of thofe dark hypocrites, who had fo long difguifed their treafons under fanctified pretences, and had, in this laft act of atrocious guilt, thrown an indelible ftain upon the

nation:

Charles was executed in the forty-ninth year of his age, and the twenty-fourth of his reign. He was of a middle ftature, robuft, and well proportioned. His vifage was pleafing, but melancholy; and he excelled in horfemanfhip and other exercifes.

The character of Charles is fo obvious from the detail His chaof his reign, that it ftands in no need of being particularly racter. developed by the hiftorian. In his private morals, he was unblemished and exemplary; and, in his public conduct, he may justly be faid to have rather been unhappy than worthy of cenfure. It was his misfortune to live in a time, when the precedents of many former reigns favoured ftrongly of arbitrary power, and the genius of the people. ran violently towards liberty; and even now, it is difficult to determine what conduct, in his circumftances, could have maintained the authority of the crown, and preferved the peace of the nation.

CHAP. VIII.

From the Death of Charles I. to the Refloration.

liament

THE parliament, for fo must we continue to call a A.D.1649. fmall and inconfiderable part of the houfe of commons, having murdered their fovereign under the pretence The parof justice, began to affume more the air of a legal power, chooses a and to enlarge a little the narrow bottom upon which they council of ftood. Of the excluded members, they admitted a few flate, of fuch as were liable to leaft exception; but on condition that these should sign an approbation of whatever had been done in their abfence with regard to the king's trial. Some willingly accepted a fhare of power on fuch terms; but the greater part refufed to comply. They iffued fome writs for new elections, in places where they hoped to have intereft enough to bring in their own friends and dependents. They named a council of ftate, confifting of thirty-eight members, who received all addreffes, who gave orders to all generals and admirals, who executed the laws, and who digefted all bufinefs before it was introduced into parliament. They pretended to employ themfelves entirely in adjusting the laws, forms, and plan of a new reprefentative; and as foon as they should have fet

K4

tled

tled the nation, they profeffed au intention of restoring the power to the people, from whom, they acknowleged, they had entirely derived it.

The commons published a proclamation, forbidding all perfons, on pain of incurring the penalty of high treafon, to acknowlege Charles Stuart, eldest son of the late king, as fovereign of England. They likewife voted the house of lords useless and dangerous. It was therefore abolished, and all the peers reduced to a level with their fellowfubjects. They afterwards paffed an act abolishing the kingly power; and decreed, that the state should henceforth be governed by the reprefentatives of the people, fitting in the houfe of commons, under the form of a republic. A great feal was made, on one fide of which was engraved the arms of England and Ireland, with this inscription: "The Great-feal of England." On the reverse was represented the house of commons fitting, with this motto," On the first year of freedom, by God's bleffing restored, 1648." It was committed to the charge of a certain number of perfons, intitled, the Confervators of the Liberty of England; and all public orders were expedited in their names, under the direction of parliament.

Another high court of juftice was erected, of which Bradshaw was again chofen prefident, and they proceeded to try fome noblemen who remained in cuftody, for the attachment which they had shown to their late fovereign. The perfons devoted to death by this tribunal were, the duke of Hamilton, the earl of Holland, the lord Goring, whom the king had created earl of Norwich, lord Capel, and fir John Owen, all accufed of having carried arms against the parliament. The duke of Hamilton had made his efcape, and was discovered by accident in the borough of Southwark, whence he was conveyed to the Tower. At his trial, he pleaded that he was not a fubject of England, but a prisoner of war, taken in open hoftility, acting by virtue of a commiffion from the parliament of his own country. The court told him, that he was tried as earl of Cambridge; and that, having accepted this title, and fat in the English parliament, he was become a fubject of England. The earl of Holland, being oppreffed with age and infirmities, made very little defence. The earl of Norwich faid, he had been bred from his youth in the court, and received many obligations from his majesty, whom he thought it was his duty to obey. Lord Capel refused to acknowlege the jurisdiction of the court; and

claimed

1

.

claimed a fair trial by his peers, if he had done any thing contrary to the laws. Sir John Owen faid he had ferved the king according to his confcience, and the oath of allegiance he had taken. They were all convicted, and condemned to lofe their heads. Sir John Owen, hearing the fentence, thanked the court, with a profound reverence, for adjudging him to so honourable a death; and fwore, by God! he was afraid they would have ordered him to be hanged like a felon. Their friends petitioned the parliament in their behalf; and the earl of Norwich, with fir John Owen, was reprieved. The duke, when he mounted Executionthe fcaffold, complained bitterly of the fentence, by which of the duke he fuffered death for obeying orders which he could not of Hamil have rejected, without incurring the penalty of high trea- to, and lord Capel. fon. Lord Capel, in a speech to the people, extolled the virtues of their murdered fovereign, and exhorted them to acknowlege, as fucceffor to the crown, his fon the prince of Wales, whom he recommended as a prince of great hopes. Several other unfortunate royalifts were executed in different parts of the kingdom; among whom was Poyer, who, with Powell and Langhorn, had raised an insurrection in Wales for the king's fervice.

The prince of Wales, now in the eighteenth year of his Charles II. age, refided at the Hague, where he received the melan- refolves to choly tidings of his father's death. He immediately af- try his fortune in fumed the title of king; and all thofe who attended him, Ireland. and had been members of his father's council, were continued as counsellors. He fubfifted entirely on the friendship and bounty of his brother-in-law the prince of Orange; but he foon faw himself in danger of being cut off from that refource. The ftates of Holland, foreseeing that the parliament would infift upon their obliging him to quit their dominions, were inclined to anticipate the requifition; and the king, being informed of their defign, refolved to prevent the difgrace of a formal difmiffion. He found himfelf, however, at a lofs to fix upon a reIn his father's life-time, he had met with an unhofpitable reception in France; and he was too well acquainted with the policy of the queen-regent and the cardinal, to believe that they would now prefer his friendfhip to that of the new republic. In this emergency, therefore, he fixed his eye upon Ireland. The pope's nuncio had rendered himself fo odious to the Catholics of that kingdom, that he was obliged to retire. The marquis of Ormond, having concluded a fecond treaty

treat.

A.D. 1650.

Charles is proclaimed

in Scot

Land; but

declines

with the council of Kilkenny, took the command of their forces, with which he wrested several towns from the hands of the parliament of England, and refolved to undertake the fiege of Dublin. Prince Rupert, who now commanded the king's fleet, had been chaced by a fuperior navy under the earl of Warwick, and retired to the harbour of Kinfale, where he lay in fafety, and was able to favour the operations of the marquis. Thither Charles. refolved to retire, when, in confequence of intelligence received from Scotland, his defign was fufpended.

The parliament in that kingdom had difavowed the proceedings against the late king; and in ftrong terms taxed the English parliament with a violation of the cove nant, infomuch that their commiffioners were arrested, and for fome time detained in cuftody, The Scots hated the independents, whom they confidered as implacable complying enemies to their nation, as well as to the prefbyterian difwith their cipline; and they dreaded the thoughts of a republican proposals. government, established upon the principles which the English government feemed to purfue. Their ftates, therefore, being affembled, iffued a proclamation, ac knowleging Charles II. as their lawful and hereditary fo vereign, on condition, that, before his admiflion to the exercise of regal authority, he fhould give proper fatisfaction to the kingdom, with regard to the fecurity of religion, the union between the two nations, and the peace of Scotland; according to the national and folemn league and covenant. Deputies were fent to inform the king of fend depu- this tranfaction; and they reached the Hague juft at the ties to treat time, when the earl of Lanerk, now duke of Hamilton, and the earl of Lauderdale, who had quitted their country on account of the late engagement, arrived in Holland. In a few days after their landing, the king was vifited by the marquis of Montrofe, who had engaged in the service of the emperor; but hearing of his master's martyrdom, he now, with a numerous retinue of gentlemen, who followed his fortunes, repaired to the Hague, and made a tender of his fervice to his young fovereign. The king, therefore, was now befieged by three parties of the Scottish nation, who hated one another; namely, the rigid covenanters, patronized by Argyle; the moderate prefbyterians, who adhered to the duke of Hamilton; and the royalifts, headed by Montrofe.

The Scots

with Charles.

The king derived but little fatisfaction from the news of his being proclaimed, under fuch reftrictions. He was difpleafed at their infolence, in prefuming to capitulate

with their fovereign: he remembered that the ruin of his father was entirely owing to the Scottish prefbyterians: he detefted their hypocrify, was averfe to their auftere manners, and declined their invitation, Instead of subfcribing to their conditions, he perfifted in his design to vifit Ireland; and, in the mean time, granted a commiffion to Montrofe to make a defcent upon Scotland.

Charles, in confequence of his mother's importunities, refolved to vifit her before his departure for Ireland. He was the more inclined to gratify her in this request, as he perceived the ftates-general were heartily tired of his refiding in Holland; where his prefence had become more difagreeable on account of an incident which gave umbrage to the Dutch Dr Doriflaus, a native of Delft, who had lived many years in England, and been employed as judge-advocate in the parliament's army, was now fent over to the Hague, in quality of agent from the commons. On the evening of his arrival, while he fat at fupper in a public ordinary, five or fix ftrangers entering the apartment, with their words drawn, one of them defired the company would be under no apprehenfion, as their bufinefs was only with Doriflaus, agent to the rebels in England, who had fo lately murdered their fovereign. So faying, he pulled Doriflaus afide, and killed him on the fpot. The affallin and his confederates retired unmolefted; but they were known to be Scottish officers, depending upon the marquis of Montrofe. The ftates did not fail to complain of this outrage; though they behaved with great refpect to the king, and proceeded fo flowly in their inquifition, that the offenders had time to confult their own fafety.

Some unfavourable events in Ireland having deterred The king the king from profecuting his purpose of repairing thither, retires to after visiting his mother at Paris, he retired with his bro- Jersey. ther the duke of York, and his little court, to the island of Jersey, where fir George Carteret, the governor, ftill preferved his fidelity. Here, Winram, laird of Liberton, came to him as deputy from the committee of eftates in Scotland, and informed him of the conditions, to which he muft, neceffarily accede, before he could be admitted to the exercise of his authority. The king having by this time received the account of Ormond's defeat, and Cromwell's progress in Ireland, and being alfo importuned by the queen and the prince of Orange, to liften to the Scottish He agrees proposals, Winram found him extremely willing to liften to treat to a treaty. But this difpofition of the king was the con- with the

fequence

Scots.