House of Lords Journal Volume 5: 16 September 1642

DIE Veneris, videlicet, 16 die Septembris.

PRAYERS.

The Lord Brooke was appointed to be Speaker this Day.

Answer to the King's last Message.

The Earl of Holland reported from the Committee, some Alterations and Additions made in the Answer to the King's last Message; which, being read, were approved of, and Ordered to be communicated to the House of Commons, for their Consent therein.

Message to the H. C. to desire Expedition in it.

A Message was brought from the House of Commons, by Sir Rob't Harley:

1. To desire (fn. 1) Expedition in the Answer to the King's Message.

For the Lord General to advance the Army towards the King.

2. To write to the Lord General, to advance the Army towards the Place where the King is, as soon as conveniently so great a Body can move, and as in his Wisdom he shall think it fit; and a Petition and Instructions shall be sent after him.

To have the Petition and Instructions first.

It is thought fit that the Lord General should receive the Petition and Instructions before he march with the Army; and to have a Conference with the House of Commons, to move them to hasten the said Petition and Instructions.

(fn. 2) 3. To desire Expedition in the Order concerning the Merchant Strangers.

Passed already.

Captain Davies scandalous Words against the Earl of Essex's Men.

Information being made, "That one Captain Davies, a Pensioner of The Charter House, hath spoken scandalous Words concerning such Soldiers, that are entertained to go with the Earl of Essex;"

Ordered, That the said Davies shall be sent for, as a Delinquent; and the Witnesses to appear, to make the Charge.

Answer returned was:

Answer to the H. C.

That, concerning the Answer to the King's Message, and concerning the advancing of the Army, this House will send an Answer by Messengers of thier own; and concerning the Order for the Merchant Strangers, this House hath agreed thereunto.

Message from the H. C. to impeach the Marquis of Hertford and others.

A Message was brought up from the House of Commons, by Sir Guy Palmes who delivered Two Impeachments:

1. An Impeachment against the Lord Marquis of Hertford and others, of High Treason.

and Wyld High Sheriff of Shropshire;

2. An Impeachment of High Crimes and Misdemeanors against Jo. Wylde, Esquire, High Sheriff of the County of Salop.

and with an Order about Lord Strange.

3. They desire their Lordships Concurrence in an Order concerning the Lord Strange. (Here enter it.)

Agreed to, and Ordered to be printed.

The Impeachments to be read To-morrow; and to have a Conference with the House of Commons, how to bring Delinquents to a Trial.

The Answer was:

Answer.

That this House agrees with the House of Commons, in the Order concerning the Lord Strange; concerning the Two Impeachments now brought up, this House will send an Answer, by Messengers of their own.

Message to the the H. C. with the Answer to the King's last Message.

A Message was sent to the House of Commons, by Doctor Aylett and Doctor Heath:

To deliver to them the Answer to the King's last Message, with some Amendments and Alterations, and desire their speedy Concurrence herein.

Letter from the Earl of Leicester, about his Proceedings at Court since he left the Parliament.

The Earl of Northumberland acquainted this House with a Letter written to his Lordship from the Earl of Leycester, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, which was an Account of his Carriage at Court, since he departed from the Parliament.

The Letter was read; and the House was satisfied, that he hath been solicitous to be dispatched by the King for Ireland.

To be communicated to the H. C.

Ordered, That this Letter shall be communicated to the House of Commons, at the next Conference.

Answer from the H. C. about the Answer of both Houses to the King's last Message.

The Messengers return with this Answer:

That the House of Commons agrees with this House in the Amendments and Alterations in the Answer to His Majesty's last Message.

"To the King's most Excellent Majesty.

"The humble Answer of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament unto His Majesty's last Message.

The Answer.

"May it please Your Majesty,

"We, the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled, do present this our humble Answer to Your Majesty's Message of the 11th of this Instant Month of September. When we consider the Oppressions, Rapines, firing of Houses, Murders (even at this Time, whilst Your Majesty propounds a Treaty), committed upon Your good Subjects, by Your Soldiers, in the Presence, and by the Authority, of their Commanders, being of the Number of those whom Your Majesty holds Yourself bound in Honour and Conscience to protect, as Persons doing their Duties; we cannot think Your Majesty hath done all that in You lies to prevent or remove the present Distractions; nor so long as Your Majesty will admit no Peace, without securing the Authors and Instruments of these Mischiefs from the Justice of the Parliament, which yet shall be ever dispensed with all requisite Moderation and Distinction of Offences, although some of those Persons be such in whose Preservation Your Kingdom cannot be safe, nor the unquestionable Rights and Privileges of Parliament be maintained, without which the Power and Dignity thereof will fall into Contempt: We beseech Your Majesty, therefore, to consider Your Expressions, That God shall deal with You and Your Posterity as Your Majesty desires the Preservations of the just Rights of Parliament, which being undeniable in the trying of such as we have declared to be Delinquents, we shall believe Your Majesty, both towards Yourself and Parliament, (fn. 3) will not, in this Privilege we are most sensible of, deny us that which belongs unto the meanest Court of Justice in this Kingdom; neither hath Your Majesty Cause to complain that You are denied a Treaty, when we offer all that a Treaty can produce, or Your Majesty expect, Security, Honour, Service, Obedience, Support, and all other Effects of an humble, loyal, and faithful Subjection, and seek nothing but that our Religion, Liberty, Peace of the Kingdom, Safety of the Parliament, may be secured from the open Violence and cunning Practices of a wicked Party, who have long plotted our Ruin and Destruction; and if there were any Cause of Treaty, we know no competent Persons to treat betwixt the King and Parliament; and if both Cause and Persons were such as to invite Treaty, the Season is altogether unfit, whilst Your Majesty's Standard is up, and Your Proclamations and Declarations unrecalled, whereby Your Parliament is charged with Treason.

"If Your Majesty shall persist to make Yourself a Shield and Defence to those Instruments, and shall continue to reject our faithful and necessary Advice, for securing and maintaining Religion and Liberty, with the Peace of the Kingdom and Safety of the 'Parliament, we doubt not but to indifferent Judgements it will easily appear who is most tender of that innocent Blood which is like to be spilt in this Cause; Your Majesty, who, by such persisting, doth endanger Yourself and Your Kingdoms; or we, who are willing to hazard ourselves to preserve both.

"We humbly beseech Your Majesty to consider how impossible it is, that any Protestation, though published in Your Majesty's Name, of Your Tenderness of the Miseries of Your Protestant Subjects in Ireland, of Your Resolution to maintain the Protestant Religion and Laws of this Kingdom, can give Satisfaction to reasonable and indifferent Men, when, at the same Time, divers of the Irish Traitors and Rebels, the known Favourers of them and Agents for them, are admitted to Your Majesty's Presence with Grace and Favour, and some of them employed in Your Service; when the Cloaths, Munition, Horses, and other Necessaries, bought by Your Parliament, and sent for the Supply of the Army against the Rebels there, are violently taken away, some by Your Majesty's Commands, others by Your Ministers, and applied to the Maintenance of an unnatural War against Your People here.

"All this notwithstanding, as we never gave Your Majesty any just Cause of withdrawing Yourself from Your Great Council, so it hath ever been, and shall ever be, far from us to give any Impediment to Your Return, or to neglect any proper Means of curing the Distempers of the Kingdom, and closing the dangerous Breaches betwixt Your Majesty and Your Parliament, according to the great Trust which lies upon us; and, if Your Majesty shall now be pleased to come back to Your Parliament without Your Forces, we shall be ready to secure Your Royal Person, Your Crown and Dignity, with our Lives and Fortunes, Your Presence in this Your Great Council being the only Means of any Treaty betwixt Your Majesty and them, with Hope of Success.

"And in none of our Desires to Your Majesty shall we be swayed by any particular Man's Advantage; but shall give a clear Testimony to Your Majesty, and the whole World, that, in all Things done by us, we faithfully intend the Good of Your Majesty and of Your Kingdoms; and that we will not be diverted from this End, by any private or self Respects whatsoever."

Ordered, That this Answer be presented to the King, by Mr. Ric'd May.

Order for apprehending Lord Strange.

"Whereas the Lord Strange, having continued a long Time, and still remaining, in actual Rebellion against His Majesty and the Parliament, is for the same impeached of High Treason, by the House of Commons, in the Name of themselves and all the Commons of England: It is therefore Ordered, by the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled, That Publication thereof be made in all Churches and Chapels, by the Curates and Churchwardens thereof, and in all Markets and Towns, by the Constables and Officers of the Towns, within the Counties of Lancaster and Chester, to the End that all His Majesty's loving Subjects may have Notice thereof, left they, being deceived by the specious Pretences made by the said Lord Strange, should assist him with Men, Money, Munition, or any other Provision, and so make themselves guilty of the like Treason and Rebellion; and all Sheriffs, and other His Majesty's Subjects, are hereby required to do their best Endeavours, for the Apprehension of the said Lord, and the bringing him up to the Parliament, there to receive condign Punishment, according to his Demerits."

Earl of Leicester's Letter to the Earl of Northumberland, of his Behaviour at Court since he left the Parliament.

"My Lord,

"Though I have written Thrice to the Commissioners for the Affairs of Ireland, since my coming from London, to give them an Account of my Stay at Court, and that I have also written several Letters to some particular Friends, in Hope that thereby the Truth might be known, and myself rightly understood; yet, because those Letters peradventure may have miscarried, and left I should incur the Censure of the Parliament for Negligence or Slackness in that Service to which I have been designed, I will truly, and as briefly as I can, relate to your Lordship how I have behaved myself; and, if your Lordship please, you may communicate it to the House of Peers, as in your Judgement and Favour to me you shall think fit; and I hope it will appear that, as I have been very impatient of this Delay, so I have not wanted Diligence in the Solicitation of my Dispatch.

"When I came to Yorke, I told the King that I was come thither to receive His Majesty's Commandments and Instructions for that Employment which He had done me the Honour to confer upon me; and I did humbly beseech Him that I might not be stayed at Court, because the Parliament did desire my speedy Repair into Ireland, and that His Service, as I conceived, did require it; at least that some Governor (if I were not thought worthy of it) should be presently sent into that Kingdom. The King told me, that He would think of it; but I must confess I did not find His Majesty so ready to dispatch me, as I hoped and expected.

"From that Time, I did not fail to beseech His Majesty to send me away, upon every Opportunity that I had of speaking to Him; and I think there passed not a Day, that I did not desire the Secretaries of State, and some other Persons about the King, to put His Majesty in Mind of me, and to hasten my Dismission; and divers Times I made it my Petition to the King, that He would dispatch me, or declare His Intention that He would not let me go at all. The King said, my Instructions should be drawn, and that He would give Order to Mr. Secretary Nicholas, to do it as speedily as he could. In Expectation whereof I stayed about Three Weeks, till the King came from Yorke, when His Majesty appointed me to follow Him to Nottingham, and there I should have my Expeditions. I obeyed His Majesty, and came after Him to this Town, where I have attended ever since, perpetually soliciting to be dispatched, and beseeching His Majesty that I might either go to my Employment, or have His Leave to retire myself to my own House and private Condition; that, if He was unwilling to trust me in an Employment of so great Importance, I did beseech Him that I might be no Burden to His Thoughts, and that He would be so gracious as to let me know His Resolution, for I conceived myself to be under a heavy Censure, both of the Parliament and of the whole Kingdom, whilst possibly they might think it my Fault that I was so long absent from that Charge which I had undertaken. It is to no Purpose to tell you every Passage; but this I profess to your Lordship, that, if it had been to save the Lives of all my Friends, and of myself, I could not have done more to procure my Dispatch. Nevertheless, I have not been able to advance it One Step, nor have I seen any Token to make me hope to have it quickly, till this Morning, when Mr. Secretary Nicholas gave me a Draught of my Instructions to persue; and so I hope that, between this and Monday, I shall have done that Part; and I will do the best I can, in procuring some other Things, without which I know not how I shall be able to do any acceptable Service in that Kingdom. Your Lordship knows, I am a Servant, and I could not run away if I would, or at least it had been to little Purpose though I should have adventured to do so indecent and so undutiful an Action; therefore I hope it will be believed that I have not been to blame. Now, with your Lordship's Leave, I shall trouble you with another Particular, wherein perhaps I suffer in the Opinion of them that know not what hath passed, though I be as innocent as a new-born Child; nay, I have opposed it as much as I had Power to do so. The King being informed at Yorke, by some officious Persons, that there were certain Draughthorses provided, to be sent into Ireland, His Majesty told me, that He must needs have them for His own Use. I did humbly beseech Him not to take them away from His own Service in Ireland, for which they were bought, and in which they were to be employed; and, besides what I said myself, I made Means by others to save the Horses, so as I heard no more of it till I came hither; but then His Majesty told me again, that He must needs have those Horses, and would have me send for them. I represented to His Majesty the Inconsiderableness of those few Horses; and that the Parliament might take it very ill, in regard that the Horses were bought with their Money, for the Service of the poor Kingdom of Ireland; therefore I did beseech Him not to take them; or, howsoever, that He would excuse me from being an Instrument in that which I conceived would much hurt His Affairs; and that, I being trusted by the Parliament, I could neither do it myself, nor consent that any other should do that which was a Breach of Trust and a great Disservice even to His Majesty Himself. Notwithstanding this, the King sent unto me, by Mr. Endymion Portor and Sir George Hay, at several Times, to the like Purpose; but I returned the same Answer, adding this also, that I could not do it, and be an honest Man to His Service; though it be true that the King said, He would restore the Horses, or pay for them. But, for all this, it pleased His Majesty to employ one Erington, that served me, and gave him a Warrant to fetch the Horses. Erington told me of it. I forbad him as far as I could do it; and told him, that, if he did it, he must not look to have any Thing more to do with me for ever; and further, that I made no Doubt but the Parliament would hang him, for stealing their Horses. This and more I said to Erington, in the Presence of James Battier, my Secretary, who will witness it; and, conceiving it to be an unjust Thing in itself, displeasing to the Parliament, and hurtful to the King's Service, I protested against it; though Erington said, His Majesty had commanded him, upon his Allegiance, to execute the Warrant; but indeed I told him, that I did not believe him, nor could think that His Majesty would command a Subject, upon his Allegiance, to take away other Mens Horses. This I thought sufficient; but, it seems, I was deceived; for Erington, without my Consent or Knowledge, went from Nottingham towards Chester, as I heard afterwards; and I have never seen him since, nor heard from him. What he hath done, I do not know; but I sent to Chester, that the Horses should be presently shipped away; and I caused my Servant to write to Mr. Hawkins, to take Care that neither Erington, nor any body for him, should receive any more Money of Mr. Loftus, or his Deputy, to provide the rest of the Horses, for as yet I think there hath been only Sixteen Hundred Pounds issued, to buy Two Hundred of the Six Hundred Horses allowed by the Parliament; and of that Sixteen Hundred, I will do the best I can to get a good Accompt thereof. The Parliament, God willing, shall be informed with my best Care and Diligence. Truly, my Lord, I do the best I can, to serve my Country; they that are wiser may do more; but of any Thing contrary to the Duty of an honest Man, the Parliament, upon strict Examination, shall never find me guilty; for the Reputation of Honesty and Fidelity is (and I can say no more) as dear unto me as your esteeming me

Nottingham, 9th September, 1642.

"Your Lordship's

"Humble and affectionate Servant.

"Leycester."