State Trials, Political and Social. Volume 1 (of 2)
History
State Trials, Political and Social. Volume 1 (of 2)
Trials -- Great Britain
in some measure I did stir, but by strong importunities, the
ministers of London deeper than I; I am very sorry to hear of my
carriage towards the King; it is my great trouble; I beg pardon
for my own folly and weakness; I thought God had a great
controversy with the nation, and the Lord was displeased on all
hands; that which some people took to, I did take unto; I went
into the army; I saw at the beginning of it that corruptions
grew among them.... I had neither malice nor mischief in my
heart against the King; upon this I did engage so far, being
invited; I went into the wars, and there I found very strange
and several kinds of providences, as this day hath been seen; I
do not deny but that I was active, but not to stir in a way that
was not honourable. I had so much respect for his majesty,
particularly at Windsor, that I propounded to his majesty my
thoughts, three ways to preserve himself from danger, which were
good as he was pleased to think though they did not succeed, and
the work died; as for malice I had none in me; I have not
persecuted with malice, I will only take off malice.
The _Lord Chief-Baron_ reminded him that the business was a matter of
fact, and shortly recapitulated the evidence against him. Consulting
about the King's death; proposing or determining that he should die;
making seditious speeches, in the pulpit or out of it, would all be
overt acts proving treasonable intention. His conversations with Dr.
Young at Milford, his meetings with Cromwell and others at the Star, his
participation in the councils held at Starkey's house at Windsor, all
proved the consulting and proposing. His presence at the meeting in the
Painted Chamber; his riding in front of the King when he was brought to
London (which Peters interrupted to explain that he did by the King's
command that he might procure the Bishop of London to come to him); the
part he took in ordering the reading the proclamation about the High
Court, which Peters denied; his telling the soldiers to cry out Justice,
Justice; his presence at the scaffold before the execution [_Peters_--'I
do not profess to your lordship, before angels and men, that I did not
stir out of my chamber that day.' _Lord Chief-Baron_--'Counsel doth not
put reliance upon that because of what your witness saith, though his
evidence is not satisfactory']; his prayers and his sermons all go to
complete the case. When Peters objects that some of the witnesses to the
sermons are but single witnesses, the judge expressly lays it down that
the two witnesses required need not both speak to the same overt act.
The Solicitor then notices the main facts of the case in a still more
abbreviated form, concluding:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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