England's Freedom, Soldiers Rights: Vindicated against all arbitrary unjust Invaders of them, and in particular against those new Tyrants at Windsor, which would destroy both under the pretence of Martial Law.  
OR, 
 The just Declaration, Plea and Protestation of William Thompson, a free Commoner of England, unjustly imprisoned at Windsor.  
Delivered to his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax, and that which is called his Council of War, the 14. of December, 1647.  
Unto which is annexed his Letter to the General, wherein the said Plea was enclosed. Also a Petition of the rest of his Fellow-Prisoners to his Excellency.  
May it please your Excellency,  
I Am by birth a free Commoner of England, and am thereby entailed or entitled unto an equal privilege with yourself, or the greatest men in England, unto the freedom and liberty of the Laws of England, as the Parliament declares in their Declaration of the 23. of October, 1642. 1 part Book Decl. pag. 660. And the 29. Chap. of Magna Charta expressly saith, That no man shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his Freehold or Liberties, or free customs, or be outlawed or exiled, or any other ways destroyed, nor past upon nor condemned, but by the lawful judgement of his Peers (or equals) and that by due course, or process of the Law of the Land 
† See Sir Ed. Cooks Exposition hereof in his 2. part Institut. fol. 46, 47, 50, 51.  which expressly saith, that no man shall be taken or restrained of his liberty, by petition or suggestion (made unto whomsoever in authority) unless it be by indictment or presentment of good and lawful men where such deeds be done: and that no man whatsoever be put to answer (any crime whatsoever) without presentment before justices or matter of record, or by due process and Writ original, according to the old Law of the Land: and if any thing from henceforth be done to the contrary, it shall be void in law, and holden for 
* See the 5. Ed. 3. 9 & 25. Ed. 3. 4. & 28. Ed. 3. 3. & 37. Ed. 3. 18. & 42. Ed. 3. 3. and the Petition of Right in the third of the King, and the Statutes that abolished the Star-chamber and Ship-money, made this present Parliament; and Lieutenant-colonell Lilburnes Book called The Resolved Man's Resolution, p. 2, 3, 8, 9 and his Grand Plea against the Lords, p. 7, 8, 9  error.  
Therefore Sir, for you who are a General of an Army, and other of your Marshal Officers, who are no Civil Court of Justice, nor authorized with the least legal power in the world to administer Justice, and execute the Law of the Land, upon, or unto any of the Commoners of England, to dare or presume to restrain, imprison, try or meddle with me, as you have done, who am in no other capacity in the world, but barely and altogether as a Commoner of England, is the height of arbitrary tyranny; injustice and 
* Well saith Sir Edward Cook in the 2. part of his Institutes fol. 48. that every oppression against Law, by colour of any usurped authority, is a kind of destruction: for when any thing is forbidden, all that tends to it is also forbidden: and it is (saith he) the worst oppression that is done by colour of justice. See also Lib. 10. fol. 14. in the ease of the Marshalsea.  oppression, and an absolute destruction of the very fundamental Laws of England, the bare endeavouring of which cost the Earl of Strafford his head. And what the doom of him is that destroys the fundamental Laws of the Land, I shall give you out of the words of your own friend Mr. St. John, in his Argument of law concerning the Bill of Attainder of high Treason of Thomas Earl of Strafford, at a Conference in a Committee of both Houses of Parliament, printed by G. M. for John Bartlet at the sign of the gilt Cup near S. Augustine's Gate in Paul's Churchyard 1641. who in the 70. page thereof saith, That the destruction of the Laws dissolves the arteries & ligaments that hold the Body together: he that takes away the Laws, takes not away the allegiance of one Subject alone, but of the whole Kingdom: it was (saith he) made treason by the Statute of the 13. Eliz. for her time, to affirm, that the Laws of the Realm do not bind the descent of the Crown; no Law, no descent at all: No Laws, saith he, no Peerage, no ranks or degrees of men 
† And therefore you, with your deal with me, that am merely a free Commoner of England, and so not in the least under your Marshal Discipline (but solely and only under the discipline of the known, declared and established Laws of England) by your arbitrary tyrannical actings upon me, have absolutely as much as in you lies, destroyed the fundamental Laws of England, and therefore are as absolute Hedge-breakers and Levellers as ever were in this Kingdom. ; the same condition to all. Jt's treason to kill a Judge upon the Bench, this kills not the Judge, but the Judgement. And in pag. 71. he saith, Jt's Felony to embezzle any of the Judicial Records of the Kingdom; this, viz. the destruction of the Law, sweeps all away, and from all.  
It's treason to counterfeit a twenty shilling piece, here is a counterfeiting of the Law, we can call neither the counterfeit, nor the true coin our own.  
It's Treason to counterfeit the great Seal for an Acre of Land, no property hereby (viz. the destruction of the Law) is left to any Land at all: nothing Treason now, either against King or Kingdom, no Law to punish it.  
And therefore I advise you as a friend to take heed that you go no further on in your illegal, arbitrary, tyrannical and Law-destroying practices with and towards me, lest when for your own lives you claim the benefit of the Law, you be answered in the words of your foresaid friend in pag. 72 That he in vain calls for the help of the Law that walks contrary unto Law, and from the Law of like for like; he that would not have others to have Law, why should he have any himself? why should not that be done to him, that himself would have done to another? It is true, (saith he Ibid.) we give Law to Hares and Deres, because they be beasts of chase, but it was never accounted either cruelty or foul play to knock Foxes and Wolves on the head as they can be found, because these be beasts of prey: the Warrener sets traps for Poulcats and other vermin, for preservation of the Warren.  
And in pag. 76. he saith, in the 11. R. 2. Tresilian, And some others attainted of Treason for delivering opinions in the subversion of the Law, and some others for plotting the like 
* Read also to this purpose Mr. John Pyms Speech against the Earl of Strafford, the 12. of April 1641. printed by John Bartlet, but especially p. 5. 6. 8. 9 13. 18. 23. 24. .  
But if you shall object, that you deal with me as you are a General and Officers of an Army by Marshal Law, for endeavouring to make mutinies or tumults in your Army, or by blasting and defaming your reputations, and so drawing your Soldiers from their affection and obedience unto you.  
I answer in the first place, there can in this Kingdom be no pretence for Marshal Law, but when the Kingdom is in a general hurly-burly and uproar, and an Army or Armies of declared enemies in the Field, prosecuting with the sword the destruction of the whole, and thereby stopping the regular and legal proceed of the Courts of Justice from punishing offenders and transgressors.  
But now there being neither Army nor Armies of declared enemies in the field, nor no Garrisons in the possessions of any such men, nor no general hurly-burlies and uproars by any such men in the Kingdom, but all such are visibly subdued and quieted, and all Courts of Justice open and free to punish offenders and transgressors; and therefore even to the Army itself and the Officers and Soldiers therein, there is no reason or ground for exercising of Marshal Law, much less over Commoners that are not under the obedience of the Army, which is my cause.  
And that in time of peace, there neither is, nor can be any ground of exercising and executing of Marshal Law; I prove out of the Petition of Right which was made in the third year of the present King, and is printed in Pubtons' Collection of Statutes at large, fol. 1431. 1432. which expressly saith, that by Authority of Parliament, in the 25. year of the Reign of King Edward the third, it is declared and enacted, That no man should be forejudged of life or limb against the form of the great Charter and the Law of the Land, and by the said great Charter, and other the Laws and Statutes of this Realm, no man ought to be adjudged to death, but by the Law established in this Realm 
* See the 9 H. 3. 29. 5. Ed. 3. 9 & 25. Ed. 3. 4. & 28. Ed. 3. 3. .  
And whereas no offendor of what kind soever is exempted from the proceed to be used, and punishments to be inflicted by the Laws and Statutes of this your Realm: Nevertheless of late divers Commissions under your Majesty's great Seal have issued forth, by which certain persons have been assigned and appointed Commissioners, with power and authority to proceed within the land, according to the justice of Martial Law, against such Soldiers and Mariners, or other dissolute persons joining with them, as should commit any murder, robbery, felony, mutiny, or other outrage or misdemeanour whatsoever, and by such summary course and order, as is agreeable to Martial Law, and as is used in Armies in time of War, to proceed to the trial and condemnation of such offenders, and them to cause to be executed and put to death according to the Law Marshal. By pretext whereof your Majesty's Subjects have been by some of the said Commissioners put to death, when & where, if by the Laws and Statutes of the land they had deserved death, by the same Laws and Statutes also they might, and by no other ought to have been judged & executed 
* Yet it is very observable, that at the very time when this Martial Law complained of was executed, the King had wars with France, a foreign enemy, but there is no such thing now; and therefore the Army, or the grand Officers thereof have not the least shadow or pretence to execute it in the least, or to deal with me a free Commoner, as they have done. . And also sundry grievous offenders, by colour thereof claiming an exemption, have escaped the punishment due to them by the Laws and Statutes of this your Realm, by reason that divers of your Officers and Ministers of Justice have unjustly refused, or forborn to proceed against such offenders according, to the same Laws and Statutes, upon pretence that the said offenders were punishable only by Martial Law, and by authority of such Commissioners as aforesaid. Which Commissions, and all other of like nature, are wholly and directly contrary to the said Laws and Statutes of this your Realm.  
Therefore Sirs, if you have any care of your own heads & lives, (though you have none of the Liberties and Freedoms of England) I again as a friend advise you, to take heed what you do unto me any further in your illegal, arb●trarie and tyrannical way that hitherto you have proceeded with me; for largely understand that Canterbury and Strafford were this Parliament questioned for their arbitrary and tyrannical actions that they did and acted man●… years before, and the Lord Keeper Finch was by this Parliament questioned fo● actions that he did when he was Speaker of the House of Commons in the thir● of the present King An. 1628. and forced to fly to save his head.  
In the sececond place I answer, that if since the wars ended, it was or coul● be judged lawful for your Excellency and your Council of War to execute Marshal Law: yet you have divested yourself of that power upon the 4. an● 5. of June last at Newmarket Heath, you owned the soldiers and joined wit● them, when they were put out of the State's protection and declared enemies and further associated with them by a mutual solemn engagement, as they were a Company of free Commoners of England to stand with them according to the Law of Nature and Nations 
* See the late Plea for th● Agents. , to recover your own and all the people's Rights and Liberties; the words are these We the Officers and Soldiers of the Army subscribing hereunto, do hereby declare agree and promise to and with each other, that we shall not willingly disband nor dvide, nor suffer ourselves to be disbanded nor divided, 
* See the engagement in th● Armies Book of Declarations, pag. 25. 26, 27, 28.  until we have security; that we as private men, or other the freeborn people of England, shall not remain subject to the like oppression, injury, or abuse, as have been attempted.  
Hereby it appears, that from this time you and the soldiery kept in a body and so were an Army, not by the States or Parliaments will, but by a mutual agreement amongst all the Soldiers, and consequently not being an Army by the Parliaments wills; they were not under those rules of martial Government which were given by the will of the Parliament: and your Excellency could no longer exercise any such power over them, as was allowed you by thos● Martial Laws; nay, the Soldiers keeping in a body, and continuing an Army only by mutual consent, did by their mutual Agreement or Engagement, constitute a new kind of Council, whereby they would be Governed in their prosecution of those ends for which they associated, and made every Officer incapable of being in that Council, which did not associate with them in that Engagement. The words of the Agreement or Engagement are these: we do hereby declare, agree, and promise, to and with each other, that we shall no● willingly disband, nor divide, nor suffer ourselves to be disbanded or divided without satisfaction in relation to our grievances and desires heretofore presented, and security that we as private men or other the the freeborn people of England, shall not remain subject to the like oppression and injury as hath been attempted, and this satisfaction and security to be such as shall be agreed unto by a Council to consist of those general Officers of the Army, who have concurred with the Army in the premises, with two Commission-Officers, and two Soldiers to be chosen for each Regiment, who have concurred and shall concur with us in the premises and in this Agreement.  
So that your Excellency is so far from having a power to exercise the old Martial Discipline, that you would have been no Officer nor Member of the Council appointed to govern them, unless you had associated with them, and ●y that Association or mutual Engagement, the Soldiers were so far from allowing to their General, who ever it should have been (for at that time it was ●ncertain) the power of excercising the old Martial Discipline, that according ●o the Engagement, no Officer or Soldier can be rightly Cashiered unless it ●e by the Council constituted by that Engagement: so that your Excellency ●y your own Engagement have put a period to your power of exercising your old Martial Discipline, and whatsoever Discipline shall appear to the Army to ●e necessary, must be constituted by the mutual consent of the Army or their ●epresentatives, unless you and they will disclaim the Engagement at Newmarket, and those principles upon which you then stood, and yield up yourselves to the Parliaments pleasure, as their hirelings, to serve their arbitrary power, like Turkish Janissaries.  
In the third place I answer, that it is against reason, law, conscience, justice ●nd equity, to subject me at one and the same time, or any other free Commoner of England, under the sting and power of two distinct Laws, and such a ●ondage as is insupportable, and such a snare of intanglement, that no man's ●ife whatsoever can be safe or secure under it, that I shall be liable to be questioned and destroyed by the common Law of the Kingdom, and then be at the wills of mercenary Turkish janissaries, (in case the common Law will not reach me) to be questioned and destroyed by an unjust arbitrary Marshal law; and ●f it can be justly proved against me that I have made any tumults, the Law and ●he ordinary Courts of Justice are open, by which and by no other rules and pro●eedings I ought to be tried, and if it be said or can be proved, that I have belied or scandalised the General, to the taking away of his good name, etc. yet scandalum Magnatum is not to be tried by Martial Law, nor yet either by the House of Commons, or the House of Lords, but only & alone (now the Star-Chamber is down) by an Action at Common Law 
* As is clear by the Statutes of 3. Ed. 1. ●3. & 37. Ed. 3. 18. & 38. Ed. 3. 9 & 42. Ed. 3. 3. & 2. R. 2. 5. & 12. R. 2. 11. 5. part Cooks Reports, pag. 125. & 13. H. 7. Kelway, & 11. Eliz. Dier 285. & 30. Assize pla. 19 & Lieu. Col. Lilburnes Grand Plea of 20. Octob. 1647. pag. 7. 8. , by a Jury of my equals, and no where else, it being a Maxim in Law, That where remedy may be had by an ordinary course in Law, the party grieved shall never have his recourse to extraordinaries 
* See Vox Plebis pag. 38. & Lievt. Co●… Jo. Lilburnes Anatomy of the Lord Tyranny, pag. 10. : And besides, for you to proceed with me, and to be both Parties, Jury and Judges, is a thing that the Law abhors 
† See 8. H. 6. fol. 21. & 5. Eliz. Dier 22● & Dr. bonham's Case, 8. part of Cook Reports, & Lieut. Col. Jo. Lilburnes grand Plea, pag. 10. .  
In the fourth and last place I answer, that the Parliament itself, neither by Act nor Ordinance can justly or warrantably destroy the fundamental liberties and principles of the common Law of England; it being a Maxim in law and reason both, That all such Acts and Ordinances are ipso facto null and void in Law, and bind not at all, but aught to be resisted and stood against to the death.  
But for them to give you a power by Marshal Law, or under any other name or title whatever, by your arbitrary tyrannical wills without due course and process of Law, to take away the life or Liberty of me, or any free Commoner of England whatsoever, yea, or any of your own soldiers in time of peace, when the Courts of Justice are all open and no visible declared enemy in Arms in the Kingdom ready to destroy it, is an absolute destroying of our fundamental Liberties, and a rasing of the foundation of the Common-Law of England 
* But besides all this I do confidently believe, that the Parliament never gave power unto the General since the Wars ended, to execute Marshal Law; neither do I believe that some chief Executors of Marshal Law have any legal Commission from the Parliament, who never that I could hear of, ever gave power unto the General of himself to make general Officers: and besides, all the Parliament-men that are Officers in the Army were (as I have been groundedly told formerly) taken off by an Ordinance of both Houses, which was never replealed since. .  
Ergo, such a power of arbitrary Marshal Law, cannot justly by the Parliament in time of peace, etc. be given unto you, nor (if it were) be justly or warrantably executed by you.  
And besides, both Houses themselves by an Ordinance (unless they altar the whole Constitution of this Kingdom) can take away the life of no free Commoner of England whatsoever, especially in time of peace.  
And therefore that which is not within their own power to do, they cannot by an Order or Ordinance grant power to Sir Thomas Fairfax etc. to do, it being a Maxim in nature, That beyond the power of being there is nor can be no being.  
But it is not in the power of the Parliament, or the two House, or the House of Commons themselves, as the present Constitutions of this Kingdom stands, either by Order or Ordinance to take away the life of any free Commoner of England 
* See Sir Ed. Cooks 2. part Institut. fol. 47, 48. & 3. part, fol. 22. & 4. part, fol. 23. 25. 48 291. all of which Books are published for good Law to the Kingdom by two special Orders of the present House of Commons, as you may read in the last page of the 2. part Institut. see also the Petition of Right. .  
Ergo, they cannot by an Ordinance or Order, especially in times of peace, give power to Sir Thomas Fairfax by Marshal Law, (unless they totally alter the Constitutions of the Kingdom) to take away the life or lives of any free Commoners of England, (which all Soldiers are as well as others, 
* See the Army's Declaration of the 14. June, 1647. Book of their Declarations, pag. 39 and their Letter from Roiston to the Lord Mayor of London of the 10. June, 1647. which the Printer hath neglected to print in their Book of Declarations. ) and therefore it is absolute murder in the General and the Council of War, now to shoot to death, hang or destroy any Soldier or other Commoner whatever by Martial Law.  
And therefore I do the third time as a friend advise you, to cease your illegal, arbitrary, tyrannical Martial Law-proceeding with me that am no Soldier, and so not under the least pretence of your Martial Jurisdiction, lest in time to come you pay as dear for your arbitrary illegal proceed with me, as Sir Richard Empson and Mr. Edward Dudley Justices did, who as Sir Edward Cook declares in his 2. & 4. part of his Institutes, were very officious and ready to execute that illegal Act of Parliament made in the 11. H. 7. chap. 3. which gave power unto Justices of Assize, as well as Justices of the Peace (without any finding or presentment by the verdict of twelve men, being the ancient birthright of the Subject) upon a bare information for the King before them made, to have full power and authority by their discretions to hear & determine all Offences or contempts committed or done by any person, or persons against the form, ordinance, effect of any Statute made and not repealed, etc. by colour of which act of Parliament, shaking (saith he) this fundamental Law (viz. the 29. Chapter of Magna Charta) it is not credible what horrible oppressions and exactions, to the undoing of infinite numbers of people, were committed by them, for which (though I cannot read they shot any man to death, and though they had an express Act of Parliament to bear them out, abundantly less questionable than an Ordinance for exercising Martial Law) they were both indicted of high treason both by the common Law and Act of Parliament, and in the 2. year of Henry 8. they both lost their heads 
* See 2. part Instit. fol. 51. & 4. part, fol. 41. 196, 197. but especially read their Indictment verbatim set down ibid. fol. 198, 199. .  
Therefore, from all the premises by way of conclusion. I draw up this protestation against you, that by the Laws and constitutions of this Kingdom, you have not the least judicative power in the world over me; therefore, I cannot in the least give you any Honour, Reverence or Respect, either in word action, or gesture: and if you by force and compulsion compel me again to come before you, I must and will by God's assistance keep on my Hat, and look upon you as a company of murderers, Robbers and Theives, and do the best I can to raise the Hue and Cry of the Kingdom against you, as a company of such lawless persons, and therefore if there be any Honour, Honesty and Conscience in you, I require you as a freeborn English man, to do me Justice and right, by a formal dismissing of me, and give me just reparation for my month's unjust imprisonment by you, and for that loss of credit I have sustained thereby, that so things may go no further; or else you will compel and necessitate me to study all ways and means in the world to procure satisfaction from you, and if you have any thing to lay to my charge, I am as an Engishman ready to answer you at the common Law of England, and in the mean time I shall subscribe myself  
Your servant in your faithful discharge of your duty to your Masters (the Commons of England) that pay you your wages, William Thompson. From my arbitrary and most illegal imprisonment in Windsor, this 14. Decemb. 1647.   

The forementioned Letter thus followeth.  
To his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax Knight, captain-general of the Forces in the Nation for Imperial Justice and Liberty, these present.  
May it please your Excellency,  
I Here present unto you a Declaration and Protestation against the illegal and unjust proceed of your Counsel of War against me, I being a free Commoner of England, as in the presence of the just God, before whose Tribunal both you and I shall stand to give an Account of all ungodly deeds committed against him. And so I rest,  
Your Excellency's servant, if you are a true servant to the most excellent God for justice and righteousness in the earth, without respect of persons. William Thompson. Decemb. 14 1647.   

The Petition thus followeth.  
To the right Honourable his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax Knight, Captain General of all the forces raised in the Kingdom of England. The humble Petition of some of your Excellency's Officers and Soldiers, being under the custody of the Marshal General.  
Shows,  
THat whereas there are mispresentations of the intentions of the late Agents of the Army and their adherents, by men of corrupt minds, who would make all the end of your own and your Armies noble and valiant Achievements (under the power of God) fruitless; and would destroy Justice and righteousness from amongst men; and instead of common good, and equal distribution of justice, would advance a particular selfish interest: and to accomplish their unworthy selfish ends, amongst many other scandals cast upon the late Agents, they have blazed abroad that they intended to murder the King, and that one of them should affirm it was lawful: And whereas this was reported by one L. C. Henry Lilburne; it being altogether most abominable in our eyes, and detracts from the purity and righteousness of our Principles; tending only to make us odious to the People, for whose good alone we have run not only all former, but also these late hazards.  
We therefore desire that the said L. C. Hen. Lilburne may be speedily sent for to testify upon Oath (as in the presence of God) who used those words, where those words were used, and when: and what in particular the words were; That so, such a person may come under a public cognizance, and your Excellencies faithful servants and soldiers may free themselves and others from such aspersions.  
And your Petitioners shall ever pray, etc. 

Will. Eyers.  
Will. Bray,  
Will. Prior.  
John Wood  
George Hassall.  
Will. Everrard.  
John Crosseman.  
Tho. Beverly.  
Will. Thomson Commoner.     
FINIS.