Shortly after the establishment of the Commonwealth, General Fairfax
(S442) resigned his command, and Cromwell became the sole leader of
the military forces of the country. But the new government, even with
his aid, had no easy task before it.
It had enemies in the Royalists, who, since the King's execution, had
grown stronger; in the Presbyterians, who hated both the "Rump
Parliament" (S450) and the Parliamentary army; finally, it had enemies
in its own ranks, for there were half-crazy fanatics. "Levelers,"[1]
"Come-outers,"[2] and other "cattle and creeping things," who would be
satisfied with nothing but destruction and confusion.
[1] "Levelers": a name given to certain radical republicans who wished
to reduce all ranks and classes to the same level with respect to
political power and privileges.
[2] "Come-outers": those who abandoned all established ways in
government and religion.
Among these there were socialists, or communists, who, like those of
the present day, wished to abolish private property, and establish "an
equal division of unequal earnings," while others declared and acted
out their belief in the coming end of the world. Eventually Cromwell
had to deal with these crack-brained enthusiasts in a decided way,
especially as some of them threatened to assassinate him in order to
hasten the advent of the personal reign of Christ and his saints on
earth.
453. The Late King's Son proclaimed King in Ireland and Scotland;
Dunbar; Worcester (1649-1651).
An attempt of the English Puritan party (S378) to root out Catholicism
in Ireland (1641) had caused a horrible insurrection. The Royalist
party in Ireland now proclaimed Prince Charles, son of the late
Charles I, King. Parliament deputed Cromwell to reduce that country
to order, and to destroy the Royalists. Nothing could have been more
congenial to his "Ironsides" (S445) than such a crusade. They
descended upon the unhappy island (1649), and wiped out the rebellion
in such a whirlwind of fire and slaughter that the horror of the
visitation has never been forgotten. To this day the direst
imprecation a southern Irishman can utter is, "The curse of Cromwell
on ye!"[3]
[3] At Drogheda and Wexford, Cromwell, acting in accordance with the
laws of war of that day, massacred the garrisons that refused to
surrender.
Several years later (1653-1654), Cromwell determined to put in
practice a still more drastic policy. He resolved to repeople a very
large section of southern Ireland by driving out the Roman Catholic
inhabitants and giving their lands to English and Scotch Protestants.
It seemed to him the only effectual way of overcoming the resistance
which that island made to English rule. By the use of military power,
backed up by an Act of Parliament, his generals forced the people to
leave their houses and emigrate to the province of Connaught on the
west coast. Part of that district was so barren and desolate that it
was said, "it had not water enough to drown a man, trees enough to
hang him, or earth enough to bury him." Thousands were compelled to
go into this dreary exile, and hundreds of families who refused were
shipped to the West Indies and sold to the planters as slaves for a
term of years,--a thing often done in that day with prisoners of war.
In Scotland also Prince Charles was looked upon as the legitimate
sovereign by a strong and influential party. He found in the brave
Montrose,[1] who was hanged for treason at Edinburgh, and in other
loyal supporters far better friends than he deserved. The Prince came
to Scotland (1650); while there, he was crowned and took the oath of
the Covenant (S438). It must have been a bitter pill for a man of his
free and easy temperament. But worse was to come, for the Scottish
Puritans made him sign a paper declaring that his father had been a
tyrant and that his mother was an idolater. No wonder the caricatures
of the day represented the Scots as holding the Prince's nose to a
grindstone. Later, Prince Charles rallied a small force to fight for
him, but it was utterly defeated at Dunbar (1650).
[1] See "The Execution of Montrose," in Aytoun's "Lays of the Scottish
Cavaliers." Prince Charles basely abandoned Montrose to his fate.
Twelve months afterward, on the anniversary of his defeat at Dunbar,
the Prince made a second attempt to obtain the crown. At the battle
of Worcester Cromwell again routed his forces and brought the war to
an end. Charles escaped in Shropshire, where he hid for a day in an
oak at Boscobel. After many narrow escapes he at length succeeded in
getting out of the country.