Carolus Dei gratiâ Magnæ Britanniæ, Franciæ, & Hiberniæ, Rex, fideique Defensor: Omnibus probis hominibus suis ad quos præsentes literæ pervenerint, Salutem. Sciatis nos considerantes magnos in hoc regno nostro Scotiæ non ita pridem exortos tumultus, ad quos quidem componendos, multiplices regiæ nostræ voluntatis declarationes promulgavimus, quæ tamen minorem spe nostrâ effectum hactenus sortitæ sunt; Et nunc statuentes, ex pio erga dictum antiquum regnum nostrum affectum, ut omnia gratiosè stabiliantur & instaurentur, quod (per absentiam nostram) non aliâ ratione commodius effici potest, quâm fideli aliquo Delegato constituto, cui potestatem credere possumus tumultus ejusmodi consopiendi, aliaque officia præstandi, quæ in bonum & commodum dicti antiqui regni nostri eidem Delegato nostro imperare nobis videbitur: Cumque satis compertum habeamus obsequium, diligentiam, & fidem prædilecti nostri consanguinei & consiliarii Jacobi Marchionis Hamiltonii, Comitis Arraniæ & Cantabrigiæ, Domini Aven & Innerdail, &c. eundemque ad imperata nostra exequenda sufficientèr instructum esse: Ideircò fecisse & constituisse, tenoreque præsentium facere & constituere præfatum prædilectum nostrum consanguineum & consiliarium Jacobum Marchionem de Hamiltoun, &c. nostrum Commissionarium ad effectum subscriptum: Cum potestate dicto Jacobo Marchioni de Hamiltoun, &c. dictum regnum nostrum adeundi, ibidemque præfatos tumultus in dicto regno componendi, aliaque officia à nobis eidem committenda in dicti regni nostri bonum & commodum ibi præstandi: Eoque Concilium nostrum quibus locis & temporibus ei visum fuerit convocandi, ac rationem & ordinem in præmissis exequendis servandum declarandi & præscribendi: Et quæcunque alia ad commissionis hujus capita pro commissa ipsi fide exequenda, eandemque ad absolutum finem perducendam & prosequendam conferre possunt tam in Concilio quâm extra Concilium nostro nomine efficiendi & præstandi; Idque similiter & adeò liberè acsi Nos in sacrosancta nostra persona ibidem adessemus. Et hac præsenti nostrâ commissione durante nostro beneplacito duratura ac semper & donec eadem per nos expressè inhibeatur. In cujus rei testimonium præsentibus magnum sigillum nostrum apponi præcepimus. Apud castrum nostrum de Windsore vigesimo die mensis Maii anno Domini millesimo sexcentesimo trigesimo octavo, Et anno regni nostri decimo quarto.
Per signaturam manu S. D. N. Regis
suprascriptam.
1638.—June 11.
40. Letter from the King to Hamilton.[65]
Hamilton,
Though I answered not yours of the fourth, yet I assure you that I have not been idle, so that I hope by the next week I shall send you some good assurance of the advancing of our Preparations. This say not to make you precipitate any thing, (for I like of all you have hitherto done, and even of that which I find you mind to doe;) but to shew you that I mean to stick to my Grounds, and that I expect not any thing can reduce that People to their Obedience, but onely force. I thank you for the clearness of your Advertisements, of all which none troubles me so much, as (that in a manner) they have possessed themselves of the Castle of Edinburgh; and likewise I hold Sterlin as good as lost. As for the dividing of my Declaration, I find it most fit (in that way you have resolved it;) to which I shall adde, that I am content to forbear the latter part thereof, until you hear my fleet hath set sail for Scotland. In the mean time your care must be how to dissolve the Multitude, and (if it be possible) to possess your self of my Castles of Edinburgh and Sterlin, (which I do not expect.) And to this end I give you leave to flatter them with what hopes you please, so you engage not me against my Grounds, (and in particular that you consent neither to the calling of Parliament nor General Assembly, untill the Covenant be disavowed and given up;) your chief end being now to win time, that they may not commit publick Follies untill I be ready to suppress them: and since it is (as you well observe) my own People, which by this means will be for a time ruined, so that the loss must be inevitably mine; and this if I could eschew, (were it not with a greater) were well. But when I consider, that not onely now my Crown, but my Reputation for ever, lies at stake, I must rather suffer the first, that Time will help, than this last, which is irreparable. This I have written to no other end, than to shew you I will rather die than yield to those impertinent and damnable Demands, (as you rightly call them;) for it is all one as to yield to be no King in a very short time. So wishing you better success than I can expect, I rest
Your assured constant Friend,
Charles R.
Greenwich, 11 June, 1638.
Postscript.—As the Affairs are now, I do not expect that you should declare the Adherers to the Covenant Traitors, until (as I have already said) you have heard from me that my Fleet hath set sail for Scotland, though your six weeks should be elapsed. In a word, gain time by all the honest means you can, without forsaking your Grounds.