Such was the sense of inany Gentlemen at that time, who adhered to the Parliament. But to proceed in the Narration. The Parliament had been of late sensible of the losse of some from them, and (having detected divers Conspiracies and Machinations of dis-affected people against them, and fearing more,) had, in May last, framed a Protestation, which was solemnly taken by all the Members of both Houses, and sent through-out England to be taken by the people; the forme of it was in these words: A Protestation in I A. B. in the presence of Almighty God, promise, vow, and protest leges of the Parlia- to maintaine and defend, as farre as lawfully I may, with my life, power, ment is framed in May, 1641. and estate, the true Reformed Protestant Religion, expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England, against all Popery and Popish Innovations within this Realme, contrary to the said Doctrine; and according to the duty of my Allegiance, I will maintaine and defend his Majesties Royal Person, Honour and Estate, as also the Power and Priviledge of Parliaments, the lawful Rights and Liberties of the Subjects, and every Person that shall make this Protestation, in whatsoever he shall do in the lawful pursuance of the same; and to my power, as farre as lawfully I may, I will oppose, and, by all good waies and meanes, endeavour to bring condigne punishment on all such as shall, by force, practice, counsels, plots, conspiracies, or otherwise, do any thing to the contrary in this present Protestation contained: And further, That I shall, in all just and honourable waies, endeavour to preserve the union and peace betwixt the three Kingdomes of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and neither for hope, feare, or any other respects, shall relinquish this Promise, Vow, and Protestation. Several changes in the great Oncers of th kingdom. In May, 1641. It were not amisse in this place briefly to mention some alterations, which had been made before the time that the Kinge tooke his journey into Scotland; (though they were not done immediately about that time, but some weekes, or Moneths, before,) because they concerne some Noblemen, of whom we shall have occasion hereafter to make mention in the course of this History. The Lord COTTINGTON, upon the 17th of May, 1641, had resigned his place of Master of the Wards; and the Lord Viscount SAY and SEALE succeeded him in that Office. Within few daies after, the Lord-Treasurer, Doctor JUCKSON, Bishop of London, resigned his Staffe, and the Office was committed to five Commissioners. About that time the Earle of Leicester, who had lately returned from being Ambassadour in France, was, by the King, made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The Earle of Newcastle was removed from being Governour to the Prince, and the Marquesse of Hartford appointed in his roome. THE THE HISTORY OF THE PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND. THE SECOND BOOK. CHAP. I. A Standing Committee during the Recesse of both Houses of Parliament. The Rebellion of the Irish, and Massacre of the Protestants there. Some endeavours of the English Parliament for relief of that Kingdom. THE businesse of England, by this absence of the King, was at a great stand. In such a concurrence of high affairs, and so great an expectation to find redress of pressing Grievances, nothing was so irksome to the People as Delay. To retard the cure, was little better than to destrov. And the Sequel, within a short time, proved worse than the wisest men could imagine, or the most jealous possibly suspect; though jealousies and fears were then grown to a great height, and the Parliament of ngland was less than ever assured of the King's real affection to them. Nothing of State was transacted in Parliament during the King's absence. Some debates debates there were only about Church-service, and alterations to be made in the Book of Common-prayer; in which, notwithstanding, nothing was concluded. One businesse only came to be discussed; of which the King himself gave the occasion; who, within few daies after his arrival in Scotland, signified by a Letter to the The King proposes Lords, That he was engaged to the Spaniard by promise, to let him have four to the Parliament of thousand souldiers out of that lately-disbanded Irish Army, which the Earle of the Soldiers of the Strafford had before raised; his desire was to make good his promise by consent of army lately disban Parliament. But the House of Commons (whom the Lords had invited to a Conded in Ireland to en- ference for that purpose,) would not consent that any Irish should go to assist the list themselves in the army of the King Spaniard. Some reasons were then given; but more particular cause was shewed of Spain. about ten daies after, when a second Letter came from the King, in which his Majesty declared, That the Spanish Ambassadour claimed his promise, from which in honour he could not recede. Notwithstanding, since he had found that Ambas sadour so reasonable, as that he was content to accept of two thousand; he hoped the Parliament would not deny that. The House tooke it into consideration; and within two dayes, the Lord of FAWKLAND, a Member of the House of Commons, at a conference delivered to the Lords, gave reasons in the name of that House, why it was very unfit to grant the King's desire, because the Spaniard was not only an Ally, and confederate, but an assistant, to the Emperour against the Prince Elector, his Majesties Nephew; who, by the power and oppression of that Emperour, had been long deprived of his Inheritance: And at this time, when the King had pub. lished a Manifesto in behalf of his Nephew, and to that purpose sent an Ambassadour to the Dyet of Ratisbone, it would seem to be a contradiction in the King to assist the Enemies of the said Prince Elector, which might be considered asa drawing of his own Sword against himself: besides the great prejudice it must needs bring to the Protestant cause, whichthis present Parliament so much intended and laboured to promote. refuses its consent. Upon these reasons it was thought fit not to consent to the King's desire in that point. But the Parliament And immediately the two Houses of Parliament adjourned themselves from that day, being the eighth of September, till the twentieth of October, and appointed a standing Committee of fifty Members during that recesse. A report of a Plot against the Lives of the Marquis of Ha milton and other great Peers of Scotland, in October, 4041. Before the Accesse and meeting-again of the Parliament, Letters came from the English Committee in Scotland, and were read before that standing Committee of Westminster, importing the discovery of a Treasonable plot against the lives of Marquesse HAMILTON, and others, the greatest Peeres of Scotland; the conspirators being the Earle of Crayford, and some others. How it was discovered, or how prevented, or whether the King had any privity to it (though one of that country have since written very plainly, charging the King with it) because the States of Scotland were very silent in it, the Parliament of England took the lesse notice of it: Only the standing Committee, for avoiding the like attempts at London, and fearing that such might flow from the same spring, appointed strong guards to be placed in many parts of the City, till further directions might be given from the two Houses at their Accesse. The malignancy, which at that time began to appear in people of that condition and quality which wee before mentioned, and was not L A 1 not only expressed in usual discourse among their companions, but vented in scurt rilous and bitter Libels against those Lords and Commons who were generally reputed the most sedulous for the Common-wealth, was cause sufficient to increase the feares and jealousies of the Parliament. and massacre the But that fatal fire, which so sadly wasted the three Kingdoms, broke out in that The Papists of Irein which it was least feared; and those that seemed most secure, were the first sufferers. land suddenly rise For about the end of October, 1641, during the King's abode in Scotland, the most Protestants, in Octobarbarous and bloody Rebellion that ever any age or Nation were guilty of, broke ber, 1641. out in Ireland. The atrocity of it is without a parallel; and as full of wonder was the close carriage of so black and far-reaching a Designe. The innocent Protestants were, upon a suddain, disscised of their Estates, and the persons of above two hundred thousand men, women, and children, murthered,-many of them with exquisite and unheard of tortures,-within the space of one month. That which encreased the amazement of most men, was, The consideration that the ancient hatred, which the Irish (a thing incident to conquer'd Nations) had formerly borne to the English, did now seeme to be quite buried and forgotten; forty years of peace had compacted those two Nations into one body, and cemented them together by all conjunctures of alliance, intermarriages, and consanguinity, which was in outward appearance strengthened by frequent entertainments, and all kinds of offices of good neighbourhood. There seemed in many places a mutual transmigration (as was observed by a noble Gentleman, whose place in that King- Sir John Temple. dom gave him means to know it, out of whose faithful relation of that Rebellion and Massacre, I have partly collected my discourse of it) into each others manners. Many English strangely degenerating into the Irish manners & customes, and many Irish, especially of the better sort, having taken-up the English language, apparel, and decency of living in their private houses. The present Government was full of lenity and moderation; and some redresse of former grievances had then been newly granted by the King to his Irish subjects. The same Gentleman, in his History of the Irish rebellion, (where the Reader may more fully informe himself of particulars) affirms, that he could never hear of any one Englishman that received any certain notice of this conspiracy, till that very evening before which it was to be put in execution. Some intimations had been given by Sir WILLIAM COLE, in a Letter to the Lords-Justices, Sir WILLIAM PARSONS, and Sir JOHN BURLACE, with the rest of the Council, concerning dangerous resorts, and meetings of some persons who were judged fit instruments for such a mischief. This horrid plot, contrived with so much secrecy, was to take effect upon the The Castle of Dublin 23d of October. The Castle of Dublin, the chief strength of that Kingdome, and is saved from the seizure of the Rebels, principal Magazine of the King's Armes and Ammunition, (where all those Armes by a lucky discovery which were taken from the late disbanded Irish Army, and others, which the Earl of the intended atof Strafford had provided, were deposited,) was to be seized by nine of the clock tack upon it, the night before it was to that day by the Rebels; for which purpose many of the Irish Gentry of great be made. quality, were, the night before, come to Dublin, to be in readinesse for the per} forming of that exploit. It was further agreed among those conspirators, that, M upon Military Stores in upon the same day, all other his Majesties Forts and Magazines of Armes and Ammunition in that Kingdom should be surprized, and all Protestants and English, that would not joyn with them, should be cut-off. But it pleased God to prevent the seisure of that Castle, and so to save the Kingdom from being wholly lost in one day; and that by a means strange and unexpected HUGH MAC MAHON, Esquire, grand-son to the famous Rebel TYRONE, a Gentleman of a plentiful fortune in the county of Monagan, and one that had served in Armes under the King of Spain as Lieutenant-Colonel, a principal Agent in this Rebellion, being come with others (as aforesaid) into Dublin the day before that great Designe was to be put in execution, being the 22nd of October, admitted into his company at a Tavern in that City, one OWEN CONALLY, of Irish extraction, but a Protestant, and servant to Sir JOHN CLOTWORTHY, a Member of the English Parliament. To this OWEN he revealed so much, as they were drinking, that the honest man, escaping from him, (though not without great danger to himself, at the present,) informed the Lord-Justice PARSONS, that night, about nine of the clock, of a dangerous Designe upon the whole Kingdom; which being taken into present consideration, MAC MAHON was apprehended, and, after his examination, the Lord MAQUIRE also, another principal actor; who were both committed to close custody, and the Castle secured with all diligence. But many conspirators of great note escaped that night out of Dublin, as BIRNE, MORE, PLUNKET, and others. A Proclamation The Lords of the Council, amazed at the discovery of so horrid a Treason, did, against the Irish Re-notwithstanding, endeavour (since there was no prevention; for MAC MAHON had bels, by the Lords of the Council at Dub- plainly told them, when he was examined, that by that time all the counties of in. Ireland were risen,) to use the best remedies to that desperate disease; and hoping that, perchance, the news how the plot for seizing of Dublin-castle was disappointed, might somewhat dishearten the conspirators in remote parts, and encourage the good Subjects with more confidence to stand upon their guard; issued-forth a Proclamation presently, and, by careful messengers, spread it into as many parts of the Kingdom as they could. The effect of which proclamation was, to signifie the discovery of the Treason, and exhort all men to do their duty in suppressing of it. But the general Designe was past prevention; and that very day there came-in some poor English Protestants, and others in a short time, every day, and almost every hour; shewing how they had been robbed, and their houses surprised, by the Rebels, whose outrage daily increased in rapine and murdering, and fireing Towns and Villages in divers counties. To oppose, therefore, the growth of that desperate malady, the Lords-Justices (dispatching Letters to the King in Scotland, and to the Earle of Leicester, lately made Lieutenant of Ireland by the King, and yet resident at London, of their lamentable condition,) examined with all diligence how they were provided for such a War. They found in Dublin, Stores, and Armes for ten thousand men, with Artillery, Powder, Match and Lead proportionable, laid-in by the late Earle of Strafford; which, though designed by himanother way, were yet reserved, by |