THE EARL OF STRAFFORD, His Speech in the Tower to the Lords, before he went to execution. May the 12. day. 1641.  
Printed 1641.   

His Speech in the Tower to the Lords, before he went to Execution.  
RIght honourable, and the rest, you are now come to convey me to my death: I am willing to die, which is a thing no more than all our Predecessors have done, and a debt that our Posterity must in their due time discharge, which since it can be no way avoided, it ought the less to be feared; for that which is common to all, ought not to be intolerable to any: It is the law of nature, the tribute of the flesh, a remedy from all worldly cares and troubles; and to the truly penitent, a perfect path to blessedness: And there is but one death, though several ways unto it: Mine is not natural, but enforced by the Law & Justice: It hath been said that the Laws vex only the meaner sort of people, but the mighty are able to withstand them: It is not so with me, for to the Law I submit myself, and confess that I receive nothing but Justice: For he that politikly intendeth good to a Commonwealth, may be called a just man, but he that practiseth either for his own profit, or any other sinister ends, may be well termed a Delinquent person; Neither is delay in punishment any privilege for pardon. And moreover, I ingenuously confess with Cicero, that the death of the bad, is the safety of the good that be alive.  
Let no man trust either in the favour of his Prince, the friendship and consanguinity of his Peers, much less in his own wisdom & knowledge, of which I ingenuously confess I have been too confident. Kings, as they are men before God, so they are gods before men, and I may say with a great man once in this Kingdom, had I strove to obey my God as faithfully, as I sought to honour my King diligently, I had stood, and not fallen. Most happy and fortunate is that Prince, who is as much for his justice feared, as for his goodness beloved: For the greater that Princes are in power above other, the more they ought in virtue to excel other; and such is the Royal Sovereign whom I late served.  
For my Peers, the correspondence that I had with them during my prosperity, was to me very delightful and pleasing, and here they have commiserated my ruin, I have plentifully found, who (for the most generous of them) I may boldly say, though they have detested the fact, yet they have pitied the person delinquent; The first in their loyalty, the last in their charity: Ingenuously confessing, that never any subject, or Peer of my rank had ever that help of Counsel, that benefit of time, or a more free and legal trial than I have had: In the like whereof, none of my predecessors hath had so much favour from his Prince, so much sufferance from the people; in which I comprehend the understanding Commons, not the many headed monster, Multitude; But I have offended▪ am sentenced, & must now suffer.  
And for my too much confidence in my supposed wisdom and knowledge, therein have been the most deceived: For he is wise to himself that knows by others faults to correct his own offences: To be truly wise is to be Secretaries to ourselves, For it is mere folly to reveal our intimate thoughts to strangers: Wisdom is the most precious Gem with which the mind can be adorned, and learning the most famous thing for which a man ought to be esteemed, and true wisdom teacheth us to do well, as to speak well: In the first I have failed, for the wisdom of man is foolishness with God.  
For knowledge, it is a thing indifferent both to good and evil, but the best knowledge is for a man, to know himself; he that doth so, shall esteem of himself but little, for he considereth from whence he came, and whereto he must go, he regardeth not the vain pleasures of this life, he exalteth God, and strives to live in his fear; But he that knoweth not himself, is wilful in his own ways, unprofitable in his life, infortunate in his death, and so am I But the reason why I sought to attain unto it, was this: I have read that he that knoweth not that which he ought to know, is a bruit beast amongst men: He that knoweth more than he ought to know, is a man amongst beasts: But he that knoweth all that may be known, is a God amongst men. To this I much aspired, in this I much failed; Vanity of vanities, all is but vanity.  
I have heard the people clamour and cry out, saying, That through my occasion the times are bad, I wish that when I am dead they may prove better: Most true it is, that there is at this time a great storm impending (God in his mercy avert it.) And since it is my particular lot, like jonah, to be cast into the sea, I shall think my life well spent, to appease God's wrath, and satisfy the people's malice.  
O what is eloquence more than air? fashioned with an articulate and distinct sound, when it is a special virtue to speak little and well, and silence is oft the best oratory; For fools in their dumbness may be accounted wise: It hath power to make a good matter seem bad, and a bad cause appear good: But mine was to me unprofitable, and like the Cypress trees, which are great and tall, but altogether without fruit.  
What is honour? but the first step to disquietness, and power is still waited on by envy, neither hath it any privilege against in famie. It is held to be the chief part of honour, for a man to join to his office and calling, courtesy, and affability, commiseration, and pity: For thereby he draweth to him with a kind of compulsion, the hearts of the multitude. But that was the least part of my study, which now makes me call to mind, that the greater the persons are in authority, the sooner they are catcht in any delinquency, and the smallest crimes are thought to be capital, the smallest spot seems great in the finest linen, and the least flaw is soon found in the richest Diamond. But high and noble spirits finding themselves wounded, grieve not so much at their own pain and perplexity, as at the derision and scoffs of their enemy: But for mine own part, though I might have many in my life, I hope to find none in my death.  
Amongst other things which pollute and contaminate the minds of great spirits, there is none more heinous than ambition, which is seldom unaccompanied with Avarice: Such, to possess their ends, care not to violate the Laws of Religion, and Reason, and to break the bonds of Modesty and equity, with the nearest ties of Consanguinity, and Amity; Of which as I have been guilty, so I crave at God's hands forgiveness. It is a maxim in Philosophy, that ambitious men can never be good Counselors to Princes; The desire of having more is common to great Lords, and a desire of Rule, a great cause of their ruin.  
My Lords, I am now the hopeless Precedent, may I be to you all an happy example: For ambition devoureth gold, and drinketh blood, and climbeth so high by other men's heads, that at the length in the fall, it breaketh its own neck: therefore it is better to live in humble content, than in high care and trouble: For more precious is want with honesty, than wealth with infamy: For what are we but mere vapours, which in a serene element ascend high, and upon an instant, like smoke, vanish into nothing: Or like ships without Pilots, tossed up & down upon the seas by contrary winds, and tempests. But the good husbandman thinks better of those ears of corn, which bow down, and grow crooked, than those which are straight and upright, because he is assured to find more store of grain in the one, than in the other. This all men know, yet of this, how few make use: The defect whereof must be now my pain: May my suffering prove to others profit.  
For what hath now the favour of my Prince, the familiarity with my Peers, the volubility of a tongue, the strength of my memory, my learning, or knowledge, my honours, or offices, my power, or potency, my riches, and treasure, (all these the especial gifts, both of Nature, and Fortune) what have all these profited me? Blessings I acknowledge, though by God bestowed upon man; yet not all of them together upon many: Yet by the divine providence, the most of them met in me: Of which had I made happy use, I might still have flourished, who now am forced immaturely to fall.  
I now could wish, (but that utinam is too late) that God with his outward goodness towards me, had so commixed his inward grace, that I had choosed the medium path, neither inclining to the right hand, nor deviating to the left; but like Icarus with my waxed wings, fearing by too low a flight to moisten them with the waves: I soared too high, and too near the Sun, by which they being melted; I aiming at the highest, am precipitated to the lowest: and am made a wretched prey to the waters: But I who before built my house upon the sand, have now settled my hopes upon the Rock my Saviour: By whose only merits my sole trust is, that whatsoever becomes of my body, yet in this bosom my soul may be Sanctuaried.  
Nimrod would have built a Tower to reach up to heaven, and called it Babel; but God turned it to the confusion of Languages, and dissipation of the people, Pharaoh kept the children of Israel in bondage, and after having fred them, in his great pride would have made them his prey; but God gave them a dry and miraculous passage, and Pharaoh and his host a watery Sepulchre. Belshazzer feasted his Princes and Prostitutes, who drunk healths in the vessels taken from the Temple, but the hand of God writ upon the wall, Mene, Tekel, Phoras, and that night before morning was both his Kingdom and life taken from him: Thus God lets men go on a great while in their own devices, but in the end it proved their own ruin & destruction, never suffering them to effect their desired purposes: therefore let none presume upon his power, glory in his greatness, or be too confident in his riches: These things, were written for our Instruction, of which the living may make use, the dying cannot; but wit and unfruitful wisdom are the next neighbours to folly.  
There can be no greater vanity in the world, than to esteem the world, which regardeth no man; and to make slight account of God who greatly respecteth all men; and there can be no greater folly in man, than by much travel to increase his goods, and pamper his body, and in the Interim with vain delights and pleasures, to lose his soul, It is a great folly in any man to attempt a bad beginning, in hope of a good ending; and to make that proper to one, which was before common to all, is mere indiscretion, and the beginning of discord, which I positively wish may end in this my punishment.  
O how small a proportion of earth will contain my body, when my high mind could not be confined within the spacious compass of two Kingdoms? But my hour draweth on, and I conclude with the Psalmist, not aiming at any one man in particular, but speaking for all in general: How long will you judges be corrupted? how long will ye cease to give true judgement? &c, Blessed is the man that doth not walk in the Council of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful, therefore they shall not stand in the judgement, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous, etc.  
About the hour of 12. a Clock the aforesaid Lord of Strafford was conveyed to the Scaffold on Towre-Hill, where was a court of Guard made by the several Companies of Soldiers of the City of London, and the Hamlets of the Tower on each side as he passed to the Scaffold: before marched the Marshal's men to make way, than the Sheriffs of London's Officers with their Halberds; after them the King's Guard, or warders of the Tower: Next came one of his Gentlemen, bore headed, in mourning habit, the Lord Strafford following him clad in black cloth, with divers others, in the same habit, which were his attendance, than the Lord, Bishop of Armach, and other good Divines; with the Sheriffs of London, and divers honourable personages.  
When he came to the Scaffold, he there shown himself on each side in full view to all people and made this short speech, with as much alacrity of Spirit, as a mortal man could express, viz.  
Then turning himself about, he saluted all the Noblemen, and took a solemn leave of all considerable persons on the Scaffold giving them his hand.  
And after that, he said, gentlemans, I would say my prayers, and I entreat you all to pray with me, and for me; then his Chaplain laid the book of Common prayer upon the chair before him as he kneeled down, on which he prayed almost a quarter of an hour, than he prayed as long or longer without a book, and ended with the Lords prayer; then standing up he spies his brother Sir George Wentworth, and calls him to him, and saith, brother we must part, remember me to my sister, and to my wife, and carry my blessing to my eldest Son, and charge him from me, that he fear God and continue an obedient Son of the Church of England, and that he should approve himself a faithful subject to the King, and tell him that he should not have any private grudge or revenge towards any concerning me, and bid him beware that he meddle not with Church live, for that will prove a moth and canker to him in his estate, and wish him to content himself to be a servant to his Country, as a Justice of peace in his County, and not aiming at higher preferments; carry my blessing to my daughters, Anne and Arrabella, charge them to fear and serve God, and he will bless them, not forgetting my little Infant that yet knows neither good nor evil, and cannot speak for itself, God speak for it, and bless it; then said he, now I have nigh done, one stroke will make my wife husbandless, my dear children fatherless, and my poor servants masterless, and separate me from my dear brother and all my friends, but let God be to you and them, all in all.  
After that, going to take off his doublet, and to make himself ready, he said I thank God I am no more afraid of death, nor daunted with any discouragements rising from any fears, but do as cheerfully put off my doublet at this time, as ever I did when I went to bed. Then he put off his doublet, and wound up his hair with his hands, and put on a white Cap.  
Then he called, Where is the man that should do this last office? (meaning the Executioner) call him to me. When he came and asked him forgiveness, he told him he forgave him and all the world. Then kneeling down by the block, he went to prayer again himself, the Bishop of Armach kneeling on the one side, and the Minister on the other; to the which Minister, after prayer, he turned himself, and spoke some few words softly, having his hands lifted up: this Minister closed his hands with his; then bowing himself to the earth, to lay his head on the block, he told the Executioner, that he would first lay down his head to try the fitness of the block, and take it up again before he would lay it down for good and all, and so he did: and before he laid it down again, he told the Executioner that he would give him warning when to strike, by stretching forth his hands; and then laid down his neck on the block, stretching out his hands the Executioner struck off his head at one blow, than he took the head in his hand and shown it unto all the people, and said, God save the King.  
FINIS