1660. Lords' the head from the members hath been the chiefest occasion of all our disorders and confusion, they desire some ways may be considered how to make up these breaches and to obtain the resolution. King's return again to his people. That they desired that a Committee of the House of Commons might be appointed to meet one of the Lords to prepare such things as might be, in order to these good and necessary ends, and to form a letter of thanks and acknowledgment to His Majesty for his gracious letter and declaration." The Commons resolved that they agreed in all things with Resolution the House of Lords. A Committee was appointed to peruse the Journals and records as to any pretended acts or orders which had been passed and were inconsistent with the Government of King Lords and Commons. On the 2nd May the Commons resolved that Sir John Grenville who brought his Majesty's letter should receive the thanks of the House and £500 to buy a jewel as a testimony of respect and as a badge of honour. On the 3rd May the Lords ordered that the King should be prayed for and his arms set up. In the Commons the Speaker gave the thanks of the House to Sir John Grenville; and said "our Bells and our bonfires have already begun the proclamation of His Majesty's goodness, and of our joys. We have told the people of England that our King the glory of England is coming home again and they have resounded it back again in our ears, that they are ready and that their hearts are open to receive him. Both Parliament and People have cried aloud to the King of kings in their prayers, Long live King Charles the Second." of the Commons. Resolutions. On the 4th May, the House of Lords passed an order vacating Nine Lords. the judgment against the nine Lords impeached by the House of Commons for joining the King at York in 1642, and on the next day agreed to a declaration that by reason of the extraordinary and important affairs of the Kingdom there would be no proceedings in the Courts of Law or Equity at Westminster until the 28th instant. On the same day the Bill for removing and preventing all questions and disputes concerning the assembling and sitting of the free Parliament passed the Commons'. On the 7th the Lords published a declaration against tumults and riots and for continuing Sheriffs, Justices, &c. in their offices. Both Houses resolved that the King should be proclaimed King prothe next day and that certain Lords and members of the House of Commons should attend His Majesty with an answer to his letter. A proclamation by both Houses proclaiming His Majesty 1 12 Car. II. c. 1. claimed. 1660. Order of the Lords. Lenthall's cuse. Arrest of regicides. King was agreed to. On the 8th May the Commons resolved that all proceedings under the great seal should pass in the King's name from the 5th instant. On the 9th the Commons sent a message to the Lords enclosing their resolution that the King be desired to make a speedy return to his Parliament and the exercise of his Kingly office. The Lords made an order that the arms of the Commonwealth be everywhere taken down and the King's arms set up instead. On the 9th the Lords ordered that all ministers should pray for the King in the public prayers and for a general thanksgiving. On the 11th the Lords ordered all the Commissioners and other officers who were in office on the 25th April last should proceed in the execution of their offices in the King's name. In the midst of all the loyalty we have an instance of independence in reference to the proceedings of the last Parliament we should hardly expect. On the 12th of May, on a debate in the Commons Mr Lenthall' said, "He that first drew his sword against the King committed as high an offence as he that cut off the King's head." These words were brought under the notice of the House and, as in the opinion of the House they were as high a reflexion on the justice and proceedings of the Lords and Commons in the last Parliament in their actings before 1648 as could be expressed, it was ordered that the words be sharply reprehended as tending to render those that drew the sword to vindicate their just liberties unto a balance with them that cut off the King's head. On the 14th information was given to the House of Lords of treasonable words spoken by Justice Bains a brewer in Southwark at the proclamation of the King. On the same day it was ordered that all persons who sat in judgment on the late King's Majesty should be secured. On the 15th the Lords appointed a Committee to repeal all ordinances made since the Lords were interrupted. The same day the Commons resolved that John Bradshaw, Oliver Cromwell, Henry Ireton and Thomas Pride deceased shall be of those attainted for murdering his late Majesty. On the 18th May, the Commons sent up the resolutions to the Lords "that all persons who sat in judgment upon the late King's Majesty when sentence of death was pronounced against him should be forthwith seized and secured that nothing there should apply to Colonel Matthew Tomlinson and that the ports be stopped so that none of those that were ordered to be apprehended escape." But on the next day at a conference the Lords refused to agree to those 1 Son of the Speaker Lenthall. votes as trenching on the ancient privileges of their House in Judicature in Parliament which is solely in the Lords' House. 1660. barcation. On the 23rd May a letter from General Montagu to the King's emSpeaker of the House of Lords announced that the King, the Dukes of York and Gloucester had embarked at Schevening for Dover. A Committee was appointed to draw up a letter from the House of Peers to the King to express their great desire for His Majesty's safe landing and asking where they could Arrival of wait on him. On the 29th both Houses of Parliament waited on the King at Whitehall, and the restoration was completed. Charles. Supremacy. The royalist party were now desirous to celebrate their triumph and to celebrate it in the manner considered most fitting in those days, by persecution. On the 29th May the Commons resolved unanimously "that the King's Majesty be pleased to give order that the oaths of allegiance and supremacy be ad- Oath of ministered according to the laws and statutes of the realm now in force." On the same day they desired the Lords' concurrence in a proclamation against Jesuits seminaries popish priests and Catholics. recusants. On the next day it was resolved that a Bill should be brought in "for a perpetual anniversary of Thanksgiving Thanks to God for the great blessing and mercy he hath been giving. ciously pleased to vouchsafe to the people of these Kingdoms in the restoration of his Majesty to his people and Kingdom, being the birthday of His Majesty, and the day of His Majesty's return to his Parliament'." On the 31st the Lords made at Oxford from gra vacated the order excluding the Lords On the 2nd June the House of Commons ordered that The Lords meanwhile were busy in punishing persons for using treasonable words. A Captain Anthony Belcham was accused of this, he petitioned 25th May to be discharged as he did not desire to excuse himself of the matter sworn against 1 12 Car. II. c. 14. See post. It was proposed to crown Charles on the same day in 1661, and to strike a medal with the motto, "Natus renatus, coronatus." him but he did not remember ever having spoken the words deposed. He prayed that the Lords would grant him the benefit of His Majesty's declaration and to discharge him from his imprisonment'. Captain Henbury was also charged with using treasonable words. He said in his defence that the words alleged were spoken in March last when men took too great a latitude in speaking against the Kingly Government, he denied that he used the words, but as his Majesty had granted his most gracious and free pardon to all his subjects who should within forty days lay hold upon his grace and favour and should by any public act declare their doing so he prayed that he might have the benefit of his Majesty's most gracious pardon and be discharged from imprisonment. On the 20th May Sir John Lenthall handed in to the Lords papers concerning persons that had spoken treasonable words against the King. The first was Thomas Blacklock who denied he spoke the words alleged against him but refused to sign the examination. The next Lewis Powell was alleged to have said "that if the King should land and the Barge should go down for him he would have an oar in the same Barge with some others that he knew and that he would sink the Barge and every man and mother's child that was in it for he valued not his own life so the King might not come in.” All this Powell denied. Margaret Dagger was charged with saying, "that the King meaning our Sovereign Lord Charles was a bastard and that Bridewell was the fittest place for him,” but she denied she had used the words3. The Commons were not behindhand in loyalty and persecution. On the 16th June they ordered the Attorney-General to proceed against John Milton in respect of two books "Pro populo Anglicano defensio," and "The Portraiture of his Sacred Majesty" and against John Goodwin for the "Obstructors of Justice." On the 10th July in a Bill for Poll money, they inserted an amendment that "every Popish recusant or other above 18 years of age should pay double the rate and proportion imposed upon others of the same degree rank and quality.” Thus imitating the example of Cromwell in taxing a class for their opinions. The great business with which the Convention Parliament was occupied was the act of indemnity. All parties seem to have been agreed that the death of Charles could not be forgotten or forgiven, that some exceptions must be made out of the act, and this seems to have been implied by Charles in 1 7th Rep. Historical MSS. Comm., p. 87. 27th Rep. Historical MSS. Comm., p. 87, 3 Ib. p. 88. the Declaration of Breda', as Mr Burke puts it, "The king did not in reality grant an act of indemnity; the prevailing power, then in a manner the nation, granted an indemnity to him. The idea of a preceding rebellion was not at all admitted in that convention and in that Parliament. The regicides were a common enemy and as such given up." As there were to be exceptions out of the act, all parties desired that the exceptions should be settled as soon as possible so that the fate of persons implicated might be known. On the 6th June, 1660 the King issued the following proclamation concerning traitors "Whereas Owen Rowe, Augustine Garland, Robert Tichbourn, Sir Hardress Waller, John Lisle, William Say, Sir Hardress Waller, Valentine Wauton, Thomas Harrison, Edward Whalley, William Heveningham, Isaac Pennington, Henry Martin, John Barksted, Gilbert Millington, Edmond Ludlow, Sir Michael Livesey, Robert Lilbourn, Adrian Scroop, John Okey, John Hewson, William Goffe, Cornelius Holland, Thomas Challoner, John Carew, John Jones, Miles Corbet, Henry Smith, Gregory Clement, Thomas Wogan, Edmond Harvey, Thomas Scot, William Cawley, John Downs, Nicholas Lowe, Vincent Potter, John Dixwell, George Fleetwood, Simon Meyne, James Temple, Peter Temple, Daniel Blagrave, Thomas Wait, John Cook, Andrew Broughton, Edward Dendy, William Hewlet, Francis Hacker, and Daniel Axtel, being deeply guilty of that most detestable and bloody treason, in sitting upon and giving judgment against the life of our Royal Father and out of a sense of their own guilt have lately fled and obscured themselves whereby they cannot be apprehended and brought to personal trial for their said treason according to Law. We do therefore by the advice of our Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled command publish and declare by this our proclamation that all and every the persons before named shall within 14 days next after the publishing of this our Royal proclamation personally appear and render themselves to our Speaker under pain of being exempted from any pardon or indemnity both for their respective lives and estates." In pursuance of this proclamation Owen Rowe, Augustine Garland, Edmond Harvey, Henry Smith, Henry Martin, Sir Hardress Waller, Robert Tichbourn, George Fleetwood, James Temple, Thomas Wait, Simon Meyne, William Heveningham, Isaac Pennington, Peter Temple, Robert Lilbourn, Gilbert Millington, Vincent Potter, Thomas Wogan and John Downs surrendered to the Speaker. Proceedings in the In the House of Commons on the 14th May it was proposed Commons as 1 See ante, p. 7. to excepted persons. S. T. I!. 2 |