Presented to Fairfax on 18 October 1647, ‘The case of the army truly stated’ articulated the genuine apprehension that ‘The heads of the proposals’ induced among some of the army. The pamphlet is disorganised and an obvious composite work, though whether the agents1 who put their names to it were its sole authors remains open to question. Other soldiers may well have contributed, perhaps even some civilians.
The case of the army truly stated, together with the mischiefs and dangers that are imminent, and some suitable remedies. Humbly proposed by the agents of five regiments of horse to their respective regiments and the whole army, as it was presented […] October 18 1647 unto his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax. […] Deuteronomy 20:8: What man is there that is fearful and faint hearted? Let him go and return unto his house, least his brethren’s heart faint as well as his heart.
Judges 7:7: And the Lord said unto Gideon, by the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go, every man unto his place.
London. Printed in the year 1647.
Whereas the grievances, dissatisfactions and desires of the army, both as commoners and soldiers, has been many months since represented to the Parliament, and the army has waited with much patience to see their common grievances redressed and the rights and freedoms of the nation cleared and secured; yet upon a most serious and conscientious view of our narratives, representations, engagement, declarations, remonstrances, and comparing with those the present state of the army and kingdom, and the present manner of actings of many at the headquarters, we not only apprehend nothing to have been done effectually, either for the army or the poor oppressed people of the nation, but we also conceive that there is little probability of any good without some more speedy and vigorous actings.
In respect of the army there has been hitherto no public vindication thereof about their first petition,2 answerable to the ignominy of declaring them enemies to the state and disturbers of the peace; no public clearing nor repairing of the credit of the officers sent for about that petition as delinquents; no provision for apprentices, widows, orphans or maimed soldiers, answerable to our reasonable addresses propounded in their behalf; no such indemnity as provides security for the quiet, ease or safety of the soldiers disbanded or to be disbanded; no security for our arrears, or provision for present pay to enable the army to subsist without burdening the distressed country.
And in respect to the rights and freedoms of ourselves and the people that we declared we would insist upon, we conceive there is no kind or degree of satisfaction given. There is no determinate period of time set when the Parliament shall certainly end. The House is in no measure purged, either from persons unduly elected or from delinquents that appeared to be such at the army’s last insisting upon their rights, or since; the honour of the Parliamentary authority not cleared and vindicated from the most horrid injustice of that declaration against the army for petitioning, nor of suppressing and burning petitions, abusing and imprisoning petitioners: but those strange precedents remain upon record to the infamy of Parliamentary authority and the danger of our own and the people’s freedoms. The people are not righted nor satisfied in point of accounts for the vast sums of money disbursed by them. None of the public burdens or oppressions by arbitrary committees, injustice in the law, tithes, monopolies and restraint of free trade, burdensome oaths, inequality of assessments, excise and otherwise are removed or lightened. The rights of the people in their Parliaments concerning the nature and extent of that power are not cleared and declared. So that we apprehend our own and the people’s case little (if in any measure) better since the army last hazarded themselves for their own and the people’s rights and freedoms.
No, to the grief of our hearts we must declare that we conceive the people and the army’s case much impaired since the first rendezvous at Newmarket when that solemn engagement was entered into, and that from the consideration that the army’s engagement, representations, declarations and remonstrances (and promises in them contained) are declined, and more and more daily broken; and not only in some smaller matters wherein the army and the kingdom are not so nearly concerned, but in divers particulars of dangerous consequence to the army and the whole nation. As:
First, in the engagement, page 5, the army promised — every member thereof, each to other and to the Parliament and kingdom — that they would neither disband nor divide, nor suffer themselves to be disbanded or divided, until satisfaction should be given to the army in relation to their grievances and desires, and security that neither the army nor the freeborn people of England should remain subject to such injuries, oppression and abuse, as the corrupt party in the Parliament then had attempted against them.
Secondly, the train of artillery is now to be disbanded before satisfaction or security is given to the whole army in relation to themselves or other the freeborn people, either in respect to their grievances or desires. And when the strength or sinews of the army be broken, what effectual good can be secured for themselves or the people in case of opposition?
Thirdly, the army is divided into quarters so far distant that one part is in no capability to give timely assistance to another if any design should be to disband any part by violence suddenly, although neither our grievances nor desires as soldiers or commoners are redressed or answered. And as we conceive this dividing of the army before satisfaction or security (as aforesaid) to be contrary to the army’s intention in their engagement at the said rendezvous, so we conceive it has from that time given all the advantage to the enemies to band and design against the army, whereby not only pay has been kept from the soldiers, and security for arrears prevented, but the kingdom was endangered to have been embroiled in blood, and the settlement of the peace and freedom of the nation has been thus long delayed.
The whole intent of the engagement and the equitable sense of it has been perverted openly by affirming, and by sinister means making seeming determinations in the council,3 that the army was not to insist upon or demand any security for any of their own or other the freeborn people’s freedoms or rights, though they might propound anything to the Parliament’s consideration. And according to that high breach of their engagement, their actions have been regulated, and nothing that was declared formerly to be insisted upon has been resolvedly adhered to, or claimed as the army’s or the people’s due. And we conceive it has been by this means that the soldier has had no pay constantly provided, nor any security for arrears given them, and that hitherto they could not obtain so much as to be paid-up equally with those that did desert the army […].
Fourthly, in the prosecution of this breach there has been many discouragements of the agitators4 of the regiments in consulting about the most effectual means for procuring the speedy redress of the people’s grievances, and clearing and securing the native rights of the army and all others the free commons. It has been instilled into them that they ought not to intermeddle with those matters, thereby to induce them to betray the trust the regiments reposed in them; and for that purpose the endeavours of some has been to persuade the soldiery that their agitators have meddled with more than concerned them. […]
Sixthly, in the declaration of June 14, page 6, it is declared that the army took up arms in judgement and conscience for the people’s just rights and liberties, and not as mercenary soldiers, hired to serve an arbitrary power of the state; and that in the same manner it continued in arms at that time, and page 7 of the same declaration, it was declared that they proceeded upon the principles of right and freedom, and upon the law of nature and nations. But the strength of the endeavours of many has been and are now spent to persuade the soldiers and agitators that they stand as soldiers only to serve the state, and may not as free commons claim their right and freedom as due to them, as those ends for which they have hazarded their lives, and that the ground of their refusing to disband was only the want of arrears and indemnity. […]
Eighthly, in the declaration of June 14, page 10 (as in all other remonstrances and declarations), it was desired that the rights and liberties of the people might be secured before the king’s business should be considered. But now the grievances of the people are propounded to be considered after the restoring him to the regal power, and that in such a way according to the ‘Proposals’, viz., with a negative voice, that the people that have purchased by blood what was their right, of which the king endeavoured to deprive them, should yet solely depend on his will for their relief in their grievances and oppressions. And in like manner the security for the army’s arrears is proposed to be considered after the business of the king be determined, so that there is a total declension since the method formerly desired in the settling of the peace of the nation.
Ninthly, it has been always professed and declared that the army was called forth and conjured by the Parliament’s declarations for defence of the people’s rights against the forces raised by the king, and for delivering the king from his evil council, who seduced him to raise the war, and bringing delinquents to condign punishment. But now through the army’s countenance and indulgence, those conquered enemies that were the king’s forces abuse, reproach and again insult over the people, whose freedom was the grounds of the army’s engagement. Indeed, the king’s evil counsellors that concurred in designing all the mischiefs in the king’s late war against the people, are again restored to him, and are admitted free access without check into all the army’s quarrels, whereby they are restored to a capacity of plotting and designing mischief against the army and kingdom. […]
Thus all promises of the army to the people that petitioned his Excellency and the army to stand for the national interest, freedoms and rights, are hitherto wholly declined, and the law of nature and nations now refused by many to be the rule by which their proceedings should be regulated. They now strip themselves of the interest of Englishmen, which was so ill-resented when it was attempted by the malice of the enemies. And thus the people’s expectations that were much greatened, and their hopes of relief in their miseries and oppressions which were so much heightened, are like to be frustrate. And while you look for peace and freedom, the flood-gates of slavery, oppression and misery are opened upon the nation, as may appear by the present manifold dangers that encompass about the army and the whole nation.
The mischiefs, evils and dangers which are and will be the necessary consequence of the army’s declining or delaying the effectual fulfilling of its first engagement, promises and declarations, or of its neglect to insist positively upon its first principles of common right and freedom. […]
First, the love and affection of the people to the army (which is an army’s greatest strength) is decayed, cooled and near lost. It’s already the common voice of the people, ‘What good have our new saviours done for us? What grievances have they procured to be redressed? Wherein is our condition bettered?’, or ‘How are we more free than before?’.
Secondly, not only so, but the army is rendered as an heavy burden to the people, in regard more pay is exacted daily for them, and the people find no good procured by them that’s answerable or equivalent to the charge. So that now the people begin to cry louder for disbanding the army than they did formerly for keeping us in arms because they see no benefit accruing. They say they are as likely to be oppressed and enslaved both by king and Parliament as they were before the army engaged professedly to see their freedoms cleared and secured. […]
Sixthly, through the same declension of the army’s first principles — and the good and necessary method propounded for settling the nation in peace and freedom before the king’s business be considered – the king is likely to recover his old capacity before the people’s freedoms (which they have redeemed out of the hands of him and his forces by blood) be cleared and established securely, and likewise before any security be given for arrears. And then what probability there is that then there should be any good security of pay obtained for the army that conquered him, and for the freedoms of those that assisted them, let any rational man judge? It may more certainly be expected that he will provide for the pay and arrears of his own soldiery rather than of ours. And likewise by the same means, the army’s and their assistants’ indemnity is propounded to receive its strength from the king’s consent: whereas not only his signing of, or consent to any act, is wholly null and void in law because he is under restraint, and so our indemnity will be insufficient if it shall depend in the least on his confirmation; but also it’s the highest disparagement to the supreme authority of this nation — the Parliament — that when they have commanded an army upon service against the king, they should not have sufficient power to save them harmless for obedience to their commands. And also it’s the highest dishonour to the army that they should seek to the conquered enemy to save them harmless for fighting against them, which is to ask him pardon, and so will remain as a perpetual reproach upon them. […]
Now we cannot but declare that these sad apprehensions of mischiefs, dangers and confusion gaping to devour the army have filled our hearts with troubles, that we never did, nor do regard the worst of evils or mischiefs that can befall ourselves in comparison to the consequence of them to the poor nation, or to the security of common right and freedom. We could not but, in real (not formal, feigned) trouble of heart for the poor nation and oppressed people, break forth and cry, ‘O our bowels! Our bowels! We are troubled at the very heart to hear the people’s doleful groans.’ And yet their expected deliverers will not hear or consider. They have run to and fro, and sighed or even wept forth their sorrows and miseries in petitions, first to the king, then to the Parliament, and then to the army; yet they have all been like broken reeds: even the army itself (upon whom they leaned) have pierced their hands. Their eyes even fail with looking for peace and freedom, but behold nothing but distraction, oppression and trouble; and could we hope that help is intended, yet the people perish by delays. We wish therefore that the bowels of compassion in the whole army might yearn towards their distressed brethren, and that they might with one consent say each to other, ‘Come let us join together speedily to demand present redress for the people’s grievances and security for all their and our own rights and freedoms as soldiers and commoners. Let us never divide each from other till those just demands be answered really and effectually, that so for the people’s ease as many forces as are not absolutely necessary may be speedily disbanded and our honour may be preserved unspotted, when they shall see that we minded not our own interest, but the good, freedom and welfare of the whole Nation.’ Now to all that shall thus appear we propound:
1. That whatsoever was proposed to be insisted on either in the declaration of June the 14, or the remonstrance of June 23 and in the remonstrance from Kingston, August 18, be adhered to resolvedly, so as not to recede from those desires until they be thoroughly and effectually answered. More particularly, that whereas it appears by positive laws and ancient just customs that the people have right to new, successive elections for Parliaments at certain periods of time, and that it ought not to be denied them, being so essential to their freedom that without it they are no better than slaves (the nature of that legislative power being arbitrary). And that therefore it be insisted on so positively and resolvedly, as not to recede from it.
2. That a determined period of time be forthwith set wherein this Parliament shall certainly be dissolved, provided also that the said period be within 9 or 10 months next ensuing, that so there may be sufficient time for settling of peace and freedom.
3. Whereas all good is obstructed and diverted by the power and influence of delinquents, the late usurpers and undue elected ones in the Parliament, that therefore it be positively and resolvedly insisted on, that the house be forthwith purged from all that have forfeited their trust, or were unduly elected […].
5. Whereas Parliaments rightly constituted are the foundation of hopes of right and freedom to this people, and whereas the people have been prevented of Parliaments, though many positive laws have been made for a constant succession of Parliaments; that therefore it be positively and resolvedly insisted upon that a law paramount be made, enacting it to be unalterable by Parliaments, that the people shall of course meet without any warrants or writs once in every two years upon an appointed day in their respective counties, for the election of the representers in Parliament; and that all the freeborn at the age of 21 years and upwards be the electors, excepting those that have or shall deprive themselves of that their freedom, either for some years, or wholly by delinquency; and that the Parliament so elected and called may have a certain period of time set, wherein they shall of course determine, and that before the same period they may not be adjournable and dissolvable by the king, or any other except themselves.
6. Whereas all power is originally and essentially in the whole body of the people of this nation, and whereas their free choice or consent by their representers is the only original or foundation of all just government, and the reason and end of the choice of all just governors whatsoever is their apprehension of safety and good by them; that it be insisted upon positively, that the supreme power of the people’s representers, or Commons assembled in Parliament, be forthwith clearly declared as: their power to make laws, or repeal laws (which are not, or ought not to be unalterable); as also their power to call to an account all officers in this nation whatsoever, for their neglect or treacheries in their trust for the people’s good, and to continue or displace and remove them from their offices, dignities or trust, according to their demerits by their faithfulness or treachery in the business or matters where with they are entrusted; and further, that this power to constitute any kind of governors or officers that they shall judge to be for the people’s good be declared, and that, upon the aforesaid considerations, it be insisted upon, that all obstructions to the freedom and equality of the people’s choice of their representers, either by patents, charters or usurpations by pretended customs, be removed by these present Commons in Parliament, and that such a freedom of choice be provided for, as the people may be equally represented. This power of Commons in Parliament is the thing against which the king has contended, and the people have defended with their lives, and therefore ought now to be demanded as the price of their blood.
7. That all the oppressions of the poor by excise upon beer, cloth stuffs, and all manufactories and English commodities, be forthwith taken off, and that all excise be better regulated, and imposed upon foreign commodities, and a time set wherein it shall certainly end, if there be a necessity of its present continuance on such commodities. […]
And it is further offered, in consideration that the court have occasioned the late war, and reduced the state to such necessity by causing such vast expense of treasure, that therefore whereas the many oppressions of the people, and the danger of absolute tyranny, were the occasion of the expense of so much blood, and whereas the people have bought their rights and freedoms by the price of blood, and have in vain waited long since the common enemy has been subdued for the redress of their grievances and oppressions; that therefore it be demanded as the people’s due, which ought not to be denied to the army or to them yet seeing the king has his court and lives in honour, yet before his business be further considered, because the people are under much oppression and misery, it be forthwith the whole work of the Parliament to hear, consider of, and study effectually redress for, all common grievances and oppressions, and for the securing all other the people’s rights and freedoms, besides all these aforementioned, and in particular:
That all the orders, votes, ordinances or declarations, that have passed either to discountenance petitions, suppress, prevent or burn petitions, imprison or declare against petitioners — being dangerous precedents against the freedom of the people — may be forthwith expunged out of the journal books, and the injustice of them clearly declared to all the people; and that in such a declaration the soldiery be vindicated as to the right and equity of their first petition. […]
And it’s further offered, that whereas millions of money have been kept in dead stocks in the City of London, the halls and companies, and the freemen of the city could never obtain any account thereof according to their right, that therefore a just and strict account may be forthwith given to all the freemen of all those dead stocks; and yet whereas there has been nothing paid out of those, nor for the lands pertaining to the city, while the estates of others have been much wasted by continual payments, that therefore proportionable sums to what other estates have paid may be taken out of those dead stocks and lands, which would amount to such vast sums as would pay much of the soldiers’ arrears without burdening the oppressed people.
And it’s further offered, that forest lands, and deans’ and chapters’ lands be immediately set apart for the arrears of the army, and that the revenue of these, and the residue of bishops’ lands unsold, till the time of sale may be forthwith appointed to be paid unto our treasury, to be reserved for the soldiers’ constant pay. And it’s to be wished that only such part of the aforesaid lands be sold as necessity requires to satisfy the soldiery for arrears, and that the residue be reserved and improved for a constant revenue for the state, that the people may not be burdened, and that out of the revenues public debts may be paid and not first taken out of their own purses to be repaid to them. […]
And whereas it’s conceived that the fees of receivers of customs and excise, if they were justly computed, would amount to near as much as the army’s pay, it’s therefore offered that speedy consideration be had of the multitude of those officers and their excessive fees and profits […].
And for the ease and satisfaction of the people it’s further to be insisted on that the charge of all the forces to be kept up in the kingdom by sea or land be particularly computed and published, and that all taxes that shall be necessary may be wholly proportioned, according to that charge; and that there be an equal rate propounded throughout the kingdom in all assessments […]5.
That it be insisted on that such indemnity be forthwith given both for the soldiery and all that gave them assistance, and shall provide securely for their quiet, ease and safety, and prevent all chargeable journeys to London to seek after and wait upon committees. […]
Whereas mercy and justice are the foundations of a lasting peace, it’s necessary to be insisted on (for the healing differences as far as possible) that all those whose estates have been sequestered and yet were not in arms for the king (or gave any actual assistance to him in men, money or arms, plate, horse, etc. in the late war), that all such be discharged forthwith from their sequestrations; and that all such as have compounded may not be enforced to pay the five or twentieth part, seeing their whole estates were so long under sequestration. And that all those that have not compounded who were in arms for the king may be compelled forthwith to compound, provided that their compositions be so moderate as none may exceed two years’ revenue, that their families be not ruined, and they put upon desperate attempts against the peace of the nation to preserve themselves.
These things propounded are no more than what we conceived should have been thoroughly done long since, being as to the principle of them but the substance and equitable sense of our former declarations, remonstrances and representations. And therefore though our restless desires of the people’s good and of the welfare of the army have constrained us thus publicly to state our case and the remedy, according to the best improvement of the small talent of understanding that God has given freely to us, yet let not the matter be prejudged because of the unworthy authors; neither let it be thought presumption. It may be remembered that the father’s danger made a dumb child to speak, and the army’s, indeed all the people’s dangers and miseries have wrested open our mouths, who had otherwise been silent in this kind to the grave.
And let it not be thought that we intend the division of the army; we profess we are deeply sensible and desire all our fellow soldiers to consider it. In case the union of the army should be broken (which the enemy wait for), ruin and destruction will break in upon us like a roaring sea. But we are much confident that the adhering to those desires and to that speedy way of attaining our just ends for which we first engaged, cannot be interpreted to be a desire of division, but the strongest vigorous endeavours after union. And though many whom we did betrust have been guilty of most supine negligence, yet we expect that the same instruction of judgement and conscience that we have all professed did command us forth at first for the people’s freedom, will be again so effectual that all will unanimously concur with us, so that a demand of the people’s and army’s rights shall be made by the whole army as by one man, that then all the enemies to, or obstructers of the happy settlement of common right, peace and freedom, may hear of our union and resolution, and their hands may be weak, and their hearts may fail them. And so this army that God has clothed with honour in subduing the common enemy, may yet be more honourable in the people’s eyes, when they shall be called the repairers of their breaches, and the restorers of their peace, right and freedom.
And this is the prayer, and shall always be the earnest endeavours of the army’s and all the people’s most faithful servants,
| Lieutenant-General’s | } | Robert Everard6 |
| regiment | } | George Sadler |
| Colonel Fleetwood’s | } | William Prior |
| regiment | } | William Bryan |
| Colonel Rich’s | } | John Dover |
| regiment | } | William Hudson |
| } | Agitators | |
| Commissary-General’s | } | George Garret |
| regiment | } | Thomas Beverley |
| Colonel Whalley’s | } | Matthew Weale |
| regiment | } | William Russell |
| } | Richard Seale |
Guildford, October 9 1647.
[…] Upon the presentation to and serious perusal thereof by his Excellency, the sum of his answer was to this effect. That he judged their intentions were honest, and desired that everyone of a public spirit would be acting for the public, and that for his part he had freely ventured his life for common right and freedom and should freely engage it again, adding further that he thought it meet it should be presented to the General Council.