Commentary : The memoirs if Edmund Ludlow 1640 essay
[ad_1]
HAVING seen our cause betrayed, and the most solemn promises that could be made to the asserters of it,
5 openly violated, I departed from my native country. And hoping that my retirement may protect me from
the rage and malice of my enemies, I cannot think it a misspending of some part of my leisure, to employ
it in setting down the most remarkable counsels and actions of the parties engaged in the late Civil War,
which spread itself through the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland; wherein I shall not strictly
confine myself to a relation of such things only in which I was personally concerned, but also give the best
10 account I can of such other memorable occurrences of those times as I have learned from persons well
informed, and of unsuspected fidelity.
Those who make any enquiry into the history of King James’s reign, will find, that though his inclinations
were strongly bent to render himself absolute, yet he chose rather to carry on that design by fraud than
15 violence. But King Charles having taken a nearer view of despotic government in his journey to France and
Spain, tempted with the glittering shew and imaginary pleasures of that empty pageantry, immediately after
his ascent to the throne pulled off the masque, and openly discovered his intentions to make the Crown
absolute and independent. In the beginning of his reign he married a daughter of France, who was not
wanting on her part to press him, upon all occasions, to pursue the design of enlarging his power, not
20 omitting to solicit him also to mould the Church of England to a nearer compliance with the See of Rome:
wherein she was but too well seconded by corrupt Ministers of State, of whom some were professed Papists;
and an ambitious Clergy, whose influence upon the King was always greater than could well consist with
the peace and happiness of England.
UNIVERSITE TOULOUSE – Jean Jaurès Département d’Anglais
U.E. : AN00302V Session 1 : JANVIER 2021
Régime : CC et CT
Epreuve : Civilisation britannique Durée : épreuve asynchrone
Documents et dictionnaires non autorisés – téléphones portables interdits
[…]
25 [The] High Court of Justice met on the 8th of January 1649 in the Painted Chamber, to the number of about
four score, consisting chiefly of members of Parliament, officers of the army, and gentlemen of the country
[…]. On the tenth they chose Serjeant Bradshaw to be their president, with Mr. Lisle and Mr. Say to be his
assistants; and a charge of high treason being drawn up against the King, the Court appointed a convenient
place to be prepared at the upper end of Westminster Hall for his public trial, directing it to be covered with
30 scarlet cloth, and ordered twenty halberdiers to attend the president, and thirty the King.
All things being thus prepared for the trial, the King was conducted from Windsor to St. James’s: from
whence on the 20th of January he was brought to the bar of the High Court of Justice, where the president
acquainted the King with the causes of his being brought to that place: for that he contrary to the trust
35 reposed in him by the people, to see the laws put in execution for their good, had made use of his power to
subvert those laws, and to set up his will and pleasure as a law over them : that in order to effect that design,
he had endeavoured the suppression of Parliaments, the best defence of the people’s liberties: that he had
levied war against the Parliament and people of England, wherein great numbers of the good people had
been slain, of which blood the Parliament, presuming him guilty, had appointed this High Court of Justice
40 for the trial of him for the same. Then turning to Mr. Broughton, clerk of the Court, he commanded him to
read the charge against the King; who, as the clerk was reading the charge, interrupted him, saying, ‘ I am
not intrusted by the people, they are mine by inheritance,’ demanding by what authority they brought him
thither. The president answered, that they derived their authority from an Act made by the Commons of
England assembled in Parliament: the King said the Commons could not give an oath; that they were no
45 Court, and therefore could make no Act for the trial of any man, much less of him. their sovereign. It was
replied, that the Commons assembled in Parliament could acknowledge no other sovereign but God, for
that upon his and the people’s appeal to the sword for the decision of their respective pretensions, judgment
had been given for the people ; who conceiving it to be their duty not to bear the sword in vain, had
appointed the Court to make inquisition for the blood that had been shed in that dispute. Whereupon the
50 president, being moved by Mr. Solicitor Coke, in the name and on the behalf of the good people of England,
commanded the clerk of the Court to proceed in the reading of the charge against him: which being done,
the King was required to give his answer to it, and to plead guilty, or not guilty. The King demurred to the
jurisdiction of the Court, affirming that no man, nor body of men had power to call him to an account, being
not intrusted by man; and therefore accountable only to God for his actions. […] This discourse seeming
55 not to the purpose, the president told him that as to his not being accountable to man, seeing God by His
Providence had over-ruled it, the Court had resolved to do so also; and that if he would give no other answer,
that which he had given should be registered, and they would proceed as if he had confessed the charge: in
order to which the president commanded his answer to be entered, directing Serjeant Dendy, who attended
the Court, to withdraw the prisoner; which as he was doing, many persons cried out in the hall, ‘ Justice,
60 Justice.’ The King being withdrawn, the Court adjourned.
The Memoirs of Edmund Ludlow Esq, Lieutenant-General of the Horse, Commander in Chief of the
Forces in Ireland, One of the Council of State and a Member of the Parliament that Began on November
65 3, 1640 (1698-9).
The post Commentary : The memoirs if Edmund Ludlow 1640 essay appeared first on homeworkcrew.com.
"96% of our customers have reported a 90% and above score. You might want to place an order with us."
