of Norwich. In the month of October, the prin- A. C. 1660. cefs dowager of Orange arrived in London; and. the king was afterwards vifited by his mother, accompanied by the princess Henrietta, and Edward prince palatine, brother to prince Rupert. It was Match beat this juncture, that the queen mother propofed princefs the match between her daughter Henrietta and the Henrietta duke of Orleans; to which Charles confented without hesitation. The parliament, meeting on the fixth day of November, fent a folemn deputation, to congratulate the queen upon her happy return; and the commons prefented ten thousand pounds to each of her daughters: then they took mealures for enabling the king to difband the army, which was gradually reduced, Charles referving only a regiment of horse, and another of infantry, as a guard to his perfon. It fettling the king's revenue, the commons abolished the court of wards and liveries, in lieu of which he received one hundred thousand pounds a year, arifing from one half of the excise, established as a fund in perpetuity for that purpofe; and the other half of the excife, together with the duty of tonnage and poundage, were granted to the king for his life. This affair being dispatched, the parliament ordered the bodies of Cromwell, Ireton, Bradshaw, and Pride, to be dug out of their graves, and dragged through the streets to Tyburn, where they continued hanging a whole day, and then were interred under the gallows. On a vague report of a confpiracy against the life of the king and queen-mother, Defborough, Overton, Morgan, and fome other officers were taken into cuftody, but upon inquiry, the report was found to be without foundation. On the twenty-ninth day of December, the king, going to the house of peers, thanked the two houfes for their affection, in the warmeft expreffions of gra titude: tween the and the duke of Orleans, The king parliament. A. C. 1660. titude: the chancellor expatiated on the fame fubject, and then his majefty diffolved the parliament. diffolves the The earl of Clarendon, in his fpeech, touched upconvention on the militia; saying, he wished they had found time to settle it to the mutual fatisfaction of king and people he likewife mentioned a confpiracy for furprising Windfor, Whitehall, and the Tower of London. He affirmed, that many disbanded officers and republicans were concerned in this defign; and that they had planned an infurrection in the Weft, to be headed by general Ludlow. Kennet. A. C. 1661. In the beginning of January, while the king acInfurrection companied his mother to Dover, one Venner, a by Venner. defperate enthusiast, and fifth-monarchy-man, appeared in the streets of London at the head of threefcore fanatics completely armed, and proclaimed king Jefus. They flew a man because he declared himself for God and king Charles. They believed themselves invulnerable, made a desperate resistance against a body of the trained bands fent to disperse them, and retreated to Kane-wood near Hampstead. Being diflodged from thence in the morning by a detachment of foldiers, they returned to London, and took poffeffion of a house, in which they defended themselves against a body of troops, until the majority was killed. The few furvivors were taken, tried, condemned, and executed; and affirmed to the last, that if they had been deceived, the Lord himself was their deceiver. The king ufed great expedition in diffolving the conventionparliament, because a great number of presbyterians had been returned among the commons, and they were a check on the condescending temper of the other members. They had granted the fupplies fcantily, and with the appearance of diftruft; they were averfe to the king's being vefted with the whole power of the militia; nor would they have tamely fuffered the bishops to resume their feats feats in parliament. This mad attempt was looked A. C: 1661 upon as a confirmation of the confpiracy; and it furnished the miniftry with a handle to publish a proclamation against all religious conventicles, ordaining that the oaths of allegiance and fupremacy fhould be exacted from all perfons fufpected of difaffection to the government: fo that the prefbyterians were confounded with the enemies of the ftate, under the general appellation of diffenters. The king had not been long reftored when he Affairs of converted his attention to the affairs of Scotland, Scotland. Some members of the council propofed, that the Scots should be retained in subjection by means of a standing army and the forts which had been erected from one end of the kingdom to the other. The earl of Lauderdale, who had been taken at the battle of Worcester, and continued a prisoner from that event to the restoration, was now admitted to the council, and ftrenuously opposed this propofition. He obferved that the Scots had been reduced to flavery, in confequence of the efforts they made in behalf of his majefty; and though they were not mentioned in the declaration from Breda, the king could not, without incurring the imputation of ingratitude, allow them to remain in a ftate of mifery and oppreffion. He faid they were fo humbled, that they would comply with any terms of fubmiffion to the crown, provided their independency should be restored: that the attachment of the Scots to their native prince was very warm, and would be a great refource against the turbulent fpirit of the Englifh. Charles was fatisfied with these arguments. He ordered the troops in Scotland to be difbanded, the forts to be razed, the English judges in that country to difcontinue their functions, and a convention of the eftates to be affembled. Those who had diftinguifhed themfelves for their loyalty, were nominated to the great offices A. C. 1661. of the state. He appointed the earl of Glencairn, chancellor; the earl of Crawford, treasurer; the earl of Caffils, lord justice-general; the earl of Lauderdale, fecretary of ftate; and Middleton, now created an earl, was fent down to reprefent his majesty in the office of lord high-commiffioner. At the fame time the council determined to intimidate that nation by fome examples of feverity. The marquis of Argyle had made a journey to London, in hope of being admitted to pay his respects to the king in perfon: but he was arrested at Whitehall, committed to the Tower, and afterwards fent down to Scotland to be tried for high treafon. The other victim devoted to death was one Guthry, a four pedantic presbyterian minister, who had taken indecent freedoms with the king, while he refided among that people *. Conference Some prefbyterian minifters finding themselves of divines at confounded with other fectaries whom they abthe Savoy. horred, intreated the king to give order for a con ference between them and the bishops, that both fides might candidly examine their objections to the English liturgy. Charles complied with their request: one and twenty ecclefiaftics were nominated on each fide, and the conferences were be gun in the house of the bishop of London, who lived in the Savoy. The bishops would not offer fuch an indignity to the church as to make the leaft conceffion to this ftubborn fect; and the prefbyterians exclaimed against the liturgy, and the furplice, as relics of the church of Rome. After obftinate difpute and virulent altercation, they The king appointed the earls of Orrery and Montrath, in conjunction with Sir Maurice Euftace, chancellor of Ireland, to govern that kingdom as juftices, until he should have leifure to name a lord lieutenant. In the courfe of this year, Charles, by his letters patent, eftablished the royal fociety, for the improvement of mechanics, mathematics, and natural philofophy. parted 5 Zeal and parted more than ever irritated against each A. C. 1661 other. On the twenty-third day of April, being the festival of St. George, the king's coronation was celebrated with extraordinary magnificence. Writs had been iffued for a new parliament to loyalty of meet on the eighth day of May; and the court the new had influenced the elections fo fuccefsfully, that parliament. the majority of the members returned were strongly attached to the hierarchy and the royal prerogative. The king, in his firft fpeech to both houses, recommended two bills for confirming the act of indemnity, and made them acquainted with his intention to espouse the infanta of Portugal, a match already concluded, with the advice of his council. Sir Edward Turner, folicitor-general to the duke of York, being chofen fpeaker, the two houfes voted that thanks fhould be returned to his majefty, for this inftance of his confidence, in communicating his purposed marriage to his parliament; and that they fhould go in a body and congratulate him upon that event. Then they ordered, that upon a certain day every member fhould receive the communion, according to the liturgy of the English church, on pain of being expelled. They afterwards ordained, that the folemn league and covenant, the acts for erecting the high court of juftice to try the late king, for fubfcribing the engagement against a king and houfe of lords, for declaring England a commonwealth, for renouncing the title of his prefent majefty, and for the fafety of the lord protector, fhould be burned by the hands of the common executioner. an extraor fervation of The republicans thinking themselves infecure They pafs from the zeal of this parliament, petitioned the dinary act king that the act of indemnity might be confirm-for the preed; and he wrote to the two houfes for this pur-his majesty's pofe, giving them to understand that this fhould perfon and be the first bill he would pass. They forthwith complied government. |