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MEMOIRS

THE COURT

KING CHA^ttgg^ XpE/FIRST.

BY LUCY AIKIN.

m TWO VOLUMES.
\, VOL. II.

PHILADELPHIA.:
CAREY, LEA AND BLANCHARD.
1833.

E. Merriam & Co  Printers,
Brookfield, Mass.

CONTENTS. VOL. II.

CHAPTER XVI.
1638. 1639.
Instructions of the king to Hamilton — his mission to Edinburgh.
— King bent on reducing the covenanters by force. — Return
and second mission of Hamilton with further but insincere
concessions. — Assembly of Glasgow. — Its proceedings. —
Desponding letter of Hamilton to the king. — Ring's sanguine
views and militarj preparations. — Letter of the earl of North
umberland. — Modes of raising supplies — from the clergy —
from the recusants. — Letter of the queen to the catholics ex
horting them to raise money for the king. — Letter of the
pope against it. — Richelieu hostile to Charles, who asks the
assistance of troops fiom Spain, but without success. — He or
ders out the trained bands, — commands the peers to meet him
with their tenantry armed at York. — Officers appointed — earls
of Arundel, Essex, Holland. — Royal declarations against the
Scotch produce little effect. — proceedings of the covenanters
who prepare for war. — Their efforts to make a party in Eng
land. — Their divines opposed to foreign assistance. — Money
secretly obtained by the nobles from Richelieu. — Covenanters^
seize the royal castles — fortify Leith. — General enthusiasm.—^
King at York. — He imposes a military oath, which is refused
by lords Say and Brook. — Earl of Essex occupies Berwick. —
Earl of Holland put to flight at Dunse. — Overtures for pacifi
cation. — Treaty of Berwick. — King's patronage of arts and
sciences. — Musaeum Minerva. — State of philosophy. — Des
cartes invited to England. — Account of Hobbes — Rosicrucians
— Fludd — Lilly. — Astrologers and wizards. — Death of Ben
Jonson — Succeeded as laureate by Davenant — account of
him  13
CHAPTER XVII.
1639. 1640.
Covehaators jealous of the king's intentions. — Lords of Mont-

IV
rose, Lothian, and Loudon. — Terms of the pacification dis
puted. — King declines opening the Scotch parliament. — Ham
ilton's duplicity. — Traquair Royal commissioner. — Acts of
the Scotch parliament. — Bishops' protest. — Constitution of
the country remodelled by the parliament, which is thereupon
prorogued. — Capture of a Spanish fleet by a Dutch one in
the Downs. — The court deserted. — All the cabinet-council
against war with Scotland, except Wentworth whom Charles
sends for to England. — He is created earl of Strafford and lord
lieutenant of Ireland. — King reluctantly consents to summon
a parliament. — Strafford's proposal for controlling it. — The
army put under new commanders. — Queen's interference with
military appointments. — No relaxation of oppression in Eng
land. — High measures of Strafford with the Irish parliament.
— Sentiments of Irish chieftains. — Troops levied there. —
Strafford returns to England. — Opening of parliament. — Ex
cellent composition of the house. — King's speech. — Commit
tees formed for grievances. — Petitions. — Characters of oppo
sition members. — Harbottle Grimstone. — Sir B. Rudyard. —
Pym. — Proceedings of parliament respecting the cases of El
iot, Hollis, and Hampden. — Ship-money declared a grievance.
— King interposes. — Notice of Waller. — Contests respecting
supplies. — Parliament dissolved.— King's speech. — Members
imprisoned. — Acts of the convocation.— New canons. — Et
cater a oath. — Attack on Lambeth palace punished as treason.
— Torture applied  37
CHAPTER XVIII.
1640. 1641.
King resolves to prosecute the war with Scotland. — Supplies
arbitrarily levied. — Spirit of resistance. — Mutinous acts of
the soldiers. — Vigorous measures of the covenanters. — Pro
ceedings of the Scotch parliament. — They raise an army and
march to the border. — King declares himself generalissimo
and departs for the North. — Rout of Newburn. — Retreat of
the king. — Scotch occupy Newcastle. — Difficulties of the
king. — Petition of peers for a parliament, — of citizens and
others.: — Lords Howard and Wharton. — Sentiments and situ
ation of Strafford. — Council of peers at York. — Treaty of
Ripon. — Preparatives for a parliament. — Queen's capuchins.
— Strafford courts Clanrickard. — Truce made with the
.Scotch, and further negotiations transferred from Ripon to
London  . 55

V
CHAPTER XIX.
1640. 1641.
Long parliament — its composition and circumstances. — King's
speech. — Treaty with the Scotch resumed. — Journey and re
ception of their commissioners. — Proceedings of parliament.
— King commands the attendance of Strafford, who is unwil
ling to meet the parliament.— His arrival and impeachment. —
Windebank accused — he escapes into France. — Queen coun
tenances him. — Ship-money declared against. — Judges held
to bail.— Lord keeper Finch impeached — flies to Holland. —
Triumphant return of Prynn, Burton and Bastwiek. — Their
sentences reversed. — Deprived ministers restored. — Prosecu
tions of Cosins and Wren. — Laud committed. — Triennial act
brought in. — King harangues the commons. — 111 effects of his
interference. — He passes the triennial bill. — Attacks on ille
gal tribunals. — Account of Hyde, — of lord Falkland, — Cole
pepper; — Lord Digby. — Bills passed respecting tonnage and -\-
poundage, — for abolition of the star-chamber and high com- (
mission, — for voiding proceedings respecting ship-money, —
\- for restricting forests — abolishing compulsory knighthood — •
i excluding clergy from temporal jurisdiction. .... 67
CHAPTER XX.
1641.
Trial of the earl of Strafford. — The king's speech to parlia
ment in his behalf. — Pym announces the existence of plots
against the parliament. — The protestation. — The Straffor-,
dians. — Petitions for justice on lord Strafford, — his attainder
passes both houses. — The king consults his council and bish
ops. — Strafford's letter to him, — he signs the warrant, —
writes to the lords in Strafford's favor, — their answer. — Be
havior of Strafford, — his death. — Exultation of the people.
— Letters of lord Leicester to lord Northumberland. — Negoti
ations for admitting popular men to office.— Earl of Bedford.
— Earl bf Essex hostile to Strafford. — Testimony of privy-
councillors against Strafford. — Plots detected. — Plan for
Strafford's escape. — Army-plot.— Letter of Father Philip. —
The conspirators fly, — some are apprehended.— Account of
Goring. — Effects of the plot. — Bill for the continuance of
parliament. — Mary de' Medici quits England, — her death. —
Self-banishment of the earl of Arundel. ...... 88

CHAPTER XXI.
1641.
Treaty concluded with the Scotch. — Poll-tax imposed. — The
king's speech, — he announces a progress to Scotland. — Par
liament jealous of him. — Ten propositions made to him. —
The queen's confessor impeached. — Jealousies of the inten
tions of the queen. — The two houses oppose her leaving' the
kiugdom. — the king's departure. — Authority of the queen
during his absence. — The king his own minister. — New army
plot. — The king watched by parliamentary commissioners. —
His reception in Scotland and speech to the Parliament. —
Contests arise. — Letter of sir P. Wemyss. — Correspondence
of the king and secretary Nicholas. — Settlement of affairs in
Scotland hastened by news of the Irish rebellion. — Transac
tions in parliament. — Advice of Nieholas in religion. — Vacant
sees filled. — Williams made archbishop of York. — Notices of
Usher, — Prideaux, — Brownrigg. — Scheme of modified epis
copacy abortive. — The king implicated in a second army-plot.
— Parliament occupied on the declaration of grievances. 112
CHAPTER XXII.
1641. 1642.
State of Ireland. — Irish committee gained over by the king. —
They engage to raise troops for him. — The king's plan for
seizing Dublin castle. — Account of the earl of Antrim. — The
king's commission to him. — Irish rebellion. — O'Neil's com
mission. — Lord Musquerry's commission. — Confession of
Macmahon. — Clarendon's opinion against the king's policy
respecting Ireland. — Proclamations against the rebels.- — The
king splendidly entertained by the City. — Unpopular meas
ures. — Remonstrance and petition of parliament presented
and printed. — The king's answer written by Hyde, who per
suades lord Falkland to become secretary of state. — Nightly
consultations of Falkland, Colepepper, and Hyde: — The king
rejects sound counsels. — Growing influence of the queen. 
Her situation and behavior. — Lunsford put in command of
the Tower,— displaced. — Protest of the bishops. — Its occa
sion and effects. — Committal of the bishops. — Alarms of
plots. — The commons petition in vain for a guard. — Attempt
ed seizure of the five members by the king. — That design
betrayed by the queen. — The king's visit to the City.  Tri
umphant return of the parliament to Westminster.  The
king retires to Hampton-court  . 133

Vll
CHAPTER XXIII.
1642.
The king's departure from London an era in his reign. — At
tempt of Lunsford at Kingston. — He is seized and imprison
ed by the parliament. — Lord Digby flies the country. — Ports
mouth secured by parliament. — London trained bands called
out under Skippon. — Letter of Digby to the queen intercepted,
— proceedings of parliament on it. — Hull secured by the par
liament. — Departure of the queen for Holland to provide war
like stores. — The king defers signing the militia bill, but pass
es that for taking away bishops votes. — Reflexions. — The
king's parting promise to the queen. — He proceeds with the
prince toward* York. — Paper war with the parliament. —
His reception of a petition concerning the militia. — Further
declarations on this subject, and remarks. — The king at York.
— Hyde and Falkland remain in London and for what purpos
es. — Earls of Essex and Holland deprived of their offices in
the household. — Conduct of Falkland. — The lord keeper sides
with the king. — Hyde accompanies him into Yorkshire. —
Particulars of their journey. — The king and Hyde.. — Rapid
conveyance of dispatches. — Reception of the king at York.
— He is joined by many members of both houses. — The earl
of Warwick secures the fleet for the parliament. — Attempt of
the king to secure Hull defeated by sir John Hotham. — Re
solutions of parliament on the subject. — Parliament puts in
force its ordinance for the militia. — The king calls a meeting
at York and raises troops. — Votes of parliament in conse
quence. — Muster of the London trained bands. — The king
publishes his commission of array in Yorkshire. — The queen
sends supplies from Holland. — Factions in the court. — Ad
ventures of lord Digby. — Hotham tampered with. — Difficul
ties of the king. — He and his counsellors disclaim warlike
designs. — Plate and money sent in at the requisition of par
liament. — Money raised for the king. — The nineteen propo
sitions. — Warlike preparations on both sides. — Essex declar
ed the parliament's general. — The king disappointed of gain
ing Hull. — Goring declares for him in Portsmouth. — The king
provides for his relief, — commands his subjects to join him at
Nottingham. — His proclamation against admitting catholics
into his army  159
CHAPTER XXIV.
1642.
State of commotion throughout the country. — Uncertain pros-

vm
pects of the two parties. — Nottinghamshire for the king, — ¦
its principal leaders. — Recruits come in slowjy to the king. —
The Fairfaxes and the King. — Coventry shuts its gates
against him. — Erection of the royal standard. — The king
compelled to send proposals for peace, which end in
nothing'. — Account of prince Rupert. — Formation of the
royal army. — Essex assembles his army at North amp-
ton. — Origin of the names of Cavalier and Roundhead.
— The king marches for Shrewsbury,— his rendezvous at
Wellington, and address to his army. — Enlistment of cath
olics. — Letter of lord Spencer. — First success of Rupert. —
Improvement of the king's affairs. — He sets up a mint. —
Equipment of his troops. — Their regiments and commanders.
— He marches into Warwickshire. — Essex advances to meet
the king. — Alarm of the parliament. — London fortified. —
Battle of Edgehill. — Death and character of the earl of Lind-
sey. — Anecdote of Sir Edmund Verney. — Hostility of the
peasantry to the king's troops. — Essex marches to Warwick.
— Advance of the king. — Banbury castle surrendered to him.
— He reaches Oxford. — Proceeds to Reading. — Plundering
expeditions of Rupert. — Defensive measures of parliament. —
They make overtures for a treaty. — Deceitful conduct of the
king, — Fight of Brentford. — The parliament's army drawn
up on Turnham Green. — The king retreats to Reading,
thence to Oxford for the winter. — Consequences of the af
fair at Brentford. — The king causes his prisoners to be tried. —
Reprisals threatened  184
CHAPTER XXV.
1634.
Parliament sends commissioners to treat with the king, — their
reception. — Treaty suspended. — The king's hopes of foreign
succors, and insincerity in treating. — Landing of the queen
from Holland. — Treaty of Oxford resumed. — Disingenuous
conduct of the king. — The treaty broken off. — Speeches
against and for a peace. — Scotch commissioners to the kino-,
— his behavior towards them. — Return of the queen from
Holland with officers and military stores. — Circumstances of
her landing at Bridlington. — She proceeds to York, — her in-
trigues'there. — She augments her army, — proceeds to New
ark, — is joined by the king at Stratford. — Minor traits of the
war. — Account of sir Ralph Hopton.— Sir W. Waller's letter
to him. — Account of lord Brook, and Clarendon's forgery re
garding him. — Death of the earl of Northampton, — illiberal
conduct of parliamentarian officers respecting his body. 
Unfeeling conduct of the king. — Brutalities of Rupert, — he
is admonished by a royal letter. — Harsh conduct of the kin«

IX
towards colonel Fielding. — Essex puts his troops in quarters.
— Plots of parliamentarian officers detected and punished. —
The two Hothams. — Sir A. Carew. — Bristol conspirators. —
Account of Waller's plot. — Ordinances of parliament. — The
queen impeached. — The king forbids obedience to ordi
nances. — Hyde dissuades him from commanding a dissolu
tion. — Death of Hampden. — Anecdote of the king. — State of
the royalists in Oxford.— Defeat of Waller at Roundway Down.
— Capture of Bristol by Rupert. — Disputes between princes
Rupert and Maurice and the marquis of Hertford. — How de
cided by the king. — Character of Rupert, and sentiments of
the nobility. — Dangers of the parliament. — Peace party in the
house of lords. — Strong and able measures of Pym and others
for continuing the war. — The king determines to lay seige to
Gloucester. — Defence of Gloucester. — Cold reception of the
earls of Bedford and Holland at Oxford. — Lords Clare, Bed
ford and Holland return to the parliament. — Essex relieves
Gloucester. — Battle of Newbury. — The king goes into winter-
quarters. — Deaths and characters of lords Sunderland, Car-
aarvon and Falkland  204
CHAPTER XXVL
1643. 1644.
Failure of royalist designs in Scotland. — Antrim made prison
er. — The covenanters resolve to aid the English parliament.
— Mission of Vane and others to Edinburgh. — Terms of
agreement between the Scotch and the parliament. — Sol
emn league and covenant drawn up. — Designs of the
Scotch. — Imposition of the covenant in Scotland and in
England. — 111 effects of it. — Conduct of the king respecting
Ireland. — He concludes a cessation of arms with the rebels.
— Irish regiments brought over to the king's assistance, —
its ill effects on his cause. — Intrigues and quarrels at Ox
ford revived by the queen's presence. — Disorganization of
the royal armies. — Good discipline of the parliamentarians.
— Montrose and Antrim favorably received at Oxford and
made marquises. — Hamilton and Lanerk arrested at Ox
ford. — Lanerk escapes. — Hamilton sent to Pendennis cas
tle. — Discussion of their conduct. — Arrival and transactions
of a French embassy. — Death of Pym. — The Scotch enter
England. — Measures of Charles in consequence. — He con
venes the Oxford parliament. — Its measures. — Papers be
tween the king and parliament concerning a treaty. — Pro
ceedings and prorogation of the Oxford parliament. — Open
ing of the campaign. — Military movements.— The queen
quits Oxford.— Is delivered of a daughter at Exeter. — Es-
VOL. II. B

capes from Falmouth to France. — Anecdotes of her. — Mili
tary transactions. — Action of Copredy Bridge. — The king
follows Essex into the West  236
CHAPTER XXVII.
1644. 1645.
State of affairs in the North. — Letter of the king to Rupert.
— Battle of Marston-moor. — Character of the marquis of
Newcastle. — Rise and character of Cromwell. — Surrender
of York. — The king marches westward. — Essex refuses
to negotiate a peace. — Arraignment of lord Wilmot. —
Surrender of Essex's awny. — The king's military movements.
— Second battle of Newbury. — He brings off his cannon from
Dennington and goes into winter-quarters at Oxford. — Par
liament sends commissioners to the king. — Irregular trans
action of Hollis and Whitelock. — Mission of the duke of
Richmond and lord Southamton. — Treaty of Uxbridge opened.
— Letters of the king to the queen. — Letter of the queen. —
Views of the different parties in the treaty. — Conduct of
Charles. — Political effects of the failure of the treaty. — Tri
al and death of Laud. — Reflections. — Dissolution of the Ox
ford parliament. — Expedition of Montrose. — Negotiations of
Charles with the Irish. — His commissions to the earl of Gla
morgan  258
CHAPTER XXVIII.
1645. 1646.
Opening of the campaign.— The prince of Wales sent into the
West.— Movements of the king— Sack of Leicester.— Fair
fax nse§ from before Oxford.— Battle of Naseby.— The king's
cabmet taken, and the consequences— Wanderings of the
king— He reaches Ragland— His letter to Rupert against
peace— He marches northwards,— plunders Huntingdon —
approaches London,— returns to Oxford— Repairs again to
Ragland— Rupert surrenders Bristol— The king's letter o
wmTHeT,marcheS t0Wards tester— Is defeated at Routen
Heath-Retreats to Newark— Traits of his behavior— Mu
tinous conduct of Rupert and his party— The king escaoes
with difficulty to Oxford-His council' advise negoLTon-
He demands a personal treaty/which is refused— Discovery
of Glamorgan's treaty with the Irish rebels— Glamorgan Tm
-ziont^T**--^ cuities ab°ut the s;
Kuin of the royal cause m the West— Defeat of Astlev —
The war at an end-Dissension between the parliament

Xl
the Scotch. — The king again proposes to treat at London. —
Mission of Montreuil. — His negotiations for the king with
the Scotch. — The king gives himself up to the Scotch at
Newark. — They resolve to convey him to Newcastle. — He
wishes to quit them, but is unable. — The prince of Wales
joins his mother in France. — Sir Edward Hyde in Jersey. 284
CHAPTER XXIX.
1646. 1647.
Parliament jealous of the Scotch. — The king directs Oxford
and his other garrisons to capitulate. — Lenient treatment of
the royalists. — Parliament prepares fresh articles of treaty.
— Claims of the Scotch. — Averseness of the king to grant
them. — His deceitful conduct. — His transactions with dif
ferent parties. — Letter to Glamorgan. — He refuses the terms
of the parliament. — They negotiate for the surrender of his
person by the Scotch. — Extracts from the king's correspon
dence with the queen and others respecting the church and
the terms of peace. — The queen threatens to go into a con
vent. — Various intrigues for the king's restoration. — The
queen dissuades the king from escaping out of the king
dom. — Proceedings of the Scotch parliament and general as
sembly. — Treaty between the Scotch and English for the de
livery of the king's person. — He attempts to escape. — Is con
veyed to Holmby. — State of the presbyterian and indepen
dent parties. — The king removed from Holmby by cornet
Joyce. — He attends the marches of the army. — His vow re
specting church property. — He is conducted to Hampton
court  309
CHAPTER XXX.
1647. 1648.
Situation of the king at Hampton-court. — The army-proposals.
— Efforts of the presbyterians in his favor. — Secession of
members of both houses who join the army. — The king re
jects with scorn the army-proposals, — then temporizes and
disclaims. — The army enters London. — Intrigues. — The king
rejects the propositions of parliament. — Position of Cromwell
and Ireton. — They intercept a letter of the king's and re
solve on his destruction. — The king placed under stricter
restraint. — Origin and designs of the Levellers. — Of Crom
well. — The king withdraws from Hampton-court. — Particu
lars of his giving himself up to governor Hammond. — He

Xll
enters . Carisbrook castle. — Event of the rendezvous
at Ware. — Cromwell declines further intercourse with
the king, who determines to treat with the Scotch. — The
king makes proposals to the parliament. — Attempts an es
cape. — Four bills offered for his assent. — He concludes a
secret treaty with the Scotch commissioners. — Returns' an
unsatisfactory answer to the parliament. — Vote of no further
addresses to him carried. — He is placed in stricter custody.
— Makes a vain attempt to get out of the window. — The em
ployment of his time. — Transactions in Scotland. — Royalist
insurrections. — The king again attempts an escape. — Expe
dition and defeat of the Scotch. — Suppression of the royal
ists. — Colchester surrendered. — Navalexpedition of the prince
of Wales. — Treaty of Newport. — Deceitfulness of the king
respecting Irish affairs. — Termination of the treaty. — The
king removed to Hurst castle  333
CHAPTER XXXI.
1648. 1649.
Struggle of parties. — Vote carried by the presbyterians that
the king's concessions are a ground of treaty. — Resolution
of the army. — Return of Cromwell from Scotland. — Expul
sion of members from the house of commons. — Removal of
the king from Hurst. — Colonel Harrison and the king. — Plan
for his escape from Bagshot, which fails. — He arrives at
Windsor. — Ceremonies to him ordered to be discontinued. —
A committee appointed to draw up a charge against him,
and an ordinance for his trial. — It is rejected by the lords. —
Sanguine views taken by the king of his situation. — The
commons resolve to proceed in the trial without the lords. —
Constitution of the high court of justice. — Account of the
king's trial. — Sentence pronounced against him. — Remarks
on his refusal to plead. — Indifference of foreign princes to
his fate. — Steps taken by the prince. — Letter of the queen. —
Behavior of the king. — His parting with his children. — Par
ticulars of his last hours. — His speech on the scaffold. —
Death and funeral. — Concluding remarks. — Icon Basilike. 358

MEMOIRS

OF THE

COURT OF KING CHARLES I.

CHAPTER XVI.
1638 and 1639.

Instructions of tlie king to Hamilton — his mission to Edin
burgh. — King bent on reducijig the covenanters by force. — Re
turn and second mission of Hamilton with further bvt insincere
concessions. — Assembly of Glasgow. — Its proceedings. — De
sponding letter of Hamilton to the king. — King's sanguine
views and military preparations. — Letter qf the earl of Nor
thumberland. — Modes of raising supplies — -from the clergy —
from the recusants. — Letter of the queen to the catholics exhort
ing them to raise money for the king. — Letter of the pope
against il. — Richelieu hostile to Charles, who asks the assistance
of troops from Spain, but without success. — He orders out the
trainedbands, — commands thepeers to meet him withtheir tenant
ry armed at York. — Officers appointed — earls qf Arundel, Es-
sex,Holland. — Royal declarations against the Scotch produce lit
tle effect. — Proceedings of the covenanters who prepare for
war. — Their efforts to make a party in England. — Their di
vines opposed to foreign assistance. — Money secretly obtained
by the nobles from Richelieu. — Covenanters seize the royal cas
tles— fortify Leith. — General enthusiasm. — King at York. —
He imposes a military oath, which is refused by lords Say and
Brook. — Earl of Essex occupies Berwick. — Earl of Holland
put to flight at Dunse. — Overtures for pacification. — Treaty
of Berwick. — King's patronage of arts and sciences. — Mu-
sasum Minerva. — State qf philosophy. — Descartes invited la
Vol. II. 1

14
England. — Account of Hobbes. — Rosicrucians — Fludd — Lil
ly. — Astrologers and wizards. — Death of Ben Jonson —
Succeeded as laureate by Davenant — account of him.
THE instructions with which the marquis of Hamilton en
tered upon his commission, were drawn up by the king hiin-
himself, and communicated to Laud alone of his English coun
sellors. Some of them deserved to be particularized. He
was to read the royal declaration of which he was the bearer,
to the council, previously to its publication, and, should he
judge it expedient, to impose an oath on every councillor to
give his best assistance in its execution. Any protestors
¦ against the declaration were to be reputed rebels, and he
must endeavor to apprehend them. To any petitions for
further satisfaction, he was to give " a bold negative," both
in respect of the matter, and as coming from an unacknow
ledged body. No petition was to be admitted against the ar
ticles of Perth, though the exact execution of them was not
at present to be pressed. " You shall declare, that if there
be no sufficient strength within the kingdom to force the re
fractory to obedience, power shall come from England, and
that myself will come in person with them, being resolved to
hazard my life, rather than suffer authority to be contemned."
 "If you cannot, by the means prescribed by us, bring
back the refractory and seditious to due obedience, we do not
only give your authority, but command all hostile acts what
soever to be used against them, they having deserved to be
used no otherwise by us but as a rebellious people."
The declaration itself required that the covenant should be
renounced within six weeks, on pain of rebellion ; and stipu
lated that on this condition the king, who solemnly protested
his averseness from popery and all superstition, would so re
gulate the high-commission that -it should cease to be oppres
sive, and fhathe would no longer urge the canons and service-
book except "in a fair and legal way."
At Berwick the commissioner was met by tbe earl of Rox
burgh, by whom he was apprised of the enthusiasm of the
people for their covenant, and the hopelessness of any at
tempt to bring them to accept the conditions laid down by
the king. On his nearer approach the scanty appearance of
nobility and gentry to receive and attend upon him, confirmed
his apprehensions. He found the eastle of Edinburgh guard
ed by the citizens to prevent the introduction of the° supplies
of ammunition which he had brought ; and when he at length

15
ventured to remove from the fortress of Dalkeith to take up
his residence at Holyrood House, the covenanters appeared
on his road in an array evidently calculated to overawe under
the guise of doing him honor. Their numbers amounted to
many thousands ; and five hundred of their ministers, distin
guished by the Geneva cloak, were seen conspicuously posted
on an eminence, where they had appointed " the strongest
in voice and austerest in countenance," of them all, " to
make him a short welcome :" but this he avoided.* On the
first opening of the royal propositions it was openly declared
that the Scottish people would as soon renounce their baptism
as their covenant, to which they invited the commissioner
himself to accede, and that nothing less would give satisfac
tion than the convocation first of a free general assembly, and
afterwards of a parliament. Hamilton on this, wisely fore-
bore to publish the declaration, and wrote to his master that
one of two courses he must resolve upon ; to grant them all
their wishes, or to hasten down his fleet with troops on board ;
to garrison Berwick and Carlisle, and prepare to follow in-
person with a royal army. The answer of Charles was in
these terms :
" I expect not anything can reduce that people to obedi
ence but force only. In the mean time your care must be
how to dissolve the multitude, and if it be possible, to possess
yourself of my castles of Edinburgh and Stirling, which I
do not expect ; and to this end I give you leave to flatter
them with what hopes you please, so you engage not me
against my grounds, and in parlicular that you consent nei
ther to the callingof parliament nor general assembly, until
the covenant be disavowed and given up, your chief end
being now to win time until I be ready to suppress them.
" But when I consider that now not only my crown, but
my reputation for ever lies at stake, I must rather suffer the
first, that time will help, than this last, which is irreparable.
This I have written to no other end than to shew you, I will
rather die than yield to those impertinent and damnable de
mands, as you rightly call them : for it is all one as to yield to
be no king in a very short time  "
" As the affairs are now, I do not expect that you should
declare the adherers to the covenant traitors, until, as I have
already said, you have heard from me that my fleet hath set-
sail for Scotland, though your six weeks should be elapsed.
* Baillie's Letters, i. 61.

16
*' In a word, gain time by all the honest means you can,
without forsaking your grounds."*
Hamilton obeyed ; he negotiated, temporised, listened to
the explanations by which the covenanters earnestly strove to
reconcile their engagement with their loyalty, and, less blind
to consequences than his master, pleaded with him to sus
pend his military preparations till matters were more desperate.
But the king would only consent to stay his public prepara
tions, resolving still to continue his more secret ones, that he
might be ready on the slightest warning. For the rest he
thus expressed himself:
" As concerning the explanation of their damnable cove
nant, whether it be with or without explanation, I have no
more power in Scotland than as a duke of Venice, which I
will rather die than suffer : Yet I commend the giving ear to
the explanation, or any thing else to win time  And for
their calling a parliament or assembly without me, I should
not much be sorry, for it would the more loudly declare them
traitors, and the more justify my actions : Therefore in my
mind my declaration would not be long delayed ; but this is
a bare opinion, and no command."
Hamilton now obtained the royal permission to return to
court ; partly to procrastinate, partly with the view of me
diating between his king and his country. Before his de
parture he gave orders for the publication of the declaration ;
which, notwithstanding the omission of the command to
abandon the covenant, was encountered by a protestation,
as falling far short of the just demands of the people for the
security of their religious rights. The commissioners re
turned with enlarged instructions : In lieu of the present
covenant a confession of faith authorized by a parliament in
1567 was to be signed by all ; and on certain conditions,
favorable to the king's supremacy and the authority of bi
shops, an assembly was authorized to be held. But in the
mean time the views of the covenanters had extended to
further objects, and they had commanded all men to take the
covenant on pain of excommunication, the king's confes
sion of faith being refused and scouted. After further vain
negotiations therefore which continued till late in August
the marquis pleaded the necessity of his proceeding a°-ain to
court ; and he was now the bearer of articles of advice
signed by himself, Traquair, and two other ministers, in
* Rushworth, ii. 752.

17
which various considerations, of law, of justice and. of mer
cy, were strongly urged, to induce his majesty to recall those
religious innovations which alone, without any spiiit of t'is-
loyalty, had moved his subjects to their present courses ; and
forgiving the past to receive them again into favor.
On his second return, he brought with him, to the general
surprise, a new proclamation by which canons, liturgy, arti
cles of Perth aud high-commission, were all abandoned ; and
a free assembly, emancipated, that is, from the control of the
crown, was appointed to meet in November, and a parlia
ment in the ensuing May. Such large concessions, earlier
made, and believed to be made in good faith, might have suf
ficed, but they were now in vain. Besides the suspicions
which their very amplitude was formed to excite, the chiefs
of the covenanters were in correspondence probably with
some of the popular leaders in England, and certainly wilh
several of the Scotch councillors and attendants of the king,
who betrayed his measures without scruple ; and from these
sources certain intelligence had been received, that he was
secretly engaged in active preparations for war, whilst he
sought to lull them into security by a false show of conces
sion. The experience which they had gained duiing the
protraction of the treaty, had likewise served to convince
them, that without the total abolition of episcopacy, no sti
pulations would suffice to secure the purity and stability of
their church government under a prince so irreconcilably
hostile to presbytery, so devoted to the cause of prelacy.
For this object therefore they determined strenuously to con
tend ; and the indications of a lurking duplicity amid the ap
parent yieldingness of the king, chiefly perceptible in his at
tempts to protract the negotiations, and in the meantime to
sow divisions amongst his opponents, served to confirm them
in their resolution.
'The assembly met at Glasgow as convened ; its composi
tion exhibited a salutary return to the primitive composition
of these assemblies, infringed upon by king James, in which
an equal, or superior number of lay elders accompanied the
clerical members; and on the ground of this innovation,
as it was styled, the royal commissioner, endeavored, in the
first instance, to excite jealousies between the laity and the
clergy. This attempt was by express direction from his mas
ter; who, judging it safer to suffer the assembly to meet, in
stead of proroguing it, as the affrighted bishops had proposed,
ivas at (he same time internally resolved to render its Session

18
completely nugatory. "As for this general assembly," he
had written to Hamilton, "though I can expect no good from
it, yet I hope you may hinder jnuch of the ill, first by putting
divisions amongst them, concerning the legality of their elec
tions, then by protesting against their tumultuary proceed
ings." And again: " If you can bieak them by proving
nullities in their procedure, nothing better."*
Several presbyteries had drawn up accusations against the
bishops, in the bitterest spirit of party malignity, charging
them, individually and collectively with almost every species
of crime and vice, public and private, capable of disgracing
human nature ; and as the king had formally declared that
all subjects were amenable to the authority of the assembly,
and might be prosecuted before it, it was to be expected that
proceedings against them would be the first business entered
upon. But Charles himself had in secret revised and ap
proved a declinature, or protest, in the name of the prelates,
against the competency of this tribunal, which he caused to
be presented by the commissioners, before the election of a
moderator, as a bar to it's future proceedings. The assembly
refused in this stage of the business to take notice of the
protest, and calmly proceeded to choose a moderator and
install its members. Afterwards, the question being again
urged by the court-part}'", and a vote upon it demanded, the
commissioner seized the concerted occasion to dissolve the
assembly, as a body chosen by laymen, and incompetent
therefore to sit in judgment upon bishops.
This chicane served no other purpose than to expose to
contempt the authority of its contriver. Strong in the com
mon zeal and mutual reliance of its members, supported by
some early precedents, and encouraged by the open acces
sion of that able leader the earl of Argyle, the assembly refus
ed to be dissolved except by its own consent. It then pro
ceeded to annul as corrupt all the acts of the six assemblies
held in the former and present reigns ; to cancel in form all
the late innovations ; and, renouncing totally the regal supre
macy, to restore the presbyterian discipline in all its rigor, and
abolish episcopacy. Of the ex-bishops, most of whom had
rendered themselves justly obnoxious to public resentment,
eight were excommunicated and four deposed, as heretical
and impenitent ; the remaining two, who submitted them
selves, were simply suspended from their functions. Having
¥ Burnet's Mem. of iKe Haniiltens, 82, 88.

19
thus victoriously accomplished the. great work of the restora
tion of fhe primitive reformed church of Scotland, the assem
bly closed its memorable session on the thiitieth day.
It was in the midst of this awful revolution, that we find
Hamilton addressing the following affectionate but desponding
representations to a master whom nothing could admonish,
nothing deter, from the- headlong course of misgovernment
into which he had thrown himself.
" When I consider the many, great, and most- extraordinary
favors which your majesty hath been pleased to confer upon
me ; if you were not my sovereign, gratitude would oblige me
to labor faithfully, and that to the uttermost of my power, to
manifest my thankfulness. Yet so unfortunate have I been
in this unlucky country, that though I did prefer your service
before all worldly considerations, nay, even strained my con
science in some points by subscribing the negative confession,
yet all hath been to small purpose; for I have missed my end,
in not being able to make your majesty so considerable a
party as will be able to crush the insolency of this rebellious
nation, without assistance from England, and greater charge
to your majesty than this miserable country is worth.
" As I shall answer to God at the last day, I have done my
best, though the success has proven so bad, as I think myself
of all men most miserable, in finding that I have been so use
less a servant to him to whom I owe so much. And seeing
this may perhaps be the last letter that ever I shall have the
happiness to write to your majesty, I shall therefore in it dis
charge my duty so far as freely to express my thoughts in
such things as I do conceive concerneth your service. . ....
"Upon the whole matter, your majesty hath been grossly
abused by my lords of the clergy, by bringing in those things
in 'this church, not in the ordinary and legal way. For the
truth is, this action of theirs is not justifiabje by the laws of
this kingdom. Their pride was great, but their folly greater ;
for if they had gone right about this work, nothing was more
easy than to have effected what was aimed at."
After a careful and very discouraging enumeration of the
leading characters in the country, marking their deficiency,
generally speaking, either of ability or inclination for the ser
vice of the crown, the writer proceeds to point out the means
to be employed against the people, " to make them misera
ble, and to bring them again to a dutiful obedience." To
cut off their trade by a few ships of war, he imagines would
prove sufficient ; but this, he adds, " will certainly so irritate

20
them, as all who within this country stand for your majesty,
will be in great and imminent danger." Yet for himself he
promises that should he " keep his life " and continue to be
thought worthy of serving his majesty as his commissioner,
though he hates the country " next hell," he will continue in
it " till the government be again set right," and thea for
swear it. He concludes as one in the hourly prospect of
death, with a suit that his sons " may be bred in England,
and made happy by service in the court," that his daughters
be " never married in Scotland," and that his brother may
enjoy the royal favor.*
The sanguine temper of Charles received no check from the
gloomy forebodings of his commissioner ; he believed undoubt-
ingly in the justice of his cause, he trusted that the time was
now come to crush effectually the spirit of disobedience with
which he had hitherto submitted to temporise ; and throwing
aside all disguise, he applied himself with the alacrity of
anticipated vengeance to the completion of his preparations
for that most awful of extremities, — a civil war. How far
his passions on this occasion blinded him to the real state of
his affairs, may be judged by the following report of them
made in January 1639 by the earl of Northumberland to the
lord-deputy of Ireland. ..." The nominating of the com
manders and the directions that have been given for the or
dering and disposing of the martial preparations, have- here
made a very great noise. But I assure your lordship, to my
understanding, with sorrow I'speak it, we are altogether in
as ill a posture to invade others, or to defend ourselves, as we
were a twelvemonth since, which is more than any man can
imagine that is not an eyewitness of it. The discontents
here at home do rather increase than lessen, there being no
course taken to give any kind of satisfaction. The king's
coffers were never emptier than at this time, and to us that
have the honor to be near about him, no way is yet known
how he will find means either to maintain or begin a war
without the help of his people. .... In a word, I fear the
ways we run will not prevent the evils that threaten us."f
Cottington had previously expressed himself to the same
correspondent in still stronger terms.
"-.... We are almost certain it will come to a war, and
that a defensive one on our side, and how we shall defend
* Hardwlck State Paptrt, ii. 113. t Strafford Letters, ii. 267.

21
ourselves without money, is not under my cap. My lord,
assure yourself they do believe they shall make a conquest
of us, and that an easy one ; they speak loud, yea even they
that are here, and do despise us beyond measure. No course.
is taken for levying of money, the king will not hear of a
parliament, and he is told by a committee of learned men
that there is no other way."*
In default of this only legal mode of raising the supplies of
war, expedients of the most unconstitutional character were
of necessity recurred to. On the plea of its being a religious
war, the archbishops were required to use their influence, or
authority, in procuring a liberal supply from their clergy. A
contribution, not altogether voluntary, was obtained from the
great officers of state, the nobility and the higher gentry, and
an actual assessment was made on the judges and other
legal functionaries in proportion to their salaries. What was
still more offensive, the queen was allowed to take upon her
to address to sir Kenelm Digby and Walter Montague, her
chosen agents, a kind of official letter, headed "Henrietta
Maria R." and assuming the imperial " We," in which, after
expressing her confidence that on this occasion, which "call
ed his majesty into the Northern parts for the defence of his
honor and dominions," his catholic subjects would be willing
by " some considerable sum of money freely and cheerfully
presented," to evince their gratitude to his majesty through
her, who had been " so often interested in the solicitation of
their benefits ;" she adds : " We have thought fit, to the end
that this our desire may be the more public and the more
authorized, hereby to give you commission and direction, to
distribute copies under your hand of this testification thereof,
unto those that have met in London by our direction about
this business, and unto the several collectors of every coun
ty." And she goes on to assure all such as shall employ
themselves in forwarding this business, of her protection
against any prejudice or inconvenience which might be ap
prehended on this account, f In other words, she promised
to secure them against the consequences of a transaction
utterly illegal.
Thus authorized, the Romaa catholics openly summoned a
meeting in London, at which the papal nuncio presided, for
the purpose of recommending the subscription to all persons
of their religion, whether priests or laity, throughout the
* Strafford Letters, ii. 246. t Rushworth, ii. 820.
Vol. II. 2

22
kingdom. By these means a very moderate pecuniary aid
was obtained for the king, at the expense of aggravating ex
ceedingly the popular odium of which the queen and her
church were already the chosen objects, and even of throw
ing suspicion on Charles himself.
The forward zeal of this sect in raising both money and
men, and otherwise expressing their attachment to the royal
cause, likewise drew upon them a check, which they had
certainly not anticipated, from the pope himself, who ad
dressed his nuncio on the subject in these terms.
"You are to command the catholics of England in gene
ral that they suddenly desist from making such offers of men
towards this Northern expedition as we hear they have done,
little to the advantage of their discretion : and likewise it is
requisite, considering the penalty already imposed, that they
be not too forward with money, more than what law and duty
enjoins them to pay  Declare unto the best of the
peers and gentlemen, by word of mouth or letter, that they
ought not to express any averseuess, in case tbe high court
of parliament be called ; nor show any discontent at the acts
which do not point-blank aim at religion 
" Advise the clergy to desist from that foolish, nay rather
illiterate and childish custom of distinction in the' protestant
and puritan doctrine. And especially this error is so much
the greater when they attempt to prove that protestantism
is a degree nearer the catholic faith than the other ; for since
both of them be without the verge of the church, it is need
less hypocrisy to speak of it ; yea, it begets more malice
than its worth."*
It is evident, that the pope was now undeceived as to the
hope which had long flattered him, of the return of England
within the pale of the catholic church, and exasperated
by the disappointment. The hand of Richelieu may also
be suspected in the business. The captious terms on which
the courts of France and England had stood for years
with respect to one another, had been lately converted, on
the part of France, into sentiments of positive enmity, by the
refusal of Charles to concur in a scheme concerted between
cardinal Richelieu and the Dutch for the seizure of the Span
ish Netherlands. From this period, as we may have many
occasions to observe, this able and vindictive minister let
slip no occasion of embroiling still more the perplexed affairs
* Rush worth, ii. 821.

23
of the British monarch. To Spain alone, of all the continent
al powers, Charles looked with some hope of succour in the
fatal contest which his rashness had provoked. Through the
agency of colonel Gage, a catholic and a soldier of fortune,
he entered into a negotiation with the Archduke at Brussels,
to supply him with a veteran force of 6000 foot and 4000 horse,
in return for permission to raise a certain number of men an
nually in Ireland to recruit the Spanish armies. But neither
did there exist in the court of Madrid any sincere desire to as
sist him. Former instances of bad faith were not forgotten,
and on the plea of some defeats sustained by the Archduke
which rendered it unadvisable for him to part with so large a
portion of his army, the treaty was broken off: not, it is pro
bable, to the detriment of Charles, whom no strength to be de
rived from the arms of foreign and popish mercenaries could
easily have compensated for the total forfeiture of the affections
both of his Scottish and English subjects which he could not
have failed to incur by their employment. By a still greater
instance of good fortune, the whole transaction remained a
profound secret from that party who would not have failed to
make use of the information to his disgrace and ruin.*
Flattering himself that his pecuniary resources might now
prove equal to the cost of a single, and, as he hoped, a brief
campaign, it was the next care of Charles to provide himself
with an army, of which he was as yet totally destitute ; and
for this purpose also it was necessary, in default of parliament
ary aid, to recur to extraordinary and unauthorized methods.
The militia of the different counties, though not compellable
by law to go on foreign service, were ordered to put them
selves in training. Private persons were arbitrarily command
ed by an order of council to supply men and arms in a stated
proportion to their rent-roll or income ; and the lord-keeper
issued out summonses to all peers of the realm to wait upon
their sovereign in the city of York, each attended by his band
of armed followers.
The charge of general of the future army was bestowed
on the earl of Arundel ; a compliment regarded perhaps as
due to his birth and rank, for he had seen no service. The
earl of Essex had in the first instance been appointed master
of the horse, but through the interest of the queen and the
marquis of Hamilton, he was superseded by the earl of Hoi-
* It was not known even to History till the comparatively recent publication
of the Clarendon Papers.

24
land, to his great and just displeasure, and the post of lieuten
ant-general assigned him instead.
Amongst the other munitions of war, declarations and
proclamations were largely provided, in which the Scotch
were pronounced rebels, and accused of a design to separate
the two crowns, and to invade and put to ransom the North
ern counties of England. Little effect was produced by these
appeals to the English people. A wide-spread discontent
with the whole theory and practice of the government of
Charles, had rendered men of every class generally indispos
ed to his cause, whilst the entire puritan party, willingly post
poning the national animosities of other days to the tie of a
common faith and common cause, beheld in the champions
of the covenant no longer enemies or depredators, but
brethren and allies.
The covenanters, meanwhile, although they continued to
make solemn professions of their loyalty and pacific inten
tions, were beginning to strain every nerve in preparation for
the struggle which they now perceived to be inevitable. The
first circumstance which assured them of the determined hos
tility of their sovereign was the imposition of an oath upon
all of their nation at court, by which both the late assembly and
the covenant were renounced, and aid was promised to the
king, whenever required, against the maintainers of them :
A step which was speedily followed up by the summons to
the, English nobility to assemble at York, and by a commis
sion conveyed to the marquis of Huntley in the North of Scot
land to act as his majesty's lieutenant in those parts, with am
ple powers. To disperse through England, by means of
the Scotch pedlars who were accustomed to traverse the coun
try in every direction, a brief declaration to clear themselves
of " all slanders," and especially of the imputed design of
throwing off their allegiance and invading the country, was
the first care of the insurgents. Their next was,' to clear to
their own minds the justice of their cause, of which many,
both among the clergy and nobility, were at first more than
doubtful; having imbibed from Arminian and episcopalian
divines, " that slavish tenet," to use the language of one of
themselves, " that all resistance to the supreme magistrate in
any case was simply unlawful."* A short examination served
to emancipate the leaders of opinion from all scruple on
this head ; and both the press and the pulpit were made to re-
#cho the more popular and acceptable doctrine of resistance,
* Baillie's Letter}, i. 15?.

25
The religious obligation to passive obedience, seemed indeed
to vanish into thin air where religion itself was the object at
stake ; and with respect to the duty of civil allegiance, the ex
ample of the Dutch, between whom and the Scottish people a
strict bond of alliance had long subsisted, gave authority to
the maxim, that resistance to a sovereign who should attempt
to coerce his subjects of one country by an armed force col
lected from other countries under his dominion, is rather to
be esteemed a war of lawful defence against foreign invasion,
than rebellion to the just authority of a native prince. Or
ders were now transmitted from the supreme committee at
Edinburgh, and obeyed with enthusiasm, for a general train
ing of the men of military age throughout the country.
Arms fand ammunition were clandestinely supplied by the
Scotch merchants settled in "Holland, and officers who had
served with reputation either in the army of the States, or
under the victorious banner of Gustavus Adolphus, hastened
to bring to the cause of their country the succour and en
couragement of their approved skill and valor. Alexander
Lesley, the most distinguished of these, had quitted Sweden
on the invitation of the earl of Rothes, one of the principal
of the covenanting lords, to take the chief command. To
raise the necessary supplies of money was apparently a mat
ter of great difficulty ; the ostensible resources of the party
consisted solely of some small loans advanced by the mer
chants of Edinburgh, and of the family plate which certain
patriotic noblemen had sent in to the mint.
Next to that which they placed on their own efforts, the
great reliance of the covenanters was on the cooperation of
the popular party in England, and they were neither remiss
nor unskilful in their efforts to secure it. " Their remon
strances, declarations and pamphlets," says Whitelock, " were
dispersed, and their emissaries and agents insinuated into the
company_of all who were any way discontented, or galled at
the proceedings of the state of England. The gentlemen
who had been imprisoned for the loan, or distrained for ship-
money, or otherwise disobliged, had applications made to
them from the covenanters, and secretly favored and assisted
their designs, and so did many others, especially those inclin
ed to the presbyterian government ; or whom the public pro
ceedings had anywise distasted."*
' The narrow and exclusive spirit of presbyterianism con-
* Memorials, p. 30.

26
spired, happily in this instance, with wiser and worthier mo
tives, to preserve them from the pollution and the snare of
foreign auxiliaries intruded upon a national quarrel.
" We were hopeful of powerful assistance from abroad,"
says Baillie, " if we would have required it. France would
not have failed to embrace our protection. Holland and we
were but one in our cause. They had been much irritated.
lately by the king's assistanee of the Spaniard. Denmark
was not satisfied with many of our prince's proceedings, and
was much behind with the crown of Britain since his war with
the Emperor. Sweden was fully ours, t® have granted us all
the help they could spare from Germany. But we resolved
to make no use of any friendship abroad till our case was
more desperate than we yet took it. We still hoped to bring
off our prince by fair means, which had not been so easy if
we had once brought foreign forces within the isle. We
were hopeful, by the assistance of God, to make our party
good by ourselves alone. The assistance of Lutherans, let
be of papists, at this time, was to our divines a leaning to the
rotten reed of Egypt ; besides our poverty to give pay to a
few strangers, and our old doleful experience of their intoler
able insolency where they came to fight on their own charges.
Above all, a league with foreigners had made England of
necessity our party [adversary], the evil in the world we most
declined, and our adversaries did most aim at."*
But whilst such were the sentiments of the divines, and
the more zealous and single-hearted among the laity, the cov
enanting lords, with whom secular considerations had all
along borne sway, showed themselves less scrupulous. They
did not indeed venture upon the introduction of foreign troops,
but they consented to confer with Chambers, a Scotch priest,
nephew to Con the papal nuncio, and almoner to cardinal
Richelieu, who was twice sent by his patron to inquire into
the causes of the discontents in his native country and to add
fuel to the flame, and through his agency entered into a secret
agreement in virtue of which the French minister procured
the release of a large quantity of arms embargoed in Hol
land, and placed at the disposal of general Lesley a sum of
100,000 crowns.
It might have appeared less inconsistent with the profes
sions which the covenanters had not yet desisted from mak
ing, to have suffered the first act of hostility to proceed from
* BailhVs Letters, i. 153.

27
the king, and thus to have given to their arms the plea of
self-defence ; but it was not the temper of the men to forego
a solid and important advantage, for what they perhaps regard
ed as a vain punctilio, and no sooner was the royal army em
bodied at York, than by a simultaneous and preconcerted
movement, the king's castles in Scotland were all assailed,
and with the exception of Caerlavrock, every one either by
surprise or treachery fell into their hands. In expectation of
the attack of an English fleet under the command of the
marquis of Hamilton, the port of Leith was about the same
time fortified by the hands of the whole population of the
capital, noblemen and gentlemen laboring as volunteers upon
the ramparts, and even ladies of the highest ranks, in a wild
transport of religious or patriotic enthusiasm, mingling with
the throng and lending their personal assistance in the con
veyance of sand and rubbish.
It was on March 27th, 1639, that the king set forth for
York. His nobles had punctually obeyed his summons, and
the march of his numerous and splendid host more resembled
a triumphal progress than a military expedition. It was
doubtless his expectation that the majesty alone of such an
appearance would serve to awe the Scotch into submission,
without an appeal to military force, in which his superiority
was more than questionable. But disappointment awaited him
from causes of which he had made no calculation. Such had
been the rapid though silent progress of disaffection during
those years in which the deluded prince imagined himself
to have been establishing on a firm basis the absolute and in
dependent authority of the crown, that it had become no
less hazardous to draw together his nobility and gentry on a
march, or in his court, than to assemble them in parliament.
No sooner had they met, than leading men began freely to
communicate their discontents to one another ; factions were
formed, opposition became organized, and before long a fa
vorable occasion was offered for the general sentiment to
manifest itself.
The court was full of Scotch ; some of them officers of
the royal household, others, men of rank and consequence in
their country, who had waited upon his majesty partly in
token of their own fidelity, partly with the view of promot
ing an accommodation. The loyalty of these persons, amid
the general defection of their nation, seemed to be exposed
to reasonable suspicion ; there were individuals also amongst
the English of whom Charles felt himself not more assured,

28
and he determined, before he should proceed further on his
march, to bring them to a test. For this purpose, by a
policy at once feeble and tyrannical, he promulgated a mili
tary oath, to be taken by all peers and persons of eminence,
which, in addition to the usual declaration of allegiance, con
tained an obligation to oppose, to the utmost hazard of life
and fortune, all seditions, rebellions and conspiracies, espe
cially such as should "come veiled under pretence of re
ligion." The Scots, as lord Clarendon bitterly expresses himself
" took it to a man, without grieving their conscience or
mending their manners." But two English neblemen, the
lords Say and Brook, positively refused, m the king's pre
sence, to enter into the engagement required. " They said,
if the king suspected their loyalty, he might proceed against
them as he thought fit ; but that it was against the law to
impose any oath or( protestation upon them which were not
enjoined by the law ; and in that respect, that they might
not betray the common liberty, they would not submit to
it."* They also observed, that they were willing to attend
his majesty, but that he could not command their attend
ance out of the kingdom, and said that they were not suffi
ciently acquainted with the laws of Scotland to judge of the
justice of the cause. Charles, placed the two peers under
arrest, and was much disposed to have made an example of
them ; but finding to his mortification, on consulting the
crown lawyers, that their resistance to his will was perfectly
legal, he liberated them after a few days, requiring them to
return to their own houses. The example of these spirited
noblemen had the effect of making others append an expla
nation to their oaths ; and such was the tenor of the discourse
to which it gave occasion, that the test was laid aside.
The earl of Essex was now sent forward to occupy Ber
wick, and Charles himself, in the midst of the audible wishes
of his courtiers " that the business were brought to a fair
treaty," marched with expedition to the border, and en
camped with his army under shelter of that fortress. On in
formation of the approach of the covenanters, the earl of
Holland was detached with a body of S000 horse, 2000 foot,
and a train of artillery ; and at the head of his horse, which
had outstripped the rest, he came up with them at a place
called Dunse, ten or twelve miles within the Scottish boun-
* Hist. Rebellion, i. 807.

29
dary. Lesley had skilfully posted his men on a hill-side, where
their numbers showed to advantage, and the English com
mander was so much daunted at the sight, that without wait
ing for the junction of his own party, far less the reinforce
ments or further orders of his majesty, he sounded a retreat,
and sought again the shelter of the camp.
Flattered to find themselves so formidable, the covenanters
now entered into an open correspondence with several Eng
lish peers, and in particular addressed letters to the thiee
commanders, Arundel, Essex, and Holland, desiring that
through their interposition and favorable representation, some
of their number might be admitted to a personal treaty with
their sovereign. Essex, in whom punctilious honor was a
leading feature, received the communication and its bearers
with haughtiness, and without making any answer, immediate
ly transmitted it to the king. Arundel and Holland, on the
contrary, entertained no scruple of assuring the Scotch of
their hearty desire of the restoration of peace, and seem to
have promised their mediation.
At this period, the evident coldness of the English of every
class in his quarrel, seems to have struck the mind of Charles
with sudden and deep dismay. The report of Hamilton, who
had returned to the presence of his master, leaving his fleet
quietly at anchor in the Firth of Forth, on the shores of which
he had not judged it expedient to attempt a landing, would
doubtless be unfavorable to the prosecution of the war, and
after a short demur, a safe-conduct was issued for four of the
covenanting chiefs to meet six English commissioners in the
tent of the lord-general, and arrange the terms of a pacifica
tion. Scarcely were these parties assembled at the appointed
place, when the king himself, to the astonishment of the
Scotch, entered, and took the business into his own hands.
He announced, that he had taken this step in order to dis
prove the " notorious slanders " laid upon him of shutting his
ears to the just complaints of his native subjects ; and assum
ing a high and reproving tone, told them, that as he was sure
they could never justify all their actions, their best way would
be to take his word and submit themselves to his award.
The commissioners were awe-struck ; their defence of the
principles of their party was far from vigorous, and their pro
testations of loyalty became fervent. They demanded how
ever the ratification of the acts of the late assembly, and the
future government of the kingdom by assemblies and parlia-
Vol. II. 3

so
ments to be convened at stated times : but to the first of
these articles the king steadily refused his assent.
This obstacle was however by some means or other sur
mounted, and after a short negotiation, the armistice, for it
proved no more, was concluded about the middle of June.
In virtue of this agreement, both armies were disbanded, the
royal fleet recalled, the Scotch castles given up to the king,
and prisoners and property restoied on both sides. Charles
ratified his late concessions respecting religion, but went no
further ; all the matters in dispute which had caused the re
sort to arms being referred over, by mutual consent, to the de
cision of the assembly and the parliament shortly to be hold-
en, at which his majesty declared it his intention to preside in
person. No sooner were these articles made known, than'great dis
content was manifested in the Scotch army at an agreement
which nullified the assembly of Glasgow, and included no final
renunciation of episcopacy. On the other hand, the three
principal advisers of the king, Hamilton, Laud and Went
worth, were unanimous in vehement condemnation of a trea
ty which left rebellion unpunished, the royal authority unas
serted, and in fact the whole dispute to be arbitrated afresh,
and probably by a new appeal to the sword. To fhe politic
chiefs of the covenant, however, the measure came recom
mended by many conveniences, if it were not dictated by ne
cessity, and to the king, even a short breathing time was wel
come. Harassed, perplexed, unable to prevail upon himself
to yield on points involving the most cherished maxims of his
own and his father's policy, points to him of pride, of feeling,
and even of conscience,— yet utterly barren of resources to
supply the deficiences, or surmount the difficulties by which
he saw himself* surrounded, he willingly deferred the evil day
of open contest, flattering himself in the mean time with the
futile hope of gaining his ends by those arts of intrigue and
duplicity with which early practice had rendered him familiar.
A few miscellaneous notices of things and persons may serve
to occupy this interval of public tranquillity.
England had perhaps never possessed a sovereign so much
disposed as Charles to the encouragement of learning and the
arts. The civil dissensions of his reign cut short many fair
designs for the advancement and embellishment of social life,
and deprived many eminent scholars and distinguished artists
of their most munificent patron and best friend. A lively im
pulse had however been given both to taste and learning •

31
and notwithstanding the temporary check which they sus
tained, no ground was absolutely or permanently lost.
Manners had been refined and civilized ; the nobler springs
of thought and action had been touched, and a race of men
had been formed, who carried into civil war itself habits and
principles which powerfully restrained its licence, and almost
totally deprived it of the ferocity which in all other ages and
countries had formed its leading characteristic.
Early in the reign, the house of lords had appointed a com
mittee, of which the duke of Buckingham was a member, to
inquire into the state of the public schools, and the method of
education pursued in them. From this investigation seems
to have sprung an academy established in London under the
title of Musaeum Minervae, by the royal patent granted to sir
Francis Kynaston, or Kingston, an esquire of the body, who
was appointed its regent. In conformity with the spirit of the
age, none were to be admitted as students but such as could.
prove themselves gentlemen by birth. Many professors were
appointed, and their courses embraced philosophy, geometry,
astronomy, medicine, music, languages, painting, architect
ure, riding, fortification, antiquities, and the study of medals.
A library, a museum, philosophical apparatus, and a collec
tion of paintings, statues, and antiques, were attached to the
college. Owing to the state of the king's affairs, the design
was never carried into full effect. About the period of
Charles's death, that noted projector sir Balthazar Gerbier,
made an effort however either to revive this scheme or estab
lish something similar ; but he appears to have undertaken to
instruct in all branches himself. His lectures " On the art of
well-speaking," attracted the sarcastic notice of Butler. One
of them was announced as " designed for the ladies and hon
orable women of this nation :" The first instance probably in
this country, of a popular lecture addressed to females. This
academy degenerated into a debating society, and soon after
expired. It was in 1633 that the novel tenets of the celebrated French
philosopher Descartes, then resident in Holland, were first
promulgated. On the continent they were ardently espoused
by many of the learned, but were viewed by theologians with
an indignation and alarm which prompted some base attempts
to draw upon him the animadversion of the civil power. In
England his philosophy obtained credit amongst the most en
lightened judges, and sir Charles Cavendish, brother to the
earl of Newcastle, concerning whom it is Clarendon's testimo-

32
ny that he was "a man of the noblest and largest mind that
lived," gave him an invitation to the country, which was se
conded by the offer of a liberal appointment on the part of
the king. Descartes was well disposed to listen to a proposal
so honorable to all concerned ; but before it could be carried
into effect, the country had become a prey to the calamities
of civil war.
Since Bacon, no native inquirer had as yet asserted a claim
to the title of a philosopher : Hobbes alone was beginning to
solicit the opinions of the learned on some portions of that
singular system with which he afterwards perplexed the
world. This remarkable person, born at Malmsbury in the
year 1588, had in early life attended upon lord Bacon in
the capacity of an amanuensis, or literary assistant, and had
afterwards been employed by him in rendering into Latin a
portion of his philosophical works. The superior promptitude
and acuteness with which he seized the import of the imper
fect hints and memoranda which were often assigned to him
to follow up or to methodize, quickly attracted the favorable
notice of his illustrious patron ; and although the peculiar sys
tem of Hobbes, whether in metaphysics or in politics, can be
traced to no further source than the promptings of his own
acute and original mind, there can be little doubt that it was
in the school of the great founder of experimental philosophy,
that he gained courage to emancipate himself from the tram
mels of authority, and to seek truth by the exertion of his own
powers of observation and reasoning, rather than in the writ
ings of his predecessors.
Hobbes was tutor to the second earl of Devonshire of the
name of Cavendish, who died in 1628, and afterwards to his
son and successor, under whose roof he found a home to the
end of a life unusually protracted. This connection was the
means of introducing him to the society of the most eminent
men of his age in rank, learning and character, as well in
France and Italy as at home, and he was widely known and
esteemed for talents and for moral worth, long before he ap
peared as an author.
Viewing with equal dislike and dread the spirit of resistance
to regal authority exhibited by the early parliaments of
Charles's reign, he published in 1629 a translation of the
History of Thucydides, vainly hoping that it might act as a
warning against the evils of democracy. In 1634 he attended
his younger pupil in a tour on fhe continent. At Pisa, he,
like Milton, songht out Galileo, then recently liberated from

33
the prisons of the Inquisition ; but owing to a constitutional
cowardice which he confessed and lamented in himself, he de
rived nothing more than a caution not to endanger himself by
committing anything to writing in that country, from a sight
which, as we have seen, inspired into the generous and intre
pid bosom of his illustrious compatriot, the spirit of perpetual
hostility to tyranny in all its forms and modifications.
Hobbes returned from his travels with the matter of three
separate works ready arranged in his mind ; on metaphysics,
on morals, and on politics, which he designed to produce in
that order; but the state of the country then, as he expresses
it, " boiling hot with questions concerning the rights of domi
nion and the obedience due from subjects, the true forerun
ners of civil wars," impelled him first to give utterance to his
notions off government, in a small tract, which, however, he
would venture no further than to circulate pretty widely in
manuscript. It was the object of this piece to show, that
many branches of prerogative which the house of commons
had declared incompatible with English law, were by nature
inseparably annexed to the very idea of sovereignty. It is as
serted that, but for the dissolution of parliament in April 1640,
the promulgation of this doctrine was likely to have exposed
even the life of the author to danger; and on the meeting of
the long parliament he judged it expedient to fly his country.
At Paris, which was long his place of refuge, he pursued his
plans of study, and produced to the world those extraordinary
works some of which have recommended him to the lovers of
philosophy, and others to the champions of arbitrary power.
It was during this interval, when the zeal for philosophi
cal inquiry which had been awakened was not yet guided by
true judgment or sound knowledge, that the fabled society
of the Rosicrucians — into the pretensions of which, mystical
and even absurd as was the account given of them, Descartes
himself had not disdained to examine — served to supply a
name, if nothing more, to a crowd of enthusiasts or deceiv
ers, who were able to pass themselves upon more than the
vulgar for the depositories of high and awful sciences. The
head of this very equivocal sect in England was Dr. Robert
Fludd, who died in 1637. It was apparently during his tra
vels on the continent, in several countries of which, but espe
cially in its native Germany, the Rosicrucian imposture was
much more successful than in England, that Fludd imbibed
its spirit, or its language. On his return, becoming a fellow
of the college of physicians, he commenced practice in Lon-

34
don, where " his enthusiastic piety, and the apparent pro
fundity of his scientific knowledge veiled under a mysterious
jargon, inspired much admiration, and raised him to tempo
rary fanje." He also became an exceedingly voluminous
author, in physics aud metaphysics. " Compounding into one
mass all the incomprehensible dreams of the Cabalists and
Paracelsians, he formed a new physical system, of wonder
ful mystery and absurdity. He imagined two universal prin
ciples, the northern, or condensing power, and the southern,
or rarefying. Over these he placed innumerable intelligen
ces, or geniuses, and he called together troops of spirits
from the four winds, to whom he committed the charge of
diseases."* It ia worthy of remark, that notwithstanding the
utter futility and baselessness of his notions, the respect sup
posed to be due to gravity and the show of learning, obtained
for Fludd the notice of several of the. most distinguished vo
taries of true science ; Kelper, Mersenne, and Gassendi, all
honored him with refutations.
The fund of credulity and ignorance still subsisting with
respect both to the objects and the means of science, was fur
ther manifested by the prevalence of the delusions of judicial
astrology. From the life of himself written by William Lilly,
the most noted of tbe fortune-tellers and almanac-makers
of his day, we learn some curious facts with relation to this
subject. Questions on all the subjects most important to hu
man interests and passions ; questions of love, of sickness, of
worldly success and advancement, and, what Lilly men
tions with reluctance as " the only reproach of the art," of
theft, were professedly resolved by these adepts. Their
modes of operating were various, but mostly founded upon
the pretended calculation of nativities ; some of them em
ployed an accomplice under the name of a speculator, who
professed to behold reflected in a globe of crystal, as in a mir
ror, figures of absent persons, and representations of future
events. The more daring of the class undertook to call up
spirits, or angels, whom they summoned by name with suffu-
migations and various mystic rites. According to Lilly, it
was usually by types and figures, or by means of a kind of
phantasmagoria, that their answers were given. " It is very
rare," he says, "yea even in our days, for any operator or
master to have the angels speak articulately ; when they do
speak, it is like the Irish, much in the throat." Another art
* General Biography.

35
professed by the same persons was the discovery of hidden
treasure by the Mosaical rods. They were often alchemists,
chemical experimenters, and medical empirics ; some of them
supported themselves by the manufacture of anlimonial cups,
and they had some share in the merit of the introduction of
mineral remedies. Notwithstanding the received doctrine
that the spirits who presided over the occult branches of sci
ence would impart their secrets to none but the devout and
the pure in life, the dissoluteness of the whole crew was not.
less notorious than their poverty. In private life they filled
all the parts of those whom the French style, " chevaliers d'
Industrie," and there was no kind of service too infamous or
too dishonest to be undertaken by them for hire.
On occasion they would perform the office of spies ; dur
ing the civil wars they dipped deeply in political intrigue, and
rendered their predictions subservient to the purposes of the
different sects and parties. It may give some idea of the im
portance attached to these deluders and their arts, to men
tion that Kenelm Digby attended upon the incantations of
one of them in the hope of seeing an apparition raised ; that
judge Holborn had his nativity cast ; that Lilly was employed
to prognosticate in a sickness of Bulstrode Whitelock's ; and
that he and another adept used the divining rods to search for
buried treasure in Westminster Abbey under tbe sanction of
the dean — bishop Williams ; also, that if we an to believe him,
he was consulted in more than one critical juncture of the
king's affairs ; and especially, by a lady, on the choice of a
fortunate hour for his majesty's escape from Carisbrook
castle. Lilly is understood to be the original from whom Butler
clrrw his Sidrophel, who is styled a " learned Rosicrucian."
The name was for some time longer appropriated by profes
sors of the occult sciences. Anthony Wood makes mention
of attending at Oxford the lectures of Peter Sthael, a Ger
man, " a noted chemist and Rosicrucian," who had been
brought thither by the honorable Robert Boyle in 1659 ; and
the system must have been at least fresh in remembrance
when Pope founded upon it the enchanting machinery of the
Rape of the Lock.*
* Wood enumerates amongst the hearers of Sthael, besides other persons
of name, chiefly divines, " John Locke, afterwards a noted writer ;" adding,
" This John Locke was a man of a turbulent spirit, clamorous and never
contented. The club wrote and took notes from ihe mouth of their master,
who sat at the upper end of a table, bat the said J. Locke scorned to do it ;

38
Ben Jonson closed in 1638 a life which the decay of his
mental powers had for some years rendered burdensome to
himself and others. Through the favor of the queen, sir
William Davenant succeeded him as laureate. This poet, a
person of some note in the political as well as the literary
history of the times, was born in 1605, the son of an inn
keeper at Oxford, unless there were truth in the whisper of
scandal, which assigned him Shakespeare for a father ; to
whose memory he composed an ode at the age of ten.
After completing his school education he entered upon a
court life in the capacity of page to Frances duchess of
Richmond, and afterwards made a part of the household of
that eminent patron and cultivator of letters, Fulk Greville
lord Brook. On the extinction of his prospects in this quar
ter by the assassination of this nobleman, in 1629, Davenant
turned his talents to the drama, and composed in rapid suc
cession for the amusement of the court, a number of plays
and masques, which found such acceptance as to enable him,
by their fame and their profits, to figure amongst the chief
wits tfand gallants of the time. A princess in any degree
more delicate than Henrietta must have shrunk with loathing
from affording her patronage to a man whose licentious con
duct had become matter of such very peculiar notoriety. The
award of the laurel to Davenant gave deep offence to May,
the learned and able continuator of Lucan, and is said by his
political opponents to have been the motive of his joining the
popular party, but probably untruly. The ardent disciple of
the Roman poet of liberty, was little likely to be found en
listed under the banners of kingly power. Davenant attach
ed himself with zeal to the interests of his patroness ; and
we shall see him, on more than one occasion, freely exposing
himself to dangers and sufferings in the royal cause.
so that while every man besides of the club were writing, he would be prating
and troublesome." We may infer the estimation in which the adept was
held by the philosopher. This Rosicrucian, Wood further characterizes as
"a Lutheran, a great hater of women, and a very useful man."

37

CHAPTER XVII.
1639 and 1640.
Covenanters jealous of the king's intentions. — Lords of Montrose,
Lothian, and Loudon. — Terms qf pacification disputed. — King
declines opening the Scotch parliament. — Hamilton's duplicity. —
Traquair royal commissioner. — Acts of the Scotch parliament. —
Bishops' protest. — Constitution of the country remoddled by the
parliament, which is thereupon prorogued. — Capture of a Span
ish fleet by a Dutch one in the Downs. — The court deserted. —
All the cabinet-council against war with Scotland, except Went
worth whom Charles sends for to England. — He is created earl
of Strafford and lord lieutenant qf Ireland. — King reluctantly
consents to summon a parliament. — Strafford's proposal for con
trolling it. — The army put tinder new commanders. — Queen's in
terference xoith military appointments. — No relaxation of op
pression in England. — High measures of Strafford with the
Irish parliament. — Sentiments of Irish chieftains. — Troops
levied there. — Strafford returns to England. — Opening of par
liament. — Excellent composition of the house. — King's speech. —
Committees formed for grievances. — Petitions. — Characters of
opposition members. — Harbottle Grimstone. — Sir B. Rudyard.
— Pym. — Proceedings qf parliament respecting the cases of
Eliot, Hollis, and Hampden. — Ship-money declared a griev
ance. — King interposes. — Notice of Waller. — Contest respect
ing supplies. — Parliament dissolved. — -King's speech. — Members
imprisoned. — Acts of the convocation. — New canons. — Et caete-
ra oath. — Attack on Lambeth palace punished as treason.— Tor
ture applied.
THE motives of the king in concluding the pacification of
Berwick were justly appreciated by the people of Scotland ;
and a jealousy of his further designs was openly evinced.
Fourteen of the chiefs of the covenant being summoned
to meet him at Berwick before his return to London, the
people of Edinburgh, in alarm for their personal) safety,
assembled with the purpose of preventing their journey.
Three only of the number judged it safe to comply with the
royal invitation ; the lords of Montrose, Lothian, and Lou
don ; and of these the first, whose opposition to the court had
Vol. II. 4

38
originally sprung from no higher source than the disappoint
ment of selfish hopes, became a decided convert to the royal
cause ; whilst the'principles of the other two underwent, as was
suspected, considerable modifications. It was judged a fitting
precaution on the part of the covenanters to detain in the
country on full pay all the military officers of their own
nation whom they had summoned from foreign service;
whilst the king, on his, took measures for strengthening Ed
inburgh castle, and throwing additional supplies of men and
ammunition into that of Dumbarton.
The terms of the pacification became the subject of dispute
and mutual contradiction. The Scotch commissioners pub
lished an apology for their conduct, addressed to the objections
of the more zealous covenanters, in which they affirmed, that
verbal promises had been given by the king, and noted down
by themselves on the spot, much more favorable to their
cause than the public articles, which had been drawn up
with an understood saving for what the king regarded as
due to his honor. This statement, which wears a great sem
blance of truth, was vehemently denied by Charles, and the
apology which contained it was, by order of the English
council, burned by the hands of the common hangman. Mean
time, the disaffection of the people of Edinburgh broke out
in gross insults to the ministers of state and all who were
looked upon as the personal friends of the king ; and either
the dissuasions of Strafford and the courtiers, or his own
apprehensions, induced Charles to relinquish his declared in
tention of presiding in person at the meeting of the general
assembly and the parliament, fixed for the ensuing August.
Hamilton, immediately after the pacification, had undertak
en to serve the interests of his master in the line best suited to
his talents and dispositions, sanctioned by the following re
markable warrant under the hand of Charles. " We do by
these presents not only authorize but require you to use all
the means you can, with such of the covenanters as come to
Berwick, to learn which way they intend the state of bi
shops shall be supplied in parliament ; what our power shall
be in ecclesiastical affairs ; and what further their intentions
are. For which end, you will be necessitated to speak that
language which, if you were called to an account for by us,
you might suffer for it. These are therefore to assure you,
and, if need be, hereafter to testify to others, that whatsoev
er you shall say to them, to discover their intentions in these
particulars, you shall neither be called in question for the

39
same, nor yet it prove any ways prejudicial to you; nay,
though you should be accused by any thereupon."*
It is not surprising that after performing the dishonoring
part thus assigned to him, Hamilton should have declined to
return to Scotland in the character of royal commissioner. He
had doubtless informed himself sufficiently of the views of the
covenanters, to be fully aware, that the total and perpetual abo
lition of episcopacy, and the complete exclusion of all interfer
ence of the regal authority in affairs ecclesiastical, were the
only terms with which they would now rest satisfied ; and
these there was no chance that the king would be prevailed
upon sincerely or permanently to concede. To Traquair
therefore this difficult and pleasing office was assigned, and
by him the assembly and the parliament were opened at the
appointed time.
In the assembly, the abolition of all the late, innovations
in religion, and of episcopacy, was triumphantly carried, the
king having empowered Traquair to give the royal assent to
this measure, subject to certain limitations and distinctions,
so worded as to afford a pretext for setting aside, on the first
favorable occasion, the whole of the concessions now extort
ed from him by what was called a state necessity. The cove
nant was renewed, with the insertion of a clause more express
ly declaratory of allegiance to the prince ; and after it had been
taken by the commissioner, the meeting was dissolved with
great rejoicings and thanksgivings on the part of the people.
But the real struggle was yet to commence.
The bishops had protested by anticipation against the valid
ity of the acts of a parliament from which their order should
be excluded ; the king was with reason believed to meditate
availing himself of this ground of nullity ; and the covenan
ters, resolved to baffle his design, proceeded without hesitation
to remodel the ill-balanced constitution of their country on
the principles of popular representation. A third estate, com
posed of a kind of country members, was to form a legal sub
stitute for the estate of the lord spiritual ; the selection of the
lords of the articles was not hereafter to be vested in the
crown ; but freedom of discussion was to be secured, and the
triennial meeting of parliaments ; and various abuses were to
be corrected.
Viewing in these measures not only the discomfiture of
the present projects of his master, but the virtual abolition of
* Hardwicke State Papers, ii. 141.

40
the regal power in Scotland, Traquair took refuge in a short
prorogation, which was afterwards extended . by the king to
a period of six months. To this long suspension, which was
declared about the middle of November 1639, the Scotch
parliament professed to submit, as a mark of deference to their
prince; but with a protest against his right to command it ;
and the earls of Loudon and Dumf'ei inline were some time
after sent as commissioners to make representations to the
king on the subject, and procure if possible his assent to
the obnoxious acts. But the king was absolutely determined
upon a renewal of the war, as the preferable alternative.
In the mean time, a singular incident held for a time the
whole nation at gaze, and flattered Charles with vain hopes
of some pecuniary resource.
A Spanish fleet, closely pursued by that of Holland, wifh
which it had been engaged to some disadvantage, took shelter
in the Downs. It consisted of seventy sail of galleons and
transports; the Dutch fleet being, though greatly inferior in
numbers, superior in the condition of their ships and the skill
and courage of the commanlers. A natural jealousy of the
designs of this new armada was at first manifested by
the English ministry, who had recently received intelligence
of dangerous projects of rebellion and invasion concerted be
tween certain exiled Irish chieftains,, and the court of Spain.*
Yet, on assurances given by the Spanish ambassador of
the good faith of his master, supported by sufficient proof
that the destination of the armament was Dunkirk, Charles's
necessities induced him to offer, in consideration of a sum
of 150,000Z. so far to depart from the neutrality he had profess
ed, as to take this fleet under the protection of his own, and
convey it to Flanders, and afterwards to a Spanish port. The
proposal was cordially welcomed by the court of Brussels ;
but so large a sum of ready money could not easily be found,
and before all was arranged, a period of six weeks had
elapsed. Meantime the Dutch fleet had been augmented by
repeated reinforcements to a hundred sail ; and the States
determined no longer to forego a certain and important vic
tory from respect to the prohibitions of an ally whom they
had as little cause to fear as to love, or trust. They there
fore gave orders to their admirals to attack ; and in the
Downs, under the very eyes of Pennington the English admi-
* Clarendon Papers, ii. 70, et seq.

41
ral, who thought proper to remain a quiet spectator, the
Spaniards sustained a total and most destructive defeat.
The disappointment of Charles on the loss of this expected
advantage must have been severe ; and to add to his mortifi
cation, the cardinal-infant expressed to Gerbier, then the
English agent at Brussels, the sentiment, that by this action
of the Hollanders, the king of Great Britain had sustained a
greater blow than the king of Spain. Adding, that he had
advices that when the attack of the Spanish fleet was first
proposed in the assembly of the States, " it was resolved on
with that insolency and animosity, that to the objections
which some made of the intrenching upon his majesty's pre
rogative, and the contempt of the protection he had taken of
the Spanish fleet, not only upon his own seas, but within his
own harbor, and consequently the rupture which would
necessarily ensue between his majesty and the States; their
general answer to these objections was, that his majesty durst
not break with them ; and if he durst, they feared him not ;
and in fine, rather than suffer the Spanish fleet to' escape,
they would attack it, though it were placed upon his majesty's
beard."* Even the pomp and festivities of the" court suffered an
ominous eclipse from the aspect of political affairs. "We
had a most lamentable St. George's feast," writes the earl of
Northumberland to the earl of Leicester ; " few knights,
scarce any but boys, and Scotch and Irish lords, to wait upon
the king. And amongst all the spectators, not the face of a
gentleman or woman to be seen ; nor any election of a new
knight though there are three places void."f
The policy of Charles found little support from his most
trusted counsellors. Hamilton still advised pacific measures ;
the earl of Northumberland, lately admitted into the Junta,
or what was then reproachfully styled the cabinet-council,
to which the affairs of Scotland were confided, expressed
the same sentiment ; and even Laud himself, now thoroughly
alarmed, incurred the royal rebuke by the perseverance of
his pleadings in behalf of conciliation. Wentworth alone, in
the heat and confidence of his temper, held out to his mas
ter assurances of complete success against a people whom
he depised as fanatics no less than he detested them as rebels.
He scorned to believe that the English nation would hesitate
to suppjrt their prince in such a cause; and if he had hitherto
* Clarendon Papers, ii. 79. t Sidney Papers, ii. 612.

42
advised the postponement of hostilities, it was only the better
to secure the final triumph which he now anticipated. . By
vigorous measures he had himself not only suppressed a
threatened rising among the Scotch in Ulster, but compelled
them to forswear their covenant. Ireland lay humbled in si
lent subjection at his feet, and he saw no cause why a similar
course of policy should fail of reducing both Scotland and
England to the same state. These sentiments he had repeat
edly expressed in letters to Laud, to others of the ministers,
and to the king himself. He had further exhibited his zeal
by diligently recruiting and bringing under discipline the Irish
army, by strictly enforcing the payment of ship-money with
in his Northern presidency, by causing troops to be levied
and trained there, and by the large contributions to the ex
penses of the war, partly from his own purse, partly from
those of his friends, which he had paid into the royal treasu-
Struck with so many proofs of his will and power to serve
him in the manner and on the principles most congenial to
his own sentiments, Charles condescended to intimate to the
lord-deputy under his own hand, his wish to see him at court
where he had so lately discouraged his attendance ; adding,
that he had " much, too much," private matter to require his
counsels for some time, to which he would then only allude
by saying, that the Scottish covenant spread too far. Some
other pretext was however to be taken for his visit to Eng
land : this Wentworth found in matters arising out of the ap
peal of lord chancellor Loftus to the English council, and in
November 1639 he arrived in London.
We have seen the king twice denying to viscount Went
worth the advancement in dignity on which his heart was
set, almost avowedly on the ground of the obloquy which his
public conduct had incurred, and in which his master was
unwilling, by any p-.iblie mark of approbation bestowed upon
him, to render himself a partaker. But it was no longer a
time for such scruples ; in the state to which he found him
self reduced, a minister of the talents and resolution of Went
worth might put his own price on his indispensable services ;
and immediately on his arrival, he received the patent of earl
of Strafford and baron Raby, and shortly after the garter.
The rumor of the court had also assigned to him the office
of lord-treasurer ; but he probably preferred to retain the
absolute rule of a dependent kingdom, nor could his pre
sence there be dispensed with, aud the title of lord-lieutenant

43
of Ireland, never conferred on any deputy since Elizabeth
had granted it to Robert earl of Essex, was added to his de
corations. The total abolition of parliaments in England had been
the favorite object of the policy of Charles. A disuse of ele
ven years, sustained by the people with a silence resembling
acquiescence, had flattered him into a belief that the experi
ment had succeeded ; the levy of tonnage and poundage and
of ship-money had established precedents for future taxation
by royal authority to any amount ; the same authority had
also been successfully employed in the raising of troops ; and
notwithstanding the disgraceful result of the last campaign,
and the present complete exhaustion of the exchequer, he
fondly imagined that the resources of prerogative would still
prove adequate to the emergencies of his situation. But this
sanguine view was not shared by a single individual in his
council. They all better knew the state of utter feebleness
and decay into which every department of -the adminis
tration had fallen, and took a truer measure of the pro
found and widely spreading discontents, — and all, whe
ther their interests or inclinations niight pronipt them to desire
or to deprecate the assembling of a parliament, concurred
in regarding it as an event which could neither be avoided
nor longer deferred. We even learn from the diary of Laud,
that Hamilton, Strafford, and himself, became the first movers
of this measure in the council. The king, still diffident and
averse, put the ques'.ion to all the members present, whether,
in the event of the commons proving "peevish," they would
bind themselves to assist him in the " extraordinary ways"
which would then be necessary for his service 1 and having
obtained from them an unanimous resolution to that effect,
he gave to the measure a tardy, hesitating, and ill-omened
assent. It was now the time for Strafford to disclose those re
sources through which he believed that it would be in his own
power to turn this measure of necessity to the ultimate bene
fit of his master's authority. His plan was simple : Before
the meeting of the English parliament, he proposed to con
vene one in Ireland. Here, as past experience assured him,
he had no opposition to dread. Large supplies would be
granted, by means of which the army might with ease be so
augmented as to enable him, after effectually providing for
the tranquillity of that island, to strengthen the hands of the
king with a force capable of subduing all opposition to his

44
will in England. Animated by these counsels of vigor
Charles appointed the month of March 1640 for the meeting
of the Irish parliament, and the following month for that of
the English, and in the mean time proceeded with redoubled
activity in his preparations for the ensuing campaign.
It is observed by Clarendon, that the king had not dismiss
ed his army " with so obliging circumstances as was like to
incline them to come so willingly together, if there were occa
sion to use their service :" That " the earl of Essex, who
had merited very well throughout the whole affair, and had
never made a false step in action or counsel, was discharged
in the crowd without otdinary ceremony," and an opportuni
ty, which soon after occurred, of obliging him highly by the
grant of the rangership of Need wood forest, not embraced.
By a perseverance in the same impolicy it was now determin
ed not again to employ him, and a like resolution was taken
with respect to the earls of Arundel and Holland ; all three,
it is to be remarked, the personal enemies of Strafford.
In the place of these, the earl of Northumberland was ap
pointed general, whilst Strafford took in preference the post
of lieutenant-general, and by the concurrence of both, the
charge of master of the horse was given to their common
friend lord Conway, characterized by a contemporary as "a
man of Epicurean principles, a great devourer of books and
good cheer, and who lay under some reflection since the ac
tion of the isle Rhe."* " The rest of the chosen military
men," adds the same author, "as Wilmot, and Goring, and
Ashburnham, aud O'Neal, &c. were merry lads, and none of
them well-willers to Strafford, but more the lord Holland's
dependants, a greater man on the queen's side than he, which
made them so froward towards him."
In these appointments we may probably trace the effects of
the queen's busy interference with military commissions ;
which the lord-deputy had often vainly remonstrated against
in Ireland, and in England must have found it slill less in his
power to restrain.
The news of a parliament was received with transports of
joy by the English people, who regarded it as the certain pre
lude to the redress of grievances and a return to the ancient
free constitution of the country. Prudence might now have
dictated to the king the conciliatory policy of some relaxation
* Warwick's Memoirs. Conway however was certainly a man of talent.
His letters in the Strafford Papers are the most entertaining and best written
of that collection, unless we except Strafford's own.

45
of habitual oppressions, some demonstrations, however faint,
of a purpose to govern in future according to law; but this
his pride forbade. "That it might appear," says lord Claren
don, "that the court was not at all apprehensive of what the
parliament would or could do, and that it was convened by
his majesty's grace and inclination, not by any motive of ne
cessity ; it proceeded in all respects in the same unpopular
ways it had done :" ship-money was levied with the same se
verity ; and the- same rigor in ecclesiastical courts, without
the least compliance with the humor of any man."*
Strafford in the mean time was carrying every thing with a
high hand in Ireland. The splendor of his new dignities, the
eminent trust and favor into which he had been received by
his sovereign ; the hopes of profit and preferment by his means
on one hand, and the dread of his fury and vindictiveness on
the other, drew forth protestations of attachment to his per
son and administration, which he deluded himself into believ
ing spontaneous and sincere. Four subsidies were voted by
the parliament unanimously, and as it were by acclamation ;
the members protesting with the passionate rhetoric of their
country, that their hearts were mines of subsidies for his ma
jesty's service, and that twenty, were their abilities equal to
their affections, would not be too many to grant to so sacred
a majesty, from whose clemency, through the medium of their
lieutenant, so many gracious favors, were continually derived
to them. They proceeded to express their abhorrence of the
treason and rebellion of the Scotch, and to offer the aid of
their swords as well as purses to the royal cause.
The last proposal came doubtless from the heart. Nothing
could be so welcome to the propensities, or convenient to the
circumstances of the Irish of every class,, as any prospect of
military service ; and religious antipathies conspired with va
rious causes of political jealousy, and the most complete op
position of national character, to render their Scottish neigh
bors the chosen objects of their animosity. Nor can it be
doubted that the heads of ancient steps, the secret rulers of
the native population of the island, had at this juncture rea
sons of their own for desiring to see large bodies of their
countrymen disciplined to arms.
Elated with a present success which taught him a false and
fatal confidence in the soundness of his own political views,
and the dispositions of the persecuted catholics of Ireland,
* Hist. RebeUion, i. 230.
Vol. II. 5

46
the lord-lieutenant, in transmitting to England the vote of
supply, appealed to the professions uttered in the house and
at the council board, as a triumphant confutation of the
slanderous assertion of his enemies, that his severities had
rendered him " a most hated person, indeed a vizier basha,
or anything that might be worse ;" and he requested that the
utmost publicity might be given to the proceedings of Ire
land, as an example of encouragement and intimidation, in
England and in Scotland. He then proceeded with extraor
dinary diligence to direct a levy of 8000 foot and 1000 horse,
a part of which was dispatched to garrison Carlisle, while the
remainder was designed to carry the war into Scotland under
his own immediate command.
Having concluded these momentous affairs within the com
pass of a single fortnight, Strafford re-embarked for England
in hopes of arriving in time for the opening of parliament.
But his bodily frame refused longer to comply with the re
quisitions of a spirit insensible of fatigue and utterly disdain
ful of indulgence or repose. It was in the midst of a fit of
the gout that he had set out'on his return ; in the midst of a
violent storm that he had compelled the captain to weigh
anchor for Chester ; but on reaching that port, after a rough
and dangerous passage, his state was such, that he could
scarcely endure to be carried on shore, and it was several
days before he was able to pursue his journey, even in a lit
ter. The anguish of his body seemed to aggravate the harsh
ness and violence of his temper. In a letter dictated from
his sick bed, he expresses his despair of seeing " the fro-
wardness of this generation" reduced to moderation and
right reason, " till punishments and rewards be well and
roundly applied." He also declares his wonder that the
council should have failed to send for and " lay by the heels,"
the deputy-lieutenants of Yorkshire, who had refused to raise
200 men for the king without security for the reimbursement
of coat and conductmoney. It seems that they were borne
out in this refusal by law and ancient precedent ; " but
what," he pertinently asks, " should become of your levy of
30,000 men in case the other counties of the kingdom should
return you the like answer ?"*
Parliament opened on April 13th, 1640. It was a full as
semblage. Impressed with the importance of the occasion,
the members had discarded their old custom of trifling away
* Strafford Letters, ii. 408.

47
a full fortnight before they assembled in earnest for the dis
patch of business, and scarcely a man was absent from his
post. It is confessed on all hands that the choice of the
people had fallen on the men of greatest consideration in the
country for wisdom and patriotism, as well as property, the
mere court candidates having been in general rejected ; and
the eyes of the whole nation were fixed on their proceedings
with joy and trust. Charles, anxious and embarrassed, after
briefly remarking that there never was a king who had a
more great and weighty cause to call his people together than
himself, and alluding to a letter signed by seven Scottish peers
requesting assistance from the king of France, which he had
intercepted on its way, and on account of which he had com
mitted the earl of Loudon to the Tower, referred the house
for further particulars to the lord keeper, Finch.
The speech of this minister opened with a manifesto
against the rebellious Scots ; the king, he then said had not
convoked his parliament to ask their counsels in this matter,
nor were they to interpose their mediation, which would be
unacceptable ; he had assembled them in order that they
might grant him the supplies of which he sto®d in urgent need.
With respect to tonnage and poundage, he disclaimed for his
master the power to take it without consent of parliament,
otherwise than provisionally, and desired that a bill might
be passed granting it to him from the beginning of the reign.
Ship-money, he said, it had not been his majesty's intention
this year to levy, as he had no. purpose of making it a source
of revenue, and had on no occasion diverted it from its pro
per object ; the state of Scotland however had compelled him
to continue it for another year. In conclusion, he tendered
the royal promise, that after the supplies-should be voted, such
time should be allowed to the commons for the discussion of
any matters of complaint, as the season andthe state of af
fairs would permit.
On the whole, although the tone assumed by the king
was in some degree lowered, his requisitions were essentially
the same which he had made to former- parliaments, — name
ly, that supply should have the precedence of all other busi
ness, and that his royal word should be confided in for the
subsequent discussion and redress of grievances. _ But this
was a pledge which the king's open and habitual violation of
every provision for the security of the subject, sanctioned by
the petition of right, had long since deprived of all its value,
and nothing remained to the representatives of an oppressed

48
and indignant people, but to imitate the resolute conduct of
their predecessors.
Committees were formed, for religion, for privileges of par
liament, courts of justice, and grievances in general ; and a
solemn fast was proclaimed. Immediately after, petitions
from several counties, ^presented by their respective members,
complaining of ship-money, projects and monopolies, the
star-chamber and high-commission courts, and other oppres
sions, gave occasion to an animated debate on the state of the
nation. A slight glance at the characters and stations of the
principal speakers will suffice to indicate the quality of the
opposition now arrayed against that system of which the king
was himself the prime mover.
The debate was opened by Harbottle Giimstone, Esq.
member for •'Colchester, of an ancient and opulent family
and son of a baronet of the same names, who had sat in the
three former parliaments of the reign, and sustained impri
sonment as a loan refuser. Mr. Grimstone being born a se
cond son, had studied the law as his profession ; he had been
desirous of relinquishing it on becoming heir to his father ;
but the worthy judge Crook, whose daughter he -addressed,
had attached to his consent tbe condition of his pursuing a
profession in which he doubtless anticipated his future emi
nence. Integrity, consistency, and moderation were the fea
tures which chiefly distinguished him through the long course
of his political and judicial life. Ship-money was one of the
grievances against which he principally inveighed on this oc
casion ; the opinions of most of the judges, he said, had been
procured in its favor, but he feared not to say, that they must
all have signed " against the dictamen of their consciences."
Punishment of offenders and redressof wrongs he held to be
of more urgency and interest than the foreign concerns of
Scotland ; and he endeavored to reconcile patriotism and
loyalty, by recommending that the house should so seek the
redress of the many- grievances of the nation, as not to lose
the confidence of the king, or provoke him to the total disuse
of parliaments in future. But the speech of greatest weight
was made by John Pym.
Of this memorable person our biographical notices are
singularly scanty. The time and place of his birth appear
to be unrecorded ; but he must have been the senior of most
of those with whom he acted ; " He had been well known,"
says lord Clarendon, " in former parliaments, and was one
of those few who had sat in many." The same author

49
likewise mentions him as " a man of good reputation," " of
a private quality and condition of life : his education in the
office of the exchequer, where. he had been a clerk ; and his
parts, rather acquired by industry than supplied by nature, or
adorned by art." He adds however, that besides his exact
knowledge of parliamentary forms, in which few could rival
him, " he had a very comely and grave way of expressing
himself, with great volubility of words, natural and proper ;
and understood the temper and affections of the kingdom as
well as any man."* Pym was one of the gentlemen who had
united with the lords Say and Brook in their purchase of land
to found a settlement in North America. He was closely
connected in-political life- with Francis earl of Bedford, and
shared with a member of the Russell family the representa
tion of the borough of Tavistock. • In this parliament, he was
looked up to as the undoubted leader of the country party,
nor can it reasonably be questioned that if his acquisitions were
great, his abilities were also transcendent- In a methodical
and well compacted speech of two hours in length, he expos
ed with masterly force and clearness of statement, but in
temperate language, and with an anxious assertion of the
constitutional maxim that the king can dono wrong, those
manifold grievances and abuses of the-time, which " disabled"
the parliament to grant supply, and would continue so to do
till they should find redress ; which, he observed, would be as
much for the advantage of the king himself as of his people.
The grievance on which he animadverted last, as the founda
tion of all others, was the intermission of parliaments, which
by two statutes not repealed nor expired, ought to be held an
nually. On the following day, April 18th, after the sentiments of
other members had been heard, the house voted that the re
cords of the proceedings in_ the king's bench and star-cham
ber against sir John Eliot, Mr. Hollis, and the other members
imprisoned for their actings in the last parliament, should be
sent for, and also those relating to Mr. Hampden's cause.
The conduct of Finch, as speaker of that parliament, in re
fusing to put the question at the command of the house, was
next declared a breach of privilege, and ship-money was voted
a grievance in one of the committees.
The king now sent for both houses to attend him at the
Banqueting-house, where a speech was made them by the
* Hist. Rebellion, i. 234. iv. 437.

50
lord keeper excusatory of ship-money, as a duty levied by ne
cessity, which had been faithfully devoted to its proper ob
ject, and which his majesty would in future permit them to
settle and control in any manner they should think fit. " But,"
he added, " I must tell you that his majesty prizeth nothing
more than his honor, and he will not lose for any earthly thing
his honor in the least." Having again urged the pressing ne
cessity of a supply, he ended with the former plea, " that good
manners, duty, and reason" required them to put confidence
in the professions of the king, and give his business the pre
cedence of all other matters. The discussion to which this
ill-judged interference gave rise in the commons, called forth
a person destined to become no less notorious in politics than
he had already rendered himself celebrated in poetry, — Ed
mund Waller, the cousin of Hampden.
Possessed from infancy of a large estate, nurtured in all the
incitements to learning which Eton and Cambridge could af
ford, and endowed with extraordinary vivacity of conception
and expression, combined with the meditative propensity which
belongs to the poetic temperament, he had started into the.
career of public life, as of literature, long before the term of
manhood. Born in 1606, he had taken his seat in the last
parliament of James, holden in 1624. He had likewise been
a member of the three short-lived parliaments of Charles,
though no records of his conduct in them survive. Mean
time, his strains of courtly compliment were assiduously di
rected to the royal pair. He lived in intimacy with the ac
complished Falkland, adorning the choice circle of wits and
scholars of which he formed the centre. During the long
intermission of parliaments, gallantry and verse, the plea
sures of a court and the praises of his Saccharissa, seem to
have divided his thoughts ; but the episcopal usurpations, the
violations of personal liberty and private property so boldly
perpetrated, and, more than all perhaps, the example of his
illustrious kinsman, and the public applause which attended
upon it, had roused in him a sterner temper, and better fitted
to the times.
In a speech of much point and energy, mingled however
with expressions of reverence and duty towards the king,
and a zealous desire to render hirn truly great and glorious,
he argued the necessity of a reinstatement of fhe people in
their lost rights as preliminary to any grant of public money.
Two points were remarkable — a keen stroke at the evil influ
ence, of the queen in the counsels of her husband, and a

51
biting sarcasm upon the preachers of right divine. " I am
sorry," he said, " these men take no more care to gain our
belief of those things which they tell us for our souls' health,
while we know them so manifestly in the wrong in that which
concerns the liberties and privileges of the subjects of Eng
land : but they gain preferment, and then 'tis no matter
though they neither believe themselves nor^are believed by
others. But since they are so readyto let loose the con
sciences of their kings, we are the more carefully to provide
for our protection against this pulpif-law, by declaring and
reinforcing the municipal laws of this kingdom  His
tories will tell us, that the prelates of this kingdom have often
been the mediators between the king and his subjects, to pre
sent and pray redress of their grievances, and had recipro
cally then as much love and reverence from the people ; but
these preachers, more active than their predecessors and
wiser than the laws, have found out a better form of govern
ment."* The parliament had as yet sat only six or seven days, and,
by the confession of Clarendon, one of its- members, "had
managed all their debates, and their whole behavior with
wonderful order and sobriety ;" but this conduct, formed to
conciliate the esteem of the nation, rendered their proceed
ing but the more formidable" to the king ; and he was impelled
to take the rash step of prevailing upon a majority of the
house of lords, contrary to the judgment of its wiser mem
bers, to demand a conference with the commons, in order to
urge them to expedite the supply. This interference was
warmly resented by the commons, who were warranted by all
usage in regarding money-bills as their peculiar province.
They voted it so high a breach of privilege that they could
proceed on no other business until they should have received
reparation ; this the peers were reluctant to concede, and the
public business was suspended in consequence during several
days. The king now thought proper to send a written message fo
the house by Sir Henry Vane, offering to give up for the fu
ture his right to ship-money, in consideration of a grant of
twelve subsidies, payable in three years. On this proposition
strenuous contests arose, in which Hampden was' conspicu
ous. Not only was the amount of subsidies judged enormous,
but it seemed the prevailing sense of the house, that to vote
* Rushworth, iii. 1142.

52
anything to the king as a compensation for desisting from
this exaction, was in effect to sanction one of the grossest vi
olations of right with which his administration was chargeable,
and to surrender every security against its future renewal.
The debate was adjourned, probably to give the king an op-
poitunily of receding ; but on the next day after many severe
speeches had been made against arbitrary taxation on one
hand and on the other some compromise of the royal de
mands had been proposed, secretary Vane rose and said, that
to deal frankly with the house he must announce, that al
though they should pass a vote of supply, it would not be ac
cepted by his majesty unless it were in the manner, and to the
amount proposed in his message. The house broke up with
out coming to any decision ; and on the morrow, May 5th,
Charles sending for the commons to the house of lords, dis
solved the parliament.
In his speech on this occasion, after returning thanks to
the peers for their good endeavors to have "given a happy
end to the. parliament," and laying the blame of its failure
on " the malicious, cunning of some few seditiously affected
men" in the lower house, he thus concluded : " As for the
liberty of the people, that they now so much startle at, know,
my lords, that no king in the world shall he.more careful in
the propriety of their goods, liberty of their persons, and true
religion, than I shall."*
Almost with these words upon his lips, the monarch issued
orders for searching the study and even the pockets of
lord Brook for papers, whilst Henry Bellasis and sir John
Hotham were summoned before the council, where he presid
ed in person, and interrogated respecting transactions in par
liament ; and on their declining to give satisfactory answers,
they were thrown into prison. Mr. Crew likewise, on his refu
sal to deliver up petitions and other papers intrusted to him as
chairman of the committee for religion, was consigned to the
Tower; whence he nobly disdained to purchase his release
by a surrender which would have abandoned many clerical
petitioners to the vengeance of their metropolitan.
The assembly of a convocation had, according to custom,
kept time with the meeting of parliament. From this rever
end body, acting under the stern and vigilant superintendance
of the primate, an unconditional compliance with the requi
sitions of the sovereign might securely be anticipated ; they
+ Rushworth, iii. 1154.

53
voted, with kw dissenting voices, an aid of six subsidies at
four shillings in the pound, — to be levied in three years, — or
more, should any precedent be found for a greater number.
With this act of duty it had been well if they had closed their
session. But the archbishop, — than whom no hermit of the
desert could have been more unskilled to discern the signs of
the times or the spirits of men, "-conceived that so favorable
an occasion ought not to be lost of putting a last hand to the
stately edifice of ecclesiastical power which he had been at
so much pains to rear, and fencing it by fresh bulwarks from
the assault of rude and sacrilegious hands. Charles, with
the blind complaisance which in these concerns he constant
ly exhibited, assented to the wishes of the prelate, and au
thorized the convocation to make and establish canons, or
ders and constitutions, subject only to his royal approbation.
They proceeded in their task with an ill-omened diligence ;
by a violation of all usage, if net of the constitution, their ses
sion was continued by a new commission after the dissolution
of parliament ; and its final result was the enactment of no
less than seventeen new canons, to all of which his majesty,
arrogating to himself the powers of the whole legislature,
commanded his subjects to yield obedience. The most impor
tant effects of them were, to establish all the new ceremonies,
and the orders respecting altars and vestments, to compel
the clergy at set times to preach up the doctrines of divine
right and passive obedience ; and to bind, not the clergy
alone, but certain classes of the laity, as school-masters,
medical practitioners, and the students of the universities, by
a new oath against all innovations in the doctrine or govern
ment of the church. This last article in particular encoun
tered strong and general opposition. It was objected, that
neither the convocation nor the king had power to impose an
oath not required by law, — that its terms would preclude those
who took it from giving their assent to any future change,
although sanctioned by the whole power of the state : That
it seemed to assert a- divine right in bishops, and that an
et ccztera was introduced into the body of it, which might be
made to mean anything. The last circumstance was eager
ly laid hold of, and the et caztera, oath became not only a
theme of reproach but a word of derision. Petitions against
the oath and canons, on these and other grounds, drawn by
the most able of the puritan divines, circulated in secret, and
received the signatures of a large portion of the clergy. Even
high-churchmen remonstrated against their expediency at
this crisis, and the king himself found it necessary to direct
Vol. II. jg

54
that the oath should not now be pressed. The canons were
no more heard of, except as forming an article of impeach
ment against their imperious and infatuated contriver.
During the sitting of the convocation, a paper posted up at
the Royal Exchange invited the apprentices to rise and sack
the palace of Lambeth, and it was in consequence attacked
by a mob. The archbishop, being forewarned, had taken
such measures of defence that the rioters were repulsed with
out further damage than some broken windows. Certain of
the judges, however, were induced to pronounce this trifling
tumult a levying of war against the king, and one of the
rioters actually suffered the pains of high treason, with cer
tain accompanying circumstances not to be passed over.
This person, named John Archer, was a drummer in the army
of the North ; but having obtained leave of absence immedi
ately after the dissolution of parliament, he joined in the at
tack on Lambeth palace, and was taken into custody. Being
rescued from prison by his comrades, he was subsequently
proclaimed as a traitor. The captain of his troop in the
North, seeing the description of his person m the proclama
tion, wrote to the council to inform them where be was to be
found. Upon this, the poor drummer was arrested, and pa
raded through the city by a troop of trained-bands to the
Tower. " On the Friday following," says a contemporary,
" this fellow was racked in the Tower to make him confess
his companions. I do hear he is a very simple fellow, and
knows little or nothing, neither doth he confess anything save
against himself. But it is said there will be mercy showed to
save his life ; but this is more than I am yet certain of. The
king's Serjeants Heath and Whitfield took his examination
on the rack last Friday."*
It will be recollected, that in the case of Felton the judges
had solemnly decided against the use of torture as always,
and in all circumstances, contrary to the law of England.
Its subsequent employment in this case was therefore an
enormity destitute of all excuse, and it can scarcely be doubt
ed that it was perpetrated by the direction of Laud himself.
In all probability the execution of the wretched victim
preserved theattrocious secret in few hands, or it would sure
ly have attracted the notice of the long parliament. The
circumstance is mentioned by no historian, but the warrant
for applying the torture still exists in the State Paper Office.
* See Additional MSS. in Brit. Mus. No. 1467.

55

CHAPTER XVIII.
1640 and 1641.
King resolves to prosecute the war with Scotland. — Supplies arbi
trarily levied. — Spirit qf resistance. — Mutinous acts qf the sol
diers. — Vigorous measures of the covenanters. — Proceedings qf
the Scotch parliament. — They raise an army and march to the
border. — King declares himself generalissimo and departs for
the North. — Rout qf Ncwburn. — Retreat of the king. — Scotch
occupy Newcastle. — Difficulties of the king. — Petition of peers
for a parliament, — of citizens and others. — Lords Howard and
Wharton. — Sentiments and situation of Strafford. — Council of
peers at York. — Treaty of Ripon. — Preparatives for a par
liament. — Queen's capuchins. — Strafford courts Clanrickard. —
Truce made with the Scotch, and further negotiations trans
ferred from Ripon to London.
THE hasty dissolution of a parliament on which the nation
had placed its only hopes of the effectual redress of griev
ances, and of a solid reconciliation between the king and the
representative body, filled all considerate men with sorrow
and alarm ; but it produced no alteration in the measures of
Charles. " Notwithstanding the dissolution," writes the earl
of Northumberland to his brother-in-law the earl of Leicester,
" the king intends vigorously to pursue his former designs,
and to levy the same army of 30,000 foot and 3000 horse.
About three weeks hence they are to be drawn together ; but
as yet I cannot learn by what means we are certain to get /
one shilling towards the defraying this great expense. What
will the world judge of us abroad to see us enter into such
an action as this is, not- knowing how to maintain it for one
month ? It grieves my soul to be involved in these counsels ;
and the sense 1 have of the miseries that are like to ensue,
is held by some a disaffection in me."* t
All the illegal and odious expedients of the last year were
revived with added rigor, and fresh ones devised. Ship-
money was again demanded, and where the payments fell
* Sidney Papers, ii. 652.

56
short, measures were taken to punish the remissness or con
tumacy of the sheriffs, several of whom positively refused to
be employed in its collection. Orders were sent to each
shire for the impressment of a given number of men, who
were to be trained and furnished with coat and conduct
money at the charge of the county, and quartered in private
houses on their march to the borders. Requisitions were
made upon the people of carts, horses, provision, fodder, and
all other necessary supplies. Contributions called voluntary
were again demanded of the nobility and gentry; and several
aldermen of London were committed to prison for their re
fusal to deliver in a list of those of their fellow-citizens whom
they judged able to advance money by way of loan. A quan
tity of pepper was taken up by the government on credit, and
sold at a great undervalue, and there was a seizure made of
the bullion at the mint ; but on the offer of a loan of 3O,00OZ.
by the merchants interested, in was released. The king
even devised a scheme for debasing the coin, but it was dis
concerted by the opposition of the privy-council, where the ar
guments against it were strongly urged by sir Thomas Rowe.
Universal indignation and complaint, and in some instances
firm resistance, was excited by these unheard-of acts, and
the war itself became so odious, that in several places the
new levies rose upon their officers and refused to be led on.
Religious jealousies were fiercely roused ; a lieutenant sus
pected of popery was deliberately murdered by his men in
one place; in another several officers were slain in a mutiny,
and according to Heylin, many of the soldiers were " so ill
principled, or so persuaded, that in their marchings through
the country, they brake into churches, pulled up rails, threw
down communion-tables, defaced the common prayer books,
tore the surplices, and committed many other acts of out
rageous insolence."* Both officers and soldiers were heard
to declare that they would never fight the battles of the bish
ops. The covenanters in the mean time, supported by the gene
ral sentiment of the Scottish people, were proceeding with a
vigor and alacrity which presented an appalling contrast to the
embarrassed operations of the king. On the meeting of the
Scottish parliament in June, a commission was produced for
its further prorogation ; but on pretext that it ought to have
been supported by a warrant from Traquair, the royal com
missioner, whose fears withheld him from appearing in person,
* Life of Laud, p. 454.

57
the proper officers refused to act upon it, and the parliament
entered upon business. The royal assent not being there
held necessary to acts of the legislature, they proceeded to
pass into laws all their former resolutions for the redress of
grievances, the creation of a third lay estate, and triennial
parliaments ; and they concluded by imposing a tax for the
support of the war, and transferring the' executive power to
a committee of estates.
A voluntary contribution, strenuously recommended by
the clergy, and seconded with enthusiasm by the female sex,
came in aid of the assessment ; tents for the soldiers were
supplied by the generous exertions of the women, the ranks
were thronged with volunteers; and before the king found
himself enabled to take the field, an army of 23,000 infan
try and 3000 cavalry was in readiness to meet him. Lesley
again took the command, and having marched his men to the
border, he there detained them during an interval of three
weeks, stationary, but by no means idle. Day by day they
were perfecting their discipline under the assiduous training
of their officers, and kindling into fiercer zeal beneath the
fervid exhortations and passionate anathemas of their clergy.
"The promptitude of the Scotch compelled the king to change
the plan of his campaign from an offensive war to one of de
fence ; and even for this he was ill provided. In personal
exertions however he was not deficient: the earl of Northum
berland having relinquished his command on the plea of sick
ness, Charles immediately declaring himself generalissimo,
and claiming the attendance of the tenants of the crown as
upon a war waged by the sovereign- in person, quitted Lon
don for the border. By a proclamation two days after, —
August 22nd, — he declared the Scotch who had invaded, or
should invade England, with all their abettors, and assistants,
rebels and traitors ; adding however an offer of pardon on
submission. Undeterred by this denouncement, and secretly encourag
ed by the invitations and promises of the popular leaders in
England, 4he Scotch passed the Tweed and advanced to the
banks of the Tyne. The only force in readiness to dispute
their passage was a body of 10,000 foot and 2000 horse post
ed at Newcastle ; and Lord Conway its commander, was ra
tionally averse to seek the encounter of numbers greatly su
perior to his own, with troops raw, ill-armed, mutinous for
want of pay, and disaffected to the cause ; — but urged by the
directions, remonstrances and almost taunts of Strafford,

58
whose' contemptuous abhorrence of the Scotch rendered him
obstinate in disbelief of the reports which reached him from
many quarters of their formidable strength and discipline, —
he yielded, and marched with all his horse and four or five
thousand foot, to the ford of Newburn, where they were ex
pected to cross. It was the uniform policy of the covenan
ters to keep up the most pacific and amicable demonstrations
towards their fellow-subjects of England ; and Lesley now
sent a formal request that he and his men might be allowed
an unmolested passage to present their petitions to their king.
On Conway's refusal the skirmish began. Almost at the
first discharge of the Scottish artillery, the English horse de
serted Wilmot their commander, who was made prisoner,
and hastily falling back upon the foot threw it into disorder.
A general rout ensued ; the horse fled to Durham the same
night; the foot,' with the general, took refuge in Newcastle,
which a council of war having declared untenable, lord Con
way the next day withdrew the garrison and continued his
retreat to the borders of Yorkshire. Strafford, whose un
conquerable energy had raised him up from a sick bed to
take the command of tbe army, with a body wasted and bro
ken by disease, and " a mind and temper still confessing the
dregs of it,"* encountered the flying army at Darlington ;
and tidings of their defeat met the king at Northallerton.
The loss in numbers was insignificant, for there had been no
pursuit; but the' complete disorganization, and the want of
any fresh body of troops to rally round, rendered the disaster
irretrievable. Charles hastened back to York, and Strafford
himself, his heart bursting with shame and indignation, gave
orders for a further retreat. The Scotch meanwhile took up
their quarters in Newcastle, where they found ample supplies
of provision, of which the stores they had brought with them
were so completely exhausted, that, by their own report, had
the town held out but two days, famine would have compell
ed them to retire.
Charles on quitting his capital had intrusted the govern
ment to a committee of state formed out of the privy-council ;
and the reports of their proceedings, transmitted by secretary
Windebank, aud returned by the king with marginal direc
tions and remarks, present a lively picture of the embarrass
ments of the time.
The total failure of pecuniary means compelled the com
mittee to order the disbandment of a large body of men, with
* Clarendon.

59
which it was a part of the royal plan that marquis Hamilton
should attempt an invasion of Scotland ; and in order to ap
pease the discontent of the people, they even found it neces
sary to repay to the counties where they had been levied, the
sums which had been required for coat and conduct money.
The king, on one hand, incessantly clamorous for indispensa
ble supplies, was chiding their timidity in hesitating to seize
the bullion at the mint, and to issue base coin for the pay of
the troops ; — the merchants, on- the other, were boldly de
nouncing these steps and exposing the ruin which they would^
draw with them. Before the opening of the campaign, the
king had appointed lord Cottington constable of the Tower,
and ordered him to strengthen its garrison, for the purpose
doubtless of overawing the city ; but on the first tidings of the
success of the Scottish invasion, it was judged necessary to
issue a commission of lieutenancy to the lord mayor, and
command numerous levies to be made within the city itself;
the king however manifested his continued distrust, by for
bidding any gunpowder, of which he held a monopoly, to be
issued to the recruits from the royal stores ; and the commit
tee deemed it an advisable precaution to find some pretext
for not allowing them a general muster, " unless the city were
in better temper," and the king's affairs in the North more
prosperous. At the same time their -attention was drawn to
the alarming fact of the assemblage in London of " some lords
and other persons of quality, who had been observed not to
be very well contented with the time : namely, the earls, of
Essex, Warwick, and Beford, the lords Say, Russell, and
Brook, Pym and Hampden." These persons, it was found,
had " held their meetings," and it was much apprehended to
be "for some dangerous practice or intelligence with the, re
bels of Scotland." No strong r means of prevention howev
er were hazarded than to require the earl of Bedford to re
pair to the county of which he was lord lieutenant, and to in
tercede with the king to write a gracious letter to the earl of
Essex inviting him into his own presence. " If this lord were
taken off," observes Windebank, "the knot would be much
weakened, if not dissolved. And besides that it will be of
great importance to sever him from that ill-affected company ;
he is a popular man, and it will give extraordinary satisfaction
to all sorts of people to see him in employment again."
Charles replied, that he had once already invited, and would
again urge him to come with the forces of his country. But
he would go no further in conciliation.

60
The earl of Arundel, as lieutenant-general, exerted him
self to raise an army of reserve from the counties about Lon
don ; but apparently with small success. The cause was
utterly unpopular, and the king required moreover that e"very
one should serve against the invaders at his own expense ;
being, in fact, destitute of the means of defraying them. So
dark was the aspect of affairs, that some members of the com
mittee already advised that Portsmouth should be ammuni
tioned and provisioned, as the securest retreat for the king
and royal family in case of fresh defeat and the advance of
the Scotch southards.*
To levy further supplies upon the country by arbitrary
courses being manifestly impracticable, the coinmittee began
at length to take into consideration " the means of reconciling
the king and his people." Two propositions were made for
this purpose ; the summoning of a parliament, and the assem
bling of the great council of peers. In favor of the last ex
pedient there was the precedent'of Edward III., who, accord
ing to the statement of the earl of Manchester, the proposer
of this measure, had convened them on a like occasion, when
" they raised great sums of money without a parliament, and
assisted the king." To this resource therefore the great offi
cers of state mostly inclined ; whilst others, clearly foresee
ing that the first act of such a council would be to address
the king to summon a parliament, judged it more advisable
that he should gain the credit of issuing the writs immediately,
and of his own motion. The disheartened primate gave his
opinion in the following remarkable terms. " The great
council of the lords to be called, but to be put to the king that
we are at the wall, and that we are in the dark, and have no
grounds for a counsel. We have no way but this, or the
calling of a parliament, and the parliament a consequent."^
Windebank communicated the general vote of the council lo
his majesty in an urgent and argumentative letter, the sura of
which was comprised in the question : " Whether your ma
jesty will not rather give the glory of redress of grievances
and of a parliament to your own lords, or rather to yourself,
by their common advice, than to the rebels, if your power
and force be inferior to theirs V'%
Finding no resource, the king adopted the proposal of call
ing the council of peers, but deluded himself some time lon-
* Clarendon Papers, vol. ii. p. 89. el seq.
t Hardwick State Papers ii. 168. et seq.
| Clarendon Papers, ii. 97.

61
ger with the flattering hope that the extremity of a meeting
with his people in parliament might yet, by this expedient, be
averted. In the mean time, steps were taking in various
quarters to hasten his decision.
The meetings of the heads of the popular party in Lon
don, viewed with so much jealousy by the council of state,
resulted in a remonstrance of grievances and petition for the
calling of parliament, signed by twelve peers, at the head of
whom appeared the important names of Bedford, Hertford,
Essex and Warwick. The two first, being called to a confer
ence with the committee of state on the subject, declared that
they acted not for themselves alone, but in trust for " many
other noblemen and most of the gentry in several parts of the
kingdom." A petition of similar tenor received the signatures
of ten thousand citizens of London ; nor was it in the power
of the committee to cause the lord mayor to suppress it.
Other petitions from different quarters, but of the same im
port, were forwarded to York, and some of these the lords
Wharton and Howard of Eserick undertook to present to his
majesty. By an ill-timed act of power, they were immediately
committed to custody, and a council of war was held in which
it was proposed, and strongly urged by the lord lieutenant,
that they should be shot at the head of the army, as movers
of sedition. " Hamilton," we are told, " spoke nothing till
the council rose ; and then he asked Strafford if he was sure
of the army 1 who seemed surprised at the question ; but he
upon inquiry understood that very probably a general mutiny,
if not a total revolt, would have followed if any such execu
tion had been attempted ;"* and the lords were liberated : —
an anecdote strikingly illustrative of the unfitness of Strafford
either for council or military command, in a juncture so criti
cal ! Seven years of despotic rule in Ireland had corrupted
his judgment as much as it had hardened his heart. It seems
that his ancient principles of freedom were so utterly obliter
ated from his own bosom, as to disable him even from form
ing a conception of the sway which they exercised over the
hearts and minds of others. In the very face of the awful
example displayed by Scotland of a whole nation armed against
its native sovereign by the wanton tyranny to which it had
been subjected, he, like his master, persisted in believing that
it was a few evil and turbulent spirits alone who in England
impeded the service of the crown by a factious appeal to ob-
* Burnet's Own Times, i. 50.
Vol. II. 7

62
solete privileges and forgotten charters, and that nothing
more was requisite than some acts of vigor against these, to
reduce the people to entire submission and compel them to
lay all their resources at the foot of an absolute prince.
Everything conspired to irritate the spirit of Strafford, —
the failure of all his predictions and undertakings, tbe past
successes of the Scotch, their present strength, and the favor
with which he saw them received in the very counties of which
they held military possession ; the profound policy which
visibly regulated all their movements, and the severe disci
pline by which all excesses were restrained during their
march and in their camp, painfully contrasted with the dep
redations and insolencies of the ill-paid and mutinous levies
of the king, by which the whole country was aggrieved and
exasperated ; and to crown the whole, the king's demands
of men and money encountered in his. own Yorkshire, of the
devotedness of which he had so often made his boast, by re
sistance which compelled him to levy by force assessments
laid on his own private responsibility ; whilst of the army of
Ireland, on which he had taught his master to rely, owing to
the want of money and other unforeseen obstacles, he had
been unable to bring a single man into the field. With a
kind of rabid fury, he now assailed without distinction all
who surrounded him ; his reproach or his menace no one
could escape ; but his officers, whether innocent or otherwise
of the misconduct which he imputed to them, listened to his
invectives with more indignation than respect, and the sol
diers soon learned by their example to hate their general
more than they either hated or feared the enemy.
The nobility evinced no extraordinary alacrity in obeying
the summons of their afflicted sovereign; those of them who
were petitioners for a parliament being apprehensive that the
intended council might be made to serve as a substitute for it.
At length however they decided to give their attendance, and
about the middle of September a numerous assemblage took
place. Charles had by this time brought down his mind in
some degree to the necessities of his situation, and on their
first meeting he declared to the peers, that of his own free
will he had summoned a parliament to meet on the third of
November, — the earliest day at which the writs would be re
turnable. Meantime he desired to consult wiih them on the
demands of the Scotch ; how much he might with honor
grant to those who had with so much boldness invaded Eng
land ; and for their better understanding and his own justifi-

63
cation, he appointed Traquair to make a relation of the oc
currences in that kingdom from the beginning. He further
required their advice upon the means of finding pay for his
army until the parliamentary supplies should come in.
In this extremity the peers of England were not found
wanting to the cause of their country. After some debate, it
was judged the part of political wisdom to negotiate with
the Scotch ; and sixteen commissioners, eight earls and eight
barons, were appointed to confer with certain delegates from
the covenanting army. Ripon was the selected place of
meeting ; but it was not till the safe-conduct which had been
granted them by the king had received the confirmatory sig
nature of the peers, that the rebels, as they had been pro
claimed by their sovereign, would consent to hazard themselves
within his reach. They firmly refused to dismiss any part
of their troops before the conclusion of the treaty ; they held
military possession of Newcastle and the whole counties of
Northumberland and Durham ; and as the sole condition of
refraining from plunder and preserving the order and disci
pline for which they had hitherto been so exemplary, they
demanded that regular pay should be issued to them from the
royal treasury. This article' sounded harshly in the ears of
the English, and gave some pause to the negotiations, but it
was yielded at length from necessity. Two armies therefore
were to be provided for, and the royal treasury being com
pletely exhausted, the peers consented to commission four of
their own number to raise a loan in the city of 200,OOOZ. for
which they pledged their personal security.
It may be noticed, that during the transaction of this busi
ness, on occasion of some dispute respecting the choice of a
lord-mayor, the king distinctly admonished the committee of
state that the city was " to be flattered, not threatened." In
order to " sweeten and prepare the minds of men" for a par
liament, orders were given for the liberation of "the Buck
inghamshire men and others committed for refusing to pay
coat and conduct money," and all others imprisoned by war
rant of council under circumstances to call forth the animad
version of the house of commons. To the question of Winde
bank, whether certain petitions and journals of the last par
liament formerly seized by him and now demanded hack by
the clerk of the parliament, should be given up to him, we
find the king replying, " Aye, by any means." All thoughts
of committing the presenters of unpalatable petitions were

64
likewise abandoned by the unanimous judgment of the king
and his council at York.
We even find Windebank humbly suggesting to bis majesty,
with an earnest request for the concealment of his name in
the business, the expediency of his so writing to her majesty
that Rosetti, the papal nuntio, " may be advised to retire into
France, or some other foreign part for a while ; and that the
capuchins may likewise disperse, and dispose of themselves
into some places in the country where, when they shall be
separated, there may not so much notice be taken of them as
there is here. If any insolency," he adds, " should be
offered to any of these, I know it would trouble your majesty
and the queen ; And what a wonder it is they have escaped
all this time, considering the malignity of the contrary party,
your majesty in your wisdom may judge." But the monarch
in his reply, shifts this delicate interference back again upon
the secretary, on the plea that he, being on the spot, was a
better judge of its necessity !
Strafford himself began to bend his haughty spirit to acts
of conciliation towards those whom he had injured the most
deeply : The oppressed and plundered earl of Clanrickard
thus writes from York to his friend Windebank. " The
strangest news I can inform you of is, that my lord-lieutenant
did invite me to dinner on Wednesday last, but I was so
modest as to refuse that honor, and to forbear to trouble
his lordship until I find more reality, and better grounds to
profess myself his servant by my attendance upon him ; and
when the parliament doth sit, the day will come shall pay for
all." Meantime the treaty of Ripon was proceeding with extra
ordinary deliberation. Delay, in truth, was welcome to both
parties. Possessed of excellent winter-quarters in the North
of England, and gratified with the sum of 8501. per day for
the pay of their troops, the Scotch found direct pecuniary
advantage in a procrastination which was at the same time
calculated to serve the most effectually the further objects
which they had most at heart. For the present, they had
prevailed over the king in war, and were in a position to exact
from him, in words, most, if not the whole, of the rights or
concessions for which they had taken up arms. But their
armament had been a mighty effort which had drained all the
resources of their country ; the surrender of Newcastle had
alone preserved them from the extremity of famine and dis-

65
tress ; and notwithstanding the advantages of their present
condition, it could not be doubted that, should the king by
any means recover the affections of his English subjects, the
country would speedily raise force more than sufficient to ex
pel them. In this case Charles would immediately resume all
that he had with so much reluctance conceded, and an un
successful resistance would but have riveted their chains. It
was only through the intervention of an English parliament,
and a strict coalition with the popular and puritanical parties
in it, that they could hope to realize their advantages, and to
gain two further objects on which they were obstinately bent,
— the punishment of Laud and Strafford, by whom chiefly
the king's mind had been inflamed against his Scottish sub
jects ; and the abolition of episcopacy in England, without
which, as they willingly persuaded themselves, the presbyte-
rian establishment of Scotland could never be placed beyond
the reach of open assault or silent circumvention. To cause
the treaty to be adjourned to London, and referred to the con
sideration of parliament, was therefore with them a principal
object. The English commissioners had reasons of their own for
concurring in the same design. It is a remarkable proof how
much the king stood alone in the courses which he was pur
suing, that amongst the whole sixteen selected from the coun
cil of peers for this important negotiation, he could scarcely
reckon a single staunch adherent. Some shades of political
difference no doubt existed among them, but all were more or
less displeased with his invasions of law and liberty, hostile to
Laud and Strafford, anxious for a return to parliaments, and
zealous for the redress of grievances civil and ecclesiastical.
Between parties thus disposed and thus situated, there could
be little difficulty in establishing a mutual understanding. A
proposal on the part of the king for the transfer of the confer
ences from Ripon to York, was rejected by the Scotch in these
terms . "We cannot conceal what danger may be appre
hended in our going to York and surrendering ourselves into
the hands of an army commanded by the lieutenant of Ireland,
against whom, as a chief incendiary  we intend to insist,
as is expressed in our remonstrance and declaration ; who
hath, in the parliament of Ireland, proceeded against us as
traitors and rebels, (the best title his lordship in his com
mon talk honors us with,) whose commission is to subdue and

66
destroy us, and who, by all means and on all occasions,
desireth the breaking up of the.treaty of peace."*
If, on the other side, the English commissioners exerted
themselves with zeal and promptitude in obtaining a loan
from the London merchants, it was plainly rather for the
purpose of retaining the Scotch army in England, and in Eng
lish pay, than with a view to relieving the king from his em
barrassments. One of the first objects to which the money
was applied, was the purchase of a two months truce from
the not unwelcome invaders, and in all probability hopes were
at the same time privately held out to them of fuither eventu
al remuneration.
Matters being at length thus far arranged, the terms of a
final peace were referred by common consent to the ap
proaching parliament, and the Scotch commissioners invited
to resume their negotiations in London. It is uncertain
whether Charles and the advisers in whom he most confided,
clearly anticipated the fatal consequences to themselves of
this transfer ; but it is perfectly evident that they had no
power to avert it.
All was perplexity, irritation, and wounded pride on the
part of the king, and helpless dismay on that of his minis
ters. * Rushworth, iii. 4293.

67

CHAPTER XIX.
1640 — 1641.

Long parliament — its composition and circumstances. — King's
speech. — Treaty with the Scotch resumed. — Journey and recep
tion of their commissioners. — Proceedings of parliament. —
King commands the attendance of Stratford, who is unwilling
to meet the parliament. — His arrival and impeachment. — Win
debank accused — he escapes into France. — Queen countenances
him. — Ship-money declared against. — Judges held lo bail. — Lord
keeper Finch impeached — -flies to Holland. — Tryumphant re
turn of Prynn, Burton and Bastwiek. — Their sentences revers
ed. — Deprived ministers restored. — Prosecutions of Cousins and
Wren. — Laud committed. — Trienniel act brought in. — King
harrangues the commons. — III effects of his interference. — He
passes the triennial bill. — Attack on illegal tribunals. — Account
qf Hyde, — of lord Falkland, — Colepepper, — lord Digby. — Bills
passed respecting tonnage and poundage, — -for abolition of the
star-chamber and high-commission, — -for avoiding proceedings
respecting ship-money, — -for restricting forests — abolishing com
pulsory knighthood — excluding clergy from temporal jurisdic
tion.
A DETAILED report of the debates and proceedings of the
assembly convened on November 3rd, 1640, and known to
after-times as the ever- memorable Long Parliament, would
much exceed the limits of the present work, from the char
acter of which it would also be a manifest deviation. On this
account a correct sketch of their great results, combined with
some traits illustrative of the characters of the king himself
and other principal actors on the political scene, and of the
manners and sentiments of the age, will alone be attempted.
With respect to the composition of this house of commons,
it is proper to observe, that it consisted, for much the greater
part, of the same members as the last. On this, as on the
former occasion, the electors had in general rejected the can
didates recommended by the court, and made choice of those
who had most incurred its displeasure by their resistance to

68
acts of power; yet the fact, stated on contemporary author
ity, that the rent-roll of the house of commons doubled that
of the house of lords, sufficiently indicates that property as
well as the opinion of the mass of the people was here effec
tively represented. But if the same men were again assem
bled together, it was under other circumstances and with
other feelings.
It might as truly be said of the last parliament as of the
last army, that " it had not been dismissed with so obliging
circumstances" as to sweeten the next meeting. During the
interval also, much had been done to aggravate, nothing to
appease, the genera] discontent ; and the success of the Scotch,
with the actual presence of their victorious army in the north
of England, added incalculably to the force and courage of
their English brethren and allies.
Charles was so far conscious of his altered state, as to
assume at once the tone of conciliation and concession. In
a speech " gracious and acceptable to both houses," he told
them that " he did now freely and clearly put himself upon
the love and affections of his English subjects, desiring them
to consider the best way for the safety and security of the
kingdom of England ; and, in order to it, for the satisfaction
of their just grievances ; wherein he would so heartily con
cur, that the world might see his intentions were^ to make it
a glorious and a flourishing kingdom. In which business he
did freely and willingly leave it to them where to begin."
Of the Scotch however he spoke with bitterness, calling them
" rebels" whom it concerned his own honor and that of
England to drive out again. But this term applied to sub
jects with whom he was in treaty, and whose cause the pop
ular party so generally espoused, gave such high offence,
that he thought proper in a second speech, two days after,
to qualify it.*
The commons made it their first business to vote 100,000/.
to be raised by assessment on the different counties, for the
pay of the two armies, and to enter into treaty with the
Scotch commissioners, who speedily arrived in London.
Along with the commissioners, the chiefs of the covenant
judged it expedient to send four of their most distinguished
divines ; one, to satisfy the minds of the many who prefer
red " the way of New England," or Independency, to the
Scotch presbyteries ; two others to combat Anninianism,
* May's Hist, of the Pari, of England.

69
and, " for the crying down of the English ceremorr^s,^4M
all to preach to the commissioners by turns in their- -o.wn*
house. The letters of Robert Baillie, one of these divines*
supply many interesting and amusing particulars of their
journey and abode in London.
Those commissioners who were noblemen, travelled post,
" but six of us," says Baillie, " go journey every one of us
with an attender on horse." " Divers merchants and their
servants" also joined them, the whole mounted on " little
nags." The journey, from Durham, occupied eight days, in
cluding a sabbath-day's rest at Ware. " Here," says he,
we " heard the minister, after we were warned of the end
ing of the service, preach two good sermons." The way
was " extremely foul and deep," and they were at great
expenses on the road. " Their inns are all like palaces, no
marvel they extortion their guests : For three meals, coarse
enough, we would pay, together with our horses, 161. or 111.
sterling." At Doncaster he was " content to buy a woven
waistcoat." On a fast-day immediately after their arrival in
London, he and one of his colleagues preached to the com
missioners at home, "having no clothes for out-going."
The commissioners found themselves extremely welcome
to the large and zealous party which partook their senti
ments, religious and political, and on occasion of the fast,
" many ministers used greater freedom than ever here was
heard of. Episcopacy itself beginning to be cried down, and
a covenant to be cried up, and the liturgy to be scorned."
A petition was already drawn, " from the town of London
and a world of men, fjr the abolition of bishops, deans, and
all their appurtenances, but it was thought good to delay it
till the parliament have pulled down Canterbury and some
prime bishops." " Huge things," he adds, " are here in
working. The mighty hand of God be about this great
work."* The parliament had indeed commenced its high career of
retributive justice with a vigor and celerity surprising to all,
and absolutely astounding to those who found themselves ex
posed to its animadversion. The beginning of this parlia
ment, May observes, " seemed a little doomsday." No less
than forty sub-committees were formed, to which all petitions
for redress, under the several heads of grievance, civil and
ecclesiastical, were to be referred, and after a few days spent
* Baillie's Letters, i. 21G, 218.
Vol. II. 8

70
in an animated exposition by the leading speakers of the suf
ferings of the country, and the proper objects of reform, it
was resolved that a remonstrance should be drawn up on the
state of the nation, the completion of which however was
long delayed. In the mean time the house proceeded to deal
with the cases of individuals.
Burton, Prynn and Bastwiek, on the petition of their
friends, were sent for from their island-prisons, that their cases
might undergo revision ; and similar redress was afforded to
Leighton and to Lilburn. A strict inquisition into pi ejects
and monopolies was instituted, and several members were ex
pelled and more voted delinquents, foi their share in these
oppressions. But all this was no more than the prologue to
the extraordinary scenes in preparation.
The position of Strafford at York has been already describ
ed. In the court and in the army every-thing frowned upon
him. Either on a public or a private account, he had render
ed every one his foe. The earls of Arundel, Essex and Hol
land, and secretary Vane, were his avowed enemies. The
queen, though now conciliated in some measure, had beheld
him with jealousy as a man able to stand without her favor
and little solicitous to deserve it. Hamilton watched the op
portunity of ingratiating himself with his countrymen by cir
cumventing him ; and even the friendship of Laud began vis
ibly to cool. The Scotch had openly announced their inten
tion of calling for justice upon him, and he knew that in Ire
land he had many foes.
Struck by all these circumstances of peril, the lord lieu
tenant had earnestly pleaded with the king to suffer him to
absent himself from the meeting of parliament ; and either
to remain with the army in the North, where he believed he
had still much power to serve his majesty, or to return to Ire
land, where by his personal exertions the long-expected suc
cours might be set in motion. But Charles clung to the coun
sels of Strafford with that blinded faith which, in moments of
perplexity, the feeble-minded repose in the confident : None
could be so fit, he imagined, to assist him in the management
of the English parliament, as he who had ruled that of Ire
land with so high a hand. Unmoved therefore by his argu
ments or entreaties he peremptorily commanded his attend
ance, haughtily declaring, that so long as he was king of
England he was able to secure his ministers from all danger,
and assuring him under his own hand, that the parliament
should not hurt a hair of his head. With a boding spirit the

71
lord-lieutenant rendered obedience to the commands of a mas
ter whom he knew too well not to distrust.
Even before the arrival of Strafford in London, a motion
had been made in the house of commons for an inquiry into
abuses and oppressions in Ireland ; and although his name
had not as yet been brought in question as their author, it
was impossible for him to avoid perceiving that he was me
naced with an impeachment. As the only means of warding
off this blow, he had come prepared with evidence of a cor
respondence between certain of the popular leaders in Eng
land and the Scotch, supplied by the perfidy of lord Saville,
on which he designed immediately to accuse them of high-
treason. The duke of Buckingham had preserved himself,
in critical circumstances, by a counter-accusation of the earl
of Bristol ; and a similar expedient, it was imagined, might
prove again successful. But it was not with such men ot
such times that Strafford was called upon to contend. His
sagacious adversaries, strong in the support of a house of
commons which the king could not dissolve, had matured
their plan without trepidation, as they proceeded to its execu
tion with a promptitude and decision which he himself had
never surpassed.
It was not till the night of November 9th, that the lord-
lieutenant arrived in London : the next day he gave to re
pose ; on the following morning Mr. Pym gave notice to the
house of an intended motion which he requested might be
heard and debated with closed doors. This was granted ;
and when, after an interval of three hours, they were again
opened, it was to give passage to the mover, who, issuing forth
at the head of a numerous deputation, proceeded to the house
of lords, where, in the name of the lower house and of the
commons of all England, he impeached Thomas earl of
Strafford and lord-lieutenant of Ireland, of high-treason, and
required that his person should be immediately placed under
arrest. The sequel is thus given in the lively narrative of
Baillie. " The lords began to consult on that strange and unex
pected motion. The word goes in haste'to the lord-lieutenant
where he was with the king : with speed he comes to the
house ; he calls rudely at the door ; James Maxwell, keeper
of the black-rod opens ; his lordship, with a proud glooming
countenance, makes toward his place at the board-head : but
at once many bid him void the house : so he is forced, in con
fusion, to go to the door till he was called. After consulta-

72
tion, being called in, he stands, but is commanded to kneel ;
and on bis knees to hear the sentence. Being on his knees,
he is delivered to the keeper of the black-rod, to be prisoner
till he wag cleared of those crimes the house of commons
had charged him with. He offered to speak, but was com
manded to be gone without a word. In the outer room
James Maxwell required him as prisoner to deliver his sword.
When he had got it, he cries with a loud voice for his man,
to carry my lord-lieutenant's sword. This done, he makes
through a number of people towards his coach, all gazing,
no man capping to him before whom that morning the great
est of England would have stood discovered, all crying,
1 What is the matter V He said ; ' A small matter I warrant
you.' They replied, ' Yes, indeed, high-treason is a small
matter.' Coming to the place where he expected his coach,
it was not there ; so he behoved to return that same way,
through a world of gazing people. When at last he had
found his coach, and was entering, James Maxwell told him,
'Your lordship is my prisoner, and must go in my coach,'
and so he behoved to do. For some days too many went to
visit him ; but since, the parliament hath commanded his
keeping to be straiter."*
Having by this master-stroke of vigor and policy effectually
removed from the king's counsels the only man whose enter
prises they saw cause to fear, the house appointed a commit
tee to collect and arrange at leisure the arlicles of his charge,
which as yet was only general ; and in the mean time pro
ceeded to bring to their bar other delinquents of rank and
eminence. The first of these was sir Francis Windebank, one of the
secretaries of state, a creature of the primate's and a con
cealed catholic, who had rendered himself peculiarly obnox
ious by the numerous letters of grace and discharges from
prison which he had illegally granted, often on his own au
thority and at the request of great personages, to recusants
and Romish priests. Full proof of these acts being adduced
before a parliamentary committee, preparations were making
for bringing him to trial, when, on December 4th, information
was given that he had fled : A circumstance thus adverted to
in a letter from Mr. Aylesbury, then in the train of the carl
of Leicester ambassador at the court of France, to his broth
er-in-law Mr. Hyde. * Baillie's Letters, i. 217.

73
" You said it was not in the wit of man to save Windebank ;
and the next day we heard he was at Calais. Whose wit
brought him thither I know not ; but I am glad the poor
creature is safe there, and hope the parliament will not take
it ill. He came over in a shallop, and with much hazard.
For besides that of so little a boat, it was so great a mist
when he passed, that they could not see a boat's length before
them. There are come with him some others  but
though they be here, I pray look better to him in the Tower
(lord Strafford), for it concerns us."*
It should appear that the queen openly interested herself
in favor of the secretary. The earl of Northumberland writes
to lord Leicester, that it is expected he will be received with
much honor at Paris ; " but your lordship, in my opinion,
will do yourself no injury by keeping him at a distance while
he remains in those parts ; for it cannot be well taken by the
parliament to have a fugitive, whom they charge with many
foul crimes, to receive favors from the king's ministers
abroad." He afterwards informs him, from secretary Vane,
that common civilities to this offender are all that in his opinion
will be expected, and as much as it will be fit for him to pay.f
Windebank returned to the court after the commencement
of the war, but died in exile.
The great question of ship-money being now brought into
debate, it was voted by both houses " a most illegal taxation
and unsuffe.rable grievance. Charges of high delinquency
were advanced against the nine judges who had given extra
judicial opinions in its favor, and they were subjected to strict
examinations by a parliamentary committee, and several
of them held to bail. Evidence was thus obtained of the
undue means employed by lord keeper Finch to elicit these
opinions, and iu consequence he found himself menaced with
an impeachment of high-treason. Placing still a fond reli
ance in the resources of that quaint and artificial, but bland
and insinuating eloquence, which had served as a principal
instrument of his most unmerited advancement, the lord
keeper petitioned to be heard at the bar of the house of com
mons in his own defence.
The prayer was granted ; and when this great officer, bear
ing the seals in his own hand, and depositing them in the
chair placed for him within the bar, whilst himself, humbly
leaning on the back of it, delivered " with an excellent grace
* Clarendon Stale Papers, ii. 133. j Sidney Papers, ii. 666.

74
and gesture, a most elegant and ingenious speech, partly
a vindication of his conduct, partly a submissive appeal to
their feelings and their favor,"* " many men were moved to a
kind of compassion. "f All his rhetoric failed however to
gain him absolution fiom a sentence eminently just. He
was voted guilty by the commons on four charges : Disobey
ing the house when speaker, in the parliament of 1628, by
refusing to put a question at their command : Using threats
and persuasions to the judges in the matter of ship-money :
Pronouncing illegal and cruel sentences in the forest causes,
when chief-justice of the common pleas. And lastly : Draw
ing that injurious declaration in the king's name, after the
dissolution of the last parliamerat.
On the morrow, when the impeachment was to be carried
up to the lords, it was discovered that the lord keeper " had
risen the earlier," and prudently withdrawn himself. Favored
by a disguise he passed over without molestation into Holland.
The parliamentary leaders were probably by no means dis
pleased at the escape of these culprits, whose persons they
had omitted to attach ; once driven from office, such men
could never more be formidable ; their own thoughts and time
were crowded with a multiplicity of more important affairs,
and they were bent on vindicating their jurisdiction with more
exemplary effect, on the person of that capital traitor to the
liberties of his country whom they had now in hold, and
against whom three kingdoms were crying aloud for judg
ment. The grievances sustained by puritans were not the last to
attract the notice of the house, nor were they those which
had least exasperated the spirits of men. The return of
Prynn, Burton, and Bastwiek gave occasion to a memorable
display of popular sentiment. They were met and conducted
into London in triumphal procession and with mighty accla
mations, by no less, it is said, than 5000 persons, women as
well as men, on horseback, all wearing in their hats branches
of rosemary and bay.
This exhibition, as might be supposed, was viewed with
very discordant feelings by the different parties. " Some,
both of the clergy, of the court, and other gentlemen did
not conceal their dislike of it, affirming that it was a bold and
tumultuous affront to courts of justice and the king's authori
ty : Others, who pitied the former sufferings of those men,
* Whitelock. f May.

75
and they that wished reformation in matters of justice, were
pleased with it, hoping that it would work good effects in the
king's mind, and make him sensible how his people stood dis
affected to the rigor of such proceedings ; and esteemed it as
a good presage of the ruin of those two courts, the high-com
mission and star-chamber."* The latter party was probably
at this time much the more numerous, and it was certainly the
more active and prosperous. The parliament referred the
sentences of these persons to committees of revision, who
pronounced them unjust, illegal, and contrary to the liberties
of subjects ; restored the sufferers to their respective profes
sions, and in conclusion awarded them damages against the
primate and the other high-commissioners and judges in star-
chamber, to the amount of 5000Z. each to Prynn and Bast
wiek, and 60001. to Burton.
Other committees, in the mean time, were diligently occu
pied in administering relief to distressed ministers, imprisoned
or deprived by the bishops, and to such laymen also as had
undergone persecution by them on religious grounds. With
in the course of a few weeks numbers of clergymen of that
party which had resisted the late innovations in rites and doc
trine, were restored to their cures with damages against their
oppressors, whilst those who had been most active in the in
troduction of them were in their turn called in question, and
many of them committed. Dr. Cosins, master of St. Peter's
College Cambrige and prebendary of Durham, a man of ir
reproachable morals, chargeable with no other delinquenc]-,
but who had gone extraordinary lengths in the revival of
those ceremonial observances, shows, and decorations, of
which the Anglican church had been most careful to disen
cumber itself at the- reformation, was accused, placed under «
custody for a time, and deprived of some of his preferments.
Wren, bishop of Norwich, wb.o to similar illegalities had
added excessive tyranny and cruelty in forcing these innova
tions upon the reluctant consciences of the puritans with
whom his diocese abounded, in consequence of which num
bers of useful citizens engaged in the woolen manufactures
had been driven for refuge to Holland or New England, was
accused of high-treason, and great securities exacted for his
appearance. A resolution passed the house declaring the il
legality of the late canons, and that a bill should be brought
in to punish those concerned in them. Finally, on December
* May.

76
18th, the primate himself, heing voted guilty of high-treason
by the house of commons, and accused by the Scottish com
missioners as a " chief incendiary" between the two nations,
was consigned to the usher of the black-rod, and a commit
tee appointed to draw up the particulars of his charge.
Having thus suspended the sword of vengeance over the
heads of the principal advisers or perpetrators of the past en
croachments upon religion and libeity, the parliamentary
leaders, certain of the support of the nation, proceeded to in
troduce a measure calculated to add future security to the
present redress which it was their determined purpose to exact.
This was the act for triennial parliaments, by which their fu
ture duration was limited to that term ; whilst it was further
provided, that the lord chancellor, or lord keeper, should be
bound by oath to issue writs for the assembly of a new par
liament within three years of the expiration of the old one ;
that on his failure the peers should meet and direct writs to
the sheriffs ; that in their default the sheriffs should cause
elections to be made, and in case of their neglect, that the
electors themselves should proceed to the choice of represen
tatives. Neither was any parliament to be adjourned or dis
solved without its own consent until it had sitten at least
fifty days.
When it is recollected that all the invasions of right com
plained of had been carried on under shelter of the long in
termissions of parliaments, and that Charles himself had at
one period openly declared his purpose of continuing to reign
without them, — all in the face of an unrepealed act of Ed
ward III., which gave the people a right to annual parlia
ments, the justice of this act can as little be questioned as the
¦ necessity of it. Nothing however could be more offensive to
the pride, or disconcerting to the policy of the king ; and in
the futile hope that the bare manifestation of his sentiments
would serve to divert the commons from this and other mea
sures on which they were intent, he summoned both houses
to the banqueting-house, to listen to a speech which he had
prepared. After a complaint in his usual style of the tardiness of their
proceedings in the urgent state of his affairs, when two armies
were to be maintained in the country, and some censure of
the connivance of parliament which suffered distractions to
rise by the indiscreet petitions of men who, " more mali
ciously than ignorantly, would put no difference between re
formation and alteration of government," he assured them how-

77
ever of his willingness to concur in the abolition of all novel
ties both in church and commonwealth, and in the reformation
of courts of justice according to law; as also, to surrender
such part of his revenue as should be found illegal, or heavy
to his subjects. But having thus, as he said, " set down his
intentions," he would show them " some rubs." He could
not but take notice of some very strange petitions in the name
of divers counties, " against the established government of
the church, and of the great threatenings against the bishops,
that they will make them to be but cyphers, or at least their
voices to be taken away." That if some of the bishops had
encroached too much upon the temporality, or should be
found to " have some temporal authority inconvenient to the
state, and not so necessary for the government of the church
and upholding episcopal jurisdiction, he should not be un
willing to desire them to lay it down," but that he would
never consent to take away their voices in parliament, which
they had constantly enjoyed under his predecessors from the
conquest and even before.
One other rock they were upon, which was indeed a matter
of form, but of form so essentia], that unless corrected, it
would mar the substance. There was a bill lately put in
concerning parliaments. The thing he liked well, to have
frequent parliaments ; but to give power to sheriffs and con
stables, and he knew not whom, to use his authority, — that he
could not yield unto. They should however, for their con
tentment, have a bill for that purpose, so that it trenched nei
ther upon his honor nor the ancient privileges of the crown
concerning parliaments. Having thus, as he said, declared his
own clear intentions, and warned them what to eschew, he
had no doubt of giving them content by the ministers he had,
or should have, about him, for carrying his good intentions
into effect.*
This ill-judged interference had the worst results. It was
resented by the commons as a breach of their privileges, and
the lords joined them in a remonstrance on the subject. The
king, in despite of his reluctance, found it necessary, soon af
ter, to give his assent to the bill for triennial parliaments,
which was received by the people with every demonstration
of joy and triumph; and if the designs against episcopacy
were for the present laid aside,' the suspension was solely ow
ing to the intervention of the house of lords.
* Nalson i. 735.
Vol. II. 9

78
This grand security for the permanence of all other refor
mations being thus obtained, the parliament proceeded to
overthrow that whole machinery of arbitrary and illegal tri
bunals, which had proved so efficacious an engine for the pur
poses of the subverters of English liberty.
In this patriotic warfare several names afterwards eminent
on the royal side attained their first distinction; and of the num
ber is that of Edward Hyde, afterwards lord chancellor and earl
of Clarendon, and the historian of the civil war ; a person
whose character and situation it is of some importance to in
vestigate. From that Life of himself which was perhaps his
most valuable legacy to posterity, we learn that he was born in
1609, at Dintonin Wiltshire, the second son of a gentleman
of moderate fortune. At the age of fourteen he was sent to
Oxford to commence his preparatory studies for the clerical
profession. After some time, the death of his elder brother
caused a change in his prospects and destination, but it is pro
bable that his youthful mind had already imbibed that principle
of zealous attachment to the interests of the church, by which,
in after life, he was distinguished above all the other lay politi
cians of his time, with the exception of the king himself. The
vice of drinking was at this period so frightfully prevalent at
Oxford, where his elder brother had fallen a victim to it, that
Hyde has noted his early removal from the university as " a
very good fortune to him," though it seems he " always re
served a high esteem of it." Being now destined for the law,
he was entered of the Middle Temple, under the auspices of
his uncle sir Lawrence Hyde, afterwards chief-justiee. Po
lite literature was at his outset more congenial to his taste
than the study of his profession, nor was he proof against the
seductions of idle and dissipated society ; but he redeemed
himself from these snares by an early marriage with the
daughter of sir George Ayliffe, a lady allied through her mo
ther, who was a St. John, with several noble families. At
the end of six months he lost his wife, but he was careful not
to let go his hold upon the valuable family connection to
which she had been the means of introducing him, and he
particularly attached himself to viscount Grandison, a Villiers,
and nephew of the duke of Buckingham, whose death was
then recent.
The sister of this young nobleman was that maid of honor
whose amour with Henry Jermyn gave occasion to the great

79
court intrigue,* in which the queen, by the aid of marquis
Hamilton, rescued her handsome favorite from matrimony,
and at the same time gained a triumph over the declining in
fluence of the Villiers family, or faction. Mr. Hyde was the
agent employed by the defeated party to pursue " the design
of the reparation" by marriage ; a business, as he informs us,
which was to be followed " by frequent instances at court,
and conferences with those who had most power and oppor
tunity to confirm the king in the sense he had entertained."
In the course of it he had " all admission to the persons of
alliance to the lady, and so concerned in the dishonor, which
was a great body of lords and ladies of principal relations at
court, with whom in a short time he was of great credit and
esteem." " It introduced him into another way of conversa
tion than he had formerly been accustomed to," and " by the
acquaintance, by the friends and enemies he then made, had
an influence on the whole course of his life afterwards."
Probably, indeed, these were the circumstances which laid the
foundation of that hostility to the queen, to Jermyn, and to
Hamilton, which is conspicuous in several transactions of
Hyde's later life, and in many passages of his writings ; and
this early initiation into court intrigue doubtless facilitated to
him the practice of some arts which afterwards ministered to
his political advancement. Yet for the present he was desir
ous of binding himself down to a domestic course of life, and
the practice of his profession, and at the age of twenty-four he
contracted a second marriage, and commenced life anew.
We may perceive, amid all these resolutions, that the law
never held more than a divided empire in the breast of the
future chancellor ; he did not go the circuits, and besides
keeping up his great acquaintance at court, he made it his
pleasure and his pride to cultivate the intimacy of the most
distinguished men of their age for genius, wit and learning.
The delightful portrait-gallery of the favorite associates of
his early days, to which he has introduced us, exhibits,
amongst others, the figures of Selden, Jonson, Waller, Ken
elm, Digby, and Falkland ; of Hales, Chillingworth, and
several other celebrated ecclesiastics, but of a few only of the
eminent lawyers of the time. With the rest of the profes
sion, he says that he had " at most a formal acquaintance
and little familiarity," very seldom eating in the hall, " with-
* See Chap. IX. of the present work.

80
out which no man ever got the reputation of a good stu
dent." His introduction to Laud arose out of some applications of
the London merchants to the archbishop, in his capacity of
first commissioner of the treasury, for the redress of griev
ances affecting them, in which Hyde had been employed as
their counsel and tbe drawer of their petition. In the very
first conference on the business to which he was admitted, he
represents himself as having so adroitly ministered to the in
veteracy which the primate still cherished against the memory
of lord-treasurer Portland, by relating the " haughty expres
sions" and "indecent rage," against the merchants, and the
many threats against himself, which had formerly escaped
his lordship concerning this affair, that he seems to have been
immediately received into favor. Henceforth, the archbishop
spoke of him with kindness, took notice of him whenever he
appeared in causes before the council-board, and employed
him in collecting subscriptions for the repair of St. Paul's, in
which he proved active and successful. These things being
taken notice of, " Mr. Hyde, who well knew how to culti
vate those advantages," (the words are his own,) "was used
with more countenance by all the judges in Westminster Hall,
and the eminent practitioners, than was usually given to men
of his years ; so that he grew every day in practice."
Amongst the other friends or patrons whose favor helped
to give him consequence, he has enumerated lord keeper
Coventry, the earl of Manchester, lord privy-seal, and also
the earl of Pembroke, lord chamberlain, but " a greater man
in the country than the court ;" and the earls of Hertford
and Essex, brothers-in-law, " whose interests and friendships
were then the same," but whom he takes to himself the cred
it of speedily disuniting by " bringing the archbishop and the
earl of Hertford to a very good acquaintance and inclination
to each other."
In the short parliament of April 1640, Hyde served for
Wooton Basset ; and in his first speech he made a vehement
attack upon the earl marshal's court, presided over, it may be
noted, by the earl of Arundel, the personal enemy of Laud.
It was with great truth however that he described it as " a
court newly erected, without color or shadow of law, which
took upon itself to fine and imprison the king's subjects ; and
to give great damages for matters which the law gave no
damages for." Such, for example, as slight words of disre
spect, often highly provoked, against noblemen and their dig-

81
nities. In the ensuing parliament he returned to the charge
armed with fresh instances of exorbitant oppression, and a
commiitee of inquiry being named, of which he was chair
man, this, along with other arbitrary tribunals, was totally
abolished. From the first meeting of the long parliament, Mr. Hyde
" laid aside his gown and practice" to devote himself entirely
to public affairs. " He was very much in the business of the
house; the greatest chairman in the committees of the great
est moment." He presided in that which " considered of the
illegality of the court of York," and in that which prepared
charges against the judges for their "miscarriages" in the
case of ship-money, and in " other cases of judicatory," par
ticularly the decisions against the merchants respecting ton
nage and poundage. He was a member of that for inquir
ing into the jurisdiction of the court of the marches of Wales.
In a committee upon a petilion against an inclosure of great
wastes belonging to the queen's manors without the consent
of the tenants, the profits of which she had granted to " a
servant of near trust," he became involved in a quarrel with
Cromwell, who accused him of a courtly partiality against
the petitioners ; and this he assigns as the -foundation of the
" malice and revenge" with which Oliver ever after pursued
him. Hyde represents himself at this period as a person evi
dently independent of the court, and therefore of great au
thority with a middle party in the house, disposed to sup
port the laws, but already jealous of the further designs of
the popular leaders : but in this representation there seems
to be not a little of the spirit of self-exaltation of which, in
his writings, he has given so many other tokens. Public men
would not hastily put faith in the independence or disinterest
edness of an aspiring young lawyer, known also in court in
trigues, who at such a juncture had relinquished his profes
sion for political life ; and the patronage of the primate could
not well have been sufficiently marked to serve his interests
with the judges and great officers of state, without exposing
him to suspicion from any moderate and truly independent
party. During this first session of parliament, although he
appears to have concurred with zeal and activity in those
measures for the restitution of civil liberty which were carried,
indeed, with perfect unanimity in the house of commons, he
offered, from the first, a decided opposition to all measures
restrictive of episcopal usurpation.
It was on ecclesiastical questions alone, according to his

82
own statement, that a difference of sentiment existed between
Hyde#and the friend for whom he has shown himself most so
licitous to claim the suffrage of posterity, sir Lucius Gary vis
count Falkland, whose character equally merits delineation.
This accomplished person, born about 1610, was the son
of Henry Gary, a gentleman distinguished by his literary pur
suits, on whom king James conferred the Scotch title of vis
count Falkland, and afterwards, in 1622, the office of lord-
deputy of Ireland, which he held during seven years. From
this circumstance it became the fortune of his son to be edu
cated in the court and the university of Dublin, " but," says
Clarendon, " under the care, vigilance, and direction of such
governors and tutors, that he learned all those exercises and
languages better than most men do in more celebrated places."
About the age of eighteen he came to England, a proficient
in French and in the Latin language and authors, but totally
ignorant, it seems, of Greek.
The recall of lord-deputy Falkland from Ireland was at
tended with somewhat of a disgrace at court, the grounds of
which are obscure ; but the fortunes of his son were secured
on aa independent footing by the early possession of a plenti
ful estate, the bequest of his maternal grandfather, chief ba
ron Tanfield. Soon after, the young heir, still under age,
secured his domestic felicity by marrying, from motives of
pure affection, a lady of extraordinary understanding and ex
emplary virtues, but of small fortune : A step by which he
disconcerted a base and selfish project of his father's, — or,
in the language of lord Clarendon and of the age, " com
mitted a fault" against him, and " disappointed all his reason
able hopes and expectations of redeeming his own broken for
tunes and desperate hopes in court by some advantageous
marriage of his son." For the consequences of this act to
his parent, the amiable son expressed the deepest concern,
accompanied with offers respecting pecuniary matters of an
almost romantic generosity ; but in vain ; the anger of his
father was not to be appeased, and at length, in a kind of des
pair, the young man transported himself and his wife to Hol
land, resolving to purchase some military command, and
spend the remainder of his life in that profession, to which a
spirit of adventure much inclined him. Being disappointed
however in this object, he returned to England, determined
" to retire to a country life, and to his books," and resolutely
renouncing London, the place he loved of all the world for the

83
choice society it afforded him, he gave himself up to the study
of Greek.
The death of his father, in 1633, brought him the incum
brance of a title without any accession of fortune to support
it ; and about the same time, relinquishing his former plan of
life, he is said by Wood to have obtained the place of a gen
tleman of the privy chamber. But he still made frequent
escapes to the delightful recess of his own mansion of Great
Tew in Oxfordshire, which the vicinity of the university, and
the visits of congenial spirits from London, attracted by the
munificence he exerted towards many, and the hospitality he
extended to all, enabled him to convert into a kind of acade
my of science and literature. In his earlier days, lord Falk
land exercised himself in the composition of verse, and re
ceived on that account the encomiums of Waller, Jonson,
and other poets. Suckling thus refers to him in his " Ses
sion of the poets :"
" He was of late so gone with divinity
That he had almost forgot his poetry,
Though to say the truth, and Apollo did know it,
He might have been both his priest and his poet."
It was in fact to points of religious controversy that the studies
of his riper years were principally devoted. His mother was
a zealot in the Romish faith. In archbishop Laud's account
to the king of his province, for the year 1636, lady Falkland
is mentioned to have gone in pilgrimage on foot to St. Wini
fred's Well, with her company, " concealing neither their
quality nor their errand," for which act she was committed
by the king's order. Her anxiety for the conversion of her
son was what first drew his attention to religious controversy,
but with a result directly opposite to her hopes and prayers,
which he communicated to the world in a learned and ex
cellently reasoned " Discourse of the infallibility of the
church of Rome," several times reprinted, and in other
tracts on the protestant side. Having thus formed himself to
the exercise of private judgment in matters of religion, an
inquiring spirit was believed to have carried him on some
points of doctrine beyond the pale of any of the established
churches even of protestantism. " He was," says Aubrey,
" the first Socinian in England : and Dr. Cressy of Merton
college, dean of.... [Loughlin] in Ireland, afterward a
Benedictine monk, a great acquaintance of my lord's in those

84
days, told me at Sam Cooper's, 1669, that he himself was
the first that brought Socinus's books. Shortly after, my
lord coming to him and casting his eyes on them, would
needs presently borrow them to peruse, and was so exceed
ingly taken and satisfied with them, that from that time was
his conversion."*
In 1672, lord Clarendon, in his " Animadversions upon
Mr. Cressy's book entitled, 'Fanaticism fanatically imputed
to the catholic church by Mr. Stillingfleet,' " took occasion
to charge the author with aspersing lord Falkland with the
character of a Socinian. Cressy replied in an " Epistle
apologetical," in which he explained this aspersion to have
originated in a mistake, from some words used by him con
cerning Mr. Chillingworth, not lord Falkland, but denied
that he meant to impute Socinianism even to him. He adds,
" Touching my lord Falkland, I was so far from entertaining
a suspicion, and much more from propagating this suspicion
to others, that I believe there are scarce three persons be
sides myself that are so enabled to give a demonstration to
the contrary, which was a solemn protestation made by him
self to the greatest prelate of England, of his aversion from
those blasphemous heresies which had been laid to his charge."
Antony Wood states of lord Falkland, that " while he
lived, and especially after his death, he was esteemed by many
a Socinian, having been, as 'tis said, strengthened in that
opinion by Chillingworth ;" but he seems to suppose that he
has sufficiently confuted this notion when, besides alluding to
Cressy's contradiction, he has collected the testimonies of
others to his being " a sincere christian" who led a virtuous
life, and not " a candidate of atheism." In the end however,
he observes, that " whether the church of England lost a
friend by "his death, some have doubted ; sure it is, learning
herself had a loss."
It may here be mentioned, that the writings of Socinius
and his followers had at this time excited so much attention
in England, as to have become a subject of great jealousy
and alarm to the church. By one of the canons made in that
synod over which Laud presided, the importation or printing
of " Socinian books," is declared punishable by excommuni
cation, besides the further penalties awarded by the stair-
chamber against unlicensed printing or importation of books.
* Aubrey's Lives qf Eminent Men, published with Letters by Eminent Per.
sons of the 17tft and 18th centuries. 2 vols. 8vo. London 181 3.

85
The clergy were also prohibited on pain of excommunication
and deprivation from reading such works, or maintaining such
doctrines. " And," it is added, " if any layman shall be
seduced into this opinion, and be convicted of it, he shall b«J
excommunicated, and not absolved but upon due repentance
and abjuration, and that before the metropolitan, or his own
bishop at the least."
Where the avowal of opinion is rendered penal as well as
odious, denials and abjurations become anything rather than
unequivocal, but to the sincerity of those of lord Falkland
we possess a very remarkable incidental testimony. Lord
Spencer, writing to his wife in 1643 from the king's trenches
before Gloucester, mentions that he had with him in his quar
ters Mr. Chillingworth, who was there to try the effects of
eertain machines which he had devised for the attack of for
tifications, and which he had been commanded to make ready
with all possible speed. " It is not to be imagined," adds
his lordship, " with what diligence and satisfaction (I mean
to himself) he executes this command ; for my part, I think
it not unwisely done of him to change his profession, and I
think you would have been of my mind, if you had heard
him dispute last night, with my lord Falkland, in favor of
Socinianism ; wherein he was by his lordship so often con
founded, that really it appears he has much more reason for
his engine than for his opinion."*
In 1639, Falkland was engaged in the expedition against
the Scotch ; and Cowley, hi a poetical votum for his safe re
turn, took occasion to celebrate his universal knowledge of
science and art, combined with the avocations of the states
man and courtier, in strains which, with something of hyper
bole, still convey the impression of high admiration and sin
cere esteem. The piece ends with a just and natural senti
ment, to which, in the sequel, events gave the character of
an evil presage. " He is too good for war, and ought to be
As far from danger as from fear he's free.
Those men alone, and those are useful too,
Whose valor is the only art they know,
Were for sad war and bloody battle born,
Let them the state defend, and he adorn."
Lord Falkland sat both in the short parliament of 1640,
+ Sidney Papers, ii. 669.
Vol. II. 10

86
and in the succeeding one. The strength of his opposition-
politics may be sufficiently gathered from an enumer
ation of the topics on which he delivered, during this first
session, speeches which he afterwards printed. These were,
— concerning uniformity, containing severe reproaches against
the bishops, afterwards much quoted by the presbyterians, —
against ship-money, — against lord keeper Finch and the judg
es, — and one concerning episcopacy ; which he desired to see
modified but not abolished. In the private life of this accom
plished nobleman, appears to have been exhibited that union
of high integrity and virtuous conduct with learning and ta
lents, and the munificent patronage of them in others, which
most dignifies an exalted station ; and in eulogizing his wit,
his vivacity, his ready and powerful eloquence, his biogra
phers have observed that they were tempered with a rare
modesty and candor. His conduct as a statesman will be a
subject of future consideration.
Sir John Colepepper, who like lord Falkland afterwards
went over to the court and took office, presented, in his ca
pacity of knight of the shire for Kent, various petitions on
the popular side, and supported them in speeches of great
force and ability. Lord Digby, son of the earl of Bristol, fol
lowed a similar course as member for the county of Dorset ;
and many courtiers and placemen declared themselves on
the same side. On the whole it evidently appears, that
the cry for redress of grievances and restitution of constitu
tional rights Was at tlm time so loud and unanimous through
out the country, that no member of the lower house, whatev
er might be his private interests or wishes, could venture to
give the court the benefit even of his neutrality with respect
to the surrender of its more 'flagrant, usurpations. The fol
lowing important acts now passed the commons in succes
sion. One for granting tonnage and poundage to the king, pre
faced by a declaration, that such dues could only be levied by
consent of parliament, and concluding with a denunciation of
the penalties of a premunire against all such as should either
pay or receive these dues without its sanction.
A bill for the total abolition of the court of star-chamber ;
and for taking away all similar jurisdiction from the president
and council of the Welsh marshes, the president and council
of the North, and the courts of the duchy of Lancaster and
the county palatine of Chester ; also for giving speedy redress
by habeas corpus to all persons committed to prison by any of

87
these courts, or by warrant of the council-board or any of the
privy-councillors. A bill for repeal of the high commission, and for taking
away for ever from all archbishops, bishops, and other com
missioners ecclesiastical, all power to fine, imprison, or inflict
any kind pf corporal punishment upon any of his majesty's
subjects. — Thus was left to the church, according to the ex
pression of bishop Williams on another occasion, " nothing
but its old rusty sword of excommunication."
A bill for declaring unlawful and void all the proceedings
respecting ship-money.
A bill for the certainify of forests, restraining them to their
known limits in'the time of king James, and anuulling all sub
sequent proceedings against any persons as for encroach
ments or trespasses beyond those limits.
A bill to prevent vexatious proceedings with respect to
knighthood. A bill for disenabling all persons in holy orders from exer
cising any temporal authority or jurisdiction, — by which they
were excluded from the privy-council and from the commis
sion of the peace.
To these and other acts the king gave his assent in the
month of July ; the last mentioned being the only one which
had encountered any considerable opposition in the house of
commons. During the whole intervening time, an intense political fer
ment was kept up in the country by various transactions and
events, which will form the topics of the ensuing chapter.

88

CHAPTER XX.
1641.
Trial of the earl of Strafford. — The king's speech to parliament
in his behalf.-. — Pym announces the existence qf plots against
the parliament. — The protestation. — The Straffprdians. — Peti
tions for justice on lord Strafford, — his attainder passes both
houses. — The king consults his council and bishops.— Strafford's
letter to him, — he signs the warrant, — writes to the lords in
Strafford's favor,— r-their answer. — Behavior of Strafford, —
hif death, — Exaltation qf the people. — Letters of lord Leices
ter to lord Northumberland. — Negociation s for admitting popu
lar men lo office.^— Earl qf Bedford. — Earl of Essex hostile to
Strafford. — Testimony of privy*councillors against Strafford, —
Plots detected. — Plan for Strafford's escape.^Army Plot. —
Letter of Father Philip. — The conspirators fly, — some are ap
prehended. — Account of Goring. — Effects of the plot: — Bill
for the continuance of parliament.**— Mary de' Medici quits
JEngland, — her death. — Self-banishment of the earl pf Arun*
del
THE trial of lord Strafford was now the absorbing object
of attention throughout the Britiish dominions. Besides the
interest of the event itself, enhanced by the eminent abilities
and striking qualities of the man, his rank and station, his
dignified deportment, and the leading parts which he had sus
tained in the affairs of three kingdoms, his condemnation or
acquittal was seen to involve the momentous question of the
responsibility of ministers of state to the commons of Eng
land for transgressions of the laws authorized by the royal
sanction or command.
Charles, who had yielded, almost without a struggle, to the
overthrow of his whole machinery of prerogative government,
was now seen to rouse himself from his stupor, and to search
anxiously around for any means of averting an event fatal at
once to his interests, in his own view of them, and his honor.
Let it once become established by the sentence of the
highest court of judicature in the kingdom, that the mandate
pf power was not to be pleaded against the charters of the

89
land, and his darling character of an absolute monarch was
irretrievably lost. Let a minister once fall by the sentence of
that parliament which he had so emphatically assured him
" should not hurt a hair of his head," and his credit as a man
was forfeited for ever.
The parliamentary leaders, equally sensible of these con
sequences, were resolutely bent, on their parts, to spare no
efforts, and omit no vigilance calculated to insure the success
of the great and conclusive assertion of jurisdiction which
they meditated. Personal feelings co-operated with their po
litical views. " I cannot forbear mentioning," writes the earl
of Northumberland at this juncture to the earl of Leicester,
" the hasty and violent proceedings the other day against my
lord lieutenant, and I fear he will be prosecuted with as much
eagerness as ever man was, for a greater and more universal
hatred was never contracted by any person, than he hath
drawn upon himself."*
The articles of accusation were completed about the end
of January, when the presence of the prisoner was required
in the house of lords. " He came from the Tower," says
Baillie, "by water, with a guard of musqueteers, the world
wondering, and at his going out and coming. in cursing him to
his face. Coming into the higher house, his long charge in
many sheets was read to him : for a while he sat on his knees
before the bar ; thereafter they caused him to sit down at the
bar."f A month was the period required by the accused to put in
his answer, which was at first refused as excessive, but after
wards even extended by the influence of the king with the
house of lords, to the great dissatisfaction of the managers of
the impeachment, who had by this time received intimations
of various intrigues, and particularly of a plot at court for
bringing up the royal army in the North to overawe the pro
ceedings of parliament.
March 21st was the day at length fixed for the commence
ment of the trial. Westminster Hall was fitted up for the
occasion, and tbe earl of Arundel named lord high steward.
The lords temporal alone sat as judges, the bishops having
submitted, though with a protest, to the canon by which spi
ritual persons were forbidden to vote in cases of blood. The
commons attended as accusers, the Scotch commissioners,
and a deputation of Irish noblemen and gentlemen of the pale
* Sidney Papers, ii. 66$. t Baillie's Letters, i. 240.

90
as parties interested ; many of the gentry, the peeresses, and
a. gallery full of other females, as spectators. Two closets
were contrived from which the queen and royal family, the
court ladies, several French noblemen, and what was highly
indecorous, and even unconstitutional, the king himself, wit
nessed the proceedings.' These closets were provided with
screens of tapestry, at the request, it is said, of the lords, to
conceal the presence of the king ; but, according to Baillie,
he " brake them down with his own hands, so they sat in
the eyes of all ; but fittle more regarded than if they had been
absent, for the lords sat all covered." The king took regular
and ample notes of the proceedings, as did most of the mem
bers of both houses, Strafford answered at the bar ; the
accusation being chiefly conducted by those two able lawyers
Glynn and Maynard, though every member of parliament
had liberty to speak, and many took part as they saw occa
sion. On the first day, the impeachment was read, consisting of
twenty-eight articles, to which he put in, says May, "a very
large, accurate, and eloquent answer," introduced by a pream
ble reciting all the good service he had done to the crown and
country during the time of his employment, which produced
a great effect on many minds, especially before the particulars
of evidence were entered upon, which disclosed " many foul
misdemeanors." " Every day the first week, .... without in
termission, the earl, was brought from the Tower to West
minster Hall, and arraigned many hours together; and the
success of every day's trial was the greatest discourse, or
dispute, in all companies. For by this time the people began
to be a little divided in opinions ; The clergy in general were
so much fallen into love and admiration of this earl, that the
archbishop of Canterbury was almost quite forgotten by
them. The courtiers cried him up, and the ladies .... were
exceedingly on his side. It seemed a very pleasant object to
see so many Sempronias .... with pen, ink and paper in
their hands, noting the passages, and discoursing upon the
grounds of law and state. They were all of his side ; whe
ther moved by pity, proper to their sex, or by ambition of
being thought able to judge of the parts of the prisoner.
But so great was the favor arid love which they openly ex
pressed to him, that some could not but think of that verse,

01
' Non formosus erat, sed erat -facundus. Ulysses,
Et tamen asquoreas torsit amore d«as.'"*
The account given by Madame de Motteville of these
transactions from the lips of Henrietta is amusingly charac
teristic. "The king," says she, " from weakness consented
fo Strafford's impeachment. His defence produced a great
impression in his favor ; he was ugly, but had a very agreea
ble person, and the queen stopped to tell me that he had the
finest hands in the world. Both the king and queen tried aH
means to save him. The queen had daily interviews with the
niost seditious, whom she secretly admitted at night by back
stairs, and, confiding in none, met them alone, with a candle
in her hand ; she offered them every thing to save him, but
in vain. She gained over lord Digby, who, passing from one
extreme to the other, made a fine harangue, which would
have saved him, if the parliament had had ears for reason or
hearts for justice."
The charge made against Strafford, far too. voluminous to
be here reported in detail, was in the. main that of a syste
matical endeavor to subvert the fundamental laws of the
state, and establish in their place an arbitrary power ; and it
branched out into the following principal heads : — The illegal
powers which he had procured to be inserted in his commis
sions as president of the North and lord-lieutenant of Ireland,
and the oppressive and arbitrary authority which he had
exerted, especially in the sister island, over the properties and
even the lives of men ; and here were stated the cases of
lord Mountnorris, lord chancellor Loftus, and others. — His
malicious endeavors to stir up "hostility between England and
Scotland, comprehending his inciting the king to renew the
war after the pacification, the unlawful oath imposed by him
on the Scotch in Ireland,: and his threat of extirpating them
root and branch out of that kingdom. — His declaration to
the king in council, that in case the parliament should not
supply his majesty's necessities, he would serve him in any
other ways. — His levying, on his last Teturn to Ireland, an
army of 8000 foot and 1000 horse, mostly papists, which he
had traitorously conspired tp employ for the ruin and destruc
tion of his majesty's English subjects, and the alteration and
overthrow of the fundamental laws of the kingdom. — His
joining with the archbishop of Canterbury and others in ad-
* May's Hist, of the Long Parliament.

9S
vising the dissolution of the last parliament, and telling his
majesty that he was now absolved from all laws of govern
ment, and justified before God and man in taking supplies
from his subjects against, their will ; and offering his Irish
army to be employed in reducing the English people. — His
being the author of the royal declaration against the late
parliament, full of malicious invectives and false and scan
dalous-aspersions upon them. — His causing the sheriffs of se
veral counties to be sued in the star,chambe!r for refusing to
levy ship-money, and violently threatening the lord-mayor
and aldermen of London for declining to give their assistance
in the levy of the loan, and of ship-money. — His suggesting
the counsel of seizing the bullion in the Mint and debasing
the coin, and seeking to overawethe merchants, when they
made their complaints, by referring to the collecting of money
by military force in Fiance and elsewhere. — -His having actu
ally made a levy hy his own authority upon his majesty's sub
jects in Yorkshire, for the maintenance of the trained bands,
and caused it to be collected by such force.
Two charges of a different nature were also brought ; one
of which, accusing him of undue favor to the Roman catho
lics, was abandoned by -the conductors of the impeachment.
The other, relating to corruption in pecuniary matters, fixed
upon him the guilt of arbitrarily enhancing the rates of the
customs in Ireland, which he framed for his own profit ; and
of obtaining for himself illegal monopolies of tobacco and of
linen yarn, which he carried iuto effect, particularly the last,
by a set of regulations which bore hard upon the unfortunate
peasantry, and were enforced with barbarous rigor.
If in this accusation offences of very different characters
and degrees were blended together, it is not doubted to be the
right of the house of commons in proceedings of this nature
so to blend them ; and for the purpose of fixing upon the pri
soner the guilt of a design to subvert the fundamental laws of
the state, it was important to give in evidence the furious, in
iquitous, and tyrannical acts, and even the words of scorn and
menace, by which he had most plainly evinced his contempt
for all laws restrictive of the will and pleasure either of him
self or his master. But it could not be pretended that all, it
might be doubted whether any one, of these speeches or ac
tions amounted of itself to the specific crime of high-treason
under the statute of Edward HI., -and this circumstance gave
a signal advantage to the earl in his defence. It enabled him
to convert a ju9t indignation in the bosoms of many, into

9S
compassion, by exhibiting himself in the character of a decri
ed and persecuted man, whom it was intended to oppress
and destroy by all methods, or on any pretext which offered.
In other respects, his eminent boldness and ability gave
him an air of superiority to the difficulties of his situation,
very capable of being mistaken for a sense of injured inno
cence. " The earl," says Clarendon " behaved himself with
great show of humility and submission ; but yet with such a
kind of courage as would lose no advantage ; and in truth
made his defence- with all imaginable dexterity; answering
this aud evading that, with all possible skill and eloquence ;
and though he knew not till he came to the bar, upon what
parts of his charge they would proceed against him, or what
evidence they would produce, he took very little time to re
collect himself; and left nothing unsaid that might make for
his own justification."
After the trial had endured to the 10th of April, and the
prisoner had made his personal answer during fifteen days,
the commo.ns came to the resolution of changing the form of
proceeding from a judicial to a legislative one ; and a bill of
attainder was brought in, under which he was voted guilty
of high-treason by a majority of 204 to 59. The parliamen
tary leaders appear to have availed themselves of this expedi
ent, for the double purpose of preceding and setting an ex
ample to the lords, and of avoiding the reproach and mis
chief of straining by constructions thej^d statute of treasons,
which had so often proved the pr^jBion of the subject;
preferring to exert their undisputed, thomrh invidious privi
lege, of condemning public delinquents by-ia kind of ex post
facto law. To the peers it made no difference ; for they pro
ceeded nevertheless, and finally voted, as;on an impeach
ment, Not a bill ; but to the king the charige could not be
otherwise than distressing in a high degree. It required him
to be active instead of passive ; and compelled him to take
the alternative either of granting the royal assent contrary
to his word and his conscience, or refusing it to the hazard,
if not the total ruin of his affairs.
It was after the bill of attainder had passed the house of
commons that Charles again pledged himself to the protec
tion of his minister in the following memorable letter.
" Strafford,
" The misfortune that is fallen upon you by the strange
mistaking and conjuncture of these times being such that I
must lay by the thought of employing you hereafter in my
Vol. II. 11

94
affairs ; yet I cannot satisfy myself in honor or conscience
without assuring you, now in the midst of all" ypur troubles,
that upon the word of a king, you shall not suffer in life,
honor, or fortune/ .This is but justice, and therefore a very
mean reward from a master to so faithful and able a servant
as you have showed yourself to be ; yet it is as much as I
conceive the present times will permit, though none shall bin--
der me from being " Your constant, faithful friend."
" Whitehall, April 23d, 1641."
The peers after a severe struggle, by2G voices to 19, voted
lord Strafford guilty on two or three of the most material
articles of the charge ; and the judges had unanimously con
curred in the opinion that upon those articles he " did de
serve to undergo the pains aud penalties of high-treason by
law," when Charles, catching.at a frail hope, sent for the
commons to the house of lords, and in a short speech made
an effort to persuade them into a kind of compromise by
which the life of the earl, though not his honor, would be
preserved. It is unfit for me, he said, to argue this business, but I
must tell you three great truths which nobody can know so
well as myselfv "1. That I never had any intention of
bringing over the Irish army into England, nor ever was ad
vised by anybody so to do. 2. There never was any debate
before me, neither inj^ftblic council nor at private committee,
of the disloyalty and^-msWection of my English subjects, nor
ever had I any suspicion of them. 3. I was never counsel
led by any, to alter, the least of any of the laws of England,
much less to alter all the laws ; Nay, I must tell you this, I
think nobody durst ever be so impudent to move me in it,
for if they had, I should have put a mark upon them, and
<¦.. id e them such an example, that all posterity should know
my intention by it ; for my intention was ever to govern ac
cording to the law and no otherwise.
" I desire to be rightly understood ; I told you in my con
science I cannot condemn him of high-treason ; yet I can
not say I can clear him of misdemeanor ; therefore I hope
that you may find a way for to satisfy justice and your own
fears, and not to press upon my conscience. My lords, I
hope you know what a tender thing conscience is. Yet I
must declare unto you, that to satisfy my people I would do
great matters. But in this of conscience, no fear, no re-

95
spect whatsoever, shall ever make me go against it. Cer
tainly . I have^ not deserved so ill of the parliament at this
time, "that they should press me in this tender point, and
therefore I cannot expect thatyou will go about it.
" Nay, I must confess, for matter of misdemeanor, I am
so clear in that, that though Lwill not chalk out the way,
yet let me tell you, that I do think my lord of Strafford is not
fit hereafter, to serve me or the commonwealth in anyplace of
trust, no not so much as to be a high constable. Therefore
I leave it to you, my lords, to find some such way as- to bring
me out of this great strait, and keep yourselves and the king
dom from such inconveniences."
The remarks of-the imprisoned Laud on this speech, and
its results,, merit transcription. "This displeased mightily,
and I verily think it hastened the earl's death. And indeed
to what end should the king come voluntarily to say this, and
there, unless he would have abode by it, whatever came 1
And it had been far more regal to reject the bill when it had
been brought to him, (his conscience standing so as his maj
esty professed it did,) than to make this honorable preface,
and let the bill pass after. *"
To these observations it may be added, both that the king's
interference with a passing bill was a gross breach of privi
lege, and that • of the three " great truths" of his majesty's
speech, there was not one which was uncontradicted either
by good testimony op by the facts themselves. His assertion
of the constant intention entertained by him from the begin
ning of. governing according to law, might even*have been
taken by the parliament for an insult upon their understand
ings, and was certainly ill-adapted to induce any man to favor
him in the conscientious scruples which he thought proper to
plead. The commons, on returning-to their own house immedi
ately adjourned, and on their next meetings Pym alarmed
them with an announcement of the discovery of many in
trigues and dangerous designs both at home and abroad, and
especially of a plot " to disaffect the army to the parliament,"
and bring it up from the.;North to overawe their proceedings ;
also of a design upon the Tower and for lord Strafford's es
cape, and of an intended descent of the French upon Ports
mouth in furtherance of these machinations. He stated that
"persons of eminency about the queen" appeared to be deep-
* Laud's Trial und Troubles, p. 176.

96
ly implicated, and moved that his majesty be requested to shut
the ports, and to give orders that no person attending on him
self, the queen, or the prince, should quit the kingdom without
license of his majesty by the humble advice of parliament.
After serious debate on these matters, the house resolved to
enter into a protestation for the defence of his majesty's per
son, the protestant religion, the power of parliaments, and
the rights of subjects ; and a message was sent to the lords
desiring their concurrence in these measures of precaution,
and in conducting examinations into the plot. The alarm
being thus given to the people, seditious crowds beset both
houses of parliament ; the names of the fifty-nine members
who had voted for the acquittal of the lord lieutenant jwere
posted up, under the designation of " the Straffordians, the be
trayers of their country ;" vehement petitions were presented
to the lords for the speedy execution of justice upon him, as
the only means of securing the peace of the country ; and the
peers found it necessary ta claim the interposition of the
commons to appease and disperse the menacing multitudes
by which their house was surrounded. They also, with the
exception of the lords Southampton and Roberts, took the
protestation previously taken by the lower house.
Under these circumstances a message was sent on May 8th
by the lords to the commons, that they had passed the bill of
attainder without any alteration ; and the commons in re
turn requested the lords to join them in moving his majesty
to give it his immediate assent. The harassed king summon
ed a privy-council, at which several judges and bishops attend
ed, to whom, and afterwards to the bishops separately, he pro
pounded his doubts and scruples. A variety of conflicting
statements exist with respect to the advice given to their sove
reign on this trying occasion by different distinguished mem
bers of the episcopal order ; especially Usher, Williams, and
Juxon. But were it even practicable to ascertain the truth,
in a matter so secret in its own nature, and obscured besides
by the efforts of partial friends and biographers, each striving
to shift off blame from the object of his own predilections, 
it would be, as respects the character of Charles himself, of
no moment. He who asks counsel whether or not he shall
sacrifice his honor and his conscience to the exigency of his
affairs, has already decided the question, and only seeks the
aid of some friendly hand to draw the robe of decency around
his fall.
Immediately after that ill-judged appeal to the house ©f

97
commons by which, in the opinion of many, Charles sealed
the doom of Strafford, he had received from him a letter fit
ted, and perhaps designed, to fortify his repugnance to con
curring in a fatal sentence. In this piece, the fallen minister,
after an affecting expression of the conflict with the love of
life which the surrender had cost him, solemnly releases the
conscience of the king from the obligation of his promise,
and beseeches him to preserve both himself and the country
from impending evils ^by passing the bill ; pointedly adding ;
" My consent shall more acquit you herein to God than all
the world can do besides ; to a willing man there is no injury
done." The offered sacrifice was at once accepted ; the king signed
a commission to give the royal assent to the bill, saying at the
same time with tears, that my lord Strafford's condition was
more happy than his own.
On the following day, moved by the anguish of his mind to
a last effort, he sent to the house of lords by the hands of
the prince of Wales, the following appeal. " I did yesterday
satisfy the justice of the kingdom, by passing the bill of at
tainder against the earl of Strafford ; but mercy being as
inseparable and inherent to a king as justice, I desire, in
some measure, to show that likewise, by suffering that un
fortunate man to fulfil the natural course of his life in a close
imprisonment; yet so that if ever he make the least offer
to escape, or offer directly or indirectly to meddle in any sort
of public business, especially with me, either by message or
letter, it shall cost him his life without further process.
"This, if it may be done without the discontentment of my
people, will be an unspeakable contentment to me." He
proceeds to request that, the lords would endeavor by con
ference to reconcile the commons to such a course, adding,
" I will not say that your complying with me in this my in
tended mercy, shall make me more willing, but certainly it
will make me more cheerful, in granting your just grievances.
But if no less than his life can satisfy my people, I must say,
fiat justitia."
A postscript susceptible of various constructions was ap
pended : " If he must die, it were charity to reprieve him till
Saturday." The lords, " after serious and sad consideration," deter
mined on sending twelve of their number to represent to his
majesty, that neither request could without imminent danger
to himself and all the royal family be granted ; softening

98
however their denial with the intimation that they designed
to be suitors to his majesty for favor to the children of his
lordship. — The king on this desisted from his plea.
On receiving the fatal, and, as it appears, unexpected tid
ings that his master had given him up, Strafford, in some dis
may asked again, whether it indeed were so ; then rising from
his seat, his eyes cast to heaven and his hand upon his heart,
he pointed himself the moral of his story by the text, " Put
not your trust in princes, nor in the sons of men, for in them
there is no salvation."*
Upon the following morning Strafford submitted to his sen
tence on Tower Hill, with a courage, a composure, and a
meekness, worthy of a better man in a better cause. But
the hatred of the people, inflamed both by true and false
alarms, was neither to be appeased by his magnanimity, nor
even extinguished in his blood ; it broke forth in manifesta
tions of a ferocity alien to the national character, and prompt
ed unworthy exultations over the fallen foe. " In the even
ing of the day wherein he was executed," says a contempo-.
rary, " the greatest demonstrations of joy that could possibly
be expressed, ran through the whole town and countries here
about ; and many that came to town en purpose to see the,
execution, rode in triumph back, waving their hats, and with
all expressions of joy, through every town, they went crying,
' His head is off, his head is off I' and in many places committing
insolencies upon, and breaking the windows of those persons
who would not solemnize this festival with a bonfire."!
The earl of Strafford was cut off in the forty-eighth year
of his age ; his children were exempted from the legal effects
of his attainder, and his son succeeded, in consequence, to
his honors and estate.
Haying surveyed the progress and event of this memora
ble trial, we must now look back, to resume the general
thread of events, marking in our way those which had most
influence in deciding the fate of the proscribed minister.
From the first meeting of the parliament, it had been per
fectly evident to statesmen that the king would find himself
under the necessity of yielding on many and important points.
Immediately after the committal of Strafford, we find lord
Northumberland writing to lord Leicester thus : " The kino-
is in such a strait, that I do not know how he will possibly
"Sanderson's Complete History, p. 421.
f Warwick's Memoirs, p. 164.

99
avoid, without endangering the loss of the whole kingdom,
the giving way to the remove of divers persons, as well as
other things that will be demanded by the parliament. After
they have done displacing some of the great ones, they intend
to endeavor the displacing H. Jermin, Newcastle, and Watt
Montague. If these designs of reformation do succeed, we
shall suddenly see many changes in this court." In this
state of things he proposes to his friend to make interest for
some of the places about to be vacated ; soon after, however,
he writes again, that the king, queen and the court " are con
fident that these things will come to nothing," and it is there
fore too soon to move in any particular suit.
In another letter, of Dec. 10th, this lord relates that on his
urging his majesty to make lord Leicester secretary of state
in the place of Windebank, his suit had been coldly received,
he himself having incurred his majesty's displeasure, because
he will not perjure himself for the lord-lieutenant ; but adds,
that he is resolved to try what he can do by parliament, if he
see " a likeliness of failing the other way," and by one of
these he confidently believes that Leicester shall either be
made secretary or go into Ireland. The latter appointment,
in fact, lord Leicester soon after obtained, and against the
wishes of the king. In one of these letters, Northumber
land mentions that the earl of Bedford is " in so good esti
mation with parliament," that he verily believes he will be
lord-treasurer.* From these passages the important inference to be drawn
is, that men of the popular party who at this time either actu
ally accepted office, or entered into negotiations with that
view, are not therefore, without further proof, to be regarded
as deserters from their principles or party. The king was
compelled, by the difficulties of his situation, to make over
tures to those who possessing an interest with the parliament
were therefore able to serve him ; and it is even manifest that
some individuals must have made their own terms with him.
Thus Oliver. St. John, a man noted both for his parliamenta
ry opposition to prerogative, and his resistance of the pay
ment of ship-money, mitigated in no degree, on becoming
solicitor-general, the vehemence with which he had pursued
the life of Strafford. Of the seven popular peers whom the
king at this time reluctantly admitted into the privy-council
at the instance of Marquis Hamilton, — Bristol, Essex, also
* Sidney Papers, ii. 663 — 665.

100
made lord ^chamberlain, Bedford, Hertford, Mandeville, Sa-
ville and Say, several, — notwithstanding the jealousy to which
they found themselves exposed on the part of their old friends,
preserved both their adherence to parliament and their hostil
ity to Strafford.
That Charles at one period entertained the idea of making
Bedford treasurer, and Pym chancellor of the exchequer, and
distributing other offices amongst the other parliamentary lea
ders, including Hampden and Hollis, there is the conclusive
testimony of Whitelock; but we must demur to Clarendon's
statement, that they had consented to come in on the terms
of saving Strafford's life, and securing to the king an inde
pendent revenue ; and that the death of Bedford alone dis
concerted the plan.* Heylyn's opposite account, that the
king changed his mind and broke off the treaty, appears at
leasi equally probable in itself; and it is more consistent with
Clarendon's own statement, that few of the political allies of
Bedford, without whom he was not desirous of coming into
office, "thought their preferments^would do them much good,
if the earl were suffered to live."f That Bedford had re
mained intractible on this point, is confirmed by the state
ments of Laud, who, though a prisoner, was doubtless well
informed of the state of parties and affections; and who
has bitterly adverted to the death of this peer in the following
passage. " His mishaps," speaking of Strafford, " in this
last action were, that he groaned under the public envy of
the nobles, served a mild and gracious prince, who knew not
how to be, or to be made great ; and trusted false, perfidious,
and cowardly men in the northern employment  The
earl being thus laid low, and his great services done in Ire
land made part of his accusation, I cannot but observe two
things : The one, that upon Sunday morning before, Fran
cis earl of Bedford (having about a month before lost his se
cond son, in whom he most joyed,) died, the small-pox strik
ing into his brain. This lord was one of the main plotters of
Strafford's death : And I know where he with other lords,
before the parliament sat down, resolved to have his blood.
But God would not let him live to take joy therein, but cut
* Clarendon has affirmed, that after Bedford's death the hope of being made
lord-treasurer induced lord Say to undertake to the king to save the life of
Strafford; but it was surely then too late, fer the death of Bedford preceded
that of Strafford by only two days.
f Hist. Rebellion, i. 372.

101
him off in the morning, whereas the bill for the earl of Straf
ford's death was not signed till night, &c."*
The earl of Hertford was at this time advanced to the
dignity of a marquis ; and he not only himself cordially con
curred in the king's desire to save Strafford, but according
to Clarendon, made an effort to bring into the same mea
sure a nobleman powerful enough to be sought by the soli
citations of both parties, — the earl of Essex. Mr. Hyde was
afterwards himself commissioned, and as he says by the earl
of Bedford, to argue the same matter with Essex ; but to his
representations of the practicability of taking from Straf
ford all power of mischief, without touching his life, the earl
" shook his head and answered, ' Stone-dead hath no fellow :'
That if he were judged guilty in a premunire, according
to the precedents cited by him, or fined in any other way, and
sentenced to be imprisoned during his life, the king would
presently grant him his pardon and his estate, release all fines,
and would also give him his liberty, as soon as he had a mind
to receive his service ; which would be as soon as the par
liament ended." On another occasion, when Mr. Hyde re
newed the subject, by pleading the hardship of pressing the
king to do that which he declared to be against his con
science, he asserts that Essex replied, " That the king was
obliged in conscience to conform himself and his own under
standing to the advice and conscience of his parliament."!
We have seen the statement of the earl of Northumberland,
that the king desired him to perjure himself for the lord-lieu
tenant ; a fact which deserves elucidation. In order to sub
stantiate some of their gravest charges against the prisoner,
the parliament had extorted from the king an order to the
members of his privy-council to answer interrogatories, their
official oath of secrecy notwithstanding. Northumberland, as
lord-admiral and one of the committee of eight for Scotch
affairs, had shared in the most important deliberations, and
his testimony was to the following effect : That in the com
mittee, his majesty being present, lord Strafford had said, that
in case of necessity, and fpr the defence and safety of the
kingdom, if the people do refuse to supply the king, he is ab
solved from all rules of government ; that everything is to be
done for the safety of king and people, and his majesty would
be acquitted before God and man. — It appeared from other
* Laud's Troubles and Trial, p. 177.
f Hist. Rebellion, i. 424. et seq.
Vol. II. 12

102
witnesses, that these words were spoken after the dissolution
of the last parliament, on the question of finding means and
money to carry on war against the Scotch. Lords Bristol,
Holland, Newburgh and others, deposed to the same or simi
lar expressions ; lord Cottington pleaded defective memory ;
but secretary sir Henry Vane testified to the words as ad
dressed to the king, with the fatal addition : " You have an
army in Ireland which you may employ here to reduce this
kingdom." On re-examination, the earl of Northumberland
denied having heard these words ; and they rested on the sole
recollection of Vane, till his son, in searching for family papers
in his father's reposilories, found a memorandum made by
him on his return from that meeting of council, in which this
advice of lord Strafford's was recorded. This conclusive
document, the zeal of the younger Vane impelled him to
place at the disposal of Pym, by whom it was carried to the
committee of impeachment. By lord Digby, a member of
that committee, in token of the sincerity of his conversion to
the court, in which Henrietta gloried, this paper seems to
have been conveyed away ; at least, a copy of it in his hand
writing was afterwards found in the king's cabinet, taken at
Naseby ; but Whitelock, who had charge of the papers of the
committee, is not clear from suspicion of connivance. The
fraud, by whomsoever committed, was unavailing. The
charge was believed, and it was one of those articles on which
the judges and tbe house of lords held Strafford deserving of
the death of a traitor.*
The coinmittee appointed to investigate the conspiracies
against the parliament and the people which had been de
nounced by Pym, was speedily enabled to lay before the le
gislature not only certain evidence of the existence of se
veral dark and dangerous designs framed by military officers
and favorite courtiers, but of direct encouragement lent to
such machinations by the queen, and even by the king him
self. The plot appeared to have three branches, with as many
distinct objects : To secure the Tower ; to engage the army ;
and to introduce foreign troops. Sir John Suckling was a
prime agent. On pretence of raising troops for Portugal,
he had assembled a hundred men, and given the command
of them to captain Billingsley, who confessed that he had re
ceived orders, at the privy lodgings Whitehall, to march with
them into the Tower ; and it appeared that a royal warrant
* See Earl of StrafforoVt Trial, by Rushworth : Articles xxii. and xxi-r.

103
was directed to sir William Balfour, the lieutenant, to admit
them, which however this officer was so true to the cause of
the parliament and of his Scottish countrymen as to disobey.
Balfour, being examined, stated further, that lord Strafford
had attempted to prevail upon him by the offer of 22,000Z. in
hand and a good marriage for his son, to favor his escape ;
telling him that he should have for his indemnity the king's
warrant directing him to remove his prisoner to some distant
castle ; and that on the road he would find opportunity to slip
away. It was in consequence of Balfour's refusal to concur
in this scheme, that recourse was had to the expedient of in
troducing Billingsley and his men into the Tower, in order
to rescue Strafford ; and perhaps there were some further de
signs in it.
Colonel Goring, from whom the parliamentary leaders had
received, if not their earliest, at least their fullest intelligence,
testified, that Suckling was the first person who spoke to him
for bringing up the army : That afterwards, in the queen's
lodgings, he met Henry Percy, who took him to a consulta
tion of officers, at which Wilmot, Pollard, Berkley, Daniel
O'Neal, and Henry Jermyn were present, and where an oath
of inviolable secrecy was given him. They resolved to make
a declaration of attachment to the king, and of their deter
mination to engage themselves and endeavor to engage the
army, on three points : The preservation of the bishop's votes
and functions : The not disbanding the Irish army till the
Scotch were disbanded ; and, " The endeavoring to settle his
majesty's revenue to that proportion it was formerly." Dif
ferent means were proposed amongst them for the accom
plishment of their objects, both in this meeting and in a sub
sequent one at Percy's chamber ; some of them " desperate
and impious on the one hand, and foolish on the other."
Some of the conspirators were fpr marching the army into
London, and giving the city up to plunder, which others op
posed. Jermyn proposed terms to Goring, on which he was
to relinquish his government of Portsmouth. The queen her
self however, on Goring's being brought to Whitehall, came
and spoke to him and sent him to the king.
In a letter of justification addressed by Percy to the earl
his brother he states, that it was only af the kings urgent and
repeated desire that Jermyn and Suckling were admitted into
the cousultations of the other officers, who regarded them
with distrust as entertaining " higher notions" and more vio
lent designs than themselves. Disputes on the choice of a

104
leader speedily arose, some of the conspirators proposing Es
sex, others Holland, and others Newcastle for the first post,
and more than one endeavoring to secure either it or the sec
ond, for himself. These dissensions caused the overthrow of
the whole design.
It is material to observe that the king had given them under
his sign manuel a commission authorizing them to tamper
with the military.
Henrietta told Madame de Motteville, that the plot of Gor
ing and Wilmot to gain the army, was disclosed to herself by
Goring, and to the king by Wilmot : That both were ambi
tious of succeeding Strafford in the chief command, and that
she sent Jermyn to endeavor to settle matters between them,
but he found it impracticable : That Goring from pique be
trayed the plot to the parliament, in consequence of which
both Jermyn and Percy were obliged to fly ; and that after
the loss of these two friends, Strafford gave himself up for
lost. She added, that he might have escaped more than once,
(that is, before his trial,) and would not, hoping to prove his
innocence : " He had once," says Madame de Motteville,
" been on bad terms with the queen, but afterwards attached
himself to her interests, when he had shown her great respect,
and served her well. From gratitude, and a sense of her own
and her husband's dignity, she omitted nothing to withdraw
him from the hands of his wicked accusers ; but she gained
only the satisfaction attending kind and just actions." This
passage is important, in so far as it seems to acquit Henrietta
of the suspicion of urging her husband to violate his conscience
in signing the death-warrant of Strafford, and also, as it seems
still more closely to connect the army-plot with the schemes
for his deliverance.
• On the third branch of the conspiracy, — that of the introduc
tion of foreign forces, — the evidence was perhaps less conclu
sive than on the others : the parliament however published
their opinion, that the French were drawing down troops to
Calais, and that they had a design upon Portsmouth, which
Jermyn had endeavored to get into his own hands ; and this
place, with Dover, they immediately caused to be put in a state
of preparation. An intercepted letter from father Philip,
the queen's confessor, to Walter Montague, was produced,
in further testimony of the mischievous intrigues of her French
and popish household against the state which harbored them.
It began as follows :
' The good king and queen are left very naked ; the puri-

105
tans, if they durst, would pull the good queen in pieces. Can
the good King of France suffer a daughter of France, his
sister, and her children, to be thus affronted 1 Can the wise
cardinal endure England and Scotland to unite, and not be
able to discern, in the end it is like they will join together and
turn head against France 1 A stirring active ambassador
might do good here." After referring to the king's speech in
favor of Strafford, which he says lords Bristol and Saville ad
vised him to make, the priest goes on to relate the clamors
of the people for justice, and the alarm of the lords and the
judges, and their desertion of the cause of the prisoner ;
and then adds, " The king is much dejected, the lords much
affrighted, which made the citizens and the house of com
mons show their heads ; some have braved little less than to
unthrone his majesty, who if he had but an ordinary spirit,
might easily quash and suppress these people."
This letter being read in the house, great exceptions were
taken, especially to what it reported of the puritans wishing to
tear the queen in pieces.*
With respect to the sharers in the army-plot, six or eight of
the principal fled immediately on the discovery : Jermyn
made his escape safely into France, as did Suckling, who soon
after died at Paris ; but Percy, lingering imprudently in the
neighborhood of Petworth, was discovered and set upon by
the country-people, and severely wounded. He extricated
himself however from their hands, and was no more heard of
for several months. It was the first report brought to the
house, that Percy and Jermyn were fled towards Portsmouth,
whither it appeared that the queen likewise had a design of
repairing ; and in a conference immediately held between the
two houses, it was resolved to request her majesty to stay her
journey, on account of the hazards to which it might expose
her person ; and one lord and two commoners were immedi
ately dispatched under an oath of secrecy, to propose certain
questions to the governor of that place, and take further pre
cautions for its security ; — Marks of distrust which seemed
much more reasonable on the part of the parliament than the
confidence again reposed by Henrietta in the man of whose
perfidy towards herself and her dearest friends she had ap
parently the greatest reason to complain ! Goring however,
who " had been bred in the court and owed all he had to the
immediate bounty of the crown," had not in fact, or at least
not permanently, abandoned the party the secrets of which
* Trial of Strafford, 746 et seq.

106
he had hastily betrayed ; and the parliament no sooner be
gan to place confidence in him than he gave them ample cause
to repent it.
To the extraordinary aptitudes of this person for the part
of a political intriguer, lord Clarendon has borne the follow
ing testimony. After adverting to the favor and confidence
which his disclosure of the army-plot procured him from the
parliament, he adds : " He was in truth a man very powerful
to get esteem, having a person very winning and graceful in
all his motions ; and by a hurt in his leg, which he had no
bly and eminently obtained in an assault of a town in Hol
land, and which produced a lameness not to be concealed, he
appeared the more comely and prevailing. He had a civility
which shed itself over all his countenance, and gathered all
the eyes and applications in view ; his courage was notorious
and confessed ; his wit equal to the best, and in the most
universal conceptions ; and his language and expression nat
ural, sharp and flowing, adorned with a wonderful seeming
modesty, and with such a constant and perpetual sprightful-
ness and pleasantness of humor, that no man had reason to
be ashamed of being disposed to love him, or indeed of being
deceived by him. He had such a dexterity in his addresses,
and in reconciling the greatest prejudice and aversion, that
he prevailed with the queen, within less than forty-eight
hours after he was known to have betrayed her, and ruined
those who were most trusted by her, and who were fled the
kingdom for the safety of their lives, to repose a great trust
in him again, and to believe that he would serve the king with
great integrity."*
This accomplished deceiver, whose after-actions were very
remarkable,, was the son of George the first baron Goring,
who was a few years after, in consideration of his services to
the royal cause, advanced to the dignity of earl of Norwich,
when his more noted son became lord Goring. Whether the
family were catholic does not appear, but the younger Gor
ing, who after the ruin of the royal cause entered into the
service of the king of Spain, is said to have assumed the Do
minican habit in that country. |
With respect to the other participators in these machina
tions, O'Neal, who was deepest in the design of bringing up
the army, being threatened with a capital prosecution made
his escape but afterwards surrendered. Wilmot, Ashburnham
* Hist. Rebellion, vol. iii. p. 173, note.
f Collin's Peerage, by Brydges, vol. ix. p. 45.

107
and Pollard, all members of the house, and Davenant the p:ef,
who was detected in the endeavor to quit the kingdom, being
judged less guilty, were, after short terms of imprisonment,
admitted to bail. The plot had apparently been sufficiently
serviceable to the cause of parliament to incline its chiefs to
lenity. Once detected, all danger from schemes so rash and
immature, was at an end. There was no cause to believe that
disaffection had been widely diffused in the army ; and a gra
cious letter from parliament, promising the troops the speedy
discharge of their arrears, was sufficient to check its progress.
On the other hand, the evidence which had been elicited of
the treachery of the king, and the intrigues of the queen, with
her band of courtiers arid priests, had filled the minds of the
people with indignation and alarm, which prepared them cor
dially to support the parliament in any assumption of power
fitted to secure the tranquillity of the state during a great and
unprecedented emergency. Under these circumstances a bill
quickly passed both houses, though not without a slight effort
on the part of the lords to limit its duration to two years, for
restraining the king, from dissolving the present parliament
without its own consent. The ostensible ground for this
startling law, was the necessity for giving such stability to
the parliament, in order to induce the capitalists of the City
to advance on its credit the great sums which would be re
quired for discharging the demands of the Scotch, and dis
banding both armies. But a deep-rooted distrust of the in
tentions of the king, and the consequent apprehension of the
popular members for their own individual safety, was doubt
less the more cogent motive for its enactment. The bill for
Strafford's death, and that for the continuance of parliament,
were brought to the king at the same time, and signed by him
with one pen. By the first, it has been said, he destroyed his
most faithful and able minister ; by the second, he ruined
himself. But it is pretty evident that he had disabled himself
from denying either, except at the immediate hazard of his
crown. In the midst of these absorbing interests, there passed
with little general notice a transaction of immense importance
to the future welfare of the English nation, — the marriage of
Mary the princess royal, at the age of ten, to the prince of
Orange, to which union our third William owed his birth.
The situation of Mary de' Medici at the court of her daugh
ter had become nearly insupportable, though she still clung
to it as her sole resource. Charles had been necessitated

108
by his own embarrassments to suspend the payment of the
exorbitant pension of a hundred pounds a day, which he
had granted her on her arrival ; and she had fallen, in con
sequence, into a state of|real indigence. To the people, who
naturally imputed to her counsels all that most offended
them in the conduct and principles of her daughter, she
became daily more obnoxious, till their insults and her fears
impelled her to make application to the parliament for a
guard. This they granted her, feeling that the honor of the
nation was pledged for her safety ; but they made it their plea
for requesting the king to prevail upon her to quit the country,
to which he consented on their grant of 10,OOOZ. for the ex
penses of her journey.
Henrietta was thus obliged to abandon to her evil fate a
parent whose enterprising folly had already impelled her son
to banish her from the kingdom where she had ruled so long
surrounded with all the splendor of luxury and the arts ;
and urged the government of Flanders to press the departure
of the mother of the queen of Spain. " Insomuch that she
became," says May, " a strange example of the instability of
human fortunes, — that so great a queen, and mother to so
many mighty princes, should want a quiet harbor for her
age." She pursued her journey to Cologne, and there died.
The great earl of Arundel, the premier peer of that rank in
England, disgusted at the abolition of his marshal's court, and
prescient of the coming storm, seized the pretext of conduct
ing this queen upon her way, to proceed to Italy, where he
was content to end his days in a base vacation from the cares
and duties of the patriot and the legislator.
During the year 1641 the marquis de Ferte-Imbaud was
sent to England as ambassador from the court of France;
and a secretary in his train, whose name does not appear,
has left under the title of " Voyage d' Angleterre faict en 1'
an 1641" an account of his observations extant in manuscript,
from which some particulars may be gleaned curiously illus
trative of the state of the court and country at this important
epoch. An English ship of war received the ambassador at Diep
pe ; Gerbier, here called grand master of the ceremonies,
met him at Rochester, with the king's barges ; the earl of
Stamford received him at Greenwich.
The catholics are said to have awaited his arrival to de-

109
liver them from the most cruel captivity and persecution of
the age.
The king's carriages, sent to convey the ambassador to his
first audience, he mentions as better harnessed and more su
perb than those of the French king. He was struck- with
the fertility of the country which he traversed and the uni
versal air of riches and comfort, contrasted with the appear
ance of France, wasted by long civil wars. The Banqueting-
house at Whitehall he accounts the most spacious and beau
tiful room in Europe.
After paying their compliments to all the royal family, they
visited the queen-mother, Mary de' Medici, who sent her car
riages and gentlemen to convey the ambassador, " being then
to the number of one, and very ill-appointed ;" she received
them however seated in a black velvet chair " with as much
majesty and as lofty a spirit as if she had still given orders
for(the march of great armies, or for a second carousal."
London is thus admiringly described : " It is perfectly well
situated in a wide plain which permits it to extend its arms to
right and left, and is pervaded by that famous river Thames
which wafts lo it in abundance every necessary of human
life ; and thousands of barges so cover the river with passen
gers, that the stranger seems to behold a continued bridge, or
rather the representation of a sea-fight, such are the admira
ble swiftness and dexterity of their manoeuvres. The streets
are rather narrow, and the houses built somewhat lofty, be
cause there is a want of room along the bank of the river.
They generally contrive however to find space for a garden,
with a prospect of the most agreeable country imaginable.
If London have not all the advantages which glorify our Paris,
it must however be honestly confessed that it greatly sur
passes this city in cleanliness, elegance and safety to stran
gers, since every one may walk about at the dead of night,
with his pipe and his purse in his hand, and fear neither filth
nor assassins. This is the case not only in the best-governed
cities, but in the most remote provinces, where the smallest
thefts meet with exemplary punishment. London mayjustly
boast not only of her excellent port, and her abundance of
all kinds of merchandize, but of possessing the longest street,
the most splendid taverns, and the greatest number of shops
of any city in Europe.
The royal apartments in the Tower were at this time
maintained in all their splendor ; this traveller remarks that
the kings of England possessed the richest tapestries and the
Vol. II. 13

110
finest paintings in Christendom, and amongst other sump
tuous articles he saw here with astonishment three sets of
hangings surrounded with gold of the breadth of two fingers
and with splendid borders, a piece of gold brocade brought
from China of inestimable value, and a large table-cover with
three squares of crimson velvet embroidered with great pearls
and rubies. A greater rarity was the rich sword presented by
Julius II. to Henry VIII. as Defender of the faith ; but the
last and richest pieces were three great vases of silver gilt,
and queen Elizabeth's cup, a foot andj half in diameter, and
four feet high, enriched with thousands of figures and devices,
and altogether the triumph of skill and labor in this branch
of art.
He was surprised to learn that many of the nobility had
chapels and family vaults in Westminister abbey, whilst the
French kings had permitted none but the first princes of the
blood to bury in the abbey of St. Denis.
Nothing seems to have delighted him more than the exhibi
tions of bear and bull baiting, which reminded him of the
Roman amphitheatre ; he does not however mention these
combats as the amusements of the court.
The luxury and prodigality of the ladies in articles of dress
and ornament perfectly astonished him, and still more that of
the courtiers. " It is incredible," he says, " how much mon
ey they willingly sacrifice in a thousand elegancies and new
modes of dress imitated from the French as the most becom
ing and reasonable of all. Neither does any nation equal
them in extravagant betting. On the slightest news of the
march of an army, or the event of a siege or a battle, they
will lay wagers sometimes to the amount of thirty or forty
thousand Jacobuses." Their principal games, he says, are
tennis, bowls, and piquet, in which however they are not very
skilful, whence they seek to avoid engaging the Parisian shar
pers who often visit England, but who, in spite of their cau
tion, never fail to carry away enough to pay the expenses of
the journey. It is amusing, he adds, to see the greatest no
bles of the land, pipe in hand, and without cloak or sword,
enjoying in Piccadilly the pleasures of an idle life, and filling
the air with the scent of tobacco, from which they do not ab
stain even at the theatre in the midst of ladies, nor in the best
company the town affords.
In the river between London and Rochester, he counted
850 vessels, half, he says, ships of war and half merchant
men..* The Sovereign ef the Sea, the largest ship in the navy,.

Ill
being of 112 guns, they went on board, and were astonished
at the magnificence of this " floating palace." It was cover
ed with paintings, carving, gilding, and bas-reliefs ; all was
wonderfully neat, and the cabins exceedingly spacious and
elegant. This writer ascribes to the interference of the French am
bassador the means taken by parliament to stop the embar
kation of the Irish regiments for the service of Spain. He
relates very correctly the circumstances of father Philip's ex
amination by parliament, his insolent behavior and conse
quent imprisonment ; and we learn further the curious fact
that Mary de' Medici had taken upon her to leave in England
as her resident one Monsigot, who became obnoxious and
suspected, and being summoned to answer interrogatories, se
creted himself,

112

CHAPTER XXI.
1641.
Treaty concluded*with the Scots. — Poll-tax imposed. — The king's
speech, — he announces a progress to Scotland. — Parliament
jealous of him. — Ten propositions made to him. — The queen's
confessor impeached. — Jealousies of the intentions of the queen. —
The two houses oppose her leaving the kingdom.— The king's
departure.— Authority qf the queen during his absence. — The
king his own minister. — New army-plot. — The king watched by
parliamentary commissioners. — His reception in Scotland and
speech to the parliament. — Contests arise. — Letter of sir P.
Wemyss. — Correspondence of the king and secretary Nicholas.
— Settlement of affairs in Scotland hastened by news of the Irish
rebellion. — Transactions in parliament. — Advice of Nicholas
in religion. — Vacant sees filled. — Williams made archbishop qf
York. — Notices of Usher,— Prideaux, — Brownrigg. — Scheme of
modified episcopacy abortive. — The king implicated in a second
army-plot. — Parliament occupied on the declaration of griev-

THE long-drawn treaty with the Scotch was now brought to
a conclusion, the English parliament cementing the close al
liance between the two nations which was stipulated, by an
agreement to pay by instalments towards the " losses and
necessities" of their brethren of Scotland, the large sum of
300,000Z. in addition to the pay of their troops.
To defray this demand, and liquidate the arrears of the En
glish army, a heavy poll-tax was levied, and much plate melt
ed down in haste ; and the earl of Holland, being appointed
lord-general, was sent to the North to carry into effect the dis
charge of the English army.
It was along with the bill for the poll-tax, that those for
the abolition of the high-commission and the star-chamber
were offered for the royal assent. Having passed the money
bill, Charles incurred the reproaches even of his own house
hold by the infatuated perversity of demurring upon the oth
ers, which the public voice and the necessity of his own af
fairs compelled him to pass, with a bad grace, two days after-

113
wards. On this occasion, falling into the querulous strain
which had become habitual to him, he told the parliament
that he could not but be sensible of the discontents taken, as
he understood, by some, that he had not passed these bills
before : He thought it strange that two things of so great
importance should be required of him without time allowed
to consider of them : He wondered how they could harbor
discontent when they considered how «iuch he had done :
Making judges during good behavior; bounding the forest
laws ; taking away ship-money ; establishing the subjects'
rights in tonnage and poundage ; granting triennial parlia
ments, with free justice against delinquents, and other things.
Yet he assured them that he would omit nothing to give them
content. He ended by making mention of an intended pro
gress to Scotland.
Here was fresh matter for the jealousy of parliament.
The motives for the king's desire of visiting his northern
kingdom at this juncture were so obscure, whilst the circum
stances which must render his abode there painful and mor
tifying were so strikingly evident, that it was impossible not
to suspect that his journey was designed to promote some
kind of secret machinations. Nothing seemed more proba
ble, than that a fresh design for engaging the army in his in
terest was in agitation ; and great exertions were therefore
made to expedite the disbanding before his departure. It
was also feared that he might so gain over the body of the
Scottish people by well-timed concessions and gratifications,
as to array them in opposition to the enterprises of the Eng
lish house of commons. On these considerations, both the
chief of the Scotch commissioners and the leaders of the
English parliament, endeavored by all means to impede the
king's journey ; and the commons having demanded a con-
' ferrence with the lords, presented to them ten articles to be
offered by both houses to his majesty.
By these, the king was requested to delay his departure
until after the disbandment, and the passing of certain bills
now pending ; and thus to prevent the jealousies of his
subjects, and suppress " the hopes of persons ill-affected that
may have designs upon the army to disturb the peace of the
kingdom." He was urged to consent to the removal of
such councillors as had been active in furthering courses con
trary to religion, liberty and good government, and to admit
others of an opposite character, in whom the parliament
might confide. With respect to the queen it was asked, —

114
That his majesty would persuade her to admit some of the
nobility, and others of trust, into offices now at her disposal :
— That no Jesuit, nor any other regular, of whatever coun
try, be received into her service, nor any priest born within
his majesty's dominions, and that they be restrained from
coming to court : — That the college of capuchins be dissolv
ed, and they sent out of the country. (And here the dan
gerous letters of father Philip and others of these priestly
intriguers were produced.) — That during his majesty's ab
sence some persons of quality be appointed to attend the
queen's person, to guard against all designs of papists and ill-
affected persons, and that resort to her be restrained. It was
further desired, that persons of public trust and well-affected
in religion, be placed about the king's children, to take care
of their education, " especially in matters of religion and
liberty :?' That if any should come into the kingdom as
nuncio, or with instructions from the pope, it be a case of
high-treason, and he put out of the protection of the king and
the law. And here it was stated that Rosetti yet remained
in the country and even came to court.
Some other articles provided for securing the kingdom by
lord-lieutenants and deputy-lieutenants trusted by parliament ;
by care for the cinque ports, by an oath given to the trained
bands, by attention to the state of the navy, and by the ap
pointment of a committee of both houses to confer for the
public good. Lastly, it was requested that the king would
be very sparing in sending for papists to court ; that against
such as came unsent for, the laws should be severely enforc
ed ; that English ladies recusants might be removed from
court ; that the persons of the most active papists, lords or
commoners, might be so restrained as was necessary for the
good of the kingdom ; and that to recusants held dangerous
to the state, no pensions should be allowed.*
The memory of the delinquency of father Philip, the
queen's confessor, being revived by these articles, he was sent
for by a messenger of the commons, to whom, after going to
consult his mistress, he audaciously answered, that the queen
had commanded him not to go till she had spoken to the
king, and he would rather obey her than the parliament. On
this, a warrant was issued against him by the house, to which
the king obliged him to submit. The commons sent him to
the Tower, and some time after brought in articles of im-
* Rushworth, iv. 29! .

115
peachment against him. These exhibit him as a pernicious
intriguer, a spy of France, the close ally of the agents sent
into the country by the pope, — to whose interests he had, of
course, the peculiar devotion of a Jesuit, — and as the ally of
three exceedingly obnoxious recusants ; sir Toby Mathew,
sir John Winter, whom he had made secretary to the queen,
and Walter Montague. By his means many " factious and
turbulent spirits" are said to have received protection from
the queen, and even to have been entertained by her as " ex
traordinary servants j" and to fill the measure of his offences,
he is charged with endeavors to " traduce" the tender years
of the prince of Wales to popery.*
It cannot be affirmed that the marked distrust of Henriet
ta and opposition to her designs and partisans, manifested by
the parliament, was either unfounded, or even excessive :
So long before as February of this year, the French ambas
sador had written home that she said publicly, that a truce
for three years had been concluded on between France and
Spain, and that they would now join their forces to defend
her and avenge the catholics, f
At the same time she had been eager to make a journey
to France, to pursue her intrigues ; but a hint from the lead
ers of parliament to Richelieu, induced him to forbid the
visit, — to her high displeasure. \ In the course of the sum
mer she resumed her project, proposing to accompany her
mother abroad, on pretence that her health required the
waters of Spa; but the two houses, after a conference on
the subject, offered to his majesty the following amongst
other objections to the design. — The cause there was to fear,
that the papists had founded some design upon her majesty's
journey, many of them having sold their land for ready mo
ney ; and others having collected a great treasure in gold,
plate and jewels, to be sent abroad with the queen, to the
impoverishment as well as danger of the country ; and an
unusual number of papists, and those pf the better sort, hav
ing themselves also gone beyond sea : — The great number of
English fugitives now abroad, who had evinced their malice
by their late designs and practices, and would not fail to la
bor at infusing evil counsels into her majesty, the more dan
gerous at this time, on account Of the unsettled state of the
kingdom and the approaching disbandonment, which would
* Rushworth, iv. 301.
\ Mazure, jHiil. de la Revolution en 1688, ii. 419. t tbid. 416.

116
fill all places with soldiers, apt to be provoked to seditions and
tumults, particularly during the absence of the king. Some
ccurtly expressions were added in the close, respecting the
interest taken by both houses in the health and happiness of
her majesty. For these she had the adroitness to thank
them in a gracious message, by which she relinquished her
design with apparent cheerfulness : A condescension which
procured her the thanks of parliament.
In the mean time the king, impatient to be gone, exerted
uncommon diligence in the dispatch of all the affairs which
the commons heaped upon him ; and their utmost efforts
could not detain him beyond the 10th of August. The army
was not yet disbanded, and Charles, designing treachery,
promised, on the word of a prince, to do his best to expedite
the business.
The parliament had been urgent with the king to appoint
a custos regni or lieutenant during his absence ; but this re
quest he had disregarded ; and it plainly appears from the of
ficial correspondence between his majesty and sir Edward
Nicholas, who had succeeded Windebank as one of the secre
taries of state, that the queen was in effect regent, and no
step taken without her direction or knowledge.* Commission
ers however were appointed for giving the royal assent to
bills, and Essex was named general south of Trent. At no
period of his reign was Charles so destitute of able advisers
in whom he was disposed to confide, as at this juncture. To
supply the places of those whom impeachment, or the dread
of it, had driven from the cabinet, he had as yet found no re
source but in. a numerous council heterogeneously compound
ed of popular peers, distrusted by himself and hostile' to his
views, and mere courtiers, suspected or dispised by the parlia
ment and the people. The volatile Digby, whom he had cal
led up to the house of peers in reward of. his defection from
the parliament, and of his celebrated speech in behalf of Straf
ford, which the commons, on his printing it, had caused to
be burned by the hangman, — it is said to have exercised,
through the queen, a considerable influence over his deter
minations. On the whole, however, the king is to be regard
ed as his own minister, aad the stamp of his personal charac
ter is strongly impressed on the public acts which signalized
his visit to Scotland. He was attended in his coach by none
* See tho correspondence of sir Edward Nicholas in Evelyn's Memoirs, Ap-
pend. vol. ii.

117
but his young nephew Charles Louis, elector Palatine, his cou
sin the duke of Lenox, created duke of Richmond, and mar
quis Hamilton.
Within a few days of his departure, the house of lords re
ceived a letter from the earl of Holland, whom some person
al pique had detached from the court, obscurely hinting at
the existence of new practices and designs against the parlia
ment, and the revival of an army-plot. To meet these dan
gers, the two houses named a joint committee to go into Scot
land, ostensibly to superintend the ratification of the treaty
and maintain the good understanding between the two king
doms, but in reality to keep watch on the king, and, in the
language of their instructions, " to certify parliament from
time to time of all occurrences which shall concern the good
of this kingdom." Lord Howard of Escrick, sir William Ar-
mine, sir Philip Stapleton, Nathaniel Fiennes son of lord Say,
and Hampden, were the depositaries of this important trust.
A respectful and almost affectionate reception awaited
Charles in the kingdom of his ancestors. Satisfied with their
full success, the covenanters evinced at first no desire to tri
umph over their prince, on whom it was natural to imagine
that experience must have impressed some useful lessons.
On his road, when passing through that army which had given
irresistible effect to the parliamentary resistance of his
two kingdoms, he abstained from any open attempt to assume
the command of it; and publicly affected to caress its leaders,
whilst he tried upon them the effects of secret corruption.
At Edinburgh, he so far commanded his feelings as to con
form to that mode of worship which he had in vain exhausted
all his power and all his policy to overthrow. In his first ad
dress to the Scottish parliament, he began with the popular
declaration that, moved by his affection for his native land, he
had come in person for the express purpose of remedying
jealousies and distractions which he lamented ; and he engag
ed for the most ample and cheerfulfulfilment of all that he
had stipulated ; but he could not refrain from claiming their
allegiance as the descendant of a hundred and eight Scottish
kings ; and he offered to ratify, by the national form of
touching with his sceptre, the acts of their last session. Vi
gilant in the preservation of their hard-earned liberties, the
covenanting leaders reminded him that the acts of the Scottish
parliament were legally valid without a royal assent, and
that the promulgation of them in his name was all that the
terms of the treaty required.
Vol. II. 14

118
A much longer and more serious contention soon arose on
that article which obliged the king, in compliance with an
cient law and custom, to appoint to the great offices of state
and judicature by the advice of his parliament. Charles
stickled as long as possible for the free exercise of what he
called his prerogative, in this important point ; and when'van-
quished on the general principle, he still carried on a war of
detail upon particular appointments.
In these disputes much time was consumed, and to outward
appearance nothing could well be more irksome and even hu
miliating than the situation of the king ; thus depicted in a
letter from sir Patrick Wemyss to his patron the earl of Or
mond, then in Ireland, and dated Sept. 25 : — "  I am
confident, for all that I can hear or learn, it had been the hap
piest journey that ever your lordship made, if you had come
here at this time. I believe whatsoever your lordship would
have demanded might have been granted, for in an age your
lordship could never have lighted upon such a time as this,
and I am certain your coming to his majesty at this time
would have been most acceptable. For there is never a no
bleman with him of the English or Irish, but Dillon, who is a
great courtier, if he could make use of it. The king has
commanded him to stay as long as he stays, and has given
him a letter to be one of the privy-council of Ireland. What
will be the event of these things God knows, for there was
never king so much insulted over. It would pity any man's
heart to see how he looks, for he is never at quiet amongst
them,'and glad he is when he sees any man that he thinks loves
him ; yet he is seeming merry at meat. Henderson is great
er with him than ever Canterbury was ; he is never from him
night nor day.
" It had gone hard with the marquis, if he had not fallen
in with Argyle, who will bring him off. For, believe it, the
people here are much incensed against him, but Argyle and
he are sworn to one another ; and so think to carry all busi
ness." From the same letter it appears to have been the current
opinion, that the king would be long detained at Edinburgh
watching the trials of those whom the parliament had pro
scribed as incendiaries ; and he was said, in particular to
have passed his royal word to Montrose, to wait for his • " for
if he leave him," observes Wemyss, « all the world will not
save his life. '* * Ormond Let. i. Let. 1st.

119
Notwithstanding these mortifications Charles himself ex
hibited no impatience to conclude his affairs and his visit ,-
impressed with the idea that so many contests for office could
scarcely fail to break out into open dissensions amongst the
chiefs of the covenant, of which it would be his own fault
if, remaining on the spot, he failed to make advantage. An
authentic record of his expectations on this subject, and the
importance which he attached to them, and to other projects
with which he was secretly busied, appears in the letters of
secretary Nicholas, with the king's marginal answers, of
which a few extracts follow.
The English parliament, it should be observed, had now
adjourned ; but a committee of both houses with Pym at its
head, was left sitting, armed with extraordinary powers, and
many designs were in agitation. " I hear," writes Nicholas,
" there are divers meetings at Chelsea, at the lord Mande-
ville's house and elsewhere, by Pym and others, to consult
what is best to be done at their next meeting in parliament ;
and I believe they will in the first place fall on some plausi
ble thing, that may redintegrate them in the people's good
opinion, which is their anchor-hold and only interest ; and,
if I am not much misinformed, that will be either upon pa
pists, or upon some act for expunging of officers and council
lors here, according to the Scottish precedent, or on both to
gether." The King : " It were not amiss that some of my servants
met likewise, to countermine their plots, to which end speak
with my wife, and receive her directions."
"The commons' committees met, and had before them sir
John Berkley and capt. O'Neale, who, coming over lately,
were, as I hear, yesterday apprehended by the servant of the
serjeant-at-arms attending the house of commons, upon the
first warrant that was issued for taking of them, and the com
mittees would not bail them, though they tendered it, alleg
ing they had not power to do it."
The King : " I hope some day they may repent their se
verity." " The remembrancer told me further, that the lord mayor
and aldermen desired him to inquire of the day when your
majesty will be here, to the end that, according to their du
tiful affections, they might meet your majesty, to attend your
royal person into this city, &c."
The King : " When ye shall see little Will Murray, then

120
ye shall know certainly not only of my return, but also how
all will end here."
The letter of Nicholas containing the last passage is dated
September 29th ; the king's reply October 5th. In the in
termediate time had occurred a mysterious event known by
the name of the Incident.
Whatever else remains obscure in this business, all accounts
agree in tracing its origin to the selfish intrigues of a man but
too conspicuous afterwards in the records of civil war. James
earl of Montrose, a young nobleman of impetuous spirit and
boundless ambition, who had owed his first introduction at
court to the marquis of Hamilton, in resentment of some.
real or imaginary slight offered him by the king, had been one
of the first men of rank to join the covenanters ; and was ac
tively engaged in their earliest measures ; but afterwards, from
jealousy it is said of the ascendancy of Argyle, and the secret
influence of Hamilton, had privately made his peace with the
king at Berwick. From this time he had been content to
live amongst the leaders of his party on the footing of a spy
and traitor ; and before the king's journey to Edinburgh, had
acquainted him, that the marquis of Hamilton had betrayed
him through the whole course of the Scottish commotions,
and that he and Argyle were now combined for his ma
jesty's destruction.* He had next attempted to prove these
noblemen guilty of a plot for dethroning the king ; but in this
he had failed, and by the power of Argyle, the person who
had stood forth as accuser was put to death as a calumniator,
and Montrose thrown into prison. Undaunted however
by this reverse, he renewed his communications with the king
through William Murray a gentleman of the bed-chamber,
repeated his charge against the two nobles, and "frankly un
dertook," as we are told by Clarendon, "to kill them both."f
The king, though rejecting this proposal, appears to have con
sented to have them seized in their entrance to his presence
chamber, by a band of soldiers under the command of the earl
of Crawford, and conveyed on board a ship of war which
was lying in Leith roads. An intimation on the very evening
just enabled the intended victims to make their escape from
the palace, and fortify their houses for the night ; the next
morning they fled into the country, having first published the
cause of their retreat. The sequel is thus described by the
* Hist. Rebellion, vol. ii. Append. B.
t Hist. Rebellion, ii, 17.

121
able pen of Baillie : — " The king came up in a coach to the
parliament, and near 500 soldiers, and the worst-affected men,
about him, with their arms in a menacing way. They broke
in near hand to the parliament's outer hall. The states were
mightily offended, and would not be pacified till Leslie had
got a commission, very absolute, to guard the parliament,
with all the bands of the city and regiments yet on foot, and
some troops of horse ; which, according to his printed warrant,
he did quickly and diligently. Crawford, Cochran, and
others, were made fast. Great ado there was for their trial.
The king complained much of the vile slander which Ham
ilton's needless flight and fear had brought upon him. He
professed to detest all such vile treacheries as were spoken of;
urged a present trial in face of parliament, for the more
clearing of his innocency. Yet this way was rejected as
very unmeet; but a committee was appointed for a more ac
curate trial in private than could have been in public. Many
evil-favored things were found ; yet in the papers that went
abroad, we found nothing that touched the king 
In the mean time, Hamilton, Argyle, and his nephew Gordon,
lay quietly at Hamilton without any convocation of friends.
The king vented much mal-contentment against Hamilton, and,
if the late declaration had not secured him, was near to have
intended a citation of him to answer to points of treason.
 After some two or three weeks absence, upon the
king's and parliament's letters, they all returned, and at once
seemed to have as great confidence in the king as ever. Sure
their late clanger was the means to increase their favor with
the parliament ; so whatever ruling they had before, it was
then multiplied."*
After this, the interrupted negociations were quietly re
sumed. But although the business was thus apparently pass
ed over, the injury sustained by Charles was very great, and
in some respects irreparable. He had missed a stroke to
which he evidently attached great importance, and with the
further ill-effect of confirming all former impressions of his
want of faith and veracity. So close also had been the con
cert in which the lords of the covenant and the leaders of the
English parliament had pursued their designs, that this mani
festation of the perfidy of Montrose and of dark schemes of
royal vengeance formed upon his disclosures, was calculated
* Bailhe's Letters, i. 331.

122
to excite as much resentment, and perhaps alarm, in England
as in Scotland.
Immediately on receiving from their committe at Edin
burgh a narrative of these transactions, — the only one which
arrived, for the king was silent, — the standing committee of
both houses promulgated their apprehensions of the existence
of a popish plot extending its ramifications to England ; — a
suggestion to which a color was afforded by the religion of
the earl of Crawford and other parties concerned in the Inci
dent, and by the fact of vague rumors of troubles at Edin
burgh having prevailed in London before the event itself.
They sent to the lord mayor to secure the city, and required
the justices of Middlesex and Surry to obey such orders as
they should receive from the earl of Essex ; then, having
desired a conference with the lords, they drew in concert
instructions to their committee at Edinburgh of the following
tenor. That they were to acquaint his majesty, that both houses,
having taken into consideration the examinations and confes
sions touching a tumultuous design affirmed to be undertaken
by the earl of Crawford and others against the persons of the
marquis of Hamilton, and the earls of Argyle and Lanerk,
find cause to doubt that such ill-affected persons as would dis
turb the peace of that kingdom, are not without malicious
correspondents here, who, if their wicked purposes had suc
ceeded in Scotland, would have attempted to produce distem
pers and confusions, in this kingdom, on which consideration
they had ordered guards to be set in London and Westmin
ster, and resolved to take measures for securing the rest of
the kingdom.
Further, that parliament held it of high importance to this
kingdom, that the religion, liberty, and peace of Scotland
should be preserved, according to the treaty agreed to by his
majesty and confirmed by parliament : That they thought
themselves bound to be careful of it, not only from a regard
to public faith, but as thinking it a great means of securing
the common good of England, Scotland and Ireland, and
thus promoting the greatness and security of his royal person ;
wherefore they had resolved to employ both their humble and
faithful advice to his majesty, and the power, and interest of
parliament and the kingdom, to suppress such as by any con
spiracies, practices or attempts, should endeavor to disturb
the peace of Scotland, ©r infringe the treaty.
The committee were further to represent to the king, that

123
Four companies of foot having been detained in Berwick by
his majesty's special command, after the appointed time of
their disbandment, the parliament would no longer be an
swerable for the expense of their detention, or the demurrage
of the ships sent to convey them away.* These troops, it
should be observed, were thought to have been kept in read
iness to assist in the seizure of the castle and town of Edin
burgh, reported to have made a part of the plot so narrowly
defeated. The whole affair of the disbanding and disposal of
the troops was indeed a subject of great jealousy and anxiety
to the parliament. Charles had asked the sanction of the
commons to an agreement which he had made with the Span
ish ambassador, to allow 3000 men of the Irish army to be
transported to Flanders for his master's service ; and it ap
pears that the French ambassador had urged a similar re
quest respecting some English regiments ; but the house, on
various pleas, had peremptorily refused its concurrence, sus
pecting some sinister design on the part of the king.
Strength was perhaps added to their worst surmises, by
their gaining intelligence of the fact, that Charles was at this
time ' endeavoring to raise money on the crown jewels.
" The great collar of rubies" had been already conveyed in
to Holland and laid in pawn, and we find the king giving or
ders to Nicholas to draw up such a warrant as the queen shall
direct, for the disposal of it.f
The importance attached by Charles to the settlement of
his affairs in Scotland, and the little pains he apparently took
to hasten his departure, whilst matters of the utmost urgency
claimed his presence in England, was a kind of mystery to
some of his most faithful servants ; the secretary, who seems to
have been too honest a man, and perhaps too good a protest-
ant, to be trusted with all secrets, repeatedly gives utterance
to his sentiments in passages such as these : "It hath been
here confidently said by those that held correspondency with
the English committees in Scotland,that the earl of Argyle shall
be at length chancellor, and that the lord Almont shall not
be treasurer ; and if I am not much misinformed, they are
here as peremptorily resolved to press and put upon your maj
esty a lord-treasurer and some other officers, before they will
settle your revenue, and nothing can break their designs here
but your majesty's presence ; and if your majesty do not hast-
* Rush worth, iv. 390, 391.
t Append, to Evelyn's Mem. p. 19.

124
en to be here some days {before the next meeting in parlia
ment, I doubt there will be few that will dare to appear here
to oppose the party that now swayeth ; and I pray God there
be not some design in detaining your majesty there, till your
affairs here be reduced to the same state they there are in.
The King : Though I cannot return so soon as I could wish,
yet I am confident that you will find there was necessity for
it, and I hope that many will miss of their ends." The
secretary continues ; — " I assure your majesty the opinion of
wise men here is, that to have what officers you desire in
that kingdom cannot make so much for your service there,
as your absence hence at this time will prejudice you in bu
sinesses of more importance here : And as for the lord Mont
rose and the rest, some here, that pretend to understand the
condition of their case, are of opinion that their innocency is
such, as they will not fare the worse for your majesty's leav
ing them to the ordinary course of justice there. The King :
This may be true that you say ; but I am sure that I miss
somewhat in point of honor, if they be not all relieved before
I go hence."*
In the last remark of the king there was cogency. To those
persons whom the Scotch parliament had excepted out of the
aGt of oblivion as incendiaries, and especially to Traquair, he
had pledged his promise of protection, and he was probably
unwilling again to incur such self-reproach as the desertion
of Strafford had cost him. In the dark and daring Montrose,
also, he no doubt wished to preserve one of the most effective
of such instruments as the course of his policy was likely
to render indispensible to him. In this object he at length
succeeded ; it was agreed that the incendiaries should
indeed be put on their trial, to satisfy an oath taken by
the parliament, but that their sentence should be remitted to
his majesty. On the other hand, by a compromise which
marks an awkward consciousness on both sides, Hamilton,
having begged the king's pardon, was created a duke, and the
Incident no more mentioned. Argyle was made a marquis,
and earldoms were conferred on two or thee others of the
covenanting leaders. Out of the revenues of bishoprics and
dissolved priories,now all confiscated, the king dispensed gra
tuitous to many individuals, including Henderson and others
of the clergy, and bestowed considerable endowments ou the
universities. ?Evelyn, Append, ii. 30,

125
These arrangements were not yet perfected when the first
news of a formidable insurrection in Ireland reached Ediii*
burgh. " This rebellion," says Baillie, " made both the
king and us to haste all affairs ; so in eight days as great and
precipitate haste was used, as in three months before there
had been needless protraction. A committee was appointed
the 4th and 5th of November, which in two or three nights
did agree all things privately with the king, most according
to Argyle's mind ;  so our parliament ended, after so
long sitting, somewhat abruptly. The king behoved to be
gone; yet he made no such speed as was expected ; for at
York he staid some days, and was long ere he came to the
parliament ; which presently filled the mouths of all, that
the Irish rebellion, and new plots in England against the par
liament, were invented by the queen, and not against the
king's mind : but in many declarations his majesty has since
put all suspicion out of every equitable mind : however, too
many to this day will not take satisfaction.*'*
Some further notices of the objects which principally en
gaged the parliament during the king's absence, and intima
tions of his sentiments respecting them, may be collected
from the correspondence of Nicholas.
It appears, that a general pardon for his English subjectsj
granted by the king at the request of the parliament, who
sought it for the protection, probably, of those who had en
couraged the Scottish invasion, was disapproved by them, be
cause so drawn " that both Mr. Percy and his company were
comprehended in it :" — Charles with characteristic Artifice
having attempted thus to shelter those to whom he dared not
openly extend the royal mercy. — Besides the army conspira
tors, it seems that it would likewise have protected certain ec
clesiastical delinquents ; in fact, Selden did not scruple to de-
Clare in parliament, that by a just construction it would include
the primate himself; — but this plea was overruled. For the
thirteen bishops accused on account of the canons, the king
caused a separate pardon to be drawn. Nicholas announces,
that the sentence by which Londonderry was adjudged for
feited to his majesty, was by the house of commons declared
null, and that land " thought fit to be restored back to the
city of London." Loth to relinquish the fruits of one of the
most grossly iniquitous decrees of his abolished court of star-
chamber, Charles writes, " You must command my learned
* Baillie's Letters, i. 334, 335.
Vol. II. 15

126
counsel in my name that they do what they Way that the*
same vote pass not the higher house."
An order for abolishing all superstitious novelties in the'
Church, and destroying crucifixes and certain pictures, had
passed the commons, though not without considerable oppo
sition from some members, who regarded ecclesiastical mat
ters as out of the jurisdiction of the house : by the peers it was
more strenuously resisted. Immediately after the adjourn
ment, Nicholas writes that there was not a parting, a very
perfect agreement between the two houses in all things ; for
the peers declining to join with the commons in orders touche
ing innovations in the church, the commons notwithstanding
ordered them to be printed. This was resented by the lords,
who in consequence reprinted a former order for the obser
vance of the common prayer, against which again the com*
mons made a declaration, and some of the peers themselves
protested. On the relation of this difference, the king re-
msrks : " I am not much sorry for it."* "In fact, to sow dis«
sentions between the houses was at this time a leading object
of his policy.
Respecting the state of public feeling on religion, and the'
measures advisable for the king to pursue, Nicholas express-*
es himself with much earnestness, to the following effect :
That it was insinuated upon all occasions, that popery was
too much favored by the clergy, and in the court ; and that
this opinion, how unjustly soever laid by Brownists on his ma
jesty's government, had more than anything prejudiced him
in the esteem and affection of his people, whose love it was-
so much his majesty's interest to preserve, that he could not
bat suggest the expediency of. his giving some public assur
ance to the contrary ; " which,'* he adds, " I humbly con-
ceive may be done by your conferring of such bishoprics and
ecclesiastical dignities as are now void upon persons of whom
there is not the least suspicion of favoring the popish party."
After giving a list of such clergy, be proceeds to suggest the
expediency of the king's promoting some reforms of the book
of common prayer, against certain parts of which a late dec
laration of the commons house showed that there was excep
tion taken.
" And for a further assurance of your majesty's integrity
in this reformation," he concludes, " I humbly offer it to your
majesty's consideration, whether it may not be necessary, be^
* Evelyn's Append, pp. 12, 16, 18..

127
fore the next meeting in parliament, to send away all the ca
puchins and dissolve their cloister ; for if your majesty do it
not yourself, I am misinformed if the parliament fall not
upon them when they come again together ; and it would
be much more for your majesty's honor, and more accepta
ble to your people, and, it may be, safer for the capuchins, if in
that particular your majesty prevented the parliament." Op
posite this last paragraph the king writes, " Hitherto I like
your opinion well ; but concerning the rest, I know not what
to say, if it be not to advertise my wife of the parliament's
intention concerning her capuchins, and so first to hear what
she will say."*
Charles hastened to fill up the vacancies of the episcopal
bench by four translations and the same number of new con
secrations. He commanded Nicholas to transmit the list to
bishop Juxon, with the remark ; " that I have altered some
what from my former thoughts to satisfy the times, and yet I
hope that I have not disserved myself in my elections."!
To " satisfy the times" in the choice of bishops was however
no easy task. At this period thirteen of the number besides
the primate, were under impeachment for their share in pass
ing the canons, and the commons had made repeated motions
for taking away the votes, first of these individuals, and after
wards of the whole order, which were more and more faintly
resisted by the peers. Nicholas soon after takes the alarm
and writes thus : " The commons house having got notice of
the new bishops that are now making, some did marvel that
any man should move your majesty for making of bishops in
these times, when it is well known how great complaints are
against them in general, and some would have had a petition
or message to be sent, to pray your majesty to be pleased to
stay the constituting of any more bishops till the business con
cerning episcopacy shall be determined," " On the contra
ry," replies the king, " I command you to take order that
these bills be expedited, that they may with all possible dili
gence attend the parliament."^;
Amongst the divines thus singled out for an ill-timed prefer
ment, we find names of great and various eminence. Wil
liams stood at the head of the list, translated from Lincoln
to the archiepiscopal see of York. The circumstances which
* Evelyn's Append, pp. 21. t Ibid. 32,
.t Evelyn's Append, p. 49.

128
had restored this remarkable personage to the royal favor and
the political life which he loved, are worthy of record.
After four years of imprisonment and of persecutions
which had failed to bow his spirit to the abject submissions
required by Laud, this prelate had been set at liberty on the
meeting of parliament by an order of the house of lords ad
dressed to the lieutenant of the Tower. His biographer in
timates, what may easily be credited, that the popular party
expected great assistance frorn him in conducting the medi
tated impeachments of his inveterate enemies Laud and
Strafford.' But these hopes were in a great part disappointed,
The king, with more of the policy of conciliation than he
commonly displayed, summoned Williams to a private audi
ence, in which it is probable that the reversion of the see of
York was promised ; and immediately afterwards, as a public
token of returning favor, caused all records of the starcham-
ber-proceedings against him to be cancelled. After this, the
bishop did indeed so far indulge his feelings as to second a
severe speech of lord Say's against the primate ; but he ex
hibited himself as a zealous champion of his order, and on
other points he seems to have been swayed by the wishes or
suggestions of his sovereign. On the trial of Strafford, he
made two elaborate speeches for his service, in one of which
he maintained the right of bishops to sit and vote in cases of
blood, though he consented to waive it on this occasion ; and
lie also endeavored to dissuade the king from that ill-advised
appeal to parliament in behalf of the lord-lieutenant which
seemed to seal his doom. It is probable however that he
afterwards used arguments tending to reconcile to the con
science pf Charles his breach of faith towards the fallen
minister. W'lliams was chairman of a committee of divines appoint
ed by the house of lords to confer together on some plan of
church reform under what was called a moderate episcor
pacy, in which it was hoped that the presbyterians might be
drawn to acquiesce. This attempt underwent the fate of all
Other schemes of religious comprehension in'times of high par
ty-spirit, but from no want of exertion on the part of the arch
bishop, who employed all his abilities in the task, and in
whom,' says his biographer, the nonconformist divines never
ceased to admire two things; "in their phrase, his courtesy
and his cunning." In a visitation of his diocese of Lincoln,
he made some attempts, with temporary success, to recall the
people to that conformity which was still enjoined by the law

129
of the land, and to decry lay preaching ; but the " root and
branch " reformers, those whom nothing less would content
than the total abolition of episcopacy, were now potent in the
land ; and on his archiepiscopal throne Williams was never
able to seat himself. He was however frequently consulted
by the king on political questions, and appears from notes in
his own hand to have given firm and prudent counsels, which,
his biographer intimates, were on several occasions overruled
by the unhappy influence of the queen.
Usher, in addition to his primacy of Ireland, received the
bishopric of Carlisle in commendam. This learned prelate
was now in mnch favor with the king. It seems most prob
able that he had endeavored to dissuade him from violating
his conscience by the sacrifice of Strafford ; but his sense of
duty had afterwards led him to undertake the painful task of
endeavoring to reconcile the mind of tbe sufferer to his mas*
ter's desertion ; helikewise, with a generous oblivion of for
mer ill-treatment, not only administered to the lord-lieuten
ant the consolations of religion, but became the bearer of his
last message fo his fellow-prisoner Laud, entreating that as
he should pass to his death, the archbishop would place him
self at his window to receive his farewell and bestow a bles^
sing in return.
The calvinistic doctrine of Usher had at first recommended
him to the commons, and he, like Williams, had been engag
ed in a scheme of modified episcopacy ; but conceiving that
the time for middle courses was past, he now employed his
pen as a strenuous defender of the divine right of kings and
the apostolic origin of episcopacy. The distracted state of
Ireland rendered his return thither impracticable, and escap-,
ing from the scenes of political agitation in London he has^
tened to bury himself amid the classic shades of Oxford.
It was evidently the present system of the king to exclude
Arminians from the bench. Prideaux and Brownrig, respec-,
tively nominated to the sees of Worcester and Exeter, were
both of known calvinistic principles ; but this concession no
longer availed. The political puritans required the expul
sion of bishops fiom the house of peers, and the presbyteri
ans Scotch and English, with the rising sect of Brownists, or
independents, were to be appeased with nothing short of the
abolition of the order itself.
Further examinations of parties concerned in what seems
to have been a second army-plot, denounced by the earl of
Holland to the parliament, had produced awkward disclo-

130
sures. " This day," writes the secretary on November 18th,
" the examinations against O'Neale were read in the com
mons house, wherein were mentioned some letters and pa
pers signed C. R., the effect of one of which, sent to captain
Legg, was, as I hear, that he should speak with sir Ja. Ashley
according to instructions which he had from your majesty,
and let none see that letter but only sir Ja. Ashley, who, to
gether with sir Jo. Conyers, as I am told, (but I beseech your
majesty to take no notice thereof from me,) have been very
large and particular in their examinations, which, I hear, re
flect upon your majesty's person."* And again : " The bu
siness against O'Neale is referred to a select committee, to
be prepared for the house against Monday next, and some
think it will be hardly heard then ; for albeit the commons
have a very good mind to proceed roundly against him, yet,
I hear, the proofs are so broken as they will not make a full
and clear evidence : The worst in all that business is, that it
reflects on your majesty, as if you had given some instruc
tions concerning the stirring up the army to petition the par
liament. I hope it vyill appear that your majesty's intentions
were only to retain the army in their duty and dependence
on your majesty. "f
Influenced by these disclosures, the house of commons
had earnestly pressed the lords for the removal of the earl of
Portland, a concealed papist, from the office of governor of
the Isle of Wight ; " but the lords, upon his lordship's pro
fession to live and die in the protestant religion, let fall that
business." Some letters which had passed between Mr.
Crofts, one of the queen's courtiers, and the duchess of Che-
vereux, who, banished from France for her share in the in
trigues of the queen-mother, had long found shelter and favor
in the English court, had also been intercepted by the house
Gf commons ; and Crofts had been in consequence examin
ed, and suspicion cast upon Goring, who had begun to fortify
Portsmouth on the land side, and to " put forth some old sol
diers, and put in new."
It was in the midst of the suspicions, the indignation, and
the alarms which all these circumstances, with the addition of
the horrors of the rebellion and massacre then raging in Ire
land, were fitted to arouse, that the parliamentary leaders
were putting the last hand to a declaration against evil coun*
* Evelyn's Append. 75. t Ibid. 77.

331
sellars, embodying a complete enumeration and exposition of
all the grievances of the reign from its very commencement,-
with which it was their intention to confront the king on his-
return ; nor could the utmost efforts of his ministers and ad
herents prevail to ward off a blow so justly dreaded.

132

CHAPTER. XXII.

1641—1642.

State of Ireland. — Irish committee gained over by the king: — »
They engage to raise troops for him. — The king's plan for seiz
ing Dublin castle. — Account of the earl of Antrim. — The
king's commission to him. — Irish rebellion. — O' Neil's commission.
- — Lord Musquerry's commission. — Confession of Macmahon. —
Clarendon's opinion against the king's policy respecting Ire
land. — Proclamations against the rebels. — The king splendidly
entertained by the City. — Unpopular measures. — Remonstrance
and petition of parliament presented and printed. — The king's
answer written by Hyde, who persuades lord Falkland to become
secretary of state. — Nightly consultations of Falkland, Colepep*
per, and Hyde. — The king r 'ejects sound counsels* — Growing in
fluence of the queen. — Her situation and behavior. — Lunsford
put in command of the Tower, — displaced. — Protest of the
bishops. — Its occasion and effects. — Committal of the bishops. — '
Alarms of plots. — The commons petition in vain for a guard.— -
Attempted seizure of the flve members by the king. — That de
sign betrayed by the queen. — The king's visit to the City. —
Triumphant return of the parliament to Westminster. — The
king retires to Hampton-court.
BEFORE the return of the king and the subsequent trans
actions in parliament are related, it will be necessary to look
back in order to advert, though briefly, to the state of Ire
land. The repeal of the tyrannical edict, strictly enforced by
Strafford, which restrained natives of Ireland, of whatever
rank, from repairing to England without the license of the
lord-lieutenant and council, had been the signal for that injur
ed people to break their indignant silence, and pour into the
open ears of the English legislature the tale of their accumu
lated Wrongs. A committee formed principally of the nobi
lity and gentry of the Pale, descendants of English settlers,
whom exclusive privileges, as well as superior education and
manners, still discriminated from the aborigines, had been
deputed to London, charged to lay before the two houses an

133
ample report of Irish grievances, and also to prepare and con
duct that part of the charge against Strafford which turned
upon his administration of that kingdom ; and the parlia
ment of Ireland, to the surprise of the prisoner himself, who
had put too easy faith in declarations of attachment to his
person and administration extorted by fear or interest, had
even anticipated that of England in voting him guilty of high-
treason. In consequence of the spirit which thus manifested itself,
Charles, as we have seen, had been compelled to nominate
the earl of Leicester lord-lieutenant ; and although he still
detained this nobleman in England, he had found it necessa
ry, after an attempt to place the power in hands which he
preferred, to commit the temporary government to the lord-
justices Parsons and Borlace, who bore the 'character of pu
ritans, and were authorized to redress some of the more cry
ing of the civil grievances of the country.
Thus far the Irish committee had acted in concert with the
English parliament ; but the alliance was too uncongenial to
be lasting. The irreconcilable enmity of that party which
daily gained strength in the house of commons to the ancient
faith, which was still held by a great majority even of- the En
glish of the Pale, and by a still more overwhelming propor
tion of the old Irish, forbade them to look to this quarter for
the slightest mitigation of their religious grievances ; or rather,
it menaced them with a stricter enforcement of the penal laws
than had lately been attempted.
From the court, on the other hand, through the known
policy of the king and the patronage of the queen, it was evi
dent that they had everything to hope on this point ; and on
this basis of agreement, negotiations were soon entered upon
for bringing them completely over to the royal interest. Hen
rietta admitted lord Gormanston, the head of the committee,
to several private interviews ; the memory of the graces was
allowed to be revived, and Charles, just before his departure
for Scotland, signed two Irish bills, by the first of which the
former proprietors were reinstated in those land's which
Strafford had compelled the juries to award to the king ;
whilst by the second, all titles to estates supported by a pre
scription of sixty years, were rendered valid against the claims
of the crown. It is probable that at the same time he secret
ly confirmed to the committee the graces admitting a full
toleration of the catholic religion, and removing civil disabil
ities from its professors.
Vol. II. 16

134
In return for these concessions, lord Gormanston and his
associates were to concur in a plan for placing at the disposal
of the king, the sine qua non of all his further objects, a mili
tary force capable of assisting him to make head against his
refractory English parliament. The eight thousand men
levied by Strafford, and whom it will be recollected that he
had offered for this very service, were still embodied ; the king
having resisted their disbandment on various pretexts : by
these it was agreed that Dublin castle was to be seized ; with
the store of arms which it contained an additional number of
troops was to be equipped, and it seems as if the king had pro
posed to transport himself from Scotland to take the com
mand of them. He sent orders to the earl of Ormond, then
commander of the horse, to conduct the enterprise ; and to
make its success still more certain, he had engaged the ha
zardous co-operation of the earl of Antrim, a personage well
worthy of commemoration.
Randal Macdonnel earl of Antrim, head of the sept of that
name, a papist, and grandson of that Tyrone, who oolong de
fied the power of queen Elizabeth, and with whom her suc
cessor had thought fit to come to terms, was a man, accord
ing to Clarendon, "of excessive pride and vanity and of a
marvellous weak and narrow understanding," and remark
able for nothing, with the exception of a handsome person,
but for having married the widow of the duke of Bucking
ham, who was also heiress of the earl of Rutland. " By the
possession of her ample fortune," he adds, " he had lived in
the court in great expense and some lustre, until his riot had
contracted so great a debt, that he was necessitated to leave
the kingdom, and to retire to his own fortune in Ireland :" a
circumstance which took place during the adminstration of
Strafford. Whatever might be the weaknesses of this person,.
a certain crafty view to his own interest made no small part
of his character ; he had likewise activity and enterprise, and
he bad deeply ingratiated himself both with the king and
queen. He laid claim, it appears, to some portion of the es
tates of tbe marquis of Argyle, lying among the Western isles
of Scotland, and on the coast of Kantire, and by skilfully ad
ministering to Charles's hatred of the covenanters, and desire
of annoying them from that quarter, he had actually succeed
ed in obtaining the royal license to make an expedition from
the coast of Ulster, and conquer his rights by the strong arm.
" It seems to me," writes Strafford on this subject, " for I
was not of the counsel, my lord marquis Hamilton and my

135
lord of Antrim had to his majesty undertaken the business
before the earl of Antrim's coming forth of England, conse
quently, before Argyle was declared covemanter my lord of
Antrim was for his reward to have had a share of his estate.
What other shares there were, any or none, in truth I know
not. Now, howbeit this was carried very secretly to us on
this side, yet Argyle got knowledge of it there, and certainly
occasioned him to declare himself sooner for the covenant
than otherwise perchance he would have done."
Soon after his arrival in Ireland, we find a sound judgment
of the man and his intentions thus expressed by Strafford to
the king. " The earl of Antrim shall be observed as your
majesty hath directed. I wish his performance may answer
the expectation it seems is had of him. For me  I
neither hope much of his parts, of his power, nor of his af
fections. His lordship lately writ tome to be furnished of
arms, and that the magazine for them might be kept at Cole-
raine. Communicate this with the council here I durst not,
for I am sure they would never advise such strength to be
entrusted with a grandchild of the earl of Tyrone. And for
myself, I hold it unsafe any store of arms should lie so near
the great Scottish plantations in those parts." And again :
" I am upon very probable reason for believing that in the
way of pretending service, but doing nothing for your majes
ty, he attentively watcheth to do something for his own
power and fortune, for which hereafter to thank himself far
more than your majesty." The king in his answer leaves to
the lord-lieutenant the decision how far Antrim my be trust
ed with a magazine of arms, but still observes, that his pro
fessions had been " so free and noble," as to entitle him to
as much favor and countenance from the lord-lieutenant as
" any one of his profession in religion." He will be useful
to me, said Charles, "to shake loose upon Argyle ;" and, in
a visit which he paid to the English court, he was encouraged
by all means to proceed in his undertaking ; and after his
return, when his zeal appeared to slacken, a letter from the
king pressed him to expedite his preparations.
To be thus held to his word, was by no means agreeable
to the Irish chief; who, as he afterwards thought proper to
confess, had intended no more than to pay the king a compli
ment, when he offered, without money, credit, or means of
any kind, to equip forces and carry on a war at his own ex
pense. What he could, however, he did ; he instantly sent,
says Strafford, " to the O'Neils, O'Haras, the O'Lurgans (if I

136
mistake not that name,) the Macginnisses, the Macquyres, the
Macmahons, the Macdonnells, (as many O's and Mac's
as would startle a whole council-board on this side to hear
of,) and all his other friends, requiring them in his majesty's
name to meet him with their forces ; so as this business is
now become no secret, but the common discourse both of his
lordship and the whole kingdom."* This done, the earl re
paired to the lord-lieutenant, ostensibly to desire his advice
and assistance, but in reality with the hope of finding some
pretext for throwing upon him the blame of the inevitable
failure of his own inconsiderate undertakings. But Strafford,
not, as he says, finding so much charity in himself as to take
the thorn out of his lordship's foot to thrust it in his own,
contrived in a conversation, his report of which evinces a sin-r
gular power of comic delineation, to extract from the Irish
chief a full confession of his own utter incompetence to the
business he had undertaken. At the same time, by adroitly
avoiding to give a direct denial to any of his demands upon
the resources of government, he preserved what he justly re
garded as the dangerous secret, of the unprovided state to
which the king's necessities had reduced the magazines and
arsenals of Dublin. I inquired, he says, what store of vict
uals his lordship had provided for the eight thousand foot and
three hundred horse whom he proposed to transport ? He
replied, Not any; they could find sufficient, he thought, in
an enemy's country, to maintain them ; only he should take
ten thousand live cows to furnish milk. — But suppose Argyle
.should drive the cattle, carry off the corn and lay waste the
country, how were men, horses, or cows, to find subsistence 1
They would do well enough ; feed their horses with leaves
of trees, and themselves^ with shamrocks. To this, I crav
ed leave to inform his lordship, I had heard there were no
trees in the Isles ; but if trees, as yet no leaves, so no such
pressing haste to transport his army, for that the season of
the year would give him yet one or two months' time of con
sideration in that respect. What provision, I inquired, had
he made to feed his men whilst he was training them, and dur
ing their embarkation 1 They were the whilst in a friend's
country, all true and loyal subjects, those he might not plun
der in any wise. — He had not considered of that. — What of
ficers to instruct and lead them — what powder, ball, ord
nance, ammunition, implements of every kind 1 He referred
* Strafford Letters, i. 325 ; ii. 186, 204, 300, et se^.

137
himself to me for all these things ; but he would not make
a formal war of it ; he would land on the Isles were it only
with three hundred men ; the inhabitants did so adore him,
he could do more with that number than another with twen
ty thousand. None would fight against him, all for him.
That Argyle had made considerable preparations for defence,
he could not deny ; but those people hated him, and indeed
he had not in all those isles above 2001. of his own inherit
ance. " Which," observes Strafford, " raiseth a new doubt,
with me at least, for the earl of Argyle we know indeed, but
those other proprietors, whether covenanters or no, is a non
liquet here, and 1 am confident it is his majesty's purpose not
to have this earl trouble, himself with conquering those that,
for aught I know, may be good subjects already, though per
chance they should possess those lands this lord pretends to
have been belonging to his ancestors, methought he said,
these thirteen hundred years."
In spite of this admirable exposure of the headlong folly
of the Irish chief; in spite of the discovery that amidst all
his professions of disinterested loyalty he claimed for himself
a generalship by sea and land, and a troop of horse for his
brother, — command of the military stores of the Irish govern
ment of every kind, and the power of making levies,-r— and
above all a loan from his majesty of money more than suffi
cient for the whole cost of the expedition, ..to be repaid, at a
"reasonable" time; — in spite of the cogent representations
made by Strafford of the " sudden outrage" to be apprehend
ed from " so many of the native Irish, children of habituated
rebels, brought together without pay or victual, armed with
our own weapons', ourselves left naked, the whilst," — of the
" scandal," to his majesty's service " in a time thus condition
ed, to employ a general and a whole army in a manner Ro
man catholics," — of the " affright or pretence" it might give
the forty thousand Scotch in Ulster, " to arm also, under col
or of their own defence," — in spite, finally, of every dictate
of wise or honest policy, the king clung -to the scheme with
invincible pertinacity. It was indeed to be deferred till the
following spring ; Strafford was to command in chief, and the
whole design was to be reduced to a more manageable com
pass, but still, for the sake of having some one to " shake
loose" upon the earl of Argyle and his covenantors, Antrim
was to have a commission under the great seal to levy four
thousand men out of the wildest septs of Ireland. These
" born and bred rebels," as Strafford called them, were more-

138
over to be led by descendants of their ancient chiefs, many of
them notorious traitors in former times to the English crown,
papists almost without exception, and a considerable propor
tion still bjearing Spanish commissions. The list which An
trim sent in of gentlemen of his own blood who were to bear
commands under him included the names of lord Macguire,
of Macmahon, and of Phelim O'Neil, afterwards leaders of
the Irish rebellion ; he also demanded from the Lord-lieu
tenant, but in vain, the pardon of two noted ruffians of his
race who had fled from the punishment due to rape and
murder, on whom he wished to bestow commissions. His
kinsman Daniel O'Neil, the same who had been called in
question for the army-plot, whom "Strafford had previously
stigmatized as " a very slight and busy person," and accused
to the king himself of betraying his secrets, and who "was af
terwards a formidable actor in the rebellion, — was also a
chief counsellor and agent under him.
The convention made by the king, with the Scotch, discon
certed for the present the project of an invasion of their coun
try from Ireland ; and in the mean time the savage ferocity
of the men and the profligate enterprise of their leader found
ample exercise at home.
The circumstances just detailed respecting the royal com
mission actually given to Antrim for the levy of men to be
armed from the government stores, corroborates in a striking
manner the truth of the " Information" delivered by him to
parliament in the year 1650. In this narrative he states, that
the king, before the rising in Ireland, had sent one Bourke to
the earl of Ormond and himself with a message, that it was
the king's pleasure and command, that th'e troops raised by
Strafford should be continued without disbanding, that they
should be made up twenty thousand armed out of the store
at Dublin, and employed against the parliament, and partic
ularly, that Dublin castle should be seized and secured. He
added, that Ormond and himself had endeavored to effect a
meeting on this business, but were prevented, by the fear of
exciting suspicion. In consequence of the disbandment hav
ing already been effected, Ormond proposed that one of them
should go to court to take his majesty's instructions, and sug
gested that it should be Antrim, whose appearance would ex
cite less remark than his own who was a stranger there. He
objected however to going without Ormond, and preferred
sending a captain Digby, who met the king at York, in his
way to Scotland, and received from him the following in-

139
structions : That all endeavors should be used for reassem
bling the disbanded men, and " that an army should immedi
ately be raised in Ireland that should declare for him against
the parliament of England, and do what was therein necessa- •
Ty and convenient for the service :" That he spoke on this
business to lord Gormanston and others of the Pale, but that
through the folly of some of the conspirators the rising took
place prematurely, otherwise they would have seized Dublin
castle, secured the lord-justices, and compelled the parlia
ment, then sitting, to declare for the king.*
In the mean time, the example of successful resistance in
Scotland, and the distracted state of public affairs in England,
had emboldened tbe native, Irish to enter into a wider and
deeper conspiracy than, the royal one, aiming at nothing less
than the extirpation or total expulsion of, the Brittish settlers ;
the resumption'of all lands by the native tribes ; the abolition
of protestanism ; the reestablishment of the religion of Rome,
the complete emancipation of the country from the control of
the English parliament, and perhaps eventually even from the
dominion of king Charles. Strafford had received early in
timations of some such design, which probably aggravated his
distrust of Antrim, and increased his averseness to placing
power in the hands of the native chiefs. Charles himself had
afterwards, through secretary Vane, admonished the lord-
justices to vigilance on account of intelligence which he had
received of an unusual flocking of priests and Irish officers in
foreign service to that country, and of a menaced rising in
Munster. The main design howeyer remained undiscovered,
and even unsuspected, up to the very eve of explosion.
The plan of this national insurrection is said to have origi
nated with Roger More of Ballynagh in Kildare, a person who,
claiming an ancient descent, thought himself entitled to wrest
by violence from English settlers, or their posterity, the lands
which had once been possessed by his ancestors, — that is,
by the whole of their sept in common, — of which a very
slender portion had descended upon himself. On communi
cating his project to the Ulster chiefs, especially to Macguire
and to Phelim O'Neal, who .on the death of the son of the
noted Tyrone had succeeded to his station and influence, he
found them already in a state of preparation to take arms,.
owing to the previous undertakings of Antrim ; and it was
agreed, that the post of general should be conceded to O'Neal,
* See Append, to Clarendon's Hist, of Rebellion in Ireland.

140
and that the first rising should take place in Elster and in
Dublin. There is reason to believe, however, that ramifica
tions of the plot extended into all the provinces, and that
some knowledge of it was communicated to a great part of
the chiefs of the Pale, to some of the catholics of England,
and probably to certain foreign princes.
That Antrim was acquainted with it, his subsequent con
duct sufficiently proves ; but he wanted influence to procure
an exact concurrence between the measures of the conspir
ators and those with the execution of which he had himself
been charged by the king. His enterprise was not to take place
till the meeting of the Irish parliament in November; but the
impatience of More and his followers could not be so long re
strained. The 23rd of October was the day fixed by them
for the surprise of Dublin castle, which was to be attempted
by two hundred chosen men. Several of the principal leaders
had arrived in the city from different quarters, and all things
were in readiness when, on the very night before a gentleman
named Owen Conolly, of pure Irish blood, but protestant
faith, whom the conspirators had been -endeavoring to en
gage in their cause, broke from them with great difficulty, and
came and revealed the plot to Sir William Parsons. Just suffi
cient time was thus gained to secure the castle, to set guards
in all parts of the city, and to take measures for the arrest of
all strangei's found within it. Macmahon, Macguire and
about thirty more were in consequence apprehended ; torture
was applied to them without scruple, and Macmahon confes
sed the whole on the rack, adding, that although their design
on the capital had failed, no human power could now prevent
the fall of the other places of strength which were to be at
tacked, and that his owri fate would be amply revenged.
These denunciations were fatally verified. Intelligence
speedily arrived of the capture by surprise of most of the forts
in Ulster, and the advance of Phelim O'Neal at the head of
about thirty thousand men. Encouraged by these first suc
cesses, part of Connaught and several counties in Leinster im
mediately joined in the insurrection, which still went on ex
tending. Dublin was menaced both from north and south,
and by the beginning of Decemher, even the five counties of
the Pale which the lord justices had intrusted, with arms to
quell the insurrection, had united themselves to their brother
papists. The first steps of O'Neal were attended with some slight ap
pearances of moderation. The English were indeed stripped

141
of their lands, robbed of their goods, and even of their clothes,
nnd in an inclement season they were turned out of their
dwellings, which they often saw burned to the ground ; but
it was not till they were at once exasperated and alarmed by
the news of the failure and capture of their chiefs at Dublin,
that the infuriated barbarians began to glut themselves with
indiscriminate slaughter.
Without entering into the details of scenes of outrage and
cruelty utterly revolting to human nature, or attempting the
hopeless task of arbitrating amongst, the widely diverging
estimates oi the thousands of men, women and children,
who miserably perished of cold, famine, torture, or in the
wide-spread and long-enduring massacre, it may in general
terms be stated,- that evieiy insult, every enormity which can
be imagined to proceed from the perfidy and ferocity of a
barbarous people, burning to retaliate upon conquerors whom
they detested, and heretics whom their priests instructed
them to execrate, the wrongs of ages of misgovernment, was
unsparingly perpetrated upon the defenceless, unsuspecting,
and for the most part, unoffending English planters!
Nearly destitute of force, and so encompassed with treach
ery that they knew not whom to trust, the lord-justices, hav
ing dispatched urgent applications for succours to England,
attempted little more in the mean time than to preserve Dub
lin, in which they shut themselves up, and thus secure some
asylum to the plundered, naked, and famishing multitudes
who hurried in from every side. Effectual resistance was
however offered to the. progress of the rebels in several direc
tions by detached bodies of the royal troops, who gave no
quarter where they proved superior ; and the fortified towns
which received sufficient warning to shut their gates, were
usually able to repel a tumultuary host destitute of every re
quisite for carrying on regular sieges.
On the whole, however, the insurrection grew daily more
formidable and extensive, whilst all efforts on the part of the
provincial authorities for its suppression were paralyzed* and
the whole administration of the lord-justices rendered vacil
lating and feeble by O'Neal's production of a royal ^commis,
jsian as the warrant under which he acted. In this instru
ment, described in O'Neal's proclamation as dated from
Edinburgh, October the 1st, and sealed with the great seal
of Scotland, the king, addressing himself to all his catholic
subjects of his kingdom of Ireland, informs them, that he has
for a long season been compelled to take up his abode in
Vol. II. 17

142
Scotland, by reason of the obstinate and disobedient conduct
of his English parliament, who had not only disposed of his
princely rights and prerogatives, but possessed themselves of
the whole strength of that kingdom, by appointing governors,
commanders and officers in all places against his consent,
and that he saw cause to fear that the like enterprises would
be extended, by "the vehemency of the protestant party," to
Ireland. Wherefore, he empowers them freely to assemble
and consult together, for the effecting of the great work which
he had mentioned and directed them in his letters, and to use ali
politic ways to possess themselves, for his use and safety, of
all forts, castles and places of strength within that kingdom,
excepting those held by the Scotch. And also, to arrest and
seize the goods, estates, and persons of all the English pro-
testants to his use.*
It might be thought that the tenor alone of this portentous
document, especially of the last article, was sufficient to stamp
it as a forgery ; and as such it has been treated not alone by
Clarendon and other professed advocates of Charles, but in
modern times, by at least one writer of unquestionable acute-
ness, who has judged him with more impartiality. f Yet our
knowledge of the secret measures of the king with the earl of
Antrim for the purpose of procuring the enlistment of a body
of native Irish for his service, — the difficulty of conceiving by
what means an impression of the great seal of Scotland should
have fallen into the hands of Irish forgers, — the remarkable-
fact that just at this crisis that seal, being without a regular
keeper, was peculiarly accessible to the king himself, — the
date of the instrument accurately coinciding with the depar
ture of lord Dillon, attended by a number of Irish captains,
from Edinburgh for Ireland, — the reference made in it to
accompanying letters of instruction sent by his majesty, which
apparently O'Neal must have had to produce to his associates,
are all of them circumstances capable of raising strange sus
picions ; and on the whole it may perhaps be more reasona
ble to regard the copies which we at present possess of this
instrument, as interpolated in some of their clauses, than en
tirely fictitious.:):
Nor was this the only document of the kind which the
rebel leaders had to exhibit. We are informed that when
* Rushworth, iv. 400. f See Lingard, x. 156.
t See Godwin's Hist, of the Commonwealth, i. 225, Note, and the numerous
authorities there adduced. See also au elaborate note in Brodie's British Em
pire, iil 190.

143
lord Musquerry, early in the rebellion, was marching upon
Limerick at the head of three thousand men, fiading that the
brave and loyal sir William St. Leger, lord-president of
Ulster, was preparing to give him battle with such forces as
he had been able to collect, he sent to him a trumpet, with
one Walsh, a lawyer, who desired to be admitted to a private
conference. " He then told that lord, that his lordship ought
to take heed of fighting against them, for lord Musquerry had
a commission from the king for what he did, and by virtue of
that commission had raised men to assist the king in all ex
tremities ; and that if he might have a safe-conduct he would
bring the commission to him under the great seal, and show
it to him at his house the next morning." He did so accord
ingly ; and St. Leger being, much against his will, convinced
of its genuineness, on dismissing Walsh, declared to several
noblemen by whom he was accompanied, that Musquerry
really had a commission to levy four thousand men, and that
he would dismiss his troops and stir no more in the business,
saying he would die before he would be a rebel." It is
added, that the lord-president " took this matter so much to
heart that he never held up his head afterwards, but within a
short time died." The author of this narrative, Morrice, the
biographer of lord Orrery, concludes with saying, that this
nobleman alone, of those present, persisted in thinking the
commission a cheat, " as he afterwards found it." But we
are not told how he found it to be such.*
Lord Musquerry, it should be noted, was one of the princi
pal nobles of Ulster, and brother-in-law to the earl of Or
mond, and he had been one of the Irish committee. Assur
ances were afterwards conveyed to him by the lords Taaffe
and Dillon, that the king was pleased with his actions, though
he could not as yet avow him ; and how much Dillon him
self enjoyed the royal confidence appeared on his return to
Ireland from Scotland, just before the explosion of the rebel
lion, by his bringing an order from the king for his admission
to the privy council, — he being the first Roman catholic ad
mitted to such an office of trust. f
" Macmahon, who was to join the lord Macguire for the
surprising the castle of Dublin, being taken and examined
at the rack, confessed that the original of the rebellion was
* Godwin, ubi supra.
t Strafford had previously resisted the admission of lord Nethisdale on this
very ground, giving strong reasons for his opposition. — Strafford Letters, 1.
367.

144 *
brought to them out of England by the Irish committee
employed to his majesty for the redress of grievances. Also,
it was the general profession of the rebels in all parts of that
kingdom, that their rising was to preserve his majesty and
the queen from being oppressed by the puritan parliament,
and that it was by their consent  that they had good
warrant in black and white for what they did  That
they had their party both, in England and Scotland, which
should keep both kingdoms so busy at home, that they should
not send any aid against them ; with a multitude of such
like expressions from the Irish of fhe best quality and de
gree."* Antrim, it is fair to state, who joined the rebels immediate
ly after the failure at Dublin, declared in his examination,
before cited, that he kuew nothing of any commission to
O'Neal ; and this instrument, true or false, was soon laid
aside by the rebels, who were in truth far more intent upon
objects of their own than upon those of. the king of Eng
land. In the correspondence between the king and Nicholas, we
find Charles, immediately after the first news of the rebellion
had reached him, remarking, with reference to a project of
the commons for again bringing in a bill against bishops'
votes, which the lords had rejected : " I hope this ill news of
Ireland may hinder some of these follies in England. "f To
the numerous subsequent informations of his secretary res
pecting this momentous affair, and the proceedings of the
parliament respecting it, he makes no return whatever : — ¦
An apt illustration of the justice of that severe imputation on
the policy of the king conveyed to Nicholas himself three or
four years after in a letter from lord Clarendon, then in exile
and engaged in the composition of his History : " I must
tell you," 'he says, " that I care not how little I say in that
business of Ireland, since those strange powers and instruc
tions to your favorite Glamorgan, which appear to me so in
excusable 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. O ! Mr. Secretary, those stratagems havo
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."+
* Rushworth, v. p. 349. ' j- Evelyn's Append, p. 43.
| Clarendon State Papers, ii. 337.

145
The publication of O'Neal's commission was soon met by
a counter-proclamation on the part of the lord-justices, pro
testing against the guilt of the rebels in traducing by sedi
tious and scandalous rumors both the king and the state,
asserting their own full powers from his majesty to prosecute
and subdue such rebels and traitors, and warning all faithful
subjects not to be deluded by their false pretexts.*
¦ In spite of this measure on the part of functionaries
thought to be little in the favor or confidence of their master,
the genuineness of the commission, and the encouragement
of many kinds given both by the king and queen to the enter
prises of the papists, continued to be very generally believed
in. The tardiness of Charles in branding the Irish insur
gents with the name of rebels, was pointedly contrasted with
the eagerness which he had formerly evinced to impose that
stigma on the covenanters of Scotland ; and when at length
he was induced to issue a proclamation against them, it was
of so mild a tenor,, containing "as well matter of grace and
pardon as declaration of treason," that the lord-justices de
sired to restrict the communication of it to such individuals
as they, on the spot, should judge fit to receive it; and in
consequence only forty copies of it were sent them. f
We now revert to the court, of England.
Great pains had been taken by the queen to obtain for her
consort a respectful and affectionate reception on his return
to London ; and the election of a loyal lord mayor having
been previously secured by a dextrous manoeuvre, this object
was fully accomplished. A sumptuous entertainment was
given at Guildhall on the occasion to the king and queen, -the
royal children and the court ; the speeches of the lord may
or and recorder breathed nothing but devoted attachment to
the sovereign ; the city put on her festal array to greet her
prince, and all causes of complaint and suspicion being laid
asleep forthe occasion, a stranger might for one clay have
believed that he beheld iu Charles the favorite of his people.
The king himself seems to have admitted the flattering delu
sion, and under its influence to have precipitated himself into
measures fitted to arouse slumbering jealousies.
Having repaired to Hampden Court, he proceeded to dis-^
possess sir Henry Vane of the office of secretary of state,
having already taken from. him the treasurership of the house
hold to confer it upon lord Saville, the notorious betrayer of
* Rush worth, iv. 400. f Clarendon State Papers, ii«337.

146
the councils of the popular party : He also dismissed the
guard with which the two houses had thought fit to surround
themselves on the news of the Incident, and soon after issued
a proclamation " for obedience to be given to the laws es
tablished for the exercise of religion."
The commons on the other hand, supported by the adher
ence of the citizens of London in opposition to the efforts of
the lord mayor and aldermen, proceeded to frame a petition
lo be presented to the king together with the large remon
strance on past grievances which they had in store. Respect
ing the remonstrance itself, sir Philip Warwick thus writes :
" It past so tumultuously two or three nights before the king
came to town, that at three of the clock in the morning, when
they voted it, I thought we had all sat in the valley of the
shadow of death ; for we, like Joab's and Abner's young
men, had catched at each others locks and sheathed, our
swords in each others bowels, had not the sagacity and great
calmness of Mr. Hampden prevented it, and led us to defer
our angry debate until the next morning."* The majority
by which it was at length carried consisted of no more than
nine. Oliver Cromwell, then rising into notice, whispered to
lord Falkland as they left the house, that had it been lost he
would have sold all he was worth the next morning, and nev
er have seen England more ; and he added that he knew
many honest men were of the same resolution. f This was
in fact the grand trial of strength between the court and the
country parties, and the result had so emboldened one and
disheartened the other, that the petition, strong as was its
language, now passed with little opposition.
It complained of a " wicked and malignant party," which
was possessed of sufficient influence to have introduced its in
struments into the 'privy council and many offices of trust and
nearness about his majesty, the prince of Wales, and the rest
of his children. To this party it imputed the rebellion of the
Irish papists and various other mischiefs, and in order to its
discouragement entreated his. majesty to take away the votes.
of the bishops, to restrict their power over the clergy, and to
suppress needless ceremonies : That he would also remove
from his counsels such men as had concurred in pressures on
the people, and choose in their place those in whom the par
liament might confide ; and that he would forbear to alienate
(meaning probably to catholics) any lands forfeited by re-
* Warwick's Memoirs, p. 201. f Hist. Rebellion, ii. 43.

147
bellion in Ireland. On' the fulfilment of these requests the
petitioners tendered earnest assurances of their loyal endeav
ors to render him a great, glorious, and happy prince.
The king having just at this time given fresh offence by in
terfering with a bill in progress for raising troops for Ireland,
the remonstrance and petition were printed without delay, and
diligently circulated amongst the people, to whom, rather than
to the king, their contents were directed.
Notwithstanding the irritating nature of these addresses,
which were the more formidable for containing little or no
thing but truth, Charles was prevailed upon to return, in the
name of himself and his council, a temperate and cautious an
swer, remarkable as the first of his public papers which con
fessed the skilful hand of Hyde. This eminent person, in re
lating the manner of his introduction to public life, informs us,
that the king, a little before his departure for Scotland, had
sent for him by Mr. Percy and thanked him for his loyal ex
ertions in the house, and most of all for the attachment which
he had displayed to the church. That after this he spoke of
" the passion of the house, and the bill brought in against
episcopacy," and asked him if he thought they would be able
to carry it. Hyde answered, he believed not, at least it
would be very long first. " Nay," replied the king, — and
the anecdote proves how much he was elated with the hopes
inspired by his secret projects, — " if you '11 look to it that
they do not carry it before I go for Scotland ;  I will
undertake for the church after that time."*
During the king's absence, on Nicholas's report to him of
the opposition made by lord Falkland, Hyde and others, to a
motion for addressing his majesty to choose his ministers and
great officers by consent of parliament, they had all" received
his special thanks. Thus encouraged to further services,
Hyde had drawn up the paper before adverted to, and shown
it to lord Digby, then a favorite counsellor, who, — much
against the wish and expectation of the writer, as he has
thought it necessary to protest, — mentioned it to his master,
who absolutely commanded it to be brought to him, and honor
ed it by his immediate adoption. f
It seems to have been principally by the arguments and
persuasions of Hyde, that lord Falkland was about this time
induced to break entirely with the popular party, and some
time after, to accept an office for which he felt his unfitness
* Life of Lord Clarendon, p. 21 et seq. folio edit. j f*i«?.

148
In many, respects, that of secretary of state. Colepeppef,
likewise, had deserted his former associates and become chan
cellor of the exchequer ; and the king and queen, in a secret
interview, urged upon Hyde the acceptance of the post of
solicitor-general, of which -they were eager to dispossess St,
John. He declined it however, on the plea of unfitness, but
probably frorn fear of the resentment of parliament ; and
" the king having at the same time resolved to . remove ano
ther officer who did disserve him notoriously, ahd to prefer
Mr. Hyde to that place, wilh which their ¦ gracious intention
both their majesties acquainted' him, he positively refused it;
and assured both their majesties, that he should be able to do
much more service in the condition that he was in." Upon
this the king reiterated a former command, that Falkland,
Colepepper and Hyde- should meet constantly to consult on
his affairs, and eonduct them the best way they could in par
liament, and he solemnly promised that he would in future
take no step without their advice. In consequence, they as
sembled nightly in consultation, and their meetings being held
at the house of Hyde, he acquired amongst the popular
party, who speedily gained intelligence of the circumstance,
the odium justly due fo an unofficial, and consequently irre
sponsible adviser of the crown ; and, as he complains, bore
with the public the blame of those desperate measures of
which, perhaps with equal injustice, he has himself stigma
tized his friend Digby as the fatal counsellor.
The new difficulties of Charles's situation, arising from
the failure and detection of his various ill-concerted intrigues,
had the unfortunate:.effect of alienating him from all prudent
or conscientious advisers, and throwing him more and more
upon the supporting sympathy of his queen ; from whom
his rash projects could have no check, and his moral obli
quities no reprehension to apprehend. " Albeit," says Hyde
of the noble Falkland, " he had the greatest compliance with
the weakness and even the humor of other men, where there
could be no suspicion of flattery, and the greatest address to
inform and reform them, yet towards the king, who many
times obstinately adhered to conclusions which did not nat
urally result from good premises, and" did love to argue many
things to which he would not so positively adhere, he did; not
practice that condescension ; but contradicted him with more
bluntness, and by sharp sentences ; and in some particu
lars (as of the church) to which the king was in conscience
most devoted : and of this his majesty often complained ;

149
and cared less to confer with him in private, and was less
persuaded by him than his affairs, and the other's great parts
and wisdom would have required."* Colepepper indeed, a
man of far inferior moral qualities, but sagacious, ready, de
cided, and an artful flatterer under the guise of bluntness,
contrived to obtain greater influence ; but it was partly by
cherishing the sanguine and often visionary hopes and
schemes of the king, partly by working upon the ready ter
rors of the queen by tragical representations, in which he ex
celled, and at the same time affecting to eonsult her judg
ment on all affairs ; and especially by a complete understand
ing with John Ashburnham, a gentleman of the bedcham
ber whom the king loved and trusted very much.f
Madame de Motteville in her curious detail of the wild
alarms and busy manoeuvres of Henrietta at this juncture,
derived from her own information, has done much towards
supplying us with a. clue to the conduct of her husband.
She relates that during the king's absence in Scotland, the
parliament separated the royal children from the queen lest
she should make them catholics ; and that they tried to fright
en her into leaving the kingdom by making her believe they
intended to carry her off. They ordered a gentleman who
commanded a village in which her palace was, to hold him
self in readiness with a number of his peasants armed, and
prepared to serve the king at their command. He was to be
in waiting till midnight in Oatlands park, where he was told
that he would find some cavalry and officers who would pre
scribe to him what he was to do. The gentleman brought
this order to the queen, and promised to be faithful to her.
She told him not to obey the parliament but to remain quiet ;
meantime, without being affrighted, she sent to her principal
officers, who were in London, to come to her before midnight
with all the force they could make ; and in the meantime
armed all her servants, down to the scullions. She then
went out into the park, betraying no signs of fear, and the
night passed away without any appearance of the design of
the parliament, except that some twenty men, very ill mount
ed, seemed to hover about the park.|
* Life of Lord Clarendon, p. 24. ^ Ibid-
{ This pretended order seems to have been a trick put upon Henrietta by
some of her courtiers. In a declaration addressed to the king by the parlia
ment in March following, they mention " Ihe speeches alledged tebe spoken
in a meeting of divers members of both houses at Kensington, concerning a
purpose of restraining the queen and prince, which, after it was denied and
Vol. II. 18

ISO
" She had already won back Goring, and sent him word
fo be prepared at Portsmouth, of which he was governor, as
he might perhaps soon see her there. She ordered relays to
be kept in readiness in case she should be obliged to fly, but
she resolved to wait till the last extremity, thinking it sufficient
to have made her preparations. Finally, she sent to lord
Digby to collect a hundred gentlemen among his friends to
remain about her, which was done. The better to disguise
these precautions, she went, to Hampton Court where she
had near her a nobleman who always kept a great number of
fine horses ; and she had her own also placed in his stables,
to be ready. Having taken these steps, she remained in
quiet, and so far from her being molested, great apologies
were made her for the extraordinary order sent to her village ;
and all the members denied having any concern in it.
" She was now diligent," continues Madame de Motteville,
"in gaining partisans to her husband, and won over the lord
mayor. On the king's return from Scotland she went to
meet him and to apprise him of the compliant disposition of
his subjects. The royal family were reeeived in London
with great marks of loyalty, and the king resolved to take
advantage of this state of things, to seize the leaders of the
house of commons. He intrusted his plan to few but the
queen," &c.
Here then we gain, to all appearance, a irue- account of
the occasion and author of that irretrievable act of the kings,
the attempted seizure of five members of parliament within
the house itself. The plan was evidently his own ; it was en
couraged by the queen through a vain confidence in the effi
cacy of her own futile intrigues with men of no weight ; and
the part taken in it by Digby, or any other courtier, can only
be regarded i 3 secondary.* Hyde very intelligibly disclaims
for himself and his two associates all share in this fatal trans
action, as in two or three others- of a very sinister augury by
which it was preceded. One of these was the displacement
of the faithful Balfour from his post of lieutenant of the
Tower, and the substitution of sir Thomas Lunsford, "a
man," says Clarendon, " though of an ancient family in Sus
sex, was of a very small and decayed fortune, and of no good
disavowed, yet your majetsy refused to name the authors, though humbly de-
sired by both houses." Rushworth, iv. 531. Lord Newport seems to have
been the person to whom this design was imputed.
* See remarks on the seizure of Eliot and Digges in the present work
chap. iv.

151

education ; having been a few years before campelhjd to ffjh
the kingdom, to avoid the hand of justice for Yome^otoH^
misdemeanor ; by reason whereof he spent some tiinfe^^e"'

service of the king of France, where he got the reputation"
of a man of courage, and a good officer of foot .... but so
inferior to many others, and was so little known, except up
on the disadvantage of an ill-character, that, in the most du
tiful time the promotion would have appeared very ungrate
ful." And he goes on to ascribe the choice to lord Digby,
" who, having some secret reason, which was not a good
one, to fill that place in the instant with a man who might be
trusted .... suddenly resolved upon this gentleman, as one
who would be faithful to him for the obligation, and execute
any thing he should desire or direct."* The citizens, justly
alarmed, immediately petitioned the king for the removal of a
lieutenant with whom the merchants thought their bullion sent
to be coined, and the other inhabitants their lives and liberties,
insecure ; and they Immediately forwarded a request to lord
Newport, the constable of the Tower, in whom they had con
fidence, to sleep constantly within that fortress. Charles on
this found it expedient, with some loss of dignity, to substi
tute sir John Byron to Lunsford; but he deprived lord New
port of his office, and we shall afterwards find Lunsford em
barked in strange designs.
Another incident fitted to excite strong sensations, was the
memorable protest of the bishops. We have seen the eager
ness with which the king had seised, and the obstinacy with
which he pursued, the suggestion of Nicholas that the vacan
cies of the episcopal bench should be filled up. It was avow
edly for the sake of obtaining their parliamentary support, a
support which he was now in imminent danger of losing by
the suppression of their votes, that he had ordered the patents
of the new prelates to be expedited ; and from this circum
stance, combined with the fact that the Scottish bishops had
formerly subscribed a protest of similar effect by his direction,
we can scarcely avoid ascribing to himself primarily the sug
gestion of a plan by which the order he so much revered was
to be rendered instrumental to a great stroke in politics. It
was archbishop Williams however, who stood forth the re
sponsible author of a measure to the hazards of which he
was apparently blinded by the pride and anger in which hia
disposition abounded. * Hist. RebeUion,. ii. 122.

152
Since the dismissal of the earl of Essex's guard from its-
attendance upon the parliament, the immediate neighbor
hood of the houses had become a constant scene of tumult
and disorder. The zealous citizens who daily surrounded
Wetminster Hall with vehement cries of " No bishops !" to
the terror, and perhaps danger, of the spiritual lords in their
passage to and from the house, were encountered, and seve
ral of them wounded, by a small band of soldiers of fortune
and other desperadoes under tbe orders of Lunsford. A re
inforcement of London apprentices, armed with swords in ad
dition to the clubs which were their ancient weapon, coming
to support or avenge their friends, were opposed by fresh re
cruits to Lunsford's troops from the ranks of the lately dis
banded regiments ; by which accession it was swelled to a
formidable body which, not content with wreaking its fury on
the crowd, threw out furious and insolent menaces against the
parliament itself,
Williams, in making his way through this press, was pro
voked to seize with his own hands one of the brawlers against
prelacy ; the man was rescued by his comrades ; the arch
bishop regained his deanery house ; and thence dispatched
summonses to his episcopal brethren, which eleven of them
obeyed, to affix their signatures to a " petition and protest"
which he produced, to be delivered, with his majesty's sanc
tion, to the house of lords, and by which, setting forth that their
resort to the house was barred by violence, the bishops de
clared null and void all that should be transacted in parlia
ment during their absence. Charles, without a pause, trans
mitted this paper by the lord keeper to the upper house, where
it was welcomed with triumph by the enemies of epiicopacy.
Without even a debate, the lower house was summoned to a
conference, and the protest communicated to them under the
character of one " of dangerous consequence and deeply
intrenching on the fundamental principles and being of parlia
ment." The commons retired, but in half an hour reappear
ed at the bar of the lords to impeach the twelve subscribing
bishops of high treason, and demand their immediate com
mittal to the Tower. In their own house this strong measure
had been carried without objection, if we except the remark
of one member, that the bishops were not, he thought, guilty
of treason, but being stark mad, ought to be committed to
Bedlam. The peers assented with equal unanimity, and the
same evening they were all in custody.
To jealous minds, the very rashness of the prelates minister-

153
ed matter of alarm. Nothing, it was apprehended, but secret
assurances of firm support could have animated them to an
attempt so desperate. Blind rumors of plots flew from
mcuth to mouth, some, perhaps, invented by the designing,
and all propagated with exaggeration by the credulous, the an
gry and the affrighted ; but still based on solid grounds of sus
picion. Eaeh party exerted itself to animate its adherents
and fix imputations on its adversaries by means of the power
ful machinery of addresses, declarations and other public
appeals. The citizens of London set the example, by a peti
tion to both houses, showing, that since their loyal and affec
tionate entertainment of the king had been misinterpreted
by evil-disposed persons as if they would wholly adhere to
him and desert the parliament, they declared the contrary,
and would live and die with them for the good of the common
wealth. Similar addresses followed ; and such multitudes
went up with them, that the king, by a message to the com
mon council, complained of the daily resort of tumultuary as
semblies of people to Westminster, to the disturbance of that
place, and of his palace of Whitehall ; whilst on the same
day the parliament petitioned him for a guard to their persons
under the earl of Essex, on account of a malignant party bit
terly envenomed against them which daily gained strength and
confidence, and now dared even to threaten them.
To this petition Charles returned a negative as far as the
commander was concerned, but declared, and as usual, on
the word of a prince, that the preservation of every one of
them from violence was, and should ever be, as much his
care as the security of himself and his children ; and added,
that should this general assurance not suffice, he would com
mand such a guard to wait on them as he would be answera
ble for to almighty God.* — But this proposition they wisely-
declined. It was on the very next day, that the attorney-general, en
tering the house of lords, in the king's name impeached of
high treason the lord Kimbolton, a member of that house,
and five leading members of the other ; Pym, Hampden,
Hollis, Strode, and Hazlerig,whom he charged, on his majes
ty's own authority, with attempting to subvert fundamental
laws, to deprive the king of his prerogative, and to set up an
arbitrary power ; with laying on his majesty many foul as
persions calculated to alienate the affections of his subjects
* May, p. 90,

154
from him, attempting to draw his late army into disobedience,
seducing the parliament to concur in their designs, inviting a
foreign power to invade the country, and raising tumults and
levying war against the king. The house stood aghast at a
proceeding wanting in every form and circumstance of legali
ty, and in which the king himself was seen acting without the
intervention of either minister or warrant ; -and lord Kimbol-
ton, for whose committal no one would move, protested his
innocence, and demanded atrial public as his accusation. In
the meantime, persons had been dispatched from court to
seal up the trunks and the doors of the accused, and a Ser
jeant at arms entering the house of commons demanded the
persons of the five gentlemen. This assembly, already in
formed of the invasion of the homes of their members, had
given orders for the apprehension of the perpetrators, and
was actually engaged in a debate on their violated privileges.
They ordered the serjeant at arms to withdraw, and then in
formed his majesty by a deputation, that in a matter import
ing no less than the liberties of the whole commons of Eng
land, they must take time to deliberate, but that their mem
bers should be forthcoming to answer any legal charge.
The same evening the king, who had previously engaged
the gentlemen of the inns of court to form themselves into a
guard for his service, sent to them to be at home and in read
iness on the morrow, adding a copy of his charge against the
members. In the morning, January the 4th, the house met,
the accused entered ; and information was received that they
were to be taken away by force. Notice was thereupon giv
en to the lord mayor and corporation of the threatened dan
ger to the privileges of the house and the peace of the capi
tal, and they were advised to stand upon their guard. Some
members were likewise sent to acquaint the students at. law
that the house was aware they were tampered with by the
king, and to desire them not to come to Westminster. The
house then adjourned till one o'clock. On its reassembling,
it was proposed, that for the avoiding of all tumult, the five
members should have leave to absent themselves, and they
quitted the house. " A little after," writes a member who
was present, "the king came with all his guard, and aU his
pensioners, and two or three hundred soldiers and gentlemen.
The king commanded the soldiers to stay in the hall, and
sent us word he was at the door. The speaker was com
manded to sit still, with the mace lying before him, and
then the king came to the door, and took the pallsgrave in

155
with him, and commanded all that came with him upon their
lives not to come in. So the doors were kept open, and the
earl of Roxborough stood within the door, leaning upon it.
Then the king came upwards towards the chair with his hat
off, and the speaker stepped out to meet him ; then the king
stepped up to his place, and. stood upon the step, but sat not
down upon the chair. ,
" And after he had looked a great while, he told us he
would not break our privileges, but treason had no privilege ;
he came for those five gentlemen, for he expected obedience
yesterday, and not an answer. Then he called Mr. Pym and
Mr. Hollis by name, but no answer was made. Then he
asked the speaker if they were here, or where they were 1
Upon this the speaker fell on his knees, and desired his ex
cuse ; for he was a servant to the house, and had neither
eyes nor tongue to see or to say any thing but what they com
manded him : Then the king told him that he thought his
own eyes were as good as his, and then said his birds were
flown, but he did expect the house should send them to him,
and if they did not, he would seek them himself, for their trea
son was foul, and such a one as they would all thank him to
discover : then he assured us they should have a fair trial ;
and so went out, pulling off his hat till he came to the door."*
The extraordinary scene being thus closed, the house in
stantly adjourned to the next day, when they ordered a com
mittee to sit at Guildhall, to consider of the means of repair
ing their broken privileges, and till this were ended would en
tertain no other business, except that a committee still sat on
the affairs of bleeding Ireland.
Madame de Motteville, after stating that the king intrusted
his plan against the parliamentary leaders to few besides the
queen, thus pursues her narrative. "She was impatiently
awaiting news from the house : at length, thinking that the
hour was past, and the stroke made or missed, she said to la
dy Carlisle, Rejoice ! for I hope that the king is now master
in his states, and such and such are in custody. Lady Car
lisle immedately sent intelligence to the house, where it arrived
in time. The queen owned her indiscretion with great peni
tence to her husband, who forgave her."
That Henrietta betrayed the confidence of her spouse, and
that he not only forgave her, but had the miserable weakness
to continue to confide to her his most important affairs, we
* Notes of sir Ralph Verney in Haltam's Consiitut. Hist. i. 58S. Note.

156
cannot doubt, but it is probable that on this occasion the first
intimation was conveyed by others.
It is clear from- the relation of sir Ralph Verney, above quot
ed, that even before the morning adjournment the commons
were aware that a forcible seizure of the members was de
signed, and Montereuil the French ambassador mentions that
he had himself given warning to his friends.* Clarendon af
firms, but erroneously, it is plain, that the design was only
consulted between the king and the lord Digby, by whom he
says, it was thought to be disclosed to William Murray of the
bedchamber, who betrayed it. In fact, the intelligence seems
to have reached the house from various quarters. That it did
so from any quarter was happy. The reckless band which
accompanied the king waited only, as it appeared afterwards
in evidence, for " the word to be given," to rush into the
house of commons sword in hand : An assembly of English
gentlemen, also armed, would not have suffered five of the most
distinguished of their body to be seized and carried out from
amongst them by lawless force, without a severe struggle ;
and to whichever side victory had then fallen, so frightful a
contest could scarcely have failed to impress on the approach
ing war, which in all probability it would have precipitated,
a character of inveteracy, springing out of feelings of private
vengeance, from which by this prevention, it remained free.
Charles did not immediately on this disappointment relin
quish his design upon the persons of the parliamentary lead
ers. He sent orders to stop the ports to prevent their es
cape ; as if he had really believed that a consciousness of
guilt would have impelled them to abjure the realm ; whilst
he well knew that they had all taken refuge in a house in
the city, the strong hold of their party. Rejecting, probably
as impracticable, the daring offer of lord Digby to go with
Lunsford and a few of his band and seize them there alive or
dead, he then determined to attempt the milder, but certainly
not more hopeful expedient, of urging the citizens by the
force of his rhetoric, or the awe of his presence, voluntarily
to surrender their honored guests ; and having sent orders to
the lord mayor to summon a common hall, he on the follow
ing morning entered the city almost unattended and proceed
ed to Guildhall. On his way, the cry of " Privileges of par
liament, Privileges of parliament !" was often sounded in his
ears, and one bold pamphlet-writer threw into his coach a pa-
* Mazure, p. 429.

157
per on which was written, " To your tents, O Israel !" for
which he was committed. His address to the citizens was in
the following terms :
" Gentlemen, — " I am come to demand such persons as I
have already accused of high-treason, and do believe are
shrowded in the city. I hope no good man will keep them
from me ; their offences are treason and misdemeanors of a
high nature. I desire your loving assistance herein, that
they may be brought to a legal trial. And whereas there are
divers suspicions raised that I am a favorer of the popish re
ligion, I do profess in the name of a king, that I did and ever
will, and that to the utmost of my power, be a prosecutor of
all such as shall any ways oppose the laws and statutes of this
kingdom, either, papists or separatists ; and not only so, but 1
will maintain and defend . that true protestant religion which
my father did profess, and I will continue in it during life."*
The citizens of London had been too severely injured by
former arbitrary acts of the king in their corporate, and some
of them in their individual capacity, and were too deeply in
terested in the success of the parliament, to be open to such
impressions whether of love or fear, as Charles had here aim
ed to excite. Little applause and no obedience followed, and
after honoring one of the sheriffs by dining with him, he re
turned in the evening with the mortification of a second fail
ure, which he sought to disguise or to sooth by a peremptory
proclamation against harboring or concealing the persons ac
cused. Meantime strong resolutions were passed by a committee of
the whole house, which had adjourned to the city, condemna
tory of the king's proceedings ; and a petition in the same
strain was presented to him from citizens, in which the forti
fying of Whitehall was complained of, whither military stores
had lately been removed from the Tower.
After a few days, the commons determined to resume their
sittings in Westminster, and to recall to their house the five
members as men against whom there was no legal accusation
pending ; and great preparations were made for conducting
them back in triumphant security. The posse comitalus was
called out by the sheriffs, and the train-bands were arrayed to
attend upon the procession by land. The offer of the Lon
don apprentices to act as an additional guard was declined
with thanks, but the services of a thousand mariners were
* Rushworth, iv. 479.
Vol. II. 19

158
accepted, who volunteered to protect its passage by water.
" A word," observes a writer on this occurrence, "dropped
out of the king's mouth a little before which lost him the
love of the seamen : Some being in conference with his ma
jesty, acquainted him that he was lost in affection of the sea
men, for they intended to petition the house, &c- ' I wonder,'
quoth the king, ' how I have lost the affection of three water-
rats.'"* With this formidable display of military preparation sec
onding the warmest demonstrations of popular favor and at
tachment, the commons on January the 11th resumed their
session at Westminster ; the king, with his queen and their
children, escaping the ominous and mortifying spectacle by a
retreat to Hampton Court the day before. This flight, con
fessedly ignominious, has by some been stigmatized as also
impolitic ; henceforth victory alotie could have opened to
Charles a safe and honorable return to his abandoned capital.
* Lilly's Observations, p. 61.

159

CHAPTER XXIII.
1642.
The king's departure from London an era in his reign.— Attempt
of Lunsford at Kingston. — He is seized and imprisoned by the
parliament. — Lord Digby flies the country. — Portsmouth se
cured by parliament. — London trained bands called out under
Skippon; — Letter of Digby to the queen intercepted, — pro
ceedings of parliament on it. — Hull secured by the parliament. —
Departure of the queen for Holland to provide warlike stores. —
The king defers signing the militia bill, but passes that for
taking away bishops' votes. — Reflections. — The king's parting
promise to the queen. — He proceeds with the prince towards
York. — Paper war with the parliament. — His reception of apeti-
lion, concerning the militia. — Further declarations on this subjett,
and remarks. — The king at York. — Hyde and Falkland remain
in London and for what purposes. — Earls of Essex and Hol
land deprived of their offices in the household. — Conduct of Falk
land. — The lord keeper sides with the king. — Hyde accompanies
him into Yorkshire. — Particulars of their journey. — The king
and Hyde. — Rapid conveyance of dispatches. — Reception of
the king' at York. — He is joined by many members of both
houses. — The earl of Warwick secures the fleet for the parlia
ment. — Attempt qf the king to secure Hull defeated by sir John
Hotham. — Resolutions of parliament on the subject. — Parlia
ment puts in force its ordinance for the militia. — The king calls
a meeting at York, and raises troops. — Votes of parliament in
consequence. — Muster of the London trained bands. — The king
publishes Ms commission of array in Yorkshire. — The queen
sends supplies from Holland. — Factions in the court. — Adven
tures of Lord Digby. — Hotham tampered with. — Difficulties of
the king. — He and his counsellors disclaim warlike designs. —
Plate and money sent in at the requisition of parliament. —
Money raised for the king. — The nineteen propositions. — War
like preparations on both sides. — Essex declared the parliament's
general. — The king disappointed qf gaining Hull. — Goring
declares for him in Portsmouth. — The king provides for his re
lief, — commands his subjects to join him at Nottingham. — His
proclamation against admitting catholics into his army.
THE secession of Charles from his capital forms one ef the

160
principal eras of his reign : a writer has remarked that after
this time he " never could be brought near the city or parlia
ment either in body or mind." The scission was now com
plete, and it was obvious to all men that a civil war was not
only inevitable but imminent.
The memorialist of the court and character of Charles I.,
mindful of the just limitations of that theme, and anxious to
escape as much as possible from the dry details of political
debate, and the sickening ones of a fratricidal warfare, must
here draw a firm and decided line ; and taking leave of the
metropolis and of the proceedings of that important assembly
of which it was the seat ; — declining also the detail of all
military transactions in which the king was not immediately
engaged, — must restrict herself to little more than recording
with biographical fidelity the devious course, the temporary
residences, the complicated- negotiations and intrigues, the
traits of manners and character, and finally the tragical catas
trophe of the devoted prince.
It appeared as if the departure of the royal family was de
signed to give the signal for an immediate commencement
of hostilities on the part of the loyalists. After escorting
their majesties to Hampton Court, Lunsford and his band,
two hundred strong, turning aside, made an unexpected
and warlike appearance in the town of Kingston in Sur
rey, where there lay a magazine of arms belonging to the
county. Here they were soon after visited and thanked by
lord Digby in the king's name, and thus encouraged to invite
recruits, and avow a wild project of cutting off the supplies
of London. But the two houses, receiving timely notice, as
sumed authority to raise the force of the neighboring coun
ties, and to order that the sheriffs throughout England and
Wales, calling to their aid the justices of peace and the mili
tia of their several shires, should suppress all unlawful as
semblages which might threaten the public peace, and secure,
the magazines. Lunsford was seized and committed to the
Tower, Digby made a precipitate retreat, and soon after, ad
miral Pennington owned, before a committee of the house of
commons, to having carried him over to Holland in his own
ship, in consequence of his producing to him a warrant under
the sign manual to that effect.
On some indications of a renewal of intelligence between
the queen and Goring, and suspicion of a fresh design on the
part of her majesty of repairing to Portsmouth, further meas
ures were adopted by parliament for securing the place. Cer-

161
lain steps taken by sir John Byron as lieutenant of the Tower,
for strengthening that fortress by additional supplies of arms
and ammunition, excited fresh distrust ; and the king having
refused to put the command of it in other hands, the two
houses called out the Middlesex trained bands for the protec
tion of the City and the parliament, and placed them under
the orders of major-general Skippon, a braTe and able officer,
formed by long service in Holland.
A few days only after the escape of lord Digby, whom the
parliament had ordered on pain of treason to return by a cer
tain day, a packet addressed by him to- his half-brother sir
Lewis Dives was intercepted,* and opened in the house of
commons, and a letter which it inclosed for the queen was,
with little hesitation, likewise unsealed and read. It contain
ed these expressions : "If the king betake himself to a safe
place, where he may avow and protect his servants (from rage
I mean, and violence, for from justice I will never im
plore it,) I shall then live in impatience and misery till I-wait
upon you. But if, after all he hath done of late, he shall be
take himself to the easiest and compliantest ways of accommo
dation, I am confident that then I shall serve him more by my
absence, than by all my industry." The letter concluded with
an offer to correspond with the queen in cipher, and to do
service abroad, for which the writer desired the king's in
structions. This dangerous document was immediately com
municated by parliament to Charles, with a defence of their own
conduct in intercepting a letter which they had good reason to
suppose it would be equally dishonorable to her majesty, and
dangerous to the kingdom, that she should receive;- and they
besought that he would persuade her to keep no correspon
dence with any traitors or fugitives whose offences were still
under the examination of parliament.
Digby's' expressions confirmed all previous suspicion that
the king was meditating a journey northwards, with the view
of setting himself in open opposition to the parliament. The
town of Hull, in which, on the conclusion of the Scottish
campaign, the arms and ammunition of the royal forces had
been chiefly deposited, was seen to be his primary object.
A short time before, the earl of Newcastle, when court jeal
ousies had impelled him to resign the office of governor to
the prince in favor of the earl of Hertford, and to retire to his
estates in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, had offered, in
token of his unshaken loyalty, to occupy this place for the
king, and received a secret commission to this effect. But

162
he had been detected in the attempt to enter the town under
a feigned name ; and it was this discovery, with subsequent
dilatoriness on the part of Charles, which gave time to the
parliament to disconcert the royal project. Mr. Hotham, a
member of the house, accepted with alacrity a commission
from it to carry orders to sir John Hotham, his father, a
gentleman of consequence in those parts, to assume the gov
ernment of the town of Hull in the king's name, but under
the condition of obeying no orders except such as should be
signified through the two houses of parliament.
A nearer care pressed in fact upon the mind of Charles at
this juncture, to which it appears that other objects were
sacrificed without reluctance : This was, the safe accomplish
ment of the queen's departure for Holland.
To persuade, if possible, France and the United Provinces
to make common cause in behalf of the king against the par
liament, and to provide arms, ammunition, and some recruits
of men, for the coming war, were the political objects of
this expedition ; the motives of Henrietta for undertaking it
in person were doubtless a vehement-scorn and hatred of the
puritans and the parliament, and a burning desire. of revenge
for the indignities which she regarded herself as having re
ceived from them, mingled with no small share of apprehen
sion for her -own safety ;-— a sentiment which that portion
of the ministry who viewed her influence over her husband's
counsels with a just alarm, may be suspected cf taking.some
pains to aggravate. The pretext for the journey was to con
duct the princess to her spouse the prince of Orange. To
Charles the separation was a severe trial. He determined
to escort the queen to Dover in person; and we have the
testimony of Madame de Motteville that it was the time
which he lost in this attendance which caused the miscar
riage ofhis design upon Hull. Even after her embarkation
he followed the coast four leagues to see her the longer.
The pecuniary embarrassment of the royal household was
at this time excessive ; the officers of the customs would ad
vance no money without the authority of parliament ; and
the queen was obliged to. melt down the plate of her cham
ber for the expenses-of .her journey. To defray -that of her
intended purchases of warlike stores, she carried away by
stealth the whole of the crown jewels, and sold or pawned
them in Holland.
At Canterbury, in his way to the coast, two bills of great,
but certainly not equal importance, were presented to Charles

163
for his assent : one for vesting in parliament the sole power
of the militia, through lord-lieutenants and deputies of its
own appointment, and also the command of all the fortresses
of the kingdom ; the other for taking away the votes of bish
ops in the house of lords. To the first, he declined giving
any immediate answer ; but the second, to the surprise of
friends and foes, he signed without apparent repugnance.
Clarendon ascribes this concession, which he highly disap
proves, chiefly to the counsels of sir John Colepepper ; who,
failing of persuading his master of the expediency or the jus-
tifiableness of such a sacrifice, repeated his arguments tothe
queen, with the addition " that he exceedingly apprehended,
that by some means or other, upon this refusal of the king's,
her majesty'sjourney would be stopped ; and that she would
not be suffered to transport -herself out of the kingdom ; and
therefore he heartily wished that she would so use her credit
with the king, that he might pass that act concerning the
bishops, which, he said, would lay- such an obligation upon
both houses as would redound to her majesty's advantage."*
Upon this he affirms that Henrietta importuned her husband
till he yielded the point.
The fact, however, that the bill was signed by Charles
when the royal pair had already reached Canterbury without
the slightest molestation on the part of the people, or remon
strance on that of the parliament, goes a good way towards
invalidating this statement, as far as the queen is concerned,
and leaves us to seek other motives for the act. Long before
this time, Charles had determined somewhere to make a stand
against the encroachments of the parliament ; he was even
aware that the ordinance for the militia, in other words the
power of the sword, now demanded from him, was that very
point on which, rather than recede, he must firmly plant his
foot and face the worst. Why then make a previous surren
der which must apparently cramp and weaken his Own posi
tion 1 The true solution appears to be, that this sacrifice of
the political existence of that order which had evinced a more
implicit devotedness to his will and his prejudices than any
other, was a concession made not so much to the sense of
parliament, as to the wishes, perhaps the demands, of the
lay portion of his own adherents ; who probably indulged the
hope, that the impending horrors of civil war might thus be
averted by a concession which, for the most part, they
* Life of Lorji Clarendon, p. 25.

164
Would have seen made, not with indifference only, but with
satisfaction : For the religious predilections of the king had
long since entailed upon the episcopal body no small share
of the odium which falls commonly to the lot of royal favor
ites. According to Clarendon, however, thisact was produc
tive of serious inconveniences to the king's affairs. It em
boldened those who sought the suppression of episcopacy it
self ; it made impression on others, whose minds were in sus
pense and shaken, as when foundations were dissolved. Be
sides, they that were best acquainted with the king's nature,
opinions and resolutions, had reason to believe, that no exi
gence could have wrought upon him to have consented to so
anti-monarchical an act, and therefore never after retained
any confidence that he, would deny what was importunately
asked." " But," adds this apologist of his prince, " I have
some cause to believe that  an opinion that the violence
and force" (meaning the- tumultuary petitions for the bill,)
"used in procuring it, rendered it absolutely invalid and
void, made the confirmation of it less considered, as not be
ing of strength to make that act good, which was in itself
null. And I doubt this logic hath had an influence upon
other acts of no less moment than these : but it was an erro
neous and unskilful suggestion ; for an act of parliament,
what circumstances soever concurred in the contriving and
framing it, will be always of too great reputation to be avoid-
¦ ed, or to be declared void, by the sole authority of any pri
vate persons, on the single power of the king himself."*
Here then we have a fresh and remarkable instance of the
employment of that miserable plea of force, or necessity, by
which Charles sought to reconcile to himself the deliberate
and anticipated breach of his plighted faith !
The last words of Henrietta to her husband on his sally
ing forth from Whitehall to seize the five members, are re
ported to have been ; " Go, pull those rogues out by the ears,
or never see my faee again !" The same spirit, rather than
any desire to render herself a .mediatrix, still pervaded her
conjugal exhortations ; and Charles, on her embarkation,
soothed her apprehensions of his failure in resolution by the
weak and fatal promise, that he would never come to terms
of agreement with his parliament without first apprising her.
It was on February the 23d that the queen and her daugh
ter set sail from Dover. Three days after, Charles returned
* Hist. Rebellion, ii. pp. 850, 252.

165
to Greenwich ; and here by his special command, and in de
fiance of the opposition of parliament, the marquis of Hert
ford attended him with the prince of Wales, in order to his
accompanying him further on his journey northwards. Pro
ceeding thence to Theobalds, where he was joined by several
adherents of rank and consequence, he immediately com
menced his progress through Royston and Newmarket to
wards York.
An incessant reciprocation of papers was maintained for
some time longer, between the king and parliament, — which,
although Charles still dissembled in some measure his warlike
resolutions and preparations, assumed, on both parts, more
and more the tone of manifestoes, the trumpets of a coming
war. At Theobalds he was met by an urgent petition of
both houses, entreating him at length to grant their necessary
demand respecting the militia, with an announcement, that
in case of his refusal, in these times of distraction, they
should be compelled, and were resolved, themselves tp dis
pose it for the safety of the kingdom in the manner which
had been propounded, to him. They further besought him to
return to his capital and parliament, and not to remove the
prince to a distance, and ended by informing him, as his
great council, that by the laws of England the power of rais
ing and ordering the militia within any city or town could not
be granted to any corporation, by charter or otherwise, with
out the authority of parliament. The last clause bore a
reference to a plot lately detected by them for placing the
London trained bands at the disposal of the king. A brief
answer was returned by Charles asserting his own preroga
tive in this matter, which the parliament voted a direct denial,
and confirmatory of all their apprehensions, and they pro
ceeded to instruct the lord-admiral to give directions for fit
ting out the fleet for the service of the commonwealth.
At Newmarket, Charles was doomed to receive from the
hands of two of his revolted courtiers, the earls of Pembroke
and Holland, a declaration of both houses reiterating many
of the topics of the grand remonstrance which had confront
ed him on his return from Scotland, with the addition of such
further topics of complaint as his rash counsels had since
supplied. His temper was not proof against this provoca
tion ; and, regardless of decorum, he interrupted the reading
of certain passages relative to the royal warrants granted for
the safe transportation of Jermyn and of Digby, by the ex
clamations, — " It was false, it was a lie ;" and he indignantly
Vol. II. 20

166
complained that this was only an upbraiding, not an invita
tion or persuasion of him to return to his parliament, adding,
"that in all Aristotle's rhetoric there was no such argument
of persuasion."* On being urged by Pembroke to concede
the militia for a time, he passionately replied : " By G — , not
for an hour !" His official answer appeared in the shape of
a printed declaration, probably from the pen of Hyde.
From Huntingdon he addressed on March the 15th, anoth
er message to both houses, communicating his intention to
make the city of York his place of residence for some time,
and earnestly requesting them to use all diligence in expedit
ing the affairs of Ireland, the reduction of which country he
professedto have extremely at heart. He concluded with say
ing, that as he had been ready to retract any act of his own
which as he had been informed trenched upon the privileges of
parliament, — he had in fact declared his abandonment of the
prosecution of the five members, — so he expected an equal
tenderness on their part towards his known prerogatives,
among which he was assurod that it Was a fundamental one,
that his subjects could not be obliged to obey any act, order,
or injunction to which he had not given his consent. The
parliament on receiving this message were highly exasperated.
They expressed their displeasure by a vote declaring those
persons who advised his majesty to absent himself from the
parliament and to send the above message, enemies to the
peace of the kingdom, and justly to be suspected for favorers
of the rebellion in Ireland ; and they further asserted, that
" when the lords and commons in parliament, which is the
supreme court of judicature in the kingdom, should declare
what the law of the land is, — to have that not only questioned
and controverted, but contradicted, was a high breach of the
privilege of parliament."!
In these decisive votes, and especially in one which de
clared the ordinance for the defence of the kingdom to be no
violation of the oath of allegiance, but what was to be obeyed
as a fundamental law, — whilst the king's commands respect
ing the lieutenancy of the counties were to be held -illegal and
void, — the parliament, says Whitelock, " received great en
couragement and confirmation from the opinions of several
members of the house of commons, as Pym, Hampden, Hollis,
Stapleton ; and of lawyers, St. John, Corbet, L'Isle, and divers
others, and chiefly from the confident opinion of the lord keeper
* May, p. 105. f May, p, 106.

167
Littleton concurring with them. Others, who went along with
them, were not yet clear of this opinion."* The case, in fact,
was as new, as it was momentous, and not to be decided by any
reference to precedents or year-books. The letter of the law
could as little authorize the exercise of authority over the
military force of the kingdom by the legislature in opposition
to the king, as its spirit could sanction the exertion of such
authority bythe king in opposition to the legislature, and
with hostile intentions against his own subjects. A crisis had
now arisen which the law could not contemplate, and in
which the purest lovers of the constitution found themselves
compelled to make their appeaUo the fundamental principles
of political society.
On his first arrival at York, Charles wa3 attended by no
other ostensible minister than secretary Nicholas ; the trium
virate who exercised most influence over his counsels, Falk
land, Hyde and Colepepper, still continuing in London to
perform certain secret services for their master, and to watch
the proceedings of the house of commons, where however
they only ventured to be seen one, or rarely two, at a time ;
having received intimations of a design on the part of the
leaders to send them to the Tower as delinquents, or malig-
nants, the first time that all three together should appear in
their places. Of the nature of their occupations, Hyde him
self supplies us with some memorable particulars.
So long before as the king's first removal to Hampton
Court, he had issued summonses to all such officers of his
household as possessed seats in either house, to give their at
tendance upon his person. The earl of Essex was promptly
preparing, as lord-chamberlain, to obey this mandate ; — ac
cording to Hyde he was already equipped in his travelling
dress, — when his cousin the earl of Holland, who, as groom
of the stole was included in the orders, entered, and strongly
dissuaded him from repairing to the court, affirming that both
of tbem, if they went, would be assassinated : — A suspicion,
it may be remarked, which,'coming from a person so inti
mately acquainted with the ways of the court, speaks volumes,
and seems to bear especially on the character of those par-
tizans, with Digby at their head, by whom the royal pair were
at this juncture surrounded. Yielding to the suggestion, Es
sex joined with his kinsman in representing their case to the
parliament, by whom they were commanded to attend the
* Whitelook, p. 57.

168
business of the upper house as their more urgent duty, even
to the king himself. These defections were deeply resented,
especially that of Holland, by his ancient patroness the queen,
who regarded his conduct, on this and other late occasions,
as the height of perfidy and ingratitude. It had been one
article of her parting exhortation to her husband, that he
should strip this offender of his office and banish him the
court, without which she declared that she herself would never
return to it more. The injunction was not forgotten ; and
Charles, further exasperated by the appearance of Holland
at Newmarket as joint bearer of the offensive declaration
above mentioned, was no sooner settled at York and cheered
by the appearance of a considerable body of adherents, than
he transmitted orders to the lord keeper to " require the staff
and key from the one and the other, and receive them into
his custody." " The keeper," pursues Hyde, " trembled at
the office, and had not courage to undertake it." He repaired
immediately to lord Falkland, whom he begged to assist him
in making his excuses to the king : It was a business, he plead
ed, unsuited to his office, and which had never been imposed
on a lord keeper before. Should he execute it, the house
would vote it a breach of privilege in him, being a peer, and
commit him to prison, which would be the greatest affront to
his majesty, whereas the thing itself might be done without
inconvenience by a more proper officer. These excuses of
the lord keeper, together with the expressions of attachment
to the royal service by which they were qualified, were trans
mitted by lord Falkland to the king, who, in reply, desired
him to take the business upon himself. " The lord Falkland
was a little troubled in receiving the command: they were
persons from whom he had always received great civilities,
and with whom he had much credit ; and this harsh office
might have been more naturally, and as effectually, perform
ed by a gentleman-usher."* Yet he conceived obedience
his duty ; and meeting with the two earls going to the
house of lords, he delivered his message to them both together.
After a few moments of previous conference with each other,
lords Essex and Holland accordingly surrendered their insig
nia of office into his hands, with few words, and then pursued
their way to the house, where the circumstance was com-
me?t?d "P01* with bitter expressions against evil counsellors ;
and both houses concurred in a vote that whosoever presum-
* Hist. Rebellion, ii. 331, et seq.

169
ed to accept of either of those offices, should be reputed an
enemy to his country.
These dismissals Hyde accounted exceedingly impolitic, as
likely to drive to extremities two men of weight and influence,
whom it might still have been in the power of the king by ju
dicious management to have regained ; the manner of them
likewise was rash and unnecessarily irritating ; and we may re
mark that it somewhat lessens lord Falldand to have thus made
himself the instrument of his master's choler : But service of
a not less dubious nature was undertaken by Hyde himself.
Aware of the improbability of his return to London, the king
• had now become extremely anxious to see within his own reach
and control that instrument to which, by the maxims of the
English law, a kind of mysterious or symbolical importance
has always been attached, — the great seal. With the keeper
of it he was also extremely displeased on various grounds. On
the attainder of Strafford lord Littleton had declined to vote
or take a part, although it was at the special request of that
minister, and in consideration of the professional services
which he expected from him, that the office of lord keeper
and a peerage had just been conferred upon him ; from the
time of the disastrous attempt ou the five members he had de
cidedly opposed the politics of the court ; and to fill the
measure of his offences, we have seen him affording to the
parliamentary ordinance for the militia the support of his legal
opinion. Charles, for these causes, was bent on depriving
him of his office ; and in his doubt where to find an eligi
ble successor, he turned his thoughts towards sir John
Banks, chief-justice of the common pleas, and even towards
Selden, pledged as he had long been to the cause of the par
liament, as persons whose inclinations might be sounded on
the occasion. Hyde and his coadjutors warmly opposed
this project. They judged Banks unfit for the office, and
Selden unlikely to accept of it ; and they endeavored to con
vince the king that if the lord keeper were in reality as stren
uously on the side of the parliament as his majesty appre
hended, he would certainly refuse to deliver up the seals on
demand, and throw himself on the approbation and protec
tion of the two houses, — an event exceedingly to be depre
cated. Hyde further declared, that to his own knowledge
the lord keeper was loyal at heart, and that if time were giv
en, he had little doubt of prevailing upon him in the end to
join the king at York. He tells us that he had already near
ly succeeded in determining the alarmed and hesitating lord

170
keeper to this step, when the king, in one of his sudden
starts of resolution, dispatched one Elliot, a bold and forward
gentleman, with positive orders to go straight to the lord
keeper, and in his name demand and bring away the seals.
In what manner this commission <was executed is somewhat
doubtful. Elliot, on producing the seals to the king, boasted
that he had extorted them by threats and the exhibition of
loaded pistols ; the lord keeper, on the other hand, affirmed
that he had voluntarily surrendered them, and this statement
is supported by Hyde. Be this as it. might, it was evident
that the lord keeper had so exposed himself by this act to
the indignation of the parliament, that a retreat was his only-
means of safety, and early on the following morning he be
gan in great secrecy his journey towards York. By this step
he indeed secured to-himself the possession of his high office,
of which the king at Hyde's intercession forbore to deprive
him ; but by the usual fate of the half-honest and half-re
solved in times and circumstances too solemn to admit of
compromises and middle courses, he found that he had irrc-
missibly offended one party, without securing the gratitude or
the confidence, of the other. The king said " he liked not
his humors, nor knew what to make of him ;" he therefore
treated him with open disregard, and never ceased to com
plain of the objections and hesitation which he opposed to all
the strong party measures in which his concurrence was re
quired. Littleton on the other hand, distracted with doubts,
fears and scruples, dissatisfied- with the part he had taken but
unable to retract, lost all presence of mind, and even forfeit
ed, in appearance, his established character for professional
ability. He followed in the. royal train more like a hostage
than a great officer of state ; and ended two or three years
afterwards at Oxford the miserable career of one who, in the
words of lord Bacon, " has followed at the funerals of his
own reputation."
Finding nothing further to detain him in London, it now
became Hyde's first care to make good his escape from the
jurisdiction of the parliament. With this view he had retired,
under the plea of sickness, to the house of the lady Lee, at
Ditchley, When news was brought him of the retreat of the lord
keeper, and of a design of some parliamentary leaders to im
peach himself of high-treason as the adviser of the step. On
this, judging it, as he says, " time to be gone ;" and being utter
ly unacquainted with the way, having never been in the north
ern parts, and apprehensive that there would be care taken to

171
intercept him if he went in any common road ; he entreated
Mr. Chillingworth to be his guide, whom he had sent for
from Oxford for the purpose, and who was " well acquainted
with those ways which led almost as far as Yorkshire." They
accordingly sent on their horses over-night to a village near
Coventry, thirty miles off, where Mr. Chillingworth's brother
had a farm, and whither the lady Lee's coach-and-six convey
ed them the next day. Then taking their horses, they that
night, " out of all roads, reached Lutterworth, a village in
Leicestershire," where they were kindly received by the cler
gyman of the parish, also a friend of Mr. Chillingworth's.
-Passing in the same manner through Derbyshire, they entered
Yorkshire and rested at Nostall, the house of sir John Wors-
tenholm, about twenty miles from York, where Hyde re
mained secreted for some time longer, with the knowledge
and approbation of the king, and closely occupied in prepar
ing answers in his name to the papers of the parliament.*
The motive of this concealment appears to have been his ap
prehension of a summons from the house to return to his duty
in parliament, and of the further proceedings against him
there, to which his unavoidable refusal would give occasion.
Nothing in fact is more evident, ona close survey of contem
porary documents, than that all the men of discernment
who at this crisis gave their adherence te the royal cause,
did so with fear and trembling ; doubtful of the intentions, dis
trustful of the judgment, the firmness, and even the integri
ty of their master, and all but dispondent of his ultimate suc
cess. We have seen secretary Nicholas fearful of corres
ponding freely with him respecting the designs of the parlia
mentary chiefs ; the lord keeper hesitating to put the seal to
proclamations designed to repress their enterprises by branding
them as treasonable ; and it appears that the king on leaving
London, in order to engage the pen of Hyde in his service,
had found it necessary solemnly to engage to transcribe with
his own hand all the papers he should send him, and destroy
the originals, without communicating them toa single individ
ual. And to this engagement Charles was religiously true,
although, as Hyde himself, observes, it " had been a wonderful
task he had imposed on himself, so that he always spent
more than half the day shut up by himself in his cham
ber writing." At length, however, in the month of June the
king found it necessary to command the attendance of his
* Lift of Lord Clarendon, part ii. p. 30.

172
mysterious secretary at York, and this restraint ceased of
course. On the subject of the services performed by Hyde and his
two friends to the king, whilst they still remained with the par
liament and transmitted to him constant intelligence of its
proceedings, a notice respecting the conveyance of their corres
pondence seems remarkable enough for transcription. " It
was a wonderful expedition that was then used between York
and London, when gentlemen undertook the service, as enough
were willing to do : Insomuch, as when they dispatched a
letter on Saturday night at that time of the year, about twelve
at night, they received always the king's answer Monday, by-
ten of the clock in the morning."*
The immediate presence of the king had a considerable
effect in calling forth demonstrations of attachment to his per
son, though not entirely to his cause, from the northern coun
ties. On his arrival at York he had been received with every
token of respect by the general body of persons of rank and
fortune in the neighborhood ; at the assizes, on April the 3rd,
he was presented with a loyal address from the gentry, cler
gy, and freeholders, in which, however, sorrow for the prevail
ing distractions was strongly expressed, and he was entreated
to propound some expedients which might take away all mis
understandings between himself and his great council. But
neither these appearances, nor even the arrival of many mem
bers of both houses who had resolved to act no more with the
parliament, was any effective counterbalance to the great de
feat which he soon after sustained in a struggle respecting
the command of the fleet.
We have seen orders addressed by parliament to lord-ad
miral the earl of Northumberland, for the immediate arming
of the ships-of-war, which was accompanied by an invitation
to the commanders of merchantmen to follow the example ;
but the lord-admiral, one of those noblemen of whom there
were many, who sought as long as possible to avoid declaring
themselves on either side, declined to act, on the plea of indis
position. The parliament entertained the design of procur
ing the appointment of the earl of Warwick as his substitute ;
but whilst the affair was in agitation, the king nominated sir
John Pennington. The two houses, by a message, immedi
ately requested that Warwick might be preferred ; but the
king persisted in his choice. On this, the parliament made
* Life of Lord Clarendon, part ii. p. 29.

173
application to the lord-admiral to yest his authority in the earl
of Warwick notwithstanding, and were- by him obeyed.
Warwick repaired instantly to his post, and by his activity
and popular qualities, exerted in a cause which seems to have
been already their favorite, so wrought upon the seamen, that
the whole fleet, without a single exception, was permanently
secured on the side of the parliament. Warwick, it may be
noted, was the brother of the earl of Holland, and suspected
by the king of being-influenced by him in taking this decided
part. Charles on his arrival at York had notified his intention of
raising troops to go in. person to the relief of Ireland, and
arming them out of the magazines at Hull : the parliament
on the other hand, distrustful of this pretext, had sent vessels
to bring away the stores for the purpose of strengthening
the Tower of London ; a step which led to that memorable
enterprise on the part of the king which may be^ regarded
as the immediate precursor, or rather the commencement, of
civil war. Sir John Hotham, to whom it has been already
mentioned that the government of the important port of Hull
had been committed by the parliament, had previously borne
the like charge as one of the deputy-lieutenants of Yorkshire
under lord Strafford ; but notwithstanding the earnest and
reiterated intercessions of this minister, wbo.said that he would
answer for his fidelity with his life, he had been superseded by
Captain Legg, a person- of very inferior rank and pretensions,
but a favorite at court, as afterwards appeared by his being
intrusted with a confidential part in the army-plot. By this
slight the temper of Hotham, described by Strafford as cap
tious,, had no doubt been highly inflamed, and his after-con
duct seems to warrant us in, ascribing to this private pique,
more than to public principle, the part which he sustained on
this memorable occasion.
By way of preparative for his enterprise, the king, on the
night of April the 22nd, sent the young duke of York with
his nephew the prince Palatine and other persons of rank in
to Hull, where Hotham received them courteously. Early
the next morning, he himself proceeded from York on horse
back, attended by two or three hundred of his servants, Legg
being of the number, and the gentlemen of the county ; and
when arrived within a mile of Hull, sent a messenger to the
governor to acquaint him that he would dine with him that
day. Confused by the unexpected notice, Hotham called to
council some of the magistrates and officers of the town,
Vol. II. 21

174
whose political feelings induced them to persuade or encour
age him to deny the king entrance. In consequence he dis
patched an express with a request to his majesty to decline
the purposed visit, since he could not, without betraying the
trust committed to him, open the gates to so great a train as
that by which the king was attended. Charles continued
nevertheless to advance ; on learning which, Hotham order
ed the gates to be shut, the bridges to be drawn up, the in
habitants to confine themselves within their houses, and the
soldiers to stand to their arms round the walls. When the
king, en arriving at the Beverley gate, found all things thus
prepared for a hostile reception, he called for the governor,
and commanded him on his allegiance to open the gate and
admit his sovereign. Hotham in return tendered many ex
pressions of duty and loyalty, but persisted in his refusal,
although the king would have consented to enter with only
twenty of his attendants, leaving the rest on the outside.
Charles then invited him to come and hold a conference
without the gates, pledging bis royal word for his personal
security and liberty of return ; but from this also he excused
himself; on which the king, highly indignant, told him, that
as his action was unparalleled, some extraordinary result
must be expected from it ; that it was impossible for him to
sit down with such an insult, and that he should immediately
-proclaim him a traitor and treat him as such. After some
further parleying, in which Hotham defended his conduct on
the ground of the trust reposed in him by the parliament, at
the same time upon his knees imprecating a curse on him
self and his family if he were not a loyal and faithful subject
to his majesty, he still fiimly adhered to his first resolution.
The king, retiring from the gate, gave him an hour more to
deliberate; but rinding him on his return unaltered in his
purpose, he caused two heralds to proclaim the governor of
Hull a traitor, and all who obeyed him guilty of high-treason.
The duke of York and prince Palatine then leaving the town
joined the king, who withdrew for the night to Beverley.
On the following morning he sent a herald to Hotham again
summoning him to open his gates, with a promise of pardon
on his compliance. This application proving ineffectual, he
returned, much disconcerted, to York.
For the purpose of bringing matters to a further issue,
Charles now dispatched an express to both houses, acquaint
ing them with what had passed at Hull, and demanding jus
tice against the governor, who had pretended to act in conse-

175
quence of their orders. This message was soon followed by
another, in which he expressed impatience for an answer, and
required them to take some speedy course for the delivery of
the town and magazine into his hands, and. the punishment
of those persons who had offered him so insupportable an af
front. If, he said, he was to be brought into a condition so
much worse than that of any of his subjects as to be robbed
of his privileges and spoiled of his goods without redress, it
was time to examine how he had lost those privileges, and to
try all possible ways to recover them. The parliament, ab-.
staining from all direct reply to these communications, pass
ed a resolution ; " That sir John Hotham had done nothing
but in obedience to the command of both houses of parlia
ment ; and that the declaring of him a traitor, being a mem
ber of the house of commons, was a high breach of the pri
vilege of parliament, and being without due process of law,
was against the liberty bf the subject, and against the law of
the land." Information being received, that a letter sent to
the parliament from Hull the night after the king's visit, had
been intercepted by some of his servants, they further de
clared, that all such intercepting of letters sent to them was
a high breach of privilege, for which they were bound to
bring the perpetrators to condign punishment. They also
made an order, that the sheriffs, justices, and all other offi
cers of the counties of York and' Lincoln, should suppress
all forces gathered together either to force the town of Hull,
or to stop the passages to and- from it, or in any other way to
disturb the peace of the kingdom.
On May the 5th the parliament issued a declaration, in
which after mentioning the king's refusal to give his assent to
an amended bill for settling the militia, they stated their re
solution to carry into present execution their own ordinance
formerly passed for putting the people into a posture of de
fence ; and in consequence their warrants and directions for
exercising the militia were sent out into all parts.
The king in an elaborate reply strictly forbade his subjects
to muster or array under color of the parliament's " pre
tended ordinance," and he summoned a county meeting at
York for the purpose of promoting the levy of a guard for
his own person. The success of this step, however, was
very equivocal. The freeholders, whom it had been judged
prudent to exelude from the assembly, met on Heyworth
moor many thousands strong and drew up a warm remon
strance and petition, asserting their right to be present, and

176
desiring that the king would agree with his parliament. This
petition was laid on the pommel of the king's saddle by sir
Thomas Fairfax. Even the leading men of the county were
much divided ; one troop of horse, however, was formed of
the gentry who were pleased to enlist under the nominal com
mand of the little prince of Wales, and a foot regiment of
six hundred was formed out of the trained bands, whose af
fections to the cause were at best doubtful.
On intelligence of these royal levies, the parliament pass
ed three votes, which they dispersed throughout the kingdom,
representing that the king, sedueed by wicked counsel, in
tended to make war against the parliament ;— that such war
would be a breach of trust on his part, contrary to his oath,
and tending to a dissolution of the government; — and that
whoever should serve him in it would be traitors and deserv
ing of death. Meantime they were not negligent in execut
ing their own ordinance; and on May the 10th a general
muster was made of the London trained bands. Major-gene
ral Skippon appeared in Finsbury fields at the head of about
eight thousand men, distributed in six regiments, all under
commanders who could be^ confided in by the parliament.
The members of both houses were present in tents prepared
for them, and a grand entertainment was given to the com
pany at the expense of the city.
On June the 1st the king published his commission of array
for Yorkshire ; and on the following day his spirits were cheer
ed by news of the arrival of a small vessel dispatched by the
queen from Holland with arms and ammuniton, which, baf
fling the pursuit of some of the earl of Warwick's cruisers,
had run up a creek of the Hnmber, and deposited her cargo
in a place whence it was some time afterwards safely con
veyed to York by the trained bands drawn together under his
majesty's orders. The supply was in itself insignificant ; of
money, which the king expected, there was none ; but the
fame of the arrival, and the expectation of more, gave it
importance. In the mean time intrigue and faction were buisy in the
court of York ; and to the opposite views and alternate prev
alence of two parties, which may be contradistinguished as the
constitutional friends of monarchy, and the ultra faction of the
queen, to which the king also was greatly inclined, some of the
most remarkable vacillations in the royal counsels are seem
ingly to be imputed. The bold and restless spirit of lord
Digby, the leader of the queen's party, was soon weary of

177
the monotory of exile ; and no sooner had he learned the
king's arrival at York, than he secretly quitted Holland and
joined him under the character of a Frenchman, in so perfect
a disguise that he was not recognised even by his father. In
this state he had several audiences of the king, who received
him with favor ; but his own indiscretion having discovered
him to the whole city, not only those opposed to him, but
even his best friends and Charles himself began to wish him
away, on account of the additional impediment which his pre
sence would oppose to an accommodation with the parlia
ment. Accordingly sir John Colepepper, on pretence of the
necessity of his exertions to expedite the preparations of the
queen, prevailed upon him to set out on his return to Hol
land ; and Digby engaged several of his fellow-actors in the
army-plot, declared traitors by the parliament, who like him
self had repaired to York, to accompany him in his banish
ment, in order " to fetch some fire from the queen to warm
the king's affections towards them." Off the Humber, their
bark was captured by the same cruisers from which the
queen's ammunition ship was then making its escape ; and
Digby himself and Ashburnham were taken and carried
before the governor of Hull. The disguise and the extraor
dinary presence of mind and address of Digby, had preserved
his person from detection, but he voluntarily discovered him
self to sir John Hotham for the purpose of tampering with
him to betray his garrison to the king. To this Hotham
agreed ; and Digby, whom- he contrived to liberate, carried
to York a secret message importing his willingness to deliver
up Hull to any force sufficient for a pretext which his ma
jesty should bring to take possession of it.*
But the sinews of war were still wanting on the royal side.
Clarendon asserts, but certainly not wifh perfect correct
ness, that " the king had not at that time one barrel of pow
der, nor one musket, nor any other provision necessaiy for
an army ; and, which was worse, was not sure of any port
to which they might be securely assigned ; nor had he money
for the support of his own table for one month. He expect
ed with impatience the arrival of all those by the care and ac
tivity of the queen." Moreover, although a great proportion
of the peers, and no small one of the members of the house
of commons, had now joined him at York, he was not cer
tain of the support of any considerable body of his subjects
* Hist. Reiellion, vol. iii. Append. C.

178
in the event of his pushing matters to the extremity of a civil
war, which many of his soundest counsellors believed it might
still be in his power to avert.
-For, the present therefore it was his policy to put forth de
clarations of his own moderate and constitutional views, and
to appear solely intent on self-defence ; and we find him re
quiring the~ attestation of his council and chief adherents to
a very extraordinary denial on the subject of his warlike de
signs and preparations. It was couched in the following
terms, and signed on June the 15th.
"We whose names are underwritten, in obedience to his
majesty's desire, and out of the duty which we owe to his
majesty's honor, and to truth, being hereupon the place, and
witnesses of his majesty's frequent and earnest declarations
and professions of his abhorring -all designs ef making war
upon his -parliament; and not seeing any color of prepara
tions or counsels that might reasonably beget the belief of any
such designs, do profess before God, and testify to all the
world, that we are fully persuaded that his majesty hath no
such intention'; but that all his endeavors tend to the firm
and constant settlement of the true protestant religion ; the
just privileges of parliament ; the liberty of the subject ; the
law, peace, and prosperity of this kingdom."
And to this false declaration- foity peers or great officers of
state, in which number it is mortifying to find lord, Falkland
included, were induced to set their hands !
It should be noted, that Charles had already named- the
earl of Lindsey,. lord-chamberlain, his general of the army,
and declared sir Jacob Ashley major-general of the foot, re
serving the command of the horse for prince Rupert, his ne
phew, who was daily expected from Holland. He had also
caused- the commission of array to be published in Leicester
shire for four days before the date of this declaration.
The parliament were not betrayed into any relaxation of
their activity, by words which the evidence of facts so strongly
contradicted. Already, on June 10th, after a liberal sub
scription from their own members, they had issued proposals
for the bringing in of money and plate iu order to maintain
troops for the preservation of the public peace ; — the style
they thought proper to employ, although the reason alleged
for such levies was the king's intention of making war upon
his parliament. In consequence of this call upon the public,
such quantities of plate were brought in to the appointed
treasurers in London, that hands were scarcely found suffi-

179
cient to receive it, or space in which to deposit it. Such was
the zeal of the female sex, in particular, that many of the
lower class offered even their bodkins and their wedding rings,
whence the parliament's army were jeeringly called by their
antagonists " the thimble and bodkin troops." Loans of
money on the public faith were likewise brought in to a great
amount by the exertions of the zealous ministers and others.
The king was supplied with money, but probably to a
smaller amount, by contributions from the nobility and gen
try of his party, and some time after, by a loan from the uni
versity of Oxford.
Charles having" frequently called upon the parliament
for specific propositions as the basis of an agreement, they,
on June 17th, presented to him in the form of a petition
their final terms under nineteen heads, a summary of which
may here find a plaee, as the most correct exposition of the
views and objects of the party with which they originated.
— That the privy councillors and all the great officers of state,
excepting such-as should be approved by parliament, shall be
removed, and that those who are to take their places shall
have the approbation of parliament, and taker an oath agreed
upon by both houses : That all the great affairs of the king
dom shall be debated and transacted in parliament, and no
where else, nor by unofficial advisers : That the principal of
ficers of state (enumerated) shall always be chosen with the
approbation of parliament, and in its intervals by the major
part of the council : That the persons to whom the educa
tion of the king's children shall be committed shall be approv
ed by parliament, and that no marriages between them and
any foreign princes or other persons shall be concluded with
out its consent: That the laws against Jesuits, priests, and
popish recusants shall be strictly put in execution without tol
eration or dispensation : That the votes of popish peers shall
be taken away, and the royal assent be given to a bill for ed
ucating the children of papists in the protestant religion :
That such a reformation be made in the church government
and liturgy as parliament shall advise : That his majesty shall
agree to the plan for ordering the militia appointed by parlia
ment, till the same be further settled', by a bill : That such
members of either house as had been put out of place or of
fice during the present parliament shall be restored or duly
satisfied : That all privy councillors and judges may take an
oath for maintaining the petition of right, and certain statutes
passed in this parliament, and that an inquiry into all breaches

180
of those laws: may be given in charge by justices and
judges at assizes and sessions, to be presented and punished
accoidingto law : That judges and other officers approved by
parliament may hold their places during good behavior :
That the justice of parliament be done upon all delinquents,
and that all persons cited by either house appear and abide
their censure : That the general pardon offered by the king
be granted, with such exceptions as shall be advised by par
liament : That all forts -and castles be put under the command
of persons appointed by the king with the approbation of
parliament: That the extraordinary guards" and forces now
attending the king be discharged, and no others levied but in
cases of actual invasion or insurrection : That his majesty
enter into a more strict alliance with the United Provinces
and other protestant states and princes: That lord Kimbolton
and the five members of the house of commons be cleared by
act of parliament in such manner as that future parliaments
may be secured from the consequences of that precedent :
That a bill be passed restraining peers hereafter from sitting
and voting unless admitted by consent of both houses of par
liament. Whether or not the parliament had in these articles de
manded more than was necessary to secure themselves and
the nation from the future enterprises of a king on whose
adherfence to his previous concessions they believed that no re
liance could be placedj it is evident that they were such as he
could not be expected to submit to, except as the conse
quences of atotal defeat ; and they were rejected by Charles
in an answer expressive of high disdain.
He protested that if he were both vanquished and a pris
oner, in worse condition than any the most unfortunate of
his predecessors had ever been reduced to, he would never
stoop so low as to grant those demands, and " to make him
self, of a king of England, a duke of Venice."
The interchange of papers was not terminated even by this
declaration ; but the warlike preparatives of both parties
were carried on without relaxation, and by such equal steps,
that neither could justly throw upon the other the odium of
being the first to violate the public peace. The king dis
patched several of the nobility and gentry attending him
into their respective counties, in order to execute his commis
sion of array when and where they should find it expedient,
and he constituted the earl, now made marquis of Hertford,
his lieutenant-general in all the Western counties. The par-

181
Kament, having nataried a committee of safety consisting of
five lords and ten commoners, voted on July the 14th that
an army should be raised, that the earl of Essex should be
their general, and that they would live and die with him.
They nominated the earl of Bedford their general of the
horse, and regiments, in several instances raised by them
selves, were placed under the command of the most eminent
parliamentary leaders, amongst whom were lords Kimbolton
and Brook, Hampden, Hollis, and Cromwell.
The personal activity of Charles was at all times consider
able, and never more conspicuous than at this crisis, when he
also displayed a good deal of the arts of conciliation. Think
ing the- time nearly arrived for putting to the proof the en
gagements of Hotham for the delivery of Hull, he caused
lord Lindsay to take post at Beverley with a body of three
thousand foot and one thousand horse, intended to form the
siege ; but in the mean time turning his own attention to
other points, within the course of three weeks, according to
the statement of a parliamentarian writer, he " both in his
own person and by his messengers, with speeches, proclama
tions and declarations, advanced his business in a wonderful
manner. At Newark he made a speech to the gentlemen of
Nottinghamshire in a loving and winning way, commending
their affections towards him ; which was a great part of the
persuasion for the future, coming from a king himself. An
other speech he made at Lincoln, to the gentry of that coun
ty, full of protestations concerning his good iatentions, not
only to them, but to the whole kingdom, the laws and liber
ties of it."* According to Clarendon however, his success on
this canvass, as it might be called, was by no means unmin-
gled. From Nottingham, he says that the king proceeded to
Leicester, " where he heard the earl of Stamford and some
other parliament men were execsting the ordinance of the
militia : but before his majesty came thither, they removed
themselves to Northampton, a town so true to them as, if
they had bean pursued, would have shut their gates against
the king himself, as Hull had done." At Leicester, it is
stated that the king was received with great expressions of
duty and loyalty, but yet that two incidents occurred, which
made it manifest that if he were loved as he ought, the par
liament was more feared than he. One was, the difficulty
which he found to procure the removal of a magazine of
* May's Hist, of the Long Parliament, p. 133.
Vol. II. 22

182
arms and ammunition brought into the town by lord Stam
ford and his assistants for the training of their levies, and left
there under the custody of twenty-five men, whom his ma
jesty had no force to oppose ; but which, after he had appli
ed in vain on the subject to the judge on circuit and the
sheriff, the gentlemen of the county, who had not yet de
clared themselves except by waiting on his majesty, caused
at length to be withdrawn. The other respected the noted
Dr. Bastwiek, who, having quitted the town with lord Stam
ford, under whom he had taken a commission and engaged
in making levies, was overtaken and seized by some of his
majesty's servants, and committed by the sheriff as a traitor.
Charles, desirous of making him an example, would have
had him indicted of high-treason under the statute of Ed
ward III. at the assizes then going on ; but the judge be
sought his majesty not to put a matter of so great moment,
upon which the power of the two houses of parliament, and
a parliament sitting, must be determined, upon one single
judge ;" but to cause the law in that case, which he took to
be treasonable, to be declared by all the twelve, which
might do good ; " whereas the publishing of his particular
opinion could only destroy himself, and nothing advance his
majesty's service." He likewise intimated his doubts wheth
er a jury then suddenly summoned would have courage to
find the bill; and on the last suggestion the king gave up
this idea. But when the judge and the gentlemen of the
county, including those who were most loyal, waited upon
him, on the night before his return northwards, with a re
quest that he would liberate his prisoner, or suffer the judge
to do so upon his habeas corpus, Charles told them " he would
think of it till the next morning;" and in the meantime
" directed a messenger of the chamber very early, with such
assistance as the sheriff should give him, to carry him away
to Nottingham ; and by the help of that sheriff to the gaol
at York : which was executed accordingly with expedition
and secrecy," for fear of a rescue.*
On his return to Beverly, Charles found a letter from lord
Digby, who had returned in disguise to Hull, announcing his
disappointment in finding Hotham much shaken in his resolu
tion by unexpected difficulties : He had sounded his officers,
but they were " of a temper not to be relied upon ;" his
son, with whom he was at variance, had grown jealous of
* Hist. Rebellion, iii. 145 et seq.

183
some design and was counterworking it ; and new officers,
and fresh supplies of men in whose principles they could con
fide, had been sent by parliament to aid in the defence. Un
der these circumstances, Digby justly doubted whether he
should be able to reengage the governor in the enterprize ;
and in fact the king, after blood had been drawn in a sally
from the town headed by sir John Meldrum and his fresh
troops, was compelled to give over the design ; " all hope
from the governor growing desperate." Hotham, however, ira
proof of his loyalty, dismissed in safety both Digby and Ash
burnham ; an act which increased the parliament's suspicions
of his fidelity and was afterwards very fatal to him.
The king now " dismissed the trained bands, and returned
with his court to York, in so much less credit than when he
came from thence, as the entering upen a war without power
or preparation to prosecute it was like to produce."* Almost
immediately after, however, his own spirits and those of
his party were raised again by the news that Goring had be
trayed the trust unwisely reposed in him by the parliament as
governor of Portsmouth, and after strengthening that important
place with fresh troops and fortifications, had declared for the
king. This event had long been secretly expected and waited
for by Charles, and he immediately sent off the marquis of
Hertford at the head of several gentlemen of quality and in
fluence in the West, to raise troops there for the relief of
Goring. He next issued a proclamation declaring the earl
of Essex and all who should adhere to him or the parliament
traitors and rebels, and a few days after another requiring all
men who could bear arms to repair to him at Nottingham,
where it was his intention on August the 23rd te erect his
royal standard. Between these two proclamations, there was
another, says Clarendon, " of seeming contrary tendency,"!
for bidding all popish recusants, or others who had not taken
the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, to resort to the royal
army, and disclaiming the service of any such : A piece of
very ill-advised hypocrisy, since it could not but give some dis
gust to the catholics, who were all on the king's side, whilst
it was likely to irritate rather than appease the jealousies of
his own protestant adherents, when they perceived, as they
speedily did, that in no instance were the services of catholics
declined who came as volunteers, and that even commissions
in the army were freely granted them.
* Hist. Rebellion, iii. 171. f Hist, RebeUion, iii. Append, p. 610.

184

CHAPTER XXIV.
1642.
State of commotion throughout the country. — Uncertain prospects
qf the two parties. — Nottinghamshire for the king, — its princi
pal leaders. — Recruits come in slowly to the king. — The Fair
faxes and the king. — Coventry shuts its gates against him. —
Erection qf the royal standard. — The king compelled lo send
proposals forpeace, which end in nothing. — Account of prince
Rupert. — Formation of the royal army. — Essex assembles his
army at Northampton. — Origin of the names of Cavalier and
Roundhead. — The king marches for Shrewsbury, — his rendez
vous at Wellington, and address to his army. — Enlistment of
catholics. — Letter of lord Spencer. — First success qf Rupert.
— Improvement of the king's affairs. — He sets up a mint. —
Equipment of his troops. — Their regiments and commanders. —
He marches into Warwickshire. — Essex advances to meet the
king. — Alarm of the parliament. — London fortified. — Battle of
Edgehill. — Death and character of the carl of Lindsey. — An
ecdote of sir Edmund Verney. — Hostility of the peasantry to
the king's troops. — Essex marches lo Warwick. — Advance of the
king. — Banbury castle surrendered lo him. — He reaches Ox
ford. — Proceeds to Reading. — Plundering expeditions of Ru
pert. — Defensive measures of parliament. — They make overtures
for a treaty. — Deceitful conduct of the king. — Fight of Brent
ford. — The parliament' s army drawn up on Turnham Green. —
The king retreats to Reading, thence to Oxford for the winter.
— Consequences of the affair of Brentford. — The king causes
his prisoners to be tried. — Reprisals threatened.
THE whole kingdom was now a scene of bustle, tumult and
commotion. The crisis was come ; the king was arrayed on
one side, the parliament on the other ; the nation was di
vided against itself; and the fratricidal war was not only
declared but begun. Long as this extremity had been pre
paring, it seemed at last to come upon all men with a kind of
surprise ; from words to deeds is in such a case a great and
astounding transition. " It is strange to note," said Whitelock
in a parliamentary debate/especting the levy of troops, " how
we have insensibly slid into this beginning of a civil war by

185
one unexpected accident after another, as waves of the sea,
which have brought us thus far : And we scarce know how ;
but from paper combats, by declarations, remonstrances, pro
testations, votes, messages, answers and replies ; we are now
come to the queslion of raising forces, and naming a general
and officers of an army."*
Good and moderate men still clung, as a last hope, to the
notion that a show alone of arms would suffice to bring to
terms the high contending parties ; but that fatal opinion of
the utter insincerity of the king in all his concessions with
which the parliamentary leaders were indelibly impressed, —
by impelling them to demand, for the safety of the nation and
their own, terms which would have left him little more than a
pageant in the state, — not only rendered all present agree
ment impracticable ; but made it too evident to men of sa
gacity, that a severe humiliation of one or the other party must
precede all stable reconcilement. For which of thertwo this
humiliation was in store, there were in the beginning no
means of forming any solid judgment. One town or coun
ty afforded no rule for another. " Before the flame of tbe
war broke out in the top of the chimnies," says Mrs. Hutch
inson, " the smoke ascended in every county ; the king had
sent forth commissions of array, and the parliament had given
out commissions for their militia, and sent off their members
into all counties to put them in execution. Between these in
many places there were fierce contests and disputes, almost
to blood, even at the first ; for in the progress every county
had the civil war, more or less, within itself Some counties
were in the beginning so wholly for the parliament, that the
king's interest appeared not in them ; some so wholly for the
king, that the godly, for those generally were the parliament's
friends, were forced to forsake their habitations, and seek
other shelters." Of the last sort, was Nottinghamshire.
" All the nobility and gentry and their dependents were
generally for the king."f At the head of the county was the
courtly yet popular earl of Newcastle, who had before this
time secured for the king the important port of Newcastle,
arid was further exerting himself in the North ; and the earls
of Kingston and Chesterfield : lord Chaworth, sir John af
terwards lord Byion with his martial brothers, and many
more, embraced the same side. Notwithstanding this ad van -
* Whitelock'3 Memorials, p. 60.
f Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson, p. 147.

186
tage, the king found recruits to his army come in much more
tardily and scantily than he had hoped, and some of his party
were of opinion that it would have been more advisable for
him to have raised his standard at York, and deferred his
march southwards till he should have found himself at the
head of a more formidable force. But this alternative was in
fact denied him, through the repugnance of the Yorkshire gen
try to see their county made the seat of war, and tbe eagerness
with which they therefore urged his departure. At this time
Ferdinando lord Fairfax and sir Thomas Fairfax his son had
already shown their attachment to the parliamentarian side,
on which they afterwards became so highly distinguished ;
and Charles was resolved at his departure from York to have
seized them and a few other gentlemen of like principles, in
their own houses, and have brought them away prisoners ;
but the remonstrances of the gentry of the county, then as
sembled to consult for their own safety, obliged him to forgo
this design with respect to the Fairfaxes ; and some movers of
sedition in a lower class whom he had actually carried off, he
found it expedient, from the scruples of his own adherents,
speedily to liberate.*
Finding himself at Nottingham before the appointed
day of raising his standard, and learning that some foot re
giments of which Hampden's was one, were marching by
order of the earl of Essex to garrison Coventry, the king
promptly directed his course thither at the head of his caval
ry, amounting to seven or eight hundred men, making no
doubt of securing the town provided only he should arrive
first. But this expectation failed him ; Coventry like other
manufacturing places was a strong-hold of the puritans ; and
not only were the gates closed on his approach, and entrance
denied him by the magistrates, but shots were fired from the
walls by which some of his attendants were wounded. Un
able to revenge the affront, the king retired for the night to
Stoneleigh, the seat of sir Thomas Leigh ; and in the morn
ing he had' the mortification of seeing his horse under Wil
mot, on an open plain, retreat some miles before the parlia
ment's foot without making even a single charge. Under
the weight of ibis double disappointment the king returned to
Nottingham in gloomy mood and ill-prepared for the awful
ceremony of the ensuing day, which the pen of Clarendon
has thus pourtrayed. * Hist. RebeUion, iii. 186.

187
" On August 29th the standard was erected about six
o'clock of the evening of a very stormy and tempestuous
day. The king himself, with a small train, rode to the top
of the castle-hill. Verney the knight-marshal, who was
standard-bearer, carrying the standard, which was then erect
ed in that place, with little other ceremony than the sound of
drums and trumpets : melancholy men observed many ill
presages about that time. There was not one regiment of
foot yet levied and brought thither ; so that the trained-bands
which the sheriff had drawn together, was all the strength
the king had for his person, and the guard of his standard.
There appeared no conflux of men in obedience to the pro
clamation ; the arms and ammunition were not yet come
from York, and a general sadness covered the whole town.
And the king himself appeared more melancholic than he
used to be. The standard itself was blown down, the same
night it had been set up, by a very strong and unruly wind,
and could not be fixed again in a day or two, till the tempest
was allayed."*
In the Collections of Rushworth this event is recorded
with further and somewhat differing circumstances. On the
top of the standard, it is said, hung a flag having the king's
arms quartered, with a hand pointing to the crown which
stood above, and the motto, "Give Caesar his due." The
standard is likewise said to have been conducted to the field
in great state, and with a numerous military attendance, on
August 22nd, and that a proclamation was read by the her-
ald-at-arms, declaring that his majesty's purpose in setting it
up was to suppress the rebellion of the earl of Essex, for
which he required the aid of all his loving subjects ; at the
conclusion of which reading, the whole multitude threw up
their hats, and cried, " God save the king I" It is further as
serted, that the standard was taken down on that night, and
carried again into the castle, whence it was brought to the
ground on the following day, and set up with the same cere
monies, the king being present ; and that the same thing was
repeated on the next day.
Under these circumstances of discouragement, some about
the king actually proposed his return to York, not conceiv
ing even his person secure at Nottingham, from the enter
prises of the parliamentary troops, then at Northampton ; and
those of his council who opposed this step as too open a con-
* Hist. Rebellion, iii. 191.

188
fession of weakness, urged upon him, however, the expedien
cy of making overtures for an accommodation ; " which
proposition," says Clarendon, " was no sooner made, but most
concurred in it, and no one had the confidence to oppose it.
The king himself was so offended at it, that he declared he
would never yield to it ; and broke up the council that it
might be no longer urged." The next day, however, it was
repeated with greater earnestness ; and the earl of Southamp
ton in particular, " a person of great- prudence, and of repu
tation at least equal to any man's, pressed it as a thing that
might do good and could do no harm ; and his majesty's
reasons, with reference to the insolence it would raise in the
rebels, and the dishonor that would thereby reflect upon
himself, were answered by saying, their insolence would be
for the king's advantage," for that by refusing, as it was
thought they would, the offer of peace, they would make
themselves odious to the people, and thus incline them to
serve the king. On this plea, with the reluctant consent of
Charles, who still urged that having little left him but his
honor, it became him to be doubly careful of that, proposals
for a treaty were at length drawn up, with which the earls
of Southampton and Dorset and sir J. Colepepper set out for
London on the third day only after the erection of the king's
standard. These messengers were received by the parlia
ment with a marked distrust, which rendered it dangerous
for any whose affections were secretly on the royal side to
approach them. From the parliamentary leaders, with some
of the chief of whom they had private conferences, they re
ceived, according to Clarendon, " no other advice but that if
the king had any care of himself or his posterity, he should
immediately come to London, throw himself into the arms of
his parliament, and comply with whatsoever they proposed."
The reply of the parliament to the king's proposal of appoint
ing commissioners to treat of a peace, expressed, that until
he should have taken down his standard, and recalled the
proclamations by which he had put the two houses of par
liament out of his protection, and declared the earl of Essex
and his adherents traitors, it eould answer no purpose to en
ter upon negotiations. A second message from the king, of
which lord Falkland was the bearer, proved equally ineffica
cious, because the insincerity and artifice which inspired it
were manifest ; the friends of peace in his council found
themselves reduced to silence, and military preparations pro
ceeded with fresh vigor.

189
It was now near the middle of September, and the king's
affairs began to wear a better face. His party were every
where exerting themselves, and the fiery Rupert, who had
assumed the command of the horse posted at Leicester, in
dulged, and excited in his principal officers, such indignation
at the thought of the late pacific overture, that they " were
not without some thoughts, at least discourses of offering
violence to the principal advisers of it."* This characteristic
trait may serve to introduce some account of one of the re
markable personages enlisted in the royal cause.
Rupert, third son of the ilUfated queen of Bohemia, was
born at Prague in 1619. .A soldier from childhood, he had
in his thirteenth year accompanied the prince of Orange to
the siege of Rhinberg, and in consequence of the courage and
capacity he had displayed, he was appointed, at the age of eigh
teen, to the command of a regiment of cavalry. The fol
lowing year he was made prisoner by the imperialists, and
endured at Vienna a severe captivity of more than two years,
from which he was" liberated only on condition of never more
bearing arms against the Emperor. He had paid one former
visit to England, and the king was endeavoring, but ineffec
tually as it proved, to advance his fortunes by a marriage with
a princess of Rohan. It had also been proposed on behalf
of the portionless sons of the Palatine family, that Charles
Louis, the eldest then surviving, should be established in the
island of Madagascar, and that Rupert should found a colony
in the West Indies ; but these wild projects were disconcerted
by the inteference of their mother. On the first news of an
approaching war, Rupert and his younger brother Maurice
hastened to the aid of their royal uncle, who gave a com
mission to the latter, and as we have seen, nominated the for
mer his general of horse.
The genius of Rupert was not merely military ; his active
spirit exercised itself in the fields of science and art ; he was
a successful student in chemistry and mathematics, and is
accounted the inventor of mezzotinto. His character and
aspect are sketched by Gr%mmont with the following traits.
" His temper had a violence which he scorned to con
trol ; his person was large, his carriage awkward, his man
ners sometimes polite to excess, sometimes brutal ; his
countenance was dry and harsh, even when he wished to
* Hist. RebeUion, iii. 217.
Vot. II. 33

190
soften it, but in his fits of ill-humour its expression was truly
infernal." His principles and practices were those of a sol
dier of fortune formed where war was most a trade, and
where subjects were the absolute property of their princes.
No English commander on either side allowed such license
of plunder arid outrage to his troops, or manifested such a
savage indifference to the miseries of the people: he was
also rash in action ; and in spite of his brilliant valor in the
field, and his activity and resource as a partizan, it may well
be doubted how far the king was on the whole a gainer by
his employment.
For the present, however, the arrival of such a champion
served more than anything to inspire the king's friends with
that martial ardor in which they were deficient. Rupert ex
erted himself in procuring levies in the midland counties, and
now also recruits of infantry began to come in from York
shire, Lincolnshire and Staffordshire ; and cannon and am
munition arriving from Yorkshire, there appeared around the
king an assemblage which bore some semblance of an army.
In the mean time, the interval of preparation was diligently
improved by the parliament. On September the 9th, the earl
of Essex, accompanied by many members of both houses, left
London in state, and proceeded to the head-quarters of his
army at St. Albans. He thence advanced to Northampton,
where he was joined by the remainder of his troops, amount
ing in the whole to above fifteen thousand men. Their gen
eral was furnished by the parliament with a petition to deliver
to the king, and these amongst other directions were given
him : " To march and fight the king's army, and by battle or
otherwise to rescue his person, and the prince and duke of
York, from those about him : To present the petition to his
majesty, and if he shall please to withdraw himself from
his army? and resort to his parliament, then to cause those
forces to disband and to guard the king in his return."
The army of the parliament was distinguished by the colors
of its leader, deep yellow, or orange ; and the names of
Roundheads and Cavaliers had already been adopted as dis
tinctive of the opposite parties. These appellations seem to
have originated in the street-fights between Lunsford'sband and
the London mob previously to the king's removal from White
hall, and were perhaps at first nearly synonvmous with gen
tleman, or courtier, and citizen ; cropped hair being probably
the commodious wear of the apprentices and mechanics,
whilst curled and flowing locks were the adornment of the

191
higher classes. It appears, however, that the roundhead
fashion was also a badge affected by the religious zealots of
the day ; though held in merited disdain by men of sense and
honesty who adhered to the parliament. " When puritan-
ism," says the admirable Mrs. Hutchinson, "grew into a
faction, the zealots distinguished themselves, both men and
women, by se.veral affectations of habit, looks, and words,
which, had it been a real declension of vanity, and embrac
ing of sobriety in all those things, had been most commenda
ble in them ; but their quick forsaking of those things when
they were where they would be, showed that they either
never took them up for conscience, or were corrupted by their
prosperity to take up those vain things .they durst not prac
tise under- persecution. Among other affected habits, few of
the puritans, what degree soever they were of, wore their hair
long enough to cover their ears, and the ministers and many
others cut it close round their heads, with so many little
peaks, as was something ridiculous to behold ; whereupon
Cleaveland in his ' Hue. and Cry' after them, begins,
' With hair in characters and lugs in text,' &,c.
From this custom of wearing their hairs, that name of Round
head became the scornful term given to the whole parliament
party ; whose army indeed marched out so, but as if they had
been sent out only till their hair was grown : two or three
years after any stranger that had seen them, would have en
quired the reason of that name." She adds that her hus
band, having a fine head of hair, wore it so as to be a great
ornament to him, " although the godly of those days, when
he embraced their party, would not allow him to be religious
because his hair was not in their eut, nor his words in their
phrase, nor such little formalities altogether fitted to their
humor."* Nottingham being judged no longer a safe position for the
king, with the parliaments army lying at Northampton, he
about the middle of September marched thence to Derby ;
resolved to bend his course towards the borders of Wales,
where several regiments were raising for his service ; but he
was undetermined whether to give the preference to Chester
or Shrewsbury, till the arrival of letters from his adherents
which assured him that the latter town was quite at his devo-
* Mem. of Colonel Hutchinson, vol.i. p. 181.

192
tion. On his march thither, he halted near Wellington in
Shropshire for the purpose of drawing his troops to a ren
dezvous, and having caused his geneial orders to be read at
the head of each regiment, he advanced to the front, and
in order, as he said, that his troops might see what use he in
tended to make of their valor, should God crown it with suc
cess, he made a solemn protestation to the following effect :
That he would maintain the true reformed protestant religion,
established in the church of England, and in it live and die,
and that he desired to govern by the known laws of the land :
That should he, by means of this army, raised for ne
cessary defence, be preserved from the present rebellion, he
would observe inviolably the laws consented to by him in that
parliament ; in the mean time, any violations of them, he
said, which a state of war and the straits of his affairs might
produce, Would, he hoped, be imputed both by God and men
to the authors of the war and not to himself.
The effect of this ceremony in animating the spirits of his
soldiers, and removing fears and jealousies from the- minds, of
the people in those parts, is intimated by Clarendon to have
been very considerable. Great expressions of love and loy
alty attended him on his way, and a cordial reception awaited
his arrival at Shrewsbury on September the 20th. Having,
as he hoped, lulled by these public declarations the alarms of
his protestant followers, he three days after addressed to the
earl of Newcastle, to whom he had given a commission to
command in the North, under which he was actively engag
ed in making levies, the following private instructions.
" Newcastle,
" This is to tell you that this rebellion is g;rown to that
height, that 1 must not look what opinion men are w.ho at
this time are willing and able to serve me. Therefore I do
not only permit, but command you, to make use of all my
loving subjects' services, without examining their consciences
(more than their loyalty to me), as you shall find most to con
duce to the upholding of my just regal power. So I rest,"&c*
What was the sense entertained at this time of Romish in
fluence in the counsels of the king, and of the general state
of his affairs, by men of loyalty and honor in his service, may
be learned by the following extract of a deciphered letter
from R©bert lord Spencer to his lady, the Saceharissa of Wal
ler, dated from Shrewsbury, September the 21st, 1642.
* Ellis's Letters, iii. 291.

193
" The king's condition is much improved of late ; his force
increaseth daily, which increaseth the insolency of the pa
pists. Hew much I am unsatisfied with the proceedings here,
I have at large expressed in several letters. Neither is there
wanting daily handsome occasion to retire, were it not for
grinning honor. For let occasion be never so handsome, un
less a man were resolved to fight on the parliament side,
which, for my part, I had rather be hanged, it will .be said,
without doubt, that a man is afraid to fight. If there could
be an expedient found to salve the punctilio of honor, I would
not continue here an hour. The -discontent that 1 and many
other honest men receive daily, is beyond expression. Peo
ple are much divided ; the king is of late very much averse
to peace, by the persuasions of 202 and 111. It is likewise
conceived that the king has taken a resolution not to do any
thing in that way till the queen comes ; for people advising
the king to agree with the parliament, was the occasion of
the queen's return. Till that timeuq advice will be received ;
nevertheless the honest men will take all occasions to
procure an accommodation ; which the king, when he sent
those messages, did heartily desire, and would still make of
fers in that way, but for 202 and 111, and the expectation of
the queen, and the fear of -the papists.  What the
king's intentions are, to those I converse with, are altogether
unknown ; some say he will hazard a battle very quickly ;
others say he thinks of wintering ; which as it is suspected,
so if it were generally believed 117 [myself] and many others
would make no scruple to retire," &c.
In a letter, he says ; " If the king or rather 243 [papists]
prevail, we are in sad condition ; for they will be insupport
able to all, but most to us who have opposed them, so that if
the king prevails by force, I must not live at home, which
is grievous to me, but more to, you ; but if. ... ; I appre
hend I shall not be suffered to live in England : And yet
I cannot fancy any way to avoid both ; for the king is so aw
ed by 243, that he dares not propose peace, or accept I fear,
though by his last message he is engaged. But if that be of
fered by the parliament, I and others will speak their opi
nion."* Although the statements of Clarendon, who was deeper in
secrets of state than this young and gallant nobleman, forbid
us to give the king himself the same credit for a sincere de-
* Sidney Papers, ii. 667.

194
sire of peace which he was disposed to do, there can be no
doubt, after these remarks, either of the predominance of the
Romon eatholic advisers about him,, or of the mischievous
ends to which it was directed.
In the early part of September the earl of Essex, quitting
Northampton, put a garrison .into Coventry and took posses
sion of Warwick, whence he advanced to Worcester. Before
his arrival, however, Rupert had attacked and defeated, in the
immediate neighborhood of that city, a body of parliamen
tarians under colonel Sandys, who fell in the action, leaving
to the prince the trophy of prisoners and colors, by which the
spirits of the royalists were much elated, and their opponents
inspired with a formidable idea of himself and his troops.
It was at Chester that intelligence of this success reached the
king ; who had gone thither for the double purpose of secur
ing that city and the adjacent parts of North Wales in his favor,
and of countenancing the feeble attempts of the earl of Derby
to make head against the parliamentarians in Lancashire.
On his return to Shrewsbury, he was attended by a number
of gentlemen who offered to raise both horse and foot at their
own expense. To defray the charges of his increasing host,
Charles now established a mint at Shrewsbury, which was
supplied with silver to a considerable amount by college-plate
sent from Oxford, and the family-plate of noblemen and. gen
try attached to the royal cause. He was likewise persuaded
to ask a loan from the Roman catholics of Shopshire and
Slraffordshire, which, after some difficulties, was obtained.
By all these means he very suddenly grew in strength, " al
most beyond what he himself could hope, or the parliament
suspect."* The greatest difficulty which at present pressed upon the
king was to find arms for his soldiers ; few had yet arrived
from Holland, and the deficiency was to be supplied partly
by compulsory loans from the trained bands, partly from the
ancient armories of noblemen. Clarendon thus describes the
equipment of officers and men.
" The foot, all but three or four hundred who marched with
out any weapon but a cudgel, "were armed with musquets,
and bags for their powder, and pikes : But in the whole body
there was not a pikeman had a corselet, and very few mus-
quetiers who had swords. Among the horse, the officers
had their full desire if they were able to procure old backs
* May's Hist, of Long Parliament.

195
and breasts, with pots, with pistols, and carabines for their two
or three first ranks, and swords for the rest ; themselves, and
some soldiers by their examples, having gotten, besides their
pistols and swords, a short pole-ax."
The numbers of the royal army at this time are apparently
not recorded ; but the foot formed three brigades under sir
Jacob Astley, a good officer and major-general to the earl of
Lindsey, commander-in-chief. There were also two or three
regiments of dragoons, besides the cavalry which was under
time orders of Rupert, assisted in the command by general
Ruthven, afterwards earl of Forth and Brentford, who bore
the rank of a field-marshal. The king's troop of guards,
commanded by lord Bernard Stewart, was chiefly composed
of persons of rank and quality ; sir Philip Warwick, who
was of the number, informs us that they calculated their
united rentals at not less than 100,000Z. per annum.
It was at the head of this force, and very slightly incumber
ed with baggage, that the king quitted Shrewsbury, about the
middle of October, and directed his march upon London, by
Bridgenorth, Wolverhampton and Birmingham, to Kenel-
worth, then a royal castle. The earl of Essex, who had
been lying for some time with his army at Worcester, in a
state of inactivity, put himself in motion on the news of the
king's advance, and set forth to meet him in Warwickshire,
leaving his artillery to follow. The approach of the royal
army gave a severe alarm to the parliament, which immedi
ately dispatched members as deputy lieutenants into several
counties to forward all levies to the army, and to make ad
ditional ones ; preparations were likewiseactively made for
the defence of the capital itself by calling out the trained
bands, erecting fortifications, on which the whole population,
men, women, and children, zealously labored ; and planting
cannon in the city and suburbs ; — so completely the aspect
of affairs was changed !
On October the 22nd the earl of- Essex had reached the
village of Kineton- in Warwickshire, of which Rupert ap
prised the king, with the intimation that if his majesty thought
proper, he might be brought to action. This suggestion,
though of a very doubtful expediency, was approved by
Charles ; and in consequence was fought, on the following
day, the battle of Edgehill, so colled from the ridge on which
the royal army had taken post, and from which it descended
to charge the parliamentarians in the plain below. The king
proceeded to the field in royal pomp, clad in complete armor,

196
over which he wore a black velvet mantle with the s'ar and
George; and advancing to the head of the line, addressed
his soldiers in a bold and animating speech, in which, whilst
cordially acknowledging their love and zeal, he told them,
however, that he trusted Jess in their numbers or valor than
in the justice of his cause, and his rights, derived from God
himself, whose substitute he was. A king-at-arms was pre
sent in the action with a long train of heralds and pursui
vants ; and the royal host was additionally swelled and en
cumbered with an unarmed train, consisting of the ministers
of state, the household officers and their followers, to the
number, in all, of more than twelve hundred.
Events were sufficiently balanced in this first day of battle
between Charles and his people to enable both parties to lay
claim to the victory. The royal troops suffered considerably
by the superior artillery of their opponents; on the other
hand, Rupert's impetuous charge of cavalry carried all before
it ; but by pursuing the fugitives too far from the field, and
suffering his troopers to busy themselves in the plunder of the
enemy's baggage, he gave opportunity to sir William Balfour
with his regiment of horse to break in upon the royal infan
try, making great slaughter, and nearly to disperse it. On
his return to the scene of action, Rupert found the king and
his two eldest sons with a small retinue only surrounding them,
and the field in utter confusion. Each party now occupied
itself in collecting its scattered and discomfited troops: nei
ther was disposed to renew the combat ; but the parliamen
tarians occupied the field of battle during the night, whilst
Charles retired to his post on the hill.
From the report of burials made to the king by the rector
of Kineton, it appears that little more than thirteen hundred
men fell on both sides in this action, though the common ac- '
counts raise the numbers to five or six thousand. It seems
probable that the greater loss in private men was on the par
liament's side ; and Ludlow honestly confesses that theirs
were slain flying, the king's as they stood. In persons of
note, however, the royal army suffered by far the most. In
the charge of Belfour's horse, the earl of Lindsey himself,
then marching on foot at the head of his regiment, received
a wound in the thigh and was made prisoner ; his son lord
Willoughby, who fought by his side, being also captured, in
an attempt to rescue him. Surgical aid appears not to have
been immediately procurable, and Lindsey expired from loss
of blood before morning. This earl was of very noble ex-

197
traction, and inherited a great estate, chiefly in Lincolnshire,
of which, according lo Clarendon, he had been no good man
ager. " He was a man," adds this historian, "of great hon
or, and spent his youth and vigor of his age in military ac
tions and commands abroad ; and albeit he indulged to him
self great liberties of life, yet he still preserved a very good
leputation with all men, and a very great interest in his coun
try, as appeared by the supplies he and his son brought tp the
king's army." He goes on to mention, that this peer, who
was ef a very high spirit, and punctual both in performing
his engagements and exacting what was his due, had felt with
excessive keenness the restriction put upon himself by Ru
pert's commission, which dispensed him from receiving or
ders except from the king in person, and by the king's prefer
ence of his nephew's opinion in all matters relative to the
war. Nor did he conceal his feelings on this subject : the
night before the action he said to Hyde himself and to his
friend the earl of Dorset, that he looked upon himself as no
longer general, and therefore was resolved, when the day of
battle came, to be at the head of his regiment as a private
colonel, and there to die : — a determination too faithfully ful
filled !"*
The young lord Aubigny, brother to the duke of Richmond,
also lost his life, and several other persons of rank were ei
ther slain or made prisoners. The king's standard-bearer
sir Edmund Verney being killed, the royal standard fell in
to the hands of Balfour's regiment, but was afterwards rescu
ed. Of Verney, Clarendon has preserved a memorable and
affecting anecdote. He says that about the time of the erec
tion of the standard at Nottingham, he fell into conversation
with this gentleman, who, after congratulating him on the
cheerful countenance which he saw him able to maintain in
that melancholy crisis, gave utterance at length to the follow-
in"- confession : " My condition is much worse than yours,:
and different, I believe, from any other man's, and will very
well justify the melancholy that I confess to you possesses me.
You have satisfaction in your conscience that you are in the
right ; that the king ought not to grant what is required of
him; and so you .do your duty and your business together :
But for my part I do not like the quarrel, and do heartily
wish that the king would yield and consent to what they de
sire ; so that my conscience is only concerned in honor and
* Hist. RebeUion, iii. 285, et seq.
Vol. IL 24

198
in gratitade to follow my master. I have eaten his bread and
served him near thirty years, and will not do so base a thing
as to forsake him ; and choose rather to lose my life, which I
am sure I shall do, to preserve and defend those things which
are against my conscience to preserve and defend : For I will
deal freely with you ; I have no reverence for the bishops,
for whom this quarrel subsists."
In commiserating the case of this unfortunate gentleman,
we cannot omit to reflect, that it could have been by no means
so singular as he imagined it. In a contest of such a nature,
the instances must have been numberless in which public
principles and public duty would be found in direct opposition
to the dictates of personal attachirient, of gratitude, and of
worldly honor. To make the true decision in difficulties of
this kind, and unswervingly to abide by it, demands a strength
and clearness of judgment, a firmness of temper, and a cer
tain magnanimity, of which only a chosen few are capable ;
and a due allowance for the infirmity of hunjan nature will
insure iudulgence, though not acquittal, to the memory of
those who poured out their blood in the cause which their
conscience disapproved.
It is a striking fact, supplied by tbe royalist historian, that
whilst supplies of all kinds were readily furnished by the peas
antry to the parliament's camp, they carefully concealed or
carried away from the king's troops all provisions for man or
horse ; and that " the very smiths hid themselves, that they
might not be compelled to shoe horses, of which in those stony
ways there was great need." This proceeded, he affirms, less
from any radical dislike to the cause or person of the king,
than from an opinion industriously spread among the people,
which he treats as a calumny, "that the cavaliers were of a
fierce, bloody and licentious disposition, and that they com
mitted all manner of cruelty upon the inhabitants of those
places where they came, of which robbery was the least."
He states that in consequence of this feeling, on the arrival
of the royal army at Edgehill " there were very many com
panies of common soldiers who had scarcely eater* bread in
eight and forty hours before ;" and that after the battle many
of the men who straggled into the villages for refreshment
were knocked on the head by the inhabitants.
Judging from the results, the king would appear to have
been the real victor of this field. Essex, whose characteris
tic however it was to err on the side of caution rather than of
enterprise, though reinforced immediately after the combat

199
by Hampden with three fresh regiments, relinquished for the
present the important design of placing himself between the
royal army and the capital, and turned aside to Warwick.
The king, after resting a day and appointing general Ruthven
to succeed to the command of the earl of Lindsey, marched
on to Aynho to make a survey of the defences of Banbury
castle ; and such was the terror he inspired, that this fortress,
garrisoned by the parliament with eight hundred foot and a
troop of horse, was yielded to him without a blow, and many
of the soldiers entered his service.
From Banbury Charles proceeded to his palace of Wood
stock, and to Oxford, which city having been left undefended
by the parliament, received him gladly, and remained firm to
him ever after. The university omitted no testimonies of its
loyalty ; by pecuniary aid from the different colleges he was
enabled to recruit his troops, in which many catholics were
enlisted, whilst his sick and wounded were received in com
fortable quarters. After a halt of only three days, ha
marched onwards as far as Reading, which was deserted by
its garrison at his approach. Rupert preceding him with his
cavalry, entered Henley, Abingdon, and other small defence
less towns in the neighborhood, committing "strange vio,-
lences and insolences,"* and bringing away a great booty.
The parliament, roused by the approaching peril, sent in
haste an order to Essex to march up his army for the defence
of London : he obeyed, and by the beginning of November
cantoned his troops in the west of Middlesex ; on the 7th of
the month he came himself to Westminster, where he was
honorably received by both houses, and presented with a gra
tuity for his not very eminent services. The London appren
tices were enticed to enlist by an ordinance proclaiming them
free on that condition, and the Scotch were invited to come
to the assistance of their English brethren by the assurance
of a more speedy and effectual proceeding. in the long-prom
ised church-reform, by which the English establishment was
4o be closely assimilated to that of Scotland.
Having thus provided and exhibited their resources for a
renewal of the war, should it prove inevitable, the parlia
ment regarded it as no derogation to dispatch a messenger
to the king at Reading desiring a safe-conduct fpr a commit
tee of two lords and four commoners to attend his majesty
with a humble petition from the two houses.
* Whitelock.

200
Charles, in answer, intimated that such a committee would
be welcome, but annexed the condition that it should com
prise none of the persons whom he had declared traitors, and
on this ground excepted against sir John Evelyn, proclaimed
only the day before. This objection, which the parliament
viewed both as an affront, and a proof of the king's insin
cerity in his professed desire of peace, caused a suspension of
the business on their side till the further advance of the king
to Colnbrook, when scruples gave way to alarm, and he was
met, on November the I lth, by the earls of Northumberland
and Pembroke and three commoners, sir J. Evelyn having
agreed to absent himself. The prayer of their petition was,
that his majesty would appoint some convenient place, within
a small distance of Westminster, where he would please to
reside until commissioners from the parliament should wait
upon him with propositions for a settlement of all differences.
With many professions of his readiness to treat at any place,
and his anxious desire, as father of his people, to put an end
to their sufferings, Charles accepted tbe proposal, and named
Windsor castle as the residence which he should choose, pro
vided the garrison thrown into it by the parliament were
withdrawn. The next morning, this answer being read to both houses,
Essex rose and demanded whether he was now to pursue or
to suspend hostilities ; he was ordered to suspend them, and
sir Peter Killigrew was dispatched to require a like cessation
on the king's part, but on reaching Brentford he found the
war renewed. Without regard to the pending treaty, the
king had continued to advance, and taking advantage of a
fog, had fallen by surprise on a part of Hollis's regiment
quartered there, thinking to overpower it without difficulty.
But the brave resistance of this small body, of which many
were slain and many driven into the river and drowned, gave
time for the regiments of Hampden and lord Brook to come
up, which for several hours supported alone the charge of the
royal army.
The startling report of cannon was heard in London, whilst
the cause remained unknown. Essex, at the sound, rushed
forth from the house of lords, which was sitting, mounted his
horse, and hastened with such force as he could collect, to
the rescue of his men. ' The action had ceased on his arriv
al : after suffering themselves to be nearly cut in pieces, night
coming on, the remains of the regiments had quitted the field.

201
and the king occupied Brentford, which his troops plunder
ed ; but he hud halted, and showed no disposition to advance.
Lord Clarendon has endeavored, but without success, to
throw on the military impetuosity of Rupert the whole blame
of a surprise which was generally stigmatized as treacherous,
and which proved unsuccessful. He has himself stated, that
the exaggerated accounts of ill-judging partisans in London
of dissensions amongst leaders and a general disaffection of
the citizens to the cause of the parliament, had inspired
Charles and his courtiers with a confident anticipation that
on his majesty's approach, between the terror of his adver
saries and the exertions of his friends, means would be found
to open the gates to him ; and it is evident that he advanced
on the hope of thus ending the contest at a blow. But the
results were such as he had ample cause to deplore. " It
was now evident," says his apologist, in a passage, which he
afterwards suppressed, " that there had been a great oversight
in making so great haste ; all thoughts of treaty were dash
ed ; they who most desired it did not desire to be in the
king's mercy ; and they now believed, by his majesty's mak
ing so much haste towards them, after their offer of a treaty,
that he meant to have surprised and taken vengeance on
them without distinction,"*
The common danger united all parties in the metropolis.
During the whole- night the city poured, out men towards
Brentford : the trained hands were ordered to incorporate
with Essex's army ; and they marched forth cheerfully un
der Skippon, their able leader, who encouraged them, not by
a formal oration, but with short speeches, now to one com
pany, now to another, as they went along, to this effect :
" Come, my boys, my brave boys, let us pray heartily and
fight heartily ; I will run the same fortunes and hazards with
you ; remember the cause is for God, and f3r the defence of
yourselves, your wives, and children : Come, my honest
brave boys, pray heartily, and fight heartily, and God will
bless us."f
The whole army, four and twenty thousand strong, was
drawn up on Turnham Green about a mile from Brentford.
They were arrayed chiefly by the earl of Holland, who ap
peared to take great pains and to possess great skill in martial
affairs. He was accompanied by the earl of Northumber
land and most of the lords who remained with the parliament
* Hist. Rebellion, iii. 319. Note. f Whitelock.

202
and by many members of the lower house ; and all were
armed. " The general Essex likewise took great pains in the
field, and accompanied" with the. lords and commons with
him, rode from regiment to regiment encouraging of them ;
and when he had spoken to them, the soldiers would throw
up their caps and shout, crying, Hey for old Robin !"* The
two armies stood many hours thus facing one another: It
was then debated whether the parliament's army which
had greatly the advantage in numbers, should advance to the
attack, which was the opinion of most of the members of
parliament who were officers ; but, in the language of a con
temporary historian, " God was not yet appeased toward this
nation," so as to permit this sad war to be concluded at a
stroke. The soldiers of fortune, who had already, from very
equivocal motives, caused a movement to be recalled by
which the royal army would have been completely surround
ed, opposed this proposition also, as did the earl of Holland,
never very hearty in the cause ; and before the consultation
was ended, the king was observed to begin drawing off his
carriages and ordnance : " The city goodwives and others,"
says Whitelock, " mindful of their husbands and friends,
sent many cart-loads of provisions and wines and good things
to Turnham Green, with which the soldiers were refreshed
and made merry ; and the more when they understood that
the king and all his army were retreated. Upon this there
was another consultation whether we should pursue them,
which all advised but the old soldiers of fortune." These
held it too hazardous, and Essex was of their opinion and
remained quiet; but some of the king's party _ afterwards
confessed, that they had not at this time bullet enough to
have held fight for a quarter of an hour ; that this was the
cause of their retreat, and that if pursued they would have
been in all probability entirely broken. So many hazards
had the king incurred !
His army retired for the night to Kingston, and he lodged
himself at Hampton Court. The next day they retrograded
to Reading, in which having placed a garrison his majesty
about the end of the month returned to Oxford, "unsatisfi
ed," says Clarendon " with the progress he had made, which
had likewise raised much faction and discontent amongst the
officers, every man imputing the oversights which had been
committed to the rashness and presumption of others ; and
* Whitelock.

203
prince Rupert in the march contracting an irreconcilable pre
judice to Wilmot, who was then lieutenant-geneial of the
horse, and was not fast in the king's favor."*
From Reading Charles sent a message to both houses, for
the purpose of exculpating himself relative to the affair of
Brentford and of renewing the. expression of his desire for
peace. But his professions found little credit on either point ;
the parliament showed themselves for the present averse to
enter upon fresh negotiations, and a welcome petition was
presented to them by the London citizens, in which they
were entreated to proceed no further in the business of ac
commodation, because evil counsel was so prevalent with the
king that he would but delude them. The subscribers added,
that they had heard his forces were but weak, and that if the
lord- general would follow and fall upon them, making no
delays, for fear of foreign forces coming over, the City, as
heretofore, would with all willingness spend their lives and
fortunes to assist the parliament.!
Owing to various impediments, this concluding request was
not complied with, and Essex remained in his quarters till
spring. Two attempts of the king fo avail himself of the assistance
of the legal profession against his enemies deserve to be here
mentioned : One was, a proclamation for the adjournment of
the ensuing law term to Oxford ; which was defeated how
ever by a counter-resolution of the parliament : The other
was, his causing four captains his prisoners, of whom John
Lilburn was one, to be sentenced for rebellion and high-trea
son by Judge Heath ; — an ill-calculated display of authority,
since the two houses immediately declared the sentence illegal
and unjust, and, as might have been anticipated, effectually
prevented its execution by a threat of retaliation upon the of
ficers of the royal army who bad fallen into tfteir power.
Such were the circumstances and dispositions of the con
tending parties at the close of the first campaign of civil war,
and of the eventful year 1642.
* May. | Hist. Rebellion.

204

CHAPTER XXV.
1643.
Parliament sends commissioners to treat with the king, — their re
ception. — Treaty suspended. — The king's hopes of foreign suc
cours, and insincerity in treating. — Landing of the queen from
Holland. — Treaty of Oxford resumed. — Disingenuous conduct
of the king.— The treaty broken off. — Speeches against and for
a peace. — Scotch commissioners to the king, — his behavior to
wards them. — Return of the queen from Holland with officers
and military stores. — Circumstances of her landing at Brid
lington. — She proceeds to York, — her intrigues there. — She
augments her army, — proceeds to Newark, — is joined by the
king at Stratford. — Minor traits of the war. — Account of sir
Ralph Hoplon. — Sir W. Waller's letter to him.— Account of
lord Brook, and Clarendon's forgery regarding him. — Death of
the earl of Northampton, illiberal conduct of parliamentarian
officers respecting his body. — Unfeeling conduct qf the king. —
Brutalities of Rupert, — he is admonished by a royal letter. —
Harsh conduct of the king towards colonel Fielding. — Essex
puts his troops in quarters. — Plots of parliamentarian officers
detected and punished. — The two Hothams. — Sir A. Carew. —
Bristol conspirators. — Account of Waller's plot. — Ordinances
of parliament. — The queen impeached. — The king forbids obe
dience to ordinances. — Hyde dissuades him from commanding
a dissolution. — Death of Hampden. — Anecdote of the king. —
State of the royalists in Oxford,. — Defeat of- Waller at Round-
way Down. — Capture of Bristol by Rupert. — Disputes between
princes Rupett and Maurice and the marquis of Hertford. —
How decided by the king. — Character of Rupert, and sentiments
of the nobility. — Dangers of the, parliament. — Peace party in
the house of lords.- — Strong and able measures of Pym and
others for continuing the war. — The king determines to lay siege
to Gloucester. — Defence of Gloucester. — Cold reception of the
earls of Bedford and Holland at Oxford. — Lords Clare, Bed
ford and Holland return to the parliament. — Essex relieves
Gloucester. — Battle of Newbury. — The king goes into winter-
quarters. — Deaths and characters qf lords Sunderland, Carnar
von, and Falkland.
NOTWITHSTANDING all the discouragements which the

205
parliament had experienced in its attempts to treat with the
king, the restoration of peace, ever the dearest wish of all
true lovers of their country, was still believed by many to be
attainable without a further trial of strength ; and fresh ne
gotiations were in consequence set on foot. On January the
28th, Charles, at the desire of both houses, granted a safe-
conduct for the earls of Northumberland, Pembroke, Salis
bury and Holland, and eight commoners, charged with pro->
positions from the parliament : Whitelock,one of the number,
supplies us with the particulars of their proceedings.
They made their entry into Oxford in great 'state ; each
peer in his coach and six conveying two of the members of
the house of commons, and a number of servants on horse
back attending them.
"Some of the soldiers and of the rascality of the town,
and others of better rank though of like quality," reviled
them as they passed by as rebels and traitors, of which they
took no other notice than to complain to some of the king's
officers, who seemed to be very angry at it. Their first ac
cess to the king was in the garden of Christchurch, where he
was walking with the prince and several noblemen. . All of
them kissed his hand in their order of precedence ; and when
it came to the turn of Edmund Waller, his majesty said ;
" though you are the last, yet you are not the worst, nor the
least in my esteem :" a token of favor which was remarked
at the time, and afterwards fully explained \
After they had kissed the hand of the king, the little prince
of Wales offered his for a like mark of homage. " The earl
of Northumberland read the propositions to the king with a
sober and stout carriage ; and being interrupted by the king,
he said smartly, ' Your majesty will give me leave to pro
ceed.' The king answered, ' I, I ;' and so the earl read them
all through." The king offered conditions on the other side,
to make way for a treaty, but nothing further was done till
the beginning of March. The demands of the parliament
were the same in effect as at York, and Charles had never
been less disposed to submit his claims to a compromise. In
a letter to marquis Hamilton of December the 2nd he had thus
declared himself : 'J: I have set up my rest upon the goodness
of my cause, being'resolved that ho extremity or misfortune
shall make me yield ; for I will be either a glorious king or a
patient martyr."* His spirits had since been cheered by seve-
* Memoirs of the Hamiltons, p. 203.
Vol. II. 25

206
ral partial successes of Rupert's, by the progress of the earl of
Newcastle in associating the northern counties in the royal
cause, by movements in his favor in the West, and espe
cially by the expectation of large succours from abroad to be
accompanied by the queen in person. A letter had been inter
cepted and read in parliament, supposed to be written by Gor
ing, who after yielding Portsmouth almost on the first sum
mons had transported himself to Holland to aid in the prepara
tions there, which gave a highly encouraging view of their pro
gress. It boasted of large supplies of money from the prince
of Orange and from France ; of cannon, and arms for horse
and foot, part of them sent by the king of Denmark, some of
which were already shipped for Newcastle, and the rest on
the point of being embarked with the queen. Three regiments
of his majesty's subjects then serving in France, — Irish proba
bly and catholics, — were announced as ready to come if re
quired, and confident expectations were expressed that the roy
al army would be enabled to support itself by subsidies forci
bly raised upon the people throughout the kingdom ; which,
it was added, " are all encouragements to make us expect no
treaties to be admitted, but upon terms of great honor and ad
vantage to his majesty."* His parting promise to the queen to
come to no agreement unknown to her, was likewise con
stantly present to the memory of Charles. Various consider
ations however impelled him to encourage a renewal of the
treaty ; of which perhaps the principal was, the necessity of
satisfying the importunities of those men of rank, fortune and
character amongst his own adherents, whose deep stake in the
eountry rendered them constantly urgent for the restoration
of tranquillity, and to whom he could. hot with safety avow
his real sentiments and designs. The details supplied by
Clarendon in his Life of himself leave us no possibility of
doubting the utter insincerity of tbe king throughout the ne
gotiation. Between the first overtures in January and the further pro
ceedings in March, the queen had landed from Holland, and
the parliament had intercepted a letter written by her to' the
king immediately on her disembarkation, in which she express
ed her apprehensions of a bad peace, and declared that she
would never live in England if she might not have a guard
for her person ; and it was plain that the king had purpose!?
protraeted the business in expectation of her arrival, f
* Rushworth, vol. v. p. 69.
1 Life of the earl of Clatendon.

207
The parliamentary commissioners on their second appear
ance at Oxford were reduced, by the king's refusal to receive
lord Say, to five ; — the earl of Northumberland and four
commoners. They were tied up so strictly by their instruc
tions as to have no power to alter even a word in the ar
ticles, and oely twenty days were allowed them ; six to arrange
a cessation of arms, and the rest to conclude the treaty.
To the cessation the king, by the admission of Clarendon, was
totally averse, thinking that if once he agreed to it, he should
be unable to avoid consenting to the peace ; and he there
fore, by a kind of fraud upon his own official advisers, secret
ly directed " the gentlemen of different counties attending
the court" to present him with an address against it. " Upon
which," says Hyde, t( the chancellor of the exchequer"
(meaning himself, on whom that office had just been confer
red,) " told him, when the business was over, that he had rais
ed a spirit he would not be able to conjure down 
which proved true. For he was afterwards more troubled
with application and importunity of that kind, and the mur
murs that arose from that liberty, when all men would be
counsellors, and censure all that the council did, than with
the power of the enemy."*
The counter-statements of the parliament accuse the king
of granting and then violating the armistice. The commis
sioners, however, proceeded to the treaty itself; and to smooth
difficulties, Mr. Pierpoint, one of the number, secretly made
the mean and futile proposal, that the king should gain the
earl of Northumberland, who was privy to this proposition,
by a promise of restoring him after a peace to the office of
lord admiral ; but Charles professed himself too deeply of
fended at what he thought the ingratitude of that nobleman
to consent.f Meantime he continued to trifle the time with
a show of irresolution.
" The king," says Whitelock, " used us with great favor and
civility : and his general Ruthven, and divers of his lords and
officers, came frequently to our table ; and we had very friend
ly discourses and treatments together  Our instruc
tions were very strict, and tied us up to treat with none but the
king himself.  He had commonly waiting on him when
he treated with us, prince Rupert, the lord keeper Littleton,
the earl of Southampton, the lord chief justice Banks, and
several lords of his council, who never debated any matters
* jM/e of the Earl of Clarendon, p. 39. t #«*• 37.

208
with us, but gave their opinions to the king in those things
which he demanded of them, and sometimes would put the
king in mind of some particular things, but otherwise they did
not speak at all  In this treaty the king manifested his
great parts and abilities, strength of reason and quickness of
apprehension, with much patience in hearing what was
objected against him ; wherein he allowed all freedom, and
would himself sum up the arguments, and give a most clear
judgment upon them." He goes on to say, that it was
Charles's unhappiness to have a better opinion of others' judg
ments than of his own, although they were the weaker ; and to
this infirmity he ascribes it, that when, upon one of the most
material points of their treaty, the king professed himself
perfectly satisfied with their reasons, and promised that on
the morrow, as it was then late at night, he would give them
in writing such an answer as they desired ; — the next morn
ing he offered them a quite contrary answer, and one very
likely to break the treaty ; and on their expostulating, and
pressing his royal promise to them, confessed that he had chang
ed his mind. Some of his own friends, it is added, of whom
they inquired respecting this matter, told them that after
both the commissioners and his own council had left him,
" some of his bedchamber (and they went higher,)" hearing
what answer he had given, and fearing it would tend to peace,
whilst they rather desired a continuance of the war, never
left persuading him till they had prevailed upon him to re
tract. But it is plain that Whitelock was here a dupe to the
artifices of the king.
Tired at length of unprofitable discussions, Charles sent a
final message to the parliament, importing that if they would
restore all their expelled members, and adjourn their meet
ings to some place twenty miles from London, he would then
consent to disband his armies and return speedily to his par
liament, according to their demand. The two houses on re
ceipt of a proposal which could scarcely be regarded as seri
ous, ordered their commissioners to return without delay,
which they did on April the 15th, leaving the hopes of peace
colder than ever.
With reference to these negotiations two speeches made in
the council at Oxford, the first by the earl of Bristol against
a peace, the other by the earl of Dorset in favor of it, are
sufficiently remarkable to merit notice. The proscription of
his son lord Digby as an evil counsellor, seems to have warp
ed the principles as well as exasperated the spirit of Bristol,

209
once manly and generous. The grounds on which he con
demned a treaty were, first, the sacrifice which it would in
volve of the interests of those of the nobility who had been
declared delinquents, and their estates in consequence confis
cated by the parliament ; and secondly, the dishonor it must
be for a king, " the immediate figure of heaven and the deity
on earth," to beg peace of his subjects. He affirms that in
Spain, with which his embassies had well acquainted him,
there was scarcely any memory of intestine wars, because
there the people are truly subjects and their sovereign truly
a sovereign ; if the people will not permit fhe same to be the
case here, his reason tells him they should be compelled to it.
Dorset, on the other hand, once so noted for his servility
and corruption, as a courtier and surpassing iniquity as a
judge in the star-chamber, apprehensive perhaps of being
called to account by the parliament, for the illegal acts in
which he had been implicated, assumes the tone of a patriot.
He pleads in answer to Bristol, that the parliament had de
nounced none but those whom it regarded as evil counsellors ;
that the innocent had nothing to fear from its justice ; and that
he who could from any cause prefer his private good before,
the public utility was but a bad son of the commonwealth :
He had himself, he said, suffered as much as any in these
wars, his houses had" been searched and arms taken out of
them, and his heir committed to prison, but he passed by
these discourtesies as unavoidable, and should strive to pro
mote a settlement as " the darling business of the kingdom,"
and equally conducive to the good and honor of the king as
to the rights, privileges and prosperity of every rank and class
of people.
That amongst the English, freedom by long enjoyment had
become a second nature, and it was not safe for an English
king to strive to introduce the Spanish government upon this
freeborn nation, nor just for the people to suffer it : That
whereas the earl of Bristol intimated the strength and brave
ry of the royal army, which could not be denied, as an in
ducement to continue the war in hopes of a fair and happy
peace, he was utterly repugnant to this opinion, for " yet,"
he emphatically added, " have we infinite disadvantages on
our side ; the parliament having double our number, and
surely, though our enemies, persons of as much bravery ;
nay, and sure to be daily supplied when any of their number
fails ; a benefit which we cannot boast ; they having the most
popular part of the kingdom at their devotion, all, or most of

210
the cities, considerable towns and ports, together with the
mainest pillar of the kingdom's safety, the sea at their com
mand, and the navy, and which is most material of all, an
unexhausted Indies of money to pay their soldiers out of;
the liberal contributions of coin and plate sent by people of
all conditions who account the parliament's cause their cause,
and so think themselves engaged to part with the uttermost
penny of their estates in their defence, whom they esteem the
patriots of their liberties." On all these considerations his
voice was for an immediate treaty.*
It had by this time become evident that the Scottish people
were not disposed to remain longer mere spectators of the
distractions of the sister kingdom. We have already traced
the steps taken by Charles, in contemplation of coming to
extremities with his parliament, to secure at least the neutral
ity of the covenanters. In addition to the boons whieh he
then distributed amongst various classes of persons, he had
since held out to the nation the enormous promises that one
in three of all English offices in his gift should be set apart
for them, and that the counties of Northumberland, Cum
berland and Westmorland should be annexed to the kingdom
of Scotland. But in their common love of civil liberty, and
hatred of episcopal domination, and their common distrust of
the king's intentions, the parliament of England possessed a
pledge for the friendship of their northern brethren stronger
than any which it was in the power of Charles to exact.
About the middle of the last year the Scotch had made an
offer of their mediation between the contending parties in
England, and the king had sent the chancellor Loudon to
Edinburgh to endeavor to procure a declaration of the privy-
council there in his favor ; but the royal party having been
outnumbered in that body, their interposition was delayed at
his majesty's request.
On the commencement of hostilities, and the assembling of
the earl of Newcastle's army on the borders, the privy-coun
cil and the conservators of the peace appointed by the last
Scotch parliament renewed their offers of mediation ; and
deputed a committee of three laymen, to whom the church
added their redoubted champion Henderson, to confer with
the king at Oxford. Their reception was far from gracious :
the king demanded first to see their instructions, which they
were averse to showing ; and next questioned their power to
* Rushworth, v. 127. et »e<j.

£11
treat. Afterwards neither he nor his secretaries could find
leisure to give them an answer. " No private nor familiar
converse they got, but all in public, in a very harsh way."
With Henderson only, who had been brought thither by the
advice of William Murray, as one " likely to do wonders with
the king," he entered into conference, endeavoring to per
suade him of the justice and necessity of his arms, and the
injurious treatment he had received from the parliament.
But failing to gain the assent of his auditor," " he did at once
change his countenance." The lives of the commissioners
were very uncomfortable during their whole stay at Oxford.
Letters to and from them were opened, and on their com
plaint, redress was refused except on condition of their pro
curing from the English parliament a safe-guard for his ma
jesty's letters. " None durst show them any sensible favor.
In the streets, and from the windows they were reviled by
all sorts of people; and by their secret friends they were de
sired- to look to their persons, as if from stabbing or poison
there had been some danger from that enraged party of pre
lates and papists against whom the commission was express."*
The business of these delegates had three principal branches :
— to recommend an amicable adjustment of political differ
ences between the king and parliament on the footing of such
a compromise as the late treaty had proved impracticable ; —
to urge the establishment of their own form of church gov
ernment in England, on the ruins of episcopacy ; — and to
desire for Scotland the immediate convocation of a parlia
ment. The last demand the king at once rejected,, from the
well-grounded apprehension of a union of counsels between
the legislatures of the two kingdoms ; respecting the second,
Clarendon in his life of himself supplies a remarkable piece of
secret history.
On receiving, he says, from the Scotch commissioners, a
long paper containing a bitter invective against bishops and
the whole government of the church as contrary to the Word
of God, concluded with a very passionate desire for an alter
ation, the king carried the piece to his council for their advice.
Anxious to take this opportunity of manifesting his zeal for
the church, and thus deterring all others from urging upon him
any similar propositions, he entered on the subject with unu
sual warmth : " He had a great mind to have made an answer
to every expression in their paper ; and to have set out the
* Baillie's Letters, i. 359.

212
divine right of episcopacy ; and how impossible it was for him
ever in conscience to consent to anything to the prejudice of
that order and function. . . . mentioning those [reasons] which
the ablest prelate could do upon that occasion." " Many of
.the lords were of opinion that a short answer would be best,"
rejecting the proposition without giving any reason, and no
one agreed with his majesty ; which caused him to make a
sharp reply to their arguments. Yet lord Falkland was not
to be deterred from pursuing the debate ; and he set aside
many of the king's reasons as invalid "with a little quickness
of wit ;" which so chafed his majesty that he reproached all
who were of that mind with want of affection for the church,
declaring that he would have the substance of what he had
said digested into his answer. "With which reprehension all
sat very silent, having never undergone the like before." In
the end however Hyde was able to persuade him, that a simple
reprehension of the Scotch for interfering in a matter with
which they had no concern, would better suit the occasion.
The commissioners, thus disappointed of the opportunity they
hoped of engaging the royal theologian in a regular debate on
his favorite topic, returned to London "with manifest dissat
isfaction." The results of their conferences with the parliament will
appear hereafter.
During these negotiations at Oxford, Goring returning
from Holland, landed in the North with what was audacious
ly styled " the queen's standard," and she herself lost no time
in following this extraordinary harbinger. The year which
she had spent at the Hague had been actively employed, and
through the favor of the prince of Orange, with success. In
despite of the remonstrances of an agent sent by the parlia
ment to remind the States of the services formerly rendered
by the English nation to the cause of Dutch liberty, and to
claim at least their neutrality in the present contest, the
queen was permitted to complete her preparations, and almost
openly to load a number of vessels with warlike stores, and
to enlist many officers and some troops. A Dutch fleet was
likewise sent to escort her. She seems even to have inter
ested the people of Holland in her fate, and was well treated
by them, although, as she intimated to Madame de Motte
ville, the republican independence of their manners was lit
tle to her taste. The burgomasters, she complained, would
seat themselves in her presence and converse with her as with

213
and an equal ; they would even enter the room with their
hats on, and after looking at her, retire without saluting her.
The fleet by which she was attended consisted at first of
eleven sail, but a tempest drove her back, and compelled her
after eleven days passed on board to land again near the Hague.
Two of her ships perished, but after reposing herself for a
fortnight, she put to sea once more with the remaining nine,
and landed safely in Bridlington Bay about the end of Febru
ary. On the second day after, Batten, vice-admiral under
the earl of Warwick, who had waited to intercept her passage,
came into Bridlington Roads with four men of war, and can
nonaded the place with such effect, that the balls struck the
house in which she was passing the night. Jermyn, who was
as usual in close attendance, came and informed her that she
was in extreme danger and must make her escape ; and at
tended by the duchess of Richmond and other ladies, she
tpok shelter under the banks of a deep gully near the town.
In the meantime Tromp, the Dutch admiral, sent a message
to Batten requiring him to cease firing, or, " he would not
be a looker on."* Henrietta boasted to Madame de Mott
eville of her own heroism in turning back after she had quit
ted the house, to fetch a little favorite dog which she had left
sleeping in her bed. A part of the earl of Newcastle's army
was quartered at Bridlington awaiting her majesty's arrival ;
and the earl himself soon joined and conducted her in safety
to York, whither he himself had found it expedient to retire
on receiving a severe check from the Fairfaxes by the cap
ture of Wakefield, which contained his magazines.
At York the queen remained for some time stationary,
more pleased with her separate command, than impatient to
return to her husband, and occupied partly in the levy of
troops, partly in the more congenial task of weaving in
trigues, tampering with opponents, and discussing the pro
jects of the different party-leaders who hastened into her
presence. Of this number were the marquis of Hamilton
and Montrose, each of whom had his separate plan for en
gaging Scotland in the royal cause ; Hamilton, according to
his custom, suggesting secret means of gaining over the par
liament of that kingdom, in despite of the predominating in
fluence of Argyle ; Montrose, on the other hand, proposing
that Antrim, who had likewise repaired to York, should
make a landing at the head of his savage sept on the western
* Kingsby's Journal, MS.
Vol. II. 26

214
coast ; that the equally savage Highland clans should be
raked ; that Monro who commanded the Scotch troops in
Ireland, should be bought over, and that the chiefs of the
covenant should be massacred ; and he offered his own ser
vices to execute as well as to plot these attrocities. The
last proposal was the most congenial to the spirit of Henri
etta ; but she was careful to welcome with smiles and flat
teries all tenders of succour to the cause. By offers and
promises, she also contrived to shake the fidelity of more
than one of the parliamentary commanders in her neigh
bourhood ; sir Hugh Cholmley, governor of Scarborough,
who had not long before gained credit by the defeat of a
considerable body of royalists, agreed to deliver that place
into her hands ; and the "younger Hotham, on visiting York
to settle an exchange of prisoners, was induced to barter his
fidelity for a bribe. It is recorded to the honor of the brave
and loyal sir Marmaduke Langdale, who had an intimacy
of long standing with Hotham, that he refused to be made
an instrument in tempting his friend to perfidy.
The pieces of cannon brought by Henrietta from Holland
were popularly styled the queen's Gods, and the army of
the North was stigmatized as the queen's or the papists' ar
my ; but in despite of these sarcasms ils numbers daily increas
ed, and in the month of Ma)-, her majesty determined
to begin her march southwards. The earl of Newcastle
escorted her from York to Pomfret with his whole force, but
cause of jealousy was given him by this singular intrusion of a
female commander, and by the partiality she exerted in favor
of her own courtiers, and it was not without reluctance
that on taking his leave he made over to her majesty a
large body of horse and foot raised by himself.* From Pom-
fret she proceeded to Newark where she delayed a fortnight.
Henrietta boasted to Madame de Motteville that on this march
she banished female weakness, was always on horseback,
ate with the soldiers in the open field, and by treating them
like brothers made them love her dearly ; but of her military
exploits she made a jest, confessing that they were limited to
the capture of one ill-defended town (Burton-on-Trent). It is
added by this French memorialist that the king received his
consort with joy and praise, and that the royal pair trusted with
such fine armies to subdue their rebellious subjects : An expres
sion which affords a curious proof how completely Henrietta
was regarded, by herself and her compatriots and courtiers, as
* Lift of tht Duke of Newcastle by his duchess, p. 88.

215
the partner of the power and office as well as the rank and
state of her husband !
Charles met his queen near Edgehillon July the 13th, Ru
pert having previously joined her at Stratford.
During the winter, whilst the two principal armies remain
ed stationary, that of the king at Oxford, and that of Essex
around Windsor, some sharp skirmishes passed, many towns
were gained or lost to one or the other party by the efforts
of detached bodies acting almost independently under district-
chiefs bearing royal or parliamentary commissions, and the
desolated country was scoured far and wide by Rupert,
whilst sir William Waller gained equal fame by his ac
tive enterprise on the other side. Two or three of the inci
dents of this minor war demand notice on account of the mo
ral features which they display.
Amongst the gentlemen of consequence in the West, sent
by the king from York to assist the marquis of Hertford in
executing the commission of array in those parts, one of the
most distinguished was sir Ralph Hopton of Witham in So
mersetshire, a member of parliament, who on account of
some speeches in defence of the king had lately been commit
ted to the Tower by order of the house. By great intrepidity
and exertion, sir Rdph succeeded in making very considera
ble levies for the king in Cornwall, a county previously under
the sole authority of the parliament, and in the month of Jan
uary he brought his men to action with the forces under gene
ral Ruthven on Bradock Down near Liskeard. Sir Ralph, ac
customed to the discipline of the Low Country wars, long at
tached to the popular cause in parliament, and still regarded by
the courtiers from the strictness of his manners as a puritan,
caused prayers to be read at the head of each corps as it stood in
array, in presence of the enemy ; a circumstance rare, if not
absolutely unparalleled on the king's side. The royalists ob
tained a decisive victory, putting their enemies to the rout and
taking cannon, colors, and many prisoners : but the slaughter
was not considerable ; for according to Clarendon, " the
common men in the civil war shed little blood after resistance
was over, insomuch as when pressed by some fiercer officer
to follow the execution, they have answered, ' They could
not find in their hearts to hurt men who had nothing in their
hands.' " A trait of national character of which England
may be justly proud !
It would be painful to believe the gallant Hopton, in his
own person the very model of disinterested fidelity to the

216
cause which he had conscientiously embraced, capable of an
attempt to corrupt the integrity of a friend ; he made, how
ever, to his old and affectionate intimate sir William Waller
a propositition for a somewhat suspicious kind of confer
ence, which was declined in the following noble and affecting
letter. Sir William Waller lo Sir Ralph Hopton.
g;r Bath, June 16, 1643.
The experience I have had of your worth, and the happi
ness I have enjoyed in your friendship, are wounding consid
erations when I look upon the present distance between us.
Certainly my affections to you are so unchangeable, that hos
tility itself cannot violate my friendship to your person ; but
I must be true to the cause wherein I serve. The old limi
tation of usque ad aras, holds still ; and where my conscience
is interested, all other obligations are swallowed up.
I should most gladly waif on you, according to your desire,
but that 1 look on you, engaged as you are in that party, be
yond a possibility of retreat ; and, consequently, incapable
of being wrought upon by any persuasions ; and I know the
conference would never be so close between us, but that it
would take air, and receive a construction to my dishonor.
That great God who is the searcher of my heart, knows
with what reluctance I go upon this service, and with what
perfect hatred I look upon a war without an enemy. But I
look upon it as opus Domini, and that is enough to silence all
passion in me. The God of Peace in his good time send us
peace, and in the meantime fit us to receive it !
We are both on the stage, and we must act the parts that
are assigned us in this tragedy. Let us do it in a way of hon
or, and without personal animosities. But, whatever be the
issue, I shall not willingly relinquish the dear title of your
affectionate friend and faithful servant,
„,,,,. W. Waller.
To my noble friend
Sir Ralph Hopton at Wales.*
Clarendon imputes to Hopton, on a later occasion, a too
great eagerness to fight with his old friend Waller, which
brought disaster on the king's troops.
*Polwhele'a Traditions and Recollections, vol. i. p. IS. London, 1826

217
Lord Brook, in whom the parliament justly reposed the
highest degree of confidence, had been appointed general
for the associated counties of Northampton, Leicester, Derby
and Warwick, and distinguished himself by many active ser
vices. Learning that the earl of Chesterfield, with some
Staffordshire gentlemen, had thrown themselves into Litch
field, and taken possession for the king of the cathedral Close,
which they hoped that its strong walls and moat would ena
ble them to maintain, he collected a body of foot and horse,
and on March the 1st appeared before the city. Here,
whilst he was causing a battery to be thrown up against the
Close, and himself superintending the work from an adja
cent window, a musket shot aimed from the battlements of
the cathedral entered his eye and killed him on the spot.
From this incident occurring on the anniversary of St. Chad,
the patron of the cathedral, to a zealous puritan, in an at
tempt considered as sacrilegious, Clarendon has taken occa
sion to give it the air of a judgment. " It was reported," he
says, " that in his prayer that very morning, (for he used topray
publicly though his chaplain were in the presence,) he wish
ed, ' that if the cause he wererin were not right and just, he
might be presently cut off.' They who were acquainted with
him," he adds, " believed him to be well-natured and just ;
and rather seduced and corrupted in his understanding, than
perverse and malicious. Whether his passions or his con
science swayed him, he was undoubtedly one of those who
could have been with most difficulty reconciled to the govern
ment of church or state : and therefore his death was looked
upon as no ill omen to peace, and was exceedingly lamented
by that party, which had scarce a more absolute confidence
in any man than in him."* The noble historian has in
this place neglected to record the fact, of which he has made
great boast in his Life of himself, that a speech in parlia
ment against peace, published as lord Brook's, which shock
ed all good men by the unchristian bitterness of its sentiments
. and expressions, was, like many similar pieces, a deliberate
forgery of his own, for the purpose of discrediting a consci
entious and formidable opponent. Lord Brook himself mov
ed in parliament to have it burned by the hands of the hang
man, f
An action took place in March, on Hopton Heath near
Stafford, between the united forces of Gell and Brereton,
* Hist. Rebellion, iii. 455.
t Life of the Earl of Clarendon, part ii. pp. 34 and 35.

218
and the earl of Northampton, a zealous and active officer
for the king. The reports of this fight are very contra
dictory ; it is certain, however, that the parliament's horse
were routed, and that their cannon and ammunition fell into
the hands of th j royalists ; — an advantage however which
these regarded as dearly purchased by the loss of their
general, who, having had his horse shot under him, remained
surrounded by his foes, and was slain bravely fighting ; hav
ing, as it is asserted, refused to accept of quarter from " re
bels." His dead body remained with the parliamentarians,
who kept the field ; and the next day, on his son's request
ing to have it given up to him for burial, Gell and Brereton
sent an answer demanding in exchange the restitution of their
cannon and prisoners. This condition being refused, as un
reasonable and contrary to the law of arms, a subsequent .pe
tition from the young earl, to be permitted to send his sur
geon to embalm his father's body until it could receive due
sepulture, was also ungenerously and illiberally denied. For
this story we have indeed no better authority than the dishon
est pen of Clarendon ; but the bad character given by Mrs.
Hutchinson of sir John Gell, renders it, with respect to him
at least, sufficiently credible. The historian observes that
the earl of Northampton, unlike some persons who warily di
vided their sons between the two parties, dedicated his whole
family to the royal cause ; his four sons being officers under
him, three of whom charged in the field that day.
Rupert, amongst other exploits, entered Cirencester, where
the county magazines were placed, and having put to the
sword the whole of the earl of Stamford's regiment, and ma
ny more, possessed himself of 3000 stand of arms and also
of 1100 prisoners, with which he returned to Oxford. These
unfortunate captives, described as barefooted, half-naked, tied
together with cords, beaten, and driven along like dogs, he
led in triumph into the city, where, as we are told, the king,
accompanied by many noblemen, " was content to be a spec
tator of their calamities, but gave neither order for their relief,
or commands for ease of their sufferings ; nay, it was noted by
some there present, he rejoiced in their sad affliction."*
By this unfeeling conduct Charles is said to have alienated
some of his own adherents ; and so loud was the outcry
against the military brutalities perpetrated by Rupert, espe
cially at the capture of Birmingham, which was" sacked and
* Lilly's Observations, p. 14. Compare also Whitelock, p. 67.

219
half of it burned down, that soon after, whilst he was engag
ed in the siege of Litchfield, it was found necessaiy to address
to him a royal message on this topic. He is here admonish
ed that his majesty would by no means have him seek to an
ticipate the divine revenge on his subjects : that, on the con
trary, his majesty laments the blood shed on both sides, and
desires him and all oriiers serving him in this lamentable war,
to mingle severity with mercy, and by gaining on the opin
ion of the subjects, to " take their affections rather than their
towns." " We know," it is added, "that our army is ma
ligned, as if it were repugnant to the good of the common
wealth to accept our subjects' service in these great and civil
distractions ; do you therefore, good nephew, by your man
aging all affairs in this civil war, teach our people to be
undeceived in us their merciful king; let jour fair actions
make it app ar that you are no malignants, no evil counsel
lors,  and that you seek not the ruin and destruction
of our kingdoms, which aspersions are cast upon you, which
can be no acceptable service unto'us."
In conclusion, the prince is enjoined in his siege of Litch
field, to have a care of shedding innocent blood, and to allow
the people, if they desire it, to have free quarter, and to march
out with bag and baggage.* About the middle of April, the
earl of Essex, quitting his winter quarters, commenced the
campaign by investing Reading; and Charles, after dispatch
ing orders to Rupert to quit Litchfield and march to raise the
siege, finding that this succor would be tardy, set out from
Oxford in person, at the head of a considerable force, for the
same object. Before he reached his destination, colonel Fiel
ding, on whom the command of the place had devolved, quit
ted it by night, and waiting upon the king obtained his sanc
tion to proceed in settling the articles of a capitulation for
which he was already treating. The king nevertheless re
mained in the neighborhood watching his opportunity to re
lieve the town, and actually threw in a supply of gunpowder,
after the terms of surrender had been agreed upon. But the
garrison, at Fielding's exhortation, " refusing to draw out
because of the treaty," this perfidious attempt was frustrated ;
and these troops having quitted the place with the honors of
war, on April the 27th, immediately attended the king in his
return to Oxford."f
* Rushworth, v. 149.
| For this .statement of the ease, compare the perplexed narrative in the
text of Clarendon's history with a suppressed passage of his Life, cited in
Hist. Rebellion, iv. p. 40. Note.

220
Fielding, finding himself severely reflected upon at court
for this surrender, and the king highly incensed against him,
on the pretext of his having admitted an article by which
deserters from the' parliament were to be given up ; was
obliged to demand a court-martial for the vindication of his ho
nor, by the sentence of which, though acquitted of the charge
of treachery, he waa sentenced to death for some trifling dis
obedience of orders. By "long and great intercession," the
king was brought to pardon him at the last moment, when
all was in readiness for the execution. His regiment was
taken from him, but he afterwards fought with distinguished
courage as a volunteer, and obtained at length a principal
command in another of the royal armies. The whole cir
cumstances of the case are discreditable to Charles in more
respects than one, and Clarendon notes this incident as the
origin of busy factions in court and vehement dissensions
amongst the military men, from which the king suffered great
inconveniences. The acquisition of Reading brought as its immediate re
sults little but misfortune to the captors. A great mortality
broke out amongst the soldiers, derived from some infection
in the town ; many of them deserted, the rest became mu
tinous, and Essex complaining aloud of. neglect in supplying
him with arms, horses and pay for his men, placed his troops
in quarters of refreshment.
During tliese transactions the arms of the cavaliers were
obtaining in almost every quarter of the kingdom a manifest
ascendancy, and all the arts of intrigue and subornation were
unscrupulously employed by the same party to complete and
secure their triumph. In several remarkable instances, how
ever, meditated treasons against the parliament were detected
by the vigilance of its chiefs, and visited with due punish
ment on the heads of the guilty.
Sir Thomas Hotham and his son had conceited a plan for
betraying the town of Hull, which was detected on the point
of execution, when they were both seized, under the author
ity of parliament, by colonel sir Matthew Boynton, brother-
in-law to sir Thomas, sent prisoners to the Tower, and at
length, after a regular trial, condemned and put to death as
traitors. A design in which the younger Hotham was also
concerned, for giving up Lincoln, was frustrated, though with
difficulty. Sir Alexander Carew was seized and. committed
to prison, and afterwads executed for planning the surrender
of Plymouth, where he commanded. On detection of a plot

221
for opening the gates of Bristol to prinoe Rupert, Nathaniel
Fiennes son of lord Say, the governor of the city, firmly ex
ecuted the capital sentence of a council of war on two of
the conspirators, in defiance of fhe unwarrantable menace of
Ruthven, now earl of Forth, the royal general in those parts^
of retaliation upon his prisoners of war ; and in defiance
also of a vehement proclamation of the king's, commanding
the inhabitants of Bristol to rise for the rescue of these de
linquents. In London itself a conspiracy of deeper reach haef been
brought to light, which was found to .aim' at the very being
of the parliament and the lives of its principal members.
Numbers were embarked in it, comprehending courtiers, citi
zens, and military, nor were even the houses of lords and
commons free from participator in the treason.- Edmund
Waller was a ringleader, and it was by a servant of his who
had overheard certain consultations, that intelligence of what
was in agitation was conveyed to the ears of Pym. A com
mittee of inquiry was immediately appointed with that leader
at its head, who a few days after, on May the 34st, reported
to the house the result of its investigations. He stated that
the plot was formed of a mixture and conjunction of persons
of several qualities, who in their several places and employ
ments were to perfect the work, raised out of the ashes of the
late London petition to tbe parliament for peace : That the
chief actors were, Mr. Waller, a member of the house of com
mons, who pretended and gave out to the rest!, that many
others of that house and of the lords were concerned in it ; — ¦
a gentleman named Tompkins his brother-in-law, (who; was
employed in the management of the queen's revenue,) Mr.
Challoner an eminent citizen, — Mr. Alexander Hampden who
brought the last message from the king, and some others : That
the method of proceeding was, for several persons is the city
to form themselves into a committee to hold intelligence with
both armies, the court and the parliament, to take a general
survey of the affections of all men within the bills of mortality,
and to consider of arms arid all provisions of war : That
the particulars of the design itself were ;^=to possess them
selves of the king's children, — to secure several members of
both houses, especially lords Say and Wharton, and Pym,
Stapleton, Hampden and Strode, the lord mayor and the com
mittee for the militia, under pretence of bringing them to a
legal trial ; — to seize upon the forts, magazines, gates, and
other places of importance in the city, together with the
Vol. II. 27

222
Tew«r, and let in the king's forces, and in the meantime to
resist all payments imposed by order of parliament for the
support of their armies. For their authority they had a com
mission from the king empowering them to make levies both
of men and money, which the widow of the lord Aubigny
slain at Edgehill, being permitted by the parliament to go to
Oxford on her private affairs, had brought thence concealed
in her hair. This commission was discovered in the house
of Tompkins hidden in a cellar, and its date, March the 16th
of this year, proved that it was granted during the Oxford
negotiations. The plot was on the eve of explosion ; lord
Falkland, who was in official communication with the con
spirators, had urged to them to hasten the attempt, because
it obviously grew every day more difficult to put a stop to the
war, which he regarded as the most deplorable of all calami
ties. The parliament Appointed a solemn day of thanksgiving
for] this signal deliverance, and drew up an oath, or vow
against this or any future similar design, which, though the
taking of it was nominally optional, served the purpose of a
test. They likewise directed the lord general to nominate a
council of war for the trial of the prisoners. By this tribu
nal four persons were found guilty, of whom Tompkins and
Challoner suffered capitally. Both died acknowledging the
justice ®f their punishment, and Tompkins even expressing
satisfaction at the failure of a design, the results of which
might have proved so widely mischievous. Waller was
brought to the bar of the house and allowed to plead for
himself before his expulsion from it, which was regarded as
an essential preliminary to his trial by a court-martial. His
speech was humble and deprecatory ; but the ready and
ample disclosure which an abject terror impelled him to make
of all the acts, designs, and even, it is said, of the half- form
ed propositions and loose discourses of his friends and asso
ciates, was the most effectual argument for sparing him.
He was indeed both expelled the jbouse and sentenced to
death by the council of war ; but a reprieve was granted him
by Essex, and after a year's imprisonment, on payment of a
fine of 10,000/. he was permitted to transport to Fiance him
self and his double. ignominy. Lords Portland and Conway
were imprisoned on strong and just suspicion, of having con
curred in this design, but discharged after some time for want
of proofs.
Amid these complicated perils from the slackness of Essex,

223
the pr®sperous arms of the royalists in Yawous parts, the
treachery which encompassed them on every hand, and the
dissensions and factions which began to arise in the bosom of
the parliament itself, — the sagacious leaders of the house of
commons, who perceived nothing but ruin heralded by dis
grace in further efforts at compromise with an uncompromis
ing adversary, introduced, during the single month of May,
and carried at length through both houses, three measures of
the boldest and most decided character. The first was an
ordinance for the calling of an assembly of divines in order
to the settlement of religion with " a fit government for th»
church of England :" The second was an ordinance for
making a great seal to be employed by the parliament in place
of that which the lord keeper had carried to the king ; by
which they enabled themselves to perform all the acts of the
executive, and amongst others to issue writs for the election
of new members in lieu of those who had either died or de
serted the parliament for the service of the king : The th'irtL,
moved by Pym, was an impeachment of high-treason against
the queen, charging her, amongst other articles, wirfj pawn
ing the crown jewels, raising the rebellion in Ireland, endeav
oring to stir up a party against the parliament in Scotland,
and inarching at the head of a popish army in England.
It was partly in retaliation of this last act in particular, that
Charles issued, on June the 20th, a proclamation forbidding
his faithful subjects to yield obedience to any ordinances or
commands of the parliament, on the plea that a majority of
the members of both houses having been driven from their
seats by threats of violence, he could no longer acknowledge
it as a lawful assembly. From Clarendon's more secret his
tory called his Life, we learn that the king would on this oc
casion have gone a step further by declaring the parliament
itself dissolved, and forbidding it to sit again, but for his ear
nest representation that should his majesty take this step, in
defiance of the act passed by himself to render the parlia
ment indissoluble, it would confirm the jealousy with which
the people had been corrupted of his designing to annul some
other acts of this assembly which were very precious to
them. On June the 18th an action took place on Chalgrovefield
in Buckinghamshire between the advanced posts of Essex's
army and the royal cavalry under Rupert, in which the par
liament sustained a slight defeat but an inestimable loss, — for
t was there that the illustrious Hampden received his morta-i

224
wound. On the well-known particulars of his death it is not
necessary here to dwell* ; but it is fit to mention, as an anec
dote of Charles, that on receiving the intelligence that he was
wounded, transmitted by one Dr. Giles, the rector of a neigh
boring parish who had lived on terms resembling friendship
with the patriot leader, his majesty "required, the Doctor,
ps from himself, tq send to see him, ..... for I found," adds
sir Philip Warwick, who conducted the messenger to the royal
presence," " the king would have sent him over any chirur-
geon of his, if any had been wanting ; for fie looked upon
his interest, if he could gain his affection, as a powerful means
of begetting a right understanding betwixt him and his twp
houses,'' Hampden died as he had lived, true to the cause approved
by his reason and sanctioned by his conscience, and which he
sealed with his blood. The last words upon his lips were a
prayer for his bleeding country.
It had been the earnest and reiterated advice of Hampden,
whose military character largely partook of the energy, com
bined with profound sagacity, which marked his political ge
nius, that Essex, instead of turning aside to form the siege of
Reading, should have marched at once upon Oxford ; aud if,
at that juncture, his counsels had been followed, there is rea
son to believe that they would have been justified by the
event. The panic had been extreme in that city on the first
advance of the parliament's army into Berkshire. It was
crowded with civil and legal functionaries, with courtiers, with
clergy and with ladies, who shuddered at the very thought of
a siege, and whose importunities would either have compelled
the king to give battle with inferior forces, for the purpose of
cheeking the approach of the enemy, or, more probably, to
march away with his army further North, and leave this
important place to capitulate.
Even without the miseries attending a siege, the situation
of the royal household and followers shut up in Oxford was
sufficiently uncomfortable. Lady Fanshawe thus vividly de
scribes her own situation there and that of her family. "...
 From as good a house as any gentleman of England
had, we came to a baker's house in an obscure street, and
from rooms well-furnished to lie in a very bad bed in a garret ;
to one dish of meat, and that not the best ordered ; no mo
ney, for we were as poor as Job, nor clothes, more than a man
* The reader is referred to the instructive and interesting narrative of lord
Nugent in his "Memorials of John Hampden, Esq." 2 vols. Svo. London 1832.

225
or two brought in their cloak bags. We had the perpetual
discourse of losing and gaining towns and men ; at the win
dows the sad spectacle of war, sometimes plague, sometimes
sickness of other kind, by reason of so many people being
packed together as I believe there never was before of that
quality ; always in want, yet I must needs say that most
bore it with a martyr-like cheerfulness."*
To an assemblage of such persons, so circumstanced, it
was natural to become the sport of every passing rumor, to
feed on daily hopes and fears, and on the most inadequate
grounds to pass from the depths of despondency to the heights
of confidence and exultation ; and such we learn to have been
in fact the fluctuating temper of the king and queen and the
counsellors in whom they confided.
Among the most important of the successes which contribu
ted to raise the spirits of the royal party at this juncture were
the total defeat of Waller's army at Roundway Down near
Devizes on July the 13th, and the fall of the important city
of Bristol on the 26th of the same month ; surrendered to Ru
pert by Nathaniel Fiennes under circumstances which sub
jected him to a charge of cowardice, and a sentence of death
from a court-martial, afterwards commuted for dismissal from
the army. To the king however this success was imbittered
by the dissentions which immediately broke out between the
princes Rupert and Maurice and their superior officer the mar
quis of Hertford, respecting the right of appointing a governor
of the captured city.
On the day after receiving news of the surrender, Charles
set out for Bristol, partly to give directions for the regulation of
the port, which was of great consequence to him with re
spect to trade and customs, and as a point of communication
wifh Ireland ; partly to put the army upon some new enterprise
without loss of time ; but chiefly for the sake of being absent
from his council at Oxford when he should settle the differ
ences between the princes and the marquis. " For," says
Clarendon, " as he was always swayed by his affection to his
nephews, which he did not think partiality ; so the lords,
towards whom the princes did not live with any condescension,
were very solicitous that the marquis should receive no injus
tice or disobligation."t
By the king's award, Rupert gained his object, and Hert-
* Memoir of Lady Fanshawe, p. 57.
| Life »f the Earl cf Clarendon, part iii. p. 40.

226
ford was withdrawn from his command of the western army.
In reference to the sentiments entertained of Rupert and of
the royal cause itself by nobles who had taken part the most
strenuously against the parliament, a passage from the memoirs
of sir Philip Warwick may here be quoted. After speaking
of some of the actions of this campaign, he thus continues:
"The kingfinding by these experiences in theSouth how tough
the business was like to prove, sent me some time before
into the North to the earl of Newcastle. My commission
was (for I had but three or four words under the king's hand
written in a piece of white sarsenet to give me credit, with
him,) to try what he meant to do with his army ; and wheth
er with a good part of it he would, when the season was,
march up southerly, and in a distinct body keep at some
distance from the king, to give a check unto the southern ar
my. But I found him very averse to this, and perceived
that he apprehended nothing more, than to be joined to the
king's army, or to serve under prince Rupert ; for he design
ed to be himself the man that should turn the scale, and to
be a self-subsisting arid distinct army wherever he was. Which
when I perceived fixed in him, being left to discretion, I
thought it more reasonable to wave it, than press him to the
contrary."* The same writer making mention elsewhere of Rupert, af
ter doing justice to his military qualifications, admits that he
had a sharpness or moroseness in his temper which led him
to treat with contempt such opinions as he did not approve,
and produced mutual distastes between him and " the coun
sellors of civil affairs, who were necessarily to intermix with
him in martial counsels." And these great men, he says, of
ten distrusted such downright soldiers as the prince, lest they
should be too apt to prolong the war, and to obtain that by a
pure victory which they wished to be got by a submission
upon modest speedy and peaceable terms, or by addresses of
the two houses to the king. He concludes by observing, that
had the king more vigorously interposed, and been master of
both parties, his arms had probably been much more prosper
ous ; but that neither of them stood in awe of him, and thus
the consequence was fatal. It is however manifest, that
Charles was from the beginning as much bent on prostrat
ing all opposition by decided and total victory as Rupert him
self; and that it was by grasping pertinaciously at this object,
* Warwick's Memoirs, p. 242.

2£7
in which the aristocracy of the country were for the most
part indisposed to concur, that he finally lost all.
Thoroughgoing partisans were certainly the only ones to
whom the king was at any time disposed to show countenance ;
and of the uncompromising rigor with which it was his pleas-
sure, or his nature, to visit the delinquencies even of repent
ing opponents he was soon to give memorable proofs.
The policy of the parliamentary leaders was of a different
stamp, and productive of opposite results. This period was
the beginning of their greatest difficulties. Republican prin
ciples had begun to be avowed by a few : Henry Martin, in
defending before the house of commons a person accused of
libel, had given utterence to the sentiment that it was better
that one family, — and he confessed that he alluded to the roy
al one, — should be destroyed than the whole people. He
was Indeed committed to the Tower for these words, but the
thought was probably that of number. The independent sect
was striving to lift itself up in opposition to the Presbyterian ;
and between the daring enthusiasm of the first and the inflex
ible bigotry of the last, it was plain that the impending con-
flict would be both fierce and obstinate. Alarmed by these
movements towards a popular revolution in church and state
going far beyond any changes which they themselves might
have desired or proposed, and anticipating likewise final suc
cess to the royal cause, a party forming a majority of the slen
der remains of a house of lords which still assembled at West
minster, had combined for the purpose of carrying a motion
for concluding a peace. The terms proposed were those of
a nominal compromise, but they were such in effect as would
have laid at the foot of the throne at once the liberties of the
parliament and the nation, and the lives of their bold and firm
defenders. Persons of no less weight than the earls of Nor
thumberland, Bedford, Holland and Clare ; and what was
si ill more alarming, Essex himself, had engaged in this de-e
sign : The parliamentarian general had openly complained
of inattention to the wants of his troops, and had urged a
treaty in such a tone as to give cause to fear that their own
army might be employed by its leader to coerce or overawe
the parliament itself. At the same time London, without for
tifications and almost without an army, lay open to any at
tempt on the part of the king.
Pym and his associates proved themselves equal to all the
demands of such a situation. By great efforts they obtained
a majority of two in the house of commons in favor of the

22S
adjournment of the propositions of peace. They appealed ta
the people by means of the preachers of greatest influence, on
the guilt as well as danger of coming to terms with a prince
bigoted to episcopacy, and whose armies were filled with pa
pists : A report was spread of the landing of ten thousand
Irish ; — and the result of the whole was a multitude of petitions'
from the common council and from various classes of citizens
against an accommodation. This point gained, sir William
Waller was welcomed on his return from a defeat which had
left him without troops, as though, says Clarendon, he had
brought the king prisoner, and active means were taken to sup
ply him with a fresh army. An ordinance passed for empow
ering lord Kimbolton, now earl of Manchester, to raise a force
in the eastern associated counties capable of opposing Newcas
tle ; the fortifying of London was resumed with enthusiasm,
and having thus intimated to Essex that he was not their sole
reliance in Warfare, the parliament deputed a committee to
soothe his wounded feelings by respectful and gratifying ex
pressions, and by the promise that no other army should be
recruited until his ranks should be filled, and clothing and
arrears supplied to his soldiers. The last was a measure of
sound policy which baffled many intrigues : By it, and by
the private appeals of Pym and others to the better sense
and better principles of Essex, he was so confirmed in that ad
herence to " what he called his trust," with which Clarendon
is pleased to reproach him, that he sternly rebuked the earl of
Holland for having proposed lo him to betray his employers ,'
and by his secession the whole cabal of the peers was broken
up. Nothing was now left, either to those who had hitherto
remained with the parliament by the king's permission solely
to promote dissensions and weave plots for his benefit, such as
Portland, Conway and Lovelace, or to the others who were
projecting to earn his forgiveness by some treachery against
th« party which they had hitherto in earnest embraced, — out
openly to seek refuge at Oxford, where their machinations
could be no longer dangerous to the parliament.
Such was the attitude in which the popular leaders had
placed affairs, when the question came into discussion with
the king and his military advisers at Bristol towards what
point he should now turn his victorious arms. The queen
and her sanguine advisers at Oxford had already urged his
marching immediately upon the capital, the gates of which
they conceived would be opened to him amid the dissensions,

229
ihe alarm, the secret weariness of the contest which they im
agined to prevail in the parliament and the eity.
But the experience of Brentford had not been lost upon
Charles or his more sober counsellors ; it was perceived that
the leaders had recovered all their energy, that they were
seconded by the people ; by this time also the excuses of the
earl of Newcastle had been received for continuing the sieg e
of Hull instead of marching southwards to co-operate with
the royal army ; the succors to be sent from more distant
quarters or the diversions to be effected there, were not yet in
readiness ; and the king, probably on a sound calculation of
chances, resolved to decline this enterprise for the present,
and to lead his troops in person to form the siege of Glou
cester, an undertaking which was represented as at once easy
and fraught with advantages to his cause, and of which Cole
pepper was the chief adviser.
Indignant at this decision, which she imputed to the. anxiety
of her opponents, and of Rupert in particular, to detain the
king with the army far from her and Oxford, Henrietta sum
moned her husband to come and give her satisfaction in the
matter, and the monarch so far complied as to make a jour
ney from Gloucester for the purpose of soothing her ; but
proof for once against the representations and persuasions of
her towards whom he was usually so weak, he quitted her
the next day in pursuanee of his original intention.
It was on the 10th of August that the king, "attended
with a great and gallant army, full of the flower of the
English nobility and gentry,"* arrived before Gloucester.
Every circumstance conspired to flatter him with the expec
tation of being speedily master of the place : The garrison
did not exceed one thousand five hundred men ; the fortifi
cations were of vast extent, and in a very unfinished state ;
the store of powder was scanty, and the artillery very inade
quate to the service. No succors could be Obtained nearer
than London; the inhabitants of the neighboring country,
far from aiding or encouraging the defence, were impatient
for the surrender of this last garrison to relieve them from
a thousand evils by putting an end to the war in that quarter.
In spite however of these discouragements, the citizens,
inspired by a generous devotion to the cause which they had
espoused, and encouraged by confidence in Massey their gov
ernor, — an excellent officer formed in foreign service,— were
* May.
Vol. II. 28

280
determined on holding out ; and to the somewhat haughty
summons of the king to surrender on the terms of pardon to
themselves and safety to their property, they made this an
swer : That they kept that city according to their oaths and
allegiance for his majesty and his posterity, and held them
selves bound to obey his royal commands signified through
both houses of parliament. On receiving this message, the
indignation which its terms were fitted to excite in the bosom
of Charles was apparently swallowed up in surprise at its
boldness, and perplexity to conceive by what prospect of re
lief it could be supported : " Waller," he said in hearing of
the messengers, " is extinct, and Essex cannot come."*
The apologist of Charles, apparently with the purpose of
insinuating that the contempt with which his message was re
ceived rendered it a point of honor with the king to persevere
in the siege, notwithstanding many contrary votes in his
council, has amused himself with penning the following splen
etic description of the appearance and behavior of the
bearers of this answer. Two hours only of deliberation had
been allowed the garrison by his majesty ; but, he says,
" within less than the time prescribed, f together with the
trumpeter returned two citizens from the town, with lean,
pale, sharp and bald visages, indeed faces so strange and un
usual, and in such a garb and posture, that at once made the
most severe countenance merry, and the most cheerful hearts
sad, for it was impossible such ambassadors could bring less
than a defiance. The men, without any circumstance of
duty or good manners, in a pert, shrill, undismayed accent,
said, ' they had brought an answer from the godly city of
Gloucester to the king,' and were so ready to give insolent
and seditious answers to any question, as if their business
were chiefly to provoke the king to violate his own safe con
duct.":}: The scandalous breaches of articles of capitulation which
had been committed or allowed by the king's commanders,
and the horrors perpetrated by the soldiers at Bristol and
other towns which had lately yielded to the royal arms, no
doubt assisted in animating the people of Gloucester to an
obstinate defence, and immediately after the return of their
* May, p. 217.
t In a suppressed passage, he himself states, on the contrary, that they
kept his majesty waiting several hours for an answer. See Hist. Rebellion,
v. 223, Note.
t Hist. Rebellion, iv. 178.

231
messengers, they gave a striking proof of their resolute
ting fire to a large and handsome suburb which woulcr^gyf
afforded a convenient shelter to the besiegers. Massey, not
withstanding the smallness of his force, continually harrassed
the assailants by spirited and well-conducted sallies ; in
which besides privates, several officers of rank were slain
within the trenches ; and such was his vigilance and the dis
cipline maintained, that according to Clarendon's statement
" iu all the time that the king lay there ...... there was no
one officer ran from the town to him, nor above three com
mon soldiers."
The earl of Brentford conducted the operations of the siege,
Rupert " wisely declining" that responsibility, and confining
himself to his proper province the command of the horse. The
king quartered in Sudeley castle eight miles off.
Just at the commencement of this siege, on the single day
when Charles was at Oxford, intelligence reached him that
the earls of Holland and Bedford had entered his quarters at
Wallingford, and that the governor had sent for directions in
what manner they should be received. Finding in himself
no disposition to receive the returning delinquents with gra-
ciousness, Charles referred the business to his council, where
it was strenuously debated ; some wishing to exclude from all
hopes of future favor men who had only returned to the roy
al party when they found their intrigues detected and their
credit with the parliament ruined ; whilst others, with what
seemed wiser policy, voted for encouraging fresh desertions
by extending a cordial welcome to those who had thus set
the example. The king at length ended the dispute by giv-
in°" orders that they should be permitted to come to Oxford,
where all men should show them what civilities they pleased ;
and himself and the queen would do towards them as upon
their applications they should see fit. This hesitation, follow
ed by so cold an answer, was a severe mortification to Hol
land, who ever since the queen's landing had made secret ad
dresses to her through the all-powerful mediation of Jermyn,
and who had obtained assurances not of forgiveness only, but
of reinstatement in his still vacant office of groom of the stole
as the price of his treachery to the parliament. He had now
brought over with him a person of no less consequence than
the earl of Bedford ; he announced the earl of Clare as on
his way ; Northumberland had retired to Petworth waiting on
ly for signs of encouragement, and it was not his fault if the
earl of Essex had persisted in, or had been won back to his

2.32
fidelity to his employers. After all these services, were for
mer delinquencies to be remembered against him f He dis
dained the idea ; and hoping still to prevail by his courtly arts
over the enduring resentment of the king, accompanied by
the earls of Bedford and Clare, he hastened to Gloucester,
where they all gave their services as volunteers in the army,
and where, says Clarendon, " the king received them with
out any disrespect, and spoke with them as they gave him oc
casion." Their situation however proved intolerable to them ;
Clare, after an expostulation with his sullen master, retired to
his country seat ; Holland, having waited long enough to
see his own office conferred by the king on the earl of Hert
ford, submitted, as the smallest evil in his choice, to the double
ignominy of escaping back to the parliament ; Bedford fol
lowed his example ; Northumberland reconciled himself with
the popular leaders, and no more desertions took place to the
court of a mosarch who knew not that great art of politicians,
. — to forget.
It was not long after that the king, with a similar contempt
of consequences, caused a commission to be opened at Salis
bury, by such of the judges as adhered to his party, under
which the earls of Northumberland and Salisbury were in
dicted of high treason, but with ill- success, for the grand jury
refused to find the bills, whilst the judges who had sat upon
the commission were impeached by the parliament.
In the meantime the popular leaders were fully sensible
both that the salvation or ruin of their cause was staked on
the success of .the king's present enterprise, and that nothing
less than their utmost exertions could enable Essex to relieve
Gloucester before the period at which Massey had punctual
ly informed them that he could hold out no longer. By new
levies alone it was evident that their enfeebled and dispirited
army could not possibly be fitted for the arduous enterprise.
" But it pleased God," says the historian of the parliament,
"that according to that extremity the resolutions of men
were fitted, The city regiments and auxiliaries came cheer
fully in to perform the service ; and that poor remainder of
the lord general's old army was with all speed recruited."
On August the Sfth Essex mustered his forces on Houns-
low Heath in presence of most of the members Qf the two
houses, and the same evening proceeded to Colnbrook. The
court still flattered itself that thirty miles of champaign coun
try already eaten quite bear by the king's troops, which lay
in his way, added to the molestations of various bodies of

233
cavalry which hovered about him, would prove insurmounta
ble obstacles to his arrival on the scene of action. But the
lord genera], at the head of a compact body of 8000 foot and
4000 horse, pursued his march without any considerable ob
stacle or molestation. On September the 5th he reached
Presbury Hills, drew up his whole army in sight of the close
ly-invested city, and fired four pieces of heavy ordnance to
give notice to the garrison of his presence. Soon after, the
king's quarters were perceived to be on fire, and his army,
which exhibited tokens of disinclination to encounter that of
Essex, was marched away during the night. Two days after,
the lord genera], with his whole force, entered the city to
supply its wants, which were exceedingly urgent, and ex
change with the governor, garrison and inhabitants, the
praises and congratulations so nobly eamed by all. This
done he withdrew to Tewkesbury, and thence making a forc
ed march with his vanguard surprised Cirencester, and in it
a supply of provisions which proved the preservation of his
famishing troops. It was his wish to make good his return to
London without a battle ; but the superior cavalry of Rupert
hung upon his march and detained him with a sharp encoun
ter before he could enter Hungerford ; and on the following
day, September the 19th, on approaching Newbury he found
the royal army, with the king in person, arrived before him,
and so posted as to render an action unavoidable.
The battle was disputed with admirable courage on both
sides, and with various success. Rupert's gallant horse broke
that of the parliament repeatedly, but their infantry firmly
withstood his shock ; and the London trained bands, in the
words of Clarendon, " stood like a bulwark to defend the
rest," astonishing their opponents by a deliberate and disci
plined valor which nothing but the most generous self-devo
tion to a cause could have instilled into men who now looked
on actual warfare for the first time. Night ended without en
tirely deciding the combat, but the results amply evinced
that the advantage was all on the side of the parliament,
whose troops entered Newbury that night, and in the morn
ing found no enemy either to renew the fight or impede their
march, although Rupert still hung upon their rear and gave
them some molestatioa. The king on this double disappoint
ment, withdrew to Oxford and put his army into winter
quarters. In the battle of Newbury there fell on the king's side
three noblemen, all persons of considerable, though by no

234
means equal distinction ; — the young earl of Sunderland,
whom a sense of military honor, as we have seen, detained
in the royal army somewhat against his conscience as well
as his inclination ; — the earl of Carnarvon, whom the exi
gencies of the times had changed, like many others of simi
lar rank, from a man " wholly delighted with those looser
exercises of pleasure, hunting, hawking and the like,"" into
a steady, active and honorable soldier, diligent in obedience
and active in command ; but whom disgust, at not being al
lowed by the princes Rupert and Maurice to keep the articles
of capitulation which he had granted to Dorchester and
Weymouth, had impelled to throw up the commission which
he had held from the king in the West ; — and lord Falkland.
Amid all the artifice of excusatory phraseology in which
Clarendon has thought proper to involve the fact, it will be
evident to the careful and discerning reader that his noble
friend, whom he has held up to posterity as a paragon of wis
dom, learning, genius and virtue, and particularly of the nicest
conscientiousness, was one of the latest, the coolest, and the
most compunctious converts to the royal cause. We have
seen him the keen prosecutor of the judges who gave their
decision in favor of ship-money, — the formidable assailant
of the bishops, — the unhesitating abettor of the condem
nation of Strafford, — the keen and able adversary of the Rom
ish faith, — the admirer, the friend, the follower of Hampden.
At length, shortly before the attempted seizure of the five
members, we find him suddenly wrought upon by Hyde, —
whom some may here regard as his friendly monitor, others as
his artful seducer, — to become the secret, unofficial adviser of
the rash and haughty prince whose whole course of policy he
had thus protested against and opposed. We find him soon
after accepting under him the highly important and responsi
ble office of secretary of state ; putting his name as such, to an
attestation in behalf of the king's pacific intentions which he
knew to be false, and subsequently becoming the medium of
communication with Waller and his fellow-conspirators, whose
dark and perfidious machinations a stedfast virtue could not
fail to condemn and abhor. We have however the testimo
ny of Hyde, here worthy of reliance, that he lived in the court
as one not of it ; that he performed with scruple and reluctance
many of the acts which his office imposed, and was so far
from pretending any extraordinary affection for the person of
* Hist. Rebellion.

235
the king, or deference for his opinions, that there was Scarce
ly any one towards whom his manners had so little of amenity,
or whose opinions he combated at the council-board with so
much keenness and pertinacity. It is due to these facts, as
well as to the general character of Falkland, to believe that
the somewhat obscure motives which, in a time scarcely ad
mitting of neutrality, drew him over to the side of the king,
were not the vulgar ones of ambition or self-interest ; but it
is no less evident that the situation in which he had thus plac
ed himself was one offensive to his feelings, repugnant to his
moral, his theological, partly even to his political principles,
and fatal to his serenity of mind. There was but one politi
cal object which he pursued with heartfelt earnestness.
" When there was any overture or hope of peace," says his
friend, " he would be more erect and vigorous, and exceeding
ly solicitous to press anything which he thought might pro
mote it ; and sitting among his friends, often, after a deep si
lence and frequent sighs, would with a shrill and sad accent
ingeminate the word Peace, Peace ; and would passionately
profess, 'that the very agony of the war, and the view of the
calamities and desolation the kingdom did and must endure,
took his sleep from him and would shortly break his heart.' "
According to another writer, he said, on the morning of the
fight in which lie fell, " that he was weary of the times, and
hoped to be out of it before night."
Probably it. is to this weight upon his spirit, rather than to
any remains of that military ardor of which his early life had
afforded some indications, that the eagerness which he evinc
ed to share in scenes of danger utterly alien from the duties
of his office, is to be attributed. His friends strove in vain to
keep him from the field. It was in charging as a volunteer
in the first rank of lord Byron's regiment of horse that he re
ceived a musket-shot which brought him instantly to the
ground ; it was not till the next morning that the body was
found. Lord Falkland was cut off at the age of thirty-three.

236

CHAPTER XXVI.
1643—1644.
Failure of royalist designs in Scotland. — Antrim made prison
er. — The covenanters resolve to aid the English parliament. —
Mission of Vane and others to Edinburgh. — Terms of agree
ment between the Scotch and the parliament. — Solemn league and
covenant drawn up. — Designs of the Scotch. — Imposition of
the covenant in Scotland and in England. — III effects of it. —
Conduct of the king respecting Ireland. — He concludes a cessa
tion of arms with the rebels. — Irish regiments brought over to
the king's assistance, — its ill effects on his cause. — Intrigues
and quarrels at Oxford revived by the queen's presence. — Dis
organization of the royal armies. — Good discipline of the par
liamentarians. — Montrose and Antrim favorably received at
Oxford and made marquises. — Hamilton and Laneric arrested
at Oxford. — Laneric escapes. — Hamilton sent to Pendennis
castle. — Discussion of their conduct. — Arrival and transactions
of a French embassy. — Death of Pym. — The Scotch enter
England. — Measures of Charles in consequence. — He convenes
the Oxford parliament. — Its measures. — Papers between the
king and parliament concerning a treaty. — Proceedings and
prorogation of the Oxford parliament. — Opening of the cam
paign. — Military movements. — The queen quits Oxford. — Is
delivered of a daughter at Exeter. — Escapes from Falmouth to
France. — Anecdotes qf her. — Military transactions. — Action
of Copredy Bridge. — The king follows Essex into the West.
IN order to illustrate more completely the policy and the
prospects of Charles at this crisis, it now beeomes necessary
to cast a rapid glance on the situation of Scotland and Ire
land, and the measures respectively adopted by the contend
ing parties in England to secure the cooperation of one or
the other of the sister kingdoms.
The designs concerted by Montrose and other Scotch no
blemen with the queen at York, had for the present failed.
The strength of the country was so evidently with the cove
nanters, that none were found willing to embark in the haz
ardous scheme of a rising, especially as the prevailing party
still ostensibly enjoyed the sanction of the king, and had tes-

237
timonies of his favor to exhibit in the titles and pensions so
lately conferred. Antrim in the meantime, by his usual rash
ness, had brought upon himself and his party a signal disas
ter. Before his visit to York, this chief having fallen into
the hands of Monro, the faithful and vigilant commander of
the Scotch forces in Ulster, had been sent prisoner to Dublin
to await judgment for his share in the rebellion ; and it was
in the character of a culprit escaped from lawful custody by
a stratagem, that he appeared before the queen, who had
taken him without scruple into her counsels. Regardless of
the dangerous position in which these circumstances had
placed him, he now ventured to attempt a landing almost
alone, on the coast of Ulster, when he was again seized by
his former captor and his papers examined. In these the
whole royalist plot for Scotland was disclosed ; including the
means to be taken for engaging Monro himself by a large
bribe to make a descent upon England ; from these also the
first hint was obtained of a secret negotiation carrying on by
the king and queen for a cessation of arms with the Irish
rebels, and the transportation of troops from that island to
England in support of the royal cause.
By the alarm, indignation and horror which these discov
eries, the last in particular, excited in every bosom, the mea
sures of the Scotch were hastened if not determined. A con
vention of estates was summoned without delay, and the
meeting proved unanimous in drawing up an address to the
king on the dangers threatening both church and state, and
in resolving upon a closer conjunction with the English par
liament. On the other hand, the reluctance of those English
leaders who were least inclined to presbyterianism to call in
the aid of the Scotch, at the risk of rendering that form of re
ligion preponderant in their own country also, had yielded to
the exigencies of their situation, and a committee of which
the younger Vane, the leader of the independents, was the
head, reached Edinburgh, where it had been long anxiously
expected, on August the 9tb, after a tedious navigation of
twenty days. Their request that a Scotch army should again
cross the boders, was acceded to with the alacrity which the
recollection of English pay and English quarters could not
fail to inspire : but the character to be assumed by the Scot
tish nation on the occasion, — whether that of an arbitrator
and friend to both sides, or of an avowed partizan of the par
liament, was strenuously debated in the convention of estate's.
The more zealous party, however, succeeded at length in de-
Vol. II. 29

238
monstrating the impracticability of maintaining the neutral
position. It was further determined, that instead of stopping
at the political league, which was all that the English parlia
ment proposed, the Scotch should consult at once their na
tional pride and ambition and the domineering propensity of
their chinch, by insisting upon a religious union likewise ;
and the form of a bond was produced faithfully copied from
their own solemn league and covenant, and bearing the same
name, to be imposed upon the whole population of the two
countries as far as the authority of the contracting parties
should extend. By means of this vow, the Scotch aimed at
ultimately establishing their own sect both in England and
Ireland, with a total denial of toleration to every other. The
design was audacious and assuming in no ordinary degree ;
in England, so far was presbytery from being, as in Scotland,
the national idol, that it was obviously the choice of the few ;
even amongst the parliamentary leaders themselves, opinions
on rites and discipline were much divided. Some continued
steadfast to the forms of the church of England and a modi
fied episcopacy ; a considerable and increasing proportion,
comprising the boldest and the finest spirits of the age, had
embraced the free and tolerant system of independency, or
the freest and most generous of all, that of Erastus. Scarce
ly an individual amongst the English laity was prepared to
subject himself and his country to the presbyterian discipline
in its full rigor, armed with its inquisitorial power, wielding
at will the sword of excommunication, and holding the civil
magistrate as the servant and executioner of its decrees.
The Scottish politicians were not uninformed regarding
the state of opinion in the southern portion of the island, but
they confided partly in the arguments of the doughty polem
ics whom they had been invited to depute to the assembly of
divines at Westminster, partly, as they professed, in the effi
cacy of the prayers of the faithful, but most of all in the
prowess to be exhibited by their future army in the fields of
English warfare, to overcome all obstacles to that prevalence
of their own party and opinions which they presumptuous
ly styled " the setting of Christ upon his throne." In the
meantime however, the firmness of Vane, a negotiator equal
ly vigilant and adroit, compelled them to submit to a modifi
cation of an article in the covenant by which, whilst episco
pacy was absolutely renounced, and the immutability of the
established system of Scotland within, that kingdom was se
cured, it was merely stipulated that the reformation of relig-

239
ion in England should be effected "according to the word of
God and the example of the best reformed churches :" A
captious clause evidently left, as between the presbyterians
and the independents, to the interpretation of events !
The covenant, after receiving the sanction both of the
convention of estates and the general assembly, strengthened
by the denunciation of severe penalties against the refusers,
was sent into every parish of Scotland, to be sworn to by all
adults of both sexes, and subscribed by such as could write.
Amongst the various motives which caused it to be readily
received, Baillie enumerates the " great good and honor" of
their nation, " the parliament's advantage at Gloucester and
Newbury," — which apparently rendered, them apprehensive
that should they make delay the war might be concluded
without them, — and most of all, the Irish cessation, which
they accounted such a countenancing of the popish party by
the king, as to render it necessary for all protestants to join
the more strictly for their safety, especially as ambassadors
from Fiance had likewise menaced both themselves and the
English parliament with the hostility of that crown.
Immediately upon its reception in England, the covenant
was imposed by the parliament upon all classes of men un
der its authority; but in this country the women were appar
ently excluded, or exempted, from the obligation. It was an
imposition of the most grievous nature ; and besides the tyr
anny common to every kind of test, had in it this circum
stance of peculiar hardship, that it could be conscientiously
taken by no one who adhered to the English church as it was
still by law established. A very large proportion of the cler
gy nobly refused it, at the sacrifice of all their preferments,
and were thus reduced to bsggary. Many, in taking it, strug
gled to satisfy their consciences by evasions ; the independ
ents freed themselves from the shackle as soon as their might
had beco ne preponderant in the armies.
The succors of the sister kingdom were doubtless much too
dearly bought at the price of the adoption of the covenant,
and the admission of Scotch commissioners into that com
mittee of both houses by which the greatest affairs of the
country were chiefly conducted. From this period all the in
veteracy and all the littleness of a war of religion, — of theolo
gy rather — began to debase that great and generous struggle
of which the recovery of the chartered rights of English
men had been the pristine object ; whilst by the complication
of Scotch designs and interests with the concerns of England,

240
fresh perplexities were occasioned, larger scope was given to
intrigues of every kind, the terms of accommodation between
the king and the parliament were rendered more than ever
difficult of arrangement, and the seeds were sown of jealousies
and dissensions within the bosom of the popular party itself,
eventually more fatal to the cause of freedom than all the
machinations of its enemies.
The inconveniences and the odium incurred by the parlia
ment in its Scottish alliance were however more than coun
tervailed by those to which Charles exposed himself in his
negotiations with the insurgent catholics of Ireland. From
the commencement of the civil war in England, the contend
ing parties had been reciprocally accusing each other of ne
glecting to take effectual measures for the suppression of the
Irish rebellion, and even of diverting to their own immediate
purposes the supplies prepared for that service. On both
sides these reproaches were founded in truth. During the
continuance of hostilities at home, it was in fact impractica
ble for either party to raise sufficient force for the reduction
of that island ; and thus opportunity had been afforded to the
chiefs of the revolt, after repressing the excesses of the first
outbreak, to establish a provisional government which, under
the appellation of the Supreme Council of Kilkenny, had been
installed near the close of the year 1642, and had immediate
ly taken upon itself to enter into diplomatic relations with
France, Spain, the Emperor, and especially the Pope.
Next to securing their own power at home, there was no
cause which the English parliament was more concerned, both
in religion and policy to promote, than the restoration of
the protestant ascendancy in Ireland, and such efforts as their
situation permitted, they had accordingly made to this effect.
The interest of the king was different ; to draw supplies of
men from Ireland to aid him in suppressing resistance in Eng
land, had been from the first his leading object, and to this
every other consideration had been sacrificed. He had per
sisted in withholding from the earl of Leicester, the lord de
puty originally forced upon him by the popular party, his
authority for repairing to that kingdom and taking upon him
the duties of his office, and for nearly a twelvemonth had de
tained him in attendance upon the court at Oxford. Mean
time he had contrived to throw into the hands of Ormond,
whom he now created a marquis, first the military command,
and afterwards, by the dismissal of the lords-justices, the civil
administration likewise, and through this nobleman such nego-

241
tiations as could be intrusted to a protestant were carried on.
The machinations of the queen with Antrim for the purpose
of affecting a diversion in Scotland went further, and have
been already mentioned. The lords Dillon and Taaffe, men
whom lord Falkland had pronounced worthy of hanging, for
the assurance which they had given the rebels that the king
secretly approved and would at a convenient season avow
their enterprise, were notwithstanding admitted into the court
at Oxford, and openly favored there, to the disgust of all
good men, and made the bearers of secret propositions to and
from the council of Kilkenny for an accommodation : and
when the parties had thus been drawn to an understanding,
Ormond was brought into the scheme, and the object, after
some difficulties, accomplished. The Irish agreed to grant
a supply to the king cf 50,000/., and he in return consented
to a cessation of arms for the term of a year. The treaty was
signed on September the 15th, 1643. Almost immediately
after, Leicester was superseded in form, and Ormond appoint
ed lord-deputy, and in the month of November ten regiments
of his army, in the ranks of which were secretly incorporated
a large proportion of catholics and even of rebels, were ship
ped, half of them for Chester and the remainder for Bristol.
The scandal of (his pacification, which left the Irish in full
possession of all the fruits of their rebellion, and especially of
every thing which they claimed for their religion, did the king
inestimable injury. Many of the earl of Newcastle's soldiers
laid down their arms upon it ; sir Edwaid Deering made the
admission of papists and Irish rebels into the army, and the
prevalence of popish counsels at court, the plea for his return
to the parliament which he had deserted ; it supplied the pre
text at least for that of the earl of Holland. Neither was any
considerable military advantage gained by these auxiliaries.
One body, after some temporary success, was cut to pieces by
Fairfax near Hamptwich, the other melted away at the siege
of Gloucester.
Oxford, during, the winter of 1643 presents a busy but by
no means a noble or an exemplary spectacle. With the re
turn of Henrietta all factions and intrigues had awakened to
new life ; the old court-distinction of king's side and queen's
side seems to have revived, and both were filled with rivalry,
division and discontent. It was chiefly by a party opposed to
the queen, aided perhaps by her favorites Jermyn and Digby,
who might fear to see themselves supplanted, that the consum
mate courtier Holland had been prevented from resuming his

242
as :cnd^ncy, and finally chased back to the parliament ; an
eximple of so much mischief to the royal cause !
On the king's return after the battle of Newbury, there ap
peared, " nothing but dejection of mind, discontent and se
cret mutiny in the army, anger and jealousy among the offi
cers, every one accusing another of want of courage and con
duct in the actions of the field ; and they who were not of
the army, blaming them all for their several failings and gross
oversights." All men no.v renewed their exclamations
against the advisers of the investment of Gloucester, and
concurred in laying the blame on Colepepper, who was "not
at all gracious to the soldiers." " The temper of the court,"
the royalist historian adds, "was no better than that of fhe
army, and the king was so much troubled with both, that he
did not enjoy the quiet his condition required." Those who
had hitherto forborne to urge their suits for offices and hon
ors, despairing of obtaining them from the less complying
temper of the king, now pressed them upon the queen, as
suming the merit of refraining in her absence, because they
would be solely indebted to her bounty for their success.
The bestowal of honors on one or two whom they had a
desire to gratify, was an act of indiscretion in their circum
stances which brought upon the royal pair an importunate
swarm of suitors for similar distinctions, whom denials would
have dangerously incensed, whilst compliance, being regard
ed as reluctant and compelled, neither excited gratitude nor
confirmed attachment. Many had promises to urge, which
the royal apologist confesses that both their majesties had
been in the habit of making, to free themselves from present
importunity, with very distant intentions of fulfilment. An
equal inconvenience arose from the circumstance of the
king's having been driven by pecuniary distress to take from
several coutiers a price for offices which he would gladly
have reserved as the rewards of merit. Owing to this prac
tice men took up the notion " that money and money's worth
were all one ;" and thus that any one whose services had
deserved a sum, equally deserved any thing which the like
sum would purchase for another. A more striking picture
could scarcely be traced than these details afford us of the
embarrassed, tormenting, and humiliating position of a sove
reign prince reduced to the level of a party-leader, and plac
ed at the disposal of his nominal dependents !
The disorganizing effects of the disgusts of some comman
ders and the jealousies or defection of others, were speedily

243
felt in the royal armies, whilst opposite results were observed
from the improving discipline and augmenting zeal of their
opponents. It is again from the noble historian that we
derive the instructive confession that " those under the king's
commanders grew insensibly into all (he disorder, license and
impiety with which they had reproached the rebels ; and
they again into great discipline, diligence and sobriety ;
which begat courage and resolution in them, and notable
dexterity in achievements and enterprises. Insomuch as one
side seemed to fight for monarchy with the weapons of con
fusion, and the other to destroy the king and government with
all the principles and regularity of monarchy."*
Whilst Charles was still engaged before Gloucester, Mon
trose had joined him, and soon after, Antrim, having again
escaped from custody, made his appearance at Oxford. Both
the chiefs were received with distinguished favor, advanced to
the dignity of marquises, to the scandal of many of the king's
most faithful counsellors ; and their renewed proposals for
cairying over a body of Irish to the west of Scotland to form
the nucleus of a royal army there, received by the king and
queen with unqualified approbation.
Whilst the means of giving effect to this design were in ag
itation, Hamilton, who had been some time before dispatched
into Scotland, with the new honor of duke and the character
of king's commissioner, to endeavor by the resources of his
temporizing policy to avert the dreaded coalition between the
Scotch and the parliament, was announced to be likewise on
his road, to explain and excuse his failure. Once more the
practices of Montrose were exerted to ruin in the confidence
of the king a rival of whom he was still jealous ; the queen
conspired in his views, partly from hef propensity to extreme
counsels, partly, it is probable, from a long^treasured resent
ment against the man who had made himself master of the
guilty secret of her life. Charles yielded either to their joint
persuasions or to his own suspicion and resentment ; and he
had entertained thoughts of commanding the earl of New
castle to detain the duke and the earl of Laneric his brother
at York, when it was announced that they had both arrived
in Oxford, and designed to kiss hands the same night. They
were commanded to keep their chambers, and a guard set
over them ; and the king now proposed to submit to the whole
body of his council the charges urged against them by Mont-
* Hist. Rebellion, iv. 299.

244
rose and other Scotch noblemen their avowed enemies. But
the second morning after their arrival, Lanerick found means
to make his escape for London, where he was well received ;
upon which the king, resolving to defer the inquiry into their
conduct to a more convenient season, without so much as
granting the duke a hearing, transmitted him in custody to
Pendennis castle in Cornwall, where he remained a state
prisoner till liberated two years afterwards on the advance of
the parliament's forces against that fortress.
The principal facts against the duke seemed to be, that he
had opposed the seizing of the persons of the chief covenan
ters, and that he had persuaded the king to permit the meet
ing of the Scotch parliament, though summoned without his
authority ; where he had also omitted to make a protest
against their proceedings ; — conduct which he might perhaps
have defended on the plea of the inexpediency of exasperating
further a party which the royal authority was totally incom
petent to quell. Against his brother there was one charge
which it seemed more difficult to repel ; that of his having,
as secretary of state, affixed the royal signet to a proclamation
for that assemblage where the army destined for England was
to be organized.
The biographer of the dukes of Hamilton affirms however,
that the brothers " could have demonstrated, if heard, that
they were sure of above two parts in three the of officers of the
army ; and did not doubt to have engaged the army in the
king's cause."* But it is difficult to solve entirely to the
credit of either the enigma of conduct which had lost them,
by turns or at once, the confidence of all parties. On the
other hand, the violence of the designs entertained against
them at Oxford, is attested by the exclamation said to have
been uttered by the queen, " with great commotion," on
learning Laneric's escape ; " Abercorn has missed a duke
dom !"f That nobleman, a catholic, being the next heir to
the honors of the house of Hamilton.
About this time Charles and Henrietta were tantalized by
many hollow professions and demonstrations of friendship
from the court of France. By the death of Louis XIII. and
of Richelieu, the administration of that country had fallen
into the hands of cardinal Mazarine, the all-powerful minister
of Anne of Austria, the queen-regent. On this change the
former ambassador to England, who had given offence to the
* Burnet's Own Times, i. 63. j Id. Ibid.

245
king by dissuading the catholics from embracing his quarrel,
was immediately recalled, and the count de Harcourt, a no
bleman of the house of Lorrain, distantly allied to Charles,
sent, m compliance with the request of Henrietta, in his place.
In the train of the ambassador came, disguised, that proscribed
and banished Romish intriguer Walter Montague, who, hav
ing achieved the favor of a second queen-mother of France,
and being, says Clarendon, "very much trusted by both their
majesties," was thought likely to be useful in the present ne
gotiations. But the intelligence of the parliament was so
good, that within twenty-four hours of his landing he was
seized, carried before both houses, and committed to the
Tower ; the ambassador being unable, and perhaps unwilling,
to interfere with effect for his release. The carriages of the
ambassador himself were subjected to strict search in London
before he-was" permitted to proceed to Oxford, and a letter to
the queen from lord Goring, ambassador extraordinary to
France, was intercepted. It announced supplies of arms and
money coming from that country to the king ; mentioned
that the whole of the crown jewels, with the exception of
one or two, were now pawned, and stated that the count de
Harcourt was " to treat with the parliament as the king
should direct him."*
No sooner however had the ambassador opened his com
mission at Oxford than the futility of these demonstrations
became manifest. All the king's overtures for a league be
tween the two crowns, of which a loan of money to himself
should be a preliminary article, were coldly evaded " with a
French compliment." To gain information of the present state
of affairs in England was evidently the real object of his mis
sion, and, as it was much suspected, "rather to foment than ex
tinguish the fire that was kindled. "f With respect to his. media
tion between the king and parliament, that attempt was render
ed abortive in a manner of which Charles at least could not
consistently complain, by the ambassador's affecting, like the
king himself, to regard the assembly at Westminster as no
longer a parliament, addressing the speakers of the two hou
ses as private individuals only, and omitting to communicate
to them credentials : Slights which of course caused the
return of his letters unopened. After this result, the mock-
* Whitelock, p. 79. t H'lst- Rebellion, iv. 332.
Vol. H. 30

240
ery, a cruel one to a prince in the condition of Charles, was
speedily terminated by the ambassador's recall.
One of the last considerableevents of thisyear was the death
of Pym, which took place December fhe 8th. He was buried
in Westminster Abbey with the* attendance of most of the
members of both houses, after his body had been for some
days exposed to public view in refutation of the contempti
ble slander, which Clarendon has thought fit to perpetuate,
that he died of the Herodian disease. A short time before his
death this eminent leader printed a firm and temperate defence
of his public conduct against the calumnies which hehad long ;
endured in silence. He there declares himself " a faithful
son of the protestant religion, without -any relation in his be
lief to those gross errors of Ana-baptism, Brownism, and the
like ;" and as at the same time he defends the giving of his
vote and opinion for the " abolishment" of bishops, he might
pass for a presbyterian, did not his abstinence from naming any
particular form of church government as the object of his
attachment, savor more of Erastian liberality.
The charge of taking a bribe from France insinuated against
him by Clarendon on the. authority of " an obscure person or
two,"* as well as other vague imputations of being swayed
to procure favor or impunity to political delinquents for mo
ney, are refuted by his dying so poor, that after an investi
gation of his affairs, the parliament -voted 10,000Z. for the pay
ment of his debts. The removal of Hampden and Pym left
Vane the younger, St. John and Cromwell,- all independents,
the ablest politicians and debaters iri the house of commons ;
but as yet they were much outnumbered, and constantly out
voted by the presbyterians.
The-Scotch exerted themselves with such zeal and activity
in their preparations for the English war, that an army one and
twenty thousand strong was assembled at Berwick, and cross
ed the Tweed early in January 1644, amid frost and show.
They were commanded by the general of the former war, Les
ley, who, on accepting from the king at his last departure
from Scotland the title of earl of Leven^ had indeed promised
never more to bear arms against him, but who now seems to
have professed to regard himself as discharged from that ob
ligation by the higher one which he owed to religion and the
* Hist. RebeUion, i. 493, Tho. expression in the te£t,"an obscure person or
two," was basely changed by the original editors of Clarendon into " one or
two."

, 247
interests of his country. The marquis of Newcastle watch
ed the proceedings of the invaders, garrisoned and strength
ened the town of Newcastle against them, opposed them at
Sunderland and then retired to Durham, whilst they took up
quarters between that city and the sea, waiting for supplies
of provisions and the co-operation of the parliament's army.
The king, in this aggravation of his difficulties, held many
anxious consultations with his ministers on the means both
of providing pecuniary resources and animating the zeal of
his adherents against the trying campaign which was impend
ing. ^ Two expedients proposed, as Clarendon informs us,
by himself, were sanctioned by his majesty, and. with the ap
probation of his council, adopted. The first was, the dis
patch of a letter to the council of state in Scotland, to be
signed by all the peers then at Oxford or in the king's service,
protesting against the foul rebellion of the English parliament,
and conjuring the Scotch to desist from their unjust and un
warrantable purpose of joining with them, " since they could
have no excuse for, prosecuting the same from the authority
of parliament." This protest, a measure of the gravest char
acter, and of at least doubtful expediency, found noopposition
from any of those .whose signatures were required, excepting
the earl of Leicester, who after some delays and evasions ab
solutely refused his concurrence, and not long after went over
to the parliament. By this refusal, the royalist historian ob
serves thatthe earl was the occasion of a mischief he did not
intend : For it was the desire of the king to make him some
compensation for the loss of his Irish gawernment, and " both
their majesties" in their secret purpose had destined, him to
succeed the marquis of Hertford as governor to the prince ;
which intention being abandoned on'this evidence of his un
complying disposition, that important, function was assigned
to the earl of Berkshire, " for no other reason but because
he had a mind f o it, and his importunity was very troublesome :
a man of any who bore the name of a gentleman the most un
fit for that province, or any other that required any proportion
of wisdom or understanding for the discharge of it."*
The seeond expedient, to ,wbieh the first might be regard
ed as an introduction, was the.' issuing of a proclamation re
quiring the attendance of all members who had quitted the
parliament, at Oxford, by ap certain day. Upon this Charles
demurred for some time. To his prejudices even this kind of
* Hist. Rebellion, iv. 350.

248
packed assemblage appeared fraught with matter of fear and
jealousy. His chief apprehension was, that such a con
flux of members of parliament, who would expect to enjoy
parliamentary privileges in their debates, might do many
things which would rather hinder than advance his service,
and especially that they would enter immediately upon some
treaty which, although ineffectual, would, whilst in suspense,
impede his preparations for war ; " and though," adds the
royal apologist, "nobody more desired peace, yet he had no
mind that a multitude should be consulted upon the conditions
of it ; imagining that things of the greatest importance, as the
giving up persons, and other particulars of honor, would not
seem to them of moment enough to continue a war in the
kingdom :" A striking evidence of the unyielding spirit
of the king, aud of his resolution never to terminate the con
test on the terms of an equitable compromise ! Undoubtedly
the parliament could not easily have been brought to compre
hend within an amnesty persons impeached by them, or de
clared rebels by the king himself, before the commencement
of the civil war; such as secretary Windebank, who had re
turned from his exile, and was now readmitted to the council
at Oxford, and Antrim and others deeply implicated in the
Irish rebellion and massacre, who now gloried in the favor of
the king and queen. These scruples of the royal mind gaye
way however to the representations of the advocates of the
measure, who pleaded, first, that those loyal members pro
scribed by the parliament would not be likely to bring with
them ill and troublesome humors to disturb " that service
which could only preserve them ;" and secondly, that with
respect to their advancing any proposals of peace, there
could be no inconvenience, "since their appearing in it would
but draw reproach from those at Westminster, who would ne
ver give them any answer, or look upon them under any no
tion, but as private persons and deserters of the parliament,
without any qualification to treat or to be treated with : which
would more provoke those at Oxford, and by degrees stir up
more animosities between them."* This was an argument
which, had the king been truly desirous of peace, must have
decided him against the measure it was designed to recom
mend. In obedience to the royal summons, both losds and com
moners assembled in considerable numbers on January the
* Hist. Rebellion, iv. 353.

249
22nd, 1644. The great hall of Christchurch was assigned
lor their plaee of meeting, and the king opened the session in
person with all the customary solemnities. Prudently omit
ting for the present the topic of supply, his majesty announced,
that he had called for the attendance of those who like him
self had been sufferers by the violence of evil men, in order
that they might be witnesses to the whole kingdom of his ac
tions and privy to his intentions. He complained in bitter
terms of the malice of those who had compelled him to as
sume defensive arms, and exposed his loyal subjects to so ma
ny calamities both by their own oppressions and even by means
of the army which he had been obliged to raise for the pro
tection of the well-disposed, but in which, under so many de
ficiencies and necessities, he had been unable to maintain
strict discipline. The evil had now been increased, he said,
by their calling upon " a foreign power" to invade this king
dom ; and he desired the present assembly to protest against
this invitation, given, as it had been, in their names. He end
ed by expressing his confidence that no serious difference
could arise between himself and them, since they would find
there was an inseparable connexion between his rights and
honor and their interests.*
Notwithstanding the king's concluding assurance, it ap
peals, if we may trust the report of an adversary, that this
convention of reputed loyalists which the king had here in
vested with the character of a parliament, partook too much
of the feelings of English protestants and patriots to be satis
fied with the counsels by which they saw the royal affairs
conducted. " Many," says Baillie, " being ready to give in
papers for the removing of Digby, Cottington, and ©thers
from court, the meeting was adjourned for some days."f On
January the 26th however, we find thei-n again assembled,
and by an unanimous vote declaring the Scottish invaders of
England, with all their abettors, whether Scotch or English,
traitors and enemies of the state. The next day, they
agreed upon a letter addressed to the earl of Essex, express
ing their sense of the sufferings of the country, and earnestly
requesting him to promote measures for the restoration of
peace with " those by whom he was trusted ;" the king being
willing to show mercy to all delinquents. This instrument
was signed by 43 peers, including the two boy-princes, Ru
pert, on whom the king had just conferred the title of duke
* Rushworlh, v. 560. , f Baillie's Letters, i. 429.

250
of Cumberland, and several other newly created lords, and
by 118 commoners ; the peers being nearly double, the com
moners about half of the numbers of both houses assembled
at Westminster.
To this communication, inclosed in a letter from the eail
of Forth, Essex, as must have been foreseen, returned for
answer to his lordship, that the parchment so signed, having
neither any address to the two houses of parliament, nor con
taining any acknowl.lgement of them, could not be commu
nicated to them by him. He added, that the maintenance of
the parliament and its privileges was that for- which they were
all resolved to spend their blood, as being that on which all
their laws and- liberties were founded, and he inclosed tp his
lordship a copy of the covenant and of certain joint declara
tions of the English parliament and the kingdom of Scotland.
A second application from the royalist to the parliamentarian
general, for the safe conduct for two gentlemen," to-be sent
by his majesty concerning a treaty for. peace," was declined,
as not being addressed by the king to the two houses qf par
liament.- Upon this, Charles, in his own spirit of chicane,
directed an official letter "To the lords and commons of
parliament assembled at Y/estminster," in which he expressed
himself, " by the advice of the lords and commons' of parlia
ment assembled|at Oxford," desirous of entering into negoti
ations on terms, of security for the protestant religion, with
due relief for tender consciences, and for the just rights and
privileges both of king and parliament, and the liberties of
the people.
The two houses retumed'his majesty an answer, conceiv
ing, as they said, by the contents, that theletter was designed
for themselves ; in which they represented to him, That not
withstanding his professions, their hopes of peace, sincerely
as they desired it, were now colder than ever, from his having
erected the deserters from the parliament into an equality
with it : -That it was their duty to defend the rights and pri
vileges of a parliament the continuance of which was settled
by a law, which, like all the other laws, his majesty likewise
was bound by ot;th to defend : That his hearty concurrence
with them woukl he the most effectual means of promoting a
speedy peace, and that if for want of such concurrence these
kingdoms should remain in -their present sad and bleeding
condition, his majesty would not be " the least nor the last
sufferer :" an expression which the king highly resented. All
these documents were embodied in a Declaration of the Ox-

251
ford parliament, which his majesty commanded the clergy to
read in all churches and chapels throughout the kingdom ;
and in answer to which another Declaration was issued
by the parliament " with the advice and concurrence of
the commissioners for Scotland." By these pieces a paper-
war was rekindled, which, as usual, exasperated the 'spirits
of all parties without contributing to the predominance of
any. The mode of supplying Charles's urgent necessities, next
became the object of anxious and perplexing consideration
to his Oxford assemblage. To impose a regular tax under
the -assumption of lawful authority, no doubt appeared to
this anomalous body too hazardous a measure ; and they ven
tured no further than to sanction the king's issue of privy
seals for a loan of 100,O00Z., themselves setting the example
of a liberal subscription, which was followed to some extent
by persons of substance "within the royal quarters, and to
grant to him the same excise which the parliament had impos
ed within its jurisdiction.
On March the 12th, finding the parliament resolute not to
treat with or own them, they proceeded to vote, that all the
lords and commons remaining at Westminster who had given
their consent or assistance towards raising forces under the
earl of Essex, had levied war against the king and com
mitted high-treason ; likewise, that all who had consented to
the making of a new gfeat seal, or to the warlike entrance
of the Scotch into England had committed treason ; and that
all the persons so guilty, having broken the trust reposed in
them by their country, ought to be proceeded- against as trai
tors. Likewise, that all his majesty's offers of treaty " by the
advice of the lords and coniiiions- in parliament assembled,
at Oxford," had been rejected by " the lords and commons-
remaining at Westminster."* Their closing act, previous to
their recess in the middle of April, was to offer to his majesty
a petition which he probably found far too much in fhe genu
ine spirit of an English parliament. In this piece, after pro
testations of their own perfect confidence in his intentions,
they pray: That for the removal of fears; jealousies, and
scandals, he will be pleased to reprint his declarations of at
tachment to the protestant religion : That when there may be
a full and free convention of parliament he will call a synod
in which care may be taken for the ease 'of the tender eon-
* Rushworth, v. 565.

252
sciences of his protestant subjects : That he will declare
and continue his former resolutions to observe the laws : That
he will confute the scandal of his not designing, should he
prevail against this rebellion, to use the frequent counsel of
parliament : That the present irregular levies of contribu
tions, loans and taxes for the maintenance of his armies may
not be drawn into precedent ; and that free-quarter and
other military exactions may be repressed.
Charles parted on terms of studied civility with the coun
sellors whom he had summoned, proroguing them to the
month of October ; but that his real feelings respecting them
were those of dislike and dread, -we shall hereafter find ample
reason to conclude.
All hopes of negotiation being for the present dismissed,
sir Henry Vane announced it to be the intention of the com
mittee of state to conquer a peace by one great military ef
fort ; and strenuous exertions were made to recruit and supply
the five armies which the parliament held at this time on foot :
They were that of Essex, destined to act against the king in
person ; that of Waller, intended for the West ; and those
of the earl of Manchester, of Fairfax, and of the Scotch ;
by the two last the earl' of Newcastle was now shut up in
York, whilst Manchester was marching from the associated
eastern counties upon the same point.
The king designing, it is probable, to act against Waller,
set up his standard this spring at Marlborough, but, accord
ing to Whitelock, " seeing few come to it," he proclaimed on
the spot that the two houses were preparing propositions of
peace, and dismissing with this excuse all who were present,
caused it to be taken down again. He then returned to New
bury, where he remained about a month inactive.
On March the 28th a considerable force which the king
had detached under sir Ralph, now lord Hopton, to secure
Hampshire and Sussex and countenance the royalists in Kent,
sustained a total defeat by the army of Waller near Aires-
ford ; a disaster which of itself was of sufficient moment to
compel Charles to abandon all thoughts of an offensive
campaign, and even to render the defensive part to which he
found himself reduced one of no small hazard and difficulty.
To increase his distress, he now received a notification from
the marquis of Newcastle, that three weeks would be the
longest time it would be practicable for him to hold out in
York without succors ; and this information compelled him
to order Rupert, who was in Lancashire, to march to the

253
relief of the marquis instead of returning to cooperate with
himself. Under these circumstances, which infected his
whole army with an alarming despondency, to retire upon
Oxford, destroying in his way the fortifications of Reading
for the purpose of adding the garrison to his feeble numbers,
was the sole resource of Charles.
Encouraged by this situation of affairs, the parliament,
countermanding Waller's intended march, Teinforced both
his army and that of Essex with strong detachments from
the London trained bands, and directed the leaders separate
ly to approach Oxford, which they were to besiege in concert
should the king shut himself up in the city ; but in case of
his quitting it, Essex was to pursue him, whilst Waller .pro
ceeded on his original destination. Charles had posted near
ly the whole of his foot at Abingdon, hoping that, so strength
ened, this place might at least delay for a short time the par
liamentarians in their advance. On the approach of Essex,
however, Wilmot, either, says Clarendon, from negligence
or ill-humor, hastily withdrew the royal troops ; and the
king, justly averse to risking his liberty on the chances of a
siege, secretly retired from Oxford on the night of June the
2nd, taking with him the prince of Wales, but purposely leav
ing behind the young duke of York. With his cavalry, and
a small body of infantry which he had ordered to await him
at a short distance, he passed undiscovered between the hos
tile armies, and by a hasty march reached Worcester before
the commanders suspected his escape.
The parliament had anticipated a different issue to the di
lemma in which they had entangled him, and agitated by
some doubts of the steadiness of their own general under
trying circumstances, the committee of both kingdoms ad
dressed to Essex a brief letter to the following effect : That
being credibly informed that his majesty intended to come to
London, they desired he would endeavor to inform himself
of the truth of this matter ; and that should he think that his
majesty designed to come to the armies, he would acquaint
them with it, and do nothing in the business until the houses
should give direction.*
The king had left his loyal city of Oxford well defended
and provisioned, and the parliamentarian generals, being re
stricted by their orders from spending time before it, passed
on in their pursuit without attempting its capture. It there-
* Hist. Rebellion, iv. 4SI.
Vol. II. 31

254
fore continued to be the asylum of that portion of the court
which was unfit to accompany the king in his marches ; but
the dearest object of his cares and affections had already
been impelled by her infirmity both of body and mind to seek
a calmer and more distant place of refuge.
The queen, taking what proved to be a last farewell of her
husband, had retired in the month of April to Exeter, where
on June the 16th she gave birth to a daughter, afterwards the
unfortunate duchess of Orleans. Warwick justly remarks,
that Henrietta was " ever more forward than stout ;" even of
her most violent counsels, cowardice may be detected to have
been the true principle, and on quitting Oxford she avowed
as her motive in selecting the place of her retreat, the facility
of embarking from the Western coast for France, should cir
cumstances become pressing. " Though," says Clarendon,
" there seemed reasons enough to dissuade her from that in
clination, and his majesty heartily wished that she could be
diverted, yet the perplexity of her mind was so great, and her
fears so vehement, both improved by her indisposition of
health, that all civility and reason obliged every body to sub
mit." In the West her majesty seemed likely to incur greater pe
rils than any from which she had made her escape. Ten days
after her delivery, Essex, who had marched into that quarter
for the purpose of opposing prince Maurice and recovering
some garrisons to the parliament, reached Chard, twenty-
two miles only from Exeter, and quartered there with his army.
The queen on this sent him a message desiring a safe-conduct
to travel to Bath for the recovery of her health, and after
wards, by another messenger, for Bristol ; to which he re
turned an answer to the following effect : " That if her majes
ty pleased, he would not only give her a safe-conduct, but
wait upon her himself to London, where she might have the
best advice and means for the recovery of her health ; but as
for either of the other places, he could not obey her majesty's
desires without directions from the parliament."*
As the queen stood impeached of treason by the two houses,
this proposal of attending her to London has been blamed,
and perhaps justly, as carrying with it somewhat the air of an
' insult. Judging her person no longer secure at Exeter, Hen
rietta quitted the place as soon as she was in any condition to
travel, and reaching Falmouth, embarked, on July the 14tb,
* Rushworth, v. 684.

255
on board a Flemish man-of-war sent to her aid by the prince
of Orange attended by ten smaller vessels. The earl of War
wick had stationed a squadron at Torbay, purposely to pre
vent or intercept her passage, which made all sail in pursuit
of her, one frigate approaching near enough to discharge se
veral shots at her fleet. But the Dutch ships proved superior
in speed ; there was likewise a light galley in attendance to
have received her majesty in case of the worst ; and she land
ed at Brest without further molestation.*
Madame de Motteville supplies some lively and curious de
tails of this eventful period of the life of Henrietta, from her
own information. Such it appears was the destitution
of this daughter, sister, wife, and mother of the kings on her
arrival at Exeter, that the queen regent of France was obliged
to send her over both money and every other accommoda
tion and aid requisite for her situation : The money she gen
erously sent on for the supply of h«r husband's necessities.
It is stated that the queen, finding herself constantly menaced
by her enemies, resolved to seek further aid in France : That
on finding herself pursued by the parliament's cruisers, she
sent for the master, and ordered him to blow up the ship
rather than suffer it to be taken ; but that her attendants
raised an outcry, and quickly diverted her from so unchristian
a resolution. She landed near a poor village in Britagne,
and lodged the first night under thatch ; but the neighboring
gentry soon flocked around her, and crowds hastened to wel
come the daughter of Henry IV. in her distress. She was
very ill and much altered, and her heart was so pierced with
sorrow that she wept almost incessantly, notwithstanding the
natural gaiety of her disposition. She told Madame de Motte
ville, that whilst she was in this state, she once said to May-
erne that she felt her reason failing her, and feared she should
go mad. " Nj fear of that, madam," he bluntly replied,
" you are mad already." In her native France, and in the
waters of Bourbon, she found a remedy for her bodily mala
dies, but much time was necessary to assuage the sufferings
of her mind.
After passing three or four months at Bourbon, Henrietta
repaired to Paris. The queen regent with the young king
went forth from the city to meet hex ; the two queens em
braced with great tenderness and affection, and paid each
other " a thousand compliments which were no compliments."
* Rushworth v. 684.

256
The Louvre was assigned to her for a town resideuce and St.
Germains for a country one, with a pension of ten or twelve
thousand crowns a month. So much was Henrietta altered
by sickness and misfortune, that few traces were now left of
her beauty. She had however fine eyes, an admirable com
plexion, and a well-shaped nose ; and there was something
in her countenance so pleasing that it made everybody love
her ; but she was short and meagre, her figure was somewhat
awry, and her mouth, which was never pretty, looked large
from the thinness of her face. Her portraits taken when
y^ung, represent her as very lovely, but she withered before
her noon, and she was accustomed to maintain that no woman
was handsome after two and twenty.
Whilst Henrietta was endeavoring at Paris to promote the
royal cause by a variety of negotiations and intrigues, her hus
band was passing through many vicissitudes.
On discovery of the king's escape from Oxford, both the par
liamentary armies engaged at first in the pursuit ; and Wal
ler's horse, which was foremost in the chase, had advanc
ed to Evesham by the time that Charles had reached Broad
way. Essex was two day's march behind the king, on find
ing which he determined to follow him no longer, but leav
ing that task to Waller, whose artillery and carriages were
lighter than his own, to turn his course westward for the re
lief of Lyme, besieged by prince Maurice, and of Plymouth.
Waller remonstrated against the decision, and the committee
of both kingdoms wrote to Essex in high displeasure on this
disobedience of their orders, suspecting apparently that he
was unwilling to make the king a prisoner ; but the lord-
general, supported on military grounds by a council of offi
cers, put the committee to silence, pursued his own design,
and laid his commands upon Waller to assume the task as
signed him. This officer, with whatever ieluctance he might
undertake the service, prepared to execute it with alacrity
and vigor. Taking possession of Sudeley Castle on his way
with little opposition, and enlisting great part of the garrison
in his ranks, he pushed on for Evesham, where he was two
days collecting his forces for an attack upon Worcester. But
the king, resolving not to be subjected to a siege in that city,
had in the mean time led on his small army to Bewdley, thus
placing the Severn between himself and his enemies. Wal
ler, on this, conceiving Shrewsbury to be his object, made a
movement to cut him off from this town. But no sooner
was Worcester thus left free, than the king, by the advice of

257
his council of war, hastened back thither, inarched through
to Evesham, wheie he broke down the bridge over the Avon,
and took the direct road to Oxford. Arriving there safely
after an absence of no more than seventeen days, he once
more put himself at the head of his entire army, which he
now regarded as fully able to encounter Waller. Whilst this
commander, who had been effectually deceived, was wander
ing about in Worcestershire, and afterwards recruiting his
forces from Coventry and Warwick, Charles actively em
ployed himself in raising contributions in Buckinghamshire,
and thus strengthened, he, in his turn, marched in quest of
his opponent, whom he overtook a little to the north of Ban
bury. Here, at Copredy bridge On the Charwell, a partial
action ensued, on July the 9th, in which the king proved
himself the stronger ; for Waller, after the engagement,
marched away into Northamptonshire, and being quitted by
the London regiments, gave up all further thoughts of en
countering the royal army. It is worth mentioning, as a
proof of the haughty bearing which Charles still thought it
fitting to assume towards those whom he styled rebels, that
immediately before this combat he designed to offer as a favor
to the troops of the parliament a general pardon on condition
oflaying down their arms ; but on his desiring a safe-conduct
for a gentleman who should be the bearer of a gracious mes
sage, Waller replied, that any thing of that nature must be
addressed not to himself, who had no authority to receive it,
but to the two houses of parliament.
Having thus extricated himself, beyond all reasonable
expectation, from the immediate peril with which the co
operation of the two opposing armies had menaced him, the
king resolved to follow Essex into the West, and he ordered
Hopton, with all the force he should be able to levy in Wales,
to meet him at Bristol ; a circumstance which seems to show
the purpose of the queen's demand of a passport for that
city. In fact it is not improbable that the hope of meeting
with her once more, and prevailing upon her again to trust
herself to his protection, may have been the original induce
ment with her devoted Consort for bending his course in this
direction ; but Henrietta, to whom fear gave wings, had em
barked ten days before he was able to reach Bath.
During these transactions of the king in person, events
were taking place in other quarters of so much moment to
the result of the great contest as to demand here a distinct
though brief recital.

258

CHAPTER XXVII.
1644.
State of affairs in the North. — Letter of the king to Rupert. —
Battle of Marston-moor. — Character of 4he marquis of New
castle. — Rise and character of Cromwell. — Surrender of York.
— The king marches westward. — Essex refuses to negotiate a
peace. — Arraignment of lord Wilmot. — Surrender qf Essex's
army. — The king's military movements. — Second battle of New
bury. — He brings off his cannon from Dennington and goes in
to winter quarters at Oxford. — Parliament sends commissioners
to the king. — Irregular transaction of Hollis and Whitelock. —
Mission of the duke of Richmond and lord Southampton. —
Treaty of Uxbridge opened. — Letters qf the king to the queen.
— Letter of the queen.— Views of the different parties in the
treaty. — Conduct of Charles. — Political effects of the failure
of the treaty. — Trial and death of Laud. — Reflections. — Dis
solution qf the Oxford parliament. — Expedition of Montrose.
— Negotiations of Charles with the Irish. — His commissions to
the earl of Glamorgan.
THE king, as we have already seen, had found it necessary
to direct Rupert to march northwards for the purpose of re-
leaving York : it was from Tickenhall near Bewdley, on June
the 14th, that he wrote to him for this purpose, and the ur
gent terms of the letter will afford a lively idea of the distress
es of his own situation at this crisis, and the apprehensions
by which he was agitated. After a thankful acknowledg
ment of the previous services of the prince, it thus proceeds :
" But now I must give the true state of my affairs, which, if
their condition be such as enforces me to give you more per
emptory commands than I would willingly do, you must not
take it ill. If York be lost, I shall esteem my crown little
less, unless supported by your sudden march to me, and a mi
raculous conquest, in the South, before the effects of the nor
thern power can be, found here : but if York be relieved, and
you beat the rebels' armies of both kingdoms which are before
it, then, but otherwise not, I may possibly make a shift, upon
the defensive, to spin out time until you come to assist me :

259
Wherefore I command and conjure you, by the duty and af
fection which I know you bear me, that, all new enterprises
laid aside, you immediately march, according to your first in
tention, with all your force to the relief of York : but if that
be either lost, or have freed themselves from the besiegers, or
that for want of powder you cannot undertake that work,
that you immediately march with your whole strength to
Worcester, to assist me and my army, without which, or your
having relieved York by beating the Scots, all the successes
you can afterwards have, most infallibly will be useless to me.
You may believe that nothing but an extreme necessity could
make me write thus unto you, wherefore, in this case, I can
no ways doubt of your punctual compliance with
" Your loving uncle and most faithful friend."*
On receipt of this urgent summons, Rupert marched in all
diligence from Lancashire. The English and Scotch com
manders on the news of his approach quitted the siege of
York and drew up their forces on Marston-moor, some miles
to the east of it, hoping to intercept him ; Rupert, however,
skilfully evading them, entered and relieved the city. It
was hoped by the marquis of Newcastle, and feared by the
opposite commanders, that contented with this important
success, the prince would avoid a hazardous battle with the
somewhat superior numbers of the united English and Scotch
armies, or defer it at least, till the expected arrival of a consi
derable reinforcement of which the marquis was in expecta
tion ; but the prince, assuming with arrogance the sole com
mand, gave orders for an attack upon the combined armies on
the morning of July the 3rd. This memorable field exhibit
ed a remarkable vicissitude of fortune. At one period the
three parliamentary generals were apparently all driven from
the field ; many of the Scotch abandoning their posts with
signal marks of cowardice ; and Rupert had actually dis
patched to his royal uncle an announcement of a glorious
victory ; but whilst a part of his troops were following the fugi
tives too eagerly, the tide of success was so completely turned
against the remainder, by the exertions partly of Fairfax, but
chiefly of Cromwell, who acted as lieutenant-general under the
ear] of Manchester, and brought up a reserve of cavalry, that
the final result was a complete and disastrous defeat to the roy
alists. Rupert lost all his artillery; histroops were chased with
* Memoirs of Evelyn, vol. ii. Append, p. 88.

260
great slaughter within a mile of York, and many officers of
distinction together with 3000 privates remained prisoners.
The cabinet and papers of the marquis of Newcastle also
fell into the hands of the victors. The dissension subsisting
between the two royalist commanders precluded all consulta
tion between them on the means of mitigating this great dis
aster : on the morning after the battle, Rupert merely dis
patched a message to the marquis announcing that he was
resolved immediately to march away with his horse, and what
foot was left him, and took the way towards Chester. New
castle, on his part, stung with an intolerable sense of wrong
and indignity, and despairing of doing further service to the
royal cause, informed the prince of his purpose immediately
to quit the kingdom ; and being conducted by a guard of
horse and dragoons to Scarborough, he there took ship
ping for Hamburgh attended by his two sons, his brother,
and about eighty lords and gentlemen.
In taking our leave of this gallant and accomplished no
bleman, Clarendon's observations on his too prompt retreat
from the duties of the very arduous station in which he had
been forward to place himself, may aptly be cited, with the
remark, however, that his causes of offence from Rupert are
passed over in silence. " All that can be said for the mar
quis is, that he was so utterly tired with a condition and em
ployment so contrary to his humor, nature and education,
that he did not at all consider the means or the way that
would let him out of it, and free him for ever from having
more to do with it. And it was a greater wonder that he
sustained the vexation and fatigue of it so long, than that he
broke from it with so little circumspection. He was a very
fine gentleman, active and full of courage, and most accom
plished in those qualities of horsemanship, dancing and fenc
ing, which accompany a good breeding ; in which his delight
was. Besides that he was amorous in poetry and music, to
which he indulged the greater part of hi3 time, and nothing
could have tempted him out of these paths of pleasure 
but honor, and ambition to serve the king when he saw him
in distress and abandoned by most of those who were in the
highest degree obliged to him."
It is remarkable that the duchess of Newcastle, in an in
structive passage of her Life of her husband, assigns less disin
terested motives to his public conduct than the loyalty of senti
ment lent him by the historian : " He never," she says, " con
nived or conspired with the enemy, neither directly nor in-

261
directly ; for though some person of quality being sent in the
late wars to him into the North from his late majesty, who
was then at Oxford, with some message, did withal in private
acquaint him, that some of the nobility that were with the
king desired him to side with them against his majesty,
alleging that if his majesty should become an absolute con
queror, both himself and the rest of the nobility would lose
all their rights and privileges, yet he was so far from consent
ing to it, that he returned him this answer, namely, that he
entered into actions of war for no other end but for the ser
vice of his king and master, and to keep up his majesty's
rights and prerogatives, for which he was resolved to venture
both his life, posterity, and estate ; for certainly, said he, the
nobility cannot fall if the king be victorious, nor can they
"keep tip their dignities if the king be overcome."*
Sir Philip Warwick, as we have seen, imputes to this no
bleman a design of becoming himself the arbiter of the civil
war, yet he thus speaks of him at the outset of his military
career. " He was a gentleman of grandeur, generosity, loy
alty, and steady and forward courage ; but his edge had too
much of the razor in it ; for he had a tincture of a romantic
spirit, and had the misfortune to have somewhat of the poet
in him, so as he chose sir William Davenant, an eminent
good poet and loyal gentleman, to be lieutenant-general of his
ordnance. This inclination of his own, and such kind of
witty society (to be modest in the expressions of it,) diverted
many counsels and lost many opportunities which the na
ture of that affair this great man had now entered into, re
quired. "f
It vvas not, indeed, by men of pleasure and of gay ac
complishments, indulgent by habit to themselves, and little
fitted or disposed to enforce strict discipline on others, bril
liant as might be their courage in the day of battle, that the
cause of Charles could be successfully maintained against
the stern and rugged champions now brought into the field
under the influence of political principles fast tending to
wards republicanism, and of theological zeal exalted into fa
naticism. Of such a revolutionary kind of force the newly
raised army of the earl of Manchester consisted for the great
er part ; Cromwell was already their hero ; by their valor it
was that he had been enabled, as we have seen, to convert
* Life of the Duke of Newcastle, p. 123.
t "Warwick's Memoirs, p. 236.
Vol. II. 32

262
the threatened defeat of Marston-moor into a victory almost
decisive of the whole contest ; and the occasion invites us to
inquire into the notions previously entertained of this memo
rable person by those from whom Charles himself might be
likely to receive his first impressions regarding him.
We have already noted Cromwell as a frequent and earn
est speaker in the house of commons on the questions of
most importance to the civil and religious liberties of the peo
ple, and cited his declaration that had the grand remon
strance not been carried, he would immediately have em
barked for New England. — On this subject it may be re
marked, by the way, that although the somewhat embarrassed
state of Cromwell's affairs, as well as his hostility to the pre
vailing maxims in church and state, must probably have ren
dered emigration to New England a frequent subject of his
consideration before the meeting of the long parliament, yet
the popular tale of his having been actually arrested in the
river after embarkation by an order of council, is exposed to
the same insuperable objections which have been already
urged against it in the case of Hampden.
To the lively yet candid pen of Warwick we are indebted
for a description of the future Protector, which sets him thus
living before our eyes. " The first time that I took notice of
him, was in the very beginning of theparliament held in No
vember 1640, when I vainly thought myself a courtly young
gentleman : (for we courtiers valued ourselves much upon
our good clothes.) I came one morning into the house well
clad, and perceived a gentleman speaking, whom I knew not,
very ordinarily apparelled ; for it was a plain cloth suit, which
seemed to have been made by an ill country taylor ; his linen
was plain, and not very clean ; and I remember a speck or
two of blood upon his little band, which was not much larger
than his collar ; his hat was without a hat band : his stature
was a good size, his sword stuck close to his side, his coun
tenance swollen and reddish, his voice sharp and untun-
able, and his eloquence full of fervor, for the subject matter
would not bear much of reason ; it being in behalf of a ser
vant of Mr. Prynn's, who had dispersed libels against the
queen for her dancing and such like innocent and courtly
sports ; and be aggravated the imprisonment of this man by
the council table unto that height, that one would have be
lieved the very government itself had been in great danger by
it. I sincerely profess it lessened much my reverence unto
that great council, for he was very much hearkened unto.

263
And yet I lived to see this very gentleman, whom out of na
ill will to him I thus describe, by multiplied good successes,
and by real but usurped power ; having had a better taylor
and more converse among good company, in my own eye,
when for six weeks together I was his prisoner in his Ser
jeant's hands, and daily waited at Whitehall, appear of a great
and majestic deportment and comely presence."*
That previously to the commencement of hostilities, Crom
well was regarded by the king with any peculiar jealousy, we
have no reason to believe ; he was not one of those parliamen
tary leaders especially marked out as objects- of his royal ven
geance ; and it is probable that the penetrating eye of Hamp
den may have been the first to detect the genius for command
lying hid beneath the rude and unpromising exterior of his
kinsman. " Should this contest," he is recorded to have said,
" end in a war, yonder sloven will be the first man in Eng
land." So competent a judge would probably discern the be
ginning accomplishment of his own prediction in the sugges
tion of Cromwell to himself, thatin order to be able to cope with
the gentlemen of blood and honor who composed the troopers
of the king'3 army, it would be necessary for themselves to
enlist, not base and mean fellows, such as " decayed serving
men and tapsters," but " men of a spirit likely to go as far as
gentlemen would go, — men who had the fear of God before
them, and made some conscience of what they. did." Of such
persons, substantial freeholders of their sons, natives of his own
county, and known to him and to each other, he composed
the full regiment of cavalry which he levied and trained ; he
subjected them to strict discipline, inspired them with the
true spirit and pride of soldiers, and rendered them in a man
ner invincible. At the head of this corps, which became cele
brated by the name of Cromwell's Ironsides, he had achieved in
rapid succession a variety of gallant and well directed enterpri
ses, which had raised his name into celebrity, andgivenhim pow
er to surmount the lowest, often the steepest, step of the ladder
of ambition, by obtaining for him the second, which he pro
posed to render in effect the first, command in the army of
the easy-tempered and generous earl of Manchester. Cromwell,
it should be noted, was the first to disembarrass his recruits of
the awkward profession under which the parliament's troops
had hitherto enlisted, of fighting by the king's authority against
his person ; and to declare to them, that should he meet his
* Warwick'! Memoirs, p. 247.

264
majesty in battle, he would as soon fire his pistol at him as at
any other man.
By the twofold dereliction of the marquis of Newcastle and
of Rupert, York was now consigned to the sole protection of
sir Thomas Glemham the governor, who bravely held it out
for twelve days, and then, aware that no relief could be afford
ed him, surrendered it upon honorable terms ; and thus every
thing north of Trent, with the exception of a few garrisons,
was finally lost to the royal cause.
Charles had advanced some days march towards the VVest,
when news of the disaster at Marston-moor reached him ; an
event which confirmed him in his resolution to pursue his
course in that direction, because it left him no alternative.
From Bath he issued a summons to the inhabitants of Somer
setshire to meet him at Kingsmoor, where on July the 21st he
delivered to them an address calculated to stimulate their loy
al efforts. Being reinforced by lord Hopton he proceeded on
wards to Exeter, where he made a short stay ; and here his
new-born daughter being presented to him by her governess
the lady Dalkeith, with whom the queen had left her, he caus
ed this lady to convey the infant to Oxford ; thus voluntarily
offering another hostage to fortune.
Essex in the mean time, receiving the submissions of the roy
al garrisons as he passed, and compelling prince Maurice to
raise his tedious and unavailing siege of Lyme, defended by the
hero Blake, had advanced as far as Tiverton, where he called
a council of war to decide on his further proceedings. His own
judgment was in favor of now marching back towards the
king, and endeavoring to force him to an engagement; but
moved by the representations of lord Roberts his field-marshal,
and other persons of weight in Cornwall, he finally consented
to proceed into that county, which, after a sharp combat with
sir Richard Grenville, who was posted to defend the passes, he
entered on July the 26th. The king, having been join
ed by prince Maurice, after a general muster of his forces
near Exeter, resolved to advance upon the earl, who, appre
hensive of a design of cooping him up and distressing him for
provisions, wrote earnestly to the parliament to relieve him by
sending a strong force to take the king in the rear ; but
Waller was offended with his commander, the leaders of the
commons were jealous of him, and nothing effectual was
done. At this juncture the king, — hoping perhaps to shake the
fidelity of the general to the parliament, and willing to satisfy

265
by some concessions the cry for peace which had become
loud amongst all those of his officers and counsellors who lov
ed their country and had a real stake in it, — addressed to
Essex with his own hand a letter of courteous phrase and
conciliatory import, warmly urging him to enter into treaty
with himself for the restoration of peace to an afflicted king
dom ; two others to the same effect were likewise sent to him,
one/rom prince Maurice and the earl of Brentford, the other
from lord Hopton and the rest of the principal commanders
oftheroyfd army. But Essex, avoiding all direct communi
cation with his majesty, briefly replied to the earl of Brentford,
that he had no commission to be concerned in any such trea
ty, nor could he betray the trust reposed in him by the par
liament ; an answer which gained him the thanks of both
houses. Some days after this, whilst the royal army was posted on
the top of a hill with that of the parliament in the valley be
low, and an action was daily expected, lord Wilmot, the
king's general of the horse, was arraigned of high- treason in
the open field, plucked from his horse at the very head of his
troops, and carried off prisoner to Exeter. He was generally
beloved in the army ; not the less so for being known to op
pose the violent counsels and suffer under the ill offices of
lords Digby and Colepepper ; and a mutiny had nearly been
the consequence of this display of authority. A petition, of
dangerous precedent, was quickly drawn up and presented to
the king from his " old officers of the horse," claiming it as a
right due to themselves and the service to know the offence
of their commander, of whose loyalty they expressed their
persuasion ; and to this address Charles found it necessary to
return a gentle answer accompanying the articles of his
charge. By these it was imputed to lord Wilmot, that for
three months past he had endeavored to stir up disaffection in
the officers of the army against the person of his majesty ;
-persuading them, that rather than suffer the king to put all
power into the hands of his nephew, as he saw he would do,
they should compel him to submit to the parliament ; intimat
ing that the king was afraid of peace ; that he was a man who
would never go through with this business ; and that the only
way left was to set up the prince, who had had no share in
the cause of these troubles, and who, by declaring against his
father's advisers, would attach all honest men and put an
end to every difficulty. He was further accused of holding
secret intelligence with the earl of Essex, and of inviting him

266
to concurrence in this design, which was pointed out as the
probable cause of " that insolent return" made by the earl
to his majesty's gracious Liter inviting him to a treaty.*
To these somewhat vague and captious charges, Wilmot
published a manly and at least plausible answer, in which,
avowing his earnest desire of peace, but denying the disloyal
words and dealings imputed to him by the malice of those
men who sought to perpetuate a state of war, he demanded a
suspension of judgment on the part of the public till he should
be brought to the speedy trial which had been announced to
him. After this, however, he asked and obtained liberty to
transport himself to France; Goring was invested with his
military command, and the matter was no further proceeded
in. It stands as an example of that contrast of rash resolves
and feeble performances so characteristic of the unhappy po
licy of Charles, and so adapted to shake the confidence and
alienate the affections of the steadiest supporters of the regal
power. Lord Percy, the friend of Wilmot, was deprived of
his command at the same time.
A more auspicious star seemed at this moment to preside
over the military movements of the king than that which
ruled the decisions of his cabinet. Essex, as he had appre
hended, was gradually penned up in an angle of Cornwall, and
his supplies so effectually cut off that it was not possible for
him longer to await the tardy succors of the parliament. In
this extremity he put his horse under the command of sir Wil
liam Balfour, with orders to make his escape through the
king's quarters, which this able officer effected on the night of
August the 30th with trifling loss. Two days after, he him
self, attended only by lord Roberts and another, embarked at
the port of Fowey in a boat which conveyed him to Plymouth,
leaving major-general Skippon with the whole of his foot and
artillery to make the best capitulation in his power. By
the articles which were subsequently agreed upon, all the
cannon, ammunition and weapons of the army, excepting the
sword's and pistols of officers, were to b j given up to his ma
jesty, and the men, thus disarmed, conducted in safety to.
the parliament's garrisons of Poole or Wareham, and thence
to Portsmouth or Southampton. This surrender, mortify
ing as it was to the parliament and disgraceful to its general,
could only be regarded however as a very inadequate coun
terbalance to the defeat of Marston-moor ; since it subjected
* See Rushworth, v. 693, et seq.

267
to the power of the king no tract of country of which he was
not previously in possession, and leaving the numbers of their
men undiminished, only imposed upon the parliament the
burden of re-arming them and supplying fresh ammunition
and artillery. For the present, however, this success naturally
elevated to a high degree the spirits of the king, and he again
invited the parliament to accept his terms of peace. No an
swer however being returned, he left Plymouth blockaded,
and proceeding to Chard, in a tone of confidence called upon
all his faithful subjects to rise in his favor, to seize upon trait
ors, to attend him to London, and there to compel the two
houses to an accommodation; and he commenced without
delay his march in the direction of the capital. But difficul
ties which he had not calculated pressed close around him.
His army, instead of being swelled by volunteers, dwindled
daily by sickness and desertion ; the remaining troops were ali
enated in affection by the late removals of officers, and muti
nous for want of pay and clothing ; the indispensable supplies
could only be raised upon the suffering country by force and
the actual presence of the army ; and from all these causes
of delay, it was not till September the 30th that he arrived
at Salisbury. By this time he saw reason to abandon the bold
design of a march to London, and bent his course towards
his old quarters at Oxford. A great force had already been
assembled to confront him, composed of the earl of Man
chester's army, Waller's, and that of Essex, newly armed and
recruited ; and it was by this united host, very superior to his
own in numbers, that the king found himself attacked in his in-
trenchments near Newbury on October the 27th. The strug
gle was severe, and sustained with great valor by the royal
troops ; their iutrenchments had however been forced at one
point before darkness came to end the contest, and during the
night the king thought proper to retire to Wallingford, leav
ing his cannon by the way at Dennington Castle, to which he
had just been laying successful siege. Great dissension pre
vailed at this crisis in the opposite army. Essex had with
drawn himself on the plea of indisposition ; there was there
fore no general in chief ; Manchester and Waller each took
the command of a division, but were far from acting in con
cert or harmony ; the independent or fanatical soldiery act
ed with reluctance under the orders of presbyterian officers,
and there was no such urgency in the state of their affairs as to
induce any of these exasperated sects or factions to sacrifice
their jealousies to the common cause. To this untoward dis-

268
position on the part of his adversaries the king apparently ow
ed his escape from present ruin. His retreat, though made
by the light of a full moon, met with no interruption, nor did
the combined armies show any design of pursuing their ad
vantage further. Encouraged by these circumstances, and
reinforced by Rupert with a considerable body of horse, and
by a part of the garrison of Oxford, the king soon after re
turned upon his steps for the purpose of with drawing hi3
cannon fromDenniugton, and completely succeeled in this ob
ject, the parliamentarians not choosing to accept the fair of
fer of battle which he made them. Having thus been enabled
to finish the campaign with a high degree of credit to him
self, Charles put his army into winter quarters and retired to
Oxford. The vacation from arms was filled up as before by negotia
tion. On November the 20th, the day after his arrival at Ox
ford, commissioners from the parliament, for whom the king
had already signed a safe-conduct, though only in the capac
ity of private persons, arrived in that city. They consisted
of two peers, the lords Denbigh and Maynard, four members
of the house of commons, Hollis and Whitelock being of
the number, and three of the Scotch commissioners. As on
a former occasion, these delegates were rudely treated, revil
ed and even pelted as they passed through the streets ; they
were conducted to an inn "little above the degree of an ale
house," and not at first sufficiently protected even there from
the military insolence of some of the king's officers. They
were no soolier settled however in their quarters, than visits
were paid them by many peers and great functionaries, and
such of their personal friends as were there in attendance :
amongst the number, Whitelock informs us that sir Edward
Hyde, chancellor of the exchequer, came to visit himself,
and in general discourse concerning the propositions for
peace expressed his earnest desire that they might take effect.
The next day they had access to the king, who treated them
with civility and gave them all his hand to kiss, but " seemed
to show moie disdain to the Scotch commissioners" than to
any of the rest. He listened with patience to the reading of
the propositi >ns, by the earl of Denbigh, and promised that
he would consider of an answer.
The same evening Hollis and Whitelock, with the know
ledge of the rest, went to visit the earl of Lindsey, then Con
fined by his wounds, who had first greeted them by a civil
message ; where a very singular transaction took place.

269
Scarcely had they paid tfeeir compliments, when the king,
Rupert and several great lords made their appearance; and
his majesty, after very civil salutations, entered into discourse
with them. He began by expressing his sorrow that they had
brought him no better propositions, and his wonder at some
of them ; and inquired whether themselves could possibly
regard them as reasonable, or honorable for him to grant.
The commissioners made no scruple to corafess that there
were some articles which they could have wished otherwise,
but observed that these had been concluded upon by the ma
jority, and that they were only the bearers. If his majesty
would go and treat in London, they were confident all might
be arranged. This he declined ; but expressing high regard
for them both peisonally, as knowing that they and their par
ty had always been, like himself, friends of peace, he pro
ceeded to request their opinion what answer it would be fit
for him to make. After faintly pleading that their present
employment must disable them from being his majesty's ad
visers, the commissioners were actually prevailed upon to
comply ; and retiring together to an inner apartment, wrote
down notes for the royal answer. The king then entering
took the paper into his own hands, and after further civilities
with the company, they retired. This intrigue being seen
after betrayed by lord Saville on his deserting back to the
parliament, exposed both gentlemen to severe and certainly
not unmerited attacks in the house of commons.
Soon after, the king's answer was sent to the body of com
missioners sealed up. They, on consultation, refused to re
ceive it thus, and desired that they might be informed of its
purport and receive a copy. His majesty, according toWhite-
lock, replied ; " What is that to you, who are but to carry
what I send, and if I will send the song of Robin Hood and
Little John you must carry it V To which the commissioners
only said, that the business about which they came and were
to return with his majesty's answer, was of more consequence
than that song. And other passages there were which show
ed the king to be then in no good humor, and were wondered
at, especially in a business of this importance, and where the
disobliging of the commissioners could be of no advantage
to the king."*
The sole purport of this paper was to demand a safe-con
duct for the duke of Lenox and the earl of Southampton to
* Whitelock, p. 115.
Vol. II. 33

270
carry the king's answer to the propositions. The demand
naturally excited many jealousies in the parliament ; but
through the strenuous efforts of the friends of peace, they
were at length laid aside, and Essex was directed to write
to prince Rupert that the safe-conduct would be granted pro
vided his majesty would desire it of " the lords and commons
of England assembled in parliament at Westminster." That
is, if he would again acknowledge them in their legal capa
city. On this point a council was held at Oxford. The king
" concurred not in the opinion that it was fit to call those at
London a parliament ;" but being supported by none but
secretary Nicholas, he found it necessary to comply ; at the
same time however, for the satisfaction of what he unintelli
gibly called his honor and his conscience, he prevailed to
have the extraordinary decision registered in the council-book,
that his majesty's desire of a safe-conduct in such terms,
" would not be any acknowledgment or confession of the
members of the two houses sitting at Westminster, to be a par
liament, nor any ways prejudice his majesty's cause."* "As
for my calling those at London a parliament," he writes to the
queen on this occasion, " .... if there had been but two be
sides myself of my opinion, I had not done it."f
Richmond and Southampton, who now repaired to London,
were justly regarded by the parliament as a kind of authoriz
ed spies and intriguers whom it would be wise to remove as
quickly as possible from a scene of so much distraction and
confusion as London and the two houses at this period exhib
ited ; they were therefore dismissed immediately on delivering
their message, which was a request for the appointment of
commissioners to meet with an equal number on the part of
the king to discuss terms of peace. The proposal however
was accepted, and in consequence the treaty of Uxbridge was
opened on January the 30th, 1645.
The letters of Charles to his queen at this crisis, with her
answers, instructively disclose the motives of the king and the
sentiments of both. To obviate her fears of his sacrificing
his honor in offering " a treaty to the rebels upon base and
unsafe terms," he thus assigns his reasons : " Know, as a cer
tain truth, that all, even my party, are strangely impatient for
peace, which obliged me so much the more, at all occasions,
to show my real intentions to peace ; and likewise I am put
in very good hope,  that if I could come to a fair treaty,
* Evelyn's Mem. ii. Append, p. 90.
t The King's Cabinet Opened, in Harl. Misc. p, 343.

271
the ring-leading rebel* could not hinder me from a good peace ;
first, because their own party are most weary of the war, and
likewise for the great distractions which at this time most as
suredly are amongst themselves, as presbyterians against in
dependents in religion, and general against general in point of
command." At the same time he entreats her to make others
know, as well as herself, this certain truth ; That no danger
of death, or misery, which he thinks worse, shall make him do
anything unworthy of her love. He ends by conjuring her to
allow neither any prospect of peace, nor any hopeful condition
of his, to make her neglect to hasten succors for him. On an
nouncing to her that " the settling of religion and the militia"
will be the points first treated on, he bids her be confident
that he will neither quit episcopacy nor the sword which God
has given into his hands.
During the progress of the negotiations, Charles writes
that " the unreasonable stubbornness of the rebels gives daily
less and less hopes of any accommodation this way," and
therefore enjoins the queen to hasten to him all possible assis
tance, particularly that of the duke of Lorrain, who had en
gaged, as she had informed him, to march a body of ten thou
sand men to his aid, for whom he expresses his hope that the
prince of Orange would find means of transport. At the
same time he boasts of intelligence received of a great defeat
given by Montrose to Argyle ; and as for trusting the rebels
either by going to London, (as they had often besought him,
and he on certain terms had offered to do,) or by disbanding
his army before a peace, he bids her by no means fear his
" haizarding so cheaply or foolishly ;" adding, that he esteems
her part in him at a far dearer rate. In a following letter,
after mentioning that the term of treaty had nearly ended
without accord on any point, he complains that some had in
deed too great a mind that he should go to London, of which
number was Percy, whom she therefore was likely soon to
see in France.
In a memorable letter of March the 5th announcing the
fruitless issue of the treaty which he had foreseen, he ex
presses his confidence that he should find very good effects of it ;
for that his own commissioners had offered, " to say no more,
full measured reason," whilst the " rebels" had " stuck rigidly
to their demands," which, he dared to say, would have been
too much, though they had taken him prisoner, so that " the
breaeh would light foully upon them." " Besides this," he
continues, " we have likewise at this time discovered, and

272
shall make it evidently appear to the world, that the English
rebels, whether basely or ignorantly will be no very great dif
ference, have, as much as in them is, transmitted the com
mand of Ireland from the crown of England to the Scots,
which, besides the reflection it will have upon these rebels,
will clearly show that reformation of the church is not the
chief, much less the only end of the Scottish rebellion ; but it
being presumption, and no piety, so to trust to a good cause,
as not to use all lawful means to maintain it, I have thought
of one means more to furnish thee for my assitance than
hitherto thou hast had ; it is, that I give thee power to prom
ise in my name, to whom thou thinkest naost fit, that I will
take away all the penal laws against the Roman catholics in
England, as soon as God shall enable me to do it ; so as,, by
their me.ans, or in their favors, I may have so powerful assist
ance, as may deserve so great a favor, and enable me to do
it. But if thou ask what I call that assistance, I answer,
that when thou knowest what may be done for it, it will be
easily seen if it deserve to be so esteemed. I need not tell thee
what secrecy this business requires ; yet this I will say, that this
is the- greatest point of confidence I can express to thee ; for
it is no thanks to me to trust thee in anything else but in this,
which is the only thing of difference in opinion betwixt us ;
and yet I know that thou wilt make a good bargain for me
even in this. I trusting thee, though it concern religion, as
if thou wert a protestant, the visible good of my affairs so
much depending on it," &c.
Henrietta had in the beginning thus expressed her sense of
what ought to be her husband's conduct in these transactions :
" I have nothing to say but that you have a care of your hon
or, 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 guards : 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 opin
ion religion should be the last thing upon which you should
treat : for if you do agree upon strictness against the catho
lics, 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 had serv-

273
ed yourself." In the same spirit, she advised him by no
means to give up the cause of episcopacy.*
From the secret instructions signed by the king for Rich
mond and Southampton in their preliminary mission, it is evi
dent that to collect intelligence, and to sow divisions amongst
those whom the king styled the rebels, was the real purpose
of their journey, in order to which they were supplied with a
variety of propositions to spin out the time and prevent the
parliament from giving them a speedy dispatch and dismis
sal. They were to court the independents with promises of
the king's pardon and favor, and of rewards for any service
they might perform to him : They were to rouse the loyalty
of the Scotch commissioners by informing them of designs
laid for the destruction of his majesty and his posterity, — their
native line of princes : They were to inquire what party could
be made for the king in the city, to encourage the well-affect
ed there, and if possible to obtain money from them ; and
lastly, they were to visit, encourage, and, if they could find
the means, relieve by pecuniary aids, loyal prisoners, and
particularly soldiers :f instructions which they punctually
obeyed. Preliminaries being at length adjusted, the treaty of Ux-
bridge opened on January the 30th, 1645. The terms pro
posed by the parliament did not materially differ from those
previously discussed at Oxford, excepting that the king was
required to break off his truce with the Irish rebels, and to
take, the covenant himself and impose it universally. With
respect to the dispositions in which these negotiations were
entered upon, it may be without hesitation stated, that what
ever desire for peace in the abstract might animate the bos
oms of men who all, the king himself by no means excepted,
had by this time feelingly learned the miseries attendant on a
state of civil war, — no party was disposed as yet to sacrifice
to it those specific objects for which they had originally taken
up arms.
The king, as we have seen, preferred a continuance of hos
tilities carried on by foreign mercenaries and Irish rebels, to
the demanded concessions relative to episcopacy and the mi
litia. The independents and minor sectaries preferred a vigo
rous prosecution of the war, with the chance of overturning
all the ancient establishments of the country, to the relin-
* See The King's Cabinet Opened, passim.
f Clarendon Papers, ii. 180. ^_

274
quishment of religious liberty and their own republican no
tions of government. The zealous presbyterians were willing
still longer to support the rapacity and arrogance of their
Scotch allies for the sake of establishing at the sword's point
the discipline of Geneva. The moderate royalists and the par
liamentarians still atttached to kingly rule, of which kind of
persons the Uxbridge commissioners for the greater part con
sisted, labored, however, diligently and sincerely at a compro
mise. The virtuous Southampton exhausted himself in plead
ings with his master to yield what should be necessary on his
side, and once flattered himself that he had prevailed ; and
on the other hand, we have seen into how irregular a step Hol
lis and Whitelock had suffered themselves to be betrayed intheir
zeal to mediate between their own body and the king. It is
probable that these efforts might have brought about at least
a temporary accommodation, but for the fatal reliance of
Charles on foreign and popish aid on one part, and the genius
of presbyterianism, to which Hollis and his friends were de
voted, on the other. This scheme of religion, which the
king was required to establish, had no one quality capable of
recommending it to adoption as a middle course. Neither
the high episcopacy of Laud, nor even the pontifical infalli
bility of Rome itself, was more rigid in demanding the abso
lute surrender of the dictates of private conscience to the
decrees of the church. It claimed for its peculiar discipline
the sanction of right divine ; and bigotry the most intense,
guarded by vigilance the most minute and the most unrelax-
ing, formed its very soul. The votaries therefore of the other
exclusive churches, and those who were struggling for the
broad principle of religious liberty, found themselves alike
interested in resisting its establishment, and on this point
both were likely to remain inflexible. With these obstacles
to contend against, the failure of the treaty can be no object
of surprise ; the conferences broke up on February the
22nd. The conduct of Charles in these negotiations is not charge
able to any considerable degree with duplicity ; haughtiness
and inflexibility were its more prominent features. He had
been compelled to enter upon them, as we have seen, by the
importunities of his own adherents, and the chief or sole
advantage which he anticipated from them was an opportuni
ty of disuniting his adversaries, and of making them exhibit
themselves in odious colors to the nation at large. The
spirit of conciliation which was not in his heart, was almost

275
as little upon his lips. His rude and contemptuous language
to the commissioners at Oxford has been reported ; and it
may here be mentioned, that when he had been pleased to
tender his gracious pardon to the parliamentary troops on
condition of their laying down their arms, the offer always
seemed to be made principally for the sake of reminding
them that they were the party solely guilty of the war, and
in his estimation justly obnoxious to the penalties due to
the foulest treason and rebellion. He sometimes even de
nounced to them eternal perdition as the penalty of their dis
loyalty. The political effects of this abortive treaty were important.
It set at a greater distance those whom it had failed to unite.
On both sides we find acts attending its progress, or closely
following its termination, which indicate a progressive convic
tion in the truth of that sad and ancient maxim, that they
who draw the sword of civil war may throw away the scab
bard. An ordinance passed for permanently excluding from
parliament such members as should seek to return to it after
serving in the king's armies : Another, that no officer or sol
dier should give quarter to any Irish rebel or Irishman taken
in arms. Sentence of death was executed upon lord Macguire
for his share in the Irish rebellion, upon sir Alexander Carew
for his attempt to betray Plymouth, and also upon the two
Hothams, in spite of vehement efforts on the part of the house
of lords to save them. A plan for new-modeling the army
was carried, and soon after the self-denying ordinance, which,
under the profession of excluding impartially all the members
of both houses from military commands, had eventually the
effect of depriving the peers, and especially fhe earls of Essex
and Manchester, of this most important kind of, authority,
and lifting Cromwell and his independents, leaders incom
parably more formidable, into their stations. The use of the
Common Prayer was prohibited, and that of the Directory
enjoined in its stead. Finally, a resolution was taken to pro
secute fo a conclusion the trial of the archbishop of Canter
bury, so long procrastinated, and apparently forgotten.
On which party is to be charged the long delay, through
which the primate had been detained nearly four years an un
tried prisoner, is not clear. If on one hand the house ef com
mons had neglected to draw up the additional articles of ac
cusation which they had reserved to themselves the right of
offering, on the other hand Laud himself had not only
omitted to petition for the expediting of his trial, but had

276
more than once requested further time to make his de
fence. It is probable that each party was willing to wait
upon events ; ihe prisoner perhaps hoping that in case of an
accommodation he might be included in the general amnesty ;
the presbyterians, the most inveterate of his enemies, cal
culating that when their sect should become legally establish
ed, they should find less difficulty in procuring his condemna
tion. It was doubtless the influf nee of the Scotch, and the
clause introduced into the covenant obliging the subscribers
to the effectual prosecution of malignants and all other pub
lic offenders, which had now re-animated the zeal of the
commons in this affair.
Laud had not gained for himself in the days, of his author
ity the merciful man's right to mercy, and his impeachment
was followed up by the indefatigable Prynn in a spirit much
more conformable to that which had formerly dictated the
cruel and vindictive inflictions of the primate against himself,
than to that of him whom they both owned with their lips for
Lord and Master.
The additional articles were brought forward in October
1644, and the trial commenced in March following. After
twenty days of hearing, during which the prisoner defended
himself with great courage and acuteness, though in those
instances where the evidence pressed him the hardest, with
more of special pleading than is consistent with an internal
sense of innocence, the house of commons, as in the case of
Strafford, changed its course, and determined to proceed by
bill of attainder. But with a disregard of the substance no Jess
than the forms of justice hitherto unexampled, they required
the lords to vote upon the bill sent up to them without hav
ing heard the evidence on which it was grounded. The lords
hesitated long, pleading that although the facts charged against
the prisoner were admitted, none of them amounted to treason
within any statute ; and the judges coincided in this opinion.
But the prosecutors were inflexible ; the poptjlace were insti
gated to clamor for justice, petitions to the same effect were
in preparation, and by a feeble remnant of six peers the bill
was finally passed. A royal pardon of two years' standing-
pleaded by the primate was overruled ; and on January the 10th,
with a dignity and pious resignation which, together with the
unwarrantable means employed in exacting the forfeiture of his
life, served to cancel with many the memory of his numerous
and great offences against the laws and liberties of his coun
try, against justiee, and even against common humanity, he

277
bowed his head to the axe in the seventy-second year of his
age. This event is thus remarkably alluded to by Charles in a
letter to the queen. " I will not trouble thee with repetitions
of news, Digby's dispatch', which I have seen*- being so full
that I can add nothing ; yet I cannot but paraphrase a little up
on that which he calls his superstitious' observation : it is this :
Nothing can be more evident, than that Strafford's innocent
blood hath been one #f the great causes of God's just judg
ments upon this nation, by a furious civil war, both sides hith
erto being almost equally plinfshed, as being- in a manner
equally guilty ; but now, this last crying blood being totally
theirs, I believe it is no presumption hereafter to hope, that
his hand of justice must be heavier upon them, and lighter up
on us, looking now upon our cause, having passed by onset
faults."'* Thus prone, it may be remarked, is self-partiality to arro
gate to itself superior claims to the favor of Heaven on frivo
lous or sophistical pretences ! In striking this balance of
guilt between himself and the parliament, an enlightened con
science would have prompted Charles to reflect, that had he
been satisfied, in the first instance, to confine himself within
the limits assigned by laws and charters to the authority of
an English king, neither Laud nor Strafford could have beetf
involved, as his ministers and accomplices, in those attempts
against the liberties of their fellow subjects which ended by
bringing down destruction upon themselves !
During the progress of the treaty, the period arrived td
which Charles had prorogued his Oxford parliament^' and if
reassembled, but with diminished numbers, and in a temper far
removed from the devoted and self-sacrificing loyalty which
their master required. His feelings regarding this assembly
and its proceedings are thus energetically expressed in a let
ter to his consort of March the 13th.
" What I fold thee last week concerning a good parting
with our lords and commons here, was on Monday last hand
somely performed ; and now if I do anything unhandsome,
or disadvantageous to myself or friends, in order to a treaty,
it will be merely my own fault ; for I confess when I wrote
last, I was in fear to have been pressed to make some mean
overtures to renew the treaty, knowing that there was a great
laboring to that purpose : but now I promise thee, if it be re-
* The King's cabinet opened.
Vol. II, 34

278
newed, (which I believe will not be without some eminent
advantage on my side,) it shall be to my honor and advan
tage, I being now as well freed from the place of base and mu
tinous motions, that is to say, our mongrel parliament here, as
of the chief causers, for whom I may justly expect to be chid
den by thee, for having suffered thee to be vexed by them, —
Wilmot being already there, Percy on his way, and Sussex
within few days taking his journey to thee, — but that I
know thou carest not for a little trouble to free me from great
inconveniences."* &c.
We learn that during the treaty, on account no doubt of
their " mutinous motions," the king had committed Sussex,
Percy, and lord Andover to custody, and taken from Sussex
the staff of treasurer of the household, f on which this profli
gate person deserted back to the parliament.
The events and designs which by buoying up the courage
of the king supported him in finally refusing to the entreaties
of his best friends the concessions which he had apparently
almost sanctioned, must now be unfolded. Montrose had
been for some months the anchor of his hope. This enter
prising leader, escaping in disguise with two followers only
from Marston Moor, had crossed the Scottish border on foot,
and sheltered himself with a kinsman in the Western High
lands to await the arrival of the ten thousand Irish whom An
trim had engaged to land upon that coast. The promises of
this chieftain had as usual far outrun his means of perform
ance ; but a body of sixteen hundred at length made their
appearance and placed themselves under the command of
Montrose. Joining to these all the Highlanders who could
be induced to enlist in his cause, Montrose, by that mixture
of skill and audacity which marks true military genius, had
proceeded rapidly from one success to another, and threat
ened to subjugate the whole of Scotland.
The calculating cruelty with which he abandoned to fire'
and swordwhole tracts of country belonging to the king's en
emies or his own, suffering also tbe savages whom he led to
satiate upon them every propensity of their brutal and fero
cious natures, struck a universal horror and consternation.
The country was in great measure disarmed by the absence
©f its disciplined troops in England ; Argyle however col
lected his clan and advanced to Inverlochy to resist the in
vader. Here on February the 1st he was attacked on a sud-
* The King's Cabinet Opened. j Dugdale's Diary.

279
den by Montrose and defeated totally, with the slaughter of
no less than fifteen hundred of the name ef Campbell. A
vaunting and exaggerated account of his success was instant
ly dispatched by the victor to Oxford, which arriving just as
the earl of Southampton had quitted the royal presence with
the assurance that the last offers of the parliament respecting
the militia would be accepted, is said to have been the cause
of the king's retracting this concession on the following morn
ing. Conceiving that the Scotch would now be compelled to
withdraw their army for the defence of their own hearths, the
buoyant spirit of Charles flattered him once more with the
complete restitution of his affairs, and he welcomed with de
light the exhortations of Montrose to stoop to no unworthy
compromise with rebels.
There was another quarter also whence his majesty now
looked for speedy and effectual succors ; and this was Ire
land. Undeterred by the obloquy and disaffection which
he had incurred amongst his protestant adherents by his first
cessation with the popish rebels, he resolved immediately on
its expiration, to substitute for it a permanent and final pacifi
cation. Hi's views in this measure, and the concessions which
he was prepared to make in order to carry it, appear from his
own letter of instructions to the marquis of Ormond written
immediately before the commencement of the Uxbridge treaty.
Aware that the resumption of war with the Irish rebels would
be one of the first conditions of accommodation demanded by
the English parliament, and that this would be " a point not
popular for him to break on," he enjoins the lord-deputy to
use all possible diligence to conclude a peace wifh the Irish
previously, assuring them that when once his word was engag
ed, all the world should not make him break it. " But," he
adds, "not doubting of a peace, I must again remember you
to press the Irish for their speedy assistance to me here, and
their friends in Scotland, my intention being to draw from
thence into Wales (the peace once concluded,) as many as I
can of my armed protestant subjects ; and desire that the
Irish would send as great a body as they can land about Cum
berland, which will put those northern counties into a brave
condition. Wherefore you must take speedy order to provide
all the shipping you may, as well Dunkirk as Irish bot
toms." In a subsequent letter he thus enlarges and enforces
his former orders. " .... It being now manifest, that the
English rebels have (as far as in them lies) given the com
mand of Ireland to the Scots ; and that their aim is a total

280
subversion of religion and regal power ; and that nothing less
will content them or purchase peace here ; 1 think myself
bound in conscience not to let slip the means of settling that
kingdom, if it may be, fully under my obedience, nor to 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, for their satisfaction. I do therefore com
mand you to conclude a peace with the Irish, whate'cr it cost,
provided that my protestant subjects there may be secured,
and my regal authority preserved  If the suspension
of Poyning's Act for such bills as shall be agreed on 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 honor."*
It appears that the conscience of Ormond, with respect to
the religion of Rome, was of a less complying temper than
that of his master ; and perhaps his honor was likewise
wounded by the project of offering to the Irish what it was
utterly improbable that the king would ever be in circum
stances to obtain for them, — the regular abrogation of all the
penal laws affecting them. He therefore in his negotiations
principally exerted his endeavors to prevail upon the Kilken
ny council to accept of lower terms from the king than he
had been thus privately authorized to grant ; by this means
the treaty was protracted more than suited the circumstances
or the policy of Charles, who was thus induced to call in the
aid of a personage remarkable enough here to claim a partic
ular notice.
Edward Somerset lord Herbert, belter known by his sub
sequent title of earl of Glamorgan, — eldest son of the earl of
Worcester, to whom his majesty had lately granted the pa
tent of a marquis,—was one of those whose favor at court
had been most a theme of general reproach. He was in
all the force of the term a papist ; a true disciple of the
Jesuits; or, in the words of the papal nuncio Rinuccini, " ter
catholicus ;" and when, notwithstanding this obstacle, and in
glaring defiance of the laws, the king, at the commencement
of the war, appointed him lieutenant-general of South Wales.
£he step had been reprobated apparently by every protestant
* Birch's Inquiry, pp. S, 10.

282
in his councjl. This appointment was also prominently
placed by the parliament in its list of grievances, and the ex
clusion of his lordship from the verge of the court, and from
all office or public employment, had been one of the " de
sires and propositions" tendered by the parliament in Oxford
treaty. His services to the royal cause had hitherto been
confined to sending several hundreds of raw Welsh recruits
levied, really or ostensibly, at his own and his father's expense,
to the siege of Gloucester, where they surrendered to Fair
fax without a blow ; he himself, who had no military tastes,
pot being present to animate or control them. Charles how
ever, from the exaggerated value which he had been prompt
ed to attach to the adherence and the exertions of the Eng
lish catholics, had continued to load him with marks of distinc
tion : he conferred upon him by signjnanual the dignity of
earl of Glamorgan, though the title was not as yet to be as
sumed ; and on April the 1st, 1644, granted to him one of
the most extraordinary patents ever conferred by an English
sovereign. By this instrument, the earl of Glamorgan was appointed
" generalissimo of three armies, English, Irish and foreign,
and admiral of a fleet at sea," with power to recommend his
lieutenant-general and absolutely to appoint all his other offi
cers, himself receiving no orders but from his majesty in per
son. To defray the expenses of his employment he was
authorized toc.ontra.ct with any subjects in England, Wales
or Ireland, for wardships, customs, woods, or any other royal
rights and prerogatives. Several blank patents of honors,
from the degree of marquis to that of baronet, were placed
at his disposal ; and for his own encouragement, besides all
the fees, titles, and privileges belonging to his command, the
king promised him for his eldest son the hand of his daughter
Elizabeth with a portion of 300,000Z., and for himself and
his heirs the title of duke of Somerset ; he was likewise to
bear the decorations of the garter.*
In December of the same year, the king proposing to dis
patch him to Ireland, gave him a letter of credence to Or
mond, as one whom he had engaged "by all means to forward
the peace there ;" and he sent him a secret commission em
powering him to levy any number of men in Ireland and
other parts beyond sea, to put officers over them, and govern
ors in forts and towns, and to receive the king's rents, f Dur-
* See the patent at full in Birch's Inquiry, p. 23. f Hid. p. 18.

283
ing the continuance of the Uxbridge treaty these secret meas
ures were proceeding without intermission ; and in March
1645 Glamorgan, who was still in Wales, occupied with vari
ous preparations for raising four thousand men in that princi
pality to join with the six thousand from Ireland with whom
he engaged to his majesty that he would land in May or the
beginning of June, required and obtained from him full pow
ers in the following form. " We  authorize and give
you power, to treat and conclude with the confederate Roman
catholics in our kingdom of Ireland, if upon necessity any
[terms] be to be condescended unto, wherein our lieutenant
cannot so well be seen in, as not fit for us at present publicly
to own. Therefore we charge you to proceed according to
this our warrant, with all possible secrecy ; and for whatsoev
er you shall engage yourself, upon such valuable considera
tions as you in your judgment shall think fit, we promise on
the word of a king and a christian, to rathy and perform the
same that shall be granted by you, and under your hand and
seal ; the said confederate catholics having by their supplies
testified their zeal to our service."*
By another instrument the king had engaged himself " on
the word of a king and a christian" to make good whatever
Glamorgan should perform as warranted under his " sign ma
nual, pocket signet, or private mark, or even by word of
mouth, as effectually as if under the great seal of England.
And although," it is added, " you exceed what law can war
rant, or any powers of ours reach unto, ?s not knowing what
you have need of; yet, it being for our service, we oblige our-
self not only to give you our pardon, but to maintain the same
with all our might and power."f
In these rash, perilous, and certainly most unjustifiable in
trigues, by which Charles at once discredited and disabled for
his service his own official representative in Ireland, and put
it into the power of a bigoted catholic to ruin him for ever,
as a protestant prince, in the esteem and affections of the
great bulk of his subjects, the obvious consideration seems to
have escaped him, that the carte blanche which he here offer
ed to the Irish, like the enormous interest tendered by a needy
borrower, could not fail to excite such a distrust of the secu
rity as to impede all serious transactions. How far this prov
ed to be the case we shall see hereafter ; in the mean time
the thread of events in England must be resumed with the
opening of the eventful campaign of 1645.
* Birch's Inquiry, p. 81. t ***<?• P- 18.

284

CHAPTER XXVIII.
1645—1646.
Opening of the campaign. — The prince of Wales sent into the West*
— Movements of the king. — Sack of Leicester. — Fairfax rises
from before Oxford. — Battle of Naseby. — The king's cabinet
taken, and the consequences. — Wanderings of the king — He reach
es Ragland. — His letter to Rupert against peace. — He marches
northwards, — plunders Huntingdon, — approaches London, — re*
turns to Oxford. — Repairs again toRagland.-Rupert surrenders
Bristol: — The king's letter to him. — He marches towards Chester.
— is defeated at Routen Heath. — Retreats to Newark. — Traits
of his behavior. — 31utinous conduct of Rupert and his party. —
The king escapes with difficulty to Oxford. — His council advise
negotiation. — He demands apersonal treaty, which is refused. —
Discovery of Glamorgan's treaty with the Irish rebels. — Gla
morgan imprisoned and disavowed.— Difficulties about the Irish
treaty. — Ruin qf the royal cause in the West. — Defeat of Astly.
— The war at an end. — Dissension between the parliament and
the Scotch. — The king again proposes to treat at London. — Mis
sion of Montr euil. — His negotiations for the king with the Scotch.
— rThe king gives himself up to the Scotch at Newark. — They
resolve to convey him to Newcastle. — He wishes to quit them, but
is unable. — The prince qf Wales joins his mother in France. —
Sir Edward Hyde in Jersey.
THE campaign of 1645 was tardy in its commencement.
The parliamentarian officers were occupied in carrying into
effect the new mode! of the army, which occasioned some
mutinies and threatened more, and it was nearly the end
of April before Fairfax, who had succeeded Essex in the
chief command, prepared to break up from his quarters around
Windsor. The king, upon the whole aspect of his affairs,
judged it expedient to separate the young prince of Wales
from his own hazards ; and about March sent him with the
title of generalissimo, but under the guardianship of lords
Capel and Colepepper, and of Hyde, into the West, where
an attempt was to be made to raise an army for him, and
whence, on the failure of this design, or the approach of
actual danger to his person, his escape to France would be

284
easy. After taking this step, and settling the plan of his own
operations, Charles issued forth from Oxford, ands making a
junction with Rupert, whom he had appointed general in
place of Ruthven, marched northwards with an army of ten
thousand men for the purpose of relieving Chester, important
to him at this time as the landing-place of his expected Irish
succors. On entering Staffordshire, however, he was met by
lord Byron with news that the siege was already raised ; the
Scotch, who were to have concurred in it, having on some
disgust turned their march homewards. Fairfax had just sat
down before Oxford, with the expectation, in -which he was
disappointed, of its being delivered to him by a party within ;
and the king, finding* him thus occupied, now took tbe op
portunity to strike a blow against the nearest town of conse
quence held by the parliament, which was Leicester. He
gained the plaee by assault, and the garrison were made pri
soners of war, " whilst the conquerors," says Clarendon,
" pursued their advantage with the usual license of rapine and
plunder, and miserably sacked the whole town without any
distinction of persons or places1. .... This," he adds, " was
exceedingly regretted by the king, who wished that those who
had faithful hearts to him in that generally disaffected town,
might have been distinguished from the rest ;" — for whom
apparently he felt no pity. After this exploit, his majesty,
listening to the supplications of the affrighted court, assem
bled his army and set out as if to the succor of Oxford. But
on June the 4th he thus explained to Nicholas the difficulties
of his situation. " .... I would not answer any of [your
letters] until I were marching towards you, without thinking
of any thing else before I have relieved you. Yet I must
deal freely with you, that my army is so weak, not being
4000 foot, and scarce 3£>00 horse, as I shall unwillingly
hazard to relieve Oxon before Goring or Gerrard be joined
to me, except such an absolute necessity that Oxon will be
lost if not relieved by a certain day. Wherefore,- as you
love my preservation, use all possible means of prolonging
your provisions, though it be by chasing out all unnecessary
people who have not provision for themselves, and stinting
every one, duke of York not accepted, to a small proportion
of meat every day, and do not hasten me to you without
very absolute necessity."* * Evelyn's Append, ii. 93.

285
Four days after, however, he wrote to the queen with reno
vated spirits, that his approach had already caused Fairfax to
break up from Oxford, that his opponents were at great dis
coid amongst themselves, that he believed them weaker than
was thought, as they seemed to decline giving battle, and that
on the whole, his affairs had never, since the rebellion, been
in so fair and hopeful a way. On the 12th of the same
month he took the amusement of hunting. The next morn
ing, Fairfax having advanced to Northampton with a greater
force than he had before been informed of, he resolved to re
tire to Belvoir, " but I assure you," he writes to Nicholas, " I
shall look before I leap further north:" The same night, on
intelligence of the nearer approach of Fairfax, in a midnight
council 'with Rupert and his headlong cavaliers, the rash re
solve was taken " to fight," and to be themselves the assail
ants ; the royal army was put in array, and the same morn
ing their opponents met them on the memorable field of
Naseby. The history of this battle bears a remarkable similarity to
that of Marston Moor. Rupert again, with his wing of ca
valry broke that opposed to him, which was commanded by
Ireton ; he pursued it with his usual impetuosity to the rear,
and there lost time in an ineffectual attack upon the park of
artillery. Meantime Cromwell after a severe contest defeated,
but forbore to chase, the king's other wing under sir Marma-
duke Langdale ; and Fairfax with his main body prevailed,
though with difficulty, against that of the king, led on by sir
Jacob Astley and accompanied by his majesty in -person.
Cromwell coming np with his victorious wing to the support
of Fairfax decided the victory, and Rupert on his return to
the field found the artillery taken, and the whole of the in
fantry iu disorder ; the cavalry, rallied by Charles with great
courage and presence of mind, stood firm as yet, but Fair
fax's horse was advancing against it in formidable array, sup
ported by foot and cannon. " One charge more," cried the
king, " and we recover the day !" But the force was too
unequal, the hazard too appalling ; they hesitated, turned,
fled in confusion, carrying the king along with them, and
were hotly pursued for twelve miles on the road to Leicester.
It is universally allowed that both sides fought with true
English valor ; the numbers of the slain are not accurately
known, but the important fruits of victory reaped by the
parliament consisted of five thousand prisoners, the entire
train of artillery, with the ammunition, more than a hun-
Vol. II. 35

QB6
dred colors, the whole baggage of the army, including the
rich plunder made at Leicester, and the king's cabinet with
his letters and papers. The sense entertained of their suc
cess by the conquerors may be illustrated by the quaint ex
pression of one of their popular divines : that the Almighty
had held his petty sessions with the cavaliers at Marston
Moor, but that he kept his grand assize at Naseby. After
this decisive blow, the prolongation of the war exhibited no
thing on the royal side but a series of convulsive struggles,
the issue of which, in all probability* no one hut Charles
himself was blind enough to regard as even doubtful.
One of the most irreparable disasters of the day to the king
was the capture of his cabinet, containing that correspondence
with his queen and others from which we have already given
copious extracts. The generous Fairfax, styled by Charles
in one of those very letters, " the rebels' new brutish general,"
long hesitated, from feelings in which even excess is honora
ble, to violate the privacy of these papers ; but Cromwell
and Ireton finally overcame his scruples by pleading the good
of the cause, and they were sent up to the parliament, who
caused them first to be read to the assembled citizens in
Guildhall, and afterwards published. These documents plac
ed it beyond a doubt that the absolute power which Charles
had ever regarded as his right was still his aim and end, and
that he made no scruple of the means for its attainment.
They exhibited him as insincere or fraudulent in his overtures
for peace, regarding no concession as definitive, no promise
as obligatory. They strikingly displayed the dangerous as
cendency of the queen ; they laid open his intrigues with the
Irish rebels ; exposed him as a perjured man in the declara
tion which he had made on his sacramental faith, that he
would grant no toleration for popery ; and finally they fixed
upon him that most inexpiable of all treasons against country,
the summoning of foreign mercenaries to decide by their
swords a civil and domestic quarrel.
. It is probable that on these letters primarily was founded
the resolution afterwards avowed by the independent party
generally, to admit of no treaty which should leave Charles,
under whatever restrictions, the occupant of the English
throne. The more prudent of his adherents sought to parry
this fatal blow by denying the genuineness of the letters pub
lished by the parliament ; but the king himself, less accessible
to shame, or less aware of consequences, thus at once avows
and justifies them in his •orrespondencc with Nicholas.

287
" .... I must desire you to let every one know, that no dis
tress of fortune whatever shall make me, by the grace of God,
in any thing recede from those grounds 1 laid down to you
who were my commissioners at Uxbridge, and which, I thank
them, the rebels have published in print : and though I could
have wished that pains had been spared, yet I will neither de
ny that those things are mine which they have set out in my
name, (only some words here and there mistaken, and some
commas misplaced, but not much material,) nor, as a good
protestant, or honest man, blush for any of those papers ; in
deed, as a discreet man I will not justify myself ; and yet I
would fain know him who would be willing that the freedom
of all his private letters were publicly seen, as mine have now
been ; howsoever, so that one clause be rightly understood, I
care not much though the rest take their fortunes ; it is, con
cerning the ' mungrel parliament ;' the truth is, that Sussex'
factiousness at that time put me somewhat out of patience,
which made me freely vent my displeasure against those of
his party to my wife."*
Charles was at this time reduced to the state of a fugitive,
flitting from place to place without any other obvious design
than to secure himself for the present, whilst waiting for the
favorable chances which might turn up in one quarter or oth
er. Passing hastily through Leicester, which immediately
capitulated, he marched on accompanied by Rupert to Lich
field, thence to Bewdley, and then proceeded to Hereford,
with " some disjointed imagination," says Clarendon, " that
he might with those forces under Gerrard, who was general
of South Wales, and was indeed upon his march with a body
of two thousand horse and foot, be able to have raised a new
army." Here Rupert quitted him and hastened to put Bris
tol into a condition to resist the powerful and victorious ene
my likely soon to appear before its gates ; and the noble his
torian wonders that the king did not also repair to the West,
where he had an army ready formed and the people were
generally well inclined to him, instead of attempting to raise
new- troops in " counties which had been vexed and worn out
with the oppressions of his own troops and the license of
those governors whom he had put over them." Charles pro
ceeded from Hereford to Abergavenny to urge to fresh efforts
the noblemen and gentlemen commissioners for South Wales,
ofwhose loyalty he had formerly received substantial proofs
* Memoirs of Evelyn, ii. Append. 101.

288
in the strong regiments which they had sent forth under their
sons and brothers. Their professions and promises were still
free and ample ; but growing despondency, produced by the
rapid successes of the parliament, on one hand, and growing
disaffection, fomented by the misconduct of the cavalier offi
cers, on the other, effectually intercepted the performance of
their engagements. The king, in the meantime, repaired to
Ragland castle, the noble seat of the marquis of Worcester,
by whom it had been strongly garrisoned. Here, through
the munificent hospitality of the loyal owner, Charles once
more saw around him the image of a court, and found in the
field-sports which he loVed a short respite from the anxieties of
his situation. Here also he enjoyed the facilities which he de
sired for carrying on his secret correspondence with the earl
of Glamorgan, by whom he vainly hoped to see a landing ef
fected on the Welsh coast at the head of his Irish auxiliaries.
In this asylum Charles remained till Fairfax, after re-captur
ing Leicester, marched for the West, and Rupert in conse
quence sent for all the new levies and other disposable force
pf the royal army to strengthen Bristol, the Scotch being
again in motion and marching upon Worcester. He then
proceeded to meet Rupert at Chepstow, designing to return
with him to Bristol ; but irresolute, and swayed by new coun
sels, retreated to Cardiff, where he continued some time in a
state of inaction, awaiting events.
The strong town of Bridgwater now surrendered to Fairfax
without resistance, and such a despair of the state of things
pervaded the royal party, that Rupert himself addressed to
his royal kinsman some representations in favor of peace,
which drew forth a reply containing the following remarka
ble passages : "..... As for the opinion of my business and
your counsel thereupon, if I had any other quarrel but the
defence of my religion, crown and friends, you had full rea
son for your advice. For I confess that speaking either as
to mere soldier or statesman, I must say that there is no pro
bability but of my ruin, but as to Christian, I must tell you
that God will not suffer rebels to prosper, or his cause to be
overthrown ; and whatsoever personal punishment it shall
please him to inflict upon me, must not make me repine, much
less to give over this quarrel ; which by the grace of God I
am resolved against, whatsoever it cost me ; for I know my
obligations to be, both in conscience and honor, neither to
abandon God's cause, injure my successors, nor forsake my
friends. Indeed I cannot flatter myself with expectation of

289
good success more than this, to end my days with honor and
a good conscience ; which obliges me to continue my endeav
our, as not despairing that God may in due time avenge his
own cause. Though I must avow to all my friends, that he
that will stay with me at this time, must expect and resolve,
either to die for a good cause, or, which is worse, to live as
miserable in the maintaining it as the violence of insulting re
bels can make him. Having thus truly and impartially stated,
my case unto you, and plainly told you my positive resolu
tions, which by the grace of God I will not alter, they being
neither lightly nor suddenly grounded, I earnestly desire you
not in any way to hearken- after treaties ; assuring you, low
as I am, I will not go less than what was offered in my name
at Uxbridge ; confessing that it were as great a miracle that
they should agree to so much reason, as that I should be with
in a month in the same condition that I was immediately be
fore the battle of Naseby. Therefore, for God's sake, let us
not flatter ourselves with these conceits ; and believe me, the
very imagination that you are desirous of a treaty will lose
me so much the sooner. Wherefore, as you love me, what
soever you have already done, apply your discourse according
to my resolution's and judgment. As for the Irish, I assure
you they shall not cheat me ; but it is possible they may co
zen themselves : for be assured what I have refused to the
English, I will not grant to the Irish rebels, never trusting to
that kind of people, of what nature soever, more than I see
by their actions ; and I am sending to Ormond such a dis
patch as I am sure will please you and all honest men.*" &c.
This letter may be dismissed with the remark, that the pas
sage respecting the Irish sufficiently proves that Rupert was
not at this time admitted to the inmost counsels of his royal
uncle ; and that the tone of martyrlike unalterable resolution
here assumed by Charles, was perhaps rather designed to re
buke the importunities of the friends of peace in his own ar
my, than to express the genuine state of his feelings and ex
pectations. Animated by the astonishing successes of Montrose, and
hoping to form at length a junction with him, the king, before
the middle of August, quitted Wales, and took a northerly
and easterly course by Wolverhampton and Lichfield, the
Scotch army breaking up the siege of Hereford on his ap
proach, but following him on his march with its cavalry, un-
* Hist. Rebellion, v.225.

290
der David Lesley, to which a body of English was united.
He had reached Doncaster, and the Yorkshire cavaliers were
preparing to join his standard in considerable force, when the
advance of Lesley to intercept his passage northwards, spread
dismay through his ranks, disconcerted his project, and caused
him to fall back upon his garrison of Newark, where he soon
learned the total defeat of Montrose at Philiphaugh. The
parliament, apprehensive of his breaking into the associated
counties, sent prompt reinforcements in that direction ;
Charles however made a rapid march by Belvoir and Stam
ford to Huntingdon, where the sheriff, one of the Cromwell
family, summoned the force of the county to assemble in his
favor. His troops entered the town of Huntingdon after
some resistance, and " miserably plundered" it ; after which
they proceeded, skirmishing by the way with various parties
of parliamentarians, into the counties of Cambridge and Bed
ford. " The king," says Whitelock, " gave several alarums
to Cambridge, faced them with a party of horse, and his for
ces plundered the country where they went, laidgreat taxes
upon towns to be paid presently, and so they marched for
wards. Understanding that the country were rising, and some
forces from Cambridge coming against him, he went to Wo-
burn, where some of his stragglers were taken, his forces
plundered much in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, and with
in five miles of St. Albans, some skirmishes were between
parties of them and of the parliament's forces under major
Cokaine, and some killed and taken prisoners." In this
manner, with the loss of many of his stragglers, he made
his way back to Oxford, which he reached on August the
29th. The next day, such was his activity, he was again
in motion, at the head of about five thousand men, for Wor
cester, whence he once more repaired to Ragland.
On learning that Fairfax had sat down before Bristol,
Charles detached officers into the neighboring parts to col
lect troops for its relief ; but before any steps could be taken
for this purpose he received the unexpected and overwhelm
ing intelligence of the surrender of the place on the first as
sault ; and calling back his officers to meet him at Hereford,
" which," says Clarendon, " was the post he chose to enter
upon new considerations of the desperateness of the condi
tion he was in," he thence addressed to Rupert the following
bitter letter.
"Nephew ! Though the loss of Bristol be a great blow to
me, yet your surrendering it as you did, is of so much afflic-

291
tion to me that it makes me not only forget the consideration
of that place, but is likewise the greatest trial of my constan
cy that hath yet befallen me ; for what is to be done, after
one that is so near me as you are, both in blood and friend
ship, submits himself to so mean an action 1 (I give it the
easiest term) such — I have so much to say that I will say no
more of it : only, lest rashness of judgment be laid to my
charge, I must remember you of your letter of the 12th of
August, whereby you assured me that if no mutiny happened,
you would keep Bristol for four months. Did you keep it
four days 1 Was there any thing like a mutiny 1 More
questions might be asked, but now, I confess, to little pur
pose ; my conclusion i§, to desire you to seek your subsis
tence, until it shall please God to determine of my condition,
somewhere beyond seas, to which end I send you herewith a
pass ; and I pray God to make you sensible, of your present
condition, and give you means to redeem what you have lost ;
for I shall have no greater joy in a victory, than a just occa
sion to assure you without blushing of my being your loving
uncle and most faithful friend."*
The king sent at the same time a revocation of all Ru
pert's commissions, which he authorized the council at Ox
ford, whither the prince had retired, to receive from him ; di
recting to them also a warrant for the imprisonment of colo
nel Legg, governor of Oxford, a person much in Rupert's
favor, and even of the prince himself in case of any tumult : —
Measures of rigor and at the same time intimations of suspi
cion, which, however natural in the unfortunate circumstan
ces of Charles, were generally regarded as not warranted by the
circumstances of the case or the characters of the sufferers,
and were ascribed to the influence of Digby, the known ene
my of Rupert !
After a week of melancholy suspense passed at Hereford,
the king took the resolution of marching to the relief of
Chester, in which city Byron was again besieged. The vi
cinity of major-general Poyntz with a strong body of par
liamentarians, compelled him to make a circuitous course
by Radnor and North Wales ; Poyntz in consequence, who
followed by the direct road, was able to overtake the king's
rear-guard at Routen Heath, within a few miles of Chester,
and with the assistance of a detachment from the besieging
army to place the royal troops between two fires. The king
* Hist. RebeUion, v. 252.

292
after a temporary success, was in consequence repulsed with
great loss and compelled to retreat to Denbigh. By the ad
vice of Digby, almost the only privy councillor who still at
tended upon his person, he was moved to select Newark as
his next station, which, by unknown ways and many late and
dark marches, exposed to constant fatigue and many hard
ships, he at length reached in safely on October the 14th.
The gallant cavalier sir Henry Slingsby, who with his troop
of northern horse accompanied his master from Oxford to
Naseby, and afterwards attended all his motions till his second
departure from Newark, supplies in his diary some character
istic traits of the king's behavior. He describes him at Ox
ford as very vigilant and exact iu viewing the works and
ordinance, early and most punctual in his hours ; in marches
hardy and patient of weather. At Ragland he was exact in
his attendance at church, and would also have his Tuesdays'
sermons. The only great severity he ever witnessed in him
was hanging a soldier for stealing a chalice out of a church.
At Radnor he was compelled to enter with two or three officers
ahumble house of entertainment where the rustic hostess blunt
ly demanded whether he had done with the cheese, as several
other gentlemen were wanting it. In the action of Routen
Heath, the Icing's person was in great danger, and his cousin
the earl of Lichfield, son of lord Aubigny, whom he loved,
was slain ; but the king, says Slingsby, " was imperturbable
in good or ill, and showed no grief."
Soon after his arrival at Newark, a flying rumor that Mon
trose having defeated Lesley was again advancing towards the
English border, enticed the king to make one more effort
to effect a junction with him, and he again advanced north
wards as far as Rotherham. But here becoming sensible of
the fallacy of these reports, he determined himself to return,
with a slender escort, whilst the remainder of his body of
horse, to the number of fifteen hundred men, under the com
mand of lord Digby, should pursue the perilous, or rather
desperate adventure, of a march to Scotland. Having thus
separated himself from a counsellor whose rash suggestions
had often involved him in difficulties even with his own adhe
rents, Charles found himself thrown upon the sole aid of
John Ashburnham, who had long attended upon him as gen
tleman of the bedchamber, with whom he began to concert
the means of his safe return to Oxford. But before he could
quit Newark a painful scene awaited him.
Rupert, unable to support the disgrace of a dismissal

293
from the service of Charles which would obstruct his recep
tion into any other, was bent on obtaining a hearing in his
own defence. For this purpose, in despite of the king's pro
hibition, he had made his way to Newark accompanied by his
brother Maurice and about eighty other military men. Sir
Richard Willis, the governor of the place, with lord Gerrard
and many officers of the garrison went out to meet him,
and the demeanor of the whole party was insolent and mu
tinous. The next, day the king was prevailed upon to summon a
court-martial, and to give his sanction to its decision, that
Rupert was innocent of treason or treachery in the surrender
of Bristol, but not of indiscretion. This concession, the utmost
to which he could be brought, was far from satisfactory to
the prince and his friends, who took no pains to conceal their
ill-humor. Charles now took occasion to displace Willis
from his government. The same day, whilst he was seated
at table, this officer, accompanied by the two princes, lord
Gerrard and about twenty more of the faction, burst into his
presence, and upbraiding him with inflicting upon him a pub
lic disgrace, demanded a public reparation. Rupert said, that
Willis suffered for being his friend ; Gerrard exclaimed, that
it was the work of Digby, who was a traitor, and he would
prove it. The king, with violent indignation, commanded
them all to depart from his presence, and never more to come
into it. They retreated in confusion, but in the evening sent
a demand that the king should either bring Willis to a court-
martial, or send passes for themselves and as many horse as
should desire to accompany them. Charles embraced the
latter alternative, and the next day Rupert and his whole
faction departed, two hundred in company, to Belvoir castle,
where they stood on their defence till they had obtained passes
from the parliament to quit the kingdom, granted on condi
tion of then- no more bearing arms for the king.
Besides the grief which behavior like this, on the part of
nephews whom he had so loved and favored, was fitted to in
flict upon the unhappy Charles in the midst of his other ad
versities, the delay which it compelled him to make at New
ark added formidably to the perils of his meditated escape.
Poyntz arid Rossiter with their troops drew daily nearer, aud
so hemmed him in that they believed they had now rendered
his passage impracticable, and the Scotch horse under David
Lesley were about to join them. By a march, however,
commenced in the night, conducted by able guides with much
Vol. II. 36

294
skill and celerity, and .protected by a body of about five hun
dred cavalry, he succeeded in withdrawing himself unob
served, passed in safety between the hostile garrisons, and
after two arduous days' travelling found himself once more
within the gates of Oxford, where he could at least repose
from his fatigues, disappointments and disasteis, in present
security, cheered by the society of such a court as he could
still command.
Rupert, it should be mentioned, struck with compunction,
instead of quitting the kingdom repaired to Woodstock,
whence he addressed to his injured uucle a humble acknow
ledgment of his fault and request for pardon.
That the king was permitted to enjoy even a brief respite,
is to be ascribed to the resolution of the parliament that the
war should be effectually and finally extinguished in the West
before the strength of their main army were turned against
Oxford, which had been rendered one of the strongest for
tresses in the kingdom. With this object Cromwell had been
occupied in reducing, one after another, all the royal gar
risons between London and Exeter ; and the prince, by his
father's secret orders, held himself in readiness to embark for
France. Charles was in no condition to profit by this dis
posal of the hostile forces. As a last resource, his council
suggested an attempt at negotiation, grounding their advice
upon "Reasons" which well explain the desperate state of
his affairs, and the distresses of the country at this crisis ; they
are as follows :
" That his majesty hath no army at all, nor any forces but
what are in his garrisons ; no means or money either to satis
fy or keep his officers, or to supply or pay his garrisons, but
the contributions of the country ; which being wasted hy the
soldiers of both sides, and extremely disaffected, are ready ev
ery day to rise against his majesty's garrisons, as being not
able any longer to undergo the heavy pressures which the ne
cessities of his majesty's soldiers, and the avarice of his ma
jesty's governors, daily puts upon them." That his majesty
begins to he in want of arms and ammunition, having no
means, since the loss of Bristol, of being supplied from abroad :
That there are no means of raising an army for the next
spring, all Wales having been lost presently after the fall of
Bristol, and Monmouth and Hereford since, Chester being in
imminent danger, and Newark and Belvoir likewise besieged
in danger : That in the West there aie five or six thousand
horse and foot, " but there are so great divisions amongst the

295
chief officers, and the council that attend the prince, as for want
of conduct those forcesareso disunited, and the country so dis
affected to them by reason of the soldiers' rapine and oppres
sion, as the country rises against them, whensoever they come
into any place not in a body, and the country is so wasted as
it cannot feed them when they lie together in a body." That
" the 'Cornish will not be drawn further than Devonshire :"
That Exeter is " close begirt" and not provisioned for many
months : That the king now possesses no port but Dartmouth,
and that troops have been marched to block it up : That
Fairfax and Cromwell have lately sent near fifteen hundred
of their best horse into the neighborhood of Plymouth,
which shows that they are much too strong for the king's for
ces in those parts : That the western horse are drawing to
wards Oxon, and are to join with other forces coming from
London under colonel Rainsborough, and all that can be
spared from Coventry, Warwick, Gloucester, Northampton,
and out of Buckinghamshire, (which it is believed will in all
make no less than eight thousand, and four thousand horse
and dragoons,) and are designed presently to block up Oxon
at a distance : That " Dennington castle is blocked up by
forces that lie in Newbury and the country thereabouts.
That whilst this was his majesty's condition in England,
"there was no peace concluded in Ireland, nor any consider
able forces possibly to be drawn form that kingdom, in any
time to assist him r" That Montrose was still in the Highlands
or no nearer than Glasgow, and in what condition his majesty
is not certainly assured, so that there is little hope of timely
aid from him : That " from France or Holland there comes
nothing but fair and fruitless promises, they not having all this
time afforded his majesty any considerable assistance, nor so
much as publicly declared against those at London."*
Even for negotiation, although obviously the only resource
remaining to Charles, the season was in many respects un-
propitious. In the new elections which had supplied the va
cancies in the house of commons, the presbyterians, pledged
by their covenant to regal government, had been generally
unsuccessful, whilst numbers and courage had been added to
the independents, who beholding their own army in the full
eareer of victory, were much more disposed to push their ad
vantage to the utter overthrow of the king and of monarchy,
than to restore both by a compromise. It had been observed
* Clarendon Stale Papers, ii. 198,

290
that the commissioners formerly sent by Iheiing had made it
their business, under cover of negotiating, to collect intelli
gence, to sow dissensions, and to carry on intrigues ; and a
resolution had in consequence been passed during the last
autumn, that no more of these emissaries should be admitted.
Inconsequence the application now made by Charles for
safe-conducts for two noblemen met with a stern rebuff.
The king was at the same time informed, that the parliament
had for some time occupied itself in drawing up propositions
in the form of bills, to be offered to him for his assent. Lit
tle expectation, however, was probably entertained that he
could be brought to acquiesce either in the contents of these
bills, which were in some points more severe than the Ux-
bridge articles, or in a form which would preclude him from
all opportunity of raising debate, employing chicane, and in
troducing phrases of designed ambiguity. Baffled in his first
demands, but desirous of still protracting the discussions, in
the double hope of gaining over the feelings of the people to
his side, and of improving to his advantage . the augmenting
dissensions of his adversaries, Charles now, with the concur
rence of his council, made to the parliament a bold and ex
traordinary proposition. He required to be admitted by them
to a personal treaty, and for that purpose to be received into
London with three hundred followers under the guarantee of
both houses of parliament, of the Scotch commissioners, the
corporation of London, and some principal officers of the
English and Scotch armies : He demanded that the nego
tiations should be continued for forty days, and that should
they not terminate in an agreement, he should then be al
lowed to repair to any one of his principal garrisons, Oxford,
Worcester, and Newark.
A proposal like this, although it might appear in Charles
the prompting of despair, had in it something adapted to
give a strong alarm to his adversaries. The spectacle of
their lawful and anointed king, now vanquished and disarmed,
coming to beg for peace of his parliament and subjects, was
one which must appeal to the passions of the people with a
force scarcely to be resisted ; — his secret adherents within the
City would not fail to take advantage of the returning tide of
loyalty, and it might well happen that he who had entered as
a suppliant might remain as a master. The hazard was at
all events one to be deprecated and shunned ; and the king's
demand was promptly and decidedly rejected, with a refer-

297
ence to the bills which the two houses were busied in pre
paring to present to him.
To counterbalance any advantages which Charles might
have gained in public opinion by the apparent frankness of
this proceeding, the parliament now brought forward against
him a fatal document which a remarkable incident had some
weeks before, thrown into their possession : the circumstan
ces were these.
The catholic archbishop of Tuam, in his way to visit his
diocese, had met with a party of rebels marching to besiege
Sligo, whom he joined. By a sally of the English garrison
these assailants were totally routed, and the archbishop,
amongst others, was slain. In hi* coach, which fell into the
hands of the victors, was found a duplicate of the treaty se
cretly concluded by Glamorgan on the king's, part with the
council of Kilkenny, by which complete religious liberty, and
the permanent possession of all the churches which they had
converted to their own use since the rebellion, were conceded
to the catholics, on condition of an army of ten thousand
men to be sent by them to serve, his majesty in England,
Wales, or Ireland. This piece, together with some impor
tant political letters, was immediately transmitted to the
English parliamentary leaders, by whose order it was now
printed. Almost at the moment of this disclosure in England, lord
Digby, baffled in his attempt to reach Montrose, had aban
doned the remains of his troops and made his escape to the
Isle of Man, whence he proceeded to Dublin. Here he ob
tained information of the negotiations carried on by Glamor
gan, which the king, had carefully concealed even from this
favorite counsellor ; and desirous to save the credit of his
master, and possibly at the same time to revenge upon him
his double dealing, he, as secretary of state, in concert with
lord-deputy Ormond, who was equally left out of the secret,
caused Glamorgan to be committed, on suspicion of high-
treason. At the same time he boldly declared all the com
missions produced by Glamorgan to be either forgeries, or in
struments fraudulently obtained, or that at least they must
have been limited by further instructions, and declarations
of his majesty's intentions : "for," he said, "most confident
he was, that the king, to redeem his own life and the lives of
his queen and children, would not grant unto them the least

298
piece of concessions so destructive both to his regality and
religion."* Glamorgan submitted to his imprisonment like one who
well knew, as he wrote to assure his lady, that he had no
thing to fear ; it was in fact part of his engagement, to bear
upon occasion the whole reproach of these negotiations, or
intrigues. But in vain was this devotedness on his side : in
vain did Charles himself accumulate protestations and offi
cial disavowals ; the authenticity of the treaty and the com
missions continued to be believed by men of all parties, es
pecially when they saw Glamorgan speedily liberated, and
again busied in the king's service ; and this deepest wound -to
the character of Charles in the estimation of his protestant
subjects, remained rankling and incurable.
By the same message which conveyed to the parliament
the king's denial of having ever commissioned lord Glamor
gan for any purpose beyond the levy of troops, he avowed
that he had empowered Ormond to treat with the rebels for
a peace, but offered, in case of his being admitted to a per
sonal treaty, to leave the concerns of Ireland entirely to the
management of parliament and conclude no pacification but
by their consent. He likewise advanced so far beyond his
Uxbridge terms, as to concede all that had then been required
concerning the militia, to allow the parliament for the present
the nomination of the lord-admiral and great officers of state,
to appoint judges during good behavior, and to offer a general
act of oblivion to be passed, on the conclusion of peace, by
the parliaments of England and Scotland. But nothing
would tempt the parliamentary leaders to meet his advances ;
they did indeed consent to draw up certain preliminary arti
cles on assenting to which he might be permitted to come to
London ; but the business proceeded tardily, and they were
never in fact offered to his acceptance.
In the mean time ruin was advancing upon Charles with
accelerating strides. The arrest of Glamorgan had impeded
the embarkation of the Irish troops, and the subsequent dis
avowal proved an insuperable obstacle to the resumption of
the design. The pope had lately been prevailed upon to ad
vance some funds, and to promise more, for the purpose of
conquering England from the puritans by means of an army
of English and Irish papists and of restoring Charles to his
throne, and he had sent a nuncio to Ireland to preside over
* Birch's Inquiry, p. 93.

299
this and the other affairs of the council of Kilkenny. But
the papists had no better reason to confide implicitly in the
good faith of the king than any other of the various sects and
parties with whom the events of his reign had brought him
into communication ; and the nuncio prudently required that
the articles in favor of the Romish religion secretly assented
to by Glamorgan, should be publicly ratified with the rest of
the treaty before jhe supplies of men and money should be
placed at his majesty's disposal. The late transactions plain
ly evinced that either fear or shame would restrain Charles
from giving this pledge to the pope ; the Irish peace was in
consequence delayed, and Digby expressed his -belief and his
hope that this dangerous negotiation, which could not fail to
ruin the king in his British kingdoms, would finally break off.
In England disaster succeeded to disaster. Chester sur
rendered early in the month of February 1646. The dispir
ited, mutinous, and dissolute army of the West, which Hop-
ton, with a generous loyalty, had consented to take under
his command, after other officers had declined the arduous
and inglorious task, had been gradually driven into the ex
tremity of Cornwall, where Fairfax pressed upon it, offering
at the same time liberal terms of capitulation. These were
accepted ; the troops disbanded about the middle of March,
and Hopton himself embarked to join fhe prince of Wales,
who had already sailed for Scilly under the immediate appre
hension of being given up by some of his own officers to the
parliament. The king had still a body of three thousand horse shut up
in Worcester, with which he commanded sir Jacob Astley to
endeavor to make his way towards Oxford ; and he sent out
from that garrison about fifteen hundred men to meet him,
hoping with this united force once more to take the field and
wait on fortune. But Astley was separately attacked on
March the 21st at Stow-on-the-Wold, defeated after a gal
lant resistance, and made prisoner with sixteen hundred of
his men. " My'masters," said this frank soldier to his cap
tors, " you have now done your work and may go play ; un
less you please to fall out amongst yourselves."
He was right : in the dissensions of the army and the par
liament was now the sole remaining hope for the king ; and
this hope he was still striving to improve by the whole art of
intrigue practised simultaneously upon all sects, all parties,
all leaders who were willing to engage him at the subtle game
in which he imagined himself unrivalled.

soo
With the chiefs of the independents, Cromwell, Ireton,
and Vane, Charles had already been tampering, at the sug
gestion of some of his emissaries that these individuals would
not be averse to the restoration both of monarchy and epis
copacy provided their own fortunes were secured. But these
attempts were speedily abandoned ; in the opinion of Claren
don each party was deceived as to the points which the other
would demand or concede : their principles and aims being
in fact absolutely -incompatible and irreconcilable. Sir Hen
ry Vane, in particular, in the discussion of terms which he
carried on for some time with the king, is thought to have
had no other view than to divert him from forming a coali
tion with the presbyterians before the arrival of Fairfax
should place his fate at the disposal of the independents aud
the army.
It was an encouraging circumstance to Charles that the
brotherly alliance between the Scotch and the English parlia
ment was at this juncture seriously menaced with a breach.
The English complained, and not without plausible grounds,
that their auxiliaries, since they had passed the border, had
performed no service worthy of their hire or answerable to
their engagements, and that by exactions and free quarters
they had grievously Oppressed the country. The Scotch,
on the other hand, murmured against the tardiness and in
sufficiency of. the suppliesaf all kinds furnished to them, the
arrear into which their pay had fallen, and the partiality shown
in all these points to the English army under Fairfax ; and it
was not without considerable urging, and some advances of
money, that Lesley and his men had been prevailed upon to
sit down to the blockade of Newark instead of pursuing their
march northwards. Their lay- commissioners were offended
to find themselves less and less influential in the conduct of
affairs in proportion as the cavaliers ceased to be formidable
in the field, and the independents became preponderant in the
army and the house of commons ; and their clerical delegates
vainly remonstrated against the reluctance evinced by their
allies to perfect the presbyterian establishment, and effect
ually to suppress the sectaries, by arming the church with the
sword of excommunication.
In the midst of these contentions, the propositions to be
submitted to the king experienced great delay ; and Charles,
weary of expecting them, sent to the parliament, on March
the 23rd, to offer that, on condition of receiving the pledge
of the two houses for the safety of his person, honor and es-

301
tate, with an engagement for his adherents fo reside in safety
on their own property without being required to take any
oaths not enjoined by the known laws of the land, he would
disband his troops, dismantle his garrisons, and come to live
with them. He at the same time suggested a general act of
oblivion. These, as the parliament might justly think, were
not terms lo be granted by the victors to the vanquished :
they regarded the king's proposal of coming to London with
a well--founded jealousy : it was observed that the town was
already filling with royalists and malignants ; and dreading
lest he should put his project in execution without awaiting
their sanction, they passed an ordinance empowering the
committee of militia, in the event of the king's coming within
the lines of communication contrary to the advice of parlia
ment, to levy a sufficient force to prevent or repress tumults,
to apprehend any who should come with him, t© prevent re
sort to him, and "to secure his person," — the house of lords
added, " from danger." By these decided measures a favor
ite hope was cut off from Charles, concerning which he had
thus expressed himself in a letter to Digby a few days previ
ously : " I am endeavoring to get to London, so that the
conditions may be such as a gentleman may own, and that
the rebels may acknowledge me king, being not without hope
that I shall be able so to draw either the presbyterians or
independents to side with me for extirpating one the other,
that I shall really be king again. I will conclude with this
assurance, that, whatsoever becomes of me, by the grace of
God I will never forsake the church, my friends, nor my
crown."* The French court was at this time disposed to exhibit
some apparent sympathy at least for Charles in his distress, and
before the conclusion of the year 1645, an agent of the name
of Montreuil had arrived in London,charged to exert in his be
half that interest which France had constantly possessed with
the Scottish nation, and to improve the overtures made by Da
vid Lesley and others to the king. This envoy never ceased
representing to Charles the necessity, in his present extremity,
of granting speedily and with a good grace to the presbyteri
ans of both countries all the terms which they demanded for
their religion, in consideration of which he had no doubt that
they would cordially unite to restore him to his throne on equi
table and even favorable conditions. He pleaded, that no
* Carte's Life of Ormond, vol. iii. No. 433.
Vol. II. 37

302
scruples of conscience could reasonably interfere with this
concession, since these religionists asked from the king nothing
but a confirmation of that form of church government which
was in fact already established without his consent in England
as well as in Scotland, and that it was only by reinstating
himself that he could hope ever to perform any service to epis
copacy, He ventured likewise to point out to his majesty the
extreme clanger of the system which hehad adopted of carrying
on at the same time negotiations with the different parties
for incompatible and indeed opposite objects. By endeav
oring thus to win both parties, he told him that he was in
danger of losing both; for that whilst none of the boons,
other than religious ones, which he offered to the Scotch had
any power to conciliate them, these very things extremely
irritated the independents 5 whilst the indulgence which he
offered to the consciences of these latter displeased the pres
byterians, without satisfying the independents, who were still
more desirous of emancipation from civil than from ecclesiasti
cal government, and would never be satisfied till they had re
duced everything to a state of anarchy. He added, that there
was little likelihood that his majesty would be able to avail
himself of the succors of his neighbors unless he agreed with
the Scotch ; for that the appearance of foreign force would
unite by the fear of a common danger those parties whom
good success had now set at variance, and of whose divisions
it was his part to take advantage.* But no representations
could induce Charles to forgo that habit of intriguing which
had become, a part of his nature ; and he continued to negoti
ate with both parties, and to balance between them till he
was entangled in the toils all but inextricably. Montreuil,
however, would not give up his point, and he obtained
towards the latter end of March a passport for Oxford, where
he prevailed upon Charles to give him authority to negotiate
with the Scotch the terms on which he would consent to re
pair to their army besieging Newark ; the agent pledging the
faith of the king and queen regent of France, that he should
be received by them as their natural sovereign and "be
with them in all freedom of his conscience and honor." On
arriving before Newark, Montreuil found the Scotch commis
sioners attendingjthe army there less favorably disposed to the
king, who still refused to yield the point of religion, than
those with whom he had treated at London ; and doubting
,* Clarendon Papers, ji. p. 214,

303
much whether it would be in his power to make good what
he had himself promised respecting his majesty's reception,
he wrote to secretary Nicholas on his return to the capital
somewhat dubiously respecting the expediency of his going
thither. The Scotch,, he said, would send a body of horse to
Burton-on-Trent to meet his majesty, but no further ; as to
terms, they did not wish to be joined by any troops who had
borne arms on the royal side, (especially they would not co
alesce, as the king had vainly hoped, with the object of tlieir
horror, Montrose,) nor would they admit among them any
cavalry who might accompany him ; ihey would receive in
his train no persons excepted from pardon but the two Pala
tine princes and Ashburnham, and even these must retire if
demanded by the English parliament ; and they desired that
his majesty would consent to establish presbytery as soon as
possible. This, he added, was all the account made by the
Scotch of his master's engagement and their promises to him
self in London ; — he could extort no more after long de
bates ; even this was a great mitigation of what they said at
first. If his majesty had any resource for obtaining better
conditions, he ought not to think of these ; but if all were
desperate in other quarters, and neither his majesty nor his
servants could be secure with the English parliament, — he
would venture to answer for it that he might be with the
Scotch, not perhaps with perfect satisfaction, but at least with
all possible safety.*
This appears to have been the Scotch ultimatum ; but there
was now little room for further hesitation on the part of
Charles except as to the practicability of an escape, for Ox
ford was now "very stiaightly blocked up," though' at some
little distance, by at least three thousand horse and two thous^.
and foot, and Fairfax and Cromwell were marching up with
the remainder of their forces. The king determined to at
tempt the hazardous enterprise, and for the means to repose
upon the fidelity and address of Ashburnham, from whose
narrative, composed for his own justification, the following
particulars are collected.
By the month of April 1646, his majesty's forces being
" reduced to the last period," and Oxford invested, it was judg
ed necessary, as well for the sake of the " faithful remnant"
there as for his own safety, that the royal person "should not
be liable to the success of an assault ;" and three plans for
* Clarendon Papers, ii. p. 221.

304
avoiding it were submitted to fhe council : — that he should
enter into terms with some .chief officers of the army ; — that
he should break through the besieging host and " make ten
der of his person" to the parliament ; — and that he should es
cape beyond sea either into France or Ireland. The first de
sign was thought proper to be attempted ; the second was
judged by most of his council to be " an action of great reso
lution, and probably hopeful, though in regard of the danger
that niight happen to his person in his passage to London,
none of them would advise him to it. The last was totally
rejected, as a thing in no wise councilable, net only in regard
of the misbecoming his majesty, to quit his party in that faint
seeming way, but principally because France and Ireland
were both in that extremity as he could not in any reason ,
expect relief from either ; the former being embarked in a
sharp and tedious war with Spain, and the other so far reduc
ed by the parliament's forces, as that the strength then left
under his majesty's command was wholly employed in pre
serving themselves from the visible danger which the power
of the parliament was daily necessitating them to fall into."
In the midst of these deliberations Montreuil arrived,
charged by the Scotch commissioners in London to " comply
with the king in all things he should desire, so as he could
dispose his majesty to go speedily to their army."
When the king, after discussing the securities he should
require, sent the French agent to negotiate with the leaders of
the Scotch army, and especially to demand that a body of
horse should be sent as far as Gainsborough to meet him, he
resolved, that if in the interim he could by any means obtain
reasonable terms either from the parliament or the army, he
would not desert them to go over to the Scotch, " who had
been such unhappy instruments in divisions between him and
his subjects here." But his overtures being rejected by the
parliament, and attempts to corrupt the fidelity first of Rains
borough and afterwards of Ireton proving abortive, his ma
jesty "settled his thoughts upon his journey to the Scots
army," and he mentioned to some of his council his intention
of leaving Oxford ; but " conceiving that most of them would
have opposed with some unseasonable heat his conjunction
with the Scots," he " chose rather to put the design of Lon
don upon it."
To Ashburnham he communicated all these circumstances,
commanding his particular attendance, and leaving the " ma-
nagery " of the expedition to his care. The narrator contents

305
himself with saying on this subject, that in obedience to his
majesty's pleasure he performed his duty, and that with hum
ble acknowledgment to God's protection, " after nine days'
travel upon* the way, and in that time having passed through
fourteen guards and garrisons of the enemy's," they arrived
safe at the Scotch army, where the king took up his quarters
at the house of Montreuil.* The particulars of the royal
journey as derived from other authorities are as follows.
About midnight on April the 27th, the day on which Fair
fax had reached Newbury, the king in disguise and accompa
nied only by Ashburnham, whose servant he personated, and
by Dr. Hudson, a divine, whose knowledge of the by-roads
qualified him to act as a guide, quitted Oxford. From the
account of Hudson, who was afterwards taken and examin
ed by the parliament, it appeared that they took their way by
Henley and Harrow-on-the-Hill, where they stayed some
time, and whence the king might catch a distant view of that
capital which he longed but feared to enter. On approach
ing St. Alban'?, a drunken man riding violently along the road
put them in fear that they were pursued. From that town
they proceeded out of the common road to Harborough,
where Montreuil had promised to Hudson that he would
meet the king, but failed ; on which account Charles dis
patched Hudson to him and went himself to Stamford, and
thence to Downham in Norfolk, where he remained four days
waiting for the return of his messenger, and as appears from
other authorities, still doubtful of his future course, after
which he proceeded to the lodgings of Montreuil at South-
am, and thence, on May the 5th, to the quarters of the earl
of Leven.
Many lords, Ashburnham relates, came instantly to wait
on his majesty with professions of joy that he had honored
them by coming to their army, after so long an opposition,
and desiring to know how they should evince their gratitude
towards him. The king answered that he should be fully
satisfied if they would only apply themselves cheerfully to
the performance of the conditions on which he had come to
them. Af the mention of conditions lord Loudon seemed
surprised, and declared that he had no knowledge of any
thing of the kind, nor, as he believed, any of his brother
commissioners. Charles appealed to Montreuil, who refer-
* See .1 Narrative by John AsMuimham, &c. pablished by the earl of Ash
burnham : 2 vols. 8vo. London 1830.

308
red to an agreement made by him with the commissioners at
London. Loudon and the rest replied that they were a sepa
rate body and not bound by what had passed with them.
His majesty then demanded how they came to invite him
thither, and to send him word that all differences were recon
ciled, and said that David Lesley was to have met him with
a body of horse. They answered that it was very true; that
they approved of his coming to their army, believing that he
meant only to make it the place where he would settle terms
of peace with both his kingdoms. In short, such, we are
told, was the indisposition of Loudon, who was president of
the council and had great influence among his countrymen,
towards tbe king, that " he would never suffer any discourse
to be made to his majesty, other than the taking of the cove
nant, and subscribing all the nineteen propositions for the
satisfaction of both kingdoms ; things that as they were most
distant from his majesty's resolution, being most averse to
his conscience and honor, so they were most unexpected
from persons so highly favored by the great adventures he
had undergone for them."
" To this usage they presently added restraint to his per
son, setting strict guards upon him, and grew in all things so
rigid and severe, as to me there seemed little distinction, ei
ther in discourse or any part of the entertainment, between
his majesty and his subjects." From these proceedings, our
author adds, his majesty plainly discovered that they meant
to elude all performance of the treaty, as being ignorant of
what had passed with the London commissioners ; although
he is himself convinced that all was carefully communicated
and managed between them, Montreuil having mentioned in
one of his letters to the king that the chancellor of Scotland,
chief commissioner at London, had given a meeting about
Northampton to the commissioners of the army and fully sat
isfied them in all particulars of the treaty, whence he confi
dently anticipated a happy termination. But Ashburnham
here forgets, if he ever knew, the circumstance that Mon
treuil afterwards retracted this sanguine view of the business,
and explicitly stated to Charles, as we have seen, that person
al safety was all that he could absolutely rely upon in the
Scottish camp ; and even for this he had clearly no written
engagement. Meantime, the parliamentary commissioners attending the
English army which was blocking up Newark on the other
side, being informed of this important arrival by the Scotch

307
commissioners, who affected to have been utterly unprepar
ed for such an event, desired a conference with them, in
which they demanded that the person of the king, and Ash
burnham with him, should be given up to them, as the only
. convincing proof which could be afforded to the parliament
that he had net come thither by some private invitation. The
Scotch pleaded that they " could not in honor give up any
man who came to them upon trust and confidence, as his ma
jesty had done ; yet hoped they should be better understood
by the parliament of England, than to conceive they had any
hand in that action, other than by such opportunities to work
the wished for designs of both kingdoms in relation to church
and state." Notwithstanding these fair professions, "the
English commissioners parted with them altogether unsatis
fied, which struck no little terror into the Scots," insomuch
that at their return they addressed themselves to the king in
a milder and more respectful manner, intimating that on a
meeting of the Scotch nobility with the commissioners, those
things which his majesty insisted to have been the terms of a
past agreement might probably be consented to ; on which
account they proposed to march to Newcastle, where the lords
were all to assemble. To facilitate this remove, they desired
that he would send to lord Bellasis to surrender Newark to
the English. The king although aware, says Ashburnham,
"that the true ground of that proposition was their fears
that the English should rise from the siege and follow them
in the rear, was pleased with their altered tone," and thought
it best to oblige them in this matter. He retained however
so deep a sense of his misfortune in putting himself in their
hands, that he continued to meditate another remove. With
this view he directed Ashburnham to procure if possible a
meeting with any one of the parliamentary commissioners at
tending the English army with whom he might be acquaint
ed, when he should be empowered to propose terms of hon
or and safety on which his majesty would consent to give
himself up to them. Ashburnham made application accord
ingly to Mr. Pierpoint ; but this gentleman would admit of
no discourse with a person proscribed by the parliament.
The king, therefore, had no alternative but to'proceed with the
Scotch, by whom he was now respectfully treated, (o New
castle ; where he arrived on the ninth day after his appear
ance in their camp before Newark.
Ashburnham informs us, that a despair of ever regaining
the affections of his people, to whom he had been as he com-

308
plained so cruelly calumniated, had often before this time led
ihe king to meditate an abdication in favor of his son. This
was however a measure which, advisable as it might be, he
did not choose to have forced upon him, and probably for that
reason chiefly, he showed extreme anxiety to preserve the
prince from falling into the hands of the parliament. Previ
ously to his escape from Oxford he wrote to the queen, that
if their son were not already with her she should lay upon him
their joint and positive commands to come immediately, ad
ding, "For whether I save myself or be taken prisoner, my
son can be no where so well for all ihe reasons I have to look
upon, in consideration of thee, myself and him, as that he
should be now in France."* Afterwards, learning that the
lords of the prince's council still detained him in Jersey, in a
letter to the queen from Newcastle he thus inforced his injunc
tion. " I think not prince Charles safe in Jersey, therefore
send for him to wait upon thee with all speed ; for his preser
vation is the greatest hope for ray safety ; and in God's name
let him stay with thee, till it is seen what ply my. business will
take. And for my sake let the world see that the queen saeks
not to alter his conscience."!
The prince's council, however, were so strongly and justly
averse to trusting the heir of the English throne in a catholic
court and under the guidance of such a mother, that they in
terposed all possible delay to the execution of these orders ;
and when at length Jermyn and Digby arrived from the queen
and gained the consent of the youth to go with them, Cole
pepper alone chose to accompany him ; lords Berkshire, Cap
el and Hopton, and sir Edward Hyde desiring him to excuse
their attendance ; a desertion which, on the part of Hyde in
particular, to whom he had more especially committed the
care of his son, was learned by the king with much concern
and displeasure. For the whole of the two eventful years
which followed, the future earl of Clarendon remained tran
quil in Jersey, composing his history, but under the disadvan
tage of being no longer either a participator or an eye-witness
of those memorable events which he made it his business to
record. » Clarendon. Papers, ii. p. 230. f Ibid. 239.

309

CHAPTER XXIX.
1646—1647.
Parliament jealous of the Scotch— The king directs Oxford and
his other garrisons to capitulate.— Lenient treatment of the
royalists.— Parliament prepares fresh articles of treaty. 
Claims of the Scotch. — Averseness of the king to grant them.—
His deceitful conduct. — His transactions with different par-
tics. — Letter to Glamorgan. — He refuses the terms qf the par
liament. — They negotiate for the surrender of his person by the
Scotch. — Extracts from the king's, correspondence with the
queen and others respecting the church and the terms of peace. 
The queen threatens lo go into a convent. — Various intrigues
for the king's restoration. — The queen dissuades the king from
escaping out of the kingdom. — Proceedings of the Scotch par
liament and general assembly. — Treaty between the Scotch and
English for the delivery of the king's person. — He attempts
to escape. — Is conveyed to Holmby. — State of the presbyterian
and independent parties. — The king removed from Holmby by
cornet Joyce. — He attends the marches of the army. — His vow
respecting church property. — He is conducted to Hampton*
court.
ON the first news of the escape of Charles from Oxford, the
parliament, ignorant of the course he had taken, and appre
hending London to be his objeet, where he had numerous ad
herents, manifested its alarm by publishing an ordinance de
nouncing the pains of treason against any who should har
bor, conceal, or not immediately reveal, what they knew
concerning him. Nor were these apprehensions calmed by
the intelligence of his having taken refuge in the camp of the
Scotch, with whom the antipresbyterian party in the house
was at this time on the worst terms short of actual hostility.
It was carried in the commons, but negatived in the lords,
that the king's person should be demanded of them "to be
disposed of to such place as parliament should appoint," and
Warwick castle was named. There was also a proposal that
Fairfax should be oidered to breafk up from before Oxford
and march against Leven ; and although the commissioners
in London found means by their representations and profes-
Vol. II. 88

310
sions so far to appease suspicion as to divert this storm from
their people, they found themselves exposed to many slights ;
their correspondence with their own country was intercepted
and examined, and it was voted in parliament that this king
dom had no further need of the continuance of the Scottish
army in England.
The first request made to Charles by his new hosts was,
that he would pacify their country by commanding Mon
trose and the other royalist chieftains to disband, fo which he
consented, and that leader repaired to Paris. . They next con
ciliated the parliament and people of England by obtaining
from him a circular order for the surrender of his few re
maining places of strength in that kingdom, Oxford being of
the number. Liberal terms, suited to the mild temper of
Fairfax, were granted to all these garrisons and their officers,
which were most faithfully and honorably observed.
The royalists, with very few exceptions, were permitted
to compound for their estates on moderate terms ; and not a
single individual suffered on the scaffold for any acts done in
prosecution of the great civil contest which was thus, after
four years of severe and sanguinary conflict, brought to a
conclusion, without treaty or compromise, by the ruin, the
dispersion, the utter prostration of the vanquished party.
The annals of the world might in vain be challenged to pro
duce a parallel example of lenity and moderation. To con
querors like these, unconditional submission would have been
the true policy of Charles ; but we have seen his own con
fession, that not peace to a bleeding country, but a final tri
umph to his own claims, through the dissensions and mutual
destruction of the two parties who had resisted him, was
still his aim and end ; and this therefore appears to have been
the only practicable course which never suggested itself to his
mind. He still demanded terms, and the parliament pre
pared, but tardily, and amidst many distractions, to submit a
fresh list of propositions for his assent.
In the mean time the discussions and negotiations of the
different parties became daily more eager and more intricate.
The Scottish people very reasonably resolved that if they were
to grant protection to their native prince in his adversity, to
treat for his restoration, and still more, to expose them
selves in his cause to the hazard of a struggle with the Eng
lish army, illustrious and formidable by so many victories, it
should at least not be without the full concession on his part

311
of those points for the sake of which themselves and their
brethren, the presbyterians of England, had originally taken
up arms against him. They required, in short, that he should
submit to the covenant, and that, in England as in Scotland,
he should sanction the establishment of presbytery on the
ruins of episcopacy. As yet he had given them nothing
more than the vague promise to grant as much on these
heads as his conscience would allow, combined with the
offer to lend a willing ear to the arguments which should be
offered on the disputed points.
Next to giving himself up to the independents, for which
he had suffered the best opportunity to escape him, appa
rently the most promising course for Charles would have
been to throw himself frankly into the arms of the presbyte
rians, and conciliate them by full concessions : but indefinite
and fallacious hopes of succors from some friendly quarter, —
of dissensions among his enemies, — of some favorable turn of
events, — a confidence in short in Caesar and his fortunes, co
operating with a rooted haired of the presbyterian discipline
and everything connected with it, as at once heretical and
antimonarchical, still prompted him to refuse compliance.
If, as is probable, this pertinacity bore to himself the respec
table aspect of a scruple partly conscientious, partly founded
on a sense of what was due to the kingly dignity and the inter
ests of his successors, it was by no means regarded in the same
light by the party with which he was treating. "Though
he should swear it," writes Baillie to his friend Henderson,
" no man will believe it, that he sticks upon episcopacy for
any conscience."* In another letter, dated from London so
early as May 19th, the same sagacious observer thus recurs
to the subject, with too true a presage of the final result.
" There is much talk here by all sorts of people of the king's
obstinacy ; that he is the longer the worse, and refuses all
reason. The faction [meaning the independents] rejoices
therein. This, disposition contributes exceedingly to their
wicked design. All our friends are very sorry for it 
Our perplexity for him and ourselves for the present is very
great. If he would do his duty in spite of all knaves, all
would in a moment go right ; but if God have hardened him,
so far as I can perceive, this people will strive to have him in
their power, and make an example of him. I abhor to think
of it, what they speak of execution. Every hour of his delay
* Baillie's Letters, ii. 205.

312
gives advantage to these men, who mate it their business to
ateal votes every day, to engage the nations, and to make him
irreconcilable. It has been his constant unhappiness to give
nothing in time. All things have b»en given at last ; but he
has ever lost the thanks, and his gifts have been counted con
strained and extorted. If Ashburnham be kept, we will not
be able to abide this peoples clamors. But enough of this :
A blind man sees, that if he resolve to play the madman lon
ger, he will be forced to do it within narrower bounds."*
Blind to the precipice on which he stood, the unhappy king
was seeking all artifices for delay, and in the mean time
drawing out the threads of many a tangled web. In the
middle of May, Ashburnham, who had been secretly admon
ished that the Scotch council was meditating to send him un
der guard to London as the parliament required, took his de
parture, first for Holland, where he was to raise further sums
on the crown jewels, whence the king charged him to pro
ceed for Paris, with secret directions to the queen concerning
the measures she was to take for his deliverance. A fortnight
afterwards, finding another safe hand, Charles addressed a
letter to her, to his son, and to the members of her council at
Paris, declaring that the Scotch had used him cruelly; that
they had broken their promises fo him, and would allow none
but such as had been actively his enemies lo approach him.
On this aecount he warned those to whom he wrote that they
were to consider this as his last free direction to them ; and
that they were henceforward to follow up such former orders
as he had given them, and to take the directions of the prince
in other matters for the good of the crown and state, regard
less of any commands which might be obtained from him un
der his present constraint, unless expressed in cypher by his
own hand. More especially the Irish pacifi«ation, on which
he believed his welfare greatly to depend, was on no account
to be broken, f
A few days after this virtual abdication, he affected to grat
ify the parliament and the Scotch by giving his sanction to a
letter written in his name by the earl of Lanerk to Ormond,
directing him to proceed no further in treating with the rebels
for a peace, — well knowing that peace to be already concluded.
He also consented to hold regular conferences, or disputations,
with Henderson, long the most eminent of the Scotch divines,
on the contending elaims of episcopacy and presbytery.
* Baillie's Letters, ii. 209. J Carte III. No. 463.

313
Nor would the independents by any means submit to take
no active part in a game on which they had staked their all.
Whilst the parliamentary propositions were concocting,
which the presbyterians of both countries, and the king's
friends generally, hoped to see the basis of a solid peace,
Cromwell and Ireton, with the knowledge perhaps of a few
of their most trusted auxiliaries, employed a clergyman, —
thought to be the same Hudson who had been the guide
of Charles to Newark,^to persuade him to reject these terms,
and trust to the generosity of the army for conditions far
more liberal, and, in the matter of church government, less
offensive to his conscience or repugnant to his political max
ims. Several leading royalists, particularly the honorably-
minded marquis of Hertford, were drawn into a concurrence
with them ; and the king himself seems either to have ac
tually fallen into the snare, or to have acted from other views
as if such had been the case.
To add to the intricacy, Charles was still in correspondence
with Glamorgan, whom he had so solemnly disavowed, and
through him with the papal nuncio in Ireland ; and on July
the 20th he addressed to this nobleman the following very
extraordinary letter.
" Glamorgan, I am not so strictly guarded, but that if
you send to me a, prudent and secret person, I can receive a
letter, and you may signify to me your mind, I having al
ways loved your person and conversation, which I ardently
wish for at present more than ever, if it could be had Without
prejudice to you, whose safety is as dear to me as my own.
If you can raise a large sum of money by pawning my king
doms 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 wished 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 in any future time if 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, Tour constant friend."
A copy of this letter was transmitted to the pope, who is
said to have " received great comfort from the reading of it ;

314
but at the same time shed tears of compassion for the king's
circumstances." Glamorgan also, on receipt of it drew up
with the advice of the nuncio a paper of reasons for inviting
the king into Ireland according to his desire. Whether the
project failed from any other cause than his inability to make
his escape thither, we are uninformed.*
On July the 23rd the earls of Pembroke and Suffolk, with
four members of the house of commons, arrived with the par
liament's propositions, on which ten days only of deliberation
were allowed. These delegates were accompanied by the
earls of Argyle and Loudon, who both besought the king on
their knees to accept the terms, Loudon' adding an earnest
and impressive speech, in which he set before him, as the in
evitable and fatal consequence of his refusal, the desertion of
all his English subjects, -who would rise as one man to depose
him, and having demanded and received his person from the
hands of the Scotch, would proceed to settle religion and the
state without him. So far however from being moved by
these considerations, Charles returned to the commissioners
an answer both harsh in manner and in substance falling short
of the concessions which he had previously made in conver
sation with various persons. In the end, he presented how
ever a paper to the commissioners reiterating his old proposal,
that he should be permitted to come on the faith of parliament
to London, or some one of his country seats in the neighbor
hood, there to explain his doubts and difficulties On the arti
cles tendered to him, and to make such reasonable demands
oh his own part as might conduce to a happy and permanent
composition of all differences.
When this answer reached Westminster, it was received by
the presbyterians with consternation, by the independents
with fierce and open triumph ; this party moved the house
immediately that no more addresses should be made to him,
and that the demand of his person from the Scotch should be
enforced by Fairfax at the head of his army, and Baillie writes
to his friend ; " We know not at what hour they will close
their doors, and declare the king fallen from his throne."
These extreme measures, however, were successfully re
sisted by the interposition of moderate men, and the parlia
ment soberly set themselves to negotiate with the Scotch for
the settlement of their exorbitant claims for military service,
* Birch's Inquiry, p. 21-1.

315
and for the surrender of the king's person, which the two
houses were now unanimous in requiring.
The perturbed state of Charles's mind during these trans
actions, and the inflexibility with which he adhered to his own
" grounds" as he called them, whilst his projects varied from
day to day with the shifting scenes of the agitating drama,
impart an extraordinary interest to his confidential correspon
dence at this juncture. In contemplation apparently of the
negative which he vyas to give to the propositions, and of its
effects, he writes to Ashburnham, as early as July the 8th,
that he must assist the queen in framing an answer to a ques
tion which he had put to her regarding his own case ; "upon
which," he says, " my opinion is, that I am lost if I go not
info France before the end of August next ; and take heed
that I be not believed too late."
Many circumstances lead us to the persuasion that Henri
etta dreaded, for reasons peculiarly her own, a reunion with
her husband ; and her council, consisting of Colepepper,
Ashburnham, and he,r own Jermyn, in their joint answer, by
her special desire state with full force all the objections
against his attempting an escape. At present, they observe,
— contrary to the fact, — that he is no prisoner, but received
in that army as king ; but that should he be betrayed or de
tected in an endeavor to withdraw himself, it would so change
his condition as their hearts ache to think of. On the other
hand, should he effect his escajie over the sea in safety, that
desertion of his kingdom would give the parliament a fresh
and more just pretence for exercising their usurped authority.
Tha't her majesty did not, however, by these representations
mean to imply that in no case ihe design should be put in
practice, — on the contrary, should his condition require it,
he should receive all possible assistance from France, — but
that she would not have him venture suddenly or unadvisedly
on any such attempt. At the same time these courageous
councillors, themselves at safe distance, highly applaud his
determination to grant no terms in any manner derogatory to
the royal dignity !*
From subsequent letters of the king's it appears, that
Colepepper and Jermyn had suggested to him, that whilst he
remained steady in refusing those articles which proscribed his
favorite adherents or took from him his power'over the militia,
it might be an easy compromise to yield up the church to the
* Clarendon Papers, ii. 244.

316
urgency of the presbyterians ; — doctrine which he combats
with the most persevering energy, as in the following pas
sages. " This alteration of [church] government  I believe
to be as destructive of the regal power as the quitting of the
militia. My reason is, that their doctine, which is antimo-
narchical, cannot but be admitted with their government ;
which is most evident, because all our orthodox divines will
be expelled or silenced, and theirs introduced." Of the fact
that their doctrine is such as he represents it, he gives this ex
ample : " I cannot get here a railing libel answered, written
in defence of Lilburn (albeit they all condemn it, because it
rails at all government and nobility,) merely because they
will not contradict his ground ; which is, that the supreme
power is in the people. This being the reason I bolted out
of Mr. Henderson, although they pretend other causes pub
licly. "... If you think I understand any thing in religion,
then believe me^that the presbyterian tenets and government
are more erroneous than those of the church of Rome, and
absolutely inconsistent with monarchy, which I irrecoverably
destroy  If I introduce that which is so destructive
to it. But for all this, endeavors must never be given over
for the gaining of the Scots to my side, though I may be
lieve it impossible, no more than [for] the regaining of my
rights in my time, which I esteem as desperate ; all things
being possible with God. For take it from me, the Scots will
never declare for me (unless I should make such concessions
for the destruction of monarchy, whieh by the grace of God
I never will do,) until a strong visible force appear for me,
which I believe must begin abroad,) of which I have very
little hope, at least in time to save me  I command
you to give me your opinions freely, which is less hurt to my
crown and posterity, that I be a prisoner within my domin
ions or at libeity elsewhere, for be confident that one of these
must be my case very shortly."
In a subsequent letter, still arguing on the necessity he lay
under of refusing that concession regarding the church which,
he says, the Scotch thought to use as a shoeing-horn to draw
on all the rest, and with reason, for " thereby the doctrine of
rebellion is made canonical, their former acts approved, and
mine condemned," he adds. " Besides, how can I keep that
innocency which you, with so much reason, oft and earnest
ly persuade me to preserve, if I should abandon the church 1

317
Believe it, religion is the only firm foundation of all power :
that cast loose, or depraved, no government can be stable.
For where was there ever obedience that religion did not
teach it 1 But, which is most of all, how can we expect God's
blessing if we relinquish his church 1 And I am most confi
dent that religion will sooner regain the militia, than the mili
tia will religion  Now as to the proceedings here, I
have yet no certainty to send you ; but there are two things
much discoursed, both naught. First, that the London rebels
will seek to satisfy the Scots, which is thought no hard work,
whereby to make them retire their army and quit their garri
sons before they will declare any thing concerning my person.
Secondly, their great desire is to make the duke of York king :
and albeit hitherto thesef are but discourse, yet are they not to
be contemned. And you will be deceived if you do not ex
pect that the Scots hath not resolved to destroy the essence
of monarchy, (that is to say, reduce my power in England
to what they have made it in Scotland,) from which nothing
can divert them but a visible strong declared party for me, and
either [the prince] or I on the head of a good army. And
do not think that any other eloquence will make the English
or Scots rebels harken to any reason. For the business of
Ireland alone, which yourselves confess that I must stick to,
will hinder all accommodation  Wherefore my opinion
is, that you press France and all the rest of my friends, both
to declare for my restoration, and to set some visible course
on foot in order to it."
In a letter to his son, dated like the preceding in the month
of August, he enforces upon him in the most urgent terms
the maxim, that " as the church can never flourish without
the protection of the crown, so the dependency of the church
upon the crown is the chiefest support of regal authority ;"
and on this ground he charges him steadfastly to maintain the
cause of episcopacy.
The French ambassador Bellievre continued to represent
the obstinacy of Charles in matter of religion as the great ob
stacle to a settlement, and Henrietta and her three councillors
persisted to dwell on this point in a strain exceedingly painful
to him. He complains that he writes to them with " a sadder
heart " than he thought that any of the four could have caus
ed him. " For," he adds " when those few from I can whom only
expect encouragement in my constancy, shall condemn me of
willfulness, and by it make me the destroyer of my crown and
family, how can you think it possible for me to joy in any thing
Vol. II. 39

318
after this 1 It is such a grief that must sink any honest heart,
and I am sure would soon do mine, if 1 did not hope, and
that shortly, to make you see and confess your error." And
he proceeds once more to repeat his prejudiced assertion of
the incompatibility of presbytery with (monarchy. There
was however truth in his statement that if, in his present cir
cumstances, he should consent to the establishment of that
government, it must be either in the form desired by the Eng
lish, or that desired by the Scotch ; and in the first case the
church would be rendered dependent on the parliament ; in
the second, on the people.
In their answer, Jermyn and Colepepper, after assuring
him in pathetic terms that " if there were less at stake than
his crown, life, posterity, and monarchy itself, with all that
ought to be precious to good men throughout all his domin
ions," they should be for ever silenced, and cease by their vain
arguments to add affliction to affliction, — proceed with obvi
ous good sense to observe, that his majesty deals only in ob
jections and negatives, and is so far from proposing any expe
dient, that should they grant all that he labors to prove, the
sole conclusion would be, that his case is desperate, — his
ruin irresistible ; and that by uniting heartily with the [presbyte-
rian party against the independents, he would be delivered from
such a dead calm of hopelessness as only a miracle could re
lieve, and placed in fact in a very promising condition.
Having plainly shown that he could hope no cooperation
from the Scotch without concession to their religious demands,
they proceed thus to combat his objections on this head.
" Your first reason is that of conscience ; which certainly if not
mistaken, needs not the help of any second. Therefore since
we observe that you have joined other arguments, ....
and thereby show us that you do not center only upon this
foundation, you do thereby give us the more liberty to offer
our sense against it." They express their high approbation
of his strenuous efforts to have preserved episcopacy in his
kingdom as " that which is the most ancient, reverent and
pious government of the church  But if," they pro
ceed, " by conscience is intended to assert that episcopacy
is jure divino exclusive, whereby no protestant, or rather
Christian church can be acknowledged for such without a
bishop, we must therein crave leave wholly to differ. And if
we be in an error, we are in good company ; there not being,
as we have cause to believe, six persons of the protestant re
ligion of the other opinion. Thus much we can add, that at

319
the treaty of Uxbridge, none of your divines then present,
although much provoked thereunto, would maintain that, we
might say, uncharitable opinion, — no, not privately amongst
your commissioners. Neither doth it follow that in this, or
any the most rigid sense, you are obliged to perish in compa
ny with bishops merely out of pity, and certainly you have
nothing else left to assist them with ; or that monarchy ought
to fall, because episcopacy cannot stand."
To his objection that presbytery is dangerous to monarchy
they reply, after assenting to the proposition, that he is far,
alas ! from having a choice in this matter : " Presbytery, or
something worse, will be forced upon you, whether you will
or no : ... . the question in short is, whether you will choose
to be a king of presbytery, or no king ; and yet presbytery
or perfect independency to be."*
In this frank and earnest letter the whole reason of the case
seems to.-he embodied, but it proved powerless against the scru
ples whicTi it sought to overcome. In some observations upon
a draught of an answer to the London propositions, sent him
by these advisers, Charles still complained, that as they would
settle it, it will be in the power of pulpits, without transgressing
the law, to dethrone him at their pleasures, at least to keep
him in subjection. By making him consent to the permanent
establishment of presbytery, he represents them as putting his
soul to hazard, and thus remarkably concludes : " Indeed
this is a right way to make me a papist. For if I follow
your present advices concerning religion, I foresee such a ne
cessity of it, that the time will come when you will persuade
me with more earnestness to submit to the pope, than now ye
do for my concession to presbyterial government. For ques
tionless it is less ill in many respects to submit to one than to
many popes."f
The same strain prevails in all the king's following letters
concerning this negotiation. Desirous however, of discover
ing, if possible, a compromise, we find him writing to bishop
Juxon, as a person skilled in cases of casuistry, desiring him
to "advise with the bishop of Salisbury whether he might
with a safe conscience give way to a temporary estab
lishment of presbytery, " with a resolution to recover and
maintain that doctrine and discipline in which he had been
bred '" He adds ; " The duty of my oath is herein chiefly to
be considered ; I flattering myself that this way I better com-
* Clarendon Papers, ii. 260, et seq. t Und. ii. 265.

320
ply with it, than being constant to a flat denial ; considering
how unable I am by force to obtain that which this way there
wants not a probability to recover, if accepted, (otherwise
there is no harm done,) for my regal authority once settled, I
make no question of recovering episcopal government. And
God is my witness, my chiefest end in regaining my power,
is to do the church service."
The proposition was, that religion should remain in its pre
sent state for three years, the king and his household being how
ever allowed the use of their old form of worship, at the end of
which time it should be finally settled by a committee of both
houses, in consultation with sixty divines, twenty to be named
by the king, and the rest presbyterians and independents in
equal proportions. His majesty's question was answered by
the bishops in the affirmative ; " rectitude of intention," as they
said, " abating much of the obliquity in all actions." But the
concession was unavailing ; the parliament would abate no
thing of a total and perpetual abolition of episcopacy.
Bellievrc, stating to Mazarine that his own efforts to medi
ate in Charles's favor were baffled by his inflexibility, now re
quested that some other person might be sent over, likely to
have sufficient influence to persuade him to what was neces
sary for his service. "Upon which," says Clarendon, "the
queen, who was never advised by those who either understood
or valued his true interest, consulted with those about her,
and sent sir William Davenant, an honest man and a witty,
but in all respects inferior to such a trust," to declare to him
her opinion, " that he should part with the church for his se
curity." Respecting this mission, Charles himself thus writes,
in the bitterness of his soul, to the three councillors attend
ing Henrietta : ..." I found Davenant's instructions to be
such, both for matter and circumstance, that my just grief for
them had been insupportable, but that the extraordinary and
several kind expressions of my wife, meeting casually at that
time, abated the sharpness of my sorrow. . . . One particular
I must^ mention, wherewith Davenant hath threatened me,
which is 851 [the queen's] retiring from all business into a mo
nastery. This, if it fall out, which God forbid, is so destruc
tive to all my affairs — I say no more of it, my heart is too big,
the rest being fitter for your thoughts than my expression.
In another way I have mentioned this to 351, my grief be
ing the only thing I desire to conceal from her, with which I
am now as full as I can be without bursting, commanding you
to remember her to answer me, and help to conceal my sor-

321
row from her as much as may be ; which will be seme ease
to it, that of itself were so git at as not to be borne Lut for fhe
great cordial of her daily expiessions of kindness to me, and
that this way I find some vent for if."*
That grief, not indignation, should have been fhe prevalent
emotion of Charles in receiving on the part of his wife a me
nace of such a nature, may be regarded as a, memorable
proof of the fixedness, and also of the blindness of his at
tachment to her. But besides the hold which this worthless
and unfeeling woman always kept upon his affections, the
perplexed and harrassed king usually deferred to her judg
ment, and always set a high value on her exertions in his
most important and difficult affairs, in which her natural love of
intrigue rendered her indeed indefatigably active. At this time
she was laboring to counterwork the papal nuncio, by whom
her husband's negotiations with the Irish rebels had been
deeply embroiled and the levy of trcops for his service im
peded. She would gladly have transported herself to that
scene of action, but of this project Charles would not endure
to hear, and she now endeavored to urge him to the suicidal
step of avowing the secret articles concluded with Glamor
gan, as the price at which alone an Irish army subsidized by
the pope could be enlisted in his cause. Mazarine affected
to be about to land ten thousand men in England to concur
in the enterprise, whilst he in fact meditated, with the coop
eration of Jermyn, the seizure of Jersey and Guernsey. The
earl of Crawford had visited Paris to concert with her ma
jesty a plan for a fresh rising of the Highlanders under Mon
trose, who were to be joined by six thousand Irish. Ham
ilton at the same time, whose loyal attachment to the person
of Charles neither suspicions nor injuries could destroy, had
gained admission to him at Newcastle, reinstated himself in
his confidence and affection, and opened to him his own plans
for another invasion of England by the presbyterian Scotch,
not in hostility to their sovereign, but" for his protection and
reinstatement. By all these projects, however uncertain or
inconsistent, the hopes of Charles had been extraordinarily
elevated. " I am most confident," he wrote to the queen,
" that within a very short time I shall be recalled with much
honor, and all my friends will see that I have neither a foolish
or a peevish conscience."
Even with the extraordinary blindness to approaching
* Clarendon Papers, ii, 270.

322
dangers which was one of the strongest characteristics of
Charles's mental constitution, and which set it most remark
ably in contrast with his father's, his situation at this juncture
was one which inspired him with frequent misgivings. About
the end of October we find him expressing to the queen's
three councillors, with some hesitation, the following opinion :
That his consenting to remain in Great Britain under his pre
sent circumstances, might give facilities to his enemies for set
tling a new government in England without a breach between
the two kingdoms. For that being an absolute cipher as to
power, he could be no impediment to such a settlement although
he were in Scotland ; and yet the English would be afraid to
quarrel with the Scotch so long as it should be in their power
to set him up to claim his right. That if, on the contrary,
he were " in a secure freedom any 'where else," he believed
that the two nations could not fail to quarrel, and finally to
perceive that there could be no peace but of his establishing.
Alarmed at such a suggestion, Henrietta hastened to write
to him thus : " I . . . . conjure you that till the Scots shall
declare that they will not protect you, you do not think of
making any escape from England. They are startled here
at the naming of it ; and in so doing you would destroy all
our hopes ia the general peace, which  well assures me
is like to be made very suddenly."
The king, submissively, though not without indications of
deeply wounded feelings, writes in answer : " I will, accord
ing to thy conjuration, not think of an escape, until the Scots
shall declare that they will not protect me. By which I per
ceive the opinion is (I say not it is thine,) that it is less ill for my
affairs that I should be a prisoner within my dominions, than
at liberty any where else, for I cannot escape, if I stay till the
Scots declare against me. And indeed it may well be so, in
case my friends will, upon my restraint, immediately and
frankly declare for my release ; of which I am sure thou will
have a care, and therefore say no more."*
It is abundantly evident that the thought of seeing her hus
band consigned to, perhaps, perpetual imprisonment, had no
power to shake the nerves of Henrietta. By a subsequent
letter, however, she gave him her permission to seek safety in
Ireland, the Scotch Highlands, or Jersey, rather than be
made a prisoner ; — but quitting his own dominions was a
thing not to be attempted whilst any choice remained."!
+ Clarendon Papers, ii. p. 305. t Ibid. 312.

323
In the last letter of Charles to Jermyn and Colepepper re
specting these negotiations, dated December the 19th, he
complains in a tone of very excusable irritation, that he is
not believed concerning himself, since after his positive re
fusal to sanction presbytery, for which he had fully assigned
his reasons, he was still urged to it, and the French ambas
sadors still took for granted that he would consent. " Good
God !" he exclaims, " what things are these to try my pa
tience ! And is it possible, that not having been able to con
vince my reason, you can believe that I will submit to yours,
or any body's else against my conscience 1 Indeed there may
be reason to reject my melancholy offer ; but for God's sake,
put me not to the hazard of as ill effects as that can bring,
another way. For in what security do you think I can be,
when it shall be believed, that my son will grant what I deny ?
I could say much more upon this subject ; but I will only
conjure you, as you are Christians, no more thus to torture
me, assuring you that the more ye this way press me, you the
more contribute, (though I know, against your wills) to my
ruin."* Whilst these vain discussions were carrying on between
the king and those in whom he most confided, measures de
cisive of his fate were concerting between the English par
liament and their Scotch allies. On September the 26th the
king addressed a letter to Hamilton containing the following
passage :".... Those at London think to get me into their
hands by telling our countrymen that they do not intend to
make me a prisoner ; O no, by no means ! but only to give
me an honorable guard, forsooth, to attend me continually,
for the security of my person. Wherefore I must tell you,
(and 'tis so far from a secret, that I desire every one should
know it, only, for the way, I leave you to manage it for my
best advantage,) that I will not be left in England when this
army retires and these garrisons are rendered (without a visi
ble force upon my person), unless clearly, and according to
the old way of understanding, I may remain a freeman, and
that no attendant be forced upon me, upon any pretence
whatsoever."! In the same letter he desires Hamilton to
give up some foreign journey which he had meditated, and to
remain in Scotland, where he hoped no doubt for favorable
results from his presence and exertions. The Scottish par
liament, after being some time assembled, entered into debate
* Clarendon Papers, ii. p. 314. t Rushworth, vi. p. 329.

324
on December the 16th, on disposal of the king's person, and
passed resolutions which seemed to promise a zealous and ac
tive interposition in his behalf. They declared that they
would support regal government in the persons of his majesty
and his descendants, as well as his just rights to the English
throne ; and that instructions should be sent to the Scotch
commissioners in London to obtain for him the power of ap
pearing there with honor, safety, and freedom. But the va
lue of these demonstrations which the royal party had obtain
ed apparently by a kind of surprise, was quickly reduced to
nothing. The standing committee of the general assembly,
meeting on the following day, issued a " Solemn and season
able warning to all estates and degrees of men throughout the
land," urging theg uilt and danger of espousing the cause of the
king, or inviting him into Scotland, so long as he should re
fuse to give a pledge for his future good conduct by taking
the covenant and granting the lawful desires of his loyal sub
jects in both nations ; and showing that they should at once
involve themselves in perjury, and incur the hazard of a
bloody war with their brethren of England by such a breach
of their positive engagement, that his person should be dispos
ed of by the joint advice and common consent of the two
kingdoms. On the reading of this paper the Scotch parliament, af
ter a fresh debate, resolved, that his majesty should be desir
ed to grant the whole propositions; that in case of refusal
the kingdom should be settled without him, and that the king
dom of Scotland could not engage for him, or admit him,
until he should have taken the covenant and assented to the
propositions presented to him in the name of both kingdoms.*
Thus was all the hopes of Charles from this quarter over
thrown, but his resolutions remained still unchanged.
Before this tiine the English parliament had effected a dou
ble purpose, by declaring episcopacy for ever abolished ahd
putting to sale the bishops' lands, and applying the produce
in part of payment of the immediate demand of the
Scotch; the rest being quickly raised by loan ira the city.
This money, amounting to 200,000Z., which was half of the
entire sum stipulated, was sent off from London on December
the 16th in thirty-six carts, escorted by Skippon with a body
of infantry. The train entered York on January the 1st,
and three weeks after, Ihe Scotch received their first payment
* Rushworth, vi. 291, et seq.

325
at North Allerton. In the treaty between the two kingdoms,
the name of Charles, from a sense of docorum, was studiously
omitted ; but that the delivery of his person to the English par
liament, — which the Scotch had at first made a show of re
fusing, on the ground of their equal national right and inter
est in him, — was a secret or tacit part of the bargain, was
sufficiently notified by a resolution of the two houses passed
on the last day of the year, that he should be conveyed to his
mansion of Holdenby or Holmby in Northamptonshire. The
independents desired that the royal prisoner should without
ceremony be handed over to Skippon by the Scotch at New
castle, together with the keys of the town and the receipt
for the money ; but the more respectful proposal of the pres
byterians prevailed, and a commission of three peers and six
of the commons, with a numerous train, was appointed to
take solemn charge of the fallen monarch.
Charles was playing at chess when news was brought him
of the vote for his removal. With the composure which on
the most trying occasions seldom forsook him, he finished his
game, contenting himself with observing that when the com
missioners arrived he would let them know his pleasure.
On learning however that the Scotch parliament had given
its formal consent to the delivery of his person, he could not
forbear exclaiming, " I am bought and sold !"
With this sense of his situation apparently came the persua
sion, that now at least the moment was arrived when his con
sort herself would no longer oppose his withdrawing himself
from the island.; and he entered into the project thus men
tioned in two separate articles of the "Perfect Diurnal," a
newspaper of the day. " Monday January 4th.
" Letters from Newcastle mention further what we gave you
in the end of the last week, that the king would have escaped
privately from Newcastle in the night-time disguised (some
say in the habit of a sailor), and that the suspicion was so
great, and the stir so great upon it, that they were all up in
the town in guards all night, and general Leven sent for his
life guard of horse to be nigh the town, and quartered them
in the way to Tynemouth. The king is much discontented at
the proceedings of the parliament of Scotland, and that they
should agree to deliver up his person to the parliament of
England." " By another letter from Newcastle the report of his ma-
Vol. II- 40

326
jesty's intention to escape is confirmed, — the arguments to
enforce belief, — that Paudon gate was endeavored to be
opened, and the sally-port adjoining, — that Mr. William Mur
ray was very late at court that night ; — coming down the
stairs at so unusual a time, though he gave the officer the
word, yet he stayed him in the guard three hours, until the
governor sent for him. The conceit is, his majesty would
have gone into the Holland man of war which lies still at
Shields." Well might it have been for the English nation, no less
than for the unfortunate prince himself, had he thus been per
mitted to steal into an exile whence it would scarcely have
been in his power seriously to have threatened the peace of
his country ! But the Scotch had not yet received the 'price
of all their services, and they were far too wary to suffer their
best pledge for payment to escape from their hands.
On the arrival of the English commissioners, the king, ei
ther from policy, or because the sight of faces, many of them
once familiar to his view, inspired him with somewhat of hope
or comfort, — received them not only with courtesy but cor
diality, jesting with his ancient lord chamberlain, the earl of
Pembroke, who appeared at their head, and telling him, " he
was glad to see he could so well in his old age perform so
long a winterly journey with those that were more youthful."*
The Scotch commissioners, and especially lord Lauderdale,
on quitting the king, made a last effort to prevail upon him to
sign the covenant, declaring that in case of his consenting,
instead of delivering his person up to the English, they would
carry him off to Berwick and obtain reasonable conditions for
him. They even promised a large sum to Montreuil, who
had always been their medium of communication with the
king, if he could only obtain his promise to that effect. f But
all was in vain.
The treatment of Charles at the hands of the English
commissioners was respectful and delicate. The day of de
parture was left to his own choice, and the journey, estimat
ed at " eight score miles," was performed by easy stages, with
pauses of some days at different towns on the road. " And
it is noteworthy," says Herbert, " that through most parts
where his majesty passed, some out of curiosity, but most, it
may be presumed, for love, flocked to behold him, and ac-
* Sir Thomas Herbert's Memoirs, p. 14.
\ Thurloe State Papers, i, 87.

327
companied him with their acclamations of joy, and with their
prayers for r(his preservation ; and that not any of the troop
ers who guarded the king gave those country people any
check or disturbance, as the king passed, that could be observ
ed. A civility his majesty was well pleased with. Being ar
rived at Holmby, very many country gentlemen, gentlewo
men, and others of ordinary rank, stood ready there to wel
come the king with joyful countenance and prayers."
The aspect and ceremonial of a court greeted him at the end
of his journey, which he reached on February the Iffth. The
proper officers were in attendance, and the tables as well fur
nished as in his state of peace and prosperity,— a striking con
trast to the abject poverty and want of almost common neces
saries which he had experienced during the wanderings of
his last campaign ! No chaplains however of his own church
were allowed him, and he preferred saying grace for him
self to accepting the service of the two presbyterian divines,
Marshal and Carryl, who attended the commissioners. On
Sundays he "sequestered himself to his private devotion, and
all other days in the week spent two or three hours in reading
and other pious exercises." At other times he would play
at chess for his recreation, and walk for his health ; and as
there was no fit bowling-green at Holmby, he would ride to
Althorpe, or even to Harrowden, a house of lord Vaux's at
the distance of nine miles, to indulge in his favorite exercise.
He was however closely watched, and his correspondences
vigilantly intercepted. After a short time, suspicions arose
which caused most of the servants of his own choice to be re
moved from him, and others substituted with the approbation
of the commission ; sir Thomas Herbert, the author of the
Memoirs, a relation of the earl of Pembroke, being one of the
new attendants. No open progress was made towards an ac
commodation, but many secret projects and tamperings were
now proceeding.
The period of the king's detention at Holmby was on« of
violent struggle between the presbyterians and independents.
The hope of procuring the king's restoration on tolerable terms,
seems to have acted as a motive with the newly elected
members — amongst whom were many concealed royalists,
and perhaps a still greater number of persons chiefly anxious
for a settlement of the country, — for now throwing their
weight into the weaker scale, that of the presbyterians, by
which it was rendered for the time prepoderant. It was the
object of this party, on the plea that the war was ended, and

328
the country weary of taxes and burdens, to procure the imme
diate, disbandment of the army, and by enlisting a great pro
portion of the regiments for the reconquest of Ireland under
presbyterian officers, to wrest from the hands of Cromwell
and Ireton a weapon which they dreaded to see turned against
themselves. The principle obstacle to this design was their want of suffi
cient funds or any obvious way of raising Ihem, for discharg
ing the twelvemonth's arrears due to the soldiers. With as
little policy as justice it was attempted to prevail on the troops
to separate or to enlist for the Irish service on the receipt of
only two months' pay in hand, with no valid security for the
discharge of the remainder. The soldiers remonstrated ; they
embodied their complaints and requisitions in a petition to
parliament, which Hollis, the leader of the presbyterian party,
surprised a thin house into voting mutinous. This step it was
found necessary to retract, and negotiations between parlia
mentary commissioners and deputies of the army followed.
The presbyterians projected to raise an army of their own
to compel the other to disband ; they likewise entertained a
design of sending Cromwell to the Tower, who was thus
driven in self-defence to concur in what he had at first re
sisted as mutiny, the self-organization of the army under
leaders from its own ranks called adjutators, or agitators,
through whom it capitulated with the parliament.
In this critical state of affairs, it became a point of impor
tance to the representives of the army, or their hidden prompt
ers, to deprive their antagonists of whatever advantage they
might derive from the possession of the king's person ; and
their measures were taken for the purpose with a skilful
audacity which was thought to betray the master hand of
Cromwell. The circumstances were the following.
Whilst the king on the afternoon of June the 2nd was bowl
ing on the green of Althorpe, two miles from his abode, it
begjm to be whispered among the commissioners that " a
party of horse obscurely commanded was marching towards
Holmby ; and for no good it was presumed," since neither
the commissioners, colonel Graves who kept guard at Holmby,
nor any of their attendants had received any notice of it.
Charles on hearing the circumstance returned home ; the
commissioners resolved to stand on their guard, and the sol
diers who attended them under the command of general
Browne, promised to stand by them and protect the king's
person. About midnight the party of horse arrived, drew up

329
in good order before, the house, and set guards at the avenuts,
and the commanding officer alighting demanded admission.
Being asked by Graves and Browne his name and business,
he announced himself as Joyce, a cornet in Whalley's regi
ment, come to speak with the king.
" From whom 1" he was asked. " From myself." They
laughed. " It is no laughing matter," said Joyce. The officers
advised him to draw off his men, and in the morning he should
speak with the commissioners. " I came not hither to be ad
vised by you," said he, " nor have I any business with the com
missioners ; my errand is to the king, and speak with him I
must and will presently." Browne and Graves commanded
their soldiers to stand to their arms ; but the men had already
come to an understanding with their old comrades, and, for
getful of their promise, opened the gates to them and bade
them welcome. Having placed guards on the commissioners'
chamber-doors, Joyce, with a cocked pistol in his hand, an
nouncing himselfos one authorized not by the commissioners,
but by those who " feared them not," demanded admittance to
the king in peremptory terms, which was as resolutely denied
by the four gentlemen of his bed-chamber ; and the king
himself, learning the cause of the altercation, refused to speak
with the cornet till morning, at which he chafed, but finally
submitted. On the morrow, early, his majesty sent for Joyce,
" who, with no less confidence than if he had been a supreme
officer, approached the king, and acquainted him with the
commands he had concerning his removal." Charles desired
that the commissioners might be sent for, and these orders
communicated to them. The cornet replied, that they were
to go back to the parliament. " By whose appointment V*
No answer. " By your favor, sir," said the king, " let them
have their liberty, and give me a sight of your instructions."
"That," said Joyce, " you shall see presently ;" and he went
and drew up his troops in the inner court close to the king,
who, taking a good survey of them, and finding them proper
men, and well mounted and armed, smiled, and told the cor
net his instructions were written in fair characters, legible
without spelling.
On being pressed by Joyce to accompany him, with assur
ances that " no prejudice was intended, but rather satisfac
tion," the king refused to move without the attendance of the
commissioners. The cornet replied, he was indifferent as to
that ; and the commissioners themselves, after vainly endeav
oring to collect from him what were his intentions, agreed,

330
though with anxious hearts and gloomy faces, to attend his
majesty at all adventures. " The king," adds Herbert, " was
the merriest of the company, having, it seems, a confidence
in the army, especially ,from some of the greatest there, as
was imagined." If therefore Charles thought proper to keep
up the appearance on this occasion of being forced away
against his will, it was probably for the purpose of exhibiting
himself as under duress, a situation which in his avowed
opinion was sufficient to invalidate any concessions he might
make, however solemnly, and with whatever apparent will
ingness. After resting one night at Hinchinbrook, where he was
" treated with honor and hearty welcome," Charles was
brought to Childersley, near Cambridge, whither, during his
three days' stay, came many gentlemen of the university to
kiss his hand. Thither also came the general and several of
the principal officers of the army. Fairfax, taking the king
aside, disavowed the enterprise of Joyce, and endeavored to
persuade him to return to Holmby ; but he replied, that only
force should urge him to it. In this interview the king said
to the general, " Sir, -I have as good interest in the army as
you." The next day, when Fairfax proposed to bring Joyce
to a court-martial, he found himself outvoted in the council
of officers. Newmarket was the next stage of the royal
captive, where he found his own hunting-seat fitted for his
reception ; and here he remained for some weeks, repeating
his messages to the two houses for a fresh treaty and his re
sort to the capital or its vicinity, and attended both by the
parliamentary commissioners and the principal commanders,
by whom he was treated with a deference which confirmed
him in his usual sanguine views of his own situation and pros
pects. His presence-chamber was constantly crowded with
persons of all degrees, men, women, and children, come to
see the king, and patients were brought to be touched by
him ; he dined in public, and on withdrawing never failed
to be saluted with loud acclamations.
The parliament voted that the king should be conducted to
Richmond ; but the chiefs of the army, which was at present
quartering near St. Albans and threatening the two houses
with a nearer advance to London, insisted that their prisoner
or hostage should attend their motions ; and he was carried
first to Royaston and Hatfield, and thence, on July the 1st,
on the removal of the army towards Reading, to his own

331
Windsor, and to Caversham ; afterwards on its taking. up 4ts
quarters at Bedford, he was received at Woburn Abbey.^_Lr^_
At the intercession of Fairfax, the parliament consehTecT
to indulge him with the sight of those of his children who
were then in their hands, and the dukes of York and Glou
cester and the princess Elizabeth were brought from Sion
House, where they resided under inspection of the earl of
Northumberland, to meet their father at Maidenhead, With
that sympathy for the domestic charities so remarkable in the
English character, a crowd collected to witness the in
terview, who strewed the path before the royal family with
flowers and branches ; and the guard themselves, both offi
cers and soldiers, touched with the scene, cheerfully'eonsent-
ed that he should take back the children to pass two days
with him at Caversham. Similar indulgences were repeated
ly granted to him in the sequel.
At Woburn, where several noblemen waited upon the king,
" some late commander" of his army was admitted to kiss
his hand and to discourse with him, which was novel, and
" held as an omen of future harmony," the parliament having
ordered, on his quitting Newcastle, that no one who had
borne arms in his cause should be admitted into his presence.
What perhaps consoled him still more, was that his request
for the attendance of some of his own chaplains, refused by
the parliament, was granted by his present captors ; and
Doctors Sheldon and Hammond obeyed with joy the sum
mons of their master. To Sheldon, whom he made use of
as a confessor, he soon after delivered in his own hand-writ
ing the following memorable engagement.
" I do hereby promise and solemnly vow, in the presence
and for the service of Almighty God, that if it shall please the
Divine Majesty, of his infinite goodness, to restore me to my
just kingly rights, and to reestablish me in my throne, I will
wholly give back to his church all those impropriations which
are now held by the crown ; and what lands soever I do now,
or should enjoy, which have been taken away either from any
episcopal see, or any cathedral or collegiate church, from
any abbey or other religious house. I likewise promise from
hereafter to hold them from the church, under such reasona
ble fines and rents as shall be set down by some conscientious
person, whom I propose to choose, with all uprightness of
heart, to direct me in this particular. And I most humbly be
seech God to accept of this my \ovr, and to bless me in the

332
design I have now in hand, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.* "Charles R."
About the middle of August the king was conducted to
Hampton-court. * This vow appeared at the Restoration, thus attested: "This is a true
copy of the king's vow, which was preserved thirteen years under ground by
me — Gilb. Sheldon."
" 16G0 Aug. 21." — Le Neve's Lives of the Archbishops, p. 178. Compare also
Pcrinchief 's Life of Charles I. prefixed to his Works, p. 60, where there appears
what seems an inaccurate version of the same story.

333

CHAPTER XXX.
1647—1643.
Situation of the king at Hampton-court. — Tlie army-proposals. —
Efforts of the presbyterians in his favor. — Secession of members
of both houses who join the army. — The king rejects with scorn
the army-proposals, — then temporizes and disclaims. — The army
enters London. — Intrigues. — The king rejects the propositions of
parliament.- — Position of Cromwell and Ireton. — I hey intercept
a letter of the king's and resolve on his destruction. — The king
placed under stricter restraint. — Origin and designs of the Le
vellers.— Of Cromwell. — The king withdraws from Hampton
court. — Particulars of his giving himself up to governor Ham
mond. — He enters Carisbrook castle. — Event of the rendez
vous at Ware. — Cromwell declines further intercourse with the
king, who determines to treat with the Scotch. — The king makes
proposals to the parliament. — Attempts an escape. — Four bills
¦offered for his assent. — He concludes a secret treaty with the
Scotch commissioners. — Returns an unsatisfactory answer to the
parliament. — Vote of no further addresses to him carried. — He
is placed in stricter custody. — Makes a vain attempt to get out of
the window. — The employment of his time. — Transactions in
Scotland. — Royalist insurrections. — The king again attempts
an escape. — Expedition and defeat of the Scotch. — Suppression
of the royalists. — Colchester surrendered. — Naval expedition of
theprinee of Wales. — Treaty of Newport. — Deceit fulness of the
king respecting Irish affairs. — Termination of the treaty. — The
king removed to Hurst castle.
THE situation of Charles at this juncture was ono to which
it would be difficult to find a parallel iu history. Defeated,
ruined, he yet appeared to hold in his hands the destinies of
his people, and, although a prisoner, to exercise with impu
nity the freedom of his will. Even the state of a monarch
was restored to him as soon as he again became the occupant
of a palace. " While the king remained at Hampton-court,
says the historian of the parliament, " he seemed to be not
at all a restrained man, but a prince living in the splendor of a
court • so freely were all sorts of people admitted to his pre
sence,' to kiss his hajids Ind do all obedience whatsoever.
Vol. II. 41

334
None were forbidden to wait upon him. Nor did the people
from London only and the adjacent towns resort to tbe~king,
but his servants also from beyond the seas ; — even those who
by order of parliament had been forbidden and voted delin
quents, such as Ashburnham, Berkeley, and the rest"; who
now, by permission of the army, had safe recourse to him.
But upon what reason or design this was granted, many won
dered."* The palace, as Herbert relates, had been prepared for his
receptioa by the yeomen of the wardrobe and other officers
with what was needful for the court. " And a court it now
appeared to be : for there was a revival of what lustre it had
formerly, his majesty then having the nobility about him, his
chaplains to perform their duty, the house amply furnished,
and his services in the accustomed form and state ; every one
of his servants permitted to attend in their respective places ;
nothing then appeared of discrimination."f " Intercourse,"
adds the same eye-witness, " was free between king and par
liament, and the army seemed to endeavor a right undei stand
ing between the different parties ;" the commissioners con
tinued their attendance on him ; the general and other mili
tary commanders were much at court, and had frequent con
ference with the king in the park and elsewhere ; " no offence
at any time passed amongst the soldiers of either party ; there
was an amnesty by consent, pleasing, as was thought, to all
patties." In the midst of this suspension of outward hostilities, every
sect and party was working openly or secretly towards the
attainment of its own peculiar ends. An agreement with the
king and his restoration on terms more or less favorable,
formed however the basis of all the projects which were as
yet avowed ; and to sanguine or to superficial observers it
must have appeared, that the long calamities of Charles and
of his people were drawing fast to a close.
But it was only necessary to bring to the test of actual ne
gotiation any one of the proposed arrangements, to prove that
in the relative strength or weakness, in the principles, the
prejudices, the passions or the interests of the proposed con
tracting parties, insuperable obstacles still subsisted to any
pacific arrangement.
From the moment of Charles's arrival in the quarters of
the army, secret overtures had passed between him and the
*May'.5 Breviale. 1*Herbevt's Memoirs, p. 48.

335
greater number of the military chiefs. Cromwell and Iretoa
in particular were profuse in declarations of attachment to
his person and interests, which at the same time they affirmed
to their republican friends to have no other purpose than to
divert him from closing with the propositions of their presbyte
rian opponents. They went so far as to open some corres
pondence with the emissaries of the queen, and to encourage
her to send over Berkeley, Legg, and soon after Ashburnham,
to assist the king in negotiation. During hie sojourn at Wo
burn Abbey, they submitted to him for his private considera
tion terms, called the army proposals, drawn by Ireton, sanc
tioned by the council of officers, and concurred in by the par
liamentary commissioners. These articles were more favora
ble to" Charles than the last parliamentary propositions in the
points in which they differed from them, of which incompa
rably the most important was a provision for speedily calling
a new parliament ; yet they were received by him with strong
marks of displeasure, and the remark " that if they had any
intention to come to an accommodation, they would not im
pose such terms upon him." Sir John Berkeley, the bearer
of the communication, sagaciously replied, " that he should
rather suspect they designed to abuse him if they de
manded less," and, " that a crown so near lost was never re
covered so easily as this would be, if things were adjusted up
on these terms." The king however remained unsatisfied,
resting his chief objections on three points : The exclusion of
seven persons from pardon. The incapacitating any of his
party from being elected members of the next ensuing parlia
ment. That nothing was mentioned concerning church go
vernment." - And he at length broke away from the discus
sion, exclaiming, " Well, I shall see them ere-long glad to
accept of more equal terms."*
lt appears that Charles distrusted the sincerity of the army
chiefs principally for the reason that they had refused to ac
cept of favors and honors, or rather the promise of these, at
his hands. Willing to try all parties, he now listened to an
application from lord Lauderdale, for his approbation of a
new covenant or engagement devised by the presbyterians,
by which the subscribers bound themselves to bring his ma
jesty to Westminster, for the purpose of confirming his Holm
by concessions and conferring with the parliament on the re
maining points of difference. By the citizens of London and
* Ludlow's Memoirs, p. 78.

3S6
their militia, who formed the strength of the party in England,
this bond was numerously signed. The two houses on the
other hand voted it an act of treason against the country;
when immediately their doors were besieged and their persons
insulted by a riotous crowd under the influence of the presby
terians and concealed royalists, eager to bring back the king on
any terms, or even without terms ; and a hasty vote sanctioning
his return was surprised from their fears. They consulted
their dignity, however, by an immediate adjournment ; and
eight peers and about a hundred commoners, with the speak
ers of both houses at their head, took the opportunity to with
draw from the capital, and ultimately put themselves under
the protection of the army.
In the mean time Ashburnham, having again gained access
to the king, easily persuaded him to follow his own bent, by
treating with scorn the agitators, and making new efforts to
gain by secret promises the council of officers ; and an inti
macy was established between Ashburnham and Whalley,
commander of the guard which was set over the, king, from
which resulted a close correspondence with Cromwell and Ire
ton, and daily messages between the king and head-quarters.
These intrigues, together with promises and professions from
other quarters, so elated the king, that on the proposals of
the army being now publicly offered to him, and his concur
rence respectfully desired, to the great astonishment not only
of Ireton, the bearer, but of his own followers, he " enter
tained them with very sharp and hitter language, saying, that
no man should suffer for his sake ; and that he repented him
of nothing so much as that he passed the bill against the earl
of Strafford,  and that he would have the church es
tablished according to law by the proposals. To which those
of the army replied, that it was not their work to do it, and
that they thought it sufficient for them to waive the point;
and they hoped for the king too, he having already consent
ed to the abolition of the episcopal government in Scotland.
The king said, that he hoped God had forgiven him that sin,
repeating frequently these or the like words: 'You cannot
be without me, you will fall to ruin if I do not sustain you.' "
Berkeley perceiving with alarm the impression made by these
strangely imprudent speeches on all present, stepped to the
king, and said in his ear, "Sir, you speak as if you had
some secret strength and power which I do not know of -
and since you have concealed it from me, I wish you had

337
done it from these men also."* Thus admonished, his maj
esty attempted to retract, but to late ; for colonel Rainsbor
ough, an avowed republican, had gone forth to report his
words and behavior to the troops. An exasperated party of
the soldiery, ascribing the impracticable humor of the king
to his secret tamperings with the Scotch, rushed immediately
to the chamber of Lauderdale, who was still at court, and,
in spite of his character of commissioner for Scotland, com
pelled him to rise instantly and hasten back to London with
out the parting interview with the king which he demanded.
Charles soon afterwards, alarmed at the preponderance of
the army, made a public and solemn disavowal of a declara
tion which had been obtained from him by Lauderdale and
the presbyterians, in which he had condemned all attempts at
making war upon the parliament ; — so little was he either
alive to the shame or aware of the danger of exhibiting him
self to all parties in turn as a man whom no declarations
could pledge, np promises could bind !
In London the presbyterians and their allies seemed to be
prepared for a courageous stand, and the royalists hoped at
length to see their enemies at open war between themselves.
The remnant of a house of commons which assembled at
Westminster, on learning the departure of their speaker pro
ceeded to a new choice, and took some steps in concurrence
with the commanders of the city militia for raising troops in
their own defence. But these warlike projects all died away
before the rapid advance of Fairfax. After a rendezvous of
the army on Hounslow Heath, the parliamentary seceders
made their appearance, and were received by the troops with
triumph. A council was held the same evening at Sion
House, in which Fairfax and his officers took their seats with
the members of both houses, and it became manifest from
the aspect of things and the intelligence brought, that the
city would capitulate.
Some amongst the officers immediately sent off an ex
press to Berkeley and Ashburnham, prompting them to urge
upon the king the importance of his now endeavoring to
soften the resentment of the army for his late rejection of
their proposals, by some kind letter written " before it were
known that London would submit." Such a letter they ac
cordingly prepared ; but Charles, still reluctant to Jose the
presbyterians, could by no means be induced to sign it till
* Berkeley's Narrative.

338
he had wasted a whole day in debates. During this interval
commissioners had arrived at Sion to treat ; and the king's
letter, when at length delivered, was found to have lost both
its grace and its efficacy.
The next day, August ihe 6th, Fairfax entered London,
aud the seceding members were reseated with a high hand.
Within the parliament house, however, the presbyterians
and their allies were still enabled to oppose a bold, and on
some points a successful opposition to the designs of the
army ; and the progress made towards a settlement of the
country and the liquidation of the arrears of the troops was
by no means such as to satisfy the claims and wishes of the
soldiery. The agitators and their constituents viewed with
jealousy and disgust the intrigues going on between the coun
cil of officers and the emissaries of the king ; and Crom
well himself fell intostrong suspicion with them. It was con
fidently reported, that he had been won over to the royal
side by the offer of the earldom of Essex, the garter, and
advantages to his family; and threats even of assassination
were thrown out against him. He persevered, however,
in giving the king private assurances of attachment to his
interests, and encouraged him to reject the propositions about
to be tendered by the parliament, relying on better terms
from the army. In conformity wifh this advice the king, on
the presentation of the propositions, waived them with a de
claration of his preference of the army's proposals, as a
basis of accommodation. This answer, after a violent strug
gle, was voted by the commons an absolute denial ; but it
was afterwards carried, that further application should never
theless be made to his majesty in such matters as should be
judged for the good and safety of the nation ; and some at
tempts, but in which the framers themselves seem not to
have desired success, were made to remodel the articles of
treaty. In the late debates~Cromwe!l had taken the part of the king
with a vehemence which aggravated all former jealousies, and
he found it necessary to desire Berkeley and Ashburnham to
cease their visits to his quarters, or it would be unsafe for him
to occupy them himself. At the same time he well knew
that he had no hold upon the king, that all parties in their
turns received from him assurances of his readiness to Close
with them, and that at this crisis each day brought forth its
project. The marquis of Ormond, after surrendering Dublin
to the parliament's forces to preserve it from the Irish insur-

;;.-¦ * 339
gents, had been permitted to come to London, had visited the
king, and was believed to be organizing a rising of Irish cath
olics in his favor. The lords Loudon, Lauderdale and La-
nerck-were again in close attendance on him, and undertook
for the levy of a Scotch ai my, which, on condition of his
signing the covenant, would restore him to his throne. Lord
Capel, had also arrived, and the king had expressed to this
devoted adherent his persuasion that a war would be speedily
rekindled between the two kingdoms, in which the English
presbyterians would join with the Scotch, and desired that the
English royalists might be moved to take up arms likewise,
with the view of securing his interests.
Charles, -in some conversation with Ireton, had used the
unwary and offensive expression, "I must be allowed to play •
my game ;" to which that sagacious politician had replied, " If
your majesty have a game to play, we must likewise play ours."
Thus all scruples had been, as if by agreement, mutually set
aside. To know the real intentions of the king respecting
themselves, should he by. their aid be restored to power, was
indispensable to the guidance of the army chiefs in the diffi
culties of their present position. They were informed hy one
of their spies, who was of the king's bedchamber, that a letter
from Charles to his consort, likely to contain this information,
was about to be dispatched from London for Dover sewed up
in the skirts of a saddle ; and without hesitation they laid a
plan for possessing themselves of the prize, which proved
successful. It appeared that this letter was in answer to one
in which Henrietta had reproached her husband with having
made " those villains" Cromwell and Ireton too great con
cessions ; in reference to which, he told her, " That she
should leave him to manage, who was better informed of all
circumstances than she could be ; but that she might be en
tirely easy on that head, as he should know in due time how
to deal with the rogues, who, instead of a silken garter should-
be fitted with a hempen cord."* He likewise expressed his
intention of closing with the Scotch rather than, the army.
From this time these associated leaders, who seem to have
previously judged it the best policy of their party to make
terms, temporarily at least, with the king, in order to avoid
being overpowered by the presbyterians of both countries,
made up their minds to proceed in consummating his ruin.
Steps were immediately taken to remind Charles of what he
* Richardsoniana, p. 132.

340
had almost been permitted to forget — that he was now no
longer a sovereign, but a captive. He had lately judged it
conducive to his interests, or his dignity, to reestablish a privy
council in attendance upon his person, and had summoned,
in consequence, the Duke of Richmond, and lords Hertford,
Ormond, Southampton and Dorset ; but the assumption gave
offence to Hie army, and in consequence of an intimation
from the parliament, ail these peers quitted the court almost
as soon as they had reached it. Soon after, Berkeley and Ash
burnham with others of his confidential attendants were remov
ed, his person was guarded by the soldiers with less of the
usual demonstrations of respect, and intimations began to
be given him by the Scotch commissioners of sinister inten
tions regarding him, which made it advisable that he should
consult his personal safety by flight. The guard over him
was likewise doubled by the superior officers, but professedly
rather for his protection than from jealousy of his escape.
Circumstances indeed had now arisen, and designs were be
coming manifest, well calculated to give effect to any warn
ings of this nature.
A new sect, partly religious, partly political, had arisen, and
made rapid progress-in the army, to which their enemies
gave the opprobrious, but formidable name of Levellers, arid
imputed the project of equalizing every kind of property. By
all but a few of the most violent fanatics amongst them this
design was disclaimed, but they avowed the intention of estab
lishing a perfect equality of civil rights amongst all freemen,
and they had delivered into the council of officers a plan
for settling the civil government in a biennial parliament elect
ed by universal suffrage, to the exclusion of the king and the
house of lords, and for leaving religion absolutely free, and
declaring all sects equal: The military commanders had
made some efforts to repress this revolutionary spirit ; formi
dable mutinies had been the result, and Fairfax had appointed
a rendezvous of several regiments at Ware, on November the
16th, from which decisive results were anticipated.
Cromwell who certainly proposed to preserve to himself that
control over the person of Charles which heexercised at Hamp
ton-court, through Whalley, appears now to have apprehend
ed his falling into the hands of an insubordinate and republican
soldiery whom he felt doubtful of again reducing under his
own control. Accordingly, the warnings allowed to reach
the royal captive from various quarters became more and
more urgent. His life was reported to be in danger ; the

341
agitators were reported to meditate a seizure of his person oh
the eve of the rendezvous ; and after some days of delibera
tion on November the 1 1th the king made his escape, or took
his departure, by night and in disguise from Hampton-court.
Me was accompanied by Legg, who was Mill allowed to at
tend in his bedchamber, and joined immediately after by
Berkeley and Ashburnham, who were still in the neighbor
hood, and with whom he had concerted his plan.
Charles left behind him on his table a letter for the parlia
mentary commissioners, in which, after pleading" the rigor and
increasing peril of his situation in justification of his escape,
he declares. that he is not the less anxious for a just peace, in
which his own interests and those of all the other parties
ought to be consulted, in order to make it solid. " Let me,"
he concludes, " be heard with freedom, honor and safety,
and I shall instantly break through this cloud of retirement,
and show myself ready to be Pater patriae."
From the two narratives of Berkeley and of Ashburnham,-
drscrepant as they are on cither points, it appears that ma
ny projects had been agitated by Charles before his depart
ure. He would have ventured himself in London, had the
Scotch commissioners consented to take upon themselves the
hazard of so bold a step ; he would have embarked for Jer
sey, or for some foreign kingdom, had not both Berkeley and
Ashburnham remonstrated against this decision, with argu
ments borrowed seemingly from Paris, — and had he not been
disappointed of a ship, which it appears that one or other of
these gentlemen had been charged by him to provide on some
part of the coast. That the course which he finally consent
ed to take was prompted, directly or indirectly,- by Cromwell,
seems nearly certain. Hammond, whom this leader had
very recently caused to be appointed governor of the Isle of
Wight, was a friend for whom he had previously procured an
advantageous marriage with a daughter of Hampden'.
Ashburnham mentions that he had himself held a conversa
tion with Hammond, as he was departing for his government,
from which he concluded him so much the king's friend as
induced him to suggest that he should be aisked whether he
would afford his majesty protection on this occasion ; — a
statement which throws on the relater some suspicion of a se
cret complicity against the liberty of his master. However
this might be, the king, after riding all night in the direction
of the Isle of Wight, came to the resolution of claiming &he\-
ter, with Legg for his attendant, at Titchfield, a house of the
Vol. II. 42

343
earl of Southampton's near the Hampshire coast, whilst
Berkeley and Ashburnham should proceed to Carisbrook
and sound the disposition of the governor ; and he supplied
them with copies of two letters, one from Cromwell, to show
that he had quitted Hampton-court in consequence of an
nouncements of danger to his life. Berkeley is accused by
his companion of rashly acquainting Hammond, at the very
opening of the conference, that the king was already in the
neighborhood, and, by that indiscretion, of placing him un
conditionally in effect in the hands of the governor. The dis
closure, however, was nearly inevitable. After a scene' in
which Hammond evinced much perturbation, as disliking and
fearing the consequences of the affair, and spoke in doubtful
phrases, the utmost that could be obtained from him was a
declaration, " That since it appeared his majesty came from
Hampton-court to save his life, if he pleased to put himself in
to his hands, whatever he could expect from a person of hon
or or honesty, his majesty should-have it made good by him."
On these terms Hammond, taking with him the governor of
Cowes castle and two servants, set out with the two messen
gers to attend the king. Ashburnham however got leave to
go on before, that his master might still have some choice
given him in the disposal of hfe. .person. " When," he says,
" I had made the whole relation toThe king, he was pleased
to say, with a very severe and reserved countenance, (the
first of that kind to me,) that notwithstanding that engage
ment, he verily believed the governor would make him a pri
soner. I presumed to tell him,  that I was sure his
instructions were fully obeyed, they being to try what condi
tions we could get for him ; but since what was done did not
please him, I was happy that I had provided an expedient ;
so that if he would say what other course he would steer, I
would take order that the governor should not interrupt him.
His majesty asked me how that could possibly be, since the
governor was come with us 1 I answered, that his coming
made any other way more practicable than if he had stayed
behind. He then told me that he had sent to Hampton for a
vessel to transport him into Fiance, and was in good hopes
to be supplied, and that he expected it every moment, but
very earnestly pressed to know how I would clear him of the
governor : I answered, that I was resolved and prepared to kill
him and the captain with my own hands. His majesty walking
some few turns in the room, and, as he was afterwards pleased
to tell me, weighing what 1 had proposed to him, and consider-

343
ing that if the ship should not come, it would not be many hours
before some in pursuance of him would seize him, the conse
quence whereof he very much apprehended, resolved he would
not have execution done upon the'governor, for he intended to
accept of what he had proffered, and go with him, and there
fore commanded he should be called up  When the
governor came into the king's presence, he declared the same
engagement, and much more to him than he had done to us,
which his majesty excepted, . desiring him to remember, that
he was to be judge of what was honorable and honest."*
These preliminaries being settled, the king embarked for
the Isle of Wight, and entered Carisbrook castle, where it is
acknowledged that " he had for a while all the satisfaction
from the governor which that place could afford."
The rendezvous at Ware, through the conciliatory elo
quence of Fairfax, and the promptitude and resolution of
Cromwell, who seized with his own hands the ringleaders of
a mutinous regiment, ended in the present restoration of the
authority of the officers over the privates and agitators. The
incidents of the day served, however, to impress upon Crom
well a conviction that nothing could ever reconcile the army
to the restoration, on any terms whatever, of the king whom
they had vanquished, and whom, exasperated by his perpet
ual intrigues and his late escape, they loaded with every epi
thet of contempt and abhorrence ; and he remained fully de
termined to incur no further personal risk by even a seeming
adherence to his interests. Accordingly, when Charles, de
siring to weave anew his broken web, sent Berkeley to head
quarters with letters for Fairfax, Cromwell, and Ireton, he
found himself very coldly received by the commander and
referred to the parliament ; and a general officer his friend,
meeting him by night, at the hazard as he assured him of his
life, if detected, informed him that the leaders had now taken
off the mask, and it was resolved to destroy the king and his
posterity ; that it was intended to send eight hundred of the
most disaffected of the soldiers to secure his person, and then
to bring him to trial ; " and," he added, " I dare think no
further. This will be done in ten days, and therefore if the
king can escape, let him do it, as he loves his life." Cromwell,
on Berkeley's sending him word that he had a letter and in
structions for him from the king, refused to see him, on ac-
* See Ashburnham's Narrative, fyc, published by the earl of Ashburnham,
London 1830 ; with Berkeley's Narrative in the Appendix

344
Count of the danger to both parties, bidding Berkeley be as*
sured that he would serve his majesty as long as he could do
il with out his own ruin, but that he must not be expected to
perish for his sake.*
Berkeley says that he concluded that the king, on receipt
fo this intelligence, would escape without delay, " the wind
serving, and the queen having sent a ship to that purpose,
and pressed it earnestly by her letters." But on his return
he found him still lingering, and he assigned as the reason,
" that he was to conclude with the Scots before he left the
kingdom, because from their desire t;o have him out of the
army's hands they would listen to reason ; whereas if he
wept away before, they would never treat with him but upon
their own terms." In the face therefore of these imminent
risks, he invited the Scotch commissioners to come and treat
With him in person, having previously tampered with them
through Gough, one of the queen's priests, to dispense with
their capital article,— rrhis accession to the covenant. As an
expedient to gain time, he likewise sent a fresh message to
the parliament, offering further concessions with respect to
the command of the militia and two or three other points.
Blit the evident indifference with which these overtures were
received having confirmed his former grounds of apprehen
sion, he was struck with the necessity of making an immedi
ate escape, and fixed upon Berwick as his place of retreat.
By the vigilance of Hammond the plan now laid for his eva
sion was disconcerted, and through this disappointment time
was given for him to receive a deputation from the English
parliament, with lord Denbigh at its head, bringing four bills,
to which both houses required his royal assent as the indis
pensable condition of his being admitted to a personal treaty.
By the first of these a perpetual control over the sea and
land forces was vested in the parliament; by the second,
all declarations and proceedings against the parliament dur
ing the war were made void ; by the third, all titles of ho
nor conferred since that date were annulled, and no new
peers were to sit in the house without consent of parliament ;
by the fourth, the houses were enabled to adjourn from
place to place at their pleasure.
The Scotch commissioners had exerted their utmost efforts
to impede these bills in their passage through the two houses ;
and on the day before the arrival of the English commission-
* Berkeley's Narrative.

345
era, they came to Carisbrook, by consent of the parliament,
having no other object, as they pretended, than that of mak
ing a formal protest against these bills in the king's presence.
But they were likewise the bearers of a secret treaty to
which he had promised to aecede, - By this treaty, Charles
agreed to confirm the covenant in parliament ; to establish
presbytery for three years, till the convocation of an assem
bly of divines ; to concur in the extirpation of sects ; and to
grant to the Scotch people a full participation in the commer
cial privileges of England, and such, a share of all offices and
honors in the gift of the crown, as to Englishmen must have
appeared utterly exorbitant. On the other part, fhe commis
sioners engaged that the Scotch should assert and restore the
king's authority by force of arms, assisted,-as it was under-
Stood, though not expressed, by the presbyterians and royal
ists of England, and by such a force as Ormond should be
able to raise in Ireland. In the course of a few hours all
was concluded, and the signature of Charles secretly affixed,
after which the instrument was buriedin a garden for safety,
till the departure of the commissioners.
This clandestine transaction was tainted by the usual bad
faith of the king ; and the commissioners Loudon, Lanerk
and Lauderdale, were content to be accomplices in the de
ceit. They demanded, and Charles granted, the stipulations
in favor of the theological articles, so dear to the Scottish
people that without security for them they could never have
been induced to take arms in his cause, on the express un
derstanding, that when once the royalists should be in the
field, the performance would and must be remitted to the
sole will and pleasure of his majesty.
The two sets of commissioners thus brought in contact
naturally viewed each other with jealous eyes. Ludlow re
lates that whilst they were all attending the king as he walk
ed about the castle, they observed him throw a bone before
two spaniels that followed him, and take great delight in see
ing them fight for it ; an action by which some of them
conceived that he designed to represent the bone of conten
tion that he had cast between them. The sport, however,
had its danger.
If was the intention of Charles to withdraw himself from
his prison on the very night after he should have delivered his
answer to the English commissioners ; and in the hope of dis
guising its tenor till his design had taken effect, he hit upon
the device of putting it sealed into their hands ; but on lord

346
Denbigh's refusal to receive it in this state, he consented to
its being broken open. It was a harsh and peremptory decla
ration that neither his present sufferings, nor the fear of worse,
should ever prevail with him to consent to the passing of any
bills before the whole terms of agreement should be settled.
The commissioners, on reading it, abruptly took their depar
ture, and hastened to inflame the parliament with their report.
No one could doubt that a secret agreement with the Scotch
had inspired the captive king with the boldness to reject pro
posals of which the commonwealth party had dreaded his ac
ceptance as the likely road to his ultimate restoration. No
one could dbubt that a second civil war was on the point of
breaking out. Cromwell and many other members now in
dulged in vehement invectives against Charles and against
royalty, and the independents were enabled to carry a resolu
tion that no more addresses should be made to him, nor any
applications from him received.
In the mean time the consequences of his conduct were
brought more personally home to the king by a marked
change in the behavior and the arrangements of Hammond,
and the consequent disappointment of his plan of escape. A
French ship was lying at Southampton ready to receive him,
the wind was fair, and he hoped that either on the very night
of the departure of the commissioners, or on the following
morning, he might accomplish his design, " But he met,"
says Berkeley, " with two great obstacles ; the wind in the
very instant became cross, and the governor returned from
Newport [whither he had attended the commissioners,] full
of fury, and locked up the gates, and doubled his guards, and
went not to bed that night. In the morning he commanded
all his majesty's servants from him."
The king on these proceedings sent for the governor, when
the following dialogue is said to have taken place. " King.
Why do you use me thus ? Where are your orders for it 1
Was it the Spirit that moved you to it 1 — Hammond, who had
no orders from the parliament, but likely some advice from
the commissioners, said nothing at first, but afterwards laid
it upon his majesty's answer. — King. Did you not engage
your honor you would take no advantage from thence against
me 1 — Hammond. I said nothing. — King. You are an equiv
ocating gentleman. Will you allow me any chaplain 1 You
pretend for liberty of conscience ; shall I have none? — Ham
mond. I cannot allow you any chaplain. — King. You ues me
neither like a gentleman nor a Christian. — Hammond, I'll

347
speak with you, when you are in better temper. — King I have
slept well to-night. — Ilammond. I have used you very civilly.
— King. Why do you not so now, then 1 — Hammond. Sir,
yon aie too high. — King. My shoemakei's fault, then ; my
shoes are of the same last, &c. (Twice or thrice to this pur
pose.) Shall I have liberty to take the air 1 — Hammond. No ;
I cannot grant it. — His majesty charges him with his allegi
ance ; told him be must answer this. Hammond cries."*
An effort at a rising in the king's favor was soon after made
in the Isle of Wight by one captain Burley, but so feebly sup
ported that Berkeley and Ashburnham affirm that they could
not venture fo give it their support. It is difficult however to
repress the surmise, that by sincere and vigorous efforts on
the part of the queen and those whom she employed, the king
might have been brought off. All the means that depended
on himself for this end he seems to have diligently employed.
Ashburnham relates, that on his expulsion with the other at
tendants from the castle, he was compelled to dismiss the
French ship ; but that he himself still remained on the Hamp
shire coast, corresponding with the king about his escape,
who he says desired him to wait for him every night by the
sea-side, till he should discharge him ; " for most assuredly
he would do his part, being confident of the assistance of one
about him, and having discovered upon trial that he could pass
his body between the bars of the window of his chamber, be
cause he found there was room enough for his head (the rule
being that where the head can pass, the body may) : butTnost
unhappily he mistook the way of measure ; for instead of put
ting forth his head sideways, he did it right forward ; by
which error, when all things were adjusted for his escape the
second time, .... he stuck fast in it, and, as he was pleased
to send me word, did strain so much in the attempt as he was
in great extremity, though with long and painful strugglings
he got back again, without any certain notice taken by any
man, but by him who waited to have served him when he
came down. There were some other endeavors used," he
adds, " but what effect they had I can give no account.— Mr.
Legg. Mr. Levett, and myself being, after near a quarter of
a year's attendance in the nights upon the sea-shore, ....
taken prisoners and carried to Arundel, Warwick, and Wal
ling ford castles."* * Clarendon State, Papers, ii. Append. x!iv.
f Ashburnham's Narrative.

348
Within ten days after Ashburnham had secreted the agree
ment signed by Charles with the Scotch commissioners, his
cabinet was brokun open by the governor, and search made
for that important document, and for the queen's correspond
ence ; but nothing was found. Herbert however, who was
still in attendance upon Lis majesty, far from charging Ham
mond with any unnecessary harshness towards him, mentions,
that after he was confined within the precincts of the castle
and works, the governor for his solace and recreation con
verted the barbican into "a bowling-green scarcely to be
equalled, and built at one side a pretty summer-house." The
king spent much of his time in reading in (he Scriptures and
books of divinity, adding for his recreation, Shakespear,
Fairfax's translation of Tasso, Harrington's Ariosto, fhe Fai
ry jQueen, and other poems. His tranquillity was sometimes
interrupted by divines of different, sects who desired to confer
with him or to offer their books for his perusal, but he dis
missed them with civil answers, and prudently avoided all
controversy. The Engagement, as the treaty came to be denominated
which the three Scottish noblemen had concluded with the
king, met at Edinburgh with powerful obstacles to its recep
tion. It was plain in the first place that the negotiators, in
their character of commissioners to the English parliament,
had no authority to conclude such an agreement. The roy
alists, by whom it was cordially embraced as a means of re
storing the king in effect without conditions, were a small and
feeble party ; and the moderate presbyterians, as they desired
to be called, of whom Hamilton was the leader, who were
willing to accept this compromise with the king, hoping to
gratify at once their intolerance and their ambition by sup
pressing the English sectaries and reinstating in authority
their English brethren, found themselves powerfully coun
teracted by the wild presbyterians, led by Argyle and War-
riston. The last party, though weaker than the adherents
of Hamilton in the parliament, was paramount in the church ;
and the clergy, secretly stimulated by the English independ
ents, began to fulminate against malignants and enemies of
the church, and to deprecate any association with them.
They complained of the king's concessions respecting re
ligion as insufficient and delusory, and prepared to give all
possible obstruction to the enlistment of troops. In the par
liament, on the contrary, it was carried that the seizure of
the royal person, the control exerted by the army over the

349
two houses, and the exclusion of the Scotch from all share in
their counsels, and from the presence of the king, were suf
ficient causes of war against England. A flattering picture
was drawn of the readiness of the whole of that nation, ex
cepting a few sectaries, to concur in the reinstatement of his
majesty, and, under the pretext of putting the country in a
state of defence, the levy of a large army was voted. The
clergy however, and the party of Argyle, persisted in their
opposition, and in consequence the preparations for war were
delayed till the favorable opportunity had escaped.
The English royalists, calculating on more timely aid from
the Scotch, during the spring and summer of 1648 broke into
several insurrections, which, although hasty and ill-combined,
were formed to excite strong alarm in their adversaries as in
dications of the popular feeling. So early as the beginning
of March, Poyer, a parliamentary officer, proclaimed the king
at Pembroke, of which he was governor ; he was joined by
Powel and Laugherne, two disbanded officers, and many of
their men ; the royalists took up arms, and the rising spread
so rapidly in North and South Wales, that Cromwell was at
length obliged to march for its suppression, and was detained
six weeks by the obstinate defence of Pembroke. The Lon
don apprentices came lo blows with the troops of Fairfax him
self, and in several important towns tumults raised in the
name of " God and the king," were with difficulty suppressed
by the constituted authorities. Six men-of-war in the river
resisted their officers, and sailed for the Hague to put them
selves under the command of the duke of York, who had
lately, by his father's direction, made his escape from St.
James's. The men of Kent rose in arms, but being engaged
by Fairfax in the streets of Maidstone were suppressed with
great bloodshed. Lord Goring, at the head of another body,
advanced to Blackheath and desired entrance into the City,
where he expected to be joined by a party ; but baffled by the
vigilance of Skippon, he threw himself into Colchester,
whither lord Capel and sir Charles Lucas also repaired with
some levies, and by an obstinate defence held the army of
Fairfax employed whilst the Scotch were upon their advance.
In many parts there was open reeruiting for the king ; and
Langdale seized Berwick, and Musgrave Carlisle, to assist the
entrance of the Scotch.
In the midst of these efforts of the cavaliers, Hammond, at
the end of May, announced to the parliament that the king
had nearly succeeded in making his escape. Lilly, who
Vol. II. 43

350
mingled in" many affairs besides astrological predictions',
supplies us with some rather curious particulars on this
subject. The project, he says, was, that the king, on lib
erating himself from his prison, should head the insurgents
in Kent, and thence march to London, where thousands
would have joined him. The lady Whorewood, who had be
fore, by the king's consent, consulted him where he might be
safely concealed when he withdrew from Hampton-court,
came to inform Lilly of this design likewise ; and he procured
for him a saw to divide iron bars, and some aquafortis. " His
majesty," he continues, " in a small time did his work ; the
bars gave liberty for him to go out ; he was out with his body
till he came to his breast ; but then, his heart failing, he pro
ceeded no further : when this was discovered, as soon after
it was, he was narrowly looked after, and no opportunity after
could be devised to enlarge him."
The astrologer goes on to mention, that on the ensuing
treaty of Newport, the same lady again applied to him " from
the king, or by his consent, to be directed," and that " after
perusal of his figure," he told her the commissioners would be
there by such a day, and elected a day and hour for receiving
them and their propositions.*
During this renewal of the war, and the march of troops to
different quarters for its suppression, by which London was
liberated from the immediate control of the army, Hollis and
his presbyterians resumed their ascendency in the house of
commons ; and the votes against further addresses to the
king were withdrawn. But even this party still retained its
jealousy of Charles, and required his assent to certain bills
resembling those last offered to him, as preliminaries to a
fresh treaty. The house of lords, on the other hand, believ
ing the interests of their order inseparably connected with the
restoration of regal power, contended for the admission of the
king to a personal treaty without previous stipulations ; and
in disputes on this point between the two houses, an impor
tant month, that of June 1648, was consumed.
Colchester, Pembroke, and Pontefract still held out, but
the English royalists had been suppressed in all other places,
when on July the 8th Hamilton crossed the borders at the
head of about fifteen thousand men. He was followed by
Monro with a separate body of three thousand staunch
presbyterians and experienced soldiers, drawn from the Scotch
* Lilly's Life and Times, p. 60 et seq.

351
garrisons in Ireland ; whilst sir MarmadukeLangdale march
ed independently at the head of four thousand zealous cava
liers ; a division which indicated to every eye the vanity of
this attempt to unite heart and hand, in one and the same en
terprise, the partizans of Charles and the liegemen of pres
bytery. The queen, with her incurable hostility to Hamilton,
had refused him supplies of money and ammunition from
the continent, and, what he earnestly desired, the presence of
the prince of Wales. Obstructed by the jealousies of all par
ties, afraid even to issue a declaration which must have com
mitted him with one or other, Hamilton, who was also defi
cient in real ability whether in politics or in war, occupied six
weeks in a march of about eighty miles to Preston in Lanca
shire. Here Cromwell, by a forced march from Pembroke,
came up with him, and on August the 18th gave him a total
defeat wi|h very inferior forces. The English cavaliers fought
with desperation ; the Scotch seem to have dispersed almost
without a blow. Monro's division only, and some stragglers,
regained tlieir native country ; the rest surrendered or fell
into the hands of the country people. Hamilton yielded him
self a prisoner at Uttoxeter ; the gallant sir Marmaduke Lang-
dale, after the disbanding of his followers, was taken in dis
guise at Nottingham.
The earl of Holland, who from some view doubtless of his
private interest had accepted a general's commission from
the king, had put himself at the head of five hundred horse,
and marching out of London to Kingston, invited the parlia
ment and City to join him in bringing about a settlement of
the nation. But being surprised, he fled in haste with a
handful of followers to St. Neots, where he was compelled
to surrender. The parliament at the beginning of these at
tempts to renew the civil war, had denounced the punishment
of traitors against all who should take part in them, and un
der that ordinance both the subtle Hamilton and the unprin
cipled Holland lost their heads soon after the condemnation
and death of the king.
On the news of the defeat and dispersion of the Scotch,
the gallant defenders of Colchester, now reduced to extremity,
offered to surrender. They were answered, that quarter would
be given to the private soldiers, but that the officers, being
proclaimed traitors, must yield at discretion. They did so ;
and two victims, sir George Lisle and sir Charles Lucas, both
brave men and eminent commanders, were selected from the
whole number by the council of war. They met death with

352
heroism, and the reputation of Fairfax suffered by this act of
rigor. The queen had destined the ships which had come over, to
be commanded by Jermyn, under the name of the duke of
York ; but the prince of Wales, instigated by some who en
tertained a profoundi jealousy of this favorite, who was noto
riously an instrument of the French court, disconcerted the
project, by embarking in person with prince Rupert and oth
ers of his council, to take the command, and sending back
his brother to the Hague.* For six weeks afterwards he
continued in the Downs, awaiting the success of the Scotch
expedition, and carrying on negotiations, or intrigues, with the
London citizens and the parliament. There can be no doubt
that with such a fleet, to which the parliament had not imme
diately any force to oppose, nothing would have been easier
than to have proceeded off the Isle of Wight and liberated the
king; but " it cannot be imagined," says Clarendon, "how
wonderfully fearful some persons in France were that he
should have made his escape, and the dread they had of his
coming thither." The attempt therefore was not made ; and
even after the unfortunate captive had expressly urged it by
a private message, the sailors were allowed to carry their point
of steering in another direction to offer battle to the main fleet
under Warwick. This commander ho.wever, — the brother of
Holland, and in the secret, as it was believed, of his engage
ments, — contrived to avoid a collision till want of provisions
compelled the prince to return to the coast of Holland, which
he did at the end of the month of August, without even an
ostensible effort at the rescue of his father from present cap
tivity and the obvious hazard of worse to follow.
By this time the two houses of parliament, pressed by the
impending return of the army and its leaders in triumph, had
made up their' own difference, and according to the proposals
of the peers, the king was liberated on his parole from Caris-
brook, and lodged, — together with his servants, chaplains, sev
eral bishops, and certain of his councillors whose attendance
was permitted, — in the neighboring town of Newport, in or
der to entering upon a free treaty with commissioners from
the parliament. This deputation, consisting of five lords and
ten commoners, arrived on September the 1st, and the nego
tiations commenced.
Terms more favorable than those which, before the unsuc-
+ Hist. RebeUion, vi, p. 33. et seq.

353
cessful issue of the late attempt for his restoration by force of
arms, Charles had rejected, could not now be looked for.
The commissioners were bound to make no abatement on
any point from the articles proposed to him at Hampton
court. Still the king was neither to be entreated nor warned
from his fixed habit of debating the ground inch by inch.
In place of the articles to which he objected, he proposed
others ; and to these, when rejected on a reference to the par
liament, he still substituted new expedients, or fresh modifica
tions. On four articles he continued inflexible ; he would on
ly suspend for three years, not abolish, the episcopal function,
— he would not consent to sell, but only to lease for a term
of years the bishops' lands, — he insisted that none of his ad
herents should be excepted from composition, — and until, as
he said, his conscience was satisfied, he would neither take the
covenant himself nor impose it on others.
These objections on the part of Charles bear so much the
aspect of genuine scruples of honor and conscience, that in
contemplating the defective judgment of a prince who could
have imagined concessions like these too great to be made to
his own safety and a nation's peace, every other sentiment
would be swallowed up in pity, did we not discern through
the whole, evidences of his usual disingenuousness and double
dealing. On October the 24th, after giving his assent to the proposi
tion vesting in parliament the military power, he wrote thus to
sir William Hopkins, a gentleman in the Isle of Wight with
whom he carried on a correspondence respecting the means
of his deliverance : " To deal freely with you, the great con
cession I made this day was merely in order to my escape, of
which if I had not hope, I would not have done it. For then
I could have returned to my strait prison without reluctancy ;
but now I confess it would break my heart, having done that
which only an escape can justify."*
He had also agreed to an act declaring void the cessation and
all other articles or treaties of peace concluded with the Irish
insurgents without the consent of the two houses ; but his
hopes being revived by the defection of lord Inchiquin from
the parliament, at whose instance Ormond had gone
from France to resume the office of lord-lieutenant, he on the
next day, October the 10th, addressed a private letter to the
latter nobleman with the following directions : First, to obey
* Wagstafi's Vindication, Append, p. 161.

35.4
all the queen's commands, — then, not to obey any public
command of his own, until he should send him word that
he was free from restraint, — lastly, not to be startled at his
great concessions concerning Ireland, "for they will come
to nothing." In a subsequent letter, written in confirmation
of the first, there was this passage : "  And though
you will hear, that this treaty is near, or at least most likely
to be concluded, yet believe it not ; but pursue the way you
are in with all possible vigor. Deliver also that my command
to all your friends, but not in a public way, because otherwise
it may- be inconvenient to me, and particularly to Inchiquin."
These letters were unknown to the English parliament ; but
having discovered from one of Ormond's that he had arriv
ed in Ireland with powers to treat with the insurgents, the
commissioners, on November the 1st, desired his majesty's
public declaration against any such power, and against the
proceedings of lord Ormond in Ireland. To this Charles re
turned for answer, that he had not transacted any affairs
concerning Ireland, excepting with the commissioners them
selves, " since the first votes passed for the treaty :" (August
the 3rd). After some evasions he however consented at
length to write a public letter to Ormond, requiring him to
desist, on account of his present hopes of " a blessed peace,"
from any further prosecution of those proceedings of which
the parliament had complained. But the marquis, in pursu
ance of his private directions, went on notwithstanding to com
plete a treaty by which all that they had demanded was
conceded to the Roman catholics in Ireland.*
A letter from Hammond to the parliament, dated Novem
ber the 7th, contains the following characteristic trait of the
king. " I having had intimation of a question or doubt,
whether, guards being kept on the king, his parole were not
thereby made void, asked him before the commissioners if he
made any such question. He, seeming somewhat surprised,
desired time to consider, professing not to have thought of it
before. But I, perceiving the danger of such a reserve,
pressed him with great earnestness, telling him that other
wise his parole signified nothing ; and desired his positive
answer. His majesty avoided it four or five times. At
length, upon my more importunity, he concluded himself
to be obliged by his parole, if the sentinels were taken away ;
which I then promised him before the commissioners should
* Birch's Inquiry, p. 263. et seq.

355
be done. And accordingly it was observed."* After ihip,
however, Charles refused the most urgent entreaties of some
about him to concur in a plan of escape which they repre
sented as practicable and safe.
It was with dismay, added to grief, that the parliament re
ceived from the king an answer which they were compelled to
vote unsatisfactory. Both houses were fully aware that no
thing but a conjunction with him could enable them to re
sist the urgency of the army, who, elated with victory, loudly
claimed what they regarded as its most precious fruits : — The
establishment of a government essentially, if not professedly,
republican : — The abolition of tithes and episcopacy, with the
recognition of entire liberty of conscience and of the equality
of all Christian sects : — and, lastly, the execution of "justice"
upon "the capital and grand author of all the troubles and
woes which the kingdom had endured." As a last hope, suc
cessive resolutions were passed, by which twenty days were
added to the forty to which the treaty was originally limited ;
its duration prolonged to November the 27th.
All the strongest motives for compliance with the terms pro
posed to him, which hope or fear could afford, — the menaces
of foes, the entreaties of friends, the representations of the
parliament, who clearly perceived that without entire conces
sion on his part it would exceed their utmost power to save him,
— were now arrayed against the constitutional obstinacy and
cherished prejudices of Charles. So urged, so warned, so
entreated, — at the last day, the last hour, allowed for deliber
ation, — he almost yielded. He consented to refer compo
sitions to be paid by his adherents to the mercy of parlia
ment, and to suffer seven of them to be brought to trial, — but
on the express condition that they should be allowed the benefit
of the ancient laws. Bishops' functions he would suspend, and
vest their lands in the crown till religion should be settled by
the joint consent of king and parliament ; but not abolish the
order, or confiscate its property in perpetuity. Whether an un
reserved assent to all that was required of him would now
have preserved the king from destruction, is more than doubt
ful ; — this modified surrender was quite in vain ; whilst the re
luctance, the compunction, with which he submitted to it are
proved by some striking anecdotes. " About the latter
end of the treaty," relates Warwick, who was in attendance on
him, " finding it was like to be ineffectual, ' I wish,' says he,
f Journal of Lords, Nov. 16th,

350
' I had consulted nobody but my own self; for then, where
in honor or conscience I could not have complied, I could have
early been positive : for with Job I would willinglier have chos
en misery than sin.' " Another time, discoursing with the same
person on the negotiations then in progress, he said, "That
he should be like a captain that had defended a place well,
and his superiors not being able to relieve him, he had leave
to surrender it ; but he replied, ' though they cannot relieve me
in the time I demand it, let ihem relieve me when they
can ; else I will hold it out till I make some stone in this
building uy tombstone.' And so will I do," says he, "by
the church of England."*
Hammond, evidently a man of honor, disappointed his
patrons by an unexpected refusal lo concur in a design
which was now intimated to him on the part of the council of
officers, of removing the king from the Isle of Wight. He had
been entrusted by the parliament, he said, with the custody
of the royal person, and held himself bound in honor to be
faithful to that trust. To solve the difficulty, a letter was ad
dressed to him by Fairfax, requiring his immediate attendance
at head-quarters, in consequence of which he quitted Caris-
brook on November the 27th. The commissioners departed
on the following day, and the king with well-grounded alarm
found himself transferred to the safe-keeping of colonel Ewer,
a zealous republican, deputed to the command of the Isle of
Wight in the absence of the governor.
Three days after arrived at Newport a party of horse head
ed by a lieutenant-colonel Cobbet, who entering the king's
presence with abruptness, acquainted him that he had orders
to remove him from Newport. Charles, with some emotion,
demanded to what place he was to be carried 1 Cobbet would
only answer, that it was out of the island ; he likewise refus
ed, but with civility, the king's demand to see his orders.
The noblemen, bishops, and household officers who were still
in attendance on their master, witnessed the incident with dis
may ; and their parting with him when he had entered his
coach, attended only by Herbert and two more gentlemen,
and the few servants whom he had been permitted to select,
was a scene of heartfelt grief. " No remedy appearing," says
Herbert, they " approached to kiss the king's hand, and to
pour forth their supplications to Almighty God to safeguard
and comfort his majesty in that his disconsolate condition.
* Warwick's Memoirs, pp. 326, 327.

357
His majesty who at other times was cheerful in parting from
his friends, showed sorrow in his heart by the sadness of his
countenance." He was conveyed to Hurst castle, a solitary fortress,
strongly situated on a neck of land which juts out from the
Hampshire coast towards the Isle of Wight, and well adapted
to baffle all attempts for his liberation. By the testimony of
Herbert, the captain, though a person of stern exterior, was
full of civility to his majesty, both in language and behavior,
and courteous to his attendants on ali occasions ; " nor," he
adds, " was his disposition rugged toward such as in loyalty
and love came to see the king, and to pray for him ; as sundry
out of Hampshire did, and the neighboring counties."

Vox,. II. 44

358

CHAPTER XXXI.
1648—1649.
Struggle of "parties.— *-Vote carried by ihe presbyterians \hat the
king's concessions are a ground oj treaty.--— Resolution qf the
army. — Return qf Cromwell from Scotland^^Expulsion of
members from the house of commons. — Removal of the. king from
Hurst. — Colonel Harrison and the king. — Plan for Kis escape
from Bagshot, which fails. — He arrives at Windsdr. — Ceremo
nies to him ordered to be discontinued. — -A committee appointed
to draw up a charge against him, and an ordinance for Ms trial.
— It is rejected by the lords. — Sanguine views taken by the king
of his situation. — The commons resolve to proceed in the trial
without the lords. — Constitution of the high court of justice. —
Account of the king's trial. — Sentence pronounced against him.
— Remarks on'his refusal to plead.— ^Indifference of foreign
princes to his fate. — -Steps taken by the prince. — Letter of the
queen. — Behavior of the king. — His parting with his children.
— Particulars of his last hours. — His speech on the scaffold. —
Death anS funeral. — Concluding remarks. — Icon Basilike.
WHILST Charles was thus immured and safely guarded, a
crisis of the most fearful nature, decisive of his and the na
tion's fate, was agitating the metropolis. Immediately on the
return of the commissioners from Newport, they were sum
moned to report fo both houses the state of the negotiations ;
and after a most obstinate debate, which lasted through the
night, Hollis and his party carried it by a majority of a hun
dred and twenty-nine voices to eighty-three, that the king's
answers to the propositions were a ground for them to pro
ceed upon in settling the peace of the country. The next
step, according to the previous agreement, should have been
to recal his majesty in all freedom and honor to his capital,
and to have permitted likewise the entrance of all the cava
liers without distinction. After this, which the royalists
would 'naturally have regarded as an absolute victory, it could
not possibly be doubted that Chailes would have revoked all
his concessions, that his followers would have proceeded to
take the sanguinary vengeance which they already threatened,

359
and that the most frightful scenes of confusion and anarchy
must have ensued ; in which the presbyterians themselves
would not have been the last to suffer. The victorious army
which daily poured its bands into the capital from every side,
was resolute not to permit this mischief to the cause and to
themselves, — this triumph to their vanquished enemies.
Cromwell had by this time returned from Edinburgh,
whither he had led his hardy veterans after the rout of Ham
ilton and of the cavaliers, and where his presence had given
an irresistible superiority to the party of Argyle — the com
monwealth's men, or the independents, as they might almost
be called, of Scotland. On his arrival, Fairfax and the other
members of the council of officers seem to have dismissed all
scruples ; the agitators and private soldiers required, in their
exasperation against their ancient masters the presbyterians,
the bridle rather than the spur, and measuies were quickly
taken. .
On the morning, of December the 6th, two regiments
were set as a guard upon the parliament house, and soldiers
were introduced into the lobby itself of the house of com
mons. Colonel Pride stood at the door with a list in his hand,
and, assisted by lord Grey of Groby, arrested forty-one mem
bers as-they attempted to enter. But a spirit superior to inti
midation survived in the remainder of the house, where the
presbyterians still predominated ; and a committee was im
mediately deputed to require of Fairfax the restitution of the
intercepted members. He replied, that the demands of the
army must first be complied with, — demands which went to
the absolute exclusion of 'their opponents from parliament.
Force was again applied, many more members were exclud
ed, others withdrew.
The house adjourned on the 12th of the month, and never
reassembled but under the absolute control of the army, and
in that mutilated form which obtained for it the opprobrious
designation of the Rump, and in which it had certainly no
claim to be respected as the representative of the English
people. Cromwell now assumed a kind of dictatorship ; he
had matured his own plan for what was called the settle
ment of the nation, had secured to himself the requisite co-
operators, and was little disposed to trust the fickleness of
fortune with needless delays.
It was about a fortnight after his removal to Hurst castle \
that the quick ear of the royal captive was startled, at ;
dead of night, with the rattle of the descending drawbridge

360
and the tramp of entering horsemen, followed by deep si
lence. Before dawn, he summoned Herbert to his bedside,
and bade him " learn the matter," who brought him news.
that he was told colonel Harrison was arrived, and that his
errand would soon be known; but that he had been warned
to ask no further for the present. The king, in manifest
trepidation, bade Herbert wait in the next room, and went
himself to, hds, devotions,, which he prolonged for nearly an
hour ; then, calling in his attendant, told him with emotion
that Harrison was the person of whom he had been warn
ed by letter during the treaty of Newport as designing to
assassinate him; that complaint of the matter had been
made to the commissioners, but he knew not what answer
/the accused had given to the charge. " I trust," he added,
" in God who is my helper, but I would not be surprised ;
1 this is a place fit for such a purpose. I trust to your care,
go again and make further inquiry." Herbert returned the
second time with news that the business of Harrison was to,
remove him to Windsor castle within three days at the
furthest. The king received this announcement as a re
prieve. The dreaded officer still kept himself out of his sight.
On the morrow Colonel Cobbet, who then guarded him,
informed his majesty that he had orders for his immediate re
moval, and with great alacrity he "bade solitary Hurst
adieu." A party of horse guarded his march to the entrance of
Farnham, where another troop of cavalry appeared, drawn-
».p- in good order, past which the king rode, as it was destin
ed to bring up tbe rear. " In the head of it was the captain
gallantly mounted and armed ; a velvet montier was on hia
head, a new buff coat upon his back, and a crimson silk
scarf about his waist richly fringed ; who as the king passed
by with an easy pace, as delighted to see men well horsed and
armed, — gave the king a bow with his head all a-soldade,
which his majesty requited." Learning that this was Harrison
himself, the king fixed upon him a gaze so steady as to abash
Mm, and then observed to Herbert that he looked like a sol
dier, and that his aspect was so good, that having some judg
ment in faces, he should not have harbored that ill opinion of
him, if he had observed him so well before. The same even
ing, having reached the house which was to lodge him for the
night, the king beckoned Harrison to, approach, « which he
did," says Herbert, " with due reverence," and taking hin*
by the arm, drew him aside to a window* where they discourse

361
ed together for half an hour or more, and the king reminded
him of the information which he had received respecting his
design of assassinating him ; to which Harrison replied, —
" That what was so reported of him was not true ; what he
had said, he might repeat ; — ' That the law was equally oblig
ing to great and small, and that justice had no respect to
persons ;'---or words to that purpose; — which his majesty,"
adds Herbert, — " finding affectedly spoken, and to no good
end, he left off further^communicalion with him, and went to
supper, being all the time very pleasant." It is evident that
the idea that his subjects would dare to bring him to any form
of public trial had as yet found no entrance into the imagina
tion of Charles; secret murder was the only violence he ap
prehended. The king expressed a wish to visit his little park of Bagshot
on his way, and to dine at the lodge, occupied by lord New-
burgh, and his wife, that lady Aubigny, who had acted so
conspicuous a part in the plot of Waller and Tompkins.
The real motive of this desire, was a plan of escape concerted
for him by this noble pair, with whom he had found means to
keep up an uninterrupted correspondence. On pretence of
the lameness of his own horse, he was to be mounted at his
departure on one of unrivalled swiftness, belonging to his
lordship, when distancing his escort, through the bye tracts of
the forest, which he knew so well, he was to convey himself
to a place where the first of a line of relays awaited him.
But accident, conspiring with the unremitting vigilance of
Harrison, disconcerted this last attempt of loyal attachment
for his preservation.
By easy journeys Charles reached Windsor on December
the 23rd. Four days after, the council of war, which had
assumed the direction of all matters relative to the captive
prince, gave orders, " that nothing be done upon the knee,
and that all ceremonies of state to the king be left off."* The
governor of the castle treated him nevertheless with great ci
vility ; nor did the soldiers there, by the testimony of Her
bert, give offence in language or behavior either to himself
or to any who served him.
Meantime the army were urging on the parliamentary pro
ceedings with indefatigable and unhesitating zeal. On the day
of his arrival at Windsor, the house of commons appointed a
Committee of thirty-eight " to consider of drawing up a
* Rushworth, vol. vii. p. 1376,

362
charge against the king, and all other delinquents that may
be thought fit to bring to. condign punishment." By this body
an ordinance was prepared for attainting his majesty of high-
treason and -trying him by commissioners,, which passed the
house on January the 1st. The charge against him was in
substance thus: " That Charles Si uarf hath acted contrary
to his trust, in departing from his parliament, setting up his
standard, and making a war against them, and thereby been
the occasion of much blood-shed and misery to the people
whom he was set over for good : That he gave commis
sions to Irish rebels, and since was the occasion of a sec
ond war, besides what he has done contrary to the liberties of
the subject, and tending to the destruction of the fundamen
tal laws and liberties of this kingdom."*
In the ordinance for erecting a high court of justice for his
trial by a hundred and fifty commissioners "therein named, or
any twenty of them, the same offences were imputed to him,
but at greater length and with more asperity of language.
A resolution likewise passed, That by the fundamental laws
of England, it is treason for the king to levy war against the
parliament and kingdom; — and with this accompaniment
the ordinance was sentto the lords for their concurrence.
Twelve peers assembled on this momentous occasion, —
seven being the greatest number that had yet appeared, since
the violence put upon the house of commons ; and by this
courageous remnant of an -upper house, the ordinance was re
jected without a division ; after which they adjourned for a
week. The earl of Leicester writes in bis Journal, that on
the same day, January the 2nd, came the following report'
from Windsor : " That the king seems to be as merry as
usual, and saith that lie fears none ; he makes the business
talked on, for questioning him, a jest ; and he saith that he
hath yet three games to play, the least of- which gives him
hope of regaining all. Those that will, (and accordingly
some do,) serve the king on their knees .... Sir John Tem
ple," adds this nobleman, " in a letter of the third of January,
writes ; 'They go on resolvedly to bring the king to justice ;
the ordinance is now passed, the commissioners named ; and
though the lords refuse to join, yet without question they will
go on, and have made sure of twenty persons who are to be
of the quorum, that will proceed to the trial though all the
rest give out. The king yet takes no notice that I can hear
* Rushworth, vii. p. 1376,

363
of their proceedings, gave orders \ ery lately for sowingthe
seed of some Spanish" melons which he would have sdt at
Wimbledon. He hath a strange conceit of my lord Ormond's
working for him in Ireland ; he hangs still upon that twig,
and by the inquiries he made after his and Inchiquin's con
junction, I see he will not be beaten off.' "*
How soon this infatuation on the part of Charles yielded to
the stern evidence of facts, we do not learn ; — in the proceed
ings of his adversaries there was neither retractation nor
pause. On January the 4th, " observed" as-being the anni
versary of the king's attempted seizure of the five members
in the house of commons, that assembly caused the ordinance
for the trial of " Charles Stuart", to be reported with some
amendments ; and then, " in respect the house of lords had
rejected it," turned the house into a grand committee, to con
sider of their own power. They finally passed the resolutions,
—That the people, tinder God, are the original of all just
power ; — That the commons house, being chosen by, and rep
resenting the people, have the supreme authority of the na
tion ; — also, " That whatsoever is enacted and declared law
by the commons of England assembled in parliament, hath
the force of law, and all the people of this nation are. conclud
ed thereby, although the consent and concurrence of the
king and house, of peers be not had thereunto, "f
• The next step was, to cause proclamation to be made by a
herald in Westminster Hall and in several parts of London,
for all persons who. had any charge- to make against the king,
to bring it in. These and other preliminaries being settled,
on January the 19th Charles was brought from Windsor to
St. James's, where he lodged that night ; and on the follow
ing morning, after a meeting of the commissioners in the
Painted Chamber, the trial commenced in Westminster Hall.
In the appointment of the court hy whom this unprecedent
ed cause was to be tried, pains had been taken by the council
of officers who had seized the helm of state, to render it as
much as possible a representation of the different ranks and
classes of society concerned in the decision. Besides all the
leading members of parliament of the independent party, the
lord-general Fairfax, lieutenant-general Cromwell, major-
general Skippon, commissary-general Ireton, and all the col
onels of the army, the original list comprised the two chief
* Sidney Papers, by Blencowe, p. 47.
| Rushworth, vii. p. 1383.

364
justices and the chief baron, six peers, several barristers, five
aldermen of London, and many baronets and knights, repre
senting the country party or landed interest. As was to be
expected, many of these persons, from various motives and
considerations, public or private, prudential or conscientious)
declined to take any share in the proceedings. The names
of the six peers and the three judges were omitted after the
:' house of lords had refused its concurrence in the ordinance.
Sir Henry Vane, St. John, and Algernon Sidney, who wished
'.for the deposition of the king and the establishment of a
^commonwealth, but were averse to depriving him of life, ab
sented themselves, or refused to be nominated. The num
ber of commissioners finally appointed was a hundred and
thirty-five, but of these less than eighty consented to take
their seats. Serjeant Bradshaw, an able and accomplished
lawyer, of courageous character and firm deportment, acted
as president, with two lawyers, Lisle and Say, for his asses
sors. The court being assembled, the king was brought in a se
dan chair to the bar, where a velvet chair was set for
him. " After a stern looking upon the court, and the peo
ple in the galleries on each side of him, he places himself,
not at all moving his hat, or otherwise showing the least re
spect to the court ; but presently rises up again and turns
about, looking downwards upon the guards placed on the left
side, and on the multitude of spectators on the right. After
silence proclaimed, the ordinance for the king's trial was read,
and the list of the commissioners ; and nearly eighty answer
ed to their names. The king being again seated, the lord-pre-
^sident rose and said : " Charles Stuart king of England : The
, commons of England, being deeply sensible of the calamities
i that have been brought upon this nation, which are fixed up-
: on you as the principal author of them, have resolved to make
inquisition for blood ; and according to that debt and duty
they owe to justice, to God, the kingdom and themselves, they
have resolved to bring you to trial and judgment, and for that
purpose have constituted this high court of justice before which
you are brought."
This said, Mr. Cook, attorney for the commonwealth, of
fered to speak ; but the king having a staff in his hand, held
it up, and laid it upon the said Mr. Cook's shoulder two or
three times, bidding him " Hold !" Nevertheless the lord-pre
sident ordering him to go on, he said, " My lord, I am come to
charge Charles Stuart king of England, iu the name of the

365
commons of England, with treason and high misdemean
ors ; I desire the said charge may be read." The lord-pre
sident having ordered the clerk to read it accordingly, the
king said, " Hold" But ordered by the president, the clerk be
gan to read, and the prisoner sat down again, "looking'some-
times on the high court, sometimes up to the galleries ; and
having risen again and turned about to behold the guards and
spectators, sat down again, looking very sternly, and with a\
countenance not at all moved till these words, viz. ' Charles j
Stuart to be a tyrant and traitor, &c.' were read ; at which j
he laughed as he sat, in the face of the the court."
The charge read, the lord-president acquainted the king
that the court expected his answer. The king required' to
know by what authority he was called hither. " I was late
ly," he said, " in the Isle of Wight, where I treated with a
number of honorable lords and gentlemen, and treated hon
orably and uprightly ; I cannot say but they did very no
bly with me ; we were upon a conclusion of a treaty. Now
I would know by what authority, — I mean lawful, (there are
many unlawful authorities in the world, thieves and robbers
by the highways,) but I would know by what authority I
was brought thence and carried from place to place, and I
know not what ; and when I know what lawful authority,
I shall answer. Remember, I am your king, your lawful
king, and what sins you bring upon your heads, and the judg
ment of God upon this land : Think well upon it, I say,
think well upon it, before you go further from one sin to a
greater ; therefore let me know by what lawful authority I
am seated here, and I shall not be unwilling to answer.
In the mean time I shall not betray my trust ; I have a
trust committed to me by God, by old and lawful descent ; I
will not betray it, to answer a new unlawful authority ; there
fore resolve me that, and you shall hear more of me." The
lord-president replied, that he was required in the name of the
people of England, of whom he was "elected king," to an
swer them. — King. "No, sir, I deny that ; England was
never an elective kingdom, but an hereditary kingdom for
near these thousand years ; therefore let me know by
what authority I am called hither. I do stand more for
the liberty of my people than any here that come to be my
pretended judges." — President. " Sir, how really you have
managed your trust is well known. Your way of answer is
to interrogate the court, which beseems you not in this con
dition. You have been told of it twice or thrice."
The king persisting in the same strain, and threatening
Vol. II. 45

866
the court with the divine vengeance for exercising an usurped
authority, was told by the president that he had " propound
ed a question and been answered ;" seeing he would not an
swer, the court would consider how to proceed ; they were
satisfied with their own authority, which was " God's and
the kingdom's ;" and after a little more altercation, they
adjourned. It is mentioned as ominous, that as the charge
was reading against the king, the head of his staff fell off,
which he wondered at ; and seeing none to take it up, stoop
ed for it himself. " As the king went away, facing the court,
ihe said, 'I do not fear that,' (meaning the sword.) The
[people in the hall as he went down cried out, some God save
tthe king, and most for Justice."
! On Monday, January the 22nd, the court resumed. There
was a shout raised on the king's entrance, and the court order
ed such as made a disturbance to be taken into custody. The
solicitor-general moved, that the prisoner should now be
directed to make a positive answer to the charge ; which if
he should refuse, the matter should be taken pro confesso.
The president then recalled to the king the former proceedings,
repeated, that the court was satisfied with its own authority,
which it did " avow to the whole world," and that now without
loss of time, he must answer. The king returning to his
former denials of the competency of the court, was interrupt-
j ed ; but again he said, " Sir, by your favor, I do not know the
' forms of law ; I do know law and reason, though I am not a
lawyer professed ; but I know as much of law as any gentleman
!in England, and, under favor, I plead for the liberties of the peo-
jple of England more than you do, — as thus informed I cannot
yield to it." The president pleaded the vote of the house of
commons as the sense of the kingdom, and told the king that his
contempt, if persisted in, would be recorded. " I do not know,"
he answered, " how a king can be a delinquent," and added,
that all men might put in demurrers. The president, replied,
that demurrers to the jurisdiction of the court would not be
allowed, or would be overruled ; the court sat by authority
of the commons of England, "and all your predecessors
and you are responsible to them." — King. " I deny that ; show
me one precedent." The lord-president admonished him not
to interrupt, while the court was speaking to him ; he would
not be allowed ; his demurrer was overruled ; they affirmed
their own jurisdiction. — King. " I say, sir, by your favor, that
the commons of England was never a court of judicature : I
would know how they came to be so." He was not permitted

367
to proceed ; and being again admonished to answer, and per
sisting that he would first know their authority, the president
ordered him to be taken back again. — King. "I do require that
I may give in my reasons why I do not answer, and give me
time for that." — President. " Sir, 'tis not for prisoners to re
quire.". — King. " Prisoners ! sir, I am not an ordinary prison
er." — President. "The court hath considered of their jurisdic
tion, and they have already affirmed their jurisdiction. If you
will not answer, we shall give order to record your default." —
King. " you never heard my reason yet." — President. " Sir,
your reasons are not to be heard against the highest jurisdic
tion." — King. "Show me that jurisdiction where reason is not
to be heard." — President. " Sir, we show it you here, the com
mons of England ; and the riext time you are brought you
will know more of the pleasure of the court, and, it may be,
their final determination." — King. " Show me where ever the
house of commons was a court of judicature of that kind." —
President. " Serjeant, take away the prisoner." — King. " Well,
sir, remember that the king is not suffered to give in his reason
for the liberty and freedom of all his subjects." — President.
" Sir, you are not to have a liberty to use this long. How
great a friend you have been to the laws and liberties of the
people, let all England and the world judge." — King. " Sir,
under favor, it was for the liberty, freedom and laws of the
subject, that ever I took — defended myself with, arms ; I never
took up arms against the people, but for the laws." — Presi
dent. " The commands of the court must be obeyed. No an
swer will be given to the charge." — King. " Well, sir !"
He was guarded back to sir Robert Cotton's house.
On the next day, the king being again brought up, the at
torney-general craved judgment upon him as contumacious,
saying, that the innocent blood shed cried for justice.
The king being required to answer, repeated his objections
to the authority of the court. For the charge, he said, he
valued it " not a rush ;" it was the liberty of the people he
stood for ; — he would not violate the trust they said was
reposed in him, by owning a new court of judicature ; but for
this, he would not object to giving satisfaction to the people
of England of the clearness of his proceeding. — President.
" Sir, this is the third time that you have publicly disowned
this court and put an affront upon it : how far you have pre
served the privileges of the people, your actions have spoke
it ; but truly, sir, men's intentions ought to be known by
their actions ; 'you have written your meaning in bloody char-

368
actera throughout the whole kingdom ; — but, sir^ you under
stand the pleasure of the court. Clerk, record the default ;
and you, that took charge of the prisoner, take him back
again." — King. " 1 will only say this one word more to you ;
if it were only my own particular, I would not say any more
to interrupt you." — President. " Sir, you have heard the plea
sure of the court, and you are (notwithstanding you will not
understand it,) to find that you are before a court of justice."
The court then adjourned to the next day, the 24th, and af
terwards to the 27th, during which interval the commission
ers sat in the Painted Chamber examining witnesses to the
facts of the king's setting up his standard at Nottingham, and
appearing in armor at the head of his troops in various pla
ces ; — -proofs with which they judged it necessary to be pre
pared, in case he should at length be induced to plead to the
charge. On the 27th the trial was resumed, when, the court being
called, sixty-eight members besides the president answered to
j their names. " As the king comes in, a cry made in the hall
for execution, justice, execution." The king pressing repeat
edly to be heard, was told that he must first hear the court ;
and the president, in a prepared speech, set forth the conduct
of the king in contumaciously refusing to answer to his charge
and denying the jurisdiction of the court, and when overruled
in that, still refusing " to submit or answer ;" wherefore the
court, that they might not be Wanting in the trust reposed in
them, "nor that any man's wilfulness prevent justice," had
taken into consideration the contumacy, and " the confession
that in law doth arise upon that contumacy ;" also the noto
riety of the facts charged upon the prisoner, — and on the
whole had considered and agreed upon a sentence. But, as
he desired to be first heard, the court did consent to hear him,
warning him before of " that he had been minded of at other
courts," that he would not be heard against their jurisdiction.
" You have offered it," added the president, " formerly, and
you have indeed struck at the root, that is, the power and the
supreme authority of the commons of. England, which this
court will not admit a debate of, and which indeed is an irra
tional thing for them to do, being a court that acts upon au
thority derived from them, that they should presume to judge
upon their superior, from whom there is no appeal." If the
king had any thing to say in defence of himself in respect of
the matter charged, it was announced that the court would
hear him,

369
Charles said, in answer, that if he had not thought more
of the peace of the kingdom and the liberty of the subject
than his own life, he should have made a defence, by which
he might at least have delayed " an ugly sentence," now, he
believed, ready to pass upon him ; that now, as " a hasty
sentence once passed may sooner be repented than recalled,"
he desired that before the sentence he might be heard in the
Painted Chamber before the two houses of parliament. The
delay could not hurt, and " therefore," he said, " I do conjure
you, as you love that you pretend, I hope it is real, the liber
ty of the subject and the peace of the kingdom," to take it in
to consideration. The president answered, that this was in
effect but a further declining of the jurisdiction of the court,
which he had been limited in before. This the king endeav
ored to deny. " Sir," said the president, " you say you do
not decline the jurisdiction of the court 1" " Not," warily
replied the king, " in this that I have said."
The president rejoined, that it was in fact a motion both for
delay and for a coordinate jurisdiction, which this court, now
prepared to give sentence, was not obliged to grant ; yet the
commissioners would retire for half an hour to consider of it.
It was, however, a request which evidently'could not safely
be conceded by a court erected by an ordinance of the house
of commons not only without the concurrence, but in defi
ance of the dissent of the house of lords ; and on the return.
of the commissioners the prisoner was informed that his pro
position was inadmissible ; that he had too long delayed
the court by his contempt and default, and they were unani
mously resolved to proceed " to punishment and to judg
ment." The king persisted for some time in reiterating his propo
sition, but was at length put to silence. The president then
addressed him in a speech designed to prove to him his own
guilt, and the rightfulness and justice of the sentence. He
told the king that it plainly appeared he had held very erro
neous principles; "for, sir, you have held yourself, and
let fall such language, as if yo'u had been nowise subject
to the law, or that the law had not been your superior.
Sir, the court is very well sensible of it, and I hope so are all
the understanding people of England, that the law is your
superior, that you ought to have ruled according to the law.
... I know very well your pretence hath been that you have
done so : but, sir, the difference hath been, who shall be the
expositors of this law ? whether you and your party out of

370
the courts of justice shall take upon them to expound law,
or the courts of justice, who are the expounders ; — nay, the
sovereign and high court of justice, the parliament of Eng
land, that are not only the highest expounders, but the sole
makers of the law. Sir, for you to set your single judgment
and those that adhere unto you, against the high court of jus
tice, that is not law. As the law is your superior, so truly, sir,
there is something that is superior to the law, that is indeed
fhe parent or authority of the law, and that is, the people of
England. For as they are those that at the first did choose to
themselves this form of government, even for justice' sake, that
justice might be administered, that peace might be preserved ;
so, sir, they gave laws to their governors according to whicii
they should govern ; and if these laws should have proved in
convenient, or prejudicial to the public, they had a power in
them, and reserved to themselves to alter them as they shall
see cause  The end of having kings or any other form of
government, is for the enjoyment of justice. Now, sir, if so
be that the king will go contrary to the end of his govern
ment, he must understand that he is but an officer in trust,
and he ought to discharge that trust, and they are to take
order for the animadversion and punishment of such an of
fending governor. This is not law of yesterday, sir, since
the time of the division betwixt you and your people, but it is
law of old. And we know very well the authorities that do
tell us what the law was in that point upon the election of
kings, upon the oath that they took unto their people. And
if they did not observe, it, there were those things called par
liaments ; the parliaments were they that were to adjudge
(the very words of the authority,) the plaints and wrongs
done of the king and the queen, or their children; such
wrongs especially when the people could have nowhere else
any remedy. That hath been the people of England's case ;
they could not have their remedy anywhere but in parlia
ment. " Sir, I speak these things the rather to you, because you
were pleased to let fall the other day, that you thought you
had as much law as most gentlemen in England. It is very
well, sir, and truly it is very fit for the gentlemen of England
to understand that law under which they must be governed.
And then the Scripture says, ' They that know their mas
ter's will and do it not' — What follows 1 The law is your mas
ter, and the acts of parliament." After some remarks on
the dignity and antiquity of parliaments, and reproaches

371
against the king on account of his plots for " crushing and
confounding" that great bulwark of the people's liberties,
which God had been pleased to confound, and to bring him
into custody " that he might be responsible to justice," the
president adverted to another topic. " Sir, we know very
well, that it is a question much on your side pressed, by what
precedent we shall proceed. Truly, sir, for precedents, I
shall not upon this occasion institute any long discourse ; but
it is no new thing to cite precedents of almost all nations
where the people, when power hath been in their hands,
have made bold to call their kings to account, and where
the change of government hath been upon occasion of the ty
ranny and misgovernment of those that have been placed
over them." And he proceeded slightly to recall many ex
amples, several foreign, a considerable number Scottish, some
English. Having then asserted the existence of a contract,
or bargain, between king and people, and mutual obligations,
he thus proceeded to comment upon the delinquencies,
of the king. " Sir , that we are now upon, by the com
mand of the highest court, hath been and is, to try and judge
you for these great offences of yours. Sir, the charge hath
called you tyrant, traitor, a murderer and a public enemy to
the commonwealth of England. Sir, it had been well if
any of these terms might rightly and justly have been spar
ed ; if any one of them at all." The king uttered an inter
jection of surprise and indignation. The president then af
firmed him a tyrant from the arbitrary government he had
sought to establish ; a traitor, as guilty of breach of trust to
wards his superior, the kingdom. "And therefore, sir," he
added, " for this breach of trust when you are called to ac
count, you are called to account by your superiors." — A
murderer, because all the bloody murders acted or committed
in the late wars were to be laid to his charge. After which
he thus wound up the whole proceeding : " Sir, all that I
shall say before the reading of your sentence, it is but this :
The court does heartily desire you will seriously think of those
evils that you stand guilty of. Sir, you said to us the other
day, you wished us to have God before our eyes : truly, sir, I
hope all of us have so ; that God that we know is a king
of kings and lord of lords, — that God with whom there is ao
respect of persons,-^-that God that is the avenger of innocent
blood. We have that God before us that does bestow a curse
upon them that withhold their hands from shedding of blood ;
which is in the case of guilty malefactors, and that do deserve

372
death : That God we have before our eyes. And, were it not
that the consequence of our duty hoth called us to this place
and this employment, sir, you should have had no appearance
of a court here ; but, sir, we must prefer the discharge of
our duty unto God and unto the kingdom before any other
respect whatsoever ; and although at this time many of us,
if not all of us, are severely threatened by some of your par
ty what they intend to do, we do here declare that we shall
not' decline or forbear the doing of our duty in the administra
tion of justice even to you, according to the merit of your
offence, although God should permit these men to effect all
that bloody design in hand against us." He concluded by
urging the example of David's repentance on the king's imi
tation. King. " I would desire only one word before you give sen
tence ; and that is, that you would hear me concerning these
great imputations that you have laid to my charge." — Presi
dent. " Sir, you must give me now leave to go on, for I am
not far from your sentence, and your time is past." Again
the king pressed to speak, but was again reminded that he
had not owned the court, and " too much liberty and delay
had been given him already," and a fresh exhortation to re
pentance was bestowed upon him. The sentence was now
read, and the president affirmed it for "the sentence, judg
ment, and resolution of the whole court," all the members of
which stood up as assenting to it. — King. " Will you hear me
a word, sir 1" — President. " Sir, you are not to be heard after
the sentence. No, by your favor, sir. Guard, withdraw
your prisonor." The king again attempted to speak, but be
ing again interrupted, said, " / am not suffered for to speak ;
expect what justice other people will have." The court dis
persed. Thus concluded the most memorable, and in all its circum
stances the most unprecedented, judicial proceeding on rec
ord. It is exceedingly remarkable that no legal advisers
were assigned to the king by the court, and that he made no
application for such assistance either before or during the tri
al. We may perhaps infer, that his resolution was fixed
from the. beginning to make no acknowledgment of the au
thority of a court so irregularly constituted in every possible
respect, and consequently no defence. By this determination
he consulted the interest of his reputation for dignity and con
sistency, and certainly without sacrificing any chance* of ac
quittal. In the preliminary admission that the source of all

373
power is in the people, and the kingly office a trust of which
they are entitled to require an account, he would have pro
nounced his own sentence of condemnation ; for the facts
charged were of such a nature as to admit oF no aenial. In —
his appeal to the two houses alone there was some compro
mise of his great principle of irresponsibility. It has been
supposed that it was his intention to have abdicated before
them in favor of his son ; but as he failed to take any other
means of making known that purpose, it is probable that the
conjecture is erroneous $ and that the design of his appeal was
no other than to improve to his advantage the dissension al
ready subsisting between the lords and that packed assembly
which called itself the house of commons. Delay might still
have afforded scope to some efforts in his favor, — so at least
his strange faculty of hoping what he desired may have per
suaded him. Yet from what quarter should they arise 1 No
domestic party, it was plain, could attempt his release from
the iron grasp of armed force which held him; and with respect
to foreign aid, it was now his turn to repeat with Strafford in
despair, " Put not your trust in princes ! " The potentates of
Europe, even those most nearly connected by blood or al
liance, viewed his fate with silent apathy. No ambassador
from any power or state was sent to intercede in his behalf,
excepting one from the United Provinces, commissioned by
desire of the prince of Wales, who was not heard till the day
before the execution of the king's sentence, when he proved
himself but a " cold solicitor."
The prince performed the idle ceremony of sending to the
parliament a signed carte blanche as ransom for his father's
life. Henrietta had previously caused a letter to be deliver
ed by the French ambassader to the Speaker, in which she
desired that the house of commons would grant her a pass to
come to England that she might use her influence with the
king to grant all that they desired, or that at least she might
attend upon him in his extremity. But the house would not
suffer the letter to be read. .
Now first perceiving his death to be inevitable and imminent,
Charles commenced his preparations for the event with digni
ty and composure. Having obtained the attendance of bish
op Juxon, he passed the greater part of his last days in the i of
fices of devotion. He declined the offered visit of his nephew
the elector Palatine ; but requested that his two chddren re
maining in England, the princess Elizabeth, then in her thir
teenth year, and the duke of Gloucester, in his ninth,
Vol. II. 46

374
might be brought to take a last farewell of their father. The
sorrowful parting, and especially the bitter tears and lamenta-
tions c£theyouug priiKiesa.Jiioj?ed_'ilhose_tg pity that former
ly were hard-hearted."* Together with his prayers and bles
sings, the father distributed to them a few jewels, — all the
wealth that was now left him so bestow upon his children.
On the last night, colonel Hacker, who commanded the
guard, " would have placed two musqueteers in the king's
bedchamber, which his majesty being acquainted with, he
made no reply, only gave a sigh ; " but by the entreaties of
bishop Juxon and of Herbert he was induced to reverse this
unfeeling order.
Charles had lodged at St. James's for two or three nights,
whilst the scaffold was preparing in front of Whitehall. On
the fatal morning, about ten o'clock, the king was conducted
through the garden of the palace and the park to the spot. In
the park several companies of foot soldiers were drawn up, with
drums beating and colors flying, who formed a line for the king
to pass, and his immediate guard of halberdiers attended him,
with some of his own gentlemen before,and some behind, walk
ing bare-headed. Juxon went on the right hand of the king,
and colonel Tomlinson, to whose custody he was now confi
ded, on the left, the king conversing with him as they went.
On arriving at Whitehall, his majesty passed along the galle
ries to his own'bedchamber, where after a little repose the bish
op went to prayer ; and this being concluded, the king par
took of a little bread and wine. Soon after, Hacker came to
the chamber door and gave his last signal ; on which the bishop
and Herbert weeping, fell on their knees, and the king gave
them his hand to kiss. He was conducted with the same at
tendance as before, through the galleries into the banquet
ing house, and thence, by a passage broken in the wall, upon
the scaffold. As he passed along, with a cheerful countenance,
many, both men and women, crowded in to gaze upon him,
and he could hear them praying for him, " the soldiers not re
buking any of them ; by their silence and dejected faces seem
ing afflicted rather than insulting." Having first looked earnest
ly upon the block, and asked if there were no higher one, the
king prepared to speak, addressing himself chiefly to colonel
Tomlinson, who stood by his side, aware, as he said, that he
should " be heard of few." His speech was an attempted
vindication of his political conduct, in which he thought prop-
* Herbert.

375
er to call to witness that God before whom he must shortly
appear, that he " did never intend to encroach upon the privi
leges" of the two-houses of parliament, but that they " began
upon" him by laying claim to the militia. He also said, that
an unjust sentence which he had suffered to take effect, was
now punished by an unjust sentence upon himself. He assert
ed that he was as much a friend to the liberty and freedom of
the people as any one, but that these consisted in having
government, and those laws by which their lives and goods
might be most their own. To have a share in the govern
ment was " nothing pertaining to them, a subject and a sov
ereign being clean different things." At the suggestion of
the bishop, he made a declaration of his adherence to the
Church of England as it had been left to him by his father ;
and thus concluded : " I have a good cause, I have a gra
cious God, and I will say no more."
He then laid down his head upon the block, and after a
few moments spent in prayer, he gave the signal by stretch
ing forth his hands, and it was severed at a single blow. At
that awful moment, all other sentiments were lost in grief and
horror, and " a dismal universal groan" burst forth from the
congregated thousands.
The body was immediately placed in a coffin, and after em
balming was removed from Whitehall to St. James's, where
it lay for several days exposed to public view. An order was
then granted to Mr. Herbert by a committee of parliament for
its interment in St. George's chapel Windsor ; and on the
following day, February the 7th, the ceremony was private
ly but decently performed with the attendance of a few gen
tlemen and servants of the royal household, joined in the
chapel by the duke of Richmond, the marquis of Hertford,
and the earls of Southampton and Lindsey. Bishop Juxon
stood with the Common Prayer-book in his hand, prepared
to have read the burial service, but the governor of Windsor
castle interposed to forbid the employment of that proscribed
' On the day after the king's death, the Commonwealth
was proclaimed, and the prince of Wales declared a traitor.
To present a summary of the character of Charles I. at the
conclusion of an extensive work chiefly dedicated to the re
lation of his words and actions, might be thought to argue
a distrust of the reader's discernment. To pronounce any
solid judgment, whether moral or political, respecting the
sentence executed upon him, would require a discussion of

376
the alternatives which offered themselves to the choice of the
party leaders of the time, of the aspects of affairs in their
eyes, of their motives and ulterior designs, foreign from the
the character of this work, and to which the writer feels her
self in many ways unequal.
One topic however remains, on which the biographer of
Charles appears called upon to declare an opinion, — the
authenticity of the work entitled Icon Basilike, published in
the name of the king immediately after his death. On a pa
tient examination of the evidence adduced on both sides, she
has no hesitation in stating her entire conviction that Dr.
Ganden was, as he affirmed himself to be, the real author of
that book, for which he was rewarded by Charles II. with a
bishopric ; and the composition of which Clarendon, with
every facility for ascertaining the truth, has carefully abstained
from claiming for the king, whose character it was the ex
press purpose of his History to vindicate and to exalt.

THE END.