BURNET'S HISTORY OF HIS OWN TIME. BURNET'S) HISTORY OF HIS OWN TIME: FROM THE RESTORATION OF KING CHARLES THE SECOND TO THE TREATY OF PEACE AT UTRECHT, IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. Ifrfe €Mtimt, WITH HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES. ILontrDtt: CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY 1875. JOHN CHILDS AND SON, PRINTERS. CONTENTS. BOOK I. PAGE THE distractions during King James's minority . 1 The practices of the House of Guise . . ib. King James in iV" interest of England . . 2 A censure of Spotswood's History . . ib. King James studies to gain the papists . . 3 And to secure the succession to the crown of Eng- land . . . . ib. That king's errors in government . . ib. He sets up episcopacy in Scotland . . ib. With a design to carry matters further . . 4 Errors of the bishops . . . ib. Prince Henry \vas believed to be poisoned . . ib. The Gunpowder Plot . . ib. King James was afraid of the Jesuits . . 5 The Elector Palatine's marriage . . ib. The affairs of Bohemia . . ib. The disorders in Holland . . .6 Some passages of the religion of some princes . ib. King James parted with the cautionary towns . 7 King James broke the greatness of the crown . ib. Other errors in his reign . 8 His death . . . . ib. The puritans gained ground . 9 Go wry 's conspiracy . . ib. King Charles at first a friend to the puritans . 10 He designed to recover the tithes and church lands in Scotland to the crown . . . ib. He was crowned in Scotland . .11 Balmerinoch's trial . . 12 He was condemned . . .14 But pardoned . . ib. A liturgy prepared . . ib. The feebleness of the government . . 15 Saville's forgery prevailed on the Scots . ib. The characters of the chief of the covenanters . ib. The Scots came into England . .16 Great discontents in England . . . jb. The ill state of the king's affairs . .17 An account of the Earl of Strafford's being given up by the king . . 19 The new model of the presbytery in Scotland . 20 The chief ministers of the party . ib. Their studies and other methods , . 21 Their great severity . . ib. Conditions offered to the Scots . 22 Montrose's undertakings . ib. Rood advices given to the king . . 23 But not followed . . ib. Vntrim's correspondence with the king and queen 24 The original of the Irish massacre . . 25 Cromwell argues with the Scots concerning the king's death ib. The opposition of the general assembly to the par- liament . *. .26 The ministers made an insurrection . . ?b. The treaty in the Isle of Wight . . 27 Cromwell's dissimulation . . . ib. The men chiefly engaged in the taking the king's life 28 The king's behaviour . ib. The affair of Rochelle . . 2f A design of making the Spanish Netherlands a commonwealth . . 30 The ill effects of violent counsels . . ib. The account of Etxcbv BcuriXix)) . .31 The Scots treat with King Charles II. . . 32 Montrose's offers . . .34 And death . . ib. The defeat at Dunbar - . .35 Disputes about the admitting all persons to serve their country . . 36 Great hardships put on the king . . 37 Scotland was subdued by Monk . . 38 A body stood out in the Highlands . . ib. Sir Robert Murray's character . 39 Messages sent to the king . . . ib. The state of Scotland during the usurpation . 40 Disputes among the covenanters . . ib. Methods taken on both sides . . .41 Some of Cromwell's maxims . . 42 His design for the kingship . 44 Cromwell's engagement with France . 46 The king turned papist . 48 Cromwell's design on the West Indies . 49 His zeal for the protestant religion . . 50 A great design for the interest of the protestaut religion . . . .51 Some passages in Cromwell's life . . ib. His moderation in government . - .52 His public spirit . . . . ib. All the world was afraid of him . . 53 The ruin of his family . . . 54 Great disorders followed . . . ib. All turn to the king's side . . 56 Care taken to manage the army . .57 A new parliament . 58 They iall home the king without a treaty . 59 BOOK II. 1660. MANY went over to the Hague . . . 60 The nation was overrun with vice and drunkenness . ib. The king's character . 61 Ciareudon's character • • 62 viu CONTENTS. PAGE Ormond's character • • .63 Southampton's character • , . ib. Shaftesbury's character . • .64 Anglesey's character • . . 65 Hollis's character . • . ib. Manchester's character . " . . 66 Roberts's character . • . ib. Clarges's character . . . . 67 Morrice's character . • . ib. Nicolas's character . . . . 68 Arlington's character . . . ib. Buckingham's character . . . 69 Bristol's character • . ib. Landerdale's character . 70 Crawford's character . . . ib. Rothes's character . . , . 71 Tweedale's character . . . ib. Duke Hamilton's character . ib. Kincardine's character . . « ib. The general character of the old cavaliers . . 72 Primrose's character . . . ib. Fletcher's character . . ib. Advices offered in Scottish affairs . . ib. For a general indemnity . • .73 Argyle sent to the Tower . . . ib. The citadels of Scotland demolished . . ib. Disputes concerning episcopacy . . 74 A ministry settled in Scotland . 75 A council proposed to sit at court for Scottish affairs . . . . .76 The committee of estates meet in Scotland . . 77 A parliament in Scotland . . Ub. 1661. The Lords of the articles • 78 The acts passed in this session • ib. An act rescinding all parliaments held since the year 1633 • • 79 It was not liked by the king • • 80 The presbyterians in great disorder • • 81 Argyle's attainder • • 82 And execution • • 84 The execution of Guthry, a minister • • ib. Some others were proceeded against • • 85 Middleton gave an account of, all that had passed in parliament to the king • • 86 It was resolved to set up episcopacy in Scot- land . . . . 87 Men sought to be bishops • • • 88 Bishop Leighton's character • 89 The Scottish bishops consecrated • • 92 1662. The meetings of the presbyterians • • 93 The new bishops came down to Scotland • 94 They were brought into parliament • • ib. Scruples about the oath of supremacy • 95 Debates about an act of indemnity • • 96 It was desired that some might be incapacitated • 97 Lorn condemned . • 98 Some incapacitated by ballot • • 99 The king was displeased with this • • ib. Great pains taken to excuse Middleton • 100 The presbyterian ministers silenced • • ib. A general character of them » -102 Prejudices infused against episcopacy • -103 1660. The affairs of England • < -104 Clarendon's just and moderate notions • • ib. Vernier's fury • ib. The trial and execution of the regicidei • 105 I 1661. PAGK Vane's character . . . 1^7 And execution . . .108 The king gave himself up to his pleasures « ib. The act of indemnity maintained • -112 1662. The king's marriage • • • ib. An alliance proposed from France • • 113 The Duke of York's marriage • • • ib. The duke's character • -114 The duchess's character • . -115 The Duke of Gloucester's character • -116 The prospect of the royal family much changed . ib. Schombcrg went through England to Portugal • 117 Dunkirk sold to the French • « ih. Tangier a part of the queen's portion • . ik, The manner of the king's marriage • • 1 1 The king lived in an avowed course of lewdness • lid 1660. The settlement of Ireland . . ib. The bishops who had then the greatest credit • 120 Debates concerning the uniting with the presby. terians . . . '.121 A treaty in the Savoy . . . 122 1661. The terms of conformity made harder • 124 The act of uniformity • . • 125 The great fines then raised on the church estates ill applied • . • -126 Divines called Latitudinarians • • 127 Hobbes's Leviathan • • . 128 A character of some divines . • '129 The way of preaching which then prevailed • 131 1662. The act of uniformity executed with rigour • ib. The royal society . • ib. Consultations among the papists • • 133 A declaration for toleration • • ib. Designed for the papists • • ib. 1663. Bristol's designs • • . 134 He accused Clarendon in the House of Lords . 135 A plot discovered • • .136 The design of a war with the States . • ib. The affairs of Scotland • • -137 Middleton was accused by Lauderdale • • ib. And turned out of all . . • 139 Warriston's execution • • • ib. An act against conventicles • . ib. The constitution of a national synod . • 140 An act offering an army to the king • ib. 1664. Sharp drove very violently • • • 141 Lauderdale gave way to it • . ib. Burnet archbishop of Glasgow . ib. A view of the state of affairs in Holland atd France • • • . ib. Sharp aspired to be chancellor of Scotland • . 142 Rothes had the whole power of Scotland put in his hands .... 143 1665. Illegal and severe proceedings in Scotland . « ib. Turner executed the laws in a military way • 144 Sharp studies to bring Middleton into business again • • . . 145 More forces raised in Scotland • • CONTENTS 1666. Some eminent clergymen offended at these pro- ceedings • • • Some of the grievances of the clergy laid before the bishops . . . . 1664. Affairs in England The Dutch war 1665. The plague broke out at the same time The victory at sea not followed • An account of the affairs in Holland • The parliament at Oxford • • The designs of the commonwealth party The Duke of York's jealousy • His amours • 1666. The fleet almost quite lost, and happily saved by Prince Rupert • • . The fire of London • • • It was charged on the papists • A strong presumption of it • • • Disorders in Scotland . • • A rebellion in the west The defeat given the rebels at Pentland Hill Severe proceedings against the prisoners • .1667. The king is more gentle than the bishops A change of counsel, and more moderation in the government . • The Dutch fleet came into the Frith • And went to Chatham, and burnt our fleet A great change in Lauderdale's temper Scotland was very well governed • Great complaints made of the clergy • Affairs in England • Clarendon's disgrace . • • Southampton's death • • The Irish sought the protection of France The Duke of Richmond's marriage • Bridgman made lord keeper The French king's pretensions to Flanders Clarendon's integrity He was impeached in the House of Commons The king desired he would go beyond sea • He was banished by act of parliament • The character of his two sons The king w-w much offended with the bishops 1668. A treaty for a comprehension of the presbyterians The city of London r< built Designs for putting away the queen . A divorce enacted for adultery A great dissolution of morals in court • Many libels written by the best wits of that time • Sir William Coventry's character /The government of Ireland changed • . The committee of Brook House Halifax's character • . 1669 Many parliament men gained by the court • Coventry's nose was cut A new prosecution of conventicles • • . The king went commonly to the House of Lords • The Prince of Orange came to the king • The affairs of Scotland PAGE 146 147 148 ib. 149 151 153 ib. ib. 154 155 ib. ib. 157 158 159 ib. 160 161 163 ib. 164 165 166 16.7 ib. ib. 168 ib. 170 171 ib. 172 ib. 173 ib. 17-5 ib. 176 ib. 177 178 179 180 181 ib. ib. 182 ib. 183 184 185 ib. A treaty for an accommodation with the pres'oy- terians in S-otland • . . \£5 An indulgence proposed • • . 187 An attempt to murder Sharp • • ifc. Sharp proposed the indulging some ministers thfct did not conform • • • • 185 Propositions for the union of the two kingdoms • 189 The king gave orders for the indulgence . « ib» This complained of as against law • • 1 90 A parliament in Scotland • • • 191 The supremacy carried very high • • ib. An act for the county-militia • • • 192 Burnet turned out, and Leighton made Archbishop of Glasgow • • . -193 The state 1 found things in at Glasgow • • ib. A committee of council sent round the west • ib. 1670. Instructions for an accommodation • 194 Leighton's advice to his clergy • - ib. A conference between Leighton and some presby- terians • • . «195 New severities against conventicles • -196 The presbyterians resolved to reject the offers made them . . . .197 Some conferences upon that subject • -198 At last they refused to accept of the concessions • ib. Censures passed upon this whole matter • • 199 1671. The memoirs of the Dukes of Hamilton were written by me at that time . . ib. A further indulgence proposed • • • 200 Foreign affairs • • • • 201 An alliance with France set on foot . . ib. The Duchess of Orleans came to Dovor . ib Soon after was poisoned . • • ib Some of her intrigues • • . 202 The treaty with France negotiated • . 203 Loclthart sent to France • • • ib. Pretended reasons for the Dutch war t 204 1672. The shutting up of the exchequer . • ib. The attempt on the Dutch Smyrna fleet • • 205 A declaration for toleration • • ib. The presbyterians gave the king thanks for the toleration . . . 206 The Duchess of York died . . 207 The first crisis of the proteatant religion • 208 The second crisis • . . ib. The third crisis • ib. The Spanish fleet came not as at first intended • 209 The fourth crisis . . • 210 Differences between Maurice, Prince of Orange, and Banieveldt . • .211 Prince Henry Frederic's wise government • '212 His son's heat • ib. The errors of De Wit's government • .213 The Prince of Orange made general • • 214 The fifth crisis • • • ib. The French success ' • ib. But followed by an ill management . -215 The Dutch in great extremities • '216 Ambassadors sent to England • ib. The tragical end of De Wit • .217 The Prince of Orange made stadtholder « • ib. The English ambassadors were wholly in the inte- rest of France • • -218 The character of Fagel - ib. Prince Waldeck - -219 Dyckvclt . ib. X CONTENTS. PACK The character of Halewyn . • .219 The prince studied to correct the errors he fell into at first • • ib. Van Beuning's character • • 220 Errors committed by the town of Amsterdam • ib. T.he prince animates the States to continue the war ib. The( French king goes back to Paris • • 221 The' Dutch saved by some extraordinary provi- dence • • • 222 Ossory intended to surprise Helvoetsluys . ib. An army from Utrecht came on the ice to Hol- land • • • • 223 Driven back by a sudden thaw • • ib. Painevine's sentence • ib. A French mistress made Duchess of Portsmouth • 224 The affairs of.Scotland • ib. Lauderdale's great insolence • • 225 He expected addresses for a toleration . • ib. Designs from Holland to raise a rebellion in Scot- land • • • • ib. A further indulgence • • • 226 Leigh ton resolved to retire, and to leave his see • ib. BOOK III. 1673. <5reat jealousies of the king . • • 228 Schomberg brought to command the army • ib. The court was much divided • • • 229 A session of parliament . • ib. The declaration was voted illegal • ib. A bill for a new test • • ib. The prudence of the dissenters . • • 230 Debates in the House of Lords • • ib. The variety of opinions in the king's council • 231 The French advise the king to yield to the parlia- ment . • • • ib. The king went into that suddenly • . ib. Clifford disgraced • • » • ib. Osborn made lord treasurer • . 232 A great supply was given • • • ib. The duke laid down all his commissions • 233 The duke treats fora second marriage • • ib. A treaty opened at Cologne • • 234 Lord Sunderland's character • • ib. The treaty broke off 235 The affairs of Scotland • . ib. Lauderdale's design . • « 236 The king liked my Memoirs • • • ib. And showed me great favour • • ib. My conversation with the duke . • ib. I carried Dr. Stillingfleet to him • . 237 The duke's marriage opposed by the Commons • 239 A parliament in Scotland • • 240 A party formed against Lauderdale . • ib. He offers to redress grievances in council • • 24 1 1374. A dispute raised about the lords of the articles . ib. The proceedings in the parliament of England . ib. Finch's character • 242 A peace concluded with the States • • . 243 The king became the mediator of the peace • 244 The duchess's character • ib. Coleman's character • . . 245 The affairs of Scotland . • • ib. The parliament was prorogued • . ib. Dalrymple's character « • • ib. The clergy was much provoked • • ib. A great distraction in Scotland • . 246 Lauderdale's proceedings there - • ib. PAGE I was disgraced • • 247 The ministers turn to the church • • 248 Correspondence with Holland discovered • 249 Jealousies of the Prince of Orange • • ib. Drummond was ordered to prison • * ib. The battle of Seneff .... 250 Arlington went to Holland • . .251 Temple sent ambassador to Holland • ib. 1675. Affairs in England . . • 252 I was examined by the House of Commons . ib. Sir Harbottle Grimstone's character • • 253 Dauby attacked, but in vain • • • 254 Seymour's character • • . ib. Debates concerning a test • • • 255 A dispute about appeals and privileges • • 256 The session broke upon it 257 A session of parliament • • . • ib. The characters of some parliament men • 258 1676. A long interval between the sessions of parliament 260 An account of some passages of Lockhart's courage in France • . • ib. Management in France • • 261 The character of some bishops • • ib. The projects of the papists • • • 262 Coleman's intrigues • • . 263 A conference between Coleman and some divines 264 I undertook to write the History of our Reformation ib. The earl of Essex's character . • . ib. His employment in Denmark • • ib. And his government of Ireland • • • 265 The affairs of Scotland • . . 266 1677. A question raised in England about the legality of a prorogation . . . 267 The Lords that moved it sent to the Tower . 268 Proceedings in parliament . . . 2G9 Affairs in Flanders . . ib. The French King declined a battle when offered by the Prince of Orange . ib. Cambray and St. Omer taken . . 270 The House of Commons pressed the king to engage in the war . . ib. Danby declared against France • .271 The Prince of Orange came into England . 272 He married the Duke's daughter . . 273 1678. Supplies given towards the war . . 274 The French take Ghent . ib. The affairs of Scotland . . . ib. Mitchell's trial . . ib. And condemnation . . . 276 The administration there grew very violent and illegal . . . . 277 An army of Highlanders sent to the west upon free quarter . . . ib. Many of the nobility came up to complain to the king . . . .278 But the king would not see them . . ?b. A convention of estates gives money, and justifies the administration . . . 279 Affairs in England . . ib. The House of Commons grew jealous of the Court ib. Affairs abroad . . . 280 The popish plot . . . 281 Oates's character . . . 282 His discovery . . . . ib. CONTENTS. Colcman and his papers seized Coleman's letters confirm it Godfrey is murdered His body was found Gates made a new discovery Bedlow's evidence PAGE 283 ib. 284 285 ib. 286 Other proofs that seemed to support the discovery 287 Carstairs's practices . . . . ib. Staley's trial . . . ib. The queen was charged as in the plot . . 288 A law passed for the test to be taken by both Houses 289 With a proviso for the duke • . ib. Coleman's trial . • . . ib. And execution . . . 290 The king's thoughts of this whole matter . ib. Danby's letters to Montague are brought out . 291 And he was impeached of high treason . 2.92 The parliament was prorogued . . ib. The trial of F. Ireland and some others . . 294 Dngdale's evidence . . ib. Prance discovers Godfrey's murder . . 295 Some condemned for it, who died denying it . 296 Scroggs was then lord chief justice . . 297 Jenuison's evidence . . . , ib. Practices with the witnesses discovered . 298 Reflections upon the whole evidence . . 299 1679. A new parliament . . 300 The duke sent beyond sea . . ib. Danby pardoned by the king, but prosecuted by the House of Commons . . . 301 A new council ... . 302 Debates concerning the exclusion . . 303 Arguments used for and against the exclusion . 304 Danby's prosecution . . * 306 A great heat raised against the clergy . ib. The occasions that fomented that heat . . 307 Arguments for and against the bishops voting in the preliminaries, in trials of treason . ib. Stillingfleet wrote on this point . . 308 The trial of five Jesuits . ib. Langhorn's trial .... 309 And death . . . ib. Wakeman's trial • . . . . 310 He was acquitted . . . .311 Debates about dissolving the parliament . . ib. The affairs of Scotland . . . 312 The Archbishop of St. Andrews is murdered . ib. A rebellion in Scotland . . .313 Monmouth sent down to suppress it , . ib. They were soon broken ' . . .314 The king taken ill, and the duke comes to court . ib. The many false stories spread to raise jealousy . 315 A pretended plot discovered, called the Meal-tub plot , . . . ib. Great jealousies of the king . . .316 Monmouth's disgrace . . . ib. Petitions for a parliament . . . ib. Great discontents on all sides . .31? Godolphin's character -. . ib. 1680. An alliance projected against France The election of the sheriffs of London The bill of Exclusion taken up again Passed by the Commons But rejected by the Lords ib. 318 319 ib. 320 The House of Commons proceeded against some with severity . . . . ib. An association proposed . . .321 Expedients offered in the House of Lords . ib. PAGE Duchess of Portsmouth's conduct in this matter little understood . ... 322 Stafford's trial . ... 323 He was condemned . . . 325 He sent for me, and employed me to do him service ib. His execution . . . . 326 1681. Motions in favour of the nonconformists . ib. The parliament was dissolved . . . 327 A new expedient of a prince regent . . ib. Fitzharris was taken . . ib. The parliament of Oxford was soon dissolved . 328 A great change in affairs . . .329 The king's declaration . ib. Addresses to the king from all parts of England . ib. Fitzharris' s trial . . . 330 Plunket, an Irish bishop, condemned and executed ib. Practices on Fitzharris at his death . 33 1 , 332 A protestant plot . . . ib. Colledge condemned and died upon it . . ib. Shaftesbury sent to the Tower . . 333 Practices upon witnesses . ib. I was then offered preferment . . ib. Halifax carried me to the king . . . 335 Shaftesbury was acquitted by the grand jury . ib. 1682. Turbervill's death . . . 337 The affairs of Scotland . . ib. A parliament in Scotland . . . 338 Several accusations of perjury stifled by tne duke 339 A test enacted in parliament . . 340 Objections made to the test . . .341 Many turned out for not taking it . . ib. Argyle's explanation . . . . 342 He was committed upon it . . ib. Argyle is tried and condemned . . . 343 He made his escape . . ib. The duke comes to court . . . 344 A new ministry in Scotland . . . ib. They proceeded with great severity . . 345 Affairs in England . . . 346 All charters of towns were surrendered to the king ib. The dispute concerning the sheriffs of London Carried by the court . . . . 348 Changes in the ministry, and quarrels among them ib. The arguments for and against the charter of London 350 Judgment given in the matter . .351 Some other severe judgments . . ib. 1683. All people possessed with great fears . . 352 Monmouth and Russel at Shepherd's . . ib. Monmouth and some others meet often together . ib. They treat with some of the Scottish nation . 353 Other conspirators meet at the same time on designs of assassinating the king . . . 355 A plot » discovered ... . 356 A forged story laid by Rumsey and West . ib. Russel and some others were put in prison upon it 357 Monmouth and others escaped . . . 358 Howard's confession . . • .359 The Earl of Essex was sent to the Tower . 360 The Lord Russel's trial . . . .361 He was condemned .... 362 His preparation for death . ... 363 The trial and execution of Walcot and others . 364 Russel's execution . . • . ib. Russel's last speech . ... 365 Prince George of Denmark married the Princess Anne , . .366 Xll CONTENTS PAGE The siege of Vienna . ... 366 The Author went to the court of France . 367 Characters of some he knew there . . ib. Affairs in England . . . 369 Jefferies and other judges preferred . . ib. 1684. The railing a parliament proposed, but rejected . 370 Suspicions of Essex's being murdered . . ib. Sidney's trial . . ... 371 His execution and last paper . . • 372 Monmouth came in, and was pardoned . . 373 But soon after disgraced . . . 374 Hampden's trial . • . . ib. Halloway's execution . . . ib. Armstrong's death . . • . 375 Great severity in Scotland • • 376 A breach in the ministry there . . .377 The duke governed all affairs . . 378 The cruelty of the duke, and of his ministers, in torturing . • . . ib. Proceedings against Baillie . . 379 And his execution . • 380 Leigh ton's death . . • .381 The promotion of some bishops . . 382 Danby and the popish lords bailed . . 383 Some removes made at court . . 384 The bombarding of Genoa . . . ib. Tangier abandoned . . . 385 Affairs beyond sea . • . . ib. The hardships the author met with . . 386 Trials for treason of Roswell and Haies . . 387 Strange practices, and very unbecoming a king . 388 Papists employed in Ireland . . . 389 Suspicions of the king's declaring himself a papist 390 1685. A new scheme of government . ib. The king's sickness . . . 391 He received the sacrament from a popish priest 392 His death ... 393 His character 394 BOOK IV. A reign happily begun, but inglorious all over . 398 The king's first education . ib. He learned war under Turenne . , 399 He was admiral of England . . . ib. He was proclaimed king . . ib- His first speech . . ib. Well received . . . . ib. Addresses made to him . ib. The Earl of Rochester made lord treasurer . 400 The Earl of Sunderland in favour . . ib. Customs and excise levied against law . . ib. The king's coldness to those who had been for the exclusion . . . 401 He seemed to be on equal terms with the French king . . . ib. The king's course of life . ib. The Prince of Orange sent away the Duke of Mon- mouth . . . . ib. Some in England began to move for him . 402 Strange practices in elections of parliament men . ib. Evil prospect from an ill parliament . . ib. The Prince of Orange submits in everything to the king . . 403 The king was crowned . . . . ib. I went out of England . . .404 Argyle designed to invade Scotland . . ib. PA of The duke of Monmouth forced upon an ill-timed invasion «... 404 These designs were carried on with secrecy . 405 Argyle landed in Scotland . . . ib. But was defeated, and taken . . .406 Argyle's execution . . . ib. Rumbold at his death denied the Rye plot . ib. A parliament in Scotland . • . 407 Granted all that the king desired . . ib. Severe laws were passed . . .408 Oates convicted of perjury . • . ib. And cruelly whipped . . . ib. Dangerfield killed . . . ib. A parliament in England „ . . .409 Grants the revenue for life . ib. And trusts to the king's promise . . . ib. The parliament was violent . , ib. The lords were more cautious . . .410 The Duke of Monmouth landed at Lyme . ib. An act of attainder passed against him . . ib. A rabble came and joined biui . .411 Lord Grey's cowardice . . . ib. The Earl of Feversham commanded the king's army 412 The Duke of Moumouth defeated . '. ib. And taken . . . . ib. Soon after executed . . .413 He died with great calmness . . . 414 Lord Grey pardoned . . . . ib. The king was lifted up with his successes . .415 But it had an ill effect on his affairs . . ib. Great cruelties committed by his soldiers . ib. And much greater by Jefferies . . . ib. With which the king was well pleased . 416 The execution of two women . . . ib. The behaviour of those who suffered . .417 The nation was much changed by this management ib. Great disputes for and against the tests . 418 Some change their religion . , . ib. The Duke of Qiieensborough disgraced . ib. The king declared against the tests . .419 Proceedings in Ireland . . . ib. The persecution in France . ib. A fatal year to the protestant religion . , 420 Rouvigny's behaviour . . . . ib. He came over to England . . .421 Dragoons sent to live on discretion upon the pro- testants . ib. Many of them yielded through fear . . ib. Great cruelty everywhere . . . ib. I went into Italy . . . . 422 And was well received at Rome . . ib. Cardinal Howard's freedom with me . . 423 Cruelties in Orange .... 424 Another session of parliament . ib. The king's speech against the test . . ib. Jefferies made lord chancellor . . . 425 The House of Commons address the king for observing the law • . . • . ib. The king was much offended with it . . ib. The parliament was prorogued . 426 The Lord Delamere tried and acquitted . . ib. 1686. A trial upon the act for the test . . 427 Many judges turned out . ib. Herbert, chief justice, gives judgment for the king's dispensing power . . . ib. Admiral Herbert's firmness . . . 428 Father Petre, a Jesuit, in high favour . 428 The king declared for a toleration . . ib. The clergy managed the points of controversy with great zeal and success . . ib. CONTENTS PAGE The persons who -were chiefly engaged in this . 430 Dr. Sharp in trouble . ib. The Bishop of London required to suspend him . ib. "Which he could not obey . . ib. An ecclesiastical commission set up . . ib. The Bishop of London brought before it .431 And was suspended by it . . . 432 Affairs in Scotland . . ib. A tumult at Edinburgh . . ib. A parliament held there . . . 433 Which refused to comply with the king's desire . ib. A zeal appeared there against popery . . 434 Affairs in Ireland . . . . ib. The king made his mistress countess of Dorchester ib. Attempts made ou many to change their religion . 435 Particularly on the Earl of Rochester . . ib. He was turned out .... 436 Designs talked of against Holland . . ib. I stayed some time at Geneva . . . 437 The state and temper I observed among the re- formed . . . ib. I was invited by the Prince of Orange to come to the Hague . . . 438 A character of the Prince and Princess of Orange ib. I was much trusted by them . . .439 The prince's sense of our affairs . . . ib. The princess's resolution with respect to the prince 440 Perm sent over to treat with the priuce . .441 Some bishops died in England . . 442 Cartwright and Parker promoted . . ib. The king's letter refused in Cambridge . 444 The vice chancellor turned out by the ecclesiastical commissioners . . . ib. An attempt to impose a popish president on Mag- dalen College ... . ib. They disobey, and are censured for it . .445 1687. And were all turned out ... ib. The dissenters were much courted by the king . 446 Debates and resolutions among them . . 447 The army encamped at Hounslow Heath . ib. An ambassador sent to Rome . . ib. He managed everything unhappily . 448 Pope Innocent's character . ib. Disputes about the franchises . . . 449 Queen Christina's character of some popes . ib. D'Albeville sent envoy to Holland . . 450 I was, upon the king's pressing instances, forbid to see the prince and piincess of Orange . . ib. Dykvelt sent to England . . ib. The negotiations between the king and the prince 451 A letter written by the Jesuits of Liege, that dis- covers the king's designs . . . 452 Dykvclt's conduct in England . ib. A proclamation of indulgence sent to Scotland . ib. Which was much censured . . . 453 A declaration for toleration in England . . ib. Addresses made upon it . . . ib The king's indignation against the church party . 454 The parliament was dissolved . ib. The reception of the pope's nuntio . . 455 The king made a progress through many parts of England . . . ib. A change in the magistracy in London, and over England . . . . ib Questions put about elections of parliament . 456 The king wrote to the Princess of Orange about religion . . ... 457 Which she answered ... . 45fi Reflections on these letters . . 45 £ A prosecution set on against me . . 460 Albeville's memorial to the States The States' answer to what related to me Other designs against me . . Pensioner Fagel's letter . . Father Petre made a privy councillor The confidence of the Jesuits The pensioner's letter was printed The king asked the regiments of his subjects in the States' service .... Which was refused, but the officers had leave to go A new declaration for toleration Which the clergy were ordered to read To which they would not give obedience The archbishop and six bishops petition the king The king ordered the bishops to be prosecuted for it They were sent to the Tower But soon after discharged They were tried . « . . And acquitted To the great joy of the town and nation The clergy were next designed against The effect this had everywhere . Russel pressed the prince . * . The prince's answer . . The Elector of Brandenburgh's death The queen gave out that she was with child . The queen's reckoning changed . . The queen said to be in labour . . And delivered of a son Great grounds of jealousy appeared . . The child, as was believed, died, and another was put in his room .... The Prince and Princess of Orange sent to congra- tulate . . The prince designs an expedition to England Sunderland advised more moderate proceedings And he turned papist . . The Prince of Orange treats with some of the princes of the empire . . . The affairs of Colen . . Herbert came over to Holland . . The advices from England The Lord Mordaunt's character The Earl of Shrewsbury's character Russel's character ... Sydney's character . . . Many engaged in the design Lord Churchill's character The court of France gave the alarm Recruits from Ireland refused Offers made by the French Not entertained at that time . . . The French own an alliance with the king The strange conduct of France . A manifesto of war against the empire . Reflections made upon it . . . . . Another against the pope . Censures that passed upon it . Marshal Schomberg sent to Cleve . . The Dutch. fleet at sea . . The Prince of Orange's declaration I was desired to go with the prince . Advices from England . . . Artifices to cover the design The Dutch put to sea . . Some factious motions at the Hague . . The army was shipped . • . The princess's sense of things . • . The prince took leave of the States We sailed out of the Maes • • • But were forced back . . • Consultations in England • • • xni FACE; 461 462 :b. 463 464 ib. 465 ib. ib. 466 ib. 467 ib. 468 469 ib. ib. 470 ib. 473 ib. 474 ib. ib. 475 477 ib. 478 ib. ib. 479 ib. 480 ib. 481 ib. 483 484 ib. ib. 485 ib. ib. 486 487 ib. ib. 488 ib. 489 ib. 490 ib. 491 ib. 492 ib. ib. 493 494 ib. ib. 495 496 ib. ib. ib. ib. XIV CONTENTS. PAGE Proofs brought for the birth of the Prince of Wales 497 We sailed out more happily a second time . 499 We landed at Torbay . . . ib. The king's army began to come over to the prince 501 An association among those who came to the prince 502 The heads of Oxford sent to him . . ib. Great disorders in London . • 503 A treaty begun with the prince . » . ib. The king left the kingdom . •' ' . 504 He is much censured . • • 505 But is brought back . . . ib. The prince is desired to come and take the govern- ment into his hands . . . ib. Different advice given to the prince concerning the king's person . • 506 The prince came to London, and the king went to Rochester . . . . 508 The prince was welcomed by all sorts of people . 509 Consultations about the settlement of the nation . ib. The king went over to France . ; • , • ib. The affairs of Scotland . ib. The affairs of Ireland . ' - * -'• . 510 1689. The prince in treaty with the Earl of Tyrconnel 51 1 The convention met . . . 512 Some are for a prince regent . . .513 Others are for another king . .514 And against a regency . ib. Some moved to examine the birth of the Prince of Wales . . . 516 But it was rejected . . .517 Some were for making the prince king . . ib. The prince declared his mind after long silence . 51 8 It was resolved to put the prince and princess both on the throne . . . 519 They drew an instrument about it . .521 The oaths were altered . . . 522 The ill sense that was put on the new oath . ib. The princess came to England . . 523 The conclusion . . . 524 BOOK V. The hopes of the new reign . . 525 The effect of the king's ill health . . ib. A new ministry . . . ib. The Earl of Nottingham's advancement unaccept- able to the Whigs . . . 526 The judges well chosen . . . 527 The convention turned to a parliament . 528 Some bishops leave the parliament . . ib. I was made Bishop of Salisbury . . . 529 Debates concerning the oaths . . 530 An Act of toleration . . ib. A motion for a comprehension . . ib. An ill humour spread among the clergy . . 531 Great gentleness towards papists . . ib. War proclaimed against France . . . 532 Debates concerning the revenue . . ib. The chimney money discharged . • . ib. A Bill concerning the militia . . ib. Debates concerning an Act of indemnity . 533 The Bill of rights . . . . ib. King James's Great Seal found in the Thames . 534 The state of affairs in Ireland . . ib. King James came over thither . . . 535 The siege of Londonderry . . . ib. Was at last raised . . . 536 Duke Schomberg with an army went to Ireland . ib. Affairs at sea ... 537 Affairs in Scotland . ; . 537 Debates in the convention there . . ib. A rising designed in Scotland . . ib. King James was judged there . . . 538 They pass a claim of rights . . . ib. Episcopacy by this to be abolished . . ib. A ministry in Scotland . . ib. A faction raised in Scotland . . . 539 A rising in Scotland . . . 540 Foreign affairs . . . . 54 1 A jealousy of the king spread among the English clergy ib, A comprehension endeavoured . . 542 A convocation met, but would not agree to it . 543 A session of parliament . . . 54* The king grew jealous of the Whigs . . ib. A conspiracy against the government . .545 Discovered to the Author . . . 546 A Bill concerning corporations . . ib. 1690. A new parliament . . .547 A Bill recognizing the king and queen, and the Acts of the convention . . . 548 The revenue given for years . . . 549 Debates for and against an abjuration of King James . . . . 550 The Earl of Shrewsbury left the court . ib. The king's sense of.affairs . .551 The king's tenderness for King James's person * . ib. The king sailed to Ireland . . . 552 Advices given to King James . . ib. The queen in the administration . . ib. Affairs at sea . . . 553 A cannon-ball wounded the king . . ib. The battle of the Boyne . . ib. The battle of Fleurus . . . 554 An engagement at sea . . 555 The French masters of the sea . . ib. The queen's behaviour on this occasion . 556 The king came to Dublin . ib. A design to assassinate the king . . ib. The siege of Limerick . . . 558 The siege is raised . . . . ib. The equality of the king's temper . . 559 The Earl of Marlborough proposes taking Cork and Kinsale in winter, and effects it . . ib. The French left Ireland . . ib. Affairs in Scotland . . ... 560 A parliament there . . ib. A plot discovered . . ib. Affairs abroad .... 562 A session of parliament in England . . ib. Ireland much wasted by the Rapparees and the army there . . ib. A Bill concerning the Irish forfeitures . 563 The Earl of Torrington tried and justified ib. Designs against the Marquis of Carmarthen . 564 Lord Preston sent over to France . . ib. Taken, tried, and condemned . . . 565 Ashton suffered . . ib. Lord Preston was pardoned . ib. The behaviour of the deprived bishops . ib. A congress of princes at the Hague . . 566 A new pope chosen after a long conclave . ib. The siege of Mons . . . 567 Affairs settled for the next campaign . . ib. Affairs in Scotland . • . ib. Some changes made in Scotland . . . ib. The vacant sees filled . . . 568 Many promotions in the church . • . ib. The campaign in Flanders . • . 570 Affairs at sea . • • • ib. CONTENTS. The campaign in Ireland . • Athlone taken . . , The battle of Aghrem . . 1691'. Limerick besieged . . The Irish capitulate . . . . The war there at an end . « Affairs in Hungary . . . The maxims of the court of Vienna . The state of the empire . . A ninth Elector created Affairs in Savoy . . ... The Elector of Bavaria commanded in Flanders A session of parliament in England Jealousies of the king 1692. Affairs in Scotland Tho affair of Glencoe The Earl of Marlborough disgraced A breach between the queen and the princess Russel commanded the fleet A descent in England designed by King James A great victory at sea near La Hogue Not followed as it might have been A design to assassinate the king Grandval suffers for ft, and confesses it Namur taken by the French -. . The battle of Steenkirk . . Affairs in Germany . . . And in Hungary . • . And Piedmont . . . . A great earthquake . • A great corruption over England . A session of parliament . . . Jealousies of the ministry . • . 1693. Complaints in parliament . . A Bill to exclude members of the House of Com- mons from places . . Another for triennial parliaments . A change in the ministry Factions formed against the court Affairs in Flanders . . . And in the empire . ... And in Piedmont ... The battle of Landen Cliarleroy taken by the French . Attempts for peace . ... Our affairs at sea . . The Turkish fleet in great danger Great jealousies of the king's ministry The state of the clergy and church . Affairs in Ireland The q-ueen's strictness, and pious designs Affairs in Scotland . ... A session of parliament there The Earl of Middleton went to France The Duke of Anjou offered to the Spaniards Ti.e Duke of Shrewsbury again made secretary of state . A bank erected . . . . The conduct of the fleet examined . 1694. The government misrepresented , . The bishops are heavily charged . . Debates concerning divorce . , . The campaign in Flanders . , . Ou the Rhine PAGE 571 ib. ib. ib. 572 ib. 573 ib. ib. ib. 574 ib. ib. ib. 575 576 577 578 ib. ib. 579 580 ib. 581 ib. ib. 582 ib. 583 ib. 584 ib. 585 ib. 586 ib. 587 589 ib. 590 ib. 591 ib. ib. 592 ib. 593 595 596 ib. 597 ib. 598 ib. ib. 599 ib. 600 ib. ib. 601 ib. The campaign in Catalonia Our fleet lay at Cadiz A design on Camaret It miscarried The French coast bombarded Affairs in Turkey . . Attempts for a peace A session of parliament in England An act for triennial parliaments The queen's administration Archbishop Till Olson's death Bancroft's death Tennison succeeded . The queen's sickness And death BOOK VI. The proceedings in parliament . . The ill state of the coin . . A bill concerning trials for treason . Trials in Lancashire . . . Complaints of the Bank Inquiries into corrupt practices And into presents made by the East-India Company Consultations about the coin . . Consultations amongst the Jt.cobites . . A design to assassinate the king A government in the king's absence The death of some lords . ... The lords justices, who The campaign in Flanders The siege of Namur .... Brussels bombarded by the French Namur taken by King William Casal was surrendered Affairs at sea The losses of our merchants Affairs in Hungary . . . A parliament in Scotland The business of Glencoe examined An act there for a new company Affairs in Ireland . . . A new parliament called in England The state of the coin rectified An act for trials in cases of treason Acts concerning elections to parliament Complaints of the Scotch Act Scotland much set on supporting it . . A motion for a council of trade . . . A conspiracy discovered Of assassinating the king And to invade the kingdom 1696. Many of the conspirators seized on The design of the invasion broken Porter discovered all . . Both houses of parliament enter into a voluntary association .... A fund granted on a land bank Charnock and others tried and executed King James was not acquitted by them Friend and Perkins tried and suffered They had public absolution given them Other conspirators tried and executed Cook tried for the invasion The campaign beyond sea feebly carried on A peace in Piedmont . . . Affairs in Hungary . ... Affairs at sea . . . XV PAGE 601 602 ib. ib. 603 ib. 604 ib. ib. ib. 605 ib. 606 ib. 607 ib. ib. 609 610 ib. 611 612 ib. ib. 613 ib. ib. 614 ib. ib. 615 616 ib. ib. 617 ib. ib. 618 ib. 619 ib. 620 ib. ib. ib. 621 ib. 622 ib. 623 ib. 624 ib. 625 ib. 626 ib. 627 ib. ib. 628 ib. 629 ib. xvi CONTENTS. Affairs in Scotland . . - ,« A treaty of peace set on foot by the French A session of parliament in England . Fenwick's business . . . , Many delays in it . « • Practices upon the witnesses . » • - ••• A bill of attainder against Fenwick Reasons against it . » »« . . Reasons for the bill . • , -, 1697. The grounds upon which such a bill was necessary and just • •».- • The bill passed .... Practices against the duke of Shrewsbury Fenwick's execution . ... Affairs in Flanders .... Barcelona taken by the French A French squadron in the West Indies The King of Poland's death . . The Elector of Saxony chosen King of Poland The Czar travelled to Holland and England The Prince of Conti sailed to Dantzic The treaty at Ryswick . . • The king of Sweden's death His sou is mediator at the treaty of Ryswick The peace made, and the treaty signed . « Reflections on the peace . • , ^ The Turks' army in Hungary routed ,« « The peace of Carlowiiz . . .-"» The duration of the Turkish wars .» The king came back to England Consultations about a standing army • • The matter argued on both sides A session of parliament • • - • A small force kept up J698. The earl of Sunderland retired from business The civil list settled on the king for life A new East-India Company The \vhigs lose their credit in the nation • • The king of Spain's ill state of health • The duke of Gloucester put in a method of education The progress of Socinianism . • Different explanations of the Trinity Dr. Sherlock left tbe Jacobites Dr. South wrote against him The king's injunctions silence those disputes Divisions amongst the clergy Divisions amongst the papists • The Scotch settle at Darien Great disputes about it • The present ministry's good conduct A new parliament .... The forces much diminished A partr opposed the king with great bitterness 1699. A debate concerning grants of Irish estates The Czar of Muscovy in England The affairs of Poland And Sweden ... . A treaty for the succession to the crown of Spain he Earl of Albeinarle's favour The death of the Duke of Bolton And of Sir Josiah Child .... The Archbishop of Cambray's book condemned The Bishop of St. David's deprived for simony I published an exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles The growth of popery • • . An act against papists PACK 630 ib. ib. 631 632 ib. ib. 633 ib. 635 636 ib. 637 638 ib. ib. 639 ib. 640 ib. 641 ib. ib. 642 643 644 ib. ib. 645 ib. ib. 646 ib. ib. ib. 647 ib. ib. 648 649 ib. ib. 650 b. ib. 651 ib. 652 ib. ib. 653 654 ib. 655 ib. ib. 656 ib. 657 ib. ib. ib 658 ({59 ib. MM Affairs in Holstein • • . 659 A wai raised against the King of Sweden • 660 The King of Poland's designs • « • ib. The partition treaty • . ib. The affairs of Scotland • . -661 Great discontent upon the loss of Darien • 662 A session of parliament • ' , -•" - . • 663 A complaint made of some pirates • • ib. 1700. Debates concerning forfeited estates in Ireland • 664 An act vesting them in trustees « • ib. A change in the ministry • • • 665 Lord Somers is turned out • ' 666 A fleet sent to the Sound • . . 667 Peace between Denmark and Sweden . • 668 Censures passed on the partition treaty • . ib. The death of the Duke of Gloucester • • ib» The temper of the nation • « . • 669 Divisions among the dissenters • . ib. And among the quakers « . • 670 A division in the church • . ib. Debates concerning the Bishop of St. David's . 671 The death of the King of Spain • . 672 Clement XI. chosen pope . • • ib. The King of Spain's will is accepted . • ib. The duke of Anjou declared King of Spain • ib. A new parliament summoned . . • 673 A new ministry • . ib. The King of Sweden's glorious campaign • • 675 1701. Great apprehensions of the danger Europe was now in . • ib. A party for France in the parliament • • 676 Partiality in judging elections • • • ib. The partition treaty charged in the House of Lords 677 The Lords, advised with in it, opposed it . ib. An address to the king about it . « .678 Memorials sent from the States • • ib. A design to impeach the former ministry • 679 They are impeached • • 680 The Lord Somers heard by the House of Commons ib. Contrary addresses of the two houses • 68 1 The king own8 the King of Spain • • • ib. Negotiations in several places • . 682 An act declaring a protestant successor • • ib. An act explaining privilege • • . 684 Proceedings upon the impeachments • . ib. And first the artrcles against the Earl of Orford . ib. The Earl of Orford's answer • • ib. Articles of impeachment against Lord Somers • 685 Lord Somers's answer . « ib. Articles of impeachment against Lord Halifax • ib. Lord Halifax's answer • . ib« The proceedings of parliament much censured • ib. The Kentish petition • • • 686 Messages passed between the two houses • • ib. The lords tried and acquitted • . • 688 A convocation of the clergy met • . • 689 They dispute the archbishop's power of adjourning them ..... 690 They censure Brooks • • ib. And complain of my Exposition • • 691 The king was still reserved . • • 692 Prince Engene marched into Italy • . ib. His attempt upon Cremona • • . 693 King Philip at Barcelona • • ib The war in Poland • • . 694 Several negotiations • ib. A parliament in Scotland • • . • ib. Affairs in Ireland • . * ib. CONTENTS. PAGE King James's death • . • 695 His character • . • 696 The pretended Prince of Wales owned King of England by the French court • • ib. The English nation inflamed at it . 697 A new parliament called • • ib. The king's last speech • ib. All were for a war • • • ib. The pretended Prince of Wales attainted . 698 An act for abjuring him • • • ib. Affairs in Ireland ... gyg 1702. The king's illness and fall from his horse . 700 His death . • . • 701 His character , • 702 BOOK VII. QUEEN ANNE succeeds • • • 704 Her first speech to the privy council • . ib. She pursues the alliance and the war • • ib. A bill for the public accounts • • 705 A ministry formed . . • . ib. Few refused the abjuration oath • • 707 The union of both kingdoms proposed • . ib. The war with France proclaimed • • ib. A false report of designs against the queen . ib. The parliament is dissolved • . • 708 A convocation sat • « « ib. Societies for reformation • ... 709 Affairs in Scotland • . ib. A session of parliament there • • -711 Affairs in Germany • • • • • ib. The war in Poland • . ib. A treaty with the house of Bavaria . • ib. The siege of Keiserwaert • . • 712 The siege of Landaw • • ib. Keiserwaert taken . ib. The Earl of Maryborough commands the confede- rate army • • • .713 Is taken by a party of the French, but gets out of their hands • • • 714 Landaw was taken • ' ib. The elector of Bavaria declares for France • ib. The war in Italy • • 715 King Philip went to Italy • . ib. Affairs in Poland • . . '716 An insurrection ia the Cevennes • . ib. The English fleet sent to Cadiz • : • ib. They landed, and robbed St. Maries . .717 The galleons put in at Vigo • * • ib. But are burnt or taken by the English • 718 The English fleet tame home • ib. A new parliament • • • -719 Great partiality in judging elections • . ib. All the supply agreed to • • . 72 ) A bill against occasional conformity • • ib. Great debates about it ... ib. The two houses disagreeing, the bill was lost • 721 A bill in favour of Prince George . • 722 Debates on a clause that was in it « • . ib. A further security to the protestant succession • ib. The Earl of Rochester laid down his employment 723 Rook's conduct examined and justified . • ib. The inquiry made into the public accounts • 724 The clamour kept up against the former reign • ib. Is examined by the lords, and found to be ill. grounded • • . • • 725 Some new peers made • • • 726 The proceedings in convocation • • ib. Great distractions among the clergy • .• 727 1703. Preparations for the campaign Bonne taken Earthquakes in Italy The battle of Eckeren Huy, Limburgh, and Guelder, with all the Coudras, taken The success of the French on the Danube Litcle done in Italy . . . A war begun in Hungary Disorders in the emperor's court Augsburg and Landaw taken by the French A treaty with the King of Portugal The high wind in November The new King of Spain came to England He landed at Lisbon The Duke of Savoy came into the alliance The secret reasons of his former departure from it . The French discover his intentions, and make all his troops with them prisoners of war Count Staremberg joined him The insurrection in the Cevennes continued . The affairs of Poland . Affairs at sea .... A fleet sent into the Mediterranean . » Another to the West Indies They returned without success . . Our fleets were ill-victualled The affairs of Scotland Presbytery was confirmed . . Debates concerning the succession to that crown . Practices from France . . . A discovery made of these Reflections on the conduct of affairs in Scotland . The affairs of Ireland An act passed there against popery Jealousies of the ministry A bill against occasional conformity Passed by the House of Commons But rejected by the Lords The clergy out of humour The Commons vote all the necessary supplies Inquiries into the conduct of the fleet . The Earl of Orford's accounts justified 1704. A bill for examining the public accounts, lost be- t-ween the two houses . . . A dispute concerning injustice in the elections of a member of parliament for Aylesbury The Lords judge that the right to elect, is a right tryable at common law The queen gave the tenths and first-fruits for an augmentation to poor livings An act passed about it . . A plot discovered Disputes between the two houses in addresses to the queen . . . The Lords order a secret examination of all that are suspected to be in the plot The Lords' opinion upon the whole matter . An address justifying their proceeding An act for recruits An address concerning justices of peace The ill-temper of many of the clergy . The Duke of Marlborough went to Holland in the winter . . . . . The Earl of Nottingham quits his employment The Earl of Jersey and Sir Edward Seymour are turned out . . . The Duke of Marlborough conducts his design with great secrecy xvu PACK 727 728 ib. ib. ib. 729 ib. ib. ib. ib. 730 731 732 ib. ib. ib. 733 ib. ib 734 ib. 735 ib. ib. 736 ib. ib. ib. 737 ib. 738 ib. 739 740 ib. ib. 741 ib. ib. ib. ib. 742 ib. 743 744 745 746 747 748 750 ib. ib. 751 ib. ib. 752 ib. ib. xvm CONTENTS. PAGE He marches to the Danube 752 The battle of Schellenberg j, *' - 753 Tlie battle of Hocksted or Blenheim . . 754 The Duke of Marlborough advanced to Triers 755 Affairs at sea . . f: '•-"• :.„ 756 Gibraltar was taken . .. ; •- » • 757 The affairs of Portugal . ib. A fight at sea . .- • ' • ., ib. The siege of Gibraltar by the French . 758 Affairs in Italy . 759 And in the Ce \rennes v . « ib. Affairs in Hungary ib. The affairs of Poland - -=:. . 760 The pope wholly in the French interest ib. The affairs of Scotland -".'." »' 761 Debates about the succession . 762 The settling it put off for that session . ib. A money bill with an odd tack to it . ib. The ministers there advise the queen to pass it 763 It was passed . • •_••-•* *b. Censures upon it . . ib. A session of parliament in England , 764 1705. The occasional bill is again brought in and endea- voured to be tacked to a money bill . ib. The tack was rejected . « 765 Debates concerning Scotland . . ib. Complaints of the Admiralty . . . 766 The bill against occasional conformity debated and rejected by the Lords . . . ib. Bishop Watson's practices . . . 767 Some promotions in the church . . ib. Designs with relation to the electoress of Hanover 768 The House of Commons imprison some of the men of Aylesbury . . ib. The end of the parliament . .. . 770 Bills that were not passed . . ib. Proceedings in the convocation . .771 The siege of Gibraltar raised . ib. The Duke of Marlborough marched to Triers . 772 Expecting the Prince of Baden . ib. Who failed him . . . ib. The Duke of Marlborough broke through the French lines . . ib. The Dutch would not venture a battle . 773 The Emperor Leopold's death and character . ib. Affairs in Germany . . .774 And in Italy , ib. Affairs in Spain . . ib. A fleet and army sent to Spain . . .775 They landed near Barcelona . ib. King Charles pressed to besiege it . . ib. Fort Monjui attacked . . .776 And taken . , . 777 Barcelona capitulated . . . ib. King Charles's letters . ib. Affairs at sea . . . . ib. The siege of Badajos raised by the French » . ib. Affairs in Hungary . . . 778 And in Poland . . ib. A parliament chosen in England . . ib. Cowper made lord-keeper . . . 779 An act for a treaty of union passed in Scotland . 780 The state of Ireland . . . ib. A parliament in England . . .781 A speaker chosen . . . ib. Debates about the next successor . . ib. A bill for a regency on the queen's death . 78 Great opposition made to it . . 783 A secret management in the House of Commons . The act of regency passed . . .785 The danger of the church inquired into . A vote and address to the queen about it . . 1706. omplaints of the allies rejected . . The act against the Scots repealed . . The public credit very high . . An act for the amendment of the law . . omplaints of the progress of popery . . A design for a public library . . . 3roceedings in convocation . . . Preparations for the campaign . . . A revolt in Valentia . . . Barcelona besieged by the French . . Alcantara taken by the Earl of Galway . The Germans are defeated in Italy . . The treaty for the union of the two kingdoms . The siege of Barcelona raised . . . An eclipse of the sun . . The Earl of Galway advanced into Spain . . £ing Philip came to Madrid, and soon left it . The Earl of Galway came thither, but King Charles delayed his coming too long . The battle of Ramillies . , . A great victory gained there . . . Glanders and Brabant reduced . . Ostend and Menin taken . . . The Duke of Vendome commands in Flanders . Dendermond and Aeth taken . • . Designs of a descent in Franco . . The siege of Turin . . Prince Eugene marches before it . . The French army routed and the siege raised . The King of Sweden marched into Saxony . The treaty of union concluded here . . The articles of the union . . . Debated long in the parliament of Scotland . 1707. At last agreed to by both parliaments . • The equivalent disposed of . . . Reflections on the union . . . The supplies were granted . . . Proceedings in convocation . . . Affairs in Italy . . . And in Poland . . The character of the King of Sweden . . Propositions for a peace . . . The battle of Almanza . The design upon Toulon . . . It failed in the execution . . . The siege of Lerida . . . Relief sent to Spain . . The conquest of Naples by the emperor . Affairs on the Rhine . The King of Prussia judged Prince of Neufcliatel . The King of Sweden gets the protestant churches in Silesia restored . . . A sedition in Hamburgh . . . . The campaign in Flanders . . . Affairs at sea . . Proceedings with relation to Scotland . . A new party at court . . . Promotions in the church . . . Complaints of the Admiralty . . . Examined by the House of Lords . « And laid before the queen in an address . . Inquiry into the affairs of Spain . . 1708. Discovery of a correspondence with France . . An examination into that correspondence . ib. ib. 786 ib. 787 ib. 788 ib. 789 790 ib. ib. 791 ib. ib. 793 ib. ib. ib. ib. 794 ib. 795 ib. ib. ib. 796 ib. ib. 797 798 ib. ib. 799 801 803 80-4 805 806 807 ib. 808 ib. ib. 809 810 811 ib. 812 ib. 813 ib. 814 ib. ib. 815 816 ib. 818 ib. 819 82C 821 822 CONTENTS. xix PAGE Proceedings with relation to Scotland . . 823 A descent intended upon Scotland . . 824 A fleet sailed from Dunkirk . ib. Reports spread by the French . . 825 The parliament stands firmly by the queen . . ib. The French fleet got again into Dunkirk . ib. The designs of the campaign are concerted . . 826 The princes of France sent to the army in Flanders ib. The Duke of Orleans sent to Spain ' . ib. Tortosa besieged and taken . . ib. Supplies sent from Italy to Spain . . 827 Ghent and Bruges taken by the French . ib. The battle of Oudenarde . ib. Lisle besieged . . .828 The French drew lines along the Scheld . . ib. A new supply sent to Ostend . . ib. A defeat given the French when they were three to one . . . . 829 The convoy from Ostend came safe to the camp . ib. Leffinghen taken by the French . . ib. A misunderstanding between the Duke of Burgundy and Duke of Vendome . . ib. Affairs on the Upper Rhine . ib. The Elector of Bavaria sent to attack Brussels . 830 The Duke of Maryborough passed the Scheld and the French lines . . ib. The Elector of Bavaria drew off from Brussels , ib. The citadel of Lisle capitulated . ib. Reflections upon that siege . . ib. Ghent and Bruges are retaken . . .831 A very hard winter . . ib. Sardinia and Minorca reduced . ib. The pope threaten a the emperor with censures and a war . . . ib. The Duke of Savoy takes Exiles and Fenestrella . 832 The pope is forced to submit to the emperor . ib. And acknowledges King Charles . . ity. Affairs in Hungary . . ib. And in Poland . . ib. Affairs at sea «, • . 833 Prince George's death and character . . ib. Some new ministers taken in . . 834 The new parliament opened . . ib. 1709. Debates concerning the election of Scotch peers . ib. A Scotch peer created a peer of Great Britain, is to have no vote in the election there . . 835 Other exceptions were determined . . ib. A faction amongst the Scots . ib. An act concerning trials of treasons in Scotland, and on what occasion • . • 836 The heads of that act . . . ib. The forms of proceeding in Scotland . . ib. Of the forfeitures in cases of treason . . 837 Amendments to the act . . . 838 Is passed in both houses . ib. An act of grace . . . ib. An enlargement of the fund of the bank . . ib. Great riches come to Portugal from America . 839 An act for a general naturalization of all foreign protestants . . ib. An address to the queen concerning the terms on which a peace might be made • . ib. The convocation prorogued . . . ib. A faction amongst the clergy in Ireland . ib. An ill temper amongst the English clergy . . 840 Negotiations for peace . . ib. The preliminaries agreed on . . 84 1 The King of France refuses to ratify them . ib. The war went on ... 842 In Portugal . . ib. PAGE The war went on in Spain . . 842 In Dauphiny . . , 843 In Germany . . . . ib. And in Flanders . . ib. Tournay is besieged and taken . . ib. The battle of Blareignies . . . ib. Mons is besieged and taken . . 844 Affairs in Italy . . . . ib. Affairs in Spain . . . ib. The King of Sweden's defeat at Pultowa . . ib. He flies into Turkey . . . ib. His character by Dr. Robinson . . .845 Affairs in Denmark . . . ib. Our fleet well conducted . . . 846 A session of parliament . . . ib. Sacheverell's sermon . . . ib. Many books wrote against the queen's title . 847 Dr. Hoadley's writings in defence of it . . ib. 1710. Sacheverell was impeached by the House of Com- mons .... 848 And tried in Westminster Hall . ib. Great disorders at that time . . 849 The continuation of the trial . . . 850 Sir John Holt's death and character . . ib. Parker made lord chief justice . ib. Debates in the House of Lords after the trial . ib. He is censured very gently . . . 85 1 Addresses against the parliament . . 852 The queen's speech at the end of the session . ib. The Duke of Shrewsbury made lord chamberlain . ib. The author's free discourse to the queen . . 853 Doway is besieged and taken . . ib. The history continued to the peace . . ib. Negotiations for a peace . . . 854 The conferences at Gertruydenberg . . 855 All came to no conclusion . . ib. A change of the ministry in England . . 856 Sacheverell's progress into Wales . . ib. The conduct in elections to parliament . . 857 A sinking of public credit . . ib. The affajrs in Spain . . . . ib. The battle of Almanara . . ib. King Charles is at Madrid . . . 858 The battle of Villa Viciosa . . ib. The disgrace of the Duke of Medina Celi . . ib. Bethune and Aire taken in Flanders . . ib. Affairs in the North . . . 859 The new parliament opened . . ib. 1711. The conduct in Spain censured by the Lords . ib. The strange way of proceeding therein . 86 1 Some abuses in the navy censured by the House of Commons . . . 862 Supplies given for the war . ib. The Duke of Marlborough commands the army in Flanders . . ib. Complaints of the favour shewn the Palatines . ib. A bill to repeal the general naturalization act, is rejected by the Lords . . . 863 A bill for qualifying members passed . . ib. An act for importing French wine . . ib. An attempt on Harley by Guiscard . . 864 A design against King William's grants miscarries • 865 Inquiries into the public accounts . . ib. The dauphin and the emperor's death . . 866 War breaking out between the Turk and the czar . ib. The convocation met . . . ib. Exceptions to the licence sent them . . ib. A new licence .... 867 CONTENTS. FAGE A representation of the lower house . . 867 Whiston revives arianism . . . ib. The different opinion of the judges as to the power of the convocation . . . 868 Whiston's doctrines condemned t . ib. An act for the south-sea trade . ... 867 Reflections on the old ministry cleared . ib. Affairs in Spain . . . . ib. King Charles is elected emperor . ib. The Duke of Marlborough passed the French lines 870 He besieged Bouchain, and took it . . ib. An expedition by sea to Canada . . .871 It miscarries . . . . ib. Affairs in Turkey . . . . ib. And in Pomerania . . . 872 Harley made an Earl, and Lord Treasurer . ib. Negotiations for a peace with France . . ib. Preliminaries offered by France . . . 873 Count Gallas sent away in disgrace . . ib. Earl of Strafford sent ambassador to Holland . ib. Many libels against the allies . ib. Earl Rivers sent to Hanover, but without success . 874 The States are forced to open a treaty . . ib. Endeavours used by the court before they opened the parliament . . . ib. The queen's speech, and reflections on it . . 'ib. The Earl of Nottingham moved, that no peace could be safe, unless Spain and the West Indies were taken from the House of Bourbon . 875 His motion agreed to by the Lords in their address to the queen . . . . ib. The queen's answer . . . ib. A bill against occasional conformity . . ib. Passed without opposition . . .876 Duke Hamilton's patent as a British peer . ib. Examined, and judged against him . . 877 The Lords' address, that our allies may be carried along with us in the treaty . . ib. Pretended discoveries of bribery . ib. The Duke of Marlborough aimed at . • ib. He is turned out of all his employments . . 878 Twelve new peers made . . . ib. 1712. The queen's message to the Lords to adjourn, is disputed but obeyed . . . ib. Prince Eugene came to England . . . 879 His character . . . . ib. A message from the queen to both houses . . ib. A bill giving precedence to the House of Hanover . ib. A debate concerning the Scotch peers . . 880 Walpole's case and censure . . ib. The censure put on the Duke of Marlborough . ib. Many libels wrote against him . ib. His innocence appeared evidently . .881 The Scotch lords put in good hopes . . ib. A toleration of the English liturgy in Scotland . ib. Designs to provoke the presbyteriana there . 882 Patronages are restored . . . ib. The barrier treaty . . ib. It was complained of . . . 883 And condemned by the House of Commons . ib. The States justify "themselves . . 884 The self denying bill is thrown out . . ib. The treaty at Utrecht opened . . ib. The French proposals . . . ib. The death of the two dauphins . . 885 The character of the dauphin . . ib. An indignation in both houses at the French pro- The demands of the allies Preparations for t.'ie campaign The Pretender's sister died . . . Proceedings in the convocation The censure on Whiston's book not confirmed by the queen . . . An inclination in some of the clergy towards popery Dodwell's notions The bishops condemn the re-baptizing dissenters . But the lower house would not agree with them . Great supplies given for the war . The Duke of Ormond ordered not to act offensively A separate peace disowned by the lord treasurer . The queen, by the Bishop of Bristol, declares she is free from all engagements with the States The queen laid the plan of the peace before the parliament . . . . Addresses of both houses upon it The end of the session of parliament The Duke of Ormond proclaims a cessation of arms, and left Prince Eugene's army . Quesnoy is taken . . . . Landrecy besieged . . A great loss at Denain brought a reverse on the campaign . . . Distractions at the Hague . The renunciations of the succession in Spain and France . . . . Duke Hamilton and Lord Mohun killed in a combat The Duke of Shrewsbury is sent to France, and Duke d'Aumont comes to England . . The affairs in the North The emperor prepares for the war with France A new Barrier Treaty with the States . The Earl of Godolphin's death and character The Duke of Marlborough went to live beyond sea We possess Dunkirk in a precarious manner The Barriei Treaty signed Seven prorogations of parliament . . Affairs of Sweden . . . 1713. The King of Prussia's death . The King of Sweden's misfortunes The treaties of peace signed, and the session of par- liament opened The substance of the treaties of peace and of com- merce .... Aids given by the Commons The Scots oppose their being charged with the duty on malt .... And move to have the union dissolved A bill for rendering the treaty of commerce with France effectual A speech prepared by the author, when the appro- bation of the peace came to be moved in the House of Lords . . . . A demand for mortgaging part of the civil list Reasons against it But it was granted An address of both houses, that the Pretender be removed from Lorrain . . . The death of some bishops The queen's speech at the end of the session THE CONCLUSION PAGS ib. 886 ib. 886 ib. ib. 887 ib. 888 ib. ib. 889 ib. ib. 890 ib. ib. ib. 891 ib. ib. ib. 892 ib. ib. ib. 893 ib. ib, ib. 894 ib. ib. ib. ib. 895 ib. ib. 897 ib. ib. 898 899 901 ib. ib. ib. 902 ib. 904 INTRODUCTION. APPILY for his own mental tranquillity, but unfortunately for his contemporary fame, Dr. Gilbert Burnet * was a firm advocate for universal toleration. Living at a period when political parti- sanship and religious bigotry were stimulated to frantic excesses, it ceases to be a cause of astonishment that he was never entirely trusted, or unreservedly praised, by either of the extreme parties who then convulsed the nation — each was then struggling to obtain supreme dominion over the other, in the civil and religious institutions of our constitution. Dr. Burnet was a bishop, and he stood unflinch- ingly by the episcopal church : so far he was approved by the high church or Tory party ; but he found fault with the conduct of the bishops, who were forced upon, and who rode rough-shod over the Scottish people ; at the same time he deprecated the persecution of men whose only offence was that they preferred a presbyterian form of church government. This was enough to convince those, who lay it down as a principle that an opponent must be wrong in the superlative, that Burnet was a presbyterian at heart, though an episcopalian from interest : they, therefore, never trusted, much less did they advance him. He supported their measures when he approved of them, and was drily thanked: he reproved them, not even sparing the monarch for his sins, and in return was hated. As the advocate of toleration for all political and religious creeds, he was admired and courted by those who suffered by the laws and government, which were actuated by a con- trary spirit ; yet he did not go far or fast enough to satisfy them : he would not have them punished, or even deprived of their civil rights, merely because they differed with him in certain opinions; but as he did not prefer a presbyterial to an episcopal church — as he always held it as a fixed principle, that resistance to an established government is not lawful * Dr. Burnet's father was the younger brother of a family distinguished for its antiquity, and considerable for its influence, in the shire of Aberdeen. He was educated for the profession of a civilian ; and although his excessive modesty prevented him appearing to advantage at the bar, yet he was generally esteemed a proficient in the know- ledge of the civil law. He was eminent for probity and generosity in his practice : from the poor he never took a fee, nor from a clergyman when he sued in the cause of his church. In the year 1637, when the troubles in Scot- land were breaking out, he censured so warmly the con- duct of its bishops, and was so remarkable for his exem- plary life, that he was generally called a puritan. But M-hen he saw that, instead of reforming the abuses of the bishops, episcopacy itself was struck at, he declared himself its supporter with zeal and constancy. He as firmly main- tained the rights of the crown against the attacks of the party which afterwards prevailed in both nations ; for, although he agreed with Barclay and Grotius that resist- ance is lawful when the laws are broken through by a limited monarch, yet he did not think that was then the case in Scotland. Dr. Burnet's mother was very eminent for her piety and virtue. She was a sister of the celebrated sir Archi- bald Johnston, called lord Warriston, who, during tho civil war, headed the presbyterian party. Of their reli- gious discipline she was a zealous admirer ; but neither her influence, nor the exercised power of her brother, could ever induce her husband to swerve in his adhesion to tho cause of monarchy and the episcopal church. Exile, and the offers of preferment made to him by Oliver Cromwell, were alike unavailing ; so that, when permitted to return to Scotland, he lived retired upon his own estate, until the Restoration. He was then made one of the lords of session. Under his parents, the early education of our author was pursued, and the fruits of their instruction and exam- ple are apparent throughout his career. — Life by the Author's Son. b ii INTRODUCTION. on account of its single acts of injustice, unless it strikes at the very basis of tlie constitu- tion * : the enemies of the monarchy and of the established church always esteemed him to be as much their enemy as their friend t. The marquis of Halifax, whose mental acumen was better qualified to judge of other men's characters than to regulate his own, thus wrote his estimate of our author . — " Dr. Burnet J, like all men who are above the ordinary level, is seldom spoke of in a mean, he must either be railed at or admired ; he has a swiftness of imagination, that no other man comes up to ; and as our nature hardly allows us to have enough of any thing without having too much, he cannot at all times so hold in his thoughts but that at some time they may run away with him ; as it is hard for a vessel, that is brim-full, when in motion, not to run over ; and therefore the variety of matter, that he ever carries about him, may throw out more than an unkind critic would allow of. His first thoughts may some- times require more digestion, not from a defect in his judgment, but from the abundance of his fancy, which furnishes too fast for him. His friends love him too well to see small faults ; or, if they do, think that his greater talents give him a privilege of straying from the strict rules of caution, and exempt him from the ordinary rules of censure. He produces so fast, that what is well in his writings calls for admiration, and what is incorrect deserves an excuse ; he may in some things require grains of allowance, which those only can deny him who are unknown, or unjust to him. He is not quicker in discerning other men's faults, than he is in forgiving them : so ready, or rather glad, to acknowledge his own, that from blemishes they become ornaments. All the repeated provocations of his indecent adversaries have had no other effect than the setting his good-nature in so much a better light, since his anger never yet went farther than to pity them. That heat, which in most other men raises sharpness and satire, in him glows into warmth for his friends, and compassion for those in want and misery. As dull men have quick eyes in discerning the smaller faults of those that nature has made superior to them, they do not miss one blot he makes, and being beholden only to their barrenness for their discretion, they fall upon the errors which arise out of his abundance; and by a mistake into which their malice betrays them, they think that by finding a mote in his eye, they hide the beams that are in their own. His quickness makes writing so easy a thing to him, that his spirits are neither wasted nor soured by it. The soil is not forced, every thing grows and brings forth without pangs ; which distin- guishes as much what he does from that which smells of the lamp, as a good palate will dis- cern between fruit which comes from a rich mould, and that which tastes of the uncleanly pains that have been bestowed upon it. He makes many enemies, by setting an ill-natured example of living, which they are not inclined to follow. His indifference for preferment, his contempt not only of splendour, but of all unnecessary plenty, his degrading himself into the lowest and most painful duties of his calling, are such unprelatical qualities, that let him be never so orthodox in other things, in these he must be a dissenter. Virtues of such a stamp are so many heresies, in the opinion of those divines, who have softened the primitive injunc- tions, so as to make them suit better with the present frailty of mankind. No wonder, then, if they are angry, since it is in their own defence, or that from a principle of self-preservation * "The presbyterian zealots," says his son, "hated f Life by his son. him, as apprehending that his schemes of moderation would, J The copy from which this is printed was taken from in the end, prove the sure way of establishing episcopacy one given to the bishop, in the marquis of Halifax's own amongst them. The episcopal party, on the other hand, hand-writing, which was in the possession of the author's could not endure a man who was for exempting the dis- son, the year that George the First began to reign, senters from their persecutions." INTRODUCTION. [ft they should endeavour to suppress a man, whose parts are a shame, and whose life is a scandal to them." Such was the estimate formed of Dr. Burnet by one of the most talented of his contem- poraries ; we shall be better able to judge of its justice when we have traced a few of the leading events of his life ; and as these will be found to be every way worthy of him as a teacher of Christianity, the reader of his work will thence be predisposed to believe, that he who acted and suffered for that which he considered just, would not knowingly write that which is false. The life of Dr. Burnet extended from 1643 to 1715, a series of years during which occurred the most memorable events in our national history. In those seventy-two years, Charles the First died upon the scaffold ; our government passed through every grade of change from the most open republicanism to the most uncontrolled despotism — there Was the despotism of the army and the despotism of Cromwell. It was the era of the war-struggle for supremacy between protestant episcopacy, protestant dissent, and popery, in which James the Secon1 was ejected from the throne, and a new dynasty was admitted. All which events were the consequences of the great principle that came then for ever to be decided — whether the will and the interests of the people, or of the king, are to bo most consulted in the conduct of our national affairs. The first important question, arid it was one dangerous and delicate, upon which our author had to declare his opinion, was concerning his own competency to fulfil the duties of the clerical office. There is no law of Scotland limiting the age at which a minister may take upon himself the cure of souls ; consequently, having passed all his examinations and his probation, when he was offered by his kinsman, sir Alexander Burnet, an excellent benefice in the centre of his family connections, he had no restraint upon his decision but such as was dictated by his own heart. Burnet was only eighteen, but he was victor over the tempta- tion ; for, feeling that this was an age at which he could not conscientiously accept so respon- sible an appointment, he declined the living, though his father was the only one of his relations who did not importune him to accept it. It was well for him, in many respects, besides the satisfaction of his conscience, that he thus decided ; for it left him leisure to visit the English universities, and to travel in continental Europe. Whilst at the former, and when in London, he acquired the friendship of Dr. Cudworth, Dr. Pearson, Dr. Fell, Dr. Pocock, Dr. Wallis, Dr. Tillotson, Dr. Stilling- fleet, Dr. Patrick, Dr. Lloyd, Dr. Whitchcot, Dr. Wilkins, sir Robert Murray, and Mr. Boyle ; names deservedly great in the history of our national worthies. From such men as these he gained knowledge, and in their example obtained confidence to maintain the cause of truth in all things. His acquaintance, whilst in Holland, with the chief members of the Arminians, Lutherans, Unitarians, Brownists, Anabaptists, and Papists, whose forms of worship and belief are all tolerated in that country, enlarged his mind, and saved him from being the slave of sectarian bigotry. Amongst all those families of the Christian tribe, " he found men of such real piety and virtue, that there he became fixed in that strong principle of universal charity, of thinking well of those who differed from him, and of invincible abhorrence of all persecutions on account of religious dissensions ; which have often drawn upon him the bitterest censures from those who, perhaps by a narrower education, were led into a narrower way of thinking." Dr. Henry More, who bore the highest title of dignity, being called " the Intellectual Epicure," was one of his acquaintances, and, like him, paid more attention to the contents of a book than to its binding — estimated the value of a man's mind, not that b 2 iv INTRODUCTION. of his coat — believed in Christianity, not in its priestcraft. One of Dr. More's observations upon church ceremonies and rites made great impression upon Burnet. " None of these," said the doctor, " are bad enough to make men bad ; and I am sure none of them are good enough to make men good." Upon his return to his native country, Scotland, he was appointed to the living of Saltoun, but he declined accepting it until, after a four months' probation, he was unanimously requested to do so by his parishioners. He was then, in the year 1665, ordained priest by the bishop of Edinburgh. " During the five years he remained at Saltoun, he preached twice every Sunday, and once more during the week ; he catechised three times during the same period, so as to examine every parishioner, old and young, thrice in the compass of a year : he went round his parish from house to house, instructing, reproving, or comforting the inhabitants as occasion required ; those who were sick he visited twice a day ; he admi- nistered the sacrament four times in the year, personally instructing all that gave notice they intended to receive it : all that remained above his own necessary subsistence, in which he was very frugal, he distributed in charity. A particular instance of his liberality was related by a person who then lived with him, and who afterwards was with him at Salisbury. One of his parishioners was distrained upon for debt, and came to our author for some small assistance, who inquired how much would again set him up in his trade. The debtor named the sum, which a servant was immediately ordered to pay him : — ' Sir,' said the domestic, 4 it is all we have in the house.' — ' Well, well,' replied Burnet, ' pay it to this poor man ; you do not know the pleasure there is in making a man glad.' Thus, as he knew the con- cerns of his whole parish, treated them with tenderness and care, and set them a fair example of every article of that duty which he taught them, he soon gained their affections, not excepting the presbyterians ; although ho was then the only man in Scotland that made use of the prayers in the English church liturgy *." In 1669, the University of Glasgow elected him to be the Professor of Divinity, and the admirable Dr. Leighton succeeded in persuading him to quit his parish and accept the chair. His son thus relates our author's exertions to fulfil the duties that now devolved upon him. " As his principal care, in this new station, was to form just and true notions in the students of divinity, he laid down a plan for that purpose, to which no other objection could be offered but that it seemed to require the labour of four or five, instead of one man ; yet he never failed executing every part of it, during his residence at Glasgow. On Mondays he made each of the students, in his turn, explain a head of divinity in Latin, and propound such theses from it as he was to defend against the rest of the scholars ; and this exercise con- cluded with our author's decision of the point in a Latin oration. On Tuesdays he gave them a prelection in the same language, wherein he purposed, in the course of eight years, to have gone through a complete system of divinity. On Wednesdays, he read them a lecture, for above an hour, by way of a critical commentary on St. Matthew's Gospel, which he finished before be quitted the chair. On Thursdays the exercise was alternate : one Thursday he expounded a Hebrew psalm, comparing it with the Septuagint, the vulgar and the English version ; and the next Thursday he explained some portion of the ritual and con- stitution of the primitive church, making the apostolical canons his text, and reducing every article of practice under the head of one or other of those canons. On Fridays he made each of his scholars, in course, preach a short sermon upon some text he assigned ; and when • Life of Dr. Burnet, by his sou. itw INTRODUCTION. t was ended, he observed upon any thing that was defective or amiss, showing how the text ought to have been opened and applied. This was the labour of the mornings ; in the evenings, after prayer, he every day read them some parcel of scripture, on which he made a short discourse, and when that was over, he examined into the progress of their several studies, encouraging them to propose their difficulties to him upon the subjects they were then reading. This he performed during the whole time the schools were open, thereby answering the duty of a professor, with the assiduity of a schoolmaster ; and in order to acquit himself with credit, he was obliged to study hard from four till ten in the morning ; the rest of the day being, of necessity, allotted either to the use of his pupils, or to hearing the complaints of the clergy, who, finding he had an interest with the men in power, were not sparing in their applications tc him." Our author was thrice married. His first wife was Lady Mary Kennedy, a daughter of the earl of Cassilis ; the second a Dutch lady, of the name of Scott ; and the third. Mrs. Berkley, — all women eminent for their piety ; the third being author of " A Method of Devotion," edited after her death by Dr. Goodwyn, archbishop of Cashel. Of Dr. Bur- net's conduct in the relationships 01 a husband, a father, a friend, and a master, we have his son's testimony : — " He was a most affectionate husband. His tender care of his first wifc, during a course of sickness that lasted for many years, and his fond love to the other two, and the deep concern he expressed fo» their loss, were no more than their just due, from one of his humanity, gratitude, and discernment. *' His love to his children, perhaps accompanied with too much indulgence, was not exerted in laying up for them a hoard of wealth out of the revenues of the church, but in giving them a noble education, though the charge of it was wholly maintained out of his private fortune. At seven years old he entered his sons into Latin, giving each of them a distinct tutor, who had a salary of forty pounds a-year, which was never lessened on account of any prebend the bishop gave him. After five or six years had perfected his sons in the learned languages, he sent them to the University ; the eldest, a gentleman commoner, to Trinity College, in Cambridge ; the other two, commoners, to Merton College, in Oxford, where, besides the college tutor, they had a private one, to assist them in their learning, and to over- look their behaviour. In the year 1706, he sent them abroad for two years to finish their studies at Leyden, whence two of them took a tour through Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. The eldest and youngest, by their own choice, were bred to the law, and the second to divinity. " In his friendships our author was warm, open-hearted, and constant : from those I have taken the liberty to mention, the reader will perceive that they were formed upon the most prudent choice, and I cannot find an instance of any one friend he ever lost, but by death. It is a common, perhaps a just observation, that a hearty friend is apt to be as hearty an enemy ; yet this rule did not hold in our author : for though his station, his principles, but, above all, his steadfast adherence to the Hanover succession, raised him many enemies, yet he no sooner had it in his power to have taken severe revenges on them, than he endeavoured, by tho kindest good offices, to repay all their injuries, and overcome them, by returning good for evil. " The bishop was a kind and bountiful master to his servants, whom he never changed but with regret, and through necessity. Friendly and obliging to all in employment under him. and peculiarly happy in the choice of them, especially in that of the steward to the bishopric and his courts, "William Wastefield, Esq , (a gentleman of a plentiful fortune at the time of vi INTRODUCTION. his accepting this post,) and in that of his domestic steward, Mr. Hackney. These were both men of approved worth and integrity, firmly attached to his interests, and were treated by him, as they well deserved, with friendship and confidence." Four times did our author refuse a bishopric. At length, when king "William was esta- blished on the throne, the see of Salisbury became vacant, which Dr. Burnet solicited for his old friend, Dr. Lloyd, then bishop of St. Asaph. The king coldly answered, " I have another person in view :" and the next day Burnet found that he himself was nominated to the vacant see. His son has dwelt at some length upon his conduct as a diocesan. " His primary visita- tion could only be regulated by the practice of his predecessors, who contented themselves with formal triennial visitations of their diocese, in which they used always to confirm ; but when he perceived the hurry, the disorder and noise that attended these public meetings, he thought them wholly unfit for solemn acts of devotion ; they seemed much more proper for the exercise of an ordinary's jurisdiction, according to law, than for the performance of the more Christian functions of a bishop. These were inconsistent with that pomp and show which, perhaps, the other required. He had always looked upon confirmation as the likeliest means of reviving a spirit of Christianity ; if men could be brought to consider it, *ot as a mere ceremony, but as an act whereby a man became a Christian from his own choice ; since upon attaining to the use of reason, he thereby renewed for himself a vow, which others had only made for him at baptism. He wrote a short directory, con aining proper rubs how to prepare the youth upon such occasions ; this he printed, and sent copies of it, some months beforehand, to the minister of every parish where he intended to con- firm. He every summer took a tour, for six weeks or two months, through some district of his bishopric, daily preaching and confirming from church to church, so as in the compass of three years (besides his former triennial visitation) to go through all the principal livings in his diocese. The clergy, near the places he passed through, generally attended on him ; therefore, to avoid being burthensome in these circuits, he entertained them all at his own charge. He, likewise, for many years, entered into conferences with them upon the chief heads of divinity : one of which he usually opened at their meeting, in a discourse that lasted near two hours ; and then encouraged those present to start such questions or difficulties upon it as occurred to them. Four of these discourses, against infidelity, socinianism, popery and schism, were printed in the year 1694. When our author had published his c Expo- sition of the Thirty-nine Articles,' conferences of this nature seemed in some measure need- less : he therefore discontinued them, in order to apply himself wholly to the work of confirm- ation. To be more useful in it, he disposed his annual progress, during the last ten years of his life, in the following manner: — He went through five or six of the considerable market towns every year ; he fixed himself for a whole week in each of them ; and though he went out every morning to preach and confirm in some parish, within seven or eight miles of the place, yet at the evening prayer, for six days together, he catechised the youth of the town, in the principal church there, expounding to them some portion of the church cate- chism every day, until he had gone through the whole : and, on Sunday, he confirmed those who had been thus examined and instructed, and then, inviting them all to dine with him, he gave to each a useful present of books. As the country flocked in from all parts to hear him, he was in hopes this would encourage the clergy to catechise more, and would raise an emulation in Christian knowledge among the inferior sort of people, who were ignorant to a scandal. B INTRODUCTION, vii tie intervals of parliament, when the bishop was not upon this progress, his usual was at Salisbury ; there he preached the Thursday's lecture, founded at St. Thomas's church, during the whole time of his stay; ho likewise preached and confirmed every Sunday morning *, in some church of that city, or of the neighbourhood round about it : and in the evening he had a lecture in his own chapel, to which great crowds resorted, wherein he explained some portion of scripture, out of the gospels and epistles in the liturgy. He generally came down from London, some days before Lent, on purpose to prepare the youth of the two great schools for confirmation, by catechising them every week, during that season, in the cathedral church, and instructing them in the same manner as he did those in the other towns of his diocese. And to render this task of instruction more easy to the rest of his clergy, he at length published ' An Explanation of the Church Catechism, in the Year 1710.' " The bishop's consistorial court being much cried out against, as a grievance both to the clergy and laity, he endeavoured to reform it, and for some years went thither in person ; but though he might do some little good by this attendance, it was so little, that he at last gave it over ; for the true foundation of complaints was, the dilatory course of proceedings, and the exorbitant fees, which the bishop had no authority to correct : nay, he could not even discharge poor suitors who were oppressed there with vexatious prosecu- tions, any otherwise than by paying their fees himself, as he frequently did. " No part of the episcopal office was more strictly attended to by him than the examination of those who came for orders ; in this matter the law has left the bishop entirely at liberty to admit or refuse. He never turned them over to the care of a chaplain or archdeacon, farther than to try their skill in the learned languages. He examined them himself as to the proofs of the Christian religion, the authority of the scriptures, and the nature of the gospel covenant. If they were deficient in those, he dismissed them at once, with proper directions how to be better prepared for a second trial : but if they were competently knowing in these essential points, he went through the other heads of divinity with less strictness. "When he was once satisfied with their capacity, he next directed his discourse to their conscience : he laid before them the baseness of taking up a sacred profession, merely for the lucre, or subsistence, it might afford : he gave them a distinct view of all the branches of the pastoral care (of which he published a Treatise, for the use of his diocese, in 1692) ; and endeavoured strongly to dissuade them from entering into holy orders, unless they were firmly resolved to perform all the duties of their function ; more particularly to lead such lives as might not contradict the doctrines they were to teach. A day or two before ordination, he submitted all those whom he had accepted to the examination of the dean and prebendaries, that so he might have their approbation. " In the admission of presentees, he could not be so strict ; the law having in some measure taken the judgment of their qualifications out of the ordinary; yet in this he went unusual lengths, of which I shall mention one singular instance -f-. In the latter part of the reign of queen Anne, the lord chancellor presented the younger son of a noble family in Oxfordshire * He was so punctual in this, that no change of weather overturned in the water, and his own life hardly saved by could ever induce him to disappoint any congregation where a miller, who jumped in and drew the bishop out of the he was expected ; and this assiduity had well nigh cost water ; for which seasonable service our author paid him him his life, in the year 1698. For having appointed to a yearly gratuity all the rest of his life. preach and confirm, at the parish church of Dinton, within f This 1 had from Mr. Mackney, as a fact well known twelve miles of Salisbury, on a pre-fixed Sunday, the rains to himself, and to some others now alive. — Note by that fell on that day, and for some days before, had so Author's Son. swelled a brook which he was to cross, that his coach was viii INTRODUCTION. to a parsonage within his diocese, which was in the gift of the crown. Upon trial, -our author found him so ignorant, that he refused to institute him ; the ministry threatened him with a law-suit, -but, finding him resolute, they at length acquiesced under the refusal. Thereupon the bishop sent for the young gentleman, and told him, ' That as his patrons had given up the contest, and he had no design to do him any personal injury, if he could prevail on his friends to keep the benefice vacant, he himself would undertake the charge of quali- fying him for it.' Accordingly he took such happy pains in his instruction, that, some months after, the presentee passed examination with applause, and had institution given him to the living. " As the pastoral care, and the admitting none to it who were not duly qualified, was always uppermost in his thoughts, he concluded that he could not render a more useful service to religion, to the church, and more especially to his own diocese, than by forming under his eye a number of divines, well instructed in all the articles of their duty. He resolved therefore, at his own charge, to maintain a small nursery of students in divinity at Salisbury, who might follow their studies till he should be able to provide for them. They were ten in number, to each of whom he allowed a salary of thirty pounds a-year : they were admitted to him once every day, to give an account of their progress in learning, to propose to him such difficulties as they met with, in the course of their reading, and to hear a lecture from him, upon some speculative or practical point of divinity, or on some part of the pastoral function, which lasted above an hour : during the bishop's absence, the learned Dr. Whitby supplied his place, in superintending and directing their studies. By this means our author educated several young clergymen, who proved an honour to the church : but as this came to be considered as a present provision, with sure expectations of a future settlement, he was continually importuned, and sometimes imposed upon, as to the persons recommended to be of this number ; and the foundation itself was so maliciously exclaimed at, as a designed affront upon the method of education at Oxford, that he was prevailed upon, after some years, to lay it wholly aside. " Our author was a warm and constant enemy to pluralities of livings ; not indeed where the two churches lay near each other, and were but poorly endowed, for in that case he rather encouraged them, as knowing the ' labourer was worthy his hire.' But whensoever non-residence was the consequence of a plurality, he used his utmost endeavours to prevent it, and in some cases even hazarded a suspension, rather than give institution. In his charges to the clergy he exclaimed against pluralities, as a sacrilegious robbery of the revenues of the church. A remarkable effect of his zeal upon this subject may not be improper to be here related *. In his first visitation at Salisbury, he urged the authority of St. Bernard, who being consulted by one of his followers, whether he might not accept of two benefices, replied, ' And how will you be able to serve them both ? ' — ' I intend,' answered the priest, ' to officiate in one of them by a deputy.' — ' Will your deputy be damned for you too?' cried the saint. ' Believe me, you may serve your cure by proxy, but you must be damned in person.' This expression so affected Mr. Kelsey, a pious and worthy clergyman there present, that he immediately resigned the rectory of Bemerton, worth two hundred pounds a-year, which he then held with one of a greater value. Nor was this Christian act of self-denial without its reward ; for though their principles in church matters were very opposite, the bishop conceived such an esteem for him, from this * This fact was told me by Mr. Wastefield, and is well known at Salisbury. — Note by Author's Son. INTRODUCTION. ix action, that he not only prevailed with the chapter to elect him a canon, but likewise made him archdeacon of Sarum, and gave him one of the best prebends in the church. " In the point of residence, our author was so strict that he never would permit his own chaplains to attend upon him, after they were once preferred to a cure of souls, but obliged them to be constantly resident at their livings. Indeed he considered himself as under the same obligation as pastor of the whole diocese, and never would be absent from it but during his necessary attendance on parliament ; from which, as soon as the principal business of the nation was despatched, he always obtained leave to depart, in order to return to his function. And though king "William, upon his going over to Ireland or Flanders, always enjoined him to attend upon queen Mary, and assist her with his faithful counsel on all emergencies, yet he would not, upon such occasions, accept of lodgings at Whitehall, but hired a house at Windsor, in order to be within his own bishopric, and yet near enough to the court to pay his duty twice a week, or oftener, if business required it. " No principle was more deeply rooted in him than that of toleration ; it -was not confined to any sect or nation, it was as universal as Christianity itself : he exerted it in favour of a nonjuring meeting-house at Salisbury, which he obtained the royal permission to connive at ; and when the preacher there, Dr. Beach, by a seditious and treasonable sermon, had incurred the sentence of the law, our author not only saved him from punishment, but even procured his pardon, without the terms of a public recantation, upon which it was at first granted ; as may be collected from the following letters, the one from the earl of Nottingham, then secretary of state, the other from Dr. Beach himself : — 4 MY LORD *, ' Whitehall, 29th March, 1692. * I have acquainted the queen, at the cabinet council, with what your lordship writes in behalf of Dr. Beach ; and though her majesty is always inclined to show mercy, and espe- cially to such as your lordship recommends to her favour, yet since the crime, and the scandal of it, has been very public, her majesty thinks the acknowledgment of it should be so too, and therefore would have him make it in the church. When this is done, your lordship's intercession will easily prevail. I am, with great respect, < My lord, ' Your lordship's most humble and faithful servant, 4 NOTTINGHAM.' 4 MY LORD t, * With all due deference of honour, and with all the respectful regard that can be corre- spondent to the no less generous than acceptable messages which I received from your lord- ship by Dr. Geddes, I humbly tender this to your lordship, hoping it may be favourably received in lieu of my personal attendance, which shall be readily paid (as U is due) at any time. Dr. Geddes has delivered me the desirable tidings of your lordship's free resolution' to rescue me from the further prosecution of that unhappy verdict I labour under. It is my desire, being freed from this troublesome storm, to live in peace and quiet, without disturb- ance of the government in general, and of any person in particular. And I cannot but deeply resent your obliging readiness to relieve me, because it is not clogged with any bitter conditions or reserves that would lessen the favour. What your lordship has resolved is * The original was in the hands of the author's son. "f" Ibid. x INTRODUCTION. what I humbly desire, and do not doubt but your lordship will pursue. The sooner the favour can be accomplished, and with the less noise before terra, the more it will be endeared to, and challenge all gratitude from, ' My lord, Your much obliged and obedient servant, ' WM. BEACH*/ " Yet when this spirit of moderation, of which the nonjurors felt the good effects, was extended to the dissenters, our author's enemies represented him as betraying the church into their hands ; though he was really taking the most effectual means to bring them over, not indeed by compulsion, but by the more Christian methods of charity and persuasion : in which he was so successful, that many dissenting families, in his diocese, were by him brought over to the communion of our church ; and of two presbyterian preachers, who were well supported when he first came to Salisbury, one was soon after obliged to quit the place, and the other but poorly subsisted in it. " He perceived that the chief strength of the sectaries lay in the market-towns ; the livings there were most commonly in the gift of the lord chancellor ; and as the lord Somers, during his enjoyment of the seals, left the nomination to those in the diocese of Sarum to the bishop, he endeavoured to place in them none but learned, pious, and moderate divines, as being the best qualified to prevent the growth of schism. But as the benefices were generally small, and a poor church will be too often served by as poor a clerk, our author determined to obviate this difficulty, by bestowing upon these cures the prebends in his gift as they became vacant ; and till such a vacancy happened, out of his own income he allowed the minister of every such church a pension of twenty pounds a year t : when the prebend itself was conferred upon him, the bishop insisted on his giving a bond to resign it, if ever he quitted the living. Though this matter had been laid before the most eminent prelates and divines of our church, as well as the most learned among the canonists, who highly approved the design ; yet it was so warmly opposed by some of the clergy, that, in order to raise no farther strife in the church, our author was prevailed on to relinquish this project, and give up all the bonds he had taken. But as he could not, without the tenderest con- cern, behold the destitute condition of these poor benefices, most of which were attended with the largest cure of souls, so his disappointment in this scheme he had formed for his own bishopric, only gave occasion to a more universal plan, which he projected for the improvement of all the small livings in England, and which was liable to no exception. This he pressed forward with so much success, that it terminated at length in an act of parliament, passed in the second year of queen Anne, ' for the augmentation of the maintenance of the poor clergy.' ** Thus fulfilling the duties of his sacred station ; actuated by such conciliating principles ; it might be expected that in his episcopal character he was at least free from the aspersions of his enemies ; but in this expectation the reader is deceived. Dr. Burnet had formed a very high and dignified opinion of the conduct that should be adopted by the head of a diocese : he comprised it in one sentence. — " A bishop ought to be the leader of no particular class of *In a " Letter to T. Burnet," published in 1736, this Dr. Beach, whom, as in duty bound, he had detected in transaction is stated somewhat differently ; but it on the seditious declarations. whole confirms the fact, that the bishop interceded for "t This appears from his steward's accounts, and was con firmed to his son by Mr. Wastefield. INTRODUCTION. xi persons, but the head and father of the people in his diocese." In accordance with this, we have seen he was anxious for the comfort and well-being of every denomination of Chris- tians— his creed was based on toleration, and he strove to unite all the sects within his diocese, in ascertaining the only essential object of the Gospel, viz. instructing " man to do justly ; to love mercy ; and to walk humbly with God/' To effect this, he knew full well the most efficient means was to secure a faithful, pious, parochial clergy ; to accomplish this he put aside all the considerations of interest, and turned a deaf ear to the solicitations, the compliments, and the abuse that he incurred. He is not the true friend of an estab- lishment, that is blind to all its defects ; but he who duly appreciates them, and dares to risk the obloquy of endeavouring to remove them. The decay, the corruptions, of an eccle- siastical system, above all others, will sooner or later be detected ; it is connected with man's most awful interests, it is scrutinised by those of its own communion as well as by sectarians ; it is wise and dignified, therefore, for it to take the lead in, rather than to be dragged to self-reformation. Burnet fully understood this ; he had been born, educated, and had lived in manhood amongst the most strict dissenters from our church ; he knew the plague- spots to which they had pointed the finger, and against which they had shaken the head ; he was obliged to confess that the parochial clergy in his time "had less authority, and were more in contempt, than any other church in Europe ; and that they would never regain the influence they had lost, until they lived better and laboured more." His reprehensions were not con- fined to the subordinate ministers of the establishment ; he wrote against the conduct of the Scotch bishops, and he was far from praising the conduct of the whole English episcopal bench. This was sufficient to raise against him a host of assailants ; and he is to this day considered by those who think that reproof springs always from hatred, and reform from a wish to destroy, as a heterodox bishop — an episcopalian by interest, and a pres- byterian at heart. Those who so esteem him we may refer to his conduct as a bishop, and his successful efforts to increase the incomes of the small livings of our country. If such conduct is heterodox; if an indefatigable effort to do his duty kindly, charitably, and tolerantly, yet with dignity, deserve this exclusive epithet, we may wish without prejudice to the interests of our church, that all may similarly stray. Burnet does not stand in the rank with those brilliant characters who have enriched our theological and polemical literature — he will never be instanced among those whose text has been " Orthodoxy," and their principle " Intolerance." But he was one of those who may always be quoted as an example how the duties of a Christian bishop ought to be performed. The best defence of Burnet's religious principles are contained in some of the opening passages of his last will. They amount to a confession of his faith, — a faith actuated by a spirit which, if it inspired all Christians, would put a final end to bigotry and uncharitableness. " I live and die," says the bishop in this his last record, " a sincere Christian, believing the truth of that gospel which for many years I have preached to others. I am a true protestant according to the church of England ; full of affection and brotherly love to all who have received the reformed religion, though in some points different from our consti- tution. I die, as I all along lived and professed myself to be, full of charity and tenderness for those among us who yet dissent from us, and heartily pray that God would heal oui breaches, and make us like-minded in all things, that so we might unite our zeal, and join our endeavours against atheism and infidelity, that have prevailed much ; and against popery, Ie greatest enemy to our church, more to be dreaded than all other parties." It remains to be considered how Dr. Burnet conducted himself as a politician in the xii INTRODUCTION. momentous constitutional changes of the period, but this will here be clone very succinctly, because the following work is a narrative of his conduct, and in the notes to some of the transactions of which he is the historian, opportunities will occur of considering his public conduct in detail. Charles the Second and the duke of York, afterwards James the Second, very frequently consulted him ; but so far from cultivating their patronage, he wrote to the first, urging him to change his course of life : and, together with Dr. Stillingfleet, had a conference with two popish priests in the presence of the duke, in order to convince him of the errors of their creed. He was the friend and associate of lord William Russell, the earl of Essex, and their party, but was never involved in any of their plots. These facts were enough to render both Charles and James his enemies, so that when the latter acquired the crown, Burnet retired to the continent ; but even here, Stuart hatred could not let him rest, for the king insisted that he should not be entertained by the court of Holland. He was even pro- j secuted on a charge of high treason. Of the Revolution in 1688, he was one of the most efficient promoters ; as he was in securing the succession of the house of Hanover. In every effort of his public career, in every vote as a member of the senate, he showed himself the friend of Christian charity, and the fast foe of all intolerance. He wrote and atted unflinchingly in the cause of the protestant religion, episcopacy, and civil liberty ; undeterred by the threats, uninfluenced by the proffered bribes, of dissenters and papists. But though he so acted, and consequently co-operated in general with the Whigs, yet he was no partisan ; he never gave a vote because it agreed with those of a political cabal ; he voted for what he considered the right, he opposed that which he esteemed obnoxious, with- out any inquiry as to the men by whom it was supported. In sustaining his opinions ; in reprobating the conduct of those whom he thought blameworthy, he acted and he writes with ardour and energy ; his eye seems fixed upon the object, his blows are heavy both in number and effect ; and he seems determined by main force to drive in the wedge, careless who may suffer by the necessary cleavage : yet the reader seldom feels that he is needlessly violent or severe — as the conviction always accompanies his attacks, that he conscientiously thought ' them deserved, and that they would be productive of good. They are occasionally wrong ; they are sometimes tinted by egotism ; they are frequently biassed, but you are quite sure they were not thought so by the writer, they are fearless, candid, honest. He strips off the skin, and though he may sometimes say the carcass is black when it is fair, he at all events enables his readers to judge for themselves ; he shows you what he saw himself — he tells you what he was told — he says who said it — he warns you of his prejudices — if you are deceived, it is your own fault. Burnet has recorded as his opinion, that " the more abstracted bishops live from the world, from courts, from cabals, and from parties, they will have the more quiet within themselves, and, in conclusion, be more respected by all ; especially, if an integrity and a just freedom appear among them in the House of Lords, where they will be much observed, and judgments will be made of them there, that will follow them home to their dioceses. Nothing will alienate the nation more from them, than their becoming tools to a court, giving up the liberties of their country, and advancing arbitrary designs." After the opinion given in the opening of this paragraph, just and admirable as is the whole, it may be asked, how can his conduct be defended, since he was so actively employed in the political struggles of his times ? But two improper motives could actuate him —ambition or avarice. Now, neither of these were his failings. He did not pursue the path, which he knew would lead to the INTRODUCTION. xiii gratification of both ; he was no flatterer, he was no party man, he declined promotion, he declared he should be ashamed to raise fortunes for his children out of the revenues of his bishopric. What then could be his motives to mingle actively in the political contests of those eventful days ? In that word " eventful," I conceive we have the clue to extricate him from even the appearance of inconsistency. Foes as well as friends agree that he had a powerful understanding ; that he was well acquainted with the history and statistics of all Europe : and was thoroughly informed in the law of nations, and the systems of govern- ment. He must then have felt himself armed, and capable for the political arena. When, therefore, the liberties of his country, its civil and religious rights, its church establishment, its protestant government, were invaded, and attempted to be subverted, he had to consider whether this was not an exception to the general rule which he entertained. He decided in the affirmative ; and those who know that the hope of restoring a popish monarch did not cease to be cherished by a state-party until long after the decease of our author, will not con- sider him to blame, for combining the duties of his episcopal office with those of an active guardian of the liberties and religion of his country. Reglancing over his character as it is developed by his writings and his conduct — view- ing him devoted to his duties as a parish priest, as a public professor, and as a bishop ; and finding that in private life he was exemplary as a husband, as a parent, and as a master, we need not ask what were the opinions of his contemporaries ; for if they united in vilifying him, we might without prejudice consider, that there is less danger of us being biassed judges than of them being biassed witnesses. It is impossible that a lover of truth, as Burnet unquestionably was, would write anything knowing it to be false. It is probable that as a lover of the episcopal reformed religion, and acting with a party who were similarly influenced, he may have been prejudiced, so as to be too favourable in observing their errors, and not equally perspicacious in discovering the merits of their opponents, or in finding allowances for their follies and mistakes. In such instances, the editor has endeavoured to concentrate from other authorities a correcter light. On the other hand, where the author's statements have been carelessly impugned, the editor has been as watchful to strengthen his narration by testimonials similarly concentrated. Throughout the work, notes illustrative of the actors, and explanatory of the trans- actions in which they were engaged, have been added from worthy authorities ; and no efforts have been spared to make the work a full and faithful history of the Revolution and its con- tinging periods. With the text no other liberty has been taken than to alter the spelling and grammatical construction according to more modern usage. ^ Dr. Burnet's style of writing history is characterised by its simplicity. It carries with it the conviction, that he is telling what he believed to be true — a conviction that is strength- ened by his always stating his authorities, and by his speaking doubtingly when he was himself unsatisfied. Mr. Higgons objected to his work, that he relates so much upon hear- say— hearsay is a synonym for the testimony of another, and if this is excluded, Pyrrhonism must be universal. Such testimony the bishop certainly records abundantly, but he as con • stantly apprises his reader of the authority upon which he has to depend Of the language and composition of the work, it is giving it no common character to say that it is sober English. Burnet is a writer of that class so well described by bishop Taylor, when he said " their thread is not fine, but it is plain, and strong." He aims at no ornament to render his style elegant, or even smooth ; he estimates a character acutely, xiv INTRODUCTION. and judges of transactions sensibly ; and he relates his estimate and his judgment openly and blandly. His periods are never involved, though sometimes too lengthy ; his language ia never inflated ; and perhaps no English historian can be quoted who appears to have written so entirely for the purpose of enabling his readers to remember his facts. He never employs words that savour of the dictionary, when more usual words would express his meaning as well ; yet he is never insipid, though often careless in his diction. His narrative in general glides on colloquially ; and the reader has the continued satisfaction of feeling that, if he believes the incidents, he only does what was done by the relater himself*. It was almost a necessary consequence that Burnet's work gave birth to many and very virulent criticisms. His theme was the conduct of contemporaries, and these would generally consider that his vituperations, as well as his praises, were misplaced and of erroneous inten- sity, accordingly as they were applied to themselves or to their opponents. The transactions of which he was the historian were no petty court intrigues, involving merely the ephemerals who were engaged in them, and whose exposure would give pleasure to many more than it would annoy. They were transactions involving the happiness of every Englishman ; the whole nation was uproused : every man's hand grasped, or was ready to grasp, the sword in the cause of the party he conceived to hold the right. Liberty of conscience, the political rights of Englishmen, the prerogative of the crown, the limits of obedience, the resistance to executive oppression, were now to be decided ; and at such a season every Englishman must be, and was, roused to a bold declaration and active maintenance of his opinions. Of these, our author, strenuously engaged in them himself, undertook to be the critical historian, and can any one expect that, in so doing, he should be without one tint of prejudice ? If he had been so immaculate, he must have been more than man. It is true he undertook the task of his own accord, and as he himself tells us, " with a design to make both himself and his readers wiser and better, and to lay open the good and bad of all sides and parties as clearly and impartially as he himself understood it, and to represent things in their natural colours without art or disguise, without any regard to kindred or friends, to parties or inte- rests ; " therefore we have a right to expect of him the integral truth of which he had the knowledge ; we have a right to expect that he shall use no casuistry to defend what he knew to be wrong ; no attributing of motives that he knew were not the actuating ones ; an equal freedom and candour when speaking of the living and the dead ; an obedience to the consciousness, to use our author's own words, " that a lie in history is a much greater sin than a lie in common discourse." We have a right to expect all this of Burnet, but we have no right to require that he shall never be mistaken, either in his facts or his inferences ; and are too totally of a wrong spirit to be able to judge of his merits, if we attribute all his errors to a wish to deceive. Let it be confessed that he is often mistaken, often prejudiced in his conclusions ; yet there is no well-regulated mind that has studied the history of his period will dissent from the conclusion of Dr. Routh, the editor of the Oxford edition of this work, that " his history is one which will never lose its importance, but will continue to furnish materials for other historians, and to be read by those who wish to derive their • knowledge of facts from the first source? of information. The accuracy of his narration has often been attacked with vehemence, and often, it must be confessed, with success ; but not so often as to overthrow the general credit of his work. On the contrary, it has, in many •In the course of the preceding pages the editor Las opinions there expressed — unconsciously, because he has for quoted from some very able " Remarks upon Bishop Bur- years entirely coincided with them. From the same writer net's History of his own Times," published in a praise- we may expect fora still more extended tribute to Burnet's worthy quarterly journal called " The Analyst.'' In other merit, instances the editor finds he has unconsciously adopted the INTRODUCTION. xv instances, been defended ; and time has already evinced the truth of certain records which rested on his single authority." Occasionally he is wrong in his dates ; and his calumniators, with a logic most consonant with their other misprisions, have thence concluded that the facts connected with them are also false. Where these errors occur, those best acquainted with his work will perceive that they generally are owing to his following the consequences of an event in one connected narrative. Sometimes he is absolutely wrong ; but if he is to be dismissed without mitiga- tion, as unworthy of any credit for these mistakes, what is to be the fate of Clarendon ? Clarendon rarely gives the chronology of his history, and repeatedly reverses the order of his events, if not designedly, always with a most happy effect, in screening the errors of those whom he wished to be in the right. It is but fair to examine the characters and works of those who most prominently attacked our author. Mr. Bevil Higgons led the van with his " Historical and Critical Remarks on Bishop Burnet's History of his own Times." Mr. Higgons was a firm adherent to James the Second ; retired with him, and died in exile ; he must therefore have been liable to the most illiberal prejudices against our author. That he was infected with them needs no other proof than the perusal of his work. I have not a fear of contradiction when I state, that no volume in our language exists so full of unsubstantiated assertions, and groundless abuse. One extract will suffice to enable the reader to estimate the credit due to this Aristarchus. He commences by saying, that Burnet's work contains " such an uninterrupted series of untruths as will astonish ; not mistakes proceeding from negligence or human infirmity, but from a corrupt design to impose on posterity ; not from misinformation or error of judgment, but from a deliberate act of the will, what the logicians call a volition to do mischief, by not only misrepresenting matters of fact, and setting them in a false light, but positive assertions of several things which he must have known in his conscience to be absolutely contrary to truth ; so that, if we may judge by the whole tenor of the book, we may venture to affirm that nothing can equal his insincerity but his malice ; and, if possible, exceed both, but his vanity." Whatever errors Mr. Higgons succeeded in pointing out have been noticed in the notes to this edition; their extreme deficiency in number arid importance prove the virulence of the critic who could introduce them with a malevolence like the preceding. Dr. John Cockburn was the author of " A Specimen of some free and impartial Remarks on Public Affairs and particular Persons, especially relating to Scotland, occasioned by Dr. Burnet's History of his own Times." He was an episcopalian, and, like Mr. Higgons, attached to the fortunes of James the Second, whom he followed into exile. This gave rise to " A Vindication " of Dr. Burnet, and this Vindication called forth " A Defence of Dr. Cockburn." An anonymous work appeared about the same time, entitled " A Review of Bishop Burnet's History of his own Times, particularly his Characters and secret Memoirs, with critical Remarks showing the Partiality, Inconsistency, and Defects of that Political History." Mr. Lawrence Braddon in 1725 published a pamphlet entitled " Bishop Burnet's History charged with great Partiality and Misrepresentations, to make the present and future Ages believe that the earl of Essex in 1683 murdered himself." But the memory of the earl is here vindicated, and it is proved that his lordship was murdered the third morning after his confine- ment. Mr. Braddon in 1683 was prosecuted and fined 2,000/., and ordered to give security for his good behaviour, during life, for endeavouring by lawful means to discover this murder, and he was imprisoned five years, before the Revolution discharged him. In 1688 xvi INTRODUCTION. and 89, Mr. Braddon prosecuted that inquiry before a secret committee of lords, and nearly sixty witnesses were examined, of which examinations an abstract is here published ; the reasons the lords came to no resolution ; and observations upon the supposed poisoning of Charles the Second." This condensation of the title-page may serve as the table of its contents. Having read the evidence given by Mr. Braddon, I cannot but conclude that there are justifications for the suspicion that the earl was murdered ; but on the other hand there are many considerations which render it very improbable. The evidence on either side is too extended to be even epitomised ; the reader who wishes for further information must consult the statements in Mr. Braddon's book, the evidence at his trial, &c. ; and, after having done so, will probably conclude, with the editor, that the case is at present incapable of decision either way. Some further notice will be made of this affair in a future page. The earl of Lansdowne in 1732 attacked our author's work, in " A Letter to the Author (Mr. Oldmixon) of the Reflections, Historical and Political, &c." This was replied to by the bishop's son, Thomas, who was the author of the life usually prefixed to this work, and from which extracts have been given. These, and others, only assail our author upon certain detached statements ; granting the entire of which to be wrong, the work will still remain, as a whole, among the most impartial and most correct of our national histories. THE HISTORY OF MY OWN TIMES BOOK J. A SUMMARY RECAPITULATION OF THE STATE OF AFFAIRS IN SCOTLAND, BOTH IN CHURCH AND STATE; FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE TROUBLES, TO THE RESTORATION OF KING CHARLES THE SECOND, 1660. HE mischiefs of civil wars are so great and lasting, and the effects of them branching out by many accidents, that were not thought on at first, much less intended, into such mischievous consequences, that I have thought it an inquiry that might be of great use both to prince and people, to look carefully into the first beginnings and occasions of them, to observe their progress, and the errors of both hands, the provocations that were given, and the jealousies that were raised by these, together with the excesses into which both sides have run by turns. And though the wars be over long ago, yet since they have left among us so many seeds of lasting feuds and animosities, which upon every turn are apt to ferment and to break out anew, it wTill be an useful as well as a pleasant inquiry to look back to the first original of them, and to observe by what degrees and accidents they gathered strength, and at last broke forth into a flame. The Reformation of Scotland was popular and parliamentary. The crown was during that time, either on the head of a queen that was absent, or of a king that was an infant. During his minority, matters were carried on by the several regents so as was most agreeable to the prevailing humour of the nation. But when king James grew to be of age, he found two parties in the kingdom. The one was, of those who wished well to the interest of the queen his mother, then a prisoner in England. These were either professed papists, or men, believed to be indifferent as to all religions. The rest were her inveterate enemies, zealous for the reformation, and fixed in a dependence on the crown of England, and in a jealousy of France. When that king saw that those who were most in his interests were likewise jealous of his authority, and apt to encroach upon it, he harkened first to the insinuations of his mother's party, who were always infusing in him a jealousy of these his friends ; saying, that by ruining his mother, and setting him in her room while a year old, they had ruined monarchy, and made the crown subject and precarious; and had put him in a very unnatural posture, of being seised of his mother's crown while she was in exile and a prisoner ; adding, that he was but a king in name, the power being in the hands of those, who were under the management of the queen of England. Their insinuations would have been of less force, if the house of Guise, who were his cousin germans, had not been engaged in great designs, of transferring the crown of France from the house of Bourbon to themselves ; in order to which it was necessary to embroil England, and to draw the king of Scotland into their interests. So under the pretence of keeping up the old alliances between France ?rid Scotland, they sent creatures of their own tc 2 A SUMMARY OF AFFAIRS be ambassadors there ; and they also sent a graceful young man, who, as he was the king's nearest kinsman by his father, was of so agreeable a temper that he became his favourite, and was made by him duke of Lenox. He was known to be a papist, though he pretended he changed his religion, and became in profession a protestant *. The court of England discovered all these artifices of the Guisians, who were then the most implacable enemies of the Reformation, and were managing all that train of plots against queen Elizabeth, that in conclusion proved fatal to the queen of Scots. And when the English ministers saw the inclinations of the young king lay so strongly that way, that all their applications to gain him were ineffectual, they infused such a jealousy of him into all their party in Scotland, that both nobility and clergy were much alarmed at it. But king James learnt early that piece of king-craft, of disguising, or at least denying every thing that was observed in his behaviour that gave offence. The main instance in which the French management appeared, was that he could not be prevailed on to enter into any treaty of marriage. It was not safe to talk of marrying a papist ; and as long as the duke of Guise lived, the king, though then three and twenty, and the only person of his family, would harken to no proposition for marrying a Protestant. But when the duke of Guise was killed at Blois, and that Henry the third was murdered soon after, so that Henry the fourth came in his room, king James was no more in a French management : so presently after he married a daughter of Denmark, and ever after that lie. was wholly managed by queen Elizabeth and her ministers. I have seen many letters among Walsingham's papers that discover the commerce between the house of Guise and him t : but the most valuable of these is a long paper of instructions to one Sir Richard Wigmore, a great man for hunting, and for all such sports, to which king James was out of measure addicted. The queen affronted him publicly : upon which he pretended he could live no longer in England, and, therefore, withdrew to Scotland. But all this was a contrivance of Walsingham's, who thought him a fit person to get into that king's favour : so that affront was designed to give him the more credit. He was very particularly instructed in all the proper methods to gain upon the king's confidence, and to observe and give an account of all he saw in him ; which he did very faithfully. By these instructions it appears that Walsingham thought that King was either inclined to turn papist, or to be of no religion. J And when the court of England saw that they could not depend on him, they raised all possible opposition to him in Scotland, infusing strong jealousies into those who were enough inclined to receive them. This is the great defect that runs through archbishop Spotiswood's history, where much of the rude opposition that king met with, particularly from the assemblies of the kirk, is set forth ; but the true ground of all the jealousies they were possessed with, is sup- pressed by him. After his marriage they studied to remove these suspicions all that was possible ; and he granted the kirk all the laws they desired, and got his temporal authority to be better established than it was before : yet as the jealousies of his fickleness in religion were never quite removed, so they gave him many new disgusts : they wrought " Tliis was Esm£ Stuart, Lord d'Aubign£, in France. Elizabeth. In that capacity he only carried letters, tiiey According to Robertson, he was the earliest, best beloved, never trusting him to be their representative. Sir Anthony and most deserving, though not most able of James's Wcklon says, he was a native of England, probably of favourites. Honours were poured upon him with the Cheshire, and an honest free-hearted man, but ill- accustomed rapidity and profusion. Within a few days educated. He told Weldon, that he never came to deliver after his first appearance at Court he was created Lord letters to the Queen, without being placed in the ante- Abcrbrothic, and soon were added to this the titles of room, in such a situation that he could see her dancing Earl and Duke of Lenox, with the offices of Governor to the music of a fiddle. This was done that he might of Dumbarton Castle, Captain of the Guard, first Lord of tell his master how little likely he was to come to the the Bed chamber, and Lord High Chamberlain. Bui-net English crown. When Sir Roger Aston came from seems to have erred when he coincided in the popular James to the English council upon the death of the Scottish belief that the Duke died a papist. Spotiswood Queen, they courteously inquired how he was, to which and Caldcrwood agree that on his death-bed, when the he replied, " Even, my lords, like a poor man, who after hypocrite is always detected, he declined the attendance wandering above forty years in a wilderness and barren of the papal priests, and professed that he died in the soil, am now arrived at the Land of Promise." He communion of the Scottish Church. -was made Gentleman of the Bedchamber, Master of the •f* That is, between the house of Guise and King James. "Wardrobe, and was always much courted as having great J Sir Roger Aston, King James's barber, was the only influence over his master. He left his daughters very person employed as a messenger from that King to Queen lame fortunes. Weldou's Court of James, p. 5. BEFORE THE RESTORATION. 3 in him a most inveterate hatred of presbytery, and of the pov/er of the kirk ; and he, fearing an opposition in his succeeding to the crown of England from the papist party, which, though it had little strength in the House of Commons, yet was very great in the House of Lords, and was very considerable in all the northern parts, and among the body of the people, employed several persons who were known to be papists though they complied outwardly. The chief of these were Elphinston, secretary of state, whom he made lord Balmerinoch ; and Seaton, afterwards chancellor and earl of Dunfermline. By their means he studied to assure the papists that he would connive at them. A letter was also written to the pope by him giving assurance of this, which when it became to be published by Bellarmin, upon the prosecution of the recusants after the discovery of the gunpowder plot, Balmerinoch did affirm, that he out of zeal to the king's service got his hand to it, having put it in the bundle of papers that were signed in course, without the king's knowing any thing of it. Yet when that discovery drew no other severity but the turning him out of office, and the passing a sentence condemning him to die for it (which was presently pardoned, and he was after a short confinement restored to his liberty), all men believed that the king knew of the letter, and that the pretended confession of the secretary was only collusion, to lay the jealousies of the king's favouring popery, which still hung upon him, notwithstanding his writing on the Revelation, and his affecting to enter on all occasions into controversy, asserting in particular that the pope was antichrist. As he took these methods to manage the popish party, he was much more careful to secure to himself the body of the English nation. Cecil, afterwards earl of Salisbury, secretary to queen Elizabeth, entered into a particular confidence with him : and this was managed by his ambassador Bruce, a younger brother of a noble family in Scotland, who carried the matter with such address and secrecy, that all the great men of England, without knowing of one another's doing it, and without the queen's suspecting any thing concerning it, signed in writing an engagement to assert and stand by the king of Scots' right of succession. This great service was rewarded by making him master of the rolls, and a peer of Scotland : and as the king did raise Cecil and his friends to the greatest posts and dignities, so ho raised Bruce's family here in England. When that king came to the crown of England, he discovered his hatred to the Scottish kirk on many occasions, in which he gratified his resentment without consulting his interests. He ought to have put his utmost strength to the finishing what he but faintly begun for the union of both kingdoms, which was lost by his unreasonable partiality, in pretending that Scotland ought to be considered in this union as the third part of the isle of Great Britain, if not more. So high a demand ruined the design. But when that failed, he should then have studied to keep the affections of that nation firm to him : and certainly he, being secure of that kingdom, might have so managed matters, as to have prevented that disjointing which happened afterwards both in his own reign, and more tragically in his son's. He thought to effect this by his profuse bounty to many of the nobility of that kingdom, and to his domestic servants : but as most of these settling in England were of no further use to him in that design, so his setting up episcopacy in Scotland, and his constant aversion to the kirk, how right soever it might be in itself, was a great error in policy ; for the poorer that kingdom was, it was both the more easy to gain them, and the more dangerous to offend them. So the terror which the affections of the Scotch nation might have justly given the English was soon lost, by his engaging the whole government to support that, which was then very con- trary to the bent and genius of the nation. But though he set up bishops, he had no revenues to give them, but what he was to purchase for them. During his minority all the tithes and the church lands were vested in the crown : but this was only in order to the granting them away to the men that bore the chief sway. It is true, when he came of age, he, according to the law of Scotland, passed a general revocation of all that had been done in his infancy : and by this he could have resumed all those grants. He, and after him his son, succeeded in one part of his design : for, by act of parliament a court was erected that was to examine and sequester a third part of the tithes in every parish, and so make a competent provision out of them to those who served the cure ; which had been reserved in the great alienation for the service of the 4 A SUMMARY OF AFFAIRS church. This was carried at first to a proportion of about thirty pounds a year, and was afterwards in his son's time raised to about fifty pounds a year; which, considering the plenty, and the way of living in that country, is a very liberal provision, and is equal in value to thrice that sum in the southern parts of England. In this he had both the clergy and the body of the people on his side. But he could not so easily provide for the bishops : they were at first forced to hold their former cures with some small addition. But as they assumed at their first setting up, little more authority than that of a constant president of the presbyters, so they met with much rough opposition. The king intended to carry on a conformity in matters of religion with England, and he begun to buy in from the grantees many of the estates that belonged to the bishoprics. It was also enacted, that a form of prayer should be drawn for Scotland : and the king was authorised to appoint the habits in which the divine offices were to be performed. Some of the chief holy-days were ordered to be observed. The sacrament was to be received kneeling, and to be given to the sick. Confirmation was enacted : as was also the use of the cross in baptism. These things were first past in general assemblies, which were composed of bishops, and the deputies chosen by the clergy, who sat all in one house : and in it th^y reckoned the bishops only as single votes. Great opposition was made to all these steps : and the whole force of the government was strained to carry elections to those meetings, or to take off those who were chosen ; in which it was thought that no sort of practice was omitted. It was pre- tended that some were frighted, and others were corrupted. The bishops themselves did their part very ill. They generally grew haughty ; they neglected their functions, and were often at court, and lost all esteem with the people. Some few that were stricter and more learned did lean so grossly to popery, that the heat and violence of the reformation became the main subject of their sermons and discourses. King James grew weary of this opposition, or was so apprehensive of the ill effects it might have, that, what through sloth or fear, and what by reason of the great disorder into which his ill conduct brought his affairs in England in his latter years, he went no further in his designs on Scotland. He had three children. His eldest, prince Henry, was a prince of great hopes ; but so very little like his father, that he was rather feared than loved by him. He was so zealous a protestant, that, when his father was entertaining propositions of marrying him to popish princesses, once to the archduchess, and at another time to a daughter of Savoy, he, in a letter that he wrote to the king on the twelfth of that October in which he died, (the original of which Sir William Cook shewed me) desired, that if his father married him that way, it might be with the youngest person of the two, of whose conversion he might have hope, and that any liberty she might be allowed for her religion might be in the privatest manner possible. Whether this aversion to popery hastened his death or not, I cannot tell. Colonel Titus assured me that he had from king Charles the first's own mouth, that he was well assured he was poisoned by the earl of Somerset's means *. It is certain, that from the time of the gunpowder plot, king James was so struck with the terror of that danger he was then so near, that ever after he had no mind to provoke the Jesuits ; for he saw what they were capable of. And since I name that conspiracy which the papists in our days have had the impudence to deny, and to pretend it was an artifice of Cecil's to engage some desperate men into a plot, which he managed so that he could discover it when he pleased, I will mention what I * It is certain that King James thought himself from this ill opinion. He was subsequently proved to be eclipsed by his son, and that the latter, as Wilson says, guilty of another murder, from the penalty of which crime was "too high mounted in the people's love;" this jea- James released him and his still more guilty wife. Prince lousy was notorious, and ought to have prevented the king Henry had openly expressed his mortal detestation towards omitting any of the usual demonstrations of gri(;f. This him. Wilson, one of the most unprejudiced of the contem- however was done, and by royal mandate, directions were porary annalists, sanctions the charge (History of James, given that " no man should appear in the court in mourn- 62). Weldon does the same (Court of James, 84, 85). It ing." The excuse for this was that the elector palatine was insinuated in a sermon preached at St. James's ; and •was here to marry the princess Elizabeth. There is not hinted at by sir Francis Bacon in open court (Well- the remotest suspicion entertainable that the king rejoiced wood's Memoirs, by Maseres, 21). The post-mortem at, much less that he accelerated, his son's death. But report of the physicians neither confirms or refutes the his favourite, the earl of Somerset, is not so free charge. Rapin believed it. BEFORE THE RESTORATION. myself saw, and had for some time in my possession. Sir Everard Digby died for being of the conspiracy ; he was the father of the famous sir Kenelm Digby. The family being ruined upon the death of sir Kenelm's son, when the executors were looking out for writings to make out the titles of the estates they were to sell, they were directed by an old servant to a cupboard that was very artificially hid, in which some papers lay that she had observed sir Kenelm was oft reading. They looking into it, found a velvet bag, within which there were two other silk bags, (so carefully were those relics kept), and there was within these a col- lection of all the letters that sir Everard wrote during his imprisonment. In these he expresses great trouble because he heard some of their friends blamed their undertaking ; he highly magnifies it, and says if he had many lives he would willingly have sacrificed them all in carrying it on. In one paper he says, they had taken that care that there were not above two or three worth saving, to whom they had not given notice to keep out of the way ; and in none of those papers does he express any sort of remorse for that which he had been engaged in, and for w^liich he suffered. Upon the discovery of that plot there was a general prosecution of all papists set on foot : but king James was very uneasy at it • which was much increased by what sir Dudly Carlton told him upon his return from Spain, where he had been ambassador ; (which I had from the lord Hollis, who said to me that sir Dudly Carlton told it to himself, and was much troubled when he saw it had an effect contrary to what he had intended.) When he came home, he found the king at Theobald's hunting in a very careless and unguarded manner : and upon that, in order to the putting him on a more careful looking to himself, he told the king he must either give over that way of hunting, or stop another hunting that he was engaged in, which was priest hunting : for he had intelligence in Spain that the priests were comforting themselves with this, that if lie went on against them they would soon get rid of him : queen Elizabeth was a woman of form, and was always so well attended, that all their plots against her failed, and were never brought to any effect : but a prince who was always in woods or forests would be easily overtaken. The king sent for him in private to inquire more particularly into this : and he saw it had made a great impression on him : but wrought otherwise than he intended. For the king, who resolved to gratify his humour in hunting, and in a careless and irregular way of life, did immediately order all that prosecution to be let fall. I have the minutes of the council books of the year 1606, which are full of orders to discharge and transport priests, sometimes ten in a day. From thence to his dying day he continued always writing and talking against popery, but acting for it. He married his only daughter to a protestant prince, one of the most zealous and sincere of them all, the elector palatine ; upon which a great revolution happened in the affairs of Germany. The eldest branch of the house of Austria retained some of the impressions that their father Maximilian II. studied to infuse into them, who as he was certainly one of the best and wisest princes of these latter ages, so he was unalterably fixed in bis opinion against per- secution for matters of conscience : his own sentiments were so very favourable to the pro- testant doctrine, that he was thought inwardly theirs. His brother Charles of Gratz was on the other hand wholly managed by the Jesuits, and was a zealous patron of theirs, and as zealously supported by them. Rodolph and Matthias reigned one after another, but without issue. Their brother Albert was then dying in Flanders : so Spain with the popish interest joined to advance Ferdinand, the son of Charles of Gratz : and he forced Matthias, to resign the crown of Bohemia to him, and got himself to be elected king. But his government became quickly severe : he resolved to extirpate the protestants, and began to break through the privileges that were secured to them by the laws of that kingdom. This occasioned a general insurrection, which was followed by an assembly of the States, who together with those of Silesia, Moravia and Lusatia joined in deposing Ferdinand : and they offered their crown, first to the duke of Saxony who refused it, and then to the elector palatine who accepted of it, being encouraged to it by his two uncles, Maurice, prince of Orange and the duke of Bouillon. But he did not ask the advice of king James : he only gave him notice of it when he had accepted the offer. Here was the most probable occasion that has been offered since the reformation for its full establishment. The English nation was much inclined to support it : and it was expected that so near a 6 A SUMMARY OF AFFAIRS conjunction might have prevailed on the king: but he had an invincible aversion to war: and was so possessed of the opinion of a divine right in all kings, that he could not bear that even an elective and limited king should be called in question by his subjects : so he would never acknowledge his son-in-law king, nor give him any assistance for the support of his new dignity. And though it was also reckoned on, that France would enter into any design that should bring down the house of Austria, and Spain by consequence, yet even that was diverted by the means of De Luynes ; a worthless but absolute favourite, whom the archduchess Isabella, princess of the Spanish Netherlands gained, to oblige the king* into a neutrality by giving him the richest heiress then in Flanders, the daughter of Peguiney, left to her disposal, whom he married to his brother. Thus poor Frederick was left without any assistance. The jealousy that the Lutherans had of the ascendant that the Calvinists might gain by this accession had an unhappy share in the coldness which all the princes of that confession shewed towards him ; though Saxony only declared for Ferdinand, who likewise engaged the duke of Bavaria at the head of a catholic league to maintain his interests. Maurice prince of Orange had embroiled Holland by the espousing the controversy about the decrees of God, in opposition to the Arminian party, and by erecting a new and illegal court by the authority of the States general to judge of the affairs of the province of Holland ; which was plainly contrary to their constitution, by which every province is a sovereignty within itself, not at all subordinate to the States general, who act only as plenipotentiaries of the several provinces to maintain their union and their common concerns. By that assembly Barnevelt was condemned and executed : Grotius and others were condemned to perpetual imprisonment : and an assembly of the ministers of the several provinces met at Dort by the same authority, and condemned and deprived the Arminians. Maurice's enemies gave it out that he managed all this on design to make himself master of the provinces, and to put those who were like to oppose him out of the way. But though this seems a wild and groundless imagination, and not possible to be compassed, yet it is certain that he looked on Barnevelt and his party as men who were so jealous of him and of a military power, that as they had forced the truce with Spain, so they would be very unwilling to begin a new war ; though the disputes about Juliers and Cleves had almost engaged them, and the truce was now near expiring ; at the end of which he hoped, if delivered from the opposition that he might look for from that party, to begin the war anew. By these means there was a great fermentation over all the provinces, so that Maurice was not then in condition to give the elected king any considerable assistance ; though indeed he needed it much, for his conduct was very weak. He affected the grandeur of a regal court, and the magnificence of a crowned head too early : and his queen set up some of the gay diversions that she had been accustomed to in her father's court, such as balls and masks, which very much disgusted the good Bohemians, who thought that a revolution made on the account of religion ought to have put on a greater appearance of seriousness and simplicity. These particulars I had from the children of some who belonged to that court. The elected king was quickly overthrown, and driven, not only out of those his new domi- nions, but likewise out of his hereditary countries : he fled to Holland, where he ended his days. I will go no farther in a matter so well known as king James's ill conduct, in the whole series of that war, and that unheard of practice of sending his only son through France into Spain, of which the relations we have are so full that I can add nothing to them. I will only here tell some particulars with relation to Germany, that Fabricius, the wisest divine I knew among them, told me he had from Charles Lewis the elector palatine's own mouth. He said, Frederick II. who first reformed the palatinate, whose life is so curiously written by Thomas Hubert of Liege, resolved to shake off popery, and to set up Lutheranism in his country. But a counsellor of his said to him, that the Lutherans would always depend chiefly on the house of Saxony ; so it would not become him who was the first elector to be only the second in the party : it was more for his dignity to become a Calvinist : he would be the head of that party : it would give him a great interest in Switzerland, and make the huguenots of France and in the Netherlands depend on him. He was by that determined * It is plain here must be meant by king the king of France. BEFORE THE RESTORATION. 7 to declare for the Helvetian confession. But upon the ruin of his family the duke of New- burgh had an interview with the elector of Brandenburgh about their concerns in Juliers and Cleves : and he persuaded that elector to turn Calvinist ; for since their family was fallen, nothing would more contribute to raise the other than the espousing that side, which would naturally come under his protection : but he added, that for himself he had turned papist since his little principality lay so near both Austria and Bavaria. This that elector told with a sort of pleasure, when he made it appear that other princes had no more sense of religion than he himself had. Other circumstances concurred to make king James's reign inglorious. The States having borrowed great sums of money of queen Elizabeth, they gave her the Brill and Flushing, with some other places of less note, in pawn till the money should be repaid. Soon after his coming to the crown of England he entered into secret treaties with Spain, in order to the forcing the States to a peace : one article was, that if they were obstinate he would deliver these places to the Spaniards. When the truce was made, Barnevelt, though he had promoted it, yet knowing the secret article, he saw they were very unsafe while the keys of Holland and Zealand were in the hands of a prince, who might perhaps sell them, or make an ill use of them : so he persuaded the States to redeem the mortgage by repaying the money that England had lent, for which these places were put into their hands : and he camo over himself to treat about it. King James, who was profuse upon his favourites and servants, was delighted with the prospect of so much money ; and immediately, without calling a par- liament to advise with them about it, he did yield to the proposition. So the money was paid, and the places were evacuated. But his profuseness drew two other things upon him, which broke the whole authority of the crown, and the dependence of the nation upon it. The crown had a great estate over all England, which was all let out upon leases for years, and a small rent was reserved. So most of the great families of the nation were the tenants of the crown, and a great many boroughs were depending on the estates so held. The renewal of these leases brought in fines to the crown, and to the great officers : besides that the fear of being denied a renewal kept all in a dependence on the crown. King James obtained of his parliament a power of granting, that is selling, those estates for ever, with the reserve of the old quit-rent : and all the money raised by this was profusely squandered away. Another main part of the regal authority was the wards, which anciently the crown took into its own management. Our kings were, according to the first institution, the guardians of the wards. They bred them up in their courts, and disposed of them in marriage as they thought fit. Afterwards they compounded, or forgave them, or gave them to some branches of the family, or to provide for the younger children. But they proceeded in this very gently : and the chief care after the reformation was to breed the wards protestants. Still all were under a great dependence by this means. Much money was not raised this way ; but families were often at mercy, and were used according to their behaviour. King James granted these generally to his servants and favourites ; and they made the most of them. So th?t what was before a dependence on the crown, and was moderately compounded for, became then a most exacting oppression, by which several families were ruined. This went on in king Charles's time in the same method. Our kings thought they gave little when they dis- posed of a ward, because they made little of them. All this raised such an outcry, that Mr. Pierpoint at the restoration gathered so many instances of these, and represented them so effectually to that house of commons that called home king Charles the second, that he per- suaded them to redeem themselves by an offer of excise, which indeed produces a much greater, revenue, but took away the dependence in which all families were held by the dread of leaving their heirs exposed to so great a danger. Pierpoint valued himself to me upon this service he did his country, at a time when things were so little considered on either hand, that the court did not seem to apprehend the value of what they parted with, nor the country of what they purchased *. * Mr. Picrpoint seems to have arrogated too much the transaction was only that of a general supporter of the to himself, when he considered he was the means of ob- abolition. He was not even the originator of the propo- taining the abolition of the Court of Wards. From the sition that the revenue to the crown in exchange for it ournals of the house of commons, it appears his part of should be secured by an «xcis* duty upon ale, &c. Sir a A SUMMARY OF AFFAIRS Besides these public actings king James suffered much in the opinion of all people by his strange way of using one of the greatest men of that age, sir Walter Raleigh ; against whom the proceedings were at first much censured, but the last part of them was thought both barbarous and illegal. The whole business of the earl of Somerset's rise and fall, of the countess of Essex and Overbury, the putting the inferior persons to death for that infamous poisoning, and the sparing the principals, both the earl of Somerset and his lady, were so odious and inhuman, that it quite sunk the reputation of a reign, that on many other accounts was already much exposed to contempt and censure ; which was the more sensible, because it succeeded such a glorious and happy one. King James in the end of his reign was become weary of the duke of Buckingham, who treated him with such an air of insolent contempt, that he seemed at last resolved to throw him off, he could not think of taking the load of government on himself, and so resolved to bring the earl of Somerset again into favour, as that lord reported it to some from whom I had it. He met with him in the night in the gardens at Theobalds ; two bed-chamber men were only in the secret : the king embraced him tenderly and with many tears : the earl of Somerset believed the secret was not well kept ; for soon after the king was taken ill with some fits of an ague and died of it. My father was then in London, and did very much suspect an ill practice in the matter ; but perhaps doctor Craig, my mother's uncle, who was one of the king's physicians, possessed him with these apprehensions ; for he was disgraced for saying he believed that the king was poisoned*. It is certain no king could die less lamented or less esteemed than he was. This sunk the credit of the bishops of Scotland, who as they were his creatures, so they were obliged to a great dependence on him, and were thought guilty of gross and abject flattery towards him. His reign in England was a continued course of mean practices. The first condemnation of sir Walter Raleigh was very black ; but the executing him after so many years, and after an employment that had been given him, was counted a barbarous sacrificing him to the Spaniards. The rise and fall of the earl of Somerset, and the swift progress of the duke of Buckingham's greatness, were things that exposed him to the censure of all the world. I have seen the originals of about twenty letters he wrote to the prince and that duke while they were in Spain, which shew a meanness as well as a fondness that render him very contemptible t. The great figure the crown of England had made in queen Elizabeth's time, who had rendered herself the arbiter of Christendom, and was the wonder of the age, was so much eclipsed, if not quite darkened during this reign, that king James was become the scorn of the age ; and while hungry writers flattered him out of all measure at home, he was despised by all abroad as a pedant without true judgment, courage, or steadiness, subject to his favourites, and delivered up to the counsels or rather the corruption of Spain. Henry Cholmley proposed the abolition, (Nov. 19, 1660) the duke and his mother with giving the king a white and Sir Samuel Jones moved that the recompensing reve- powder, and applying a plaister to his breast which caused nue be raised by the excise. The grievance had been his death. Sir A. Weldon, in his " Court and Charac- long felt, and as early as 1620 the abolition had been ter of king James," says that the king on his death-bed proposed, though without success. Sir Edward Coke, declared that it was the pLiister and powder had injured after detailing the proposition and its failure, adds, " We him. Dr. Goodman in his " Aulicus Coquinarise/' thought good to remember this, hoping (hope is the though he denies that the plaister was poisoned, mentions dream of a waking man) that so good a motion will nothing concerning the powder, and confesses that the some time (by the grace of God) by authority of parlia- physicians Dr. Lister, Dr. Chambers, arid others, " were ment, one way or other take effect and be established." much offended that any one durst assume such boldnesr. (4th Institute, 203.) His hope was accomplished dur- without their consents,'' as to apply a plaister, and imme- ing the interregnum, and even before, in the year 1645, diately removed it. Dr. Ramsay is said to have openly during the contest between Charles and the parliament, accused the duke of poisoning the king, before a cominit- These being considered illegal transactions, the act intro- tee of the house of commons (sir E. Peyton's " Divine duced by sir H. Cholmley, (12 Car. 2, c. 24,) com- Catastrophe of the House of Stuart.") These were all pleted the abolition. contemporary and variously biassed authorities ; as such * A curious tract was published in 1642, entitled they are none of them entitled to implicit confidence. "Strange Apparitions, &c.," pretending to be a conver- Wilson, also -v contemporary and more unprejudiced, did sation between the ghosts of king James, the duke of not know to which opinion to incline. — Memoirs of Buckingham, the marquis of Hamilton, and Dr. George Selden and hisTimes, p. 25. Eglisham, the king's physician. In this the duke f Many of these addressed to " Baby Charles," and is openly charged with murdering the king, and that Dr. his " Dog'Steenie," are among the MSS. in the British Eglisham had accused him of the crime to king Charles Museum. The following note to the king will be suffi- nnd the parliament, but was, in consequence, obliged to cient to show the ridiculous fiiniiliarity they practised fly into Holland, where he was murdered. He charged towards each other : — BEFORE THE RESTORATION. i) The puritans gained credit, as the king and the bishops lost it. They put on external appearances of great strictness and gravity : they took more pains in their parishes than those who adhered to the bishops, and were often preaching against the vices of the court ; for which they were sometimes punished, though very gently, which raised their reputation, and drew presents to them that made up their sufferings abundantly. They begun some par- ticular methods of getting their people to meet privately with them : and in these meetings they gave great vent to extemporary prayer, which was looked on as a sort of inspiration : and by these means they grew very popular. They were very factious and insolent ; and both in their sermons and prayers were always mixing severe reflections on their enemies. Some of them boldly gave out very many predictions ; particularly two of them who were held prophets, Davison and Bruce. Some of the things that they foretold came to pass : but my father, who knew them both, told me of many of their predictions, that he himself heard them throw out, which had no effect : but all these were forgotten, and if some more probable guessings which they delivered as prophecies were accomplished, these were much magnified. They were very spiteful against all those who differed from them ; and were wanting in no methods that could procure them either good usage, or good presents. Of this my father had great occasion to see many instances : for my great grand-mother, who was a very rich woman, and much engaged to them, was most obsequiously courted by them. Bruce lived concealed in her house for some years ; and they all found such advantages in their submissions to her, that she was counted for many years the chief support of the party ; her name was Rachel Arnot. She was daughter to sir John Arnot, a man in great favour, and lord treasurer's deputy. Her husband, Johnston, was the greatest merchant at that time ; and left her an estate of 2000 pounds a year, to be disposed of among his children as she pleased : and my father marrying her eldest grand-child, saw a great way into all the methods of the puritans. Gowry's conspiracy was by them charged on the king, as a contrivance of his to get rid of that earl, who was then held in great esteem; but my f ther, who had taken great pains to inquire into all the particulars of that matter, did always believe it was a real conspiracy. One thing, which none of the historians have taken any notice of, and might have induced the earl of Go wry to have wished to put king James out of the way, but in such a disguised manner that he should seem rather to have escaped out of a snare himself than to have laid one for the king, was this : upon the king's death he stood next to the suc- cession to the crown of England ; for king Henry the seventh's daughter that was married to king James the fourth did after his death marry Douglas, earl of Angus : but they could not agree : so a pre-contract was proved against him : upon which, by a sentence from Rome, the marriage was voided, with a clause in favour of the issue since born under a marriage de facto and bona fide. Lady Margaret Douglas was the child so provided for. I did peruse the original bull confirming the divorce. After that the queen dowager mar- ried one Francis Steward, and had by him a son, made lord Methuen by king James the fifth. In the patent he is called Prater noster uterinus. He had only a daughter, who was mother, or grandmother, to the earl of Gowry : so that by this he might be glad to put the king out of the way, so that he might stand next to the succession of the crown of England. He had a brother then a child, who when he grew up and found he could not carry the name of Ruthvcn, which, by an act of parliament made after this conspiracy, none might carry, he went and lived beyond sea ; and it was given out that he had the philosopher's stone. He had two sons who died without issue, and one daughter married to sir Anthony Vandyke, the famous picture drawer, whose children, according to his pedigree, stood very " DKAR DAD AND GOSSIP, your feet, for never none longed more to be in the arms "The chiefest advertisement of all we omitted in our of his mistress. So, craving your blessing, I end, other letter, which was to let you know how we like your u Your humble slave and dog, daughter, his wife, and my lady mistress. Without flat- " STEENIK. tery, I think there is not a sweeter creature in the world. " I have inclosed two or three letters of the Conde of Baby Charles himself, is so touched at the heart, that he Olivares to Gundemar, whereby you will judge of his confesses all he ever yet saw is nothing to her, and swears kind carefulness of your son.'1 that if he want her, there shall be blows. I shall lose (Endorsed,. no time in hastening the conjunction, in which I shall " For the best of Masters.'' please him, her, you, and myself most of all, in thereby This was written from Madrid, in the year 1623. It gettisg liberty to make the speedier haste to lay myself at is piescrved among the Harleian Manuscripts. 10 A SUMMARY OF AFFAIRS near to the succession of the crown. It was not easy to persuade the nation of the truth of that conspiracy ; for eight years before that time king James, on a secret jealousy of the earl of Murray, then esteemed the handsomest man of Scotland, set on the marquis of Huntly, who was his mortal enemy, to murder him ; and by a writing all in his own hand he promised to save him harmless for it. He set the house in which he was on fire : and the earl flying away was followed and murdered, and Huntley sent Gordon of Buckey with the news to the King ; soon after, all who were concerned in that vile fact were pardoned, which laid the king open to much censure. And this made the matter of Gowry to be the less believed. When king Charles succeded to the crown he was at first thought favourable to the puritans ; for his tutor and all his court were of that way ; and Dr, Preston, then the head of the party, came up in the coach from Theobalds to London with the king and the duke of Buckingham ; which being against the rules of the court gave great offence ; but it was said, the king was so overcharged with grief, that he wanted the comfort of so wise and so great a man. It was also given out that the duke of Buckingham offered Dr. Preston the great seal ; but he was wiser than to accept of it *. I will go no further into the beginning of that reign with relation to English affairs, which are fully opened by others. Only I will tell one particular which I had from the earl of Lothian, who was bred up in the court, and whose father, the earl of Ancram, was gentleman of the bedchamber, though himself was ever much hated by the king. He told me, that king Charles was much offended with king James's light and familiar way, which was the effect of hunting and drinking, on which occasions he was very apt to forget his dignity, and to break out into great indecen- cies ; on the other hand the solemn gravity of the court of Spain was more suited to his own temper, which was sullen even to a moroseness. This led him to a grave reserved deportment, in which he forgot the civilities and the affability that the nation naturally loved, to which they had been long accustomed ; nor did he in his outward deportment take any pains to oblige any persons whatsoever ; so far from that, he had such an ungracious way of shewing favour, that the manner of bestowing it was almost as mortifying as the favour was obliging. I turn now to the affairs of Scotland, which are but little known. The king resolved to carry on two designs that his father had set on foot, but had let the prosecution of them fall in the last years of his reign. The first of these was about the recovery of the tithes and church lands ; he resolved to prosecute his father's revocation, and to void all the grants made in his minority, and to create titular abbots as lords of * When the duke of Buckingham found his influence Charles the first. There is reason to think that Buck- with king James declining, he endeavoured to strengthen ingham was endeavouring to overreach the presbyterians, his interest and power by courting the anti-episcopalians, by this apparent leaning to their leader, thus obtaining To effect this he actually made overtures to them for a their support whilst it was desirable, and then to discard union of their efforts to subvert the church. Dr. Preston them. Dr. Preston, however, was as subtle a politician as held conferences with him upon the subject, and Racket the duke, and only appeared to be deceived for the purpose has related the arguments he employed to confirm the of advancing the interests of his sect. Reused to acknow- duke in his purposes. The lord keeper Williams had ledge to his friends, that he xised the duke as a tool, and imperfect information of these projects, and addressed found him to be as vile and profligate as any man could be. himself seriously to thwart them. He had an interview Dr. Preston was a native of Northamptonshire. He •with Dr. Preston, and tried, though in vain, to discover became successively D. D., fellow of Queen's College, the whole of the designs. When nil other addresses had Cambridge, chaplain to prince Charles, and master of "ailed, he attempted to overcome him by an appeal to his Emanuel College Cambridge. He was born in 1587, and interest and ambition, offering to resign the deanery of died in 1628. He was highly celebrated as a logician ; and Westminster in his favour, but, as Mr. Racket observes, this endowment first obtained him the patronage of Ring " the wily doctor did not believe him : for he came to James. In the course of one of his public disputations, «heat, not to be cheated ; so they parted unkindly.1' The he wittily observed, that a hound made syllogisms. " An f)rd keeper then had a conference with the duke, and the enthymeme, as he said, is a lawful syllogism, but dogs can «tter did not deny that he entertained the project of make them. A hound has the major proposition in nis tstablishing a presbyterial form of church government, mind. The hare is gone either this, or that way ; and adding, " I know not how you bishops may struggle, but smells out the minor with his nose, viz., she is not gone am much deluded if a great part of the knights and that way; and follows the conclusion. — Ergo, this way — 6urgesses would not be glad to see the alteration." But with open mouth." The king who delighted both in logic the lord keeper having a list of the house in his pocket, and hunting was highly pleased with this illustration; yet the went through it seriatim, and apparently convinced him conceit was not new, for it was borrowed from Montaigne, of his error in this respect; as well as diverted him from Hacket's Life of L. K. Williams, pt. i. 204 — Lans- his anti-episcopal design. Yet the duke continued the downe MSS. 932, 88 — Z)' Israeli's Curios, of Litera- patron of Dr. Preston, and even had him, as stated in the ture, second series, iii. 347.— darkens Lives Fuller's text, closely intimate with lumself, and the next monarch, Worthies^ &c. BEFORE THE RESTORATION. 11 parliament, but lords, as bishops, only for life. And that the two great families of Hamilton and Lenox might be good examples to the rest of the nation, he by a secret purchase, and with English money, bought the abbey of Aberbroth of the former, and the lordship of Glasgow of the latter, and gave these to the two archbishoprics. These lords made a shew of zeal after a good bargain, and surrendered them to the king. He also purchased several estates of less value to the several sees ; and all men who pretended to favour at court, offered their church lands to sale at a low rate. In the third year of his reign the earl of Nithisdale, then believed a papist, which he after- wards professed, having married a niece of the duke of Buckingham's, was sent down with a power to take the surrender of all church lands, and to assure all who did readily surrender, that the king would take it kindly, and use them all very well, bat that he would proceed with all rigour against those who would not submit their rights to his disposal. Upon his coming down, those who were most concerned in those grants met at Edinburgh, and agreed, that when they were called together, if no other argument did prevail to make the earl of Nithisdale desist, they would fall upon him and all his party in the old Scottish, manner, and knock them on the head. Primrose told me one of these lords, Belhaven of the name of Douglas, who was blind, bid them set him by one of the party, and he would make sure of one. So he was set next the earl of Dumfries : he was all the while holding him fast : and when the other asked him what he meant by that, he said, ever since the blindness was come on him he was in such fear of falling, that he could not help the holding fast to those who were next to him : he had all the while a poniard in his other hand, with which he had cer- tainly stabbed Dumfries if any disturbance had happened. The appearance at that time was so great, and so much heat was raised upon it, that the earl of Nithisdale would not open all his instructions, but came back to court, looking on the service as desperate : so a stop was put to it for some time. In the year 1633, the king came down in person to be crowned. In some conventions of the states that had been held before that, all the money that the king had asked was given , and some petitions were offered setting forth grievances, which those whom the king employed had assured them should be redressed ; but nothing was done, and oil was put off till the king should come down in person. His entry and coronation were managed with such mag- nificence, that the country suffered much by it, all was entertainment and show. When the parliament sat, the lords of the articles prepared an act declaring the royal prerogative, as it had been asserted by law, in the year 1606; to which an addition was made of another act passed in the year 1609, by which king James was empowered to prescribe apparel to church- men with their own consent. This was a personal thing to king James, in consideration of his great learning and experience, of which he had made no use during the rest of his reign. And in the year 1617, when he held a parliament there in person, an act was prepared by the lords of the articles, authorising all things that should thereafter be determined in ecclesiastical affairs by his majesty, with consent of a competent number of the clergy, to have the strength and power of a law. But the king either apprehended that great oppo- sition would be made to the passing the act, or that great trouble would follow on the execution of it. So when the rubric of the act was read, he ordered it to be suppressed, though passed in the articles. In this act of 1633 these acts of 1606 and 1609 were drawn into one. To this great opposition was made by the earl of Rothes, who desired the acts might be divided. But the king said it was now one act, and he must either vote for it, or against it. He said he was for the prerogative as much as any man, but that addition was contrary to the liber- ties of the church, and he thought no determination ought to be made in such matters without the consent of the clergy, at least without their being heard. The king bid him argue no more, but give his vote ; so he voted not content. Some few lords offered to argue, but the king stopped them, and commanded them to vote. Almost the whole commons voted in the negative ; so that the act was indeed rejected by the majority, which the king knew ; for he had called for a list of the numbers, and with his own pen had marked every man's vote : yet the clerk of register, who gathers and declares the votes, said it was carried in the affirmative. The earl of Rothes affirmed it went for the negative : so the king said, the clerk of register's declaration must be held good, unless the earl of Rothes would go to the 12 A SUMMARY OF AFFAIRS bar and accuse him of falsifying the record of parliament, which was capital : and in that case, if he should fail in the proof, he was liable to the same punishment : so he would not venture on that. Thus the act was published, though in truth it was rejected. The king expressed a high displeasure at all who had concurred in that opposition. Upon that the lords had many meetings. They reckoned that now all their liberties were gone, and a par- liament was but a piece of pageantry, if the clerk of register might declare as he pleased how the vote went, and that no scrutiny were allowed. Upon that Hague the king's solicitor, a zealous man of that party, drew a petition to be signed by the lords, and to be offered by them to the king, sett-ing forth all their grievances and praying redress : he shewed this to some of them, and among others to the lord Balmerinoch, who liked the main of it, but was for altering it in some particulars : he spoke of it to the earl of Rothes, in the presence of the earl of Cassilis and some others : none of them approved of it. The earl of Rothes carried it to the king; and told him, that there was a design to offer a petition in order to the explaining and justifying their proceedings, and that he had a copy to shew him : but the king would not look upon it, and ordered him to put a stop to it, for he would receive no such petition. The earl of Rothes told this to Balmerinoch : so the thing was laid aside ; only he kept a copy of it, and interlined it in some places with his own hand. While the king was in Scotland he erected a new bishopric at Edinburgh, and made one Forbes bishop, who was a very learned and pious man ; he had a strange faculty of preaching five or six hours at a time : his way of life and devotion was thought monastic, and his learning lay in antiquity ; he studied to be a reconciler between papists and pro- testants, leaning rather to the first, as appears by his Considerationes Modestce. He was a very simple man, and knew little of the world ; so he fell into several errors in conduct, but died soon after suspected of popery, which suspicion was increased by his son's turning papist. The king left Scotland much discontented, but resolved to prosecute the design of recovering the church lands : and sir Thomas Hope, a subtle lawyer, who was believed to understand that matter beyond all the men of his profession, though in all respects he was a zealous puritan, was made the king's advocate, upon his undertaking to bring all the church lands back to the crown ; yet he proceeded in that matter so slowly, that it was believed he acted in concert with the party that opposed it *. Enough was already done to alarm all that were possessed of church lands ; and they to engage the whole country in their quarrel took care to infuse it into all people, but chiefly into the preachers, that all was done to make way for popery. The winter after the king was in Scotland, Balmerinoch was thinking how to make the petition more acceptable : and in order to that, he shewed it to one Dunmoor, a lawyer in whom he trusted, and desired his opinion of it, and suffered him to carry it home with him, but charged him to shew it to no person, and to take no copy of it. He shewed it, Tinder a promise of secrecy, to one Hay of Naughton, and told him from whom he had it. Hay looking on the paper and seeing it a matter of some consequence, carried it to Spotiswood, archbishop of St. Andrew's ; who, apprehending it was going about for hands, was alarmed at it, and went immediately to London, beginning his journey as he often did on a Sunday, which was a very odious thing in that country. There are laws in Scotland loosely worded, that make it capital to spread lies of the king or his govern- ment, or to alienate his subjects from him. It was also made capital to know of any that do it, and not discover them : but this last was never once put in execution. The petition was thought within this act : so an order was sent down for committing lord Bal- merinoch. The reason of it being for some time kept secret, it was thought, was because ci his vote in parliament. But after some consultation, a special commission was sent down * The father of sir Thomas Hope was an Edinburgh nanters, who consulted him unreservedly. In despite of merchant, trading extensively with Holland, in which this, either to gain him as a friend, or to render him sus- country he subsequently resided, and married a lady, pected by the party to which he adhered, the king appointed named Jacqueline de Tott. Another son is believed to him a commissioner to the general assembly in 1643. have been the founder of the celebrated mercantile estab- He was an able lawyer, and his works, relative to the lishment of the Hopes at Amsterdam, laws of Scotand, are still valued. His youngest son, The appointment of sir Thomas, to be the king's advo- James, was ancestor of the Hopetoun family. He died cate, and his promotion to the dignity of a baronetcy took in the year 1646 Gen. Biograph. Diet. ac. pluce in 1G27. He certainly was attached to the cove- BEFORE THE RESTORATION. for the trial. In Scotland there is a couit for the trial of peers, distinct from the jury, \vho are to be fifteen, and the majority determine the verdict : the fact being only referred to the jury, or assize as they call it, the law is judged by the court : and if the majority of the jury are peers the rest may be gentlemen. At this time a private gentleman of the name of Steward was become so considerable that he was raised by several degrees to be made earl of Traquair and lord treasurer, and was in great favour ; but suffered afterwards such a reverse of fortune, that I saw him so low that he wanted bread, and was forced to beg ; and it was believed died of hunger. He was a man of great parts, but of too much craft : he was thought the capablest man for business, and the best speaker in that kingdom *. So he was charged with the care of lord Balmerinoch's trial : but when the ground of the pro- secution was known, Hague, who drew the petition, wrote a letter to the lord Balmerinoch, in which he owned that he drew the petition without any direction or assistance from him : and upon that he went over to Holland. The court was created by a special commission ; in the naming of judges there appeared too visibly a design to have that lord's life, for they were either very weak or very poor. Much pains were taken to have a jury ; in which so great partiality appeared, that when the lord Balmerinoch was upon his challenges, and excepted to the earl of Dumfries, for his having said that if he were of his jury, though he were as innocent as St. Paul, he would find him guilty ; some of the judges said, that was only a rash word : yet the king's advocate allowed the challenge, if proved, which was done. The next called on was the earl of Lauderdale, father to the duke of that title : with him the lord Balmerinoch had been long in enmity : yet, instead of challenging him, he said he was omni exceptwne major. It was long considered upon what the prisoner should be tried : for his hand interlining the paper, which did plainly soften it, was not thought evidence that he drew it, or that he was accessory to it : and they had no other proof against him. Nor could they from that infer that he was the divulger, since it did appear it was only shewed by him to a lawyer for counsel. So it was settled on to insist on this, that the paper tended to alienate the subjects from their duty to the king, and that he, knowing who was the author of it, did*not discover him ; which by law was capital. The court judged the paper to be seditious, and to be a lie of the king and his government : the other point was clear, that he knowing the author did not discover him. He pleaded for himself, that the statute for dis- covery had never been put in execution ; that it could never be meant but of matters that were notoriously seditious ; that till the court judged so he did not take this paper to be of that nature, but considered it as a paper full of duty, designed to set himself and some others right in the king's opinion ; that upon the first sight of it, though he approved of the main, yet he disliked some expressions in it ; that he communicated the matter to the earl of Rothes, who told the king of the design ; and that, upon the king's saying he would receive no such petition, it was quite laid aside : this was attested by the earl of Rothes. A long debate had been much insisted on, whether the earl of Traquair or the king's ministers might be of the jury or not : but the court gave it in their favour. When the jury was shut up, Gordon of Buckey, who was one of them, being then very ancient, who forty-three years before had assisted in the murder of the earl of Murray, and was thought upon this occasion a sure man, spoke first of all, excusing his presumption in being the first that broke the silence. He desired they would all consider what they were about : it was a matter of blood, and they would feel the weight of that as long as they lived : he had in his youth * No man went through greater, or more undeserved vicissitudes than this persecuted nobleman. Naturally talented, and liberally educated, he appeared to such advantage as a member of the Scotch parliament, that, although a young man, James the first knighted him, and added him to his privy council. With Charles the first he was as great a favourite, as he was with James, and as a mark of his esteem in 1633, from being sir John Stewart, he created him lord Stewart of Traquair, lord Linton and Coverston, and finally earl of Traquair. In 1642 he was impeached, by the Scotch parliament, of treason, but as the king knew that his crime was a firm adherence to the interests of the monarchy, he granted the earl a pardon, recording in it his opinion of the earl's great abilities, ai;d perfect integrity. When the king was a prisoner n: the Isle of Wight Utf earl levied a regiment of horse at his own expense, and with his son, lord Linton, fought at their head in the battle of Preston. They were here both taken prisoners. For four years he was confined in Warwick Castle, by order of the English parliament. It would have been a mercy to retain him in prison, for when he was liberated, being deprived of all his property, he lingered a few years, and then died in extreme misery, if not of actual hunger. This was in the year 165.0, when he was sixty years old. As a statesman, sir Philip Warwick, who knew him well, thinks he was too changeable.— Warwick's Memoirs, 137. 14 A SUMMARY OF AFFAIRS been drawn in to shed blood, for which he had the king's pardon, but it cost him more to obtain God's pardon : it had given him many sorrowful hours both day and night : and as he spoke this, the tears ran over his face. This struck a damp on them all. But the earl of Traquair took up the argument ; and said, they had it not before them whether the law was a hard law or not, nor had they the nature of the paper before them, which was judged by the court to be leasing-making ; they were only to consider, whether the prisoner had discovered the contriver of the paper or not. Upon this the earl of Lauderdale took up the argument against him, and urged, that severe laws never executed were looked on as made only to terrify people, that though after the court's having judged the paper to be seditious it would be capital to conceal the author, yet before such judgment, the thing could not be thought so evident that he was bound to reveal it. Upon these heads those lords argued the matter many hours : but when it went to the vote seven acquitted, but eight cast him : so sentence was given. Upon this many meetings were held : and it was resolved either to force the prison to set him at liberty, or if that failed, to revenge his death both on the court and on the eight jurors ; some undertaking to kill them, and others to burn their houses. "When the earl of Traquair understood this, he went to court, and told the king that the lord Balmerinoch's life was in his hands, but the execution was in no sort advisable : so he procured his pardon, for which the party was often reproached with his ingratitude : but he thought he had been much wronged in the prosecution, and so little regarded in the pardon, that he never looked on himself as under any obligation on that account. My father knew the whole steps of this matter, having been the earl of Lauder- dale's most particular friend : he often told me, that the ruin of the king's affairs in Scotland was in a great measure owing to that prosecution ; and he carefully preserved the petition itself, and the papers relating to the trial ; of which I never saw any copy besides those which I have. And that raised in me a desire of seeing the whole record, which was copied for me, and is now in my hands. It is a little volume, and contains, according to the Scotch method, the whole abstract of all the pleadings, and all the evidence that was given ; and ip indeed a very noble piece, full of curious matter *. When the design of recovering the tithes went on, though but slowly, another design made a greater progress. The bishops of Scotland fell on the framing of a liturgy and a body of canons for the worship and government of that church. These were never examined in any public assembly of the clergy : all was managed by three or four aspiring bishops Maxwellt, Sidserfe, Whitford, and Bannatine, the bishops of Ross, Galloway, Dunblane, and Aberdeen. Maxwell did also accuse the earl of Traquair, as cold in the king's service, and as managing the treasury deceitfully ; and he was aspiring to that office. Spotiswood, archbishop of St. Andrew's, then lord chancellor, was a prudent and mild man, but of no great decency in his course of life. The earl of Traquair, seeing himself so pushed at, was more earnest than the bishops themselves in promoting the new model of worship and discipline ; and by that he recovered the ground he had lost with the king, and with arch- bishop Laud : he also assisted the bishops in obtaining commissions, subaltern to the high- commission court, in their several dioceses, which were thought little different from the courts of inquisition. Sidserfe set this up in Galloway : and a complaint being made in council of his proceedings, he gave the earl of Argyle the lie in full council. He was after all a very learned and good man, but strangely heated in those matters. And they all were so lifted up with the king's zeal, and so encouraged by archbishop Laud, that they lost all temper ; of which I knew Sidserfe made great acknowledgments in his old age. * The \vhole of the proceedings and pleadings are and it is demonstrative, how careless and incapable "were in Rush worth's Collections, ii. 281, and in the State the ministers of Charles, that they did not inquire more Trials, i fully before they entered upon so important a measure. •f* Dr. Maxwell, Bishop of Ross, was the chief pro- Even Clarendon reprobates their conduct; and acknow- moter of this tyrannical measure. He was one of those ledges that some of the bishops were unacquainted with insignificant characters who, like gnats, would never be the Liturgy, and in com posing it the Scotch clergymen were noticed but for the mischief they occasion. It had been not at all consulted. (Hist, of Rebellion, i. 80", fol. ed.) wilfully represented by him, and some of his brethren The same authority, and our author in his Memoirs of the who were equally base, that the nation was in f.ivour of Dukes of Hamilton, relates fully with what determined a Liturgy. Nothing could be more contrary to the fact, opposition it was received. BEFORE THE RESTORATION 15 ut the unaccountable part of the king's proceedings was, that all this while, when he was endeavouring to recover so great a part of the property of Scotland as the church lands and tithes were, from men that were not like to part with them willingly, and was going to change the whole constitution of that church and kingdom, he raised no force to maintain what he was about to do, but trusted the whole management to the civil execution. By this all people saw the weakness of the government, at the same time that they complained of its rigour. All that came down from court complained of the king's inexorable stiffness, and of the progress popery was making, of the queen's power with the king, of the favour shewed the pope's nuncios, and of the many proselytes who were daily falling off to the church of Rome. The earl of Traquair infused this more effectually, though more covertly, than any other man could do : and when the country formed the first opposition they made to the king's proclamations, and protested against them, he drew the first protestation, as Primrose assured me ; though he designed no more than to put a stop to the credit the bishops had, and to the fury of their proceedings : but the matter went much farther than he seemed to intend : for he himself was fatally caught in the snare laid for others. A troop of horse and a regiment of foot had prevented all that followed, or rather had, by all appearance, established an arbitrary government in that kingdom : but to speak in the language of a great man, those who conducted matters at that time, had as little of the prudence of the serpent as of the innocence of the dove : and, as my father often told me, he and many others who adhered in the sequel firmly to the king's interest, were then much troubled at the whole conduct of affairs, as being neither wise, legal, nor just. I will go no farther, in opening the beginnings of the troubles of Scotland. Of these a full account will be found in the memoirs of the dukes of Hamilton. The violence with which that kingdom did almost unanimously engage against the administration may easily convince one, that the provocation must have been very great to draw on such an entire and vehement concurrence against it. After the first pacification, upon the new disputes that arose, when the earls of Lowdun and Dunfermline were sent up with the petition from the covenanters, the lord Saville came to them, and informed them of many particulars, by which they saw the king was highly irritated against them : he took great pains to persuade them to come with their army into England. They very unwillingly barkened to that proposition, and looked on it as a cjesign from the court to ensnare them, making the Scots invade England, by which this nation might have been provoked to assist the king to conquer Scotland. It is true, he hated the earl of Strafford so much, that they saw no cause to suspect him : so they entered into a treaty with him about it. The lord Saville assured them, he spake to them in the name of the most conside- rable men in England ; and he shewed them an engagement under their hands to join with them, if they would come into England, and refuse any treaty but what should be confirmed by the Parliament of England. They desired leave to send this paper into Scotland, to which after much seeming difficulty he consented : so a cane was hollowed, and this was put within it ; and one Frost, afterwards secretary to the committee of both kingdoms, was sent down with it as a poor traveller. It was to be communicated only to three persons, the earls of Rothes and Argyle, and to Waristoun, the three chief confidants of the covenanters. The earl of Rothes was a man of pleasure, but of a most obliging temper ; his affairs were low : Spot- iswood had once made the bargain between the king and him before the troubles, but the earl of Traquair broke it, seeing he was to be raised above himself. The earl of Rothes had all the arts of making himself popular ; only there was too much levity in his temper, and too much liberty in his course of life. The earl of Argyle was a more solemn sort of a man, grave and sober, free of all scandalous vices, of an invincible calmness of temper, and a pre- tender to high degrees of piety : he was much set on raising his own family to be a sort of king in the Highlands. Waristoun was my own uncle. He was a man of great application, could seldom sleep above three hours in the twenty-four. He had studied the law carefully, and had a great quickness of thought, with an extraordinary memory. He went into very high notions of lengthened devotions, in which he continued many hours a day : he would often pray in his family two hours at a time, and had an unexhausted copiousness that way. What thought soever struck his fancy during those effusions, he looked on it as an answer of prayer, and lf» A SUMMARY OF AFFAIRS was wholly determined by it. He looked on the covenant as the setting Christ on his throne, and so was out of measure zealous in it. He had no regard to the raising himself or his family, though he had thirteen children : but presbytery was to him more than all the world. He had a readiness and vehemence of speaking that made him very considerable in public assemblies : and he had a fruitful invention ; so that he was at all times furnished with expe- dients. To these three only this paper was to be shewed upon an oath of secrecy ; and it was to be deposited in Waristoun's hands. They were only allowed to publish to the nation, that they were sure of a very great and unexpected assistance, which though it was to be kept secret would appear in due time. This they published ; and it was looked on as an artifice to draw in the nation : but it was afterwards found to be a cheat indeed, but a cheat of lord Saville's, who had forged all these subscriptions *. The Scots marched with a very sorry equipage : every soldier carried a week's provision of oatmeal ; and they had a drove of cattle with them for their food. They had also an inven- tion of guns of white iron tinned, and done about with leather and corded, so that they could serve for two or three discharges. These were light, and were carried on horses. And when they came to Newburn, the English army that defended the ford was surprised with a dis- charge of artillery : some thought it magic ; and all were put in such disorder that the whole army did run with so great precipitation, that sir Thomas Fairfax, who had a command in it, did not stick to own that till he passed the Tees his legs trembled under him. This struck many of the enthusiasts on the king's side, as much as it exalted the Scots ; who were next day possessed of Newcastle, and so were masters not only of Northumberland and the bishopric of Duresme (Durham), but of the collieries ; by which, if they had not been in a good understanding with the city of London, they would have distressed them extremely : but all the use the city made of this was, to raise a great outcry, and to complain of the war, since it was now in the power of the Scots to starve them. Upon that petitions were sent from the city and from some counties to the king, praying a treaty with the Scots. The lord Wharton and the lord Howard of Escrick undertook to deliver some of these ; which they did, and were clapt up upon it. A council of war was held ; and it was resolved on, as the lord Wharton told me, to shoot them at the head of the army, as movers of sedition. This was chiefly pressed by the earl of Strafford. Duke Hamilton spoke nothing till the council rose ; and then he asked Strafford, if he was sure of the army, who seemed surprised at the * Thomas Saville, successively created Baron Saville, taken effect and could not be punished. He was a man and Earl of Sussex, by king Charles, was one of the most of an ambitious and restless nature ; of parts and wit despicable characters that occurs in our national history. enough, but in his disposition and inclination so false, that In 1642, for not leaving the king when commanded by he could never be believed or depended upon." Claren- the parliament, he was forbidden to resume his seat during don then states the forgery as related by our author, and the session, and eventually he was voted an enemy of the adds, " When all this mischief was brought to pass, and state. So far all was well, for, if he adhered to the king he found his credit in the parliament not so great as other conscientiously, these marks of the anger of his opponents men's, he insinuated himself into credit with somebody, were honourable to him rather than disgraceful ; but the who brought him to the king or queen, to whom he con- king had soon cause to suspect his fidelity. The proofs fessed all he had done to bring in the Scots, who had con- against him were sufficient to warrant his imprisonment, spired with him, and all the secrets he knew, with a thou- and created such contempt for him in the king's mind, sand protestations, to repair all by future loyalty and that he sent him word by lord Digby, " that his plea- service;" for which he was promised a white staff, which sure was, that he should neither come into his presence, the king had then resolved to take from Sir Henry Vane, or speak to any lord, orgo to the prince, or stay at Oxford." This promotion he had accordingly ; though all his dis- He requested permission to retire to the continent, but covery was of no other use than to let the king know many instead of adopting this honourable retirement, he escaped had been false whom he could not punish, and some whom to the quarters of the parliament army (Parliament His- he could not suspect. When the king came to York, tory, xiii. 426'), and voluntarily swore that he came and where this lord's fortune and interest lay, his reputation submitted to the power of the parliament without having was so low, that the gentlemen of interest who wished well any design to its prejudice, and without any connivance to the king's service would not communicate with him ; with the king or his partisans. Yet within two months he and, after the king's remove from thence, the earl of New- was committed to the Tower upon strong suspicion of castle found cause to have such a jealousy of him, that he plotting against the parliament interests. ' To extenuate thought it right to imprison him, and afterwards sent him himself, he brought false charges against Mr. Holies to Oxford, where he so well purged himself, that he was and Mr. Whitelocke, but these being disproved, he died again restored to his office. But in the end he behaved as he had lived, despised by all who had known him. himself so ill, that the king put him again out of his place, Lord Clarendon says of him, '' The Lord Saville was and committed him to prison, and never after admitted likewise of the council, being first controller, and then him to his presence, nor would any man of quality ever treasurer of the household, in iccompence of his disco- after keep any correspon deuce with him. (Hist, of Rebel- very of all the treasons and conspiracies, after they had lion. ii. 1 55, fol. ed.) BEFORE THE RESTORATION. 17 question : but he, upon inquiry, understood that very probably a general mutiny, if not a total re\olt, would have followed, if any such execution had been attempted. This success of the Scots ruined the king's affairs. And by it the necessity of the union of the two king- doms may appear very evident : for nothing but a superior army, able to beat the Scots, can hinder their doing this at any time : and the seizing the collieries must immediately bring the city of London into great distress. Two armies were now in the north as a load on the king, besides all the other grievances. The lord Saville's forgery came to be discovered. The king knew it ; and yet he was brought afterwards to trust him, and to advance him to be earl of Sussex. The king pressed my uncle to deliver him the letter, who excused himself upon his oath ; and not knowing what use might be made of it, he cut out every subscription, and sent it to the person for whom it was forged. The imitation was so exact, that every man, as soon as he saw his hand simply by itself, acknowledged that he could not have denied it. The king was now in great straits ; he had laid up 700,000^. before the troubles in Scotland began ; and yet had raised no guards nor force in England, but trusted a very illegal adminis- tration to a legal execution. His treasure was now exhausted ; his subjects were highly irritated ; the ministry were all frightened, being exposed to the anger and justice of the parliament : so that he had brought himself into great distress, but had not the dexterity to extricate himself out of it. He loved high and rough methods, but had neither the skill to conduct them, nor the height of genius to manage them. He hated all that offered prudent and moderate councils : he thought it flowed from a meanness of spirit, and a care to preserve themselves by sacrificing his authority, or from republican principles : and even when he saw it was necessary to follow such advices., yet he hated those that gave them. His heart was wholly turned to the gaining the two armies. In order to that, he gained the earl of Rothes entirely, who hoped by the king's mediation to have married the countess of Devon- shire, a rich and magnificent lady that lived long in the greatest state of any in that age. He also gained the earl of Montrose, who was a young man well learned, who had travelled, but had taken upon him the port of a hero too much. When he was beyond sea he travelled with the earl of Denbigh ; and they consulted all the astrologers they could hear of *. I plainly saw the earl of Denbigh relied on what had fyeen told him to his dying day ; and the rather because the earl of Montrose was promised a glorious fortune for gome time, but all was to be overthrown in conclusion. When the earl of Montrose returned from his travels, he was not considered by the king as he thought he deserved : so he studied to render him- self popular in Scotland ; and he was the first man in the opposition they made during the first war. He both advised and drew the letter to the king of France, for which the lord Lowdun, who signed it, was imprisoned in the Tower of London. But the earl of Lauder- dale, as he himself told me, when it came to his turn to sign that letter, found false French in it ; for instead of rayons de soldi he had written raye de soldi, which in French signifies a sort of fish ; and so the matter went no farther at that time ; and the treaty came on so soon after, that it was never again taken up. The earl of Montrose was gained by the king at Berwick, and undertook to do great services. He either fancied, or at least he made the king fancy, that he could turn the whole kingdom : yet indeed he could do nothing. He was * These two noblemen must not be considered as ex- weie almost all contemporary astrologers. So many prac- ceptions from the community to which they belonged, for titioners are an earnest that there was much employment. England was never so imbued with superstition as it was Heydon was the adept especially consulted by the duke of during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It was Buckingham ; the wily impostor, however, lost much of confined to no class or order in society — no grade of rank his credit after being deceived by Richard Cromwell and or education seems to have secured its -possessor from the Thuiloe. These went to him disguised as cavaliers, and weakness. Charles the first consulted astrologers as guides he told them that Oliver the Protector would infallibly be to his times of action. Cromwell had faith in lucky hanged by a time, which he survived several years. — days — Laud believed in omens, and registered his dreams. (Carte's Life of the Duke of Ormond — Continuation Selden thought there was a charm over diseases in the of Lord Clarendon's Life. 816 — $c. £c.) It is worthy mystic mutterings of Dr. Floyd; the duke of Buck- of observation, that the majority of astrologers charge all ingham, Richard Cromwell, secretary 1 hurloe, and many other practitioners with being impostors and cheats! They others who will be mentioned in the course of this work, certainly never could foretell their own misfortunes, or Bought to read the pages of the future by the help of the else Lilly would never have married such a virago of a impostors of their time. Lilly, Partridge, Wharton, God- wife; neither would Heydon have engaged in the treason- bury, Saunders, Coley, Middleton, Culpepper, Heydon, able practices that consigned him to the Tower ' 18 A SUMMARY OF AFFAIRS again trying to make a new party : and he kept a correspondence with the king when he lay at Newcastle ; and was pretending he had a great interest among the covenanters, whereas at that time he had none at all. All these little plottings came to be either known, or at least suspected. The queen was a woman of great vivacity in conversation, and loved all her life long to be in intrigues of all sorts, but was not so secret in them as such times and such affairs required. She was a woman of no manner of judgment : she was bad at con- trivance, but much worse in the execution ; but rjy the liveliness of her discourse she made always a great impression on the king : and to her little practices, as well as to the king's own temper, the sequel of all his misfortunes was owing*. I know it was a maxim infused into his sons, which I have often heard from king James, that he was undone by his con- cessions. This is true in some respect : for his passing the act that the parliament should sit during pleasure was indeed his ruin, to which he was drawn by the queen. But if he had not made great concessions, he had sunk without being able to make a struggle for it ; and could not have divided the nation, or engaged so many to have stood by him ; since by the concessions that he made, especially that of the triennial parliament, the honest and quiet part of the nation was satisfied, and thought their religion and liberties were secured : so they broke off from t those more violent propositions that occasioned the war. The truth was, the king did not come into those concessions seasonably, nor with a good grace. All appeared to be extorted from him. There were also grounds, whether true or plausible, to make it to be believed, that he intended not to stand to them any longer than he lay under that force, that visibly drew them from him contrary to his own inclinations J. The proofs that appeared of some particulars, that made this seem true, made other things that were whispered to be more readily believed ; for in all critical times there are deceitful people of both sides, that pretend to merit by making discoveries, on condition that no use shall be made of them as witnesses ; which is one of the most pestiferous ways of calumny possible. Almost the whole court had been concerned in one illegal grant or another : so these courtiers, to get their faults passed over, were as so many spies upon the king and queen : they told all they heard, and perhaps not without large additions, to the leading men of the House of Commons. This inflamed their jealousy, and pushed them on to the making still new demands. One eminent passage was told me by the lord Hollis. * Charles was indeed unfortunate— unfortunate in his own sion that the same power might be exercised over English- unfirmness of character; unfortunate as to the period in which men. She acted vigorously to maintain the king's cause he ascenaed the throne ; and unfortunate to such a degree, in the \var consequent to this fatal error ; and did not dis- that those who loved him contributed as much to his ruin, cover how much she was mistaken, and how vain is the as those who were his enemies. Of those attached to struggle to coerce a people resolved to be free, until some him, and who hastened his destruction, the queen was years subsequent to the overthrow of all her plans, and among the most culpable. the death of her husband. She returned to England at She was extremely beautiful and accomplished ; her the Restoration, after being absent nearly nineteen years ; portrait is still in Windsor Castle, and those who have and is said to have declared, on re-entering Somerset House, seen its lovely features must have ceased to wonder that " that if she had known the temper of the English some their possessor fascinated and subdued sterner natures than years before, as well as she now did, she had never been that of Charles the first. To her accomplishments, gene- obliged to leave that palace." It will be seen in future rally, all contemporary annalists give their assent; but in pages how strenuously she exerted herself to retain politi- fiinging, she evidently particularly excelled. " I found it cal influence during the reign of her son Charles the true," said lord Kensington, writing to Charles, "that second. In this she failed. She sinks greatly in the neither her master Bayle, nor any man or woman in scale of estimation, if, as it would appear from sir John France, or in the world, sings so admirably as she. Sir, Reresby's Memoirs, she was secretly the wife of Henry it is beyond imagination ; that is all I can say of it." Such Jermyn, earl of St. Albans. charms and such accomplishments, accompanied by great f It seems clearer, if, instead of broke off from, the vivacity of manner, had too fascinating an influence over sentence ran would not go into. — (Note by Author's the king. She was imperious, haughty, and prone to Son.} bursts of passion which hurried her to recommend and J The duplicity and insincerity of Charles have been insist upon measures disastrous in their results, and placed beyond any just doubt by his private papers* which against the consequences of which she had neither suffi- fell into the hands of the parliament after his final defeat cient judgment to suggest resources nor firmness to maintain at the battle of Naseby. The " Eikon Basilike " men- opposition. Her angry urging the king to seize the five tions these without disputing their authenticity. They con- members suffices as an illustration of this — it was the con- tain copies of letters in which the king states decidedly, elusive thrust that determined the fatal separation between that though he called the parliament by that name, yet in the parliament and the king. She had been educated with his conscience he did not hold it to be one, nor should he very high notions of the royal prerogative, and had been treat it as such, in the event of success. Who can say used to see despotic sovereignty exercised over an ignorant where the parliament could find security, after this, but by and slavish people. This lod h*;r to the mistaken conclu- his death ? BEFORE THE RESTORATION. 19 The earl of Strafford had married his sister. So, though in that parliament he was one of the hottest men of the party, yet when that matter was before them he always withdrew. When the bill of attainder was passed, the king sent for him to know what he could do to save the earl of Strafford. Hollis answered, that if the king pleased, since the execution of the law was in him, he might legally grant him a reprieve, which must be good in law ; but he would not advise it. That which he proposed was, that lord Strafford should send him a petition for a short respite, to settle his affairs and to prepare for death ; upon which he advised the king to come next day with the petition in his hands, and lay it before the two houses with a speech which he drew for the king ; and Hollis said to him, he would try his interest among his friends to get them to consent to it. He prepared a great many, by assuring them, that if they would save lord Strafford he would become wholly theirs in consequence of his first principles : and that he might do them much more service by being preserved, than he could do if made an example upon such new and doubtful points. In this he had wrought on so many, that he believed if the king's party had struck into it he might have saved him. It was carried to the queen, as if Hollis had engaged that the earl of Strafford should accuse her, and discover all he knew. So the queen not only diverted the king from going to the parliament, changing the speech into a message all written with the king's own hand, and sent to the House of Lords by the prince of "Wales ; (which Hollis had said, would have perhaps done as well, the king being apt to spoil things by an unacceptable manner;) but to the wonder of the whole world, the queen prevailed with him to add that mean postscript, " if he must die, it were charity to reprieve him till Saturday ; " which was a very unhandsome giving up of the whole message. When it was communicated to both houses, the whole court party was plainly against it : and so he fell truly by the queen's means *. The mentioning this makes me add one particular concerning archbishop Laud : when his impeachment was brought to the Lords' bar, he apprehending how it would end, sent over Warner, bishop of Rochester, with the keys of his closet and cabinet, that he might destroy, or put out of the way, all papers that might either hurt himself or any body else. He was at that work for three hours, till, upon Laud's being committed to the black rod, a messenger went over to seal up his closet, who came after all was withdrawn. Among the writings he took away, it is believed the original Magna Charta passed by king John in the mead near Staincs was one. This was found among Warner's papers by his executor : and that descended to his son and executor, colonel Lee, who gave it to me. So it is now in my hands ; and it came very fairly to me. For this conveyance of it we have nothing but conjecture t. * This is a hasty assignment of one of the blackest against the dictates of his conscience, tc yield ; and at the crimes that disgrace our country's history. It appears time he confessed this, when speaking to the deputation certain that the queen disliked Strafford, for when he bore that waited upon him in consequence of the above letter, no other title than the worthy name of Wcntworth, he he takes the merit of the authorship of the postscript to had been the uncompromising objurgntor of measures and himself. He said " that what he intended by his letter of the religion to which she was attached. Athough this was, with an if; if it might be done without discontent- enmity existed, and although the fear of injuring her ment of his people ; if that cannot be, 1 say again, the interests, and those of his children, may have influenced same I wrote, fiut juslitia. My other intention, proceed- the king to consent to the earl's death, yet having signed ing out of charity, for a few days' respite, was upon certain the warrant, and all the court party being against its revo- information that his estate was so distracted, that it neces- cation, it is hard to say, that a postscript, like the one in sarily required some few days for settlement thereof." question, admitting the queen dictated it, was the cause of (Rushivorth's Trial of Straffbrd.) If he really thought his execution. It must be recollected that 204 voted for so, the prerogative of mercy as well as of justice was still the earl s condemnation, and only 59 opposed it. Lord his; why then did he not respite his servant? why did he Hollis may have had all the influence that can reasonably not perform the act of charity ? was he not bold enough be granted him, or his own complacency claimed, yet he to dare to do good, as he had been to do evil? could he must have fallen, even then, far short of being able to not venture, without leave, to give his sacrificed friend three reverse the majority. It was an imbecile, pusillanimous, days' grace? ill-judged postscript, but if it had never been written, the f- Colonel Lee is stated to have given the original letter cannot be considered as fraught with such magic Magna Charta to Dr. Burnet, by the intervention of Mr. charms as to have converted the hearts and resolutions of Gcddis. Upon the death of our author, it came to hi& son, both houses of parliament. They were urged on. not sir Thomas Burnet; in the hands of whose executor, Mr. only by their own convictions, that it was necessary to David Mitchell, it was seen and referred to by sir William intimidate, by the earl's execution, all the counsellors of Blackstone. When Mr. Mitchell died, this truly national despotic sovereignty; but they were also impelled by " the relic came into the possession of his daughter, of whom pressure from without ; " the people, as Whitelock relates, it was purchased by earl Stanhupe, and given to the British assembled round the houses, and clamoured riotously for Museum, where it may now be seen — Blackstone s Law bis execution. To this popular feeling the king dared, Tracts, 3rd ed. 297. 21 A SUMMARY OF AFFAIRS I do not intend to prosecute the history of the wars. I have told a great deal relating to them in the memoirs of the dukes of Hamilton. Rush worth's collections contain many excellent materials. And now the first volume of the earl of Clarendon's history gives a faithful representation of the beginnings of the troubles, though written in favour of the court, and full of the best excuses that such ill things were capable of. I shall, therefore, only set out what I had particular reason to know, and what is not to be met with in books. The kirk was now settled in Scotland with a new mixture of ruling elders ; which though they were taken from the Geneva pattern, to assist or rather to be a check on the ministers, in the managing the parochial discipline, yet these never came to their assemblies till the year 1638, that they thought it necessary to make them first go and carry all the elections of the ministers at the several presbyteries, and next come themselves and sit in the assemblies. The nobility and chief gentry offered themselves upon that occasion : and the ministers, since they saw they were like to act in opposition to the king's orders, were glad to have so great a support. But the elders that now came to assist them beginning to take, as the ministers thought, too much on them, they grew weary of such imperious masters : so they studied to work up the inferior people to much zeal : and as they wrought any up to some measure of heat and knowledge, they brought them also into their eldership ; and so got a majority of hot zealots who depended on them. One out of these was deputed to attend on the judicatories. They had synods of all the clergy, in one or more counties, who met twice a year ; and a general assembly met once a year : and at parting, that body named some, called the com- mission of the kirk, who were to sit in the intervals to prepare matters for the next assembly, and to look into all the concerns of the church, to give warning of dangers, and to inspect all proceedings of the state as far as related to the matters of religion : by these means they became terrible to all their enemies. In their sermons, and chiefly in their prayers, all that passed in the state was canvassed. Men were as good as named, and either recommended or complained of, to God, as they were acceptable or odious to them. This grew up in time to an insufferable degree of boldness. The way that was given to it, when the king and the bishops were their common themes, made that, afterwards, the humour could not be restrained : and it grew so petulant, that the pulpit was a scene of news and passion. For some years this was managed with great appearances of fervour by men of age and some authority : but when the younger and hotter zealots took it up, it became odious to almost all sorts of people : except some sour enthusiasts, who thought all their impertinence was zeal, and an effect of inspiration ; which flowed naturally from the conceit of extemporary prayers being praying by the spirit. Henderson, a minister of Edinburgh, was by much the wisest and gravest of them all : but as all his performances that I have seen are flat and heavy, so he found it was an easier thing to raise a flame than to quench it. He studied to keep his party to him : yet he found he could not moderate the heat of some fiery spirits : so when he saw he could follow them no more, but that they had got the people out of his hands, he sunk both in body and mind, and died soon after *. The person next to him was Douglas, believed to be descended from the royal family, though the wrong way. There appeared an air of greatness in him that made all that saw him inclined enough to believe he was of no ordinary descent. He was a reserved man : he had the scriptures by heart to the exactness of a Jew ; for he was as a concordance : he was too calm and too grave for the furious men, but yet he was much depended on for his prudence. I knew him in his old age ; and saw plainly, he was a * Alexander Henderson was the most influential of the sufficient to convince his antagonists, they must have cer- presbyterian clergy ; and took the lead in all the religious tainly raised him in their estimation. They are ably and political discussions in which his party were engaged, arranged, and cogently enforced. Clarendon says, " the In 1646, he came with some other clergymen to persuade old man himself, Mr. Henderson, was so far convinced and the king to abolish the episcopal form of church govern- converted, that he had a very deep sense of the mischief ment in England, as he had in Scotland. To which if he he had himself been the author of, or too much contributed had consented, Clarendon thought that they would have to. and lamented it to his wannest friends and confidents ; effectually strengthened his party both in parliament and and died of grief and heart-broken, within a very short in the field. The papers which passed between Mr. time after he departed from his majesty.'' — (History of Henderson and Charles, relative to the comparative merits Rebellion, iii 24, fo. ed. Warwick's Life of J. Bar* of the two forms of ecclesiastical discipline, have since wick, 253.) been published, and if the king's arguments were not BEFORE THE RESTORATION. 21 slave to his popularity, and durst not own the free thoughts he had of some things for fear of offending the people. I will not run out in giving the characters of the other leading preachers among them, such as Dickson, Blair, Rutherford, Baily, Cant, and the two Gillispys*. They were men all of a sort ; they affected great sublimities in devotion ; they poured themselves out in their prayers with a loud voice, and often with many tears. They had but an ordinary proportion of learning among them ; something of Hebrew and very little Greek. Books of controversy with papists, but above all with the Arminians, was the height of their study. A way of preaching by doctrine, reason, and use, was that they set up on : and some of them affected a strain of stating cases of conscience, not with relation to moral actions, but to some reflections on their condition and temper : that was occasioned chiefly by their conceit of praying by the spirit, which every one could nor attain to, or keep up to the same heat in, at all times. The learning they recommended to their young divines were some German systems, some commentators on the scripture, books of controversy, and practical books. They were so careful to oblige them to make their round in these, that if they had no men of great learning among them, yet none were very ignorant : as if they had thought an equality in learning was necessary to keep up the parity of their government. None could be suffered to preach as expectants, (as they called them,) but after a trial or two in private before the ministers alone : then two or three sermons were to be preached in public, some more learnedly, some more practically : then a head in divinity was to be common-placed in Latin, and the person was to maintain theses upon it : he was also to be tried in Greek and Hebrew, and in scripture chronology. The questionary trial came last, every minister asking such questions as he pleased. When any had passed through all these with approbation, which was done in a course of three or four months, he was allowed to preach when invited. And if he was presented, or called to a church, he was to pass through a new set of the same trials. This made that there was a small circle of knowledge in which they were generally well instructed. True morality was little studied or esteemed by them : they took much pains among their people to maintain their authority ; they affected all the ways of familiarity that were like to gain on them. They forced all people to sign the covenant : and the greatest part of the episcopal clergy, among whom there were two bishops, came to them, and renounced their former principles, and desired to be received into their body. At first they received all that offered themselves ; but afterwards they repented of this : and the violent men among them were ever pressing the purging the kirk, as they called it, that is the ejecting all the episcopal clergy. Then they took up the term of malignants, by which all who differed from them were distinguished : but the strictness of piety and good life, which had gained them so much reputation before the war, began to wear off; and instead of that, a fierceness of temper, and a copiousness of many long sermons, and much longer prayers, came to be the distinction of the party. This they carried even to the saying grace before and after meat sometimes to the length of a whole hour t. But as every new war broke out, there was a visible abatement of even the outward shows of piety. Thus the war corrupted both sides. When the war broke out in England, the Scots had a great mind to go into it. The decayed nobility, the military men, and the ministers were violently set on it. They saw what good quarters they had in the north of England. And they hoped the umpirage of the war would fall into their hands. * Two, if not more, of these were able and learned men. of very interesting, authentic information. — Life prefixed David Dickson was professor of divinity at Glasgow, and to his Letters. favourably known as an author on sacred subjects. He *f What they occasionally endured is appreciable from assisted in drawing up the Confession of Faith. He was Mr. Baillie's account of the unintermitted occupation of eight ejected for nonconformity in 1662, and died the same hours. " After Dr. Twisse had begun with a short prayer, year. (Life by Wood row. ) Robert Baillie was principal of Mr. Marshall prayed largely, two hours. After, Mr. Glasgow College, and might have had a bishopric at the Arrowsmith preached an hour, then a psalm ; thereafter, Restoration, if he would have accepted it, but he adhered Mr. Vines prayed near two hours, and Mr. Palmer preached to his presbyterian principles. These facts redound to his an hour, and Mr. Seaman prayed near two hours, then a credit, especially when it is remembered that he was one psalm; after, Mr. Henderson preached, and Dr. Twisso of the commissioners to impeach archbishop Laud ; and closed with a short prayer and blessing." Mr. Baillie was one of the Assembly of Divines. His " Letters and calls this "spending from nine to five very graciously." — Journals " have been published. They contain abundance Baillie's Letters, vol. ii. 19. 22 A SUMMARY OF AFFAIRS The division appearing so near an equality in England tlicy reckoned they would turn the scale?, and so be courted of both sides : and they did not doubt to draw great advantages from it, both for the nation in general, and themselves in particular. Duke Hamilton was trusted by the king with the management of his affairs in that kingdom, and had powers to offer, but so secretly, that if discovered it could not be proved, for fear of disgusting the English, that if they would engage in the king's side, he would consent to the uniting Northumberland, Cumberland, and Westmorland, to Scotland ; and that Newcastle should be the seat of the government ; that the prince of Wales should hold his court always among them ; that every third year the king should go among them ; and every office in the king's household should in the third turn be given to a Scotchman. This I found not among duke Hamilton's papers; but the earl of Lauderdale assured me of it, and that at the Isle of Wight they had all the engagements from the king that he could give. Duke Hamilton quickly saw, it was a vain imagination to hope that kingdom could be brought to espouse the king's quarrel. The inclination ran strong the other way : all he hoped to succeed in was to keep them neuter for some time ; and this he saw could not hold long : so after he had kept off their engaging with England all the year 1643, he and his friends saw it was in vain to struggle any longer. The course they all resolved on was, that the nobility should fall in heartily with the incli- nations of the nation to join with England, that so they might procure to themselves and their friends the chief commands in the army : and then, when they were in England, and that their army was, as a distinct body, separated from the rest of the kingdom, it might be much easier to gain them to the king's service, than it was at that time to work on the whole nation. This was not a very sincere way of proceeding ; but it was intended for the king's service, and would probably have had the effect designed by it, if some accidents had not happened that changed the face of affairs, which are not rightly understood ; and, therefore, I will open them clearly. The earl of Montrose and a party of high royalists were for entering into an open breach with the country in the beginning of the year 1643, but offered no probable methods of maintaining it ; nor could they reckon themselves assured of any considerable party. They were full of undertakings : but when they were pressed to show what concurrence might be de- pended on, nothing was offered but from the Highlanders : and on this wise men could not rely : so duke Hamilton would not expose the king's affairs by such a desperate way of proceeding. Upon this they went to Oxford, and filled all people there with complaints of the treachery of the Hamiltons ; and they pretended they could have secured Scotland, if their propositions had been entertained. This was but too suitable to the king's own inclinations, and to the humour that- was then prevailing at Oxford. So when the two Hamiltons came up, they were not admitted to speak to the king : and it was believed, if the younger brother had not made his escape, that both would have suffered ; for when the queen heard of his escape, she with great commotion said, Abercorn has missed a dukedom ; for that earl was a papist, and next to the two brothers. They could have demonstrated, if heard, that they were sure of above two parts in three of the officers of the army ; and did not doubt to have engaged the army in the king's cause. But the failing m this was not all. The earl, then made marquis of Montrose, had powers given him, such as he desired, and was sent down with them ; but he could do nothing till the end of the year. A great body of the Macdonalds, commanded by one col. Killoch, came over from Ireland to recover Kentirc, the best country of all the Highlands, out of which they had been driven by the Argyle family, who had possessed their country about fifty years. The head of these was the earl of Antrim, who had married the duke of Buckingham's widow ; and being a papist, and having a great command in Ulster, was much relied on by the queen. He was the main person in the first rebellion, and was the most engaged in bloodshed of any in the north : yet he continued to correspond with the queen to the great prejudice of the king's affairs. When the marquis of Montrose heard they were in Argyleshire, he went to them, and told them, if they would let him lead them he would carry them into the heart of the kingdom, and procure them better quarters and good pay : so he led them into Perthshire. The Scots had at that time an army in England, and another in Ireland : yet they did not think it necessary to call home any part of either, but despising the Irish, and the Highlanders, they raised a tumultuary army, and put it under BEFORE THE RESTORATION. 23 the command of some lords noted for want of courage, and of others who wished well to the other side. The marquis of Montrose's men were desperate, and met with little resistance : so that small body of the covenanters' army was routed. And here the marquis of Montrose got horses and ammunition, having but three horses before, and powder only for one charge. Then he became considerable ; and he marched through the northern parts by Aberdeen. The Marquis of Huntly was in the king's interests ; but would not join with him, though hia sons did. Astrology ruined him : he believed the stars, and they deceived him : he said often, that neither the king, nor the Hamiltons, nor Montrose, would prosper : he believed he should outlive them all, and escape at last ; as it happened in conclusion, as to outliving the others. He was naturally a gallant man : but the stars had so subdued him, that he made a poor figure during the whole course of the wars. The marquis of Montrose's success was very mischievous, and proved the ruin of the king's affairs : on which I should not have depended entirely, if I had had this only from the carl of Lauderdale, who was indeed my first author : but it was fully confirmed to me by the lord Hollis, who had gone in with great heat into the beginnings of the war ; but he soon saw the ill consequences it already had, and the worse that were like to grow with the progress of it : he had in the beginning of the year forty-three, when he was sent to Oxford with the propositions, taken great pains on all about the king to convince them of the necessity of their yielding in time ; since the longer they stood out the conditions would be harder : and when he was sent by the parliament in the end of the year forty-four, with other proposi- tions, he and Whitlock entered into secret conferences with the king, of which some account is given by Whitlock in his memoirs. They with other commissioners that were sent to Oxford possessed the king, and all that were in great credit with him, with this, that it was absolutely necessary the king should put an end to the war by a treaty : a new party of hot men was springing up, that were plainly for changing the government : they were growing much in the army, but were yet far from carrying any thing in the house : they had gained much strength this summer : and they might make a great progress by the accidents that another year might produce. They confessed there were many things hard to be digested, that must be done in order to a peace ; they asked things that were unreasonable ; but they were forced to consent to those demands : otherwise they would have lost their credit with the city and the people, who could not be satisfied without a very entire security, and a full satisfaction : but the extremity to which matters might be carried otherwise made it neces- sary to come to a peace on any terms whatsoever ; since no terms could be so bad as the con- tinuance of the war. The king must trust them, though they were not at that time disposed to trust him so much as it were to be wished ; they said farther, that if a peace should follow, it would be a much easier thing to get any hard laws now moved for to be repealed, than it was now to hinder their being insisted on. "With these things Hollis told me that the king and many of his counsellors, who saw how his affairs declined, and with what difficulty they could hope to continue the war another year, were satisfied. The king more particularly began to feel the insolence of the military men, and of those who were daily reproaching him with their services : so that they were become as uneasy to him as those of Westminster had been formerly. But some came in the interval from lord Montrose with such an account of what he had done, of the strength he had, and of his hopes next summer, that the king was by that prevailed on to believe his affairs would mend, and that he might afterwards treat on better terms. This unhappily wrought so far, that the limitations he put on those he sent to treat at Uxbridge made the whole design miscarry. That raised the spirits of those that were already but too much exasperated. The marquis of Montrose made a great progress the next year : but he laid no lasting foundation, for he did not make himself master of the strong places or passes of the kingdom. After his last and greatest victory at Kilsyth, he was lifted up out of measure. The Macdonalds were every where fierce masters, and ravenous plunderers ; and the other Highlanders, who did not such military executions, yet were good at robbing: and when they had got as- much as they could carry home on their backs, they deserted. The Macdonalds also left him to go and execute their revenge on the Argyle's country. The marquis of Montrose thought he was now master, but had no scheme how to fix his conquests ; he wasted the estates of his enemies, chiefly the Hamiltons : 24 A SUMMARY OF AFFAIRS and went towards the borders of England, though he had but a small force left about him ; but he thought his name carried terror with it. So he wrote to the king that he had gone over the land from Dan to Beersheba : he prayed the king to come down in these words— " come thou, and take the city, lest I take it and it be called by my name." This letter was written, but never sent; for he was routed, and his papers taken, before he had despatched the courier. "When his papers were taken, many letters of the king, and of others at Oxford, were found, as the earl of Crawford, one appointed to read them, told me ; which increased the disgusts : but these were not published. Upon this occasion many prisoners that had quarters given them were murdered in cold blood : and as they sent them to some towns that had been ill used by lord Montrose's army, the people in revenge fell on them and knocked them on the head. Several persons of quality were condemned for being with them : and they were proceeded against both with severity and with indignities. The preachers thundered in their pulpits against all that did the work of the Lord deceitfully ; and cried out against all that were for moderate proceedings, as guilty of the blood that had been shed. " Thine eye shall not pity, and thou shalt not spare," were often inculcated after every execution : they triumphed with so little decency, that it gave all people very ill impressions of them. But this was not the worst effect of lord Montrose's expedition. It lost the opportunity at Uxbridge, it alienated the Scots much from the king : it exalted all that were enemies to peace. Now they seemed to have some colour for all those aspersions they had cast on the king, as if he had been in a correspondence with the Irish rebels, when the worst tribe of them had been thus employed by him. His affairs declined totally in England that summer : and lord Hollis said to me, all was owing to lord Montrose's unhappy successes *. Upon this occasion I will relate somewhat concerning the earl of Antrim. I had in my hand several of his letters to the king in the year 1646, written in a very confident style. One was somewhat particular : he in a postscript desired the king to send the enclosed to the good woman, without making any excuse for the presumption ; by which, as follows in the postscript, he meant his wife, the duchess of Buckingham. This made me more easy to believe a story that the earl of Essex told me he had from the earl of Northumberland : upon the Restoration, in the year 1660, lord Antrim was thought guilty of so much bloodshed, that it was taken for granted he could not be included in the indemnity that was to pass in Ireland : * Clarendon, as all professed apologists should be, is very demands. In the interim his majesty had received a careful in concealing dates. Thus in relating these trans- letter from the marquis of Montrose, acquainting him actions he places the statement of Montrose's successes with, and certainly exaggerating, his successes. Dr. after the treaty of Uxbridge, and no dates being specified, Wellwood saw a copy of it in the hand-writing of the the reader is left without a guide to detect the error, duke of Richmond, and has preserved it in the appendix From the extreme minuteness of detail, with which his to his " Memoirs." In this letter he expressed his a utter lordship relates the intrigues and persuasions that were aversion to all treaties with the rebel parliament in employed to induce the king to employ Montrose, Antrim, England ; " tells the king " he is heartily sorry to hear and O'Neil in this ill-judged expedition, there is reason that his majesty had consented to treat, and hopes it is to believe that he was one of its counsellors, and con- not true; " advises him " not to enter into terms with his sequently not at all covetous of the blame which always rebellious subjects, as being a thing unworthy of a king : " descends upon those who happen to be the contrivers oi and concludes, "when I have conquered from Dan to disastrous projects, though better judged than this. Dr. Beersheba, give me leave to say, as David's general did to Wellwood confirms Burnet's statement. He states that his master, ' come thou thyself, lest this country be called although at the treaty of Uxbridge the parliament's pro- by my name.' " Wellwood remarks that a fatality seems positions were extreme, and the king more than ordinarily to have attended the whole transaction. The letter was averse to yield, yet the ill posture of his affairs made his written on the 3rd of February, in a distant part of North friends particularly importunate with him to avoid the Britain, yet came to Oxford, notwithstanding the distance, consequences that must ensue upon breaking off the the badness of the roads, especially at that season, and treaty. The carl of Southampton went post from that the despatch had to pass through a country occupied Uxbridge to Oxford, and implored upon his knees the by the parliament's and Scotch armies, before the 19th, king to yield to the necessity of the times, and thus for among the Naseby papers was the copy of a letter, so settle a lasting peace with his people. His majesty at dated, in which the king alludes to it — Wellwood' s length yielded, and the next morning was appointed to Memoirs by Masseres, 66 $ 294. sign instructions to that effect for his commissioners. A The hatred of the Scotch for Charles I. may not with- termination of the troubles seemed now approaching, and out reason be attributed in part to the havoc and pillage at supper, when the king complained of the wine, one of he brought upon their country by this inroad of the Irish his courtiers replied, " he hoped his majesty would drink and others, under Montrose. better, before a week was over, at Guildhall with the lord The treaty of Uxbridge began on the 30th of January, mayor. ' But on the following morning the king had 1645, and terminated on the 22nd of February, changed his mind, and refused to yield to the parliament's BEFORE THE RESTORATION 25 upon this he (lord Antrim) seeing the duke of Ormond set against him, came over to London, arid was lodged at Somerset House : and it was believed, that having no children he settled his estate on Jermyn then earl of St. Albans * : but before he came away he had made a prior settlement in favour of his brother. He petitioned the king to order a committee of council to examine the warrants that he had acted upon. The earl of Clarendon was for rejecting the petition, as containing a high indignity to the memory of king Charles the first : and said plainly at council table, that if any person had pretended to affirm such a thing while they were at Oxford he would either have been severely punished for it, or the king would soon have had a very thin court. But it seemed just to see what he had to say for himself: so a committee was named, of which the earl of Northumberland was the chief. He pro- duced to them some of the king's letters : but they did not come up to a full proof. In one of them the king wrote, that he had not then leisure, but referred himself to the queen's letter ; and said, that was all one as if he had written himself. Upon this foundation he produced a series of letters written by himself to the queen, in wrhich he gave her an account of every one of these particulars that were laid to his charge, and showed the grounds he went on, and desired her directions to every one of these : he had answers ordering him to do as he did. This the queen-mother espoused with great zeal ; and said, she was bound in honour to save him. I saw a great deal of that management, for I was then at court. But it was generally believed, that this train of letters was made up at that time in a collusion between the queen and him : so a report was prepared to be signed by the committee, setting forth that he had so fully justified himself in every thing that had been objected to him, that he ought not to be excepted out of the indemnity. This was brought first to the earl of North- umberland to be signed by him ; but he refused it, and said, he was sorry he had produced such warrants, but he did not think they could serve his turn ; for he did not believe any warrant from the king or queen could justify so much bloodshed, in so many black instances as were laid against him. Upon his refusal the rest of the committee did not think fit to sign the report ; so it was let fall : and the king was prevailed on to write to the duke of Ormond, telling him, that he had so vindicated himself, that he must endeavour to get him to be included in the indemnity. That was done ; and was no small reproach to the king, that did thus sacrifice his father's honour to his mother's importunity. Upon this the earl of Essex told me, that he had taken all the pains he could to inquire into the original of the Irish massacre, but could never see any reason to believe the king had any accession to it. He did indeed believe that the queen barkened to the propositions made by the Irish, who undertook to take the government of Ireland into their hands, which they thought tl' rr could easily perform : and then, they said, they would assist the king to subdue the hot spirits at Westminster. With this the plot of the insurrection began ; and all the Irish believed the queen encouraged it. But in the first design there was no thought of a massacre : that came in head as they were laying the methods of executing it : so, as those were managed by the priests, they were the chief men that set on the Irish to all the blood and cruelty that followed. I know nothing in particular of the sequel of the war, nor of all the confusions that hap- pened till the murder of king Charles the first : only one passage I had from lieutenant- general Drummond, afterwards lord Strathallan. He served on the king's side; but he had many friends among those who were for the covenant ; so the king's affairs being now ruined, he was recommended to Cromwell, being then in a treaty with the Spanish Ambas- sador, who was negotiating for some regiments to be levied and sent over from Scotland to Flanders : he happened to be with Cromwell when the commissioners sent from Scotland to protest against the putting the king to death came to argue the matter with him. Cromwell bade Drumoiid stay and hear their conference, which he did. They began in a heavy languid style to lay indeed great load on the king : but they still insisted on that clause in the covenant, by which they swore they would be faithful in the preservation of his Majesty's person. With this they showed upon what terms Scotland, as well as the two houses, had engaged in the war ; and what solemn declarations of their zeal and duty to the king they * If as was then generally believed, the earl of St. Albans was married to the queen dowager, this was a powerful mode to secure her interest in his favour, and seems to have succeeded. 26 A SUMMARY OF AFFAIRS all along published; which wouifi MOW appear, to the scandal and reproach of the Christian name, to have been false pretences, if, when the king was in their power, they should pro- ceed to extremities. Upon this Cromwell entered into a long discourse of the nature of the regal power, according to the principles of Mariana and Buchanan : he thought a breach of trust in a king ought to be punished more than any other crime whatsoever : he said as to their covenant, they swore to the preservation of the king's person in defence of the true religion : if then it appeared that the settlement of the true religion was obstructed by the king, so that they could not come at it but by putting him out of the way, then their oath could not bind them to the preserving him any longer. He said also, their covenant did bind them to bring all malignants, incendiaries, and enemies to the cause, to condign punishment : and was not this to be executed impartially ? What were all those on wThom public justice had been done, especially those who suffered for joining with Montrose, but small offenders, acting by commission from the king, who was, therefore, the principal, and so the most guilty ? Drummond said, Cromwell had plainly the better of them at their own wTeapon, and upon their own principles. At this time presbytery was at its height in Scotland. In summer, 1648, when the parliament declared they would engage to rescue the king from his imprisonment, and the parliament of England from the force it was put under by the army, the nobility went into the design, all except six or eight. The king had signed an engagement to make good his offers to the nation of the northern counties, with the other conditions formerly mentioned : and particular favours were promised to every one that con- curred in it. The marquis of Argyle gave it out that the Hamiltons, let them pretend what they would, had no sincere intentions to their cause, but had engaged to serve the king on his own terms : he filled the preachers with siich jealousies of this, that though all the demands that they made for the security of their cause, and in declaring the grounds of the war, were complied with, yet they could not be satisfied, but still said the Hamiltons were in a confederacy with the malignants in England, and did not intend to stand to what they promised. The General Assembly declared against it. as an unlawful confederacy with the enemies of God, and called it the Unlawful Engagement, which came to be the name com- monly given to it in all their pulpits. They every where preached against it, and opposed the levies all they could by solemn denunciations of the wrath and curse of God on all con- cerned in them. This was a strange piece of opposition to the state, little inferior to what was pretended to and put in practice by the church of Rome. The south-west counties of Scotland have seldom corn enough to serve them round the year : and the northern parts producing more than they need, those in the west come in the summer to buy at Leith the stores that come from the north : and from a word, ichiygam, used in driving their horses, all that drove were called the wltiggamors, and shorter the ichiyys. Now in that year, after the news came down of duke Hamilton's defeat, the ministers ani- mated their people to rise, and march to Edinburgh : and they came up marching on the head of their parishes, with an unheard-of fury, praying and preaching all the way as they came. The marquis of Argyle and his party came and headed them, they being about (3000. This was called the whiggamors' inroad : and ever after that all that opposed the court came in contempt to be called wliiggs : and from Scotland the word was brought into England, where it is now one of our unhappy terms of distinction. The committee of their estates, with the force they had in their hands, could easily have dissipated this undisciplined herd. But they knowing their own weakness sent to Cromwell desiring his assistance. Upon that the committee saw they could not stand before him : so they came to a treaty and delivered up the government to this new body. Upon their assuming it, they declared all who had served or assisted in the engagement incapable of any employment, till they had first satisfied the kirk of the truth of their repentance, and made public professions of it. All churches were upon that full of mock penitents, some making their acknowledgments all in tears, to gain more credit with the new party. The earl of Lowdun, that was chancellor, had entered into solemn promises both to the king and the Hamiltons : but when he came to Scotland, his wife, a high covenanter, and an heiress, by whom he had both honour and estate, threatened him, if he went on that way, with a process of adultery, in which she could have had very copious proofs : he durst not stand this. BEFORE THE RESTORATION. 27 and so compounded the matter, by the deserting his friends, and turning over to the other side : of which he made public profession in the church of Edinburgh with many tears, con- fessing his weakness in yielding to the temptation of what had a show of honour and loyalty, for which he expressed a hearty sorrow. Those that came in early with great shows of compunction got easier off : but those who stood out long found it a harder matter to make their peace. Cromwell came down to Scotland, and saw the new modes fully settled. During his absence from the scene, the treaty of the Isle of Wight was set on foot by the parliament, who seeing the army at such a distance took this occasion of treating with the king. Sir Henry Vane, and others who were for a change of government, had no mind to treat any more. But both city and country were so desirous of a personal treaty, that it could not be resisted. Yane, Pierpoint, and some others, went to the treaty on purpose to delay matters till the army could be brought up to London. All that wished well to the treaty prayed the king at their first coming to despatch the business with all possible haste, and to grant the first day all that he could bring himself to grant on the last. Hollis and Grimstone told me, they had both on their knees begged this of the king. They said they knew Vane would study to draw out the treaty to a great length : and he, who declared for an unbounded liberty of conscience, would try to gain on the king's party by the offer of a toleration for the common prayer and the episcopal clergy. His design in that was to gain time, till Cromwell should settle Scotland and the north. But they said, if the king would frankly come in without the formality of papers backward and forward, and send them back next day with the concessions that were absolutely necessary, they did not doubt but he should in a very few days be brought up with honour, freedom, and safety to the parliament, and that matters should be brought to a present settlement. Titus, who was then much trusted by the king, and employed in a negotiation with the presbyterian party, told me he had spoken often and earnestly to him in the same strain : but the king could not come to a resolution : and he still fancied, that in the struggle between the House of Commons and the army, both saw they needed him so much to give them the superior strength, that he imagined by balancing them he would bring both sides into a greater dependence on himself, and force them to better terms. In this Vane flattered the episcopal party to the king's ruin as well as their own. But they still hated the presbyterians as the first authors of the war ; and seemed unwilling to think well of them, or to be beholden to them. Thus the treaty went on with a fatal slowness : and by the time it was come to some maturity, Cromwell came up with his army and overturned all. Upon this I will set down what sir Harbotle Grimstone told me a few weeks before his death. Whether it was done at this time, or the year before, I cannot tell : I rather believe the latter. When the House of Commons and the army were a quarrelling, at a meeting of the officers, it was proposed to purge the army better, that they might know whom to depend on. Cromwell upon that said, he was sure of the army ; but there was another body that had more need of purging, naming the House of Commons, and he thought the army only could do that. Two officers that were present brought an account of this to Grimston, who carried them with him to the lobby of the House of Commons, they being resolved to justify it to the House. There was another debate then on foot : but Grimstone diverted it, and said, he had a matter of privilege of the highest sort to lay before them : it was about the being and freedom of the house. So he charged Cromwell with the design of putting a force on the house : he had his witnesses at the door, and desired they might be examined : they were brought to the bar, and justified all that they had said to him, and gave a full relation of all that had passed at their meetings. When they withdrew, Cromwell fell down on his knees, and made a solemn prayer to God, attesting his innocence, and his zeal for the service of the house : he submitted himself to the providence of God, who it seems thought fit to exercise him with calumny and slander, but he committed his cause to him : this he did with great vehemence, and with many tears. After this strange and bold preamble, lie made so long a speech, justifying both himself and the rest of the officers, except a few that seemed inclined to return back to Egypt, that" he wearied out the house, and wrought so much on his party, that what the witnesses had said was so little believed, that, had it been moved, Grimstone thought that both he and they would have been sent to the Tower. But 28 A SUMMARY OF AFFAIRS whether their guilt made them modest, or that they had no mind to have the matter much talked of, they let it fall : and there was no strength on the other side to carry it farther. To complete the scene, as soon as ever Cromwell got out of the house, he resolved to trust himself no more among them ; but went to the army, and in a few days he brought them up, and forced a great many from the house. I had much discourse on this head with one who knew Cromwell well and all that set of men ; and asked him how they could excusa all the prevarications, and other ill things, of which they were visibly guilty in the conduct of their affairs. He told me, they believed there were great occasions in which some men were called to great services, and in the doing of which they were excused from the common rules of morality : such were the practices of Ehud and Jael, Samson and David : and by this they fancied they had a privilege from observing the standing rules. It is very obvious how far this principle may be carried, and how all justice and mercy may be laid aside on this pretence by every bold enthusiast. Ludlow, in his memoirs, justifies this force put on the parliament, as much as he condemns the force that Cromwell and the army afterw vrds put on the house : and he seems to lay this down for a maxim, that the military powe» ughfc always to be subject to the civil : and yet, without any sort of resentment for what he had done, he owns the share he had in the force put on the parliament at this time. The plain reconciling of this is, that he thought when the army judged the parliament was in the wrong they might use violence, but not otherwise : which gives the army a superior authority, arid an inspection into the proceedings of the par- liament. This shows how impossible it is to set up a commonwealth in England : for that cannot be brought about but by a military force : and they will ever keep the parliament in subjection to them, and so keep up their own authority. I will leave all that relates to the king's trial and death to common historians, knowing nothing that is particular of that great transaction, which was certainly one of the most amazing scenes in history. Ireton was the person that drove it on : for Cromwell was all the while in some suspense about it. Ireton had the principles and the temper of a Cassius in him : he stuck at nothing that might have turned England to a commonwealth : and he found out Cook and Bradshaw, two bold lawyers, as proper instruments for managing it. Fairfax was much distracted in his mind, and changed purposes often every day. The pres- byterians and the body of the city were much against it, and were every where fasting and praying for the king's preservation. There were not above 8000 of the army about the town : but these were selected out of the whole army, as the most engaged in enthusiasm : and they were kept at prayer in their way almost day and night, except when they were upon duty : so that they were wrought up to a pitch of fury, that struck a terror into all people. On the other hand the king's party was without spirit : and, as many of themselves have said to me, they could never believe his death was really intended, till it was too late. They thought all was a pageantry to strike a terror, and to force the king to such concessions as they had a mind to extort from him. The king himself showed a calm and a composed firmness, which amazed all people ; and that so much the more because it was not natural to him. It was imputed to a very extraordinary- measure of supernatural assistance. Bishop Juxon did the duty of his function honestly, but with a dry coldness that could not raise the king's thoughts: so that it was owing wholly to somewhat within himself that he went through so many indignities with so much true greatness, without disorder or any sort of affectation *. Thus he died greater than he had lived ; and * Although Dr. Juxon's fervour in prayer and spiri- his conscience, he ought not to do it, whatsoever liap- tual consolation was noc sufficiently animated to please our pened." ( Whitelock's Memorials, 44.) Charles had bitterly authoi,yet his temperament, his manner, arid his character, felt the pangs of useless regret that he had not adopted collectively rendered him, above all other ecclesiastics, the this advice. Loving the man for his unimpeached virtues, man most desired as his attendant by the royal sufferer, the king requested that he might attend him in the final axon was a man of inflexible integrity, and Charles told preparation for death. When this request was granted, sir Philip Warwick, " I never got his opinion freely in my his majesty declared it was " no small refreshing to his life; but when I had it, I was ever the better for it." spirit." The most simple and authentic detail of the bishop's (Warwick's Memoirs, .96.) When the others of the privy intercourse with the king during the last few days of his life, councillors basely advised the king to sign the warrant for • and of all theevcnts of that deeply-interesting period, is to be the earl of Strafford's execution, or pusillanimously read in WTood'3 Athencc Oxoniensis, being the narrative declined advising at all, Juxon alone dared to act right, and given bj- Mr. Thomas Herbert, his majesty's personal told bis majesty unreservedly, " if he was not satisfied in attendant at the time. Dr. Burnet, from the passage iu BEFORE THE RESTORATION. £0 showed, that which has often been observed of the whole race of the Stuarts, that they bore misfortunes better than prosperity. His reign both in peace and war was a continual series of errors : so that it does not appear that he had a true judgment of things. He was out of measure set on following his humour, but unreasonably feeble to those whom he trusted, chiefly to the queen. He had too high a notion of the regal power, and thought that every opposition to it was rebellion. He minded little things too much, and was more concerned in the drawing of a paper than in fighting a battle. He had a firm aversion to popery, but was much inclined to a middle way between protestants and papists, by which he lost the one without gaining the other. His engaging the duke of Rohan in the war of Rochelle, and then assisting him so poorly, and forsaking him at last, gave an ill character of him to all the protestants abroad. The earl of Lauderdale told me the duke of Rohan was at Geneva, where he himself was, when he received a very long letter, or rather a little book, from my father, which gave him a copious account of the beginning of the troubles in Scotland. He translated it to the duke of Rohan, who expressed a vehement indignation at the court of England for their usage of him : of which this was the account he then gave. The duke of Buckingham had a secret conversation with the queen of France, of which the queen-mother was very jealous, and possessed the king with such a sense of it that he was ordered immediately to leave the court. Upon his return to England under this affront, he possessed the king with such a hatred of that court, that the queen was ill-used on her coming over, and all her servants were sent back *. He told him also that the protestants were so ill-used, and so strong, that if he would protect them they would involve that kingdom in new wars ; which he represented as so glorious a beginning of his reign, that the king without weighing the consequence of it sent one to treat with the duke of Rohan about it. Great assistance was promised by sea : so a war was resolved on, in which the share that our court had is well enough known. But the infamous part was, that Richlieu got the king of France to make his queen write an obliging letter to the duke of Buckingham, assuring him that, if he would let Rochelle fall without assisting it, he should have leave to come over, and should settle the whole matter of the religion according to their edicts. This was a strange proceeding : but cardinal Richlieu could turn that weak king as he pleased. Upon this the duke made that shameful campaign of the Isle of Rhe. But finding next winter that he was not to be suffered to go over into France, arid that he was abused into a false hope, he resolved to have followed that matter with more vigour, when he was stabbed by Felton. the text above, and from another slight notice of Juxon, considered impolitic to allow priests and others attached to evidently did not admire him, although he says nothing to the interests of that country to be in such intimate inter- his discredit. All other authorities speak decidedly in his course with our court. The misbehaviour of some of praise, and Mr. Grainger only epitomises their commenda- them was the plea for dismissing them. Sir Hamond tions when he says "The mildness of his temper, the L' Estrange, who was a contemporary, says, on the evening gentleness of his manners, and the integrity of his life, of the 1st of July, 1626, the king, attended by the duke gained him universal esteem. Even the haters of pre- of Buckingham, the earls of Holland and Carlisle, aud lacy could never hate Juxon." He died in 1663, aged other officers, came to Somerset House, whither all the 81. Sir Philip Warwick, his contemporary and acquaint- queen's servants had been summoned previously. His ance, says, " he was of a meek spirit, and of a solid, steady majesty thus addressed them : — " Ladies and gentlemen, judgment. Having addicted his first studies to the civil I am driven to that extremity, that I am come to acquaint law (from which he took his title of doctor, though he you I very earnestly desire your return to France. True afterwards took on him the ministry), this fitted him the it is the deportment of some of you hath been very more for secular and state affairs. His temper and pru- inoffensive to me ; but others again have so dallied with dence wrought so upon all men, that although he had the my patience, and so highly affronted me, that I cannot, I two most invidious characters, both in the ecclesiastical will not longer endure it.'' The bishop of Mende and and civil state — being a bishop and lord treasurer — yet Madame St. George inquired whether they were the neither drew envy on him, though the humour of the offenders ; but the king departed without any other reply times tended to brand all great men in employment.'" — than " I name none." The queen was very importunate (Warwick's Memoirs, 93 — 96.) to have them permitted to stay ; but this was not per- * It is certainly not the fact that the queen was ill mitted, and, after having more than their salaries paid to used upon her first coining over, for she was attended to them, they were all sent back to France. L'Estrange England by Buckingham, with all the customary magni- declares that the queen's confessor having made her walk ficence and ceremony. Charles himself met her at bare-foot from Somerset House to St. James's, and Canterbury. As to the reason of the queen's female Madame St. George having caused the queen to be attendants being dismissed, an event that did not occur jealous of his majesty, were the causes of this dismissal, until they had been here twelve months, it probably was The continuer of Baker's Chronicle repeats this story, founded upon state considerations. This country was then but it is grossly improbable. — L" Estrange* Reign of oil the eve of war with France, and it might very justly be Charles I., 58. 30 A SUMMARY OF AFFAIRS There is another story told of the king's conduct during the peaceable part of his reign, which I had from Halewyn of Dort, who was one of the judges in the court of Holland, and was the wisest and greatest man I knew among them. He told me, he had it from his father, who being then the chief man of Dort was of the States, and had the secret communicated to him. When Isabella Clara Eugenia grew old, and began to decline, a great many of her council apprehending what miseries they would fall under, when they should be again in the hands of the Spaniards, formed a design of making themselves a free commonwealth, that, in imitation of the union among the cantons of Switzerland that were of both religions, there should be a perpetual confederacy between them and the States of the seven provinces. This they communicated to Henry Frederick prince of Orange, and to some of the States, who approved of it, but thought it necessary to engage the king of England in it. The prince of Orange told the English ambassador, that there was a matter of great consequence that waa fit to be laid before the king ; but it was of such a nature, and such persons were concerned in it, that it could not be communicated, unless the king would be pleased to promise absolute secrecy for the present. This the king did : and then the prince of Orange sent him the whole scheme. The secret was ill kept : either the king trusted it to some who discovered it, or the paper was stolen from him : for it was sent over to the court of Brussells. One of the ministry lost his head for it : and some took the alarm so quickly that they got to Holland out of danger. After this the prince of Orange had no commerce with our court, and often lamented that so great a design was so unhappily lost. He had as ill an opinion of the king's con- duct of the war ; for when the queen came over, and brought some of the generals with her, the prince said, after he had talked with them, (as the late king told me,) he did not wonder to see the affairs of England decline as they did, since he had talked with the king's generals. I will not enter farther into the military part : for I remember an advice of Marshal Schornberg's, never to meddle in the relation of military matters. He said, some affected to relate those affairs in all the terms of war, in which they committed great errors, that exposed them to the scorn of all commanders, who must despise relations that pretend to an exactness when there were blunders in every part of them. In the king's death the ill effect of extreme violent counsels discovered itself. Ireton hoped that by this all men concerned in it would become irreconcileable to monarchy, and would act as desperate men, and destroy all that might revenge that blood. But this had a very different effect. Something of the same nature had happened in lower instances before : but they were not the wiser for it. The earl of Strafford's death made all his former errors be forgotten : it raised his character, and cast a lasting odium on that way of pro- ceeding ; whereas he had sunk in his credit by any censure lower than death, and had been little pitied, if not thought justly punished. The like effect followed upon Archbishop Laud's death. He was a learned, a sincere and ztalous man, regular in his own life, and humble in his private deportment ; but was a hot, indiscreet man, eagerly pursuing some matters that were either very inconsiderable or mischievous, such as setting the communion table by the east walls of churches, bowing to it, and calling it the altar, the suppressing the Walloons' privileges, the breaking of lectures, the encouraging of sports on the Lord's day, with some other things that were of no value : and yet all the zeal and heat of that time was laid out on these. His severity in the star-chamber and in the high commission court, but above all his violent and indeed inexcusable injustice in the prosecution of bishop Williams, were Buch visible blemishes, that nothing but the putting him to death in so unjust a manner could have raised his character ; which indeed it did to a degree of setting him up as a pattern, and the establishing all his notions as standards, by which judgments are to be made of men whether they are true to the church or not. His diary, though it was a base thing to publish it, represents him as an abject fawner on the duke of Buckingham, and as a superstitious regarder of dreams : his defence of himself, written with so much care when he was in the Tower, is a very mean performance. He intended in that to make an appeal to the world. In most particulars he excuses himself by this, that he was but one of many, who either in council, star-chamber, or high commission, voted illegal things. Now though this was true, yet a chief minister, and one in high favour, determines the rest so much, that they are. BEFORE THE RESTORATION 31 generally little better than machines acted by him. On other occasions he says, the thing was proved but by one witness. Now, how strong soever this defence may be in law, it is of no force in an appeal to the world ; for if a thing is true, it is no matter how full or how defective the proof is. The thing that gave me the strongest prejudice against him in that book is, that after he had seen the ill effects of his violent counsels, and had been so long shut up, and so long at leisure to reflect on what had passed in the hurry of passion, in the exaltation of his prosperity, he does not in any one part of that great work acknowledge his own errors, nor mix in it any wise or pious reflections on the ill usage he met with or the unhappy steps he had made : so that while his enemies did really magnify him by their inhuman prosecu- tion, his friends Ileylin and Wharton have as much lessened him, tho one by writing his life, and the other by publishing his vindication of himself. But the recoiling of cruel counsels on the authors of them never appeared more eminently than in the death of king Charles the first, whose serious and Christian deportment in it made all his former errors be entirely forgotten, and raised a compassionate regard to him, that drew a lasting hatred on the actors, and was the true occasion of the great turn of the nation in the year 1660. This was much heightened by the publishing of his book called ELKWV Bao-iXiicr), which was universally believed to be his own : and that coming out soon after his death had the greatest run, in many impressions, that any book has had in our age. There was in it a nobleness and justness of thought with a greatness of style, that made it to be looked on as the best-written book in the English language : and the piety of the prayers made all people cry out against the murder of a prince, who thought so seriously of all hia affairs in his secret meditations before God. I was bred up with a high veneration of this book : and I remember that, when I kcard how some denied it to be his, I asked the earl of Lothian about it, who both knew the king very well and loved him little : he seemed confi- dent it was his own work ; for he said, he had heard him say a great many of those very periods that ho found in that book. Being thus confirmed in that persuasion, I was not a little surprised, when in the year 1673, in which I hac a great share of favour and iree con- versation with the then duke of York, afterwards king James the second, as he suffered me to talk very freely to him about matters of religion, and as I was urging him with somewhat out of his father's book, he told me that book was not of his father's writing, and that the letter to the prince of Wales was never brought to him. He said, Dr. Gauden wrote it • after the restoration he brought the duke of Somerset and the earl of Southampton both to the king and to himself, who affirmed that they knew it was his writing ; and that it was carried down by the earl of Southampton, and showed the king during the treaty of Newport, who read it, and approved of it as containing his sense of things. Upon this he told me, that though Sheldon and the other bishops opposed Gauden's promotion because he had taken the covenant, yet the merits of that service carried it for him, notwithstanding the opposition made to it. There has been a great deal of disputing about this book : some are so zealous for maintaining it to be the king's, that they think a man false to the church that doubts it to be his : yet the evidence since that time brought to the contrary has been so strong, that I must leave that under the same uncertainty under which I found it. Only this is certain, that Gauden never wrote any thing with that force, his other writings being such, that no man from a likeness of style would think him capable of writing so extraordinary a book as that is *. * Of the effect produced upon the public mind by the tion to which no positive reply can be given, but the evi- " Eikon Basilike," Burnet gives not at all an exaggerated dence certainly preponderates in favour of Dr. Gauden's account. A contemporary stated as his opinion that if it claim to that merit. The objection that the earl of had appeared a few weel-s earlier, the regicides would Lothian had heard the king express the same sentiments not have dared to conduct Charles to the scaffold. It in the same terms that are in that celebrated work, had such an influence in winning favour to the royal cause, amounts to no evidence that he wrote it, for Dr. Gauden that Cromwell considered it essentially necessary that an may have heard the same, and reduced them to writing. answer to it should be published. He selected Selden for To say that the doctor never wrote any other work equal the execution of this task, and is said to have applied to to this is only saying what may bo said of all other him personally, and by their mutual friends, to persuade authors — all of them have a masterpiece. But on the him to the undertaking. He unhesitatingly declined, other hand, Mr. Todd has shown a close similarity in his and the reply, entitled, " Iconoclastes," was eventually style and modes of expression. Giving these objections written by the poet Milton. (Memoirs of Selden, 343.) the utmost weight to which they can be entitled as argu- Who was the author of the " Eikon Basilike ? " is a ques- ments from probabilities, they yet are nothing compared to 32 A SUMMARY OF AFFAIRS "Upon the king's death the Scots proclaimed his son king, and sent over Sir George Win- cam, that married my great aunt, to treat with him while he was in the isle of Jersey. The the direct declaration of James II., who says, that the duke of Somerset and the earl of Southampton brought Dr. Gauden to him and to Charles II. for promotion, on the ground that he was the author ; the earl declaring that he took the manuscript from Dr. Gauden to Charles I. for his approval, which he gave*. Mr. Higgins, in oppo- sition to this, observes, that both James II. and Charles II. authorised the book to be published in editions of their father's works. To which we may rejoin that, as they knew it contained his sentiments, and had his approval, they might do so without any immoral concealment of the truth ; the concealment was for no ill purpose ; at the worst it threw a halo of merit round the dead, and would assist in checking the recurrence of hasty revolutions. As the subject is still interesting, relative works by Dr. Wordsworth, Mr. Todd, and Mr. Broughton, having within these few years been published, this note may be lengthened to lay the conflicting evidence collectively before the reader. The direct testimony sustaining the claim of Dr. Gau- den is as follows : — Dr. Walker, in his " True Account of the Author of a Book, entitled ' Eikon Basilike,' " pub- lished in 1G92, states that he knows it was, with the excep- tion of two chapters, contributed by Dr. Duppa, composed by Dr. Gauden ; he says that the latter showed him the tillesof several of the chapters, and allowed him to peruse and pass his opinion upon the appended discourses. That he accompanied the author to Dr. Duppa's to fetch some of the manuscript that the latter had been allowed to read ; and that Dr. Gauden told Dr. Walker that Dr. Duppa had promised to write two chapters (which are the 16th and 24th) on the ordinance against the Common Prayer Book, and on the refusal to permit the king's chaplains to attend him. After the king's execution, Dr. Walker asked Dr. Gauden whether the king had ever seen the book, to which he replied, " I know it certainly no more than you, but I used my best endeavours that he might, for I delivered a copy of it to the marquis of Hert- ford, when he went to the treaty at the Isle of Wight, and ontreated his lordship, if he could obtain any private opportunity, he would deliver it to his majesty, and humbly desire to know his majesty's pleasure concerning it. But the violence which threatened the king hastening so fast, he ventured to print it, and never knew what was the issue of sending it. For when the thing was done, he judged it not prudent to make inquiry about it." " I cannot positively and certainly say, that the king (Charles II.) knew I wrote it, because he was never pleased to take express notice of it to me. But I take it for granted he doth, for I am sure the duke of York doth, for he hath spoken of it to me, and owned it as a seasonable and acceptable service." Dr. Walker adds, that the wife and son of Dr. Gauden, and Mr. Gifford, who, he believes, wrote the copy sent to the king in the Isle of Wight, always spoke of it as being his composition. Lastly, the doc- tor says, that he was the agent employed to get the con- cluding part of the manuscript into the hands of Mr. Roy- ston, the printer, to prevent the latter knowing the author. In 1686, when Mr.Millington sold by auction the library of the earl of Anglesea, among other books disposed of was a copy of the " Eikon Basilike," in which the earl had written, " King Charles the Second and the duke of York did both (in the last sessions of parliament, 1675, when I showed them in the Lords' house the written copy of this book, wherein are some corrections and alterations, written * Mrs. Gauden and others say it was the Marquis of Hertford. with the late king Charles the first's own hand) assure me that this was none of the said king's compiling, but made by Dr. Gauden, which I here insert for the unde- ceiving others in this point, by attesting under my hand." — "ANGLESEY." (Dr. Walker's True Account, 2nd ed.) When Mrs. Gauden died she left the family papers to uer son John, and from him they came to his brother Charles. The sister of the latter's wife was married to a Mr. Arthur North, a very respectable merchant, living in 16.99 on Tower Hill, and into his possession they even- tually came as manager of his sister-in-law's affairs. They contained further testimony that Dr. Gauden was the author of the " Eikon Basilike." 1st. Thepe was a narrative in the hand-writing of the bishop's widow posi- tively asserting it as the truth. She says that when her husband had written it he showed it to Lord Capel, who recommended it to be shown to the king; to effect this the bishop applied to the marquis of Hertford, who reported that bishop Duppa having read part of the work to the king, the latter much approved of it, but wished the title to be altered ; but what became of the manu- script the marquis could not tell. Dr. Gauden. accord- ing to his widow, afterwards added the Essay on his Majesty being denied the attendance of his chaplain?, and the Meditation upon Death. The bishop employed Mr. Simmonds to convey the manuscript to Mr. Royston, the printer, who never knew that the king was not the author. With many other particulars, Mrs. Gauden adds that Charles the Second was equally unacquainted with the real author until her husband told him. 2ndly, there were among the same papers a letter from secretary Nicholas to Dr. Gauden ; a copy of one from the latter to lord-chancellor Clarendon ; another from him to the duke of York ; and a letter from Claren- don to Dr. Gauden, all relating to the same subject, and adding, in various degrees, attestation to the doctor's being the real author (Toland's Amyntor.) In testimony that Charles the first was the actual author of the work, we have the following narrative : — That among the Naseby papers there was a copy of the Icon Basilike, and that major Huntingdon, by the per- mission of sir Thomas Fairfax, restored it to the king when he was at Hampton Court ; but major Huntingdon told Dr. Walker that whatever papers he saw in the king's possession he was totally ignorant of their contents. It is at the same time to be observed, that it is very impro- bable that Fairfax did not send up the whole of the Naseby papers to the parliament. But it must not be omitted to be stated that sir William Dugdale relates that major Huntingdon told him very particularly that the book was bound in white vellum, and that though the heads of the chapters were in the writing of sir Edward Walker, corrected and interlined by the king, yet the prayers were entirely in the hand-writing of the latter. -(Dugdale" s Short View of the late Trouble.) Mr. Levet, a page of the back stairs, attested positively that he had seen the book at the Isle of Wight, and had often observed his majesty " writing his royal resentments of the bold and insolent behaviour of the soldiers." This is direct evidence, but there are no such reflections in the " Eikon Basilike." Mr. Royston affirmed that he had his orders from the king to print the work, to make alterations, &c. But this does not contradict the testimony of Mrs. Gauden, &c., for they state that the printer never knew to the contrary. Mr. Barry declared that sir William Morton told him that the king once gave him a sheet of paper on which to BEFORE THE RESTORATION. 3-? king entered into a ricgociation with them, and sent him back with general assurances of consenting to every reasonable proposition that they should send him. He named the Hague for the place of treaty, he being to go thither in a few days. So the Scots sent over commis- sioners, the chief of whom were the earls of Cassilis and Lothian ; the former of these was my first wife's father, a man of great virtue and of a considerable degree of good understanding : he was so sincere, that he would suffer no man to take his words in any other sense than as he meant them : he adhered firmly to his instructions, but with so much candour, that king- Charles retained very kind impressions of it to his life's end. The man then in the greatest favour with the king was the duke of Buckingham : he was wholly turned to mirth and pleasure : he had the art of turning persons or things into ridicule beyond any man of the age : he possessed the young king with very ill principles, both as to religion and morality, and with a very mean opinion of his father, whose stiffness was with him a frequent subject of raillery. He prevailed with the king to enter into a treaty with the Scots, though that was vehemently opposed by almost all the rest that were about him, who pressed him to adhere steadily to his father's maxims and example * •write a despatch, having a passage previously written upon it, that is in the Eikon Basilikc. This was read by him in the hurry of the war, and was immediately returned by him to the king ; yet when he was an old man, he could repeat the very words. A witness may shew too good a memory. The widow of Mr. Simmonds attested that she saw some of the manuscript of the Eikon Basilike in the pos- session of her husband ; and he told her that it was written by the king. This is very weak evidence, because no man being employed to sustain that deception, would say other- wise if interrogated. A Mr. Allen told Mr. Le Pla, who informed Dr. Good- all that Dr. Gauden told him that he had borrowed the book, and that he, Allen, sat up with him all one night whilst he copied it. Granting this to be perfectly accu- rate, Dr. Gauden might rationally make such a represen- tation to preserve the secret. I shall not proceed to detail the secondary evidence, the comparison of Dr. Gaudeu's style and language contained in his acknowledged works with that in the " Eikon Basilike ;" the testimony of the Marquis of Hertford, of James the Second, Charles the Second, &c.,nor yet to estimate at length the comparative weight of conflicting testimony, but whoever will do so, as I have done by perusing the chief works that might have been published upon the subject, will, perhaps be similarly convinced that the preponderance of testimony and of argument is most decidedly in favour of Dr. Gauden. So clear does it appear to me, that I consider there would not be a doubt on the mind of a jury to whom it might be submitted — it is, in fact, clear decisive evidence, met prin- cipally by that which is hearsay. It is true that, in the former there are some discrepancies, but they are such as confirm rather than shake the combined testimony, for it is conclusive that there was no collusion among the wit- nesses, that they were not the mere repeaters of a pre- pared story. The variations amount to no more than will be found in all human testimony, substantial truth with circumstantial variety. Those who wish to examine for themselves may read the following works : — FOR CHARLES. swell's Life of Berwick, fagstaffe's Vindication of Charles. Sir W. Dugdale's Short Account. Wordsworth's Letters to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Nicholl's Life of Bowyer. Burton on the genuineness of Clarendon's History. Young's " Several Evidences concerning the author of Eikon Basilike." FOR GAUDEN. Walker's TrueAccount of the Author of Eikon Basilike. Toland's Life of Milton and Awynton. Broughton's Letter touching the Question, Who was the Autho of Icon Basilike ? Todd's Bishop Gauden the Author. The claim and evidences of Bishop Gauden, being the author of the Eikon Basilike, were first published by Mr. Edmund Ludlow, in an essay entitled " Truth brought to Light." This appeared in the year 1693. Bishop Kennett in his Register and Chronicle vainly endeavours to reconcile the conflicting evidence by sup- posing that the king's MSS. being placed in the hands of Mr. Symonds for publication, the latter, when pursued by the Cromwell party, put them into the custody of Dr. Gauden, M'ho finally, with the aid of Dr. Duppa, enlarged and prepared the work for the press, as it finally appeared. — (Kennett's Register and Chronicle, 774, 642.) * This George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, was the son of him who died by the knife of Felton ; a death which, if justifiable, he merited even more than his father. A more unprincipled profligate never existed. He killed the Duke of Shrewsbury in a duel, and passed the night with the duchess in the shirt stained by her husband's blood ! In his resentments no course was too desperate ; he caballed to subvert the government when dissatisfied with the court— and hired Blood to seize the duke of Ormond with whom he was in enmity. He was Protean in his character — he was an alchymist — a musician — a poet — a statesman — a wit— a dramatist — a mimic — this last qualification aided him to conduct himself with the consummate hypocrisy for which he was celebrated. Clarendon gives him the character with which Burnet agrees. That nobleman in his autobiography says, " That Buckingham had a mortal hatred with the Lady Castlc- mainc, and when in the king's displeasure, which he fre- quently was, he forbore going to the court, and revenged himself upon it by all the merry tales he could tell of what was done there. It cannot be imagined, considering the loose life he led, a life more by night than by day, in all the liberties that nature could desire or wit invent, how great an influence he had in both houses of parlia- ment. His quality and condescensions, the pleasantness of his humour and conversation, the extravagance and sharpness of his wit, unrestrained by any modesty or religion, drew persons of all affections and inclinations to like his company, and to believe that the levities and vanities would be wrought off by age." In this expecta- tion they were mistaken, his libertinism was adhered to until his' death. He died miserably, aged sixty, of a fever A SUMMARY OF AFFAIRS When the king came to the Hague, "William duke of Hamilton and the earl of Lauder- dale, who had left Scotland, entered into a great measure of favour and confidence with him. The marquis of Moutrose came likewise to him, and undertook if he would follow his coun- sels to restore him to his kingdoms by main force : but when the king desired the prince of Orano-e to examine the methods which he proposed, he entertained him with a recital of his own performances and of the credit he was in among the people ; and said, the whole nation would rise if he went over, though accompanied only with a page. He desired of the king nothing but power to act in his name, with a supply in money, and a letter recommending him to the king of Denmark for a ship to carry him over, and for such arms as he could spare. With that the king gave him the garter. He got first to Orkney, and from thence into the highlands of Scotland ; but could perform nothing of what he had undertaken. At last he was betrayed by one of those to whom he trusted himself, Mackloud of Assin, and was brought over a prisoner to Edinburgh. He was carried through the streets with all the infamy that brutal men could contrive : and in a few days he was hanged on a very high gibbet: and his head and quarters were set up in divers places of the kingdom. His behaviour under all that barbarous usage was as great and firm to the last, looking on all that was done to him with a noble scorn, as the fury of his enemies was black and universally detested. This cruelty raised a horror in all sober people against those who could insult over such a man in misfortunes. The triumphs that the preachers made on this occasion rendered them odious, and made lord Montrose to be both more pitied and lamented, than otherwise he could have been*. This happened while the Scotch commissioners were treating with the brought on by violent exercise, in an obscure house at Kirby Moorside, in Yorkshire. This was in 1687. "His wit," Clarendon says, " was exercised with most licence against the church, the law, and the court ;" of these but few sallies remain on record ; but that which he exercised against the stage in his " Rehearsal," still obtains applause. Dryden has recorded his character, and Pope his death- bed, in some of their severest satires. The duke had satirised the former as " Bayes" in his farce of " The Rehearsal ;" and in return Dryden thus describes him as Zimi in Absalom and Achitophel." — " A man so various that he seemed to be Not one, but all mankind's epitome : Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong ; Was every thing by starts, and nothing long; But in the course of one revolving moon Was chemist, fiddler, statesman and buffoon ; Then all for women, painting, rhyming, drinking, Besides ten thousand freaks that died in thinking. * # * In squandering wealth was his peculiar art : Nothing went unrewarded, but desert; Beggar'd by fools, whom still he found too late ; He had his jest, and they had his estate. He laughed himself from Court ; then sought relief By forming parties, but could ne'er be chief; Thus, wicked but in will, of means bereft, He left not faction, but of that was left." Pope, in his "Epistle to Lord Bathurst," thus strikingly sketches the concluding scene of this profligate's life. " In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half hung, The floors of plaster, and the walls of dung, On once a flock-bed, but repaired with straw, With tape-ty'd curtains, never meant to draw, The George and Garter dangling from that bed Where tawdry yellow strove with dirty red, Great Villiers lies — Alas ! how chang'd from him, That life of pleasure, and that soul of whim ! Gallant and gay, in Cliveden's proud alcove The bower of wanton Shrewsbury and love ; Or just as gay, at council, in a ring Of uiiuiick'd statesmen, and their merry king. No wit to flatter, left of all his store ! No fool to laugh at, which he valued more: There, victor of his health, of fortune, friends, • And fame, this lord of useless thousands ends." * James Graham, Marquis of Montrose, was one of the bravest officers that add lustre to our national history. Granting that he relied too much upon his influence with his countrymen, yet this detracts nothing from the merit of his courage- — for it is a merit to be morally courageous. He believed it to be for the interest of his sovereign to engage in the two Scottish expeditions, of which he appeared as the leader ; and he obeyed the dictates of duty against such fearful odds, as have but few if any parallels in history. Clarendon, with whom he was not on the most friendly footing, speaks of him highly and justly. " Montrose was in his nature fearless of danger, and never declined any enterprise for tho difficulty of going through with it, but exceedingly affected those which seemed des- perate to other men, and did believe somewhat to be in himself above other men, which made him live more easily towards those who were, or were willing to be, inferior to him (towards whom he exercised wonderful civility and generosity) than with his superiors or equals. He was naturally jealous, and suspected those who did not concur with him in the way, not to mean so well as he. He was not without vanity, but his virtues were much superior, and he well deserved to have his memory preserved and celebrated among the most illustrious persons of the age in which he lived." — (Hist, of Rebellion, iii. 275, fol. ed.) The name of his betrayer, his treacherous acquaintance and professed friend, Lord Assin or Aston, deserves to be held as eternally infamous. Montrose died as might be anticipated, with courage and magnanimity, professing his loyalty and piety. To detail the circumstances of his execution would be revolting. One particular, however, requires exp.anation. Clarendon says, that just before the termination of his sufferings, " the hangman brought the book that had been published of his heroic actions, whilst lie had commanded in that kingdom, which book was tied in a small cord that was put about his neck. The marquis smiled at this new instance of their malice, and thanked them for it, saying ' he was pleased that it should be there ; and was prouder of wearing it than ever he had BEFORE THE RESTORATION. fl.5 king at the Hague. The violent party in Scotland were for breaking off the treaty upon it, though by the date of lord Montrose's commission it appeared to have been granted before the treaty was begun : but it was carried not to recall their commissioners : nor could the king on the other hand be prevailed on by his own court to send them away, upon this cruelty to a man who had acted by his commission, and yet was so used. The treaty was quickly concluded : the king was in no condition to struggle with them, but yielded to all their demands, of taking the covenant, and suffering none to be about him but such as took it. He sailed home to Scotland with some Dutch men of war, writh which the prince of Orange furnished him, with all the stock of money and arms that his credit could raise. That indeed would not have been very great, if the prince of Orange had not joined his own to it. The duke of Hamilton and the earl of Lauderdale were suffered to go home with him : but soon after his landing an order came to put them from him. The king complained of this : but Duke Hamilton at parting told him, he must prepare for things of a harder digestion : he said, at present he could do him no service : the marquis of Argyle was then in absolute credit : therefore he desired that he would study to gain him, and give him no cause of jealousy on his account. This king Charles told me himself, as a part of duke Hamilton's character. The duke of Buckingham took all the ways possible to gain lord Argyle and the ministers : only his dissolute course of life was excessive scandalous ; which to their great reproach they connived at, because he advised the king to put himself wholly into their hands. The king wrought himself into as grave a deportment as he could : he heard many prayers and sermons, some of a great length. I remember in one fast day there were six sermons preached without intermission. I was there myself, and not a little weary of so tedious a service. The king was not allowed so much as to walk abroad on Sundays : and if at any time there had been any gaiety at court, such as dancing or playing at cards, he was severely reproved for it. This was managed with so much rigour, and so little discretion, that it contributed not a little to beget in him an aversion to all sort of strictness in religion. All that had acted on his father's side were ordered to keep at a great distance from him, and because the common people showed some affection to the king, the crowds that pressed to see him were also kept off from coming about him. Cromwell was not idle ; but seeing the Scots were calling home their king, and knowing that from thence he might expect an invasion into England, he resolved to prevent them, and so marched into Scotland with his army. The Scots brought together a very good army : the king was suffered to come once to see it, but not to stay in it ; for they were afraid he might gain too much upon the soldiers ; so he was sent away. The army was indeed one of the best that ever Scotland had brought together ; but it was ill commanded : for all that had made defection from their cause, or that were thought indif- ferent as to either side, which they called detestable neutrality, were put out of commission. The preachers thought it an army of saints, and seemed well assured of success. They drew near Cromwell, who being pressed by them retired towards Dunbar, where his ships and provisions lay. The Scots followed him, and were posted on a hill about a mile from thence, where there was no attacking them. Cromwell was then in great distress, and looked on himself as undone. There was no marching towards Berwick, the ground was too narrow : nor could he come back into the country without being separated from his ships, and starving his army. The least evil seemed to be to kill his horses, and put his army on board, and sail back to Newcastle ; which, in the disposition that England was in at that time, would have been all their destruction, for it would have occasioned an universal insurrection for the king. They had not above three days' forage for their horses. So Cromwell called his officers to a day of seeking the Lord, in their style. He loved to talk much of that matter all his life been of the garter.'" The little octavo volume alluded to is those of its hero (Jacobus Gracmus), as A. S. are of Agri- of very rare occurrence. The title-page is as follows : — cola Sophocardius, the latinised name of the author, "J. G. De rebus auspiciis serenissimi et potentissimi George Wiseheart, or Wishart, a clergyman who cvcntu- Cnroli Dei gratia Magnse Britannia regis, &o. sub imperio ally became Bishop of Edinburgh. The work is dis- illustrissimi Jacobi Montisrosarum Marchionis,&c. Suprcmi tinguishcd for the purity and elegance of its latinity as Scotiae Gubernatoris CTQlQCXLIV et duobus scqucn- much as for its rarity. Its English translations are to be tibus pracclare gcstis, Commentarius. Interprete A. S." met with more frequently. It was published at Paris in 1648. The initials J. G. are Montrose was executed in 1G50 D 2 36 A SUMMARY OF AFFAIRS long afterwards : lie said, he felt such an enlargement of heart in prayer, and such quiet upon it, that he bade all about him take heart, for God had certainly heard them, and would appear for them. After prayer they walked in the earl of Roxburgh's gardens that lay under the hill : and by prospective glasses they discerned a great motion in the Scottish camp : upon which Cromwell said, " God is delivering them into our hands, they are coming down to us." Lesley was in the chief command : but he had a committee of the states to give him his orders, among whom Waristoun was one. These were weary of lying in the fields, and thought that Lesley made not haste enough to destroy those sectaries ; for so they came to call them. He told them, by lying there all was sure ; but that by engaging in action with gallant iin-d desperate men all might be lost : yet they still called on him to fall on. Many have tthought that all this was treachery done on design to deliver up our army to Cromwell ; some laying it upon Lesley, and others upon my uncle. I am persuaded there was no treachery in it : only Waristoun was too hot, and Lesley was too cold, and yielded too easily to their humours, which he ought wot to have done. They were all the night employed in coming down the hill : and in the morning, before they were put in order, Cromwell fell upon them. Two regiments stood their ground, and were almost all killed in their ranks : the rest did /nil in a most shameful manner : so that both their artillery and baggage were lost, and with these a great many prisoners were taken, some thousands in all *. Cromwell upon this advanced to Edinburgh, where he was received without any opposition : and the castle that might have made a long resistance did capitulate. So all the southern part of Scotland came inder contribution to Cromwell. Stirling was the advanced garrison on the king's side. He himself retired to St. Johnstoun. A parliament was called that sat for some time at Stirling, and for some time at St. Johnstoun, in which a full indemnity was passed, not in the language of a pardon but of an act of approbation : only all that joined with Cromwell were declared traitors. But now the way of raising a new army was to be thought on. A question had been proposed both to the committee of states and to the commissioners of the kirk, whether in this extremity those who had made defection, or had been hitherto too backward in the work, might not upon the profession of their repentance be received into public trust, and admitted to serve in the defence of their country. To this answers were distinctly given by two resolutions : the one was, that they ought to be admitted to make profession of their repentance : and the other was, that after such professions made they might be received to defend and serve their country. Upon this a great division followed in the kirk : those who adhered to these resolutions were called the Pullic Resolutioners : but against these some of those bodies protested, and :iey, together with those who adhered to them, were called the Protestors. On the one jid it was said, that every government might call out all that were under its protection to * Cromwell, in his letter announcing the victory, con- English army lost about 20 men. The slaughter was in 3cs that, previous to the engagement, the Scotch had rout and pursuit over eight miles. Cromwell concludes ery advantage. In numbers they were 22,000, opposed with a great abundance of misplaced religious reflections. only 11,000 English, and they had " gathered towards — (Parliament History, xix. 346, &c. ) Clarendon gives .e hills, having in this posture a great advantage." a similar relation, adding that " the foot depended much • The enemy's word was ' The Covenant* ours ' The upon their preachers, who preached, and prayed, and Lord of Hosts.' Before our foot could come up, the assured them of victory till the English were upon them ; enemy made a gallant resistance, and there was a very hot and some of them were knocked on the head whilst they dispute at sword's point between our horse and theirs, were promising the victory." It would never be believed Our first foot, after they had discharged their duty, being that the army, so dreadfully cut to pieces, was fighting to overpowered by the enemy, received some repulse, which place Charles the Second on the English throne, if Claren- they soon recovered : but my own regiment did come sea- don's description of its destruction alone recorded the Bombly in ; and, at the push of pike, did repel the stoutest event. He very calmly observes, " Never victory was regiment the enemy had there, merely with the courage attended with less lamentations — the king tvas glad of it, the Lord was pleased to give, which proved a great amaze- as the greatest happiness that could befal him, in the ment to the residue of their foot. This being the first loss of so strong a body of his enemies, who, if they should action between the foot, the horse, in the mean time, did, have prevailed, his majesty did believe they would have with a great deal of courage and spirit, beat back all oppo- shut him up in a prison the next day ; which had been lition, charging through the bodies of the enemy's horse only a stricter confinement than he suffered already: for -ud foot; who were, after the first repulse given, made, the lord Lorn being captain of his guard, had so watchful ••v the Lord of Hosts, as stubble to their swords." About a care of him both night and day, that his majesty could 000 were slain, nearly 10,000 taken prisoners, all the not go any whither without his leave." — (Hist, of Rebei- * .jgage, 30 cannon, 15,000 arn s, md 200 colours. The I'M iii. 294, fol. ed.) BEFORE THE RESTORATION. 37 its defence : this seemed founded on the law of nature and of nations : and, if men had been misled, it was a strange cruelty to deny room for repentance : this was contrary to the nature of God and to the Gospel, and was a likely mean to drive them to despair : therefore after two years' time it seemed reasonable to allow them to serve according to their birthright in parliament, or in other hereditary offices, or in the army ; from all which they had been excluded by an act made in the year 1049, which ranged them in different classes, and was from thence called " the act of classes." But the Protestors objected against all this, that to take in men of known enmity to the cause was a sort of betraying it, because it was the putting it in their power to betray it ; that to admit them into a profession of repentance was a profanation, and a mocking of God : it was visible, they were willing to comply with these terms, though against their conscience, only to get into the army : nor could they expect a blessing from God on an army so constituted. And as to this particular they had great advantage ; for this mock penitence was indeed a matter of great scandal. When these resolutions were passed with this protestation, a great many of the five western counties, Clydesdale, Renfrew, Ayr, Galloway and Nithsdale, met, and formed an association apart, both against the army of sectaries, and against this new defection in the kirk party. They drew a remonstrance against all the proceedings in the treaty with the king, when, as they said, it was visible by the commission he granted to Montrose, that his heart was not sincere : and they were also against the tendering him the covenant, when they had reason to believe tie took it not with a resolution to maintain it, since his whole deportment and private con- versation showed a secret enmity to the work of God : and, after an invidious enumeration of many particulars, they imputed the shameful defeat at Dunbar to their prevaricating in these things ; and concluded with a desire, that the king might be excluded from any share in the administration of the government, and that his cause might be put out of the state of the quarrel with the army of the sectaries. This was brought to the committee of the states at St. Johnstoun^ and was severely inveighed against by sir Thomas Nicholson, the king's advocate, or attorney general, there, who had been till then a zealous man of their party : but he had lately married my sister, and my father had great influence on him. He pre- vailed so, that the remonstrance was condemned as divisive, factious, and scandalous : but that the people might not be too much moved with these things, a declaration was prepared to be set out by the king for the satisfying of them. In it there were many hard things. The king owned the sin of his father in marrying into an idolatrous family : he acknow- ledged the bloodshed in the late wars lay at his father's door : he expressed a deep sense of his own ill education, and the prejudices he had drunk in against the cause of God, of which he was now very sensible : he confessed all the former parts of his life to have been a course of enmity to the work of God : he repented of his commission to Montrose, and of every thing he had done that gave offence : and with solemn protestations he affirmed, that he was now sincere in his declaration, and that he would adhere to it to the end of his life in Scot- land, England, and Ireland. The king was very uneasy when this was brought to him. He said, he could never look his mother in the face if he passed it. But when he was told it was necessary for his affairs, he resolved to swallow the pill without farther chewing it. So it was published, but had no good effect ; for neither side believed him sincere in. it. It was thought a strange imposition to make him load his father's memory in such a manner. But, while the king was thus beset with the high and more moderate kirk parties, the old cavaliers sent to him, offering that if he would cast himself into their hands they would meet him near Dundee with a great body. Upon this the king, growing weary of the sad life he led, made his escape in the night, and came to the place appointed : but it was a vain undertaking ; for he was met by a very inconsiderable body at Clova, the place of rendezvous. Those at St. Johnstoun being troubled at this, sent Colonel Montgomery after him, who came up and pressed him to return very rudely : so the king caine back. But this had a very good effect. The govern- ment saw now the danger of using him ill, which might provoke him to desperate courses : after that, he was used as well as that kingdom in so ill a state was capable of. He saw the necessity of courting the marquis of Argyle, and therefore made him great offers : at last he 38 A SUMMARY OF AFFAIRS talked of marrying his daughter. Lord Argyle was cold and backward : he saw the king's heart lay not to him : so he looked on all offers, but as so many snares. His son, the lord Lorn, was captain of the guards ; and he made his court more dexterously, for he brought all persons that the king had a mind to speak with at all hours to him, and was in all respects not only faithful but zealous. Yet this was suspected as a collusion between the father and the son. The king was crowned on the first of January : and there he again renewed the covenant : and now all people were admitted to come to him, and to serve in the army. The two armies lay peaceably in their winter quarters. But when the summer came on, a body of the English passed the Frith, and landed in Fife. So the king, having got up all the forces he had expected, resolved on a march into England. Scotland could not maintain another year's war. This was a desperate resolution: but there was nothing else to be done. I will not pursue the relation of the march to "Worcester, nor the total defeat given the king's army on the third of September, the same day in which Dunbar fight had been fought the year before. These things are so well known, as is also the king's escape, that I can add nothing to the common relations that have been over and over made of them *. At the same time that Cromwell followed the king into England, he left Monk in Scotland with an army sufficient to reduce the rest of the kingdom. The town of Dundee made a rash and ill-con- sidered resistance : it was after a few days' siege taken by storm : much blood was shed, and the town was severely plundered : no other place made any resistance. I remember well of three regiments coming to Aberdeen. There was an order and discipline, and a face of gravity -and piety among them, that amazed all people. Most of them were Independents and Anabaptists : they were all gifted men, and preached as they were moved. But they never disturbed the public assemblies in the churches but once. They came and reproached the preachers for laying things to their charge that were false. I was then present : the debate grew very fierce : at last they drew their swords, but there was no hurt done : yet Cromwell displaced the governor for not punishing this. When the low-countries in Scotland were thus reduced, some of the more zealous of the nobility went to the Highlands in the year 1653. The earl of Glencairn, a grave and sober man, got the tribe of the Macdonalds to declare for the king. To these the lord Lorn came with about a thousand men : but the jealousy of the father made the son be suspected. The marquis of Argyle had retired into his country when the king marched into England ; and did not submit to Monk till the year 52. Then he received a garrison ; but lord Lorn sur- prised a ship that was sent about with provisions to it, which helped to support their little ill-formed army. Many gentlemen came to them ; and almost all the good horses of the kingdom were stolen, and carried up to them. They made a body of about 3000 : of these they had about 500 horse. They endured great hardships ; for those parts were not fit to entertain men that had been accustomed to live softly. The earl of Glencairn had almost spoiled all ; for he took much upon him : and upon some suspicion he ordered lord Lorn to be clapt up, who had notice of it, and prevented it by an escape : otherwise they had fallen to cut one another's throats, instead of marching to the enemy. The earl of Balcarras, a vir- tuous and knowing man, but somewhat morose in his humour, went also among them. They differed in their counsels : lord Glencairn was for falling into the low-countries : and he began to fancy he should be another Montrose. Balcarras on the other hand was for keeping in their fastnesses : they made a show of a body for the king, which they were to keep up in * The hair-breadth escapes that Charles had, are related regular movements, the attack must have been postponed at length in Clarendon's History of the Rebellion ; and in until the following morning. It was a remarkable coin- a volume published in 1725, called " Boscobel, or a cidence that it was on the 3rd of September Cromwell complete History of the most miraculous preservation of died. Charles had no chance to win at Worcester, he was king Charles the Second after the battle of Worcester." outnumbered and outgeneralled. His troops were dispi- These are both very faithful narratives. The battle was rited, and his officers disunited. Lesley was jealous of fought on the 3rd of September, the very day on which Middleton ; and the duke of Buckingham, young, inexpe- the same troops were defeated at Dunbar in the previous rienced in war, and profligate as he was, yet pressed to be year : this was always considered by Cromwell his pro- made commander-in-chief over them both !— Clarendon, pitious day, which accounts for the hurried manner in Hist, of the Rebellion. which he brought on the action. If he had waited for BEFORE THE RESTORATION. 30 some reputation as long as they could, till they could see what assistance the king might be able to procure them from beyond sea of men, money, and arms ; whereas if they went out of those fast grounds, they could not hope to stand before such a veteran and well-disciplined army as Monk had ; and if they met with the least check, their tumultuary body would soon melt away. Among others one sir Robert Murray, that had married lord Balcarras's sister, came among them ; he had served in France, where he had got into such a degree of favour with cardinal Richelieu, that few strangers were ever so much considered by him as he was. He was raised to be a colonel there, and came over for recruits when the king was with the Scotch army at Newcastle. There he grew into high favour with the king, and laid a design for his escape, of which I have given an account in duke Hamilton's memoirs : he was the most universally beloved and esteemed by men of all sides and sorts, of any man I have ever known in my whole life. He was a pious man, and in the midst of armies and courts he spent many hours a day in devotion. He had gone through the easy parts of mathematics, and knew the history of nature beyond any man I ever yet knew. He had a genius much like Peiriski, as he is described by Gassendi. He was afterwards the first former of the Royal Society, and its first president ; and while he lived he was the life and soul of that body. He had an equality of temper in him that nothing could alter ; and was in practice the only Stoic I ever knew. He had a great tincture of one of their principles ; for he was much for absolute decrees. He had a most diffused love to all mankind, and he delighted in every occasion of doing good, which he managed with great discretion and zeal. He had a superiority of genius and comprehension to most men : and had the plainest, but with all the softest, way of reproving, chiefly young people, for their faults that I ever met with. Sir Robert Murray was in such credit in that little army, that lord Glencairn took a strange course to break it, and to ruin him. A letter was pretended to be found at Antwerp, as written by him to William Murray of the bed-chamber, that had been whipping-boy to king Charles the first, and upon that had grown up to a degree of favour and confidence that was very particular : he had a lewd creature there, whom he turned off: and she, to be revenged on him, framed this plot against him. This ill-forged letter gave an account of a bargain sir Robert had made with Monk for killing the king, which was to be executed by Mr. Murray : so he prayed him in his letter to make haste and despatch it. This was brought to the earl of Glencairn : so sir Robert was severely questioned upon it, and put in arrest : and it was spread about through a rude army that he intended to kill the king, hoping it seems that some of these wild people believing it would have fallen upon him without using any forms. Upon this occasion sir Robert practised in a very eminent manner his true Christian philo- sophy, without showing so much as a cloud in his whole behaviour. The earl of Balcarras left the Highlands, and went to the king; and showed him the necessity of sending a military man to command that body, to whom they would submit more willingly than to any of the nobility. Middletoun was sent over, who was a gallant man and a good officer : he had first served on the parliament's side ; but he turned over to the king, and was taken at Worcester fight, but made his escape out of the Tower. He, upon his coming over, did for some time lay the heats that were among the Highlanders, and made as much of that face of an army for another year as was possible. Drummond was sent by him to Paris with an invitation to the king to come among them ; for they had assurances sent them, that the whole nation was in a disposition to rise with them : and England was beginning to grow weary of their new government, the army and the parliament being on ill terms. The English were also engaged in a war with the States : and the Dutch upon that account might be inclined to assist the king to give a diver- sion to their enemies' forces. Drummond told me, that upon his coming to Paris he was called to the little council that was then about the king : and when he had delivered his message, chancellor Hyde asked him, how the king would be accommodated if he came among them : he answered, not so well as was fitting, but they would all take care of him to furnish him with every thing that was necessary. He wondered that the king did not check the chan- cellor in his demand ; for he said, it looked strange to him, that when they were hazarding 40 A SUMMARY OF AFFAIRS their lives to help him to a crown, he should be concerned for accommodation. He was sent back with good words and a few kind letters. In the end of the year 1654 Morgan marched into the Highlands, and had a small engagement with Middletoim, which broke that whole matter, of which all people were grown weary ; for they had no prospect of success, and the low-countries were so over-run with robberies on the pretence of going to assist the High- landers, that there was an universal joy at the dispersing of that little unruly army. After this the country was kept in great order : some castles in the Highlands had garri- sons put in them, that were so careful in their discipline, and so exact to their rules, that in no time the Highlands were kept in better order than during the usurpation. There was a considerable force of about 7 or 8000 men kept in Scotland : these were paid exactly, and strictly disciplined. The pay of the army brought so much money into the kingdom, that it continued all that while in a very flourishing state. Cromwell built three citadels at Leith, Ayr, and Inverness, besides many little forts. There was good justice done, and vice was suppressed and punished ; so that we always reckon those eight years of usurpation a time of great peace and prosperity. There was also a sort of union of the three kingdoms in one parliament, where Scotland had its representative. The marquis of Argyle went up one of our commissioners. The next scene I must open relates to the church, and the heats raised in it by the public resolutions, and the protestation made against them. New occasions of dispute arose. A general assembly was in course to meet ; and sat at St. Andrews : so the commission of the kirk wrote a circular letter to all the presbyteries, setting forth all the grounds of their reso- lutions, and complaining of those who had protested against them ; upon which they desired that they would choose none of those who adhered to the protestation to represent them in the next assembly. This was only an advice, and had been frequently practised in the former years : but now it was highly complained of, as a limitation on the freedom of elections, which inferred a nullity on all their proceedings : so the protestors renewed their protestation against the meeting upon a higher point, disowning that authority which hitherto they had magnified as the highest tribunal in the church, in which they thought Christ was in his throne. Upon this a great debate followed, and many books were written in a course of several years. The public men said, this was the destroying of presbytery, if the lesser number did not submit to the greater : it was a sort of prelacy, if it was pretended that votes ought rather to be weighed than counted : parity was the essence of their constitution : and in this all people saw they had clearly the better of the argument. The protestors urged for themselves, that, since all protestants rejected the pretence of infallibility, the major part of the church might fall into errors, in which case the lesser number could not be bound to sub- mit to them : they complained of the many corrupt clergymen who were yet among them, who were leavened with the old leaven, and did on all occasions show what was still at heart notwithstanding all their outward compliance : (for the episcopal clergy that had gone into the covenant and presbytery to hold their livings, struck in with great heat to inflame the controversy : and it appeared very visibly that presbytery, if not held in order by the civil power, could not be long kept in quiet :) if in the Supreme Court of Judicature the majority did not conclude the matter, it was not possible to keep up their beloved parity : it was con- fessed that in doctrinal points the lesser number was not bound to submit to the greater ; but in the matters of mere government it was impossible to maintain the presbyterian form on any other bottom. As this debate grew hot, and they were ready to break out into censures on both sides, some were sent down from the commonwealth of England to settle Scotland : of these sir Henry Vane was one. The resolutioners were known to have been more in the king's interest : so they were not so kindly looked on as the protestors. Some of the English junta moved, that pains should be taken to unite the two parties. But Vane opposed this with much zeal: he said, would they heal the wound that they had given themselves, which weakened them so much ? The setting them at quiet could have no other effect, but to heal and unite them in their opposition to their authority : he therefore moved, that they might be left at liberty to fight out their own quarrels, and be kept in a greater dependence on tlw BEFORE THE RESTORATION. 41 temporal authority, when both sides were forced to make their appeal to it : so it was resolved to suffer them to meet still in their presbyteries and synods, but not in general assemblies, which had a greater face of union and authority. This advice was followed : so the division went on. Both sides studied when any church became vacant to get a man of their own party to be chosen to succeed in the election : and upon these occasions many tumults happened : in some of them stones wrere thrown, and many were wounded, to the great scandal of religion. In all these disputes the protestors were the fiercer side : for being less in number they studied to make that up with their fury. In one point they had the other at a great advantage, with relation to their new masters, who required them to give over praying for the king. The protestors were weary of doing it, and submitted very readily : but the others stood out longer ; and said, it was a duty lying on them by the covenant, so they could not let it fall. Upon that the English council set out an order, that such as should continue to pray for the king should be denied the help of law to recover their tithes, or as they called them their stipends. This touched them in a sensible point : but, that they might not seem to act upon the civil authority, they did enact it in their pres- byteries, that since all duties did not oblige at all times, therefore, considering the present juncture, in which the king could not protect them, they resolved to discontinue that piece of duty. This exposed them to much censure, since such a carnal consideration as the force of law for their benefices, (which all regard but too much, though few will own it,) seemed to be that which determined them. This great breach among them being rather encouraged than suppressed by those who were in power, all the methods imaginable were used by the protestors to raise their credit among the people. They preached often, and very long ; and seemed to carry their devotions to a greater sublimity than others did. Their constant topic was, the sad defection and corruption of the judicatories of the church, and they often proposed several expedients for purging it, The truth was, they were more active, and their performances were livelier, than those of the public men *. They were in nothing more singular than in their communions. In many places the sacrament was discontinued for several years ; where they thought the magistracy, or the more eminent of the parish, were engaged in what they called the defection, which was much more looked at than scandal given by bad lives. But where the greatest part was more sound, they gave the sacrament with a new and unusual solemnity. On the Wednesday before they held a fast day with prayers and sermons for about eight or ten hours together : on the Saturday they had two or three preparation sermons ; and on the Lord's day they had so very many, that the action continued above twelve hours in some places ; and all ended with three or four sermons on Monday for thanksgiving. A great many ministers were brought together from several parts ; and high pretenders would have gone forty or fifty miles to a noted communion. The crowds were far beyond the capacity of their churches, or the reach of their voices : so at the same time they had sermons in two or three different places : and all was performed with great show of zeal. They had stories of many signal coiwersions that were wrought on these occasions. It is scarce credible what an effect this had among the people, to how great a measure of knowledge they were brought, and how readily they could pray extempore, and talk of divine matters. All this tended to raise the credit of the protestors. The resolutioners tried to imitate them in these practices : but they wrere not thought so spiritual, nor so ready at them : so the others had the chief following. When the judicatories of the church were near an equality of the men of both sides, there were perpetual j anglings among them : at last they proceeded to deprive men of both sides, as they were the majority in the judicatories : but because the possession of the church, and the benefice, was to depend on the orders of the temporal courts, both sides made their application to the privy council that Cromwell had set up in Scotland : and they were by them referred to Cromwell himself. So they sent deputies up to London. The protestors went in great numbers : they came nearer both to the principles and to the temper that prevailed in the army : so they were looked on as the better men, on whom, by reason of the first rise of the difference, the government * The meaning must be, by public men, those who acted pursuant to the resolutions of the general assemblies, in \vhom the public authority of the kirk was then vested by law. — (Note by the Author's Son.) 42 A SUMMARY OF AFFAIRS miglit more certainly depend: whereas the others were considered as more in the king's interests. The resolutioners sent up one James Sharp, who had been long in England, and was an active and eager man : he had a very small proportion of learning, and was but an indifferent preacher : but having some acquaintance with the presbyterian ministers at London, whom Cromwell was then courting much, by reason of their credit in the city, he was, by an error that proved fatal to the whole party, sent up in their name to London ; where he continued for some years soliciting their concerns, and making himself known to all sorts of people. He seemed more than ordinarily zealous for presbytery. And, as Cromwell was then designing to make himself king, Dr. "Wilkins told me he often said to him, no temporal government could have a sure support without a national church that adhered to it, and he thought England was capable of no constitution but episcopacy^ to which, he told me, he did not doubt but Crom- well would have turned, as soon as the design of his kingship was settled. Upon this Wil- kins spoke to Sharp, that it was plain by their breach, that presbytery could not be managed so as to maintain order among them, and that an episcopacy must be brought in to settle them : but Sharp could not bear the discourse, and rejected it with horror *. I have dwelt longer on this matter, and opened it more fully than was necessary, if I had not thought that this may have a good effect OIL the reader, and show him how impossible it is in a parity to maintain peace and order, if the magistrate does not interpose : and if he does, that will be cried out upon by the zealots of both sides, as abominable erastianism. From these matters I go next to set down some particulars that I knew concerning Crom- well, that I have not yet seen in books. Some of these I had from the earls of Carlisle and Orrery : the one had been the captain of his guards ; and the other had been the president of his council in Scotland. But he from whom I learned the most was Stouppe, a Grison by birth, then minister of the French church in the Savoy, and afterwards a brigadier-general in the French armies ; a man of intrigue, but of no virtue ; he adhered to the protestant religion as to outward appearance : he was much trusted by Cromwell in foreign affairs ; in which Crom- well was often at a loss, and having no foreign language, but the little Latin that stuck to him from his education, which he spoke very viciously and scantily, had not the necessary means of informing himself. When Cromwell first assumed the government, he had three great parties of the nation all against him, the episcopal, the presbyterian, and the republican party. The last was the most set on his ruin, looking on him as the person that had perfidiously broke the House of Com- mons, and was setting up for himself. He had none to rely on but the army ; yet that enthusiastic temper, that he had taken so much pains to raise among them, made them very intractable : many of the chief officers were broken, and imprisoned by him ; and he flattered the rest the best he could. He went on in his old way of long and dark discourses, sermons, and prayers. As to the cavalier party, he was afraid both of assassination and other plottings from them. As to the former of these he took a method that proved very effectual : he said often and openly, that in a war it was necessary to return upon any side all the violent things that any of the one side did to the other : this was done for preventing greater mis- chief, and for bringing men to fair war ; therefore, he said, assassinations were such detestable things, that he would never begin them : but if any of the king's party should endeavour to assassinate him, and fail in it, he would make an assassinating war of it, and destroy the whole family : and he pretended he had instruments to execute it, when- soever he should give order for it. The terror of this was a better security to him than his guards. The other as to their plottings was the more dangerous. But he understood that one sir Hichard Willis was chancellor Hyde's chief confidant, to whom he wrote often, and to whom all the party submitted, looking on him as an able and wise man in whom they confided absolutely. So he found a way to talk with him : he said, he did not intend to hurt any of the party : his design was rather to save them from ruin : they were apt after their cups to * He soon after accepted the archbishopric of St. Andrews, and became one of the severest persecutors of the presbyterians. " For rencgndocs, who ne'er turn by halves, Are bound in conscience to be double knaves.'' BEFORE THE RESTORATION. 43 run into foolish and ill-concerted plots, which signified nothing but to ruin those who engaged in them : he knew they consulted him in every thing : all he desired of him was to know all their plots, that he might so disconcert them that none might ever suffer for them : if he clapt any of them up in prison, it should only he for a little time ; and they should be inter- rogated only about some trifling discourse, but never about the business they had been engaged in. He offered Willis whatever he would accept of, and to give it when or as he pleased. He durst not ask or take above 200L a year. None was trusted with this but his secretary Thurloe, who was a very dexterous man at getting intelligence. Thus Cromwell had all the king's party in a net. He let them dance in it at pleasure : and upon occasions clapt them up for a short while : but nothing was ever discovered that hurt any of them. In conclusion, after Cromwell's death, Willis continued to give notice of every thing to Thurloe. At last, when the plot was laid among the cavaliers for a general insurrection, the king was desired to come over to that which was to be raised in Sussex : he was to have landed near Chichester, all by Willis's management : and a snare was laid for him, in which he would probably have been caught, if Morland, Thurloe's under-secretary, who was a prying man, had not discovered the correspondence between his master and Willis, and warned the king of his danger. Yet it was not easy to persuade those who had trusted Willis so much, and who thought him faithful in all respects, to believe that he could be guilty of so black a treachery : so Morland's advertisement was looked on as an artifice to create jealousy. But he, to give a full conviction, observed where the secretarjr laid some letters of advice, on which he saw he relied most, and getting the key of that cabinet in his hand to seal a letter with a seal that hung to it, he took the impression of it in wax, and got a key to be made from it, by which he opened the cabinet, and sent over some of the most important of those letters. The hand was known, and this artful but black treachery was discovered ; so the design of the rising was laid aside. Sir George Booth having engaged at the same time to raise a body in Cheshire, two several messengers were sent to him to let him know the design could not be executed at the time appointed : but both these persons were suspected by some garrisons through which they must pass, as giving no good account of themselves in a time of jealousy, and were so long stopped, that they could not give him notice in time : so he very gallantly performed his part : but not being seconded he was soon crushed by Lam- bert. Thus Willis lost the merit of great and long services. This was one of Cromwell's masterpieces *. As for the presbyterians, they were so apprehensive of the fury of the commonwealth party, that they thought it a deliverance to be rescued out of their hands : many of the re- publicans began to profess deism : and almost all of them were for destroying all clergymen, and for breaking every thing that looked like the union of a national church. They were for pulling down the churches, for discharging the tithes, and for leaving religion free, as they called it, without either encouragement or restraint. Cromwell assured the presbyterians, he would maintain a public ministry with all due encouragement ; and he joined them in a com- mission with some independents, to be the triers of all those who were to be admitted to bene- fices. These disposed also of all the churches that were in the gift of the crown, of the bishops, and of the cathedral churches : so this softened them. He studied to divide the commonwealth party among themselves, and to set the fifth-mon- archy men and the enthusiasts against those who pretended to little or no religion, and acted only upon the principles of civil liberty ; such as Algernon Sidney, Henry Nevill, Martin, Wildman, and Harrington. The fifth-monarchy men seemed to be really on expectation every day when Christ should appear : John Goodwin headed these, who first brought in Armi- * Clarendon confirms the narrative of sir Richard by the king and his friends. The plans of the marquis of Willis's treachery, in every particular. He had faithfully Oruiond, and of others who favoured the royalist cause, served the king's father, and had always met with his were thwarted in ways that seemed inexplicable, suspicions approbation, except in declining to be removed from the were aroused, confidence was destroyed among the king's governorship of Newark to the command of