A New Martyrology, Introduction 2 · Life 9 – Interpolated addition to aforementioned life
JAMES Duke of Monmouth.
THe last Person with whom we shall conclude this mournful Tragedy, and the greatest in it, is the late James D. of Monmouth; one indeed, who, if he had been a little less, might have been at this time one of the greatest men both in England and the World. By reason of some passages in his Life, not so defensible; 'twas thought, at first, better to draw a veil before that unfortunate Prince, and say nothing at all of him. But what allowances are made for Custom and Education, God only knows. I remember a shrewd Answer given to an Objection of this Nature, Where, said one, shou'd he learn any better? But however, where there has been any time to think soberly of past actions, or none of that nature reiterated, Charity is oblig'd to judge favourably. And besides, the good West-Country-men wou'd be very angry if they shou'd not find their Master that they lov'd so well, and suffer'd so much for, among the rest of these noble Hero's. None can deny but he was a great General, a Man of Courage and Conduct, and great Personal Valour, having signaliz'd himself both at Mons and Maestricht; so as to gain an high and just reputation. He was all along true and firm to the Protestant Interest in and out of Parliament, tho abhorring any base way of promoting it, as well as his Friend my L. Russel. This intended as a Character rather, or very short Compendium, than any History of his Life. He was all along the Peoples Darling, whose hearts were entirely his by his Courtesie and Affability, as other Persons lo… 'em by their sourness and haughty pride. After Russel's death he went into Flanders, whence had he prosecuted his D…sign, and gone as 'tis said he intended, into the Emperour's Service, how many Lawrels might he have won, and how many more would now have been growing for him? But his Fate was otherwise—he came over into England, an exact account of whose Enterprize another place of this Book presents you, as 'twas compiled by one present in all that action. After the defeat of his Army at Sedgemoor, he fled with my L Gray, who was first taken, and he himself a little after brought up to London, and on his Attainder, in Parliament, beheaded on Tower Hill. 'Tis said, a certain brave old Officer, who then came over with him, and since with the Prince, offer'd with a small of party of Horse, to have ventur'd thro' all the Guards, and took him off the Scaffold. But they cou'd not be got together; his time was come. Providence had design'd other things, that our deliverance should be more just, an… peaceable, and wonderful, and that the glory thereof shou'd be reserved for their Sacred Majesties King William and Queen Mary, Whom God grant long to Reign.
The thing I shall in the next place do, that I may leave out nothing material relating to the Western Affair, is to insert the late Duke of Monmouth's Declaration, as it was taken from a Copy printed in Holland the Year 1685.
The Declaration of James Duke of Monmouth, and the Noblemen, Gentlemen, and others, now in Arms for the Defence and Vindication of the Protestant Religion, and the Laws, Rights and Priviledges of England.
AS Government was Originally instituted by God, and this or that Form of it chosen and submitted to by Men, for the Peace, Happiness and Security of the Govern'd, and not for the private Interest and personal Greatness of those that Rule: So That Government hath always been esteemed the best, where the Supream Magistrates have been invested with all the Power and Prerogatives, that might capacitate them, not only to preserve the People from Violence and Oppression, but to promote their Prosperity; And yet where nothing was to belong to them by the Rules of the Constitution, that might enable them to injure and oppress them. And it hath been the Glory of England above most other Nations, that the Prince had all intrusted with him that was necessary, either for the advancing the Wellfare of the People, or for his own Protection in the discharge of his Office; And withall stood so limited and restrained by the Fundamental Terms of the Constitution, that without a Violation of his own Oath, as well as the rules and measures of the Government, he could do them no hurt, or exercise any act of Authority, but through the administration of such hands as stood obnoxious to be punished, in case they transgressed: So that according to the Primitive Frame of the Government, the Prerogatives of the Crown, and the Priviledges of the Subject, are so far from justling one another, that the Rights reserved unto the People, tended to render the King Honourable and Great, and the Prerogatives setled on the Prince were in order to the Subjects Protection and Safety. But all humane things being Subject to perversion as well as decay, it hath been the fate of the English Government to be often changed▪ and wrested from what it was in the first settlement and institution. And we are particularly compelled to say, that all the boundaries of the Government have of late been broken, and nothing left unattempted for turning our limited Monarchy into an absolute Tyranny. For such hath been the transaction of Affairs within this Nation for several years last past, that though the Protestant Religion and Liberties of the People were fenced and hedged about by as many Laws as the Wisdom of man could devise for their Preservation against Popery and Arbitrary Power, our Religion hath been all along countermined by Popish Counsels, and our Priviledges ravished from us by Fraud and Violence. And more especially, the whole Course and Series of the Life of the D. of Y. hath been but been one continued Conspiracy against the Reformed Religion and the Rights of the Nation. For whosoever considers his contriving the Burning of London, his instigating a Confederacy with France, and a War with Holland, his fomenting the Popish Plot, and encouraging the Murther of Sir Ed. Godfrey to stifle it; his charging Treason against Protestants, and suborning Witnesses to swear the Patriots of our Religion and Liberties out of their Lives, his hireing execrable Villains to Assassinate the late Earl of Essex, and causing those others to be clandestinely cut off, in hopes to conceal it, his adviseing and procuring the Prorogation and Dissolution of Parliaments, in order to prevent their looking into his Crimes, and that he might escape the justice of the Nation; Such can imagine nothing so black and horrid in it self, or so ruinous and destructive to Religion and the Kingdom, which we may not expect from him.
The very Tyrannies which he hath exercised since he snatched the Crown from his Brothers head, do leave none under a possibility of flattering themselves with hopes of safety, either in their Consciences, Persons, or Estates: For in in defiance of all the Laws and Statutes of the Realm, made for the security of the Reformed Protestant Religion, he not only began his Reign with a barefaced avowing himself of the Romish Religion; but hath called in multitudes of Priests and Jesuits, for whom the Law makes it Treason to come into this Kingdom; and hath impowered them to exercise their Idolatries. And besides his being daily present at the Worship of the Mass, hath pubickly assisted at the greatest fopperies of their Superstition. Neither hath he been more tender in trampling upon the Laws which concern our Properties, seeing in two Proclamations, whereof the one requires the Collecting of the Customs, and the other the continuing that part of the Excise which was to …xpire with the late Kings Death; he hath violently, and against all the Law of the Land, broken in upon our Estates. Neither is it any extenuation of his Tyranny, that he is countenanced in it by an extrajudicial Opinion of seven or eight suborned and forsworn Judges; but rather declaring the greatness and extent of the Conspiracy against our Rights, and that there is no means feft for our relief but by Force of Arms; For advancing those to the Bench that were the scandal of the Bar, and Constituting those very Men to declare the Laws, who were Accused and Branded in Parliament for Perverting them, we are precluded all hopes of Justice in Westminster Hall: And through packing together by False Returns, new Illegal Charters, and other corrupt means; he doth at once deprive us of all expectations of Succour where our Ancestors were wont to find it; and hopes to render that which ought to be the Peoples Fence against Tyranny, and the Conservator of their Liberties, the means of subverting all our Laws, and of establishing of his Arbitrariness, and confirming our thraldom. So that unless we could be contented to see the Reformed Protestant Religion, and such as profess it, extirpated; Popish Superstition and Idolatry established, the Laws of the Land trampled under foot; the Liberties and Rights of of the English People Subverted; and all that is Sacred and Civil, or of regard (amongst men of Vertue or Piety) Violated; and unless we could be willing to be Slaves as well as Papists, and forget the example of our noble and generous Ancestors, who conveyed our Priviledges to us at the expence of their Blood and Treasure; and withall be unmindful of our duty to God, our Country and Posterity; deaf to the Cries and Groans of our oppressed Friends; and be satisfied, not only to see them and our selves Imprisoned, Robbed, and Murthered, but the Protestant Interest throughout the whole World betrayed to France and Rome; We are bound as Men and Christians, and that in discharge of our duty to God and our Country, and for the satisfaction of the Protestant Nations round about us, to betake our selves to Arms. Which we take Heaven and Earth to witness, we should not hav… done, had not the malice of our Enemies deprive… us of all other means of redress; and were not the Miseries that we already feel, and those which do further threaten us, worse than the Calamities of War. And it is not for any personal Injuries, or private Discontents, nor in pursuance of any corrupt Interest, that we take our Swords into our hands; but for vindicating our Religion, Laws and Rights, and rescuing our Country from Ruin and Destruction, and for preserving our Selves, Wives and Children, from Bondage and Idolatry. Wherefore before God, Angels and Men, we stand acquitted from, and do charge upon our Enemies, all the Slaughter and Devastations that unavoidably accompany an intestine War
Now therefore we do hereby solemnly declare and proclaim War against J. D. of Y. as a Murtherer, and an Assassinator of innocent Men, a Traitor to the Nation, and Tyrant over the People. And we would have none that appear under his Banner to flatter themselves with expectation of Forgiveness, it being our firm resolution to prosecute him and his Adherents, without giving way to Treaties or Accommodations, until we have brought him and them to undergo what the Rules of the Constitution and the Statutes of the Realm, as well as the Laws of Nature, Scripture and Nations, adjudge to be punishment due to the Enemies of God, Mankind, their Country, and all things that are honourable, vertuous and good.
And though we cannot avoid being sensible that too many have, from Cowardise, Covetousness and Ambition, co-operated to the subverting our Religion, and the enslaving their Country; yet we would have none from a despair of findin… Mercy, perservere in their Crimes, nor continue t…e ruin of the Kingdom: For we exclude none from the benefit of Repenance, that will joyn with us in retreiving that they have been accessory to the loss of; nor do we design revenge upon any, but the obstinate, and such as shall be found at this juncture yielding aid and assistance to the said J. D. of Y.
And that we may both govern our selves in the pursuit of this glorious Cause, wherein we are ingaged, and give incouragement to all that shall assist us in so righteous and necessary an undertaking; we do in the presence of the Lord, who knoweth the Secrets of all hearts, and is the avenger of deceit and falshood, proclaim and publish what we aim at; and for the obtaining whereof, we have both determined to venture, and are ready to lay down our Lives. And though we are not come into the Field to introduce Anarchy and Confusion, or for laying aside any part of the old English Government; yet our purposes and resolutions are, to reduce things to that temperament and ballance, that future Rulers may remain able to do all the good that can be either desired or expected from them, and it may not be in their power to invade the rights and infringe the Liberties of the People.
And whereas our Religion, the most valuable thing we lay claim unto, hath been shaken by unjust Laws, undermined by Popish Counsels, and is now in danger to be subverted; We are therefore resolved to spend our Blood for preserving it to our Selves and Posterity; nor will we lay down our Arms, till we see it established and secured beyond all probability of being supplanted and overthrown, and until all the Penal Laws against Protestant Dissenters be repealed, and legal Provision made against their being disturbed by reason of their Consciences, and for their injoying an equal liberty with other Protestants.
And that the Meekness and Purity of our Principles, and the Moderation and Righteousness of our End, may appear unto all Men: We do declare, That we will not make War upon, or destroy any for their Religion, how false and erroneous soever: So that the very Papists, provided they withdraw from the Tents of our Enemies, and be not found guilty of conspiring our Destruction, or Abettors of them, that seek it, have nothing to fear or apprehend from us, except what may hinder their altering our Laws, and indangering our Persons in the Profession of the Reformed Doctrine, and Exercise of our Christian Worship.
Our Resolution in the next place is, to maintain all the just Rights and Priviledges of Parliament, and to have Parliaments annually chosen and held, and not prorogued, dissolved, or discontinued, within the Year, before Petitions be first answered, and Grievances redressed.
And seeing many of the Miseries, under which the Nation doth groan, arise from displacing such out of the number of Judges, as would not, for promoting Popish and Arbitrary Designs, wrest and misapply the Laws; and from constituting corrupt and mercenary Men in their Rooms, on purpose to stretch the Laws beyond the reason and intention of them, and to declare that for Law which is not: We can neither with silence pass over the mentioning of them, nor should we have peace in our selves, if we did not endeavour to prevent the like mischief in time to come. For by reason of ill Mens being advanced to the Bench, and holding their Places only durante bene placito, many Persons have been condemned in exorbitant Fines for no Crimes, or for very small ones: Many Statutes made for the safety of the Subject, particularly the Habeas Corpus Act, have been wickedly eluded to the oppression of the Innocent and Loyal Men. The Popish Lords that were impeached in Parliament, for a most hellish Conspiracy, have, to the subverting the Rights of the House of Commons, and trampling on the Rights of the House of Lords, been discharged and se… free. The imposing a Mayor and Sheriff upon the City of London by Fraud and Violence, have been justified, and those who in discharge of their Duty opposed it, illegally prosecuted, and arbitrarily punished. London, and other Cities and Corporations, have been robb'd of their Charters, upon unrighteous Judgments of pretended Forfeitures. Sir Thomas Armstrong executed without being allowed the benefit of a Trial: Coll. Algernoon Sidney condemned to die, upon the Deposition of one scandalous Witness: And that Loyal and Excellent Person, the late William L. Russel Murthered for alledged Crimes; In reference to which, if all had been true, which was sworn against him, yet there was nothing which according to Law could have reached his Life. Upon the Considerations aforesaid, we further declare, that we will have care taken for the future for debarring ignorant, sca…dalous and mercenary Men from the Administration of Justice, and that the Judges shall hold their Places by the antient Tenure of quamdiu se bene gesserint; and do leave it to the wisdom of a Parliament to settle some way and method for the approbation of such as shall be advanced to the Degree and Dignity of Judges.
And for as much as the Invasion made on the Rights of Cities, Burroughs and Towns Corporate, by the Seisure of their Charters, whether by Surrender or upon pretence of Fo…feiture, have been wholly Arbitrary and Illegal; we likewise therefore declare, We will, to our utmost, endeavour to see them repossessed in what they formerly had and could legally lay claim to, and that we do esteem all Judgments given against the…, and all Surrenders made by a corrupt and perju…ed party amongst them, null and void in Law; and do hold and declare their old Charters, notwithstanding the new ones lately granted, to be good and valid; And accordingly we do invite and incourage all honest Burgesses and Freemen to reassume the Rights and Priviledge…, which by vertue of the said Old Charters belonged to their several and respective Corporations, and to deliver themselves from those late Parasites and Instruments of Tyranny set up to oppress them.
Moreover, for the restoring the Kingdom to its Primitive Condition of Freedom and Safety, we will have the Corporation and Militia Acts repealed, and all Outlawries of Treason against any person whatsoever, upon the late pretended Protestant Plot, reversed; and also all other Outlawries, Banishments, Warrants, Judgments, Imprisonments, and Injurious Proceedings, against any other persons, upon any of the Penal Statutes made against Protestant Dissenters, made null and void. And we will have new Laws enacted for placing the Election of Sheriffs in the Freeholders of the several Counties, for settling the Militia in the several Shires, and for preventing all Military standing Forces, except what shall be raised and kept up by Authority and Consent of Parliament.
And whereas several Gentlemen, and others, who have been worthy and zealous Asserters of the Protestant Interest, and Laws of the Kingdom, are now in custody in divers places within the Realm, upon most unjust Accusations, Pretences, Proceedings, and Judgments; we do hereby further declare their said Imprisonments to be Illegal, and that in case any violence shall be offered to them, or any of them, we will revenge it to the utmost upon such of our Enemies as shall fall into our hands.
And whereas the said J. D. of Y. in order to the expediting the Idolatrous and bloody Designs of the Papists, the gratifying his own boundless Ambition after a Crown, and to hinder inquiry into the Assassination of Arthur Earl of Essex; hath poisoned the late King, and thereby manifested his Ingratitude as well as Cruelty to the World, in murthering a Brother who had almost ruined himself to preserve and protect him from punishment: We do therefore further declare, That for the aforesaid villanous & unnatural Crime, and other his Crimes before mentioned, and in pursuance of the resolution of both Houses of Parliament, who voted to revenge the Kings Death in case he came to an untimely end, we will prosecute the said J. D. of Y. till we have brought him to suffer what the Law adjudged to be the punishment of so execrable a Fact.
And in a more particular manner his Grace the Duke of Monmouth being sensible of the barbarous and horrid Parricide committed upon his Father, doth resolve to pursue the said J. D. of Y. as a mortal and bloody Enemy, and will endeavour a… well with his own hand, as by the assistance of his Friends and the Law, to have Justice executed upon him.
And the said James Duke of Monmouth, the now Head and Captain General of the Protestant Forces of this Kingdom, assembled for the end aforesaid, from the generousness of his own Nature, and the love he bears to these Nations, whose wellfare and settlement he infinitely preferrs to whatsoever may concern himself, doth not at present insist upon his …itle; but leaves the determination thereof to the Wisdom, Justice and Authority of a Parliament legally chosen and acting with freedom: And in the mean time doth profess and declare by all that is sacred, that he will, in conjunction with the People of England, imploy all the Abilities bestowed upon him by God and Nature, for the Reestablishment and Preservation of the Protestant Reformed Religion in these Kingdoms, and for restoring the Subjects of the same to a free exercise thereof, in opposition to Popery, and the consequences of it, Tyranny and Slavery. To the obtaining of which end, he doth hereby promise and oblige himself to the People of England, to consent unto and promote the passing into Laws all the methods aforesaid; that it may never more be in the power of any single Person on the Throne, to deprive the Subjects of their Rights, or subvert the Fundamental Laws of the Government designed for their Preservation.
And whereas, the Nobility, Gentry and Commons of Scotland are now in Arms upon the like motives and inducements that we are, and in prosecution of Ends agreeable with ours; We do therefore approve the justice of their Cause, commend their Zeal and Courage, expecting their, and promising our assistance, for carrying on that glorious Work we are jointly engaged in; Being obliged, for avoiding tediousness, to omit the recounting many Oppressions under which the Kingdom hath groaned; and the giving a deduction of the several steps that have been taken for introducing of Popery and Tyranny: We think fit therefore to signify, both to our Countrymen and Forreigners, that we intend a larger Testimony and Remonstrance of the Grievances, Persecutions, Cruelties and Tyrannies we have of late lain under; and therein a more full and particular Account of the unparallell'd Crimes of the D. of Y. And we make our Appeal unto God, and all Protestant Kings, Princes, States and Peoples, concerning the Justice of our Cause, and the necessity we are reduced unto of having our recourse to Arms. And as we do beseech, require and adjure all sincere Protestants and true English men to be assisting to us against the Enemies of the Gospel, Rights of the Nation, and Liberties of Mankind: So we are confident of obtaining the utmost Aid and Succour which they can yield us, with their Prayers, Persons and Estates, for the dethroning the said Tyrant, &c. Nor do we doubt being justified, countenanced and assisted by all Protestant Kings, Princes and Commonwealths who either regard the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or their own Interest: And above all, our dependance and trust is upon the Lord of Hosts, in whose name we go forth, and to whom we commit out Cause, and refer the Decision betwixt us and our Enemies in the day of Battel. Now let us play the Men for our People, and for the Cities of our God, and the Lord do that which seemeth good unto him.
☞ Thus Reader I have given you a Copy of the Duke of Monmouth's Declaration (which was disperst in the West of England in the year 1685.) But it not being the part of an Historian, to make Remarks, I have satisfied my self, with barely inserting it, leaving every Reader to make what Reflections on it he thinks fit.
What follows concerning the late Lord Jefferys, should have been printed in his Life, next to the word Bribed in page 19 but was there Omitted.
JEffreys prosecuted Mr. Baxter for his Paraphrase upon the New Testament, and sent him to Prison; he coming out by an Habeas Corpus, was fain to abscond in the Country (in constant pain) till the Term. Then his oft Waitings at the Bar (where he could not stand) and then to be ragingly treated by Jeffreys and Withins, and called Rogue and Knave, and not suf…ered to speak one word of Answer for himself, and his Counsel being reviled that offered to speak for him, was far harder to him, than his Imprisonment. And then going from the Bar, he only said, That his Predecessor thought otherwise of him. Jeffrys reply'd, There was not an honest Man in England that took him not for a Knave, not excepting the King that had given him another Testimony in Words.
In the next page follows An Abstract of Monmouth's true Speech.