A True and full Relation OF THE Officers and Armies forcible seizing of divers Eminent Members Of the Commons House, Decemb. 6. & 7. 1648. As also, A true Copy of a LETTER lately written by an AGENT for the ARMY in Paris, dated 28 of Novemb. 1648, to a Member of the said House, a great Creature and Patriot of the ARMY; Clearly discovering, That their late Remonstrance and Proceedings do drive on and promote the Jesuits and Papists designs, to the subversion of Religion, Parliament, Monarchy, and the fundamental Laws and Government of the KINGDOM.  
London, Printed in the year 1648.   

A true NARRATIVE of the Officers and Armies forcible seizing and suspending of divers eminent MEMBERS of the Commons House, December 6, & 7. 1648.  
THe Officers and council of the Army, being discontented with the Votes passed in the Commons House upon a long and serious Debate (which continued all Monday, and Monday night last, till Tuesday morning about 9 of the clock) to this effect, That the King's person was removed out of the Isle of Wight by the general's Command, without the knowledge or consent of the House. And, That the King's answers to the Propositions of both Houses upon the Treaty, were a sufficient ground for the house to proceed to the settlement of a safe and well-grounded Peace. On Wednesday, the sixth of this instant December, 1648. placed strong Guards of the Army (as well Horse as Foot) in the Palace yard, Westminster-hall, the Court of Requests, and in the stairs and Lobby leading to the Commons-house, where Col. Pride (who commanded the Guards that day) Sir Hardresse Waller, and other Officers, violently seized upon divers Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses of the Commons house in the Parliament stairs and Lobby, as they were going to the House, to sit and discharge their duties there, and by plain force thrust and carried them prisoners into the Queens-Court, notwithstanding their open protestations of breach of privilege of Parliament, without having any warrant for such commitment but their Swords, or assigning any cause at all but their own arbitrary wills: and there kept them prisoners under a strong Guard, denying them liberty of access to the House, which they desired. Mr. Edward Stevens and Col. Birch being gotten into the House before their seizures, were called to the door by feared Messages sent to them by the Officers, under other men's names, and there seized on, and violently pulled out of the House, though they cried out to the Speaker to take notice of the horrid force upon them; and so were haled thence into the Queen's Court; Harry Martin the Horse stealer, though in actual Rebellion against the House, and formerly ejected out of it, being in the mean time admitted to sit as a competent Member. The House being informed of this strange violence offered to their Members by those who professed themselves their Servants and Protectors, sent the Sergeant of the House to the Queen's Court, to demand the Members there detained, and required their attendance in the House: Which Message, though delivered, was disobeyed, wherewith he acquainting the House: Thereupon the House sent the sergeant forth with the Mace, to fetch away the imprisoned Members, but the Soldiers and Officers violently kept him back at the Door, and would not suffer him to execute their command. Hereupon the House resolved not to proceed till these Members were restored; yet notwithstanding the Officers still proceeded to seize more Members, as they came to, or went from the House, carrying them all Prisoners to the Court aforesaid. About three of the clock in the afternoon, Hugh Peter with a sword by his side, like a boisterous soldier came rushing in to see the Prisoners, and take a list of their names, by order from the general, as he alleged; where some of the Prisoners demanding of him, by what authority they were thus imprisoned and kept from their duty, he answered, By the power of the Sword; and returning thither soon after, he released Sir Benjamin Ruddier and Mr. Nathaniel Fiennes (as he said) by the like power of the Sword.  
Night drawing on, the Prisoners desired the Capt. who guarded them, to desire Col. Pride to speak with them, to the end they might know by what authority, and for what cause they were thus detained by him, being Members. The proud Colonel returned this Answer, That he had other employment for the present, that he could not wait upon them. Soon after Hugh Peter and some other Officers acquainted them, that they should all be removed to Wallingford House, where they should have all fitting accommodations provided for them, and where the General and Lieut. Gen. would come and speak with them, and that Coaches were provided to carry them thither: upon this assurance, the Prisoners went all from the Queen's Court, to take coach at the Lord's stairs; where Coaches attending them, in stead of being carried to Wallingford House as was promised and expected, they were stayed at the back-gate of Hell, (a common Victualling-house so called) and there thrust all into the common dining-Room, and after that translated into two upper Chambers. When it grew late, Sir Robert Pye and some six more were offered liberty to go to their lodgings (being near) upon their parole, to appear before the General the next morning: who conceiving it inconsistent with the privilege of Parliament, and a prejudice to their Cause, refused to give any other parole, then to appear in the House the next morning; which being not accepted, they were all enforced to remain in Hell that night, most of them having no other beds to rest their heads on (though ancient and infirm, and Gentlemen of Honour) but the floor of the Room, and Benches and Chairs: yet they patiently underwent this affront and duresse in Hell itself (culled out of purpose to put a mere signal brand of contempt and infamy upon them and the Parliament) reading and singing Psalms to God, spending most of the night in Discourses and walking, without taking one minutes rest or sleep. It was a very sad spectacle to see so many eminent and Honourable Members of Parliament so uncivilly and discourteously used by their domineering Servants, who exceeded all Regal and Prelatical Tyranny in former times; which afforded convenient lodgings and accommodations to their Prisoners. The Provost Marshal (under whose custody they were unworthily put as Malefactors) was so ashamed of this dishonourable usage, that after some conference concerning it, he repaired to the General to Whitehall, to acquaint him with it, and receive his further Order.  
The next morning (being Thursday) the Prisoners expecting the issue, he returned to them about 11 of the clock, and acquainted them, that it was the general's pleasure they should all wait forthwith upon him and his council of War at White-Hall, where he desired to confer with them: whereupon, they were presently put into Coaches and carried to White Hall like traitors or Felons, with strong Guards of Horse and Foot attending them, and there brought into the King's Lodgings fasting, and tired out with watching the night before: where arriving about 12 of the clock, they expected a present Answer. But our new Grandees and great council of the Army took so much Royal State upon them, as to make them wait their leisure till it was night before they vouchsafed to send them any answer; at which time, disdaining to call the imprisoned Members in, or to honour them with their more them Lordly presence, they sent out 3 Officers to acquaint then with this dilatory answer, That other intervenient affairs of great concernment were now in agitation before the General and his council, so as they could not admit them to their presence that night, as was expected; and that the General and his council, for their better accommodation, had given order that they should be lodged at 2 Inns in the Strand, to wit, the Swan and the King's Head, for that night, where they should receive from them the next morning some Propositions to be considered of. After which, the Provost Marshal taking the names of those who were to be lodged at the King's Head, and a list of those who were to be conducted to the Swan, carried them all prisoners to the said Inns thorough the streets in the dirt on foot (except some 6 or 7 only, who were lame and aged) with a Musketier attending upon every one of them in particular, and a strong Guard marching before, behind, and on one side of them, like so many traitors and capital Malefactors, to the great admiration and discontent of all persons well affected to the Parliament, and joy & rejoicing to all Malignants, Papists, and Cavaliers, who, had they been conquerors of the Parliament, could not have used them with more rigour, scorn and disdain then these pious Saints and Grandees of the Army have done, before they have attainted them of any particular crime or breach of trust; whereof the whole Kingdom can declare all or most of them innocent.  
Being brought Prisoners to the said Inns, they had strong Guards set upon them, and a Sentinel at every chamber door all night. Thus do these new usurpers of a more than Regal and Tyrannical power, trample upon the Members of the House of Commons (their former Masters) as if they were no better than the dirt in the street; and to exasperate the common soldiers against them, have slandered the imprisoned Members, to be the only detainers of their pay; when as none of them ever fingered one penny of their moneys: and if any Members be guilty of such a crime, it must be those who have most relation to the Army, and profess themselves their greatest friends.  
Thursday morning the Officers and Army guarding the House in the same manner as on Wednesday, some of their Officers standing at the Commons door with a List of Parliament men's names in their hands, demanded every Members name as he came to the door to enter the House, and those whose names were in their List, they forcibly excluded the House, and turned down the stairs, though they earnestly pressed for entrance: and some of them acquainted the Speaker by Letter with the high affront and breach of privilege; but could find no redress, the Officers admitting only such who were not in the List: About 40 Members were thus forcibly excluded, but not imprisoned; only Mr. Gewen was seized upon by one of Col. Hewsons' Officers, carried prisoner to the Queen's Court, and from thence to Whitehall to the rest of the imprisoned Members, who were there attending upon the General and his council: This day the Great Conqueror Lieut. Gen. Cromwell entered the Commons House, and received thanks for his great services, which had been more Honourable for him to receive in a full and free House, then in an empty and forced; the House (by reason of the restrained and excluded Members, with others driven away by this horrid violence) being not above 80. in Number, having formerly resolved not to proceed till their Members were restored, and the force upon them removed; after some debate and opposition, the House was divided upon this Question, whether they should now proceed or not? which was carried in the affirmative, 50. voting in the affirmative, and 28. or 30. in the negative, that they should not; who presently left the House, most of them resolving to come no more till the House and Members were righted; this done, to abuse and mock as well God as men, they appointed Friday for a solemn Humiliation, to be kept in that House, not to expiate the Armies open violation of their privileges, force and breach of Faith, both to God and the Parliament, which had been commendable, but to procure a blessing on the forcible and unparliamentall proceedings, for the subversion of Monarchy, Religion, laws, Liberties, and three kingdoms in a moment: dethroning and beheading the King, and desinheriting his Posterity, and introducing a popular Anarchy and Tyranny under the power of a perfidious Army, worse than any slavery under the great Turk: The Lord humble them in good earnest for these crying sins and treasons, and either convert their hearts, or confound all their treasonable destructive devices of this kind, which will render them infamous to the present and all future Generations, and bring them unto speedy ruin, notwithstanding all their present usurped power. It is believed by divers understanding men of great experience, that the Jesuits have laid this plot, and fomented these distempers in the Army, by the Agitators, some of them being Jesuits, others Anabaptists, leavened with Jesuitical principles; who overreach the honest-minded and plainhearted Christians in the Army by their special pretences of Justice, and speedy settling of the commonweal, but in such a way as will bring all to sudden confusion, and make our three kingdoms a prey to the Popish party; and our foreign Popish enemies, who will make bonfires of joy in Italy, Spain, France, Ireland, and other foreign parts for this unparalleled force upon the Houses, and the designs of the Army now in prosecution.  
Friday morning the imprisoned Members expected a Message from the general and his council, according to promise; but they received none, such is their dilatoriness and fidelity in point of promise, only one came with a message from the general to Sir Robert Harley to this effect, that he might go home to his house, and continue there, so as he would give his word not to oppose the present actings and proceedings of the House or Army, varying in his expressions; at which Sir Robert desired time to advise with his fellow prisoners, being a matter which equally concerned them; the like offer was since made to Sir John Merrick, by which it is apparent, that all these prisoners crime is only the discharge of their duty, in opposing the present designs and actions of the Army, to subvert the fundamental laws, Liberties and Government of the kingdom, and the ancient form of Parliaments; for which treason Strafford & Canterbury lost their heads by judgement of this very Parliament.  
By all these passages, compared with the Armies late Remonstrance and Declaration, it is most perspicuous to all the kingdom,  
1. That the Officers and Army have offered far greater violence to the privileges, Houses, and Members of Parliament, and acted more towards the dissolution of this present, and subversion of all future Parliaments, than ever the King or his Cavaliers, the Gunpowder traitors, Germyn or Percy did; or the Reformadoes and London Apprentices did, whom yet the Officers and Army declared against, and prosecuted as traitors, though they neither imprisoned nor kept back any Member from the Houses.  
2. That they have violated their Covenants, Oaths, Trusts, and solemn engagements to the Parliament, City, Country and kingdom, in as high or higher degree as ever the King and his evil Counsellors did, in invading the privileges, forcing the Houses, imprisoning the Members of Parliament, and endeavouring by open force to subvert the fundamental Government, laws, Liberties and customs of the realm, and the Ancient frame and being of Parliaments, for defence of all which they were raised, and covenanted to fight for and maintain.  
That they have usurped a far greater and more dangerous arbitrary and tyrannical power, over both Houses of Parliament, and their Members, and over the persons and estates of their fellow-Subjects, than ever the King, or the worst of his Counsellors did, and that under the feigned pretences of present necessity, and common safety, of which they make themselves the only supreme judges, not the Parliament, as the King did in the case of Ship-money: and therefore they must either justify or acquit the King & his party from all those charges & objections against him in their late Remonstrance, for which they press the Houses in point of justice, both to depose and execute him as a Traitor to the commonwealth, or else incur the selfsame crime and guilt, and subject themselves to the same judgement and execution, which they desire to be inflicted upon Him and His.  

The names of the imprisoned Members.  
M. Wheeler.  
M. Lane.  
Sir Samuel Luke.  
Sir Thomas Soame.  
Sir Benjamin Raddierd.  
Sir Richard Anslow.  
Sir Robert Pye.  
Sir Anthony Irby.  
M. Clement Walker.  
M. William Prynne.  
M. Bunkley.  
Major general Massey.  
Sir Walter earl.  
M. Greene.  
Colonel Birch.  
M. Boughton.  
Colonel Leigh.  
M. Henry Pe●ham.  
M. Drake.  
Sir William Waller.  
Sir John Merrick.  
Sir Martin Lister.  
Sir Robert Harley.  
Col. Ed. Harley.  
M. Swinfen.  
M. Crew.  
M. Ed. Stephens.  
M. Buller.  
Sir Gilbert Gerrard.  
M. Gerrard,  
M. Nath. Fines.  
Sir Simon d' Ewes.  
Sir William jews.  
Sir John Clotworthy.  
Lord Wenman.  
Colonel William Strode.  
Commissary Copley.  
M. Vaughan of Exeter.  
Sir Harbottle Grimstone.  
M. Prisley.  
M. Gewen seized upon Thursday.  
Sir Henry Cholmley seized at his lodging, and sent prisoner to the crown.   Psal. 55. 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. 
For it was not an enemy that reproached me, than I could have borne it; neither was it he that hurted me, that did magnify himself against me, than I could have hid myself from him. But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company. Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell: for wickedness is in their dwellings, and amongst them. As for me, I will call upon God: and the Lord shall save me.  
A true copy of a Letter written by an Independent Agent for the Army, from Paris in France, to an Independent Member of the House of Commons, a great Creature and Patriot of the Army. Extracted out of the original.  
Dear Sir,  
I Was exceeding glad to receive the doctor's lines, that intimated your recovery from that distemper that had seized upon you; I doubt not but it had this effect upon you, to let you see, what a frail thing our bodies are, and what need we have to be sure of our building not made with hands, reserved in heaven for us.  
I am at present (praised be God) indifferent well, the place where I am, in respect of all outward accommodations, very well agreeing with me, and very much exceeding England, only defective in this, that I cannot find a M. Westrow, nor Doctor Stanes here, to make a bosom-friend; and yet in that it is not altogether so barren as I did, and you may well imagine it: I am fallen into the acquaintance of three or four Catholics of very great ingenuity, and in their way of much Religion: undoubtedly it is an error to look at all Papists through the same perspective; for they are more to be differenced then English Papists can be. I find their opinion of, and dependence upon the Pope, little, or nothing what we imagine it to be, and better principled to make members of a Commonwealth, than the most English▪ Their opposition to the King is not to be reconciled; their hopes are now upon the Army, to whom they wish all prosperity, as to the settling of a Representative, being extremely distasted with regal hereditary power throughout the world.  
It seems my Lord Say hath undertaken to procure a pass from the House for Sir Kellam Digby to come over to England; he is not, according to your rule, a Delinquent, but it seems came over into France by the House of Commons Licence, acquitted from any crime. Let me desire you when it comes to be moved in your House, give it the best promotion you can; one would think a business so reasonable should find no opposition: But to such a constitution as you are of, no man can tell what is reasonable. He never was in arms, and I believe, can easily answer any thing that can be objected (save his Religion) why he should be from under Sequestration. Let me entreat you to speak to as many of your acquaintance as you can, that when it comes to be moved, it may not be repulsed. I could heartily wish you and Mrs. Westrow, and the Doctor had a good occasion to bring you over into France; (if so) I should not think of returning into England whilst you stayed. I have no more at present, but my own and wife's best respects to you and Mrs. Westrow, I remain,  
Paris, 28. Novemb. 1648. Your very assured friend, A. B.  
By this Letter it is apparent,  
That the Jesuited Papists in France are in such opposition to our King for his compliance with his Houses of Parliament to settle the kingdom, and extirpate mass and Popery, that they are not to be reconciled to him; and therefore endeavour to depose and bring him to execution, and disinherit his posterity.  
That their hopes to effect this their design against, and execute this their revenge upon the King, are now upon the Army, to whom they wish all prosperity.  
That they foment, and prosecute with their prayers and advice, the Armies new model for settling of a Representative in Parliament, of purpose to dissolve this present Parliament, (which hath acted so much against them and their Popish Religion, and is now giving it its final and fatal blow, if they and the King shall close) and to subvert all Parliaments for the future, for fear of falling into the like danger by them.  
That Independents, and friends of the Army have a far better opinion of Roman Catholics, than English Protestants; as being better principled to make members of a free Commonwealth than they: And therefore are more likely to favour, and close with Roman Catholics, than English Protestants, in carrying on their new designs, expressed in their late Remonstrance.  
That the Jesuits and Roman Catholics are extremely distasted with regal hereditary power throughout the world, the only obstacle to their designs, in subverting the Protestant Religion, and making all Kingdoms mere vassals to the Pope and Sea of Rome; and therefore the Officers and Army in prosecuting their Remonstrance, and new intended Representative, and subverting regal hereditary power, do most apparently carry on nought else but the very Jesuits and Roman Catholics Interests and designs, and accomplish their desires, either wittingly or willingly, as acting by their principles, if not counsels, and aiming at their very ends; which is high time for all wise and well-affected Protestants both in the Army, Parliament and City, and our three Kingdoms, most seriously to consider and prevent the imminent ruin and destruction even of our Reformed Religion itself, and our hereditary Monarchy, the present and all succeeding Parliaments; our Lives, Liberties and kingdoms, all now drawing to their fatal period, by the heady violence, treachery and disobedience of that very Army, which hath been raised, cried up, and trusted upon too much, as their only Saviours, for which God in justice may now make them their principal and sudden destroyers, unless both they and we repent.  
FINIS.