1

pope Gregory XV. and another in the year

1634,

"I intreat your holiness to believe, that I have been al66 ways very far from encouraging novelties, or to be a "partizan of any faction againft the catholic apoftolic

Roman religion; but, on the contrary, I have fought "all occafions to take away the fufpicion that might reft upon me, and that I will employ myself for the time "to come, to have but one religion and one faith, "feeing that we all believe in Jefus Chrift; having re"folved in myself to fpare nothing, that I have in the "world, and to fuffer all manner of difcommodities, ❝even to the hazarding of my estate and life, for a thing "fo pleafing unto God (b)." -The king's letter to (6) Enquiry pope Urban VIII. was written in 1634: it is in Latin, into the and was occafioned by the diftreffes the houfe of Lorrain K. Charles was involved in by the arms of France. It fhews great I. had in affection to the princes of that family, and is full of the tranf preffing addreffes to his holiness to exert his paternal au- the earl of thority to put an end to the calamities of the war. There Glamorgan, is nothing in it on the fubject of religion; but it is mere- p. 285, 8vo. ly a civil compliment for a civil end, as Prynne juftly ob- Lond. 1747. ferves. This letter was found among Laud's papers, and endorsed with his own hands in these words:

Rece,

share which

actions of

darkness,

P. 142, fol.

• Oct. 15, 1635. A copy of the letter which is reported king Charles did write to pope Urban VIII. about the • reftitution of the duke of Loraigne (c).' So that there (c) Prynne's can be little doubt concerning its genuinenefs, or of the hidden correspondence his majefty held on fome occafions with works of the head of the Romish church. But the editors of Charles's works are chargeable with other omiffions, Lond. 1645. namely, the inftructions he gave to lord Carleton, containing an account of his queen's ill behaviour toward him, of which I ve already given an account; and inftructions to c onel Cookran [Cockeram], to be pursued in his negotiatic to the king of Denmark. In these are fet forth the undutiful behaviour of many of his majesty's fubjects, who have not only invaded his majesty in his particular rites, but have laid a defigne to diffolve the monarchie and frame of government, under

1 4

pre

1634, to pope Urban VIII. To these alfo

we

pretences of liberty and religion, becoming a dangerous precedent to all the monarchies of Christendome to be looked upon with fucceffe in their defigne.' After this he fhews the reafons he had to forfake London; the effect of his declarations to undeceive the people, and to draw to him univerfally the nobility and gentry " of the kingdom; the force he was mafter of, and the good condition of his affairs. And in order farther to • induce his Danish majesty to give him the affiftance demanded, he the faid colonel is to set forth, that it had • been moved in the commons house to set out a fleet to take away his cuftoms of the Sound; that the commons had given inftructions to the fleet to visit, search, ⚫ and intercept all fuch Danish fhips as they fhould meet, and to fight with, fink or deftroy, all fuch as fhould refift them; that this actually had been done by them; and that they permitted not Danish fhips, drove in by • ftrefs of weather, so much as to water.' After which there follow these very remarkable words:

That in pursuance of their [the parliament's] great ⚫ defigne of extirpating the royall blood, and monarchie of England, they have endeavoured likewife to lay a great blemish upon his royall family, endeavouring to illegitimate all derived from his [Denmark's] fifter, at < once to cut off the intereft and pretentions of the whole race, which their most deteftable and fcandalous defigne they have pursued, examining witneffes, and conferring circumftances, and times, to colour their pretentions in fo great a fault: and which as his facred majeftie of England, in the true fenfe of honor of his mother, doth abhor, and will punifh, fo he expect his [Den• mark's] concurrence, in vindicating a fifter of fo happy memory, and by whom fo near an union, and continued league of amity, hath been produced between the families and kingdoms. These things were to be urged by Cockeram to the Danish king, in order, we ⚫ may fuppofe, to inflame him against the parliament, and thereby procure a loane of 1000001, in money,

6

“ 6000

we must add the inftructions given to his minif

6000 mufquets, 1500 horfe-arms, and 20 pieces of field-artillery mounted, together with fome horse

lock's me

p.

468.

men (d). These inftructions have no date; but they (d) King's must have been given about the middle of the year 1642, cabinet, p. at the latest: for we read in Whitlock, that in Novem- 38, 43. ber, that year, letters from Holland to the king were intercepted, whereby notice is given him of ftore of ⚫ ammunition and money fent to him from thence, and of an ambassador coming from Denmark to the king, • and colonel Cockeram with him (e).'-Milton fpeaks of (e) Whitthis fufpicion, mentioned of his mother's chastity, in the morials, p. following terms. • Was it not dishonourable in himself 66. [Charles] to feign suspicions and jealoufies, which we found among those letters [taken at Naseby], touching the chastity of his mother, thereby to gain affiftance (f) Milton's from the king of Denmark, as in vindication of his profe works, fifter (f)?' It looks by this, that Milton was unacquainted with the rumours of that queen's amours (g). (g) See hif These inftructions to Cockran were afterwards made ufe torical and critical acof by the parliament to Charles's disadvantage, as we may count of the learn from the following paffage,-Feb. 11, 1647, De- life of James bate upon the declaration touching no more addreffes I. p. 14-to the king, and voted upon hearing proofs, that his 34majefties inftructions to Mr. Cockeram-be inferted in the declaration, and ordered it to be printed and publifhed (b).' What I have here inferted, is merely to difcharge the lock, p.291, duty of an hiftorian. I am accountable for nothing contained in these letters and inftructions: whether they are honourable or difgraceful to their author, the reader, as he has a right, will and muft judge. But I cannot conclude this note without obferving, that the artifice of the editors of Charles's works was poor and ineffectual: They thought to have buried thefe writings in oblivion, by omitting them in their collection; they imagined that for the future men would not think of them. But the thought was vain, as they had made fo much noise in the world, and had been inferted in fo many different

col

(b) Whit

(i) Hiftory

of Great

100,

minifter at Paris, containing an account of the ill behaviour of his queen towards him; as likewife the inftructions to colonel Cockeram, to be pursued in his negotiation with the king of Denmark. More of Charles's letters we were likely once to have had; but by the uncommon care of the friends to his memory they were fuppreffed (cc), and will

not,

collections; and the event has fhewn, that hiftorical inquirers have come to the knowledge of them, and declared their contents. For all writers have not been fo very complaisant to the memory of this monarch as Mr. Hume, who paffes over fo remarkable a letter as what is here quoted to Gregory XV. with only faying, that the prince [Charles] having received a very civil letter from the pope, he was induced to return a very civil anfwer (i).'

(cc) More of Charles's letters we were likely once to Britain, P. have had; but by the friends to his memory they were fuppreffed.] The following quotation, as it contains fomething remarkable, fo will it be new to a great many of my readers, who, I doubt not, will be pleased with my giving it them at length. The most exceptionable part of Charles I.'s character, and what appears to have been the main fource of his misfortunes, and ⚫ occafion of his ruin, was his want of fincerity in all

matters, in which his power and prerogative were con<cerned. This is too clearly proved by many public facts, to be denied by any impartial perfon; and might have been still more ftrongly evinced, if the friends to the king's memory had not taken an uncommon care to fupprefs fuch evidences as would have difcredited 'their panegyrics upon him. A remarkable inftance of this zeal appears from a letter of Dr. Charles Hickman [afterwards bifhop of Londonderry], chaplain to Laurence Hyde earl of Rochefter, the younger fon of the • earl of Clarendon, and the editor of his hiftory. This • letter

3

not, in all probability, ever fee the light.

All

⚫ letter was written by the doctor, at the defire of his patron, to Dr. Thomas Sprat, bishop of Rochester, to request that prelate's concurrence for preventing the ⚫ intended publication of a collection of letters of king • Charles I. to his queen; which must have been dif ❝ferent from those taken in his cabinet at Nafeby, fince the latter had not only been published by order of the long parliament, but likewife feveral times reprinted, and particularly with that king's works. But the • former collection has never seen, nor is ever likely to fee the light; as it is probable, that those who appear, from Dr. Hickman's letter, fo zealous for his majeftie's memory, would facrifice to his honour what they thought fo inconfiftent with it. This fuppreffion of important facts, in favour of particular characters and parties, is little less criminal than the abfolute falfification of them: and such a violation of one of the first laws of hiftory has been the great fource of the corruption of it, whether civil or ecclefiaftical. Dr. Hickman's letter is as follows.

• My Lord,

Last week Mr. Bennet [a bookfeller] left with me a manuscript of letters from king Charles I. to his queen; and faid it was your lordship's defire and Dr. • Pelling's, that my lord Rochefter would read them over, and see what was fit to be left out in the intended edition of them. Accordingly my lord has read them over, and upon the whole matter fays, he is very much amazed at the defign of printing them; and thinks that king's • enemies could not have done him a greater difcourtesy. He ' fhewed me many passages, which detract very much from the reputation of the king's prudence, and fomething from his integrity; and, in fhort, he can find nothing throughout the whole collection, but what will leffen the character of the king, and offend all those who wish well to his mėmory. He thinks it very unfit to expose any man's con