noble persons who were lost in this battle, when the king and the
kingdom were lost in it; though there were above one hundred and fifty
officers, and gentlemen of prime quality, whose memories ought to be
preserved, who were dead on the spot. The enemy left no manner of
barbarous cruelty unexercised that day; and in the pursuit thereof
killed above one hundred women, whereof some were officers' wives of
quality. The king and Prince Rupert with the broken troops marched by
stages to Hereford, where Prince Rupert left the king to hasten to
Bristol, that he might put that place in a state of defence.
Nothing can here be more wondered at than that the king should amuse
himself about forming a new army in counties that had been vexed and
worn out with the oppressions of his own troops, and not have
immediately repaired into the west, where he had an army already formed.
Cromwell having taken Winchester and Basing, the king sent some messages
to Parliament for peace, which were not regarded. A treaty between the
king and the Scots was set on foot by the interposition of the French,
but the parties disagreed about church government. To his son Charles,
Prince of Wales, who had retired to Scilly, the king wrote enjoining him
never to surrender on dishonourable terms.
Having now no other resource, the king placed himself under the
protection of the Scots army at Newark. But at the desire of the Scots
he ordered the surrender of Oxford and all his other garrisons. Also the
Parliament, at the Scots' request, sent propositions of peace to him,
and these proposals were promptly enforced by the Scots. The Chancellor
of Scotland told him that the Parliament, after the battles that had
been fought, had got the strongholds and forts of the kingdom into their
hands, that they had gained a victory over all, and had a strong army to
maintain it, so that they might do what they would with church and
state, that they desired neither him nor any of his race to reign any
longer over them, and that if he declined to yield to the propositions
made to him, all England would join against him to depose him.
With great magnanimity and resolution the king replied that they must
proceed their own way; and that though they had all forsaken him, God
had not. The Scots began to talk sturdily in answer to a demand that
they should deliver up the king's person to Parliament. They denied that
the Parliament had power absolutely to dispose of the king's person
without their approbation; and the Parliament as loudly replied that
they had nothing to do in England but to observe orders. But these
discourses were only kept up till they could adjust accounts between
them, and agree what price should be paid for the delivery of his
person, whom one side was resolved to have, and the other as resolved
not to keep. So they quickly agreed that, upon payment of £200,000 in
hand, and security for as much more upon days agreed upon, they would
deliver up the king into such hands as Parliament should appoint to
receive him.
And upon this infamous contract that excellent prince was in the end of
January, 1647, wickedly given up by his Scottish subjects to those of
the English who were trusted by the Parliament to receive him. He was
brought to his own house at Holmby, in Northants, a place he had taken
much delight in. Removed before long to Hampton Court, he escaped to the
Isle of Wight, where he confided himself to Colonel Hammond and was
lodged in Carisbrooke Castle. To prevent his further escape his old
servants were removed from him.
In a speech in Parliament Cromwell declared that the king was a man of
great parts and a great understanding (faculties they had hitherto
endeavoured to have thought him to be without), but that he was so great
a dissembler and so false a man, that he was not to be trusted. He
concluded therefore that no more messages should be sent to the king,
but that they might enter on those counsels which were necessary without
having further recourse to him, especially as at that very moment he was
secretly treating with the Scottish commissioners, how he might embroil
the nation in a new war, and destroy the Parliament. The king was
removed to Hurst Castle after a vain attempt by Captain Burley to rescue
him.
A committee being appointed to prepare a charge of high treason against
the king, of which Bradshaw was made President, his majesty was brought
from Hurst Castle to St. James's, and it was concluded to have him
publicly tried. From the time of the king's arrival at St. James's, when
he was delivered into the custody of Colonel Tomlinson, he was treated
with much more rudeness and barbarity than ever before. No man was
suffered to see or speak to him but the soldiers who were his guard.
When he was first brought to Westminster Hall, on January 20, 1649,
before their high court of justice, he looked upon them and sat down
without any manifestation of trouble, never stirring his hat; all the
impudent judges sitting covered and fixing their eyes on him, without
the least show of respect. To the charges read out against him the king
replied that for his actions he was accountable to none but God, though
they had always been such as he need not be ashamed of before all the
world.
Several unheard-of insolences which this excellent prince was forced to
submit to before that odious judicatory, his majestic behaviour, the
pronouncing that horrible sentence upon the most innocent person in the
world, the execution of that sentence by the most execrable murder ever
committed since that of our blessed Saviour, and the circumstances
thereof, are all so well-known that the farther mentioning it would but
afflict and grieve the reader, and make the relation itself odious; and
therefore no more shall be said here of that lamentable tragedy, so much
to the dishonour of the nation and the religion professed by it.
* * * * *
LORD MACAULAY
History of England
Thomas Babington Macaulay was born October 25, 1800, and died
December 28, 1859. He was the son of Zachary Macaulay, a West
Indian merchant and noted philanthropist. He brilliantly
distinguished himself as a prizeman at Cambridge, and on
leaving the University devoted himself enthusiastically to
literary pursuits. Fame was speedily won by his contributions
to the "Edinburgh Review," especially by his article on
Milton. Though called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn, in 1826,
Macaulay never practised, but through his strong Whig
sympathies he was drawn into politics, and in 1830 entered
Parliament for the pocket-borough of Calne. He afterwards was
elected M.P. for Edinburgh. Appointed Secretary of the Board
of Control for India, he resided for six years in that
country, returning home in 1838. In 1840 he was made War
Secretary. It was during his official career that he wrote his
magnificent "Lays of Ancient Rome." An immense sensation was
produced by his remarkable "Essays," issued in three volumes;
but even greater was the popularity achieved by his "History
of England." Macaulay was one of the most versatile men of his
time. His easy and graceful style was the vehicle of
extraordinary acquisitions, his learning being prodigious and
his memory phenomenal.
_England in Earlier Times_
I purpose to write the History of England from the accession of King
James II. down to a time within the memory of men still living. I shall
recount the errors which, in a few months, alienated a loyal gentry and
priesthood from the House of Stuart. I shall trace the course of that
revolution which terminated the long struggle between our sovereigns and
their parliaments, and bound up together the rights of the people and
the title of the reigning dynasty.
Unless I greatly deceive myself, the general effect of this chequered
narrative, faithfully recording disasters mingled with triumphs, will be
to excite thankfulness in all religious minds, and hope in the breasts
of all patriots. For the history of our country during the period
concerned is eminently the history of physical, of moral, and of
intellectual improvement.
Nothing in the early existence of Britain indicated the greatness she
was destined to attain. Of the western provinces which obeyed the
Caesars, she was the last conquered, and the first flung away. Though
she had been subjugated by the Roman arms, she received only a faint
tincture of Roman arts and letters. No magnificent remains of Roman
porches and aqueducts are to be found in Britain, and the scanty and
superficial civilisation which the islanders acquired from their
southern masters was effaced by the calamities of the 5th century.
From the darkness that followed the ruin of the Western Empire Britain
emerges as England. The conversion of the Saxon colonists to
Christianity was the first of a long series of salutary revolutions. The
Church has many times been compared to the ark of which we read in the
Book of Genesis; but never was the resemblance more perfect than during
that evil time when she rode alone, amidst darkness and tempest, on the
deluge beneath which all the great works of ancient power and wisdom lay
entombed, bearing within her that feeble germ from which a second and
more glorious civilisation was to spring.
Even the spiritual supremacy of the Pope was, in the dark ages,
productive of far more good than evil. Its effect was to unite the
nations of Western Europe in one great commonwealth. Into this
federation our Saxon ancestors were now admitted. Learning followed in
the train of Christianity. The poetry and eloquence of the Augustan age
was assiduously studied in the Mercian and Northumbrian monasteries. The
names of Bede and Alcuin were justly celebrated throughout Europe. Such
was the state of our country when, in the 9th century, began the last
great migration of the northern barbarians.
Large colonies of Danish adventurers established themselves in our
island, and for many years the struggle continued between the two fierce
Teutonic breeds, each being alternately paramount. At length the North
ceased to send forth fresh streams of piratical emigrants, and from that
time the mutual aversion of Danes and Saxons began to subside.
Intermarriage became frequent. The Danes learned the religion of the
Saxons, and the two dialects of one widespread language were blended.
But the distinction between the two nations was by no means effaced,
when an event took place which prostrated both at the feet of a third
people.
The Normans were then the foremost race of Christendom. Originally
rovers from Scandinavia, conspicuous for their valour and ferocity, they
had, after long being the terror of the Channel, founded a mighty state
which gradually extended its influence from its own Norman territory
over the neighbouring districts of Brittany and Maine. They embraced
Christianity and adopted the French tongue. They renounced the brutal
intemperance of northern races and became refined, polite and
chivalrous, their nobles being distinguished by their graceful bearing
and insinuating address.
The battle of Hastings, and the events which followed it, not only
placed a Duke of Normandy on the English throne, but gave up the whole
population of England to the tyranny of the Norman race. The subjugation
of a nation has seldom, even in Asia, been more complete. During the
century and a half which followed the Conquest, there is, to speak
strictly, no English history. Had the Plantagenets, as at one time
seemed likely, succeeded in uniting all France under their government,
it is probable that England would never have had an independent
existence. England owes her escape from dependence on French thought and
customs to separation from Normandy, an event which her historians have
generally represented as disastrous. The talents and even the virtues of
her first six French kings were a curse to her. The follies and vices of
the seventh, King John, were her salvation. He was driven from Normandy,
and in England the two races were drawn together, both being alike
aggrieved by the tyranny of a bad king. From that moment the prospects
brightened, and here commences the history of the English nation.
In no country has the enmity of race been carried further than in
England. In no country has that enmity been more completely effaced.
Early in the fourteenth century the amalgamation of the races was all
but complete: and it was soon made manifest that a people inferior to
none existing in the world has been formed by the mixture of three
branches of the great Teutonic family with each other, and with the
aboriginal Britons. A period of more than a hundred years followed,
during which the chief object of the English was, by force of arms, to
establish a great empire on the Continent. The effect of the successes
of Edward III. and Henry V. was to make France for a time a province of
England. A French king was brought prisoner to London; an English king
was crowned at Paris.
The arts of peace were not neglected by our fathers during that period.
English thinkers aspired to know, or dared to doubt, where bigots had
been content to wonder and to believe. The same age which produced the
Black Prince and Derby, Chandos and Hawkwood, produced also Geoffrey
Chaucer and John Wycliffe. In so splendid and imperial a manner did the
English people, properly so called, first take place among the nations
of the world. But the spirit of the French people was at last aroused,
and after many desperate struggles and with many bitter regrets, our
ancestors gave up the contest.
_The First Civil War_
Cooped up once more within the limits of the island, the warlike people
employed in civil strife those arms which had been the terror of Europe.
Two aristocratic factions, headed by two branches of the royal family,
engaged in the long and fierce struggle known as the Wars of the White
and Red Roses. It was at length universally acknowledged that the claims
of all the contending Plantagenets were united in the House of Tudor.
It is now very long since the English people have by force subverted a
government. During the 160 years which preceded the union of the Roses,
nine kings reigned in England. Six of those kings were deposed. Five
lost their lives as well as their crowns. Yet it is certain that all
through that period the English people were far better governed than
were the Belgians under Philip the Good, or the French under that Louis
who was styled the Father of his people. The people, skilled in the use
of arms, had in reserve that check of physical force which brought the
proudest king to reason.
One wise policy was during the Middle Ages pursued by England alone.
Though to the monarch belonged the power of the sword, the nation
retained the power of the purse. The Continental nations ought to have
acted likewise; as they failed to conserve this safeguard of
representation with taxation, the consequence was that everywhere
excepting in England parliamentary institutions ceased to exist. England
owed this singular felicity to her insular situation.
The great events of the reigns of the Tudors and the Stuarts were
followed by a crisis when the crown passed from Charles II. to his
brother, James II. The new king commenced his administration with a
large measure of public good will. He was a prince who had been driven
into exile by a faction which had tried to rob him of his birthright, on
the ground that he was a deadly enemy to the religion and laws of
England. He had triumphed, he was on the throne, and his first act was
to declare that he would defend the Church and respect the rights of the
people.
But James had not been many hours king when violent disputes arose. The
first was between the two heads of the law, concerning customs and the
levying of taxes. Moreover, the time drew near for summoning Parliament,
and the king's mind was haunted by an apprehension, not to be mentioned,
even at this distance of time, without shame and indignation. He was
afraid that by summoning his Parliament he might incur the displeasure
of the King of France. Rochester, Godolphin, and Sunderland, who formed
the interior Cabinet, were perfectly aware that their late master,
Charles II., had been in the habit of receiving money from the court of
Versailles. They understood the expediency of keeping Louis in good
humour, but knew that the summoning of the legislature was not a matter
of choice.
As soon as the French king heard of the death of Charles and of the
accession of James, he hastened to send to the latter a munificent
donation of £35,000. James was not ashamed to shed tears of delight and
gratitude. Young Lord Churchill was sent as extraordinary ambassador to
Versailles to assure Louis of the gratitude and affection of the King of
England. This brilliant young soldier had in his 23rd year distinguished
himself amongst thousands of brave men by his serene intrepidity when
engaged with his regiment in operations, together with French forces
against Holland. Unhappily, the splendid qualities of John Churchill
were mingled with alloy of the most sordid kind.
_Subservience to France_
The accession of James in 1685 had excited hopes and fears in every
Continental court. One government alone, that of Spain, wished that the
trouble that had distracted England for three generations, might be
eternal. All other governments, whether republican or monarchical,
Protestant or Romanist, wished to see those troubles happily terminated.
Under the kings of the House of Stuart, she had been a blank in the map
of Europe. That species of force which, in the 14th century, had enabled
her to humble France and Spain, had ceased to exist. The Government was
no longer a limited monarchy after the fashion of the Middle Ages; it
had not yet become one after the modern fashion. The chief business of
the sovereign was to infringe the privileges of the legislature; that of
the legislature was to encroach on the prerogatives of the sovereign.
The king readily received foreign aid, which relieved him from the
misery of being dependent on a mutinous Parliament. The Parliament
refused to the king the means of supporting the national honour abroad,
from an apprehension, too well founded, that those means might be
employed in order to establish despotism at home. The effect of these
jealousies was that our country, with all her vast resources, was of as
little weight in Christendom as the duchy of Savoy or the duchy of
Lorraine, and certainly of far less weight than the small province of
Holland. France was deeply interested in prolonging this state of
things. All other powers were deeply interested in bringing it to a
close. The general wish of Europe was that James should govern in
conformity with law and with public opinion. From the Escurial itself
came letters expressing an earnest hope that the new King of England
would be on good terms with his Parliament and his people. From the
Vatican itself came cautions against immoderate zeal for the Catholic
faith.
The king early put the loyalty of his Protestant friends to the proof.
While he was a subject he had been in the habit of hearing mass with
closed doors in a small oratory which had been fitted up for his wife.
He now ordered the doors to be thrown open, in order that all who came
to pay him their duty might see the ceremony. Soon a new pulpit was
erected in the palace, and during Lent sermons were preached there by
Popish divines, to the great displeasure of zealous churchmen.
A more serious innovation followed. Passion week came, and the king
determined to hear mass with the same pomp with which his predecessors
had been surrounded. The rites of the Church of Rome were once more,
after an interval of 127 years, performed at Westminster on Easter
Sunday with regal splendour.
_Monmouth and his Fate_
The English exiles in Holland induced the Duke of Monmouth, a natural
son of Charles II., to attempt an invasion of England, and on June 11,
1685, he landed with about 80 men at Lyme, where he knelt on the shore,
thanked God for having preserved the friends of liberty and pure
religion from the perils of the sea, and implored the divine blessing on
what was yet to be done by land. The little town was soon in an uproar
with men running to and fro, and shouting "A Monmouth! a Monmouth! the
Protestant religion!" An insurrection was inaugurated and recruits came
in rapidly. But Parliament was loyal, and the Commons ordered a bill of
attainder against Monmouth for high treason. The rebel army was defeated
in a fight at Sedgmore, and Monmouth in his misery complained bitterly
of the evil counsellors who had induced him to quit his happy retreat in
Brabant. Fleeing from the field of battle the unfortunate duke was found
hidden in a ditch, was taken to London, lodged in the Tower, and
beheaded, with the declaration on his lips, "I die a Protestant of the
Church of England."
After the execution of Monmouth the counties that had risen against the
Government endured all the cruelties that a ferocious soldiery let loose
on them could inflict. The number of victims butchered cannot now be
ascertained, the vengeance being left to the dissolute Colonel Percy
Kirke. But, a still more cruel massacre was schemed. Early in September
Judge Jeffreys set out on that circuit of which the memory will last as
long as our race or language. Opening his commission at Winchester, he
ordered Alice Lisle to be burnt alive simply because she had given a
meal and a hiding place to wretched fugitives entreating her protection.
The clergy of Winchester remonstrated with the brutal judge, but the
utmost that could be obtained was that the sentence should be commuted
from burning to beheading.
_The Brutal Judge_
Then began the judicial massacre known as the Bloody Assizes. Within a
few weeks Jeffreys boasted that he had hanged more traitors than all his
predecessors together since the Conquest. Nearly a thousand prisoners
were also transported into slavery in the West Indian islands. No
English sovereign has ever given stronger proofs of a cruel nature than
James II. At his court Jeffreys, when he had done his work, leaving
carnage, mourning, and terror behind him, was cordially welcomed, for he
was a judge after his master's own heart. James had watched the circuit
with interest and delight. At a later period, when all men of all
parties spoke with horror of the Bloody Assizes, the wicked judge and
the wicked king attempted to vindicate themselves by throwing the blame
on each other.
The king soon went further. He made no secret of his intention to exert
vigorously and systematically for the destruction of the Established
Church all the powers he possessed as her head. He plainly declared that
by a wise dispensation of Providence, the Act of Supremacy would be the
means of healing the fatal breach which it had caused. Henry and
Elizabeth had usurped a dominion which rightfully belonged to the Holy
See. That dominion had, in the course of succession, descended to an
orthodox prince, and would by him be held in trust for the Holy See. He
was authorised by law to suppress spiritual abuses; and the first
spiritual abuse which he would suppress would be the liberty which the
Anglican clergy assumed of defending their own religion, and of
attacking the doctrines of Rome.
No course was too bold for James. To confer a high office in the
Established Church on an avowed enemy of that Church was indeed a bold
violation of the laws and of the royal word. The Deanery of Christchurch
became vacant. It was the head of a Cathedral. John Massey, notoriously
a member of the Church of Rome, and destitute of any other
recommendation, was appointed. Soon an altar was decked at which mass
was daily celebrated. To the Pope's Nuncio the king said that what had
thus been done at Oxford should very soon be done at Cambridge.
The temper of the nation was such as might well make James hesitate.
During some months discontent steadily and rapidly rose. The celebration
of Roman Catholic worship had long been prohibited by Act of Parliament.
During several generations no Roman Catholic clergyman had dared to
exhibit himself in any public place with the badges of his office. Every
Jesuit who set foot in this country was liable to be hanged, drawn, and
quartered.