REIGNED FROM A.D. 1625 TO A.D. 1649.

(HARLES THE FIRST, in evil hour,

CHARLES

Assumes the reins of sov'reign power;

Strains ev'ry nerve supplies to gain,

And luckless fights with France and Spain.
While Buckingham,1 his fav'rite, dies;
Illegally he gets supplies!

Dismiss'd his Parliament with pride,
And on Star-Chamber3 power relied.
The King and Commons now contend,

4

And Strafford falls, the monarch's friend.
His army vanquish'd,' fav'rites dead,

King CHARLES was tried, and lost his head !6

'Assassinated at Portsmouth by one Felton.

2 Without the consent of the Parliament. 3 A court independent of any law.

The Earl of Strafford was impeached by the Commons of high treason, and beheaded, A.D. 1641.

5 By the Parliamentary forces at the Battle of Naseby. 6 The King was beheaded at Whitehall, 30th January, 1649, aged forty-nine years; reigned twenty-four.

AND THE COMMONWEALTH

FROM A.D. 1649 TO A.D. 1660.

YROMWELL, who gain'd the chief command,

CROMW

Was call'd Protector of the land!

In Ireland crush'd the royal cause;
To Scotland next his army draws.
He there puts CHARLES's arms to rout,
And then to England turns about;
And at fam'd Wor'ster's fatal fight
Defeats and puts the King to flight.2
To power despotic now he rose,
But humbled England's foreign foes!
Dissolv'd the Parliament with pride;
At length this bold usurper died.s
RICHARD, his son, succeeds, but flies
From power, and in seclusion dies.*

Oliver Cromwell, son of a gentleman in Huntingdonshire. 2 Charles the Second escaped to France.

3 A.D. 1658, in the fifty-ninth year of his age, and the ninth of his usurpation.

Richard died at Cheshunt, in Hertfordshire, A.D. 1712.