Basiliká the works of King Charles the martyr : with a collection of declarations, treaties, and other papers concerning the differences betwixt His said Majesty and his two houses of Parliament : with the history of his life : as also of his tryal and martyrdome.

DECLARATIONS and PAPERS Concerning the TREATY of PEACE AT OXFORD, MDCXLII. III.

MDCXLII. Novemb. His MAJESTY's Declaration to all His loving Subjects, of His true Intentions in advancing lately to Brainceford.

THough Our Reputation be most dear to Us, and especially in those cases wherein the truth of Our most solemn Professions (and by consequence of Our Christianity) is questioned; yet it is not only for the Vindication of that, and to clear Our self from such Aspersions, but withal to preserve Our Subjects in their just Esteem of and Duty to Us, and from being engaged into Crimes and Dangers by those malicious Reports, so spightfully framed and cunningly spread against Us concerning Our late advancing to Brainceford, that We have resolved to pub∣lish this Our following Declaration.

AT Colebrook, on Friday the 11. of November, We received a Petition from both Our Houses of Parliament, by the Earl of Northumberland, the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, the Lord Wenman, Master Pierrepont and Sir John Hippesly: And in∣deed We were well pleased to see it so much liker a Petition than the other Papers We had often of late received under that name, and return'd to it the next day so graci∣ous an Answer, that We assure Our selves could not but be very satisfactory to all that were truly lovers of Peace. The Copies of both do here follow.

To the KING's most Excellent MAJESTY, The humble Petition of the Lords and Commons now assembled in Parliament.

WE Your Majesty's most loyal Subjects, the Lords and Commons in Parliament assem∣bled, being affected with a deep and piercing sense of the Miseries of this Kingdom, and of the Dangers to Your Majesty's Person, as the present Affairs now stand, and much quickned therein with the sad consideration of the great effusion of Blood at the late Battel, and of the loss of so many eminent Persons; and further weighing the addition of Loss, Misery and Danger to Your Majesty and Your Kingdom, which must ensue if both Armies should again joyn in another Battel, as without God's especial Blessing, and Your Majesty's Concurrence with Your Houses of Parliament, will not probably be avoided.

We cannot but believe that a suitable Impression of Tenderness and Compassion is wrought in Your Majesty's Royal Heart, being Your Self an eye-witness of the bloody and sorrowful destruction of so many of Your Subjects; and that Your Majesty doth apprehend what dimi∣nation of Your own Power and Greatness will follow, and that all Your Kingdoms will thereby be so weakned as to become subject to the Attempts of any ill-affected to this State. In all which respects, we assure our selves that Your Majesty will be inclined graciously to accept this our humble Petition, that the Misery and Desolation of this Kingdom may be speedily re∣moved and prevented. For the effecting whereof we most humbly beseech Your Majesty to appoint some convenient place, not far from the City of London, where Your Majesty will be pleased to reside, until Committees of both Houses of Parliament may attend Your Ma∣jesty with some Propositions for the removal of these bloody Distempers and Distractions, and settling the state of the Kingdom in such a manner as may conduce to the Preservation of God's true Religion, Your Majesty's Honour, Safety and Prosperity, and to the Peace, Comfort and Security of all Your People.

His MAJESTY's Answer to the aforesaid Petition.

WE take God to witness how deeply We are affected with the Miseries of this King∣dom, which heretofore We have stroven as much as in Vs lay to prevent, it being sufficiently known to all the World, that as WE were not the first that took up Arms, so We have shewed Our readiness of Composing all things in a fair way by Our several Offers of Treaty, and shall be glad now at length to find any such Inclinations in others; the same Tenderness to avoid the Destruction of Our Subjects (whom We know to be Our greatest Strength) which would always make Our greatest Victories bitter to Vs, shall make Vs willingly hearken to such Propositions whereby these bloody Distempers may be stopped, and the great Distracti∣ons of this Kingdom settled to God's Glory, Our Honour, and the Welfare and flourishing of Our People; and to that end shall reside at Our own Castle at Windsor (if the Forces there shall be removed) till Committees may have time to attend Vs with the same (which, to prevent the Inconveniences that will intervene, We wish may be hastened) and shall be ready there, or (if that be refused Vs) at any place where We shall be, to receive such Pro∣positions as aforesaid from both Our Houses of Parliament. Do you your Duty, We will not be wanting to Ours: God of his mercy give a Blessing.

But the same night after the Messengers were gone, certain Information was brought unto Us, that the same day the Earl of Essex had drawn his Forces with great store of Ordnance out of London towards Us: upon which a Council of War being present, and We having there considered, upon debate, Our present Condition, That being al∣ready almost surrounded by his Forces, some at Windsor, some at Kingston, and some at Acton, if We suffered the Remainder to possess Brainceford, We should be totally hemm'd in, and Our Army deprived of all convenience of either moving or subsist∣ing; yet how necessary soever it appeared, We could not obtain Our own Consent to advance towards Brainceford, and either prepossess it, or dispossess them of it, till We had satisfied Our Selves that it was as lawful as necessary, and fully weighed all that not only Reason, but Malice it self (which We knew to be very watchful upon Our Actions) could object against it. We considered first, that it could not reasonably be esteemed an Aversion from Peace, and an Intention to interrupt the Treaty than in expectation; since on the other side We had cause to believe by the former rejection of Our offers of Treaty, when We were supposed to be in no condition of strength, that if We would not thus preserve Our Selves from being so encompass'd as to come in∣to their Powers, the very possibility of a Treaty would immediately vanish. We considered next, that much less could it be interpreted any breach of Faith, since wil∣lingness to receive Propositions of Treaty was never held to amount to a suspension of Arms; since otherwise We must (because mention of a Treaty had been once made) by the same Logick have been bound not to hinder them to encompass Us on all parts to Colebrook Towns-end; since no word to that purpose (of any suspension) was in Our An∣swer; nay, since in that (by wishing their Propositions might be hastned, to prevent the Inconveniences which would intervene) We implied, that by this Arms were not suspended; and since their own Votes of proceeding vigorously notwithstanding the Petition, and their own actions in sending after their Messengers great store of Forces with Ordnance so near to Us (having before girt Us in on all other parts, and sent Men and Ordnance to Kingston after the safe Conduct asked of Us) implied the same.

Being resolved upon these Reasons, that this Advancing was necessary and just, We were not yet satisfied, till We had endeavoured the same day (though the interruptions of shooting stopt the way till the next) to satisfie Our Parliament and People of the same, and that Peace was still Our desire. We to that end directed a Message by John White Esquire, which was so received, that his danger of being put to death for bringing it, and the Imprisonment of him and the Trumpeter that went with him in the Gate-house, shew'd that the Law of Nations was by some no more considered than all other Laws had been before. A Copy of which Message hereafter follows, to shew how little temptation the matter of that gave them for such an usage.

His MAJESTY's Message of the twelfth of November.

WHereas the last night, being the eleventh of November, after the departure of the Committee of both Our Houses with Our gracious Answer to their Petition, We re∣ceived certain Information (having till then heard nothing of it, either from the Houses Committee or otherwise) That the Lord of Essex had drawn his Forces out of London to∣wards

Vs, which hath necessitated Our sudden Resolution to march with Our Forces to Braince∣ford; We have thought hereby fit to signifie to both Our Houses of Parliament, That We are no less desirous of the Peace of the Kingdom than We exprest in Our aforesaid Answer, the Propositions for which We shall willingly receive where-ever We are, and desire (if it may be) to receive them at Brainceford this night, or early to morrow morning, that all possible speed may be made in so good a Work, and all Inconveniences otherwise likely to intervene may be avoided.

And to justifie yet further that Our Intention was no other than was here profest, as soon as We were informed that the Earl of Essex his Forces were departed from King∣ston, before any appearance or notice of further Forces from London (Our end of not be∣ing inclosed being obtained) We gave orders to quit Brainceford, and to march away; and possess that place.

We cannot but make one Argument more of the truth of Our Profession, that this was all Our end, and that We had not the least thought by so advancing to surprise and sack London (which the Malignant party would infuse into that Our City;) and that is, That probably God Almighty would not have given such a Blessing to Our Journy; as to have assisted Us so both by Land and Water, as with less than a third part of Our Foot, and with the loss but of ten Men, to beat two of their best Regiments out of both Braincefords, for all the great advantage of their Works in them, to kill him who commanded in chief, and kill and drown many others, to take five hundred Prisoners; more Arms, eleven Colours, and good store of Ammunition, fifteen Pieces of Ordnance (whereof We sunk most that We brought not away) and then unfought with, and unoffer'd at, nearer than by Ordnance, to march away, notwithstanding the great dis∣advantage of Our Forces by the difficulties of the Passages, if He, who is the Searcher of all Hearts, and Truth it self, had not known the truth of Our Professions, and the Inno∣cence of Our Heart, and how far We were from deserving those horrid Accusations of Falshood and Treachery cast so point-blank upon Our own Person, that it would amaze any Man to see them suffered to be printed in Our City of London, if any thing of that kind could be a wonder after so many of the same, and how really they desire Accom∣modation, who have upon this voted they will have none.

These Our Reasons for this Action, this Our satisfaction sent for it, and this Blessing of God's upon it, will (We doubt not) clear Us to all indifferent persons both of the Jesuitical Counsels and the Personal Treachery to which some have presumed so impu∣dently to impute it: And God so bless Our future Actions as We have delivered the truth of this.

The Answer of both Houses of Parliament to His Majesty's Message of the 12 of Nov. With his Majesty's Reply thereunto.

The Answer of both Houses of Parliament to His Majesty's Message of the 12 of November.

TO Your Majesty's Message of the 12 of this Month of November, we the Lords and Commons in Parliament do make this humble Answer, That this Message was not delivered to us till Monday the 14. We thought it a strange Introduction to Peace, that Your Majesty should send Your Army to beat us out of our Quarters at Brainceford, and then appoint that place to receive our Propositions; which yet it plainly appears Your Majesty intended not to receive, till You had first tried whether You could break through the Army raised for Defence of this Kingdom and Parliament, and take the City being unprovided, and secure in expectation of a fair Treaty made to se∣cure the City. If herein Your Majesty had prevailed, after You had destroyed the Ar∣my and mastered the City, it is easie to imagine what a miserable Peace we should have had: and whether those Courses be suitable to the Expressions Your Majesty is pleased to make in Your Answer to our Petition, and of Your Earnestness to avoid any further Effusion of blood, let God and the world judge.

As for our Proceedings, they have in all things been answerable to our Professions: we gave directions to the Earl of Essex to draw the Army under his Command out of the City and Suburbs, before we sent any Message to Your Majesty; so that part of it was inquartered at Brainceford before the Committee returned with Your Answer: and immediately upon the receit thereof, that very morning order was taken that the Sol∣diers should exercise no Act of Hostility against any of Your Majesty's People. We sent a Letter by Sir Peter Killegrew, to know Your Majesty's Pleasure, whether You in∣tended

the like forbearance of Hostility: but the fury of your Souldiers, thirsting after blood and spoil, prevented the delivery of the Letter; for coming upon Saturday in his way towards Your Majesty as far as Brainceford, he found them in fight there, and could pass no further. God, who sees our Innocency, and that we have no Aims but at his Glory and the publick good, will (we hope) free Your Majesty from those destru∣ctive Counsels, who labour to maintain their own Power by Blood and Rapine, and bless our Endeavours, who seek nothing but to procure and establish the Honour, Peace and Safety of Your Majesty and Kingdoms, upon the sure foundation of Religion and Justice.

MDCXLII. Nov. 18. To the Answer of both Houses of Parliament to His Majesty's Message of the 12 of November, His MAJESTY makes this Reply.

THat His Message of the twelfth, though not received by them till the fourteenth, was sent to them first upon the same day upon which it was dated, and meeting with stops by the way, was again sent upon the 13, and taken upon that day at ten in the morning by the Earl of Essex, and though not to him directed, was by him open∣ed: so the slowness of the Delivery is not so strange as the stop of the Letter said to be sent by Sir Peter Killegrew, which His Majesty hath not yet received, but concludes from the matter expressed to have been contain'd in that Letter, (to wit, to know His Pleasure, whether He intended the forbearance of Hostility) and by the Command of such forbearance said to be sent to the Lord of Essex his Army, that no such forbearance was already concluded, and consequently neither had His Majesty cause to suppose that He should take any of their Forces unprovided, and secure in expectation of a fair Treaty, neither could any Hostile Act of His Majesties Forces have been a course un∣suitable to His Expressions; much less could an endeavour to prepossess (for so He hoped He might have done) that Place, which might have stopt the farther march of those Forces towards Him, (which, for ought appeared to Him, might as well have been intended to Colebrook as to Brainceford) and by that, the further effusion of blood, deserve that style.

His Majesty further conceives, that the Printing so out of time of such a Declarati∣on as their Reply to His Answer to theirs of the 26. of May, but the day before they Voted the Delivery of their Petition, and the March of the Earl of Essex his Forces to Brainceford so near to his Majesty, when the Committee at the same time attended Him with a Petition for a Treaty, the Earl of Essex being before possest of all the Avenues to his Army, by his Forces at Windsor, Acton and Kingston, was a more strange Introdu∣ction to Peace, than for His Majesty not to suffer Himself to be coopt up on all sides, because a Treaty had been mentioned, which was so really and so much desired by His Majesty, that this Proceeding seems to Him purposely by some intended to divert (which it could not do) that His Inclination.

That His Majesty had no intention to master the City by so advancing, besides His Profession, which (how meanly soever they seem to value it) He conceives a sufficient Argument, (especially being only opposed by suspicions and surmises) may appear by His not pursuing His Victory at Brainceford, but giving orders to His Army to march away to Kingston as soon as He heard that place was quitted, before any notice or ap∣pearance of farther Forces from London. Nor could He find a better way to satisfie them before-hand that He had no such intention, but that His desire of Peace and of Propositions that might conduce to it still continued, than by that Message of the twelfth. For which care of His He was requited by such a reception of His Message and Messenger, as was contrary at once both to Duty, Civility, and the very Customs and Law of War and Nations, and such as theirs (though after this Provocation) hath not found from Him.

His Majesty wonders that His Souldiers should be charged with thirsting after Blood, who took above five hundred Prisoners in the very heat of the Fight, His Majesty ha∣ving since dismissed all the common Souldiers, and entertain'd such as were willing to serve Him, and required only from the rest an Oath not to serve against Him: And His Majesty supposes such most apt and likely to maintain their Power by Blood and Rapine, who have only got it by Oppression and Injustice; That His is vested in Him by the Law, and by that only (if the destructive Counsels of others would not hinder such a Peace, in which that might once again be the Universal Rule, and in which Reli∣gion

and Justice can only flourish) He desires to maintain it. And if Peace were equal∣ly desired by them, as it is by His Majesty, He conceives it would have been proper to have sent Him such a Paper as should have contained just Propositions of Peace, and not an unjust Accusation of His Counsels, Proceedings and Person. And His Majesty intends to march to such a distance from His City of London, as may take away all Pre∣tence of Apprehension from His Army; that might hinder them in all security from yet preparing them to present to Him; and there will be ready either to receive them, or to end the Pressures and Miseries which His Subjects to His great Grief suffer through this War, by a present Battel.

The Humble Petition of Both Houses of Parliament presented to His Majesty on the 24. of November. With His Majesties Gracious Answer thereunto.

To the Kings most Excellent Majesty, The humble Petition of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament.

May it please Your Majesty,

IT is humbly desired by both Houses of Parliament, That Your Majesty will be pleased to return to Your Parliament with Your Royal, not Your Martial Atten∣dance, to the end that Religion, Laws and Liberties may be settled and secured by their advice; finding by a late and sad accident, that Your Majesty is invironed by some such Counsels as do rather perswade a desperate Division, than a joyning and a good Agreement with Your Parliament and People. And we shall be ready to give Your Majesty assu∣rances of such Security as may be for Your Honour, and the safety of Your Royal Person.

His MAJESTY's Answer to the aforesaid Petition.

WE expected such Propositions from you as might speedily remove and prevent the Misery and Desolation of this Kingdom, and that for the effecting thereof (We now residing at a convenient place not far from Our City of London) Committees from both Our Houses of Parliament should attend Us (for you pretended by your Mes∣sage to Us at Colebrook that those were your Desires:) instead thereof (and thereby let all the World judge of the design of that Overture) We have only received your humble Petition, That We would be pleased to return to Our Parliament with Our Royal, not Our Martial Attendance. All Our good Subjects that remember what We have so often told you and them upon this Subject, and what hath since past, must with Indignation look upon this Message, as intended by the Contrivers thereof for a Scorn to Us, and thereby designed by that Malignant party (of whom We have so often complained, whose Safety and Ambition is built upon the Divisions and Ruines of this Kingdom, and who have too great an Influence upon your Actions) for a Wall of Separation be∣twixt Us and Our People. We have told you the Reasons why We parted from London, how We were chased thence, and by whom: We have often complained that the great∣est part of Our Peers, and of the Members of Our House of Commons, could not with safety to their Honours and Persons continue and Vote freely among you, but by violence and cunning practices were debarred of those Priviledges which their Birth-rights and the Trust reposed in them by their Countries gave them; the truth whereof may suffi∣ciently appear by the small number of those that are with you. We have offered you to meet both Our Houses in any place free and convenient for Us and them; but We ne∣ver could receive the least satisfaction in any of these particulars, nor for those Scanda∣lous and Seditious Pamphlets and Sermons which swarm amongst you. That's all one; you tell Us, it is now for Our Honour and the Safety of Our Royal Person, to return to Our Parliament: wherein your formerly denying Us a Negative Voice gives Us cause to believe, that by giving your selves that Name without Us, you intend not to acknowledge Us to be part of it. The whole Kingdom knows that an Army was rais∣ed under pretence of Orders of both Houses (an Usurpation never heard of before in any Age) which Army hath pursued Us in Our own Kingdom, gave Us Battel at Keynton, and endeavoured to take away the life of Us and Our Children; and yet (these Rebels being newly recruited and possessed of Our City of London) We are cour∣teously

invited to return to Our Parliament there, that is, into the Power of this Ar∣my. Doth this signifie any other thing, than that since the traitourous endeavours of those desperate Men could not snatch the Crown from Our Head, (it being defended by the Providence of God, and the Affections and Loyalty of Our good Subjects) We should now tamely come up and give it them, and put Our Selves, Our Life, and the lives, liberties and fortunes of all Our good Subjects, into their merciful hands? Well, We think not fit to give any other Answer to this part of your Petition But as We im∣pute not this Affront to both Our Houses of Parliament, nor to the major part of those that are now present there, but to that dangerous Party We and the whole Kingdom must cry out upon; so We shall for Our good Subjects sake, and out of Our most ten∣der sense of their Miseries and the general Calamities of this Kingdom, which must (if this War continue) speedily overwhelm this whole Nation, take no Advantage of it: But if you shall really pursue what you presented to Us at Colebrook, We shall make good all that We then gave you in Answer to it; whereby the hearts of Our distressed Subjects may be raised with the Hopes of Peace, without which, Religion, the Laws and Liberties can no ways be settled and secured.

Touching the late and sad Accident you mention, if you thereby intend that of Braince∣ford, We desire you once to deal ingenuously with the People, and to let them see Our last Message to you, and Our Declaration to them concerning the same, (both which We sent to Our Press at London, but were taken away from Our Messenger, and not suffered to be published) and then We doubt not but they will be soon undeceived, and easily find out those Counsels which do rather perswade a desperate Division than a good Agreement betwixt Us, Our two Houses, and People.

MDCXLII. III. The Proceedings in the late Treaty of Peace. Together with several Letters of His MAJESTY to the Queen, and of Prince Rupert to the Earl of Northampton, which were intercepted and brought up to the Parliament.

With a Declaration of the Lords and Commons upon those Proceedings and Letters.

The humble Desires and Propositions of the Lords and Commons in Parliament assem∣bled, tendred unto His Majesty, Feb. 1. 1642.

WE Your Majesty's most humble and faithful Subjects, the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled, having in our thoughts the Glory of God, Your Ma∣jesty's Honour, and the Prosperity of Your People, and being most grievously afflicted with the pressing Miseries and Calamities which have overwhelmed Your two King∣doms of England and Ireland, since Your Majesty hath, by the perswasion of evil Coun∣sellors, withdrawn Your Self from the Parliament, raised an Army against it, and by force thereof protected Delinquents from the Justice of it, constraining us to take Armes for the defence of our Religion, Laws, Liberties, Privileges of Parliament, and for the sitting of the Parliament in safety; which Fears and Dangers are continued and increa∣sed by the raising, drawing together and arming of great numbers of Papists under the command of the Earl of Newcastle, likewise by making the Lord Herbert of Ragland and other known Papists Commanders of great Forces, whereby many grievous Op∣pressions, Rapines and Cruelties have been and are daily exercised upon the persons and estates of Your People, much innocent blood hath been spilt, and the Papists have at∣tained means of attempting, and hopes of effecting, their mischievous Design of root∣ing out the Reformed Religion, and destroying the professors thereof: in the tender sense and compassion of these evils under which Your People and Kingdom lie (according to the duty which we owe to God, Your Majesty, and the Kingdom, for which we are intrusted) do most earnestly desire, that an end may be put to these great Distem∣pers and Distractions, for the preventing of that Desolation which doth threaten all Your Majesties Dominions. And as we have rendred, and still are ready to render, to Your Majesty that Subjection, Obedience and Service which we owe unto You; so we most humbly beseech Your Majesty to remove the Cause of this War, and to vouchsafe us that Peace and Protection which we and our Ancestors have formerly enjoyed under Your Majesty and Your Royal Predecessors, and graciously to accept and grant these most humble Desires and Propositions.

I. That Your Majesty will be pleased to disband Your Armies, as we likewise shall be ready to disband all those Forces which we have raised; and that You will be pleased to return to your Parliament.

II. That You will leave Delinquents to a Legal Trial, and Judgement of Parliament.

III. That the Papists may not only be disbanded, but disarmed according to Law.

IV. That Your Majesty will be pleased to give Your Royal Assent unto the Bill for taking away Superstitious Innovations; to the Bill for the utter abolishing and taking away of all Archbishops, Bishops, their Chancellors and Commissaries, Deans, Sub∣deans, Deans and Chapters, Archdeacons, Canons and Prebendaries, and all Chanters, Chancellors, Treasurers, Subtreasurers, Succentors and Sacrists, and all Vicars Choral and Choristers, old Vicars and new Vicars of any Cathedral or Collegiate Church, and all other their under-Officers, out of the Church of England; to the Bill against Scanda∣lous Ministers; to the Bill against Pluralities; and to the Bill for Consultation to be had with godly, religious and learned Divines: That Your Majesty will be pleased to pro∣mise to pass such other good Bills for settling of Church-Government, as upon consul∣tation with the Assembly of the said Divines shall be resolved on by both Houses of Par∣liament, and by them be presented to your Majesty.

V. That Your Majesty having exprest, in Your Answer to the Nineteen Propositions of both Houses of Parliament, a hearty affection and Intentions for the rooting out of Popery out of this Kingdom; and that if both the Houses of Parliament can yet find a more effectual course to disable Jesuits, Priests and Popish Recusants from disturbing the State or eluding the Laws, that You would willingly give Your Consent unto it; That You would be graciously pleased, for the better discovery and speedier conviction of Recusants, that an Oath may be established by Act of Parliament, to be administred in such manner as by both Houses shall be agreed on, wherein they shall abjure and re∣nounce the Popes Supremacy, the doctrine of Transubstantiation, Purgatory, worship∣ping of the consecrated Hoast, Crucifixes and Images; and the refusing the said Oath, being tendred in such manner as shall be appointed by Act of Parliament, shall be a suf∣ficient Conviction in Law of Recusancy: And that Your Majesty will be graciously pleased to give Your Royal Assent unto a Bill for the Education of the Children of Pa∣pists by Protestants in the Protestant Religion: That for the more effectual execution of the Laws against Popish Recusants, Your Majesty would be pleased to consent to a Bill for the true levying of the Penalties against them, and that the same Penalty may be levyed and disposed of in such manner as both Houses of Parliament shall agree on, so as Your Majesty be at no loss; and likewise to a Bill whereby the practice of Papists against the State may be prevented, and the Laws against them duly executed.

VI. That the Earl of Bristol may be removed from Your Majesty's Counsels; and that both he and the Lord Herbert, eldest Son to the Earl of Worcester, may likewise be restrained from coming within the verge of the Court, and that they may not bear any Office, or have any imployments concerning the State or Commonwealth.

VII. That Your Majesty will be graciously pleased by Act of Parliament to settle the Militia both by Sea and Land, and for the Forts and Ports of the Kingdom, in such a manner as shall be agreed on by both Houses.

VIII. That Your Majesty will be pleased by Your Letters Patents to make Sir John Brampston Chief Justice of Your Court of Kings Bench, William Lenthal Esquire, the now Speaker of the Commons House, Master of the Rolls, and to continue the Lord Chief Justice Banks Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and likewise to make Master Serjeant Wilde Chief Baron of Your Court of Exchequer; and that Master Ju∣stice Bacon may be continued, and Master Serjeant Rolls and Master Serjeant Atkins made Justices of the Kings Bench; that Master Justice Reeves and Master Justice Foster may be continued, and Master Serjeant Phesant made one of Your Justices of Your Court of Common Pleas; that Master Serjeant Creswel, Master Samuel Brown and Master John Puleston, may be Barons of the Exchequer; and that all these, and all the Judges of the same Courts for the time to come, may hold their places by Letters Patents under the great great Seal, quamdiu se bene gesserint; and that the several persons not before named, that do hold any of these places before mentioned, may be removed.

IX. That all such persons as have been put out of the Commissions of Peace, or Oyer and Terminer, or from being Custodes Rotulorum, since the first day of April 1642. (other than such as were put out by desire of both or either of the Houses of Parliament) may again be put into those Commissions and Offices; and such that persons may be put out of those Commissions and Offices as shall be excepted against by both Houses of Parliament.

X. That Your Majesty will be pleased to pass the Bill now presented to Your Majesty, to vindicate and secure the Privileges of Parliament from the ill consequence of the late Precedent in the Charge and Proceeding against the Lord Kimbolton, now Earl of Man∣chester, and the five Members of the House of Commons.

XI. That Your Majesty's Royal Assent may be given unto such Acts as shall be advised by both Houses of Parliament, for the satisfying and paying the Debts and Damages wherein the two Houses of Parliament have ingaged the Publick Faith of the Kingdom.

XII. That Your Majesty will be pleased, according to a Gracious Answer heretofore received from You, to enter into a more strict Alliance with the States of the United Provinces, and other Neighbour Princes and States of the Protestant Religion, for the defence and maintenance thereof against all designs and attempts of the Popish and Je∣suitical Faction to subvert and suppress it; whereby Your Subjects may hope to be free from the mischiefs which this Kingdom hath endured through the power which some of that Party have had in Your Counsels, and will be much encouraged in a Parliamen∣tary way for Your Aid and Assistance in restoring Your Royal Sister and the Prince Elector to those Dignities and Dominions which belong unto them, and relieving the other distressed Protestant Princes who have suffered in the same Cause.

XIII. That in the General Pardon, which Your Majesty hath been pleased to offer to Your Subjects, all Offences and Misdemeanours committed before the tenth of January 1641. which have been or shall be questioned or proceeded against in Parliament upon complaint in the House of Commons before the tenth of January 1643. shall be excepted; which offences and misdemeanours shall never the less be taken and adjudged to be fully discharged against all other inferiour Courts. That likewise there shall be an exception of all Offences committed by any person or Persons which hath or have had any hand or practice in the Rebellion of Ireland, which hath or have given any counsel, assistance or encouragement to the Rebels there for the maintenance of that Rebellion; as like∣wise an exception of William Earl of Newcastle and George Lord Digby.

XIV. That Your Majesty will be pleased to restore such Members of either House of Parliament to their several places of Services and Imployment out of which they have been put since the beginning of this Parliament; that they may receive satisfaction and reparation for those places, and for the profits which they have lost by such removals, upon the Petition of both Houses of Parliament; and that all others may be restored to their Offices and Imployments who have been put out of the same upon any displeasure conceived against them for any Assistance given to both Houses of Parliament, or obey∣ing their Commands, or forbearing to leave their Attendance upon the Parliament with∣out licence, or for any other occasion arising from these unhappy Differences betwixt Your Majesty and both Houses of Parliament, upon the like Petition of both Houses.

These things being granted and performed, as it hath always been our hearty Prayer, so shall we be enabled to make it our hopeful Endeavour, That Your Majesty and Your People may enjoy the blessings of Peace, Truth and Justice; the Royalty and Greatness of Your Throne may be supported by the Loyal and bountiful Affections of Your Peo∣ple; their Liberties and Privileges maintained by Your Majesty's Protection and Justice; and this publick Honour and Happiness of Your Majesty and all Your Dominions com∣municated to other Churches and States of Your Alliance, and derived to Your Roy∣al Posterity, and the future Generations in this Kingdom for ever.

H. Elsinge Cler. Parl. D. Com.

His MAJESTY'S Answer to the Desires and Propositions of both Houses, February the third, 1642.

Received at a Conference with the Lords, February the sixth, 1642.

IF His Majesty had not given up all the faculties of His Soul to an earnest endeavour of a Peace and Reconciliation with His People, or if He would suffer Himself by any Provocation to be drawn to a sharpness of Language at a time when there seems some∣what like an Overture of Accommodation, He could not but resent the heavy charges up∣on Him in the Preamble of these Propositions, and would not suffer Himself to be reproach∣ed with protecting of Delinquents by force from Justice, (His Majesty's desire having always been, that all Men should be tryed by the known Law, and having been refused it) with raising an Army against His Parliament, and to be told that Arms have been ta∣ken up against Him for the defence of Religion, Laws, Liberties, Privileges of Parliament, and for the sitting of the Parliament in safety, with many other Particulars in that Pre∣amble

so often and so fully answered by His Majesty, without remembring the world of the time and circumstances of raising those Arms against Him, when His Majesty was so far from being in a condition to invade other mens Rights, that He was not able to maintain and defend His own from violence; and without telling His good Subjects that their Religion (the true Protestant Religion, in which His Majesty was born, hath faith∣fully lived, and to which He will die a willing Sacrifice) their Laws, Liberties, Privi∣ledges and safety of Parliament were so amply settled and established, or offered to be so by His Majesty, before any Army was raised against Him, and long before any raised by Him for His defence; that if nothing had been desired but that Peace and Protection which His Subjects and their Ancestors had in the best times enjoyed under His Majesty or His Royal Predecessors, this Misunderstanding and distance between His Majesty and His People, and this general Misery and Distraction upon the face of the whole Kingdom, had not been now the discourse of Christendom. But His Majesty will for∣bear any Expressions of Bitterness or of a sense of His own Sufferings, that, if it be pos∣sible, the memory thereof may be lost to the World. And therefore though many of the Propositions presented to His Majesty by both Houses appear to Him very derogatory from and destructive to His just Power and Prerogative, and no way beneficial to His Subjects, few of them being already due to them by the Laws established, (and how unparliamentary it is by Arms to requrie new Laws, all the World may judge:) yet (because these may be waved or mollified, and many things that are now dark or doubtful in them cleared and explained upon debate) His Majesty is pleased (such is His sense of the Miseries this Kingdom suffers by this unnatural War, and His earnest desire to remove them by a happy Peace) that a speedy time and place may be agreed upon for the mee∣ting of such persons as His Majesty and both Houses shall appoint to discuss these Pro∣positions, and such others here following as His Majesty doth propose to them.

I. That His Majesty's own Revenue, Magazins, Towns, Forts and Ships, which have been taken or kept from Him by force, be forthwith restored unto Him.

II. That whatsoever hath been done or published contrary to the known Laws of the Land, or derogatory to His Majesty's Legal and known Power and Rights, be re∣nounced and recalled, that no seed may remain for the like to spring out of for the future.

III. That whatsoever illegal power hath been claimed and exercised by or over His Subjects, as Imprisoning their Persons without Law, stopping their Habeas Corpusses, and imposing upon their Estates without Act of Parliament, &c. either by both or ei∣ther House, or any Committee of both or either, or by any persons appointed by any of them, be disclaimed, and all such persons so committed forthwith discharged.

IV. That as His Majesty will readily consent (having done so heretofore to the execu∣tion of all Laws already made, and to any good Acts to be made, for the suppressing of Po∣pery, and for the firm settling of the Protestant Religion now established by Law:) so He desires that a good Bill may be framed for the better preserving of the Book of Common-Prayer from the scorn and violence of Brownists, Anabaptists, and other Sectaries, with such clauses for the ease of Tender Consciences as His Majesty hath formerly offered.

V. That all such persons as upon the Treaty shall be excepted out of the general Pardon shall be tried per Pares, according to the usual course and known Law of the Land, and that it be left to that either to acquit or condemn them.

VI. And to the intent this Treaty may not suffer interruption by any intervening Accidents, that a Cessation of Arms, and free Trade for all His Majesty's Subjects, may be first agreed upon.

This Offer and Desire of His Majesty He hopes will be so chearfully entertained, that a speedy and blessed Peace may be accomplished. If it shall be rejected, or by in∣sisting upon unreasonable Circumstances be made impossible (which He hopes God in his Mercy to this Nation will not suffer) the guilt of the Blood which will be shed, and the Desolation which must follow, will lie upon the heads of the Refusers. However His Majesty is resolved, through what accidents soever He shall be compelled to recover His Rights, and with what prosperous Successes soever it shall please God to bless Him, that by His earnest, constant endeavours to propagate and promote the true Protestant Religion, and by His Governing according to the known Laws of the Land, and up∣holding the Just Priviledges of Parliament, according to His frequent Protestations made before Almighty God, which He will always inviolably observe, the World shall see that He hath undergone all these Difficulties and Hazards for the defence and main∣tenance of those, the zealous Preservation of which His Majesty well knowns is the only foundation and means for the true Happiness of Him and His People.

Hen. Elsing, Cler. Parliament. D. C.

The Articles of Cessation sent to His MAJESTY, Februar. ultimo.

WHereas the Lords and Commons in Parliament, out of a tender sense of the pre∣sent Miseries and Distractions of the Kingdom, and for the obtaining and set∣tling of a happy Peace between His Majesty and His People, have humbly presented to His Majesty divers Propositions, to which He hath been pleased to make this return, That His desire was, that a speedy time and place might be appointed for the discussing of those Propositions, and likewise some others proposed by His Majesty: It is there∣upon agreed in both Houses, that a Committee of both Houses shall be appointed to at∣tend His Majesty on or before the fourth of March, if His Majesty shall so please, to en∣deavour to give Him all humble and fit satisfaction concerning the said Propositions, both His Majesty's and their own. And whereas for the more speedy removal of the bloody and miserable effects of War, His Majesty hath likewise been graciously pleased by a late * Message to signifie his desire,* 1.1 that for avoiding all intervening Accidents of War which might interrupt this Treaty, there might be a Cessation of Arms under such par∣ticular conditions and limitations as should be agreed on; their humble desires therein concurring with His Majesty, it is by them assented and agreed, That a Cessation of Arms, in order to such a Treaty as is resolved upon by both Houses of Parliament, may be enjoyned to all the Armies and Forces now on foot in the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales, on either side, under the restrictions and limitations hereafter fol∣lowing, and that neither side shall be bound and limited by this Cessation in any other wise or to any other purpose than is hereafter expressed.

I. That all manner of Arms, Ammunition, Victuals, Mony, Bullion, and all other Commodities, passing without such a safe Conduct as may warrant their passage, may be staid and seized on, as if no such Cessation were agreed on at all.

II. That all manner of Persons passing without such a safe Conduct as is mentioned in the Article next going before, shall be apprehended and detained, as if no such Cessa∣tion were agreed on at all.

III. That His Majesty's Forces in Oxfordshire shall advance no nearer to Windsor than Wheatly, and in Buckinghamshire no nearer to Ailesbury than Brill, and that in Berks the Forces respectively shall not advance nearer the one to the other than now they are; and that the Parliament-Forces in Oxfordshire shall advance no nearer to Oxford than Hen∣ly, and those in Buckingham no nearer to Oxford than Ailesbury: and that His Majesty's Forces shall take no new Quarters above twelve miles from Oxford any way; and that the Parliament-Forces shall take no new Quarters above twelve miles from Windsor any way.

IV. That no Siege shall be begun or continued against Glocester, and that His Maje∣sty's Forces now employed in the Siege shall return to Cirencester and Malmsbury, or to Oxford, as shall be most for their conveniency; and the Parliament-Forces which are in Glocestershire shall remain in the Cities of Glocester, Bristol, and the Castle and Town of Berkly, or retire nearer to Windsor, as they shall see cause; and that those of Wales which are drawn to Glocester, shall return into their Quarters where they were before they drew down to Glocestershire.

V. That in case it be pretended on either side that the Cessation is violated, no Act of Hostility is immediately to follow, but first the party complaining is to acquaint the Lord General on the other side, and to allow three days after notice given for satisfaction; and in case satisfaction be not given or accepted, then five days notice to be given before Hostility begin. And the like to be observed in the remoter Armies by the Comman∣ders in chief.

VI. Lastly, that all other Forces in the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales, and not before mentioned, shall remain in the same Quarters and places as they are at the time of the publishing of this Cessation, and under the same conditions as are mentioned in the Articles before; and that this Cessation shall not extend to restrain the setting forth or employing of any Ships for the defence of His Majesty's Dominions.

All which they humbly desire His Majesty will be pleased to ratifie and confirm, and that this Cessation may begin upon the fourth of March next, or sooner if it may be, and continue until the five and twentieth of the same month, and in the mean time to be pub∣lished to the Commanders, Officers and Soldiers, and all other His Majesty's loving Subjects on either side; and that the Treaty intended may commence upon the fourth of March next, or sooner if it may be, and the continuance thereof not to exceed twen∣ty days.

Hen. Elsinge Cler. Parl. D. Com.

His MAJESTY's Message to both His Houses of Parliament in Answer to the Articles of Cessation; received at a Conference, Martii 6. 1642.

HIS Majesty hoped the Treaty would have been begun and the Cessation agreed on long since, and that much might in this time have been concluded in order to the Peace and Happiness of the Kingdom; but since in almost a month (for His Ma∣jesty's Propositions were made on the third of February, and He heard not since from both Houses till the first of March) no consent hath been yielded to it, He conceives the Cessation cannot begin so soon as the fourth of this month, by which time (though His Majesty uses no delay in making His Answer) the same can hardly be returned to them; and many of the Articles now presented to Him from both Houses concerning the Ces∣sation are so strict, that such of His good Subjects who are not of His Army (and for whom generally He shall always have a principal, just and compassionate regard) re∣ceive not any benefit; or are restored to any liberty thereby, which His Majesty shall ever insist upon (when in matters meerly concerning Himself He may descend to easier Con∣ditions) and which He hath returned with such Alterations as He doubts not both Houses will consent to, and do sufficiently manifest how sollicitous His Majesty is for the good of His People, and how desirous He is that in this unnatural contention no more blood of His Subjects may be spilt (upon which He looks with much grief, compassion and tenderness of heart) even of those who have lifted up their hands against Him: and His Majesty therefore desires (against which He can imagine no objection can be made) that the Cessation may begin upon the twelfth of this month, or sooner, if the Conditions of the Cessation shall be sooner agreed on; and is willing the same shall continue for twenty days, in which time He hopes by the Treaty, and a clear understanding of each other, a full Peace and Happiness may be established throughout the Kingdom. And du∣ring that time His Majesty is willing that neither side shall be bound or limited by this Cessation in any other wise, or to any other purpose, than is hereafter expressed.

I. That all manner of Arms, Ammunition, Mony, Bullion and Victuals passing for the use of either Army, without a Pass or safe Conduct from the Generals of each Ar∣my, may be staied and seized on, as if no Cessation were agreed on at all.

II. That all Officers and Soldiers of either Army, passing without such licence or safe Conduct as aforesaid, may be apprehended and detained, as if no such Cessation were agreed on at all; and that all manner of persons His Majesty's Subjects, of what quali∣ty or condition soever, (except Officers and Soldiers of either Army) shall pass to and from the Cities of Oxford and London and back again at their pleasures during this Ces∣sation, as likewise to and from any other parts of His Majesty's Dominions, without any search, stay, or imprisonment of their persons, or seisure and detention of their goods or estates; and that all manner of Trade, Traffick and Commerce, be free and open between all His Majesty's Subjects, excepting, as aforesaid, between the Officers and Soldiers of either Army, or for Arms, Ammunition, Mony, Bullion or Victuals, for the use of either Army, without a pass or safe Conduct as aforesaid, which may be a good beginning to renew the Trade and Correspondence of the Kingdom, and whereby His good Subjects may be restored to that liberty and freedom they were born to, and have so happily enjoyed till these miserable Distractions, and which even during this War His Majesty hath to His utmost laboured to preserve, opening the way by most strict Proclamations to the passage of all Commodities even to the City of London it self.

III. That His Majesty's Forces in Oxfordshire shall advance no nearer to Windsor than Wheatly, and in Buckinghamshire no nearer to Ailesbury than Brill, and that in Berkshire the Forces respectively shall not advance nearer the one to the other than they shall be at the day to be agreed upon for the Cessation to begin; and that the Forces of the other Army in Oxfordshire shall advance no nearer to Oxford than Henly, and those in Buckinghamshire no nearer to Oxford than Ailesbury; and that the Forces of neither Army shall advance their Quarters nearer to each other than they shall be upon the day agreed on for the Cessation to begin, otherwise than in passage and communi∣cation between their several Quarters respectively, without any acts of Hostility each to other, but may inlarge themselves within their own Quarters respectively as they shall find convenient.

IV. That the Forces of either Army in Glocestershire, Wiltshire and Wales, as like∣wise in the Cities of Glocester, Bristol, and the Castle and Town of Berkley, shall be guided by the Rule exprest in the later part of the precedent Article.

V. That in case it be pretended on either side that the Cessation is violated, no act of Hostility is immediately to follow, but first the party complaining is to acquaint the Lord General on the other side, and to allow three days after notice given for satisfacti∣on; and in case satisfaction be not given or accepted, then five days notice to be given before Hostility begin: and the like to be observed in the remoter Armies by the Com∣manders in chief.

VI. That all other Forces in the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales, not before-mentioned, shall remain in the same Quarters and places as they are at the time of publishing this Cessation, otherwise than in passage and communication between their several Quarters, as is mentioned in the latter part of the third Article; and that this Cessation shall not extend to restrain the setting forth or imploying any Ships for the defence of His Majesty's Dominions, provided that His Majesty be first acquainted with the particulars, and that such Ships as shall be set forth be commanded by such persons as His Majesty shall approve of.

VII. Lastly, that during the Cessation none of His Majesty's Subjects be imprisoned, otherwise than according to the known Laws of the Land; and that there shall be no plundring or violence offered to any of His Subjects. And His Majesty is very willing, if there be any Scruples made concerning these Propositions and Circumstances of the Cessation, that the Committee for the Treaty nevertheless may immediately come hi∣ther, and so all matters concerning the Cessation may be here settled by them.

H. Elsinge Cler. Parl. D. Com.

Mis MAJESTY's Answer to the* 1.2 Articles of Cessation sent to His Majesty.

HIS Majesty hath sent a safe Conduct for the Earl of Northumberland, Mr. Pierre∣pont, Sir William Armyne, Sir John Holland and Mr. Whitelocke, but hath not ad∣mitted the Lord Say to attend Him, as being excepted against by name in His Procla∣mation at Oxford of the third of November, and by Writ to the Sheriff proclaimed then in that County, in which His Majesty's Intention is declared to proceed against him as a person guilty of High-Treason, and so falling to be within the case of Sir John Evelin, who upon the same Exception was not admitted to attend His Majesty with the rest of the Committee at Colebrook in November last: But His Majesty doth signifie, that in case the House shall think fit to send any other person in the place of the Lord Say that is not included in the like Exception, His Majesty hath commanded all His Of∣ficers, Soldiers and other Subjects, to suffer Him as freely to pass and repass as if His Name had been particularly comprised in this safe Conduct.

His Majesty is content that His Proposition concerning the Magazines, Forts, Ships and Revenue, and the Proposition of both Houses for the disbanding of the Armies, shall be first Treated of, and agreed of before the proceeding to treat upon any of the other Propositions, and that after, the second of His Majesty's and the second of theirs be treated on, and agreed of, and so on in the same order; and that from the beginning of the Treaty the time may not exceed Twenty days; in which He hopes a full Peace and right understanding may be established throughout the Kingdom.

H. Elsinge Cler. Parl. D. Com.

The last Articles of Cessation now sent to His MAJESTY.

THE Lords and Commons in Parliament being still carried on with a vehement desire of Peace, that so the Kingdom may speedily be freed from the Desolation and Destruction wherewith it is like to be overwhelmed if the War should continue, have with as much expedition as they could considered of the Articles of Cessation, with those Alterations and Additions offered by His Majesty, unto which they are ready to agree in such manner as is exprest in these ensuing Articles (viz.)

I. That all manner of Arms, Ammunition, Victual, Mony, Bullion and all other Commodities, passing without a safe Conduct from the Generals of both Armies, as well of His Majesty's as of the Armies raised by the Parliament, may be stayed and seized on, as if no such Cessation were agreed on at all.

II. That all manner of persons passing without such a safe Conduct as is mentioned in the Articles next going before, shall be apprehended and detained, as if no such Cessa∣tion were agreed on at all.

III. That His Majesty's Forces in Oxfordshire shall advance no nearer to Windsor than Wheat∣ly, and in Buckinghamshire no nearer to Ailesbury than Brill, and that in Berkshire the Forces re∣spectively shall not advance nearer the one to the other than they shall be at the day to be a∣greed on for the Cessation to begin; and that the Forces of the other Army raised by the Par∣liament shall advance no nearer to Oxford than Henley, and those in Buckinghamshire no nearer to Oxon than Ailesbury; and that the Forces of neither Army shall advance their Quarters nea∣rer to each other than they shall be upon the day agreed on for the Cessation to begin.

IV. That the Forces of either Army in Gloucestershire, Wilts and Wales, as likewise in the Cities of Gloucester and Bristol, and the Castle and Town of Berkly, shall be guided by the Rule exprest in the latter part of the precedent Article.

V. That in case it be pretended on either side that the Cessation is violated, no act of Hosti∣lity is immediately to follow, but first the party complaining is to acquaint the Lord General on the other side, and to allow three days after notice given for satisfaction, and in case sa∣tisfaction be not given or accepted, then five days notice to be given before Hostility begin; and the like to be observed in the remoter Armies by the Commanders in chief.

VI. That all other Forces in the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales, not before mentioned, shall remain in the same Quarters and places as they are at the time of the pub∣lishing of this Cessation, and under the same Conditions as are mentioned in the Articles before: and that this Cessation shall not extend to restrain the setting forth or employing of any Ships for the defence of His Majesty's Dominions.

VII. That as soon as His Majesty shall be pleased to disband the Armies, which both Houses earnestly desire may be speedily effected, and to disarme the Papists according to Law, the Subjects may then enjoy the benefit of Peace in the liberty of their Persons, Goods, and Freedom of Trade; in the mean time the Generals and Commanders of the Armies of both sides shall be enjoyned to keep the Souldiers from plundering, which the two Houses of Parliament have ever disliked and forbidden.

And for the speedy settling of this so-much-desired Peace, they have thought good to send their Committees with Instructions, that if His Majesty be pleased to consent to a Cessation so limited and qualified, they may forthwith proceed to treat upon the Propositions; and be∣cause the time is so far elapsed in these preparations, they desire the Cessation may begin the five and twentieth of this instant March, or sooner if it may be, and in the mean time notice to be given to all the Forces in the several and remote parts, and the Commanders, Officers & Souldiers are enjoyned to observe this Cessation accordingly, to which they hope and pray that God will give such a blessing, that thereupon Peace, Safety and Happiness may be produ∣ced and confirmed to His Majesty and all His People.

H. Elsinge Cler. Parl. Dom. Com.

INSTRUCTIONS agreed on by the Lords and Commons in Parliament for Algernon Earl of Northumberland, William Lord Viscount Say and Seal, William Pierrepont Esq; Sir William Armyne Bar. Sir John Holland Bar. and Bulstrode Whitelocke Esq; Committees appointed to attend His MAJESTY upon the Propositions made by His Majesty to the Parlia∣ment, and likewise upon the other Propositions humbly presented from them to His Majesty.

I. YOU shall present to His Majesty the Articles agreed on for the Cessation of Arms, hum∣bly desiring His Majesty to ratifie and confirm the same under the Great Seal; which being obtained, you are to send it up to the Parliament with all possible speed: and shall like∣wise beseech the King to dispatch away Messengers to the Generals, Commanders and Soldi∣ers of all His Armies and Forces, with a strict Command & Injunction that they observe those Articles of Cessation, according as they are agreed upon, as the two Houses likewise intend to give the like direction to the Lord General of the Armies raised for their Defence.

II. After His Majesty hath declared and ratified the Cessation you shall then proceed to the Treaty, beginning with the first Proposition on His Majesty's behalf concerning His Majesty's own Revenue, his Magazines, Towns, Forts and Ships, and thereunto make this Answer;

You shall declare, That the two Houses of Parliament have not made use of His Majesty's own Revenue but in a very small proportion, which for a good part hath been employed in the maintenance of His Majesty's Children, according to the allowance established by Him∣self; and they will satisfie what shall remain due to His Majesty of those Sums received out of His Majesty's own Revenues, and shall leave the same to His Majesty for the time to come: And you likewise shall propound to His Majesty, that He will restore what hath been taken for His use, upon any of the Bills assigned to other purposes by several Acts of Parliament, or out of the provision made for the War of Ireland.

That they will remove the Garrisons out of all Towns and Forts in their hands wherein there were no Garrisons before these Troubles, and slight all Fortifications made since that time, which Towns and Forts it is to be agreed on both parts shall continue in the same con∣dition

they were in before; and that those Garrisons shall not be renewed, nor the Fortifica∣tions repaired, without Consent of His Majesty and both Houses of Parliament.

That for those Towns and Forts which are within the Jurisdiction of the Cinque Ports, they shall be delivered up into the hands of such a Noble person as His Majesty shall appoint to be Warden of the Cinque-Ports, being such a one as they shall confide in.

That the Town of Portsmouth shall be reduced to the number of the Garrison as was at the time when the Lords and Commons undertook the custody thereof; and such other Forts, Castles and Towns, as were formerly kept by Garrisons, as have been taken by them into their care and custody since the beginning of these Troubles, shall be reduced to such proportion of Garrison as they had in the year 1636, and shall be so continued; and that all the said Towns, Forts and Castles shall be delivered up into the hands of such persons of Quality and Trust, to be likewise nominated by His Majesty, as the two Houses shall confide in.

That the Warden of the Cinque-Ports, and all Governours and Commanders of Towns, Castles and Forts, shall keep the same Towns, Castles and Forts respectively for the Service of His Majesty, and the Safety of the Kingdom; and that they shall not admit into any of them any Forein Forces raised without His Majesty's Authority and Consent of the two Houses of Parliament; and they shall use their uttermost endeavours to suppress all Forces whatsoever raised without such Authority and Consent; and they shall seise all Arms and Ammunition provided for any such Forces.

That the Ships shall be delivered into the Charge of such a Noble person as His Majesty shall nominate to be Lord High-Admiral of England, and the two Houses of Parliament con∣fide in, who shall receive the same Office by Letters Patent quamdiu bene se gesserit, and shall have power to nominate and appoint all subordinate Commanders and Officers, and have all other powers appertaining to the Office of High-Admiral; which Ships he shall employ for the defence of the Kingdom against all Forein Forces whatsoever, and for the safeguard of Merchants, securing of Trade, and the guarding of Ireland, and the intercepting of all Supplies to be carried to the Rebels; and shall use his uttermost endeavour to suppress all Forces which shall be raised by any person without His Majesty's Authority and Consent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament, and shall seise all Arms and Ammunition pro∣vided for supply of any such Forces.

That all the Arms and Ammunition taken out of His Majesty's Magazines, which shall remain in their hands, shall be delivered into His Stores, and whatsoever shall be wanting, they will in convenient time supply in kind, according to the proportions which they have re∣ceived; and that the Persons to whose charge those publick Magazines shall be committed, being nominated by His Majesty, shall be such as the Lords and Commons shall confide in: And you shall propound to His Majesty, that He will restore all such Arms and Ammuni∣tion as have been taken for His use from the several Counties, Cities and Towns.

To the Proposition made by the two Houses concerning the disbanding of the Armies, you shall humbly desire His Majesties speedy and positive Answer; unto which if He shall be pleased to give His Assent, you shall then beseech His Majesty in the name of both Houses, that a near day may be agreed upon for the disbanding of all the Forces in the remote parts of Yorkshire and the other Northern Counties, as also in Lancashire, Cheshire, and in the Domi∣ion of Wales, and in Cornwal and Devon; and they being fully disbanded, another day may be agreed on for the disbanding of all Forces in Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, and all other places, except at Oxford and the Quarters thereunto belonging, and Windsor and the Quarters thereunto belonging; and that last of all a speedy day be appointed for the dis∣banding those two Armies at Oxford and Windsor, and all the Forces Members of either of them.

That some Officers of both Armies may speedily meet to agree of the manner of the disban∣ding, and that fit Persons may be appointed by His Majesty and the Parliament, who may repair to the several Armies, and see the disbanding put in speedy execution accordingly.

That his Majesty do likewise remove the Garrisons out of Newcastle, and all other Towns, Castles and Forts, where any Garrisons have been placed by Him since these Troubles; and that the Fortifications be likewise slighted, and the Towns and forts left in such state and condition as they were in the year 1636.

That all other Towns, Forts and Castles, where there have been formerly Garrisons before these Troubles, be committed to the charge of such Persons to be nominated by His Majesty as the Parliament shall confide in, and under such Instructions as are formerly mentioned.

That if His Majesty shall be pleased to assent to these Propositions concerning the Towns, Forts, Castles, Magazines and Ships, that then His Majesty be humbly intrea∣ted to name Persons of Quality to receive the charge of the several Offices and Forts, Castles and Towns, to be forthwith certified to the two Houses of Parliament, that there∣upon

they may express their confidence in those persons, or humbly beseech His Majesty to name others; none of which Persons shall be removed during three years next ensu∣ing without just cause to be approved by Parliament; and if any be so removed, or shall dye within the said space, the Person to be put into the same Office shall be such as both Houses shall confide in.

That all Generals and Commanders in any of the Armies on either side, as likewise the Lord Admiral of England, the Lord Warden of the Cinque-ports, all Commanders of any Ships, and Commanders of any Town, Castle or Fort, shall take an Oath to ob∣serve these Articles afore-mentioned, and to use their uttermost power to preserve the true Reformed Protestant Religion, and the Peace of the Kingdom against all Forein Force, and all other Forces raised without His Majesties Authority and Consent of the two Houses of Parliament.

You shall move His Majesty, that for the better dispatch of the Treaty, and the free intercourse of Instructions and Advertisements betwixt the two Houses of Parliament and the Committee, there may be a free pass of Messengers to and from the Parliament and the Committee, without search or interruption, and His Majesty's safe Conduct to be obtained to that effect to such Persons as are or shall be appointed for that service, viz. for

Master John Rushworth, Master Mithael Welden, Master John Corbet of Graies Inn, and Master James Standish.

H. Elsinge Cler. Parl. D. Com.

The KING's Message concerning the Cessation. 23 Martii, 1642.

CHARLES R.

HIS Majesty hath immediately upon their arrival admitted the Committee sent to Him from both Houses of Parliament (as the Messengers of Peace) to His Royal Presence, and received the Articles of Cessation brought by them, which are in effect the same His Majesty formerly excepted to, though their expression in the Preface to these Ar∣ticles, of their readiness to agree to those Alterations and Additions offered by His Majesty in such manner as is expressed, made Him expect to have found at least some of the real Alterations and Additions made by Him admitted, which He doth not discover.

I. His Majesty desired that Provision might be made, and Licence given to His good Subjects for their freedom of Trade, Traffick and Commerce (though in matters which concerned Himself more immediately, as in Arms, Ammunition, Mony, Bullion and Victual, for the use of His Army, and the Passage of all Officers and Souldiers of His Army, He was contented the restraint should be in such manner as was proposed) of which His Majesty is so tender, that as he hath provided for the same by His gracious Proclamations, so He doth daily release and discharge such Merchandize and Commodi∣ties as are contrary to those Proclamations stayed by any of His Majesties Forces.

To this Freedom and Liberty of His good Subjects there is not the least admission given by these Articles, so that they have not any ease or benefit by this Cessation; which His Majesty desires both Houses to consider of, and whether, if His Majesty should take the same course to stop and interrupt the Trade of the Kingdom as the other Army doth, a general Loss and Calamity would not seize upon His good Subjects.

II. His Majesty, to the end that a full Cessation might be as well at Sea as at Land, and He might be secured, that the Ships proposed to be set forth for the Defence of His Majesties Dominions should be employed only to that end and purpose, desired, that they might be put under the Command of Persons to be approved of by His Majesty; which is not consented to by these Articles, but their former, to which His Majesty excepted, strictly and entirely insisted on, by which (besides that part of Hostility remains) the conveying of any number of Forces from any part to any other by that means remains free to them.

III. For the prevention of any Inconveniences which might arise upon real Differen∣ces or Mistakes upon the latitude of Expressions (as if His Majesty should now consent to these Articles proposed in the Terms proposed, He must confess the Army of which He complains to be raised by the Parliament, and either Himself to be no part of the Parlia∣ment, or Himself to have raised that Army) and for prevention of that Delay which He foresaw could not otherwise be avoided, if upon every Difference the Questions must be remitted to London, His Majesty desired that the Committee (for whom He then sent a safe Conduct) might have liberty to debate any such Differences and Expressi∣ons, and reconcile the same, that all possible Expedition might be used to the main Treaty.

In this point of so high Concernment no power is given in these Articles, and the Committee confessed to His Majesty they have no Power given, but are strictly and pre∣cisely bound to the very words of the Articles now sent, and that before these are con∣sented to by Us, they cannot enter into any Treaty concerning the other Propositions.

IV. His Majesty desired, that during the Cessation none of His good Subjects might be imprisoned, otherwise than according to the known Laws of the Land.

This is in no degree consented to, but the priviledge and liberty, to which they were born, reserved from them till the disbanding of both Armies (though they are no part of either Army) and so have no benefit by this Cessation.

V. His Majesty desired, that during this Cessation there should be no Plundering or Violence offered to any of His Subjects.

In the Answer to which, His desire against Violence is not at all taken notice of, nor is His desire against Plundering any ways satisfied; His Majesty not only intending by it the robbing of the Subject by the unruliness of the uncommanded Souldier (which their Clause of requiring the Generals and Officers to keep them from it seems to imply, and the assertion, that the two Houses of Parliament had ever disliked and forbidden it, de∣clares plainly to be their only meaning) but particularly the Violence and Plundering used to His Subjects by forcibly taking away their goods, for not submitting to Imposi∣tions and Taxes required from them by Orders or Ordinances of one or both Houses of Parliament, which are contrary to the known Laws of the Land.

VI. Besides that there is no consent given to those Alterations and Additions offered by His Majesty, (whatsoever is pretended) so where an absolute Consent may be sup∣posed, because the very words of His Majesties Article are wholly preserved, yet by reason of the Relation to somewhat going before that is varied by them, the sense of those words is wholy varied too; as in the Fourth Article, that part of the Third Ar∣ticle to which that did refer being wholly left out. So that upon the matter all the Pro∣positions made by His Majesty (which did not in Terms agree with those presented to Him) are utterly rejected.

For these Reasons, and that this Entrance towards a blessed Peace and Accommoda∣tion (which hath already filled the hearts of the Kingdom with Joy and Hope) may be improved to the wished end, His Majesty desires, that the Committee now sent may speedily have liberty to treat, debate, and agree upon the Articles of Cessation in which they and all the World shall find, that His Majesty is less sollicitous for His own Digni∣ty and Greatness than for His Subjects Ease and Liberty. And He doubts not upon such a Debate all differences concerning the Cessation will be easily and speedily agreed up∣on, and the benefit of a Cessation be continued and confirmed to His People, by a speedy disbanding of both Armies, and a sudden and firm Peace, which His Majesty above all things desires.

If this so reasonable, equal and just Desire of His Majesty shall not be yielded unto, but the same Articles still insisted upon, though His Majesty next to Peace desires a Cessation, yet that the not-agreeing upon the one may not destroy the hopes of nor so much as delay the other, He is willing however to Treat (even without a Cessation, if that be not granted) upon the Propositions themselves, in that order as is agreed, upon (and desires the Committee here may be enabled to that effect.) In which Treaty He shall give all His Subjects that satisfaction, that if any security to enjoy all the Rights, Privileges and Liberties due to them by the Law, or that Happiness in Church and State which the best times have seen, with such farther acts of Grace as may agree with His Honour, Justice and Duty to His Crown, and as may not render Him less able to protect His Subjects according to His Oath, will satisfie them, He is confident in the Mercy of God, that no more precious blood of this Nation will be thus miserably spent.

My Lord, and Gentlemen.

WHereas by your former Instructions you are tied up to a circumstance of Time, and are not to proceed unto the Treaty upon the Propositions until the Cessati∣on of Arms be first agreed upon; you are now authorized and required, as you may per∣ceive by the Votes of both Houses which you shall herewith receive, to Treat and de∣bate with His Majesty upon the two first Propositions, according to those Instructions, for four days after the day of the receit hereof, notwithstanding that the Cessation be not agreed upon.

Your Lordships most humble Servant, Manchester, Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore.

March 24. 1642.

Received March. 25.

Die Veneris, 24. Martii, 1642.

Resolved upon the Question by the Lords and Commons in Parliament;

THat the Committee at Oxon shall have power to Treat and debate with His Majesty upon the two first Propositions, according to their Instructions, for four days after the day of the receit of this Message, notwithstanding that the Cessation is not yet agreed upon.

Resolved, &c.

That The Committee formerly appointed to prepare the Articles of Cessation, and Instructions for the Committee at Oxon, shall consider of an Answer to be made to His Majesties Message this day received; and likewise prepare Reasons to be sent to the Committee, for them to press in the Treaty and debate upon the former Articles of Cessa∣tion; and to shew His Majesty the grounds why the Houses cannot depart from those former Articles.

Joh. Brown Cler. Parliamentorum.

The Votes of both Houses, and the Copy of the Answer to His MAJESTY, received Martii 25. 1642.

May it please Your Majesty;

WE Your Loyal Subjects, the Lords and Commons in Parliament, having re∣ceived a Message from Your Majesty, in which You are pleased to express Your Self not to be satisfied with the Articles of Cessation, presented unto You by our Committee now attending You at Oxford, and yet a signification of Your Majesties wil∣lingness to Treat upon the Propositions themselves, even without a Cessation, do with all humbleness give our consent that our Committee shall have power to treat and debate with Your Majesty upon the two first Propositions, according to their Instructions, for four days after the day of the receit of this Message, notwithstanding that the Cessation be not yet agreed upon; that (as much as in us lies) here may be no delay in the pro∣ceedings for the obtaining of a blessed Peace, and the healing up the miserable Breaches of this distracted Kingdom; and do purpose to represent very speedily unto Your Ma∣jesty those just Reasons and grounds, upon which we have found it necessary to desire of Your Majesty a Cessation so qualified as that is, whereby we hope You will receive such sa∣tisfaction, as that You will be pleased to assent unto it, and being obtained, we assure our selves it will be most effectual to the Safety of the Kingdom, and that Peace which with so much zeal and loyal affection to Your Royal Person, and in a deep sense of the bleeding con∣dition of this poor Kingdom, we humbly beg of Your Majesty's Justice and Goodness.

Joh. Brown Cler. Parl.

A Letter from the E. of Manchester to the E. of Northumberland, Received Mar. 29.

MY Lord, I am commanded by the Peers in Parliament to send unto your Lordship the Reasons which both Houses think fit to offer unto His Majesty, in pursuit of their adhering to their former Resolutions concerning the Articles of the Cessation of Arms. My Lord, you shall likewise receive additional Instructions from both Houses, and a Vote, which I send you here inclosed. My Lord, this is all I have in command, as

Your Lordships most humble Servant, Manchester, Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore

Mar. 27.

Die Lunae, 27 Martii, 1643.

Resolved upon the Question by the Lords in Parliament;

THat the Earl of Northumberland, their Committee at Oxford, is hereby authori∣zed to acquaint His Majesty with all their Instructions upon the two first Pro∣positions.

Jo. Brown Cler. Parl.

Additional Instructions, March 29.

Additional Instructions agreed upon by the Lords and Commons in Parliament, for Alger∣non Earl of Northumberland, William Viscount Say and Seal, William Pierre∣pont Es{que} Sir William Armyne Bar. Sir John Holland Bar. and Bulstrode Whitelocke Esq; Committees attending His Majesty upon the Cessation and Treaty.

YOu shall alter the words mentioned in his Majesty's third Article in this manner, leaving out the words [The Army raised by the Parliament,] and putting in these words, [The Army raised by both Houses of Parliament.]

You shall humbly present to His Majesty the Reasons herewithal sent from both Houses, for their not assenting to those Alterations and Additions to the Articles of Cessation offered by His Majesty.

You shall press the force of those Reasons, or any other, as there shall be occasion, in the best manner you may, to procure His Majesties assent to those Articles of Cessa∣tion; which if you shall obtain within two days after the day of the receit hereof, you shall in the name of both Houses of Parliament agree and conclude upon the Cessation, to continue to the end of twenty days, to be reckoned from the twenty fifth of, March and upon a day certain, as soon as may be, when the same shall first begin and be of force: within which time notice is to be given as well by His Majesty, as by the Lords and Com∣mons, to the several Generals, Commanders and Souldiers respectively, to observe the same Cessation, as it is qualified and limited in those Articles: And after such conclusion made, you shall take care that those Articles be past under the Great Seal in a fitting and effectual manner, and speedily sent up to the Lords and Commons in Parliament, with four Duplicates of the same at least.

If His Majesty shall please to agree upon the two Propositions concerning His own Revenues, Towns, Forts, Magazines and Ships, and the disbanding of the Armies, you are then authorized fully to agree and conclude upon those Propositions, according to your Instructions: and you shall desire His Majesty that the same may be forthwith put in execution, according to the Instructions formerly given in that behalf; and the two Houses will be ready to put in execution what is to be performed on their part, of which you have hereby power to assure His Majesty. And if His Majesty shall not be pleased to agree upon those two Propositions within the time of four days, you shall then speedily give advertisement to the two Houses of Parliament, that thereupon they may give such further direction as to them shall seem fit.

Josh. Brown Cler. Parliamentorum.

Reasons for the Committee, Martii 27. 1643.

To the Kings most Excellent Majesty.

THe Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled do with all humble thankfulness acknowledge Your Majesty's Favour in the speedy admission of their Committee to Your Royal Presence, and the expedition of Your Exceptions to their Articles, that so they might more speedily endeavour to give Your Majesty satisfaction: and although they were ready to agree to the Articles of Cessation in such manner as they exprest in their Preface, they cannot agree to the Alteration and Addition offered by Your Majesty without great prejudice to the Cause, and danger to the Kingdom, whose Cause it is: The reasons whereof will plainly appear in the Answer to the particulars prest by Your Majesty.

I. They do deny that they have restrained any Trade, but to some few of those places where Your Majesty's Forces are inquartered, and even now in the heat of War do per∣mit the Carriers to go into all the parts of the Kingdom with all sorts of Commodities for the use of the Subjects, except Arms, Ammunition, Mony and Bullion: But if they should grant such a free Trade as Your Majesty desired to Oxford and other places, where Your Forces remain, it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to keep Arms, Am∣munition, Mony and Bullion from passing into Your Majesty's Army, without very strict and frequent Searches, which would make it so troublesome, chargeable and dangerous to the Subjects, that the question being but for twenty days for so few places, the Mis∣chiefs and Inconveniences to the whole Kingdom would be far greater than any Advan∣tage which that small number of Your Subjects (whom it concerns) can have by it.

The case then is much otherwise than is exprest by Your Majesty's Answer: for whereas they are charged not to give the least admission of this liberty and freedom of Trade during the Cessation; the truth is, that they do grant it as fully to the benefit of the Subject even in time of War; and that Your Majesty in pressing this for the Peoples good, doth therein desire that which will be very little beneficial to the Subjects, but ex∣ceeding advantagious to Your Majesty, in supplying Your Army with many necessaries, and making Your Quarters a staple for such Commodities as may be vented in the adja∣cent Counties, and so draw Mony thither, whereby the Inhabitants will be better ena∣bled by Loans and Contributions to support Your Majesty's Army. And as Your Ma∣jesty's Army may receive much Advantage, and the other Army much Danger, if such freedom should be granted to those places: so there is no probability that the Army raised by the Lords and Commons shall have any return of Commodities and other Supplies

from thence, which may be useful for them. And they conceive, that in a Treaty for a Cessation those demands cannot be thought reasonable which are not indifferent, that is, equally advantagious to both parties.

As they have given no interruption to the Trade of the Kingdom, but in relation to the supply of the contrary Army, which the reason of War requires; so they beseech Your Majesty to consider, whether Your Souldiers have not robbed the Carriers in seve∣ral parts where there hath been no such reason, and Your Ships taken many Ships, to the great damage not only of particular Merchants, but of the whole Kingdom; and whether Your Majesty have not declared Your own purpose, and endeavoured by Your Ministers of State to embarque the Merchants goods in Forein parts, which hath been in some mea∣sure executed upon the East-land Merchants in Denmark, and is a course which will much diminish the Wealth of the Kingdom, violate the Law of Nations, make other Princes Arbiters of the Differences betwixt Your Majesty and Your People, break off the inter∣course betwixt this and other States, and like to bring us into quarrels and dissentions with all the neighbour-Nations.

II. To demand the approving of the Commanders of the Ships, is to desire the strength of one party to the other before the difference be ended, and against all Rules of Treaty: To make a Cessation at Sea, would leave the Kingdom naked to those Forein Forces which they have great cause to believe have been sollicited against them, and the Ports open for such supplies of Arms and Ammunition as shall be brought from beyond the Seas. But for conveying any number of Forces by those means from one part to ano∣ther, they shall observe the Articles of the Cessation by which that is restrained.

III. As for the expression of [the Army raised by the Parliament,] they are contented it should be altered thus [raised by both Houses of Parliament,] as not desiring to differ upon words: But to give any conclusive Power in this case to the Committee upon such Differences as may arise, wherein the Houses have given no express direction, is neither safe for the Committee to undertake, nor fit for the two Houses to grant; yet to debate and to press the reason of their desires, whereby an Agreement from Your Majesty may be procured, is granted to them. And although the two Houses did think it most proper the Cessation should be first agreed on, and that it was unfit to Treat in blood; yet to satisfie the World of their earnest longing after Peace, they have given power to the Committee to enter into the Treaty upon the two first Propositions, notwithstanding the Cessation be not yet assented to: and those being agreed, they hope the foundation will be laid, not only of a suspension, but a total abolition of all Hostility in the Kingdom.

IV. If the nature of War be duly considered, it must needs be acknowledged, that it is incompatible with the ordinary rules of a peaceable Government. Your Majesty would have them commit none but according to the known Laws of the Land; whereby they conceive Your Majesty understands, that it must be by the ordinary Process of Law: which being granted, it will follow, that no man must be committed by them for supplying Your Majesty with Arms, Powder, Ammunition; for by the Law of the Land the Sub∣jects may carry such goods from London, or any other place, to Oxford: the Souldiers must not be committed if they run from their Colours and refuse any duty in the Army: no man shall be committed for not submitting to necessary supplies of Mony. So that if this be yielded in Your Majesty's sense, they shall be disabled to restrain supplies from their Enemies, and to govern or maintain their own Souldiers. It cannot be thought reasona∣ble, that under the disguise of a Cessation, they should admit that which will necessarily produce the dissolving of the Army, and destruction of the Cause.

It seems not probable that Your Majesty doth intend, that if any be taken with sup∣plies for this Army, or mutining in Your own, such persons shall not be committed, but according to the known Laws of the Land, that is, by process of Law: but rather that Your Majesty will so interrupt this limitation of known Laws, that though it lays streight bonds upon the two Houses, yet it leaves Your Generals as much liberty as before. For it hath been denied by Your Majesty, that these known Laws, give any Power to the two Houses of Parliament to raise Arms, and so consequently their General cannot exercise any Martial Law in those cases: and it is not unlike but that it will be affirmed, that the Generals constituted by Your Majestys Commission have that power by the same known Laws. So that this Article, under the specious shew of Liberty and Law, would altoge∣ther disable them to defend their Liberties and Laws, and would produce to Your Ma∣jesty an absolute Victory and Submission, under pretence of a Cessation and Treaty.

V. Being by necessity inevitable on their part enforced to a defensive War in this un∣happy Breach between Your Majesty and them, and that they are therein warranted both by the Laws of God and Man, it must needs follow, that by the same Law they are

enabled to raise means to support that War; and therefore till it shall please God to incline Your Majesty to afford them such a Peace as may secure them, they cannot relinquish the power of laying Taxes upon those who ought to joyn with them in that Defence, and the necessary ways of levying those Taxes upon them, in case of refusal, for otherwise their Army must needs be dissolved. But if Your Majesty shall consent to disband the Armies, the Cause of the War being taken away, the Consequences will likewise be removed, and the Subject restored to the benefit of those Laws which the necessity of Arms hath in such cases suspended.

VI. They deny any pretence of consenting to those Alterations and Additions offered by Your Majesty; only in the Preamble they say they have considered of those Articles, with such Alterations and Additions, unto which Articles they profest they were ready to agree, not as they were accompanied with those Alterations and Additions, but in such manner as they expressed. As for the Clause left out in the third Article, it imply∣ed a freedom of passage and communication of Quarters, which is contrary to the nature of a Cessation, whereby matters should be preserved in the state they are, and neither party have liberty so much to advantage himself, as it is evident Your Majesty might do, if your Forces in the North and West might joyn with those at Oxford, and bring those supplies of Treasure or Arms thither which were brought out of Holland; or at least it should be so indifferent, as to give a proportionable advantage to the other side, which this doth not: For the Forces under the power of both Houses are so disposed, that they have an easie passage from one to the other; but Your Majesty's Forces are severed the one from the other by many large Counties, strong Passes, and competent Armies: and if they had admitted this Clause, they had bereaved themselves of one of the greatest Advantages, and freed Your Majesty's party of one of the greatest Inconveniences which Your Majesty or they have in this War.

For the Reasons already alledged, they cannot agree to the alterations and enlarge∣ments of the Cessation propounded, or to transfer any such power to the Committee, of treating, debating and agreeing upon those Articles in any other manner than the Houses have directed: but that a fair and speedy passage may be opened to a secure and a hap∣py Peace, they have enabled their Committees to treat and debate upon the two Propo∣sitions concerning His Majesty's own Revenue, the delivery of His Towns, Castles, Magazines and Ships, and the disbanding of the Armies; which being agreed upon, a present Peace and Security will follow, and the Treaty upon the other Propositions be facilitated without fear of interruption by the confusion of War, or exasperation of either party by the bloody effects thereof.

In which Treaty the two Houses will desire and expect nothing but what doth stand with Your Majesty's Honour and the Trust reposed in You, and is necessary for your Majesty's good Subjects, that they may enjoy the true Religion, and their Liberties and Privileges, and that they may freely and in a Parliamentary way concur with Your Ma∣jesty in those things which may conduce to the Glory of God, the Safety and Happiness of Your Majesty and Your Posterity and People, and preventing the like miserable effu∣sion of English blood for the time to come. For the effecting whereof their most earnest Prayers and uttermost endeavours shall ever be faithfully and constantly employed, in hope that God will give a blessing thereunto.

Hen. Elsinge Cler. Parl. D. Com.

Additional Instructions concerning the Cessation, March 29.

IN case we shall obtain Your Majesty's Assent to the Articles of Cessation, as they were last presented to Your Majesty, within two days after the day of the receit of the Reasons this day presented to Your Majesty from both Houses, for their not assen∣ting to those Alterations and Additions to the Articles of Cessation offered by Your Ma∣jesty; we are authorised by our Instructions this day received, in the name of both Houses of Parliament, to agree and conclude upon the Cessation, to continue to the end of twenty days, to be reckoned from the 25. of this instant March, and upon a day cer∣tain, as soon as may be, when the same shall first begin and be of force; within which time notice is to be given as well by His Majesty, as by the Lords and Commons, to the several Generals, Commanders and Souldiers respectively, to observe the same Cessation as it is qualified and limited in those Articles last presented to Your Majesty.

• Northumberland.
• John Holland.
• B. Whitelocke.
• Will. Pierrepont.
• Will. Armyne.

The KING's Question concerning Removal of Quarters, March 13. 1643.

WHether by denying the Communication of Quarters, you intend to restrain the Quarters of either Army from each other; as that the Forces at Abbingdon may not remove to Banbury, or the Forces at Henly may not remove to Ailesbury, or to any other places within the Quarter of each Army respectively.

Falkland.

The Committees Answer concerning Removal of Quarters, Mar. 31. 1643.

IN Answer to Your Majesty's Question upon the third Article of the Cessation, We humbly conceive, That it is not intended to restrain the Quarters of their Ar∣my respectively from each other, so as they come not nearer the Quarters of the other Army; but that the Forces at Abbingdon may remove to Banbury, or the Forces at Hen∣ly may remove to Ailesbury, or to any other place within the Quarters of each Army respectively: so as the Forces of either Army respectively come not nearer the Quarters of the other Army than they shall be upon the day agreed on for the Cessation to begin:

• Northumberland.
• John Holland.
• B. Whitelocke.
• Will. Pierrepont.
• Will. Armyne.

The KING's Question concerning the Cessation, March 31. 1643.

HIS Majesty desires to be resolved by the Committee of Lords and Commons, whether the Forces of Oxford may not as well go to Reading, as the Forces of Henley may to Ailesbury.

Whether His Majesty's Forces belonging to the Army at Oxford may not go to Shrews∣bury, or any other place backwards from London, so that in their march they approach no nearer to any Quarters of any of the contrary Armies than some of His Majesties Forces shall quarter upon the day agreed upon for the Cessation to begin.

Falkland.

The Committees Answer concerning the Cessation, March 31. 1643.

WE humbly conceive, that by our Instructions we are not enabled to give any Re∣solution upon Your Majesty's Questions concerning the Removal of Quarters, other than we have already given.

• Northumberland.
• John Holland.
• B. Whitelocke.
• Will. Pierrepont.
• Will. Armyne.

A Letter from the Earl of Manchester, April 4.

My Lord,

I Am commanded by the Lords in Parliament to send unto your Lordship these in∣closed Votes, for the giving your Lordship and the Committee longer time to treat of the first Propositions. This is all I have in command, as

Your Lordships most humble Servant, Manchester, Speaker of the House pro tempore.

April 2.

Votes of both Houses for four days longer to Treat, April 4. Die Lunae, Aprilis 3. 1643.

Resolved upon the Question by the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled;

THat further time shall be given to the Committee at Oxon to treat upon the two first Propositions, viz. the first Proposition of His Majesty's, and the first Propo∣sition of both Houses.

Resolved, &c.

That the time prescribed for the Treaty upon the two first Propositions shall be un∣til Friday next.

Resolved, &c.

That Friday in this last question shall be taken inclusive.

Joh. Brown Cler. Parliamentorum.

April 4. His Majesty's Message concerning the Cessation.

CHARLES R.

HOW His Majesty hath spent His time since the Committee from His two Houses of Parliament came hither, how willing He hath been (during the four days al∣lowed to them) to expedite the Treaty it self, by the free and diligent disquisition of the particulars comprized in those two first Articles, and how intent He hath been up∣on the Cessation (which He thinks so necessary, and so much desires) since the last Message concerning the same came to Him, the Committee themselves cannot but ob∣serve: And though no conclusion could be made within the two days (a time limited with much strictness in a business of so great moment, where all words and expressi∣ons must be carefully and exactly weighed) His Majesty cannot doubt but both Houses will be willing to give and receive satisfaction in any particulars which are necessarily to be considered in concluding the same, though the two days are expired. And if His Majesty enlarges Himself in His Replys more than may seem necessary to the Pro∣positions and Differences in debate, it must be remembred, by what unnecessary and un∣warrantable expressions in this last Message from His two Houses He is not only invited, but compelled thereunto; which He could heartily have wished might upon this occasion have been forborn.

I. For the Freedom of Trade, His Majesty hath great reason to require, and the two Houses to admit, that Freedom to His good Subjects He desired. For what concerns the supply of the Army with Arms, Ammunition, Money, Bullion and Victuals, He consented to the very terms proposed by the two Houses; and that they may be obser∣ved, is contented that searches may be made, which being but the trouble of particular persons, is not considerable, in respect of the Publick benefit and advantage. But why all other liberty of Traffick and Commerce should not be granted to His good Subjects, He cannot understand; for that His Majesty's Army should receive much Advantage thereby, and the contrary Army none, is in no degree confessed. For (besides the re∣straint is to places where no part of His Majesty's Army is, and indeed the whole Trade of the Kingdom interrupted) 'tis as great a support (if not a greater) to the contrary Army, to maintain and keep up the Trade of London, from whence that receives its supply and relief, as to His Majesty's Army to continue the Trade of Oxford, or any other place where His Forces reside; and to stop and seize the Cloth, Kersies, and other Western Commodities (which his Majesty can daily do from Reading) would be as great disturbance to the Trade of London, as the seizing of any Commodities (which may be done by the Earl of Essex from Windsor or Wickham) can be to the Trade of Oxford. And therefore His Majesty hath great reason to press, that mutual and univer∣sal Freedom to all His good Subjects may be granted: Otherwise, He must either per∣mit that Licence to His Army, to seize the goods of His People in their passage to Lon∣don, and to interrupt and break the Trade and Correspondence of the Kingdom (which both out of publick consideration and private compassion His Majesty is most averse from) or else must grant that evident Benefit and Advantage to those who deny the same to Him, and to His People for His sake. And it cannot be denyed but this Free∣dom is so very beneficial to His Subjects, and so wholly considerable to His Majesty un∣der that Notion, that their very subsistence depends upon it, and by this means Trade may be continued; which, if a little more suppressed by these Distractions, will not be easily recovered, even by a settled Peace. His Majesty believes that some Carriers have been robbed by His Majesty's Souldiers: But 'tis as true, that no Complaint hath been made to Him of that kind, which He hath not received to the relief and reparati∣on of the Petitioners. And 'tis therefore His desire, that both Houses would joyn with Him (at least during the Cessation) that there might be no more such Violences and interruptions offered to His good Subjects by either side.

For the embarquing the Merchants Goods in Forein parts, His Majesty denys that any endeavour hath yet been made by His Ministers of State to that purpose: But 'tis true, His Majesty hath declared His Resolution, which He shall pursue, that such per∣sons who absolve themselves from their Obedience to Him, and assist or consent to acti∣ons of Disloyalty to Him here, shall be deprived of those advantages, and must not ex∣pect that Protection from Him abroad which is due, and which He always hath and will allow to His good Subjects. And this is not to make other Princes Arbiters of the Differences betwixt His Majesty and His People; but to use the mutual Amity and Cor∣respondence with other Princes, for the maintenance and support of that Dignity for which it is made and entred into.

II. His Majesty did not demand the approving of the Commanders of Ships only witli reference to His present Right, for then He would have demanded not the ap∣probation of the Commanders, but the Ships themselves; but this Demand was and is a thing most necessary for His Majesty: for the setting out the present Fleet is pretended to be for the defence of His Majesties Dominions, and which cannot conveniently suf∣fer any alteration in Commanders, if the Cessation and Peace should be fully and speedi∣ly agreed upon; and therefore 'tis most necessary for His Majesty both to know the De∣signs, and to approve of the Commanders, who will not be so fit to be altered when once they are sent out.

His Majesty cannot see how a Cessation at Sea between His Majesty and His Sub∣jects should leave the Kingdom naked to Forein Forces (a continuance of War may well do it:) And His Majesty is willing to concurr in the resistance of all such of what kind soever, and expects that, during the Cessation, the conveying of all Forces from one part to another by Sea for the assistance of the Earl of Essex be restrained; which both Houses seem now to consent to, which was not at all expressed in their former Articles.

III. His Majesty's opinion, how unfit it was to Treat in blood, sufficiently appears, this debate concerning a Cessation arising first from His Majesty's motion (it being left out in the Answer to His Message for a Treaty.) In order to which He had and hath great reason to desire, that the Committee may have Liberty to debate and conclude any dif∣ferences and expressions in the Articles of the Cessation, that the same may be reconci∣led and removed, without remitting all questions to London. For as those now con∣sented to might in much less time have been agreed here if there had been that liberty; so there can hardly be a right and clear understanding of intentions without expoun∣ding of words, and knowing the meaning from each other: as in the Consent which His Majesty now understands to be given by both Houses, that no Forces shall during the Cessation be sent by Sea for the relief of any place now held by them, the expres∣sion is not so clear, but referreth to Articles, in which if it was not comprised before (as His Majesty doth not conceive it was) no alteration is made by what now seems to be consented to, and the liberty which to all understandings may seem to be given, by re∣moving out of one Quarter to another within the Precincts proposed, is not yet so de∣monstrable; the Committee having no power to answer what they understand in that point, which is most necessary to be known, that the Peace be not broken during that Cessation. And His Majesty wonders that it should be thought unsafe or unfit to give such a conclusive power of such Differences and Doubts to the Committee here, when 'tis notoriously known, that the very Liberty and Property of the Subject is committed not only to other Committees of the Houses without reporting to the Houses, but to per∣sons who are employed by them, uninterested in and unacquainted with the Dire∣ctions of either or both Houses.

IV. It was no part of His Majesty's intention, that His Article against Imprison∣ment of his Subjects, otherwise than according to the known Laws of the Land, should extend to the destruction of the Military Discipline of either Army: But this is a very sufficient instance of the necessity of enabling some persons to conclude upon these Arti∣cles, without which (through inanimadvertence or doubtfulness in the expressions) they who are nearest of a mind will hardly ever come to conclude, if every Punctilio must be forced to be sent forwards and backwards a hundred miles: and (if this authority had been given to the Committee here, as for such causes was desired) a limitation of half a dozen words (which would have been as soon agreed to as proposed) would have sa∣ved most of this fourth Reason. And he that desires any thing necessary to the speed of this Cessation, gives a good argument of desiring the Cessation it self; and whoe∣ver is averse to the one, can hardly be thought inclinable to the other.

But such of His Subjects as are not concerned in the discipline of the Army, are not concerned in this Objection; and His Majesty hath reason to insist, that the same liberty may be restored to them in which they were born, and the care and defence of which is so much and so meerly pretended by those who deny it to them.

V. Though it grieves His Majesty to the Soul to see the present miserable condition of His Subjects, groaning under so many visible Pressures because of an invisible Neces∣sity, and plundered and imprisoned to maintain such a defensive War, as was begun to be raised against Him before His Majesty had granted one Commission to raise a man; yet He cannot but be pleased with the ingenuity of this confession, that the implicite faith of His seduced Subjects begins to wear out so fast, that the authority of Declaring new, unknown Fundamental Laws, doth not now so work with them, to believe that

these Taxes are laid according to the Laws of God and Man, nor the many pretences of imminent Dangers and inevitable ruine of their Religion, Laws and Liberties, so perswade them to believe this Cause to be the Cause of the Kingdom, but that if their Cause, Authority and Eloquence were not assisted by force and Rapine, their Army must needs be dissolved for want of being thought fit, much less necessary, to be pay'd by those who have equal right to judge of the Necessity and Danger, and for whose sakes, interests and concernments only it was pretended to be raised, and who are defended by it against their wills. Nor is it strange that His Majesty cannot receive these Charges upon Him, as a reason to make Him contented and acquiesce with these Injuries to His Subjects; or that they who saw His Majesties condition the last year (till continued Violence against Him opened the eyes and hearts of His Subjects; to His assistance) should not believe that He began that War which they saw Him so unlikely to resist; or that they, who could never find nor hear from them who use not too modest∣ly to conceal what is for their advantage, that from the beginning of the world to this present Parliament ever one man was raised before by Commission from both Houses, should not believe the raising of that their Army to be so warranted as is pretended, and any more approve of their Law than of their Necessity; or that they who know that His Majesty (in whom the power of making War and Peace was never denyed to be, till these new Doctrines, which make it unlawful for Him to do any thing, and lawful to do any thing against Him, were of late discovered) though he can legally raise an Army, is not allowed to be legally able to raise money to maintain it, will not allow of the Argument, from the power of Raising to the power of Taxing, and are as little satisfied with their Logick as with their Law, and extreamly troubled to pay an Army they do not desire, for a Necessity they cannot see, by a Law they never heard of; and that other men, without their consent, must be jealous, fearful and quicksighted at their Charges: and they have great reason to be apt to suspect that those made most haste to make a War, and have least desire of making Peace, who in time of War pretend their legal power to be so vastly inlarged. His Majesty therefore hath great reason to insist, that no Violence or Plundering be offered to His Subjects for not sub∣mitting to the illegal Taxes of one or both Houses, which in it self is equal; His Ma∣jesty being willing to be obliged from the like course, and relying wholly upon the known Justice of His Cause, and the Affection of His People, and in which (if the Kingdom be of their mind, and believe the Cause of the contrary Army to be really their own) the advantage will be wholly theirs, and this Judgment will be best given when the People is left to their liberty in this decision.

His Majesty's real desire of disbanding the Armies may fully appear by His often seeking, and earnest endeavours to continue and conclude this Treaty in order to that disbanding.

VI. His Majesty leaves their Preamble to all the world to consider and to judge, whe∣ther any man by their saying they were ready to agree to His Majesty's Articles in the manner as was exprest, would not have expected to have found after that expression, that they had agreed at least to some one thing material in them, and had not only meant by agreeing as was exprest, to express they would not agree at all.

For the Clause of Communication of Quarters so quietly left out, His Majesty looks upon it as of most infinite importance, the leaving out of that having discomposed the whole, many things having in the rest been assented to, which were therefore only yielded, because the Inconveniences growing by these Clauses, if they were alone, were salved by that Addition; and some things, in the other very dark and doubtful, were by that interpreted and cleared. And His Majesty is sufficiently informed how highly it concerns Him that every thing be so clear, that after no differences may arise upon any disputable point, since they whose Union, Industry, Subtilty and Malice could perswade any of His People that in the business of Brainceford He had broken a Cessation before any was made or offered, would have a much easier work to lay the breach of a made Cessation to His Majesty's charge, if the ground of that Breach would bear the least dispute.

His Majesty doth agree, that to preserve things in the same state on both sides with as little advantage or disadvantage to either as the matter will possibly bear, is truly the na∣ture of a Cessation, and is willing this Principle should be made the Rule, and never intended any thing that should contradict it; but cannot see the inequality in this which is pretended: For could Sir Ralph Hopton and the Earl of Newcastle come by this means to the King, and not the Earl of Stamford and Lord Fairfax to the Earl of Essex? Nor can His Majesty find any stronger Passes or Forces to hinder His Armies

from joyning with Him, than hinders theirs from joyning with them. If the Forces be unequal, theirs will hardly hinder the passage of His, without a Cessation; if they be equal, their coming in time of Cessation will be of equal use and advantage to their side, somewhat in point of Supplies to come with them excepted; and some advantage to one side will be, poize it how you will. But on the other side; if this clause be not in, how much greater is the disadvantage the other way by some Clauses? and how are His Forces (principally the Earl of Newcastle's) cooped up in old and eaten-up Quar∣ters, or necessitated to retire to such as are more barren and more eaten? So that if this were yielded to under the disguise of a Cessation, He must admit that which will much endanger the dissolving of the Army and destruction of the Cause; which is such a dis∣advantage as is against the nature of a Cessation formerly agreed and stated.

Notwithstanding all this, His Majesty, to shew His extraordinary and abundant de∣sire of Peace, and to prevent the effusion of blood, is contented, if both Houses shall refuse to consent to His Propositions, which are so much for the benefit and advance∣ment of the publick Trade and advantage of His good Subjects, to admit a Cessation upon the matter of their own Articles (excepting that liberty be given to the Com∣mittee to word it according to the real meaning and intention; and that the remove of Quarters within their own bounds, which is intended, may be so exprest and un∣derstood that no mistakes may arise) so that His Majesty may not be understood to consent to any imposing upon, levying, distraining, or imprisoning His good Sub∣jects to force them to contribute or assist against Him (which He shall always continue to inhibit, requiring all men to resist those Illegal acts of Injustice and Vio∣lence, against which He doth absolutely protest;) and so that there may not be a li∣berty for any Rapine, Plundering, or seizing upon His Subjects by any of the Soldiers of that Army, for not submitting to such Illegal Impositions as aforesaid: For other∣wise, they may during this Cessation (besides what is already imposed) impose new Taxes, not only to the Nineteenth part, but, if they please, (for their pleasure is all their bound) to the half of, or all their Estates, upon His good Subjects in His City of Lon∣don, and all Counties within their reach; and their Army would then be at leisure to be employed as Collectors as well of the old Impositions, (which in most places without their Army they cannot levy) as of any such new one, and vast summs would and might by this means be raised to the destruction of His Subjects, extraordinary ad∣vantage to them, and great disadvantage to His Majesty, who can neither obtain His own Consent to take the like courses, nor in case He could, is He so quartered as to have within the power of His Army, without breach of the Cessation by drawing nearer to their Forces, any such City, or so many, so rich and so fresh Counties, as they have, to retire into to that purpose. So that as nothing is more just in it self and for His People than such a limitation; so nothing can be more unequal to His Maje∣sty, or more advantagious to them, than the admission of or connivance to any such practices upon His People. This Cessation to begin on the 9. of April, and to conti∣nue to the end of 20. days from the 25. of March. And His Majesty desires that the Treaty may proceed upon the Propositions in order, upon which His Majesty hath an earnest desire that a firm and stable Peace may be agreed on, and both Armies speedily disbanded: otherwise, if during this Cessation (in the Articles of which His Majesty in order to Peace hath yielded to things manifestly unreasonable and prejudicial to His Army) the Treaty be not dispatched, His Majesty cannot without manifest ruine to His Army (principally that of the North) be able to contain Himself beyond this time now limited for the Cessation in the Quarters in which He hath so long been, and now is, and which will hardly be able to hold out so long, but must be forced to remove as He shall find agreeable for His Occasions.

And in case any delay be made in consenting to these His Majesty's limitations, or that the Houses shall reject this His offer of Cessation, His Majesty, as He hath lately desired (by a Proposition to both Houses, delivered to their Committee, to which He hath yet received no Answer) so He doth earnestly continue to desire, that the Treaty it self may not be delayed or interrupted by it, but that their Committee may be enabled to proceed upon it in the mean while.

Jo. Brown Cler. Parliamentorum. Copia vera.

Addition of four days longer to Treat, April 4. 1643.

WE humbly acquaint Your Majesty that we received this morning the resolution of both Houses of Parliament, whereby farther time is given to us to Treat upon the two first Propositions, viz. the first Proposition of Your Majesty, and the first Proposition of both Houses; and that the time prescribed for the Treaty upon the two first Propositions shall be until Friday night.

• Northumberland.
• John Holland.
• B. Whitelocke.
• Will. Pierrepont.
• Will. Armyne.

A Letter from both Houses, received, April 8. 1643.

WE are commanded to send these inclosed Instructions to you from both Houses of Parliament, by which the resolutions of the Houses will appear unto you. This is all we have in command, and rest,

Westminster the 7. of April, 1643.

Your humble Servants, Manchester, Speaker pro tempore. William Lenthall, Speaker of the Commons House.

Instructions concerning the Cessation, received April 8. 1643.

A farther Addition of Instructions agreed upon by the Lords and Commons in Parliament, for Algernon Earl of Northumberland, William Pierrepont Esq; Sir Wil∣liam Armyne Baronet, Sir John Holland Baronet, and Bulstrode Whitelocke Esquire, Committees of both Houses of Parliament attending His Majesty at Oxon.

YOU are hereby to take notice, That the two Houses have considered His Majesty's Answer to their Reasons concerning the Cessation, wherein there are divers ex∣pressions which reflect much upon the Honour and Justice of the Houses, and might oc∣casion particular Replies; yet at this time they desire to decline all Contestation, their wishes and endeavours being earnestly bent upon the obtaining a speedy Peace: For which cause they do not think good to consume any more of that time allowed for the Treaty in any farther debates upon the Cessation; concerning which they find His Ma∣jesty's expressions so doubtful, that it cannot be suddenly or easily resolved; and the re∣mainder of the time for the whole Treaty being but seven days, if the Cessation were presently agreed, it would not yield any considerable advantage to the Kingdom. Where∣fore you shall desire His Majesty, that He will be pleased to give a speedy and positive Answer to their first Proposition concerning the Disbanding, that so the People may not have only a Shadow of Peace in a short time of Cessation, but the Substance of it, in such manner as may be a perpetual Blessing to them, by freeing the Kingdom from those mise∣rable effects of War, the effusion of English blood, and Desolation of many parts of the Land.

For the obtaining of which Happiness, the Lords and Commons have resolved to enlarge your Power, That if you shall not have fully agreed upon the two first Proposi∣tions before Friday night, you may, notwithstanding any former restraint, proceed to treat upon them according to the Instructions formerly given you, although the Articles of the Cessation are not agreed upon.

And those two first Propositions being concluded, the two Houses will thereupon give you further Instructions to proceed to the other Propositions, that so the whole Treaty may be determined within the twenty days formerly limited, to be reckoned from the 25 of March last, which can admit no alteration or enlargement without manifold Prejudice and Danger to the whole Kingdom.

Joh. Brown Cler. Parliamentorum.

The KING's Reply touching Cessation; and His desire to enable the Committee to treat upon the Propositions in the mean time; and touching His coming to the Parliament.

C. R.

IF the Committee, according to His Majesty's desire, had had but power to agree in the wording of Expressions in the Articles of Cessation, His Majesty's (which are as clear as the matter would bear, and as He could make them) had not appeared so doubtful to any, but that the Cessation might have been suddenly and speedily resolved, and that long before this time. And if the expressions of both Houses in their Reasons had not necessitated His Majesty in His own defence to give such Answers, as could not

upon those points deliver Truth without some shew of Sharpness, no Expression of that kind in His Majesty's Answer had given any pretence for the rejection of, or refu∣sing so much as to treat upon this Cessation, which (though it were at present for no long time) yet was from the day named by themselves, the 25 of March; whereas His Majesty first moved for a Cessation and Treaty without any limitation at all in the time of either, and His Majesty was most ready to have enlarged the time, (so that in the mean while the point of Quarters might be so settled as that His Armies might subsist) and which might have been (if they had pleased) a very good and promi∣sing earnest and fore-runner of that great blessing of Peace; for the obtaining of which the wishes and endeavours of all good men being earnestly bent, a farther debate in order to so great a Benefit did not deserve to be styled a consumption of time. And His Majesty cannot but conceive Himself to be in a strange condition, if the doubtfulness of Expressions (which must always be whilst the Treaty is at such a distance, and pow∣er is denied to those upon the place to help to clear and explain) or His necessary Re∣plying to charges laid upon Him (that He might not seem to acknowledge what was so charged) or the limitation of the time of seven days for the Treaty (which was not limited by His Majesty, who ever desired to have avoided that and other limitati∣ons which have given great interruptions to it) should be as well believed to be the grounds, as they are made the arguments, of the rejection of that which (next to Peace it self) His Majesty above all things most desires to see agreed and settled, and which His Majesty hopes (if it may be yet agreed on) will give His People such a taste of such a Blessing, that after a short time of consideration, and comparing of their seve∣ral conditions in War and Peace, and what should move them to suffer so much by a Change, they will not think those their friends that shall force them to it, or be them∣selves ready to contribute to the renewing of their former Miseries, without some grea∣ter evidence of Necessity than can appear to them, when they shall have seen (as they shall see, if this Treaty be suffered to proceed) that His Majesty neither asks nor denies any thing, but what not only according to Law He may, but what in Honour and care of His People he is obliged to ask or deny. And this alone (which a very short Cessation would produce) His Majesty esteems a very considerable advantage to the Kingdom; and therefore cannot but press again and again, that whatever is thought doubtful in the expressions of the Articles, may (as in an hour it may well be done) be expounded, and whatsoever is excepted at may be debated and concluded, and that Pow∣er and Instructions may be given to the Committee to that end; that the miserable ef∣fects of War, the effusion of English blood, and desolation of England (until they can be totally taken away) may by this means be stayed and interrupted.

His Majesty supposes, that when the Committee was last required to desire His Ma∣jesty to give a speedy and positive Answer to the first proposition concerning Disban∣ding, His Answers in that point (to which no Reply hath been made, and which He hopes by this time have given satisfaction) were not transmitted and received: but wonders the Houses should press His Majesty for a speedy and positive Answer to the first part of their first Proposition concerning Disbanding, when to the second part of the very same Proposition, concerning His Return to both Houses of Parliament, they had not given any Power or Instructions to the Committee so much as to treat with His Majesty; and when His Majesty (if His desire of Peace, and of speeding the Treaty in order to that, had not been prevalent with Him) might with all manner of Justice have delayed to begin to treat upon one part, until they had been enabled to treat upon the other: In which point, and for want of which power from them, the only stop now remains; His Majesty's Answers to both parts of their first Proposition being gi∣ven in, transmitted, and yet remaining unanswered.

To which until the Houses shall be at leisure to make Answer, that as little delay in this Treaty as is possible may be caused by it, His Majesty desires likewise, that the Com∣mittee may be enabled to treat upon the following Propositions in their several orders.

A Letter from both Houses, April 8.

WE have sent unto you by this Gentleman, Sir Peter Killegrew, some additional In∣structions, by which your Lordship and the rest of the Committee will perceive the Resolutions which the Houses have taken upon the Papers which they received this day from you. This is all we have in command, and remain,

Your Lordship's humble Servants, Manchester, Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore, Will. Lenthall, Speaker of the Commons House in Parliament.

Westminster this 8 of April, 1643.

Instructions concerning the Insisting, received April 9. 1643.

Additional Instructions for Algernon Earl of Northumberland, William Lord Viscount Say and Seal, William Pierrepont Esquire, Sir William Armyne and Sir John Holland Baronets, Bulstrode Whitelocke Esquire, Committees from both Houses attending His Majesty at Oxford.

Magazines, and enlarging the time.

THE two Houses of Parliament are unsatisfied with His Majesty's Answer to that Clause of the first Proposition which concerns the Magazines: Wherefore you are to desire His Majesty to make a further Answer, in such manner as is exprest in the Instructions formerly given you; and you shall let His Majesty know, That the Lords and Commons do not think fit to enlarge the time of the Treaty beyond the twenty days formerly limited.

Cinque-Ports, Towns, Forts and Castles.

They likewise remain unsatisfied with His Majesty's Answer concerning the Cinque-Ports, Towns, Forts and Castles, being in the most material points an express De∣nial: Wherefore you are to insist upon their desire for another Answer, according to your Instructions.

Ships.

They observe in His Majesty's Answer concerning the Ships, not only a Denial to all the desires of both Houses, but likewise a Censure upon their proceedings. How∣ever, you are to insist upon their desires expressed in your Instructions.

Disbanding.

They further conceive that His Majesty's Answer to their first Proposition concerning the Disbanding is in effect a Denial, unless they desert all those cautions and limitati∣ons which they have desired in their Answer to His Majesty's first Proposition: Where∣fore you are to proceed, insisting upon that part of their first Proposition concerning the Disbanding, according to your Instructions.

KING's Return to the Parliament.

You shall declare to His Majesty the desire of both Houses of His Majesty's coming to His Parliament, which they have often exprest with as full offers of security to His Royal Person, as was agreeable to their Duty and Allegiance; and they know no cause why His Majesty may not repair hither with Honour and Safety: but they did not insert it into your Instructions, because they conceived the Disbanding of the Armies would have facilitated His Majesty's Resolution therein, which they likewise conceived was agreeable to His Majesty's Sense, who in declaring His Consent to the Order of the Treaty, did only mention that part of the first Proposition which concerned the Disbanding, and did omit that which concerned His coming to the Parliament.

Oath of Officers.

They conceive the ordinary Oaths of the Officers mentioned are not sufficient to secure them against the extraordinary causes of Jealousie which have been given them in these troublesome times; and that His Majesty's Answer lays some tax upon the Parliament, as if defective, and thereby uncapable of making such a Provisional Law for an Oath: therefore you shall still insist upon their former desires of such an Oath as is mentioned in your Instructions.

If you shall not have received His Majesty's positive Answer to the humble desire of both Houses in these two first Propositions, according as they are exprest in your In∣structions, before the twenty days limited for the Treaty shall be expired, you shall then with convenient speed repair to the Parliament, without expecting any further direction.

Jo. Brown Cler. Parliamentorum.

CHARLES REX.

TO shew to the whole World how earnestly His Majesty longs for Peace,* 1.3 and that no Success shall make Him desire the continuance of His Army to any other end or for any longer time than that, and until things may be so settled, as that the Law may have a full, free and uninterrupted course for the defence and preservation of the Rights of His Majesty, both Houses and His good Subjects;

1. As soon as His Majesty is satisfied in His first Proposition, concerning His own Re∣venue, Magazines, Ships and Forts, in which He desires nothing but that the just, known, Legal Rights of His Majesty (devolved to Him from His Progenitors) and of the Persons trusted by Him, which have violently been taken from both, be restored unto Him and unto them, unless any just and legal exceptions against any of the Persons trusted by Him (which are yet unknown to His Majesty) can be made appear to Him:

2. As soon as all the Members of both Houses shall be restored to the same capacity of sitting and voting in Parliament as they had upon the first of January 1641. the same of right belonging unto them by their birth-rights, and the free election of those that sent them, and having been voted from them for adhering to His Majesty in these Di∣stractions; His Majesty not intending that this should extend either to the Bishops, whose Votes have been taken away by Bill, or to such in whose places upon new Writs new Elections have been made:

3. As soon as His Majesty and both Houses may be secured from such tumultuous assemblies as, to the great breach of the Priviledges and the high dishonour of Parlia∣ments, have formerly assembled about both Houses, and awed the Members of the same, and occasioned two several complaints from the Lords House, and two several desires of that House to the House of Commons to joyn in a Declaration against them, the complying with which desire might have prevented all these miserable Distractions which have ensued; which security His Majesty conceives can be only settled by ad∣journing the Parliament to some other place at the least twenty miles from London, the choice of which His Majesty leaves to both Houses:

His Majesty will most chearfully and readily consent that both Armies be immediate∣ly disbanded, and give a present meeting to both His Houses of Parliament at the time and place at and to which the Parliament shall be agreed to be adjourned.

His Majesty being most confident that the Law will then recover the due credit and estimation, and that upon a free debate in a full and peaceable convention of Parlia∣ment, such provisions will be made against seditious Preaching and Printing against His Majesty and the established Laws, which hath been one of the chief causes of the present Distractions; and such care will be taken concerning the legal and known Rights of His Majesty, and the Property and Liberty of His Subjects, that whatsoever hath been publisht or done in or by colour of any illegal Declaration, Ordinance or Or∣der of one or both Houses, or any Committee of either of them, and particularly the power to raise Arms without His Majesty's Consent, will be in such manner recalled, dis∣claimed and provided against, that no seed will remain for the like to spring out of for the future, to disturb the Peace of the Kingdom, and to endanger the very Being of it.

And in such a Convention His Majesty is resolved by His readiness to consent to whatsoever shall be proposed to Him by Bill for the real good of His Subjects, (and particularly for the better discovery and speedier conviction of Recusants, for the edu∣cation of the Children of Papists by Protestants in the Protestant Religion, for the pre∣vention of practices of Papists against the State, and the due execution of the Laws, and true levying of the Penalties against them) to make known to all the World how causless those Fears and Jealousies have been which have been raised against Him, and by that so distracted this miserable Kingdom.

And if this Offer of His Majesty be not consented to (in which He asks nothing for which there is not apparent Justice on His side, and in which He defers many things highly concerning both Himself and People, till a full and peaceable convention of Par∣liament, which in Justice He might now require) His Majesty is confident that it will then appear to all the World, not only who is most desirous of Peace, and whose default it is that both Armies are not now disbanded, but who hath been the true and first cause that this Peace was ever interrupted, or these Armies raised; and the begin∣ning or continuance of the War, and the destruction and desolation of this poor King∣dom (which is too likely to ensue) will not by the most interessed, passionate, or pre∣judicate person be imputed to His Majesty.

His MAJESTY's Questions before the Treaty, and the Committees Answers, March 25. 1643.

Mis MAJESTY desires to be answered these Questions in writing, by the Committee of both Houses.

1. WHether they may not shew unto Him those Instructions (according to which they are to Treat and Debate with His Majesty upon the two first Propositions) of which the last Message from both Houses takes notice, and refers unto.

2. Whether they have power to pass from one Proposition to the other in the De∣bate, before His Majesty have exprest His mind concerning the Proposition first en∣tred into.

3. Whether they have power to give an entire Answer to His Majesty's first Pro∣position before His Majesty's Reply to any part thereof, or to pass from any part of that Proposition to another part of the same before His Majesty hath given a Reply concerning that part.

4. Whether in case His Majesty's Answer or Reply to any part of either Proposi∣tion do not satisfie them, they have power to send up that His Answer or Reply to both Houses and proceed upon the debate of another part of the same.

5. Whether they have power to conclude these two Propositions.

6. Whether they have power to press or consent unto the execution of either of these two Propositions, or any part of them, till the whole Treaty be agreed upon.

Falkand.

The Committee of Lords and Commons appointed to attend His Ma∣jesty upon the Treaty, do humbly return these Answers to the Questions propounded by His Majesty. March 25. 1643.

TO the First; They are enjoyned not to shew or discover their Instructions, or to give any Copy of them.

To the Second, concerning His Majesty's first Proposition and the first Proposition of both Houses of Parliament; They humbly conceive they may pass from the one Propo∣sition to the other, after that His Majesty hath given His Answer to the particular partf either Proposition that shall be in debate.

To the Third; They humbly conceive that they are to receive His Majesty's Reply to that part of the Proposition to which they give their Answer, before they proceed to any other part of either Proposition.

To the Fourth; They humbly conceive, that when they have received His Majesty's Answer or Reply to any part of either Proposition wherein they are not satisfied, they are to send that His Majesty's Answer or Reply to both Houses, and in the mean time may proceed to another part of either Proposition.

To the Fifth; They humbly conceive they may conclude these two Propositions, if they be agreed unto according to their Instructions.

To the Sixth; They humbly conceive they may press and consent unto the execution of the two Propositions, according to their Instructions, before the whole Treaty be agreed upon.

• Northumberland.
• J. Holland.
• B. Whitelocke.
• W. Pierrepont.
• W. Armyne.

The Papers concerning leave to repair to His Majesty.

March 27. 1643.

WHereas we humbly presented to Your Majesty several Answers to Your Maje∣sty's Demands in Your first Proposition, and in Reply to those Answers we have received several Papers from Your Majesty; our humble desires are that Your Ma∣jesty would be pleased to give us leave to repair unto You, for our further satisfaction upon any Doubts which shall arise amongst us in those Papers we have already received, or any other which we shall hereafter receive from Your Majesty, before such time as we shall transmit them to both Houses of Parliament.

• Northumberland.
• John Holland.
• B. Whitelocke.
• W. Pierrepont.
• W. Armyne.

March 28. 1643.

HIS Majesty is well pleased that the Committee of both Houses repair unto Him for their further satisfaction upon any Doubts which shall arise amongst them in the Papers they have already received, or any other which they shall hereafter re∣ceive from His Majesty, and to which they shall not have acquiesced, before they trans∣mit them to both Houses of Parliament.

Falkland.

The Papers concerning the Revenue.

March 26. 1643.

TO that part of Your Majesty's first Proposition, concerning Your Majesty's own Revenue, we give this Answer;

The two Houses of Parliament have not made use of Your Majesty's own Revenue, but in a very small proportion, which for a good part hath been imployed in the main∣tenance of Your Majestys Children, according to the allowance established by Your Self. And the two Houses of Parliament will satisfie what shall remain due to Your Majesty of those summs received out of Your Majesty's own Revenue; and will leave the same to Your Majesty for the time to come.

We likewise humbly propose to Your Majesty, that You will restore what hath been taken for Your Majesty's use, upon any of the Bills assigned to other purposes, by se∣veral Acts of Parliament, or out of the provision made for the War of Ireland.

• Northumberland.
• Will. Pierrepont.
• John. Holland.
• Will. Armyne.
• B. Whitelocke.

March 26. 1643.

HIS Majesty knows not what proportion of His Revenue hath been made use of by His two Houses of Parliament, but He hath reason to believe that if much of it hath not been used, very much remains still in their hands, His whole Revenue be∣ing so seized and stopped by the Orders of one or both Houses, even to the taking away of His Mony out of His Exchequer and Mint, and Bonds (forced from His Cofferers Clerks) for the Provision of His Majesty's Houshold, that very little hath come to His Majesty's use for His own support. He is well contented to allow whatsoever hath been employed in the maintenance of His Children, and to receive the Arrears due to himself, and to be sure of His own for the future.

He is likewise willing to restore all Monies taken for His Majesty's use by any Autho∣rity from Him, upon any Bills assigned to other purposes; His Majesty being assured He hath received very little or nothing that way: and expects that satisfaction be made for all those several vast summs received and diverted to other purposes by Orders of one or both Houses, which ought to have been paid upon the Act of Pacification to His Subjects of Scotland, or employed for the discharge of the Debts of this Kingdom, and by other Acts of Parliament for the relief of His poor Protestant Subjects of Ireland.

Falkland.

March 27. 1643.

HIS Majesty desires to be resolved by the Committee from both Houses, whether their Proposition to His Majesty to restore what hath been taken for His Maje∣sty's use upon any of the Bills, &c. be a new demand, or a condition upon which on∣ly that is granted which goes before.

Falkland.

March 27. 1643.

WHereas Your Majesty desired to be resolved by us, whether the Proposition to Your Majesty to restore what hath been taken for Your Majesty's use upon any of the Bills, &c. be a new demand, or a condition upon which only that is granted which goes before;

We humbly conceive it to be no new demand; but whether it be such a condition upon which only that which goes before is granted, we are not able to resolve.

• Northumberland.
• W. Pierrepont.
• W. Armyne.
• John Holland.
• B. Whitelocke.

March 27. 1643.

WHereas we have received Your Majesty's Answer of the 26. of this instant to ours of the same date, concerning Your Majesty's own Revenue;

We humbly desire to know of Your Majesty, if You will not account Your own Re∣venue to be sure for the future, if both Houses of Parliament do leave it in the same way as it was before these Troubles did begin.

• Northumberland.
• W. Pierrepont.
• W. Armyne.
• J. Holland.
• B. Whitelocke.

March 27. 1643.

HIS Majesty did intend in His former Answer by those words [of being sure of His own for the future] that no restraints or interruptions should be made by one or both Houses in and upon His Majesty's Revenue, but that it should be left in the same way it was before these Troubles did begin.

Falkland.

March 28. 1643.

WE shall transmit Your Majesty's Answer to that part of Your Proposition con∣cerning Your Revenue to both Houses of Parliament without farther Reply.

• Northumberland.
• W. Pierrepont.
• J. Holland.
• B. Whitelocke.
• W. Armine.

The Papers concerning the Magazines.

March 26. 1643.

TO that part of Your Majesty's first Proposition concerning Your Magazines, we humbly give this Answer;

That all the Arms and Ammunition taken out of Your Majesty's Magazines, which shall remain in the hands of both Houses of Parliament, shall be delivered into Your Stores, and whatsoever shall be wanting, they will in convenient time supply in kind, according to the proportions which they have received. We likewise humbly propose unto Your Majesty, that the persons to whose Charge those publick Magazines shall be committed, being nominated by Your Majesty, may be such as the two Houses of Par∣liament shall confide in: and that Your Majesty will restore all such Arms and Am∣munition as have been taken for Your Majesty's use from the several Counties, Cities and Towns.

• Northumberland.
• W. Pierrepont.
• W. Armyne.
• Jo. Holland.
• B. Whitelocke.

March 27. 1643.

HIS Majesty is content that all the Arms and Ammunition taken out of His Ma∣gazines, which do now remain in the hands of both Houses, or of Persons em∣ployed by them, be forthwith delivered into such of His Stores as His Majesty shall ap∣point, and that whatsoever shall be wanting of the proportions taken out from thence by them be supplied by them with all convenient speed in kind; which shall be com∣mitted to and continued in the custody of the sworn Officers to whose places the same belongs: And if any of the said Officers shall have forfeited, or shall forfeit, that Trust by any misdemeanours, His Majesty will by no means defend them from the Justice of the Law.

For the restoring all such Arms and Ammunition as have been taken for His Maje∣sty's use from the several Counties, Cities and Towns, His Majesty being compelled to take them, His own being taken from Him, did it always with this Caution and Promise to the places from whence He took them, that He would, by the blessing of God, restore them again, and make recompence out of His own Stores, as soon as it should be in His power; which promise He will make good to them, expecting that such Arms and Ammunition as have been taken from the several Counties, Cities and Towns, for the use of the Armies under the command of the Earl of Essex, be likewise restor'd to them.

Falkland.

March 28. 1643.

WHereas we have received Your Majesty's Answer of the 27. of this month to ours of the 26. of this instant, concerning Your Majesty's Magazines;

We humbly desire to know of Your Majesty what time you intend by the expression in the words [be forthwith delivered:]

We likewise humbly desire to know in what places Your Majesty would have Your Stores, and who are the sworn Officers Your Majesty intends, that according to our In∣structions, we may transmit their names to both Houses of Parliament.

• Northumberland.
• W. Pierrepont.
• W. Armyne.
• Joh. Holland.
• B. Whitelocke.

March 28. 1643.

HIS Majesty intended by that Expression [be forthwith delivered] as soon as the Treaty shall be concluded and agreed on.

Falkland.

March 29. 1643.

THE place of Store into which His Majesty is content that the Arms and Am∣munition taken out of His Magazines be delivered, is His Tower of London; and the Officers He intends, are such as by Patent ought to receive and keep the same.

Falkland.

March 29. 1643. Concerning the Magazines.

WE humbly desire, according to our Instructions, that the persons to whose charge the publick Magazines should be committed being nominated by Your Maje∣sty, should be such as the Lords and Commons should confide in.

We not knowing whether the two Houses will confide in the Persons Your Majesty mentions, must transmit their names to both Houses of Parliament, to receive their farther Instructions

• Northumberland.
• W. Pierrepont.
• W. Armyne.
• J. Holland.
• B. Whitelocke.

April 5. 1643.

HIS Majesty conceives His Answer concerning the persons to whose custody His Magazines shall be committed to be very clear and sufficient, and shall forbear any more particular Nomination of them, the two Houses well knowing whether they have any just Exceptions to make against any of them; which if they have, His Ma∣jesty will leave them to the due course of Justice.

Falkland.

April 10. 1643.

BY Instructions yesterday received from both Houses of Parliament, we are com∣manded humbly to desire Your Majesty to make a further Answer to that Clause of the first Proposition which concerns the Magazines; and we are humbly to acquaint Your Majesty, that the two Houses of Parliament do not think fit to enlarge the time of the Treaty beyond the twenty days formerly limited, to be reckoned from the five and twentieth of March last, which can admit no alteration or inlargement without manifold prejudice and danger to the whole Kingdom.

• Northumberland.
• Will. Pierrepont.
• Joh. Holland.
• Will. Armyne.
• B. Whitelocke.

April 14. 1643.

HIS Majesty having made several Answers to that Clause of the first Proposition which concerns the Magazines, knows not what Answer to make further, except He were informed what part of the Propositions made to Him was not clearly answered, or had reasons given him to change and alter the Answer already made;

neither of which is yet done. And He is very sorry that both Houses of Parliament have not thought fit to enlarge the power of the Committee, (whereby less time would have served for the Treaty) and are so absolutely resolved not to enlarge the time of the Treaty beyond the twenty days, which (by Messages and attending the Instructions of the House) are so near spent, notwithstanding all possible readiness in His Majesty, and which in truth might have ended all the Propositions, if sufficient authority had been given to the persons imployed to debate and conclude. Neither can His Majesty understand why an Alteration or Inlargement in the point of time cannot be admited without manifold prejudice and danger to the whole Kingdom: He prays to God, that an averseness to such an Alteration and Inlargement may not prove an unspeakable pre∣judice and danger to the whole Kingdom.

Falkland.

The Papers concerning the Towns, Forts, Cinque-Ports, &c.

March 27. 1643.

TO that part of Your Majesty's first Proposition which concerns Your Majesty's Towns and Forts, we humbly give this Answer;

That the two Houses of Parliament will remove the Garrisons out of all Towns and Forts in their hands, wherein there were no Garrisons before these Troubles, and slight all Fortifications made since that time, and those Towns and Forts to continue in the same condition they were in before; and that those Garrisons shall not be renewed, nor the Fortifications repaired, without Consent of Your Majesty and both Houses of Parliament.

That for those Towns and Forts which are within the Jurisdiction of the Cinque-Ports, they shall be delivered up into the hands of such a Noble Person as Your Majesty shall appoint to be Warden of the Cinque-ports, being such a one as they shall con∣fide in.

That the Town of Portsmouth shall be reduced to the number of the Garrison as was at the time when the Lords and Commons undertook the custody thereof; and such other Forts, Castles and Towns as were formerly kept by Garrisons; as have been ta∣ken by both Houses of Parliament into their care and custody since the beginning of these Troubles, shall be reduced to such proportioon of Garrison as they had in the year 1636. and shall be so continued: and that all the said Towns, Forts and Castles shall be delivered up into the hands of such persons of quality and trust, to be likewise nomi∣nated by Your Majesty, as the two Houses of Parliament shall confide in.

That the Warden of the Cinque-ports, and all Governours and Commanders of Towns, Castles and Forts, shall keep the same Towns, Castles and Forts respectively for the Service of Your Majesty and the Safety of the Kingdom; and that they shall not admit into any of them any forein Forces, or any other Forces raised without Your Ma∣jesty's Authority and Consent of the two Houses of Parliament; and they shall use their utmost endeavours to suppress all Forces whatsoever raised without such Authority and Consent; and they shall seize all Arms and Ammunition provided for any such Forces.

They likewise humbly propose to Your Majesty, that you would remove the Gar∣risons out of Newcastle, and all other Towns, Castles and Forts, where any Garrisons have been placed by Your Majesty since these Troubles; and that the Fortifications be likewise slighted, and the Towns and Forts left in such state and condition as they were in in the year 1636.

That all other Towns, Forts and Castles, where there have been formerly Garrisons before these Troubles, may be committed to the charge of such persons, to be nomina∣ted by Your Majesty, as both Houses of Parliament shall confide in, and under such Instructions as are formerly mentioned.

And that those new Garrisons shall not be renewed, nor their Fortifications repaired, without Consent of Your Majesty, and both Houses of Parliament.

• Northumberland.
• Will. Pierrepont.
• John Holland.
• Will. Armyne.
• B. Whitelocke.

March 28. 1643.

HIS Majesty is content that all the Garrisons in any Towns and Forts in the hands of any persons imployed by the two Houses of Parliament, wherein there were no Garrisons before these Troubles, be removed, and all Fortifications made since that time may be slighted; and those Towns and Forts shall for the future continue in the same condition they were in before.

For the Cinque-ports, they are already in the Custody of a Noble person against whom His Majesty knows no just Exceptions, and who hath such a Legal Interest there∣in, that His Majesty cannot with justice remove Him from it untill some sufficient Cause be made appear to Him; but is willing, if He shall at any time be found guilty of any thing that may make him unworthy of that Trust, that he may be proceeded against according to the rules of Justice.

The Town of Portsmouth, and all other Forts, Castles and Towns as were formerly kept by Garrisons, shall be reduced to their ancient proportion, and the government of them put into the hands of such persons against whom no just Exceptions can be made, all of them being before these Troubles by Letters Patents granted to several persons, against any of whom His Majesty knows not any Exceptions, and who shall be removed if just cause shall be given for the same.

The Warden of the Cinque-ports, and all Governors and Commanders of Towns, Castles and Forts, shall keep the same Towns, Castles and Forts, as by the Law they ought to do, for His Majesty's Service, and the Safety of the Kingdom; and they shall not admit into any of them Forein Forces or other Forces raised or brought in contrary to the Law, but shall use their utmost endeavour to suppress all such Forces, and shall seize all Arms and Ammunition which by the Laws and Statutes of the Kingdom they ought to seize.

The Garrisons of Newcastle, and all other Towns, Castles and Forts, in which Gar∣risons have been placed by His Majesty since these Troubles, shall be removed, and all the Fortifications shall be slighted, and the Towns and Forts left in such state and con∣dition as they were in the year 1636.

All other Towns, Forts and Castles, where there have been formerly Garrisons be∣fore these Troubles, shall be committed to the charge of such persons and under such cautions and limitations as His Majesty hath before exprest.

And no new Garrisons shall be renewed, nor their Fortifications repaired, otherwise than as by the Laws and Statutes of the Kingdom they may or ought to be.

Falkland.

March. 29. 1643.

COncerning the appointing of the Warden of the Cinque-ports, and Governors of Your Majesty's Towns, Castles and Forts, we humbly desire to know if Your Ma∣jesty's Reply doth intend, that both Houses of Parliament may express their Confidence of the persons to whose trust those places are to be committed, for that we are directed by our Instructions, that if Your Majesty be pleased to assent thereunto, that You would nominate persons of Quality to receive the charge of them, that we may forthwith certifie both Houses of Parliament, that thereupon they may express their Confidence in those persons, or humbly beseech Your Majesty to name others; none of which persons to be removed during three years next ensuing, without just cause to be ap∣proved by both Houses of Parliament; and if any be so removed, or shall dye within the said space, the persons to be put in the same Offices shall be such as both Houses shall confide in.

We humbly desire to know if Your Majesty intends the Garrison of Portsmouth, to be of such a proportion as it was about the year 1641. about which time a new supply was added to the former Garrison to strengthen it, which both Houses of Parliament think necessary to continue.

We humbly desire Your Majesty would be pleased to give a more full Answer to this Clause, that they should not admit into them any forein or other Forces, Raised with∣out Your Majesty's Authority and Consent of the two Houses of Parliament, and that they shall use their utmost endeavours to suppress all Forces whatsoever, Raised without such Authority and Consent, and that those Garrisons should not be renewed, or their Fortifi∣cations repaired, without Consent of Your Majesty and both Houses of Parliament.

• Northumberland.
• J. Holland.
• Will. Armyne.
• B. Whitelocke.
• Will. Pierrepont.

April 5. 1643.

HIS Majesty doth not intend that both Houses of Parliament shall express their Confidence of the persons to whose trust the Cinque-ports or other His Maje∣sty's Towns, Castles and Forts now are or shall be committed; but only that they shall have liberty upon any just Exceptions to proceed against any such persons accor∣ding to Law; His Majesty being resolved not to protect them against the publick Ju∣stice. And well knowing that when any of those places shall be void, the Nominati∣on and free Election is a Right belonging to and inherent in His Majesty, and having been enjoyed by all His Royal Progenitors, His Majesty will not believe that His well∣affected Subjects will desire to limit Him in that Right.

His Majesty intends the Garrison of Portsmouth to be of such a proportion as it was in the year 1641. except He finds good cause to enlarge or diminish that proportion.

His Majesty cannot give a more full Answer to that Clause concerning the admission of Forces into any of His Forts, Castles and Towns, than He hath already given; His Majesty having therein made the Laws and Statutes of the Kingdom the Rule of what is or what is not to be done, which will be always the most impartial Judge be∣tween Him and His People.

Falkland.

April 10. 1643.

BY Instructions yesterday received from both Houses of Parliament, we are com∣manded humbly to desire another Answer from Your Majesty concerning the Cinque-ports, Towns, Forts and Castles; Your Majesty's former Answers concerning them being in the most material points express Denials, as both Houses of Parliament understand them.

• Northumberland.
• J. Holland.
• W. Armyne.
• W. Pierrepont.
• B. Whitelocke.

April 14. 1643.

HIS Majesty will not at this time remember the many Acts of Grace and Favour He hath passed this Parliament for the good of His People; but He must say, He hath not denied any one thing proposed to Him by both Houses, which in Justice could be required of Him, or in Reason expected; and He hath been and is still so un∣willing to give a denial to both His Houses, that as they shall be sure to receive none to any Proposition they shall make of right, so in matters of Grace and Favour He shall be willing to receive any information and reason which at any time may invite him to consent: and therefore will gladly receive any Reason from the Committee or both Houses, which may induce His Majesty to give another Answer than what He hath al∣ready given in the point of the Cinque-ports, Forts and Castles; but till such be given, He cannot consent to dispossess any of His Servants of what they are legally possest of, without a just Cause exprest, or to quit His own Right of sole disposing of their Com∣mands, no other cause yet appearing to Him, than that the places they command have been taken from Him.

Falkland

April 14. 1643.

YOur Majesty, in one of Your Papers this day delivered unto us, mentions that You would gladly receive any Reason from both Houses or their Committee, which may induce Your Majesty to give another Answer than what you have already given in the point of the Cinque-ports, Forts, Castles and Magazines.

We did, according to our Instructions, humbly desire Your Majesty that the Cinque∣ports, Forts and Castles might be put into the hands of such Noble persons and per∣sons of Quality and Trust, to be nominated by Your Majesty, as the two Houses of Par∣liament should confide in, and to be kept for Your Majesty's Service, and the Safety of the Kingdom, that no Forein Forces, or other Forces raised without Your Maje∣sty's Authority and Consent of the two Houses of Parliament, should be admitted into any of them, and the Commanders to use their utmost endeavours to suppress all For∣ces raised without such Authority and Consent, and to seize all Arms and Ammunition provided for any such Forces:

Unto which we humbly desire Your Majesty's Gracious assent, and to our other de∣sires concerning Your Majesty's first Proposition and the first Proposition of both Houses of Parliament, for that we humbly conceive Your Consent thereunto will be the best means for such a Peace to be made as will be safe, firm and lasting; the which is not to be hoped for, except there be a cure for Fears and Jealousies, for which an apparent Remedy is, to disband all Forces, and the same to be so mutually done, as neither part to have any Force remaining of which the other may be jealous or in fear. But if for other causes not concerned in these unhappy Differences, Forces are to be retained, as in the Cinque-ports, and in some Forts, Towns and Castles, for the Defence of the whole Kingdom against forein Enemies, that then the same may remain in the hands of such persons, with such powers, as both parts might believe themselves secure: for if the same places were considered in relation only to these unnatural Destempers, and to the settling thereof, the Forces in them were likewise to be disbanded.

• Northumberland.
• J. Holland.
• Will. Pierrepont.
• Will. Armyne.
• B. Whitelocke.

April 15. 1643.

AS His Majesty was and is very desirous to receive any Reason from both Houses or their Committee, which might induce His Majesty to give other Answers, if what He hath or shall give do not satisfie; so He rather expected those Reasons should have had their foundation in the Law of the Land, and have shewed Him that by Law He had not the Right He pretended, or that by that, or by some fundamental Law, they had a Right superiour to His in what was now in question, or have shewed Him some Legal Reason why the Persons trusted by Him were incapable of that trust, than only have insisted upon Fears and Jealousies, of which as He knows not the Ground, so He is ignorant of the Cure. But this His Majesty knows, that if readiness to ac∣knowledge, retract and provide against for the future any thing of errour that hath hapned against Law, and having actually passed more important Bills, and parted with more of His known Rights for the satisfaction of His Subjects, than not only any one, but all His Predecessors, would have been thought a sufficient Remedy for Fears and Jealousies, the Kingdom might still have injoyed a safe, firm and lasting Peace, and those would not first have been made a reason to seize upon His Rights, and then after have been made an Argument to perswade Him to part with them. And His Majesty wonders the Com∣mittee should not see that this Argument might extend to the depriving Him of, or at least sharing with Him in, all His just Regal Power (since Power as well as Forces may be the object of Fears and Jealousies, and there will be always a power left to hurt, whilest there is any left to protect and defend;) and that if those Rights which He re∣ceived from His Predecessors were really so formidable, that would have been more feared before which is now feared so much, and His Forts and Castles would either not have been attempted, or at least have enabled Him to defend and keep them, and have kept this from being a Question now between them. Which since they could not do, His Majesty (if He had as much inclination, as He hath more right, to Fears and Jealousies) might have more reason to insist upon some adition of Power, as a security

to enable Him to keep His Forts when He hath them, than they to make any diffi∣culty to restore them to Him in the same condition they were before. But as His Ma∣jesty contents Himself with, so, He takes God to witness, His greatest desire is always to observe and maintain the Law of the Land, and expects the same from His Subjects, and believes the mutual observance of that Rule, and neither of them to fear what the Law fears not, to be on both parts a better Cure for that dangerous Disease of Fears and Jealousies, and a better means to establish a happy and perpetual Peace, than for His Majesty to devest Himself of those Trusts which the Law of the Land hath settled in the Crown alone, to preserve the Power and Dignity of the Prince, for the better Protection of the Subject and of the Law, and to avoid those dangerous Distractions which the interest of any Sharers with Him would have infallibly produced.

Falkland.

The Papers concerning the Ships.

March 27. 1643.

TO that part of Your Majesty's first Proposition which concerns Your Ships, we humbly give this Answer;

That the Ships shall be delivered into the charge of such a Noble person as Your Ma∣jesty shall nominate to be Lord High-Admiral of England, and the two Houses of Parli∣ament confide in, who shall receive the same Office by Letters Patents, quamdiu se bene gesserit, and shall have power to nominate and appoint all subordinate Commanders and Officers, and have all other powers appertaining to the Office of High-Admiral; which Ships he shall employ for the defence of the Kingdom against all forein Forces whatsoever, and for the safeguard of Merchants, securing of Trade, and the guard∣ing of Ireland, and the intercepting of all supplys to be carried to the Rebels; and shall use his utmost endeavour to suppress all Forces which shall be raised by any person without Your Majesty's Authority and Consent of the Lords and Commons in Par∣liament, and shall seize all Arms and Ammunition provided for supply of any such Forces.

• Northumberland.
• W. Pierrepont.
• W. Armyne.
• J. Holland.
• B. Whitelocke.

March 28. 1643.

HIS Majesty expects that His own Ships be forthwith delivered to Him, as by the Law they ought to be. And when He shall please to nominate a Lord High-Admiral of England; it shall be such a Noble person against whom no just Exception can be made; and if any shall be, His Majesty will always leave him to his due tryal and examination, and grant his Office to him by such Letters Patents as have been used: In the mean time His Majesty will govern the said Admiralty by Commission, as in all times hath been accustomed. And whatever Ships shall be set forth by His Majesty or His Authority, shall be imployed for the defence of the Kingdom against all Forein Forces whatsoever, for the safeguard of Merchants, securing of Trade, guarding of Ireland, and the intercepting of all Supplys to be carried to the Rebels; and shall use their utmost endeavours to suppress all Forces which shall be raised by any Person what∣soever against the Laws and Statutes of the Kingdom, and to seize all Arms and Am∣munition provided for the supply of any such Forces.

Falkland.

March 29. 1643.

WE humbly desire Your Majesty would be pleased to give a more full Answer to the Clause for the Ships to be delivered into the charge of such a Noble per∣son as Your Majesty shall nominate to be Lord High-Admiral of England, and the two Houses of Parliament confide in, who shall receive the same Office by Letters Patents, quamdiu se bene gesserit.

And to that Clause, to suppress all Forces which shall be raised by any person with∣out Your Majesty's Authority and Consent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament.

Whereunto if Your Majesty shall be pleased to give Your Assent, we conceive we are then directed by our Instructions, humbly to desire Your Majesty to nominate such a Noble person to be Lord High-Admiral of England, that we may forthwith certifie both Houses of Parliament, that thereupon they may express their confidence in that Person, or humbly beseech Your Majesty to name another; and that in case such No∣ble person, who shall be appointed to be Lord High-Admiral of England, shall be remo∣ved, or shall dye within the space of three years next ensuing, that the Person to be put in the same Office shall be such as both Houses shall confide in.

• Northumberland.
• W. Pierrepont.
• W. Armyne.
• J. Holland.
• B. Whitelocke.

April 5. 1643.

HIS Majesty conceives His former Answer of the 28. of March, concerning His Ships, to be so full, that He can add nothing thereunto in any part of it.

His Majesty conceiving it all the Justice in the world for Him to insist, that what is by Law His own, and hath been contrary to Law taken from Him, be fully restored unto Him, without conditioning to impose any new limitation upon His Majesty or His Ministers, which were not formerly required from them by Law; and think∣ing it most unreasonable to be prest to diminish His own just Rights Himself, because others have violated and usurped them.

Falkland.

April 10. 1643.

BY Instructions yesterday received from both Houses of Parliament, we are com∣manded humbly to insist upon the desires of both Houses expressed in our former Papers concerning the Ships: And both Houses of Parliament do observe in Your Ma∣jesties Answer, not only a Denial to all their Desires, but likewise a Censure upon their Proceedings.

• Northumberland.
• W. Pierrepont.
• W. Armyne.
• J. Holland.
• B. Whitelocke.

April 14. 1643.

HIS Majesty for the present forbears any farther Answer touching His Ships, de∣siring first to receive the Answer of both Houses to His Message of the twelfth of this month:* 1.4 But His Majesty will howsoever, before their departure hence, give them a further Answer.

Falkland.

April 15. 1643.

HIS Majesty gave so clear a Reason to justifie what He insisted upon in the point of the Ships, that He cannot but wonder to see the same again prest to Him; and yet both the Reason He gave left unanswered, and no other Reason opposed to weight against it. His Majesty's end in this was not to lay any Censure upon their Pro∣ceedings; but it being necessary to the matter in question for His Majesty to say what had been done, and the matter of fact being such as it seems could not be repeated but it must appear to be censured, His Majesty did not think Himself bound to be so tender of seeming to censure their Proceedings, as by waving His own true rea∣sonable Justifications, to leave His own naked and exposed to a general Censure. And His Majesty hopes, that since they esteem His saying, that they have taken His Ships from Him contrary to Law, to be a Censure, they will either produce that Law by which they took them, or free themselves from so just and unconfutable a Censure by a speedy and unlimited Restauration. Upon which Demand His Majesty's care of His ancient and undoubted Rights doth oblige Him to insist. And when His Majesty shall think fit to make an Admiral, as near as He can, He shall be such an one against whom no just Exception can be made; and if any shall be offered, He will readi∣ly leave him to the tryal of the Law.

Falkland.

The Papers concerning an Oath for Officers.

March 29. 1643.

WE are humbly to desire Your Majesty, that all Generals and Commanders in any of the Armies on either side, as likewise the Lord Admiral of England, the Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports, all Commanders of any Ships, and Commanders of any Town, Castle or Fort, may take an Oath to observe the Articles formerly men∣tioned, and to use their utmost power to preserve the true Reformed Protestant Reli∣gion, and the Peace of the Kingdom, against all Foreign Forces, and all other Forces raised without Your Majesty's Authority and Consent of the two Houses of Parlia∣ment.

• Northumberland.
• W. Pierrepont.
• W. Armyne.
• J. Holland.
• B. Whitelocke.

April 5. 1643.

HIS Majesty conceives the Oaths which all those Officers are already by Law obli∣ged to take, to be very fully sufficient: But if any thing shall be made appear unto Him necessary to be added thereunto, when there shall be a full and peaceable Convocation in Parliament, His Majesty will readily consent to an Act for such an addition.

Falkland.

April 10. 1643.

BY Instructions yesterday received from both Houses of Parliament, we are com∣manded humbly to inform Your Majesty, that both Houses of Parliament con∣ceive the ordinary Oaths of the Officers, mentioned in Your Answer concerning the same, are not sufficient to secure them against the extraordinary causes of Jealousie which have been given them in these troublesome times; and that Your Majesty's Answer lays some tax upon the Parliament, as if defective, and thereby uncapable of making such a provisional Law for an Oath: Therefore we are humbly to insist upon our former de∣sires for such an Oath as is mentioned in those Papers which we have formerly presented to Your Majesty concerning this matter.

• Northumberland.
• John Holland.
• W. Armyne.
• W. Pierrepont.
• B. Whitelocke.

April 14. 1643.

HIS Majesty did not refuse by His former Answer to consent to any such Oath as shall be thought necessary, though He did, and doth still, conceive the Oaths already settled by Law to be sufficient; neither did He ever suppose the Parliament in∣capable of making a provisional Law for such an Oath: but as He would be willing to apply any proper remedy to the extraordinary causes of Jealousies, if He could see that there were such causes: so He will be always most exact in observing the Arti∣cles agreed on in preserving the true Reformed Protestant Religion, and the Peace of the Kingdom against Foreign Forces, and other Forces raised or imployed against Law. And when both Houses shall prepare and present such an Oath as they shall make appear to His Majesty to be necessary to those ends, His Majesty will readily consent to it.

Falkland.

The Papers concerning the Disbanding of the Armies.

March 28. 1643.

His MAJESTY's Answer to the first Proposition of both His Houses of Parliament.

HIS Majesty is as ready and willing that all Armies be disbanded, as any person whatsoever, and conceives the best way to it to be a happy and speedy conclu∣sion of the present Treaty, which (if both Houses will contribute as much to it as His Majesty shall do) will be suddenly effected. And that this Treaty may the sooner produce that effect, His Majesty desires that the time given to the Committee of both Houses to treat, may be enlarged.

And as His Majesty desires nothing more than to be with His two Houses, so He will repair thither as soon as He can possibly do it with His Honour and Safety.

Falkland.

March 29. 1643.

WE are directed by our Instructions humbly to desire Your Majesty's speedy and positive Answer concerning the Disbanding of the Armies: to which if Your Majesty be pleased to assent, we are then to beseech Your Majesty in the name of both Houses, that a near day may be agreed upon for the Disbanding of all the Forces in the remote parts of Yorkshire and the other Northern Counties, as also in Lancashire, Cheshire, and in the Dominion of Wales, and in Cornwall and Devonshire; and they being fully disbanded, another day may be agreed on for the Disbanding of all Forces in Lincoln∣shire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and all other places, except at Oxford and the Quar∣ters thereunto belonging, and Windsor and the Quarters thereunto belonging; and that last of all, a speedy day may be appointed for the Disbanding of those two Armies at Oxford and Windsor, and all the Forces members of either of them.

That some Officers of both Armies may speedily meet to agree of the manner of the Disbanding, and that fit persons may be appointed by Your Majesty and both Houses of Parliament, who may repair to the several Armies, and the see Disbanding put in speedy execution accordingly.

• Northumberland.
• W. Pierrepont.
• J. Holland.
• W. Armyne.
• B. Whitelocke.

March 29. 1643.

COncerning Your Majesty's Answer to the Proposition of both Houses for Disband∣ing of the Armies.

We humbly desire to know, if by the words, [By a happy and speedy Conclusion of the present Trevty,] Your Majesty do intend a Conclusion of the Treaty on Your Majesty's first Proposition, and their Proposition for Disbanding the Armies, or a Conclusion of the Treaty in all the Propositions of both parts.

We have given speedy notice to both Houses of Parliament of Your Majesty's desires, that the time given to the Committee of both Houses to treat may be enlarged.

To the last Clause we have no Instructions.

• Northumberland.
• Will. Pierrepont.
• Will. Armyne.
• Joh. Holland.
• B. Whitelocke.

April 5. 1643.

HIS Majesty intended by the words, [By a happy and speedy Conclusion of the Trea∣ty] such a Conclusion of or in the Treaty, as there might be a clear evidence to Himself and His good Subjects of a future Peace, and no ground left for the conti∣nuance or growth of these bloody Dissentions; which He doubts not may be obtained, if both Houses shall consent that the Treaty may proceed without further interruption or limitation of days.

Falkland.

April 5. 1643.

WHEN the time for Disbanding the Armies shall be agreed upon, His Majesty well approves that some Officers of both Armies may speedily meet to agree of the manner of Disbanding, and that fit persons may be appointed by His Majesty and both Houses of Parliament, who may repair to the several Armies, and see the Disbanding speedily put in execution accordingly.

Falkland.

April 6. 1643.

WE humbly desire to know, if by the words [By a happy and speedy conclusion of the present Treaty] Your Majesty intends a Conclusion of the present Treaty on Your Majesty's first Proposition, and the Proposition of both Houses for Disbanding of the Armies, or a Conclusion of the Treaty on all the Propositions of both parts.

And what Your Majesty intends to be a clear evidence to Your Self and Your good Subjects of a future Peace, and no ground left for the continuance or growth of these bloody Dissentions.

• Northumberland.
• W. Pierrepont.
• W. Armyne.
• J. Holland.
• B. Whitelocke.

April 6. 1643.

HIS Majesty desires to know from the Committee of both Houses whether they acquiesce with His Majesty's Replies to their Answers concerning His first Pro∣position, which yesterday they received from Him, and to which they have yet made no return.

His Majesty likewise desires to know, whether they have yet received power and In∣structions to treat with His Majesty concerning His Return to His two Houses of Par∣liament, which is a part of the first Proposition of both Houses.

Falkland.

April 6. 1643.

WE shall transmit Your Majesty's Replies to our Answers concerning Your first Proposition to both Houses of Parliament, without farther Reply.

We likewise humbly answer, that we have not received any power or Instructions to treat with Your Majesty concerning Your Return to Your two Houses of Parlia∣ment, but we assure our selves they will give Your Majesty satisfaction therein.

• Northumberland.
• Joh. Holland.
• Will. Pierrepont.
• Will. Armyne.
• B. Whitelocke.

April 7. 1643.

HIS Majesty conceives His Answers already given (for He hath given two) to be very clear and significant. And if the Conclusion of the present Treaty on His Majesty's first Proposition and the Proposition of both Houses shall be so full and perfectly made, that the Law of the Land may have a full, free and uninterrupted Course, for the defence and preservation of the Rights of His Majesty, both Houses, and His good Subjects, there will be thence a clear evidence to His Majesty and His good Sub∣jects of a future Peace, and no ground lest for the continuance and growth of these bloody Dissentions, and it will be such a Conclusion as His Majesty intended.

His Majesty never intending that both Armies should remain undisbanded until all the Propositions of both sides were fully concluded. But His Majesty is very sorry that in that point of the first Proposition of both Houses, which hath seemed to be so much wished, and which may be so concluded as alone much to conduce to the evi∣dence desired, (viz. His Return to both Houses, to which His Majesty in His An∣swer hath expressed Himself to be most ready whensoever He may do it with Honour and Safety) they have yet no manner of power nor Instructions so much as to treat with His Majesty.

Falkland.

April 7. 1643.

WE have not transmitted Your Majesty's Answer to the Proposition of Disban∣ding, wherein Your Majesty mentions Your Self to be most ready to return to both Houses of Parliament, whensoever you may do it with Honour and Safety, for that we humbly conceive, we were to expect Your Majesty's Answer to that Proposition this day received, before we could give a due account thereof to both Houses of Par∣liament, the which we will presently send away without farther Reply.

• Northumberland.
• J. Holland.
• W. Pierrepont.
• W. Armyne.
• B. Whitelocke.

April 8. 1643.

BY Instructions this day received from both Houses of Parliament, we humbly con∣ceive that we are to acquaint Your Majesty, That they have taken into considera∣tion Your Majesty's Answer to their Reasons concerning the Cessation, wherein there are divers expressions which will occasion particular Replies, which at this time they desire to decline, their wishes and endeavours being earnestly bent upon the obtaining a speedy Peace; for which cause they do not think good to consume any more of the time allowed for the Treaty in any farther debates upon the Cessation, concerning which they find Your Majesty's expressions so doubtful, that it cannot be suddenly or easily resolved, and the remainder of the time for the whole Treaty being but seven days, if the Cessation were* 1.5 not presently agreed, it would not yield any considerable advantage to the Kingdom.

Wherefore we are required to desire Your Majesty to give a speedy and positive An∣swer to the first Proposition concerning the Disbanding, that so Your Subjects may not only have a shadow of Peace in a short time of Cessation, but the substance of it in such manner as may be a perpetual blessing to them, by freeing the Kingdom from these miserable effects of War, the effusion of English blood, and defolation of many parts of the Land.* 1.6

• Northumberland.
• Joh. Holland.
• Will. Pierrepont.
• Will. Armyne.
• B. Whitelocke.

April 10. 1643.

BY Instructions yesterday received from both Houses of Parliament, we are com∣manded humbly to insist upon that part of the first Proposition of both Houses of Parliament concerning the Disbanding, according to the Papers we have formerly presented to Your Majesty thereupon: and we are humbly to acquaint Your Majesty, That both Houses of Parliament do conceive Your Majesty's Answer concerning the Disbanding to be in effect a Denial, unless they desert all those Cautions and Limitations which they have desired in their Answer to Your Majesty's first Proposition.

• Northumberland.
• Will. Pierrepont.
• Joh. Holland.
• Will. Armyne.
• B. Whitelocke.

April 10. 1643.

BY Instructions from both Houses of Parliament yesterday received, we are com∣manded to declare unto Your Majesty the desire of both Houses for Your Ma∣jesty's coming to Your Parliament, which they have often expressed with full offers of Security to Your Royal Person, agreeable to their Duty and Allegiance; and they know no cause why Your Majesty may not return thither with Honour and Safety: but they did not insert it into our Instructions, because they conceived the Disbanding of the Armies would have facilitated Your Majesty's Resolution therein; which they likewise conceived was agreeable to Your Majesty's sense, who in declaring Your con∣sent to the order of the Treaty, did only mention that part of the first Proposition which concerned the Disbanding, and did omit that which concerned Your Majesty's coming to both Houses of Parliament.

• Northumberland.
• Will. Pierrepont.
• Joh. Holland.
• Will. Armyne.
• B. Whitelocke.

April 14. 1643.

HIS Majesty had great reason to expect, that as He answered to every part of the first Proposition of both Houses, so the Committee should likewise have had power and Instructions to Treat with His Majesty concerning both parts of the same: nor had the Houses any reason to suppose their course agreeable to His Majesty's sense, for His Majesty in declaring His consent to the order of the Treaty, indeed mentioned their first Proposition by the style of the first Proposition which concerned Disbanding, but did not style it that part of the first Proposition which concerned Disbanding, as, if He had meant to have excluded any part of that Proposition from being treated on, He would and ought to have done. But though His Majesty's Answers in the point of Disbanding and Return to His Parliament were as particular and as satisfactory as His Majesty had cause to make, or could well give, till this latter part were consented to be treated upon; yet out of His great desire of Peace, and of complying with both Houses,* 1.7 His Majesty hath made a full and particular Answer and Offer to both Houses concerning as well the first part of their first Article, upon which He hath treated with the Committee, as that upon which they have yet no power to Treat, though His Ma∣jesty hath prest that such power might be given to them.

Falkland.

April 14. 1643.

WE received Instructions from both Houses of Parliament the ninth of this pre∣sent April, and in pursuance thereof, we humbly presented a Paper to Your Majesty upon the tenth of this instant, wherein those Instructions were expressed, and the desire of both Houses concerning Your Majesty's return to Your Parliament.

• Northumberland.
• Will. Pierrepont.
• Joh. Holland.
• Will. Armyne.
• B. Whitelocke.

April 15. 1643.

HIS Majesty doth acknowledge to have received a Paper from the Committee up∣on the tenth of April, expressing, that they had received Instructions, to declare unto His Majesty the desire of both Houses for His Majesty's coming to his Parliament, which they had often exprest with full offers of security to His Royal Person, agree∣able to their Duty and Allegiance; and that they know no cause why His Majesty might not return thither with Honour and Safety. But as the Committee had before acknow∣ledged in a Paper of the sixth of April, not to have any power or Instructions to Treat with His Majesty concerning His Return to His two Houses of Parliament, and as this Paper mentioned no Instructions to Treat, but only to deliver that single Message con∣cerning it; so His Majesty took it for granted, that if they had received any new pow∣er or Instructions in that point, they would have signified as much to Him: and there∣fore conceiving it in vain to discourse, and impossible to Treat upon that with those who had no power to Treat with Him,* 1.8 His Majesty addrest that Answer con∣cerning that point to both Houses, of which Mis Majesty took notice to the Committee in a Paper of the fourteenth of April, and which was shewed to them before He sent it. And if both Houses will upon it but consent, to give His Majesty such Security as will appear to all indifferent Persons to be agreeable to their Duty and Allegiance (those Tumults, which drove Him from thence, and what followed those Tumults, be∣ing a most visible and sufficient Reason why He cannot return thither with His Honour and Safety, without more particular offers of Security than as yet they have ever made Him) all disputes about that point between them will be soon ended, and His Majesty speedily return to them, and His whole Kingdom to their former Peace and Happiness.

Falkland.

[The Message mentioned in the two last Papers of His Majesty is that of the 12 of April, p. 353. Vpon the receit of which the Two Houses presently recalled their Committees.]

Mis MAJESTY's Letter to the Queens Majesty. Oxford, 23 Jan. 2 Feb.

Dear Heart,

SAturday and Sunday last I received two from Thee, of the 29 of December, 9 of January, both which gave Me such Contentment, as Thou mayest better judge than I describe: the which that Thou mayest the better do, know I was full three weeks, wanting but one day, without hearing from Thee; besides scurvy London news of Thy stay and lameness, which though I did not believe, yet it vext Me so much the more, that I could not prove them liars. So now I conjure Thee by the Affection Thou bearest Me, not only to judge, but likewise participate with Me in the Contentment Thou hast given Me by assuring Me of Thy health and speedy return. Concerning 45. 31. 7. 4. 132. 300. I will answer Thee in Thy own words, Je le remetteray a vous respondre per bouche, being confident that way to give Thee contentment: In the mean time assure Thy self, that I neither have, nor will lose any time in that business, and that I have not contented My Self with Generals. And though I hope shortly to have the happiness of Thy company, yet I must tell thee of some particulars, in which I desire both Thy opinion and assistance. I am persecuted concerning Places, and all desire to be put upon Thee, for the which I cannot blame them; and yet Thou knowest I have no reason to do it. Newark desireth Savil's place, upon condition to leave it when his Father dieth; Carenworth the same, being contented to pay for it, or give the profit to whom or how I please: Digby and Dunsmore for to be Captain of the Pentioners; Hartford once looked after it, but now I believe he expects either to be Treasurer, or of My Bed-chamber; I incline rather to the latter, if Thou like it, for I absolutely hold Cottington the fittest man for the other. There is one that doth not yet pretend, that doth deserve as well as any, I mean Capel; therefore I desire Thy assi∣stance to find somewhat for him before he ask. One place I must fill before I can have Thy opinion; it is the Master of the Wards. I have thought upon Nicholas, being con∣fident that Thou wilt not mislike My choice: and if he cannot perform both, Ned Hyde must be Secretary, for indeed I can trust no other. Now I have no more time to speak of more, but to desire Thee not to engage Thy Self for any. So I rest,

Eternally Thine, C. R.

Dated Oxford, 2 Feb. 23 Jan.

My Lord,

IT is His Majesty's pleasure, that there be something attempted upon the Castle of War∣wick; therefore you are to send as many Musquetiers as you can horse, with the Prince of Wales his Reigment of Horse, and your own: this bearer La Roche will bring Petarrs, and all things necessary for them: you must march to morrow in the Evening, to be there be∣fore break of the day on Saturday.

Your Faithful Friend, Rupert.

Oxford, 2 of March, 1643.

For the Earl of Northampton at Banbury.

My Lord,

I Have acquainted the King with the hinderance you have in your desire. He was pleased to command me to tell you, that your Lordship should send one of your Scouts to enquire if Ingram be in the Castle: if he be, you may safely go on with your design; for knowing but of your coming, he will make but little or no resistance, and the sooner the better. If after this you should think it feisible to raise the siege at Litchfield, you have also that power to do it. This bearer will inform you with some other particulars. So I rest,

Your Lordship's most faithful Friend, Rupert.

Oxford, the 3 of March, at 12 at night.

To the Earl of Northampton, Rupert. His MAJESTY's Letter to the Queen.

Dear Heart,

THough ever since Sunday last I had good hopes of Thy happy Landing, yet I had not the certain news thereof before yesterday; when I likewise understood of Thy safe coming to York. I hope Thou expected not welcome from Me in words; but when I shall be wanting in any other way (according to My wit and power) of ex∣pressing My Love to Thee, then let all honest Men hate and eschew Me like a Monster: And yet when I shall have done My part, I confess that I shall come short of what Thou deservest of Me.

H. 3. 189. e. 3. 42. 17. 25. 27. 39. 21. 66. a. 1. 45. 31. 7. 4. 32. 18. 47. 46. 9. 3. d. 4. g. 4. 46. 35. 67. 48. 7. 40. 5. 43. 74. 3. 41. 7. 33. 62. 8. 63. 68. 50. 64. 34. 9. 51. 45. 69. 46, 37. dear. 45. 31. 7. 1. 33. 18. 49. 47. 19. 21. 10. 70. 13. 7. 45. 58. 8. 9. 41. 10. this a 2. 324. in the mean time 46. 31. 7. 50. e. 3. 20. 3. 6. 8. 48. 75. 41. 9. 2. upon 60. 19. 50. 61. 27. 26. 7. 69. 12. 19. 47. 45. 8. 24.

Yesterday there were Articles of a Cessation brought Me from London, but so un∣reasonable that I cannot grant them: yet to undeceive the people by shewing it is not I, but those who have caused and fostered this Rebellion, that desire the continuance of this War and universal Distraction, I am framing Articles fit for that purpose; both which, by My next, I mean to send Thee.

219. b. 3. 58. 51. 75. 46. 7. 3. 45. 37. 2. 189. 46. 38. 1. g. 1. 173. 131. which I think fit to be done, a 5. 4. 30. 3. n. 5. d. 3. 46. 31. 8. 10. 2. 32. 18. 64. 7. 3. 45. 31. 9. 66. 46. 32. 19. 41. 25. 48. k. 1. e. 4. 67. 69. 63. I am now confident that 173. is right for My service.

Since the taking of Cicester there is nothing of note done of either side, wherefore that little news that is, I leave to others. Only this I assure Thee, That the distractions of the Rebels are such, that so many fine designs are laid open to us, We know not which first to undertake. But certainly My first and chiefest care is, and shall be, to secure Thee, and hasten Our meeting. So longing to hear from Thee, I rest, eternally Thine,

C. R.

Oxford, 12/2 March, 1643-42.

The Last I received of Thine was dated the 16/3 Febr. and I believe none of My four last are come to Thee. Their Dates are 13/3. 23/13. 25/15. Febr. and 20 Febr. or March the 2.

MDCXLIII. A Declaration of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament upon the Proceedings in the late Treaty, and the aforesaid Letters.

THE Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament, being deeply afflicted with a sorrowful sense of the miserable Distractions of this Kingdom, overwhelmed with the Calamities of the worst kind of War, have by several Petitions and many hum∣ble Addresses to His Majesty besought Him, by removing the Causes thereof, to put an end thereunto: And although all their endeavours have not only proved fruitless, but some of their Petitions received a denial even of Audience, (a favour not denied to the Rebels of Ireland) which might very well justify them before God and Man to decline any further prosecution that way, especially in a case where themselves and the King∣dom are the parties injured and oppressed; yet their bowels did so much yearn after a hap∣py Peace, that they resolved, notwithstanding their former discouragements, to break through all difficulties, and yet once more most humbly to represent to His Majesty the Miserable Distempers of His two Kingdoms of England and Ireland, and if possibly they could, to encline His Royal heart, really to act what He hath so often verbally professed, To compose those unhappy Distractions, and restore His People to a blessed and lasting Peace. And for that purpose, about the first of February last, they in all humble∣ness presented their Desires to His Majesty, digested into Fourteen Propositions: and how reasonable and indifferent those Propositions were, they expose them to the view of the World to judge, resting assured, that no indifferent Man that shall duely weigh them, with the time and circumstance, will find any thing contained in them, but what was necessary for the maintenance and advancement of the true Protestant Religion, the due execution of Justice, the preservation of the Liberty and Property of the Subject, and the establishment of the Kingdoms Peace and Safety. And because they might with all speed take off the Burthen under which this Kingdom did principally groan, and stop the spring from whence most of these Calamities did flow; they in the first place propoun∣ded, That the Armies and Forces raised on both sides might be disbanded, which being effected, the Kingdom might with the more ease and security expect the issue of the Treaty; and therefore they were very careful, that no Proposition or Circumstance touching the Treaty should precede this.

His Majesty having received and considered these Propositions, He not long after re∣turned His Answer, wherein He professeth to have given up all the faculties of His Soul to an earnest endeavour of a Peace and Reconciliation with His People, and desires a speedy time and place might be agreed upon, for the meeting of such persons as His Majesty and both Houses should appoint to discuss those Propositions, and six other Propositions made by His Majesty, and sent with that Answer; whereof one was, That to the in∣tent the Treaty might not suffer interruption by any intervening accidents, that a Cessation of Arms and free Trade might be first agreed upon: which Answer the Lords and Commons did take into their consideration. And because His Majesty did desire that a Cessation might be first agreed upon, they did accordingly submit thereunto, though they had purposely avoided it before; being unwilling to waste the time about the Shadow, that would of it self vanish with the disbanding, which they desired might be conclu∣ded in the first place.

But they were willing to give all satisfaction to His Majesty's Desires, hoping there∣by to incline Him the more readily to consent to their just Requests. And according to their resolution, they prepared ready the Articles of Cessation, and that with as much equality and indifferency to both sides as possibly they could. They likewise agreed to treat upon the Propositions before the Disbanding; in which Treaty, so much of His Ma∣jesty's Propositions as concerned His Majesty's Revenue, Magazines, Forts and Ships, and the Propositions of both Houses for the Disbanding, should be first treated of and concluded, before the proceeding to treat upon any other: and that this Treaty should begin the fourth of March, or sooner, if it might be; and that from the beginning of the Treaty, the time might not exceed twenty days. They further resolved, that a Com∣mittee of both Houses should be appointed to attend His Majesty, if His Majesty should so please, to endeavour to give Him all humble and fit satisfaction concerning the said Propositions.

All which their resolutions they forthwith by a Messenger dispatched for that pur∣pose presented to His Majesty, and not long after sent a Committee to attend Him. And though they hoped for a ready concurrence from His Majesty to the Articles of Ces∣sation, the Proposition proceeding from Himself, yet they received a return much con∣trary

to their expectation, where they found many scruples raised, and other Articles propounded, which being assented unto by them, would inevitably destroy the Forces raised by them for the Defence of themselves, their Religion and Liberty, and strengthen the Malignant and Popish Army raised against them; which they made appear by their humble Answer to those Alterations and Articles, which are herewith at large published, and therefore do refer themselves thereunto. And in the interim, while His Majesty was considering of this their humble Answer, they gave power to their Committee to treat upon the two first Propositions for four days, which afterwards they enlarged to the end of twenty days. And within some distance of time afterwards they received a ve∣ry long Message from His Majesty, which (indeed) carried not with it the face or sem∣blance of a Treaty, but in plain down-right language, was a bitter Invective against the two Houses of Parliament and their Proceedings; so that by this time it might very well appear, That the enemies of the Kingdoms Peace, so really prosecuted, and likely to be effected by the earnest endeavours of both Houses, thought it high time to cast in their tares of Sedition, to prevent the growth of so blessed a fruit. In this Message, after very heavy Taxes and unjust Scandals and Accusations laid to their charge, forced in quite besides the question, His Majesty condescended to the Cessation in manner as was agreed on by both Houses, to continue only for five days, expecting a liberty notwithstanding to be given the Com∣mittee to word it according to the real Intention, and so that His Majesty might not be un∣derstood to consent to any Imposing upon, Levying, Distraining, or Imprisoning of His Subjects, to force them to Contribute, expresly protesting against it, and inhibiting His Subjects, to submit thereunto, and requiring them to resist; and so that there might not be a liberty for Seizing upon His Subjects by any Soldiers of the Army for not sub∣mitting to such Impositions. Which offer of His Majesty's, being but a Cessation only for five days, and some part of that time to be first spent by the Committee in wording of it, and limited with a Protestation against, and a Command to resist that Power whereby their Forces must be paid and supported, which if not answered and justified, would by a consent to His Majesty's offer imply a declining of that power, which might indanger the Disbanding of their Army; and if answered, would necessarily have enfor∣ced them to some sharpness of language, which the enemies of this Treaty would easily take occasion to quarrel at, and perswade His Majesty to break off, which the Lords and Commons, out of their hearty zeal to bring it to a happy conclusion, did purposely avoid: therefore they did not only pass by these Scandals and unjust Accusations laid to their charge by that Message, but purposely declined to enter into any dispute of their power, for maintaining the Forces raised for their own necessary defence; and therefore thought it best to spend the remainder of the time in Treating upon the Propositions, and for that end enjoyned their Committee, as much as in them lay, to hasten it, especially that part touching the Disbanding, which being concluded, would not only produce a tem∣porary Cessation, but an absolute abolition of all acts of Hostility. The proceedings and issue of which Treaty the Lords and Commons think it necessary to publish to the Kingdom, to the end the sincerity of their endeavours, to procure a happy settlement of these miserable Distractions, may appear.

When they perceived that the most part of the time prescribed for the Treaty was like to be spent about the Cessation, they gave power to their Committee in the mean time to treat upon the Propositions in order as they had formerly Voted: and therefore be∣ginning with His Majesty's first Proposition, whereby His Majesty demanded, That his own Revenue, Magazines, Towns, Forts and Ships, which had been taken or kept from Him by force, should be forthwith restored unto Him, the Lords and Commons by their Com∣mittee made Him this humble Answer; First, That as to his Revenue, they had not made use of it but in a small proportion, and a good part of that was employed for the maintenance of His own Children, according to the allowance established by Himself; That what should re∣main due to His Majesty they would satisfy, and would leave the same to His Majesty for the time to come. They likewise thereupon propounded to His Majesty, That He would re∣store what had been taken for His use, upon any of the Bills assigned to other purposes, by seve∣ral Acts of Parliament, as out of the provision made for the Wars of Ireland. Which offer of theirs, after some debate thereupon with the Committee, was thought reasonable, and in effect concluded.

And as to the Demand of the Towns, Forts and Ships, they in substance gave this hum∣ble Answer; That they would deliver up such as remained in their hands, into the hands of such persons of worth, quality and trust, to be nominated by His Majesty, as the two Houses of Parlia∣ment should confide in, none of which persons to be removed during three years next ensuing without just cause to be approved of by both Houses; That the Warden of the Cinque-Ports,

and all Governours and Commanders of Towns, Forts and Castles, should keep the same re∣spectively for the Service of His Majesty and the Safety of the Kingdom, and that they should not admit into them any Forein Forces, or any other Forces raised without His Majesty's Authority and Consent of the two Houses of Parliament; and they should use their uttermost endeavours to suppress all Forces raised without such Authority and Consent, and seize all Arms and Ammunition provided for any such Forces.* 1.9 Unto which Offer of theirs His Ma∣jesty gave this conclusive Answer; That His Majesty did not intend that both Houses of Parliament should express their Confidence of the persons to whose trust the Cinque-Ports, or other His Majesty's Towns and Forts, were or should be committed, but that they should have liberty to proceed against them according to Law; His Majesty claiming the nomination and free election to belong to Him of right. And to the Clause concerning the ad∣mission of Forces into those Forts, Castles and Towns, His Majesty would consent no further than these general terms; that is, That no Forces raised or brought in contrary to Law should be admitted, and that all Arms and Ammunition should be seized upon which by the Laws and Statutes of the Kingdom they ought to seize.

They made the like Answer concerning the Ships, That they should be delivered into the hands of such a Noble Person as His Majesty should nominate to be Lord High-Admiral of En∣gland, and the two Houses of Parliament confide in. To which Offer his Majesty refused His Consent, declaring His Resolution to insist upon what by Law, was His own (as His Majesty was pleased to express it,) and taken from Him, should be restored unto Him without any conditioning, or new limitations to be put upon Him or His Ministers.

And now the Lords and Commons will refer it to the World to judge, whether their Demands were not such, and so moderate, as was fit and necessary for them to make, and just and reasonable for His Majesty to assent unto: wherein they may be pleased to consider, that this was a Treaty for the disbanding of two Armies, and Forces raised in opposition each to other; that the Towns, Forts and Ships, are a great part of these Forces, and of the strength of that side that possesseth them; that for any one side to demand the possession and power thereof, and the other side to disband their Forces, and quit themselves of all their strength, is in effect a total disbanding of that side, and a continuing the Forces of the other, which must be granted to be most unequal; and therefore the Lords and Commons did think it just and honourable, that the remaining strength should be put into such hands as both sides might trust.

Secondly, That their demand to have the Forts and Castles into the hands of such per∣sons as both Houses should confide in, was a Proposition warranted by the frequent* 1.10 Pre∣cedents of former times, whereby it appeareth that many other Parliaments have made the like and greater demands, and His Majesty's Predecessors have assented thereunto.

Thirdly, It was a Proposition which His Majesty Himself in several Declarations of His own affirmed to be reasonable and just; for in His Majesty's Answer to a Petition of the House of Commons, January 28. 1641. He expresseth thus, For the Forts and Castles of the Kingdom, His Majesty is resolved, they shall be in such hands, and only in such, as the Parliament way safely confide in, &c. And in another Answer to two Petitions of the Lords and Commons, delivered the second of February 1641. His Majesty useth these words, That (for the securing you from all Dangers, or Jealousies of any) His Majesty will be content to put in all the places both of Forts and Militia, in the several Counties, such persons as both Houses of Parliament shall either approve or recommend unto Him; so that you declare before unto His Majesty the names of the persons whom you approve or recom∣mend: unless such persons shall be named, against whom He shall have just and unquestionable exception. Which being declared by His Majesty Himself, they had no cause to suspect a Denial, being confident that His Majesty did intend what He spoke; and if any ill Counsel could prevail to make Him recede from His Word, it must be admitted, the Kingdom hath more cause to be further secured.

Fourthly, For that to our sad experience it is well known, that His Majesty's Power in this and other things is too much steered and guided by the advice of these secret and wicked Counsellors that have been the Instruments of our present Miseries; and though His Majesty carrieth the Name, yet they will have the disposing of those pla∣ces. And the Lords and Commons thought it the more reasonable and necessary to insist thereupon, because that in the time when they were preparing their Propositions to His Majesty, it did appear unto them by a Letter written by His Majesty to the Queen, (which they have caused to be herewith Printed) that the great and eminent places of the Kingdom were disposed by Her Advice and Power; and what Her Re∣ligion is, and consequently how prevalent the Counsels of Papists and Jesuites will be with Her, may be easily conjectured: and it is to be observed who the Persons designed for preferment were, even during the sitting of a Parliament; the Lord Digby, im∣peached in Parliament for High Treason, and most, if not all the rest, impeached in Parliament, and such as bear Arms against them.

Lastly, admitting that these demands touching the Ships and Forts had been made even in a time of Peace and Tranquillity: yet considering the attempts of Force and Violence made and practised against the Kingdom and this present Parliament, as the Designs many years since to bring to this Kingdom the German Horse, to com∣pel the Subject to submit to an arbitrary Government; the endeavour to bring up the late Northern Army, by force and violence to awe the Parliament; His Majesty's coming in person to the House of Commons, accompanied with many Armed Men, to demand their Members to be delivered up; and the Treason of the Earl of Strafford, to bring over the Irish Popish Army to conquer the Kingdom; they might very well justify, nay they were in duty bound (in discharge of the trust reposed in them by the Commonwealth) to make that demand, and expect the performance thereof, to the end the People might be secured from any such Violence hereafter. Yet (to their inexpressible sorrow they must speak it) neither the Reasonableness, the Modera∣tion, or Justness of the Request, nor the Peace of the Kingdom (which probably would ensue thereupon) could be Arguments prevalent enough to induce His Maje∣sty's Consent thereunto. And His Majesty's offer of those Commanders that shall offend, to leave them to Justice and Trial of the Law, is an Answer more to shew His Power to protect Delinquents, than satisfaction, to a Parliament, being the due and right of the meanest Subject, and yet intituled here as a Favour done to both Houses of Parliament.

And though His Majesty is pleased to justifie His Denial with the Allegation, That it is His Right by Law; they must appeal to the judgment of all indifferent Men, whether that be a satisfactory ground of refusal: for admitting His Majesty's Power of disposing the Ships, Forts and Castles, and committing them into what hands He please, to be by Law absolutely vested in His Majesty (which they by no means can admit, He being only trusted with them for the Defence and safety of the Kingdom) as He Himself is pleased to assume; yet would that be no ground or reason for the King to refuse His Consent to alter that Law, when by circumstance of time and affairs that Power becomes destructive to the Commonwealth and safety of the Peo∣ple, the preservation whereof is the chief end of the Law. And though the two Hou∣ses of Parliament, being the Representative Body of the Kingdom, are the most com∣petent Judges thereof; yet in this Cafe they do not proceed only upon an implicite Faith, but demonstrate it both by Reason and Experience, That their Demand is not only necessary

to secure the Kingdom from Fear and Jealousie, but to preserve it even from Ruine and De∣struction.

And surely had this Argument, of being Their Right by Law, been prevailing with His Majesty's Predecessors, this Nation should have wanted many an Act of Parlia∣ment which now they have, that was necessary for thier being and subsistence. And they could heartily wish that the Laws and Statutes of the Kingdom might be The Rule of what is, and what is not to be done; acknowledging with His Majesty, that the same is the only Rule between Him and His People, the assurance of the free en∣joyment whereof is their only aim: but how little fruit the People hath gathered from this tree, let the woful experience of these last eighteen years judge, where, in a time of Peace and Plenty, the power of issuing out Commissions to compel Loans, a power in the King at His pleasure to impose a Charge upon the People to provide Ships, without limitation of time or proportion, a power in the Council-Board to commit Men and determine business, without distinction of persons or causes, the power of laying Impositions both upon Forein and Domestick Commodities, and ma∣ny other Acts of Oppressions, was, under the name and colour of a Legal Right there∣unto, practised and put in execution; against which the Subject had no help of relief, but was necessitated to submit and lie under the burthen. And when at any time a Par∣liament was called (being the only cure and remedy for these griefs) it could no sooner touch upon these sores, but it was dashed in pieces by a sudden Dissolution. And now that a remedy is provided for that mischief by the Act for continnance of this Parliament, it is attempted by the force and power of an Army to effect that which formerly could have been done with more ease and readiness.

And now they refer it to the censure of any honest Man, whether they have not the warrant of Reason and Necessity, to demand some security to enjoy that which His Majesty confesseth to be the Peoples right: and in reference to that, whether their Demand of having the Forts, Castles and Shipping to be put into such hands as both Houses shall have cause to confide in, was not both moderate and reaso∣nable.

And touching their Demand, and His Majesty's Answer to the Clause concerning the admission of Forces into those Forts, Castles and Towns, they must still submit it to all indifferent judgments, how much Reason and Justice was comprehended in their Demand, and how little satisfaction they received therein. His Majesty an∣swers, That no Forces raised or brought in contrary to Law should be admitted; which they could heartily wish heretofore had, or hereafter would be really performed: but they desire it may be considered, what security this will be to the Kingdom, to prevent the raising or bringing in of Forces contrary to law; who shall be Judges of the Law, when those Forces are once raised and once brought in? Surely His Majesty will not acknowledge the two Houses of Parliament to be; for His Ma∣jesty by several Declarations hath expresly denied them any such Power: For con∣trary to their Declarations, fortified with Law and Reason, His Majesty published and affirmed the Legality of the Commission of Array, and put the same in execution in most parts of the Kingdom; hath authorized the Papists of the Kingdom to take Arms to oppose the Parliament and their Proceedings, and to rob, spoil, and deprive the Protestants of this Kingdom of their Estates and lives; hath by divers Proclamations and Declarations published the raising of Forces, and taking up of Arms by the two Houses of Parliament, and such as therein obey their Commands, for their own defence, and the defence of their Religion and Liberty assaulted by an Army of Papists and their adherents, to be Rebellion and Treason, and the taking up of Arms by the Papists and their adherents, to be acts of Duty and Loyalty; and all this urged and pretended to be warranted by the Law of the Land. And they do not doubt but by the same Law, persons legally impeached and accused in Parliament of high Treason, as the Lord Digby, Master Percy, Master Jermyn, Master Oneale, and others, are by the power of an Army protected from the Justice of the Parliament: and yet all this while the People have not only His Majesty's Promise, but His Oath, to govern and protect them accor∣ding to the Laws of the Land. And now they appeal to the World, whether such a ge∣neral Answer, That no Forces raised or brought in contrary to Law, without admitting them so much as to declare their confidence in the persons that are to be entrusted with the Power, be just or reasonable: What is it otherwise in effect, than to make those persons that are the Instruments to violate the Law, Judges of that Law? which, to our sad experience, is the woful and miserable present condition of this Kingdom.

And though, by what had hitherto passed, they had little cause to suspect such a happy issue to the Treaty as they heartily wished and most earnestly laboured for, dis∣covering not the least inclination of compliance to their just Demands, but all, or most of them, answered with a Denial, and that not without some sharpness and acrimony; yet resolving to be wanting in nothing of their parts, they enjoyned their Committee to press on the Proposition for Disbanding, and humbly desire His Majesty's posi∣tive Answer thereunto, which (if assented unto by His Majesty) would, though not wholly take away the cause, and perfectly cure the Distractions of this Kingdom, yet at least take off the smart and pain under which both Church and State do most miserably languish, and so better enable them to endure the expectation of a through Cure.

The Committee applied themselves to His Majesty accordingly: and after some endeavour to protract the debate of this Proposition, and desire that it might be deferred to the conclusion of the Treaty, and that the time of the Treaty might be enlarged, His Majesty being earnestly importuned to a positive and speedy Answer, to the end the Kingdom might know what they might trust to, His Majesty was pleased to return this Answer, That as soon as His Majesty were satisfied in His first Propo∣sition, concerning His own Revenue, Magazines, Ships and Forts; secondly, as soon as all the Members of both Houses shall be restored to the same capacity of sitting and voting in Parliament as they had upon the first of January 1641. not intending to extend it to the Bishops Votes, or to such in whose places upon new Writs new Elections have been made; thirdly, as soon as His Majesty and both Houses might be secured from such tumultuous assemblies as formerly assembled about both Houses, which security His Majesty explains can be only settled by adjourning the Parliament to some place twenty miles from London; His Majesty would consent that both the Armies should be disbanded, and come to the Parliament. Which in terms plain enough is as much as to say, That until both Houses shall consent to those Demands, He will not Disband His Army, He will continue the War. And what Reason or Justice is either in the matter or manner of those demands, or what hope or expecta∣tion the People can have to see an end of their present Calamities, they leave it to themselves to judge. His Majesty in the beginning of the Treaty, in His Answer to the Propositions of both Houses, was pleased to express how unparliamentary it was by Arms to require new Laws: but how to apply that to the two Houses of Parlia∣ment, they must confess they are to seek; they never having demanded any new Laws by Arms, endeavouring only (what in them lieth) to preserve and defend them∣selves, their Religion and Laws, from the violence of an Army first raised against them; which being laid down and disbanded, they offer to Disband theirs, without any other condition. But they are well assured, that by this His Majesty's Answer here is not only a requiring of new Laws, but a repealing of the old, by Arms: for His Ma∣jesty must have this Parliament adjourned to another place, which by a Statute made this present Parliament cannot be done without the consent of both Houses. He must have the Members disabled to sit there by the respective judgment of both Houses, re∣stored to their former capacity of sitting and voting, or He will not consent to Disband. And how destructive to the Liberties of the Parliament and dangerous to the King∣dom these Conditions required by His Majesty to precede the Disbanding are, any man that hath an eye to see may easily discern. As first, to satisfie His first Proposition, in yielding up the Magazines, Ships and Forts, into the hands of such persons as His Ma∣jesty shall appoint to receive the same, without any admission to the two Houses to express their confidence in those persons: which being performed, were to yield up the principal part, if not all the strength they have, and expose themselves, Religion, and the Kingdom, to the mercy of a powerful Popish Army raised against them, and sub∣mit it to them, and to the will and pleasure of those Counsellors whose interest with His Majesty hath brought this Kingdom to this desolate condition, whether they would Disband or not. Secondly, to satisfie Him in His Proposition touching His Re∣venue, wherein He demands a restitution of what hath been taken from Him; which though it would prove no considerable Summ, yet the time that the examination and agreement upon the account would necessarily take up, would prove such as might very well make the Kingdom sink under the burthen of two Armies before it came to a conclusion. And touching His Majesty's requiring a restitution of the Members to their sitting and Votes, it is observable, that the Demand is made with∣out distinction of persons or offences; so that be the persons never so criminous, or the offences never so notorious, and so the Judgment never so just, yet all must be

restored, or no consent to Disbanding. And the reason and ground of the Demand is as observable; because they adhered to His Majesty in these Distractions: An Argu∣ment, they must confess, much used by the Earl of Strafford in defence of his Trea∣son, who would have justified the most notorious Crimes laid to his charge by Autho∣rity and Commands derived from His Majesty, and his zeal to advance His Majesty's Service and Profit. And no doubt the same reason may be used for the Judges in case of Ship-mony, and most of the Monopolists and Projectors, who by Letters Pa∣tents had not only His Majesty's Command and Authority for the doing what they did, but brought in great Summs of Mony to His use and benefit, and that perhaps in times of necessity and want thereof: and so consequently, because these adhered to His Majesty, (for what they did was for His Profit) with the like reason it may be required that all Impeachments and Proceedings against them should be repealed and laid aside.

And surely nothing can be more destructive and dangerous both to Parliament and Kingdom than the consenting to that Demand: for what can be more destru∣ctive to both Houses, than to restore those persons to have their former suffrage and Votes in Parliament over the Lives and Liberties of the People and the Pri∣viledge of Parliament, who have not only deserted the Parliament, disobeyed and contemned their Authority, neglected the Trust reposed in them by those that sent them thither, in whose behalf they were to attend and serve there, but by pri∣vate practices and open hostility have endeavoured to destroy both Parliament and People?

And it would be an Objection of difficulty to answer, whether in giving a con∣sent to this Demand, the People, who are to chuse these Members, should not be de∣prived of their interest and freedom of choice and election now devolved unto them, by putting out the Members already sent. And to this they might add the danger of the Precedent, and the reflection of dishonour that would fall upon both Houses, should they consent to this, which would be with the same breath, as it were, to give and re∣peal their Judgment, and pronounce sentence of injustice and rashness against them∣selves. But they will not insist thereupon in a case otherwise so full of danger and in∣convenience to the publick.

And touching the Proposition of Adjourning the Parliament twenty miles di∣stant from London, they shall not need in a case so apparent to spend many words to discover the inconvenience and unreasonableness thereof: for, should they assent unto it, to pass over the inconveniences that would happen to such persons that should have occasion to attend the Parliament, by removing it so far from the residency of the or∣dinary Courts of Justice, and the places where the Records of the Kingdom remain (whereof there is frequent use to be made) it would not only give a tacite consent to those Scandals so often pressed and affirmed in several Declarations, that is, That His Majesty was forced for the Safety of His own Person heretofore to withdraw, and hi∣therto to absent Himself from the Parliament, which both Houses can by no means ad∣mit, but must still deny; but likewise to that high and dangerous Aspersion of awing the Members of this Parliament, raised without doubt purposely to invalid the Acts and proceedings thereof; and by that engine, in case the Popish Army should pre∣vail against the Parliament, (which they trust God in his goodness will never per∣mit) to overturn and nullifie all the good Laws and Statutes made this Parlia∣ment.

And it would give too much countenance to those unjust Aspersions laid to the charge of the City of London, whose unexampled zeal and fidelity to the true Protestant Religion and the Liberty of this Kingdom is never to be forgotten, That His Majesty and the Members of both Houses cannot with safety to their persons reside there; whenas they are well assured, that the Loyalty of that City to His Majesty and their Affections to the Parliament is such, as doth equal, if not exceed, any other place or City in the Kingdom. And with what safety the two Houses can sit in any other place, when even in the place they now reside the House of Commons was in appa∣rent danger of Violence, when His Majesty accompanied with some hundreds of armed Men came thither to demand their Members, let the World judge.

And now the Lords and Commons must appeal to the judgment of all impartial men, whether they have not used their utmost and most faithful endeavours to put an end to the Distractions of this Kingdom, and to restore it to a blessed and lasting Peace; and whether their Propositions (being the way thereunto) were not such as were reasonable and necessary for them to make, and just and honourable for His

Majesty to grant; and whether His Majesty's Answers to these Propositions are satis∣factory, or correspondent to His Expression, to have given up all the faculties of His Soul to an earnest endeavour of a Peace and Reconciliation with His People. But they must confess, that they had just cause to suspect, that this would be the happy issue of the Treaty; for the prevalency of the enemies thereof, who like that evil Spirit, do most rage when they think they must be cast out, was such, that they would not proceed therein one step, without some attempt or provocation laid in the way to interrupt and break it off: for after they had resolved to present their humble Desires and Proposi∣tions to His Majesty, their Committee must not without a special safe Conduct and Protection from Him have access to Him, (a liberty incident to them not only as they are Members of the Parliament, and employed by both Houses, but as they were free∣born Subjects;) and yet when they passed over this, His Majesty refused a safe Con∣duct to the Lord Viscount Say and Seal, being one of the Committee appointed by both Houses to be employed upon that occasion, such a breach of Priviledge that they believe is not to be parallel'd by the example of former times; and yet their desire was such to obtain the end they drive at, (that is, a happy and lasting Peace) that they resolved not to interrupt the Treaty for that time by insisting upon it. And then they had no sooner entred upon the Treaty, but a Proclamation dated at Oxon the 16 of February 1642. entituled His Majesty's Proclamation, forbidding all His loving Subjects, and the Counties of Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire, to raise any Forces, &c. and another Proclamation dated the 8 of February, forbidding the assessing and payment of all Taxes by vertue of an Ordinance of both Houses, and all entring into Associations, were published in His Majesty's Name, containing most bitter invectives and scandals against the proceedings of both Houses, by styling them and such as obeyed them Traitors and Rebels, charging them under the name of Brownists, Anabaptists, and Atheists, to endeavour to take away the Kings Life, and to destroy His Posterity, the Protestant Religion, and the Laws of the Kingdoms, with many other such scandals and aspersions; and even at this time were many designs practising against the Parliament, which in all probability were the grounds and reasons of His Majesty's confidence and denial of their just de∣sire. Insomuch that His Majesty in a Letter sent from Him to the Queen, and read in the House of Commons, did declare, That He had so many fine designs laid open to Him, that He knew not which first to undertake. One whereof probably was the most bloody and barbarous design upon Bristol attempted (though by God's infinite mercy prevented) during the Treaty, And whether that of Sir Hugh Cholmley's in betraying of Scarborough Castle, wherewith he was entrusted by the Parliament, to the Queens hands, and acted likewise during the Treaty, and that of Killingworth Castle, which should have been likewise betrayed, and a design discovered by a Letter found in the Earl of Northampton's pocket, slain near Stafford, written to Him from Prince Rupert, were some of the other designs mentioned in His Majesty's Letter, they cannot certainly affirm, but conjecture. And when these collateral provocations and attempts could not prevail to make them desert the Treaty, then comes in His Maje∣sty's Message of the fourth of April, which they have mentioned before, charging them to abuse the people with imaginary Dangers and pretended Fears, to use Force and Rapines upon His good Subjects, with publishing new doctrines, That it is un∣lawful for the King to do any thing, and lawful to do any thing against Him; with Malice and Subtilty to abuse the People, that their Pleasure is all their bounds; with many other such bitter expressions, that no Man could think such an Answer could be any part of a Treaty, or at least to proceed from a heart that desired a happy issue thereunto. Notwithstanding all which, the Lords and Commons were so resolutely fixed to prosecute that Treaty, and (if possibly they could) to bring it to a blessed and happy conclusion, that they were content to lie under all these Scandals, and en∣dure all these wounds, so they might make up the breaches of the Commonwealth; and therefore they did forbear the returning of an Answer to any of these provocations. And then when the Malignant and Popish party (too-too prevalent with his Majesty) perceived their constancy, not to be provoked to break that Treaty of their part, they found it necessary to seduce His Majesty to refuse His Consent to their most ne∣cessary and just Desires, and to propound such things as could not with the peace and safety of the Church and State be yielded to, and so effected their own de∣sires.

All which the Lords and Commons thought it their duty to publish to the King∣dom, to the end that they may see that what hath been long endeavoured by subtile and secret practices, is now resolved to be effected by open Violence and Hostility, that is, the destruction of our Laws and the Protestant Religion, and introducing of Popery and Superstition; and that there is little or no hope by any endeavour of a Treaty to procure the Peace of this Church and Kingdom, unless both be exposed to the will and pleasure of the Popish party, until the Army and Forces now raised and continued by them be first destroyed or suppressed. And therefore the Lords and Com∣mons do hope, that not only such as are already convinced of their Design and Ma∣lice, but even those that by their subtile and false pretences have been ignorantly se∣duced to joyn with them, that love their Liberty and the Protestant Religion, will now with one heart and mind unite together, to preserve their Religion and Liberty: in the defence whereof the Lords and Commons are resolved to offer up themselves, their lives and fortunes, a willing Sacrifice.

Die Sabbati, 6 May, 1643.

A Declaration upon the Result of the Treaty, brought in with some Amendments, was this day read in the House of Commons, and ordered to be delivered unto the Lords at a Conference. And it is further Ordered by this House, That this Declaration shall be Printed, and Master Glyn do take care for the Printing of it, and that none shall Print or re-print it, but such as Master Glyn shall appoint, to the end that by his care the Records may be rightly cited, and the Letters and other matters, Ordered to be Printed with it, be carefully Printed.

H. Elsinge, Cler. Parliament. D. Com.

His MAJESTY's Declaration to all His Loving Subjects, in Answer to a De∣claration of the Lords and Commons upon the Proceedings of the late Treaty of Peace, and several Intercepted Letters of His MAJESTY to the QUEEN, and of Prince RUPERT to the Earl of Northampton.

Oxford, 3. June, 1643.

THough His Majesty be assured, it cannot but be of great Advantage to Him to have such an occasion as is now given Him by the late Declaration of both Houses, to shew to all His good People who it is that is really in fault, that the last Treaty, so much desired by His Majesty, and only begun upon His Desire, broke off so abruptly (as He doubts not to do, if those who govern in the remaining part of both Houses have but so much ingenuity left, as to suffer what He says to be equally freely published to His People;) yet His Majesty cannot without great grief of Soul see that Treaty, which He hoped and expected should have begot the settled Peace and Happiness of His Subjects, in stead thereof beget nothing but Disputes and Declarations: yet it will be some Cordial to Him, when He shall be forced to see the Desolation of this Kingdom and the Misery of His People, that not only it is not He that hath made that Desolate and them Miserable, but that He is able to demonstrate to all the World, that He hath used His utmost and most earnest endeavours to prevent it, as will appear at large by the following state of the Case.

After that the Conspiracy of some Persons against the present establisht Govern∣ment both Ecclesiastical and Civil had made means to infuse into part of the People (by publishing unheard-of Declarations, obtain'd and past in a new and unheard-of manner, sometimes but by eleven Voices after seventeen hours sitting, and that but in one House) strange Fears and Jealousies of the other House and of His Majesty, and by them given the Rise to those insufferable Tumults and Seditious unparliamentary Petitions at once to and against the Lords, which they afterwards avowed publickly to

protect and encourage, and forced the Lords House, by fearing them, to seem to fear with them, and to joyn with them first in requiring, and next in forcing no less se∣curity for those Fears from His Majesty (who was then in condition to have most real Cause of Fear Himself) than almost all that Power which the Law had tru∣sted to Him for the security of the Crown and the Protection of His People; after that His Majesty and most of the Members were forced away from the Parliament; and that His share in making new Laws was denyed to Him in any case in which they would pretend Necessity, and every Subject that would not submit to any new, extravagant, extemporary, legislative Declaration or Order of one or both Houses, against the antient known Law of the Land, was become sent for up, and imprisoned as a Delinquent, and whosoever would assist them, against the known Law, was not only-protected by them in that, but in any other Case (although they were of them who had been most apparently active in those former Pressures upon the People, which they now afresh impute to His Majesty) so that to be of their side was now become a known Sanctuary; after that nothing was left undone or unsaid that might render His Majesty both weak and odious, and that all that He could say or do to clear Himself was either supprest, or interpreted in a contrary and impossible sense (so that His very offer to venture His Royal Person against the Irish Rebels was voted to be an Encouragement to that Rebellion;) after that from declaring of Law they came to declaring of Thoughts, and forgetting that the Hearts of Kings are inscru∣table, presumed to dive into His, and without Apparence, and contrary to Truth, had declared that He meant to make War upon His Parliament, and made that Decla∣ration a ground to levy a real War against Him, and then made that War a ground to begin to make War upon His People, forcing away the Arms and Money of all such as they pleased to suspect of the Crimes of Allegiance and Loyalty; after that they had so far exprest and discovered the true end of all these Actions, as to propose the total Change of the present Government, both Ecclesiastical and Civil, in the Nineteen Propositions, as the only way to Peace; and that His Majesty might by all this have been sufficiently perswaded, that it was impossible for Him to obtain Peace from them but either by Submission or by the Sword: yet after all this His Majesty was so averse to the latter Course, as to descend to so great a degree of the former, as from Nottingham to propose to and desire from them a Treaty for Peace; and being there twice openly and absolutely refused it, yet did then declare, that He would notwithstanding be ready to receive it whensoever they would propose it. And to shew that these Offers proceeded not from His Condition but from His In∣clination, after His Victory at Edge-hill, and after that the Earl of Essex had so far forgot his Errand, as to return to London alone, in stead of bringing up His Majesty, and those His good Subjects whom they call'd Delinquents; His Answer at Colebrook will shew to all the World, that He was still of the same mind as when He sent His Messages from Nottingham; and His Message so carefully sent from Cole∣brook to prevent all mis-construction of that march of His which they had necessitated to Brainceford, and His pressing still that a Treaty might go on in that and several other Messages, all slighted and neglected, shewed sufficiently who really was desi∣rous of, and who were averse to Peace. But when the Petition of so many Citizens, that a Treaty might be accepted, finding so little countenance or acceptance from the House of Commons, and the Injuries and Imprisonments which the Petitioners suf∣fered for it from Alderman Pennington and others, finding so much countenance from them, did so far begin to open the eyes of the People, that the Aversion to Peace began to be imputed to them who were truly guilty, and that they found this Discovery made men generally unwilling to part with their money to make themselves misera∣ble, and that again encouraged many of the Members to appear for Peace too, and that consequently their too open and avowed desire of War would but render them unable to continue it, they thought it necessary to make some Propositions which might deceive the People so far as to make them believe they desired Peace, and yet resolved to make them so unreasonable, as they might notwithstanding be sure to be out of all danger of effecting Peace by them, and sent those down to His Majesty. Which though they pretend now to be such as no indifferent man will find any thing contained in them but what was necessary for the maintenance and advancement of the true Protestant Religion, the due execution of Justice, the Preservation of the Liberty and Property of the Subject, and the establishment of the Kingdoms Peace and Safety; yet His Majesty is confident that even those who are not very indifferent are yet able to see, that no Propositions could be more unreasonable than those Fourteen, except the former Nineteen.

To pass by the Preamble, (in which most unnecessarily they lay most heavy and most unjust Charges upon His Majesty, and yet draw an Argument of His Aversion to Peace from those known Truths which either His defence or the matter in question, Crimes being impossible to be spoken of but as Crimes, did after extort from Him) would not any man have expected, that had observed with what violence this War was begun and prosecuted against His Majesty, to have found in the Propositions for Peace the De∣mand of at least some, and those very important, Rights which were withheld from them before the War, and so had given some colour for it? But of these there appears not so much as one: and yet till all these are granted and performed, they do as much as say in Terms plain enough in their Conclusion, that they have not any hope, nor will use any endeavours, that His Majesty and His People may enjoy the Blessings of Peace and Justice; which was certainly by terrour of Arms to demand new Laws, and as great a Proof that they did so, as they seem to confess it unparliamentary if they had done it. Is not the taking away of the Bishops, Deans and Chapters, and indeed the whole establisht Ecclesiastical frame of Order and Government, a new Law? yet un∣less His Majesty will yield to take it away (though there were but five Lords present when the Bill past, and though no other form be yet offered or shewed to Him, but the Presbyterians and Independents are left to fight it out among themselves what shall succeed in the place,) His Majesty is told, He must not hope for Peace. And the di∣vision likely to ensue between different Parties, what shall after be introduced, shews sufficiently what hope there should be of Peace if He should pass it.

Are not the Bill against Scandalous Ministers (in which most of their own Faction are appointed Commissioners, that they may make way for and introduce a new Cler∣gy of their own;) the Bill against Pluralities, (which makes no difference of conditi∣ons, or merits of Persons, or of value of Livings, and looks not only forwards, but extends to the immediate dispossessing of present Incumbents of what is vested in them for their Lives by the Law of the Land;) the Bill for the Consultation of Divines (Persons of their own choice, and most of them of their Faction, and of no esteem but with themselves, hardly at all bounded as to the matter, and absolutely unlimited as to the time of their consultation,) all news Laws? Is not the settling of the Mi∣litia both by Sea and Land, and the Forts and Ports, in such a manner as shall be agreed on by both Houses (in which His Majesty is expected with a blind implicite Faith to trust them with the whole Power of the Kingdom, and with His only means of defending Himself and protecting His Subjects, though into what hands or for what time or in what manner they will order or dispose of it is so far from ap∣pearing to Him, that it doth not yet appear that both Houses know themselves, and how they have already used that Power is known to all the World) both a new and a strange Demand? Are the Earl of Bristoll's Removal and Exclusion from all possibility of Employment, (a Person uncondemned, unimpeacht and unsummoned, no crime or error either proved or but named against him,) or the choice of the Judges and Master of the Rolls, the change of Commissioners of the Peace and Oyer and Terminer, or the restoring of Members of the Houses, even to such menial places of Ser∣vice as required a personal attendance, and who had yet refused to attend upon com∣mand, or the assenting to whatsoever Acts He shall be advised for paying of Debts con∣tracted upon the publick Faith, that is, by the Authority of both Houses (by which His Majesty must allow Himself to be no no part of the publick, and must directly allow, and, as it were, ratifie that Rebellion which this Money was raised to foment) either due to them by Law, or reasonable in themselves? Doth the directing His Ma∣jesty with whom and how far to make Alliances belong to them? (or was that at all necessary, His inclination to the strictest bands with Princes and States of the Protestant Religion being by the Match of His Daughter sufficiently expressed?) And yet till all this be done, and unless He will pardon all that have born Arms against Him, and leave those that have assisted Him to their Mercy who have none, they will not promise any hopeful endeavours for Peace and Justice.

But is there any thing else that is due by Law, which was before denied and is here demanded, that can in any degree justifie or extenuate that ever Peace was broken and Justice destroyed? Not so much as one tittle. Did His Majesty give any Commissi∣on till they had mustered many men? Or did He so much as take any Guard to Him, till both they had a much greater many months, and had of their own Authority orde∣red a Serjeant-Major-General of their City Forces, and till His Magazine and Town were by Arms kept against Him, though He were provoked to it before by all the other Indignities and Injuries which Insolence and Injustice could devise? Was not

Sir John Hotham, for all his known Treason refused to be left by them to Justice and the trial of the Law, before ever any that was but call'd a Delinquent was protected by His Majesty? And was not His Majesty then denied that which themselves confess to be the due and right of the meanest Subject, and do so far expect, as to look upon it ra∣ther as a scorn than a satisfaction now His Majesty offers it to them? Was any one Papist armed by His Majesty before many of that Religion (and multitudes of persons against whose Recusancy the Law is as severe as against theirs) were armed against Him; or than either, until their mere being of that Religion made them without colour of Law be plunder'd and imprison'd in all parts, and some of them fly into His Army for pro∣tection? Did not His Majesty before of himself often offer to vindicate the Privi∣leges of Parliament from any imaginable breach of them in the business of the Lord Kimbolton and Five Members? and did He not offer to wave their Charge, wil∣lingly submitting it to the publick Peace? So that the obtaining that demand, or the disbanding of the Army, or the disarming of Papists, or the trial of Delinquents, though they make some such shew as they are set in this place, yet not any of them were any grounds of this their War: And all that is due in these Demands having been offered before the War, or occasioned or necessitated by it, and being still to be had without it, the whole People cannot but see, that nothing but Fears and Jealousies have been the fumes with which they have so intoxicated His seduced Subjects, as to contribute to their own Misery, to obtain no one Right, how small and inconsidera∣ble soever, denied to them by His Majesty, and that the maintenance and advance∣ment of Religion, Justice, Liberty, Property and Peace, are really but their Stalking-Horses, and neither the Ground of their War nor of these Demands; which will appear to any indifferent Man that shall duly weigh them, as far from being moderate as from being necessary.

Yet such was His Majesty's most earnest desire to catch at any thing that by producing a Treaty might settle a Peace, and so far were any such Enemies of it (as are supposed by this Declaration (from being prevalent with Him against this desire, that His Majesty proposed that persons should be appointed by His Majesty and both Houses to Treat even upon these very Propositions, and such other as His Majesty proposed, which were only De∣mands according to or in behalf of the Law establisht, and which more concerned His Subjects than Himself. And His Majesty cannot but appeal to all the World, whether not only any of their Propositions did, but whether any other Propositions that could be devised could express more desire of the maintenance and advancement of the true Pro∣testant Religion than His Majesty's Fourth Proposition, (in which His readiness to con∣sent to the execution of all Laws made, and to any good Laws to be made, for the sup∣pressing of Popery, His desire that the Laws already made to preserve the Common-Prayer from the scorn and violence of Sectaries be backt and fortified, and His Offer at the same time that tender Consciences be eased by it, are so clearly and carefully exprest and united;) or of the due execution of Justice than His Majesty's Fifth Proposi∣tion, (which refers all such Delinquents as should by the Treaters be excepted in the Par∣don, to the usual course and known Law of the Land;) or of the preservation of the pub∣lick Liberty and Property, (for His Majesty conceives that He hath a Property too, with∣out maintaining of which He will be never able to defend His Subjects) than His First, Second and Third; or of the Peace of the Kingdom, than His Sixth Proposition, which by restoring His Subjects by a Cessation to a short Trial of the quiet and benefit of Peace, would have rendered them so far in love with that almost-forgotten Happiness, that seeing nothing demanded by them that was worth a War, they would have had a hard work to have engaged them again into so unprofitable a Madness. And His Majesty is so confi∣dent of His advantage in all these, that He conjures His Subjects seriously to read, consi∣der and compare what He and what they demanded, and by their indifferent Proposi∣tions to judge of their several Intentions.

And indeed, the violent party both in the City and the Houses (which, for all the publick Fears and Jealousies they pretend, inwardly and really are fearful and jealous of nothing so much as of Peace) dislike nothing more in His Majesty's Propositions than the Moderation; and suspecting that the reasonableness and unreasonableness of what His Majesty and what they askt would but too generally appear by the Discussion of both in a free and open Treaty, and so might in despight of them produce a Peace, earnestly and openly oppose the Treaty, and so far oppose His Majesty's Proposition of Cessation, that it sufficiently appeared by their aversion to the Shadow of Peace (as themselves call it) how much and how heartily they were averse to the Substance it self. But when they found that they could perswade no Man to joyn with them in rejecting all imaginable

manners of Treaty and Cessation, that did not joyn with them in abhorring any imagi∣nable manner of Peace, they reserved their Authority to enable them to break off both, upon somewhat more plausible difference in the Circumstances and Conditions.

A safe Conduct is demanded by the Houses, and their first Art is to get the Lord Say named in that Demand for a Treater, which they knew certainly (he having born Arms against His Majesty, and been excepted in one of His Proclamations of Pardon) His Majesty must except against: but when they could not perswade even both Hou∣ses (who well remembred an example of no elder date than since His Majesty was at Colebrook, when the same exception at the person of. Sir John Evelyn was made by His Majesty, and not excepted at by both Houses) that this exception was so unparallel'd a breach of Priviledge, as to deserve to hinder the Treaty from going on, their next Arts are so to bound and limit their Committee, both in the Matter, Manner, Time and Power as might wholly render it uneffectual: And to that end they first obtain that their Committee should Treat with none but with His Majesty, (a Course which how lofty, how advantagious, and how unreasonable soever, yet His Majesty, out of His earnest desire of Peace, contrary to their hopes and expectations, was con∣tented to admit;) and next obtain that they should not Treat upon any point but of the Cessation, till that were concluded, and for that allowed but four days, and that at twice, (in hope that some matter of Advantage might happen in the time of that de∣lay) and allow them no Power (without still sending to the Houses upon every occasion) to conclude farther than the Papers they brought down or delivered, or so much as to ex∣plain or new-word any thing in them, (a new and a strange way of Treating, and by which at that distance it was wholly and plainly impossible that any thing should be con∣cluded:) and when His Majesty had quitted all wherein Himself or His Army were solely concerned, and yielded almost to all that they proposed, and at last insisted upon no∣thing but that they might not make use of the leisure of their Army, occasioned by this Cessation, to force what Sums they would from what Countries they pleas'd, (for they neither would nor could name any other bound of their Taxes than their pleasure, when they imputed that assertion to His Majesty) and so extremely burthen His Subjects, and advantage and enable themselves against His Majesty, (in contradiction to the Prin∣ciple lay'd down by themselves, and approved of by His Majesty, That by the very nature of a Cessation, matters should be preserved in the state they are in, and neither party have liberty much to advantage himself;) nor yet insisted any further upon that neither, than to leave room still for satisfaction (if any Reason could be offered against so reasonable a Limitation) by a continuance of the Treaty concerning it; they vouch∣safed Him no offer of any such Reason, nor allowed their Committee any farther Time or Power to Treat concerning it, without expressing any better cause for so abrupt an end of so important a Debate, than to avoid the Wast of Time: though His Majesty could not conceive that could be called a Wast, or how time could be better spent, than to settle such a degree of publick Peace, as might reduce the minds of all Men to such a Temper as might make a full Peace much more probable.

Nor did His Majesty find in the Treaty it self that the Committee were any better ena∣bled, (though to avoid delay, and that a Conclusion might be made possible) His Maje∣sty often desired it. They were limited twice to four days, and once to seven: they were bounded to two Propositions, and to their bare narrow Instructions concerning those: nor had they so much as any Power or Instructions at all concerning that most important part of their own Proposition, so often prest by themselves, His Majesty's Return to His Parliament. So that resolving (as it will be afterward shewed they did) to yield no far∣ther to His Majesty's Proposition than with such Limitations as would in effect retain what they seemed to give up, they expect that His Majesty should entirely yield to theirs without any Limitation, and (to invert their own words upon another occasion) should yield to that which would have produced to them an absolute Victory and Submission, under pretence of Agreement and Peace: It being evident to all Men, that His Rights forced from Him by Violence being not absolutely restored, His Army being disbanded, and He returned to London, the Members of both Houses for dissenting from them and assisting of Him remaining expelled, no security from Tumults for the rest of the Mem∣bers being given, and all good Subjects being totally discouraged by so absolute a Preva∣lence of the Factious and Rebellious, His Majesty were as much in the disposal of the Five Members as if they had him in the Tower, and He ought His Crown wholly to their Grace and Favour if they did not Depose Him. And yet they would be thought to desire nothing, in desiring that the Armies should be upon these Terms disbanded, but only that the Kingdom might be eased of their Burthen, and the spring of these Calamities might be stopped.

His Majesty demands, That His own Revenue, Magazine, Towns, Forts and Ships, taken by Force, be restored to Him. The Revenue (which they could easily pay back out of other Mens Purses) they easily agree about; but to part with such strengths which had and did help to enable them to leave no Subject any more of his Right, than they had to the detaining of these, they can by no means endure. And therefore they propose such Limitations as in effect limit away all, and yet may seem to the vulgar or to the careless not to signifie much: to wit, That these Strengths may be put into such hands as they will confide in, and that no less than three years; That the Commanders may, during that time, not admit of any Forces upon whatsoever occasion without Consent of the Houses, and they, and all Generals and Commanders of the Armies on either side, may swear to preserve the Peace of the Kingdom against all Forces raised without consent of both Houses, and this for no limited time. His Majesty, who had asked nothing but what was His by Law, and who in order to Peace had not asked so much, as by Law was due to Him, (to wit, the punishment of those who had taken these things from Him) could not but wonder to see such things asked of him, to which by Law there was no Pretence: He therefore endeavours to limit their Limitations to the Law of the Land; He names those Persons to this Custody whom the Law had named first, and ex∣prest Himself most willing that they should be put out at the same door they came in at; that the Law, which had vested them, might eject them, if they had offended against it: But expected not that the Injury done Him, of taking these things from Him and them contrary to Law, should be a reason why any new conditions or Limitations should be laid upon Him or His Ministers, which the Law laid not. To this the Committee re∣plies, not denying what the King asked to be legally His, or to have been illegally ta∣ken from Him, nor making any legal, or so much as colourable, or at all any Excep∣tions, against the Persons legally vested in those Places, (and without any Cause shewed, it would have ill become His Majesty to have devested His Servants of their Rights, in the instant when some of them are venturing their Lives for his Service) but retire to their old inaccessible Fort of Fears and Jealousies. To this His Majesty rejoyns, shews what he had done to prevent and destroy Fears and Jealousies in them, intimates what they had done to create Fears and Jealousies in Him; that having by Force taken these things from Him when He had them, He had more Reason to have insisted upon further Security to inable him to keep them, than simply to desire them to be returned to Him, (and much more than to grant them more hold of them, to enable them the better to wrest them from Him again:) represents to them, that by the same Reason, upon the same ground, they may ask Him all His Legal Power, since all the Power vested in Princes, for the necessary Protection of their Subjects, may possibly be employed for their hurt; and concludes, in His Opinion, with a very wholesome Advice against that dangerous (and now too Epidemical) Disease of Fears and Jealousies, and prescribes to them to make the Law their Rule and Measure, as the best Antidote and Cure for that Disease.

This insisting upon this Answer, as His Majesty for these Reasons thought to be most reasonable, so He likewise thought it most necessary; First, because themselves having told Him in the Debate about Cessation in the point of Ships, that for them to allow Him the Approbation of Commanders, was to give Him up the Strength, He could not want Logick so much as not to draw this Conclusion from these Premises, That for Him to allow them the Approbation of the Commanders, both of Magazines, Towns, Forts and Ships, was in that to give all back to them, which they would seem to restore to Him. Secondly, because his Majesty by now consenting upon the ground of Jealousies to such Demands, as exceed those (which before they had joyned the injustice of forcing these things from Him, to the unreasonableness of demanding them) His Majesty in His weakest Condition denied to them, He must appear to justifie those Jealousies, to ap∣prove of those Demands and of that Injustice, and to condemn Himself as guilty of the woful effects of that Contention, for not having sooner consented to them. Thirdly, be∣cause He must condemn the Lords House of the same Crime, for having twice refused to joyn in that demand, and having had no Jealousies as long as they had no Tumults. Fourthly, because He must either quit, during the lives of these several Persons required to be sworn, and at least for three years (when the Militia in their own Bill was asked but for two) His known Right of sole raising Men, and without the consent of both Houses (even although no Parliament were sitting, for the Bill that says it may continue, does not say it must) He must neither be able to discharge His Duty to Himself by His own Defence, nor make good His Oath, by the protecting of his Subjects against any sudden, dangerous Rebellion or Invasion; or the Commanders of all His Ships, Towns,

Forts and Magazines, and all the Commanders of both Armies (that is, the most con∣siderable Militia of England) must according to this new Oath oppose any opposition He shall make, and must be equally obliged by it to fight against His Forces, as against those of the Rebels or Invaders. Fifthly, because if He should give them so a great a Prero∣gative, for so long a time, as this share in the choice of men to places of so high Power and Trust, the Dependance of Subjects upon the Crown would be much diverted and He could never expect to be faithfully served, when no other Crime of theirs appearing to Him, He should so farr devest the present Proprietaries of their legal Right, as to sub∣mit it a new to the Arbitrariness of their Confiding, who have given His Majesty no greater Cause to confide in their Choice. Sixthly and lastly, because if He should allow them that power for that time upon that Reason, He cannot doubt but against that time were ended, the Sweetness of Power being once tasted, they would be so unwilling to quit it, that the same powerful violent party would not want the like Fears to beget the like De∣mands of the same or greater interest, in the choice of the same or greater Places; and the same Consequences would not likewise fail to follow, if these Demands were not consented to, and even His good Subjects seeing it the most prosperous, might be induced to think Faction and Sedition the wisest Course; and when they saw His Majesty give such an En∣couragement to Rebellion, might think it pity He should ever be without one. And His Majesty conceives, Fear and Jealousie may be a good reason to make Him cautious how He parts with His Right, though a very insufficient justification of their forcing that from Him, to which they could pretend none.

But still His Majesty hoped that they only insisted upon such Limitations of his Pro∣position, till they saw what Limitations he would offer to theirs; and therefore to reduce them to Moderation by His Example, He proposes to the Houses (for the Committee had no Power or Instruction to treat of the principal point of it) no other Limitations than were both due by Law and necessary in themselves, and offers as soon as he was sa∣tisfied in His first Proposition, (to which if they would have put Him in mind of any such Objection in the Treaty,* 1.11 He would never have required that the exact Computa∣tion of his Revenue taken from Him should be agreed on before Disbanding, which is now objected to Him, not as an Injustice, but as a purposed Delay) as soon as the Hou∣ses were restored to that Condition in which they were before the Tumults, and these Distractions forced the Members from thence, and as soon as He and those Houses were secured from Tumults (only adding His own opinion, That adjourning twenty miles from London could only effect it, and offering them the choice of any place at that di∣stance in His whole Kingdom) He would immediately disband, and return to His Par∣liament; and expected much more that this Message when it was received at London should have met with Bells and Bone-fires, than have received neither Approbation nor Answer.

But that violent Party which looks upon Peace like a Monster, fearing lest if the Treaty should any longer continue, so fair an approach to Peace might by degrees steal it on up∣on them before they were aware, prevail to return no other Answer, than immediately to send for their Committee from Oxford, and to send the Lord of Essex to Reading. His Majesty waits awhile,* 1.12 and again in a Message He had occasion to send to the Houses concerning Ireland, He takes occasion to put them in mind of that former Message, and to renew the expressions of His Desire of Peace: But this Message had no better luck than the other, for no Answer hath been sent to it, only in stead of an Answer, the same vio∣lent Party makes a shift to go a step or two higher, and to prevail in the House of Com∣mons to vote Excises upon Commodities, and the making of a new Great Seal, though the making of it will be Treason by the Statute of the five and twentieth of Edward the Third (and an Order of the House of Commons will be but an insufficient Plea against that Statute) and though they might have remembred, that it is by the old one that both most of them hold their Lands, and all of them are called to that House. But since His Majesty would not allow them a share in making of Peers (as they ask'd him in their Nineteen Propositions) nor allow of their choice of Justices of the Peace (as they ask'd Him in their Fourteen) and did still pretend to making of Sheriffs (which they have denied Him by their Votes) it seems they thought it necessary to make that which (if it could be made legal by Voting) would make all those, and to end the Dispute a∣bout His Majesty's Negative Voice, by passing by Commission what new Bills they plea∣sed, and so to obtain as absolutely an unlimited Power over their fellow-Subjects as over their Sovereign Himself.

Yet His Majesty would take no notice of all this,* 1.13 but sends once more, a third Message, to desire an Answer to His first (which had then lain in their hands above a Month.)

This pressing for Peace appears so intolerable to them, that the House of Commons (as the best way to make a final end of all such Messages, and indeed to cut off all Enter∣course) is prevailed with by these men to commit the Messenger, and the next day to impeach His Majesties Royal Consort of High Treason, as if they would give Him a fair warning how He trouble them about Peace again, lest His turn be next, and they im∣peach him too. But though they vouchsafe His Majesty no Answer, yet the People is still thought worthy of some satisfaction: and that produces this Declaration, which pre∣tends fully and sufficiently to shew, that in the Treaty their Demands were such and so moderate, as was fit and necessary for them to make, and just and reasonable for His Ma∣jesty to assent unto; and His Majesty's were such as had neither Reason nor Justice, ei∣ther in the matter or manner of them, and such as left the People no hope or expecta∣tion to see an end of their present Calamities; and charge the King through His Coun∣cellors in many Circumstances, before it and during it, to have laboured to interrupt the Treaty, and to have appeared averse to Peace: and in this Question His Majesty is con∣tent to accept of the Arbitrator they themselves have chosen, and to refer it to the People to judge.

Their First Argument is, That this Treaty is for the disbanding of the Armies and Forces in opposition to each other; that these Towns, Forts and Ships are a great part of their Forces, so that for them to restore them absolutely to the King, would be for them to disband totally, and for His Majesty's Forces to continue. To this His Majesty answers, That this Treaty was intended by Him to be in order to a firm and settled (that is a just) Peace, and never to be such wherein a pretended Equality should exclude evident Justice. Let Equality determine the manner of the disbanding of the Armies raised upon these Distractions, but let Justice restore what Violence hath taken, and determine of known undoubted Rights; since by this Argument, if any Prince seize upon any Strength that belongs to His stronger Neighbour, and Arms be taken up upon it, the stronger must ne∣ver in a Treaty, when the Armies are to be disbanded, expect to have His Strength resto∣red to him, lest the other return to be what He was and what He ought to be, that is, the weaker of the two. Secondly, His Majesty answers, That by the same reason of Security, other Power and Prerogatives being Strength as well as Forces, and neither more vested in Him, nor less possible to be used for the Peoples hurt, they may as well require a share and interest in those too, and, that things may be made sufficiently equal between the sides, may expect to be as much Kings as He. Thirdly, in their own opinion and by their own confession (as it appears by their Argument used in the Cessation in the point of Ships) if they be but allowed the Approbation of Commanders, His Majesty gives up this strength to them, and not they to Him, and it will be their Forces, and not His, which are to continue undisbanded, and that that they say to be contrary to Equality, and (as they came by these Forces) it is evident to be contrary to Justice. Fourthly, His Majesty answers, that these Forces are not so great, or so great a Strength of the side that shall possess them, but that the Arts, Union, Industry and Violence of that Party was so much too strong for His Majesty when He had that Strength, as to take that Strength from Him; and therefore His Majesty wonders they should make any difficulty to restore what it may appear by so fresh experience that they are so able to resume: and therefore His Majesty hopes His People will attribute it to His great Desire of Peace, that He did not demand some farther security to enjoy that which is not denied to be His Majesty's. And His Majesty observes that both this and the second Answer were given by His Ma∣jesty to the same Arguments made upon the same occasion by their Committee in the Treaty, and yet this Declaration repeats the same Arguments without replying to those Answers. Fifthly, His Majesty desires that the Difficulty with which His Majesty raised His Army, and the Ease with which they raised theirs, may be considered; how impossible it would have been for Him to have raised Forces, if they had not raised first, and how much slowlier (this Army being disbanded) He could raise a new one, and how quick and ready their Body of fierce, eager Sectaries and Schismaticks would be to return in∣to an Army upon the least Call, and how conveniently they inhabit for so speedy a meet∣ing, being to continue most of them in or so near London, that their Quarters in War were usually much more distant than their Dwellings in Peace: and then His Majesty doubts not but it will appear, that in this respect too the real and total Disbanding is of His Majesty's part only, and that in effect the Continuance of Forces is still of theirs.

Their Second Argument, why His Majesty should admit of their Limitations, is a bundle of Precedents. To which His Majesty replies, First, that the Records which are here quoted for these are now in the same hands as his Majesty's Magazines, Towns, Forts and Ships, and therefore knows not how He can either have their Truth sufficiently con∣sidered

and examined, or without it conside in their Quotations. Secondly, all the par∣ticular Circumstances both of matter and time, what induced it, and what followed it, do not herein appear (though very necessary to be known, that they may be possible to be answered.) But this His Majesty can find upon view, That some of them concern not any part of what is now demanded, but one of them concerns a Chancellor, Trea∣surer, and Privy-Seal, and another concerns Privy-Councillors, and another the Pro∣tectorship, another the choice of some without whose Advice, or of four of them, nothing should be done by the King, (which it seems they have an eye upon demanding too, which made them run so much in their heads who collected these as to put them in here:) That some concern not the Persons now demanding, but conclude only for the Merchants to chuse an Admiral, and not for the Houses to confide in him; which Prece∣dent may be of some use to the Common-Council, but of none to the Parliament: That some are of no concern at all, as only about appointing of Clarks for payment of Wages (yet put in to encrease the bulk:) That hardly any of the Precedents that concern any of the things in Question, concern any more than part of those which are altogether deman∣ded in the Limitations desired; some concerning only the Command of Ships (and those too not granted by Act, but by Commission, and that, for ought appears, only during pleasure;) some extending but to one Town or Place, as Berwick or Jersey: That most of these Precedents appear to have been when the Kings were in Minority and under Protectors, some when they were in extreme Age and Impotency, some in the Reign of a King who was shortly after deposed, in Parliament too, (an unlikely Circumstance to invite His Majesty at this time to follow that Example) others in His Reign who succeeded Him, and (having no Right to the Crown but the Criminal Consent of both Houses) had Reason to deny them nothing who had given Him All. And of some of the Precedents now quoted, the Inconveniences are known to have been so great and so suddenly found, that they were so speedily revoked in Parliament (with no less a Brand than as being contrary to the Customs of the Realm, and to the blemishing of the Crown) that if they had ingenuously added those Circumstances, these Precedents would more have justified His Majesty for not yielding, than them for either asking any thing to∣wards those, or but for quoting them at all. But doth any of these Precedents tell us that these Parliaments claim'd any Right in any of these, or that any King yield any de∣gree of Power in any one of these Points to both Houses, when they had first taken them from Him by Force, and rais'd an Army by Ordinance against Him, and He was in a condition to resist what they had raised? And if either any of these Kings were so much in their Power, that his Consent was as much forced from Him as these Particulars were forced from His Majesty, or if they were so far out of Danger of any farther Encroach∣ments upon their Power, that He could have no cause of Fears and Jealousies, in grant∣ing some of these to them; nay that their advice in the Choice arose wholly from His Majesty's Desire, and not their Demand, then the Precedents fit not this Case, and so make nothing for their purpose. But now that the Perpetuity of this Parliament hath so far encouraged those, who by Arts and Violence have gotten Power over it, that they may probably hope to make this Power as perpetual as it, and have given so sufficient Evi∣dence what further use they would make of any Power, His Majesty supposes Himself to have more reason to be cautious in that Point than any of His Predecessors, who were content to share any part of this Power but for once, with but a temporary Assembly; especially since their several Propositions have shewed how much more they wish, and M. Prinne's Books (printed by Order of a Committee of the House of Commons, sig∣nified by Warrant under M. White's hand) have shewed how much more they pre∣tend to; and since any Grant of His is desired by these Men, but to enable them to obtain the rest of their pretences or desires; what he yielded to them concerning my Lord of Essex and Sir John Conyers being Lieutenants of Yorkshire and the Tower, being prest in these very Precedents as an Argument to Him, why he should grant all they ask now. On the other side, if his Majesty should make use of their own kind of Weapon, and do the same or as great things, or make them the like or as great demands, as their Predecessors have tacitely approved of, or directly assented to, when they were done or made by His, (as in the just Famous time of Queen Elizabeth, in the Case of Stanhope and Savile, or in the same time in Wentworth's Case, or in the Reign of Henry the Eighth, in the Power given to Him to dispose of the Kingdom by His Will and Testament, and others of the like and near as high kinds) He believes both Houses would think what others then did, to be no Argument to perswade them either to approve or consent, but would rather for ever wave all Arguments from Precedents, than direct themselves by the same Rule.

Their third Argument is, That His Majesty had formerly exprest that His Forts and Castles should be only in such hands as both Houses might safely confide in. And His Majesty ex∣presseth still as much; and till some just legal cause be shewed him why the Persons now in those Commands cannot be safely Confided in by them, He conceives they might safely confide in them if they pleas'd. But His Majesty did likewise once say, He would put all those places, both of the Forts and Militia, into such hands as both Houses should ap∣prove or recommend, unless such were named against whom He had just and unquestio∣nable Exceptions. To which His Majesty replies, That His Offer not giving them satis∣faction then, (for they would then limit no time for the Militia, which was the Con∣dition of that Offer of His Majesty's) and since it seems it would give none yet, (for they now ask no less for the Ships than for those, and more for both, as to the time and other Circumstances, than He then offered for these) and they, by forcing those Places from Him since, and some of the Persons legally vested in those Places, by their faithfulness to him in this War, having given Him so much more cause not to yield to it now, He conceives the case to be so altered by all these differences, that though, out of His earnest desire to satisfie them as long as He thought them capable of satisfaction by it, He then intended what He spoke, yet He may insist upon what He now insists, without being said to have receeded from His Word. Did not they refuse to accept of four Per∣sons named in His Majesty's Bill concerning the Militia, which themselves had but newly offered Him in their Ordinance concerning it? And had those Persons in that time given them so great cause for that refusal as His Majesty hath had given Him for this? And yet will they confess that ill Counsel prevail'd with them to recede from their Words, and that therefore His Majesty had the more cause to be farther secured?

Their fourth Argument is, That unless these Limitations be granted, those secret and wicked Councellors, that have been Instruments of the present Miseries, will have the disposing of those Places, and His Majesty carry but the Name. To this His Ma∣jesty replies, That knowing who have been the Instruments of these Miseries, He should by that believe the secret and wicked Councellors spoken of, to be the active part of the close Committee; for if He have any wicked Councellors about him, He confesseth they have cause to call them Secret as well as Wicked, since they have not only wholly con∣cealed themselves from Him, but He having often press'd to have some named, could never obtain from them the Name so much as of one, nor since hath heard so much as one proof or charge either of being wicked Councellors, or of any Legal Crime against any of His Servants whom they have named, though they have publisht them withal to be incapable of Pardon: However He finds, that if what they say were true, the ends of these Councellors and of their violent Party is but just the same, that is, to dispose of these Places, and that His Majesty may only carry the Name.

But they have found a Letter of His Majesty's to the Queen, which shews that the great and eminent Places of the Kingdom are disposed of by Her Advice, (and then con∣clude from Her Religion, that they are by consequence disposed of by the advice of Pa∣pists and Jesuits) and that the Persons there named, even during the sitting of Parlia∣ment, are either all impeacht by them, or bear Arms against them. To this His Majesty replies, First, That He cannot but deplore the condition of the Kingdom, when Letters of all sorts, of Husbands to Wives, even of His Majesty to His Royal Consort, are inter∣cepted, read, brought in Evidence, and publisht to the World. Secondly, That if they will remember how far many of those Persons of both Sexes, who have received most no∣table marks of Favour from Her Majesty, are, even in their own Opinion, from so much as inclining to Popery, they must confess her Favours and Recommendations not to be disposed of by Priests and Jesuits. Thirdly, That the Places there named, in which Her Majesty's Advice may seem to be desired, are not places (as they call it) of the Kingdom, but private menial places, a Treasurer of the Household, a Captain of the Pensioners, and a Gentleman of the Bed-chamber: That concerning the other more publick Places, His Majesty absolutely declares Himself, without leaving room for Her Advice; which seems to prove the contrary to that which by this they intend to prove. Fourthly, That of the Persons there named there is not one that either is a Papist, or so like one, that a Jesuit may be thought to have recommended him, nor any one (except the Lord Digby) that was either impeacht or otherwise taxt, or that could appear to His Majesty to have ever been in any degree dislik'd by both or either House, before assisting His Majesty against a Rebellion did lately become Treason; and whoever considers the Time and other Circumstances even of that Impeachment, and that their Eyes were then so dazled with Fears and Jealousies as to take a Coach and six Horses for an Army raised against them, will hardly look upon that Impeachment with that reverence which

hath usually been paid to Accusations of that kind. And for their bearing of Arms in such a Time wherein all His Majesty's Subjects do either bear or assist Arms, either for or against Him, He supposes that it will not be thought strange, if He chuse Persons for such Places as are in His own Disposal, rather out of the first Sort than out of the second.

And as His Majesty hath fully answered their Observations upon His Letters, so He believes that one thing more (though unobserved by this Declaration) cannot but be observed out of them by His People; and that is, That in His Majesty's most private Letters to the Person nearest to Him, wherein He cannot (as by some in His publick Declarations He is) be suspected to say any thing out of Design or Policy, His own clear perswasion that the Rebels, and not He, have been the cause, and are the fosterers of this War and universal Distraction, and His Sense of it, and His Desire of the end of it, are so plainly exprest, that they will by this Accident be much satisfied with His Majesty's Innocence and Reality, and believe that the reading this in such a Letter, is the very next Degree to reading it in His Heart.

Their fifth and last Argument is, The attempts of Force and Violence against the Kingdom and this Parliament, and they instance in four. The first is, a Design many years since to bring into this Kingdom the German Horse, to compel the Subjects to submit to an Arbitrary Government. And to this His Majesty replies, That He esteems His Condition more miserable than that of any of His Subjects, when He sees a few Fa∣ctious persons have obtained that power, as to be able to publish to all His People, in the name of both Houses, a Charge which (coming forth with the semblance of such Au∣thority) may much work with them against Him, and yet do not (which is certainly because they cannot) tell any one proof or particular either whence, whether, when, by whom, or by whose Design these Horse should have been brought. They confess it is many years since, and it seems it is so many that these particulars are all worn out of the memory of man.

The second is, the endeavour to bring up the Northern Army by Force and Violence to awe the Parliament. To this His Majesty hath so often answer'd, and received so little Reply, that He will only now briefly say, that according to the Evidence they have publish'd themselves, (and that before hearing the persons concern'd in it, after so long a time of the Houses leisure and their attendance, whose Answer it was perhaps feared would have cleared it more) it doth not appear that there was ever any Endeavour used in it, nor any thing further than a mere motion, which died as soon as it was conceived; and it doth appear that His Majesty absolutely dislik'd it as soon as by way of Discourse it was but named to Him: But if it had been really endeavoured, it had been but an En∣deavour towards that which was directly put in Execution by the Tumults, and those countenanc'd by the Refusal of the House of Commons, not only to punish them, but so much as to joyn with the Lords in a Declaration against the like for the future, and by the stopping the legal Proceedings against Riots by a single Order of the House.

The third is, His Majesty's coming in Person to the House of Commons with many armed men to demand their Members to be delivered up. His Majesty confesseth He came; He denies that (to His knowledge) He came accompanied with any men other∣wise armed than with His Guard and Pensioners, in the same manner as He usually came to the House of Lords, and with some Gentlemen (as His Train when He goes to any publick place is always so waited on) with their usual Weapons, their Swords. And if they had been as careful to publish what Persons of Quality (as Serjeant-Major Ashly for one) testified upon their knowledge and Oath, as what mean, unknown and unsworn Persons delivered upon their bare Credit or upon hear-say, it would have ap∣peared to His People how little Violence was intended by any who came with Him how∣ever armed, and what Care He took, and what Orders He gave to be sure to prevent any that possibly might have happened. His Majesty likewise confesses, that He de∣manded the Members He had accused of High Treason; but puts them withal in mind, that the House of Commons had hardly left him any other Course, having by their single Order, the night before, intercepted all ordinary proceedings of Justice against them, forbidding all Officers to attach any Member for any Crime without the Consent of the House, and encouraging the People in that case to assist them against any Officer; though their Privileges had been confess'd by a late Petition of both Houses not to ex∣tend to Treason; and though this Order were as illegal and unjustifiable, as not only His Majesty's coming to the House, but even as any thing they would have had the People believe that He intended when He came. But whatever Breach of Privilege there was in this, His Majesty did not offer to justifie it by their preceding breach of Law, but offe∣red them often Reparation and Satisfaction for it: but it seems nothing but the Ships,

Forts, Ports, Magazine and Militia of the whole Kingdom would appear to them a Re∣paration for a single, and (this Circumstance considered) perhaps a disputable, Breach of Privilege.

The Fourth is, the Treason of the Earl of Strafford, to bring over the Irish Popish Ar∣my to conquer the Kingdom. To this His Majesty replies, That whatever the Earl of Strafford could have said (for this Army He is sure was never brought, nor, that He ever heard, was ever endeavoured to be brought over, either to that or any other purpose) His Majesty cannot see why it might not have remained buried with him, or why any other satisfaction should be given for it, or other security against the like, than the Pu∣nishment he hath already undergone.

Having given what Reasons they can to justifie their Limitations of His Majesty's Propositions, this Declaration in the next place attempts to satisfie that Reason insisted on by His Majesty, That it is His Right by Law, (to which they should have added, and contrary to Law forced from Him;) and not being able to deny that, and yet being willing to deny something, they quarrel at the Phrase, and deny that this Power of dis∣posing these Commands is by Law absolutely vested in His Majesty, and that because He is trusted with them for the Defence and Safety of the Kingdom. His Majesty still justifies what He said Himself, and yet confesses all that they say too, but only denies the Con∣sequence; for no Man is absolutely vested in any thing, if being trusted with it to some end hinder him from being so. The House of Commons is trusted with a Preparatory, the House of Lords is trusted with a Judicatory, the King, Lords and Commons are trusted with a Legislative Power, and all these have those Trusts vested in them for the publick Good; and are not yet all these Trusts absolute, that is, subject to the Control of no other Power? Is no Man absolutely vested in his Goods, because all we have we are trusted with for the Glory of God? His Majesty meant only that this was so absolute∣ly vested in Him by Law, as nothing but a new Law could without Breach of Law take or hold it from Him.

But the Declaration is content to admit that too, only denies it to be a Reason why His Majesty should deny to alter that Law, when by Circumstance of Time and Affairs that Power becomes destructive to the Commonwealth and Safety of the People, the Preservation whereof is the chief End of the Law. And His Majesty is equally ready to confess that it is no Reason, but doth absolutely deny that this is the Case, (insisting that the circumstances of Time and Affairs hare made this Power more necessary than ever to remain in His Majesty for the protection and safety of His People;) and He claims Himself to be as absolutely trusted by Law with the final Judgment, whether it be the Case or no, and with a Power of rejecting any such Alteration upon any such Pretence, if it appear but a Pretence to Him, as either House is trusted to propose any such Alte∣ration to the other, or both to Him, if it appear to them necessary and convenient.

But, says this Declaration, the two Houses of Parliament being the Representative Body of the Kingdom, are the most competent Judges thereof: And says his Majesty, the Representative Body of the Kingdom is indeed, and that is the King, Lords and Com∣mons; else either the Head is no part of the Body, or at least will be no longer than the Body please. Indeed the two Houses in some sense represent the Kingdom, in any Action which the Law (which is the Rule of the Kingdom) hath intrusted and enabled them to do; but either one House or His Majesty do equally represent it in any thing which the same Law hath entrusted and enabled Him or them to do: And for those Actions in which the Law requires the Consent of all three, every one is to be allowed their own several distinct Judgment, for themselves only, and any one without the o∣ther two have as much Right as any two without the third, to represent the Kingdom, and to be competent Judges of the Case. And His Majesty cannot be take notice how much Reason He had, not to yield to this Demand, since the grant of this De∣mand would be received as an Admission of this Case, and it would Logically enough follow, That if His People cannot be safe and He retain this Power, He doth not deserve to retain any: And if their Demands were granted, and the Armies upon their Demands disbanded, this Consequence in all Probability would soon be both perceived and prest.

But His Majesty may without Prejudice admit both Houses to be the most competent Judges in this particular, and then put them in mind, that before so many things had been done by the violent Party to turn the Tide of Fears and Jealousies, before they had involved the King and Subject in a common Suffering, and equally destroyed all the Property of the one and Prerogatives of the other by Orders and Ordinances, and so there then appeared less necessity that this Power should remain in the Crown, either

for the preservation of it Self, or of the People, and little danger appeared to the People if this Power were thus shared; the House of Lords did then twice deliver their Judg∣ment, That this Power in His Majesty was not become destructive to the Common∣wealth and Safety of His People, nor the Alteration of this Law necessary, by twice denying to joyn with the Commons in their desire, That part (for the Ships and the Time were not then named) of this Power might be shared, and of this Law altered: by which denial the Commons were forced to Petition for it by themselves. Nor did they only deny it, but both times in full Houses, after long and free debates, it was carried upon the Question above Twenty Voices, and that at a time when all the Pa∣pist Lords had left the Town, and hardly any Bishops were left uncommitted (Twelve being at once clapt up upon an Accusation of Treason, which they themselves have since been ashamed of enough to wave) who were then the Persons usually represented to the People to be the evil Councellors of the Lords House, and to whose prevalence it was imputed in the first Remonstrance of the House of Commons, that their good and necessary Motions did not pass in that House. And as they denyed it twice, so they would have denyed it till now, if the Petition of many thousand poor People about London (who certainly did not then believe the Lords to be competent Judges) and the Demand of the House of Commons joyned to it, to be told the Names of those Lords who denyed it, and the direct Threats of so many Petitioners (to which the former Tumults gave sufficient credit that they would be really executed upon them) had not made many of the Lords to be of his Mind, who would not dispute with him who commanded thirty Legions, and give way to the potent Minor part to appear the Major, by absenting themselves, and suffering them to pass what they pleased. So that neither the Votes which then past to desire these particulars, nor the Execution of these Votes and seizing these particulars with a Violence yet greater than obtained the Votes, nor the multitude of Consequences of the same kind built upon that Foundation, can at all be said to have had the Authority of both Houses; though most of those Actions have been such, as the Authority even of both Houses, how full and free soever, would not be sufficient to justifie. And this Opinion of the necessity of altering the Law in these points, was even then at most but the Opinion of the House of Commons, awed by a few Members assisted by the Common People, and together with them awing the Lords.

They next pretend heartily to wish, that the Laws and Statutes of the Kingdom may be the Rule of what is or what is not to be done; but how little fruit hath been gathe∣red from this Tree, they say let the Experience of the last Eighteen years judge. To this His Majesty replies, That it is true in some sense, they are willing these Laws should be His Rule, that is, that He go no farther (though they will by no means allow Him to go near so far) but almost all their Actions, and most of their Demands, and particularly these, do sufficiently shew, that they will not admit of these Laws and Statutes to be any Rule to them. And how much better fruit they have graffed than they found growing, and whether they have not made use of the Cure and Remedy of Grievances, a Parliament, to impose more of all kind of Grievances upon the People in eighteen Months, than can be objected to his Majesty or Ministers upon the breach and in the Intermission of Parliaments during those eighteen years, let Experience be Judge. And it cannot but appear strange to His Majesty (if any thing could still appear strange to Him) that the Illegalities under which His Subjects suffered by some of His Ministers in some part of His Reign, should be now, and by them, laid as a Charge upon Him, when not only the People have suffered far greater Illegalities and Pressures upon the same, if not less, pretences, by those who charge Him, with them; but when He hath by His Acknowledgments, by His ample Satisfactions, by the submitting the Offenders to Punishment, how great or near so ever to Him, and by His many and solemn Pro∣testations, given security to His People that they shall never suffer the like under Him; and when they on the other side as good as profess to the People, that they think them∣selves obliged to maintain (and consequently are likely to continue) what they have done, because they have done it, and that their Actions shall not be retracted, lest some reflection or dishonour fall upon both Houses, and lest they may seem to pronounce a sentence of injustice and rashness against themselves: This being one of the Reasons given by them, why they cannot re-admit the Members they have expelled. And His Majesty is confident that His People, when they shall consider both His Ministers Actions and theirs, and after compare His Ingenuity with their Principles, will easily conceive under whose Government they are most likely to return to the known Rule of the Law, and to find that ease, and to be continued in those Rights in and to which

they were born, and of the Exorbitance of whose Power they have most reason to have any Fears and Jealousies, and against whom they have most reason to desire to be se∣cured that they shall enjoy their Rights.

Nor do they with more colour oppose His Majesty's Limitations and Conditions than they defend their own. They object against His Majesty's Demand or Limitation of being satisfied in His first Proposition, That if His Ships, Forts, &c. were to be delive∣red before disbanding, it must after be left to the pleasure of the Papists, and other evil Councellors about His Majesty, whether thay would disband or not. But His Majesty replies, That He made not His Limitation in these terms, As soon as His first Pro∣position should be wholly granted to Him, but, As soon as He should be satisfied in His first Proposition; which left room enough upon debate, to have agreed either upon the time of delivery, or upon sufficient caution, that after the delivery the dis∣banding should unavoidably follow. Nor can His Majesty look upon this Objection otherwise than as a jest, since if after the performance of part of the Conditions He had refused to perform the rest, He is perswaded that so open a breach of Faith would have given them a far greater strength than they had parted with in the Ships, and Forts, and have raised against Him a far greater Army than He should have refused to disband.

They object against His Demand of the restitution of Members, that in His De∣mand no distinction is made of Persons or Offences; when the reason thereof is, that really no distinction can be made, they being all equally innocent, and all equally inju∣riously expelled, not only for committing no Crime, but for that Duty and Loyalty which deserves both approbation and reward. And if they could make any distinction in this point, or any Objection in any other, which might possibly have satisfied His Majesty, why did they not continue the Treaty, and there offer it to and debate it with His Majesty, rather than break off the Treaty without giving any Answer to any part of His Majesty's Message, and to turn themselves wholly to the People, from whom no re∣turn could possibly be made that might be in order to Peace?

They object against the Reason of this Demand, [That these Members have been ex∣pelled only for adhering to His Majesty] That the same Reason may be used for the Judges who adhered to Him, by furnishing Him with great Sums by Illegal Judgments about Ship-Money and Monopolies; and that He may as well require the Houses to re∣peal the Impeachments and Proceedings against them. To which His Majesty replies, That by never having appeared at all in the favour, excuse, or extenuation of the fault of those Judges (who are to answer for any unjust Judgment, in all which His Majesty left them wholly to their Consciences, and whensoever they offended against that, they wronged His Majesty no less than His People) and by His being yet so careful of these Lords and Gentlemen, it may appear that His Majesty conceives, that those only ad∣here to Him, who adhere to Him according to Law. And whether the remaining part of the Houses be not more apt to repeal their own Impeachments and Proceedings against those Judges (if they conceive they may be made of use, and brought to adhere to them) then His Majesty is to require they should, may appear by their requiring in their Four∣teen Propositions, that Sir John Brampston (impeacht by themselves of so gret Misde∣meanors) may be made Chief Justice, and by their freeing and returning Justice Bark∣ley (accused by themselves of High Treason) to sit upon the Bench, rather than free and imploy Justice Mallet, who was not legally committed at first, but fetcht from the Bench to Prison by a Troop of Horse, and who after so many Months Imprisonment remains not only unimpeacht, but wholly without any knowledge of what Crime he is suspected.

They next object against the Persons in whose behalf the Demand is made. And to this His Majesty replies, That to shew how far He was from having raised this Army, or from intending to imploy it to destroy this Parliament, or the Act for the continuance thereof, as is falsely and maliciously charged upon him; to avoid the Objection made against him, as if He only pretended to desire to rule by Law, but would really be the only Judge of Law Himself, and deny all Judgment to both Houses; to shew how wil∣ling He was that both Houses should be the Judges of what belonged to them to Judge, whensoever they might be in that full and free condition in which it belonged to them to be; and to avoid the Destruction of the Kingdom, which would be occasioned by the delay of Disbanding, if that were not ended before all the present Differences; His Ma∣jesty proposed this way of a full and free Meeting in Parliament, and to refer those many Differences between Him and the remaining part of both Houses (on which He might with Justice have insisted, and which in themselves were necessary to be settled) till

they might be settled in that Meeting, and insisted for the present only upon that which was necessary for the setling of such a Meeting. And in such a Convention, if the Persons now in question should upon debate have appeared guilty of such Crimes wherewith this Declaration charges them, as to have deserted the House, (when into∣lerable Tumults and unjustifiable Votes drove them from it) to have disobeyed and con∣temned the Authority of the House, (for not having submitted their Allegiance to that Authority) to have neglected the Trust reposed in them, (for staying no longer where they could not with freedom discharge it) and to have by Practices and Hostility endeavoured to destroy both Parliament and People, (for having assisted His Ma∣jesty, and defended His Person against an Army raised and fighting against Him;) His Majesty would have been very well contented, if the Houses should then judge so, that they should have been finally expelled, and that the People might enjoy their in∣terest and freedom of Choice and Election, when it should have been justly devolved to them. But by their declining of this course, it is evident that they well know, in such a full and free Meeting, who would appear by most voices to be the innocent, and who the guilty, who the deserters, and who the drivers, and that then and there they would as little be able to justifie their own Votes as to condemn these Persons; and therefore having by Force got sole possession of the Place, are wisely resolved to admit none to judge there of what is Law, but only such of the major part of whose Judgments they are secure, as having been made instruments to violate it.

To His Majesty's demand of security from such Tumults as formerly awed the Houses, they only answer, That what is said of awing the Members is a high and dangerous aspersion, raised without doubt to invalid the Acts and Proceedings of Parliament; but to the known Particulars urged by His Majesty they are wholly silent; and neither deny such Tumultuous assemblies to have been, nor the Lords to have twice in vain com∣plained of them, and desired the House of Commons to joyn with them in a Declara∣tion against them; nor can they deny but the Lords added this Reason, Lest such As∣semblies might be derogatory from the good Acts made and to be made in this Parliament; all which Acts nevertheless that House undoubtedly did not intend to invalid, either by that desire or by that reason. Nor can any Man, that hath seen what Protestations His Majesty hath taken, (all which He doth now again renew) for maintaining of the Laws consented to by His Majesty this Parliament, but sufficiently free His Majesty from the aspersion of having rais'd this to invalid those. But if they mean by their Proceedings, the Votes, Orders, Ordinances and Declarations, wherewith they have almost dayly opprest His Subjects and defamed His Majesty since those Tumults, if they mean the countenance they have given by personal Contributions, by Oaths, by Commissions of Generalship and the like, to the present Rebellion raised against Him; He then con∣fesseth, not that He raised this Aspersion, but that He declared this Truth, as an argu∣ment of the more evident invalidity of their present Proceedings, which those Tumults, (and apprehensions of the like, and of an Army now in the City to boot) rather than the inclination of both Houses, may appear to have produced. And this appears to be no less their Opinion too, by their being so infinitely unwilling to suffer the Members to meet in so secure a manner, that they may be hindred by no awe from declaring to all the World whether they were awed before or no; and thence the World may judge of these Mens aversion from all Agreement, when in order to so blessed a thing as Peace, they refuse so just a demand as Security.

They next Object against adjourning twenty Miles from London: And in the first place they object against it, That in making that a Condition of Disbanding to which by Law they are not bound to consent, His Majesty requires a new Law by Arms. In which they are wholly deceived, for His Majesty never made it a condition: To have Security for Himself and both Houses from Tumults (which they cannot deny to have been, and against which notwithstanding they do not offer any other kind of Security) His Ma∣jesty did demand as a Condition, (and Security is undoubtedly His Majesty's due by Law) but the Adjournment was only expressed as that which His Majesty only con∣ceived to be the only Security; not but if they could find a better or but another way, His Majesty would as readily approve of it. But His Majesty appeals to the World, whether His Majesty ought to have done less for His Safety and that of the Members, and the freedom of their Votes, than to demand Security against Tumults; whether He could do more for Peace, than to be ready to accept any sufficient Security that they should offer, and withal to be industrious to find out a fit means for that Security Himself, and to propose it in so large a manner to them, as to leave them to chuse their own place out of all the rest of England; and whether on the other side they could do less toward either,

than not to grant the Security, when they cannot deny the Danger, and not only not to seek after and offer any one way that might secure, but so absolutely to refuse that rea∣sonable way of Security which is offered to them; whether the inconvenience of re∣moving Records twenty miles ought to be in any balance with the Miseries of a War; whether the avoiding of this (but tacite) confession of that Truth, (which they call a Scan∣dal, but can never prove one) that His Majesty was forced for His Safety to withdraw from His Parliament, (of which the Army raised without His consent, to bring in triumph to the Houses Persons accused of High Treason by Him, were alone a sufficient testimony) and that the Members were awed (when their Names were sometimes demanded, and some∣times posted, their Persons laid hands on, and the Tumultuous multitude neither punish'd nor discountenanc'd so much as by a Declaration;) whether the fear lest London (in which and by a part of which all this was done) should seem to suffer under a Charge; and lastly, whether the Doubt, lest in any place out of London His Majesty should again come to the House of Commons with armed men, (upon what appearance of Right, after what orders against his known Right, and with how little either intention, offer or colour of Violence He came thither, having been shewed before) can appear a sufficient Reason for their Resolution against such an Adjournment, in order to the publick Peace: and whether, although there were no necessity of it but His Majesty's Desire, (Who out of compliance with them hath put the absolute Power out of His own hands, not only of Adjourning the Parliament whither, but of Dissolving it when He pleased) it might not seem no unreasonable Request after so large a Grant.

Their third part is, to prove His Majesty's aversion to Peace by several Circumstances. The first is, His having denied to receive their Petitions: which His Majesty never did. For if they mean (which was all He ever did towards any refusal) His refusing to receive any from or by any Person accused of High Treason by Him, (when they had other and more direct ways of sending to Him (as they did then by the Earl of Essex, if they had not gone out of their way out of desire to have it refused) they may as well say, He hath refused all that have ever since come to Him from them, for He continued always to make that Exception: and if their hope of present and total Vi∣ctory had not made them insist upon that before Edge-hill which they quitted after, the Petition offered to have been sent from my Lord of Essex from the head of his Army had been then received too by any other kind of hand; though, if His Majesty were rightly informed of the Contents of that Petition, neither their offer of such a Petition could shew any inclination to Peace in them, nor could His absolute resusal have shewed any aversion to it in His Majesty.

The second is, That their Committee must not, without a special safe Conduct and Protection from Him, have Access to Him; a Liberty incident to them not only as Members of the Parliament, and employed by both Houses, but as they were free-born Sub∣jects. To this His Majesty replies, That He never denied their Committee to have ac∣cess to Him without a safe Conduct, nor did He ever so much as mention any to them. The first motion concerning a safe Conduct, was in a Letter from the Lord Grey of Wark, Speaker pro tempore of the Lords House, to either of His Majesty's Secretaries, dated the third of Novemb. 1642. desiring one for that Committee, which after attended His Ma∣jesty at Colebrook; and the same was again desired for the Committee appointed to treat at Oxford, by a Letter from the Earl of Manchester, Speaker of the same House, to the Lord Falkland, dated the 28. of February. And must it not seem strange to all the World, that His Majesty's granting of that which both Houses in order to the Treaty ask'd of Him, should be after charged upon Him as a provocation laid in the way to interrupt or break off the Treaty? And since undoubtedly (and that reasonably) it would have been interpreted aversion in His Majesty from Peace, if He had denied this when it was as'd; His condition was very hard, when, it seems, He could not either way have a∣voided this imputation, whether he had denied or granted it. But His Majesty desires His Subjects to consider the great difference between what His Majesty hath cause to complain of, and what they do. Master Alexander Hampden, imployed by His Maje∣sty with an Olive-branch, a Message for Peace directed to both Houses, inclosed in a Let∣ter to the Speaker of the Lords House, having His Majesty's pass, testifying that He was so employed, having delivered this Message to the Lords House, and that House having recei∣ved it as a gracious Message, is committed by the House of Commons (notwithstanding the liberty of access said to be incident to all free-born Subjects) for not having a safe Con∣duct from their General, upon pretence of an Order of that House but lately made, and ne∣ver past the Lords, nor publish'd by themselves: and notwithstanding that the Lords at a Conference desired the Messengers release upon the aforesaid reasons, and that he was sent

to them, and that their own Messengers had divers times of late gone to Oxford in the same manner, and none of His Majesty's had come otherwise, yet the only Answer returned was, That they would stand to their own Order. Upon which His Majesty cannot but observe, First, that how great Authority soever both Houses expect to have with His Majesty, yet one House hath but a little with the other: Secondly, That the Privilege of that House is as little considered as their Intercession, since undoubtedly, if the Lords (who in many cases have power to commit, which the House of Commons hath not over more than their own Members, in any case but of breach of Privilege) had committed a Messenger sent to the House of Commons (especially from any to whose Messengers they paid half that respect which they owe to His Majesty's) upon an Order only of their own House, and having committed him without their consents, should not release him at their desire, it would have been look'd upon by them as no less a breach of Privilege than His Majesty's coming to their House: Thirdly, That by this His Majesty hopes that the Violent party doth now see better times are not far off, since He is told by this very Declaration, That evil Spirits do then rage most, when they think they must be cast out.

The grounds of their third and fourth (for such as have been taken notice of by the bye, and replied to before, need not to be repeated) are these. During the Treaty two Pro∣clamations issued at Oxford against Associations, and raising of Forces and Taxes by virtue of Ordinances, in which His Majesty charges a Traitorous and Rebellious Army of Brow∣nists, Anabaptists, and Atheists, (but not both Houses, as, for want of being charged, they charge themselves) to endeavour to take away His Life, and the Religion and Laws of the Kingdom. And some Letters were intercepted, by which, they say, it probably ap∣pears to them, that His Majesty had then designs upon Killingworth, Scarborough and Bri∣stol. But His Majesty thinks it strange that it should be expected, that this Treaty should have so much influence on one side, and so little on the other; that during the Trea∣ty Taxes may be illegally laid and levied, and His Majesty may not legally forbid them; that Souldiers of the Earl of Essex his Army daily rail against Episcopacy, break into Churches, pull down Organs and Monuments, tear Surplices and Common-Prayer-Books, and His Majesty may not call them Brownists; that that Army may go on daily during the Treaty in overt acts of Rebellion and Treason, and it must be an Interruption of the Treaty in His Majesty to call them Rebels and Traytors; that He may not say they endeavour to take His Life, who have shot at Him as often as He hath come within Cannon-shot of them; and that the Treaty should not oblige them from taking any Town or Castle of His Majesty's from Him, and yet His Majesty be obliged by it neither to regain any of His Towns, nor receive any of His own Castles; that Sir William Waller may really take Malmesbury and Tukesbury, and His Majesty must not so much as think of Scarborough or Bristol; upon which City as His Majesty doth avow to have had a Design to recover it from the Rebels, so He absolutely denies it to have been either bloody or barbarous, Epithets which they are plea∣sed to give it, but for what reason He cannot imagine, His Majesty abhorring all thought of what is printed at London, That it was intended, Man, Woman and Child should have been all killed in that Town, that had not such a Word or wore not such a Ribband: though some Word or Mark might well be agreed on, not with intention to kill all that had it not, but that more particular care might be taken of their protection that had it, not only from all danger, but from all disrespect. But the execution upon cold blood of some of the principal Citizens of that City for their Loyalty to His Majesty upon a single Order, without the least colour of any Legal proceedings, will appear to all men most barbarous and bloody, and such a Murther as His Majesty must not leave unrevenged, nor can His Subjects look upon otherwise, than as purposely now committed to make Peace yet more impossible, and as an earnest of that intolerable Arbitrary Government, which they must always expect to suffer under, if that Violent party should prevail.

Since therefore, notwithstanding these frivolous Objections, His Majesty's Desire of Peace (by His earnestness for it both before, and during, and after the Treaty) doth so fully appear; and since their inclination to the contrary, (by their most earnest and ut∣most endeavours to hinder both the beginning, continuance, and renewing of the Treaty) is no less evident; since in the Treaty His Majesty's main aim was the immediate disban∣ding of the Armies, and that Differences might be debated in a full and free Convention in Parliament, and that to that end the Parliament might be restored to the natural and genuine Condition, and all things only restored into that state wherein they were when the Houses were full and free; since His Majesty ask'd nothing that they could deny to be due to Him by Law, and His Majesty denied nothing that themselves could claim by Law to belong to them, nor any one thing of that publick necessity or value as deserves the shedding of one drop of that Sea of Blood, which will be spent in this un∣natural

natural Quarrel; since His Majesty made the last most reasonable Proposition, and they will never suffer it to be granted nor debated, and three Messages of His Majesty's can∣not obtain one Answer; His Majesty hopes that the scales will now fall from the eyes of His most blindly-seduced Subjects, and they will now be able do discern both their Duty and their Interest by so clear a Light, that it will be no longer in the power of this Violent party to ingage them to be Wicked that they may be Miserable, and by op∣posing Justice to destroy Peace. And His Majesty doth most earnestly conjure those whose fault hath hitherto proceeded rather from want of heat than want of light, who out of too much care of their private safety have been either lookers on, or have at once dislik'd and countenanc'd these Courses, that they at last rouze up their Courage to take part with their Conscience, and fear to be Damned more than to be Plundred, and con∣sider that if they will desert and oppose that Party whom their Tameness only makes considerable, and unite themselves with but half that industry to defend His Majesty, and the Religion and Law establisht, which the others use to destroy them all, they may avoid the One, and be in no danger of the Other, their numbers being such, that if they once but knew one another, by meerly joyning to appear to think as they do they might speedily end this (truly styled by them) the worst kind of War, both as it is of English against English, and of Subjects against their Prince. But if they shall still suffer them∣selves to be carried away with the Stream, they will by that suffer the Power of the Vio∣lent party to take so deep a root (by being seized of all the Arms, Ships, and strong places of the Kingdom) that if they should happen to prevail in this War against His Majesty, they will (in despight not only of them, but of their present Rulers, if they should be willing to divert them) extirpate the Law Root and Branch, alter the whole frame of Government, introduce Democracy, Independence and Parity, and leave nei∣ther King, Church nor Gentleman: And (besides that they will then appear to them∣selves guilty of this intolerable Innovation which they have not timely enough opposed) this Party will then forget that they did not oppose them at all, and remember that they did assist them but a little, will distinguish between those who assisted them out of Zeal and out of fear; and who are now call'd Moderate, they will then call Malignant, and the Inequality, Injustice and Oppression they will then indure, will too late discover to them to their Costs, that they have undone themselves with too much Discretion, and obtain'd nothing by their unjustifiable cautious Compliance but to be destroyed last.

By the King

A Proclamation, warning all His MAJESTY'S good Subjects no longer to be misled by the Votes, Orders, and pretended Ordinances of one or both Houses, by reason the Members do not enjoy the Freedom and Liberty of Parliament: With His MAJESTY'S gracious offer of Pardon to the Members of both Houses, and of Protection to such of them as shall repair to Him.

WHereas We have been long since driven by Force and Violence from Our Pa∣lace at Westminster, (the place of sitting for Us and Our two Houses of this Parliament) so that We could not with safety of Our Life be present with Our great Council, and much the greater part of the Members of both Houses of Parliament have been likewise driven by Tumults and Force for their safety from their Attendance upon that Council, the said Members having been threatned and assaulted for delivering their Opinions freely in the Houses, or have out of Conscience and Duty withdrawn themselves from being present at the Debates and Resolutions which they have well known to be so contrary to their Duty and Allegiance, or for so withdrawing, or for free∣ly speaking in the Houses, have been expelled or suspended from being Members of that Council, contrary to the ancient Practice and just Privileges of Parliament; since which time, and by which means, a great and Rebellious Army hath been raised against Us, under the Command of Robert Earl of Essex, which Army hath not only endeavoured to take Our Life from Us in a set Battel, but the same, and other Forces raised by the like means, have committed all the Acts of Outrage, Robbery and Murther upon Our good Subjects throughout the Kingdom, and still continue to do the same: And though

in truth a very small part of that great Councel remain there together, yet under pretence of having the countenance of Our two Houses of Parliament, some Seditious Persons assume to themselves (with the assistance of those Rebellious Armies, and of divers mutinous and desperate Brownists, Anabaptists, and other ill-affected Persons in Our City of London, by whose means they awe such Members of both Houses who yet con∣tinue amongst them) a power to do things absolutely contrary to the Laws of the Land, and destructive to Our Rights, and to the Liberty and Property of the Subject, and to alter the whole frame and Government of this Kingdom, disposing of the Lives and Fortunes of Us and Our good Subjects according to their discretion, subjecting both to their own unlimited Arbitrary Power and Government: We have only accused some particular Persons, whom We well knew to be the Authors and Contrivers of these desperate Counsels and Actions, and have forborn to censure or charge the whole num∣ber of the Members remaining, by whose Orders and Authority the evils have been pretended to be done, well hoping that the Sense of the miserable Distractions of the Kingdom, would at length have brought them to discern where they had erred, and Our often Messages and Complaints of the Violence offered to Us, and to the Members of both Houses, would have procured Justice and Redress, and that the Power and Re∣putation of such amongst them who wished well to the Peace of the Kingdom, and Honour and Dignity of Parliaments, would at last have so far prev••••••ed, that a right understanding might have been begotten between Us and Our People, and all shew of Force and Violence so taken away and suppressed, that We might in a full and peaceable Convention of Parliament, with the Advice of that Our great Council, have so setled the present Distempers, that there might be no fear left of the like for the future. But finding to Our great grief, that the Power of those Seditious Persons who first contrived these desperate and bloody Distractions continues so great, That as they have driven and now keep Us and the much greater part of both Houses from being present at that Council, so they so far awe those who remain there, that they cannot with freedom give their Votes and Resolutions according to their Consciences, and the Laws and Constitutions of the Kingdom: That the Members of both Houses have been compelled to make Protestations to live and die with the Earl of Essex, the General of the Rebel∣lious Army, and other unlawful and Treasonable Protestations, and that such who have refused to take the said Protestations have been expelled and imprisoned for such their refusal; That the great Affairs of the Kingdom are managed ••nd concluded by a private Committee without being ever reported to the Houses, contrary to the Laws and Rules of Parliament; That the Common-councel of London (most of them being Per∣sons factiously chosen out of Brownists, Anabaptists, and such who oppose the regular wholesome Government of that City, and have promised themselves the destruction of the Church) are grown the Superintendants over both Houses, and obtrude upon them what Conclusions and Resolutions they please; That they take upon them to justifie this Rebellion against Us, and have presumed, under pretence of the Order of both Houses, to invite Foreign Forces to invade this Kingdom; to send Agents to Foreign Princes, to negotiate and treat with them in their own Names; to imprison Our good Subjects contrary to Law, prohibiting Our Judges to grant Habeas corpus according to Law; to introduce a new Clergy throughout the Kingdom, by displacing Godly Learned Divines, without the least colour of Law or judicial Proceedings, and putting ignorant Seditious Preachers in their Places, to poison the hearts of the People; to coun∣tenance the vilifying of the Book of Common-Prayer established by the Law of the Land; to seize, levy, and take away what they please of the Estates and Fortunes of Our Subjects, by disposing of the Twentieth Part of their Estates, by exhausting them with insupportable Weekly Taxes, for the maintainance of their Rebellious Army, and by endeavouring to lay odious Excises upon Victuals, Goods and Merchandize of Our People for the same purpose, whilst they suffer Our poor Protestant Subjects of Our Kingdom of Ireland, whose defence was undertaken by Our two Houses, and that Ar∣my raised for the suppressing that horrid Rebellion, to be starved, and in danger of dis∣banding, or necessitated to desert that Kingdom for want of Money, Victual and such other necessaries as were to be provided for them by Act of Parliament, out of those Moneys, which they have spent to destroy Us and this Kingdom; by exacting from Merchants Tonnage and Poundage, and other Impositions upon Merchandizes as well Native as Foreign, contrary to an Act made this present Parliament, with a penalty of Praemunire, on those who shall pay or receive it it: And lastly, that they have (after the breaking of the late Treaty by a peremptory recalling the Committee, who in truth during their abode with Us had no Power to Treat, by reason of their strict Limitation)

so far rejected all possible means and Overtures of Treaty and Accommodation, that instead of answering our gracious Messages, the House of Commons hath imprisoned Our Messenger sent by Us to them to invite both Houses to an Accommodation, and especially to move them to take such a course for the freedom of Parliament, that We might safely advise with that Our great Council for the setling those miserable Distem∣pers; and have maliciously and in contempt of Us (and after an attempt to Murther Her at Burlington-Road, the place of Her Landing) impeached Our Royal Consort of High Treason, for assisting Us with Arms and Ammunition to defend Us from this Re∣bellion: 'Tis time now to let Our good Subjects know, that they may no longer look upon the Votes and Actions of the Persons now remaining as upon Our two Houses of Parliament, Freedom and Liberty to be present, and of Opinion and Debate there, being essential to a Parliament; which Freedom and Liberty all Men must confess to be taken away from this Assembly, when they remember the great Tumults brought down to awe and terrifie both Houses, and that they were then brought down when any great Debate was in either House, and not like to be so carried as some Seditious Persons who governed those Tumults did desire; that in the greatest heat and fury of those Tumults the principal Governors amongst them directed the unruly People to go to White-hall, where Our own Person then was, and designed by Force to have surprised the Person of Our Son the Prince; that when it was desired that a Declaration might be made against such Tumults, instead of consenting thereunto, the Tumults themselves were justified, and when a Legal course was prescribed by the Lords, and taken by the proper Mi∣nisters of Justice, to suppress and prevent such Tumults and Riots, that Legal course was superseded by those who were then present of the House of Commons, and the Mi∣nisters of Justice punished and imprisoned for executing the Law; when they remember that several Members of either House have been threatned and assaulted in those Tu∣mults, and their own Names proscribed as Persons disaffected, because they freely used to speak their Consciences in both Houses; that the House of Peers have been so far threat∣ned and menaced, that the Names of those have been with Threats demanded by the House of Commons at the Bar of the Lords House, who refused to consent to this or that Proposition which hath been in debate before them, and Tumultuous Petitions coun∣tenanced which have been presented to that same purpose; that the Members of both Houses have been imprisoned and forbid to be present at those Councils, for no Reason but because their Opinions have not been liked; that Our Negative Voice (Our greatest and most soveraign Privilege) is boldly denied; that a presumptuous Attempt hath been made by the major part of the remaining part of the House of Commons to make Our Great Seal of England, the making of which by the express Letter of the Law is High-Treason, and would subvert the ancient and fundamental Administration of Justice; that at this time We and the major part of both Houses are kept by a strong and Rebellious Army from being present at that Council, and that those who are present are by the same Army awed and forced to take unlawful and Treasonable Protestations to engage their Votes; and that such Resolutions and Directions which concern the Property and Liberty of the Subject are transacted and concluded by a few Persons (under the Name of a Close Committee, consisting of the Earl of Manchester, the Lord Say, Master Pym, Master Hampden, Master Stroud, Master Martin, and others, the whole number not exceeding seventeen Persons) without reporting the same to the Houses, or having the same confirmed by the Houses, contrary to the express Law and Customs of Parliament. All which for the matter of Fact We are ready to make proof of, and desire nothing but to bring the Contrivers of all the aforesaid Mischiefs to their Tryal by Law; and till that be submitted to, We must pursue them by Arms or any other way, in which all our good Subjects ought to give Us assistance to that purpose: The imagining the Death of Us, Our Royal Consort, or Our Eldest Son, the Levying War against Us in Our Realm, or adhering to Our Enemies in Our Realm, giving to them Aid or Comfort, the counterfeiting Our Great Seal or Money, being by the express Words of the Statute of the 25 Year of King Edward the J. Chap. 2. High Treason. And how applicable this is to those who have actually born Arms a∣gainst Us, and to those who have consented that such Arms be born, to those who have promised to live and die with the Earl of Essex, and those who every day consent to some Act for the support and encrease of that Army, We shall leave to all the World to judge; and hope that this gracious Warning and Information now given by Us will make that impression in the Hearts of Our People, that they will no longer suffer them∣selves to be mis-led from their Duty and Allegiance upon any pretences whatsoever. And We do declare, That We shall proceed with all severity against all Persons whatsoever

who shall henceforward assist, vote or concur in any kind toward the maintaining or countenancing such Actions and Resolutions, which by the known and express Laws of the Land are High Treason, and against all those who shall adhere to them who are in Rebellion against Us, as against Rebels and Traitors, in such manner as by the Laws and Statutes of the Realm is directed and appointed. And since by the Power of Se∣ditious Persons We and both Houses are kept from being secured against Tumultuous Assemblies, and both Houses from Adjournment to some place of Safety, which being done might quickly make an end of these miserable Distractions, whereby We are de∣barred from the benefit and advice We expected from that Our great Council, the Members thereof being scattered into several places; therefore that the whole Kingdom may see that We are willing to receive Advice from those who are trusted by them, though We cannot receive the same in the place to which they were called, for the Rea∣sons aforesaid, nor intend to receive Advice from them elsewhere in the capacity of Houses of Parliament, We do hereby declare, that such of the Members of both Houses, as well those who have been by the Faction of the Malignant Party expelled for per∣forming their Duties to Us, and into whose Rooms no Persons have been since chosen by their Countries, as the rest who shall desire Our Protection, shall be welcome to Us at Our City of Oxford, until by the Adjournment of the Houses to some fit and free place, or otherwise due course be taken for the full and free Convention in Parliament of Us and all the Members of both Houses. And for their better encouragement to resort to Us, We do hereby Will and Command all the Officers and Souldiers of our Army, to suffer all such Persons who are Members of either House, with their Attendants and Servants, to come to Us to this Our City of Oxford. And that none of Our good Subjects may believe that by this Our necessary Declaration against the Freedom and Li∣berty of that present Assembly, We may have the least intention to violate or avoid any Act or Acts passed by Us for the good and benefit of Our People this Parliament, we do hereby declare to all the World, That We shall, as We have often promised, as in∣violably observe all those Acts, as if no such unhappy Interruption had happened of the Freedom and Liberty in that Council; and desire nothing more than to have such a free Convention in Parliament, that we may add such further Acts of Grace as shall be thought necessary for the Advancement of the true Protestant Religion, for the main∣tenance of the Liberty and Property of the Subject, and the preservation of the Liberty, Freedom and Privileges of Parliament. And that all the World may see how willing and desirous We are to forget all the Injuries and Indignities offered to Us by such who have been misled through Weakness or Fear, or who have not been the principal Con∣trivers of the present Miseries, We do offer a free and general Pardon to all the Mem∣bers of either House, (except Robert Earl of Essex, Robert Earl of Warwick, Edward Earl of Manchester, Henry Earl of Stamford, William Viscount Say and Seal, Sir John Hotham Knight and Baronet, Sir Arthur Hesilrigge Baronet, Sir Henry Ludlow, Sir Edward Hungerford, Sir Francis Popham, Knights, Nathanael Fiennes, John Hampden, John Pym, William Stroude, Henry Martin and Alexander Popham, Esquires, Isaak Pennington Alderman of London, and Captain Venne, who being the principal Authors of these present Calamities, have sacrificed the Peace and Prosperity of their Country to their own Pride, Malice and Ambition, and against whom We shall proceed as a∣gainst Persons guilty of High Treason by the known Laws of the Land, and shall in the proceeding be most careful to preserve all Privileges in the fullest manner that by the Law or the usage of former times is due to them) if they shall within Ten days after the publishing this Our Proclamation return to their Duty and Allegiance to Us. And lastly, We further enjoyn and command all Our Subjects upon their Allegiance to Us, as they will answer the contrary to Almighty God, and as they desire that they and their Posterity should be free from the foul Taint of High Treason, and as they tender the Peace of this Kingdom, that they presume not to give any Assistance to the before∣mentioned Rebellious Armies in their Persons or Estates in any sort whatsoever, but joyn with Us, according to their Duty and the Laws of the Land, to suppress this hor∣rid Rebellion. And Our Pleasure and Command is, That this Our Proclamation be read in all Churches and Chapels within this Our Kingdom.

Given at Our Court at Oxford, the twentieth Day of June, in the Nineteenth Year of Our Reign.

God save the King.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Message of Feb. 20.
• * 1.2

  [to the Votes of both Houses, and to their desire of a safe Con∣••uct.]
• * 1.3

  [His Ma∣jesty's Mes∣sage of Apr. 12. at the end of the Treaty.]
• * 1.4

  Inserted before, pag. 353.
• * 1.5

  were presently.
• * 1.6

  [His Ma∣jesty's Mes∣sage reply∣ing to this Paper is inserted be∣fore, p. 250.]
• * 1.7

  In His Mes∣sage of April 12. pag. 353.
• * 1.8

  Pag. 353.
• * 1.9

  April 5.
• * 1.10

  The fourth of Edward the Third, Artic. 1. against Roger Mortimer. The King had put to him four Bishops, four Earls, and four Barons; without whose consent, or of four of them, no great business was to be transacted. Rot. Parliam. 13 E. 3. N. 15, 16. The whole Navy disposed of by Parliament. N. 13, 14. Admirals appointed, and Instructions given to them. N. 32. Instructions for the defence of Jersey, and a Deputy-Governour ap∣pointed in Parliament N. 35. Souldiers of York, Nottingham, &c. to go at the cost of the Countrey; and what they are to do. N. 36. A Clark appointed for payment of their wages by the oversight of the Lord Percy and Nevil. N. 38. Sir Walter Creak appointed Keeper of Berwick. N. 39. Sir Tho. de Wake appointed to set forth the Array of Soldiers for the County of York, and N. 40, 41, 42, 43. others for other Counties. 14 E. 3. N. 36. The Parliament agreeth that in the Kings absence the Duke of Cornwal shall be Keeper of England. N. 35. They appoint the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Earls of Lancaster, Warren and Huntington, Councellors to the Duke, with power to call such others as they shall think fit. N. 19. Certain appointed to keep the Islands and Sea-coasts. N. 42. The Lord of Mowbray ap∣pointed Keeper of Berwick. N. 48. Commission to the Lord Mowbray of the Justices of Lentham. N. 53, 54, &c. Commissions of Array to the Earl of Angois, and others. 15 E. 3. N. 15. That the Chancellors, chief Justices, Treasurers, Chancellors and Barons of the Exche∣quer, &c. may be chosen in open Parliament, and there openly sworn to observe the Laws. Answer thus, That as they sall by death or otherwise, it shall be so done in the choice of a new, with your assents, &c. 50 E. 3. N. 10, 11. Ordered in Parliament, That the King should have at the least ten or twelve Counsellors, without whom no weighty matters should pass, &c. N. 15. A Commission to the L. Percy and others, to appoint able persons for the defence of the Marches of the East-Riding. 1. R. 2. N. 18, 19. The Parliament wholly dispo∣seth of the Education of the King, and of the Officers, &c. N. 51. Officers for Gascoign, Ireland, and Artois, Keepers of the Ports, Castles, &c. 2. R. 2. Rot. Parl. par. 2. artic. 39. The Admiralty. N. 37. In a Schedule is contained the order of the E. of Northumb. and others for the defence of the North Sea-coasts, and confirmed in Parliament. 6 R. 2. N. 11. The Proffer of the Bishop of Norwich to keep the Sca-coasts, and accepted in Parliament 8 R. 2. 11, 16. The names of the chief Officers of the Kingdom to be known to the Parliament, and not to be removed without just cause. 11 R. 2. N. 23. No persons to be about the King, or intermeddle with the Affairs of the Realm, other than such as be appointed by Parliament. 15 R. 2. N. 15. The Commons name the person to treat of a Peace with the Kings ene∣mies. Rot. Parl. 1 H. 4. N. 106. That the King will appoint able Captains in England and Wales. Stat. 4. H. 4. cap. 31, 32, 33. printed, The Welch-men shall bear Office. 5 H. 4. N. 16. The King, at the request of the Commons, removed his Confessor and three other Men from about him. N. 37. At the request of the Commons, nameth divers Privy-Councellors. 7, and 8 H. 4 26. Power given to the Merchants to name two persons to be Admirals. 7, and 8 H. 4. N. 31. Councellors appointed by Authority of Parliament. N. 26. Commissions granted in Parliament to keep the Sea. Rot. Parl. 1 H. 6. N. 61. Chancellor, Treasurer, and Privy Seal appointed by Parliament. N. 24. Pro∣tector, and Defensor Regni, appointed by Parliament. N. 26. Privy Councellors. 2 H. 6. N. 15. Counsels named by Parliament. 4 H. 6. N. 19. The Duke, by common consent in Parliament, appoints a Deputy to keep Berwick Castle. 14 H. 6. N. 10. The keeping of the Town of Calice is committed to the Duke of Gloucester, by Indenture between him and the King, and confirmed in Parliament. 31 H. 6. N. 41. Rich. Earl of Salisbury and others are appointed by Parliament to keep the Seas, Tunnage and Poundage appointed to them for three years. 33 H. 6. N. 27. Discharged. 39 H. 6. N. 32. The Duke of York made by Parliament, General. Stat. 21 Jac. cap. 34. Treasu∣rers and a Council of War appointed by Parliament, and an Oath directed to be by them taken. The Earl of Essex made Lord Lieute∣nant of the County of York, and Sir Jo. Conyers Lieut. of the Tower, upon the desire of the Lords and Commons this Parliament.

  With very many more Precedents, which, to avoid prolixity, are purposely omitted.
• * 1.11

  In His Message of April 12.
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  His Mes∣sage of May 5.
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  Message of May 19.