A Continuation of the NARRATIVE BEING The last and final day's Proceed OF THE High Court of justice Sitting in Westminster Hall on Saturday, Jan. 27. Concerning the Trial of the King; With the several Speeches of the King, Lord Precedent, & Solicitor General. Together with a Copy of the Sentence of Death upon CHARLES STUART King of ngland. Published by Authority to prevent false and impertinent Relations.  

TO these Proceed of the Trial of the King, I say,  
GILBERT MABBOT.  
Imprimatur,   
London, Printed for John Playford, and are to be sold at his shop in the Inner Temple, Jan. 29. 1648.   

THE PROCEED OF THE High Court of justice Sitting at Westminster-Hall, Saturday, January 27. 1648.  
O Yes made. Silence commanded. The Court called.  
First, The Lord Precedent, (who was in a Scarlet Veflure, be fitting the business of the day.) After him 67. Members more answered to their names.  
The King came in, in his wont posture (with his Hat on.)  
A Cry made in the Hall (as he passed to the Court) for Justice and Execution.  
O Yes made: And Silence commanded. The Captain of the Guard commanded to take into custody such as made any disturbance.  
Upon the Kings coming he desired to be heard.  
To which the Lord Precedent answered, That it might be in time, but that he must hear the Court first.  
The King pressed it, for that he believed it would be in Order to what the Court would say, and that an hasty Judgement was not so soon recalled.  
Then the Lord Precedent spoke, as followeth,  
Gentlemen, It is well known to all or most of you here present, that the Prisoner at the Bar hath been several times convented, and brought before this Court to make answer to a Charge of Treason, and other high Crimes exhibited against him in the name of the People of 
* Here a Malignant Lady interrupted the C●urt, (saying, not half the People,) but she was soon silenced.  England. To which Charge, being required to answer, he hath been so far from obeying the Commands of the Court by submitting to their justice, as he began to take upon him reasoning and debate unto the Authority of the Court, and to the highest Court that appointed them, and to try and to judge him, but being overruled in that, and required to make his Answer, he was still pleased to continue Contumelious, and to refuse to submit to answer, hereupon the Court, that they may not be wanting to themselves, nor the Trust reposed in them, nor that any man's wilfulness prevent Justice, they have thought fit to take the matter into their Consideration, they have considered of the Charge, they have considered of the Contumacy, and of that confession which in Law doth arise upon that Contumacy, they have likewise considered of the Notoriety of the Fact charged upon this Prisoner, and upon the whole matter; they are resolved and have agreed upon a Sentence to be pronounced against this Prisoner, but in respect he doth desire to be heard before the Sentence be read and pronounced; the Court hath resolved that they will hear him: Yet Sir, Thus much I must tell you beforehand, which you have been minded of at other Courts, That if that which you have to saybe to offer any debate concerning the Jurisdiction, you are not to be heard in it, you have offered it formerly, and you have struck at the Root, that is, the Power and the supreme Authority of the Commons of England, which this Court will nor admit a Debate of, and which indeed it is an irrational thing in them to do, being a Court that acts upon Authority derived from them. But Sir, If you have any thing to say in defence of yourself, concerning the matter charged, the Court hath given me in command to let you know they will hear you.  
Then the King answered;  
Since that I see you will not hear any thing of Debate, concerning that which I confess I thought most material for the Peace of the Kingdom, and for the Liberty of the Subject, I shall wave it, I shall speak nothing to it; but only I must tell you, that this many a day all things have been taken away from me, but that that I call dearer to me then my life, which is my Conscience and my Honour; and if I had a respect to my life more than the Peace of the Kingdom, the Liberty of the Subject, certainly I should have made a particular Defence for myself, for by that, at leastwise, I might have delayed an ugly Sentence, which I believe will pass upon me; therefore certainly, Sir, as a man that hath some understanding, some knowledge of the world; if that my true zeal to my Country had not overborne the care that I have for my own Preservation, I should have gone another way to work then that I have done: Now Sir, I conceive, that an hasty Sentence once past may sooner be repent of then recalled, and truly the self same desire that I have for the Peace of the Kingdom, and the Liberty of the Subject more than my own particular ends, makes me now at last desire, That I having something to say that concerns both: I desire before Sentence be given that I may be heard in the Painted Chamber before the Lords and Commons: this delay cannot be prejudicial unto you whatsoever I say: if that I say no Reason, those that hear me must be Judges, I cannot be Judge of that that I have; if it be Reason, and really for the welfare of the Kingdom, and the Liberty of the Subject, I am sure on't it is very well worth the hearing; therefore I do conjure you, as you love that that you pretend, (I hope its real,) the Liberty of the Subject, the Peace of the Kingdom, that you will grant me this hearing before any Sentence be past; I only desire this, That you will take this into your consideration, it may be you have not heard of it beforehand, if you will I will retire, and you may think of it; but if I cannot get this Liberty, I do protest, That these fair shows of Liberty and Peace are pure shows, and that you will not hear your King.  
The Lord President said,  
That what the King had said, was a declining of the Jurisdiction of the Court, which was the thing wherein he was limited before.  
The King urged,  
That what he had to say was not a declining of the Court, but for the Peace of the Kingdom, and liberty of the Subject.  
Lord Precedent.  
Sir; This is not altogether new that you have moved unto us, though it is the first time that, in person, you have offered it to the Court: And afterwards, That though what he had urged might seem to tend to delays, yet according to that which the King seemed to desire, the Court would withdraw for a time, and he should hear their pleasure.  
Then the Court withdrawing into the Court of Wards, The Sergeant at Arms had command to withdraw the Prisoner, and to give Order for his Return again.  
The Court after about half an hours debate returned from the Court of Wards Chamber; And the King being sent for, the Lord Precedent spoke to this effect;  
Sir, You were pleased to make a motion here to the Court, touching the propounding of somewhat to he Lords and Commons in the painted Chamber, for he Peace of the Kingdom; you did in effect receive in answer, before their adjourning, being pr●●orma tantum; for it did not seem to them that there was any difficulty in the thing; they have considered of what you have moved, and of their own Authority: The Return from the Court is this. That they have been too much delayed by you already, and they are Judges appointed by the highest Authority, and Judges are no more to delay, than they are to deny Justice; they are good words in the great old Charter of England, Nulli negabimus, nulli condemus, et nulli deferremus justitiam: But everyman observs you have delayed them in your Contempt and Default, for which they might long since have proceeded to Judgement against you; and notwithstanding what you have offered, they are resolved to proceed to Sentence and to Judgement, and that's their unanimous Resolution.  
King. Sir, I know it is in vain for me for to dispute, I am no Seperick for to deny the power that you have; I know that you have power enough: Sir I must confess I think it would have been for the Kingdom's peace if you would have taken the pains for to have shown the lawfulness of your Power: for this delay that I have desired, I confess it is a delay, but it is a delay very important for the Peace of the Kingdom; for it is not my person that I look at alone, it is the Kingdom's welfare and the Kingdom's peace: it is an old sentence, That we should think on long before we have resolved of great matters suddenly; therefore Sir I do say again, that I do put at your doors all the inconveniency of a hasty sentence. I confess I have been here now I think this week, this day 8. days was the day I came here first, but a little delay of a day or two further may give peace, whereas an hasty Judgement may bring on that trouble and perpetual inconveniency to the Kingdom, that the child that is unborn may repent it; and therefore again out of the duty I own to God, and to my Country, I do desire that I may be heard by the Lords and Commons in the painted Chamber, or any other Chamber that you will appoint me.  
The Precedent replied, that what he desired was no more than what he had moved before, and therefore the Court expected to hear what he would say before they proceeded to sentence.  King. 
This I say, That if you will hear me, I do not doubt to give satisfaction to you, and to my people, and therefore I do require you (as you will answer it at the dreadful Day of Judgement) that you will consider it once again.  Precedent. 
The Court will proceed to sentence, if you have no more to say.  King. 
Sir, I have nothing more to say, but I shall desire that this may be entered what I have said.  
The Lord Precedent then proceeded to declare the grounds of the sentence, That the Court were resolved to discharge their duty, that he had spoken of a precious thing called Peace, and it were to be wished that God had put it into his heart that he had effectually and really endeavoured and studied the Peace of the Kingdom, as now in words he seemed to pretend; That it appeared to the Court, that he had gone upon very erroneous principles, the Kingdom had felt it to their smart, that the Court was very sensible of it, and so he hoped the understanding People of England would be; That the Law was his Superior, and that he ought to have ruled according to the Law: the difference was, who should be the Expositors of the Law, whether he and his party out of the Courts of Justice, or the Courts of Justice, nay the Sovereign and high Court of Justice, the Parliament of England, that is not only the highest expounder of the Law, but the sole maker of the Law, and that for him and those that adhered to him to set themselves against it, was not Law. That what some of his own Party had said, Rex non habet parem in regno, was granted, but though he was major singulis, yet he was universis minor, That the Barons of old when the Kings played the Tyrants, called them to account, that they did frenum ponere, that if they did forbear to do their duty now, and were not so mindful of their own Honour and the Kingdoms, as the Barons of old were, certainly the Commonalty of England would not be unmindful of what was for their preservation, and their safety. That if the King went contrary to that end, he must understand that he is but an Officer in trust, and they to take order for the punishment of such an offending Governor. That this is not a Law of Yesterday, upon the division of Him and his People, but of old; and that the King's Oath implied as much: and where the People could not have any other remedy, the Parliament were to do it, who were ordained to redress the grievances of the People. The Parliaments were to be kept, we find in old Authors, twice in the year, that the Subject might upon any occasion have a ready remedy. That his design had been to destroy Parliaments, and that when they would not engage against his native Kingdom of Scotland, he dissolved the Parliament. That as Caligula the great Roman Tyrant wished the People of Rome had but one neck, that at one blow he might cut it off; and this King's proceed had been somewhat like his; For, the Body of the People of England is not where represented but in Parliament; and could He but have confounded that, he would soon have cut off the Head and Neck of England. That it was no new thing to cite Precedents, where the people (when power was in their hands) have made bold to call their Kings to account; that it would be too long a time to mention either France, Spain, the Emperor, or other Countries, but he instanced in the Kingdom of Arragon, where there was a man Tanquam in medio positus, betwixt the King and the people, and he is acknowledged to be the King's Superior, and is the grand preserver of the people's Privileges; and what the Tribunes of Rome were heretofort, and the Ephori to the Lacedaemonian State, that was the Parliament of England to the English State; that he needed not to mention those foreign stories, if he looked but over tweed, there was enough in his native Kingdom of Scotland, if they looked upon their first King Terg●sius, who left two sons in their minority, and the older seeming disaffected to their peace, and opposing his Uncle, who ruled well, they chose the younger: that of 109. Kings of Scotland, he need not make mention how many of them the people had made bold to deal withal, some to banish, and some to imprison, and some to put to death, no Kingdom had more plentiful experience then that Kingdom hath, or the deposition and punishment of their offending and transgressing Kings; And not to go fare for example, the Kings Crand●●mother set aside, and his Father an Infant crowned. And there wants not examples here in England both before and since the Conquest, as King Edward the second and Richard the second were so dealt with by the Parliament, and whosoever looks into their stories should not find the Articles that are charged upon them, to come near to that height and capitalnesse of crimes that were laid to his Charge, and for succession by inheritance it was plain from the Conquest that of 24. Kings, one half of them came in by the State.  
That the Oath at his Coronation did show there was a contract and bargain made by the people.  
After the Lord Precedent had cited many things to this purpose, in relation to the power of Kings, and their being called to account for breach of Trust, and expressed in what sense this present King had been guilty, according to his Charge of being a Tyrant, Traitor, Murderer, and public Enemy to the Commonwealth. He further declared in the name of the Court, That they did hearty wish, that he would be so penitent for what he had done amiss, that GOD might have mercy at leastwise upon his better part; for the other it was their duty to do it, and to do that which the Law prescribes, they were not there jus dare, but jus dicere; that they could not but remember what the Scripture said, For to acquit the guilty it is equal abomination as to condemn the innocent; we may not acquit the guilty; what sentence the Law affirms to a Traitor, a Tyrant, a Murderer, and a public Enemy to the Country, that sentence he was to hear read unto him.  
Then the Clerk read the sentence drawn up in parchment.  
That whereas the Commons of England in Parliament had appointed them an high Court of Justice for the trying of Charles Stuart King of England, before whom he had been three times convented, and at the first time a Charge of high Treason, and other crimes and misdemeanours was read in the behalf of the kingdom of England, etc.  
Here the Clerk read the Charge.  
Which Charge being read unto him as aforesaid, he the said Charles Stuart was required to give his Answer, but he refused so to do, and so expressed the several passages at his Trial in refusing to answer.  
For all which Treasons and Crimes this Court doth adjudge, That he the said Charles Stuart, as a Tyrant, Traitor, Murderer and a public Enemy, shall be put to death, by the severing of his Head from his Body.  
After the sentence read, the Lord Precedent said,  
This sentence now read and published, it is the act, sentence, judgement, and resolution of the whole Court: here the Court stood up, as assenting to what the Precedent said.  King. 
Will you hear me a word Sir?  Lord Precedent. 
Sir, you are not to be heard after the sentence.  King. 
No Sir?  Lord Precedent. 
No Sir, by your favour Sir. Guard, withdraw your Prisoner.  King. 
I may speak after the sentence.  
By your favour Sir, I may speak after the sentence ever.  
By your favour (hold) the sentence Sir—  
I say Sir I do—  
I am not suffered for to speak, expect what Justice other people will have.  
O Yes. All manner of persons that have any thing else to do, are to departed at this time, and to give their attendance in the painted Chamber, to which place this Court doth forthwith adjourn itself.  
Then the Court risen, and the King went with his Guard to Sir Robert Cottons, and from thence to Whitehall.  
FINIS.