A BRIEF ABSTRACT OF THE KING'S LETTERS TO THE QUEEN.  
With some OBSERVATIONS thereupon.  
Wherein His Majesty's Actions are deciphered.  
By a Person of Quality.  
LONDON; Printed for Hannah Allen in Popes-head-Alley at the sign of the Crown. 1648.   

❧ To the Christian Reader.  
Courteous Reader;  
Last new discoveries should cause old actions to be forgotten, I thought it no less than part of my duty, in a brief manner, to put thee in mind of some few particulars, whereby thou mayst the better satisfy thyself and others in things of this nature; not that it is any way pleasing to me, to rip open old offences after renewed repentance, but surly persisting in evil without remorse, deserves no less than sharp reproof, wheresoever it is found. Here I shall desire thee to consider of this following Letter from the King to the Queen. Farewell.  
S. E.   

THE KING'S LETTER TO THE QUEEN.  
DEAR HEART;  
I Will be ever constant to the rules and grounds thou lefts with me, and that the Treaty at Uxbridge was according to the little Paper thou lefts with me, and I commend thee for thy dexterity and activity, and I think none more fit to be a means of a glorious peace of this Kingdom, but thyself, and without thy company, I can neither have peace nor comfort, for I value thy love above all earthly things, and that is my contentment, for all my actions are inseparably joined with thine; and shall ever tend to serve and please thee, and no danger of death or misery, (which I think much worse) shall make me do any thing unworthy of thy love, and I hope the difference between the Scots and the Independents will increase, and the dissensions at London are rather increasing than ceasing; and be confident, I will not desert the Bishops and Papists, mine and thy best friends. And if thou approve of it, I will bestow Percies place upon the Earl of Newcastle, and will not engage myself before I have thy answer, and fear not, I have a little more wit than to go to London, or disband any Army before a peace. The Rebels now brutish General hath refused to meddle with foreign Passes, and I am well freed now from the base and mutinous motions by my mongrel Parliament here: and I advise thee, France is the best way for transporting of the Duke of Loraines' Army into England. As for trusting the Rebels, either in going to London, or disbanding my Army before a Peace, do no ways fear the hazarding so cheaply and foolishly my discretion; for I esteem the interest thou hast in me at a far greater rate, and pretend to have a little more wit, at least the sympathy that is between us, than put myself into the reference of perfidious Rebels. Also I give thee power in my name to promise to whom thou think fit to trust with so great a secret, that I will suspend all Laws against the Roman Catholics in England and Ireland, as soon as God shall enable me, I will take them away by a Law, so as by thy means and favour, I may have so powerful an assistance against my Rebels of England and Scotland, as may deserve so great a favour, and enable me to do it; and also to promise them in Ireland, if you can have it no cheaper, that I will join with their Forces against Inchqueene, and the Scots, and if I had had but two of my mind, I would never have called them a Parliament: and the argument that prevailed with me, that the calling of them did not acknowledge them to be a Parliament: upon which consideration and condition, I did it and no otherwise, and accordingly it is registered in the Councell-booke with the Counsels unanimous approbation: and I pray consider above all earthly things, that my contentment is inseparably joined with thine, for all my actions shall ever tend to serve and please thee. I remain eternally thine,  
C. R.   

OBSERVATIONS UPON the King's Letter to the Queen.  
THe Queen in the first place, in her Letter then taken, adviseth the King to disband this perpetual Parliament, and she certainly saith, all the rest will easily follow. And if ever you go to London before the Parliament is ended without an Army, you are lost: and above all, have a care not to desert the Bishops, and poor Catholics, who have faithfully served you. And had not the King by a still March brought us a great way towards Popery and Tyranny; had not the Conductors miss their way, and led us too far North; and was not a strange wife prepared for him, which according to the Scripture-truth, is a dangerous preparative for a strange god, for the King being in full conjunction with the Popish Planet the Queen, he was totally eclipsed by her counsel, who under the Royal Curtains persuaded him to advance the plots of the Catholics under the colour of the Protestant Religion: Did not he go into Spain to learn the Protestant Religion? and then returned and married a Catholic Queen: Else what think you meant the suspending of Lectures, as an order of vagrants; then forbidding all Pastors to preach on the week days in their own Parishes; then to inhibit preaching on the Lord's day in the afternoon; the forbidding all prayer, but in the words of the Cannon; then bringing in Popish Ceremonies; and the Table must be set Altarwise, and all compelled to kneel before it, or not to be admitted to receive the Sacrament; and than it must be cried up to be the Sanctum Sanctorum, and all must adore and bow before it; Then an Edict must be read against our Brethren the Scots, and an oath for Episcopacy, and pressing examples to dazzle the eyes of the less judicious of the Kingdom. As the King, the Lord Bishops, the Lords of the most noble order of the Garter, bow towards the Altar at their Installment, in his Majesty's Chapel, and it is thus and thus adorned, and so they do it by degrees, for fear of noise, and do it so as we shall neither know nor see. And what have you forgotten the many indulgences done by Windebanke the King's Secretary, to multitudes of condemned Priests and Jesuits: the Pope's Nuncio's residence here, and the several Letters to the Pope, and from the Pope about a reconciliation with Rome, and of a Cardinal Cap sent into this Kingdom? And can any reasonable man imagine, but it was sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury, that great Prelate and favourite of the Kings? Also remember his Majesty's Letter to Capt. Pennington, the Vice-admiral, to deliver up the English Fleet to the French, and if any should disobey, he should sink them, to the utter ruin of the Protestants in France. Concerning Ireland, have you forgotten the often private meetings at White-Hall two months before the rebellion in Ireland broke forth by Muskery Plumket, Browne, and Gormonston, etc. the arch Rebels of Ireland, and now of the supreme Council at Kilkenny in Ireland? and when the King first heard of that horrid rebellion, and of the massacre of 100000 of his Protestant Subjects (he being in Scotland) divers standers by then did discover by the King's several questions to the Messenger, and by his gesture, that he had little sorrow for so horrible & treacherous a massacre. And how often was he pressed at the beginning of the rebellion, to publish Proclamation against them, by the Proclamation of England, and to be read in all the Churches of this Kingdom? And with what difficulty it was gotten, and but forty must be printed, and none issued out but by his Majesty's special command. And did not the Irish Rebels call themselves the Kings and Queen's Army in all their Papers and transaction of business; saying, they have good warrant under black and white for their proceed, and crying out against the English-Parliament, and Puritans, as the King's enemies, and theirs? and divers depositions and papers, etc. extant and in print to that purpose before these unnatural wars began, that they have the broad Seal for their warrant. And have you forgotten the great General Oneale his offer to the General Monrose, the Scots General in that Kingdom, that who could show, of them two, the best Commission from the King, should submit to each other? Did not the Lord Digbies Letters lately taken in a battle by the Lord Inchequeene, advise the Lord Taffe not to fight, for all the King's designs and welfare, did much depend upon the good success of that Army, which by the hand of providence is since broken? His employing the Lord Taffe in England, and many other Irish in his Army against the Parliament, is too apparent. Must not glamongon make peace with the Irish Rebels, when the Earl of Ormond would not do it; and Digby must accuse Glamorgon for so doing? both which have been Agents since for his Majesty, and granted them all they could desire of him underhand, as fearing so broad faced iniquity, no mask either in Oxford or Dublin would fit. And was not the Sabbath at White-Hall for divers years before these troubles supplied with strange chaplains, that constantly preached up the King's Prerogative; and set before him; by way of emulation, the broken Parliament of France, etc. and that he was Lord of all the Kingdom, and that all men's estates were his; And that if the King, like Nabuchadnezzar, should set up a golden image to be adored, the people if they refused that Idolatry, are bound to suffer death quietly, and not resist the King, as if whole Nations were made for the pleasure and will of a King, and be subject to him, as the beasts were to Adam: and such men as these generally were preferred by the Bishops, which when they had another head the Pope, the matters of State, many times went very justly, for the interest of the Commonwealth; but of latter times were mere servants to Prerogative, and against all interest of the Commonwealth. And hath not King CHARLES ever called Parliaments factious, etc. because they were ever opposite to his Tyrannical Prerogative, and Court designs? And have you forgot the under hand deal with the King of Denmark, as appeareth by the Kings own Letters and practices with the Army raised against the Scots, and with the Scots Army. Also large proffers of the four Northern Counties, and pillage of London, as was commonly reported, for the destruction of the Parliament, before any war was thought on. And when he pretended to raise a Guard only for the safety of his person, soon after his endeavour of that horrid violation intended to the five members of the house of Commons. Was not the Jewels of the Crown pawned by his Catholic Queen, for to buy Powder and Arms to fight in England for the Protestant Religion, & liberty of the Subjects? And were not all Papists forbidden to come to the Court at York, until he had engaged great numbers of the prelatical, ambitious, needy, & beggarly Court-Protestants, and he knowing they being once engaged, could not well go back; then he sends for the Papists horses, that he might set Protestant-riders (as he pretended) upon them: and soon after issued out a Proclamation, that all Papists might arm themselves for their own defence: and not long after, he did receive hundreds & thousands of them into his Army, in England, Ireland, and Scotland, etc. And have not the King's Army had all the prayers & contributions from Rome, and from all other Catholics in Christendom, for his Majesty's good success in his war against the Parliament? And hath he not for divers years been butchering and spoiling his protestant Subjects in these three Kingdoms (as a sacrifice to his prerogative) by hanging up fourteen Clothiers, he being present? And hath not he and his agents by his Lion's skin and Machavilian policy, gone about to apply to every man in great trust and eminency, several baits of honour and profit, according to their several humours, & corrupted many eminent persons in this Kingdom, and have made them fall from their first principles? and hath not he used all means to divide, that he might destroy us, and to bring the King doom into that condition that the Parliament should be constrained to disengage the people by requiring large contributions, rather than engage them by present freedom and reformation? Have not his designs been to bring in Popery and Tyranny into Scotland, beyond expression, and his often breach of Treaties with them, & designs to have destroyed the most eminent persons amongst them; as the marquis Hamilton, Argile, and Lowden? And have you forgotten what hath been commonly talked concerning King Jamses death, and what a great account he hath to make for not planting the protestants religion in Ireland: and for not aiding the protestants in Germany, and in the Palatinate? And did not Hinderson, that godly and learned Divine tell him, he had made them 1500 widows in Scotland in one morning: And have you forgotten the Commissioners of Scotland, when he desired about three years since a personal Treaty, they told him in the name of that Kingdom plainly and honestly, that they could not admit of it, though desired by his Majesty, for they told him there hath been so much innocent blood of his good Subjects shed in this unnatural War by his Majesty's Command, and Commissions. First, Irish Rebels brought over into both his Kingdoms, and also from sorreine parts, etc. There being also Forces in Scotland against that Parliament, and the Kingdom by his Majesty's Commission. The war in Ireland fomented and prolonged by his Majesty's Command, whereby the Kingdoms are brought near to utter ruin and destruction; we conceive that until satisfaction be first given to both his Kingdoms, his Majesty's coming hither cannot be convenient, nor by us assented unto: And hath he since recalled his Proclamations, and given satisfaction for the bloodshed, and security to the peace of the Kingdoms, yea or no; and have not the Scots consented to the making void the titles of honour bestowed on such as have fought against the Parliament (I hope the Scots have not considered better of the virtue and merits of those men that fought against the Parliament, though their language of late have been very large concerning Prerogative) look but back before this Parliament, if ever well minded Countrymen, that thought their Country's privilege and their own birthright worth the standing for, was not called Puritans, and of late years Round heads; and take heed now, though you have a fair game to play, that you are not cheated of your Religion and Liberty, for Antichrist turns himself now into another shape, and name; now he sees his Kingdom almost destroyed in this Kingdom by taking away the Prelates, which were the pillars thereof, etc. And now are not by him the great Champions of the Army, Parliament, and Country, that stand for a good peace, liberty, and freedom, of the freeborn people of England, and against a Regal Militia, and a negative voice, and against an unlimited power, (that some of the Clergy desire under the pretence that they and their Elders must be Judges of what is scandalous, and what is ignorance, a greater power than ever the Bishops had, though under a new name;) called Independents, Brownists, Sectaries, etc. whatsoever their opinions be, for by this trick and some other, he thinks to gain the Scots Nation, with a considerable party of the City, to those he hath there already, and earnestly endeavoured to make a division in the House, by being in the likeness of a Presbyterian, until such time as we have gotten the King into our power, 
The King's party.  and then a considerable Army of French, and our Catholic brethren of Ireland, about him, and then we will put the Scots in mind, it is no deceit to deceive the deceiver; And then we will put the Londoners in mind of their former zeal to the Parliament cause; and let them know our good King hath often called them the Rebellious City, and hath long time since given them us for our arrears; And is it not now come to pass, that whosoever is an active man for the Parliament, whatsoever his judgement be, he must be called an Independent, or an Anabaptist; This Parliament did not begin to lop the branches as former Parliaments did, but to hue down the main body of the tree, as, Canterbury, and Strafford. And have not they broken many an iron yoke for you, by taking away Bishops, Council-table, Star-chamber, Court of Wards, High Commission Courts, Ship-money, Knighthood, Forest's Laws, and multitudes of several Monopolies, even to the marrowbones and rags upon the dunghill; and freed you from the design of bringing in the Germaine-Horses; and from enslaving you, as in France, etc.  
And now Reader, judge whether a King or a Parliament is most likely to bring in Popery, and an arbitrary and tyrannical government into this Kingdom. And are they not chosen by you, and had but only these two things to choose, either to give you, & your posterity up to slavery, or ruin, or to hazard the ruining of themselves, and families; and if you desert them, you desert yourselves. The Wolves desired the Sheep to put away the Dogs, and then they would enter into a League with them, and when they had thereby stripped themselves of their best friends, and laid themselves open to their fierce foes, they were then devoured without pity. And many other particulars might be instanced, to make as bloody a History of this King's Reign, as ever was since the world began. Judge if it be agreeable with divine dispensation, that all this stir, and bloodshed, etc. should procure, now at last, but a cold accommodation: and God grant the drawing of this Curtain may be as fatal to Popery, and tyranny, and all other Antichristian heresies, (here now) as the rending of the veil was to the Jewish Ceremonies (in Judea) at the Incarnation of our Saviour.   
FINIS.