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 TRI A L 
 
 OF 
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST, 
 
 cScc.
 
 rnUishea Dj John MTHTsy. ATcejnarle Street,1832.
 
 THE 
 
 TRIALS 
 
 OP 
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST, 
 
 AND OF 
 
 SOME OF THE REGICIDES: 
 
 OF 
 
 BRADSHAW, IRETON, HARRTSON, AND OTHERS. 
 
 AND WITH NOTES. 
 THE FOURTH EDITION. 
 
 LONDON: 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET ; 
 
 AND SOLD BY 
 
 THOMAS TEGG, 73, CHEAPSIDE.
 
 LOXDON : 
 BRADBL-RV AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHrTEFRIARS.
 
 Ergo, regibus ocnsis, subversa jacebat 
 Pristina majestas soliorum, et sceptra superba : 
 Et capitis summi prasclarum insigne cruentuin 
 Sub pedibus vxilgi magnum lugebat honorem : 
 Nam cupide conculcatur nimis ante metutum. 
 Res itaque ad summam faecem turbasque redibaf, 
 Imperium sibi cum, ac summatum quisque petebat. 
 
 LUCRETIl'S, lib. 
 
 Then prostrate lay, — the rightful monarch slain — 
 The throne's proud majesty and ancient reign : 
 The diadem that crown'd th' anointed head 
 Crush'd by the vulgar foot dark blood-drops shed. 
 Law's just restraint, once fear'd, was vilely spurn'd. 
 And the state's fabric into dust return'd. 
 When each at will grasp'd at imperial power. 
 And strove to reign the despot of an hour. 
 
 Lucretius, book 5. (W. S.> 
 
 The axe that strikes the King lays Order low — 
 In every limb old Reverence feels the blow j 
 Law, Faith, Love, Honour, Grace are trampled down 
 In the same bloody quagmire with the Ciown. 
 The awe of ages poison'd into hate. 
 Pierce leaps the rabble hoof on all that 's great- 
 Till vulgar rage, exjiert Ambition's tool. 
 Dies out — and some cold scoundrel grasps the rule. 
 
 LrtRETius, book 5. (J. G. L.) 
 
 A 3
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PACE 
 
 The Trial of Charles the Fxrst 1 
 
 His Execution , 103 
 
 Remarks on the Trial 119 
 
 Memoir of Henry Ireton 130 
 
 Memoir of John Bradshaw 180 
 
 Memoir op Thomas Harrison 203 
 
 Memoirs of other Regicides 241 
 
 Introduction to the Trials of the Regicides ... 253 
 
 The Trial of Thomas Harrison 275 
 
 The Trial of Hugh Peters 803 
 
 Execution of the Regicides 329
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR THE PLATES. 
 
 Portrait of Charles the First - - - to face the Title. 
 
 Trial of the King, from an engraving of the period, 
 
 Page 21 
 
 Cotemporary Explanation of the Print, showing the Trial of King 
 Charles the First. 
 A The King sitting in a large elbow-chair, covered with crimson 
 velvet, with gold fringe and nails, and a velvet cushion, in a distinct 
 apartment, directly over against the Lord President ; between the 
 space allotted for the Counsel of the Commonwealth, standing on the 
 right hand of the King, and the like, vacant, space leading from the 
 head of the stairs to the King's apartment aforesaid. 
 
 In the partition allotted for the King was also placed a small table 
 covered with a Turkey carpet, and a standish and paper set thereon, 
 if his Majesty should have occasion for it 
 B The Lord President BRiDSHAW sitting in an elbow-chair, advanced 
 upon the first rising of the Court, having a large desk fixed before him, 
 covered with a velvet pall, and a large velvet cushion thereupon. 
 C John Lisle 1 . , (" right -t . 
 
 D William Say i ^'"^"^ °" ^^^ i left j ^^''^ ^^ '^e Lord President. 
 These two being appointed to be his Lordship's assistants. 
 The said Lord President and his said assistants, being all three of 
 the long robe, sate in their gowns ; the rest of the Commissioners in 
 their usual habits, as gentlemen and souldiers. 
 
 j-the two Clerks appointed to attend the 
 E Andrew BaouGHTON, 3 Court, being seated at the feet of the said 
 F John Phelps, f Lord President, under the covert of his 
 
 ^ desk. 
 G The table placed before the said clerks, whereon sometimes lay the 
 Commonwealth's mace and sword of state or justice; sometimes, I 
 say, for at other times, the said »word was advanced in the head of
 
 A DIRECTIONS FOR THE PLATES. 
 
 the guards with partizans standing in the Court, on the right hand of 
 the King, as he sate, and the said mace was sometimes handed by 
 their Serjeant at arras, on the out-side of the bar, nigh the King on 
 his left hand. 
 
 H The scale of benches (which were covered with scarlet bays, and the 
 foot-steps matted; reaching up from the floor of the Court within five 
 or six feet of the very glazmgot the south-west window of Westminster 
 Hall, whereon sate the rest of the Commissioners. 
 
 I The atchieveraent of the Commonwealth of England, in direct view 
 of the King. 
 
 ^of the escutcheon 
 
 K Oliver CR0MWELL7g;^j.j^^Qjjj.jjgf right sideX or shield, as the 
 
 L He.vey Martix j ° C left side i supporters of the 
 
 ^ Commonwealth. 
 
 M The galleries and scaffolds on either side the Court, thronged with 
 spectators. 
 
 N The floor of the Court malted, and kept clear and open (as here 
 represented) by the guards on either side, no person being permitted 
 to abide between the King, the Counsel, and the Court, but the known 
 Officers and Messengers appointed to attend the Court. 
 
 O A passage (lined with souldiers on both sides), leading from the 
 Court of Wards into the High Court of Justice, and through which 
 the Commissioners coming from the Painted Chamber made their 
 entry into the said Court. 
 
 P The place where the moving guard with partizans (who, together 
 with the Serjeant at arms, and a person carrying the Sword of state or 
 justice, always came along with the Commissioners from the Ex- 
 chequer Chamber into the Court,) stood, sitting the Court. 
 
 Q The place where the moving guards with partizans (which always 
 attended the King, from Sir Robert Cotton's House up into the said 
 Court, and back thither again) stood, sitting the Court. 
 
 R The passage leading from the stair head, to the distinct apartment 
 appointed for the King, as aforesaid. 
 
 S T U The partition where the Counsel of the Commonwealth, viz. 
 Cooke, Dorislaus, and Aske, stood alone ontherighthandof theKing, 
 as he was sitting. 
 
 V The stairs by which the King ascended up into the Court out of 
 Westminster-Hall. 
 
 W The passage leading into Westminster-Hall, from Sir Robert Cot- 
 ton's house, where his Majesty was kept under strong guards, in 
 readiness when the Court should from time to time order him to be 
 brought up. 
 
 X A laige free passage leading from Westminster- Hall gate, straight
 
 DIRECTIONS FOK THE PLATES. \l 
 
 through the said Hall, within twelve or fourteen feet of the bottom 
 
 of this Court. 
 Y Another such like passage (going cross the upper end of the last 
 
 mentioned passage) reaching and extending itself from one side of the 
 
 said Hall to the other. 
 Both these passages were strongly rayled to keep the multitude 
 
 (who, when the Court was set, was freely permitted to fill the Hall, 
 
 between the rayls and the wall,) from breaking in upon thesouldiers, 
 
 who were planted all along within the rayls, to observe and awe the 
 
 multitude, and secure the Court. 
 Z The thronging multitudes between the rayls and the Hall walls 
 The officers walking up and down in the free passages (betweeij 
 
 the souldiers standing within the rayls) ready to give the necessary 
 
 orders and commands upon ill occasions. 
 
 Execution of Charles, from an old Dutch print, Page 107
 
 TRIAL 
 
 OF 
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 
 
 Introduction. — Tlie events that led from the 
 extraordinary seizure of Charles I. by Cornet 
 Joyce and the army at Holdenby House, in Nor- 
 thamptonshire, to his imprisonment in the Isle ot 
 Wight, his prosecution, and his death, are familiar 
 to most persons, either in the delightful narratives 
 of Clarendon and Hume, the more detailed memo- 
 rials of Rushvvorth, Whitlock, and Ludlow, or the 
 late works of Godwin i and D'Israeli. As long as 
 the power of the parliament formed, in some de- 
 gree, a balance to that of Cromwell, the officers, 
 and the army, the cause of the King, though he was 
 in strict custody of the latter, appeared slightly 
 to gain ground. He was treated with respect 
 even by the agitators of the army^, courted 
 
 1 Godwin's History of the Commonwealth of England. 
 D'Israeli's Commentaries on theLife and Reign of Charlesl. 
 
 2 "All the officers of the army kissed his hand, and all 
 kneeled, except Fairfax and Cromwell." — Clarendon 
 State Papers, vol. ii. Append.
 
 2 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 bv the parliamentary leaders, negotiated with 
 by Cromwell, Ireton, and Fairfax ; and he was 
 frequently heard to say, with some imprudence 
 and with his usual sanguineness, " You cannot 
 do without me ; you cannot settle the nation with- 
 out my assistance." i But when the parliament 
 gradually yielded to all the encroachments of 
 the army, and were subdued by the troops in 
 July, 164-7, (when Manchester and Lenthal, the 
 speakers of the two Houses, and deputations of the 
 members met Cromwell and the army at Houn- 
 slow,) the hopes of the loyal and the cause of the 
 King declined. His confident rejection of the 
 propositions now made to him by the army ex- 
 asperated that body, at the very time when the 
 parliament had become too weak to be looked to 
 for any support. His abode at Hampton Court 
 (whither he had been removed from Caversham, 
 and where he lived at first with comfort and dig- 
 nity 2,) became now every day more irksome, and 
 even dangerous. His guards were doubled, restric- 
 
 • When the General Fairfax heard of Joyce's seizure of 
 the King (which Joyce confessed was done by secret orders 
 of Cromwell), he sent Colonel Whalley with two regiments 
 of horse to remove the force, and to apologise to the King 
 for the outrage ; but Charles was then advanced several 
 miles towards Cambridge, with the army. Fairfax waited 
 on him next day at Sir John Cutts's, near Cambridge, and 
 persuaded him to return to Holderby ; but the King re- 
 fused, having been deluded into the belief that Joyce and 
 the soldiers and agitators were really his friends. He told 
 Fairfax at parting, " Sir, I have as good an interest with 
 the army as you." — " By which," says Fairfax, " I plainly 
 saw the broken reed he leaned upon." — See Fairfax's 
 Memoirs, by himself. 
 
 ' See Baron Maseres's Tracts, in two vols.
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 3 
 
 tions placed on his intercourse with his friends, 
 and intimations perpetually sent to him (whether 
 by Cromwell or by the royalists) of atrocious 
 designs against his person.' Under these cir- 
 cumstances, Charles took the hasty and ill-con- 
 trived, but perhaps necessary, step of making 
 his escape to Tichfield, and thence to the Isle 
 of Wight 2, where he was made prisoner by 
 
 1 There can be little doubt that Charles, in flying to the 
 Isle of Wight, was only pursuing, unwittingly, the course 
 which the machinations of Cromwell drove him upon. 
 Andrew Marvell, writing of his friend Cromwell, says, — 
 
 " And Hampton shows v.hat part 
 
 He had of wiser art, 
 Where twining subtle fears with hope, 
 He wove a net of such a scope. 
 
 That Charles himself might chase 
 
 To Carisbrook's narrow case." 
 
 Ode on Cromwell's Return from Ireland. 
 
 There is no doubt that Cromwell informed Colonel 
 Whalley, the officer commanding at Hampton, that the 
 agitators designed to seize his person, and that Cromwell 
 advised him to remove as soon as possible. Ten days be- 
 fore his departure, Charles received an anonymous letter, 
 signed E. R., giving the same information, and stating that 
 " IMr. Dell and Mr. Peters, two of the preachers of the 
 army, would willingly bear company in the design ; for they 
 had often said to the agitators that ' your Majesty is but as 
 a dead dog.' " — Parliamentary Hist. vol. xvi. 328. 
 
 - The details of this flight have given rise to much spe- 
 culation, and are differently represented by Clarendon, 
 Ludlow, Sir John Berkley, and Dugdale. The matter 
 seems now to be cleared up by Lord Ashburnham's recent 
 publication of the full narrative of Ashburnhara, the 
 King's favourite groom of the bedchamber, who, along 
 with Berkley, accompanied him. From this it appears 
 that, in consequence of apprehensions of danger to his life 
 B 2
 
 4 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 Hammond the governor, (the friend of Crom- 
 well and son-in-law of Hampden, who had been 
 
 from the soldiers and agitators of the army, the King deter- 
 mined to leave Hampton Court, and that Ashburnham 
 (who, from a short conversation with Hammond not long 
 before, had reason to think him well affected towards the 
 King,) suggested that he should go to Sir John Oglander's 
 house, in the island, and remain concealed till he could 
 learn whether the governor would protect him. On arriving 
 within twenty miles of the coast, Charles resolved to go 
 himself with Colonel Legge to the Earl of Southampton's, 
 at Tichfield ; and desired Ashburnham and Berkley to pro- 
 ceed to the island and learn what conduct the King could 
 expect from Hammond, and then to bring their report to 
 Tichfield. Ashburnham, though unwilling to leave the 
 King, went accordingly, with Berkley, to Newport ; and 
 on meeting the governor, Berkley, according to Ash- 
 bumham's account (which appears confirmed by Ham- 
 mond's letter to the House;, very unskilfully and abruptly 
 announced that the King had left Whitehall for fear of 
 assassination, and was in the neighbourhood. Hammond 
 gave a vague answer, in substance that he would act as 
 must be expected from a man of honour in his position. 
 After dinner, it was at first agreed that Berkley should 
 remain in the castle, while Ashburnham went to the King 
 to announce Hammond's answer ; but afterwards the ex- 
 traordinary measure was adopted, (with the full concurrence, 
 if not on the suggestion, of Ashburnham,) that Hammond 
 should accompany them at once to the King ; and, accord- 
 ingly, Berkley and Ashburnham, the governor, and a cap- 
 tain, went directly to Tichfield. Ashburnham alone went 
 up stairs to the King, and astonished him by announcing 
 the governor's presence. The King exclaimed, " Oh, 
 Jack ! you have undone me ; for I am, by this means, 
 made fast from stirring." Ashburnham wept bitterly, and, 
 in his despair, proposed to the King that he should make 
 away with the governor and the captain. Charles dis- 
 sented, and said, " It is too late to think of any thing but 
 going through the way you have forced upon me, and sr-
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. O 
 
 lately appointed to the governorship,) and con- 
 fined in Carisbrook Castle. The parliament being 
 at his feet, and the King thus quietly imprisoned, 
 Cromwell directed his energies against those vio- 
 lent seditions in the regiments, which he had be- 
 fore fomented for his own ambitious ends, — and 
 which were, indeed, the necessary consequence 
 of the institution of agitators^ and the sort ot 
 
 leave the issue to God ;" and he accordingly went with 
 Hammond to Carisbrook. Ashburnham accounts for his 
 conduct by saying it was the best way to meet the difficulty 
 occasioned by Berkley's indiscretion ; since the governor, 
 after Berkley's disclosure, would have sent spies to follow 
 him, and find where the King was. Charles acquitted 
 Ashburrdiam of all treachery, as did Berkley and Claren- 
 don. — See John Ashburnham's Narrative, published by 
 the late Earl of Ashburnham. Sir John Berkley's Me- 
 moirs. Lord Ashburnham has reprinted these Memoirs in 
 an appendix to his work. 
 
 1 Mr. Godwin says, " their office being to aid the regular 
 council of war, or to agitate such questions as the interest 
 of the army required to have considered." It seems pro- 
 bable that the first was the object which their name was in- 
 tended to imply, and that their proceedings procured them 
 the significant appellation of agitators. Ludlow, Ashburn- 
 ham, Berkley, and Hobbes, in his Behemoth, spell the word 
 " adjutator ;" but writers in general use the other spelling, 
 which is used in most pamphlets of the day. At first, two 
 persons were chosen by the private soldiers (for they now re- 
 fused to be called common soldiers) of each troop or company, 
 to form a sort of representative or lower assembly ; while the 
 superior officers formed a general council of themselves. 
 But this body being found too numerous, afterwards acted as 
 electors ; and chose two or more representatives, either sol- 
 diers or subalterns, for each regiment, forming a " council 
 of agitators." Berry, who had been a gardener, and was 
 captain in Fairfax's regiment of horse, a confidential ally 
 of Cromwell, was president of this council soon after its 
 B 3
 
 6 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 mimic parliam.ent which had been introduced 
 with Cromwell's connivance into the army. The 
 trial of three ringleaders on the field, and the 
 summary execution of one at the rendezvous at 
 Ware, having partially and apparently restored 
 discipline, Cromwell, under the counsels of Ireton 
 his son-in-law, assembled a council of officers at 
 Windsor, to deliberate on the settlement of the 
 nation, and the future disposal of the King's per- 
 son. " In this conference," says Hume, follow- 
 ing Clarendon, " which commenced with devout 
 prayers poured forth by Cromwell himself and 
 other inspired persons (for the officers of this 
 army received inspiration with their commis- 
 sion), was first opened the daring, cruel, and 
 unheard-of counsel of bringing the King to jus- 
 tice, and of punishing by a judicial sentence 
 their sovereign for his pretended tyranny and 
 mal-administration." i While the King lived, 
 whether in prison or at large, Cromwell well 
 knew he must be the rallying point for the 
 efforts of those large bodies of his subjects M'ho 
 were sincerely attached to the monarchy and 
 to his person, and of all those other nume- 
 rous classes who were now disgusted with the 
 oppressive domination and immense pecuniary 
 
 commencement ; and its proceedings were secretly encou- 
 raged by Cromwell, Ireton, and Skippon, who early made 
 Fairfax their tool or their dupe. — See Rushworth, vol. vi. 
 485. Baxter's Life, p. 98. Godwin's Commonwealth, 
 vol. ii. 296. 
 
 1 Hume is confirmed, as to this point, by Sir John Berk- 
 ley, and by Allen, the adjutant-general of the army See 
 
 the authorities cited by Mr. Hallam, Constitutional liistorj', 
 vol. ii. 303.
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 7 
 
 levies of the army and the parliament. ^ " To 
 murder him privately," says Hume, " was ex- 
 posed to the imputation of injustice and cruelty, 
 aggravated by the baseness of such a crime. 
 Some unexpected procedure must, therefore, be 
 attempted, which would astonish the world by 
 its novelty, would bear the semblance of justice, 
 and would cover its barbarity by the audacious- 
 ness of the enterprise." Towards the execution 
 of this sanguinary project events were rapidly 
 tending. The refusal of Charles to accede to the 
 four preliminary proposals (virtually extinguishing 
 all effective royal authority), sent by the parlia- 
 ment to him at Carisbrook, was followed by his 
 close confinement without friends or attendants in 
 the castle, and by the vote of the Commons passed 
 under the open threats of Cromwell and the 
 army, declaring that no more addresses would 
 be sent to the King, nor messages received fi"om 
 him, and that all intercourse with him without 
 leave of the parliament should be treason. The 
 Duke of Hamilton's invasion from Scotland, and 
 
 I " About the month of August, 1646, at Henley on 
 Thames, a woman, having taken notice of the unwonted 
 taxation imposed on her and others by this parliament, 
 expressed (yet in civil terms) some dislike thereof; which 
 being made known to a committee there, she was by them 
 ordered to have her tongue fastened by a nail to the body 
 of a tree by the highway side on a market day, which was 
 accordingly done ; and a paper in great letters, setting 
 forth the heinousness of the fact, fixed to her back to 
 make her the more notorious." From a paper endorsed 
 by Lord Clarendon, " Skippon's Relation of some particular 
 Extravagances of the Parliament."— See Appendii to 
 Clarendon's State Papers, vol. ii. 
 
 B 4
 
 8 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 the risings of the royaUsts and the presbyterians 
 in Essex, Kent, Surrey, and Wales, gave, indeed, 
 a slight check to the triumphant proceedings of 
 the army : for while Cromwell and the troops were 
 engaged in suppressing these opponents of mili- 
 tary usurpation, the moderate presbyterian or 
 constitutional party regained a brief ascendency 
 in parliament. Hollis and the eleven excluded 
 members returned, the vote of non-addresses was 
 repealed, and five peers and ten commoners 
 were sent commissioners to Newport to treat 
 with the king. In the two months' negotiations 
 which followed, Charles, unassisted, carried on a 
 contest of argument on arduous political and re- 
 ligious topics with these fifteen of the ablest 
 senators of the day ; and the commissioners were 
 not more struck with the ravages which persecu- 
 tion and suffering had wrought in his appearance 
 (his hair had become entirely grey), than with 
 the clearness of intellect, the readiness of elocu- 
 tion, and the dignity of deportment which he 
 displayed at these important conferences.^ " The 
 
 1 The King wrote to the Prince Charles from the Isle 
 of Wight several very able and detailed accounts of the 
 state of the negotiation, which letters are preserved in 
 vol. ii. of Lord Clarendon's State Papers. Sir Philip War- 
 wick, who attended him at Newport, says, " Every night 
 when the King was alone, about 8 o'clock, except when 
 he was writing his own papers, he commanded me to come 
 to him, and he looked over the notes of that day's treaty, 
 and the reasons upon which it moved, and so dictated the 
 heads of a despatch which from time to time he made con- 
 cerning the treaty unto his Majesty, then prince ; and this 
 Mr. Oudert, whose hand his Majesty used in those de- 
 spatches, transcribed." — INTemoiis, 325.
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 9 
 
 King is much changed," said the Earl of Salis- 
 bury to Sir Philip Warwick ; " he is extremely 
 improved of late." — " No," repHed Sir Philip ; 
 " he was always so, but you are now at last sen- 
 sible of it." Had the parliament in this treaty 
 been content with any moderate and reasonable 
 concessions from the King, it is possible that a 
 cordial union between the crown and the legis- 
 lature might have been effected in time to resist 
 the tyranny of Cromwell and the army, and to 
 avert that utter destruction of the constitution 
 which afterwards followed. But Charles, after 
 consenting to strip himself of almost all his regal 
 power and prerogative, was pressed to abandon 
 his friends and supporters to attainder and exile, 
 to sacrifice the liberty of his own private wor- 
 ship, and the privilege of the Queen's exemption 
 from the penalties against the mass. These 
 demands he peremptorily refused ; — as to 
 others he hesitated and reasoned ; and the 
 treaty was thus fatally spun out till the army had 
 overcome their various enemies, and wanted no- 
 thing to complete their triumph but the entire sub- 
 jugation of the two Houses and the destruction 
 of the monarch and the monarchy. Charles was 
 seized by the army, and placed in close confine- 
 ment in Hurst Castle, an unwholesome block- 
 house on a narrow, cold, shingly promontory pro- 
 jecting for three miles from the coast of Hamp- 
 shire, opposite the Isle of Wight. The generals 
 presented a remonstrance to parliament complain- 
 ingof the treaty, and demanding the King's punish- 
 ment for the blood spilt during the war; and totally 
 despisingthevotes of theHouseswhich disclaimed
 
 10 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 the imprisonment of the King, and commanded 
 the troops not to approach London, they marched 
 to the metropoHs, and estabhshed their quarters 
 in Whitehall, Palace Yard, St. James's, Covent 
 Garden, and the Mews. A few days afterwards 
 they seized the treasuries of many of the Lon- 
 don Companies, and took 20,000/., from the 
 Weavers' Company alone, for satisfying their ar- 
 rears of pay ; Fairfax notifying the seizure by a 
 letter to the lord mayor. The parliament, in 
 the face of the army, still desperately attempted 
 to close their treaty with the King ; and on the 
 5th of December, after three days' debate, in 
 which Prynne made his most celebrated speech 
 in favour of the King, the Commons voted, by a 
 large majority, that the King's concessions were 
 a foundation for the Houses to proceed upon for 
 the settlement of the kingdom. The leaders of 
 the army now immediately resolved to over- 
 power the refractory commons by that physical 
 force which they had at command ; and the next 
 morning early Colonel Pride and Lord Grey, pro- 
 vided with a list of obnoxious members, agreed 
 on by the officers at Whitehall, surrounded the 
 house with two regiments, seized forty-one of 
 the presbyterian or moderate members in the 
 lobby as they were entering the House, and ex- 
 cluded 160 others from entrance, — an act of 
 unheard-of violence, well known by the name of 
 Colonel Pride s purge.^ The excluded members 
 were for some hours confined in the Court of Wards, 
 and in the coffee-house called Hell under the 
 Exchequer, and afterwards kept for several days 
 
 1 See jwst, in the Memoir of Ireton.
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 11 
 
 at inns in the town. The House being thus re- 
 duced to about eighty, chiefly of the most vehement 
 independents and republicans, reversed the vote 
 of the 5th December ; declared the King's con- 
 cessions unsatisfactory; renewed the vote of non- 
 addresses ; and committed to prison the leaders of 
 the moderate and presbyterian party, who had for 
 a time headed and excited the opposition of the 
 parliament to the crown, but who were now swept 
 from influence by the fanatical officers, expound- 
 ing colonels, and more accomplished republican 
 demagogues, who enjoyed the support of the sol- 
 diers. The House did, indeed, resolve to send for 
 the excluded members, — " rather," as Ludlow 
 says, " upon account of decency than from any 
 desire they had that their message should be 
 obeyed;" and when the serjeant-at-arms returned 
 and acquainted them that the excluded members 
 were detained by the army, the House quietly 
 proceeded in the business before them.' The 
 
 1 Ludlow says, that Cromwell the night after the in- 
 terruption of the House arrived from Scotland, and lay at 
 Whitehall ; where, and at other places, he declared he had 
 not been acquainted with this design : yet, since it was 
 done, he was glad of it, and would endeavour to maintain 
 it. Clarendon says Fairfax, the general, knew nothing of 
 it ; which Fairfax in his Memoirs confirms : but Ludlow 
 says, Ireton communicated the intention to Fairfax. The 
 plan seems to have been agreed on by Ludlow, Ireton, 
 and four other officers and members of the House, the day 
 before it was executed. See Ludlow's Memoirs. Ireton, 
 when he and Cromwell were in treaty with Charles, and 
 making protestations of fidelity, said to the King, that 
 "they would purge, and never cease purging the Houses, 
 till they had made them of such a temper as would do his 
 Majesty's business." Pride rose, it is said, from a drayman 
 to be a brewer, and theij a colonel, and was knighted by
 
 12 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 leaders of the army had no desire to dip their 
 hands in the blood of the King, either by an as- 
 sassination or a trial, without dividing the odium 
 and responsibility with the parliament, or at least 
 with the Commons. Their memorable purifica- 
 tion of the House removed ah the obstacles which 
 existed to its concurrence. In order to give a 
 semblance of regularity and principle to their 
 plan, it was necessary to make a law for the 
 prosecution and punishment of the King, for which 
 nothing either in the common or statute laAv of 
 England gave a shadow of authority. The puri- 
 fied Commons accordingly voted, " that by the 
 fundamental law of the land it is treason for the 
 King of England for the time being to levy war 
 against the parliament and kingdom ;" and sent 
 the resolution to the Lords for their concurrence. 
 The Lords, without a dissentient voice, rejected 
 this vote, and adjourned for ten daj^s, with a view, 
 if possible, to retard the violent and revolutionary 
 career of the Commons. The Commons then 
 passed a vote, specious in appearance, but falla- 
 cious in principle, and most perilous in its prac- 
 tical application, " that the people ai'e the origin 
 of all just power;" and grounded on it a de- 
 Cromwell (according to Ludlow with a fagot stick), and 
 made a lord of his house of peers, in which Lord Warwick 
 refused to sit with him and with Hewson, another regicide, 
 ■who had been a cobbler. Pride was nicknamed "Cromwell's 
 dray-horse," and, according to Noble, received a grant of the 
 manor and estate of Holmby, where he cut down the woods. 
 Cromwell once said to Ludlow, when they were in the 
 House, and molested by the presbyterian party, " These 
 fellows will never be quiet till they are pulled out by the 
 ears." — See D'lsraeli's Commentaries on the Life and 
 Reign of Charles, vol. v. 242.
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 13 
 
 claratioR, " that the House of Commons, being 
 chosen by and representing the people, are the 
 supreme power in the nation, — that ivhatsoever is 
 enacted or declared for law by the Commons in 
 parliament hath the force of a law, and the people 
 are concluded thereby, though the consent of the 
 King and the Peers be not had thereto^ On the 
 same day the Commons passed an ordinance for 
 erecting a High Court of Justice for trying the 
 King, and proceeding to sentence against him ; 
 appointing 135 persons commissioners for this 
 purpose, of whom any twenty were empowered 
 to act — a measure which was strongly urged on 
 the House by petitions presented from the Com- 
 mon Council of London, the borough of South- 
 wark, and some counties in England. The list 
 of commissioners included Fairfax, Cromwell, 
 Ireton, Waller, Skippon, Harrison, Whalley, 
 Pride, Ewer, Tomlinson — in all, three generals 
 and thirty-four colonels of the army; the Lords 
 IMounson, Grey of Grooby, and Lisle ; the prin- 
 cipal members of the reduced House of Com- 
 mons; Wilson, Fowks, Pennington, and Andrews, 
 aldermen of the city of London ; Bradshaw, 
 Thorpe, and Nicholas, Serjeants at law; twenty- 
 two persons who are designated either as knights 
 or baronets ; various citizens of London, and some 
 few country gentlemen, " whose zeal," as Cla- 
 rendon says, " had been taken notice of for the 
 cause, and who were like to take such a prefer- 
 ment as a testimony of the parliament's confidence 
 in them." Whitlock, Sir Thomas Widdrington, 
 Wilson, and other members even of the reduced 
 House, declined any share in so monstrous a pro-
 
 14? THE TRIAL OF 
 
 ceeding. The former, however, accepted after- 
 wards the office of one of the commissioners of the 
 new great seal (which Widdrington refused), and in 
 that capacity reluctantly drew the act " for taking 
 away the House of Lords,'' though he had ex- 
 pressly dissented from the vote to that effect. 
 The twelve judges, ten of whom had been created 
 by the parliament, were at first named in the 
 commission ; but, as they unanimously declared 
 it contrary to every principle of English law that 
 the King should be tried by his subjects, their 
 names were erased ; and six of them shortly 
 afterwards declined to retain their judicial offices 
 under the usurping commonwealth. 
 
 The King was in the mean time conveyed, 
 under the escort of Harrison and a body of dra- 
 goons, from Hurst Castle to Windsor. Harrison 
 treated him during the journey with a mixture oi 
 rigour and respect ; kept himself uncovered ; was 
 very laconic in his speech ; but in some degree 
 consulted his wishes, and even permitted him to 
 rest and dine at Bagshot with his loyal friends, 
 Lord and Lady Newburgh', who had corre- 
 sponded with the King constantly in cipher, and 
 who had written to press his visiting them on his 
 road, with a view to attempt his escape. It was 
 proposed that the King should object to the horse 
 he had ridden, and that Lord Newburgh should 
 offer to put him on a very fleet horse which he 
 possessed, by which he might seize an oppor- 
 tunity of riding away from his escort and gain 
 
 1 Clarendon is confirmed as to this visit by the evidence 
 of Lord Newburgh on the trial of Harrison. — See State 
 Trials, vol. v.
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 15 
 
 certain stations in Windsor Forest, where relays 
 of horses should be placed for him. On arriving 
 at Lord Newburgh's, the King was secretly told 
 that the horse in question was accidentally lamed 
 a few days before ; but that another would be 
 supplied him. The King, however, abandoned 
 the project, which the strictness of Harrison, and 
 the vigilance of his guards, must have defeated 
 had it been attempted ; and he arrived that night 
 at Windsor Castle. Here he enjoyed a hurried 
 interview with the Duke of Hamilton, his faithful 
 and zealous friend and supporter, who was con- 
 fined at Windsor on a capital charge for his ex- 
 ertions in the King's cause, and whose blood was 
 soon afterwards shed by the murderers of his 
 master. Hamilton fell on his knees before 
 Charles, exclaiming — " My dear master ! " — " I 
 have been so, indeed, to you," replied Charles, 
 embracing him ; when his guards immediately 
 hurried him away ; and he was shortly afterwards 
 conveyed by Harrison to St. James's. 
 
 On the 9th of January, 1 648-9, pursuant to 
 order of the commissioners and of the rump of the 
 House of Commons, proclamation was solemnly 
 made by Dendy, serjeant-at-arms, in Westminster 
 Hall, (he riding into the middle of the hall with 
 the mace on his shoulder, when the Court of 
 Chancery was sitting at a general seal,) and also 
 at the Old Exchange and Cheapside, announcing 
 the trial. Drums were beating and trumpets 
 sounding. The streets were thronged with spec- 
 tators ; but no violence or injury occurred. John 
 Bradshaw, serjeant-at-law, was (contrary to his 
 earnest desire, and his objections to the title
 
 16 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 given him,) named Lord President of the court ; 
 Mr. Aske, Dr. Dorislausi, Mr. Steel (attorney), 
 and Mr. Cook (soHcitor), were appointed counsel 
 for the kingdom of England, to prepare and pro- 
 secute the charge against the King ; in which 
 business eight of the commissioners were ex- 
 pressly associated with them. Sir Hardress 
 Waller and Colonel Harrison were ordered to de- 
 sire the Lord General to appoint sufficient guards 
 for the occasion ; and Colonel Tichbourne and 
 others were charged to make preparations that 
 the trial might be performed in a solemn manner. 
 The serjeant-at-arms was ordered to search 
 
 1 Dorislaus was afterwards sent by the usurping go- 
 vernment as their agent to the states of Holland, where he 
 was barbarously assassinated at the Hague, as he sat at 
 supper, by six Scotchmen in the train of the Marquis of 
 Montrose. His body was brought to England and buried 
 in Westminster Abbey ; and was one of those (Cromwell's, 
 Pym's, and Blake's were others) which were taken up by 
 the dean and chapter under the King's warrant after the 
 restoration, and interred in the churchyard. The counsel 
 for " the kingdom " were, according to Clarendon, very 
 obscure men, scarce known or heard of in their profession. 
 Cook was rewarded by the usurper with the appointment 
 of Chief Justice in Ireland. He appears to have been a 
 man of some talent and reading, but a violent fanatic. 
 He had travelled in Italy, and lived with Milton's friend, 
 Diodati, at Geneva. He was tried and executed with others 
 of the regicides in 1660 ; and his last letters to and convers- 
 ations with his wife and his friends present a strange mixture 
 of pedantry and exulting religious enthusiasm. One of his 
 letters to a friend after his condemnation commences thus : 
 
 — " Dear brother, beloved in the Lord, * condemnatus sum 
 ad mortem ; ' and this is my cordial farewell to you and all 
 saints from my Jeremiah's prison : to-morrow, I shall be in 
 eternal glory in the bosom of Christ, where my father Abra- 
 ham is, and a guard of angels will convey my soul thither." 
 
 — See State Trials, vol. v. 1271.
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 17 
 
 and secure the vaults under the Painted Cham- 
 ber, with such assistance of soldiery as should 
 be needful. Separate committees were named 
 to consider of the manner and order of the trial, 
 of the place where it was to be held, of the 
 manner of bringing the King to the court, and of 
 lodging him during the trial, and of securing the 
 safe sitting of the court. Hilary term being 
 near at hand, the court resolved that it was fit a 
 fortnight of it should be adjourned, and Mr. Lisle 
 v/as desired to move the House accordingly. ^ Sir 
 Robert Cotton's house in Palace Yard, on the 
 bank of the Thames, adjoining Westminster Hall, 
 was appointed for the King's lodging, to which 
 the King was conveyed by water, and where his 
 Majesty slept after the first night of the trial in 
 
 1 The Commons passed an ordinance for the purpose. 
 But when this was brought to the Commissioners of the 
 Great Seal, with an order to frame writs accordingly, 
 they objected, because the Lords had not concurred in the 
 act ; and they deemed the authority of the Commons alone 
 insufficient. When the Covimons heard this, they refused, 
 by a large ninjority, to send to the Lords for their con- 
 ciii-rence. The Lords, however, in a few days, of their 
 own motion, passed an ordinance to the effect of that of 
 the Commons ; but the Commons having before voted 
 " that the Commons were the supreme power, and that 
 the committees which were before of the Lords and Com- 
 mons might thenceforward act, though the Lords join not," 
 they would not own the Lords as formerly by agreeing to 
 their ordinance. The commissioners still objecting to 
 issue the writs, the Commons ordered that the Commons' 
 commissioners should issue them, though the Lords' com- 
 missioners should not join, which Sir Thomas Widdrington 
 and Mr. Whitlock at last agreed to do. — Rushworth, 
 vol. vii, Whitlock's Memorials. This matter occasioned 
 a debate of a whole dav.
 
 18 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 the chamber next the study ; the great chamber 
 acljoinmg the bedchamber being used as his dining- 
 room. A corps de garde for 200 foot soldiers was 
 constructed by the water-side in Sir Robert Cot- 
 ton's garden. Thirty officers attended the King as 
 his guard, two of the number sleeping in his bed- 
 chamber ; while ten companies of foot guarded 
 Sir Robert Cotton's house. Bradshaw was lodged 
 at Sir Abraham Williams's house in New Palace 
 Yard ; and Sir Henry Mildmay and others were 
 charged with providing all necessaries for him, as 
 well as for the King, during the trial. 
 
 The place appointed for the trial was the site 
 of the old Courts of King's Bench and Chancery, 
 at the upper or south end of Westminster Hall, 
 the partition which divided them being taken 
 down. The hall was divided by two strong 
 bars placed across it about forty feet to the north 
 of the court. The great Gothic portal of the 
 hall was open to the people, who witnessed the 
 proceeding in vast crowds. A rail ran from the 
 court down the length of the hall to the western 
 side of the great door, for separating the people 
 from the soldiers ; the latter being stationed in 
 great force, armed with partisans or halberts, 
 within the rail on its western side, by the old 
 Courts of Common Pleas and Exchequer Cham- 
 ber ; while the public thronging in at the great 
 door formed a dense crowd in the large space 
 left open on the eastern or Thames side of the 
 rail. Strong guards were stationed upon the 
 leads, and at the windows looking on the hall. 
 All the narrow avenues to the hall were either 
 stopped up with masonry, or strongly guarded ;
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 19 
 
 and it was expressly ordered, " that all back 
 doors from the house called Hell ^ (a coffee-house 
 under the old Exchequer Chamber) be stopped 
 up during the King's trial." For ten days pre- 
 vious to the opening of the trial, the commis- 
 sioners (sometimes to the number of fifty-eight, 
 sometimes a much smaller number,) met in pri- 
 vate in the Painted Chamber, where they received 
 the reports of the committees appointed to ar- 
 range the proceedings, conferred with the coun- 
 sel ordered to prepare the charge, and directed 
 the arrangements and preparations for the pro- 
 ceeding. On the very morning of the trial, their 
 private conference was broken up by the serjeant- 
 at-arms from the Commons, (whose numbers 
 were, as it has been seen, now reduced to about 
 eighty,) demanding the immediate attendance in 
 the House of all its members who were of the 
 court. Ten or twelve of the commissioners ab- 
 senting themselves from these private meetings, it 
 was necessary to issue warrants, and compel their 
 attendance by a serjeant-at-arms. The com- 
 missioners ordered that none of the court should 
 speak openly during the trial but the Lord Pre- 
 sident and the counsel; and that in case of any dif- 
 ficulty arising to any one, he should desire the 
 President that the court might retire and advise 
 — a precaution that appeared in the result by no 
 means needless, and to be shrewdly devised for 
 
 1 There was also another tavern called Heaven, on the 
 site of the present Committee Rooms of the House of 
 Commons, at which Pepys, in his Memoirs, speaks of din- 
 ing, and which Butler calls — 
 
 " False Heav'n at the end of the Hall." — Hudibras. 
 
 c 2
 
 20 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 avoiding any public dissensions in the court. 
 The method of proceeding as to sending for and 
 bringing in the prisoner, or commanding him, 
 awavj acquainting him with the cause of bringing 
 him in, and demanding his answers, reprehending 
 and admonishing him, in case his language or 
 carriage towards the court should be in their 
 mdgment insolent or contemptuous, was ex- 
 pressly left to the discretion of Bradshaw, to 
 whom John Lisle and William Say were ap- 
 pointed assistants, and ordered to sit next to him 
 in the court. The court decided not to insist on 
 the King's pulling off his hat for that day ; and if 
 he desired time to answer, the Lord President 
 was to grant it. 
 
 During these preparations for the audacious 
 act which was about to take place, the minds of 
 the vulgar were lost in vague astonishment, while 
 those of the sagacious and reflecting were, in 
 some instances, filled with silent indignation and 
 horror, and in all with gloomy forebodings for 
 their own and their country's safety. Whitlock, 
 who was behind the scenes in all the transactions 
 of these times, leaves some curious details of 
 their character and spirit. A week before the 
 trial commenced, he writes, he " visited Chief 
 Justice Rolle, a wise and learned man. He 
 seemed much to scruple the casting off of the 
 Lords' House, and was much troubled at it ; 
 yet he greatly encouraged me to attend the 
 House of Commons, notwithstanding the present 
 force upon them, which could not dispense with 
 their attendance and performance of their duty, 
 who had no force upon them in particular."
 
 n 
 
 ^rki^K ©f illbt iKii-asi) 
 
 # 

 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 2} 
 
 Next day he says, " The commissioners for trial 
 of the King being to sit in the afternoon (a pre- 
 liminary sitting), the House adjourned earlier;" 
 — and then proceeds with an honest ingenuous- 
 ness : — " We heard demurrers forenoon and af- 
 ternoon. The counsel were more peremptory 
 and unsatisfied than ordinary, and used us like de- 
 clinmg officers^ And two days after he says, 
 "The times were indeed full of dread and danger, 
 and of trouble and change, which caused many a 
 perplexed thought in sober men, who yet put 
 their trust in God, and resolved to depend on 
 Him, and to go on in the way wherein He had 
 set them, whilst they were permitted." ' 
 
 The Trial. — On the 20th of January, 1649, 
 the Lord President Bradshaw, his assistants, and 
 the commissioners, having adjourned from the 
 Painted Chamber, proceeded to the Hall to open 
 the court. The royal sword of state (which had 
 been taken for the purpose from the custody of 
 Sir Henry Mildmay-, the former keeper of the 
 
 1 Memorials. 
 
 - Rushworth says, there were large debates in the Painted 
 Chamber, whether the commissioners should have both a 
 sword and mace with the arms of the King, and it was 
 agreed to have both. Clarendon says, *' The two men 
 who were alone known to the King (of all the Commis- 
 sioners) before the troubles, were Sir Henry Mildmay, 
 the Master of tlie King's Jewel House, one who had been 
 bred up in the court, being younger brother of a good 
 family in Essex, and who had been prosecuted with so 
 great favours and bounties by King James and by his 
 Majesty, that he was raised by them to a great estate, and 
 preferred to that office in his house, which is the best 
 under those which entitle the officers to be of the Privy 
 Council." Clarendon's sketch of the characters of these 
 C 3
 
 22 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 Jewel House to the King,) was borne by one 
 Humphreys before Bradshaw, who was also pre- 
 ceded by a mace, and attended by the ushers 
 and officers of the court, and a guard of twenty- 
 one gentlemen carrying partisans. Bradshaw 
 in a scarlet robe, and covered by his " broad- 
 brimmed hat," placed himself in a crimson 
 velvet chair in the centre of the court, with 
 a desk and velvet cushion before him ; Say and 
 Lisle on each side of him; and the two clerks 
 of the court sitting below him at a table, co- 
 vered with a rich Turkey carpet, on which was 
 laid the sword of state and the mace. The rest 
 of the court, with their hats on, and, according 
 to Rushworth, " in their best habits," took their 
 
 two renegade regicides is highly instructive and curious. 
 Of Mildmay he says, " No man was more obsequious than 
 he to the court ivhilst it Jlourished ; — a great Jtatterer of 
 all persons in authority, and a spy in all places for them. 
 From the beginning of the parliament he concurred with 
 those who were most violent against the court, and most 
 like to prevail against it ; and being thereupon branded 
 with ingratitude, as that brand commonly makes men most 
 impudent, he continued his desperate pace with them till 
 he became one of the murtherers of his master. The 
 other was Sir John Danvers, the younger brother and heir 
 of the Earl of Danby, who was a gentleman of the Privy 
 Chamber to the King ; and being neglected by his brother, 
 and having by a vain expense in his way of living contracted 
 a vast debt which he knew not how to pay, and being a proud, 
 formal, weak man, between being seduced and a seducer, 
 became so far involved in their counsels, that he suffered 
 himself to be applied to their worst offices, taking it to be 
 a high honour to sit on the same bench with Cromwell, 
 who employed and contemned him at once ; nor did that 
 party of miscreants look upon any two men in the kingdom 
 with that scorn and detestation, as they did upon Danvers 
 and Mildmay." — Book xi. p. 197.
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 
 
 23 
 
 seats on side benches, hung with scarlet ; and 
 the guard of partians divided themselves on 
 each side of the court. 
 
 The commissioners present were, — 
 
 John Bradshaw, Serjeant at Law, Lord President, 
 
 Oliver Cromwell, 
 
 Henry Ireton, 
 
 Sir Hardress Waller, 
 
 Valentine Wauton, 
 
 ThomasLordGrey of Grooby, 
 
 William Lord Mounson, 
 
 Sir John Danvers, 
 
 Sir Thomas Mauleverer, Bart., 
 
 Sir John Bourchier, Knight, 
 
 Isaac Pennington, Alderman 
 
 of London, 
 Henry Marten, 
 William Purefoy, 
 John Barkstead, 
 John Blackiston, 
 Gilbert Millington, 
 Sir William Constable, Bart., 
 Edmond Ludlow, 
 John Hutchinson, 
 Sir Michael Livesey, Bart., 
 Robert Tichbourne, 
 Owen Roe, 
 Robert Lilbourne, 
 Adrian Scroope, 
 Thomas Horton, 
 Thomas Hammond, 
 John Lisle, 
 Nicholas Love, 
 Vincent Potter, 
 Augustine Garland, 
 Richard Deane, 
 John Okey, 
 John Huson, 
 William Goffe, 
 
 Thomas Harrison, 
 Edward Whalley, 
 Thomas Pride, 
 Isaac Ewer, 
 Cornelius Holland, 
 John Carew, 
 John Jones, 
 Thomas Lister, 
 Peregrine Pelham, 
 Francis Allen, 
 Thomas Challonei', 
 John Moore, 
 William Say, 
 John Alured, 
 Francis Lassels, 
 Henry Smith, 
 James Challoner, 
 Humphry Edwards, 
 Gregory Clement, 
 John Fry, 
 
 Sir Gregory Norton, Bart. 
 Edmund Harvey, 
 John Venn, 
 Thomas Scot, 
 William Cawley, 
 Anthony Stapeley, 
 John Downs, 
 John Dixwell, 
 Simeon Meyne, 
 James T^-mple, 
 Peter Temple, 
 Daniel Blagrave, 
 John Brown. 
 
 c 4
 
 24 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 The court being thus sat, and silence enjoined, 
 the great gate of the hall was thrown open, when 
 the vast area was presently filled by a crowd eager 
 to witness the astonishing spectacle of a monarch 
 tried by his revolted subjects. Silence being 
 again proclaimed, the act of the Commons for 
 erecting the court was read aloud by one of the 
 clerks. The commissioners were thereupon called; 
 and each commissioner rose as he answered to 
 his name. Bradshaw's name was first called, 
 and next that of Fairfax, the Lord General, to 
 which no answer was made. The name was re- 
 peated by the clerk, on which a voice in the 
 crowd was heard to say, " He has more wit than 
 to be here," which occasioned some disorder in 
 the court, and loud enquiries for the name of the 
 audacious speaker ; but silence was restored, and 
 the clerk, passing Fairfax's name, without any 
 notice being taken of his absence, proceeded. 
 
 When all the commissioners present had an- 
 swered to their names, the court commanded the 
 serjeant-at-arms to send for the prisoner ; and in 
 a quarter of an hour Colonel Tomlinson, who 
 had the King in charge, conducted him into 
 court. He was attended by Colonel Hacker, 
 and thirty-two officers, holding partisans, and by 
 his own servants, and advanced up the side of 
 the Hall next the Thames from the house of Sir 
 Robert Cotton. The serjeant-at-arms, with his 
 mace, received the King in the Hall, and con- 
 ducted him to the bar, where a crimson-velvet 
 chair was placed for him facing the court. After 
 a stern and steadfast gaze on the court, and on 
 the people in the galleries on each side of him.
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 25 
 
 the King placed himself in the chair, not at all 
 moving his hat, showing neither the least emo- 
 tion nor the slightest respect to the tribunal be- 
 fore him. Presently he rose up, and turned 
 about, looking down the vast hall : first on the 
 guards which were ranged on its left or western 
 side, and then on the eager waving multitude of 
 his own subjects which filled the space on the 
 right. The guard attending him divided on each 
 side of the court, and the King's servants who 
 followed him to the bar stood on the left of their 
 master. 
 
 The King being again seated, Bradshaw ad- 
 dressed him, telling him that the Commons of Eng- 
 land being sensible of the calamities brought on 
 the nation, and of the innocent blood which had 
 been shed in it, which was fixed on him as the 
 principal author, had resolved to make inquisi- 
 tion for this blood; and, according to the debt 
 they owed to God, to justice, the kingdom, and 
 themselves, and according to the fundamental 
 power and trust reposed in them by the people, 
 had resolved to bring him to trial and judgment. 
 They had constituted the court before which he 
 was brought ; he would hear the charge read ; and 
 the court would proceed according to justice. 
 Cook, the solicitor for the commonwealth, (Steel 
 the attorney having two days before excused 
 himself on the ground of being sick, and in bed,) 
 then rose to speak ; but the King wishing to be 
 heard, softly laid his staff two or three times on 
 Cook's shoulder, and bade him hold. Bradshaw 
 interposed, and ordered Cook to proceed, when 
 Cook (according to the order of the commission-
 
 26 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 ers delivered to the counsel before the trial) ex- 
 hibited on behalf of the people of England a 
 charge of high treason, and other higher crimes, 
 against Charles Stuart, Kingof England, and pray- 
 ed that the charge might be received and read. 
 He then delivered in the charge in writing to the 
 court, when Bradshaw ordered the clerk to read 
 it. The King interrupted the reading, and de- 
 sired to speak ; but Bradshaw ordered the clerk 
 to read, and told the King if he had any thing to 
 say after the reading the court would hear him. 
 The Charge. — The "charge," which could 
 not from its very nature possess either the form or 
 substance of any proceeding known to the law of 
 England, seems yet to have been framed with a 
 desire of giving it some faint resemblance to a 
 known and established judicial procedure; viz. an 
 indictment for the offence of treason, in " levying 
 war" against the sovereign: the "parliament 
 and the people" being in the charge the alleged 
 objects of the war levied, instead of the King of 
 the realm ; and the " people of England" being 
 the prosecutors, instead of " the King." It stated, 
 that Charles Stuart being admitted King of Eng- 
 land, and trusted with a limited power to govern 
 according to the' laws, and by his trust and oath 
 being obliged to use his power for the good of 
 his people, and for the preservation of their 
 liberties ; yet, out of wicked design to uphold in 
 himself unlimited and t3Tannical power, and to 
 overthrow the rights and liberties of his people, 
 and to take away the foundations thereof, for the 
 acccomplishment of his designs treacherously 
 and wickedly levied war against the parliament
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 21 
 
 and the people therein represented, particularly 
 on the 30th of June, 1642, at Beverley, in York- 
 shire ; and on the 4th of August at the town of 
 Nottingham ; and on the 23d of October in the 
 same year at Edge Hill and Keynton Field, in 
 the county of Warwick; and on the 30th of 
 November in the same year at Brentford in 
 Middlesex ; and on the 30th of August, 164-3, 
 at Caversham Bridge, near Reading, in the county 
 of Berks ; and on the 31st of July, ]64'4, at Crop- 
 redy Bridge, in Oxon ; and on the 8th of June, 
 1645, at the town of Leicester ; and on the 14th 
 of the same month at Naseby Field, in the county 
 of Northampton ; at which times and places, and 
 in 1646, he Charles Stuart caused thousands of 
 the free people of the nation to be slain, and by 
 divisions within the land, invasions from foreign 
 parts, and other means carried on the said war 
 by land and sea, and particularly for that purpose 
 gave commission to his son, the prince, and others. 
 By which unnatural wars much innocent blood 
 of the free people of this nation had been spilt, 
 families undone, the public treasury wasted and 
 exhausted, trade decayed, and parts of the land 
 spoiled even to desolation ; and for further pro- 
 secution of his designs, the said Charles Stuart 
 continued his commissions to the prince and 
 other rebels, and to the Earl of Ormond and the 
 Irish rebels. All which wicked designs and wars 
 were carried on for the advancement of a per- 
 sonal interest of will and power, and a pretended 
 prerogative to himself and his family, against the 
 liberty and peace of the nation, by and for whom 
 he was intrusted as aforesaid. And the said
 
 28 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 John Cook, by protestation reserving, on behalf 
 of the people of England, the liberty of exhibit- 
 ing any other charge ; and also of replying to the 
 answers which the said Charles Stuart should 
 make to the premises, did, for the said treasons 
 and crimes, impeach the said Charles Stuart as 
 a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and a public and im- 
 placable enemy to the commonwealth of England, 
 and prayed that he might be put to answer the 
 premises, and that such proceedings should be 
 had as were agreeable to justice. 
 
 During the reading of the charge, the King sat 
 entirely unmoved in his chair, looking sometimes 
 to the court and sometimes to the galleries. Oc- 
 casionally he rose up and turned iibout to behold 
 the guards and spectators, and then sat down 
 again, looking very sternly, but with a majestic 
 and composed countenance, unruffled by the 
 slightest emotion, till the clerk came to the 
 v/ords Charles Stuart as a tyrant^ traitor^ mur- 
 derer^ &c. ; at which the King laughed, as he sat, 
 in the face of the Court. The silver head of his 
 staff happened to fall off, at which he appeared 
 surprised : Herbert, who stood near him, offered 
 to pick it up, but Charles, seeing he could 
 not reach it, stooped for it himself. When the 
 words were read stating the charge to be ex- 
 hibited " on behalf of the people of England," 
 a voice, in a loud tone, called out, " No, nor the 
 half of the people — it is false — where are they 
 or their consents? — Oliver Cromwell is a traitor] " 
 This occasioned a confusion in the court ; Co- 
 lonel Axtell even commanded the soldiers to fire 
 into the box from which the voice proceeded.
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 29 
 
 But it was soon discovered that these words, 
 as well as the former exclamation on calling 
 Fairfax's name, were uttered by Lady Fairfax, 
 the General's wife, who was immediately com- 
 pelled by the guard to withdraw, i 
 
 I Clarendon says, " She was of a vety noble extraction, 
 one of the daughters and heirs of Horace Lord Vere of 
 Tilbury, who having been bred in Holland had not that 
 reverence for the church of England as she ought to have 
 had, and so had unhappily concurred in her husband's 
 entering into rebellion, never imagining what misery it 
 would bring upon the kingdom, and now abhorred the 
 work in hand as much as any body could do ; and did all 
 she could to hinder her husband from acting any part in 
 it. Nor did he ever sit in that bloody court, though he 
 was thought overwitted by Cromwell, and made a property 
 to bring that to pass which could very hardly have been 
 otherwise effected. " Book xi. p. 196. That Lady Fairfax, 
 sitting with Mrs. Nelson, the sister of Sir Purbeck Temple, 
 was the person making these exclamations, was proved 
 by Sir Purbeck and other witnesses on the trial of Colonel 
 Axtell. See State Trials, vol. v. Fairfax, who was a man 
 of consummate military skill, and of a generous and feeling 
 nature, of whom his son-in-law, Villiers, Duke of Buck- 
 ingham, writes, 
 
 " He had the fierceness of the manliest mind, 
 And all the meekness, too, of woman-kind," 
 
 attended the first meeting of the commissioners in the 
 Painted Chamber on the 8th of January, but was never 
 afterwards present at the court. Mr. Godwin labours to 
 show that his wife's influence overcame his own real prin- 
 ciples. But in his own Memoirs, p. 125., he says, " From 
 the time that the council of officers declared their usurped 
 authority at Triplow Heath, I never gave my free consent 
 to any thing they did." And of the trial he says, "My 
 afflicted and troubled mind for it, and my earnest endea- 
 vours to prevent it, will, I hope, sufficiently attest my dis- 
 like and abhorrence of the fact. Jnd what will they not do
 
 30 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 These expressions of sympathy for the King, 
 and of indignation against the proceeding, were, 
 according to Whitlock, not confined to this 
 spirited lady, but were ft'equently exhibited by 
 the spectators in the gallery. 
 
 The charge being read, 
 
 Bradshaw began : — Sir, You have now heard 
 your charge read ; the court expects your 
 answer. 
 
 The King. I would know by what power 
 I am called hither ; I was not long ago in the 
 Isle of Wight ; how I came there, is a longer story 
 than is fit at this time for me to speak of; but 
 there I entered into a treaty with both Houses 
 of Parliament, with as much public faith as it is 
 possible to be had of any people in the world. I 
 treated there with a number of honourable lords 
 and gentlemen, and treated honestly and up- 
 rightly. I cannot say but they did very nobly 
 with me. We were upon a conclusion of the 
 treaty. Now I would know by what authority, I 
 mean lawful (there are many unlawful ^autho- 
 rities in the world, thieves and robbers by the 
 highways) — but I would know by what authority 
 I was brought from thence, and carried from 
 place to place ; and when I know by what lawful 
 authority, I shall answer. Remember I am your 
 
 tiritli the shrubs, having cut down the cedar ? " And yet 
 Fairfax signed the declaration of the army calling for the 
 punishment of the King, ordered his removal to Hurst 
 Castle, and marched with the troops to London. Every 
 where, but in battle, his conduct appears to have been 
 vacillating; — influenced by his own diffident and amiable 
 feelings, and, perhaps by the counsels of his wife.
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 31 
 
 King, your lawful King, and what sins you bring 
 upon your heads, and the judgment of God upon 
 this land; think well upon it, — I say, think well 
 upon it, before you go further from one sin to a 
 greater. Let me know by what lawful authority 
 I am seated here, and I shall not be unwilling to 
 answer. In the mean time, I have a trust com- 
 mitted to me by God, by old and lawful descent, 
 — I will not betray it, to answer to a new un- 
 lawful authority : therefore resolve me that, and 
 you shall hear more of me. 
 
 Bradshaiv. If you had been pleased to have 
 observed what was hinted to you by the court, at 
 your first coming hither, you would have known 
 by what authority; which authority requires you, 
 in the name of the people of England, of which 
 you are elected King, to answer. 
 
 The King. No, Sir, I deny that. 
 
 Bradshaw. If you acknowledge not the au- 
 thority of the court, they must proceed. 
 
 The King. I do tell them so : England was 
 never an elective kingdom, but an hereditary 
 kingdom for near these thousand years ; there- 
 fore let me know by what authority I am called 
 hither : I do stand more for the liberty of my 
 people than any here that come to be my pre- 
 tended judges ; let me know by what lawful au- 
 thority I am seated here, and I will answer it, 
 otherwise I will not answer it. 
 
 Bradshaw. Sir, how well you have managed 
 your trust is known : your way of ansv/er is to 
 interrogate the court, which beseems not you 
 in this condition. You have been told of it twice 
 or thrice. 
 
 TJie King.' Here is a gentleman, Lieu-
 
 i32 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 tenant Colonel Cobbet ; ask him, if he did not 
 bring me from the Isle of Wight by force. I 
 do not come here as submitting to the court : I 
 will stand as much for the privilege of the House 
 of Commons, rightly understood, as any man. I 
 see no House of Lords here, that may constitute 
 a parliament ; and the King too should have been. 
 Is this the bringing of the King to his parliament ? 
 Is this the bringing an end to the treaty in the 
 public faith of the world ? Let me see a legal 
 authority warranted by the word of God, the 
 Scriptures, or warranted by the constitutions of 
 the kingdom, and I will answer. 
 
 JBradshmv. Sir, you have propounded a 
 question, and have been answered. Seeing you 
 will not answer, the court will consider how to 
 proceed : in the mean time, those that brought 
 you hither, are to take charge of you back again. 
 Tlie court desires to know, whether this be all 
 the answer you will give, or no. 
 
 TTie King. Sir, I desire that you would give 
 me, and all the world, satisfaction in this. Let me 
 tell you, it is not a slight thing you are about. 
 I am sworn to keep the peace, by that duty 
 I owe to God and my country, and I will do it to 
 the last breath of my body ; and therefore you 
 shall do well to satisfy first God, and then the 
 country, by what authority you do it : if you do 
 it by an usurped authority, you cannot answer 
 it. There is a God in heaven, that will call you, 
 and all that give you power, to account. Satisfy 
 me, and I will answer ; otherwise I betray my 
 trust, and the liberties of the people : for I do 
 avow, that it is as great a sin to withstand lawfi.il
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 33 
 
 authority, as it is to submit to a tyrannical or 
 any otherways unlawful authority ; and therefore 
 satisfy God and me, and all the world in that, 
 and you shall receive my answer. I am not afraid 
 of that bill. 
 
 Bradshaw. The court expects you should 
 give them a final answer; their purpose is to 
 adjourn to Monday next : if you do not satisfy 
 yourself, we are satisfied with our authority ; it is 
 upon God's authority and the kingdom's. 
 
 The King, For answer, let me tell you, you 
 have shown no lawful authority to satisfy any 
 reasonable man. 
 
 Bradshaiv. That is in yoiu" apprehension ; 
 we are satisfied that are your judges. 
 
 The King. It is not my apprehension, nor 
 yours, that ought to decide it. 
 
 Bradshaw. The court hath heard you, and 
 you are to be disposed of as they have com- 
 manded. 
 
 So commanding the guard to take him away, 
 his Majesty only replied, " Well, Sir !" And at 
 his going down, pointing with his staff towards 
 the sword, he said, " I do not fear that." As he 
 went down the stairs, the people in the hall 
 cried out, " God save the King ! " notwithstanding 
 some were set there by the republicans and 
 soldiers to lead the clamour for " justice."^ i 
 
 The course pursued by the King, in steadily 
 denying the jurisdiction of the court, is said to 
 have been advisedby the celebrated MatthewHale, 
 then a serjeant-at-law. It saved Charles from be- 
 ing insulted by a laboured, pedantic, sophistical, 
 
 I Nalson.
 
 34? THE TRIAL OF 
 
 and canting speech,which Cook was prepared to de- 
 liver, in case the King had pleaded, and which he 
 afterwards printed for the benefit of the world. This 
 speech, like the charge, assumes throughout that 
 the mere fact of the King's being in arms against 
 the parliamentary forces established the newly cre- 
 ated treason of levying war against the parliament 
 and the people, and showed Charles, beyond dis- 
 pute, chargeable with all the blood spilt and the 
 suffering endured in the contest. It does not 
 even touch the only real question between the 
 King and the parliament — what were the origin 
 and causes of the war, and which of the parties to 
 it was fairly to be regarded as the aggressor. 
 To give a summary of a tissue of flagrant 
 sophistry, exaggerated assertion, contumelious 
 abuse, and mystical declamation, is no easy or 
 profitable task. Cook lays down the propo- 
 sition, that the kings of England are intrusted 
 with a limited power to govern according to law, 
 and cites Fortescue for that unquestionable prin- 
 ciple ; and then, in order to show that Charles 
 had from the first a design to subvert the laws 
 and rule despotically, he rakes up the absurd 
 story made a charge against Archbishop Laud 
 on his trial, that he had at the coronation omitted 
 in the oath the words, " which the people shall 
 choose;" — " which certainly," says this fair advo- 
 cate, " he durst not have done without the King's 
 special command." It appears from Laud's de- 
 fence, State Trials, vol. iv. p. 465., that the oath 
 used at the coronation of Charles was in fact the 
 same as that used at the coronation of James, if 
 not of Queen Elizabeth. But supposing that the
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 35 
 
 Archbishop had altered it, what relevancy had this 
 to the charge against Charles, of levying war on his 
 people? Cook then chooses to assume, without 
 a shadow of foundation, that Charles in his 
 defence, had he not been interrupted by his 
 judges, intended to have justified his acts by 
 quoting from the first book of Samuel, chap, viii., 
 the description of the absolute king which the 
 Lord ordained for the discontented Israelites 
 who clamoured for a king ; and then he ela- 
 borately argues, that this is not to be deemed 
 the model of a good king approved by God ; 
 nor even to be taken as a proof that tlie Al- 
 mighty approved of kings at all : " for," says 
 the regicide solicitor, " he gave them a king in 
 his wrath ; therein dealing with them as the wise 
 physician with the distem))ered and impatient 
 patient, who desiring to drink wine, tells him the 
 danger of inflammation ; yet wine he will have, 
 and the physician considering a little wine will 
 do but little hurt, rather than his patient by fret- 
 ting should tak^ greater hurt, prescribes a little 
 white wine — wherein the physician doth not 
 approve his drinking of wine, but of two evils 
 chooseth the least. The Jews would have a king 
 for majesty and splendour, like the heathens. God 
 permits this, he approves it not." 
 
 The solicitor, then, in order " to open and 
 prove the King's wicked design wherewith he 
 stands charged," asserts that Charles had granted 
 the judges' patents during pleasure instead of 
 during good behaviour ; had sold judges' places 
 for 5000/. or 10,000/., and then ordered the 
 judges to deliver opinions in his favour: — atro- 
 D 2
 
 36 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 ciously insinuates, without venturing to charge, 
 that Buckingham had murdered James I. with 
 Charles's connivance. " How the King first 
 came to the crown, God and his own conscience 
 best know ;" and then, after declaiming at large 
 on this insinuation as if it were a fact proved, 
 impudently and hypocritically concludes, " but 
 I leave it as a riddle which at the day of judg- 
 ment will be expounded and unriddled, &c. &c. 
 Had he studied Scripture half so much as Ben 
 Jonson or Shakspeare, he might have learned 
 that when Amaziah was settled in the king- 
 dom, he suddenly did justice upon those ser- 
 vants which had killed his father Joab. (2 Kings, 
 xii. 20., and xiv. 1. 5.)^ Nor," says the counsel 
 
 1 That Charles connived at Buckingham's conduct in 
 poisoning King James (if Buckingham had done so) was a wan- 
 ton invention of republican malignity. Even the exasperated 
 Commons, who impeached Buckingham at the commence- 
 ment of Charles's reign, never dreamt of charging him with 
 the murder of the King by poison. They charged him with 
 ** transcendent presumption in giving the King physic ; ** 
 which they say is " an offence and misdemeanour of so 
 high a nature as may justly be called, and is by the said 
 Commons deemed, to be an act of transcendent presump- 
 tion, and of dangerous consequence," and which is only 
 introduced as the 13th article of impeachment after others 
 of extortion, procuring honours for his kindred, &c. &c. 
 That Buckingham's conduct was presumptuous and in- 
 discreet cannot be denied ; and it was certainly not wise 
 in Charles to put an end to the investigation by dissolving 
 the parliament. But to declaim on it as " concealment of a 
 murder," and as showing Charles " without natural affection 
 for his father," was an absurd and monstrous proposition 
 worthy of this fanatical solicitor " for the people of Eng- 
 land." — See the proceedings on Buckingham's impeach- 
 ment, State Trials, vol. ii-
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 37 
 
 for the people, " does the common objection that 
 the judges and evil counsellors, and not the 
 King, ought to be responsible for such mal-ad- 
 ministrations, injustice, and oppression, bear the 
 weight of a feather in the balance of right reason. 
 For, first, who made such wicked and corrupt 
 judges ? Were they not his own creatures ? 
 And ought not every man to be accountable for 
 the work of his own hands ? " 
 
 Cook then proceeds to '•'• prove," as he asserts. 
 " that the King set up his standard of war for 
 the advancement and upholding of his personal 
 interest, power, and pretended prerogative against 
 the public interest, of common right, peace, 
 aftd safety." His proofs are truly extraordi- 
 nary. They consist of little more than a state- 
 ment of the claims asserted by the King to 
 all the most unquestionable prerogatives of the 
 kings of England, viz. to have the power and 
 disposal of the militia by land and sea ; the 
 power to convoke, prorogue, and to dissolve par- 
 liaments ; to have a negative voice as to the pass- 
 ing of laws ; to enjoy the poMcr of conferring 
 honours and creating peers ; to create the judges 
 of the land ; to pardon criminals, or, as Cook can- 
 didly states it, " to pardon murderers, whom the 
 Lord says shall not be pardoned;" to fix the 
 value of money by proclamation. All these pre- 
 rogatives, exercised immemorially and without 
 dispute by the King's predecessors, this lawyer 
 declares to be " no legal prerogatives, but usurpa- 
 tions, encroachments, and invasions on the people's 
 rights ;" and cites the assertion of them by Charles 
 as triumphant proofs of his illegal and wicked 
 D 3
 
 38 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 motives In levying the war against the parliament. 
 Such wild absurdities and monstrous assertions 
 did fanaticism and sedition at that time engender 
 in the minds of rational and even educated beings. 
 The learned solicitor's alliterations and plays 
 upon words are the most innocent parts of his 
 speech. He says, " Anglia hath been made an 
 Akeldama, and her younger sister, Ireland, a land 
 of ire and misery." 
 
 The solicitor then encounters the somewhat 
 perplexing question, "But by what law is the 
 King condemned ? " to which he gives this highly 
 precise and satisfactory answer, " By the fun- 
 damental law of this kingdom — by the general 
 law of all nations — and the unanimous consent 
 of all rational men in the world, written in every 
 man's heart with the pen of a diamond in capital 
 letters, and a character so legible, that he that 
 runs may read." — " This law of nature," says he, 
 " is the law of God, written in the fleshly tables of 
 men's hearts." — " This law of nature is an in- 
 duhitahle legislative authority of itself, that hath a 
 suspensive power over all human laws." — " If the 
 pilot of a ship be drunk and running on a rock, if 
 the passengers cannot otherwise prevent it, they 
 may throw him into the sea to cool him,, " says 
 the ingenious solicitor. " Is it not senseless for 
 the vessel to ask the potter by what law he calls 
 him to account ? " — " For him not only to set up 
 a standard of war in defiance of his dread sovereign 
 the people^ (for so they truly were in nature, 
 though names have befooled us,) but to persist so 
 many years in such cruel persecutions, who with 
 the word of his mouth might have made a peace,
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. ^U 
 
 — if ever there were so superlative a treason let 
 the Indians judge, and whosoever shall break 
 and violate such a trust and confidence, anathema 
 tnaranatha be unto them." 
 
 The maxim that the King can do no wrong, 
 which is now rationally understood as only imply- 
 ing the settled doctrine of ministerial responsi- 
 bility, is absolutely denied by the republican law- 
 yer. " I do aver it with confidence, that there 
 is no such case to be found in the law, that if the 
 king rob, or murder,'' (as if Charles had done 
 aught approaching to either,) " or commit such 
 horrid extravagances, that it is no wrong ;" and 
 then he cites a case which is directly against his 
 assertion : " indeed the case is put in Henry VIL, 
 by a chief judge, that if the king kill a man 
 it is iw felony to make him suflfer deatli." — 
 " But," says Cook, with a flagrant petitio prin- 
 cipii, " there is no doubt but the parliament 
 might try the King, or appoint others to judge 
 him for it." — " But," says he afterwards, " I am 
 sure there is no case in law, that if the King levy 
 war agauist the parliament and people, that it is 
 not treason ;" entirely forgetting that he had 
 taken upon himself the burden of showing affirm- 
 atively, that the King's act luas treason. To show 
 that the act might lawfully be punished, although 
 no law existed rendering it a crime, he says, 
 " Before any statute against witchcraft, many 
 witches have been hanged in England, because it 
 is death by God's law. If any Italian mounte- 
 bank should come over hither, and give any man 
 poison that should lie in his body above a year 
 and a day, and then kill him, as it is reported 
 D 4
 
 40 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 that they can give a man poison that shall con- 
 sume the body in three years, will any make 
 scruple or question to hang up such a rascal ? " 
 
 He then elaborately enters into the vague 
 calumny against the King, of betraying the Pro- 
 testants of Rochelle to the French ; of which he 
 says, " he heard so much in Geneva, and by the 
 protestant ministers in France, that he could be- 
 lieve no less than that the King was guilty of it." 
 Loose and indefinite as the procedure was, it 
 would have been difficult for Cook to make out 
 that evidence, the most conclusive, of the King's 
 connivance with Buckingham in betraying French 
 protestant subjects into the hands of their ca- 
 tholic sovereign, could have any bearing whatever 
 on the charge upo^ which Charles was now 
 accused. It was obviously one among the num- 
 ber of inflammatory and unfounded topics of de- 
 clamation which " the people's" counsel dragged 
 together to please the military audience, and, if 
 possible, to exasperate the hate of his judges 
 against their fallen monarch. The peroration o< 
 this wretched fanatic, in which he speaks, " first, 
 concerning the prisoner, then concerning himself," 
 exceeds, in hypocritical insolence, all his former 
 extravagances. " I am troubled in my spirit in 
 regard to his eternal condition, for fear that he 
 should depart this life without love and recon- 
 ciliation to all those saints whom he hath scorned 
 under the notion of Presbyterians, Anabap- 
 tists, Independents, and Sectaries. It cannot be 
 denied that he hath spent all his days in im- 
 measurable pride — that during his whole reign 
 he hath deported himself as a god, been de-
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 41 
 
 pended upon and adored as a god ; that he hath 
 challenged and assumed an omnipotent power, an 
 earthly omnipotence, that with the breath of his 
 mouth hath dissolved parliaments : his non jylacet 
 hath made all the counsels of that supreme court 
 to become abortives. — Non euro hath been his 
 motto, who instead of being honoured as good 
 kings ought to be, and no more, hath been idolised 
 and adored as our good God only ought to be." (If 
 this were so, was it treason in Charles that he was 
 idolised by his people, or by a portion of them?) — 
 " A man that hath shot all his arrows against the 
 upright in the land, hated Christ in his members, 
 swallowed down unrighteousness as the ox drinks 
 water, esteemed the needy as his footstool, 
 crushed honest, public-spirited men, and grieved 
 when he could not afflict the honest more than 
 he did, counted it the best art and policy to sup- 
 press the righteous, and to give way to his cour- 
 tiers, so to gripe, grind, oppress, and over-reach 
 the free people of the land, that he might do 
 what he list. But all sins to an infinite mercy 
 are equally pardonable ; therefore, my prayer for 
 the poor wretch shall be, that God would give 
 him repentance to life, that he may believe in 
 that Christ whom he hath imprisd^ed, persecuted, 
 and murdered in his saints," &:c. 6:c. 
 
 The illustrious Samuel Butler, in a pamphlet 
 entitled " The Plagiary Exposed; or an Old 
 Answer to a newly revived Calumny against the 
 Memory of King Charles I., being a Reply to 
 the Book entitled ' King Charles's Case,' formerly 
 written by John Cook, of Gray's Inn, Barrister i " 
 1 Printed in Lord Somers's Tracts.
 
 42 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 exposed the sophistries and misrepresentations 
 of this speech with admirable acumen and spirit. 
 On Sunday, the 21 st January, the commissioners 
 held a fast in company at WhitehaD, and heard 
 much praying and preaching, i On Monday, the 
 22d, they met again privately in the Painted Cham- 
 ber, when an excuse was sent from Mr. John 
 Corbet for not further attending the court. 
 They deliberated on the demeanour of the King 
 on the former day, and resolved that he should 
 not be suffered to question their jurisdiction ; and 
 that, in case he fell again into that discourse, 
 
 1 The celebrated Hugh Peters, " the pulpit buffoon," 
 as Dugdale calls him, one of the most active assistants 
 of Cromwell, Ireton, and Harrison, and a vehement 
 preacher against the King and the throne, was ap- 
 pointed to preach before the commissioners at St. Mar- 
 garet's church on this day. His text was from the last 
 psalm but one : — '* Bind your kings with chains, and your 
 nobles with links of iron." The purport of his vehement 
 discourse was proved by several witnesses on his trial in 
 1660. " Here is," says he, "a great discourse and talk 
 in the world : ' What ! will ye cut off the King's head ? the 
 head of a protestant prince and king ? ' Turn to your 
 Bibles, and you shall find it there, ' Whosoever sheds man's 
 blood, by man shall his blood be shed.' And I see neither 
 King Charles, noiVPrince Charles, nor Prince Rupert, 
 nor Prince Maurice, nor any of that rabble excepted 
 out of it." He afterwards exclaimed, ^'^ Blessed be God! 
 the House, the Lower House, is purged ; and the House of 
 Lords themselves, they will doivn suddenly." He per- 
 petually styled the King Barabbas ; and after making a 
 long prayer, he said, " 1 have prayed and preached these 
 twenty years, and now I may say with old Simeon, * Lord, 
 now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes 
 have seen thy salvation. ' " — See Peters's Trial, State 
 Trials, vol. v.
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 43 
 
 Bradshaw should let him know that he must be 
 satisfied with this answer to the questions he had 
 propounded, " That the Commons of England as- 
 sembled in parliament have constituted this 
 court, whose power shall not be permitted to be 
 disputed by him, and that they were resolved he 
 should answer the charge." 
 
 The court then in the afternoon adjourned into 
 the hall, when seventy of the commissioners 
 were present.^ The hall door being opened, and 
 
 I Seventy- one was the largest number of commissioners 
 ever present at the trial. Sixty-seven were present on the 
 day when the sentence was pronounced. Forty-eight only 
 appeared at the next sitting, when the King's execution 
 was ordered ; and fifty-nine signed the warrant for his 
 decapitation. Some few of the commissioners, such as 
 Algernon Sidney, Sir Thomas Wroth, Herbert Morley, 
 John Fagg, attended the preliminary meetings in the 
 Painted Chamber, but never sat as judges, or attended the 
 court after the trial commenced. From forty to fifty of 
 the commissioners appear never to have taken any part 
 in the proceedings, notwithstanding the summonses or- 
 dered by the court, and the exertions of the serjeant- 
 at-arms. Among these were Sir Thomas Honeywood, JNIr. 
 Mildmay, Philip Lord Lisle, General Skippon, Col. 
 Desborough the brother-in-law of Cromwell, Sir William 
 Alanson, Sir William Masham, Sir John Barrington, 
 Sir William Brereton, Sir Peter Went^vorth, K. B., Mr. 
 Godfrey Bosvile, Mr. John Lambert, Sir Arthur Hasle- 
 rig, Mr. Robert Dukenfield, Sir William Armyn, Ser- 
 jeant Thorp, Mr. Richard Darley, Mr. James Nelthrop, 
 Sir William Roberts, Mr. Fowks, alderman of London, 
 Mr. Roger Gratwick, Mr. George Fenwick, Serjeant 
 Nicholas, John Lenthal (the v/ell known Speaker of the 
 Commons), Col. Rowland Wilson, alderman of London. 
 Lord Leicester in his journal, p. 54., says, " My two sons, 
 Philip (Lord Lisle) and Algernon (Sidney), came un- 
 expectedly to Penshurst, Monday the 22d (January), and
 
 4?4? THE TRIAL OF 
 
 the crowd having instantly filled the hall, three 
 proclamations were made, and then the serjeant- 
 at-arms brought in the royal prisoner with the ac- 
 customed ceremonies. Cook then rose : — " May 
 it please you, my Lord President, — I did at the 
 last court exhibit a charge of high treason and 
 other crimes against the prisoner at the bar, 
 whereof I do accuse him in the name of the 
 people of England. Instead of answering, he 
 did dispute the authority of this high court. I 
 move, on behalf of the kingdom of England, that 
 the prisoner may be directed to make a positive 
 answerby way of confession or negation; and that, 
 if he refuse to do so, the charge be taken pro 
 confessoy and the court may proceed according 
 to justice." 
 
 Bradshaw, Sir, you may remember, at the 
 last court you heard a charge read against you, 
 containing a charge of high treason and other high 
 crimes against this realm of England : you heard, 
 likewise, that it was prayed, in the behalf of the 
 people, that you should give an answer to that 
 charge. You were then pleased to make some 
 
 stayed till Monday the 29th ; so as neither of them was at 
 the condemnation of the King." Algernon Sidney says of 
 himself, " I was at Penshurst when the act for the King's 
 trial passed ; and coming up to town I heard that my 
 name was put in. I presently went to the Painted 
 Chamber, where those who were nominated for judges 
 were assembled. A debate was raised, and I positively 
 opposed the proceeding. Cromwell used these formal 
 words, ' / tell you, we will cut off his head with the crown 
 on it.* I replied, 'You may take your own course, — I 
 cannot stop you ; but I will keep myself clean from having 
 any hand in this business.' " — Blencowe, p. 237.
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 45 
 
 scruples concerning the authority of this court, 
 and knew not by what authority you are brought 
 hither : you were answered that it was by au- 
 thority of the Commons of England, assembled in 
 parliament, that did think fit to call you to ac- 
 count for those high and capital misdemeanors 
 wherewith you were then charged. Since that, 
 the court hath taken into consideration what you 
 then said ; they are fully satisfied with their own 
 authority, and they hold it fit you should stand 
 satisfied with it too. Tliey do expect you should 
 either confess or deny the charge : if you deny, 
 it is offered, in the behalf of the kingdom, to be 
 made good against you ; their authority they do 
 avow to the whole world, that the whole king- 
 dom are to rest satisfied in, and you are to rest 
 satisfied with it. 
 
 The King. When I was here last, it is very 
 true I made that question ; and if it were only my 
 own particular case, I would have satisfied myself 
 with the protestation I made the last time I 
 was here against the legality of this court, and 
 that a king cannot be tried by any jurisdiction 
 on earth : but it is not my case alone, it is 
 the freedom and the liberty of the people of 
 England ; and do you pretend what you will, I 
 stand more for their liberties. For if power 
 without law may make laws, may alter the funda- 
 mental laws of the kingdom, I do not know what 
 subject he is in England that can be sure of his 
 life, or any thing that he calls his own : therefore 
 when that I came here, I did expect particular rea- 
 sons to know by what law, what authority, you did 
 proceed against me here. And therefore I am
 
 46 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 a little to seek what to say to you in this parti- 
 cular, because the affirmative is to be proved, the 
 negative often is very hard to do : but since I 
 cannot persuade you to do it, I shall tell you my 
 reasons as short as I can. 
 
 My reasons why in conscience and the duty I 
 owe to God first, and my people next, for the 
 preservation of their lives, liberties, and estates, 1 
 conceive I cannot answer this, till I be satisfied 
 of the legality of it, are these : — All proceedings 
 against any man v.hatsoever 
 
 Bradshaw. Sir, I must interrupt you, which 
 I would not do, but that what you do is not agree- 
 able to the proceedings of any court of justice : 
 you are about to enter into argument, and dispute 
 concerning the authority of this court, before 
 whom you aj)pear as a prisoner, and are charged 
 as an high delinquent ; if you take upon you to 
 dispute the authority of the court, we may not 
 do it, nor will any court give v>^ay unto it : you 
 are to submit unto it ; you are to give a punctual 
 and direct answer, whether you will answer your 
 charge or no, and what 3^our answer is. 
 
 The King. Sir, by your favour, I do not know 
 the forms of law ; I do know law and reason, 
 though I am no lawyer professed, — but I know as 
 muck law as any gentleman in England, and 
 therefore (under favour) I do plead for the liber- 
 ties of the people of England more than you do '. 
 and therefore if I should impose a belief upon 
 any man, without reasons given for it, it were 
 unreasonable ; but 1 must tell you, that by that 
 reason that I have, as thus informed, I cannot 
 yield unto it.
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 4-7 
 
 Bradslmw. — Sir, I must interrupt you : you 
 speak of law and reason ; it is fit there should be 
 law and reason, and there is both against you. 
 Sir, the vote of the Commons of England assem- 
 bled in parliament, it is the reason of the king- 
 dom, and they are these too that have given that 
 law, according to which you should have ruled 
 and reigned. Sir, you are not to dispute our au- 
 thority, you are told it again by the court. 
 
 The King. I do not know how a king can be 
 a delinquent ; but by any law that ever I heard of, 
 all men, (delinquents, or what you will,) let me 
 tell you, may put in demurrers against any pro- 
 ceeding as legal : I do demand that, and demand 
 to be heard with my reasons ; if you deny that, 
 you deny reason. 
 
 Bradshaw. Sir, you are concluded, you may 
 not demur to the jurisdiction of the court ; if you 
 do, I must let you know, that they over-rule 
 your demurrer ; they sit here by the authority of 
 the Commons of England, and all your predeces- 
 sors and you are responsible to them. 
 
 Tilt King. I deny that ; show me one pre- 
 cedent. 
 
 Bradshaw. Sir, you ought not to interrupt 
 while the court is speaking to you. If you offer 
 it by way of demurrer to the jurisdiction of the 
 court, they have considered of their jurisdiction ; 
 they do affirm their own jurisdiction. 
 
 The King. I say. Sir, by your favour, that the 
 Conmions of England was never a court of judi- 
 cature : I would know how they came to be so. 
 
 Bradshaiv. Sir, you are not to be permitted 
 to go on in that speech and these discourses.
 
 4'8 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 Then the clerk of the court, by order of Brad- 
 shaw, read, — 
 
 " Charles Stuart, King of England, you have 
 been accused on the behalf of the people of 
 England of high treason, and other high crimes ; 
 the court have determined that you ought to 
 answer the same." 
 
 The King. I vrill answer the same, so soon 
 as I know by what authority you do this. 
 
 Bradshaw. If this be all that you will say, 
 then, you that brought the prisoner hither, take 
 charge of him back again. 
 
 TJie King. I do require that I may give in 
 my reasons why I do not answer, and that you 
 give me time for that. 
 
 Bradshaw. Sir, it is not for prisoners to re- 
 quire. 
 
 The King. Prisoners ! Sir, I am not an or- 
 dinary prisoner L 
 
 Bradshaw. The court hath considered, and 
 have already affirmed their jurisdiction ; if you 
 will not answer, we will give order to record your 
 default. 
 
 The King. You have never heard my rea- 
 sons yet. 
 
 Bradshaw. Sir, your reasons are not to be 
 heard against the highest jurisdiction. 
 
 The King. Show me that jurisdiction where 
 reason is not to be heard. 
 
 Bradshaw. Sir, we show it you here, — the 
 Commons of England ; and the next time you are 
 brought you will know more of the pleasure of 
 the court ; and, it may be, their final determin- 
 ation.
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 1-9 
 
 The King. Show me where ever the lioiise 
 of commons was a court of judicature of that 
 kind. 
 
 BradsliQiv. Serjeant, take away the prisoner. 
 
 TJie King. Well, Sir, remember that the 
 King is not suffered to give in his reasons for the 
 liberty and freedom of all his subjects. 
 
 Bradshaw. Sir, you are not to have liberty 
 to use this language : how great a fi-iend you 
 have been to the laws and liberties of the people, 
 let all England and the world judge. 
 
 The King. Sir, under favour, it was the 
 liberty, freedom, and laws of the subject, that 
 ever I took — for them I defended myself with 
 arms; I never took up arms against the people, 
 but for the laws. 
 
 Bradshaw. The command of the court must 
 be obeyed; no answer will be given to the 
 charge. 
 
 The King. Well, Sir ! 
 
 Tlien Bradshaw ordered the default to be re- 
 corded, and the contempt of the court ; and that 
 no answer would be given to the charge. 
 
 The King was guarded forth to Sir Robert Cot- 
 ton's house with the accustomed ceremonies. 
 
 The court adjourned to the Painted Chamber 
 on Tuesday at twelve o'clock, and from thence 
 they notified their intention to adjourn to West- 
 minster Hall, at which time all persons concerned 
 were to give their attendance. 
 
 On this day the Scotch commissioners, who were 
 in London for the purpose of treating with the King 
 and the parliament, (the Earl of Lothian, Sir John 
 Chiesly, and William Glendinning,) and who were
 
 50 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 dissatisfied with the concessions of the King at 
 Newport, especially as to matters of religion, sent 
 to the Speaker of the House of Commons their 
 unanimous and solemn protest against all pro- 
 ceedings for bringing Charles to trial. It con- 
 cluded thus : — "To the end it may be manifest 
 to the world, how much they abominate and 
 detest so horrid a design against his Majesty's 
 person, we do, in the name of the parliament and 
 kingdom of Scotland, hereby declare their dissent 
 from the said proceedings, and the taking away 
 of his Majesty's hfe, and protest, that, as they are 
 altogether free from the same, so they may be 
 free from all the evils, miseries, confusions, and 
 calamities that may follow thereon to these dis- 
 tracted kingdoms." This protest was referred to 
 a committee to prepare an answer. 
 
 On Tuesday, the 23d of January, the court, 
 consisting of sixty-three commissioners, met 
 again in the Painted Chamber in private ; and 
 after deliberating on the proceedings of the day 
 before, and the demeanour of the King, they re- 
 solved to try once more whether he would acknow- 
 ledge their authority. They accordingly ordered 
 Bradshaw to acquaint him that, if he continued con- 
 tumacious, he must expect no further time ; that 
 the court required his positive and final answer 
 to the charge. If he submitted to answer, and 
 desired a copy of it, Bradshaw was to grant it, 
 and require him to answer b3' one o'clock in the 
 next afternoon. The court then adjourned, with 
 the usual ceremonies, into Westminster Hall. 
 The King was brought in from Sir Robert Cot- 
 ton's with the accustomed guard. After oyez had
 
 CIIAR-LES THE FIRST. 51 
 
 been twice proclaimed, Cook rose : — " My Lord 
 President, this is now the third time that, by 
 the great grace and favour of this high court, 
 this prisoner hath been brought to the bar be- 
 fore any issue is joined in the cause. I exhibited 
 a charge against him of the highest treason ever 
 wrought on the theatre of England. My Lord, 
 he did dispute the authority of the court. Your 
 Lordship gave him a day to consider and put in 
 his answer yesterday, but he was then pleased 
 to demur to the jurisdiction of the court, which 
 the court did over-rule. — I now move for speedy 
 judgment against the prisoner. I might press 
 your Lordship, that when a prisoner is contu- 
 macious, according to the law of the land, it shall 
 be taken pro confesso against him. But, my Lord, 
 the House of Commons, the supreme authority 
 and jurisdiction of the kingdom, have declared 
 that it is notorious the charge is true, as it is, 
 in truth, as clear as crystal, and as the sun that 
 shines at noon-day ; which, however, if the court 
 are not satisfied in, I have, on the people of 
 England's behalf, several witnesses to produce, 
 and therefore I pray (and yet it is not so much 
 I, as the innocent blood that hath been shed, the 
 cry whereof is very great for justice and judg- 
 ment,) that speedy judgment be pronounced 
 against the prisoner. 
 
 Bradshaw went on in the same strain ; — 
 concluding, " You are to give your positive and 
 final answer in plain EngUsh, whether you be 
 guilty or not guilty of these treasons laid to your 
 charge." 
 
 The King, after a little pause, said, — " When 
 E 2
 
 52 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 I was here yesterday, I did desire to speak for 
 the liberties of the people of England : I was 
 interrupted. I desire to know yet, whether I 
 may speak freely or not." 
 
 Bradshaw. Sir, you have had the reso- 
 lution of the court upon the like question the 
 last day, and you were told, that, having such a 
 charge of so high a nature against you, your 
 work was, that you ought to acknowledge the 
 iurisdiction of the court. When you have once 
 answered, you shall be heard at large. Make 
 the best defence you can. But, Sir, I must let 
 3^ou know from the court, that you are not to be 
 permitted to issue out into any other discourses, 
 till such time as you have given a positive answer 
 concerning the matter charged upon you. 
 
 The King. For the charge, 1 value it not a 
 rush ; it is the liberty of the people of England 
 that I stand for. For me to acknowledge a new 
 court that I never heard of before, I that am 
 your king, that should be an example to all the 
 people of England for to uphold justice, to main- 
 tain the old laws : indeed I know not how to do 
 it. You spoke very well the first day that I 
 came here (on Saturday), of the obligations that 
 I had laid upon me by God, to the maintenance 
 of the liberties of my people : the same obliga- 
 tion you spake of, I do acknowledge to God that 
 I owe to him and to my people, to defend as 
 much as in me lies the ancient laws of the king- 
 dom. Therefore, until that I may know that 
 this is not against the fundamental laws of the 
 kingdom, by your favour I can put in no parti- 
 cular answer. If you will give me time, I will
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 53 
 
 show you my reasons why I cannot do it, and 
 this 
 
 Here being interrupted, Charles said, — " By 
 your favour, you ought not to interrupt me. How 
 I came here I know not ; there is no ]aw for it to 
 malie your king your prisoner. I was in a treaty 
 upon the pubhc faith of the kingdom, that was 
 the known — with the two houses of parhament 
 that was the acknowledged, representative of 
 the kingdom ; and when I had almost made an 
 end of the treaty, then I was hurried away, and 
 brought hither ; and therefore " 
 
 Bradshaw. Sir, you must know the pleasure 
 of the court. 
 
 The King. By your favour. Sir. 
 
 Bradshaw. Nay, Sir, by your favour, you 
 may not be permitted to fall into those dis- 
 courses ; you appear as a delinquent ; you have 
 not acknowledged the authority of the court ; 
 once more they command you to give your posi- 
 tive answer. — Clerk, do your duty. 
 
 Tlie King. Duty, Sir ! 
 
 The clerk reads : — 
 
 " Charles Stuart, King of England, you are 
 accused in the behalf of the Commons of Eng- 
 land, of divers high crimes and treasons ; which 
 charge hath been read unto you : the court now re- 
 quires you to give your positive and final answer, 
 by way of confession or denial of the charge." 
 
 Tlie King. Sir, I say again to you, so that I 
 might give satisfaction to the people of England 
 of the clearness of my proceeding, not by way of 
 answer, not in this way, but to satisfy them that 
 I have done nothing against that trust that hath 
 E 3
 
 54 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 been committed to me, I would do it ; but to 
 acknowledge a new court, against their privileges, 
 to alter the fundamental laws of the kingdom, 
 Sir, you must excuse me. 
 
 Bradshaw. Sir, this is the third time that 
 you have publicly disowned this court, and put 
 an affront upon it : how far you have preserved 
 the privileges of the people, your actions have 
 spoke it ; but truly. Sir, men's intentions ought 
 to be known by their actions : you have written 
 your meaning in bloody characters throughout 
 the whole kingdom. But, Sir, you understand 
 
 the pleasure of the court Clerk, record the 
 
 default. — And, gentlemen, you that took charge 
 of the prisoner, take him back again. 
 
 The King. I will only say this one word 
 more to you : if it were only my own particular 
 I would not say any more, nor interrupt you. 
 
 Bradshaw. Sir, you have heard the plea- 
 sure of the court, and you are (notwithstanding 
 you will not understand it) to find that you are 
 before a court of justice. 
 
 The King was then conducted away by the 
 guard, and the court, with the ordinary procla- 
 mations, adjourned to the Painted Chamber, the 
 cryer calling out, " God bless the kingdom of Eng- 
 land ! " 
 
 The court re-assembled on Wednesday the 
 24th, and resolved to examine certain witnesses 
 against the King in the Painted Chamber. They 
 were accordingly sworn, and sixteen of the com- 
 missioners, of whom eleven bore the designation 
 of colonels, were appointed a committee to take 
 the examinations. The court then adjourned till
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 55 
 
 the next day, at nine in the morning, in the 
 Painted Chamber. 
 
 The next morning the commissioners having 
 met accordingly in private, it was ordered, that 
 the Dean's house in Westminster Abbey should 
 be provided and furnished for the lodging of 
 Bradshaw, and his guards and attendants. The 
 court being informed that Major Fox of the 
 President's guard was arrested (probably for 
 debt), and confined in Ludgate, it was ordered, 
 that the keeper should forthwith bring him be- 
 fore the court, and also attend himself in person. 
 One Mr. Holder, a prisoner in Wliitehall, being 
 brought before the court by the Marshal-general 
 of the army, to give evidence against the King, 
 objected, that his answers would tend to accuse 
 himself, whereupon the commissioners thought 
 fit to wave his examination, and remanded him 
 back to Whitehall.! Various witnesses were then 
 exa.mmed privateli/ in the Painted Chamber against 
 the King, whose depositions were chiefly as fol- 
 lows : — The evidence was directed to the single 
 point of the military movements personally di- 
 rected and carried on by the King against the 
 parliamentary forces, and the bloodshed thereby 
 occasioned. 
 
 January 25. 1649. 
 
 William Cuthbert, of Patrington, inHolderness 
 (in the county of York), gent., aged 42 years, 
 saith, that, living at Hull-bridge, near Bever- 
 ley, in July, 164?2, he did then hear that forces 
 
 1 This person was the agent to the Prince of Wales 
 then in Holland, and shortly after the King's execution 
 made his escape from Whitehall by the Thames. 
 E 4.
 
 .56 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 were raised, about 3000 foot, for the King's 
 guard under Sir Robert Strickland : and that 
 about the 2d of Juty, 1642, he saw a troop of 
 horse come to Beverley, being the Lord's day, 
 about four or five o'clock in the afternoon, called 
 the Prince's troop; Mr. James Nelthorp being 
 then major of the said town : and that he did see 
 that afternoon the said troop march from Beverley 
 into Holderness, where they received ammuni- 
 tion brought up by the river Humber ; and that 
 the same night, there came about 300 foot 
 soldiers (said to be Sir Robert Strickland's regi- 
 ment), under the command of Lieutenant-colonel 
 Duncombe, and called the King's Guard, unto 
 this deponent's house, called Hull-bridge, near 
 Beverley, about midnight, and broke open, and 
 possessed themselves of the said house ; and that 
 the Earl of Newport, the Earl of Carnarvon, and 
 divers others, came that night thither to the said 
 forces: and that the same night Sir Thomas 
 Gower, then high sheriff of the said county, came 
 thither, and left a warrant for staying all provi- 
 sions from going to Hull to Sir John Hotham ; 
 which warrant was then delivered to this depo- 
 nent, being constable, by Lieutenant-colonel Dun- 
 combe : that he was by the said forces put out 
 of his house, and did with his family go to Be- 
 verley ; and that after that, viz. the Thursday 
 following, he did see the King come to Beverley, 
 to the Lady Gee's house, where he did often see 
 the King with Prince Charles and the Duke of 
 York : and that the trained bands were then 
 raised in Holderness ; who were raised (as 
 was reported) by the King's command: and 
 that the night after the said forces had possessed 
 
 i
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST 57 
 
 themselves of deponent's house, Colonel Legard's 
 house was plundered by them, being upon a 
 Monday ; which aforesaid entry of this deponent's 
 house was the first • act of hostility that was com- 
 mitted in those parts : and this deponent saith, 
 that the warrant he now produceth is the ori- 
 ginal warrant aforesaid spoken of, and is as fol- 
 loweth : — 
 
 " It is his Majesty's command, that you do not 
 " suffer any victuals or provision, of what sort 
 " soever, to be carried into the town of Hull, 
 " without his Majesty's special licence first ob- 
 " tained. And of this you are not to fail at your 
 " peril. Tho. Gower, Vi. Co. Dated at Beverley, 
 " 3 Julij, 1642. To all head constables and con- 
 " stables in the East Riding of the county of York, 
 " and to all other his Majesty's loyal subjects." 
 
 John Bennet, of Harwood, in the county of 
 York, glover, saith, that he being a soldier under 
 the King's command, the first day that the King's 
 standard was set up at Nottingham, which was 
 about the middle of summer last was six years, 
 he did work at Nottingham ; and that he did see 
 the King within the castle, within two or three 
 days after the standard was so set up ; and that 
 the standard did fly the same day that the King 
 was in the castle : and that he, and the regiment 
 of which he then was, had their colours then given 
 them ; and Sir William Penyman, the colonel of 
 the regiment, was present with his said regiment 
 at that time : and that there was then there the 
 
 1 " Sir John Hotham's keeping Hull as a garrison 
 against the King, which was before this, was, it seems, no 
 act of hostility, in this perjured villain's account." — Note 
 by Nalson, in his report of the trial.
 
 58 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 Earl of Lindsey's regiment, who had then their 
 colours given them, and that the Earl of Lindsey 
 was then also proclaimed there the King's general : 
 and that it was proclaimed at the head of every 
 regiment, that the said forces should fight against 
 all that came to oppose the King, or any of his 
 followers ; and in particular against the Earl ot 
 Essex, the Lord Brooke, and divers others : and 
 that the said Earl of Essex, the Lord Brooke, and 
 others, were then proclaimed traitors ; and that 
 the same proclamations were printed and dis- 
 persed by the officers throughout every regiment. 
 And this deponent further saith, that the said 
 standard was advanced upon the highest tower 
 of Nottingham Castle ; and that he did see the 
 King often in Nottingham for the space of one 
 month ; and that the drums for raising volunteers 
 to fight under the King's command were then 
 beaten all the said county over, and divers other 
 forces were raised there : and that he did take 
 up arms under the King's command as aforesaid, 
 for fear of being plundered ; Sir William Peny- 
 man giving out that it were a good deed to fire 
 the said town, because they would not go forth 
 in the King's service: and that this deponent's 
 father did thereupon command him to take up 
 arms as aforesaid, and that divers others did then 
 also take up arms for the King, for fear of being 
 plundered. And this deponent further saith, that 
 in or about the month of October, 164'2, he did 
 see the King at Edge Hill in Warwickshire ; 
 where he, sitting on horseback while his army 
 was drawn up before him, did speak to the colonel 
 of every regiment that passed by him, that he
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 59 
 
 would have them speak to their soldiers to encou- 
 rage them to stand it, and to fight against the 
 Lord of Essex, the Lord Brooke, Sir William 
 Waller, and Sir William Balfour' : and he did 
 see many slain at the fight at Edge Hill, and that 
 afterwards he did see a list brought in unto Ox- 
 ford, of the men slain in that fight ; by which it 
 was reported, tliat there were slain 6559 men : 
 and afterwards, in or about the month of Novem- 
 ber, 1642, he did see the King in the head of his 
 army at Hounslow Heath, in Middlesex, Prince 
 Rupert then standing by him ; and did then hear 
 the King encourage several regiments of Welsh- 
 men in the field, which had run away at Edge 
 Hill, saying unto them, " that he did hope they 
 would regain their honour at Brentford, which 
 they had lost at Edge Hill." 
 
 Robert Lacy, of the town and county of Not- 
 tingham, painter, deposeth, that he, this depo- 
 nent, in summer time, in the year 164-2, by order 
 from my Lord Beaumont, did paint the standard 
 pole which was set up on the top of the old 
 tower of Nottingham Castle: and he further 
 saith, that he saw the King in the town of Not- 
 tingham divers times while the standard was up 
 tliere, and the flag flying; and the King did lie 
 at the house of my Lord of Clare in Nottingham 
 town. 
 
 Samuel Morgan, of Wellington, in the county 
 
 ' Nalson, who has left a report of the trial, observes, 
 How is it possible this fellow could swear the King spoke 
 this to every colonel, seeing it was as they passed by ? 
 And when his colonel was passed by, he could hear no 
 more.
 
 60 TH£ TRIAL OF 
 
 of Salop, felt-maker, deposetli, that he, this depo- 
 nent, upon a Sunday morning, in Keynton Field, 
 saw the King upon the top of Edge Hill, in the 
 head of the army, some two hours before the 
 fight, which happened after Michaelmas on a 
 Sunday, the year 1642 : and he saw many men 
 killed on both sides in the same time and place 
 and in the year 1644 he saw the King in bis 
 army near Cropredy Bridge, where he saw the 
 King light off his horse, and draw up the body of 
 his army in person himself. 
 
 Jam^es Williams, of Ross, in Herefordshire, 
 shoemaker, deposeth, that he, about October, 
 1642, saw the King in Keynton Field, below the 
 hill in the field, with his sword drawn in his 
 hand ; at which time and place there was a 
 great fight, and many killed on both sides : and 
 he further deposeth, that he saw the King at 
 Brentford on a Sunday, in the forenoon, in No- 
 vember the year aforesaid, while the King's army 
 was in the said town, and round about it. 
 
 Samuel Lawson, of Nottingham, maltster, aged 
 30 years or thereabouts, saith, that about Au- 
 gust, 1642, he saw the King's standard brought 
 forth of Nottingham Castle, borne upon divers 
 gentlemen's shoulders, who (as the report was) 
 were noblemen ; and he saw the same by them 
 carried to the hill close adjoining to the castle, 
 with a herald before it, and there the said stand- 
 ard was erected with great shoutings, accla- 
 mations, and sound of drums and trumpets ; and 
 that when the said standard was so erected, 
 there was a proclamation made ; and that he saw 
 the King present at the erecting thereof: and the
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 61 
 
 said town was then full of the King's soldiers, of 
 which some quartered in this deponent's house ; 
 and that when the King with his said forces went 
 from the said town, the inhabitants of the said town 
 were forced to pay a great sum of money to tlie 
 King's army, being threatened that, in case they 
 should refuse to pay it, the said town should be 
 plundered. 
 
 Arthur Young, citizen and barber-chirurgeon, 
 of London, being aged 29 years or thereabouts, 
 saith, that he was present at the fight at Edge 
 Hill, between the King's army and the parliament's, 
 in October, ]64'2, and did see the King's stand- 
 ard advanced, and flying in his army in the said 
 fight. And that he did then take the King's 
 said standard in that battle from the King's forces, 
 which was afterwards taken from him by one 
 Middleton, who was afterwards made a colonel. 
 
 John Thomas, of Llangollen, in the county of 
 Denbigh, husbandman, aged 25 years, saith, that 
 he saw the King at Brentford, in Middlesex, on a 
 Saturday night at twelve of the clock, soon after 
 Edge Hill fight, attended with horse and foot 
 soldiers, the King being then on horseback, with 
 his sword by his side ; and this deponent then 
 heard the King say to the said soldiers, as he was 
 riding through the said town, " Gentlemen, you 
 lost your honour at Edge Hill, I hope you will 
 regain it again here," or words to that effect: 
 and this deponent further saith, that there were 
 some skirmishes between the King's army and the 
 parliament's army, at the same time, both before 
 and after the King spake the said words ; and that 
 many men were slain on both sides.
 
 62 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 William Jones, of Uske, in the county of Mon- 
 mouth, husbandman, aged 22 years, saith, that 
 he, this deponent, did see the King within two 
 miles of Naseby Field, the King then coming 
 fromwards Harborough, marching in the head ot 
 his army, towards Naseby Field, where the fight 
 was ; and that he did then see the King ride up 
 to the regiment which was Colonel St. George's, 
 and did hear the King ask the regiment, " Whe- 
 ther they were v»-iiling to fight for him?" To 
 which the soldiers made an acclamation, crying, 
 " All! all!" And this deponent saw the King in 
 Leicester with his forces, the same day that the 
 King's forces had taken it from the parliament's 
 forces ; and he saw the King in his army that 
 besieged Gloucester, at the time of the said 
 siege. 
 
 Humphry Browne, of Whitsondine, in the 
 county of Rutland, husbandman, aged 22 years 
 or thereabouts, saith, that at such time as the 
 town of Leicester was taken by the King's forces, 
 being in or about June, 1645, Newark Fort in 
 Leicester aforesaid was surrendered to the King's 
 forces, upon composition that neither clothes nor 
 money should be taken away from any of the 
 soldiers of that fort, which had so surrendered, 
 nor any violence offered to them ; and that, as 
 soon as the said fort was upon such composition 
 surrendered, the King's soldiers, contrary to the 
 articles, fell upon the soldiers, stripped, cut, and 
 wounded many of them : whereupon one of the 
 King's officers rebuking some of those that did so 
 abuse the said parliament's soldiers, this deponent 
 did hear the King reply, "I do not care if they cut
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 63 
 
 them three times more, for they are mine ene- 
 mies," or words to that effect ; and that the King 
 was then on horseback, in bright armour, in the 
 said town of Leicester. 
 
 Gyles Gryce, of WelHngton, in Shropshire, 
 gentleman, sworn and examined, deposeth, that 
 he saw the King in the head of his army at Crop- 
 redy Bridge, with his sword drawn in his hand, 
 that day when the fight was against Sir William 
 Waller, on a Friday, in the year 1644, about the 
 month of July. And he saw the King in the same 
 summer in Cornwall, in the head of his army, about 
 Lestwithiel, at such time as the Earl of Essex was 
 there with his army. And he also saw the King 
 in the head of his army at the second fight near 
 Newbury'; and in the fi'ont of the army in Naseby 
 Field, having back and breast on. And he saw 
 the King at the head of the army, at what time 
 the town of Leicester was stormed; and he saw a 
 great many men killed on both sides at Leicester, 
 and many houses plundered. 
 
 John Vinson of Damorham, in the county of 
 Wilts, gentleman, saith, that he did see the King 
 at the first Newbury fight, about the month of 
 September, 1643, in the head of his army, where 
 this deponent did see many slain on both sides. 
 He did see the King at the second battle at 
 Newbury, about the month of November, 1644, 
 where the King was at the head of his army, in 
 complete armour, with his sword drawn ; and did 
 then see the King lead up Colonel Thomas How- 
 ard's regiment of horse, and did hear him make 
 a speech to the soldiers, to this effect, — " That the 
 said regiment should stand to him that day, for
 
 64- THE TRIAL OF 
 
 that his crown lay upon the point of the sword; 
 and if he lost that day, he lost his honour and 
 his crown for ever." And that this deponent did 
 see many slain on both sides at that battle. This 
 deponent further saith, that he did see the King in 
 the battle at Naseby Field, in Northamptonshire, 
 in June, 1645, completely armed with back, 
 breast, and helmet, and he had his sword drawn, 
 where the King himself, after his party was routed, 
 did rally up the horse, and caused them to stand ; 
 and he did see many slain on both sides. 
 
 Michael Potts, of Sharpereton, in the county 
 of Northumberland, vintner, deposeth, that he 
 saw the King in the head of the ai-my in the fields 
 about a mile and a half from Newbury town, upon 
 the heath, the day before the fight was; it being 
 about harvest-tide, in the year 1643. And that 
 he saw the King on the day after, when the fight 
 was, standing near a great piece of ordnance in 
 the fields. And that he saw the King in the 
 second Newbury fight in the head of his army, 
 being after or about Michaelmas, 1644. And 
 that he saw a great many men slain at both the 
 said battles. And that he saw the King in the 
 head of his army, near Cropredy Bridge, in the 
 year 1644. And he further saith, that he saw 
 the King in the head of his army, in Cornwall, 
 near Lestwithiel, while the Earl of Essex lay 
 there with his forces, about the middle of harvest, 
 1644. 
 
 George Cornwall, of Aston, in the county of 
 Hereford, ferryman, aged 50 years, saith, that 
 he did see the King near Cropredy Bridge, 
 about the time of mowing of corn, 1644, in the
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 65 
 
 van of the army there; and that he drew up his 
 army upon a hill, and faced the parliament's army; 
 and that there was thereupon a skirmish between 
 the King's and the parliament's army, where he 
 saw divers persons slain on both sides. 
 
 Henry Gooche, of Gray's Inn, in the county of 
 Middlesex, gentleman, saith, that, upon or about 
 the 30th day of September last, he was in the 
 Isle of Wight, and had access unto and discourse 
 with the King, by the means of the Lord Marquis 
 of Hertford and Commissary Morgan : where this 
 deponent told the King, that his Majesty had 
 many friends ; and that, since his Majesty was 
 pleased to justify the parliament's first taking up 
 arms, the most of the presbyterian party, both 
 soldiers and others, would stick close to him. To 
 which the King answered, that he would have all 
 his old friends know, that though for the present 
 he was contented to give the parliament leave to 
 call their own war what they pleased, yet that 
 he neither did at that time, nor ever should, de- 
 cline the justice of his own cause. And this de- 
 ponent told the King, that his business was much 
 retarded, and that neither Colonel Thomas, nor 
 any other, could proceed to action, through want 
 of commission. The King answered, that he being 
 upon a treaty, would not dishonour himself; but 
 that if he, this deponent, would take the pains to 
 go over to the prince, his son (who had full au- 
 thority from him), he, the said deponent, or any 
 for him, should receive whatsoever commissions 
 should be desired ; and to that purpose he would 
 appoint the Marquis of Hertford to write to his 
 son in his name : and was pleased to express much 
 
 F
 
 66 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 joy and affection, that his good subjects would 
 engage themselves for his restoration. 
 
 Robert Williams, of the parish of St. Martin's, 
 in the county of Cornwall, husbandman, aged 23 
 years, saith, that he, this deponent, did see the 
 King marching in the head of his army, about 
 September, 1614, a mile from Lestwithiei, in 
 Cornwall, in armour, with a short coat over it, 
 unbuttoned. And he saw him after that in St. 
 Austell Downs, drawing up his army. And he 
 did after that see the King in the head of his 
 army near Foy; and that the Earl of Essex and 
 liis army did then lie within one mile and a half 
 of the King's army. 
 
 Richard Price, of London, scrivener, was pro- 
 duced as a witness to the charge against the King ; 
 who, being sworn, saith, that upon occasion of 
 some tampering by the King's agents with the 
 Independents in and about London, to draw them 
 from the parliament's cause to the King's party, 
 and this being discovered by some of those so 
 tampered with, unto sundry members of the com- 
 mittee of safety, who directed a carrying on of a 
 seeming compliance with the King; he, deponent, 
 did travel to Oxford in January, 164rS, having a 
 safe-conduct under the King's hand and seal, 
 which he, this deponent, knoweth to be so ; for 
 that the King did own it when he was told that 
 this deponent was the man that came to Oxon 
 with that safe-conduct. And this deponent also 
 saith, that, after sundry meetings between him 
 and the Earl of Bristol, about the drawing of the 
 Independents unto the King's cause against the 
 parliament, the substance of the discourse at
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 67 
 
 which meetings, the said earl told this deponent, 
 was communicated to the King; he, this deponent, 
 was by the said earl brought to the King to con- 
 fer further about that business; where the King 
 declared, that he was very sensible that the In- 
 dependents had been the most active men in the 
 kingdom for the parliament against him ; and 
 thereupon persuaded this deponent to use all 
 means to expedite their turning to him and his 
 cause. And, for their better encouragement, 
 the King promised on the word of a king, that if 
 they, the Independents, would turn to him, and 
 be active for him against the parliament, as they 
 had been active for them against him, then he 
 would grant them whatsoever freedom they 
 would desire. And the King did then refer this 
 deponent unto the Earl of Bristol, for the further 
 prosecuting of the said business. And the said 
 earl thereupon (this deponent being withdrawn 
 from the King) did declare unto this deponent, 
 and willed him to impart the same unto the Inde- 
 pendents for their better encouragement, that the 
 King's affairs prospered well in Ireland; that the 
 Irish subjects had given the rebels (meaning the 
 parliament's forces) a great defeat ; that the 
 King had sent the Lord Byron with a small party 
 towards Cheshire, and that he was greatly multi- 
 plied, and had a considerable army, and was then 
 before Namptwich, and would be strengthened 
 with more soldiers out of Ireland, which were 
 come and expected daily. And when this depo- 
 nent was to depart out of Oxford, four safe-con- 
 ducts, with blanks in them for the inserting of 
 what names this deponent pleased, were delivered 
 F 2
 
 68 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 to him, under the King's hand and seal. And one 
 Ogle was sent out of Oxon with this deponent, 
 to treat about the delivering up of Ailesbury to 
 the King, it being then a garrison for the parlia- 
 ment ; and at the same time Oxford was a gar- 
 rison for the King. 
 
 The King remaining firm in his rational and 
 dignified denial of the authority of his judges, 
 and the Court having gone through the mockery 
 of the proof of treason exhibited in the above 
 depositions, they now determined on proceeding 
 direct to the object of their whole machinations — 
 the destruction of their prisoner's life. The inter- 
 cession of his ancient allies, the states of Holland, 
 the entreaties of Charles's queen, and the offer, 
 by Prince Charles, of any conditions to save his 
 father's life, availed nothing either with the 
 degraded parliament or with the ferocious council 
 of the army. Pau, the pensioner of Holland, 
 who was sent ambassador to the parliament with 
 letters, could neither get leave to see the King, 
 nor obtain an audience of the parliament, till the 
 black tragedy was concluded. Henrietta Maria's 
 letter to the speaker of the house contained, says 
 Clarendon, " a very passionate lamentation of the 
 sad condition the King, her husband, was in, 
 desiring that they would grant her a pass to come 
 over to him ; offering to use all the credit she had 
 with him that he might give them satisfaction. 
 However, if they would not give her leave to 
 perform any of those offices towards the public, 
 she prayed that she might be permitted to
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 69 
 
 perform the duty she owed him, and to be near 
 him in the uttermost extremity." This letter 
 was laid aside, and not ready The prince, know- 
 ing that the parhament was utterly powerless, 
 and prostrate at the feet of the troops, addressed 
 an earnest letter to Fairfax and the council 
 of war, calling on them to choose " whether 
 they would raise lasting monuments to them- 
 selves of loyalty and piety, by restoring their 
 sovereign to his just rights, and their country 
 to peace and happiness ; or to make themselves 
 the authors of endless misery to the kingdom, 
 by contributing or consenting to an act which 
 all Christians, into how different opinions soever 
 divided, must abhor, as the most inconsistent 
 with the elements of any religion, and destructive 
 to the security and being of any kind of govern- 
 ment." This letter was, with much ado, delivered 
 
 1 There is little doubt that Charles owed his death in 
 great measure to the Queen, who had by urgent advice pre- 
 vented his escaping to the Continent from the Isle of Wight 
 when it was in his power. Whether this was tlie advice of 
 affection, or whether (as Warburton and Burnet thought, and 
 as Bishop Kennet seems half to suspect) it was given in order 
 to prevent the interruption of her familiar intercourse with 
 Jermyn, is a matter of doubt. — Burnet is positive that the 
 Queen was mother of a child by Jermyn. — On the passage 
 where Clarendon describes the Queen on hearing of her 
 husband's death as suffering " as great a passion of sorrow 
 as she was able to sustain," Warburton makes the remark, 
 *' Iro?iice." — Mademoiselle de Montpensier, describing her 
 visit of condolence to the Queen at the Louvre, says, " Je 
 ne la trouvai pas si sensiblement touch^e qu'elle aurait du 
 I'etre par I'amitie que le Roi son mari avait pour elle." — 
 See Ashburnham's Narrative, vol. ii. p. 158. 
 F 3
 
 70 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 into the hands of Fairfax, read in the council of 
 war, and laid aside.i 
 
 At a private sitting, in the Painted Chamber, on 
 the 25th of January, the Court voted a preparatory 
 resolution, " That the Court will proceed to sen- 
 tence of condemnation against Charles Stuart, King 
 of England; that the condemnation of the King 
 shall be for a tyrant, traitor, and murderer, and 
 likewise for being a public enemy to the com- 
 monwealth of England : that this condemnation 
 shall extend to death." A question appears to 
 have been agitated as to the deprivation and de- 
 position of the King, in order to his execution ; 
 but it was postponed till a future time, and the 
 commissioners, Scot, Marten, Harrison, Say, 
 Lisle, Ireton, and Love, or any three of them, 
 were ordered to prepare the draft of a final 
 sentence, with a blank for the manner of death. 
 All the members of the Court in or near London 
 were summoned to attend its sitting on the fol- 
 lowing day. 
 
 On the 26th of January the Court met in pri- 
 vate, and finally agreed on the sentence, and 
 ordered it to be engrossed. They directed the 
 King to be brought the following day to West- 
 minster Hall, to hear the sentence passed upon 
 him. 
 
 On the 27tli of January, the commissioners 
 assembled in the morning in the Painted Cham- 
 ber, when Bradshaw M-as ordered to manage the 
 
 1 Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 24S. This letter was accompanied 
 by a carte blanche under the seal and signature of the Prince 
 Charles; in which any conditions might be inserted, pro- 
 vided his father's life were spared.
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 71 
 
 discourse between himself and the King, accord- 
 ing to his discretion, with the advice of his two 
 assistants. In case the King should change his 
 conduct, and submit to the Court's jurisdiction, 
 the commissioners determined to withdraw and 
 advise; which course they also resolved to adopt 
 in case the King should offer any thing else worth 
 the Court's consideration. If the King should 
 not submit to answer, and no occasion should arise 
 for the Court's withdrawing, Bradshaw was to 
 order the sentence to be read ; having heard what 
 the King desired to say before the sentence, but 
 not after it. The Court then deliberated on the 
 question, whether Bradshaw should address any 
 speech to the King before the sentence, according 
 to the practice observed in the case of other con- 
 demned malefactors. It was left to him to use his 
 discretion, and urge such matter as seemed suit- 
 able to the occasion. 
 
 The Court then adjourned into Westminster 
 Hall, in the afternoon, with the accustomed 
 ceremonies ; the King entered the court in his 
 usual manner, with his hat on, when some of the 
 soldiers (who were instigated by Axtell and other 
 officers) began to cry aloud for " Justice ! Jus- 
 tice ! Execution ! " Silence was at length enforced 
 by the guards. The King, seeing Bradshaw in 
 his scarlet robes and full costume, and hearing 
 the shouts of the soldiers, readily perceived that 
 sentence was about to be pronounced on him ; he 
 therefore addressed the Court with earnestness. 
 
 The King. I desire a word to be heard a 
 little, and I hope I shall give no occasion of 
 interruption. 
 
 F 4?
 
 72 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 Bradshaw. You may answer in your time; 
 hear the Court first. 
 
 The King. If it please you, Sir, I desire to 
 be heard, and I shall not give any occasion of 
 interruption, and it is only in a word. A sudden 
 judgment 
 
 Bradshaw. Sir, you shall be heard in due 
 time ; but you are to hear the Court first. 
 
 The King. Sir, I desire — it will be in order 
 to what I believe the Court will say ; Sir, an 
 hasty judgment is not so soon recalled. 
 
 Bradshaw. Sir, you shall be heard before 
 the judgment be given ; and in the mean time 
 you may forbear. 
 
 Tlie King. Well, Sir, shall I be heard before 
 the judgment be given ? 
 
 Bradshaw. Gentlemen, it is well known to 
 you that the prisoner at the bar hath been several 
 times brought before this Court to make answer 
 to a charge of treason, and other high crimes ex- 
 hibited against him in the name of the people of 
 England [here a lady interposed, saying aloud, 
 " Not half the people ;" but she was silenced with 
 threats !]•; to which charge being required to 
 answer, he hath been so far from obeying the 
 commands of the Court, as he began to take 
 upon him to offer reasoning and debate unto the 
 authority of the Court, and of that highest Court 
 that constituted them to try and judge him : but 
 being over-ruled in that, he was still pleased to 
 continue contumacious, and to refuse to submit 
 or answer. Hereupon the Court, that they might 
 not be wanting to themselves, to the trust reposed 
 
 1 See the trial of Daniel Axtell, Oct. 15. 1660. — State 
 Trials, vol. v.
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 73 
 
 in them, nor that any man's wilfulness prevent 
 justice, have considered of the charge — they have 
 considered of the contumacy, and of that confes- 
 sion which in law doth arise upon that contumacy ; 
 — they have likewise considered of the notoriety i 
 of the fact charged upon this prisoner ; and upon 
 the whole mattci they are resolved, and are 
 agreed upon a sentence to be pronounced against 
 this prisoner. But in respect he doth desire to 
 be heard, before the sentence be read and pro- 
 nounced, the Court hath resolved that they will 
 hear him. Yet, Sir, thus much I must tell you 
 beforehand, that if that which you have to say 
 be to offer any debate concerning the jurisdiction, 
 you are not to be heard in it ; you have offered 
 it formerly, and you struck at the root, that is, 
 the power and supreme authority of the Com- 
 mons of England, which this Court will not 
 admit a debate of. But, Sir, if you have any 
 thing to say in defence of yourself concerning 
 the matter charged, the Court hath given me in 
 command to tell you they will hear you. 
 
 77^6 King. Since I see that you will not hear 
 any thing of debate concerning that which, I con- 
 fess, I thought most material lor the peace of the 
 kingdom, and for the liberty of the subject, I shall 
 wave it ; I shall speak nothing to it ; but only I 
 must tell you, that this many a day all things 
 have been taken away from me, but that I call 
 more dear to me than my life, which is my con- 
 science and my honour : and if I had a respect 
 
 I Bradsliaw, who was a lawyer, does not venture to allude 
 to the evidence. He considered even the vague and absurd 
 ground of " notoriety " as a safer basis to proceed upon than 
 the mockery of evidence which is above stated.
 
 74 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 to my life more than the peace of the kingdom 
 and the liberty of the subject, certainly I should 
 have made a particular defence for myself; for 
 by that at leastwise I might have delayed an 
 ugly sentence, which I believe will pass upon 
 me. Therefore, certainly, Sir, as a man that 
 hath some understanding, some knowledge of the 
 world, if that my true zeal to my country had 
 not overborne the care that I have for my own 
 preservation, I should have gone another way to 
 work than that I have done. Now, Sir, I con- 
 ceive that an hasty sentence once passed, may 
 sooner be repented of than recalled ; and truly, 
 the self-same desire that I have for the peace of 
 the kingdom, and the liberty of the subject, more 
 than my own particular ends, makes me now at 
 last desire, before sentence be given, that I may 
 be heard in the Painted Chamber before the 
 Lords and Commons. This delay cannot be pre- 
 judicial to you, whatsoever I say ; if that I say 
 no reason, those that hear me must be judges : 
 if it be reason, and really for the welfare of the 
 kingdom, and the liberty of the subject, I am sure 
 it is very well worth the hearing ; therefore I do 
 conjure you, as you love that that you pretend, — I 
 hope it is real, — the liberty of the subject, the 
 peace of the kingdom, that you will grant me this 
 hearing before any sentence be past. I only 
 desire this, that you will take this into your con- 
 sideration, it may be you have not heard of it 
 beforehand ; if you will, I'll retire, and you may 
 think of it : but if I cannot get this liberty, I do 
 protest, that these fair shows of liberty and peace 
 are pure shows, and that you will not hear your 
 King.
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 75 
 
 JBradshaw. Sir, you have now spoken. 
 
 TJie King. Yes, Sir. 
 
 Bradshaw. And this that you have said is a 
 further declining of the jurisdiction of this Court, 
 which was the thing wherein you were hmited 
 before. 
 
 The King. Pray excuse me, Sir, for my 
 interruption, because you mistake me ; it is not a 
 decHning of it, you do judge me before you hear 
 me speak. 
 
 Bradshaw. I understand you well. Sir ; but 
 nevertheless that which you have offered seems 
 to be contrary to that saying of yours ; for the 
 Court are ready to give a sentence ; it is not, as 
 you say, that they will not hear their King ; for 
 they have been ready to hear you, they have 
 patiently w^aited your pleasure for three courts 
 together, to hear what you would say to the 
 people's charge against you, to which you have 
 not vouchsafed to give any answer at all. Sir, 
 this tends to a further delay. Truly, Sir, such 
 delays as these neither may the kingdom nor 
 justice well bear: you have had three several 
 days to have offered in this kind what you would 
 have pleased. This Court is founded upon that 
 authority of the Commons of England, in whom 
 rests the supreme jurisdiction ; that which you 
 now tender, is to have another jurisdiction, and 
 a co-ordinate jurisdiction. 
 
 This entreaty of the King to be heard in the 
 Painted Chamber was supposed to relate to a 
 proposal, which he desired to make, for abdicating 
 the crown in favour of his eldest son. Bradshaw 
 was proceeding in his usual harsh and verbose 
 strain to refuse the King's demand. But the re-
 
 76 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 quest, which was urged "with the greatest earnest- 
 ness, and yet in no unseemly passion," had gone 
 to the heart and the conscience of one among the 
 regicides on the bench, John Downes. He was 
 sitting between William Cawley and Colonel Va- 
 lentine Wauton, the brother-in-law of Cromwell. 
 He became agitated as Bradshaw was refusing the 
 King's petition, and said repeatedly to his neigh- 
 bours, " Have we hearts of stone ? are we men ? " 
 Cromwell, who sat on the bench below, hearing 
 his words, looked sternly at him, and asked him 
 what he meant to do, that he could not be quiet. 
 Downes rose, and said in a trembling voice, "My 
 Lord, I am not satisfied to give my consent to this 
 sentence, but have reasons to offer to you against 
 it ; and I desire the Court may adjourn to hear 
 me." The President was surprised, — the mem- 
 bers gazed on Downes, — and the Court adjourned 
 in some disorder. 
 
 The King, Shall I withdraw ? 
 
 Bradshaw, Sir, you shall know the pleasure 
 of the Court presently. 
 
 The Court then withdrew into the inner Court 
 of Wards, where Cromwell immediately called 
 on Downes to give an account why he had 
 occasioned this trouble and disturbance in the 
 Court. Downes urged that it was just and hu- 
 mane to hear the King's proposition ; that they 
 would never be justified if they passed sentence 
 on the King without hearing him fully ; and that 
 no judge at an assize would do so against even a 
 common person. According to Downes's own 
 account, " Cromwell did answer with a great deal 
 of storm." He said, ". Sure the gentleman did 
 not know that thev had to do with the hardest-
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 77 
 
 hearted man upon earth ; and that it was not fit 
 the Court should be hindered from their duty by 
 one peevish man." The members of the Court, 
 after some debate, resolved to proceed, without 
 regarding the King's request. Downes went into 
 the Speaker's chamber, as he says, " to ease his 
 heart with tears ; " and the regicides returned 
 into the haH.i Which done, Bradshaw com- 
 manded — " Serjeant-at-arms, send for youi pri- 
 soner." The King, who had passed the time of 
 his absence in a conference for more than half an 
 hour with Bishop Juxon, returned to his seat in 
 the Hall. 
 
 Bradshaw. Sir, you were pleased to make 
 a motion here to the Court, to offer a desire 
 of yours, touching the propounding of some- 
 what to the Lords and Commons in the Painted 
 Chamber, for the peace of the kingdom. Sir, 
 you did, in effect, receive an answer before the 
 Court adjourned ; truly. Sir, their withdrawing 
 and adjournment was pro forma tantum ; for 
 it did not seem to them that there was any diffi- 
 culty in the thing : they have considered of what 
 you have moved, and have considered of their own 
 
 1 Whitlock says, that many of the commissioners were 
 for hearing the King, but the majority voted that his pro- 
 posal tended to delay. Colonel Harvey and several other 
 commissioners thereupon withdrew from the Court, and 
 never again attended it. Downes was a citizen of Lon- 
 don, of low birth, and timid disposition. Notwithstanding 
 tlie tenderness of conscience which he displayed in the above 
 scene, he had not firmness to continue his resistance to the 
 proceedings, and he signed the warrant for the King's death. 
 His life was spared, when he was found guilty, with the other 
 regicides ; and he died in prison. — See the Trial of the 
 Regicides, State Trials, vol. v.
 
 78 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 authority. Sir, the return I have to you from the 
 Court is this : That they have been too much de- 
 layed by you ah-eady, and this that you now offer 
 hath occasioned some httle further delay ; and 
 they are judges appointed by the highest author- 
 ity; and judges are no more to delay than they 
 are to deny justice : they are good words in tlie 
 great old charter of England : — "Nulli negabi- 
 mus, nulli vendemus, nulli differemus justitiam."* 
 Tliere must be no delay ; but the truth is, Sir, and 
 so every man here observes it, that you have much 
 delayed them in your contempt and default, for 
 which they might long since have proceeded to 
 judgment against 3'^ou ; and, notwithstanding what 
 you have offered, they are resolved to proceed 
 to punishment and to judgment, and that is their 
 unanimous resolution. 
 
 The King. Sir, I know it is in vain for me to 
 dispute ; I am no sceptic for to deny the power 
 that you have ; I know that you have power 
 enough. But, Sir, I think it would have been 
 for the kingdom's peace, if you would have taken 
 the pains to have shown the lawfulness of your 
 power. For this delay that I have desired, it is a 
 delay very important for the peace of the king- 
 dom : for it is not my person that I look at 
 alone, it is the kingdom's welfare, and the 
 kingdom's peace. It is an old sentence. That 
 we should think on long before we resolve 
 of great matters. Therefore, Sir, I do put at 
 your doors all the inconveniency of a hasty 
 sentence. I have been here now, I think, this 
 
 * Did Bradshavv forget that the Great Charter declared 
 that no man should be judged except by his peers, or ac- 
 cording to the laws of the land ?
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 79 
 
 week ; this day eight days was the day I came 
 here first, — but a little delay of a day or two far- 
 ther may give peace ; whereas a hasty judgment 
 may bring on that trouble and perpetual incon- 
 veniency to the kingdom, that the child that is 
 unborn may repent it ; and therefore again, out 
 of the duty I owe to God and to my country, I 
 do desire that I may be heard by the Lords and 
 Commons in the Painted Chamber, or any other 
 chamber that you will appoint me. 
 
 Bradshaw. Sir, you have been already an- 
 swered to what you even now moved, being the 
 same you moved before ; and the Court now re- 
 quires to know whether you have any more to 
 say for yourself than you have said, before they 
 proceed to sentence. 
 
 The King. I say this. Sir, that if you hear me, 
 if you will give me but this delay, I doubt not 
 but I shall give some satisfaction to you all here, 
 and to my people after that ; and therefore I do re- 
 quire you, as you will answer it at the dreadful day 
 of judgment, that you consider it once again. 
 
 Bradshaw. Sir, I have received direction 
 from the Court. 
 
 The King. Well, Sir. 
 
 Bradshaic. If this must be re-enforced, your 
 answer must be the same ; and they will proceed 
 to sentence, if you have nothing more to say. 
 
 The King. Sir, I have nothing more to say ! 
 but I shall desire that this may be entered what 
 I have said, 
 
 Bradshaw. The Court then, Sir, hath some- 
 thing to say unto you ; which, although I know 
 it will be very unacceptable, yet notwithstanding
 
 80 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 they are willing, and are resolved to discharge 
 their duty. 
 
 Sir, you speak very well of a precious thing 
 which you call peace ; and it had been much to be 
 wished that God had put it into your heart that 
 you had as effectually and really endeavoured and 
 studied the peace of the kingdom, as now in words 
 you seem to pretend : but, as you were told the 
 other day, actions must expound intentions ; yet 
 actions have been clean contrary. And truly, 
 Sir, you have held yourself, and let fall such 
 language, as if you had been no way subject to the 
 law, or that the law had not been your superior. 
 Sir, the Court is very sensible of it, and I hope so 
 are all the understanding people of England, that 
 the law is your superior ; that you ought to have 
 iiiled according to the law. Sir, I know very 
 well your pretence that you have done so ; but, 
 Sir, the difference hath been who shall be the ex- 
 positors of this law : Sir, whether j'ou and your 
 party, out of courts of justice, shall expound law, 
 or the courts of justice, who are the expounders : 
 nay, the sovereign and the high court of justice, 
 the parliament of England, that are not only the 
 highest expounders, but the sole makers of the 
 law. Sir, for you to set yourself, and those that 
 adhere unto you, against the highest court of 
 justice, that is not law. Sir, as the law is your 
 superior, so truly. Sir, there is something that is 
 superior to the law, and that is indeed the parent 
 or author of the law, the people of England: 
 for, Sir, as they are those that at the first did 
 choose to themselves this form of government, 
 even for justice sake, so, Sir, they gave laws to
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 81 
 
 their governors, according to which they should 
 govern ; and if those laws should have proved 
 prejudicial to the public, they had a power in 
 them to alter as they should see cause. Sir, it is 
 very true that some of your side have said, " Rex 
 non habet parem in regno." This Court will say 
 the same, while King, that you have not your peer 
 in some sense, for you are major singulis ; but 
 they will aver again that you are minor universis. 
 And the same author tells you, that " non debet 
 esse major eo in regno suo in exhibitione juris, 
 minimus autem esse debet in judicio susci- 
 piendo." ^ 
 
 This we know to be law, " Rex habet superiorem, 
 Deumet legem, etiam et curiam ;" so says the same 
 author. And truly, Sir, he makes bold to go a little 
 further; " Debent ei ponere froenum : " they ought 
 to bridle him. " Justitiae fruendi causa reges 
 constituti sunt." This we learn : the end of having 
 kings, or any other governors, it is for the enjoying 
 of justice; that is the end. Now, Sir, if so be the 
 king will go contrary to that end of his g'overn- 
 ment, Sir, he must understand that he is but an 
 officer in trust, and he ought to discharge that 
 trust ; and they are to take order for the punish- 
 ment of such an offending governor. 
 
 This is not law of yesterday, Sir, but it is 
 law of old. And we know very well the authors 
 and the authorities that do tell us what the law 
 was in that point upon the election of kings, upon 
 the oath that they took unto their people : and if 
 they did not observe it, there were those things 
 called parliaments ; the parliaments were they 
 1 Bract, de Leg. lib. i. c. 8. 
 G
 
 82 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 that were to adjudge (the very words of the au- 
 thor) the plaints and wrongs done of the king and 
 the queen, or their children ; such wrongs espe- 
 cially, when the people could have nowhere else 
 any remedy. Sir, that hath been the people of 
 England's case : they could not have their re- 
 medy elsewhere but in parliament. Sir, parlia- 
 ments were ordained for that purpose, to redress 
 the grievances of the people. Sir, by the old laws 
 of England, I speak these things the rather to you, 
 because you were pleased to let fall the other day, 
 you thought you had as much knowledge in the 
 law as most gentlemen in England. It is very 
 well, Sir. And truly. Sir, it is very fit for the gen- 
 tlemen of England to understand that law under 
 which they must live, and by which they must be 
 governed. And then, Sir, the Scripture says, 
 " They that know their master's will, and do it 
 not :" what follows ? The law is your master, the 
 acts of parliament. 
 
 The parliaments were to be kept anciently, we 
 find in our old author, twice in the year, that the 
 subject upon any occasion might have a ready 
 redress for his grievance. Afterwards, by several 
 acts of parliament in the days of your predecessor 
 Edward III., they should have been once a year. 
 Sir, what the intermission of parliaments hath 
 been in your time, it is very well known, and the 
 sad consequences of it : and what in the interim 
 instead of these parliaments hath been by you by 
 an high and arbitrary hand introduced upon the 
 people, that likewise hath been too well known 
 and felt. But when God, by his providence, had 
 so far brought it about, that you could no longer
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 83 
 
 decline the calling of a parliament. Sir, yet it will 
 appear what your ends were against the ancient 
 and your native kingdom of Scotland : the par- 
 liament of England not serving your ends against 
 them, you were pleased to dissolve it. Another 
 great necessity occasioned the calling of this par- 
 liament : and what your designs, and plots, and 
 endeavours all along have been, for the crushing 
 and confounding of this parliament, hath been 
 very notorious to the whole kingdom. And truly. 
 Sir, in that you did strike at all ; that had been a 
 sure way to have brought about that that this 
 charge lays upon you, your intention to subvert 
 the fundamental laws of the land : for the great 
 bulwark of the liberties of the people is the par- 
 liament of England ; and to subvert and root up 
 that, which your aim hath been to do, certainly 
 at one blow you had confounded the liberties and 
 the property of England. 
 
 Truly, Sir, itmakes me to call to mind — I cannot 
 forbear to express it ; for. Sir, we must deal plainly 
 with you — it makes me call to mind that we read 
 of a great Roman emperor, (by the way, let us call 
 him a great Roman tyrant,) that Caligula, that 
 wished that the people of Rome had had but one 
 neck, that at one blow he might cut it off. And 
 your proceedings have been somewhat like to this : 
 for the body of the people of England hath been 
 (and where else) represented but in the parlia- 
 ment ; and could you but have confounded that, 
 you had at one blow cut off the neck of England. 
 But God hath pleased for to confound your de- 
 signs, and to break your forces, and to bring your 
 G 2
 
 84 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 person into custody, that you might be responsible 
 to justice. 
 
 Sir, we know very well that it is a question 
 much on your side pressed, by what precedent 
 we shall proceed? Truly, Sir, for precedents, I 
 shall not upon these occasions institute any long 
 discourse; but it is no new thing to cite precedents 
 almost of all nations, where the people (when 
 power hath been in their hands) have made bold 
 to call their kings to account ; and where the 
 change of government hath been upon occasion of 
 the tyranny and misgovernment of those that 
 have been placed over them, I will not spend time 
 to mention either France, or Spain, or the empire, 
 or other countries ; volumes may be written of 
 it. But truly. Sir, that of the kingdom of Ara- 
 gon, I shall think some of us have thought upon it, 
 where they have the justice of Aragon^, that is, a 
 man tanquam in medio positus, betwixt the King of 
 Spain and the people of the country; that if wrong 
 be done by the king, he that is King of Aragon, 
 the justice hath power to reform the wrong ; and 
 he is acknowledged to be the king's superior, and 
 is the grand preserver of their privileges, and hath 
 prosecuted kings upon their miscarriages. 
 
 Sir, what the tribunes of Rome were hereto- 
 fore, and what the ephori were to the Lacedae- 
 
 1 Without noticing the absurdity of justifying the de- 
 thronement and slaughter of an English King by a 
 precedent from Spain, Bradshaw's instance is singularly 
 inapplicable. The authority of the Justice of Aragon was 
 a part of the Spanish constitution, whereas the English 
 constitution had provided no judicial power having juri^ 
 diction over the King.
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. bo 
 
 monian state, we know that is the parliament of 
 England to the English state : and though Rome 
 seemed to lose its liberty when once the em- 
 perors were ; yet you shall find some famous acts 
 of justice even done by the senate of Rome ; that 
 great tyrant of his time, Nero, condemned and 
 judged by the senate. But truly, Sir, to you I 
 should not need to mention these foreign ex- 
 amples. If you look but over Tweed, we find 
 enough in your native kingdom of Scotland. If 
 we look to your first king, Fergus, that your 
 stories make mention of, he was an elective king^ 
 he died, and left two sons, both in their minority ; 
 the kingdom made choice of their uncle, his bro- 
 ther, to govern in the minority. Afterwards the 
 elder brother, giving small hopes to the people 
 that he would rule or govern well, seeking to sup- 
 plant that good uncle of his that governed them 
 justly, they set the elder aside, and took to the 
 younger. Sir, if I should come to what your 
 stories make, mention of, you know very well you 
 are the hundred and ninth King of Scotland ; for 
 not to mention so many kings as that kingdom 
 according to their power and privilege, have made 
 bold to deal withal, some to banish, and some to 
 imprison, and some to put to death, it would be 
 too long ; and as one of your own authors says, 
 it would be too long to recite the manifold ex- 
 amples that your own stories make mention of. 
 lieges, &c. (say they) we do create ; we created 
 kings at first : leges, &x. we imposed laws upon 
 them. And we will be bold to say, that no king- 
 dom hath yielded more plentiful experience than 
 that your native kingdom of Scotland hath done 
 G 3
 
 86 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 concerning the deposition and the punishment of 
 their transgressing kings, &c. 
 
 It is not far to go for an example : near you 
 your grandmother set aside, and your father, an 
 infant, crowned. And the state did it here in 
 England: here hath not been a want of some 
 examples. They have made bold (the parliament 
 and the people of England) to call their kings to 
 account : there are frequent examples of it in 
 the Saxons' time, the time before the Conquest. 
 Since the Conquest there want not some prece- 
 dents neither. King Edward II., King Richard II. 
 were dealt with so by the parliament, as they 
 were deposed and deprived.^ And truly. Sir, who- 
 
 i There is far more pedantry than discretion in all Brad- 
 shaw's references to history for precedents. What must 
 have been the president's estimation of the proceedings 
 against Charles, when he could seek to justify them by the 
 violent expulsion of Edward the Second, by his adulterous 
 wife, her paramour and his own son, for no crime but weak- 
 ness of character? As to the deposition of Richard, if that was 
 to be cited as analogous, at least the President and his party 
 should have acted according to it — they should simply have 
 deposed the King, as Richard was deposed, by an act of 
 both Houses, have preserved the constitution, and vested the 
 Crown in the next successor. And they should have done 
 this by a direct and manful charge against the King, of 
 those violations of the constitution, and stretches of the pre- 
 rogative, which were complained of, instead of jesuitically 
 and inhumanly putting him on his trial for treason and 
 murder, on account of blood shed in open and equal war- 
 fare. The depositions of Edward and Richard at least 
 could afford no precedent for the destruction of the constitu- 
 tion, the abolition of the monarchy and the peerage, nor for 
 the slaughter of the King — unless, indeed, Bradshaw in- 
 tended (which can hardly be supposed,) to liken himself and
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 87 
 
 ever shall look into their stories, they shall not 
 find the articles that are charged upon them to 
 come near to that height and capitalness of crimes 
 that are laid to your charge — nothing near. 
 
 Sir, you were pleased to say, the other day, 
 wherein they dissent ; and I did not contradict 
 it. But take altogether, Sir : if you were as the 
 charge speaks, and no otherwise, admitted King 
 of England : but for that you were pleased then 
 to allege, how that for almost a thousand years 
 these things have been, stories will tell you, if 
 you go no higher than the time of the Conquest ; 
 if you do come down since the Conquest, you are 
 the twenty-fourth king from William called the 
 Conqueror ; you shall find one half of them to 
 come merely from the state, and not merely 
 upon the point of descent. It were easy to 
 be instanced to you ; but time must not be 
 lost that way. And, Sir, your oath, the man- 
 ner of your coronation, doth show plainly, that 
 although it is true, by the law the next person 
 in blood is designed ; yet if there were just 
 cause to refuse him, the people of England 
 might do it. For there is a contract and a 
 bargain made between the king and his people, 
 and your oath is taken ; and certainly, Sir, the 
 bond is reciprocal ; for as you are the liege lord, 
 so they liege subjects. Ligeantia est duplex. The 
 one tie, the one bond, is the bond of protection 
 that is due from the sovereign ; the other is the 
 bond of subjection that is due from the subject. 
 
 his accomplices to Matravers and Piers Exton, and to jus- 
 tify the bloody scene before Whitehall by the atrocities of 
 Berkeley Castle and of Pontefract. 
 G 4
 
 83 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 Sir, if this bond be once broken i, farewell sove- 
 reignty ! Svhjectio trahit, &c. 
 
 These things may not be denied, Sir ; and I 
 pray God it may work upon your heart, that you 
 may be sensible of your miscarriages. For 
 whether you have been, as by your office you 
 ought to be, a protector of England, or the de- 
 stroyer of England, let all England judge, or all 
 the world that hath looked upon it. 2 Sir, though 
 you have it by inheritance in the way that is 
 spoken of, yet your office was an office of trust, 
 and, indeed, an office of the highest trust lodged 
 in any single person : for as you were the grand 
 administrator of justice, and others were as your 
 delegates to see it done throughout your realms ; 
 if your greatest office were to do justice, and 
 preserve your people from wrong, and instead of 
 doing that, you will be the great wrong-doer 
 yourself; if, instead of being a conservator of the 
 peace, you will be the grand disturber of the 
 peace ; surely, this is contrary to your office, 
 contrary to your trust. Now, Sir, if it be an 
 office of inheritance, as you speak of your title 
 by descent, let all men know that great offices 
 are seizable and forfeitable, as if you had it but 
 for a year, and for your life. Therefore, Sir, it 
 will concern you to take into your serious con- 
 sideration your great miscarriages in this kind. 
 
 1 Whether Charles or the republican faction broke this 
 bond was the real question between him and the nation. Into 
 this question Bradshaw dared not enter. 
 
 ^ This republican lawyer, whenever he descends from 
 his pedantic generalities to any allusion to the King's acts, 
 conveniently treats notoriety as equivalent to proof.
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 89 
 
 Truly, Sir, I shall not particularise the many 
 miscarriages of your reign. It had been happy 
 for the kingdom, and happy for you too. if it had 
 not been so much kno\yn, and so much felt, as 
 the story of your miscarriages must needs be, 
 and hath been already. 
 
 Sir, that which we are now upon, by the com- 
 mand of the highest court, hath been and is to 
 try and judge you for these great offences ot 
 yours. Sir, the charge hath called you tyrant^ 
 a traitor^ a murderer^ and a public enemy to 
 the commonwealth of England. Sir, it had been 
 well if that any of all these terms might rightly 
 and justly have been spared. 
 
 The King. Ha I 
 
 BradsJiaw. Truly, Sir, we have been told, 
 " Rex est dum bene regit, tyrannus qui populum 
 opprimit :" and if so be, that be the definition of 
 a tyrant, then see how you come short of it in 
 your actions, whether the highest tyrant, by 
 that way of arbitrary government, and that you 
 have sought for to introduce, and that yow were 
 putting upon the people, — whether that was not 
 as high an act of tyranny as any of your prede- 
 cessors were guilty of, nay, many degrees be- 
 yond it. 
 
 Sir, the term traitor cannot be spared. We 
 shall easily agree it must denote and suppose a 
 breach of trust ; and it must suppose it to be 
 done to a superior. And, therefore. Sir, as the 
 people of England might have incurred that re- 
 specting you, if they had been truly guilty of it, 
 as to the definition of law ; so, on the other side, 
 when you did break your trust to the kingdom,
 
 90 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 you did break your trust to your superior : for 
 the kingdom is that for which you were trusted. 
 And, therefore, Sir, for this breach of trust when 
 you are called to account, you are called to ac- 
 count by your superiors. " Minimus ad majorem 
 in judicium vocat." And, Sir, the people of 
 England cannot be so far wanting to themselves, 
 (God having dealt so miraculously and gloriously 
 for them) ; but that, having power in their hands, 
 and their great enemy, they must proceed to do 
 justice to themselves and to you : for. Sir, the 
 Court could heartily desire, that you would lay 
 your hand upon your heart, and consider what 
 you have done amiss, that you would endeavour 
 to make your peace with God. Truly, Sir, these 
 are your high crimes, tyranny and treason. 
 
 There is a third thing, too, if those had not 
 been, and that is murder, which is laid to your 
 charge. All the bloody murders which have been 
 committed since this time that the division was 
 betwixt you and your people, must be laid to 
 your charge, which have been acted or com,- 
 mitted in these late wars.i Sir, it is an heinous 
 and crying sin ; and truly. Sir, if any man will 
 ask us what punishment is due to a murderer, 
 let God's law, let man's law, speak. Sir, I will 
 
 I This is a compendious mode of evading, by a confi- 
 dent assertion, the real difficulty ^vhich lay on the King's 
 
 judo-es that of showing him to be in any legal, or even 
 
 anv moral, sense responsible for the blood shed in the war. 
 Bradshaw having assumed this point, boldly cites the 
 scriptural denunciations against " murder,'' not choosing 
 to see that these canons of God's law and man's law forcibly 
 and directly applied to the act in which he and his accom- 
 plices were engaged.
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 91 
 
 presume that you are so well read in Scripture, 
 as to know what God himself hath said con- 
 cerning the shedding of man's blood : Gen. ix., 
 Numb. XXXV., will tell you what the punishment 
 is, and which this Court, in behalf of the whole 
 kingdom, are sensible of, of that innocent blood 
 that has been shed, whereby, indeed, the land 
 stands still defiled with that blood ; and, as the 
 text hath it, it can no way be cleansed but with 
 the shedding of the blood of him that shed this 
 blood. Sir, we know no dispensation from this 
 blood in that commandment, " Thou shalt do no 
 murder :" we do not know but that it extends to 
 kings as well as to the meanest peasants : the 
 command is universal. Sir, God's law forbids it ; 
 man's law forbids it ; nor do we know that there 
 is any manner of exception, not even in man's 
 laws, for the punishment of murder in you. It 
 is true, that in the case of kings every private 
 hand was not to put forth itself to this work. 
 But, Sir, the people represented having power 
 in their hands, had there been but one wilful act 
 of murder by you committed, had power to have 
 convened you, and to have punished you for it. 
 
 But then, Sir, the weight that lies upon you 
 n all those respects that have been spoken, by 
 reason of your tyranny, treason, breach of trust, 
 and the murders that have been committed ; 
 surely, Sir, it must drive you into a sad consider- 
 ation concerning your eternal condition. As I 
 said at first, I know it cannot be pleasing to you 
 to hear any such things as these are mentioned 
 unto you from thiss Court, for so we do call our- 
 selves, and justify ourselves to be a Court, and
 
 92 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 a high court of justice, authorised by the 
 highest and solemnest court of the kingdom; 
 and although you do yet endeavour to discourt 
 us, yet we do take knowledge of ourselves to be 
 such a Court as can administer justice to you ; 
 and we are bound. Sir, in duty to do it. Sir, all 
 I shall say before the reading of your sentence, 
 it is but this : the Court does heartily desire 
 that you will seriously think of those evils that 
 you stand guilty of. Sir, you said well to us the 
 other day, you wished us to have God before 
 our eyes. Truly, Sir, 1 hope all of us have so : 
 that God who we know is a King of kings, and 
 Lord of lords; that God with whom there is no 
 respect of persons ; that God who is the avenger 
 of innocent blood ; we have that God before us, 
 — that God who does bestow a curse upon them 
 that withhold their hands from shedding of blood, 
 which is in the case of guilty malefactors, and 
 that do deserve death : that God we have before 
 our eyes. And were it not that the conscience 
 of our duty hath called us unto this place, and 
 this employment, Sir, you should have had no 
 appearance of a Court here. But, Sir, we must 
 prefer the discharge of our duty unto God, and 
 unto the kingdom, before any other respect 
 whatsoever. And although at this time many of 
 us, if not all of us, are severely threatened by 
 some of your party, what they intend to do. 
 Sir, we will say, and we will declare it, as those 
 children in the fiery furnace, that would not 
 worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzai 
 had set up, " that their God was able to deliver 
 them from that danger that they were near unto:"
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 93 
 
 but yet if he would not do it, yet they would not 
 fall down and worship the image. We shall thus 
 apply it ; that though we should not be deli- 
 vered fi-om those bloody hands and hearts that 
 conspire the overthrow of the kingdom, though 
 we should perish in the work, yet by God's grace, 
 and by God's strength, we will go on with it. 
 And this is all our resolutions. Sir, I say for 
 yourself, we do heartily wish and desire that God 
 would be pleased to give you a sense of your sins, 
 that you would see wherein you have done amiss, 
 that you may cry unto him, that God would deli- 
 ver you from blood-guiltiness. A good king was 
 once guilty of that particular thing, and was clear 
 otherwise, saving in the matter of Uriah. Truly, 
 Sir, the story tells us that he was a repentant 
 king ; and it signifies enough that he had died 
 for it, but that God was pleased to accept of him, 
 and to give him his pardon, " Thou shalt not 
 die, but the child shall die : thou hast given 
 cause to the enemies of God to blaspheme." 
 
 The King, I would desire only one word before 
 you give sentence ; I desire that you would 
 hear me concerning those great imputations that 
 you have laid to my charge. 
 
 Bradshaw. Sir, you must give me now leave 
 to go on ; for I am not far from your sentence, 
 and your time is now past. 
 
 The King. But I shall desire you will hear me 
 a few words to you : for truly, whatever sentence 
 you will put upon me in respect of those heavy 
 imputations, that I see by your speech you have 
 put upon me ; Sir, it is very true, that 
 
 Bradshaw. Sir, I must put you in mind.
 
 94 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 Truly, Sir, I would not willingly, at this time es- 
 pecially, interrupt you in any thing you have to 
 say, that is proper for us to admit of; but, Sir, 
 you have not owned us as a Court, and you look 
 upon us as a sort of people met together ; and we 
 know what language ive receive from your jmrty.^ 
 
 The King. I know nothing of that. 
 
 Bradshaw. You disavow us as a Court; and 
 therefore for you to address yourself to us, 
 not acknowledging us as a Court to judge of 
 what you say, it is not to be permitted. And 
 the truth is, all along, from the first time you 
 were pleased to disavow and disown us, the Court 
 needed not to have heard you one word : for un- 
 less they be acknowledged a Court, and engaged, 
 it is not proper for you to speak. Sir, we have 
 given you too much liberty already, and admitted 
 of too much delay, and we may not admit of any 
 further. Were it proper for us to do it, we should 
 hear you freely ; and we should not have declined 
 to hear you at large, what you could have said 
 or proved on your behalf, whether for totally 
 excusing, or for in part excusing those great and 
 heinous charges that in whole or in part are laid 
 upon you. But, Sir, I shall trouble you no 
 longer ; your sins are of so large a dimension, 
 that if you do but seriously think of them, they 
 may improve in you a sad and serious repent- 
 ance ; and that the Court doth heartily wish that 
 
 1 To men who must have been conscious of the utter 
 want of lawful authority for their acts, the King's deter- 
 mined denial of their jurisdiction must not only have occa- 
 sioned much difficulty in their proceedings, but must have 
 inflicted an unpardonable wound on their pride, and a sting 
 on their consciences.
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 95 
 
 you may be so penitent for what you have done 
 amiss, that God may have mercy, at least-wise, 
 upon your better part : truly, Sir, for the other, 
 it is our part and duties to do that which the 
 law prescribes. We are here not jus dare, but 
 jus dicere. We cannot be unmindful of what the 
 Scripture tells us, " For to acquit the guilty is of 
 equal abomination as to condemn the innocent:" 
 we may not acquit the guilty. What sentence 
 the law affirms to a traitor, tyrant, a murderer, 
 and a public enemy to the country, that sentence 
 you are now to hear read unto you ; and that is 
 the sentence of the Court. 
 
 Make an 0-yes, and command silence while 
 the sentence is read. — Wliich done, 
 
 The clerk read the sentence. It recited 
 the act of the Commons establishing the Court, 
 and the charge exhibited before it against the 
 King ; his Majesty's refusal to answer, or to admit 
 the Court's jurisdiction; that the Court had there- 
 fore given judgment against him for his con- 
 tumacy, but, for further and clearer satisfaction, 
 had examined witnesses on oath touching the 
 charge ; and it alleged that, on mature deliber- 
 ation of the premises, and consideration had of 
 the notoriety of the matters of fact charged on 
 the prisoner, the Court was in conscience satisfied 
 that the said Charles Stuart was guilty of levying 
 war against the parliament and people, and by 
 the general course of his government, counsels, 
 and practices before and since the parliament 
 began (which had been and are notorious and 
 public), the Court was fully satisfied in their con- 
 sciences that he was guilty of the wicked designs
 
 96 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 and endeavours in the charge set forth ; and that 
 he had been, and was, the occasion er, author, 
 and continuer of the said unnatural, cruel, and 
 bloody wars, and therein guilty of high treason, 
 and of the murders, rapines, burnings, spoils, de- 
 solations, damages, and mischiefs to this nation 
 acted and committed in the said war, and occa- 
 sioned thereby. " For all which treasons and 
 crimes this Court doth adjudge that he, the said 
 Charles Stuart, as a tyrant, traitor, murderer, 
 and public enemy to the good people of this na- 
 tion, shall be put to death, by severing his head 
 from his body." 
 
 Bradshawthen said, — '^ The sentence now read 
 and published is the act, sentence, judgment, and 
 resolution of the whole Court ; " to which all the 
 commissioners expressed their assent by standing 
 up, as had been before arranged in the Painted 
 Chamber. The King, who during the reading of 
 the sentence had smiled, and more than once lifted 
 his eyes to heaven, then said, " Will you hear 
 me a word. Sir ? " 
 
 Bradshaw. Sir, you are not to be heard after 
 the sentence. 
 
 The King. No, Sir? 
 
 Bradshaw. No, Sir, by your favour. Guards, 
 withdraw your prisoner. 
 
 The King. I may speak after the sentence, 
 by your favour. Sir. I may speak after the sen- 
 tence, ever. By your favour 
 
 Bradshaw. Hold ! 
 
 The King. The sentence. Sir. I say. Sir, I 
 do 
 
 Bradshaw. Hold I
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST 97 
 
 The King. I am not suffered to speak. Ex- 
 pect what justice the people will have ! " ^ 
 
 As the King uttered these words, he was re- 
 moved from the Court by the guard. In passing 
 down into the Hall he was compelled to endure the 
 insults and scoffs of a few of the soldiers. Some 
 cast the smoke of their tobacco into his face (an 
 odour peculiarly disgusting to him at all times) ; 
 others threw their pipes in his way; and one inhuman 
 wretch had the brutality to spit in his Majesty's 
 face 2, of v.hich he took no notice, but calmly 
 wiped his face with his handkerchief. As he 
 passed along, hearing the rabble and the soldiery 
 crying out '^Justice! Justice! Execution!" (to 
 which they were instigated by Colonel Axtell 
 and other officers-^_,) he mildly said to Herbert, 
 his attendant, " Poor souls ! for a piece of money 
 they would do the same for their commanders." 
 He Avas first conducted as usual to Sir Robert 
 Cotton's, but was immediately removed from 
 thence in a sedan chair, with a strong guard, by 
 the Privy Gardens, to Whitehall, where he re- 
 rtiained till the night before his execution, when 
 
 ' Ludlow, one of the most determined of the i^egicides, 
 apologises for silencing the King after the sentence by a 
 legal fiction absurdly misapplied. " The King would have 
 spoken something before he was withdrawn : but, being 
 accounted dead in law immediately after sentence pro- 
 nounced, it was not permitted." — Memoirs, p. 121. 
 
 - See Trials of the Regicides, State Trials, vol. v. 
 
 3 Augustine Garland, one of the commissioners (an 
 Essex man, elected member of parliament in 1648,) who 
 signed the King's sentence, and who was tried and hanged 
 in 1 660 for this treason, was charged with committing this 
 brutal indignity ; but he solemnly denied it ; and the 
 evidence is not verj' conclusive. 
 H
 
 98 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 he slept at St. James's. Sir Thomas Herbert, 
 who was with Charles, says the files of soldiers 
 through which he passed were silent ; but the 
 stalls, shops, and windows were filled with people, 
 many of whom shed tears, and many with an 
 audible voice prayed for the King. One soldier, 
 unlike his companions, called to the King, " God 
 bless you. Sir ! " for which sin his officer struck 
 him repeatedly with his cane. On which the 
 King observed, " Methinks the punishment ex- 
 ceeds the offence." 
 
 On the evening of the day on which he re- 
 ceived sentence (Saturday, the 27 th of January,) 
 the King sent a message to the commissioners, 
 desiring that his children might be brought to 
 him, and that Dr. Juxon, Bishop of London, 
 might attend to read and pray with him, and to 
 administer the holy sacrament to him ; which re- 
 quests were, with some little hesitation, granted. 
 On Sunday, the 28th, he was attended by a guard 
 from Whitehall to St. James's, where the Bishop 
 of London preached before him on these words 
 (Romans, ii. 16.) : " In the day when God shall 
 judge the secrets of all men by Jesus Christ, ac- 
 cording to my gospel." After the service the 
 King received the sacrament ; and he spent the 
 rest of the day in private devotion, and in con- 
 ferences with the bishop, declining to admit any 
 visiters, even the Prince Elector, the Duke of 
 Richmond, the Marquis of Hertford, and others, 
 who came to pay their last duties to their mo- 
 narch. The King said, " My time is short and 
 precious ; I hope they will not take it ill that 
 none have access to me but my children. The
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 99 
 
 best oflfice they can now do me is to pray for 
 me." The next day Charles underwent the cruel 
 pang of separating from his two children (who 
 alone were in England), Henry Duke of Glouces- 
 ter, who was about seven years of age, and the 
 Princess Elizabeth, who was about thirteen^ 
 Their interview with him was long, tender, and 
 afflicting ; and evinced not more the warmth and 
 depth of the King's domestic affections, than that 
 
 ' The Duke of York, then about fifteen years of age, had 
 escaped from St. James's a few months before, at the recom- 
 mendation of Charles, and by the assistance of Colonel Bam- 
 field. The Duke, in descending into the garden, knocked 
 against a door in the palace, and feared an alarm ; "but no 
 alarm being taken, he ventures down and out of the door by 
 the Tilt Yard end, where Colonel Barafield attended u-ith a 
 periwig and black patches, which the Duke having put on, they 
 hie to Spring Gardens, as gallants come to liear the nightingale, 
 and, being passed through that, enter into a coach." At 
 Greenwich, whither they proceeded on board a vessel, tlie 
 Colonel was unluckily recognised by a bargemaster ; and 
 he was espied tying on the Duke's garter, which, as the 
 Prince had before *' shifted into gentlewoman's clothes," was 
 considered extraordinary ; and they wath difficulty, by 
 threats and promises, persuaded the captain to proceed 
 with them. Rainsborough's squadron, which lay in the 
 Downs, occasioned them some alarm; but they arrived 
 safe at Middleburgh, where the Prince slept, " and gave 
 much wonder to the hostess that a young gentlewoman 
 would not let the maids help her to bed ; but be served by 
 a pretended brother in the same chamber in another bed." 
 On arriving at Maesland Sluys, the Prince of Orange came 
 on board to his brother-in-law ; and on landing, '•' the 
 Princess Royal came to the street-door to embrace her 
 brother, the affectionateness of which meeting," says an 
 eye-witness, "I cannot express." — See a Letter to Mr. 
 Secretary Nicholas in the Appendix to Clarendon's State 
 Papers, vol. ii.
 
 100 THK TRIAL OF 
 
 perpetual and conscientious regard to the prin- 
 ciples belonging to his station, and that fervent 
 piety, which ever animated his conduct. He 
 bade the Lady Elizabeth tell her mother that his 
 thoughts had never strayed from her, and that 
 his love should be the same to the last ; and 
 begged her to remember to tell her brother 
 James, whenever she should see him, " that it 
 was his father's last desire that after his death he 
 should no longer look on his brother Charles 
 merely as his elder brother, but should be obe- 
 dient to him as his sovereign ; and that they 
 should both love one another, and forgive their 
 father's enemies. — But," said the King to her, 
 " Sweetheart, you will forget this ? " — " No," 
 said she ; " I will never forget it as long as 
 I live." He prayed her not to grieve for him, 
 for he should die a glorious death; it being for 
 the laws and liberties of the land, and for main- 
 taining the true Protestant religion. He charged 
 her to forgive those people, but never to trust 
 them ; for they had been most false to him, and 
 to those that gave them power, and he feared 
 also to their own souls. He then urged her to 
 read " Bishop Andrews's Sermons," " Hooker's 
 Ecclesiastical Polity," and " Archbishop Laud's 
 Book against Fisher," which would strengthen 
 her faith, and confirm her in a pious attachment 
 to the Church of England, and an aversion from 
 popery ; and in remembrance of him he gave her 
 two seals set with diamonds. Then taking tlie 
 Duke of Gloucester on his knee, the King said 
 to him, " Sweetheart, now they will cut off thy 
 father's head" (upon which words the child looked
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 101 
 
 very earnestly and steadfastly at him). " Mark, 
 child, what 1 say, they will cut off my head, and 
 perhaps make thee a king: but mark me, you 
 must not be a king so long as your brothers, 
 Charles and James, do live ; for they will cut off 
 your brothers' heads when they can catch them, 
 and cut off tliy head at last too ; and therefore I 
 charge you do not be made a king by them : " at 
 which the child said earnestly, " I will be torn 
 in pieces first ;" which ready reply from so 
 young an infant, filled the King's eyes with tears 
 of admiration and pleasure. At parting, the 
 King commanded them both to be obedient to 
 their mother, and bade the Lady Elizabeth send 
 his blessing to the rest of her brothers and sisters, 
 with his commendations to all his friends. 
 
 The commissioners, to the number of forty- 
 eight, met on the same day, (Monday, the 29th 
 January,) in the Painted Chamber, when they 
 pronounced an order that the King should be be- 
 headed on the following day, in the open street 
 before Whitehall, and drew up and engrossed the 
 warrant for his execution, which many of them 
 immediately signed. The warrant, was as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 " At the High Court of Justice for the trying 
 and judging of Charles Stuart, King of Eng- 
 land, January 29. IG^S. 
 
 " Whereas Charles Stuart, King of England, is, 
 and standeth convicted, attainted, and condemned 
 of high treason, and other high crimes; and sen- 
 tence upon Saturday last was pronounced against 
 H 3
 
 102 THE EXECUTION OF 
 
 him, by this Court, to be put to death, by the 
 severing of his head from his body, of which 
 sentence execution yet remaineth to be done : 
 these are, therefore, to will and require you to 
 see the said sentence executed, in the open street 
 before Whitehall, upon the morrow, being the 
 thirtieth day of this instant month of January, 
 between the hours of ten in the morning and 
 five in the afternoon of the same day, with full 
 effect : and for so doing, this shall be your suffi- 
 cient warrant. And these are to require all 
 officers, soldiers, and others, the good people of 
 this nation of England, to be assisting unto you 
 in this service. 
 
 " Given under our hands and seals." ^ 
 
 Then follow the signatures of fifty-nine com- 
 missioners, including Bradshaw, Lord Grey, 
 Cromwell, Sir John Danvers, Ireton, Pride, Har- 
 rison, Waller, Say, Scroope, Ludlow, Marten, 
 Ingoldsby, Ewers, Thos. Challoner, Scot, Carew, 
 Corbet, &c. 
 
 The commissioners also made an order that 
 the officers of the ordnance within the Tower of 
 London should deliver to Edward Dendy, Esq., 
 the serjeant-at-arms, the bright axe for the exe- 
 
 ^ The fact mentioned by Hume and Ludlow, that Oliver 
 Cromwell and Henry Marten blacked each other's faces 
 with a pen as they were signing the warrant in the Painted 
 Chamber, was proved on oath by an eye-witness called 
 Ewer, at the trial of Marten, in I6'60. — See State Trials, 
 vol. V. 1200. Marten, in his defence, said the fact did not 
 imply malice. For the story as to Cromwell forcing Colonel 
 Ingoldsby to sign the warrant, see post, in the memoir of 
 Ingoldsby.
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 103 
 
 cuting of malefactors. They ordered five emi- 
 nent ministers, Calamy, Vines, Caryll, Dell, and 
 Goodwin, to be sent to the King for his spi- 
 ritual assistance. Charles, who had chosen tlie 
 Bishop for that office, declined to receive them, 
 but begged them to offer their prayers to God 
 for him. They also gave orders that the King's 
 scaffold should be covered with black. 
 
 On the morning of his death, Charles, accord- 
 ing to the relation of his faithful attendant. Sir 
 Thos. Herbert, awoke about two hours before 
 daybreak, after a sound sleep of four hours. He 
 called to Herbert, who lay on a pallet by his bed- 
 side, and bade him rise ; " for," said the King, " f 
 will get up, I have a great work to do this day." He 
 then gave orders what clothes he would wear, 
 and said to his attendant, " Let me have a shirt 
 on more than ordinary, by reason the season is so 
 sharp! as probably may make me shake, which 
 some observers will imagine proceeds from fear. 
 I would have no such imputation. I fear not 
 death — death is not terrible to me. I bless 
 God, I am prepared." Soon after the King was 
 dressed, Bishop Juxon came to him, according to 
 his appointment the night before. He remained 
 an hour in private with him, when Herbert was 
 called in, and the Bishop prayed with the 
 King, using the prayers of the church, and then 
 read the 27th chapter of St. Matthew, which so 
 beautifully describes the passion of our Saviour. 
 The King thanked the Bishop for his choice of 
 
 1 The day was so piercing that the King, at the per- 
 suasion of Bishop Juxon, wore a cloak till the moment 
 of his death. 
 
 H 4
 
 104? THE EXECUTION OF 
 
 the lesson ; but he was surprised and gratified to 
 learn that it was the lesson for the day according 
 to the calendar. 
 
 About 10 o'clock Colonel Hacker knocked at 
 the King's chamber door, and, being admitted 
 by Herbert, came in trembling, and announced 
 to the King that it was time to go to Whitehall, 
 where he might have further time to rest ; and 
 soon afterwards the King, taking the Bishop by 
 the hand, proposed to go. Charles then walked 
 out through the garden of the palace into the 
 Park, where several companies of foot waited as 
 his guard ; and, attended by the Bishop on one 
 side, and Colonel Tomlinson on the other, both 
 bare-headed, he walked fast down the Park, 
 sometimes cheerfully calling on the guard to 
 " march apace." As he went along, he said, " he 
 now went to strive for an heavenly crown, with 
 less solicitude than he had often encouraged his 
 soldiers to fight for an earthly diadem." 
 
 At the end of the Park, the King ^ went up the 
 stairs leading to the long gallery, and so into the 
 Cabinet Chamber of the Palace of Whitehall. 
 Being delayed here in consequence of the scaf- 
 fold not being readj^, he offered up several pray- 
 ers, and entered into religious discourse with the 
 Bishop. About twelve he ate some bread, and 
 drank a glass of claret, declining to dine after he 
 had received the sacrament. 
 
 1 The late Sir Henry Englefield related a traditional 
 anecdote, that Charles, in passing through the Park, pointed 
 out a tree near the entrance from Spring Gardens (where 
 the cows at present stand), saying, " That tree was planted 
 by my brother Henry."
 
 CHARLES 'THE FIRST. 105 
 
 When Charles arrived at Wliitehall, the Co- 
 lonels Hacker, Huncks, and Phayer produced to 
 Tomlinson the warrant for his execution ; and in 
 the Horn Chamber the King was delivered by 
 Tomlinson into the custody of those officers ; 
 Charles requested Tomlinson, however, to remain 
 with him to the last, and acknowledged his kind 
 and respectful conduct by presenting to him a 
 gold tooth-picker and case which he carried in his 
 pocket. Tomlinson also introduced to him Mr. 
 Seymour, who brought a letter from the Prince 
 to his father, with whom the King conversed, 
 and charged him with various messages for the 
 Prince. 
 
 In the mean time a different scene was passing 
 in Ireton's chamber, a small "room in another 
 part of the palace. Ireton and Harrison were 
 here in bed; and Cromwell, Axtell, Huncks, 
 Hacker, and Phayer were present. Cromwell 
 commanded Huncks to draw up an order to the 
 executioner pursuant to the warrant for the King's 
 execution. Huncks refused ; whereupon Crom- 
 well was highly incensed, and called him a 
 peevish froward fellow ; and Axtell exclaimed, 
 " Colonel Huncks, I am ashamed of you : — the 
 ship is now coming into the harbour, and will 
 you strike sail before we come to anchor ? " 
 Cromwell then went to a table, and, as it would 
 appear, wrote the order to the executioner, and 
 then gave the pen to Hacker, who, as one of the 
 officers charged with the execution of the war- 
 rant, signed it.i Cromwell, and the rest of the 
 
 1 See the evidence on the trials of Hacker, Axtell, and 
 Ilulet, State Trials, vol. v.
 
 106 THE EXECUTION OF 
 
 officers, then went out of the chamber, and, in a 
 few minutes, Hacker came and knocked at the 
 door of the chamber where the King was, with 
 Tomlinson, the Bishop, Herbert, and some of his 
 guards. Herbert and the Bishop were deeply 
 affected at this signal for their final separation 
 from their sovereign and master. The King 
 stretched out his hand to them, which they 
 kissed, falling on their knees and weeping, the 
 King helping the aged bishop to rise. He then 
 bade Hacker to open the door and he would 
 follow ; and he was conducted by Hacker, Tom- 
 linson, and other officers and soldiers, through the 
 banqueting house by a passage broken through 
 the wall, where the centre window now is. ^ A 
 
 1 The street now called Parliament Street was at that time 
 crossed by two ranges of buildings belonging to the palace 
 of Whitehall, with wide arched gateways crossing the street, 
 and forming the public thoroughfare. One gateway was op- 
 posite to Privy Gardens ; and there was a way over it from 
 these gardens belonging to the palace, to pass into St. James's 
 Park. The other building traversing the street was the sump- 
 tuous gallery of Whitehall, built by Henry VIII., the scene 
 of so many adventures and events of various descriptions 
 in the reigns of Elizabeth, James, and the two Charles's. 
 Connected with this gallery was " a beautiful gatehouse," 
 over a noble archway. Lord Leicester says, in his Journal 
 (p. 60.), — " The scaffold was erected between Whitehall 
 gate and the gallery leading to St. James's." Lilly asserts, 
 that it was just at the spot where the blood of a citizen had 
 been shed at the commencement of the rebellion, when a 
 mob were vociferating " Ko Bishop" under the windows 
 of the palace, and some cavaliers sallied out to disperse 
 them, and one was killed. — See Observations on the Life 
 and Death of Charles, by W. Lilly, student of judicial 
 astrology, in Baron Maseres's Tracts.
 
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 f 
 
 -tk^ 
 
 JWmL 
 
 
 I-L . 
 
 
 ftT|,fn r 
 
 1 r\ 
 
 V 
 
 '^J. 
 
 
 A 
 
 us.y-^^ 
 
 ^/it'y C''A^f:ix//,/j. 
 
 ■ vi/w Jithlixhed, otAmMa-dam IMO- ;
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 107 
 
 Strong guard of several regiments of horse and 
 foot being posted about the scaffold, so that the 
 people could not approach near enough to hear any 
 discourse from the King, he addressed his last 
 sentences chiefly to the Bishop, Colonel Tom- 
 linson, and the other officers who stood near him. 
 They were in substance as follows : — 
 
 " I shall be very little heard of any body else ; I 
 shall therefore speak a word to you here : indeed, 
 I could hold my peace very well, if I did not 
 think that holding my peace would make some 
 men think that I did submit to the guilt, as well 
 as to the punishment: but I think it is my duty 
 to God and my country to clear myself, both as 
 an honest man, a good king, and a good Chris- 
 tian. I shall begin first with my innocency : in 
 troth, I think it not very needful to insist long 
 upon this ; for all the world knows that I did 
 never begin a war with the two houses of parlia- 
 ment ; and I call God to witness, to whom I must 
 shortly make an account, that I did never intend 
 to encroach upon their privileges ; they began 
 upon me. It is the militia they began upon; 
 they confessed the militia was mine, but they 
 thought fit to have it from me : and, to be short, 
 if any body will look to the dates of commissions, 
 of their commissions and of mine, and likewise to 
 the declarations, he will see clearly that they be- 
 gan these troubles, not I. So that as for the guilt 
 of these enormous crimes tliat are laid against 
 me, I hope in God that God will clear me of it. 
 God forbid I should lay it upon the two houses 
 of parliament ; there is no necessity of either : I 
 hope they are free of this guilt ; for I believe,
 
 108 THE EXECUTION OF 
 
 that ill instruments between them and me have 
 been the cause of all this bloodshed ; so that as I 
 find myself clear of this, I hope, and pray God, 
 that they may too : yet, for all this, God forbid I 
 should be so ill a Christian, as not to say God's 
 judgments are just upon me ; many times he doth 
 pay justice by an unjust sentence — that is ordi- 
 nary. I will only say this, that an unjust sen- 
 tence that I suffered to take effect, is punished 
 now by an unjust sentence upon me ; so far I 
 have said to show you that I am an innocent man. 
 
 " Now, to show you that I am a good Chris- 
 tian, I hope there is a good man [pointing to 
 Bishop Juxon] that will bear me witness that I 
 have forgiven all the world, and even those in 
 particular that have been the chief causes of my 
 death ,• who they are, God knows ; I do not desire 
 to know : I pray God forgive them. But this is 
 not all, my charity must go further : I wish that 
 they may repent. For, indeed, they have com- 
 mitted a great sin in that particular. I pray God, 
 with St. Stephen, that it be not laid to their 
 charge ; nay, not only so, but that they may take 
 the right way to the peace of the kingdom ; for 
 my charity commands me not only to forgive 
 particular men, but to endeavour, to the last gasp, 
 the peace of the kingdom. Now, Sirs, believe 
 it, you shall never go right, nor God will never 
 prosper you, until you give God his due, the King 
 his due, (that is, my successor,) and the people 
 their due : I am as much for them as any of you. 
 You must give God his due, by regulating rightly 
 his church, according to the Scripture, which is 
 now out of order ; to set you in a way particu-
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 109 
 
 larly now, I cannot ; but only this, a national synod 
 freely called, freely debated among themselves, 
 must settle this when every opuiion is freely 
 heard. For the King " (Then turning to a gen- 
 tleman that touched the axe, he said, ' Hurt not 
 the axe — that may hurt me.') — Indeed 1 will not 
 
 the laws of the land will clearly instruct 
 
 you for that ,' therefore because it concerns my 
 own particular, I shall only give you a touch of 
 It. For the people, truly I desire their liberty 
 and freedom as much as any body whatsoever ; but 
 I must tell you, that their liberty and freedom con- 
 sist in having government^ in having those lazvs by 
 which their lives and their goods may be most 
 their own. It is not their having a share in the 
 government — that is nothing appertaining to 
 them. A subject and a sovereign are clean dif- 
 ferent things ; and therefore until you do that, I 
 mean, that you put the people in that liberty, as 
 I say, certainly they will never enjoy themselves. 
 " Sirs, it was for this that now I am come 
 here. If I would have given way to an arbitrary 
 way, to have all laws changed according to the 
 power of the sword, I needed not to have come 
 here ; and therefore I tell you (and I pray God it 
 be not laid to your charge), that I am the martyr 
 of the people. In truth. Sirs, I shall not hold 
 you much longer : I could have desired a little 
 time longer, because I would have a little better 
 digested this I have said, and therefore I hope 
 you will excuse me ; I have delivered my con- 
 science ; I pray God you take those courses that 
 are the best for the good of the kingdom and 
 your own salvation."
 
 110 THE EXECUTION OF 
 
 The Bishop. Though your Majesty's affections 
 may be very well known as to religion ; yet it 
 may be expected that you should say something 
 thereof for the worlds satisfaction. 
 
 The King. I thank you heartily, my Lord, for 
 that I had almost forgotten it. In troth, Sirs, 
 my conscience in religion, I think, is very well 
 known to all the world ; and therefore I declare 
 before you all that I die a Christian, according 
 to the profession of the Church of England, as I 
 found it left me by my father ; and this honest 
 man, I think, will witness it. 
 
 Then to Colonel Hacker he said, " Take care 
 that they do not put me to pain : and, Sir, this 
 and it please you " 
 
 But a gentleman coming near the axe, the King 
 said, " Take heed of the axe, pray take heed of 
 the axe." 
 
 Then speaking unto the executioner, he said, "I 
 shall say but very short prayers, and when I 
 thrust out my hands " 
 
 Then turning to the Bishop, he said, " I have 
 a good cause, and a gracious God on my side." 
 
 The Bishop. There is but one stage more, this 
 stage is turbulent and troublesome, it is a short 
 one ; but you may consider it will soon carry 
 you a very great way, it will carry you from 
 earth to heaven ; and there you will find a great 
 deal of cordial joy and comfort. 
 
 The King. I go from a corruptible to an 
 incorruptible crown, where no disturbance can 
 be, no disturbance in the world. 
 
 The Bishop. You are exchanged from a tem- 
 porary to an eternal crown ; a good exchange.
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST 111 
 
 Then the King said to the executioner, " Is 
 my hair well?' and took ofF his cloak and his 
 George, giving his George to the Bishop, saying, 
 " Remember."! Then he put oft his doublet, 
 and being in his waistcoat, he put on his cloak 
 again ; then looking upon the block, he said to 
 the executioner, " You must set it fast." 
 
 Executioner. It is fast. Sir. 
 
 The King. Wlien I put out my hands this 
 
 way (stretching them out), then After that, 
 
 having said two or three words to himself, as he 
 stood with his hands and eyes lift up, immediately 
 stooping down, he laid his neck upon the block. ^ 
 And then the executioner again putting his hair 
 under his cap, the King, thinking he was going 
 to strike, said, " Stay for the sign.'' 
 
 Executioner. Yes, 1 will, and please your Ma- 
 jesty. — After a little pause, the King stretching 
 forth his hands, the executioner at one blow 
 severed his head from his body, and held it up 
 and showed it to the people, saying, " Behold 
 
 I According to Oldmixon and Hume, this injunction 
 (which excited much curiosity) referred to the King's 
 order to convey the George to the Prince, with a charge to 
 forgive his father's murderers. Juxon is said to have stated 
 this before the Council of State. Rushworth states, that 
 the King merely reminded the Bishop that the George was 
 to be conveyed to the Prince. Clarendon and Whitlock 
 do not explain the word " Remember." 
 
 * It being doubted whether the King would submit to 
 the executioner, staples were driven into the block, and hooks 
 prepared, in order, if necessary, to confine his head forcibly 
 to the block. On the trial of Hugh Peters in 1660, it was 
 sworn that this was done by his orders given on the scaffold 
 to one Tench, a joiner in Houndsditch. 5ee iitate Trials, 
 vol. V.
 
 112 THE EXECUTION OF 
 
 the head of a traitor 1 1 At the instant when 
 the blow was given, a dismal universal groan 
 
 I Though Joyce and Hugh Peters have been suspected 
 of inflicting the murderous blow on Charles, and though 
 another claimant for this infamous distinction is put for- 
 ward in the Gentleman's Mageizine for 1767, there seems 
 little doubt that Richard Brandon, the common hang- 
 man, assisted by his man, Ralph Jones, a ragman in Rose- 
 mary Lane, in fact perpetrated the deed. Among the tracts 
 relative to the Civil War presented to the British Museum 
 by George HI., in 1762, are three on this subject, which 
 are fully noticed in a note to Mr. Ellis's Letters on En- 
 glish History, vol. iii. (second series.) It appears, by the 
 register of Whitechapel Church, that Richard Brandon was 
 buried there on the 24th of June, 1649; and a marginal 
 note (not in the hand of the Register, but bearing the mark 
 of antiquity), states, " This R. Brandon is supposed to have 
 cut off the head of Charles I." — One of the tracts, en- 
 titled " The Confession of Richard Brandon, the Hangman, 
 upon his Death-bed, concerning the Beheading of his late 
 Majesty," printed in 1649, states, " During the time of his 
 sickness, his conscience was much troubled, and exceed- 
 ingly perplexed in mind ; and on Sunday last, a young 
 man of his acquaintance going to visit him, fell into dis- 
 course, asked him how he did, and whether he was not 
 troubled in conscience for cutting off the King's head. He 
 replied yes, by reason that (upon the time of his tryall) he had 
 taicen a vow and protestation, wishing God to punish him, 
 body and soul, if ever he appeared on the scaffold to do the 
 act, or lift up his hand against him. He likewise confessed 
 that he had 30/. for his pains, all paid him in half crowns 
 within an hour after the blow was given ; and he had an 
 orange stuck full with cloves, and a handkircher out of the 
 King's pocket, so soon as he was carried off the scaffold ; 
 for which orange he was proffered twenty shillings by a 
 gentleman in Whitechapel, but refused the same, and after- 
 wards sold it for ten shillings in Rosemary Lane. About 
 eight o'clock at night he returned home to his wife, living 
 in Rosemary Lane, and gave her the money, saying, it was 
 the dearest money he earned in his life, for it would cost
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 113 
 
 was Uttered by the people (as if by one con- 
 sent) such as was never before heard i; and as 
 soon as the execution was over, one troop of 
 horse marched rapidly from Charing Cross to 
 King Street, and another from King Street to 
 Charing Cross, to disperse and scatter the mul- 
 titude. 
 
 When the body was put into a coffin at White- 
 hall, says Rushworth, " there were many sighs 
 and weeping eyes at the scene ; and divers strove 
 to dip their handkerchiefs in the King's blood." 
 A general gloom and consternation pervaded 
 London on the day of this atrocious perpetration ; 
 
 him his life. About three days before he died, he lay- 
 speechless, uttering many a sigh and heavy groan, and so 
 in a desperate state departed from his bed of sorrow. For 
 the burial whereof great store of wines were sent in by the 
 sheriff of the city of London, and a great multitutleof people 
 stood wayting to see his corpse carried to the churchyard, 
 some crying out, ' Hang him, rogue ! '— ' Bury him in the 
 dunghill.' — Others pressing upon him, saying they would 
 quarter him for executing the King, insomuch that the 
 churchwardens and masters of the parish were fain to come 
 for the suppressing of them ; and with great difficulty he 
 was at last carried to Whitechapel churchyard, having (as 
 it is said) a branch of rosemary at each end of the coffin, 
 on the top thereof, with a rope crosse from one end to the 
 other. A merry conceited cook, living at the sign of the 
 Crown, having a black fan (worth the value of 30s.}, took 
 a resolution to rent the same in pieces ; and to every feather 
 tied a piece of packthread, dyed in black ink, and gave 
 them to divers persons, who, in derision, for a while wore 
 them in their hats." — See Ellis, ubi stijrra. The second 
 tract states, that the first victim Brandon beheaded was the 
 Earl of Straffijrd. 
 
 1 Described by Philip Henry, a spectator. Ellis's Letters, 
 vol. iii. p. 323.
 
 il4 THE EXECUTION OF 
 
 many of the chief inhabitants either shut them- 
 selves up in their houses, or absented themselves 
 from the city. On that day none of the courts of 
 justice sat ; and on the next, Whitelocke, one of 
 the commissioners of the Great Seal, says, " The 
 commissioners met, but did not think fit to do 
 any business, or seal any writs, because of the 
 King's death." Whitelocke says, " I went not to 
 the House, but stayed all day at home in my 
 study, and at my prayers, that this day's work 
 might not so displease God as to bring prejudice 
 to this poor afflicted nation.'* ^ Evelyn, in his 
 Diary writes, " I kept the day of this martyrdom 
 as a fast, and would not be present at that ex- 
 ecrable wickedness, receiving the sad account of 
 it from my brother George and Mr. Owen, who 
 came to visit me this afternoon, and recounted all 
 the circumstances." 2 Archbishop Usher came 
 out to witness the scene from his house at White- 
 hall ; but he fainted when the King was led out 
 on the scaffold. 
 
 The Journals of the Commons show, either 
 that nothing was done, or that it was thought fit 
 to enter nothing on these eventful days. On the 
 
 1 There is, I am informed, a tradition in Westminster 
 School, that South, the celebrated divine, was the boy whose 
 turn it was to read prayers on the day of Charles's death ; 
 and that he read the prayer for the King as usual. South 
 at that time must have been about fourteen years of age. 
 Five years afterwards, when the loyal and learned divine 
 was at Christ Church, Oxford, we find his name to a copy 
 of Latin verses, addressed to the Protector on his conclusion 
 of a treaty ^^-ith the States of Holland. This, no doubt, was 
 a mere college exercise. See Musts Oxonienses, 1654, 
 
 « Vol. i. p. 233.
 
 CHARLES THE FIRST. 115 
 
 day of the execution there is only the following 
 remarkable entry : — 
 
 " Ordered, That the common post be stayed 
 until to-morrow morning 10 o clock.' 
 
 On the 31st, Commissary -general Ireton re- 
 ports a paper of divers particulars touching the 
 King's body, his george, his diamond, and two 
 seals. The question being put, that the dia- 
 mond be sent to Charles Stuart, son of the late 
 King, commonly called Prince of Wales, it passed 
 with the negative. The same question was then 
 put, separately, as to the garter, the george, and 
 the seals : as to each, it passed in the negative. 
 
 When the news of the decapitation of the King 
 reached. Scotland, that loyal people were moved 
 with horror and indignation. Most of the gentry 
 put on mourning ; the chair of state in the par- 
 liament house, the uppermost seats in the kirks, 
 and almost all the pulpits, were clothed in black. 
 
 The body of the King being embalmed, under 
 the orders of Herbert and bishop Juxon, was re- 
 moved to St. James's. The usurpers of the go- 
 vernment refused permission to bury it in Henry 
 the VII.'s Chapel, from a dread of the indignation 
 of the crowds who would assemble on so solemn 
 and interesting an occasion ; but, at last, after 
 some deliberation, the council allowed it to be 
 privately interred in St. George's Chapel at 
 Windsor, provided the expenses of the funeral 
 should not exceed five hundred pounds. The 
 last duties of love and respect were (according to 
 Charles's express desire) paid to their sovereign's 
 corpse by the Duke of Richmond, the Marquis 
 of Hertford, Lord Southampton, Lord Lindsey, 
 I 2
 
 116 BURIAL OF CHARLES THE FIRST. 
 
 the Bishop of London, Herbert, and Mildmay, 
 who, on producing a vote of the Commons, were 
 admitted by Whichcote, the Governor of Windsor 
 Castle, to the chapel. When the body was carried 
 out of St. George's Hall, the sky was serene and 
 clear ; but presently a storm of snow fell so fast, 
 that before it reached the chapel the pall and the 
 mourners were entirely whitened. When the 
 bishop proposed to read the burial service accord- 
 ing to the rites of the Church of England, this fa- 
 natical governor roughly refused, saying, "that the 
 Common Prayer Book was put down, and he would 
 not suffer it to be used in that garrison where 
 he commanded." Clarendon thus describes, with 
 graphic simplicity, the sad scene to its close: — 
 " But when they entered into it (the chapel), 
 which they had been so well acquainted with, 
 they found it so altered and transformed, all in- 
 scriptions and those landmarks pulled down, by 
 which all men knew every particular place in that 
 church, and such a dismal mutation over the 
 whole, that they knew not where they were ; nor 
 was there one old officer that had belonged to it, 
 or knew where our Princes had used to be in- 
 terred. At last there was a fellow of the town 
 who undertook to tell them the place where, he 
 said, ' there was a vault in which King Harry the 
 Eighth and Queen Jane Seymour were interred.' 
 As near that place as could conveniently be 
 they caused the grave to be made. There the 
 King's body was laid, without any words, or 
 other ceremonies, than the tears and sighs of the 
 few beholders. Upon the coffin was a plate of 
 silver fixed, with these words only, ' King Charles^
 
 BURIAL OF CHARLES THE FIRST. 117 
 
 1648.' When the coffin was put in, the black 
 velvet pall that had covered it was thrown over 
 it, and then the earth thrown in ; which the 
 governor stayed to see perfectly done, and then 
 took the keys of the church." i 
 
 A report of the proceedings of the " High 
 Court of Justice " being made to the parliament, 
 they resolved, " that the persons employed in 
 that important service had discharged their trust 
 with courage and fidelity ; that the parliament 
 was well satisfied with their account of their 
 
 1 Owing to the privacy of this intennent, doubts were 
 at the time current as to its having actually taken place. It 
 was asserted that the King's body was buried in the sand at 
 Whitehall ; and Aubrey states a report, that the coffin carried 
 to Windsor was filled with rubbibh and brick-bats. These 
 doubts were entirely removed by tiie opening of the coffin 
 (which was found where Clarendon described it,) in the pre- 
 sence of George the Fourth, then Prince Regent, in April, 
 1813 — of which Sir Henry Halford has published an inter- 
 esting narrative. On removing the black pall which Herbert 
 described, a plain leaden coffin was found, with the inscrip- 
 tion " King Charles, 1648." Within this was a wooden coffin, 
 much decayed, and the body carefully wrapped in cerecloth, 
 into the folds of which an unctuous matter mixed with 
 resin had been melted, to exclude the external air. The 
 skin was dark and discoloured — the pointed beard perfect 
 — the shape of the face was a long oval — many of the teeth 
 remained — the hair was thick at the back of the head, and 
 in appearance nearly black — that of the beard was of a redder 
 brown. The head was severed from the body. The fourth 
 cervical vertebra was found to be cut through transversely, 
 leaving the surfaces of the divided portions perfectly smooth 
 and even ; — " an appearance," says Sir H. Halford, " which 
 could have been produced only by a heavy blow inflicted 
 with a very sharp instrument, and which furnished the last 
 proof wanting to identify King Charles I." 
 I 3
 
 118 ABOLITION OF iMOXARCKY. 
 
 proceedings, and ordered it to be engrossed and 
 recorded amongst the Rolls of Parliament, in 
 order to transmit the memory thereof to pos- 
 terity; and resolved, that the commissioners of 
 the Great Seal should issue a certiorari to their 
 clerk to record those proceedings in the Chan- 
 cery." The Rump of the Commons had already 
 virtually annihilated the House of Peers, by de- 
 claring themselves the supreme power, and by 
 legislating respecting the King's trial, and other 
 matters in direct opposition to the voice of that as- 
 sembly. The resolution, which they now formally 
 passed for their abolition, was little more than a 
 form. They voted that "Me House of Peers was 
 useless and dangerous, and ought to be abolished ; " 
 and that they would no longer " take advice of 
 them in the exercise of legislative power;" and 
 an act for their abolition was immediately passed 
 accordingly. Tliey next proceeded to resolve, 
 " that the office of a king is unnecessary, bur- 
 densome, and dangerous to the liberty, safety, 
 and public interest of the people, and therefore 
 ought to be abolished ; and they will settle the 
 government of the nation in the way of a Com- 
 monwealth." The forms of the old constitution 
 were, of course, altered and adapted to the new 
 scheme of government. The old Great Seal, 
 which had been broken to pieces by workmen in 
 the House of Commons during its sitting, and 
 the fragments given to Widdrington and Whit- 
 locke, the two new commissioners, was now re- 
 placed by a new seal, which was, according to 
 the design of the notorious Henry Marten, en- 
 graved on one side with the arms of England and
 
 ABOLITION OF MONARCHY. 119 
 
 the harp and arms of Ireland, and the words, 
 « The Great Seal of England;" and on the reverse 
 side with a representation of the Rump Parlia- 
 ment sitting, and the legend, " In the first year 
 of freedom, by God's blessing restored." One of 
 the first offices to which this new seal was applied 
 was the sealing of a patent for confirming the acts 
 of trustees who had been appointed to sell certain 
 Bishops lands^, for the benefit of the army and 
 the state. All grants, writs, and other records 
 were ordered to run in the names of the " cus- 
 todes libertatis Angliae auctoritate Parliamenti," 
 instead of the name of the King. The dates of 
 legal proceedings were to be, " the year of our 
 Lord, and no other." Jurors were to be termed 
 " juratores pro republica," instead of " juratores 
 pro domino rege ;" and all mdictments to con- 
 clude ^' contra pacempublicam," instead o£ "con- 
 tra pacem, dignitatem, et coronam nostrum^ 
 
 Remarks. — The extraordinary proceeding de- 
 scribed in the foregoing pages, though eminently 
 instructive to the student of history and politics, 
 and the observer of human passions, cannot, in 
 any sense, be Jooked upon as a judicial proceeding 
 illustrative of the laws of England. Its deep inter- 
 est, and the imposing sceneswhich it displays, can 
 alone justify the insertion in a collection of English 
 " Trials" of a procedure which had not the impar- 
 tiality or legitimate authority of a trial, still less 
 any of the forms or attributes of a trial according 
 
 1 « I would not monarchy destroy, 
 But as the only way t' enjoy 
 The ruin of the church." DnxiiAar. 
 
 I 4-
 
 120 REMARKS ON THE TRIAL. 
 
 to English law. If the kingly office was not to con- 
 fer immunity from criminal responsibility, and if 
 Charles's conduct was such as to justify a depart- 
 ure from ordinary rules, at least the principles of 
 substantial equity and right should have been 
 adhered to in the manner and spirit of the pro- 
 ceeding. But the violators of the forms of justice 
 still more atrociously trampled upon its spirit. An 
 ex post facto ordinance, passed in defiance of one 
 branch of the legislature, by a small junto formed 
 by a forcible reduction of the other, created the 
 new and unheard-of crime for which a king was to 
 be brought to judgment by his subjects ; and con- 
 stituted a packed court to try the accused, com- 
 posed of all his bitterest enemies, whose escape 
 from the consequences of their own treasons ab- 
 solutely depended on his extinction. To call this 
 a trial, is a flagrant abuse of terms, and to see in 
 it the spectacle of a united people deliberately 
 proceeding to a judicial punishment of their king 
 (which to some eyes may appear edifying or sub- 
 lime), is to indulge in the merest speculation and 
 fancy, in disregard of the plainest and most un- 
 questionable facts of history. Charles was not 
 tried by his people, but murdered by the officers of 
 a few regiments, and a small knot of fanatical re- 
 publicans and rebels. The whole House of Lords, 
 the great majority of tlie Commons, a large por- 
 tion of the army, and the great mass of the 
 English and Scotch nations, either abhorred and 
 repudiated the proceeding, or remained wholly 
 passive while it was eifected by irresistible force. 
 The truth is, the King's perpetual imprison- 
 ment, his assassination, or his destruction by
 
 REMARKS ON THE TRIAL. 121 
 
 means of an ex post facto law, and a packed 
 tribunal, were the only modes open to the of- 
 ficers and the republican leaders, of at once com- 
 pleting their work of sedition and treason, and en- 
 suring their own safety. The first alternative was 
 evidently dangerous and objectionable. The se- 
 cond might have defeated their own ends, and 
 might have immediately re-established royalty in 
 the kingdom; while it was certainly contrary to the 
 spirit of the nation and the age, and in its exe- 
 cution must probably have concentrated in one 
 or two individuals a responsibility which was 
 divided among a very large number by the course 
 which was actually pursued. A judicial proceed- 
 ing, however flimsy its pretensions to fairness or 
 impartiality, was calculated to satisfy the scruples 
 of some, and to impose on the imaginations of 
 more. When such a man as Mr. Fox can write 
 as follows of the mock trial, which we have fol- 
 lowed in detail, who can wonder that it should 
 dazzle the understandings of many enthusiasts 
 in the inflamed period when it took place, and 
 that it should not be, even now, universally 
 regarded in the light in which alone we consider 
 it — as the mere mode adopted for accomplishing, 
 with certainty and safety, the predetermined de- 
 struction of the King ? 
 
 " After all, however, notwithstanding what the 
 " more reasonable part of mankind may think 
 " upon this question, it is much to be doubted 
 '* whether this singular proceeding has not, as 
 " much as any other circumstance, served to 
 " raise the English nation in the opinion of 
 " Europe in general. He who has read, and
 
 122 REMAiiKS 0^' THE TRIAL. 
 
 " Still more he who has heard m conversation, 
 " discussions upon this subject by foreigners, 
 " must have perceived that, even in the minds 
 " of those who condemn the act, the impression 
 " made by it has been far more that of respect 
 " and admiration than that of disgust and horror. 
 '' The truth is, that the guilt of the action, — that 
 " is to say, the taking away of the life of the King, 
 a __is what most men in the place of Cromwell 
 " and his associates would have incurred : what 
 " there is of splendour and magnanimity in it, 
 " — I mean the publicity and solemnity of the 
 " act, — is what few would be capable of dis- 
 " playing." 
 
 As Mr. Fox seems to admit that " the more 
 reasonable part of mankind" think differently of 
 this proceeding fi-om those "foreigners" who, he 
 asserts, regard it with " respect and admiration;" 
 we incline to hope that, as sounder views upon 
 most historical questions gradually become more 
 prevalent, the sort of hallucination which (at 
 least according to Mr. Fox) has partially pre- 
 vailed upon this will be more and more dispelled 
 — that what he characterises as " splendour and 
 magnanimity" in the proceeding will become gi*a- 
 dually to be regarded merely as effrontery and 
 audacity; and that, if Cromwell and the other 
 regicide commissioners escape the odious charac- 
 ter of secret assassins, they will remain indelibly 
 stamped with that of public murderers. In order 
 to merit the appellation oi' judges, they must have 
 placed the King at the bar of a fairly constituted 
 court, proceeding to investigate a definite and m- 
 telligible accusation, grounded, if not on positive
 
 REMARKS ON THE TRIAL. 123 
 
 law, at least on the most obvious and undoubted 
 principles of moral justice. But the charge against 
 Charles was as unfair as the tribunal was partial 
 and hostile. By being narrowly confined to " levy- 
 ing war against the parliament and people," accord- 
 ing to the words of the Commons' ordinance, it 
 evaded all the real merits of the contest between 
 the King and the parliament, and laid the found- 
 ation for a judgment against the King, founded 
 on the mere naked proof of being seen at the 
 head of his forces when blood was shed in battle 
 with the parliamentarians. That this was the 
 construction put upon the charge by the Court 
 itself is evident; for though the accusation of levy- 
 ing war is mixed up with verbose allegations of 
 intents to subvert the constitution and liberties of 
 the people, &c. which are largely descanted upon 
 in Cook's speech, yet the evidence received is 
 confined to the dry fact of warlike acts, without 
 the least attempt to prove the motives ascribed, 
 or to connect the acts of military hostility with 
 those designs against the liberties of the nation, 
 which are so copiously declaimed upon by Cook 
 and by Bradshaw. To say that the scantiness 
 of the proof is to be ascribed to the King's 
 denial of the Court's authority, and that fuller 
 proofs would have been required had the King 
 pleaded and joined issue with his prosecutors, 
 is a gratuitous assumption. If the King's course 
 of conduct rendered proofs unnecessary, the 
 Court should have required none. But as they 
 thought fit to go into proofs, they must be 
 presumed to have called for such as, in their 
 judgment, established the charge. To convict
 
 124? REMARKS ON THE TRIAL. 
 
 the King of treason against the English constitu- 
 tion and people, on proof of his being seen at the 
 head of his cavalry at Naseby, at Newbury, and 
 Edge Hill, was much less fair than it would be to 
 hang a man for murder on a mere indictment and 
 proof that he was sometimes seen with a drawn 
 dagger in his hand.i 
 
 Whether a king, in any circumstances, should 
 admit the jurisdiction of his subjects to try him, 
 and join issue on a charge preferred by those 
 who owe him allegiance, we will not pretend 
 to determine ; but that Charles (whether acting 
 by the advice of Hale or not) showed both 
 wisdom and dignity in rejecting the autho- 
 rity of Bradshaw and the commissioners, few 
 persons will dispute. The character and consti- 
 tution of the Court, and the novelty, vagueness, 
 and unfairness of the accusation, left him no alter- 
 
 1 Mr. Hallam, who, with sound impartiality, decides that 
 Charles could not be charged with being the author of the 
 war, saj's, " We may contend, that when Hotham shut the 
 gates of Hull against his sovereign, when the militia was 
 called out in different counties by an ordinance of the two 
 Houses, both of which preceded by several weeks any levy- 
 ing of forces by the King, the bonds of our constitutional 
 law were by them and by their servants snapped asunder ; 
 and it would be the mere pedantry and chicane of political 
 casuistry to enquire, even if the fact could be better ascer- 
 tained, whether at Edge Hill or in the minor skirmishes the 
 first carabine was discharged by a Cavalier or a Round- 
 head. The aggressor in a war is not the first who uses 
 force, but the ^rst who renders force Jiecessari/." — Vol. ii. 
 Those who wish to see the vague, and inconclusive reason- 
 ings, to which an able writer is driven in support of the 
 opposite vie%v of the question, may peruse the conclusion 
 of Mr. Godwin's second volume of his History of the 
 Commonwealth.
 
 REMARKS ON THE TRIAL. 125 
 
 native. To have acknowledged the Court, would 
 have placed him absolutely at the mercy of his 
 direst enemies — would have at once lowered his 
 dignity and impeached his consistency, without 
 augmenting the very slight chances of his deliver- 
 ance. The proceeding being founded on a subver- 
 sion of all positive law, Charles would have involved 
 himself in a struggle against his most exasperated 
 foes, without the protection of a single precedent, 
 without one legal rule, or principle, or authority to 
 shield him from their irresponsible power and pre- 
 judiced hate. He would have been bound hand 
 and foot under that "law of tyrants" — judicial dis- 
 cretion, which, according to Lord Camden's well 
 known saying, " in the best of judges is oftentimes 
 caprice ; in the worst, every vice, folly, and passion 
 to which human nature is liable." With such 
 judges, and such a mode of proceeding, the King's 
 only course was that which he adopted. But had 
 the tribunal been impartially composed (if indeed 
 that were possible), and had the proceeding been 
 warranted by the opinions of the majority of the 
 people, it is difficult to see how Charles could 
 have acted otherwise than he did. The course 
 of submitting to plead Avould, under any cir- 
 cumstances, have been inconsistent with his 
 character and principles, and with those notions 
 of the kingly office in which (whether they were 
 wrong or right) he had been educated, and to 
 which he had always consistently adhered. 
 Charles must also have felt (what very few in- 
 deed will deny), that his were not those acts of 
 wilful and cruel tyranny which could warrant the
 
 126 REMARKS ON THE TRIAL. 
 
 overthrow of all positive law, and sanction a resort 
 tj a wild proceeding, under the name of natural 
 justice, for their punishment. Supported in his 
 principles and conduct by almost all the peers, 
 by a large body of the commons, and by pro- 
 bably at least half of the nation, it would have 
 been a gross abuse of victorious power in his 
 enemies to treat him as a delinquent, and to 
 apply to him the severities of municipal law, even 
 had all his political opponents concurred in such 
 a course, and had the procedure been as much 
 marked by equity and impartiality as it in fact 
 was by malice and vindictiveness. 
 
 All writers agree that the demeanour and 
 conduct of the King during the proceeding were 
 eminently distinguished by good sense, dignity, 
 and temper, — equally remote from pusillanimity 
 and arrogance. His sufferings had evidently 
 softened his disposition and manners (which, 
 though benevolent and upright, were not always 
 gracious or conciliating) ; and, as he says in an 
 excellent letter to the prince, from the Isle of 
 Wight, " he had learned to busy himself by re- 
 tiring into himself, and therefore could the better 
 digest what befel him." The humiliation of his 
 position never once made him forget himself; he 
 was never betrayed by insult into unfit passion 
 or acrimony ; he received the indignities of the 
 military rabble " more in sorrow than in anger," 
 and retorted on his overbearing judges with self- 
 collected acuteness and ready good sense, without 
 any thing of insult or undue asperity. Echard 
 hints, that he had not been ahvays ready in
 
 REMARKS ON THE TRIAL. 127 
 
 speech ; but, both in the Isle of Wight and at 
 Westminster, the excitement of his situation 
 appears to have entirely freed him from embar- 
 rassment. His answers to, and reasonings with, 
 Bradshaw are marked by closeness and pre- 
 cision, by a well-considered sense of his kingly 
 station, and a noble determination not to com- 
 promise its dignity. The learned serjeant at 
 law was, indeed, placed in a position in which 
 a much feebler disputant than Charles would 
 easily have triumphed in the discussion. Where- 
 ever Bradshaw makes the slightest attempt at 
 defending the jurisdiction of the Court on grounds 
 of reason, the King readily foils him; and the 
 president is driven back, discomfited, to entrench 
 himself behind the Court's absolute decree, that 
 their authority shall not be disputed. Thus, he 
 has the absurdity to tell the King, that he is 
 bound to obey the authority of the people of 
 England, " of which you are elected King." " No, 
 Sir, I deny that," says the King: upon which 
 Bradshaw, defeated, replies, " If you acknow- 
 ledge not the authority of the Court, they must 
 proceed." The King, warm with his success, 
 proceeds — "I do tell them so; England was 
 never an elective kingdom ; but an hereditary 
 kingdom for near these thousand years," &c. 
 Bradshaw again exposes himself, by saying — 
 " They sit here by the authority of the Commons 
 of England ; and all your predecessors, and you, 
 are responsible to them." The King sees his 
 advantage — "I deny that; show me one pre- 
 cedent : " when poor Bradshaw has no answer but,
 
 128 REMARKS ON THE TRIAL. 
 
 " Sir, you ought not to interrupt while the Court 
 is speaking to you;" and presently after, when 
 Charles says, " Show me that jurisdiction, where 
 reason is not to be heard," Bradshaw, with 
 amusing naivete, replies — " Sir, we show it you 
 here — the Commons of England." That Charles, 
 though not betrayed into violence or irritability, 
 was not wanting in expressing his just scorn and 
 natural indignation at the proceedings of the 
 Court, appears by the energy of some of his an- 
 swers and interjections, and by his dignified reply 
 when Bradshaw impudently told him — " Sir, it 
 is not for prisoners to require." " Prisoners ! 
 Sir, I am not an ordmarij prisoner ! '' 
 
 The conduct of Charles during hisJast moments 
 may, by those who most pity and condemn his 
 fate, be safely left to be gathered from the un- 
 controverted facts of history, or to be described 
 by those most hostile to his conduct. Mr. God- 
 win (who generally writes from the best autho- 
 rities) says: — " Through the whole of this critical 
 scene, Charles deported himself with great com- 
 posure, and with a carriage wholly free from 
 affectation: he was undisturbed, self-possessed, 
 and serene." And in acknowledging (with some- 
 thing of regret) that this execution " did not 
 conciliate the English nation to republican ideas, 
 and it shocked all those persons in the country 
 who did not adhere to the ruling party," Mr. 
 Godwin adds, " This was in some degree owing 
 to the decenc}' with which Charles met his fate. 
 * * * I am afraid that the day that saw Charles 
 perish on the scaffold, rendered the restoration of
 
 CHARLES'S LAST MOMENTS. 129 
 
 his family certain." i Andrew Marvel, the friend 
 of Cromwell and of Milton, and the tutor to 
 Cromwell's nephew, who may probably have wit- 
 nessed what he describes, writes of this scene : — 
 
 " He nothing common did nor mean 
 After that memorable scene ; 
 But with his keener eye 
 The axe's edge did try : 
 Nor call'd the gods, with vulgar spite, 
 To vindicate his helpless right ; 
 But bow'd his comely head 
 Down as upon a bed." 
 
 Ode to Cromwell, on his Return 
 from Ireland. 
 
 "^ History of the Commonwealth, vol. ii. 692,
 
 130 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 
 
 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 
 
 Henry Ireton, one of the most active agents 
 in accomplishing the death of Charles, who was 
 never absent from any private or public sitting 
 of the Com-t, and who, had he lived, must have 
 been one of the most distinguished supporters or 
 opponents of the rule of Cromwell, was born in 
 1610, and was the son of German Ireton, Esq., a 
 gentleman of good family at Attenton, in the county 
 of Nottingham. He was entered a gentleman 
 commoner of Trinity College, Oxford, in 1626 ; 
 and took his degree of Bachelor of Arts on the 
 10th of June, 1629. Anthony Wood says he 
 left the University without completing his degree 
 in arts, and that " he had the character of a stub- 
 born and saucy fellow towards the seniors ; and, 
 therefore, his company was not wanting." From 
 Oxford, Ireton removed to the Middle Temple, 
 where it appears, by the Society's books, he en- 
 tered as a student on the 24'th of November, 
 1629 ; but he was never called to the bar. He, 
 however, studied the law for a short time in 
 London, and then went to reside on his family 
 estate in Nottinghamshire. He was the kins- 
 man and close friend and neighbour of Colonel 
 Hutchinson, and, according to Mrs. Hutchinson, 
 " a very grave, serious, religious person. " Mrs. 
 H. describes him just before the commencement 
 of the King's war with the parliament. " Mr 
 Ireton, being very active in promoting the par.
 
 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETOX. 131 
 
 liament, and the godly interest in the country, 
 found great opposition by some projectors and 
 others of corrupt interest that were in the com- 
 mission of the peace: thereupon making complaint 
 at the parliament, he procured some of them to 
 be put out of the commission, and others better 
 affected to be put into their roomes, of which 
 Mr. Hutchinson was one ; but he then forbore 
 to take his oath, as not willing to launch out 
 rashly into public employments while such a 
 storm hung threatening over-head.'' i At the 
 commencement of the war, Ireton was one of 
 the seventy-five persons who undertook each to 
 raise a troop of horse for the parliament, and was 
 one of the very few gentlemen of Nottingham- 
 shire (Sir Thomas Hutchinson and his son the 
 colonel were others) who were opposed to the 
 King. The Earls of Newcastle and Kingston, 
 Lords Chesterfield and Chaworth, the Savills, 
 the Eyres, the Digbys, the Palmers, the Cow- 
 pers, the Cartwrights, and almost all the nobility 
 and gentry of that county, sided with Charles. 
 The Birons of Newstead were," says Mrs. Hutch- 
 inson, " passionately the King's." Ireton, who was 
 esteemed in his county a man of learning, under- 
 standing, and abilities, became the active pro- 
 moter of the parliamentary interest ; but when 
 the King raised his standard in the midst of his 
 friends at Nottingham Castle, all that Ireton 
 could do " was to gather a troop of those godly 
 people which the cavaliers drove out," and with 
 these, being then a single man, he joined the 
 
 ' Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson, p. 80. Col. Hutch- 
 inson at this time was onlv 23 years old; Ireton about 29. 
 K 2
 
 132 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 
 
 Standard of the Earl of Essex, the commander of 
 the parliamentary forces. 
 
 After the battle of Edge Hill, in 1642, the 
 King sent Sir John Digby, the sheriff, to en- 
 deavour to secure the county of Nottingham in 
 his support ; and the nobility and gentry were 
 summoned. But the town and castle of Not- 
 tmgham were now in the hands of the parliament ; 
 the roundheads in the county were zealously 
 putting themselves into a posture of defence. 
 The militia was raised ; and Ireton (among other 
 officers) was desired to return with his troop of 
 horse to defend his native county. He was now 
 major of the regiment; and in the commission 
 issued by the parliament for raising troops and 
 contributions, seizing delinquents, sequester- 
 ing estates of the " malignants," in the county, 
 Ireton was named commissioner with the Hutch- 
 insons and a few other gentlemen. At this 
 time Sir John Mel drum, who commanded for 
 the parliament at Nottingham, was ordered by 
 Lord Essex to march, with all the forces he 
 could raise, to the relief of the town of Gains- 
 borough, in Lincolnshire, where Lord Willoughby 
 of Parham was besieged by the Earl of New- 
 castle and the King's tioops. Colonel Hutchin- 
 son was left by Sir John in command of Not- 
 tingham Castle ; and when the forces were about 
 marching, he ordered the guns on the town 
 works to be moved up to the castle, which was a 
 signal for a tumultuous mutiny amongst the 
 townsmen, who were chiefly warm cavaliers, and 
 who threatened to demolish and set fire to the 
 castle. Prury, an alderman of the town, and
 
 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 133 
 
 fourteen more citizens were hereupon seized, and 
 sent prisoners to Derby, whither Ireton and his 
 troop conveyed them. Ireton with his regiment 
 (of which the gallant Thornhagh was colonel) 
 then marched with the other forces, and, joining 
 Colonel Oliver Cromwell's regiment, arrived be- 
 fore Gainsborough. They soon routed the King's 
 troops, killed Sir Charles Cavendish the com- 
 mander, relieved the place before Lord New- 
 castle's forces came up, and then retired honour- 
 ably to Lincoln. Here the Nottinghamshire 
 troops were separated and dispersed into differ- 
 ent services in the parliamentary cause. Ireton's 
 connection with his county regiment now ceased : 
 and this appears to have been the commence- 
 ment of his close and constant union to the 
 fortunes of Cromwell, which produced such 
 important influence on national events. Mrs. 
 Hutchinson says, " Major Ireton quite left 
 Colonel Thornhagh's regiment, and began an in- 
 separable league with Colonel Cromwell, whose 
 son-in-law he after was." Ireton, though eleven 
 years younger than Cromwell, and only a captain 
 of horse up to the time of the new model of the 
 army, when Cromwell, as lieutenant-general to 
 the Earl of Manchester, was the second military 
 man in the kingdom, besides being a member 
 of the house, appears, according to Whitlock, 
 to have always exercised considerable ascend- 
 ancy over him. " No one could prevail so much 
 with Cromwell, nor order him so far as Ireton 
 could." Mr. Godwin says, " Cromwell felt the 
 curb of his virtue, and of the clearness of his 
 spirit, and submitted." Cromwell doubtless saw 
 K 3
 
 134> MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETOX. 
 
 the services which either the pubKc cause or his 
 own personal views might derive from the zeal 
 and capacity of such a character as Ireton. Their 
 objects and principles at this time were the same: 
 Ireton's military knowledge was equal, if not 
 superior, to Cromwell's ; and the ardent, sanguine 
 temperament of Cromwell met, in the stern re- 
 solution and rigid firmness of Ireton, that degree of 
 contrast which so much more promotes union than 
 a closer resemblance in qualities. The self-deny- 
 ing ordinance, and the new model of the army, 
 which were passed at this time, by removing Essex, 
 Manchester, Waller, and Denbigh from the com- 
 mand of the army, opened to Cromwell, Ireton, 
 and other energetic men of their stamp and 
 station, the avenue to the control of the arm}-, 
 and the power and influence which they soon 
 attained. Fairfax became commander-in-chief; 
 Cromwell, lieutenant-general ; Skippon, major- 
 general ; Ireton, Desborough, Harrison, were at 
 first among the inferior officers. Ireton, indeed, 
 accepted the appointment of captain in the regi- 
 ment of horse commanded by Algernon Sydney? 
 who was at least seven years younger than him- 
 self: but he soon rose from that humble office to 
 be a colonel of horse, and, at Cromwell's express 
 request, was nominated commissary-general of 
 horse, being the next officer in authority under 
 Cromwell. 
 
 On the 11th of June, 1645, Fairfax, wrote to 
 Cromwell, by order of the parliament, to join 
 him, with his horse, near Northampton, in ex- 
 pectation of a battle with the King; concluding, 
 " They are, as we hear, more horse than foot, 
 and make their horse their confidence ; ours
 
 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 135 
 
 shall be in God." Three days after, the great 
 battle of Naseby was fought. Here Ireton was 
 distinguished for his courage and military ca- 
 pacity. Tlie parliamentary army was commanded, 
 on the right wing, by Cromwell ; in the centre by 
 Fairfax and Skippon ; and on the left wing, at 
 Cromwell's express desire, by Ireton. After a 
 vigorous combat, Ireton's wing was defeated by 
 Prince Rupert. He himself received two wounds 
 in the face, and was made prisoner ; but when 
 Rupert, by rashly pursuing the parliamentarians, 
 lost the advantages of his success, and when the va- 
 lour and skill of Fairfax and Cromwell had turned 
 the fortune of the day, Ireton made his escape. 
 He was now, as commissary-general, nominally 
 the fourth officer in rank in the army ; but Ireton 
 and his extraordinary father-in-law were, in truth, 
 the pivots on which all its movements turned. 
 The General, Fairfax, (though a consummate of- 
 ficer, and a brave and high-minded man,) suffered 
 himself to be outwitted or overpersuaded on all 
 occasions by these more designing and energetic 
 colleagues. In the beginning of 1646, the King's 
 affairs being at a very low ebb, he took the de- 
 cisive step of departing from Oxford, and throw- 
 ing himself into the hands of the Scots before 
 Newark. He then removed with the Scotch 
 army to Newcastle, where a commission of lords 
 and commons was sent down to lay before him pro- 
 positions for peace; as to which, however, they had 
 no authority to treat : on learning which Charles 
 said, " Then, saving the honour of the business, an 
 honest trumpeter might have done as much." 
 About this time the union between Cromwell 
 K 4
 
 136 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 
 
 and Ireton was rendered closer and more inti- 
 mate, by Ireton's marrying, on the 15th January, 
 1647, Bridget, the eldest daughter of Cromwell, 
 by whom he had one son (Henry, married to 
 the daughter of Henry Powle, afterwards Speaker 
 of the House of Commons and Master of the 
 Rolls,) and four daughters.^ 
 
 The two Houses now voted that Holdenby 
 House, a royal mansions, built by Sir Chris- 
 topher Hatton, in Northamptonshire, wa& a fit 
 residence for the King; and three peers and 
 six of the commons were named commissioners 
 to receive Charles from the Scots, and bring 
 him to that manor. He arrived there about 
 the middle of February, IG^T, and remained 
 till June following. He was received with 
 loyalty and affection by the gentry and coun- 
 try people, who assembled about the mansion; 
 and he resided at Holmby with dignity and 
 comfort 3, keeping up his cheerfulness and equa- 
 nimity, riding in the neighbourhood, reading 
 much, according to his custom "*, and amusing 
 
 1 An account of their families is given in Mr. Noble's 
 Memoirs of the Cromwell Family. 
 
 2 This royal mansion, as well as others at Richmond, 
 Oatlands, Theobalds, &c. were pulled down to raise money 
 to pay the arrears of some regiments of the revolutionary 
 army. 
 
 3 Charles was, however, refused the presence of his chap- 
 lains by the presbyterians. Ashbumham and Legge, his 
 attendants, were now also removed ; and Sir Thomas Her- 
 bert, author of the Memoirs, and Sir John Harrington, 
 author of the Oceana, were substituted in their places. 
 
 4 April 15—25. 1647, P. Killigrew went to Holmby 
 with some books for the King's use. He brought back 
 another note under the King's hand for more books, the 
 first whereof was " The Crown of Thorns." He says the
 
 MEMOIR OF HEXRY IRETON. 137 
 
 himself occasionally at the game of bowls at the 
 neighbouring seats of Harrowden and Al thorp. 
 
 It is difficult to trace the exact part which 
 Ireton and his father-in-law took in the dissen- 
 sions which, in 164-7;, commenced between the 
 victorious army of Fairfax and the parliament. 
 The presbyterians in the House, actuated by 
 religious animosity, and urged on by the citizens 
 of London, and by their own imprudent leaders, 
 Hollis and Stapleton, proposed to disband great 
 part of the army without indemnity, or an ade- 
 quate provision for their pay ; to send the re- 
 mainder to Ireland ; to reduce all officers above 
 the rank of colonel, with the single exception of 
 Fairfax; and to force the army to accept the 
 covenant. To suppose that twenty thousand 
 brave and enthusiastic troops would calmly ac- 
 quiesce in such treatment, was the height of 
 
 King looks better than at Newcastle, and outwits still all 
 about him, refusing to meddle with affairs of state till 
 he come a free man to London. — Extract of a Letter 
 from London to Mr. Secretary Nicholas in France. Ap- 
 pend, to Clarendon's State Papers, vol. ii. When Charles 
 was in the Isle of Wight, Sir Thomas Herbert, who 
 was then his attendant, says, " The Sacred Scripture was 
 the book he most delighted in : he read often in Bishop 
 Andrews' Serm.ons, Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, Dr. 
 Hammond's Works, Villalpandus upon Ezekiel, Sands's 
 Paraphrase of King David's Psalms, Herbert's Divine 
 Poems, and also Godfrey of BuUoigne, writ in Italian by 
 Torquato Tasso, and done into English heroic verse by 
 Mr. Fairfax, — a poem his Majesty much commended ; as he 
 did also Ariosto, by Sir John Hamngton, a facetious poet, 
 much esteemed, &c., and Spenser's Fairy Queen, and the 
 like, for alleviating his spirits after serious studies." — 
 Memoirs, 62.
 
 138 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 
 
 madness. They expressed their dissatisfaction, 
 by advancing their quarters nearer to London ; 
 a measure which could not have been adopted 
 without the concurrence of Fairfax, their general, 
 who was governed by Ireton and Cromwell. A 
 deputation from the House was sent to the army 
 at Saffron Walden, to negotiate with their officers 
 as to drawing off a portion of their numbers for 
 the Irish service ; and also to announce a con- 
 cession made by the parliament, in voting 60,000/. 
 per m.onth for their pay.' But the officers de- 
 clined concluding any arrangement without full 
 satisfaction as to their arrears, an indemnity for 
 past service, and security for their future sub- 
 sistence. Before the convention separated, 
 a petition to this effect, from the army, was 
 prepared, to be presented by the general to 
 the parliament. Ireton, if not Cromwell, was 
 present and active at these conventions ; but 
 the details of what took place are not known. 
 They were also both members of the House of 
 Commons-; and when the commissioners sent to 
 the army reported in the House the result of 
 their mission, and adverted incidentally to the 
 petition then in progress from the army. Waller 
 says that Ireton at first denied its existence, 
 but afterwards admitted it. The House ordered 
 General Hammond, and his nephew, Colonel 
 Robert Hammond (the gaoler of the King at Caris- 
 brook). Colonel Lilburne, and Colonel Grimes, to 
 the bar, where they intended to interrogate them, 
 
 1 The arrears were now 331, 000^. ; a bill for paying the 
 arrears had been lost in the Lords a few weeks before. 
 
 2 Ireton appears to have been returned for Appleby. — 
 Noble.
 
 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 139 
 
 and also Ireton and Pride, respecting the petition, 
 and late at night, when the members were ex- 
 hausted, and the House was thin, the intem- 
 perate Holies penned a resolution on his knee^, 
 and had it carried, declaring that all who, for the 
 future, promoted the petition should be pro- 
 ceeded against as enemies to the state, and dis- 
 turbers of the public peace. This resolution was 
 little short of a declaration of war against the 
 army. 
 
 The summoned officers were examined by the 
 House ; the famous Pride was especially cen- 
 sured ; and they were enjoined to return to the 
 army, and endeavour to suppress the petition. 
 The House now sent a second deputation, headed 
 by the popular Lord Warwick, to Saffron Walden, 
 to endeavour to engage a part of the troops to 
 agree to serve in Ireland: but the deputation 
 was attended with no success; and the Parlia- 
 ment, indignant at the report made by the de- 
 putation, summoned several officers to the bar, 
 voted that those refusing the Irish service should 
 be disbanded with six weeks' pay ; and forbade 
 the officers to encourage the soldiers' discontents, 
 or to assist them in their efforts for redress. 
 The officers, under the guidance of Cromwell and 
 Ireton, had too much sagacity not to see that, 
 by ostensibly complying with these commands 
 of the parliament, and abstaining from encourag- 
 ing the soldiers' schemes, their discontent would 
 only be more effectually inflamed, and their exer- 
 tions stimulated. Those officers who were mem- 
 bers of the House, accordingly, attended with 
 1 Ludlow.
 
 140 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 
 
 diligence in their seats ; others, under different 
 pretexts, absented themselves from the army. 
 The soldiers, who were, in general, freeholders, 
 farmers, yeomen, and tradesmen, with fervent 
 religious feelings and acute minds, who had taken 
 up arms (according to their own notions) for li- 
 berty and conscience, now felt the necessity of 
 acting for themselves. They disdained to be 
 treated as mercenaries or machines. They held 
 consultations, elected deputies, and established 
 those singular councils of agitators which after- 
 wards gave them such prodigious influence, — 
 which controlled their officers when they dis- 
 agreed with them, — and which gave them an 
 ardent, energetic support while their objects 
 agreed, such as could not have been derived 
 from men coldly obeying the orders of a despotic 
 commander. That Cromwell and Ireton, and 
 the other superior officers, had a secret under- 
 standing with the soldiers in all these proceed- 
 ings, is a fact of which there is little doubt. 
 Desborough, a major, and Berry, a captain, in 
 Fairfax's regiment of horse, were zealously in- 
 strumental in stimulating these movements of the 
 troops. Desborough was Cromwell's brother-in- 
 law ; and Berry, who had been a gardener, was one 
 of his earliest friends and adherents. Berry was, 
 from the first, president of the council of agitators. 
 On the 28th of April, IG^T, the agitators 
 presented letters to Fairfax, Cromwell, and Skip- 
 pon, complaining of the treatment they had 
 received, demanding an indemnity for their 
 services in the war, and denouncing the Irish 
 expedition as a plan for ruining and breaking to
 
 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETOX. 141 
 
 pieces the army. On the 30th of April, Crom- 
 well and Skippon produced these letters in the 
 House of Commons, and stated that the three 
 private soldiers, Sexby, Allen, and Shepherd, 
 who had delivered them were then at the door 
 of the House. When they were called in, they 
 stated that the letters originated in a rendezvous 
 of several regiments, and that few of the officers 
 knew any thing of the proceeding. Major-Ge- 
 neral Skippon bore testimony to the fidelity and 
 active services of the three men against the roy- 
 alists. Some violent members, however, proposed 
 to commit them to the Tower ; when Cromwell 
 rose, and made one of those bold, vehement, 
 and hypocritical harangues by which, without 
 any approach to regular eloquence, he always 
 produced a powerful impression on his hearers. 
 He protested that the army was calumniated and 
 misunderstood; that they would willingly conform 
 to all that the parliament required of them ; and 
 that, if the House commanded them to disband, 
 they would pile up their arms at the door of the 
 assembly. 1 The result was, the House was 
 duped ; the messengers were allowed to depart ; 
 and Skippon, Cromwell, Ireton, and Fleetwood (the 
 latter three being the real authors and fomentors 
 of the discontents) were named commissioners 
 
 i " So Cromwell, with deep oaths and vows, 
 Swore all the Commons out o' th' House ; 
 Vow'd that the red coats would disband, — 
 Ay, marry, would they at their command ; 
 And troU'd them on, and swore and swore, 
 Till th' army turn'd them out of door." 
 
 Hudibras, part ii, canto 2,
 
 H2 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON- 
 
 to repair to head-quarters and quiet the dis- 
 tempers of the army. The House made some 
 concessions, which these commissioners were to 
 communicate to the troops. They agreed to in- 
 demnify them by an act for all their proceedings 
 in the war; to pay a portion of their arrears on 
 their disbanding; and the remainder as early as 
 the necessities of the kingdom would admit. 
 They still, however, adhered to their purpose of 
 disbanding them. 
 
 When the four commissioners presented 
 themselves to the officers at Saffron Walden, 
 the latter demanded a week's delay, in order 
 to take the sense of all the regiments as to 
 the proposals of the House. At the end of the 
 week a general council of war, accordingly, as- 
 sembled at Bury St. Edmund's, when the officers 
 produced a petition from the council of agitators, 
 expressing their amazement and disgust that a 
 disbandment should be proposed without redress- 
 ing their grievances, and entreating the General 
 Fairfax to appoint a speedy rendezvous of the 
 whole army. The council of war, consisting of 
 about 200 officers, almost unanimously recom- 
 mended the general in chief to listen to the 
 representations of the army ; and Ireton was at 
 the head of those who were deputed by the of- 
 ficers to draw up advice to the general to this 
 effect. Matters now approached a crisis. The 
 house had actually proceeded to appoint the 
 days for disbanding the several regiments. Fair- 
 fax's regiment of foot was to be disbanded at 
 Chelmsford on the 1st of June. But when Lord 
 Warwick, with the other commissioners, pro-
 
 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 143 
 
 ceeded thither for the purpose, with money to 
 pay ofF a portion of the arrears, the regiment 
 was ordered by Fairfax to another place, in order 
 to approach the general rendezvous; and Skippon 
 produced a letter from the general, stating that it 
 would be impossible to proceed in the matter of 
 the disbanding till the house had considered the 
 report he had just made to them of the result of 
 the council of war at Bury. In the mean time 
 Colonel Rainsborough's regiment, who were on 
 their march to embark for Jersey, mutinied at 
 Petersfield, with the connivance of their colonel, 
 took up their colours and marched to Oxford, 
 to which place the famous Joyce, a cornet in 
 Cromwell's regiment, repaired at the same time, 
 by orders from Cromwell, Ireton, and other of- 
 ficers, who held a meeting at Cromwell's house 
 in London. Joyce, pursuant to his orders, 
 seized all the artillery and ammunition laid up 
 at Oxford, in order that the army might not be 
 unprepared should they be obliged to defend 
 themselves by arms against the Houses. He then 
 proceeded to accomplish the master-stroke of the 
 energetic council of the army. He marched, on 
 the 3d of June, with 700 horse, to Holdenby 
 House, where Charles resided. The guards who 
 attended the King refused to make any resist- 
 ance to their brother soldiers ; and Joyce, with- 
 out opposition, made himself master of the 
 person of Charles, who proceeded the next day 
 under his escort, along with the parliamentary 
 commissioners, to Hinchinbrook House, the seat 
 of Colonel Edward Montagu. There is little 
 doubt that Cromwell and Ireton were the con-
 
 144 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 
 
 trivers of this extraordinary plot for placing 
 Charles in the custody of the army. Fairfax, 
 the general, was ignorant of it ; and when he 
 learned it, sent Colonel Whalley with two regi- 
 ments to restore the King to his former position, 
 and to apologise for this daring insult. But 
 Charles, who was on his road to Hinchinbrook, 
 peremptorily refused to return, deluding himself 
 with the vain notion that the agitators and soldiers 
 were friendly to him, and were worthy of his con- 
 fidence. 
 
 The struggle for predominance was now every 
 day growing more energetic and earnest be- 
 tween the independent party and the victorious 
 army on the one side ; and the presbyterians, 
 who ruled the House of Commons, and had the 
 voices of the majority of the country, and of the 
 corporation and citizens of London, on the other. 
 The acquisition of the King's person was of the 
 highest importance to the independents and the 
 army. Tlie negotiations, which they carried on 
 with the parliament on the one hand, and with 
 Charles on the other, were conducted by Crom- 
 well and Ireton. The skill, resources, and daring 
 duplicity which characterised their proceedings, 
 would alone stamp them as men of the most pow- 
 erful minds, and the most accommodating moral 
 principles. The declaration of the army at St. Al- 
 bans, calling for the punishment of " delinquents" 
 (adherents of the King), for the suspension of 
 some of the principal enemies of the army in the 
 house, and for fixing a definite period when the 
 house should be dissolved, was the production of 
 Ireton, Whitlock says, " In these declarations
 
 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETOK. 14.'S 
 
 and transactions of the army Colonel Ireton ^^as 
 chiefly employed, or took upon him the business 
 of the pen ; and having been bred in the Middle 
 Temple, and learned some grounds of the laws of 
 England, and being of working and laborious 
 brain and fancy, he set himself much upon these 
 businesses, and therein was encouraged and assist- 
 ed by Lieutenant-General Cromwell, his father- 
 in-law, and by Colonel Lambert, who had likewise 
 studied in the Inns of Court, and was of a subtle 
 and working brain." i The next day the heads 
 of charge, drawn by the same pen, were presented 
 against Denzil HoUis, Stapleton, and the eleven 
 leaders of the presbyterian party. The presby- 
 terian majority in the house refused to suspend 
 them. The army, which was then at Berkhamp- 
 stead, instantly advanced to Uxbridge, and some 
 regiments pushed their way to Harrow and Brent- 
 ford. The house was in consternation, and the 
 eleven members immediately absented themselves 
 from their seats. The house then demanded on 
 what terms the troops would recede farther from 
 London ; and Ireton presented them with a 
 paper requiring as conditions that the declaration 
 inviting the soldiers to desert should be with- 
 drawn, the raising of more forces stopped, the 
 maintenance of the army voted, and that Charles 
 should not be desired to reside nearer London 
 than the head-quarters of the army might be at 
 the time. 
 
 While Cromwell and Ireton thus successfully 
 maintained the interests of the army against 
 the parliament, they had with consummate ad- 
 
 1 Memorials, June 16. 1647.
 
 146 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON". 
 
 dress, in long and daily interviews, acquired some- 
 thing of the favour, if not of the confidence, of the 
 t^ing. The parhament had disgusted Charles by 
 their intolerant rigour in depriving him- of his 
 chaplains, and of the free exercise of the rites of 
 the Church of England. Cromwell, Ireton, and 
 the Council of War (who were independents), 
 disclaimed any such severity, and allowed Shel- 
 don (afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury) and 
 Hammond (the King's favourite divine) to have 
 free access to him ; they at the same time per- 
 mitted Charles an unrestrained intercourse with 
 the Duke of Richmond, Sir John Berkley, Ash- 
 burnham, Denham (the poet), and others of his 
 royalist friends. Cromwell and Ireton, with their 
 usual artifice and address, persuaded these at- 
 tendants on .the King that his restoration was an 
 object very near their hearts, and for which they 
 would zealously labour, if he would only repose 
 confidence in themJ These Machiavelian poli- 
 ticians then touched one of the most potent chords 
 in Charles's breast. Theyprocured him permission 
 from the parliament for an interview with his 
 children ; Fairfax and the officers pledging their 
 honour that they should afterwards return safely 
 to their former abode. Charles had not seen the 
 
 1 The narratives of Sir John Berkley and of Ash- 
 burnham (especially the former) detail these transactions. 
 Berkley's memoirs derive confirmation from being incor- 
 porated for forty pages into Ludlow's Memoirs, p. 195. to 
 236. Ludlow considered Berkley as the dupe of Cromwell 
 and Ireton, which was doubtless the case as to all the 
 royalists introduced by them to the King,
 
 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETOK. 147 
 
 Duke of Gloucester (now seven years old) and 
 the Princess Elizabeth (of the age of twelve) 
 since January, 1642, when he left London, at the 
 commencement of the war ; nor the Duke of 
 York (now fourteen years old) since he quitted 
 Oxford to repair to the Scottish army at Newark. 
 On the 15th of July, 1647, the children were 
 conducted from St. James's by the Earl of North- 
 umberland, their governor, to Maidenhead, to 
 meet their father. The people flocked to see 
 them, and strewed their way with boughs and 
 flowers. The King came from Caversham, near 
 Reading, where he resided at a seat of Lord 
 Craven's, and dined with his children at the Grey- 
 hound Inn ; and in the evening they all accom- 
 panied their father back to Caversham, and 
 remained for two days under the same roof with 
 him. Tlie army was now at Reading; and 
 Cromwell, who witnessed these scenes of domestic 
 happiness and endearment, told Sir John Berkley 
 " he had seen the tenderest sight that ever his 
 eyes beheld, which was the interview between 
 the King and his children ; and wept plentifully 
 at the remembrance of it, saying, that never man 
 was so abused as he in his sinister opinions of 
 the King, who, he thought, was the uprightest 
 and most conscientious man of his three king- 
 doms. He wished God would be pleased to look 
 upon him according to the sincerity of his heart 
 rewards his Majesty." When Berkley related 
 this to the King, " he seemed not well edified by 
 it." Charles, doubtless, distrusted the ready tears 
 and exaggerated professions of Cromwell. Ireton 
 "^who, though engaged in the crooked intrigues 
 L 2
 
 148 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 
 
 of his father-in-law, often spoke with a severe ho- 
 nesty and frankness,) had indeed, not long before, 
 hinted to Charles tlieir real intentions towards 
 him. — " Sir, you have an intention to be the arbi- 
 trator between us and the parliament, and we 
 mean to be so between you and the parliament." 
 And when Charles said to him, " I shall .play my 
 game as well as I can," Ireton retorted, " If your 
 Majesty have a game to play, you must give us 
 the liberty to play ours." 
 
 Ireton's pen was now employed in drawing up 
 the. celebrated proposals of the army for the 
 King's restoration, and the settlement of a plan 
 of future government. Berkley, who, with Ash- 
 burnham, was the principal negotiator for the 
 King with the council of the army, sat up near 
 a whole night with Ireton, perusing them be- 
 fore they were presented to the King, and was 
 permitted by Ireton to make some material 
 changes. Charles was suffered privately to in- 
 spect them at Woburn Abbey several days before 
 they were presented to him in public. He strongly 
 objected to the exception of seven of his friends 
 (not named) from pardon, to the exclusion of the 
 royalists from the next ensuing parliament, and 
 the absence of any provision for the maintenance 
 of Church government. Berkley, sensible of 
 the great difficulties of his position, earnestly 
 counselled the King to accept the terms ; but 
 Charles broke off from him, saying, that " he should 
 see them glad, ere long, to accept more equal 
 terms." Charles, encouraged by favourable mes- 
 sages from the presbyterian party and the cor- 
 poration of London, and buoyed up by the sanguine
 
 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 14'9 
 
 counsels of Ashburnham ^ and other royalists, 
 appears at this period to have greatly over-rated 
 his strength ; and when the proposals were for- 
 mally presented to him, the King, to the asto- 
 nishment of Ireton and the officers, as well as of 
 Berkley, rejected them with disdain, and used 
 "very tart and bitter discourses" to the army 
 commissioners ; saying, he would have no man 
 suffer for his sake; and that he repented ot 
 nothing so much as the bill against Lord Strafford : 
 and that he would have the Church established 
 according to law. " You will fall to ruin," said 
 he, " if 1 do not sustain you." Berkley whispered 
 to him — " Sir, your Majesty speaks as if you had 
 some secret strength and power that I do not 
 know of; and since your Majesty hath concealed 
 it from me, I wish you had concealed it from 
 these men also." The King recollected himself, 
 and " began to sweeten his former discourse with 
 great power of language and behaviour." - But 
 it was too late. The news of the conference had 
 been carried by Rainsborough, a desperate agi- 
 tator, to the army at Bedford, who v/ere indig- 
 nant at the King's rejection, and still more at the 
 manner in which it was conveyed : and when 
 Berkley hastened thither, and, in a conference 
 with Ireton and the officers, endeavoured to soften 
 
 1 The courtly Ashburnham fell into the error of despising 
 the army agitators : he said, " he was always bred in the 
 best company, and could not converse with such senseless 
 fellows as the agitators were ; that if they could gain the 
 officers sure to tlie King, there was no doubt but they 
 would be able to command their own army." — Berkley's 
 Memoirs. 2 Berkley. 
 
 L 3
 
 150 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 
 
 the angry impression, he was told plainly, that il 
 the King accepted the proposals, they should be 
 presented to the parliament ; if he rejected them, 
 they would not say what they would do^ The 
 proposals were nerer again tendered to the King. 
 Immediately after Fairfax's entry with the 
 army into London, the head -quarters were fixed 
 at Putney, and Charles was removed to Hampton 
 Court, where he lived with regal splendour and 
 dignity, and was surrounded by the nobility and 
 his personal fi-iends. During this period the 
 greatest degree of intercourse appears to have 
 existed between Charles and Cromwell, Ireton, 
 and the principal officers of the army. Fairfax, 
 when he waited on the King, kissed his hand ; 
 but Cromwell and Ireton appear to have declined 
 that ceremonial. Charles also complained to 
 Berkley that these men were backward in re- 
 ceiving from him any specific grace or advantage ; 
 a complaint that confirms the common rumour, 
 that offers of preferment were made to them by 
 the King. Cromwell himself told Berkley that 
 Lady Carlisle had propagated a report that he 
 was to be made Earl of Essex, and Captain of the 
 Guard to the King : and Holiis states, in his 
 Memoirs, tliat it was affirmed Cromwell was to 
 be a Knight of the Garter ; his son to be of the 
 Bedchamber to the Prince ; and Ireton to have 
 some great office in Ireland. Whether such offers 
 were ever made, or whether these were mere ru- 
 mours spread either by the royalists or the repub- 
 licans for their own purposes, will ever be a matter 
 of uncertainty. The mere existence of such re- 
 ports, however, shows the footing on which Crom-
 
 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 151 
 
 well and Ireton then stood with the King and his 
 party. 
 
 The well known story of the letter from Charles 
 to his Queen, said to be intercepted by Cromwell 
 and Ireton, who seized the messenger at the Blue 
 Boar Inn in Holborn, also relates to this period. 
 It has been often adduced as a proof of Charles's 
 perfidy, and also as forming the real ground which 
 influenced Cromwell and Ireton to break with 
 the King, and to resolve on his ruin. But Hume 
 discredits the story ; and Baron Maseres, an 
 acute judge, with opposite principles to Hume's, 
 gives no credence to it. The story in Lord 
 Orrery's Memoirs is, that Lord O. (then Lord 
 Broghill) riding with Cromwell and Ireton at the 
 head of his troops, in Ireland, the conversation fell 
 on the King's death ; and Cromwell observed, that 
 " if the King had followed his own judgment, and 
 had been attended by none but trusty servants, 
 he had fooled them all." Lord Broghill, finding 
 Cromwell and Ireton in good humour, and no 
 other person being within hearing, asked them, 
 " 1st, Why they once would have closed with the 
 King? and, secondly. Why they did not? " Crom- 
 well very freely told him he would satisfy him in 
 both his queries. " The reason," says he, " why 
 we would once have closed with the King was 
 this : — We found that the Scots and the pres- 
 byterians began to be more powerful than we ; 
 and if they had made up matters m ith the King, 
 we should have been left in the lurch ; therefore 
 we thought it best to prevent them, by offering 
 first to come in upon any reasonable conditions. 
 But while we were busied with these thoughts. 
 L 4
 
 ]52 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 
 
 there came a letter from one of our spies, who 
 was of the King's bedchamber, wliich acquainted 
 us on that day our doom was decreed ; that he 
 could not possibly tell what it was, but we might 
 find it out, if we could intercept a letter from 
 the King to the Queen, wherein he declared 
 what he would do. The letter, he said, was 
 sewn up in a skirt of a saddle ; and the bearer of 
 it would come with the saddle upon his head 
 about 10 o'clock that night to the Blue Boar Inn 
 in Holborn ; for there he was to take horse, and 
 go to Dover with it. This messenger knew no- 
 thing of the letter in the saddle, but some per- 
 sons in Dover did. We were at Windsor when 
 we received the letter ; and immediately upon 
 the receipt of it, Ireton and I resolved to take one 
 trusty fellow with us, and with troopers' habits 
 to go to the inn in Holborn, which accordingly 
 we did ; and set our man at the gate of the inn, 
 where the wicket only was open, to let people in 
 and out. Our man was to give us notice when 
 a person came there with a saddle ; while we, in 
 the disguise of common troopers, called for cans 
 of beer, and continued drinking till about ten 
 o'clock : the sentinel at the gate then gave no- 
 tice that the man with the saddle was then come 
 in. Upon this we immediately rose, and as the 
 man was leading out his horse saddled, came up 
 to him with drawn swords, and told him we were 
 there to search all that went in and out there ; 
 but as he looked like an honest man, we would 
 only search his saddle, and so dismiss him. Upon 
 that we ungirt the saddle, and carried it into the 
 stall where we had been drinking, and left the
 
 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 153 
 
 horseman with our sentinel : then ripping up one 
 of the skirts of the saddle, we there found the 
 letter of which we had been informed ; and hav- 
 ing got it into our hands, we delivered the saddle 
 again to the man, telling him he was an honest 
 man, and bidding him go about his business. 
 The man, not knowing what had been done, went 
 away to Dover. As soon as we had the letter, 
 we opened it ; in which we found the King had 
 acquainted the Queen, that he was now courted 
 by both factions, the Scotch presbyterians and 
 the army, and which bid fairest for him should 
 have him ; but he thought he should close with 
 the Scots sooner than the other, &c. Upon this," 
 added Cromwell, "we took horse and went to 
 Windsor ; and finding we were not likely to have 
 any tolerable terms from the King, we immedi- 
 ately from that time forward resolved his ruin." 
 
 Mr. Godwin truly observes, that it does not 
 follow that Cromwell had ever actually intended 
 to close with Charles, even if he made such a 
 statement to Lord Broghill. Still less can this 
 account (related by Lord Orrery's chaplain on 
 memory of what Lord Orrery also remembered) 
 be taken as evidence of Charles's perfidy, or of 
 the real cause of Cromwell and Ireton breaking 
 with him. It surely discovered no perfidy in the 
 vanquished and half-dethroned king to receive the 
 overtures of both parties, and to be willing to 
 close either with the Scots or with the army, 
 according as the offers of the one or the other 
 were most advantageous. Nor can it be supposed 
 that Cromwell and Ireton resolved on abandoning 
 him merely on the contents of a letter which, in
 
 154< MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 
 
 truth, discovered to them httle more than what 
 they must well have known before tliey per- 
 used it. But another still more doubtful version 
 is given of this letter, which, if true, would cer- 
 tainly evince perfidy in Charles, and show suffi- 
 cient reasons for Cromwell and Ireton's alteration 
 of their conduct towards him. In a book called 
 " Richardsoniana," a posthumous publication of 
 Richardson the younger, the painter (1776), it is 
 stated, that Lord Bolingbroke told Richardson 
 and Pope in conversation, in 1742, that the se- 
 cond Lord Oxford told him, he had had in his 
 hand a letter from Charles to the Queen, in an- 
 swer to one from her reproaching him with " hav- 
 ing made those villains, Cromwell and L-eton, too 
 great concessions;" in which letter Charles said 
 " she should leave him to manage^ and in due 
 time he should knotv how to deal ivith the rogues, 
 who, instead of a silken garter, should be fitted 
 with a hempen cord." That a letter from Charles 
 to Henrietta Maria was intercepted by Cromwell 
 and Ireton at the inn, is not improbable ; and 
 that its contents were something to the effect 
 which is stated by Lord Broghill, seems very 
 credible. The probability appears to be, that the 
 account of Lord Orrery's chaplain is erroneous in 
 making Cromwell assign this letter as the sole 
 cause of their giving up the King. The second 
 story, quoting the contents of a letter on hearsay 
 at second hand, seems very questionable ; and the 
 two versions of the letter differ materially as to 
 the King's intentions expressed in it. The rhe- 
 torical and antithetic passage which, by Lord 
 Bolingbroke is ascribed to Charles, is wholly unlike
 
 MEMOTU OF HENRY IRETOX. 155 
 
 tlie Style of all the King's letters and writings, and 
 of itself is sufficient to excite suspicion ; while 
 the glaring improbability of an experienced man 
 like the King, surrounded by spies and living in 
 the custody of his enemies, gratuitously commit- 
 ting such a design, so expressed, to a letter, is 
 sufficient to destroy all the verisimilitude of this 
 version of the Vale. 
 
 In June, 16t8, while Cromwell was engaged 
 in opposing the Scots, Ireton was actively co- 
 operating with Fairfax in quelling the insurrec- 
 tions of the royalists and presbyterians in the 
 southern counties, and was detached by Fairfax 
 to reduce Canterbury, which was in the hands of 
 the Kentish insurgents. The city surrendered 
 on the 8th of June ; when Ireton rejoined Fairfax 
 in Essex, and was second in command at the 
 memorable and protracted siege of Colchester, 
 where General Goring, the Lord Capel, Sir 
 Charles Lucas, and Sir George Lisle made a last 
 noble and heroic exertion on behalf of the King 
 and the monarchy. The siege lasted ten weeks, 
 and was conducted with all the skill and sagacity 
 of which Fairfax and Ireton were eminently pos- 
 sessed. The garrison and the suffering inhabit- 
 ants looked in vain for relief from the Scottish 
 army; and were disappointed in their hopes that 
 the treaty between the King and the parliament 
 would be concluded in time to protect them from 
 their conquerors. They were reduced to eat 
 horse-flesh, to fire the suburbs of the town, and to 
 drive out the women and children. The gallantry 
 and obstinacy of this defence, prolonged after 
 the rest of the kingdom had been reduced to sub-
 
 156 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON". 
 
 mission by the army, roused the indignation of 
 the parUament and of the besiegers. All favour- 
 able terms of capitulation were refused; and when 
 the garrison was driven to surrender, on the 27th 
 of August, the more distinguished prisoners were 
 shut up in the Town Hall ; and the council of 
 war resolved on the military execution of Sir 
 Charles Lucas, Sir George Lisle, and Sir Ber- 
 nard Gascoigne. Lord Capel and the other pri- 
 soners insisted on sharing the fate of their com- 
 rades, but Lucas and Lisle alone were shot ; 
 Gascoigne, being a foreigner, was spared. Cla- 
 rendon asserts, that this barbarity was generally 
 " imputed to Ireton, who swayed the General, and 
 was on all occasions of an unmerciful and bloody 
 nature." But it must be remembered that Claren- 
 don was abroad at this time, and writes from the 
 reports of the royalists, who were naturally ex- 
 asperated against Ireton. Fairfax, in the post- 
 script to his own Memoirs, takes the responsibility 
 of the transaction on himself, and makes his own 
 apology. This circumstance, however, is not con- 
 clusive that he did not act by Ireton's advice. The 
 prisoners were delivered, he contends, on mercy, 
 " which is to be understood, that some are to 
 suffer, and others to go free;" and he says that 
 the Lords Capel, Norwich, «S:c. being men of 
 considerable estates and families, he thought fit 
 to transmit them to the civil judicature for trial ; 
 but that, Lucas and Lisle being mere soldiers 
 of fortune, and falling into his hands by the 
 chance of war, it was fitting to execute them; — 
 a feeble and unsatisfactory defence of an act of 
 severity so little necessary, and so little in harmony
 
 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 157 
 
 with Fairfax's feelings and general conduct. Mr. 
 Godwin observes truly, " It was one of those acts 
 which would never be perpetrated but where vic- 
 tory has pretty sufficiently secured the actors 
 from retaliation." 
 
 It is but justice to Ireton, whom Clarendon as 
 well as Lord Broghill charges with inhumanity, 
 to notice the exertions which he made, in con- 
 junction with Colonel Hutchinson, to save Sir 
 John Owen, one of the insurgents, who, with the 
 Duke of Hamilton, Lords Holltind, Capel, and 
 Goring, was condemned to death by the second 
 High Court of Justice, — a tribunal formed on the 
 bad precedent of that which tried Charles. The 
 parliament intended to spare some of these pri- 
 soners, and great efforts were made for each 
 nobleman by his friends in the house. " While 
 " there was such mighty labour and endeavour for 
 " these Lords, Colonel Hutchinson observed that 
 " no man spoke for this poor Knight ; and sitting 
 " next to Colonel Ireton, he told him that ' it 
 " pitied him much to see, that, while all were la- 
 " bouring to save the Lords, a gentleman that 
 " stood in the same condemnation should not find 
 " one friend to ask his life; and so,' said he, 'am 
 •' I moved with compassion, that if you will se- 
 " cond me, I am resolved to speak for him, who 
 '* I perceive is a stranger and friendless. Ireton 
 " promised to second him ; and accordingly en- 
 " quiring further whether he had not a petition 
 " in any member's hands, he found that his keep- 
 " ers had brought one to the Clerk of the House, 
 " but the man had not found any one that would 
 " interest themselves for him, thinking the Lords'
 
 158 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 
 
 " lives of so much more concernment than this 
 " gentleman's. This the more stirred up the Co- 
 *' lonel's generous pity ; and he took the petition, 
 " delivered it, spoke for him so nobly, and v/as 
 " so effectually seconded by Ireton, that they car- 
 " ried his pardon clear."* 
 
 That Ireton's stern nature was not inacces- 
 sible to emotions of pity, is also shown by what 
 Ludlow relates of his treatment of Lady Honoria 
 O'Brien in Ireland. Ireton having granted his 
 passport of safety to that lady, she abused it for 
 the protection of the cattle and goods of Irish re- 
 bels, declaring that they were her own. Ireton 
 charged her with this perfidy, when she burst 
 into tears, implored forgiveness, and assured him 
 she would not repeat such conduct. When she 
 retired, Ludlow, at her entreaty, interceded with 
 Ireton to continue his favour to her ; to which 
 Ireton answered, " As much a cynic as I am, 
 the tears of this woman moved me ;" and he gave 
 orders that her safeguard should be continued. 
 
 We have seen by what machinations Charles 
 was driven to fly to the Isle of Wight, and to in- 
 trust himself to the custody of the Governor 
 Hammond, the son-in-law of Hampden, the dear 
 
 1 Mrs. Hutchinson's ^Memoirs, p. 310. Ludlow says of 
 this matter, " Ireton moved the house to consider that Sir 
 John Owen was a commoner, and therefore more proper to 
 be tried in another way by a jury ; whereupon the house 
 reprieved him." He does not name Colonel Hutchinson, 
 who in this, as in all other stories, is the hero of his wife's 
 narrative. Ludlow's omission may, however, have been 
 intentional ; for Hutchinson and he had bitterly quarrelled, 
 though both were republicans and independents, and op- 
 ponents of Cromwell's ambition.
 
 MEMOIR OF IIJ'NKY IKETOX. 159 
 
 friend of Cromwell and Ireton, and one who was 
 regarded by them as a trustworthy promoter of 
 all their objects and designs. In November, 
 164?S the army presented their famous remon- 
 strance to the house, recommending the imme- 
 diate breaking off of the treaty with the King, 
 and demanding that he should be brought to jus- 
 tice as the source of all their grievances. The 
 council of war now found it necessary to be entirely 
 secure of possessing Charles's person; and in order 
 to prevent his attempts at escape, they resolved 
 on removing him from Carisbrook to the hopeless 
 and miserable dungeon of Hurst Castle. To 
 their astonishment and annoyance, their friend 
 and comrade, Hammond, now professed scruples 
 of conscience, which made him hesitate to dis- 
 pose of the King, except under orders from the 
 parliament, by whose authority he had hitherto 
 kept him in confinement. Fairfax (the general 
 in chief) immediately wrote to him, summoning 
 him to appear before him at head-quarters, and 
 sent Colonel Ewer, an inveterate republican, to 
 assume the command of the island. Cromwell 
 and Ireton, at the same time, despatched long 
 letters to Hammond, endeavouring to remv3ve his 
 scruples by subtle reasoning and accomplished 
 casuistry. These letters are truly characteristic 
 of the men, and also of the style prevalent among 
 the puritans and independents of the day. Ire- 
 ton's letter is as follows : — 
 
 " Dear Robin, 
 
 " Thou wilt receive herewith a letter from the 
 
 General, by which thou wilt see wh it tenderness 
 
 there is here towards thee. I shall not at this 
 
 distance undertake a dispute concerning our
 
 16Q MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 
 
 ground or proceedings ; but leave thee for the 
 one to our remonstrance, for the other to further 
 trial of us. I shall only, m the love of a friend 
 and brother, speak a word or two to that, which 
 I found the ground of thy scruples, against what 
 hath been from hence desired, or rather of thy 
 declared resolution to the contrary. 
 
 " Thou lookest on thyself as a servant under 
 trust ; and so both in honour and conscience 
 obliged to discharge that faithfully. And thus 
 far thou art in the right. But the only measure 
 of that discharge thou takest to be the mere 
 formal observance of commands ; and those car- 
 rying but that name of power from which thou 
 apprehendest it was committed to thee. As to 
 the first part, the faithful discharge of the trust, 
 the Lord forbid that I should tempt thee from it. 
 Nay, I will charge and challenge it at thy hands, 
 that, with all faithfulness and singleness of heart, 
 as before the Lord, thou perform thy trust to 
 those persons by whom, and to those public ends 
 and interests for which, it was committed to thee. 
 
 " But for these things I shall appeal to the 
 witness of God in thy conscience, as follows : — 
 
 " L For the persons, trusting whether thou didst 
 receive thy present place from the affections or 
 trust of the formal parliament only, even as then 
 it stood; or whether of the General or army? 
 And whether, so far as thou seemest to have the 
 formality, by way of confirmation from the par- 
 liament, it were from any affection or trust of that 
 sort or generation of men, which now, through 
 accident, bear the sway and name ? or whether 
 from them, whose judgment and affections are 
 most opposite to the present proceedings there?
 
 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 161 
 
 *' 2. For the end whether thou recelvedst thy 
 trust in order to the ends now carried on by the 
 prevaihng party there ? or whether, in confi- 
 dence of thy faithfulness to some other higher 
 and more pubhc ends ? Whether for the kings, 
 and the present prevaihng factions ; or for the 
 pubUc interest, and the generahty of honest men 
 that have engaged for the same? Upon the 
 answer of thy conscience in these I propound 
 further ; in case such persons as neither did nor 
 would have committed any such trust unto thee, 
 but only gaining since the name of that power, 
 from which thou hadst the formal compliment of 
 the trust, and yet but partly that, shall require 
 things destructive to, or not to the best advan- 
 tage of, those public ends for which really thou 
 receivedst thy trust, and at the same those from 
 whose affection and confidence in thee thou hadst 
 the matter and power of thy trust, shall desire 
 and expect from thee other things necessary for 
 the security, or but really for better advantage, of 
 those public ends for which thou wert trusted, 
 and for the common benefit and interest of that 
 people, for which all pretend their employments 
 and interest ; in this case, I say, I shall appeal 
 further to thy conscience, or thy ingenuity, to de- 
 termine to which of these several persons, and 
 according to which commands and expectations, 
 thou art to exhibit and approve thy faithfulness 
 in the trust : and which part to observe and fol- 
 low is the more real and substantial performance 
 before God and reasonable men. 
 
 " I shall not press upon thee, but thus plainly 
 Jay thy case before thee, only desiring thee not
 
 162 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 
 
 to slight it, but seriously to weigh it, as thou 
 tenderest the approving thyself to God and his 
 people. And I hope, he will not give thee up to 
 such delusion, as to follow an air of honour, or 
 mere form or shadow of faithfulness, to the re- 
 jection or neglect of that which is the reality and 
 substance of both, as surely thou wouldst, if in 
 the present case thou shouldst neither do the 
 thing expected thyself, nor leave it to any other. 
 Dear Robin, I will yet hope God hath better en- 
 dued thee with truth and judgment in the inner 
 parts, and more sense of his righteous judgments 
 appearing abroad in this age and nation. So I 
 leave thee to his gracious guidance ; and the 
 weight of what I have writ, lying not in author- 
 ity to indemnify thee, but reason to lead thee. I 
 shall not need subscribe other name than what I 
 must desire to be known by unto thee. 
 " Thy most dearly 
 
 " Affectionate and faithful 
 " Friend to serve thee, 
 " Nov. 24th, 1648. Henry Ireton. 
 
 " For my dear friend Colonel Hammond 
 Governor of the Isle of Wight." 
 
 Cromwell's letter is much longer. It is less 
 formal, and has less pretensions to logical reason- 
 ing. It has more of bold hypocrisy, and of the 
 conventual phrases of puritanism : — 
 
 " Dear Robin, 
 ** No man rejoyceth more to see aline from thee 
 than myself. I know thou hast long been under 
 tryal. Thou shalt be no loser by it. All must work
 
 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 163 
 
 for the best. Thou desirest to hear of my expe- 
 riences, lean tell thee I am such a one as thou didst 
 formerly know, having a body of sin and death ; 
 but I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord 
 there is no condemnation, though much infirmity, 
 and I wait for the redemption ; and in this poor 
 condition I obtain mercy and sweet consolation 
 through the Spirit ; and find abundant cause every 
 day to exalt the Lord, — abase flesh. And herein 
 I have some exercise. 
 
 " As to outward dispensations, if we may so call 
 them, we have not been without our share of be- 
 holding some remarkable providences and appear- 
 ances of the Lord. His presence hath been 
 amongst us, and by the light of his countenance 
 we have prevailed. We are sure the good will 
 of him who dwelt in the bush has shined upon 
 us ; and v/e can humbly say, we know in whom 
 we have believed, who is able, and will perfect 
 what remaineth, and us also in doing what is well- 
 pleasing in his eyesight. 
 
 Because I find some trouble in your spirit, oc- 
 casioned first, not only by the continuance of 
 your sad and heavy burthen, as you call it, upon 
 you ; but by the dissatisfaction you take at the 
 ways of some good men, whom you love with your 
 heart, who through this principle, that it is lawful 
 for a lesser part (if in the right) to force, &c. 
 
 " To the first : call not your burthen sad nor 
 heavy. If your Father laid it upon you, he in- 
 tended neither. He is the Father of lights, from 
 whom Cometh every good and perfect gift ; who 
 of his own will begot us, and bad us count it all 
 joy when such things befall uS ; they bring forth 
 M 2
 
 164? MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 
 
 the exercise of faith and patience ; vvhereby in 
 the end (James 1 st) we shall be made perfect. 
 
 " Dear Robin, our fleshly reasonings ensnare 
 us. These make us say, heavy, sad, pleasant, easy. 
 Was not there a little of this, when Robert Ham- 
 mond, through dissatisfaction too, desired retire- 
 ment from the army, and thought of quiet in the 
 Isle of Wight ? Did not God find him out there? 
 I believe he will never forget this. And now I 
 perceive, he is to seek again, partly through his 
 sad and heavy burthen, and partly through dis- 
 satisfaction with friends' actings. Dear Robin, 
 thou and I were never worthy to be doorkeepers 
 in this service. If thou wilt seek, seek to know 
 the mind of God in all that chain of providence, 
 whereby God brought thee thither, and that per- 
 son to thee : how before and since God has or- 
 dered him, and affairs concerning him. And then 
 tell me, whether there be not some glorious and 
 high meaning in all this^ above what thou hast 
 yet attained. And laying aside thy fleshly rea- 
 soning, seek the Lord to teach thee what that is ; 
 and he will do it. 
 
 " You say, ' God hath appointed authorities 
 among the nations, to which active or passive 
 obedience is to be yielded. This resides in Eng- 
 land in the parliament. Therefore active or 
 passive,' 6cc. Authorities and powers are the 
 ordinance of God. This or that species is of 
 human institution, and limited, some with larger, 
 others with stricter bands, each one according to 
 his constitution. I do not, therefore, think the 
 authorities may do any thing, and yet such obe- 
 dience due ; but all agree there are cases in
 
 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON 165 
 
 which it is lawful to resist. If so, your ground 
 fails, and so likewise the inference. Indeed, dear 
 Robin, not to multiply words, the query is, whe- 
 ther ours is such a case ? This ingeniously is 
 the true question. To this I shall say nothing, 
 though I could say very much ; but only desire 
 thee to see what thou findest in thy own heart 
 as to two or three plain considerations. First, 
 Whether salus populi be a sound position ? Se- 
 condly, Whether in the way in hand, really and 
 before the Lord, before whom conscience must 
 stand, this be provided for; or the whole fruit of 
 the war like to be frustrated, and almost like to 
 turn to what it was, and worse ? And this con- 
 trary to engagements, declarations, implicit co- 
 venants with those who ventured their lives upon 
 those covenants and engagements, without whom 
 perhaps, in equity, relaxation ought not to be. 
 Thirdly, Whether this army be not a lawful 
 power called by God to oppose and fight against 
 the King upon so stated grounds ; and being in 
 power to such ends, may not oppose one name of 
 authority for those ends as well as another ? the 
 outward authority, that called them, not by 
 their power making the quarrel lawful ; but it 
 being so in itself If so, it may be, acting will be 
 justified inforo humcmo. But truly these kind of 
 reasonings may be but fleshly, either with or 
 against ; only it is good to try what truth may be 
 in them. And the Lord teach us." 
 
 Ireton is regarded by Whitlock as an instigator 
 of the violence offered to the House of Commons 
 by Colonel Pride and his troops, immediately 
 M 3
 
 166 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 
 
 previous to the trial of the King ; and his repre- 
 sentation is probably correct. At the same time, 
 according to Ludlow and Mrs. Hutchinson, it is 
 clear, that Ireton was, some months earlier, averse 
 to violent proceedings by the army against the 
 parliament, when Cromwell, Ludlow, and others 
 thought them expedient. Ludlow^ says, " that 
 he himself went down to the siege of Colchester, 
 in which Fairfax and Ireton were engaged, and 
 proposed to them that the army should interpose 
 against the house." Fairfax readily agreed ; but 
 Ireton demurred to interfering till the King and 
 the presbyterians should have actually agreed, 
 and the body of the nation have been convinced 
 of the iniquity of their coalition. The project 
 was for that time abandoned. But when Col- 
 chester had surrendered, when the Scots were 
 defeated, the insurrections in the counties quelled, 
 and when the house was proceeding to the actual 
 conclusion of the treaty with the King, Ireton's 
 reasons for delaying the violence were probably 
 removed ; and there can be no doubt (notwith- 
 standing the contrary assertion of the editor of 
 Mrs. Hutchinson's Memoirs) that, if not an insti- 
 gator, Ireton w as a party actively concurring in 
 the outrage of the 6th of Decem.ber. It ap- 
 pears, from Ludlow, that the day after the house 
 resolved that the King's concessions w^ere ground 
 for a future settlement, three officers of the army, 
 and three members of the house, (Ludlow being 
 evidently one, and it is rather to be inferred that 
 Ireton was another,) met together privately, and 
 arranged the plan of forcibly excluding the ob- 
 noxious members, and agreed on the list of those 
 who were to be suspended ; and Ludlow adds ex-
 
 MEMOIR OP HENRY IRETON. 167 
 
 pressly, that Ireton went to Sir Thomas Fairfax 
 and acquainted him with the necessity of this 
 extraordinary proceeding. On the following day 
 Prides purge was put in operation. Whitlock, 
 writing shortly afterwards, (on the S^th of Fe- 
 bruary, 1648,) says, with his usual simplicity, 
 " From the council of state Cromwell and his son 
 Ireton went home with me to supper, and they 
 told me wonderful obsenmtions of God's pro- 
 vidence in the affairs of the war, and in the tri- 
 umph of the army's coming to London and 
 seizing the members of the house" ^ 
 
 We have seen the active part which Ireton 
 took in the trial and execution of the King 
 At the time of the trial, and for a short time 
 subsequently to the King's death, the executive 
 powers of the state were exercised by a com- 
 mittee sitting at Derby House; and on the 9th of 
 July, Ireton, with Marten, Ludlow, Lord Grey, 
 and seven others, chiefly of the Judges of the 
 King, were added to this council. On the 10th 
 of February following, when the first Council of 
 State of forty were elected by votes in the parlia- 
 ment, the names of Harrison and Ireton were 
 negatived on the previous question. It is im- 
 possible to conjecture the cause of this singular 
 circumstance. A few months afterwards, Crom- 
 well 2 was^ named Lord Lieutenant-General and 
 
 1 Memorials, p. 384. 
 
 2 On the 10th of July he set out on his journey himself, 
 in a coach drawn by six Flanders mares, whitish grey, with 
 several other coaches and great oflBcers attending him, his 
 life guard consisting of eighty persons in stately habits, 
 some of them colonels, and the meanest field-officers or 
 esquires. — Cromwelliana, p. 62. 
 
 M 4
 
 168 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 
 
 General Governor of Ireland, and Ireton Major- 
 General of the forces ; and 12,000 men were or- 
 dered by the Council to be drafted for the ser- 
 vice. It appears from Ludlow, however, that 
 the army did not land in Ireland till September, 
 1649, when Cromwell and his suite were received 
 at Dublin with great joy. In a campaign of great 
 activity and splendid success, he reduced, be- 
 fore December, Wexford, Kilkenny, Clonmel, 
 Cork, and the principal places in the south of 
 Ireland. 
 
 Munster was now conquered by the instru- 
 mentality of Lord Broghill and the gentry of the 
 province ; and Ireton was immediately appointed 
 by the parliament Lord President of the pro- 
 vince; while Cook, the regicide solicitor, was 
 named, by Cromwell, Chief Justice of Munster; 
 in which situation, his friend Ludlow affirms 
 (with the peremptoriness of a military man de- 
 ciding on matters out of the sphere of his know- 
 ledge), " by proceeding in a summary and expe- 
 ditious way, he determined more causes in a 
 week than Westminster Hall in a year." In 
 January, 1650, when Cromwell was recalled from 
 Ireland to command the expedition against the 
 Scots, Ireton was appointed his successor, with 
 the title of Lord Deputy ; and Cromwell, Ireton, 
 Ludlow, with Colonel John Jones, and Mr. Miles 
 Corbet (two of the King's judges), were named 
 a committee for the administration of the civil 
 affairs in Ireland. The Lady Ireton (Cromwell's 
 daughter) embarked with the commissioners, and 
 joined her husband at Waterford. 
 
 However much his principles and conduct are
 
 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 169 
 
 to be reprobated, it cannot be doubted that Ire- 
 ton was actuated in his proceedings by other 
 motives than those of personal interest and am- 
 bition. While Cromwell, long before his protec- 
 torate, willingly received votes of 6500/. per an- 
 num in land, a handsome residence at Whitehall, 
 the use of the palace at Hampton Court, and 
 other provisions from the parliament, Ireton re- 
 fused the only pecuniary grant which was made 
 to him. When the news was brought to him in 
 Ireland that the parliament had settled 2000/. per 
 annum on him, he said, " They had many just 
 debts which he desired they would pay be- 
 fore they made such presents; that he had no 
 need of their land, and would not have it ; and 
 that he should be more contented to see them 
 doing the service of the nation than so liberal in 
 disposing of the public treasure." ^ Ludlow, who 
 was his colleague, describes Ireton to have con- 
 ducted the military and civil affairs of Ireland 
 with great ability, and with unbounded devotion 
 to the public service. He says, he accompanied 
 him on a visit to the garrison of Killalo, and to 
 order a bridge between the counties of Tipperary 
 and Clare, when " he left his guard to refresh 
 themselves, and rode so hard that he spoiled 
 many horses and hazarded some of the men ; 
 but he was so diligent in the public service, and 
 so careless of every thing that belonged to him- 
 self, that he never regarded what food or clothes 
 he used, what hour he went to rest, or what 
 horse he mounted." The hardships and fatigues 
 endured by the deputy and his officers are co- 
 1 Ludlow, 159.
 
 170 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 
 
 piously described by Ludlow, who was himself 
 aflPected by the plague raging in Limerick, which 
 the army were then besieging. After several 
 days' hard riding among bogs and over rocks in 
 the county of Limerick, making reconnoissances, 
 and ordering garrisons and winter quarters for 
 his troops, Ireton was exposed to a violent 
 storm of wind, rain, and snow, by which he took 
 cold, and was seized with illness on his return to 
 his quarters. He, however, refused to go to bed 
 till he had determined a cause that was before 
 him, as president of a court-martial, upon an officer 
 accused of doing some violence to the Irish. Lud- 
 low, after an absence of a few days, returned to 
 him, and found him " grown worse, having been 
 let blood, and sweating exceedingly, with a burn- 
 ing fever at the same time. Yet, for all this, he 
 ceased not to apply himself to the public business, 
 settling garrisons, and distributing winter quar- 
 ters. I endeavoured to persuade him, as I had 
 often done before, that his immoderate labours 
 for his country would much impair, if not utterly 
 destroy him : but he had so totally neglected 
 himself during the siege of Limerick, not putting 
 off his clothes all that time, except to change his 
 linen, that the malignant humours which he had 
 contracted, wanting room to perspire, became 
 confined to his body, and rendered him more 
 liable to be infected by the contagion." He 
 insisted on Ludlow leaving him, in order to meet 
 his own family, who were then arriving at Dublin. 
 In two days afterwards Ireton died of the plague, 
 on the 26th of November, 1657, at the age of 41. 
 The tidings of his death, according to Whit-
 
 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETOX. 171 
 
 lock, Struck a great sadness into Cromwell; and 
 Ludlow says he " was universally lamented by 
 all good men ; more especially because the public 
 was thereby deprived of a most faithful, able, 
 and useful servant." Mrs. Hutchinson, in al- 
 luding to the ambitious views of Cromwell, which 
 had ripened after the battle of Worcester, men- 
 tions that Ireton " would not be wrought to serve 
 him, but hearing of his machinations, determined 
 to come over to England to endeavour to divert 
 him from such destructive courses; but God 
 cut him short by death," &c.i We are not aware 
 that this intention of Ireton is mentioned by any 
 other writer ; but from the intimacy and relation- 
 ship which existed between Ireton and Colonel 
 Hutchinson, they were doubtless in correspond- 
 ence as to public affairs, and Colonel Hutchinson 
 alone might be in possession of Ireton's secret in- 
 tentions. Wliitlock regrets Ireton's death, on 
 account of the influence he had over the mind of 
 Cromwell ; and there can be no doubt (as Claren- 
 don seems to think) that, whether he had formed 
 any intentions or not in his lifetime, he must, 
 if he had lived, and if Cromwell had pursued the 
 same course, have joined with Ludlow, Harrison, 
 and the other republicans^ in opposing that selfish 
 ambition which threatened destruction to all their 
 favourite schemes of government. It is remark- 
 able, that, only two days after Cromwell received 
 the news of Ireton's death, he opened a con- 
 ference with some of the leading members of 
 the house, on the question ivhether tJiey would 
 1 Memoirs, p. 328,
 
 172 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 
 
 establish in England a republic or a government 
 of mixed monarchy.^ 
 
 The remains of Ireton were, by order of the 
 house, and by desire of Cromwell, transported 
 to England, where they lay in state at Somerset 
 House, and were then interred with much pomp, 
 at the public expense, in Henry the Seventh's 
 Chapel in Westminster Abbey; Cromwell walk- 
 ing as chief mourner, attendetl by many mem- 
 bers of the house dressed in black. The cele- 
 brated John Goodwin, Dean of Christ Church, 
 preached his funeral sermon, on the text in 
 the 12th chapter of Daniel, verse 13th : — " But 
 go thou thy way till the end be : for thou shalt 
 rest, and stand in the lot at the endof the'days." 
 Anthony Wood says, " Elegies were made on his 
 death ;" and a splendid monument, with a relief 
 representing himself and his wife, was placed 
 on his grave in the Abbey. These pompous 
 obsequies of his son-in-law were among the 
 indications, more or less distinct, which now 
 appeared of the aspiring views of Cromwell. 
 Ludlow says, with a mournful eloquence, that, 
 " if Ireton could have foreseen what was done, 
 he would certainly have made it his desire that 
 his body might have found a grave where his 
 soul left it. So much did he despise those 
 pompous and expensive vanities ; having erected 
 for himself a more glorious monument in the 
 hearts of good men, by his affection to his coun- 
 try, his abilities of mind, his impartial justice, 
 
 ' Whitlock, who was present, describes the conference 
 fully : and see i)ost, in the Memoir of Harrison.
 
 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 173 
 
 his diligence in the public service, and his other 
 virtues ; which were a far greater honour to his 
 memory than a dormitory amongst the ashes of 
 kings." ^ Ireton was a consistent democrat and 
 cynic, and would doubtless have despised the 
 honours bestowed on his remains as much as he 
 hated living kings ; but Ludlow's unqualified 
 panegyric will be approved by few who reflect on 
 the bloody act which stands conspicuous in the 
 history of Ireton's conduct. Cromwell, who ap- 
 pears before this time to have neglected Colonel 
 Hutchinson, probably knowing him to be a deter- 
 mined republican, not reconcileable to his ow n pro- 
 jects, omitted to send him mourning, or an invit- 
 ation to his kinsman's funeral ; which the Colonel, 
 according to his wife's account, seems to have re- 
 sented with some littleness of mind : — " Such was 
 the flattery of many pitiful Lords, and other gen- 
 tlemen parasites, that they put themselves into 
 deepe mourning ; but Colonel Hutchinson, that 
 day, put on a scarlett cloak very richly laced, 
 such as he usually wore, and coming into the 
 room where the members were, seeing some of 
 the Lords in mourning, he went to them to en- 
 quire the cause ; who told him, they had put it on 
 to honour the General ; and asked why he, that 
 was a kinsman, was in such a different colour ? 
 He told them, because the General had neglected 
 sending to him, when he had sent to so many 
 that had no alliance, only to make up the train ; 
 he was resolved he would not flatter so much 
 as to buy for himself, although he was a true 
 mourner in his heart for his cousin, whom he 
 1 Memoirs, p. 164.
 
 IT^ MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 
 
 had ever loved, and would therefore go and take 
 his place among the mourners. This he did, and 
 went into the room where the close mourners 
 were, who, seeing him come in as different from 
 mourning as he could make himself, the Alder- 
 man 1 came to him, making a great apology," &c. 
 Mrs. Hutchinson adds: — " Cromwell, who had 
 ordered all things, was peeked horribly at it, 
 though he dissembled his resentment at that 
 time," &c. Ireton's costly tomb in the Abbey 
 could not preserve his body from that ven- 
 geance which, M-hether well or ill judged, must 
 be anticipated by men who have outraged hu- 
 manity by staining their hands with the blood 
 of their sovereign. At the restoration it was 
 disinterred, exposed on a gibbet at Tyburn, the 
 trunk thrown into a pit, and the head set upon a 
 pole. 
 
 Ireton has naturally shared the fate which 
 belongs to all men who act so conspicuous a part 
 in the transactions of an eventful and passionate 
 period of history. He has been unsparingly 
 abused by the royalists and presbyterians, and 
 as vehemently extolled by the independents and 
 republicans. Some of the charges against him 
 are certainly groundless. Clarendon insinuates 
 more than once that he was wanting in courage; 
 saying, that Hollis, " one day upon a hot debate, 
 and some rude expressions that fell from the 
 Colonel, challenged him to fight ;" and that, " Ire- 
 ton replying that his conscience would not allow 
 him to fight a duel, Holhs pulled his nose, telling 
 
 1 John Ireton, Alderman of London, and Henry Ireton's 
 brother.
 
 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 175 
 
 him, that if his conscience would keep him from 
 giving men satisfaction, it should keep him from 
 provoking them ;" a rule, certainly, which ought to 
 be most strictly observed by all persons who, on 
 the ground of religion, refuse a compliance with 
 the existing usages of society. Even supposing 
 this account were correct, still Ireton's conduct 
 at Naseby, at Gainsborough, in Nottinghamshire, 
 at Colchester, and in Ireland, would be sufficient 
 to place his courage beyond all doubt. ButHollis, 
 in his Memoirs, which are certainly not wanting 
 in bitterness against Ireton and Cromwell, does 
 not hint at the affair. Clarendon wrote as to it 
 only from hearsay ; while Ludlow, who was a 
 member of the house, speaking of the same 
 transaction, says, " that several members, ob- 
 serving the quarrel, sent the Serjeant-at-arms to 
 command HoUis and Ireton to attend ; when he 
 found them taking boat to go to the other side 
 of the water ; and on their return to the house 
 they were compelled to give promises to for- 
 bear all acts of hostility to each other." ^ 
 
 The skill and capacity of Ireton as a mili- 
 tary man have never been questioned. Indeed, 
 the officer whom Cromwell selected to be either 
 near himself, or, when absent, to be intrusted 
 with the most difficult posts during the war, — 
 whom Fairfax relied on, and Hutchinson, Har- 
 rison, and Ludlow admired, — must obviously 
 have been a man of no common capacity in the 
 affairs of war. Whitlock, in his famous speech 
 in defence of his own profession, when some 
 
 • This account of the matter is confirmed by Mrs. 
 Hutchinson, and by the Journals of the House of Commons.
 
 176 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 
 
 member proposed to exclude lawyers from par- 
 liament, mentions Ireton as one of the distin- 
 guished instances of services of the sword ren- 
 dered to the state by lawyers, who had laid aside 
 the gown when called upon by their country. 
 Nor are his abilities as a politician and negotiator 
 matter of doubt. He was the chosen associate 
 and instrument of Cromwell in governing the 
 council of officers, in duping and ruling the 
 agitators and soldiers, in negotiating with the 
 King, and in secretly directing the influence of 
 the independents and republicans in the parlia- 
 ment. The numerous papers drawn up by him on 
 behalf of the army display much sagacity, acute- 
 ness, and forethought, and a skilful command 
 of language. His management of the civil affairs 
 of Ireland is highly praised by Ludlow, and ad- 
 mitted to be vigorous and efficient by his enemy, 
 Clarendon. This historian says, " Others thought 
 his parts lay more towards civil affairs, and were 
 fitter for the modelling of that government (a 
 republic) which his heart was set upon, (being a 
 scholar, conversant in the law, and in all those 
 authors who had expressed the greatest animosity 
 and malice against the regal government,) than 
 for the conduct of an army to support it." He 
 preserved strict discipline in the army, and ri- 
 gorously administered what he deemed justice 
 towards the Irish and his own officers. In one 
 instance, a boat full of soldiers, moved either by 
 fear or a promise of life, surrendered to the 
 English; notwithstanding which, some of them 
 were put to the sword. Ireton was much troubled 
 at this severity, considering that they would not
 
 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETOX. 177 
 
 have quitted their means of preservation except 
 upon some terms of advantage. He directed a 
 strict enquiry into the matter by a court-martial, 
 and the Colonel who had ordered the execution 
 was cashiered. An obstinate adherence to his 
 own purposes and resolutions was a conspicuous 
 feature in Ireton's character. Clarendon says 
 " he was of a melancholick, reserved, dark nature, 
 who communicated his thoughts to very few ; so 
 that, for the most part, he resolved alone, but 
 was never diverted from any resolution he had 
 taken ; and he was thought often, by his ob- 
 stinacy, to prevail over Cromwell himself." Ac- 
 cording to Ludlow, in his latter years he was cured 
 of this extreme pertinacity, which had been his 
 greatest infirmity. — That Ireton, as well as his 
 father-in-law, made abundant use of hypocrisy, 
 and every art of perfidious deception in their 
 dealings with the King, the parliament, and the 
 army, is a fact beyond contradiction. Consider- 
 able mystery and doubt obscure their proceed- 
 ings, from the King's seizure by the army to his 
 flight to the Isle of Wight. If they were sincere 
 in the professions which they then made of a 
 desire to restore Charles, they grossly deceived 
 the officers and agitators of the army ; if these 
 professions were only intended to lull the King 
 and the royalists to sleep, they were treacherous 
 to the King and his friends ; if, as seems pro- 
 bable (-though more so as to Cromwell than to 
 Ireton), they played the game of working out 
 their own safety and power by dexterous ma- 
 nagement, and by a readiness to side with that 
 party which should preponderate, there is little
 
 J78 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 
 
 doubt that they alternately duped and deceived 
 the King, the republicans, and the soldiers, as the 
 circumstances and intrigues of the day demanded. 
 Mr. Godwin, their admirer, offers an apology 
 for their conduct, which resolves itself into the 
 worn-out casuistry, that they conceived the ends 
 they sought sanctified the means which they used. 
 " Having once sworn to deceive, the dimensions 
 of their minds enabled them immediately to 
 stand forth accomplished and entire adepts in 
 the school of Machiavel. They were satisfied 
 that the system they adopted was just, and they 
 felt no jot of humiliation and self-abasement in 
 the systematical pursuit of it." We are aware 
 that the essence of such an excuse is, not that 
 the objects at which they aimed were, in fact, 
 iust and righteous, but that they conscientiously 
 believed them to be so. But in judging of such 
 obliquities of proceeding, the world are ever 
 tempted to ask, what, in truth, were the ends 
 which were thus deemed sufficient to justify the 
 departure from all morality and honesty of pro- 
 ceeding ? No one can deny, that selfish ambition 
 and personal aggrandisement entered largely into 
 the objects of Cromw^ell. We acquit Ireton of 
 selfish and personal views. Ireton played the 
 dark and accomplished hypocrite, as he afterwards 
 became the bloody regicide, in order to realise 
 his vain dream of erecting a political and religious 
 republic on the ruins of the monarchy and hier- 
 archy of England. 
 
 We have seen Clarendon's charge against 
 Ireton, of being bloody ^ and unmerciful. Lord 
 
 1 Sir Philip Warwick, who of course hated him as the 
 enemy of the King, says " he died in a delirium, cry-
 
 MEMOIR OF HENRY IRETON. 179 
 
 Broghill, a licentious soldier of fortune, says that 
 when he marched against a certain barony in 
 Ireland, " he gave orders to kill man, woman, 
 and child," and said that the Irish " did not de- 
 serve to live;" but he admits that his own ex- 
 postulations induced Ireton to relax these severe 
 orders. Ireton, in giving them, acted on the no- 
 tion that the Irish were a conquered people 
 rebelling against their governors, and waging 
 exterminating war against all Protestants. When 
 Limerick surrendered to Ireton after a long 
 siege, twenty-two persons of influence in the 
 city were excepted out of the capitulation ; and 
 of these, five, including the Mayor, the Catholic 
 bishop, an incendiary friar, and the deputy go- 
 vernor, were executed by order of a court-martial, 
 of which Ireton, Ludlow, and others, were mem- 
 bers. The governor, O'Neal, saved his life by 
 showing that he had earnestly recommended a 
 timely surrender of the city. This proceeding, 
 though severe, was, according to Ludlow, the act 
 of all the members of the court-martial, adopted 
 after great consideration, and an attentive hearing 
 of each prisoner. It derives some palliation from 
 the peculiar circumstances of the country, and 
 the cruelties which had been committed on the 
 English by the rebellious Irish ; it is certainly 
 not to be compared for injustice and hardship with 
 the execution of Lord Derby and the other pri- 
 soners after the battle of Worcester, or with the 
 shooting of Lucas and Lisle, at Colchester, under 
 the orders of Fairfax. Cook (the regicide conn- 
 ing out, Blood ! blood ! blood / " As if this proved any thing 
 as to liis ferocity of character. 
 
 N 2
 
 180 MEMOIR OF JOHN BRADSHAW. 
 
 sel) extols Iretoii as " a patron, father, and hus- 
 band to the fatherless and widow;" and Whitlock, 
 a much more unobjectionable witness, gives him 
 credit for humanity. His rule was undoubtedly 
 rigid and despotic in Ireland ; but the circum- 
 stances of that unfortunate country seem to 
 have required it. His severe character inchned 
 him to stern discipline, and to an uncompro- 
 mising execution of justice on all who offended; 
 but there is little evidence of his showing any 
 disposition to wanton and gratuitous cruelty ; and 
 the instances before cited evince that his stern 
 nature could at times relent under the influence 
 of compassion. 
 
 MEMOIR OF JOHN BRADSHAW. 
 
 John Bradshaw, the President of the Court 
 which condemned Charles, was of a respectable 
 gentleman's famil}^, settled at Marple, in Cheshire, 
 and was baptized at Stockport, on the 16th of 
 December, 1602. He was the son of Henry 
 Bradshaw, of Marple and Wyberslegh. His grand- 
 father, Henry Bradshaw, first purchased those 
 considerable estates from Sir Edmund Stanley, 
 knight of the Bath, a few years after John Brad- 
 shaw's birth. Bradshaw received his school edu- 
 cation at Bunbury, in Cheshire, and Middleton, 
 in Lancashire ; as he was the youngest son of his 
 father he was articled to an attorney at Congle- 
 ton, and afterwards entered as a student of law 
 in Gray's Inn, where he appears diligently
 
 MEMOIR OF JOHN BRADSHAW. 181 
 
 to have studied his profession, i Clarendon says 
 " his fortune was of his own making," and that 
 at the time of his being appointed President 
 of the Court " he was not much known in West- 
 minster Hall, though of good practice in his 
 chamber, and much employed by the factious. 
 He was not without parts, and of great insolence 
 and ambition." He was associated 2 with the 
 famous William Prynne and Mr. Nudigate, as 
 counsel appointed by the parliament to prosecute 
 Lord Maguire and Hugh Ogee Macmahon, in 164'5, 
 for their treason and massacre in attempting to 
 seize Dublin Castle, and destroy the Lords Jus- 
 tices and council. But he appears to have acted 
 only as a junior counsel among many, for his 
 name is not mentioned in the report of the trial ; 
 and the great question in the cause as to Lord 
 Maguire' s liability as an Irish peer to be tried 
 for treason in the English Court of King's Bench, 
 and not by his peers in Ireland, was successfully 
 argued by Prynne (with a triumphant display of 
 learning and pedantic zeal), and by Serjeant Rolle 
 (afterwards Chief Justice), for the Crown, and by 
 Hale (afterwards Sir Matthew) and Twisden 
 (afterwards ar Judge of the King's Bench) for 
 the prisoners. In 1646, Bradshaw, by a vote of 
 the Commons, in which the peers were desired 
 to acquiesce, was joined with Sir Rowland 
 Wandesford and Sir Thomas Bedingfield, as 
 Commissioners of the Great Seal for six months ; 
 
 1 The books of Gray's Inn do not give any traces of 
 Bradshaw, as they are not complete further back than the 
 Restoration. 
 
 '^ Whitlock's Memorials. 
 
 N 3
 
 182 MEMOIR OF JOHN BRADSHAW, 
 
 and in February, 164:6-7, he had sufficient in- 
 fluence to procure his appointment by both 
 houses as Chief Justice of Chester, — a situation 
 peculiarly agreeable to him, from its connection 
 with his native county. 
 
 In June, 164*7, Bradshaw, together with Oliver 
 St. John, the Solicitor-General, Serjeant Jermyn, 
 and Prj^nne, was ordered by the Commons to 
 prosecute the aged, intrepid, and learned cham- 
 pion of royalty, Judge Jenkins, who had been 
 committed to the Tower for his adherence to 
 the King ; who had refused to kneel when 
 brought to the bar of the house ; and who 
 constantly exposed in his writings, with legal 
 learning and acumen, the want of all legitimate 
 authority in the two houses without the King. 
 Bradshaw's nomination for this business, jointly 
 with these other eminent counsel, shows that 
 he was then in some estimation as a lawyer ; for 
 the loyal old Judge was not less formidable by his 
 knowledge, than by his invincible courage, to 
 the parliament, and the parliamentary lawyers 
 of the day. The House of Commons, among 
 other royal functions, at this period usurped that 
 of ordering calls of Serjeants at law; and in 
 October. 1648, Bradshaw, together with Sir 
 Thomas Widdrington (afterwards Keeper of the 
 Great Seal), Sir Thomas Bedingfield, Mr. Keblc, 
 and Mr. Thorp (one of the King's pretended 
 Judges, who refused to sit), was by order of the 
 two houses called to the degree of the coif.i 
 
 Though Bradshaw was a man of some talents 
 
 1 These Seijeants do not find a place in Dugdale's 
 Chronica Series, who does not deign to notice any legal ap-
 
 MKMOIR OF JOHN BRADSHAW. 183 
 
 and professional knowledge, and had attained to 
 some distinction among his party, even according 
 to Clarendon, yet circumstances contributed quite 
 as much as any merits of his own to raise him to 
 the " bad eminence "of trying his sovereign. The 
 Judges of the realm (headed by the learned Rolle, 
 Chief Justice of England, and St. John, Chief 
 Justice of the Common Pleas) positively declined 
 to be parties to the proceeding. Prynne,Widdring- 
 ton, Whitlock, Maynard, and all the parliamenta- 
 rian lawyers kept aloof. It was first determined 
 that Bradshaw, Serjeant Nicholas, and Steel, 
 should be " assistaiits " only. The two latter, 
 however, made excuses for non-attendance. Of 
 eight lawyers who were named commissioners in 
 the ordinance constituting the court only four ever 
 sat on the trial ; viz. Bradshaw, Miles Corbet, and 
 Bradshaw's two assistants or assessors, Say and 
 Lisle. That the President should be a practical 
 lawyer was obviously expedient ; and Bradshaw 
 was the most eminent and efficient of the few des- 
 perate members of the long robe who would con- 
 sent to partake the guilt of the proceeding. Milton, 
 in his extravagant panegyric on his kinsman and 
 republican friend, says, " Tandem uti Regis judicio 
 praesidere vellet, a Senatu rogatus, provinciam 
 sane periculosissimam non recusavit." Bradshaw 
 was certainly an intrepid as well as an ambitious 
 man; and any remote dangers which were likely 
 to attend the part he was going to act were, 
 
 pointments after 1 645 ; inscribing his subsequent pages in 
 large letters, " Dominante Perduellione Justilium.'" Wid- 
 drington and Bedingfield were again called Serjeants by the 
 King's Writ at the Restoration. 
 N 4-
 
 1S4' MEMOIR OF JOHN BRADSHAW. 
 
 no doubt, soon thrown into shade in his mind 
 by tlie dazzling dignity of Lord President of the 
 High Court of Justice, the Deanery House at 
 Westminster for a permanent residence, 5000/. for 
 outfit, a seat in the council of state, and 4000/. 
 per annum in land, which the house voted to be 
 settled on him and his heirs. The lands were 
 those plundered from the Earl of St. Alban's and 
 the Lord Cottington, and an exact survey was 
 ordered to be made of them. In six months after 
 the King's death Bradshaw was also appointed 
 Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, — a place 
 which the Parliament had determined to abolish, 
 but which was retained solely to reward his pre- 
 eminent merits. 
 
 Clarendon (who, however, only speaks from 
 report) says he " with great humility accepted 
 the office of President, which he administered 
 with all the pride, impudence, and supercili- 
 ousness imaginable.'' Milton loads his con- 
 duct with a splendid but vague and hyperbolical 
 eulogy. " For he brought to the study of the 
 law an enlightened capacity, a lofty spirit, and 
 spotless manners, obnoxious to none ; so that 
 he filled that high and unexampled office, ren- 
 dered the more dangerous by the threats and 
 daggers^ of private assassins with a firmness, a 
 gravity, a dignity, and presence of mind, as if he 
 had been designed and created by the Deity ex- 
 pressly for this work, which God in his wonder- 
 
 1 Bradshaw's " broad brimmed hat," which was a thick 
 high-crowned beaver lined with plated steel, was worn as a 
 protection in case of violence. It was sent by D/. Blisse, 
 preacher at the Rolls, to the Museum at Oxford. 3 Ken- 
 nett's Comp. Hist. 181. note (a). (Second edition).
 
 MEMOIR OF JOHN BRADSHAW. 185 
 
 ful providence had appointed to be done in this 
 nation, and by so much eclipsed the glory of all 
 former tyrannicides, by how much it is more 
 humane, more just, and more majestic, to try 
 a tyrant than to slay him untried. '" It is re- 
 markable that Ludlow, who sat every day on the 
 trial, and who shortly relates the course of the 
 proceedings, does not bestow a single epithet of 
 approbation or description on the President's 
 conduct in his office. Judging from the report 
 of the trial, we think that Clarendon's epithets 
 are not less warranted by the audacity of Brad- 
 shaw in accepting the office, than by the peculiar 
 manner in which he discharged its functions. 
 He seems to have acted fully up to the extra- 
 ordinary part he had assumed, and for which his 
 friend Milton thought him peculiarly created. 
 He had consented to be President and organ of 
 an assembly met without authority either from 
 the constitution or the nation, to act the part of 
 Judges of their vanquished King, and to prepare 
 the w ay for his destruction ; and he shrunk not 
 from executing a lawless function with all the 
 bullying effrontery and cold-hearted insolence, 
 which it demanded of him. The difficulties of 
 the office certainly required to be met by much 
 talent, judgment, and readiness, and, above all, 
 by an impenetrable assurance. This last quality 
 almost alone is remarkable in the conduct and 
 speeches of Bradshaw, which exhibit ^ew traces 
 either of well applied learning, of acuteness, or of 
 that eloquence which Milton extolled. His la- 
 
 1 Secunda Dtfensio pro Populo Anglicano. Milton's 
 Prose Works, vol. ii.
 
 186 MEMOIR OF JOHN BRADSHAW. 
 
 boured address to the King on pronouncing 
 sentence is pedantic, sophistical, and canting, 
 without the redeeming qualities of ingenuity 
 of reasoning, or felicity of elocution. When 
 we compare Bradshaw's harangues with the 
 speeches and legal arguments of Whitlock, St. 
 John, Hale, Prynne, and other lawyers of the day, the 
 regicide Judge makes but an insignificant figure. 
 Noblei says, that Bradshaw was offended that his 
 Sovereign should not be uncovered in his pre- 
 sence. " The offence was pardoned the first day 
 of the King's appearance, but order was taken 
 respecting it in future." This is wholly in- 
 accurate ; for it was expressly resolved in the 
 Painted Chamber before the trial, not to insist on 
 the King's taking off his hat; and Charles re- 
 mained covered during every day of the trial, 
 as well as the President. The King's rejection 
 of the authority of the Court was a cause much 
 more likely to gall the pride of Bradshaw and 
 his accomplices : while the manifest superior- 
 ity of Charles in argument, and the expressions 
 of sympathy shown to him by the audience, were 
 well calculated to exasperate the temper of his 
 Judges. 
 
 Bradshaw's office did not expire with the com- 
 pletion of the wickedness for which it was erected, 
 — and he was also immediately elected by the 
 Commons one of the Executive Council of State of 
 Forty, who were appointed to carry on the govern- 
 ment, when the King and the House of Peers were 
 voted to be useless, dangerous, and burdensome. 
 
 Bradshaw was the only member not of the 
 1 Lives of the Recricides, vol. i.
 
 MEMOIR OF JOIFN BRADSHAW. ] 87 
 
 House of Commons, unless, perhaps, we except 
 RoUe, St. John, and Wild (formerly Serjeant 
 Wild), the three Chief Judges. At first, the 
 Council had a different President at each sit- 
 ting; but on the 16th of March, Bradshaw was 
 appointed permanent President ; which, con- 
 sidering that Whitlock, St. John, Rolle, Vane, 
 Haslerig, besides five peers, were members, (we 
 reckon nothing of the lesser herd of regicides 
 who had sat as mutes in the mock trial at West- 
 minster, and who now became State Counsellors,) 
 certainly shows the consideration he enjoyed 
 among his party. Milton, who was three days 
 later appointed Secretary for foreign tongues, to 
 the Council (that body having decreed that they 
 would neither write to other states, nor receive 
 answers, but in that tongue which was fittest to 
 record great things / ^ ) of course extols the 
 stateman-like qualities of his kinsman the Pre- 
 sident and Mr. Godwin naturally follows him. 
 But Whitlock, who was an acute judge, and a 
 a member of the Council, says Bradshaw seemed 
 but little versed in such business, and spent much 
 of the members' time " in urging his own long 
 arguments, which are inconvenient in state mat- 
 ters. His part was only to have gathered the 
 sense of the Council, and to state the question, 
 not to deliver his own opinion." He, however, 
 remained President in the Councils of 164-9, 1650, 
 and 1651, and was a member of the com- 
 mittees on the law and for examinations. Mr. 
 Godwin 2 says — " Bradshaw, by his office, was 
 
 1 Toland's Life of Milton. 2 Vol. iii. p. 185.
 
 188 MEMOIR OF JOHN BRADSHAW. 
 
 in some measure the first man in the nation. ^ He 
 was to receive foreign ambassadors, and to repre- 
 sent, in his own person, upon occasions of public 
 solemnity, the executive government of the 
 Commonwealth of England." In the third year 
 of the Commonwealth he applied to resign his 
 office ; but, as he states it, " could not obtain that 
 favour." In the fourth year the mode of pro- 
 ceeding was altered, and the office of President 
 was appointed to continue only for one month 
 of twenty-eight days ; Bradshaw was the first 
 President, commencing on the 1st of December, 
 1652; and he was followed in the office by 
 "VV'Tiitlock, Haslerig, Lord Lisle, John Lisle (the 
 regicide), Chief Justice Rolle, Sir Henry Vane, 
 Lord Pembroke, &c. 
 
 Bradshaw was a stern republican, who, having 
 destroyed his legitimate sovereign, had no incli- 
 nation to submit to an usurper ; agreeing with his 
 friend Henry Marten, that " if they were to be 
 governed by a single person, Charles was as proper 
 a gentleman for it as any in the kingdom." As 
 Cromwell's ambitious views matured themselves, 
 it was natural, therefore, that a cordial disgust 
 should grow up between the usurper and the Lord 
 President. — Bradshaw saw with hatred the pro- 
 iects of a powerful man threatening to eclipse his 
 own consequence, and to crumble to dust the fabric 
 of government which he had mainly contributed 
 
 1 When Evelyn went to France in April, 1649, he says 
 he " f;ot a passe from the rebell Bradshawe, then in great 
 power," but that he found silver quite as useful to him at 
 Dover as Bradshaw's hand and seal. — Diary.
 
 MEMOIR OF JOHN BRADSHAW. 189 
 
 to raise : and Cromwell knew the impracticable 
 character of the President too well to hope to 
 cajole him by his wonted hypocrisy, or to gain 
 him by his rare art of persuasion. It was 
 clear that a violent breach must take place be- 
 tween these two remarkable men ; and it occur- 
 red in April, 165S, on the day on which Cromwell 
 forcibly broke up the sittino^ of the Long Parlia- 
 ment. After Oliver, with Harrison and his 
 troopers, had seized the " bauble," the mace, 
 driven out the members, and locked the doors 
 of the house, he made his appearance in plain 
 black clothes, with grey worsted stockings, at- 
 tended by Lambert and Harrison, at the Council 
 of State at Whitehall. Bond's month of pre- 
 sidency had just expired, and Bradshaw was in 
 the chair of the Republic. Cromwell entered the 
 Council Chamber, and addressed the members : 
 " Gentlemen, if )^ou are met here as private per- 
 sons, you shall not be disturbed : but if as a 
 Council of State, this is no place for you : and 
 since you cannot but know what was done in the 
 morning, so take notice that the parliament is dis- 
 solved." Bradshaw intrepidly answered, — " Sir, 
 we have heard what you did at the house in the 
 morning, and before many hours all England will 
 hear it ; — but. Sir, you are mistaken to think 
 that the parliament is dissolved : for no power 
 under heaven can dissolve them but themselves; 
 therefore take you notice of that." After some 
 words to the same purpose from Sir Arthur Ha- 
 slerig, Mr. Love, and Mr. Scot, the Council, per- 
 ceiving themselves to be under the same violence
 
 190 MEMOIR OF JOHN BRADSHAW, 
 
 as the House, broke up and withdrew.^ The 
 closing scene of the English Monarchy has been 
 depicted in the foregoing pages. This was the 
 last act of the first English Republic. To Brad- 
 shaw, who had performed the principal part in de- 
 stroying royalty, it devolved to make the last 
 expiring protest on behalf of the Commonwealth. 
 Mr. Godwin, who has described this scene with a 
 sorrowful enthusiasm, worthy of Bradshaw or Ire- 
 ton themselves says, " Perhaps no man was ever 
 placed in so illustrious a situation as that which 
 Bradshaw occupied at this moment ***** — 
 Cromwell was backed by all his guards, and by 
 an army of the highest discipline, and the most 
 undaunted and prosperous character. Bradshaw 
 appeared before him in the simple robe of his 
 integrity. The Lord General was the most reso- 
 lute of men, and who could least endure an idle 
 show of opposition. The parade of contradiction, 
 and the pomp of declamation, would have been 
 useless. A few words — a brief and concentred 
 remonstrance — were enough. They were uttered, 
 and Cromwell ventured on no reply. Abashed 
 the traitor stood ! " 
 
 Neither in the new Convention or Parliament, 
 (which went by the name of Praise God Bar- 
 bone's), nor in Cromwell's new Council of State, 
 was Bradshaw's name to be found ; though we 
 find it inserted among the thirty-three com- 
 missioners of the new High Court of Justice, 
 which was erected on the 10th of August, 1653, 
 for trial of the persons who were conspiring 
 to bring ' in Charles the Second : but Heath 
 I Ludlow, p. 195.
 
 MEMOIR OF JOHN BRADSHAW. 191 
 
 says Lisle was made President, Bradshaw, as 
 a great Commonwealth-man, and enemy to a 
 single person, being laid aside ; and it does not 
 appear that he ever consented to sit. Cromwell 
 now, to the great disgust of Bradshaw, and 
 his friends Ludlow, Scot, Haslerig, and other 
 friends of a republic, had secured his road to the 
 throne of England, with the title of Lord Pro- 
 tector. Barbone's convention, influenced by 
 the manoeuvres of Cromwell and his creatures, 
 Whalley, Sydenham, and other officers of the 
 army, went with the Speaker, Rous (who had 
 been Provost of Eton), to Whitehall, and for- 
 mally surrendered up their authority to the 
 usurper. Cromwell presented his new " instru- 
 ment of government," and was sworn in as Lord 
 Protector in the Court of Chancery, in the pre- 
 sence of the Judges, Council, Commissioners of 
 the Seal, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, and the 
 Generals and other officers. He was proclaimed 
 throughout the kingdom ; and all writs were 
 altered from the name of the " Keepers of the 
 liberties of England " to that of " Protector." Lud- 
 low, who had a command in Ireland, states that he 
 hindered the proclaiming of him for a fortnight in 
 that country ; and when it was carried by one 
 in the Council, he refused still to sign the order. 
 And in speaking )f the ceremony, he says discon- 
 tentedly, '• the artillery, which was at the com- 
 mand of Lieutenant-General Fleetwood (Crom- 
 welfs son-in-law), wasted some powder belonging 
 to the public, the report of which was very 
 unwelcome music to me, who, desiring to be as 
 far from this pageantry as I could, rode out of the
 
 192 MEMOIR OF JOHN BRADSHAW. 
 
 town that afternoon." i The new Protector dined, 
 amidst regal splendour, with the citizens at Gro- 
 cers' Hall ; and, as a first act of royal grace, knighted 
 Viner the Lor(f Mayor. He acted the part of 
 King in all its details ; received the sword from 
 the Mayor and Aldermen at Temple Bar, and 
 graciously returned it. He was harangued by 
 the Recorder ; and the Lord Mayor bareheaded 
 rode with the sword before him through the city. 
 The people did not perform equally well the part 
 of subjects ; for they gazed in stupid wonder and 
 silence, entirely withholding those cheers and 
 greetings which they had on all such occasions 
 bestowed on their legitimate monarchs. 
 
 According to the promise contained in the 
 instrument of government, writs were now issued 
 for electing a parliament ; and notwithstanding 
 Cromwell's party " endeavoured to promote the 
 election of such as would concur in adoring the 
 idol lately set up," Bradshaw, together with 
 Haslerig, Scot, and other republican malcon- 
 tents, were returned members.- This jjarliament 
 met on Sunday the 3d of September, 1654-5, 
 having first twice attended divine service with 
 the Protector in Westminster Abbey. When 
 they had assembled to the number of 300, Lam- 
 bert came and informed them the Protector 
 was in the Painted Chamber, and required their 
 presence; the members, notwithstanding some 
 cried " Sit still ^" adjourned to comply with his 
 Highness's pleasure. Cromwell received them 
 
 1 Page 204. 
 
 - Bradshaw appears to have been returned tor Cheshire. 
 
 3 Introduction to Burton's Diary.
 
 MEMOIR OF JOHN BRADSHAW. 193 
 
 Standing bareheaded, on a throne raised for the 
 purpose, and with a short speech dismissed them 
 to meet for business on the following day. On 
 the next day they met at the Abbey, the Pro- 
 tector being attended with three maces and the 
 sword of state, which was carried by General 
 Lambert. " Some hundreds of gentlemen and 
 officers,"says Wliitlock, " went before, bare, with 
 the lifeguards, and next before the coach his 
 pages and lacqueys richly clothed. On the one 
 side of the coach went Strickland, one of the 
 council and Captain of his guard, with the Master 
 of the Ceremonies, both on foot. On the other 
 side went Howard, Captain of the Lifeguards. 
 In the coach with him was his son Henry, and 
 Lambert ; both sat bare. After him came Clay- 
 pole, Master of the Horse, with a gallant led 
 horse, richly trapped. Next came the Commis- 
 sioners of the Great Seal and of the Treasury, 
 and divers of the Council in coaches, and the 
 ordinary guards. He alighting at the Abbey 
 door, the officers of the army and the gentlemen 
 went first ; next them, four maces : then the 
 Commissioners of the Seal, I carrying the purse ; 
 after, Lambert, carrying the sword, bare ; the 
 rest followed. His Highness was seated over 
 against the pulpit, and the members on both 
 sides."! Thomas Goodwin, the famous inde- 
 pendent divine, a fellow of Eton College, and 
 favourite of Cromwell, who made him President 
 of Magdalen College, Oxford, preached the ser- 
 mon. After the sermon the members met Crom- 
 
 1 Memorials, p. 582. 
 O
 
 194 MEMOIR OF JOHN BRADSHAW. 
 
 well in the Painted Chamber, where, according 
 to Whitlock, " he made a large and subtle 
 speech to them," and then they proceeded to 
 elect a Speaker. Bradshaw was put in nomi- 
 nation and warmly supported by the republicans, 
 in opposition to Lenthal, the old Speaker. The 
 latter, however, was re-elected, on account of his 
 great experience and knowledge, and probably as 
 being less disagreeable to the new Protector. 
 After appointing a fast, reading an act against 
 fairs and markets on the Sabbath and other 
 matters, the house adjourned till the next day. 
 
 On Thursday the 7th commenced the memor- 
 able debate, of which it is to be regretted that 
 no detailed report exists, on the vital question, 
 " whether the government by a single person 
 and a parliament should be approved ! " A pre- 
 liminary point was first debated, and carried in 
 the affirmative, viz. that the house should resolve 
 itself into a committee for the debate. On the 
 division on this question Bradshaw and the re- 
 publicans voted with the " Yeas," and Bradshaw 
 was their teller. The great question was then 
 discussed from nine in the morning till seven 
 at night for three successive days. Ludlow^ says, 
 " Bradshaw was very instrumental in opening the 
 eyes of many young members, who never before 
 heard their interest so clearly stated and asserted; 
 so that the Commonwealth party increased daily, 
 and that of the sword lost ground." On Mon- 
 day the 11th, the debate was once more ad- 
 journed at night. Cromwell and his officers 
 resolved that it should never be resumed. The 
 next morning, when the members repaired to the
 
 MEMOIR OF JOHN BRADSilAW. 195 
 
 house, they found the doors locked, guards in the 
 lobby, Commissary-General Whalley had carried 
 away the mace, and they were told they were to 
 attend the Protector shortly in the Painted Cham- 
 ber ! The Speaker and members were to be seen 
 walking up and down Westminster Hall in great 
 confusion, waiting for his arrival. At ten o'clock 
 Cromwell came in his barge from Privy Gardens 
 to Westminster, with his lifeguards, officers, and 
 halberdiers ; and in a speech of an hour and a half 
 duration, explained to them, that before any mem- 
 ber could enter the house again, he must sign a 
 recognition of his authority, engaging not to con- 
 sent to alter the government as it was settled in a 
 sole person and the parliament. The courtiers and 
 officers of the army immediately subscribed the 
 instrument. When the house adjourned at twelve 
 o'clock there were 100 signatures. 
 
 Goddard and the other Norfolk members dined 
 together to hold consultation, and, except three, 
 they all determined to sign, as the best course 
 left to peaceable men in the dreadful perplexities 
 and agitations of the time. Ludlow states, that 
 most of the eminent asserters of liberty withdrew 
 themselves. There is no doubt that Bradshaw 
 was among the number. The house, thus purged 
 after the approved precedents of the time, met 
 again on the 14th of September, and sat till the 
 22d of January; when Cromwell, finding even 
 their very limited freedom of debate offensive, 
 and disgusted that they reserved to themselves 
 the nomination of his successor in the Protectorate, 
 dissolved them in a very uncourteous speech, 
 studded with scriptural allusions. 
 o 2
 
 196 MEMOIR OF JOHN BRADSHAW. 
 
 Bradshaw appears to have been excluded, pro- 
 bably by the contrivances of Cromwell, from 
 sitting in any subsequent parliament. Before 
 the election of that which met on the 17th of 
 September, 1656, Bradshaw, Sir Harry Vane, 
 Colonel Rich, and Ludlow, were summoned 
 b)^ Oliver to attend the Council at Whitehall. 
 Vane coolly told the messenger he should be at 
 his house at Charing Cross on a certain day, if 
 he was wanted. Bradshaw, Rich, and Ludlow, 
 attended. As soon as Cromwell saw Bradshaw, 
 he required him to take out a new commis- 
 sion from him for his office of Chief Justice of 
 Chester. Bradshaw peremptorily refused, alleging 
 that he held his office by a grant from the par- 
 liament quamdiu bene se gesserit, and he was ready 
 to submit his conduct to a trial by any twelve 
 men whom Cromwell should appoint. He then 
 withdrew, and resolved, notwithstanding what 
 had passed, to go the summer circuit as usual, 
 unless prevented by force. Cromwell, unwilling 
 to draw on himself the dislike of the lawj^ers, did 
 not on this occasion, as he did on many others, 
 interrupt the ordinary administration of justice. 
 He allowed Bradshaw to proceed on the circuit ; 
 but v/rote earnest letters to Cheshire, to desire that 
 he might be opposed at the election for the county. 
 One of these came into the hands of Bradshaw's 
 friends, who publicly read it at the election, and 
 Bradshaw was returned by the sheriff a knight for 
 the county. It seems, however, that he never 
 took his seat. 
 
 In 1655, Bradshaw, with Haslerig and other 
 republicans, appears to have been a party to
 
 MEMOIR OF JOHN BRADSHAW. 197 
 
 Colonel Overton's conspiracy against the Pro- 
 tector's government. Overton, the great friend of 
 Milton, who was second in command to Monk in 
 Scotland, was to seize that General's person, and 
 to march with his troops to England, where Ha- 
 slerig, Bradshaw, and others were to join him, 
 and where they were sure of reinforcements from 
 the partisans of Charles the Second. The plot was 
 detected by Cromwell, and Overton was sent to 
 the Tower. Mr. Noble, who is perpetually inac- 
 curate, charges Bradshaw, as well as Lord Grey, 
 with being a party to the plots of Venner and the 
 other mad enthusiasts who aimed at setting up the 
 " fifth monarchy" of our Saviour on earth, sup- 
 ported by themselves and other saints. But there 
 appears no authority for the statement, either as 
 to Bradshaw or Lord Grey. 
 
 After the death of Oliver Cromwell, and the 
 proclamation of Richard as his successor, many 
 of the republicans, wlio still held the Long Par- 
 liament to be in existence, as not having been 
 legally dissolved, met at Sir Harry Vane's, and 
 after mature deliberation resolved that it was 
 both their duty and policy, if fairly elected to 
 the new Protector's parliament, to sit in the as- 
 sembly, and to use their best endeavours to serve 
 the public. Ludlow, Haslerig, Scot, Weaver, 
 &c. were returned, and took their seats. Brad- 
 shaw was returned by the sheriff for the county 
 of Chester ; but in consequence of another person 
 being also returned, he did not sit — at least, 
 during the early sittings ; and we do not find his 
 name as a Speaker in the Protector Richard's 
 Parliament, in Mr. Burton's Diary. He was 
 o 3
 
 198 MEMOIR OF JOHN BRADSHAW. 
 
 appointed by the parliament, soon afterwards, one 
 of the ten members of the new Council of State, 
 not of the House. Fairfax, Lambert, Desborough, 
 Colonel Berry, Sir Ashley Cooper (afterwards 
 Lord Shaftesbury), were also of that number. 
 Soon afterwards, 13radshaw, with Serjeant Foun- 
 tain and Serjeant Tyrrell (afterwards a Judge), 
 were named Commissioners of the Great Seal. 
 He was ordered by the parliament to take the 
 oaths of office on the 21st of June, 1659; but 
 his health having decayed for some time, he 
 begged to be excused the duties of his office, 
 and his attendance was accordingly dispensed 
 with during his illness. Owing to the same 
 cause he did not hold the Spring Assizes at 
 Chester, in 1659, but appointed Ratcliffe, the 
 Re(torder of Chester, his deputy for that oc- 
 casion. 
 
 We have seen Bradshaw's vehement denuncia- 
 tion of Oliver Cromwelfs violent dissolution of 
 the Long Parliament. The last act which we find 
 of his public conduct was in protesting against a 
 similar military outrage committed by Richard 
 Cromwell's generals and officers on the parliament 
 in his reign. The officers of the army assembled at 
 Wallin^ford House, presented an address to the 
 house, stating a multitude of grievances, and pray- 
 ing that a commander-in-chief might be appointed 
 immediately, — that no officer might be dismissed 
 without court-martial, — thai: the Protector's debts 
 might be paid, and his revenue enlarged ; and 
 when the parhament were with some vigour and 
 resolution debating on this proceeding, and 
 taking measures for resistance to the conspiracy
 
 MEMOIR OF JOHN BRADSHAW. 199 
 
 of officers, Lambert, Sydenham, and others, at 
 the head of then* troops, in spite of opposition 
 from other regiments, invested the house, placed 
 guards at the doors and in the avenues, and 
 prevented the approach of the members. The 
 Speaker was stopped in his coach in Palace Yard 
 by Colonel Dukenfield, compelled to return up 
 Parliament Street, and nearly forced to drive 
 into Wallingford Housed where the council of 
 officers sat. He insisted on proceeding, however ; 
 and was allowed to go home. Sydenham, one of 
 the Protector's council, attempted to justify this 
 outrageous proceeding at one of its meetings, 
 declaring that they were driven to the measure 
 " by a particular call of the Divine Providence." 
 But the Lord President Bradshaw, who was pre- 
 sent, " though by long sickness very weak, and 
 " much attenuated, yet animated by his ardent 
 " zeal and constant affection to the common cause, 
 " upon hearing those words stood up, and in- 
 " terrupted him, declaring his abhorrence of that 
 " detestable action, and telling the Council, that 
 " being now going to his God, he had not patience 
 " to sit there to hear his great name so openly 
 " blasphemed ; and, therefore, departed to his 
 " lodgings, and withdrew himself from public 
 " employment." 2 He did not live many days; 
 dying on the 22d of November, 1 659, of a quar- 
 tan ague, from which he had suffered more 
 than a year. He was buried with great pomp in 
 Westminster Abbey. His body was disinterred, 
 
 1 On the site of the present Admiralty, 
 ^ Ludlow, p. 307. 
 
 o 4<
 
 200 MEMOIR OF JOHN BRADSHAW. 
 
 with those of Cromwell and Ireton, at the Re- 
 storation, and exposed on a gibbet at Tyburn, 
 and then thrown into a pit. 
 
 Whitlock drily sums up his character thus : " a 
 stout man, learned in his profession, no friend to 
 monarchy;" and this sentence probably expresses 
 every- quality which can on certain grounds be 
 ascribed to Bradshaw. } His eloquence, which 
 Milton so much extols, does not manifest itself in 
 the imperfect account we possess of his speeches 
 on the King's trial, — the only speeches of which 
 we know any thing, except the short energetic 
 remonstrances to Oliver Cromwell and to Colonel 
 Sydenham. John Lilburne, however, in his re- 
 lation of his sufferings in the Star Chamber, bears 
 testimony to the same quality. That he was an 
 undaunted and intrepid man, and to all appear- 
 ance conscientiously bent on establishing and 
 preserving a republican government, must be 
 admitted. Indeed, Bradshaw, Ireton, Ludlow, 
 Haslerig, Scot, appear to have belonged to a 
 class of stern democrats, who were less influenced 
 in their proceedings by personal ambition, and by 
 that fanatical enthusiasm which actuated many 
 others, than by a determined hatred to monarchy, 
 and a resolution to destroy it at all hazards. This 
 impracticable steadfastness of purpose alone was 
 sufficient to give to Bradshaw some importance in 
 the agitated times in which he lived ; add to this, 
 his respectable knowledge of his profession, an im- 
 pressive elocution and manner in public, an iron 
 intrepidity, and the distinction of having judged 
 
 ^ Mrs, Hutchinson speaks of him as hot and stout-hearted.
 
 MEMOIR OF JOHN BRADSHAW. 201 
 
 and condemned his sovereign, and there is suffi- 
 cient to account for the authority and influence 
 which he enjoyed among the enemies of monarchy 
 up to his death. 1 That Bradshaw, without chil- 
 
 1 John Bradshaw, Serjeant at Law and Chief Justice of 
 Chester, bequeaths all his manors, &c, in the counties of 
 Kent and Middlesex, to his wife, Mary Bradshaw, for life, in 
 lieu of dower ; and devises to her his manors, &c. in Kent, 
 with liberty, in her life-time, to disparke the parke at 
 Somerhill, for her subsistence and making provision for 
 her kindred, " God not having vouchsafed me issue." 
 He further devises his manors in the counties of Berks, 
 Southampton, Wilts, and Somerset, with his reversions 
 in Middlesex, intrust, to his friend, Peter Brereton, Esq., 
 his nephew, Peter Newton, and his trustie servant Thomas 
 Parnell, and their heirs, for payment of debts, &c. ; to 
 expend 1001. in purchasing an annuity for maintaining 
 a freeschool in Marple, in Cheshire ; 500/. for encreasing 
 the wages of the INIaster and Usher of Bunbury School ; 
 and 500/. for amending the wages of the Schoolmaster 
 and Usher of Middleton school, in Lancashire (in which 
 two schools of Eunbury and Middleton I had part of 
 my education, and return this as part of my thankful 
 acknowledgment for the same) ; these two sums of 500/. to 
 be laid out in purchasing annuities. 
 
 After this follows a bequest of an annuity of 40/., for 
 seven years, to Samuel Rowe, Gent., his secretary, for 
 maintaining him at Gray's Inn, and remunerating his as- 
 sistance to liis executors; various legacies to friends; and 
 250/. to the poor of Founthill, Stopp, Westminster, and 
 Feltham ; a bequest of the impropriation of Feltham, for 
 the use of a proper minister to be established there; a be- 
 quest of an annuity of 20/. for providing a minister at Hatch, 
 in Wiltshire, charged on his estate there ; legacies to his 
 chaplain, Mr. Parr ; Mr. Strong, the preacher at the 
 Abbey; and Mr. Clyve, a Scottish minister ; and his houses 
 and lodgings at Westminster to the governors of the alms- 
 liouLe and school there. 
 
 A codicil, dated March 23. 1653, bequeaths all his law
 
 202 MEMOIR OF JOHN BRADSHAW. 
 
 dren, and with relations in easy circumstances con- 
 descended to amass a large private property by 
 his career of rebellion and crime, is clear from the 
 terms of his will, which is given below. The 
 regicide, who began life as a poor student of 
 Gray's Inn, died at the age of 57, possessed of 
 considerable estates in six counties, a house in 
 London, and a beautiful seat and park in Kent. 
 These estates were, within a year after Brad- 
 shaw's death, revested, on the Restoration of 
 Charles the Second, in their rightful owners. 
 The beautiful park of Somerhill (which the regi- 
 cide's wife by his v/ill was to have liberty to 
 dispark, in order to provide for herself and her 
 relations), was restored to Lord Clanrickard, and 
 became the scene of some of those amusing ad- 
 ventures of Charles's Court, which are described 
 in the Memoirs of Grammont. Bradshaw left no 
 issue by his wife (Mary the daughter of Thomas 
 Marbury, of Marbury, in Cheshire), and the small 
 remains of his ill-gotten wealth ultimately de- 
 volved on his nephew, Henry Bradshaw, who, in 
 1693, purchased an estate called Bradshaw Hall. 
 
 books, and such divinity, history, and books as shee (his 
 wile, the executrix,) shall judge fit for him, to his nephew, 
 Harrie Bradshaw. 
 
 A second codicil, dated September 10. 1655, in which 
 the testator is also styled Chief Justice of Chester, annuls 
 several legacies, and appoints others (among them to Mr. 
 John Milton. 10/.); appoints a legacy of 51. each to all his 
 servants living at the time of his decease, and makes several 
 additional legal provisions. 
 
 Will proved at London, December 16. 1659, by Henry 
 Bradshaw, Esq., the nephew of the testator.
 
 MExMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISON. 203 
 
 But this, as well as the Cheshire property, ap- 
 pears to have parsed, early in the eighteenth 
 century, into the family oF Isherwood, of Bolton- 
 le-Moors, in Lancashire, by a marriage with the 
 niece of the regicide, the heiress of the Bradshaw 
 family. 
 
 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISON. 
 
 Thomas Harrison, whose courageous defence 
 of his conduct on his trial, and undaunted en- 
 durance of his last sufferings, were not less re- 
 markable than the fanatical extravagances of his 
 life, was the son of a grazier, near Newcastle under 
 Line, according to some writers ; of a butcher, 
 near Nantwich, in Cheshire, according to Cla- 
 rendon. The former is the more probable ac- 
 count. In the Register of Newcastle under 
 Lyne is an entry of " Thomas Harrison, baptized 
 July 16. 1606." And tradition points out an 
 old house in the Lower Street of that town as 
 having belonged to the regicide. It is certain 
 that he came to London young, and was placed 
 under an attorney in Clifford's Inn, of the name 
 of Hoselker ; " which kind of education," says 
 Clarendon, " introduces men into the language 
 and practice of business ; and if it be not resisted 
 by the great ingenuity (ingenuousness) of the 
 person, inclines young men to more pride than 
 any other kind of breeding, and disposes them 
 to be pragmatical and insolent, though they have
 
 204< MEMOIR OF THOMAS IIARRISON^. 
 
 the skill to conceal it from their masters, except 
 they find them (as they are too often) inclined 
 to cherish it." When the students of the Inns 
 of Com't, infected with the insubordinate spirit 
 of the times, formed themselves into companies 
 at the commencement of the civil war, Harrison 
 was among the number; and served under Sir 
 Philip Stapylton in the body guard of the General 
 the Earl of Essex. Clarendon says he " first 
 obtained the office of a Cornet ; and got up, by 
 diligence and sobriety, to the state of a Captain." 
 He served as a INIajor at the battle of Marston 
 Moor in 164<4'. Baillie, after the battle, writes, 
 " We were both grieved and angry that your in- 
 dependents there should have sent up Major 
 Harrison to trumpet over all the city their own 
 praises to our prejudice ; making all believe that 
 Cromwell alone, with his unspeakably valorous 
 regiments, had done all the service." ^ But he 
 appears to have attracted no particular notice 
 till the new modelling of the army, and the self- 
 denying ordinance in 164:5 • — a scheme which 
 gave a spring to the fortunes of so many inferior 
 aspirants who afterwards played conspicuous 
 parts. In the list of officers next to the Colonels, 
 Harrison's name is then found along with those of 
 Ireton, Desborough, Huntington, and others. He 
 was sent by Fairfax to give the parliament a 
 particular account of the battle of Langport, when 
 the House ordered him two good horses for his 
 service ; and in October of the same year, when 
 Colonel Fleetwood was appointed Governor of 
 
 1 Letters, vol. ii. 40.
 
 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISON. 205 
 
 Bristol, Harrison was named Colonel of his regi- 
 ment. In 1646 he was one of the commissioners 
 to receive possession of the palace of Woodstock, 
 which had surrendered to the parHamentary army; 
 and in the following year, when Philip Lord Lisle 
 (the brother of Algernon Sidney, and the friend 
 of Dry den) went to Ireland, as Lord Lieutenant, 
 Harrison was one of the persons voted by the 
 Commons at his request to attend him. That 
 his services in this employment were considered 
 meritorious, appears from the facff, that when 
 Lord Lisle and his colleague, Sir John Temple, 
 reported to the parliament the state of Ireland, 
 Harrison (together with Colonel Algernon Sid- 
 ney) was included by the Houses in the vote of 
 thanks bestowed on the Lord Lieutenant and Sir 
 John Temple. 
 
 When the King's person was seized at Hold- 
 enby House by Joyce, in 1647, Harrison was a 
 Colonel of horse — Cromwell having found him, 
 according to Clarendon, " of a spirit and dis- 
 position fit for his service, much given to prayer 
 and preaching, and otherwise of an understanding 
 capable to be trusted in any business to which 
 his clerkship contributed very much. He was 
 looked upon as inferior to few, after Cromwell 
 and Ireton, in the council of officers, and in the 
 government of the agitators ^ (adjutators) ; and 
 there are fev/ men with whom Cromwell more 
 communicated, or upon whom he more depended 
 for the conduct of any thing committed to him." 
 
 1 See a7de, p. 5. note.
 
 206 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISON. 
 
 Harrison, with his regiment, accompanied the 
 army (which had now the signal advantage over 
 tne parliament of possessing the person of the 
 King) to the general rendezvous at Newmarket, 
 and at Triploe He^th, near Royston. Here, to- 
 gether with Cromwell, Ireton,the two Hammonds, 
 Desborough, Pride, Waller, and other officers, 
 Harrison was active and energetic in resisting 
 the disbandment ^ of the army which had been 
 proposed by the parliament ; and in exciting and 
 directing the fermenting spirit of the common 
 soldiers, and of the council of agitators, against 
 the authority of the Houses. On the evening of 
 the meeting at Triploe Heath (where Vane and 
 the other parliamentary commissioners read to the 
 regiments the propositions of the parliament, to 
 which an officer from each regiment coolly re- 
 plied, they must be submitted to the councils of 
 officers and agitators chosen by the soldiery), a 
 letter was despatched from the army from Royston 
 to the Corporation of London, announcing their 
 intention of approaching the metropolis in order to 
 obtain a redress of their grievances, and warning 
 the citizens against offering them resistance. Har- 
 rison's name was signed to this letter, along with 
 those of Fairfax, Cromwell, Ireton, and the thir- 
 teen principal officers of the army. The Lord 
 Mayor summoned a common council ; and on the 
 petition of the alarmed citizens, an order was 
 sent by the Houses to the General-in-chief, Fair- 
 fax, not to approach within forty miles of London, 
 — an injunction little heeded, for on the follow- 
 
 I See ante, the Memoir of Ireton.
 
 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISON. 207 
 
 ing day the head-quarters of the army were 
 removed from Royston to St. Alban's, within 
 twenty miles of the capital. 
 
 The King was now removed from Newmarket 
 to Royston, then to Hatfield, and afterwards 
 to Richmond and Windsor Castle, travelling and 
 lodging with a comfort and state scarcely in- 
 ferior to what had always attended a royal pro- 
 gress through the kingdom. The army had pushed 
 their head-quarters to Uxbridge, but afterwards 
 retired to Wycombe, where the council of war 
 appointed ten persons — Cromwell, Ireton, Fleet- 
 wood, and Harrison being of the number — to 
 meet Lord Nottingham, Vane, Skippon, and the 
 other parliamentary commissioners ; and to treat 
 for a settlement of the disputes between the 
 army and the Houses. In the active and ener- 
 getic struggles and intrigues for mastery which 
 now took place between the Presbyterian party 
 (with a majority in the Commons) and the in- 
 dependents, backed by the army, the support 
 of the King became the eager object of desire 
 to each contending party. To Cromwell and 
 Ireton (the arch politicians of the republicans 
 and independents) was intrusted the delicate 
 task of winning Charles by hypocritical pro- 
 fessions and subtle cajolery. Harrison appears 
 to have been a zealous fanatic and bold officer, 
 well suited to execute the plans of superior minds, 
 but who never himself displayed any capacity for 
 negotiation or intrigue. He was with the army, 
 however, and aiding in the schemes of Cromwell 
 and his son-in-law, during all its shiftings from 
 Wycombe to Reading; to Aylesbury, to Woburn,
 
 208 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISON. 
 
 to Bedford ; and he marched with his regiment to 
 London, when the army, having overcome their 
 Presbyterian opponents, were met by the Speaker 
 and numerous members at Hounslow, and entered 
 London in triumph under Fairfax. 
 
 \Mien the Scotch, commanded by the Duke of 
 Hamilton, invaded England, and made an effort 
 to arrest the military domination which was 
 threatening all the civil and religious institutions 
 of the country, Harrison was sent to the north to 
 oppose the invaders, and his troops defeated the 
 Duke at Preston, in Lancashire. In this service 
 Harrison received a wound. This invasion and all 
 the insurrections in the counties being defeated, 
 Cromwelland the Council of War were established 
 in full authority at Whitehall, where Oliver already 
 began to occupy one of the King's rich beds, and, 
 reclining on it, gave audiences to som.e of the 
 most considerable persons in the kingdom. The 
 House now underwent its memorable purification 
 by Colonel Pride and Lord Grey, which has been 
 before described; and on the 16th of December, 
 1648, Harrison was despatched by the Council 
 of War to conduct the King from Hurst Castle to 
 London, in order to his trial. He made the pre- 
 parations for the King's journey, and remained 
 two nights at Hurst, without, however, seeing 
 Charles, probably owing to the prejudice which 
 the King had conceived against him. The King 
 left this wretched prison, escorted by a troop 
 of horse, and attended by Sir Thomas Her- 
 bert, who has minutely described the journey. 
 Between Alresford and Farnham another troop 
 was drawn up, by which the King passed on
 
 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISOX. ^09 
 
 horseback, attended a little behind by Herbert. 
 " At the head of it was the Captain, gallantly 
 mounted and armed. A velvet monteir was 
 on his head, a new bufF coat on his back, and 
 a crimson silk scarf about his waist, richly fringed ; 
 who, as the King passed by with an easy pace 
 (as dehghted to see men well horsed and armed), 
 the Captain gave the King a bow with his head, 
 all a soldade, which his Majesty requited." This 
 being the first time the King saw the officer, 
 who was Harrison, he called Herbert to him, 
 and on being told who he was, viewed him 
 more narrowly, and said to Herbert, " He 
 looked like a soldier, and that his aspect was 
 good, and found him not such a one as was 
 represented ; and that having some judgment in 
 faces, if he had observed him so well before, he 
 should not have that ill opinion of him." i 
 
 Burnet's statement -% that when it was in doubt 
 whether to kill the King, or bring him to an 
 open trial, Harrison offered to assassinate him, 
 seems to be wholly without foundation. Charles 
 had, indeed, entertained such a suspicion of 
 Harrison; and, when the Colonel came to Hurst 
 Castle, had expressed it to Herbert. When the 
 King was at Farnham, a little before supper he 
 took Harrison by the arm, and led him aside to 
 the window, and discoursed for half an hour, and 
 told Harrison of the information he had received 
 to his prejudice. Harrison assured him it was 
 not true, and that what he had really said was, 
 " that the law was equally obliging to great and 
 
 1 Herbert's Memoirs, p. 140. 2 Hist. vol. i. 
 
 P
 
 210 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISON. 
 
 small, and that justice had no respect of persons;" 
 which Herbert says, not unnaturally, " his Ma- 
 jesty found affectedly spoken, and to no good end, 
 and left off further communication, and went to 
 supper, being all the time very pleasant; which 
 was no small rejoicing to many there, to see him 
 so cheerful in that company and in such a con- 
 dition." 1 
 
 We have seen the zealous part which Harrison 
 took in the proceedings in Westminster Hall. 
 He never was absent from any sitting of that 
 Court, and from very ^qw of the meetings in 
 the Painted Chamber. Harrison, together with 
 Ireton, Henry Marten, Miles Corbet, Scot, Lisle, 
 and others, were appointed a committee to con- 
 cur with the Counsel in settling the charge, 
 adjusting the evidence, and preparing general 
 rules for expediting the business of the Court. 
 This unflinching republican was also appointed, 
 with Marten, Scot, Ireton, and others, to draw 
 up the sentence of the Court, leaving a blank 
 for the manner of death. He signed the warrant 
 of execution ; and was present at the last ex- 
 traordinary scene in Ireton's bedchamber, at 
 Whitehall, when Cromwell and Hacker together 
 prepared the order to the executioner. Though 
 Harrison was a vehement fanatic, (Bishop Burnet 
 calls him a " fierce and bloody enthusiast,") and 
 distinguished for praying, preaching, and ex- 
 pounding 2 on all occasions, yet Hume's story of 
 
 1 Memoirs, p. 142. 
 
 2 This union of the military with pastoral functions was 
 very common at this period. In the Appendix to Claren- 
 don's State Papers, vol. ii., a letter to Mr. Secretary
 
 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISON. 211 
 
 his designedly engaging Fairfax in prayer till the 
 decapitation of the King was at an end is hardly 
 to be credited. That Fairfax was disgusted at 
 the trial and the sentence is beyond doubt. He 
 never attended any meeting, public or private, of 
 the Court : and Sir Thomas Herbert states, that 
 when Bishop Juxon and himself were conducting 
 the King's corpse to be embalmed, they met 
 Fairfax in the Long Gallery at AMiitehall, when 
 he enquired how the King did, being ignorant of 
 his death, and having resolved with his own 
 regiment to prevent it ; and Herbert states, that 
 Fairfax had just come from Colonel Harrison's 
 apartment, where he had been at prayer with 
 the officers. Hume represents that Cromwell 
 and Ireton, in order to remove Fairfax's re- 
 pugnance to the proceedings, endeavoured to 
 persuade him that God had rejected the King ; 
 and counselled him to seek, in prayer, direc- 
 tion from Heaven on this important occasion. 
 Harrison was appointed to pray with him, and 
 prolonged his effusions till the fatal blow was 
 struck; when he rose from his knees, and in- 
 sisted that this event was the miraculous and 
 providential answer of Heaven, sent to their 
 devout supplications. Harris' thinks this story 
 inconsistent with the bold and artless character 
 
 Nicholas from a Cavalier states, " There was lately a fast 
 at head-quarters for the uniting of the army ; when the 
 Lieutenant- General (Cromwell) and the Commissary- 
 General (Ireton) prayed publicly in tfee assembly, which, 
 (my godly author tells me) was such sweet music as the 
 heavens never knew before." 
 1 Life of Cromwell, 208. 
 
 P 2
 
 212 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISON. 
 
 of Harrison. But this would not alone be a 
 sufficient ground for rejecting it : for Harrison's 
 zeal knew no bounds ; and men not less open 
 and fiank than Harrison in their general cha- 
 racter, at that time, scrupled not to accomplish 
 their ends by the most refined duplicity and hy- 
 pocrisy. The fact most opposed to the story is, 
 that Harrison was proved, on Colonel Hacker's 
 trial, to have been in Ireton's bed-room, with 
 Cromwell, Ireton, and others, up to the moment of 
 the execution, and for some time previous. Nor 
 is this evidence inconsistent with so much of 
 Hume's story as rests on the unexceptionable 
 authority of Sir Thomas Herbert ; for Herbert 
 only says that the General Fairfax had been in 
 prayer with the officers in Harrison's apartment, 
 without asserting that Harrison was present there 
 himself. That Fairfax should have been ignorant 
 of the execution till he met Herbert and the 
 Bishop is certainly most extraordinary, and is 
 by some deemed incredible. It could only have 
 arisen from some artful contrivances on the part 
 of Cromwell and his party. But Herbert's state- 
 ment can hardly be doubted, nor can it be sup- 
 posed that Fairfax told Herbert a falsehood. The 
 artifice practised on Fairfax must, however, have 
 been of some other kind, and not that which is 
 ascribed by Hume to Harrison, 
 
 Considering the services of Harrison, his sturdy 
 republicanism, and puritanical zeal, it is inexpli- 
 cable that he (and also a more considerable man, 
 Ireton) should have been negatived as one of the 
 new executive Council of State, to which the 
 sceptre of the kingdom was intrusted after the
 
 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISON. 213 
 
 King's death. Lisle, Holland^ Scot, Ludlow, and 
 Robinson, were appointed to nominate forty to 
 the Rump of the Commons for their approval. 
 Eighteen of those chosen were men who had 
 taken no part in the trial of Charles. There was 
 only one division in the House on the names : it 
 was on that of the Earl of Pembroke, who wa? 
 elected by fifty to twenty-five. Both Ireton and 
 Harrison were negatived by the previous question. 
 
 In May, 1649, Fairfax, with all the chief offi- 
 cers of his army, visited Oxford; where they were 
 received with much festivity and honour, and 
 quartered in the lodgings of the Warden of All 
 Souls. The Vice-Chancellor had previously been 
 sent to prison, and all the royalist heads of houses 
 removed, and replaced by men well affected to the 
 new Commonwealth. The honorary degree of 
 Doctor of Laws was, on this occasion, bestowed 
 on Cromwell and Fairfax ; that of JNIaster of Arts 
 on Harrison, Waller, Ingoldsby, and eleven officers, 
 seven of whom had sat in judgment on the King. 
 
 In 1650, Harrison was raised to the rank of 
 Major-General, and served with Cromv/ell (the 
 new Lord Lieutenant) and Ireton in Ireland. 
 Previous to their departure, Whitlocke relates, 
 " three ministers prayed, and (Colonel) Goffe and 
 Harrison expounded some places of Scripture ex- 
 cellently well, and pertinent to the occasion." 
 Wliitlocke was present at this characteristic scene ; 
 but it does not appear clear whether it took place 
 in the House of Commons, or at the Council at 
 Whitehall, or in what other place. According 
 to the testimony of Mrs. Hutchinson, Harrison 
 by no means neglected his worldly fortunes ; 
 p 3
 
 214 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISON. 
 
 and while he read long and fervent lectures to 
 Colonel H. and others upon the worthlessness 
 of " outward estate," he provided for himself 
 and his family with a very unsaintly anxiety. 
 " For at that time the Major-General, who was 
 but a mean man's sonne and of a meane edu- 
 cation, and no estate before the war, had gathered 
 an estate of two thousand a year, beside engross- 
 ing great offices, and encroaching upon his un- 
 der officers, and maintained his coach and family 
 at a heighth as if they had been born to a prin- 
 cipality." This lady's statements on this point 
 must, however, be taken with some allowance, as 
 Harrison, as well as Cromwell and Ludlow, was 
 evidently an object of her and her husband's 
 resentful feelings. 
 
 The attention of the Parliament and the Coun- 
 cil of War was now directed to the storm which 
 was threatening them from the loyal and presby- 
 terian Scottish nation; who, though ardently bent 
 on supporting their own religious establishment, 
 partook of none of the republican and king-killing 
 doctrines which had just overthrown the mon- 
 archy of England. We have seen that the Scots 
 endeavoured to close with the King in the Isle 
 of Wight, and solemnly protested against the 
 murderous proceedings of his executioners. They 
 proclaimed Charles II. his successor, and invited 
 that Prince from Holland to assume his northern 
 throne. It was obvious that a war with the Scots 
 must ensue ; and the House and the Council 
 looked to Fairfax and Cromwell to avert these 
 gathering perils. Cromwell was hastily recalled 
 from Ireland, and Harrison returned with him :
 
 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISON. 215 
 
 Ireton being left, as Lord Deputy, to finish the 
 war which Cromwell had successfully commenced. 
 A small circumstance now contributed materially 
 to the sole ascendancy of Cromwell. Fairfax's 
 wife, who was a rigid presbyterian, surrounded 
 by presb3'terian ministers, had assisted in pre- 
 venting the General from staining his hands with 
 his sovereign's blood — she now prevailed on him 
 to refuse the command of the expedition against 
 the Scots. The Council of State, much disap- 
 pointed at his hesitation, appointed Cromwell, 
 Harrison, General Lambert, Whitlocke (the Lord 
 Commissioner of the Seal), and St. John (the 
 Chief Justice), to endeavour to remove his scru- 
 ples. Whitlocke and Ludlow both describe their 
 conference ; the former with the minute detail of 
 one who participated iri it. They met on the 22d 
 of June, and " being shut up in a room in White- 
 hall, they went first to prayer that God would 
 direct them in this business ; and Cromwell be- 
 gan, and most of the committee prayed, after 
 which they discoursed." Cromwell and Fairfax 
 were the principal speakers. Whitlocke closely 
 seconded Cromwell's reasoning and persuasions, 
 which were earnest, and apparently sincere. 
 Harrison said but little ; what he uttered was in 
 his usual style of unction and enthusiasm. 
 
 Harrison. — It is indeed, my Lord, the most 
 glorious cause that ever any of this nation ap- 
 peared in; and now, when we hope that the 
 Lord will give a glorious issue and conclusion 
 to it, for your Excellency then to give it over, 
 will sadden the hearts of many of God's people." 
 p 4
 
 216 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISOK, 
 
 Lord General Fairfax "V\liat would you have 
 
 me do ? As far as my conscience will give way, 
 I am willing to join with you still in the service 
 of the Parhament : but where the conscience is 
 not satisfied, none of you (I am sure) will engage 
 in any service ; and that is my condition in this ; 
 and, therefore, I must desire to be excused." 
 
 An act was immediately passed, constituting 
 Cromwell Captain-General and Commander-in- 
 Chief of all the forces of England. Exactly a 
 month after this conference, Cromwell crossed 
 the Tweed with his army. His principal officers 
 were, Fleetwood, his son-in-law, Lieutenant- 
 General ; Lambert, Major-General ; ^Mialley, 
 his first cousin, Commissary-General ; Monk, 
 Pride, and Overton. Harrison remained in Lon- 
 don ; and, on the 22d of October, we find him 
 reviewing, in Hyde Park, 8000 troops of the 
 regiments of Middlesex and the city trainbands. 
 In place of a king and queen, and a glittering 
 court, who had been used to grace such exhibi- 
 .tions, the Speaker of the House of Commons, in 
 his robes and wig, and many of the members, at- 
 tended the review, and, according to ^Vhitlocke, 
 were " received with great shouts, and voUies of 
 great and small shot." 
 
 That Harrison's spiritual character was by no 
 means exempt from a certain carnal love of admir- 
 ation, which his portly and martial figure (ap- 
 plauded even by so critical a judge as Charles) 
 was calculated to excite, appears from a story re- 
 lated of him by Mrs. Hutchinson. " About the 
 same time a great ambassador was to have public 
 audience in the House (of Commons) ; he came
 
 MEMOm OF THOMAS HARRISON. 217 
 
 from the King of Spain, and was the first who had 
 addressed them, owning them as a republic. The 
 day before his audience, Colonel Hutchinson was 
 set in the House near some young men hand- 
 somely clad, among whom was Mr. Charles Rich, 
 since Earl of Warwick; and the Colonel himself had 
 on that day a habit which was pretty rich, but grave, 
 and no other than he usually wore. Harrison, ad- 
 dressing particularly him, admonished them all, 
 that now the nations sent to them, they should 
 labour to shine before them in wisdom, piety, 
 righteousness, and justice, and not in gold and 
 silver, and worldly bravery, which did not become 
 saints ; and that the next day, when the ambas- 
 sadors came, they should not set themselves out 
 in gorgeous habits, which were unsuitable to 
 holy professions. The Colonel, although he was 
 no't convinced of any misbecoming bravery in the 
 suit he wore that day, which was but of sad 
 coloured cloth trimmed with gold, and silver 
 points and buttons ; yet because he would not 
 appear offensive in the eyes of religious persons, 
 the next day he went in a plain black suit, and 
 so did all the other gentlemen : but Harrison 
 came that day in a scarlet coat and cloak, both 
 laden with gold and silver lace ; and the coat so 
 covered with clinquant^ that scarcely could one 
 discern the ground ; and in this glittering habit 
 set himself just under the Speaker's chair ; which 
 made the other gentlemen think that his godly 
 speeches, the day before, were but made that 
 he alone might appear in the eyes of strangers. 
 But this was part of his weakness ; the Lord at 
 last lifted him above the poor earthly elevations
 
 218 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISON. 
 
 which then and some time after prevailed too 
 much with him." i 
 
 On the 11th of February, 1650, Harrison was 
 one of the twenty new members balloted into 
 the executive Council of State ; and on the 18th 
 of March following he was sent with a force of 
 horse and foot to repress the conspiracies in 
 Lancashire and the northern counties in aid of 
 the Scots. He advanced as far as Cumberland ; 
 whence he wrote to the Parliament, announcing 
 the advance of the Scots, and concluding his 
 epistle with a requisition of " some provision of 
 four or five hundred godly men for two or three 
 months, if I can get them mounted." ^ This cu- 
 rious letter is dated after the manner of the 
 Quakers, "7th of the 6th month, 1651, at 11 
 o'clock forenoon." Harrison, who tried every shade 
 of fanaticism, and was by turns an independent, 
 an anabaptist, and a fifth-monarchy man, appears 
 at that time to have been captivated with the 
 novel doctrines and customs of the Quakers. 
 
 Harrison commanded a brigade of horse at the 
 decisive battle of Worcester ; and wrote to the 
 Parliament a spirited account of the pursuit. 
 This brilliant victory, — the '-crowning mercy" 
 of Cromwell, — while it annihilated for the 
 time the cause of the royalists, and drove 
 Charles the Second into exile, gave at the same 
 time a destructive blow to the young republic 
 — the idol of Harrison, Ludlow, Scot, Marten, 
 Whalley, and of almost all the officers of the army 
 Cromwell advanced to London, nourishing kingly 
 
 ' Mrs. Hutchinson's Memoirs, 
 2 Wliitlocke's Memorials.
 
 MExMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISOV. 219 
 
 ambition, and was received with almost kingly 
 honours. Hampton Court was voted for his re- 
 sidence; and 4-000/. in land given him in addition to 
 2500/ per annum which had been formerly granted. 
 The Keepers of the Seal (Wliitlocke and Lisle), 
 Chief Justice St. John, and Sir Gilbert Pickering, 
 met him at Aylesbury to offer him the ardent thanks 
 of the Parliament; and Cromwell, with the munifi- 
 cence of asovereign conqueror, presented each com- 
 missioner with a horse and two Scottish captives. - 
 The militia and volunteers were now disbanded 
 by Cromwell, probably as not being yet sufficiently 
 under his control and management. Peters, Lud- 
 low, and the other republicans, from this time saw 
 through his designs. A few months afterwards 
 the news arrived of Ireton's death in Ireland; 
 which, Whitlocke says, struck a great sadness 
 into Cromwell. But while Cromwell grieved for his 
 attached friend and coadjutor, Harrison, Ludlow, 
 and the other sturdy republicans, mourned an ir- 
 reparable loss in this champion of their principles, 
 who, while he lived, must ever have presented a 
 formidable obstacle to the ambition of his father- 
 in-law. Only two days after the news arrived, 
 Cromwell, in order to sound the minds of men of in- 
 fluence, desired ameeting of members of parliament 
 and the chief officers of the army at the Speaker's 
 house. Whitlocke was present, and has given an 
 interesting account of the conference, in which 
 Harrison took part. In his usual style, Harrison 
 
 1 Whitlocke says, his horse was a handsome, gallant 
 young nag, of good breed ; and one of his prisoners a gen- 
 tleman of quality. He gave both prisoners their liberty, 
 and passes for Scotland.
 
 220 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISON. 
 
 says, " I think that which my Lord General hath 
 propounded, is to advise as to a settlement both of 
 our civil and spiritual liberties ; and so that the 
 mercies which the Lord hath given us may not 
 be cast away ; — how this may be done is the 
 great question." 
 
 Whitlocke. — It is a great question, indeed, and 
 not suddenly to be resolved ; — I should humbly 
 offer, in the first place, whether it be not requi- 
 site to be understood in what way this settle- 
 ment is desired, whether of an absolute republic, 
 or with any mixture of monarchy. 
 
 Cromwell. — My Lord Commissioner Wliit- 
 locke hath put us upon the right point ; and, 
 indeed, it is my meaning, that we should consider 
 whether a republic or a mixt monarchical go- 
 vernment will be best to be settled ; and if any 
 thing monarchical, then in whom that power 
 shall be placed. 
 
 Sir Thomas Widdrington. — I think a mixt 
 monarchical government will be most suitable to 
 the laws and people of this realm, — and if any 
 monarchical, I suppose we shall hold it most just 
 to place that power in one of the sons of the late 
 King. 
 
 Colonel Fleetwood. — I think the question be- 
 tween a republic and a mixt monarchical govern- 
 ment not easily determined. 
 
 Chief Justice St. John It will be found that 
 
 the government of this nation, without something 
 of monarchical power, will be very difficult to be 
 so settled, as not to shake the foundation of our 
 laws and the liberties of the people. 
 
 Speaker. — It would breed a strange confusion
 
 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISON. 221 
 
 to settle a government of this nation without 
 something of monarchy. 
 
 Colonel Desborough (with the temerity of a 
 soldier) says, " I beseech you, my Lords, why 
 may not this, as well as other nations, be governed 
 in the way of a republic ? " 
 
 Whitlocke. — The laws of England are so in- 
 terwoven with the power and practice of mon- 
 archy, that to settle a government without 
 monarchy in it, would make so great an alter- 
 ation in the proceedings of our law, that you 
 have scarce time to rectify, nor can well foresee, 
 the inconveniences which will arise thereby. 
 
 Colonel Whalley I do not well understand 
 
 matters of law ; but it seems to me the best way 
 not to have any thing of monarchical powder in 
 the settlement of the government ; and if we 
 should resolve upon any, whom have we to pitch 
 upon ? The King's eldest son hath been in arms 
 against us, and his second son is likewise our 
 enemy. 
 
 Sir Thomas Widdrington. — But the late 
 King's third son, the Duke of Glo'ster, is still 
 among us, and too young to have been in arms 
 against us, or infected with the principles of our 
 enemies. 
 
 Whitlocke suggested, that a day might be given 
 to the King's eldest son, or the Duke of York, to 
 come in to the Parliament, and upon such terms 
 as should be thought fit. 
 
 Cromwell. — That would be a business of 
 more than ordinary difficulty ; but if it might be 
 done with safety to their rights as Englishmen 
 and Christians, he thought a settlement of some-
 
 222 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISON. 
 
 what with monarchical power in it would be very 
 effectual. 
 
 "Generally," saysWhitlocke, "the soldiers were 
 against any thing of monarchy, though every one 
 of them was a monarch in his regiment or com- 
 pany. The lawyers were generally for a mixt 
 monarchical government, and many were for the 
 Duke of Glo'ster to be made King ; but Cromwell 
 still put off that debate and came off to some other 
 pointy and the company parted without coming to 
 any resolution at all ; only Cromwell discovered, 
 by this meeting, the inclinations of the persons 
 that spake, for which he fished, and made use of 
 what he then discovered." 
 
 Cromwell steadily pursued his purpose, and 
 bent all his machinations towards accomplishing 
 the dissolution of the Long Parliament, which 
 presented an insuperable obstacle to his plans 
 of despotic rule. On the evenmg of the 7th of 
 November, 1652, in a long conference with Whit- 
 locke in St. James's Park, Cromwell opened his 
 mind as to terminating the Parliament and making 
 himself King. Wliitlocke observed to him, that 
 the great controversy had been, whether the 
 government of the nation should be in a mon- 
 archy or a republic ; and most of their friends had 
 engaged with them in hopes of the latter, and 
 for that had undergone all their hardships and 
 difficulties. " Now, if your Excellency should take 
 upon yourself the title of King, this state of the 
 question will be wholly determined; and the 
 matter that remains will only be, whether a 
 Cromwell or a Stuart shall be our king." Whitlocke 
 then turned Cromwell's thoughts to Charles 11.,
 
 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISON. 223 
 
 and hinted to him that the Prince, being in a low 
 condition, might be restored on any terms fa- 
 vourable to Cromwell and the nation ; on which 
 Cromwell was displeased, and abruptly ended the 
 conversation. 
 
 Cromwell now brought about various meet- 
 ings between the chief officers of the army and 
 the leading members of the Parliament, for the 
 purpose of convincing the latter of the neces- 
 sity of putting a speedy end to their sittings, 
 Harrison, who was one of his confiding dupes and 
 active agents, attended these meetings and fur- 
 thered his schemes. From the moment of his 
 taking his seat after the battle of Worcester. 
 Cromwell had incessantly pressed on the Parlia- 
 ment, that they should consider the question of dis- 
 solving themselves, and of calling another House 
 under such rules and qualifications as should be 
 judged expedient ; and he at length induced them 
 to fix, as a limit to their existence, the 3d of 
 November, 165^, which was afterwards altered, 
 in order to gratify his impatience, to the 3d of 
 November, 1653. Cromwell had, in the mean 
 time, with matchless art and hypocrisy, persuaded 
 the army that the Parliament was composed of 
 interested men, " baleful unclean birds," persons 
 of loose morals, who, without sharing the soldiers' 
 hardships, desired to use them as tools; while he 
 himself desired only moderate measures and a 
 free republic, and would never resort to violence 
 against the House, except under the clearest ne- 
 cessity and for the public good. The leaders of 
 the republican party in the House — Vane, Bracl- 
 shaw, Haslerig, Marten — in introducing the Bill
 
 224? MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISON. 
 
 which was now under discussion for dissolving the 
 Parliament, had carefully provided for the constir 
 tution and election of future Parliaments, and for 
 the government of the nation by a Council of 
 State chosen by the House in the intervals of 
 its sittings. At the last meeting of the officers 
 with the members of Parliament, (on the 19th of 
 April, 1653,) at which Whitlocke, Widdrington, 
 and St.Johnwere present, as well as Major-General 
 Harrison and the other officers of note, the mili- 
 tary men had frankly stated their disapprobation 
 of this Bill, especially of the clause continuing the 
 present House till November, and providing that 
 the present members should be members of the 
 new Parliament without re-election. This they 
 regarded as a perpetuation of the present Parlia- 
 ment. They desired that the Parliament should at 
 once pronounce their dissolution, and devolve the 
 whole government on a Council of forty, to be 
 chosen by both parties. Wliitlocke and Widdring- 
 ton (the Commissioners of the Great Seal) earnestly 
 represented the fatal dangers which would attend 
 such a course : Oliver St. John, the other eminent 
 lawyer, sided with Cromwell, Harrison,and the rest 
 of the soldiers. This memorable meeting broke up 
 without coming to any precise conclusion i, and 
 with an agreement to meet on the next afternoon ; 
 and it appears to have been understood that nothing 
 further should be done in the House till the pro- 
 
 I Whitlocke says, " The conference lasted till late at 
 night, when Widdrington and I went home weary and 
 troubled to see the ingratitude and indiscretion of these 
 men, and the way they designed to ruin themselves." 
 
 IVkmorials.
 
 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARKISON\ 225 
 
 position made by the officers had been considered. 
 The next morning, however (the 20th of April), 
 the ParHament resmiied the consideration of the 
 Bill ; and as the amendments had been already- 
 decided on, the republican members vehemently 
 urged that it should be immediately read a third 
 time and passed. This produced some debate. 
 Major-General Harrison expostulated with the 
 House, and intreated them not to adopt a course 
 which would so deeply offend Cromwell and the 
 Council of officers. 
 
 In the mean time, the members were begin- 
 ning to assemble at the adjourned conference 
 at Whitehall, and Whitlocke had already arrived, 
 when Cromwell received intelligence of what was 
 passing in the House. He was enraged, and 
 abruptly broke up the Council. Those members 
 of Parliament who were present went down to 
 the House. He himself remained at Whitehall. 
 Presently Colonel Ingoldsby came to him, and 
 told him if he meant to take any decisive step he 
 had no time to lose. Cromwell immediately walked 
 down to the House, attended by Lambert (a 
 sworn enemy of the Parliament) and five or six 
 officers. He gave orders to several files of troops to 
 follow him. He was dressed in plain black clothes 
 and grey worsted stockings, and took his seat and 
 listened to the debate. The republicans pressed 
 the passing of the Act, and in their impatience 
 proposed to dispense with its being engrossed. 
 Cromwell, seeing the urgency of the crisis, beck- 
 oned Harrison to him from the other side of the 
 House, and whispered to him that " the House 
 was now ripe for dissolution" The Major- 
 Q
 
 226 MEMOIR OF THOxMAS HARRISON. 
 
 General answered, " Sir, the work is very 
 great and dangerous ; therefore I desire you se- 
 riously to consider of it before you engage in it." 
 — " You say well," replied Cromwell, and then sat 
 still for about a quarter of an hour ; when, seeing 
 the question was about to be put, he said tc 
 Harrison, " Now is the time — I must do it;" 
 and then rose and poured forth a vehement tor- 
 rent of invective against the House, charging 
 them with corruption, self-seeking, an attachment 
 to presbyterians and lawyers, who supported ty- 
 ranny, and with a desire to perpetuate their own 
 power. He told them the Lor d had done with them, 
 and had chosen honester and worthier instruments 
 for carrying on his work. " This he spake with 
 so much passion and discomposure, as if he had 
 been distracted." ' Sir Harry Vane and Sir Peter 
 Wentworth stood up and expostulated with him ; 
 but Cromwell walked up and down the House 
 with the air of a madman, kicking the ground 
 with his feet, and exclaimed, " Come, come, I'll 
 put an end to your prating. You are no Parlia- 
 ment. I'll put an end to your sitting. Call them 
 in — call them in." The Serjeant-at-Arms opened 
 the door of the House, and Colonel Worsley, with 
 two files of musqueteers, entered. No resistance 
 was offered by the members, and no one drew the 
 sword which he wore. Sir Harry Vane cried 
 aloud from his place, " This is not honest — yea, 
 it is against morality and common honesty." 
 Cromwell began railing at him, crying out, witn a 
 loud voice, " Oh ! Sir Henry Vane, Sir Henry 
 
 > Ludlow,
 
 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISON. 227 
 
 Vane ! the Lord deliver me from Sir Henry- 
 Vane! " He then addressed the sage Whitlocke 
 with much severity — told Vane he was a juggler, 
 pointed to Henry Marten and Wentworth as adul- 
 terers, and called Chaloner a drunkard. Laying 
 his hand on the mace, he said, " What shall we do 
 with this bauble ? — take it away ! " He then 
 ordered Harrison to remove the Speaker, Lenthal. 
 Harrison advanced to him, and intimated it was no 
 longer convenient for him to remain in his place. 
 The Speaker answered, that he would not come 
 down unless he was removed by force. Harrison 
 laid hold of his hand, and pulled him by the gown ; 
 and Lenthal then left the chair. Algernon Sid- 
 ney, who was sitting close to him on his right 
 hand, was one of those who refused to remove, till 
 forced by Harrison and Colonel Worsley. Crom- 
 well, in the mean time, was violently addressing 
 the retiring members, who were from eighty to 
 a hundred in number. He told them, " It is 
 you that have forced me to this ; for I have sought 
 the Lord, day and night, that he would rather 
 slay me than put me upon the doing of this work." 
 As the members withdrew, Allen, an alderman of 
 London, ventured to say that it w^as not yet too late 
 to order the soldiers out of the House, to restore 
 the mace, and proceed with public affairs. Crom- 
 well turned upon him with an accusation — and 
 charged him with not having made up his ac- 
 counts of some hundred thousand pounds, as 
 treasurer of the army. Allen answered, that he 
 had long before tendered his accounts to the 
 House. Cromwell made no reply, and it is un- 
 certain whether there were any grounds for his 
 Q 2
 
 228 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRfGON". 
 
 accusation. Cromwell then snatched the Act of 
 Dissolution from the hands of the clerk, put it 
 under his cloak, and, having commanded the doors 
 to be locked, took the keys, and went away to 
 Wliitehali. 
 
 This unparalleled scene closed for the time 
 the famous Rump of the Long Parliament ; an 
 assembly which, without any legitimate authority, 
 and feared rather than loved by the English na- 
 tion, had undoubtedly v.ielded, for four years, the 
 sovereign authority with singular wisdom, vigour, 
 and success. Republican writers have naturally 
 poured forth its eulogy ; but Whitlocke, in heart 
 a friend to monarchy, and a singularly cool 
 and sagacious man, is also eloquent in its praise. 
 " Thus it pleased God," says he, " that this 
 assembly, famous through the world for its un- 
 dertakings, actions, and successes, having subdued 
 all their enemies, were themselves overthrown 
 and ruined by their own servants, and those 
 whom they had set up now pulled down their 
 masters ; an example never to be forgotten, and 
 scarcely to be paralleled in history, in any story, 
 by which all persons may be instructed how un- 
 certain and subject to change all worldly affairs 
 are, and how apt to fall when we think them 
 highest. All honest, prudent, and indifferent men 
 were highly disturbed at this unworthy action." 
 
 Cromwell, assisted by Harrison, had thus rid 
 himself of the Parliament. Of the manner in 
 which he disposed of the Council of State, on the 
 afternoon of the same day, we have seen some 
 account in the Memoir of Bradshaw. But Crom- 
 well was still far from beino; in the condition to
 
 MEMOIR or THOMAS HARRISON. 229 
 
 declcire himself King. Harrison and the Council 
 of officers, who sliared Cromwell's influence with 
 the troops, and who had assisted his overthrow 
 of the Parliament, were ardent lovers of a re- 
 public, and had no design of investing him with 
 sovereign authority. He was compelled to tem- 
 porise — to issue a declaration promising to call a 
 freely chosen Parliament, and to invest the ex- 
 ecutive power in thirteen hands, nine of whom 
 were officers of the army. Major-General Har- 
 rison, together with Lambert, Desborough, and 
 five Colonels, were members of this Council. Its 
 Presidents were chosen weekly, and Harrison was 
 the third. On the 4th of .July, the new assembly 
 (commonl}'^ called Praise God Barebones) met at 
 Whitehall to the number of about one hundred 
 and twenty. Cromwell, in the name of the army, 
 surrendered the authority of the state into their 
 hands, and addressed them for three quarters of 
 an hour, in a speech which, according to Carring- 
 ton, his biographer, showed " that the spirit of 
 God was upon him." Harrison and the inveterate 
 republicans were again entirely duped, and exulted 
 in their chief's display of pure patriotism and dis- 
 interestedness. The day was spent in humilia- 
 tion and prayer ; and the assembly resolved that 
 Cromwell, together with Harrison, Lambert, Des- 
 borough, and Tomlinson, should sit among them 
 as members. In a few days, a new Council of 
 State was elected l>y the assemblj^ consisting of 
 thirty-one members : the Lord General Cromwell's 
 is the first name, Lambert's the second, and Har- 
 rison's the third. 
 
 It is remarkable, that one of the first objects 
 Q 3
 
 230 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISON. 
 
 which occupied this ParHament was the question, 
 whether the maintenance of the clergy by the 
 provision of tithes should be continued. The 
 question was referred to a committee after long 
 debates ; and the committee of this assembly, com- 
 posed of so many men vehemently adverse to 
 episcopacy and to royalty, and who had joined in 
 destroying the King, reported that incumbents^ 
 rectors^ and impropriators, had a legal property in 
 tithes, and that they oiight to be continued accord- 
 ingly,^ A debate for five whole days ensued on the 
 question, whether the House should agree to the 
 Report ; and it was at last carried by only two 
 voices that the House did not agree to this clause 
 in the Report; the numbers being fifty-six and 
 fifty-four. 
 
 The time had now arrived when Cromwell was 
 compelled to tlirow off the thin mask which had 
 concealed liis designs from his easy dupes — Har- 
 rison, Ludlow, and the other zealous republicans. 
 Ireton was dead, Whitlocke was removed by an 
 embassy to Sweden, which Cromwell had pressed 
 upon him ; and matters were ripe for the anni- 
 hilation of Barebones Parliament, and the assump- 
 tion by Cromwell of absolute sway. Cromwell 
 and his creatures had, by active calumny and false- 
 hood, blackened the character of tliis assembly of 
 his own creation ; and Sydenham, one of his slavish 
 tools, proposed to the House that they should dis- 
 solve themselves, as unfit for the purposes of re- 
 presentation. Harrison and the small knot of 
 honest republicans resisted the attempt; but 
 
 ' Journals, July, 1653.
 
 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISON. 231 
 
 Rous, the Speaker, a creature of Cromwell, left 
 the chair, and with a majority of the members 
 proceeded to Whitehall, and resigned their autho- 
 rity to Cromwell, who acted the farce of asto- 
 nishment, humility, and regret, with his accus- 
 tomed art. The few members who obstinately 
 remained behind, of whom Harrison was one, 
 were under forty, the number required to form a 
 House ; and these were dispersed, after the ap- 
 proved fashion, by Colonel Goffe, a relation of 
 Oliver, and his musqueteers. Four days after- 
 wards Cromwell was sworn in as Protector in 
 Westminster Hall ; and in his new Council of 
 State, Harrison, together with Tomlinson, Stape- 
 ley, Carew, and Bennet, were omitted. They 
 henceforth became uncompromising opponents of 
 Cromwell's reign. The republicans were now 
 indeed much divided. Milton adhered steadily 
 to Cromwell, and applauded his conduct.^ Oli- 
 ver St. John was dangerously ill at this period, 
 but appears to have disapproved the usurper's 
 proceedings. Harrison opposed Cromwell, not 
 merely from that love of equality and of republican 
 institutions which influenced Bradshaw, Vane, 
 Haslerig, and Marten, but because he regarded 
 monarchy as hostile to the Christian religion. 
 The anabaptists were all determined foes to the 
 Protector, and Harrison was now the most dis- 
 tinguished man in that sect. Political meetings 
 of these sectarians were held in Blackfriars, where 
 the Protector was denounced as an usurper and 9 
 perjured villain. Foake and Simpson, anabaptist 
 
 1 Defensio Secunda pro Populo Anglicano. 
 Q 4-
 
 232 MExMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISON. 
 
 ministers, were committed to prison in Windsor 
 Castle, and the meetings were suppressed. 
 
 A few days after the establishment of the Pro- 
 tectorate, Harrison was summoned to the Council, 
 and asked if he would own and act under the new 
 government. With his usual frankness he abso- 
 lutely refused ; and his commission was in conse- 
 quence taken from him, and shortly afterwards he 
 was ordered to retire to his native county of Staf- 
 ford. Harrison, and his anabaptist friends, ap- 
 pear to have still continued their speeches and 
 machinations against the Protector's government ; 
 and in September, 1654, when Cromwell took the 
 violent measure of excluding from the House all 
 the members who refused to sign his " instru- 
 ment of government," Harrison was considered 
 an object of alarm, and was arrested.* The Dutch 
 ambassadors in England, writing to the States of 
 Holland, on the 15th of September, 1654, thus 
 notice this matter: — "In the mean time, it is 
 " said another party, called the anabaptists, under 
 " the direction of Harrison, was busy to get the 
 " hands to a petition to present to the Parliament ; 
 " so that his Highness was moved thereby to se- 
 " cure Harrison at his house in the country (by 
 *' a party of horse), and to remedy what was 
 " acting in the Parliament, and to send for the 
 " members into the Painted Chamber, as hap- 
 " pened on Tuesday morning, at nine o'clock, 
 " there being several regiments of soldiers dis- 
 " persed up and down the city, and all places well 
 " secured. Some hundred and forty-five signed 
 
 1 Goddard's Journal, prefixed to Burton's Diar>', vol. i.
 
 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISO.V. 233 
 
 " presently ; and the next day some fifty more. 
 " There are others, without doubt, who after 
 " consideration will do as the rest have done — 
 " sign, and sit in Parliament as they ought, and 
 " not stand without, at the door, and be laughed 
 " at." 1 
 
 Harrison's enthusiasm and activity never al- 
 lowed him to remain in repose. In 1655, he ap- 
 pears to have been to a certain extent implicated 
 in the conspiracy of Colonel Overton (Milton's 
 friend), who was to seize on Monk, transfer 
 the command of the Scottish army to himself, 
 and march to the south to join the royalist 
 and republican troops, who now made common 
 cause against the government of Cromwell. The 
 plot was defeated by the prompt and vigorous 
 measures of Cromwell. Harrison was seized, and 
 conducted to the isle of Portland ; and Carew, 
 another anabaptist and regicide, was confined at 
 St. Mawes, in Cornwall. Harrison was afterwards 
 released ; but at the commencement of the Pro- 
 tector's second Parliament he was sent to Pen- 
 dennis Castle ~, in Cornwall. Between Cromwell 
 and Harrison there had existed, till Cromwell 
 made himself Protector, the strictest union and 
 friendship : Harrison displayed the most cordial 
 
 1 See Thurloe State Papers, vol. xi. 606. 
 
 '-^ Ludlow says he was sent to Carisbrook Castle; but he 
 appears to be wrong, as he occasionally is as to dates and 
 details, owing to his having written his Memoirs from 
 memory at Lausanne several years after the events hap- 
 pened. Vane was at this time sent to Carisbrook, but Har- 
 rison was confined at Pendennis. — Thurloe, vol. v. 407 
 Godwin, vol. iv. p. 276. Mercurius Fumigosus, a journal 
 of the day, 306.
 
 234< MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISOX. 
 
 devotion to his distinguished friend, and Crom- 
 well reposed the highest confidence in Harrison. 
 When Harrison gave him up, and plotted against 
 his reign, Cromwell was not a man to be restrained, 
 by his feelings, from repressing, by severe mea- 
 sures, the schemes of his former friend. But he 
 bore more from Harrison than he would have 
 endured in others ; and Cromwell had a heai't 
 quite capable of feeling regret, when he ordered 
 his former devoted ally to a distant dungeon. The 
 following letter from Harrison, written a few years 
 before, is characteristic of his fanatical disposition, 
 and marks the affection and intimacy which then 
 existed between him and Cromwell : — 
 
 " My dear Lord, 
 
 " To spare you trouble, I forbeare to give you 
 my excuse for not v/aiting on you to Ware. I 
 know you love me, therefore are not apt to ex- 
 cept ; though in this particular I had not failed, 
 but that orders fi'om the Councell superseded me. 
 
 " Considering under how many and great bur- 
 dens yow labour, I am afraid to saie anie more, 
 that 1 may not add to them ; but love and duty 
 makes me presume. 
 
 " The business you goe upon is weightie, as 
 ever yett yow undertook : it plainly and deeply 
 concerns the life or death of the Lord's people, 
 his own name, and his Son's : nevertheless maie 
 yow rejoyce in God (whose affair it is), who, 
 having heretofore given yow numberless signall 
 testimonies to other parts of the worke, will in 
 mercie prosper this, that he maie perfect what he 
 hath begun. And to omitt other arguments, that
 
 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISOX. 235 
 
 in Deut. xxxii. 27. hath much force on my heart, 
 especially the last words, — " And the Lord hath 
 not done all this." 1 believe, if the present ene- 
 my should prevaile, hee would as certainly re- 
 proach God, and all that hitherto hath been done 
 as aforesaid, even as I now write ; but the jealousie 
 of the Lord of Hosts for his great name will not 
 admitt it. 
 
 " My Lord, lett waiting upon Jehovah bee the 
 greatest and most considerable business you have 
 every dale ; reckon itt more then to eate, sleep, 
 or councell together. Run aside sometimes fi-om 
 your companie, and gett a word with the Lord. 
 Why should not you have three or four precious 
 souls allwaies standing att your elbow, with whom 
 you might now and then turn into a corner ? I 
 have found refreshment and mercie in such a 
 waie. Ah ! the Lord of compassion arise, pittie 
 your burthens, care for yow, stand by and refresh 
 your heart each moment. Here is little newes, 
 only Charles Vane retorned from Portugall, who 
 left our fleet indifferently well, and that they had 
 seized nine of the Portugall's shipps. 
 
 " The Father of Mercies visit and keep your 
 soule close to him continually, protect, preserve, 
 and prosper yow, is the praier of, my Lord, 
 " Your Excellencie's loving Servant, 
 " Whilst I breath, 
 
 Whitehall, 3d JiUy, 1650. " T. HarRISON. 
 
 " For his Excellentcy the Lord General 
 Cromwell, humbly present theis." 
 
 Wlien he was released from his confinement at 
 Pendennis, Harrison went to live at his house at
 
 236 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISON. 
 
 Highgate, where Ludlow visited him. The General 
 gives in his Memoirs a characteristic description of 
 a conference that took place between them. " When 
 I was acquainted with his arrival, I went to make 
 him a visit ; and having told him that I was very 
 desirous to be informed by him of the reasons that 
 moved him to join with Cromwell in the inter- 
 ruption of the civil authority, he ansAvered, that 
 he had done it because he was fully persuaded 
 they had not a heart to do any more good for the 
 Lord and his people. ' Then,' said I, ' are you not 
 now convinced of your error in entertaining such 
 thoughts, especially since it has been seen what 
 use has been made of the usurped power ?' To 
 which he replied, ' Upon their heads be the guilt, 
 who have made a wrong use of it ; for my own 
 part, my heart was upright and sincere in the thing.' 
 His second reason for joining with Cromwell was, 
 because he pretended to own and favour a sort of 
 men who acted upon higher principles than those 
 of civil liberty. I replied, that I thought him 
 mistaken in that also, since it had not appeared 
 that he ever approved of any persons or things, 
 further than he might make tliem subservient to 
 his own ambitious designs ; reminding him that 
 the generality of the people tliat had engaged 
 with us, having acted upon no higher principles 
 than those of civil liberty, and that they might 
 be governed by their own consent, it could not 
 be just to treat them in another manner upon any 
 pretence whatsoever. The Major-General then 
 cited a passage of the prophet Daniel, where it is 
 said, ' That the saints shall take the kingdom and 
 possess it.' To which he added another to the
 
 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISON. 237 
 
 same effect — < That the kingdom shall not be left 
 to another people.' I answered, that the same 
 prophet says in another place, ' That the king- 
 dom shall be given to the people of the saints ot 
 the Most High:' and that 1 conceived, if they 
 should presume to take it before it was given, 
 they would at the best be guilty of doing evil, 
 that good might come from it; for to deprive 
 those of their right in the government, who had 
 contended for it equally with ourselves, were to 
 do as we would not that others should do to us : 
 that such proceedings are not only unjust, but 
 also impracticable, at least for the present; be- 
 cause we cannot perceive that the saints are 
 clothed with such a spirit, as those are required 
 to be to whom the kingdom is promised ; and 
 therefore we may be easily deceived in judging 
 who are fit for government ; for many have taken 
 upon them the form of saintship, that they might 
 be admitted to it, who yet have not acted suitably 
 to their pretensions in the sight of God or men : 
 for proof of which we need go no further than to 
 those very persons who had drawn him to assist 
 in their design of exalting themselves, under the 
 specious pretence of advancing the kingdom of 
 Christ. He confessed himself not able to answer 
 the arguments I had used ; yet said, he was not 
 convinced that the texts of Scripture quoted by 
 him were not to be interpreted in the sense he 
 had taken them, and therefore desired a further 
 conference with me at another time." ^ 
 
 In 1657, by the activity of Secretary Thurloe, 
 
 1 Ludlow's Memoirs.
 
 238 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISON. 
 
 thfi famous conspiracy of Venner and the fifth- 
 monarchy i men against Cromwell's government 
 was discovered and reported to the House, 
 Whitlocke writes, on the ^th of February, 1657, 
 " Divers were imprisoned on the new plot ; and 
 the Protector and his Council were busie in the 
 f SKaminations concerning it ; and Thurloe did them 
 good service. Major-General Harrison was deep 
 in it." These men, not content with putting forth 
 the doctrine of the Revelations, that the saints 
 shall reign for one thousand years upon earth after 
 the extinction of all Avorldly kingdoms, asserted 
 their own right as saints to determine for them- 
 selves when their reign w^as begun, and to over- 
 power all existing dynasties and thrones which 
 obstructed the establishment of their present 
 dominion. Their manifesto was contained in a 
 tract, entitled " A Standard set up, whereto the 
 true Seed and Saints of the Most High may be 
 gathered together for the Lamb against the Beast 
 and the False Prophet; or the Principles and 
 Declarations of the Remnant who have waited 
 for the blessed Appearance and Hope." It treated 
 Cromwell as an apostate and a traitor, " exceed- 
 ing the rage, oppression, and treason of the late 
 King." It proclaimed a government, of which 
 Christ had the supreme authority, " by right, con- 
 quest, election, and inheritance ;" with a Council 
 of " men of choicest light and spirit," to be 
 elected annually by " the Lord's freemen, such 
 as have a right and interest in the Redeemer of 
 
 1 They looked on the Assyrian, the Egyptian, the Greek, 
 and the Roman, as the four monarchies preceding that of 
 the Saints on Earth.
 
 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISON. 239 
 
 mankind." The laws were to be derived solely 
 from the Bible. There were to be neither taxes, 
 nor tithes, nor salaries, nor imprisonment, nor 
 excise. 
 
 On the 9th of April a general rendezvous of 
 the conspirators was to take place at MUe End 
 Green ; to which place a party of horse was de- 
 spatched. Tlie chief conspirators, who did not 
 assemble in any large number, were seized ; some 
 were committed to the Tower, and others to the 
 Gate House. Harrison, Colonel Rich, Admiral 
 Lawson, and Major Danvers, were consigned to 
 the custody of the Serjeant-at-Arms. Mr. God- 
 win^, who has a great partiality for Harrison, 
 contends that the Major-General was not really 
 engaged in these wild designs ; but that Cromwel 
 only made them a pretext to imprison a repub- 
 lican whom he feared. But Thurloe and Whit- 
 locke expressly state that Harrison was concerned 
 in the plot ; and his conversation just related with 
 Ludlow at Highgate shows how strongly his mind 
 was imbued with the wild and peculiar doctrines 
 of the insurgents. Some months after, a fresh 
 plot of the same kmd broke out, and Harri- 
 son was again seized. The proceedings relative 
 to the seizure of Harrison, Portman, Carew, and 
 the other insm-gents, are highly characteristic of 
 the arbitrary spirit of Cromwell's sole govern- 
 ment, and show the sort of murmur of discontent 
 which it excited even in his subservient Parlia- 
 ment. The letter from Cromwell to the Lieu- 
 tenant of the Tower, ordering the seizure, seems 
 
 1 History of the Commonwealth, voh iv. p. 379.
 
 240 MEMOIR OF THOMAS HARRISON. 
 
 to liave been to this effect, written with Crom- 
 well's own hand: — " Sir, I desire you to seize 
 Major-General Harrison, Mr. Portman, Mr. Carew, 
 &c. and other eminent fifth-monarchy men. Do it 
 speedily, and you shall have a warrant after you 
 have done." Portman's wife petitioned the House 
 for her husband's discharge from the Tower ; and 
 a Committee of grievances investigated the mat- 
 ter. Sir John Barkstead ^ (a " Lord " of Crom- 
 well's " other House "), who was Lieutenant of 
 the Tower, was brought to the bar, when Colonel 
 Terrill, the Chairman, refused to call him Lord 
 Barkstead; and it was said in the House, it was 
 not fit a Lord of the other House should be a 
 gaoler. Wlien Barkstead produced the warrant and 
 letter from Cromwell, the words " other eminent 
 fifth-monarchy men " were strongly excepted 
 
 ' Barkstead was an active member of the Court which 
 tried Charles, and signed ..his death warrant. He was ori- 
 ginally a working silversmith, or, according to others, a 
 goldsmith in the Strand, in little business. He belonged to 
 the City trainbands, and got a commission as Captain ; and 
 being a useful tool of Cromwell, he became a Colonel. 
 Oliver knighted him and made him Lieutenant of the Tower, 
 in 1655; and in 1656, Steward of his Household; and in 
 1657, one of the " Lords of the other House." At the 
 Retoration he was excepted from the Indemnity Act, and 
 escaped to Hanau, in Germany, where he became a burgess 
 of the city : but going into Holland with Colonel Okey and 
 Mr. Corbet, two other regicides, they fell into the hands of 
 the English ambassador, who sent them to England ; and 
 after a fair trial they were condemned, and suffered at Ty- 
 burn, April 19. 1662. Barkstead, under the Protectorate, 
 amassed much wealth, and bought, at two or three years' 
 purchase, as much Bishop's Inud as cost 10,000/. — See 
 Noble's Memoirs of Cromwell, vol. ii.
 
 MEMOIRS OF THE REGICIDES. 241 
 
 against by the committee ; the general sense was, 
 that it was a high breach of the liberties of the 
 subject; and the committee resolved that the 
 imprisonment of Mr, Portman was unjust and 
 illegal. 
 
 Harrison seems not to have remained long in 
 confinement. But during the short remainder 
 of Cromwell's life, and during the brief reign of 
 Richard Cromwell, he was always an object of 
 suspicion, and resided chiefly in his own county 
 of Stafford. Wlien the restoration of Charles II. 
 was settled, and when the Parliament was discuss- 
 ing the Act of Indemnity, and the exceptions to 
 be made in it, Bowyer, colonel of the Stafford- 
 shire militia, a zealous royalist, determined to 
 seize Harrison. The Major-General refused to 
 withdraw from his house and escape, as so many 
 others of the regicides did — deeming it a deser- 
 tion of the glorious cause in which he was en- 
 gaged. He was accordingly seized, with all his 
 horses and arms, and brought to London; where 
 the House ordered that he should be committed 
 to the Tower, and his horses taken to the Mews 
 for the King's use. (For the details of Har- 
 rison's trial and death, see post.^ 
 
 MEMOIRS OF OTHER REGICIDES. 
 
 Valentine Wauton, who was present at all the 
 sittings of the Court in Westminster Hall, and at 
 most of those in the Painted Chamber, and who 
 signed the warrant for the King's death, was of an 
 
 R
 
 242 MEMOIRS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 ancient knightly family, seated at Great Stough ton 
 in Huntingdonshire. He married INIargaret, the 
 sister of Oliver Cromwell ; was returned member 
 for the county of Huntingdon in the Long Parlia- 
 ment, and strenuously sided with the Parliament 
 in the civil war. In August, 1642, he assisted 
 Cromwell, who was then member for the town of 
 Cambridge, and who had just raised a troop of 
 horse against the King, in intercepting the plate 
 of the University of Cambridge, which was sent 
 by the University to the King at York for de- 
 fi-aying the expenses of the war. The exploit 
 only partially succeeded, as part of the plate ap- 
 pears to have reached its destination ; but the Par- 
 liament thought proper to grant an indemnity to 
 Cromwell and Wauton for what they had effected. 
 In 164-3, he was taken prisoner by the royalists, 
 and was confined at Oxford, where (according to 
 Noble) he experienced many kindnesses from 
 Dr. Lawrence, Head of Baliol College, which he 
 afterwards repaid when the Doctor was ejected 
 from his preferments for his loyalty, by procuring 
 the great tithes to be annexed to the chapelry 
 of Coin on his estate in Huntingdonshire, and 
 presenting the chapelry to the Doctor. By the 
 exertions of the Parliament he was released from 
 Oxford, being exchanged for Sir Thomas Lems- 
 ford, a royalist prisoner in Warwick Castle ; in 
 164-6 he was raised to the i;ank of Colonel ; and 
 in the following year was appointed a commis- 
 sioner for preventing scandalous persons from 
 receiving the Sacrament. He was one of the 
 republican Council of State installed immediately 
 after the King's death, (17th of February, 1649,)
 
 MExMOIRS OF THE REGICIDES. 243 
 
 •»rhich was composed of twenty of the regicides 
 out of forty-one members ; and we find his name 
 m all the Councils till the year 1653. During 
 that period he was also Governor of King's Lynn, 
 with all the level in Ely, Holland, and Marshland. 
 Heath calls him Governor of Lynn and Bashaw 
 of the Isle of Ely ; and Walker, in his " History 
 of Independency," states that he fortified several 
 bridges and places in the island, for which arms, 
 ammunition, and ordnance were sent him from 
 Windsor. He was (like his fi-iend Ludlow) a stem 
 republican in his principles : after Cromwell's 
 forcible dissolution of the Long Parliament, his 
 name no longer appears in the Councils ; and fi-om 
 the time when Cromwell assumed kingly power, 
 he lived in retirement, and was narrowly watched 
 by the usurper. After Richard Cromwell's depo- 
 sition he again appeared on the stage, and declared 
 himself for the Parliament, which was now mainly 
 governed by Sir Harry Vane and Sir Arthur 
 Haslerig, and was struggling against the army 
 under Lambert. When Lambert, and the other 
 leaders of the army, were cashiered by the Par- 
 liament, Colonel Wauton, with Fleetwood, Ludlow, 
 Haslerig, Monk, Morley, and Overton, were the 
 seven commissioners named by the Parliament 
 for the control of the army. He was afterwards 
 joined with Monk and three others for the go- 
 vernment of the army, and was appointed one 
 of the twenty-one commissioners for managing 
 the affairs of the admiralty and navy. As soon 
 as he perceived that Monk designed to restore 
 Charles II., he thought it prudent to withdraw 
 to the continent ; and at first took refuge at 
 R 2
 
 244? MEMOIRS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 Hanau, where he became a burgess : but fear- 
 ing that he might be dehvered up, like others, to 
 the King's agent in Holland, he left that place, 
 and passed the short remainder of his days in 
 obscurity. The close of his life was spent in 
 Flanders under a feigned name, and in the disguise 
 of a gardener ; where he died, at rather an ad- 
 vanced age, in 1661, having first discovered him- 
 self, and desired that his relations in England 
 might be apprised of his decease. 
 
 Colonel Edward Wh alley, who sat in the 
 Court in the Hall at all its sittings, and attended 
 almost every sitting in the Painted Chamber, and 
 signed the warrant of execution, was first cousin to 
 Cromwell, and of an ancient and honourable fa- 
 mily in Nottinghamshire. He appears to have been 
 originally brought up to trade, and, according to 
 Heath, was apprenticed to a woollen-draper. He 
 was a rigid puritan, and took arms in the parlia- 
 mentary service at the commencement of the 
 civil war, in opposition to the sentiments of his 
 family. He was then in middle age, and soon 
 distinguished himself by his courage and military 
 talents, which are spoken well of both by Claren- 
 don and Ludlow. At Naseby, in 1645, he charged 
 and defeated two divisions of Sir Marmaduke 
 Langdale's horse, though supported by Prince 
 Rupert, who commanded the right wing; for 
 which service he was, in January, 1645-6, voted 
 by the Parliament to be a Colonel of horse. He 
 assisted in the defeat of General Goring in Somer- 
 setshire ; and was commander of the horse at the 
 siege of Bristol, when Prince Rupert surrendered
 
 MEMOIRS OF THE REGICIDES. 245 
 
 up the city. In May, 1647, he received the 
 thanks of the House, and 100/. to purchase two 
 liorses, for his brilhant conduct in an action at 
 Banbury. His pay, hke that of the rest of the 
 officers, being greatly in arrear, the House (ac- 
 cording to a practice not uncommon) granted him 
 for the arrears, at tlie rate of fifteen years' pur- 
 chase, the manor of Flamborough, part of the es- 
 tate of the Marquess of Newcastle, at the annual 
 rent of 410/. Cromwell confided in him so much, 
 that he was intrusted with the care of the King 
 during great part of his residence with the army, 
 and especially during his abode at Hampton 
 Court. Clarendon says, speaking of his treatment 
 of the King, " He was a man of rough and brutal 
 temper, who had offered great violence to his na- 
 ture when he appeared to exercise any civility 
 and good manners." But Charles, when he es- 
 caped to the Isle of Wight, left behind him (among 
 others), at Hampton, a letter for Whalley, thank- 
 ing him for his attentive services while the King 
 was in his custody. On one occasion, Wlialley 
 incensed Charles by interposing when the King 
 was walking up and down the gallery in earnest 
 conference with Captain Sayers, who came to 
 deliver to him the insignia of the order of the 
 Garter Avhich had been worn by the late Prince 
 of Orange. Charles, in his anger, is said to have 
 pushed him away with both his hands, and even 
 to have struck him with his cane ; but Clarendon 
 denies that the King gave a blow. 
 
 Whalley was distinguished at the battle of 
 Dunbar, in 1650, where he, with Monk, com- 
 manded the foot, and had two horses shot under 
 R 3
 
 246 MEMOIRS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 him ; and Cromwell left him Commissary-General 
 in Scotland, with the command of four regiments. 
 When his cousin Cromwell assumed the protec- 
 torate, he was made a Major-General, and had 
 the command of the counties of Lincoln, Not- 
 tingham, Derby, Warwick, and Leicester ; where, 
 as he said himself, he " did not leave a vagrant in 
 a whole county." He was member for Notting- 
 hamshire in the Parliaments of 1654 and 1656, 
 and seems to have sat in the Protector's Par- 
 liaments in 1658-9. We find him, according to 
 Burton's curious Diary, an occasional and seem- 
 ingly pertinent speaker. Wlien Cromwell created 
 his miserable mimicry of that House of Peers 
 which he had destroyed, Whalley was made one of 
 the ''Lords" of this " other House;" an honour 
 of which he was so proud, that, in a conversation 
 in Westminster Hall, with Colonel Ashfield, a stout 
 republican, Whalley threatened to cane him for 
 speaking disrespectfully of the new House; and 
 the Colonel defying him, Wlialley, instead of exe- 
 cuting his threat, complained against him to Ri- 
 chard Cromwell, then Protector. Ashfield insisted 
 on being heard by a Council of officers ; which the 
 Protector agreed to — taking care to nominate In- 
 goldsby, Goffe, Howard, and others of his own 
 creatures, who immediately awarded that Ashfield 
 must ask the Lord Commissary-General Whalley's 
 pardon, which the Colonel absolutely refused. 
 
 When the Restoration appeared inevitable, 
 Whalley, seeing that he must lose his estate of 
 Sabtliorpe, purchased of the Duke of Newcastle's 
 trustees, and also the manors in Norfolk (part of 
 Queen Henrietta Maria's jointure,) of which he
 
 MEMOIRS OF THE REGICIDES. 247 
 
 had become possessed, and that his life Mas in 
 jeopardy, left the kingdom ; and on the 22d of Sep- 
 tember, 1660, a reward of 100/. was offered for 
 his discovery. But he, with Colonel Goffe (an- 
 other active regicide), his son-in-law, arrived in 
 America on the 27th of July, 1660, with testi- 
 monials from eminent puritan divines, with which 
 they Avaited at once on the Governor of Boston, 
 who received them courteously. For some little 
 time they resided at Cambridge, four miles from 
 Boston, attending public service, and being re- 
 ceived with respect and hospitality by the inha- 
 bitants. But when the Act of Indemnity arrived 
 at Boston, in November, out of which they were 
 expressly excepted, the magistrates withdrew 
 their protection, and Whalley and Goffe retired to 
 Newhaven. Here they were at first treated with 
 respect by the ministers and magistrates ; but on 
 the arrival of the King's proclamation against the 
 regicides, they were obliged to fly. The Gover- 
 nor issued a warrant for their seizure ; the news 
 arrived of ten of the regicides having been exe- 
 cuted, and a royal mandate reached the colony for 
 their apprehension. They lay hid at the house of 
 Davenport, the minister of Newhaven, till they 
 were removed, on the 11th of March, to one 
 Jones's, and from thence immediately afterwards 
 to a retirement called Hatchet's Harbour, in the 
 woods, where they remained two nights till a cave 
 in the side of a hill was prepared to conceal them. 
 To this hill they gave the name of Providence; 
 and remained some weeks in their hiding place, 
 sleeping, when the weather was tempestuous, in 
 a house near it. They behaved with great 
 R 4
 
 24:H MEMOIRS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 honour towtirds their friends ; and when Mr. 
 Davenport was suspected by the magistrates of 
 conceaUng them, they went pubhcly to the De- 
 puty Governor of Newhaven to offer themselves 
 up ; but he refused to take any notice of them, 
 suffering them to return again to the woods. Tlie 
 pursuit of them soon afterwards relaxing, they 
 remained two years in a house near Milford, where 
 they frequently prayed and preached at private 
 meetings in their chamber ; till, the King's com- 
 missioners coming to Boston, they were again 
 driven to their cave in the woods. Here some 
 Indians in hunting discovered their beds, which 
 obliged them to seek a fresh refuge ; and they 
 went to Hadley, 100 miles distant, where they 
 were received by Mr. Russel, the minister, and 
 remained as long as they lived, very few persons 
 knowing who they were. MTialley's death took 
 place about the year 1679. They confessed that 
 their lives were "miserable, and constant bur- 
 dens to them;" especially when their fanatical 
 hopes of some divine vengeance on Charles II. 
 and his advisers were perpetually disappointed. 
 They were persuaded that the execution of the 
 regicides was the accomplishment of the prophecy 
 as to the slaying of the witnesses ; and they con- 
 fidently reckoned on some signal judgment taking 
 place in a year marked by such a portentous com- 
 bination of figures as the year 1666. 
 
 GoFFE, who married Whalley's daughter, and 
 was the affectionate companion of his exile, had 
 been present at the whole trial in Westminster 
 Hall, and generally in the Painted Chamber,
 
 MEMOIRS OF THE REGICIDES. 249 
 
 and signed the warrant of execution. He was 
 son of a puritanical divine, rector of Stanmer in 
 Sussex, and was apprenticed to a presbyterian 
 drysalter in London, a great partisan of the Par- 
 liament. Disgusted with trade, he left his master 
 and enlisted in the Parliament army, where he 
 rose to be a Quarter-Master and Colonel of foot. 
 He was a vehement puritan, and zealously at- 
 tached to the interest of Cromwell, his wife's 
 cousin ; accompanied him to Scotland in 1651 ; 
 and assisted in Colonel Pride's Purge, and in 
 clearing out the few stubborn members who 
 remained when Praise God Barebones ParUament 
 was dissolved by Cromwell. 
 
 He sat for Great Yarmouth in Cromwell's 
 Parliament in 1654-, and for Hampshire in that of 
 1656 ; and, as appears by Burton's Diary, was an 
 occasional speaker in the House. He was after- 
 wards made one of Cromwell's " Lords" of the 
 " other House." On his death he signed the order 
 for proclaiming Richard Cromwell ; and remained 
 attached to this feeble Protector, and adverse 
 alike to the royalist and the republican party. 
 His wife's fidelity and affection to him after his 
 expatriation were remarkably displayed in her 
 letters. 
 
 Colonel Richard Ingoldsby (afterwards Sir 
 Richard Ligoldsby, created Knight of the Bath 
 by Charles 11.) stands in the singular predica- 
 ment of having signed the warrant for Charles's 
 death, without having once attended the Court 
 either at Westminster Hall or in the Painted 
 Chamber. He was first cousin once removed to
 
 250 MEMOIRS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 Oliver Cromwell ; his mother, the daughter of Sir 
 Oliver Cromwell, of Hiiichinbrook House (now 
 tne seat of the Sandwich family), having been 
 first cousin to Oliver ; and his father, Sir Richard 
 Ingoldsby, having been knighted by James I., 
 when that King, in one of his progresses, visited 
 Sir Oliver at Hinchinbrook. The Ingoldsbys 
 were an ancient family seated at Leathenbo- 
 rough, in Buckinghamshire ; and Sir Richard 
 and his wife (Oliver's cousin) were strenuous 
 partisans of the Parliament from the commence- 
 ment of the war. Their son, Colonel Richard, 
 who was educated in puritanical and antimon- 
 archical principles, at the commencement of the 
 war obtained a captain's commission in his relation 
 Hampden's regiment. In 164-4, he was taken 
 prisoner by the King's officers ; and on regaining 
 his liberty he was raised to the rank of a Co- 
 lonel of foot, and then of horse. His gallant 
 services, and his near connection with Cromwell 
 and Hampden, made him the object of much 
 confidence by the Parliament. The important 
 post of commandant in the city of Oxford was 
 intrusted to him. He was one of the members 
 of the Long Parliament, but did not sit till after 
 the King's death, probably from being engaged 
 in military duties. In 1650, he was sent to Ire- 
 land by the Parliament, where he distinguished 
 himself in several gallant actions. In 1652, we 
 find him a new member added (as well as Alger- 
 non Sidney) to the Protector's Council of State 
 and in 1654 and 1656, he sat in Cromwell's Par- 
 liaments. He was afterwards made one of the 
 Lords of the " other House."
 
 MEMOIRS OF THE REGICIDES. 251 
 
 After Oliver's death he zealously adhered to 
 his son Richard, with whom his gaiety and free- 
 dom from the prevalent fanatical austerity ren- 
 dered him a favourite. Ludlow% with his usual 
 gravity, says, " Another thing happened about 
 the same time, that proved very disadvantageous 
 to the interest of Mr. Richard Cromwell : for a 
 certain inferior officer having publicly murmured 
 at the advancement of some that had been cava- 
 liers to commands in the army, he was carried to 
 Wliitehall to answer for the same. Mr. Richard 
 Cromwell, besides other reproachful language, 
 asked him in a deriding manner, whether he 
 would have him prefer none but those that were 
 godly ? ' Here,' continued he, ' is Dick In- 
 goldsby, who can neither pray nor preach, and 
 yet I will trust him before ye all.' Those im- 
 prudent as well as irreligious words, so clearly 
 discovering the frame and temper of his mind, 
 were soon published in the army and city of 
 London, to his great prejudice." Ingoldsby, after 
 the deposition of Richard Cromwell, was ap- 
 pointed one of the Council of Safety, where he 
 used all his power to recommend himself to 
 Charles II., whose restoration he saw was ap- 
 proaching. Monk, who knew his sentiments, 
 intrusted him with Rich's regiment, which re- 
 ceived their commander with great satisfaction. 
 He was the means of crushing the last effort of 
 republicanism, by defeating and taking prisoner 
 General Lambert, who had escaped from the 
 Tower, and was in negotiation with Ludlow and 
 other officers, and at the head of a small and in- 
 creasing force. These important services, as well
 
 252 MEMOIRS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 as the extraordinary explanation (true or false) 
 which he gave of his signature of the warrant of 
 execution, saved him from the fate of the other 
 regicides, and recommended him, out of all the 
 number, to favour under the restored King. Lud- 
 low says that his pardon was expressly obtained 
 before the King landed ; but Clarendon says that 
 he made no stipulations, but told Mr. Mordaunt 
 " that he would perform all the services he could, 
 without making any conditions, and be well con- 
 tent that the King should take off his head if he 
 thought fit; only desired that his Majesty might 
 know the truth of his case." His story was this. 
 — Having occasion to go to the Painted Cham- 
 ber on business with an officer, on the day the 
 warrant was signed, he found the King's Judges 
 assembled. Cromwell, seeing him, immediately 
 laid hold of him and said, " Though you have es- 
 caped me all the while before, you shall now sign 
 that paper as well as they." But when he dis- 
 covered what it was, he refused with vehemence ; 
 upon which Cromwell and others pulled him to 
 the table, and Oliver, putting the pen between his 
 fingers, guided his hand, and, laughing loudly, 
 wrote "Richard Ingoldsby" — he making all the 
 resistance he could. The handwriting, Ingoldsby 
 declared, would, on inspection, appear quite dif- 
 ferent from his own. The name on the warrant 
 is, we find, remarkably clearly and well written ; 
 more so than could easily have been the case, had 
 it been penned as Ingoldsby described. And if 
 this story be true, his seal must also have been 
 taken and used by force. For the arms of the 
 Ingoldsbys of Bucks (Ermine, a saltier engrailed
 
 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 253 
 
 sable) are set opposite his name. His absence 
 during the whole trial might, perhaps, be owing 
 to his military duty. And the story which he told 
 Mr. Mordaunt was the best excuse he could in- 
 vent as a ground for the King's mercy. Though 
 not very probable, it certainly was not ill adapted 
 to the character and habits of Cromwell. In- 
 goldsby was made a Knight of the Bath by 
 Charles on his coronation, and served in the 
 Parliaments of 1661, 1679, and 1680, for Ayles- 
 bury, near which town he resided. He married 
 the widow of Thomas Lee, Esq. of Hartwell, 
 Bucks, daughter of Sir George Croke, Knight, 
 one of the Justices of the King's Bench, a very 
 learned Judge, well known for his valuable Re- 
 ports of Cases in the times of Elizabeth, James, 
 and Charles. Ingoldsby was buried in Hartwell 
 Church, September 16. 1685. 
 
 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 Introduction. — After the restoration of the 
 monarchy under Charles II., one of the first 
 objects which occupied that Prince and his Par- 
 liament was the judicial punishment of the mur- 
 derers of his father. In a declaration addi-essed 
 to his subjects from Jersey, a few months after 
 the King's death, Charles II. declared, " that out 
 of a bitter sense and indignation of those horrid 
 proceedings against our dear father, we are, ac- 
 cording to the laws of nature and justice, firmly
 
 254 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 resolved, by the assistance of Almighty God, 
 though we perish alone in the enterprise, to be 
 a severe avenger of his innocent blood, which 
 was so barbarously spilt, and which calls aloud 
 to Heaven for vengeance." In the letters to the 
 two Houses of Parliament, and the declarations 
 sent over from Breda in 1660, immediately before 
 his own arrival, which are written with the con- 
 ciliatory and joyful spirit natural on the occasion, 
 this bitter topic is more delicately alluded to. 
 After leaving it entirely to the Parliament to ar- 
 range such a security and indemnity to all persons 
 for their past conduct as they in their wisdom 
 shall think proper, the King says, " If there be a 
 crying sin for which the nation may be involved in 
 the infamy that attends it, we cannot doubt but 
 that you will be as solicitous to redeem it, and vin- 
 dicate the nation from that guilt and infamy, as we 
 can be ;" and in the accompanying " Declaration " 
 he offers a free pardon to all persons who shall, 
 within forty days of that act of grace, avail them- 
 selves of it, and return to their duty and allegiance, 
 " excepting only such persons as shall hereafter 
 be excepted by Parliament." The House of Com- 
 mons, in tlieir zealous and ardently loyal answer 
 to the King's letter, thus express themselves as 
 to the death of the late King : — " Surelj^ Sir, as 
 the persons of our kings have ever been dear 
 unto parliaments, so we cannot think of that 
 horrid act committed against the precious life 
 of our late sovereign, but with such a detestation 
 and abhorrency as we want words to express it ; 
 and next to wishing it had never been, we wish it 
 may never be remembered by your Majesty to be
 
 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 255 
 
 unto you an occasion of sorrow, as it will never be 
 remembered by us but with that grief and trouble 
 of mind which it deserves ; being the greatest re- 
 proach that ever was incurred by any of the 
 English nation, an offence to all the protestant 
 churches abroad, and a scandal to the profession 
 of the truth of religion here at home." 
 
 On the 6th of June, 1660, the King pubHshed 
 a proclamation : — " Wliereas Owen Roe, Augus- 
 tine Garland, Robert Tichbourne, (and the other ^ 
 regicides) being guilty of the most detestable and 
 bloody treason, in sitting upon and giving judg- 
 ment against the life of our royal father, and out 
 of a sense of their own guilt, have lately fled and 
 obscured themselves, whereby they cannot be ap- 
 prehended and brought to a personal trial for their 
 said treasons according to law. We do, therefore, 
 by the advice of our Parliament, command, pub- 
 lish, and declare, that all and every the persons 
 before named shall, wiOiin fourteen days next after 
 the publishing of this our royal proclamation, 
 personally appear and render themselves to our 
 Speaker, under pain of being excepted from any 
 pardon or indemnity both for their respective 
 lives and estates." 
 
 An Act of free pardon, indemnity, and oblivion, 
 was immediately afterwards passed by the two 
 Houses and the King, as to all treasons and po- 
 litical crimes committed between the 1st of Ja- 
 nuary, 1637, and the 24th of June, 1660. But 
 It was expressly provided that the Act should not 
 pardon or give any benefit to tlie regicides after 
 
 * Seep. 272.
 
 256 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 mentioned — John Lisle, William Say, Sir Hard- 
 ress Waller, Valentine Wauton, Tliomas Harrison, 
 Edward Whalley, William Heveningham, Isaac 
 Pennington, Henry Marten, John Barkstead, 
 Gilbert Millington, Edmmid Ludlow, Sir Mi- 
 chael Livesey, Robert Tichbom'ne, Owen Rowe, 
 Robert Lilburn, Adrian Scroop, John Okey, John 
 Hewson, William GofFe, Cornelius Holland, Tho- 
 mas Challoner, John Carew, John Jones, Miles 
 Corbet, Henry Smyth, Gregory Clement, Tliomas 
 Wogan, Edmund Harvey, Thomas Scot, William 
 Cawley, John Downs, Nicholas Love, Vincent 
 Potter, Augustine Garland, John Dixwell, George 
 Fleetwood, Simon Meyn, James Temple, Peter 
 Temple, Daniel Blagrave, Thomas Wait, John 
 Cook, Andrew Broughton, Edward Dendy, Wil- 
 ham Hewlet, Hew Peters, Francis Hacker, Daniel 
 Axtel, nor those two persons, who, being dis- 
 guised by frocks and visors, did appear upon 
 the scaffold before Whitehall, upon the thirtieth 
 of January, one thousand six hmidred and forty- 
 eight : all which persons, for their execrable 
 treason, in sentencing to death, or signing the 
 instrument for the horrid murder, or being in- 
 strumental in taking away the precious life of 
 our late sovereign Charles the First of glorious 
 memory, are left to be proceeded against as 
 traitors to his late Majesty, according to the 
 laws of England, and are out of this present Act 
 wholly 1 excepted and foreprised. 
 
 1 The persons thus excepted, as to life and property, out of 
 the Indemnity Act, were all those who were living at the Re- 
 storation (Ingoldsby excepted), who had signed the warrant 
 for the King's execution, and also Colonel Harvey, Alder-
 
 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 257 
 
 Nineteen of the excepted persons, viz. Owen 
 Rowe, Augustine Garland, Edniund Harvey, Henry 
 Smith, Henry Marten, Sir Hardress Waller, Robert 
 Tichbourne, George Fleetwood, James Temple, 
 Thomas Wait, Simon Meyn, William Hevening- 
 ham, Isaac Pennington, Peter Temple, Robert 
 Lilburn, Gilbert Millington, Vincent Potter, Tho- 
 mas Wogan, and John Downs, personally appeared 
 and tendered themselves, according to the King's 
 
 man Pennington, John Lisle, Nicholas Love, William 
 Heveningham, and Cornelius Holland, who had not signed 
 the warrant, but who had sat on the trial, and been present 
 at the sentence. The exception also comprised Cook, the 
 Counsel for the " people of England ; " Broughton, the Clerk 
 of the Court; Dendy, the Serjeant-at-Arms; Hewlet, the 
 supposed executioner ; Hugh Peters, the republican 
 preacher; and the Colonels Hacker and Axtell who had 
 been active in the trial and execution. Sir Harry Vane, and 
 Lambert, though not partakers in the trial, were also wholly 
 excepted from the Act. Vane was tried and executed, 14th 
 June, 1662. Lambert died in prison. Twenty-two of those 
 who signed the warrant for Charles's execution had died 
 before the Restoration, among whom were Cromwell, Brad- 
 shaw, Ireton, Lord Grey, Sir John Bourchier, Colonel 
 Pride, Sir John Danvers, Sir Will. Constable, &c. &c. All 
 these were attainted by the Act, so that their estates were for- 
 feited to the Crown. The manner in which Colonel In- 
 gold sby made his peace with Charles IL has been before 
 described. Colonel Tomlinson, who had guarded the 
 King at his execution, was allowed to have the benefit of 
 the Act, on account of his humane and respectful beha- 
 viour towards Charles. It is said to have been through 
 the interest of Sir William Davenant, that Milton, who had 
 so zealously defended, in his writings, the destruction of 
 Charles I., was not inserted in the excepting clause. 
 Milton is said to have been the means of saving his friend 
 Davenant's life during the rebellion. — Burnet, vol. i. 277. 
 Speaker Onslow's note. 
 
 S
 
 258 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 proclamation of the sixth day of June, one thou- 
 sand six hundi-ed and sixty, and on this ground 
 laid ground to some favour. As to them, the 
 Act provided, That if they should be legally at- 
 tainted for the horrid treason and murther afore- 
 said ; then, nevertheless, their execution should 
 he suspended^ until his Majesty, by the advice of the 
 Lords and Commons in Parliament^ should order 
 execution by Act of Parliament. ^ 
 
 When the trial of the Regicides was determmed 
 upon, the Judges and law officers of the Crown held 
 
 ' None of these persons were executed. Colonel Adrian 
 Scroop also surrendered ; but he was proved to have said to 
 the Lord Mayor elect (when asked if he thought it well done 
 to murder the King), " Sir, I will not make you my con- 
 fessor." — Owing to these words, which were reported in 
 tlie House of Commons, his name was included in the ex- 
 ception, without being included in the proviso favourable to 
 those surrendering ; and he was executed. 
 
 John Carew was, according to Ludlow, seized within the 
 fourteen days, by a justice of the peace, under a warrant 
 mistaking his name, and the officer refusing to detain him, 
 Carew told him he was the person intended, and told him 
 where he was going. The Commons voted this not to be 
 a surrender, and Carew was accordingly excepted uncon- 
 ditionally, and tried and executed. Much contest took place 
 between the two Houses as to the meaning of the King's 
 proclamation. The Commons contended, that the fair con- 
 struction was, that those who surrendered within the fourteen 
 days were to enjoy the indemnity as to life and estate. The 
 Lords, on the other hand, urged that such persons were 
 only to have a legal trial, instead of being condemned for 
 contumacy in disobeying the proclamation. Clarendon in- 
 deed affirmed, that the proclamation was only in the nature 
 of a subpoena.- In order to accommodate the difference, he 
 suggested the expedient, which was actually adopted, viz. 
 that those who had surrendered should not be executed, if con- 
 demned, till the Parliament should pass an Act to that effect.
 
 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 259 
 
 a meeting in Serjeants' Inn, Fleet Street, in order 
 to consider of various legal questions affecting the 
 proceedings. Only four seats on the Bench were at 
 that time tilled; and these four Judges, Sir Orlando 
 Bridgman (Chief Baron of the Exchequer), Fos- 
 ter and Hide (Judges of the Common Pleas), and 
 Mallet (Judge of the King's Bench — which had 
 been called the Upper Bench during the Com- 
 monwealth), together with Sir Geoffry Palmer 
 and Sir Heneage Finch (the King's Attorney and 
 Solicitor General), and Sir Edward Turner (At- 
 torney to the Duke of York), Mr. Wadham Wind- 
 ham, of Lincoln's Inn, and Serjeant Keeling, 
 specially appointed Counsel for the King (Ser- 
 jeant Glanville, the King's Serjeant to Charles I., 
 being then old and infirm), attended these meet- 
 ings. 
 
 It was resolved by these eminent lawyers to 
 be most expedient to try the prisoners at New- 
 gate by a Commission of Gaol Delivery, and writs 
 were accordingly ordered to be issued to the 
 Lieutenant of the Tower, in whose custody they 
 then were, to deliver them to the Sheriffs of 
 London ; and writs were directed to the Sheriffs 
 to remove them to Newgate. These writs, 
 which were accordingly issued, were ordered to 
 be in English, since the use of the English lan- 
 guage in judicial records, which had been intro- 
 duced under the Commonwealth, and was now to 
 be again replaced by the Latin, was continued by 
 Act of Parliament till Michaelmas Term (Novem- 
 ber 6th), which was then a few months distant, i 
 
 1 The technical law Latin superseded the Norman French 
 for the enrolment and recording of legal proceedings, 
 
 s 2
 
 260 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 It was resolved to arraign all the prisoners at 
 once on the first day of the sessions, and then to 
 
 after Edward III.'s victories over the French; being in- 
 troduced by the Statute 36 Edward 3. c. 15. ; and it 
 continued in use till after the destruction of Charles I. 
 and the Monarchy, when the Records were turned into 
 English. The change appears to have been by no means 
 convenient, the practisers finding it difficult to express 
 themselves in drawing up the Records so concisely and 
 significantly in any language as the Latin. At the Restor- 
 ation the Latin language was again introduced, and used till 
 1730, when it w^as provided by Act of Parliament, that the 
 proceedings should be done into English, in order, as the 
 Statute recites, that the common people might have know- 
 ledge and understanding of what was alleged or done for 
 or against them, in the process and pleadings of a cause, — 
 which purpose, as Blackstone truly observes, has not been 
 answered, the people (necessarily) being as ignorant in 
 matters of law as before. Two serious inconveniences are 
 mentioned by Blackstone to have resulted from the change, 
 viz.: that many clerks and attornies are hardly able to read, 
 much less understand, a record even of so modern a date as 
 George I. ; and Lord Ellenborougli lamented that, since 
 the change, " the literature of the inferior branches of 
 the profession had receded." The other objection (which 
 has now been removed as far as relates to stamps, by the 
 late abolition of the stamps on law proceedings) was, that 
 the length of proceedings was considerably increased by the 
 English language being much more verbose than the Latin. 
 The three words, " secundum formam statuii," make seven 
 in English, " according to the form of the statute."" The 
 four words " contra pacem Domini Regis," require eight in 
 the English translation, " against the peace of our Lord the 
 King. " It became absolutely necessary, two years after the 
 alteration was made, to pass an Act (6 Geo. 2. c. 14.) to 
 allow technical phrases still to remain in the usual tongue 
 it being utterly impossible to convert with decent gravity 
 the terms Jieri facias, quare impedit, nisi prius, habeas corpus 
 into their English equivalents.
 
 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 261 
 
 proceed, the next day, with their trials. And it 
 was determined that, as it was usual in ordinary 
 cases for the prosecutor to go before the Grand 
 Jury, and to manage the evidence adduced to 
 ground the Bill, in this case the King's Counsel 
 might perform that office, since they were the 
 real prosecutors, and the King could not pro- 
 secute in person. 1 
 
 It was resolved that the indictment should be 
 for compassing and imagining the death of Charles 
 
 1 This improper practice (now long disused) appears to 
 have been flagrantly abused in the trials of Fitzharris, and 
 of College (the " Protestant joiner ," for treason, in 1681. 
 In the latter case, the London Grand Jury disbelieved the 
 evidence, and threw out the Bill, (the charge being a conspi- 
 racy to seize the King at Oxford,) when the King's Counsel 
 with the witnesses proceeded immediately to the Oxford As- 
 sizes, and persuaded the Grand Jury to find the Bill, *' but 
 by what arts," says Sir John Hawkes, Solicitor- General to 
 William III., " is not known, for he was privately shut 
 up with them, and I should wonder if he who frequently, 
 in the hearing of those who understood better than himself, 
 had assurance enough to impose upon the Courts, (it was 
 Jeffries,) should scruple in private to impose any thing on 
 an ignorant jury." Sir John truly says, " if the Grand Jury 
 have a doubt in point of law, they ought to have recourse 
 to the Court, and that publicly and not privately, and not 
 rely upon the private opinion of the Counsel, especially Ot 
 the King's Counsel." Such is the modern practice. On 
 the indictment of Hardy, Home Tooke, &c. for treason, in 
 1794, and also on the indictments of Watson, Thistlewood, 
 and others, in 1817, the Solicitor for the Crown attended 
 the Grand Jury by leave of the Court. In general cases, 
 the prosecutor (who is always a witness) alone attends the 
 Grand Jury with the other witnesses. In cases of treason 
 it seems necessary that some person should attend to ex- 
 plain the evidence ; and the real security against improper 
 practices must be in the Jurv themselves, 
 s 3
 
 262 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 (which is the specific treason described by the 
 statute 25 Edward 3.), and then that the actual 
 murder of the King should be precisely laid in 
 the indictment, with its special circumstances, 
 and should be made use of as one of the overt 
 acts to prove the compassing of his death.i 
 
 1 The English law contains no express provision against 
 killing the Sovereign ; and accordingly, when this atrocity 
 demanded punishment, the refinement was resorted to of 
 considering his murder as an overt act proving the "com- 
 passing and imagining his death," which is the treason 
 denounced by the statute. The absence of a direct pro- 
 hibition gave rise to a serious practical anomaly ; for 
 the statute of 1 Edward 6. c. 12. requires tno witnesses 
 to support every indictment for treason, and consequently 
 the destroyer of the King could not be convicted with- 
 out two witnesses, while one was sufficient to convict an 
 ordinary murderer. The absurdity we > increased, when 
 further protections were afforded to the prisoners tried for 
 treason, by the statutes of William III. and Queen Anne, 
 which required that they should be furnished with lists of 
 the Jury and witnesses, and a copyo the indictment, before 
 the trial, and gave them the great benefit of a Counsel em- 
 powered to address the Jury on their b' half. Accordingly, 
 all these advantages were extended co Hadfield, when 
 tried for shooting at his Majesty Georj e III., in the play- 
 house, though, had he merely pistolled a box-keeper, he 
 would have been tried as a common felon, and Erskine's noble 
 oration would never have been heard. " The fault was then 
 remedied," says ajudicious writer in the Quarterly Revieiv, 
 October, 1827, "as far as the King is concerned, (by the 
 Statute S9 and 40. Geo. .S. c. 93 , passed soon after Had- 
 field's trial,) buttraitort; who may assassinate a Queen or heir 
 apparent, or kill a Judge or Privy Counsellor in the exe- 
 cution of his office, or commit certain other acts of direct 
 outrage constituting treason, are still left in possession of 
 all their privileges."
 
 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 263 
 
 It was resolved that when the prisoners come 
 to the bar to be tried, their irons ought to be 
 taken off, so that they be not in any torture 
 while tliey make their defence, be their crime 
 never so great. i 
 
 It not being known what hand had given the 
 murderous blow to tlie King, it was resolved 
 
 I In Bracton, Fleta, and other ancient authorities, it is 
 laid down, that though an indictment be of the highest 
 nature, yet the prisoner must be brought to the bar without 
 irons, or any manner of shackles or bonds, unless there be 
 danger of an escape; and in Cranbome's case, 1696, (13 
 State Trials,) when the prisoner was brought in, being 
 sent for to be present at a preliminary motion on his behalf, 
 Lord Holt, the Chief Justice, seeing him in irons, said, 
 " Look you, keeper, you should take off the prisoners' 
 irons when they are at the bar, for they should stand at 
 ease when they are tried." In Layer's case, in 1722, the 
 prisoner's Counsel urged that his fetters should be taken off 
 before he pleaded, and the resolution in the text by the 
 Judges was cited. Pratt, Chief Justice, said, " No doubt, 
 when he comes upon his trial the authority is, that he is not 
 to be m vinculis, but should be so far free that he should 
 have the use of his reason and all advantages to clear his 
 innocence : but when he is only called upon to plead, and 
 his Counsel by him to advise him what to plead, why are 
 his chains to be taken off this minute and to be put on 
 again the next ? If we should order his chains to be taken 
 off, and he escape, I do not know but we are guilty of his 
 escape." And, accordingly, he remained in irons while 
 some preliminary objections were taken by his Counsel, and 
 while he pleaded. But when brought up on a following 
 day for trial, the Chief Justice said, " The irons must be 
 taken off, we will not stir till the irons are taken off." It 
 is now accordingly held, that the Court has no authority 
 to order the irons to be taken off till the prisoner has pVoaded 
 and the jury are charged to try him. See 4 Blackstone's 
 Commentaries, p. 322. 
 
 s 4<
 
 264? TRIALS OF THE IlEGICIDES. 
 
 that it should be laid in the indictment, that 
 
 iam ignotus, 
 the act; and that the other persons should be 
 alleged to be present, aiding and assisting. These 
 niceties of the law, which may appear trifling 
 to thoughtless persons, show the conscientious 
 regard paid to established forms and principles 
 by the Judges of the land, when proceeding to 
 judgment on the most heinous criminals against 
 the father of their Sovereign. They place the pro- 
 ceeding in the most striking contrast with that 
 shameful mockery of all rules and principles which 
 had been resorted to for the destruction of Charles I. 
 On the 9th of October, 1660, the proceedings 
 commenced at Hicks's Hall, Clerkenwell, when 
 the Commission of Oyer and Terminer was read. 
 It was directed to the Lord Mayor (Sir Thomas 
 Alleyn, Bart.), the Lord Chancellor (Claren- 
 don), the Earl of Southampton (Lord Treasurer), 
 the Duke of Somerset, the Duke of Albemarle 
 (General Monk), the Marquis of Ormond (Stew- 
 ard of the Household), Earl of Lindsay (Great 
 Chamberlain), Earl of Manchester (the Par- 
 liamentary General, Chamberlain of the King's 
 Household), Earl of Dorset, the Earl of Berk- 
 shire, Earl of Sandwich, Viscount Say and 
 Sele, Lords Roberts and Finch, Denzill Hol- 
 lis. Esquire (afterwards Lord Hollis, the famous 
 leader of the Presbyterians), Sir Frederick 
 Cornwallis, Bart. (Treasurer of the Household), 
 Sir Charles Berkley, Knt. (Comptroller), Mr. 
 Secretary Nicholas, Mr. Secretary Morris, Sir 
 Anthony Ashley Cooper (afterwards I>ord Shaft- 
 esbury), Arthur Annesley, Esquire (afterwards
 
 THE CHIEF baron's CHARGE. 265 
 
 Lord Anglesey), the Lord Chief Baron (Sir O. 
 Bridgman), Mr. Justice Foster, Mr. Justice 
 Mallet, Mr. Justice Hide, Mr. Justice Atkins, 
 Mr. Justice Twisden, Mr. Justice Tyrrel, Mr. 
 Baron Turner, Sir Harbottle Grimston, Bart. 
 (Speaker of the House of Commons), Sir William 
 Wild, Bart. (Recorder of London), Mr. Serjeant 
 Brown, Mr. Serjeant Hale (Sir Matthew Hale, 
 afterwards Chief Baron, and Chief Justice of 
 England), John Howel, Esquire, Sir Geoffrey- 
 Palmer (Attorney-General), and Sir Heneage 
 Finch (Solicitor-General, afterwards Lord Not- 
 tingham), Sir Edward Turner (Attorney-General 
 to the Duke of York), Wadham W^indham, and 
 Edward Shelton, Esquires (Clerk of the Crown). 
 The Grand Jury, of which Sir William Darcey, 
 Bart., was foreman, was composed of five Ba- 
 ronets, four Knights, seven Esquires, and three 
 Gentlemen. They were sworn in the usual 
 manner. 
 
 After proclamation for silence was made. Sir 
 Orlando Bridgman, Lord Chief Baron of the Ex- 
 chequer, spoke to the Jury as followeth : — 
 
 The Lord Chief Barons speech Gentlemen, 
 
 — You are the Grand Inquest for the body of this 
 county of Middlesex. You may perceive by this 
 Commission that hath been read, that we are au- 
 thorised by the King's Majesty to hear and deter- 
 mine all treasons, felonies, and other offences 
 within this county : but because this Commission 
 is upon a special occasion, the execrable murder 
 of the blessed King, that is now a saint in Heaven, 
 King Charles the First, we shall not trouble you 
 with the heads of a long charge. The ground of
 
 266 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 this Commission was, and is, from the Act of Ob- 
 hvion and Indemnity. You shall find in that act 
 there is an exception of several persons, who (for 
 their execrable treasons, in sentencing to death 
 and signing the warrant for the taking away the 
 life of om' said Sovereign) are left to be pro- 
 ceeded against as traitors, according to the laws 
 of England, and are out of that act wholly ex- 
 cepted and foreprised. 
 
 Gentlemen, — You see these persons are to be 
 proceeded with according to the laws of the land ; 
 and I shall speak nothing to you but what are 
 the words of the laws. By the statute of tlie 
 25th of Edward the Third (a Statute or Declar- 
 ation of Treason), it is made high treason to com- 
 pass and imagine the death of the King. It was 
 the ancient law of the nation. This compassing 
 and imagining the cutting off the head of the King 
 is known by some overt act. 
 
 Then what is an overt act of an imagination 
 or compassing of the King's death ? Truly, it is 
 any thing which shows what the imagination is. 
 Words, in many cases, are evidence of this ima- 
 gination ; they are evidences of the heart. But 
 if men shall go and consult together to kill the 
 King, to put him to death, this consultation is 
 clearly an overt act to prove this imagination, or 
 compassing of the King's death. 
 
 But what will you say, then, if men do not 
 only go about to conspire and consult, but take 
 upon them to judge, condemn, nay put to death, 
 the King ? Certainly, this is so much beyond the 
 imagination and compassing, as it is not only 
 laying the cockatrice's egg, but brooding upon it
 
 THE CHIEF baron's CHARGE. 267 
 
 till it hath brought forth a serpent. I must 
 deliver to you for plain and true law, that no 
 authority, no single person, no community or 
 persons, not the people collectively, or represent- 
 atively, have any coercive power over the King 
 of England. 
 
 Gentlemen, — Let me tell you what our law- 
 books say. How do they style the King ? They 
 call him', " the Lieutenant of God ;" and the 
 book of 1 Henry VH., says " the King is imme- 
 diate from God, and hath no superior." The 
 statutes say, that the Crown of England is imme- 
 diately subject to God, and to no other power. 
 Common experience tells you, when we speak 
 of the King, and so the statutes of Edward the 
 Third, we call the King, " Our sovereign Lord 
 the King:" " Sovereign," that is, "Supreme." 
 Look upon the statute 1 James ; there is a re- 
 cognition, that the crown of England was law- 
 fully descended on the King and his progeny. 
 [The statute itself was read, to which the reader 
 is referred.] 
 
 These are the words of the act. And this is 
 not the first precedent ; for you shall find it 1 
 Eliz. c. 3. They do acknowledge the Imperial 
 Crown lawfully descended on the Queen, the same 
 recognition with this. 
 
 Gentlemen, — This is no new thing to talk of an 
 Emperor, or an Imperial Crown. Do not mistake 
 me all this while : it is one thing to have an 
 Imperial Crown, and another thing to govern ab- 
 solutely. 
 
 God forbid I should intend any absolute go- 
 vernment by this. It is one thing to have an
 
 268 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 Absolute Monarchy, another thing to have that 
 government absohitely without laws, as to any 
 coercive power over the person of the King ; for 
 as to things or actions, they will fall under an- 
 other consideration, as I will tell you by and by. 
 
 Gentlemen, — Since this is so, consider the Oath 
 of Supremacy which most men have taken or 
 should take. All men that enter into the Parlia- 
 ment House, they are expressly enjoined by sta- 
 tute to take the Oath of Supremacy. What says 
 that oath ? We swear that " the King is the only 
 supreme governor within this realm and domi- 
 nions." I do set forth this, and declare this to you, 
 to let you know that the King was immediately 
 subject to God, and so was not punishable by any 
 person ; yet let me tell you there is that excellent 
 temperament in our laws, that for all this the King 
 cannot rule but by his laws. It preserves the 
 King, and his person, and the people's rights. 
 
 There are three things touching which the law 
 is conversant, personce, res^ et actiones; persons, 
 things^ and actions. For the person of the King, 
 he is the supreme head, he is not punishable by 
 any coercive power : the laws provide for that. 
 Now the law, though it provide for the King, 
 yet if any of his ministers do wrong, though by 
 his command, they are punishable. The King 
 cannot arrest a man, as he cannot be arrested 
 himself; but if he arrest me by another man, I 
 have remedy against this man, though not against 
 the King ; and so he cannot take away my estate. 
 This as to the person of the King : he is not to be 
 touched. " Touch not mine Anointed." 
 
 I come to things. If the King claim a right,
 
 THE CHIEF baron's CHARGE. 269 
 
 the King must sue according to his laws; the 
 King is subject to the laws in that case, his pos- 
 sessions shall be tried by juries. If he will try a 
 man for his father's death, you see he will try 
 them by the laws. 
 
 Then for actions, that is, such actions whereby 
 rights and titles are prosecuted or recovered ; the 
 King cannot judge in person betwixt man and 
 man, he does it by his Judges, and upon oath ; 
 and so in all cases whatsoever, if the King will 
 have his right, it must be brought before his 
 Judges. Though this is an Absolute Monarchy, 
 yet this is so far from infringing the people's 
 rights, that the people, as to their properties, 
 liberties, and lives, have as great a privilege as 
 the King. It is not the sharing of government 
 that is for the liberty and benefit of the people ; 
 but it is how they may have their lives, and 
 liberties, and estates, safely secured under govern- 
 ment. And you know, when the fatness of the 
 olive was laid aside, and we were governed by 
 brambles, these brambles they did not only tear 
 the skin, but tore the flesh to the very bone. 
 
 Gentlemen, — To come a little nearer : sup- 
 pose there were the highest authority, what then ? 
 but when we shall consider this horrid murder 
 (truly I cannot almost speak of it, but " Vox 
 faucibus haeret"), when we consider, that a £ew 
 members of the House of Commons, those that 
 had taken- the Oath of Supremacy, and the Oath 
 of Allegiance, that was to defend the King, and 
 his heirs, against all conspiracies and attempts 
 whatsoever, against his person, crown, and dig- 
 nity, by any power, authority, or pretence what-
 
 270 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 soever : I say, when a few members of the House 
 of Comm.ons, — not an eighth part of them, — 
 having taken these oaths, shall assume upon them- 
 selves an authority ; — an authority, what to do ? 
 Shall assume an authority to make laws, which 
 was never heard before ; authority to make what 
 laws? A law for an High Court of Justice, a 
 law for lives, to sentence men's lives ; — and whose 
 life? The life of their Sovereign: upon such a 
 King, who, as to them, had not only redressed 
 long before, at the beginning of the Parliament, 
 all grievances that were, and were imaginable, 
 taken away the Star Chamber, High Commission 
 Court, and Ship Money; such a King, and after 
 such concessions that he had made in the Isle 
 of Wight ; more than the people would have de- 
 sired : when these few Commons, not only with- 
 out, but excluding the rest of the Commons ; not 
 only excluding the rest, but rejecting the Lords 
 too : when these few Commons shall take upon 
 them this authority, and by colour of this, their 
 King, sovereign liege Lord, shall be sentenced, 
 put to death ; put to death as their King, and this 
 before his own door, even before that place where 
 he used in Royal Majesty to hear ambassadors, 
 to have his honourable entertainments ; it is such 
 an aggravation of villany, that truly I cannot tell 
 what to say. No story, I do not think any ro- 
 mance, any fabulous tragedy, can produce the like. 
 Gentlemen, — If any person shall now come, and 
 shroud himself under this pretended authority, 
 this is so far from an excuse, that it is an height 
 of aggravation. I have no more to add, but one 
 particular.
 
 THE CHIEF baron's CHARGE. 271 
 
 As you will have Bills presented against those 
 for compassing, imagining the death of the King, 
 so possibly you may have Bills presented against 
 some of those for levying war against the King. 
 Levying of war is another branch of the statute 
 of the 25th Edward III. It was but declarative 
 of the common law. By that law it was treason 
 to levy war against the King. But to levy war 
 against the King's authority, you must know, 
 is treason too. If men will take up arms upon 
 any public pretence ; if it be to expulse aliens ; 
 if but to pull out privy counsellors ; if it be but 
 against any particular laws, to reform religion, to 
 pull down inclosures. In all these cases, if per- 
 sons have assembled themselves in a warlike man- 
 ner to do any of these acts, this is treason, and 
 within that branch of levying war against the 
 King (Croke Car. 583.). This was adjudged in 
 the late King's time, in Queen Elizabeth's, in 
 Henry VIII.'s, in King James's time ; much more, 
 if men will go not only to levy war against the 
 King, but against all the laws, to subvert all the 
 laws, to set up new laws, models of their own. 
 If any of these cases come to be presented to you, 
 you know what the laws are. To conclude ; you 
 are now to enquire of blood, of royal blood, of 
 sacred blood, blood like that of the Saints under 
 the altar, crying, Qiiousque, Domine, &c. This 
 blood cries for vengeance, and it will not be ap- 
 peased without a bloody sacrifice. 
 
 God save the King. Amen. 
 
 His Lordsliip's speech being ended, there was 
 presented to the Grand Jury a Bill of Indict-
 
 272 ARRAIGNMENT OF THE PRISONERS. 
 
 ment of High Treason against the following 
 persons 1 : — 
 
 1. 
 
 Sir Hardr. Waller. 
 
 17. 
 
 Gilbert Millington. 
 
 2. 
 
 Geo. Fleetwood. 
 
 18. 
 
 Robert Tichburne. 
 
 3. 
 
 Thomas Harrison. 
 
 19. 
 
 Owen Rowe. 
 
 4. 
 
 Adrian Scroop. 
 
 20. 
 
 Robert LilbuiTie. 
 
 5. 
 
 John Carew. 
 
 21. 
 
 Henry Smith. 
 
 6. 
 
 Thomas Scot. 
 
 22. 
 
 John Downes. 
 
 7. 
 
 Gregory Clement. 
 
 23. 
 
 Vincent Potter. 
 
 8. 
 
 John Jones. 
 
 24. 
 
 Augustine Garland, 
 
 9. 
 
 John Cook. 
 
 25. 
 
 Simon Meyn. 
 
 la 
 
 Hugh Peters. 
 
 26. 
 
 James Temple. 
 
 u. 
 
 Daniel Axtell. 
 
 27. 
 
 Peter Temple. 
 
 12. 
 
 Francis Hacker. 
 
 28. 
 
 Thomas Waite. 
 
 13. 
 
 William Hulet. 
 
 29. 
 
 W. Heveningham. 
 
 14. 
 
 Edmund Harvey. 
 
 30. 
 
 John Barkstead. 
 
 15. 
 
 Isaac Pennington. 
 
 31. 
 
 John Okey, 
 
 16. 
 
 Henry Martin. 
 
 32. 
 
 Miles Corbet. 
 
 1 Of the fifty-one persons wholly excepted from the In- 
 demnity Act, nineteen had fled beyond sea. Generals Whal- 
 ley and GofFe, and Mr. Dixwell, M.P. for Dover, to Ame- 
 rica ; Colonel Okey, Sir John Barkstead, Colonel Wauton, 
 and Mr. Corbet, to Germany ; Sir Michael Livesey. Caw- 
 ley, M.P. for Chichester, Thomas Wogan, Blagrave, M.P. 
 for Reading, to other parts of the Continent; General Lud- 
 low, and John Lisle, one of Bradshaw's assistants, and Ni- 
 cholas Love, escaped to Switzerland ; Ludlow was buried at 
 Vevai, aged 73, in 1693. His wife erected a monument to 
 his memory in the church of Vevai, with a very laudatory 
 inscription. He appears to have escaped several plots of 
 assassination, and was warmly protected by the Council of 
 Berne, to whom he dedicates his curious and interesting 
 Memoirs. The Council of Berne received Ludlow, Love, 
 and Broughton with honour ; — the Treasurer and some of 
 the Council dined with them, accompanied them to church, 
 and made them a present of wine. John Lisle was assas- 
 sinated at Lausanne, it is said by the instigation of Charles's 
 Queen, Henrietta Maria. His widow, the Lady Alicia 
 Lisle, was arbitrarily tried in 1685, by the ferocious Jeffries,
 
 ARRAIGNMENT OF THE PRISONERS. 273 
 
 The Grand Jury, the same day, returned into 
 Court, and presented a " True Bill " against all 
 the prisoners ; and the Court then adjourned till 
 the next morning. On the 10th of October, at 
 an early hour, the prisoners were conveyed in 
 several coaches, v/ith a strong guard of horse and 
 foot, from the Tower to Newgate, where they 
 were delivered by Sir John Robinson, Lieutenant 
 of the Tower, to the Sheriffs of London, and were 
 afterwards, on the same morning, brought before 
 the assembled Court at the Sessions House in the 
 Old Bailey. Silence being commanded, the Com- 
 mission of Oyer and Terminer was again read ; — 
 after which, Sir Hardress Waller i, Major-General 
 
 for concealing a dissenting minister in Monmouth's rebel- 
 lion ; and she was executed at Winchester. Cornelius Hol- 
 land, originally a servant of Sir Harry Vane, and who had 
 acquired in the rebellion large estates, a residence in Somerset 
 Palace, and the Keepership of Richmond Park, also escaped 
 to Lausanne, and died there in 1661. Thomas Chaloner fled 
 to Zealand, where he died in the same year. 
 
 I Waller was of a gentleman's family in Kent, and en- 
 tered early into the King's army before the rebellion, and 
 served in Ireland. At the commencement of the civil war 
 he joined the army of the Parliament, was distinguished in 
 many engagements, and rose rapidly to the rank of Colonel, 
 and afterwards to that of Major-General under Cromwell. 
 At the Restoration, he at first fled to France, but came to 
 England in hopes of saving the considerable estates he had 
 acquired, and surrendered under the proclamation. After 
 his sentence he was sent back to the Tower, where he ap- 
 pears to have died. Ludlow (who, however, is extremely 
 partial,) says that it was contrived Waller should be tried 
 first, he being a man who would say any thing to save his 
 life, and would therefore plead Guilty. But if the Govern- 
 ment were afraid of the effect of a vigorous defence, why 
 did they try the determined Harrison second ? 
 T
 
 274? TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES, 
 
 Thomas Harrison, and Mr .William Heveningham, 
 were brought to the bar and commanded to hold 
 up their hands. 
 
 The indictment was then read, charging that 
 the prisoners, instigated by the devil, traitorously 
 compassed and imagined to take away the life of 
 Charles Stuart, late King of England ; and in 
 pursuance of that intent and design, assembled 
 and sat upon, judged, tried, and condemned, his 
 said late Majesty of blessed memory, and also 
 signed a warrant for killing and executing him, &c. 
 
 Clerk of the Crown. How sayest thou. Sir 
 Hardress Waller ; art thou Guilty of the treason 
 whereof thou standest indicted, or Not Guilty ? 
 
 Sir II. Waller (after considerable hesitation and 
 debate). Insomuch as I said I dare not say Not 
 Guilty, I must say Guilty. 
 
 Clerk. Thomas Harrison, how sayest thou ? 
 Art thou Guilty of the treason whereof thou 
 standest indicted, and are now arraigned ? or Not 
 Guilty ? 
 
 Harrison. My Lords, have I liberty to speak ? 
 
 Court. No more (at this time) than Guilty, 
 or Not Guilty. Mr. Harrison, you have heard 
 the direction before. — We can give you but 
 the same rule. If you plead Not Guilty, you 
 shall be heard at large ; if Guilty, you know what 
 remains. 
 
 Harrison. Will you give me leave to give you 
 my answer in my own words ? 
 
 L. C. Bar. There is no answer but what the 
 law directs ; it is the same with you as with all 
 others, or as I would desire, if I were in your 
 condition.
 
 TRIAL OF THOMAS HARRISON. 2iO 
 
 Clerk. Thomas Harrison — Are you Guilty, 
 or Not Guilty? 
 
 After considerable demur, Harrison pleaded 
 not Guilty. 
 
 Clerk. How will you be tried ? 
 
 Harrison. I will be tried according to the 
 lawB of the Lord. 
 
 L. C. Bar. Now I must tell you, if you do 
 not put yourself upon your country, you have 
 said nothing. 
 
 Harrison. I will be tried according to the or- 
 dinary course. 
 
 Clerk. Wliether by God and the country ? 
 you must speak the words. 
 
 Harrison. They are vain words 
 
 Court. We have given you a great deal of 
 liberty and scope, which is not usual. You must 
 put yourself upon God and the country. 
 
 Harrison. I do offer myself to be tried in your 
 own way, by God and my country. 
 
 Clerk. God send you a good deliverance. 
 
 The other prisoners were then severally ar- 
 raigned in the same form. All of them, after 
 some little hesitation and argument, pleaded Not 
 Guilty, except George Fleetwood, who said, — "I 
 must confess I am Guilty ;" and presented a pe- 
 tition to the Court addressed to the King. Henry 
 Marten (the facetious and learned republican) 
 claimed the benefit of the Act of Indemnity ; and, 
 on being told he was excepted out of it by name, 
 he alleged his name Avas not in the Act, for his 
 name was Harry Marten, and not Henry Martin, 
 as in the Act. The Court said, " The difference 
 of the sound is very little ; you are known as 
 T 9.
 
 276 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 Henry Martin ;" and over-ruled the objection. The 
 fanatical John Carew said he was Not Guilty, 
 " saving to our Lord Jesus Christ his right to the 
 government of these Kingdoms." Hugh Peters, 
 the extravagant Commonwealth preacher, when 
 called upon for his plea, said, " I would not, for 
 ten thousand worlds, say I am Guilty, — I am not 
 Guilty :" and when asked how he would be tried, 
 said, " By the word of God ;" which occasioned 
 some laughter in the crowded audience. Colonel 
 Axtell, when asked how he would be tried, re- 
 plied, " By twelve lawful men, according to the 
 constitutions of the law." 
 
 Court. That is by God and the country. 
 
 Axtell. That is not lawful, — God is not 
 locally here. He presently, however, submitted, 
 and gave the usual answer. The Court then ad- 
 journed. 
 
 On the 11th of October, the Coui't assembled 
 in the morning, and the trials of the prisoners 
 commenced. Tlie body of the Court and the 
 galleries were crowded with spectators. Harrison, 
 Scroop, Carew, Jones, Clement, and Scot, were 
 brought to the bar. 
 
 Court. You that are the prisoners at the bar, 
 if you, or any of you, desire pen, ink, and paper, 
 you shall have it : and if you, or any of j'^ou, will 
 challenge any of the jmy, you may when they 
 come to be sworn, and that before they are 
 sworn. 
 
 Sir Thomas Allen, the first juror, was then 
 called and sworn. Sir Joshua Ash, who was next 
 called, was excepted to by Mr. Scroop, as was Sir 
 Jeremy Wliichcote by Harrison.
 
 TRIAL OF THOMAS HARRISON. 277 
 
 The Court (speaking to the prisoners). If 
 you will not agree in your challenges, we must 
 be forced to try you severally :" and on Henry 
 Mildmay, Esquire, being excepted to by Scroop, 
 the Court said, " We must needs tr}' them se- 
 verally, — therefore set them all aside but Har- 
 rison." The swearing of the jury for the trial of 
 Harrison alone accordingly proceeded. Sir Jeremy 
 WTiichcote, Bart., James Halley, Henry Mildmay, 
 and Christopher Abdy, Esquires, were excepted to 
 by Harrison as they were called. 
 
 Court, Mr. Harrison, you know how many 
 to challenge, — if you go beyond the number, at 
 your peril be it. 
 
 Harrison. My Lord, pray tell me what it is. 
 
 Court. You say very well ; God forbid but 
 you should know, — you may challenge five and 
 thirty peremptorily ; if you go beyond, you 
 know the danger.^ 
 
 ' In addition to the ordinary challenges or objections to 
 jurors which maybe made in all suits on the ground of the 
 juror's interest in the cause, relationship to one of the par- 
 ties, conviction of a crime, alienage, &c., every person tried 
 for felony or treason is allowed to make a certain number of 
 peremptory or capricious challenges, without assigning any 
 ground for his objection ; " a provision," as Blackstone says, 
 " full of tenderness and humanity to prisoners," and which 
 is not allowed to the Crown, at least unless the person chal- 
 lenged is not wanted to fill the jury. Two reasons are as- 
 signed for this privilege : First, that the law will not have 
 a man tried for his life by a juror against whom he may have 
 conceived a suspicion and prejudice, even though unable to 
 assign a cause ; and, secondly, that if the prisoner were 
 confined to his challenge for some definite cause Avhich 
 should be adjudged insufficient by the Court, the very cir- 
 cumstance of having objected to the juror might provoke 
 T 3
 
 278 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 Wlien he had challenged thh-ty-five, the names 
 were, at his request, read to him ; and the other 
 jurors not excepted to were then called on, and 
 sworn as the jury to try him. 
 
 The Court. Gentlemen, that are not of the 
 Jury, pray clear the passage. The prisoner is 
 here for life and death ; let him have liberty to 
 see the Jury. 
 
 The Clerk. Thomas Harrison, hold up thy 
 liand. 
 
 The Clerk. Look upon the prisoner, you that 
 are sworn. You shall understand that the pri- 
 soner at the bar stands indicted by the name of 
 Thomas Harrison, late of Westminster, in the 
 county of Middlesex, gentleman, for that he, 
 together with John Lisle, &c. [here the indict- 
 ment was read] upon which indictment he hath 
 been arraigned, and thereunto hath pleaded Not 
 Guilty, and for his trial hath put himself upon 
 God and the country, which country you are. 
 Now your charge is to enquire, whether he be 
 guilty of the high treason in manner and form as 
 he stands indicted, or not guilty. If you find that 
 he is guilty, you shall enquire what goods and 
 
 him to resentment. The prisoner may, therefore, peremp- 
 torily set him aside. In treason the prisoner is limited to 
 thirty-five peremptory challenges, being the number of three 
 full juries save one. In felony the number is reduced to 
 twenty. The law considered that a traitor who challenged 
 three full juries had no intention to be tried at all ; and, 
 therefore, if he peremptorily challenges more than thirty- 
 five, and will not retract his challenge, the law at this day 
 regards him as standing mute and refusing trial, and he 
 will be attainted of the treason.
 
 TRIAL OF THOMAS HARRISON. 279 
 
 chattels he had at the time of committing the 
 said treason, or any time sithence. If you find 
 that he is not guilty, you shall enquire whether 
 he did fly for it ; and if you find that he fled for 
 it, you shall enquire of his goods and chattels, as 
 if you had found him Guilty. If you find that 
 he is Not Guilty, nor that he did fly, you shall 
 say so, and no more. And take heed to your 
 evidence. 
 
 Mr. Keeling, one of the Counsel for the Crown, 
 then enforced the charge at large : after whom 
 Sh Heneage Finch, his Majesty's Solicitor- 
 General, spoke: — 
 
 May it please your Lordships, — Webringbefore 
 your Lordships into judgment this day the mur- 
 derers of a King. A man would think the laws 
 of God and men had so fully secured these sacred 
 persons, that the sons of violence should never 
 approach to hurt them. For, my Lord, the very 
 thought of such an attempt hath ever been pre- 
 sented by all laws, in all ages, in all nations, as 
 a most unpardonable treason. 
 
 The scope of this indictment is for the com- 
 passing the death of the King. The rest of the 
 indictment, as the usurping authority over the 
 King's person, the assembling, sitting, judging, 
 and killing of the King, are but so many several 
 overt acts to prove the intention of the heart. 
 We are not bound, under favour, to prove every- 
 one of these against every particular person that 
 is indicted ; for he that is in at one, is guilty in 
 law of all the rest, as much as if he had struck 
 the fatal stroke itself. Nay, under favour, if we 
 can prove any other overt act besides what is 
 T 4
 
 280 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 laid in the indictment, as the encouraging of the 
 soldiers to cry out, " Justice, Justice," or preach- 
 ing to them to go on in this work, as godly and 
 religious ; or any other act of all that catalogue 
 of villanies, for which the story will be for ever 
 infamous ; this may be given in evidence to prove 
 the compassing and imagining the King's death. ^ 
 
 As for the fact itself, I shall not need to open 
 it at large, for these things were not done in a 
 corner ; every true English heart still keeps 
 within itself a bleeding register of this story. 
 
 They seize upon the blessed person of our 
 sacred King by force, and bring him to London ; 
 and here they force the Parliament, shut out 
 some members, imprison others, and then called 
 this wretched little company which was left, a 
 Parliament. By this, and before they had taken 
 upon them the boldness to dissolve the House of 
 Peers, they pass a law, and erect, forsooth ! an 
 High Court of Justice, as they call it, — a 
 shambles of justice, — appoint judges, advocates, 
 officers, and ministers, sit upon the life of the 
 King. 
 
 My Lords, when they had thus proceeded to 
 appoint their judges, officers, and court, then 
 they call their only liege Lord and Sovereign 
 to the bar, and by a formal pageantry of justice 
 proceed to sit upon him, arraign, try, sentence, 
 condemn, and kill, I had almost said crucify, him, 
 whom they could not but know to be their King ; 
 
 1 Such was the law at this period ; but the 7 William 3. 
 c. 3. s. 8. expressly provides that no evidence shall be given 
 of any overt act not laid in the indictment.
 
 TRIAL OF THOMAS HARRISON. 281 
 
 and all this against the clearest light, the sharpest 
 checks, and most thorough convictions of con- 
 science that ever men resisted. And yet in this 
 moment of time, such was the majesty and in- 
 nocence of our gracious Sovereign, that the people 
 followed him with tears in their eyes, and ac- 
 clamations in their mouths, " God save the King ! " 
 even then, when the soldiers were ready to fire 
 upon all those who did either look sadly, or speak 
 affectionately. So tew of the very common sol- 
 diers could be brought to approve these proceed- 
 ings, or to cry out " Justice ! " that their officers 
 were fain, by money or blows, or both, to bring a 
 great many to it. 
 
 Tlie judges, officers, and other immediate actors 
 in this pretended court, were about fourscore : of 
 these some four or five and twenty are dead, and 
 gone to their own place. Some six or seven 
 of them, who were thought to have sinned Avith 
 less malice, have their lives spared indeed, but 
 are like to be brought to a severe repentance 
 by future penalties. Some eighteen or nineteen 
 have fled from justice, and wander to and fro 
 about the world with the mark of Cain upon 
 them, and perpetual trembling, lest every eye 
 that sees, and every hand that meets them, 
 should fall upon them. Twenty-nine persons do 
 now expect your justice. Amongst them the first 
 that is brought is the prisoner at the bar, and 
 he deserves to be the first; for if any person 
 now left alive ought to be styled the conductor, 
 leader, and captain of this work, that is the man. 
 He, my Lord, brought the King up a prisoner 
 from Windsor. He sat upon him, sentenced him,
 
 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 he signed the warrant first to call that court to- 
 gether, then the bloody warrant to cutoflPhis sacred 
 head. But now we shall proceed to our evidence. 
 
 Proclamation was made for silence. 
 
 Sir Edward Turner."^ My Lords, the service 
 of this day doth call to my memory the story or 
 good king Amaziah. We read in Holy Writ, that 
 his father, King Joash, was murdered, and mur- 
 dered by his own subjects ; but we read further, 
 that when Amaziah had regained the crown, was 
 settled in the government, he slew those who 
 slew his father. He did go down into Edom, 
 the valley of Salt, and there he did slay 10,000. 
 The work of this day doth very much resemble 
 that action. Our good and gracious King, his 
 father of blessed memory, and our father, his 
 natural and our politic father, to whom our na- 
 tural allegiance was due, was murdered, and by 
 his own subjects. But, my Lords, this was not 
 a national crime ; and our good and gracious 
 Sovereign hath done us that honour and right to 
 vindicate us in foreign nations. 
 
 My Lords, I do read in the Roman story, that 
 both amongst them and other nations, there was 
 no law against parricide. It was not thought 
 that any man was so unnatural and devilish to 
 destroy his father. But we do find among the 
 
 1 This speech of a second counsel for the prosecution 
 was one of the practices bearing hard on the prisoner, at 
 this period not unfrequent. In the present day the single 
 speech of the prosecuting counsel is confined to a very- 
 short statement of the facts, free from general observations, 
 or aggravating remarks. But in cases of treason, and all 
 cases where the Crown prosecutes for itself, the Crown 
 Counsel has the privilege of a reply.
 
 TRIAL OF THOMAS HARRISON. 283 
 
 Romans such a fact was committed, and then 
 they were at a loss to punish it. The way was 
 this that was found out ; the offender they sewed 
 into a mail of leather, so close that no water could 
 get in ; when they had done, they threw him into 
 the sea : by this denoting the offender was not 
 worthy to tread upon the ground, nor to breathe 
 in the air, nor to have the benefit of any of the 
 four elements, nor the use of any of God's crea- 
 tures. 
 
 Gentlemen, parricide and regicide differ not 
 in nature, but in degree. I am not willing to hold 
 your Lordships too long in the porch, but desire 
 to descend into the body of the business ; and so 
 we shall call our witnesses, and prove, that this 
 man was the first, and not the least, of these 
 offenders. 
 
 Mr. George Masterson ivas called. 
 
 Harrison. When I was before your Lordships 
 yesterday, I offered something very material, in 
 reference to the jurisdiction of the Court ; but 
 you told me, according to the rule, I must plead 
 Guilty, or Not Guilty, and what I had to offer 
 should be heard in its proper place. I now desire 
 to know, whether it be proper now to deliver 
 myself, before you proceed to the calling of wit- 
 nesses ; for I would go the best way, and would 
 not willingly displease you. 
 
 L. C. Baron. What was promised you yester- 
 day, God forbid but you should have it ! But I 
 think it will be best for you to hear the evidence, 
 and then what you have to say shall be fully 
 heard.
 
 28-i TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 Harrison. I am content. 
 
 Whereupon George Masterson, Stephen Kirk, 
 Francis Hearn, WilHam Clark, Robert Coytmore, 
 and James Nutley, were called, and sworn. 
 
 Counsel. Mr. Masterson, whether did the pri- 
 soner at the bar sit in that which they called the 
 High Court of Justice, to sentence the King, or 
 no ? Pray tell my Lords and the Jury thereof, 
 and what else you know of the matter. 
 
 Masterson. Upon the oath I have taken, my 
 Lords and Gentlemen of the Jury, I saw the pri- 
 soner, Thomas Harrison, sit in that which they 
 called the High Court of Justice, upon the 27th 
 day of January, in the year IG^Q, to sentence the 
 King. 
 
 Counsel. Was it the day the sentence was 
 passed against the King ? 
 
 Masterson. It was the day of the sentence. I 
 saw the prisoner at the bar, together with others, 
 stand up, to my apprehension, as assenting to it. 
 
 Counsel. Was there not direction that all 
 should stand up as assenting ? 
 
 Masterson. I do not know that ; but when the 
 sentence was read, several of them did stand up, 
 and he among the rest, as assenting to the sen- 
 tence, as the spectators understood. 
 
 William Clark and Stephen Kirk then gave 
 evidence to the same effect ; and then James 
 Nutley was examined. 
 
 The Court. Mr. Nutley, did you know the 
 prisoner at the bar ? Have you seen him sit in 
 Westminster Hall at any time upon the bench 
 when the King was brought as a prisoner to the 
 bar?
 
 TRIAL OF THOMAS HARRISON. 285 
 
 Nutley, I saw the prisoner at the bar several 
 days sit there, amongst the rest of the judges. 
 To the best of my remembrance, he sat there four 
 days together. 
 
 The Court. Was he there upon the day of the 
 sentence ? 
 
 Nutley. I did take notes, and I find he did 
 sit that day. 
 
 The Court. Do you know any thing more of 
 the prisoner at the bar ? 
 
 Nutley. The first day they sat in pubhc was the 
 20th of January, 1649 ; some {qw days afore that, 
 there was a committee that sat in the Exchequer 
 Chamber, and of that committee the prisoner at 
 the bar was one of the members. I do remember 
 well it was in the evening ; they were lighting of 
 candles. This gentleman was there, I saw him ; 
 for through the kindness of Mr. Phelps, who was 
 then clerk to that committee, I was admitted, 
 pretending first to speak with the said Mr. Phelps, 
 and so I was admitted into the committee cham- 
 ber ; being there, I did observe some passages 
 fall from the prisoner ; he was making a narra- 
 tive of some discourses that passed between his 
 late Majesty and himself in coming between 
 Windsor and London or Hurst Castle, I know 
 not well whether. My Lord, he said that the 
 King, as he sat in the coach with him, was im- 
 portunate to know what they intended to do with 
 him. 
 
 Harrison. In the coach was it ? 
 
 Nutley. Yea, Sir, it was in the coach. He told 
 the rest of the company that the King asked, 
 " Wliat do they intend to do with me ? Whether
 
 286 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 to murder me or no ? " And I said to him, " There 
 was no such intention as to kill him ; we have no 
 3uch thoughts. But," (said he,) '• the Lord hath 
 reserved you for a public example of justice." 
 There is one word more, my Lords, I observed 
 that some found fault with the length of the 
 charge as it was drawn. I heard this prisoner at 
 the bar vent this expression : — " Gentlemen, it 
 will be good for us to blacken him what we can : 
 pray let us blacken him;" or words to that 
 purpose. 
 
 Counsel. It was to draw up that impeachment 
 so as to blacken him ? Was it so ? 
 
 Nutley. Yes, Sir. 
 
 Mr. Coytmore sworn, — proved Harrison's pre- 
 sence in the Court for trial of the King. 
 
 The Lord Newhurgh sworn. 
 
 Counsel. Pray, my Lord, raise your voice, and 
 tell my Lords and the Jury what you know of the 
 prisoner at the bar; the part that he acted in 
 bringing up the King. 
 
 Lord Newhurgh. I was then living at his Ma- 
 jesty's lodge at Bagshot, when the prisoner at the 
 bar brought the King from Hurst Castle to Lon- 
 don. He was the person that commanded the 
 whole party ; and when the King by the way 
 went to dinner, by his orders there were sentries 
 set at every door where he was. When the King 
 had dined he carried him to Windsor, and ap- 
 pointed several of his officers to ride close to the 
 King, as he was riding, lest he should make his 
 escape from them.
 
 TRIAL OF THOMAS HARRISON. 287 
 
 Counsel. That was an imprisonment itself, and 
 so a treason. 
 
 Mr. Windham. My Lords, we shall now pro- 
 duce to you two instruments which were made, 
 the one for convening and summoning the as- 
 sembling of that which they called the High 
 Court of Justice, and show this prisoner's hand 
 and seal to that ; and then show you likewise that 
 which was the consummating of all, that bloody 
 warrant for execution of his late Majesty of 
 blessed memory, with the hand and seal of the 
 prisoner at the bar unto it amongst others. 
 
 Mr, Jessop called, and sworn. 
 
 Solicitor. Mr. Jessop, pray tell my Lords and 
 the Jury how you came by that instrument you 
 have in your hand. 
 
 3Ir. Jessop. May it please your Lordships, — I 
 having the honour to attend the House of Com- 
 mons, the House was pleased to make an order 
 that Mr. Scobell should deliver into my hands all 
 such books and records, papers, and other things, 
 as did belong to the House of Commons ; and in 
 pursuance of that order I did receive amongst 
 other things this instrument, as a thing that had 
 been formerly in his hands, as clerk of the House 
 of Commons. 
 
 Solicitor. We desire it may be read, my 
 Lords. 
 
 The Court. Pray first prove his hand. 
 
 Mr. Kirk then proved his hand to the warrant 
 for summoning the Court for the trial of the 
 King, and he was confirmed by another witness. 
 
 Harrison. I desire to see the instrument —
 
 2S8 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 Which being showed to him, he said, " I believe 
 it is my own hand." 
 
 Counsel. That's the warrant for summoHing 
 that Court that he owns his hand to. 
 
 The Court. Show him the other instrument. 
 
 Harrison. I do think this is my hand too. 
 
 Counsel. If you think it, the jury will not 
 doubt it. 
 
 Harrison. My Lords, do these learned gen- 
 tlemen offer these as being any records ? 
 
 Counsel. No, but as your own hand-writing. 
 
 Harrison. If you do not read it as a record, I 
 hope your Lordships will not admit of any thing 
 of that kind against me. 
 
 TJie Court. You have confessed these to be 
 your hands. Whether they are records, or no ; 
 whether papers, or letters, thej^ maybe read against 
 you : you signed the warrant for convening to- 
 gether those which you called the High Court of 
 Justice, and you signed the other warrant for 
 putting the King to death. You do confess these 
 two things. 
 
 Harrison. I do not come to be denying any 
 thing that in my own judgment and conscience 
 I have done or committed, but rather to be bring- 
 ing it forth to the light. 
 
 [The two warrants for trial, and for execution 
 of his Majesty, were here read.] 
 
 3Ir. Windham.^ Gentlemen of the Jury, we 
 have done our evidence. Taking of him, impri- 
 
 1 This soi-t of summing up and comment by the Counsel 
 on the evidence for the prosecution, which was in use for 
 a considerable period after these trials, has been now long 
 disused. The same observation applies to the occasional 
 remarks thro%vn in by the Counsel in the course of the trial.
 
 TRIAL OF THOMAS HARRISON. 28^ 
 
 soning of him, bringing him to London, and set- 
 ting guards on him. You see also his mahce, " Let 
 us blacken him;" for they knew his innocency 
 would shine forth, unless it w^as blackened by 
 their imputations. He sate many times, as you 
 hear, and sentenced him, and assented to that 
 sentence by standing up ; and likewise by con- 
 cluding the catastrophe of that sad beginning of 
 sufferings, his making a warrant for his execu- 
 tion ; and accordingly you know what did follow : 
 I think a clearer evidence of a fact can never be 
 given than is for these things. 
 
 [Here the spectators hummed.] 
 
 Lord Chief Baron. Gentlemen,— This hum- 
 ming is not at all becoming the gravity of this 
 Court. It is more fitting for a stage-play than 
 for a Court of Justice. 
 
 Harrison. It is now time, my Lords, to offer 
 what I have to say. My Lords, — The matter that 
 hath been offered to you, as it was touched, was 
 not a thing done in a corner. I believe the sound 
 of it hath been in most nations. I believe the 
 hearts of some have felt the terrors of that pre- 
 sence of God that was with his servants in those 
 days, (however it seemeth good to him to suffer 
 this turn to come on us,) and are witnesses that 
 the things were not done in a corner. I have 
 desired, as in the sight of Him that searcheth all 
 hearts, whilst this hath been done, to wait, and 
 receive from him convictions upon my own con- 
 science, though I have sought it with tears many 
 a time, and prayers over and over, to that God to 
 whom you and all nations are less than a drop of 
 u
 
 290 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 water of the bucket ; and to this moment 1 have 
 received rather assurance of it, and that the things 
 that have been done as astonishing on one hand, 
 I do beUeve ere it be long it will be made known 
 from Heaven, there Avas more from God than 
 men are aware of. I do profess that I would not 
 offer of myself the least injury to the poorest 
 man or woman that goes upon the earth. That I 
 have humbly to offer is this to your Lordships ; 
 you know what a contest hath been in these 
 nations for many years. Divers of those that sit 
 upon the bench were formerly as active ' 
 
 1 Harrison alludes to the leaders of the Presbyterian 
 party, who had so vehemently spoken and fought against 
 the King at the commencement of the rebellion, and who 
 now, with little decency, sat as judges on the men who had 
 followed in their steps, and pursued their projects to their 
 natural termination.' The Earl of Manchester was long 
 commander of the parliamentary forces against the King, 
 and, as Lord Kimbolton, had been included with the five 
 Commoners in an accusation of treason by Charles. Denzil 
 Hollis was one of these five accused members whom 
 Charles imprudently went to the House to demand, and 
 a violent leader of the opposition against the King. Lord 
 Roberts and Lord Say both commanded in the parlia- 
 mentary army in the civil wars. Monk and Lord Sand- 
 wich were privy counsellors under Cromwell's reign, and 
 " Lords " of his " other House." The unprincipled Shaftes- 
 bury had sat in the republican Councils of State, together 
 with Harrison and other of the regicides ; and had been, 
 as well as Harrison, the adviser and friend of Cromwell. 
 Atkyns and Tyrrell were Judges, appointed by the Rump 
 Parliament which ordered and confirmed the proceedings 
 against the King. Serjeant Wild (now Recorder of Lon- 
 don) had been the most unhesitating tool of the repub- 
 licans, and had actually gone down to the Isle of Wight 
 when Charles was at Carisbrook, and tried and sentenced
 
 TRIAL OF THOMAS HARRISON. 291 
 
 Court. Pray, Mr. Harrison, do not thus reflect 
 on the Court. This is not the business. 
 
 Harrison, I followed not my own judgment ; 
 I did what I did, as out of conscience to the Lord ; 
 for when I found those that were as the apple of 
 mine eye to turn aside, I did loath them, and suf- 
 fered imprisonment many years. Rather than 
 to turn as many did, that did put their hands to 
 this plough, I chose rather to be separated from 
 wife and family than to have compliance with 
 them, though it was said, " Sit at my right hand," 
 and such kind expressions. Thus I have given a 
 little poor testimony that I have not been doing 
 things in a corner, or from myself. May be I 
 might be a little mistaken ; but I did it all accord- 
 ing to the best of my understanding, desiring to 
 make the revealed will of God in his Holy Scrip- 
 tures as a guide to me. I humbly conceive that 
 what was done, was done in the name of the Par- 
 liament of England, by their power and authority. 
 Those Commissions were issued forth, and what 
 was done was done by their power ; and whereas 
 it hath been said we did assume and usurp an 
 authority, I say this was done rather in the fear 
 of the Lord. 
 
 Court, Away with him. Know where you 
 are. Sir ; you are in the assembly of Christians ; 
 
 to death Captain Burley, for treason ! in endeavouring to 
 excite the islanders to rise and liberate their Sovereign. 
 These men, especially Monk, Sandwich, Manchester, Shaftes- 
 bury, Hollis, and Roberts, were the main authors of 
 the Restoration, and acquired from Charles II. titles and 
 offices at Court, which accounts for their being inserted 
 in the Commission. 
 
 u 2
 
 292 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 will you make God the author of your treasons 
 and murders ? Take heed where you are. Christ- 
 ians must not hear this. For your having of 
 Counsel i, this is the reason for allowing of Counsel; 
 
 1 The established rule of law, that a prisoner on his trial 
 for a capital offence is not to be allowed a Counsel as to 
 matters of fact, but only in case a question of /ozy arises, 
 appears to have had its rise in the sort of interest which 
 the Crown was considered to have in the conviction of 
 the accused, which led also to refusing him the benefit 
 of witnesses on oath, and to an extraordinary leaning and 
 deference, by the Judges, for the " King's evidence." 
 It is singularly at variance with the humanity of the 
 common law, in allowing a prisoner thirty-five peremptory 
 challenges, and in requiring him to be free from fetters on 
 his trial : and its hardship in former days certainly was 
 seldom, in practice, mitigated by the rule which is put for- 
 ward to excuse it, viz. that the Judge is the prisoner's Coun- 
 sel. In modern times the case is different ; and the pri- 
 soner can seldom be left in equally safe, or more humane 
 hands, than those of the Judge. Nor was the privilege 
 of having Counsel's assistance as to matters of law in 
 early times, and up to the Revolution, of much value to 
 a prisoner; since, in order to obtain Counsel, he was 
 compelled, by his own ingenuity and skill, to start some 
 legal objection, and to lay it properly before the Court, who 
 were then to determine, at their o^^'n discretion, whether the 
 suggestion was or was not such matter of law as required 
 argument by Counsel. The Judges, in considering these 
 applications of prisoners, often (not unnaturally) took into 
 consideration whether the objection made was a siifficieri 
 matter of law to be of avail to the prisoner, rather that 
 whether it was matter of law at all ; though the last was th^ 
 only question properly to be determined before allowing 
 counsel to be heard. The point started by Harrison, in the 
 text, and by many of the other regicides, viz. that they acted, 
 in destroying Charles I., under the authority of the House 
 of Commons, was, perhaps, one which the Court might fairly 
 over-rule as not being matter of law arguable by a lawyer ;
 
 TRIAL OF THOMAS HARRISON. 293 
 
 Wlien a man would plead any thing, because he 
 Vvould plead it in formality, Counsel is allowed. 
 But you must first say in what the matter shall 
 be, and then you shall have the Court's answer. 
 
 since it was contrary to first principles to set up an authority 
 from the House of Commons alone to justify the acts com- 
 mitted ; besides, that the fact was not as alleged ; the House 
 had never given any such authority, since the majority of 
 the members were excluded by armed force before the ordi- 
 nance for trying the King was passed. In modern days, how- 
 ever, when the leaning towards prisoners is carried almost to 
 an extreme, points even less arguable than the regicides' jus- 
 tification, are, in favour of life, allowed to be discussed at 
 length by Counsel. In the present day. Counsel have in all 
 cases the utmost liberty, not only of finding out and arguing 
 legal objections, but also of cross-examining witnesses for 
 the prosecution, and of examining witnesses for the prisoner, 
 who, by a most proper provision of I Ann. stat. 2. c. 9. § 3., 
 are sworn to speak the truth. And in cases of treason, the 
 prisoner, by the statute of William, is allowed to make a. full 
 cfeff^jce by Counsel ; a provision which has called forth many 
 noble efforts of forensic eloquence from Erskine, Law, Cop- 
 ley, Wetherell, Denman, and other distinguished English 
 lawyers. The existing authority of Counsel to cross-examine 
 the opposite witnesses, object to evidence, and assist prisoners 
 as to the facts of the case, has grown up without any statu- 
 tory provision, and by such insensible gradations, that it is 
 not easy to assign a date to the change. Some symptoms of it 
 appear in the case of Arnold, for shooting at Lord Onslow, 
 in 1724 ; and on the trial of the gaolers, Acton and others, 
 in 1729, the change is more visible. " In the proceedings 
 against Mr. Chetwynd for murder, in 1 743," says the sen- 
 sible writer in the Quarterly Review for October, 1827, 
 before quoted, " the liberty of cross-examining for the pri- 
 soner appears fully recognised, and his defence is conducted 
 according to the usage now prevailing, which, although it 
 may continue open to speculative objections, could hardly, 
 we believe, be placed upon a footing more substantially 
 favourable to the accused." 
 
 u 3
 
 294 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 Lord Finch. Though my Lords here have 
 been pleased to give you a great latitude, this 
 must not be suffered, that you should run into 
 these damnable excursions, to make God the au- 
 thor of this damnable treason. 
 
 Harrison. I have two things to offer to you, 
 for my defence in matter of law. One is, That 
 this that hath been done was done by a Par- 
 liament of England, by the Commons of England 
 assembled in Parliament; and that being so, 
 whatever was done by their commands or their 
 authority, is not questionable by your Lordships, 
 as being (as I humbly conceive) a power inferior 
 to that of the High Court of Parliament; that is one. 
 A second is this. That what, therefore, any did in 
 obedience to that power and authority, they are 
 not to be questioned for it ; otherwise we are in 
 a most miserable condition, bound to obey them 
 that are in authority, and yet to be punished if we 
 obey. My Lords, — Upon these two points I do 
 desire that those that are learned in the laws may 
 speak on my behalf. I hope it will seem good to 
 you that Counsel may be assigned, for it concerns 
 all my countrymen. 
 
 Counsel. You are mistaken, if you appeal to 
 your countrymen; they will cry you out, and 
 shame you. 
 
 Harrison. May be so, my Lords ; some will, 
 but I am sure others will not. 
 
 Mr. Solicitor General. ^ These two points, mj 
 
 ' Nothing can be more opposite to the spirit in which 
 prosecutions are now generally conducted, than this speech 
 of the Crown advocate against the prisoner being allowed 
 the assistance of Counsel.
 
 TRIAL OF THOMAS HARRISON. 295 
 
 Lords, are but one, and they are a new treason, 
 at the bar, for which he deserves to die. It is 
 the maUce of his heart to the dignity and Crown 
 of England. I say, this is not matter for which 
 Counsel can be assigned. It is so far from being 
 true, that it was the act of the Supreme Parlia- 
 ment of the people of England, that there was 
 nothing received with more heart-bleeding than 
 this bloody business. Shall he pretend that one 
 House, nay, the eighth part of a House (for so it 
 was), can condemn a King, when both Houses 
 cannot condemn one man in spite of the King ? 
 
 L. C. Baron. It is true, your questions are 
 but one point. You pretend the Parliament's 
 authority, and when you come to speak of it, you 
 say the Commons of England. They were but 
 one House of Parliament. The Parliament, what 
 is that ? It is the King, the Lords, and the Com- 
 mons. I would fain know of you where ever 
 you read, by the light you say you have in your 
 conscience, that the Commons of England were a 
 Parliament of England, that the Commons in Par- 
 liament used a legislative power alone ? Do you 
 call that a Parliament that sat when the House 
 was purged^, as they call it, and was so much 
 under the awe of the army, who were then but 
 forty, or forty-five at most? Then you say it 
 was done by authority of them. You must know, 
 he that confirms such an authority, he commits 
 a double offence ; therefore consider what your 
 plea is. If your plea were doubtful -, we should, 
 
 1 See 3 Cobb. Pari. Hist. p. 1240. 
 
 2 If his plea was doubtful, he was, according to principle, 
 entitled to have Counsel assigned to him. 
 
 u 4
 
 296 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 and ought, and would, ourselves be of Counsel 
 for you. You make yourself a Solicitor in the 
 business. " Let us blacken him as much as we 
 can." I have not touched at all upon the evi- 
 dence, I will not urge it now. I say you justify 
 it upon " convictions of conscience," and pretend 
 it upon authority ; a thing never known or seen 
 under the sun, that the Commons, nay, a iew 
 Commons alone, should take upon them, and call 
 themselves the Parliament of England. For you 
 to speak of this power, and justify this power, is 
 an aggravation, adding one sin and treason to an- 
 other. We shall tell you, that neither both Houses 
 of Parliament, if they had been there, not any 
 single person, community, not the people, either 
 collectively or representatively, had any colour to 
 have any coercive power over their King.i And 
 this plea which you have spoken of, it ought to 
 be overruled, and not to stand good. 
 
 Mr. Annesley. I do the more willingly speak 
 to this business, because I was one of those that 
 should have made up that Parliament that this 
 prisoner pretends to. I was one of that " corrupt 
 majority " (as they called it) that were put out 
 of the House. He cannot forget, that the Lords 
 and Commons of England in Parliament assem- 
 bled, a full House of Commons, did resolve, not- 
 withstanding what was aforesaid, that the treaty 
 in the Isle of Wight " w^as a ground for Peace." 
 Afterwards the major part of the House of Com- 
 
 1 This sentence of the Chief Baron has been vehe- 
 mently attacked by Ludlow and the republicans. But, 
 as a statement of the law of England, it is undeniably 
 sound.
 
 TRIAL OF THOMAS HARRISON. 297 
 
 mons, having resolved on this, sent it up to the 
 Lords ; that very day when they were adjourned, 
 there were forces drawn down to the House of 
 Commons' door, and none suffered to come into 
 the House but those that they pleased : and then 
 to call this a House .of Commons, nay, the Su- 
 preme Authority of the Nation, he knows is 
 against the laws of the land. I shall only say, 
 that he knowing the laws so well, I hope he shall 
 suffer for transgression thereof. 
 
 3Ir. HoUis. You do very well know that this 
 horrid, detestable act which you committed, 
 could never be perfected by you till you had 
 broken the Parliament. That House of Com- 
 mons, which you say gave you authority, you 
 know what yourself made of it when you pulled 
 out the Speaker i, therefore do not make the 
 Parliament to be the author of your black crimes. 
 It was innocent of it. You know yourself what 
 esteem you had of it, when you broke and tore 
 it in sunder, when you scattered, and made them 
 hide themselves, to preserve them from your 
 fury and violence : do not make the Parliament 
 to be the author of your crimes. You know that 
 no act of Parliament is binding but what is acted 
 by King, Lords, and Commons : and now, as you 
 would make God the author of your offences, so 
 likewise you would make the people guilty of 
 your opinion ; but your plea is over-ruled. 2 
 
 1 See ante, in the Memoirs of Harrison. 
 
 2 HolUs, who was a vehement man and a sturdy Pres- 
 byterian, and who had been excluded from the House and 
 ol)liged to fly to the Continent by the independent party 
 and the army, could not be in a very impartial frame of
 
 298 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 To which the Court assented. 
 
 Counsel. My Lords, — If it were a House of 
 Commons, neither House of Commons nor House 
 of Lords, nor House of Lords and Commons to- 
 gether ; no authority upon earth can give authority 
 for murdering the King ; this that he allegeth is 
 treason. 
 
 Z. C. Bar. It is clear as the noon-day, that 
 this was not the House of Commons. Suppose it 
 had been a House of Commons, and full ; and 
 suppose (which far be it from me to suppose) 
 they should have agreed upon such a murderous 
 act ; for the House of Commons to do such an 
 act, it was void in itself: nay, any authority 
 without the House of Lords and King is void. 
 — VvTiat you have said doth aggravate your 
 crimes. 
 
 Justice Mallet. ^ I have been a Parliament- 
 man as long as any man here present, and I did 
 never know or hear that the House of Commons 
 had jurisdiction over any, saving their own mem- 
 bers, which is as much as I will say concerning 
 the Parliament. I do hold the prisoner's plea 
 vain and unreasonable, and to be rejected. 
 
 mind towards his personal and political enemies, whom he 
 was now trying. His Memoirs are written with the bitterest 
 rancour against the independents, and are dedicated thus: — 
 " To that unparalleled couple, Mr. Oliver St. John, His 
 Majesty's Solicitor- General, and Mr. Oliver Cromwell, the 
 Parliament's Lieutenant- General, the two grand designers 
 of the ruin of three kingdoms." 
 
 1 This Judge Mallet had been imprisoned in the Tower 
 by the Parliament, for an offence in the matter of the 
 Kentish Petition, in 1642.
 
 TRIAL OF THOMAS HARRISON. 299 
 
 Mr. Justice Hyde and Mr, Justice Twisden con- 
 curred in over-ruling the plea. 
 
 Earl of Manchester. I beseech you, my Lords, 
 let us go some other way to work 
 
 Sir William Wild. I beseech you, my Lord, 
 direct the Jury for their verdict. This gentle- 
 man hath forgot their own barbarousness ; they 
 would not hear their King. 
 
 Court. No Counsel can be allowed to justify a 
 treason ; that this is a treason, appears by an 
 act of the 25th of Edw. IIL ; and therefore your 
 plea is naught, and all the Court here is of the 
 same opinion. Have you any thing else to offer ? 
 
 Harrison. Notwithstanding the judgment of 
 so many learned ones, that the Kings of England 
 are no ways accountable to the Parliament, the 
 Lords and Commons, in the beginning of this war, 
 having declared the King's beginning war upon 
 them ; the God of Gods 
 
 Court. Do you render yourself so desperate, 
 that you care not what language you let fall ? It 
 must not be suffered. 
 
 Harrison. I would not willingly speak to offend 
 any man ; but I know God is no respecter of 
 persons. His setting up his standard against the 
 people 
 
 Court. Truly, Mr. Harrison, this must not be 
 suflPered : this doth not at all belong to you. 
 
 Harrison. Under favour this doth belong to 
 me. I would have abhorred to have brought him 
 to account, had not the blood of Englishmen, that 
 had been shed 
 
 Counsel. Methinks he should be sent to Bed-
 
 300 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 lam till lie comes to the gallows to render an 
 account of this. 
 
 Solicitor- General. My Lords, I pray that the 
 Jury may go together upon the evidence. 
 
 Sir Edward Turner. My Lords, — This man 
 hath the plague all over him ; it is pity any should 
 stand near him, for he w'lW infect them. 
 
 Harrison. I must not speak so as to be pleas- 
 ing to men ; but if I must not have liberty as an 
 Englishman 
 
 Court. Pray do not reflect thus ; you have 
 had liberty, and more than any prisoner can ex- 
 pect ; I wish you had made a good use of it. 
 Keep to the business, say what you will. 
 
 Harrison. My Lords, thus : There was a dis- 
 course by one of the witnesses, that I was at the 
 committee preparing the Charge, and that I 
 should say, " Let us blacken him." This thing is 
 utterly untrue ; I abhorred the doing of any thing 
 touching the blackening of the King. 
 
 Court. Mr. Harrison, you have said that you 
 deny that of "blackening," which the witness hath 
 sworn ; and somewhat else touching the King in 
 his way to London, that the witness hath sworn 
 to also. The Jury must consider of it, both of 
 their oaths and your contradictions. If you have 
 nothing more to say, which tends to your jus- 
 tification, we must direct the Jury. The end of 
 your speech is nothing but to infect the people. 
 
 Harrison. You are uncharitable in that. 
 
 Justice Foster. My Lords, — This ought not to 
 come from the Bar to the Bench ; — if your con- 
 science should be a darkened conscience, that 
 must not be the rule of other men's actions.
 
 TRIAL OF THOMAS HARRISON. i5Ul 
 
 Harrison. The things that have been done, 
 have been done upon the stage, in the sight of 
 the sun 
 
 Court. All this is a continuance of the jus- 
 tification and confession of the fact. We need no 
 other evidence. 
 
 Gentlemen of the Jury, — You see that this 
 prisoner at the bar is indicted for compassing, 
 imagining, and contriving the death of our late 
 sovereign Lord, King Charles the First, of blessed 
 memory. In this indictment there are several 
 things given but as evidences of it ; they are but 
 the overt acts of it. The one is first, that they 
 did meet and consult together about the putting 
 the King to death ; and that alone, if nothing else 
 had been proved, was enough for you to find the 
 indictment ; for the imagination is treason by the 
 law. The second is more open ; namely, their sit- 
 ting together, and assuming an authority to put the 
 King to death. The third is sentencing the King. 
 And I must tell you, that any one of these acts 
 prove the indictment. If you find him guilty but 
 of any one of them, either consulting, proposing, 
 sitting, or sentencing (though there is full proof 
 of all), yet notwithstanding you ought to find the 
 indictment. You have heard what the witnesses 
 have said, and the prisoner's own confession. 
 He hath been so far from denying, that he hath 
 justified these actions. The evidence is so clear 
 and pregnant as nothing more is necessary. I think 
 you need not go out. 
 
 The Jury went together to the bar, and pre- 
 sently unanimously agreed on their verdict. 
 Clerk. Thomas Harrison, hold up thy hand.
 
 302 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 Gentlemen of the Jury, look upon the prisoner. 
 How say ye ? Is he Guilty of the treason whereof 
 he stands indicted, and hath been arraigned, or 
 Not Guilty ? 
 
 Foreman. Guilty. 
 
 Solicitor- Gen. My Lords, — Upon this verdict 
 against the prisoner I humbly move, that we may 
 have judgment given. 
 
 Court. Mr. Harrison, what do you say for your- 
 self why judgment should not pass against you ? 
 
 Harrison. I have nothing further to say, be- 
 cause the Court have not seen meet to hear what 
 was in my heart to speak. I submit to it. 
 
 L. C. Baron. You that are the prisoner at 
 the bar, you are to receive the sentence of death, 
 which sentence is this : The judgment of this 
 Court is, and the Court doth award, That you be 
 led back to the place from whence you came, 
 and from thence be drawn upon an hurdle to the 
 place of execution; and there you shall be hanged 
 by the neck, and being alive shall be cut down J, 
 and your head to be cut off, your body to be 
 divided into four quarters, and head and quarters 
 to be disposed of at the pleasure of the King's 
 Majesty; and the Lord have mercy upon your soul ! 
 
 1 The more revolting parts of this old sentence against 
 traitors are here omitted. The sentence is abolished by 
 54 Geo. 3. c. 146.; and the sentence now is, that the 
 culprit shall be drawn upon a hurdle to the place of execu- 
 tion, and hanged by the neck till he is dead, and afterwards 
 the head shall be severed from the body, and the body 
 divided into four quarters, to be disposed of as the King 
 shall think fit. His Majesty has power to dispense with 
 the drawing on a hurdle, and to order the convict to be 
 decapitated instead of hanged.
 
 TRIAL OF HUGH PETERS. 30^ 
 
 THE TRIAL OF HUGH PETERS. 
 
 October 1 3. at the same Bar. 
 
 Clerk of the Croion. Set Hugh Peters to the 
 bar. [Which was done accordingly. "J 
 
 Clerk. Hugh Peters, hold up thy hand ; thou 
 standest indicted, &c. If you will challenge any 
 of the Jury, you must challenge them when they 
 come to the book, before they are sworn. 
 
 L. C. Baron. Mr. Peters, you may challenge 
 to the number of thirty-five peremptorily, but 
 beyond that you cannot, without good cause 
 shown ; and you may have pen, ink, and paper. 
 
 Peters. My Lord, I shall challenge none. 
 
 The Jury were then sworn. 
 
 Sir Edward Turner.^ Gentlemen, — You have 
 often heard repeated to you, that the substantial 
 part of the charge is the compassing and imagin- 
 ing the death of the King, and all the rest will 
 be but evidence to prove that imagination against 
 the prisoner at the bar, whom we will prove to be 
 a principal actor in this sad tragedy, and next to 
 him whom God hath taken away, and reserved to 
 his own judgment ; and we shall endeavour to 
 prove, that he was a chief conspirator with Crom- 
 well at several times, and in several places ; and 
 that it was designed by them : we shall prove 
 that he was the principal person to procure the 
 soldiery to cry out, '^ Justice, justice ! " or assist or 
 
 • Several others of the prisoners were tried before Peters.
 
 304' TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 desire those for the taking away the Hfe cf the 
 King. He did naake use of his profession, wherein 
 he should have been the minister of peace, to 
 make himself a trumpeter of war, of treason, and 
 sedition, in the kingdom : he preached many ser- 
 mons to the soldiery, in direct terms for taking 
 away the King, comparing the King to Barabbas : 
 he was instrumental when the proclamation for 
 the High Court of Justice (as they called it) was 
 proclaimed, directing where it should be pro- 
 claimed, and in what place. The next day after 
 the King was brought to trial he commends it : 
 you shall hear all out of the mouth of the prisoner, 
 therefore I say no more ; call the witnesses. 
 
 Dr. William Young sworn. 
 
 Counsel. Tell my Lords and the Jury v/hat the 
 prisoner at the bar has declared to you concerning 
 the contrivance of bringing the King to trial. 
 
 Dr. Young. My Lords, and Gentlemen of the 
 Jury, — It was near about the month of July, 1648, 
 since we came first acquainted, when he went over 
 to Ireland ; it was about the siege of Pembroke 
 Castle ; but afterwards, in the year 1649, we re- 
 newed our acquaintance ; he went over to Ireland, 
 with that usurper, the late Protector, as he Vvas 
 called, after the town of Wexford was taken. 
 Coming over he fell sick of the flux, and said he 
 received it by infection, praying over Captain 
 Horton. Coming into Milford, that captain sends 
 a summons to me to come on board ; that was to 
 fetch this prisoner at the bar, who was sick. I 
 found him there grovelling upon the deck, and 
 sick he was indeed ; with much difficulty we got
 
 TRIAL OE HUGH PETERS. S05 
 
 him on shore ; within a very few days, to the 
 best of my remembrance five days, I perfected 
 his cure ; we became very famihar ; I observed to 
 him that he had some secret thoughts that I could 
 not well discover, neither well understand ; where- 
 upon I thought it might tend to my security that 
 I should so much sympathise with him, to get 
 within him to know his intentions. After some 
 weeks., (for he continued with me ten weeks, or 
 thereabouts), he began to enlarge his heart to 
 me. Many times I should hear him rail most 
 insufferably against the Blood Royal; not only 
 against our martyred King, but against his off- 
 spring : we would sit up discoursing till about 
 twelve or one of the clock at night very often, 
 about these unhappy wars late in England. At 
 last, he began to tell me how he came into Eng- 
 land, and upon what account he came out of New 
 England. First, he told me, (discoursing of New 
 England and the clergy there, and much of the 
 clergy here in England,) that for the di'iving on 
 of this interest of this Reformation, he was em- 
 ployed out of New England for the stirring up 
 of this war, and di'iving of it on : and, secondly, 
 that some time after he was come into England 
 he was sent over into Ireland by the Parliament 
 to drive on the design, to extirpate monarchy : 
 saith he, I did dispend a great deal of my own 
 money, yet never had that satisfaction from them 
 which they promised me ; they promised 2000/. or 
 3000/. for my journey, and yet they have given 
 me no more but only a small pittance of land out 
 of my Lord of Worcester's estate in Worcester- 
 shire. I have seen his letters dir'scted to his
 
 306 ■ TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 Kinsman here in London, — his name was Par- 
 ker, — advising him for the settling of his land, 
 and selling it. Thirdly, my Lord, by way of 
 vilification of the monarchical government, I 
 have found him jocmidarily scoffing at it : he 
 would ordinarily quibble in this manner, " this 
 Commonwealth will never be at peace till 150 
 be put down." I asked him what this 150 
 was ; he told me three L's, and afterwards in- 
 terpreted the meaning to be the Lords, the Le- 
 vites, and the Lawyers : with that, said I, we 
 shall be like Switzers, Tinkers, and Traitors. 
 Now, my Lord, we are come to the last par- 
 ticular : we discoursing thus frequently, and 
 withal he was then a Colonel, and had a com- 
 mission under that usurper Oliver, and brought 
 over his commission for raising of soldiers to fo- 
 ment that war in Ireland ; that it was so I appeal 
 to his own conscience, and whether he did not 
 press me very importunately to accept of a com- 
 mission of Major, or a Captain ; he did issue forth 
 two commissions under his own hand — one of 
 them to bring over from Devonshire two foot 
 companies unto Cork. My Lord, because we 
 were militarily affected, amongst the discourses 
 of our unhappy wars, we were discoursing 
 concerning our martyred King, as then we called 
 him, and of his imprisonment in Holmby House, 
 which I wondered at ; he told me the story how 
 they had used him at Holmby ; and at last came 
 up to this, when he was taken away from Holmby 
 Housed the Parliament had then a design to have 
 
 1 It appears from Wbitlock, that shortly after King 
 Charles I. was removed by Joyce from Holmby to New-
 
 TRIAL OF HUGH PETERS. 307 
 
 secured Oliver Cromwell, and himself, being then 
 in London ; saith he, we, having intelligence of it, 
 escaped out of London, and rode hard for it, and 
 as we rode to Ware, we made a halt, and advised 
 how we should settle this kingdom in peace, and 
 dispose of the King ; the result was this, they 
 should bring him to justice, try him for his life, 
 and cut off his head : whether this was the ex- 
 pression of Cromwell I cannot tell ; but to the 
 utmost of my remembrance, it was the advice of 
 Mr. Peters to Cromwell ; and I believe it, because 
 his former relations of his instructions out of 
 Ireland did tend to that effect. 
 
 Peters. My Lord, I desire to speak a word. 
 [His voice being low, he was brought to the se- 
 cond bar. J This gentleman I do kiiow 
 
 Counsel. What say you to him ? 
 
 Peters. That which I have to say is this, that 
 in his story he hath told that which is not true ; 
 but I will not find fault with him, because he was 
 my host, I will not reflect and recriminate : my 
 trouble at this discourse is this, — I do not know, 
 my Lord, tliat I found a more violent man for the 
 Parliament than himself; so far he undertook to 
 be a spy on one side ; he will not deny it ; he was 
 very fierce in that way ; I think words of such a 
 man ought to be little attended to. The second 
 is, this gentleman is not a competent witness 
 
 market, " Mr. Peters went to the King to Newmarket, and 
 Iiad much discourse with him." Mr. Peters moved his 
 Majesty to hear him preach, but his Majesty refused. 
 Whitlock's Mem. 257. 6 Rushw. Coll. .578. This refusal 
 appears to have greatly offended this vain turbulent de- 
 cl aimer. 
 
 X 2
 
 308 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 upon a twofold ground. First, because I know 
 he is under a very great temptation and trouble 
 in this very thing, and it is upon this account he 
 was put out of his Uving in the country, and here 
 he came to me to help him in again, and was very 
 highly offended because I did not do it. Se- 
 condly, give me leave to tell you, it is his way 
 to snap and catch at every man, which is the 
 complaint of the people in his own country. I 
 know that same which is spoken is false ; I speak 
 it in the presence of God ; I profess, I never had 
 any near converse with Oliver Cromwell about 
 such things ; I was in sickness then ; and to 
 take words that are spoken in a sick condition, 
 he ought not to do it ; for the words themselves 
 I do here profess against them, for the generality 
 of them ; and that he hath been freer in my 
 judgment in any communication in this way than 
 I have been ; I profess the things untruths, I call 
 God and angels to witness they are not true. 
 
 The Court. You shall be heard at large ; that 
 which you have been heard now is concerning the 
 competency or incompetency of the witness : the 
 incompetency against him is this, that when you 
 came thither none more violent for the Parlia- 
 ment than himself, and that he was a great spy, 
 and you say it was usual with him to take such 
 courses ; these are but words ; if you have any 
 witnesses we will hear them ; the man may be 
 traduced and slandered, and so all witnesses may 
 be taken away. — Mr. Peters, if you take this 
 course, God knows when this business will end ; 
 if you have a mind, take pen, ink, and paper, and 
 take notes of the witnesses, and make exceptions
 
 TRIAL OF HUGH PETERS. 309 
 
 to them one after another ; but interrupting one, 
 and so another, we shall never have done. 
 
 Young. I do recollect myself of some other 
 conferences between us; but, my Lord, that 
 which I would inform your Lordship is this, he 
 told me he took Duke Hamilton a prisoner him- 
 self in his own chamber, seized on his goods, and 
 took his Geoi^e and blue ribbon off his shoulder, 
 and the George he showed me. 
 
 Wyhert Gunter sworn. 
 
 Counsel. Mr. Gunter, what can you say con- 
 cerning a meeting and consultation at the Star in 
 Coleman-street ? 
 
 Gunter. My Lord, I was a servant at the Star 
 in Coleman-street, with one Mr. Hildesley. That 
 house was a house where Oliver Cromwell and 
 several of that party did use to meet in con- 
 sultation ; they had several meetings ; I do re- 
 member very well one among the rest, in par- 
 ticular that Mr. Peters was there; he came 
 in the afternoon about four o'clock, and was 
 there till ten or eleven at night; I being but a 
 drawer could not hear much of their discourse; 
 but the subject was tending towards the King, 
 after he was a prisoner, for they called him by 
 the name of Charles Stuart : I heard not much of 
 the discourse ; they were writing, but what I 
 know not ; but I guessed it to be something drawn 
 up against the King ; I perceived that Mr. Peters 
 was privy to it, and pleasant in the company. 
 
 The Court. How old were you at that time ? 
 
 Gunter. I am now thirty years the last Bar- 
 tholomew-day, and this was in 1618. 
 X 3
 
 310 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 The Court. How long before the King was 
 put to death ? 
 
 Gunter. A good while ; it was suddenly, as I 
 remember, three days before Oliver Cromwell 
 went out of town. 
 
 Peters. I was never there but once with Mr. 
 Nathaniel Fines. ^ 
 
 Counsel. Was Cromwell there ? 
 
 Gunter. Yes. 
 
 Counsel. Was Mr. Peters there any oftener 
 than once ? 
 
 Gunter. I know not, but once I am certain of 
 it; this is the gentleman; for then he wore a 
 great sword. 
 
 Peters. I never wore a great sword in my life. 
 
 Mr. Starkey sworn. 
 
 Starhey. My Lords, — In the month of De- 
 cember, before the King died, in the beginning of 
 that month, and so towards the lt2th of January 
 following, the head-quarters of the army were at 
 Windsor, and Mr. Ireton, that is dead, (who was 
 a general officer of the army,) was quartered in 
 my father's house there, and by reason of his long 
 residence there, being about two months, I knew 
 him very well. My Lords, — This gentleman, Mr. 
 Peters, he likewise quartered in another place in 
 that town, and Cromwell himself was quartered 
 at one Mr. Baker's, that lay low in the town ; so 
 that, in truth, my father's house being near the 
 Castle, and there being in it a large room, and 
 in respect that Mr. Ireton was quartered there, 
 
 1 Probably Fiennes.
 
 TRIAL OF HUGH PETERS. 311 
 
 usually the Council of War sat there. My Lords, 
 — I was then in tl\e house constantly : besides this 
 Council of War, which did commonly sit there, I 
 did observe that Cromwell, Ireton, and this gen- 
 tleman, Mr. Peters, and one Colonel Rich, and a 
 fifth person, whose name I have forgot, did usually 
 meet and consult together, and would sit up till 
 two or three o'clock in the morning very privately 
 together : this was their usual course when their 
 Council of War sat ; Mr. Ireton came in to supper, 
 but went out again; there were guards upon 
 them : after this time it happened that I was 
 often in Mr. Ireton's company ; Mr. Peters 
 coming to him, was very often at meals there, but 
 especially at nights. Mr. Ireton being civil in 
 carriage, would usually entertain discourses with 
 Mr. Peters, likewise would favour me sometimes 
 with discourse ; and in that discourse I did many 
 times take occasion to assert the laws in point of 
 the King; and discoursing about the King as being 
 a capital instrument in the late inconveniences, 
 as they called it, in the times of the war, Mr. 
 Ireton would discourse this ordinarily ; I was bold 
 to tell them that the person of the King was 
 solutus legibus. This gentleman, the prisoner at 
 the bar, told me it was an unequal law, I did 
 observe Mr. Peters did bend his discourse, not by 
 way of argument only, but in point of resolution 
 of judgment, fully against the person and govern- 
 ment of the King. I remember some of his ex- 
 pressions were these, That he was a tyrant, that 
 he was a fool, that he was not fit to be a King, or 
 bear that office ; I have heard him say, that for 
 the office itself, (in those very words which shortly 
 X 4
 
 312 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 after came into print,) that it was a dangerous, 
 chargeable, and useless office. My Lords, — The 
 constant discourse of this gentleman at that time 
 was such as he did believe would never be called 
 in question, so it was not a thing that a man was 
 necessitated to observe by an accident, but it was 
 their whole discourse. I will put you in mind of 
 a particular passage. When the news came to 
 Windsor that the King was in prison at the Isle 
 of Wight, my father was very much troubled 
 at it; and being an ancient man, was not able 
 to control his passions with reason. He told 
 my mother that they (meaning Mr. Ireton, &c.) 
 should have no entertainment there, and took 
 the key of the cellar and put it in his pocket. 
 His passions being lessened, Mr. Ireton, his wife, 
 and another officer were at supper with him, 
 and afterwards my father said grace, and, as 
 he usually did, though they were there, he said 
 that usual and honest expression, praying for the 
 King, " God save the King, Prince, and realm." 
 Sometimes they did laugh at it, but never did 
 reflect upon him ; but this night he made this 
 expression, " God save the King's most ex- 
 cellent Majesty, and preserve him out of the 
 hands of all his enemies." Peters, who was 
 then at the table, turns about to him, and 
 said, "Old gentleman, your idol will not stand 
 long;" I do conceive he meant it of the King 
 For a matter of two months of the constant 
 residence and being of the army there, I did 
 observe that in the General Council there, and 
 in this private cabal, (after the business was 
 broke out, and when the King was taken pri-
 
 TRIAL OF HUGH PETERS. 313 
 
 soner, and carried to Windsor,) Mr. Peters 
 was the constant man. When the business broke 
 out, I looked upon it in reason that Cromwell, 
 Ireton, and this gentleman at the bar, and Rich, 
 and that other gentleman, whose name I have 
 forgot, that they were the persons that did the 
 business. My Lords, — Mr. Peters he continued 
 at Windsor : I remember very well that after the 
 body of the army, the General, and the officers 
 of the army were gone to London, he continued 
 in Windsor : I remember a passage of one Bacon, 
 who was a sectary : Mr. Peters being in discourse 
 of the King, Mr. Bacon took great distaste at Mr. 
 Peters for some affront put upon the King ; Mr. 
 Peters falls upon him, and rails at him, and was 
 ready to beat him ; we understood it so, because 
 he did tell him of his affronting the King. 
 
 Counsel. Mr. Peters, if you have any thing to 
 ask this witness, you may. 
 
 Peters. I have many things to ask him. Did 
 I ever lie there ? 
 
 Starkey. No. 
 
 Peters. Did you see me there at three o'clock 
 in the morning? 
 
 Starkey. I have seen you go up at ten o'clock 
 at night to Mr. Ireton' s chamber, and sometimes 
 I understood you did not go away till four o'clock 
 in the morning ; I went to bed, it is true, but I 
 understood it so. 
 
 Thomas Walkely sworn. 
 
 Counsel. Give your testimony what consult- 
 ation you have had with the prisoner at the bar. 
 Walkely, I came out of Essex in at Aldgate ;
 
 314? TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 just as 1 came in a proclamation was read for trial 
 of his late Majesty ; I went down the next day 
 to the Painted Chamber at Westminster, where I 
 saw Oliver Cromwell, John Goodwin, and Peters, 
 and others ; John Goodwin sat in the middle of 
 the table, and he made a long speech or prayer, 
 I know not whether, but Mr. Peters stood there. 
 After John Goodwin had done his prayer, it was 
 desired that all strangers might avoid the room ; 
 then came up Cook, and Doris) aus, and Hum- 
 phreys, and Ask, and Dendy, and several others, 
 and stood by Bradshaw at the upper end of the 
 table ; but Cromwell stood up and told them it 
 was not necessary that the people should go out; 
 but that was over-ruled: and so I went out and 
 staid their rising, and saw this gentleman, Mr. 
 Peters, come out with them. After that, when the 
 King was brought to town a prisoner, the Lord 
 Carew, a very honourable person, meeting with 
 me, saith he, " Walkely, if you will ever see your 
 old master, go now, or else it may be you will 
 never see him." — "Where is he, my Lord?" said L 
 Saith he, " He is coming on this side Brainford."i 
 I went to the further end of St. James's Corner, 
 and there I met some of the army coming, and 
 then I saw his Majesty in his coach with six 
 horses, and Peters, like Bishop almoner, riding 
 before the King triumphing ; then, after that, in 
 St. James's Park, I saw Peters marshalling the 
 soldiers, and I was forced to go about. My Lord, 
 this is all I can say concerning that. I remember 
 one thing further of him ; I heard him in West- 
 
 1 Brentford.
 
 TRIAL OF HUGH PETERS. 315 
 
 minster Hall say, within a year or two after the 
 army was raised, "If we can keep up our army 
 but seven years longer, we need not care for the 
 King and all his posterity." 
 
 Holland Simpson sworn. 
 
 Counsel. What do you know concerning the 
 prisoner at the bar ? 
 
 Simpson. I do know Mr. Peters very well ; I 
 have known him these eleven or twelve years : 
 when the High Court of Justice was sitting, both 
 in the Court and Painted Chamber, I saw this 
 gentleman in consultation there, and at Sir Wil- 
 liam Brereton's and other where. 
 
 Counsel. Did you see him at the trial ? 
 
 Simpson. I saw him, but not as a Judge.' 
 There was one day in the Hall Colonel Stub- 
 bards, who was Adjutant-General, (he was a very 
 busy man,) and Colonel Axtell ; Mr. Peters going 
 down the stairs, comes to him, and bids Stubbards 
 to command the soldiers to cry out " Justice, 
 justice, against the traitor at the bar!" 
 
 Counsel. Who did he mean ? 
 
 Simpson. The King was at the bar at the 
 same time ; whereupon, my Lord, the soldiers 
 did cry out upon the same ; and as the King was 
 taken away to Sir Robert Cotton's, some of them 
 spit in the King's face, but he took his handker- 
 chief, wiped it off, and smiled. 
 
 Peters. I do not know this gentleman ; did he 
 ever see me ? 
 
 I Peters was not one of the Commissioners, probably 
 
 owing to his being a preacher.
 
 316 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 Simpson. Yes, divers times in the Painted 
 Chamber, at Sir William Brereton's at the Dean- 
 ery, in consultation with Bradshaw, and you 
 yvere admitted, and no man else, as I know, 
 unless Sir William Brereton, who came along 
 with you.J 
 
 Thomas Richardson sworn, 
 
 Richardson. My Lords, — The first day that 
 this Court of Justice (as they called it) did ad- 
 journ, I saw the prisoner at the bar with some 
 more standing in the Court, and I came and 
 stood close by him ; I heard him commend Brad- 
 shaw, the carriage of him in the trial of the King. 
 To be short, Mr. Peters, holding up his hands, 
 said, " This is a most glorious beginning of the 
 work." 
 
 Sir Jeremy Whichcot sworn. 
 
 Whichcot. My Lords, — I have, by accident, 
 not by choice, been several times in Mr. Peters's 
 company ; truly I have heard him speak very 
 scurrilously of the King ; amongst the rest he 
 said there was a meeting of the officers of the 
 army, where he used this expression, "And there 
 
 1 Sir William Brereton, Bart., was of an ancient Cheshire 
 family, a member of the Long Parliament, and one of the 
 most active of the parliamentary Generals. He was a 
 staunch Presbyterian, and rather an enemy to the Church 
 than the King. His name was inserted in the ordinance for 
 the King's trial ; but he never took any part in the pro- 
 ceeding. It would rather seem that the Deanery at West- 
 minster, wliich was voted for Bradshaw's residence, had been 
 before occupied by Sir William Brereton.
 
 TRIAL or HUGH PETERS. 3l7 
 
 we did resolve to set aside the King." My Lord, 
 at another time he was speaking of that which 
 they called the High Court of Justice, and I 
 do very well remember this was his expression 
 — "I cannot but look upon this Court with a 
 great reverence, for it doth resemble in some 
 measure the trial that shall be at the end of 
 the world by the Saints." I remember one 
 time he was saying he would have preached 
 before the King, but, said he, " the poor wretch 
 would not hear me." 
 
 Richard Nunnelly sworn. 
 
 Counsel. Was Peters upon the scaffold at 
 the time of execution, or before ? 
 
 Nunnelhj. On that unhappy day, 30th of Janu- 
 ary, 1649, this Hugh Peters came an hour before 
 the King came to Whitehall ; I came to bring a 
 warrant of 40,000/. or 50,000/. to Oliver Crom- 
 well, being door-keeper to the Committee of the 
 Army ; " Nunnelly,'" says Oliver Cromwell, " will 
 you go to Whitehall ? Surely you will see the 
 beheading of the King ? " and he let me into 
 WTiitehall. Coming into the boarded gallery I 
 met Hugh Peters, and then I got with Hugh 
 Peters into the Banqueting House. Being there, 
 Hugh Peters met one Tench of Houndsditch, 
 that was a joiner ; he speaks to him, and whispers 
 in his ear, and told him somewhat, I do not know 
 what it was ; but Tench presently went and 
 knocked four staples upon the scaffold ; I meeting 
 Tench again, "What art thou doing?" said I; 
 " what, will you turn hangman ? " Says he, " This 
 day will be a happy day " Said I, " Pray God
 
 318 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 send it be not a bloody day ;" upon that Hugh 
 Peters went upon the scaffold just an hour before 
 the King came, and then he went off again. I 
 watched at the window when the King's head 
 was cut off, and afterwards I saw the vizards 
 going into a chamber there ; about an hour after- 
 wards (I staying there at the door) there comes 
 Hugh Peters in his black cloak and broad hat out 
 of that chamber (as I take it) with the hangman ; 
 I am sure I did see him go along with the hang- 
 man to take water. 
 
 Peters. I have here a witness : I here call 
 God to witness I was not out of my chamber that 
 day ; I was sick. 
 
 The Court. If your witness will stay he shall 
 be heard ; there are more witnesses to the same 
 thing, and so he may speak to all together. 
 
 Stephen Clough sworn. 
 
 Counsel. Wliat do you know of Hugh Peters ? 
 
 Clough. My Lords, and Gentlemen of the 
 Jury, — In 1 648 I heard of a meeting of the 
 Council of Officers at Westminster, I think in the 
 Painted Chamber, and I being willing to hear 
 what their consultations were, I went thither, 
 and was there as one of them, (but I was not 
 one,) amongst the rest Hugh Peters was one. 
 When the room was pretty full the door was shut. 
 Mr. Peters desired to call for a blessing upon 
 their business, and in his prayer he uttered 
 these words, " O Lord, what a mercy is it to 
 eee this great city fall down before us ! And 
 what a stir is there to bring this great man to
 
 TRIAL OF HUGH PETERS. 319 
 
 trial, without whose blood he will turn us all into 
 blood if he reign again I " ' 
 
 Peters. What day was this ? 
 
 Clough. It was about three weeks or a month 
 before the King died. 
 
 Peters. Where was this? 
 
 Clough. In the Painted Chamber. 
 
 Peters. How long was this ago ? 
 
 Clough. In 1648. 
 
 Peters. How long before the King died, do 
 you say ? 
 
 Clough. About three weeks or a month be- 
 fore the King was murdered. 
 
 Mr. Beaver sworn. 
 
 Counsel. What do you know of Peters ? 
 
 Beaver. My Lord, and Gentlemen of the Jury, — 
 Upon a day that was appointed for a fast for those 
 that sat then as a Parliament, I went to West- 
 minster to find out some company to dine with 
 me, and having walked about an hour in West- 
 minster Hall, and finding none of my friends to 
 dine with me, I went to that place called Hea- 
 ven 2, and dined there ; after I had dined I passed 
 through St. Margaret's Churchyard to go home 
 again (I lay in the Strand), 1 perceived all the 
 churchyard full of muskets and pikes upon the 
 
 1 Evelyn, in his Diary of January 17. 1648, says, — "I 
 heard the rebel! Peters incite the rebell powers, met in the 
 Painted Chamber, to destroy his Majesty." 
 
 2 " False Heav'n, at the end of the Hall." — Hudibras. 
 Pepys speaks of dining at this tavern ; and at its rival, 
 
 denominated Hell. It was on the site of the present Com- 
 mittee-rooms of the House of Commons.
 
 320 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 ground, and asked some soldiers that were there 
 what was the business. They told me they were 
 guarding the Parliament that were keeping a fast 
 at St. Margaret's. " Who preaches ? " said I. 
 Tliey told me Mr. Peters is just now gone up 
 into the pulpit. Said I, " I must needs have the 
 curiosity to hear that man, having heard many 
 stories of the manner of his preaching (God knows 
 I did not do it out of any manner of devotion)," 
 I crowded near the pulpit, and came near the 
 Speaker's pew ; and I saw a great many members 
 there, whom I knew well. I could not guess what 
 his text might be, but hearing him talk much of 
 Barabbas and our Saviour, and insisting altogether 
 upon that, I guessed his text was that passage 
 wherein the Jews did desire the release of Ba- 
 rabbas and crucifying of Christ ; and so it proved ; 
 the first thing I heard him say was, " It was a 
 very sad thing that this should be a question 
 amongst us, as among the old Jews, whether our 
 Saviour Jesus Christ must be crucified, or that 
 Barabbas should be released, the oppressor of 
 the people : O Jesus," saith he, " where are we, 
 that that should be a question amongst us?" 
 says he ; " and because that you should think, my 
 Lords and Gentlemen, that it is a question, I tell 
 you it is a question; I have been in the city, 
 which may very well be compared to Hierusalem 
 in this conjuncture of time, and I profess those 
 foolish citizens for a little trading and profit they 
 will have Christ" (pointing to the red-coats on the 
 pulpit-stairs) " crucified, and the great Barabbas at 
 Windsor released." Says he, " But I do not much 
 heed what the rabble say : I hope," says he, " that
 
 TRIAL OF HUGH PETERS. 321 
 
 my brethren of the clergy will be wiser, the lips 
 of the priests do use to preserve knowledge ; I 
 have been with them, too, in the assembly, and 
 having seen and heard what they said, I perceive 
 they are for crucifying of Christ, and releasing of 
 Barabbafi ; O, Jesus, what shall we do now?" 
 With such like strange expressions, and shrugging 
 of his shoulders in the pulpit. i 
 
 Counsel. How long was this before the King 
 was murdered? 
 
 Beaver. It was a few days before the House 
 of Commons miade that thing called an Act for his 
 trial. 
 
 Counsel. What did he say to the members? 
 
 Beaver. I am coming to it. Says he, " My 
 Lords, and you, noble Gentlemen of the House 
 of Commons, you are the Sanhedrim, and the 
 great Council of the nation, therefore you must be 
 sure to do justice, and it is from you we expect 
 it : you must not only be inheritors of your an- 
 cestors, but you must do as they did; they have 
 opposed tyrannical kings, they have destroyed 
 them ; it is you chiefly that we look for justice 
 from. Do not prefer the great Barabbas, Mur- 
 derer, Tyrant, and Traitor, before these poor 
 hearts (pointing to the red-coats), and the army, 
 who are our saviours : " and thus for two or three 
 hours' time that he spent, he nothing but raked 
 up all the reasons, arguments, and examples he 
 
 1 Pepys says in his Diary, March 1. 1661, he went to 
 hear Creeton, the Scotch chaplain, preach at Whitehall " on 
 the words in Micah, < Roule yourselves in the dust.' He 
 made a most learned sermon upon the words, but in his ap- 
 plication the most comical man I ever heard in my life — • 
 just such a man as Hugh Peters." 
 Y
 
 322 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 could, to persuade them to bring the King to 
 condign, speedy, and capital punishment. 
 
 Peters. I did not preach there at that time. 
 
 Counsel. Pray, my Lord, will you call Mr. 
 Jessop, who hath the records of the Parliament, 
 and can produce the Order, whereby he was 
 appointed to carry on the work of that fast;- 
 there was the Order for his preaching, and Order 
 of thanks for his work. 
 
 [Mr. Jessop produced the Journal, wherein was 
 the order following, which was read.] 
 
 [Clerk reads.] "20 December, 164-8. Ordered, 
 That Mr. Peters be desired to preach on Friday 
 next, the day of public humiliation, at Margaret's, 
 Westminster, in the place of " 
 
 Counsel. Call Mr. Chace. After this the 
 work went on, and the High Court of Justice sat; 
 and the first day they sat was Saturday, January 
 20th, in Westminster Hall, the 21st being the 
 Sunday following; I think Mr. Chace was at 
 Whitehall ; he will tell you what he preached. 
 
 Mr. Chace sxuorn. 
 
 Chace. My Lord, I heard the prisoner at the 
 bar preaching before Oliver Cromwell and Brad- 
 shaw, who was called the Lord President of the 
 High Court of Justice, and he took his text out 
 of the Psalms, in these words: " Bind your kings 
 with chains, and your nobles with fetters of iron ;" 
 that was part of the text : but says he in his ser- 
 mon, " Beloved, it is the last Psalm but one, and 
 the next Psalm hath six verses, and twelve Halle- 
 lujahs, praise ye the Lord, praise God in his Sanc- 
 tuary, and so on. For what?" says he; " Look
 
 TRIAL OF HUGH PETERS. 323 
 
 into my text, there is the reason of it; that 
 kings were bound in chains, and nobles with 
 links of iron." He went on with a story of a 
 Mayor, a Bishop, and his man; " The Bishop's 
 man," saith he, " being drunk, the Mayor laid 
 him by the heels; the Bishop sends to the 
 Mayor, to know by what authority he imprisoned 
 his servant ; the Mayor's answer was, there is an 
 Act of Parliament for it, and neither the Bishop 
 nor his man is excepted out of it;" and applied 
 it thus : " Here is," saith he, " a great discourse 
 and talk in the world, what, will ye cut off the 
 King's head? The head of a protestant Prince 
 and King ? Turn to your Bibles, and you shall 
 find it there, ' Whosoever sheds man's blood, by 
 man shall his blood be shed.' " Says he, " I will 
 even answer them as the Mayor did the Bishop, 
 here is an act of God, ' WTiosoever sheds man's 
 blood, by man shall his blood be shed ; and I see 
 neither King Charles, nor Prince Charles, nor 
 Prince Rupert, nor Prince Maurice, nor any of 
 that rabble, excepted out of it." And further 
 he said, " This is the day that I, and many saints 
 of God besides, have been praying for these 
 many years." 
 
 Peters. Ask him whether he took notes. 
 
 Chace. No, Sir, but it being so memorable a 
 sermon I took special notice of it. I observed 
 that Oliver Cromwell did laugh at that time when 
 you were preaching. 
 
 Thomas Tongue sworn. 
 
 Counsel, What do you know of the prisoner's 
 preaching ? 
 
 Y 2
 
 324; TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 To7igm. Upon January 21. 1649, I was at 
 Whitehall, where this gentleman preached, and 
 he preached upon this text. Psalm cxlix. v. 8., 
 " To bind their kings in chains, and their nobles 
 in links of iron;" in which text this Peters did 
 much applaud the soldiers there; he said he 
 hoped to see such another day following as the 
 day before, and that, " Blessed be God (says this 
 Parson Peters) the House, the lower House, is 
 purged, and the House of Lords themselves they 
 will down suddenly ; " this is all that I well re- 
 member at that time. Upon the 28th of January, 
 le^Q, next day after sentence of the King, I 
 heard Peters preach upon this text, in St. James's 
 Chapel, Psalm cxlix. 6, 7, 8, 9. " Let the high 
 praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged 
 sword in their hands, to execute vengeance on 
 the heathen, and punishment upon the people; to 
 bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with 
 fetters of iVon; to execute upon them the judg- 
 ment written, this honour have all his Saints ; 
 praise ye the Lord:" and there he did so saint 
 the red-coats, and so reprobate the poor King's 
 friends ! Says he, " This I did intend to insist 
 and preach upon before the poor wretch, and the 
 jjoor wretch would not hear me." 
 
 William Rider sworn^ 
 
 Rider. I was at the same time at church in 
 St. Sepulchre's. My Lord, as soon as ever 
 he had read the words of his text, which was, 
 "^ He shall call his name Emmanuel," he pre- 
 sently shook hands with his text, and fell (as 
 he was wont) to news, and there he said, " The
 
 TRIAL OF HUGH PETERS. 325 
 
 great enquiry now is, to know what should be- 
 come of the King ? Let that alone," saith he ; 
 and presently he falls to it again, and was pleased 
 to style the King Barabbas ; saith he, " There is 
 a great many of the people had rather Christ 
 should be crucified than Barabbas ;" and here he 
 was applauding the soldiers ; and said that " Em- 
 manuel" was written upon the bridles of their 
 horses ; and he was speaking of the King's sol- 
 diers ; saith he, " I have known eighty thousand 
 of them, and not one of them a gracious person." 
 
 Counsel. Now we expect the answer of the 
 prisoner at the bar, the indictment hath been 
 fully proved. 
 
 Peters. I desire that witness may be ad- 
 mitted which I spoke of, his name is Cornelius 
 Glover. 
 
 Cornelius Glover not sworn.* 
 
 L. C. Baron. Where do you dwell ? 
 
 Glover. In Paul's Churchyard. I belong to 
 the Post-house. 
 
 L. C. Baron. What would you have him 
 asked ? 
 
 Peters. Whether 1 was out of my chambei 
 that day the King suffered? 
 
 Glover. I was come to Mr. Peters a little be- 
 fore that time, to live with him as his servant ; it 
 fell out that day he was ill in his chamber all the 
 morning; the soldiers in St. James's House were 
 all gone away ; I had a desire to go see the meet- 
 
 1 Till the Act of 1st Anne, c 9., the witnesses for pri- 
 soners were not exo rained on oath. 
 
 y3
 
 326 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 ing, where they were at Whitehall: saith he, 
 " Thou seemest to have a great desire to go and 
 look about thee ; it is very sad, but if you will go 
 you may." I did go over the Park ; and I came 
 back again, and Mr. Peters was in his chamber 
 then. 
 
 Counsel, Was Mr. Peters sick? 
 
 Glover. Yes, he was melancholy sick as he 
 used to be. 
 
 L. C. Baron. Mr. Peters, have you any more 
 to ask him ? 
 
 Peters. I brought him to testify that I was 
 not out of my chamber that day, and that I was 
 sick. 
 
 L. C. Baron. This gentleman is examined 
 only to one particular, nothing at all to the main 
 j)roofs. 
 
 Peters. I bring him only to vindicate myself 
 from that aspersion of my being upon the scaffold. 
 
 L. C. Baron. They do not lay the weight ot 
 their evidence upon that : the King's Counsel 
 have done with their evidence ; if you have any 
 thing to say, you have your liberty. 
 
 Peters. May it please your Lordships, I will 
 give you an account of the business. I lived four- 
 teen years out of England ; when I came over I 
 found the wars begun ; I began no war, my Lord, 
 nor have been the trumpeter. When I came out 
 of the West Indies, I fled from the war into Ire- 
 land, to the Western part there ; and it was after 
 the rebellion, when some of the Irish had been 
 stirring there, I went and spent my time there. 
 I was neither at Edge-hill, nor Naseby ; but, my 
 Lord, after I came over there was war that the
 
 TRIAL OF HUGH PETERS. 327 
 
 people were engaged in ; I was not here in the 
 beginning of it, but was a stranger to tlie car- 
 riage of it. When I came into the nation I 
 looked after three things : one was, that there 
 might be sound religion ; the second was, that 
 learning and laws might be maintained ; the 
 third, that the poor might be cared for; and I 
 must confess I have spent most of my time in 
 these things to this end and purpose. There was 
 a noise in all parts of some miscarriages in mat- 
 ters of religion ; after it was settled I lived in Ire- 
 land. I must profess for my own part, solemnly, 
 that my carriage hath been upon these heads. 
 For religion, I have, through God's mercies, spake 
 of the truths of the Protestant Church ; upon this 
 account I did stay to see what God might do : I 
 was sent over to his Majesty, that we might have 
 a little help in point of excise and customs, and 
 encouragement in learning. I had neither ma- 
 lice nor mischief in my heart against the King; 
 upon this I did engage so far, being invited. I 
 went into the wars, and there I found very strange 
 and several kinds of providences, as this day hath 
 been seen. I do not deny but that I was active, 
 but not to stir in a way that was not honourable. 
 I challenge a great part of the nation to manifest 
 my carriage among them : I shall make it good 
 divers ways ; I had so much respect to his Ma- 
 jesty, particularly at Windsor, that I propounded 
 to his Majesty my thoughts three ways to pre- 
 serve himself from danger, which were good, as 
 he was pleased to think, though they did not suc- 
 ceed, and the work died; as for malice, I had 
 none in me. It is true, there was a difference 
 
 Y 4'
 
 328 TRIALS OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 amongst us, an army, and an arm.y. I never had 
 a groat or penny from Oliver Cromwell since I 
 knew this place. I profess I have had no ends for 
 honour or gain since I set foot upon this shore. I 
 challenge any man that belonged to that party 
 whether they had not the same respect from me 
 as my own party. I have not persecuted any with 
 malice ; I will only take off malice. 
 
 L. C. Baron. Your business is matter of fact. 
 
 Peters, I am unskilful in law, this that I offer 
 is to show that I had no malice in me ; I was so 
 far from malice, that I have a certificate, if worth 
 the reading, from one of the most eminent per- 
 sons in the nation, to show I had no malice. It 
 is concerning the Marquis of Worcester, under 
 his lady's hand, beginning with these words : " I 
 do hereby testify, that in all the sufferings of my 
 husband, Mr. Peters was my great friend," &c. 
 
 L. C. Baron. I am not willing at all to in- 
 terrupt you, or hinder you ; that which you speak 
 is not at all to the point. You hear the matter 
 alleged against you ; pray come to the matter. 
 
 Peters. My Lord, I cannot remember them. 
 
 Lord Chief Baron. Then I will remember i 
 you: you are charged by this indictment for 
 compassing and imagining the death of the King, 
 and there is set forth sundry particulars to prove 
 the overt act, that you, with other persons named 
 in that indictment, did consult and meet together 
 
 1 Tliis sort of recapitulation, by the Judge, of the main 
 points proved, in order to assist the prisoner in his defence, 
 was at this period not unfrequent. The practice has now 
 been long disused. The summing up is now made after 
 the prisoner's defence.
 
 EXECUTION OF THE REGICIDES. 329 
 
 how to bring about the King's death. Then 
 you are charged with several acts of contriving 
 and endeavouring the King's death. 
 
 The Chief Baron then minutely summed up the 
 evidence. Peters said nothing, except making 
 an occasional protestation that the witnesses spoke 
 false. When the Chief Baron ended. 
 
 Peters. My Lord, if I had time and oppor- 
 tunity, I could take off many of the witnesses, 
 but because their testimony is without control 
 I cannot satisfy myself; I have no skill in the 
 law, else I might have spoke for myself; I do not 
 know what to say more, unless I had more time 
 and counsel. 
 
 Tlie Solicitor-General then, according to one 
 of those irregular practices frequent at the time, 
 made some observations on the evidence. 
 
 The Jury went together, and after a little con- 
 sultation settled in their places, and pronounced 
 a verdict of Guilty. Cook, the republican Coun- 
 sel, who had been before found guilty, vvas then 
 placed by the side of Harrison at the bar; and the 
 Lord Chief Baron, after a solemn address, passed 
 on them the sentence of death, which the law 
 awarded to traitors. 
 
 Two days after his trial, on the 13th of Oc- 
 tober, 1660, Harrison underwent, at Charing 
 Cross, the awful and certainly barbarous sen- 
 tence which the law at that time inflicted on 
 traitors. In Newgate, and on the scaffold, he 
 was, as usual, cheerful, fearless, and even exult-
 
 330 EXECUTION OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 ing. Some friends asked him how he did. He 
 answered, '' Very well ; and cannot be in a 
 better condition if I had the desires of my heart : 
 we must be willing to receive hard things from 
 the hands of our Father, as well as easy 
 things." When he came to Newgate there were 
 chains put upon his feet ; and he said, " Wel- 
 come, welcome; oh, this is nothing to what 
 Christ hath undergone for me ; this is out of his 
 great loving-kindness and faithfulness, and my 
 God is all-sufficient in all conditions." Soon 
 after his coming into the dungeon, a woman 
 belonging to the gaol, who was sent to make 
 clean the room, and to make a fire for him, was 
 asked, when she came out, how the Major- 
 General behaved himself, and what he said; to 
 which she answered, she knew not what he had 
 done to deserve to be there, but sure he vvas a 
 good man, and never such a man was there be- 
 fore, for he was full of God ; there was nothing but 
 God in his mouth ; and his discourse and frame 
 of heart would melt the hardest of their hearts. 
 
 On the day of his execution he told the she- 
 riff that his support was, that his sufferings were 
 upon the account of Jehovah, the Lord of Hosts. 
 He said, he looked upon this as a clear answer 
 of his prayers ; " for many a time," said he, " have 
 I begged of the Lord, that, if he had any hard 
 thing, any reproachful work, or contemptible ser- 
 vice to be done by his people, that I should be 
 employed in it ; and now blessed be the name 
 of God, who accounteth me worthy to be put 
 upon this service for my Lord Christ." 
 
 He parted with his wife and friends with
 
 EXECUTION OF THE REGICIDES. 331 
 
 great joy and cheerfulness. He told his wife he 
 had nothing to leave her but his Bible; but that 
 he was assured that God would make up all her 
 losses in due time ; and desired, that those that 
 did love him, should manifest their love in being 
 loving and tender to his dear wife. 
 
 Then he was carried away in the sledge, hav- 
 ing (according to the account of a cotemporary) 
 a sweet smiling countenance, with his eyes 
 and hands lifted up to heaven, his countenance 
 never changing in all the wa} as he went to the 
 place of execution, but was mighty cheerful, to 
 the astonishment of many. He called several 
 times in the way, and spoke aloud, " I go to 
 suffer upon the account of the most glorious 
 cause that ever was in the world." As he was 
 going to suffer, one, in derision, called to him, 
 and said, " Where io your Good Old Cause?" 
 He^ with a cheerful smile, clapt his hand on his 
 breast, and said, " Here it is, and I am going to 
 seal it with my blood." And when he came to 
 the sight of the gallows, he was transported with 
 joy, and his servant asked him how he did ; he 
 answered, " Never better in my life." His ser- 
 vant told him, " Sir, there is a crown of glory 
 ready prepared for you." — " Oh, yes," said he, 
 " I see it." When he was taken off the sledge, 
 the hangman desired him to forgive him. " I do 
 forgive thee," said he, " with all my heart, as it 
 is a sin against me ;" and told him he wished him 
 all happiness. And further said, " Alas, poor 
 man, thou dost it ignorantly ; the Lord grant that 
 this sin may not be laid to thy charge I " And 
 putting his hand into his pocket, gave him all the
 
 S32 EXECUTION OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 money he had ; and so parting with his servant, 
 embracing him in his arms, he went up the ladder 
 with an undaunted countenance ; from whence 
 he spake to the multitude : — 
 
 " Gentlemen, — I did not expect to have spoken 
 a word to you at this time ; but seeing there is a 
 silence commanded, I will speak something of the 
 work God had in hand in our days. Many of 
 you have been witnesses of the finger of God, 
 that hath been seen amongst us of late years, in 
 the deliverance of his people from their oppres- 
 sors, and in bringing to judgment those that 
 were guilty of the precious blood of the dear ser- 
 vants of the Lord. And how God did witness 
 thereto by many wonderful and evident testi- 
 monies, as it were immediately from Heaven, 
 insomuch that many of our enemies, who were 
 persons of no mean quality, were forced to con- 
 fess, that God was with us ; and if God did but 
 stand neuter, they should not value us : and 
 therefore, seeing the finger of God hath been 
 pleading this cause, I shall not need to speak 
 much to it ; in which work I, with others, were 
 engaged ; for the which, I do from my soul bless 
 the name of God, who, out of the exceeding 
 riches of his grace, accounted me worthy to be 
 instrumental in so glorious a work ; and though I 
 am wrongfully charged with murder and blood- 
 shed, yet I must tell you, I have kept a good 
 conscience both towards God, and towards man. 
 I bless God 1 have no guilt upon my conscience ; 
 in this I have comfort and consolation, that I 
 have peace with God, and do see all my sins 
 washed away in the blood of my dear Saviour.
 
 EXECUTION OF THE REGICIDES. 333 
 
 " I have again and again besought the Lord 
 with tears to make known his will and mind unto 
 me concerning it, and to this day he hath ratlier 
 confirmed me in the justice of it, and therefore I 
 leave it to him, and to him I commit my ways ; 
 but some that were eminent in the work, did 
 wickedly turn aside themselves, and to set up 
 their nests on high, which caused great dishonour 
 to the name of God, and the profession they had 
 made. And the Lord knows I could have suf- 
 fered more than this, rather than have fallen in 
 with them in that iniquity, though I was offered 
 what I would if I would have joined with them ; 
 my aim, in all my proceedings, was the glory of 
 God, and the good of his people, and the welfare 
 of the whole Commonwealth." 
 
 The people observing him to tremble in his 
 hands and legs, he, taking notice of it, said — 
 
 " Gentlemen, — By reason of some scoffing that 
 I do hear, I judge that some do think I am 
 afraid to die, by the shaking I have in my hands 
 and knees ; I tell you, no ; but it is by reason of 
 much blood I have lost in the wars, and many 
 wounds I have received in my body, which caus- 
 eth this shaking and weakness in my nerves ; I 
 have had it these twelve years ; I speak this to 
 the praise and glory of God; he hath carried me 
 above the fear of death : and I value not my life, 
 because I go to my Father, and am assured I 
 shall take it up again." 
 
 " Oh, the greatness of the love of God to such 
 a poor, vile, and nothing-creature as I am I What 
 am I, that Jesus Christ should shed his heart's
 
 334? EXECUTION OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 blood for me, that I might be happy to all eter- 
 nity, that I might be made a Son of God, and an 
 heir of heaven ! Oh, that Christ should undergo 
 so great sufferings and reproaches for me ! And 
 should not I be willing to lay down my life, and 
 suffer reproaches for him that hath so loved me? 
 Blessed be the name of God, that I have a life to 
 lose upon so glorious, and so honourable an ac- 
 count. [Then praying to himself, with tears; 
 and having ended, the hangman pulled down his 
 cap; but he thrust it up again saying,] I have 
 one word more to the Lord's people. Let them 
 not think hardly of any of the good ways of God 
 for all this ; for I have been near these seven years 
 a suffering person, and have found the way of God 
 to be a perfect way, his word a tried word, a 
 buckler to them that trust in him, and will make 
 known his glorious arm in the sight of all nations. 
 " And as for me, oh ! who am I, poor, base, 
 vile worm, that God should deal thus by me? 
 for this will make me come the sooner into his- 
 glory, and to inherit the kingdom, and that crown 
 prepared for me ? Oh, I have served a good Lord 
 and master, which hath helped me from my be- 
 ginning to this day, and hath carried me through 
 many difficulties, trials, straits, and temptations, 
 and hath always been a very present help in time 
 of trouble ; he hath covered my head many times 
 in the day of battle. By God I have leaped over 
 a wall, by God I have run through a troop, and 
 by my God I will go through this death, and he 
 will make it easy to me. Now into thy hands, O 
 Lord Jesus, I commit my spirit."
 
 EXECUTION OF THE REGICIDES. 335 
 
 He was then hanged, and was cut down alive, 
 and quartered, according to the sentence. • 
 
 Hugh Peters, together with Cook the re- 
 publican Counsel, was executed at Charing Cross 
 on the 16th of October, 1660. During his trial 
 he had exhibited neither courage nor capacity, 
 and in his last moments, Burnet says, " he was 
 the man of all of them that was the most sunk in 
 his spirit, and could not in any sort bear his 
 punishment. He had neither the honesty to 
 repent of it, nor the strength of mind to suffer 
 for it as the rest did. He was observed all the 
 while to be drinking some cordial liquors to keep 
 him from fainting." According to Burnet, he had 
 been " a very vicious man," and an incoherent 
 sermon2, which he preached in Newgate the day 
 after his trial, on the text, " Wliy art thou cast 
 down, oh my soul, and why art thou disquieted 
 within me ? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet 
 praise him, who is the light of my countenance 
 and my God," sufficiently shows his desponding 
 spirits, and the reproaches of conscience which 
 
 ' Pepys, in his Diary of 13th October, 1660, says, — "I 
 went out to Charing Cross to see Major General Harrison 
 hanged, drawn, and quartered, which was done there ; he 
 looking as cheerful as any man could do in that condition. 
 He was presently cut down, and his head and heart shown 
 to the people, at which there were great shouts of joy. It 
 is said, that he said he was sure to come shortly, at the right 
 hand of Christ, to judge them that now judged him, and 
 that his wife do expect his coming again. Thus it was my 
 chance to see the King beheaded at Whitehall, and to see 
 the first blood shed in revenge for the King at Charing 
 Cross." 
 
 * See State Trials, vol. v. 1279.
 
 336 EXECUTION OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 he endured. The popular indignation, which set 
 strongly against the regicides, showed itself to- 
 wards Peters as well as the others in insulting 
 expressions and shouts. 
 
 Being carried upon the sledge to execution, 
 and made to sit therein within the fails at Charing 
 Cross, to behold the execution of Mr. Cook, one 
 came to him and upbraided him with the death 
 of the King, bidding him (with opprobrious lan- 
 guage) to repent ; he replied, " Friend, you do not 
 well to trample upon a dying man ; you are greatly 
 mistaken ; I had nothing to do in the death of the 
 King." 
 
 When he was going to his execution, he looked 
 about and espied a man, to whom he gave a piece 
 of gold (having bowed it first), and desired him 
 to go to the place where his daughter lodged, and 
 to carry that to her as a token from him, and to 
 let her know, that his heart was as full of comfort 
 as it could be ; and that before that piece should 
 come to her hands, he should be with God in 
 glory. 
 
 When he was going to die, he said, " What, 
 flesh, art thou unwilling to go to God through 
 the fire and jaws of death? Oh !" said he, " this 
 is a good day; He is come that I have long looked 
 for; and I shall be with him in glory:" and so 
 smiled when he went away. 
 
 Much of what he said at his execution was in- 
 audible, as his voice was very low, and the people 
 interrupted him by their shouts. 
 
 Besides Harrison and Peters, eight others of 
 the Regicides were convicted and executed in 
 October, 1660, viz. Carew, Scot, Jones, Clement,
 
 EXECUTION OF THE REGICIDES. 337 
 
 Scroop, Cook, Axtell, and Hacker. Colonel 
 Okey, Colonel Barkstead, and Miles Corbet, were 
 tried and executed in April, ] 662. The trials of 
 Harrison and Hugh Peters have been selected as 
 being the most remarkable, on account of the 
 conspicuous parts acted by these two singular 
 men, and the curious details disclosed in the 
 proceedings. The Regicides who were con- 
 victed, but whose lives were spared, were im- 
 prisoned during their lives; many in the Tower, 
 and some in other places. The witty, profligate, 
 and impious Henry Marten, who, according to 
 Burnet, " moved every thing upon Greek and 
 Roman principles," died of apoplexy in Chepstow 
 Castle, in 1681. His defence on his trial was 
 subtle rather than forcible. The popular and 
 extravagant Alderman Pennington died in thb 
 Tower, in December, 1661. Owen Rowe also 
 died in the Tower, in the same month, and was 
 buried at Hackney. William Heveningham, of 
 Heveningham in Suffolk, had the same fate: 
 Charles II., out of regard to the loyalty and an- 
 tiquity of his family, restored his estates to his 
 son. Robert Lilburne was imprisoned at St. Ni- 
 cholas, near Plymouth, where he died in August, 
 1665. Fleetwood, one of the Lords of Cromwell's 
 " other House," and brother of Cromwell's son- 
 in-law, appears, soon after his sentence, to have 
 been permitted to go at large, through the inte- 
 rest of his venerable father, Sir W. Fleetwood, 
 Cupbearer and Comptroller both to James I. and 
 Charles I. Colonel Hutchinson ended his days 
 at Sandowne Castle, in Kent, in September, 
 1664. Though he had attended the trial, and 
 z
 
 SS8 EXECUTION OF THE REGICIDES. 
 
 signed the warrant for executing the King, he 
 was included in the act of oblivion through the 
 interest of Sir Allen Apsley, his wife's father. 
 His estates were thus saved to his son and heir. 
 He was arrested at Owthorpe, in October, 1663, 
 and confined till his death. 
 
 *^* As an authority is not always referred to for the state- 
 ments in the text, it is proper to mention, that the materials of 
 this volume have been derived from the following sources; 
 — Cobbett's State Trials ; Gcdwiii's History of the Com- 
 monwealth ; D'Israeli's Commentaries on the Life and 
 Reign of Charles the First ; the Diary of Thomas Burton ; 
 the Diaries of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn; Clarendon's 
 History of the Rebellion ; Hume's History of England ; 
 Burnet's History of his own Times; Noble's Memoirs 
 of the House of Cromwell ; Noble's Lives of the Re- 
 gicides ; Ludlow's Memoirs ; Sir Thomas Herbert's Me- 
 moirs ; Denzil HoUis's Memoirs ; Sir John Berkley's 
 Memoirs; Ashburnham's Narrative, published by Lord 
 Ashburnham ; "NVhitlock's Memorials ; Rushworth's Col- 
 lections ; Mrs. Hutchinson's Life of Colonel Hutchinson ; 
 Ormerod's History of Cheshire ; Ellis's Letters on English 
 History; Baron Maseres's Tracts ; Clarendon's State Papers; 
 The Parliamentary History. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WUIIBFRIARS.
 
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