diff options
Diffstat (limited to '10700-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 10700-0.txt | 21970 |
1 files changed, 21970 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/10700-0.txt b/10700-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d9f6166 --- /dev/null +++ b/10700-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,21970 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10700 *** + +The History of England + +From The First Invasion By The Romans To The Accession Of King George The +Fifth + + +BY + +JOHN LINGARD, D.D. AND HILAIRE BELLOC, B.A. + + +With an Introduction By + +HIS EMINENCE JAMES CARDINAL GIBBONS + + + +IN ELEVEN VOLUMES + + + +1912 + + + +CONTENTS of THE EIGHTH VOLUME. + + + +CHAPTER I + + +CHARLES I.--_continued_. + +Battle Of Edge Hill--Treaty At Oxford--Solemn Vow And Covenant--Battle +Of Newbury--Solemn League And Covenant Between The English And Scottish +Parliaments--Cessation Of War In Ireland-Royalist Parliament At +Oxford--Propositions Of Peace--Battle Of Marston Moor--The Army Of +Essex Capitulates In The West--Self-Denying Ordinance--Synod Of +Divines--Directory For Public Worship--Trial Of Archbishop Laud--Bill Of +Attainder--His Execution. + +Treaty proposed and refused. +Royalists. +Parliamentarians. +State of the two armies. +The king's protestation. +Battle of Edge Hill. +Action at Brentford. +King retires to Oxford. +State of the kingdom. +Treaty at Oxford. +Intrigues during the treaty. +Return of the Queen. +Fall of Reading. +Waller's plot. +Solemn vow and covenant. +Death of Hampden. +Actions of Sir William Waller. +The Lords propose a peace. +Are opposed by the Commons. +New preparations for war. +Battle of Newbury. +New great seal. +Commissioners sent to Scotland. +Solemn league and covenant. +Scots prepare for war. +Covenant taken in England. +Charles seeks aid from Ireland. +Federative assembly of the Catholics. +Their apologies and remonstrance. +Cessation concluded. +A French envoy. +Royal parliament at Oxford. +Propositions of peace. +Methods of raising money. +Battle of Nantwich. +Scottish army enters England. +Marches and Countermarches. +Rupert sent to relieve York. +Battle of Marston Moor. +Surrender of Newcastle. +Essex marches into the west. +His army capitulates. +Third Battle of Newbury. +Rise of Cromwell. +His quarrel with Manchester. +First self-denying ordinance. +Army new modelled. +Second self-denying ordinance. +Ecclesiastical concurrences. +Persecution of the Catholics. +Of the Episcopalians. +Synod of divines. +Presbyterians and Independents. +Demand of toleration. +New directory. +Trial of Archbishop Land. +His defence. +Bill of attainder. +Consent of the Lords. +Execution. + + +CHAPTER II. + +Treaty At Uxbridge--Victories Of Montrose In Scotland--Defeat Of The King +At Naseby--Surrender Of Bristol--Charles Shut Up Within Oxford--Mission Of +Glamorgan To Ireland--He Is Disavowed By Charles, But Concludes A Peace +With The Irish--The King Intrigues With The Parliament, The Scots, And The +Independents--He Escapes To The Scottish Army--Refuses The Concessions +Required--Is Delivered Up By The Scots. + +Dissensions at court. +Proposal of treaty. +Negotiation at Uxbridge. +Demands of Irish Catholics. +Victories of Montrose in Scotland. +State of the two parties in England. +The army after the new model. +Battle of Naseby. +Its consequences. +Victory of Montrose at Kilsyth. +Surrender of Bristol. +Defeat of Royalists at Chester. +Of Lord Digby at Sherburn. +The king retires to Oxford. +His intrigues with the Irish. +Mission of Glamorgan. +Who concludes a secret treaty. +It is discovered. +Party violence among the parliamentarians. +Charles attempts to negotiate with them. +He disavows Glamorgan. +Who yet concludes a peace in Ireland. +King proposes a personal treaty. +Montreuil negotiates with the Scots. +Ashburnham with the Independents. +Charles escapes to the Scots. +The royalists retire from the contest. +King disputes with Henderson. +Motives of his conduct. +He again demands a personal conference. +Negotiation between the parliament and the Scots. +Expedients proposed by the king. +Scots deliver him up to the parliament. +He still expects aid from Ireland. +But is disappointed. +Religious disputes. +Discontent of the Independents. +And of the Presbyterians. + + +CHAPTER III. + +Opposite Projects Of The Presbyterians And Independents--The King +Is Brought From Holmby To The Army--Independents Driven From +Parliament--Restored By The Army--Origin Of The Levellers--King Escapes +From Hampton Court, And Is Secured In The Isle Of Wight--Mutiny In The +Army--Public Opinion In Favour Of The King--Scots Arm In His Defence--The +Royalists Renew The War--The Presbyterians Assume The Ascendancy--Defeat +Of The Scots--Suppression Of The Royalists--Treaty Of Newport--The King Is +Again Brought To The Army--The House Of Commons Is Purified--The King's +Trial--Judgment--And Execution--Reflections. + +The king at Holmby. +Character of Fairfax. +Opposition of the Independents. +Demands of the Army. +Refusal of parliament. +The army carries off the king. +Marches towards London. +And treats the king with indulgence. +The Independents are driven from parliament. +Charles refuses the offers of the army. +Which marches to London. +Enters the city. +And gives the law to the parliament. +The king listens to the counsels of the officers. +And intrigues against them. +Rise of the Levellers. +The king's escape. +He is secured in the Isle of Wight. +Mutiny suppressed. +King rejects four bills. +Vote of non-addresses. +King subjected to farther restraint. +Public opinion in his favour. +Levellers prevail in the army. +The Scots take up arms for the king. +Also the English royalists. +Feigned reconciliation of the army and the city. +Insurrection in Kent. +Presbyterians again superior in parliament. +Defeat of the Scots. +And of the earl of Holland. +Surrender of Colchester. +Prince of Wales in the Downs. +Treaty of Newport. +Plan of new constitution. +Hints of bringing the king to trial. +Petition for that purpose. +King's answer to the parliament. +His parting address to the commissioners. +He is carried away by the army. +Commons vote the agreement with the king. +The House of Commons is purified. +Cromwell returns from Scotland. +Independents prevail. +Resolution to proceed against the king. +Appointment of the High Court of Justice. +Hypocrisy of Cromwell. +Conduct of Fairfax. +King removed from Hurst Castle. +Few powers interest themselves in his favour. +Proceedings at the trial. +Behaviour of the king. +He proposes a private conference. +Is condemned. +Lady Fairfax. +King prepares for death. +Letter from the prince. +The king is beheaded. + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE COMMONWEALTH. + +Establishment Of The Commonwealth--Punishment Of The Royalists--Mutiny And +Suppression Of The Levellers--Charles Ii Proclaimed In Scotland--Ascendancy +Of His Adherents In Ireland--Their Defeat At Rathmines--Success Of Cromwell +In Ireland--Defeat Of Montrose, And Landing Of Charles In Scotland-Cromwell +Is Sent Against Him--He Gains A Victory At Dunbar--The King Marches Into +England--Loses The Battle Of Worcester--His Subsequent Adventures And +Escape. + +Abolition of the monarchy. +Appointment of a council of state. +Other changes. +Attempt to fill up the house. +Execution of the royalists. +Opposition of the Levellers. +Their demands. +Resisted by the government. +The mutineers suppressed. +Proceedings in Scotland. +Charles II proclaimed in Edinburgh. +Answer of the Scots. +Their deputies to the king. +Murder of Dr. Dorislaus. +State of Ireland. +Conduct of the nuncio. +His flight from Ireland. +Articles of peace. +Cromwell appointed to the command. +Treaty with O'Neil. +Cromwell departs for Ireland. +Jones gains the victory at Rathmines. +Cromwell lands. +Massacre at Drogheda. +Massacre at Wexford. +Cromwell's further progress. +Proceedings in Scotland. +Charles hesitates to accept the conditions offered by the commissioners. +Progress and defeat of Montrose. +His condemnation. +His death. +Charles lands in Scotland. +Cromwell is appointed to command in Scotland. +He marches to Edinburgh. +Proceedings of the Scottish kirk. +Expiatory declaration required from Charles. +He refuses and then assents. +Battle of Dunbar. +Progress of Cromwell. +The king escapes and is afterwards taken. +The godliness of Cromwell. +Dissensions among the Scots. +Coronation of Charles. +Cromwell lands in Fife. +Charles marches into England. +Defeat of the earl of Derby. +Battle of Worcester. +Defeat of the royalists. +The king escapes. +Loss of the royalists. +Adventures of the king at Whiteladies. +At Madeley. +In the royal oak. +At Moseley. +At Mrs. Norton's. +His repeated disappointments. +Charles escapes to France. + + +CHAPTER V. + +Vigilance Of The Government--Subjugation Of Ireland--Of +Scotland--Negotiation With Portugal--With Spain--With The +United Provinces--Naval War--Ambition Of Cromwell--Expulsion Of +Parliament--Character Of Its Leading Members--Some Of Its Enactments. + +The Commonwealth, a military government. +Opposition of Lilburne. +His trial and acquittal. +And banishment. +Plans of the royalists. +Discovered and prevented. +Execution of Love. +Transactions in Ireland. +Discontent caused by the king's declaration in Scotland. +Departure of Ormond. +Refusal to treat with the parliament. +Offer from the duke of Lorraine. +Treaty with that prince. +It is rejected. +Siege of Limerick. +Submission of the Irish. +State of Ireland. +Trials before the High Court of Justice. +Transportation of the natives. +First act of settlement. +Second act of settlement. +Transplantation. +Breach of articles. +Religious persecution. +Subjugation of Scotland. +Attempt to incorporate it with England. +Transactions with Portugal. +With Spain. +With United Provinces. +Negotiations at the Hague. +Transferred to London. +Recontre between Blake and Van Tromp. +The States deprecate a rupture. +Commencement of hostilities. +Success of De Ruyter. +Of Van Tromp over Blake. +Another battle between them. +Blake's victory. +Cromwell's ambition. +Discontent of the military. +Cromwell's intrigues. +His conference with Whitelock. +With the other leaders. +He expels the parliament. +And the council of state. +Addresses of congratulation. +Other proceedings of the late parliament. +Spiritual offences. +Reformation of law. +Forfeitures and sequestrations. +Religious intolerance. + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE PROTECTORATE. + +Cromwell Calls The Little Parliament--Dissolves It--Makes Himself +Protector--Subjugation Of The Scottish Royalists--Peace With The Dutch--New +Parliament--Its Dissolution--Insurrection In England--Breach With +Spain--Troubles In Piedmont--Treaty With France. + +Establishment of a new government. +Selection of members. +Meeting of Parliament. +Its character. +Prosecution of Lilburne. +His acquittal. +Parties in parliament. +Registration of births. +Taxes. +Reform of law. +Zeal for religion. +Anabaptist preachers. +Dissolution of parliament. +Cromwell assumes the office of protector. +Instrument of government. +He publishes ordinances. +Arrests his opponents. +Executes several royalists. +Executes Don Pantaleon Sa. +Executes a Catholic clergyman. +Conciliates the army in Ireland. +Subdues the Scottish royalists. +Incorporates Scotland. +Is courted by foreign powers. +War with the United Provinces. +Victory of the English. +The Dutch offer to negotiate. +Second victory. +Progress of the negotiation. +Articles of peace. +Secret treaty with Holland. +Negotiation with Spain. +Negotiation with France. +Negotiation respecting Dunkirk. +Cromwell comes to no decision. +The new parliament meets. +Is not favourable to his views. +Debates respecting the Instrument. +The protector's speech. +Subscription required from the members. +Cromwell falls from his carriage. +The parliament opposes his projects. +Reviews the instrument. +Is addressed by Cromwell. +And dissolved. +Conspiracy of the republicans. +Conspiracy of the royalists. +Executions. +Decimation. +Military government. +Cromwell breaks with Spain. +Secret expedition to the Mediterranean. +Another to the West Indies. +Its failure. +Troubles in Piedmont. +Insurrection of the Vaudois. +Cromwell seeks to protect them. +Sends an envoy to Turin. +Refuses to conclude the treaty with France. +The Vaudois submit and Cromwell signs the treaty. + + +CHAPTER VII. + +Poverty And Character Of Charles Stuart--War With +Spain--Parliament--Exclusion Of Members--Punishment Of Naylor--Proposal +To Make Cromwell King--His Hesitation And Refusal--New +Constitution--Sindercomb--Sexby--Alliance With France--Parliament Of +Two Houses--Opposition In The Commons--Dissolution--Reduction Of +Dunkirk--Sickness Of The Protector--His Death And Character. + +Poverty of Charles in his exile. +His court. +His amours. +His religion. +He offers himself an ally to Spain. +Account of Colonel Sexby. +Quarrel between the king and his brother. +Capture of a Spanish fleet. +Exclusion of members from parliament. +Speech of the protector. +Debate on exclusion. +Society of Friends. +Offence and punishment of Naylor. +Cromwell aspires to the title of king. +He complains of the judgment against Naylor. +Abandons the cause of the major-generals. +First mention of the intended change. +It is openly brought forward. +Opposition of the officers. +Cromwell's answer to them. +Rising of the Anabaptists. +Cromwell hesitates to accept the title. +Confers on it with the committee. +Seeks more time. +Resolves to accept the title. +Is deterred by the officers. +Refuses. +His second inauguration. +The new form of government. +Plot to assassinate him. +It is discovered. +Arrest and death of Sexby. +Blake's victory at Santa Cruz. +His death. +Alliance with France. +New parliament of two houses. +The Commons inquire into the rights of the other house. +Cromwell dissolves the parliament. +Receives addresses in consequence. +Arrival of Ormond. +Treachery of Willis. +Royal fleet destroyed. +Trials of royalists. +Execution of Slingsby and Hewet. +Battle of the Dunes. +Capitulation of Dunkirk. +Cromwell's greatness. +His poverty. +His fear of assassination. +His grief for his daughter's death. +His sickness. +His conviction of his recovery. +His danger. +His discourse. +His death. +His character. + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +Richard Cromwell Protector--Parliament Called--Dissolved--Military +Government--Long Parliament Restored--Expelled Again--Reinstated--Monk In +London--Re-Admission Of Secluded Members--Long Parliament Dissolved--The +Convention Parliament--Restoration Of Charles II. + +The two sons of Cromwell. +Richard succeeds his father. +Discontent of the army. +Funeral of Oliver. +Foreign transactions. +New parliament. +Parties in parliament. +Recognition of Richard. +And of the other house. +Charges against the late government. +The officers petition. +The parliament dissolved. +The officers recall the long parliament. +Rejection of the members formerly excluded. +Acquiescence of the different armies. +Dissension between parliament and the officers. +The officers obliged to accept new commissions. +Projects of the royalists. +Rising in Cheshire. +It is suppressed. +Renewal of the late dissension. +Expulsion of the parliament. +Government by the council of officers. +Monk's opposition. +His secrecy. +Lambert sent against him. +Parliament restored. +Its first acts. +Monk marches to York. +Monk marches to London. +Mutiny in the capital. +Monk addresses the house. +He is ordered to chastise the citizens. +He joins them. +Admits the secluded members. +Perplexity of the royalists. +Proceedings of the house. +Proceedings of the general. +Dissolution of the long parliament. +Monk's Interview with Grenville. +His message to the king. +The elections. +Rising under Lambert. +Influence of the Cavaliers in the new Parliament. +The king's letters delivered. +Declaration from Breda. +The two houses recall the King. +Charles lands at Dover. +Charles enters London. + + +NOTES + + + * * * * * + + +HISTORY OF ENGLAND. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +CHARLES I.--(_Continued._) + +Battle Of Edge Hill--Treaty At Oxford--Solemn Vow And Covenant--Battle +Of Newbury--Solemn League And Covenant Between The English And Scottish +Parliaments--Cessation Of War In Ireland-Royalist Parliament At +Oxford--Propositions Of Peace--Battle Of Marston Moor--The Army Of +Essex Capitulates In The West--Self-Denying Ordinance--Synod Of +Divines--Directory For Public Worship--Trial Of Archbishop Laud--Bill Of +Attainder--His Execution. + + +It had been suggested to the king that, at the head of an army, he might +negotiate with greater dignity and effect. From Nottingham he despatched to +London the earl of Southampton, Sir John Colepepper, and William Uvedale, +the bearers of a proposal, that commissioners should be appointed on both +sides, with full powers to treat of an accommodation.[a] The two houses, +assuming a tone of conscious superiority, replied that they could +receive no message from a prince who had raised his standard against his +parliament, and had pronounced their general a traitor.[b] Charles (and his +condescension may be taken as a[c] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1642. August 25.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1642. August 27.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1642. Sept. 4] + +proof of his wish to avoid hostilities) offered to withdraw his +proclamation, provided they on their part would rescind their votes against +his adherents.[a] They refused: it was their right and their duty to +denounce, and bring to justice, the enemies of the nation.[b] He conjured +them to think of the blood that would be shed, and to remember that it +would lie at their door; they retorted the charge; he was the aggressor, +and his would be the guilt.[c] With this answer vanished every prospect +of peace; both parties appealed to the sword; and within a few weeks the +flames of civil war were lighted up in every part of the kingdom.[1] + +Three-fourths of the nobility and superior gentry, led by feelings of +honour and gratitude, or by their attachment to the church, or by a +well-grounded suspicion of the designs of the leading patriots, had ranged +themselves under the royal banner. Charles felt assured of victory, when he +contemplated the birth, and wealth, and influence of those by whom he was +surrounded; but he might have discovered much to dissipate the illusion, +had he considered their habits, or been acquainted with their real, but +unavowed sentiments. They were for the most part men of pleasure, fitter to +grace a court than to endure the rigour of military discipline, devoid of +mental energy, and likely, by their indolence and debauchery, to offer +advantages to a prompt and vigilant enemy. Ambition would induce them to +aspire to office, and commands and honours, to form cabals against their +competitors, and to distract the attention of the monarch by their +importunity or their complaints. They contained among them many who +secretly disapproved of the war, + +[Footnote 1: Journals, v. 327, 328, 338, 341, 358. Clarendon, ii, 8, 16.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1642. Sept. 6.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1642. Sept. 11.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1642. Sept. 16.] + +conceiving that it was undertaken for the sake of episcopacy,--an +institution in the fate of which they felt no interest, and others who +had already in affection enrolled themselves among the followers of the +parliament, though shame deterred them for a time from abandoning the royal +colours.[1] + +There was another class of men on whose services the king might rely with +confidence,--the Catholics,--who, alarmed by the fierce intolerance and the +severe menaces of the parliament, saw that their own safety depended on the +ascendancy of the sovereign. But Charles hesitated to avail himself of +this resource. His adversaries had allured the zealots to their party, by +representing the king as the dupe of a popish faction, which laboured to +subvert the Protestant, and to establish on its ruins the popish worship. +It was in vain that he called on them to name the members of this invisible +faction, that he publicly asserted his attachment to the reformed faith, +and that, to prove his orthodoxy, he ordered two priests to be put to death +at Tyburn, before his departure from the capital, and two others at York, +soon after his arrival in that city.[2] The houses still persisted in the +charge; and in all their votes and remonstrances attributed the measures +adopted by the king to the advice and influence of the papists + +[Footnote 1: Thus Sir Edward Varney, the standard-bearer, told Hyde, that +he followed the king because honour obliged him; but the object of the war +was against his conscience, for he had no reverence for the bishops, whose +quarrel it was.--Clarendon's Life, 69. Lord Spencer writes to his lady, +"If there could be an expedient found to salve the punctilio of honour, I +would not continue here an hour."--Sidney Papers, ii. 667.] + +[Footnote 2: Thomas Reynolds and Bartholomew Roe, on Jan. 21; John Lockwood +and Edmund Caterick, on April 13.--Challoner, ii. 117, 200.] + +and their adherents.[1] Aware of the impression which such reports made on +the minds of the people, he at first refused to intrust with a commission, +or even to admit into the ranks, any person, who had not taken the oaths of +allegiance and supremacy; but necessity soon taught him to accept of the +services of all his subjects without distinction of religion, and he not +only granted[a] permission to the Catholics to carry arms in their own +defence, but incorporated them among his own forces.[2] + +While the higher classes repaired with their dependants to the support of +the king, the call of the parliament was cheerfully obeyed by the yeomanry +in the country, and by the merchants and tradesmen in the towns. All these +had felt the oppression of monopolies and ship-money; to the patriots they +were indebted for their freedom from such grievances; and, as to them they +looked up with gratitude for past benefits, + +[Footnote 1: In proof of the existence of such a faction, an appeal has +been made to a letter from Lord Spencer to his wife.--Sidney Papers, ii. +667. Whether the cipher 243 is correctly rendered "papists," I know not. It +is not unlikely that Lord Spencer may have been in the habit of applying +the term to the party supposed to possess the royal confidence, of which +party he was the professed adversary. But when it became at last necessary +to point out the heads of this popish faction, it appeared that, with +one exception, they were Protestants--the earls of Bristol, Cumberland, +Newcastle, Carnarvon, and Rivers, secretary Nicholas, Endymion Porter, +Edward Hyde, the duke of Richmond, and the viscounts Newark and +Falkland.--Rushworth, v. 16. May, 163. Colonel Endymion Porter was a +Catholic.--Also Baillie, i. 416, 430; ii. 75.] + +[Footnote 2: Rushworth, iv. 772; v. 49, 50, 80. Clarendon, ii. 41. On +September 23, 1642, Charles wrote from Shrewsbury, to the earl of +Newcastle: "This rebellion is growen to that height, that I must not looke +to what opinion men are, who at this tyme are willing and able to serve me. +Therefore I doe not only permit, but command you, to make use of all my +loving subjects' services, without examining ther contienses (more than +there loyalty to me) as you shall fynde most to conduce to the upholding of +my just regall power."--Ellis, iii. 291.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1642 August 10.] + +so they trusted to their wisdom for the present defence of their liberties. +Nor was this the only motive; to political must be added religious +enthusiasm. The opponents of episcopacy, under the self-given denomination +of the godly, sought to distinguish themselves by the real or affected +severity of their morals; they looked down with contempt on all others, as +men of dissolute or irreligious habits; and many among them, in the belief +that the reformed religion was in danger, deemed it a conscientious duty +to risk their lives and fortunes in the quarrel.[1] Thus were brought into +collision some of the most powerful motives which can agitate the human +breast,--loyalty, and liberty, and religion; the conflict elevated the +minds of the combatants above their ordinary level, and in many instances +produced a spirit of heroism, and self-devoted-ness, and endurance, which +demands our admiration and sympathy. Both parties soon distinguished their +adversaries by particular appellations. The royalists were denominated +Cavaliers; a word which, though applied to them at first in allusion to +their quality, soon lost its original acceptation, and was taken to be +synonymous with papist, atheist, and voluptuary; and they on their part +gave to their enemies the name of Roundheads, because they cropped their +hair short, dividing "it into so many little peaks as was something +ridiculous to behold."[2] + +Each army in its composition resembled the other. Commissions were given, +not to persons the most fit to + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 76.] + +[Footnote 2: Life of Colonel Hutchinson, p. 100. "The godly of those days, +when the colonel embraced their party, would not allow him to be +religious, because his hair was not in their cut, nor his words in their +phrase."--Ibid. The names were first given a little before the king left +Whitehall.--Clarendon, i. 339.] + +command, but to those who were most willing and able to raise men; and +the men themselves, who were generally ill paid, and who considered their +services as voluntary, often defeated the best-concerted plans, by their +refusal to march from their homes, or their repugnance to obey some +particular officer, or their disapproval of the projected expedition. To +enforce discipline was dangerous; and both the king and the parliament +found themselves compelled to entreat or connive, where they ought to +have employed authority and punishment. The command of the royal army was +intrusted to the earl of Lindsey, of the parliamentary forces to the earl +of Essex, each of whom owed the distinction to the experience which he was +supposed to have acquired in foreign service. But such experience +afforded little benefit. The passions of the combatants despised the cool +calculations of military prudence; a new system of warfare was necessarily +generated; and men of talents and ambition quickly acquired that knowledge +which was best adapted to the quality of the troops and to the nature of +the contest. + +Charles, having left Nottingham, proceeded to Shrewsbury, collecting +reinforcements, and receiving voluntary contributions on his march. +Half-way between Stafford and Wellington he halted the army, and placing +himself in the centre, solemnly declared in the presence of Almighty God +that he had no other design, that he felt no other wish, than to maintain. +the Protestant faith, to govern according to law, and to observe all +the statutes enacted in parliament. Should he fail in any one of these +particulars, he renounced all claim to assistance from man, or protection +from God; but as long as he remained faithful to his promise, he hoped for +cheerful aid from his subjects, and was confident of obtaining the blessing +of Heaven. This solemn and affecting protestation being circulated through +the kingdom, gave a new stimulus to the exertions of his friends; but it +was soon opposed by a most extraordinary declaration on the part of[a] +the parliament; that it was the real intention of the king to satisfy the +demands of the papists by altering the national religion, and the rapacity +of the Cavaliers by giving up to them the plunder of the metropolis; and +that, to prevent the accomplishment of so wicked a design, the two houses +had resolved to enter into a solemn covenant with God, to defend his truth +at the hazard of their lives, to associate with the well-affected in London +and the rest of the kingdom, and to request the aid of their Scottish +brethren, whose liberties and religion were equally at stake.[1] + +In the meantime Waller had reduced Portsmouth,[b] while Essex concentrated +his force, amounting to fifteen thousand men, in the vicinity of +Northampton. He received orders from the houses to rescue, by force[c] if +it were necessary, the persons of the king, the prince, and the duke of +York, from the hands of those desperate men by whom they were surrounded, +to offer a free pardon to all who, within ten days, should return to their +duty, and to forward to the king a petition that he would separate himself +from his evil counsellors, and rely once more on the loyalty of his +parliament. From Northampton Essex hastened to[d] Worcester to oppose the +advance of the royal army. + +At Nottingham the king could muster no more than six thousand men; he left +Shrewsbury at the head of[e] thrice that number. By a succession of skilful +manoeuvres + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon, ii. 16. Rushworth, v. 20, 21. Journals, v. +376,418.] + +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1642. Oct. 22.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1642. Sept. 9.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1642. Sept. 16.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1642. Sept. 23.] +[Sidenote f: A.D. 1642. Oct. 12.] + +he contrived to elude the vigilance of the enemy; and had advanced two +days' march on the road to the metropolis before Essex became aware of his +object. In London the news was received with terror. Little reliance could +be placed on the courage, less on the fidelity of the trained bands; and +peremptory orders were despatched to Essex, to hasten with his whole force +to the protection of the capital and the parliament. That general had seen +his error; he was following the king with expedition; and his vanguard +entered the village of Keynton on the same evening on which the royalists +halted on Edgehill, only a few miles in advance. At midnight[a] Charles +held a council of war, in which it was resolved to turn upon the pursuers, +and to offer them battle. Early in the morning the royal army was seen in +position[b] on the summit of a range of hills, which gave them a decided +superiority in case of attack; but Essex, whose artillery, with one-fourth +of his men, was several miles in the rear, satisfied with having arrested +the march of the enemy, quietly posted the different corps, as they +arrived, on a rising ground in the Vale of the Red Horse, about half a mile +in front of the village. About noon the Cavaliers grew weary of inaction; +their importunity at last prevailed; and about two the king discharged a +cannon with his own hand as the signal of battle. The royalists descended +in good order to the foot of the hill, where their hopes were raised by the +treachery of Sir Faithful Fortescue, a parliamentary officer, who, firing +his pistol into the ground, ranged himself with two troops of horse under +the royal banner. Soon afterwards Prince Rupert, who commanded the cavalry +on the right, charged twenty-two troops of parliamentary horse led by Sir +James + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1642. Oct. 22.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1642. Oct. 23.] + +Ramsay; broke them at the very onset; urged the pursuit two miles beyond +Keynton, and finding the baggage of the enemy in the village, indulged his +men for the space of an hour in the work of plunder. Had it not been for +this fatal imprudence, the royalists would probably have gained a decisive +victory. + +During his absence the main bodies of infantry were engaged under their +respective leaders, the earls of Lindsey and Essex, both of whom, +dismounting, led their men into action on foot. The cool and determined +courage of the Roundheads undeceived and disconcerted the Cavaliers. +The royal horse on the left, a weak body under lord Wilmot, had sought +protection behind a regiment of pikemen; and Sir William Balfour, the +parliamentary commander, leaving a few squadrons to keep them at bay, +wheeled round on the flank of the royal infantry, broke through two +divisions, and made himself master of a battery of cannon. In another part +of the field the king's guards, with his standard, bore down every corps +that opposed them, till Essex ordered two regiments of infantry and a +squadron of horse to charge them in front and flank, whilst Balfour, +abandoning the guns which he had taken, burst on them from the rear. They +now broke; Sir Edward Varner was slain, and the standard which he bore was +taken; the earl of Lindsey received a mortal wound; and his son, the lord +Willoughby, was made prisoner in the attempt to rescue his father[1]. +Charles, who, attended by his troop of pensioners, watched the fortune of +the field, beheld with dismay the slaughter of his guards; + +[Footnote 1: The standard was nevertheless recovered by the daring or the +address of a Captain Smith, whom the king made a banneret in the field.] + +and ordering the reserve to advance, placed himself at their head; but +at the moment Rupert and the cavalry reappeared; and, though they had +withdrawn from Keynton to avoid, the approach of Hampden with the rear of +the parliamentary army, their presence restored the hopes of the royalists +and damped the ardour of their opponents. A breathing-time succeeded; the +firing ceased on both sides, and the adverse armies stood gazing at each +other till the darkness induced them to withdraw,--the royalists to their +first position on the hills, and the parliamentarians to the village of +Keynton. From the conflicting statements of the parties, it is impossible +to estimate their respective losses. Most writers make the number of the +slain to amount to five thousand; but the clergyman of the place, who +superintended the burial of the dead, reduces it to about one thousand two +hundred men.[1] + +Both armies claimed the honour, neither reaped the benefit, of victory. +Essex, leaving the king to pursue his march, withdrew to Warwick, and +thence to Coventry; Charles, having compelled the garrison[a] of Banbury to +surrender, turned aside to the city of Oxford. Each commander wished for +leisure to + +[Footnote 1: This is the most consistent account of the battle, which I can +form out of the numerous narratives in Clarendon, May, Ludlow, Heath, &c. +Lord Wharton, to silence the alarm in London, on his arrival from the +army, assured the two houses that the loss did not exceed three hundred +men.--Journ. v. 423. The prince of Wales, about twelve years old, who was +on horseback in a field under the care of Sir John Hinton, had a narrow +escape, "One of the troopers observing you," says Hinton, "came in fall +career towards your highness. I received his charge, and, having spent a +pistol or two on each other, I dismounted him in the closing, but being +armed cap-a-pie I could do no execution on him with my sword: at which +instant one Mr. Matthews, a gentleman pensioner, rides in, and with a +pole-axe decides the business."--MS. in my possession.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1642. Oct. 27.] + +reorganize his army after the late battle. The two houses, though they +assumed the laurels of victory, felt alarm at the proximity of the +royalists, and at occasional visits from parties of cavalry. They ordered +Essex to come to their protection; they[a] wrote for assistance from +Scotland; they formed a new army under the earl of Warwick; they voted an +address to the king; they even submitted to his refusal of receiving as +one of their deputies Sir John Evelyn, whom he had previously pronounced a +traitor.[1] In the meanwhile the royal army, leaving Oxford, loitered-for +what reason is unknown-in the vicinity of Reading, and permitted Essex +to march without molestation by the more eastern road to the capital. +Kingston, Acton, and Windsor were already garrisoned[b] for the parliament; +and the only open passage to London lay through the town of Brentford. +Charles had reached Colnbrook in this direction, when he was[c] met by the +commissioners, who prevailed on him to suspend his march. The conference +lasted two days; on the second of which Essex threw a brigade,[d] +consisting of three of his best regiments, into that town. Charles felt +indignant at this proceeding. It was in his opinion a breach of faith; and +two days[e] later, after an obstinate resistance on the part of the enemy, +he gained possession of Brentford, having driven part of the garrison into +the river, and taken fifteen pieces of cannon and five hundred men. The +latter he ordered to be discharged, leaving it to their option either to +enter among his followers or to + +[Footnote 1: Journals, 431-466. On Nov. 7 the house voted the king's +refusal to receive Evelyn a refusal to treat; but on the 9th ingeniously +evaded the difficulty, by leaving it to the discretion of Evelyn, whether +he would act or not. Of course he declined.--Ibid. 437, 439.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1642. Nov. 2.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1642. Nov. 7.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1642. Nov. 10.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1642. Nov. 11.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1642. Nov. 13.] + +promise on oath never more to bear arms against him.[1] + +This action put an end to the projected treaty. The parliament reproached +the king that, while he professed the strongest repugnance to shed the +blood of Englishmen, he had surprised and murdered their adherents at +Brentford, unsuspicious as they were, and relying on the security of a +pretended negotiation. Charles indignantly retorted the charge on his +accusers. They were the real deceivers, who sought to keep him inactive +in his position, till they had surrounded him with the multitude of +their adherents. In effect his situation daily became more critical. His +opponents had summoned forces from every quarter to London, and Essex found +himself at the head of twenty-four thousand men. The two armies faced[a] +each other a whole day on Turnham Green; but neither ventured to charge, +and the king, understanding that the corps which, defended the bridge +at Kingston had been withdrawn, retreated first to Beading, and then to +Oxford. Probably he found himself too weak to cope with the superior number +of his adversaries; publicly he alleged his unwillingness to oppose by a +battle any further obstacle to a renewal of the treaty.[2] + +The whole kingdom at this period exhibited a most melancholy spectacle. +No man was suffered to remain neuter. Each county, town, and hamlet was +divided into factions, seeking the ruin. of each other. All stood upon +their guard, while the most active of either + +[Footnote 1: Each party published contradictory accounts. I have adhered to +the documents entered in the Journals, which in my opinion show that, if +there was any breach of faith in these transactions, it was on the part of +the parliament, and act of the king.] + +[Footnote 2: May, 179. Whitelock, 65, 66. Clarendon, ii. 76.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1642. Nov. 14.] + +party eagerly sought the opportunity of despoiling the lands and surprising +the persons of their adversaries. The two great armies, in defiance of the +prohibitions of their leaders, plundered wherever they came, and their +example was faithfully copied by the smaller bodies of armed men in other +districts. The intercourse between distant parts of the country was +interrupted; the operations of commerce were suspended; and every person +possessed of property was compelled to contribute after a certain rate +to the support of that cause which obtained the superiority in his +neighbourhood. In Oxford and its vicinity, in the four northern counties, +in Wales, Shropshire, and Worcestershire, the royalists triumphed without +opposition; in the metropolis, and the adjoining counties, on the southern +and eastern coast, the superiority of the parliament was equally decisive. +But in many parts the adherents of both were intermixed in such different +proportions, and their power and exertions were so variously affected by +the occurrences of each succeeding day, that it became difficult to decide +which of the two parties held the preponderance. But there were four +counties, those of York, Chester, Devon, and Cornwall, in which the leaders +had[a] already learned to abhor the evils of civil dissension. They met +on both sides, and entered into engagements to suspend their political +animosities, to aid each other in putting down the disturbers of the public +peace, and to oppose the introduction, of any armed force, without the +joint consent both of the king and the parliament. Had the other counties +followed the example, the war would have been ended almost as soon as it +began. But this was a consummation which the patriots deprecated. They +pronounced such engagements + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1642. Dec. 23.] + +derogatory from the authority of parliament; they absolved their partisans +from the obligations into which they had entered; and they commanded them +once more to unsheath the sword in the cause of their[a] God and their +country.[1] + +But it soon became evident that this pacific feeling was not confined to +the more distant counties. It spread rapidly through the whole kingdom; it +manifested itself without disguise even in the metropolis. Mea were anxious +to free themselves from the forced contribution of one-twentieth part of +their estates for the support of the parliamentary army[2] and the citizens +could not forget the alarm which had been created by the late approach +of the royal forces. Petitions for peace, though they were ungraciously +received, continued to load the tables of both houses; and, as the king +himself had proposed a cessation of hostilities, prudence taught the +most sanguine advocates for war to accede to the wishes of the people, A +negotiation was opened at Oxford. The demands of[b] the parliament amounted +to fourteen articles; those of Charles were confined to six. But two only, +the[c] first in each class, came into discussion. No argument[d] could +induce the houses to consent that the king should name to the government of +the forts and castles without their previous approbation of the persons to +be appointed; and he demurred to their proposal that both armies should +be disbanded, until he knew on what conditions he was to return to his +capital. They had limited the duration of the conference to twenty days; he +proposed a prolongation of[e] + +[Footnote 1: Journals, 535. Rushworth, v. 100. Clarendon, ii, 136, 139.] + +[Footnote 2: Journals, 463, 491, 594, Commons' Journals, Dec. 13. It was +imposed Nov. 29, 1642.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1643. Jan. 7.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1643. Jan. 30.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1643. Feb. 3.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1643. March 20.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1643. March 30.] + +the term; they refused; and he offered, as his ultimatum, that, whenever he +should be reinstated in the possession of his revenues, magazines, ships, +and[a] forts, according to law; when all the members of parliament, with +the exception of the bishops, should be restored to their seats, as they +held them on the 1st of January, 1641; and when the two houses should be +secure from the influence of tumultuary assemblies, which could only be +effected by an adjournment to some place twenty miles distant from London, +he would consent to the immediate disbanding of both armies, and would meet +his parliament in person. The Commons instantly passed a vote to recall +the[b] commissioners from Oxford; the Lords, though at first they +dissented, were compelled to signify their concurrence; and an end was put +to the treaty, and to[c] the hopes which it had inspired.[1] + +During this negotiation the houses left nothing to the discretion of their +commissioners, the earl of Northumberland, Pierrepoint, Armyn, Holland, and +Whitelock. They were permitted to propose and argue; they had no power to +concede.[2] Yet, while they acted in public according to the tenour of +their instructions, they privately gave the king to understand that he +might probably purchase the preservation, of the church by surrendering the +command of the militia,--a concession which his opponents deemed + +[Footnote 1: See the whole proceedings relative to the treaty in the king's +works, 325-397; the Journals of the Lords, v. 659-718; and Rushworth, +v. 164-261.] + +[Footnote 2: This was a most dilatory and inconvenient arrangement. Every +proposal, or demand, or suggestion front the king was sent to the +parliament, and its expediency debated. The houses generally disagreed. +Conferences were therefore held, and amendments proposed; new +discussions followed, and a week was perhaps consumed before a point of +small importance could be settled.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1643. April 12.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1643. April 14.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1643. April 17.] + +essential to their own security. At one period they indulged a strong hope +of success. At parting, Charles had promised to give them satisfaction, on +the following day; but during the night he was dissuaded from his purpose; +and his answer in the morning proved little short of an absolute denial. +Northumberland also made a secret offer of his influence to mollify the +obstinacy of the patriots; but Charles, who called that nobleman the most +ungrateful of men, received the proposal with displeasure, and to the +importunity of his advisers coldly replied, that the service must come +first and the reward might follow afterwards. Whether the parliament began +to suspect the fidelity of the commissioners, and on that account recalled +them, is unknown. Hyde maintains that the king protracted the negotiation +to give time for the arrival of the queen, without whom he would come to +no determination; but of this not a vestige appears in the private +correspondence between Charles and his consort; and a sufficient reason +for the failure of the treaty may be found in the high pretensions of each +party, neither of whom had been sufficiently humbled to purchase peace with +the sacrifice of honour or safety.[1] + +It was owing to the indefatigable exertions of Henrietta, that the king had +been enabled to meet his opponents in the field. During her residence in + +[Footnote 1: See Clarendon's Life, 76-80; Whitelock, 68; and the letters in +the king's works, 138-140. Before Henrietta left England, he had promised +her to give away no office without her consent, and not to make peace but +through her mediation. Charles, however, maintained that the first regarded +not offices of state, but offices of the royal household; and the second +seems to have been misunderstood. As far as I can judge, it only meant that +whenever he made peace, he would put her forward as mediatrix, to the end +that, since she had been calumniated as being the cause of the rupture +between him and his people, she might also have in the eyes of the public +the merit of effecting the reconciliation.--Clarendon's Life, ibid.] +[a]Holland she had repeatedly sent him supplies of arms and ammunition, +and, what he equally wanted, of veteran officers to train and discipline +his forces.[b] In February, leaving the Hague, and trusting to her good +fortune, she had eluded the vigilance of Batten, the parliamentary +admiral, and landed in safety in the port of Burlington, on the coast of +Yorkshire.[c] Batten, enraged at his disappointment, anchored on the second +night, with four ships and a pinnace, in the road, and discharged above +one hundred shot at the houses on the quay, in one of which the queen was +lodged.[d] Alarmed at the danger, she quitted her bed, and, "bare foot and +bare leg," sought shelter till daylight behind the nearest hill. No action +of the war was more bitterly condemned by the gallantry of the Cavaliers +than this unmanly attack on a defenceless female, the wife of the +sovereign. The earl of Newcastle hastened to Burlington, and escorted her +with his army to York. To have pursued her journey to Oxford would have +been to throw herself into the arms of her opponents. She remained +four months in Yorkshire, winning the hearts of the inhabitants by her +affability, and quickening their loyalty by her words and example.[1] + +During the late treaty every effort had been made to recruit the +parliamentary army; at its expiration, Hampden, who commanded a regiment, +proposed to besiege the king within the city of Oxford. But the ardour of +the patriots was constantly checked by the caution of the officers who +formed the council of war. Essex invested Reading; at the expiration of ten +days[e] + +[Footnote 1: Mercurius Belgic. Feb. 24. Michrochronicon, Feb. 24, 1642-3. +Clarendon, ii. 143. According to Rushworth, Batten fired at boats which +were landing ammunition on the quay.] + +[Sidenote a: CHAP.I.A.D. 1643] +[Sidenote b: 1643 Feb. 16.] +[Sidenote c: 1643 Feb. 22.] +[Sidenote d: 1643 Feb. 24.] +[Sidenote e: 1643 April 27.] + +it capitulated; and Hampden renewed his proposal. But the hardships of the +siege had already broken the health of the soldiers; and mortality and +desertion daily thinned their numbers, Essex found himself compelled to +remain six weeks in his new quarters at Reading. + +If the fall of that town impaired the reputation of the royalists, it added +to their strength by the arrival of the four thousand men who had formed +the garrison. But the want of ammunition condemned the king to the same +inactivity to which sickness had reduced his adversaries. Henrietta +endeavoured to supply this deficiency. In May a plentiful convoy [a] +arrived from York; and Charles, before he put his forces in motion, made +another offer of accommodation. By the Lords it was received with respect; +the Commons imprisoned the messenger; and Pym, in their name, impeached the +queen of high treason against the parliament and kingdom.[b] The charge +was met by the royalists with sneers of derision. The Lords declined the +ungracious task of sitting in judgment on the wife of their sovereign; +and the Commons themselves, but it was not till after the lapse of +eight months, yielded to their reluctances and silently dropped the +prosecution.[1] + +In the lower house no man had more distinguished himself of late, by the +boldness of his language, and his fearless advocacy of peace, than Edmund +Waller, the poet. In conversation with his intimate friends he had +frequently suggested the formation of a third party, of moderate men, who +should "stand in the gap, and unite the king and the parliament." In + +[Footnote 1: Journals, 104, 111, 118, 121, 362. Commons' Journals, May 23, +June 21, July 3, 6, 1644, Jan. 10.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1643. May 20] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1643. May 23] + +this work they calculated on the co-operation of all the Lords excepting +three, of a considerable number of the lower house, and of the most able +among the advisers of the king at Oxford; and that they might ascertain the +real opinion of the city, they agreed to portion it into districts, to +make lists of the inhabitants, and to divide them into three classes,--of +moderate men, of royalists, and of parliamentarians. The design had been +communicated to Lord Falkland, the king's secretary; but it remained +in this imperfect state, when it was revealed to Pym by the perfidy or +patriotism of a servant, who had overheard the discourse of his master.[a] +Waller, Tomkins his brother-in-law, and half-a-dozen others, were +immediately secured; and an annunciation was made to the two houses of "the +discovery of a horrid plot to seize the city, force the parliament, and +join with the royal army."[1] + +The leaders of the patriots eagerly improved this opportunity to quell that +spirit of pacification which had recently insinuated itself among their +partisans. While the public mind was agitated by rumours respecting the +bloody designs of the conspirators, while every moderate man feared that +the expression of his sentiments might be taken as an evidence of his +participation in the plot, they proposed a new oath and covenant to the +House of Commons.[b] No one dared to object; and the members unanimously +swore "never to consent to the laying down of arms, so long as the papists, +in open war against the parliament, should be protected from the justice +thereof, but according to their power and vocation, to assist the forces +raised by the parliament against the forces + +[Footnote 1: Journals, June 6.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1643. May 31] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1643. June 6] + +raised by the king." The Lords, the citizens, the army followed their +example; and an ordinance was published that every man in his parish church +should make the same vow and covenant.[1][a] As for the prisoners, instead +of being sent before a court of law, they were tried by a court-martial.[b] +Six were condemned to die: two suffered.[c] Waller saved his life by the +most abject submission. "He seemed much smitten in conscience: he desired +the help of godly ministers," and by his entreaties induced the Commons to +commute his punishment into a fine of ten thousand pounds and an order +to travel on the continent. To the question why the principal should be +spared, when his assistants suffered, it was answered by some that a +promise of life had been made to induce him to confess, by others that too +much + +[Footnote 1: Journals, May 31; June 6, 14, 21, 27, 29. Rushworth, v. +322-333. Whitelock, 67, 70, 105. The preamble began thus: "Whereas there +hath been and now is in this kingdom a popish and traitorous plot for the +subversion of the true Protestant religion, and liberty of the subject, +in pursuance whereof a popish army hath been raised and is now on foot in +divers parts of the kingdom," &c.--Journals, June 6. Lords' Journals, vi. +87. I am loath to charge the framers and supporters of this preamble with +publishing a deliberate falsehood, for the purpose of exciting odium +against the king; but I think it impossible to view their conduct in any +other light. The popish plot and popish army were fictions of their own to +madden the passions of their adherents. Charles, to refute the calumny, as +he was about to receive the sacrament from the hands of Archbishop +Ussher, suddenly rose and addressed him thus, in the hearing of the whole +congregation: "My Lord, I have to the utmost of my soul prepared to become +a worthy receiver; and may I so receive comfort by the blessed sacrament, +as I do intend the establishment of the true reformed Protestant religion, +as it stood in its beauty in the happy days of Queen Elizabeth, without +any connivance at popery. I bless God that in the midst of these publick +distractions I have still liberty to communicate; and may this sacrament +be my damnation, if my heart do not joyn with my lipps in this +protestation."--Rush. v. 346. _Connivance_ was an ambiguous and therefore +an ill-chosen word. He was probably sincere in the sense which _he_ +attached to it, but certainly forsworn in the sense in which it would be +taken by his opponents.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1643. June 27] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1643. June 30] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1643. July 5] + +blood had already been shed in expiation of an imaginary plot.[1] + +In the meanwhile Essex, after several messages from the parliament, had +removed from Reading, and fixed his head-quarters at Tame. One night Prince +Rupert, making a long circuit, surprised Chinnor in the rear of the army, +and killed or captured the greater part of two regiments that lay in the +town.[a] In his retreat to Oxford, he was compelled to turn on his pursuers +at Chalgrove; they charged with more courage than prudence, and were +repulsed with considerable loss. It was in this action that the celebrated +Hampden received the wound of which he died. The reputation which he had +earned by his resistance to the payment of the ship-money had deservedly +placed him at the head of the popular leaders. His insinuating manner, the +modesty of his pretensions, and the belief of his integrity, gave to his +opinions an irresistible weight in the lower house; and the courage and +activity which he displayed in the army led many to lament that he did not +occupy the place held by the more tardy or more cautious earl of Essex. The +royalists exulted at his death as equal to a victory; the patriots lamented +it as a loss which could not be repaired. Both were deceived. Revolutions +are the seed-plots of talents and energy. One great leader had been +withdrawn; there was no dearth of others to supply his place.[2] + +[Footnote 1: After a minute investigation, I cannot persuade myself that +Waller and his friends proceeded farther than I have mentioned. What +they might have done, had they not been interrupted, is matter of mere +conjecture. The commission of array, which their enemies sought to couple +with their design, had plainly no relation to it.] + +[Footnote 2: Rushworth, v. 265, 274. Whitelock, 69, 70. Clarendon, ii. 237, +261.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1643. June 18] + +To the Root-and-branch men the rank, no less than the inactivity of Essex, +afforded a legitimate ground of suspicion. In proportion as he sank in +their esteem, they were careful to extol the merits and flatter the +ambition of Sir William Waller. Waller had formerly enjoyed a lucrative +office under the crown, but he had been fined in the Star-chamber, and his +wife was a "godly woman;" _her_ zeal and his own resentment made him a +patriot; he raised a troop of horse for the service, and was quickly +advanced to a command. The rapidity of his movements, his daring spirit, +and his contempt of military rules, were advantageously contrasted with +the slow and cautious experience of Essex; and his success at Portsmouth, +Winchester, Chichester, Malmesbury, and Hereford, all of which he reduced +in a short time, entitled him, in the estimation of his admirers, to the +quaint appellation of William the Conqueror. While the forces under Essex +were suffered to languish in a state of destitution,[1] an army of eight +thousand men, well clothed and appointed, was prepared for Waller. But the +event proved that his abilities had been overrated. In the course of a week +he fought two battles, one near Bath, with Prince Maurice,[a] the other +with Lord Wilmot, near Devizes[b]: the first was obstinate but indecisive, +the second bloody and disastrous. Waller hastened from the field to the +capital, attributing the loss of his army, not to his own errors, but +to the jealousy of Essex. His patrons did not abandon their favourite. +Emulating the example of the Romans, + +[Footnote 1: His army was reduced to "four thousand or five thousand +men, and these much malcontented that their general and they should be +misprised, and Waller immediately prized."--Baillie, i. 391. He had three +thousand marching men, and three hundred sick.--Journals, vi. 160.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1643. July 5] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1643. July 13] + +they met the unfortunate general in triumphal procession, and the speaker +of the Commons officially returned him thanks for his services to his +country.[1][a] + +This tone of defiance did not impose on the advocates of peace. Waller's +force was annihilated; the grand army, lately removed to Kingston, had been +so reduced by want and neglect, that Essex refused to give to it the name +of an army; the queen had marched without opposition from Yorkshire to +Oxford, bringing to her husband, who met her on Edge-hill, a powerful +reinforcement of men, artillery, and stores[b]; and Prince Rupert, in the +course of three days, had won the city and castle of Bristol, through the +cowardice or incapacity of Nathaniel Fiennes, the governor.[2][c] The cause +of the parliament seemed to totter on the brink of ruin; and the Lords, +profiting of this moment of alarm, sent to the Commons six resolutions to +form the basis of a new treaty. They were favourably received; and after a +debate, which lasted till ten at night, it was resolved by a majority of +twenty-nine to take them into consideration.[3][d] + +But the pacific party had to contend with men of + +[Footnote 1: Rushworth, v. 284, 285. Clarendon, ii. 278, 290. Journals, +July 27. May, 201--205. His first successes were attributed to Colonel +Hurry, a Scotsman, though Waller held the nominal command--Baillie, i. 351. +But Hurry, in discontent, passed over to the king, and was the planner of +the expedition which led to the death of Hampden.--Clarendon, ii. 264. +Baillie, i. 371.] + +[Footnote 2: Fiennes, to clear himself from the imputation of cowardice, +demanded a court-martial, and Prynne and Walker, who had accused him in +their publications, became the prosecutors. He was found guilty, and +condemned to lose his head, but obtained a pardon from Essex, the +commander-in-chief.--Howell, State Trials, iv. 186-293.] + +[Footnote 3: Clarendon Papers, ii. 149. The Lords had in the last month +declared their readiness to treat; but the proceedings had been suspended +in consequence of a royal declaration that the houses were not free, nor +their votes to be considered as the votes of parliament.--Journals, vi. 97, +103, 108.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1643. July 27] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1643. July 13] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1643. July 27] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1643. August 5] + +the most determined energy, whom no dangers could appal, no difficulties +subdue. The next day was Sunday, and it was spent by them in arranging a +new plan of opposition.[a] The preachers from their pulpits described peace +as the infallible ruin of the city; the common council voted a petition, +urging, in the most forcible terms, the continuation of the war; and +placards were affixed in the streets, calling on the inhabitants to rise +as one man, and prevent the triumph of the malignants.[b] The next morning +Alderman Atkins carried the petition to Westminster, accompanied by +thousands calling out for war, and utterings threats of vengeance against +the traitors. Their cries resounded through both the houses. The Lords +resolved to abstain from all public business till tranquillity was +restored, but the Commons thanked the petitioners for their attachment to +the cause of the country. The consideration of the resolutions was then +resumed; terror had driven the more pusillanimous from the house; and on +the second division the war party obtained a majority of seven.[1] + +Their opponents, however, might yet have triumphed, had they, as was +originally suggested, repaired to the army, and claimed the protection of +the earl of Essex. But the lord Saye and Mr. Pym hastened to that nobleman +and appeased his discontent with + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon, ii. 320. Journals, Aug. 5, 7, Lords', vi, 171, 172. +Baillie, i. 390. On the Saturday, the numbers were 94 and 65; on the Monday +81 and 79; but the report of the tellers was disputed, and on the second +division it gave 81 and 89. Two days later, between two thousand and three +thousand women (the men dared mot appear) presented a petition for peace, +and received a civil answer; but as they did not depart, and some of them +used menacing language, they were charged and dispersed by the military, +with the loss of several lives.--Journals, June 9. Clarendon, iii. 321 +Baillie. i. 390.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1643. August 6] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1643. August 7] + +excuses and promises. They offered to punish those who had libelled his +character; they professed an unbounded reliance on his honour; they +assured him that money, clothing, and recruits were already prepared to +re-establish his army. Essex was won; and he informed his friends, that he +could not conscientiously act against the parliament from which he held his +commission. Seven of the lords, almost half of the upper house, immediately +retired from Westminster.[1] + +The victorious party proceeded with new vigour in their military +preparations. Measures were taken to recruit to its full complement the +grand army under Essex; and an ordinance was passed to raise a separate +force of ten thousand horse for the protection of the metropolis. +Kimbolton, who on the death of his father had succeeded to the title of +earl of Manchester, received a commission to levy an army in the associated +counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridge, Ely, and Hertford.[2] +Committees were appointed to raise men and money in numerous other +districts, and were invested with almost unlimited powers; for the exercise +of which in the service of the parliament, + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon, 323-333. Northumberland repaired to his house at +Petworth; the earls of Bedford, Holland, Portland, and Clare, and the +lords Lovelace and Conway, to the king at Oxford. They were ungraciously +received, and most of them returned to the parliament.] + +[Footnote 2: The first association was made in the northern counties by the +earl of Newcastle in favour of the king, and was afterwards imitated by +the counties of Devon and Cornwall. The patriots saw the advantage to be +derived from such unions, and formed several among their partisans. The +members bound themselves to preserve the peace of the associated counties; +if they were royalists, "against the malevolent and ambitious persons who, +in the name of the two houses, had embroiled the kingdom in a civil war;" +if they were parliamentarians, "against the papists and other ill-affected +persons who surrounded the king." In each, regulations were adopted, fixing +the number of men to be levied, armed, and trained, and the money which for +that purpose was to be raised in each township.--Rushworth, v. 66, 94-97, +119, 381.] + +they were made responsible to no one but the parliament itself. Sir Henry +Vane, with three colleagues from the lower house, hastened to Scotland to +solicit the aid of a Scottish army; and, that London might be secure from +insult, a line of military communication was ordered to be drawn round the +city. Every morning thousands of the inhabitants, without distinction of +rank, were summoned to the task in rotation; with drums beating and colours +flying they proceeded to the appointed place, and their wives and daughters +attended to aid and encourage them during the term of their labour.[a] In a +few days this great work, extending twelve miles in circuit, was completed, +and the defence of the line, with the command of ten thousand men, was +intrusted to Sir William Waller. Essex, at the repeated request of the +parliament, reluctantly signed the commission, but still refused to insert +in it the name of his rival. The blank was filled up by order of the House +of Commons.[1] + +Here, however, it is time to call the attention of the reader to the +opening career of that extraordinary man, who, in the course of the next +ten years, raised himself from the ignoble pursuits of a grazier to the +high dignity of lord protector of the three kingdoms. Oliver Cromwell +was sprung from a younger branch of the Cromwells, a family of note and +antiquity in Huntingdonshire, and widely spread through that county and the +whole of the Fenn district. In the more early part of his life he fell into +a state of profound and prolonged melancholy; and it is plain from the +few and disjointed documents which have come down to us, that his mental +faculties were + +[Footnote 1: May, 214. Journals, July 18, 19, 27; Aug. 3, 7, 9, 15, 26. +Lords', vi. 149, 158, 175, 184.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1643. August.] + +impaired, that he tormented himself with groundless apprehensions of +impending death, on which account he was accustomed to require the +attendance of his physician at the hour of midnight, and that his +imagination conjured up strange fancies about the cross in the market-place +at Huntingdon,[1] hallucinations which seem to have originated in the +intensity of his religious feelings, for we are assured that "he had spent +the days of his manhood in a dissolute course of life in good fellowship +and gaming;"[2] or, as he expresses it himself, he had been "a chief, the +chief of sinners, and a hater of godliness." However, it pleased "God the +light to enlighten the darkness" of his spirit, and to convince him of +the error and the wickedness of his ways; and from the terrors which +such conviction engendered, seems to have originated that aberration of +intellect, of which he was the victim during great part of two years. +On his recovery he had passed from one extreme to the other, from the +misgivings of despair to the joyful assurance of salvation. He now felt +that he was accepted by God, a vessel of election to work the work of God, +and bound through gratitude "to put himself forth in the cause of the +Lord."[3] This flattering belief, the + +[Footnote 1: Warwick's Memoirs, 249. Warwick had his information from Dr. +Simcott, Cromwell's physician, who pronounced him _splenetic_. Sir Theodore +Mayerne was also consulted, who, in his manuscript journal for 1628, +describes his patient as _valde melancholicus_.--Eliis, Orig. Letters, 2nd +series, iii. 248.] + +[Footnote 2: Warwick, 249.] + +[Footnote 3: In 1638 he thus writes of himself to a female saint, one of +his cousins: "I find that God giveth springs in a dry barren wilderness, +where no water is. I live, you know where, in Meshec, which they say +signifies prolonging,--in Kedar, which signifies blackness. Yet the Lord +forsaketh me not, though he do prolong. Yet he will, I trust, bring me to +his tabernacle, his resting place." If the reader wish to understand this +Cromwellian effusion, let him consult the Psalm cxix. in the Vulgate., or +cxx. in the English translation. He says to the same correspondent, "You +know what my manner of life hath been. Oh! I lived in and loved darkness, +and hated light. I was a chief, the chief of sinners. This is true. I +hated godliness. Yet God had mercy on me. Oh, the riches of his +mercy!"--Cromwell's Letters and Speeches by Carlyle, i. 121. Warwick bears +testimony to the sincerity of his conversion; "for he declared he was ready +to make restitution to any man who would accuse him, or whom he could +accuse himself to, to have wronged."--Warwick, 249.] + +fruit of his malady at Huntingdon, or of his recovery from it, accompanied +him to the close of his career: it gave in his eyes the sanction of Heaven +to the more questionable events in his life, and enabled him to persevere +in habits of the most fervent devotion, even when he was plainly following +the unholy suggestions of cruelty, and duplicity, and ambition. + +It was probably to withdraw him from scenes likely to cause the +prolongation or recurrence of his malady, that he was advised to direct +his attention to the pursuits of agriculture. He disposed by sale of his +patrimonial property in Huntingdon, and took a large grazing farm in the +neighbourhood of the little town of St. Ives.[a] This was an obscure, but +tranquil and soothing occupation, which he did not quit till five years +later, when he migrated to Ely, on the death of his maternal uncle, who had +left to him by will the lucrative situation of farmer of the tithes and of +churchlands belonging to the cathedral of that city. Those stirring +events followed, which led to the first civil war; Cromwell's enthusiasm +rekindled, the time was come "to put himself forth in the cause of the +Lord," and that cause he identified in his own mind with the cause of the +country party in opposition to the sovereign and the church. The energy +with which he entered into the controversies of the time attracted public +notice, and the burgesses of Cambridge chose him for their representative +in both the parliaments called by the king in 1640. He carried with him to +the house the simplicity of dress, and the awkwardness of manner, which +bespoke the country farmer; occasionally he rose to speak, and then, though +his voice was harsh, his utterance confused, and his matter unpremeditated, +yet he seldom failed to command respect and attention by the originality +and boldness of his views, the fervour with which he maintained them, and +the well-known energy and inflexibility of his character.[1] It was not, +however, before the year 1642 that he took his place among the leaders of +the party. Having been appointed one of the committees for the county +of Cambridge and the isle of Ely, he hastened down to Cambridge, took +possession of the magazine, distributed the arms among the burgesses, and +prevented the colleges from sending their plate to the king at Oxford.[a] +From the town he transferred his services to the district committed to his +charge. No individual of suspicious or dangerous principles, no secret plan +or association of the royalists, could elude his vigilance and activity. At +the head of a military force he was everywhere present, making inquiries, +inflicting punishments, levying weekly the weekly assessments, impressing +men, horses, and stores, and exercising with relentless severity all those +repressive and vindictive powers with which the recent ordinances had armed +the committees. His exertions were duly appreciated. When the parliament +selected officers to command the seventy-five troops of horse, of sixty men +each, in the new army under the earl of Essex,[b] farmer Cromwell received +the + +[Footnote 1: Warwick, 247] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1642. August. 15.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1642. Sept. 14.] + +commission of captain; within six months afterwards, he was raised to the +higher rank of colonel, with permission to levy for himself a regiment of +one thousand horse out of the trained bands in the Eastern association.[a] +To the sentiment of honour, which animated the Cavaliers in the field, he +resolved to oppose the energy which is inspired by religious enthusiasm. +Into the ranks of his _Ironsides_--their usual designation--he admitted no +one who was not a freeholder, or the son of a freeholder, and at the same +time a man fearing God, a known professor of godliness, and one who would +make it his duty and his pride to execute justice on the enemies of +God.[1] Nor was he disappointed. The soldiers of the Lord of Hosts proved +themselves a match for the soldiers of the earthly monarch. At their head +the colonel, by his activity and daring, added new laurels to those which +he had previously won; and parliament, as a proof of confidence, appointed +him military governor of a very important post, the isle of Ely.[b] Lord +Grey of Werke held at that time the command of the army in the Eastern +association; but Grey was superseded by the earl of Manchester, and Colonel +Cromwell speedily received the commission of lieutenant-general under that +commander.[2][c] + +But to return to the general narrative, which has been interrupted to +introduce Cromwell to the reader, + +[Footnote 1: Cromwell tells us of one of them, Walton, the son of Colonel +Walton, that in life he was a precious young man fit for God, and at his +death, which was caused by a wound received in battle, became a glorious +saint in heaven. To die in such a cause was to the saint a "comfort great +above his pain. Yet one thing hung upon his spirit. I asked him what +that was. He told me, that God had not suffered him to be any more the +executioner of His enemies."--Ellis, first series, iii. 299.] + +[Footnote 2: See Cromwelliana, 1--7; May, 206, reprint of 1812; Lords' +Journ. iv. 149; Commons', iii. 186.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1643. March 2.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1643. July 28.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1643. August 8.] + +London was preserved from danger, not by the new lines of circumvallation, +or the prowess of Waller, but through the insubordination which prevailed +among the royalists. The earl, now marquess, of Newcastle, who had +associated the northern counties in favour of the king, had defeated the +lord Fairfax, the parliamentary general, at Atherton Moor, in Yorkshire, +and retaken Gainsborough, in Lincolnshire, from the army under Cromwell. +Here, however, his followers refused to accompany him any further. It was +in vain that he called upon them to join the grand army in the south, and +put an end at once to the war by the reduction of the capital. They had +been embodied for the defence of the northern counties, and could not +be induced to extend the limits of that service for which they had been +originally enrolled. Hence the king, deprived of one half of his expected +force, was compelled to adopt a new plan of operations. Turning his back on +London, he hastened towards the Severn, and invested Gloucester, the only +place of note in the midland counties which admitted the authority of +the parliament.[a] That city was defended by Colonel Massey, a brave and +determined officer, with an obstinacy equal to its importance; and Essex, +at the head of twelve thousand men, undertook to raise the siege. The +design was believed impracticable; but all the attempts of the royalists +to impede his progress were defeated;[b] and on the twenty-sixth day the +discharge of four pieces of cannon from Presbury Hills announced his +arrival to the inhabitants.[c] The besiegers burnt their huts and +retired;[d] and Essex, having spent a few days to recruit his men and +provision the place, resumed his march in the direction of London.[e] On +his approach to Newbury, + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1643. August 10.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1643. August 26.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1643. Sept. 5.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1643. Sept. 6.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1643. Sept. 19.] + +he found the royal army in possession of the road before him. I shall not +attempt to describe a conflict which has been rendered unintelligible by +the confused and discordant narratives of different writers. The king's +cavalry appears to have been more than a match for that of the enemy; +but it could make no impression on the forest of pikes presented by the +infantry, the greater part of which consisted of the trained bands from the +capital. The battle raged till late in the evening, and both armies passed +the night in the field, but in the morning the king allowed Essex to march +through Newbury; and having ordered Prince Rupert to annoy the rear, +retired with his infantry to Oxford. The parliamentarians claimed, and +seem to have been justified in claiming, the victory; but their commander, +having made his triumphal entry into the capital, solicited permission to +resign his command and travel on the continent. To those who sought to +dissuade him, he objected the distrust with which he had been treated, and +the insult which had been offered to him by the authority intrusted to +Waller. Several expedients were suggested; but the lord general was aware +of his advantage; his jealousy could not be removed by adulation or +submission; and Waller, after a long struggle, was compelled to resign the +command of the army intrusted with the defence of the capital.[1][a] + +As soon as the parliament had recovered from the alarm occasioned by the +loss of Bristol, it had found leisure to devote a part of its attention to +the civil government of the kingdom. I. Serious inconveniences + +[Footnote 1: Rushworth, v. 286, 290, 293. May, 220-228. Clarendon, iii, +347. Journals, Sept. 26, 28; Oct. 7, 9. Lords', vi. 218, 242, 246, 247, +347, 356.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1643. Oct. 9.] + +had been experienced from the absence of the great seal, the application +of which was held by the lawyers necessary to give validity to several +descriptions of writs. Of this benefit the two houses and their adherents +were deprived, while the king on his part was able to issue patents and +commissions in the accustomed form. To remedy the evil, the Commons had +voted a new seal;[a] the Lords demurred; but at last their consent was +extorted:[b] commissioners were appointed to execute the office of lord +keeper, and no fewer than five hundred writs were sealed in one day. 2. The +public administration of justice had been suspended for twelve months. The +king constantly adjourned the terms from Westminster to Oxford, and the two +houses as constantly forbade the judges to go their circuits during the +vacations. Now, however, under the authority of the new seal, the courts +were opened. The commissioners sat in Chancery, and three judges, all that +remained with the parliament, Bacon, Reeve, and Trevor, in those of the +King's Bench, the Common Pleas, and the Exchequer. 3. The prosecution of +the judges on account of their opinions in the case of the ship-money +was resumed. Of those who had been impeached, two remained, Berkeley and +Trevor. The first was fined in twenty, the second in six, thousand pounds. +Berkeley obtained the remission of a moiety of the fine, and both were +released from the imprisonment to which they were adjudged.[1] + +Ever since the beginning of the troubles, a thorough understanding had +existed between the chief of the Scottish Covenanters, and the principal of +the English + +[Footnote 1: Lords' Journals, vi. 214, 252, 264, 301, 318. Commons' +Journals, May 15; July 5; Sept. 28. Rushworth, v. 144, 145, 339, 342, 361.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1643. July 15.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1643. Oct. 11.] + +reformers. Their views were similar; their object the same. The Scots had, +indeed, fought and won; but they held the fruit of their victory by a +doubtful tenure, as long as the fate of their "English brethren" depended +on the uncertain chances of war. Both policy and religion prompted them to +interfere. The triumph of the parliament would secure their own liberties; +it might serve to propagate the pure worship of their kirk. This had been +foreseen by the Scottish royalists, and Montrose, who by the act against +the plotters was debarred from all access to the king, took advantage of +the queen's debarkation at Burlington to visit her at York. He pointed out +to her the probability of the Scottish Covenanters sending their army to +the aid of the parliament, and offered to prevent the danger by levying in +Scotland an army of ten thousand royalists. But he was opposed by his enemy +the marquess of Hamilton, who deprecated the arming of Scot against Scot, +and engaged on his own responsibility to preserve the peace between the +Scottish people and their sovereign. His advice, prevailed; the royalists +in Scotland were ordered to follow him as their leader; and, to keep him +true to the royal interest, the higher title of duke was conferred upon +him.[1] + +If Hamilton was sincere, he had formed a false notion of his own +importance. The Scottish leaders, acting as if they were independent of the +sovereign, summoned a convention of estates. The estates met[a] in defiance +of the king's prohibition; but, to their surprise and mortification, no +commissioner had arrived from the English parliament. National jealousy, +the known intolerance of the Scottish kirk, the exorbitant + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon, iv. 624. Guthrie, 127.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1643. June 22.] + +claims set up by the Scottish leaders in the late invasion, contributed to +deter many from accepting their new offers of assistance;[1] and more than +two months were suffered to elapse before the commissioners, Vane, Armyn, +Hatcher, and Darley, with Marshall, a Presbyterian, and Nye, an Independent +divine, were despatched[a] with full powers to Scotland.[2] Both the +convention of the estates and the assembly of the kirk had long waited to +receive them; their arrival[b] was celebrated as a day of national triumph; +and the letters which they delivered from the English parliament were read +with shouts of exultation and tears of joy.[3] + +In the very outset of the negotiation two important difficulties occurred. +The Scots professed a willingness to take up arms, but sought at the same +time to assume the character of mediators and umpires, to dictate the terms +of reconciliation, and to place themselves in a condition to extort the +consent of the opposite parties. From these lofty pretensions they were +induced to descend by the obstinacy of Vane and the persuasions of Johnston +of Wariston, one of their subtlest statesmen; they submitted to act as the +allies of the parliament; but required as an indispensable + +[Footnote 1: "The jealousy the English have of our nation, beyond all +reason, is not well taken. If Mr. Meldrum bring no satisfaction to +us quickly as to conformity of church government, it will be a great +impediment in their affairs here."--Baillie, July 26, i. 372. See also +Dalrymple, ii. 144.] + +[Footnote 2: The Scots did not approve of this mission of the Independent +ministers. "Mr. Marshall will be most welcome; but if Mr. Nye, the head of +the Independents, be his fellow, we cannot take it well."--Baillie, i. 372. +They both preached before the Assembly. "We heard Mr. Marshall with great +contentment. Mr. Nye did not please. He touched neither in prayer or +preaching the common business. All his sermon was on the common head of +spiritual life, wherein he ran out above all our understandings."--Id. +388.] + +[Footnote 3: Baillie, i. 379, 380. Rushworth, v. 467, 470.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1643. July 20.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1643. August 27.] + +preliminary, the sanction of the kirk. It was useless to reply that this +was a civil, and not a religious treaty. The Scots rejoined, that the two +houses had always announced the reformation of religion as the chief of +their objects; that they had repeatedly expressed their wish of "a nearer +union of both churches;" and that, in their last letters to the Assembly, +they had requested the members to aid them with their prayers and +influence, to consult with their commissioners, and to send some Scottish +ministers to join the English divines assembled at Westminster.[1] Under +these circumstances, Vane and his colleagues could not refuse to admit a +deputation from the Assembly, with Henderson the moderator at its head. He +submitted to their consideration the form of a "solemn league and covenant" +which should bind the two nations to prosecute the public incendiaries, to +preserve the king's life and authority in defence of the true religion +and the liberties of both kingdoms, to extirpate popery, prelacy, heresy, +schism, and profaneness, and to establish a conformity of doctrine, +discipline, and church government throughout the island. This last clause +alarmed the commissioners. They knew that, though the majority of the +parliamentarians inclined to the Presbyterian tenets, there existed among +them a numerous and most active party (and of these Vane himself was among +the most distinguished) who deemed all ecclesiastical authority an invasion +of the rights of conscience; and they saw that, to introduce an obligation +so repugnant to the principles of the latter, would be to provoke an open +rupture, and to marshal the two sects in hostile array against each other. +But the zeal of the + +[Footnote 1: Journals, vi. 140.] + +Scottish theologians was inexorable; they refused to admit any opening to +the toleration of the Independents; and it was with difficulty that they +were at last persuaded to intrust the working of the article to two +or three individuals of known and approved orthodoxy. By these it was +presented in a new and less objectionable form, clothed in such happy +ambiguity of language, as to suit the principles and views of all parties. +It provided that the kirk should be preserved in its existing purity, and +the church of England "be reformed according to the word of God" (which the +Independents would interpret in their own sense), and "after the example +of the best reformed churches," among which the Scots could not doubt that +theirs was entitled to the first place. In this shape, Henderson, with an +appropriate preface, laid[a] the league and covenant before the Assembly; +several speakers, admitted into the secret, commended it in terms of the +highest praise, and it was immediately approved, without one dissentient +voice.[1] + +As soon as the covenant, in its amended shape, had received the sanction of +the estates, the most eloquent pens were employed to quicken the flame of +enthusiasm. The people were informed,[b] in the cant language of the time, +1. that the controversy in England was between the Lord Jesus, and the +antichrist with his followers; the call was clear; the curse of Meroz would +light on all who would not come to help the Lord against the mighty: 2. +that both kirks and kingdoms were in imminent danger; they sailed in one +bottom, dwelt in one house, and were members of one body; if either were +ruinated, the other could not subsist; Judah could not long continue in +liberty, if + +[Footnote 1: Baillie, i. 381. Clarendon, iii. 368-384.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1643. August 17.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1643. August 24.] + +Israel were led away captive: and 3. that they had now a fair opportunity +of advancing uniformity in discipline and worship; the English had already +laid the foundation of a good building by casting out that great idol, +prelacy; and it remained for the Scots to rear the edifice and in God's +good time to put on the cap-stone. The clergy called on their hearers "to +turn to God by fasting and prayer;" a proclamation was issued summoning all +the lieges between the ages of sixteen and sixty to appear in arms; and the +chief command of the forces was, at the request of the parliament, accepted +by Leslie, the veteran general of the Covenanters in the last war. He had, +indeed, made a solemn promise to the king, when he was created earl of +Leven, never more to bear arms against him; but he now recollected that it +was with the reservation, if not expressed, at least understood, of all +cases in which liberty or religion might be at stake.[1] + +In England the covenant, with some amendments was approved by the two +houses, and ordered to be taken and subscribed by all persons in office, +and generally by the whole nation. The Commons set[a] the example; the +Lords, with an affectation of dignity which exposed them to some sarcastic +remarks, waited till it had previously been taken by the Scots. At the same +time a league of "brotherly assistance" was negotiated, stipulating that +the estates should aid the parliament with an army of twenty-one thousand +men; that they should place a Scottish garrison in Berwick, and dismantle +the town at the conclusion of the war;[b] + +[Footnote 1: Rushworth, v. 472, 482, 492. Journals, 139, 312. Baillie, +i. 390, 391. "The chief aim of it was for the propagation of our church +discipline in England and Ireland."--Id. 3.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1643. Sept. 25.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1643. Nov. 29.] + +and that their forces should be paid by England at the rate of thirty-one +thousand pounds per month, should receive for their outfit an advance +of one hundred thousand pounds, besides a reasonable recompense at the +establishment of peace, and should have assigned to them as security the +estates of the papists, prelates, and malignants in Nottinghamshire and the +five northern counties. On the arrival of sixty thousand pounds the levies +began; in a few weeks they were completed; and before the end of the +year Leslie mustered his forces at Hairlaw, the appointed place of +rendezvous.[1] + +This formidable league, this union, cemented by interest and fanaticism, +struck alarm into the breasts of the royalists. They had found it difficult +to maintain their ground against the parliament alone; they felt unequal to +the contest with a new and powerful enemy. But Charles stood undismayed; of +a sanguine disposition, and confident in the justice of his cause, he saw +no reason to despond; and, as he had long anticipated, so had he prepared +to meet, this additional evil. With this view he had laboured to secure +the obedience of the English army in Ireland against the adherents and +emissaries of the parliament. Suspecting the fidelity of Leicester, the +lord lieutenant, he contrived to detain him in England; gave to the +commander-in-chief, the earl of Ormond, who was raised to the higher rank +of marquess, full authority to + +[Footnote 1: Journals, Sept. 14, 21, 25; Oct. 3; Dec. 8. Lords' Journals, +vi. 220-224, 243, 281, 289, 364. The amendments were the insertion of +"the church of Ireland" after that of England, an explanation of the +word prelacy, and the addition of a marginal note, stating, that by the +expression "according to the word of God," was meant "so far as we do +or shall in our consciences conceive the same according to the word of +God."--Journals, Sept. 1, 2.] + +dispose of commissions in the army; and appointed Sir Henry Tichborne lord +justice in the place of Parsons. The commissioners sent by the two houses +were compelled[a] to leave the island; and four of the counsellors, the +most hostile to his designs, were imprisoned[b] under a charge of high +treason.[1] + +So many reinforcements had successively been poured into Ireland, both from +Scotland and England, that the army which opposed the insurgents was at +length raised to fifty thousand men;[2] but of these the Scots seemed to +attend to their private interests more than the advancement of the common +cause; and the English were gradually reduced in number by want, and +desertion, and the casualties of war. They won, indeed, several battles; +they burnt and demolished many villages and towns; but the evil of +devastation recoiled upon themselves, and they began to feel the horrors of +famine in the midst of the desert which they had made. Their applications +for relief were neglected by the parliament, which had converted to its own +use a great part of the money raised for the service of Ireland, and felt +little inclination to support an army attached to the royal cause. The +officers remonstrated in free though respectful language, and the failure +of their hopes embittered their discontent, and attached them more closely +to the sovereign.[3] + +In the meanwhile, the Catholics, by the establishment of a federative +government, had consolidated their power, and given an uniform direction to +their efforts. It was the care of their leaders to copy the example given +by the Scots during the successful war + +[Footnote 1: Carte's Ormond, i. 421, 441; iii. 76, 125, 135.] + +[Footnote 2: Journals, v. 226.] + +[Footnote 3: Clarendon, iii. 415-418, 424. Carte's Ormond, iii. 155, 162, +164.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1643. April 3.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1643. August 1.] + +of the Covenant. Like them they professed a sincere attachment to the +person, a profound respect for the legitimate authority of the monarch; but +like them they claimed the right of resisting oppression, and of employing +force in defence of their religion and liberties. At their request, and in +imitation of the general assembly of the Scottish kirk, a synod of Catholic +prelates and divines was convened at Kilkenny; a statement[a] of the +grievances which led the insurgents to take up arms was placed before them; +and they decided that the grounds were sufficient, and the war was lawful, +provided it were not conducted through motives of personal interest or +hatred, nor disgraced by acts of unnecessary cruelty. An oath and covenant +was ordered to be taken, binding the subscribers to protect, at the risk of +their lives and fortunes, the freedom of the Catholic worship, the person, +heirs, and rights of the sovereign, and the lawful immunities and liberties +of the kingdom of Ireland, against all usurpers and invaders whomsoever; +and excommunication was pronounced against all Catholics who should abandon +the covenant or assist their enemies, against all who should forcibly +detain in their possession the goods of English or Irish Catholics, or of +Irish Protestants not adversaries to the cause, and against all who should +take advantage of the war, to murder, wound, rob, or despoil others. By +common consent a supreme council of twenty-four members was chosen, with +Lord Mountgarret as president; and a day was appointed for a national +assembly, which, without the name, should assume the form and exercise the +rights of a parliament.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Rushworth, v. 516. Vindiciae Cath. Hib. 4-7. This work has +often been attributed to Sir Rich. Belling, but Walsh (Pref. to Hist. of +Remonstrance, 45) says that the real author was Dr. Callaghan, presented by +the supreme council to the see of Waterford.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1642. May 10.] + + +This assembly gave stability to the plan of government devised by the +leaders. The authority of the statute law was acknowledged, and for its +administration a council was established[a] in each county. From the +judgment of this tribunal there lay an appeal to the council of the +province, which in its turn acknowledged the superior jurisdiction of "the +supreme council of the confederated Catholics in Ireland." For the conduct +of the war four generals were appointed, one to lead the forces of each +province, Owen O'Neil in Ulster, Preston in Leinster, Barry Garret in +Munster, and John Burke in Connaught, all of them officers of experience +and merit, who had relinquished their commands in the armies of foreign +princes, to offer their services to their countrymen. Aware that these +regulations amounted to an assumption of the sovereign authority, they +were careful to convey to the king new assurances of their devotion to his +person, and to state to him reasons in justification of their conduct. +Their former messengers, though Protestants of rank and acknowledged +loyalty, had been arrested, imprisoned, and, in one instance at least, +tortured by order of their enemies. They now adopted a more secure channel +of communication, and transmitted their petitions through the hands of the +commander-in-chief. In these the supreme council detailed a long list of +grievances which they prayed might be redressed. They repelled with warmth +the imputation of disloyalty or rebellion. If they had taken up arms, they +had been compelled by a succession of injuries beyond human endurance, of +injuries in their religion, in their + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1642. Oct. 1.] + +honour and estates, and in the liberties of their country. _Their_ enemies +were the enemies of the king. + +The men who had sworn to extirpate them from their native soil were the +same who sought to deprive _him_ of his crown. They therefore conjured him +to summon a new parliament in Ireland, to allow them the free exercise of +that religion which they had inherited from their fathers, and to confirm +to Irishmen their national rights, as he had already done to his subjects +of England and Scotland.[1] + +The very first of these petitions, praying for a cessation of arms, had +suggested a new line of policy to the king.[2] He privately informed the +marquess of Ormond of his wish to bring over a portion of his Irish army +that it might be employed in his service in England; required him for that +purpose to conclude[a] an armistice with the insurgents, and sent to him +instructions for the regulation of his conduct. This despatch was secret; +it was followed by a public warrant; and that was succeeded by a peremptory +command. But much occurred to retard the object, and irritate the +impatience of the monarch. Ormond, for his own security, and the service of +his sovereign, deemed it politic to assume a tone of superiority, and to +reject most of the demands of the confederates, who, he saw, were already +divided into parties, and influenced by opposite counsels. The ancient +Irish and the clergy, whose efforts were directed by Scaramp, a papal +envoy, warmly opposed the project. Their enemies, they observed, had been +reduced to extreme distress; their victorious army under Preston made daily +inroads to the very gates of the capital. Why should they descend from the +vantage-ground which they had + +[Footnote 1: Carte, iii. 110, 111, 136.] + +[Footnote 2: Carte, iii. 90.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1643. April 23.] + +gained? why, without a motive, resign the prize when it was brought within +their reach? It was not easy to answer their arguments; but the lords of +the pale, attached through habit to the English government, anxiously +longed for an armistice as the preparatory step to a peace. Their exertions +prevailed. A cessation of arms was concluded[a] for twelve months; and the +confederates, to the surprise of their enemies, consented to contribute +towards the support of the royal army the sum of fifteen thousand pounds in +money, and the value of fifteen thousand pounds in provisions.[1] + +At the same time Charles had recourse to other expedients, from two of +which he promised himself considerable benefit, 1. It had been the policy +of the cardinal Richelieu to foment the troubles in England as he had +previously done in Scotland; and his intention was faithfully fulfilled by +the French ambassador Senneterre. But in the course of the last year both +Richelieu and Louis XIII. died; the regency, during the minority of the +young king, devolved on Anne of Austria, the queen-mother; and that +princess had always professed a warm attachment for her sister-in-law, +Henrietta Maria. Senneterre was superseded + +[Footnote 1: Rushworth, v. 548. Carte, ii. App. 1; iii. 117, 131, 159, 160, +166, 168, 172, 174. No one, I think, who has perused all the documents, can +doubt that the armistice was necessary for the preservation of the army in +Ireland. But its real object did not escape the notice of the two houses, +who voted it "destructive to the Protestant religion, dishonourable to the +English nation, and prejudicial to the interests of the three kingdoms;" +and, to inflame the passions of their partisans, published a declaration, +in which, with their usual adherence to truth, they assert that the +cessation was made at a time when "the famine among the Irish had made +them, unnatural and cannibal-like, eat and feed one upon another;" that it +had been devised and carried on by popish instruments, and was designed for +the better introduction of popery, and the extirpation of the Protestant +religion.--Journals, vi. 238, 289.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1643. Sept. 15.] + +by the count of Harcourt, a prince of the house of Lorrain, with the title +of ambassador extraordinary. The parliament received him with respect +in London, and permitted him to proceed to Oxford. Charles, whose +circumstances would not allow him to spend his time in diplomatic finesse, +immediately[a] demanded a loan of money, an auxiliary army, and a +declaration against his rebellious subjects. But these were things which +the ambassador had no power to grant. He escaped[b] with difficulty from +the importunity of the king, and returned to the capital to negotiate +with the parliament. There, offering himself in quality of mediator, he +requested[c] to know the real grounds of the existing war; but his hope of +success was damped by this cold and laconic answer, that, when he had any +proposal to submit in the name of the French king, the houses would be +ready to vindicate their conduct. Soon afterwards[d] the despatches from +his court were intercepted and opened; among them was discovered a letter +from Lord Goring to the queen; and its contents disclosed that Harcourt +had been selected on her nomination; that he was ordered to receive his +instructions from her and the king; and that Goring was soliciting succour +from the French court. This information, with an account of the manner +in which it had been obtained, was communicated to the ambassador, who +immediately[e] demanded passports and left the kingdom.[1] + +2. Experience had proved to Charles that the very name of parliament +possessed a powerful influence over the minds of the lower classes in +favour of his adversaries. + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon, iii. 398-403. Journals, vi. 245, 302, 305, 309, +375, 379, 416. Commons, Sept. 14; Oct. 11; Nov. 15, 22; Jan. 10, 12; Feb. +12.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1643 Oct. 18.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1643 Nov. 15.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1643 Nov. 22.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1644 Jan. 10.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1644 Feb. 12.] + +To dispel the charm, he resolved to oppose the loyal members to those who +remained at Westminster, and summoned by proclamation both houses to meet +him at Oxford on the twenty-second of January in the[a] succeeding year. +Forty-three peers and one hundred and eighteen commoners obeyed;[1] the +usual forms of parliament were observed, and the king opened the session +with a gracious speech, in which he deplored[b] the calamities of the +kingdom, desired them to bear witness to his pacific disposition, and +promised them all the freedom and privileges belonging to such assemblies. +Their first measure was a letter subscribed by all the members of both +houses, and directed to the earl of Essex, requesting him to convey to +those "by whom he was trusted," their earnest desire that commissioners +might be appointed[c] on both sides to treat of an accommodation. Essex, +having received instructions, replied that he could not deliver a letter +which, neither in its address nor in its contents, acknowledged the +authority of the parliament. Charles himself was next brought forward.[d] +He directed his letter to "the lords and commons of parliament assembled +at Westminster," and requested, "by the advice of the lords and commons of +parliament assembled at Oxford," the appointment + +[Footnote 1: If we may believe Whitelock (80), when the two houses at +Westminster were called over (Jan. 30), there were two hundred and eighty +members present, and one hundred employed on different services. But I +suspect some error in the numbers, as the list of those who took the +covenant amounts only to two hundred and twenty names, even including such +as took it after that day. (Compare Rushworth, v. 480, with the Journals.) +The lords were twenty-two present, seventy-four absent, of whom eleven were +excused.--Journals, vi. 387. The two houses at Oxford published also +their lists of the members, making the commons amount to one hundred and +seventy-five, the lords to eighty-three. But of the latter several had been +created since the commencement of the war.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. Jan. 22.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1644. Jan. 29.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1644. Jan. 30.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1644. March. 3.] + +of commissioners to settle the distractions of the kingdom, and +particularly the manner "how all the members of both houses might meet in +full and free convention of parliament, to consult and treat upon such +things as might conduce to the maintenance of the true Protestant religion, +with due consideration to the just ease of tender consciences, to the +settling of the rights of the crown and of parliament, the laws of the +land, and the liberties and property of the subject." This message the two +houses considered an insult,[a] because it implied that they were not a +full and free convention of parliament. In their answer they called on the +king to join them at Westminster; and in a public declaration denounced +the proceeding as "a popish and Jesuitical practice to allure them by the +specious pretence of peace to disavow their own authority, and resign +themselves, their religion, laws, and liberties, to the power of idolatry, +superstition, and slavery."[1] In opposition, the houses at Oxford declared +that the Scots had broken the act of pacification, that all English +subjects who aided them should be deemed traitors and enemies of the state, +and that the lords and commons + +[Footnote 1: Journals, vi. 451, 459. The reader will notice in the king's +letter an allusion to religious toleration ("with due consideration to +the ease of tender consciences"), the first which had yet been made by +authority, and which a few years before would have scandalized the members +of the church of England as much as it did now the Presbyterians and Scots. +But policy had taught that which reason could not. It was now thrown out +as a bait to the Independents, whose apprehensions of persecution were +aggravated by the intolerance of their Scottish allies, and who were on +that account suspected of having already made some secret overtures to the +court. "Bristol, under his hand, gives them a full assurance of so full a +liberty of their conscience as they could wish, inveighing withal against +the Scots' cruel invasion, and the tyranny of our presbytery, equal to the +Spanish inquisition."--Baillie, i. 428.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. March 9.] + +remaining at Westminster, who had given their consent to the coming in of +the Scots, or the raising of forces under the earl of Essex, or the making +and using of a new great seal, had committed high treason, and ought to +be proceeded against as traitors to the king and kingdom.[1] Thus again +vanished the prospect of peace; and both parties, with additional +exasperation of mind, and keener desires of revenge, resolved once more to +stake their hope of safety on the uncertain fortune of war. + +But the leaders at Westminster found it necessary to silence the murmurs of +many among their own adherents, whose anxiety for the restoration of peace +led them to attribute interested motives to the advocates of war. On the +first appearance of a rupture, a committee of safety had been appointed, +consisting of five lords and ten commoners, whose office it was to perform +the duties of the executive authority, subject to the approbation and +authority of the houses; now that the Scots had agreed to join in the war, +this committee, after a long resistance on the part of the Lords, was +dissolved,[a] and another established in its place, under the name of the +committee of the two kingdoms, composed of a few members from each house, +and of certain commissioners from the estates of Scotland.[2] On this new +body the Peers looked with an eye of jealousy, and, when the Commons, in +consequence of unfavourable reports, referred to it the task of "preparing +some grounds for settling a just and safe peace in all the king's +dominions," they objected not + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon, iii. 440-454. Journals, 399, 404, 451, 459, 484, +485; Dec. 30; Jan. 16, 30; March 6, 11. Rushworth, v. 559-575, 582-602.] + +[Footnote 2: Journals of Commons, Jan. 30; Feb. 7, 10, 12, 16; of Lords, +Feb. 12, 16.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. Feb. 16.] + +to the thing, but to the persons, and appointed for the same purpose a +different committee. The struggle lasted six weeks: but the influence of +the upper. house had diminished with the number of its members, and the +Lords were compelled to submit,[a] under the cover of an unimportant +amendment to maintain their own honour. The propositions now[b] brought +forward as the basis of a reconciliation were in substance the following: +that the covenant with the obligation of taking it, the reformation +of religion according to its provisions, and the utter abolition of +episcopacy, should be confirmed by act of parliament; that the cessation of +war in Ireland should be declared void by the same authority; that a new +oath should be framed for the discovery of Catholics; that the penalties +of recusancy should be strictly enforced; that the children of Catholics +should be educated Protestants; that certain English Protestants by name, +all papists, who had borne arms against the parliament, and all Irish +rebels, whether Catholics or Protestants, who had brought aid to the royal +army, should be excepted from the general pardon; that the debts contracted +by the parliament should be paid out of the estates of delinquents; and +that the commanders of the forces by land and sea, the great officers +of state, the deputy of Ireland and the judges, should be named by the +parliament, or the commissioners of parliament, to hold their places during +their good behaviour. From the tone of these propositions it was evident +that the differences between the parties had become wider than before, and +that peace depended on the subjugation of the one by the superior force or +the better fortune of the other.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Journals, March 15, 20, 23, 29, 30; April 3, 5, 13, 16. On the +question whether they should treat in union with the Scots, the Commons +divided sixty-four against sixty-four: but the noes obtained the casting +vote of the speaker.--Baillie, i. 446. See also the Journals of the +Lords, vi. 473, 483, 491, 501, 514, 519, 527, 531. Such, indeed, was the +dissension among them, that Baillie says they would have accepted the first +proposal from the houses at Oxford, had not the news that the Scots had +passed the Tweed arrived a few hours before. This gave the ascendancy to +the friends of war.--Baillie, i. 429, 430.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. April 25.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1644. April 29.] + +Here the reader may pause, and, before he proceeds to the events of the +next campaign, may take a view of the different financial expedients +adopted by the contending parties. Want of money was an evil which pressed +equally on both; but it was more easily borne by the patriots, who +possessed an abundant resource in the riches of the capital, and were less +restrained in their demands by considerations of delicacy or justice. 1. +They were able on sudden emergencies to raise considerable supplies by loan +from the merchants of the city, who seldom dared to refuse, or, if they +did, were compelled to yield by menaces of distraint and imprisonment. For +all such advances interest was promised at the usual rate of eight per +cent., and "the public faith was pledged for the repayment of the capital." +2. When the parliament ordered their first levy of soldiers, many of their +partisans subscribed considerable sums in money, or plate, or arms, or +provisions. But it was soon asked, why the burthen should fall exclusively +on the well-affected; and the houses improved the hint to ordain that all +non-subscribers, both in the city and in the country, should be compelled +to contribute the twentieth part of their estates towards the support of +the common cause. 3. Still the wants of the army daily increased, and, as a +temporary resource, an order was made that each county should provide for +the subsistence of the men whom it had furnished; 4. and this was followed +by a more permanent expedient, a weekly assessment of ten thousand pounds +on the city of London, and of twenty-four thousand pounds on the rest of +the kingdom, to be levied by county-rates after the manner of subsidies. 5. +In addition, the estates both real and personal of all delinquents, that +is, of all individuals who had borne arms for the king, or supplied him +with money, or in any manner, or under any pretence, had opposed the +parliament, were sequestrated from the owners, and placed under the +management of certain commissioners empowered to receive the rents, to +seize the moneys and goods, to sue for debts, and to pay the proceeds into +the treasury. 6. In the next place came the excise, a branch of taxation of +exotic origin, and hitherto unknown in the kingdom. To it many objections +were made; but the ample and constant supply which it promised insured its +adoption; and after a succession of debates and conferences, which occupied +the houses during three months, the new duties, which were in most +instances to be paid by the first purchaser, were imposed both on the +articles already subject to the customs, and on a numerous class of +commodities of indigenous growth or manufacture.[1] Lastly, in aid of these +several sources of revenue, the houses did not refuse another of a more +singular description. It was customary for many of the patriots to observe +a weekly fast for the success of their cause; and, that their purses might +not profit by the exercise of their piety, + +[Footnote 1: It should be observed that the excise in its very infancy +extended to strong beer, ale, cider, perry, wine, oil, figs, sugar, +raisins, pepper, salt, silk, tobacco, soap, strong waters, and even flesh +meat, whether it were exposed for sale in the market, or killed by private +families for their own consumption.--Journals, vi. 372.] they were careful +to pay into the treasury the price of the meal from which they had +abstained. If others would not fast, it was at least possible to make them +pay; and commissioners were appointed by ordinance to go through the city, +to rate every housekeeper at the price of one meal for his family, and to +collect the money on every Tuesday during the next six months. By these +expedients the two houses contrived to carry on the war, though their +pecuniary embarrassments were continually multiplied by the growing +accumulation of their debts, and the unavoidable increase of their +expenditure.[1] With respect to the king, his first resource was in the +sale of his plate and jewels, his next in the generous devotion of his +adherents, many of whom served him during the whole war at their own cost, +and, rather than become a burthen to their sovereign, mortgaged their last +acre, and left themselves and their families without the means of future +subsistence. As soon as he had set up his standard, he solicited loans from +his friends, pledging his word to requite their promptitude, and allotting +certain portions of the crown lands for their repayment--a very precarious +security as long as the issue of the contest should remain uncertain. But +the appeal was not made in vain. Many advanced considerable sums without +reserving to themselves any claim to remuneration, and others lent so +freely and abundantly, that this resource was productive beyond his most +sanguine expectations. Yet, before the commencement of the third campaign, + +[Footnote 1: Journals, v. 460, 466, 482; vi. 108, 196, 209, 224, 248, 250, +272. Commons' Journals, Nov. 26, Dec. 8, 1642; Feb. 23, Sept. 1643; March +26, 1644. Rushworth, v. 71, 150, 209, 313, 748. It should be recollected +that, according to the devotion of the time, "a fast required a total +abstinence from all food, till the fast was ended."--Directory for the +Publique Worship, p. 32.] + +he was compelled to consult his parliament at Oxford. By its advice he +issued privy seals, which raised one hundred thousand pounds, and, in +imitation of his adversaries, established the excise, which brought him +in a constant, though not very copious supply. In addition, his garrisons +supported themselves by weekly contributions from the neighbouring +townships, and the counties which had associated in his favour willingly +furnished pay and subsistence to their own forces. Yet, after all, it was +manifest that he possessed not the same facilities of raising money with +his adversaries, and that he must ultimately succumb through poverty alone, +unless he could bring the struggle to a speedy termination.[1] + +For this purpose both parties had made every exertion, and both Irishmen +and Scotsmen had been called into England to fight the battles of the king +and the parliament. The severity of the winter afforded no respite from the +operations of war. Five Irish regiments, the first fruits of the cessation +in Ireland, arrived[a] at Mostyn in Flintshire; their reputation, more than +their number, unnerved the prowess of their enemies; no force ventured to +oppose them in the field; and, as they advanced, every post was abandoned +or surrendered. At length the garrison of Nantwich arrested[b] their +progress; and whilst they were occupied with the siege, Sir Thomas Fairfax +approached with a superior force from Yorkshire. For two hours[c] the +Anglo-Irish, under Lord Byron, maintained an obstinate resistance against +the assailants from without, and the garrison from within the town; but in +a moment of despair one thousand six hundred men in the works threw down +their arms, + +[Footnote: 1 Rushworth, v. 580, 601. Clarendon, ii. 87, 453.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1643. November.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1644. Jan. 15.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1644. Jan. 25.] + +and, with a few exceptions, entered the ranks of their adversaries. Among +the names of the officers taken, occurs that of the celebrated Colonel +Monk, who was afterwards released from the Tower to act a more brilliant +part, first in the service of the Commonwealth, and then in the +re-establishment of the throne.[1] + +A few days before this victory, the Scots had passed the Tweed.[a] The +notion that they were engaged in a holy crusade for the reformation of +religion made them despise every difficulty; and, though the weather was +tempestuous, though the snow lay deep on the ground, their enthusiasm +carried them forward in a mass which the royalists dared not oppose. Their +leader sought to surprise Newcastle; he was disappointed by the promptitude +of the marquess of Newcastle, who, on the preceding day,[b] had thrown +himself into the town; and famine compelled the enemy, after a siege of +three weeks, to abandon the attempt.[c] Marching up the left bank of the +Tyne,[d] they crossed the river at Bywell,[e] and hastening by Ebchester +to Sunderland, took possession of that port to open a communication by sea +with their own country. The marquess, having assembled his army, offered +them battle, and, when they refused to fight, confined them for five weeks +within their own quarters. In proportion as their advance into England +had elevated the hopes of their friends in the capital, their subsequent +inactivity provoked surprise and complaints. But Lord Fairfax, having been +joined by his victorious son from Cheshire, dispersed the royalists at +Leeds,[f] under Colonel Bellasis, the son of Lord Falconberg; and the +danger of being enclosed between two armies induced the marquess of +Newcastle to retire[g] from Durham + +[Footnote 1: Rush. v. 299, 303. Fairfax, 434, ed. of Maseres.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. Jan. 16.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1644. Feb. 2.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1644. Feb. 28.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1644. March 2.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1644. March 4.] +[Sidenote f: A.D. 1644. April 11.] +[Sidenote g: A.D. 1644. April 23.] + +to York. He was quickly followed by the Scots; they were joined by Fairfax, +and the combined army sat down before the city. Newcastle at first despised +their attempts; but the arrival[a] of fourteen thousand parliamentarians, +under the earl of Manchester, convinced him of his danger, and he earnestly +solicited[b] succour from the king.[1] + +But, instead of proceeding with the military transactions in the north, it +will here be necessary to advert to those which had taken place in other +parts of the kingdom. In the counties on the southern coast several +actions had been fought, of which, the success was various, and the result +unimportant. Every eye fixed itself on the two grand armies in the vicinity +of Oxford and London. The parliament had professed a resolution to stake +the fortune of the cause on one great and decisive battle; and, with this +view, every effort had been made to raise the forces of Essex and Waller to +the amount of twenty thousand men. These generals marched in two separate +corps, with the hope of enclosing the king, or of besieging him in +Oxford.[2] Aware of his inferiority, Charles, by a skilful manoeuvre, + +[Footnote 1: Rushworth, v. 222. Baillie, ii. 1, 6, 10, 28, 32. Journals, +522.] + +[Footnote 2: When Essex left London he requested the assembly of divines to +keep a fast for his success. The reader may learn from Baillie how it was +celebrated. "We spent from nine to five graciously. After Dr. Twisse had +begun with a brief prayer, Mr. Marshall prayed large two hours, most +divinely confessing the sins of the members of the assembly in a wonderful, +pathetick, and prudent way. After Mr. Arrowsmith preached an hour, then a +psalm; thereafter Mr. Vines prayed near two hours, and Mr. Palmer preached +an hour, and Mr. Seaman prayed near two hours, then a psalm; after Mr. +Henderson brought them to a sweet conference of the heat confessed in the +assembly, and other seen faults to be remedied, and the conveniency to +preach against all sects, especially Anabaptists and Antinomians. Dr. +Twisse closed with a short prayer and blessing. God was so evidently in all +this exercise, that we expect certainly a blessing."--Baillie, ii. 18, 19.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. April 20.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1644. June 3.] + +passed with seven thousand men between the hostile divisions, and arrived +in safety at Worcester.[a] The jealousy of the commanders did not allow +them to act in concert. Essex directed his march into Dorsetshire;[b] +Waller took on himself the task of pursuing the fugitive monarch. Charles +again deceived him. He pretended to advance along the right bank of the +Severn from Worcester to Shrewsbury;[c] and when Waller, to prevent him, +hastened from Broomsgrove to take possession of that town, the king turned +at Bewdley, retraced his steps to Oxford,[d] and, recruiting his army, beat +up the enemy's quarters in Buckinghamshire. In two days Waller had returned +to the Charwell, which separated the two armies; but an unsuccessful action +at Copredy Bridge[e] checked his impetuosity, and Charles, improving the +advantage to repass the river, marched to Evesham in pursuit of Essex. +Waller did not follow; his forces, by fatigue, desertion, and his late +loss, had been reduced from eight thousand to four thousand men, and the +committee of the two kingdoms recalled their favourite general from his +tedious and unavailing pursuit.[1] + +During these marches and counter-marches, in which the king had no other +object than to escape from his pursuers, in the hope that some fortunate +occurrence might turn the scale in his favour, he received the despatch +already mentioned from the marquess of Newcastle. The ill-fated prince +instantly saw the danger which threatened him. The fall of York would +deprive him of the northern counties, and the subsequent junction of the +besieging army with his opponents in the south would constitute a force + +[Footnote 1: Rushworth, v. 670-676. Clarendon, iv. 487-493, 497-502. +Baillie, ii. 38.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. June 3.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1644. June 6.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1644. June 15.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1644. June 20.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1644. June 29.] + +against which it would be useless to struggle. His only resource was in +the courage and activity of Prince Rupert. He ordered[a] that commander to +collect all the force in his power, to hasten into Yorkshire, to fight +the enemy, and to keep in mind that two things were necessary for the +preservation of the crown,--both the relief of the city, and the defeat of +the combined army.[1] + +Rupert, early in the spring, had marched from his quarters at Shrewsbury, +surprised the parliamentary army before Newark,[b] and after a sharp +action, compelled it[c] to capitulate. He was now employed in Cheshire and +Lancashire, where he had taken Stockport, Bolton, and Liverpool, and had +raised[d] the siege of Latham House, after it had been gallantly defended +during eighteen weeks by the resolution of the countess of Derby. On the +receipt of the royal command, he took with him a portion of his own men, +and some regiments lately arrived from Ireland; reinforcements poured in +on his march, and on his approach the combined army deemed it prudent to +abandon the works before the city. He was received[e] with acclamations of +joy; but left York the next day[f] to fight the bloody and decisive battle +of Marston Moor.[2] Both armies, in accordance with the military tactics +of the age, were drawn up in line, the infantry in three divisions, with +strong bodies of cavalry on each flank. In force they were nearly equal, +amounting to twenty-three or twenty-five thousand men; but there was this +peculiarity in the arrangement of the parliamentarians, that in each +division the + +[Footnote 1: See his letter in Evelyn's Memoirs, ii. App. 88. It completely +exculpates Rupert from the charges of obstinacy and rashness in having +fought the subsequent battle of Marston Moor.] + +[Footnote 2: Rushworth, v. 307, 623, 631.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. June 14.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1644. March 21.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1644. May 25.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1644. June 11.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1644. July 1.] +[Sidenote f: A.D. 1644. July 2.] + +English and the Scots were intermixed, to preclude all occasion of jealousy +or dispute. It was now five in the afternoon, and for two hours a solemn +pause ensued, each eyeing the other in the silence of suspense, with +nothing to separate them but a narrow ditch or rivulet. At seven the signal +was given, and Rupert, at the head of the royal cavalry on the right, +charged with his usual impetuosity, and with the usual result. He bore down +all before him, but continued the chase for some miles, and thus, by his +absence from the field, suffered the victory to slip out of his hands.[1] + +At the same time the royal infantry, under Goring, Lucas, and Porter, had +charged their opponents with equal intrepidity and equal success. The line +of the confederates was pierced in several points; and their generals, +Manchester, Leven, and Fairfax, convinced that the day was lost, fled in +different directions. By their flight the chief command devolved upon +Cromwell, who improved the opportunity to win for himself the laurels of +victory. With "his ironsides" and the Scottish horse he had driven the +royal cavalry, under the earl of Newcastle, from their position on the +left. Ordering a few squadrons to observe and harass the fugitives, he +wheeled round on the flank of the royal infantry, and found them in +separate bodies, and in disorder, indulging in the confidence and license +of victory. Regiment after regiment was attacked and dispersed; but the +"white coats," a body of veterans raised by Lord Newcastle, formed in a +circle; and, whilst their pikemen kept the cavalry at bay, their + +[Footnote 1: Sir Thomas Fairfax says that at first he put to flight part of +the loyal cavalry, and pursued them on the road to York. On his return he +found that the rest of his wing had been routed by the prince.--Fairfax, +438.] + +musketeers poured repeated volleys into the ranks of the enemy. Had these +brave men been supported by any other corps, the battle might have been +restored; but, as soon as their ammunition was spent, an opening was made, +and the white coats perished, every man falling on the spot on which he had +fought. + +Thus ended the battle of Marston Moor. It was not long, indeed, before +the royal cavalry, amounting to three thousand men, made their appearance +returning from the pursuit. But the aspect of the field struck dismay into +the heart of Rupert. His thoughtless impetuosity was now exchanged for an +excess of caution; and after a few skirmishes he withdrew. Cromwell spent +the night on the spot; but it was to him a night of suspense and anxiety. +His troopers were exhausted with the fatigue of the day; the infantry was +dispersed, and without orders; and he expected every moment a nocturnal +attack from Rupert, who had it in his power to collect a sufficient force +from the several corps of royalists which had suffered little in the +battle. But the morning brought him the pleasing intelligence that the +prince had hastened by a circuitous route to York. The immediate fruit +of the victory were fifteen hundred prisoners and the whole train of +artillery. The several loss of the two parties is unknown; those who +buried the slain numbered the dead bodies at four thousand one hundred and +fifty.[1] + +This disastrous battle extinguished the power of the + +[Footnote 1: For this battle see Rushworth, v. 632; Thurloe, i. 39; +Clarendon, iv. 503; Baillie, II, 36, 40; Whitelock, 89; Memorie of the +Somervilles, Edin. 1815. Cromwell sent messengers from the field to recall +the three generals who had fled. Leven was found in bed at Leeds about +noon; and having read the despatch, struck his breast, exclaiming, "I would +to God I had died upon the place."--Ibid.; also Turner, Memoirs, 38.] + +royalists in the northern counties. The prince and the marquess had long +cherished a deeply-rooted antipathy to each other. It had displayed itself +in a consultation respecting the expediency of fighting; it was not +probable that it would be appeased by their defeat. They separated the next +morning; Rupert, hastening to quit a place where he had lost so gallant an +army, returned to his former command in the western counties; Newcastle, +whether he despaired of the royal cause, or was actuated by a sense of +injurious treatment, taking with him the lords Falconberg and Widerington, +sought an asylum on the continent. York, abandoned to its fate, opened its +gates to the enemy, on condition that the citizens should not be molested, +and that the garrison should retire to Skipton. The combined army +immediately separated by order of the committee of both kingdoms. +Manchester returned into Nottinghamshire, Fairfax remained in York, and +the Scots under Leven retracing their steps, closed the campaign with the +reduction of Newcastle. _They_ had no objection to pass the winter in the +neighbourhood of their own country; the parliament felt no wish to see them +nearer to the English capital.[1] + +In the mean time Essex, impatient of the control exercised by that +committee, ventured to act in opposition to its orders; and the two houses, +though they reprimanded him for his disobedience, allowed him to pursue the +plan which he had formed of dissolving with his army the association of +royalists in Somersetshire, Devonshire, and Cornwall.[a] He relieved Lime, +which had long been besieged by Prince Maurice, one[a] of the king's +nephews, and advanced in the direction + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon, ii. 504.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D.. 1644. June 25.] + +of Exeter, where the queen a few days before[a] had been delivered of a +daughter. That princess, weary of the dangers to which she was exposed in +England, repaired to Falmouth, put to sea[b] with a squadron of ten Dutch +or Flemish vessels, and, escaping the keen pursuit of the English fleet +from Torbay, reached[c] in safety the harbour of Brest.[1] + +Essex, regardless of the royalists who assembled in the rear of his +army, pursued[d] his march into Cornwall. To most men his conduct was +inexplicable. Many suspected that he sought to revenge himself on the +parliament by betraying his forces into the hands of the enemy. At +Lestwithiel he received[e] two letters, one, in which he was solicited by +the king to unite with him in compelling his enemies to consent to a peace, +which while it ascertained the legal rights of the throne, might secure +the religion and liberties of the people; another from eighty-four of the +principal officers in the royal army, who pledged themselves to draw the +sword against the sovereign himself, if he should ever swerve from the +principles which he had avowed in his letter. Both were disappointed. Essex +sent the letters to the two houses, and coldly replied that his business +was to fight, that of the parliament to negotiate. + +[Footnote 1: I doubt whether Essex had any claim to that generosity of +character which is attributed to him by historians. The queen had been +delivered of a princess, Henrietta Maria, at Exeter, and sent to him for +a passport to go to Bath or Bristol for the recovery of her health. He +refused, but insultingly offered to attend her himself, if she would go to +London, where she had been already impeached of high treason.--Rushworth, +v. 684. I observe that even before the war, when the king had written to +the queen to intimate his wish to Essex, as lord chamberlain, to prepare +the palace for his reception, she desired Nicholas to do it adding, +"their lordships are to great princes to receave anye direction from +me."--Evelyn's Mem. ii. App. 78.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. June 16.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1644. July 14.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1644. July 15.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1644. June 26.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1644. August 6.] + +But he now found himself in a most critical situation, cut off from all +intercourse with London, and enclosed between the sea and the combined +forces of the king, Prince Maurice, and Sir Richard Grenville.[a] His +cavalry, unable to obtain subsistence, burst in the night, though not +without loss, through the lines of the enemy. But each day the royalists +won some of his posts; their artillery commanded the small haven of Foy, +through which, alone he could obtain provisions; and his men, dismayed by +a succession of disasters, refused to stand to their colours. In this +emergency Essex, with two other officers, escaped from the beach in a boat +to Plymouth; and Major-General Skippon offered to capitulate for the rest +of the army.[b] On the surrender of their arms, ammunition, and artillery, +the men were allowed to march to Pool and Wareham, and thence were conveyed +in transports to Portsmouth, where commissioners from the parliament met +them with a supply of clothes and money. The lord general repaired to his +own house, calling for an investigation both into his own conduct and into +that of the committee, who had neglected to disperse the royalists in the +rear of his army, and had betrayed the cause of the people, to gratify +their own jealousy by the disgrace of an opponent. To soothe his wounded +mind, the houses ordered a joint deputation to wait on him, to thank him +for his fidelity to the cause, and to express their estimation of the many +and eminent services which he had rendered to his country. + +This success elevated the hopes of the king, who, assuming a tone of +conscious superiority, invited all his + +[Footnote 1: Rushworth, v. 683, 684, 690-693, 699-711. Clarend. iv. +511-518-527.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. Aug 30.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1644. Sept. 1.] + +subjects to accompany him to London, and aid him in compelling the +parliament to accept of peace.[a]But the energies of his opponents were +not exhausted. They quickly recruited their diminished forces; the several +corps under Essex, Waller, and Manchester were united; and, while the +royalists marched through Whitechurch to Newbury, a more numerous army +moved in a parallel direction through Basingstoke to Reading.[b]There the +leaders (the lord general was absent under the pretence of indisposition), +hearing of reinforcements pouring into Oxford, resolved to avail themselves +of their present superiority, and to attack, at the same moment, the +royalist positions at Show on the eastern, and at Speen on the western side +of the town. The action in both places was obstinate, the result, as late +as ten at night, doubtful; but the king, fearing to be surrounded the next +day, assembled his men under the protection of Donnington Castle, and[c] +marched towards Wallingford, a movement which was executed without +opposition by the light of the moon, and in full view of the enemy.[d]In +a few days he returned with a more numerous force, and, receiving the +artillery and ammunition, which for security he had left in Donnington +Castle, conveyed it without molestation to Wallingford. As he passed and +repassed, the parliamentarians kept within their lines, and even refused +the battle which he offered. This backwardness, whether it arose from +internal dissension, or from inferiority of numbers, provoked loud +complaints, not only in the capital, where the conflict at Newbury had been +celebrated as a victory, but in the two houses, who had ordered the army +to follow up its success. The generals, having dispersed their troops in +winter quarters, hastened to vindicate their + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. Sept. 30.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1644. Oct. 27.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1644. Nov. 6.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1644. Nov. 9.] + +own conduct. Charges of cowardice, or disaffection, or incapacity, were +made and retorted by one against the other; and that cause which had nearly +triumphed over the king seemed now on the point of being lost through the +personal jealousies and contending passions of its leaders.[1] + +The greater part of these quarrels had originated in the rivalry of +ambition; but those in the army of the earl of Manchester were produced by +religious jealousy, and on that account were followed by more important +results. When the king attempted to arrest the five members, Manchester, +at that time Lord Kymbolton, was the only peer whom he impeached. This +circumstance endeared Kymbolton to the party; his own safety bound him +more closely to its interests. On the formation of the army of the seven +associated counties, he accepted, though with reluctance, the chief +command; for his temper and education had formed him to shine in the senate +rather than the camp; and, aware of his own inexperience, he devolved +on his council the chief direction of military operations, reserving to +himself the delicate and important charge of harmonizing and keeping +together the discordant elements of which his force was composed. The +second in command, as the reader is aware, was Cromwell, with the rank of +lieutenant-general. In the parade of sanctity both Manchester and Cromwell +seemed equal proficients; in belief and practice they followed two opposite +parties. The first sought the exclusive establishment of the presbyterian +system; the other contended for the common right of mankind to worship God +according to the dictates of conscience. But this difference of opinion + +[Footnote 1: Rushworth, v. 715-732. Clarendon, 546-552.] + +provoked no dissension between them. The more gentle and accommodating +temper of Manchester was awed by the superior genius of Cromwell, who +gradually acquired the chief control of the army, and offered his +protection to the Independents under his command. In other quarters these +religionists suffered restraint and persecution from the zeal of the +Presbyterians; the indulgence which they enjoyed under Cromwell scandalized +and alarmed the orthodoxy of the Scottish commissioners, who obtained, as +a counterpoise to the influence of that officer, the post of major-general +for Crawford, their countryman, and a rigid Presbyterian. Cromwell and +Crawford instantly became rivals and enemies. The merit of the victory +at Marston Moor had been claimed by the Independents, who magnified the +services of their favourite commander, and ridiculed the flight and +cowardice of the Scots. Crawford retorted the charge, and deposed that +Cromwell, having received a slight wound in the neck at the commencement +of the action, immediately retired and did not afterwards appear in the +field.[a]The lieutenant-general in revenge exhibited articles against +Crawford before the committee of war, and the colonels threatened to +resign their commissions unless he were removed; while on the other hand +Manchester and the chaplains of the army gave testimony in his favour, +and the Scottish commissioners, assuming the defence of their countryman, +represented him as a martyr in the cause of religion.[1] + +But before this quarrel was terminated a second of greater importance +arose. The indecisive action at Newbury, and the refusal of battle at +Donnington, had + +[Footnote 1: Baillie, ii. 40, 41, 42, 49, 57, 60, 66, 69. Hollis, 15.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. Sept. 5.] + +excited the discontent of the public;[a]the lower house ordered an inquiry +into the conduct of the generals and the state of the armies; and the +report made by the committee of both kingdoms led to a vote that a plan for +the organization of the national force, in a new and more efficient form, +should be immediately prepared. Waller and Cromwell, who were both members +of the house, felt dissatisfied with the report. At the next meeting +each related his share in the transactions which had excited such loud +complaints; and the latter embraced the opportunity to prefer a charge +of disaffection against the earl of Manchester, who, he pretended, was +unwilling that the royal power should suffer additional humiliation, and +on that account would never permit his army to engage, unless it were +evidently to its disadvantage. Manchester in the House of Lords repelled +the imputation with warmth, vindicated his own conduct, and retorted on his +accuser, that he had yet to learn in what place Lieutenant General Cromwell +with his cavalry had posted himself on the day of battle.[1] + +It is worthy of remark, that, even at this early period, Essex, Manchester, +and the Scottish commissioners suspected Cromwell with his friends of a +design to obtain the command of the army, to abolish the House of Lords, +divide the House of Commons, dissolve the covenant between the two nations, +and erect a new government according to his own principles. To defeat this +project it was at first proposed that the chancellor of Scotland should +denounce him as an incendiary, and demand his punishment according to the +late treaty; but, on the reply of the + +[Footnote 1: Rushworth, v. 732. Journals, Nov. 22, 23, 25. Lords' Journals, +vii. 67, 78, 80, 141. Whitelock, 116.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. Nov. 25.] + +lawyers whom they consulted, that their proofs were insufficient to sustain +the charge, it was resolved that Manchester should accuse him before the +Lords of having expressed a wish to reduce the peers to the state of +private gentlemen; of having declared his readiness to fight against the +Scots, whose chief object was to establish religious despotism; and of +having threatened to compel, with the aid of the Independents, both king +and parliament to accept such conditions as he should dictate.[a]This +charge, with a written statement by Manchester in his own vindication, was +communicated to the Commons; and they, after some objections in point of +form and privilege, referred it to a committee, where its consideration +was postponed from time to time, till at last it was permitted to sleep in +silence.[1] + +Cromwell did not hesitate to wreak his revenge on Essex and Manchester, +though the blow would probably recoil upon himself.[b]He proposed in the +Commons what was afterwards called the "self-denying ordinance," that the +members of both houses should be excluded from all offices, whether civil +or military. He would not, he said, reflect on what was passed, but suggest +a remedy for the future. The nation was weary of the war; and he spoke +the language both of friends and foes, when he said that the blame of its +continuance rested with the two houses, who could not be expected to bring +it to a speedy termination as long as so many of their members derived from +military commands wealth and authority, and consideration. His real object +was open to every eye; still the motion met with the concurrence of his own +party, + +[Footnote 1: Baillie, ii. 76, 77. Journals, Dec. 2, 4; Jan. 18. Lords' +Journals, 79, 80. Whitelock, 116, 117. Hollis, 18.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. Dec. 2.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1644. Dec. 9.] + +and of all whose patience had been exhausted by the quarrels among +the commanders; and, when an exemption was suggested in favour of the +lord-general, it was lost on a division by seven voices, in a house of +one hundred and ninety-three members.[a] However, the strength of the +opposition encouraged the peers to speak with more than their usual +freedom.[b] They contended, that the ordinance was unnecessary, since the +committee was employed in framing a new model for the army; that it was +unjust, since it would operate to the exclusion of the whole peerage from +office, while the Commons remained equally eligible to sit in parliament, +or to fill civil or military employments. It was in vain that the lower +house remonstrated.[c] The Lords replied that they had thrown out the bill, +but would consent to another of similar import, provided it did not extend +to commands in the army. + +But by this time the committee of both kingdoms had completed their plan of +military reform, which, in its immediate operation, tended to produce the +same effect as the rejected ordinance.[d] It obtained the sanction of the +Scottish commissioners, who consented, though with reluctance, to sacrifice +their friends in the upper house, for the benefit of a measure which +promised to put an end to the feuds and delays of the former system, and to +remove from the army Cromwell, their most dangerous enemy. If it deprived +them of the talents of Essex and Manchester, which they seem never to have +prized, it gave them in exchange a commander-in-chief, whose merit they had +learned to appreciate during his service in conjunction[e] + +[Transcriber's Note: Footnote 1 not found in the text] + +[Footnote 1: Journals, Dec. 9, 17; Jan. 7, 10, 13. Lords' Journals, 129, +131, 134, 135. Rushworth, vi. 3-7.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. Dec. 17.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1644. Dec. 21.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1645. Jan. 15.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1645. Jan. 9.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1645. Jan. 21.] + +with their forces at the siege of York. By the "new model" it was proposed +that the army should consist of one thousand dragoons, six thousand six +hundred cavalry in six, and fourteen thousand four hundred infantry in +twelve regiments, under Sir Thomas Fairfax as the first, and Major-General +Skippon as the second, in command. The Lords hesitated;[a] but after +several conferences and debates they returned it with a few amendments +to the Commons, and it was published by sound of drum in London and +Westminster.[1] + +This victory was followed by another. Many of the peers still clung to the +notion that it was intended to abolish their privileges, and therefore +resolved not to sink without a struggle. They insisted that the new army +should take the covenant, and subscribe the directory for public worship; +they refused their approbation to more than one half of the officers named +by Sir Thomas Fairfax; and they objected to the additional powers offered +by the Commons to that general. On these subjects the divisions in the +house were nearly equal, and whenever the opposite party obtained the +majority, it was by the aid of a single proxy, or of the clamours of the +mob. At length a declaration was made by the Commons, that "they held +themselves obliged to preserve the peerage with the rights and privileges +belonging to the House of Peers equally as their own, and would really +perform the same."[b] Relieved from their fears, the Lords yielded to a +power which they knew not how to control; the different bills were passed, +and among them a new self-denying ordinance, by which every member of +either house was discharged from all[c] + +[Footnote 1: Journals, Jan. 9, 13, 25, 27; Feb. 11, 15; of Lords, 159, 175, +169, 193, 195, 204. Clarendon, ii. 569.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1645. Feb. 15.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1645. March 25.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1645. April 3.] + +civil and military offices, conferred by authority of parliament after the +expiration of forty days.[1] + +Hitherto I have endeavoured to preserve unbroken the chain of military and +political events: it is now time to call the attention of the reader to the +ecclesiastical occurrences of the two last years. + +I. As religion was acknowledged to be the first of duties, to put down +popery and idolatry, and to purge the church from superstition and +corruption, had always been held out by the parliament as its grand and +most important object. It was this which, in the estimation of many of the +combatants, gave the chief interest to the quarrel; this which made it, +according to the language of the time, "a wrestle between Christ and +antichrist," 1. Every good Protestant had been educated in the deepest +horror of popery; there was a magic in the very word which awakened the +prejudices and inflamed the passions of men; and the reader must have +observed with what art and perseverance the patriot leaders employed it +to confirm the attachment, and quicken the efforts of their followers. +Scarcely a day occurred in which some order or ordinance, local or general, +was not issued by the two houses; and very few of these, even on the most +indifferent subjects, were permitted to pass without the assertion that the +war had been originally provoked, and was still continued by the papists, +for the sole purpose of the establishment of popery on the ruins of +Protestantism. The constant repetition acted on the minds of the people as +a sufficient proof of the charge; and the denials, the protestations, the +appeals to heaven made by the king, were disregarded and condemned as +unworthy artifices, adopted to deceive + +[Footnote 1: Journals, Feb. 25, March 21; of Lords, 287, 303.] + +the credulous and unwary. Under such circumstances, the Catholics found +themselves exposed to insult and persecution wherever the influence of the +parliament extended: for protection they were compelled to flee to the +quarters of the royalists, and to fight under their banners; and this +again confirmed the prejudice against them, and exposed them to additional +obloquy and punishment. + +But the chiefs of the patriots, while for political purposes they pointed +the hatred of their followers against the Catholics, appear not to have +delighted unnecessarily in blood. They ordered, indeed, searches to be +made for Catholic clergymen; they offered and paid rewards for their +apprehension, and they occasionally gratified the zealots with the +spectacle of an execution. The priests who suffered death in the course of +the war amounted on an average to three for each year, a small number, if +we consider the agitated state of the public mind during that period.[1] +But it was the property of the lay Catholics which they chiefly sought, +pretending that, as the war had been caused by their intrigues, its +expenses ought to be defrayed by their forfeitures. It was ordained that +two-thirds of the whole estate, both real and personal, of every papist, +should be seized and sold for + +[Footnote 1: Journals, vi. 133, 254. See their Memoirs in Challoner, ii. +209-319. In 1643, after a solemn fast, the five chaplains of the queen were +apprehended and sent to France, their native country, and the furniture +of her chapel at Somerset House was publicly burnt. The citizens were so +edified with the sight that they requested and obtained permission to +destroy the gilt cross in Cheapside. The lord mayor and aldermen graced the +ceremony with their presence, and "antichrist" was thrown into the flames, +while the bells of St. Peter's rang a merry peal, the city waits played +melodious tunes on the leads of the church, the train bands discharged +volleys of musketry, and the spectators celebrated the triumph with +acclamations of joy.--Parl. Chron. 294, 327.] + +the benefit of the nation; and that by the name of papist should be +understood all persons who, within a certain period, had harboured any +priest, or had been convicted of recusancy, or had attended at the +celebration of mass, or had suffered their children to be educated in the +Catholic worship, or had refused to take the oath of abjuration; an oath +lately devised, by which all the distinguishing tenets of the Catholic +religion were specifically renounced.[1] + +II. A still more important object was the destruction of the episcopal +establishment, a consummation most devoutly wished by the saints, by all +who objected to the ceremonies in the liturgy, or had been scandalized by +the pomp of the prelates, or had smarted under the inflictions of their +zeal for the preservation of orthodoxy. It must be confessed that these +prelates, in the season of prosperity, had not borne their facilities with +meekness; that the frequency of prosecutions in the ecclesiastical courts +had produced irritation and hatred; and that punishments had been often +awarded by those courts rigorous beyond the measure of the offence. But +the day of retribution arrived. Episcopacy was abolished; an impeachment +suspended over the heads of most of the bishops, kept them in a state of +constant apprehension; and the inferior clergy, wherever the parliamentary +arms prevailed, suffered all those severities which they had formerly +inflicted on their dissenting brethren. Their enemies accused them of +immorality or malignancy; and the two houses invariably sequestrated their +livings, and assigned the profits to other ministers, whose sentiments +accorded better with the new + +[Footnote 1: Journals, Aug. 17, 1643. Collections of Ordinances, 22.] + +standard of orthodoxy and patriotism admitted at Westminster. + +The same was the fate of the ecclesiastics in the two universities, which +had early become objects of jealousy and vengeance to the patriots. They +had for more than a century inculcated the doctrine of passive obedience, +and since the commencement of the war had more than once advanced +considerable sums to the king. Oxford, indeed, enjoyed a temporary +exemption from their control; but Cambridge was already in their power, +and a succession of feuds between the students and the townsmen afforded +a decent pretext for their interference. Soldiers were quartered in +the colleges; the painted windows and ornaments of the churches were +demolished; and the persons of the inmates were subjected to insults and +injuries. In January, 1644, an ordinance passed for the reform of the +university;[a] and it was perhaps fortunate that the ungracious task +devolved in the first instance on the military commander, the earl of +Manchester, who to a taste for literature added a gentleness of disposition +adverse from acts of severity. Under his superintendence the university +was "purified;" and ten heads of houses, with sixty-five fellows, were +expelled. Manchester confined himself to those who, by their hostility to +the parliament, had rendered themselves conspicuous, or through fear had +already abandoned their stations; but after his departure, the meritorious +undertaking was resumed by a committee, and the number of expulsions was +carried to two hundred.[1] Thus the clerical establishment gradually +crumbled + +[Footnote 1: Journals of Lords, vi. 389; of Commons, Jan. 20, 1644. Neal, +1, iii. c. 3. Walker, i. 112. Querela Cantab. in Merc. Rust. 178-210.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1645. Jan. 22.] + +away; part after part was detached from the edifice; and the reformers +hastened to raise what they deemed a more scriptural fabric on the ruins. +In the month of June, 1643, one hundred and twenty individuals selected +by the Lords and Commons, under the denomination of pious, godly, and +judicious divines, were summoned to meet at Westminster; and, that their +union might bear a more correct resemblance to the assembly of the Scottish +kirk, thirty laymen, ten lords, and twenty commoners were voted additional +members. The two houses prescribed the form of the meetings, and the +subject of the debates: they enjoined an oath to be taken on admission, and +the obligation of secrecy till each question should be determined; and +they ordained that every decision should be laid before themselves, and +considered of no force until it had been confirmed by their approbation.[1] +Of the divines summoned, a portion was composed of Episcopalians; and +these, through motives of conscience or loyalty, refused to attend: +the majority consisted of Puritan ministers, anxious to establish the +Calvinistic discipline and doctrine of the foreign reformed churches; and +to these was opposed a small but formidable band of Independent clergymen, +who, under the persecution of Archbishop Laud, had formed congregations in +Holland, but had taken the present opportunity to return from exile, and +preach the gospel in their native country. The point at issue between these +two parties was one of the first importance, involving in its result the +great question of liberty of conscience. The Presbyterians sought to +introduce a + +[Footnote 1: Journals, vi. 114, 254. Commons, 1643, May 13, June 16, July +6, Sept. 14. Rush. v. 337, 339.] + +gradation of spiritual authorities in presbyteries, classes, synods, and +assemblies, giving to these several judicatories the power of the keys, +that is, of censuring, suspending, depriving, and excommunicating +delinquents. They maintained that such a power was essential to the church; +that to deny it was to rend into fragments the seamless coat of Christ, to +encourage disunion and schism, and to open the door to every species of +theological war. On the other hand, their adversaries contended that all +congregations of worshippers were co-ordinate and independent; that synods +might advise, but could not command; that multiplicity of sects must +necessarily result from the variableness of the human judgment, and the +obligation of worshipping God according to the dictates of conscience; and +that religious toleration was the birthright of every human being, whatever +were his speculative creed or the form of worship which he preferred.[1] + +The weight of number and influence was in favour of the Presbyterians. They +possessed an overwhelming majority in the assembly, the senate, the city, +and the army; the solemn league and covenant had enlisted the whole +Scottish nation in their cause; and the zeal of the commissioners from +the kirk, who had also seats in the assembly, gave a new stimulus to the +efforts of their English brethren. The Independents, on the contrary, were +few, but their deficiency in point of number was supplied by the energy and +talents of their leaders. They never exceeded a dozen in the assembly; but +these were veteran disputants, eager, fearless, and persevering, whose +attachment to their favourite doctrines had been riveted by persecution and +exile, and who had not escaped from the intolerance + +[Footnote 1: Baillie, i. 420, 431; ii. 15, 24, 37, 43, 61.] + +of one church to submit tamely to the control of another. In the House of +Commons they could command the aid of several among the master spirits +of the age,--of Cromwell, Selden, St. John, Vane, and Whitelock; in the +capital some of the most wealthy citizens professed themselves their +disciples, and in the army their power rapidly increased by the daily +accession of the most godly and fanatic of the soldiers. The very nature +of the contest between the king and the parliament was calculated to +predispose the mind in favour of their principles. It taught men to +distrust the claims of authority, to exercise their own judgment on matters +of the highest interest, and to spurn the fetters of intellectual as well +as of political thraldom. In a short time the Independents were joined by +the Antinomians, Anabaptists, Millenarians, Erastians, and the members +of many ephemeral sects, whose very names are now forgotten. All had one +common interest; freedom of conscience formed the chain which bound them +together.[1] + +In the assembly each party watched with jealousy, and opposed with warmth, +the proceedings of the other. On a few questions they proved unanimous. The +appointment of days of humiliation and prayer, the suppression of public +and scandalous sins, the prohibition of copes and surplices, the removal +of organs from the churches, and the mutilation or demolition of monuments +deemed superstitious or idolatrous, were matters equally congenial to their +feelings, and equally gratifying to their zeal or fanaticism.[2] But when +they + +[Footnote 1: Baillie, 398, 408; ii. 3, 19, 43. Whitelock, 169, 170.] + +[Footnote 2: Journals, 1643, July 5; 1644, Jan. 16, 29, May 9. Journals of +Lords, vi. 200, 507, 546. Baillie, i. 421, 422, 471. Rush. v. 358, 749.] + +came to the more important subject of church government, the opposition +between them grew fierce and obstinate; and day after day, week after week, +was consumed in unavailing debates. The kirk of Scotland remonstrated, the +House of Commons admonished in vain. For more than a year the perseverance +of the Independents held in check the ardour and influence of their more +numerous adversaries. Overpowered at last by open force, they had recourse +to stratagem; and, to distract the attention of the Presbyterians, tendered +to the assembly a plea for indulgence to tender consciences; while their +associate, Cromwell, obtained from the lower house an order that the same +subject should be referred to a committee formed of lords and commoners, +and Scottish commissioners and deputies from the assembly. Thus a new apple +of discord was thrown among the combatants. The lords Say and Wharton, Sir +Henry Vane, and Mr. St. John, contended warmly in favour of toleration; +they were as warmly opposed by the "divine eloquence of the chancellor" of +Scotland, the commissioners from the kirk, and several eminent members +of the English parliament. The passions and artifices of the contending +parties interposed additional delays, and the year 1644 closed before this +interesting controversy could be brought to a conclusion.[1] Eighteen +months had elapsed since the assembly was first convened, and yet it had +accomplished nothing of importance except the composition of a directory +for the public worship, which regulated the order of the service, the +administration of the sacraments, the ceremony of marriage, the visitation +of the sick, and the burial of the dead. + +[Footnote 1: Baillie, ii. 57, 61, 62, 66-68. Journals, Sept. 13, Jan. 24; +of Lords, 70.] + +On all these subjects the Scots endeavoured to introduce the practice of +their own kirk; but the pride of the English demanded alterations; and both +parties consented to a sort of compromise, which carefully avoided every +approach to the form of a liturgy, and, while it suggested heads for the +sermon and prayer, left much of the matter, and the whole of the manner, +to the talents or the inspiration of the minister. In England the Book of +Common Prayer was abolished, and the Directory substituted in its place by +an ordinance of the two houses; in Scotland the latter was commanded to be +observed in all churches by the joint authority of the assembly and the +parliament.[1] + +To the downfall of the liturgy succeeded a new spectacle,--the decapitation +of an archbishop. The name of Laud, during the first fifteen months after +his impeachment, had scarcely been mentioned; and his friends began +to cherish a hope that, amidst the din of arms, the old man might be +forgotten, or suffered to descend peaceably into the grave. But his death +was unintentionally occasioned by the indiscretion of the very man whose +wish and whose duty it was to preserve the life of the prelate. The Lords +had ordered Laud to collate the vacant benefices in his gift on persons +nominated by themselves, the king forbade him to obey. The death[a] of the +rector of Chartham, in Kent, brought his constancy to the test. The Lords +named one person to the living, Charles another; and the archbishop, to +extricate himself from the dilemma, sought to defer his decision till the +right should have + +[Footnote 1: Baillie, i. 408, 413, 440; ii. 27, 31, 33, 36, 73, 74, 75. +Rush. v. 785. Journals, Sept. 24, Nov. 26, Jan. 1, 4, March 5. Journals of +Lords, 119, 121. See "Confessions of Faith, &c. in the Church of Scotland," +159-194.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1643 Feb. 3.] lapsed to the crown; but the Lords made a +peremptory order, and when he attempted to excuse his disobedience, sent a +message[a] to the Commons to expedite his trial. Perhaps they meant only +to intimidate; but his enemies seized the opportunity; a committee was +appointed; and the task of collecting and preparing evidence was committed +to Prynne, whose tiger-like revenge still thirsted for the blood of his +former persecutor.[1] He carried off[b] from the cell of the prisoner his +papers, his diary, and even his written defence; he sought in every quarter +for those who had formerly been prosecuted or punished at the instance of +the archbishop, and he called on all men to discharge their duty to God and +their country, by deposing to the crimes of him who was the common enemy of +both. + +At the termination of six months[c] the committee had been able to add ten +new articles of impeachment to the fourteen already presented; four months +later,[d] both parties were ready to proceed to trial, and on the 12th of +March, 1644, more than three years after his commitment, the archbishop +confronted his prosecutors at the bar of the House of Lords. + +I shall not attempt to conduct the reader through, the mazes of this long +and wearisome process, which occupied twenty-one days in the course of six +months. The many articles presented by the Commons might be reduced to +three,--that Laud had endeavoured to subvert the rights of parliament, the +laws and the religion of the nation. In support of these, every instance +that could be raked together by the industry and ingenuity of Prynne, was +brought forward. The familiar discourse, and the secret writings of the + +[Footnote 1: Laud's History written by himself in the Tower, 200-206.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1643. April 21.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1643. May 31.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1643. Oct. 23.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1644. March 4.] + +prelate, had been scrutinized; and his conduct both private and public, +as a bishop and a counsellor, in the Star-chamber and the High Commission +court, had been subjected to the most severe investigation. Under every +disadvantage, he defended himself with spirit, and often with success. He +showed that many of the witnesses were his personal enemies, or undeserving +of credit; that his words and writings would bear a less offensive and more +probable interpretation; and that most of the facts objected to him were +either the acts of his officers, who alone ought to be responsible, or the +common decision of those boards of which he was only a single member.[1] +Thus far[a] he had conducted his defence without legal aid. To speak to +matters of law, he was allowed the aid of counsel, who contended that not +one of the offences alleged against him amounted to high treason; that +their number could not change their quality; that an endeavour to subvert +the law, or religion, or the rights of parliament, was not treason by any +statute; and that the description of an offence, so vague and indeterminate +ought never to be admitted;: otherwise the slightest transgression might, +under that denomination, be converted into the highest crime known to the +law.[2] + +But the Commons, whether they distrusted the patriotism of the Lords, or +doubted the legal guilt of the prisoner, had already resolved to proceed by +attainder. After the second reading[b] of the ordinance, they sent for the +venerable prisoner to their bar, and ordered Brown, one of the managers, to +recapitulate in his + +[Footnote 1: Compare his own daily account of his trial in History, +220-421, with that part published by Prynne, under the title of +Canterburies Doome, 1646; and Rushworth, v. 772.] + +[Footnote 2: See it in Laud's History, 423.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. March 11.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1644. Nov. 2.] + +hearing the evidence against him, together with his answers. Some days +later[a] he was recalled, and suffered to speak in his own defence. After +his departure, Brown made a long reply; and the house, without further +consideration, passed[b] the bill of attainder, and adjudged him to suffer +the penalties of treason.[1] The reader will not fail to observe this +flagrant perversion of the forms of justice. It was not as in the case of +the earl of Strafford. The commons had not been present at the trial +of Laud; they had not heard the evidence, they had not even read the +depositions of the witnesses; they pronounced judgment on the credit of +the unsworn and partial statement made by their own advocate. Such a +proceeding, so subversive of right and equity, would have been highly +reprehensible in any court or class of men; it deserved the severest +reprobation in that house, the members of which professed themselves the +champions of freedom, and were actually in arms against the sovereign, to +preserve, as they maintained, the laws, the rights, and the liberties of +the nation. + +To quicken the tardy proceedings of the Peers, the enemies of the +archbishop had recourse to their usual expedients. Their emissaries +lamented the delay in the punishment of delinquents, and the want of +unanimity between the two houses. It was artfully suggested as a remedy, +that both the Lords and Commons ought to sit and vote together in one +assembly; and a petition, embodying these different subjects, was prepared +and circulated for signatures through the city. Such manoeuvres aroused the +spirit of the Peers. They threatened[c] to punish all disturbers + +[Footnote 1: Journals, Oct. 31, Nov. 2, 11, 16. Laud's History, 432-440. +Rushworth, v. 780.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. Nov. 11.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1644. Nov. 13.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1644. Nov. 28.] + +of the peace; they replied with dignity to an insulting message from the +Commons; and, regardless of the clamours of the populace, they spent +several days in comparing the proofs of the managers with the defence of +the archbishop. At last,[a] in a house of fourteen members, the majority +pronounced him guilty of certain acts, but called upon the judges to +determine the quality of the offence; who warily replied, that nothing of +which he had been convicted was treason by the statute law; what it might +be by the law of parliament, the house alone was the proper judge. In these +circumstances the Lords informed the Commons, that till their consciences +were satisfied, they should "scruple" to pass the bill of attainder.[1] + +It was the eve of Christmas,[b] and to prove that the nation had thrown off +the yoke of superstition, the festival was converted, by ordinance of the +two houses, into a day of "fasting and public humiliation."[2] There was +much policy in the frequent repetition of these devotional observances. +The ministers having previously received instructions from the leading +patriots, adapted their prayers and sermons to the circumstances of the +time, and never failed to add a new stimulus to the fanaticism of their +hearers. On the present occasion[c] the crimes of the archbishop offered a +tempting theme to their eloquence; and the next morning the Commons, taking +into consideration the last message, intrusted[d] to a committee the task +of enlightening the ignorance of the Lords. In a conference + +[Footnote 1: Journals, vii. 76, 100, 111.] + +[Footnote 2: Ibid. 106. In the preceding year, the Scottish commissioners +had "preached stoutly against the superstition of Christmas;" but only +succeeded in prevailing on the two houses "to profane that holyday +by sitting on it, to their great joy, and some of the assembly's +shame."--Baillie, i. 411.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644 Dec. 17.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1644 Dec. 23.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1644 Dec. 26.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1645 Jan. 2.] + +the latter were told that treasons are of two kinds: treasons against +the king, created by statute, and cognizable by the inferior courts; and +treasons against the realm, held so at common law, and subject only to the +judgment of parliament; there could not be a doubt that the offence of Laud +was treason of the second class; nor would the two houses perform their +duty, if they did not visit it with the punishment which it deserved. When +the question was resumed, several of the Lords withdrew; most of the others +were willing to be persuaded by the reasoning of the Commons; and the +ordinance of attainder was passed[a] by the majority, consisting only, if +the report be correct, of six members.[1] + +The archbishop submitted with resignation to his fate, and appeared[b] on +the scaffold with a serenity of countenance and dignity of behaviour, which +did honour to the cause for which he suffered. The cruel punishment of +treason had been, after some objections, commuted for decapitation, and the +dead body was delivered for interment to his friends.[2] On Charles the +melancholy intelligence made a deep impression; + +[Footnote 1: Journals, 125, 126. Commons, Dec. 26. Laud's Troubles, 452, +Rushworth, v. 781-785. Cyprianus Aug. 528. From the journals it appears +that twenty lords were in the house during the day: but we are told in the +"Brief Relation" printed in the second collection of Somers's Tracts, ii. +287, that the majority consisted of the earls of Kent, Pembroke, Salisbury, +and Bolingbroke, and the lords North, Gray de Warke, and Bruce. Bruce +afterwards denied that he had voted. According to Sabran, the French +ambassador, the majority amounted to five out of nine.--Raumer, ii. 332.] + +[Footnote 2: Several executions had preceded that of the archbishop. +Macmahon, concerned in the design to surprise the castle of Dublin, +suffered Nov. 22; Sir Alexander Carew, who had engaged to surrender +Plymouth to the king, on Dec. 23, and Sir John Hotham and his son, who, +conceiving themselves ill-treated by the parliament, had entered into a +treaty for the surrender of Hull, on the 1st and 2nd of January; Lord +Macguire followed on Feb. 20.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1645. Jan. 4.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1645. Jan. 10.] + +yet he contrived to draw from it a new source of consolation. He had sinned +equally with his opponents in consenting to the death of Strafford, and +had experienced equally with them the just vengeance of heaven. But he was +innocent of the blood of Laud; the whole guilt was exclusively theirs; nor +could he doubt that the punishment would speedily follow in the depression +of their party, and the exaltation of the throne.[1] + +The very enemies of the unfortunate archbishop admitted that he was learned +and pious, attentive to his duties, and unexceptionable in his morals; +on the other hand, his friends could not deny that he was hasty and +vindictive, positive in his opinions, and inexorable in his enmities. To +excuse his participation in the arbitrary measures of the council, and his +concurrence in the severe decrees of the Star-chamber, he alleged, that he +was only one among many; and that it was cruel to visit on the head of a +single victim the common faults of the whole board. But it was replied, +with great appearance of truth, that though only one, he was the chief; +that his authority and influence swayed the opinions both of his sovereign +and his colleagues; and that he must not expect to escape the just reward +of his crimes, because he had possessed the ingenuity to make others his +associates in guilt. Yet I am of opinion that it was religious, and not +political rancour, which led him to the block; and that, if the zealots +could have forgiven his conduct as archbishop, he might have lingered out +the remainder of his life in the Tower. There was, however, but little +difference in that respect between + +[Footnote 1: See his letter to the queen, Jan. 14th, in his Works, 145.] + +them and their victim. Both were equally obstinate, equally infallible, +equally intolerant. As long as Laud ruled in the zenith of his power, +deprivation awaited the non-conforming minister, and imprisonment, fine, +and the pillory were the certain lot of the writer who dared to lash the +real or imaginary vices of the prelacy. His opponents were now lords of +the ascendant, and they exercised their sway with similar severity on the +orthodox clergy of the establishment, and on all who dared to arraign +before the public the new reformation of religion. Surely the consciousness +of the like intolerance might have taught them to look with a more +indulgent eye on the past errors of their fallen adversary, and to spare +the life of a feeble old man bending under the weight of seventy-two years, +and disabled by his misfortunes from offering opposition to their will, or +affording aid to their enemies.[1] + +[Footnote 1: I have not noticed the charge of endeavouring to introduce +popery, because it appears to me fully disproved by the whole tenor of his +conduct and writings, as long as he was in authority. There is, however, +some reason to believe that, in the solitude of his cell, and with the +prospect of the block before his eyes, he began to think more favourably +of the Catholic church. At least, I find Rosetti inquiring of Cardinal +Barberini whether, if Laud should escape from the Tower, the pope would +afford him an asylum and a pension in Rome. He would be content with one +thousand crowns--"il quale, quando avesse potuto liberarsi dalle carceri, +sarebbe ito volontieri a vivere e morire in Roma, contendandosi di mille +scudi annui."--Barberini answered, that Laud was in such bad repute in +Rome, being looked upon as the cause of all the troubles in England, that +it would previously be necessary that he should give good proof of his +repentance; in which case he should receive assistance, though such +assistance would give a colour to the imputation that there had always been +an understanding between him and Rome. "Era si cattivo il concetto, che di +lui avevasi in Roma, cioè che fosse stato autore di tutte le torbolenze +d'Inghilterra, che era necessario dasse primo segni ben grandi del suo +pentimento. Ed in tal caso sarebbe stato ajutato; sebene saria paruto che +nelle sue passate resoluzioni se la fosse sempre intesa con Roma."--From +the MS. abstract of the Barberini papers made by the canon Nicoletti soon +after the death of the cardinal.] + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +Treaty At Uxbridge--Victories Of Montrose In Scotland--Defeat Of The King +At Naseby--Surrender Of Bristol--Charles Shut Up Within Oxford--Mission Of +Glamorgan To Ireland--He Is Disavowed By Charles, But Concludes A Peace +With The Irish--The King Intrigues With The Parliament, The Scots, And The +Independents--He Escapes To The Scottish Army--Refuses The Concessions +Required--Is Delivered Up By The Scots. + + +Whenever men spontaneously risk their lives and fortunes in the support of +a particular cause, they are wont to set a high value on their services, +and generally assume the right of expressing their opinions, and of +interfering with their advice. Hence it happened that the dissensions and +animosities in the court and army of the unfortunate monarch were scarcely +less violent or less dangerous than those which divided the parliamentary +leaders. All thought themselves entitled to offices and honours from the +gratitude of the sovereign; no appointment could be made which did not +deceive the expectations, and excite the murmurs, of numerous competitors; +and complaints were everywhere heard, cabals were formed, and the wisest +plans were frequently controlled and defeated, by men who thought +themselves neglected or aggrieved. When Charles, as one obvious remedy, +removed the lord Wilmot from the command of the cavalry, and the lord Percy +from that of the ordnance, he found that he had only aggravated the +evil; and the dissatisfaction of the army was further increased by the +substitution of his nephew Prince Rupert, whose severe and imperious temper +had earned him the general hatred, in the place of Ruthen, who, on account +of his infirmities, had been advised to retire.[1] + +Another source of most acrimonious controversy was furnished by the +important question of peace or war, which formed a daily subject of debate +in every company, and divided the royalists into contending parties. Some +there were (few, indeed, in number, and chiefly those whom the two houses +by their votes had excluded from all hopes of pardon) who contended that +the king ought never to lay down his arms till victory should enable him to +give the law to his enemies; but the rest, wearied out with the fatigues +and dangers of war, and alarmed by the present sequestration of their +estates, and the ruin which menaced their families, most anxiously longed +for the restoration of peace. These, however, split into two parties; one +which left the conditions to the wisdom of the monarch; the other which not +only advised, but occasionally talked of compelling a reconciliation, on +almost any terms, pretending that, if once the king were reseated on his +throne, he must quickly recover every prerogative which he might have lost. +As for Charles himself, he had already suffered too much by the war, and +saw too gloomy a prospect before him, to be indifferent to the subject; +but, though he was now prepared to make sacrifices, from which but two +years before he would have recoiled with horror, he had still resolved +never to subscribe to conditions irreconcilable with his honour and +conscience; and in this temper of + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon, ii. 482, 513, 554.] + +mind he was confirmed by the frequent letters of Henrietta from Paris, who +reminded him of the infamy which he would entail on himself, were he, as +he was daily advised, to betray to the vengeance of the parliament the +Protestant bishops and Catholic royalists, who, trusting to his word, +had ventured their all for his interest.[1] He had now assembled _his_ +parliament for the second time; but the attendance of the members was +scarce, and the inconvenience greater than the benefit. Motions were made +ungrateful to the feelings, and opposed to the real views of the king, who, +to free himself from the more obtrusive and importunate of these advisers, +sent them + +[Footnote 1: This is the inference which I have drawn from a careful +perusal of the correspondence between Charles and the queen in his Works, +p. 142-150. Some writers have come to a different conclusion: that he +was insincere, and under the pretence of seeking peace, was in reality +determined to continue the war. That he prepared for the resumption of +hostilities is indeed true, but the reason which he gives to the queen is +satisfactory, "the improbability that this present treaty should produce +a peace, considering the great strange difference (if not contrariety) of +grounds that are betwixt the rebels' propositions and mine, and that I +cannot alter mine, nor will they ever theirs, until they be out of the hope +to prevail by force" (p. 146). Nor do I see any proof that Charles was +governed, as is pretended, by the queen. He certainly took his resolutions +without consulting her, and, if she sometimes expressed her opinion +respecting them, it was no more than any other woman in a similar situation +would have done. "I have nothing to say, but that you have a care of your +honour; and that, if you have a peace, it may be such as may hold; and if +it fall out otherwise, that you do not abandon those who have served you, +for fear they do forsake you in your need. Also I do not see how you can +be in safety without a regiment of guard; for myself, I think I cannot be, +seeing the malice which they have against me and my religion, of which I +hope you will have a care of both. But in my opinion, religion should +be the last thing upon which you should treat; for if you do agree upon +strictness against the Catholics, it would discourage them to serve you; +and if afterwards there should be no peace, you could never expect succours +either from Ireland, or any other Catholic prince, for they would believe +you would abandon them after you have served yourself" (p. 142, 143).] + +into honourable exile, by appointing them[a] to give their attendance on +his queen during her residence in France.[1] + +In the last summer the first use which he had made of each successive +advantage, was to renew[b] the offer of opening a negotiation for peace. It +convinced the army of the pacific disposition of their sovereign, and it +threw on the parliament, even among their own adherents, the blame of +continuing the war. At length,[c] after the third message, the houses gave +a tardy and reluctant consent; but it was not before they had received from +Scotland the propositions formerly voted as the only basis of a lasting +reconciliation, had approved of the amendments suggested by their allies, +and had filled up the blanks with the specification of the acts of +parliament to be passed, and with the names of the royalists to be excepted +from the amnesty. It was plain to every intelligent man in either army that +to lay such a foundation of peace was in reality to proclaim perpetual +hostilities.[2] But the king, by the advice of his council, consented to +make it the subject of a treaty, for two ends; to discover whether it was +the resolution of the houses to adhere without any modification to these +high pretensions; and to make the experiment, whether it were not possible +to gain one of the two factions, the Presbyterians or the Independents, or +at least to widen + +[Footnote 1: See the letters in Charles's Works, 142-148. "I may fairly +expect to be chidden by thee for having suffered thee to be vexed by them +(Wilmot being already there, Percy on his way, and Sussex within a few +days of taking his journey), but that I know thou carest not for a little +trouble to free me from great inconvenience."--Ibid. 150.] + +[Footnote 2: Journals, vii. 53. The very authors of the propositions did +not expect that the king would ever submit to them.--Baillie, ii. 8, 43, +73.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. July 4.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1644. Sept. 5.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1644. Nov. 23.] the breach between them by furnishing new +causes of dissension.[1] + +At Uxbridge, within the parliamentary quarters, the commissioners from the +two parties met each other.[a] Those from the parliament had been commanded +to admit of no deviation from the substance of the propositions already +voted; to confine themselves to the task of showing that their demands were +conformable to reason, and therefore not to be refused; and to insist +that the questions of religion, the militia, and Ireland, should each +be successively debated during the term of three days, and continued in +rotation till twenty days had expired, when, if no agreement were made, the +treaty should terminate. They demanded that episcopacy should be abolished, +and the Directory be substituted in place of the Book of Common Prayer; +that the command of the army and navy should be vested in the two houses, +and intrusted by them to certain commissioners of their own appointment; +and that the cessation in Ireland should be broken, and hostilities +should be immediately renewed. The king's commissioners replied, that +his conscience would not allow him to consent to the proposed change of +religious worship, but that he was willing to consent to a law restricting +the jurisdiction of the bishops within the narrowest bounds, granting every +reasonable indulgence to tender consciences, and raising on the church +property the sum of one hundred thousand + +[Footnote 1: Charles was now persuaded even to address the two houses by +the style of "the Lords and Commons assembled in the parliament of England +at Westminster," instead of "the Lords and Commons of parliament assembled +at Westminster," which he had formerly used.--Journals, vii. 91. He says +he would not have done it, if he could have found two in the council to +support him.--Works, 144, Evelyn's Mem. ii. App. 90. This has been alleged, +but I see not with what reason, as a proof of his insincerity in the +treaty.] + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1645. Jan. 30.] + +pounds, towards the liquidation of the public debt; that on the subject +of the army and navy he was prepared to make considerable concessions, +provided the power of the sword were, after a certain period, to revert +unimpaired to him and his successors; and that he could not, consistently +with his honour, break the Irish treaty, which he had, after mature +deliberation, subscribed and ratified. Much of the time was spent in +debates respecting the comparative merits of the episcopal and presbyterian +forms of church government, and in charges and recriminations as to the +real authors of the distress and necessity which had led to the cessation +in Ireland. On the twentieth day nothing had been concluded. A proposal +to prolong the negotiation was rejected by the two houses, and the +commissioners returned to London and Oxford.[a] The royalists had, however, +discovered that Vane, St. John, and Prideaux had come to Uxbridge not +so much to treat, as to act the part of spies on the conduct of their +colleagues; and that there existed an irreconcilable difference of opinion +between the two parties, the Presbyterians seeking the restoration +of royalty, provided it could be accomplished with perfect safety to +themselves, and with the legal establishment of their religious worship, +while the Independents sought nothing less than the total downfall of the +throne, and the extinction of the privileges of the nobility.[1] + +Both parties again appealed to the sword, but with very different prospects +before them; on the side of the royalists all was lowering and gloomy, on +that of the parliament bright and cheering. The king had + +[Footnote 1: See Journals, vii. 163, 166, 169, 174, 181, 195, 211, 231, +239, 242-254; Clarendon, ii. 578-600.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1645. Feb. 22.] + +derived but little of that benefit which he expected from the cessation in +Ireland. He dared not withdraw the bulk of his army before he had concluded +a peace with the insurgents; and they, aware of his difficulties, combined +their demands, which he knew not how to grant, with an offer of aid which +he was unwilling to refuse. They demanded freedom of religion, the repeal +of Poyning's law, a parliamentary settlement of their estates, and a +general amnesty, with this exception, that an inquiry should be instituted +into all acts of violence and bloodshed not consistent with the +acknowledged usages of war, and that the perpetrators should be punished +according to their deserts, without distinction of party or religion. It +was the first article which presented the chief difficulty. The Irish urged +the precedent of Scotland; they asked no more than had been conceded to the +Covenanters; they had certainly as just a claim to the free exercise of +that worship, which had been the national worship for ages, as the Scots +could have, to the exclusive establishment of a form of religion which had +not existed during an entire century. But Charles, in addition to his own +scruples, feared to irritate the prejudices of his Protestant subjects. He +knew that many of his own adherents would deem such a concession an act of +apostasy; and he conjured the Irish deputies not to solicit that which must +prove prejudicial to him, and therefore to themselves: let them previously +enable him to master their common enemies; let them place him in a +condition "to make them happy," and he assured them on the word of a king, +that he would not "disappoint their just expectations."[1] They were not, +however, to be satisfied + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon, Irish Rebellion, 25.] + +with vague promises, which might afterwards be interpreted as it suited +the royal convenience; and Charles, to throw the odium of the measure from +himself on his Irish counsellors, transferred the negotiation to Dublin, +to be continued by the new lord lieutenant, the marquess of Ormond. That +nobleman was at first left to his own discretion. He was then authorized +to promise the non-execution of the penal laws for the present, and their +repeal on the restoration of tranquillity; and, lastly, to stipulate for +their immediate repeal, if he could not otherwise subdue the obstinacy, or +remove the jealousy of the insurgents. The treaty at Uxbridge had disclosed +to the eyes of the monarch the abyss which yawned before him; he saw "that +the aim of his adversaries was a total subversion of religion and regal +power;" and he commanded Ormond to conclude the peace whatever it might +cost, provided it should secure the persons and properties of the Irish +Protestants, and the full exercise of the royal authority in the island.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Carte's Ormond, ii. App. xii. xiv. xv. xviii. iii. cccxxxi. +He thus states his reasons to the lord lieutenant:--"It being now manifest +that the English rebels have, as far as in them lies, given the command +of Ireland to the Scots" (they had made Leslie, earl of Leven, +commander-in-chief of all the English as well as Scottish forces in +Ireland), "that their aim is the total subversion of religion and regal +power, and that nothing less will content them, or purchase peace here; I +think myself bound in conscience not to let slip the means of settling that +kingdom (if it may be) fully under my obedience, nor lose that assistance +which I may hope from my Irish subjects, for such scruples as in a less +pressing condition might reasonably be stuck at by me.... If the suspension +of Poining's act for such bills as shall be agreed upon between you there, +and the present taking away of the penal laws against papists by a law, +will do it, I shall not think it a hard bargain, so that freely and +vigorously they engage themselves in my assistance against my rebels of +England and Scotland, for which no conditions can be too hard, not being +against conscience or honour."--Charles's Works, 149, 150.] + +In Scotland an unexpected but transient diversion had been made in favour +of the royal cause. The earls, afterwards marquesses, of Antrim and +Montrose had met in the court at Oxford. In abilities Montrose was inferior +to few, in ambition to none. The reader is aware that he had originally +fought in the ranks of the Covenanters, but afterwards transferred his +services to Charles, and narrowly escaped the vengeance of his enemies. +Now, that he was again at liberty, he aspired to the glory of restoring +the ascendancy of the royal cause in Scotland. At first all his plans were +defeated by the jealousy or wisdom of Hamilton; but Hamilton gradually +sunk, whilst his rival rose in the esteem of the sovereign.[1] Antrim, his +associate, was weak and capricious, but proud of his imaginary consequence, +and eager to engage in undertakings to which neither his means nor his +talents were equal. He had failed in his original attempt to surprise the +castle of Dublin; and had twice fallen into the hands of the Scots in +Ulster, and twice made his escape; still his loyalty or presumption +was unsubdued, and he had come to Oxford to make a third tender of his +services. + +[Footnote 1: When Hamilton arrived at Oxford, Dec. 16, 1643, several +charges were brought against him by the Scottish royalists, which with his +answers may be seen in Burnet, Memoirs, 250-269. Charles pronounced no +opinion; but his suspicions were greatly excited by the deception practised +by Hamilton on the lords of the royal party at the convention, and his +concealment from them of the king's real intentions. On this account +Hamilton was arrested, and conveyed to Pendennis Castle, in Cornwall, +where he remained a prisoner till the place was taken by the parliamentary +forces. Hamilton's brother Lanark was also forbidden to appear at court; +and, having received advice that he would be sent to the castle of Ludlow, +made his escape from Oxford to his countrymen in London, and thence +returned to Edinburgh. His offence was, that he, as secretary, had affixed +the royal signet to the proclamation of August 24, calling on all Scotsmen +to arm in support of the new league and covenant.--See p. 36.] + + +Both Antrim and Montrose professed themselves the personal enemies of +the earl of Argyle, appointed by the Scottish estates lieutenant of the +kingdom; and they speedily arranged a plan, which possessed the double +merit of combining the interest of the king with the gratification of +private revenge. Having obtained the royal commission,[1] Antrim proceeded +to Ulster, raised eleven or fifteen hundred men among his dependants, and +despatched them to the opposite coast of Scotland under the command of his +kinsman Alaster Macdonald, surnamed Colkitto.[2] They landed at Knoydart: +the destruction of their ships in Loch Eishord, by a hostile fleet, +deprived them of the means of returning to Ireland; and Argyle with a +superior force cautiously watched their motions.[a] From the Scottish +royalists they received no aid; yet Macdonald marched as far as Badenoch, +inflicting severe injuries on the Covenanters, but exposed to destruction +from the increasing multitude of his foes. In the mean time, Montrose, +with the rank of lieutenant-general, had unfurled the royal standard at +Dumfries;[b] but with so little success, that he hastily retraced his steps +to Carlisle, where by several daring actions he rendered such services to +the royal cause, that he received the title of marquess from the gratitude +of the king. But the fatal battle of Marston Moor induced him to turn his +thoughts once more towards Scotland;[c] and having ordered his followers to +proceed to Oxford, on + +[Footnote 1: He was authorized to treat with the confederate Catholics for +ten thousand men; if their demands were too high, to raise as many men as +he could and send them to the king; to procure the loan of two thousand men +to be landed in Scotland; and to offer Monroe, the Scottish commander, the +rank of earl and a pension of two thousand pounds per annum, if with his +army he would join the royalists. Jan. 20, 1644.--Clarendon Papers, ii. +165.] + +[Footnote 2: MacColl Keitache, son of Coll, the left-handed.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. July 8.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1644. April 13.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1644. May 6.] + +the third day he silently withdrew with only two companions, and soon +afterwards reached in the disguise of a groom the foot of the Grampian +Hills. There he received intelligence of the proceedings of Macdonald, +and appointed to join him in Athole.[a] At the castle of Blair, which had +surrendered to the strangers, the two chieftains met: Montrose assumed the +command, published the royal commission, and called on the neighbouring +clans to join the standard of their sovereign. The Scots, who had scorned +to serve under a foreigner, cheerfully obeyed, and to the astonishment of +the Covenanters an army appeared to rise out of the earth in a quarter the +most remote from danger; but it was an army better adapted to the purpose +of predatory invasion than of permanent warfare. Occasionally it swelled to +the amount of several thousands: as often it dwindled to the original band +of Irishmen under Macdonald. These, having no other resource than +their courage, faithfully clung to their gallant commander in all the +vicissitudes of his fortune; the Highlanders, that they might secure their +plunder, frequently left him to flee before the superior multitude of his +foes. + +The first who dared to meet the royalists in the field, was the lord Elcho, +whose defeat at Tippermuir gave to the victors the town of Perth, with a +plentiful supply of military stores and provisions.[b] From Perth they +marched towards Aberdeen; the Lord Burley with his army fled at the first +charge; and the pursuers entered the gates with the fugitives.[c] The sack +of the town lasted three days: by the fourth many of the Highlanders had +disappeared with the spoil; and Argyle approached with a superior force.[d] +Montrose, to avoid the enemy, led his followers into Banff, proceeded + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. August 1.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1644. Sept. 1.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1644. Sept. 12.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1644. Sept. 19.] + +along the right bank of the Spey, crossed the mountains of Badenoch, passed +through Athole into Angus, and after a circuitous march of some hundred +miles, reached and took the castle of Fyvie. There he was overtaken by the +Covenanters, whom he had so long baffled by the rapidity and perplexity of +his movements.[a] But every attempt to force his position on the summit of +a hill was repelled; and on the retirement of the enemy, he announced to +his followers his intention of seeking a safer asylum in the Highlands. +Winter had already set in with severity; and his Lowland associates shrunk +from the dreary prospect before them; but Montrose himself, accompanied by +his more faithful adherents, gained without opposition the braes of Athole. + +To Argyle the disappearance of the royalists was a subject of joy. +Disbanding the army, he repaired, after a short visit to Edinburgh, to his +castle of Inverary, where he reposed in security, aware, indeed, of the +hostile projects of Montrose, but trusting to the wide barrier of snows +and mountains which separated him from his enemy. But the royal leader +penetrated through this Alpine wilderness,[b] compelled Argyle to save +himself in an open boat on Loch Tyne, and during six weeks wreaked his +revenge on the domains and the clansmen of the fugitive. At the approach of +Argyle with eleven hundred regular troops, he retired; but suddenly turning +to the left, crossed the mountains, and issuing from Glennevis, surprised +his pursuers at Inverlochy in Lochabar.[c] From his galley in the Frith +Argyle beheld the assault of the enemy, the shock of the combatants, and +the slaughter of at least one half of his whole force.[d] This victory +placed the north of Scotland at the mercy of the conquerors. + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. Oct. 28.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1644. Dec. 13.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1645. Jan. 28.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1645. Feb. 2.] + + +From Inverlochy they marched to Elgin, and from Elgin to Aberdeen, +ravaging, as they passed, the lands, and burning the houses of the +Covenanters. But at Brechin, Baillie opposed their progress with a[a] +numerous and regular force. Montrose turned in the direction of Dunkeld; +Baillie marched to Perth. The former surprised the opulent town of Dundee; +the latter arrived in time to expel the plunderers. But[b] he pursued in +vain. They regained the Grampian hills, where in security they once more +bade defiance to the whole power of the enemy. Such was the short and +eventful campaign of Montrose. His victories, exaggerated by report, and +embellished by the fancy of the hearers, cast a faint and deceitful lustre +over the declining cause of royalty. But they rendered no other service. +His passage was that of a meteor, scorching every thing in its course. +Wherever he appeared, he inflicted the severest injuries; but he made no +permanent conquest; he taught the Covenanters to tremble at his name, +but he did nothing to arrest that ruin which menaced the throne and its +adherents.[1] + +England, however, was the real arena on which the conflict was to be +decided, and in England the king soon found himself unable to cope with his +enemies. He still possessed about one-third of the kingdom. From Oxford he +extended his sway almost without interruption to the extremity of Cornwall: +North and South Wales, with the exception of the castles of Pembroke and +Montgomery, acknowledged his authority; and the royal standard was still +unfurled in several + +[Footnote 1: See Rushworth, v. 928-932; vi. 228; Guthrie, 162-183; Baillie, +ii. 64, 65, 92-95; Clarendon, ii. 606, 618; Wishart, 67, 110; Journals, +vii. 566; Spalding, ii. 237.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1645. March 25.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1645. April 4.] + +towns in the midland comities.[1] But his army, under the nominal command +of the prince of Wales, and the real command of Prince Rupert, was +frittered away in a multitude of petty garrisons, and languished in a state +of the most alarming insubordination. The generals, divided into factions, +presumed to disobey the royal orders, and refused to serve under an +adversary or a rival; the officers indulged in every kind of debauchery; +the privates lived at free quarters; and the royal forces made themselves +more terrible to their friends by their licentiousness than to their +enemies by their valour.[2] Their excesses provoked new associations in the +counties of Wilts, Dorset, Devon, Somerset, and Worcester, known by the +denomination of Clubmen, whose primary object was the protection of private +property, and the infliction of summary vengeance on the depredators +belonging to either army. These associations were encouraged and organized +by the neighbouring gentlemen; arms of every description were collected for +their use; and they were known to assemble in numbers of four, six, +and even ten thousand men. Confidence in their own strength, and the +suggestions of their leaders, taught them to extend their views; they +invited the adjoining counties to follow their example, and talked of +putting an end by force to the unnatural war which depopulated the country. +But though they professed to observe the strictest neutrality between the +contending parties, their meetings excited a well-founded jealousy + +[Footnote 1: Rushworth, vi. 18-22.] + +[Footnote 2: Clarendon, ii. 604, 633, 636, 642, 661, 668. "Good men are so +scandalized at the horrid impiety of our armies, that they will not believe +that God can bless any cause in such hands."--Lord Culpeper to Lord Digby. +Clarendon Papers, ii. 189. Carte's Ormond, iii. 396, 399.] + +on the part of the parliamentary leaders; who, the moment it could be done +without danger, pronounced such associations illegal, and ordered them to +be suppressed by military force.[1] + +On the other side, the army of the parliament had been reformed according +to the ordinance. The members of both houses had resigned their +commissions, with the exception of a single individual, the very man with +whom the measure had originated,--Lieutenant-General Cromwell. This by +some writers has been alleged as a proof of the consummate art of that +adventurer, who sought to remove out of his way the men that stood between +him and the object of his ambition; but the truth is, that his continuation +in the command was effected by a succession of events which he could not +possibly have foreseen. He had been sent with Waller to oppose the progress +of the royalists in the west; on his return he was ordered to prevent the +junction of the royal cavalry with the forces under the king; and he then +received a commission to protect the associated counties from insult. + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon, ii. 665. Whitelock, March, 4, 11, 15. Rushw. vi. +52, 53, 61, 62. But the best account of the Clubmen is to be found in a +letter from Fairfax to the committee of both kingdoms, preserved in the +Journals of the Lords, vii. 184. They wore white ribbons for a distinction, +prevented, as much as they were able, all hostilities between the soldiers +of the opposite parties, and drew up two petitions in the same words, one +to be presented to the king, the other to the parliament, praying them +to conclude a peace, and in the meantime to withdraw their respective +garrisons out of the country, and pledging themselves to keep possession of +the several forts and castles, and not to surrender them without a joint +commission from both king and parliament. Fairfax observes, that "their +heads had either been in actual service in the king's army, or were known +favourers of the party. In these two counties, Wilts and Dorset, they are +abundantly more affected to the enemy than to the parliament. I know not +what they may attempt."--Ibid. At length the two houses declared +all persons associating in arms without authority, traitors to the +commonwealth.--Journals, vii. 549.] + +While he was employed in this service, the term appointed by the ordinance +approached; but Fairfax expressed his unwillingness to part with so +experienced an officer at such a crisis, and the two houses consented that +he should remain forty days longer with the army. Before they expired, the +great battle of Naseby had been fought: in consequence of the victory the +ordinance was suspended three months in his favour; and afterwards the same +indulgence was reiterated as often as it became necessary.[1] + +It was evident that the army had lost nothing by the exclusion of members +of parliament and the change in its organization. The commanders were +selected from those who had already distinguished themselves by the +splendour of their services and their devotion to the cause; the new +regiments were formed of privates, who had served under Essex, Manchester, +and Waller, and care was taken that the majority of both should consist +of that class of religionists denominated Independents. These men were +animated with an enthusiasm of which at the present day we cannot form an +adequate conception. They divided their time between military duties and +prayer; they sang psalms as they advanced to the charge; they called on the +name of the Lord, while they were slaying their enemies. The result showed +that fanaticism furnished a more powerful stimulus than loyalty; the +soldiers of God proved more than a match for the soldiers of the +monarch.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Journals, Feb. 27, May 10, June 16, Aug. 8. Lords' Journ. vii. +420, 535.] + +[Footnote 2: Essex, Manchester, and Denbigh reluctantly tendered their +resignations the day before the ordinance passed. The first died in the +course of the next year (Sept. 14); and the houses, to express their +respect for his memory, attended the funeral, and defrayed the expense out +of the public purse.--Lords' Journals, viii. 508, 533.] + + +Charles was the first to take the field. He marched from Oxford at the head +of ten thousand men, of whom more than one-half were cavalry; the siege of +Chester[a] was raised at the sole report of his approach; and Leicester, an +important post in possession of the parliament,[b] was taken by storm on +the first assault. Fairfax[c] had appeared with his army before Oxford, +where he expected to be admitted by a party within the walls; but the +intrigue failed, and he received orders to proceed[d] in search of the +king.[1] On the evening of the[e] seventh day his van overtook the rear of +the royalists between Daventry and Harborough. Fairfax and his officers +hailed with joy the prospect of a battle. They longed to refute the bitter +taunts and sinister predictions of their opponents in the two houses; to +prove that want of experience might be supplied by the union of zeal and +talent; and to establish, by a victory over the king, the superiority of +the Independent over the Presbyterian party. Charles, on the contrary, +had sufficient reason to decline an engagement.[2] His numbers had been +diminished by the necessity of leaving a strong garrison in Leicester, +and several reinforcements were still on their march to join the royal +standard. But in the presence of the Roundheads the Cavaliers never +listened to the suggestions of prudence. Early[f] in the morning the royal +army formed in line about a mile south of Harborough. Till eight they +awaited with patience the expected charge of the enemy; but + +[Footnote 1: Lords' Journals, vii. 429, 431.] + +[Footnote 2: So little did Charles anticipate the approach of the enemy, +that On the 12th he amused himself with hunting, and on the 13th at supper +time wrote to secretary Nicholas that he should march the next morning, +and proceed through Landabay and Melton to Belvoir, but no further. Before +midnight he had resolved to fight.--See his letter in Evelyn's Memoirs, ii. +App. 97.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1645. May 7.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1645. May 15.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1645. May 31.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1645. June 6.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1645. June 13.] +[Sidenote f: A.D. 1645. June 14.] + +Fairfax refused to move from his strong position near Naseby, and the king, +yielding to the importunity of his officers, gave the word to advance. +Prince Rupert commanded on the right. The enemy fled before him; six pieces +of cannon were taken, and Ireton, the general of the parliamentary horse, +was wounded, and for some time a prisoner in the hands of the victors.[1] +But the lessons of experience had been thrown away upon Rupert. He urged +the pursuit with his characteristic impetuosity, and, as at Marston Moor, +by wandering from the field suffered the victory to be won by the masterly +conduct of Oliver Cromwell. + +That commander found himself opposed to a weak body of cavalry under Sir +Marmaduke Langdale. By both the fight was maintained with obstinate valour; +but superiority of numbers enabled the former to press on the flanks of the +royalists, who began to waver, and at last turned their backs and fled. +Cromwell prudently checked the pursuit, and leaving three squadrons to +watch the fugitives, directed the remainder of his force against the rear +of the royal infantry. That body of men, only three thousand five hundred +in number, had hitherto fought with the most heroic valour, and had driven +the enemy's line, with the exception of one regiment, back on the reserve; +but this unexpected charge broke their spirit; they threw down their arms +and asked for quarter. Charles, who had witnessed their efforts and their +danger, made every exertion to support them; he collected several + +[Footnote 1: Ireton was of an ancient family in Nottinghamshire, and bred +to the law. He raised a troop of horse for the parliament at the beginning +of the war, and accepted a captain's commission in the new-modelled army. +At the request of the officers, Cromwell had been lately appointed +general of the horse, and, at Cromwell's request, Ireton was made +commissary-general under him.--Journals, vii. 421. Rushworth, vi. 42.] + +bodies of horse; he put himself at their head; he called on them to follow +him; he assured them that one more effort would secure the victory. But the +appeal was made in vain. Instead of attending to his prayers and commands, +they fled, and forced him to accompany them. The pursuit was continued with +great slaughter almost to the walls of Leicester; and one hundred females, +some of them ladies of distinguished rank, were put to the sword under the +pretence that they were Irish Catholics. In this fatal battle, fought near +the village of Naseby, the king lost more than three thousand men, nine +thousand stand of arms, his park of artillery, the baggage of the army, and +with it his own cabinet, containing private papers of the first importance. +Out of these the parliament made a collection, which was published, with +remarks, to prove to the nation the falsehoods of Charles, and the justice +of the war.[1] + +[Footnote 1: For this battle see Clarendon, ii. 655; Rushworth, vi. 42; and +the Journals, vii. 433-436. May asserts that not more than three hundred +men were killed on the part of the king, and only one hundred on that of +the parliament. The prisoners amounted to five thousand.--May, 77. The +publication of the king's papers has been severely censured by his friends, +and as warmly defended by the advocates of the parliament. If their +contents were of a nature to justify the conduct of the latter, I see not +on what ground it could be expected that they should be suppressed. The +only complaint which can reasonably be made, and which seems founded in +fact, is that the selection of the papers for the press was made unfairly. +The contents of the cabinet were several days in possession of the +officers, and then submitted to the examination of a committee of the lower +house; by whose advice certain papers were selected and sent to the Lords, +with a suggestion that they should be communicated to the citizens in +a common hall. But the Lords required to see the remainder; twenty-two +additional papers were accordingly produced; but it was at the same time +acknowledged that others were still kept back, because they had not yet +been deciphered. By an order of the Commons the papers were afterwards +printed with a preface contrasting certain passages in them with the king's +former protestations.--Journals, June 23, 26, 30, July 3, 7; Lords', vii. +467, 469. Charles himself acknowledges that the publication, as far as it +went, was genuine (Evelyn's Memoirs, App. 101); but he also maintains that +other papers, which would have served to explain doubtful passages, had +been purposely suppressed.--Clarendon Papers, ii. 187. See Baillie, ii. +136.] + + +After this disastrous battle, the campaign presented little more than the +last and feeble struggles of an expiring party. Among the royalists hardly +a man could be found who did not pronounce the cause to be desperate; and, +if any made a show of resistance, it was more through the hope of procuring +conditions for themselves, than of benefiting the interests of their +sovereign. Charles himself bore his misfortunes with an air of magnanimity, +which was characterized as obstinacy by the desponding minds of his +followers. As a statesman he acknowledged the hopelessness of his cause; as +a Christian he professed to believe that God would never allow rebellion +to prosper; but, let whatever happen, he at least would act as honour and +conscience called on him to act; his name should not descend to posterity +as the name of a king who had abandoned the cause of God, injured the +rights of his successors, and sacrificed the interests of his faithful +and devoted adherents. From Leicester he retreated[a] to Hereford; from +Hereford to Ragland Castle, the seat of the loyal marquess of Worcester; +and thence to Cardiff, that he might more readily communicate with Prince +Rupert at Bristol. Each day brought him a repetition of the most melancholy +intelligence. Leicester had surrendered almost at the[b] first summons; the +forces under Goring, the only body of royalists deserving the name of an +army, were defeated by Fairfax at Lamport; Bridgewater, hitherto[c] deemed +an impregnable fortress, capitulated after a[d] + +[Transcriber's Note: No footnote 1 in the text] + +[Footnote 1: Rushworth vi. 132. Clarendon, ii. 630.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1645 July 3.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1645 June 17.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1645 July 10.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1645 July 23.] + +short siege; a chain of posts extending from that town to Lime, on the +southern coast, cut off Devonshire and Cornwall, his principal resources, +from all communication with the rest of the kingdom; and, what was still +worse, the dissensions which raged among his officers and partisans in +those counties could not be appeased either by the necessity of providing +for the common safety, or by the presence and authority of the prince of +Wales.[1] To add to his embarrassments, his three[a] fortresses in the +north, Carlisle, Pontefract, and Scarborough,[b] which for eighteen months +had defied all the efforts of the enemy, had now fallen, the first into +the[c] hands of the Scots, the other two into those of the parliament. +Under this accumulation of misfortunes many of his friends, and among them +Rupert himself, hitherto the declared advocate of war, importuned him to +yield to necessity, and to accept the conditions offered by the parliament. +He replied that they viewed[d] the question with the eyes of mere soldiers +and statesmen; but he was a king, and had duties to perform, from which no +change of circumstances, no human power could absolve him,--to preserve +the church, protect his friends, and transmit to his successors the lawful +rights of the crown. God was bound to support his own cause: he might for a +time permit rebels and traitors to prosper, but he would ultimately humble +them before the throne of their sovereign.[2] Under + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon, ii. 663, et seq. Rushw. vi. 50, 55, 57. Carte's +Ormond, iii. 423.] + +[Footnote 2: Clarendon, ii. 679. Lords' Journals, vii. 667. Only three days +before his arrival at Oxford, he wrote (August 25) a letter to secretary +Nicholas, with an order to publish its contents, that it was his fixed +determination, by the grace of God, never, in any possible circumstances, +to yield up the government of the church to papists, Presbyterians, or +Independents, nor to injure his successors by lessening the ecclesiastical +or military power bequeathed to him by his predecessors, nor to forsake +the defence of his friends, who had risked their lives and fortunes in his +quarrel.--Evelyn's Memoirs, ii. App. 104.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1645. June 28.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1645. July 21.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1645. July 25.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1645. July 31.] + +this persuasion, he pictured to himself the wonderful things to be achieved +by the gallantry of Montrose in Scotland, and looked forward with daily +impatience to the arrival of an imaginary army of twenty thousand men from +Ireland. But from such dreams he was soon awakened by the rapid increase of +disaffection in the population around him, and by the rumoured advance of +the Scots to besiege the city of Hereford. From Cardiff he hastily crossed +the kingdom to Newark. Learning that the Scottish cavalry were in pursuit, +he[a] left Newark, burst into the associated counties, ravaged the lands of +his enemies, took the town of Huntingdon,[b] and at last reached in safety +his court at Oxford.[c] It was not that in this expedition he had in view +any particular object. His utmost ambition was, by wandering from place +to place, to preserve himself from falling into the hands of his enemies +before the winter. In that season the severity of the weather would afford +him sufficient protection, and he doubted not, that against the spring the +victories of Montrose, the pacification of Ireland, and the compassion of +his foreign allies, would enable him to resume hostilities with a powerful +army, and with more flattering prospects of success.[1] + +At Oxford Charles heard of the victory gained at Kilsyth, in the +neighbourhood of Stirling, by Montrose, who, if he had been compelled to +retreat from Dundee, was still able to maintain the superiority in the +Highlands. The first who ventured to measure[d] swords with the Scottish +hero was the veteran general + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon, ii. 677. Rushw. vi. 131. Carte's Ormond, iii. 415, +416, 418, 420, 423, 427. Baillie, ii, 152.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1645. August 21.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1645. August 24.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1645. August 28.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1645. May 5.] + +Hurry: but the assailant fled from the conflict at Auldearn, and saved +himself, with the small remnant of his force, within the walls of +Inverness. To Hurry[a] succeeded with similar fortune Baillie, the +commander-in-chief. The battle was fought at Alford, in the shire of +Aberdeen; and few, besides the principal officers and the cavalry, escaped +from the slaughter. A new army of ten thousand men was collected: four days +were spent in fasting and prayer; and the host of God marched to trample +under foot the host of the king. But the experience of their leader was +controlled by the presumption of the committee of estates; and he, in +submission to their orders, marshalled his men in a position near Kilsyth: +his cavalry was broken by the[b] royalists at the first charge; the +infantry fled without a blow, and about five thousand of the fugitives are +said to have perished in the pursuit, which was continued for fourteen +or twenty miles.[1] This victory placed the Lowlands at the mercy of the +conqueror. Glasgow and the neighbouring shires solicited his clemency; the +citizens of Edinburgh sent to him the prisoners who had been condemned for +their adherence to the royal cause; and many of the nobility, hastening +to his standard, accepted commissions to raise forces in the name of the +sovereign. At this news the[c] Scottish cavalry, which, in accordance with +the treaty of "brotherly assistance," had already advanced to Nottingham, +marched back to the Tweed to protect their own country; and the king on the +third day left Oxford with five thousand men, to drive the infantry + +[Footnote 1: It was probably on account of the heat of the season +that Montrose ordered his men to throw aside their plaids--vestes +molestiores--and fight in their shirts; an order which has given occasion +to several fanciful conjectures and exaggerations;--See Carte, iv. 538.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1645. July 2.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1645. August 15.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1645. August 26.] + +from the siege of Hereford. They did not wait his arrival, and he entered +the city amidst the joyful acclamations of the inhabitants.[1] + +But Charles was not long suffered to enjoy his[a] triumph. Full of +confidence, he had marched from Hereford to the relief of Bristol; but at +Ragland Castle learned that it was already in possession of the enemy. +This unexpected stroke quite unnerved him. That a prince of his family, an +officer whose reputation for courage and fidelity was unblemished, should +surrender in the third week of the siege an important city, which he had +promised to maintain for four months, appeared to him incredible. His mind +was agitated with suspicion and jealousy. He knew not whether to attribute +the conduct of his nephew to cowardice, or despondency, or disaffection; +but he foresaw and lamented its baneful influence on the small remnant of +his followers. In the anguish of his mind[b] he revoked the commission +of the prince, and commanded him to quit the kingdom; he instructed the +council to watch his conduct, and on the first sign of disobedience to take +him into custody; and he ordered the arrest of his friend Colonel Legge, +and appointed Sir Thomas Glenham to succeed Legge, as governor of Oxford. +"Tell my sone," he says in a letter to Nicholas, "that I shall lesse +grieeve to hear that he is knoked in the head, than that he should doe so +meane an act as is the rendering of Bristoll castell and fort upon the +termes it was."[2] + +[Footnote 1: Rushworth, vi. 230. May. Guthrie, 194. Baillie, ii. 156, 157, +273. This defeat perplexed the theology of that learned man. I confess I am +amazed, and cannot see to my mind's satisfaction, the reasons of the +Lord's dealing with that land.... What means the Lord, so far against the +expectation of the most clear-sighted, to humble us so low, and by his own +immediate hand, I confess I know not."--Ibid.] + +[Footnote 2: Clarendon, ii. 693. Rushworth, vi. 66-82. Journals, vi. 584. +Ellis, iii. 311. Evelyn's Memoirs, ii. App, 108. The suspicion of Legge's +fidelity was infused into the royal mind by Digby. Charles wished him to +be secured, but refused to believe him guilty without better proof.--Ibid, +111.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1645. Sept. 10.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1645. Sept. 14.] + +Whilst the king thus mourned over the loss of Bristol, he received still +more disastrous intelligence from Scotland. The victory of Kilsyth had +dissolved the royal army. The Gordons with their followers had returned to +their homes; Colkitto. had led back the Highlanders to their mountains; +and with the remnants not more than six hundred repaired to the borders +to await the arrival of an English force which had been promised, but not +provided, by Charles. In the mean while David Leslie had been detached with +four thousand cavalry from the Scottish army in England. He crossed the +Tweed,[a] proceeded northward, as if he meant to interpose himself between +the enemy and the Highlands; and then returned suddenly to surprise them +in their encampment at Philiphaugh. Montrose spent the night at Selkirk in +preparing despatches for the king; Leslie, who was concealed at no great +distance, crossing the Etrick at dawn, under cover of a dense fog, +charged[b] unexpectedly into the camp of the royalists, who lay in heedless +security on the Haugh. Their leader, with his guard of horse, flew to their +succour; but, after a chivalrous but fruitless effort was compelled +to retire and abandon them to their fate. The greater part had formed +themselves into a compact body, and kept the enemy at bay till their offer +of surrender upon terms had been accepted. But then the ministers loudly +demanded their lives; they pronounced the capitulation sinful, and +therefore void; and had the satisfaction to behold the whole body of +captives massacred in + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1645. Sept. 6.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1645. Sept. 13.] + +cold blood, not the men only, but also every woman and child found upon the +Haugh. Nor was this sacrifice sufficient. Forty females, who had made their +escape, and had been secured by the country people, were a few days later +delivered up to the victors, who, in obedience to the decision of the kirk, +put them to death by throwing them from the bridge near Linlithgow into +the river Avon. Afterwards the Scottish parliament approved of their +barbarities, on the pretence that the victims were papists from Ireland; +and passed an ordinance that the "Irische prisoners taken at and after +Philiphaughe, in all the prisons in the kingdom, should be _execut_ without +any assaye or processes conform to the treatey betwixt both kingdoms."[1] +Of the noblemen and gentlemen who fled with Montrose, many were also taken; +and of these few escaped the hands of the executioner: Montrose himself +threaded back his way to the Highlands, where he once more raised the royal +standard, and, with a small force and diminished reputation, continued to +bid defiance to his enemies. At length, in obedience to repeated messages +from the king, he dismissed his followers, and reluctantly withdrew to the +continent.[2] With the defeat of Montrose at Philiphaugh vanished those +brilliant hopes with which the king had consoled himself for his former +losses; but the activity of his enemies allowed him no leisure to indulge +his grief; they had already formed a lodgment within the + +[Footnote 1: Balfour, iii. 341. Thurloe, i. 72. The next year the garrison +of Dunavertie, three hundred men, surrendered to David Leslie "at the +kingdom's mercie." "They put to the sword," says Turner, "everie mother's +sonne except one young man, Machoul, whose life I begged."--Turner's +Memoirs, 46, also 48.] + +[Footnote 2: Rush. vi. 237. Guthrie, 301. Journals, vi. 584. Wishart, 203. +Baillie, ii. 164.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1645. Dec. 23.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1645. Sept. 3.] + +suburbs of Chester, and threatened to deprive him of that, the only port by +which he could maintain a communication with Ireland. He hastened to its +relief, and was followed at the distance of a day's journey by Pointz, a +parliamentary officer. It was the king's intention[a] that two attacks, one +from the city, the other from the country, should be simultaneously made on +the camp of the besiegers; and with this view he left the greater part of +the royal cavalry at Boutenheath, under Sir Marmaduke Langdale, while he +entered Chester himself with the remainder in the dusk of the evening. +It chanced that Pointz meditated a similar attempt with the aid of the +besiegers, on the force under Langdale; and the singular position of the +armies marked the following day with the most singular vicissitudes of +fortune. Early in the morning[b] the royalists repelled the troops under +Pointz; but a detachment from the camp restored the battle, and forced them +to retire under the walls of the city. Here, with the help of the king's +guards, they recovered the ascendancy, but suffered themselves in the +pursuit to be entangled among lanes and hedges lined with infantry, by whom +they were thrown into irremediable disorder. Six hundred troopers fell +in the action, more than a thousand obtained quarter, and the rest were +scattered in every direction. The next night Charles repaired to Denbigh, +collected the fugitives around him, and, skilfully avoiding Pointz, +hastened[c] to Bridgenorth, where he was met by his nephew Maurice from the +garrison of Worcester.[1] + +The only confidential counsellor who attended the king in this expedition +was Lord Digby. That nobleman, + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon, ii. 712. Thurloe, i. 3. Rush. vi. 117. Journals, +vi. 608.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1645. Sept. 23.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1645. Sept. 23.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1645. Sept. 30.] + +unfortunately for the interests of his sovereign, had incurred the hatred +of his party: of some, on account of his enmity to prince Rupert; of the +general officers, because he was supposed to sway the royal mind, even in +military matters; and of all who desired peace, because to his advice was +attributed the obstinacy of Charles in continuing the war. It was the +common opinion that the king ought to fix his winter quarters at Worcester; +but Digby, unwilling to be shut up during four months in a city of which +the brother of Rupert was governor, persuaded him to proceed[a] to his +usual asylum at Newark. There, observing that the discontent among the +officers increased, he parted[b] from his sovereign, but on an important +and honourable mission. The northern horse, still amounting to fifteen +hundred men, were persuaded by Langdale to attempt a junction with the +Scottish hero, Montrose, and to accept of Digby as commander-in-chief. The +first achievement of the new general was the complete dispersion of the +parliamentary infantry in the neighbourhood of Doncaster; but in a few +days his own followers were dispersed by Colonel Copley at Sherburne. +They rallied[c] at Skipton, forced their way through Westmoreland and +Cumberland, and penetrated as far as Dumfries, but could nowhere meet with +intelligence of their Scottish friends. Returning to the borders, they +disbanded near Carlisle, the privates retiring to their homes, the officers +transporting themselves to the Isle of Man. Langdale remained at Douglas; +Digby proceeded to the marquess of Ormond in Ireland. + +Charles, during his stay at Newark, was made to + +[Transcriber's Note: Footnote 1 not found in the text] + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon, Hist. ii. 714. Clarendon Papers, ii. 199. +Rushworth, vi. 131.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1645. Oct. 4.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1645. Oct. 12.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1645. Oct. 15.] + +feel that with his good fortune he had lost his authority. His two nephews, +the Lord Gerard, and about twenty other officers, entered his chamber, and, +in rude and insulting language, charged him with ingratitude for their +services, and undue partiality for the traitor Digby. The king lost the +command of his temper, and, with more warmth than he was known to have +betrayed on any other occasion, bade them quit his presence for ever. They +retired, and the next morning received passports to go where they pleased. +But it was now[a] time for the king himself to depart. The enemy's forces +multiplied around Newark, and the Scots were advancing to join the +blockade. In the dead of the night[b] he stole, with five hundred men, to +Belvoir Castle; thence, with the aid of experienced guides, he threaded the +numerous posts of the enemy; and on the second day reached, for the last +time,[c] the walls of Oxford. Yet if he were there in safety, it was owing +to the policy of the parliament, who deemed it more prudent to reduce the +counties of Devon and Cornwall, the chief asylum of his adherents. For this +purpose Fairfax, with the grand army, sat down before Exeter: Cromwell +had long ago swept away the royal garrisons between that city and the +metropolis.[1] + +The reader will have frequently remarked the king's impatience for the +arrival of military aid from Ireland. It is now time to notice the +intrigue on which he founded his hopes, and the causes which led to his +disappointment. All his efforts to conclude a peace with the insurgents +had failed through the obstinacy of the ancient Irish, who required as an +indispensable + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon, ii. 719-723. Rushworth, vi. 80-95. Journals, 671, +672.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1645. Oct. 29.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1645. Nov. 3.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1645. Nov. 5.] + +condition the legal establishment of their religion.[1] The Catholics, they +alleged, were the people of Ireland; they had now regained many of the +churches, which, not a century before, had been taken from their fathers; +and they could not in honour or conscience resign them to the professors +of another religion. Charles had indulged a hope that the lord lieutenant +would devise some means of satisfying their demand without compromising +the character of his sovereign;[2] but the scruples or caution of +Ormond compelled him to look out for a minister of less timid and more +accommodating disposition, and he soon found one in the Lord Herbert, a +Catholic, and son to the marquess of Worcester. Herbert felt the most +devoted attachment to his sovereign. He had lived with him for twenty years +in habits of intimacy: in conjunction with his father, he had spent above +two hundred thousand pounds in support of the royal cause; and both had +repeatedly and publicly avowed their determination to stand or fall with +the throne. To him, therefore, the king explained his difficulties, his +views, and his wishes. Low as he was sunk, he had yet a sufficient resource +left in the two armies in Ireland. With them he might make head against his +enemies, and re-establish his authority. But unfortunately this powerful +and necessary aid was withheld from him by the obstinacy of the Irish +Catholics, whose demands were such, that, to grant them publicly would +be to forfeit the affection and support of all the Protestants in his +dominions. He knew but of one way to elude the difficulty,--the employment +of a secret and + +[Footnote 1: Rinuccini's MS. Narrative.] + +[Footnote 2: See the correspondence in Carte's Ormond, ii. App. xv. xviii. +xx. xxii.; iii. 372, 387, 401; Charles's Works, 155.] + +confidential minister, whose credit with the Catholics would give weight +to his assurances, and whose loyalty would not refuse to incur danger or +disgrace for the benefit of his sovereign. Herbert cheerfully tendered his +services. It was agreed that he should negotiate with the confederates for +the immediate aid of an army of ten thousand men; that, as the reward +of their willingness to serve the king, he should make to them certain +concessions on the point of religion; that these should be kept secret, as +long as the disclosure might be likely to prejudice the royal interests; +and that Charles, in the case of discovery, should be at liberty to disavow +the proceedings of Herbert, till he might find himself in a situation to +despise the complaints and the malice of his enemies.[1] + +For this purpose Herbert (now[a] created earl of Glamorgan) was furnished, +1. with a commission to levy men, to coin money, and to employ the revenues +of the crown for their support; 2. with a warrant[b] to grant on certain +conditions to the Catholics of Ireland such concessions as it was not +prudent for the king or the lieutenant openly to make; 3. with a promise +on the part of Charles to ratify whatever engagements his envoy might +conclude, even if they were contrary to law; 4. and with different letters +for the pope, the nuncio, and the several princes from whom subsidies might +be expected. But care was taken that none of these documents should come to +the knowledge of the council. The commission was not sealed in the usual +manner; the names of the persons to whom the letters were to be addressed +were not inserted; and all the papers were in several respects informal; +for this purpose, that the king might have a plausible pretext to + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon Papers, ii. 201.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1645. Jan. 2.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1645. March 12.] + +deny their authenticity in the event of a premature disclosure.[1] + +Glamorgan proceeded on his chivalrous mission, and after many adventures +and escapes, landed in safety in Ireland. That he communicated the +substance of his instructions to Ormond, cannot be doubted; and, if there +were aught in his subsequent proceedings of which the lord lieutenant +remained ignorant, that ignorance was affected and voluntary on the part +of Ormond.[2] At Dublin both joined in the negotiation with the Catholic +deputies: from Dublin Glamorgan proceeded to Kilkenny, where the supreme +council, satisfied with his authority, and encouraged by the advice of +Ormond, concluded with him a treaty,[a] by which it was stipulated that the +Catholics should enjoy the public exercise of their religion, and retain +all churches, and the revenues of churches, which were not actually in +possession of the Protestant clergy; and that in return they should, +against a certain day, supply the king with a body of ten thousand armed +men, and should devote two-thirds of the ecclesiastical revenues to his +service during the war.[3] + +[Footnote 1: See the authorities in Note (A).] + +[Footnote 2: See the same.] + +[Footnote 3: Dr. Leyburn, who was sent by the queen to Ireland in 1647, +tells us, on the authority of the nuncio and the bishop of Clogher, "that +my lord of Worcester (Glamorgan) was ready to justify that he had exactly +followed his instructions, and particularly that concerning the lord +lieutenant, whom he had made acquainted with all that he had transacted +with the Irish, of which he could produce proof."--Birch, Inquiry, 322. +Nor will any one doubt it, who attends, to the letter of Ormond to Lord +Muskerry on the 11th of August, just after the arrival of Glamorgan at +Kilkenny, in which, speaking of Glamorgan, he assured him, and through him +the council of the confederates, that he knew "no subject in England upon +whose favour and authority with his majesty they can better rely than upon +his lordship's, nor ... with whom he (Ormond) would sooner agree for the +benefit of this kingdom."--Birch, 62. And another to Glamorgan himself on +Feb. 11th, in which he says, "Your lordship may securely go on in the +way you have proposed to yourself, to serve the king, without fear of +interruption from me, or so much as inquiring into the means you work +by."--Ibid. 163. See also another letter, of April 6th, in Leland, iii. +283.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1645. August 25.] + + +To the surprise of all who were not in the secret, the public treaty now +proceeded with unexpected facility. The only point in debate between the +lord lieutenant and the deputies, respected their demand to be relieved +by act of parliament from all penalties for the performance of the divine +service and the administration of the sacraments, after any other form than +that of the established church. Ormond was aware of their ulterior object: +he became alarmed, and insisted on a proviso, that such article should +not be construed to extend to any service performed, or sacraments +administered, in cathedral or parochial churches. After repeated +discussions, two expedients were suggested; one, that in place of the +disputed article should be substituted another, providing that any +concession with respect to religion which the king might afterwards grant +should be considered as making part of the present treaty; the other, that +no mention should be made of religion at all, but that the lieutenant +should sign a private engagement, not to molest the Catholics in the +possession of those churches which they now held, but leave the question to +the decision of a free parliament. To this both parties assented;[a] and +the deputies returned to Kilkenny to submit the result of the conferences +to the judgment of the general assembly.[1] + +But before this, the secret treaty with Glamorgan, which had been concealed +from all but the leading members of the council, had by accident come to +the + +[Footnote 1: Compare Carte, i. 548, with Vindiciae Cath. Hib. 11, 13.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1645. Nov. 11.] + +knowledge of the parliament. About the middle of October, the titular +archbishop of Tuam was slain in a skirmish[a] between two parties of +Scots and Irish near Sligo; and in the carriage of the prelate were found +duplicates of the whole negotiation. The discovery was kept secret; but at +Christmas Ormond received a copy of these important papers from a friend, +with an intimation that the originals had been for some weeks in possession +of the committee of both nations in London. It was evident that to save the +royal reputation some decisive measure must be immediately taken. A council +was called. Digby, who looked upon himself as the king's confidential +minister, but had been kept in ignorance of the whole transaction, +commented on it with extreme severity. Glamorgan had been guilty of +unpardonable presumption. Without the permission of the king, or the +privity of the lord lieutenant, he had concluded a treaty with the rebels, +and pledged the king's name to the observance of conditions pregnant +with the most disastrous consequences. It was an usurpation of the royal +authority; an offence little short of high treason. The accused, faithful +to his trust, made but a feeble defence, and was committed to close +custody. In the despatches from the council to Charles, Digby showed that +he looked on the concealment which had been practised towards him as a +personal affront, and expressed his sentiments with a warmth and freedom +not the most grateful to the royal feelings.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Rushworth, vi. 239, 240. Carte's Ormond, iii. 436-440. "You do +not believe," writes Hyde to secretary Nicholas, "that my lord Digby +knew of my lord Glamorgan's commission and negotiation in Ireland. I am +confident he did not; for he shewed me the copies of letters which he had +written to the king upon it, which ought not in good manners to have been +written; and I believe will not be forgiven to him, by those for whose +service they were written."--Clarendon Papers, ii. 346.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1645. Oct. 17.] + +The unfortunate monarch was still at Oxford devising new plans and +indulging new hopes. The dissensions among his adversaries had assumed a +character of violence and importance which they had never before borne. +The Scots, irritated by the systematic opposition of the Independents, and +affected delays of the parliament, and founding the justice of their +claim on the solemn league and covenant confirmed by the oaths of the two +nations, insisted on the legal establishment of Presbyterianism, and the +exclusive prohibition of every other form of worship. They still ruled in +the synod of divines; they were seconded by the great body of ministers +in the capital, and by a numerous party among the citizens; and they +confidently called for the aid of the majority in the two houses, as of +their brethren of the same religions persuasion. But their opponents, men +of powerful intellect and invincible spirit, were supported by the swords +and the merits of a conquering army. Cromwell, from the field of Naseby, +had written to express his hope, that the men who had achieved so glorious +a victory might be allowed to serve God according to the dictates of their +consciences. Fairfax, in his despatches, continually pleaded in favour of +toleration. Seldon and Whitelock warned their colleagues to beware how they +erected among them the tyranny of a Presbyterian kirk; and many in the two +houses began to maintain that Christ had established no particular form +of church government, but had left it to be settled under convenient +limitations by the authority of the state.[1] Nor were their + +[Footnote 1: Baillie, ii. 111, 161, 169, 183. Rushw. vi. 46, 85. Whitelock, +69, 172. Journals, vii. 434, 476, 620.] + +altercations confined to religious matters. The decline of the royal cause +had elevated the hopes of the English leaders. They no longer disguised +their jealousy of the projects of their Scottish allies; they accused them +of invading the sovereignty of England by placing garrisons in Belfast, +Newcastle, and Carlisle; and complained that their army served to no other +purpose than to plunder the defenceless inhabitants. The Scots haughtily +replied, that the occupation of the fortresses was necessary for their +own safety; and that, if disorders had occasionally been committed by the +soldiers, the blame ought to attach to the negligence or parsimony of those +who had failed in supplying the subsidies to which they were bound by +treaty. The English commissioners remonstrated with the parliament of +Scotland, the Scottish with that of England; the charges were reciprocally +made and repelled in tones of asperity and defiance; and the occurrences +of each day seemed to announce a speedy rupture between the two nations. +Hitherto their ancient animosities had been lulled asleep by the conviction +of their mutual dependence: the removal of the common danger called them +again into activity.[1] + +To a mind like that of Charles, eager to multiply experiments, and prone to +believe improbabilities, the hostile position of these parties opened a new +field for intrigue. He persuaded himself that by gaining either, he should +be enabled to destroy both.[2] He therefore tempted the Independents with +promises of ample + +[Footnote 1: Journals, vii. 573, 619, 640-643, 653, 668, 689, 697, 703, +viii. 27, 97. Baillie, ii. 161, 162, 166, 171, 185, 188.] + +[Footnote 2: "I am not without hope that I shall be able to draw either the +Presbyterians or Independents to side with me for extirpating the one the +other, that I shall be really king again."--Carte's Ormond, iii. 452.] + +rewards and unlimited toleration; and at the same time sought to win the +Scots by professions of his willingness to accede to any terms compatible +with his honour and conscience. Their commissioners in London had already +made overtures for an accommodation to Queen Henrietta in Paris; and the +French monarch, at her suggestion, had intrusted[a] Montreuil with the +delicate office of negotiating secretly between them and their sovereign. +From Montreuil Charles understood that the Scots would afford him an asylum +in their army, and declare in his favour, if he would assent to the three +demands made of him during the treaty at Uxbridge; a proposal which both +Henrietta and the queen regent of France thought so moderate in existing +circumstances, that he would accept it with eagerness and gratitude. +But the king, in his own judgment, gave the preference to a project +of accommodation with the Independents, because they asked only for +toleration, while the Scots sought to force their own creed on the +consciences of others; nor did he seem to comprehend the important fact, +that the latter were willing at least to accept him for their king, +while the former aimed at nothing less than the entire subversion of his +throne.[1] + +From Oxford he had sent several messages[b][c][d][e][f][g] to the +parliament, by one of which he demanded passports for commissioners, or +free and safe access for himself. To all a refusal was returned, on the +ground that he had employed the opportunity afforded him by former treaties +to tempt the fidelity of the commissioners, and that it was unsafe to +indulge him with more facilities for conducting similar intrigues. Decency, +however, + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon Papers, ii. 209-211. Baillie, ii. 188. Thurloe, i. +72, 73, 85.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1645. August.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1645. Dec. 5.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1645. Dec. 15.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1645. Dec. 26.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1645. Dec. 29.] +[Sidenote f: A.D. 1646. Jan. 15.] +[Sidenote g: A.D. 1646. Jan. 17.] + +required that in return the two houses should make their proposals; and +it was resolved to submit to him certain articles for his immediate and +unqualified approval or rejection. The Scots contended in favour of the +three original propositions; but their opponents introduced several +important alterations, for the twofold purpose, first of spinning out the +debates, till the king should be surrounded in Oxford, and secondly of +making such additions to the severity of the terms as might insure their +rejection.[1] + +Under these circumstances Montreuil admonished him that he had not a day to +spare; that the Independents sought to deceive him to his own ruin; that +his only resource was to accept of the conditions offered by the Scots; and +that, whatever might be his persuasion respecting the origin of episcopacy, +he might, in his present distress, conscientiously assent to the demand +respecting Presbyterianism; because it did not require him to introduce a +form of worship which was not already established, but merely to allow that +to remain which he had not the power to remove. Such, according to his +instructions, was the opinion of the queen regent of France, and such was +the prayer of his own consort, Henrietta Maria. But no argument could shake +the royal resolution.[2] He returned[a] a firm but temperate refusal, and +renewed his request for a personal conference at Westminster. The message +was conveyed in terms as energetic as language could supply, but it arrived +at a most unpropitious + +[Footnote 1: Charles's Works, 548-550. Journals, viii. 31, 45, 53, 72. +Baillie, ii. 144, 173, 177, 184, 190.] + +[Footnote 2: Clarendon Papers, ii. 211-214. "Let not my enemies flatter +themselves so with their good successes. Without pretending to prophesy, I +will foretel their ruin, except they agree with me, however it shall please +God to dispose of me."] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1646. Jan. 20.] + +moment, the very day on which the committee of both kingdoms thought proper +to communicate to the two houses the papers respecting the treaty between +Glamorgan and the Catholics of Ireland. Amidst the ferment and exasperation +produced by the disclosure, the king's letter was suffered to remain +unnoticed.[1] + +The publication of these important documents imposed[a] on Charles the +necessity of vindicating his conduct to his Protestant subjects; a task of +no very easy execution, had he not availed himself of the permission which +he had formerly extorted from the attachment of Glamorgan. In an additional +message to the two houses, he protested that he had never given to that +nobleman any other commission than to enlist soldiers, nor authorized him +to treat on any subject without the privity of the lord lieutenant; that +he disavowed all his proceedings and engagements with the Catholics of +Ireland; and that he had ordered the privy council in Dublin to proceed +against him for his presumption according to law.[2] That council, +however,[b] or at least the lord lieutenant, was in possession of a +document unknown to the parliament, a copy of the warrant by which Charles +had engaged to confirm whatever Glamorgan should promise in the royal name. +On this account, in his answer to Ormond, he was compelled to shift his +ground, and to assert that he had no recollection of any such warrant; +that it was indeed possible he might have furnished the earl with some +credential to the Irish Catholics; but that if he did, it was only with an +understanding that it should not be employed without the knowledge and the +approbation + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon Papers, ii. 213. Journals, viii. 103, 125. Commons' +iv. Jan. 16, 26. Charles's works, 551. Baillie, ii. 185.] + +[Footnote 2: Journals, viii. 132. Charles's Works, 555.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1646. Jan. 29.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1646. Jan. 31.] + +of the lord lieutenant. Whoever considers the evasive tendency of these +answers, will find in them abundant proof of Glamorgan's pretentions.[1] + +That nobleman had already recovered his liberty. To prepare against +subsequent contingencies, and to leave the king what he termed "a +starting-hole," he had been careful to subjoin to his treaty a secret +article called a defeasance, stipulating that the sovereign should be no +further bound than he himself might think proper, after he had witnessed +the efforts of the Catholics in his favour; but that Glamorgan should +conceal this release from the royal knowledge till he had made every +exertion in his power to procure the execution of the treaty.[2] This +extraordinary instrument he now produced in his own vindication: the +council ordered him to be discharged upon bail for his appearance when it +might be required; and he[a] hastened under the approbation of the lord +lieutenant, to resume his negotiation with the Catholics at Kilkenny. He +found the general assembly divided into two parties. The clergy, with their +adherents, opposed the adoption of any peace in which the establishment of +the Catholic worship was not openly recognized; and their arguments were +strengthened by the recent imprisonment of Glamorgan, and the secret +influence of the papal nuncio Rinuccini, archbishop and prince of Fermo, +who had lately landed in Ireland. On the other hand, the members of the +council and the lords and gentlemen of the pale strenuously recommended the +adoption of one of the two expedients which have + +[Footnote 1: Carte, iii. 445-448.] + +[Footnote 2: Compare Carte, i. 551, with the Vindiciae, 17. Neither of +these writers gives us a full copy of the defeasance. In the Vindiciae +we are told that it was this which procured Glamorgan's discharge from +prison.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1646. Jan. 22.] + +been previously mentioned, as offering sufficient security for the church, +and the only means of uniting the Protestant royalists in the same cause +with the Catholics. At the suggestion of the nuncio, the decision was +postponed to the month of May; but Glamorgan did not forget the necessities +of his sovereign; he obtained an immediate aid of six thousand men, and the +promise of a considerable reinforcement, and proceeded to Waterford for the +purpose of attempting to raise the siege of Chester. There, while he waited +the arrival of transports, he received the news of the public disavowal +of his authority by the king. But this gave him little uneasiness; he +attributed it to the real cause, the danger with which Charles was +threatened; and he had been already instructed "to make no other account of +such declarations, than to put himself in a condition to help his master +and set him free."[1] In a short time the more distressing intelligence +arrived that Chester had surrendered: the fall of Chester was followed by +the dissolution of the royal army in Cornwall, under the command of Lord +Hopton; and the prince of Wales, unable to remain there with safety, fled +first to Scilly and thence to Jersey. There remained not a spot on the +English coast where the Irish auxiliaries could be landed with any prospect +of success. Glamorgan dispersed his army. Three hundred men accompanied +the Lord Digby to form a guard for the prince; a more considerable body +proceeded to Scotland in aid of Montrose; and the remainder returned to +their former quarters.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Birch, 189.] + +[Footnote 2: Had Glamorgan's intended army of 10,000 men landed in England, +the war would probably have assumed a most sanguinary character. An +ordinance had passed the houses, that no quarter should be given to any +Irishman, or any papist born in Ireland; that they should be excepted +out of all capitulations; and that whenever they were taken, they should +forthwith be put to death.--Rushworth, v. 729. Oct. 24, 1644. By the navy +this was vigorously executed. The Irish sailors were invariably bound back +to back, and thrown into the sea. At land we read of twelve Irish soldiers +being hanged by the parliamentarians, for whom Prince Rupert hanged twelve +of his prisoners.--Clarendon, ii. 623. After the victory of Naseby, Fairfax +referred the task to the two houses. He had not, he wrote, time to inquire +who were Irish and who were not, but had sent all the prisoners to London, +to be disposed of according to law--Journals, vii. 433.] + + +In the mean while the king continued to consume his time in unavailing +negotiations with the parliament, the Scots, and the Independents. 1. +He had been persuaded that there were many individuals of considerable +influence both in the city and the two houses, who anxiously wished for +such an accommodation as might heal the wounds of the country: that the +terror inspired by the ruling party imposed silence on them for the +present; but that, were he in London, they would joyfully rally around +him, and by their number and union compel his adversaries to lower their +pretensions. This it was that induced him to solicit a personal conference +at Westminster. He[a] now repeated the proposal, and, to make it worth +acceptance, offered to grant full toleration to every class of Protestant +dissenters, to yield to the parliament the command of the army during seven +years, and to make over to them the next nomination of the lord admiral, +the judges, and the officers of state. The insulting[b] silence with which +this message was treated did not deter him from a third attempt. He asked +whether, if he were to disband his forces, dismantle his garrisons, and +return to his usual residence in the vicinity of the parliament, they, on +their part, would pass their + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1646. Jan. 29.] [Sidenote b: A.D. 1646. March 23.] + +word for the preservation of his honour, person, and estate, and allow his +adherents to live without molestation on their own property. Even this +proposal could not provoke an answer. It was plain that his enemies dare +not trust their adherents in the royal presence; and, fearing that he might +privately make his way into the city, they published an ordinance, that if +the king came within the lines of communication, the officer of the guard +should conduct him to St. James's, imprison his followers, and allow of +no access to his person[a]; and at the same time they gave notice by +proclamation that all Catholics, and all persons who had borne arms in the +king's service, should depart within six days, under the penalty of being +proceeded against as spies according to martial law.[1] + +2. In the negotiation still pending between Montreuil and the Scottish +commissioners, other matters were easily adjusted; but the question of +religion presented an insurmountable difficulty, the Scots insisting that +the presbyterian form of church government should be established in all the +three kingdoms; the king consenting that it should retain the supremacy in +Scotland, but refusing to consent to the abolition of episcopacy in England +and Ireland.[2] To give a colour to the agency of Montreuil, Louis had +appointed him the French resident in Scotland, and in that capacity he +applied for permission to pass through Oxford on his way, that he might +deliver to the king letters from his sovereign and the queen regent.[b] +Objections were made; delays were created; but after the lapse of a +fortnight, he obtained a passport[c] + +[Footnote 1: Charles's Works, 556, 557. Rushworth, vi. 249. Journals, March +31, 1646. Carte's Ormond, iii. 452.] + +[Footnote 2: Clarendon Papers, ii. 209-215.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1646. March 31.] [Sidenote b: A.D. 1646. Feb. 16.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1646. March 7.] + +from the committee of the two kingdoms,[1] and employed his time at Oxford +in persuading Charles of the necessity of concession, and in soliciting +from the Scottish commissioners authority to assure their sovereign of +safety as to person and conscience in the Scottish army. On the first of +April he received from[a] Charles a written engagement, that he would take +with him to their quarters before Newark "no man excepted by parliament, +but only his nephews and Ashburnham," and that he would then listen to +instruction in the matter of religion, and concede as far as his conscience +would permit.[2] In return, Montreuil pledged to him the word of his +sovereign and the queen regent of France,[3] that the Scots should receive +him as their natural king, should offer no violence to his person or +conscience, his servants or followers, and should join their forces and +endeavours with his to procure "a happy and well-grounded peace." On this +understanding it was agreed that the king should attempt on the night of +the following Tuesday to break through the parliamentary force lying round +Oxford, and that at the same time a body of three hundred Scottish cavalry +should advance as far as Harborough to receive him, and escort him in +safety to their own army.[4] + +[Footnote 1: Lords' Journ. viii. 171. Commons', Feb. 16, 28, March 4, 5, +7.] + +[Footnote 2: Of this paper there were two copies, one to be kept secret, +containing a protestation that none of the king's followers should +be ruined or dishonoured; the other to be shown, containing no such +protestation. "En l'un desquels, qui m'a esté donné pour faire voir, +la protestation n'estoit point. Faite à Oxford ce premier Avril, +1646."--Clarend. Papers ii. 220.] + +[Footnote 3: Why so? It had been so settled in Paris, because the +negotiation was opened under their auspices, and conducted by their +agent.--Clarend. Hist. ii. 750. Papers, ii. 209.] + +[Footnote 4: Ibid. 220-222. It had been asked whether Montreuil had any +authority from the Scottish commissioners to make such an engagement. I see +no reason to doubt it. Both Charles and Montreuil must have been aware that +an unauthorized engagement could have offered no security to the king in +the hazardous attempt which he meditated. We find him twice, before the +date of the engagement, requiring the commissioners to send _powers_ to +Montreuil to assure him of safety in person and conscience in their army +(Clarendon Pap. ii. 218), and immediately afterwards informing Ormond that +he was going to the Scottish army because he had lately received "very good +security" that he and his friends should be safe in person, honour, and +conscience. See the letter in Lords' Journals, viii. 366, and account of a +letter from the king to Lord Belasyse in pys, ii. 246.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1646. April 1.] + + +Two days later Montreuil resumed his pretended journey to Scotland, and +repaired to Southwell, within the quarters assigned to the Scots. That they +might without inconvenience spare a large escort to meet the[a] king, he +had brought with him a royal order to Lord Belasyse to surrender Newark +into their hands; but, to his surprise and dismay, he found that the +commissioners to the army affected to be ignorant of the authority +exercised by him at Oxford, and refused to take upon themselves the +responsibility of meeting and receiving the king. They objected that it +would be an act of hostility towards the parliament, a breach of the solemn +league and covenant between the nations: nor would they even allow him +to inform Charles of their refusal, till they should have a personal +conference with their commissioners in London. In these circumstances he +burnt the order for the surrender of Newark; and the king, alarmed at his +unaccountable silence, made no attempt to escape from Oxford. A fortnight +was passed in painful suspense. At last the two bodies of commissioners +met[b] at Royston; and the result of a long debate was a sort of compromise +between the opposite parties that the king should he received, but in such +manner that all appearance of previous treaty or concert might be + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1646. April 3.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1646. April 11.] + +avoided; that he should be requested to give satisfaction on the question +of religion as speedily as possible, and that no co-operation of the royal +forces with the Scots should be permitted. At first Montreuil, in the +anguish of disappointment, was of opinion that no faith was to be put in +the word of a Scotsman: now he thought that he discovered a gleam of[a] +hope in the resolution taken at Royston, and advised[b] the king to accept +the proposal, if no better expedient[c] could be devised. It held out a +prospect of safety, though it promised nothing more.[1] + +3. During this negotiation the unfortunate monarch, though warned that, by +treating at the same time with two opposite parties, he ran the risk +of forfeiting the confidence of both, had employed Ashburnham to make +proposals to the Independents through Sir Henry Vane. What the king asked +from them was to facilitate his access to parliament. Ample rewards were +held out to Vane, "to the gentleman, who was quartered[d] with him,"[2] and +to the personal friends of both; and an assurance was given, that if the +establishment of Presbyterianism were still made an indispensable condition +of peace, the king would join his efforts with theirs "to root out of the +kingdom that tyrannical government." From the remains of the correspondence +it appears that to the first communication Vane had replied in terms +which, though not altogether satisfactory, did not exclude the hope of his +compliance; and Charles wrote to him a second time, + +[Footnote 1: These particulars appear in the correspondence in Clarendon +Papers, 221-226. Montreuil left Oxford on Friday; therefore on the 3rd.] + +[Footnote 2: This gentleman might be Fairfax or Cromwell; but from a letter +of Baillie (ii. 199, App. 3), I should think that he was an "Independent +minister," probably Peters.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1646. April.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1646. April 18.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1646. April 20.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1646. March 2.] + +repeating his offers, describing his distress, and stating that, unless he +received a favourable answer within four days, he must have recourse to +some other expedient.[1] The negotiation, however, continued for weeks; it +was even discovered by the opposite party, who considered it as an artful +scheme on the part of[a] the Independents to detain the king in Oxford, +till Fairfax and Cromwell should bring up the army from Cornwall; to amuse +the royal bird, till the fowlers had enclosed him in their toils.[2] + +Oxford during the war had been rendered one of the strongest fortresses +in the kingdom. On three sides the waters of the Isis and the Charwell, +spreading over the adjoining country, kept the enemy at a considerable +distance, and on the north the city was covered with a succession of works, +erected by the most skilful engineers. With a garrison of five thousand +men, and a plentiful supply of stores and provisions, Charles might have +protracted his fate for several months; yet the result of a siege must have +been his captivity. He possessed no army; he had no prospect of assistance +from without; and within, famine would in the end compel him to surrender. +But where was he to seek an asylum? + +[Footnote 1: See two letters, one of March 2, from Ashburnham, beginning, +"Sir, you cannot suppose the work is done," and another without date from +Charles, beginning, "Sir, I shall only add this word to what was said in my +last." They were first published from the papers of secretary Nicholas, by +Birch, in 1764, in the preface to a collection of "Letters between Colonel +Hammond and the committee at Derby House, &c.," and afterwards in the +Clarendon Papers, ii. 226, 227.] + +[Footnote 2: See Baillie, App. 3, App. 23, ii. 199, 203. "Their daily +treaties with Ashburnham to keep the king still, till they deliver him to +Sir Thomas Fairfax, and to be disposed upon as Cromwell and his friend +think it fittest for their affairs."--Ibid. A different account is given in +the continuation of Macintosh, vi. 21.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1646. April 23.] + + +Indignant at what he deemed a breach of faith in the Scots, he spurned the +idea of throwing himself on[a] their mercy; and the march of Fairfax with +the advanced guard of his army towards Andover admonished him that it was +time to quit the city of Oxford. First he inquired by two officers the +opinion of Ireton, who[b] was quartered at Waterstock, whether, if he were +to disband his forces, and to repair to the general, the parliament would +suffer him to retain the title and authority of king. Then, receiving no +answer[c] from Ireton, he authorized the earl of Southampton to state to +Colonel Rainborowe, that the king was ready to deliver himself up to +the army, on receiving a pledge that his personal safety should be +respected.[1] But Rainborowe referred him to the parliament; and the +unhappy monarch, having exhausted every expedient which he could devise, +left Oxford at midnight,[d] disguised as a servant, following his supposed +master[e] Ashburnham, who rode before in company with Hudson, a clergyman, +well acquainted with the country. They passed through Henley and Brentford +to Harrow; but the time which was spent on the road proved either that +Charles had hitherto formed no plan in his own mind, or that he lingered +with the hope of some communication from his partisans in the metropolis. +At last he turned in the direction of St. Alban's; and, avoiding that town, +hastened through bye-ways to Harborough. If he expected to find there +a body of[f] Scottish horse, or a messenger from Montreuil, he was +disappointed. Crossing by Stamford, he rested at Downham,[g] and spent two +or three days in fruitless inquiries for a ship which might convey him to +Newcastle or Scotland, whilst Hudson repaired to the French agent + +[Footnote 1: Hearne's Dunstable, ii. 787-790.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1646. April 22.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1646. April 25.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1646. April 26.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1646. April 27.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1646. April 28.] +[Sidenote f: A.D. 1646. April 30.] + +at Southwell, and returned the bearer of a short note sent by Montreuil, +from whom the messenger understood that the Scots had pledged their +word--they would give no written document--to fulfill on their part the +original engagement made in their name at Oxford.[1] On this slender +security--for he had no[a] alternative--he repaired to the lodgings of +Montreuil early in the morning, and about noon was conducted by a troop of +horse to the head quarters at Kelham. Leslie and his officers, though they +affected the utmost surprise, treated him with the respect due to their +sovereign; and London in the name of the commissioners required that he +should take the covenant, should order Lord Belasyse to surrender Newark, +and should despatch a messenger with the royal command to Montrose to lay +down his arms. Charles soon discovered that he was a prisoner, and when, +to make the experiment, he undertook to give the word to the guard, he was +interrupted by Leven, who said: "I am the older soldier, sir: your majesty +had better leave that office to me." + +For ten days the public mind in the capital had been + +[Footnote 1: The Scots had made three offers or promises to the king. The +first and most important was the engagement of the 1st of April. But the +Scottish commissioners with the army shrunk from the responsibility of +carrying it into execution; and, as it appears to me, with some reason, +for they had not been parties to the contract. The second was the modified +offer agreed upon by both bodies of commissioners at Royston. But this +offer was never accepted by the king, and consequently ceased to be binding +upon them. The third was the verbal promise mentioned above. If it was +made--and of a promise of safety there can be no doubt, though we have only +the testimony of Hudson--the Scots were certainly bound by it, and must +plead guilty to the charge of breach of faith, by subsequently delivering +up the fugitive monarch to the English parliament.] + +[Footnote 2: Peck, Desid. Curios. I. x. No. 8. Ashburnham, ii. 76. +Rushworth, vi. 266, 267, 276. Clarendon, Hist. iii. 22; Papers, ii. 228. +Turner, Mem. 41.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1646. May 5.] + +agitated by the most contradictory rumours: the moment the place of the +king's retreat was ascertained, both Presbyterians and Independents united +in condemning the perfidy of their northern allies. Menaces of immediate +hostilities were heard. Poyntz received orders to watch the motions of the +Scots with five thousand horse; and it was resolved that Fairfax should +follow with the remainder of the army. But the Scottish leaders, anxious to +avoid a rupture, and yet unwilling to surrender the royal prize, broke up +their camp before Newark, and retired with precipitation to Newcastle. +Thence by dint of protestations and denials they gradually succeeded in +allaying the ferment.[1] Charles contributed his share, by repeating his +desire of an accommodation, and requesting the two houses to send to +him the propositions of peace; and, as an earnest of his sincerity, he +despatched a circular order[a] to his officers to surrender the few +fortresses which still maintained his cause. The war was at an end; Oxford, +Worcester, Pendennis, and Ragland opened[b] their gates; and to the praise +of the conquerors it must be recorded, that they did not stain their +laurels with blood. The last remnants of the royal army obtained honourable +terms from the generosity of Fairfax; easy compositions for the redemption +of their estates were held out to the great majority of the + +[Footnote 1: See their messages in the Lords' Journals, viii. 307, 308, +311, 364; Hearne's Dunstable, ii. 790-800. They protest that they were +astonished at the king's coming to their army; that they believed he must +mean to give satisfaction, or he would never have come to them; that his +presence would never induce them to act in opposition to the solemn league +and covenant; that they should leave the settlement of all questions to the +parliaments of the two nations; that there had been no treaty between the +king and them; and that the assertion in the letter published by Ormond was +"a damnable untruth."] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1646. June 10.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1646. August 20.] + +royalists; and the policy of the measure was proved by the number of those +who hastened to profit by the indulgence, and thus extinguished the hopes +of the few who still thought it possible to conjure up another army in +defence of the captive monarch.[1] + +While the two houses, secure of victory, debated at their leisure the +propositions to be submitted for acceptance to the king, the Scots employed +the interval in attempts to convert him to the Presbyterian creed. For this +purpose, Henderson, the most celebrated of their ministers, repaired from +London to Newcastle. The king, according to his promise, listened to the +arguments of his new instructor; and an interesting controversy respecting +the divine institution of episcopacy and presbyteracy was maintained with +no contemptible display of skill between the two polemics. Whether Charles +composed without the help of a theological monitor the papers, which on +this occasion he produced, may perhaps be doubted; but the author whoever +he were, proved himself a match, if not more than a match, for his veteran +opponent.[2] The Scottish + +[Footnote 1: Journals, viii. 309, 329, 360, 374, 475. Baillie, ii. 207, +209. Rush. vi. 280-297. The last who submitted to take down the royal +standard was the marquess of Worcester. He was compelled to travel, at the +age of eighty, from Ragland Castle to London, but died immediately after +his arrival. As his estate was under sequestration, the Lords ordered a sum +to be advanced for the expenses of his funeral.--Journals, viii. 498, 616. +See Note (B) at the end of the volume.] + +[Footnote 2: The following was the chief point in dispute. Each had alleged +texts of Scripture in support of his favourite opinion, and each explained +those texts in an opposite meaning. It was certainly as unreasonable that +Charles should submit his judgment to Henderson, as that Henderson should +submit his to that of Charles. The king, therefore, asked who was to be +judge between them. The divine replied, that Scripture could only be +explained by Scripture, which, in the opinion of the monarch, was leaving +the matter undecided. He maintained that antiquity was the judge. The +church government established by the apostles must have been consonant to +the meaning of the Scripture. Now, as far as we can go back in history, we +find episcopacy established: whence it is fair to infer that episcopacy +was the form established by the apostles. Henderson did not allow the +inference. The church of the Jews had fallen into idolatry during the short +absence of Moses on the mount, the church of Christ might have fallen into +error in a short time after the death of the apostles. Here the controversy +ended with the sickness and death of the divine.--See Charles's Works, +75-90.] + +leaders, however, came with political arguments to the aid of their +champion. They assured[a] the king that his restoration to the royal +authority, or his perpetual exclusion from the throne, depended on his +present choice. Let him take the covenant, and concur in the establishment +of the Directory, and the Scottish nation to a man, the English, with +the sole exception of the Independents, would declare in his favour. His +conformity in that point alone could induce them to mitigate the severity +of their other demands, to replace him on the throne of his ancestors, +and to compel the opposite faction to submit. Should he refuse, he must +attribute the consequences to himself. He had received sufficient warning: +they had taken the covenant, and must discharge their duty to God and their +country. + +It was believed then, it has often been repeated since, that the king's +refusal originated in the wilfulness and obstinacy of his temper; and that +his repeated appeals to his conscience were mere pretexts to disguise his +design of replunging the nation into the horrors from which it had so +recently emerged. But this supposition is completely refuted by the whole +tenour of his secret correspondence with his queen and her council in +France. He appears to have divided his objections into two classes, +political and religious. 1. It was, he alleged, an age in which mankind +were governed from the pulpit: whence it became an object + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1646. July 13.] + +of the first importance to a sovereign to determine to whose care that +powerful engine should be intrusted. The principles of Presbyterianism +were anti-monarchical; its ministers openly advocated the lawfulness +of rebellion; and, if they were made the sole dispensers of public +instruction, he and his successors might be kings in name, but would be +slaves in effect. The wisest of those who had swayed the sceptre since the +days of Solomon had given his sanction to the maxim "no bishop no king;" +and his own history furnished a melancholy confirmation of the sagacity of +his father. 2. The origin of episcopacy was a theological question, which +he had made it his business to study. He was convinced that the institution +was derived from Christ, and that he could not in conscience commute it for +another form of church government devised by man. He had found episcopacy +in the church at his accession; he had sworn to maintain it in all its +rights; and he was bound to leave it in existence at his death. Once, +indeed, to please the two houses, he had betrayed his conscience by +assenting to the death of Strafford: the punishment of that transgression +still lay heavy on his head; but should he, to please them again, betray it +once more, he would prove himself a most incorrigible sinner, and deserve +the curse both of God and man.[1] + +The king had reached Newark in May: it was the end of July before the +propositions of peace were submitted[a] to his consideration. The same in +substance with those of the preceding year, they had yet been aggravated by +new restraints, and a more numerous + +[Footnote 1: For all these particulars, see the Clarendon Papers, ii. 243, +248, 256, 260, 263, 265, 274, 277, 295; Baillie, ii. 208, 209, 214, 218, +219, 236, 241, 242, 243, 249.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1646. July 24.] + +list of proscriptions. On the tenth day,[a] the utmost limit of the time +allotted to the commissioners, Charles replied that it was impossible +for him to return an unqualified assent to proposals of such immense +importance; that without explanation he could not comprehend how much of +the ancient constitution it was meant to preserve, how much to take away; +that a personal conference was necessary for both parties, in order to +remove doubts, weigh reasons, and come to a perfect understanding; and that +for this purpose it was his intention to repair to Westminster whenever the +two houses and the Scottish commissioners would assure him that he might +reside there with freedom, honour, and safety.[1] + +This message, which was deemed evasive, and therefore unsatisfactory, +filled the Independents with joy, the Presbyterians with sorrow. The former +disguised no longer their wish to dethrone the king, and either to set up +in his place his son the duke of York, whom the surrender of Oxford had +delivered into their hands, or, which to many seemed preferable, to +substitute a republican for a monarchical form of government. The Scottish +commissioners sought to allay the ferment, by diverting the attention of +the houses. They expressed[b] their readiness not only to concur in such +measures as the obstinacy of the king should make necessary, but on the +receipt of a compensation for their past services, to withdraw their army +into their own country. The offer was cheerfully accepted; a committee +assembled to balance the accounts between + +[Footnote 1: Journals, viii. 423, 447, 460. The king now wished to escape +from the Scots. Ashburnham was instructed to sound Pierpoint, one of +the parliamentarian commissioners, but Pierpoint refused to confer with +him.--Ashburn. ii. 78.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1646. August 2.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1646. August 11.] + +the nations; many charges on both sides were disputed and disallowed; and +at last the Scots agreed[a] to accept four hundred thousand pounds in lieu +of all demands, of which one half should be paid before they left England, +the other after their arrival in Scotland.[1] + +At this moment an unexpected vote[b] of the two houses gave birth to a +controversy unprecedented in history. It was resolved that the right of +disposing of the king belonged to the parliament of England. The Scots +hastened to remonstrate. To dispose of the king was an ambiguous term; +they would assume that it meant to determine where he should reside until +harmony was restored between him and his people. But it ought to be +remembered that he was king of Scotland as well as of England; that each +nation had an interest in the royal person; both had been parties in the +war; both had a right to be consulted respecting the result. The +English, on the contrary, contended that the Scots were not parties, but +auxiliaries, and that it was their duty to execute the orders of those +whose bread they ate, and whose money they received. Scotland was certainly +an independent kingdom. But its rights were confined within its own + +[Footnote 1: Journals, viii. 461, 485. Baillie, ii. 222, 223, 225, 267. +Rush. vi. 322-326. To procure the money, a new loan was raised in the +following manner. Every subscriber to former loans on the faith of +parliament, who had yet received neither principal nor interest, was +allowed to subscribe the same sum to the present loan, and, in return, both +sums with interest were to be secured to him on the grand excise and the +sale of the bishops' lands. For the latter purpose, three ordinances were +passed; one disabling all persons from holding the place, assuming the +name, and exercising the jurisdiction of archbishops or bishops within the +realm, and vesting all the lands belonging to archbishops and bishops +in certain trustees, for the use of the nation (Journals, 515); another +securing the debts of subscribers on these lands (ibid. 520); and a +third appointing persons to make contracts of sale, and receive the +money.--Journals of Commons, Nov. 16.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1646. Sept. 5.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1646. Sept. 21.] + +limits; it could not claim, it should not exercise, any authority within +the boundaries of England. This altercation threatened to dissolve the +union between the kingdoms. Conferences were repeatedly[a][b] held. The +Scots published their speeches; the Commons ordered the books to be seized, +and the printers to be imprisoned; and each party obstinately refused +either to admit the pretensions of its opponents, or even to yield to +a compromise. But that which most strongly marked the sense of the +parliament, was a vote[c] providing money for the payment of the army +during the next six months; a very intelligible hint of their determination +to maintain their claim by force of arms, if it were invaded by the +presumption of their allies.[1] + +This extraordinary dispute, the difficulty of raising an immediate loan, +and the previous arrangements for the departure of the Scots, occupied the +attention of the two houses during the remainder of the year. Charles +had sufficient leisure to reflect on the fate which threatened him. His +constancy seemed to relax; he consulted[d] the bishops of London and +Salisbury: and successively proposed several unsatisfactory expedients, +of which the object was to combine the toleration of episcopacy with the +temporary or partial establishment of Presbyterianism. The lords voted[e] +that he should be allowed to reside at Newmarket; but the Commons +refused[f] their consent; and ultimately both houses fixed on Holmby, in +the vicinity of Northampton.[2] No notice was taken of the security + +[Footnote 1: Journals, 498, 534. Commons', Oct. 7, 13, 14, 16. Rush. vi. +329-373. Baillie, ii. 246.] + +[Footnote 2: "Holdenby or Holmby, a very stately house, built by the lord +chancellor Hatton, and in King James's reign purchased by Q. Anne for her +second son."--Herbert, 13. It was, therefore, the king's own property.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1646. Oct. 1.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1646. Oct. 7.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1646. Oct. 13.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1646. Sept. 30.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1646. Dec. 16.] +[Sidenote f: A.D. 1646. Dec. 31.] + +which he had demanded for his honour and freedom, but a promise was given +that respect should be had to the safety of his person in the defence of +the true[a] religion and the liberties of the two kingdoms, according to +the solemn league and covenant. This vote was communicated to the Scottish +commissioners at Newcastle, who replied that they awaited the commands[b] +of their own parliament.[1] + +In Scotland the situation of the king had been the subject of many keen +and animated debates. In the parliament his friends were active +and persevering; and their efforts elicited a resolution that the +commissioners[c] in London should urge with all their influence his request +of a personal conference. Cheered by this partial success, they proposed a +vote expressive of their determination to support, under all circumstances, +his right to the English throne. But at this moment arrived the votes of +the two houses for his removal to Holmby: the current of Scottish loyalty +was instantly checked; and the fear of a rupture between the nations +induced the estates to observe a solemn fast, that they might deserve the +blessing of Heaven, and to consult the commissioners of the kirk, that they +might proceed with a safe conscience. The answer was such as might have +been expected from the bigotry of the age: that it was unlawful to assist +in the restoration of a prince, who had been excluded from the government +of his kingdom, for his refusal of the propositions respecting religion +and the covenant. No man ventured to oppose the decision of the kirk. In a +house of two hundred + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon Papers, ii. 265, 268, 276. Journals, 622, 635, 648, +681. Commons' Journals, Dec. 24. His letter to the bishop of London is in +Ellis, iii. 326, 2nd ser.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. Jan. 6.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1647. Jan. 12.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1646. Dec. 16.] + +members, not more than seven or eight were found to speak in favour of +their sovereign. A resolution was voted that he should be sent to Holmby, +or some other of his houses near London, to remain there till he had +assented to the propositions of peace; and all that his friends could +obtain was an amendment more expressive of their fears than of their hopes, +that no injury[a] or violence should be offered to his person, no obstacle +be opposed to the legitimate succession of his children, and no alteration +made in the existing government of the kingdoms. This addition was +cheerfully adopted by the English House of Lords; but the Commons did not +vouchsafe to honour it with their notice. The first[b] payment of one +hundred thousand pounds had already been made at Northallerton: the Scots, +according to[c] agreement, evacuated Newcastle; and the parliamentary +commissioners, without any other ceremony, took charge of the royal person. +Four days later the Scots[d] received the second sum of one hundred +thousand pounds; their army repassed the border-line between the two +kingdoms; and the captive monarch, under a[e] strong guard, but with every +demonstration of respect, was conducted to his new prison at Holmby.[1] + +The royalists, ever since the king's visit to Newark, had viewed with +anxiety and terror the cool calculating policy of the Scots. The result +converted their suspicions into certitude: they hesitated not to accuse +them of falsehood and perfidy, and to charge them with having allured the +king to their army by deceitful promises, that, Judas-like, they might +barter him for money with his enemies. Insinuations so injurious + +[Footnote 1: Journals, viii. 686, 689, 695, 699, 713. Commons', Jan. 25, +26, 27. Baillie, ii. 253. Rush. vi. 390-398. Whitelock, 233. Thurloe, i. +73, 74.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. Jan. 25.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1647. Jan. 21.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1647. Jan. 30.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1647. Feb. 3.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1647. Feb. 16.] + +to the character of the nation ought not to be lightly admitted. It is, +indeed, true that fanaticism and self-interest had steeled the breasts +of the Covenanters against the more generous impulses of loyalty and +compassion; and that, by the delivery of the king to his enemies, they +violated their previous pledge of personal safety, which, if once given, +though by word only, ought to have been sacredly fulfilled. But there is +no ground for the statement, that they held out promises to delude the +unfortunate prince. It was with reluctance that they consented to receive +him at all; and, when at last he sought an asylum in their army, he came +thither, not allured by invitation from them, but driven by necessity and +despair. 2. If the delivery of the royal person, connected as it was with +the receipt of £200,000, bore the appearance of a sale, it ought to be +remembered, that the accounts between the two nations had been adjusted in +the beginning of September; that for four months afterwards the Scots never +ceased to negotiate in favour of Charles; nor did they resign the care of +his person, till the votes of the English parliament compelled them to make +the choice between compliance or war. It may be, that in forming their +decision their personal interest was not forgotten; but there was another +consideration which had no small weight even with the friends of the +monarch. It was urged that by suffering the king to reside at Holmby, they +would do away with the last pretext for keeping on foot the army under +the command of Fairfax; the dissolution of that army would annihilate the +influence of the Independents, and give an undisputed ascendancy to the +Presbyterians; the first the declared enemies, the others the avowed +advocates of Scotland, of the kirk, and of the king; and the necessary +consequence must be, that the two parliaments would be left at liberty +to arrange, in conformity with the covenant, both the establishment of +religion and the restoration of the throne.[1] + +Charles was not yet weaned from the expectation of succour from Ireland. +At Newcastle he had consoled the hours of his captivity with dreams of the +mighty efforts for his deliverance, which would be made by Ormond, and +Glamorgan, and the council at Kilkenny. To the first of these he forwarded +two messages, one openly through Lanark, the Scottish secretary, the other +clandestinely through Lord Digby, who proceeded to Dublin from France. By +the first Ormond received a positive command to break off the treaty +with the Catholics; by the second he was told to adhere to his former +instructions, and to obey no order which was not transmitted to him by the +queen or the prince.[a] The letter to Glamorgan proves more clearly the +distress to which he was reduced, and the confidence which he reposed in +the exertions of that nobleman. "If," he writes, "you can raise a large sum +of money by pawning my kingdoms for that purpose, I am content you should +do it; and if I recover them, I will fully repay that money. And tell the +nuncio, that if once I can come into his and your hands, which ought to be +extremely wish'd" + + +[Footnote 1: See the declarations of Argyle in Laing, iii. 560; and of the +Scottish commissioners, to the English parliament, Journals, ix. 594, 598. +"Stapleton and Hollis, and some others of the eleven members, had been the +main persuaders of us to remove out of England, and leave the king to them, +upon assurance, which was most likely, that this was the only means to +get that evil army disbanded, the king and peace settled according to our +minds; but their bent execution of this real intention has undone them, and +all, till God provide a remedy."--Baillie, ii. 257.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1646. July 20.] + +for by you, both, as well for the sake of England as Ireland, since all the +rest, as I see, despise me, I will do it. And if I do not say this from my +heart, or if in any future time I fail you in this, may God never restore +me to my kingdoms in this world, nor give me eternal happiness in the next, +to which I hope this tribulation will conduct me at last, after I have +satisfied my obligations to my friends, to none of whom am I so much +obliged as to yourself, whose merits towards me exceed all expressions that +can be used by + +Your constant friend, + +CHARLES R."[1] + +But religion was still the rock on which the royal hopes were destined[a] +to split. The perseverance of the supreme council at Kilkenny prevailed +in appearance over the intrigues of the nuncio and the opposition of the +clergy. The peace was reciprocally signed; it was published with more than +usual parade in the cities of Dublin and Kilkenny; but at the same time a +national synod at Waterford not only condemned it[b] as contrary to the +oath of association, but on that ground excommunicated its authors, +fautors, and abettors as guilty of perjury. The struggle between the +advocates and opponents of the peace was soon terminated. The men of +Ulster under Owen O'Neil, proud of their recent victory (they had almost +annihilated + +[Footnote 1: Birch, Inquiry, 245. I may here mention that Glamorgan, when +he was marquess of Worcester, published "A Century of the "Names and +Scantlings of such Inventions," &c., which Hume pronounces "a ridiculous +compound of lies, chimeras, and impossibilities, enough to show what might +be expected from such a man." If the reader peruse Mr. Partington's recent +edition of this treatise, he will probably conclude that the historian had +never seen it, or that he was unable to comprehend it.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1646. July 29.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1646. August 6.] + +the Scottish army in the sanguinary battle of Benburb), espoused the cause +of the clergy; Preston, who commanded the forces of Leinster, after some +hesitation, declared also in their favour; the members of the old council +who had subscribed the treaty were imprisoned, and a new council was +established, consisting of eight laymen and four clergymen, with the nuncio +at their head. Under their direction, the two armies marched to besiege +Dublin: it was saved by the prudence of Ormond, who had wasted the +neighbouring country, and by the habits of jealousy and dissension which +prevented any cordial co-operation between O'Neil and Preston, the one +of Irish, the other of English descent. Ormond, however, despaired of +preserving the capital against their repeated attempts; and the important +question for his decision was, whether he should surrender it to them or to +the parliament. The one savoured of perfidy to his religion, the other[a] +of treachery to his sovereign. He preferred the latter. The first answer to +his offer he was induced to reject as derogatory from his honour: a second +negotiation followed; and he at last consented to resign to the parliament +the sword, the emblem of his office, the[b] castle of Dublin, and all the +fortresses held by his troops, on the payment of a certain sum of money, a +grant of security for his person, and the restoration of his lands, which +had been sequestrated. This agreement was performed. Ormond came to +England, and the king's hope of assistance from Ireland was once more +disappointed.[1] + +Before the conclusion of this chapter, it will be + +[Footnote 1: Journals, viii. 519, 522; ix. 29, 32, 35. The reader will find +an accurate account of the numerous and complicated negotiations respecting +Ireland in Birch, Inquiry, &c., p. 142-261.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1646. Oct. 14.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1647. Feb. 22.] + +proper to notice the progress which had been made in the reformation of +religion. From the directory for public worship, the synod and the houses +proceeded to the government of the church. They divided the kingdom into +provinces, the provinces into classes, and the classes into presbyteries +or elderships; and established by successive votes a regular gradation of +authority among these new judicatories, which amounted, if we may believe +the ordinance, to no fewer than ten thousand. But neither of the great +religious parties was satisfied. 1. The Independents strongly objected to +the intolerance of the Presbyterian scheme;[1] and though willing that it +should be protected and countenanced by the state, they claimed a right +to form, according to the dictates of their consciences, separate +congregations for themselves. Their complaints were received with a willing +ear by the two houses, the members of which (so we are told by a Scottish +divine who attended the assembly at Westminster) might be divided into four +classes: the Presbyterians, who, in number and influence, surpassed any +one of the other three; the Independents, who, if few in number, were yet +distinguished by the superior talents and industry of their leaders; the +lawyers, who looked with jealousy on any attempt to erect an ecclesiastical +power independent of the legislature; and the men of irreligious habits, +who dreaded the stern and scrutinizing discipline of a Presbyterian kirk. +The two last occasionally + +[Footnote 1: Under the general name of Independents, I include, for +convenience, all the different sects enumerated at the time by Edwards +in his Gangraena,--Independents, Brownists, Millenaries, Antinomians, +Anabaptists, Arminians, Libertines, Familists, Enthusiasts, Seekers, +Perfectists, Socinians, Arianists, Anti-Trinitarians, Anti-Scripturists, +and Sceptics.--Neal's Puritans, ii. 251. I observe that some of them +maintained that toleration was due even to Catholics. Baillie repeatedly +notices it with feelings of horror (ii. 17, 18, 43, 61).] + +served to restore the balance between the two others, and by joining with +the Independents, to arrest the zeal, and neutralize the votes of +the Presbyterians.[a] With their aid, Cromwell, as the organ of the +discontented religionists, had obtained the appointment of a "grand +committee for accommodation," which sat four months, and concluded nothing. +Its professed object was to reconcile the two parties, by inducing the +Presbyterians to recede from their lofty pretensions, and the Independents +to relax something of their sectarian obstinacy. Both were equally +inflexible. The former would admit of no innovation in the powers which +Christ, according to their creed, had bestowed on the presbytery; the +latter, rather than conform, expressed their readiness to suffer the +penalties of the law, or to seek some other clime, where the enjoyment of +civil, was combined with that of religious, freedom.[1] + +2. The discontent of the Presbyterians arose from a very different +source. They complained that the parliament sacrilegiously usurped that +jurisdiction which Christ had vested exclusively in his church. The +assembly contended, that "the keys of the kingdom of heaven were committed +to the officers of the church, by virtue whereof, they have power +respectively to retain and remit sins, to shut the kingdom of heaven +against the impenitent by censures, and to open it to the penitent by +absolution." These claims of the divines were zealously supported by their +brethren in parliament, and as fiercely opposed by all who were not of +their communion. The divines claimed for the presbyteries the right of +inquiring into the private lives of individuals, and of suspending the +unworthy[b] + +[Footnote 1: Baillie, i. 408, 420, 431; ii. 11, 33, 37, 42, 57, 63, 66, +71.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. Sept. 13.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1645. March 5.] + +from the sacrament of the Lord's supper; but the parliament refused the +first, and confined the second to cases of public scandal. _They_ arrogated +to themselves the power of judging what offences should be deemed +scandalous; the parliament defined the particular offences, and appointed +civil commissioners in each province, to whom the presbyteries should refer +every case not previously enumerated. _They_ allowed of no appeal from the +ecclesiastical tribunals to the civil magistrate; the parliament empowered +all who thought themselves aggrieved to apply for redress to either of +the two houses.[1] This profane mutilation of the divine right of the +presbyteries excited the alarm and execration of every orthodox believer. +When the ordinance for carrying the new plan into execution was in progress +through the Commons, the ministers generally determined not to act under +its provisions. The citizens of London, who petitioned against it, were +indeed silenced by a vote[a] that they had violated the privileges of the +house; but the Scottish commissioners came to their aid with a demand that +religion should be regulated to the satisfaction of the church; and the +assembly of divines ventured to remonstrate, that they could not +in conscience submit to an imperfect and anti-scriptural form of +ecclesiastical government. To the Scots a civil but unmeaning answer was +returned:[b] to alarm the assembly, it was resolved that the remonstrance +was a breach of privilege, and that nine questions should be proposed to +the divines, respecting the nature and object of the divine right to which +they pretended. These questions had been prepared by the ingenuity of +Selden and Whitelock, + +[Footnote 1: Journals, vii. 469. Commons', Sept. 25, Oct. 10, March 5.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1646. March 26.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1646. April 22.] + +ostensibly for the sake of information, in reality to breed dissension and +to procure delay.[1] + +When the votes of the house were announced to the assembly, the members +anticipated nothing less than the infliction of those severe penalties with +which breaches of privilege were usually visited. They observed a day of +fasting and humiliation, to invoke the protection of God in favour of +his persecuted church; required the immediate attendance of their absent +colleagues; and then reluctantly entered on the consideration of the +questions sent to them from the Commons. In a few days, however, the king +took refuge in the Scottish army, and a new ray of hope cheered their +afflicted spirits. Additional petitions were presented; the answer of the +two houses became more accommodating; and the petitioners received thanks +for their zeal, with an assurance in conciliatory language that attention +should be paid to their requests. The immediate consequence was the +abolition of the provincial commissioners; and the ministers, softened +by this condescension, engaged to execute the ordinance in London and +Lancashire.[2] At the same time the assembly undertook the composition of a +catechism and confession of faith; but their progress was daily retarded by +the debates respecting the nine questions; and the influence of their party +was greatly diminished by the sudden death of the earl of Essex.[3][a] + +[Footnote 1: Journals, viii. 232. Commons', March 23, April 22. Baillie, +ii. 194. "The pope and king," he exclaims, "were never more earnest for the +headship of the church, than the plurality of this parliament" (196, 198, +199, 201, 216).] + +[Footnote 2: These were the only places in which the Presbyterian +government was established according to law.] + +[Footnote 3: Baillie says, "He was the head of our party here, kept +altogether who now are like, by that alone, to fall to pieces. The House of +Lords absolutely, the city very much, and many of the shires depended on +him" (ii. 234).] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. .Sept. 14.] + + +It was, however, restored by the delivery of the king into the hands of the +parliament: petitions were immediately presented, complaining of the growth +of[a] error and schism; and the impatience of the citizens[b] induced them +to appoint a committee to wait daily at the door of the House of Commons, +till they should receive a favourable answer. But another revolution, to +be related in the next chapter, followed; the custody of the royal person +passed from the parliament to the army: and the hopes of the orthodox were +utterly extinguished.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Baillie, ii. 207, 215, 216, 226, 234, 236, 250. Journals, +viii. 332, 509; ix. 18, 72, 82. Commons', May 26, Nov. 27, Dec. 7, March +25, 30.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. Feb. 18.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1647. March 17.] + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +Opposite Projects Of The Presbyterians And Independents--The King +Is Brought From Holmby To The Army--Independents Driven From +Parliament--Restored By The Army--Origin Of The Levellers--King Escapes +From Hampton Court, And Is Secured In The Isle Of Wight--Mutiny In The +Army--Public Opinion In Favour Of The King--Scots Arm In His Defence--The +Royalists Renew The War--The Presbyterians Assume The Ascendancy--Defeat +Of The Scots--Suppression Of The Royalists--Treaty Of Newport--The King Is +Again Brought To The Army--The House Of Commons Is Purified--The King's +Trial--Judgment--And Execution--Reflections. + + +The king during his captivity at Holmby divided his time between his +studies and amusements. A considerable part of the day he spent in his +closet, the rest in playing at bowls, or riding in the neighbourhood.[1] He +was strictly watched; and without an order from the parliament no access +could be obtained to the royal presence. The crowds who came to be touched +for the evil were sent back by the guards; the servants who waited on his +person received their appointment from the commissioners; and, when he +refused[a] the spiritual services of the two Presbyterian ministers sent +to him from London, his request[b] for the attendance of any of his twelve +chaplains was equally refused.[c] + +[Footnote 1: "He frequently went to Harrowden, a house of the Lord Vaux's, +where there was a good bowling-green with gardens, groves, and walks, and +to Althorp, a fair house, two or three miles from Holmby, belonging to the +Lord Spenser, where there was a green well kept."--Herbert, 18.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. Feb. 17.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1647. March 6.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1647. March 8.] + + +Thus three months passed away without any official communication from the +two houses. The king's patience was exhausted; and he addressed them in +a[a] letter, which, as it must have been the production of his own pen, +furnishes an undoubted and favourable specimen of his abilities. In it +he observed that the want of advisers might, in the estimation of any +reasonable man, excuse him from noticing the important propositions +presented to him at Newcastle; but his wish to restore a good understanding +between himself and his houses of parliament had induced him to make them +the subjects of his daily study; and, if he could not return an answer +satisfactory in every particular, it must be attributed not to want of +will, but to the prohibition of his conscience. Many things he would +cheerfully concede: with respect to the others he was ready to receive +information, and that in person, if such were the pleasure of the Lords +and Commons. Individuals in his situation might persuade themselves that +promises extorted from a prisoner are not binding. If such were his +opinion, he would not hesitate a moment to grant whatever had been asked. +His very reluctance proved beyond dispute, that with him at least the words +of a king were sacred. + +After this preamble he proceeds to signify his assent to most of the +propositions; but to the three principal points in debate, he answers: 1. +That he is ready to confirm the Presbyterian government for the space of +three years, on condition that liberty of worship be allowed to himself +and his household; that twenty divines of his nomination be added to the +assembly at Westminster; and that the final settlement of religion at the +expiration of that period be made in the regular way by himself and the two +houses: 2. he is willing + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. May 12.] + +that the command of the army and navy be vested in persons to be named by +them, on condition that after ten years it may revert to the crown; and 3. +if these things be accorded, he pledges himself to give full satisfaction +with respect to the war in Ireland. By[a] the Lords the royal answer was +favourably received, and they resolved by a majority of thirteen to nine +that the king should be removed from Holmby to Oatlands; but the Commons +neglected to notice the subject, and their attention was soon occupied by a +question of more immediate, and therefore in their estimation of superior +importance.[1] + +The reader is aware that the Presbyterians had long viewed the army under +Fairfax with peculiar jealousy. It offered a secure refuge to their +religious, and proved the strongest bulwark of their political, opponents. +Under its protection, men were beyond the reach of intolerance. They prayed +and preached as they pleased; the fanaticism of one served to countenance +the fanaticism of another; and all, however they might differ in spiritual +gifts and theological notions, were bound together by the common profession +of godliness, and the common dread of persecution. Fairfax, though called +a Presbyterian, had nothing of that stern, unaccommodating character which +then marked the leaders of the party. In the field he was distinguished by +his activity and daring; but the moment his military duties were performed, +he relapsed into habits of ease and indolence; and, with the good-nature +and the credulity of a child, suffered himself to be guided by the advice +or the wishes of + +[Footnote 1: These particulars appear in the correspondence in Clar. Pap. +221-226; Journals, 19, 69, 193, 199; Commons', Feb. 25; March 2, 9; May +21.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. May 20.] + +those around him--by his wife, by his companions, and particularly by +Cromwell. That adventurer had equally obtained the confidence of the +commander-in-chief and of the common soldier. Dark, artful, and designing, +he governed Fairfax by his suggestions, while he pretended only to second +the projects of that general. Among the privates he appeared as the +advocate of liberty and toleration, joined with them in their conventicles, +equalled them in the cant of fanaticism, and affected to resent their +wrongs as religionists and their privations as soldiers. To his +fellow-officers he lamented the ingratitude and jealousy of the parliament, +a court in which experience showed that no man, not even the most +meritorious patriot, was secure. To-day he might be in high favour; +tomorrow, at the insidious suggestion of some obscure lawyer or +narrow-minded bigot, he might find himself under arrest, and be consigned +to the Tower. That Cromwell already aspired to the eminence to which he +afterwards soared, is hardly credible; but that his ambition was awakened, +and that he laboured to bring the army into collision with the parliament, +was evident to the most careless observer.[1] + +To disband that army was now become the main object of the Presbyterian +leaders; but they disguised their real motives under the pretence of the +national benefit. The royalists were humbled in the dust; the Scots had +departed; and it was time to relieve the country from the charge of +supporting a multitude of + +[Footnote 1: As early as Aug. 2, 1648, Huntingdon, the major in his +regiment, in his account of Cromwell's conduct, noticed, that in his +chamber at Kingston he said, "What a sway Stapleton and Hollis had +heretofore in the kingdom, and he knew nothing to the contrary but that he +was as well able to govern the kingdom as either of them."--Journals, x. +411.] + +men in arms without any ostensible purpose. They carried, but with +considerable opposition, the following resolutions: to take from the army +three regiments of horse and eight regiments of foot, for the service in +Ireland; to retain in England no greater number of infantry than might be +required to do the garrison duty, with six thousand cavalry for the more +speedy suppression of tumults and riots; and to admit of no officer +of higher rank than colonel, with the exception of Fairfax, the +commander-in-chief. In addition it was voted that no commission should be +granted to any member of the lower house, or to any individual who refused +to take the solemn league and covenant, or to any one whose conscience +forbade him to conform to the Presbyterian scheme of church government.[1] + +The object of these votes could not be concealed from the Independents. +They resolved to oppose their adversaries with their own weapons, and to +intimidate those whom they were unable to convince. Suddenly, at their +secret instigation, the army, rising from its cantonments in the +neighbourhood of Nottingham, approached the metropolis, and selected +quarters in the county of Essex. This movement was regarded and resented +as a menace: Fairfax, to excuse it, alleged the difficulty of procuring +subsistence in an exhausted and impoverished district.[a] At Saffron Walden +he was met by the parliamentary commissioners, who called a council of +officers, and submitted to their consideration proposals for the service of + +[Footnote 1: Journals of Commons, iv., Feb. 15, 19, 20, 23, 25, 26, 27; +March 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. On several divisions, the Presbyterian majority was +reduced to ten; on one, to two members. They laboured to exclude Fairfax, +but were left in a minority of 147 to 159.--Ibid. March 5. "Some," says +Whitelock, "wondered it should admit debate and question" (p. 239).] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. March 21.] + +Ireland; but instead of a positive answer, inquiries were made and +explanations demanded, while a remonstrance against the treatment of the +army was circulated for signatures through the several regiments. In it the +soldiers required an ordinance of indemnity to screen them from actions +in the civil courts for their past conduct, the payment of their arrears, +which amounted to forty-three weeks for the horse, and to eighteen for the +infantry; exemption from impressment for foreign service; compensation for +the maimed; pensions for the widows and families of those who had fallen +during the war, and a weekly provision of money, that they might no longer +be compelled to live at free quarters on the inhabitants. This remonstrance +was presented to Fairfax to be forwarded by him to the two houses. The +ruling party became alarmed: they dreaded to oppose petitioners with swords +in their hands; and, that the project might be suppressed in its birth, +both houses sent instructions to the general, ordered all members +of parliament holding commands to repair to the army, and issued a +declaration,[a] in which, after a promise to take no notice of what was +past, they admonished the subscribers that to persist in their illegal +course would subject them to punishment "as enemies to the state and +disturbers of the public peace."[1] + +The framers of this declaration knew little of the temper of the military. +They sought to prevail by intimidation, and they only inflamed the general +discontent. Was it to be borne, the soldiers asked each other, that the +city of London and the county of Essex should be allowed to petition +against the army, + +[Footnote 1: Journals, ix. 66, 72, 82, 89, 95, 112-115. Commons', v. March +11, 25, 26, 27, 29.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647 March 29.] + +and that they, who had fought, and bled, and conquered in the cause of +their country, should be forbidden either to state their grievances or +to vindicate their characters? Hitherto the army had been guided, in +appearance at least, by the council of officers; now, whether it was a +contrivance of the officers themselves to shift the odium to the whole body +of the military, or was suggested by the common men, who began to distrust +the integrity of their commanders, two deliberating bodies, in imitation +of the houses at Westminster, were formed; one consisting of the officers +holding commissions, the other of two representatives from every troop and +company, calling themselves adjutators or helpers; a name which, by +the ingenuity of their enemies, was changed into that of agitators or +disturbers.[1] Guided by their resolves, the whole army seemed to be +animated with one soul; scarcely a man could be tempted to desert the +common cause by accepting of the service in Ireland; each corps added +supernumeraries to its original complement;[2] and language was held, +and projects were suggested, most alarming to the Presbyterian party. +Confident, however, in their own power, the majority in the house[a] + +[Footnote 1: Hobbes, Behemoth, 587. Berkeley, 359. This, however, was not +the first appearance of the agitators. "The first time," says Fairfax, "I +took notice of them was at Nottingham (end of February), by the soldiers +meeting to frame a petition to the parliament about their arrears. The +thing seemed just; but not liking the way, I spoke with some officers +who were principally engaged in it, and got it suppressed for that +time."--Short Memorials of Thomas Lord Fairfax, written by himself. +Somers's Tracts, v. 392. Maseres, 446.] + +[Footnote 2: Several bodies of troops in the distant counties had been +disbanded; but the army under Fairfax, by enlisting volunteers from both +parties, royalists as well as parliamentarians, was gradually increased by +several thousand men, and the burthen of supporting it was doubled.--See +Journals, ix. 559-583.] + +[Sidebar a: A.D. 1647. April 27.] + +resolved that the several regiments should be disbanded on the receipt of +a small portion of their arrears. This vote was scarcely past, when a +deputation from the agitators presented to the Commons a defence of the +remonstrance. They maintained that by becoming soldiers they had not lost +the rights of subjects; that by purchasing the freedom of others, they had +not forfeited their own; that what had been granted to the adversaries of +the commonwealth, and to the officers in the armies of Essex and Waller, +could not in justice be refused to them; and that, as without the liberty +of petitioning, grievances are without remedy, they ought to be allowed to +petition now in what regarded them as soldiers, no less than afterwards +in what might regard them as citizens. At the same time the agitators +addressed to Fairfax and the other general officers a letter complaining of +their wrongs, stating their resolution to obtain redress, and describing +the expedition to Ireland as a mere pretext to separate the soldiers from +those officers to whom they were attached, "a cloak to the ambition of +men who having lately tasted of sovereignty, and been lifted beyond their +ordinary sphere of servants, sought to become masters, and degenerate into +tyrants." The tone of these papers excited alarm; and Cromwell, Skippon, +Ireton, and Fleetwood were[a] ordered to repair to their regiments, and +assure them that ordinances of indemnity should be passed, that their +arrears should be audited, and that a considerable payment should be made +previous to their dismissal from the service.[b] When these officers +announced, in the words of the parliamentary order, that they were come to +quiet "the distempers in the army," the councils replied, that they knew of +no[b] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. April 30.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1647. May 8.] + +distempers, but of many grievances, and that of these they demanded +immediate redress.[1] + +Whitelock, with his friends, earnestly deprecated a course of proceeding +which he foresaw must end in defeat; but his efforts were frustrated by the +inflexibility or violence of Holles, Stapleton, and Glyn, the leaders of +the ruling party, who, though they condescended to pass[a] the ordinance of +indemnity, and to issue[b] money for the payment of the arrears of eight +weeks, procured[c] instructions for the lord general to collect the several +regiments in their respective quarters, and to disband them without delay. +Instead of obeying, he called together the council of officers, who +resolved, in answer to a petition to them from the agitators, that the +votes of parliament were not satisfactory; that the arrears of payment for +eight weeks formed but a portion of their just claim, and that no security +had been given for the discharge of the remainder; that the bill of +indemnity was a delusion, as long as the vote declaring them enemies of +the state was unrepealed; and that, instead of suffering themselves to be +disbanded in their separate quarters, the whole army ought to be drawn +together, that they might consult in common for the security of their +persons and the reparation of their characters. Orders were despatched at +the same time to secure the park of artillery at Oxford, and to seize the +sum of four thousand pounds destined for the garrison in that city. These +measures opened the eyes of their adversaries. A proposal was made in +parliament to expunge the offensive declaration from the journals, a more +comprehensive bill of indemnity was introduced, and other + +[Footnote 1: Journals, ix. 164. Commons', Ap. 27, 30. Whitelock, 245, 246. +Rushworth, vi. 447, 451, 457, 469, 480, 485.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. May 21.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1647. May 25.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1647. May 29.] + +votes were suggested calculated to remove the objections of the army, when +the alarm of the Presbyterian leaders was raised to the highest pitch by +the arrival of unexpected tidings from Holmby.[1] + +Soon after the appointment of the agitators, an officer had delivered to +the king a petition from the army, that he would suffer himself to be +conducted to the quarters of their general, by whom he should be restored +to his honour, crown, and dignity.[a] Charles replied, that he hoped one +day to reward them for the loyalty of their intention, but that he could +not give his consent to a measure which, must, in all probability, replunge +the nation into the horrors of a civil war. He believed that this answer +had induced the army to abandon the design; but six weeks later, on +Wednesday the 2nd of June, while he was playing at bowls at Althorp, Joyce, +a cornet in the general's lifeguard, was observed standing among the +spectators; and late in the evening of the same day, the commissioners in +attendance upon him understood that a numerous party of horse had assembled +on Harleston Heath, at the distance of two miles from Holmby.[b] Their +object could not be doubted; it was soon ascertained that the military +under their orders would offer no resistance; and Colonel Greaves, their +commander, deemed it expedient to withdraw to a place of safety. About +two in the morning a body of troopers appeared before the gates, and were +instantly admitted.[c] To the questions of the commissioners, who was their +commander, and what was their purpose, Joyce replied, that they were all +commanders, and that they had + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 248, 250. Holles, 92. Journals, 207, 222, 226-228. +Commons', May 14, 21, 25, 28, June 1, 4, 5. Rushworth, vi. 489, 493, +497-500, 505.] + +[Transcriber's Note: Footnote 2 not found in the text.] + +[Footnote 2: Clarendon Papers, ii. 365.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. April 21] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1647. June 2] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1647. June 3] + +come to arrest Colonel Greaves, and to secure the person of the king, that +he might not be carried away by their enemies. With a pistol in his hand +he then demanded admission to Charles; but the grooms of the bedchamber +interposed; and, after a violent altercation, he was induced to withdraw. +During the day the parliamentary guards were replaced by these strangers; +about ten at night Joyce again demanded admission to the royal bedchamber, +and informed the king that his comrades were apprehensive of a rescue, and +wished to conduct him to a place of greater security. Charles signified +his assent, on the condition that what then passed between them in private +should be repeated in public; and at six the next morning, took his station +on the steps at the door, while the troopers drew up before him, with Joyce +a little in advance of the line. This dialogue ensued:-- + +KING.--Mr. Joyce, I desire to ask you, what authority you have to take +charge of my person and convey me away? + +JOYCE.--I am sent by authority of the army, to prevent the design of their +enemies, who seek to involve the kingdom a second time in blood. + +KING.--That is no lawful authority. I know of none in England but my own, +and, after mine, that of the parliament. Have you any written commission +from Sir Thomas Fairfax? + +JOYCE.--I have the authority of the army, and the general is included in +the army. + +KING.--That is no answer. The general is the head of the army. Have you any +written commission? + +JOYCE.--I beseech your majesty to ask me no more questions. There is my +commission, pointing to the troopers behind him. + +KING, with a smile--I never before read such a commission; but it is +written in characters fair and legible enough; a company of as handsome +proper gentlemen as I have seen a long while. But to remove me hence, +you must use absolute force, unless you give me satisfaction as to these +reasonable and just demands which I make: that I may be used with honour +and respect, and that I may not be forced in any thing against my +conscience or honour, though I hope that my resolution is so fixed that no +force can cause me to do a base thing. You are masters of my body, my soul +is above your reach. + +The troopers signified their assent by acclamation; and Joyce rejoined, +that their principle was not to force any man's conscience, much less that +of their sovereign. Charles proceeded to demand the attendance of his own +servants, and, when this had been granted, asked whither they meant to +conduct him. Some mentioned Oxford, others Cambridge, but, at his +own request, Newmarket was preferred. As soon as he had retired, the +commissioners protested against the removal of the royal person, and called +on the troopers present to come over to them, and maintain the authority +of parliament. But they replied with one voice "None, none;" and the king, +trusting himself to Joyce and his companions, rode that day as far as +Hinchinbrook House, and afterwards proceeded to Childersley, not far from +Cambridge.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Compare the narrative published by the army (Rushw. vi. 53), +with the letters sent by the commissioners to the House of Lords, Journals, +237, 240, 248, 250, 273, and Herbert's Memoirs, 26-33. Fairfax met the king +at Childersley, near Cambridge, and advised him to return to Holmby. "The +next day I waited on his majesty, it being also my business to persuade his +return to Holmby; but he was otherwise resolved.... So having spent the +whole day about this business, I returned to my quarters; and as I took +leave of the king, he said to me, Sir, I have as good interest in the army +as you.... I called for a council of war to proceed against Joyce for this +high offence, and breach of the articles of war; but the officers, whether +for fear of the distempered soldiers, or rather (as I suspected) a secret +allowance of what was done, made all my endeavours in this ineffectual." +Somers's Tracts, v. 394. Holles asserts that the removal of the king had +been planned at the house of Cromwell, on the 30th of May (Holles, 96); +Huntingdon, that it was advised by Cromwell and Ireton.--Lords' Journals, +x. 409.] + + +This design of seizing the person of the king was openly avowed by the +council of the agitators, though the general belief attributed it to the +secret contrivance of Cromwell. It had been carefully concealed from the +knowledge of Fairfax, who, if he was not duped by the hypocrisy of the +lieutenant-general and his friends, carefully suppressed his suspicions, +and acted as if he believed his brother officers to be animated with the +same sentiments as himself, an earnest desire to satisfy the complaints of +the military, and at the same time to prevent a rupture between them and +the parliament. But Cromwell appears to have had in view a very different +object, the humiliation of his political opponents; and his hopes were +encouraged not only by the ardour of the army, but also by the general +wishes of the people. + +1. The day after the abduction of the king[a] from Holmby, the army +rendezvoused at Newmarket, and entered into a solemn engagement, stating +that, whereas several officers had been called in question for advocating +the cause of the military, they had chosen certain men out of each company, +who then chose two or more out of themselves, to act in the name and behalf +of the whole soldiery of their respective regiments; and that they did +now unanimously declare and promise that the army should not disband, nor +volunteer for the service in Ireland, till + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. June 5.] + +their grievances had been so far redressed, and their subsequent safety so +far secured, as to give satisfaction to a council composed of the general +officers, and of two commissioned officers, and two privates, or agitators, +chosen from each regiment.[1] + +2. The forcible removal of the king had warned the Presbyterian leaders +of the bold and unscrupulous spirit which animated the soldiery; yet +they entertained no doubt of obtaining the victory in this menacing and +formidable contest. So much apparent reverence was still paid to the +authority of the parliament, so powerful was the Presbyterian interest in +the city and among the military, that they believed it would require only a +few concessions, and some judicious management on their part, to break that +bond of union which formed the chief element of strength possessed by their +adversaries. But when it became known that a friendly understanding already +existed between the officers and the king, they saw that no time was to be +lost. In their alarm the measures, which they had hitherto discussed very +leisurely, were turned through the two houses; the obnoxious declaration +was erased from the journals; a most extensive bill of indemnity was +passed; several ordinances were added securing more plentiful pay to the +disbanded soldiers, and still more plentiful to those who should volunteer +for the service in Ireland. Six commissioners--the earl of Nottingham +and Lord Delaware from the House of Lords, and Field-Marshal General +Skippon,[2] Sir Henry Vane the younger, and two + +[Footnote 1: Parl. Hist. iii. 64.] + +[Footnote 2: Skippon had been appointed commander-in-chief of the forces in +Ireland, with the title of field-marshal, and six pounds per day for his +entertainment.--Journals, ix. 122, Ap. 6. He also received the sum of one +thousand pounds for his outfit--Holles, p. 250.] + +others, from the House of Commons--were appointed to superintend the +disbandment of the forces; and peremptory orders were despatched to the +lord general, to collect all the regiments under his immediate command on +Newmarket Heath on Wednesday the 9th of June, and to second to the utmost +of his power the proceedings on the part of the six deputies. He professed +obedience; but of his own authority changed the place of rendezvous to +Triploe Heath, between Cambridge and Royston, and the day also from +Wednesday to Thursday, apparently with a view to the convenience of the two +houses.[1] + +It was only on the morning of Wednesday that the earl of Nottingham, with +his five companions, was able to set out from London on their important +mission; and, while they were on the road, their colleagues at Westminster +sought to interest Heaven in their favour by spending the day, as one of +fasting and humiliation, in religious exercises, according to the fashion +of the time.[a] Late in the evening the commissioners reached Cambridge, +and immediately offered the votes and ordinances, of which they were the +bearers, to the acceptance of Fairfax and his council. The whole, however, +of the next morning was wasted (artfully, it would seem, on the part of the +officers) in trifling controversies on mere matters of form, till at last +the lord general deigned to return an answer which was tantamount to +a refusal.[b] To the proposals of parliament he preferred the solemn +engagement already entered into by the army on Newmarket Heath, because + +[Footnote 1: The orders of the parliament with respect to the time +and place are in the Lords' Journals, ix. 241. Yet the debates on the +concessions did not close before Tuesday, nor did the negotiation between +the commissioners and the military council conclude till afternoon on +Thursday.--Ibid. 247, 353.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. June 9.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1647. June 10.] + +the latter presented a more effectual way of disbanding the forces under +his command without danger, and of extinguishing satisfactorily the +discontent which pervaded the whole nation. If, however, the commissioners +wished to ascertain in person the real sentiments of the soldiery, he +was ready with his officers to attend upon them, whilst they made the +inquiry.[1] It was now one in the afternoon; every corps had long since +occupied its position on the heath; and there is reason to believe, that +the opportunity afforded by this delay had been improved to prepare each +regiment separately, and particular agents in each regiment, against the +arrival and proposals of the commissioners. The latter dared not act on +their own discretion, but resolved to obey their instructions to the very +letter. Proceeding, therefore, to the heath, they rode at once to the +regiment of infantry of which Fairfax was colonel. The votes of the two +houses were then read to the men, and Skippon, having made a long harangue +in commendation of the votes, concluded by asking whether, with these +concessions, they were not all satisfied. "To that no answer can be +returned," exclaimed a voice from the ranks, "till your proposals have been +submitted to, and approved by, the council of officers and agitators." +The speaker was a subaltern, who immediately, having asked and obtained +permission from his colonel to address the whole corps, called aloud, "Is +not that the opinion of you all?" They shouted, "It is, of all, of all." +"But are there not," he pursued, "some among you who think otherwise?" +"No," was the general response, "no, not one." Disconcerted and abashed, +the commissioners turned aside, and, as they withdrew, were + +[Footnote 1: The correspondence is in the Journals, ibid.] + +greeted with continual cries of "Justice, justice, we demand justice."[1] + +From this regiment they proceeded to each of the others. In every instance +the same ceremony was repeated, and always with the same result. No one now +could doubt that both officers and men were joined in one common league; +and that the link which bound them together was the "solemn engagement."[2] +Both looked upon that engagement as the charter of their rights and +liberties. No concession or intrigue, no partiality of friendship or +religion, could seduce them from the faith which they had sworn to it. +There were, indeed, a few seceders, particularly the captains, and several +of the lord general's life-guard; but after all, the men who yielded to +temptation amounted to a very inconsiderable number, in comparison with +the immense majority of those who with inviolable fidelity adhered to +the engagement, and, by their resolution and perseverance, enabled their +leaders to win for them a complete, and at the same time a bloodless +victory. + +3. On the next day a deputation of freeholders from the county of Norfolk, +and soon afterwards similar deputations from the counties of Suffolk, +Essex, Herts, and Buckingham, waited with written addresses upon Fairfax. +They lamented that now, when the war with the king was concluded, peace had +not brought with it the blessings, the promise of which by the parliament +had induced them to submit to the evils and privations of war; a +disappointment that could be attributed only to the obstinacy with which +certain individuals clung to the emoluments of office + +[Footnote 1: Rushworth, vi. 518. Whitelock, 251. Holles, 252.] + +[Footnote 2: Nottingham's Letter in the Lords' Journals, ix. 253.] + +and the monopoly of power. To Fairfax, therefore, under God, they appealed +to become the saviour of his country, to be the mediator between it and the +two houses. With this view, let him keep his army together, till he had +brought the incendiaries to condign punishment, and extorted full redress +of the grievances so severely felt both by the army and the people.[1] + +The chiefs, however, who now ruled at Westminster, were not the men to +surrender without a struggle. They submitted, indeed, to pass a few +ordinances calculated to give satisfaction, but these were combined with +others which displayed a fixed determination not to succumb to the dictates +of a mutinous soldiery. A committee was established with power to raise +forces for the defence of the nation: the favourite general Skippon was +appointed to provide for the safety of the capital; and the most positive +orders were sent to Fairfax not to suffer any one of the corps under his +command to approach within forty miles of London. Every day the +contest assumed a more threatening aspect. A succession of petitions, +remonstrances, and declarations issued from the pens of Ireton and Lambert, +guided, it was believed, by the hand of Cromwell. In addition to their +former demands, it was required that all capitulations granted by military +commanders during the war should be observed; that a time[a] should be +fixed for the termination of the present parliament; that the House of +Commons should be purged of every individual disqualified by preceding +ordinances; + + +[Footnote 1: Lords' Journals, 260, 263, 277. Holles says that these +petitions were drawn by Cromwell, and sent into the counties for +subscriptions.--Holles, 256.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. June 14.] + +and, in particular, that eleven of its members, comprising Holles, Glyn, +Stapleton, Clotworthy, and Waller, the chief leaders of the Presbyterian +party, and members of the committee at Derby House, should be excluded, +till they had been tried by due course of law for the offence of +endeavouring to commit the army with the parliament. To give weight to +these demands, Fairfax, who seems to have acted as the mere organ of the +council of officers,[1] marched successively to St. Alban's, to Watford, +and to Uxbridge.[a] His approach revealed the weakness of his opponents, +and the cowardice, perhaps hypocrisy, of many, who foresaw the probable +issue of the contest, and deemed it not their interest to provoke by a +useless resistance the military chiefs, who might in a few hours be +their masters.[b] Hence it happened that men, who had so clamorously and +successfully appealed to the privileges of parliament, when the king +demanded the five members, now submitted tamely to a similar demand, when +it was made by twelve thousand men in arms. Skippon, their oracle, was one +of the first deserters. He resigned the several commands which he held, +and exhorted the Presbyterians to fast and pray, and submit to the will of +God.[c] From that time it became their chief solicitude to propitiate the +army. They granted very ingeniously leave of absence to the eleven accused +members; they ordered the new levies for the defence of the city to be +disbanded, and the + +[Footnote 1: "From the time they declared their usurped authority at +Triploe Heath (June 10th), I never gave my free consent to any thing they +did; but being yet undischarged of my place, they set my name in way of +course to all their papers, whether I consented or not."--Somers's Tracts, +v. 396. This can only mean that he reluctantly allowed them to make use +of his name; for he was certainly at liberty to resign his command, or to +protest against the measures which he disapproved.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. June 12.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1647. June 25.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1647. June 21.] + +new lines of communication to be demolished; they sent a month's pay to +the forces under Fairfax, with a vote declaring them the army of the +parliament, and appointed commissioners to treat with commissioners from +the military council, as if the latter were the representatives of an +independent and coequal authority.[1] + +This struggle and its consequences were viewed with intense interest by the +royalists, who persuaded themselves that it must end in the restoration +of the king; but the opportunities furnished by the passions of his +adversaries were as often forfeited by the irresolution of the monarch. +While both factions courted his assistance, he, partly through distrust of +their sincerity, partly through the hope of more favourable terms, +balanced between their offers, till the contest was decided without his +interference. Ever since his departure from Holmby, though he was still a +captive, and compelled to follow the marches of the army, the officers had +treated him with the most profound respect; attention was paid to all his +wants; the general interposed to procure for him occasionally the company +of his younger children; his servants, Legge, Berkeley, and Ashburnham, +though known to have come from France with a message from the queen,[2] +were permitted to attend him; and free access was + +[Footnote 1: Rushworth, vi. 518-596. Whitelock, 251-256. Holles, 104. +Journals, 249, 257, 260, 263, 275, 277, 284, 289, 291, 298. Commons', June +7, 11, 12, 15, 18, 25, 26, 28. On divisions in general, the Presbyterians +had a majority of forty; but on the 28th, the first day after the departure +of their leaders, they were left in a minority of eighty-five to one +hundred and twenty-one.--Ibid.] + +[Footnote 2: "I returned with instructions to endeavour by the best means +imaginable such a compliance between his majesty and the army, as might +have influence, and beget a right understanding between his majesty and the +parliament"--Ashburnham's Letter, in 1648, p. 5.] + +given to some of his chaplains, who read the service in his presence +publicly and without molestation. Several of the officers openly professed +to admire his piety, and to compassionate his misfortunes; even Cromwell, +though at first he affected the distance and reserve of an enemy, sent him +secret assurances of his attachment; and successive addresses were made to +him in the name of the military, expressive of the general wish to effect +an accommodation, which should reconcile the rights of the throne with +those of the people. A secret negotiation followed through the agency of +Berkeley and Ashburnham; and Fairfax, to[a] prepare the public for the +result, in a letter to the two houses, spurned the imputation cast upon +the army, as if it were hostile to monarchical government, justified the +respect and indulgence with which he had treated the royal captive, and +maintained that "tender, equitable, and moderate dealing towards him, his +family, and his former adherents," was the most hopeful course to lull +asleep the feuds which divided the nation. Never had the king so fair a +prospect of recovering his authority.[1] + +In the treaty between the commissioners of the parliament and those of +the army, the latter proceeded with considerable caution. The redress of +military grievances was but the least of their cares; their great object +was the settlement of the national tranquillity on what _they_ deemed a +solid and permanent basis. Of this intention they had suffered some hints +to transpire; but before the open announcement of their plan, they resolved +to bring the city, as they had brought the parliament, under subjection. +London, + +[Footnote 1: Journals, ix. 323, 324. Ashburn. ii. 91. Also Huntingdon's +Narrative, x. 409.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. July 2.] + +with its dependencies, had hitherto been the chief support of the contrary +faction; it abounded with discharged officers and soldiers who had served +under Essex and Waller, and who were ready at the first summons to draw +the sword in defence of the covenant; and the supreme authority over the +military within the lines of communication had been, by an ordinance of the +last year, vested in a committee, all the members of which were strongly +attached to the Presbyterian interest. To wrest this formidable weapon from +the hands of their adversaries, they forwarded a request to the two +houses, that the command of the London militia might be transferred from +disaffected persons to men distinguished by their devotion to the cause of +the country. The Presbyterians in the city were alarmed; they suspected a +coalition between the king and the Independents; they saw that the covenant +itself was at stake, and that the propositions of peace so often voted in +parliament might in a few days be set aside. A petition was presented[a] +in opposition to the demand of the army; but the houses, now under the +influence of the Independents, passed[b] the ordinance; and the city, on +its part, determined[c] to resist both the army and the parliament. Lord +Lauderdale, the chief of the Scottish commissioners, hastened to the king +to obtain his concurrence; a new covenant, devised in his favour, was +exposed at Skinners' Hall, and the citizens and soldiers, and probably the +concealed royalists, hastened in crowds to subscribe their names. By it +they bound themselves, in the presence of God, and at the risk of their +lives and fortunes, to bring the sovereign to Westminster, that he might +confirm the concessions which he had made in his letter from Holmby, and + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. July 14.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1647. July 23.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1647. July 24.] + +might confer with his parliament on the remaining propositions. But the +recent converts to the cause of the army hastened to prove the sincerity of +their conversion. Both Lords and Commons voted this engagement an act of +treason against the kingdom; and the publication of the vote, instead +of damping the zeal, inflamed the passions of the people. The citizens +petitioned a second time, and received a second refusal. The moment the +petitioners departed, a multitude of apprentices, supported by a crowd of +military men, besieged the doors of the two houses; for eight hours they +continued, by shouts and messages, to call for the repeal of the ordinance +respecting the militia, and of the vote condemning the covenant; and the +members, after a long resistance, worn out with fatigue, and overcome with +terror, submitted to their demands. Even after they had been suffered to +retire, the multitude suddenly compelled the Commons to return, and, +with the speaker in the chair, to pass a vote[a] that the king should be +conducted without delay to his palace at Westminster. Both houses adjourned +for three days, and the two speakers, with most of the Independent party +and their proselytes, amounting to eight peers and fifty-eight commoners, +availed themselves of the opportunity to withdraw from the insults of the +populace, and to seek an asylum in the army.[1] + +In the mean while the council of officers had completed their plan "for the +settlement of the nation," which they submitted first to the consideration +of Charles, and afterwards to that of the parliamentary commissioners. In +many points it was similar to the + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 260, 261. Journals, ix. 377, 393. Holles, 145. +Leicester's Journal in the Sydney Papers, edited by Mr. Blencowe, p. 25.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. July 25.] + +celebrated "propositions of peace;" but contained in addition several +provisions respecting the manner of election, and the duration of +parliament and the composition of the magistracy, which may not be +uninteresting to the reader even at the present day. It proposed that a +parliament should meet every year, to sit not less than a certain number of +days, nor more than another certain number, each of which should be fixed +by law; that if at the close of a session any parliamentary business +remained unfinished, a committee should be appointed with power to sit and +bring it to a conclusion; that a new parliament should be summoned every +two years, unless the former parliament had been previously dissolved +with its own consent; that decayed and inconsiderable boroughs should be +disfranchised, and the number of county members increased, such increase +being proportionate to the rates of each county in the common charges +of the kingdom; that every regulation respecting the reform of the +representation and the election of members should emanate from the House of +Commons alone, whose decision on such matters should have the force of law, +independently of the other branches of the legislature; that the names of +the persons to be appointed sheriffs annually, and of those to be appointed +magistrates at any time, should be recommended to the king by the grand +jury at the assizes; and that the grand jury itself should be selected, not +by the partiality of the sheriff, but equally by the several divisions of +the county; that the excise should be taken off all articles of necessity +without delay, and off all others within a limited time; that the land-tax +should be equally apportioned; that a remedy should be applied to the +"unequal, troublesome, and contentious way of ministers' maintenance by +tithes;" that suits at law should be rendered less tedious and expensive; +that the estates of all men should be made liable for their debts; +that insolvent debtors, who had surrendered all that they had to their +creditors, should be discharged; and that no corporation should exact +from their members oaths trenching on freedom of conscience.[1] To these +innovations, great and important as they were, it was not the interest, if +it had been the inclination, of Charles to make any serious objection: but +on three other questions he felt much more deeply,--the church, the army, +and the fate of the royalists: yet there existed a disposition to spare +his feelings on all three; and after long and frequent discussion, such +modifications of the original proposals were adopted, as in the opinion of +his agents, Berkeley and Ashburnham, would insure his assent. 1. Instead +of the abolition of the hierarchy, it was agreed to deprive it only of +the power of coercion, to place the liturgy and the covenant on an equal +footing, by taking away the penalties for absence from the one, and for +refusal of the other; and to substitute in place of the oppressive and +sanguinary laws still in force, some other provision for the discovery of +popish recusants, and the restraint of popish priests and Jesuits, seeking +to disturb the state. 2. To restore to the crown the command of the army +and navy at the expiration of ten years. 3. And to reduce the number of +delinquents among the English royalists to be excluded from pardon, to five +individuals. Had the king accepted these terms, he would most probably have +been replaced on the throne; for his agents, who had the best means of +forming a judgment, though + +[Footnote 1: Charles's Works, 579. Parl. History, ii. 738.] + +they differed on other points, agreed in this, that the officers acted +uprightly and sincerely; but he had unfortunately persuaded himself--and +in that persuasion he was confirmed both by the advice of several +faithful royalists and by the interested representations of the Scottish +commissioners--that the growing struggle between the Presbyterians and +Independents would enable him to give the law to both parties; and hence, +when "the settlement" was submitted to him for his final approbation, he +returned an unqualified refusal. The astonishment of his agents was not +less than that of the officers. Had he dissembled, or had he changed his +mind? In either case both had been deceived. _They_ might suppress their +feelings; but the agitators complained aloud, and a party of soldiers, +attributing the disappointment to the intrigues of Lord Lauderdale, burst +at night into the bedchamber of that nobleman, and ordered him to rise +and depart without delay. It was in vain, that he pleaded his duty as +commissioner from the estates of Scotland, or that he solicited the favour +of a short interview with the king: he was compelled to leave his bed and +hasten back to the capital.[1] + + +Before this, information of the proceedings in London had induced Fairfax +to collect his forces and march towards the city. On the way he was joined +by the speakers of both houses, eight lords and fifty-eight commoners, who +in a council held at Sion House solemnly bound themselves "to live and die +with the army." Here it was understood that many royalists + +[Footnote 1: Compare the narratives of Berkeley, 364, Ashburnham, ii. 92, +Ludlow, i. 174, and Huntingdon (Journals, x. 410) with the proposals of the +army in Charles's Works, 578. The insult to Lauderdale is mentioned in the +Lords' Journals, ix. 367.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. July 30.] + +had joined the Presbyterians, and that a declaration had been circulated +in the name of the king, condemning all attempts to make war on the +parliament. The officers, fearing the effect of this intelligence on +the minds of the military, already exasperated by the refusal of their +proposals, conjured Charles to write a conciliatory letter to the general, +in which he should disavow any design of assisting the enemy, should +thank the army for its attention to his comfort, and should commend the +moderation of their plan of settlement in many points, though he could not +consent to it in all. The ill-fated monarch hesitated; the grace of the +measure was lost by a delay of twenty-four hours; and though the letter was +at last[a] sent, it did not arrive before the city had[b] made an offer of +submission. In such circumstances it could serve no useful purpose. It +was interpreted as an artifice to cover the king's intrigues with the +Presbyterians, instead of a demonstration of his good will to the army.[1] + +To return to the city, Holles and his colleagues had resumed the ascendancy +during the secession of the Independents. The eleven members returned to +the house; the command of the militia was restored to the former committee; +and a vote was passed that the king should be invited to Westminster. At +the same time the common council resolved to raise by subscription a loan +of ten thousand pounds, and to add auxilairies to the trained bands to the +amount of eighteen regiments. Ten thousand men were already in arms; four +hundred barrels of gunpowder, with other military stores, + +[Footnote 1: Journals, 359, 375. Heath, 140. Ludlow, i. 181. Charles +afterwards disavowed the declaration, and demanded that the author and +publisher should be punished.--Whitelock, 267. There are two copies of his +letter, one in the Clarendon Papers, ii. 373; another and shorter in the +Parliamentary History, xv. 205.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. August 3.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1647. August 4.] + +were drawn from the magazine in the Tower; and the Presbyterian generals, +Massey, Waller, and Poyntz, gladly accepted the command.[1] But the event +proved that these were empty menaces. In proportion as it was known that +Fairfax had begun his march, that he had reviewed the army on Hounslow +Heath, and that he had fixed his head-quarters at Hammersmith, the sense of +danger cooled the fervour of enthusiasm, and the boast of resistance was +insensibly exchanged for offers of submission.[a] The militia of Southwark +openly fraternized with the army; the works on the line of communication +were abandoned; and the lord mayor, on a promise that no violence should be +offered to the inhabitants, ordered the gates to be thrown open. The next +morning was celebrated the triumph of the Independents.[b] A regiment of +infantry, followed by one of cavalry, entered the city; then came Fairfax +on horseback, surrounded by his body-guards and a crowd of gentlemen; +a long train of carriages, in which were the speakers and the fugitive +members, succeeded; and another regiment of cavalry closed the procession. +In this manner, receiving as they passed the forced congratulations of the +mayor and the common council, the conquerors marched to Westminster, where +each speaker was placed in his chair by the hand of the general.[2] Of the +lords who had remained in London after the secession, one only, the earl of +Pembroke, ventured to appear; and he was suffered to make his peace by a +declaration that he considered all the proceedings during the absence of + +[Footnote 1: Journals, x. 13, 16, 17.] + +[Footnote 2: Whitelock, 261-264. Leicester's Journal, 27. Baillie calls +this surrender of the city "an example rarely paralleled, if not of +treachery, yet at least of childish improvidence and base cowardice" (ii. +259). The eleven members instantly fled.--Leicester, ibid.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. August 5.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1647. August 6.] + +the members compulsory, and therefore null. But in the lower house the +Presbyterians and their adherents composed a more formidable body; and +by their spirit and perseverance, though they could not always defeat, +frequently embarrassed the designs of their opponents. To many things they +gave their assent; they suffered Maynard and Glyn, two members, to be +expelled, the lord mayor, one of the sheriffs, and four of the aldermen, to +be sent to the Tower, and the seven peers who sat during the secession of +their colleagues, to be impeached. But a sense of danger induced them to +oppose a resolution sent from the Lords, to annul all the votes passed +from the 20th of July to the 6th of August. Four times,[a] contrary to the +practice of the house, the resolution was brought forward, and as often, to +the surprise of the Independents, was rejected. Fairfax hastened to the aid +of his friends. In a letter to the speaker, he condemned the conduct of the +Commons as equivalent to an approval of popular violence, and hinted +the necessity of removing from the house the enemies of the public +tranquillity. The next morning[b] the subject was resumed: the +Presbyterians made the trial of their strength on an amendment, and +finding themselves outnumbered, suffered the resolution to pass without a +division.[1] + +The submission of the citizens made a considerable change in the prospects +of the captive monarch. Had any opposition been offered, it was the +intention of the officers (so we are told by Ashburnham) to have unfurled +the royal standard, and to have placed Charles at their head. The ease +with which they had subdued their opponents convinced them of their own +superiority + +[Footnote 1: Journals, 375, 385, 388, 391-398. Commons', iv. Aug. 9, 10, +17, 19, 20.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. August 9, 10, 17, 19.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1647. August 20.] + +and rendered the policy of restoring the King a more doubtful question. +Still they continued to treat him with respect and indulgence. From +Oatlands he was transferred[a] to the palace of Hampton Court. There he +was suffered to enjoy the company of his children, whenever he pleased to +command their attendance, and the pleasure of hunting, on his promise not +to attempt an escape; all persons whom he was content to see found ready +admission to his presence; and, what he prized above all other concessions, +he was furnished with the opportunity of corresponding freely and safely +with the queen at Paris.[1] At the same time the two houses, at the +requisition of the Scottish commissioners, submitted[b] "the propositions" +once more to the royal consideration; but Charles replied,[c] that the plan +suggested by the army was better calculated to form the basis of a lasting +peace, and professed his readiness to treat respecting that plan with +commissioners appointed by the parliament, and others by the army.[2] The +officers applauded this answer; Cromwell in the Commons spoke in its favour +with a vehemence which excited suspicion; and, though it was ultimately +voted[d] equivalent to a refusal, a grand committee was appointed[e] "to +take the whole matter respecting the king into consideration." It had been +calculated that this attempt to amalgamate the plan of the parliament with +that of the army might be accomplished in the space of + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon Papers, ii. 381, Appendix, xli. Rushw. vii. 795. +Memoirs of Hamiltons, 316. Herbert, 48. Ashburn. ii. 93, 95.] + +[Footnote 2: Of this answer, Charles himself says to the Scottish +commissioners. "Be not startled at my answer which I gave yesterday to the +two houses; for if you truly understand it, I have put you in a right way, +where before you were wrong."--Memoirs of Hamiltons, 323.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. August 24.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1647. Sept. 8.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1647. Sept. 9.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1647. Sept. 21.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1647. Sept. 22.] + +twenty days; but it occupied more than two months; for there was now a +third house to consult, the council of war, which debated every clause, +and notified its resolves to the Lords and Commons, under the modest, but +expressive, name of the desires of the army.[1] + +While the king sought thus to flatter the officers, he was, according to +his custom, employed in treating with the opposite party.[2] The marquess +of Ormond, and the lord Capel,[3] with the Scottish commissioners, waited +on him from London; and a resolution was[a] formed that in the next spring, +the Scots should enter England with a numerous army, and call on the +Presbyterians for their aid; that Charles, if he were at liberty, otherwise +the prince of Wales, should sanction the enterprise by his presence; and +that Ormond should resume the government of Ireland, while Capel summoned +to the royal standard the remains of the king's party in England. Such was +the outline of the plan; the minor details had not been arranged, when +Cromwell, either informed by his spies, or prompted by his suspicions, +complained to Ashburnham of the incurable duplicity of his master, who was + +[Footnote 1: Ludlow, i. 184. Whitelock, 269. Huntingdon in Journals, x. +410. Journals, v. Sept. 22. On the division, Cromwell was one of the +tellers for the Yea, and Colonel Rainsborough, the chief of the Levellers, +for the No. It was carried by a majority of 84 to 34.--Ibid.] + +[Footnote 2: In vindication of Charles it has been suggested that he was +only playing at the same game as his opponents, amusing them as they sought +to amuse him. This, however, is very doubtful as far as it regards the +superior officers, who appear to me to have treated with him in good +earnest, till they were induced to break off the negotiation by repeated +proofs of his duplicity, and the rapid growth of distrust and disaffection +in the army. I do not, however, give credit to Morrice's tale of a letter +from Charles to Henrietta intercepted by Cromwell and Ireton.] + +[Footnote 3: Capel was one of the most distinguished of the royal +commanders, and had lately returned from beyond the sea with the permission +of parliament.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. October.] + +at the same time soliciting the aid, and plotting the destruction of the +army.[1] + +But by this time a new party had risen, equally formidable to royalists, +Presbyterians, and Independents. Its founders were a few fanatics in the +ranks, who enjoyed the reputation of superior godliness. They pretended not +to knowledge or abilities; they were but humble individuals, to whom God +had given reason for their guide, and whose duty it was to act as that +reason dictated. Hence they called themselves Rationalists, a name which +was soon exchanged for the more expressive appellation of Levellers. In +religion they rejected all coercive authority; men might establish a public +worship at their pleasure, but, if it were compulsory, it became unlawful +by forcing conscience, and leading to wilful sin: in politics they taught +that it was the duty of the people to vindicate their own rights and do +justice to their own claims. Hitherto the public good had been sacrificed +to private interest; by the king, whose sole object was the recovery of +arbitrary power; by the officers, who looked forward to commands, and +titles, and emoluments; and by the parliament, which sought chiefly the +permanence of its own authority. It was now time for the oppressed to +arise, to take the cause into their own hands, and to resolve "to part with +their lives, before they would part with their freedom."[2] These doctrines + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon, iii. 70-72-75. Ashburnham, ii. 94. Of the +disposition of the Scottish parliament, we have this account from Baillie: +"If the king be willing to ratify our covenant, we are all as one man to +restore him to all his rights, or die by the way; if he continue resolute +to reject our covenant, and only to give us some parts of the matter of it, +many here will be for him, even on these terms; but divers of the best and +wisest are irresolute, and wait till God give more light."--Baillie, ii. +260.] + +[Footnote 2: Clarendon Papers, ii. App. xl. Walker, History of +Independents, 194. Rushworth, vii. 845. Hutchinson, 287. Secretary +Nicholas, after mentioning the Rationalists, adds, "There are a sect of +women lately come from foreign parts, and lodged in Southwark, called +Quakers, who swell, shiver, and shake; and when they come to themselves +(for in all the time of their fits Mahomet's holy ghost converses with +them) they begin to preach what hath been delivered to them by the +spirit"--Clarendon Papers, ii. 383.] + +were rapidly diffused: they made willing converts of the dissolute, the +adventurous, and the discontented; and a new spirit, the fruitful parent +of new projects, began to agitate the great mass of the army. The king was +seldom mentioned but in terms of abhorrence and contempt; he was an Ahab or +Coloquintida, the everlasting obstacle to peace, the cause of dissension +and bloodshed. A paper[a] entitled "The Case of the Army," accompanied with +another under the name of "The Agreement of the People," was presented to +the general by the agitators of eleven regiments. They offered,[b] besides +a statement of grievances, a new constitution for the kingdom. It made no +mention of king or lords. The sovereignty was said to reside in the people, +its exercise to be delegated to their representatives, but with the +reservation of equality of law, freedom of conscience, and freedom from +forced service in the time of war; three privileges of which the nation +would never divest itself; parliaments were to be biennial, and to +sit during six months; the elective franchise to be extended, and the +representation to be more equally distributed. These demands of +the Levellers were strenuously supported by the colonels Pride and +Rainsborough, and as fiercely opposed by Cromwell and Ireton. The council +of officers yielded so far as to require that no more addresses should be +made to the king; but the two houses voted the papers destructive + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. Oct. 18.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1647. Nov. 1.] + +of the government, and ordered the authors to be prosecuted; though at the +same time, to afford some satisfaction to the soldiery, they resolved[a] +that the king was bound to give the royal assent to all laws for the +public good, which had been passed and presented to him by the Lords and +Commons.[1] + +It was now some time since the king had begun to tremble for his safety. He +saw that the violence of the Levellers daily increased; that the officers, +who professed to be his friends, were become objects of suspicion; that +Ireton had been driven from the council, and Cromwell threatened +with impeachment; that several regiments were in a state of complete +insubordination; and that Fairfax himself doubted of his power to restore +the discipline of the army. Charles had formerly given his word of honour +to the governor, Colonel Whalley, not to attempt an escape: he now withdrew +it under the pretence that of late he had been as narrowly watched as if no +credit were due to his promise. His guards were immediately doubled; his +servants, with the exception of Legge, were dismissed; and the gates were +closed against the admission of strangers. Yet it may be doubted whether +these precautions were taken with any other view than to lull the suspicion +of the Levellers; for he still possessed the means of conferring personally +with Ashburnham and Berkeley, and received from Whalley repeated hints of +the dangerous designs of his enemies. But where was he to seek an asylum? +Jersey, Berwick, the Isle of Wight, and the residence of the Scottish +commissioners in London were proposed. At first the commissioners expressed +a willingness to + +[Footnote 1: Claren. Papers, ii, App. xl. xli. Journ. Nov. 5, 6. Rush. vii. +849 857, 860, 863. Whitelock, 274-277.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. Nov. 6.] + +receive him; the next day they withdrew their consent, and he fixed, as a +last resource, on the Isle of Wight. On November 10th his apprehensions +were wound up to the highest pitch, by some additional and most alarming +intelligence; the next evening[a] he was missing. At supper-time Whalley +entered his apartment, but, instead of the king, found on his table several +written papers, of which one was an anonymous letter, warning him of danger +to his person, and another, a message from himself to the two houses, +promising, that though he had sought a more secure asylum, he should be +always ready to come forth, "whenever he might be heard with honour, +freedom, and safety."[1] + +This unexpected escape drew from the parliament threats of vengeance +against all persons who should presume to harbour the royal fugitive; but +in the course of three days the intelligence arrived, that he was again +a prisoner in the custody of Colonel Hammond, who had very recently been +appointed governor of the Isle of Wight. The king, accompanied by Legge, +groom of the chamber, had on the evening of his departure descended the +back stairs into the garden, and repaired to a spot where Berkeley and +Ashburnham waited[b] his arrival. The night was dark and stormy, which +facilitated their escape; but, when they had crossed the river at Thames +Ditton, they lost their way, and it was daybreak before they reached +Sutton, where they mounted their horses. The unfortunate + +[Footnote 1: See Ashburnham's letter to the speaker on Nov. 26, p. 2; his +memoir, 101-112; Berkeley, 373-375; Journals, ix. 520; Rush. vii. 871; +Clarendon, iii. 77; Mem. of Hamiltons, 324; Whitelock, 278. That a letter +from Cromwell was received or read by the king, is certain (see Journals, +x. 411; Berkeley, 377); that it was written for the purpose of inducing him +to escape, and thus fall into the hands of the Levellers, is a gratuitous +surmise of Cromwell's enemies.] + + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. Nov. 11.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1647. Nov. 12.] + +monarch had still no fixed plan. As they proceeded in a southerly +direction, he consulted his companions; and after some debate resolved to +seek a temporary asylum at Tichfield House, the residence of the countess +of Southampton, whilst Ashburnham and Berkeley should cross over to the +Isle of Wight, and sound the disposition of Hammond the governor, of +whom little more was known than that he was nephew to one of the royal +chaplains. When Hammond first learned[a] the object of the messengers, +he betrayed considerable alarm, under the impression that the king was +actually on the island; but, having recovered his self-possession, he +reminded them that he was but a servant bound to obey the orders of his +employers, and refused to give any other pledge than that he would prove +himself an honest man. How they could satisfy themselves with this +ambiguous promise, is a mystery which was never explained--each +subsequently shifting the blame to the other--but they suffered him to +accompany them to the king's retreat, and even to take with him a brother +officer, the captain of Cowes Castle. + +During their absence Charles had formed a new plan of attempting to escape +by sea, and had despatched a trusty messenger to look out for a ship in +the harbour of Southampton. He was still meditating on this project when +Ashburnham returned, and announced that Hammond with his companion was +already in the town, awaiting his majesty's commands. The unfortunate +monarch exclaimed, "What! have you brought him hither? Then I am undone." +Ashburnham instantly saw his error. It was not, he replied, too late. +_They_ were but two, and might be easily despatched. Charles paced the room +a few minutes, and then rejected the sanguinary hint. Still he clung to + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. Nov. 13.] + +the vain hope that a ship might he procured; but at the end of two hours, +Hammond became impatient; and the king, having nerved his mind for the +interview, ordered him to be introduced, received him most graciously, and, +mingling promises with flattery, threw himself on his honour. Hammond, +however, was careful not to commit himself; he replied in language dutiful, +yet ambiguous; and the king, unable to extricate himself from the danger, +with a cheerful countenance, but misboding heart, consented to accompany +him to the island. The governor ordered every demonstration of respect to +be paid to the royal guest, and lodged him in Carisbrook Castle.[1] + +The increasing violence of the Levellers, and the mutinous disposition +of the army, had awakened the most serious apprehensions in the superior +officers; and Fairfax, by the advice of the council, dismissed the +agitators to their respective regiments,[a] and ordered the several corps +to assemble in three brigades on three different days. Against the time +a remonstrance was prepared in his name, in which he complained of the +calumnies circulated among the soldiers, stated the objects which he had +laboured to obtain, and offered to persist in his endeavours, provided the +men would return to their ancient habits of military obedience. All looked +forward with anxiety to the result; but no one with more apprehension than +Cromwell. His life was at stake. The Levellers had threatened to make him +pay with his head the forfeit of his intrigues with Charles; and the flight +of that prince, by disconcerting their plans, had irritated their former +animosity. On the appointed day the first + +[Footnote 1: Journals, ix. 525. Rushworth, vii. 874. Ashburnham, ii. +Berkeley, 377-382. Herbert, 52. Ludlow, i. 187-191.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. Nov. 8.] + +brigade, that on which the officers could rely, mustered in a field between +Hertford and Ware; and the remonstrance was read by order of Fairfax to +each regiment in succession. It was answered with acclamations; the men +hastened to subscribe an engagement to obey the commands of the general; +and the sowers of discord, the distributors of seditious pamphlets, were +pointed out, and taken into custody. From this corps Fairfax proceeded to +two regiments, which had presumed to come on the ground without orders. The +first, after some debate, submitted; the second was more obstinate. The +privates had expelled the majority of the officers, and wore round their +hats this motto: "The people's freedom, and the soldiers' rights." Cromwell +darted into the ranks to seize the ringleaders; his intrepidity daunted the +mutineers; one man was immediately shot, two more were tried and condemned +on the spot, and several others were reserved as pledges for the +submission of their comrades.[1] By this act of vigour it was thought that +subordination had been restored; but Cromwell soon discovered that the +Levellers constituted two-thirds of the military force, and that it was +necessary for him to retrace his steps, if he wished to retain his former +influence. With that view he made a public acknowledgment of his error, +and a solemn promise to stand or fall with the army. The conversion of +the sinner was hailed with acclamations of joy, a solemn fast was kept to +celebrate the event; and Cromwell in the assembly of officers confessed, +weeping as he spoke, + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 278. Journals, ix. 527. Ludlow, i. 192. It was +reported among the soldiers that the king had promised to Cromwell the +title of earl with a blue ribbon, to his son the office of gentleman of +the bedchamber to the prince, and to Ireton the command of the forces in +Ireland.--Holles, 127.] + +that "his eyes, dazzled by the glory of the world, had not clearly +discerned the work of the Lord; and therefore he humbled himself before +them, and desired the prayers of the saints that God would forgive his +self-seeking." His fellow-delinquent Ireton followed in the same repentant +strain; both poured forth their souls before God in fervent and extemporary +prayer; and "never," so we are assured, "did more harmonious music ascend +to the ear of the Almighty."[1] + +The king had yet no reason to repent of his confidence in Hammond; but +that governor, while he granted every indulgence to his captive, had no +intention of separating his own lot from that of the army. He consulted the +officers at the head-quarters, and secretly resolved to adhere to their +instructions. Charles recommenced his former intrigues. Through the agency +of Dr. Gough, one of the queen's chaplains, he sought to prevail on the +Scottish commissioners to recede from their demand that he should confirm +the covenant: he sent Sir John Berkeley to Cromwell and his friends, to +remind them of their promises, and to solicit their aid towards a personal +treaty; and by a message[a] to the parliament he proposed, in addition to +his former offers, to surrender the command of the army during his life, +to exchange the profits of the Court of Wards for a yearly income, and to +provide funds for the discharge of the moneys due to the military and to +the public creditors. The neglect with which this message was received, +and the discouraging answer[b] returned by the officers, awakened his +apprehensions; they were confirmed by the Scottish + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon Papers, ii. App. xliv. Berkeley, 385. Whitelock, +284.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. Nov. 16.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1647. Dec. 8.] + +commissioners, who while they complained of his late offer as a violation +of his previous engagement, assured him that many of his enemies sought to +make him a close prisoner, and that others openly talked of removing him +either by a legal trial, or by assassination. These warnings induced him to +arrange a plan of escape: application was made to the queen for a ship[a] +of war to convey him from the island; and Berwick was selected as the place +of his retreat.[1] He had, however, but little time to spare. As their +ultimatum, and the only condition on which they would consent to a personal +treaty, the houses demanded the royal assent to four bills which they had +prepared. The first of these, after vesting the command of the army in the +parliament for twenty years, enacted, that after that period it might be +restored to the crown, but not without the previous consent of the Lords +and Commons; and that still, whenever they should declare the safety of the +kingdom to be concerned, all bills passed by them respecting the forces by +sea or land should be deemed acts of parliament, even though the king for +the time being should refuse his assent; the second declared all oaths, +proclamations, and proceedings against the parliament during the war, void +and of no effect: the third annulled all titles of honour granted since the +20th of May, 1642, and deprived all peers to be created hereafter of the +right of sitting in parliament, without the consent of the two houses; and +the fourth gave to the houses themselves the power of adjourning from place +to place at their discretion.[2][b] The Scots, to delay the proceedings, +asked + +[Footnote 1: Memoirs of Hamiltons, 325-333. Ludlow, i. 195-201. Berkeley, +383.] + +[Footnote 2: Journals, ix. 575. Charles's Works, 590-593. Now let the +reader turn to Clarendon, History, iii. 88. He tells us, that by one, the +king was to have confessed himself the author of the war, and guilty of +all the blood which had been spilt; by another, he was to dissolve the +government of the church, and grant all lands belonging to the church to +other uses; by a third, to settle the militia, without reserving so much +power to himself as any subject was capable of; and in the last place, he +was in effect to sacrifice all those who had served him, or adhered to him, +to the mercy of the parliament. When this statement is compared with the +real bills, it may be judged how little credit is due to the assertions of +Clarendon, unless they are supported by other authorities.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. Dec. 14.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1647. Dec. 15.] + +for a copy of the bills, and remonstrated against the alterations which +had been made in the propositions of peace. Their language was bold and +irritating; they characterized the conduct of the parliament as a violation +of the league and covenant; and they openly charged the houses with +suffering themselves to be controlled by a body, which owed its origin and +its subsistence to their authority. But the Independents were not to be +awed by the clamour of men whom they knew to be enemies under the name of +allies; they voted[a] the interference of any foreign nation in acts of +parliament a denial of the independence of the kingdom, and ordered[b] the +four bills to be laid before the king for his assent without further delay. +The Scots hastened to Carisbrook, in appearance to protest against them, +but with a more important object in view. They now relaxed from their +former obstinacy; they no longer insisted on the positive confirmation of +the covenant, but were content with a promise that Charles should make +every concession in point of religion which his conscience would allow. +The treaty which had been so long in agitation between them was privately +signed; and the king returned[c] this answer to the two houses, that +neither his present sufferings, nor the apprehension of worse treatment, +should ever induce him to give his assent to any bills + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. Dec. 18.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1647. Dec. 24.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1647. Dec. 28.] + +as a part of the agreement, before the whole was concluded.[1] + +Aware of the consequences of his refusal, Charles had resolved to +anticipate the vengeance of the parliament by making his escape the same +evening to a ship which had been sent by the queen, and had been waiting +for him several days in Southampton Water; but he was prevented by the +vigilance of Hammond, who closed the gates on the departure of the +commissioners, doubled the guards, confined the royal captive to his +chamber, and dismissed Ashburnham, Berkeley, Legge, and the greater part of +his attendants.[2] An attempt to raise in his favour the inhabitants of the +island was instantly suppressed, and its author, Burley, formerly a captain +in the royal army, suffered the punishment of a traitor. The houses +resolved[a] (and the army promised to live and die with them in defence of +the resolution)[3] that they would receive no additional message from the +king; that they would send no address or application to him; that if any +other person did so without leave, he should be subject to the penalties of +high treason; and that the committee of public safety should be renewed to +sit and act alone, without the aid of foreign coadjutors. This last hint +was understood by the Scots: they made a demand[b] of the hundred thousand +pounds due to them by the + +[Footnote 1: Journals, ix. 575, 578, 582, 591, 604, 615, 621. Charles's +Works, 594. Memoirs of Hamiltons, 334.] + +[Footnote 2: Ashburnham, ii. 121. Berkeley, 387, 393.] + +[Footnote 3: On Jan 11, before the vote passed, an address was presented +from the general and the council of war by seven colonels and other +officers to the House of Commons, expressive of the resolution of the army +to stand by the parliament: and another to the House of Lords, expressive +of their intention to preserve inviolate the rights of the peerage. Of the +latter no notice is taken in the journals of the house.--Journ. v. Jan. 11. +Parl. Hist. vi. 835.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. Jan. 3 and Jan. 15.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1648. Jan. 17.] + +treaty of evacuation, and announced their intention of returning +immediately to their own parliament.[1] + +The king appeared to submit with patience to the[a] new restraints imposed +on his freedom; and even affected an air of cheerfulness, to disguise the +design which he still cherished of making his escape. The immediate charge +of his person had been intrusted to four warders of approved fidelity, who, +two at a time, undertook the task in rotation. They accompanied the +captive wherever he was, at his meals, at his public devotions, during his +recreation on the bowling-green, and during his walks round the walls of +the castle. He was never permitted to be alone, unless it were in the +retirement of his bedchamber; and then one of the two warders was +continually stationed at each of the doors which led from that apartment. +Yet in defiance of these precautions (such was the ingenuity of the king, +so generous the devotion of those who sought to serve him) he found the +means of maintaining a correspondence with his friends on the coast of +Hampshire, and through them with the English royalists, the Scottish +commissioners in Edinburgh, the queen at Paris, and the duke of York at St. +James's, who soon afterwards, in obedience to the command of[b] his father, +escaped in the disguise of a female to Holland.[2] + +[Footnote 1: The vote of non-addresses passed by a majority of 141 to 92. +Journals, v. Jan. 3. See also Jan. 11, 15, 1648; Lords' Journals, ix. 640, +662; Rushworth, vii. 953, 961, 965; Leicester's Journal, 30.] + +[Footnote 2: Journals, x. 35, 76, 220. Rushworth, vii. 984, 1002, 1067, +1109. Clarendon, iii. 129. One of those through whom Charles corresponded +with his friends was Firebrace, who tells us that he was occasionally +employed by one of the warders to watch for him at the door of the king's +bedchamber, and on such occasions gave and received papers through a small +crevice in the boards. See his account in the additions to Herbert's +Memoirs, p. 187. The manner of the duke's escape is related in his Life, i. +33, and Ellis, 2nd series, iii. 329.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. Feb. 2.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1648. April. 17.] + +In the mean while an extraordinary ferment seemed to agitate the whole mass +of the population. With the exception of the army, every class of men was +dissatisfied. Though the war had ceased twelve months before, the nation +enjoyed few of the benefits of peace. Those forms and institutions, the +safeguards of liberty and property, which had been suspended during the +contest, had not been restored; the committees in every county continued to +exercise the most oppressive tyranny; and a monthly tax was still levied +for the support of the forces, exceeding in amount the sums which had been +exacted for the same purpose during the war. No man could be ignorant that +the parliament, nominally the supreme authority, was under the control of +the council of officers; and the continued captivity of the king, the known +sentiments of the agitators, and, above all, the vote of non-addresses, +provoked a general suspicion that it was in contemplation to abolish the +monarchical government, and to introduce in its place a military despotism. +Four-fifths of the nation began to wish for the re-establishment of the +throne. Much diversity of opinion prevailed with respect to the conditions; +but all agreed that what Charles had so often demanded, a personal treaty, +ought to be granted, as the most likely means to reconcile opposite +interests and to lead to a satisfactory arrangement. + +Soon after the passing of the vote of non-addresses,[a] the king had +appealed to the good sense of the people through the agency of the press. +He put it to them to judge between him and his opponents, whether by his +answer to the four bills he had given any reasonable + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648 Jan. 18.] + +cause for their violent and unconstitutional vote; and whether they, by the +obstinate refusal of a personal conference, had not betrayed their resolve +not to come to any accommodation.[1] The impression made by this paper +called for an answer: a long and laboured vindication of the proceedings of +the House of Commons was prepared, and after many erasures and amendments +approved; copies of it were allotted to the members to be circulated among +their constituents, and others were sent to the curates to be read by them +to their parishioners.[2] It contained a tedious enumeration of all the +charges, founded or unfounded, which had ever been made against the king +from the commencement of his reign; and thence deduced the inference that, +to treat with a prince so hostile to popular rights, so often convicted of +fraud and dissimulation, would be nothing less than to betray the +trust reposed in the two houses by the country. But the framers of the +vindication marred their own object. They had introduced much questionable +matter, and made numerous statements open to refutation: the advantage +was eagerly seized by the royalists; and, notwithstanding the penalties +recently enacted on account of unlicensed publications, several answers, +eloquently and convincingly written, were circulated in many parts of +the country. Of these the most celebrated came from the pens of Hyde the +chancellor, and of Dr. Bates, the king's physician.[3] + +But, whilst the royal cause made rapid progress among the people, in the +army itself the principles of the Levellers had been embraced by the +majority of + +[Footnote 1: King's Works, 130. Parl. Hist. iii. 863.] + +[Footnote 2: Journals, v. Feb. 10, 11. Parl. Hist. iii. 847. Perrinchiefe, +44.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. Parl. Hist. iii. 866. King's Works, 132.] + +the privates, and had made several converts among the officers. These +fanatics had discovered in the Bible, that the government of kings was +odious in the sight of God,[1] and contended that in fact Charles had now +no claim to the sceptre. Protection and allegiance were reciprocal. At his +accession he had bound himself by oath to protect the liberties of his +subjects, and by the violation of that oath he had released the people from +the obligation of allegiance to him. For the decision of the question he +had appealed to the God of battles, who, by the result, had decided against +his pretensions. He therefore was answerable for the blood which had been +shed; and it was the duty of the representatives of the nation to call +him to justice for the crimes and, in order to prevent the recurrence of +similar mischiefs, to provide for the liberties of all, by founding an +equal commonwealth on the general consent. Cromwell invited the patrons of +this doctrine to meet at his house the grandees (so they were called) of +the parliament and army. The question was argued; but both he and his +colleagues were careful to conceal their real sentiments. They did not +openly contradict the principles laid down by the Levellers, but they +affected to doubt the possibility of reducing them to practice. The truth +was, that they wished not to commit themselves by too explicit an avowal +before they could see their way plainly before them.[2] + +In this feverish state of the public mind in England, every eye was turned +towards the proceedings in Scotland. For some time a notion had been +cherished by the Scottish clergy, that the king at Carisbrook had not only +subscribed the covenant, but had solemnly + +[Footnote 1: 1 Kings, viii. 8.] + +[Footnote 2: Ludlow, i. 206. Whitelock, 317.] + +engaged to enforce it throughout his dominions; and the prospect of a +speedy triumph over the Independents induced them to preach a crusade from +the pulpit in favour of the kirk and the throne. But the return of the +commissioners, and the publication of "the agreement" with the king, +bitterly disappointed their hopes. It was found that Charles had indeed +consented to the establishment of Presbyterianism in England, but only as +an experiment for three years, and with the liberty of dissent both for +himself, and for those who might choose to follow his example. Their +invectives were no longer pointed against the Independents; "the agreement" +and its advocates became the objects of their fiercest attacks. Its +provisions were said to be unwarranted by the powers of the commissioners, +and its purpose was pronounced an act of apostasy from the covenant, an +impious attempt to erect the throne of the king in preference to the +throne of Christ. Their vehemence intimidated the Scottish parliament, and +admonished the duke of Hamilton to proceed with caution. That nobleman, +whose imprisonment ended with the surrender of Pendennis, had waited on the +king in Newcastle; a reconciliation followed; and he was now become the +avowed leader of the royalists and moderate Presbyterians. That he might +not irritate the religious prejudices of his countrymen, he sought to mask +his real object, the restoration of the monarch, under the pretence of +suppressing heresy and schism; he professed the deepest veneration for the +covenant, and the most implicit deference to the authority of the kirk; +he listened with apparent respect to the remonstrances of the clerical +commission, and openly solicited its members to aid the parliament with +their wisdom, and to state their desires. But these were mere words +intended to lull suspicion. By dint of numbers (for his party comprised +two-thirds of the convention), he obtained the appointment of a committee +of danger; this was followed by a vote to place the kingdom in a posture +of defence; and the consequence of that vote was the immediate levy of +reinforcements for the army. But his opponents under the earl of Argyle +threw every obstacle in his way. They protested in parliament against the +war; the commissioners of the kirk demanded that their objections should be +previously removed; the women cursed the duke as he passed, and pelted +him with stones from their windows; and the ministers from their pulpits +denounced the curse of God on all who should take a share in the unholy +enterprise. Forty thousand men had been voted; but though force was +frequently employed, and blood occasionally shed, the levy proceeded so +slowly, that even in the month of July the grand army hardly exceeded +one-fourth of that number.[1] + +By the original plan devised at Hampton Court, it had been arranged +that the entrance of the Scots into England should be the signal for a +simultaneous rising of the royalists in every quarter of the kingdom. But +the former did not keep their time, and the zeal of the latter could not +brook delay.[a] The first who proclaimed the king, was a parliamentary +officer, Colonel Poyer, mayor of the town, and governor of the castle, of +Pembroke. He refused to resign his military appointment at the command of +Fairfax, and, to justify + +[Footnote 1: Memoirs of the Hamiltons, 339, 347, 353. Thurloe, i. 94. +Rushworth, vii. 1031, 48, 52, 67, 114, 132. Two circumstantial and +interesting letters from Baillie, ii. 280-297. Whitelock, 305. Turner, 52.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. March 3.] + +his refusal, unfurled the royal standard. Poyer was joined by Langherne and +Powel, two officers whose forces had lately been disbanded. Several of the +men hastened to the aid of their former leaders; the Cavaliers ran to arms +in both divisions of the principality; a force of eight thousand men was +formed; Chepstow was surprised, Carnarvon besieged, and Colonel Fleming +defeated.[a] By these petty successes the unfortunate men were lured on +to their ruin. Horton checked their progress; Cromwell followed with five +regiments to punish their presumption. The tide immediately changed. +Langherne was defeated; Chepstow was recovered; the besiegers of Carnarvon +were cut to pieces.[b] On the refusal of Poyer to surrender, the +lieutenant-general assembled his corps after sunset, and the fanatical Hugh +Peters foretold that the ramparts of Pembroke, like those of Jericho, would +fall before the army of the living God. From prayer and sermon the men +hastened to the assault; the ditch was passed, the walls were scaled; but +they found the garrison at its post, and, after a short but sanguinary +contest, Cromwell ordered a retreat. A regular siege was now formed; and +the Independent general, notwithstanding his impatience to proceed to +the north, was detained more than six weeks before this insignificant +fortress.[1] + +Scarcely a day passed, which was not marked by some new occurrence +indicative of the approaching contest.[c] An alarming tumult in the city, +in which the apprentices forced the guard, and ventured to engage the +military under the command of the general, was quickly followed by similar +disturbances in + +[Footnote 1: Lords' Journals, x. 88, 253. Rushworth, vii. 1016, 38, 66, 97, +129. Heath, 171. Whitelock, 303, 305. May, 116.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. May 1.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1648. May 20.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1648. April 9.] + +Norwich, Thetford, Canterbury, Exeter, and several towns.[a] They were, +indeed, suppressed by the vigilance of Fairfax and the county committees; +but the cry of "God and the king," echoed and re-echoed by the rioters on +these occasions, sufficiently proved that the popular feeling was setting +fast in favour of royalty. At the same time petitions from different public +bodies poured into the two houses, all concurring in the same prayer, that +the army should be disbanded, and the king brought back to his capital.[1] +The Independent leaders, aware that it would not be in their power to +control the city while their forces were employed in the field, sought +a reconciliation.[b] The parliament was suffered to vote that no change +should be made in the fundamental government of the realm by king, lords, +and commons; and the citizens in return engaged themselves to live and die +with the parliament. Though the promises on both sides were known to be +insincere, it was the interest of each to dissemble. Fairfax withdrew his +troops from Whitehall and the Mews; the charge of the militia was once more +intrusted to the lord mayor and the aldermen; and the chief command was +conferred on Skippon, who, if he did not on every subject agree with the +Independents, was yet distinguished by his marked opposition to the policy +of their opponents.[c] + +The inhabitants of Surrey and Essex felt dissatisfied with the answers +given to their petitions; those of Kent repeatedly assembled to consider +their grievances, and to consult on the means of redress. These meetings, +which originated with a private gentleman of the name of Hales, soon +assumed the character of + +[Footnote 1: Journals, 243, 260, 267, 272. Commons', April 13, 27, May 16. +Whitelock, 299, 302, 303, 305, 306.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. April 28.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1648. May 2.] + +loyalty and defiance. Associations were formed, arms were collected, and on +an appointed day[a] a general rising took place. The inhabitants of +Deal distinguished themselves on this occasion; and Rainsborowe, the +parliamentarian admiral, prepared to chastise their presumption. Leaving +orders for the fleet to follow, he proceeded[b] in his barge to reconnoitre +the town; but the men, several of whom had families and relatives in it, +began to murmur, and Lindale, a boatswain in the admiral's ship, proposed +to declare for the king. He was answered with acclamations; the officers +were instantly arrested; the crews of the other ships followed the example; +the arguments and entreaties of Rainsborowe himself, and of the earl of +Warwick, who addressed them in the character of lord high admiral, were +disregarded, and the whole fleet, consisting of six men-of-war fully +equipped for the summer service, sailed under the royal colours to +Helvoetsluys, in search of the young duke of York, whom they chose for +their commander-in-chief.[1] But the alarm excited by this revolt at sea +was quieted by the success of Fairfax against the insurgents on land. The +Cavaliers had ventured to oppose him[c] in the town of Maidstone, and for +six hours, aided by the advantage of their position, they resisted the +efforts of the enemy; but their loss was proportionate to their valour, and +two hundred fell in the streets, four hundred were made prisoners. Many +of the countrymen, discouraged by this defeat, hastened to their homes. +Goring, earl of Newport, putting himself at the head of a different body, +advanced[d] to Blackheath, and solicited admission into the city. It was a +moment big with the most important consequences. The king's friends formed +a + +[Footnote 1: Life of James II. i. 41.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. May 23.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1648. May 27.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1648. June 1.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1648. June 2.] + +numerous party; the common council wavered; and the parliament possessed no +armed force to support its authority. The leaders saw that they had but one +resource, to win by conciliation. The aldermen imprisoned at the request of +the army were set[a] at liberty; the impeachment against the six lords was +discharged; and the excluded members were permitted to resume their seats. +These concessions, aided by the terror which the victory at Maidstone +inspired, and by the vigilance of Skippon, who intercepted all +communication between the royalists, and the party at Blackheath, defeated +the project of Goring. That commander, having received a refusal, +crossed[b] the river, with five thousand horse, was joined by Lord Capel +with the royalists from Hertfordshire, and by Sir Charles Lucas with a body +of horse from Chelmsford, and assuming the command of the whole, fixed his +head-quarters in Colchester. The town had no other fortification than a low +rampart of earth; but, relying on his own resources and the constancy of +his followers, he resolved to defend it against the enemy, that he might +detain Fairfax and his army in the south, and keep the north open to the +advance of the Scots. This plan succeeded; Colchester was assailed and +defended with equal resolution; nor was its fate decided till the failure +of the Scottish invasion had proved the utter hopelessness of the royal +cause.[1] + +It soon appeared that the restoration of the impeached and excluded +members, combined with the departure of the officers to their commands in +the army, had imparted a new tone to the proceedings in + +[Footnote 1: Journals, x. 276, 278, 279, 283, 289, 297, 301, 304. Commons, +May 24, 25, June 4, 8. Whitelock, 307, 308, 309, 310. Clarendon, iii. 133, +151, 154.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. June 3.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1648. June 4.] + +parliament. Holles resumed not only his seat, but his preponderance in the +lower house. The measures which his party had formerly approved were again +adopted; and a vote was passed to open a new treaty with the king, on +condition that he should previously engage to give the royal assent to +three bills, revoking all declarations against the parliament, establishing +the Presbyterian discipline for the term of three, and vesting the command +of the army and navy in certain persons during that of ten years. But among +the lords a more liberal spirit prevailed. The imprisonment of the six +peers had taught them a salutary lesson. Aware that their own privileges +would infallibly fall with the throne, they rejected the three bills of +the Commons, voted a personal treaty without any previous conditions, +and received from the common council an assurance that, if the king were +suffered to come to London, the city would guarantee both the royal person +and the two houses from insult and danger. But Holles and his adherents +refused to yield; conference after conference was held; and the two parties +continued for more than a month to debate the subject without interruption +from the Independents. These had no leisure to attend to such disputes. +Their object was to fight and conquer, under the persuasion that victory in +the field would restore to them the ascendancy in the senate.[1] + +It was now the month of July, and the English royalists had almost +abandoned themselves to despair, when they received the cheering +intelligence that the duke of Hamilton had at last redeemed his promise, +and entered[a] England at the head of a numerous army.[a] + +[Footnote 1: Journals, 308, 349, 351, 362, 364, 367. Commons, July 5. +Whitelock, 315, 316, 318, 319. Ludlow, i. 251.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. April 28.] + + +The king's adherents in the northern counties had already surprised Berwick +and Carlisle; and, to facilitate his entry, had for two months awaited +with impatience his arrival on the borders. The approach of Lambeth, the +parliamentary general, compelled them to seek shelter within the walls of +Carlisle, and the necessity of saving that important place compelled the +duke to despatch a part of his army to its relief. Soon afterwards[a] he +arrived himself. Report exaggerated his force to thirty thousand men, +though it did not in fact amount to more than half that number; but he +was closely followed by Monroe, who led three thousand veterans from the +Scottish army in Ireland, and was accompanied or preceded by Sir Marmaduke +Langdale, the commander of four thousand Cavaliers, men of approved valour, +who had staked their all on the result. With such an army a general of +talent and enterprise might have replaced the king on his throne; but +Hamilton, though possessed of personal courage, was diffident of his own +powers, and resigned himself to the guidance of men who sacrificed the +interests of the service to their private jealousies and feuds. Forty days +were consumed in a short march of eighty miles; and when the decisive +battle was fought, though the main body had reached the left bank of the +Ribble near Preston, the rear-guard, under Monroe, slept in security at +Kirkby Lonsdale. Lambert had retired slowly before the advance of the +Scots, closely followed by Langdale and his Cavaliers; but in Otley Park he +was joined by Cromwell, with several regiments which had been employed in +the reduction of Pembroke. Their united force did not exceed nine thousand +men; but the impetuosity of the general despised inequality of numbers; and +the + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. July 8.] + +ardour of his men induced him to lead them without delay against the enemy. +From Clithero, Langdale fell back on the Scottish army near Preston, and +warned the duke to prepare for battle on the following day.[a] Of the +disasters which followed, it is impossible to form any consistent notion +from the discordant statements of the Scottish officers, each of whom, +anxious to exculpate himself, laid the chief blame on some of his +colleagues. This only is certain, that the Cavaliers fought with the +obstinacy of despair; that for six hours they bore the whole brunt of the +battle; that as they retired from hedge to hedge they solicited from the +Scots a reinforcement of men and a supply of ammunition; and that, unable +to obtain either, they retreated into the town, where they discovered that +their allies had crossed to the opposite bank, and were contending with +the enemy for the possession of the bridge. Langdale, in this extremity, +ordered his infantry to disperse, and, with the cavalry and the duke, +who had refused to abandon his English friends, swam across the Ribble. +Cromwell won the bridge, and the royalists fled in the night toward Wigan. +Of the Scottish forces, none but the regiments under Monroe and the +stragglers who rejoined him returned to their native country. Two-thirds +of the infantry, in their eagerness to escape, fell into the hands of +the neighbouring inhabitants; nor did Baillie, their general, when he +surrendered at Warrington, number more than three thousand men under their +colours. The duke wandered as far as Uttoxeter with the cavalry; there his +followers mutinied,[b] and he yielded himself a prisoner to General Lambert +and the Lord Grey of Groby. The Cavaliers disbanded[c] themselves in +Derbyshire; their gallant leader, who travelled in + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1648. Aug. 17.] +[Sidenote: A.D. 1648. Aug. 20.] +[Sidenote: A.D. 1648. Aug. 25.] + +the disguise of a female, was discovered and taken in the vicinity of +Nottingham: but Lady Savile bribed his keeper: dressed in a clergyman's +cassock he escaped to the capital; and remained there in safety with Dr. +Barwick, being taken for an Irish minister driven from his cure by the +Irish Catholics.[1] + +On the very day on which the Scots began their march, a feeble attempt had +been made to assist their advance by raising the city of London. Its author +was one who by his inconstancy had deservedly earned the contempt of every +party,--the earl of Holland. He had during the contest passed from the king +to the parliament, and from the parliament to the king. His ungracious +reception by the royalists induced him to return to their opponents, by +whom he was at first treated with severity, afterwards with neglect. +Whether it were resentment or policy, he now professed himself a true +penitent, offered to redeem his past errors by future services, and +obtained from the prince of Wales a commission to raise forces. As it had +been concerted between him and Hamilton, on the 5th of July, he marched[a] +at the head of five hundred + +[Footnote 1: Lords' Journals, x. 455-458. Rushworth, vii. 1227, 1242. +Barwicci Vita, 66. The narrative in Burnet's Memoirs of the Hamiltons +(355-365) should be checked by that in Clarendon (iii. 150, 160). The +first was derived from Sir James Turner (Turner's Memoirs, 63), who held +a command in the Scottish army; the second from Sir Marmaduke Langdale. +According to Turner, Langdale was ignorant, or kept the Scots in ignorance, +of the arrival of Cromwell and his army; according to Langdale, he +repeatedly informed them of it, but they refused to give credit to the +information. Langdale's statement is confirmed by Dachmont, who affirmed to +Burnet, that "on fryday before Preston the duke read to Douchel and him +a letter he had from Langdale, telling how the enemy had rendesvoused at +Oatley and Oatley Park, wher Cromwell was,"--See a letter from Burnet to +Turner in App. to Turner's Memoirs, 251. Monroe also informed the duke, +probably by Dachmont, of Cromwell's arrival at Skipton.--Ibid, 249.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. July 5.] + +horse, in warlike array from his house in the city, and having fixed his +quarters in the vicinity of Kingston, sent messages to the parliament and +the common council, calling on them to join with him in putting an end to +the calamities of the nation. On the second day,[a] through the negligence, +it was said, of Dalbier, his military confidant, he was surprised, and +after a short conflict, fled with a few attendants to St. Neots; there a +second action followed,[b] and the earl surrendered at discretion to his +pursuers. His misfortune excited little interest; but every heart felt +compassion for two young noblemen whom he had persuaded to engage in this +rash enterprise, the duke of Buckingham and his brother the Lord Francis +Villiers. The latter was slain at Kingston; the former, after many +hair-breadth escapes, found an asylum on the continent.[1] + +The discomfiture of the Scottish army was followed by the surrender +of Colchester. While there was an object to fight for, Goring and his +companions had cheerfully submitted to every privation; now that not a hope +remained, they offered to capitulate, and received for answer that quarter +would be granted to the privates, but that the officers had been declared +traitors by the parliament, and must surrender at discretion. These terms +were accepted;[c] the council deliberated on the fate of the captives; +Goring, Capel, and Hastings, brother to the earl of Huntingdon, were +reserved for the judgment of the parliament; but two, Sir George Lisle and +Sir Charles Lucas, because they were not men of family, but soldiers of +fortune,[2] were + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon, iii. 121, 176. Whitelock, 317, 318, 320. Lords' +Journals, 367. Commons, July 7, 12. Leicester's Journal, 35.] + +[Footnote 2: This is the reason assigned by Fairfax himself. Memoirs, 50.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. July 7.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1648. July 10.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1648. August 29.] + +selected for immediate execution. Both had been distinguished by their +bravery, and were reckoned among the first commanders in the royal service. +Lucas, tearing open his doublet, exclaimed, "Fire, rebels!" and instantly +fell. Lisle ran to him, kissed his dead body, and turning to the soldiers, +desired them to advance nearer. One replied, "Fear not, sir, we shall hit +you." "My friends," he answered, "I have been nearer when you have missed +me." The blood of these brave men impressed a deep stain on the character +of Fairfax, nor was it wiped away by the efforts of his friends, who +attributed their death to the revengeful counsels of Ireton.[1] + +At this time the prince of Wales had been more than six weeks in the Downs. +As soon as he heard of the revolt of the fleet, he repaired to the Hague, +and taking upon himself the command, hastened with nineteen sail to the +English coast. Had he appeared before the Isle of Wight, there can be +little doubt that Charles would have recovered his liberty; but the council +with the prince decided[a] that it was more for the royal interest to sail +to the month of the river, where they long continued to solicit by letters +the wavering disposition of the parliament and the city. While Hamilton +advanced, there seemed a prospect of success; the destruction of his army +extinguished their hopes. The king, by a private message, suggested that +before their departure from the coast, they should free him from his +captivity. But the mariners proved that they were the masters. They +demanded to fight the hostile fleet under the earl of + +[Footnote 1: Journals, x. 477. Rushworth, vii. 1242, 1244. Clarendon, iii, +177. Fairfax says in his vindication that they surrendered "at _mercy_, +which means that some are to suffer, some to be spared."--Memoirs, p. 540.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. July 20.] + +Warwick, who studiously avoided an engagement, that he might be joined by +a squadron from Portsmouth. During two days the royalists offered[a] him +battle; by different manoeuvres he eluded their attempts; and on the third +day the want of provisions compelled the prince to steer for the coast +of Holland, without paying attention to the request of his royal father. +Warwick, who had received his reinforcements, followed at a considerable +distance; but, though he defended his conduct on motives of prudence, he +did not escape the severe censure of the Independents and Levellers, who +maintained that the cause had always been betrayed when it was intrusted to +the cowardice or disaffection of noble commanders.[1] + +It is now time to revert to the contest between the two houses respecting +the proposed treaty with the king. Towards the end of July the Commons had +yielded[b] to the obstinacy of the Lords; the preliminary conditions on +which they had insisted were abandoned,[c] and the vote of non-addresses +was repealed. Hitherto these proceedings had been marked with the +characteristic slowness of every parliamentary measure; but the victory of +Cromwell over Hamilton, and the danger of interference on the part of the +army, alarmed the Presbyterian leaders; and fifteen commissioners, five +lords and ten commoners, were appointed[d] to conduct the negotiation.[2] +At length they arrived;[e] Charles repaired[f] from his prison in +Carisbrook Castle to the neighbouring town of Newport; + +[Footnote 1: Lords' Journals, x. 399, 414, 417, 426, 444, 483, 488, 494. +Clarendon Papers, ii. 412, 414.] + +[Footnote 2: They were the earls of Northumberland, Salisbury, Pembroke, +and Middlesex, the lords Say and Seale, Lord Wenman, Sir Henry Vane, +junior, Sir Harbottle Grimstone, and Holles, Pierrepoint, Brown, Crew, +Glyn, Potts, and Bulkely.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. August 30.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1648. July 28.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1648. August 3.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1648. Sept. 1.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1648. Sept. 15.] +[Sidenote f: A.D. 1648. Sept. 18.] + +he was suffered to call around him his servants, his chaplains, and such +of his counsellors as had taken no part in the war; and, as far as outward +appearances might be trusted, he had at length obtained the free and +honourable treaty which he had so often solicited. Still he felt that he +was a captive, under promise not to leave the island till twenty days after +the conclusion of the treaty, and he soon found, in addition, that he was +not expected to treat, but merely to submit. How far the two houses might +have yielded in other circumstances is uncertain; but, under the present +superiority of the army, they dared not descend from the lofty pretensions +which they had previously put forth. The commissioners were permitted to +argue, to advise, to entreat; but they had no power to concede; their +instructions bound them to insist on the king's assent to every proposition +which had been submitted to his consideration at Hampton Court. To many of +these demands Charles made no objection; in lieu of those which he +refused, he substituted proposals of his own, which were forwarded to +the parliament, and voted unsatisfactory. He offered new expedients and +modifications; but the same answer was invariably returned, till the +necessity of his situation wrung from the unfortunate prince his +unqualified assent to most of the articles in debate. On four points only +he remained inflexible. Though he agreed to suspend for three years, he +refused to abolish entirely, the functions of the bishops; he objected to +the perpetual alienation of the episcopal lands, but proposed to grant +leases of them for lives, or for ninety-nine years, in favour of the +present purchasers; he contended that all his followers, without any +exception, should be admitted to compound for their delinquency; and he +protested that, till his conscience were satisfied of the lawfulness of the +covenant, he would neither swear to it himself, nor impose it upon others. +Such was the state of the negotiation, when the time allotted by the +parliament expired;[a] and a prolongation for twenty days was voted.[1] + +The Independents from the very beginning had disapproved of the treaty. In +a petition presented[b] by "thousands of well-affected persons in and near +London," they enumerated the objects for which they had fought, and which +they now claimed as the fruit of their victory. Of these the principal +were, that the supremacy of the people should be established against the +negative voice of the king and of the lords; that to prevent civil wars, +the office of the king and the privileges of the peers should be clearly +defined; that a new parliament, to be elected of course and without writs, +should assemble every year, but never for a longer time than forty or fifty +days; that religious belief and worship should be free from restraint + +[Footnote 1: The papers given in during this treaty may be seen in the +Lords' Journals, x. 474-618. The best account is that composed by order of +the king himself, for the use of the prince of Wales.--Clarendon Papers, +ii. 425-449. I should add, that a new subject of discussion arose +incidentally during the conferences. The lord Inchiquin had abandoned the +cause of the parliament in Ireland, and, at his request, Ormond had been +sent from Paris by the queen and the prince, to resume the government, with +a commission to make peace with the Catholic party. Charles wrote to him +two letters (Oct. 10, 28.--Carte, ii. App. xxxi. xxxii.), ordering him to +follow the queen's instructions, to obey no commands from himself as long +as he should be under restraint, and not to be startled at his concessions +respecting Ireland, for they would come to nothing. Of these letters the +houses were ignorant; but they got possession of one from Ormond to the +Irish Catholics, and insisted that Charles should order the lord lieutenant +to desist. This he eluded for some time, alleging that if the treaty took +effect, their desire was already granted by his previous concessions; if it +did not, no order of his would be obeyed. At last he consented, and wrote +the letter required.--Journals, x. 576-578, 597, 618. Clarendon Papers, ii. +441, 445, 452.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. Nov. 5.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1648. Sept. 11.] + +or compulsion; that the proceedings in law should be shortened, and the +charges ascertained; that tithes for the support of the clergy, and +perpetual imprisonment for debt, should be abolished; and that the +parliament "should lay to heart the blood spilt, and the rapine perpetrated +by commission from the king, and consider whether the justice of God could +be satisfied, or his wrath be appeased, by an act of oblivion." This +instrument is the more deserving of attention, because it points out the +political views which actuated the leaders of the party.[1] + +In the army, flushed as it was with victory, and longing for revenge, +maxims began to prevail of the most dangerous tendency in respect of the +royal captive. The politicians maintained that no treaty could be safely +made with the king, because if he were under restraint, he could not be +bound by his consent; if he were restored to liberty, he could not be +expected to make any concessions. The fanatics went still further. They had +read in the book of Numbers that "blood defileth the land, and the land +cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of +him that shed it;" and hence they inferred that it was a duty, imposed +on them by the God who had given them the victory, to call the king to a +strict account for all the blood which had been shed during the civil +war. Among these, one of the most eminent was Colonel Ludlow, a member of +parliament, who, having persuaded himself that the anger of God could be +appeased only by the death of Charles, laboured, though in vain, to make +Fairfax a convert to his opinion. He proved more successful with Ireton, +whose regiment petitioned[a] the commander-in-chief, + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 335.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. Oct. 18.] + +that crime might be impartially punished without any distinction of high or +low, rich or poor; that all who had contrived or abetted the late war might +receive their just deserts; and that whosoever should speak or act in +favour of Charles, before that prince had been acquitted of shedding +innocent blood, should incur the penalties of treason. The immediate object +of this paper was to try the general disposition of the army. Though it did +not openly express, it evidently contemplated the future trial of the +king, and was followed by another petition[a] from the regiment of Colonel +Ingoldsby, which, in plainer and bolder terms, demanded that the monarch +and his adherents should be brought to justice; condemned the treaty +between him and the parliament as dangerous and unjust; and required the +appointment of a council of war to discover an adequate remedy for the +national evils. Fairfax had not the courage to oppose what, in his own +judgment, he disapproved; the petitions were laid before an assembly of +officers; and the result of their deliberation was a remonstrance[b] of +enormous length, which, in a tone of menace and asperity, proclaimed the +whole plan of the reformers. It required that "the capital and grand author +of all the troubles and woes which the kingdom had endured, should be +speedily brought to justice for the treason, blood, and mischief of which +he had been guilty;" that a period should be fixed for the dissolution of +the parliament; that a more equal representation of the people should be +devised; that the representative body should possess the supreme power, and +elect every future king; and that the prince so elected should be bound to +disclaim all pretentions to a negative voice in the passing of laws, and to +subscribe to that form of government which he + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. Oct. 30.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1648. Nov. 16.] + +should find established by the present parliament. This remonstrance +was addressed to the lower house alone, for the reformers declared +themselves[a] unable to understand on what ground the lords could claim +co-equal power with the representatives of the people, in whom alone the +sovereignty resided.[1] It provoked a long and animated debate; but the +Presbyterians met its advocates without fear, and silenced them[b] by an +overwhelming majority. They felt that they were supported by the general +wish of the nation, and trusted that if peace were once established +by agreement with the king, the officers would act dare to urge their +pretensions. With this view they appointed a distant day for the +consideration of the remonstrance, and instructed the commissioners at +Newport to hasten the treaty to a speedy conclusion.[2] + +The king now found himself driven to the last extremity. The threats of the +army resounded in his ears; his friends conjured him to recede from his +former answers; and the commissioners declared their conviction, that +without full satisfaction, the two houses could not save him from the +vengeance of his enemies. To add to his alarm, Hammond, the governor of the +island, had received a message from Fairfax to repair without delay to the +head-quarters at Windsor. This was followed by the arrival[c] of Colonel +Eure, with orders to seize the king, and confine[d] him again in Carisbrook +Castle, or, if he met with opposition, "to act as God should direct him." +Hammond replied with firmness, that in military matters he would obey his +general; but as to the royal person, he had received + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 343, 346, 355. Rushworth, vii. 1298, 1311, 1331.] + +[Footnote 2: Journals of Commons, Nov. 20, 24, 30. There were two divisions +relating to this question; in the first the majority was 94 to 60, in the +second 125 to 58.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. Nov. 18.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1648. Nov. 20.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1648. Nov. 25.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1648. Nov. 26.] + +the charge from the parliament, and would not suffer the interference of +any other authority. Eure departed; but Charles could no longer conceal +from himself the danger which stared him in the face; his constancy or +obstinacy relented; and he agreed,[a] after a most painful struggle, and +when the time was run to the last minute, to remit the compositions of his +followers to the mercy of parliament; to consent to the trial of the seven +individuals excepted from pardon, provided they were allowed the benefit of +the ancient laws; and to suspend the functions and vest in the crown the +lands of the bishops, till religion should be settled, and the support of +its ministers determined by common consent of the king and the two houses. +By this last expedient it was hoped that both parties would be satisfied; +the monarch, because the order was not abolished, nor its lands alienated +_for ever_; the parliament, because neither one nor the other could be +restored without its previous consent.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon Papers, 449-454. Journals, x. 620-622. The royalists +excepted from mercy were the marquess of Newcastle, Sir Marmaduke Langdale, +Lord Digby, Sir Richard Grenville, Mr. Justice Jenkins, Sir Francis +Dorrington, and Lord Byron. It appears to me difficult to read the letters +written by Charles during the treaty to his son the prince of Wales +(Clarendon Papers, ii. 425-454), and yet believe that he acted with +insincerity. But how then, asks Mr. Laing (Hist. of Scotland, iii. 411), +are we to account for his assertion to Ormond, that the treaty would come +to nothing, and for his anxiety to escape manifested by his correspondence +with Hopkins?--Wagstaff's Vindication of the Royal Martyr, 142-161. 1. +Charles knew that, besides the parliament, there was the army, which had +both the will and the power to set aside any agreement which might be made +between him and the parliament; and hence arose his conviction that "the +treaty would come to nothing." 2. He was acquainted with all that passed +in the private councils of his enemies; with their design to bring him to +trial and to the scaffold; and he had also received a letter, informing him +of an intention to assassinate him during the treaty.--Herbert, 134. Can we +be surprised, if, under such circumstances, he sought to escape? Nor +was his parole an objection. He conceived himself released from it by +misconduct on the part of Hammond, who, at last, aware of that persuasion, +prevailed on him, though with considerable difficulty, to renew his +pledge.--Journals, x. 598. After this renewal he refused to escape even +when every facility was offered him.--Rushworth, vii. 1344.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. Nov. 27.] + + +In the morning, when the commissioners took their leave,[a] Charles +addressed them with a sadness of countenance and in a tone of voice which +drew tears from all his attendants. "My lords," said he, "I believe we +shall scarce ever see each other again. But God's will be done! I have made +my peace with him, and shall undergo without fear whatever he may suffer +men to do to me. My lords, you cannot but know that in my fall and ruin you +see your own, and that also near you. I pray God send you better friends +than I have found. I am fully informed of the carriage of them who plot +against me and mine; but nothing affects me so much as the feeling I have +of the sufferings of my subjects, and the mischief that hangs over my three +kingdoms, drawn upon them by those who, upon pretences of good, violently +pursue their own interests and ends." Hammond departed at the same time +with the commissioners, and the command at Carisbrook devolved on Boreman, +an officer of the militia, at Newport on Rolfe, a major in the army. To +both he gave a copy of his instructions from the parliament for the safety +of the royal person; but the character of Rolfe was known; he had been +charged with a design to take the king's life six months before, and had +escaped a trial by the indulgence of the grand jury, who ignored the bill, +because the main fact was attested by the oath of only one witness.[2] + +The next morning[b] a person in disguise ordered one + +[Footnote 1: Appendix to Eveyln's Memoirs, ii. 128.] + +[Footnote 2: Journals, x. 615, 345, 349, 358, 370, 390. Clarendon, iii. +234.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. Nov. 28.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1648. Nov. 29.] + +of the royal attendants to inform the king that a military force was on +its way to make him prisoner. Charles immediately consulted the duke of +Richmond, the earl of Lindsey, and Colonel Coke, who joined in conjuring +him to save his life by an immediate escape. The night was dark and stormy; +they were acquainted with the watchword; and Coke offered him horses and a +boat. But the king objected, that he was bound in honour to remain twenty +days after the treaty, nor would he admit of the distinction which +they suggested, that his parole was given not to the army, but to the +parliament. It was in vain that they argued and entreated: Charles, with +his characteristic obstinacy,[a] retired to rest about midnight; and in a +short time Lieutenant-Colonel Cobbett arrived with a troop of horse and a +company of foot. Boreman refused to admit him into Carisbrook. But Rolfe +offered him aid at Newport; at five the king was awakened by a message that +he must prepare to depart; and about noon he was safely lodged in Hurst +Castle, situate on a solitary rock, and connected by a narrow causeway, two +miles in length, with the opposite coast of Hampshire.[1] + +The same day the council of officers published a menacing declaration +against the House of Commons. It charged the majority with apostasy +from their former principles, and appealed from their authority to "the +extraordinary judgment of God and of all good people;" called on the +faithful members to protest against the past conduct of their colleagues, +and to place themselves under the protection of the army; and asserted that +since God had given to the officers the power, he had also made it their +duty, to + +[Footnote 1: Rushworth, vii. 1344-1348, 1351. Herbert, 113, 124.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. Nov. 30.] + +provide for the settlement of the kingdom and the punishment of the +guilty.[a] In the pursuit of these objects, Fairfax marched several +regiments to London, and quartered them at Whitehall, York House, the Mews, +and in the skirts of the city.[1] + +The reader will recollect the pusillanimous conduct of the Presbyterian +members on the approach of the army in the year 1646.[b] On the present +occasion they resolved to redeem their character. They betrayed no symptom +of fear, no disposition to retire, or to submit. Amidst the din of arms and +the menaces of the soldiers, they daily attended their duty in parliament, +declared that the seizure of the royal person had been, made without +their knowledge or consent, and proceeded to consider the tendency of the +concessions made by Charles in the treaty of Newport. This produced +the longest and most animated debate hitherto known in the history of +parliament. Vane drew a most unfavourable portrait of the king, and +represented all his promises and professions as hollow and insincere; +Fiennes became for the first time the royal apologist, and refuted the +charges brought by his fellow commissioner; and Prynne, the celebrated +adversary of Laud, seemed to forget his antipathy to the court, that he +might lash the presumption and perfidy of the army. The debate continued +by successive adjournments three days and a whole night; and on the +last division in the morning a resolution was carried by a majority of +thirty-six, that the offers of the sovereign furnished a sufficient ground +for the future settlement of the kingdom.[2][c] + +[Footnote 1: Rushworth, vii. 1341, 1350. Whitelock, 358.] + +[Footnote 2: Journals, Dec. 1, 2, 3, 5. Clarendon Papers, ii. App, xlviii. +Cobbett, Parl. Hist. 1152. In some of the previous divisions, the house +consisted of two hundred and forty members; but several seem to have +retired during the night; at the conclusion there were only two hundred and +twelve.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. Dec. 2.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1648. Dec. 5] + + +But the victors were not suffered to enjoy their triumph. The next day +Skippon discharged the guards of the two houses, and their place was +supplied by a regiment of horse and another of foot from the[a] army. +Colonel Pride, while Fairfax, the commander-in-chief, was purposely +employed in a conference with some of the members, stationed himself in the +lobby: in his hand he held a list of names, while the Lord Grey stood +by his side to point out the persons of the members; and two-and-fifty +Presbyterians, the most distinguished of the party by their talents or +influence, were taken into custody and conducted to different places of +confinement. Many of those who passed the ordeal on this, met with a +similar treatment on the following day; numbers embraced the opportunity +to retire into the country; and the house was found, after repeated +purifications, to consist of about fifty individuals, who, in the quaint +language of the time, were afterwards dignified with the honourable +appellation of the "Rump."[1] + +Whether it were through policy or accident, Cromwell was not present to +take any share in these extraordinary proceedings. After his victory at +Preston he had marched in pursuit of Monroe, and had besieged the important +town of Berwick. But his real views were not confined to England. The +defeat of the Scottish royalists had raised the hopes of their opponents +in their own country. In the western shires the curse of Meroz had been +denounced from + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 358, 359. Commons' Journals, Dec. 6, 7. This was +called Pride's purge. Forty-seven members were imprisoned, and ninety-six +excluded.--Parl. Hist. iii. 1248.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. Dec. 6.] + +the pulpit against all who refused to arm in defence of the covenant; the +fanatical peasants marshalled themselves under their respective ministers; +and Loudon and Eglington, assuming the command, led them to Edinburgh.[1] +This tumultuary mass, though joined by Argyle and his Highlanders, and by +Cassilis with the people of Carrick and Galloway, was no match for the +disciplined army under Lanark and Monroe; but Cromwell offered to advance +to their support, and the[a] two parties hastened to reconcile their +differences by a treaty, which secured to the royalists their lives and[b] +property, on condition that they should disband their forces. Argyle with +his associates assumed the name and the office of the committee of the +estates; Berwick and Carlisle were delivered to the English[c] general; +and he himself with his army was invited to the capital. Amidst the public +rejoicing, private conferences of which the subject never transpired, were +repeatedly held; and Cromwell returning to[d] England, left Lambeth with +two regiments of horse, to support the government of his friends till they +could raise a sufficient force among their own party.[2] His progress +through the northern counties was slow;[e] nor did he reach the capital +till the day after the exclusion of the Presbyterian members. His late +victory had rendered him the idol of the soldiers: he was conducted with +acclamations of joy to the + +[Footnote 1: This was called the inroad of the Whiggamores; a name given +to these peasants either from whiggam, a word employed by them in driving +their horses, or from whig (Anglicè whey), a beverage of sour milk, which +formed one of the principal articles of their meals.--Burnet's History of +his Own Times, i. 43. It soon came to designate an enemy of the king, and +in the next reign was transferred, under the abbreviated form of whig, to +the opponents of the court.] + +[Footnote 2: Memoirs of the Hamiltons, 367-377. Guthrie, 283-299. +Rushworth, vii. 1273, 1282, 1286, 1296, 1325.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. Sept. 26.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1648. Sept. 30.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1648. Oct. 4.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1648. Oct. 11.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1648. Dec. 7.] + +royal apartments in Whitehall, and received the next day the thanks of the +House of Commons for his distinguished services to the two kingdoms. Of his +sentiments with respect to the late proceedings no doubt was entertained. +If he had not suggested, he had at least been careful to applaud the +conduct of the officers, and in a letter to Fairfax he blasphemously +attributed it to the inspiration of the Almighty.[1] + +The government of the kingdom had now devolved in reality on the army. +There were two military councils, the one select, consisting of the +grandees, or principal commanders, the other general, to which the inferior +officers, most of them men of levelling principles, were admitted. A +suspicion existed that the former aimed at the establishment of an +oligarchy: whence their advice was frequently received with jealousy and +distrust, and their resolutions were sometimes negatived by the greater +number of their inferiors. When any measure had received the approbation +of the general council, it was carried to the House of Commons, who were +expected to impart to it the sanction of their authority. With ready +obedience[a] they renewed the vote of non-addresses, resolved that +the re-admission of the eleven expelled members was dangerous in its +consequences, and contrary to the usages of the house, and declared that +the treaty in the Isle of Wight, and the approbation given to the[b] royal +concessions, were dishonourable to parliament, destructive of the common +good, and a breach of the public faith.[2] But these were only preparatory +measures: + +[Footnote 1: Journals, Dec. 8. Whitelock, 362. Rushworth, vii. 1339.] + +[Footnote 2: Journals, Dec. 3, 13, 14, 20. Whitelock, 362, 363. Clarendon +Papers, ii. App. xlix.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. Dec. 12.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1648. Dec. 13.] + +they were soon called upon to pass a vote, the very mention of which a few +years before would have struck the boldest among them with astonishment and +terror. + +It had long been the conviction of the officers that the life of the king +was incompatible with their safety. If he were restored, they would become +the objects of royal vengeance; if he were detained in prison, the public +tranquillity would be disturbed by a succession of plots in his favour. In +private assassination there was something base and cowardly from which the +majority revolted; but to bring him to public justice, was to act openly +and boldly; it was to proclaim their confidence in the goodness of their +cause; to give to the world a splendid proof of the sovereignty of the +people and of the responsibility of kings.[1][a] When the motion was made +in the Commons, a few ventured to oppose it, not so much with the hope of +saving the life of Charles, as for the purpose of transferring the odium of +his death on its real authors. They suggested that the person of the king +was sacred; that history afforded no precedent of a sovereign compelled +to plead before a court of judicature composed of his own subjects; that +measures of vengeance could only serve to widen the bleeding wounds of the +country; that it was idle to fear any re-action in favour of the monarch, +and it was now time to settle on a permanent basis the liberties of the +country. But their opponents were clamorous, obstinate, and menacing. The +king, they maintained, was the capital delinquent; justice required that he +should suffer as well as the minor offenders. He had been guilty of treason +against the people, it remained for _their_ representatives to bring + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon, Hist. iii. 249.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. Dec. 29.] + +him to punishment; he had shed the blood of man, God made it a duty to +demand his blood in return. The opposition was silenced; and a committee of +thirty-eight members was appointed to receive information and to devise the +most eligible manner of proceeding. Among the more influential names were +those of Widdrington and Whitelock, Scot and Marten. But the first two +declined to attend; and, when the clerk brought them a summons, retired +into the country.[1] + +[a]At the recommendation of this committee, the house passed a vote +declaratory of the law, that it was high treason in the king of England, +for the time being, to levy war against the parliament and kingdom of +England; and this was followed up with an ordinance erecting a high court +of justice to try the question of fact, whether Charles Stuart, king +of England, had or had not been guilty of the treason described in the +preceding vote. But the subserviency of the Commons was not imitated by the +Lords. They saw the approaching ruin of their own order in the fall of the +sovereign; and when the vote and ordinance were transmitted to their house, +they rejected both without a dissentient voice, and then adjourned for a +week.[b] This unexpected effort surprised, but did not disconcert, the +Independents.[c] They prevailed on the Commons to vote that the people are +the origin of all just power, and from this theoretical truth proceeded to +deduce two practical falsehoods. As if no portion of that power had been +delegated to the king and the lords, they determined that "the Commons +of England assembled in parliament, being chosen by and representing the +people, have the supreme authority:" and thence inferred + +[Footnote 1: Journals, Dec. 23. Whitelock, 363.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Jan. 1.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. Jan. 2.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1649. Jan. 4.] + +that "whatsoever is enacted and declared for law by the Commons in +parliament hath force of law, and concludes all the people of the nation, +although the consent and concurrence of the king and the House of Peers +be not had thereunto." But even in that hypothesis, how could the house, +constituted as it then was, claim to be the representative of the people? +It was in fact the representative of the army only, and not a free but an +enslaved representative, bound to speak with the voice, and to enregister +the decrees of its masters.[1] Two days later an act for the trial of the +king was passed by the authority of the Commons only. + +In the mean while Cromwell continued to act his accustomed part. Whenever +he rose in the house, it was to recommend moderation, to express the doubts +which agitated his mind, to protest that, if he assented to harsh and +ungracious measures, he did it with reluctance, and solely in obedience to +the will of the Almighty. Of his conduct during the debate on the king's +trial we have no account; but when it was suggested to dissolve the upper +house, and transfer its members to that of the Commons, he characterized +the proposal as originating in revolutionary phrensy; and, on the +introduction of a bill to alter the form of the great seal, adopted a +language which strongly marks the hypocrisy of the man, though it was +calculated to make impression on the fanatical minds of his hearers.[a] +"Sir," said he, addressing the speaker, "if any man whatsoever have carried +on this design of deposing the king, and disinheriting his posterity, or if +any man have still such a design, he must be the greatest + +[Footnote 1: Journals, x. 641. Commons, Jan. 1, 2, 4, 6. Hitherto the Lords +had seldom exceeded seven in number; but on this occasion they amounted to +fourteen--Leicester's Journal, 47.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Jan. 9.] + +traitor and rebel in the world; but since the providence of God has cast +this upon us, I cannot but submit to Providence, though I am not yet +prepared to give you my advice."[1] + +The lord general, on the contrary, began to assume a more open and a bolder +tone. Hitherto, instead of leading, he had been led. That he disapproved of +much that had been done, we may readily believe; but he only records his +own weakness, where he alleges in excuse of his conduct that his name had +been subscribed to the resolves of the council, whether he consented or +not. He had lately shed the blood of two gallant officers at Colchester, +but no solicitations could induce him to concur in shedding the blood of +the king. His name stood at the head of the commissioners: he attended at +the first meeting, in which no business was transacted, but he constantly +refused to be present at their subsequent sittings, or to subscribe his +name to their resolutions.[A] This conduct surprised and mortified the +Independents: it probably arose from the influence of his wife, whose +desperate + +[Footnote 1: For Cromwell's conduct see the letters in the Appendix to the +second volume of the Clarendon Papers, 1. li. The authenticity of this +speech has been questioned, as resting solely on the treacherous credit of +Perrinchiefe; but it occurs in a letter written on the 11th of January, +which describes the proceedings of the 9th, and therefore cannot, I think, +be questioned. By turning to the Journals, it will be found that on that +day the house had divided on a question whether any more messages should +be received from the Lords, which was carried, in opposition to Ludlow and +Marten. "Then," says the letter, "they fell on the business of the king's +trial." On this head nothing is mentioned in the Journals; but a motion +which would cause frequent allusions to it, was made and carried. It was +for a new great seal, on which should be engraven the House of Commons, +with this inscription:--"In the first year of freedom, by God's blessing +restored, 1648." Such a motion would naturally introduce Cromwell's speech +respecting the deposition of the king and the disherison of his posterity.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Jan. 3.] + +loyalty will soon challenge the attention of the reader.[1] + +Before this the king, in anticipation of his subsequent trial, had +been removed to the palace of St.[a] James's. In the third week of his +confinement in Hurst Castle, he was suddenly roused out of his sleep at +midnight by the fall of the drawbridge and the trampling of horses. A +thousand frightful ideas rushed on his mind, and at an early hour in the +morning, he desired his servant Herbert to ascertain the cause; but every +mouth was closed, and Herbert returned with the scanty information that a +Colonel Harrison had arrived. At the name the king turned pale, hastened +into the closet, and sought to relieve his terrors by private devotion. In +a letter which he had received at Newport, Harrison had been pointed out to +him as a man engaged to take his life. His alarm, however, was unfounded. +Harrison was a fanatic, but no murderer: he sought, indeed, the blood of +the king, but it was his wish that it should be shed by the axe of the +executioner, not by the dagger of the assassin. He had been appointed to +superintend the removal of the royal captive, and had come to arrange +matters with the governor, of whose fidelity some suspicion existed. +Keeping himself private during the days he departed in the night; and two +days later Charles was conducted with a numerous[b] escort to the royal +palace of Windsor.[2] + +Hitherto, notwithstanding his confinement, the king had always been +served with the usual state; but at Windsor his meat was brought to table +uncovered and[c] by the hands of the soldiers; no say was given; no + +[Footnote 1: Nalson, Trial of Charles I. Clarendon Papers, ii. App. ii.] + +[Footnote 2: Herbert, 131-136, Rushworth, vii. 1375.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. Dec. 18.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1648. Dec. 23.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1648. Dec. 27.] + +cup presented on the knee. This absence of ceremony made on the unfortunate +monarch a deeper impression than could have been expected. It was, he said, +the denial of that to him, which by ancient custom was due to many of his +subjects; and rather than submit to the humiliation, he chose to diminish +the number of the dishes, and to take his meals in private. Of the +proceedings against him he received no official intelligence; but he +gleaned the chief particulars through the inquiries of Herbert, and in +casual conversation with Witchcott the governor. The information was +sufficient to appal the stoutest heart; but Charles was of a most sanguine +temperament, and though he sought to fortify his mind against the worst, he +still cherished a hope that these menacing preparations were only intended +to extort from him the resignation of his crown. He relied on the +interposition of the Scots, the intercession of foreign powers, and the +attachment of many of his English subjects. He persuaded himself that his +very enemies would blush to shed the blood of their sovereign; and that +their revenge would be appeased, and their ambition sufficiently gratified, +by the substitution in his place of one of his younger children on the +throne.[1] + +But these were the dreams of a man who sought to allay his fears by +voluntary delusions. The princes of Europe looked with cold indifference +on his fate. The king of Spain during the whole contest had maintained a +friendly correspondence with the parliament. Frederic III. king of Denmark, +though he was his + +[Footnote 1: Herbert, 155, 157. Whitelock, 365. Sir John Temple attributed +his tranquillity "to a strange conceit of Ormond's working for him in +Ireland. He still hangs upon that twigg; and by the enquireys he made after +his and Inchiquin's conjunction, I see he will not be beaten off it."--In +Leicester's Journal, 48.] + +cousin-german, made no effort to save his life; and Henrietta could obtain +for him no interposition from France, where the infant king had been +driven from his capital by civil dissension, and she herself depended for +subsistence on the charity of the Cardinal de Retz, the leader of the +Fronde.[1] The Scottish parliament, indeed, made a feeble effort in his +favour. The commissioners subscribed a protest against the proceedings +of the Commons, by whom it was never answered; and argued the case with +Cromwell, who referred them to the covenant, and maintained, that if it was +their duty to punish the malignants in general, it was still more so to +punish him who was the chief of the malignants.[2] + +As the day of trial approached, Charles resigned the hopes which he had +hitherto indulged; and his removal to Whitehall admonished him to +prepare for that important scene on which he was soon to appear. Without +information or advice, he could only resolve to maintain the port and +dignity of a king, to refuse the authority of his judges, and to commit no +act unworthy of his exalted rank and that of his ancestors.[a] On the 20th +of January the commissioners appointed by the act assembled in the painted +chamber, and proceeded in state to the upper end of Westminster Hall.[b] +A chair of crimson velvet had been placed for the lord president, John +Bradshaw, serjeant-at-law; the others, to the number of sixty-six, ranged +themselves on either side, on benches covered with scarlet; at the feet +of the president sat two clerks at a table on which lay the sword and the +mace; and directly opposite stood a chair intended for the king. After the +preliminary + +[Footnote 1: Memoirs of Retz, i. 261.] + +[Footnote 2: Journals, Jan. 6, 22, 23. Parl. Hist. iii. 1277. Burnett's Own +Times, i. 42.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Jan 19] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. Jan 20] + +formalities of reading the commission, and calling over the members, +Bradshaw ordered the prisoner to be introduced.[1] + +Charles was received at the door by the serjeant-at-arms, and conducted by +him within the bar. His step was firm, his countenance erect and unmoved. +He did not uncover; but first seated himself, then rose, and surveyed the +court with an air of superiority, which abashed and irritated his enemies. +While the clerk read the charge, he appeared to listen with indifference; +but a smile of contempt was seen to quiver on his lips at the passage which +described him as a "tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public and implacable +enemy to the commonwealth of England." At the conclusion Bradshaw called on +him to answer; but he demanded by what lawful authority he had been brought +thither. He was king of England; he acknowledged no superior upon earth; +and the crown, which he had received from his ancestors, he would transmit +unimpaired by any act of his to his posterity. His case, moreover, was the +case of all the people of England; for if force without law could alter the +fundamental laws of the kingdom, there was no man who could be secure of +his life or liberty for an hour. He was told that the court sat by the +authority of the House of + +[Footnote 1: The commissioners according to the act (for bills passed by +the Commons alone were now denominated acts), were in number 133, chosen +out of the lower house, the inns of court, the city, and the army. In one +of their first meetings they chose Bradshaw for their president. He was a +native of Cheshire, bred to the bar, had long practised in the Guildhall, +and had lately before been made serjeant. In the first list of +commissioners his name did not occur; but on the rejection of the ordinance +by the upper house, the names of six lords were erased, and his name with +those of five others was substituted. He obtained for the reward of his +services the estate of Lord Cottington, the chancellorship of the duchy of +Lancaster, and the office of president of the council.] + +Commons. But where, he asked, were the Lords? Were the Commons the whole +legislature? Were they free? Were they a court of judicature? Could they +confer on others a jurisdiction which they did not possess themselves? He +would never acknowledge an usurped authority. It was a duty imposed upon +him by the Almighty to disown every lawless power, that invaded either the +rights of the crown or the liberties of the subject. Such was the substance +of his discourse, delivered on three different days, and amidst innumerable +interruptions from the president, who would not suffer the jurisdiction of +the court to be questioned, and at last ordered the "default and contempt +of the prisoner" to be recorded. + +The two following days the court sat in private, to receive evidence that +the king had commanded in several engagements, and to deliberate on the +form of judgment to be pronounced.[a] On the third Bradshaw took his seat, +dressed in scarlet; and Charles immediately demanded to be heard. He did +not mean, he said, on this occasion either to acknowledge or deny the +authority of the court; his object was to ask a favour, which would +spare them the commission of a great crime, and restore the blessing of +tranquillity to his people. He asked permission to confer with a joint +committee of the Lords and Commons. The president replied that the proposal +was not altogether new, though it was now made for the first time by +the king himself; that it pre-supposed the existence of an authority +co-ordinate with that of the Commons, which could not be admitted; that +its object could only be to delay the proceedings of the court, now that +judgment was to be pronounced. Here he was interrupted by the earnest +expostulation of Colonel Downes, one of the members. The king was +immediately + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Jan. 27.] + +removed; the commissioners adjourned into a neighbouring apartment, and +almost an hour was spent in private and animated debate. Had the conference +been granted, Charles would have proposed (so at least it was understood) +to resign the crown in favour of the prince of Wales. + +When the court resumed, Bradshaw announced to him the refusal of his +request, and proceeded to animadvert in harsh and unfeeling language on the +principal events of his reign. The meek spirit of the prisoner was roused; +he made an attempt to speak, but was immediately silenced with the remark, +that the time for his defence was past; that he had spurned the numerous +opportunities offered to him by the indulgence of the court; and that +nothing remained for his judges but to pronounce sentence; for they had +learned from holy writ that "to acquit the guilty was of equal abomination +as to condemn the innocent." The charge was again read, and was followed by +the judgment, "that the court, being satisfied in conscience that he, the +said Charles Stuart, was guilty of the crimes of which he had been accused, +did adjudge him as a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public enemy to the +good people of the nation, to be put to death by severing his head from +his body." The king heard it in silence, sometimes smiling with contempt, +sometimes raising his eyes to heaven, as if he appealed from the malice of +men to the justice of the Almighty. At the conclusion the commissioners +rose in a body to testify their assent, and Charles made a last and more +earnest effort to speak; but Bradshaw ordered him to be removed, and the +guards hurried him out of the hall.[1] + +[Footnote 1: See the Trial of Charles Stuart, with additions by Nalson, +folio, London, 1735.] + + +During this trial a strong military force had been kept under arms to +suppress any demonstration of popular feeling in favour of the king. On +the first day, when the name of Fairfax, as one of the commissioners, was +called, a female voice cried from the gallery, "He has more wit than to be +here." On another occasion, when Bradshaw attributed the charge against the +king to the consentient voice of the people of England, the same female +voice exclaimed, "No, not one-tenth of the people." A faint murmur of +approbation followed, but was instantly suppressed by the military. +The speaker was recognised to be Lady Fairfax, the wife of the +commander-in-chief; and these affronts, probably on that account, were +suffered to pass unnoticed.[1] + +When Coke, the solicitor-general, opened the pleadings, the king gently +tapped him on the shoulder with his cane, crying, "Hold, hold." At the same +moment the silver head of the cane fell off, and rolled on the floor. +It was an accident which might have happened at any time; but in this +superstitions age it could not fail to be taken for an omen. Both his +friends and enemies interpreted it as a presage of his approaching +decapitation.[2] + +On one day, as the king entered the court, he heard behind him the cry of +"Justice, justice;" on another, as he passed between two lines of soldiers, +the word "execution" was repeatedly sounded in his ears. He bore these +affronts with patience, and on + +[Footnote 1: Nalson's Trial. Clarendon, iii. 254. State Trials, 366, 367, +368, folio, 1730.] + +[Footnote 2: Nalson. Herbert, 165. "He seemed unconcerned; yet told the +bishop, it really made a great impression on him; and to this hour, says +he, I know not possibly how it should come."--Warwick, 340.] + +his return said to Herbert, "I am well assured that the soldiers bear me no +malice. The cry was suggested by their officers, for whom they would do the +like if there were occasion."[1] + +On his return from the hall, men and women crowded behind the guards, +and called aloud, "God preserve your majesty." But one of the soldiers +venturing to say, "God bless you, Sir," received a stroke on the head +from an officer with his cane. "Truly," observed the king, "I think the +punishment exceeded the offence."[2] + +By his conduct during these proceedings, Charles had exalted his character +even in the estimation of his enemies: he had now to prepare himself for a +still more trying scene, to nerve his mind against the terrors of a public +and ignominious death. But he was no longer the man he had been before +the civil war. Affliction had chastened his mind; he had learned from +experience to submit to the visitations of Providence; and he sought and +found strength and relief in the consolations of religion. The next day, +the Sunday, was spent by him at St. James's, by the commissioners at +Whitehall.[a] _They_ observed a fast, preached on the judgments of God, +and prayed for a blessing on the commonwealth. _He_ devoted his time to +devotional exercises in the company of Herbert and of Dr. Juxon, bishop of +London, who at the request of Hugh Peters (and it should be recorded to +the honour of that fanatical preacher) had been permitted to attended the +monarch. His nephew the prince elector, the duke of Richmond, the +marquess of Hertford, and several other noblemen, came to the door of his +bedchamber, to pay their last respects to + +[Footnote 1: Herbert, 163, 164.] + +[Footnote 2: Ibid. 163, 165.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Jan. 28.] + +their sovereign; but they were told in his name that he thanked them for +their attachment, and desired their prayers; that the shortness of his time +admonished him to think of another world; and that the only moments which +he could spare must be given to his children. These were two, the Princess +Elizabeth and the duke of Gloucester, the former wept for her father's +fate; the latter, too young to understand the cause, joined his tears +through sympathy. Charles placed them on his knees, gave them such advice +as was adapted to their years, and seemed to derive pleasure from the +pertinency of their answers. In conclusion, he divided a few jewels between +them, kissed them, gave them his blessings and hastily retired to his +devotions.[1] + +On the last night of his life he slept soundly about four hours, and early +in the morning[a] awakened Herbert, who lay on a pallet by his bed-side. +"This," he said, "is my second marriage-day. I would be as trim as may +be; for before night I hope to be espoused to my blessed Jesus." He then +pointed out the clothes which he meant to wear, and ordered two shirts, +on account of the severity of the weather; "For," he observed, "were I to +shake through cold, my enemies would attribute it to fear, I would have no +such imputation. I fear not death. Death is not terrible to me. I bless my +God I am prepared."[2] + +[Footnote 1: Herbert, 169-180. State Trials, 357-360.] + +[Footnote 2: Herbert, 183-185, I may here insert an anecdote, which seems +to prove that Charles attributed his misfortunes in a great measure to the +counsels of Archbishop Laud. On the last night of his life, he had observed +that Herbert was restless during his sleep, and in the morning insisted on +knowing the cause. Herbert answered that he was dreaming. He saw Laud +enter the room; the king took him aside, and spoke to him with a pensive +countenance; the archbishop sighed, retired, and fell prostrate on the +ground. Charles replied, "It is very remarkable; but he is dead. Yet had we +conferred together during life, 'tis very likely (albeit I loved him +well) I should have said something to him, might have occasioned his +sigh."--Herbert's Letter to Dr. Samways, published at the end of his +Memoirs, p. 220.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Jan. 30.] + + +The king spent an hour in privacy with the bishop; Herbert was afterwards +admitted; and about ten o'clock Colonel Hacker announced that it was time +to proceed to Whitehall. He obeyed, was conducted on foot, between two +detachments of military, across the park, and received permission to repose +himself in his former bedchamber. Dinner had been prepared for him; but he +refused to eat, though afterwards, at the solicitation of the bishop, he +took the half of a manchet and a glass of wine. Here he remained almost +two hours, in constant expectation of the last summons, spending his time +partly in prayer and partly in discourse with Dr. Juxon. There might have +been nothing mysterious in the delay; if there was, it may perhaps be +explained from the following circumstances. + +Four days had now elapsed since the arrival of ambassadors from the Hague +to intercede in his favour. It was only on the preceding evening that they +had obtained audiences of the two houses, and hitherto no answer had been +returned. In their company came Seymour, the bearer of two letters from the +prince of Wales, one addressed to the king, the other to the Lord Fairfax. +He had already delivered the letter, and with it a sheet of blank paper +subscribed with the name and sealed with the arms of the prince. It was +the price which he offered to the grandees of the army for the life of his +father. Let them fill it up with the conditions: whatever they might be, +they were already granted; his seal and signature were affixed.[1] It is +not improbable that this offer may have induced the leaders to pause. That +Fairfax laboured to postpone the execution, was always asserted by his +friends; and we have evidence to prove that, though he was at Whitehall, he +knew not, or at least pretend not to know, what was passing.[2] + +In the mean while Charles enjoyed the consolation of learning that his +son had not forgotten him in his distress. By the indulgence of Colonel +Tomlinson, Seymour was admitted, delivered the letter, and received the +royal instructions for the prince. He was hardly gone, when Hacker arrived +with the fatal summons. About two o'clock the king proceeded through the +long gallery, lined on each side with soldiers, who, far from insulting the +fallen monarch, appeared by their sorrowful looks to sympathize with his +fate. At the end an aperture had been made in the wall, through which he +stepped at once upon the scaffold. It was hung with black; at the farther +end were seen the two executioners, the block, and the axe; below + +[Footnote 1: For the arrival of the ambassadors see the Journals of the +House of Commons on the 26th. A fac-simile of the carte-blanche, with the +signature of the prince, graces the title-page of the third volume of the +Original Letters, published by Mr. Ellis.] + +[Footnote 2: "Mean time they went into the long gallery, where, chancing to +meet the general, he ask'd Mr. Herbert how the king did? Which he +thought strange.... His question being answered, the general seem'd much +surprised."--Herbert, 194. It is difficult to believe that Herbert could +have mistaken or fabricated such a question, or that Fairfax would have +asked it, had he known what had taken place. To his assertion that +Fairfax was with the officers in Harrison's room, employed in "prayer or +discourse," it has been objected that his name does not occur among the +names of those who were proved to have been there at the trial of the +regicides. But that is no contradiction. The witnesses speak of what +happened before, Herbert of what happened during, the execution. See also +Ellis, 2nd series, iii. 345.] + +appeared in arms several regiments of horse and foot; and beyond, as far +as the eye was permitted to reach, waved a dense and countless crowd of +spectators. The king stood collected and undismayed amidst the apparatus +of death. There was in his countenance that cheerful intrepidity, in his +demeanour that dignified calmness, which had characterized, in the hall of +Fotheringay, his royal grandmother, Mary Stuart. It was his wish to address +the people; but they were kept beyond the reach of his voice by the swords +of the military; and therefore confining his discourse to the few persons +standing with him on the scaffold, he took, he said, that opportunity of +denying in the presence of his God the crimes of which he had been accused. +It was not to him, but to the houses of parliament, that the war and all +its evils should be charged. The parliament had first invaded the rights of +the crown by claiming the command of the army; and had provoked hostilities +by issuing commissions for the levy of forces, before he had raised a +single man. But he had forgiven all, even those, whoever they were (for he +did not desire to know their names), who had brought him to his death. He +did more than forgive them, he prayed that they might repent. But for that +purpose they must do three things; they must render to God his due, by +settling the church according to the Scripture; they must restore to the +crown those rights which belonged to it by law; and they must teach the +people the distinction between the sovereign and the subject; those persons +could not be governors who were to be governed, _they_ could not rule, +whose duty it was to obey. Then, in allusion to the offers formerly made +to him by the army, he concluded with, these words:--"Sirs, it was for the +liberties of the people that I am come here. If I would have assented to an +arbitrary sway, to have all things changed according to the power of the +sword, I needed not to have come hither; and therefore, I tell you (and +I pray God it be not laid to your charge), that I am the martyr of the +people." + +Having added, at the suggestion of Dr. Juxon, "I die a Christian according +to the profession of the church of England, as I found it left me by my +father," he said, addressing himself to the prelate, "I have on my side a +good cause, and a gracious God." + +BISHOP.--There is but one stage more; it is turbulent and troublesome, but +a short one. It will carry you from earth to heaven, and there you will +find joy and comfort. + +KING.--I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown. + +BISHOP.--You exchange an earthly for an eternal crown--a good exchange. + +Being ready, he bent his neck on the block, and after a short pause, +stretched out his hand as a signal. At that instant the axe descended; the +head rolled from the body; and a deep groan burst from the multitude of the +spectators. But they had no leisure to testify their feelings; two troops +of horse dispersed them in different directions.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Herbert, 189-194. Warwick, 344. Nalson, Trial of Charles +Stuart. The royal corpse, having been embalmed, was after some days +delivered to the earl of Richmond for private interment at Windsor. That +nobleman, accompanied by the marquess of Hertford, the earls of Southampton +and Lindsey, Dr. Juxon, and a few of the king's attendants, deposited it in +a vault in the choir of St. George's chapel, which already contained the +remains of Henry VIII. and of his third queen, Jane Seymour.--Herbert, 203. +Blencowe, Sydney Papers, 64. Notwithstanding such authority, the assertion +of Clarendon that the place could not be discovered threw some doubt upon +the subject. But in 1813 it chanced that the workmen made an aperture in a +vault corresponding in situation, and occupied by three coffins; and the +prince-regent ordered an investigation to ascertain the truth. One of the +coffins, in conformity with the account of Herbert, was of lead, with a +leaden scroll in which were cut the words "King Charles." In the upper lid +of this an opening was made; and when the cerecloth and unctuous +matter were removed, the features of the face, as far as they could be +distinguished, bore a strong resemblance to the portraits of Charles I. +To complete the proof, the head was found to have been separated from the +trunk by some sharp instrument, which had cut through the fourth, vertebra +of the neck.--See "An Account of what appeared on opening the coffin of +King Charles I. by Sir Henry Halford, bart." 1813. It was observed at the +same time, that "the lead coffin of Henry VIII. had been beaten in about +the middle, and a considerable opening in that part exposed a mere skeleton +of the king." This may, perhaps, be accounted for from a passage in +Herbert, who tells us that while the workmen were employed about the +inscription, the chapel was cleared, but a soldier contrived to conceal +himself, descended into the vault, cut off some of the velvet pall, and +"wimbled a hole into the largest coffin." He was caught, and "a bone was +found about him, which, he said, he would haft a knife with."--Herbert 204. +See note (C).] + + +Such was the end of the unfortunate Charles Stuart; an awful lesson to +the possessors of royalty, to watch the growth of public opinion, and to +moderate their pretensions in conformity with the reasonable desires of +their subjects. Had he lived at a more early period, when the sense of +wrong was quickly subdued by the habit of submission, his reign would +probably have been marked with fewer violations of the national liberties. +It was resistance that made him a tyrant. The spirit of the people refused +to yield to the encroachments of authority; and one act of oppression +placed him under the necessity of committing another, till he had revived +and enforced all those odious prerogatives, which, though usually claimed, +were but sparingly exercised, by his predecessors. For some years his +efforts seemed successful; but the Scottish insurrection revealed the +delusion; he had parted with the real authority of a king, when he +forfeited the confidence and affection of his subjects. + +But while we blame the illegal measures of Charles, we ought not to screen +from censure the subsequent conduct of his principal opponents. From the +moment that war seemed inevitable, they acted as if they thought themselves +absolved from all obligations of honour and honesty. They never ceased to +inflame the passions of the people by misrepresentation and calumny; they +exercised a power far more arbitrary and formidable than had ever been +claimed by the king; they punished summarily, on mere suspicion, and +without attention to the forms of law; and by their committees they +established in every county a knot of petty tyrants, who disposed at +will of the liberty and property of the inhabitants. Such anomalies may, +perhaps, be inseparable from the jealousies, the resentments, and the +heart-burnings, which are engendered in civil commotions; but certain it is +that right and justice had seldom been more wantonly outraged, than they +were by those who professed to have drawn the sword in the defence of right +and justice. + +Neither should the death of Charles be attributed to the vengeance of the +people. They, for the most part, declared themselves satisfied with their +victory; they sought not the blood of the captive monarch; they were even, +willing to replace him on the throne, under those limitations which they +deemed necessary for the preservation of their rights. The men who hurried +him to the scaffold were a small faction of bold and ambitious spirits, who +had the address to guide the passions and fanaticism of their followers, +and were enabled through them to control the real sentiments of the nation. +Even of the commissioners appointed to sit in judgment on the king, +scarcely one-half could be induced to attend at his trial; and many of +those who concurred in his condemnation subscribed the sentence with +feelings of shame and remorse. But so it always happens in revolutions: the +most violent put themselves forward; their vigilance and activity seem to +multiply their number; and the daring of the few wins the ascendancy over +the indolence or the pusillanimity of the many. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +THE COMMONWEALTH. + +Establishment Of The Commonwealth--Punishment Of The Royalists--Mutiny And +Suppression Of The Levellers--Charles Ii Proclaimed In Scotland--Ascendancy +Of His Adherents In Ireland--Their Defeat At Rathmines--Success Of Cromwell +In Ireland--Defeat Of Montrose, And Landing Of Charles In Scotland-Cromwell +Is Sent Against Him--He Gains A Victory At Dunbar--The King Marches Into +England--Loses The Battle Of Worcester--His Subsequent Adventures And +Escape. + + +When the two houses first placed themselves in opposition to the sovereign, +their demands were limited to the redress of existing grievances; now that +the struggle was over, the triumphant party refused to be content with +anything less than the abolition of the old, and the establishment of a new +and more popular form of government. Some, indeed, still ventured to raise +their voices in favour of monarchy, on the plea that it was an institution +the most congenial to the habits and feelings of Englishmen. By these +it was proposed that the two elder sons of Charles should be passed by, +because their notions were already formed, and their resentments already +kindled; that the young duke of Gloucester, or his sister Elizabeth, should +be placed on the throne; and that, under the infant sovereign, the royal +prerogative should be circumscribed by law, so as to secure from future +encroachment the just liberties of the people. But the majority warmly +contended for the establishment of a commonwealth. Why, they asked, should +they spontaneously set up again the idol which it had cost them so much +blood and treasure to pull down? Laws would prove but feeble restraints on +the passions of a proud and powerful monarch. If they sought an insuperable +barrier to the restoration of despotism, it could be found only in some of +those institutions which lodge the supreme power with the representatives +of the people. That they spoke their real sentiments is not improbable, +though we are assured, by one who was present at their meetings, that +personal interest had no small influence in their final determination. They +had sinned too deeply against royalty to trust themselves to the mercy, or +the moderation, of a king. A republic was their choice, because it promised +to shelter them from the vengeance of their enemies, and offered to them +the additional advantage of sharing among themselves all the power, the +patronage, and the emoluments of office.[1] + +In accordance with this decision, the moment the head of the royal victim +fell[a] on the scaffold at Whitehall, a proclamation was read in Cheapside, +declaring it treason to give to any person the title of king without the +authority of parliament; and at the same time was published the vote of the +4th of January, that the supreme authority in the nation resided in the +representatives of the people. The peers, though aware of their approaching +fate, continued to sit; but, after a pause of a few days, the Commons +resolved: first,[b] that the House of Lords, and, next,[c] that the office +of king, ought to be abolished. These votes, though the acts + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 391.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Jan. 30.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. Feb. 6.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1649. Feb. 7.] + +to be ingrafted on them were postponed, proved sufficient; from that hour +the kingship (the word by which the royal dignity was now designated), +with the legislative and judicial authority of the peers, was considered +extinct, and the lower house, under the name of the parliament of England, +concentrated within itself all the powers of government.[1] + +The next measure was the appointment, by the Commons, of a council of +state, to consist of forty-one members, with powers limited in duration +to twelve months. They were charged[a] with the preservation of domestic +tranquillity, the care and disposal of the military and naval force, the +superintendence of internal and external trade, and the negotiation of +treaties with foreign powers. Of the persons selected[b] for this office, +three-fourths possessed seats in the house; and they reckoned among them +the heads of the law, the chief officers in the army, and five peers, the +earls of Denbigh, Mulgrave, Pembroke, and Salisbury, with the Lord Grey +of Werke, who condescended to accept the appointment, either through +attachment to the cause, or as a compensation for the loss of their +hereditary rights.[2] But at the very outset a schism appeared among the +new counsellors. The oath required of them by the parliament contained +an approval of the king's trial, of the vote against the Scots and their +English associates, and of the abolition of monarchy and of the House of +Lords. By Cromwell and + +[Footnote 1: Journals, 1649, Jan. 30, Feb. 6, 7. Cromwell voted in favour +of the House of Lords.--Ludlow, i. 246. Could he be sincere? I think not.] + +[Footnote 2: The earl of Pembroke had the meanness to solicit and accept +the place of representative for Berkshire; and his example was imitated by +two other peers, the earl of Salisbury and Lord Howard of Escrick, who sat +for Lynn and Carlisle.--Journals, April 16, May 5 Sept. 18. Leicester's +Journal, 72.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Feb. 13.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. Feb. 14.] + +eighteen others, it was taken cheerfully, and without comment; by the +remaining twenty-two, with Fairfax at their head, it was firmly but +respectfully refused.[a] The peers alleged that it stood not with their +honour to approve upon oath of that which had been done in opposition to +their vote; the commoners, that it was not for them to pronounce an opinion +on judicial proceedings of which they had no official information. But +their doubts respecting transactions that were past formed no objection +to the authority of the existing government. The House of Commons was +in actual possession of the supreme power. From that house they derived +protection, to it they owed obedience, and with it they were ready to +live and die. Cromwell and his friends had the wisdom to yield; the +retrospective clauses were expunged,[b] and in their place was substituted +a general promise of adhesion to the parliament, both with respect to the +existing form of public liberty, and the future government of the nation, +"by way of a republic without king or house of peers."[1] + +This important revolution drew with it several other alterations. A +representation of the House of Commons superseded the royal effigy on the +great seal, which was intrusted to three lords-commissioners, Lysle, Keble, +and Whitelock; the writs no longer ran in the name of the king, but of +"the keepers of the liberty of England by authority of parliament;" new +commissions were issued to the judges, sheriffs, and magistrates; and in +lieu of the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, was required an engagement +to be true to the commonwealth of England. Of the + +[Footnote 1: Journals, Feb. 7, 13, 14, 15, 19, 22. Whitelock, 378, 382, +383. The amended oath is in Walker, part ii. 130.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Feb. 17.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. Feb. 22.] + +judges, six resigned; the other six consented to retain their situations, +if parliament would issue a proclamation declaratory of its intention to +maintain the fundamental laws of the kingdom. The condition was accepted +and fulfilled;[1] the courts proceeded to hear and determine causes after +the ancient manner; and the great body of the people scarcely felt the +important change which had been made in the government of the country. For +several years past the supreme authority had been administered in the name +of the king by the two houses at Westminster, with the aid of the committee +at Derby House; now the same authority was equally administered in the name +of the people by one house only, and with the advice of a council of state. + +The merit or demerit of thus erecting a commonwealth on the ruins of the +monarchy chiefly belongs to Cromwell, Ireton, Bradshaw, and Marten, who by +their superior influence guided and controlled the opinions and passions of +their associates in the senate and the army. After the king's death they +derived much valuable aid from the talents of Vane,[2] Whitelock, and St. +John; and a feeble lustre was shed on their cause by the accession of the +five peers + +[Footnote 1: Journals, Feb. 8. Yet neither this declaration nor the +frequent remonstrances of the lawyers could prevent the house from usurping +the office of the judges, or from inflicting illegal punishments. Thus, +for example, on the report of a committee, detailing the discovery of a +conspiracy to extort money by a false charge of delinquency, the house, +without hearing the accused, or sending them before a court of justice, +proceeded to inflict on some the penalties of the pillory, fine, and +imprisonment, and adjudged Mrs. Samford, as the principal, to be whipped +the next day from Newgate to the Old Exchange, and to be kept to hard +labour for three months.--Journals, 1650, Feb. 2, Aug. 13.] + +[Footnote 2: Immediately after Pride's purge, Vane, disgusted at the +intolerance of his own party, left London, and retired to Raby Castle; he +was now induced to rejoin them, and resumed his seat on Feb. 26.] + +from the abolished House of Lords. But, after all, what right could this +handful of men have to impose a new constitution on the kingdom? Ought they +not, in consistency with their own principles, to have ascertained the +sense of the nation by calling a new parliament? The question was raised, +but the leaders, aware that their power was based on the sword of the +military, shrunk from the experiment; and, to elude the demands of their +opponents, appointed a committee to regulate the succession of parliaments +and the election of members; a committee, which repeatedly met and +deliberated, but never brought the question to any definitive conclusion. +Still, when the new authorities looked around the house, and observed the +empty benches, they were admonished of their own insignificance, and of the +hollowness of their pretensions. They claimed the sovereign authority, +as the representatives of the people; but the majority of those +representatives had been excluded by successive acts of military violence; +and the house had been reduced from more than five hundred members, to +less than one-seventh of that number. For the credit and security of the +government it was necessary both to supply the deficiency, and, at the same +time, to oppose a bar to the introduction of men of opposite principles. +With this view, they resolved[a] to continue the exclusion of those who had +on the 5th of December assented to the vote, that the king's "concessions +were a sufficient ground to proceed to a settlement;" but to open the house +to all others who should previously enter on the journals their dissent +from that resolution.[1] By this expedient, and by occasional writs for +elections in those places where + +[Footnote 1: Journ. Feb. 1. Walker, part ii. 115. Whitelock, 376.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Feb. 1.] + +the influence of the party was irresistible, the number of members +gradually rose to one hundred and fifty, though it was seldom that the +attendance of one-half, or even of one-third, could be procured. + +During the war, the dread of retaliation had taught the two parties to +temper with moderation the license of victory. Little blood had been +shed except in the field of battle. But now that check was removed. The +fanatics, not satisfied with the death of the king, demanded, with the +Bible in their hands, additional victims; and the politicians deemed it +prudent by the display of punishment to restrain the machinations of their +enemies. Among the royalists in custody were the duke of Hamilton (who was +also earl of Cambridge in England), the earl of Holland, Goring, earl of +Norwich, the Lord Capel, and Sir John Owen, all engaged in the last attempt +for the restoration of Charles to the throne. By a resolution of the House +of Commons in November, Hamilton had been adjudged to pay a fine of +one hundred thousand pounds, and the other four to remain in perpetual +imprisonment; but after the triumph of the Independents, this vote had been +rescinded,[a] and a high court of justice was now established to try the +same persons on a charge of high treason. It was in vain that Hamilton +pleaded[b] the order of the Scottish parliament under which he had acted; +that Capel demanded to be brought before his peers, or a jury of his +countrymen, according to those fundamental laws which the parliament had +promised to maintain; that all invoked the national faith in favour of that +quarter which they had obtained at the time of their surrender. Bradshaw, +the president, delivered the opinions of the court. To Hamilton, he +replied, + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Feb. 1.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. Feb. 10.] + +that, as an English earl, he was amenable to the justice of the country; to +Capel, that the court had been established by the parliament, the supreme +authority to which all must submit; to each, that quarter given on the +field of battle insured protection from the sword of the conqueror, but not +from the vengeance of the law. All five were condemned[a] to lose their +heads; but the rigour of the judgment was softened[b] by a reference to +the mercy of parliament. The next day the wives of Holland and Capel, +accompanied by a long train of females in mourning, appeared at the bar, to +solicit the pardon of the condemned. Though their petitions were rejected, +a respite for two days was granted. This favour awakened new hopes; +recourse was had to flattery and entreaty; bribes were offered and +accepted; and the following morning[c] new petitions were presented. The +fate of Holland occupied a debate of considerable interest. Among the +Independents he had many personal friends, and the Presbyterians exerted +all their influence in his favour. But the saints expatiated on his +repeated apostasy from the cause; and, after a sharp contest, Cromwell and +Ireton obtained a majority of a single voice for his death. The case of +Goring was next considered. No man during the war had treated his opponents +with more bitter contumely, no one had inflicted on them deeper injuries; +and yet, on an equal division, his life was saved by the casting voice +of the speaker. The sentences of Hamilton and Capel were affirmed by the +unanimous vote of the house; but, to the surprise of all men, Owen, a +stranger, without friends or interest, had the good fortune to escape. His +forlorn condition moved the pity of Colonel Hutchinson; the efforts of +Hutchinson + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. March 6.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. March 7.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1649. March 8.] + +were seconded by Ireton; and so powerful was their united influence, that +they obtained a majority of five in his favour. Hamilton, Holland, and +Capel died[a] on the scaffold, the first martyrs of loyalty after the +establishment of the commonwealth.[1] + +But, though the avowed enemies of the cause crouched before their +conquerors, there was much in the internal state of the country to awaken +apprehension in the breasts of Cromwell and his friends. There could be no +doubt that the ancient royalists longed for the opportunity of avenging the +blood of the king; or that the new royalists, the Presbyterians, who sought +to re-establish the throne on the conditions stipulated by the treaty in +the Isle of Wight, bore with impatience the superiority of their rivals. +Throughout the kingdom the lower classes loudly complained of the burthen +of taxation; in several parts they suffered under the pressure of penury +and famine. In Lancashire and Westmoreland numbers perished through want; +and it was certified by the magistrates of Cumberland that thirty thousand +families in that county "had neither seed nor bread corn, nor the means of +procuring either."[2] But that which chiefly created alarm was the progress +made among the military by the "Levellers," men of consistent principles +and uncompromising conduct under the guidance of Colonel John Lilburne, an +officer distinguished by his talents, his eloquence, and + +[Footnote 1: If the reader compares the detailed narrative of these +proceedings by Clarendon (iii. 265-270), with the official account in the +Journals (March 7, 8), he will be surprised at the numerous inaccuracies +of the historian. See also the State Trials; England's Bloody Tribunal; +Whitelock, 386; Burnet's Hamiltons, 385; Leicester's Journal, 70; Ludlow, +i. 247; and Hutchinson, 310.] + +[Footnote 2: Whitelock, 398, 399.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Mar. 9.] + +his courage.[1] Lilburne, with his friends, had long cherished a +suspicion that Cromwell, Ireton, and Harrison sought only their private +aggrandizement under the mantle of patriotism; and the recent changes had +converted this suspicion into conviction. They observed that the same +men ruled without control in the general council of officers, in the +parliament, and in the council of state. They contended that every question +was first debated and settled in the council of officers, and that, if +their determination was afterwards adopted by the house, it was only +that it might go forth to the public under the pretended sanction of the +representatives of the nation; that the council of state had been vested +with powers more absolute and oppressive than had ever been exercised by +the late king; and that the High Court of Justice had been established by +the party for the purpose of depriving their victims of those remedies +which would be afforded by the ordinary courts of law. In some of their +publications they went further. They maintained that the council of state +was employed as an experiment on the patience of the nation; that it was +intended to pass from the tyranny of a few to the tyranny of one; and +that Oliver Cromwell was the man who aspired to that high but dangerous +pre-eminence.[2] + +A plan of the intended constitution, entitled "the + +[Footnote 1: Lilburne in his youth had been a partisan of Bastwick, and had +printed one of his tracts in Holland. Before the Star-chamber he refused +to take the oath _ex officio_, or to answer interrogatories, and in +consequence was condemned to stand in the pillory, was whipped from the +Fleet-prison to Westminster, receiving five hundred lashes with knotted +cords, and was imprisoned with double irons on his hands and legs. Three +years later (1641), the House of Commons voted the punishment illegal, +bloody, barbarous, and tyrannical.--Burton's Diary, iii. 503, note.] + +[Footnote 2: See England's New Chains Discovered, and the Hunting of the +Foxes, passim; the King's Pamphlets, No. 411, xxi.; 414, xii. xvi.] + +agreement of the people," had been sanctioned by the council of officers, +and presented[a] by Fairfax to the House of Commons, that it might be +transmitted to the several counties, and there receive the approbation of +the inhabitants. As a sop to shut the mouth of Cerberus, the sum of three +thousand pounds, to be raised from the estates of delinquents in the county +of Durham, had been voted[b] to Lilburne; but the moment he returned from +the north, he appeared at the bar of the house, and petitioned against "the +agreement," objecting in particular to one of the provisions by which the +parliament was to sit but six months, every two years, and the government +of the nation during the other eighteen months was to be intrusted to the +council of state. His example was quickly followed; and the table was +covered with a succession of petitions from officers and soldiers, and "the +well-affected" in different counties, who demanded that a new parliament +should be holden every year; that during the intervals the supreme power +should be exercised by a committee of the house; that no member of the last +should sit in the succeeding parliament; that the self-denying ordinance +should be enforced; that no officer should retain his command in the army +for more than a certain period; that the High Court of Justice should be +abolished as contrary to law, and the council of state, as likely to become +an engine of tyranny; that the proceedings in the courts should be in the +English language, the number of lawyers diminished, and their fees reduced; +that the excise and customs should be taken away, and the lands of +delinquents sold for compensation to the well-affected; that religion +should be "reformed according to the mind of God;" that no one should be +molested or incapacitated + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Jan. 20.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. Feb. 26.] + +on account of conscience; that tithes should be abolished; and that the +income of each minister should be fixed at one hundred pounds per annum, to +be raised by a rate on his parishioners.[1] + +Aware of the necessity of crushing the spirit of opposition in the +military, general orders were issued[a] by Fairfax, prohibiting private +meetings of officers or soldiers "to the disturbance of the army;" and on +the receipt[b] of a letter of remonstrance from several regiments, four +of the five troopers by whom it was signed were condemned[c] by a +court-martial to ride the wooden horse with their faces to the tail, to +have their swords broken over their heads, and to be afterwards cashiered. +Lilburne, on the other hand, laboured to inflame the general discontent by +a succession of pamphlets, entitled, "England's New Chains Discovered," +"The Hunting of the Foxes from Newmarket and Triploe Heath to Whitehall by +five small Beagles" (in allusion to the five troopers), and the second part +of "England's New Chains." The last he read[d] to a numerous assembly +at Winchester House; by the parliament it was voted[e] a seditious and +traitorous libel, and the author, with his associates, Walwyn, Prince, and +Overton; was committed,[f] by order of the council, to close custody in the +Tower.[2] + +It had been determined to send to Ireland a division of twelve thousand +men; and the regiments to be employed were selected by ballot, apparently +in the fairest manner. The men, however, avowed a resolution not to march. +It was not, they said, that they + +[Footnote 1: Walker, 133. Whitelock, 388, 393, 396, 398, 399. Carte, +Letters, i. 229.] + +[Footnote 2: Whitelock, 385, 386, 392. Council Book in the State-paper +Office, March 27, No. 17; March 29, No. 27. Carte, Letters, i. 273, 276.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Feb. 22.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. March 1.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1649. March 3.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1649. March 25.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1649. March 27.] +[Sidenote f: A.D. 1649. March 29.] + +refused the service; but they believed the expedition to be a mere artifice +to send the discontented out of the kingdom; and they asserted that by +their engagement on Triploe Heath they could not conscientiously move a +step till the liberties of the nation were settled on a permanent basis. +The first act of mutiny occurred in Bishopsgate. A troop of horse refused +to obey their colonel; and, instead of marching out of the city, took +possession of the colours. Of these, five were condemned to be shot; but +one only, by name Lockyer, suffered. At his burial a thousand men, in +files, preceded the corpse, which was adorned with bunches of rosemary +dipped in blood; on each side rode three trumpeters, and behind was led the +trooper's horse, covered with mourning; some thousands of men and women +followed with black and green ribbons on their heads and breasts, and were +received at the grave by a numerous crowd of the inhabitants of London and +Westminster. This extraordinary funeral convinced the leaders how widely +the discontent was spread, and urged them to the immediate adoption of the +most decisive measures.[1] + +The regiments of Scrope, Ireton, Harrison, Ingoldsby, Skippon, Reynolds, +and Horton, though quartered in different places, had already[a] elected +their agents, and published their resolution to adhere to each other, when +the house commissioned Fairfax to reduce the mutineers, ordered Skippon to +secure the capital from surprise, and declared it treason for soldiers to +conspire the death of the general or lieutenant-general, or for any person +to endeavour to alter the government, or to affirm that the parliament or +council of state was either tyrannical or unlawful.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Walker, 161. Whitelock, 399.] + +[Footnote 2: Journals, May 1, 14. Whitelock, 399.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. May 7.] + + +At Banbury, in Oxfordshire, a Captain Thompson, at the head of two hundred +men, published a manifesto, entitled "England's Standard Advanced," +in which he declared that, if Lilburne, or his fellow-prisoners, were +ill-treated, their sufferings should he avenged seventy times seven-fold +upon their persecutors. His object was to unite some of the discontented +regiments; but Colonel Reynolds surprised him at Banbury, and prevailed +on his followers to surrender without loss of blood.[1] Another party, +consisting of ten troops of horse, and more than a thousand strong, +proceeded from Salisbury to Burford, augmenting their numbers as they +advanced. Fairfax and Cromwell, after a march of more than forty miles +during the day, arrived soon afterwards,[a] and ordered their followers to +take refreshment. White had been sent to the insurgents with an offer of +pardon on their submission; whether he meant to deceive them or not, is +uncertain; he represented the pause on the part of the general as time +allowed them to consult and frame their demands; and at the hour of +midnight, while they slept in security, Cromwell forced his way into the +town, with two thousand men, at one entrance, while Colonel Reynolds, +with a strong body, opposed their exit by the other. Four hundred of the +mutineers were made prisoners, and the arms and horses of double that +number were taken. One cornet and two corporals suffered death; the others, +after a short imprisonment, were restored to their former regiments.[2] + +This decisive advantage disconcerted all the plans of the mutineers. Some +partial risings in the + +[Footnote 1: Walker, ii. 168. Whitelock, 401.] + +[Footnote 2: King's Pamphlets, No. 421, xxii.; 422, i. Whitelock, 402.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. May 14.] + +counties of Hants, Devon, and Somerset were quickly suppressed; and +Thompson, who had escaped[a] from Banbury and retired to Wellingborough, +being deserted by his followers, refused quarter, and fell[b] fighting +singly against a host of enemies.[1] To express the national gratitude +for this signal deliverance, a day of thanksgiving was appointed; the +parliament, the council of State, and the council of the army assembled[c] +at Christ-church; and, after the religious service of the day, consisting +of two long sermons and appropriate prayers, proceeded to Grocer's Hall, +where they dined by invitation from the city. The speaker Lenthall, the +organ of the supreme authority, like former kings, received the sword of +state from the mayor, and delivered it to him again. At table, he was +seated at the head, supported on his right hand by the lord general, and on +the left by Bradshaw, the president of the council; thus exhibiting to the +guests the representatives of the three bodies by which the nation was +actually governed. At the conclusion of the dinner, the lord mayor +presented one thousand pounds in gold to Fairfax in a basin and ewer of the +same metal, and five hundred pounds, with a complete service of plate, to +Cromwell.[2] + +The suppression of the mutiny afforded leisure to the council to direct its +attention to the proceedings in Scotland and Ireland. In the first of these +kingdoms, after the departure of Cromwell, the supreme authority had been +exercised by Argyle and his party, who were supported, and at the same time +controlled, by the paramount influence of the kirk. The forfeiture + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 403.] + +[Footnote 2: Leicester's Journal, 74. Whitelock (406) places the guests in +a different order.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. May 20.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. May 31.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1649. June 7.] + +and excommunication of the "Engagers" left to their opponents the +undisputed superiority in the parliament and all the great offices of the +state. From the part which Argyle had formerly taken in the surrender of +the king, his recent connection with Cromwell, and his hostility to the +engagement, it was generally believed that he had acted in concert with the +English Independents. But he was wary, and subtle, and flexible. At the +approach of danger he could dissemble; and, whenever it suited his views, +could change his measures without changing his object. At the beginning +of January the fate with which Charles was menaced revived the languid +affection of the Scots. A cry of indignation burst from every part of the +country: he was their native king--would they suffer him to be arraigned +as a criminal before a foreign tribunal? By delivering him to his enemies, +they had sullied the fair fame of the nation--would they confirm this +disgrace by tamely acquiescing in his death? Argyle deemed it prudent to +go with the current of national feeling;[1] he suffered a committee to +be appointed in parliament, and the commissioners in London received +instructions to protest against the trial and condemnation of the king. But +these instructions disclose the timid fluctuating policy of the man by whom +they were dictated. It is vain to look in them for those warm and generous +sentiments which the case demanded. They are framed with hesitation and +caution; they betray a + +[Footnote 1: Wariston had proposed (and Argyle had seconded him) to +postpone the motion for interference in the King's behalf till the Lord had +been sought by a solemn fast, but "Argyle, after he saw that it was carried +by wottes in his contrarey, changed his first opinione with a +faire appologey, and willed them then presently to enter on the +business."--Balfour, iii. 386.] + +consciousness of weakness, a fear of provoking enmity, and an attention to +private interest; and they show that the protestors, if they really sought +to save the life of the monarch, were yet more anxious to avoid every act +or word which might give offence to his adversaries.[1] + +The commissioners delivered the paper, and the Scottish parliament, instead +of an answer, received the news of the king's execution. The next day the +chancellor, attended by the members, proceeded to the cross in Edinburgh, +and proclaimed Charles, the son of the deceased prince, king of Scotland, +England, France, and Ireland.[a] But to this proclamation was appended a +provision, that the young prince, before he could enter on the exercise of +the royal authority, should satisfy the parliament of his adhesion both to +the national covenant of Scotland, and to the solemn league and covenant +between the two kingdoms.[2] + +At length, three weeks after the death of the king, whose life it was +intended to save, the English parliament condescended to answer the +protestation of the Scots, but in a tone of contemptuous indifference, both +as to the justice of their claim and the consequences of their anger.[b] +Scotland, it was replied, might perhaps have no right to bring her +sovereign to a public trial, but that circumstance could not affect the +right of England. As the English parliament did not intend to trench on the +liberties of others, it would not permit others to trench upon its own. The +recollection of the evils inflicted on the nation by the misconduct of the +king, and the consciousness that they + +[Footnote 1: See the instructions in Balfour, iii. 383; and Clarendon, iii. +280.] + +[Footnote 2: Balfour, iii. 387. Clarendon, iii. 284.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Feb. 3.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. Feb. 17.] + +had deserved the anger of God by their neglect to punish his offences, had +induced them to bring him to justice, a course which they doubted not God +had already approved, and would subsequently reward by the establishment of +their liberties. The Scots had now the option of being freemen or slaves; +the aid of England was offered for the vindication of their rights; if it +were refused, let them beware how they entailed on themselves and their +posterity the miseries of continual war with their nearest neighbour, and +of slavery under the issue of a tyrant.[1] + +The Scottish commissioners, in reply,[a] hinted that the present was not +a full parliament; objected to any alteration in the government by king, +lords, and commons; desired that no impediment should be opposed to the +lawful succession of Charles II.; and ended by protesting that, if such +things were done, the Scots were free before God and man from the guilt, +the blood, the calamities, which it might cost the two kingdoms. Having +delivered this paper, they hastened to Gravesend. Their object was to +proceed to the United Provinces, and offer the Scottish crown on certain +conditions to the young king. But the English leaders resolved to interrupt +their mission. The answer which they had given was voted[b] a scandalous +libel, framed for the purpose of exciting sedition; the commissioners were +apprehended[c] at Gravesend as national offenders, and Captain Dolphin +received orders to conduct them under a guard to the frontiers of +Scotland.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Journals, Feb. 17, 20. Clarendon, iii. 282.] + +[Footnote 2: Journals, Feb. 26, 28. Whitelock, 384. Balfour, iii. 388, +389. Carte, Letters, i. 233. Dolphin received a secret instruction not to +dismiss Sir John Chiesley, but to keep him as a hostage, till he knew that +Mr. Rowe, the English agent in Edinburgh, was not detained.--Council Book, +March 2.] + + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Feb. 24.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. Feb. 26.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1649. March 2.] + + +This insult, which, though keenly felt, was tamely borne, might retard, it +could not prevent, the purposes of the Scottish parliament. The earl of +Cassilis, with four new commissioners, was appointed[a] to proceed to +Holland, where Charles, under the protection of his brother-in-law, the +prince of Orange, had resided since the death of his father.[1] His court +consisted at first of the few individuals whom that monarch had placed +around him, and whom he now swore of his privy council. It was soon +augmented by the earl of Lanark, who, on the death of his brother, became +duke of Hamilton, the earl of Lauderdale, and the earl of Callendar, +the chiefs of the Scottish Engagers; these were followed by the ancient +Scottish royalists, Montrose, Kinnoul, and Seaforth, and in a few days +appeared Cassilis, with his colleagues, and three deputies from the church +of Scotland, who brought with them news not likely to insure them a +gracious reception, that the parliament, at the petition of the kirk, had +sent to the scaffold[b] the old marquess of Huntley, forfaulted for his +adhesion to the royal cause in the year 1645. All professed to have in view +the same object--the restoration of the young king; but all were divided +and alienated from each other by civil and religious bigotry. By the +commissioners, the Engagers, and by both, Montrose and his friends, were +shunned as traitors to their country, and sinners excommunicated by the +kirk. Charles was perplexed by the conflicting opinions of these several +advisers. Both the commissioners and Engagers, hostile as they were to each + +[Footnote 1: Whatever may have been the policy of Argyle, he most certainly +promoted this mission, and "overswayed the opposition to it by his reason, +authority, and diligence,"--Baillie, ii. 353.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. March 17.] +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. March 26.] + +other, represented his taking of the covenant as an essential condition; +while Montrose and his English counsellors contended that it would +exasperate the Independents, offend the friends of episcopacy, and cut off +all hope of aid from the Catholics, who could not be expected to hazard +their lives in support of a prince sworn to extirpate their religion.[1] + +While the question was yet in debate, an event happened to hasten the +departure of Charles from the Hague. Dr. Dorislaus, a native of Holland, +but formerly a professor of Gresham College, and recently employed to draw +the charge against the king, arrived as envoy from the parliament to the +States.[a] That very evening, while he sat at supper in the inn, six +gentlemen with drawn swords entered the room, dragged him from his chair, +and murdered him on the floor.[2] Though the assassins were suffered to +escape, it was soon known that they were Scotsmen, most of them followers +of Montrose; and Charles, anticipating the demand of justice from the +English parliament, gave his final answer to the commissioners, that he +was, and always had been, ready to provide for the security of their +religion, the union between the kingdoms, and the internal peace and +prosperity of Scotland; but that their other demands were irreconcilable +with his conscience, his liberty, and his honour.[b] They + +[Footnote 1: Clar. iii. 287-292. Baillie, ii. 333. Carte, Letters, i. +238-263. In addition to the covenant, the commissioners required the +banishment of Montrose, from which they were induced to recede, and the +limitation of the king's followers to one hundred persons.--Carte, Letters, +i. 264, 265, 266, 268, 271.] + +[Footnote 2: Clarendon, iii. 293. Whitelock, 401. Journals, May 10. The +parliament settled two hundred pounds per annum on the son, and gave five +hundred pounds to each of the daughters of Dorislaus.--Ib. May 16. Two +hundred and fifty pounds was given towards his funeral.--Council Book, May +11.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. May 3.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. May 19.] + +acknowledged that he was their king; it was, therefore, their duty to obey, +maintain, and defend him; and the performance of this duty he should expect +from the committee of estates, the assembly of the kirk, and the whole +nation of Scotland. They departed with this unsatisfactory answer; and +Charles, leaving the United Provinces, hastened to St. Germain in France, +to visit the queen his mother, with the intention of repairing, after a +short stay, to the army of the royalists in Ireland.[1] + +That the reader may understand the state of Ireland, he must look back to +the period when the despair or patriotism of Ormond surrendered to the +parliament the capital of that kingdom.[a] The nuncio, Rinuccini, had then +seated himself in the chair of the president of the supreme council at +Kilkenny; but his administration was soon marked by disasters, which +enabled his rivals to undermine and subvert his authority.[b] The Catholic +army of Leinster, under Preston, was defeated on Dungan Hill by Jones, +the governor of Dublin, and that of Munster, under the Viscount Taafe, at +Clontarf, by the Lord Inchiquin.[2][c] To Rinuccini + +[Footnote 1: Balfour, iii. 405; and the Proceedings of the Commissioners +of the Church and Kingdoms of Scotland with his Majestie at the Hague. +Edinburgh, printed by Evan Tyler, 1649.] + +[Footnote 2: Rushworth, 833, 916. In the battle of Dungan Hill, at the +first charge the Commander of the Irish cavalry was slain: his men +immediately fled; the infantry repelled several charges, and retired into +a bog, where they offered to capitulate. Colonel Flower said he had no +authority to grant quarter, but at the same time ordered his men to +stand to their arms, and preserved the lives of the earl of Westmeath, +Lieutenant-General Bryne, and several officers and soldiers who repaired +to his colours. "In the mean time the Scotch colonel Tichburn, and Colonel +Moor, of Bankhall's regiments, without mercy put the rest to the sword." +They amounted to between three and four thousand men.--Belling's History of +the late Warre in Ireland, MS. ii. 95. I mention this instance to show +that Cromwell did not introduce the practice of massacre. He followed his +predecessors, whose avowed object it was to exterminate the natives.]] + + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. July.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. August 2.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1649. Nov. 13.] + +himself these misfortunes appeared as benefits, for he distrusted Preston +and Taafe on account of their attachment to Ormond; and their depression +served to exalt his friend and protector, Owen Roe O'Neil, the leader of +the men of Ulster. But from such beginnings the nation at large anticipated +a succession of similar calamities; his adversaries obtained a majority in +the general assembly; and the nuncio, after a declaration that he advanced +no claim to temporal authority, prudently avoided a forced abdication, +by offering to resign his office.[a] A new council, consisting, in equal +number, of men chosen out of the two parties, was appointed; and the +marquess of Antrim, the Lord Muskerry, and Geoffrey Brown, were despatched +to the queen mother, and her son Charles, to solicit assistance in money +and arms, and to request that the prince would either come and reside in +Ireland, or appoint a Catholic lieutenant in his place.[b] Antrim hoped to +obtain this high office for himself; but his colleagues were instructed +to oppose his pretensions and to acquiesce in the re-appointment of the +marquess of Ormond.[1] + +During the absence of these envoys, the Lord Inchiquin unexpectedly +declared, with his army, in favour of the king against the parliament, and +instantly proposed an armistice to the confederate Catholics, as friends to +the royal cause. By some the overture was indignantly rejected. Inchiquin, +they said, had been their most bitter enemy; he had made it his delight +to shed the blood of Irishmen, and to pollute and destroy their altars. +Besides, what pledge could be + +[Footnote 1: Philopater Irenaeus, 50-60. Castlehaven, Memoirs, 83.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. Jan. 4] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1648. Feb. 27] + +given for the fidelity of a man who, by repeatedly changing sides, had +already shown that he would always accommodate his conscience to his +interest? It were better to march against him now that he was without +allies; and, when he should be subdued, Jones with the parliamentary +army would necessarily fall. To this reasoning it was replied, that the +expedition would require time and money; that provision for the free +exercise of religion might be made in the articles; and that, at a moment +when the Catholics solicited a reconciliation with the king, they could not +in honour destroy those who drew the sword in his favour. In defiance of +the remonstrances made by Rinuccini and eight of the bishops, the treaty +proceeded;[a] and the nuncio believing, or pretending to believe, that he +was a prisoner in Kilkenny, escaped in the night over the wall of the city, +and was received at Maryborough with open arms by his friend O'Neil.[b] The +council of the Catholics agreed to the armistice, and sought by repeated +messages to remove the objections of the nuncio.[c] But zeal or resentment +urged him to exceed his powers.[d] He condemned the treaty, excommunicated +its abettors, and placed under an interdict the towns in which it should be +admitted. But his spiritual weapons were of little avail. The council, +with fourteen bishops, appealed from his censures; the forces under Taafe, +Clanricard, and Preston, sent back his messengers;[e] and, on the departure +of O'Neil, he repaired to the town of Galway, where he was sure of the +support of the people, though in opposition to the sense of the mayor and +the merchants. As a last effort, he summoned a national synod at Galway;[f] +but the council protested against it; Clanricard surrounded the town with +his army; and + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. April 27.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1648. May 9.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1648. May 22.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1648. May 27.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1648. May 31.] +[Sidenote f: A.D. 1648. Sept. 1.] + +the inhabitants, opening the gates, made their submission.[1] + +War was now openly declared between the two parties. On the one hand, Jones +in Dublin, and Monk in Ulster, concluded truces with O'Neil, that he +might be in a better condition to oppose the common enemy; on the other, +Inchiquin joined with Preston to support the authority of the council +against O'Neil. Inroads were reciprocally made; towns were taken and +retaken; and large armies were repeatedly brought in face of each other. +The council, however, began to assume a bolder tone:[a] they proclaimed +O'Neil a rebel and traitor; and, on the tardy arrival of Ormond with the +commission of lord-lieutenant, sent to Rinuccini himself an order to quit +the kingdom,[b] with the information that they had accused him to the pope +of certain high crimes and misdemeanors.[2] + +[Footnote 1: See Desiderata Cur. Hib. ii. 511; Carte, ii. 20, 31-36; +Belling, in his MS. History of the late War in Ireland, part iv. 1-40. He +has inserted most of the papers which passed between the parties in this +work. See also Philopater Irenaeus, i. 60, 86; ii. 90, 94; Walsh, History +and Vindication, App. 33-40; Ponce, 90.] + +[Footnote 2: The charge may be seen in Philopater Iren. i. 150-160; +Clarendon, viii. 68. Oxford, 1726. It is evident that the conduct of +Rinuccini in breaking the first peace was not only reprehensible in itself, +but productive of the most calamitous consequences both to the cause of +royalty and the civil and religious interests of the Irish Catholics. The +following is the ground on which he attempts to justify himself. Laying it +down as an undeniable truth that the Irish people had as good a right +to the establishment of their religion in their native country, as the +Covenanters in Scotland, or the Presbyterians in England, he maintains that +it was his duty to make this the great object of his proceedings. When the +peace was concluded, Charles was a prisoner in the hands of the Scots, +who had solemnly sworn to abolish the Catholic religion; and the English +royalists had been subdued by the parliament, which by repeated votes and +declarations had bound itself to extirpate the Irish race, and parcel out +the island among foreign adventurers. Now there was no human probability +that Charles would ever be restored to his throne, but on such conditions +as the parliament and the Scots should prescribe; and that, on their +demand, he would, after some struggle, sacrifice the Irish Catholics, +was plain from what had passed in his different negotiations with the +parliament, from his disavowal of Glamorgan's commission, and from the +obstinacy with which his lieutenant, Ormond, had opposed the claims of the +confederates. Hence he inferred that a peace, which left the establishment +of religion to the subsequent determination of the king, afforded no +security, but, on the contrary, was an abandonment of the cause for which +the Catholics had associated; and that it therefore became him, holding +the situation which he did, to oppose it by every means in his power.--MS. +narrative of Rinuccini's proceedings, written to be delivered to the pope; +and Ponce, 271.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. Sept. 3.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1648. Oct. 19.] + + +But he continued to issue his mandates in defiance of their orders and +threats; nor was it till after the new pacification between Charles and the +confederates had been published, and the execution of the king had fixed +the public opinion on the pernicious result of his counsels,[a] that shame +and apprehension drove him from Ireland to France,[b] whence, after a few +months, he was recalled to Rome. + +The negotiation between Ormond and the Catholics had continued for three +months;[c] in January the danger which threatened the royal person induced +the latter to recede from their claims, and trust to the future gratitude +and honour of their sovereign. They engaged to maintain at their own +expense an army of seventeen thousand five hundred men, to be employed +against the common enemy; and the king, on his part, consented that the +free exercise of the Catholic worship should be permitted; that twelve +commissioners of trust appointed by the assembly should aid the +lord-lieutenant in the internal administration; that the Court of Wards and +several other grievances should be abolished; that a parliament should be +called as soon as the majority of commissioners might deem it expedient, +and in that parliament the persecuting laws on the subject of religion, +with others injurious to the trade and commerce + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Jan. 17.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. Jan. 30.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1649. Feb. 23.] + +of Ireland, should be repealed, and the independence of the Irish on the +English parliament should be established.[1] + +The royal interest was now predominant in Ireland. The fleet under Prince +Rupert rode triumphant off the coast; the parliamentary commanders, Jones +in Dublin, Monk in Belfast, and Coote in Londonderry, were almost confined +within the limits of their respective garrisons; and Inchiquin in Munster, +the Scottish regiments in Ulster, and the great body of the Catholics +adhering to the supreme council, had proclaimed the king, and acknowledged +the authority of his lieutenant. It was during this favourable state of +things that Charles received and accepted the invitation of Ormond;[a] but +his voyage was necessarily delayed through want of money, and his ardour +was repeatedly checked by the artful insinuation of some among his +counsellors, who secretly feared that, if he were once at the head of a +Catholic army, he would listen to the demands of the Catholics for the +establishment of their religion.[2] On the contrary, to the leaders in +London, the danger of losing Ireland became a source of the most perplexing +solicitude. The office of lord lieutenant was offered to Cromwell.[b] He +affected to hesitate; at his request two officers from each corps received +orders to meet him at Whitehall, and seek the Lord in prayer;[c] and, +after a delay of two weeks, he condescended to submit his shoulders to the +burthen, because he had now learned that it was the will of Heaven.[3][d] +Hi demands, + +[Footnote 1: Phil. Iren. i. 166. Walsh, App. 43-64. Whitelock, 391. Charles +approved and promised to observe this peace.--Carte's Letters, ii. 367.] + +[Footnote 2: Carte, Letters, i. 258, 262.] + +[Footnote 3: Journals, March 30. Whitelock, 389, 391, 392.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. March 29.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. March 15.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1649. March 23.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1649. March 29.] + +however, were so numerous, the preparations to be made so extensive, that +it was necessary to have recourse in the interval to other expedients +for the preservation of the forces and places which still admitted the +authority of the parliament. One of these was to allure to the cause of +the Independents the Catholics of the two kingdoms; for which purpose, the +sentiments of Sir Kenelm Digby and Sir John Winter were sounded,[a] and +conferences were held, through the agency of the Spanish ambassador, +with O'Reilly and Quin, two Irish ecclesiastics.[b] It was proposed that +toleration should be granted for the exercise of the Catholic worship, +without any penal disqualifications, and that the Catholics in return +should disclaim the temporal pretensions of the pope, and maintain ten +thousand men for the service of the commonwealth. + +In aid of this project, Digby, Winter, and the Abbé Montague were suffered +to come to England under the pretence of compounding for their estates; and +the celebrated Thomas White, a secular clergyman, published a work entitled +"The Grounds of Obedience and Government," to show that the people may be +released from their obedience to the civil magistrate by his misconduct; +and that, when he is once deposed (whether justly or unjustly makes no +difference), it may be for the common interest to acquiesce in his removal, +rather than attempt his restoration. + +That this doctrine was satisfactory to the men in power, cannot be doubted; +but they had so often reproached the late king with a coalition with the +papists, that they dared not to make the experiment, and after some time, +to blind perhaps the eyes of the people, severe votes were passed against + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. March.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. April.] + +Digby, Montague, and Winter, and orders were given for the apprehension of +priests and Jesuits.[1] + +In Ireland an attempt was made to fortify the parliamentary party with +the friendly aid of O'Neil.[a] That chieftain had received proposals +from Ormond, but his jealousy of the commissioners of trusts, his +former adversaries, provoked him to break off the treaty with the lord +lieutenant,[b] and to send a messenger of his own with a tender of his +services to Charles.[c] Immediately the earl of Castlehaven, by order of +Ormond, attacked and reduced his garrisons of Maryborough and Athy;[d] and +O'Neil, in revenge, listened to the suggestions of Monk, who had retired +before the superior force of the Scottish royalists from Belfast to +Dundalk.[e] A cessation of hostilities was concluded for three months;[f] +and the proposals of the Irish chieftain, modified by Monk, were +transmitted to England for the ratification of parliament. By the +"grandees" it was thought imprudent to submit them to an examination, which +would make them public; but the answer returned satisfied the contracting +parties:[g] Monk supplied O'Neil with ammunition, and O'Neil undertook to +intercept the communication between the Scottish regiments of the north and +the grand army under Ormond in the heart of the kingdom.[2] + +[Footnote 1: On this obscure subject may be consulted Walker, ii. 150; +Carte's Collection of Letters, i. 216, 219, 221, 222, 224, 267, 272, 297; +ii. 363, 364; and the Journals, Aug. 31.] + +[Footnote 2: O'Neil demanded liberty of conscience for himself, his +followers, and their posterity; the undisturbed possession of their lands, +as long as they remained faithful to the parliament; and, in return for his +services, the restoration of his ancestor's estate, or an equivalent. (See +both his draft, and the corrected copy by Monk, in Philop. Iren. i. 191, +and in Walker, ii. 233-238.) His agent, on his arrival in London, was asked +by the grandees why he applied to them, and refused to treat with Ormond. +He replied, because the late king had always made them fair promises; but, +when they had done him service, and he could make better terms with their +enemies, had always been ready to sacrifice them. Why then did not O'Neil +apply to the parliament sooner? Because the men in power then had sworn to +extirpate them; but those in power now professed toleration and liberty +of conscience.--Ludlow, i. 255. The agreement made with him by Monk was +rejected (Aug. 10), because, if we believe Ludlow, the Ulster men had been +the chief actors in the murder of the English, and liberty of religion +would prove dangerous to public peace. But this rejection happened much +later. It is plain that Jones, Monk, Coote, and O'Neil understood that the +agreement would be ratified, though it was delayed.--Walker, ii 198, 231, +245. See King's Pamphlets, 428, 435, 437.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. August 31.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. Feb. 20.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1649. March 16.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1649. March 21.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1649. April 25.] +[Sidenote f: A.D. 1649. May 8.] +[Sidenote g: A.D. 1649. May 22.] + + +Though the parliament had appointed Cromwell lord lieutenant of Ireland, +and vested the supreme authority, both civil and military, in his person +for three years, he was still unwilling to hazard his reputation, and +his prospects in a dangerous expedition without the adequate means of +success.[a] Out of the standing army of forty-five thousand men, with +whose aid England was now governed, he demanded a force of twelve thousand +veterans, with a plentiful supply of provisions and military stores, and +the round sum of one hundred thousand pounds in ready money.[1] On the +day of his departure, his friends assembled at Whitehall; three ministers +solemnly invoked the blessing of God on the arms of his saints; and three +officers, Goff, Harrison and the lord lieutenant himself, expounded the +scriptures "excellently well, and pertinently to the occasion."[b] After +these outpourings of the spirit, Cromwell mounted his carriage, drawn by +six horses. He was accompanied by the great officers of state and of the +army; his life-guard, eighty young men, all of quality, and several holding + +[Footnote 1: Cromwell received three thousand pounds for his outfit, ten +pounds per day as _general_ while he remained in England, and two +thousand pounds per quarter in Ireland, besides his salary as lord +lieutenant.--Council Book, July 12, No, 10.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. June 22.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. July 10.] + +commissions as majors and colonels, delighted the spectators with their +splendid uniforms and gallant bearing; and the streets of the metropolis +resounded, as he drove towards Windsor, with the acclamations of the +populace and the clangour of military music.[1] It had been fixed that +the expedition should sail from Milford Haven; but the impatience of the +general was checked by the reluctance and desertion of his men. The recent +transaction between Monk and O'Neil had diffused a spirit of distrust +through the army. It was pronounced an apostasy from the principles on +which they had fought. The exaggerated horrors of the massacre in 1641 were +recalled to mind; the repeated resolutions of parliament to extirpate the +native Irish, and the solemn engagement of the army to revenge the blood +which had been shed, were warmly discussed; and the invectives of the +leaders against the late king, when he concluded a peace with the +confederate Catholics, were contrasted with their present backsliding, +when they had taken the men of Ulster for their associates and for their +brethren in arms. To appease the growing discontent, parliament annulled +the agreement. Monk, who had returned to England, was publicly assured +that, if he escaped the punishment of his indiscretion, it was on account +of his past services and good intentions. Peters from the pulpit employed +his eloquence to remove the blame from the grandees; and, if we may judge +from the sequel, promises were made, not only that the good cause should be +supported, but that the duty of revenge should be amply discharged.[2] + +While the army was thus detained in the neighbourhood + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 413. Leicester's Journal, 76.] + +[Footnote 2: Walker, ii. 230, 243. Whitelock, 416. Leicester's Journal, +82.] + +of Milford Haven, Jones, in Dublin, reaped the laurels which Cromwell had +destined for himself. The royal army advanced on both banks of the Liffy to +the siege of that capital;[a] and Ormond, from his quarters at Finglass, +ordered certain works to be thrown up at a place called Bogatrath. His +object was to exclude the horse of the garrison from the only pasturage in +their possession; but by some mishap, the working party did not reach the +spot till an hour before sunrise; and Jones, sallying from the walls, +overpowered the guard, and raised an alarm in the camp.[b] The confusion +of the royalists encouraged him to follow up his success. Regiment after +regiment was beaten: it was in vain that Ormond, aroused from his sleep, +flew from post to post; the different corps acted without concert; a +general panic ensued, and the whole army on the right bank fled in every +direction. The artillery, tents, baggage, and ammunition fell into the +hands of the conquerors, with two thousand prisoners, three hundred of whom +were massacred in cold blood at the gate of the city. This was called +the battle of Rathmines, a battle which destroyed the hopes of the Irish +royalists, and taught men to doubt the abilities of Ormond. At court, his +enemies ventured to hint suspicions of treason; but Charles, to silence +their murmurs and assure him of the royal favour, sent him the order of the +garter.[1][c] + +The news of this important victory[d] hastened the + +[Footnote 1: King's Pamphlets, No. 434, xxi. Whitelock, 410, 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, +9. Clarendon, viii. 92, 93. Carte, Letters, ii. 394, 402, 408. Baillie, ii. +346. Ludlow, i. 257, 258. Ormond, before his defeat, confidently predicted +the fall of Dublin (Carte, letters, ii. 383, 389, 391); after it, he +repeatedly asserts that Jones, to magnify his own services, makes the +royalists amount to eighteen, whereas, in reality, they were only eight, +thousand men.--Ibid. 402, 413.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. August 1.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. August 2.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1649. August 13.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1649. August 18.] + +departure of Cromwell. He sailed from Milford with a single division; +his son-in-law, Ireton, followed with the remainder of the army, and a +fortnight was allowed to the soldiers to refresh themselves after their +voyage. The campaign was opened with the siege of Drogheda.[a] Ormond had +thrown into the town a garrison of two thousand five hundred chosen +men, under the command of Sir Arthur Aston, an officer who had earned a +brilliant reputation by his services to the royal cause in England during +the civil war. On the eighth day a sufficient breach had been effected in +the wall:[b] the assailants on the first attempt were driven back with +immense loss. They returned a second, perhaps a third, time to the assault, +and their perseverance was at last crowned with success. But strong works +with ramparts and pallisades had been constructed within the breach, from +which the royalists might have long maintained a sanguinary and perhaps +doubtful conflict. These entrenchments, however, whether the men were +disheartened by a sudden panic, or deceived by offers of quarter--for +both causes have been assigned--the enemy was suffered to occupy without +resistance. Cromwell (at what particular moment is uncertain) gave orders +that no one belonging to the garrison should be spared; and Aston, his +officers and men, having been previously disarmed, were put to the sword. +From thence the conquerors, stimulated by revenge and fanaticism, directed +their fury against the townsmen, and on the next morning one thousand +unresisting victims were immolated together within the walls of the great +church, whither they had fled for protection.[1][c] + +[Footnote 1: See Carte's Ormond, ii. 84; Carte, Letters, iv. 412; Philop. +Iren. i. 120; Whitelock, 428; Ludlow, i. 261; Lynch, Cambrensis Eversos, +in fine; King's Pamph. 441, 447; Ormond in Carte's Letters, ii. 412; and +Cromwell in Carlyle's Letters and Speeches, i. 457.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Sept. 3.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. Sept. 11.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1649. Sept. 12.] + + +From Drogheda the conqueror led his men, flushed with slaughter, to the +seige of Wexford. The mayor and governor offered to capitulate; but whilst +their commissioners were treating with Cromwell, an officer perfidiously +opened the castle to the enemy; the adjacent wall was immediately +scaled;[a] and, after a stubborn but unavailing resistance in the +market-place, Wexford was abandoned to the mercy of the assailants. The +tragedy, so recently acted at Drogheda, was renewed. No distinction was +made between the defenceless inhabitant and the armed soldier; nor could +the shrieks and prayers of three hundred females, who had gathered +round the great cross, preserve them from the swords of these ruthless +barbarians. By Cromwell himself, the number of the slain is reduced to two, +by some writers it has been swelled to five, thousand.[1] + +Ormond, unable to interrupt the bloody career of his adversary, waited with +impatience for the determination of O'Neil. Hitherto that chieftain had +faithfully performed his engagements with the parliamentary commanders. +He had thrown impediments in the way of the royalists; he had compelled +Montgomery to raise the siege of Londonderry, and had rescued Coote and his +small army, the last hope of the parliament in Ulster, from the fate which +seemed to await them. At first the leaders in London had hesitated, now +after the victory of Rathmines they publicly refused, to ratify the +treaties made with him by their officers.[2] Stung + +[Footnote 1: See note (D).] + +[Footnote 2: Council Book, Aug. 6, No. 67, 68, 69, 70. Journals, Aug. 10, +24. Walker, ii. 245-248. King's Pamphlets, No. 435, xi.; 437, xxxiii. The +reader must not confound this Owen Roe O'Neil with another of the same +name, one of the regicides, who claimed a debt of five thousand and +sixty-five pounds seventeen shillings and sixpence of the parliament, +and obtained an order for it to be paid out of the forfeited lands in +Ireland.--Journ. 1653, Sept. 9.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Oct 12.] + +with indignation, O'Neil accepted the offers of Ormond, and marched from +Londonderry to join the royal army; but his progress was retarded by +sickness, and he died at Clocknacter in Cavan. His officers, however, +fulfilled his intentions; the arrival of the men of Ulster revived the +courage of their associates; and the English general was successively +foiled in his attempts upon Duncannon and Waterford. His forces already +began to suffer from the inclemency of the season, when Lord Broghill, who +had lately returned from England, debauched the fidelity of the regiments +under Lord Inchiquin. The garrisons of Cork, Youghal, Bandon, and Kinsale +declared for the parliament, and Cromwell seized the opportunity to close +the campaign and place his followers in winter quarters.[1] + +But inactivity suited not his policy or inclination. After seven weeks of +repose he again summoned them into the field;[a] and at the head of twenty +thousand men, well appointed and disciplined, confidently anticipated the +entire conquest of Ireland. The royalists were destitute of money, arms, +and ammunition; a pestilential disease, introduced with the cargo of a +ship from Spain, ravaged their quarters; in the north, Charlemont alone +acknowledged the royal authority; in Leinster and Munster, almost every +place of importance had been wrested from them by force or perfidy; and +even in Connaught, their last refuge, internal dissension prevented that +union which alone could save them from utter destruction. Their misfortunes +called into + +[Footnote 1: Phil. Iren. i. 231. Carte's Ormond, ii. 102. Desid. Curios. +Hib. ii. 521.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. Jan. 29.] + +action the factions which had lain dormant since the departure of the +nuncio. The recent treachery of Inchiquin's forces had engendered feelings +of jealousy and suspicion; and many contended that it was better to submit +at once to the conqueror than to depend on the doubtful fidelity of the +lord lieutenant. Cromwell met with little resistance: wherever he came, +he held out the promise of life and liberty of conscience;[1] but the +rejection of the offer, though it were afterwards accepted, was punished +with the blood of the officers; and, if the place were taken by force, with +indiscriminate slaughter.[2] Proceeding on this plan, one day granting +quarter, another putting the leaders only to the sword, and on the next +immolating the whole garrison, hundreds of human beings at a time, he +quickly reduced most of the towns and castles in the three counties of +Limerick, Tipperary, and Kilkenny. But this bloody policy at length +recoiled upon its author. Men, with no alternative but victory or death, +learned to fight with the energy of despair. At the siege of Kilkenny the +assailants, though twice repulsed from the breach, were, by the timidity of +some of the inhabitants, + +[Footnote 1: Liberty of conscience he explained to mean liberty of internal +belief, not of external worship.--See his letter in Phil. Iren. i. 270.] + +[Footnote 2: The Irish commanders disdained to imitate the cruelty of their +enemies. "I took," says Lord Castlehaven, "Athy by storm, with all the +garrison (seven hundred men) prisoners. I made a present of them to +Cromwell, desiring him by letter that he would do the like with me, as any +of mine should fall in his power. But he little valued my civility. For, +in a few days after, he besieged Gouvan; and the soldiers mutinying, and +giving up the place with their officers, he caused the governor, Hammond, +and some other officers, to be put to death."--Castlehaven, 107. Ormond +also says, in one of his letters, "the next day Rathfarnham was taken by +storm, and all that were in it made prisoners; and though five hundred +soldiers entered the castle before any officer of note, yet not one +creature was killed; which I tell you by the way, to observe the difference +betwixt our and the rebels making use of a victory."--Carte, Letters, ii. +408.] + +admitted within the walls; yet, so obstinate was the resistance of the +garrison, that, to spare his own men, the general consented to grant them +honourable terms. From Kilkenny he proceeded to the town of Clonmel,[a] +where Hugh, the son of the deceased O'Neil, commanded with one thousand two +hundred of the best troops of Ulster. The duration of the siege exhausted +his patience; the breach was stormed a second time; and, after a conflict +of four hours, the English were driven back with considerable loss.[b] The +garrison, however, had expended their ammunition; they took advantage of +the confusion of the enemy to depart during the darkness of the night; and +the townsmen the next morning, keeping the secret, obtained from Cromwell a +favourable capitulation.[1][c] This was his last exploit in Ireland. From +Clonmel he was recalled to England to undertake a service of greater +importance and difficulty, to which the reader must now direct his +attention. + +The young king, it will be remembered, had left the Hague on his circuitous +route to Ireland, whither he had been called by the advice of Ormond +and the wishes of the royalists.[d] He was detained three months at St. +Germains by the charms of a mistress or the intrigues of his courtiers, nor +did he reach the island of Jersey till long after the disastrous battle +of Rathmines.[e] That event made his further progress a matter of serious +discussion; and the difficulty was increased by the arrival of Wynram of +Libertoun, with addresses from the parliament and the kirk of Scotland.[f] +The first offered, on his acknowledgment of their authority as a +parliament, to treat with him respecting the + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 449, 456. Castlehaven, 108. Ludlow, i. 265. Perfect +Politician, 70.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. March 28.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. May 8.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. May 10.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1649. June.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1649. September.] +[Sidenote f: A.D. 1649. October.] + +conditions proposed by their former commissioners; but the latter, in +language unceremonious and insulting, laid before him the sins of his +youth; his refusal to allow the Son of God to reign over him in the pure +ordinances of church government and worship; his cleaving to counsellors +who never had the glory of God or the good of his people before their eyes; +his admission to his person of that "fugacious man and excommunicate rebel, +James Graham" and, above all, "his giving the royal power and strength to +the beast," by concluding a peace "with the Irish papists, the murderers of +so many Protestants." They bade him remember the iniquities of his father's +house, and be assured that, unless he laid aside the "service-book, so +stuffed with Romish corruptions, for the reformation of doctrine and +worship agreed upon by the divines at Westminster," and approved of the +covenant in his three kingdoms, without which the people could have no +security for their religion or liberty, he would find that the Lord's anger +was not turned away, but that his hand was still stretched against the +royal person and his family.[1] + +This coarse and intemperate lecture was not calculated to make a convert +of a young and spirited prince. Instead of giving an answer, he waited to +ascertain the opinion of Ormond; and at last, though inclination prompted +him to throw himself into the arms of his Irish adherents, he reluctantly +submitted to the authority of that officer, who declared, that the only way +to preserve Ireland was by provoking a war between England and Scotland[2]. +Charles now condescended[a] + +[Footnote 1: Clar. State Papers, iii. App. 89-92. Carte's Letters, i. 323. +Whitelock, 439. The address of the kirk was composed by Mr. Wood, and +disapproved by the more moderate.--Baillie, ii. 339, 345.] + +[Footnote 2: Carte's Letters, i. 333, 340.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. Jan. 11.] + +to give to the convention the title of estates of parliament, appointed +Breda, a small town, the private patrimony of the prince of Orange, for +the place of treaty; and met[a] there the new commissioners, the earls of +Cassilis and Lothian, with two barons, two burgesses, and three ministers. +Their present scarcely differed from their former demands; nor were they +less unpalatable to the king. To consent to them appeared to him an +apostasy from the principles for which his father fought and died; an +abandonment of the Scottish friends of his family to the mercy of his and +their enemies. On the other hand, the prince of Orange importuned him to +acquiesce; many of his counsellors suggested that, if he were once on the +throne, he might soften or subdue the obstinacy of the Scottish parliament; +and his mother, by her letters, exhorted him not to sacrifice to his +feelings this his last resource, the only remaining expedient for the +recovery of his three kingdoms. But the king had still another resource; +he sought delays; his eyes were fixed on the efforts of his friends in the +north of Scotland; and he continued to indulge a hope of being replaced +without conditions on the ancient throne of his ancestors.[1] + +Before the king left St. Germains[b] he had given to Montrose a commission +to raise the royal standard in Scotland. The fame of that nobleman secured +to him a gracious reception from the northern sovereigns; he visited each +court in succession; and in all obtained permission to levy men, and +received aid either in money or in military stores. In autumn he despatched +the first expedition of twelve thousand men from + +[Footnote 1: Carte's Letters, i. 338, 355. Whitelock, 430. Clarendon, iii. +343.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. March 15.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. August.] + +Gottenburg under the Lord Kinnoul; but the winds and waves fought against +the royalists; several sail were lost among the rocks; and, when Kinnoul +landed[a] at Kirkwall in the Orkneys, he could muster only eighty officers +and one hundred common soldiers out of the whole number. But Montrose was +not to be appalled by ordinary difficulties. Having received[b] from the +new king the order of the garter, he followed with five hundred men, mostly +foreigners; added them to the wreck of the first expedition, and to the +new levies, and then found himself at the head of a force of more than one +thousand men. His banners on which was painted a representation of the late +king decapitated, with this motto, "Judge and avenge my cause, O Lord," was +intrusted to young Menzies of Pitfoddels, and a declaration was circulated +through the Highlands, calling upon all true Scotsmen to aid in +establishing their king upon the throne, and in saving him from the +treachery of those, who, if they had him in their power, would sell him as +they had sold his father to English rebels. Having transported[c] his whole +force from Holm Sound to the Northern extremity of Caithness, he traversed +that and the neighbouring county of Sutherland, calling on the natives to +join the standard of their sovereign. But his name had now lost that magic +influence which success had once thrown around it; and the several clans +shunned his approach through fear, or watched his progress as foes. In the +mean time his declaration had been solemnly burnt[d] by the hangman in the +capital; the pulpits had poured out denunciations against the "rebel and +apostate Montrose, the viperous brood of Satan, and the accursed of God and +the kirk;" and a force of four thousand regulars had been collected + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. October.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. Jan. 12.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. March.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1650. Feb. 9.] + +on Brechin Moor under the command of General Leslie, who was careful to cut +off every source of information from the royalists. Montrose had reached[a] +the borders of Ross-shire, when Colonel Strachan, who had been sent forward +to watch his motions, learned[b] in Corbiesdale that the royalists, +unsuspicious of danger, lay at the short distance of only two miles. + +Calling his men around him under the cover of the long broom on the moor, +he prayed, sang a psalm, and declared that he had consulted the Almighty, +and knew as assuredly as there was a God in heaven, that the enemies of +Christ were delivered into their hands. Then dividing his small force of +about four hundred men into several bodies, he showed at first a single +troop of horse, whom the royalists prepared to receive with their cavalry; +but after a short interval, appeared a second, then a third, then a fourth; +and Montrose believing that Leslie's entire army was advancing, ordered +the infantry to take shelter among the brushwood and stunted trees on a +neighbouring eminence. But before this movement could be executed, his +horse were broken, and his whole force lay at the mercy of the enemy. The +standard-bearer with several officers and most of the natives were slain; +the mercenaries made a show of resistance, and obtained quarter; and +Montrose, whose horse had been killed under him, accompanied by Kinnoul, +wandered on foot, without a guide, up the valley of the Kyle, and over the +mountains of Sutherland. Kinnoul, unable to bear the hunger and fatigue, +was left and perished; Montrose, on the third day,[c] obtained refreshment +at the hut of a shepherd; and, being afterwards discovered, claimed the +protection of Macleod of Assynt, who had formerly served under him in the +royal army. But the + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. April 25.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. April 27.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. April 30.] + +fidelity of the laird was not proof against temptation; he sold[a] the +king's lieutenant for four hundred bolls of meal; and Argyle and his +associates, almost frantic with joy, passed an act to regulate the +ignominious treatment to which their captive should be subjected, the +form of the judgment to be pronounced, and the manner of his subsequent +execution. When Montrose reached[b] the capital, he found the magistrates +in their robes waiting to receive him. First the royal officers, +twenty-three in number, were ranged in two files, and ordered to walk +forward manacled and bareheaded; next came the hangman with his bonnet on +his head, dressed in the livery of his office, and mounted on his horse +that drew a vehicle of new form devised for the occasion; and then on this +vehicle was seen Montrose himself, seated on a lofty form, and pinioned, +and uncovered. The procession paraded slowly through the city from the +Watergate to the common jail, whilst the streets resounded with shouts of +triumph, and with every expression of hatred which religious or political +fanaticism could inspire.[1] + +From his enemies Montrose could expect no mercy; but his death was +hastened, that the king might not have time to intercede in his favour. The +following day, a Sunday, was indeed given to prayer; but on the next the +work of vengeance was resumed, and the captive was summoned[c] before +the parliament. His features, pale and haggard, showed the fatigue and +privations which he had endured; but his dress was + +[Footnote 1: Carte's Letters, i. 345. Balfour, iii. 432, 439; iv. 8-13. +Whitelock, 435, 452, 453, 454, 455. Clarendon, iii. 348-353. Laing, iii. +443. The neighbouring clans ravaged the lands of Assynt to revenge the +fate of Montrose, and the parliament granted in return to Macleod twenty +thousand pounds Scots out of the fines to be levied on the royalists in +Caithness and Orkney.--Balf. iv. 52, 56.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. May 17.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. May 18.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. May 20.] + +splendid, his mien fearless, his language calm, firm, and dignified. To the +chancellor, who, in a tone of bitterness and reprobation, enumerated the +offences with which he was charged, he replied, that since the king had +condescended to treat with them as estates, it became not a subject to +dispute their authority; but that the apostasy and rebellion with which +they reproached him were, in his estimation, acts of duty. Whatever he had +done, either in the last or present reign, had been done with the sanction +of the sovereign. If he had formerly taken up arms, it had been to divert +his countrymen from the impious war which they waged against the royal +authority in England; if now, his object was to accelerate the existing +negotiation between them and their new king. As a Christian, he had always +supported that cause which his conscience approved; as a subject, he always +fought in support of his prince; and as a neighbour, he had frequently +preserved the lives of those who had forfeited them against him in battle. +The chancellor, in return, declared him a murderer of his fellow-subjects, +an enemy to the covenant and the peace of the kingdom, and an agitator, +whose ambition had helped to destroy the father, and was now employed for +the destruction of the son. Judgment, which had been passed in parliament +some days before, was then pronounced, by the dempster, that James Graham +should be hanged for the space of three hours on a gibbet thirty feet high, +that his head should be fixed on a spike in Edinburgh, his arms on the +gates of Perth or Stirling, his legs on those of Glasgow and Aberdeen, +and his body be interred by the hangman on the burrowmuir, unless he were +previously released from excommunication by the kirk. During this trying +scene, his enemies eagerly watched his demeanour. Twice, if we may believe +report, he was heard to sigh, and his eyes occasionally wandered along +the cornice of the hall. But he stood before them cool and collected; no +symptom of perturbation marked his countenance, no expression of complaint +or impatience escaped his lips; he showed himself superior to insult, and +unscarred at the menaces of death. + +The same high tone of feeling supported the unfortunate victim to the last +gasp. When the ministers admonished[a] him that his punishment in +this world was but a shadow of that which awaited him in the next, he +indignantly replied, that he gloried in his fate, and only lamented that he +had not limbs sufficient to furnish every city in Christendom with proofs +of his loyalty. On the scaffold, he maintained the uprightness of his +conduct, praised the character of the present king, and appealed from the +censures of the kirk to the justice of Heaven. As a last disgrace, the +executioner hung round his neck his late declaration, with the history of +his former exploits. He smiled at the malice of his enemies, and said that +they had given. him a more brilliant decoration than the garter with which +he had been honoured by his sovereign. Montrose, by his death, won more +proselytes to the royal cause than he had ever made by his victories. He +was in his thirty-eighth year.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Balfour, iv. 13, 15, 16, 19-22. Wishart, 389. Clar. iii. +353-356. Whitelock, 456. Colonel Hurry, whom the reader has seen +successively serving under the king and the parliament in the civil war; +Spotiswood, the grandson of the archbishop of that name; Sir W. Hay, who +had been forefaulted as a Catholic in 1647; Sibbald, the confidential envoy +of Montrose, and several others, were beheaded. Of the common soldiers, +some were given to different lords to be fishermen or miners, and the rest +enrolled in regiments in the French service.--Balfour, iv. 18, 27, 28, 32, +33, 44.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. May 21.] + +Long before this the commissioners from both parties had met at Breda; +and, on the very day of the opening of the conferences, Charles +had despatched[a] an order to Montrose to proceed according to his +instructions, and to bear in mind that the success of the negotiation +at Breda depended on the success of his arms in Scotland. A month +afterwards[b] he commended in strong terms the loyalty of Lord Napier, +and urged him to repair without delay to the aid of his lieutenant. It is +impossible after this to doubt of his approbation of the attempt; but, when +the news arrived of the action at Corbiesdale, his eyes were opened to the +danger which threatened him; the estates, in the insolence of victory, +might pass an act to exclude him at once from the succession to the +Scottish throne. Acting, therefore, after the unworthy precedent set by +his father respecting the powers given to Glamorgan, he wrote[c] to +the parliament, protesting that the invasion made by Montrose had been +expressly forbidden by him, and begging that they "would do him the justice +to believe that he had not been accessory to it in the least degree;" in +confirmation of which the secretary at the same time assured Argyle that +the king felt no regret for the defeat of a man who had presumed to draw +the sword "without and contrary to the royal command." These letters +arrived[d] too late + +[Footnote 1: Carte, iv. 626.] + +[Footnote 2: Napier's Montrose, ii. 528. Yet on May 5th the king signed an +article, stipulating that Montrose should lay down his arms, receiving a +full indemnity for all that was past.--Carte, iv. 630. This article reached +Edinburgh before the execution of Montrose, and was kept secret. I see not, +however, what benefit he could claim from it. He had not laid down arms in +obedience to it; for he had been defeated a week before it was signed.] + +[Footnote 3: Balfour, iv. 24, 25. Yet on May 15th Charles wrote to Montrose +to act according to the article in the last note.--Ibid.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. March 15.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. April 15.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. May 12.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1650. May 25.] + +to be of injury to the unfortunate victim, whose limbs were already +bleaching on the gates of the principal towns in Scotland; but the +falsehood so confidently put forth must cover with infamy the prince who +could thus, to screen himself from the anger of his enemies, calumniate the +most devoted of his followers, one who had so often perilled, and at length +forfeited, his life in defence of the throne. + +Charles had now no resource but to submit with the best grace to the +demands of the Scots. He signed the treaty,[a] binding himself to take +the Scottish covenant and the solemn league and covenant; to disavow +and declare null the peace with the Irish, and never to permit the free +exercise of the Catholic religion in Ireland, or any other part of his +dominions; to acknowledge the authority of all parliaments held since the +commencement of the late war; and to govern, in civil matters, by advice of +the parliament, in religious, by that of the kirk.[1] These preliminaries +being settled,[b] he embarked on board a small squadron furnished by the +prince of Orange, and, after a perilous navigation of three weeks, during +which he had to contend with the stormy weather, and to elude the pursuit +of the parliamentary cruisers, he arrived in safety in the Frith of +Cromartie.[c] The king was received with the honours due to his dignity; a +court with proper officers was prepared for him at Falkland, and the sum +of one hundred thousand pounds Scots, or nine thousand pounds English, was +voted for the monthly expense of his household. But the parliament had +previously[d] passed an act banishing from Scotland several of the royal +favourites by name, and excluding the "engagers" from the verge of the +court, and all employment + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, i. 147.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. May 13.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. June 2.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. June 23.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1650. June 4.] + +in the state. After repeated applications, the duke of Buckingham, the +Lord Wilmot, and a few English servants, who took the covenant, obtained +permission to remain with the king; many of the Scottish exiles embraced +the opportunity to withdraw from notice into the western isles, or the more +distant parts of the country.[1] + +It was the negotiation between the Scots and their nominal king that +arrested Cromwell in the career of victory, and called him away from the +completion of his conquest. The rulers of the commonwealth were aware of +the intimate connection which the solemn league and covenant had produced +between the English Presbyterians and the kirk of Scotland, whence they +naturally inferred that, if the pretender to the English were once +seated on the Scottish throne, their own power would he placed on a very +precarious footing. From the first they had watched with jealousy the +unfriendly proceedings of the Scottish parliament. Advice and persuasion +had been tried, and had failed. There remained the resource of war; and +war, it was hoped, would either compel the Scots to abandon the claims of +Charles, or reduce Scotland to a province of the commonwealth. Fairfax, +indeed (he was supposed to be under the influence of a Presbyterian wife +and of the Presbyterian ministers), disapproved of the design;[2] but +his disapprobation, though lamented in public, was privately hailed as a +benefit by those who were acquainted with the aspiring designs of Cromwell, +and built on his elevation the flattering hope of their own greatness. By +their means, as soon as the + +[Footnote 1: Balfour, iv. 41, 60, 61, 64, 65, 67, 73, 77, 78. Whitelock, +462. Clarendon, iii. 346, 356, 357.] + +[Footnote 2: Whitelock, 438.] + +lord lieutenant had put his troops into winter quarters, an order was +obtained from parliament for him to attend his duty in the house; but he +resumed his military operations,[a] and two months were suffered to elapse +before he noticed the command of the supreme authority, and condescended to +make an unmeaning apology for his disobedience.[b] On the renewal of the +order,[c] he left the command in Ireland to Ireton, and, returning to +England, appeared in his seat.[d] He was received with acclamations; the +palace of St. James's was allotted for his residence, and a valuable grant +of lands was voted[e] as a reward for his eminent services. In a few days +followed the appointment of Fairfax to the office of commander-in-chief,[f] +and of Cromwell to that of lieutenant-general of the army designed to be +employed in Scotland. Each signified his "readiness to observe the orders +of the house;" but Fairfax at the same time revealed his secret and +conscientious objections to the council of state. A deputation of five +members, Cromwell, Lambert, Harrison, Whitelock, and St. John, waited on +him at his house;[g] the conference was opened by a solemn invocation of +the Holy Spirit, and the three officers prayed in succession with the most +edifying fervour. Then Fairfax said that, to his mind, the invasion of +Scotland appeared a violation of the solemn league and covenant which he +had sworn to observe. It was replied that the Scots themselves had broken +the league by the invasion of England under the duke of Hamilton; and that +it was always lawful to prevent the hostile designs of another power. But +he answered that the Scottish parliament had given satisfaction by the +punishment of the guilty; that the probability of hostile designs ought +indeed to lead to measures of precaution, but that certainty was + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. Jan. 8.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. April 2.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. May 30.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1650. June 4.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1650. June 12.] +[Sidenote f: A.D. 1650. June 14.] +[Sidenote g: A.D. 1650. June 24.] + +required to justify actual invasion. No impression was made on his mind; +and, though Cromwell and his brother officers earnestly solicited him to +comply, "there was cause enough," says one of the deputation, "to believe +that they did not overmuch desire it."[1] The next day[a] another attempt +ended with as little success; the lord general alleging the plea of infirm +health and misboding conscience, sent back the last commission, and at the +request of the house, the former also; and the chief command of all the +forces raised, or to be raised by order of parliament, was conferred on +Oliver Cromwell.[b] Thus this adventurer obtained at the same time the +praise of moderation and the object of his ambition. Immediately he +left the capital for Scotland;[c] and Fairfax retired to his estate in +Yorkshire, where he lived with the privacy of a country gentleman, till he +once more drew the sword, not in support of the commonwealth, but in favour +of the king.[2] + +To a spectator who considered the preparations of the two kingdoms, there +could be little doubt of the result. Cromwell passed the Tweed[d] at the +head of sixteen thousand men, most of them veterans, all habituated to +military discipline, before the raw levies of the Scots had quitted their +respective shires. By order of the Scottish parliament, the army had been +fixed at thirty thousand men; the nominal command had been given to the +earl of Leven, the real, on account of the age and infirmities of that +officer, to his relative, David Leslie, and instructions had been + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 460, 462. Ludlow says, "he acted his part so to the +life, that I really thought him in earnest; but the consequence made it +sufficiently evident that he had no such intention" (i. 272). +Hutchinson, who was present on one of these occasions, thought him +sincere.--Hutchinson, 315.] + +[Footnote 2: Whitelock, 438, 450, 457. Journals, Jan. 8, Feb. 25, March 30, +April 15, May 2, 7, 30, June 4, 12, 14, 25, 26.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. June 25.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. June 26.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. June 29.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1650. July 16.] + +issued that the country between Berwick and the capital should be laid +waste, that the cattle and provisions should be removed or destroyed, and +that the inhabitants should abandon their homes under the penalties of +infamy, confiscation, and death. In aid of this measure, reports were +industriously circulated of the cruelties exercised by Cromwell in Ireland; +that, wherever he came, he gave orders to put all the males between sixteen +and sixty to death, to deprive all the boys between six and sixteen of +their right hands, and to bore the breasts of the females with red-hot +irons. The English were surprised at the silence and desolation which +reigned around them; for the only human beings whom they met on their march +through this wilderness, were a few old women and children who on their +knees solicited mercy. But Cromwell conducted them by the sea coast; the +fleet daily supplied them with provisions, and their good conduct gradually +dispelled the apprehensions of the natives.[1] They found[a] the Scottish +levies posted behind a deep intrenchment, running from Edinburgh to Leith, +fortified with numerous batteries, and flanked by the cannon of the castle +at one extremity, and of the harbour at the other. Cromwell employed all +his art to provoke Leslie to avoid an engagement. It was in vain that for +more than a month the former marched and countermarched; that he threatened +general, and made partial, attacks. Leslie remained fixed within his lines; +or, if he occasionally moved, + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 465, 466, 468. Perfect Diurnal, No. 324. See the +three declarations: that of the parliament on the marching of the army; of +the army itself, addressed "to all that are saints and partakers of the +faith of God's elect in Scotland;" and, the third, from Cromwell, dated +at Berwick, in the Parliamentary History, xix. 276, 298, 310; King's +Pamphlets, 473.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. July 28.] + +watched the motions of the enemy from the nearest mountains, or interposed +a river or morass between the two armies. The English began to be exhausted +with fatigue; sickness thinned their ranks; the arrival of provisions +depended on the winds and waves; and Cromwell was taught to fear, not the +valour of the enemy, but the prudence of their general.[1] + +The reader will already have observed how much at this period the exercises +of religion were mixed up with the concerns of state and even the +operations of war. Both parties equally believed that the result of +the expedition depended on the will of the Almighty, and that it was, +therefore, their duty to propitiate his anger by fasting and humiliation. +In the English army the officers prayed and preached: they "sanctified the +camp," and exhorted the men to unity of mind and godliness of life. Among +the Scots this duty was discharged by the ministers; and so fervent was +their piety, so merciless their zeal, that, in addition to their prayers, +they occasionally compelled the young king to listen to six long sermons +on the same day, during which he assumed an air of gravity, and displayed +feelings of devotion, which ill-accorded with his real disposition. But +the English had no national crime to deplore; by punishing the late king, +_they_ had atoned for the evils of the civil war; the Scots, on the +contrary, had adopted his son without any real proof of his conversion, and +therefore feared that they might draw down on the country the punishment +due to his sins and those of his family. It happened[a] that Charles, by +the advice of the earl of Eglington, presumed to visit the army on the +Links of + +[Footnote 1: Balfour, iv. 87, 88, 90. Whitelock, 467, 468.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. July 29.] + +Leith. He was received with shouts of enthusiasm by the soldiers, who, on +their knees, pledged the health of their young sovereign; but the committee +of the kirk complained[a] that his presence led to ebriety and profaneness, +and he received a request,[b] equivalent to a command, to quit the camp. +The next day a declaration was made, that the company of malignants, +engagers, and enemies to the covenant, could not fail of multiplying +the judgments of God upon the land; an inquiry was instituted into the +characters of numerous individuals; and eighty officers, with many of their +men, were cashiered,[c] that they might not contaminate by their presence +the army of the saints.[1] Still it was for Charles Stuart, the chief of +the malignants, that they were to fight, and therefore from him, to appease +the anger of the Almighty, an expiatory declaration was required[d] in the +name of the parliament and the kirk. + +In this instrument he was called upon to lament, in the language of +penitence and self-abasement, his father's opposition to the work of God +and to the solemn league and covenant, which had caused the blood of the +Lord's people to be shed, and the idolatry of his mother, the toleration of +which in the king's house could not fail to be a high provocation against +him who is a jealous God, visiting the sins of the fathers upon the +children; to declare that he had subscribed the covenant with sincerity of +heart, and would have no friends nor enemies but those who were friends or +enemies to it; to acknowledge the sinfulness of the treaty with the bloody +rebels in Ireland, which he was made to pronounce null and void; to detest +popery and prelacy, idolatry and heresy, schism + +[Footnote 1: Balfour, iv. 86, 89.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. August 2.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. August 3.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. August 5.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1650. August 9.] + +and profaneness; and to promise that he would accord to a free parliament +in England the propositions of the two kingdoms, and reform the church +of England according to the plan devised by the assembly of divines at +Westminster.[1] + +When first this declaration, so humbling to his pride, so offensive to his +feelings, was presented[a] to Charles for his signature, he returned[b] an +indignant refusal; a little reflection induced him to solicit the advice +of the council, and the opinion of the principal ministers. But the godly +refused to wait; the two committees of the kirk and kingdom protested[c] +that they disowned the quarrel and interest of every malignant party, +disclaimed the guilt of the king and his house, and would never prosecute +his interest without his acknowledgment of the sins of his family and of +his former ways, and his promise of giving satisfaction to God's people +in both kingdoms. This protestation was printed and furtively sent to the +English camp; the officers of the army presented[d] to the committee of +estates a remonstrance and supplication expressive of their adhesion; and +the ministers maintained from their pulpits that the king was the root +of malignancy, and a hypocrite, who had taken the covenant without an +intention of keeping it. Charles, yielding to his own fears and the advice +of his friends; at the end of three days subscribed,[e] with tears, the +obnoxious instrument. If it were folly in the Scots to propose to the young +prince a declaration so repugnant to his feelings and opinions, it was +greater folly still to believe that professions of repentance extorted + +[Footnote 1: Balfour, iv. 92. Whitelock, 469. "A declaration by the king's +majesty to his subjects of the kingdoms of Scotland, England, and Ireland." +Printed 1650.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. August 10.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. August 13.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. August 14.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1650. August 15.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1650. August 16.] + +with so much violence could be sincere or satisfactory; yet his +subscription was received with expressions of joy and gratitude; both the +army and the city observed a solemn fast for the sins of the two kings, the +father and the son; and the ministers, now that the anger of Heaven had +been appeased, assured their hearers of an easy victory over a "blaspheming +general and a sectarian army."[1] + +If their predictions were not verified, the fault was undoubtedly their +own. The caution and vigilance of Leslie had triumphed over the skill and +activity of "the blasphemer." Cromwell saw no alternative but victory or +retreat: of the first he had no doubt, if he could come in contact with the +enemy; the second was a perilous attempt, when the passes before him +were pre-occupied, and a more numerous force was hanging on his rear. At +Musselburg, having sent the sick on board the fleet (they suffered both +from the "disease of the country," and from fevers caused by exposure on +the Pentland hills), he ordered[a] the army to march the next morning to +Haddington, and thence to Dunbar; and the same night a meteor, which the +imagination of the beholders likened to a sword of fire, was seen to pass +over Edinburgh in a south-easterly direction, an evident presages in the +opinion of the Scots, that the flames of war would be transferred + +[Footnote 1: Balfour, iv. 91, 92, 95. The English parliament in their +answer exclaim: "What a blessed and hopeful change is wrought in a moment +in this young king! How hearty is he become to the cause of God and the +work of reformation. How readily doth he swallow down these bitter pills, +which are prepared for and urged upon him, as necessary to effect that +desperate care under which his affairs lie! But who sees not the crass +hypocrisy of this whole transaction, and the sandy and rotten foundation +of all the resolutions flowing hereupon?"--See Parliamentary History, xix. +359-386.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. August 30.] + +to the remotest extremity of England.[1] At Dunbar, Cromwell posted his men +in the vicinity of Broxmouth House; Leslie with the Scots moving along the +heights of Lammermuir, occupied[a] a position on the Doon Hill, about two +miles to the south of the invaders; and the advanced posts of the armies +were separated only by a ravine of the depth and breadth of about thirty +feet. Cromwell was not ignorant of the danger of his situation; he had even +thought of putting the infantry on board the fleet, and of attempting to +escape with the cavalry by the only outlet, the high road to Berwick; but +the next moment he condemned the thought as "a weakness of the flesh, a +distrust in the power of the Almighty;" and ordered the army "to seek +the Lord, who would assuredly find a way of deliverance for his faithful +servants." On the other side the committees of the kirk and estates exulted +in the prospect of executing the vengeance of God upon "the sectaries;" and +afraid that the enemy should escape, compelled their general to depart from +his usual caution, and to make preparation for battle. Cromwell, with his +officers, had spent part of the day in calling upon the Lord; while he +prayed, the enthusiast felt an enlargement of the heart, a buoyancy of +spirit, which he took for an infallible presage of victory; and, beholding +through his glass the motion in the Scottish camp, he exclaimed, "They are +coming down; the Lord hath delivered them into our hands."[2] During the + +[Footnote 1: Balfour, iv. 94.] + +[Footnote 2: Sagredo, the Venetian ambassador, in his relation to the +senate, says that Cromwell pretended to have been assured of the victory +by a supernatural voice. Prima che venisse alla battaglia, diede cuore ai +soldati con assicurargli la vittoria predettagli da Dio, con una voce, che +lo aveva a mezza notte riscosso dal sonno. MS. copy in my possession.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. August 31.] + +night, he advanced the army to the edge of the ravine; and at an early hour +in the morning[a] the Scots attempted to seize the pass on the road from +Dunbar to Berwick. After a sharp contest, the Scottish lancers, aided +by their artillery, charged down the hill, drove the brigade of English +cavalry from its position, and broke through the infantry, which had +advanced to the support of the horse. At that moment the sun made its +appearance above the horizon; and Cromwell, turning to his own regiment +of foot, exclaimed, "Let the Lord arise, and scatter his enemies." They +instantly moved forward with their pikes levelled; the horse rallied; and +the enemy's lancers hesitated, broke, and fled. At that moment the mist +dispersed, and the first spectacle which struck the eyes of the Scots, was +the route of their cavalry. A sudden panic instantly spread from the right +to the left of their line; at the approach of the English they threw down +their arms and ran. Cromwell's regiment halted to sing the 117th Psalm; but +the pursuit was continued for more than eight miles; the dead bodies of +three thousand Scots strewed their native soil; and ten thousand prisoners, +with the artillery, ammunition, and baggage, became the reward of the +conquerors.[1] + +Cromwell now thought no more of his retreat. He marched back to the +capital; the hope of resistance was abandoned; Edinburgh and Leith opened +their gates, and the whole country to the Forth submitted + +[Footnote 1: Carte's Letters, i. 381. Whitelock, 470, 471. Ludlow, i. 283. +Balfour, iv. 97. Several proceedings, No. 50. Parl. Hist. xix. 343-352, +478. Cromwelliana, 89. Of the prisoners, five thousand one hundred, +something more than one-half, being wounded, were dismissed to their homes, +the other half were driven "like turkies" into England. Of these, one +thousand six hundred died of a pestilential disease, and five hundred were +actually sick on Oct 31.--Whitelock, 471. Old Parl. Hist. xix. 417.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. Sept. 3.] + +to the will of the English general. Still the presumption of the six +ministers who formed the committee of the kirk was not humbled. Though +their predictions had been falsified, they were still the depositaries of +the secrets of the Deity; and, in a "Short Declaration and Warning," they +announced[a] to their countrymen the thirteen causes of this national +calamity, the reasons why "God had veiled for a time his face from the sons +of Jacob." It was by the general profaneness of the land, by the manifest +provocations of the king and the king's house, by the crooked and +precipitant ways of statesmen in the treaty of Breda, by the toleration of +malignants in the king's household, by suffering his guard to join in the +battle without a previous purgation, by the diffidence of some officers +who refused to profit by advantages furnished to them by God, by the +presumption of others who promised victory to themselves without eyeing of +God, by the rapacity and oppression exercised by the soldiery, and by the +carnal self-seeking of men in power, that God had been provoked to visit +his people with so direful and yet so merited a chastisement.[1] + +To the young king the defeat at Dunbar was a subject of real and +ill-dissembled joy. Hitherto he had been a mere puppet in the hands of +Argyle and his party; now their power was broken, and it was not impossible +for him to gain the ascendancy. He entered into a negotiation with Murray, +Huntley, Athol, and the numerous royalists in the Highlands; but the +secret, without the particulars, was betrayed to Argyle,[b] probably by +Buckingham, who disapproved of the project; and all the cavaliers but three +received an order to leave the court in twenty-four hours--the + +[Footnote 1: Balfour, iv. 98-107.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. Sept. 12.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. Sept. 27.] + +kingdom in twenty days. The vigilance of the guards prevented the execution +of the plan which had been laid; but one afternoon, under pretence of +hawking, Charles escaped[a] from Perth, and riding forty-two miles, passed +the night in a miserable hovel, called Clova, la the braes of Angus. At +break of day he was overtaken by Colonel Montgomery, who advised him[b] to +return, while the Viscount Dudhope urged him to proceed to the mountains, +where he would be joined by seven thousand armed men. Charles wavered; but +Montgomery directed his attention to two regiments of horse that waited at +a distance to intercept his progress, and the royal fugitive consented[c] +to return to his former residence in Perth.[1] + +The Start (so this adventure was called) proved, however, a warning to the +committee of estates. They prudently admitted the apology of the king, who +attributed[d] his flight to information that he was that day to have been +delivered to Cromwell; they allowed[e] him, for the first time, to preside +at their deliberations; and they employed his authority to pacify the +royalists in the Highlands, who had taken arms[f] in his name under +Huntley, Athol, Seaforth, and Middleton. These, after a long negotiation, +accepted an act of indemnity, and disbanded their forces.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Balfour, iv. 109, 113, 114. Baillie, ii. 356. Whitelock, 476. +Miscellanea Aulica, 152. It seems probable from some letters published in +the correspondence of Mr. Secretary Nicholas, that Charles had planned his +escape from the "villany and hypocrisy" of the party, as early as the day +of the battle of Dunbar.--Evelyn's Mem. v. 181-186, octavo.] + +[Footnote 2: Balfour, iv. 118, 123, 129-135, 160. Baillie, ii. 356. +A minister, James Guthrie, in defiance of the committee of estates, +excommunicated Middleton; and such was the power of the kirk, that even +when the king's party was superior, Middleton was compelled to do penance +in sackcloth in the church of Dundee, before he could obtain absolution +preparatory to his taking a command in the army.--Baillie, 357. Balfour, +240.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. Oct. 4.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. Oct. 5.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. Oct. 6.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1650. Oct. 10.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1650. Oct. 12.] +[Sidenote f: A.D. 1650. Nov. 4.] + + +In the mean while Cromwell in his quarters at Edinburgh laboured to unite +the character of the saint with that of the conqueror; and, surrounded as +he was with the splendour of victory, to surprise the world by a display +of modesty and self-abasement. To his friends and flatterers, who fed +his vanity by warning him to be on his guard against its suggestions, +he replied, that he "had been a dry bone, and was still an unprofitable +servant," a mere instrument in the hands of Almighty power; if God had +risen in his wrath, if he had bared his arm and avenged his cause, to +him, and to him alone, belonged the glory.[1] Assuming the office of a +missionary, he exhorted his officers in daily sermons to love one another, +to repent from dead works, and to pray and mourn for the blindness of their +Scottish adversaries; and, pretending to avail himself of his present +leisure, he provoked a theological controversy with the ministers in +the castle of Edinburgh, reproaching them with pride in arrogating to +themselves the right of expounding the true sense of the solemn league and +covenant; vindicating the claim of laymen to preach the gospel and +exhibit their spiritual gifts for the edification of their brethren; and +maintaining that, after the solemn fasts observed by both nations, after +their many and earnest appeals to the God of armies, the victory gained +at Dunbar must be admitted an evident manifestation of the divine will in +favour of the English commonwealth. Finding that he made no proselytes +of his opponents, he published his arguments for the instruction of the +Scottish people; but his zeal did not + +[Footnote 1: See a number of letters in Milton's State Papers, 18-35.] + +escape suspicion; and the more discerning believed that, under the cover of +a religious controversy, he was in reality tampering with the fidelity of +the governor.[1] + +In a short time his attention was withdrawn to a more important +controversy, which ultimately spread the flames of religious discord +throughout the nation. There had all along existed a number of Scots who +approved of the execution of the late king, and condemned even the nominal +authority given to his son. Of these men, formidable by their talents, +still more formidable by their fanaticism, the leaders were Wariston, the +clerk register in the parliament, and Gillespie and Guthrie, two ministers +in the kirk. In parliament the party, though too weak to control, was +sufficiently strong to embarrass, and occasionally to influence, the +proceedings; in the kirk it formed indeed the minority, but a minority too +bold and too numerous to be rashly irritated or incautiously despised.[2] +After the defeat at Dunbar, permission was cheerfully granted by the +committee of estates for a levy of troops in the associated counties of +Renfrew, Air, Galloway, Wigton, and Dumfries, that part of Scotland where +fanaticism had long fermented, and the most rigid notions prevailed. The +crusade was preached by Gillespie; his efforts were successfully seconded +by the other ministers, and in a short time four regiments of horse, +amounting almost to five thousand men, were raised under Strachan, Kerr, +and two other colonels. The real design now began to unfold itself. First, +the officers refused to serve under Leslie; and the parliament consented to +exempt them from his authority. Next, they hinted doubts of the + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, i. 158-163.] + +[Footnote 2: Baillie, ii. 353.] + +lawfulness of the war in which they were engaged; and Cromwell, in whose +army Strachan had fought at Preston, immediately[a] opened a correspondence +with him.[1] Then came the accident of "the start," which embittered and +emboldened the zeal of the fanatics; and in a long remonstrance, subscribed +by ministers and elders, by officers and soldiers, and presented[b] in +their name to Charles and the committee of estates, they pronounced[c] the +treaty with the king unlawful and sinful, disowned his interest in the +quarrel with the enemy, and charged the leading men in the nation with the +guilt of the war, which they had provoked by their intention of invading +England. The intemperate tone and disloyal tendency of this paper, whilst +it provoked irritation and alarm at Perth, induced Cromwell to advance with +his army from Edinburgh to Glasgow, and Hamilton. But the western forces +(so they were called) withdrew to Dumfries, where a meeting was held with +Wariston, and a new draught of the remonstrance, in language still more +energetic and vituperative, was adopted. On the return[d] of Cromwell to +the capital, his negotiation with the officers was resumed, while Argyle +and his friends laboured on the opposite side to mollify the obstinacy of +the fanatics. But reasoning was found useless; the parliament condemned[e] +the remonstrance as a scandalous and seditious libel; and, since Strachan +had resigned[f] his commission, ordered Montgomery with three new regiments +to take the command of the whole force. Kerr, however, before his arrival, +had led[g] the western levy to attack Lambert in his + +[Footnote 1: Baillie, ii. 350-352. Strachan was willing to give assurance +not to molest England in the king's quarrel. Cromwell insisted that Charles +should be banished by act of parliament, or imprisoned for life.--Ib. 352.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. Oct. 4.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. Oct. 17.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. Oct. 22.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1650. Oct. 30.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1650. Nov. 25.] +[Sidenote f: A.D. 1650. Nov. 28.] +[Sidenote g: A.D. 1650. Dec. 1.] + +quarters at Hamilton; he was taken prisoner, designedly if we may believe +report, and his whole army was dispersed. Soon afterwards Strachan, with +sixty troopers, passed over to Lambert, and the associated counties, left +without defence, submitted to the enemy. Still the framers and advocates of +the remonstrance, though they knew that it had been condemned by the state +and the kirk, though they had no longer an army to draw the sword in +its support, adhered pertinaciously to its principles; the unity of the +Scottish church was rent in twain, and the separation was afterwards +widened by a resolution of the assembly,[a] that in such a crisis all +Scotsmen might be employed in the service of the country.[1] Even their +common misfortunes failed to reconcile these exasperated spirits; and after +the subjugation of their country, and under the yoke of civil servitude, +the two parties still continued to persecute each other with all the +obstinacy and bitterness of religious warfare. The royalists obtained +the name of public resolutioners; their opponents, of protestors or +remonstrants.[2] + +Though it cost the young prince many an internal struggle, yet experience +had taught him that he must soothe the religious prejudices of the kirk, if +he hoped ever to acquire the preponderance in the state. On the first day +of the new year,[b] he rode in procession to the church of Scone, where his +ancestors had been accustomed to receive the Scottish crown: there on his +knees, with his arm upraised, he swore by the Eternal + +[Footnote 1: With the exception of persons "excommunicated, notoriously +profane, or flagitious, and professed enemies and opposers of the covenant +and cause of God."--Wodrow, Introd. iii.] + +[Footnote 2: Baillie, ii. 348, 354-364. Balfour, iv. 136, 141-160, 173-178, +187, 189. Whitelock, 475, 476, 477, 484. Sydney Papers, ii. 679. Burnet's +Hamiltons, 425.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. Dec. 14.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. Jan. 1.] + +and Almighty God to observe the two covenants; to establish the +presbyterial government in Scotland and in his family; to give his assent +to acts for establishing it in his other dominions; to rule according to +the law of God and the lovable laws of the land; to abolish and withstand +all false religions; and to root out all heretics and enemies of the true +worship of God, convicted by the true church of God. Argyle then placed the +crown upon his head, and seated him on the throne, and both nobility and +people swore allegiance to him "according to the national covenant, and the +solemn league and covenant." At the commencement, during the ceremony, and +after the conclusion, Douglas, the minister, addressed the king, reminding +him that he was king by compact with his people; that his authority was +limited by the law of God, the laws of the people, and the association of +the estates with him in the government; that, though every breach did +not dissolve the compact, yet every abuse of power to the subversion of +religion, law, or liberty, justified opposition in the people; that it was +for him, by his observance of the covenant, to silence those who doubted +his sincerity; that the evils which had afflicted his family arose out of +the apostasy of his father and grandfather; and that, if he imitated them, +he would find that the controversy between him and God was not ended, but +would be productive of additional calamities. The reader may imagine what +were the feelings of Charles while he listened to the admonitions of the +preacher, and when he swore to perform conditions which his soul abhorred, +and which he knew that on the first opportunity he should break or +elude.[1] But he passed with credit through the + +[Footnote 1: See "The forme and order of the Coronation of Charles II., as +it was acted and done at Scoune, the first day of January, 1651." Aberdene, +1651.] + +ceremony; the coronation exalted him in the eyes of the people; and each +day brought to him fresh accessions of influence and authority. The +kirk delivered Strachan as a traitor and apostate to the devil; and the +parliament forefaulted his associates, of whom several hastened to make +their peace by a solemn recantation. Deprived of their support, the +Campbells gradually yielded to the superior influence of the Hamiltons. +Vexation, indeed, urged them to reproach the king with inconstancy and +ingratitude; but Charles, while he employed every art to lull the jealousy +of Argyle, steadily pursued his purpose; his friends, by submitting to the +humbling ceremony of public penance, satisfied the severity of the kirk; +and by the repeal[a] of the act of classes, they were released from all +previous forfeitures and disqualifications. In April the king, with Leslie +and Middleton as his lieutenants, took the command of the army, which had +been raised by new levies to twenty thousand men, and, having fortified +the passages of the Forth, awaited on the left bank the motions of the +enemy.[1] + +In the mean while Cromwell had obtained[b] possession of the castle of +Edinburgh through the perfidy or the timidity of the governor. Tantallon +had been taken by storm, and Dumbarton had been attempted, but its defences +were too strong to be carried by force, + +[Footnote 1: Carte, Letters, ii. 26, 27. Balfour, iv. 240, 268, 281, +301. It appears from this writer that a great number of the colonels of +regiments were royalists or engagers (p. 210, 213). The six brigades +of horse seem to have been divided equally between old Covenanters and +royalists. The seventh was not given to any general, but would be commanded +by Hamilton, as the eldest colonel.--Ib. 299-301. It is therefore plain +that with the king for commander-in-chief the royalists had the complete +ascendancy.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. May 21.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. Dec. 19.] + +and its garrison too honest to be corrupted with money.[1] In February the +lord general was afflicted[a] with an ague, so ruinous to his health, and +so obstinate in its duration, that in May he obtained permission to return +to England, with the power of disposing, according to his judgment, of the +chief command.[2] A rapid and unexpected improvement[b] induced him to +remain; and in July he marched with his army towards Stirling. The Scots +faced him in their intrenched camp at Torwood; he turned aside to Glasgow; +they took[c] a position at Kilsyth; he marched[d] back to Falkirk; and they +resumed their position at Torwood. While by these movements the English +general occupied the attention of his opponents, a fleet of boats had been +silently prepared and brought to the Queensferry; a body of men crossed the +frith, and fortified a hill near Inverkeithing; and Lambert immediately +followed[e] with a more numerous division. The Scots despatched Holburn +with orders to drive the enemy into the sea; he was himself charged[f] +by Lambert with a superior force, and the flight of his men gave to the +English possession of the fertile and populous county of Fife. Cromwell +hastened to transport his army to the left bank of the river, and advance +on the rear of the Scots. They retired: Perth, the seat of government, was +besieged; and in a few days[g] the colours of the commonwealth floated on +its walls.[3] + +[Footnote 1: Balfour, iv. 229, 249, 296. Baillie, ii. 368.] + +[Footnote 2: The council had sent two physicians to attend him. His answer +to Bradshaw of March 24th runs in his usual style. "Indeed, my lord, your +service needs not me. I am a poor creature, and have been a dry bone, and +am still an unprofitable servant to my master and to you."--New Parl. Hist. +iii. 1363.] + +[Footnote 3: Balfour, 313. Journals, May 27. Leicester's Journal, 109. +Whitelock, 490, 494, 497, 498, 499. Heath, 392, 393. According to Balfour, +the loss on each side was "almost alyke," about eight hundred men killed; +according to Lambert, the Scots lost two thousand killed, and fourteen +hundred taken prisoners; the English had only eight men slain; "so easy did +the Lord grant them that mercy."--Whitelock, 501. I observe that in all +the despatches of the commanders for the commonwealth their loss is +miraculously trifling.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Feb. 21.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. May 27.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1651. July 3.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1651. July 13.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1651. July 17.] +[Sidenote f: A.D. 1651. July 21.] +[Sidenote g: A.D. 1651. August.] + + +In the Scottish leaders the progress of the English excited the most +fearful anticipations; to Charles it suggested the execution of what had +long been his favourite object. The country to the south was clear of the +enemy; and a proclamation[a] to the army announced his resolve of marching +into England, accompanied by such of his Scottish subjects as were willing +to share the fortunes and the perils of their sovereign. The boldness of +the attempt dazzled the judgment of some; and the confidence of the young +king dispelled the apprehensions of others. Their knowledge that, in case +of failure, he must expect to meet with the same fate as his father, +justified a persuasion that he possessed secret assurances of a powerful +co-operation from the royalists and the Presbyterians of England. Argyle +(nor was it surprising after the decline of his influence at court) +solicited and obtained permission to retire to his own home; a few other +chieftains followed his example; the rest expressed their readiness to +stake their lives on the issue of the attempt, and the next morning eleven, +some say fourteen, thousand men began[b] their march from Stirling, in the +direction of Carlisle.[1] + +Cromwell was surprised and embarrassed. The Scots had gained three days' +march in advance, and his army was unprepared to follow them at a moment's +notice. He wrote[c] to the parliament to rely on his industry and despatch; +he sent[d] Lambert from Fifeshire with three thousand cavalry to hang on +the rear, and ordered[e] + +[Footnote 1: Leicester's Journal, 110. Whitelock, 501. Clarendon, iii. +397.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. July 30.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. July 31.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1651. August 4.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1651. August 5.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1651. August 7.] + +Harrison with an equal number from Newcastle, to press on the flank of +the enemy; and on the seventh day led his army of ten thousand men by the +eastern coast, in the direction of York. The reduction of Scotland, a more +easy task after the departure of the royal forces, was left to the activity +of Monk, who had five thousand infantry and cavalry under his command. + +So rapid was the advance of Charles, that he traversed the Lowlands of +Scotland, and the northern counties in England, without meeting a single +foe. Lambert had joined Harrison near Warrington; their united forces +amounted to nine thousand men; and their object was to prevent the passage +of the Mersey. But they arrived[a] too late to break down the bridge; and, +after a few charges, formed in battle array on Knutsford Heath. The king, +leaving them on the left, pushed forward till he reached[b] Worcester, +where he was solemnly proclaimed by the mayor, amidst the loud acclamations +of the gentlemen of the county, who, under a suspicion of their loyalty, +had been confined in that city by order of the council.[2] + +At the first news of the royal march, the leaders at Westminster abandoned +themselves to despair. They believed that Cromwell had come to a private +understanding with the king; that the Scots would meet with no opposition +in their progress; and that the Cavaliers would rise simultaneously in +every part of the kingdom.[3] From these terrors they were relieved by +the arrival of despatches from the general, and by the indecision of the +royalists, who, unprepared for the event, had hitherto made no movement; +and with the + +[Transcriber's Note: Footnote 1 not found in the text] + +[Footnote 1: Leicester's Journal, iii. 117. +Balfour, iv. 314.] + +[Footnote 2: Leicester's Journal, 113, 114. Whitelock, 502, 503. Clarendon, +iii. 402.] + +[Footnote 3: Hutchinson, 336.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. August 16.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. August 22.] + +revival of their hopes the council assumed a tone of defiance, which was +supported by measures the most active and energetic. The declaration of +Charles,[a] containing a general pardon to all his subjects, with the +exception of Cromwell, Bradshaw, and Cook, was burnt in London by the hands +of the hangman; and a counter proclamation was published,[b] pronouncing +Charles Stuart, his aiders and abettors, guilty of high treason. All +correspondence with him was forbidden under the penalty of death; it was +ordered that all persons known or suspected of attachment to his cause +should be placed in custody, or confined to their own houses; and the +militia of several counties, "tried and godly people," were called forth, +and marched towards the expected scene of action.[1] But Charles had to +contend not only with the activity of his enemies, but with the fanaticism +of his followers. The Presbyterians of Lancashire had promised to rise, +and Massey, a distinguished officer of that persuasion, was sent before to +organize the levy; but the committee of the kirk forbade him to employ any +man who had not taken the covenant; and, though Charles annulled their +order, the English ministers insisted that it should be obeyed. Massey +remained after the army had passed, and was joined by the earl of Derby, +with sixty horse and two hundred and sixty foot, from the Isle of Man. A +conference was held at Wigan; but reasoning and entreaty were employed in +vain; the ministers insisted that all the Catholics who had been enrolled +should be dismissed; and that the salvation of the kingdom should be +entrusted to the elect of God, who had taken the covenant. In the mean +while Cromwell had despatched Colonel Lilburne, with his + +[Footnote 1: Journals, Aug. 12.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. August 11.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. August 25.] + +regiment of horse, into the county, and ordered reinforcements to join him +from Yorkshire and Cheshire. Derby, with the concurrence of the royalists +in Manchester, undertook to surprise Lilburne in his quarters near that +town, but was himself surprised by Lilburne, who marched on the same day[a] +to observe the earl's motions. They met unexpectedly in the lane leading +from Chorley to Wigan. The heads of the opposite columns repeatedly charged +each other; but the desperate courage of the Cavaliers was foiled by the +steadiness and discipline of their opponents; the Lord Widrington, Sir +Thomas Tildesly, Colonel Throckmorton, Boynton, Trollop, and about sixty +of their followers were slain, and above three hundred privates made +prisoners. The earl himself, who had received several slight wounds on the +arms and shoulders, fled to Wigan with the enemy at his heels. Observing a +house open, he flung himself from his horse, and sprung into the passage. +A female barred the door behind him; the pursuers were checked for an +instant; and when they began to search the house, he had already escaped +through the garden. Weak with fatigue and the loss of blood, he wandered in +a southerly direction, concealing himself by day, and travelling by night, +till he found[b] a secure asylum, in a retired mansion, called Boscobel +House, situate between Brewood and Tong Castle, and the property of Mrs. +Cotton, a Catholic recusant and royalist. There he was received and +secreted by William Penderell and his wife, the servants entrusted with the +care of the mansion; and having recovered his strength, was conducted by +the former to the royal army at Worcester.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 503, 504. Clarendon, iii. 399, 403. Memoirs of the +Stanleys, 112-114. Journals, Aug. 29. Leicester's Journal, 116. Boscobel, +6-8. Boscobel afterwards belonged to Bas. Fitzherbert, Mrs. Cotton's +son-in-law.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. August 25.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. August 29.] + +The occurrences of each day added to the disappointment of Charles and the +confidence of his enemies. He had summoned[a] by proclamation all his male +subjects between the age of sixteen and sixty to join his standard at the +general muster[b] of his forces, on the 26th of August, in the Pitchcroft, +the meadows between the city and the river. A few of the neighbouring +gentlemen with their tenants, not two hundred in number, obeyed the +call;[1] and it was found that the whole amount of his force did not +exceed twelve (or according to Cromwell, sixteen)[2] thousand men, of whom +one-sixth part only was composed of Englishmen. But while a few straggling +royalists thus stole into his quarters, as if it were to display by their +paucity the hopelessness of his cause, the daily arrival of hostile +reinforcements swelled the army in the neighbourhood to more than thirty +thousand men. At length Cromwell arrived,[c] and was received with +enthusiasm. The royalists had broken down an arch of the bridge over the +Severn at Upton; but a few soldiers passed on a beam in the night; the +breach was repaired, and Lambert crossed with ten thousand men to the right +bank. A succession of partial but obstinate actions alternately raised and +depressed the hopes of the two parties; the grand attempt was reserved by +the lord general for his + +[Footnote 1: They were lord Talbot, son to the earl of Shrewsbury, "with +about sixty horse; Mr. Mervin Touchet, Sir John Packington, Sir Walter +Blount, Sir Ralph Clare, Mr. Ralph Sheldon, of Beoly, Mr. John Washbourn, +of Wichinford, with forty horse; Mr. Thomas Hornyhold, of Blackmore-park, +with forty horse; Mr. Thomas Acton, Mr. Robert Blount, of Kenswick, Mr. +Robert Wigmore, of Lucton, Mr. F. Knotsford, Mr. Peter Blount, and divers +others."--Boscobel, 10.] + +[Footnote 2: Cary's Memorials, ii. 361.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. August 23.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. August 26.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1651. August 28.] + +auspicious day, the 3rd of September, on which twelve months before he had +defeated the Scots at Dunbar. On that morning Fleetwood, who had advanced +from Upton to Powick,[a] was ordered to force the passage of the Team, +while Cromwell, to preserve the communication, should throw a bridge of +boats across the Severn at Bunshill, near the confluence of the two rivers. +About one in the afternoon, while Charles with his staff observed from the +tower of the cathedral the positions of the enemy, his attention was drawn +by a discharge of musketry near Powick. He descended immediately, rode to +the scene of action, and ordered Montgomery with a brigade of horse and +foot to defend the line of the Team and oppose the formation of the bridge. +After a long and sanguinary struggle, Fleetwood effected a passage just at +the moment when Cromwell, having completed the work, moved four regiments +to his assistance. The Scots, though urged by superior numbers, maintained +the most obstinate resistance; they disputed every field and hedge, +repeatedly charged with the pike to check the advance of the enemy, and, +animated by the shouts of the combatants on the opposite bank, sought to +protract the contest with the vain hope that, by occupying the forces of +Fleetwood, they might insure the victory to their friends, who were engaged +with Cromwell. + +That commander, as soon as he had secured the communication across the +river, ordered a battery of heavy guns to play upon Fort Royal, a work +lately raised to cover the Sidbury gate of the city, and led his troops +in two divisions to Perrywood and Red-hill. To Charles this seemed a +favourable opportunity of defeating one half of the hostile force, while +the other + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Sept. 3.] + +half was separated from it by the Severn. Leading out the whole of his +disposable infantry, with the duke of Hamilton's troop of horse, and the +English volunteers, he marched to attack the enemy in their position, and +fought at the head of the Highlanders with a spirit worthy of a prince who +staked his life for the acquisition of a crown. Fortune favoured his first +efforts. The militia regiments shrunk from the shock, and the guns of the +enemy became the prize of the assailants. But Cromwell had placed some +veteran battalions in reserve. They restored the battle; and the royalists, +in their turn, began to retreat. Still they remained unbroken, availing +themselves of every advantage of the ground to check the enemy, and +anxiously expecting the aid of their cavalry, which, under the command of +Leslie, had remained in the city. From what cause it happened is unknown; +but that officer did not appear on the field till the battle was lost, and +the infantry, unable to resist the superior pressure of the enemy, was +fleeing in confusion to the gate under the shelter of the fort. The +fugitives rallied in Friar-street, and Charles, riding among them, +endeavoured by his words and gestures to re-animate their courage. Instead +of a reply, they hung down their heads, or threw away their arms. "Then +shoot me dead," exclaimed the distressed prince, "rather than let me live +to see the sad consequences of this day." But his despair was as unavailing +as had been his entreaties; and his friends admonished him to provide for +his safety, for the enemy had already penetrated within the walls. + +We left Fleetwood on the right bank pushing the Scots slowly before him. At +length they resigned the hope of resistance; their flight opened to him the +way to St. John's, and its timid commander yielded at the first summons. On +the other bank, Cromwell stormed the Fort Royal, put its defenders, fifteen +hundred men, to the sword, and turned the guns upon the city. Within the +walls irremediable confusion prevailed, and the enemy began to pour in by +the quay, the castle hill, and the Sidbury gate. Charles had not a moment +to spare. Placing himself in the midst of the Scottish cavalry, he took the +northern road by the gate of St. Martin's, while a few devoted spirits, +with such troopers as dared to followed them, charged down Sidbury-street +in the contrary direction.[1] They accomplished their purpose. The royal +party cleared the walls, while _they_ arrested the advance, and distracted +the attention of the enemy. It was past the hour of sunset; and before dark +all resistance ceased. Colonel Drummond surrendered the castle hill on +conditions; the infantry in the street were killed or led prisoners to the +cathedral; and the city was abandoned during the obscurity of the night to +the licentious passions of the victors.[2] + +In this disastrous battle the slain on the part of the royalists amounted +to three thousand men, the taken to a still greater number. The cavalry +escaped in separate bodies; but so depressed was their courage, so +bewildered were their counsels, that they successively surrendered to +smaller parties of their pursuers. Many officers of distinction attempted, +single and disguised, + +[Footnote 1: These were the earl of Cleveland, Sir James Hamilton, Colonel +Careless, and captains Hornyhold, Giffard, and Kemble.--Boscobel, 20.] + +[Footnote 2: See Blount, Boscobel, 14-22; Whitelock, 507, 508; Bates, part +ii. 221; Parl. Hist. xx. 40, 44-55; Ludlow, i. 314. Nothing can be more +incorrect than Clarendon's account of this battle, iii. 409. Even Cromwell +owns that "it was as stiff a contest for four or five hours as ever he had +seen."--Cary's Memorials, ii. 356.] + +to steal their way through the country; but of these the Scots were +universally betrayed by their accent, whilst the English, for the most +part, effected their escape.[1] The duke of Hamilton had been mortally +wounded on the field of battle; the earls of Derby, Rothes, Cleveland, +Kelly, and Lauderdale; the lords Sinclair, Kenmure, and Grandison; and the +generals Leslie, Massey, Middleton, and Montgomery, were made prisoners, at +different times and in separate places. But the most interesting inquiry +regarded the fortune of the young king. Though the parliament offered[a] a +reward of one thousand pounds for his person, and denounced the penalties +of treason against those who should afford him shelter; though parties of +horse and foot scoured the adjacent counties in search of so valuable a +prize; though the magistrates received orders to arrest every unknown +person, and to keep a strict watch on the sea-ports in their neighbourhood, +yet no trace of his flight, no clue to his retreat, could be discovered. +Week after week passed + +[Footnote 1: Thus the duke of Buckingham was conducted by one Mathews, a +carpenter, to Bilstrop, and thence to Brooksby, the seat of Lady Villiers, +in Leicestershire; Lord Talbot reached his father's house at Longford in +time to conceal himself in a close place in one of the out-houses. His +pursuers found his horse yet saddled, and searched for him during four or +five days in vain. May was hidden twenty-one days in a hay-mow, belonging +to Bold, a husbandman, at Chessardine, during all which time a party of +soldiers was quartered in the house.--Boscobel, 35-37. Of the prisoners, +eight suffered death, by judgment of a court-martial sitting at Chester. +One of these was the gallant earl of Derby, who pleaded that quarter had +been granted to him by Captain Edge, and quarter ought to be respected by +a court-martial. It was answered that quarter could be granted to enemies +only, not to traitors. He offered to surrender his Isle of Man in exchange +for his life, and petitioned for "his grace the lord general's, and the +parliament's mercy." But his petition was not delivered by Lenthall before +it was too late. It was read in the house on the eve of his execution, +which took place at Bolton, in Lancashire, Oct. 15, 1651.--State Trials, v. +294. Heath 302. Leicester's Journal, 121. Journals, Oct. 14.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Sept. 10.] + +away; of almost every other individual of note the fate was ascertained; +that of Charles Stuart remained an impenetrable mystery. At last, when a +belief prevailed, both among his friends and foes, that he had met +with death from the peasantry, ignorant of his person and quality, the +intelligence arrived, that on the 17th of October, forty-four days after +the battle, he had landed in safety at Fécamp, on the coast of Normandy. + +The narrative of his adventures during this period of suspense and distress +exhibits striking instances of hair-breadth escapes on the part of the +king, and of unshaken fidelity on that of his adherents. During the night +after the battle he found himself in the midst of the Scottish cavalry, a +body of men too numerous to elude pursuit, and too dispirited to repel an +enemy. Under cover of the darkness, he separated from them with about sixty +horse; the earl of Derby recommended to him, from his own experience, the +house of Boscobel as a secure retreat; and Charles Giffard undertook, with +the aid of his servant Yates, to conduct him to Whiteladies, another house +belonging to Mrs. Cotton, and not far distant from Boscobel. At an early +hour in the morning, after a ride of five-and-twenty miles, they reached +Whiteladies;[a] and while the others enjoyed a short repose from their +fatigue, the king withdrew to an inner apartment, to prepare himself for +the character which he had been advised to assume. His hair was cut +close to the head, his hands and face were discoloured, his clothes were +exchanged for the coarse and threadbare garments of a labourer, and a heavy +wood-bill in his hand announced his pretended employment. At sunrise the +few admitted to the secret took their leave of + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Sept.] + +him with tears, and, summoning their companions to horseback, rode away, +they scarcely knew whither but with the cheering hope that they should draw +the attention of the enemy from the retreat of the king to the pursuit of +themselves. In less than an hour a troop of horse from Cotsal, under the +command of Colonel Ashenhurst, arrived at Whiteladies; but the king was +already gone; a fruitless search only provoked their impatience, and they +hastily followed the track of the other fugitives. + +Charles was now in the hands, and entirely at the mercy, of four brothers +(John, the fifth, had taken charge of the Lord Wilmot), labouring men, of +the name of Penderell, and of Yates, his former guide, who had married a +sister of the Penderells. He could not conceal from himself that their +poverty might make them more accessible to temptation; but Derby and +Giffard had conjured him to dismiss such thoughts; they were men of tried +fidelity, who, born in the domain, and bred in the principles of a loyal +and Catholic family, had long been successfully employed in screening +priests and Cavaliers from the searches of the civil magistrates and +military officers.[1] By one of them, surnamed the trusty Richard, he was +led into + +[Footnote 1: The Penderells, whom this event has introduced to the notice +of the reader, were originally six brothers, born at Hobbal Grange, in the +parish of Tong. John, George, and Thomas served in the armies of Charles +I. Thomas was killed at Stowe; the other two survived the war, and were +employed as woodwards at Boscobel. Of the remaining three, William took +care of the house; Humphrey worked at the mill, and Richard rented part of +Hobbal Grange. After the Restoration, the five brothers waited on the king +at Whitehall on the 13th of June, 1660, and were graciously received, and +dismissed with a princely reward. A pension was also granted to them and +their posterity. In virtue of which grant two of their descendants, Calvin +Beaumont Winstanley, and John Lloyd, were placed on the pension list on the +6th of July, 1846, for the sum of twenty-five pounds to each.] + +the thickest part of the adjoining wood, while the others posted themselves +at convenient stations, to descry and announce the approach of the enemy. +The day was wet and stormy; and Richard, attentive to the accommodation of +his charge, who appeared sinking under the fatigue, caused by his efforts +in the battle and the anxiety of his flight, spread a blanket for him under +one of the largest trees, and ordered the wife of Yates to bring him the +best refreshment which her house could afford. Charles was alarmed at the +sight of this unexpected visitant. Recovering himself, he said, "Good +woman, can you be faithful to a distressed Cavalier?"--"Yes, sir," she +replied, "and I will die sooner than betray you." He was afterwards visited +by Jane, the mother of the Penderells. The old woman kissed his hands, fell +on her knees, and blessed God that he had chosen _her_ sons to preserve, as +she was confident they would, the life of their sovereign. + +It had been agreed between the king and Wilmot, that each should make +the best of his way to London, and inquire for the other by the name of +Ashburnham, at the Three Cranes in the Vintry. By conversation with his +guardian, Charles was induced to adopt a different plan, and to seek an +asylum among the Cavaliers in Wales, till a ship could be procured for his +transportation to France. About nine in the evening they left the wood +together for the house of Mr. Wolf, a Catholic recusant at Madeley, not far +from the Severn; but an accidental alarm lengthened their road, and added +to the fatigue of the royal wanderer.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The mill at Evelyn was filled with fugitives from the battle: +the miller, espying Charles and his guide, and afraid of a discovery, +called out "rogues;" and they, supposing him an enemy, turned up a miry +lane, running at their utmost speed,--Boscobel, 47. Account from the Pepys +MS. p. 16.] + +They reached Madeley at midnight; Wolf was roused from his bed, and the +strangers obtained admission. But their host felt no small alarm for their +safety. Troops were frequently quartered upon him; two companies of militia +actually kept watch in the village and the places of concealment in his +house had been recently discovered. As the approach of daylight[a] made it +equally dangerous to proceed or turn back he secreted them behind the hay +in an adjoining barn, and despatched messengers to examine the passages +of the river. Their report that all the bridges were guarded, and all the +boats secured, compelled the unfortunate prince to abandon his design. On +the return of darkness he placed himself again under the care of his trusty +guide, and with a heavy and misboding heart, retraced his steps towards his +original destination, the house at Boscobel. + +At Boscobel he found Colonel Careless, one of those devoted adherents who, +to aid his escape from Worcester, had charged the enemy at the opposite +gate. Careless had often provoked, and as often eluded, the resentment of +the Roundheads; and experience had made him acquainted with every loyal +man, and every place of concealment, in the country. By his persuasion +Charles consented to pass the day[b] with him amidst the branches of an old +and lofty oak.[1] This + +[Footnote 1: This day Humphrey Penderell, the miller, went to Skefnal to +pay taxes, but in reality to learn news. He was taken before a military +officer, who knew that Charles had been at Whiteladies, and tempted, with +threats and promises, to discover where the king was; but nothing could be +extracted from him, and he was allowed to return.--Boscobel, 55. This, I +suspect, to be the true story; but Charles himself, when he mentions the +proposal made to Humphrey attributes it to a man, at whose house he had +changed his clothes.--Account from the Pepys MS. p. 9.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Sept. 5.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. Sept. 6.] + +celebrated tree, which was afterwards destroyed to satisfy the veneration +of the Cavaliers, grew near to the common path in a meadow-field, which lay +in the centre of the wood. It had been partially lopped a few years before, +and the new shoots had thrown round it a thick and luxuriant foliage. +Within this cover the king and his companion passed the day. Invisible +themselves, they occasionally caught a glimpse of the red-coats (so the +soldiers were called) passing among the trees, and sometimes saw them +looking into the meadow. Their friends, William Penderell and his wife, +whom Charles called my dame Joan, stationed themselves near, to give +warning of danger; he pretending to be employed in his duty as woodward, +and she in the labour of gathering sticks for fuel. But there arose no +cause of immediate alarm; the darkness of the night relieved them from +their tedious and irksome confinement; and Charles, having on his return to +the house examined the hiding-place, resolved to trust to it for his future +security.[1] + +The next day, Sunday,[a] he spent within doors or in the garden. But his +thoughts brooded over his forlorn and desperate condition; and the gloom +on his countenance betrayed the uneasiness of his mind. Fortunately in the +afternoon he received by John Penderell a welcome message from Lord Wilmot, +to meet him that night at the house of Mr. Whitgrave, a recusant, at +Moseley. The king's feet were so swollen and blistered by his recent walk +to and from Madeley, + +[Footnote 1: Careless found means to reach London, and cross the sea to +Holland, where he carried the first news of the king's escape to the +princess of Orange. Charles gave him for his coat of arms, by the name of +Carlos, an oak in a field, or, with a fesse, gules, charged with three +royal crowns, and for his crest a crown of oak leaves, with a sword and +sceptre, crossed saltierwise.--Boscobel, 85.] + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1651. Sept. 7.] + +that he gladly accepted the offer of Humphrey's horse from the mill; nor +did the appearance of the monarch disgrace that of the steed. He wore a +coat and breeches of coarse green cloth, both so threadbare that in many +places they appeared white, and the latter "so long that they came down to +the garter;" his doublet was of leather, old and soiled; his shoes were +heavy and slashed for the ease of his feet; his stockings of green yarn had +been much worn, were darned at the knees, and without feet; and an old grey +steeple-crowned hat, without band or lining, with a crooked thorn stick, +completed the royal habiliments. The six brothers attended him with arms; +two kept in advance, two followed behind, and one walked on each side. He +had not gone far before he complained to Humphrey of the heavy jolting pace +of the horse. "My liege," replied the miller, "you do not recollect that he +carries the weight of three kingdoms on his back." + +At Moseley, cheered by the company of Wilmot, and the attention of +Whitgrave and his chaplain, Mr. Hudlestone,[1] he recovered his spirits, +fought the battle of Worcester over again, and declared that, if he could +find a few thousand men who had the courage to stand by him, he would not +hesitate to meet his enemies a second time in the field. A new plan of +escape was now submitted to his approbation. The daughter of Colonel Lane, +of Bentley, had obtained from the governor of Stafford a pass to visit Mrs. + +[Footnote 1: Mr. Whitgrave had served as lieutenant, Hudlestone as +gentleman volunteer in the armies of Charles I. The latter was of the +family at Hutton John, in Cumberland. Leaving the service, he took orders, +and was at this time a secular priest, living with Mr. Whitgrave. He +afterwards became a Benedictine monk, and was appointed one of the queen's +chaplains.] + +Norton, a relation near Bristol. Charles consented to assume the character +of her servant, and Wilmot departed on the following night to make +arrangements for his reception. In the mean time, to guard against a +surprise, Hudlestone constantly attended the king; Whitgrave occasionally +left the house to observe what passed in the street; and Sir John Preston, +and two other boys, the pupils of Hudlestone, were stationed as sentinels +at the garret windows.[1] But the danger of discovery increased every hour. +The confession of a cornet, who had accompanied him, and was afterwards +made prisoner, divulged the fact that Charles had been left at Whiteladies; +and the hope of reward stimulated the parliamentary officers to new and +more active exertions. The house of Boscobel, on the day after the king's +departure,[a] was successively visited by two parties of the enemy; the +next morning a second and more rigorous search was made at Whiteladies; and +in the afternoon the arrival of a troop of horse alarmed the inhabitants of +Moseley. As Charles, Whitgrave, and Hudlestone were standing near a window, +they observed a neighbour run hastily into the house, and in an instant +heard the shout of "Soldiers, soldiers!" from the foot of the staircase. +The king was immediately shut up in the secret place; all the other doors +were thrown open; and Whitgrave descending, met the troopers in front of +his house. They seized him as a fugitive Cavalier from Worcester; but he +convinced them by the testimony of his neighbours, that for several weeks +he had not quitted Moseley, and with much difficulty prevailed on them to +depart without searching the house. + +[Footnote 1: Though ignorant of the quality of the stranger, the boys +amused the king by calling themselves his life-guard.--Boscobel, 78.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Sept. 9.] + + +That night[a] Charles proceeded to Bentley. It took but little time to +transform the woodcutter into a domestic servant, and to exchange his +dress of green jump for a more decent suit of grey cloth. He departed on +horseback with his supposed mistress behind him, accompanied by her cousin, +Mr. Lassells; and, after a journey of three days, reached[b] Abbotsleigh, +Mr. Norton's house, without interruption or danger. Wilmot stopped at +Sir John Winter's, a place in the neighbourhood. On the road, he had +occasionally joined the royal party, as it were by accident; more generally +he preceded or followed them at a short distance. He rode with a hawk +on his fist, and dogs by his side; and the boldness of his manner as +effectually screened him from discovery as the most skilful disguise. + +The king, on his arrival,[c] was indulged with a separate chamber, under +pretense of indisposition; but the next morning he found himself in the +company of two persons, of whom one had been a private in his regiment of +guards at Worcester, the other a servant in the palace at Richmond, when +Charles lived there several years before. The first did not recognise him, +though he pretended to give a description of his person; the other, the +moment the king uncovered, recollected the features of the prince, and +communicated his suspicions to Lassells. Charles, with great judgment, sent +for him, discovered himself to him as an old acquaintance, and required his +assistance. The man (he was butler to the family) felt himself honoured +by the royal confidence, and endeavoured to repay it by his services. He +removed to a distance from the king two individuals in the house of known +republican principles; he inquired, though without success, for a + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Sept. 11.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. Sept. 14.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1651. Sept. 15.] + +ship at Bristol to carry him to France or Spain; and he introduced Lord +Wilmot to his chamber at the hour of midnight. There they sat in council, +and resolved[a] that the king should remove the next day to the house of +Colonel Windham, a Cavalier whom he knew, at Trent, near Sherburn; that a +messenger should be despatched to prepare the family for his arrival; and +that to account for the sudden departure of Miss Lane, a counterfeit letter +should be delivered to her, stating that her father was lying at the point +of death. The plan succeeded; she was suffered[b] to depart, and in two +days the prince reached[c] his destination. The following morning[d] Miss +Lane took her leave, and hastened back with Lassells to Bentley.[1] + +In his retirement at Trent, Charles began to indulge the hope of a speedy +liberation from danger. A ship was hired at Lyme to convey a nobleman and +his servant (Wilmot and the king) to the coast of France; the hour and +the place of embarkation were fixed; and a widow, who kept a small inn +at Charmouth, consented to furnish a temporary asylum to a gentleman in +disguise, and a young female who had just escaped from the custody of a +harsh and unfeeling guardian. The next evening[e] Charles appeared in a +servant's dress, with Juliana Coningsby riding behind him, and accompanied +by Wilmot and Windham. The hostess received the supposed lovers with a +hearty welcome; but their patience was soon put to the severest trial; the +night[f] passed away, no boat entered the creek, no ship could be descried +in the offing; and the disappointment gave birth to a thousand jealousies + +[Footnote 1: This lady received a reward of one thousand pounds for her +services, by order of the two houses.--C. Journals, 1660, December 19, 21.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Sept. 17.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. Sept. 18.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1651. Sept. 19.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1651. Sept. 20.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1651. Sept. 23.] +[Sidenote f: A.D. 1651. Sept. 24.] + +and apprehensions. At dawn of day the whole party separated; Wilmot, with a +servant, going to Lyme to inquire after the master of the vessel; Charles, +with his companions, proceeding to Bridport to wait the return of Wilmot. +In Bridport he found fifteen hundred soldiers preparing to embark on an +expedition against Jersey; but, unwilling to create a real, by seeking to +eschew an imaginary, danger, he boldly pushed forward to the inn, and led +the horses through the crowd with a rudeness which provoked complaint. But +a new danger awaited him at the stable. The hostler challenged him as +an old acquaintance, pretending to have known him in the service of Mr. +Potter, at Exeter. The fact was that, during the civil war, Charles had +lodged at that gentleman's house. He turned aside to conceal his alarm; but +had sufficient presence of mind to avail himself of the partial mistake of +the hostler, and to reply, "True, I once lived a servant with Mr. Potter; +but as I have no leisure now, we will renew our acquaintance on my return +to London over a pot of beer." + +After dinner, the royal party joined Wilmot out of the town. The master of +the ship had been detained at home by the fears and remonstrances of his +wife, and no promises could induce him to renew his engagement. Confounded +and dispirited, Charles retraced his steps to Trent; new plans were +followed by new disappointments; a second ship, provided by Colonel Philips +at Southampton, was seized[a] for the transportation of troops to Jersey; +and mysterious rumours in the neighbourhood rendered[b] unsafe the king's +continuance at Colonel Windham's.[1] At Heale, the residence + +[Footnote 1: A reward of one thousand pounds was afterwards given to +Windham.--C. Journals, Dec. 17, 1660.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Sept. 25.] +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Oct. 8.] + +of the widow Hyde, near Salisbury, he found a more secure retreat in a +hiding-place for five days, during which Colonel Gunter, through the agency +of Mansel, a loyal merchant, engaged[a] a collier, lying at New Shoreham. +Charles hastened[b] through Hambleton to Brighton, where he sat down to +supper with Philips, Gunter, Mansel, and Tattershall the master of the +vessel. At table, Tattershall kept his eyes fixed on the king; after +supper, he called Mansel aside and complained of fraud. The person in grey +was the king; he knew him well, having been detained by him in the river, +when, as prince of Wales, he commanded the royal fleet in 1648. This +information was speedily communicated to Charles, who took no notice of it +to Tattershall; but, to make sure of his man, contrived to keep the party +drinking and smoking round the table during the rest of the night. + +Before his departure, while he was standing alone in a room, the landlord +entered, and, going behind him, kissed his hand, which rested on the back +of a chair, saying at the same time, "I have no doubt that, if I live, I +shall be a lord, and my wife a lady." Charles laughed, to show that he +understood his meaning, and joined the company in the other apartment. At +four in the morning they all proceeded[c] to Shoreham; on the beach his +other attendants took their leave, Wilmot accompanied him into the bark. +There Tattershall, falling on his knee, solemnly assured him, that whatever +might be the consequence, he would put him safely on the coast of France. +The ship floated with the tide, and stood with easy sail towards the Isle +of Wight, as if she were on her way to Deal, to which port she was bound. +But at five in the afternoon, Charles, as he had previously concerted with +Tattershall, + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Oct. 14.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. Oct. 15.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1651. Oct. 16.] + +addressed the crew. He told them that he and his companion were merchants +in distress, flying from their creditors; desired them to join him in +requesting the master to run for the French coast; and, as a further +argument, gave them twenty shillings to drink. Tattershall made many +objections; but, at last, with apparent reluctance, took the helm, and +steered across the Channel. At daybreak[a] they saw before them the small +town of Fécamp, at the distance of two miles; but the tide ebbing, they +cast anchor, and soon afterwards descried to leeward a suspicious sail, +which, by her manner of working, the king feared, and the master believed, +to be a privateer from Ostend. She afterwards proved to be a French hoy; +but Charles waited not to ascertain the fact; the boat was instantly +lowered, and the two adventurers were rowed safely into the harbour.[1] + +The king's deliverance was a subject of joy to the nations of Europe, among +whom the horror excited by the death of the father had given popularity to +the exertions of the son. In his expedition into England they had followed +him with wishes for his success; + +[Footnote 1: For the history of the king's escape, see Blount's Boscobel, +with Claustrum Regale reseratum; the Whitgrave manuscript, printed in +the Retrospective Review, xiv. 26. Father Hudleston's Relation; the True +Narrative and Relation in the Harleian Miscellany, iv. 441, an account of +his majesty's escape from Worcester, dictated to Mr. Pepys by the king +himself, and the narrative given by Bates in the second part of his +Elenchus. In addition to these, we have a narrative by Clarendon, who +professes to have derived his information from Charles and the other actors +in the transaction, and asserts that "it is exactly true; that there is +nothing in it, the verity whereof can justly be suspected" (Car. Hist. iii. +427, 428); yet, whoever will compare it with the other accounts will see +that much of great interest has been omitted, and much so disfigured as +to bear little resemblance to the truth. It must be that the historian, +writing in banishment, and at a great distance of time, trusted to his +imagination to supply the defect of his memory.--See note (E). See also +Gunter's narrative in Cary, ii. 430.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Oct. 17.] + +after his defeat at Worcester they were agitated with apprehensions for his +safety. He had now eluded the hunters of his life; he appeared before them +with fresh claims on their sympathy, from the spirit which he had displayed +in the field, and the address with which he had extricated himself from +danger. His adventures were listened to with interest; and his conduct was +made the theme of general praise. That he should be the heir to the British +crowns, was the mere accident of birth; that he was worthy to wear them, +he owed to the resources and energies of his own mind. In a few months, +however, the delusion vanished. Charles had borne the blossoms of +promise; they were blasted under the withering influence of pleasure and +dissipation. + +But from the fugitive prince we must now turn back to the victorious +general who proceeded from the field of battle in triumph to London. The +parliament seemed at a loss to express its gratitude to the man to whose +splendid services the commonwealth owed its preservation. At Ailesbury +Cromwell was met by a deputation of the two commissioners of the great +seal, the lord chief justice, and Sir Gilbert Pickering; to each of whom, +in token of his satisfaction, he made a present of a horse and of two +Scotsmen selected from his prisoners. At Acton he was received by the +speaker and the lord president, attended by members of parliament and of +the council, and by the lord mayor with the aldermen and sheriffs; and +heard from the recorder, in an address of congratulation, that he was +destined "to bind kings in chains, and their nobles in fetters of iron." +He entered[a] the capital in the state carriage, was greeted with the +acclamations of the people as the procession passed through the city, and + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Oct. 12.] + +repaired to the palace of Hampton Court, where apartments had been fitted +up for him and his family at the public expense. In parliament it was +proposed that the 3rd of September should be kept a holiday for ever in +memory of his victory; a day was appointed for a general thanksgiving; and +in addition to a former grant of lands to the amount of two thousand five +hundred pounds per annum, other lands of the value of four thousand pounds +were settled on him in proof of the national gratitude. Cromwell received +these honours with an air of profound humility. He was aware of the +necessity of covering the workings of ambition within his breast with the +veil of exterior self-abasement; and therefore professed to take no merit +to himself, and to see nothing in what he had done, but the hand of the +Almighty, fighting in behalf of his faithful servants.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 509. Ludlow, i. 372. Heath, 301. Journals, Sept. +6, 9, 11, 19. "Next day, 13th, the common prisoners were brought through +Westminster to Tuthill fields--a sadder spectacle was never seen except the +miserable place of their defeat--and there _sold_ to several merchants, and +sent to the Barbadoes."--Heath, 301. Fifteen hundred were granted as +slaves to the Guinea merchants, and transported to the Gold Coast in +Africa.--Parl. Hist. iii. 1374.] + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +Vigilance Of The Government--Subjugation Of Ireland--Of +Scotland--Negotiation With Portugal--With Spain--With The +United Provinces--Naval War--Ambition Of Cromwell--Expulsion Of +Parliament--Character Of Its Leading Members--Some Of Its Enactments. + + +In the preceding chapter we have followed the fortunes of Charles Stuart, +from his landing in Scotland to his defeat at Worcester and his escape to +the continent; we may now look back and direct our attention to some of the +more important events which occurred during the same period, in England and +Ireland. + +1. The reader is aware that the form of government established in England +was an oligarchy. A few individuals, under the cover of a nominal +parliament, ruled the kingdom with the power of the sword. Could the sense +of the nation have been collected, there cannot be a doubt that the old +royalists of the Cavalier, and the new royalists of the Presbyterian party, +would have formed a decided majority; but they were awed into silence and +submission by the presence of a standing army of forty-five thousand men; +and the maxim that "power gives right" was held out as a sufficient reason +why they should swear fidelity to the commonwealth.[1] This numerous army, + +[Footnote 1: See Marchamont Nedham's "Case of the Commonwealth Stated." +4to. London, 1650.] + +the real source of their security, proved, however, a cause of constant +solicitude to the leaders. The pay of the officers and men was always in +arrear; the debentures which they received could be seldom exchanged for +money without a loss of fifty, sixty, or seventy per cent.; and the plea of +necessity was accepted as an excuse for the illegal claim of free quarters +which they frequently exercised. To supply their wants, recourse was +therefore had to additional taxation, with occasional grants from the +excise, and large sales of forfeited property;[1] and, to appease +the discontent of the people, promises were repeatedly made, that a +considerable portion of the armed force should be disbanded, and the +practice of free quarter be abolished. But of these promises, the first +proved a mere delusion; for, though some partial reductions were made, on +the whole the amount of the army continued to increase; the second was +fulfilled; but in return, the burthen of taxation was augmented; for the +monthly assessment on the counties gradually swelled from sixty to ninety, +to one hundred and twenty, and in conclusion, to one hundred and sixty +thousand pounds.[2] + +Another subject of disquietude sprung out of those principles of liberty +which, even after the suppression of the late mutiny, were secretly +cherished and occasionally avowed, by the soldiery. Many, indeed, confided +in the patriotism, and submitted to the judgment, of their officers; but +there were also many who condemned the existing government as a desertion +of the + +[Footnote 1: Journals, 1649, April 18, Oct. 4; 1650, March 30; 1651, Sept. +2, Dec. 17; 1652, April 7.] + +[Footnote 2: Journals, 1649, April 7, Aug. 1, Dec. 7; 1650, May 21, Nov. +26; 1651, April 15, Sept. 1, Dec. 19; 1652, Dec. 10; 1653, Nov. 24.] + +good cause in which they had originally embarked. By the latter Lilburne +was revered as an apostle and a martyr; they read with avidity the +publications which repeatedly issued from his cell; and they condemned as +persecutors and tyrants the men who had immured him and his companions in +the Tower. Preparations had been made[a] to bring them to trial as the +authors of the late mutiny; but, on more mature deliberation, the project +was abandoned,[b] and an act was passed making it treason to assert that +the government was tyrannical, usurped, or unlawful. No enactments, +however, could check the hostility of Lilburne; and a new pamphlet from his +pen,[c] in vindication of "The Legal Fundamental Liberties of the People," +put to the test the resolution of his opponents. They shrunk from the +struggle; it was judged more prudent to forgive, or more dignified to +despise, his efforts; and, on his petition for leave to visit his sick +family, he obtained his discharge.[1] + +But this lenity made no impression on his mind. In the course of six weeks +he published[d] two more offensive tracts, and distributed them among +the soldiery. A new mutiny broke out at Oxford; its speedy suppression +emboldened the council; the demagogue was reconducted[e] to his cell in the +Tower; and Keble, with forty other commissioners, was appointed[f] to +try him for his last offence on the recent statute of treasons. It may, +perhaps, be deemed a weakness in Lilburne that he now offered[g] on certain +conditions to transport himself to America; but he redeemed his character, +as soon as he was placed at the bar. He repelled with scorn the charges of +the + +[Footnote 1: Journals, 1649, April 11, May 12, July 18. Council Book May 2. +Whitelock, 414.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. April 11.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. May 12.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1649. June 8.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1649. July 18.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1649. Sept. 6.] +[Sidenote f: A.D. 1649. Sept. 14.] +[Sidenote g: A.D. 1649. Oct. 24.] + +prosecutors and the taunts of the court, electrified the audience by +frequent appeals to Magna Charta and the liberties of Englishmen, and +stoutly maintained the doctrine that the jury had a right to judge of the +law as well as of the fact. It was in vain that the court pronounced this +opinion "the most damnable heresy ever broached in the land," and that the +government employed all its influence to win or intimidate the jurors; +after a trial of three days, Lilburne, obtained a verdict of acquittal.[1] + +Whether after his liberation[a] any secret compromise took place is +uncertain. He subscribed the engagement, and, though he openly explained it +in a sense conformable to his own principles, yet the parliament made to +him out of the forfeited lands of the deans and chapters the grant[b] of +a valuable estate, as a compensation for the cruel treatment which he had +formerly suffered from the court of the Star-Chamber.[2] Their bounty, +however, wrought no change in his character. He was still the indomitable +denouncer of oppression wherever he found it, and before the end of the +next year he drew upon himself the vengeance of the men in power, by the +distribution[c] of a pamphlet which charged Sir Arthur Hazlerig and the +commissioners at Haberdashers'-hall with injustice and tyranny. This by the +house was voted a breach of privilege, and the offender was condemned[d] +in a fine of seven thousand pounds with banishment for life. Probably the +court of Star-chamber never pronounced a judgment in which the punishment +was more disproportionate to the offence. But his former enemies sought + +[Footnote 1: Journals, 1649, Sept 11, Oct. 30. Whitelock, 424, 425. State +Trials, ii. 151.] + +[Footnote 2: Whitelock, 436. Journ. 1650, July 16, 30.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Dec. 29.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. July 30.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1651. Dec. 22.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1652. Jan. 15.] + +not justice on the culprit, but security to themselves. They seized the +opportunity of freeing the government from the presence of a man whom they +had so long feared; and, as he refused to kneel at the bar while judgment +was pronounced, they embodied the vote in an act of parliament. To save his +life, Lilburne submitted; but his residence on the continent was short: the +reader will soon meet with him again in England.[1] + +The Levellers had boldly avowed their object; the royalists worked in the +dark and by stealth; yet the council by its vigilance and promptitude +proved a match for the open hostility of the one and the secret +machinations of the other. A doubt may, indeed, be raised of the policy of +the "engagement," a promise of fidelity to the commonwealth without king or +house of lords. As long as it was confined to those who held office under +the government, it remained a mere question of choice; but when it was +exacted from all Englishmen above seventeen years of age, under the penalty +of incapacity to maintain an action in any court of law, it became to +numbers a matter of necessity, and served rather to irritate than +to produce security.[2] A more efficient measure was the permanent +establishment of a high court of justice to inquire into offences against +the state, to which was added the organization of a system of espionage by +Captain Bishop, under the direction of Scot, a member of the council. The +friends of monarchy, encouraged by the clamour of the Levellers and the +professions of the Scots, had begun to hold meetings, + +[Footnote 1: Journals, 1651, Dec. 23; 1652, Jan. 15, 20, 30. Whitelock, +520. State Trials, v. 407-415.] + +[Footnote 2: Leicester's Journal, 97-101.] + +sometimes under the pretence of religious worship, sometimes under that of +country amusements: in a short time they divided the kingdom into districts +called associations, in each of which it was supposed that a certain +number of armed men might be raised; and blank commissions with the royal +signature were obtained, to be used in appointing colonels, captains, and +lieutenants, for the command of these forces. Then followed an active +correspondence both with Charles soon after his arrival in Scotland, and +with the earl of Newcastle, the Lord Hopton, and a council of exiles; first +at Utrecht, and afterwards at the Hague. By the plan ultimately adopted, it +was proposed that Charles himself or Massey, leaving a sufficient force +to occupy the English army in Scotland, should, with a strong corps of +Cavalry, cross[a] the borders between the kingdoms; that at the same time +the royalists in the several associations should rise in arms, and that +the exiles in Holland, with five thousand English and German adventurers, +should land in Kent, surprise Dover, and hasten to join their Presbyterian +associates, in the capital.[1] But, to arrange and insure the co-operation +of all the parties concerned required the employment of numerous agents, of +whom, if several were actuated by principle, many were of doubtful faith +and desperate fortunes. Some of these betrayed their trust; some undertook +to serve both parties, and deceived each; and it is a curious fact that, +while the letters of the agents for the royalists often passed through the +hands of Bishop himself, his secret papers belonging to the council of +state were copied and forwarded to the king.[2] This consequence however +followed, + +[Footnote 1: Milton's State Papers, 35, 37, 39, 47, 49, 50. Baillie, ii. 5, +8. Carte's Letters, i. 414.] + +[Footnote 2: State Trials, v. 4. Milton's State Papers, 39, 47, 50, 57. One +of these agents employed by both parties was a Mrs. Walters, alias Hamlin, +on whose services Bishop placed great reliance. She was to introduce +herself to Cromwell by pronouncing the word "prosperity."--Ibid.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. December.] + +that the plans of the royalists were always discovered, and by that means +defeated by the precautions of the council. While the king was on his +way to Scotland, a number of blank commissions had been seized in the +possession of Dr. Lewen, a civilian, who suffered[a] the penalty of death. +Soon afterwards Sir John Gell, Colonel Eusebius Andrews, and Captain +Benson, were arraigned on the charge of conspiring the destruction of +the government established by law. They opposed three objections to the +jurisdiction of the court: it was contrary to Magna Charta, which gave +to every freeman the right of being tried by his peers; contrary to the +petition of right, by which courts-martial (and the present court was most +certainly a court-martial) had been forbidden; and contrary to the many +declarations of parliament, that the laws, the rights of the people, and +the courts of justice, should be maintained. But the court repelled[b] the +objections; Andrews and Benson suffered death, and Gell, who had not +been an accomplice, but only cognizant of the plot, was condemned[c] to +perpetual imprisonment, with the forfeiture of his property.[1] + +These executions did not repress the eagerness of the royalists, nor relax +the vigilance of the council. In the beginning of December the friends of +Charles took up arms[d] in Norfolk, but the rising was premature; a body of +roundheads dispersed the insurgents; and twenty of the latter atoned for +their temerity with their lives. Still the failure of one plot did not +prevent + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 464, 468, 473, 474. Heath, 269, 270. See mention of +several discoveries in Carte's Letters, i. 443, 464, 472.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1652. July 13.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1652. August 22.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1652. Oct. 7.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1650. Dec. 2.] + +the formation of another; as long as Charles Stuart was in Scotland, the +ancient friends of his family secretly prepared for his reception in +England; and many of the Presbyterians, through enmity to the principles +of the Independents, devoted themselves to the interests of the prince.[1] +This party the council resolved to attack in their chief bulwark, the city; +and Love, one of the most celebrated of the ministers, was apprehended[a] +with several of his associates. At his trial, he sought to save his life by +an evasive protestation, which he uttered with the most imposing solemnity +in the presence of the Almighty. But it was clearly proved against him +that the meetings had been held in his house, the money collected for the +royalists had been placed on his table, and the letters received, and the +answers to be returned, had been read in his hearing. After judgment,[b] +both he and his friends presented[c] petitions in his favour; respite after +respite was obtained and the parliament, as if it had feared to decide +without instructions, referred[d] the case to Cromwell in Scotland. That +general was instantly assailed with letters from both the friends and the +foes of Love; he was silent; a longer time was granted by the house; but +he returned no answer, and the unfortunate minister lost his head[e] on +Tower-hill with the constancy and serenity of a martyr. Of his associates, +only one, Gibbons, a citizen, shared his fate.[2] + +[Footnote 1: "It is plaine unto mee that they doe not judge us a lawfull +magistracy, nor esteeme anything treason that is acted by them to destroy +us, in order to bring the king of Scots as heed of the covenant."--Vane to +Cromwell, of "Love and his brethren." Milton's State Papers, 84.] + +[Footnote 2: Milton's State Papers, 50, 54, 66, 75, 76. Whitelock, 492, +493, 495, 500. State Trials, v. 43-294. Heath, 288, 290. Leicester's +Journal, 107, 115, 123. A report, probably unfounded, was spread that +Cromwell granted him his life, but the despatch was waylaid, and detained, +or destroyed by the Cavaliers, who bore in remembrance Love's former +hostility to the royal cause.--Kennet, 185.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. May 7.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. June 5.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1651. June 11.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1651. July 15.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1651. August 22.] + + +2. To Charles it had been whispered by his secret advisers that the war +between the parliament and the Scots would, by withdrawing the attention of +the council from Ireland, allow the royal party to resume the ascendancy +in that kingdom. But this hope quickly vanished. The resources of the +commonwealth were seen to multiply with its wants; and its army in Ireland +was daily augmented by recruits in the island, and by reinforcements from +England. Ireton, to whom Cromwell, with the title of lord deputy, had +left[a] the chief command, pursued with little interruption the career of +his victorious predecessor. Sir Charles Coote met the men of Ulster at +Letterkenny; after a long and sanguinary action they were defeated; and the +next day their leader, MacMahon, the warrior bishop of Clogher, was made +prisoner by a fresh corps of troops from Inniskilling.[1] Lady Fitzgerald, +a name as illustrious in the military annals of Ireland as that of Lady +Derby in those of England, defended the fortress of Trecoghan, but neither +the efforts of Sir Robert Talbot within, nor the gallant attempt of Lord +Castlehaven without, could prevent its surrender.[2] Waterford, Carlow, and +Charlemont accepted honourable conditions, and the garrison of Duncannon, +reduced to a handful of men by the ravages of the plague, opened its +gates[b] to the enemy.[3] Ormond, instead of facing + +[Footnote 1: Though he had quarter given and life promised, Coote ordered +him to be hanged. Yet it was by MacMahon's persuasion that O'Neil in +the preceding year had saved Coote by raising the siege of +Londonderry.--Clarendon, Short View, &c., in vol. viii. 145-149. But Coote +conducted the war like a savage. See several instances at the end of +Lynch's Cambresis Eversus.] + +[Footnote 2: See Castlehaven's Memoirs, 120-124; and Carte's Ormond, ii. +116.] + +[Footnote 3: Heath, 267, 370. Whitelock, 457, 459, 463, 464, 469.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. June 18.] +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. June 25.] + +the conquerors in the field, had been engaged in a long and irritating +controversy with those of the Catholic leaders who distrusted his +integrity, and with the townsmen of Limerick and Galway, who refused to +admit his troops within their walls. Misfortune had put an end to his +authority; his enemies remarked that whether he were a real friend or a +secret foe, the cause of the confederates had never prospered under his +guidance; and the bishops conjured him,[a] now that the very existence of +the nation was at stake, to adopt measures which might heal the public +dissensions and unite all true Irishmen in the common defence. Since +the loss of Munster by the defection of Inchiquin's forces, they had +entertained an incurable distrust of their English allies; and to appease +their jealousy, he dismissed the few Englishmen who yet remained in the +service. Finding them rise in their demands, he called a general assembly +at Loughrea, announced his intention, or pretended intention, of quitting +the kingdom; and then, at the general request, and after some demur, +consented to remain. Hitherto the Irish had cherished the expectation that +the young monarch would, as he had repeatedly promised, come to Ireland, +and take the reins of government into his hands; they now, to their +disappointment, learned that he had accepted the invitation of the Scots, +their sworn and inveterate enemies. In a short time, the conditions to +which he had subscribed began to transpire; that he had engaged to annul +the late pacification between Ormond and the Catholics, and had bound +himself by oath,[b] not only not to permit the exercise of the Catholic +worship, but to root out the Catholic religion wherever it existed in any +of his dominions. A general gloom and despondency prevailed; ten bishops +and + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. March 28.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. August 6.] + +ten clergymen assembled at James-town, and their first resolve was to +depute[a] two of their number to the lord lieutenant, to request that he +would put in execution his former design of quitting the kingdom, and +would leave his authority in the hands of a Catholic deputy possessing the +confidence of the nation. Without, however, waiting for his answer, they +proceeded to frame[b] a declaration, in which they charged Ormond with +negligence, incapacity, and perfidy; protested that, though they were +compelled by the great duty of self-preservation to withdraw from the +government of the king's lieutenant, they had no intention to derogate from +the royal authority; and pronounced that, in the existing circumstances, +the Irish people were no longer bound by the articles of the pacification, +but by the oath under which they had formerly associated for their +common protection. To this, the next day[c] they appended a form of +excommunication equally affecting all persons who should abet either +Ormond or Ireton, in opposition to the real interests of the Catholic +confederacy.[1] + +The lord lieutenant, however, found that he was supported by some of the +prelates, and by most of the aristocracy. He replied[d] to the synod at +James-town, that nothing short of necessity should induce him to quit +Ireland without the order of the king; and the commissioners of trust +expostulated[e] with the bishops on their imprudence and presumption. But +at this moment arrived copies of the declaration which Charles had been +compelled to publish at Dunfermling, in Scotland. The whole population was +in a ferment. Their suspicions, they exclaimed, were now verified; + +[Footnote 1: Ponce, Vindiciae Eversae, 236-257. Clarendon, viii. 151, 154, +156. Hibernia Dominicana, 691. Carte, ii. 118, 120, 123.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. August 10.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. August 11.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. August 12.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1650. August 31.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1650. Sept. 2.] + +their fears and predictions accomplished. The king had pronounced them a +race of "bloody rebels;" he had disowned them for his subjects, he had +anulled the articles of pacification, and had declared[a] to the whole +world that he would exterminate their religion. In this excited temper of +mind, the committee appointed by the bishops published both the declaration +and the excommunication. A single night intervened; their passions had +leisure to cool; they repented[b] of their precipitancy; and, by the advice +of the prelates in the town of Galway, they published a third paper, +suspending the effect of the other two. + +Ormond's first expedient was to pronounce the Dunfermling declaration a +forgery; for the king from Breda, previously to his voyage to Scotland, had +solemnly assured him that he would never, for any earthly consideration, +violate the pacification. A second message[c] informed him that it was +genuine, but ought to be considered of no force, as far as it concerned +Ireland, because it had been issued without the advice of the Irish privy +council.[1] This communication encouraged + +[Footnote 1: Carte's letters, i. 391. Charles's counsellors at Breda had +instilled into him principles which he seems afterwards to have cherished +through life: "that honour and conscience were bugbears, and that the +king ought to govern himself rather by the rules of prudence and +necessity."--Ibid. Nicholas to Ormond, 435. At first Charles agreed to find +some way "how he might with honour and justice break the peace with the +Irish, if a free parliament in Scotland should think it fitting" afterwards +"to break it, but on condition that it should not be published till he had +acquainted Ormond and his friends, secured them, and been instructed how +with honour and justice he might break it in regard of the breach on their +part" (p. 396, 397). Yet a little before he had resolutely declared that no +consideration should induce him to violate the same peace (p. 374, 379). +On his application afterwards for aid to the pope, he excused it, saying, +"fuisse vim manifestam: jam enim statuerant Scoti presbyterani personam +suam parliamento Anglicano tradere, si illam declarationem ab ipsis factam +non approbasset." Ex originali penes me.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. Sept. 15.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. Sept. 16.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. Oct. 15.] + +the lord lieutenant to assume a bolder tone. He professed[a] himself +ready to assert, that both the king and his officers on one part, and the +Catholic population on the other, were bound by the provisions of the +treaty; but he previously required that the commissioners of trust should +condemn the proceedings of the synod at James-town, and join with him in +punishing such of its members as should persist in their disobedience. They +made proposals[b] to the prelates, and received for answer, that protection +and obedience were correlative; and, therefore, since the king had +publicly excluded them, under the designation of "bloody rebels," from +his protection, they could not understand how any officer acting by his +authority could lay claim to their obedience.[1] + +This answer convinced Ormond that it was time for him to leave Ireland; +but, before his departure, he called a general assembly, and selected the +marquess of Clanricard, a Catholic nobleman, to command as his deputy. +To Clanricard, whose health was infirm, and whose habits were domestic, +nothing could be more unwelcome than such an appointment. Wherever he cast +his eyes he was appalled by the prospect before him. He saw three-fourths +of Ireland in the possession of a restless and victorious enemy; Connaught +and Clare, which alone remained to the royalists, were depopulated by +famine and pestilence; and political and religious dissension divided +the leaders and their followers, while one party attributed the national +disasters to the temerity of the men who presumed to govern under the curse +of excommunication; and the other charged their opponents with concealing +disloyal and interested views under the mantle of patriotism + +[Footnote 1: Ponce, 257-261.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. Oct. 23.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. Oct. 29.] + +and religion. Every prospect of successful resistance was gone; the +Shannon, their present protection from the foe, would become fordable +in the spring; and then the last asylum of Irish independence must be +overrun.[1] Under such discouraging circumstances it required all the +authority of Ormond and Castlehaven to induce him to accept an office which +opened no prospect of emolument or glory, but promised a plentiful harvest +of contradiction, hardship, and danger. + +In the assembly which was held[a] at Loughrea, the majority of the members +disapproved of the conduct of the synod, but sought rather to heal by +conciliation than to perpetuate dissension. Ormond, having written[b] a +vindication of his conduct, and received[c] an answer consoling, if not +perfectly satisfactory to his feelings, sailed from Galway; but Clanricard +obstinately refused to enter on the exercise of his office, till reparation +had been made to the royal authority for the insult offered to it by the +James-town declaration. He required an acknowledgment, that it was not in +the power of any body of men to discharge the people from their obedience +to the lord deputy, as long as the royal authority was vested in him; +and at length obtained[d] a declaration to that effect, but with a +protestation, that by it "the confederates did not waive their right to the +faithful observance of the articles of pacification, nor bind themselves to +obey every chief governor who might be unduly nominated by the king, during +his unfree condition among the Scots."[2] + +Aware of the benefit which the royalists in Scotland + +[Footnote 1: See Clanricard's State of the Nation, in his Memoirs, part ii. +p. 24.] + +[Footnote 2: Carte, ii. 137-140. Walsh, App. 75-137. Belling in Poncium, +26.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. Nov. 25.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. Dec. 2.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. Dec. 7.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1650. Dec. 24.] + +derived from the duration of hostilities in Ireland, the parliamentary +leaders sought to put an end to the protracted and sanguinary struggle. +Scarcely had Clanricard assumed[a] the government, when Grace and Bryan, +two Catholic officers, presented themselves to the assembly with a message +from Axtel, the governor of Kilkenny, the bearers of a proposal for a +treaty of submission. By many the overture was hailed with transport. They +maintained that nothing but a general negotiation could put an end to those +private treaties which daily thinned their numbers, and exposed the more +resolute to inevitable ruin; that the conditions held out were better than +they had reason to expect _now_, infinitely better than they could expect +hereafter. Let them put the sincerity of their enemies to the test. If +the treaty should succeed, the nation would be saved; if it did not, the +failure would unite all true Irishmen in the common cause, who, if they +must fall, would not fall unrevenged. There was much force in this +reasoning; and it was strengthened by the testimony of officers from +several quarters, who represented that, to negotiate with the parliament +was the only expedient for the preservation of the people. But Clanricard +treated the proposal with contempt. To entertain it was an insult to him, +an act of treason against the king; and he was seconded by the eloquence +and authority of Castlehaven, who affected to despise the power of the +enemy, and attributed his success to their own divisions. Had the assembly +known the motives which really actuated these noblemen; that they had been +secretly instructed by Charles to continue the contest at every risk, as +the best means of enabling him to make head against Cromwell; that this, +probably the last opportunity of saving the lives + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Jan. 10.] + +and properties of the confederates, was to be sacrificed to the mere chance +of gaining a victory for the Scots, their bitter and implacable enemies,[1] +many of the calamities which Ireland was yet doomed to suffer would, +perhaps, have been averted. But the majority allowed themselves to be +persuaded; the motion to negotiate with the parliament was rejected, and +the penalties of treason were denounced by the assembly, the sentence of +excommunication by the bishops, against all who should conclude any private +treaty with the enemy. Limerick and Galway, the two bulwarks of the +confederacy, disapproved of this vote, and obstinately refused to admit +garrisons within their walls, that they might not be overawed by the +military, but remain arbiters of their own fate. + +The lord deputy was no sooner relieved from this difficulty, than he found +himself entangled in a negotiation of unusual delicacy and perplexity. +About the close of the last summer, Ormond had despatched the Lord Taafe +to Brussels, with instructions, both in his own name and the name of the +supreme council,[2] to solicit the aid of the duke of Lorrain, a prince of +the most restless and intriguing disposition, who was accustomed to sell at +a high price the services of his army to the neighbouring powers. The duke +received him graciously, made him a present of five thousand pounds, and +promised an additional aid of men and money, but on condition that he +should be declared protector royal of Ireland, with all the rights +belonging to that office--rights as undefined as the office itself was +hitherto unknown. Taafe hesitated, but was + +[Footnote 1: Castlehaven's Memoirs, 116, 119, 120.] + +[Footnote 2: Compare the papers in the second part of Clanricard's Memoirs, +17, 18, 27 (folio, London, 1757), with Carte's Ormond, ii. 143.] + +encouraged to proceed by the queen mother, the duke of York, and De Vic, +the king's resident at Brussels. They argued[a] that, without aid to the +Irish, the king must succumb in Scotland; that the duke of Lorrain was the +only prince in Europe that could afford them succour; and that whatever +might be his secret projects, they could never be so prejudicial to the +royal interests as the subjugation of Ireland by the parliament.[1] Taafe, +however, took a middle way, and persuaded[b] the duke to send De Henin as +his envoy to the supreme council, with powers to conclude the treaty in +Ireland. + +The assembly had just been dismissed[c] when this envoy arrived. By the +people, the clergy, and the nobility, he was received as an angel sent from +heaven. The supply of arms and ammunition which he brought, joined to his +promise of more efficient succour in a short time, roused them from their +despondency, and encouraged them to indulge the hope of making a stand +against the pressure of the enemy. Clanricard, left without instructions, +knew not how to act. He dared not refuse the aid so highly prized by the + +[Footnote 1: Clanricard, 4, 5, 17, 27. Ormond was also of the same opinion. +He writes to Taafe that "nothing was done that were to be wished 'undone'"; +that the supreme council were the best judges of their own condition; that +they had received permission from the king, for their own preservation, +"even to receive conditions from the enemy, which must be much more +contrary to his interests, than to receive helps from any other to resist +them, almost upon any terms."--Clanric. 33, 34. There is in the collection +of letters by Carte, one from Ormond to Clanricard written after the battle +of Worcester, in which that nobleman says that it will be without +scruple his advice, that "fitting ministers be sent to the pope, and apt +inducements proposed to him for his interposition, not only with all +princes and states". The rest of the letter is lost, or Carte did not +choose to publish it; but it is plain from the first part that he thought +the only chance for the restoration of the royal authority was in the aid +to be obtained from the pope and the Catholic powers.--Carte's Letters, i. +461.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. November.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. Dec. 31.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1651. Feb. 25.] + +people; he dared not accede to demands so prejudicial to the king's +authority. But if the title of protector royal sounded ungratefully in his +ears, it was heard with very different feelings by the confederates, who +had reason to conclude that, if the contest between Cromwell and the Scots +should terminate in favour of the latter, the Irish Catholics would still +have need of a protector to preserve their religion from the exterminating +fanaticism of the kirk. Clanricard, was, however, inexorable, and his +resolution finally triumphed over the eagerness of his countrymen and the +obstinacy of the envoy. From the latter he obtained[a] an additional sum of +fifteen thousand pounds, on the easy condition of naming agents to conduct +the negotiation at Brussels, according to such instructions as they should +receive from the queen dowager, the duke of York, and the duke of Ormond. +The lord deputy rejoiced that he had shifted the burthen from his +shoulders. De Henin was satisfied, because he knew the secret sentiments of +those to whose judgment the point in question had been referred.[1] + +Taafe, having received his instructions in Paris (but verbal, not written +instructions, as Clanricard had required), joined[b] his colleagues, Sir +Nicholas Plunket, and Geoffrey Brown, in Brussels, and, after a long but +ineffectual struggle, subscribed to the demands of the duke of Lorrain.[2] +That prince, by the treaty, engaged[c] to furnish for the protection of +Ireland, all such supplies of arms, money, ammunition, shipping, and +provisions, as the necessity of the case might require; and in return the +agents, in the name of the + +[Footnote 1: Clanricard, 1-16.] + +[Footnote 2: Id. 31, 58. It is certain from Clanricard's papers that the +treaty was not concluded till after the return of Taafe from Paris (p. +58).] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. March 27.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. July 11.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1651. July 27.] + +people and kingdom of Ireland, conferred on him, his heirs and successors, +the title of protector royal, together with the chief civil authority and +the command of the forces, but under the obligation of restoring both, on +the payment of his expenses, to Charles Stuart, the rightful sovereign.[1] +There cannot be a doubt that each party sought to overreach the other. + +Clanricard was surprised that he heard nothing from his agents, nothing +from the queen or the duke of Ormond. After a silence of several months, a +copy of the treaty[a] arrived. He read it with indignation; he asserted[b] +that the envoys had transgressed their instructions; he threatened to +declare them traitors by proclamation. But Charles had now arrived in Paris +after the defeat at Worcester, and was made acquainted[c] with the whole +intrigue. He praised the loyalty of the deputy, but sought to mitigate his +displeasure against the three agents, exhorted him to receive them again +into his confidence, and advised him to employ their services, as if the +treaty had never existed. To the duke of Lorrain he despatched[d] the +earl of Norwich, to object to the articles which bore most on the royal +authority, and to re-commence the negotiation.[2] But the unsuccessful +termination of the Scottish war taught that prince to look upon the project +as hopeless; while he hesitated, the court of Brussels obtained proofs that +he was intriguing with the French minister; and, to the surprise of Europe, +he was suddenly arrested in Brussels, and conducted a prisoner to Toledo in +Spain.[3] + +Clanricard, hostile as he was to the pretensions of the duke of Lorrain, +had availed himself of the money + +[Footnote 1: Clanricard, 34.] + +[Footnote 2: Id. 36-41, 47, 50-54, 58. Also Ponce, 111-124.] + +[Footnote 3: Thurloe, ii. 90, 115, 127, 136, 611.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Oct. 12.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. Oct. 20.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1652. Feb. 10.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1652. March 23.] + +received from that prince to organize a new force, and oppose every +obstacle in his power to the progress of the enemy. Ireton, who anticipated +nothing less than the entire reduction of the island, opened[a] the +campaign with the siege of Limerick. The conditions which he offered were +refused by the inhabitants, and, at their request, Hugh O'Neil, with three +thousand men, undertook the defence of the city, but with an understanding +that the keys of the gates and the government of the place should remain in +the possession of the mayor. Both parties displayed a valour and obstinacy +worthy of the prize for which they fought. Though Lord Broghill defeated +Lord Muskerry, the Catholic commander in Munster; though Coote, in defiance +of Clanricard, penetrated from the northern extremity of Connaught, as far +as Athenree and Portumna; though Ireton, after several fruitless attempts, +deceived the vigilance of Castlehaven, and established himself on the +right bank of the Shannon; and though a party within the walls laboured +to represent their parliamentary enemies as the advocates of universal +toleration; nothing could shake the constancy of the citizens and the +garrison. They harassed the besiegers by repeated sorties; they repelled +every assault; and on one occasion[b] they destroyed the whole corps, which +had been landed on "the island." Even after the fatal battle of Worcester, +to a second summons they returned a spirited refusal. But in October a +reinforcement of three thousand men from England arrived in the camp; a +battery was formed of the heavy cannon landed from the shipping in the +harbour; and a wide breach in the wall admonished the inhabitants to +prepare for an assault. In this moment of suspense, with the dreadful +example of Drogheda and + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. June 11.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. July 15.] + +Wexford before their eyes, they met at the town-hall. It was in vain that +O'Neil remonstrated; that the bishops of Limerick and Emly entreated and +threatened, Stretch, the mayor, gave[a] the keys to Colonel Fanning, who +seized St. John's gate, turned the cannon on the city, and admitted two +hundred of the besiegers. A treaty was now[b] concluded; and, if the +garrison and inhabitants preserved their lives and property, it was by +abandoning twenty-two individuals to the mercy of the conqueror. Of +these some made their escape; Terence O'Brien, bishop of Emly, Wallis, +a Franciscan friar, Major-General Purcell, Sir Godfrey Galway, Baron, +a member of the council, Stretch, the mayor of the city, with Fanning +himself, and Higgin, were immolated as an atonement for the obstinate +resistance of the besiegers.[1] By Ireton O'Neil was also doomed to die, +but the officers who formed the court, in admiration of his gallantry, +sought to save his life. Twice they condemned him in obedience to the +commander-in-chief, who pronounced his spirited defence of Clonmel an +unpardonable crime against the state; but the third time the deputy was +persuaded to leave them to the exercise of their own judgment; and they +pronounced in favour of their brave but unfortunate captive. Ireton himself +did not long survive. When he condemned[c] the bishop of Emly to die, that +prelate had exclaimed, "I appeal to the tribunal of God, and summon thee +to meet me at that bar." By many these words were deemed prophetic; for in +less than a month the + +[Footnote 1: See the account of their execution in pp. 100, 101 of the +Descriptio Regni Hiberniae per Antonium Prodinum, Romae, 1721, a work made +up of extracts from the original work of Bruodin, Propugnaculum Catholicae +Veritatis, Pragae, 1669. The extract referred to in this note is taken from +1. iv. c. xv. of the original work.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Oct. 23.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. Oct. 27.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1651. Nov. 25.] + +victorious general fell a victim to the pestilential disease which ravaged +the west of Ireland. His death proved a severe loss to the commonwealth, +not only on account of his abilities as an officer and a statesman, but +because it removed the principal check to the inordinate ambition of +Cromwell.[1] + +During the next winter the confederates had leisure to reflect on their +forlorn condition. Charles, indeed, a second time an exile, solicited[a] +them to persevere;[2] but it was difficult to persuade men to hazard their +lives and fortunes without the remotest prospect of benefit to themselves +or to the royal cause; and in the month of March Colonel Fitzpatric, a +celebrated chieftain in the county of Meath, laid down[b] his arms, and +obtained in return the possession of his lands. The example alarmed +the confederates; and Clanricard, in their name, proposed[c] a general +capitulation: it was refused by the stern policy of Ludlow, who assumed the +command on the death of Ireton; a succession of surrenders followed; and +O'Dwyer, the town of Galway, Thurlogh O'Neil, and the earl of Westmeath, +accepted the terms dictated by the enemy; which were safety for their +persons and personal property, the restoration of part of their landed +estates, according to the qualifications to be determined by parliament, +and permission to reside within the commonwealth, or to enter with a +certain number of followers into the service of any foreign prince in amity +with England. The benefit of these articles did not extend to persons who +had taken + +[Footnote 1: Ludlow, i. 293, 296, 298, 299, 300, 307, 310, 316-324. Heath, +304, 305. Ireton's letter, printed by Field, 1651. Carte, ii. 154. The +parliament ordered Ireton's body to be interred at the public expense. It +was conveyed from Ireland to Bristol, and thence to London, lay in state +in Somerset House, and on February 6th was buried in Henry the Seventh's +chapel.--Heath, 305.] + +[Footnote 2: Clanricard, 51.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1652. Jan. 31.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1652. March 7.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1652. March 24.] + +up arms in the first year of the contest, or had belonged to the first +general assembly, or had committed murder, or had taken orders in the +church of Rome. There were, however, several who, in obedience to the +instructions received from Charles, resolved to continue hostilities to the +last extremity. Lord Muskerry collected five thousand men on the borders of +Cork and Kerry, but was obliged to retire before his opponents: his strong +fortress of Ross opened[a] its gates; and, after some hesitation, he made +his submission. In the north, Clanricard reduced Ballyshannon and Donnegal; +but there his career ended; and Coote drove[b] him into the Isle of +Carrick, where he was compelled to accept the usual conditions. The last +chieftain of note who braved[c] the arms of the commonwealth was Colonel +Richard Grace: he beat up the enemy's quarters; but was afterwards driven +across the Shannon with the loss of eight hundred of his followers. Colonel +Sanchey pursued[d] him to his favourite retreat; his castle of Inchlough +surrendered,[e] and Grace capitulated with twelve hundred and fifty men.[1] +There still remained a few straggling parties on the mountains and amidst +the morasses, under MacHugh, and Byrne, and O'Brian, and Cavanagh: these, +however, were subdued in the course of the winter; the Isle of Inisbouffin +received[f] a garrison, and a new force, which appeared in Ulster, under +the Lord Iniskilling, obtained,[g] what was chiefly sought, the usual +articles of transportation. The subjugation of Ireland was completed.[2] + +[Footnote 1: On this gallant and honourable officer, who on several +subsequent occasions displayed the most devoted attachment to the house of +Stuart, see a very interesting article in Mr. Sheffield Grace's "Memoirs of +the Family of Grace," p. 27.] + +[Footnote 2: Ludlow, i. 341, 344, 347, 352, 354, 357, 359, 360. Heath, 310, +312, 324, 333, 344. Journals, April 8, 21, May 18, 25, Aug. 18.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1652. July 5.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1652. May 18.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1652. July.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1652. June 20.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1652. Aug. 1.] +[Sidenote f: A.D. 1652. January.] +[Sidenote g: A.D. 1652. May 18.] + + +3. Here, to prevent subsequent interruption, I may be allowed to describe +the state of this unhappy country, while it remained under the sway of the +commonwealth. + +On the death of Ireton, Lambert had been appointed lord deputy; but by +means of a female intrigue he was set aside in favour of Fleetwood, who had +married Ireton's widow.[1] To Fleetwood was assigned the command of the +forces without a colleague; but in the civil administration were joined +with him four other commissioners, Ludlow, Corbett, Jones, and Weaver. By +their instructions they were commanded[a] and authorized to observe, as far +as it was possible, the laws of England in the exercise of the government +and the administration of justice; to "endeavour the promulgation of the +gospel, and the power of true religion, and holiness;" to remove all +disaffected or suspected persons from office; to allow no papist or +delinquent to hold any place of trust, to practise as barrister or +solicitor, or to keep school for + +[Footnote 1: Journals, Jan. 30, June 15, July 9. Lambert's wife and +Ireton's widow met in the park. The first, as her husband was in +possession, claimed the precedency, and the latter complained of the +grievance to Cromwell, her father, whose patent of lord lieutenant was on +the point of expiring. He refused to have it renewed; and, as there could +be no deputy where there was no principal, Lambert's appointment of deputy +was in consequence revoked. But Mrs. Ireton was not content with this +triumph over her rival. She married Fleetwood, obtained for him, through +her father's interest, the chief command in place of Lambert, and returned +with him to her former station in Ireland. Cromwell, however, paid for +the gratification of his daughter's vanity. That he might not forfeit the +friendship of Lambert, whose aid was necessary for his ulterior designs, +he presented him with a considerable sum to defray the charges of the +preparations which he had made for his intended voyage to Ireland,--Ludlow, +i. 355, 360. Hutchinson, 196. Lambert, however, afterwards discovered that +Cromwell had secretly instigated Vane and Hazlerig to oppose his going to +Ireland, and, in revenge, joined with them to depose Richard Cromwell for +the sin of his father.--Thurloe, vii. 660.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1652. August 24.] + +the education of youth; to impose monthly assessments not exceeding forty +thousand pounds in amount for the payment of the forces, and to imprison or +discharge any person, or remove him from his dwelling into any other place +or country, or permit him to return to his dwelling, as they should see +cause for the advantage of the commonwealth.[1] + +I. One of the first cares of the commissioners was to satisfy the claims of +vengeance. In the year 1644 the Catholic nobility had petitioned the +king that an inquiry might be made into the murders alleged to have been +perpetrated on each side in Ireland, and that justice might be executed on +the offenders without distinction of country or religion. To the conquerors +it appeared more expedient to confine the inquiry to one party; and a high +court of justice was established to try Catholics charged with having shed +the blood of any Protestant out of battle since the commencement of the +rebellion in 1641. Donnelan, a native, was appointed president, with +commissary-general Reynolds, and Cook, who had acted as solicitor at the +trial of Charles I., for his assessors. The court sat in great state at +Kilkenny, and thence made its circuit through the island by Waterford, +Cork, Dublin, and other places. Of the justice of its proceedings we have +not the means of forming a satisfactory notion; but the cry for blood was +too violent, the passions of men were too much excited, and the forms of +proceeding too summary to allow the judges to weigh with cool and cautious +discrimination the different cases which came before them. Lords Muskerry +and Clanmaliere, with Maccarthy Reagh, whether they owed it to their +innocence or to the influence of + +[Footnote 1: Journals, Aug. 34.] + +friends, had the good fortune to be acquitted; the mother of Colonel +Fitzpatric was burnt; Lord Mayo, colonels Tool, Bagnal, and about two +hundred more, suffered death by the axe or by the halter. It was, however, +remarkable, that the greatest deficiency of proof occurred in the province +where the principal massacres were said to have been committed. Of the +men of Ulster, Sir Phelim O'Neil is the only one whose conviction, and +execution, have been recorded.[1] + +II. Cromwell had not been long in the island before he discovered that +it was impossible to accomplish the original design of extirpating the +Catholic population; and he therefore adopted the expedient of allowing +their leaders to expatriate themselves with a portion of their countrymen, +by entering into the service of foreign powers. This plan was followed +by his successors in the war, and was perfected by an act of parliament, +banishing all the Catholic officers. Each chieftain, when he surrendered, +stipulated for a certain number of men: every facility was furnished him +to complete his levy; and the exiles hastened to risk their lives in the +service of the Catholic powers who hired them; many in that of Spain, +others of France, others of Austria, and some of the republic of Venice. +Thus the obnoxious population was reduced by the number of thirty, perhaps +forty thousand able-bodied men; but it soon became a question how to +dispose of their wives and families, of the wives and families of those who +had perished by the ravages of disease and the casualties of war, and of +the multitudes who, chased from their homes and employments, were reduced +to a state of titter destitution. These at different times, to the amount +of several + +[Footnote 1: Ludlow, ii. 2, 5, 8-11. Heath, 332, 333.] + +thousands, were collected in bodies, driven on shipboard, and conveyed to +the West Indies.[1] Yet with all these drains on the one party, and the +continual accession of English and Scottish colonists on the other, the +Catholic was found to exceed the Protestant population in the proportion of +eight to one.[2] Cromwell, when he had reached the zenith of his power, had +recourse to a new expedient. He repeatedly solicited the fugitives, who, in +the reign of the late king, had settled in New England, to abandon their +plantations and accept of lands in Ireland. On their refusal, he made the +same offer to the Vaudois, the Protestants of Piedmont, but was equally +unsuccessful. They preferred their native valleys, though + +[Footnote 1: According to Petty (p. 187), six thousand boys and women were +sent away. Lynch (Cambrensis Eversus, in fine) says that they were sold +for slaves. Bruodin, in his Propugnaculum (Pragae, anno 1660) numbers the +exiles at one hundred thousand. Ultra centum millia omnis sexus et aetatis, +e quibus aliquot millia in diversas Americae tabaccarias insulas relegata +sunt (p. 692). In a letter in my possession, written in 1656, it is said: +Catholicos pauperea plenis navibus mittunt in Barbados et insulas Americae. +Credo jam sexaginta millia abivisse. Expulsis enim ab initio in Hispaniam +et Belgium maritis, jam uxores et proles in Americam destinantur.--After +the conquest of Jamaica in 1655, the protector, that he might people it, +resolved to transport a thousand Irish boys and a thousand Irish girls to +the island. At first, the young women only were demanded to which it is +replied: "Although we must use force in taking them up, yet, it being so +much for their own good, and likely to be of so great advantage to the +public, it is not in the least doubted that you may have such number of +them as you shall think fit."--Thurloe, iv. 23. In the next letter II. +Cromwell says: "I think it might be of like advantage to your affairs +there, and ours here, if you should think fit to send one thousand five +hundred or two thousand young boys of twelve or fourteen years of age to +the place aforementioned. We could well spare them, and they would be of +use to you; and who knows but it may be a means to make them Englishmen, I +mean rather Christians?" (p. 40). Thurloe answers: "The committee of the +council have voted one thousand girls, and as many youths, to be taken up +for that purpose" (p. 75).] + +[Footnote 2: Petty, Polit. Arithmetic, 29.] + +under the government of a Catholic sovereign, whose enmity they had +provoked, to the green fields of Erin, and all the benefits which +they might derive from the fostering care and religions creed of the +protector.[1] + +III. By an act,[a] entitled an act for the settlement of Ireland, the +parliament divided the royalists and Catholics into different classes, and +allotted to each class an appropriate degree of punishment. Forfeiture of +life and estate was pronounced against all the great proprietors of lands, +banishment against those who had accepted commissions; the forfeiture +of two-thirds of their estates against all who had borne arms under the +confederates of the king's lieutenant, and the forfeiture of one-third +against all persons whomsoever who had not been in the actual service of +parliament, or had not displayed their constant good affection to the +commonwealth of England. This was the doom of persons of property: to all +others, whose estates, real and personal, did not amount to the value of +ten pounds, a full and free pardon was graciously offered.[2] + +Care, however, was taken that the third parts, which by this act were to be +restored to the original proprietors, were not to be allotted to them out +of their former estates, but "in such places as the parliament, for the +more effectual settlement of the peace of the nation, should think fit to +appoint." When the first plan of extermination had failed, another project +was adopted of confining the Catholic landholders to Connaught and Clare, +beyond the river Shannon, and of dividing the remainder of the island, +Leinster, Munster, and Ulster, among Protestant colonists. This, it + +[Footnote 1: Hutchinson, Hist. of Massachusetts, 190. Thurloe, iii. 459.] + +[Footnote 2: Journals, Aug. 12, 1652. Scobell, ii. 197, Ludlow, i. 370. +In the Appendix I have copied this act correctly from the original in the +possession of Thomas Lloyd, Esq. See note (F).] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1652. Aug. 12.] + +was said, would prevent the quarrels which must otherwise arise between +the new planters and the ancient owners; it would render rebellion more +difficult and less formidable; and it would break the hereditary influence +of the chiefs over their septs, and of the landlords over their tenants. +Accordingly the little parliament, called by Cromwell and his officers, +passed a second act,[a] which assigned to all persons, claiming under the +qualifications described in the former, a proportionate quantity of land +on the right bank of the Shannon; set aside the counties of Limerick, +Tipperary, and Waterford in Munster, of King's County, Queen's County, +West Meath, and East Meath in Leinster, and of Down, Antrim, and Armagh +in Ulster, to satisfy in equal shares the English adventurers who had +subscribed money in the beginning of the contest, and the arrears of the +army that had served in Ireland since Cromwell took the command; reserved +for the future disposal of the government the forfeitures in the counties +of Dublin, Cork, Kildare, and Carlow; and charged those in the remaining +counties with the deficiency, if their should be any in the first ten, with +the liquidation of several public debts, and with the arrears of the Irish +army contracted previously to the battle of Rathmines. + +To carry this act into execution, the commissioners, by successive +proclamations, ordered all persons who claimed under qualifications, and +in addition, all who had borne arms against the parliament, to "remove and +transplant" themselves into Connaught and Clare before the first of May, +1654.[1] How many + +[Footnote 1: See on this question "The Great Subject of Transplantation in +Ireland discussed," 1654. Laurence, "The Interest of England in the Irish +Transplantation stated," 1654; and the answer to Laurence by Vincent +Gookin, the author of the first tract.] + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1653. Sept. 26.] + +were prevailed upon to obey, is unknown; but that they amounted to a +considerable number is plain from the fact that the lands allotted to +them in lieu of their third portions extended to more than eight hundred +thousand English acres. Many, however, refused. Retiring into bogs and +fastnesses, they formed bodies of armed men, and supported themselves and +their followers by the depredations which they committed on the occupiers +of their estates. They were called Raperees and Tories;[1] and so +formidable did they become to the new settlers, that in certain districts, +the sum of two hundred pounds was offered for the head of the leader of the +band, and that of forty pounds for the head of any one of the privates.[2] + +To maintain this system of spoliation, and to coerce the vindictive +passions of the natives, it became necessary to establish martial law, and +to enforce regulations the most arbitrary and oppressive. No Catholic was +permitted to reside within any garrison or market town, or to remove more +than one mile from his own dwelling without a passport describing his +person, age, and occupation; every meeting of four persons besides the +family was pronounced an illegal and treasonable assembly; to carry arms, +or to have arms at home, was made a capital offence; and any transplanted +Irishman, who was found on the left bank of the Shannon, might be put to +death by the first person who met him, without the order of a magistrate. +Seldom has any nation been reduced to a state of bondage more galling and +oppressive. Under + +[Footnote 1: This celebrated party name, "Tory," is derived from +"toruighim," to pursue for the sake of plunder.--O'Connor, Bib. Stowensis, +ii. 460.] + +[Footnote 2: Burton's Diary, ii. 210.] + +the pretence of the violation of these laws, their feelings were outraged, +and their blood was shed with impunity. They held their property, their +liberty, and their lives, at the will of the petty despots around them, +foreign planters, and the commanders of military posts, who were +stimulated by revenge and interest to depress and exterminate the native +population.[1] + +IV. The religion of the Irish proved an additional source of solicitude +to their fanatical conquerors. By one of the articles concluded with Lord +Westmeath, it was stipulated that all the inhabitants of Ireland should +enjoy the benefit of an act lately passed in England "to relieve peaceable +persons from the rigours of former acts in matters of religion;" and that +no Irish recusant should be compelled to assist at any form of service +contrary to his conscience. When the treaty was presented for ratification, +this concession shocked and scandalized the piety of the saints. The first +part was instantly negatived; and, if the second was carried by a small +majority through the efforts of Marten and Vane, it was with a proviso that +"the article should not give any the least allowance, or countenance, +or toleration, to the exercise of the Catholic worship in any manner +whatsoever."[2] + +In the spirit of these votes, the civil commissioners ordered by +proclamation[a] all Catholic clergymen to quit Ireland within twenty days, +under the penalties of high treason, and forbade all other persons to +harbour any such clergymen under the pain of death. Additional provisions +tending to the same object followed in succession. Whoever knew of the +concealment + +[Footnote 1: Bruodin, 693. Hibernia Dominicana, 706.] + +[Footnote 2: Journals, 1652, June 1.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. Jan. 6.] + +of a priest, and did not reveal it to the proper authorities, was made +liable to the punishment of a public whipping and the amputation of his +ears; to be absent on a Sunday from the service at the parish church, +subjected the offender to a fine of thirty pence; and the magistrates were +authorized to take away the children of Catholics and send them to England +for education, and to tender the oath of abjuration to all persons of +the age of one and twenty years, the refusal of which subjected them to +imprisonment during pleasure, and to the forfeiture of two-thirds of their +estates real and personal.[1] + +During this period the Catholic clergy were exposed to a persecution far +more severe than had ever been previously experienced in the island. In +former times the chief governors dared not execute with severity the laws +against the Catholic priesthood, and the fugitives easily found security on +the estates of the great landed proprietors. But now the Irish people lay +prostrate at the feet of their conquerors; the military were distributed in +small bodies over the country; their vigilance was sharpened by religious +antipathy and the hope of reward; and the means of detection were +facilitated by the prohibition of travelling without a license from the +magistrates. Of the many priests who still remained in the country, several +were discovered, and forfeited their lives on the gallows; those who +escaped detection concealed themselves in the caverns of the mountains, or +in lonely hovels raised in the midst of the morasses, whence they issued +during the night to carry the consolations + +[Footnote 1: Hibernia Dominicana, 707. Bruodin, 696. Porter, Compendium +Annalium Eecclesiasticorum (Romae, 1690), p. 292.] + +of religion to the huts of their oppressed and suffering countrymen.[1] + +3. In Scotland the power of the commonwealth was as firmly established as +in Ireland. When Cromwell hastened in pursuit of the king to Worcester, he +left Monk with eight thousand men to complete the conquest of the kingdom. +Monk invested Stirling; and the Highlanders who composed the garrison, +alarmed by the explosion of the shells from the batteries, compelled[a] the +governor to capitulate. The maiden castle, which had never been violated by +the presence of a conqueror,[2] submitted to the English "sectaries;" and, +what was still more humbling to the pride of the nation, the royal robes, +part of the regalia, and the national records, were irreverently torn from +their repositories, and sent to London as the trophies of victory. Thence +the English general marched forward to Dundee, where he received a proud +defiance from Lumsden, the governor. During the preparations for the +assault, he learned that the Scottish lords, whom Charles had intrusted +with the government in his absence, were holding a meeting on the moor at +Ellet, in Angus. By his order, six hundred horse, under the colonels Alured +and Morgan, aided, as it was believed, by treachery, surprised them at an +early hour in the morning.[b] Three hundred prisoners were made, including +the two committees of + +[Footnote 1: MS. letters in my possession. Bruodin, 696. A proclamation +was also issued ordering all nuns to marry or leave Ireland. They were +successively transported to Belgium, France, and Spain, where they were +hospitably received in the convents of their respective orders.] + +[Footnote 2: "Haec nobis invicta tulerunt centum sex proavi, 1617," was the +boasting inscription which King James had engraved on the wall.--Clarke's +official account to the Speaker, in Cary, ii. 327. Echard, 697.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Aug. 14.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. Aug. 28.] + +the estates and the kirk, several peers, and all the gentry of the +neighbourhood; and these, with such other individuals as the general deemed +hostile and dangerous to the commonwealth, followed the regalia and records +of their country to the English capital. At Dundee a breach was soon made +in the wall: the defenders shrunk from the charge of the assailants; +and the governor and garrison were massacred.[a] I must leave it to the +imagination of the reader to supply the sufferings of the inhabitants from +the violence, the lust, and the rapacity of their victorious enemy. In +Dundee, on account of its superior strength, many had deposited their most +valuable effects; and all these, with sixty ships and their cargoes in the +harbour, became the reward of the conquerors.[1] + +Warned by this awful example, St. Andrews, Aberdeen, and Montrose opened +their gates; the earl of Huntley and Lord Balcarras submitted; the few +remaining fortresses capitulated in succession; and if Argyle, in the midst +of his clan, maintained a precarious and temporary independence, it was not +that he cherished the expectation of evading the yoke, but that he sought +to draw from the parliament the acknowledgment of a debt which he claimed +of the English + +[Footnote 1: Heath, 301, 302. Whitelock, 508. Journals, Aug. 27. +Milton's S. Pap. 79. Balfour, iv. 314, 315. "Mounche commaundit all, of +quhatsummeuer sex, to be putt to the edge of the sword. Ther wer 800 +inhabitants and souldiers killed, and about 200 women and children. The +plounder and buttie they gatte in the toune, exceided 2 millions and a +halffe" (about £200,000). That, however, the whole garrison was not put to +the sword appears from the mention in the Journals (Sept. 12) of a list of +officers made prisoners, and from Monk's letter to Cromwell. "There was +killed of the enemy about 500, and 200 or thereabouts taken prisoners. +The stubbornness of the people enforced the soldiers to plunder the +town."--Cary's Memorials, ii. 351.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651 Sept. 1.] + +government.[1] To destroy the prospect, by showing the hopelessness of +resistance, the army was successively augmented to the amount of twenty +thousand men;[2] citadels were marked out to be built of stone at Ayr, +Leith, Perth, and Inverness; and a long chain of military stations drawn +across the Highlands served to curb, if it did not tame, the fierce and +indignant spirit of the natives. The parliament declared the lands and +goods of the crown public property, and confiscated the estates of all who +had joined the king or the duke of Hamilton in their invasions of England, +unless they were engaged in trade, and worth no more than five pounds, or +not engaged in trade, and worth only one hundred pounds. All authority +derived from any other source than the parliament of England was +abolished[a] by proclamation; the different sheriffs, and civil officers of +doubtful fidelity, were removed for others attached to the commonwealth; a +yearly tax of one hundred and thirty thousand pounds was imposed in lieu of +free quarters for the support of the army; and English judges, assisted by +three or four natives, were appointed to go the circuits, and to supersede +the courts of session.[3] It was with grief + +[Footnote 1: Balfour, iv. 315. Heath, 304, 308, 310, 313. Whitelock, 514, +534, 543.] + +[Footnote 2: Journals, Dec. 2, 1652.] + +[Footnote 3: Ludlow, 345. Heath, 313, 326. Whitelock, 528, 542. Journals, +Nov. 19. Leicester's Journal, 129. The English judges were astonished at +the spirit of litigation and revenge which the Scots displayed during the +circuit. More than one thousand individuals were accused before them of +adultery, incest, and other offences, which they had been obliged to +confess in the kirk during the last twenty or thirty years. When no other +proof was brought, the charge was dismissed. In like manner sixty persons +were charged with witchcraft. These were also acquitted; for, though they +had confessed the offence, the confession had been drawn from them by +torture. It was usual to tie up the supposed witch by the thumbs, and to +whip her till she confessed; or to put the flame of a candle to the soles +of the feet, between the toes, or to parts of the head, or to make the +accused wear a shirt of hair steeped in vinegar &c.--See Whitelock, 543, +544, 545, 547, 548.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Jan. 22.] + +and shame that the Scots yielded to these innovations; though they were +attended with one redeeming benefit, the prevention of that anarchy and +bloodshed which must have followed, had the Cavaliers and Covenanters, with +forces nearly balanced, and passions equally excited, been left to wreck +their vengeance on each other. But they were soon threatened with what in +their eyes was a still greater evil. The parliament resolved to incorporate +the two countries into one commonwealth, without kingly government or the +aristocratical influence of a house of peers. This was thought to fill up +the measure of Scottish misery. There is a pride in the independence of his +country, of which even the peasant is conscious; but in this case not only +national but religious feelings were outraged. With the civil consequences +of an union which would degrade Scotland to the state of a province, +the ministers in their ecclesiastical capacity had no concern; but they +forbade[a] the people to give consent or support to the measure, because it +was contrary to the covenant, and tended "to draw with it a subordination +of the kirk to the state in the things of Christ."[1] The parliamentary +commissioners (they were eight, with St. John and Vane at their head), +secure of the power of the sword, derided the menaces of the kirk. They +convened at Dalkeith the representatives of the counties and burghs, +who were ordered to bring with them full powers to treat and conclude +respecting the incorporation of the two countries. Twenty-eight + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 521. Heath, 307.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1652. Jan. 21] + +out of thirty shires, and forty-four out of fifty-eight burghs, gave +their consent; and the result was a second meeting at Edinburgh, in +which twenty-one deputies were chosen to arrange the conditions with the +parliamentary commissioners at Westminster. There conferences were held,[a] +and many articles discussed; but, before the plan could be amicably +adjusted, the parliament itself, with all its projects, was overturned[b] +by the successful ambition of Cromwell.[1] + +4. From the conquest of Ireland and Scotland we may now turn to the +transactions between the commonwealth and foreign powers. The king of +Portugal was the first who provoked its anger, and felt its vengeance. At +an early period in 1649, Prince Rupert, with the fleet which had revolted +from the parliament to the late king, sailed[c] from the Texel, swept the +Irish Channel, and inflicted severe injuries on the English commerce. Vane, +to whose industry had been committed the care of the naval department, made +every exertion to equip a formidable armament, the command of which +was given to three military officers, Blake, Dean, and Popham. Rupert +retired[d] before this superior force to the harbour of Kinsale; the +batteries kept his enemies at bay; and the Irish supplied him with men and +provisions. At length the victories of Cromwell by land admonished him to +quit his asylum; and, with the loss of three ships, he burst[e] through the +blockading squadron, sailed to the coast of Spain, and during the winter +months sought shelter in the waters of the Tagus. In spring, Blake +appeared[f] with eighteen men-of-war at the mouth of the river; to his +request that he + +[Footnote 1: Journals, 1652, March 16, 24, 26, April 2, May 14, Sept. 15, +29, Oct. 29, Nov. 23.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Sept. 22.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. Oct. 12.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1649. March.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1649. May.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1649. October.] +[Sidenote f: A.D. 1650. March.] + +might be allowed to attack the pirate at his anchorage, he received from +the king of Portugal a peremptory refusal; and, in his attempt to force +his way up the river he was driven back by the fire from the batteries. In +obedience to his instructions, he revenged himself on the Portuguese trade, +and Don John, by way of reprisal, arrested the English merchants, and +took possession of their effects. Alarmed, however, by the losses of his +subjects, he compelled[a] Rupert to quit the Tagus,[1] and despatched[b] +an envoy, named Guimaraes, to solicit an accommodation. Every paper which +passed between this minister and the commissioners was submitted to the +parliament, and by it approved, or modified, or rejected. Guimaraes +subscribed[c] to the preliminaries demanded by the council, that the +English merchants arrested in Portugal should be set at liberty, that they +should receive an indemnification for their losses, and that the king of +Portugal should pay a sum of money towards the charges of the English +fleet; but he protracted the negotiation, by disputing dates and details, +and was haughtily commanded[d] to quit the territory of the commonwealth. +Humbling as it was to Don John, he had no resource; the Conde de Camera was +sent,[e] with the title of ambassador extraordinary; he assented to every + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, i. 134, 142, 155. Heath, 254, 256, 275. Whitelock, +406, 429, 449, 463, 475. Clarendon, iii. 338. Rupert sailed into the +Mediterranean, and maintained himself by piracy, capturing not only English +but Spanish and Genoese ships. All who did not favour him were considered +as enemies. Driven from the Mediterranean by the English, he sailed to the +West Indies, where he inflicted greater losses on the Spanish than the +English trade. Here his brother, Prince Maurice, perished in a storm; and +Rupert, unable to oppose his enemies with any hope of success, returned to +Europe, and anchored in the harbour of Nantes, in March, 1652. He sold his +two men-of-war to Cardinal Mazarin.--Heath, 337. Whitelock, 552. Clarendon, +iii. 513, 520.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. October.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. Dec. 17.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1651. April 22.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1651. May 16.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1652. July 7.] + +demand; but the progress of the treaty was interrupted by the usurpation +of Cromwell, and another year elapsed before it was[a] concluded. By +it valuable privileges were granted to the English traders; four +commissioners,--two English and two Portuguese, were appointed[b] to settle +all claims against the Portuguese government; and it was agreed[c] that an +English commissary should receive one-half of all the duties paid by the +English merchants in the ports of Portugal, to provide a sufficient fund +for the liquidation of the debt.[1] + +5. To Charles I. (nor will it surprise us, if we recollect his treatment +of the Infanta) the court of Spain had always behaved with coldness and +reserve. The ambassador Cardenas continued to reside in London, even +after the king's execution, and was the first foreign minister whom the +parliament honoured with a public audience. He made it his chief object +to cement the friendship between the commonwealth and his own country, +fomented the hostility of the former against Portugal and the United +Provinces, the ancient enemies of Spain, and procured the assent of his +sovereign that an accredited minister from the parliament should be +admitted by the court of Madrid. The individual selected[d] for this office +was Ascham, a man who, by his writings, had rendered himself peculiarly +obnoxious to the royalists. He landed[e] near Cadiz, proceeded under an +escort for his protection to Madrid, and repaired[f] to an inn, till a +suitable residence could be procured. The next day,[g] while he was sitting +at dinner with Riba, a renegado friar, his interpreter, + +[Footnote 1: Journals, 1650, Dec. 17; 1651, April 4, 11, 22, May 7, 13, 16; +1652, Sept. 30, Dec. 15; 1653, Jan. 5. Whitelock, 486. Dumont, vi. p. ii. +82.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. Jan. 5.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. July 10.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1651. July 14.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1650. Jan. 31.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1650. April 3.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1650. May 26.] +[Sidenote g: A.D. 1650. May 27.] + +six Englishmen entered the house; four remained below to watch; two burst +into the room, exclaiming, "Welcome, gallants, welcome;" and in a moment +both the ambassador and the interpreter lay on the floor weltering in their +blood. Of the assassins, one, a servant to Cottington and Hyde, the envoys +from Charles, fled to the house of the Venetian ambassador, and escaped; +the other five took refuge in a neighbouring chapel, whence, by the king's +order, they were conducted to the common goal. When the criminal process +was ended, they all received judgment of death. The crime, it was +acknowledged, could not be justified; yet the public feeling was in favour +of the criminals: the people, the clergy, the foreign ambassadors, all +sought to save them from punishment; and, though the right of sanctuary +did not afford protection to murderers, the king was, but with difficulty, +persuaded to send them back to their former asylum. Here, while they +remained within its precincts, they were safe; but the moment they left the +sanctuary, their lives became forfeited to the law. The people supplied +them with provisions, and offered the means of escape. They left Madrid; +the police pursued; Sparkes, a native of Hampshire, was taken about three +miles from the city; and the parliament, unable to obtain more, appeared to +be content with the blood of this single victim.[1] + +6. These negotiations ended peaceably; those between the commonwealth and +the United Provinces, though commenced with friendly feelings, led to +hostilities. It might have been expected that the Dutch, mindful of the +glorious struggle for liberty maintained + +[Footnote 1: Compare Clarendon, iii. 369, with the Papers in Thurloe, i. +148-153, 202, and Harleian Miscellany, iv. 280.] + +by their fathers, and crowned with success by the treaty of Munster, would +have viewed with exultation the triumph of the English republicans. But +William the Second, prince of Orange, had married[a] a daughter of Charles +I.; his views and interests were espoused by the military and the people; +and his adherents possessed the ascendancy in the States General and in all +the provincial states, excepting those of West Friesland and Holland. +As long as he lived, no atonement could be obtained for the murder of +Dorislaus, no audience for Strickland, the resident ambassador, though that +favour was repeatedly granted to Boswell, the envoy of Charles.[1] However, +in November the prince died[b] of the small-pox in his twenty-fourth year; +and a few days later[c] his widow was delivered of a son, William III., the +same who subsequently ascended the throne of England. The infancy of his +successor emboldened the democratical party; they abolished the office of +stadtholder, and recovered the ascendancy in the government. On the news of +this revolution, the council advised that St. John, the chief justice of +the Common Pleas, and Strickland, the former envoy, should be appointed +ambassadors extraordinary to the States General. St. John, with the fate +of Ascham before his eyes, sought to escape this dangerous mission; he +alleged[d] the infirmity of his health and the insalubrity of the climate; +but the parliament derided his timidity, and his petition was dismissed on +a division by a considerable majority.[2] + +Among the numerous projects which the English leaders cherished under the +intoxication of success, was that of forming, by the incorporation of the + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, i. 112, 113, 114, 124.] + +[Footnote 2: Journals, 1651, Jan. 21, 23, 28.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1646. Dec. 8.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. Nov. 6.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. Nov. 14.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1651. Jan. 28.] + +United Provinces with the commonwealth, a great and powerful republic, +capable of striking terror into all the crowned heads of Europe. But so +many difficulties were foreseen, so many objections raised, that the +ambassadors received instructions to confine themselves to the more sober +proposal of "a strict and intimate alliance and union, which might give to +each a mutual and intrinsical interest" in the prosperity of the other. +They made their public entry into the Hague[a] with a parade and retinue +becoming the representatives of a powerful nation; but external splendour +did not check the popular feeling, which expressed itself by groans +and hisses, nor intimidate the royalists, who sought every occasion of +insulting "the things called ambassadors."[1] The States had not forgotten +the offensive delay of the parliament to answer their embassy of +intercession for the life of Charles I.; nor did they brook the superiority +which it now assumed, by prescribing a certain term within which the +negotiation should be concluded. Pride was met with equal pride; the +ambassadors were compelled to solicit a prolongation of their powers,[b] +and the treaty began to proceed with greater rapidity. The English +proposed[c] a confederacy for the preservation of the liberties of each +nation against all the enemies + +[Footnote 1: Thus they are perpetually called in the correspondence of the +royalists.--Carte's Letters, i. 447, 469; ii. 11. Strickland's servants +were attacked at his door by six cavaliers with drawn swords; an attempt +was made to break into St. John's bedchamber; Edward, son to the queen of +Bohemia, publicly called the ambassadors rogues and dogs; and the young +duke of York accidentally meeting St. John, who refused to give way to +him, snatched the ambassador's hat off his head and threw it in his face, +saying, "Learn, parricide, to respect the brother of your king." "I scorn," +he replied, "to acknowledge either, you race of vagabonds." The duke +drew his sword, but mischief was prevented by the interference of the +spectators,--New Parl. Hist. iii. 1, 364.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. March 10.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. April 17.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1651. May 10.] + +of either by sea and land, and a renewal of the whole treaty of 1495, with +such modifications as might adapt it to existing times and circumstances. +The States, having demanded in vain an explanation of the proposed +confederacy,[a] presented a counter project;[b] but while the different +articles remained under discussion, the period prefixed by the parliament +expired, and the ambassadors departed. To whom the failure of the +negotiation was owing became a subject of controversy. The Hollanders +blamed the abrupt and supercilious carriage of St. John and his colleague; +the ambassadors charged the States with having purposely created delay, +that they might not commit themselves by a treaty with the commonwealth, +before they had seen the issue of the contest between the king of Scotland +and Oliver Cromwell.[1] + +In a short time that contest was decided in the battle of Worcester, +and the States condescended to become petitioners in their turn. Their +ambassadors arrived in England with the intention of resuming the +negotiation where it had been interrupted by the departure of St. John and +his colleague. But circumstances were now changed; success had enlarged +the pretensions of the parliament; and the British, instead of shunning, +courted a trial of strength with the Belgic lion. First, the Dutch +merchantmen were visited under the pretext of searching for munitions of +war, which they were carrying to the enemy; and then, at the representation +of certain merchants, who conceived themselves to have been injured by the +Dutch navy, letters of marque were granted to several individuals, and more +than eighty prizes brought into + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, i. 179, 183, 188-195. Heath, 285-287. Carte's +Letters, i. 464. Leicester's Journal, 107. Parl. History, xx. 496.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. June 14.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. June 20.] + +the English ports.[1] In addition, the navigation act had been passed and +carried into execution,[a] by which it was enacted that no goods, the +produce of Africa, Asia, and America, should be imported into this country +in ships which were not the property of England or its colonies; and that +no produce or manufacture of any part of Europe should be imported, +unless in ships the property of England or of the country of which such +merchandise was the proper growth or manufacture.[2] Hitherto the Dutch +had been the common carriers of Europe; by this act, the offspring of St. +John's resentment, one great and lucrative branch of their commercial +prosperity was lopped off, and the first, but fruitless demand of the +ambassadors was that, if not repealed, it should at least be suspended +during the negotiation. + +The Dutch merchants had solicited permission to indemnify themselves by +reprisals; but the States ordered a numerous fleet to be equipped, and +announced to all the neighbouring powers that their object was, not to make +war, but to afford protection to their commerce. By the council of state, +the communication was received as a menace; the English ships of war were +ordered to exact in the narrow seas the same honour to the flag of the +commonwealth as had been formerly paid to that of the king; and the + +[Footnote 1: It seems probable that the letters of marque were granted not +against the Dutch, but the French, as had been done for some time, and +that the Dutch vessels were detained under pretence of their having French +property on board. Suivant les pretextes de reprisailles contre les +François et autres.--Dumont, vi. ii. 32.] + +[Footnote 2: An exception was made in favour of commodities from the Levant +seas, the West Indies, and the ports of Spain and Portugal, which might be +imported from the usual places of trading, though they were not the growth +of the said places. The penalty was the forfeiture of the ship and cargo, +one moiety to the commonwealth, the other to the informer.--New Parl. Hist. +iii. 1374.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Oct. 9.] + +ambassadors were reminded of the claim of indemnification for the losses +sustained by the English in the East Indies, of a free trade from +Middleburgh to Antwerp, and of the tenth herring which was due from the +Dutch fishermen for the permission to exercise their trade in the British +seas. + +While the conferences were yet pending, Commodore Young met[a] a fleet of +Dutch merchantmen under convoy in the Channel; and, after a sharp action, +compelled the men-of-war to salute the English flag. A few days later[b] +the celebrated Van Tromp appeared with two-and-forty sail in the Downs. He +had been instructed to keep at a proper distance from the English coast, +neither to provoke nor to shun hostility, and to salute or not according to +his own discretion; but on no account to yield to the newly-claimed right +of search.[1] To Bourne, the English, commander, he apologized for +his arrival, which, he said, was not with any hostile design, but in +consequence of the loss of several anchors and cables on the opposite +coast. The next day[c] he met Blake off the harbour of Dover; an action +took place between the rival commanders; and, when the fleets separated in +the evening, the English cut off two ships of thirty guns, one of which +they took, the other they abandoned, on account of the damage which it had +received. + +It was a question of some importance who was the aggressor. By Blake it was +asserted that Van Tromp had gratuitously come to insult the English fleet +in its own roads, and had provoked the engagement by firing the first +broadside. The Dutchman replied that + +[Footnote 1: Le Clerc, i. 315. The Dutch seem to have argued that the +salute had formerly been rendered to the king, not to the nation.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1652. May 12.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1652. May 18.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1652. May 19.] + +he was cruising for the protection of trade; that the weather had driven +him on the English coast; that he had no thought of fighting till he +received the fire of Blake's ship; and that, during the action, he had +carefully kept on the defensive, though he might with his great superiority +of force have annihilated the assailants.[1] + +The reader will probably think, that those who submitted to solicit the +continuance of peace were not the first to seek the commencement of +hostilities. Immediately after the action at sea, the council ordered the +English commanders to pursue, attack, and destroy all vessels the property +of the United Provinces; and, in the course of a month, more than seventy +sail of merchantmen, besides several men-of-war, were captured, stranded, +or burnt. The Dutch, on the contrary, abstained from reprisals; their +ambassadors thrice assured the council that the battle had happened without +the knowledge, and to the deep regret of the States;[a] and on each +occasion earnestly deprecated the adoption of hasty and violent measures, +which might lead to consequences highly prejudicial to both nations. +They received an answer,[b] which, assuming it as proved that the States +intended to usurp the rights of England on the sea, and to + +[Footnote 1: The great argument of the parliament in their declaration is +the following: Tromp came out of his way to meet the English fleet, and +fired on Blake without provocation; the States did not punish him, but +retained him in the command; therefore he acted by their orders, and the +war was begun by them. Each of these assertions was denied on the other +side. Tromp showed the reasons which led him into the track of the English +fleet; and the States asserted, from the evidence before them, that Tromp +had ordered his sails to be lowered, and was employed in getting ready +his boat to compliment the English admiral at the time when he received a +broadside from the impatience of Blake.--Dumont, vi. p. ii. 33. Le Clerc, +i. 315, 317. Basnage, i. 254. Heath, 315-320.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1652. May 24, 27, June 3.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1652. June 5.] + +destroy the navy, the bulwark of those rights, declared that it was the +duty of parliament to seek reparation for the past, and security for the +future.[1] + +Soon afterwards Pauw, the grand pensionary, arrived.[a] He repeated with +the most solemn asseverations from his own knowledge the statement of the +ambassadors;[b] proposed that a court of inquiry, consisting of an equal +number of commissioners from each nation, should be appointed, and +exemplary punishment inflicted on the officer who should be found to have +provoked the engagement; and demanded that hostilities should cease, and +the negotiation be resumed. Receiving no other answer than had been already +given to his colleagues, he asked[c] what was meant by "reparation and +security;" and was told by order of parliament, that the English government +expected full compensation for all the charges to which it had been put +by the preparations and attempts of the States, and hoped to meet with +security for the future in an alliance which should render the interests +of both nations consistent with each other. These, it was evident, were +conditions to which the pride of the States would refuse to stoop; Pauw +demanded[d] an audience of leave of the parliament; and all hope of +reconciliation vanished.[2] + +If the Dutch had hitherto solicited peace, it was not that they feared the +result of war. The sea was their native element; and the fact of their +maritime superiority had long been openly or tacitly acknowledged by all +the powers of Europe. But they wisely + +[Footnote 1: Heath, 320, 321.] + +[Footnote 2: Compare the declaration of parliament of July 9 with that of +the States General of July 23, Aug. 2. See also Whitelock, 537; Heath, +315-322; the Journals, June 5, 11, 25, 30; and Le Clerc, i. 318-321.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1652. June 11.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1652. June 17.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1652. June 25.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1652. June 30.] + +judged that no victory by sea could repay them for the losses which they +must sustain from the extinction of their fishing trade, and the suspension +of their commerce.[1] For the commonwealth, on the other hand, it was +fortunate that the depredations of Prince Rupert had turned the attention +of the leaders to naval concerns. Their fleet had been four years in +commission: the officers and men were actuated by the same spirit of civil +liberty and religious enthusiasm which distinguished the land army; Ayscue +had just returned from the reduction of Barbadoes with a powerful squadron; +and fifty additional ships were ordered to be equipped, an object easily +accomplished at a time when any merchantman capable of carrying guns could, +with a few alterations, be converted into a man-of-war.[2] Ayscue with the +smaller division of the fleet remained at home to scour the Channel.[a] +Blake sailed to the north, captured the squadron appointed to protect the +Dutch fishing-vessels, exacted from the busses the duty of every tenth +herring, and sent them home with a prohibition to fish again without a +license from the English government. In the mean while Van Tromp sailed +from the Texel with seventy men-of-war. It was expected in Holland that he +would sweep the English navy from the face of the ocean. His first attempt +was to surprise Ayscue, who was saved by a calm followed by a change of +wind. He then sailed to the north in search of Blake. But + +[Footnote 1: The fishery employed in various ways one hundred thousand +persons.--Le Clerc, 321.] + +[Footnote 2: From a list of hired merchantmen converted into men-of-war, it +appears that a ship of nine hundred tons burthen made a man-of-war of sixty +guns; one of seven hundred tons, a man-of-war of forty-six; four hundred, +of thirty-four; two hundred, of twenty; one hundred, of ten; sixty, of +eight; and that about five or six men were allowed for each gun.--Journals, +1651, May 29.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1652. July 19.] + +his fleet was dispersed by a storm; five of his frigates fell into the +hands of the English; and on his return he was received with murmurs and +reproaches by the populace. Indignant at a treatment which he had not +deserved, he justified his conduct before the States, and then laid down +his commission.[1] + +De Ruyter, a name almost equally illustrious on the ocean, was appointed +his successor. That officer sailed to the mouth of the Channel, took under +his charge a fleet of merchantmen, and on his return was opposed by Ayscue +with nearly an equal force. The English. commander burst through the enemy, +and was followed by nine sail; the rest of the fleet took no share in the +action, and the convoy escaped. The blame rested not with Ayscue, but with +his inferior officers; but the council took the opportunity to lay him +aside, not that they doubted his courage or abilities, but because he was +suspected of a secret leaning to the royal cause. To console him for his +disgrace, he received a present of three hundred pounds, with a grant of +land of the same annual rent in Ireland.[2] + +De Witte now joined De Ruyter,[a] and took the command. Blake accepted the +challenge of battle, and night alone separated the combatants. The next +morning the Dutch fled, and were pursued as far as the Goree. Their ships +were in general of smaller dimensions, and drew less water than those of +their adversaries, who dared not follow among the numerous sand-banks with +which the coast is studded.[3] + +Blake, supposing that naval operations would be suspended during the +winter, had detached several + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 538, 539, 540, 541. Heath, 322. Le Clerc, i. 321.] + +[Footnote 2: Heath, 323. Le Clerc, i. 322.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. 326. Ludlow, i. 367. Whitelock, 545. Le Clerc, i. 324.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1652. Sept. 28.] + +squadrons to different ports, and was riding in the Downs with thirty-seven +sail, when he was surprised by the appearance[a] of a hostile fleet of +double that number, under the command of Van Tromp, whose wounded pride had +been appeased with a new commission. A mistaken sense of honour induced the +English admiral to engage in the unequal contest. The battle[b] raged from +eleven in the morning till night. The English, though they burnt a large +ship and disabled two others, lost five sail either sunk or taken; and +Blake, under cover of the darkness, ran up the river as far as Leigh. Van +Tromp sought his enemy at Harwich and Yarmouth; returning, he insulted the +coast as he passed; and continued to cruise backwards and forwards from the +North Foreland to the Isle of Wight.[1] + +The parliament made every exertion to wipe away this disgrace. The ships +were speedily refitted; two regiments of infantry embarked to serve as +marines; a bounty was offered for volunteers; the wages of the seamen were +raised; provision was made for their families during their absence on +service; a new rate for the division of prize-money was established; and, +in aid of Blake, two officers, whose abilities had been already tried, +Deane and Monk, received the joint command of the fleet. On the other hand, +the Dutch were intoxicated with their success; they announced it to the +world, in prints, poems, and publications; and Van Tromp affixed a broom to +the head of his mast as an emblem of his triumph. He had gone to the Isle +of Rhée to take the homeward-bound trade under his charge, with orders to +resume his station at the mouth of the Thames, and to prevent the egress of + +[Footnote 1: Heath, 329. Ludlow, ii. 3. Neuville, iii. 68.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1652. Nov. 29.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1652. Nov. 30.] + +the English. But Blake had already stationed himself with more than seventy +sail across the Channel, opposite the Isle of Portland, to intercept the +return of the enemy. On the 18th of February the Dutch fleet, equal in +number, with three hundred merchantmen under convoy, was discovered[a] +near Cape La Hogue, steering along the coast of France. The action was +maintained with the most desperate obstinacy. The Dutch lost six sail, +either sunk or taken, the English one, but several were disabled, and Blake +himself was severely wounded. + +The following morning[b] the enemy were seen opposite Weymouth, drawn up in +the form of a crescent covering the merchantmen. Many attempts were made to +break through the line; and so imminent did the danger appear to the Dutch +admiral, that he made signal for the convoy to shift for themselves. The +battle lasted at intervals through the night; it was renewed with greater +vigour near Boulogne in the morning;[c] till Van Tromp, availing himself of +the shallowness of the coast, pursued his course homeward unmolested by the +pursuit of the enemy. The victory was decidedly with the English; the loss +in men might be equal on both sides; but the Dutch themselves acknowledged +that nine of their men-of-war and twenty-four of the merchant vessels had +been either sunk or captured.[1] + +This was the last naval victory achieved under the auspices of the +parliament, which, though it wielded the powers of government with an +energy that surprised + +[Footnote 1: Heath, 335. Whitelock, 551. Leicester's Journal, 138. Le +Clerc, i. 328. Basnage, i. 298-301. By the English admirals the loss of the +Dutch was estimated at eleven men-of-war and thirty merchantmen.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. Feb. 18.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1653. Feb. 19.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1653. Feb. 20.] + +the several nations of Europe, was doomed to bend before the superior +genius or ascendancy of Cromwell. When that adventurer first formed the +design of seizing the supreme authority, is uncertain; it was not till +after the victory at Worcester that he began gradually and cautiously to +unfold his object. He saw himself crowned with the laurels of conquest; he +held the command in chief of a numerous and devoted army; and he dwelt with +his family in a palace formerly the residence of the English monarchs. His +adversaries had long ago pronounced him, in all but name, "a king;" and his +friends were accustomed to address him in language as adulatory as ever +gratified the ears of the most absolute sovereign.[1] His importance was +perpetually forced upon his notice by the praise of his dependants, by the +foreign envoys who paid court to him, and by the royalists who craved +his protection. In such circumstances, it cannot be surprising if the +victorious general indulged the aspirings of ambition; if the stern +republican, however he might hate to see the crown on the brows of another, +felt no repugnance to place it upon his own. + +The grandees of the army felt that they no longer possessed the chief sway +in the government. War had called them away to their commands in Scotland +and Ireland; and, during their absence, the conduct of affairs had devolved +on those who, in contradistinction, were denominated the statesmen. Thus, +by the course + +[Footnote 1: The general officers conclude their despatches to him thus: +"We humbly lay ourselves with these thoughts, in this emergency, at your +excellency's feet."--Milton's State Papers, 71. The ministers of Newcastle +make "their humble addresses to his godly wisdom," and present "their +humble suits to God and his excellency" (ibid. 82); and the petitioners +from different countries solicit him to mediate for them to the parliament, +"because God has not put the sword in his hand in vain."--Whitelock, 517.] + +of events, the servants had grown into masters, and the power of the +senate had obtained the superiority over the power of the sword. Still +the officers in their distant quarters jealously watched, and severely +criticised the conduct of the men at Westminster. With want of vigour in +directing the military and naval resources of the country, they could not +be charged; but it was complained that they neglected the internal economy +of government; that no one of the objects demanded in the "agreement of +the people" had been accomplished; and that, while others sacrificed +their health and their lives in the service of the commonwealth, all the +emoluments and patronage were monopolized by the idle drones who remained +in the capital.[1] + +On the return of the lord-general, the council of officers had been +re-established at Whitehall;[a] and their discontent was artfully employed +by Cromwell in furtherance of his own elevation. When he resumed his seat +in the house, he reminded the members of their indifference to two measures +earnestly desired by the country, the act of amnesty and the termination of +the present parliament. Bills for each of these objects had been introduced +as far back as 1649; but, after some progress, both were suffered to sleep +in the several committees; and this backwardness of the "statesmen" was +attributed to their wish to enrich themselves by forfeitures, and to +perpetuate their power by perpetuating the parliament. The influence of +Cromwell revived both questions. An act of oblivion was obtained,[b] which, +with some exceptions, pardoned all offences committed before the battle of +Worcester, and relieved the minds of the royalists from the apprehension + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 549.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Sept. 16.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1652. Feb. 24.] + +of additional forfeitures. On the question of the expiration of parliament, +after several warm debates, the period had been fixed[a] for the 3rd of +November, 1654; a distance of three years, which, perhaps, was not the less +pleasing to Cromwell, as it served to show how unwilling his adversaries +were to resign their power. The interval was to be employed in determining +the qualifications of the succeeding parliament.[1] + +In the winter, the lord-general called a meeting of officers and members at +the house of the speaker; and it must have excited their surprise, when +he proposed to them to deliberate, whether it were better to establish +a republic, or a mixed form of monarchical government. The officers in +general pronounced in favour of a republic, as the best security for the +liberties of the people; the lawyers pleaded unanimously for a limited +monarchy, as better adapted to the laws, the habits, and the feelings of +Englishmen. With the latter Cromwell agreed, and inquired whom in that case +they would choose for king. It was replied, either Charles Stuart or +the duke of York, provided they would comply with the demands of the +parliament; if they would not, the young duke of Gloucester, who could not +have imbibed the despotic notions of his elder brothers. This was not the +answer which Cromwell sought: he heard it with uneasiness; and, as often as +the subject was resumed, diverted the conversation to some other question. +In conclusion, he gave his opinion, that, "somewhat of a monarchical +government would be most effectual, if it could be established with safety +to the liberties of the people, + +[Footnote 1: Journals, 1651, Nov. 4, 14, 15, 18, 27; 1652, Feb. 24.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1652. Nov. 18.] + +as Englishmen and Christians."[1] That the result of the meeting +disappointed his expectations, is evident; but he derived from it this +advantage, that he had ascertained the sentiments of many, whose aid he +might subsequently require. None of the leaders from the opposite party +appear to have been present.[1] + +Jealous, however, of his designs, "the statesmen" had begun to fight him +with his own weapons. As the commonwealth had no longer an enemy to contend +with on the land, they proposed[a] a considerable reduction in the number +of the forces, and[b] a proportionate reduction of the taxes raised for +their support. The motion was too reasonable in itself, and too popular +in the country, to be resisted with safety: one-fourth of the army was +disbanded,[c] and the monthly assessment lowered from one hundred and +twenty thousand pounds to ninety thousand pounds. Before the expiration of +six months, the question of a further reduction was brought forward;[d] +but the council of war took the alarm, and a letter from Cromwell to the +speaker[e] induced the house to continue its last vote. In a short time[f] +it was again mentioned; but the next day[g] six officers appeared at the +bar of the house with a petition from the army, which, under pretence of +praying for improvements, tacitly charged the members with the neglect of +their duty. It directed their attention to the propagation of the +gospel, the reform of the law, the removal from office of scandalous and +disaffected persons, the abuses in the excise and the treasury, the arrears +due to the army, the violation of articles granted to the enemy, and the +qualifications of future and successive parliaments. Whitelock remonstrated +with Cromwell on the danger + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 516.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Oct. 2.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. Oct. 7.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1651. Dec. 19.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1652. June 5.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1652. June 15.] +[Sidenote f: A.D. 1652. August 12.] +[Sidenote g: A.D. 1652. August 13.] + +of permitting armed bodies to assembly and petition. He slighted the +advice.[1] + +Soon afterwards[a] the lord-general requested a private and confidential +interview with that lawyer. So violent, he observed, was the discontent +of the army, so imperious the conduct of the parliament, that it would be +impossible to prevent a collision of interests, and the subsequent ruin of +the good cause, unless there were established "some authority so full and +so high" as to be able to check these exorbitances, and to restrain both +the army and the parliament. Whitelock replied, that, for the army, +his excellency had hitherto kept and would continue to keep it in due +subordination; but with respect to the parliament, reliance must be placed +on the good sense and virtue of the majority. To control the supreme power +was legally impossible. All, even Cromwell himself, derived their authority +from it. At these words the lord-general abruptly exclaimed, "What, if a +man should take upon him to be king?" The commissioner answered that the +title would confer no additional benefit on his excellency. By his command +of the army, his ascendancy in the house, and his reputation, both at home +and abroad, he already enjoyed, without the envy of the name, all the power +of a king. When Cromwell insisted that the name would give security to his +followers, and command the respect of the people, Whitelock rejoined, that +it would change the state of the controversy between the parties, and +convert a national into a personal quarrel. His friends had cheerfully +fought with him to establish a republican in place of monarchical +government; would they equally + + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 541. Journals, 1651; Dec. 19; 1652, June 15, Aug. +12, 13.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1652. Nov. 8.] + +fight with him in favour of the house of Cromwell against the house of +Stuart?[1] In conclusion, Cromwell conjured him to give his advice without +disguise or qualification, and received this answer, "Make a private +treaty with the son of the late king, and place him on the throne, but on +conditions which shall secure to the nation its rights, and to yourself the +first place beneath the throne." The general coldly observed that a matter +of such importance and difficulty deserved mature consideration. They +separated; and Whitelock soon discovered that he had forfeited his +confidence.[2] + +At length Cromwell fixed on a plan to accomplish his purpose by procuring +the dissolution of the parliament, and vesting for a time the sovereign +authority in a council of forty persons, with himself at their head. It was +his wish to effect this quietly by the votes of parliament--his resolution +to effect it by open force, if such votes were refused. Several meetings +were held by the officers and members at the lodgings of the lord-general +in Whitehall. St. John and a few others gave their assent; the rest, under +the guidance + +[Footnote 1: Henry, duke of Gloucester, and the princess Elizabeth were in +England at the last king's death. In 1650 the council proposed to send the +one to his brother in Scotland, and the other to her sister in Holland, +allowing to each one thousand pounds per annum, as long as they should +behave inoffensively.--Journals, 1650, July 24, Sept. 11. But Elizabeth +died on Sept. 8 of the same year, and Henry remained under the charge +of Mildmay, governor of Carisbrook Castle, till a short time after this +conference, when Cromwell, as if he looked on the young prince as a rival, +advised his tutor Lovell, to ask permission to convey him to his sister, +the princess of Orange. It was granted, with the sum of five hundred pounds +to defray the expense of the journey.--Leicester's Journal, 103. Heath, +331. Clarendon, iii. 525, 526.] + +[Footnote 2: Whitelock, 548-551. Were the minutes of this conversation +committed to paper immediately, or after the Restoration? The credit due to +them depends on this circumstance.] + +of Whitelock and Widdrington, declared that the dissolution would be +dangerous, and the establishment of the proposed council unwarrantable. +In the mean time, the house resumed the consideration of the new +representative body, and several qualifications were voted; to all of which +the officers raised objections, but chiefly to the "admission of neuters," +a project to strengthen the government by the introduction of the +Presbyterian interest.[1] "Never," said Cromwell, "shall any of that +judgment, who have deserted the good cause, be admitted to power." On the +last meeting,[a] held on the 19th of April, all these points were long and +warmly debated. Some of the officers declared that the parliament must be +dissolved "one way or other;" but the general checked their indiscretion +and precipitancy; and the assembly broke up at midnight, with an +understanding that the leading men on each side should resume the subject +in the morning.[2] + +At an early hour the conference was recommenced,[b] and after a short time +interrupted, in consequence of the receipt of a notice by the general that +it was the intention of the house to comply with the desires of the army. +This was a mistake: the opposite party, led by Vane, who had discovered the +object of Cromwell, + +[Footnote 1: From Ludlow (ii. 435) it appears that by this bill the number +of members for boroughs was reduced, of representatives of counties +increased. The qualification of an elector was the possession for his +own use of an estate real or personal of the value of two hundred +pounds.--Journ. 30th March, 1653. It is however singular that though the +house continued to sit till April 19th--the only entry on the journals +respecting this bill occurs on the 13th--making it a qualification of the +candidates that they should be "persons of known integrity, fearing God, +and not scandalous in their conversation."--Journal, ibid.] + +[Footnote 2: Compare Whitelock's narrative of this meeting (p. 554) with +Cromwell's, in Milton's State Papers, 109.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653 April 19.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1653 April 20.] + +had indeed resolved to pass a bill of dissolution, not, however, the bill +proposed by the officers, but their own bill, containing all the obnoxious +provisions; and to pass it that very morning, that it might obtain the +force of law before their adversaries could have time to appeal to the +power of the sword.[1] While Harrison "most sweetly and humbly" conjured +them to pause before they took so important a step, Ingoldsby hastened +to inform the lord-general at Whitehall. His resolution was immediately +formed, and a company of musketeers received orders to accompany him to the +house. + +At this eventful moment, big with the most important consequences both to +himself and his country, whatever were the workings of Cromwell's mind, he +had the art to conceal them from the eyes of the beholders. Leaving the +military in the lobby, he entered the house, and composedly seated himself +on one of the outer benches. His dress was a plain suit of black cloth, +with grey worsted stockings. For a while he seemed to listen with interest +to the debate; but, when the speaker was going to put the question, he +whispered to Harrison, "This is the time: I must do it;" and rising, put +off his hat to address the house. At first his language was decorous and +even laudatory. Gradually he became more warm and animated: at last +he assumed all the vehemence of passion, and indulged in personal +vituperation. He charged the members with self-seeking and profaneness; +with the frequent denial of justice, and numerous + +[Footnote 1: These particulars may be fairly collected from Whitelock, 554, +compared with the declaration of the officers, and Cromwell's speech to +his parliament. The intention to dissolve themselves is also asserted by +Hazlerig.--Burton's Diary, iii. 98.] + +acts of oppression; with idolizing the lawyers, the constant advocates of +tyranny; with neglecting the men who had bled for them in the field, that +they might gain the Presbyterians who had apostatized from the cause; +and with doing all this in order to perpetuate their own power, and to +replenish their own purses. But their time was come; the Lord had disowned +them; he had chosen more worthy instruments to perform his work. Here the +orator was interrupted by Sir Peter Wentworth, who declared that he +never before heard language so unparliamentary, language, too, the more +offensive, because it was addressed to them by their own servant, whom they +had too fondly cherished, and whom, by their unprecedented bounty, they had +made what he was. At these words Cromwell put on his hat, and, springing +from his place, exclaimed, "Come, come, sir, I will put an end to your +prating." For a few seconds, apparently in the most violent agitation, he +paced forward and backward, and then, stamping on the floor, added, "You +are no parliament. I say you are no parliament: bring them in, bring them +in." Instantly the door opened, and Colonel Worseley entered, followed by +more than twenty musketeers. "This," cried Sir Henry Vane, "is not honest. +It is against morality and common honesty." "Sir Henry Vane," replied +Cromwell, "O Sir Henry Vane! The Lord deliver me from Sir Henry Vane! He +might have prevented this. But he is a juggler, and has not common honesty +himself." From Vane he directed his discourse to Whitelock, on whom he +poured a torrent of abuse; then, pointing to Challoner, "There," he +cried, "sits a drunkard;" next, to Marten and Wentworth, "There are two +whoremasters:" and afterwards, selecting different members in succession, +described them as dishonest and corrupt livers, a shame and a scandal to +the profession of the gospel. Suddenly, however, checking himself, he +turned to the guard, and ordered them to clear the house. At these words +Colonel Harrison took the speaker by the hand, and led him from the chair; +Algernon Sidney was next compelled to quit his seat; and the other members, +eighty in number, on the approach of the military, rose and moved towards +the door. Cromwell now resumed his discourse. "It is you," he exclaimed, +"that have forced me to do this. I have sought the Lord both day and night, +that he would rather slay me, than put me on the doing of this work." +Alderman Allen took advantage of these words to observe, that it was not +yet too late to undo what had been done; but Cromwell instantly charged him +with peculation, and gave him into custody. When all were gone, fixing his +eye on the mace, "What," said he, "shall we do with this fool's bauble? +Here, carry it away." Then, taking the act of dissolution from the clerk, +he ordered the doors to be locked, and, accompanied by the military, +returned to Whitehall. + +That afternoon the members of the council assembled in their usual place of +meeting. Bradshaw had just taken the chair, when the lord-general entered, +and told them, that if they were there as private individuals, they +were welcome; but, if as the council of state, they must know that the +parliament was dissolved, and with it also the council. "Sir," replied +Bradshaw, with the spirit of an ancient Roman, "we have heard what you did +at the house this morning, and before many hours all England will know it. +But, sir, you are mistaken to think that the parliament is dissolved. No +power under heaven can dissolve them but themselves. Therefore take you +notice of that." After this protest they withdrew.[1] + +Thus, by the parricidal hands of its own children, perished the long +parliament, which, under a variety of forms, had, for more than twelve +years, defended and invaded the liberties of the nation. It fell without a +struggle or a groan, unpitied and unregretted. The members slunk away to +their homes, where they sought by submission to purchase the forbearance +of their new master; and their partisans, if partisans they had, reserved +themselves in silence for a day of retribution, which came not before +Cromwell slept in his grave. The royalists congratulated each other on an +event which they deemed a preparatory step to the restoration of the king; +the army and navy, in numerous addresses, declared that they would live or +die, stand or fall, with the lord-general, and in every part of the country +the congregations of the saints magnified the arm of the Lord which had +broken the mighty, that in lieu of the sway of mortal men, "the fifth +monarchy, the reign of Christ, might be established upon earth."[2] + +It would, however, be unjust to the memory of those who exercised the +supreme power after the death of the king, not to acknowledge that there +existed among them men capable of wielding with energy the destinies of a +great empire. They governed only four years; yet, under their auspices, the +conquests of Ireland and Scotland were achieved, and a navy was + +[Footnote 1: See the several accounts in Whitelock, 554; Ludlow, ii. 19 23; +Leicester's Journal, 139; Hutchinson, 332; Several Proceedings, No. 186, +and Burton's Diary, iii. 98.] + +[Footnote 2: Whitelock, 555-558. Milton's State Papers, 90-97. Ellis, +Second Series, iii. 368.] + +created, the rival of that of Holland and the terror of the rest of +Europe.[1] But there existed an essential error in their form of +government. Deliberative assemblies are always slow in their proceedings; +yet the pleasure of parliament, as the supreme power, was to be taken +on every subject connected with the foreign relations, or the internal +administration of the country; and hence it happened that, among the +immense variety of questions which came before it, those commanded +immediate attention which were deemed of immediate necessity; while the +others, though often of the highest importance to the national welfare, +were first postponed, then neglected, and ultimately forgotten. To this +habit of procrastination was perhaps owing the extinction of its authority. +It disappointed the hopes of the country, and supplied Cromwell with the +most plausible argument in defence of his conduct. + +Of the parliamentary transactions up to this period, the principal have +been noticed in the preceding pages. I shall add a few others which may +be thought worthy the attention of the reader. 1. It was complained that, +since the abolition of the spiritual tribunals, the sins of incest, +adultery, and fornication had been multiplied, in consequence of the +impunity with which they might be committed; and, at the prayer of the +godly, they were made[a] criminal offences, cognizable by the criminal +courts, and punishable, the two first with death, the last with three +months' imprisonment. + +[Footnote 1: "We intended," says Scot, "to have gone off with a good +savour, but we stayed to end the Dutch war. We might have brought them to +oneness with us. Their ambassadors did desire a coalition. This we might +have done in four or five months. We never bid fairer for being masters of +the whole world."--Burton's Diary, iii. 112.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. May 16.] + + +But it was predicted at the time, and experience verified the prediction, +that the severity of the punishment would defeat the purpose of the law. 2. +Scarcely a petition was presented, which did not, among other things, pray +for the reformation of the courts of justice; and the house, after several +long debates, acquiesced[a] in a measure, understood to be only the +forerunner of several others,[b] that the law books should be written, and +law proceedings be conducted in the English language.[1] 3. So enormous +were the charges of the commonwealth, arising from incessant war by sea or +land, that questions of finance continually engaged the attention of the +house. There were four principal sources of revenue; the customs, the +excise, the sale of fee-farm rents,[2] of the lands of the crown, and of +those belonging to the bishops, deans, and chapters, and the sequestration +and forfeiture of the estates of papists and delinquents. The ordinances +for the latter had been passed as early as the year 1643, and in the course +of the seven succeeding years, the harvest had been reaped and gathered. +Still some gleanings might remain; and in 1650, an act was passed[c] for +the better ordering and managing such estates; the former compositions +were subjected to examination; defects and concealments were detected; +and proportionate fines were in numerous cases exacted. In 1651, seventy +individuals, most of them of high rank, all of opulent fortunes, who +had imprudently displayed their attachment to the royal cause, were +condemned[d] to forfeit their property, + +[Footnote 1: Journals, May 10, Nov. 22. Whitelock, 478-483.] + +[Footnote 2: The clear annual income from the fee-farm rents amounted to +seventy-seven thousand pounds. In Jan. 1651, twenty-five thousand three +hundred pounds of this income had been sold for two hundred and twenty-five +thousand six hundred and fifty pounds.--Journals, Jan. 8.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. Nov. 8.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. Nov. 22.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1651. Jan. 22.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1651. July 16.] + +both real and personal, for the benefit of the commonwealth. The fatal +march of Charles to Worcester furnished grounds for a new proscription +in 1652. First[a] nine-and-twenty, then[b] six hundred and eighty-two +royalists were selected for punishment. It was enacted that those in the +first class should forfeit their whole property; while to those in the +second, the right of pre-emption was reserved at the rate of one-third part +of the clear value, to be paid within four months.[1] + +4. During the late reign, as long as the Presbyterians retained their +ascendancy in parliament, they enforced with all their power uniformity of +worship and doctrine. The clergy of the established church were ejected +from their livings, and the professors of the Catholic faith were condemned +to forfeit two-thirds of their property, or to abjure their religion. Nor +was the proof of recusancy to depend, as formerly, on the slow process of +presentation and conviction; bare suspicion was held a sufficient ground +for the sequestrator to seize his prey; and the complainant was told that +he had the remedy in his own hands, he might take the oath of abjuration. +When the Independents succeeded to the exercise of the supreme power, both +the persecuted parties indulged a hope of more lenient treatment, and both +were disappointed. The Independents, indeed, proclaimed themselves the +champions of religious liberty; they repealed the statutes imposing +penalties for absence from church; and they declared + +[Footnote 1: Journals, 1651, July 16; 1652, Aug. 4, Nov. 18. Scobell, 156, +210. If any of the last were papists, and afterwards disposed of their +estates thus redeemed, they were ordered to banish themselves from their +native country, under the penalty of having the laws against popery +executed against them with the utmost severity.--Addit. Act of Nov. 18, +1652.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1652. August 4.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1652. Nov. 18.] + +that men were free to serve God according to the dictates of conscience. +Yet their notions of toleration were very confined: they refused to extend +it either to prelacy or popery, to the service of the church of England, or +of the church of Rome. The ejected clergymen were still excluded from the +pulpit, and the Catholics were still the victims of persecuting statutes. +In 1650, an act was passed[a] offering to the discoverers of priests and +Jesuits, or of their receivers and abettors, the same reward as had been +granted to the apprehenders of highwaymen. Immediately officers and +informers were employed in every direction; the houses of Catholics were +broken open and searched at all hours of the day and night; many clergymen +were apprehended, and several were tried, and received[b] judgment of +death. Of these only one, Peter Wright, chaplain to the marquess of +Winchester, suffered. The leaders shrank from the odium of such sanguinary +exhibitions, and transported the rest of the prisoners to the continent.[1] + +But if the zeal of the Independents was more sparing of blood than that of +the Presbyterians, it was not inferior in point of rapacity. The +ordinances for sequestration and forfeiture were executed with unrelenting +severity.[2] It is difficult to say which suffered from them most +cruelly--families with small fortunes who were thus reduced to a state of +penury; or husbandmen, servants, and mechanics, who, on their refusal to +take the oath of abjuration, were deprived + +[Footnote 1: Challoner, ii 346. MS. papers in my possession. See note. +(G).] + +[Footnote 2: In 1650 the annual rents of Catholics in possession of the +sequestrators were retained at sixty-two thousand and forty-eight pounds +seventeen shillings and threepence three farthings. It should, however, be +observed that thirteen counties were not included.--Journ. Dee. 17.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. Feb. 26.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. May. 19.] + +of two-thirds of their scanty earnings, even of their household goods and +wearing apparel.[1] The sufferers ventured to solicit[a] from parliament +such indulgence as might be thought "consistent with the public peace and +their comfortable subsistence in their native country." The petition was +read: Sir Henry Vane spoke in its favour; but the house was deaf to the +voice of reason and humanity, and the prayer for relief was indignantly +rejected.[2] + +[Footnote 1: In proof I may be allowed to mention one instance of a +Catholic servant maid, an orphan, who, during a servitude of seventeen +years, at seven nobles a year, had saved twenty pounds. The sequestrators, +having discovered with whom she had deposited her money, took two-thirds, +thirteen pounds six shillings and eightpence, for the use of the +commonwealth, and left her the remainder, six pounds thirteen and +fourpence. In March, 1652, she appealed to the commissioners at +Haberdashers' Hall, who replied that they could afford her no relief, +unless she took the oath of abjuration. See this and many other cases in +the "Christian Moderator, or Persecution for Religion, + +condemned by the Light of Nature, the Law of God, and Evidence of our own +Principles," p. 77-84. London, 1652.] + +[Footnote 2: Journals, 1652, June 30. The petition is in the Christian +Moderator, p. 59.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1652. Jun. 30.] + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +THE PROTECTORATE. + +Cromwell Calls The Little Parliament--Dissolves It--Makes Himself +Protector--Subjugation Of The Scottish Royalists--Peace With The Dutch--New +Parliament--Its Dissolution--Insurrection In England--Breach With +Spain--Troubles In Piedmont--Treaty With France. + + +Whoever has studied the character of Cromwell will have remarked the +anxiety with which he laboured to conceal his real designs from the notice +of his adherents. If credit were due to his assertions, he cherished none +of those aspiring thoughts which agitate the breasts of the ambitious; the +consciousness of his weakness taught him to shrink from the responsibility +of power; and at every step in his ascent to greatness, he affected to +sacrifice his own feelings to the judgment and importunity of others. But +in dissolving the late parliament he had deviated from this his ordinary +course: he had been compelled to come boldly forward by the obstinacy or +the policy of his opponents, who during twelve months had triumphed over +his intrigues, and were preparing to pass an act which would place new +obstacles in his path. Now, however, that he had forcibly taken into his +own hands the reins of government, it remained for him to determine whether +he should retain them in his grasp, or deliver them over to others. He +preferred the latter for the maturity of time was not yet come: he saw +that, among the officers who blindly submitted to be the tools of his +ambition, there were several who would abandon the idol of their worship, +whenever they should suspect him of a design to subvert the public liberty. +But if he parted with power for the moment, it was in such manner as to +warrant the hope that it would shortly return to him under another form, +not as won by the sword of the military, but as deposited in his hands by +the judgment of parliament. + +It could not escape the sagacity of the lord-general that the fanatics, +with whose aid he had subverted the late government, were not the men to be +intrusted with the destinies of the three kingdoms; yet he deemed it his +interest to indulge them in their wild notions of civil and religious +reformation, and to suffer himself for a while to be guided by their +counsels. Their first measure was to publish a Vindication of their +Proceedings.[1] The long parliament they pronounced[a] incapable "of +answering those ends which God, his people, and the whole nation, +expected." Had it been permitted to sit a day longer, it would "at one blow +have laid in the dust the interest of all honest men and of their glorious +cause." In its place the council of war would "call to the government +persons of approved fidelity and honesty;" and therefore required "public +officers and ministers to proceed in their respective places," and conjured +"those who feared and loved the name of the Lord, to be instant with him +day and night in their behalf."[2] + +[Footnote 1: Printed by Henry Hills and Thomas Brewster, printers to the +army, 1653.] + +[Footnote 2: Ludlow, ii. 24. Thurloe, i. 289, 395. Sir H. Vane, after all +the affronts which he had received, was offered a place in the council; but +he replied that, though the reign of the saints was begun, he would defer +his share in it till he should go to heaven.--Thurloe, i. 265.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. April 22.] + + +They next proceeded to establish[a] a council of state. Some proposed that +it should consist of ten members, some of seventy, after the model of the +Jewish Sanhedrim; and others of thirteen, in imitation of Christ and his +twelve apostles. The last project was adopted as equally scriptural, and +more convenient. With Cromwell, in the place of lord president, were joined +four civilians and eight officers of high rank; so that the army still +retained its ascendancy, and the council of state became in fact a military +council. + +From this moment for some months it would have embarrassed any man to +determine where the supreme power resided. Some of the judges were +superseded by others: new commissioners of the treasury and admiralty were +appointed; even the monthly assessment of one hundred and twenty thousand +pounds was continued for an additional half-year; and yet these and similar +acts, all of them belonging to the highest authority in the state, appeared +to emanate from different sources; these from the council of war, those +from the council of state, and several from the lord-general himself, +sometimes with the advice of one or other, sometimes without the advice of +either of these councils.[1] + +At the same time the public mind was agitated by the circulation of reports +the most unfounded, and the advocacy of projects the most contradictory. +This day it was rumoured that Cromwell had offered to recall + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 556, 557, 559. Leicester's Journal, 142. Merc. +Polit. No. 157.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. April 30.] + +the royal family, on condition that Charles should marry one of his +daughters; the next, that he intended to ascend the throne himself, and, +for that purpose, had already prepared the insignia of royalty. Here, +signatures were solicited to a petition for the re-establishment of the +ancient constitution; there, for a government by successive parliaments. +Some addresses declared the conviction of the subscribers that the late +dissolution was necessary; others prayed that the members might be allowed +to return to the house, for the sole purpose of legally dissolving +themselves by their own authority. In the mean while, the lord-general +continued to wear the mask of humility and godliness; he prayed and +preached with more than his wonted fervour; and his piety was rewarded, +according to the report of his confidants, with frequent communications +from the Holy Spirit.[1] In the month of May he spent eight days in close +consultation with his military divan; and the result was a determination to +call a new parliament, but a parliament modelled on principles unknown to +the history of this or of any other nation. It was to be a parliament of +saints, of men who had not offered themselves as candidates, or been chosen +by the people, but whose chief qualification consisted in holiness of life, +and whose call to the office of legislators came from the choice of the +council. With this view the ministers took the sense of the "congregational +churches" in the several counties; the returns contained the names of the +persons, "faithful, fearing God, and hating covetousness," who were deemed +qualified for this high and important trust; and out of these the council +in the presence of the lord-general selected one hundred and thirty-nine + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, i. 256, 289, 306.] + +representatives for England, six for Wales, six for Ireland, and five +for Scotland.[1] To each of them was sent[a] a writ of summons under the +signature of Cromwell, requiring his personal attendance at Whitehall on +a certain day, to take upon himself the trust, and to serve the office of +member for some particular place. Of the surprise with which the writs were +received by many the reader may judge. Yet, out of the whole number, two +only returned a refusal: by most the very extraordinary manner of their +election was taken as a sufficient proof that the call was from heaven.[2] + +On the appointed day, the 4th of July, one hundred and twenty of these +faithful and godly men attended[b] in the council-chamber at Whitehall. +They were seated on chairs round the table; and the lord-general took his +station near the middle window, supported on each side by a numerous body +of officers. He addressed the company standing, and it was believed by his +admirers, perhaps by himself, "that the Spirit of God spoke in him and by +him." Having vindicated in a long narrative the dissolution of the late +parliament, he congratulated the persons present on the high office to +which they had been called. It was not of their own seeking. It had come to +them from God by the choice of the army, the usual channel through which in +these latter days the Divine mercies had been dispensed to the nation. He +would not + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, i. 395. Compare the list of the members in Heath, +350, with the letters in Milton's State Papers, 92, 94, 96.] + +[Footnote 2: Thurloe, i. 274. Whitelock, 547. "It was a great satisfaction +and encouragement to some that their names had been presented as to that +service, by the churches and other godly persons."--Exact Relation of the +Proceedings, &c. of the last parliament, 1654, p. 2.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. June 6.] +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. July 4.] + +charge them, but he would pray that they might "exercise the judgment of +mercy and truth," and might "be faithful with the saints," however those +saints might differ respecting forms of worship. His enthusiasm kindled as +he proceeded; and the visions of futurity began to open to his imagination. +It was, he exclaimed, marvellous in his eyes; they were called to war with +the Lamb against his enemies; they were come to the threshold of the door, +to the very edge of the promises and prophecies; God was about to bring +his people out of the depths of the sea; perhaps to bring the Jews home to +their station out of the isles of the sea. "God," he exclaimed, "shakes the +mountains and they reel; God hath a high hill, too, and his hill is as the +hill of Bashan; and the chariots of God are twenty thousand of angels; and +God will dwell upon this hill for ever." At the conclusion "of this grave, +Christian, and seasonable speech," he placed on the table an instrument +under his own hand and seal, intrusting to them the supreme authority for +the space of fifteen months from that day, then to be transmitted by them +to another assembly, the members of which they should previously have +chosen.[1] + +The next day[a] was devoted by the new representatives to exercises of +religion, not in any of the churches of the capital, but in the room where +the late parliament was accustomed to sit. Thirteen of the most gifted +among them successively prayed and preached, from eight in the morning till +six in the evening; and several affirmed "that they had never enjoyed so +much of the spirit and presence of Christ in any of the meetings + +[Footnote 1: Proceedings, No. 197. Parl. Hist. xx. 153. Milton's State +Papers, 106. This last appears to me a more faithful copy than that printed +by authority.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. July 5.] + +and exercises of religion in all their lives, as they did on that day." As +it was solely to their reputation for superior godliness that the majority +of the members owed their election, the lord-general probably expected +from them little opposition to his measures; but they no sooner applied to +business than he saw reason to be alarmed at the promptitude and resolution +which they displayed. Though not distinguished by their opulence, they +were men of independent fortunes;[1] during the late revolutions they had +learned to think for themselves on the momentous questions which divided +the nation; and their fanaticism, by converting their opinions into matters +of conscience, had superadded an obstinacy of character not easily to be +subdued. To Cromwell himself they always behaved with respect. They invited +him with four of his officers to sit as a member among them; and they made +him the offer of the palace of Hampton Court in exchange for his house of +Newhall. But they believed and showed that they were the masters. They +scorned to submit to the dictation of their servants; and, if they often +followed the advice, they as often rejected the recommendations and amended +the resolutions of the council of state. + +One of the first subjects which engaged their attention was a contest, in +which the lord-general, with all his power, was foiled by the boldness of a +single individual. + +[Footnote 1: They have been generally described as men in trade, and of +no education; and because one of them, Praise-God Barebone, was a +leather-dealer in Fleet-street, the assembly is generally known by the +denomination of Barebone's parliament.--Heath, 350. It is, however, +observed by one of them, that, "if all had not very bulky estates, yet they +had free estates, and were not of broken fortunes, or such as owed +great sums of money, and stood in need of privilege and protection as +formerly."--Exact Relation, 19. See also Whitelock, 559.] + + +At the very moment when he hoped to reap the fruit of his dissimulation and +intrigues, he found himself unexpectedly confronted by the same fearless +and enterprising demagogue, who, at the birth of the commonwealth, had +publicly denounced his ambition, and excited the soldiery against him. +Lilburne, on the dissolution of the long parliament, had requested +permission of Cromwell to return from banishment. Receiving no answer, +he came[a] over at his own risk,--a bold but imprudent step; for what +indulgence could he expect from that powerful adventurer, whom he had so +often denounced to the nation as "a thief, a robber, an usurper, and a +murderer?" On the day after his arrival in the capital he was committed to +Newgate. It seemed a case which might safely be intrusted to a jury. His +return by the act of banishment had been made felony; and of his identity +there could be no doubt. But his former partisans did not abandon him +in his distress. Petitions with thousands of signatures were presented, +praying for a respite of the trial till the meeting of the parliament; +and Cromwell, willing, perhaps, to shift the odium from himself to that +assembly, gave his consent. Lilburne petitioned the new parliament; his +wife petitioned; his friends from the neighbouring counties petitioned; +the apprentices in London did not only petition, they threatened. But the +council laid before the house the depositions of spies and informers +to prove that Lilburne, during his banishment, had intrigued with the +royalists against the commonwealth;[1] and the prisoner himself, by the +intemperance + +[Footnote 1: It appears from Clarendon's Letters at the time, that Lilburne +was intimate with Buckingham, and that Buckingham professed to expect much +from him in behalf of the royal cause; while, on the contrary, Clarendon +believed that Lilburne would do nothing for it, and Buckingham not much +more.--Clarendon Papers, iii. 75, 79, 98.] + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1653. June 15.] + +of his publications, contributed to irritate members. They refused to +interfere; and he was arraigned[a] at the sessions, where, instead of +pleading, he kept his prosecutors at bay during five successive days, +appealing to Magna Charta and the rights of Englishmen, producing +exceptions against the indictment, and demanding his oyer, or the +specification of the act for his banishment, of the judgment on which the +act was founded, and of the charge which led to that judgment. The court +was perplexed. They knew not how to refuse; for he claimed it as his right, +and necessary for his defence. On the other hand, they could not grant it, +because no record of the charge or judgment was known to exist. + +After an adjournment[b] to the next sessions, two days were spent in +arguing the exceptions of the prisoner, and his right to the oyer. At +length, on a threat that the court would proceed to judgment, he pleaded[c] +not guilty. The trial lasted three days. His friends, to the amount of +several thousands, constantly attended; some hundreds of them were said to +be armed for the purpose of rescuing him, if he were condemned; and papers +were circulated that, if Lilburne perished, twenty thousand individuals +would perish with him. Cromwell, to encourage the court, posted two +companies of soldiers in the immediate vicinity; quartered three regiments +of infantry, and one of cavalry, in the city; and ordered a numerous force +to march towards the metropolis. The particulars of the trial are lost. We +only know that the prosecutors were content with showing[d] that Lilburne +was the person named in the act; that the court directed the jury to speak +only to + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. July 13.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1653. August 11.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1653. August 16.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1653. August 1.] + +that fact; and that the prisoner made a long and vehement defence, denying +the authority of the late parliament to banish him, because legally it had +expired at the king's death, and because the House of Commons was not a +court of justice; and, maintaining to the jury, that they were judges of +the law as well as of the fact; that, unless they believed him guilty of +crime, they could not conscientiously return a verdict which would consign +him to the gallows; and that an act of parliament, if it were evidently +unjust, was essentially void, and no justification to men who pronounced +according to their oaths. At a late hour at night the jury declared[a] +him not guilty; and the shout of triumph, received and prolonged by his +partisans, reached the ears of Cromwell at Whitehall. + +It was not, however, the intention of the lord-general that his victim +should escape. The examination[b] of the judges and jurymen before the +council, with a certified copy of certain opprobrious expressions, used by +Lilburne in his defence, was submitted[c] to the house, and an order was +obtained that, notwithstanding his acquittal, he should be confined[d] +in the Tower, and that no obedience should be paid to any writ of habeas +corpus issued from the court of Upper Bench in his behalf. These measures +gave great offence. It was complained, and with justice, that the men who +pretended to take up arms against the king in support of the liberties of +Englishmen, now made no scruple of trampling the same liberties under foot, +whenever it suited their resentment or interest.[1] + +[Footnote 1: See Thurloe, i. 324, 367, 368, 369, 429, 430, 435, 441, +442, 451, 453; Exact Relation, p. 5; Whitelock, 558, 560, 561, 563, 591; +Journals, July 13, 14, Aug. 2, 22, 27, Nov. 26. In 1656 or 1657 this +turbulent demagogue joined the society of Friends. He died Aug. 29, 1657, +at Eltham, whence, on the 31st, the body of the meek Quaker was conveyed +for sepulture to the new church-yard adjoining to Bedlam.--Cromwelliana, p. +168.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. August 20.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1653. August 22.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1653. August 27.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1653. Nov. 26.] + + +In the prosecution and punishment of Lilburne, the parliament was +unanimous; on most other points it was divided into two parties distinctly +marked; that of the Independents, who, inferior in number, superior in +talents, adhered to the lord-general and the council, and that of the +Anabaptists, who, guided by religious and political fanaticism, ranged +themselves under the banner of Major-General Harrison as their leader. +These "sectaries" anticipated the reign of Christ with his saints upon +earth, they believed themselves called by God to prepare the way for this +marvellous revolution; and they considered it their duty to commence by +reforming all the abuses which they could discover either in church or +state.[1] + +In their proceedings there was much to which no one, who had embarked with +them in the same cause, could reasonably object. They established a system +of the most rigid economy; the regulations of the excise were revised; +the constitution of the treasury was simplified and improved; unnecessary +offices were totally abolished, and the salaries of the others considerably +reduced; the public accounts were subjected to the most rigorous scrutiny; +new facilities were given to the sale of the lands now considered as +national property. Provision was made for the future registration of +marriages, births, and deaths.[2] But the fanaticism + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, i. 392, 396, 501, 515, 523.] + +[Footnote 2: For the validity of marriage, if the parties were minors, was +required the consent of the parents or guardians, and the age of sixteen in +the male, of fourteen in the female; and in all cases that the names of the +parties intending to be married should be given to the registrar of the +parish, whose duty it was to proclaim them, according to their wish, either +in the church after the morning exercise on three successive Lord's days, +or in the market-place on three successive market-days. Having received +from him a certificate of the proclamations, containing any exceptions +which might have been made, they were to exhibit it to a magistrate, and, +before him, to pledge their faith to each other "in the presence of God, +the searcher of hearts." The religious ceremony was optional, the civil +necessary for the civil effects of marriage,--See the Journals for the +month of August, and Scobell.] + +of their language, and the extravagance of their notions, exposed them +to ridicule; their zeal for reform, by interfering with the interests of +several different bodies at the same time, multiplied their enemies; and, +before the dissolution of the house, they had earned, justly or unjustly, +the hatred of the army, of the lawyers, of the gentry, and of the clergy. + +1. It was with visible reluctance that they voted the monthly tax of one +hundred and twenty thousand pounds for the support of the military and +naval establishments. They were, indeed, careful not to complain of the +amount; their objections were pointed against the nature of the tax, and +the inequality of the assessments;[1] but this pretext could not hide their +real object from the jealousy of their adversaries, and their leaders were +openly charged with seeking to reduce the number of the army, that they +might lessen the influence of the general. + +2. From the collection of the taxes they proceeded to the administration of +the law. In almost every petition presented of late years to the supreme +authority of the nation, complaints had been made of the court of Chancery, +of its dilatory proceedings, of the enormous expense which it entailed on +its suitors, and of the suspicious nature of its decisions, so liable to be +influenced by the personal partialities and interests of + +[Footnote 1: In some places men paid but two; in others, ten or twelve +shillings in the pound.--Exact Relation, 10. The assessments fell on the +owners, not on the tenants.--Thurloe, i. 755.] + +the judge.[1] The long parliament had not ventured to grapple with the +subject; but this, the little parliament, went at once to the root of the +evil, and voted that the whole system should be abolished. But then, came +the appalling difficulty, how to dispose of the causes actually pending +in the court, and how to substitute in its place a less objectionable +tribunal. Three bills introduced for that purpose were rejected as +inapplicable or insufficient: the committee prepared a fourth; it was read +twice in one day, and committed, and would probably have passed, had +not the subsequent proceedings been cut short by the dissolution of the +parliament.[2] + +3. But the reformers were not content with the abolition of a single court; +they resolved to cleanse the whole of the Augean stable. What, they asked, +made up the law? A voluminous collection of statutes, many of them almost +unknown, and many inapplicable to existing circumstances; the dicta of +judges, perhaps ignorant, frequently partial and interested; the reports of +cases, but so contradictory that they were + +[Footnote 1: "It was confidently reported by knowing gentlemen of worth, +that there were depending in that court 23,000 (2 or 3,000?) causes; that +some of them had been there depending five, some ten, some twenty, some +thirty years; and that there had been spent in causes many hundreds, +nay, thousands of pounds, to the utter undoing of many families."--Exact +Relation, 12.] + +[Footnote 2: Journals, Aug. 5, Oct. 17, 23, Nov. 3. Exact Relation, 12-15. +The next year, however, Cromwell took the task into his own hands; and, in +1655, published an ordinance, consisting of sixty-seven articles, "for +the better regulating and limiting the jurisdiction of the high court of +Chancery." Widrington and Whitelock, the commissioners of the great seal, +and Lenthall, master of the rolls, informed him by letter, that they had +sought the Lord, but did not feel themselves free to act according to the +ordinance. The protector took the seals from the two first, and gave +them Fiennes and Lisle; Lenthall overcame his scruples, and remained +in office.--See the ordinance in Scobell, 324; the objections to it in +Whitelock, 621.] + +regularly marshalled in hosts against each other; and the usages of +particular districts, only to be ascertained through the treacherous +memories of the most aged of the inhabitants. Englishmen had a right to +know the laws by which they were to be governed; it was easy to collect +from the present system all that was really useful; to improve it by +necessary additions; and to comprise the whole within the small compass of +a pocket volume. With this view, it was resolved to compose a new body of +law; the task was assigned to a committee; and a commencement was made by a +revision of the statutes respecting treason and murder.[1] But these votes +and proceedings scattered alarm through the courts at Westminster, and +hundreds of voices, and almost as many pens, were employed to protect from +ruin the venerable fabric of English jurisprudence. They ridiculed the +presumption of these ignorant and fanatical legislators, ascribed to them +the design of substituting the law of Moses for the law of the land, and +conjured the people to unite in defence of their own "birthright and +inheritance," for the preservation of which so many miseries had been +endured, so much blood had been shed.[2] + +4. From men of professed sanctity much had been expected in favour of +religion. The sincerity of their seal they proved by the most convincing +test,--an act for the extirpation of popish priests and Jesuits, and the +disposal of two-thirds of the real and personal + +[Footnote 1: Journals, Aug. 18, 19, Oct. 20. Exact Relation, 15-18.] + +[Footnote 2: The charge of wishing to introduce the law of God was +frequently repeated by Cromwell. It owed its existence to this, that many +would not allow of the punishment of death for theft, or of the distinction +between manslaughter and murder, because no such things are to be found in +the law of Moses.--Exact Relation, 17.] + +estates of popish recusants.[1] After this preliminary skirmish with +antichrist, they proceeded to attack Satan himself "in his stronghold" of +advowsons. It was, they contended, contrary to reason, that any private +individual should possess the power of imposing a spiritual guide upon +his neighbours; and therefore they resolved that presentations should he +abolished, and the choice of the minister be vested in the body of the +parishioners; a vote which taught the patrons of livings to seek the +protection of the lord-general against the oppression of the parliament. +From advowsons, the next step was to tithes. At the commencement of the +session, after a long debate, it was generally understood that tithes ought +to be done away with, and in their place a compensation be made to the +impropriators, and a decent maintenance be provided for the clergy. The +great subject of dispute was, which question should have the precedence +in point of time, the abolition of the impost, or the substitution of the +equivalent. For five months the committee intrusted with the subject was +silent; now, to prevent, as it was thought, the agitation of the question +of advowsons, they presented a report respecting the method of ejecting +scandalous, and settling godly, ministers; to which they appended their +own opinion, that incumbents, rectors, and impropriators had a property in +tithes. This report provoked a debate of five days. When the question was +put on the first part, though the committee had mustered all the force of +the Independents in its favour, it was rejected by a + +[Footnote 1: To procure ready money for the treasury, it was proposed to +allow recusants to redeem the two-thirds for their lives, at four years' +purchase. This amendment passed, but with great opposition, on the ground +that it amounted to a toleration of idolatry.--Ibid, ii. Thurloe, i. 553.] + +majority of two. The second part, respecting the property in tithes, was +not put to the vote; its fate was supposed to be included in that of the +former; and it was rumoured through the capital that the parliament had +voted the abolition of tithes, and with them of the ministry, which derived +its maintenance from tithes.[1] + +Here it should be noticed that, on every Monday during the session, Feakes +and Powell, two Anabaptist preachers, had delivered weekly lectures +to numerous audiences at Blackfriars. They were eloquent enthusiasts, +commissioned, as they fancied, by the Almighty, and fearless of any earthly +tribunal. They introduced into their sermons most of the subjects discussed +in parliament, and advocated the principles of their sect with a force and +extravagance which alarmed Cromwell and the council. Their favourite topic +was the Dutch war. God, they maintained, had given Holland into the hands +of the English; it was to be the landing-place of the saints, whence +they should proceed to pluck the w---- of Babylon from her chair and to +establish the kingdom of Christ on the continent; and they threatened with +every kind of temporal and everlasting woe the man who should advise peace +on any other terms than the incorporation of the United Provinces with the +commonwealth of England.[2] When it was known that Cromwell had receded +from this demand, their indignation + +[Footnote 1: Journals, July 15-19, Nov. 17, Dec. 1, 6-10. Exact Relation, +418-424.] + +[Footnote 2: Beverning, one of the Dutch ambassadors, went to the meeting +on one of these occasions. In a letter, he says:--"The scope and intention +is to preach down governments, and to stir up the people against the united +Netherlands. Being then in the assembly of the saints, I heard one prayer, +two sermons. But, good God! what cruel and abominable, and most horrid +trumpets of fire, murder, and flame."--Thurloe, i. 442.] + +stripped the pope of many of those titles with which he had so long been +honoured by the Protestant churches, and the lord-general was publicly +declared to be the beast in the Apocalypse, the old dragon, and the man of +sin. Unwilling to invade the liberty of religious meetings, he for some +time bore these insults with an air of magnanimity: at last he summoned[a] +the two preachers before himself and the council. But the heralds of the +Lord of Hosts quailed not before the servants of an earthly commonwealth: +they returned rebuke for rebuke, charged Cromwell with an unjustifiable +assumption of power, and departed from the conference unpunished and +unabashed.[1] + +By the public the sermons at Blackfriars were considered as explanatory of +the views and principles of the Anabaptists in the house. The enemies of +these reformers multiplied daily: ridicule and abuse were poured upon them +from every quarter; and it became evident to all but themselves that the +hour of their fall was rapidly approaching. Cromwell, their maker, had long +ago determined to reduce them to their original nothing; and their last +vote respecting the ministry appeared to furnish a favourable opportunity. +The next day, the Sunday, he passed with his friends in secret +consultation; on the Monday these friends mustered in considerable numbers, +and at an early hour took their seats in the house. Colonel Sydenham rose. +He reviewed[b] all the proceedings of the parliament, condemned them as +calculated to injure almost every interest in the state, and, declaring +that he would no longer sit in so useless an assembly, moved that the house +should proceed to Whitehall, and deliver back the supreme power into the +hands of him from whom + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, i. 442, 534, 545, 560, 591, 621.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. Dec. 6.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1653. Dec. 12.] + +it was derived. The motion was seconded and opposed; but the Independents +had come to act, not to debate. They immediately rose: the speaker, who was +in the secret, left the chair; the sergeant and the clerk accompanied him, +and near fifty members followed in a body. The reformers, only twenty-seven +in number (for most of them had not yet arrived), gazed on each other +with surprise; their first resource was to fall to prayer; and they were +employed in that holy exercise, when Goff and White, two officers, entered, +and requested them to withdraw. Being required to show their warrant, +they called in a company of soldiers. No resistance was now offered; the +military cleared the house, and the keys were left with the guard.[1] + +In the mean while the speaker, preceded by the mace, and followed by +Sydenham and his friends, walked through the street to Whitehall. In the +way, and after his arrival, he was joined by several members, by some +through curiosity, by others through fear. At Whitehall, a form of +resignation of the supreme power was hastily engrossed by the clerk, +subscribed by the speaker and his followers, and tendered by them to +Cromwell. The lord-general put on an air of surprise; he was not prepared +for such an offer, he would not load himself with so heavy a burthen. But +his reluctance yielded to the remonstrances and entreaties of Lambert and +the officers, and the instrument was laid in a chamber of the palace +for the convenience of such members as had not yet the opportunity of +subscribing their names. + +[Footnote 1: Exact Relation, 25, 26. True Narrative, 3. Thurloe, i. 730. I +adopt the number given by Mansel, as he could have no motive to diminish +it.] + + +On the third day the signatures amounted to eighty, an absolute majority +of the whole house; on the fourth, a new constitution was published, +and Cromwell obtained the great object of his ambition,--the office and +authority, though without the title, of king.[1] + +On that day, about one in the afternoon, the lord-general repaired in his +carriage from the palace to Westminster Hall,[a] through two lines of +military, composed of five regiments of foot and three of horse. The +procession formed at the door. Before him walked the aldermen, the judges, +two commissioners of the great seal, and the lord mayor; behind him the two +councils of state and of the army. They mounted to the court of Chancery, +where a chair of state with a cushion had been placed on a rich carpet. +Cromwell was dressed in a suit and cloak of black velvet, with long boots, +and a broad gold band round his hat. He took his place before the chair, +between the two commissioners; the judges stood in a half-circle behind it, +and the civic officers ranged themselves on the right, the military on the +left, side of the court. + +[Footnote 1: Exact Relation, 26. True Narrative, 4. Ludlow, ii. 33. +Clarendon, iii. 484. Thurloe, i. 754. The author of this new constitution +is not known. Ludlow tells us that it was first communicated by Lambert to +a council of field officers. When some objections were made, he replied, +that the general was willing to consider any amendments which might be +proposed, but would not depart from the project itself. Some, therefore, +suggested that, after the death of the present lord-general, the civil and +military government should be kept separate, and that no protector should +be succeeded by any of his relatives. This gave so much offence, that, at a +second meeting, Lambert, having informed them that the lord-general would +take care of the civil administration, dismissed them to their respective +commands.--Ludlow, ii. 37. It is to this, perhaps, that the Dutch +ambassador alludes, when he says that Cromwell desisted from his project +of being declared king on account of the displeasure of the +officers.--Thurloe, i. 644.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. Dec. 16.] + + +Lambert now came forward to address the lord-general. He noticed the +dissolution of the late parliament, observed that the exigency of the time +required a strong and stable government, and prayed his excellency in the +name of the army and of the three nations to accept the office of protector +of the commonwealth. Cromwell, though it was impossible to conceal the +purpose for which he had come thither, could not yet put off the habit of +dissimulation; and if, after some demur, he expressed his consent, it was +with an appearance of reluctance which no one present could believe to be +real. + +Jessop, one of the clerks of the council, was next ordered to read the +"instrument of government," consisting of forty-two articles. 1. By it the +legislative power was invested in a lord-protector and parliament, but with +a provision that every act passed by the parliament should become law at +the expiration of twenty days, even without the consent of the protector; +unless he could persuade the house of the reasonableness of his objections. +The parliament was not to be adjourned, prorogued, or dissolved, without +its own consent, within the first five months after its meeting; and a new +parliament was to be called within three years after the dissolution of the +last. The number of the members was fixed according to the plan projected +by Vane at the close of the long parliament, at four hundred for England, +thirty for Scotland, and thirty for Ireland. Most of the boroughs were +disfranchised, and the number of county members was increased. Every person +possessed of real or personal property to the value of two hundred pounds +had a right to vote,[1] unless he were a malignant or delinquent, or +professor + +[Footnote 1: During the long parliament this qualification had been +adopted on the motion of Cromwell, in place of a clause recommended by the +committee, which gave the elective franchise under different regulations +to freeholders, copyholders, tenants for life, and leaseholders,--See +Journals, 30th March, 1653.] + +of the Catholic faith; and the disqualifications to which the electors were +subject attached also to the persons elected. 2. The executive power was +made to reside in the lord-protector acting with the advice of his council. +He possessed, moreover, the power of treating with foreign states with the +_advice_, and of making peace or war with the _consent_, of the council. +To him also belonged the disposal of the military and naval power, and +the appointment of the great officers of state, with the approbation of +parliament, and, in the intervals of parliament, with that of the council, +but subject to the subsequent approbation of the parliament. 3. Laws could +not be made, nor taxes imposed, but by common consent in parliament. 4. The +civil list was fixed at two hundred thousand pounds, and a yearly revenue +ordered to be raised for the support of an army of thirty thousand men, +two-thirds infantry, and one-third cavalry, with such a navy as the +lord-protector should think necessary. 5. All who professed faith in God by +Jesus Christ were to be protected in the exercise of their religion, with +the exception of prelatists, papists, and those who taught licentiousness +under the pretence of religion. 6. The lord-general Cromwell was named +lord-protector; his successors were to be chosen by the council. The first +parliament was to assemble on the 3rd of the following December; and till +that time the lord-protector was vested with power to raise the moneys +necessary for the public service, and to make ordinances which should have +the force of law, till orders were taken in parliament respecting the same. + +At the conclusion, Cromwell, raising his right hand and his eyes to heaven +with great solemnity, swore to observe, and cause to be observed, all the +articles of the instrument; and Lambert, falling on his knees, offered to +the protector a civic sword in the scabbard, which he accepted, laying +aside his own, to denote that he meant to govern by constitutional, and not +by military, authority. He then seated himself in the chair, put on his hat +while the rest stood uncovered, received the seal from the commissioners, +the sword from the lord mayor, delivered them back again to the same +individuals, and, having exercised these acts of sovereign authority, +returned in procession to his carriage, and repaired in state to Whitehall. +The same day the establishment of the government by a lord-protector and +triennial parliaments, and the acceptance of the protectorship by the +lord-general, were announced to the public by proclamation, with all the +ceremonies hitherto used on the accession of a new monarch.[1] + +It cannot be supposed that this elevation of Cromwell to the supreme power +was viewed with satisfaction by any other class of men than his brethren in +arms, who considered his greatness their own work, and expected from +his gratitude their merited reward. But the nation was surfeited with +revolutions. Men had suffered so severely from the ravages of war and the +oppression of the military; they had seen so many instances of punishment +incurred by resistance to the actual possessors of power; they were divided +and + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 571-578. Thurloe, i. 639, 641. Ludlow, ii. 40. +The alteration in the representation, which had been proposed in the long +parliament, was generally considered an improvement,--Clar. Hist. iii. +495.] + +subdivided into so many parties, jealous and hateful of each other; +that they readily acquiesced in any change which promised the return of +tranquillity in the place of solicitude, danger, and misery. The protector, +however, did not neglect the means of consolidating his own authority. +Availing himself of the powers intrusted to him by the "instrument," he +gave the chief commands in the army to men in whom he could confide; +quartered the troops in the manner best calculated to put down any +insurrection; and, among the multitude of ordinances which he published, +was careful to repeal the acts enforcing the Engagement; to forbid all +meetings on racecourses or at cockpits, to explain what offences should be +deemed treason against his government; and to establish a high court of +justice for the trial of those who might be charged with such offences. + +He could not, however, be ignorant that, even among the former companions +of his fortunes, the men who had fought and bled by his side, there were +several who, much as they revered the general, looked on the protector with +the most cordial abhorrence.[a] They were stubborn, unbending republicans, +partly from political, partly from religious, principle. To them he +affected to unbosom himself without reserve. He was still, he protested, +the same humble individual whom they had formerly known him. Had he +consulted his own feelings, "he would rather have taken the staff of a +shepherd" than the dignity of protector. Necessity had imposed the office +upon him; he had sacrificed his own happiness to preserve his countrymen +from anarchy and ruin; and, as he now bore the burden with reluctance, he +would lay it down with joy, the moment he could do so with safety to + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654.] + +the nation. But this language made few proselytes. They had too often +already been the dupes of his hypocrisy, the victims of their own +credulity; they scrupled not, both in public companies, and from the +pulpit, to pronounce him "a dissembling perjured villain;" and they openly +threatened him with "a worse fate than had befallen the last tyrant." If it +was necessary to silence these declaimers, it was also dangerous to treat +them with severity. He proceeded with caution, and modified his displeasure +by circumstances. Some he removed from their commissions in the army and +their ministry in the church; others he did not permit to go at large, +till they had given security for their subsequent behaviour; and those who +proved less tractable, or appeared more dangerous, he incarcerated in the +Tower. Among the last were Harrison, formerly his fellow-labourer in the +dissolution of the long parliament, now his most implacable enemy; and +Feakes and Powell, the Anabaptist preachers, who had braved his resentment +during the last parliament.[a] Symson, their colleague, shared their +imprisonment, but procured his liberty[b] by submission.[1] + +To the royalists, as he feared them less, he showed less forbearance. +Charles, who still resided in Paris, maintained a constant correspondence +with the friends of his family in England, for the twofold purpose of +preserving a party ready to take advantage of any revolution in his favour, +and of deriving from their loyalty advances of money for his own support +and that of his followers. Among the agents whom he employed, were men who +betrayed his secrets, or pretended + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, i. 641, 642; ii. 67, 68. Whitelock, 580, 582, 596. +Ludlow, ii. 47.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. Feb. 30.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1654. July 26.] + +secrets, to his enemies,[1] or who seduced his adherents into imaginary +plots, that by the discovery they might earn the gratitude of the +protector. Of the latter class was an individual named Henshaw, who had +repaired to Paris, and been refused what he solicited, admission to the +royal presence. On his return, he detailed to certain royalists a plan by +which the protector might be assassinated on his way to Hampton Court, the +guards at Whitehall overpowered, the town surprised, and the royal exile +proclaimed. Men were found to listen to his suggestions; and when a +sufficient number were entangled in the toil, forty were apprehended[a] and +examined. Of these, many consented to give evidence; three were selected[b] +for trial before the high court of justice. Fox, one of the three, pleaded +guilty, and thus, by giving countenance to the evidence of Henshaw, +deserved and obtained[c] his pardon. Vowell, a schoolmaster, and Gerard, a +young gentleman two-and-twenty years of age, received[d] judgment of death. +The first suffered on the gallows, glorying that he died a martyr in +the cause of royalty. Gerard, before he was beheaded, protested in the +strongest terms that, though he had heard, he had never approved of the +design.[2] In the depositions, it was pretended that Charles had given his +consent to the assassination of the protector. + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon informs Nicholas (June 12), that in reality no one +secret had been betrayed or discovered.--Clar. Papers, iii. 247. But this +is doubtful; for Willis, one of the committee called "the sealed knot," who +was imprisoned, but discharged in September (Perfect Account, No. 194), +proved afterwards a traitor.] + +[Footnote 2: State Trials, v. 517-540. Thurloe, ii. 416, 446, 447. +Whitelock, 591, 593, 593. Henshaw was not produced on the trial. It was +pretended that he had escaped. But we learn from Thurloe that he was safe +in the Tower, and so Gerard suspected in his speech on the scaffold.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. May 24.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1654. June 30.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1654. July 6.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1654. July 10.] + + +Though Cromwell professed to disbelieve the charge, yet as a measure of +self-defence he threatened the exiled prince that, if any such attempt were +encouraged, he should have recourse to retaliation, and, at the same time, +intimated that it would be no difficult matter for him to execute his +threat.[1] + +On the same scaffold, but an hour later, perished a foreign nobleman, only +nineteen years old, Don Pantaleon Sa, brother to Guimaraes, the Portuguese +ambassador. Six months before, he and Gerard, whose execution we have +just noticed, had quarrelled[a] in the New Exchange. Pantaleon, the next +evening,[b] repaired to the same place with a body of armed followers; a +fray ensued; Greenway, a person unconcerned in the dispute, was killed +by accident or mistake; and the Portuguese fled to the house of the +ambassador, whence they were conducted to prison by the military. The +people, taking up the affair as a national quarrel, loudly demanded the +blood of the reputed murderers. On behalf of Pantaleon it was argued: 1. +That he was an ambassador, and therefore answerable to no one but his +master; 2. That he was a person attached to the embassy, and therefore +covered by the privilege of his principal. But the + +[Footnote 1: Cromwell did not give credit to the plots for murdering +him.--Thurloe, ii. 512, 533. Clarendon writes thus on the subject to his +friend Nicholas: "I do assure you upon my credit, I do not know, and upon +my confidence, the king does not, of any such design. Many wild, foolish +persons propose wild things to the king, which he civilly discountenances, +and then they and their friends brag what they hear, or could do; and, no +doubt, in some such noble rage that hath now fallen out which they talk so +much of at London, and by which many honest men are in prison, of which +whole matter the king knows no more than secretary Nicholas doth."--Clar. +Papers, iii. 247. See, however, the account of Sexby's plot in the next +chapter.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. Nov. 21.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1653. Nov. 22.] + +instrument which he produced in proof of the first allegation was no more +than a written promise that he should succeed his brother in-office; and +in reply to the second, it was maintained[a] that the privilege of an +ambassador, whatever it might be, was personal, and did not extend to +the individuals in his suite. At the bar, after several refusals, he was +induced by the threat of the _peine forte et dure_ to plead not guilty; +and his demand of counsel, on account of his ignorance of English law, +was rejected, on the ground that the court was "of counsel equal to the +prisoner and the commonwealth." He was found guilty, and condemned, with +four of his associates. To three of these the protector granted a pardon; +but no entreaties of the several ambassadors could prevail in favour of +Pantaleon. He was sacrificed, if we believe one of them, to the clamour of +the people, whose feelings were so excited, that when his head fell on the +scaffold,[b] the spectators proclaimed their joy by the most savage yells +of exultation.[1] It was the very day on which his brother, perhaps to +propitiate the protector, had signed the treaty between the two nations. + +These executions had been preceded by one of a very different description. +Colonel Worsley had apprehended a Catholic clergyman, of the name of +Southworth, who, thirty-seven years before, had been convicted at +Lancaster, and sent into banishment. The old man (he had passed his +seventy-second year), + +[Footnote 1: See in State Trials, v. 461-518, a numerous collection of +authorities and opinions respecting this case. Also ibid. 536. That +Pantaleon and his friends were armed, cannot be denied: was it for +revenge? So it would appear from the relation in Somers's Tracts, iii. 65; +Whitelock, 569; and State Trials, v. 482. Was it solely for defence? +Such is the evidence of Metham (Thurloe, ii. 222), and the assertion of +Pantaleon at his death.--Whitelock, ii. 595.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. July 5.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1654. July 10.] + +at his arraignment, pleaded that he had taken orders in the church of Rome, +but was innocent of any treason. The recorder advised him to withdraw his +plea, and gave him four hours for consideration. But Southworth still owned +that he was a Catholic and in orders; judgment of death was pronounced; and +the protector, notwithstanding the urgent solicitations of the French +and Spanish ambassadors, resolved that he should suffer. It was not that +Cromwell approved of sanguinary punishments in matters of religion, but +that he had no objection to purchase the good-will of the godly by shedding +the blood of a priest. The[a] fate of this venerable man[a] excited the +sympathy of the higher classes. Two hundred carriages and a crowd of +horsemen followed the hurdle on which he was drawn to the place of +execution. On the scaffold, he spoke with satisfaction of the manner of his +death, but at the same time pointed out the inconsistency of the men who +pretended to have taken up arms for liberty of conscience, and yet shed the +blood of those who differed from them in religious opinions. He suffered +the usual punishment of traitors.[1] + +The intelligence of the late revolution had been received by the military +in Ireland and Scotland with open murmurs on the part of some, and a +suspicious acquiescence on that of others. In Ireland, Fleetwood knew not +how to reconcile the conduct of his father-in-law with his own principles, +and expressed a wish to resign the government of the island; Ludlow and +Jones, both stanch republicans, looked on the protector as a hypocrite and +an apostate, and though the latter was more cautious in his language, the + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, ii. 406. Whitelock, 592. Challoner, ii. 354. +Knaresborough's Collections, MS.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654 June 23.] + +former openly refused to act as civil commissioner under the new +constitution; and in most of the garrisons several of the principal +officers made no secret of their dissatisfaction: in one case they even +drew up a remonstrance against "the government by a single person." But +Cromwell averted the storm which threatened him, by his prudence and +firmness. He sent his son Henry on a visit to Fleetwood, that he might +learn the true disposition of the military; the more formidable of his +opponents were silently withdrawn to England; and several of the others +found themselves suddenly but successively deprived of their commands. +In most cases interest proved more powerful than principle; and it was +observed that out of the numbers, who at first crowded to the Anabaptist +conventicle at Dublin as a profession of their political creed, almost all +who had any thing to lose, gradually abandoned it for the more courtly +places of worship. Even the Anabaptists themselves learned to believe that +the ambition of a private individual could not defeat the designs of the +Lord, and that it was better for men to retain their situations under the +protector, than, by abandoning them, to deprive themselves of the means of +promoting the service of God, and of hastening the reign of Christ upon +earth.[1] + +In Scotland the spirit of disaffection equally prevailed among the superior +officers; but their attention was averted from political feuds by military +operations. In the preceding years, under the appearance of general +tranquillity, the embers of war had continued to smoulder in the Highlands: +they burst into a flame on the departure of Monk to take the command of the + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, ii. 149, 150, 162, 214.] + +English fleet. To Charles in France, and his partisans in Scotland, it +seemed a favourable moment; the earls of Glencairn and Balcarras, were +successively joined by Angus, Montrose, Athol, Seaforth, Kenmure, and +Lorne, the son of Argyle; and Wogan, an enterprising officer, landing at +Dover,[a] raised a troop of royalists in London, and traversing England +under the colours of the commonwealth, reached in safety the quarters +of his Scottish friends. The number of the royalists amounted to some +thousands: the nature of the country and the affections of the natives were +in their favour; and their spirits were supported by the repeated, but +fallacious, intelligence of the speedy arrival of Charles himself at the +head of a considerable force. A petty, but most destructive, warfare +ensued. Robert Lilburne, the English commander, ravaged the lands of all +who favoured the royalists; the royalists, those of all who remained +neuter, or aided their enemies. But in a short time, personal feuds +distracted the councils of the insurgents; and, as the right of Glencairn +to the chief command was disputed, Middleton arrived[b] with a royal +commission, which all were required to obey. To Middleton the protector +opposed Monk.[c] It was the policy of the former to avoid a battle, and +exhaust the strength of his adversary by marches and counter-marches in a +mountainous country, without the convenience of roads or quarters; but in +an attempt to elude his pursuer, Middleton was surprised[d] at Loch Garry +by the force under Morgan; his men, embarrassed in the defile, were slain +or made prisoners; and his loss taught the royalist leaders to deserve +mercy by the promptitude of their submission. The Earl of Tullibardine set +the example;[e] Glencairn followed; they were imitated by their associates; + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. Nov. 22.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1654. Feb. 1.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1654. April 8.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1654. July 19.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1654. August 24.] + +and the lenity of Monk contributed as much as the fortune of war to the +total suppression of the insurgents.[1] Cromwell, however, did not wait for +the issue of the contest. Before Monk had joined the army, he published[a] +three ordinances, by which, of his supreme authority, he incorporated +Scotland with England, absolved the natives from their allegiance to +Charles Stuart, abolished the kingly office and the Scottish parliament, +with all tenures and superiorities importing servitude and vassalage, +erected courts-baron to supply the place of the jurisdictions which he had +taken away, and granted a free pardon to the nation, with the exception of +numerous individuals whom he subjected to different degrees of punishment. +Thus the whole frame of the Scottish constitution was subverted: yet no +one ventured to remonstrate or oppose. The spirit of the nation had been +broken. The experience of the past, and the presence of the military, +convinced the people that resistance was fruitless: of the nobility, many +languished within the walls of their prisons in England; and the others +were ground to the dust by the demands of their creditors, or the exactions +of the sequestrators; and even the kirk, which had so often bearded kings +on their thrones, was taught to feel that its authority, however it might +boast of its celestial origin, was no match for the earthly power of +the English commonwealth.[2] Soon after Cromwell had called his little +parliament, the general assembly of the kirk met[b] + +[Footnote 1: See the ratification of the surrenders of Tullibardine, +Glencairn, Heriot, Forrester, Kenmure, Montrose, and Seaforth, dated at +different times between Aug. 24 and Jan. 10, in the Council Book, 1655, +Feb. 7.] + +[Footnote 2: Scobell, 289, 293-295. Whitelock, 583,597, 599. Burnet, i. +58-61. Baillie, ii. 377, 381. Milton, State Papers, 130, 131.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. April 1.] +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. July 20.] + +at the usual place in Edinburgh; and Dickson, the moderator, had begun +his prayer, when Colonel Cotterel, leaving two troops of horse and two +companies of foot at the door, entered[a] the house, and inquired by what +authority they sat there; Was it by authority of the parliament, or of +the commander of the forces, or of the English judges in Scotland? The +moderator meekly but firmly replied, that they formed a spiritual court, +established by God, recognized by law, and supported by the solemn league +and covenant. But this was a language which the soldier did not, or would +not, understand. Mounting a bench, he declared that there existed no +authority in Scotland which was not derived from the parliament of England; +that it was his duty to put down every illegal assumption of power; and +that they must immediately depart or suffer themselves to be dragged out by +the military under his command. No one offered to resist: a protestation +was hastily entered on the minutes; and the whole body was marched between +two files of soldiers through the streets, to the surprise, and grief, +and horror of the inhabitants. At the distance of a mile from the city, +Cotterel discharged them with an admonition, that, if any of them were +found in the capital after eight o'clock on the following morning, or +should subsequently presume to meet in greater numbers than three persons +at one time, they would be punished with imprisonment, as disturbers of the +public peace. "Thus," exclaims Baillie, "our general assembly, the glory +and strength of our church upon earth, is by your soldiery crushed and +trode under foot. For this our hearts are sad, and our eyes run down with +water."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Baillie, ii. 370.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. July 20.] + + +Yet after this they were permitted to meet in synods and presbyteries, an +indulgence which they owed not to the moderation of their adversaries, but +to the policy of Vane, who argued that it was better to furnish them with +the opportunity of quarrelling among themselves, than, by establishing a +compulsory tranquillity, allow them to combine against the commonwealth. +For the ministers were still divided into resolutioners and protestors, and +the virulence of this religious feud appeared to augment in proportion as +the parties were deprived of real power. The resolutioners were the more +numerous, and enjoyed a greater share of popular favour; but the protestors +were enemies of Charles Stuart, and therefore sure of the protection of the +government. Hence it happened that in every struggle for the possession +of churches--and such struggles continually happened between the two +parties--the protestors were invariably supported against the voice of the +people by the swords of the military.[1] + +By foreign powers the recent elevation of Cromwell was viewed without +surprise. They were aware of his ambition, and had anticipated his success. +All who had reason to hope from his friendship, or to fear from his enmity, +offered their congratulations, and ambassadors and envoys from most of the +princes of Europe crowded to the court of the protector. He + +[Footnote 1: Baillie, 371-376, 360. Burnet, i. 62. Whilst Baillie weeps +over the state of the kirk, Kirkton exults at the progress of the gospel. +"I verily believe," he writes, "there were more souls converted unto Christ +in that short period of time than in any season since the Reformation. +Ministers were painful, people were diligent. At their solemn communions +many congregations met in great multitudes, some dozen of ministers used to +preach, and the people continued as it were in a sort of trance (so serious +were they in spiritual exercises) for three days at least."--Kirkton 54, +55.] + +received them with all the state of a sovereign. From his apartments in the +Cockpit he had removed with his family to those which in former times had +been appropriated to the king: they were newly furnished in the most costly +and magnificent style; and in the banqueting-room was placed a chair of +state on a platform, raised by three steps above the floor. Here the +protector stood to receive the ambassadors. They were instructed to make +three reverences, one at the entrance, the second in the midway, and the +third at the lower step, to each of which Cromwell answered by a slight +inclination of the head. When they had delivered their speeches, and +received the reply of the protector, the same ceremonial was repeated at +their departure. On one occasion he was requested to permit the gentlemen +attached to the embassy to kiss his hand; but he advanced to the upper +step, bowed to each in succession, waved his hand, and withdrew. On the +conclusion of peace with the States, the ambassadors received from him an +invitation to dinner. He sat alone on one side of the table, they, with +some lords of the council, on the other. Their ladies were entertained +by the lady protectress. After dinner, both parties joined in the +drawing-room; pieces of music were performed, and a psalm was sung, a copy +of which Cromwell gave to the ambassadors, observing that it was the best +paper that had ever passed between them. The entertainment concluded with a +walk in the gallery.[1] + +This treaty with the United Provinces was the first which engaged the +attention of the protector, and was + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon Papers, iii. 240. Thurloe, i. 50, 69, 154, 257. It +appears from the Council Book that the quarterly expense of the protector's +family amounted to thirty-five thousand pounds. 1655, March 14.] + +not concluded till repeated victories had proved the superiority of the +English navy, and a protracted negotiation had exhausted the patience +of the States. In the preceding month of May the hostile fleets, each +consisting of about one hundred sail, had put to sea, the English commanded +by Monk, Dean, Penn, and Lawson; the Dutch by Van Tromp, De Ruyter, De +Witte, and Evertsens. While Monk insulted the coast of Holland, Van Tromp +cannonaded[a] the town of Dover. They afterwards met each other off the +North Foreland, and the action continued the whole day. The enemy lost two +sail; on the part of the English, Dean was killed by a chain-shot. He fell +by the side of Monk, who instantly spread his cloak over the dead body, +that the men might not be alarmed at the fete of their commander. + +The battle was renewed the next morning.[b] Though Blake, with eighteen +sail, had joined the English in the night, Van Tromp fought with the +most determined courage; but a panic pervaded his fleet; his orders were +disobeyed; several captains fled from the superior fire of the enemy; and, +ultimately, the Dutch sought shelter within the Wielings, and along the +shallow coast of Zeeland. They lost one-and-twenty sail; thirteen hundred +men were made prisoners, and the number of killed and wounded was great in +proportion.[1] + +Cromwell received the news of this victory with transports of joy. Though +he could claim no share in the merit (for the fleet owed its success to the +exertions + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 557. Ludlow, ii. 27. Heath, 344. Le Clerc, i. 333. +Basnage, i. 307. It appears from the letters in Thurloe, that the English +fought at the distance of half cannon-shot, till the enemy fell into +confusion, and began to fly, when their disabled ships were surrounded, and +captured by the English frigates.--Thurloe, i. 269, 270, 273, 277, 278.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. June 2.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1653. June 3.] + +of the government which he had overturned), he was aware that it would shed +a lustre over his own administration; and the people were publicly called +upon to return thanks to the Almighty for so signal a favour. It was +observed that on this occasion he did not command but invite; and the +distinction was hailed by his admirers as a proof of the humility and +single-mindedness of the lord-general.[1] + +To the States, the defeat of their fleet proved a subject of the deepest +regret. It was not the loss of men and ships that they deplored; such loss +might soon be repaired; but it degraded them in the eyes of Europe, by +placing them in the posture of suppliants deprecating the anger of a +victorious enemy. In consequence of the importunate entreaties of the +merchants, they had previously appointed ambassadors to make proposals of +peace to the new government; but these ministers did not quit the coast +of Holland till after the battle;[a] and their arrival in England at this +particular moment was universally attributed to a conviction of inferiority +arising from the late defeat. They were introduced[b] with due honour to +his excellency and the council; but found them unwilling to recede from +the high demands formerly made by the parliament. As to the claim of +indemnification for the past, the ambassadors maintained that, if a balance +were struck of their respective losses, the Dutch would be found the +principal sufferers; and, to the demand of security for the future, they +replied, that it might be obtained by the completion of that treaty, which +had been interrupted by the sudden departure of St. John and Strickland +from the Hague. The obstinacy of the council induced the ambassadors to +demand[c] passports + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 558.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. May 26.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1653. June 22.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1653. July 19.] + +for their return; but means were found to awaken in them new hopes, and to +amuse them with new proposals. In the conferences, Cromwell generally +bore the principal part. Sometimes he chided the ambassadors in no very +courteous terms; sometimes he described with tears the misery occasioned +by the war; but he was always careful to wrap up his meaning in such +obscurity, that a full month elapsed before the Dutch could distinctly +ascertain his real demands. They were then informed[a] that England would +waive the claim of pecuniary compensation, provided Van Tromp were removed +for a while from the command of their fleet, as an acknowledgment that he +was the aggressor; but that, on the other hand, it was expected that the +States should consent to the incorporation of the two countries into one +great maritime power, to be equally under the same government, consisting +of individuals chosen out of both. This was a subject on which the +ambassadors had no power to treat; and it was agreed that two of their +number should repair to the Hague for additional instructions.[1] + +But, a few days before their departure, another battle had been fought[b] +at sea, and another victory won by the English. For eight weeks Monk had +blockaded the entrance of the Texel; but Van Tromp, the moment his fleet +was repaired, put to sea, and sought to redeem the honour of the Belgic +flag. Each admiral commanded about one hundred sail; and as long as Tromp +lived, the victory hung in suspense; he had burst through the English line, +and returned to his first station, when he fell by a musket-shot; then the + +[Footnote 1: See on this subject a multitude of original papers in Thurloe, +i. 268, 284, 302, 308, 315, 316, 340, 362, 370, 372, 381, 382, 394, 401.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. July 26.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1653. July 31.] + +Dutch began to waver; in a short time they fled, and the pursuit continued +till midnight. That which distinguished this from every preceding action +was the order issued by Monk to make no prizes, but to sink or destroy the +ships of the enemy. Hence the only trophies of victory were the prisoners, +men who had been picked up after they had thrown themselves into the water, +or had escaped in boats from the wrecks. Of these, more than a thousand +were brought to England, a sufficient proof that, if the loss of the enemy +did not amount to twenty sail, as stated by Monk, it exceeded nine small +vessels, the utmost allowed by the States.[1] + +During the absence of the other ambassadors, Cromwell sought several +private interviews with the third who remained, Beverning, the deputy +from the States of Holland; and the moderation with which he spoke of the +questions in dispute, joined to the tears with which he lamented the enmity +of two nations so similar in their political and religious principles, +convinced the Dutchman that an accommodation might be easily and promptly +attained. At his desire his colleagues returned; the conferences were +resumed; the most cheering hopes were indulged; when suddenly the English +commissioners presented seven-and-twenty articles, conceived in a tone of +insulting superiority, and demanding sacrifices painful and degrading. A +few days later the parliament was dissolved; and, as it was evident that +the interests of the new protector required a peace, the ambassadors began +to affect indifference on the subject, and demanded passports to depart. +Cromwell, in his turn, thought proper to yield; some claims + +[Footnote 1: Le Clerc, i. 335. Basnage, i. 313. Several Proceedings, No. +197. Perfect Diurnal, No. 187. Thurloe, i. 392, 420, 448.] + +were abandoned; others were modified, and every question was adjusted, with +the exception of this, whether the king of Denmark, the ally of the Dutch, +who, to gratify them, had seized and confiscated twenty-three English +merchantmen in the Baltic,[1] should be comprehended or not in the treaty. +The ambassadors were at Gravesend on their way home, when Cromwell +proposed[a] a new expedient, which they approved. They proceeded, however, +to Holland; obtained the approbation of the several states, and returned[b] +to put an end to the treaty. But here again, to their surprise, new +obstacles arose. Beverning had incautiously boasted of his dexterity; +he had, so he pretended compelled the protector to lower his demands by +threatening to break off the negotiation; and Cromwell now turned the +tables upon him by playing a similar game. At the same time that he rose in +some of his demands, he equipped a fleet of one hundred sail, and ordered +several regiments to embark. The ambassadors, aware that the States +had made no provision to oppose this formidable armament, reluctantly +acquiesced;[c] and on the 5th of April, after a negotiation of ten months, +the peace was definitively signed.[2] + +By this treaty the English cabinet silently abandoned those lofty +pretensions which it had originally put forth. It made no mention of +indemnity for the past, of security for the future, of the incorporation +of the two states, of the claim of search, of the tenth herring, or of the +exclusion of the prince of Orange + +[Footnote 1: Basnage, i. 289.] + +[Footnote 2: Thurloe, i. 570, 607, 616, 624, 643, 650; ii. 9, 19, 28, +36, 74, 75, 123, 137, 195, 197. Le Clerc. i, 340-343. During the whole +negotiation, it appears from these papers that the despatches of, and to, +the ambassadors were opened, and copies of almost all the resolutions taken +by the States procured, by the council of state.--See particularly Thurloe, +ii. 99, 153.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. Jan. 6.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1654. Feb. 28.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1654. April 5.] + +from the office of stadtholder. To these humiliating conditions the pride +of the States had refused to submit; and Cromwell was content to accept +two other articles, which, while they appeared equally to affect the +two nations, were in reality directed against the Stuart family and its +adherents. It was stipulated that neither commonwealth should harbour or +aid the enemies, rebels, or exiles of the other; but that either, being +previously required, should order such enemies, rebels, or exiles to +leave its territory, under the penalty of death, before the expiration of +twenty-eight days. To the demand, that the same respect which had been paid +to the flag of the king should be paid to that of the commonwealth, the +Dutch did not object. The only questions which latterly retarded the +conclusion of the treaty related to the compensation to be made to the +merchants for the depredations on their trade in the East Indies before, +and the detention of their ships by the king of Denmark during, the war. It +was, however, agreed that arbitrators should be chosen out of both +nations, and that each government should be bound by their award.[1] These +determined[a] that the island of Polerone should be restored, and damages +to the amount of one hundred and seventy thousand pounds should be paid to +the English East India Company; that three thousand six hundred and fifteen +pounds should be distributed among the heirs of those who suffered at +Amboyna; and that a compensation of ninety-seven thousand nine hundred and +seventy-three pounds should be made to the traders to the Baltic.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Dumont, v. part ii. 74.] + +[Footnote 2: See the award, ibid. 85, 88. By Sagredo, the Venetian +ambassador, who resided during the war at Amsterdam, we are told that the +Dutch acknowledged the loss of one thousand one hundred and twenty-two +men-of-war and merchantmen; and that the expense of this war exceeded +that of their twenty years' hostilities with Spain. He states that their +inferiority arose from three causes: that the English ships were of greater +bulk; the English cannon were of brass, and of a larger calibre; and the +number of prizes made by the English at the commencement crippled the +maritime resources of their enemies.--Relazione, MS. Le Clerc states that +the Dutch employed one hundred thousand men in the herring-fishery (i. +321).] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. August 30.] + + +On one subject, in the protector's estimation of considerable importance, +he was partially successful. Possessed of the supreme power himself, he +considered Charles as a personal rival, and made it his policy to strip the +exiled king of all hope of foreign support. From the prince of Orange, so +nearly allied to the royal family, Cromwell had little to fear during his +minority; and, to render him incapable of benefiting the royal cause in his +more mature age, the protector attempted to exclude him by the treaty +from succeeding to those high offices which might almost be considered +hereditary in his family. The determined refusal of the States had induced +him to withdraw the demand; but he intrigued, through the agency of +Beverning, with the leaders of the Louvestein party;[1] and obtained a +secret article, by which the states of Holland and West Friesland promised +never to elect the prince of Orange for their stadtholder, nor suffer him +to have the chief command of the army and navy. But the secret transpired; +the other states highly resented this clandestine negotiation; complaints +and remonstrances were answered by apologies and vindications; an open +schism was declared between the provinces, and every day added to the +exasperation of the two parties. On the whole, however, the quarrel was +favourable to the pretensions of the young prince, + +[Footnote 1: The leaders of the republicans were so called, because they +had been confined in the castle of Louvestein, whence they were discharged +on the death of the late prince of Orange.] + +from the dislike with which the people viewed the interference of a foreign +potentate, or rather, as they termed him, of an usurper, in the internal +arrangements of the republic.[1] + +The war[a] in which the rival crowns of France and Spain had so long +been engaged induced both Louis and Philip to pay their court to the new +protector. Alonzo de Cardenas, the Spanish ambassador, had the advantage +of being on the spot. He waited on Cromwell to present to him the +congratulations of his sovereign, and to offer to him the support of the +Spanish monarch, if he should feel desirous to rise a step higher, and +assume the style and office of king. To so flattering a message, a most +courteous answer was returned; and the ambassador proceeded to propose an +alliance between the two powers, of which the great object should be to +confine within reasonable bounds the ambition of France, which, for so +many years, had disturbed the tranquillity of Europe. This was the sole +advantage to which Philip looked; to Cromwell the benefit would be, that +France might be compelled to refuse aid and harbour to Charles Stuart and +his followers; and to contract the obligation of maintaining jointly with +Spain the protector in the government of the three kingdoms. Cromwell +listened, but gave no answer; he appointed commissioners to discuss the +proposal, but forbade them to make any promise, or to hold out any hope +of his acquiescence. When Don Alonzo communicated to them the draft of a +treaty which he had all but concluded with the deputies appointed by the +late parliament, he was + +[Footnote 1: Dumont, 79. Thurloe, vol. ii. iii. Vaughan, i. 9, 11. La +Déduction, or Defence of the States in Holland, in Le Clerc, i. 345, and +Basnage, i. 342.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653.] + +asked whether the king of Spain would consent to a free trade to the West +Indies, would omit the clause respecting the Inquisition, reduce to an +equality the duties on foreign merchandise, and give to the English +merchant the pre-emption of the Spanish wool. He replied, that his master +would as soon lose his eyes as suffer the interference of any foreign power +on the two first questions; as to the others, satisfactory adjustments +might easily be made; This was sufficient for the present. Cromwell +affected to consider the treaty at an end; though the real fact was, that +he meditated a very different project in his own mind, and was careful not +to be precluded by premature arrangements.[1] + +The French ambassador, though he commenced his negotiation under less +propitious auspices, had the address or good fortune to conduct it to +a more favourable issue. That the royal family of France, from its +relationship to that of England, was ill-disposed towards the commonwealth, +there could be no doubt; but its inclinations were controlled by the +internal feuds which distracted, and the external war which demanded, the +attention of the government. The first proof of hostility was supposed to +be given before the death of the king, by a royal _arrét_[a] prohibiting +the importation into France of English woollens and silks; and this was +afterwards met by an order of parliament[b] equally prohibiting the +importation into England of French woollens, silks, and wines. The alleged +infraction of these commercial + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, i. 705, 759, 760. Dumont, v. part ii. p. 106. The +clause respecting the Inquisition was one which secured the English +traders from being molested by that court, on condition that they gave no +scandal,--modo ne dent scandalum. This condition Cromwell wished to be +withdrawn.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. Oct. 21.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. August 23.] + +regulations led to the arrest and subsequent condemnation of vessels +belonging to both nations; each government issued letters-of-marque to +the sufferers among its subjects; and the naval commanders received +instructions to seek that compensation for the individuals aggrieved which +the latter were unable to obtain of themselves.[1] Thus the maritime trade +of both countries was exposed to the depredations of private and national +cruisers, while their respective governments were considered as remaining +at peace. But in 1651, when the Cardinal Mazarin had been banished from +France, it was resolved by Cromwell, who had recently won the battle of +Worcester, to tempt the fidelity of d'Estrades, the governor of Dunkirk +and a dependant on the exiled minister. An officer of the lord-general's +regiment made to d'Estrades the offer of a considerable sum, on condition +that he would deliver the fortress into the hands of the English; or of the +same sum, with the aid of a military force to the cardinal, if he preferred +to treat in the name of his patron. The governor complained of the insult +offered to his honour; but intimated[a] that, if the English wished to +purchase Dunkirk, the proposal might be addressed to his sovereign. The +hint was taken, and the offer was made, and debated in the royal council at +Poictiers. The cardinal, who returned to France at the very time, urged its + +[Footnote 1: See the instructions to Popham. "In respect that many of the +English so spoiled are not able to undergo the charge of setting forth +ships of their own to make seizures by such letters-of-marque; ... you +shall, as in the way and execution of justice, seize, arrest, &c. such +ships and vessels of the said French king, or any of his subjects, as you +shall think fit,... and the same keep in your custody, till the parliament +declare their further resolution concerning the same."--Thurloe, i. 144.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1652. Feb.] + +acceptance;[1] but the queen-mother and the other counsellors were so +unwilling to give the English a footing in France, that he acquiesced in +their opinion, and a refusal was returned. Cromwell did not fail to resent +the disappointment. By the facility which he afforded to the Spanish levies +in Ireland, their army in Flanders was enabled to reduce Gravelines, and, +soon afterwards, to invest[a] Dunkirk. That fortress was on the point of +capitulating when a French flotilla of seven sail, carrying from twenty to +thirty guns each, and laden with stores and provisions, was descried[b] +stealing along the shore to its relief. Blake, who had received secret +orders from the council, gave chase; the whole squadron was captured, and +the next day[c] Dunkirk opened its gates.[2] By the French court this +action was pronounced an unprovoked and unjustifiable injury; but Mazarin +coolly calculated the probable consequences of a war, and, after some time, +sent[d] over Bordeaux, under the pretence of claiming the captured ships, +but in reality to oppose the intrigues of the agents of Spain, of the +prince of Condé, and of the city of Bordeaux, who laboured to obtain the +support of the commonwealth in opposition to the French court.[3] + +Bordeaux had been appointed[e] ambassador to the parliament; after the +inauguration of Cromwell, it became necessary to appoint him ambassador to +his + +[Footnote 1: Here Louis XIV., to whom we are indebted for this anecdote +observes; that it was the cardinal's maxim de pourvoir, à quelque prix +qu'il fût, aux affaires présentes, persuadé que les maux à venir, +trouveroient leur remède dans l'avenir même.--Oeuvres de Louis XIV. i. +170.] + +[Footnote 2: Ibid. 168-170. See also Heath, 325; Thurloe, i. 214; +Whitelock, 543.] + +[Footnote 3: Journals, 14 Dec. 1652. Clar. Pap. iii. 105, 123, 132. +Thurloe, i. 436.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1652. May 8.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1652. Sept. 5.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1652. Sept. 6.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1652. Dec. 10.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1653. Feb. 21.] + +highness the protector. But in what style was Louis to address the usurper +by letter? "Mon cousin" was offered and refused; "mon frère," which +Cromwell sought, was offensive to the pride of the monarch; and, as a +temperament between the two, "monsieur le protecteur" was given +and accepted. Bordeaux proposed a treaty of amity, by which all +letters-of-marque should be recalled, and the damages suffered by the +merchants of the two nations be referred to foreign arbitrators. To thwart +the efforts of his rival, Don Alonzo, abandoning his former project, +brought forward the proposal of a new commercial treaty between England and +Spain. Cromwell was in no haste to conclude with either. He was aware that +the war between them was the true cause of these applications; that he held +the balance in his hand, and that it was in his power at any moment to +incline it in favour of either of the two crowns. His determination, +indeed, had long been taken; but it was not his purpose to let it +transpire; and when he was asked the object of the two great armaments +preparing in the English ports, he refused to give any satisfactory +explanation.[1] + +In this state of the treaty, its further progress was for a while suspended +by the meeting[a] of the protector's first parliament. He had summoned +it for the 3rd of September, his fortunate day, as he perhaps believed +himself, as he certainly wished it to be believed by others. But the 3rd +happened in that year to fall on a Sunday; and, that the Sabbath might not +be profaned + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, i. 760; ii. 61, 113, 228, 559, 587. An obstacle +was opposed to the progress of the treaty by the conduct of Le Baas, a +dependant on Mazarin, and sent to aid Bordeaux with his advice. After some +time, it was discovered that this man (whether by order of the minister, or +at the solicitation of the royalists, is uncertain) was intriguing with the +malcontents. Cromwell compelled him to return to France.--Thurloe, ii. 309, +351, 412, 437.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. Sept. 3.] + +by the agitation of worldly business, he requested the members to meet him +at sermon in Westminster Abbey on the following morning.[a] At ten +the procession set out from Whitehall. It was opened by two troops of +life-guards; then rode some hundreds of gentlemen and officers, bareheaded, +and in splendid apparel; immediately before the carriage walked the pages +and lackeys of the protector in rich liveries, and on each side a captain +of the guard; behind it came Claypole, master of the horse, leading a +charger magnificently caparisoned, and Claypole was followed by the great +officers of state and the members of the council. The personal appearance +of the protector formed a striking contrast with the parade of the +procession. He was dressed in a plain suit, after the fashion of a country +gentleman, and was chiefly distinguished from his attendants by his +superior simplicity, and the privilege of wearing his hat. After sermon, +he placed himself in the chair of state in the Painted Chamber, while the +members seated themselves, uncovered on benches ranged along the walls. The +protector then rose, took off his hat, and addressed them in a speech which +lasted three hours. It was, after his usual style, verbose, involved, and +obscure, sprinkled with quotations from Scripture to refresh the piety +of the saints, and seasoned with an affectation of modesty to disarm the +enmity of the republicans. He described the state of the nation at the +close of the last parliament. It was agitated by the principles of the +Levellers, tending to reduce all to an equality; by the doctrines of the +Fifth-monarchy men, subversive of civil government; by religious theorists, +the pretended champions of liberty of conscience, who condemned an +established ministry as Babylonish and antichristian; + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. Sept. 4.] + +and by swarms of Jesuits, who had settled in England an episcopal +jurisdiction to pervert the people. At the same time the naval war with +Holland absorbed all the pecuniary resources, while a commercial war with +France and Portugal cramped the industry of the nation. He then bade them +contrast this picture with the existing state of things. The taxes had been +reduced; judges of talent and integrity had been placed upon the bench; the +burthen of the commissioners of the great seal had been lightened by the +removal of many descriptions of causes from the court of Chancery to the +ordinary courts of law; and "a stop had been put to that heady way for +every man, who pleased, to become a preacher." The war with Holland had +terminated in an advantageous peace; treaties of commerce and amity had +been concluded with Denmark and Sweden;[1] a similar treaty, which would +place the British trader beyond the reach of the Inquisition, had been +signed with Portugal, and another was in progress with the ambassador of +the French monarch. Thus had the government brought the three nations by +hasty strides towards the land of promise; it was for the parliament to +introduce them into it. The prospect was bright before them; let them not +look + +[Footnote 1: That with Sweden was negotiated by Whitelock, who had been +sent on that mission against his will by the influence of Cromwell. The +object was to detach Sweden from the interest of France, and engage it to +maintain the liberty of trade in the Baltic, against Denmark, which was +under the influence of Holland. It was concluded April 11. After the peace +with Holland, the Danish monarch hastened to appease the protector; the +treaty which, though said by Cromwell to be already concluded, was not +signed till eleven days afterwards, stipulated that the English traders +should pay no other customs or dues than the Dutch. Thus they were enabled +to import naval stores on the same terms, while before, on account of +the heavy duties, they bought them at second hand of the Dutch.--See the +treaties in Dumont. v. part ii. p. 80, 92.] + +back to the onions and flesh-pots of Egypt. He spoke not as their lord, but +their fellow-servant, a labourer with them in the same good work; and would +therefore detain them no longer, but desire them to repair to their own +house, and to choose their speaker.[1] + +To procure a parliament favourable to his designs, all the power of the +government had been employed to influence the elections; the returns had +been examined by a committee of the council, under the pretext of seeing +that the provisions of the "instrument" were observed; and the consequence +was, that the Lord Grey of Groby, Major Wildman, and some other noted +republicans, had been excluded by command of the protector. Still he found +himself unable to mould the house to his wishes. By the court, Lenthall was +put in nomination for the office of speaker; by the opposition, Bradshaw, +the boldest and most able of the opposite party. After a short debate, +Lenthall was chosen, by the one, because they knew him to be a timid and a +time-serving character; by the other, because they thought that, to place +him in the chair, was one step towards the revival of the long parliament, +of which he had been speaker. But no one ventured to propose that he should +be offered, according to ancient custom, to the acceptance of the supreme +magistrate. This was thought to savour too much of royalty.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Compare the official copy printed by G. Sawbridge, 1654, with +the abstract by Whitelock (599, 600), and by Bordeaux (Thurloe, ii. 518). +See also Journals, Sept. 3, 4.] + +[Footnote 2: It appears from the Council Book (1654, Aug. 21), that, on +that day, letters were despatched to the sheriffs, containing the names of +the members who had been approved by the council, with orders to give them +notice to attend. The letters to the more distant places were sent first, +that they might all be received about the same time.] + + +It was not long before the relative strength of the parties was +ascertained. After a sharp debate,[a] in which it was repeatedly asked +why the members of the long parliament then present should not resume the +authority of which they had been illegally deprived by force, and by what +right, but that of the sword, one man presumed to "command his commanders," +the question was put, that the house resolve itself into a committee, to +determine whether or not the government shall be in a single person and a +parliament; and, to the surprise and alarm of Cromwell, it was carried[b] +against the court by a majority of five voices.[1] The leaders of the +opposition were Bradshaw, Hazlerig, and Scot, who now contended in the +committee that the existing government emanated from an incompetent +authority, and stood in opposition to the solemn determination of a +legitimate parliament; while the protectorists, with equal warmth, +maintained that, since it had been approved by the people, the only real +source of power, it could not be subject to revision by the representatives +of the people. The debate lasted several days,[c] during which the +commonwealth party gradually increased in number. That the executive power +might be profitably delegated to a single individual, was not disputed; +but it was contended that, of right, the legislative authority belonged +exclusively to the parliament. The officers and courtiers, finding that the +sense of the house was against them, dropped[d] the question of right, +and fled to that of expediency; in the existing circumstances, the public +safety required a + +[Footnote 1: Journals, Sept. 8. Many of those who voted in the majority did +not object to the authority of the protector, but to the source from which +it emanated,--a written instrument, the author of which was unknown. They +wished it to be settled on him by act of parliament.--Thurloe, ii. 606.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. Sept. 7.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1654. Sept. 8.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1654. Sept. 9.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1654. Sept. 11.] + +check on the otherwise unbounded power of parliament; that check could be +no other than a co-ordinate authority, possessing a negative voice; and +that authority was the protector, who had been pointed out to them by +Providence, acknowledged by the people in their addresses, and confirmed by +the conditions expressed in the indentures of the members. It was replied, +that the inconveniency of such a check had induced the nation to abolish +the kingly government; that the addresses of the people expressed their joy +for their deliverance from the incapacity of the little parliament, not +their approbation of the new government; that Providence often permits what +it disapproves; and that the indentures were an artifice of the court, +which could not have force to bind the supreme power. To reconcile the +disputants, a compromise between the parties had been planned; but Cromwell +would not suffer the experiment to be tried.[1] Having ordered[b] Harrison, +whose partisans were collecting signatures to a petition, to be taken into +custody, he despatched three regiments to occupy the principal posts in the +city, and commanded the attendance of the house in the Painted Chamber. +There, laying aside that tone of modesty which he had hitherto assumed, he +frankly told the members that his calling was from God, his testimony from +the people; and that no one but God and the people should ever take his +office from him. It was not of his seeking; God knew that it was his +utmost ambition to lead the life of a country gentleman; but imperious +circumstances had imposed it upon him. The long parliament brought their +dissolution upon themselves by despotism, the little parliament + +[Footnote 1: See introduction to Burton's Diary, xxiv.-xxxii.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. Sept. 12.] + +by imbecility.[1] On each occasion he found himself invested with absolute +power over the military, and, through the military, over the three nations. +But on each occasion he was anxious to part with that power; and if, at +last, he had acquiesced in the instrument of government, it was because it +made the parliament a check on the protector, and the protector a check on +the parliament. That he did not bring himself into his present situation, +he had God for a witness above, his conscience for a witness within, and a +cloud of witnesses without; he had the persons who attended when he took +the oath of fidelity to "the instrument;" the officers of the army in the +three nations, who testified their approbation by their signatures; the +city of London, which feasted him, the counties, cities, and boroughs, that +had sent him addresses; the judges, magistrates, and sheriffs, who acted by +his commission; and the very men who now stood before him, for they came +there in obedience to his writ, and under the express condition that "the +persons so chosen should not + +[Footnote 1: It is remarkable that, in noticing the despotism of the long +parliament, he makes mention of the very same thing, which his enemy +Lilburne urged against it: "by taking the judgment, both in capital and +criminal things, to themselves, who in former times were not known to +exercise such a judicature." He boldly maintains that they meant to +perpetuate themselves by filling up vacancies as they occurred, and had +made several applications to him to obtain his consent. He adds, "Poor men, +under this arbitrary power, were driven like flocks of sheep by forty in a +morning, to the confiscation of goods and estates, without any man being +able to give a reason that two of them had deserved to forfeit a shilling. +I tell you the truth; and my soul, and many persons whose faces I see in +this place, were exceedingly grieved at these things, and knew not which +way to help it, but by their mournings, and giving their negatives when the +occasion served." I notice this passage, because since the discovery of the +sequestrators' papers it has been thought, from the regularity with which +their books were kept, and the seeming equity of their proceedings, as they +are entered, that little injustice was done.] + +have power to change the government as settled in one single person and the +parliament." He would, therefore, have them to know, that four things were +fundamental: 1. That the supreme power should be vested in a single person +and parliament; 2. that the parliament should be successive, and not +perpetual; 3. that neither protector nor parliament alone should possess +the uncontrolled command of the military force; and 4. that liberty of +conscience should be fenced round with such barriers as might exclude both +profaneness and persecution. The other articles of the instrument were less +essential; they might be altered with circumstances; and he should always +be ready to agree to what was reasonable. But he would not permit them to +sit, and yet disown the authority by which they sat. For this purpose +he had prepared a recognition which he required them to sign. Those who +refused would be excluded the house; the rest would find admission, and +might exercise their legislative power without control, for his negative +remained in force no longer than twenty days. Let them limit his authority +if they pleased. He would cheerfully submit, provided he thought it for the +interest of the people.[1] + +The members, on their return, found a guard of soldiers at the door of the +house, and a parchment for signatures lying on a table in the lobby. It +contained the recognition of which the protector had spoken; a pledge that +the subscribers would neither propose nor consent to alter the government, +as it was settled in one person and a parliament. It was immediately signed +by Lenthall, the speaker; his example was followed by the court party; and +in the course of a few + +[Footnote 1: Printed by G. Sawbridge, 1654.] + +days almost three hundred names were subscribed. The Stanch republicans +refused; yet the sequel showed that their exclusion did not give to the +court that ascendancy in the house which had been anticipated.[1] + +About this time an extraordinary accident occurred. Among the presents +which Cromwell had received from foreign princes, were six Friesland +coach-horses from the duke of Oldenburg. One day,[a] after he had dined +with Thurloe under the shade in the park, the fancy took him to try the +mettle of the horses. The secretary was compelled to enter the carriage; +the protector, forgetful of his station, mounted the box. The horses at +first appeared obedient to the hand of the new coachman; but the too +frequent application of the lash drove them into a gallop, and the +protector was suddenly precipitated from his seat. At first, he lay +suspended by the pole with his leg entangled in the harness; and the +explosion of a loaded pistol in one of his pockets added to the fright and +the rapidity of the horses; but a fortunate jerk extricated his foot from +his shoe, and he fell under the body of the carriage without meeting with +injury from the wheels. He was immediately taken up by his guards, who +followed at full speed, and conveyed to Whitehall; Thurloe leaped from the +door of the carriage, and escaped with a sprained ancle and some severe +bruises. Both were confined to their chambers for a long time; + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, ii. 606. Whitelock, 605. Journals, Sept. 5-18. +Fleetwood, from Dublin, asks Thurloe, "How cam it to passe, that this +last teste was not at the first sitting of the house?" (ii. 620). See in +Archæol. xxiv. 39, a letter showing that several, who refused to subscribe +at first through motives of conscience, did so later. This was in +consequence of a declaration that the recognition did not comprehend all +the forty-two articles in "the instrument," but only what concerned the +government by a single person and successive parliaments.--See Journals, +Sept. 14.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. Sept. 24.] + +but by many, their confinement was attributed as much to policy as to +indisposition. The Cavaliers diverted themselves by prophesying that, as +his first fall had been from a coach, the next would be from a cart: to +the public, the explosion of the pistol revealed the secret terrors which +haunted his mind, that sense of insecurity, those fears of assassination, +which are the usual meed of inordinate and successful ambition.[1] + +The force so lately put on the parliament, and the occasion of that +force, had opened the eyes of the most devoted among his adherents. His +protestations of disinterestedness, his solemn appeals to Heaven in +testimony of his wish to lead the life of a private gentleman, were +contrasted with his aspiring and arbitrary conduct; and the house, though +deprived of one-fourth of its number, still contained a majority jealous +of his designs and anxious to limit his authority. The accident which had +placed his life in jeopardy naturally led to the consideration of the +probable consequences of his death; and, to sound the disposition of +the members, the question of the succession was repeatedly, though not +formally, introduced. The remarks which it provoked afforded little +encouragement to his hopes; yet, when the previous arrangements had been +made, and all the dependants of the government had been mustered, Lambert, +having in a long and studied speech detailed the evils of elective, the +benefits of hereditary, succession, moved[a] that the office of protector +should be limited to the family of Oliver Cromwell, according to the known +law of inheritance. To the surprise and the mortification + +[Footnote 1: Heath, 363. Thurloe, ii. 652, 653, 672. Ludlow, ii. 63. +Vaughan, i. 69.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. Oct. 13.] + +of the party, the motion was negatived by a division of two hundred against +eighty voices; and it was resolved that, on the death of the protector, his +successor should be chosen by the parliament if it were sitting, and by the +council in the absence of parliament.[1] + +This experiment had sufficiently proved the feelings of the majority. +Aware, however, of their relative weakness, they were careful to give +Cromwell no tangible cause of offence. If they appointed committees to +revise the ordinances which he had published, they affected to consider +them as merely provisional regulations, supplying the place of laws till +the meeting of parliament. If they examined in detail the forty-two +articles of "the instrument," rejecting some, and amending others, they +still withheld their unhallowed hands from those subjects which _he_ +had pronounced sacred,--the four immovable pillars on which the new +constitution was built. Cromwell, on his part, betrayed no symptom of +impatience; but waited quietly for the moment when he had resolved + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, i. 668, 681, 685. Whitelock, 607. Journals, Nov. 30. +Though the house was daily occupied with the important question of the +government, it found leisure to inquire into the theological opinions of +John Biddle, who may be styled the father of the English Unitarians. He had +been thrice imprisoned by the long parliament, and was at last liberated by +the act of oblivion in 1652. The republication of his opinions attracted +the notice of the present parliament: to the questions put to him by the +speaker, he replied, that he could nowhere find in Scripture that Christ +or the Holy Ghost is called God; and it was resolved that he should be +committed to the Gatehouse, and that a bill to punish him should be +prepared. The dissolution saved his life; and by application to the Upper +Bench, he recovered his liberty; but was again arrested in 1655, and sent +to the isle of Scilly, to remain for life in the castle of St. Mary. +Cromwell discharged him in 1658; but he was again sent to Newgate in +1662, where he died the same year.--See Vita Bidelli, the short account; +Journals, Dec. 12, 13, 1654; Wood, iii. 594; and Biog. Brit.] + +to break the designs of his adversaries. They proceeded with the revision +of "the instrument;" their labours were embodied in a bill,[a] and the bill +was read a third time. During two days the courtiers prolonged the debate +by moving a variety of amendments; on the third Cromwell summoned[b] the +house to meet him in the Painted Chamber. Displeasure and contempt were +marked on his countenance; and the high and criminatory tone which he +assumed taught them to feel how inferior the representatives of the people +were to the representative of the army. + +They appeared there, he observed, with the speaker at their head, as a +house of parliament. Yet, what had they done as a parliament? He never had +played, he never would play, the orator; and therefore he would tell them +frankly, they had done nothing. For five months they had passed no bill, +had made no address, had held no communication with him. As far as +concerned them, he had nothing to do but to pray that God would enlighten +their minds and give a blessing to their labours. But had they then done +nothing? Yes: they had encouraged the Cavaliers to plot against the +commonwealth, and the Levellers to intrigue with the Cavaliers. By their +dissension they had aided the fanatics to throw the nation into confusion, +and by the slowness of their proceedings had compelled the soldiers to live +at free quarters on the country. They supposed that he sought to make the +protectorship hereditary in his family. It was not true; had they inserted +such a provision in "the instrument," on that ground alone he would have +rejected it. He spoke in the fear of the Lord, who would not be mocked, and +with the satisfaction that his conscience did not belie his assertion. The + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1655. Jan. 19.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1655. Jan. 22.] + +different revolutions which had happened were attributed to his cunning. +How blind were men who would not see the hand of Providence in its merciful +dispensations, who ridiculed as the visions of enthusiasm the observations +"made by the quickening and teaching Spirit!" It was supposed that he would +not be able to raise money without the aid of parliament. But "he had been +inured to difficulties, and never found God failing when he trusted in +him." The country would willingly pay on account of the necessity. But was +not the necessity of his creation? No: it was of God; the consequence of +God's providence. It was no marvel, if men who lived on their masses and +service-books, their dead and carnal worship, were strangers to the works +of God; but for those who had been instructed by the Spirit of God, to +adopt the same language, and say that men were the cause of these things, +when God had done them, this was more than the Lord would bear. But that +he might trouble them no longer, it was his duty to tell them that their +continuance was not for the benefit of the nation, and therefore he did +then and there declare that he dissolved the parliament.[1] + +This was a stroke for which his adversaries were unprepared. "The +instrument" had provided that the parliament should continue to sit during +five months, and it still wanted twelve days of the expiration of that +term. But Cromwell chose to understand the clause not of calendar but +of lunar months, the fifth of which had been completed on the preceding +evening. Much might have been urged against such an interpretation; but a +military force was ready to + +[Footnote 1: Printed by Henry Hills, printer to his highness the +lord-protector, 1654. Whitelock, 610-618. Journals, Jan. 19, 20, 22.] + +support the opinion of the protector, and prudence taught the most +reluctant of his enemies to submit. + +The conspiracies to which he had alluded in his speech had been generated +by the impatience of the two opposite parties, the republicans and the +royalists. Of the republicans some cared little for religion, others were +religious enthusiasts, but both were united in the same cause by one common +interest. The first could not forgive the usurpation of Cromwell, who had +reaped the fruit, and destroyed the object of their labours; the second +asked each other how they could conscientiously sit quiet, and allow so +much blood to have been spilt, and treasure expended, so many tears to have +been shed, and vows offered in vain. If they "hoped to look with confidence +the King of terrors in the face, if they sought to save themselves from the +bottomless pit, it was necessary to espouse once more the cause of Him who +had called them forth in their generation to assert the freedom of the +people and the privileges of parliament."[1] Under these different +impressions, pamphlets were published exposing the hypocrisy and perjuries +of the protector; letters and agitators passed from regiment to regiment; +and projects were suggested and entertained for the surprisal of Cromwell's +person, and the seizure[a] of the castle of Edinburgh, of Hull, Portsmouth, +and other places of strength. But it was not easy for the republicans to +deceive the vigilance, or elude the grasp of their adversary. He dismissed +all officers of doubtful fidelity from their commands in the army, and +secured the obedience of the men by the substitution of others more devoted +to his interest; by his order, Colonel Wildman was surprised in the very +act of dictating + +[Footnote 1: See Thurloe, iii. 29; and Milton's State Papers, 132.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1655. Feb. 10.] + +to his secretary a declaration against the government, of the most +offensive and inflammatory tendency; and Lord Grey of Groby, Colonels +Alured, Overton, and others, were arrested, of whom some remained long in +confinement, others were permitted to go at large, on giving security for +their peaceable behaviour.[1] + +The other conspiracy, though more extensive in its ramifications, proved +equally harmless in the result. Among the royalists, though many had +resigned themselves to despair, there were still many whose enthusiasm +discovered in each succeeding event a new motive for hope and exultation. +They listened to every tale which flattered their wishes, and persuaded +themselves, that on the first attempt against the usurper they would be +joined by all who condemned his hypocrisy and ambition. It was in vain that +Charles, from Cologne, where he had fixed his court, recommended caution; +that he conjured his adherents not to stake his and their hopes on +projects, by which, without being serviceable to him, they would compromise +their own safety. They despised his warnings; they accused him of indolence +and apathy; they formed associations, collected arms, and fixed the 14th of +February for simultaneous risings in most counties of England.[2] The day +was postponed to March 7; but Charles, at their request, proceeded in +disguise to Middleburgh in Zeeland, that he might be in readiness to cross +over to England; and Lord Wilmot, lately created earl of Rochester, with +Sir Joseph Wagstaff, arrived to take the command of the insurgents, + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, iii. passim. Whitelock, 608-620. Bates, 290, 291.] + +[Footnote 2: Clarendon (Hist. iii. 552) is made to assign the 18th of April +for the day of rising; but all the documents, as well as his own narrative, +prove this to be an error.] + +the first in the northern, the second in the western counties. It was the +intention of Wagstaff to surprise Winchester during the assizes; but the +unexpected arrival[a] of a troop of cavalry deterred him from the attempt. +He waited patiently till the judges proceeded to Salisbury; and, learning +that their guard had not accompanied them, entered that city with two +hundred men at five o'clock in the morning of Monday.[b] The main body with +their leader took possession of the market-place; while small detachments +brought away the horses from the several inns, liberated the prisoners in +the gaol, and surprised the sheriff and the two judges in their beds. At +first Wagstaff gave orders that these three should be immediately hanged; +for they were traitors acting under the authority of the usurper; then, +pretending to relent, he discharged the judges on their parole, but +detained the sheriff a prisoners because he had refused to proclaim Charles +Stuart. At two in the afternoon he left Salisbury, but not before he had +learned to doubt of the result. Scarcely a man had joined him of the crowd +of gentlemen and yeomen whom the assizes had collected in the town; and the +Hampshire royalists, about two hundred and fifty horse, had not arrived +according to their promise. From Salisbury the insurgents marched through +Dorsetshire into the county of Devon. Their hopes grew fainter every hour; +the further they proceeded, their number diminished; and, on the evening +of the third day,[c] they reached Southmolton in a state of exhaustion +and despondency. At that moment, Captain Crook, who had followed them for +several hours, charged into the town with a troop of cavalry. Hardly a show +of resistance was made; Penruddock, Grove, and Jones, three of the leaders, +with some fifty others, were made + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1655. March 7.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1655. March 11.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1655. March 14.] + +prisoners; the rest, of whom Wagstaff had the good fortune to be one, aided +by the darkness of the night, effected their escape.[1] + +The Hampshire royalists had commenced their march for Salisbury, when, +learning that Wagstaff had left that city, they immediately dispersed. +Other risings at the same time took place in the counties of Montgomery, +Shropshire, Nottingham, York, and Northumberland, but everywhere with +similar results. The republicans, ardently as they desired to see the +protector humbled in the dust, were unwilling that his ruin should be +effected by a party whose ascendancy appeared to them a still more grievous +evil. The insurgents were ashamed and alarmed at the paucity of their +numbers; prudence taught them to disband before they proceeded to acts of +hostility; and they slunk away in secrecy to their homes, that they might +escape the proof, if not the suspicion, of guilt. Even Rochester himself, +sanguine as he was by disposition, renounced the attempt; and, with his +usual good fortune, was able to thread back his way, through a thousand +dangers, from the centre of Yorkshire to the court of the exiled sovereign +at Cologne.[2] + +Whether it was through a feeling of shame, or apprehension of the +consequences, Cromwell, even under the provocations which he had received, +ventured not to bring to trial any of the men who had formerly fought by +his side, and now combined against him because he trampled on the liberties +of the nation. With the royalists it was otherwise. He knew that their +sufferings would excite little commiseration in those whose + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 620. Thurloe, iii. 263, 295, 306. Heath, 367. +Clarendon, iii. 551, 560. Ludlow, ii. 69. Vaughan, i. 149.] + +[Footnote 2: Whitelock, 618, 620. Heath, 368. Clarendon, iii. 560.] + +favour he sought; and he was anxious to intimidate the more eager by the +punishment of their captive associates. Though they had surrendered[a] +under articles, Penruddock and Grove were beheaded at Exeter; about fifteen +others suffered in that city and in Salisbury; and the remainder were +sent to be sold for slaves in Barbadoes.[1] To these executions succeeded +certain measures of precaution. The protector forbade all ejected and +sequestered clergymen of the church of England to teach as schoolmasters +or tutors, or to preach or use the church service as ministers either in +public or private; ordered all priests belonging to the church of Rome +to quit the kingdom under the pain of death; banished all Cavaliers and +Catholics to the distance of twenty miles from the metropolis; prohibited +the publication in print of any news or intelligence without permission +from the secretary of state; and placed in confinement most of the nobility +and principal gentry in England, till they could produce bail for their +good behaviour and future appearance. In addition, an ordinance was +published that "all who had ever borne arms for the king, or declared +themselves to be of the royal party, should be decimated, that is, pay a +tenth part of all the estate which they had left, to support the charge +which the commonwealth was put to by the unquietness of their temper, and +the just cause of jealousy which they had administered." It is difficult +to conceive a more iniquitous imposition. It was subversive of the act of +oblivion formerly procured by Cromwell himself, which pretended to abolish +the memory of all past offences; contrary to natural justice, because it +involved the innocent and guilty in the same punishment; and productive + +[Footnote 1: State Trials, v. 767-790.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1655. May 16.] + +of the most extensive extortions, because the commissioners included among +the enemies of the commonwealth those who had remained neutral between +the parties, or had not given satisfaction by the promptitude of their +services, or the amount of their contributions. To put the climax to these +tyrannical proceedings, he divided the country into eleven, and, at one +period, into fourteen, military governments, under so many officers, with +the name and rank of major-generals, giving them authority to raise a +force within their respective jurisdictions, which should serve only on +particular occasions; to levy the decimation and other public taxes; to +suppress tumults and insurrections; to disarm all papists and Cavaliers; +to inquire into the conduct of ministers and schoolmasters; and to arrest, +imprison, and bind over, all dangerous and suspected persons. Thus, +this long and sanguinary struggle, originally undertaken to recover the +liberties of the country, terminated in the establishment of a military +despotism. The institutions which had acted as restraints on the power of +preceding sovereigns were superseded or abolished; the legislative, as well +as the executive authority, fell into the grasp of the same individual; and +the best rights of the people were made to depend on the mere pleasure of +an adventurer, who, under the mask of dissimulation, had seized, and by the +power of the sword retained, the government of three kingdoms.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Sagredo, who had lately arrived as ambassador extraordinary, +thus describes the power of Cromwell:--"Non fa caro del nome, gli basta +possedere l'autorità e la potenza, senza comparazione majore non solo di +quanti re siano stati in Inghilterra, ma di quanti monarchi stringono +presentamente alcun scetro nel mondo. Smentite le legge fondamentali del +regno, egli è il solo legislatore: tutti i governi escono dalle sue mane, e +quelli del consiglio, per entrarvi, devono essere nominati da sua altezza, +ne possono divenir grandi, se non da lui inalzati. E perchè alcuno non +abbia modo di guadagnar autorità sopra l'armata, tutti gli +avanzamenti, senza passar per alcun mezzo, sono da lui direttamente +conosciuti."--Sagredo, MS.] + + +From domestic occurrences, we may now turn to those abroad. During the last +year, the two armaments which had so long engaged the attention of the +European nations, had sailed from the English ports. Their real, but +secret, destination was to invade the American colonies and surprise +the Plate fleet of Spain, the most ancient and faithful ally of the +commonwealth. To justify the measure, it was argued in the council that, +since America was not named in the treaties of 1604 and 1630, hostilities +in America would be no infraction of those treaties; that the Spaniards had +committed depredations on the English commerce in the West Indies, and were +consequently liable to reprisals; that they had gained possession of these +countries by force against the will of the natives, and might, therefore, +be justly dispossessed by force; and, lastly, that the conquest of these +transatlantic territories would contribute to spread the light of the +gospel among the Indians and to cramp the resources of popery in Europe.[1] +That such flimsy pretences should satisfy the judgment of the protector is +improbable; his mind was swayed by very different motives--the prospect of +reaping, at a small cost, an abundant harvest of wealth and glory, and the +opportunity of + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, i. 760, 761; ii. 54, 154, 570. Ludlow, ii. 51, 105. +The article of the treaty of 1630, on which Cromwell rested his claim of a +free trade to the Indies, was the first, establishing peace between _all +the subjects_ of the two crowns (subditos quoscumque); that which, the +Spaniards alleged, was the seventh, in which as the king of Spain, would +not consent to a free trade to America, it was confined to those countries +in which, such free trade had been exercised before the war between +Elizabeth of England and Philip of Spain--words which excluded America as +effectually as if it had been named.--See Dumont, iv. part ii. p. 621.] + +engaging in foreign service the officers of whose fidelity at home he had +good reason to be jealous. + +The Spanish cabinet, arguing from circumstances, began to suspect his +object, and, as a last effort, sent[a] the marquess of Leyda ambassador +extraordinary to the court of London. He was graciously received, and +treated with respect; but, in defiance of his most urgent solicitations, +could not, during five months, obtain a positive answer to his proposals. +He represented to the protector the services which Spain had rendered to +the commonwealth; adverted to the conduct of De Baas, as a proof of the +insidious designs of Mazarin; maintained that the late insurrection had +been partially instigated by the intrigues of France; and that French +troops had been collected on the coast to accompany Charles Stuart to +England, if his friends had not been so quickly suppressed; and concluded +by offering to besiege Calais, and, on its reduction, to cede it to +Cromwell, provided he, on his part, would aid the prince of Condé in his +design of forcing his way into Bordeaux by sea. At length, wearied with +delays, and esteeming a longer residence in England a disgrace to +his sovereign, he demanded[b] passports, and was dismissed with many +compliments by the protector.[1] + +In the mean while, Blake, who commanded one of the expeditions, had sailed +to the Straits of Gibraltar, where he received many civilities from the +Spanish authorities. Thence he proceeded up the Mediterranean, capturing, +under pretence of reprisals, the French vessels, whether merchantmen or +men-of-war, and seeking, but in vain, the fleet under the duke of Guise. +Returning to the south, he appeared before + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, i. 761; ii. 54, 154, 570. Dumont, v. part ii. 106.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. Jan.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1654. June 18.] + +Algiers, and extorted from that government an illusory promise of respect +to the English flag. From Algiers he proceeded[a] to Tunis. To his demands +the dey replied: "There are Goletta, Porto Ferino, and my fleet; let him +destroy them if he can." Blake departed,[b] returned unexpectedly to Porto +Ferino, silenced the fire of the castle, entered the harbour, and burnt the +whole flotilla of nine men-of-war. This exploit induced the dey of Tripoli +to purchase the forbearance of the English by an apparent submission; +his Tunisian brother deemed it prudent to follow his example; and the +chastisement of the pirates threw an additional lustre on the fame of the +protector. There still remained, however, the great but concealed object of +the expedition,--the capture of the Plate fleet laden with the treasures of +the Indies; but Blake was compelled to remain so long before Cadiz that the +Spaniards discovered his design; and Philip, though he professed to think +the protector incapable of so dishonourable a project, permitted the +merchants to arm in defence of their property. More than thirty ships were +manned with volunteers: they sailed[c] from Cadiz under the command of Don +Pablos de Contreras, and continued for some days in sight of the English +fleet; but Pablos was careful to give no offence; and Blake, on the +reperusal of his instructions, did not conceive himself authorized to begin +the attack. After a long and tedious cruise, he received intelligence +that the galleons, his destined prey, were detained in the harbour of +Carthagena, and returned to England with a discontented mind and shattered +constitution. In regard to the principal object, the expedition had failed; +but this had never been avowed; and the people were taught to rejoice at +the laurels won in the destruction + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. March 10.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1654. April 18.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1654. August 15.] + +of the Tunisian fleet, and the lesson given to the piratical tribes on the +northern coast of Africa.[1] + +The other expedition consisted[a] of thirty sail and a military force of +three thousand men, under the joint command of Penn, as admiral, and +of Venables, as general. They spent several weeks among the English +settlements in the West Indies, and by the promise of plunder allured +to their standard many of the planters, and multitudes of the English, +Scottish, and Irish royalists, who had been transported thither as +prisoners of war. When they reached Hispaniola, Venables numbered ten +thousand men under his command; and, had the fleet boldly entered the +harbour of St. Domingo, it was believed that the town, unprepared for +resistance, must have immediately submitted. But the greater part of the +army was landed[b] at a point about forty miles distant, the expectations +of the men were disappointed by a proclamation, declaring that the plunder +was to be considered the public property of the commonwealth; the length of +the march, the heat of the climate, and the scarcity of water added to the +general discontent, and almost a fortnight elapsed before the invaders were +able to approach[c] the defences of the place. Their march lay through a +thick and lofty wood; and the advance suddenly found itself in front of a +battery which enfiladed the road to a considerable distance. On the first +discharge, the men rushed back on a regiment of foot; that, partaking in +the panic, on a squadron of + +[Footnote 1: See in particular Blake's letters in Thurloe, iii. 232, 392, +541, 611, 620, 718; iv. 19. He complains bitterly of the bad state of the +ships, and of the privations suffered by the men, from the neglect of the +commissioners of the navy. The protector's instructions to him are in +Thurloe, i. 724.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. Jan. 29.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1654. April.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1654. April 25.] + +horse; and, while the infantry and cavalry were thus wedged together in +inextricable confusion, the Spanish marksmen kept up a most destructive +fire from behind the trees lining the road. After a long effort, the wood +was cleared by a body of seamen who served among the infantry, and darkness +put an end to the action, in which not fewer than a thousand men had +fallen. In the morning the English retired to their last encampment, about +ten miles from the town. + +Here Venables called a council of officers, who, having previously sought +the Lord, determined[a] to "purge" the army. Some of the runaways were +hanged; the officer who commanded the advance was broken, and sent on board +the hospital ship to wait on the sick; the loose women who had followed the +army were apprehended and punished; and a solemn fast was proclaimed and +observed. But no fasting, praying, or purging could restore the spirits of +men humbled by defeat, enfeebled by disease, and reduced to the necessity +of feeding on the horses belonging to the cavalry. The attempt was +abandoned;[b] but, on their return, the two commanders made a descent on +the island of Jamaica. The Spanish settlers, about five hundred, fled to +the mountains; a capitulation[c] followed; and the island was ceded to +England. Could its flourishing condition in a subsequent period have been +foreseen, this conquest might have consoled the nation for the loss at +Hispaniola, and the disgrace of the attempt. But at that time Jamaica +was deemed an inconsiderable acquisition; the failure of the expedition +encouraged men to condemn the grounds on which it had been undertaken; and +Cromwell, mortified and ashamed, vented his displeasure + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. April 28.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1654. May 3.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1654. May 10.] + +on Penn and Venables, the two commanders, whom, on their arrival, he +committed[a] to the Tower.[1] + +To many it seemed a solecism in politics, that, when the protector +determined to break with Spain, he did not attempt to sell his services to +the great enemy of Spain, the king of France. For reasons which have never +been explained, he took no advantage of this circumstance; instead of +urging, he seemed anxious to retard, the conclusion of the treaty with that +power; after each concession he brought forward new and more provoking +demands; and, as if he sought to prevail by intimidation, commissioned +Blake to ruin the French commerce, and to attack the French fleet in the +Mediterranean. By Louis these insults were keenly felt; but his pride +yielded to his interest; expedients were found to satisfy all the claims of +the protector; and at length the time for the signature of the treaty was +fixed, when an event occurred to furnish new pretexts for delay, that +event, which by Protestants has been called the massacre, by Catholics the +rebellion, of the Vaudois. + +About the middle of the thirteenth century the peculiar doctrines of the +"poor men of Lyons" penetrated + +[Footnote 1: Carte's Letters, ii. 46-52. Thurloe, iii. 504, 509, 689, 755; +iv. 28. Bates, 367. Penn and Venables having resigned their commissions, +were discharged.--Council Book, 1655, Oct. 26, 31. It appears from the +papers in Thurloe that Cromwell paid great attention to the prosperity of +the West Indian colonies, as affording facilities to future attempts on the +American continent. To increase the population, he had, as the reader is +already aware, forcibly taken up a thousand young girls in Ireland, and +sent them to Jamaica; in 1656, while Sagredo was in London, he ordered all +females of disorderly lives to be arrested and shipped for Barbadoes for +the like purpose. Twelve hundred were sent in three ships. Ho veduto prima +del mio partire piu squadre di soldati andar per Londra cercando donne di +allegra vita, imbarcandone 1,200 sopre tre vascelli per tragittarle all' +isola, a fine di far propagazione.--Sagredro, MS.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. August 31.] + +into the valleys of Piedmont, where they were cherished in obscurity till +the time of the Reformation, and were then exchanged in a great measure, +first for Lutheranism, and then for the creed publicly taught at Geneva. +The duke of Savoy by successive grants confirmed to the natives the +free exercise of their religion, on condition that they should confine +themselves within their ancient limits;[1] but complaints were made that +several among the men of Angrogna had abused their privileges to form +settlements and establish their worship in the plains; and the court of +Turin, wearied with the conflicting statements of the opposite parties, +referred[a] the decision of the dispute to the civilian Andrea Gastaldo.[2] +After a long and patient hearing, he pronounced a definitive judgment, that +Lucerna and some other places lay without the original boundaries, and that +the intruders should withdraw under the penalties of forfeiture and death. +At the same time, however, permission was given to them to sell for their +own profit the lands which they had planted, though by law these lands had +become the property of the sovereign.[3] + +The Vaudois were a race of hardy, stubborn, half-civilized mountaineers, +whose passions were readily kindled, and whose resolves were as violent as +they were sudden. At first they submitted sullenly to the + +[Footnote 1: These were the four districts of Angrogna, Villaro, Bobbio, +and Rorata.--Siri, del Mercurio, overo Historia de' Correnti Tempi Firenze, +1682, tom. xv. p. 827.] + +[Footnote 2: Gilles, Pastore de la Terre, p. 72, Geneve, 1644; and Rorengo, +Memorie Historiche, p. 8, 1649.] + +[Footnote 3: The decree of Gastaldo is in Morland, History of the +Evangelical Churches in the valleys of Piedmont, p. 303. The grounds of +that decree are at p. 408, the objections to it at p. 423. See also Siri, +xv. 827, 830; Chiesa, Corona Reale di Savoia, i. 150; Denina, iii. 324; +Guichenon, iii. 139.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1655 June 19.] + +judgment of Gastaldo, but sent deputies to Turin, to remonstrate; in a +few days a solemn fast was proclaimed; the ministers excommunicated every +individual who should sell his lands in the disputed territory; the natives +of the valleys under the dominion of the king of France met those of the +valleys belonging to the duke of Savoy; both bound themselves by oath to +stand by each other in their common defence; and messengers were despatched +to solicit aid and advice from the church of Geneva and the Protestant +cantons of Switzerland. The intelligence alarmed the Marquess of Pianeze, +the chief minister of the duke; who, to suppress the nascent confederacy, +marched from Turin with an armed force, reduced La Torre, into which the +insurgents had thrown a garrison of six hundred men, and, having made an +offer of pardon to all who should submit, ordered his troops to fix their +quarters in Bobbio, Villaro, and the lower part of Angrogna. It had +previously been promised[a] that they should be peaceably received; but +the inhabitants had already retired to the mountains with their cattle and +provisions; and the soldiers found no other accommodation than the bare +walls. Quarrels soon followed between the parties; one act of offence was +retaliated with another; and the desire of vengeance provoked a war of +extermination. But the military were in general successful; and the +natives found themselves compelled to flee to the summits of the loftiest +mountains, or to seek refuge in the valleys of Dauphiné, among a people of +similar habits and religion.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Siri, xv. 827-833. It would be a difficult task to determine +by whom, after the reduction of La Torre, the first blood was wantonly +drawn, or to which party the blame of superior cruelty really belongs. The +authorities on each side are interested, and therefore suspicious; the +provocations alleged by the one are as warmly denied by the other; and +to the ravages of the military in Angrogna and Lucerna, are opposed the +massacres of the Catholics in Perousa and San Martino. In favour of the +Vaudois may be consulted Leger, Histoire Générale des Eglises Evangéliques, +&c. (he was a principal instigator of these troubles); Stouppe, Collection +of the several papers sent to his highness, &c. London, 1655; Sabaudiensis +in Reformatam Religionem Persecutionis Brevis Narratio, Londini, 1655; +Morland, 326-384, and the papers in Thurloe, iii. 361, 384, 412, 416, 430, +444, 459, 538. Against them--A Short and Faithful Account of the late +Commotions &c., with some reflections on Mr. Stouppe's Collected Papers, +1655; Morland, 387-404; Siri, xv. 827-843, and Thurloe, iii. 413, 464, 475, +490, 502, 535, 535, 617, 626, 656.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1656. April 7.] + + +Accounts of these transactions, but accounts teeming with exaggeration and +improbabilities, were transmitted to the different Protestant states by the +ministers at Geneva. They represented the duke of Savoy as a bigoted and +intolerant prince; the Vaudois as an innocent race, whose only crime was +their attachment to the reformed faith. They implored the Protestant +powers to assume the defence of their persecuted brethren, and called for +pecuniary contributions to save from destruction by famine the remnant +which had escaped the edge of the sword.[1] In England the cause was +advocated[a] by the press and from the pulpit; a solemn fast was kept, and +the passions of the people were roused to enthusiasm. The ministers in a +body waited on Cromwell to recommend the Vaudois to his protection; the +armies in Scotland and Ireland presented addresses, expressive of their +readiness to shed their blood in so sacred a cause; and all classes of men, +from the highest to + +[Footnote 1: The infidelity of these reports is acknowledged by Morland, +the protector's agent, in a confidential letter to secretary Thurloe. "The +greatest difficulty I meet with is in relation to the matter of fact in the +beginning of these troubles, and during the time of the war. For I find, +upon diligent search, that many papers and books which have been put out in +print on this subject, even by some ministers of the valleys, are lame in +many particulars, and in many things not conformable to truth."--Thurloe, +iv. 417.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1656. May.] + +the lowest, hastened to contribute their money towards the support of the +Piedmontese Protestants. It was observed that, among those who laboured to +inflame the prejudices of the people, none were more active than the two +ambassadors from Spain, and Stouppe, the minister of the French church in +London.[1] Both had long laboured to prevent the conclusion of the treaty +with France; and they now hoped to effect their purpose, because Savoy was +the ally of France, and the principal barbarities were said to have been +perpetrated by troops detached from the French army.[2] + +These events opened a flattering prospect to the vanity of Cromwell. By his +usurpation he had forfeited all claim to the title of the champion of civil +liberty; he might still come forward, in the sight of Europe, in the more +august character of the protector of the reformed faith. His first care was +to make, through Stouppe, a promise to the Vaudois of his support, and an +offer to transplant them to Ireland, and to settle them on the lands of +the Irish Catholics; of which the first was accepted with expressions of +gratitude, and the other respectfully declined.[3] He next solicited the +king of France to join with him in mediating between the duke of Savoy and +his subjects of the valleys; and received for answer, that + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, iii. 470, 680. Siri, xv. 468.] + +[Footnote 2: Under Pianeze were some troops detached from the French army +commanded by Prince Thomas of Savoy. It was reported that a regiment +of Irish Catholics formed a part of this detachment; and to them were +attributed, of course, the most horrible barbarities.--Leger, iii. Stouppe, +Preface. Thurloe, iii. 412, 459, 460. On inquiry, it was discovered that +these supposed Irishmen were English. "The Irish regiment said to be there +was the earl of Bristol's regiment, a small and weak one, most of +them being English. I hear not such complaints of them as you set +forth."--Thurloe, iii. 50.] + +[Footnote 3: Thurloe, iii. 459.] + +Louis had already interposed his good offices, and had reason to expect a +favourable result. Lastly, he sent[a] Morland as ambassador to Turin, where +he was honourably received, and entertained at the duke's expense. To +his memorial in favour of the Vaudois, it was replied,[b] that out of +compliment to Cromwell their rebellion, though unprovoked, should be +forgiven; but his further interference was checked by the announcement that +the particulars of the pacification had been wholly referred to Servien, +the French ambassador.[1] + +At home, Cromwell had signified his intention of postponing the signature +of the treaty with France till he was acquainted with the opinion of Louis +on the subject of the troubles in Piedmont. Bordeaux remonstrated[c] +against this new pretext for delay; he maintained that the question bore no +relation to the matter of the treaty; that the king of France would never +interfere with the internal administration of an independent state; that +the duke of Savoy had as good a right to make laws for his Protestant +subjects, as the English government for the Catholics of the three +kingdoms; and that the Vaudois were in reality rebels who had justly +incurred the resentment of their sovereign. But Cromwell was not to be +diverted[d] from his purpose. It was in vain that the ambassador asked for +a final answer; that he demanded[e] an audience of leave preparatory to his +departure. At last he was relieved from his perplexity by an order[f] to +announce that the duke, at the request of the king of France, had granted +an amnesty to the Vaudois, and confirmed their ancient privileges; that the +boon had been gratefully received by the insurgents; and that + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe iii. 528, 608, 636, 656, 672. Siri, ibid. Vaugh. 248.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1656. May 22.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1656. June 21.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1656. May 24.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1656. June 18.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1656. June 21. [Sidenote f: A.D. 1656. August 20.] + +the natives of the valleys, Protestants and Catholics had met, embraced +each other with tears, and sworn to live in perpetual amity together. The +unexpected intelligence was received by Cromwell with a coldness which +betrayed his disappointment.[1] But, if the pacification broke the new +projects which he meditated,[2] it served to raise his fame in the +estimation of Europe; for it was evident that the Vaudois owed the +favourable conditions which they obtained,[a] not so much to the good-will +of Louis, as to his anxiety that no pretext should remain for the future +interference of the protector.[3] + +But though tranquillity was restored in Piedmont, Cromwell was still +unwilling to conclude the treaty till he had ascertained what impression +had been made on the king of Spain by the late attempt on Hispaniola. +To Philip, already engaged in war with France, it was painful to add so +powerful an adversary to the number + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, iii. 469, 470, 475, 535, 568, 706, 724, 742, 745. +Siri, xv. 843.] + +[Footnote 2: The Protestant cantons of Switzerland had sent Colonel Mey to +England, offering to raise an army in aid of the Vaudois, if Cromwell would +furnish a subsidy of ten thousand pounds per month.--Siri, Mercurio, xv. +472. In consequence Downing was despatched as envoy to these cantons; but +the pacification was already concluded; and on his arrival at Geneva, he +received orders, dated Aug. 30, to return immediately.--Thurloe, iii. 692, +694; iv. 31. Still the design was not abandoned, but intrusted to Morland, +who remained at Geneva, to distribute the money from England. What were his +secret instructions may be seen, ibid. p. 326.] + +[Footnote 3: The conditions may be seen in Morland, 652; Dumont, vi. part +ii. p. 114; and Leger, 216. The subscription for the Vaudois, of which +two thousands pounds was given by the protector, amounted to thirty eight +thousand two hundred and twenty-eight pounds four shillings and twopence. +Of this sum twenty-five thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight pounds +eight shillings and ninepence was sent at different times to the valleys; +four hundred and sixty-three pounds seventeen shillings was charged +for expenses; and about five hundred pounds was found to be clipt or +counterfeit money.--Journals, 11 July, 1559.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1656. August 8.] + +of his enemies; but the affront was so marked, so unjust, so unprovoked, +that to submit to it in silence was to subscribe to his own degradation. He +complained,[a] in dignified language, of the ingratitude and injustice of +the English government; contrasted with its conduct his own most scrupulous +adhesion both to the letter and the spirit of the treaties between the +kingdoms; ordered that all ships, merchandize, and property belonging to +the subjects of the commonwealth should be seized and secured in every part +of his dominions, and instructed his ambassador in London to remonstrate +and take his leave.[1] The day after the passport was delivered to Don +Alonzo, Cromwell consented[b] to the signature of the treaty with France. +It provided that the maritime hostilities, which had so long harassed the +trade of the two nations, should cease, that the relations of amity and +commerce should be restored; and, by a separate, and therefore called a +secret, article, that Barriere, agent for the prince of Condé, and nine +other Frenchmen, equally obnoxious to the French ministry, should be +perpetually excluded from the territory of the commonwealth; and that +Charles Stuart, his brother the duke of York, Ormond, Hyde, and fifteen +other adherents of the exiled prince, should, in the same manner, be +excluded from the kingdom of France.[2] The protector had persuaded + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, iv. 19, 20, 21, 82, 91.] + +[Footnote 2: Dumont, vi. part ii. p. 121. In the body of the treaty, +neither the king nor the protector is named; all the articles are +stipulated between the commonwealth of England and the kingdom of France. +In the preamble, however, the king of France is mentioned, and in the first +place, but not as if this arose from any claim of precedency; for it merely +relates, that the most Christian king sent his ambassador to England, and +the most serene lord, the protector, appointed commissioners to meet him. +When the treaty was submitted to Bordeaux, previously to his signature, he +discovered an alteration in the usual title of his sovereign, Rex Gallorum +(the very title afterwards adopted by the National Assembly), instead +of Rex Galliarum, and on that account refused to sign it. After a +long contestation, he yielded to the arguments of the Dutch +ambassador.--Thurloe, iv. 115.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1656. Sept. 1.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1656. Oct. 24.] + +himself that, if the house of Stuart was to be restored, it must be through +the aid of France; and he hoped, by the addition of this secret article, +to create a bitter and lasting enmity between the two families. Nor was +he content with this. As soon as the ratifications had been exchanged, he +proposed a more intimate alliance between England and France. Bordeaux +was instructed to confine himself in his reply to general expressions of +friendship. He might receive any communications which were offered; he was +to make no advances on the part of his sovereign. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +Poverty And Character Of Charles Stuart--War With +Spain--Parliament--Exclusion Of Members--Punishment Of Naylor--Proposal +To Make Cromwell King--His Hesitation And Refusal--New +Constitution--Sindercomb--Sexby--Alliance With France--Parliament Of +Two Houses--Opposition In The Commons--Dissolution--Reduction Of +Dunkirk--Sickness Of The Protector--His Death And Character. + + +The reader is aware that the young king of Scots, after his escape from +Worcester, had returned to Paris, defeated but not disgraced. The spirit +and courage which he had displayed were taken as an earnest of future +and more successful efforts; and the perilous adventures which he had +encountered threw a romantic interest round the character of the royal +exile. But in Paris he found himself without money or credit, followed by a +crowd of faithful dependants, whose indigence condemned them to suffer the +most painful privations. His mother, Henrietta, herself in no very opulent +circumstances, received him into her house and to her table; after the +lapse of six months, the French king settled on him a monthly allowance +of six thousand francs;[1] and to this were added the casual supplies +furnished by the loyalty of his adherents in England, and his share of the +prizes made by the cruisers under his flag.[2] Yet, with all these aids, he + +[Footnote 1: Clar. iii. 441. Thirteen francs were equivalent to an English +pound.] + +[Footnote 2: His claim was one-fifteenth, that of the duke of York, as +admiral, one-tenth. See a collection of letters, almost exclusively on that +subject, between Sir Edward Hyde and Sir Richard Browne.--Evelyn's Mem. v. +241, et seq.] + +was scarcely able to satisfy the more importunate of his creditors, and to +dole out an occasional pittance to his more immediate followers. From their +private correspondence it appears that the most favoured among them were at +a loss to procure food and clothing.[1] + +Yet, poor as he was, Charles had been advised to keep up the name and +appearance of a court. He had his lord-keeper, his chancellor of the +exchequer, his privy councillors, and most of the officers allotted to +a royal establishment; and the eagerness of pursuit, the competition of +intrigue with which these nominal dignities were sought by the exiles, +furnish scenes which cannot fail to excite the smile or the pity of an +indifferent spectator. But we should remember that they were the only +objects left open to the ambition of these men; that they offered scanty, +yet desirable, salaries to their poverty; and that they held out the +promise of more substantial benefits on the restoration of the king, an +event which, however distant it might seem to the apprehension of others, +was always near in the belief of the more ardent royalists.[2] + +Among these competitors for place were two, who soon acquired, and long +retained, the royal confidence, + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon Pap. iii. 120, 124. "I do not know that any man is +yet dead for want of bread; which really I wonder at. I am sure the king +owes for all he hath eaten since April: and I am not acquainted with one +servant of his who hath a pistole in his pocket. Five or six of us eat +together one meal a day for a pistole a week; but all of us owe for God +knows how many weeks to the poor woman that feeds us."--Clarendon Papers, +iii. 174. June 27, 1653. "I want shoes and shirts, and the marquess +of Ormond is in no better condition. What help then can we give our +friends?"--Ibid. 229, April 3, 1654. See also Carte's Letters, ii. 461.] + +[Footnote 2: Clarendon Pap. iii. 83, 99, 106, 136, 162, 179, 187, et +passim. Clarendon, History, iii. 434, 435, 453.] + +the marquess of Ormond and Sir Edward Hyde. Ormond owed the distinction to +the lustre of his family, the princely fortune which he had lost in the +royal cause, his long though unsuccessful services in Ireland, and the high +estimation in which he had been held by the late monarch. In talent and +application Hyde was superior to any of his colleagues. Charles I. had +appointed him chancellor of the exchequer, and counsellor to the young +prince; and the son afterwards confirmed by his own choice the judgment of +his father. Hyde had many enemies; whether it was that by his hasty and +imperious temper he gave cause of offence, or that unsuccessful suitors, +aware of his influence with the king, attributed to his counsels the +failure of their petitions. But he was not wanting in his own defences; the +intrigues set on foot to remove him from the royal ear were defeated by his +address; and the charges brought against him of disaffection and treachery +were so victoriously refuted, as to overwhelm the accuser with confusion +and disgrace.[1] + +The expectations, however, which Charles had raised by his conduct in +England were soon disappointed. He seemed to lose sight of his three +kingdoms amidst the gaieties of Paris. His pleasures and amusements +engrossed his attention; it was with difficulty that he could be drawn to +the consideration of business; and, if he promised to devote a few hours on +each Friday to the writing of letters and the signature of despatches, he +often discovered sufficient reasons to free himself from the burthen.[2] +But that which chiefly distressed + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon, iii. 138, 510, 515-520. Lansdowne's Works, ii. +236-241, quoted by Harris, iv. 153. Clarendon Papers, iii. 84, 92 138, 188, +200, 229.] + +[Footnote 2: Clarendon Papers, iii. 159, 170.] + +his advisers was the number and publicity of his amours; and, in +particular, the utter worthlessness of one woman, who by her arts had won +his affection, and by her impudence exercised the control over his easy +temper. This was Lucy Walters, or Barlow, the mother of a child, afterwards +the celebrated duke of Monmouth, of whom Charles believed himself to be +the father.[1] Ormond and Hyde laboured to dissolve this disgraceful +connection. They represented to the king the injury which it did to the +royal cause in England, where the appearances at least of morality were so +highly respected; and, after several temporary separations, they prevailed +on Walters to accept[a] an annuity of four hundred pounds, and to repair +with her child to her native country. But Cromwell sent her back to France; +and she returned[b] to Paris, where by her lewdness she forfeited the royal +favour, and shortened her own days. Her son was taken from her by the Lord +Crofts, and placed under the care of the Oratoriens in Paris.[2] + +But if Charles was incorrigible in the pursuit of pleasure, he proved a +docile pupil on the subject of + +[Footnote 1: She was previously the mistress of Colonel Robert Sydney; and +her son bore so great a resemblance to that officer, that the duke of York +always looked upon Sydney as the father.--Life of James, i. 491. James +in his instructions to his son, says, "All the knowing world, as well as +myself, had many convincing reasons to think he was not the king's son, +but Robert Sydney's."--Macpherson's Papers, i. 77. Evelyn calls Barlow "a +browne, beautiful, bold, but insipid creature."--Diary, ii. 11.] + +[Footnote 2: James, i. 492; Clarendon's Own Life, 205. Clarendon Papers, +iii. 180. Thurloe, v. 169, 178; vii. 325. Charles, in the time of his +exile, had also children by Catherine Peg and Elizabeth Killigrew.--See +Sanford, 646, 647. In the account of Barlow's discharge from the Tower, +by Whitelock, we are told that she called herself the wife of Charles +(Whitelock, 649); in the Mercurius Politicus, she is styled "his wife or +mistress."--Ellis, new series, iii. 352.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1656. Jan. 21.] +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1656. July 16.] + +religion. On one hand, the Catholics, on the other, the Presbyterians, +urged him by letters and messages to embrace their respective modes of +worship. The former maintained that he could recover the crown only through +the aid of the Catholic sovereigns, and had no reason to expect such aid +while he professed himself a member of that church which had so long +persecuted the English Catholics.[1] The others represented themselves as +holding the destiny of the king in their hands; they were royalists at +heart, but how could they declare in favour of a prince who had apostatized +from the covenant which he had taken in Scotland, and whose restoration +would probably re-establish the tyranny of the bishops?[2] The king's +advisers repelled these attempts with warmth and indignation. They observed +to him that, to become a Catholic was to arm all his Protestant subjects +against him; to become a Presbyterian, was to alienate all who had been +faithful to his father, both Protestants of the + +[Footnote 1: Yet he made application in 1654 to the pope, through Goswin +Nickel, general of the order of Jesuits, for a large sum of money, which +might enable him to contend for his kingdom at the head of an army of Irish +Catholics; promising, in case of success, to grant the free exercise of the +Catholic religion, and every other indulgence which could be reasonably +asked. The reason alleged for this application was that the power of +Cromwell was drawing to a close, and the most tempting offers had been made +to Charles by the Presbyterians: but the Presbyterians were the most cruel +enemies of the Catholics, and he would not owe his restoration to them, +till he had sought and been refused the aid of the Catholic powers. From +the original, dated at Cologne, 17th Nov. 1654, N.S., and subscribed by +Peter Talbot, afterwards Catholic archbishop of Dublin, ex mandato expresso +Regis Britanniarum. It was plainly a scheme on the part of Charles to +procure money; and probably failed of success.] + +[Footnote 2: Both these parties were equally desirous of having the young +duke of Gloucester of their religion.--Clar. Pap. iii. 153, 155. The queen +mother placed him under the care of Montague, her almoner at Pontoise; but +Charles sent Ormond, who brought him away to Cologne.--Clar. Hist. iii. +545: Papers, iii. 256-260. Evelyn, v. 205, 208.] + +church of England and Catholics. He faithfully followed their advice; to +both parties he promised, indeed, every indulgence in point of religion +which they could reasonably desire; but avowed, at the same time, his +determination to live and die a member of that church in defence of which +his father had fought and suffered. It is not, however, improbable that +these applications, with the arguments by which they were supported, had +a baneful influence on the mind of the king. They created in him an +indifference to religious truth, a persuasion that men always model their +belief according to their interest.[1] + +As soon as Cardinal Mazarin began to negotiate with the protector, the +friends of Charles persuaded him to quit the French territory. By the +French minister the proposal was gratefully received; he promised the +royal fugitive the continuation of his pension, ordered the arrears to be +immediately discharged, and paid him for the next half-year in advance.[2] +Charles fixed[a] his residence at Cologne, where he remained for almost two +years, till the rupture between England and Spain called him again into +activity.[3] After some previous negotiation, he repaired + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon Papers, iii. 163, 164, 256, 281, 298, 316; Hist. +iii. 443] + +[Footnote 2: Seven thousand two hundred pistoles for twelve months' +arrears, and three thousand six hundred for six in advance.--Clar. Pap. +iii. 293.] + +[Footnote 3: While Charles was at Cologne, he was surrounded by spies, who +supplied Cromwell with copious information, though it is probable that they +knew little more than the public reports in the town. On one occasion the +letters were opened at the post-office, and a despatch was found from a +person named Manning to Thurloe. Being questioned before Charles, Manning +confessed that he received an ample maintenance from the protector, but +defended himself on the ground that he was careful to communicate nothing +but what was false. That this plea was true, appeared from his despatch, +which was filled with a detailed account of a fictitious debate in the +council: but the falsehoods which he had sent to England had occasioned the +arrest and imprisonment of several royalists, and Manning was shot as a +traitor at Duynwald, in the territory of the duke of Neuburg.--Clar. iii. +563-569. Whitelock, 633. Thurloe, iv. 293.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1656. March 12.] + +to the neighbourhood of Brussels, and offered himself as a valuable ally to +the Spanish monarch. He had it in his power to call the English and Irish +regiments in the French service to his own standard; he possessed numerous +adherents in the English navy; and, with the aid of money and ships, he +should be able to contend once more for the crown of his fathers, and to +meet the usurper on equal terms on English ground. By the Spanish ministers +the proposal was entertained, but with their accustomed slowness. They had +to consult the cabinet at Madrid; they were unwilling to commit themselves +so far as to cut off all hope of reconciliation with the protector; and +they had already accepted the offers of another enemy to Cromwell, whose +aid, in the opinion of Don Alonzo, the late ambassador, was preferable to +that of the exiled king.[1] + +This enemy was Colonel Sexby. He had risen from the ranks to the office of +adjutant-general in the parliamentary army; and his contempt of danger +and enthusiasm for liberty had so far recommended him to the notice of +Cromwell, that the adjutant was occasionally honoured with a place in +the councils, and a share in the bed, of the lord-general. But Sexby had +attached himself to the cause, not to the man; and his admiration, as soon +as Cromwell apostatized from his former principles, was converted into the +most deadly hatred. On the expulsion of the long parliament, he joined +Wildman and the Levellers: Wildman was apprehended; but Sexby eluded the +vigilance of the + +[Footnote 1: Clar. Pap. iii. 275, 279, 286.] + +pursuivants, and traversed the country in disguise, everywhere distributing +pamphlets, and raising up enemies to the protector. In the month of May, +1655, he repaired to the court at Brussels. To the archduke and the count +of Fuensaldagna, he revealed[a] the real object of the secret expedition +under Venables and Penn; and offered the aid of the English Levellers for +the destruction of a man, the common enemy of the liberties of his country +and of the rights of Spain. They were a numerous and determined band of +patriots; they asked no other aid than money and the co-operation of the +English and Irish troops in the Spanish service; and they were ready, for +security, to deliver a strong maritime fortress into the hands of their +allies. Fuensaldagna hesitated to give a positive answer before an actual +rupture had taken place; and at his recommendation Sexby proceeded +to Madrid. At first he was received with coldness; but the news from +Hispaniola established his credit; the value of his information was now +acknowledged; he obtained the sum of forty thousand crowns for the use of +his party, and an assurance was given that, as soon as they should be in +possession of the port which he had named, six thousand men should sail[b] +from Flanders to their assistance. Sexby returned to Antwerp, transmitted +several large sums to his adherents, and, though Cromwell at length +obtained information of the intrigue, though the last remittance of eight +hundred pounds had been seized, the intrepid Leveller crossed over[c] to +England, made his arrangements with his associates, and returned[d] in +safety to the continent.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Clarend. Pap. iii. 271, 272, 274, 277, 281, 285. Thurloe, iv. +698; v. 37, 100, 319, 349; vi. 829-833. Carte's Letters, ii. 85, 103.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1655. June.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1656. Jan.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1656. June.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1656. August.] + + +It now became the object of the Spanish ministers, who had, at last, +accepted[a] the offer of Charles, to effect an union between him and Sexby, +that, by the co-operation of the Levellers with the royalists, the common +enemy might more easily be subdued. Sexby declared[b] that he had no +objection to a limited monarchy, provided it were settled by a free +parliament. He believed that his friends would have none; but he advised +that, at the commencement of the attempt, the royalists should make no +mention of the king, but put forth as their object the destruction of the +usurper and the restoration of public liberty. Charles, on the other hand, +was willing to make use of the services of Sexby; but he did not believe +that his means were equal to his professions, and he saw reason to infer, +from the advice which he had given, that his associates were enemies to +royalty.[1] + +The negotiation between the king and the Spanish ministers began to alarm +both Cromwell and Mazarin. The cardinal anticipated the defection of the +British and Irish regiments in the French service; the protector foresaw +that they would probably be employed in a descent upon England. It was +resolved to place the duke of York in opposition to his brother. That +young prince had served with his regiment during four campaigns, under +the Marshal Turenne; his pay as colonel, and his pension of six thousand +pistoles, amply provided for his wants; and his bravery in the field had +gained him the esteem of the general, and rendered him the idol of his +countrymen. Instead of banishing him, according to the secret article, +from France, Mazarin, with the concurrence of Cromwell, offered him the +appointment of captain-general in the + +[Footnote 1: Clar. Pap. iii. 303, 311, 313, 315-317.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1656. July 27.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1656. Dec. 14.] + +army of Italy. By James it was accepted with gratitude and enthusiasm; but +Charles commanded him to resign the office, and to repair immediately to +Bruges. He obeyed; his departure[a] was followed by the resignation of +most of the British and Irish officers in the French army; and, in many +instances, the men followed the example of their leaders. Defeated in this +instance, Cromwell and Mazarin had recourse to another intrigue, of which +the secret springs are concealed from our sight. It was insinuated by some +pretended friend to Don Juan, the new governor of the Netherlands, that +little reliance was to be placed on James, who was sincerely attached to +France, and governed by Sir John Berkeley, the secret agent of the French +court, and the known enemy of Hyde and his party. In consequence, the real +command of the royal forces was given to Marsin, a foreigner; an oath of +fidelity to Spain was, with the consent of Charles, exacted[b] from the +officers and soldiers; and in a few days James was first requested and then +commanded[c] by his brother to dismiss Berkeley. The young prince did not +refuse; but he immediately followed[d] Berkeley into Holland with the +intention of passing through Germany into France. His departure was hailed +with joy by Cromwell, who wrote a congratulatory letter to Mazarin on the +success of this intrigue; it was an object of dismay to Charles, who by +messengers entreated and commanded[e] James to return. At Breda, the prince +appeared to hesitate. He soon afterwards retraced his steps to Bruges, on +a promise that the past should be forgotten; Berkeley followed; and the +triumph of the fugitives was completed by the elevation of the obnoxious +favourite to the peerage.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Of the flight of James, Clarendon makes no mention in his +History. He even seeks to persuade his reader that the duke was compelled +to leave France in consequence of the secret article (iii. 610, 614; +Papers, iii. Supplement, lxxix), though it is plain from the Memoirs of +James, that he left unwillingly, in obedience to the absolute command of +his brother.--James, i. 270. Clarendon makes the enmity between himself and +Berkeley arise from his opposition to Berkeley's claim to the mastership +of the Court of Wards (Hist. 440; Papers, Ibid.); James, from Clarendon's +advice to Lady Morton to reject Berkeley's proposal of marriage.--James, i. +273. That the removal of Berkeley originated with Mazarin and was required +by Fuensaldagna, who employed Lord Bristol and Bennet for that purpose, +appears from Cromwell's letter to the cardinal (Thurloe, v. 736); Bristol's +letter to the king (Clar. Papers, iii. 318), and Clarendon's account of +Berkeley (ibid. Supplement, lxxix). See also ibid. 317-324; and the Memoirs +of James, i. 366-293.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1656. Sept. 1.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1656. Dec. 5.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1656. Dec. 13.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1656. Dec. 16.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1657. Jan. 13.] + +We may now return to England, where the Spanish war had excited general +discontent. By the friends of the commonwealth Spain was considered as +their most ancient and faithful ally; the merchants complained that the +trade with that country, one of the most lucrative branches of British +commerce, was taken out of their hands and given to their rivals in +Holland; and the saints believed that the failure of the expedition to +Hispaniola was a sufficient proof that Heaven condemned this breach of the +amity between the two states. It was to little purpose that Cromwell, to +vindicate his conduct, published a manifesto, in which, having enumerated +many real or pretended injuries and barbarities inflicted on Englishmen by +the Spaniards in the West Indies, he contended that the war was just, and +honourable, and necessary. His enemies, royalists, Levellers, Anabaptists, +and republicans, of every description, did not suffer the clamour against +him to subside; and, to his surprise, a request was made[a] by some of the +captains of another fleet collected at Portsmouth, to be informed of +the object of the expedition. If it were destined against Spain, their +consciences would compel them to decline the + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. March 2.] + +service. Spain was not the offending party; for the instances of aggression +enumerated in the manifesto[a] were well known to have been no more than +acts of self-defence against the depredations and encroachments of English +adventurers.[1] To suppress this dangerous spirit, Desborough hastened to +Portsmouth: some of the officers resigned their commissions, others were +superseded, and the fleet at length sailed[b] under the joint command +of Blake and Montague, of whom the latter possessed the protector's +confidence, and was probably employed as a spy on the conduct of his +colleague. Their destination in the first place was Cadiz, to destroy the +shipping in the harbour, and to make an attempt on that city, or the rock +of Gibraltar. On their arrival,[c] they called a council of war; but no +pilot could be found hardy or confident enough to guide the fleet through +the winding channel of the Caraccas; and the defences of both Cadiz and +Gibraltar presented too formidable an aspect to allow a hope of success +without the co-operation of a military force.[2] Abandoning the attempt, +the two admirals proceeded[d] to Lisbon, and extorted from the king +of Portugal the ratification of the treaty formerly concluded by his +ambassador, with the payment of the stipulated sum of fifty thousand +pounds. Thence they returned[e] to Cadiz, passed the straits, insulted the +Spaniards in Malaga, the Moors in Sallee, and after a fruitless cruise +of more than two mouths, anchored[f] a second time in the Tagus.[3] It +happened, that just after their arrival Captain Stayner, with a squadron of +frigates, fell in[g] with a Spanish fleet of eight sail from America. Of + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, iv. 571. See also 582, 589, 594. Carte's Letters, ii. +87, 90, 92, 95.] + +[Footnote 2: Thurloe, v. 67, 133.] + +[Footnote 3: Ibid. i. 726-730; v. 68, 113, 257, 286. Vaughan, i. 446.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. March 5.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1657. March 15.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1657. April 15.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1657. May 29.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1657. June 10.] +[Sidenote f: A.D. 1657. July 10.] +[Sidenote g: A.D. 1657. Sept. 10.] + +these he destroyed four, and captured two, one of which was laden, with +treasure. Montague, who came home with the prize, valued it in his despatch +at two hundred thousand pounds; the public prints at two millions of +ducats; and the friends of Cromwell hailed the event "as a renewed +testimony of God's presence, and some witness of his acceptance of the +engagement against Spain."[1] + +The equipment of this fleet had exhausted the treasury, and the protector +dared not impose additional taxes on the country at a time when his right +to levy the ordinary revenue was disputed in the courts of law. On the +ground that the parliamentary grants were expired, Sir Peter Wentworth had +refused to pay the assessment in the country, and Coney, a merchant, +the duties on imports in London. The commissioners imposed fines, and +distrained; the aggrieved brought actions against the collectors. Cromwell, +indeed, was able to suppress these proceedings by imprisoning the counsel +and intimidating their clients; but the example was dangerous; the want of +money daily increased; and, by the advice of the council, he consented to +call a parliament to meet on the 17th of September.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, 399, 433, 509, 524. Carte's Letters, ii. 114. It +appears from a letter of Colonel White, that the silver in pigs weighed +something more than forty thousand pounds, to which were to be added some +chests of wrought plate.--Thurloe, 542. Thurloe himself says all was +plundered to about two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, or three hundred +thousand pounds sterling (557). The ducat was worth nine shillings.] + +[Footnote 2: Carte's Letters, ii. 96, 103, 109. Ludlow, ii. 80-82. Clar. +Hist. iii. 649. See also A Narrative of the Proceedings in the case of +Mr. G. Coney, by S. Selwood, gent., 1655. The Jews had offered Cromwell +a considerable sum for permission to settle and trade in England. +Commissioners were appointed to confer with their agent Manasseh Ben +Israel, and a council of divines was consulted respecting the lawfulness of +the project. The opposition of the merchants and theologians induced him to +pause; but Mr. Ellis has shown that he afterwards took them silently under +his protection.--Council Book, 14th Nov., 1655. Thurloe, iv. 321, 388. +Bates, 371. Ellis, iv. 2. Marten had made an ineffectual attempt in their +favour at the commencement of the commonwealth.--Wood's Athen. Ox. iii. +1239.] + + +The result of the elections revealed to him the alarming secret, that the +antipathy to his government was more deeply rooted, and more widely spread, +than he had previously imagined. In Scotland and Ireland, indeed, the +electors obsequiously chose the members recommended by the council; +but these were conquered countries, bending under the yoke of military +despotism. In England, the whole nation was in a ferment; pamphlets were +clandestinely circulated,[a] calling on the electors to make a last +struggle in defence of their liberties; and though Vane, Ludlow, and Rich +were taken into custody;[1] though other republican leaders were excluded +by criminal prosecutions, though the Cavaliers, the Catholics, and all who +had neglected to aid the cause of the parliament, were disqualified from +voting by "the instrument;" though a military force was employed in London +to overawe the proceedings, and the whole influence of the government and +of the army was openly exerted in the country, yet in several counties +the court candidates were wholly, and in most, partially, rejected. +But Cromwell was aware of the error which he had committed in the last +parliament. He resolved that none of his avowed opponents should be allowed +to take possession of their seats. The returns were laid before the +council; the majors-general received orders to inquire into the political +and religious characters of the elected; the reports of these officers + +[Footnote 1: The proceedings on these occasions may be seen in Ludlow, ii. +115-123; and State Trials, v. 791.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. August 20.] + +were carefully examined; and a list was made of nearly one hundred persons +to be excluded under the pretext of immorality or delinquency.[1] + +On the appointed day,[a] the protector, after divine service, addressed +the new "representatives" in the Painted Chamber. His real object was to +procure money; and with this view he sought to excite their alarm, and +to inflame their religious antipathies. He enumerated the enemies of the +nation. The first was the Spaniard, the natural adversary of England, +because he was the slave of the pope, a child of darkness, and consequently +hostile to the light, blinded by superstition, and anxious to put down the +things of God; one with whom it was impossible to be at peace, and to whom, +in relation to this country, might be applied the words of Scripture, "I +will put enmity between thy seed and her seed." There was also Charles +Stuart, who, with the aid of the Spaniard and the duke of Neuburg, had +raised a formidable army for the invasion of the island. There were the +papists and Cavaliers, who had already risen, and were again ready to rise +in favour of Charles Stuart. There were the Levellers, who had sent an +agent to the court of Madrid, and the Fifth-monarchy-men, who sought an +union with the Levellers against him, "a reconciliation between Herod and +Pilate, that Christ might be put to death." The remedies--though in this +part of his speech he digressed so frequently as to appear loth to come to +the remedies--were, to prosecute the war abroad, and strengthen the hands +of the government at home; to lose no time in questions of inferior moment, +or less urgent necessity, but to inquire into the state of the revenue, and +to raise ample supplies. + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, v. 269, 317, 328, 329, 337, 341, 343, 349, 424.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. Sept 17.] + +In conclusion, he explained the eighty-fifth psalm, exclaiming, "If pope +and Spaniard, and devil, and all set themselves against us, though they +should compass us about like bees, yet in the name of the Lord we shall +destroy them. The Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our +refuge."[1] + +From the Painted Chamber the members proceeded to the house. A military +guard was stationed at the door, and a certificate from the council was +required from each individual previously to his admission.[2] The excluded +members complained by letter of this breach of parliamentary privilege. A +strong feeling of disapprobation was manifested in several parts of the +house; the clerk of the commonwealth in Chancery received orders to lay +all the returns on the table; and the council was requested to state +the grounds of this novel and partial proceeding. Fiennes, one of the +commissioners of the great seal, replied, that the duty of inquiry into the +qualifications of the members was, by the "instrument," vested in the lords +of the council, who had discharged that trust according to the best of +their judgment. An animated debate followed that such was the provision in +"the instrument" could not be denied;[3] but that the council + +[Footnote 1: Introduction to Burton's Diary, cxlviii-clxxix. Journals, +Sept. 17. Thurloe, v. 427. That the king's army, which Cromwell exaggerated +to the amount of eight thousand men, did not reach to more than one +thousand, is twice asserted by Thurloe himself, 605, 672.] + +[Footnote 2: The certificates which had been distributed to the favoured +members were in this form:--"Sept. 17, 1656. County of ----. These are to +certify that A.B. is returned by indenture one of the knights to serve in +this parliament for the said county, and is approved by his highness's +council. Nath. Taylor. clerk of the commonwealth in Chancery."] + +[Footnote 3: In the draught of the "instrument," as it was amended in +the last parliament, the jurisdiction of the council in this matter was +confined to the charge of delinquency, and its decision was not final, but +subject to the approbation of the house.--Journals, 1654, Nov. 29. But that +draught had not received the protector's assent.] + +should decide on secret information, and without the knowledge of the +individuals who were interested, seemed contrary to the first principles of +justice. The court, however, could now command the votes of the majority, +and a motion that the house should pass to the business of the nation was +carried by dint of numbers. Several members, to show their disapprobation, +voluntarily seceded, and those, who had been excluded by force, +published[a] in bold and indignant language an appeal to the justice of the +people.[1] + +Having weeded out his enemies, Cromwell had no reason to fear opposition to +his pleasure. The house passed a resolution declaratory of the justice +and policy of the war against Spain, and two acts, by one of which were +annulled all claims of Charles Stuart and his family to the crown, by the +other were provided additional safeguards for the person of the chief +governor. With the same unanimity, a supply of four hundred thousand +pounds was voted; but when the means of raising the money came under +consideration, a great diversity of opinion prevailed. Some proposed to +inquire into the conduct of the treasury, some to adopt improvements in +the collection of the revenue, others recommended an augmentation of +the excise, and others a more economical system of expenditure. In the +discussion of these questions and of private bills, week after week, month +after month, was tediously + +[Footnote 1: The nature of the charges against the members may be seen +in Thurloe, v. 371, 383. In the Journals, seventy-nine names only are +mentioned (Journals, 1656, Sept. 19), but ninety-eight are affixed to the +appeal in Whitelock, 651-653. In both lists occur the names of Anthony +Ashley Cooper, who afterwards became Cromwell's intimate adviser, and of +several others who subsequently solicited and obtained certificates.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. Sept. 22.] + +and fruitlessly consumed; though the time limited by the instrument was +past, still the money bill had made no progress; and, to add to the +impatience of Cromwell, a new subject was accidentally introduced, which, +as it strongly interested the passions, absorbed for some time the +attention of the house.[1] + +At the age of nineteen, George Fox, the son of a weaver of Drayton, with a +mind open to religious impressions, had accompanied some of his friends to +a neighbouring fair. The noise, the revelry, and the dissipation which he +witnessed, led him to thoughts of seriousness and self-reproach; and the +enthusiast heard, or persuaded himself that he heard, an inward voice, +calling on him to forsake his parents' house, and to make himself a +stranger in his own country. Docile to the celestial admonition, he began +to lead a solitary life, wandering from place to place, and clothed from +head to foot in garments of leather. He read the Scriptures attentively, +studied the mysterious visions in the Apocalypse, and was instructed in the +real meaning by Christ and the Spirit. At first, doubts and fears haunted +his mind, but, when the time of trial was past, he found himself inebriated +with spiritual delights, and received an assurance that his name was +written in the Lamb's Book of Life. At the same time, he was forbidden by +the Lord to employ the plural pronoun _you_ in addressing a single person, +to bid his neighbour good even or good-morrow, or to uncover the head, or +scrape with the leg to any mortal being. At length, the Spirit moved him to + +[Footnote 1: Journals, passim; Thurloe, v. 472, 494, 524, 584, 672, 694. +See note (H).] + +impart to others the heavenly doctrines which he had learned. In 1647, he +preached for the first time at Duckenfield, not far from Manchester; but +the most fruitful scene of his labours was at Swarthmoor, near Ulverston. +His disciples followed his example; the word of the Spirit was given to +women as well as men; and the preachers of both sexes, as well as many +of their followers, attracted the notice and the censures of the civil +magistrate. Their refusal to uncover before the bench was usually punished +with a fine, on the ground of contempt; their religious objection to +take an oath, or to pay tithes, exposed them to protracted periods of +imprisonment; and they were often and severely whipped as vagrants, +because, for the purpose of preaching, they were accustomed to wander +through the country. To these sufferings, as is always the case with +persecuted sects, calumny was added; and they were falsely charged with +denying the Trinity, with disowning the authority of government, and with +attempting to debauch the fidelity of the soldiers. Still, in defiance of +punishment and calumny, the Quakers, so they were called, persevered in +their profession; it was their duty, they maintained, to obey the influence +of the Holy Spirit; and they submitted with the most edifying resignation +to the consequences, however painful they might be to flesh and blood.[1] + +Of the severities so wantonly exercised against these religionists it +is difficult to speak with temper; yet it must be confessed that their +doctrine of spiritual impulses was likely to lead its disciples of either +sex, whose minds were weak and imaginations active, to extravagances at the +same time ludicrous and + +[Footnote 1: Fox, Journal, i. 29, et seq.; Sewel, i. 24, 31, 34, passim.] + +revolting.[1] Of this, James Naylor furnished a striking instance. He had +served in the army, and had been quarter-master in Lambert's troop, from +which office he was discharged on account of sickness.[2] He afterwards +became a disciple of George Fox, and a leading preacher in the capital; but +he "despised the power of God" in his master, by whom he was reprimanded, +and listened to the delusive flattery of some among his female hearers, +who were so captivated with his manner and appearance; as to persuade +themselves that Christ was incorporated in the new apostle. It was not for +him to gainsay what the Spirit had revealed to them. He believed himself to +be set as a sign of the coming of Christ; and he accepted the worship which +was paid to him, not as offered to James Naylor, but to Christ dwelling +in James Naylor. Under this impression, during part of his progress to +Bristol,[a] and at his entrance into that city, he rode on horseback with a +man walking bareheaded before him; two females holding his bridle on each +side, and others attending him, one of whom, Dorcas Erbury, maintained that +he had raised her to life after she had + +[Footnote 1: "William Simpson was moved of the Lord to go at several times, +for three years, naked and barefoot before them, as a sign unto them in +markets, courts, towns, cities, to priests' houses, and to great men's +houses; so shall they all be stripped naked as he was stripped naked. And +sometimes he was moved to put on hair sackcloth, and to besmear his face, +and to tell them so would the Lord besmear all their religion, as he was +besmeared. Great sufferings did that poor man undergo, sore whipping +with horsewhips and coachwhips on his bare body, grievous stonings and +imprisonments in three years time before the king came in, that they might +have taken warning, but they could not."--Fox; Journal, i. 572.] + +[Footnote 2: Lambert spoke of him with kindness during the debate: "He was +two years my quarter-master, and a very useful person. We parted with +him with very great regret. He was a man of very unblameable life and +conversation."--Burton's Diary, i. 33.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1656. October.] + +been dead the space of two days. These occasionally threw scarfs and +handkerchiefs before him, and sang, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God +of Hosts: Hosanna in the highest; holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God of +Israel." They were apprehended by the mayor, and, sent[a] to London to be +examined by a committee of the parliament. The house, having heard the +report of the committee, voted that Naylor was guilty of blasphemy. The +next consideration was his punishment; the more zealous moved that he +should be put to death; but after a debate which continued during eleven +days, the motion was lost[b] by a division of ninety-six to eighty-two. +Yet the punishment to which he was doomed ought to have satisfied the most +bigoted of his adversaries. He stood[c] with his neck in the pillory for +two hours, and was whipped from Palace Yard to the Old Exchange, receiving +three hundred and ten lashes in the way. Some days later[d] he was again +placed in the pillory; and the letter B for blasphemer was burnt on his +forehead, and his tongue was bored with a red-hot iron.[1] From London the +house ordered him to be conducted[e] to Bristol, the place of his offence. +He entered at Lamford's Gate, riding on the bare back of a horse with +his face to the tail; dismounted at Rockley Gate, and was successively +whipped[f] in five parts of the city. His admirers, however, were not +ashamed of the martyr. On every + +[Footnote 1: "This day I and B. went to see Naylor's tongue bored through, +and him marked on the forehead. He put out his tongue very willingly, but +shrinked a little when the iron came upon his forehead. He was pale when he +came out of the pillory, but high-coloured after tongue-boring. He behaved +himself very handsomely and patiently" (p. 266 in Burton's Diary, where the +report of these debates on Naylor occupies one hundred and forty pages).] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1656. Dec. 6.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1656. Dec. 16.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1656. Dec. 18.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1656. Dec. 27.] +[Sidenote e: A.D. 1657. Jan. 13.] +[Sidenote f: A.D. 1657. Jan. 17.] + +occasion they attended him bareheaded; they kissed and sucked his wounds; +and they chanted with him passages from the Scriptures. On his return to +London[a] he was committed to solitary confinement, without pen, ink, or +paper, or fire, or candle, and with no other sustenance than what he +might earn by his own industry. Here the delusion under which he laboured +gradually wore away; he acknowledged that his mind had been in darkness, +the consequence and punishment of spiritual pride; and declared that, +inasmuch as he had given advantage to the evil spirit, he took shame to +himself. By "the rump parliament" he was afterwards discharged; and the +society of Friends, by whom he had been disowned, admitted him again on +proof of his repentance. But his sufferings had injured his health. In 1660 +he was found in a dying state in a field in Huntingdonshire, and shortly +afterwards expired.[1] + +While the parliament thus spent its time in the prosecution of an offence +which concerned it not, Cromwell anxiously revolved in his own mind a +secret project of the first importance to himself and the country. To his +ambition, it was not sufficient that he actually possessed the supreme +authority, and exercised it with more despotic sway than any of his +legitimate predecessors; he still sought to mount a step higher, to +encircle his brows with a diadem, and to be addressed with the title of +majesty. It could not be, that vanity alone induced him to hazard the +attachment of his friends for the sake of mere parade and empty sound. He +had rendered the more modest title of protector as great and as formidable +as that of + +[Footnote 1: Journals, Dec. 5-17; 1659, Sept. 8. Sewel, 260-273, 283, 393. +State Trials, v. 810-842. Merc. Polit. No. 34.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. Feb. 22.] + +king, and, though uncrowned, had treated on a footing of equality with the +proudest of the crowned heads in Europe. It is more probable that he was +led by considerations of interest. He knew that the nation was weary of +change; he saw with what partiality men continued to cling to the old +institutions; and he, perhaps, trusted that the establishment of an +hereditary monarchy, with a house of peers, though under a new dynasty, and +with various modifications, might secure the possession of the crown, not +only to himself, but also to his posterity. However that may be, he now +made the acquisition of the kingly dignity the object of his policy. For +this purpose he consulted first with Thurloe, and afterwards[a] with St. +John and Pierpoint;[1] and the manner in which he laboured to gratify +his ambition strikingly displays that deep dissimulation and habitual +hypocrisy, which form the distinguishing traits of his character. + +The first opportunity of preparing the public mind for this important +alteration was furnished by the recent proceedings against Naylor, which +had provoked considerable discontent, not on account of the severity of the +punishment (for rigid notions of religion had subdued the common feelings +of humanity), but on account of the judicial authority exercised by the +house--an authority which appeared subversive of the national liberties. +For of what use was the right of trial, if the parliament could set +aside the ordinary courts of law at its pleasure, and inflict arbitrary +punishment for any supposed offence without the usual forms of inquiry? As +long as the question was before the house, Cromwell remained silent; but +when the first part of the judgment had been executed + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, v. 694; vi. 20, 37.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1656. Dec. 9.] + +on the unfortunate sufferer, he came forward in quality of guardian of the +public rights, and concluded a letter to the speaker[a] with these words: +"We, being intrusted in the present government on behalf of the people of +these nations, and not knowing how far such proceedings (wholly without us) +may extend in the consequences of it, do desire that the house will let us +know the ground and reason whereupon they have proceeded." This message +struck the members[b] with amazement. Few among them were willing to +acknowledge] that they had exceeded their real authority; all dreaded to +enter into a contest with the protector. The discussion lasted three days; +every expedient that had been suggested was ultimately rejected; and the +debate was adjourned to a future day,[c] when, with the secret connivance +of Cromwell, no motion was made to resume it.[1] He had already obtained +his object. The thoughts of men had been directed to the defects of the +existing constitution, and to the necessity of establishing checks on the +authority of the house, similar to those which existed under the ancient +government. + +In a few days[d] a bill was introduced which, under the pretence of +providing money for the support of the militia, sought to confirm the past +proceedings of the majors-general, and to invest them with legal authority +for the future. The protector was aware that the country longed to +be emancipated from the control of these military governors; for the +attainment of his great object it was his interest to stand well with +all classes of people; and, therefore, though he was the author of +this unpopular institution, though in his speech at the opening of the +parliament he had been + +[Footnote: Burton's Diary, i. 246-258, 260-264, 270-282, 296.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1656. Dec. 25.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1656. Dec. 26.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1657. Jan. 2.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1657. Jan. 7.] + +eloquent in its praise, though he had declared that, after his experience +of its utility, "if the thing were undone he would do it again;" he now not +only abandoned the majors-general to their fate, he even instructed his +dependants in the house to lead the opposition against them. As soon as the +bill was read a first time, his son-in-law, Claypole, who seldom spoke, +rose to express his dissent, and was followed by the Lord Broghill, known +as the confidential counsellor of the protector. The decimation-tax was +denounced as unjust, because it was a violation of the act of oblivion, +and the conduct of the majors-general was compared to the tyranny of the +Turkish bashaws. These officers defended themselves with spirit; their +adversaries had recourse to personal crimination;[1] and the debate, by +successive adjournments, occupied the attention of the house during eleven +days. In conclusion, the bill was rejected[a] by a numerous majority and +the majors-general, by the desertion of Cromwell, found themselves exposed +to actions at law for the exercise of those powers which they had accepted +in obedience to his commands.[2] + +While this question was still pending, it chanced that a plot against the +protector's life, of which the + +[Footnote 1: Among others, Harry Cromwell, the protector's nephew, said he +was ready to name some among the majors-general who had acted oppressively. +It was supposed that these words would bring him into disgrace at court. +"But Harry," says a private letter, "goes last night to his highness, and +stands to what he had said manfully and wisely; and, to make it appear he +spake not without book, had his black book and papers ready to make good +what he said. His highness answered him in raillery, and took a rich +scarlet cloak from his back, and gloves from his hands, and gave them to +Harry, who strutted with his new cloak and gloves into the house this +day."--Thurloe, iv. 20.] + + +[Footnote 2: Journals, Jan. 7, 8, 12, 19, 20, 21, 28, 29. Burton's Diary, +310-320.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. Jan. 29.] + +particulars will be subsequently noticed, was discovered and defeated. The +circumstance furnished an opportunity favourable to his views; and the +re-establishment of "kingship" was mentioned in the house, not as a project +originating from him, but as the accidental and spontaneous suggestion of +others. Goffe having expressed[a] a hope that parliament would provide +for the preservation of the protector's person, Ashe, the member for +Somersetshire, exclaimed, "_I_ would add something more--that he would +be pleased to take upon him the government according to the ancient +constitution. That would put an end to these plots, and fix our liberties +and his safety on an old and sure foundation." The house was taken by +surprise: many reprehended the temerity of the speaker; by many his +suggestion was applauded and approved. He had thrown it out to try the +temper of his colleagues; and the conversation which it provoked, served +to point out to Cromwell the individuals from whom he might expect to meet +with opposition.[1] + +The detection of the conspiracy was followed[b] by an address of +congratulation to the protector, who on his part gave to the members a +princely entertainment at Whitehall. At their next meeting[c] the question +was regularly brought before them by Alderman Pack, who boldly undertook a +task which the timidity of Whitelock had declined. Rising in his place, he +offered to the house a paper, of which he gave no other explanation than +that it had been placed in his hands, and "tended to the settlement of the +country." Its purport, however, was already known, or conjectured; several +officers instantly started from their seats, and + +[Footnote 1: Burton's Diary, 362-366.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. Jan. 19.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1657. Feb. 20.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1657. Feb. 23.] + +Pack was violently borne down to the bar. But, on the restoration of order, +he found himself supported by Broghill, Whitelock, and Glynn, and, with +them, by the whole body of the lawyers, and the dependants of the court. +The paper was read; it was entitled, "An humble Address and Remonstrance," +protesting against the existing form of government, which depended for +security on the odious institution of majors-general, and providing that +the protector should assume a higher title, and govern, as had been done in +times past, with the advice of two houses of parliament. The opposition (it +consisted of the chief officers, the leading members in the council, and +a few representatives of counties) threw every obstacle in the way of its +supporters; but they were overpowered by numbers: the house debated each +article in succession, and the whole project was finally adopted,[a] but +with the omission of the remonstrance, and under the amended title of the +"Humble Petition and Advice."[1] + +As long as the question was before parliament, Cromwell bore himself in +public as if he were unconcerned in the result; but his mind was secretly +harassed by the reproaches of his friends and by the misgivings of his +conscience. He saw for the first time marshalled against him the men who +had stood by him in his different fortunes, and whom he had bound to his +interest by marriages and preferment. At their head was Lambert, the +commander of the army in England, the idol of the military, and second only +to himself in authority. Then came Desborough, his brother-in-law, the +major-general in five counties, and Fleetwood, the husband of his daughter +Bridget, and + +[Footnote 1: Journals, Jan. 19, Feb. 21, 23, 24, 25. Thurloe, vi. 74, 78. +Whitelock, 665, 666. Ludlow, ii. 128. Burton's Diary, iii. 160.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. March 25.] lord-deputy of Ireland.[1] Lambert, at +a private meeting of officers, proposed to bring up five regiments of +cavalry, and compel the house to confirm both the "instrument," and the +establishment of majors-general. This bold counsel was approved; but the +next morning his colleagues, having sought the Lord in prayer, resolved to +postpone its execution till they had ascertained the real intention of the +protector; and Lambert, warned by their indecision, took no longer any part +in their meeting, but watched in silence the course of events.[2] The other +two, on the contrary, persevered in the most active opposition; nor did +they suffer themselves to be cajoled by the artifices of the protector, who +talked in their hearing with contempt of the crown as a mere bauble, and of +Pack and his supporters as children, whom it might be prudent to indulge +with a "rattle."[3] + +The marked opposition of these men had given energy to the proceedings of +the inferior officers, who formed themselves into a permanent council under +the very eyes of Cromwell, passed votes in disapprobation of the proposed +alteration, and to the number of one hundred waited on him to acquaint him +with their sentiments.[4] He replied,[a] that there was a time when they +felt no objection to the title of king; for the army had offered it to him +with the original instrument of government. He had rejected it then, and +had no greater love for it now. He had always been + +[Footnote 1: Desborough and Fleetwood passed from the inns of court to the +army. The first married Anne, the protector's sister; the second, Bridget +his daughter, and the widow of Ireton. Suspicious of his principles, +Cromwell kept him in England, while Henry Cromwell, with the rank of +major-general, held the government of Ireland.--Noble, i. 103; ii. 243, +336, 338.] + +[Footnote 2: Clar. Pap. iii. 333.] + +[Footnote 3: Ludlow, ii. 131.] + +[Footnote 4: Thurloe, vi. 93, 94, 101, 219.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. Feb. 28.] the "drudge" of the officers, had done +the work which they imposed on him, and had sacrificed his opinion to +theirs. If the present parliament had been called, it was in opposition +to his individual judgment; if the bill, which proved so injurious to the +majors-general, had been brought into the house, it was contrary to his +advice. But the officers had overrated their own strength: the country +called for an end to all arbitrary proceedings; the punishment of Naylor +proved the necessity of a check on the judicial proceedings of the +parliament, and that check could only be procured by investing the +protector with additional authority. This answer made several proselytes; +but the majority adhered pertinaciously to their former opinion.[1] + +Nor was this spirit confined to the army; in all companies men were heard +to maintain that, to set up monarchy again was to pronounce condemnation +on themselves, to acknowledge themselves guilty of all the blood which had +been shed to put it down. But nowhere did the proposal excite more cordial +abhorrence than in the conventicles of the Fifth-monarchy-men. In their +creed the protectorate was an impiety, kingship a sacrilegious assumption +of the authority belonging to the only King, the Lord Jesus. They were his +witnesses foretold in the Apocalypse; they had now slept their sleep of +three years and a half; the time was come when it was their duty to rise +and avenge the cause of the Lord. In the conventicles of the capital the +lion of Judah was chosen for their military device; arms were prepared, and +the day of rising was fixed. They amounted, indeed, to no more + +[Footnote 1: For this extraordinary speech we are indebted to the industry +of Mr. Rutt.--Burton's Diary, i. 382.] than eighty men; but they were the +champions of Him who, "though they might be as a worm, would enable them +to thrash mountains." The projects of these fanatics did not escape the +penetrating eye of Thurloe, who, for more than a year, had watched +all their motions, and was in possession of all their secrets. Their +proceedings were regulated by five persons, each of whom presided in a +separate conventicle, and kept his followers in ignorance of the names +of the brethren associated under the four remaining leaders. A fruitless +attempt was made to unite them with the Levellers. But the Levellers +trusted too much to worldly wisdom; the fanatics wished to begin the +strife, and to leave the issue to their Heavenly King. The appointed day[a] +came: as they proceeded to the place of rendezvous, the soldiers of the +Lord were met by the soldiers of the protector; twenty were made prisoners; +the rest escaped, with the loss of their horses and arms, which were seized +in the depôt.[1] + +In the mean while the new form of government had received the sanction of +the house. Cromwell, when it was laid before him, had recourse to his usual +arts, openly refusing that for which he ardently longed, and secretly +encouraging his friends to persist, that his subsequent acquiescence might +appear to proceed from a sense of duty, and not from the lust of power. At +first,[b] in reply to a long and tedious harangue from the speaker, he told +them of "the consternation of his mind" at the very thought of the burden; +requested time "to ask counsel of God and his own heart;" and, after a +pause of three days,[c] replied that, inasmuch as the new constitution +provided the best securities for + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 655. Thurloe, vi. 163, 184-188.] + +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1657. April 3.] +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. April 9.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1657. March 31.] + +the civil and religious liberties of the people, it had his unqualified +approbation; but, as far as regarded himself, "he did not find it in his +duty to God and the country to undertake the charge under the new title +which was given him."[1] His friends refused to be satisfied with this +answer: the former vote was renewed,[a] and the house, waiting on him in a +body, begged to remind him, that it was his duty to listen to the advice of +the great council of the three nations. He meekly replied, that he still +had his doubts on one point; and that, till such doubts were removed, his +conscience forbade him to assent; but that he was willing to explain his +reasons, and to hear theirs, and to hope that in a friendly conference the +means might be discovered of reconciling their opposite opinions, and of +determining on that which might be most beneficial to the country.[2] + +In obedience to this intimation, a committee of the house was appointed to +receive and solve the scruples of the protector. To their surprise, +they found him in no haste to enter on the discussion. Sometimes he was +indisposed, and could not admit them; often he was occupied with important +business; on three occasions they obtained an interview. He wished to argue +the question on the ground of expedience. If the power were the same under +a protector, where, he asked, could be the use of a king? The title would +offend men, who, by their former services, had earned the right to +have even their prejudices respected. Neither was he sure that the +re-establishment of royalty might not be a falling off from that cause in + +[Footnote 1: Merc. Pol. No. 355. Mr. Rutt has discovered and inserted both +speeches at length in Burton's Diary, i. 397-416.] + +[Footnote 2: Thurloe, i. 751, 756. Parl. Hist. iii. 1493-1495. Burton's +Diary, i. 417.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. April 8.] + +which they had engaged, and from that Providence by which they had been +so marvellously supported. It was true, that the Scripture sanctioned the +dignity of king; but to the testimony of Scripture might be opposed "the +visible hand of God," who, in the late contest, "had eradicated kingship." +It was gravely replied, that Protector was a new, King an ancient, title; +the first had no definite meaning, the latter was interwoven with all +our laws and institutions; the powers of one were unknown and liable to +alteration, those of the other ascertained and limited by the law of custom +and the statute law. The abolition of royalty did not originally enter into +the contemplation of parliament--the objection was to the person, not +to the office--it was afterwards effected by a portion only of the +representative body; whereas, its restoration was now sought by a greater +authority--the whole parliament of the three kingdoms. The restoration was, +indeed, necessary, both for his security and theirs; as by law all the acts +of a king in possession, but only of a king, are good and valid. Some there +were who pretended that king and chief magistrate were synonymous; but +no one had yet ventured to substitute one word for the other in the +Scriptures, where so many covenants, promises, and precepts are annexed to +the title of king. Neither could the "visible hand of God" be alleged in +the present case; for the visible hand of God had eradicated the government +by a single person as clearly as that by a king. Cromwell promised to give +due attention to these arguments; to his confidential friends he owned +that his objections were removed; and, at the same time, to enlighten the +ignorance of the public, he ordered[a] a report of the conferences to be +published.[1] + +[Footnote 1: See Monarchy asserted to be the most Ancient and Legal Form of +Government, &c. 1660; Walker, Researches, Historical and Antiquarian, i. +1-27; Burton's Diary, App. ii. 493; Thurloe, vi. 819; Whitelock, 565; +Journals, April 9-21.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. April 20.] + + +The protector's, however, was not one of those minds that resolve quickly +and execute promptly. He seldom went straight forwards to his object, but +preferred a winding circuitous route. He was accustomed to view and review +the question, in all its bearings and possible consequences, and to invent +fresh causes of delay, till he occasionally incurred the suspicion of +irresolution and timidity.[1] Instead of returning a plain and decisive +answer, he sought to protract the time by requesting[a] the sense of the +house on different passages in the petition, on the intended amount of the +annual income, and on the ratification of the ordinances issued by himself, +and of the acts passed by the little parliament. By this contrivance the +respite of a fortnight was obtained, during which he frequently consulted +with Broghill, Pierpoint, Whitelock, Wolseley, and Thurloe.[2] At length it +was whispered at court that the protector had resolved to accept the title; +and immediately Lambert, Fleetwood, and Desborough made[b] to him, in their +own names and those of several others, the unpleasant declaration, that +they must resign their commissions, and sever themselves from his councils +and service for ever. His irresolution returned: he had promised the house +to give a final answer the next morning;[c] in the morning he postponed it +to five in the evening, and at that hour to + +[Footnote 1: "Every wise man out of doors wonders at the delay," Thurloe, +vi. 243; also Claren. Papers, iii. 339.] + +[Footnote 2: "In these meetings," says Whitelock, "laying aside his +greatness, he would be exceedingly familiar with us, and, by way of +diversion, would make verses with us, and every one must try his fancy. He +commonly called for tobacco, pipes, and a candle, and would now and then +take tobacco himself. Then he would fall again to his serious and great +business" (656).] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. April 22.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1657. May 6.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1657. May 7.] + +the following day. The officers observed, and resolved to profit by, the +impression which they had made; and early in the morning[a] Colonel Mason, +with six-and-twenty companions, offered to the parliament a petition, in +which they stated that the object of those with whom the measure originated +was the ruin of the lord-general and of the best friends of the people, and +conjured the house to support the good old cause in defence of which the +petitioners were ready to sacrifice their lives. This bold step subdued the +reluctance of the protector. He abandoned the lofty hopes to which he had +so long, so pertinaciously clung, despatched Fleetwood to the house to +prevent a debate, and shortly afterwards summoned the members to meet him +at Whitehall. Addressing them with more than his usual embarrassment, he +said, that neither his own reflections nor the reasoning of the committee +had convinced him that he ought to accept the title of king. If he were to +accept it, it would be doubtingly; if he did it doubtingly, it would not be +of faith; and if it were not of faith, it would be a sin. "Wherefore," he +concluded, "I cannot undertake this government with that title of king, and +this is mine answer to this great and weighty business."[1] + +Thus ended the mighty farce which for more than two months held in suspense +the hopes and fears of three nations. But the friends of Cromwell resumed +the subject in parliament. It was observed that he had not refused to +administer the government under any other title; the name of king was +expunged for that of protector; and with this and a few more amendments, +the "humble petition and advice"[b] received + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, vi. 261, 267, 281, 291. Journals, April 21-May 12. +Parl. Hist. iii. 1498-1502. Ludlow, ii. 131. Clar. Papers, iii. 342.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. May 8.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1657. May 25.] + +the sanction of the chief magistrate. The inauguration followed.[a] On the +platform, raised at the upper end of Westminster Hall, and in front of a +magnificent chair of state, stood the protector; while the speaker, with +his assistants, invested him with a purple mantle lined with ermine, +presented him with a Bible superbly gilt and embossed, girt a sword by his +side, and placed a sceptre of massive gold in his hand. As soon as the oath +had been administered, Manton, his chaplain, pronounced a long and fervent +prayer for a blessing on the protector, the parliament, and the people. +Rising from prayer, Cromwell seated himself in a chair: on the right, at +some distance, sat the French, on the left, the Dutch ambassador; on one +side stood the earl of Warwick with the sword of the commonwealth, on +the other, the lord mayor, with that of the city; and behind arranged +themselves the members of the protector's family, the lords of the council, +and Lisle, Whitelock, and Montague, each of the three bearing a drawn +sword. At a signal given, the trumpets sounded; the heralds proclaimed the +style of the new sovereign; and the spectators shouted, "Long live his +highness; God save the lord-protector." He rose immediately, bowed to the +ambassadors, and walked in state through the hall to his carriage.[1] + +That which distinguished the present from the late form of government was +the return which it made towards the more ancient institutions of the +country. + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 622. Merc. Polit. No. 369. Parl. Hist. iii. 1514, +and Prestwick's Relation, App. to Burton's Diary, ii. 511. Most of the +officers took the oath of fidelity to the protector. Lambert refused, and +resigned his commissions, which brought him about six thousand pounds per +annum. Cromwell, however, assigned to him a yearly pension of two thousand +pounds.--Ludlow, ii. 136.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. June 26.] + + +That return, indeed, had wrung from Cromwell certain concessions repugnant +to his feelings and ambition, but to which he probably was reconciled by +the consideration that in the course of a few years they might be modified +or repealed. The supreme authority was vested in the protector; but, +instead of rendering it hereditary in his family, the most which he could +obtain was the power of nominating his immediate successor. The two houses +of parliament were restored; but, as if it were meant to allude to his +past conduct, he was bound to leave to the House of Commons the right of +examining the qualifications and determining the claims of the several +representatives. To him was given the power of nominating the members of +the "other house" (he dared not yet term it the House of Lords); but, in +the first instance, the persons so nominated were to be approved by the +house of representatives, and afterwards by the other house itself. The +privilege of voting by proxy was abolished, and the right of judicature +restrained within reasonable limits. In the appointment of councillors, +the great officers of state, and the commanders of the forces, many of the +restrictions sought to be introduced by the long parliament were enforced. +In point of religion, it was enacted that a confession of faith should be +agreed upon between the protector and the two houses; but that dissenters +from it should enjoy liberty of conscience, and the free exercise of their +worship, unless they should reject the mystery of the Trinity, or the +inspiration of the Scriptures, or profess prelatic, or popish, or +blasphemous doctrines. The yearly revenue was fixed at one million three +hundred thousand pounds, of which no part was to be raised by a land-tax; +and of this sum one million was devoted to the support of the army and +navy, and three hundred thousand pounds to the expenses of the civil list; +but, on the remonstrance of the protector, that with so small a revenue it +would be impossible to continue the war, an additional grant of six +hundred thousand pounds was voted for the three following years. After the +inauguration, the Commons adjourned during six months, that time might be +allowed for the formation of the "other house."[1] + +Having brought this important session of parliament to its conclusion, we +may now revert to the miscellaneous occurrences of the year, 1. Had much +credit been given to the tales of spies and informers, neither Cromwell nor +his adversary, Charles Stuart, would have passed a day without the dread +of assassination. But they knew that such persons are wont to invent and +exaggerate, in order to enhance the value of their services; and each +had, therefore, contented, himself with taking no other than ordinary +precautions for his security.[2] Cromwell, however, was aware of the +fierce, unrelenting disposition of the Levellers; the moment he learned +that they were negotiating with the exiled king and the Spaniards, he +concluded that they had sworn his destruction; and to oppose their attempts +on his life, he selected[a] one hundred and sixty brave and trusty men from +the different regiments of cavalry, whom he divided into eight + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 657, 663. Parl. Hist. iii. 1502-1511. In a +catalogue printed at the time, the names were given of one hundred and +eighty-two members of this parliament, who, it was pretended, "were sons, +kinsmen, servants, and otherwise engaged unto, and had places of profit, +offices, salaries, and advantages, under the protector," sharing annually +among them out of the public money the incredible sum of one million +sixteen thousand three hundred and seventeen pounds, sixteen shillings, and +eightpence.] + +[Footnote 2: Thurloe's voluminous papers abound with offers and warnings +connected with this subject.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. Feb. 28.] + +troops, directing that two of these troops in rotation should be always on +duty near his person.[1] Before the end of the year, he learned[a] that a +plot had actually been organized, that assassins had been engaged, and that +his death was to be the signal for a simultaneous rising of the Levellers +and royalists, and the sailing of a hostile expedition from the coast of +Flanders. The author of this plan was Sexby; nor will it be too much to +assert that it was not only known, but approved by the advisers of +Charles at Bruges. They appointed an agent to accompany the chief of the +conspirators; they prepared to take every advantage of the murder; they +expressed an unfeigned sorrow for the failure of the attempt. Indeed, +Clarendon, the chief minister (he had lately been made lord chancellor), +was known to hold, that the assassination of a successful rebel or usurper +was an act of justifiable and meritorious loyalty.[2] + +Sexby had found a fit instrument for his purpose in Syndercombe, a man of +the most desperate courage, + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, iv. 567. Carte, Letters, ii. 81. Their pay was four +and sixpence per day.--Ibid. In addition, if we may believe Clarendon, he +had always several beds prepared in different chambers, so that no one knew +in what particular room he would pass the night.--Hist. iii. 646.] + +[Footnote 2: That both Charles and Clarendon knew of the design, +and interested themselves in its execution, is plain from several +letters.--Clar. Pap. iii. 311, 312, 315, 324, 327, 331, 335. Nor can there +be a doubt that Clarendon approved of such murders. It is, indeed, true +that, speaking of the murder of Ascham, when he was at Madrid, he says that +he and his colleague, Lord Cottington, abhorred it.--Clar. Hist. iii. 351. +Yet, from his private correspondence, it appears that he wrote papers in +defence of the murderers (Clar. Pap. iii. 21, 23), recommended them as +"brave fellows, and honest gentlemen" (ibid. 235, 236), and observed to +Secretary Nicholas, that it was a sad and grievous thing that the princess +royal had not supplied Middleton with money, "but a worse and baser thing +that any man should appear in any part beyond sea under the character of an +agent from the rebels, and not have his throat cut."--Ibid. 144, 1652, Feb. +20.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. Dec. 9.] + +formerly a quarter-master in the army in Scotland, and dismissed on account +of his political principles. Having admitted a man of the name of Cecil as +his associate, he procured seven guns which would carry a number of balls, +hired lodgings in places near which the protector was likely to pass, +bribed Took, one of the life-guardsmen, to give information of his motions, +and bought the fleetest horses for the purpose of escape. Yet all his +designs were frustrated, either by the multitude of the spectators, or the +vigilance of the guards, or by some unforeseen and unlucky accident. At the +persuasion of Wildman he changed his plan;[a] and on the 9th of January, +about six in the evening, entered Whitehall with his two accomplices; he +unlocked the door of the chapel, deposited in a pew a basket filled with +inflammable materials, and lighted a match, which, it was calculated, would +burn six hours. His intention, was that the fire should break out about +midnight; but Took had already revealed the secret to Cromwell, and all +three were apprehended as they closed the door of the chapel. Took saved +his life by the discovery, Cecil by the confession of all that he knew. But +Syndercombe had wisely concealed from them the names of his associates and +the particulars of the plan. They knew not that certain persons within the +palace had undertaken to murder the protector during the confusion likely +to be caused by the conflagration, and that such measures had been taken as +to render his escape almost impossible. Syndercombe was tried; the judges +held that the title of protector was in law synonymous with that of king; +and he was condemned[b] to suffer the penalties of high treason. His +obstinate silence defeated the anxiety of the protector to procure further +information respecting + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. Jan. 9.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1657. Feb. 9.] + +the plot; and Syndercombe, whether he laid violent hands on himself, or was +despatched by the order of government, was found dead[a] in his bed, a few +hours before the time appointed for his execution.[1] + +2. The failure of this conspiracy would not have prevented the intended +invasion by the royal army from Flanders, had not Charles been disappointed +in his expectations from another quarter. No reasoning, no entreaty, could +quicken the characteristic slowness of the Spanish ministers. Neither fleet +nor money was ready; the expedition was postponed from month to month; the +season passed away, and the design was deferred till the return of the long +and darksome nights of winter. But Sexby's impatience refused to submit +to these delays; his fierce and implacable spirit could not be satisfied +without the life of the protector. A tract had been recently printed in +Holland, entitled "Killing no Murder," which, from the powerful manner in +which it was written, made a deeper impression on the public mind than any +other literary production of the age. After an address to + +[Footnote 1: See Thurloe, v. 774-777; vi. 7, 53; Merc. Polit. No. 345; +Bates, Elen. 388; Clarendon Pap. iii. 324, 325, 327; Claren. Hist. iii. +646; and the several authorities copied in the State Trials, v. 842-871. +The body was opened, and the surgeons declared that there existed no trace +of poison in the stomach, but that the brain was inflamed and distended +with blood in a greater degree than is usual in apoplexy, or any known +disease. The jury, by the direction of the lord chief justice, returned a +verdict that "he, the said Miles Syndercombe, a certain poisoned powder +through the nose of him, the said Miles, into the head of him, the said +Miles, feloniously, wilfully, and of malice aforethought, did snuff and +draw; by reason of which snuffing and drawing so as aforesaid, into the +head of him, the said Miles, he the said Miles, himself did mortally +poison," &c.--Ibid. 859. The Levellers and royalists maintained that he was +strangled by order of Cromwell.--Clar. iii. 647.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. Feb. 13.] + +Cromwell, and another to the army, both conceived in a strain of the most +poignant and sarcastic irony, it proceeds to discuss the three questions: +Whether the lord-protector be a tyrant? Whether it be lawful to do justice +on him by killing him? and, Whether this, if it be lawful, will prove +of benefit to the commonwealth? Having determined each question in the +affirmative, it concludes with an eulogium on the bold and patriotic spirit +of Syndercombe, the rival of Brutus and Cato, and a warning that "longus +illum sequitur ordo idem petentium decus;" that the protector's own +muster-roll contains the names of those who aspire to the honour of +delivering their country; that his highness is not secure at his table, or +in his bed; that death is at his heels wherever he moves, and that though +his head reaches the clouds, he shall perish like his own dung, and they +that have seen him shall exclaim, Where is he? Of this tract thousands of +copies were sent by Sexby into England; and, though many were seized by the +officers, yet many found their way into circulation.[1] Having obtained a +sum of one thousand four hundred crowns, he followed the books to organize +new plots against the life of the protector. But by this time he was too +well known. All his steps in Holland were watched; his departure for +England was announced; emissaries were despatched in every direction; and +within a few weeks he was apprehended and incarcerated in the Tower. +There he discovered, probably feigned, symptoms of insanity. To questions +respecting himself[a] he answered with apparent frankness and truth, that +he had intrigued with the Spanish court, that he had supplied Syndercombe +with money, that he had written the + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, vi. 315.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. Oct. 10.] + +tract, "Killing no Murder;" nor was there, he said, any thing unlawful in +these things, for the protectorate had not then been established by any +authority of parliament; but, whenever he was interrogated respecting the +names and plans of his associates, his answers became wild and incoherent, +more calculated to mislead than to inform, to create suspicion of the +friends, than to detect the machinations of the enemies, of the government. +He was never brought to trial, but died, probably by violence, in the sixth +month of his imprisonment.[1] + +3. During the winter Blake continued to blockade Cadiz: in spring he learnt +that the Plate fleet from Peru had sought an asylum in the harbour of Santa +Cruz, in the Island of Teneriffe. There the merchantmen, ten in number, +were moored close to the shore, in the form of a crescent; while the six +galleons in their front formed a parallel line at anchor in deeper water. +The entrance of the bay was commanded by the guns of the castle; seven +batteries erected at intervals along the beach protected the rest of the +harbour; and these were connected with each other by covered ways lined +with musketry. So confident was the governor when he surveyed these +preparations, that, in the pride of his heart, he desired a Dutch + +[Footnote 1: Clarendon Papers, iii. 322, 338, 357. Merc. Pol. 39. Thurloe, +vi. 33, 182, 315, 425, 560, 829. Clarendon assures us that Sexby was an +illiterate person, which is a sufficient proof that he was not the real +author of the tract, though he acknowledged it for his own in the Tower, +probably to deceive the protector. The writer, whoever he was, kept his +secret, at least at first; for Clarendon writes to Secretary Nicholas, that +he cannot imagine who could write it.--Clar. Papers, iii. 343. By most +historians it has been attributed to Captain Titus; nor shall we think this +improbable, if we recollect that Titus was, in Holland, constantly in the +company of Sexby, till the departure of the latter for England.--Ibid. 331, +335. Evelyn asserts it in his Diary, ii. 210, 8vo.] + +captain to inform the English admiral that he was welcome to come whenever +he durst. Blake came, examined the defences, and, according to custom, +proclaimed a solemn fast. At eight the next morning[a] Stayner took the +lead in a frigate; the admiral followed in the larger ships; and the whole +fleet availing itself of a favourable wind, entered the harbour under a +tremendous shower of balls and shells. Each vessel immediately fell into +its allotted station; and, while some engaged the shipping, the rest +directed their fire against the batteries. The Spaniards, though fewer in +number of ships, were superior in that of men; their hopes were supported +by the aid which they received from the land; and during four hours they +fought with the most determined bravery. Driven from the galleons, the +crews retreated to the second line of merchantmen, and renewed the contest +till they were finally compelled to save themselves on the shore. At two in +the afternoon every Spanish ship was in possession of the English, and in +flames. Still there remained the difficulty of working the fleet out of the +harbour in the teeth of the gale. About sunset they were out of reach of +the guns from the forts; the wind, by miracle, as Blake persuaded himself, +veered to the south-west, and the conquerors proceeded triumphantly out to +sea. This gallant action, though it failed of securing the treasure which +the protector chiefly sought, raised the reputation of Blake in every +part of Europe. Unfortunately the hero himself lived not to receive the +congratulations of his country. He had been during a great part of three +years at sea; the scurvy and dropsy wasted his constitution; and he +expired[b] in his fifty-ninth year, + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. April 20.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1657. August 7.] + +as his ship, the St. George, entered the harbour of Plymouth.[1] + +Blake had served with distinction in the army during the civil war; and the +knowledge of his talents and integrity induced the parliamentary leaders to +entrust him with the command of the fleet. For maritime tactics he relied +on the experience of others; his plans and his daring were exclusively his +own. He may claim the peculiar praise of having dispelled an illusion which +had hitherto cramped the operations of the British navy--a persuasion that +it was little short of madness to expose a ship at sea to the fire from a +battery on shore. The victories of Blake at Tunis and Santa Cruz served to +establish the contrary doctrine; and the seamen learned from his example +to despise the danger which had hitherto been deemed so formidable. Though +Cromwell prized his services, he doubted his attachment; and a suspicion +existed that the protector did not regret the death of one who professed to +fight for his country, not for the government. But he rendered that justice +to the dead, which he might perhaps have refused to the living, hero. He +publicly acknowledged his merit, honouring his bones with a funeral at the +national expense, and ordering them to be interred at Westminster, in Henry +the Seventh's chapel. In the next reign the coffin was taken from the +vault, and deposited in the church yard. + +4. The reader is aware of Cromwell's anxiety to form a more intimate +alliance with Louis XIV. For this purpose Lockhart, one of the Scottish +judges, who + +[Footnote 1: Vaughan, ii. 176. Heath, 391, 402. Echard, 725. Journals, May +28, 29.] + +had married his niece, and received knighthood at his hand, proceeded +to France. After some discussion, a treaty, to last twelve months, was +concluded;[1][a] and Sir John Reynolds landed at Calais[b] with an +auxiliary force of six thousand men, one half in the pay of the king, +the other half in that of the protector. But as an associate in the war, +Cromwell demanded a share in the spoil, and that share was nothing less +than the possession of Mardyke and Dunkirk, as soon as they could be +reduced by the allies. To this proposal the strongest opposition had been +made in the French cabinet. Louis was reminded of the injuries which the +English, the natural enemies of France, had inflicted on the country in the +reigns of his predecessors. Dunkirk would prove a second Calais; it would +open to a foreign foe the way into the heart of his dominions. But he +yielded to the superior wisdom or ascendancy of Mazarin, who replied that, +if France refused the offers it would be accepted with a similar sacrifice +by Spain; that, supposing the English to be established on that coast at +all, it was better that they should be there as friends than as enemies; +and that their present co-operation would enable him either to drive the +Spaniards out of the Netherlands, or to dictate to them the terms of +peace.[2] The combined force + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, vi. 63, 86, 115, 124. To avoid disputes, the treaty +was written in the Latin language, and the precedency was given to Louis in +one copy, to Cromwell in the other. In the diplomatic collection of Dumont, +vi. part ii. 178, is published a second treaty, said to have been signed on +May 9th, N.S. If it were genuine, it would disclose gigantic projects of +aggrandizement on the part of the two powers. But it is clearly a forgery. +We have despatches from Lockhart dated on the day of the pretended +signature, and other despatches for a year afterward; yet none of them +make the remotest allusion to this treaty; several contain particulars +inconsistent with it.] + +[Footnote 2: Oeuvres de Louis XIV. i. 171.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. March 13, May 15.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1657. May 15.] + +was placed under the command of the celebrated Turenne, who was opposed by +the Spaniards under Don Juan, with the British exiles, commanded by the +duke of York, and the French exiles, by the prince of Condé. The English +auxiliaries, composed of veteran regiments, supported the reputation of +their country by their martial appearance and exemplary discipline; but +they had few opportunities of displaying their valour; and the summer was +spent in a tedious succession of marches and countermarches, accompanied +with no brilliant action nor important result. Cromwell viewed the +operations of the army with distrust and impatience. The French ministry +seemed in no haste to redeem their pledge with respect to the reduction +of Dunkirk, and to his multiplied remonstrances uniformly opposed this +unanswerable objection, that, in the opinion of Turenne, the best judge, +the attempt in the existing circumstances must prove ruinous to the +allies. At last he would brook no longer delay; the army marched into the +neighbourhood of the town, and the fort of Mardyke capitulated[a] after a +siege of three days. But the Spaniards lay strongly intrenched behind the +canal of Bergues, between Mardyke and Dunkirk; and by common consent the +design was abandoned, and the siege of Gravelines substituted in its place. +Scarcely, however, had the combined army taken[b] a position before it, +when the sluices were opened, the country was inundated, and Turenne +dismissed his forces into winter quarters. Mardyke received a garrison, +partly of English, and partly of French, under the command of Sir John +Reynolds; but that officer in a short time incurred the suspicion of the +protector. The duke of York, from his former service in the French army, +was well known + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. Sept. 23.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1657. Sept. 27.] + +to some of the French officers. They occasionally met and exchanged +compliments in their rides, he from Dunkirk, they from Mardyke. By one of +them Reynolds solicited permission to pay his respects to the young prince. +He was accompanied by Crew, another officer; and, though he pretended that +it was an accidental civility, found the opportunity of whispering an +implied offer of his services in the ear of the duke. Within a few days +he received an order to wait on the protector in London in company with +Colonel White, who had secretly accused him; but both were lost[a] on the +Goodwin Sands, through the ignorance or the stupidity of the captain.[1] + +At home the public attention was absorbed by a new and most interesting +spectacle. The parliament met on the day to which it had been adjourned, +but it was now divided according to the ancient form into two houses. +Sixty-two individuals had been summoned[b] to the upper house, and the +writs, as they were copies of those formerly issued by the sovereign, were +held to confer in like manner the privileges of an hereditary peerage, +subject to certain exceptions specified in the "petition and advice."[2] +The Commons, at the call of the usher of the black rod, proceeded to the +House of Lords, where they found his highness seated under a canopy of +state. His speech began with the ancient address: "My lords and gentlemen +of the House of Commons." It was short, but its brevity was compensated by +its piety, and after an exposition of the eighty-fifth psalm, he referred +his two houses for other particulars to Fiennes, the lord-keeper, who, in a +long and tedious + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, vi. 231, 287, 426, 512, 538, 542, 580, 637, 665, 676, +731. Memoirs of James, i. 317-328.] + +[Footnote 2: Thurloe, vi. 752.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. Dec. 5.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1658. Jan. 20.] + +harangue, praised and defended the new institutions. After the departure of +the Commons, the Lords spent their time in inquiries into the privileges of +their house. Cromwell had summoned his two sons, Richard and Henry, seven +peers of royal creation, several members of his council, some gentlemen of +fortune and family, with a due proportion of lawyers and officers, and a +scanty sprinkling of persons known to be disaffected to his government. Of +the ancient peers two only attended, the lords Eure and Falconberg, of whom +the latter had recently[a] married Mary, the protector's daughter; and of +the other members, nine were absent through business or disinclination. As +their journals have not been preserved, we have little knowledge of their +proceedings.[1] + +In the lower house, the interest of the government had declined by the +impolitic removal of the leading members to the House of Lords, and by +the introduction of those who, having formerly been excluded by order of +Cromwell, now took their seats in virtue of the article which reserved to +the house the right of inquiry into the qualifications of its members. +The opposition was led by two men of considerable influence and undaunted +resolution, Hazlerig and Scot. Both had been excluded at the first meeting +of this parliament, and both remembered the affront. To remove Hazlerig + +[Footnote 1: Journals, Jan. 7, 20. Whitelock, 666, 668. The speech of +Fiennes is reported in the Journals, Jan. 25. See the names and characters +of those who attended, in "A Second Narrative of the late Parliament (so +called), &c., printed in the fifth year of England's Slavery under its new +Monarchy, 1658." "They spent their time in little matters, such as choosing +of committees; and among other things, to consider of the privileges and +jurisdiction of their house, (good wise souls!) before they knew what their +house was, or should be called."--Ibid. 7. The peers who refused to attend, +were the earls of Mulgrave, Warwick, and Manchester, the Viscount Say and +Sele, and the Lord Wharton.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. Nov. 19.] + +from a place where his experience and eloquence rendered him a formidable +adversary, Cromwell had called him to the upper house; but he refused to +obey the writ, and took his seat among the Commons.[1] That a new house was +to be called according to the articles of the "petition and advice," no one +denied; but who, it was asked, made its members lords? who gave them the +privileges of the ancient peerage? who empowered them to negative the acts +of that house to which they owed their existence? Was it to be borne that +the children should assume the superiority over their parents; that the +nominees of the protector should control the representatives of the people, +the depositaries of the supreme power of the nation? It was answered +that the protector had called them lords; that it was the object of "the +petition and advice" to re-establish the "second estate;" and that, if any +doubt remained, it were best to amend the "instrument" by giving to the +members of the other house the title of lords, and to the protector that +of king.[a] Cromwell sought to soothe these angry spirits. He read to them +lectures on the benefit, the necessity, of unanimity. Let them look abroad. +The papists threatened to swallow up all the Protestants of Europe. England +was the only stay, the last hope of religion. Let them look at home: the +Cavaliers and the Levellers were combined to overthrow the constitution; +Charles Stuart was preparing an invasion; and the Dutch had ungratefully +sold him certain vessels for that purpose. Dissension would inevitably draw +down ruin on themselves, + +[Footnote 1: Hazlerig made no objection to the oath which bound him to +be faithful to the protector. But the sense which he attached to it is +singular: "I will be faithful," said he, "to the lord-protector's person. I +will murder no man."--Burton's Diary, ii. 347.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1658. Jan. 25.] + +their liberties, and their religion. For himself. he called God, angels, +and men, to witness that he sought not the office which he held. It was +forced upon him; but he had sworn to execute its duties, and he would +perform what he had sworn, by preserving to every class of men their just +rights, whether civil or religious.[1] But his advice, and entreaties, and +menaces were useless.[a] The judges repeatedly brought messages from "the +Lords to the Commons," and as often were told that "that house would return +an answer by messengers of their own."[b] Instead, however, of returning +answers, they spent their whole time in debating what title and what rights +ought to belong to the other house.[2] + +Never, perhaps, during his extraordinary career, was Cromwell involved in +difficulties equal to those which surrounded him at this moment. He could +raise no money without the consent of parliament, and the pay of the army +in England was five, and of that in Ireland seven, months in arrear; the +exiled king threatened a descent from the coast of Flanders, and the +royalists throughout the + +[Footnote 1: Mr. Rutt has added this speech to Burton's Diary, ii. 351-371. +I may remark that, 1. The protector now addressed the members by +the ambiguous style of "my lords and gentlemen of the two houses of +parliament." 2. That he failed in proving the danger which, as he +pretended, menaced Protestantism. If, in the north, the two Protestant +states of Sweden and Denmark were at war with each other, more to the south +the Catholic states of France and Spain were in the same situation. 3. That +the vessels sold by the Dutch were six flutes which the English cruisers +afterwards destroyed. 4. That from this moment he was constantly asserting +with oaths that he sought not his present office. How could he justify such +oaths in his own mind? Was it on the fallacious ground that what he in +reality sought was the office of king, not of protector?] + +[Footnote 2: Journals, Jan. 25, 29, Feb. 1, 3. Burton's Diary, ii. 371-464. +Thurloe, i. 766; vi. 767.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1658. Jan. 22.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1658. Feb. 3.] + +kingdom were preparing to join his standard; the leaders of opposition in +parliament had combined with several officers in the army to re-establish +the commonwealth, "without a single person or house of lords;" and +a preparatory petition for the purpose of collecting signatures was +circulated through the city. Cromwell consulted his most trusty advisers, +of whom some suggested a dissolution, others objected the want of money, +and the danger of irritating the people. Perhaps he had already taken his +resolution, though he kept it a secret within his own breast; perhaps +it might be the result of some sudden and momentary impulse;[1] but one +morning[a] he unexpectedly threw himself into a carriage with two horses +standing at the gates of Whitehall; and, beckoning to six of his guards to +follow, ordered the coachman to drive to the parliament house. There he +revealed his purpose to Fleetwood, and, when that officer ventured to +remonstrate, declared, by the living God that he would dissolve the +parliament. Sending for the Commons, he addressed them in an angry and +expostulating tone. "They," he said, "had placed him in the high situation +in which he stood; he sought it not; there was neither man nor woman +treading on English ground who could say he did. God knew that he would +rather have lived under a wood side, and have tended a flock of sheep, than +have undertaken the government. But, having undertaken it at their request, +he had a right to look to them for aid and support. Yet some among them, +God was his witness, in violation of their oaths, were attempting to +establish a commonwealth + +[Footnote 1: "Something happening that morning that put the protector +into a rage and passion near unto madness, as those at Whitehall can +witness."--Second Narrative, p. 8.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1658. Feb. 4.] + +interest in the army; some had received commissions to enlist men for +Charles Stuart; and both had their emissaries at that moment seeking to +raise a tumult, or rather a rebellion, in the city. But he was bound before +God to prevent such disasters; and, therefore," he concluded, "I think +it high time that an end be put to your sitting; and I do dissolve this +parliament; and let God judge between me and you." "Amen, amen," responded +several voices from the ranks of the opposition.[1] + +This was the fourth parliament that Cromwell had broken. The republicans +indulged their resentment in murmurs, and complaints, and menaces; but the +protector, secure of the fidelity of the army, despised the feeble efforts +of their vengeance, and encouraged by his vigour the timidity of his +counsellors. Strong patrols of infantry and cavalry paraded the streets, +dispersing every assemblage of people in the open air, in private houses, +and even in conventicles and churches, for the purpose, or under the +pretext, of devotion. The colonel-major and several captains of his own +regiment were cashiered;[2] many of the Levellers and royalists were +arrested and imprisoned, or discharged upon bail; and the lord-mayor, +aldermen, and common-council received from Cromwell + +[Footnote 1: Journ. Feb. 4. Thurloe, vi. 778, 779, 781, 788. Parl. Hist. +iii. 1525. By the oath, which Cromwell reproaches them with violating, +they had sworn "to be true and faithful to the lord-protector as chief +magistrate, and not to contrive, design, or attempt any thing against his +person or lawful authority."] + +[Footnote 2: "I," says Hacker, "that had served him fourteen years, and had +commanded a regiment seven years, without any trial or appeal, with the +breath of his nostrils I was outed, and lost not only my place but a dear +friend to boot. Five captains under my command were outed with me, because +they could not say that was a house of lords."--Burton's Diary, iii. 166.] + +himself an account of the danger which threatened them from the invasion +meditated by Charles Stuart, and a charge to watch the haunts of the +discontented, and to preserve the tranquillity of the city. At the same +time his agents were busy in procuring loyal and affectionate addresses +from the army, the counties, and the principal towns; and these, published +in the newspapers, served to overawe his enemies, and to display the +stability of his power.[1] + +The apprehension of invasion, to which Cromwell so frequently alluded, was +not entirely groundless. On the return of the winter, the royalists had +reminded Charles of his promise in the preceding spring; the king of Spain +furnished an aid of one hundred and fifty thousand crowns; the harbour of +Ostend was selected for the place of embarkation; and arms, ammunition, and +transports were purchased in Holland. The prince himself, mastering for a +while his habits of indolence and dissipation, appeared eager to redeem his +pledge;[2] but the more prudent of his advisers conjured him not to risk +his life on general assurances of support; and the marquess of Ormond, with +the most chivalrous loyalty, offered to ascertain on the spot the real +objects and resources of his adherents. Pretending to proceed on a mission +to the court of the duke of Neuburg, that nobleman, accompanied by O'Neil, +crossed the sea,[a] landed in disguise at Westmarch on the coast of Essex, +and + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, vi. 778, 781, 788; vii. 4, 21, 32, 49, 71. Parl. +Hist. iii. 1528.] + +[Footnote 2: Still Ormond says to Hyde, "I fear his immoderate delight in +empty, effeminate, and vulgar conversations is become an irresistible part +of his nature, and will never suffer him to animate his own designs, and +others' actions, with that spirit which is requisite for his quality, and +much more to his fortune."--27, Jan. 7, 1658. Clar. iii. 387.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1658. End of January.] + +hastened to London. There, continually changing his dress and lodgings, +he contrived to elude the suspicion of the spies of government, and had +opportunities of conversing with men of different parties; with the +royalists, who sought the restoration of the ancient monarchy; with the +Levellers, who were willing that the claims of the king and the subject +should be adjusted in a free parliament; with the moderate Presbyterians, +who, guided by the earls of Manchester and Denbigh, with Rossiter and Sir +William Waller, offered to rely on the royal promises; and the more rigid +among the same religionists, who, with the lords Say and Robarts at their +head, demanded the confirmation of the articles to which the late king +had assented in the Isle of Wight. But from none could he procure any +satisfactory assurances of support. They were unable to perform what they +had promised by their agents. They had not the means, nor the courage, +nor the abilities, necessary for the undertaking. The majority refused +to declare themselves, till Charles should have actually landed with a +respectable force; and the most sanguine required a pledge that he would +be ready to sail the moment he heard of their rising, because there was no +probability of their being able, without foreign aid, to make head against +the protector beyond the short space of a fortnight.[1] + +In these conferences Ormond frequently came in contact with Sir Richard +Willis, one of the sealed knot, and standing high in the confidence of +Charles.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Carte's Letters, ii. 118, 124, 130. Clar. iii. 388, 392, 395. +Thurloe, i. 718.] + +[Footnote 2: The knot consisted of Willis, Colonel Russell, Sir William +Compton, Edward Villiers, and Mr. Broderick, according to several letters +in Clarendon; according to the duke of York, of the four first, Lord +Belasyse, and Lord Loughborough.--James, i. 370.] + +Willis uniformly disapproved of the attempt. The king's enemies, he +observed, were now ready to unsheath their swords against each other; but +let the royal banner be once unfurled, and they would suspend their present +quarrel, to combine their efforts against the common enemy. Yet the author +of this prudent advice was, if we may believe Clarendon, a traitor, though +a traitor of a very singular description. He is said to have contracted +with Cromwell, in consideration of an annual stipend, to reveal to him the +projects of the king and the royalists; but on condition that he should +have no personal communication with the protector, that he should never be +compelled to mention any individual whose name he wished to keep secret, +and that he should not be called upon to give evidence, or to furnish +documents, for the conviction of any prisoner.[1] It is believed that for +several years he faithfully complied with this engagement; and when he +thought that Ormond had been long enough in London, he informed Cromwell +of the presence of the marquess in the capital, but at the same moment +conveyed advice to the marquess that orders had been issued for his +apprehension. This admonition had its desired effect. Ormond stole away[b] +to Shoreham in Sussex, crossed over to Dieppe, concealed himself two months +in Paris, and then, travelling + +[Footnote 1: This is Clarendon's account. In Thurloe, i. 757, is a paper +signed John Foster, supposed to be the original offer made to Thurloe by +Willis. He there demands that no one but the protector should be acquainted +with his employment; that he should never be brought forward as a witness; +that the pardon of one dear friend should be granted to him; and that he +should receive fifty pounds with the answer, five hundred pounds on his +first interview with Thurloe, and five hundred pounds when he put into +their hands any of the conspirators against Cromwell's person.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1658. Feb. 15.] + +in disguise through France to Geneva, that he might escape the notice +of Lockhart and Mazarin, returned along the Rhine to join his master in +Flanders.[1] + +There was little in the report of Ormond to give encouragement to Charles; +his last hopes were soon afterwards extinguished by the vigilance of +Cromwell. The moment the thaw opened the ports of Holland, a squadron of +English frigates swept the coast,[a] captured three and drove on shore two +flutes destined for the expedition, and closely blockaded the harbour of +Ostend.[2] The design was again postponed till the winter;[b] and the king +resolved to solicit in person a supply of money at the court of the Spanish +monarch. But from this journey he was dissuaded both by Hyde and by the +Cardinal de Retz, who pointed out to him the superior advantage of his +residence in Flanders, where he was in readiness to seize the first +propitious moment which fortune should offer. In the mean time the +cardinal, through his agent in Rome, solicited from the pope pecuniary aid +for the king, on condition that in the event of his ascending the throne of +his fathers, he should release the Catholics of his three kingdoms from the +intolerable pressure of the penal laws.[3] + +The transactions of this winter, the attempt of Syndercombe, the ascendancy +of the opposition in parliament, + +[Footnote 1: Clar. Hist. iii. 614-618, 667. Clarendon's narrative is so +frequently inaccurate, that it is unsafe to give credit to any charge on +his authority alone; but in the present instance he relates the discovery +of the treachery of Willis with such circumstantial minuteness, that +it requires a considerable share of incredulity to doubt of its being +substantially true; and his narrative is confirmed by James II. (Mem. i. +370), and other documents to be noticed hereafter.] + +[Footnote 2: Carte's Letters, ii. 126, 135. Clar. Papers, iii. 396.] + +[Footnote 3: Carte's Letters, ii. 136-142, 145. Clar. Pap. iii. 401.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1658. March 15.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1658. April 14.] + +and the preparations of the royalists to receive the exiled king, added to +habitual indisposition, had soured and irritated the temper of Cromwell. He +saw that to bring to trial the men who had been his associates in the cause +might prove a dangerous experiment; but there was nothing to deter him from +wreaking his vengeance on the royalists, and convincing them of the danger +of trespassing any more on his patience by their annual projects of +insurrection. In every county all who had been denounced, all who were +even suspected, were put under arrest; a new high court of justice was +established according to the act of 1656; and Sir Henry Slingsby, Dr. +Hewet, and Mr. Mordaunt, were selected for the three first victims. +Slingsby, a Catholic gentleman and a prisoner at Hull, had endeavoured to +corrupt the fidelity of the officers in the garrison; who, by direction +of the governor, amused the credulity of the old man, till he had the +imprudence to deliver[a] to them a commission from Charles Stuart.[1] Dr. +Hewet was an episcopalian divine, permitted to preach at St. Gregory's, and +had long been one of the most active and useful of the royal agents in +the vicinity of the capital. Mordaunt, a younger brother of the earl of +Peterborough, had also displayed his zeal for the king, by maintaining a +constant correspondence with the marquess of Ormond, and distributing royal +commissions to those who offered to raise men in favour of Charles. Of the +truth of the charges brought against them, there could be no doubt; and, +aware of their danger, they strongly protested against the legality of the +court, demanded a trial by jury, and appealed to Magna Charta and several +acts of parliament. Slingsby at last pleaded, and was condemned; Hewet, +under the + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, vi. 777, 780, 786, 870; vii. 46, 47, 98.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1658. April 2.] + +pretence that to plead was to betray the liberties of Englishmen, stood +mute; and his silence, according to a recent act, was taken for a +confession of guilt. Mordaunt was more fortunate. Stapeley, who, to save +his own life, swore against him, proved an unwilling witness; and Mallory, +who was to have supported the evidence of Stapeley, had four days before +been bribed to abscond. This deficiency was gladly laid hold of by the +majority of the judges, who gave their opinion[a] that his guilt was not +proved; and, for similar reasons, some days later acquitted two other +conspirators, Sir Humphrey Bennet and Captain Woodcock. The fact is, they +were weary of an office which exposed them to the censure of the public; +for the court was viewed with hatred by the people. It abolished the trial +by jury; it admitted no inquest or presentment by the oaths of good and +faithful men; it deprived the accused of the benefit of challenge; and its +proceedings were contrary to the law of treason, the petition of right, and +the very oath of government taken by the protector. Cromwell, dissatisfied +with these acquittals, yielded to the advice of the council, and sent the +rest of the prisoners before the usual courts of law, where several were +found guilty, and condemned to suffer the penalties of treason.[1] + +Great exertions were made to save the lives of Slingsby and Hewet. In +favour of the first, it was urged that he had never been suffered to +compound, had never submitted to the commonwealth, and had + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 673, 674. Thurloe, vii. 159, 164. State Trials, v. +871, 883, 907. These trials are more interesting in Clarendon, but much of +his narrative is certainly, and more of it probably, fictitious. It is not +true that Slingsby's offence was committed two years before, nor that Hewet +was accused of visiting the king in Flanders, nor that Mallory escaped out +of the hall on the morning of the trial (See Claren. Hist. iii. 619-624.) +Mallory's own account of his escape is in Thurloe, vii. 194-220.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1658. June 9.] + +been for years deprived both of his property and liberty, so that his +conduct should be rather considered as the attempt of a prisoner of war +to regain his freedom, than of a subject to overturn the government. This +reasoning was urged[a] by his nephew, Lord Falconberg, who, by his recent +marriage with Mary Cromwell, was believed to possess considerable influence +with her father. The interest of Dr. Hewet was espoused by a more powerful +advocate--by Elizabeth, the best-beloved of Cromwell's daughters, who at +the same time was in a delicate and precarious state of health. But it +was in vain that she interceded for the man whose spiritual ministry she +employed; Cromwell was inexorable. He resolved[b] that blood should be +shed, and that the royalists should learn to fear his resentment, +since they had not been won by his forbearance. Both suffered death by +decapitation.[1] + +During the winter, the gains and losses of the hostile armies in Flanders +had been nearly balanced. If, on the one hand, the duke of York was +repulsed with loss in his attempt to storm by night the works at Mardyke; +on the other, the Marshal D'Aumont was made prisoner with fifteen hundred +men by the Spanish governor of Ostend, who, under the pretence of +delivering up the place, had decoyed him within the fortifications. In +February, the offensive treaty + +[Footnote 1: Ludlow, ii. 149. I think there is some reason to question +those sentiments of loyalty to the house of Stuart, and that affliction and +displeasure on account of the execution of Hewet, which writers attribute +to Elizabeth Claypole. In a letter written by her to her sister-in-law, the +wife of H. Cromwell, and dated only four days after the death of Hewet, she +calls on her to return thanks to God for their deliverence from Hewet's +conspiracy: "for sertingly not ondly his (Cromwell's) famely would have bin +ruined, but in all probabillyti the hol nation would have his invold in +blod."--June 13. Thurloe, vii. 171.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. Nov. 19.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1658. June 8.] + +between France and England was renewed for another year; three thousand +men, drafted from different regiments, were sent by the protector to supply +the deficiency in the number of his forces; and the combined army opened +the campaign with the siege of Dunkirk. By the Spaniards the intelligence +was received with surprise and apprehension. Deceived by false information, +they had employed all their efforts to provide for the safety of Cambray. +The repeated warnings given by Charles had been neglected; the extensive +works at Dunkirk remained in an unfinished state; and the defence of the +place had been left to its ordinary garrison of no more than one thousand +men, and these but scantily supplied with stores and provisions. To repair +his error, Don Juan, with the consent of his mentor, the Marquess Caracena, +resolved to hazard a battle; and, collecting a force of six thousand +infantry and four thousand cavalry, encamped between the village of Zudcote +and the lines of the besiegers. But Turenne, aware of the defective +organization of the Spanish armies, resolved to prevent the threatened +attack; and the very next morning, before the Spanish cannon and ammunition +had reached the camp, the allied force was seen advancing in battle array. +Don Juan hastily placed his men along a ridge of sand-hills which extended +from the sea coast to the canal, giving the command of the right wing to +the duke of York, of the left to the prince of Condé, and reserving +the centre to himself. The battle was begun by the English, who found +themselves opposed to their countryman, the duke of York. They were led +by Major-General Morgan; for Lockhart, who acted both as ambassador and +commander-in-chief, was confined by indisposition to his carriage. Their +ardour to distinguish themselves in the presence of the two rival nations +carried them considerably in advance of their allies; but, having halted +to gain breath at the foot of the opposite sand-hill, they mounted with +impetuosity, received the fire of the enemy, and, at the point of the pike, +drove them from their position. The duke immediately charged at the head +of the Spanish cavalry; but one half of his men were mowed down by a +well-directed fire of musketry; and James himself owed the preservation of +his life to the temper of his armour. The advantage, however, was dearly +purchased: in Lockhart's regiment scarcely an officer remained to take the +command. + +By this time the action had commenced on the left, where the prince of +Condé, after some sharp fighting, was compelled to retreat by the bank of +the canal. The centre was never engaged; for the regiment, on its +extreme left, seeing itself flanked by the French in pursuit of Condé, +precipitately abandoned its position, and the example was successively +imitated by the whole line. But, in the meanwhile, the duke of York had +rallied his broken infantry, and while they faced the English, he charged +the latter in flank at the head of his company of horse-guards. Though +thrown into disorder, they continued to fight, employing the butt-ends of +their muskets against the swords of their adversaries, and in a few minutes +several squadrons of French cavalry arrived to their aid. James was +surrounded; and, in despair of saving himself by flight, he boldly assumed +the character of a French officer; rode at the head of twenty troopers +toward the right of their army; and, carefully threading the different +corps, arrived without exciting suspicion at the bank of the canal, by +which he speedily effected his escape to Furnes.[1] The victory on the part +of the allies was complete. The Spanish cavalry made no effort to protect +the retreat of their infantry; every regiment of which was successively +surrounded by the pursuers, and compelled to surrender. By Turenne and his +officers the chief merit of this brilliant success was cheerfully allotted +to the courage and steadiness of the English regiments; at Whitehall it was +attributed to the prayers of the lord-protector, who, on that very day, +observed with his council a solemn fast to implore the blessing of heaven +on the operations of the allied army.[2] + +Unable to oppose their enemies in the field, the Spanish generals proposed +to retard their progress by the most obstinate defence of the different +fortresses. The prince de Ligne undertook that of Ipres; the care of +Newport, Bruges, and Ostend was committed to the duke of York; and Don Juan +returned to Brussels to hasten new levies from the different provinces. +Within a fortnight Dunkirk capitulated,[a] and the king of France, having +taken possession, delivered the keys with his own hand to the English +ambassador. Gravelines was soon afterwards reduced;[b] the prince de Ligne +suffered himself to be surprised by the + +[Footnote 1: See the account of this battle by James himself, in his +Memoirs, i. 338-358; also Thurloe, vii. 155, 156, 159.] + +[Footnote 2: "Truly," says Thurloe, "I never was present at any such +exercise, where I saw a greater spirit of faith and prayer poured +forth."--Ibid. 158. "The Lord," says Fleetwood, "did draw forth his +highness's heart, to set apart that day to seek the Lord; and indeed +there was a very good spirit appearing. Whilst we were praying, they were +fighting; and the Lord hath given a signal answer. And the Lord hath not +only owned us in our work there, but in our waiting upon him in our way of +prayer, which is indeed our old experienced approved way in all our straits +and difficulties."--Ibid. 159.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1658. June 17.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1658. August 20.] + +superior activity of Turenne; Ipres opened its gates, and all the towns +on the banks of the Lys successively submitted to the conquerors. Seldom, +perhaps, had there occurred a campaign more disastrous to the Spanish +arms.[1] + +In the eyes of the superficial observer, Cromwell might now appear to have +reached the zenith of power and greatness. At home he had discovered, +defeated, and punished all the conspiracies against him; abroad, his army +had gained laurels in the field; his fleets swept the seas; his friendship +was sought by every power; and his mediation was employed in settling the +differences between both Portugal and Holland, and the king of Sweden +and the elector of Brandenburg. He had recently sent Lord Falconberg to +compliment Louis XIV. on his arrival at Calais; and in a few days, was +visited by the duke of Crequi, who brought him a magnificent sword as a +present from that prince, and by Mancini, with another present of tapestry +from his uncle, the Cardinal Mazarin. But, above all, he was now in +possession of Dunkirk, the great object of his foreign policy for the last +two years, the opening through which he was to accomplish the designs of +Providence on the continent. The real fact, however, was that his authority +in England never rested on a more precarious footing than at the present +moment; while, on the other hand, the cares and anxieties of government, +joined to his apprehensions of personal violence, and the pressure of +domestic affliction, were + +[Footnote 1: James, Memoirs, i. 359. Thurloe, vii. 169, 176, 215. If we may +believe Temple (ii. 545), Cromwell now saw his error in aiding the French, +and made an offer of uniting his forces with those of Spain, provided the +siege of Calais were made the first attempt of the combined army.] + +rapidly undermining his constitution, and hurrying him from the gay and +glittering visions of ambition to the darkness and silence of the tomb. + +1. Cromwell was now reduced to that situation which, to the late +unfortunate monarch, had proved the source of so many calamities. His +expenditure far outran his income. Though the last parliament had made +provision, ample provision, as it was then thought, for the splendour of +his establishment, and for all the charges of the war, he had already +contracted enormous debts; his exchequer was frequently drained to the last +shilling; and his ministers were compelled to go a-begging--such is the +expression of the secretary of state--for the temporary loan of a few +thousand pounds, with the cheerless anticipation of a refusal.[1] He +looked on the army, the greater part of which he had quartered in the +neighbourhood of the metropolis, as his chief--his only support against his +enemies; and while the soldiers were comfortably clothed and fed, he might +with confidence rely on their attachment; but now that their pay was in +arrear, he had reason to apprehend that discontent might induce them to +listen to the suggestions of those officers who sought to subvert his +power. On former occasions, indeed, he had relieved himself from similar +embarrassments by the imposition of taxes by his own authority; but this +practice was so strongly reprobated in the petition and advice, and he had +recently abjured it with so much solemnity, that he dared not repeat +the experiment. He attempted to raise a loan among the merchants and +capitalists in the city; but his credit and popularity were gone; he had, +by plunging into + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, vii. 99, 100, 144, 295.] + +war with Spain, cut off one of the most plentiful sources of profit, the +Spanish trade; and the number of prizes made by the enemy, amounting to +more than a thousand,[1] had ruined many opulent houses. The application +was eluded by a demand of security on the landed property belonging to +country gentlemen. There remained a third expedient,--an application to +parliament. But Cromwell, like the first Charles, had learned to dread +the very name of a parliament. Three of these assemblies he had moulded +according to his own plan, and yet not one of them could he render +obsequious to his will. Urged, however, by the ceaseless importunities of +Thurloe, he appointed[a] nine councillors to inquire into the means of +defeating the intrigues of the republicans in a future parliament; the +manner of raising a permanent revenue from the estates of the royalists; +and the best method of determining the succession to the protectorate. But +among the nine were two who, aware of his increasing infirmities, began to +cherish projects of their own aggrandizement, and who, therefore, made it +their care to perplex and to prolong the deliberations. The committee sat +three weeks. On the two first questions they came to no conclusion; with +respect to the third, they voted, on a division, that the choice between +an elective and an hereditary succession was a matter of indifference. +Suspicious of their motives, Cromwell dissolved[b] the committee.[2] But he +substituted no + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, vii. 662.] + +[Footnote 2: Ibid. 146, 176, 192, 269. The committee consisted, in +Thurloe's words, of Lord Fiennes, Lord Fleetwood, Lord Desborow, Lord +Chamberlayne, Lord Whalley, Mr. Comptroller, Lord Goffe, Lord Cooper, and +himself (p. 192). On this selection Henry Cromwell observes: "The wise men +were but seven; it seems you have made them nine. And having heard their +names, I think myself better able to guess what they'll do than a much +wiser man; for no very wise man can ever imagine it" (p. 217).] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1658 June 16.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1658 July 8.] + +council in its place; things were allowed to take their course; the +embarrassment of the treasury increased; and the irresolution of the +protector, joined to the dangers which threatened the government, shook the +confidence of Thurloe himself. It was only when he looked up to heaven +that he discovered a gleam of hope, in the persuasion that the God who had +befriended Cromwell through life, would not desert him at the close of his +career.[1][a] + +2. To the cares of government must be added his constant dread of +assassination. It is certainly extraordinary that, while so many +conspiracies are said to have been formed, no attempt was actually made +against his person; but the fact that such designs had existed, and the +knowledge that his death was of the first importance to his enemies, +convinced him that he could never be secure from danger. He multiplied his +precautions. We are told that he wore defensive armour under his clothes; +carried loaded pistols in his pockets; sought to remain in privacy; and, +when he found it necessary to give audience, sternly watched the eyes and +gestures of those who addressed him. He was careful that his own motions +should not be known beforehand. His carriage was filled with attendants; a +numerous escort accompanied him; and he proceeded at full speed, frequently +diverging from the road to the right or left, and generally returning by +a different route. In his palace he often inspected the nightly watch, +changed his bed-chamber, and was careful that, besides the principal door, +there should be some other egress, for the facility + +[Footnote 1: Ibid. 153, 282, 295.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1658. July 27.] + +of escape. He had often faced death without flinching in the field; but his +spirit broke under the continual fear of unknown and invisible foes. He +passed the nights in a state of feverish anxiety; sleep fled from his +pillow; and for more than a year before his death we always find the +absence of rest assigned as either the cause which produced, or a +circumstance which aggravated, his numerous ailments.[1] + +3. The selfishness of ambition does not exclude the more kindly feelings of +domestic affection. Cromwell was sincerely attached to his children; but, +among them, he gave the preference to his daughter Elizabeth Claypole. +The meek disposition of the young woman possessed singular charms for the +overbearing spirit of her father; and her timid piety readily received +lessons on mystical theology from the superior experience of the +lord-general.[2] But she was now dying of a most painful and internal +complaint, imperfectly understood by her physicians; and her grief for the +loss of her infant child added to the poignancy of her sufferings. Cromwell +abandoned the business of state that he might hasten to Hampton Court, to + +[Footnote 1: So says Clarendon (iii. 646), Bates (Elench. 343), and Welwood +(p. 94); but their testimony can prove nothing more than that such reports +were current, and obtained credit, among the royalists.] + +[Footnote 2: The following passage from one of Cromwell's letters to his +daughter Ireton, will perhaps surprise the reader. "Your sister Claypole is +(I trust in mercye) exercised with some perplexed thoughts, shee sees her +owne vanitye and carnal minde, bewailinge itt, shee seeks after (as I hope +alsoe) that w'ch will satisfie, and thus to bee a seeker, is to be of the +best sect next a finder, and such an one shall every faythfull humble +seeker bee at the end. Happie seeker; happie finder. Who ever tasted that +the Lord is gracious, without some sense of self-vanitye and badness? Who +ever tasted that graciousnesse of his, and could goe lesse in desier, and +lesse than pressinge after full enjoyment? Deere hart presse on: lett not +husband, lett not anythinge coole thy affections after Christ," &c. &c. +&c.--Harris, iii. App. 515, edit. 1814.] + +console his favourite daughter. He frequently visited her, remained long in +her apartment, and, whenever he quitted it, seemed to be absorbed in the +deepest melancholy. It is not probable that the subject of their private +conversation was exposed to the profane ears of strangers. We are, however, +told that she expressed to him her doubts of the justice of the good old +cause, that she exhorted him to restore the sovereign authority to the +rightful owner, and that, occasionally, when her mind was wandering, she +alarmed him by uttering cries of "blood," and predictions of vengeance.[1] + +4. Elizabeth died.[a] The protector was already confined to his bed with +the gout, and, though he had anticipated the event, some days elapsed +before he recovered from the shock. A slow fever still remained, which +was pronounced a bastard tertian.[b] One of his physicians whispered to +another, that his pulse was intermittent;[c] the words caught the ears of +the sick man; he turned pale, a cold perspiration covered his face; and, +requesting to be placed in bed, he executed his private will. The next +morning he had recovered his usual composure; and when he received the +visit of his physician,[d] ordering all his attendants to quit the room but +his wife, whom he held by the hand, he said to him: "Do not think that I +shall die; I am sure of the contrary." Observing the surprise which these +words excited, he continued: "Say not that I have lost my reason: I tell +you the truth. I know it from better authority than any which you can have +from Galen or Hippocrates. It is the answer of God himself to our prayers; +not to mine alone, but to those of others who have a more intimate + +[Footnote 1: Clar. Hist. iii. 647. Bulstrode, 205. Heath, 408.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1658. August 6.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1658. August 17.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1658. August 24.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1658. August 25.] + +interest in him than I have."[1] The same communication was made to +Thurloe, and to the different members of the protector's family; nor did it +fail to obtain credit among men who believed that "in other instances he +had been favoured with similar assurances, and that they had never deceived +him."[2] Hence his chaplain Goodwin exclaimed, "O Lord, we pray not for his +recovery; that thou hast granted already; what we now beg is his _speedy_ +recovery."[3] + +In a few days, however, their confidence was shaken. For change of air he +had removed to Whitehall, till the palace of St. James's should be ready +for his reception. There his fever became[a] a double tertian, and his +strength rapidly wasted away. Who, it was asked, was to succeed him? On the +day of his inauguration he had written the name of his successor within a +cover sealed with the protectorial arms; but that paper had been lost, +or purloined, or destroyed. Thurloe undertook to suggest to him a second +nomination; but the condition of the protector, who, if we believe him, +was always insensible or delirious, afforded no opportunity. A suspicion, +however, existed, that he had private reasons for declining to interfere in +so delicate a business.[4] + +The 30th of August was a tempestuous day: during the night the violence of +the wind increased till it blew a hurricane. Trees were torn from their +roots in the park, and houses unroofed in the city. This extraordinary +occurrence at a moment when it was thought that the protector was dying, +could not fail + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, vii. 321, 340, 354, 355. Bates, Elench. 413.] + +[Footnote 2: Thurloe, vii. 355, 367, 376.] + +[Footnote 3: Ludlow, ii. 151.] + +[Footnote 4: Thurloe, 355, 365, 366.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1658 August 28.] + +of exciting remarks in a superstitious age; and, though the storm reached +to the coasts of the Mediterranean, in England it was universally referred +to the death-bed of the protector. His friends asserted that God would not +remove so great a man from this world without previously warning the nation +of its approaching loss; the Cavaliers more maliciously maintained that the +devils, "the princes of the air," were congregating over Whitehall, that +they might pounce on the protector's soul.[1] + +On the third night afterwards,[a] Cromwell had a lucid interval of +considerable duration. It might have been expected that a man of his +religious disposition would have felt some compunctious visitings, when +from the bed of death he looked back on the strange eventful career of his +past life. But he had adopted a doctrine admirably calculated to lull and +tranquillize the misgivings of conscience. "Tell me," said he to Sterry, +one of his chaplains, "Is it possible to fall from grace?" "It is not +possible," replied the minister. "Then," exclaimed the dying man, "I am +safe; for I know that I was once in grace." Under this impression he +prayed, not for himself, but for God's people. "Lord," he said, "though a +miserable and wretched creature, I am in covenant with thee through thy +grace, and may and will come to thee for thy people. Thou hast made me a +mean instrument to do them some good, and thee service. Many of them set +too high a value upon me, though others would be glad of my death. Lord, +however thou disposest of me, continue, and go on to do good for them. +Teach those who look too much upon thy instruments, to depend more upon +thyself, + +[Footnote 1: Clar. 646. Bulstrode, 207. Heath, 408. Noble, i. 147, note.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1658. Sept. 2.] + +and pardon such as desire to trample upon the dust of a poor worm, for they +are thy people too."[1] + +Early in the following morning,[a] he relapsed into a state of +insensibility. It was his fortunate day, the 3rd of September, a +circumstance from which his sorrowing relatives derived a new source +of consolation. It was, they observed, on the 3rd of September that he +overcame the Scots at Dunbar; on that day, he also overcame the royalists +at Worcester; and on the same day, he was destined to overcome his +spiritual enemies, and to receive the crown of victory in heaven. +About four in the afternoon he breathed his last, amidst the tears and +lamentations of his attendants. "Cease to weep," exclaimed the fanatical +Sterry, "you have more reason to rejoice. He was your protector here; he +will prove a still more powerful protector, now that he is with Christ at +the right hand of the Father." With a similar confidence in Cromwell's +sanctity, though in a somewhat lower tone of enthusiasm, the grave and +cautious Thurloe announced the event by letter to the deputy of Ireland. +"He is gone to heaven, embalmed with the tears of his people, and upon the +wings of the prayers of the saints."[2] + +Till the commencement of the present century, when that wonderful man +arose, who, by the splendour of his victories and the extent of his empire, +cast all preceding adventurers into the shade, the name of Cromwell stood +without a parallel in the history of civilized Europe. Men looked with a +feeling of awe on the + +[Footnote 1: Collection of Passages concerning his late Highness in Time of +his Sickness, p. 12. The author was Underwood, groom of the bed-chamber. +See also a letter of H. Cromwell, Thurloe, vii. 454; Ludlow, ii. 153.] + +[Footnote 2: Ludlow, ii. 153. Thurloe, vii. 373.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1658. Sept. 3.] + +fortunate individual who, without the aid of birth, or wealth, or +connections, was able to seize the government of three powerful kingdoms, +and to impose the yoke of servitude on the necks of the very men who had +fought in his company to emancipate themselves from the less arbitrary +sway of their hereditary sovereign. That he who accomplished this was no +ordinary personage, all must admit; and yet, on close investigation, we +shall discover little that was sublime or dazzling in his character. +Cromwell was not the meteor which surprises and astounds by the rapidity +and brilliancy of its course. Cool, cautious, calculating, he stole on with +slow and measured pace; and, while with secret pleasure he toiled up the +ascent to greatness, laboured to persuade the spectators that he was +reluctantly borne forward by an exterior and resistless force, by the march +of events, the necessities of the state, the will of the army, and even the +decree of the Almighty. He seems to have looked upon dissimulation as the +perfection of human wisdom, and to have made it the key-stone of the arch +on which he built his fortunes.[1] The aspirations of his ambition were +concealed under the pretence of attachment to "the good old cause;" and his +secret workings to acquire the sovereignty for himself and his family were +represented as endeavours to secure for his former brethren in arms the +blessings of civil and religious freedom, the two great objects which +originally called them into the field. Thus his whole conduct was made up +of artifice and deceit. He laid his plans long beforehand; he studied the +views and dispositions of all from whose influence he had any thing to hope +or fear; and he + +[Footnote 1: See proofs of his dissimulation in Harris, iii. 93-103; +Hutchinson, 313.] + +employed every expedient to win their affections, to make them the blind +unconscious tools of his policy. For this purpose he asked questions, or +threw out insinuations in their hearing; now kept them aloof with an air of +reserve and dignity; now put them off their guard by condescension, perhaps +by buffoonery;[1] at one time, addressed himself to their vanity or +avarice; at another, exposed to them with tears (for tears he had at will), +the calamities of the nation; and then, when he found them moulded to his +purpose, instead of assenting to the advice which he had himself suggested, +feigned reluctance, urged objections, and pleaded scruples of conscience. +At length he yielded; but it was not till he had acquired by his resistance +the praise of moderation, and the right of attributing his acquiescence to +the importunity of others instead of his own ambition.[2] + +Exposed as he was to the continued machinations of the royalists and +Levellers, both equally eager to precipitate him from the height to which +he had attained, Cromwell made it his great object to secure to himself the +attachment of the army. To it he owed the acquisition, through it alone +could he insure the permanence, of his power. Now, fortunately for this +purpose, that army, composed as never was army before or since, revered in +the lord-protector what it valued mostly in itself, the cant and practice +of religious enthusiasm. The superior officers, the subalterns, the +privates, all held themselves forth as professors of godliness. Among them +every public breach of morality was severely punished; the exercises of +religious worship + +[Footnote 1: See instances in Bates, Elenc. 344; Cowley, 95; Ludlow, i. +207; Whitelock, 656; State Trials, v. 1131, 1199.] + +[Footnote 2: See Ludlow, i. 272; ii. 13, 14, 17.] + +were of as frequent recurrence as those of military duty;[1] in council, +the officers always opened the proceedings with extemporary prayer; and to +implore with due solemnity the protection of the Lord of Hosts, was held +an indispensable part of the preparation for battle. Their cause they +considered the cause of God; if they fought, it was for his glory; if +they conquered, it was by the might of his arm. Among these enthusiasts, +Cromwell, as he held the first place in rank, was also pre-eminent in +spiritual gifts.[2] The fervour with which he prayed, the unction with +which he preached, excited their admiration and tears. They looked on him +as the favourite of God, under the special guidance of the Holy Spirit, and +honoured with communications from heaven; and he, on his part, was careful, +by the piety of his language, by the strict decorum of his court, and by +his zeal for the diffusion of godliness, to preserve and strengthen such +impressions. In minds thus disposed, it was not difficult to create +a persuasion that the final triumph of "their cause" depended on the +authority of the general under whom they had conquered; while the full +enjoyment of that religious freedom which they so highly prized rendered +them less jealous of the arbitrary power which he occasionally + +[Footnote 1: "The discipline of the army was such that a man would not be +suffered to remain there, of whom we could take notice he was guilty of +such practices."--Cromwell's speech to parliament in 1654. It surprised +strangers.--Certa singulis diebus tum fundendis Deo precibus, tum audiendis +Dei praeconiis erant assignata tempora.--Parallelum Olivae apud Harris, +iii. 12. E certo ad ogni modo, che le Truppe vivono con tanta esatezza, +come se fossero fraterie de' religiosi.--Sagredo, MS.] + +[Footnote 2: Religioso al estremo nell' esteriore, predica con eloquenza ai +soldati, li persuade a vivere secondo le legge d' Iddio, e per render più +efficace la persuasione, si serve ben spesso delle lagrime, piangendo più +li peccati altrui, che li proprii.--Ibid. See also Ludlow, iii. 111.] + +assumed. In his public speeches, he perpetually reminded them that, if +religion was not the original cause of the late civil war, yet, God "soon +brought it to that issue;" that amidst the strife of battle, and the +difficulties and dangers of war, the reward to which they looked was +freedom of conscience; that this freedom to its full extent they enjoyed +under his government, though they could never obtain it till they had +placed the supreme authority in his hands.[1] The merit which he thus +arrogated to himself was admitted to be his due by the great body of the +saints; it became the spell by which he rendered them blind to his ambition +and obedient to his will; the engine with which he raised, and afterwards +secured, the fabric of his greatness. + +On the subject of civil freedom, the protector could not assume so bold +a tone. He acknowledged, indeed, its importance; it was second only to +religious freedom; but if second, then, in the event of competition, it +ought to yield to the first. He contended that, under his government, every +provision had been made for the preservation of the rights of individuals, +so far as was consistent with the safety of the whole nation. He had +reformed the Chancery, he had laboured to abolish the abuses of the law, he +had placed learned and upright judges on the bench, and he had been careful +in all ordinary cases that impartial justice should be administered between +the parties. This indeed was true; but it was also true that by his orders +men were arrested and committed without lawful cause; that juries +were packed; that prisoners, acquitted at their trial, were sent into +confinement beyond the + +[Footnote 1: See in particular his speech to his second parliament, printed +by Henry Hills, 1654.] + +jurisdiction of the courts; that taxes had been raised without the +authority of parliament; that a most unconstitutional tribunal, the high +court of justice, had been established; and that the majors-general had +been invested with powers the most arbitrary and oppressive.[1] These acts +of despotism put him on his defence; and in apology he pleaded, as every +despot will plead, reasons of state, the necessity of sacrificing a part to +preserve the whole, and his conviction, that a "people blessed by God, +the regenerated ones of several judgments forming the flock and lambs +of Christ, would prefer their safety to their passions, and their real +security to forms." Nor was this reasoning addressed in vain to men who had +surrendered their judgments into his keeping, and who felt little for the +wrongs of others, as long as such wrongs were represented necessary for +their own welfare. + +Some writers have maintained that Cromwell dissembled in religion as well +as in politics; and that, when he condescended to act the part of the +saint, he assumed for interested purposes a character which he otherwise +despised. But this supposition is contradicted by the uniform tenor of his +life. Long before he turned his attention to the disputes between the king +and the parliament, religious enthusiasm had made a deep impression on his +mind;[2] it continually manifested itself during his long career, both in +the senate and the field; and it was strikingly displayed in his speeches +and prayers on the last evening of his + +[Footnote 1: "Judge Rolles," says Challoner, "was shuffled out of his +place. Three worthy lawyers were sent to the Tower. It cost them fifty +pounds a-piece for pleading a client's cause. One Portman was imprisoned +two or three years without cause. Several persons were taken out of their +beds, and carried none knows whither."--Burton's Diary, iv. 47. + +[Footnote 2: Warwick, 249.] + +life. It should, however, be observed, that he made his religion harmonize +with his ambition. If he believed that the cause in which he had embarked +was the cause of God, he also believed that God had chosen him to be the +successful champion of that cause. Thus the honour of God was identified +with his own advancement, and the arts, which his policy suggested, were +sanctified in his eyes by the ulterior object at which he aimed--the +diffusion of godliness, and the establishment of the reign of Christ among +mankind.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The Venetian ambassador observes that during the protectorate +London wore the appearance of a garrison town, where nothing was to be seen +but the marching of soldiers, nothing to be heard but the sound of drums +and trumpets. Il decoro et grandezza di Londra ha molto cangiato di faccia, +la nobiltà, che la rendeva conspicua, sta divisa per la campagna, et la +delecatezza della corte la più sontuosa et la più allegre del mondo, +frequentata da principali dame, et abundante nelli più scelti +trattenementi, e cangiata al presente in una perpetua marchia et +contramarchia, in un incessante strepito di tamburri, e di trembe, et in +stuoio numerosi di soldati et officiali diversi ai posti.--Sagredo. See +also an intercepted letter in Thurloe, ii. 670.] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +Richard Cromwell Protector--Parliament Called--Dissolved--Military +Government--Long Parliament Restored--Expelled Again--Reinstated--Monk In +London--Re-Admission Of Secluded Members--Long Parliament Dissolved--The +Convention Parliament--Restoration Of Charles II. + + +By his wife, Elizabeth Bourchier, Cromwell left two sons, Richard and +Henry. There was a remarkable contrast in the opening career of these young +men. During the civil war, Richard lived in the Temple, frequented the +company of the Cavaliers, and spent his time in gaiety and debauchery. +Henry repaired to his father's quarters, and so rapid was his promotion, +that at the age of twenty he held the commission of captain in the regiment +of guards belonging to Fairfax, the lord-general. After the establishment +of the commonwealth, Richard married, and, retiring to the house of his +father-in-law, at Hursley in Hampshire, devoted himself to the usual +pursuits of a country gentleman. Henry accompanied his father in the +reduction of Ireland, which country he afterwards governed, first with the +rank of major-general, afterwards with that of lord-deputy. It was not till +the second year of the protectorate that Cromwell seemed to recollect that +he had an elder son. He made him a lord of trade, then chancellor of the +university of Oxford, and lastly a member of the new house of peers. As +these honours were far inferior to those which he lavished on other persons +connected with his family, it was inferred that he entertained a mean +opinion of Richard's abilities. A more probable conclusion is, that he +feared to alarm the jealousy of his officers, and carefully abstained from +doing that which might confirm the general suspicion, that he designed to +make the protectorship hereditary in his family.[1] + +The moment he expired, the council assembled, and the result of their +deliberation was an order to proclaim Richard Cromwell protector, on the +ground that he had been declared by his late highness his successor in +that dignity.[2] Not a murmur of opposition was heard; the ceremony was +performed in all places after the usual manner of announcing the accession +of a new sovereign; and addresses of condolence and congratulation poured +in from the army and + +[Footnote 1: "The Lord knows my desire was for Harry and his brother to +have lived private lives in the country, and Harry knows this very well; +and how difficultly I was persuaded to give him his commission for +Ireland."--Letter to Fleetwood, 22nd June, 1655.] + +[Footnote 2: There appears good reason to doubt this assertion. Thurloe +indeed (vii. 372) informs Henry Cromwell that his father named Richard +to succeed on the preceding Monday. But his letter was written after the +proclamation of Richard, and its contents are irreconcilable with the +letters written before it. We have one from Lord Falconberg, dated on +Monday, saying that no nomination had been made, and that Thurloe had +promised to suggest it, but probably would not perform his promise (ibid. +365); and another from Thurloe himself to Henry Cromwell, stating the same +thing as to the nomination.--Ibid. 364. It may perhaps be said that Richard +was named on the Monday after the letters were written; but there is +a second letter from Thurloe, dated on the Tuesday, stating that the +protector was still incapable of public business, and that matters would, +he feared, remain till the death of his highness in the same state as he +described them in his letter of Monday.--Ibid. 366. It was afterwards said +that the nomination took place on the night before the protector's death, +in the presence of four of the council (Falconberg in Thurloe, 375, and +Barwick, ibid. 415); but the latter adds that many doubt whether it ever +took place at all.] + +navy, from one hundred congregational churches, and from the boroughs, +cities, and counties. It seemed as if free-born Britons had been converted +into a nation of slaves. These compositions were drawn up in the highest +strain of adulation, adorned with forced allusions from Scripture, and with +all the extravagance of Oriental hyperbole. "Their sun was set, but no +night had followed. They had lost the nursing father, by whose hand the +yoke of bondage had been broken from the necks and consciences of the +godly. Providence by one sad stroke had taken away the breath from their +nostrils, and smitten the head from their shoulders; but had given them in +return the noblest branch of that renowned stock, a prince distinguished +by the lovely composition of his person, but still more by the eminent +qualities of his mind. The late protector had been a Moses to lead God's +people out of the land of Egypt; his son would be a Joshua to conduct them +into a more full possession of truth and righteousness. Elijah had been +taken into heaven: Elisha remained on earth, the inheritor of his mantle +and his spirit!"[1] + +The royalists, who had persuaded themselves that the whole fabric of the +protectorial power would fall in pieces on the death of Cromwell, beheld +with amazement the general acquiescence in the succession, of Richard; and +the foreign princes, who had deemed it prudent to solicit the friendship of +the father, now + +[Footnote 1: The Scottish ministers in Edinburgh, instead of joining in +these addresses, prayed on the following Sunday, "that the Lord would be +merciful to the exiled, and those that were in captivity, and cause them to +return with sheaves of joy; that he would deliver all his people from the +yoke of Pharaoh, and task-masters of Egypt, and that he would cut off their +oppressors, and hasten the time of their deliverance."--Thurloe, vii. 416.] + +hastened to offer their congratulations to his son. Yet, fair and tranquil +as the prospect appeared, an experienced eye might easily detect the +elements of an approaching storm. Meetings were clandestinely held by the +officers;[a] doubts were whispered of the nomination of Richard by his +father; and an opinion was encouraged among the military that, as the +commonwealth was the work of the army, so the chief office in the +commonwealth belonged to the commander of the army. On this account the +protectorship had been bestowed on Cromwell; but his son was one who had +never drawn his sword in the cause; and to suffer the supreme power to +devolve on him was to disgrace, to disinherit, the men who had suffered so +severely, and bled so profusely, in the contest. + +These complaints had probably been suggested, they were certainly fomented, +by Fleetwood and his friends, the colonels Cooper, Berry, and Sydenham. +Fleetwood was brave in the field, but irresolute in council; eager for the +acquisition of power, but continually checked by scruples of conscience; +attached by principle to republicanism, but ready to acquiesce in every +change, under the pretence of submission to the decrees of Providence. +Cromwell, who knew the man, had raised him to the second command in the +army, and fed his ambition with distant and delusive hopes of succeeding +to the supreme magistracy. The protector died, and Fleetwood, instead +of acting, hesitated, prayed, and consulted; the propitious moment was +suffered to pass by; he assented to the opinion of the council in favour of +Richard; and then, repenting of his weakness, sought to indemnify himself +for the loss by confining the + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1658. Sept. 14.] + +authority of the protector to the civil administration, and procuring +for himself the sole, uncontrolled command of the army. Under the late +government, the meetings of military officers had been discountenanced and +forbidden; now they were encouraged to meet and consult; and, in a body of +more than two hundred individuals, they presented to Richard a petition, by +which they demanded that no officer should be deprived, but by sentence of +a court-martial, and that the chief command of the forces, and the disposal +of commissions, should be conferred on some person whose past services +had proved his attachment to the cause. There were not wanting those who +advised the protector to extinguish the hopes of the factious at once by +arresting and imprisoning the chiefs; but more moderate counsels prevailed, +and in a firm but conciliatory speech,[a] the composition of Secretary +Thurloe, he replied that, to gratify their wishes, he had appointed his +relative, Fleetwood, lieutenant-general of all the forces; but that to +divest himself of the chief command, and of the right of giving or resuming +commissions, would be to act in defiance of the "petition and advice," the +instrument by which he held the supreme authority. For a short time they +appeared satisfied; but the chief officers continued to hold meetings in +the chapel at St. James's, ostensibly for the purpose of prayer, but in +reality for the convenience of deliberation. Fresh jealousies were excited; +it was said that another commander (Henry Cromwell was meant) would be +placed above Fleetwood; Thurloe, Pierrepoint, and St. John were denounced +as evil counsellors; and it became evident to all attentive observers that +the two parties must soon come into collision. The protector could depend +on the armies + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1658. Oct. 14.] + +in Ireland and Scotland. In Ireland, his brother Henry governed without an +opponent; in Scotland, Monk, by his judicious separation of the troops, +and his vigilance in the enforcement of discipline, had deprived the +discontented of the means of holding meetings and of corresponding with +each other. In England he was assured of the services of eight colonels, +and therefore, as it was erroneously supposed, of their respective +regiments, forming one half of the regular force. But his opponents were +masters of the other half, constituted the majority in the council, and +daily augmented their numbers by the accession of men who secretly leaned +to republican principles, or sought to make an interest in that party which +they considered the more likely to prevail in the approaching struggle.[1] + +From the notice of these intrigues the public attention was withdrawn by +the obsequies of the late protector. It was resolved that they should +exceed in magnificence those of any former sovereign, and with that view +they were conducted according to the ceremonial observed at the interment +of Philip II. of Spain. Somerset House was selected for the first part of +the exhibition. The spectators, having passed through three rooms hung with +black cloth, were admitted[a] into the funereal chamber; where, surrounded +with wax-lights, was seen an effigy of Cromwell clothed in royal robes, and +lying on a bed of state, + +[Footnote 1: For these particulars, see the letters in Thurloe, vii. 386, +406, 413, 415, 424, 426, 427, 428, 447. 450, 452, 453, 454, 463, 490, 491, +492, 493, 495, 496, 497, 498, 500, 510, 511. So great was the jealousy +between the parties, that Richard and his brother Henry dared not +correspond by letter. "I doubt not all the letters will be opened, which +come either to or from your highness, which can be suspected to contain +business" (454). For the principle now professed by the Levellers, see note +(I).] + +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1658. Sept. 26.] + +which covered, or was supposed to cover, the coffin. On each side lay +different parts of his armour: in one hand was placed the sceptre, in the +other the globe; and behind the head an imperial crown rested on a cushion +in a chair of state. But, in defiance of every precaution it became +necessary to inter the body before the appointed day; and the coffin was +secretly deposited at night in a vault at the west end of the middle aisle +of Westminster Abbey, under a gorgeous cenotaph which had recently been +erected. The effigy was now removed to a more spacious chamber; it rose +from a recumbent to an erect posture; and stood before the spectators not +only with the emblems of royalty in its hands, but with the crown upon its +head. For eight weeks this pageant was exhibited to the public. As the day +appointed for the funeral obsequies approached, rumours of an intended +insurrection during the ceremony were circulated; but guards from the +most trusty regiments lined the streets; the procession consisting of the +principal persons in the city and army, the officers of state, the foreign +ambassadors, and the members of the protector's family, passed[a] along +without interruption; and the effigy, which in lieu of the corpse was +borne on a car, was placed, with due solemnity, in the cenotaph already +mentioned. Thus did fortune sport with the ambitious prospects of Cromwell. +The honours of royalty which she refused to him during his life, she +lavished on his remains after death; and then, in the course of a few +months, resuming her gifts, exchanged the crown for a halter, and the royal +monument in the abbey for an ignominious grave at Tyburn.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, vi. 528, 529. Carrington apud Noble, i. 360-369. The +charge for black cloth alone on this occasion was six thousand nine hundred +and twenty-nine pounds, six shillings, and fivepence,--Biblioth. Stow. ii. +448. I do not notice the childish stories about stealing of the protector's +body.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1658. Nov. 23.] + + +Before the reader proceeds to the more important transactions at home, he +may take a rapid view of the relations existing between England and foreign +states. The war which had so long raged between the rival crowns of France +and Spain was hastening to its termination; to Louis the aid of England +appeared no longer a matter of consequence; and the auxiliary treaty +between the two countries, which had been renewed from year to year, was +suffered to expire at the appointed[a] time. But in the north of Europe +there was much to claim the attention of the new protector; for the king +of Sweden, after a short peace, had again unsheathed the sword against his +enemy, the king of Denmark. The commercial interests of the maritime states +were deeply involved in the issue of this contest; both England and Holland +prepared to aid their respective allies; and a Dutch squadron joined the +Danish, while an English division, under the command of Ayscue, sailed to +the assistance of the Swedish monarch. The severity of the winter forced +Ayscue to return; but as soon as the navigation of the Sound was open, two +powerful fleets were despatched to the Baltic, one by the protector, the +other by the States; and to Montague, the English admiral, was intrusted +the delicate and difficult commission, not only of watching the proceedings +of the Dutch, but also of compelling them to observe peace towards the +Swedes, without giving them occasion to commence hostilities against +himself. In this he was successful; but no offer of mediation could +reconcile the contending + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1658. August.] + +monarchs; and we shall find Montague still cruising in the Baltic at the +time when Richard, from whom he derived his commission, will be forced to +abdicate the protectorial dignity.[1] + +In a few days after the funeral of his father, to the surprise of the +public, the protector summoned[a] a parliament. How, it was asked, could +Richard hope to control such an assembly, when the genius and authority of +Oliver had proved unequal to the attempt? The difficulty was acknowledged; +but the arrears of the army, the exhaustion of the treasury, and the +necessity of seeking support against the designs of the officers, compelled +him to hazard the experiment, and he flattered himself with the hope of +success, by avoiding the rock on which, in the opinion of his advisers, +the policy of his father had split. Oliver had adopted the plan of +representation prepared by the long parliament before its dissolution, a +plan which, by disfranchising the lesser boroughs, and multiplying the +members of the counties, had rendered the elections more independent of the +government: Richard, under the pretence of a boon to the nation, reverted +to the ancient system; and, if we may credit the calculation of his +opponents, no fewer than one hundred and sixty members were returned from +the boroughs by the interest of the court and its supporters. But to adopt +the same plan in the conquered countries of Scotland and Ireland would have +been dangerous; thirty representatives were therefore summoned from each; +and, as the elections were conducted under the eyes of the + +[Footnote 1: Burton's Diary, iii. 576. Thurloe, vol. vii. passim. Carte's +Letters, ii. 157-182, Londorp, viii. 635, 708. Dumont, vi. 244, 252, 260.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1658. Nov. 30.] + +commanders of the forces, the members, with one solitary exception, proved +themselves the obsequious servants of government.[1] + +It was, however, taken as no favourable omen, that when the protector, at +the opening of parliament, commanded the attendance of the Commons in the +House of Lords, nearly one-half of the members refused[a] to obey. They +were unwilling to sanction by their presence the existence of an authority, +the legality of which they intended to dispute; or to admit the superior +rank of the new peers, the representatives of the protector, over +themselves, the representatives of the people. As soon as the lower house +was constituted, it divided itself into three distinct parties. 1. The +protectorists formed about one-half of the members. They had received +instructions to adhere inviolably to the provisions of the "humble petition +and advice," and to consider the government by a single person, with the +aid of two houses, as the unalterable basis of the constitution. 2. The +republicans, who did not amount to fifty, but compensated for deficiency +in number by their energy and eloquence. Vane, Hazlerig, Lambert, Ludlow, +Nevil, Bradshaw, and Scot, were ready debaters, skilled in the forms of the +house, and always on the watch to take advantage of the want of knowledge +or of experience on the part of their adversaries. With them voted +Fairfax, who, after a long retirement, appeared once more on the stage. He +constantly sat by the side, and echoed the opinions of Hazlerig; and, so +artfully did he act his part, so firmly did he attach their confidence, +that, though a royalist at heart, he was designed by them + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, vii. 541, 550. Ludlow, ii. 170. Bethel, Brief +Narrative, 340. England's Confusion (p. 4), London, 1659.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. Jan. 27] + +for the office of lord-general, in the event of the expulsion or the +abdication of Richard. 3. The "moderates or neuters" held in number the +medium between the protectorists and republicans. Of these, some wavered +between the two parties; but many were concealed Cavaliers, who, in +obedience to the command of Charles, had obtained seats in the house, or +young men who, without any fixed political principles, suffered themselves +to be guided by the suggestions of the Cavaliers. To the latter, Hyde had +sent instructions that they should embarrass the plans of the protector, +by denouncing to the house the illegal acts committed under the late +administration; by impeaching Thurloe and the principal officers of state; +by fomenting the dissension between the courtiers and the republicans; +and by throwing their weight into the scale, sometimes in favour of one, +sometimes of the other party, as might appear most conducive to the +interests of the royal exile.[1] + +The Lords, aware of the insecure footing on which they stood, were careful +not to provoke the hostility of the Commons. They sent no messages; they +passed no bills; but exchanging matters of state for questions of religion, +contrived to spend their time in discussing the form of a national +catechism, the sinfulness of theatrical entertainments, and the papal +corruptions supposed to exist in the Book of Common + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, i. 766; vii. 562, 604, 605, 609, 615, 616. Clarend. +Pap. iii. 423, 424, 425, 428, 432, 434, 436. There were forty-seven +republicans; from one hundred to one hundred and forty counterfeit +republicans and neuters, seventy-two lawyers, and above one hundred +placemen.--Ibid. 440. They began with a day of fasting and humiliation +within the house, and four ministers, with praying and preaching, occupied +them from nine till six.--Burton's Diary and Journals, Feb. 4.] + +Prayer.[1] In the lower house, the first subject which called forth the +strength of the different parties was a bill which, under the pretence of +recognizing Richard Cromwell for the rightful successor to his father, +would have pledged the parliament to an acquiescence in the existing form +of government.[a] The men of republican principles instantly took the +alarm. To Richard personally they made no objection; they respected his +private character, and wished well to the prosperity of his family; but +where, they asked, was the proof that the provisions of the "humble +petition and advice" had been observed? where the deed of nomination by his +father? where the witnesses to the signature?--Then what was the "humble +petition and advice" itself? An instrument of no force in a matter of such +high concernment, and passed by a very small majority in a house, out of +which one hundred members lawfully chosen, had been unlawfully excluded. +Lastly, what right had the Commons to admit a negative voice, either in +another house or in a single person? Such a voice was destructive of the +sovereignty of the people exercised by their representatives. The people +had sent them to parliament with power to make laws for the national +welfare, but not to annihilate the first and most valuable right of their +constituents. Each day the debate grew more animated and personal; charges +were made and recriminations followed: the republicans enumerated the acts +of misrule and oppression under the government of the late protector; the +courtiers balanced the account with similar instances from the proceedings +of their adversaries during the sway of the long parliament; the orators, +amidst the + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, 559, 609, 615.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. Feb. 1.] + +multitude of subjects incidentally introduced, lost sight of the original +question; and the speaker, after a debate of eight days, declared that he +was bewildered in a labyrinth of confusion, out of which he could discover +no issue. Weariness at last induced the combatants to listen to a +compromise,[a] that the recognition of Richard as protector should form +part of a future bill, but that at the same time, his prerogative should be +so limited as to secure the liberties of the people. Each party expressed +its satisfaction. The republicans had still the field open for the advocacy +of their favourite doctrines; the protectorists had advanced a step, +and trusted that it would lead them to the acquisition of greater +advantages.[1] + +From the office of protector, the members proceeded to inquire into the +constitution and powers of the other house; and this question, as it was +intimately connected with the former, was debated with equal warmth and +pertinacity. The opposition appealed to the "engagement," which many of the +members had subscribed; contended that the right of calling a second +house had been personal to the late protector, and did not descend to +his successors; urged the folly of yielding a negative voice on their +proceedings to a body of counsellors of their own creation; and pretended +to foretel that a protector with a yearly income of one million three +hundred thousand pounds, and a house of lords selected by himself, must +inevitably become, in the course of a few years, master of the liberties of +the people. When, at the end of nine days, the speaker was going to put the +question, Sir + +[Footnote 1: Journals, Feb. 1, 14. Thurloe, 603, 609, 610, 615, 617. Clar. +Pap. iii. 424, 426, 429. In Burton's Diary the debate occupies almost two +hundred pages (iii. 87-287).] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. Feb 14.] + +Richard Temple, a concealed royalist, demanded that the sixty members from +Scotland and Ireland, all in the interest of the court, should withdraw.[a] +It was, he said, doubtful, from the illegality of their election, +whether they had any right to sit at all; it was certain that, as the +representatives of other nations, they could not claim to vote on a +question of such high importance to the people of England. Thus another +bone of contention was thrown between the parties; eleven days were +consumed before the Scottish and Irish members could obtain permission to +vote,[b] and then five more expired before the question respecting the +other house was determined.[c] The new lords had little reason to be +gratified with the result. They were acknowledged, indeed, as a house of +parliament for the present; but there was no admission of their claim of +the peerage, or of a negative voice, or of a right to sit in subsequent +parliaments. The Commons consented "to transact business with them" (a new +phrase of undefined meaning), pending the parliament, but with a saving of +the rights of the ancient peers, who had been faithful to the cause; and, +in addition, a few days later,[d] they resolved that, in the transaction of +business, no superiority should be admitted in the other house, nor message +received from it, unless brought by the members themselves.[1] + +In these instances, the recognition of the protector, and of the two +houses, the royalists, with some exceptions, had voted in favour of the +court, under the impression that such a form of government was + +[Footnote 1: Journals, Feb. 18, March 28, April 5, 6, 8. Thurloe, 615, 626, +633, 636, 640, 647, Clar. Pap. iii. 429, 432. Burton's Diary, iii. 317-369, +403-424, 510-594; iv. 7-41, 46-147, 163-243, 293, 351, 375.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. March 10.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1659. March 23.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1659. March 28.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1659. April 8.] + +one step towards the restoration of the king. But on all other questions, +whenever there was a prospect of throwing impediments in the way of the +ministry, or of inflaming the discontent of the people, they zealously lent +their aid to the republican party. It was proved that, while the revenue +had been doubled, the expenditure had grown in a greater proportion; +complaints were made of oppression, waste, embezzlement, and tyranny in the +collection of the excise: the inhumanity of selling obnoxious individuals +for slaves to the West India planters was severely reprobated;[1] instances +of extortion were daily announced to the house by the committee of +grievances; an impeachment was ordered against Boteler, accused of +oppression in his office of major-general; and another threatened against +Thurloe for illegal conduct in his capacity of secretary of state. But, +while these proceedings awakened the hopes and gratified the resentments of +the people, they at the same time spread alarm through the army; every man +conscious of having abused the power of the sword began to tremble for his +own safety; and an unusual ferment, the sure presage of military violence, +was observable at the head-quarters of the several regiments. + +[Footnote 1: Clar. Pap. iii. 429, 432. Thurloe, 647. Burton's Diary, iii. +448; iv. 255, 263, 301, 403, 429. One petition stated that seventy persons +who had been apprehended on account of the Salisbury rising, after a year's +imprisonment, had been sold at Barbadoes for "1550 pounds' weight of sugar +a-piece, more or less, according to their working faculties." Among them +were divines, officers, and gentlemen, who were represented as "grinding at +the mills, attending at the furnaces, and digging in that scorching island, +being bought and sold still from one planter to another, or attached as +horses or beasts for the debts of their masters, being whipped at the +whipping-posts as rogues at their masters' pleasure, and sleeping in sties +worse than hogs in England."--Ibid. 256. See also Thurloe, i. 745.] + + +Hitherto the general officers had been divided between Whitehall and +Wallingford House, the residences of Richard and of Fleetwood. At +Whitehall, the Lord Falconberg, brother-in-law to the protector, Charles +Howard, whom Oliver had created a viscount,[1] Ingoldsby, Whalley, Goffe, +and a few others, formed a military council for the purpose of maintaining +the ascendancy of Richard in the army. At Wallingford House, Fleetwood and +his friends consulted how they might deprive him of the command, and reduce +him to the situation of a civil magistrate; but now a third and more +numerous council appeared at St. James's, consisting of most of the +inferior officers, and guided by the secret intrigues of Lambert, who, +holding no commission himself, abstained from sitting among them, and by +the open influence of Desborough, a bold and reckless man, who began to +despise the weak and wavering conduct of Fleetwood. Here originated the +plan of a general council of officers,[a] which was followed by the +adoption of "the humble representation and petition," an instrument +composed in language too moderate to give reasonable cause of offence, but +intended to suggest much more than it was thought prudent to express. It +made no allusion to the disputed claim of the protector, or the subjects of +strife between the two houses; but it complained bitterly of the contempt +into which the good old cause had sunk, of the threats held out, and +the prosecutions instituted, against the patriots who had distinguished +themselves in its support, and of the privations to which the military were +reduced + +[Footnote 1: Viscount Howard, of Morpeth, July 20, 1657, afterwards created +Baron Dacre, Viscount Howard of Morpeth and earl of Carlisle, by Charles +II., 30 April, 1661.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. April 6.] + +by a system that kept their pay so many months in arrear. In conclusion, it +prayed for the redress of these grievances, and stated the attachment of +the subscribers to the cause for which they had bled, and their readiness +to stand by the protector and parliament in its defence.[1] This paper, +with six hundred signatures, was presented to Richard, who received it with +an air of cheerfulness, and forwarded it to the lower house. There it was +read, laid on the table, and scornfully neglected. But the military leaders +treated the house with equal scorn; having obtained the consent of the +protector, they established a permanent council of general officers; and +then, instead of fulfilling the expectations with which they had lulled his +jealousy, successively voted, that the common cause was in danger, that +the command of the army ought to be vested in a person possessing its +confidence, and that every officer should be called upon to testify his +approbation of the death of Charles I., and of the subsequent proceedings +of the military; a measure levelled against the meeting at Whitehall, +of which the members were charged with a secret leaning to the cause of +royalty.[2] This was sufficiently alarming; but, in addition, the officers +of the trained bands signified their adhesion to the "representation" of +the army; and more than six hundred privates of the regiment formerly +commanded by Colonel Pride published their determination to stand by their +officers in the maintenance "of the old cause."[3] The + +[Footnote 1: "The Humble Representation and Petition, printed by H. Hills, +1659."--Thurloe, 659.] + +[Footnote 2: Thurloe, 662. Ludlow, ii. 174.] + +[Footnote 3: The Humble Representation and Petition of Field Officers, &c. +of the Trained Bands. London, 1659. Burton's Diary, iv. 388, note.] + +friends of the protector saw that it was time to act with energy; and, by +their influence in the lower house, carried the following votes:[a] that no +military meetings should be held without the joint consent of the protector +and the parliament, and that every officer should forfeit his commission +who would not promise, under his signature, never to disturb the sitting, +or infringe the freedom of parliament. These votes met, indeed, with a +violent opposition in the "other house," in which many of the members had +been chosen from the military; but the courtiers, anxious to secure the +victory, proposed another and declaratory vote in the Commons,[b] that the +command of the army was vested in the three estates, to be exercised by +the protector. By the officers this motion was considered as an open +declaration of war: they instantly met; and Desborough, in their name, +informed Richard that the crisis was at last come; the parliament must be +dissolved, either by the civil authority, or by the power of the sword. He +might make his election. If he chose the first, the army would provide for +his dignity and support; if he did not, he would be abandoned to his fate, +and fall friendless and unpitied.[1] + +The protector called a council of his confidential advisers. Whitelock +opposed the dissolution, on the ground that a grant of money might yet +appease the discontent of the military. Thurloe, Broghill, Fiennes, and +Wolseley maintained, on the contrary, that the dissension between the +parliament and the army was irreconcilable; and that on the first shock +between them, the Cavaliers would rise simultaneously in the + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, 555, 557, 558, 662. Burton's Diary, iv. 448-463, +472-480. Ludlow ii. 176, 178.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. April 18.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1659. April 21.] + +cause of Charles Stuart. A commission was accordingly signed by Richard, +and the usher of the black rod repeatedly summoned the Commons to attend in +the other house.[a] But true to their former vote of receiving no message +brought by inferior officers, they refused to obey; some members proposed +to declare it treason to put force on the representatives of the nation, +others to pronounce all proceedings void whenever a portion of the members +should be excluded by violence; at last they adjourned for three days, +and accompanied the speaker to his carriage in the face of the soldiery +assembled at the door. These proceedings, however, did not prevent Fiennes, +the head commissioner, from dissolving the parliament; and the important +intelligence was communicated to the three nations by proclamation in the +same afternoon.[1] + +Whether the consequences of this measure, so fatal to the interests of +Richard, were foreseen by his advisers, may be doubted. It appears that +Thurloe had for several days been negotiating both with the republican and +the military leaders. He had tempted some of the former with the offer +of place and emolument, to strengthen the party of the protector; to the +latter he had proposed that Richard, in imitation of his father on one +occasion, should raise money for the payment of the army by the power of +the sword, and without the aid of parliament.[2] But these intrigues were +now at an end; by the dissolution Richard had signed his own deposition; +though he continued to reside at Whitehall, the government fell into +abeyance; even the officers, who had hitherto frequented + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 677. England's Confusion, 9. Clarendon Papers, 451, +456. Ludlow, ii. 174. Merc. Pol. 564.] + +[Footnote 2: Thurloe, 659, 661.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. April 22.] + +his court, abandoned him, some to appease, by their attendance at +Wallingford House, the resentment of their adversaries, the others, to +provide, by their absence, for their own safety. If the supreme authority +resided any where, it was with Fleetwood, who now held the nominal command +of the army; but he and his associates were controlled both by the meeting +of officers at St. James's, and by the consultations of the republican +party in the city; and therefore contented themselves with depriving the +friends of Richard of their commissions, and with giving their regiments +to the men who had been cashiered by his father.[1] Unable to agree on +any form of government among themselves, they sought to come to an +understanding with the republican leaders. These demanded the restoration +of the long parliament, on the ground that, as its interruption by Cromwell +had been illegal, it was still the supreme authority in the nation; and +the officers, unwilling to forfeit the privileges of their new peerage, +insisted on the reproduction of the other house, as a co-ordinate +authority, under the less objectionable name of a senate. But the country +was now in a state of anarchy; the intentions of the armies in Scotland +and Ireland remained uncertain; and the royalists, both Presbyterians and +Cavaliers, were exerting themselves to improve the general confusion to +the advantage of the exiled king. As a last resource, the officers, by +an instrument in which they regretted their past errors and backsliding, +invited[a] the members of the long parliament to resume the trust of + +[Footnote 1: See the Humble Remonstrance from four hundred Non-commissioned +Officers and Privates of Major-general Goffe's Regiment (so called) of +Foot. London, 1659.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. May 6.] + +which they had been unrighteously deprived. With some difficulty, +two-and-forty were privately collected in the Painted Chamber; Lenthall, +the former speaker, after much entreaty, put himself at their head,[a] and +the whole body passed into the house through two lines of officers, some +of whom were the very individuals by whom, six years before, they had been +ignominiously expelled.[1] + +The reader will recollect that, on a former occasion, in the year 1648, the +Presbyterian members of the long parliament had been excluded by the army. +Of these, one hundred and ninety-four were still alive, eighty of whom +actually resided in the capital. That they had as good a right to resume +their seats as the members who had been expelled by Cromwell could hardly +be doubted; but they were royalists, still adhering to the principles which +they professed during the treaty in the Isle of Wight, and from their +number, had they been admitted, would have instantly outvoted the advocates +of republicanism. They assembled in Westminster Hall;[b] and a deputation +of fourteen, with Sir George Booth, Prynne, and Annesley at their head, +proceeded to the house. The doors were closed in their faces; a company of +soldiers, the keepers, as they were sarcastically called, of the liberties +of England, filled the lobby; and a resolution was passed that no former +member, who had not subscribed the engagement, should sit till further +order of parliament.[c] The attempt, however, though it failed of success, +produced its effect. It served to countenance a belief that the sitting +members were mere tools of the military, and supplied the royalists with +the means of masking their + +[Footnote 1: Ludlow, 179-186. Whitelock, 677. England's Confusion, 9.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. May 7.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1659. May 7.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1659. May 9.] + +real designs under the popular pretence of vindicating the freedom of +parliament.[1] + +By gradual additions, the house at last amounted to seventy members, who, +while they were ridiculed by their adversaries with the appellation of the +"Rump," constituted themselves the supreme authority in the three kingdoms. +They appointed, first, a committee of safety, and then a council of state, +notified to the foreign ministers their restoration to power, and, to +satisfy the people, promised by a printed declaration[a] to establish a +form of government, which should secure civil and religious liberty without +a single person, or kingship, or house of lords. The farce of addresses +was renewed; the "children of Zion," the asserters of the good old cause, +clamorously displayed their joy; and Heaven was fatigued with prayers for +the prosperity and permanence of the new government.[2] + +That government at first depended for its existence on the good-will of the +military in the neighbourhood of London; gradually it obtained[b] promises +of support from the forces at a distance. 1. Monk, with his + +[Footnote 1: Journ. May 9. Loyalty Banished, 3. England's Confusion, 12. +On the 9th, Prynne found his way into the house, and maintained his right +against his opponents till dinner-time. After dinner he returned, but was +excluded by the military. He was careful, however, to inform the public of +the particulars, and moreover undertook to prove that the long parliament +expired at the death of the king; 1. On the authority of the doctrine laid +down in the law books; 2. Because all writs of summons abate by the king's +death in parliament; 3. Because the parliament is called by a king regnant, +and is _his_, the king regnant's, parliament, and deliberates on _his_ +business; 4. Because the parliament is a corporation, consisting of king, +lords, and commons, and if one of the three be extinct, the body corporate +no longer exists.--See Loyalty Banished, and a true and perfect Narrative +of what was done and spoken by and between Mr. Prynne, &c., 1650.] + +[Footnote 2: See the Declarations of the Army and the Parliament in the +Journals, May 7.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. May 13.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1659. May 17.] + +officers, wrote to the speaker, congratulating him and his colleagues on +their restoration to power, and hypocritically thanking them for their +condescension in taking up so heavy a burthen; but, at the same time, +reminding them of the services of Oliver Cromwell, and of the debt of +gratitude which the nation owed to his family.[1] 2. Lockhart hastened to +tender the services of the regiments in Flanders, and received in return a +renewal of his credentials as ambassador, with a commission to attend the +conferences between the ministers of France and Spain at Fuentarabia. 3. +Montague followed with a letter from the fleet; but his professions of +attachment were received with distrust. To balance his influence with the +seamen, Lawson received the command of a squadron destined to cruise in the +Channel; and, to watch his conduct in the Baltic, three commissioners, with +Algernon Sydney at their head, were joined with him in his mission to the +two northern courts.[2] 4. There still remained the army in Ireland. From +Henry Cromwell, a soldier possessing the affections of the military, and +believed to inherit the abilities of his father, an obstinate, and perhaps +successful, resistance was anticipated. But he wanted decision. Three +parties had presented themselves to his choice; to earn, by the promptitude +of his acquiescence, the gratitude of the new government; or to maintain by +arms the right of his deposed brother; or to declare, as he was strongly +solicited to declare, in favour of Charles Stuart. Much time was lost in +consultation; at length the thirst of resentment, with the lure of reward, +determined him + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 678.] + +[Footnote 2: Thurloe, 669, 670. Ludlow, ii. 199. Journals, May 7, 9, 18, +26, 31.] + +to unfurl the royal standard;[1] then the arrival of letters from England +threw him back into his former state of irresolution; and, while he thus +wavered from project to project, some of his officers ventured to +profess their attachment to the commonwealth, the privates betrayed a +disinclination to separate their cause from that of their comrades in +England, and Sir Hardress Waller, in the interest of the parliament, +surprised the castle of Dublin.[a] The last stroke reduced Henry at once to +the condition of a suppliant; he signified his submission by a letter +to the speaker, obeyed the commands of the house to appear before the +council,[b] and, having explained to them the state of Ireland, was +graciously permitted to retire into the obscurity of private life. The +civil administration of the island devolved on five commissioners, and +the command of the army was given to Ludlow,[c] with the rank of +lieutenant-general of the horse.[2] + +But the republican leaders soon discovered that they had not been called +to repose on a bed of roses.[d] The officers at Wallingford House began to +dictate to the men whom they had made their nominal masters, and forwarded +to them fifteen demands, under the modest title of "the things which they +had on their minds," when they restored the long parliament.[3] The house +took them successively into consideration. A committee was appointed to +report the form of government the best calculated to secure the liberties +of the people; the duration of the existing parliament was + +[Footnote 1: Carte's Letters, ii. 242. Clar. Pap. 500, 501, 516.] + +[Footnote 2: Thurloe, vii. 683, 684. Journals, June 14, 27, July 4, 17. +Henry Cromwell resided on his estate of Swinney Abbey, near Sohan, in +Cambridgeshire, till his death in 1674.--Noble, i. 227.] + +[Footnote 3: See the Humble Petition and Address of the Officers, printed +by Henry Hills, 1659.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. June 15.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1659. July 6.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1659. July 18.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1659. May 15.] + +limited to twelve months; freedom of worship was extended to all believers +in the Scriptures and the doctrine of the Trinity, with the usual exception +of prelatists and papists; and an act of oblivion, after many debates, was +passed, but so encumbered with provisoes and exceptions, that it served +rather to irritate than appease.[1] The officers had requested[a] that +lands of inheritance, to the annual value of ten thousand pounds, should be +settled on Richard Cromwell, and a yearly pension of eight thousand pounds +on her "highness dowager," his mother. But it was observed in the house +that, though Richard exercised no authority, he continued to occupy the +state apartments at Whitehall; and a suspicion existed that he was kept +there as an object of terror, to intimate to the members that the same +power could again set him up, which had so recently brought him down. By +repeated messages, he was ordered to retire; and, on his promise to obey, +the parliament granted him the privilege of freedom from arrest during six +months; transferred his private debts, amounting to twenty-nine thousand +six hundred and forty pounds, to the account of the nation, gave him two +thousand pounds as a relief to his present necessities, and voted that +a yearly income of ten thousand pounds should be settled on him and his +heirs, a grant easily made on paper, but never carried into execution.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Declaration of General Council of Officers, 27th of October, +p. 5. For the different forms of government suggested by different +projectors, see Ludlow, ii. 206.] + +[Footnote 2: Journals, May 16, 25, July 4, 12, 16.--Ludlow (ii. 198) makes +the present twenty thousand pounds; but the sum of two thousand pounds is +written at length in the Journals; May 25. While he was at Whitehall, he +entertained proposals from the royalists, consented to accept a title and +twenty thousand pounds a year, and designed to escape to the fleet under +Montague, but was too strictly watched to effect his purpose.--Clar. Pap. +iii. 475, 477, 478.] + +[Sidenote: A.D. 1659. July 12.] + +But the principal source of disquietude still remained. Among the fifteen +articles presented to the house, the twelfth appeared, not in the shape +of a request, but of a declaration, that the officers unanimously owned +Fleetwood as "commander-in-chief of the land forces in England." It was the +point for which they had contended under Richard; and Ludlow, Vane, and +Salloway earnestly implored their colleagues to connive at what it was +evidently dangerous to oppose. But the lessons of prudence were thrown +away on the rigid republicanism of Hazlerig, Sydney, Neville, and their +associates, who contended that to be silent was to acknowledge in the +council of officers an authority independent of the parliament. They +undertook to remodel the constitution of the army. The office +of lord-general was abolished; no intermediate rank between the +lieutenant-general and the colonels was admitted; Fleetwood was named +lieutenant-general, with the chief command in England and Scotland, but +limited in its duration to a short period, revocable at pleasure, and +deprived of several of those powers which had hitherto been annexed to +it. All military commissions were revoked, and an order was made that a +committee of nine members should recommend the persons to be officers in +each regiment; that their respective merits should be canvassed in the +house; and that those who had passed this ordeal should receive their +commissions at the table from the hand of the speaker. The object of this +arrangement was plain: to make void the declaration of the military, to +weed out men of doubtful fidelity, and to render the others dependent +for their situations on the pleasure of the house. Fleetwood, with his +adherents, resolved never to submit to the degradation, while the privates +amused themselves with ridiculing the age and infirmities of him whom they +called their new lord-general, the speaker Lenthall; but Hazlerig prevailed +on Colonel Hacker, with his officers, to conform; their example gradually +drew others; and, at length, the most discontented, though with shame +and reluctance, condescended to go through this humbling ceremony. The +republicans congratulated each other on their victory; they had only +accelerated their defeat.[1] + +Ever since the death of Oliver, the exiled king had watched with intense +interest the course of events in England; and each day added a new stimulus +to his hopes of a favourable issue. The unsettled state of the nation, +the dissensions among his enemies, the flattering representations of his +friends, and the offers of co-operation from men who had hitherto opposed +his claims, persuaded him that the day of his restoration was at hand. +That the opportunity might not be forfeited by his own backwardness, he +announced[a] to the leaders of the royalists his intention of coming to +England, and of hazarding his life in the company of his faithful subjects. +There was scarcely a county in which the majority of the nobility and +gentry did not engage to rally round his standard; the first day of August +was fixed for the general rising; and it was determined[b] in the council +at Brussels that Charles should repair in disguise to the coast of +Bretagne, where he might procure a passage into Wales or Cornwall; that the +duke of York, with six hundred veterans furnished by the prince of Condé, +should attempt to land from Boulogne on the coast of Kent; and that the +duke of Gloucester should follow + +[Footnote 1: Journals, passim. Ludlow, ii. 197. Declaration of Officers, 6. +Thurloe, 679. Clarend. Hist. iii. 665.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. June 4.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1659. July.] + +from Ostend with the royal army of four thousand men under the Marshal +Marsin. Unfortunately his concerns in England had been hitherto conducted +by a council called "the Knot," at the head of which was Sir Richard +Willis. Willis, the reader is aware, was a traitor; but it was only of late +that the eyes of Charles had been opened to his perfidy by Morland, the +secretary of Thurloe, who, to make his own peace, sent to the court at +Bruges some of the original communications in the writing of Willis. This +discovery astonished and perplexed the king. To make public the conduct of +the traitor was to provoke him to farther disclosures: to conceal it, was +to connive at the destruction of his friends, and the ruin of his own +prospects. He first instructed his correspondents to be reserved in their +communications with "the Knot;"[a] he then ordered Willis to meet him on +a certain day at Calais;[b] and, when this order was disregarded, openly +forbade the royalists to give to the traitor information, or to follow his +advice.[1] + +But these precautions came too late. After the deposition of the protector, +Willis had continued to communicate with Thurloe, who with the intelligence + +[Footnote 1: Clar. Pap. iii. 514, 517, 518, 520, 524, 526, 529, 531, 535, +536. Willis maintained his innocence, and found many to believe him. Echard +(p. 729) has published a letter with Morland's signature, in which he is +made to say that he never sent any of the letters of Willis to the king, +nor even so much as knew his name; whence Harris (ii. 215) infers that the +whole charge is false. That, however, it was true, no one can doubt who +will examine the proofs in the Clarendon Papers (iii. 518, 526, 529, 533, +535, 536, 542, 549, 556, 558, 562, 563, 574, 583, 585), and in Carte's +Collection of Letters (ii. 220, 256, 284). Indeed, the letter from Willis +of the 9th of May, 1660, soliciting the king's pardon, leaves no room for +doubt.--Clar. Pap. 643. That Morland was the informer, and, consequently, +the letter in Echard is a forgery, is also evident from the reward which +he received at the restoration, and from his own admission to Pepys.--See +Pepys, i. 79, 82, 133, 8vo. See also "Life of James II." 370.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. July 18.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1659. August 7.] + +which he thus obtained, was enabled to purchase the forbearance of his +former opponents. At an early period in July, the council was in possession +of the plan of the royalists. Reinforcements were immediately demanded from +the armies in Flanders and Ireland; directions were issued for a levy of +fourteen regiments of one thousand men each;[a] measures were taken for +calling out the militia; numerous arrests were made in the city and every +part of the country; and the known Cavaliers were compelled to leave the +metropolis, and to produce security for their peaceable behaviour. These +proceedings seemed to justify Willis in representing the attempt as +hopeless; and, at his persuasion, "the Knot" by circular letters forbade +the rising, two days before the appointed time.[b] The royalists were thus +thrown into irremediable confusion. Many remained quiet at their homes; +many assembled in arms, and dispersed on account of the absence of their +associates; in some counties the leaders were intercepted in their way +to the place of rendezvous; in others as soon as they met, they were +surrounded or charged by a superior force. In Cheshire alone was the +royal standard successfully unfurled by Sir George Booth, a person of +considerable influence in the county, and a recent convert to the cause of +the Stuarts. In the letter which he circulated, he was careful to make +no mention of the king, but called on the people to defend their rights +against the tyranny of an insolent soldiery and a pretended parliament.[c] +"Let the nation freely choose its representatives, and those +representatives as freely sit without awe or force of soldiery." This was +all that he sought: in the determination of such an assembly, whatever that +determination might be, both he and + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. August 13.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1659. August 29.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1659. August 2.] + +his friends would cheerfully acquiesce.[1] It was in effect a rising on +the Presbyterian interest; and the proceedings were in a great measure +controlled by a committee of minister, who scornfully rejected the aid of +the Catholics, and received with jealousy Sir Thomas Middleton, though a +known Presbyterian, because he openly avowed himself a royalist. + +At Chester, the parliamentary garrison retired into the castle, and the +insurgents took possession of the city. Each day brought to them a new +accession of strength; and their apparent success taught them to augur +equally well of the expected attempts of their confederates throughout the +kingdom. But the unwelcome truth could not long be concealed; and when they +learned that they stood alone, that every other rising had been either +prevented or instantly suppressed, and that Lambert was hastening against +them with four regiments of cavalry and three of foot, their confidence +was exchanged for despair; every gentleman who had risked his life in the +attempt claimed a right to give his advice; and their counsels, from fear, +inexperience, and misinformation, became fluctuating and contradictory.[a] +After much hesitation, they resolved to proceed to Nantwich and defend the +passage of the Weever; but so rapid had been the march of the enemy, who +sent forward part of the infantry on horseback, that the advance was +already arrived in the neighbourhood; and, while the royalists lay +unsuspicious of danger in the town, Lambert forced the passage of the river +at Winnington.[b] In haste, they filed out of Nantwich into the nearest +fields; but here they found that most of their ammunition was still at +Chester;[c] and, on the suggestion that the position was + +[Footnote 1: Parl. Hist. xxiii. 107.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. August 16.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1659. August 18.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1659. August 19.] + +unfavourable, hastened to take possession of a neighbouring eminence. +Colonel Morgan, with his troop, attempted to keep the enemy in check; he +fell, with thirty men; and the rest of the insurgents, at the approach of +their adversaries, turned their backs and fled. Three hundred were made +prisoners in the pursuit, and few of the leaders had the good fortune to +escape. The earl of Derby, who had raised men in Lancashire to join the +royalists, was taken in the disguise of a servant. Booth, dressed as a +female, and riding on a pillion, took[a] the direct road for London, but +betrayed himself at Newton Pagnell by his awkwardness in alighting from +the horse. Middleton, who was eighty years old, fled to Chirk Castle; and, +after a defence of a few days, capitulated,[b] on condition that he should +have two months to make his peace with the parliament.[1] + +The news of this disaster reached the duke of York at Boulogne, fortunately +on the very evening on which he was to have embarked with his men. Charles +received it at Rochelle, whither he had been compelled to proceed in search +of a vessel to convey him to Wales. Abandoning the hopeless project, he +instantly continued his journey to the congress at Fuentarabia, with the +delusive expectation that, on the conclusion of peace between the two +crowns, he should obtain a supply of money, and perhaps still more +substantial aid, from a personal interview with the ministers, Cardinal +Mazarin and Don Louis de Haro.[2] Montague, who had but recently become a +proselyte to the royal cause, + +[Footnote 1: Clar. Hist. iii. 672-675. Clar. Pap. iii. 673, 674. Ludlow, +ii. 223. Whitelock, 683. Carte's Letters, 194, 202. Lambert's Letter, +printed for Thomas Neucombe, 1659.] + +[Footnote 2: Both promised to aid him secretly, but not in such manner as +to give offence to the ruling party in England.--Clar. Pap. iii. 642.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. August.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1659. August 24.] + +was drawn by his zeal into the most imminent danger. As soon as he heard of +the insurrection, he brought back the fleet from the Sound, in defiance of +his brother commissioners, with the intention of blockading the mouth +of the Thames, and of facilitating the transportation of troops. On his +arrival he learned the failure of his hopes; but boldly faced the danger, +appeared before the council, and assigned the want of provisions as the +cause of his return. They heard him with distrust; but it was deemed +prudent to dissemble, and he received permission to withdraw.[1] + +To reward Lambert for this complete, though almost bloodless, victory, +the parliament[a] voted him the sum of one thousand pounds, which he +immediately distributed among his officers. But while they recompensed his +services, they were not the less jealous of his ambition. They remembered +how instrumental he had been in raising Cromwell to the protectorate; they +knew his influence in the army; and they feared his control over the timid, +wavering mind of Fleetwood, whom he appeared to govern in the same manner +as Cromwell had governed Fairfax. It had been hoped that his absence on the +late expedition would afford them leisure to gain the officers remaining in +the capital; but the unexpected rapidity of his success had defeated their +policy; and, in a short time, the intrigue which had been interrupted by +the insurrection was resumed. While Lambert hastened back to the capital, +his army followed by slow marches; and at Derby the officers subscribed[b] +a petition, which had been clandestinely forwarded to them from Wallingford +House. In it they complained that adequate rewards were not conferred on +the deserving; and + +[Footnote 1: Journals, Sept. 16. Clar. Pap. iii. 551. Carte's Letters, ii. +210, 236. Pepys' Memoirs, i. 157.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. August 22.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1659. Sept. 14.] + +demanded that the office of commander-in-chief should be given to Fleetwood +without limitation of time, and the rank of major-general to their +victorious leader; that no officer should be deprived of his commission +without the judgment of a court-martial; and that the government should be +settled in a house of representatives and a permanent senate. Hazlerig, +a man of stern republican principles, and of a temper hasty, morose, and +ungovernable, obtained a sight of this paper, denounced[a] it as an attempt +to subvert the parliament, and moved that Lambert, its author, should be +sent to the Tower; but his violence was checked by the declaration of +Fleetwood, that Lambert knew nothing of its origin; and the house contented +itself with ordering all copies of the obnoxious petition to be delivered +up, and with resolving[b] that "to augment the number of general officers +was needless, chargeable, and dangerous."[1] From that moment a breach was +inevitable. The house, to gratify the soldiers, had advanced their daily +pay; and with the view of discharging their arrears, had raised[c] the +monthly assessment from thirty-five thousand pounds to one hundred thousand +pounds.[2] But the military leaders were not to be diverted from their +purpose. Meetings were daily and nightly held at Wallingford House; and +another petition with two hundred and thirty signatures was presented by +Desborough, accompanied by all the field-officers in the metropolis; In +most points it was similar to the former; but it contained a demand that, +whosoever should afterwards "groundlessly and causelessly inform the house +against their servants, thereby creating jealousies, and casting scandalous +imputations upon them, should be + +[Footnote 1: Journ., Aug. 23, Sept. 22, 23. Ludlow, ii. 223, 227, 233, +244.] + +[Footnote 2: Ibid., May 31, Aug. 18, Sept. 1] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. Sept. 22.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1659. Sept. 23.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1659. Oct. 5.] + +brought to examination, justice, and condign punishment." This was a +sufficient intimation to Hazlerig and his party to provide for their own +safety. Three regiments, through the medium of their officers, had already +made the tender of their services for the protection of the house; Monk, +from Scotland, and Ludlow, from Ireland, wrote that their respective armies +were animated with similar sentiments; and a vote was passed and ordered +to be published,[a] declaring it to be treason to levy money on the people +without the previous consent of parliament, a measure which, as all the +existing taxes were to expire on the first day of the ensuing year, made +the military dependent for their future subsistence on the pleasure of +the party. Hazlerig, thus fortified, deemed himself a match for his +adversaries; the next morning he boldly threw down the gauntlet;[b] by one +vote, Lambert, Desborough, six colonels, and one major, were deprived of +their Commissions for having subscribed the copy of the petition sent to +Colonel Okey; and, by a second, Fleetwood was dismissed from his office +of commander-in-chief, and made president of a board of seven members +established for the government of the army. Aware, however, that he might +expect resistance, the republican chieftain called his friends around him +during the night; and, at the dawn of day, it was discovered that he had +taken military possession of King-street and the Palace-yard with two +regiments of foot and four troops of horse, who protested aloud that they +would live and die with the parliament.[1][c] + +[Footnote 1: Journals, Sept. 28, Oct. 5, 10, 11, 12. Ludlow, ii. 229, 247. +Carte's Letters, ii, 246. Thurloe, vii. 755. Declaration of General Council +of Officers, 9-16. True Narrative of the Proceedings in Parliament, Council +of State, &c., published by special order, 1659. Printed by John Redmayne.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. Oct 11.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1659. Oct 12.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1659. Oct 13.] + + +Lambert mustered about three thousand men. His first care was to intercept +the access of members to the house, and to prevent the egress of the +militia from the city. He then marched to Westminster. Meeting the speaker, +who was attended by his guard, he ordered the officer on duty to dismount, +gave the command to Major Creed, one of those who had been deprived of +their commissions by the preceding vote, and scornfully directed him to +conduct the "lord-general" to Whitehall, whence he was permitted to return +to his own house. In Westminster, the two parties faced each other; but the +ardour of the privates did not correspond with that of the leaders; and, +having so often fought in the same ranks, they showed no disposition to +imbrue their hands in each other's blood. In the mean time the council +of state assembled: on the one side Lambert and Desborough, on the other +Hazlerig and Morley, appeared to support their pretensions; much time +was spent in complaint and recrimination, much in hopeless attempts to +reconcile the parties; but the cause of the military continued to make +converts; the advocates of the "rump," aware that to resist was fruitless, +consented to yield; and it was stipulated that the house should cease to +sit, that the council of officers should provide for the public peace, +arrange a new form of government, and submit it to the approbation of a new +parliament. An order, that the forces on both sides should retire to their +respective quarters, was gladly obeyed; the men mixed together as friends +and brothers, and reciprocally promised never more to draw the sword +against each other.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 685. Journals, Oct. 13. Clar. Pap. iii. 581, 590. +Ludlow, ii. 247-251. Ludlow's account differs considerably from that +by Whitelock. But the former was in Ireland, the latter present at the +council.] + + +Thus a second time the supreme authority devolved on the meeting of +officers at Wallingford House. They immediately established their favourite +plan for the government of the army. The office of commander-in-chief, +in its plenitude of power, was restored to Fleetwood; the rank of +major-general of the forces in Great Britain was given to Lambert; and all +those officers who refused to subscribe a new engagement, were removed from +their commands. At the same time they annulled by their supreme authority +all proceedings in parliament on the 10th, 11th, and 12th of October, +vindicated their own conduct in a publication with the title of "The Army's +Plea,"[1] vested the provisional exercise of the civil authority in a +committee of safety of twenty-three members, and denounced the penalties of +treason against all who should refuse to obey its orders, or should venture +to levy forces without its permission. An attempt was even made to replace +Richard Cromwell in the protectorial dignity;[a] for this purpose he came +from Hampshire to London, escorted by three troops of horse; but his +supporters in the meeting were out-voted by a small majority, and he +retired to Hampton Court.[2] + +[Footnote 1: See Declaration of the General Council of Officers, 17. The +Army's Plea for its Present Practice, printed by Henry Hills, printer to +the army, 1659, is in many parts powerfully written. The principal argument +is, that as the parliament, though bound by the solemn league and covenant +to defend the king's person, honour, and dignity, did not afterwards +scruple to arraign, condemn, and execute him because he had broken his +trust; so the army, though they had engaged to be true and faithful to the +parliament, might lawfully rise against it, when they found that it did not +preserve the just rights and liberties of the people. This condition was +implied in the engagement; otherwise the making of the engagement would +have been a sin, and the keeping thereof would have been a sin also, and so +an adding of sin to sin.] + +[Footnote 2: Whitelock, 685, 686. Ludlow, ii. 250, 286, 287. Clar. Pap. +591. At the restoration, Richard, to escape from his creditors, fled to the +continent; and, after an expatriation of almost twenty years, returned to +England to the neighbourhood of Cheshunt, where he died in 1713, at the age +of eighty-six.--Noble, i. 228.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. Oct 26.] + +Of all the changes which had surprised and perplexed the nation since +the death of the last king, none had been received with such general +disapprobation as the present. It was not that men lamented the removal of +the Rump; but they feared the capricious and arbitrary rule of the army; +and, when they contrasted their unsettled state with the tranquillity +formerly enjoyed under the monarchy, many were not backward in the +expression of their wishes for the restoration of the ancient line of their +princes. The royalists laboured to improve this favourable disposition; yet +their efforts might have been fruitless, had the military been united among +themselves. But among the officers there were several who had already made +their peace with Charles by the promise of their services, and many +who secretly retained a strong attachment to Hazlerig and his party in +opposition to Lambert. In Ireland, Barrow, who had been sent as their +representative from Wallingford House, found the army so divided and +wavering, that each faction alternately obtained a short and precarious +superiority; and in Scotland, Cobbet, who arrived there on a similar +mission, was, with seventeen other officers who approved of his proposals, +imprisoned by order of Monk.[1] + +From this moment the conduct of Monk will claim a considerable share of the +reader's attention. Ever since the march of Cromwell in pursuit of the king +to Worcester he had commanded in Scotland; where, instead of concerning +himself with the intrigues and parties in England, he appeared to have no +other occupation + +[Footnote 1: Ludlow, ii. 237, 252, 259, 262, 300. Clar. Pap. iii. 591. +Carte's Letters, 266.] + +than the duties of his place, to preserve the discipline of his army, +and enforce the obedience of the Scots. His despatches to Cromwell from +Scotland form a striking contrast with those from the other officers of the +time. There is in them no parade of piety, no flattery of the protector, no +solicitation for favours. They are short, dry, and uninteresting, confined +entirely to matters of business, and those only of indispensable necessity. +In effect, the distinctive characteristic of the man was an impenetrable +secrecy.[1] Whatever were his predilections or opinions, his wishes or +designs, he kept them locked up within his own breast. He had no confidant, +nor did he ever permit himself to be surprised into an unguarded avowal. +Hence all parties, royalists, protectorists, and republicans, claimed him +for their own, though that claim was grounded on _their_ hopes, not on +_his_ conduct. Charles had been induced to make to him repeatedly the most +tempting offers, which were supported by the solicitations of his wife and +his domestic chaplain; Monk listened to them without displeasure, though he +never unbosomed himself to the agents or to his chaplain so far as to put +himself in their power. Cromwell had obtained some information of these +intrigues; but, unable to discover any real ground of suspicion, he +contented himself with putting Monk on his guard by a bantering postscript +to one of his letters. "Tis said," he added, "there is a cunning fellow in +Scotland, + +[Footnote 1: "His natural taciturnity was such, that most of his friends, +who thought they knew him best, looked upon George Monk to have no other +craft in him than that of a plain soldier, who would obey the parliament's +orders, and see that his own were obeyed."--Price, Mystery and Method of +his Majesty's happy Restoration, in Select Tracts relating to the Civil +Wars in England, published by Baron Maseres, ii. 700.] + +called George Monk, who lies in wait there to serve Charles Stuart; pray +use your diligence to take him and send him up to me."[1] After the fall +of the protector Richard, he became an object of greater distrust. To +undermine his power, Fleetwood ordered two regiments of horse attached +to the Scottish army to return to England; and the republicans, when the +military commissions were issued by the speaker, removed a great number of +his officers, and supplied their places with creatures of their own. Monk +felt these affronts: discontent urged him to seek revenge; and, when he +understood that Booth was at the head of a considerable force, he dictated +a letter to the speaker, complaining of the proceedings of parliament, and +declaring that, as they had abandoned the real principles of the old cause, +they must not expect the support of his army. His object was to animate the +insurgents and embarrass their adversaries; but, on the very morning +on which the letter was to be submitted for signature to his principal +officers, the news of Lambert's victory arrived;[a] the dangerous +instrument was instantly destroyed, and the secret most religiously kept by +the few who had been privy to the intention of the general.[2] + +To this abortive attempt Monk, notwithstanding his wariness, had been +stimulated by his brother, a clergyman of Cornwall, who visited him with a +message from Sir John Grenville by commission from Charles Stuart. +After the failure of Booth, the general dismissed him with a letter of +congratulation to the parliament, but without any answer to Grenville, and +under an oath to keep secret whatever he had learnt + +[Footnote 1: Price, 712.] + +[Footnote 2: Id. 711, 716, 721.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. August 23.] + +respecting the past, or the intended projects of his brother.[1] But the +moment that Monk heard of the expulsion of the members,[a] and of the +superior rank conferred on Lambert, he determined to appear openly as the +patron of the vanquished, under the alluring, though ambiguous, title of +"asserter of the ancient laws and liberties of the country." Accordingly, +he secured with trusty garrisons the castle of Edinburgh and the citadel +of Leith,[b] sent a strong detachment to occupy Berwick, and took the +necessary measures to raise and discipline a numerous force of cavalry. At +Leith was held a general council of officers; they approved of his object, +engaged to stand by him, and announced their determination, by letters +directed to Lenthall, the speaker, to the council at Wallingford House, and +to the commanders of the fleet in the Downs, and of the army in Ireland. +It excited, however, no small surprise, that the general, while he thus +professed to espouse the defence of the parliament, cashiered all the +officers introduced by the parliament into his army, and restored all +those who had been expelled. The more discerning began to suspect his real +intentions;[2] but Hazlerig and his party were too + +[Footnote 1: All that Grenville could learn from the messenger was, that +his brother regretted the failure of Booth, and would oppose the arbitrary +attempts of the military in England; an answer which, though favourable +as far as it went, still left the king in uncertainty as to his real +intentions.--Clar. Pap. iii. 618.] + +[Footnote 2: Ludlow, ii. 269. Whitelock, 686, 689, 691. Price, 736, 743. +Skinner, 106-109. Monk loudly asserted the contrary. "I do call God +to witness," he says in the letter to the speaker, Oct. 20, "that the +asserting of a commonwealth is the only intent of my heart."--True +Narrative, 28. When Price remonstrated with him, he replied: "You see who +are about me and write these things. I must not show any dislike of them. +I perceive they are jealous enough of me already."--Price, 746. The fact +probably was, that Monk was neither royalist nor republican: that he sought +only his own interest, and had determined to watch every turn of affairs, +and to declare at last in favour of that party which appeared most likely +to obtain the superiority.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. Oct. 17.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1659. Oct. 18.] + +elated to dwell on the circumstance, and, under the promise of his +support, began to organize the means of resistance against their military +oppressors. + +Monk soon discovered that he was embarked in a most hazardous undertaking. +The answers to his letters disapproved of his conduct; and the knowledge of +these answers kindled among his followers a spirit of disaffection which +led to numerous desertions. From the general of an army obedient to his +commands, he had dwindled into the leader of a volunteer force, which it +was necessary to coax and persuade. Two councils were formed, one of +the colonels of the longest standing, the other of all the commissioned +officers. The first perused the public despatches received by the general, +and wrote the answers, which were signed by him as the chairman; the other +was consulted on all measures respecting the conduct of the army, and +confirmed or rejected the opinion of the colonels by the majority of +voices. But if Monk was controlled by this arrangement, it served to screen +him from suspicion. The measures adopted were taken as the result of the +general will. + +To the men at Wallingford House it became of the first importance to win +by intimidation, or to reduce by force, this formidable opponent. Lambert +marched against him from London at the head of seven thousand men; but the +mind of the major-general was distracted by doubts and suspicions; and, +before his departure, he exacted a solemn promise from Fleetwood to agree +to no accommodation, either with the king, or with Hazlerig, till he had +previously received the advice and concurrence of Lambert himself.[1] To +Monk delay was as necessary as expedition was desirable to his opponents. +In point of numbers and experience the force under his command was no +match for that led by Lambert, but his magazines and treasury were amply +supplied, while his adversary possessed not money enough to keep his army +together for more than a few weeks. Before the major-general reached +Newcastle, he met three deputies from Monk on their way to treat with the +council in the capital. As no arguments could induce them to open the +negotiation with him, he allowed them to proceed, and impatiently awaited +the result. After much discussion, an agreement was concluded in London; +but Monk, instead of ratifying it with his signature, discovered,[a] +or pretended to discover, in it much that was obscure or ambiguous, or +contrary to the instructions received by the deputies; his council agreed +with him in opinion; and a second negotiation was opened with Lambert at +Newcastle, to obtain from him an explanation of the meaning of the officers +in the metropolis. Thus delay was added to delay; and Monk improved the +time to dismiss even the privates whose sentiments were suspected, and to +fill up the vacancies in the regiments of infantry by levies among the +Scots. At the same time he called a convention of the Scottish estates at +Berwick, of two representatives from each county and one from each borough, +recommended to them the peace of the country during his absence, and +obtained from them the grant of a year's arrears of their taxes, amounting +to sixty thousand pounds, in + +[Footnote 1: See the Conferences of Ludlow and Whitelock with Fleetwood, +Ludlow, ii. 277; Whitelock, 690.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. Nov. 19.] + +addition to the excise and customs. He then fixed his head-quarters at +Coldstream.[1] + +In the mean while the detention of Lambert in the north by the artifices of +Monk had given occasion to many important events in the south. Within +the city several encounters had taken place between the military and the +apprentices;[2] a free parliament had become the general cry; and the +citizens exhorted each other to pay no taxes imposed by any other +authority. Lawson, though he wavered at first, declared against the army, +and advanced with his squadron up the river as far as Gravesend. Hazlerig +and Morley were admitted into Portsmouth by the governor, were joined by +the force sent against them by Fleetwood, and marched towards London, that +they might open a communication with the fleet in the river. Alarm produced +in the committee of safety the most contradictory councils. A voice +ventured to suggest the restoration of Charles Stuart; but it was replied +that their offences against the family of Stuart were of too black a dye to +be forgiven; that the king might be lavish of promises now that he stood in +need of their services; but that the vengeance of parliament would absolve +him from the obligation, when the monarchy should once be established. The +final resolution was to call a new parliament against the 24th of January, +and to appoint twenty-one conservators of the public peace during the +interval. But they + +[Footnote 1: Price, 741-744. Whitelock, 688, 699. Ludlow, 269, 271, 273. +Skinner, 161, 164.] + +[Footnote 2: The posts occupied by the army within the city were, "St. +Paul's Church, the Royall Exchange, Peeter-house in Aldersgate-street, and +Bernet's Castle, Gresham Coledge, Sion Coledge. Without London, were the +Musses, Sumersett-house, Whitehall, St. James's, Scotland-yeard."--MS. +Diary by Thomas Rugge.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. Dec. 8.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1659. Dec. 17.] + +reckoned on an authority which they no longer possessed. The fidelity +of the common soldiers had been shaken by the letters of Monk, and the +declaration of Lawson. Putting themselves under the command of the officers +who had been lately dismissed, they mustered[a] in Lincoln's Inn Fields, +marched before the house of Lenthall in Chancery Lame, and saluted him +with three volleys of musketry as the representative of the parliament and +lord-general of the army. Desborough, abandoned by his regiment, fled in +despair towards Lambert; and Fleetwood, who for some days had done nothing +but weep and pray, and complain that "the Lord had spit in his face," +tamely endeavoured to disarm by submission the resentment of his +adversaries. He sought the speaker, fell on his knees before him, and +surrendered his commission.[1] + +Thus the Rump was again triumphant. The members, with Lenthall at their +head, resumed[b] possession of the house amidst the loud acclamations +of the soldiery. Their first care was to establish a committee for the +government of the army, and to order the regiments in the north to separate +and march to their respective quarters. Of those among their colleagues who +had supported the late committee of safety, they excused some, and punished +others by suspension, or exclusion, or imprisonment: orders were sent to +Lambert, and the most active of his associates, to withdraw from the army +to their homes, and then instructions were given to the magistrates to take +them into custody. A council of state was appointed, and into the oath to +be taken by the + +[Footnote 1: Ludlow, 268, 276, 282, 287, 289, 290, 296, 298. Whitelock, +689, 690, 691. Clar. Pap. 625, 629, 636, 641, 647.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. Dec. 24.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1659. Dec. 26.] + +members was introduced a new and most comprehensive abjuration of kingship +and the family of Stuart. All officers commissioned during the interruption +by any other authority than that of Monk were broken; the army was entirely +remodelled; and the time of the house was daily occupied by the continued +introduction of officers to receive their commissions in person from the +hand of the speaker.[1] + +In the mean while, Monk, to subdue or disperse the army of Lambert, had +raised up a new and formidable enemy in his rear. Lord Fairfax was become +a convert to the cause of monarchy; to him the numerous royalists in +Yorkshire looked up as leader; and he, on the solemn assurance of Monk that +he would join him within twelve days or perish in the attempt, undertook to +call together his friends, and to surprise the city of York. On the first +day of the new year,[a] each performed his promise. The gates of York were +thrown open to Fairfax by the Cavaliers confined within its walls;[2] and +Monk, with his army, crossed the Tweed on his march against the advanced +posts of the enemy. Thus the flame of civil war was again kindled in the +north; within two days it was extinguished. The messenger from parliament +ordered Lambert's forces to withdraw to their respective quarters. +Dispirited by the defection of the military in the south, they dared not +disobey: at Northallerton the officers bade adieu with tears to their +general; and Lambert retired in privacy to a house which he possessed in +the county. Still, though the weather was + +[Footnote 1: Journals, Dec. 26, Jan. 31.] + +[Footnote 2: That the rising under Fairfax was in reality a rising of +royalists, and prompted by the promises of Monk, is plain from the +narrative of Monkton, in the Lansdowne MSS. No. 988, f. 320, 334. See also +Price, 748.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1660. Jan. 1.] + +severe, though the roads were deeply covered with snow, Monk continued[a] +his march; and, at York, spent five days in consultation with Fairfax; but +to the advice of that nobleman, that he should remain there, assume the +command of their united forces, and proclaim the king, he replied that, +in the present temper of his officers, it would prove a dangerous, a +pernicious, experiment. On the arrival of what he had long expected, an +invitation to Westminster, he resumed his march, and Fairfax, having +received the thanks of the parliament, disbanded[b] his insurrectionary +force.[1] + +At York, the general had caned[c] an officer who charged him with the +design of restoring the kingly government; at Nottingham, he prevented with +difficulty the officers from signing an engagement to obey the parliament +in all things "except the bringing in of Charles Stuart;" and at Leicester, +he was compelled to suffer[d] a letter to be written in his name to the +petitioners from Devonshire, stating his opinion that the monarchy could +not be re-established, representing the danger of recalling the members +excluded in 1648, and inculcating the duty of obedience to the parliament +as it was then constituted.[2] Here he was met by two of the most active +members, Scot and Robinson, who had been commissioned to accompany him +during his journey, under the pretence of doing him honour, but, in +reality, to sound his disposition, and to act as spies on his conduct. +He received them with respect as the representatives of the sovereign +authority; and so flattered were they by his attentions, so duped by his +wariness, that they could not see through the veil which he spread over his +intentions. + +[Footnote 1: Price, 749-753. Skinner, 196, 200, 205. Journals, Jan. 6.] + +[Footnote 2: Ibid. 754. Kennet's Register, 32.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1660. Jan. 12.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1660. Jan. 16.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1660. Jan. 19.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1660. Jan. 23.] + +As he advanced, he received at every stage addresses from boroughs, cities, +and counties, praying him to restore the excluded members, and to procure +a free and a full parliament. With much affectation of humility, Monk +referred the deputies to the two delegates of the supreme power, who +haughtily rebuked them for their officiousness, while the friends of +Monk laboured to keep alive their hopes by remote hints and obscure +predictions.[1] + +To lull the jealousy of the parliament, Monk had taken with him from York +no more than five thousand men, a force considerably inferior to that which +was quartered in London and Westminster. But from St. Alban's he wrote[a] +to the speaker, requesting that five of the regiments in the capital +might be removed before his arrival, alleging the danger of quarrels and +seduction, if his troops were allowed to mix with those who had been so +recently engaged in rebellion. The order was instantly made; but the men +refused[b] to obey. Why, they asked, were they to leave their quarters for +the accommodation of strangers? Why were they to be sent from the capital, +while their pay was several weeks in arrear? The royalists laboured to +inflame the mutineers, and Lambert was on the watch, prepared to place +himself at their head; but the distribution of a sum of money appeased +their murmurs; they consented to march; and the next morning[c] the general +entered at the head of his army, and proceeded to the quarters assigned to +him at Whitehall.[2] + +Soon after his arrival, he was invited to attend and + +[Footnote 1: Price, 754. Merc. Polit. No. 604. Philips, 595. Journals, Jan. +16.] + +[Footnote 2: Price, 755, 757, 758. Jour. Jan. 30. Skinner, 219-221. +Philips, 594, 595, 596. Clar. Pap. iii. 666, 668. Pepys, i. 19, 21.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1660. Jan. 28.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1660. Feb. 2.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1660. Feb. 3.] + +receive the thanks of the house. A chair had been placed for him within +the bar: he stood uncovered behind it; and, in reply[a] to the speaker, +extenuated his own services, related the answers which he had given to +the addresses, warned the parliament against a multiplicity of oaths and +engagements, prayed them not to give any share of power to the Cavaliers or +fanatics, and recommended to their care the settlement of Ireland and the +administration of justice in Scotland. If there was much in this speech +to please, there was also much that gave offence. Scot observed that the +servant had already learned to give directions to his masters.[1] + +As a member of the council of state, he was summoned to abjure the house of +Stuart, according to the late order of parliament. He demurred. Seven of +the counsellors, he observed, had not yet abjured, and he wished to know +their reasons, for the satisfaction of his own conscience. Experience had +shown that such oaths were violated as easily as they were taken, and to +him it appeared an offence against Providence to swear never to acquiesce +in that which Providence might possibly ordain. He had given the strongest +proofs of his devotion to parliament: if these were not sufficient, let +them try him again; he was ready to give more.[2] + +[Footnote 1: Journals, Feb. 6. New Parl. Hist. iii. 1575. Philips, 597. +Price, 759. The Lord-general Monk, his Speech. Printed by J. Macock, 1660.] + +[Footnote 2: Gumble, 228. Price, 759, 760. Philips, 595. About this time, +a parcel of letters to the king, written by different persons in different +ciphers, and intrusted to the care of a Mr. Leonard, was intercepted by +Lockhart at Dunkirk, and sent by him to the council. When the writers +were first told that the letters had been deciphered, they laughed at the +information as of a thing impracticable; but were soon undeceived by the +decipherer, who sent to them by the son of the bishop of Ely copies of +their letters in cipher, with a correct interlineary explanation of +each. They were astonished and alarmed; and, to save themselves from the +consequences of the discovery, purchased of him two of the original letters +at the price of three hundred pounds.--Compare Barwick's Life, 171, and +App. 402, 412, 415, 422, with the correspondence on the subject in the +Clarendon Papers, iii. 668, 681, 696, 700, 715. After this, all letters of +importance were conveyed through the hands of Mrs. Mary Knatchbull, the +abbess of the English convent in Gand.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1660. Feb. 6.] + + +The sincerity of this declaration was soon put to the test. The loyal party +in the city, especially among the moderate Presbyterians, had long been on +the increase. At the last elections the common council had been filled with +members of a new character; and the declaration which they issued demanded +"a full and free parliament, according to the ancient and fundamental laws +of the land." Of the assembly sitting in Westminster, as it contained no +representative from the city, no notice was taken; the taxes which it +had imposed were not paid; and the common council, as if it had been +an independent authority, received and answered addresses from the +neighbouring counties. This contumacy, in the opinion of the parliamentary +leaders, called for prompt and exemplary punishment; and it was artfully +suggested that, by making Monk the minister of their vengeance, they +would open a wide breach between him and their opponents. Two hours after +midnight he received[a] an order to march into the city, to arrest eleven +of the principal citizens, to remove the posts and chains which had lately +been fixed in the streets, and to destroy the portcullises and the gates. +After a moment's hesitation, he resolved to obey, rather than hazard the +loss of his commission. The citizens received him with groans and hisses; +the soldiers murmured; the officers tendered their resignations. He merely +replied that his orders left nothing to his discretion; but the reply was +made with a sternness of + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1660. Feb. 9.] + +tone, and a gloominess of countenance, which showed, and probably was +intended to show, that he acted with reluctance and with self-reproach.[1] + +As soon as the posts and chains were removed, Monk suggested, in a letter +to the speaker, that enough had been done to subdue the refractory spirit +of the citizens. But the parliamentary leaders were not satisfied: they +voted that he should execute his former orders; and the demolition of the +gates and portcullises was effected. The soldiers loudly proclaimed +their discontent: the general, mortified and ashamed, though he had been +instructed to quarter them in the city, led them back to Whitehall.[2] +There, on the review of these proceedings, he thought that he discovered +proofs of a design, first to commit him with the citizens, and then to +discard him entirely. For the house, while he was so ungraciously employed, +had received, with a show of favour, a petition from the celebrated +Praise-God Barebone, praying that no man might sit in parliament, or hold +any public office, who refused to abjure the pretensions of Charles Stuart, +or of any other single person. Now this was the very case of the general, +and his suspicions were confirmed by the reasoning of his confidential +advisers. With their aid, a letter to the speaker was prepared[a] the same +evening, and approved the next morning by the council of officers. In +it the latter were made to complain that they had been rendered the +instruments of personal resentment against the citizens, and to require +that by the following Friday every vacancy in the house should be filled +up, preparatory to its + +[Footnote 1: Journ. Feb. 9. Price, 761. Ludlow, ii. 336. Clar. Pap. iii. +674, 691. Gumble, 236. Skinner, 231-237.] + +[Footnote 2: Journ. Feb. 9. Philips, 599.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1660. Feb. 10.] + +subsequent dissolution and the calling of a new parliament. Without waiting +for an answer, Monk marched back into Finsbury Fields: at his request, a +common council (that body had recently been dissolved by a vote of the +parliament) was summoned; and the citizens heard from the mouth of the +general that he, who yesterday had come among them as an enemy by the +orders of others, was come that day as a friend by his own choice; and that +his object was to unite his fortune with theirs, and by their assistance to +obtain a full and free parliament for the nation. This speech was received +with the loudest acclamations. The bells were tolled; the soldiers were +feasted; bonfires were lighted; and among the frolics of the night was "the +roasting of the rump," a practical joke which long lived in the traditions +of the city. Scot and Robinson, who had been sent to lead back the general +to Whitehall, slunk away in secrecy, that they might escape the indignation +of the populace.[1] + +At Westminster, the parliamentary leaders affected a calmness and +intrepidity which they did not feel. Of the insult offered to their +authority they took no notice; but, as an admonition to Monk, they brought +in a bill[a] to appoint his rival, Fleetwood, commander-in-chief in England +and Scotland. The intervention of the Sunday allowed more sober counsels to +prevail. + +[Footnote 1: Price, 765-768. Clar. Pap. iii. 681, 692, 714. Ludlow, 337. +Gumble, 249. Skinner, 237-243. Old Parl. Hist. xxii. 94. Pepys, i. 24, +25. "At Strand-bridge I could at one time tell thirty-one fires; in +King-street, seven or eight, and all along burning, and roasting, and +drinking for rumps; there being rumps tied upon sticks, and carried up and +down. The butchers at the May-pole in the Strand rang a peal with their +knives, when they were going to sacrifice their rump. On Ludgate-hill there +was one turning of the spit that had a rump tied to it, and another basting +of it. Indeed it was past imagination."--Ibid. 28.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1660. Feb. 11.] + + +They solicited the general to return to Whitehall; they completed the bill +for the qualifications of candidates and electors; and, on the day fixed by +the letter of the officers, ordered[a] writs to be issued for the filling +up of the vacancies in the representation. This measure had been forced +upon them; yet they had the ingenuity to make it subservient to their own +interest, by inserting a provision in the act, that no man should choose or +be chosen, who had not already bound himself to support a republican form +of government. But immediately the members excluded in 1648 brought forward +their claim to sit, and Monk assumed the appearance of the most perfect +indifference between the parties. At his invitation, nine of the leaders on +each side argued the question before him and his officers; and the result +was, that the latter expressed their willingness to support the secluded +members, on condition that they should pledge themselves to settle the +government of the army, to raise money to pay the arrears, to issue +writs for a new parliament to sit on the 20th of April, and to dissolve +themselves before that period. The general returned[b] to Whitehall; +the secluded members attended his summons; and, after a long speech, +declaratory of his persuasion that a republican form of government and a +moderate presbyterian kirk were necessary to secure and perpetuate the +tranquillity of the nation, he advised them to go and resume their seats. +Accompanied by a great number of officers, they walked to the house; the +guard, under the command of Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, opened to let +them pass; and no opposition was made by the speaker or the members.[1] +Hazlerig, however, and the + +[Footnote 1: Journals, Feb. 11, 13, 15, 17, 21. Price, 768-773. Ludlow, ii. +345, 351, 353. Skinner, 256-264. Clar. Pap. 663, 682, 688. Gumble, 260, +263. Philips, 600. The number of secluded members then living was one +hundred and ninety-four, of members sitting or allowed to sit by the orders +of the house, eighty-nine.--"A Declaration of the True State of the Matter +of Fact," 57.] + +[Sideline a: A.D. 1660. Feb. 17.] +[Sideline b: A.D. 1660. Feb. 21.] + +more devoted of his adherents, rose and withdrew--a fortunate secession for +the royalists; otherwise, with the addition of those among the restored +members who adhered to a commonwealth, the republicans might on many +questions have still commanded a majority.[1] + +To the Cavaliers, the conduct of Monk on this occasion proved a source +of the most distressing perplexity. On the one hand, by introducing the +secluded members he had greatly advanced the cause of royalty. For though +Holles, Pierpoint, Popham, and their friends still professed the doctrines +which they had maintained during the treaty in the Isle of Wight, though +they manifested the same hatred of popery and prelacy, though they still +inculcated the necessity of limiting the prerogative in the choice of the +officers of state and in the command of the army, yet they were royalists +by principle, and had, several of them, made the most solemn promises to +the exiled king of labouring strenuously for his restoration. On the other +hand, that Monk at the very time when he gave the law without control, +should declare so loudly in favour of a republican government and +a presbyterian kirk, could not fail to alarm both Charles and his +abettors.[2] Neither was this the only instance: to all, Cavaliers or +republicans, who approached him to discover his intentions, he uniformly +professed the same sentiments, occasionally confirming his professions with +oaths and imprecations. To explain this inconsistency between + +[Footnote 1: Hutchinson, 362.] + +[Footnote 2: Clar. Hist. iii. 720, 721, 723, 724; Papers, ii. 698.] + +the tendency of his actions and the purport of his language, we are told by +those whom he admitted to his private counsels, that it was forced upon him +by the necessity of his situation; that, without it, he must have forfeited +the confidence of the army, which believed its safety and interest to be +intimately linked with the existence of the commonwealth. According to +Ludlow, the best soldier and statesman in the opposite party, Monk had +in view an additional object, to deceive the suspicions and divert the +vigilance of his adversaries; and so successfully had he imposed on the +credulity of many (Hazlerig himself was of the number), that, in defiance +of every warning, they blindly trusted to his sincerity, till their eyes +were opened by the introduction of the secluded members.[1] + +In parliament the Presbyterian party now ruled without opposition. They +annulled[a] all votes relative to their own expulsion from the house in +1648; they selected a new council of state, in which the most influential +members were royalists; they appointed Monk commander-in-chief of the +forces in the three kingdoms, and joint commander of the fleet with Admiral +Montague; they granted him the sum of twenty thousand pounds in lieu of +the palace at Hampton Court, settled on him by the republican party; +they discharged[b] from confinement, and freed from the penalty of +sequestration, Sir George Booth and his associates, a great number of +Cavaliers, and the Scottish lords taken after the battle at Worcester; +they restored the common council, borrowed sixty thousand pounds for the +immediate pay of the army, + +[Footnote 1: Price, 773. Ludlow, 349, 355. Clar. Pap. iii. 678, 697, 703, +711.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1660. Feb. 21.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1660. March.] + +declared the Presbyterian confession of faith to be that of the church of +England, ordered copies of the solemn league and covenant to be hung up in +all churches, offered rewards for the apprehension of Catholic priests, +urged the execution of the laws against Catholic recusants, and fixed the +15th of March for their own dissolution, the 25th of April for the meeting +of a new parliament.[1] + +Here, however, a serious difficulty arose. The House of Commons (according +to the doctrine of the secluded members, it could be nothing more) was +but a single branch of the legislature. By what right could it pretend to +summon a parliament? Ought not the House of Lords, the peers who had been +excluded in 1649, to concur? Or rather, to proceed according to law, ought +not the king either to appoint a commission to hold a parliament, as was +usually done in Ireland, or to name a guardian invested with such power, +as was the practice formerly, when our monarchs occasionally resided in +France? But, on this point, Monk was inflexible. He placed guards at the +door of the House of Lords to prevent the entrance of the peers; and he +refused to listen to any expedient which might imply an acknowledgment of +the royal authority. To the arguments urged by others, he replied,[a] that +the parliament according to law determined by the death of Charles I.; that +the present house could justify its sitting on no other ground but that of +necessity, which did not apply to the House of Lords; and that it was in +vain to expect the submission of the army to a parliament called by royal +authority. The military had, with reluctance, consented to the restoration +of + +[Footnote 1: Journals, passim.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1660. March 3.] + +the secluded members; and to ask more of them at present was to hazard all +the advantages which had hitherto been obtained.[1] + +Encouraged by the downfall of the republicans, the royalists throughout +the country expressed their sentiments without restraint. In some places +Charles was proclaimed by the populace; several ministers openly prayed +for him in the churches: the common council, in their address, declared +themselves not averse to his restoration; and the house itself was induced +to repeal[a] the celebrated engagement in favour of a commonwealth, without +a single person or a house of peers, and to embody under trusty officers +the militia of the city and the counties, as a counterpoise to the +republican interest in the army. The judges of the late king, and the +purchasers of forfeited property, began to tremble. They first tempted the +ambition of the lord-general with the offer of the sovereign authority.[2] +Rejected by him, they appealed to the military; they represented the loss +of their arrears, + +[Footnote 1: Clar. Pap. iii. 704. Ludlow, 364, 365. Price, 773.] + +[Footnote 2: Gumble, 270. Two offers of assistance were made to the +general, on the supposition that he might aspire to the supreme power; one +from the republicans, which I have mentioned, another from Bordeaux, the +French ambassador, in the name of Cardinal Mazarin. On one of these offers +he was questioned by Sir Anthony Ashley Copper in the council of state. If +we may believe Clarges, one of his secret advisers, it was respecting the +former which Clarges mentioned to Cooper. With respect to the offer from +Bordeaux, he tells us that it was made through Clarges himself, and +scornfully rejected by Monk, who nevertheless consented to receive a +visit from Bordeaux, on condition that the subject should not be +mentioned.--Philips, 602, 604. Locke, on the contrary, asserts that Monk +accepted the offer of the French minister; that his wife, through loyalty +to the king, betrayed the secret; and that Cooper put to the general such +searching questions that he was confused, and, in proof of his fidelity, +took away the commissions of several officers of whom the council was +jealous.--Memoirs of Shaftesbury, in Kennet's Register, 86. Locke, ix, 279. +See note (K).] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1660. March 10.] + +and of the property which they had acquired, as the infallible consequences +of the restoration of the royal exile; and they so far wrought on the fears +of the officers, that an engagement to oppose all attempts to set up a +single person was presented[a] to Monk for his signature, with a request +that he would solicit the concurrence of the parliament. A second +council of officers was held the next morning;[b] the general urged the +inexpediency of troubling the house with new questions, when it was on +the point of dissolving itself; and by the address and influence of his +friends, though with considerable difficulty, he procured the suppression +of the obnoxious paper. In a short time he ordered the several officers +to join their respective regiments, appointed a commission to inspect and +reform the different corps, expelled all the officers whose sentiments he +had reason to distrust, and then demanded and obtained from the army an +engagement to abstain from all interference in matters of state, and to +submit all things to the authority of the new parliament.[1] + +Nineteen years and a half had now elapsed since the long parliament first +assembled--years of revolution and bloodshed, during which the nation had +made the trial of almost every form of government, to return at last to +that form from which it had previously departed. On the 16th of March, +one day later than was originally fixed, its existence, which had been +illegally prolonged since the death of Charles I., was terminated[c] by +its own act.[2] The reader is already acquainted with its history. For the +glorious stand + +[Footnote 1: Philips, 603, 606. Price, 781. Kennet's Reg. 113. Thurloe, +vii. 852, 859, 870. Pepys, i. 43. Skinner, 279-284.] + +[Footnote 2: Journals, March 16.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1660. March 14.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1660. March 15.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1660. March 16.] + +which it made against the encroachments of the crown, it deserves both +admiration and gratitude; its subsequent proceedings assumed a more +ambiguous character; ultimately they led to anarchy and military despotism. +But, whatever were its merits or demerits, of both posterity has reaped the +benefit. To the first, we are indebted for many of the rights which we +now enjoy; by the second, we are warned of the evils which result from +political changes effected by violence, and in opposition to the habits and +predilections of the people. + +Monk had now spent more than two months in England, and still his +intentions were covered with a veil of mystery, which no ingenuity, +either of the royalists or of the republicans, could penetrate. Sir John +Grenville, with whom the reader is already acquainted, paid frequent visits +to him at St. James's; but the object of the Cavalier was suspected, and +his attempts[a] to obtain a private interview were defeated by the caution +of the general. After the dissolution, Morrice, the confidential friend +of both, brought them together, and Grenville delivered to Monk a most +flattering letter from the king. He received and perused it with respect. +This was, he observed, the first occasion on which he could express with +safety his devotion to the royal cause; but he was still surrounded with +men of hostile or doubtful sentiments; the most profound secrecy was still +necessary; Grenville might confer in private with Morrice, and must consent +to be himself the bearer of the general's answer. The heads of that +answer were reduced to writing. In it Monk prayed the king to send him a +conciliatory letter, which, at the proper season, he might lay before the +parliament; for himself he asked + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1660. March 10.] + +nothing; he would not name, as he was desired, his reward; it was not for +him to strike a bargain with his sovereign; but, if he might express his +opinion, he advised Charles to promise a general or nearly general pardon, +liberty of conscience, the confirmation of the national sales, and the +payment of the arrears due to the army. As soon as this paper had been, +read, he threw it into the fire, and bade Grenville rely on his memory for +its contents.[1] + +By Charles at Brussels the messenger was received as an angel from heaven. +The doubts which had so long tormented his mind were suddenly removed; the +crown, contrary to expectation, was offered[a] without previous conditions; +and nothing more was required than that he should aid with his pen the +efforts of the general; but when he communicated the glad tidings to +Ormond, Hyde, and Nicholas, these counsellors discovered that the advice, +suggested by Monk, was derogatory to the interests of the throne and the +personal character of the monarch, and composed a royal declaration which, +while it professed to make to the nation the promises recommended by Monk, +in reality neutralized their effect, by subjecting them to such limitations +as might afterwards be imposed by the wisdom of parliament. This paper was +enclosed[b] within a letter to the speaker of the House of Commons; another +letter was addressed to the House of Lords; a third to Monk and the army; +a fourth to Montague and the navy; and a fifth to the lord mayor and the +city. To the general, open copies were transmitted, that he might deliver +or destroy the originals + +[Footnote 1: Clar. Hist. iii. 734-736. Price, 785. Philips, 605. Clar. Pap. +iii. 706, 711. From the last authorities it is plain that Mordaunt was +intrusted with the secret as well as Grenville--also a Mr. Herne, probably +a fictitious name.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1660. March 26.] [Sidenote b: A.D. 1660. April 2.] + +as he thought fit. Notwithstanding the alterations made at Brussels, he +professed himself satisfied with the declaration, and ordered[a] Grenville +to keep the papers in his custody, till the proper season should arrive.[1] + +In the mean while, the writs for the new parliament had been issued; and, +as there was no court to influence, no interference of the military to +control the elections, the result may be fairly taken to express the sense +of the country. The republicans, the Cavaliers, the Presbyterians, all made +every effort in their power to procure the return of members of congenial +sentiments. Of the three parties, the last was beyond comparison the +most powerful, had not division paralyzed its influence. The more rigid +Presbyterians, though they opposed the advocates of the commonwealth +because they were sectaries, equally deprecated the return of the king, +because they feared the restoration of episcopacy. A much greater number, +who still adhered with constancy to the solemn league and covenant, deemed +themselves bound by it to replace the king on the throne, but under the +limitations proposed during the treaty in the Isle of Wight. Others, and +these the most active and influential, saw no danger to be feared from +a moderate episcopacy; and, anxious to obtain honours and preferment, +laboured + +[Footnote 1: Clar. iii. 737-740, 742-751. Price, 790. Monk had been +assured, probably by the French ambassador, that the Spaniards intended to +detain the king at Brussels as a hostage for the restoration of Jamaica and +Dunkirk. On this account he insisted that the king should leave the Spanish +territory, and Charles, having informed the governor of his intention to +visit Breda, left Brussels about two hours, if Clarendon be correct, before +an order was issued for his detention. The several letters, though written +and signed at Brussels, were dated from Breda, and given to Grenville the +moment the king placed his foot on the Dutch territory.--Clar. 740.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1660. April 10.] + +by the fervour of their present loyalty to deserve the forgiveness of their +past transgressions. These joined with the Cavaliers; their united efforts +bore down all opposition; and, in most places, their adversaries either +shrunk from the contest, or were rejected by overwhelming majorities.[1] + +But the republicans sought for aid in another direction. Their emissaries +penetrated into the quarters of the military, where they lamented the +approaching ruin of the good old cause, regretted that so many sacrifices +had been made, so much blood had been shed in vain, and again insinuated to +the officers, that they would forfeit the lands which they had purchased, +to the privates, that they would be disbanded and lose their arrears.[2] +A spirit of discontent began to spread through several corps, and a great +number of officers repaired to the metropolis. But Monk, though he still +professed himself a friend to republican government, now ventured to assume +a bolder tone. The militia of the city, amounting to fourteen thousand men, +was already embodied under his command; he had in his pocket a commission +from Charles, appointing him lord-general over all the military in the +three kingdoms; and he had resolved, should circumstances compel him to +throw off the mask, to proclaim the king, and to summon every faithful +subject to repair to the royal standard. He first ordered[a] the officers +to return to their posts; he then directed the promise of submission to the +new parliament to be tendered to + +[Footnote 1: Thurloe, vii, 866, 887. Price, 787. Carte's Letters, ii. 326. +Clar. Pap. iii. 705, 714, 726, 730, 731, 733. It appears that many of the +royalists were much too active. "When the complaint was made to Monk, he +turned it off with a jest, that as there is a fanatic party on the one +side, so there is a frantic party on the other" (721, 722).] + +[Footnote 2: Thurloe, vii. 870.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1660. April 9.] + +the privates, and every man who refused to make it was immediately +discharged.[1] At the same time, the friends of the commonwealth resolved +to oppose Lambert, once the idol of the soldiery, to Monk. Lambert, indeed, +was a prisoner in the Tower, confined by order of the council, because he +had refused to give security for his peaceable behaviour; but, with the aid +of a rope, he descended[a] from the window of his bed-chamber, was received +by eight watermen in a barge, and found a secure asylum in the city. The +citizens, however, were too loyal to listen to the suggestions of the +party; he left his concealment, hastened[b] into Warwickshire, solicited, +but in vain, the co-operation of Ludlow, collected from the discontented +regiments six troops of horse and some companies of foot, and expected in a +few days to see himself at the head of a formidable force. But Ingoldsby, +who, of a regicide, was become a royalist, met him[c] near Daventry with +an equal number; a troop of Lambert's men under the command of the younger +Hazlerig, passed over to his opponents; and the others, when he gave the +word to charge, pointed their pistols to the ground. The unfortunate +commander immediately turned and fled; Ingoldsby followed; the ploughed +land gave the advantage to the stronger horse; the fugitive was overtaken, +and, after an ineffectual effort to awaken the pity of his former comrade, +submitted to his fate. He was conducted[d] back to the Tower, at the time +when the trained bands, the volunteers, and the auxiliaries raised in the +city, passed in review before the general in Hyde Park. The auxiliaries +drank the king's health on their knees; Lambert was at the moment driven +under Tyburn + +[Footnote 1: Clar. Pap. iii. 715.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1660. April 11.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1660. April 13.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1660. April 21.] +[Sidenote d: A.D. 1660. April 24.] + +and the spectators hailed with shouts and exclamations the disgrace of the +prisoner.[1] + +The Convention parliament (so it was called, because it had not been +legally summoned) met[a] on the appointed day, the 25th of April. The +Presbyterians, by artful management, placed Sir Harbottle Grimstone, one of +their party, in the chair; but the Cavaliers, with their adherents, formed +a powerful majority, and the new speaker, instead of undertaking to stem, +had the prudence to go along with, the stream. Monk sat as representative +of Devonshire, his native county. + +To neutralize the influence of the Cavaliers among the Commons, the +Presbyterian peers who sat in 1648, assembled in the House of Lords, and +chose the earl of Manchester for their speaker. But what right had they +exclusively to constitute a house of parliament? They had not been summoned +in the usual manner by writ; they could not sit as a part of the long +parliament, which was now at least defunct; and, if they founded their +pretensions on their birthright, as consiliarii nati, other peers were +in possession of the same privilege. The question was propounded to the +lord-general, who replied that he had no authority to determine the claims +of any individual. Encouraged by this answer, a few of the excluded peers +attempted to take their seats, and met with no opposition; the example was +imitated by others, and in a few days the Presbyterian lords did not amount +to more than one-fifth of the house. Still, however, to avoid cavil, the +peers who sat in the king's parliament at Oxford, as well as those whose +patents bore date after the + +[Footnote 1: Kennet's Reg. 120. Price, 792, 794. Ludlow, 379. Philips, 607. +Clar. Pap. iii. 735.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1660. April 25.] + +commencement of the civil war, abstained for the present from demanding +admission.[1] + +Monk continued to dissemble. By his direction Grenville applied to a +member, who was entering the council-chamber, for an opportunity of +speaking to the lord-general. Monk came to the door, received from him a +letter, and, recognizing on the seal the royal arms, commanded the guards +to take care that the bearer did not depart. In a few minutes Grenville +was called in, interrogated by the president as to the manner in which he +became possessed of the letter, and ordered to be taken into custody. "That +is unnecessary," said Monk; "I find that he is my near kinsman, and I will +be security for his appearance." + +The ice was now[a] broken. Grenville was treated not as a prisoner, but a +confidential servant of the sovereign. He delivered to the two houses the +letters addressed to them, and received in return a vote of thanks, with a +present of five hundred pounds. The letter for the army was read by Monk +to his officers, that for the navy by Montague to the captains under his +command, and that for the city by the lord mayor to the common council +in the Guildhall. Each of these bodies voted an address of thanks and +congratulation to the king. + +The paper which accompanied the letters to the two houses,--1. granted a +free and general pardon to all persons, excepting such as might afterwards +be excepted by parliament; ordaining that every division of party should +cease, and inviting all who were the subjects of the same sovereign to live +in union and harmony; 2. it declared a liberty to tender consciences, and +that no man should be disquieted or called in + +[Footnote 1: Lords' Journ. xi. 4, 5, 6.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1660. May 1.] + +question for differences of opinion in matters of religion which did not +disturb the peace of the kingdom, and promised moreover the royal assent to +such acts of parliament as should be offered for the full granting of +that indulgence: 3. it alluded to the actions at law to which the actual +possessors of estates purchased by them or granted to them during the +revolution might be liable, and purposed to leave the settlement of all +such differences to the wisdom of parliament, which could best provide for +the just satisfaction of the parties concerned: lastly, it promised to +liquidate the arrears of the army under General Monk, and to retain the +officers and men in the royal service upon the same pay and conditions +which they actually enjoyed. This was the celebrated declaration from +Breda, the royal charter on the faith of which Charles was permitted to +ascend the throne of his fathers.[1] + +Encouraged by the bursts of loyalty with which the king's letters and +declaration had been received, his agents made it their great object to +procure his return to England before limitations could be put on the +prerogative. From the Lords, so numerous were the Cavaliers in the upper +house, no opposition could be feared; and the temper already displayed +by the Commons was calculated to satisfy the wishes of the most ardent +champions of royalty. The two houses voted, that by the ancient and +fundamental laws of the realm the government was and ought to be by king, +lords, and commons; they invited Charles to come and receive the crown to +which he was born; and, to relieve his more urgent necessities, they sent +him a present of fifty thousand pounds, with ten thousand pounds for his +brother the duke of York, and five + +[Footnote 1: Lords' Journ. xi. 7, 10.] + +thousand pounds for the duke of Gloucester. They ordered the arms and +symbols of the commonwealth to be effaced, the name of the king to be +introduced into the public worship, and his succession to be proclaimed +as having commenced from the day of his father's death.[1] Hale, the +celebrated lawyer, ventured, with Prynne, to call[a] upon the House of +Commons to pause in their enthusiasm, and attend to the interests of the +nation. The first moved the appointment of a committee to inquire what +propositions had been offered by the long parliament, and what concessions +had been made by the last king in 1648; the latter urged the favourable +opportunity of coming to a mutual and permanent understanding on all those +claims which had been hitherto subjects of controversy between the two +houses and the crown. But Monk rose, and strongly objected to an inquiry +which might revive the fears and jealousies, the animosities and bloodshed, +of the years that were past. Let the king return while all was peace and +harmony. He would come alone; he could bring no army with him; he would +be as much at their mercy in Westminster as in Breda. Limitations, if +limitations were necessary, might be prepared in the interval, and offered +to him after his arrival. At the conclusion of this speech, the house +resounded with the acclamations of the Cavaliers; and the advocates of the +inquiry, awed by the authority of the general and the clamour of their +opponents, deemed it prudent to desist.[2] + +Charles was as eager to accept, as the houses had been to vote, the address +of invitation. From Breda he had gone to the Hague, where the States, +anxious to atone for their former neglect, entertained him with + +[Footnote 1: Journals of both houses.] + +[Footnote 2: Burnet, i. 88. Ludlow, iii. 8, 9.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1660. May 7.] + +unusual magnificence. The fleet, under Montague,[1] had anchored in the Bay +of Scheveling; and Charles, as soon as the weather permitted, set sail[a] +for Dover, where Monk, at the head of the nobility and gentry from the +neighbouring counties, waited to receive the new sovereign. Every eye +was fixed on their meeting;[b] and the cheerful, though dignified, +condescension of the king, and the dutiful, respectful homage of the +general, provoked the applause of the spectators. Charles embraced him as +his benefactor, bade him walk by his side, and took him into the royal +carriage. From Dover to the capital the king's progress bore the appearance +of a triumphal procession. The roads were covered with crowds of people +anxious to testify their loyalty, while they gratified their curiosity. On +Blackheath he was received[c] by the army in battle array, and greeted with +acclamations as he passed through the ranks; in St. George's Fields the +lord mayor and aldermen invited him to partake of a splendid collation in a +tent prepared for the purpose; from London Bridge to Whitehall the houses +were hung with tapestry, and the streets lined by the trained bands, the +regulars, and the officers who had served under Charles I. The king was +preceded by troops of horsemen, to the amount of three thousand persons, in +splendid dresses, attended by trumpeters and footmen; then came the lord +mayor, carrying the naked sword, after him the lord-general and the duke of +Buckingham, and lastly the king himself, riding between his two brothers. +The cavalcade was closed by the general's life-guard, five regiments + +[Footnote 1: Montague had long been in correspondence with the king, and +disapproved of the dissimulation of Monk, so far as to call him in private +a "thick-sculled fool;" but thought it necessary to flatter him, as he +could hinder the business.--Pepys, i. 69.] + +[Sidenote a: A.D. 1660. May 23.] +[Sidenote b: A.D. 1660. May 25.] +[Sidenote c: A.D. 1660. May 29.] + +of horse, and two troops of noblemen and gentlemen. At Whitehall Charles +dismissed the lord mayor, and received in succession the two houses, whose +speakers addressed him in strains of the most impassioned loyalty, and +were answered by him with protestations of attachment to the interests and +liberties of his subjects. It was late in the evening before the ceremonies +of this important day were concluded; when Charles observed to some of his +confidants "It must sorely have been my fault that I did not come before; +for I have met with no one to-day who did not protest that he always wished +for my restoration."[1] + +That the re-establishment of royalty was a blessing to the country will +hardly be denied. It presented the best, perhaps the only, means of +restoring public tranquillity amidst the confusion and distrust, the +animosities and hatreds, the parties and interests, which had been +generated by the events of the civil war, and by a rapid succession of +opposite and ephemeral governments. To Monk belongs the merit of having, by +his foresight and caution, effected this desirable object without bloodshed +or violence; but to his dispraise it must also be recorded, that he +effected it without any previous stipulation on the part of the exiled +monarch. Never had so fair an opportunity been offered of establishing a +compact between the sovereign and the people, of determining, by mutual +consent, the legal rights of the crown, and of securing from future +encroachment the freedom of the people. That Charles would have consented +to such conditions, + +[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 702. Kennet's Reg. 163. Clarendon's Hist. iii. 772. +Clarendon's Life by Himself, Continuation, p. 7, 8. Evelyn's Diary, ii. +148.] + +we have sufficient evidence; but, when the measure was proposed, the +lord-general declared himself its most determined opponent. It may have +been, that his cautious mind figured to itself danger in delay; it is more +probable that he sought to give additional value to his services in the +eyes of the new sovereign. But, whatever were the motives of his conduct, +the result was, that the king ascended the throne unfettered with +conditions, and thence inferred that he was entitled to all the powers +claimed by his father at the commencement of the civil war. In a few years +the consequence became manifest. It was found that, by the negligence or +perfidy of Monk, a door had been left open to the recurrence of dissension +between the crown and the people; and that very circumstance which Charles +had hailed as the consummation of his good fortune, served only to prepare +the way for a second revolution, which ended in the permanent exclusion of +his family from the government of these kingdoms. + + + * * * * * + + +APPENDIX. + + +NOTE A, p. 117. + +Nothing more clearly shows the readiness of Charles to engage in intrigue, +and the subtleties and falsehood to which he could occasionally descend, +than the history of Glamorgan's mission to Ireland. In this note I purpose +to lay before the reader the substance of the several documents relating to +the transaction. + +On the 1st of April, 1644, the king gave to him, by the name of Edward +Somerset, alias Plantagenet, Lord Herbert, Baron Beaufort, &c., a +commission under the great seal, appointing him commander-in-chief of three +armies of Englishmen, Irishmen, and foreigners; authorizing him to raise +moneys on the securities of the royal wardships, customs, woods, &c.; +furnishing him with patents of nobility from the title of marquis to that +of baronet, to be filled up with names at his discretion; promising to give +the Princess Elizabeth to his son Plantagenet in marriage with a dower of +three hundred thousand pounds, a sum which did not much exceed what Herbert +and his father had already spent in the king's service, and in addition to +confer on Herbert himself the title of duke of Somerset, with the George +and blue ribbon.--From the Nuncio's Memoirs in Birch's Inquiry, p. 22. + +This commission was granted in consequence of an understanding with the +deputies from the confederate Catholics, who were then at Oxford, and its +object is fully explained by Herbert himself in a letter to Clarendon, to +be laid before Charles II., and dated June 11, 1660. "For his majesty's +better information, through your favour, and by the channel of your +lordship's understanding things rightly, give me leave to acquaint you +with one chief key, wherewith to open the secret passages between his late +majesty and myself, in order to his service; which was no other than a +real exposing of myself to any expense or difficulty, rather than his just +design should not take place; or, in taking effect, that his honour should +suffer; an effect, you may justly say, relishing more of a passionate and +blind affection to his majesty's service, than of discretion and care of +myself. This made me take a resolution that he should have seemed angry +with me at my return out of Ireland, until I had brought him into a posture +and power to own his commands, to make good his instructions, and to reward +my faithfulness and zeal therein. + +"Your lordship may well wonder, and the king too, at the amplitude of +my commission. But when you have understood the height of his majesty's +design, you will soon be satisfied that nothing less could have made me +capable to effect it; being that one army of ten thousand men was to have +come out of Ireland through North Wales; another of a like number, at +least, under my command in chief, have expected my return in South Wales, +which Sir Henry Gage was to have commanded as lieutenant-general; and a +third should have consisted of a matter of six thousand men, two thousand +of which were to have been Liegois, commanded by Sir Francis Edmonds, two +thousand Lorrainers, to have been commanded by Colonel Browne, and two +thousand of such French, English, Scots, and Irish, as could be drawn out +of Flanders and Holland. And the six thousand were to have been, by the +prince of Orange's assistance, in the associated counties; and the governor +of Lyne, cousin german to Major Bacon, major of my own regiment, was to +have delivered the town unto them. + +"The maintenance of this army of foreigners was to have come from the pope, +and such Catholick princes as he, should have drawn into it, having engaged +to afford and procure thirty thousand pounds a month; out of which the +foreign army was first to be provided for, and the remainder to be divided +among the other armies. And for this purpose had I power to treat with +the pope and Catholick princes with particular advantages promised to +Catholicks for the quiet enjoying their religion, without the penalties +which the statutes in force had power to inflict upon them. And my +instructions for this purpose, and my powers to treat and conclude +thereupon, were signed by the king under his pocket signet, with blanks for +me to put in the names of pope or princes, to the end the king might have +a starting-hole to deny the having given me such commissions, if excepted +against by his own subjects; leaving me as it were at stake, who for +his majesty's sake was willing to undergo it, trusting to his word +alone."--Clarendon Papers, ii. 201, 202. + +But his departure was delayed by Ormond's objections to the conditions of +peace; and the king, to relieve himself from the difficulty, proposed to +Herbert to proceed to Ireland, and grant privately to the Catholics those +concessions which the lord-lieutenant hesitated to make, on condition of +receiving in return an army of ten thousand men for the royal service. In +consequence, on the 27th of December, Charles announced to Ormond +that Herbert was going to Ireland under an engagement to further the +peace.--Carte, ii. App. p. 5. + +1645, January 2nd. Glamorgan (he was now honoured with the title of earl of +Glamorgan) received these instructions. "First you may ingage y'r estate, +interest and creditt that we will most really and punctually performe any +our promises to the Irish, and as it is necessary to conclude a peace +suddainely, soe whatsoever shall be consented unto by our lieutenant the +marquis of Ormond. We will dye a thousand deaths rather than disannull or +break it; and if vpon necessity any thing to be condescended unto, and yet +the lord marquis not willing to be seene therein, as not fitt for us at the +present publickely to owne, doe you endeavour to supply the same."--Century +of Inventions by Mr. Partington, original letters and official papers, +xxxv. Then follows a promise to perform any promise made by him to Ormond +or others, &c. + +January 6. He received a commission to levy any number of men in Ireland +and other parts beyond the sea, with power to appoint officers, receive the +king's rents, &c.--Birch, p. 18, from the Nuncio's Memoirs, fol. 713. + +January 12. He received another warrant of a most extraordinary +description, which I shall transcribe from a MS. copy in my possession, +attested with the earl's signature, and probably the very same which he +gave to Ormond after his arrest and imprisonment. + + +"CHARLES REX + +"Charles by the grace of God king of England Scotland France and Ireland +Defender of the Fayth, &c. To our Right trusty and Right well beloved +Cossin Edward Earle of Glamorgan greetinge. Whereas wee haue had sufficient +and ample testimony of y'r approued wisdome and fideliti. Soe great is +the confidence we repose in yo'w as that whatsoeuer yo'w shall perform as +warranted only under our signe manuall pockett signett or private marke or +even by woorde of mouthe w'thout further cerimonii, wee doo in the worde of +a kinge and a cristian promis to make good to all intents and purposes as +effectually as if your authoriti from us had binne under our great seale of +England w'th this advantage that wee shall esteem our self farr the moore +obliged to yo'w for y'r gallantry in not standing upon such nice tearms to +doe us service w'h we shall God willing rewarde. And althoughe yo'w exceed +what law can warrant or any power of ours reach unto, as not knowinge what +yo'w may have need of, yet it being for our service, wee oblige ourself not +only to give yo'w our pardon, but to mantayne the same w'th all our might +and power, and though, either by accident yo'w loose or by any other +occasion yo'w shall deem necessary to deposit any of our warrants and so +wante them at yo'r returne, wee faythfully promise to make them good +at your returne, and to supply any thinge wheerin they shall be founde +defective, it not being convenient for us at this time to dispute upon +them, for of what wee haue heer sett downe yo'w may rest confident, if +theer be fayth or truth in man; proceed theerfor cheerfully, spedelj, and +bouldly, and for your so doinge this shal be yo'r sufficient warrant. Given +at our Court at Oxford under our signe manuall and privat signet this 12 of +January 1644. + + "GLAMORGAN. + + "To our Right trustj and Right well beloved cosin + Edward Earle of Glamorgan." + Indorsed, "The Earle of Glamorgan's further authoritj." + +Feb. 12. Glamorgan had left Oxford, and was raising money in Wales, when +Charles sent him other despatches, and with them a letter desiring him to +hasten to Ireland. In it he acknowledges the danger of the undertaking, +that Glamorgan had already spent above a million of crowns in his service, +and that he was bound in gratitude to take care of him next to his own wife +and children. "What I can further thinke at this point is to send y'w the +blue ribben, and a warrant for the title of duke of Somerset, both w'ch +accept and make vse of at your discretion, and if you should deferre y'e +publishing of either for a whyle to avoyde envye, and my being importuned +by others, yet I promise yo'r antiquitie for y'e one and your pattent for +the other shall bear date with the warrants."--Century of Inventions, p. +xxxiv. On the 18th of August, 1660, the marquess of Hertford complained +that this patent was injurious to him, as he claimed the tide of Somerset. +Glamorgan, then marquess of Worcester, readily surrendered it on the 3rd of +September, and his son was created duke of Beaufort. + +On March 12, the king wrote to him the following letter:-- + +"HERBERT, + +"I wonder you are not yet gone for Ireland; but since you have stayed all +this time, I hope these will ouertake you, whereby you will the more see +the great trust and confidence I repose in your integrity, of which I have +had soe long and so good experience; commanding yow to deale with all +ingenuity and freedome with our lieutenant of Ireland the marquess of +Ormond, and on the word of a king and a Christian I will make good any +thing which our lieutenant shall be induced unto upon your persuasion; and +if you find it fitting, you may privately shew him these, which I intend +not as obligatory to him, but to myselfe, and for both your encouragements +and warrantise, in whom I repose my cheefest hopes, not having in all my +kingdomes two such subjects; whose endeauours joining, I am confident to be +soone drawen out of the mire I am now enforced to wallow in."--Century of +Inventions, xxxviii. + +What were the writings meant by the word "_these_" which Glamorgan might +show to Ormond if he thought fitting? Probably the following warranty dated +at Oxford on the same day. + +"CHARLES R. + +"Charles by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland +Defender of the Fayth &c. To our right trusty and right welbeloved Cosin +Edward earle of Glamorgan Greeting. We reposing great and espitiall trust, +and confidence in y'r approved wisdome, and fidelity doe by these (as +firmely as under our great seale to all intents and purposes) Authorise +and give you power to treate and conclude w'th the Confederat Romaine +Catholikes in our Kingdom of Ireland, if vpon necessity any thing be to be +condescended vnto wherein our Lieutenant can not so well be seene in as not +fitt for vs at the present publikely to owne, and therefore we charge you +to proceede according to this our warrant w'th all possible secresie, +and for whatsoever you shall engage your selfe, vpon such valuable +considerations as you in y'r iudgement shall deeme fitt, we promise in the +word of a King and a Christian to ratifie and performe the same, that shall +be graunted by you, and vnder your hand and seale, the sayd confederat +Catholikes having by theyr supplyes testified theyre zeale to our service, +and this shall be in eache particular to you a sufficient warrant. Given at +our Court at Oxford, under our signett and Royall signature the twelfe day +of Marche in the twentieth year of our Raigne 1644. + +To our Right Trusty and right welbeloved Cosin, + +Edward Earle of Glamorgan." + +Some writers have attempted to dispute the authenticity of this warrant, +because though it was inserted verbatim in Glamorgan's treaty with the +confederates, he did not produce it at the requisition of the council at +Dublin, under the excuse that he had deposited it with the Catholics at +Kilkenny. But that this was the truth, appears from the Nuncio's Memoirs: +"a sua majestate mandatum habuit, cujus originate regiâ manu subscriptum +Glamorganae comes deposuit apud confoederatos Catholicos," (fol. 1292, apud +Birch, 215); and if better authority be required, I have in my possession +the original warrant itself, with the king's signature and private seal, +bearing the arms of the three kingdoms, a crown above, and C.R. on the +sides, and indorsed in the same handwriting with the body of the warrant, +"The Earle of Glamorgan's espetiall warrant for Ireland." Of this original +the above is a correct copy. + +April 30. The king having heard that Rinuccini had been appointed nuncio, +and was on his way to Ireland, sent to Glamorgan a letter for that prelate +and another for the pope. The contents of the second are unknown; the first +is copied in the Nuncio's Memoirs, "Nous ne doubtons point, que les choses +n'yront bien, et que les bonnes intentions commencés par effect du dernier +pape ne s'accomplisseront par celuys icy, et par vos moyens, en notre +royaume d'Irelande et de Angleterre."--Birch 28. He then requests the +nuncio to join with Glamorgan, and promises to accomplish on the return of +the latter, whatever they shall have resolved together.--Ibid. + +The king, on his return to Oxford, after the disastrous campaign of 1645, +still placed his principal reliance on the mission of Glamorgan; and, to +induce the court of Rome to listen to the proposals of that envoy, wrote, +with his own hand, the two following letters, of which the originals still +exist in the Archivio Vaticano, one to the pope himself, the other to +Cardinal Spada, requesting of both to give credit to Glamorgan or his +messenger, and engaging the royal word to fulfil whatever should be agreed +upon by Glamorgan, in the name of his sovereign:-- + +"BEATISSIME PATER, + +"Tot tantaque testimonia fidelitatis et affectus consanguinei nostri +comitis Glamorganiae jamdudum accepimus, eamque in illo fiduciam merito +reponimus, ut Sanctitas Vestra ei fidem merito praebere possit in quacumque +re, de qua per se vel per alium nostro nomine cum Sanctitate Vestra +tractaturus sit. Quaecumque vero ab ipso certo statuta fuerint, ea munire +et confirmare pollicemur. In cujus testimonium brevissimas has scripsimus, +manu et sigillo nostro munitas, qui nihil (potius) habemus in votis, quam +ut fevore vestro in eum statum redigamur, quo palam profiteamur nos. + +"Sanctitatis Vestrae + +"Humilimum et obedientissimum servum, + + "Apud Curiam nostram, CHARLES R. + Oxoniae, Oct. 20, 1645." + +_Superscription_-- + +"Beatissimo Patri Innocentio decimo Pontifici Maximo." + +"Eminentissime Domine, Pauca scripsimus Beatissimo Patri, de fide adhibenda +consanguineo nostro comiti Glamorganiae, et cuilibet ab eo delegato, quem +ut Eminentia vestra pariter omni favore prosequatur, rogamus; certoque +credat nos ratum habituros quicquid a praedicte comite, vel suo delegato, +cum Sanctissimo Patre vel Eminentia vestra transactum fuerit. + +"Eminentiae Vestrae, + + "Apud Curiam nostram, Fidelisimus Amicus, + Oxoniae, Oct. 20, 1645." CHARLES R. + +_Superscription_-- + +"Eminentissimo Domino et Consanguineo nostro, Dño Cardinali Spada." + +After the discovery of the whole proceeding, the king, on January 29th, +1646, sent a message to the two houses in England, in which he declares +(with what truth the reader may judge) that Glamorgan had a commission to +raise men, and "to that purpose only;" that he had no commission to treat +of any thing else without the privity and directions of Ormond; that he +had never sent any information of his having made any treaty with the +Catholics, and that he (the king) disavowed him in his proceedings, and +had ordered the Irish council to proceed against him by due course of +law.--Charles's Works, 555. + +Two days later, January 31, having acknowledged to the council at Dublin +that he had informed Glamorgan of the secret instructions given to Ormond, +and desired him to use his influence with the Catholics to persuade them to +moderate their demands, he proceeds: "To this end (and with the strictest +limitations that we could enjoin him, merely to those particulars +concerning which we had given you secret instructions, as also even in that +to do nothing but by your especial directions) it is possible we might have +thought fit to have given unto the said earl of Glamorgan such a credential +as might give him credit with the Roman Catholics, in case you should find +occasion to make use of him, either as a farther assurance unto them of +what you should privately promise, or in case you should judge it necessary +to manage those matters for their greater confidence apart by him, of whom, +in regard of his religion and interest, they might be less jealous. This is +all, and the very bottom of what we might have possibly entrusted unto the +said earl of Glamorgan in this affair."--Carte's Ormond, iii. 446. How this +declaration is to be reconciled with the last, I know not. + +With this letter to the council he sent two others. One was addressed +to Ormond, asserting on the word of a Christian that he never intended +Glamorgan to treat of any thing without Ormond's knowledge and approbation, +as he was always diffident of the earl's judgment, but at the same time +commanding him to suspend the execution of any sentence which might be +pronounced against that nobleman.--Carte, ii. App. p. 12. The second, dated +Feb. 3, was to Glamorgan himself, in these words:-- + +"GLAMORGAN, + +I must clearly tell you, both you and I have been abused in this business; +for you have been drawn to consent to conditions much beyond your +instructions, and your treaty had been divulged to all the world. If you +had advised with my lord lieutenant, as you promised me, all this had been +helped. But we must look forward. Wherefore, in a word, I have commanded +as much favour to be shewn to you as may possibly stand with my service or +safety; and if you will yet trust my advice--which I have commanded Digby +to give you freely--I will bring you so off that you may still be useful +to me, and I shall be able to recompence you for your affection; if not, +I cannot tell what to say. But I will not doubt your compliance in this, +since it so highly concerns the good of all my crowns, my own particular, +and to make me have still means to shew myself + +Your most assured Friend, + +CHARLES R. Oxford, Feb. 3, 1645-6." _Warner_, 360. + +In this letter Charles, in his own defence, pretends to blame Glamorgan; +probably as a blind to Ormond and Digby, through whom it was sent. Soon +afterwards, on February 28th, he despatched Sir J. Winter to him with full +instructions, and the following consolatory epistle:-- + +"HERBERT, + +I am confident that this honest trusty bearer will give you good +satisfaction why I have not in euerie thing done as you desired, the wante +of confidence in you being so farre from being y'e cause thereof, that I +am euery day more and more confirmed in the trust that I have of you, for +beleeve me, it is not in the power of any to make you suffer in my opinion +by ill offices; but of this and diuers other things I have given so full +instructions that I will saye no more, but that I am + +Yor most assured constant Friend, + +CHARLES R." + +_Century of Inventions_, xxxix. + +April 5th he wrote to him again. + +"GLAMORGAN, + +I have no time, nor do you expect that I shall make unnecessary repetitions +to you. Wherefore, referring you to Digby for business, this is only to +give you assurance of my constant friendship to you: which, considering the +general defection of common honesty, is in a sort requisite. Howbeit, I +know you cannot but be confident of my making good all instructions and +promises to you and the nuncio. + +Your most assured constant Friend, + +CHARLES R." + +_Warner_, 373. + +On the following day the king sent him another short letter. + +"HERBERT, + +As I doubt not but you have too much courage to be dismayed or discouraged +at the usage you have had, so I assure you that my estimation of you is +nothing diminished by it, but rather begets in me a desire of revenge and +reparation to us both; for in this I hold myself equally interested with +you. Wherefore, not doubting of your accustomed care and industry in my +service, I assure you of the continuance of my favour and protection to +you, and that in deeds more than words, I shall shew myself to be + +Your most assured constant Friend, + +CHARLES R." + +_Warner_, 374. + +If after the perusal of these documents any doubt can remain of the +authenticity of Glamorgan's commission, it must be done away by the +following passage from Clarendon's correspondence with secretary Nicholas. +Speaking of his intended history, he says, "I must tell you, I care not how +little I say in that business of Ireland, since those strange powers and +instructions given to your favourite Glamorgan, which appears to me so +inexcusable to justice, piety, and prudence. And I fear there is very much +in that transaction of Ireland, both before and since, that you and I were +never thought wise enough to be advised with in. Oh, Mr. Secretary, those +stratagems have given me more sad hours than all the misfortunes in war +which have befallen the king, and look like the effects of God's anger +towards us."--Clarendon Papers, ii. 337. + +It appears that the king, even after he had been delivered by the Scots +to the parliament, still hoped to derive benefit from the exertions of +Glamorgan. About the beginning of June, 1647, Sir John Somerset, the +brother of that nobleman, arrived in Rome with a letter from Charles to +Innocent X. The letter is not probably in existence; but the answer of the +pontiff shows that the king had solicited pecuniary assistance, and, as an +inducement, had held out some hint of a disposition on his part to admit +the papal supremacy and the Catholic creed. Less than this cannot be +inferred from the language of Innocent. Literae illae praecipuam tuam +alacritatem ac propensionem ad obediendum Deo in nobis, qui ejus vices +gerimus, luculenter declarant ... a majestate tua enixe poscimus, ut +quod velle coepit, mox et facto perficiat ... ut aliquo id aggrediaris +argumento, quo te te ad Catholicam fidem recepisse intelligamus. +Undoubtedly Charles was making the same experiment with the pontiff which +he had just made with his Presbyterian subjects; and as, to propitiate +them, he had undertaken to study the Presbyterian doctrines, so he hoped +to draw money from Innocent by professing an inclination in favour of +the Catholic creed. But the attempt failed. The answer was, indeed, +complimentary: it expressed the joy of the pontiff at the perusal of his +letter, and exhorted him to persevere in the inquiry till he should come to +the discovery of the truth; but it disposed of his request, as Urban +had previously disposed of a similar request, by stating that it was +inconsistent with the duty of the pope to spend the treasures of his church +in the support of any but Catholic princes. This answer is dated 29th June, +1647. + +NOTE B, p. 136. + +1. The ordinances had distinguished two classes of delinquents, the one +religious, the other political. The first comprised all Catholic recusants, +all persons whomsoever, who, having attained the age of twenty-one, should +refuse to abjure upon oath the doctrines peculiar to the Catholic creed. +These were reputed papists, and had been made to forfeit two-thirds of +their real and personal estates, which were seized for the benefit of the +kingdom by the commissioners of sequestration appointed in each particular +county. The second comprehended all persons who were known to have fought +against the parliament, or to have aided the royal party with money, men, +provisions, advice, or information; and of these the whole estates, both +real and personal, had been sequestrated, with the sole exception of +one-fifth allotted for the support of their wives and children, if the +latter were educated in the Protestant religion.--Elsynge's Ordinances. 3, +22, et seq. + +2. These sequestrated estates not only furnished a yearly income, but also +a ready supply on every sudden emergency. Thus when Colonel Harvey refused +to march till his regiment had received the arrears of its pay, amounting +to three thousand pounds, an ordinance was immediately passed to raise +the money by the sale of woods belonging to Lord Petre, in the county of +Essex.--Journals, vi, 519. When a complaint was made of a scarcity of +timber for the repairs of the navy, the two houses authorized certain +shipwrights to fell two thousand five hundred oak trees on the estates +of delinquents in Kent and Essex.--Ibid, 520. When the Scots demanded a +month's pay for their army, the committee at Goldsmiths' Hall procured the +money by offering for sale such property of delinquents as they judged +expedient, the lands at eight, the houses at six years' purchase.--Journals +of Commons, June 10, 24, 1644. + +3. But the difficulty of procuring ready money by sales induced the +commissioners to look out for some other expedient; and when the sum of +fifteen thousand pounds was wanted to put the army of Fairfax in motion, +it was raised without delay by offering to delinquents the restoration +of their sequestrated estates, on the immediate payment of a certain +fine.--Commons' Journals, Sept. 13, 1644. The success of this experiment +encouraged them to hold out a similar indulgence to such persons as were +willing to quit the royal party, provided they were not Catholics, and +would take the oath of abjuration of the Catholic doctrine.--Ibid. March +6, August 12, 1645; May 4, June 26, Sept. 3, 1646. Afterwards, on the +termination of the war, the great majority of the royalists were admitted +to make their compositions with the committee. Of the fines required, the +greater number amounted to one-tenth, many to one-sixth, and a few +to one-third of the whole property, both real and personal, of the +delinquents.--(See the Journals of both houses for the years 1647, 1648.) + +NOTE C, p. 241. + +On the day after the king's execution appeared a work, entitled [Greek: +EIKON BASILIKAe], or the Portraicture of his Sacred Majesty in "his +Solitude and Sufferings." It professed to be written by Charles himself; +a faithful exposition of his own thoughts on the principal events of his +reign, accompanied with such pious effusions as the recollection suggested +to his mind. It was calculated to create a deep sensation in favour of the +royal sufferer, and is said to have passed through fifty editions in the +course of the first year. During the commonwealth, Milton made a feeble +attempt to disprove the king's claim to the composition of the book: after +the restoration, Dr. Gauden, a clergyman of Bocking, in Essex, came forward +and declared himself the real author. But he advanced his pretensions with +secrecy, and received as the price of his silence, first the bishopric of +Exeter, and afterwards, when he complained of the poverty of that see, the +richer bishopric of Worcester. + +After the death of Gauden his pretensions began to transpire, and became +the subject of an interesting controversy between his friends and the +admirers of Charles. But many documents have been published since, which +were then unknown, particularly the letters of + +Gauden to the earl of Clarendon (Clarendon Papers, iii. App. xxvi.-xxxi., +xcv.), and others from him to the earl of Bristol (Maty's Review, ii. 253. +Clarendon Papers, iii. App. xcvi.; and Mr. Todd, Memoirs of Bishop Walton, +i. 138). These have so firmly established Gauden's claim, that, whoever +denies it must be prepared to pronounce that prelate an impostor, to +believe that the bishops Morley and Duppa gave false evidence in his +favour, and, to explain how it happened, that those, the most interested to +maintain the right of the king, namely Charles II., his brother the duke of +York, and the two earls of Clarendon and Bristol, yielded to the deception. +These difficulties, however, have not appalled Dr. Wordsworth, who in +a recent publication of more than four hundred pages, entitled, "Who +wrote[Greek: EIKON BASILIKAe]" has collected with patient industry every +particle of evidence which can bear upon the subject; and after a most +minute and laborious investigation, has concluded by adjudging the work +to the king, and pronouncing the bishop an impudent impostor. Still my +incredulity is not subdued. There is much in the[Greek: EIKON BASILIKAe] +itself which forbids me to believe that Charles was the real author, though +the latter, whoever he were, may have occasionally consulted and copied the +royal papers; and the claim of Gauden appears too firmly established to be +shaken by the imperfect and conjectural improbabilities which have hitherto +been produced against it. + + +NOTE D, p. 276. + + +_The Massacres at Drogheda and Wexford_. + +I. Drogheda was taken by storm on the 11th of September, 1649. Cromwell, on +his return to Dublin, despatched two official accounts of his success, one +to Bradshaw, president of the council of state; a second to Lenthall, the +speaker of parliament. They were dated on the 16th and 17th of September; +which probably ought to have been the 17th and 18th, for he repeatedly +makes such mistakes in numbering the days of that month. These two +documents on several accounts deserve the attention of the reader. + +I. Both mention a massacre, but with this difference, that whereas the +earlier seems to confine it to the men in arms against the commonwealth, +the second towards the end notices, incidentally as it were, the additional +slaughter of a thousand of the townspeople in the church of St. Peter. In +the first, Cromwell, as if he doubted how the shedding of so much blood +would be taken, appears to shift the origin of the massacre from himself to +the soldiery, who considered the refusal of quarter as a matter of course, +after the summons which had been sent into the town on the preceding day; +but in the next despatch he assumes a bolder tone, and takes upon himself +all the blame or merit of the proceeding. "Our men were ordered _by me_ +to put them all to the sword."--"I forbade them to spare any that were +in arms." In the first, to reconcile the council to the slaughter, he +pronounces it a "marvellous great mercy;" for the enemy had lost by it +their best officers and prime soldiers: in the next he openly betrays his +own misgivings, acknowledging that "such actions cannot but work remorse +and regret without sufficient grounds," and alleging as sufficient grounds +in the present case--1. that it was a righteous judgment of God on +barbarous wretches who had imbued their hands in so much innocent blood; +and 2. that it would tend to prevent the effusion of blood for the future. + +2. Now the insinuation conveyed in the first of these reasons, that +the major part of the garrison had been engaged in the outbreak of the +rebellion and its accompanying horrors, was in all probability a falsehood; +for the major part of the garrison was not composed of native soldiers, +but of Englishmen serving under the marquess of Ormond, the king's lord +lieutenant. This is plain from the evidence of persons who cannot be +supposed ignorant of the fact; the evidence of the royalist Clarendon +(History, vol. iii. part i. p. 323), and of the republican Ludlow, who soon +afterwards was made general of the horse, and became Cromwell's deputy +in the government of the island (Ludlow, Memoirs, i. 301). But, however +groundless the insinuation might be, it served Cromwell's purpose; it would +array in his favour the fanaticism of the more godly of his party. + +For the massacre of the townspeople in the church he offers a similar +apology, equally calculated to interest the feelings of the saints. "They +had had the insolence on the last Lord's day to thrust out the Protestants, +and to have the mass said there." Now this remark plainly includes a +paralogism. The persons who had ordered the mass to be said there on the +9th of September were undoubtedly the civil or military authorities in the +town. Theirs was the guilt, if guilt it were, and theirs should have been +the punishment. Yet his argument supposes that the unarmed individuals +whose blood was shed there on the 12th, were the very persons who had set +up the mass on the 9th. + +3. We know not how far this second massacre was originated or encouraged by +Cromwell. It is well known that in the sack of towns it is not always in +the power of the commander to restrain the fury of the assailants, who +abuse the license of victory to gratify the most brutal of their passions. +But here we have no reason to suppose that Cromwell made any effort to save +the lives of the unarmed and the innocent. Both the commander and his +men had a common religious duty to perform. They were come, in his +own language, "to ask an account of the innocent blood which had been +shed,"--to "do execution on the enemies of God's cause." Hence, in the case +of a resisting city, they included the old man, the female, and the child +in the same category with the armed combatant, and consigned all to the +same fate. + +4. Of the proceedings of the victors during that night we are ignorant; but +it does not suggest a very favourable notion of their forbearance, that +in the following morning the great church of St. Peter's was filled with +crowds of townspeople of both sexes, and of every age and condition. The +majority of the women and children sought protection within the body of the +church; a select party of females, belonging to the first families in the +town, procured access to the crypts under the choir, which seemed to offer +more favourable chances of concealment and safety. But the sacred edifice +afforded no asylum to either. The carnage began within the church at an +early hour; and, when it was completed, the bloodhounds tracked their prey +into the vaults beneath the pavement. Among the men who thus descended into +these subterranean recesses, was Thomas Wood, at that time a subaltern, +afterwards a captain in Ingoldsby's regiment. He found there, according +to his own narrative, "the flower and choicest of the women and ladies +belonging to the town, amongst whom a most handsome virgin, arrayed in +costly and gorgeous apparel, kneeled down to him with tears and prayers to +save her life; and being strucken with a profound pitie, he took her under +his arme, and went with her out of the church with intentions to put +her over the works to shift for herself; but a soldier perceiving his +intention, he ran his sword up her belly or fundament. Whereupon Mr. Wood, +seeing her gasping, took away her money, jewels, &c., and flung her down +over the works." (See the Life of Anthony a Wood, p. xx., in the edition by +Bliss, of 1813. Thomas was the brother of Anthony, the Oxford historian.) +"He told them also that 3,000 at least, besides some women and children, +were, after the assailants had _taken part, and afterwards all the towne_, +put to the sword on the 11th and 12th of September, 1649. He told them +that when they were to make their way up to the lofts and galleries of +the church, and up to the tower, where the enemy had fled, each of the +assailants would take up a child, and use as a buckler of defence, +when they ascended the steps, to keep themselves from being shot or +brained."--Wood, ibid. These anecdotes, from the mouth of one who was an +eyewitness of, probably a participator in, the horrors of that day, will +enable the reader to form an adequate notion of the thirst for blood which +stimulated the soldiery, and of the cruelties which they exercised on their +defenceless victims. + +5. The terms of indignation, and abhorrence in which the sack of Drogheda +was described by the royalists of that period are well known. I shall add +here another testimony; not that it affords more important information, +but because I am not aware that it has ever met the eye of more recent +historians; the testimony of Bruodin, an Irish friar, of great eminence and +authority in the Franciscan order. "Quinque diebus continuis haec laniena +(qua, nullo habito locorum, sexus, religionis aut aetatis discrimine, +juvenes et virgines lactantes aeque ac senio confecti barbarorum gladiis +ubique trucidati sunt) duravit. Quatuor milia Catholicorum virorum (ut +de infinita multitudine religiosorum, foeminarum, puerorum, puellarum +et infantium nihil dicam) in civitate gladius impiorum rebellium illa +expugnatione devoravit."--Propugnaculum Cathol. Veritatis, lib. iv. c. 14, +p. 678. + +6. Here another question occurs. How did Cromwell obtain possession of +Drogheda? for there appears in his despatches a studied evasion of the +particulars necessary to give a clear view of the transaction. The +narrative is so confused that it provokes a suspicion of cunning and +concealment on the part of the writer. The royalists affirmed that +the place was won through promises of quarter which were afterwards +perfidiously violated, and their assertion is supported by the testimony of +Ormond in an official letter written from the neighbourhood to Lord Byron. +"Cromwell," he says, "having been twice beaten from the breach, carried it +the third time, all his officers and soldiers promising quarter to such as +would lay down their arms, and performing it as long as any place held +out, which encouraged others to yield; but when they had all once in their +power, and feared no hurt that could be done them, then the word no quarter +went round, and the soldiers were, many of them, forced against their wills +to kill their prisoners. The governor and all his officers were killed +in cold blood, except some few of least consideration that escaped by +miracle."--Sept. 29, Carte's Letters, ii. 412. It is possible, though +not very probable, that Ormond suffered himself to be misled by false +information. It should, however, be observed, that there is nothing in his +account positively contradicted by Cromwell's despatch. Cromwell had, not +forbidden the granting of quarter before the storm. It was afterwards, "in +the heat of the action," that he issued this order. But at what part of the +action? On what account? What had happened to provoke him to issue it? +He tells us that within the breach the garrison had thrown up three +entrenchments; two of which were soon carried, but the third, that on the +Mill-Mount, was exceedingly strong, having a good graft, and strongly +palisaded. For additional particulars we must have recourse to other +authority, from which we learn that within this work was posted a body of +picked soldiers with every thing requisite for a vigorous defence, so that +it could not have been taken by force without the loss of some hundreds of +men on the part of the assailants. It so happened, however, that the latter +entered it without opposition, and "Colonel Axtell, with some twelve of +his men, went up to the top of the mount, and demanded of the governor the +surrender of it, who was very stubborn, speaking very big words, but at +length was persuaded to go into the windmill at the top of the mount, and +as many more of the chiefest of them as it could contain, _where they were +disarmed, and afterwards all slain_."--Perfect Diurnal from Oct. 1 to Oct. +8. Now Cromwell in his despatch says "The governor, Sir Arthur Ashton, and +divers considerable officers, being there (on the Mill-Mount), our men, +getting up to them, were ordered by me to put them all to the sword." In my +opinion this passage affords a strong corroboration of the charge made by +Ormond. If the reader compare it with the passage already quoted from the +Diurnal, he will find it difficult to suppress a suspicion that Axtell +and his men had obtained a footing on the Mill-Mount through the offer of +quarter; and that this was the reason why Cromwell, when he knew that they +had obtained possession, issued an order forbidding the granting of quarter +on any account. The consequence was, that the governor and his officers +went into the mill, and were there disarmed, and afterwards all slain. The +other prisoners were treated in the same manner as their officers. + +7. Ormond adds, in the same letter, that the sack of the town lasted during +five days, meaning, probably, from September 11 to September 15, or 16, +inclusively. The same is asserted by most of the royalists. But how could +that be, when the storm began on the 11th, and the army marched from +Drogheda on the 15th? The question may perhaps be solved by a circumstance +accidentally mentioned by Dr. Bates, that on the departure of the army, +several individuals who had hitherto succeeded in concealing themselves, +crept out of their hiding-places, but did not elude the vigilance of the +garrison, by whom they were put to the sword.--Bates's Rise and Progress, +part ii. p. 27. + +II. 1. It did not require many days to transmit intelligence from Dublin to +the government; for the admiralty had contracted with a Captain Rich, that +for the monthly sum of twenty-two pounds he should constantly have two +swift-sailing vessels, stationed, one at Holyhead, the other at Dublin, +ready to put to sea on the arrival of despatches for the service of the +state.--Lords' Journ. ix. 617. From an accidental entry in Whitelock, it +would appear that the letters from Cromwell reached London on the 27th +of September; on the 28th, parliament, without any cause assigned in the +Journals, was adjourned to October 2nd, and on that day the official +account of the massacre at Drogheda was made public. At the same time an +order was obtained from the parliament, that "a letter should be written to +the lord lieutenant of Ireland, to be communicated to the officers there, +that the house doth approve of the execution done at Drogheda both as +an act of justice to them and mercy to others, who may be warned by it" +(Journals, vi. 301), which are the very reasons alleged by Cromwell in his +despatch. His conduct was now sanctioned by the highest authority; and from +that moment the saints in the army rejoiced to indulge the yearnings of +their zeal for the cause of God, by shedding the blood of the Irish enemy. +Nor had they long to wait for the opportunity. On the 1st of October he +arrived in the neighbourhood of Wexford; on the 9th he opened a cannonade +on the castle, which completely commanded the town. On the 11th, Synnot, +the military governor, offered to capitulate; four commissioners, one of +whom was Stafford, the captain of the castle, waited on Cromwell to +arrange the terms. He was dissatisfied with their demands, pronounced them +"abominable," and detained them till he had prepared his answer. By that +answer he granted life and liberty to the soldiers; life, but not liberty, +to the commissioned officers, and freedom from pillage to the inhabitants, +subject, however, to the decision of parliament with respect to their real +property. He required an immediate acceptance of these terms, and the +delivery to him of six hostages within an hour.--(Compare the letter of +October 16 in the King's Pamphlets, No. 442, with the document published +by Mr. Carlyle, ii. 79, which appears to me nothing more than a rough and +incorrect draft of an intended answer.) But Stafford was a traitor. In the +interval, being "fairly treated," he accepted, without communication with +the governor, the terms granted by Cromwell, and opened the gates of the +fortress to the enemy. From the castle they scaled an undefended wall in +the vicinity, and poured into the town. A paper containing the terms was +now delivered to the other three commissioners; but "their commissioners +this while not having hearts to put themselves into the town again with out +offer."--Ibid. Letter of October 16. Thus Synnot and the other authorities +remained in ignorance of Cromwell's decision. + +2. At the first alarm the garrison and burghers assembled in the +market-place, to which they were accompanied or followed by crowds of +old men, women, and children. For a while the progress of the enemy was +retarded by barricades of cables. At the entrance of the market-place they +met with a "stiff resistance," as it is called by Cromwell. The +action lasted about an hour; but the assailants receiving continual +reinforcements, obtained at last fell possession of the place, and put +to the sword every human being found upon it. The governor and the mayor +perished with the rest. + +3. But how could these bloody proceedings be reconciled with the terms of +capitulation which had been already granted? If we may believe Cromwell's +official account, a matchless specimen of craft and mystification, _he_ was +not to blame that they had been broken. He was perfectly innocent of all +that had happened. Could he not then have ordered his men to keep within +the castle, or have recalled them when they forced an entrance into the +town? Undoubtedly he might; but the pious man was unwilling to put himself +in opposition to God. "His study had been to preserve the place from +plunder, that it might be of more use to the commonwealth and the army." +But he saw "that God would not have have it so." The events which so +quickly followed each other, were to him a proof that God in his righteous +judgment had doomed the town and its defendants to destruction; on which +account he "thought it not good, nor just, to restrain off the soldiers +from their right of pillage, nor from doing of execution on the +enemy."--Letter of 16th of October. He concludes his despatch to the +government with these words:--"Thus it has pleased God to give into your +hands this other mercy, for which, as for all, we pray God may have all the +glory. Indeed, your instruments are poor and weak. and can do nothing but +through believing, and that is the gift of God also."--Cary's Memorials, +ii. 180. Did then the fanatic believe that perfidy and cruelty were gifts +of God? for at Wexford he could not plead, as at Drogheda, that his summons +had been contemptuously rejected. It had been accepted, and he had himself +dictated the terms of capitulation. Was he not obliged to carry them into +execution, even if, as was pretended in defiance of all probability, his +men had taken possession of the castle, and forced an entrance into the +town without his knowledge or connivance? Would any honest man have +released himself from such obligation under the flimsy pretext that it +would be acting against the will of God to recall the soldiers and prevent +them from doing execution on the enemy? + +4. Cromwell's ministers of the divine will performed their part at Wexford, +as they had done at Drogheda, doing execution, not on the armed combatants +only, but on the women and children also. Of these helpless victims many +had congregated round the great cross. It was a natural consequence in such +an emergency. Hitherto they had been accustomed to kneel at the foot +of that cross in prayer, now, with life itself at stake, they would +instinctively press towards it to escape from the swords of the enemy. But, +as far an regards the atrocity of the thing, it makes little difference on +what particular spot they were murdered. You cannot relieve the memory +of Cromwell from the odium of such murder, but by proving, what it is +impossible to prove, that at Wexford the women and children were specially +excepted out of the general massacre. + +5. I have already copied Bruodin's description of the sack of Drogheda; +here I may transcribe his account of the sack of Wexford. "Ipse strategus +regicidarum terrestri itinere Dublinium praetergressus, Wexfordiam (modicam +quidem, et maritimam, munitam et opulentam civitatem) versus castra movet, +occupatoque insperate, proditione cujusdam perfidi ducis castro, quod +moenibus imminebat, in civitatem irruit: opposuere se viriliter aggressori +praesidiarii simul cum civibus, pugnatumque est ardentissime per unius +horae spatium inter partes in foro, sed impari congressu, nam cives fere +omnes una cum militibus, sine status, sexus, aut aetatis discrimine, +Cromweli gladius absumpsit."--Bruodin, Propag. 1. iv. c. 14, p. 679. The +following is a more valuable document, from the "humble petition of the +ancient natives of the town of Wexford," to Charles II., July 4, 1660. "Yet +soe it is, may it please your Majestie, that after all the resistance they +could make, the said usurper, having a great armie by sea and land before +the said toune, did on the 9th of October, 1649, soe powerfully assault +them, that he entered the toune, and put man, woman, and child, to a very +few, to the sword, where among the rest the governor lost his life, +and others of the soldiers and inhabitants to the number of 1,500 +persons."--Gale's Corporation System in Ireland, App. p. cxxvi. + +6. My object in these remarks has been to enable the reader to form a +correct notion of the manner in which Cromwell conducted the war in +Ireland. They will give little satisfaction to the worshippers of the +hero. But his character is not a mere matter of taste or sympathy. It is a +question of historic inquiry. Much indeed has been written to vindicate +him from the imputation of cruelty at Drogheda and Wexford; but of the +arguments hitherto adduced in his defence, it will be no presumption +to affirm that there is not one among them which can bear the test of +dispassionate investigation. + + +NOTE E, p. 338. + +The following pensions were afterwards granted to different persons +instrumental in facilitating the king's escape. Unless it be mentioned +otherwise, the pension is for life:-- + + £. + To Jane Lane (Lady Fisher) . . . . . . . . . 1000 + Thomas Lane, the father . . . . . . . . . 500 + Charles Gifford, Esq. . . . . . . . . . . 300 + Francis Mansell, Esq. . . . . . . . . . . 200 + Thomas Whitgrave, Esq. . . . . . . . . . 200 + Catharine Gunter, for 21 years . . . . . 200 + Joan Harford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 + Eleanor Sampson . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 + Francis Reynolds . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 + John and Anne Rogers, and heirs male . . 100 + Anne Bird . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 + Sir Thomas Wyndham, and heirs, for ever . 600 + William Ellesdun, during pleasure . . . . 100 + Robert Swan, during the king's life . . . 80 + Lady Anne Wyadham . . . . . . . . . . . . 400 + Juliana Hest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 + +Clarendon Corres. i. 656. + + +NOTE F, p. 358. + +_The Act for the Settlement of Ireland_. + +Whereas the parliament of England after expense of much blood and treasure +for suppression of the horrid rebellion in Ireland have by the good hand of +God vpon their vndertakings brought that affaire to such an issue as that +a totall reducm't and settlement of that nation may with Gods blessing be +speedily effected. To the end therefore that the people of that nation may +knowe that it is not the intention of the Parliament to extirpat that wholl +nation, but that mercie and pardon both as to life and estate may bee +extended to all husbandmen, plowmen, labourers, artificers, and others of +the inferior sort, in manner as is heereafter declared, they submitting +themselves to the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England and liveing +peaceably and obediently vnder their governement, and that others alsoe of +a higher ranke and quality may knowe the Parliament's intention concerning +them according to the respective demerits and considerations under which +they fall, Bee it enacted and declared by this present Parliament and by +the authority of the same, That all and every person and persons of the +Irish nation comprehended in any of the following Qualifications shal bee +lyable vnto the penalties and forfeitures herein mentioned and contained +or bee made capable of the mercy and pardon therein extended respectively +according as is heereafter expressed and declared, that is to saye, + +1. That all and every person and persons who at any time before the tenth +day of November, 1642, being the time of the sitting of the first generall +assembly at Kilkenny in Ireland have contrived, advised, counselled, or +promoted the Rebellion, murthers, massacres, done or committed in Ireland +w'ch began in the year 1641, or have at any time before the said tenth +day of November 1642 by bearing armes or contributing men, armes, horses, +plate, money, victuall or other furniture or habilliments of warre (other +then such w'ch they shall make to appeare to haue been taken from them by +meere force & violence) ayded, assisted, promoted, prosecuted or abetted +the said rebellion murthers or massacres, be excepted from pardon of life +and estate. + +2. That all and every person & persons who at any time before the first day +of May 1643, did sitt or vote, in the said first generall + +assembly, or in the first pretended counsell comonly called the supreame +councell of the confederate Catholiques in Ireland or were imployed as +secretaries or cheife clearke, to be exempted from pardon for life and +estate. + +3. That all and every Jesuitt preist and other person or persons who have +receaved orders from the Pope or Sea of Rome, or any authoritie from +the same, that have any wayes contrived, advised, counselled, promoted, +continued, countenanced, ayded, assisted or abetted, or at any time +hereafter shall any wayes contriue, advise, councell, promote, continue, +countenance, ayde, assist or abett the Rebellion or warre in Ireland, or +any the murthers, or massacres, robberies, or violences, comitted against +ye Protestants, English, or others there, be excepted from pardon for life +and estate. + +4. That James Butler earl of Ormond, James Talbot earl of Castelhaven, +Ullick Bourke earl of Clanricarde, Christopher Plunket earl of Fingal, +James Dillon earl of Roscommon, Richard Nugent earl of Westmeath, Moragh +O'Brian baron of Inchiquin, Donogh M'Carthy viscount Muskerry, Richard +Butler viscount Mountgarrett, Theobald Taaffe viscount Taaffe of Corren, +Rock viscount Fermoy, Montgomery viscount Montgomery of Ards, Magennis +viscount of Iveagh, Fleming baron of Slane, Dempsey viscount Glanmaleere, +Birmingham baron of Athenry, Oliver Plunket baron of Lowth, Robert Barnwell +baron of Trymletstoune, Myles Bourke viscount Mayo, Connor Magwyre baron of +Enniskillen, Nicholas Preston viscount Gormanstowne, Nicholas Nettervill, +viscount Nettervill of Lowth, John Bramhall late Bishop of Derry, (with +eighty-one baronets, knights and gentlemen mentioned by name) be excepted +from pardon of life and estate. + +5. That all and every person & persons (both principalls and accessories) +who since the first day of October 1641 have or shall kill, slay or +otherwise destroy any person or persons in Ireland w'ch at ye time of their +being soe killed, slaine or destroyed were not publiquely enterteined, and +mainteyned in armes as officers or private souldiers for and on behalfe of +the English against ye Irish, and all and every person and persons (both +principals and accessories) who since the said first day of October 1641 +have killed slayne or otherwise destroyed any person or persons entertained +and mainteyned as officers or private souldiers for and on behalfe of +the English, against the Irish (the said persons soe killing, slaying or +otherwise destroying, not being then publiquely enterteyned and mainteyned +in armes as officer or private souldier vnder the comand and pay of ye +Irish against the English) be excepted from pardon for life and estate. + +6. That all and every person & persons in Ireland that are in armes or +otherwise in hostilitie against ye Parliam't of ye Commonwealth of England, +and shall not wthin eight and twenty dayes after publicacon hereof by ye +deputy gen'll of Ireland, and ye comission'rs for the Parliam't, lay +downs armes & submitt to ye power and authoritie of ye said Parliam't & +commonwealth as ye same is now established, be excepted from pardon for +life and estate. + +7. That all other person & persons (not being comprehended in any of ye +former Qualifications,) who have borne comaund in the warre of Ireland +against the Parliam't of England or their forces, as generall, leift'ts +generall, major gen'll, commissary generall, colonell, Gouerno'rs of any +garrison, Castle or Forte, or who have been imployed as receaver gen'll or +Treasurer of the whole Nation, or any prouince thereof, Comissarie gen'll +of musters, or prouissions, Marshall generall or marshall of any province, +advocate to ye army, secretary to ye councell of warre, or to any generall +of the army, or of any the seuerall prouinces, in order to the carrying on +the warre, against the parliam't or their forces, be banished dureing the +pleasure of the parliam't of ye Com'wealth of England, and their estates +forfeited & disposed of as followeth, (viz.) That two third partes of their +respective estates, be had taken & disposed of for the vse & benefitt of +the said Com'wealth, and that ye other third parte of their said respective +estates, or other lands to ye proporcon & value thereof (to bee assigned +in such places in Ireland as the Parliam't in order to ye more effectual +settlem' of ye peace of this Nation shall thinke fitt to appoint for that +purpose,) be respectiuely had taken and enioyed by ye wifes and children of +the said persons respectively. + +8. That ye deputy gen'll and comission'rs of parliam't have power to +declare, That such person or persons as they shall judge capeable of +ye parliam'ts mercie (not being comprehended in any of ye former +qualifications) who have borne armes against the Parliam't of England or +their forces, and have layd downe armes, or within eight & twenty dayes +after publicacon hereof by ye deputy gen'll of Ireland and ye Comissioners +for ye parliam't, shall lay downe armes & submit to ye power & authoritie +of ye said parliam't & com'wealth as ye same is now established, (by +promising & ingaging to be true to ye same) shal be pardoned for their +liues, but shall forfeit their estates, to the said comonwealth to be +disposed of as followeth (viz.) Two third partes thereof (in three equall +partes to bee diuided) for the vse benefitt & aduantage of ye said +ComOnwealth, and ye other third parte of the said respective states, or +other lands to ye proporcon or value thereof) to bee assigned in such +places in Ireland as the parliam't in order to ye more effectual settlement +of the peace of the Nation shall thinke fitt to appoint for that purpose +(bee enioyed by ye said persons their heires or assigns respectively) +provided, That in case the deputy gen'll Comission'rs or either of them, +shall see cause to give any shorter time than twenty-eight dayes, vnto +any person or persons in armes, or any Guarrison, Castle, or Forte, in +hostilitie against the Parliam't & shall giue notice to such person or +persons in armes or in any Guarrison, Castle or Forte, That all and every +such person & persons who shall not wthin such time as shal be sett downe +in such notice surrender such Guarrison, Castle, or Forte to ye parliam't, +and lay downe armes, shall haue noe advantage of ye time formerly limited +in this Qualificacon. + +9. That all and every person & persons who have recided in Ireland at any +time from the first day of October 1641, to ye first of March 1650, and +haue not beene in actuall service of ye parliam't at any time from ye first +of August 1649, to the said first of March 1650, or have not otherwise +manifested their constant good affections to the interest of ye Comonwealth +of England (the said Persons not being comprehended in any of the former +Qualificacons) shall forfeit their estates in Ireland to the said +Comonwealth to be disposed of as followeth, (viz.), one third parte thereof +for the vse, benefitt, and advantage of the said Comonwealth, and the +other two third partes of their respective estates, or other lands to the +proporcon or value thereof (to bee assigned in such places in Ireland, as +ye Parliam't for ye more effectual settlement of ye peace of the Nation +shall thinke fitt to appoint for that purpose) bee enioyed by such person +or persons their heires or assigns respectively. + +10. That all and every person & persons (haueing noe reall estate in +Ireland nor personall Estate to the value of ten pounds,) that shall lay +downe armes, and submitt to the power and Authoritie of the Parliament by +the time limited in the former Qualificacon, & shall take & subscribe the +engagem't to be true and faithfull to the Comonwealth of England as the +same is now established, within such time and in such manner, as the deputy +Generall & commission'rs for the Parliam't shall appoint and direct, such +persons (not being excepted from pardon nor adiuged for banishm't by any of +the former Qualificacons) shal be pardoned for life & estate, for any act +or thing by them done in prosecution of the warre. + +11. That all estates declared by the Qualificacons concerning rebells or +delinquents in Ireland to be forfeited shal be construed, adiuged & taken +to all intents and purposes to extend to ye forfeitures of all estates +tayle, and also of all rights & titles thereunto which since the fiue +and twentith of March 1639, have beene or shal be in such rebells or +delinquents, or any other in trust for them or any of them, or their or +any of their vses, w'th all reversions & remainders thereupon in any other +person or persons whatsoever. + +And also to the forfeiture of all estates limitted, appointed, conveyed, +settled, or vested in any person or persons declared by the said +Qualificacons to be rebells or delinquents with all reversions or +remainders of such estates, conueyed, uested, limitted, declared or +appointed to any the heires, children, issues, or others of the blood, +name, or kindred of such rebells or delinquents, w'ch estate or estates +remainders or reuersions since the 25th of March 1639 have beene or shal be +in such rebells or delinquents, or in any their heires, children, issues or +others of the blood, name, or kindred of such rebells or delinquents. + +And to all estates graunted, limitted, appointed or conueyed by any such +rebells or delinquents vnto any their heires, children, issue, w'th all the +reversions and remainders thereupon, in any other person of the name, blood +or kindred of such rebells or delinquents, provided that this shall not +extend to make voyd the estates of any English Protestants, who haue +constantly adhered to the parliam't w'ch were by them purchased for +valuable consideracon before ye 23rd of October 1641, or vpon like valuable +consideracon mortgaged to them before ye tyme or to any person or persons +in trust for them for satisfaction of debts owing to them. + + +NOTE G, p. 396. + +I have not been able to ascertain the number of Catholic clergymen who were +executed or banished for their religion under Charles I., and under the +commonwealth. But I possess an original document, authenticated by the +signatures of the parties concerned, which contains the names and fate of +such Catholic priests as were apprehended and prosecuted in London between +the end of 1640 and the summer of 1651 by four individuals, who had formed +themselves into a kind of joint-stock company for that laudable purpose, +and who solicited from the council some reward for their services. It +should, however, be remembered that there were many others engaged in the +same pursuit, and consequently many other victims besides those who are +here enumerated. + +"The names of such Jesuits and Romish priests as have been apprehended and +prosecuted by Capt James Wadsworth, Francis Newton, Thomas Mayo, and +Robert de Luke, messengers, at our proper charge; whereof some have been +condemned; some executed, and some reprieved since the beginning of the +parliament (3 Nov. 1640); the like having not been done by any others since +the reformation of religion in this nation:-- + +William Waller, als. Slaughter, als. Walker, executed at Tyburne. + +Cuthbert Clapton, condemned, reprieved and pardoned. + +Bartholomew Row, executed at Tyburne. + +Thomas Reynolds, executed at Tyburne. + +Edward Morgan, executed at Tyburne. + +Thomas Sanderson, als. Hammond, executed at Tyburne. + +Henry Heath, alias Pall Magdelen, executed at Tyburne. + +Francis Quashet, dyed in Newgate after judgment. + +Arthur Bell, executed at Tyburne. + +Ralph Corbey, executed at Tyburne. + +John Duchet, executed at Tyburne. + +John Hamond, als. Jackson, condemned, reprieved by the king, and died in +Newgate. + +Walter Coleman, condemned and died in Newgate, + +Edmond Cannon, condemned and died in Newgate. + +John Wigmore, als. Turner, condemned, reprieved by the king, and is in +custodie in Newgate. + +Andrew Ffryer, alias Herne, als. Richmond, condemned and died in Newgate. + +Augustian Abbot, als. Rivers, condemned, reprieved by the king, and died in +Newgate. + +John Goodman, condemned and died in Newgate. + +Peter Welford, condemned and died in Newgate. + +Thomas Bullaker, executed at Tyburne. + +Robert Robinson, indicted and proved, and made an escape out of the King's +Bench. + +James Brown, condemned and died in Newgate. + +Henry Morse, executed at Tyburne. + +Thomas Worseley, alias Harvey, indicted and proved, and reprieved by the +Spanish ambassador and others. + +Charles Chanie (Cheney) als. Tomson, indicted and proved, and begged by the +Spanish ambassador, and since taken by command of the councell of state, +and is now in Newgate. + +Andrew White, indicted, proved, reprieved before judgment, and banished. + +Richard Copley, condemned and banished. + +Richard Worthington, found guiltie and banished. + +Edmond Cole, Peter Wright, and William Morgan, indicted, proved, and sent +beyond sea. + +Philip Morgan, executed at Tyburne. + +Edmond Ensher, als. Arrow, indicted, condemned, reprieved by the parliament +and banished. + +Thomas Budd, als. Peto, als. Gray, condemned, reprieved by the lord mayor +of London, and others, justices, and since retaken by order of the councell +of state, and is now in Newgate. + +George Baker, als. Macham, indicted, proved guiltie, and now in Newgate. + +Peter Beale, als. Wright, executed at Tyburne. + +George Sage, indicted by us, and found guiltie, and since is dead. + +James Wadsworth. + +Francis Newton. + +Thomas Mayo. + +Robert de Luke." + +This catalogue tells a fearful but instructive tale; inasmuch as it shows +how wantonly men can sport with the lives of their fellow-men, if it suit +the purpose of a great political party. The patriots, to enlist in their +favour the religious prejudices of the people, represented the king as the +patron of popery, because he sent the priests into banishment, instead of +delivering them to the knife of the executioner. Hence, when they became +lords of the ascendant, they were bound to make proof of their orthodoxy; +and almost every execution mentioned above took place by their order +in 1642, or 1643. After that time they began to listen to the voice of +humanity, and adopted the very expedient which they had so clamorously +condemned. They banished, instead of hanging and quartering. + + +NOTE H, p. 493. + +_Revenue of the Protector._ + +When the parliament, in 1654, undertook to settle an annual sum on the +protector, Oliver Cromwell, the following, according to the statement of +the sub-committee, was the amount of the revenue in the three kingdoms:-- + + Excise and customs in England . . . . . . . . . . . £80,000 + Excise and customs in Scotland . . . . . . . . . . 10,000 + Excise and customs in Ireland . . . . . . . . . . . 20,000 + Monthly assessments in England (at 60,0001.) . . . 720,000 + Monthly assessments in Ireland (at 8,0001.) . . . . 96,000 + Monthly assessments in Scotland (at 8,0001.) . . . 96,000 + Crown revenue in Guernsey and Jersey . . . . . . . 2,000 + Crown revenue in Scotland . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9,000 + Estates of papists and delinquents in England . . . 60,000 + Estates of papists and delinquents in Scotland . . 30,000 + Rent of houses belonging to the crown . . . . . . . 1,250 + Post-office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,000 + Exchequer revenue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20,000 + Probate of wills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,000 + Coinage of tin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,000 + Wine licenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,000 + Forest of Dean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,000 + Fines on alienations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20,000 + --------- + £1,200,000 + +[From the original report in the collection of Thomas Lloyd, Esq.] + + +NOTE I, p. 558. + +_Principles of the Levellers_. + +The following statement of the principles maintained by the Levellers is +extracted from one of their publications, which appeared soon after the +death of Cromwell, entitled "The Leveller; or, The Principles and Maxims +concerning Government and Religion, which are asserted by those that are +commonly called Levellers, 1659." + +_Principles of Government_. + + +1. The government of England ought to be by laws, and not by men; that is, +the laws ought to judge of all offences and offenders, and all punishments +and penalties to be inflicted upon criminals; nor ought the pleasure of his +highness and his council to make whom they please offenders, and punish and +imprison whom they please, and during pleasure. + +2. All laws, levies of moneys, war and peace, ought be made by the people's +deputies in parliament, to be chosen by them successively at certain +periods. Therefore there should be no negative of a monarch, because he +will frequently by that means consult his own interest or that of his +family, to the prejudice of the people. But it would be well if the +deputies of the people were divided into two bodies, one of which should +propose the laws, and the other adopt or reject them. + +3. All persons, without a single exception, should be subject to the law. + +4. The people ought to be formed into such a military posture by and under +the parliament, that they may be able to compel every man to obey the law, +and defend the country from foreigners. A mercenary (standing) army is +dangerous to liberty, and therefore should not be admitted. + +_Principles of Religion._ + +1. The assent of the understanding cannot be compelled. Therefore no man +can compel another to be of the true religion. + +2. Worship follows from the doctrines admitted by the understanding. No man +therefore can bind another to adopt any particular form of worship. + +3. Works of righteousness and mercy are part of the worship of God, and so +far fall under the civil magistrate, that he ought to restrain men from +irreligion, that is, injustice, faith-breaking, oppression, and all other +evil works that are plainly evil. + +4. Nothing is more destructive to true religion than quarrels about +religion, and the use of punishments to compel one man to believe as +another. + + +NOTE K, p. 608. + +That Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper was deeply engaged in the intrigues of this +busy time is sufficiently manifest. He appears to have held himself out +to every party as a friend, and to have finally attached himself to the +royalists, when he saw that the royal cause was likely to triumph. Charles +acknowledged his services in the patent by which he was created Lord +Ashley, mentioning in particular "his prudent and seasonable advice with +General Monk in order to the king's restoration."--Dugd. ii. 481. From this +passage we may infer that Cooper was one of Monk's confidential advisers; +but his admirers have gone much farther, attributing to him the whole merit +of the restoration, and representing the lord-general as a mere puppet in +the hands of their hero. In proof they refer to the story told by Locke +(iii. 471),--a story which cannot easily be reconciled with the more +credible and unpretending narrative of Clarges, in Baker's Chronicle, p. +602, edit. 1730. But that the reader may form his own judgment, I shall +subjoin the chief heads of each in parallel columns. + + +CLARGES + +1. Scot, Hazlerig, and others sought and obtained a private interview with +Monk at Whitehall; and Clarges, from their previous conversation with +himself, had no doubt that their object was to offer the government of the +kingdom to the general. + +2. The council of state was sitting in another room; and Clarges, sending +for Sir A.A. Cooper, communicated his suspicion to him. + +3. After some consultation it was agreed that, as soon as Monk, having +dismissed Scot and Hazlerig, should enter the council-room, Cooper should +move that the clerks be ordered to withdraw. + +4. When this was done, Cooper said that he had received notice of a +dangerous design; that some seditious persons had made "indecent proposals" +to the general; and of such proposals he desired that the council might +have a full discovery. + +5. Monk, unwilling to expose them, replied that there was very little +danger in the case; that some persons had, indeed, been with him to be +resolved in scruples respecting the present transactions in parliament; but +that he had sent them away well satisfied (p. 602). + +6. Bordeaux offered to Monk through Clarges the aid of Mazarin, whether it +were his object to restore the king, or to assume the government himself. +Monk refused; but consented to receive a visit of civility from the +ambassador, on condition that politics should not be introduced (p. 604). + + +LOCKE + +1. Bordeaux, the French ambassador, visited Monk one evening, and Mrs. +Monk, who had secreted herself behind the hangings, heard him offer the +aid of Mazarin to her husband, if he was willing to take the government on +himself, which offer the general accepted. + +2. Mrs. Monk sent her brother Clarges to communicate the discovery of her +husband's ambitious design to Sir A.A. Cooper. + +3. Cooper caused a council to be called, and, when they were met, moved +that the clerks should withdraw, because he had matter of consequence to +communicate. + +4. He then charged Monk, "not openly, but by insinuation, that he was +playing false with them, so that the rest of the council perceived there +was something in it, though they knew not what was meant." + +5. Monk replied that he was willing to satisfy them that he was true to +his principles. Then, said Ashley, replace certain officers of suspicious +character by others of known fidelity. This was done on the spot; the +command of the army by the change was virtually taken from Monk; and he was +compelled to declare for Charles Stuart + +It may be thought that Locke's narrative derives confirmation from another +version of the same story in the Life of Lord Shaftesbury, lately edited by +Mr. Cooke, with the following variations. Bordeaux is made to accompany the +republicans; the greater part of the night is spent in consultation, and +Monk not only consents to assume the government, but resolves to arrest in +the morning Cooper and several other influential individuals (p. 233-235). +But that life cannot be considered as an authority; for the documents from +which it is said to have been compiled are neither quoted nor described by +its author, nor have ever been seen by its present editor. + + +END OF VOL. VIII. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The History of England from the First +Invasion by the Romans to the Accession of King George the Fifth, +by John Lingard and Hilaire Belloc + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10700 *** |