Memoires of the lives, actions, sufferings & deaths of those noble, reverend and excellent personages that suffered by death, sequestration, decimation, or otherwise, for the Protestant religion and the great principle thereof, allegiance to their soveraigne, in our late intestine wars, from the year 1637 to the year 1660, and from thence continued to 1666 with the life and martyrdom of King Charles I / by Da. Lloyd ...

The Traytors Charge of Treason against their Soveraign, consisting of sixteen Traiterous Po∣sitions.

THat the said Charles Stuart beinga admitted King of Eng∣land, and therein trusted with ab limited power to go∣vern by, and according to the Laws of the Land, and not other∣wise: And by his Trust, Oath, and Office, being obliged to use the power committed to him for the good and benefit of the people, and for the preservation of their Rights and Liberties; Yet ne∣vertheless, out of a wickedc design, to erect and uphold in him∣self and Unlimited and Tyrannical Power, to Rule according to hisd Will, and to overthrow the Rights and Liberties of the Peo∣ple; yea, to take away, and make void the Foundations thereof, and of all redress and remedy of Mis-government, which by the Fundamental Constitutions of this Kingdom were reserved on the Peoples behalf, in the Right and Power of frequent and succes∣sive Parliaments, or National meetings in Counsel. He the said Charles Stuart, for accomplishment of such his designs, and for the protecting of himself and his adherents, in his and their wicked practises; to the same end, hath traiterously and maliciouslye levied war against thef Parliament and People therein repre∣sented. Particularly, upon or about the thirtieth day of Iune, in the year of our Lord, one thousand six hundred forty and two, at Beverley in the County of York; and upon or about the thirtieth day of Iuly, in the year aforesaid, in the County of the City of York; and upon or about the twenty fourth day of August, in the same year, at the County of the Town of Nottingham, (when, and where he set up his Standard of war;) and upon or about the twenty third day of October, in the same year, at Edge-hill and Kein∣ton -field, in the County of Warwick; and upon or about the thir∣tieth day of November, in the same year, at Brainford, in the Coun∣ty of Middlesex; and upon or about the thirtieth day of August, in the year of our Lord, one thousand six hundred forty and three, at Cavesham-bridge near Reading, in the County of Berks; and upon or about the thirtieth day of October, in the year last mentioned, at or near the City of Gloucester; and upon or about the thirtieth day of November, in the year last mentioned, at Newbury, in the

County of Berks; and upon or about the one and thirtieth day of Iuly, in the year of our Lord, one thousand six hundred forty and four, at Cropredy-bridge, in the County of Oxon; and upon or about the thirtieth day of September, in the year last mentioned, at Bod∣min, and other places adjacent, in the County of Cornwall; and upon or about the thirtieth day of November, in the year last men∣tioned, at Newbury aforesaid; and upon or about the eight of Iune, in the year of our Lord, one thousand six hundred forty and five, at the Town of Leicester; and also upon the fourteenth day of the same month, in the same year, at Naseby-field, in the County of Northampton. At which several times and places, or most of them, and at many other places in this Land, at several other times, within the years afore-mentioned: And in the year of our Lord, one thousand six hundred forty and six; He, the said Charles Stuart, hath caused and procured many thousands of the Free-people of the Nation to be slain; and by Divisions, Parties, and Insurrections within this Land, by Invasions from Forraign Parts, endeavoured and procured by him, and by many other evil ways and means: He, the said Charles Stuart, hath not only maintained and carried on the said war, both by Land and Sea, during the years before-men∣tioned; but also, hath renewed, or caused to be renewed, the said war against the Parliament and good People of this Nation, in this present year, one thousand six hundred forty and eight, in the Counties of Kent, Essex, Surrey, Sussex, Middlesex, and many other Counties and Places in England and Wales, and also by Sea: And particularly, He, the said Charles Stuart, hath for that purpose, given Commission to his Son the Prince, and others; whereby, besides multitudes of other persons, many such, as were by the Parlia∣ment intrusted, and imployed for the safety of the Nation, being by Him or his Agents corrupted, to the betraying of their Trust, and revolting from the Parliament, have had Entertainment and Commission, for the continuing and renewing War and Hostility against the said Parliament and People, as aforesaid. By which cruel and unnatural wars by Him, the said Charles Stuart, Levyed, Continued, and Renewed, as aforesaid, much innocent bloud of the Free-people of this Nation hath been spilt, Families undone, the Publick Treasury wasted and exhausted, Trade obstructed and miserably decayed, vast expence and damage to the Nation incur∣red, and many parts of the Land spoiled, some of them even to de∣solation. And for further prosecution of evil Designs; He, the said Charles Stuart, doth still continue his Commissions to the said Prince, and other Rebels and Revolters, both English and Forrai∣ners, and to the Earl of Ormond, and to the Irish Rebels and Revol∣ters associated with him; from whom further invasions upon this Land are threatned, upon the procurement and on the behalf of the said Charles Stuart.

All which wicked Designs, Wars, and evil Practises of Him, the said Charles Stuart, have been, and are carried on, for the advancing and upholding of the Personal Interest of Will and Power, and pretended Prerogative to Himself and his Family, against the Pub∣lick

Interest, common Right, Liberty, Justice, and Peace of the People of this Nation, by and for whom he was intrusted as afore¦said.

By all which it appeareth, that He the said Charles Stuart, hath been, and is the Occasioner, Author, and Contriver of the said Unnatural, Cruel, and Bloudy Wars; and therein guilty of all the Treasons, Murders, Rapines, Burnings, Spoils, Desolations, Dam∣mage and Mischiefs to this Nation, acted and committed in the said wars, or occasioned thereby.

And the said Iohn Cook by protestation (saving on the behalf of the People of England, the liberty of Exhibiting at any time here∣after, any other Charge against the said Charles Stuart, and also of replying to the Answers which the said Charles Stuart shall make to the Premises, or any of them, or any other Charge that shall be so exhibited) doth for the said Treasons and Crimes, on behalf of the said People of England, Impeach the said Charles Stuart as a Tyrant, Traytor, Murtherer, and a Publick and Implacable Enemy to the Commonwealth of England: And pray that the said Charles Stuart King of England, may be put to answer all and every the Premises; That such Proceedings, Examinations, Tryals, Sentence, and Judg∣ment, may be hereupon had, as shall be agreeable to Justice.

A Charge ridiculous in the matter of it, laying that war to the Kings charge, for which they should have been hanged them∣selves; accusing him for breaking the Priviledges of Parliaments, when they had the other day dissolved the very Being of them; and pretending the common good, when two or three years disco∣vered, the whole Plot was nothing but private Interest; these ve∣ry Miscreants being turned to grass, by one of their own self-de∣niers, for a self-seeking Combination. Contemptible in the framers of it, the one a Runnagate Dutch-man, Dorislaus, who being preferred by the King, History Professor at Cambridge, read Treason, in his first Lecture against his Patron, and now commits it: The other a poor and desperate Sollicitor, Cook, said to have two Wives to live with, and twenty ways, though none either honest or suc∣cessful, to live by. And worse in the witnesses of it, the scum of Mankind, two or three raked out of Prisons and Goals, not a man of reputation, or worth two pence in the three kingdoms; not∣withstanding a Proclamation to invite all persons to witness a∣gainst the King, appearing to promote so horrid a fact, and these hired men of Belial, with the hope of a morsel of bread. The King was always of an even temper, but never more than in this case, retaining a Majesty becoming himself in his misery, and looking as if he were, as he ought to be indeed, the Judge; and they, as they were indeed, the Malefactors: Smiling (as he might well, as far as the publick calamities gave him leave) at the horrid names (Murderer, Traytor, &c.) of the worst Subjects given to the best King.

Notes

• a

  He was born so.
• b

  He was a free Monarch.
• c

  What his design and theirs were, the world hath lately seen.
• d

  He d••ed because he would not al∣low an Arbi∣trary Power, and they killed him by an Arbi∣trary Power.
• e

  He levied war to defend a King, and they to murder one.
• f

  Have dare they take away his life, for levying war in his own de∣fence, against the Seditious part of the Parliament, and 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Army of Rebels, when these the Par∣liaments sworn servants, lay violent hand•• on the whole Parliament, to take away his life. He would have punished two or three rebellious Par∣liament-men, they turn out the whole House; he fought the traiterous Army they sen•• against him, these Members of that Army turn out those they fought un∣der; he must be a Traytor against the Parliament, and yet within a fortnight before they set on his assassinatio••, they break trouble, and abuse that Parliament, as if it were Treason to be against the Parliament, when they were against the King; but no Treason to be against them, when now they were for him.