THE PREFACE. 1 AT length comes into the world, the First Volume of the Hiftory of the Rebellion, and Civil Wars in England, begun in the Year 1641, with the precedent paffages and actions that contributed thereunto, and the happy End and Conclufion thereof, by the King's blessed Reftoration, and Return, upon the 29th of May in the Year 1660; written by Edward Earl of Clarendon, once Lord High Chancellor of England, and Chancellor of the famous Univerfity of Oxford. The first of these great dignities King Charles the Second had conferred on him, whilst he was yet in banishment with him; which he held, after the Reftoration, above seven years, with the universal approbation of the whole kingdom, and the general applause of all good men, for his juftice, integrity, found judgment, and eminent fufficiency in the dif charge of that office; a praife, which none of his enemies ever denied him, in any time. The other he received from the choice of the Univerfity, who, upon the vacancy of that place, by the death of the Marquis of Hertford, then Duke of Somerset, judged they could not better manib feft VOL. I. feft their fteadinefs in the cause for which they had fuffered, and their refolutions of adhering to their old principles, in fupport of the Church of England, and the ancient monarchical government of this kingdom, than in choofing to place the protection of their interest in both under the care of one, who had so early distinguished himself, even from the first approaches of the civil war, in afferting and maintaining the distressed rights of the Church and Crown. This Hiftory was firft begun by the exprefs command of King Charles the First, who, having a defire that an account of the calamities, God was pleased to inflict on the unhappy part of his reign, should be reported to pofterity by fome worthy, honeft, and knowing man, thought he could not appoint any one more adorned with fuch qualifications, than this Author. It is a difficult province to write the history of the civil wars of a great and powerful nation, where the King was engaged with one part of his fubjects against the other, and both fides were fufficiently inflamed: and the neceffity of fpeaking the truth of feveral great men, that were engaged in the quarrel on either fide, who may still have very confiderable relations, defcended from them, now alive, makes the task invidious, as well as difficult. We are not ignorant that there are accounts, contained in this following History, of some eminent perfons in thofe times, that do not agree agree with the relations we have met with of the fame perfons, publifhed in other authors. But, befides that they who put forth this Hiftory dare not take upon them to make any alterations in a work of this kind, folemnly left with them to be published, whenever it should be published, as it was delivered to them; they cannot but think the world will generally be of opinion, that others may as likely have been mistaken in the grounds and informations they' have gone upon, as our Author; who will be esteemed to have had opportunities, equal at leaft with any others, of knowing the truth; and, by the candour and impartiality of what he relates, may be believed not to have made any wilful mistakes. However, all things of this nature must be submitted, as this is, with great deference to the judgment of the equal reader; who will meet, in his progrefs through this work, with many paffages, that, he will judge, may disoblige the pofterity of even well meaning men in those days; much more then of fuch as were crafty, cunning, and wicked enough to defign the mifchiefs that enfued: but he fhall meet with none of malice, nor any but such as the Author, upon his best information, took to be impartially true. He could not be ignorant of the rules of a good hiftorian, (which, Cicero fays, are fuch foundations, that they are known to every body), That he fhould not dare to Speak any falfehood; and fhould dare to Speak any truth. And we doubt not, but through the whole progress of this History he will be found to have given no occafion of fufpecting his writings guilty of partial favour, or unjuft enmity; and we hope, that the representing the truth, without any mixture of private paffion or animofity, will be so far from giving offence to any ingenuous man of this time, that it will be received rather as an inftruction to the prefent age, than a reproach upon the last. Moreover, the tenderness that might feem due, out of charity, good manners, and good nature, to our countrymen, our neighbours, or our relations, hath been indulged a long space of time; and might poffibly be abused, if it should not give way, at last, to the usefulness of making this work public, in an age, when so many memoirs, narratives, and pieces of history come out, as it were on purpose to justify the taking up arms against that King, and to blacken, revile, and ridicule the facred Majefty of an anointed head in distress; and when so much of the sense of religion to God, and of allegiance and duty to the Crown, is fo defaced, that it is already, within little more than fifty years fince the murder committed on that pious Prince, by fome men made a mystery to judge, on whose fide was the right, and on which the Rebellion is to be charged. We hope therefore it will be judged necessary as well as ufeful, that an impartial account of the |