Violence and Persecution never was nor will be found a right way to settle mens Consciences His Majesty proposes that He will confirm the Presbyterian Government for Three Years being the time set down by the Two Houses that is to say that during the said time the Church be governed by Classical and Congregational Elderships National and Provincial Assemblies with their respective Subordinations with such Forbearance to those who through scruple of Conscience cannot in every thing practise according to the said Rules as may consist with the Rule of the Word of God and the Peace of the Kingdom and that the Office of Ruling-Elders the Power of Elderships to suspend from the Sacrament of the Lords Supper ignorant and scandalous Persons be all settled by Act of Parliament for the aforesaid Term as also that the Directory be by the same way authorized for the same time so that His Majesty and His Houshold be not hindred from using that Form of Gods Service which they have formerly done and also that in the mean time and with all convenient speed a Committee be chosen of Both Houses to have a free Consultation and Debate with the Assembly â—f Divines being also willing the said Assembly shall be authorized to sit for the space of the said Three Years twenty more being added of His Majesties Nomination how the Church shall be settled and governed at the end of Three Years or sooner if Differences may be agreed Also it is to be understood that those Committees shall have no Power but of hearing debating and reporting the better to prepare all these Differences for the Determination of His Majesty and the Two Houses To the Seventh and Eighth Propositions His Majesty will consent To the Ninth Proposition His Majesty doubts not but to give good satisfaction when He shall be particularly informed how the said Penalties shall be levyed and disposed To the Tenth His Majesties Answer is That He is and hath been always willing to prevent the Practices of Papists and therefore is content to pass an Act of Parliament for that purpose as also that the Laws against them may be duely executed His Majesty will give His consent to the Act for the strict Observance of the Lords Day for the suppressing of Innovations and those concerning the Preaching of Gods Word and touching Non-residencies and Pluralities And His Majesty will be willing to pass such an Act or Acts as shall be requisite to raise Moneys for the payment and satisfaction of all Publick and past Debts expecting that His also will be therein included As to the Proposition concerning the Militia though His Majesty cannot consent to it in terminis as it is proposed because thereby as He conceives He wholly devests Himself of the Power of the Sword intrusted to Him by God and the Laws of the Land for the Protection and Government of His People and placeth the same in effect for ever in the Two Houses of Parliament thereby at once disinheriting His Posterity of that Right and Prerogative of the Crown which is absolutely necessary to the Kingly Office and so weakening Monarchy in this Kingdom that little more than the Name and Shadow of it will remain yet if it be only Security for the preservation of the Peace of this Kingdom after these unhappy Troubles and the due performance of all the Agreements that now are to be concluded which is desired which His Majesty always understood to be the case and hopes that â—erein He is not mistaken His Majesty will give abundant Satisfaction to which end He will consent by Act of Parliament That the whole Power of the Militia both by Sea and Land be in the Two Houses for the space of Ten Years and afterwards to return to its proper channel again as it was in the time of Queen Elizabeth and King James of blessed Memory And now His Majesty conjures His Two Houses of Parliament as they are English-men Christians and Lovers of Peace by the Duty which they owe to Him their King and by the bowels of Compassion which they have to their Fellow-Subjects that they will accept of these His Majesties Ofâ—ers whereby the joyful News of Peace may be again restored to this languishing Kingdom His Majesty will grant the same to the Kingdom of Scotland if it be desired touching the conservation of the Peace betwixt His two Kingdoms Touching Ireland His Majesty will give full satisfaction as to the managing of War and for Religion as in England Touching the mutual Declaration proposed to be established in both Kingdoms by Act of Parliament and the Qualifications Mollifications and Branches which follow in the Propositions His Majesty truly professes that He does not sufficiently understand divers things contained therein but this He sufficiently knows that a General Act of Oblivion is the best Bond of Peace and that after intestine Troubles the Wisdom of this and other Kingdoms hath usually and happily in all Ages granted general Pardons with none or very few Exceptions whereby the numerous Discontentments of
the full as it is demanded neither will it be in the power of any in this Kingdom to prevent Affronts and Danger to Your Majesties Person if You should have any thoughts of coming hither Sir I take God to witness I write this with a sadder heart than I would receive a sentence of Death against my self and shall grieve more at the performance of that than I should at the execution of this upon Your Majesties most humble most faithful most obedient Subject and Servant LANERICK Edinburgh December 22th 1646. His Majesties last Message was presented to the Scotish Parliament His Majesties Message rejected in Scotland on the 23th of December by the Earl of Lanerick and backed by him with the warmest language that he could use but nothing that was new being offered by it a Compliance with it was not to be expected It was also sent to London and at London and first presented to the House of Peers whereat all even those who were best-affected hung their Heads and sent it down to the House of Commons without a word and there it met with the same Entertainment The next Debate was about the Kings Person and the mildest opinion was that He should be kept Prisoner some being for the excluding Him for ever from the Government And for the place of His Restraint some were for His stay at Newcastle but it was carried that He should go to Holmby And this passed without communicating it to the Scotish Commissioners But when He was ordained to be kept in Safety for His Person Henry Martin objected that the King had broken the Peace and why must the Parliament bind for His Safety Some moved to preserve His Person according to the Covenant and it was carried which was thought a great point For now it was esteemed that the Covenant was that which must preserve the King though His Ruine had been formerly imputed to it In the end of the year the Scotish Commissioners parted from London and it being moved in the House of Commons to send some with a Complement to them before they went with the Thanks of the House for their Civilities and good Offices those of the Independent Cabal argued much against that of good Offices done by them and reckoned many bad ones since the King went to Newcastle and it being put to the Vote it was carried by 24 Votes to dash out good Offices and only thank them for their Civilities And so all those Noble Characters they were wont to give of the Scotish Commissioners upon every occasion concluded now in this that they were well-bred Gentlemen Thus ended this present year but none saw an end of miseries like to come An. 1647. Anno 1647. IN the beginning of the next Year Commissioners were sent from the Parliament of Scotland Commissioners are sent to the King from Scotland to represent their late Resolutions to His Majesty On the 12th of Ianuary they presented their first Paper wherein they laid out all they could devise for the pressing a satisfactory Answer to the Propositions expressing with what earnestness all Men were waiting for it and that it would be received with more Ioy than had been ever seen at any Coronation in England But after they had delivered this Message and the 14th day was come wherein the King promised His Answer He told them He must be resolved of two things before He could give His Answer The first was if He was a Free-man or a Prisoner adding That if He were a Prisoner it was the opinion of many Divines that Promises made by a Prisoner did not oblige though He did not assert that to be His own sense the next was whether He might go to Scotland with Honour Freedom and Safety or not They declined long to give an Answer and in that Debate three hours were spent at length being put to it they delivered all their severe Message in the following Paper May it please Your Majesty And deliver the Votes of the Parliament WE are commanded by the Parliament of Scotland to represent to Your Majesty the many Inconveniencies will ensue upon Your Majesties Denial or Delay of Granting the Propositions concerning Religion and the Covenant and not giving a satisfactory Answer to the remanent Propositions and particularly to represent the Prejudice will thereby arise to the true Reformed Protestant Religion abroad and to the Reformation of Religion in these Kingdoms the Danger of Your Majesties Person and to Your Own and Posterities Government If Your Majesty not granting the Propositions concerning Religion and the Covenant and not giving satisfactory Answers to the other Propositions shall relinquish England we are commanded by the Parliament of Scotland to represent to Your Majesty That in that case they find it unlawful for them to assist Your Majesty for Recovery of the Government Your Majesty not granting the Covenant and Propositions as aforesaid We are commanded by the Parliament of Scotland to represent to Your Majesty That they find Your Majesties Coming to Scotland not granting the Propositions concerning Religion and the Covenant and not giving a satisfactory Answer to the remanent Propositions dangerous to the Cause to Your Majesty to Your Native Kingdom and to the Vnion betwixt Scotland and England and that the Kingdom of Scotland will be necessitated to take Course to prevent Your Coming Both Kingdoms will take Course for disposal of Your Majesties Person until such time as Your Majesty grants the Propositions or otherwise agree with Your Majesties Parliaments We are commanded to make known to Your Majesty that until Your Majesty grant the Propositions in manner fore-said or that some Course be resolved by both Kingdoms concerning the disposal of Your Majesties Person Your Majesty cannot be admitted to come or remain in Scotland with Freedom And in case Your Majesty do come we are commanded to represent to Your Majesty That the Kingdom of Scotland will be necessitated to put such Attendants and Guards about Your Majesties Person as may preserve You in Safety and Your Kingdoms in Peace and may prevent all Tumults Insurrections and Gatherings of Malignants We are further warranted to represent to Your Majesty That if You do not grant the Propositions concerning Religion and the Covenant and give a satisfactory Answer about the remanent Propositions the Kingdom of Scotland will be necessitated to continue the Government without Your Majesty as hath been done these years by-past Newcastle 14th January 1647. But the Answer they got shewed The King stands firmly to His Conscience that the King could not be threatned to the Doing of any thing He judged contrary to His Honour or Conscience His Majesties Answer being returned back to Edinburgh on the 16th of Ianuary which was Saturday it was debated in Parliament what should be done with His Majesties Person It is resolved to deliver up the King which the Duke and â—anerick much oppose All inclined to deliver Him up immediately to
of a long Preamble and Eight Articles THe first was That before they went on to a War and find great opposition from the Ministers the Grounds and Causes of it might be well cleared Secondly that the alledged Breaches of the Covenant and Treaties might be condescended upon and Reparation of them first sought Thirdly that there might be no such Grounds of War as might break the Vnion of the two Kingdoms and disoblige the Presbyterians of England Fourthly that none of the disaffected or Malignant Party might be admitted to Trust but on the contrary that they should be opposed and suppressed Fifthly that the Kings late Concessions might be declared unsatisfactory Sixthly that they should engage not to restore His Majesty to the exercise of His Royal Power till He should by Oath bind Himself and His Successors to consent to Acts of Parliament for confirming the League and Covenant and settling Presbytery the Directory and the Confession of Faith Seventhly that none might be trusted but such as were of known Integrity and good affection to the Cause Eighthly that the Church might have the same Interest in carrying on this Engagement which they had in the Solemn League and Covenant These Demands run in so high a strain that those of the Church-Party judged either they would be rejected and so the Church would pretend somewhat for their breaking with the Parliament or if they were yielded to it would so alienate the Hearts of the King and all His Friends in England from them that they would hate them as much as they did the English Parliament or Army The Committee of Parliament found the Strait they were in and saw what an unhappy practice it had been to give the Church-men so great an interest in Civil Affairs Some were for brisker Courses and for clapping up in Prison all the more turbulent Ministers but the Duke apprehended great trouble from that fearing it should raise stirs among the people which might retard the design of the Kings Delivery upon which all his thoughts were bent The hazard of intercepting Letters made the Intercourse by them so slow that the Lords that corresponded with His Majesty had no Return from him before the beginning of April and then they got that which follows I Was as glad to see the constancy of your Resolutions as I was sorry to understand the great Opposition you find in Your Vndertakings The King writes to his Servants in Scotland But as for any Enlargement concerning Church-affairs I desire you not to expect it from Me for such expectations have been a great cause of this My present Condition which I assure you I am still resolved rather to suffer than to wrong My Conscience or Honour which I must do if I enlarge My Self any thing in those points But I take very well the freedom of your Advice because I see it flows from your Affection being also confident that you will cheerfully and resolutely go on according to your Engagements to Me who am Your most assured real constant Friend CHARLES R. 17th March 1648. And to this the Earls of Lauderdale and Lanerick wrote the following Answers SIR WE have received Your Majesties of the 17th of March Nothing but the cruel slowness of Proceedings here would have made us so long silent and that was occasioned by the great Opposition we have met with from the Ministers and the rigid Persons who strongly pretend Your Majesties not satisfying in matters of Religion and upon these grounds have gained upon many and obstructed any Engagement Yet we and those we have interest in are so sensible of our Duties our Honour and of Your Majesties sad Condition which goes nearer our Hearts than any earthly thing that although an Engagement upon the terms we parted on be impossible yet we shall either procure Scotland's Vndertaking for Your Majesties Person or perish let the hazard or opposition be what it can We can boldly say we have the Major Vote of the Parliament clear and if we were blest with Your Majesties Presence the work were done We dare not presume in this troublesom way to express the particulars of our Difficulties or Resolution but hope shortly to give a more satisfactory account having vowed to live and die Your Majesties most humble most faithful and most loyal Subjects and Servants LAVDERDALE LANERICK 22th March 1648. Lanerick also wrote what follows taken from an imperfect Copy under his hand SIR I Have been long silent and possibly should have been so a little longer had I not received Your Majesties of the 17th of the last Moneth but lest I be involved in other mens Guilt I must first speak and then perish or do my Duty Sir at our first returning to Scotland we met with a general Dissatisfaction with what you offered concerning Religion from the Ministers and their Party though all I have Interest in would have cheerfully hazarded their Lives for Your Majesties Preservation upon these or easier terms but after long Debate upon the Consequences of engaging in so great a Work not only without Vnanimity but with the Opposition of the Church and most of those who have been of greatest Eminence and Power during these late Troubles this moved us to a willingness for a very extraordinary Compliance with their Desires providing we might be assured of an Engagemennt But now when we have gone a greater length than even our Loyalty can allow us we find that nothing is intended by them but either a Conjunction with those that seek your Ruine or at least a dull and stupid Suffering and enduring of those destructive Resolutions to Religion and Government which are now designed by the Enemies of God and Your Majesty After this there was a new Committee of 24 chosen by the Parliament for a Conference with the 12 Commissioners of the Kirk who had many Meetings with them and gave them satisfaction to all their Demands so that all back-doors were shut and they were ashamed that they had asked no more wherefore being driven from all their Pretences they fled to the last starting-hole of Jealousie and said that their Designs were contrary to their Professions This was a tedious Affair and cost many Conferences In end great Offers were made to satisfie the Church-party but nothing did prevail whereupon the Committee drew up a large Declaration of all the Violations of the Covenant and Treaties made by the Two Houses together with an account of their own Intentions suitable to the Propositions made by the Ministers only they stood much upon the sixth Article that seemed most contrary to their Duty to their Sovereign and it took them up many days at length they yielded even to that but for this the Reader is referred to the Declaration printed with the Acts of that Parliament On the 25th of April the great Business was carried The Parliament vote an Engagement for the King of putting the Kingdom into a posture of Defenâ—e but the account of the
raised Regiments of five or six Troops on their own expences And though it is not to be imagined that the publick Expence of so great a Design was not likewise great yet there was a sad want of Money which the Duke and his Brother did all they could to supply as far as their Credit could go and raised above two and twenty thousand pounds sterling for prosecuting of the Engagement and were on all publick occasions so liberal of their own Money as if some Bank had been put into their hands The Curses the Ministers thundred against all who joyned in this Engagement made the Souldiers very heartless being threatned with no less than Damnation This obliged the Lords to use Force in some places for carrying on their Levies and indeed the Ministers counter-acting the State was such that it is hard to judge whether their Boldness or the Parliaments Patience was most to be wondred at The Lords resolved to chastise them to purpose in due time but judged the present time improper for it and to carry on the Levies the better the Parliament adjourned for three weeks So the Lords went to the several places of their Interests leaving a Committee behind them at Edinburgh but before their Adjournment they wrote the following Letter to the Presbyteries The Parliaments Letter to the Presbyteries THe many Scandals that are tâ—rown on our Actions by the favourers of Sectaries and haters of the Person of our King and Monarchical Government invite us to this extraordinary Address to you conjuring you as you will answer the Great God whose Servants you are not to suffer your selves to be possest with unjust and undeserved Prejudices against us and our Proceedings who have since our late Meeting in Parliament preferred no earthly thing to Religion and the promoving all the ends of our Covenant and have constantly used all real Endeavours to have carried on these Duties to the satisfaction of the most tender Consciences and especially by our great Compliance with the many Desires from the Commissioners of the General Assembly we have proceeded to greater discoveries of our Resolutions in the ways and means of managing of this present Service than possibly in prudence we ought to have done having so near and active Enemies to oppose us neither can it with any Truth or Iustice in any sort be alledged that we have in the least measure wronged or violated the least Priviledges and Liberties of the Church or taken upon us the determination or decision of any matters of Faith or Church-discipline though we be unjustly charged with making an Antecedent Iudgment in matters of Religion under pretence whereof great Encroachments are made on our unquestioned Rights for what can be more Civil than to determine what Civil Duties we ought to pay to our King or what Civil Power he ought to be possessed of and if we meet with obstructions and opposition in carrying on these Duties are not we the only Iudges thereof is there any other Authority in this Kingdom but that of King and Parliament and what flows from them that can pretend any Authoritative Power in the choice of the Instruments and Managers of our Publick Resolutions is it a Subject for the Dispute of Church-Iudicatories whether His Majesty have a Negative Voice or not These things certainly cannot be pretended to by any Kirk-man without a great Vsurpation over the Civil Magistrate whereof we are confident the Church of Scotland or any Iudicatory thereof will never be guilty nor fall into the Episcopal disease of meddling in Civil Affairs and if any have already in these Particulars exceeded their bounds we expect the ensuing General Assembly will censure it accordingly and prevent the vilifying and contemning the Authority of Parliament by any of their Ministers either in or out of their Pulpits who shall offer to stir up the Subjects of this Kingdom to disobey or deny to give Civil Obedience to their Laws it being expresly prohibited by the 2 and 5 Acts of King James the sixth his eighth Parliament Anno 1584. That none of His Majesties Subjects under pain of Treason impugne the Authority of Parliament And therefore seeing the Cause is the same for which this Kingdom hath done and suffered so much and that we are resolved to proceed for the Preservation and Defence of Religion before all wordly Interest whatsoever and to carry on sincerely really and constantly the Covenant and all the Ends of it as you will find by our Declaration herewith sent to you we do confidently expect that as the Ministers of this Kingdom have hitherto been most active and exemplary in furthering the former Expeditions so now you will continue in the same Zeal to stir up the People by your Preaching and Prayers and all other ways in your Calling to a chearful Obedience to our Orders and Engageing in the business that you will not give so great advantage to the Enemies of Presbyterial Government and bring so great a Scandal on this Church as to oppose the Authority of Parliament or obstruct their Proceedings in their necessary Duties for the good of Religion Honour and Happiness of the King and his Royal Posterity and the true Peace of His Dominions Signed by Order of Parliament Alex. Gibsone Clerk Regist. Edinburgh May 11 1648. The Parliament having resolved to raise an Army for the Kings Relief The Parliament sends for the Scotish Army in Ireland found it expedient for encreasing the number and strength of their Forces to send to Ireland for a part of their Scotish Army there which as was told An. 1642 had been sent from Scotland thither by Commission from the King under the Great Seal and upon a Treaty and Establishment betwixt the two Nations for suppressing the Irish Rebellion and for perswading them to desert for so Noble an Undertaking their Interest in Ireland which was very considerable for there was above seven hundred and seventy thousand pound sterling of Arrear resting to them upon a stated Accompt fitted by Persons intrusted by the Parliament of England and Commissioners from them preceding the 16th of Iune 1647 besides a year more until Iune 1648 not at all reckoned they sent over three of their number two Knights Sir Iames Macdougal and Sir William Cocheran now Earl of Dundonald and Mr. Crawford Burgess of Linlithgow with Letters and Instructions to that purpose They were kindly received by such of the Officers as had chief Power there but most unwelcome to a contrary Party who had notice how averse the Kirk to which they were addicted had declared themselves from the Designs of that Parliament nevertheless it was quickly agreed to that about twelve hundred Horse and two thousand and one hundred Foot should be provided and regimented and transported to Scotland to be conducted by Sir George Monro in the quality of a Major-General and to be joyned with the Dukes Armie At Westminster they were in great Confusion fearing that the General
safety of Religion Kirk and Commonwealth depends much upon the comfortable assistance which all of them daily receive from Royal Iustice and Authority we protest and promise with our Hearts under the Obligation of the same Oath to defend not only this our Religion but the Kings Majesties Sacred Person and Authority as also the Laws and Liberties of this our Country under His Majesties Soveraign Power with our best Counsels Bodies Goods and whole Estates according to the Laws and against all sorts of persons and in all things whatsoever and likewise mutually to defend our selves and one another in this abovementioned Cause under the same obligation But while the Marquis was busie at Court procuring this Gracious Answer to their Demands and while His Majesty was condescending to such extraordinary Favours to them the Covenanters in Scotland were going on The Covenanters are very busie in Scotland posting up and down the Country for more Subscriptions to the Covenant and because the North continued firm to their Duty some Noblemen and Ministers went thither to draw them to their Party and on the 23d of Iuly they came to Aberdeen where there was a company of worthy and learned Doctors and Professors But the Covenanters welcome there was so cold all the Subscriptions they got being but 19 or 20 and they were not admitted to preach in the publick Churches which made them preach in the Court of the Earl Marshal's Lodgings that they went away full of fury and threats against that Place and this gave the rise to that Debate which followed betwixt the Doctors of Aberdeen and those Ministers Debates betwixt the Doctors in Aberdeen and them which the Learned Doctors managed with so great advantage as did not a little confound the whole Party and the Ministers being pinched by them about the lawfulness of combining without warrant of Authority alledged that my Lord Commissioner was satisfied with the Covenant upon the offer of that Explication was mentioned formerly But the falshood of this Calumny was cast back on them with shame by him at his return for as he had never expressed any satisfaction with their Covenant so all the ground they had for that was because according to the Kings Order he had treated about that Explication to gain time He brought along with him to Scotland Dean Balcanqual Doctor Balcanqual comes to Scotland a man of great parts of subtil wit and so eloquent a Preacher that he seldom preached in Scotland without drawing Tears from the Auditors Him the Marquis intended to make use of as his Council in Church-affairs which Trust he discharged faithfully and diligently and received those Informations which were made publick in the large Declaration penned by him The Marquis came to Holyroodhouse on the tenth of August and found things in a much worse posture than he had left them and that the Flames were growing almost past quenching for at a Convention of Burroughs a few days before they had enacted The Covenanters high resolutions That none might be Magistrates or bear Office in any Burrough except he had first taken the Covenant and the Covenanters were resolved that Bishops should have no Vote in the Assembly unless they were chosen by a Presbytery and they were sure that should not be They were resolved to abolish Episcopacy and to declare it unlawful and excommunicate if not all yet most of the Bishops they were resolved to condemn the Articles of Perth and discharge Bishops to Vote in Parliament they were also resolved to ordain all under pain of Excommunication to sign the Covenant and to shew they meant to break out into Hostility they were beginning to levy men in several places But to make sure work of the Assembly they fell on a new device of Lay-elders to be chosen Commissioners who should be men of the greatest power and interest whereby they doubted not to carry all things and because in a Meeting at Edinburgh of Ministers being 120 in number about four parts of five were only for limiting of Episcopacy it was resolved by the Iunto that none of these should be Commissioners The Marquis being surprized with so great a change of the State of Affairs gave account of all these inconveniences to His Majesty and resolved not to proceed to call a General Assembly since he saw what effects it was like to produce till he first went and acquainted His Majesty with these hazards On the 13th of August the Covenanters came to demand his Answer The Marquis makes known His Majesties intentions he told them he had a clear and full Answer to give them but desired to be excused till he first communicated it to the Council which was to sit next day So they were satisfied for that time and on the fourteenth he held a Council where he delivered His Majesties Answer in these Terms My Lords I Thought it fit to acquaint your Lordships before I returned His Majesties Answer to the Noblemen and others petitioning for the same which is so full of Grace and Goodness that we have all cause to bless God and thank His Majesty for it such is his tender care of this poor distracted Kingdom that he will leave nothing undone that can be expected from a Iust Prince to save us from Ruine and since he finds such Distraction in the Church and State that they cannot be well settled without a Parliament and Assembly the state of the Country and business being prepared for it he hath given me Warrant for calling of both that they may be orderly held as formerly they have been according to the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom And further I am to declare to your Lordships that this we are to attribute only to His Goodness for we cannot but acknowledge that our carriage hath been such as justly we might have expected that he would have taken another course with us which he was Royally and really prepared for had not His Mercy prevailed above His just Indignation and by a powerful and forcible way have taught us Obedience which he hath forborn to make use of meerly out of His Grace and Goodness It is our duty to let His Subjects know how great our obligation is to Him which every one of us in particular and all of us in general should strive to make every one sensible of and labour so far as lieth in our power to procure satisfaction to His Majesty and quiet to this distracted Church and State The day following he gave the Covenanters the same Answer with which they were no way satisfied But the Covenanters were not satisfied They asked what he meant by preparing of business he said it was to establish Order and Government again in the Country as it was before those Combustions and upon this he gave them a Note of those particulars His Majesty ordered to be settled and assured them immediately upon their Obedience he should indict an Assembly and Parliament as he was
diffident of success or fearful that lawless Rebellion how strong soever should prosper That their Enemies joyning with Cromwel and his Army of Sectaries would make them the more hated and quickly discover that it was not Religion and Reformation they intended as they always gave out but that they sought the Government and Worldly ends whereupon many of both Nations would fall from them That the Kings Safety and the Preservation of their Friends then Prisoners in England depended much upon them and their Continuing in Arms That they were bound to continue in their Duty and wait for what Change God would bring about and that suppose good Conditions were granted what assurance could be given for the performance of them Those who opposed the Treaty were the Earl of Lanerick and most of the Irish Officers In end Lanerick was prevailed with to give way to it which he did not only then declare was against his Heart and done meerly to prevent a Rupture that had otherwise followed among themselves but he continued to his Death condemning it whatever seeming colours of reason might be given for it The Officers of the Army brought from Ireland seeing they would be infallibly ruined if they were deprived of the Authority of the Committee of Estates were likewise forced to give way to a Treaty so the following Articles were agreed on and sent to the Whiggamores WE being Servants to the State Articles offered for a Treaty and unwilling to engage in a Civil War do conceive our selves obliged to remit the ways of prosecuting of all Duties to Religion and to our King to the determination of Church and State and let them move in it as they will be answerable to God our Lives shall ever be ready to be exposed to all hazards for the good of both and if all duties for them and for our friends Release in England shall now be deserted let the blame before God and Men lye upon the obstructers of it And if no further use be made of our Service we do demand That Security be given to all who are or have been engaged in this Service for their Persons Honours and Estates whereby they may be free from all Dangers Prejudices and Censures whatsoever whether Ecclesiastical or Civil for their accession to the late Engagement or any thing done by them relating thereunto or to this present Service for our own Defence and this to be confirmed by Act of Parliament or the lawful Authority of the Kingdom That in regard of our extraordinary Charges and Loss one Months Pay be instantly delivered us for payment of the Irish Forces and that Boats and Ships be presently provided for their Transportation to Ireland and for preventing all Disorders upon their March through the West Country by free Quartering we do desire that a regular Course may be taken for their Entertainment during their abode which shall be no longer than Wind and Weather shall serve and Boats be provided to transport them That one Months Pay be provided for the Scotish Forces and that they be not disbanded until the Irish Forces be transported or that sufficient Pledges be delivered for performance of what is desired and that their Disbanding and Transportation be done by Authority of the Committee of Estates These reasonable Demands being performed we the Irish are ready instantly to march towards any part of the West-coast which shall be thought most fit for our Transportation into Ireland and we the Scots instantly to disband otherwise rather than expose our Lives and Fortunes to the mercy of any by the want of fitting Assurances for what is past or the loss of our Honours by deserting the Interest of those commanded by us or who joyn with us we are resolved to sacrifice our selves at the dearest rates we can and take God to witness how free we are of the Guilt and Consequences that may follow thereupon We have appointed our Commissioners to stay no longer than six a clock at night to morrow the 19th and that the Treaty shall then end and the Cessation to expire eight hours thereafter unless the Desires above-mentioned be fully granted Signed by the Warrant and at the Command of the Officers and others now in Arms by Authority of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Scotland IO. SPALDING Sterlin 18th September 1648. To these they had the following Answer returned them WE have considered the Desires of the Officers and Souldiers at Sterlin The Answer sent to these offers and do return this Answer That the Imputation of neglecting all Duties to Religion and to the King mentioned in the Preface to the Articles cannot be charged upon us who have never been wanting in the use of all lawful Means to prosecute the Ends of our Solemn League and Covenant but upon those who joined in the prosecution of the late unlawful Engagement against our Neighbour-Nation of England which hath been destructive to all those Ends. Touching the first Article we refer you to the Answer given in our former Papers and do here again declare that we shall not challenge any of your number for their Lives and Estates but shall endeavour to secure them so far as we can without approbation of their Actions or breach of the Covenant and Treaties And for that which concerns Exemption from Church-Censures we cannot meddle therein without breach of Covenant but must refer you to the Iudicatories of the Kirk to whom you may make your own Address and receive Answer Concerning the second and third Article we refer you to the Answer given by our Commissioners to the Commissioners on your side which was that we held it unreasonable that they should desire any thing from us or any other who adhere to us for satisfaction of their Officers and Souldiers because we will not involve our Selves in any thing which may import any accession to the late Engagement or may be the ground of a Quarrel to England against this Kingdom but if they had real inclinations to Peace they and their Adherents might without our accession thereunto take course amongst themselves for giving satisfaction to their Officers and Souldiers and therefore we did desire and do now again renew the same that all their Forces and the Forces of those who adhere unto them may be disbanded betwixt this and the 25th at furthest the 28th of this Month September and that none of them be found together after that time in Troops Companies or Regiments and we shall betwixt this and the said day disband all our Forces and none of them after that time shall be found in Troops Companies or Regiments for the punctual observance whereof on both sides mutual Pledges are to be given and further we cannot say in answer to these Articles If you shall not agree to the Desires made in our last Paper of the 16th of this Instant and not rest satisfied with these Answers but shall continue in Arms to the disturbance of the Peace of this Kingdom