The Preface xli 



between Medes and Persians, Greeks and Trojans, Christians 

 and Turks, but among my own countrymen, whose customs 

 and inclinations, and most of the persons that held any con- 

 siderable place in the armies, was well known to me ; and 

 besides all that (which is above all) my noble and loyal Lord 

 did act a chief part in that fatal tragedy, to have defended 

 (if human power could have done it) his most gracious sovereign 

 from the fury of his rebellious subjects. 



This history being (as I have said) of a particular person, 

 his actions and fortunes, it cannot be expected that I should 

 here preach of the beginning of the world ; nor seem to express 

 understanding in the politics, by tedious moral discourses, 

 with long observations upon the several sorts of government 

 that have been in Greece and Rome, and upon others more 

 modern. I will neither endeavour to make show of eloquence, 

 making speeches that never were spoken, nor pretend to great 

 skill in war, by making mountains of molehills, and telling 

 romancical falsehoods for historical truths ; and much less 

 will I write to amuse my readers, in a mystical and allegorical 

 style, of the disloyal actions of the opposite party, of the treach- 

 erous cowardice, envy, and malice of some persons, my Lord's 

 enemies, and of the ingratitude of some of his seeming friends ; 

 wherein I cannot better obey his Lordship's commands to 

 conceal those things, than in leaving them quite out, as I do, 

 with submission to his Lordship's desire, from whom I have 

 learned patience to overcome my passions, and discretion to 

 yield to his prudence. 



Thus am I resolved to write, in a natural plain style, without 

 Latin sentences, moral instructions, politic designs, feigned 

 orations, or envious and malicious exclamations, this short 

 history of the loyal, heroic, and prudent actions of my noble 

 Lord, as also of his sufferings, losses, and ill-fortunes, which 

 in honour and conscience I could not suffer to be buried in 

 silence ; nor could I have undertaken so hard a task, had 

 not my love to his person, and to truth, been my encourager 

 and supporter. 



I might have made this book larger, in transcribing (as is 

 ordinary in histories) the several letters 1 , full of affection, 



1 Seven of these letters of the King's have been published by Sir Henry Ellis, Original 

 Letters, series I, vol. iii, pp. 291-303. Those of the Queen will be found in Mrs. M. E. 

 Green's Letters of Queen Henrietta Maria. 



The Declarations referred to below are reprinted in Rushworth's Collection : ' A 



