chosen any for their Ambassador into Sweden, Mr. Cleypool came unto me,
demanding of me whom I thought fittest to send upon that embassy into
Sweden: I nominated Sir B. Whitlock, who was chosen, and two or three
days after Mr. Cleypool came again: 'I hope, Mr. Lilly, my father hath
now pleased you: Your friend Sir B. Whitlock is to go for Sweden.' But
since I have mentioned Oliver Cromwell, I will relate something of him,
which perhaps no other pen can, or will mention. He was born of generous
parents in Huntingdonshire, educated some time at the university of
Cambridge: in his youth was wholly given to debauchery, quarrelling,
drinking, &c. _quid non_; having by those means wasted his patrimony, he
was enforced to bethink himself of leaving England, and go to
New-England: he had hired a passage in a ship, but ere she launched out
for her voyage, a kinsman dieth, leaving him a considerable fortune;
upon which he returns, pays his debts, became affected to religion; is
elected in 1640 a member of Parliament, in 1642 made a Captain of horse
under Sir Philip Stapleton, fought at Edge-Hill; after he was made a
Colonel, then Lieutenant-General to the Earl of Manchester, who was one
of the three Generals to fight the Earl of Newcastle and Prince Rupert
at York: Ferdinando Lord Fairfax, and Earl Leven the Scot, were the
other two for the Parliament: the last two thinking all had been lost at
Marston-Moor fight, Fairfax went into Cawood Castle, giving all for
lost: at twelve at night there came word of the Parliament's victory;
Fairfax being then laid down upon a bed, there was not a candle in the
castle, nor any fire: up riseth Lord Fairfax, procures after some time,
paper, ink, and candle, writes to Hull, and other garrisons of the
Parliament's, of the success, and then slept.
Leven the Scot asked the way to Tweed: the honour of that day's fight
was given to Manchester, Sir Thomas Fairfax's brigade of horse, and
Oliver Cromwell's iron sides; for Cromwell's horse, in those times,
usually wore head-pieces, back and breast-plates of iron. After this
victory Cromwell became gracious with the House of Commons, especially
the Zealots, or Presbyterians, with whom at that time he especially
joined; the name Independent, at that time, viz. 1644, being not so much
spoken of.
There was some animosity at or before the fight, betwixt the Earl of
Newcastle and Prince Rupert; for Newcastle being General of his
Majesty's forces in the North, a person of valour, and well esteemed in
those parts, took it not well to have a competitor in his concernments;
for if the victory should fall on his Majesty's side, Prince Rupert's
forces would attribute it unto their own General, viz. Rupert, and give
him the glory thereof: but that it happened, Prince Rupert, in that
day's fight, engaged the Parliament's forces too soon, and before the
Earl of Newcastle could well come out of York with his army; by reason
whereof, though Rupert had absolutely routed the Scots and the Lord
Fairfax's forces; yet ere timely assistance could second his army, Sir
Thomas Fairfax and Cromwell had put him to flight, and not long after
all Newcastle's army. A most memorable action happened on that day.
There was one entire regiment of foot belonging to Newcastle, called the
Lambs, because they were all new cloathed in white woollen cloth, two or
three days before the fight. This sole regiment, after the day was lost,
having got into a small parcel of ground ditched in, and not of easy
access of horse, would take no quarter; and by mere valour, for one
whole hour, kept the troops of horse from entering amongst them at near
push of pike: when the horse did enter, they would have no quarter, but
fought it out till there was not thirty of them living; those whose hap
it was to be beaten down upon the ground as the troopers came near them,
though they could not rise for their wounds, yet were so desperate as to
get either a pike or sword, or piece of them, and to gore the troopers'
horses as they came over them, or passed by them. Captain Camby, then a
trooper under Cromwell, and an actor, who was the third or fourth man
that entered amongst them, protested, he never in all the fights he was
in, met with such resolute brave fellows, or whom he pitied so much, and
said, 'he saved two or three against their wills.'
After the fight, Manchester marched slowly southward, &c. but at last
came with his army to Newbury fight; which ended, he came for London,
and there he accuseth Cromwell, being his Lieutenant, to the Parliament,
of disobedience, and not obeying his orders.
The House of Commons acquaint Cromwell herewith, and charge him, as he
would answer it before God, that the day following he should give them a
full account of Manchester's proceedings, and the cause and occasion of
their difference, and of the reasons why Manchester did not timely move
westward for the relief of Essex, then in the west, who was absolutely
routed, inforced to fly, all his foot taken, and all his ordnance and
train of artillery, only the horse escaping. Cromwell the next day gave
this account to Mr. Speaker in the House of Commons--by way of
recrimination.
That after God had given them a successful victory at Marston over the
King's forces, and that they had well refreshed their army, Manchester,
by their order, did move southward, but with such slowness, that
sometimes he would not march for three days together; sometimes he would
lie still one day, then two days; whereupon he said, considering the
Earl of Essex was in the west, with what success he then knew not, he
moved Manchester several times to quicken his march to the west, for
relief of Essex, if he were beaten, or to divert the King's forces from
following of Essex; but he said Manchester still refused to make any
haste; and that one day he said, 'If any man but yourself, Lieutenant,
should so frequently trouble me, I would call him before a Council of
War. We have beaten the King's forces in the north; if we should do so
in the west, his Majesty is then undone: he hath many sons living; if
any of them come to the Crown, as they well may, they will never forget
us.' This Major Hammond, a man of honour, will justify as well as
myself. After which he marched not at all, until he had order from the
Committee to hasten westward, by reason of Essex's being lost in
Cornwall, which then he did; and at Newbury fight, it is true, I refused
to obey his directions and order: for this it was; his Majesty's horse
being betwixt four and five thousand in a large common, in good order,
he commands me, Mr. Speaker, to charge them; we having no way to come at
them but through a narrow lane, where not above three horse could march
abreast; whereby had I followed his order, we had been all cut off ere
we could have got into any order. Mr. Speaker, (and then he wept; which
he could do _toties quoties_) I, considering that all the visible army
you then had, was by this counsel in danger to be lost, refused thus to
endanger the main strength, which now most of all consisted of those
horse under my command, &c.--This his recrimination was well accepted by
the House of Commons, who thereupon, and from that time, thought there
was none of the House of Lords very fit to be entrusted with their
future armies, but had then thoughts of making a commoner their General;
which afterwards they did, and elected Sir Thomas Fairfax their General,
and Cromwell Lieutenant-General; but it was next spring first. Upon
Essex's being lost in Cornwall, I heard Serjeant Maynard say, 'If now
the King haste to London we are undone, having no army to resist him.'
His Majesty had many misfortunes ever attending him, during his abode at
Oxford; some by reason of that great animosity betwixt Prince Rupert and
the Lord Digby, each endeavouring to cross one another; but the worst of
all was by treachery of several officers under his command, and in his
service; for the Parliament had in continual pay one Colonel of the
King's Council of War; one Lieutenant-Colonel; one Captain; one Ensign;
one or two Serjeants; several Corporals, who had constant pay, and duly
paid them every month, according to the capacity of their officers and
places, and yet none of these knew any thing of each other's being so
employed. There were several well-wishers unto the Parliament in Oxford,
where each left his letter, putting it in at the hole of a glass-window,
as he made water in the street. What was put in at the window in any of
those houses, was the same day conveyed two miles off by some in the
habit of town-gardeners, to the side of a ditch, where one or more were
ever ready to give the intelligence to the next Parliament garrison: I
was then familiar with all the spies that constantly went in and out to
Oxford.
But once more to my own actions. I had, in 1652 and 1653 and 1654, much
contention with Mr. Gatacre of Rotherhithe, a man endued with all kind
of learning, and the ablest man of the whole synod of divines in the
Oriental tongues.
The synod had concluded to make an exposition upon the bible; some
undertook one book, some another. Gatacre fell upon _Jeremy_. Upon
making his exposition on the 2d verse of the 10th chapter,
'Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of
heaven, for the heathen are dismayed at them.'
In his _Annotations_ thereupon, he makes a scandalous exposition; and in
express terms, hints at me, repeating _verbatim_, ten or twelve times,
an _Epistle_ of mine in one of my former _Anglicus_.
The substance of my _Epistle_ was, that I did conceive the good angels
of God did first reveal astrology unto mankind, &c. but he in his
_Annotations_ calls me blind buzzard, &c.
Having now liberty of the press, and hearing the old man was very
cholerick, I thought fit to raise it up--and only wrote--I referred my
discourse then in hand to the discussion and judgment of sober persons,
but not unto Thomas Wiseacre, for _Senes bis pueri_: These very words
begot the writing of forty-two sheets against myself and astrology. The
next year I quibbled again in three or four lines against him, then he
printed twenty-two sheets against me. I was persuaded by Dr. Gauden,
late Bishop of Exeter, to let him alone; but in my next year's
_Anglicus_, in August observations, I wrote, _Hâc in tumbâ jacet
Presbyter & Nebulo_, in which very month he died.
Several divines applied themselves unto me, desiring me to forbear any
further vexing of Mr. Gatacre; but all of them did as much condemn him
of indiscretion, that in so sober a piece of work as that was, viz. in
an _Annotation_ upon a sacred text of scripture to particularize me and
in that dirty language: they pitied him, that he had not better
considered with himself ere he published it.
Dean Owen of Christ's-Church in Oxford, also in his sermons had sharp
invectives against me and astrology; I cried quittance with him, by
urging Abbot Panormitan's judgment of astrology contrary to Owen's, and
concluded, 'An Abbot was an ace above a Dean.'
One Mr. Nye of the assembly of divines, a Jesuitical Presbyterian,
bleated forth his judgment publickly against me and astrology: to be
quit with him, I urged Causinus the Jesuit's approbation of astrology,
and concluded, _Sic canibus catulos, &c_.
In some time after the Dutch Ambassador being offended with some things
in _Anglicus_, presented a memorial to the Council of State, that
_Merlinus Anglicus_ might be considered, and the abuses against their
nation examined; but his paper was not accepted of, or I any way
molested.
In Oliver's Protectorship, I wrote freely and satyrical enough: he was
now become Independant, and all the soldiery my friends; for when he was
in Scotland, the day of one of their fights, a soldier stood with
_Anglicus_ in his hand; and as the several troops passed by him, 'Lo,
hear what Lilly saith; you are in this month promised victory, fight it
out, brave boys;' and then read that month's prediction.
I had long before predicted the downfall of Presbytery, as you (most
honoured Sir) in the figure thereof, in my _Introduction_, may observe;
and it was upon this occasion. Sir Thomas Middleton of Chark Castle,
enemy to Presbytery, seeing they much prevailed, being a member of the
House, seriously demanded my judgment, if Presbytery should prevail, or
not, in England? The figure printed in my _Introduction_, will best give
you an account, long before it happened, of the sinking and failing of
Presbytery; so will the second page of my _Hieroglyphicks_. Those men,
to be serious, would preach well; but they were more lordly than
Bishops, and usually, in their parishes, more tyrannical than the Great
Turk.
* * * * *
OF THE YEAR 1660; THE ACTIONS WHEREOF, AS THEY WERE REMARKABLE IN
ENGLAND, SO WERE THEY NO LESS MEMORABLE AS TO MY PARTICULAR FORTUNE AND
PERSON.
Upon the Lord General Monk's returning from Scotland with his army into
England, suddenly after his coming to London, Richard Cromwell, the then
Protector's, authority was laid aside, and the old Parliament restored;
the Council of State sat as formerly. The first act they put the General
upon was, to take down the city gates and portcullisses, an act which,
the General said, was fitter for a Janizary to do than for a General;
yet he effected the commands received, and then lodged in the city with
his army. The citizens took this pulling down of their gates so
heinously, that one night the ruder sort of them procured all the rumps
of beef, and other baggage, and publickly burnt them in the streets, in
derision of the then Parliament, calling them that now sat, The Rump.
This hurly-burly was managed as well by the General's soldiers as the
citizens. The King's health was publickly drank all over the city, to
the confusion of the Parliament. The matter continued until midnight, or
longer. The Council of State, sitting at White-Hall, had hereof no
knowledge, until Sir Martin Noell, a discreet citizen, came about nine
at night, and then first informed them thereof. The Council could not
believe it, until they had sent some ministers of their own, who
affirmed the verity thereof. They were at a stand, and could not resolve
what to do; at last Nevil Smith came, being one of them, and publickly
protested there was but one way to regain their authority, and to be
revenged of this affront, and to overthrow the Lord General Monk, whom
they now perceived intended otherways than he had pretended; his council
was, to take away Monk's commission, and to give a present commission to
Major-General Lambert to be their General; which counsel of his, if they
would take and put it speedily in execution, would put an end unto all
the present mischiefs. The Council in general did all very well approve
Nevil Smith's judgment; but presently up starts Sir Arthur Hazellrigg,
and makes a sharp invective against Lambert, and concluded, he would
rather perish under the King of Scot's power, than that Lambert should
ever any more have command under the Parliament.
The Lord General suddenly after brings in the long excluded Members to
sit in Parliament, being persons of great judgment, and formerly
enforced from sitting therein by the soldiery, and connivance of those
who stiled themselves the godly part of the Parliament. These honourable
patriots presently voted his Majesty's coming into England, and so he
did in May 1660. But because Charles the Second, now (1667) King of
England, Son of Charles the First, grandchild to James the First, King
of Great Britany, was so miraculously restored, and so many hundreds of
years since prophesied of by Ambrose Merlin, it will not be impertinent
to mention the prophecies themselves, the rather because we have seen
their verification.
AMBROSE MERLIN'S PROPHECY WROTE ABOUT 990 YEARS SINCE.
He calls King James, The Lion of Righteousness; and saith, when he died,
or was dead, there would reign a noble White King; this was Charles the
First. The prophet discovers all his troubles, his flying up and down,
his imprisonment, his death; and calls him Aquila. What concerns Charles
the Second, is the subject of our discourse: in the Latin copy it is
thus:
_Deinde ab Austro veniet cum Sole super ligneos equos, & super spumantem
inundationem maris, Pullus Aquilæ navigans in Britanniam._
_Et applicans statim tunc altam domum Aquilæ sitiens, & cito aliam
sitiet._
_Deinde Pullus Aquilæ nidificabit in summa rupe totius Britanniæ: nec
juvenis occidet, nec ad senem vivet._
This, in an old copy, is Englished thus:
'After then, shall come through the south with the sun, on horse of
tree, and upon all waves of the sea, the Chicken of the Eagle, sailing
into Britain, and arriving anon to the house of the Eagle, he shall shew
fellowship to them beasts.
'After, the Chicken of the Eagle shall nestle in the highest rock of all
Britain: nay, he shall nought be slain young; nay, he nought come old.'
Another Latin copy renders the last verse thus:
_Deindè pullus Aquilæ nidificabit in summo rupium, nec juvenis
occidetur, nec ad senium perveniet._ There is after this, _percificato
regno omnes occidet_; which is intended of those persons put to death,
that sat as Judges upon his father's death.
THE VERIFICATION.
His Majesty being in the Low-Countries when the Lord General had
restored the secluded Members, the Parliament sent part of the Royal
Navy to bring him for England, which they did in May 1660. Holland is
East from England, so he came with the sun; but he landed at Dover, a
port in the south part of England. Wooden-horses, are the English ships.
_Tunc nidificabit in summo rupium._
The Lord General, and most of the gentry in England, met him in Kent,
and brought him unto London, then to White-hall.
Here, by the highest Rooch, (some write Rock,) is intended London, being
the metropolis of all England.
Since which time, unto this very day I write this story, he hath reigned
in England, and long may he do hereafter. 10th December, 1667.
Had I leisure, I might verify the whole preceding part concerning King
Charles. Much of the verification thereof is mentioned in my _Collection
of Prophecies_, printed 1645. But his Majesty being then alive, I
forbore much of that subject, not willing to give offence. I dedicated
that book unto him; and, in the conclusion thereof, I advised his return
unto Parliament, with these words, _Fac hoc & vives_.
There was also a _Prophecy_ printed 1588, in Greek characters, exactly
decyphering the long troubles the English nation had from 1641 until
1660; and then it ended thus:
'And after that shall come a dreadful dead man, and with him a Royal G.'
[it is Gamma in the Greek, intending C. in the Latin, being the third
letter in the alphabet,] 'of the best blood in the world, and he shall
have the Crown, and shall set England on the right way, and put out all
heresies.'
Monkery being extinguished above eighty or ninety years, and the Lord
General's name being Monk, is the Dead Man. The Royal G. or C. is
Charles the Second, who, for his extraction, may be said to be of the
best blood in the world.
These two prophecies were not given vocally by the angels, but by
inspection of the crystal in types and figures, or by apparition the
circular way, where, at some distance, the angels appear, representing
by forms, shapes, and creatures, what is demanded. It is very rare, yea,
even in our days, for any operator or master to have the angels speak
articulately; when they do speak, it is like the Irish, much in the
throat.
What further concerns his Majesty, will more fully be evident about 1672
or 1674, or, at farthest, in 1676. And now unto my own actions in 1660.
In the first place, my fee-farm rents, being of the yearly value of one
hundred and twenty pounds, were all lost by his Majesty's coming to his
restoration: but I do say truly, the loss thereof did never trouble me,
or did I repine thereat.
In June of that year, a new Parliament was called, whereunto I was
unwillingly invited by two messengers of the Serjeant at Arms. The
matter whereupon I was taken into custody was, to examine me concerning
the person who cut off the King's head, viz. the late King's.
Sir Daniel Harvey, of Surry, got the business moved against me in great
displeasure, because, at the election of new knights for Surrey, I
procured the whole town of Walton to stand, and give their voices for
Sir Richard Onslow. The Committee to examine me, were Mr. Prinn, one
Colonel King, and Mr. Richard Weston of Gray's-Inn.
God's providence appeared very much for me that day, for walking in
Westminster-Hall, Mr. Richard Pennington, son to my old friend Mr.
William Pennington, met me, and enquiring the cause of my being there,
said no more, but walked up and down the hall, and related my kindness
to his father unto very many Parliament men of Cheshire and Lancashire,
Yorkshire, Cumberland, and those northern countries, who numerously came
up into the Speaker's chamber, and bade me be of good comfort: at last
he meets Mr. Weston, one of the three unto whom my matter was referred
for examination, who told Mr. Pennington, that he came purposely to
punish me; and would be bitter against me; but hearing it related, viz.
my singular kindness and preservation of old Mr. Pennington's estate to
the value of six or seven thousand pounds, 'I will do him all the good I
can,' says he. 'I thought he had never done any good; let me see him,
and let him stand behind me where I sit:' I did so. At my first
appearance, many of the young members affronted me highly, and demanded
several scurrilous questions. Mr. Weston held a paper before his mouth;
bade me answer nobody but Mr. Prinn; I obeyed his command, and saved
myself much trouble thereby; and when Mr. Prinn put any difficult or
doubtful query unto me, Mr. Weston prompted me with a fit answer. At
last, after almost one hour's tugging, I desired to be fully heard what
I could say as to the person who cut Charles the First's head off.
Liberty being given me to speak, I related what follows, viz.
That the next Sunday but one after Charles the First was beheaded,
Robert Spavin, Secretary unto Lieutenant-General Cromwell at that time,
invited himself to dine with me, and brought Anthony Peirson, and
several others, along with him to dinner: that their principal discourse
all dinner-time was only, who it was that beheaded the King; one said it
was the common hangman; another, Hugh Peters; others also were
nominated, but none concluded. Robert Spavin, so soon as dinner was
done, took me by the hand, and carried me to the south window: saith he,
'These are all mistaken, they have not named the man that did the fact:
it was Lieutenant-Colonel JOICE; I was in the room when he fitted
himself for the work, stood behind him when he did it; when done, went
in again with him: there is no man knows this but my master, viz.
Cromwell, Commissary Ireton, and myself.' 'Doth not Mr. Rushworth know
it?' said I. 'No, he doth not know it,' saith Spavin. The same thing
Spavin since had often related unto me when we were alone. Mr. Prinn
did, with much civility, make a report hereof in the House; yet Norfolk
the Serjeant, after my discharge, kept me two days longer in arrest,
purposely to get money of me. He had six pounds, and his Messenger forty
shillings; and yet I was attached but upon Sunday, examined on Tuesday,
and then discharged, though the covetous Serjeant detained me until
Thursday. By means of a friend, I cried quittance with Norfolk, which
friend was to pay him his salary at that time, and abated Norfolk three
pounds, which we spent every penny at one dinner, without inviting the
wretched Serjeant: but in the latter end of the year, when the King's
Judges were arraigned at the Old-Bailey, Norfolk warned me to attend,
believing I could give information concerning Hugh Peters. At the
sessions I attended during its continuance, but was never called or
examined. There I heard Harrison, Scott, Clement, Peters, Hacker,
Scroop, and others of the King's Judges, and Cook the Sollicitor, who
excellently defended himself; I say, I did hear what they could say for
themselves, and after heard the sentence of condemnation pronounced
against them by the incomparably modest and learned Judge Bridgman, now
Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England.