CHARLES I
{1645.} While the king's affairs declined in England, some events
happened in Scotland which seemed to promise him a more prosperous issue
of the quarrel.
Before the commencement of these civil disorders, the earl of Montrose,
a young nobleman of a distinguished family, returning from his travels,
had been introduced to the king, and had made an offer of his services;
but by the insinuations of the marquis, afterwards duke of Hamilton, who
possessed much of Charles's confidence, he had not been received with
that distinction to which he thought himself justly entitled.[*]
* Nalson, Intr p. 63.
Disgusted with this treatment, he had forwarded all the violence of the
Covenanters; and, agreeably to the natural ardor of his genius, he had
employed himself, during the first Scottish insurrection, with great
zeal, as well as success, in levying and conducting their armies. Being
commissioned by the "Tables," to wait upon the king while the royal army
lay at Berwick, he was so gained by the civilities and caresses of that
monarch, that he thenceforth devoted himself entirely, though secretly,
to his service, and entered into a close correspondence with him. In the
second insurrection, a great military command was intrusted to him by
the Covenanters; and he was the first that passed the Tweed, at the head
of their troops, in the invasion of England. He found means, however,
soon after to convey a letter to the king; and by the infidelity of some
about that prince,--Hamilton as was suspected,--a copy of this letter
was sent to Leven, the Scottish general. Being accused of treachery, and
a correspondence with the enemy, Montrose openly avowed the letter, and
asked the generals if they dared to call their sovereign an enemy;
and by this bold and magnanimous behavior he escaped the danger of an
immediate prosecution. As he was now fully known to be of the royal
party, he no longer concealed his principles; and he endeavored to draw
those who had entertained like sentiments into a bond of association for
his master's service. Though thrown into prison for this enterprise,[*]
and detained some time, he was not discouraged; but still continued,
by his countenance and protection, to infuse spirit into the distressed
royalists. Among other persons of distinction who united themselves to
him was Lord Napier of Merchiston, son of the famous inventor of the
logarithms, the person to whom the title of a "great man" is more justly
due, than to any other whom his country ever produced. There was in
Scotland another party, who, professing equal attachment to the king's
service, pretended only to differ with Montrose about the means of
attaining the same end; and of that party Duke Hamilton was the leader.
This nobleman had cause to be extremely devoted to the king, not only by
reason of the connection of blood which united him to the royal family,
but on account of the great confidence and favor with which he had ever
been honored by his master. Being accused by Lord Rae, not without some
appearance of probability, of a conspiracy against the king, Charles was
so far from harboring suspicion against him, that, the very first time
Hamilton came to court, he received him into his bed-chamber, and passed
alone the night with him.[**] But such was the duke's unhappy fate or
conduct, that he escaped not the imputation of treachery to his friend
and sovereign; and though he at last sacrificed his life in the king's
service, his integrity and sincerity have not been thought by historians
entirely free from blemish. Perhaps (and this is the more probable
opinion) the subtleties and refinements of his conduct, and his
temporizing maxims, though accompanied with good intentions, have been
the chief cause of a suspicion which has never yet been either fully
proved or refuted.
* It is not improper to take notice of a mistake committed
by Clarendon, much to the disadvantage of this gallant
nobleman; that he offered the king, when his majesty was in
Scotland, to assassinate Argyle. All the time the king was
in Scotland, Montrose was confined in prison. Rush. vol. vi.
p. 980.
** Nalson, vol ii. p. 683.
As much as the bold and vivid spirit of Montrose prompted him to
enterprising measures, as much was the cautious temper of Hamilton
inclined to such as were moderate and dilatory. While the former
foretold that the Scottish Covenanters were secretly forming a union
with the English parliament, and inculcated the necessity of preventing
them by some vigorous undertaking, the latter still insisted, that every
such attempt would precipitate them into measures to which otherwise
they were not perhaps inclined. After the Scottish convention was
summoned without the king's authority, the former exclaimed, that their
intentions were now visible, and that if some unexpected blow were not
struck to dissipate them, they would arm the whole nation against the
king; the latter maintained the possibility of outvoting the disaffected
party, and securing by peaceful means the allegiance of the kingdom.[*]
Unhappily for the royal cause, Hamilton's representations met with
more credit from the king and queen than those of Montrose; and the
Covenanters were allowed, without interruption, to proceed in all their
hostile measures. Montrose then hastened to Oxford where his invectives
against Hamilton's treachery, concurring with the general prepossession,
and supported by the unfortunate event of his counsels, were entertained
with universal probation. Influenced by the clamor of his party, more
than his own suspicions, Charles, as soon as Hamilton appeared, sent him
prisoner to Pendennis Castle, in Cornwall. His brother Laneric, who was
also put under confinement found means to make his escape, and to fly
into Scotland.
The king's ears were now open to Montrose's counsels, who proposed none
but the boldest and most daring, agreeably to the desperate state of the
royal cause in Scotland. Though the whole nation was subjected by the
Covenanters, though great armies were kept on foot by them, and every
place guarded by a vigilant administration, he undertook, by his own
credit, and that of the few friends who remained to the king, to raise
such commotions as would soon oblige the malecontents to recall
those forces which had so sensibly thrown the balance in favor of the
parliament.[**] Not discouraged with the defeat at Marston Moor, which
rendered it impossible for him to draw any succor from England, he was
content to stipulate with the earl of Antrim, a nobleman of Ireland,
for some supply of men from that country. And he himself changing his
disguises, and passing through many dangers, arrived in Scotland; where
he lay concealed in the borders of the Highlands, and secretly prepared
the minds of his partisans for attempting some great enterprise.[***]
* Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 380, 381. Rush. vol. vi. p. 980.
Wishart, cap. 2.
** Wishart, cap. 3.
*** Clarendon, vol. v. p. 618. Rush. vol. vi. p, 982.
Wishart, cap. 4
No sooner were the Irish landed, though not exceeding eleven hundred
foot, very ill armed, than Montrose declared himself, and entered upon
that scene of action which has rendered his name so celebrated. About
eight hundred of the men of Athole flocked to his standard. Five hundred
men more, who had been levied by the Covenanters, were persuaded to
embrace the royal cause: and with this combined force, he hastened to
attack Lord Elcho, who lay at Perth with an army of six thousand men,
assembled upon the first news of the Irish invasion. Montrose, inferior
in number, totally unprovided with horse, ill supplied with arms and
ammunition, had nothing to depend on, but the courage which he himself,
by his own example, and the rapidity of his enterprises, should inspire
into his raw soldiers. Having received the fire of the enemy, which was
answered chiefly by a volley of stones, he rushed amidst them with
his sword drawn, threw them into confusion, pushed his advantage, and
obtained a complete victory, with the slaughter of two thousand of the
Covenanters.[*]
This victory, though it augmented the renown of Montrose, increased not
his power or numbers. The far greater part of the kingdom was extremely
attached to the covenant; and such as bore an affection to the royal
cause, were terrified by the established authority of the opposite
party. Dreading the superior power of Argyle, who, having joined
his vassals to a force levied by the public, was approaching with a
considerable army, Montrose hastened northwards, in order to rouse again
the marquis of Huntley and the Gordons, who, having before hastily taken
arms, had been instantly suppressed by the Covenanters. He was joined
on his march by the earl of Airly, with his two younger sons, Sir Thomas
and Sir David Ogilvy: the eldest was at that time a prisoner with the
enemy. He attacked at Aberdeen the Lord Burley, who commanded a force
of two thousand five hundred men. After a sharp combat, by his undaunted
courage, which in his situation was true policy, and was also not
unaccompanied with military skill, he put the enemy to flight, and in
the pursuit did great execution upon them.[**]
* 1st of September, 1644. Rush. vol. vi. p. 983. Wishart,
cap. 5.
** 11th of September, 1644. Rush. vol. vi. p. 983. Wishart,
cap. 7.
But by this second advantage he obtained not the end which he expected.
The envious nature of Huntley, jealous of Montrose's glory, rendered him
averse to join an army where he himself must be so much eclipsed by
the superior merit of the general. Argyle, reënforced by the earl of
Lothian, was behind him with a great army: the militia of the northern
counties, Murray, Ross, Caithness, to the number of five thousand men,
opposed him in front, and guarded the banks of the Spey, a deep and
rapid river. In order to elude these numerous armies, he turned aside
into the hills, and saved his weak but active troops in Badenoch.
After some marches and countermarches, Argyle came up with him at Faivy
Castle. This nobleman's character, though celebrated for political
courage and conduct, was very low for military prowess, and after some
skirmishes, in which he was worsted, he here allowed Montrose to escape
him. By quick marches through these inaccessible mountains, that general
freed himself from the superior forces of the Covenanters.
Such was the situation of Montrose, that very good or very ill fortune
was equally destructive to him, and diminished his army. After every
victory, his soldiers, greedy of spoil, but deeming the smallest
acquisition to be unexhausted riches, deserted in great numbers, and
went home to secure the treasures which they had acquired. Tired too,
and spent with hasty and long marches in the depth of winter, through
snowy mountains, unprovided with every necessary, they fell off, and
left their general almost alone with the Irish, who, having no place to
which they could retire, still adhered to him in every fortune.
With these, and some reënforcements of the Atholemen and Macdonalds whom
he had recalled, Montrose fell suddenly upon Argyle's country, and let
loose upon it all the rage of war; carrying off the cattle, burning
the houses, and putting the inhabitants to the sword. This severity,
by which Montrose sullied his victories, was the result of private
animosity against the chieftain, as much as of zeal for the public
cause, Argyle, collecting three thousand men, marched in quest of the
enemy, who had retired with their plunder; and he lay at Innerlochy,
supposing himself still at a considerable distance from them. The earl
of Seaforth, at the head of the garrison of Inverness, who were veteran
soldiers, joined to five thousand new levied troops of the northern
counties, pressed the royalists on the other side, and threatened them
with inevitable destruction. By a quick and unexpected march, Montrose
hastened to Innerlochy, and presented himself in order of battle before
the surprised but not affrightened Covenanters. Argyle alone, seized
with a panic, deserted his army, who still maintained their ground, and
gave battle to the royalists. After a vigorous resistance, they were
defeated, and pursued with great slaughter.[*] And the power of the
Campbells (that is Argyle's name) being thus broken, the Highlanders,
who were in general well affected to the royal cause, began to join
Montrose's camp in great numbers. Seaforth's army dispersed of itself,
at the very terror of his name. And Lord Gordon, eldest son of Huntley,
having escaped from his uncle Argyle, who had hitherto detained him, now
joined Montrose, with no contemptible number of his followers, attended
by his brother, the earl of Aboine.
The council at Edinburgh, alarmed at Montrose's progress, began to
think of a more regular plan of defence against an enemy whose repeated
victories had rendered him extremely formidable. They sent for Baillie,
an officer of reputation, from England; and joining him in command with
Urrey, who had again enlisted himself among the king's enemies, they
sent them to the field with a considerable army against the royalists.
Montrose, with a detachment of eight hundred men, had attacked Dundee,
a town extremely zealous for the covenant, and having carried it by
assault, had delivered it up to be plundered by his soldiers; when
Baillie and Urrey, with their whole force, were unexpectedly upon
him.[**] His conduct and presence of mind in this emergence appeared
conspicuous. Instantly he called off his soldiers from plunder, put them
in order, secured his retreat by the most skilful measures; and having
marched sixty miles in the face of an enemy much superior, without
stopping, or allowing his soldiers the least sleep or refreshment, he at
last secured himself in the mountains.
* Rush. vol. vi. p. 985. Wishart, cap. 8.
** Rush. vol. vii. p. 228. Wishart, cap. 9.
Baillie and Urrey now divided their troops, in order the better to
conduct the war against an enemy who surprised them as much by the
rapidity of his marches, as by the boldness of his enterprises. Urrey,
at the head of four thousand men, met him at Alderne, near Inverness;
and, encouraged by the superiority of number, (for the Covenanters were
double the royalists,) attacked him in the post which he had chosen
Montrose, having placed his right wing in strong ground, drew the best
of his forces to the other, and left no main body between them; a defect
which he artfully concealed, by showing a few men through the trees
and bushes with which that ground was covered. That Urrey might have no
leisure to perceive the stratagem, he instantly led his left wing to
the charge; and, making a furious impression upon the Covenanters, drove
them off the field, and gained a complete victory.[*] In this battle,
the valor of young Napier, son to the lord of that name, shone out with
signal lustre.
Baillie now advanced, in order to revenge Urrey's discomfiture; but at
Alford he met himself with a like fate. Montrose, weak in cavalry, here
lined his troops of horse with infantry; and after putting the enemy's
horse to rout, fell with united force upon their foot, who were entirely
cut in pieces, though with the loss of the gallant Lord Gordon on the
part of the royalists.[**] And having thus prevailed in so many battles,
which his vigor ever rendered as decisive as they were successful, he
summoned together all his friends and partisans, and prepared himself
for marching into the southern provinces, in order to put a final period
to the power of the Covenanters, and dissipate the parliament, which,
with great pomp and solemnity, they had summoned to meet at St.
Johnstone's.
While the fire was thus kindled in the north of the island, it blazed
out with no less fury in the south: the parliamentary and royal armies,
as soon as the season would permit, prepared to take the field, in hopes
of bringing their important quarrel to a quick decision. The passing of
the self-denying ordinance had been protracted by so many debates and
intrigues, that the spring was far advanced before it received the
sanction of both houses; and it was thought dangerous by many to
introduce, so near the time of action, such great innovations into the
army. Had not the punctilious principles of Essex engaged him, amidst
all the disgusts which he received, to pay implicit obedience to the
parliament, this alteration had not been effected without some fatal
accident: since, notwithstanding his prompt resignation of the command,
a mutiny was generally apprehended.[***]
* Rush. vol. vii. p. 229. Wishart, cap. 10.
** Rush. vol. vii. p. 229. Wishart, cap. 11.
*** Rush. vol. vii. p. 126, 127.
Fairfax, or, more properly speaking, Cromwell under his name, introduced
at last the new model into the army, and threw the troops into a
different shape. From the same men new regiments and new companies were
formed, different officers appointed, and the whole military force put
into such hands as the Independents could rely on. Besides members of
parliament who were excluded, many officers, unwilling to serve under
the new generals, threw up their commissions, and unwarily facilitated
the project of putting the army entirely into the hands of that faction.
Though the discipline of the former parliamentary army was not
contemptible, a more exact plan was introduced, and rigorously executed,
by these new commanders. Valor indeed was very generally diffused over
the one party as well as the other, during this period: discipline also
was attained by the forces of the parliament: but the perfection of
the military art, in concerting the general plans of action and the
operations of the field, seems still on both sides to have been in
a great measure wanting. Historians at least, perhaps from their own
ignorance and inexperience, have not remarked any thing but a headlong,
impetuous conduct; each party hurrying to a battle, where valor and
fortune chiefly determined the success. The great ornament of history,
during these reigns, are the civil, not the military transactions.
Never surely was a more singular army assembled, than that which was now
set on foot by the parliament. To the greater number of the regiments
chaplains were not appointed, the officers assumed the spiritual duty,
and united it with their military functions. During the intervals of
action, they occupied themselves in sermons, prayers, exhortations;
and the same emulation there attended them, which in the field is so
necessary to support the honor of that profession. Rapturous ecstasies
supplied the place of study and reflection; and while the zealous
devotees poured out their thoughts in unpremeditated harangues, they
mistook that eloquence which to their own surprise, as well as that of
others, flowed in upon them, for divine illuminations, and for illapses
of the Holy Spirit. Wherever they were quartered, they excluded the
minister from his pulpit; and, usurping his place, conveyed their
sentiments to the audience, with all the authority which followed
their power, their valor, and their military exploits, united to their
appearing zeal and fervor. The private soldiers, seized with the same
spirit, employed their vacant hours in prayer, in perusing the Holy
Scriptures, in ghostly conferences where they compared the progress of
their in grace, and mutually stimulated each other to further advances
in the great work of their salvation. When they were marching to battle,
the whole field resounded, as well with psalms and spiritual songs
adapted to the occasion, as with the instruments of military music:[*]
and every man endeavored to drown the sense of present danger in the
prospect of that crown of glory which was set before him. In so holy a
cause, wounds were esteemed meritorious; death, martyrdom; and the hurry
and dangers of action, instead of banishing their pious visions, rather
served to impress their minds more strongly with them.
The royalists were desirous of throwing a ridicule on this fanaticism
of the parliamentary armies, without being sensible how much reason they
had to apprehend its dangerous consequences. The forces assembled by
the king at Oxford, in the west, and in other places, were equal, if
not superior in number to their adversaries; but actuated by a very
different spirit. That license which had been introduced by want of
pay, had risen to a great height among them, and rendered them more
formidable to their friends than to their enemies. Prince Rupert,
negligent of the people, fond of the soldiery, had indulged the troops
in unwarrantable liberties: Wilmot, a man of dissolute manners, had
promoted the same spirit of disorder: and the licentious Goring,
Gerrard, Sir Richard Granville, now carried it to a great pitch of
enormity. In the west especially, where Goring commanded, universal
spoil and havoc were committed; and the whole country was laid waste
by the rapine of the army. All distinction of parties being in a manner
dropped, the most devoted friends of the church and monarchy wished
there for such success to the parliamentary forces as might put an end
to these oppressions. The country people, despoiled of their substance,
flocked together in several places, armed with clubs and staves; and
though they professed an enmity to the soldiers of both parties, their
hatred was in most places levelled chiefly against the royalists, from
whom they had met with the worst treatment. Many thousands of these
tumultuary peasants were assembled in different parts of England;
who destroyed all such straggling soldiers as they met with, and much
infested the armies.[**]
* Dugdale, p. 7. Rush. vol. vi. p. 281.
** Rush. vol. vii. p. 52, 61, 62. Whitlocke, p. 130, 131,
133, 136, Clarendon, vol. v. p. 665.
The disposition of the forces on both sides was as follows: part of
the Scottish army was employed in taking Pomfret and other towns in
Yorkshire: part of it besieged Carlisle valiantly defended by Sir Thomas
Glenham. Chester, where Biron commanded, had long been blockaded by Sir
William Brereton; and was reduced to great difficulties. The king,
being joined by the princes Rupert and Maurice, lay at Oxford with a
considerable army, about fifteen thousand men. Fairfax and Cromwell were
posted at Windsor, with the new-modelled army, about twenty-two thousand
men. Taunton, in the county of Somerset, defended by Blake, suffered a
long siege from Sir Richard Granville, who commanded an army of about
eight thousand men; and though the defence had been obstinate, the
garrison was now reduced to the last extremity. Goring commanded in the
west an army of nearly the same number.[*]
On opening the campaign, the king formed the project of relieving
Chester; Fairfax, that of relieving Taunton. The king was first in
motion. When he advanced to Draiton, in Shropshire, Biron met him, and
brought intelligence that his approach had raised the siege, and that
the parliamentary army had withdrawn. Fairfax, having reached Salisbury
in his road westward, received orders from the committee of both
kingdoms appointed for the management of the war, to return and lay
siege to Oxford, now exposed by the king's absence. He obeyed, after
sending Colonel Weldon to the west with a detachment of four thousand
men. On Weldon's approach, Granville, who imagined that Fairfax with his
whole army was upon him, raised the siege, and allowed this pertinacious
town, now half taken and half burned, to receive relief: but the
royalists, being reënforced with three thousand horse under Goring,
again advanced to Taunton, and shut up Weldon, with his small army, in
that ruinous place.[**]
The king, having effected his purpose with regard to Chester returned
southwards: and in his way sat down before Leicester, a garrison of the
parliaments. Having made a breach in the wall, he stormed the town on
all sides; and, after a furious assault, the soldiers entered sword in
hand, and committed all those disorders to which their natural violence,
especially when inflamed by resistance, is so much addicted.[***]
* Rush. vol. vii. p. 18, 19, etc.
** Rush, vol. vii. p. 28.
*** Clarendon, vol. v. p. 652.
A great booty was taken and distributed among them: fifteen hundred
prisoners fell into the king's hands. This success, which struck a great
terror into the parliamentary army, determined Fairfax to leave Oxford,
which he was beginning to approach; and he marched towards the king,
with an intention of offering him battle. The king was advancing towards
Oxford, in order to raise the siege, which, he apprehended, was now
begun; and both armies, ere they were aware, had advanced within six
miles of each other. A council of war was called by the king, in order
to deliberate concerning the measures which he should now pursue. On the
one hand, it seemed more prudent to delay the combat; because Gerrard,
who lay in Wales with three thousand men, might be enabled in a little
time to join the army; and Goring, it was hoped, would soon be master of
Taunton, and having put the west in full security, would then unite his
forces to those of the king, and give him an incontestable superiority
over the enemy. On the other hand, Prince Rupert, whose boiling ardor
still pushed him on to battle, excited the impatient humor of the
nobility and gentry of which the army was full; and urged the many
difficulties under which the royalists labored, and from which nothing
but a victory could relieve them: the resolution was taken to give
battle to Fairfax; and the royal army immediately advanced upon him.
At Naseby was fought, with forces nearly equal, this decisive and
well-disputed action between the king and parliament. The main body
of the royalists was commanded by the king himself; the right wing by
Prince Rupert; the left by Sir Marmaduke Langdale. Fairfax, seconded by
Skippon, placed himself in the main body of the opposite army; Cromwell
in the right wing; Ireton, Cromwell's son-in-law, in the left. The
charge was begun, with his usual celerity and usual success, by Prince
Rupert. Though Ireton made stout resistance, and even after he was run
through the thigh with a pike, still maintained the combat till he
was taken prisoner, yet was that whole wing broken, and pursued with
precipitate fury by Rupert: he was even so inconsiderate as to lose time
in summoning and attacking the artillery of the enemy, which had been
left with a good guard of infantry. The king led on his main body, and
displayed in this action all the conduct of a prudent general, and all
the valor of a stout soldier.[*]
* Whitlocke, p. 146.
Fairfax and Skippon encountered him, and well supported that reputation
which they had acquired. Skippon, being dangerously wounded, was desired
by Fairfax to leave the field; but he declared that he would remain
there as long as one man maintained his ground.[*] The infantry of the
parliament was broken, and pressed upon by the king; till Fairfax, with
great presence of mind, brought up the reserve, and renewed the combat.
Meanwhile Cromwell, having led on his troops to the attack of Langdale,
overbore the force of the royalists, and by his prudence improved that
advantage which he had gained by his valor. Having pursued the enemy
about a quarter of a mile, and detached some troops to prevent their
rallying, he turned back upon the king's infantry, and threw them into
the utmost confusion. One regiment alone preserved its order unbroken,
though twice desperately assailed by Fairfax: and that general,
excited by so steady a resistance, ordered Doyley, the captain of his
life-guard, to give them a third charge in front, while he himself
attacked them in the rear. The regiment was broken. Fairfax, with his
own hands, killed an ensign, and, having seized the colors, gave them to
a soldier to keep for him. The soldier, afterwards boasting that he had
won this trophy, was reproved by Doyley, who had seen the action. "Let
him retain that honor," said Fairfax; "I have to-day acquired enough
beside."[**]
Prince Rupert, sensible too late of his error, left the fruitless attack
on the enemy's artillery, and joined the king, whose infantry was
now totally discomfited. Charles exhorted this body of cavalry not to
despair, and cried aloud to them, "One charge more, and we recover
the day."[***] But the disadvantages under which they labored were too
evident; and they could by no means be induced to renew the combat.
Charles was obliged to quit the field, and leave the victory to the
enemy.[****]
* Rush, vol. vii. p. 43. Whitlocke, p. 145.
** Whitlocke, p. 145.
*** Rush. vol. vii. p. 44.
**** Clarendon, vol. iv. p. 656, 657. Walker p. 130, 131
The slain on the side of the parliament exceeded those on the side of
the king: they lost a thousand men; he not above eight hundred. But
Fairfax made five hundred officers prisoners, and four thousand
private men; took all the king's artillery and ammunition, and totally
dissipated his infantry: so that scarce any victory could be more
complete than that which he obtained.
Among the other spoils was seized the king's cabinet, with the copies of
his letters to the queen, which the parliament afterwards ordered to be
published.[*] They chose, no doubt, such of them as they thought would
reflect dishonor on him: yet, upon the whole, the letters are written
with delicacy and tenderness, and give an advantageous idea both of the
king's genius and morals. A mighty fondness, it is true, and attachment,
he expresses to his consort, and often professes that he never would
embrace any measures which she disapproved: but such declarations of
civility and confidence are not always to be taken in a full, literal
sense. And so legitimate an affection, avowed by the laws of God and
man, may perhaps be excusable towards a woman of beauty and spirit, even
though she was a Papist.[**]
* Clarendon, vol. iv. p. 658.
** Hearne has published the following extract from a
manuscript work of Sir Simon D'Ewes, who was no mean man in
the parliamentary party. "On Thursday, the 30th and last day
of this instant June, 1625, I went to Whitehall, purposely
to see the queen, which I did fully all the time she sat at
dinner. I perceived her to be a most absolute delicate lady,
after I had exactly surveyed all the features of her face,
much enlivened by her radiant and sparkling black eyes.
Besides, her deportment among her women was so sweet and
humble, and her speech and looks to her other servants so
mild and gracious, as I could not abstain from divers deep-
fetched sighs, to consider that she wanted the knowledge of
the true religion." See Preface to the Chronicle of
Dunstable, p 64.
The Athenians, having intercepted a letter written by their enemy,
Philip of Macedon, to his wife Olympia, so far from being moved by a
curiosity of prying into the secrets of that relation, immediately sent
the letter to the queen unopened. Philip was not their sovereign; nor
were they inflamed with that violent animosity against him which attends
all civil commotions.
After the battle, the king retreated with that body of horse which
remained entire, first to Hereford, then to Abergavenny; and remained
some time in Wales, from the vain hope of raising a body of infantry
in those harassed and exhausted quarters. Fairfax, having first retaken
Leicester, which was surrendered upon articles, began to deliberate
concerning his future enterprises. A letter was brought him, written by
Goring to the king, and unfortunately intrusted to a spy of Fairfax's.
Goring there informed the king, that in three weeks he hoped to be
master of Taunton, after which he would join his majesty with all the
forces in the west; and entreated him, in the mean while to avoid coming
to any general action. This letter, which, had it been safely delivered,
had probably prevented the battle of Naseby, served now to direct the
operations of Fairfax.[*] After leaving a body of three thousand men
to Pointz and Rossiter, with orders to attend the king's motions, he
marched immediately to the west, with a view of saving Taunton, and
suppressing the only considerable force which now remained to the
royalists.
In the beginning of the campaign, Charles, apprehensive of the event,
had sent the prince of Wales, then fifteen years of age, to the west,
with the title of General, and had given orders, if he were pressed by
the enemy, that he should make his escape into a foreign country, and
save one part of the royal family from the violence of the parliament.
Prince Rupert had thrown himself into Bristol, with an intention of
defending that important city. Goring commanded the army before Taunton.
On Fairfax's approach, the siege of Taunton was raised; and the
royalists retired to Lamport, an open town in the county of Somerset.
Fairfax attacked them in that post, beat them from it, killed about
three hundred men, and took one thousand four hundred prisoners.[**]
After this advantage, he sat down before Bridgewater, a town esteemed
strong, and of great consequence in that country. When he had entered
the outer town by storm, Windham, the Governor, who had retired into the
inner, immediately capitulated, and delivered up the place to Fairfax.
The garrison, to the number of two thousand six hundred men, were made
prisoners of war.
Fairfax, having next taken Bath and Sherborne, resolved to lay siege to
Bristol, and made great preparations for an enterprise which, from
the strength of the garrison, and the reputation of Prince Rupert, the
governor, was deemed of the last importance. But, so precarious in most
men is this quality of military courage, a poorer defence was not made
by any town during the whole war; and the general expectations were here
extremely disappointed. No sooner had the parliamentary forces entered
the lines by storm, than the prince capitulated, and surrendered the
city to Fairfax.[***] A few days before, he had written a letter to the
king, in which he undertook to defend the place for four months, if no
mutiny obliged him to surrender it.
* Rush, vol. vii. p. 49.
** Rush, vol. vii. p. 55.
*** Rush, vol. vii p. 83.
Charles, who was forming schemes and collecting forces for the relief of
Bristol, was astonished at so unexpected an event, which was little less
fatal to his cause than the defeat at Naseby.[*] Full of indignation, he
instantly recalled all Prince Rupert's commissions, and sent him a pass
to go beyond sea.[**]
The king's affairs now went fast to ruin in all quarters. The Scots,
having made themselves masters of Carlisle, after an obstinate siege,
marched southwards, and laid siege to Hereford; but were obliged to
raise it on the king's approach: and this was the last glimpse of
success which attended his arms. Having marched to the relief of
Chester, which was anew besieged by the parliamentary forces under
Colonel Jones, Pointz attacked his rear, and forced him to give battle.
While the fight was continued with great obstinacy, and victory seemed
to incline to the royalists, Jones fell upon them from the other
side, and put them to rout, with the loss of six hundred slain and one
thousand prisoners.[***] The king, with the remains of his broken army,
fled to Newark, and thence escaped to Oxford, where he shut himself up
during the winter season.
* Clarendon, vol. vi. p. 690. Walker, p. 137.
** Clarendon, vol. iv. p. 695.
*** Rush, vii. p. 117.
The news which he received from every quarter, were no less fatal than
those events which passed where he himself was present. Fairfax and
Cromwell, after the surrender of Bristol, having divided their forces,
the former marched westwards, in order to complete the conquest of
Devonshire and Cornwall; the latter attacked the king's garrisons which
lay to the east of Bristol. The Devizes were surrendered to Cromwell;
Berkeley Castle was taken by storm; Winchester capitulated; Basing House
was entered sword in hand; and all these middle counties of England
were, in a little time, reduced to obedience under the parliament.
{1646.} The same rapid and uninterrupted success attended Fairfax. The
parliamentary forces, elated by past victories, governed by the most
rigid discipline, met with no equal opposition from troops dismayed by
repeated defeats, and corrupted by licentious manners. After beating up
the quarters of the royalists at Bovey Tracy, Fairfax sat down before
Dartmouth, and in a few days entered it by storm. Poudram Castle being
taken by him, and Exeter blockaded on all sides, Hopton, a man of merit,
who now commanded the royalists, having advanced to the relief of that
town with an army of eight thousand men, met with the parliamentary army
at Torrington, where he was defeated, all his foot dispersed, and he
himself with his horse obliged to retire into Cornwall. Fairfax followed
him, and vigorously pursued the victory. Having enclosed the royalists
at Truro, he forced the whole army, consisting of five thousand men,
chiefly cavalry, to surrender upon terms. The soldiers, delivering up
their horses and arms, were allowed to disband, and received twenty
shillings apiece, to carry them to their respective abodes. Such of
the officers as desired it had passes to retire beyond sea: the others,
having promised never more to bear arms, paid compositions to the
parliament,[*] and procured their pardon.[**] And thus Fairfax, after
taking Exeter, which completed the conquest of the west, marched with
his victorious army to the centre of the kingdom, and fixed his camp at
Newbury. The prince of Wales, in pursuance of the king's orders, retired
to Scilly, thence to Jersey; whence he went to Paris, where he joined
the queen, who had fled thither from Exeter, at the time the earl of
Essex conducted the parliamentary army to the west.
In the other parts of England, Hereford was taken by surprise: Chester
surrendered: Lord Digby, who had attempted with one thousand two
hundred horse to break into Scotland and join Montrose, was defeated
at Sherburne, in Yorkshire, by Colonel Copley; his whole force was
dispersed, and he himself was obliged to fly, first to the Isle of Man,
thence to Ireland. News, too, arrived that Montrose himself, after some
more successes, was at last routed; and this only remaining hope of the
royal party finally extinguished.
When Montrose descended into the southern counties, the Covenanters,
assembling their whole force, met him with a numerous army, and gave him
battle, but without success, at Kilsyth.[***] This was the most complete
victory that Montrose ever obtained.
* These compositions were different, according to the
demerits of the person: but by a vote of the house, they
could not be under two years' rent of the delinquent's
estate. Journ. 11th of August, 1648 Whitlocke, p. 160.
** Rush, vol. vii. p 108.
*** 15th August, 1645.
The royalists put to sword six thousand of their enemies, and left the
Covenanters no remains of any army in Scotland. The whole kingdom was
shaken with these repeated successes of Montrose; and many noblemen, who
secretly favored the royal cause, now declared openly for it when they
saw a force able to support them. The marquis of Douglas, the earls of
Annandale and Hartfield, the lords Fleming, Seton, Maderty, Carnegy,
with many others, flocked to the royal standard. Edinburgh opened its
gates, and gave liberty to all the prisoners there detained by the
Covenanters. Among the rest was Lord Ogilvy, son of Airly, whose family
had contributed extremely to the victory gained at Kilsyth.[*]
David Lesly was detached from the army in England, and marched to the
relief of his distressed party in Scotland. Montrose advanced still
farther to the south, allured by vain hopes, both of rousing to arms the
earls of Hume, Traquaire, and Roxborough, who had promised to join him;
and of obtaining from England some supply of cavalry, in which he was
deficient. By the negligence of his scouts, Lesly, at Philipbaugh in
the Forest, surprised his army, much diminished in numbers, from the
desertion of the Highlanders, who had retired to the hills, according to
custom, in order to secure their plunder. After a sharp conflict,
where Montrose exerted great valor, his forces were routed by Lesly's
cavalry;[**] and he himself was obliged to fly with his broken forces
into the mountains, where he again prepared himself for new battles and
new enterprises.[***]
The Covenanters used the victory with rigor. Their prisoners, Sir Robert
Spotiswood, secretary of state, and son to the late primate, Sir Philip
Nisbet, Sir William Hollo, Colonel Nathaniel Gordon, Andrew Guthry,
son of the bishop of Murray, William Murray, son of the earl of
Tullibardine, were condemned and executed. The sole crime imputed to
the secretary was his delivering to Montrose the king's commission to be
captain-general of Scotland. Lord Ogilvy, who was again taken prisoner,
would have undergone the same fate, had not his sister found means to
procure his escape by changing clothes with him. For this instance of
courage and dexterity, she met with harsh usage. The clergy solicited
the parliament that more royalists might be executed; but could not
obtain their request.[****]
* Rush, vol. vii p. 230, 231. Wishart, cap, 13.
** 13th Sept. 1645.
*** Rush, vol. vii. p. 231
**** Guthry's Memoirs. Rush. vol. vii. p. 232.
After all these repeated disasters, which every where befell the royal
party, there remained only one body of troops on which fortune could
exercise her rigor. Lord Astley, with a small army of three thousand
men, chiefly cavalry, marching to Oxford in order to join the king, was
met at Stowe by Colonel Morgan, and entirely defeated, himself
being taken prisoner. "You have done your work," said Astley to the
parliamentary officers; "and may now go to play, unless you choose to
fall out among yourselves."[*]
The condition of the king during this whole winter was to the last
degree disastrous and melancholy. As the dread of ills is commonly more
oppressive than their real presence, perhaps in no period of his life
was he more justly the object of compassion. His vigor of mind, which,
though it sometimes failed him in acting, never deserted him in his
sufferings, was what alone supported him; and he was determined, as
he wrote to Lord Digby, if he could not live as a king, to die like a
gentleman; nor should any of his friends, he said, ever have reason
to blush for the prince whom they had so unfortunately served.[**]
The murmurs of discontented officers, on the one hand, harassed their
unhappy sovereign; while they overrated those services and sufferings
which they now saw must forever go unrewarded.[***] The affectionate
duty, on the other hand, of his more generous friends, who respected his
misfortunes and his virtues as much as his dignity, wrung his heart with
a new sorrow, when he reflected that such disinterested attachment would
so soon be exposed to the rigor of his implacable enemies. Repeated
attempts which he made for a peaceful and equitable accommodation with
the parliament, served to no purpose but to convince them that the
victory was entirely in their hands. They deigned not to make the least
reply to several of his messages, in which he desired a passport for
commissioners.[****]
* Rush, vol. vii. p. 141. It was the same Astley who, before
he charged at the battle of Edgehill, made this short
prayer: "O Lord, thou knowest how busy I must be this day.
If I forget thee, do not thou forget me," And with that rose
up and cried, "March on, boys!" Warwick, p. 229. There were
certainly much longer prayers said in the parliamentary
army; but I doubt if there were so good a one.
** Carte's Ormond, vol. iii. No. 433.
*** Walker, p. 147
**** Rush, vol. vii. p. 215, etc.
At last, after reproaching him with the blood spilt during the war, they
told him that they were preparing bills for him; and his passing them
would be the best pledge of his inclination towards peace: in other
words, he must yield at discretion.[*] He desired a personal treaty, and
offered to come to London, upon receiving a safe-conduct for himself
and his attendants: they absolutely refused him admittance, and issued
orders for the guarding, that is, the seizing of his person, in case he
should attempt to visit them.[**]
* Rush, vol. vii. p. 217, 219. Clarendon, vol. iv. p. 741.
** Rush, vol. vii. p 249. Clarendon, vol. iv. p. 741.
A new incident, which happened in Ireland, served to inflame the minds
of men, and to increase those calumnies with which his enemies had so
much loaded him, and which he ever regarded as the most grievous part of
his misfortunes. After the cessation with the Irish rebels, the king
was desirous of concluding a final peace with them, and obtaining their
assistance in England: and he gave authority to Ormond, lord lieutenant,
to promise them an abrogation of all the penal laws enacted against
Catholics; together with the suspension of Poinings's statute, with
regard to some particular bills which should be agreed on. Lord Herbert,
created earl of Glamorgan, (though his patent had not yet passed the
seals,) having occasion for his private affairs to go to Ireland, the
king considered that this nobleman, being a Catholic, and allied to the
best Irish families, might be of service: he also foresaw that further
concessions with regard to religion might probably be demanded by the
bigoted Irish; and that, as these concessions, however necessary, would
give great scandal to the Protestant zealots in his three kingdoms,
if would be requisite both to conceal them during some time, and to
preserve Ormond's character by giving private orders to Glamorgan to
conclude and sign these articles. But as he had a better opinion of
Glamorgan's zeal and affection for his service than of his capacity, he
enjoined him to communicate all his measures to Ormond; and though the
final conclusion of the treaty must be executed only in Glamorgan's
own name, he was required to be directed in the steps towards it by the
opinion of the lord lieutenant. Glamorgan, bigoted to his religion, and
passionate for the king's service, but guided in these pursuits by no
manner of judgment or discretion, secretly, of himself, without any
communication with Ormond, concluded a peace with the council of
Kilkenny, and agreed, in the king's name, that the Irish should enjoy
all the churches of which they had ever been in possession since the
commencement of their insurrection, on condition that they should assist
the king in England with a body of ten thousand men. This transaction
was discovered by accident. The titular archbishop of Tuam being killed
by a sally of the garrison of Sligo, the articles of the treaty were
found among his baggage, and were immediately published every where,
and copies of them sent over to the English parliament.[*] The lord
lieutenant and Lord Digby, foreseeing the clamor which would be raised
against the king, committed Glamorgan to prison, charged him with
treason for his temerity, and maintained that he had acted altogether
without any authority from his master. The English parliament, however,
neglected not so favorable an opportunity of reviving the old clamor
with regard to the king's favor of Popery, and accused him of delivering
over, in a manner, the whole kingdom of Ireland to that hated sect. The
king told them, "that the earl of Glamorgan, having made an offer to
raise forces in the kingdom of Ireland, and to conduct them into England
for his majesty's service, had a commission to that purpose, and to that
purpose only; and that he had no commission at all to treat of any thing
else, without the privity and direction of the lord lieutenant, much
less to capitulate any thing concerning religion, or any property
belonging either to church or laity."[**] Though this declaration seems
agreeable to truth, it gave no satisfaction to the parliament; and
some historians, even at present, when the ancient bigotry is somewhat
abated, are desirous of representing this very innocent transaction, in
which the king was engaged by the most violent necessity, as a stain on
the memory of that unfortunate prince.[***] [16]
* Rush, vol. vii. p. 239.
** Birch, p. 119.
*** See note P, at the end of the volume.
Having lost all hope of prevailing over the rigor of the parliament,
either by arms or by treaty, the only resource which remained to the
king was derived from the intestine dissensions which ran very high
among his enemies. Presbyterians and Independents, even before their
victory was fully completed, fell into contests about the division of
the spoil; and their religious as well as civil disputes agitated the
whole kingdom.
The parliament, though they had early abolished Episcopal authority, had
not, during so long a time, substituted any other spiritual government
in its place; and their committees of religion had hitherto assumed
the whole ecclesiastical jurisdiction; but they now established, by an
ordinance, the Presbyterian model in all its forms of congregational,
classical, provincial, and national assemblies. All the inhabitants of
each parish were ordered to meet and choose elders, on whom together
with the minister, was bestowed the entire direction of all spiritual
concerns within the congregation. A number of neighboring parishes,
commonly between twelve and twenty, formed a classis; and the court
which governed this division was composed of all the ministers, together
with two, three, or four elders chosen from each parish. The provincial
assembly retained an inspection over several neighboring classes,
and was composed entirely of clergymen: the national assembly was
constituted in the same manner; and its authority extended over the
whole kingdom. It is probable, that the tyranny exercised by the
Scottish clergy, had given warning not to allow laymen a place in
the provincial or national assemblies; lest the nobility and more
considerable gentry, soliciting a seat in these great ecclesiastical
courts, should bestow a consideration upon them, and render them, in
the eyes of the multitude, a rival to the parliament. In the inferior
courts, the mixture of the laity might serve rather to temper the usual
zeal of the clergy.[*]
But though the Presbyterians, by the establishment of parity among the
ecclesiastics, were so far gratified, they were denied satisfaction in
several other points on which they were extremely intent. The assembly
of divines had voted Presbytery to be of divine right: the parliament
refused their assent to that decision.[**] Selden, Whitlocke, and other
political reasoners, assisted by the Independents, had prevailed in this
important deliberation. They thought, that had the bigoted religionists
been able to get their heavenly charter recognized, the presbyters would
soon become more dangerous to the magistrate than had ever been the
prelatical clergy. These latter, white they claimed to themselves a
divine right, admitted of a like origin to civil authority: the former,
challenging to their own order a celestial pedigree, derived the
legislative power from a source no more dignified than the voluntary
association of the people.
* Rush. vol. vii. p. 224.
** Whitlocke, p. 106. Rush. vol. vii. p. 260, 261.
Under color of keeping the sacraments from profanation, the clergy of
all Christian sects had assumed what they call the power of the keys, or
the right of fulminating excommunication. The example of Scotland was
a sufficient lesson for the parliament to use precaution in guarding
against so severe a tyranny. They determined, by a general ordinance,
all the cases in which excommunication could be used. They allowed of
appeals to parliament from all ecclesiastical courts. And they appointed
commissioners in every province to judge of such cases as fell not
within their general ordinance.[*] So much civil authority, intermixed
with the ecclesiastical, gave disgust to all the zealots.
But nothing was attended with more universal scandal than the propensity
of many in the parliament towards a toleration of the Protestant
sectaries. The Presbyterians exclaimed, that this indulgence made the
church of Christ resemble Noah's ark, and rendered it a receptacle for
all unclean beasts. They insisted, that the least of Christ's truths
was superior to all political considerations.[**] They maintained the
eternal obligation imposed by the covenant to extirpate heresy and
schism. And they menaced all their opponents with the same rigid
persecution under which they themselves had groaned, when held in
subjection by the hierarchy.
* Rush. vol. vii. p. 210.
** Rush, vol vii. p. 308.
So great prudence and reserve, in such material points, does great honor
to the parliament; and proves that, notwithstanding the prevalency of
bigotry and fanaticism, there were many members who had more enlarged
views, and paid regard to the civil interests of society. These men,
uniting themselves to the enthusiasts, whose genius is naturally averse
to clerical usurpations, exercised so jealous an authority over the
assembly of divines, that they allowed them nothing but the liberty
of tendering advice, and would not intrust them even with the power
of electing their own chairman or his substitute, or of supplying the
vacancies of their own members.
While these disputes were canvassed by theologians, who engaged in
their spiritual contests every order of the state the king, though he
entertained hopes of reaping advantage from those divisions, was much at
a loss which side it would be most for his interest to comply with.
The Presbyterians were, by their principles, the least averse to regal
authority but were rigidly bent on the extirpation of prelacy: the
Independents were resolute to lay the foundation of a republican
government; but as they pretended not to erect themselves into
a national church, it might be hoped that, if gratified with am
toleration, they would admit the reëstablishment of the hierarchy. So
great attachment had the king to episcopal jurisdiction, that he was
ever inclined to put it in balance even with his own power and kingly
office.
But whatever advantage he might hope to reap from the divisions in the
parliamentary party, he was apprehensive lest it should come too late
to save him from the destruction with which he was instantly threatened.
Fairfax was approaching with a powerful and victorious army, and was
taking the proper measures for laying siege to Oxford, which must
infallibly fall into his hands. To be taken captive, and led in triumph
by his insolent enemies, was what Charles justly abhorred; and every
insult, if not violence, was to be dreaded from that enthusiastic
soldiery who hated his person and despised his dignity. In this
desperate extremity, he embraced a measure which, in any other
situation, might lie under the imputation of imprudence and
indiscretion.
Montreville, the French minister, interested for the king more by the
natural sentiments of humanity than any instructions from his court,
which seemed rather to favor the parliament, had solicited the Scottish
generals and commissioners to give protection to their distressed
sovereign; and having received many general professions and promises,
he had always transmitted these, perhaps with some exaggeration, to
the king. From his suggestions, Charles began to entertain thoughts of
leaving Oxford, and flying to the Scottish army, which at that time lay
before Newark.[*] He considered, that the Scottish nation had been
fully gratified in all their demands; and having already, in their own
country, annihilated both episcopacy and regal authority, had no further
concessions to exact from him. In all disputes which had passed about
settling the terms of peace, the Scots, he heard, had still adhered to
the milder side, and had endeavored to soften the rigor of the English
parliament. Great disgusts also, on other accounts, had taken place
between the nations; and the Scots found that, in proportion as their
assistance became less necessary, less value was put upon them. The
progress of the Independents gave them great alarm; and they were
scandalized to hear their beloved covenant spoken of every day with less
regard, and reverence. The refusal of a divine right to presbytery,
and the infringing of ecclesiastical discipline from political
considerations, were to them the subject of much offence; and the king
hoped that, in their present disposition, the plight of their native
prince, flying to them in this extremity of distress, would rouse
every-spark of generosity in their bosom, and procure him their favor
and protection.
* Clarendon, vol. iv. p. 750; vol. v. p. 16.
That he might the better conceal his intentions, orders were given at
every gate in Oxford for allowing three persons to pass; and in the
night the king, accompanied by none but Dr. Hudson and Mr. Ashburnham,
went out at that gate which leads to London. He rode before a
portmanteau, and called himself Ashburnham's servant. He passed through
Henley, St. Albans, and came so near to London as Harrow on the Hill.
He once entertained thoughts of entering into that city, and of throwing
himself on the mercy of the parliament. But at last, after passing
through many cross roads, he arrived at the Scottish camp before
Newark.[*] The parliament, hearing of his escape from Oxford, issued
rigorous orders, and threatened with instant death whoever should harbor
or conceal him.[**]
The Scottish generals and commissioners affected great surprise on
the appearance of the king; and though they paid him all the exterior
respect due to his dignity, they instantly set a guard upon him, under
color of protection, and made him in reality a prisoner. They informed
the English parliament of this unexpected incident, and assured them
that they had entered into no private treaty with the king. They applied
to him for orders to Bellasis, governor of Newark, to surrender that
town, now reduced to extremity; and the orders were instantly obeyed.
And hearing that the parliament laid claim to the entire disposal of the
king's person, and that the English army was making some motion towards
them, they thought proper to retire northwards, and to fix their camp at
Newcastle.[***]
* Rush, vol. vii. p. 267.
** Whitlocke, p. 208.
*** Rush, vol. vii. p. 271. Clarendon, vol. v. p. 23.
This measure was very grateful to the king; and he began to entertain
hopes of protection from the Scots. He was particularly attentive to the
behavior of their preachers, on whom all depended. It was the mode of
that age to make the pulpit the scene of news; and on every great event,
the whole Scripture was ransacked by the clergy for passages applicable
to the present occasion. The first minister who preached before the king
chose these words for his text: "And behold all the men of Israel came
to the king, and said unto him, Why have our brethren, the men of Judah,
stolen thee away, and have brought the king and his household, and all
David's men with him, over Jordan? And all the men of Judah answered the
men of Israel, Because the king is near of kin to us; wherefore then be
ye angry for this matter? Have we eaten at all of the king's cost? or
hath he given us any gift? And the men of Israel answered the men of
Judah and said, We have ten parts in the king, and we have also more
right in David than ye: why then did ye despise us, that our advice
should not be first had in bringing back our king? And the words of the
men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel."[*] But
the king soon found, that the happiness chiefly of the allusion had
tempted the preacher to employ this text, and that the covenanting
zealots were nowise pacified towards him. Another preacher, after
reproaching him to his face with his misgovernment, ordered this psalm
to be sung:--
"Why dost thou, tyrant, boast thyself, Thy wicked deeds to praise?"
The king stood up, and called for that psalm which begins with these
words,
"Have mercy, Lord, on me, I pray; For men would me devour."
The good-natured audience, in pity to fallen majesty, showed for once
greater deference to the king than to the minister, and sung the psalm
which the former had called for.[**]
Charles had very little reason to be pleased with his situation. He not
only found himself a prisoner, very strictly guarded: all his friends
were kept at a distance; and no intercourse, either by letters or
conversation, was allowed him with any one on whom he could depend, or
who was suspected of any attachment towards him. The Scottish generals
would enter into no confidence with him; and still treated him with
distant ceremony and feigned respect. And every proposal which they made
him tended further to his abasement and to his ruin.[***]
* 2 Sam. chap. xix. ver. 41,42,43. See Clarendon, vol v. p.
23, 24
** Whitlocke, p. 234.
*** Clarendon, vol. v. p. 30.
They required him to issue orders to Oxford and to all his other
garrisons, commanding their surrender to the parliament; and the king,
sensible that their resistance was to very little purpose, willingly
complied. The terms given to most of them were honorable; and Fairfax,
as far as it lay in his power, was very exact in observing them. Far
from allowing violence, he would not even permit insults or triumph
over the unfortunate royalists; and by his generous humanity, so cruel a
civil war was ended, in appearance, very calmly between the parties.
Ormond, having received like orders, delivered Dublin and other forts
into the hands of the parliamentary officers. Montrose also, after
having experienced still more variety of good and bad fortune, threw
down his arms, and retired out of the kingdom.
The marquis of Worcester, a man past eighty-four, was the last in
England that submitted to the authority of the parliament. He defended
Raglan Castle to extremity; and opened not its gates till the middle of
August. Four years, a few days excepted, were now elapsed since the king
first erected his standard at Nottingham:[*] so long had the British
nations, by civil and religious quarrels, been occupied in shedding
their own blood, and laying waste their native country.
The parliament and the Scots laid their proposals before the king. They
were such as a captive, entirely at mercy, could expect from the most
inexorable victor. Yet were they little worse than what were insisted
on before the battle of Naseby. The power of the sword, instead of ten,
which the king now offered, was demanded for twenty years, together with
a right to levy whatever money the parliament should think proper for
the support of their armies. The other conditions were, in the main, the
same with those which had formerly been offered to the king.[**]
Charles said, that proposals which introduced such important innovations
in the constitution, demanded time for deliberation: the commissioners
replied, that he must give his answer in ten days.[***] He desired to
reason about the meaning and import of some terms: they informed him,
that they had no power of debate; and peremptorily required his consent
or refusal. He requested a personal treaty with the parliament. They
threatened that, if he delayed compliance, the parliament would, by
their own authority, settle the nation.
* Rush. vol. vi. p. 293.
** Rush. vol. vi. p. 309.
*** Rush. vol. vii. p. 319.
What the parliament was most intent upon, was not their treaty with
the king, to whom they paid little regard, but that with the Scots. Two
important points remained to be settled with that nation: their delivery
of the king, and the estimation of their arrears.
The Scots might pretend, that, as Charles was king of Scotland as well
as of England, they were entitled to an equal vote in the disposal of
his person; and that, in such a case, where the titles are equal,
and the subject indivisible, the preference was due to the present
possessor. The English maintained, that the king, being in England, was
comprehended within the jurisdiction of that kingdom, and could not be
disposed of by any foreign nation: a delicate question this, and what
surely could not be decided by precedent; since such a situation is not
any where to be found in history.[*]
* Rush, vol. vii. p. 339.
As the Scots concurred with the English in imposing such severe
conditions on the king, that, notwithstanding his unfortunate situation,
he still refused to accept of them, it is certain that they did not
desire his freedom: nor could they ever intend to join lenity and rigor
together, in so inconsistent a manner. Before the settlement of terms,
the administration must be possessed entirely by the parliaments of both
kingdoms; and how incompatible that scheme with the liberty of the king,
is easily imagined. To carry him a prisoner into Scotland, where
few forces could be supported to guard him, was a measure so full of
inconvenience and danger, that, even if the English had consented to it,
it must have appeared to the Scots themselves altogether uneligible: and
how could such a plan be supported in opposition to England, possessed
of such numerous and victorious armies, which were, at that time at
least seemed to be, in entire union with the parliament? The only
expedient, it is obvious, which the Scots could embrace, if they
scrupled wholly to abandon the king, was immediately to return, fully
and cordially, to their allegiance; and, uniting themselves with the
royalists in both kingdoms, endeavor, by force of arms, to reduce the
English parliament to more moderate conditions: but, besides that this
measure was full of extreme hazard, what was it but instantly to combine
with their old enemies against their old friends; and, in a fit of
romantic generosity, overturn what, with so much expense of blood
and treasure, they had, during the course of so many years, been so
carefully erecting?
But though all these reflections occurred to the Scottish commissioners,
they resolved to prolong the dispute, and to keep the king as a pledge
for those arrears which they claimed from England, and which they were
not likely, in the present disposition of that nation, to obtain by
any other expedient. The sum, by their account, amounted to near two
millions: for they had received little regular pay since they had
entered England. And though the contributions which they had levied, as
well as the price of their living at free quarters, must be deducted,
yet still the sum which they insisted on was very considerable. After
many discussions, it was at last agreed, that, in lieu of all demands,
they should accept of four hundred thousand pounds, one half to be paid
instantly, another in two subsequent payments.[*]
* Rush, vol. vii. p. 326. Parl. Hist. vol. xv. p. 236
Great pains were taken by the Scots (and the English complied with
their pretended delicacy) to make this estimation and payment of arrears
appear a quite different transaction from that for the delivery of the
king's person: but common sense requires that they should be regarded
as one and the same. The English, it is evident, had they not been
previously assured of receiving the king, would never have parted with
so considerable a sum; and, while they weakened themselves, by the same
measure, have strengthened a people with whom they must afterwards have
so material an interest to discuss.
Thus the Scottish nation underwent, and still undergo, (for such
grievous stains are not easily wiped off,) the reproach of selling their
king and betraying their prince for money. In vain did they maintain,
that this money was, on account of former services, undoubtedly their
due; that in their present situation, no other measure, without the
utmost, indiscretion, or even their apparent ruin, could be embraced;
and that, though they delivered their king into the hands of his open
enemies they were themselves as much his open enemies as those to whom
they surrendered him; and their common hatred against him had long
united the two parties in strict alliance with each other. They were
still answered, that they made use of this scandalous expedient
for obtaining their wages; and that, after taking arms without any
provocation against their sovereign, who had ever loved and cherished
them, they had deservedly fallen into a situation from which they could
not extricate themselves without either infamy or imprudence.
The infamy of this bargain had such an influence on the Scottish
parliament, that they once voted that the king should be protected,
and his liberty insisted on. But the general assembly interposed, and
pronounced that, as he had refused to take the covenant, which was
pressed on him, it became not the godly to concern themselves about his
fortunes. After this declaration, it behoved the parliament to retract
their vote.[*]
Intelligence concerning the final resolution of the Scottish nation to
surrender him, was brought to the king; and he happened, at that very
time, to be playing at chess.[**] Such command of temper did he possess,
that he continued his game without interruption; and none of the
bystanders could perceive that the letter which he perused had brought
him news of any consequence. The English commissioners, who, some days
after, came to take him under their custody, were admitted to kiss his
hands; and he received them with the same grace and cheerfulness as if
they had travelled on no other errand than to pay court to him. The old
earl of Pembroke, in particular, who was one of them, he congratulated
on his strength and vigor, that he was still able, during such a season,
to perform so long a journey, in company with so many young people.
{1647.} The king, being delivered over by the Scots to the English
commissioners, was conducted under a guard to Holdenby, in the county
of Northampton. On his journey, the whole country flocked to behold him,
moved partly by curiosity, partly by compassion and affection. If any
still retained rancor against him, in his present condition, they
passed in silence; while his well-wishers, more generous than prudent,
accompanied his march with tears, with acclamations, and with prayers
for his safety.[***] That ancient superstition, likewise, of desiring
the king's touch in scrofulous distempers, seemed to acquire fresh
credit among the people, from the general tenderness which began to
prevail for this virtuous and unhappy monarch.
* Parl. Hist. vol. xv. p. 243, 244.
** Burnet's Memoirs of the Hamiltons.
*** Ludlow. Herbert.
The commissioners rendered his confinement at Holdenby very rigorous;
dismissing his ancient servants, debarring him from visits, and cutting
off all communication with his friends or family. The parliament, though
earnestly applied to by the king, refused to allow his chaplains to
attend him, because they had not taken the covenant. The king refused to
assist at the service exercised according to the directory; because
he had not as yet given his consent to that mode of worship.[*] Such
religious zeal prevailed on both sides; and such was the unhappy and
distracted condition to which it had reduced king and people.
During the time that the king remained in the Scottish army at
Newcastle, died the earl of Essex, the discarded, but still powerful and
popular general of the parliament. His death, in this conjuncture, was
a public misfortune. Fully sensible of the excesses to which affairs
had been carried, and of the worse consequences which were still to be
apprehended, he had resolved to conciliate a peace, and to remedy, as
far as possible, all those ills to which, from mistake rather than any
bad intentions, he had himself so much contributed. The Presbyterian,
or the moderate party among the commons, found themselves considerably
weakened by his death; and the small remains of authority, which still
adhered to the house of peers, were in a manner wholly extinguished.[**]
* Clarendon, voL T. p. 39. Warwick, p. 298.
** Clarendon, vol. v. p. 48.