THE PROTECTORATE.
Cromwell Calls The Little Parliament--Dissolves It--Makes Himself
Protector--Subjugation Of The Scottish Royalists--Peace With The Dutch--New
Parliament--Its Dissolution--Insurrection In England--Breach With
Spain--Troubles In Piedmont--Treaty With France.
Whoever has studied the character of Cromwell will have remarked the
anxiety with which he laboured to conceal his real designs from the notice
of his adherents. If credit were due to his assertions, he cherished none
of those aspiring thoughts which agitate the breasts of the ambitious; the
consciousness of his weakness taught him to shrink from the responsibility
of power; and at every step in his ascent to greatness, he affected to
sacrifice his own feelings to the judgment and importunity of others. But
in dissolving the late parliament he had deviated from this his ordinary
course: he had been compelled to come boldly forward by the obstinacy or
the policy of his opponents, who during twelve months had triumphed over
his intrigues, and were preparing to pass an act which would place new
obstacles in his path. Now, however, that he had forcibly taken into his
own hands the reins of government, it remained for him to determine whether
he should retain them in his grasp, or deliver them over to others. He
preferred the latter for the maturity of time was not yet come: he saw
that, among the officers who blindly submitted to be the tools of his
ambition, there were several who would abandon the idol of their worship,
whenever they should suspect him of a design to subvert the public liberty.
But if he parted with power for the moment, it was in such manner as to
warrant the hope that it would shortly return to him under another form,
not as won by the sword of the military, but as deposited in his hands by
the judgment of parliament.
It could not escape the sagacity of the lord-general that the fanatics,
with whose aid he had subverted the late government, were not the men to be
intrusted with the destinies of the three kingdoms; yet he deemed it his
interest to indulge them in their wild notions of civil and religious
reformation, and to suffer himself for a while to be guided by their
counsels. Their first measure was to publish a Vindication of their
Proceedings.[1] The long parliament they pronounced[a] incapable "of
answering those ends which God, his people, and the whole nation,
expected." Had it been permitted to sit a day longer, it would "at one blow
have laid in the dust the interest of all honest men and of their glorious
cause." In its place the council of war would "call to the government
persons of approved fidelity and honesty;" and therefore required "public
officers and ministers to proceed in their respective places," and conjured
"those who feared and loved the name of the Lord, to be instant with him
day and night in their behalf."[2]
[Footnote 1: Printed by Henry Hills and Thomas Brewster, printers to the
army, 1653.]
[Footnote 2: Ludlow, ii. 24. Thurloe, i. 289, 395. Sir H. Vane, after all
the affronts which he had received, was offered a place in the council; but
he replied that, though the reign of the saints was begun, he would defer
his share in it till he should go to heaven.--Thurloe, i. 265.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. April 22.]
They next proceeded to establish[a] a council of state. Some proposed that
it should consist of ten members, some of seventy, after the model of the
Jewish Sanhedrim; and others of thirteen, in imitation of Christ and his
twelve apostles. The last project was adopted as equally scriptural, and
more convenient. With Cromwell, in the place of lord president, were joined
four civilians and eight officers of high rank; so that the army still
retained its ascendancy, and the council of state became in fact a military
council.
From this moment for some months it would have embarrassed any man to
determine where the supreme power resided. Some of the judges were
superseded by others: new commissioners of the treasury and admiralty were
appointed; even the monthly assessment of one hundred and twenty thousand
pounds was continued for an additional half-year; and yet these and similar
acts, all of them belonging to the highest authority in the state, appeared
to emanate from different sources; these from the council of war, those
from the council of state, and several from the lord-general himself,
sometimes with the advice of one or other, sometimes without the advice of
either of these councils.[1]
At the same time the public mind was agitated by the circulation of reports
the most unfounded, and the advocacy of projects the most contradictory.
This day it was rumoured that Cromwell had offered to recall
[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 556, 557, 559. Leicester's Journal, 142. Merc.
Polit. No. 157.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. April 30.]
the royal family, on condition that Charles should marry one of his
daughters; the next, that he intended to ascend the throne himself, and,
for that purpose, had already prepared the insignia of royalty. Here,
signatures were solicited to a petition for the re-establishment of the
ancient constitution; there, for a government by successive parliaments.
Some addresses declared the conviction of the subscribers that the late
dissolution was necessary; others prayed that the members might be allowed
to return to the house, for the sole purpose of legally dissolving
themselves by their own authority. In the mean while, the lord-general
continued to wear the mask of humility and godliness; he prayed and
preached with more than his wonted fervour; and his piety was rewarded,
according to the report of his confidants, with frequent communications
from the Holy Spirit.[1] In the month of May he spent eight days in close
consultation with his military divan; and the result was a determination to
call a new parliament, but a parliament modelled on principles unknown to
the history of this or of any other nation. It was to be a parliament of
saints, of men who had not offered themselves as candidates, or been chosen
by the people, but whose chief qualification consisted in holiness of life,
and whose call to the office of legislators came from the choice of the
council. With this view the ministers took the sense of the "congregational
churches" in the several counties; the returns contained the names of the
persons, "faithful, fearing God, and hating covetousness," who were deemed
qualified for this high and important trust; and out of these the council
in the presence of the lord-general selected one hundred and thirty-nine
[Footnote 1: Thurloe, i. 256, 289, 306.]
representatives for England, six for Wales, six for Ireland, and five
for Scotland.[1] To each of them was sent[a] a writ of summons under the
signature of Cromwell, requiring his personal attendance at Whitehall on
a certain day, to take upon himself the trust, and to serve the office of
member for some particular place. Of the surprise with which the writs were
received by many the reader may judge. Yet, out of the whole number, two
only returned a refusal: by most the very extraordinary manner of their
election was taken as a sufficient proof that the call was from heaven.[2]
On the appointed day, the 4th of July, one hundred and twenty of these
faithful and godly men attended[b] in the council-chamber at Whitehall.
They were seated on chairs round the table; and the lord-general took his
station near the middle window, supported on each side by a numerous body
of officers. He addressed the company standing, and it was believed by his
admirers, perhaps by himself, "that the Spirit of God spoke in him and by
him." Having vindicated in a long narrative the dissolution of the late
parliament, he congratulated the persons present on the high office to
which they had been called. It was not of their own seeking. It had come to
them from God by the choice of the army, the usual channel through which in
these latter days the Divine mercies had been dispensed to the nation. He
would not
[Footnote 1: Thurloe, i. 395. Compare the list of the members in Heath,
350, with the letters in Milton's State Papers, 92, 94, 96.]
[Footnote 2: Thurloe, i. 274. Whitelock, 547. "It was a great satisfaction
and encouragement to some that their names had been presented as to that
service, by the churches and other godly persons."--Exact Relation of the
Proceedings, &c. of the last parliament, 1654, p. 2.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. June 6.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. July 4.]
charge them, but he would pray that they might "exercise the judgment of
mercy and truth," and might "be faithful with the saints," however those
saints might differ respecting forms of worship. His enthusiasm kindled as
he proceeded; and the visions of futurity began to open to his imagination.
It was, he exclaimed, marvellous in his eyes; they were called to war with
the Lamb against his enemies; they were come to the threshold of the door,
to the very edge of the promises and prophecies; God was about to bring
his people out of the depths of the sea; perhaps to bring the Jews home to
their station out of the isles of the sea. "God," he exclaimed, "shakes the
mountains and they reel; God hath a high hill, too, and his hill is as the
hill of Bashan; and the chariots of God are twenty thousand of angels; and
God will dwell upon this hill for ever." At the conclusion "of this grave,
Christian, and seasonable speech," he placed on the table an instrument
under his own hand and seal, intrusting to them the supreme authority for
the space of fifteen months from that day, then to be transmitted by them
to another assembly, the members of which they should previously have
chosen.[1]
The next day[a] was devoted by the new representatives to exercises of
religion, not in any of the churches of the capital, but in the room where
the late parliament was accustomed to sit. Thirteen of the most gifted
among them successively prayed and preached, from eight in the morning till
six in the evening; and several affirmed "that they had never enjoyed so
much of the spirit and presence of Christ in any of the meetings
[Footnote 1: Proceedings, No. 197. Parl. Hist. xx. 153. Milton's State
Papers, 106. This last appears to me a more faithful copy than that printed
by authority.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. July 5.]
and exercises of religion in all their lives, as they did on that day." As
it was solely to their reputation for superior godliness that the majority
of the members owed their election, the lord-general probably expected
from them little opposition to his measures; but they no sooner applied to
business than he saw reason to be alarmed at the promptitude and resolution
which they displayed. Though not distinguished by their opulence, they
were men of independent fortunes;[1] during the late revolutions they had
learned to think for themselves on the momentous questions which divided
the nation; and their fanaticism, by converting their opinions into matters
of conscience, had superadded an obstinacy of character not easily to be
subdued. To Cromwell himself they always behaved with respect. They invited
him with four of his officers to sit as a member among them; and they made
him the offer of the palace of Hampton Court in exchange for his house of
Newhall. But they believed and showed that they were the masters. They
scorned to submit to the dictation of their servants; and, if they often
followed the advice, they as often rejected the recommendations and amended
the resolutions of the council of state.
One of the first subjects which engaged their attention was a contest, in
which the lord-general, with all his power, was foiled by the boldness of a
single individual.
[Footnote 1: They have been generally described as men in trade, and of
no education; and because one of them, Praise-God Barebone, was a
leather-dealer in Fleet-street, the assembly is generally known by the
denomination of Barebone's parliament.--Heath, 350. It is, however,
observed by one of them, that, "if all had not very bulky estates, yet they
had free estates, and were not of broken fortunes, or such as owed
great sums of money, and stood in need of privilege and protection as
formerly."--Exact Relation, 19. See also Whitelock, 559.]
At the very moment when he hoped to reap the fruit of his dissimulation and
intrigues, he found himself unexpectedly confronted by the same fearless
and enterprising demagogue, who, at the birth of the commonwealth, had
publicly denounced his ambition, and excited the soldiery against him.
Lilburne, on the dissolution of the long parliament, had requested
permission of Cromwell to return from banishment. Receiving no answer,
he came[a] over at his own risk,--a bold but imprudent step; for what
indulgence could he expect from that powerful adventurer, whom he had so
often denounced to the nation as "a thief, a robber, an usurper, and a
murderer?" On the day after his arrival in the capital he was committed to
Newgate. It seemed a case which might safely be intrusted to a jury. His
return by the act of banishment had been made felony; and of his identity
there could be no doubt. But his former partisans did not abandon him
in his distress. Petitions with thousands of signatures were presented,
praying for a respite of the trial till the meeting of the parliament;
and Cromwell, willing, perhaps, to shift the odium from himself to that
assembly, gave his consent. Lilburne petitioned the new parliament; his
wife petitioned; his friends from the neighbouring counties petitioned;
the apprentices in London did not only petition, they threatened. But the
council laid before the house the depositions of spies and informers
to prove that Lilburne, during his banishment, had intrigued with the
royalists against the commonwealth;[1] and the prisoner himself, by the
intemperance
[Footnote 1: It appears from Clarendon's Letters at the time, that Lilburne
was intimate with Buckingham, and that Buckingham professed to expect much
from him in behalf of the royal cause; while, on the contrary, Clarendon
believed that Lilburne would do nothing for it, and Buckingham not much
more.--Clarendon Papers, iii. 75, 79, 98.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1653. June 15.]
of his publications, contributed to irritate members. They refused to
interfere; and he was arraigned[a] at the sessions, where, instead of
pleading, he kept his prosecutors at bay during five successive days,
appealing to Magna Charta and the rights of Englishmen, producing
exceptions against the indictment, and demanding his oyer, or the
specification of the act for his banishment, of the judgment on which the
act was founded, and of the charge which led to that judgment. The court
was perplexed. They knew not how to refuse; for he claimed it as his right,
and necessary for his defence. On the other hand, they could not grant it,
because no record of the charge or judgment was known to exist.
After an adjournment[b] to the next sessions, two days were spent in
arguing the exceptions of the prisoner, and his right to the oyer. At
length, on a threat that the court would proceed to judgment, he pleaded[c]
not guilty. The trial lasted three days. His friends, to the amount of
several thousands, constantly attended; some hundreds of them were said to
be armed for the purpose of rescuing him, if he were condemned; and papers
were circulated that, if Lilburne perished, twenty thousand individuals
would perish with him. Cromwell, to encourage the court, posted two
companies of soldiers in the immediate vicinity; quartered three regiments
of infantry, and one of cavalry, in the city; and ordered a numerous force
to march towards the metropolis. The particulars of the trial are lost. We
only know that the prosecutors were content with showing[d] that Lilburne
was the person named in the act; that the court directed the jury to speak
only to
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. July 13.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1653. August 11.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1653. August 16.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1653. August 1.]
that fact; and that the prisoner made a long and vehement defence, denying
the authority of the late parliament to banish him, because legally it had
expired at the king's death, and because the House of Commons was not a
court of justice; and, maintaining to the jury, that they were judges of
the law as well as of the fact; that, unless they believed him guilty of
crime, they could not conscientiously return a verdict which would consign
him to the gallows; and that an act of parliament, if it were evidently
unjust, was essentially void, and no justification to men who pronounced
according to their oaths. At a late hour at night the jury declared[a]
him not guilty; and the shout of triumph, received and prolonged by his
partisans, reached the ears of Cromwell at Whitehall.
It was not, however, the intention of the lord-general that his victim
should escape. The examination[b] of the judges and jurymen before the
council, with a certified copy of certain opprobrious expressions, used by
Lilburne in his defence, was submitted[c] to the house, and an order was
obtained that, notwithstanding his acquittal, he should be confined[d]
in the Tower, and that no obedience should be paid to any writ of habeas
corpus issued from the court of Upper Bench in his behalf. These measures
gave great offence. It was complained, and with justice, that the men who
pretended to take up arms against the king in support of the liberties of
Englishmen, now made no scruple of trampling the same liberties under foot,
whenever it suited their resentment or interest.[1]
[Footnote 1: See Thurloe, i. 324, 367, 368, 369, 429, 430, 435, 441,
442, 451, 453; Exact Relation, p. 5; Whitelock, 558, 560, 561, 563, 591;
Journals, July 13, 14, Aug. 2, 22, 27, Nov. 26. In 1656 or 1657 this
turbulent demagogue joined the society of Friends. He died Aug. 29, 1657,
at Eltham, whence, on the 31st, the body of the meek Quaker was conveyed
for sepulture to the new church-yard adjoining to Bedlam.--Cromwelliana, p.
168.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. August 20.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1653. August 22.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1653. August 27.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1653. Nov. 26.]
In the prosecution and punishment of Lilburne, the parliament was
unanimous; on most other points it was divided into two parties distinctly
marked; that of the Independents, who, inferior in number, superior in
talents, adhered to the lord-general and the council, and that of the
Anabaptists, who, guided by religious and political fanaticism, ranged
themselves under the banner of Major-General Harrison as their leader.
These "sectaries" anticipated the reign of Christ with his saints upon
earth, they believed themselves called by God to prepare the way for this
marvellous revolution; and they considered it their duty to commence by
reforming all the abuses which they could discover either in church or
state.[1]
In their proceedings there was much to which no one, who had embarked with
them in the same cause, could reasonably object. They established a system
of the most rigid economy; the regulations of the excise were revised;
the constitution of the treasury was simplified and improved; unnecessary
offices were totally abolished, and the salaries of the others considerably
reduced; the public accounts were subjected to the most rigorous scrutiny;
new facilities were given to the sale of the lands now considered as
national property. Provision was made for the future registration of
marriages, births, and deaths.[2] But the fanaticism
[Footnote 1: Thurloe, i. 392, 396, 501, 515, 523.]
[Footnote 2: For the validity of marriage, if the parties were minors, was
required the consent of the parents or guardians, and the age of sixteen in
the male, of fourteen in the female; and in all cases that the names of the
parties intending to be married should be given to the registrar of the
parish, whose duty it was to proclaim them, according to their wish, either
in the church after the morning exercise on three successive Lord's days,
or in the market-place on three successive market-days. Having received
from him a certificate of the proclamations, containing any exceptions
which might have been made, they were to exhibit it to a magistrate, and,
before him, to pledge their faith to each other "in the presence of God,
the searcher of hearts." The religious ceremony was optional, the civil
necessary for the civil effects of marriage,--See the Journals for the
month of August, and Scobell.]
of their language, and the extravagance of their notions, exposed them
to ridicule; their zeal for reform, by interfering with the interests of
several different bodies at the same time, multiplied their enemies; and,
before the dissolution of the house, they had earned, justly or unjustly,
the hatred of the army, of the lawyers, of the gentry, and of the clergy.
1. It was with visible reluctance that they voted the monthly tax of one
hundred and twenty thousand pounds for the support of the military and
naval establishments. They were, indeed, careful not to complain of the
amount; their objections were pointed against the nature of the tax, and
the inequality of the assessments;[1] but this pretext could not hide their
real object from the jealousy of their adversaries, and their leaders were
openly charged with seeking to reduce the number of the army, that they
might lessen the influence of the general.
2. From the collection of the taxes they proceeded to the administration of
the law. In almost every petition presented of late years to the supreme
authority of the nation, complaints had been made of the court of Chancery,
of its dilatory proceedings, of the enormous expense which it entailed on
its suitors, and of the suspicious nature of its decisions, so liable to be
influenced by the personal partialities and interests of
[Footnote 1: In some places men paid but two; in others, ten or twelve
shillings in the pound.--Exact Relation, 10. The assessments fell on the
owners, not on the tenants.--Thurloe, i. 755.]
the judge.[1] The long parliament had not ventured to grapple with the
subject; but this, the little parliament, went at once to the root of the
evil, and voted that the whole system should be abolished. But then, came
the appalling difficulty, how to dispose of the causes actually pending
in the court, and how to substitute in its place a less objectionable
tribunal. Three bills introduced for that purpose were rejected as
inapplicable or insufficient: the committee prepared a fourth; it was read
twice in one day, and committed, and would probably have passed, had
not the subsequent proceedings been cut short by the dissolution of the
parliament.[2]
3. But the reformers were not content with the abolition of a single court;
they resolved to cleanse the whole of the Augean stable. What, they asked,
made up the law? A voluminous collection of statutes, many of them almost
unknown, and many inapplicable to existing circumstances; the dicta of
judges, perhaps ignorant, frequently partial and interested; the reports of
cases, but so contradictory that they were
[Footnote 1: "It was confidently reported by knowing gentlemen of worth,
that there were depending in that court 23,000 (2 or 3,000?) causes; that
some of them had been there depending five, some ten, some twenty, some
thirty years; and that there had been spent in causes many hundreds,
nay, thousands of pounds, to the utter undoing of many families."--Exact
Relation, 12.]
[Footnote 2: Journals, Aug. 5, Oct. 17, 23, Nov. 3. Exact Relation, 12-15.
The next year, however, Cromwell took the task into his own hands; and, in
1655, published an ordinance, consisting of sixty-seven articles, "for
the better regulating and limiting the jurisdiction of the high court of
Chancery." Widrington and Whitelock, the commissioners of the great seal,
and Lenthall, master of the rolls, informed him by letter, that they had
sought the Lord, but did not feel themselves free to act according to the
ordinance. The protector took the seals from the two first, and gave
them Fiennes and Lisle; Lenthall overcame his scruples, and remained
in office.--See the ordinance in Scobell, 324; the objections to it in
Whitelock, 621.]
regularly marshalled in hosts against each other; and the usages of
particular districts, only to be ascertained through the treacherous
memories of the most aged of the inhabitants. Englishmen had a right to
know the laws by which they were to be governed; it was easy to collect
from the present system all that was really useful; to improve it by
necessary additions; and to comprise the whole within the small compass of
a pocket volume. With this view, it was resolved to compose a new body of
law; the task was assigned to a committee; and a commencement was made by a
revision of the statutes respecting treason and murder.[1] But these votes
and proceedings scattered alarm through the courts at Westminster, and
hundreds of voices, and almost as many pens, were employed to protect from
ruin the venerable fabric of English jurisprudence. They ridiculed the
presumption of these ignorant and fanatical legislators, ascribed to them
the design of substituting the law of Moses for the law of the land, and
conjured the people to unite in defence of their own "birthright and
inheritance," for the preservation of which so many miseries had been
endured, so much blood had been shed.[2]
4. From men of professed sanctity much had been expected in favour of
religion. The sincerity of their seal they proved by the most convincing
test,--an act for the extirpation of popish priests and Jesuits, and the
disposal of two-thirds of the real and personal
[Footnote 1: Journals, Aug. 18, 19, Oct. 20. Exact Relation, 15-18.]
[Footnote 2: The charge of wishing to introduce the law of God was
frequently repeated by Cromwell. It owed its existence to this, that many
would not allow of the punishment of death for theft, or of the distinction
between manslaughter and murder, because no such things are to be found in
the law of Moses.--Exact Relation, 17.]
estates of popish recusants.[1] After this preliminary skirmish with
antichrist, they proceeded to attack Satan himself "in his stronghold" of
advowsons. It was, they contended, contrary to reason, that any private
individual should possess the power of imposing a spiritual guide upon
his neighbours; and therefore they resolved that presentations should he
abolished, and the choice of the minister be vested in the body of the
parishioners; a vote which taught the patrons of livings to seek the
protection of the lord-general against the oppression of the parliament.
From advowsons, the next step was to tithes. At the commencement of the
session, after a long debate, it was generally understood that tithes ought
to be done away with, and in their place a compensation be made to the
impropriators, and a decent maintenance be provided for the clergy. The
great subject of dispute was, which question should have the precedence
in point of time, the abolition of the impost, or the substitution of the
equivalent. For five months the committee intrusted with the subject was
silent; now, to prevent, as it was thought, the agitation of the question
of advowsons, they presented a report respecting the method of ejecting
scandalous, and settling godly, ministers; to which they appended their
own opinion, that incumbents, rectors, and impropriators had a property in
tithes. This report provoked a debate of five days. When the question was
put on the first part, though the committee had mustered all the force of
the Independents in its favour, it was rejected by a
[Footnote 1: To procure ready money for the treasury, it was proposed to
allow recusants to redeem the two-thirds for their lives, at four years'
purchase. This amendment passed, but with great opposition, on the ground
that it amounted to a toleration of idolatry.--Ibid, ii. Thurloe, i. 553.]
majority of two. The second part, respecting the property in tithes, was
not put to the vote; its fate was supposed to be included in that of the
former; and it was rumoured through the capital that the parliament had
voted the abolition of tithes, and with them of the ministry, which derived
its maintenance from tithes.[1]
Here it should be noticed that, on every Monday during the session, Feakes
and Powell, two Anabaptist preachers, had delivered weekly lectures
to numerous audiences at Blackfriars. They were eloquent enthusiasts,
commissioned, as they fancied, by the Almighty, and fearless of any earthly
tribunal. They introduced into their sermons most of the subjects discussed
in parliament, and advocated the principles of their sect with a force and
extravagance which alarmed Cromwell and the council. Their favourite topic
was the Dutch war. God, they maintained, had given Holland into the hands
of the English; it was to be the landing-place of the saints, whence
they should proceed to pluck the w---- of Babylon from her chair and to
establish the kingdom of Christ on the continent; and they threatened with
every kind of temporal and everlasting woe the man who should advise peace
on any other terms than the incorporation of the United Provinces with the
commonwealth of England.[2] When it was known that Cromwell had receded
from this demand, their indignation
[Footnote 1: Journals, July 15-19, Nov. 17, Dec. 1, 6-10. Exact Relation,
418-424.]
[Footnote 2: Beverning, one of the Dutch ambassadors, went to the meeting
on one of these occasions. In a letter, he says:--"The scope and intention
is to preach down governments, and to stir up the people against the united
Netherlands. Being then in the assembly of the saints, I heard one prayer,
two sermons. But, good God! what cruel and abominable, and most horrid
trumpets of fire, murder, and flame."--Thurloe, i. 442.]
stripped the pope of many of those titles with which he had so long been
honoured by the Protestant churches, and the lord-general was publicly
declared to be the beast in the Apocalypse, the old dragon, and the man of
sin. Unwilling to invade the liberty of religious meetings, he for some
time bore these insults with an air of magnanimity: at last he summoned[a]
the two preachers before himself and the council. But the heralds of the
Lord of Hosts quailed not before the servants of an earthly commonwealth:
they returned rebuke for rebuke, charged Cromwell with an unjustifiable
assumption of power, and departed from the conference unpunished and
unabashed.[1]
By the public the sermons at Blackfriars were considered as explanatory of
the views and principles of the Anabaptists in the house. The enemies of
these reformers multiplied daily: ridicule and abuse were poured upon them
from every quarter; and it became evident to all but themselves that the
hour of their fall was rapidly approaching. Cromwell, their maker, had long
ago determined to reduce them to their original nothing; and their last
vote respecting the ministry appeared to furnish a favourable opportunity.
The next day, the Sunday, he passed with his friends in secret
consultation; on the Monday these friends mustered in considerable numbers,
and at an early hour took their seats in the house. Colonel Sydenham rose.
He reviewed[b] all the proceedings of the parliament, condemned them as
calculated to injure almost every interest in the state, and, declaring
that he would no longer sit in so useless an assembly, moved that the house
should proceed to Whitehall, and deliver back the supreme power into the
hands of him from whom
[Footnote 1: Thurloe, i. 442, 534, 545, 560, 591, 621.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. Dec. 6.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1653. Dec. 12.]
it was derived. The motion was seconded and opposed; but the Independents
had come to act, not to debate. They immediately rose: the speaker, who was
in the secret, left the chair; the sergeant and the clerk accompanied him,
and near fifty members followed in a body. The reformers, only twenty-seven
in number (for most of them had not yet arrived), gazed on each other
with surprise; their first resource was to fall to prayer; and they were
employed in that holy exercise, when Goff and White, two officers, entered,
and requested them to withdraw. Being required to show their warrant,
they called in a company of soldiers. No resistance was now offered; the
military cleared the house, and the keys were left with the guard.[1]
In the mean while the speaker, preceded by the mace, and followed by
Sydenham and his friends, walked through the street to Whitehall. In the
way, and after his arrival, he was joined by several members, by some
through curiosity, by others through fear. At Whitehall, a form of
resignation of the supreme power was hastily engrossed by the clerk,
subscribed by the speaker and his followers, and tendered by them to
Cromwell. The lord-general put on an air of surprise; he was not prepared
for such an offer, he would not load himself with so heavy a burthen. But
his reluctance yielded to the remonstrances and entreaties of Lambert and
the officers, and the instrument was laid in a chamber of the palace
for the convenience of such members as had not yet the opportunity of
subscribing their names.
[Footnote 1: Exact Relation, 25, 26. True Narrative, 3. Thurloe, i. 730. I
adopt the number given by Mansel, as he could have no motive to diminish
it.]
On the third day the signatures amounted to eighty, an absolute majority
of the whole house; on the fourth, a new constitution was published,
and Cromwell obtained the great object of his ambition,--the office and
authority, though without the title, of king.[1]
On that day, about one in the afternoon, the lord-general repaired in his
carriage from the palace to Westminster Hall,[a] through two lines of
military, composed of five regiments of foot and three of horse. The
procession formed at the door. Before him walked the aldermen, the judges,
two commissioners of the great seal, and the lord mayor; behind him the two
councils of state and of the army. They mounted to the court of Chancery,
where a chair of state with a cushion had been placed on a rich carpet.
Cromwell was dressed in a suit and cloak of black velvet, with long boots,
and a broad gold band round his hat. He took his place before the chair,
between the two commissioners; the judges stood in a half-circle behind it,
and the civic officers ranged themselves on the right, the military on the
left, side of the court.
[Footnote 1: Exact Relation, 26. True Narrative, 4. Ludlow, ii. 33.
Clarendon, iii. 484. Thurloe, i. 754. The author of this new constitution
is not known. Ludlow tells us that it was first communicated by Lambert to
a council of field officers. When some objections were made, he replied,
that the general was willing to consider any amendments which might be
proposed, but would not depart from the project itself. Some, therefore,
suggested that, after the death of the present lord-general, the civil and
military government should be kept separate, and that no protector should
be succeeded by any of his relatives. This gave so much offence, that, at a
second meeting, Lambert, having informed them that the lord-general would
take care of the civil administration, dismissed them to their respective
commands.--Ludlow, ii. 37. It is to this, perhaps, that the Dutch
ambassador alludes, when he says that Cromwell desisted from his project
of being declared king on account of the displeasure of the
officers.--Thurloe, i. 644.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. Dec. 16.]
Lambert now came forward to address the lord-general. He noticed the
dissolution of the late parliament, observed that the exigency of the time
required a strong and stable government, and prayed his excellency in the
name of the army and of the three nations to accept the office of protector
of the commonwealth. Cromwell, though it was impossible to conceal the
purpose for which he had come thither, could not yet put off the habit of
dissimulation; and if, after some demur, he expressed his consent, it was
with an appearance of reluctance which no one present could believe to be
real.
Jessop, one of the clerks of the council, was next ordered to read the
"instrument of government," consisting of forty-two articles. 1. By it the
legislative power was invested in a lord-protector and parliament, but with
a provision that every act passed by the parliament should become law at
the expiration of twenty days, even without the consent of the protector;
unless he could persuade the house of the reasonableness of his objections.
The parliament was not to be adjourned, prorogued, or dissolved, without
its own consent, within the first five months after its meeting; and a new
parliament was to be called within three years after the dissolution of the
last. The number of the members was fixed according to the plan projected
by Vane at the close of the long parliament, at four hundred for England,
thirty for Scotland, and thirty for Ireland. Most of the boroughs were
disfranchised, and the number of county members was increased. Every person
possessed of real or personal property to the value of two hundred pounds
had a right to vote,[1] unless he were a malignant or delinquent, or
professor
[Footnote 1: During the long parliament this qualification had been
adopted on the motion of Cromwell, in place of a clause recommended by the
committee, which gave the elective franchise under different regulations
to freeholders, copyholders, tenants for life, and leaseholders,--See
Journals, 30th March, 1653.]
of the Catholic faith; and the disqualifications to which the electors were
subject attached also to the persons elected. 2. The executive power was
made to reside in the lord-protector acting with the advice of his council.
He possessed, moreover, the power of treating with foreign states with the
_advice_, and of making peace or war with the _consent_, of the council.
To him also belonged the disposal of the military and naval power, and
the appointment of the great officers of state, with the approbation of
parliament, and, in the intervals of parliament, with that of the council,
but subject to the subsequent approbation of the parliament. 3. Laws could
not be made, nor taxes imposed, but by common consent in parliament. 4. The
civil list was fixed at two hundred thousand pounds, and a yearly revenue
ordered to be raised for the support of an army of thirty thousand men,
two-thirds infantry, and one-third cavalry, with such a navy as the
lord-protector should think necessary. 5. All who professed faith in God by
Jesus Christ were to be protected in the exercise of their religion, with
the exception of prelatists, papists, and those who taught licentiousness
under the pretence of religion. 6. The lord-general Cromwell was named
lord-protector; his successors were to be chosen by the council. The first
parliament was to assemble on the 3rd of the following December; and till
that time the lord-protector was vested with power to raise the moneys
necessary for the public service, and to make ordinances which should have
the force of law, till orders were taken in parliament respecting the same.
At the conclusion, Cromwell, raising his right hand and his eyes to heaven
with great solemnity, swore to observe, and cause to be observed, all the
articles of the instrument; and Lambert, falling on his knees, offered to
the protector a civic sword in the scabbard, which he accepted, laying
aside his own, to denote that he meant to govern by constitutional, and not
by military, authority. He then seated himself in the chair, put on his hat
while the rest stood uncovered, received the seal from the commissioners,
the sword from the lord mayor, delivered them back again to the same
individuals, and, having exercised these acts of sovereign authority,
returned in procession to his carriage, and repaired in state to Whitehall.
The same day the establishment of the government by a lord-protector and
triennial parliaments, and the acceptance of the protectorship by the
lord-general, were announced to the public by proclamation, with all the
ceremonies hitherto used on the accession of a new monarch.[1]
It cannot be supposed that this elevation of Cromwell to the supreme power
was viewed with satisfaction by any other class of men than his brethren in
arms, who considered his greatness their own work, and expected from
his gratitude their merited reward. But the nation was surfeited with
revolutions. Men had suffered so severely from the ravages of war and the
oppression of the military; they had seen so many instances of punishment
incurred by resistance to the actual possessors of power; they were divided
and
[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 571-578. Thurloe, i. 639, 641. Ludlow, ii. 40.
The alteration in the representation, which had been proposed in the long
parliament, was generally considered an improvement,--Clar. Hist. iii.
495.]
subdivided into so many parties, jealous and hateful of each other;
that they readily acquiesced in any change which promised the return of
tranquillity in the place of solicitude, danger, and misery. The protector,
however, did not neglect the means of consolidating his own authority.
Availing himself of the powers intrusted to him by the "instrument," he
gave the chief commands in the army to men in whom he could confide;
quartered the troops in the manner best calculated to put down any
insurrection; and, among the multitude of ordinances which he published,
was careful to repeal the acts enforcing the Engagement; to forbid all
meetings on racecourses or at cockpits, to explain what offences should be
deemed treason against his government; and to establish a high court of
justice for the trial of those who might be charged with such offences.
He could not, however, be ignorant that, even among the former companions
of his fortunes, the men who had fought and bled by his side, there were
several who, much as they revered the general, looked on the protector with
the most cordial abhorrence.[a] They were stubborn, unbending republicans,
partly from political, partly from religious, principle. To them he
affected to unbosom himself without reserve. He was still, he protested,
the same humble individual whom they had formerly known him. Had he
consulted his own feelings, "he would rather have taken the staff of a
shepherd" than the dignity of protector. Necessity had imposed the office
upon him; he had sacrificed his own happiness to preserve his countrymen
from anarchy and ruin; and, as he now bore the burden with reluctance, he
would lay it down with joy, the moment he could do so with safety to
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654.]
the nation. But this language made few proselytes. They had too often
already been the dupes of his hypocrisy, the victims of their own
credulity; they scrupled not, both in public companies, and from the
pulpit, to pronounce him "a dissembling perjured villain;" and they openly
threatened him with "a worse fate than had befallen the last tyrant." If it
was necessary to silence these declaimers, it was also dangerous to treat
them with severity. He proceeded with caution, and modified his displeasure
by circumstances. Some he removed from their commissions in the army and
their ministry in the church; others he did not permit to go at large,
till they had given security for their subsequent behaviour; and those who
proved less tractable, or appeared more dangerous, he incarcerated in the
Tower. Among the last were Harrison, formerly his fellow-labourer in the
dissolution of the long parliament, now his most implacable enemy; and
Feakes and Powell, the Anabaptist preachers, who had braved his resentment
during the last parliament.[a] Symson, their colleague, shared their
imprisonment, but procured his liberty[b] by submission.[1]
To the royalists, as he feared them less, he showed less forbearance.
Charles, who still resided in Paris, maintained a constant correspondence
with the friends of his family in England, for the twofold purpose of
preserving a party ready to take advantage of any revolution in his favour,
and of deriving from their loyalty advances of money for his own support
and that of his followers. Among the agents whom he employed, were men who
betrayed his secrets, or pretended
[Footnote 1: Thurloe, i. 641, 642; ii. 67, 68. Whitelock, 580, 582, 596.
Ludlow, ii. 47.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. Feb. 30.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1654. July 26.]
secrets, to his enemies,[1] or who seduced his adherents into imaginary
plots, that by the discovery they might earn the gratitude of the
protector. Of the latter class was an individual named Henshaw, who had
repaired to Paris, and been refused what he solicited, admission to the
royal presence. On his return, he detailed to certain royalists a plan by
which the protector might be assassinated on his way to Hampton Court, the
guards at Whitehall overpowered, the town surprised, and the royal exile
proclaimed. Men were found to listen to his suggestions; and when a
sufficient number were entangled in the toil, forty were apprehended[a] and
examined. Of these, many consented to give evidence; three were selected[b]
for trial before the high court of justice. Fox, one of the three, pleaded
guilty, and thus, by giving countenance to the evidence of Henshaw,
deserved and obtained[c] his pardon. Vowell, a schoolmaster, and Gerard, a
young gentleman two-and-twenty years of age, received[d] judgment of death.
The first suffered on the gallows, glorying that he died a martyr in
the cause of royalty. Gerard, before he was beheaded, protested in the
strongest terms that, though he had heard, he had never approved of the
design.[2] In the depositions, it was pretended that Charles had given his
consent to the assassination of the protector.
[Footnote 1: Clarendon informs Nicholas (June 12), that in reality no one
secret had been betrayed or discovered.--Clar. Papers, iii. 247. But this
is doubtful; for Willis, one of the committee called "the sealed knot," who
was imprisoned, but discharged in September (Perfect Account, No. 194),
proved afterwards a traitor.]
[Footnote 2: State Trials, v. 517-540. Thurloe, ii. 416, 446, 447.
Whitelock, 591, 593, 593. Henshaw was not produced on the trial. It was
pretended that he had escaped. But we learn from Thurloe that he was safe
in the Tower, and so Gerard suspected in his speech on the scaffold.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. May 24.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1654. June 30.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1654. July 6.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1654. July 10.]
Though Cromwell professed to disbelieve the charge, yet as a measure of
self-defence he threatened the exiled prince that, if any such attempt were
encouraged, he should have recourse to retaliation, and, at the same time,
intimated that it would be no difficult matter for him to execute his
threat.[1]
On the same scaffold, but an hour later, perished a foreign nobleman, only
nineteen years old, Don Pantaleon Sa, brother to Guimaraes, the Portuguese
ambassador. Six months before, he and Gerard, whose execution we have
just noticed, had quarrelled[a] in the New Exchange. Pantaleon, the next
evening,[b] repaired to the same place with a body of armed followers; a
fray ensued; Greenway, a person unconcerned in the dispute, was killed
by accident or mistake; and the Portuguese fled to the house of the
ambassador, whence they were conducted to prison by the military. The
people, taking up the affair as a national quarrel, loudly demanded the
blood of the reputed murderers. On behalf of Pantaleon it was argued: 1.
That he was an ambassador, and therefore answerable to no one but his
master; 2. That he was a person attached to the embassy, and therefore
covered by the privilege of his principal. But the
[Footnote 1: Cromwell did not give credit to the plots for murdering
him.--Thurloe, ii. 512, 533. Clarendon writes thus on the subject to his
friend Nicholas: "I do assure you upon my credit, I do not know, and upon
my confidence, the king does not, of any such design. Many wild, foolish
persons propose wild things to the king, which he civilly discountenances,
and then they and their friends brag what they hear, or could do; and, no
doubt, in some such noble rage that hath now fallen out which they talk so
much of at London, and by which many honest men are in prison, of which
whole matter the king knows no more than secretary Nicholas doth."--Clar.
Papers, iii. 247. See, however, the account of Sexby's plot in the next
chapter.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. Nov. 21.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1653. Nov. 22.]
instrument which he produced in proof of the first allegation was no more
than a written promise that he should succeed his brother in-office; and
in reply to the second, it was maintained[a] that the privilege of an
ambassador, whatever it might be, was personal, and did not extend to
the individuals in his suite. At the bar, after several refusals, he was
induced by the threat of the _peine forte et dure_ to plead not guilty;
and his demand of counsel, on account of his ignorance of English law,
was rejected, on the ground that the court was "of counsel equal to the
prisoner and the commonwealth." He was found guilty, and condemned, with
four of his associates. To three of these the protector granted a pardon;
but no entreaties of the several ambassadors could prevail in favour of
Pantaleon. He was sacrificed, if we believe one of them, to the clamour of
the people, whose feelings were so excited, that when his head fell on the
scaffold,[b] the spectators proclaimed their joy by the most savage yells
of exultation.[1] It was the very day on which his brother, perhaps to
propitiate the protector, had signed the treaty between the two nations.
These executions had been preceded by one of a very different description.
Colonel Worsley had apprehended a Catholic clergyman, of the name of
Southworth, who, thirty-seven years before, had been convicted at
Lancaster, and sent into banishment. The old man (he had passed his
seventy-second year),
[Footnote 1: See in State Trials, v. 461-518, a numerous collection of
authorities and opinions respecting this case. Also ibid. 536. That
Pantaleon and his friends were armed, cannot be denied: was it for
revenge? So it would appear from the relation in Somers's Tracts, iii. 65;
Whitelock, 569; and State Trials, v. 482. Was it solely for defence?
Such is the evidence of Metham (Thurloe, ii. 222), and the assertion of
Pantaleon at his death.--Whitelock, ii. 595.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. July 5.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1654. July 10.]
at his arraignment, pleaded that he had taken orders in the church of Rome,
but was innocent of any treason. The recorder advised him to withdraw his
plea, and gave him four hours for consideration. But Southworth still owned
that he was a Catholic and in orders; judgment of death was pronounced; and
the protector, notwithstanding the urgent solicitations of the French
and Spanish ambassadors, resolved that he should suffer. It was not that
Cromwell approved of sanguinary punishments in matters of religion, but
that he had no objection to purchase the good-will of the godly by shedding
the blood of a priest. The[a] fate of this venerable man[a] excited the
sympathy of the higher classes. Two hundred carriages and a crowd of
horsemen followed the hurdle on which he was drawn to the place of
execution. On the scaffold, he spoke with satisfaction of the manner of his
death, but at the same time pointed out the inconsistency of the men who
pretended to have taken up arms for liberty of conscience, and yet shed the
blood of those who differed from them in religious opinions. He suffered
the usual punishment of traitors.[1]
The intelligence of the late revolution had been received by the military
in Ireland and Scotland with open murmurs on the part of some, and a
suspicious acquiescence on that of others. In Ireland, Fleetwood knew not
how to reconcile the conduct of his father-in-law with his own principles,
and expressed a wish to resign the government of the island; Ludlow and
Jones, both stanch republicans, looked on the protector as a hypocrite and
an apostate, and though the latter was more cautious in his language, the
[Footnote 1: Thurloe, ii. 406. Whitelock, 592. Challoner, ii. 354.
Knaresborough's Collections, MS.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654 June 23.]
former openly refused to act as civil commissioner under the new
constitution; and in most of the garrisons several of the principal
officers made no secret of their dissatisfaction: in one case they even
drew up a remonstrance against "the government by a single person." But
Cromwell averted the storm which threatened him, by his prudence and
firmness. He sent his son Henry on a visit to Fleetwood, that he might
learn the true disposition of the military; the more formidable of his
opponents were silently withdrawn to England; and several of the others
found themselves suddenly but successively deprived of their commands.
In most cases interest proved more powerful than principle; and it was
observed that out of the numbers, who at first crowded to the Anabaptist
conventicle at Dublin as a profession of their political creed, almost all
who had any thing to lose, gradually abandoned it for the more courtly
places of worship. Even the Anabaptists themselves learned to believe that
the ambition of a private individual could not defeat the designs of the
Lord, and that it was better for men to retain their situations under the
protector, than, by abandoning them, to deprive themselves of the means of
promoting the service of God, and of hastening the reign of Christ upon
earth.[1]
In Scotland the spirit of disaffection equally prevailed among the superior
officers; but their attention was averted from political feuds by military
operations. In the preceding years, under the appearance of general
tranquillity, the embers of war had continued to smoulder in the Highlands:
they burst into a flame on the departure of Monk to take the command of the
[Footnote 1: Thurloe, ii. 149, 150, 162, 214.]
English fleet. To Charles in France, and his partisans in Scotland, it
seemed a favourable moment; the earls of Glencairn and Balcarras, were
successively joined by Angus, Montrose, Athol, Seaforth, Kenmure, and
Lorne, the son of Argyle; and Wogan, an enterprising officer, landing at
Dover,[a] raised a troop of royalists in London, and traversing England
under the colours of the commonwealth, reached in safety the quarters
of his Scottish friends. The number of the royalists amounted to some
thousands: the nature of the country and the affections of the natives were
in their favour; and their spirits were supported by the repeated, but
fallacious, intelligence of the speedy arrival of Charles himself at the
head of a considerable force. A petty, but most destructive, warfare
ensued. Robert Lilburne, the English commander, ravaged the lands of all
who favoured the royalists; the royalists, those of all who remained
neuter, or aided their enemies. But in a short time, personal feuds
distracted the councils of the insurgents; and, as the right of Glencairn
to the chief command was disputed, Middleton arrived[b] with a royal
commission, which all were required to obey. To Middleton the protector
opposed Monk.[c] It was the policy of the former to avoid a battle, and
exhaust the strength of his adversary by marches and counter-marches in a
mountainous country, without the convenience of roads or quarters; but in
an attempt to elude his pursuer, Middleton was surprised[d] at Loch Garry
by the force under Morgan; his men, embarrassed in the defile, were slain
or made prisoners; and his loss taught the royalist leaders to deserve
mercy by the promptitude of their submission. The Earl of Tullibardine set
the example;[e] Glencairn followed; they were imitated by their associates;
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. Nov. 22.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1654. Feb. 1.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1654. April 8.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1654. July 19.]
[Sidenote e: A.D. 1654. August 24.]
and the lenity of Monk contributed as much as the fortune of war to the
total suppression of the insurgents.[1] Cromwell, however, did not wait for
the issue of the contest. Before Monk had joined the army, he published[a]
three ordinances, by which, of his supreme authority, he incorporated
Scotland with England, absolved the natives from their allegiance to
Charles Stuart, abolished the kingly office and the Scottish parliament,
with all tenures and superiorities importing servitude and vassalage,
erected courts-baron to supply the place of the jurisdictions which he had
taken away, and granted a free pardon to the nation, with the exception of
numerous individuals whom he subjected to different degrees of punishment.
Thus the whole frame of the Scottish constitution was subverted: yet no
one ventured to remonstrate or oppose. The spirit of the nation had been
broken. The experience of the past, and the presence of the military,
convinced the people that resistance was fruitless: of the nobility, many
languished within the walls of their prisons in England; and the others
were ground to the dust by the demands of their creditors, or the exactions
of the sequestrators; and even the kirk, which had so often bearded kings
on their thrones, was taught to feel that its authority, however it might
boast of its celestial origin, was no match for the earthly power of
the English commonwealth.[2] Soon after Cromwell had called his little
parliament, the general assembly of the kirk met[b]
[Footnote 1: See the ratification of the surrenders of Tullibardine,
Glencairn, Heriot, Forrester, Kenmure, Montrose, and Seaforth, dated at
different times between Aug. 24 and Jan. 10, in the Council Book, 1655,
Feb. 7.]
[Footnote 2: Scobell, 289, 293-295. Whitelock, 583,597, 599. Burnet, i.
58-61. Baillie, ii. 377, 381. Milton, State Papers, 130, 131.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. April 1.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. July 20.]
at the usual place in Edinburgh; and Dickson, the moderator, had begun
his prayer, when Colonel Cotterel, leaving two troops of horse and two
companies of foot at the door, entered[a] the house, and inquired by what
authority they sat there; Was it by authority of the parliament, or of
the commander of the forces, or of the English judges in Scotland? The
moderator meekly but firmly replied, that they formed a spiritual court,
established by God, recognized by law, and supported by the solemn league
and covenant. But this was a language which the soldier did not, or would
not, understand. Mounting a bench, he declared that there existed no
authority in Scotland which was not derived from the parliament of England;
that it was his duty to put down every illegal assumption of power; and
that they must immediately depart or suffer themselves to be dragged out by
the military under his command. No one offered to resist: a protestation
was hastily entered on the minutes; and the whole body was marched between
two files of soldiers through the streets, to the surprise, and grief,
and horror of the inhabitants. At the distance of a mile from the city,
Cotterel discharged them with an admonition, that, if any of them were
found in the capital after eight o'clock on the following morning, or
should subsequently presume to meet in greater numbers than three persons
at one time, they would be punished with imprisonment, as disturbers of the
public peace. "Thus," exclaims Baillie, "our general assembly, the glory
and strength of our church upon earth, is by your soldiery crushed and
trode under foot. For this our hearts are sad, and our eyes run down with
water."[1]
[Footnote 1: Baillie, ii. 370.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. July 20.]
Yet after this they were permitted to meet in synods and presbyteries, an
indulgence which they owed not to the moderation of their adversaries, but
to the policy of Vane, who argued that it was better to furnish them with
the opportunity of quarrelling among themselves, than, by establishing a
compulsory tranquillity, allow them to combine against the commonwealth.
For the ministers were still divided into resolutioners and protestors, and
the virulence of this religious feud appeared to augment in proportion as
the parties were deprived of real power. The resolutioners were the more
numerous, and enjoyed a greater share of popular favour; but the protestors
were enemies of Charles Stuart, and therefore sure of the protection of the
government. Hence it happened that in every struggle for the possession
of churches--and such struggles continually happened between the two
parties--the protestors were invariably supported against the voice of the
people by the swords of the military.[1]
By foreign powers the recent elevation of Cromwell was viewed without
surprise. They were aware of his ambition, and had anticipated his success.
All who had reason to hope from his friendship, or to fear from his enmity,
offered their congratulations, and ambassadors and envoys from most of the
princes of Europe crowded to the court of the protector. He
[Footnote 1: Baillie, 371-376, 360. Burnet, i. 62. Whilst Baillie weeps
over the state of the kirk, Kirkton exults at the progress of the gospel.
"I verily believe," he writes, "there were more souls converted unto Christ
in that short period of time than in any season since the Reformation.
Ministers were painful, people were diligent. At their solemn communions
many congregations met in great multitudes, some dozen of ministers used to
preach, and the people continued as it were in a sort of trance (so serious
were they in spiritual exercises) for three days at least."--Kirkton 54,
55.]
received them with all the state of a sovereign. From his apartments in the
Cockpit he had removed with his family to those which in former times had
been appropriated to the king: they were newly furnished in the most costly
and magnificent style; and in the banqueting-room was placed a chair of
state on a platform, raised by three steps above the floor. Here the
protector stood to receive the ambassadors. They were instructed to make
three reverences, one at the entrance, the second in the midway, and the
third at the lower step, to each of which Cromwell answered by a slight
inclination of the head. When they had delivered their speeches, and
received the reply of the protector, the same ceremonial was repeated at
their departure. On one occasion he was requested to permit the gentlemen
attached to the embassy to kiss his hand; but he advanced to the upper
step, bowed to each in succession, waved his hand, and withdrew. On the
conclusion of peace with the States, the ambassadors received from him an
invitation to dinner. He sat alone on one side of the table, they, with
some lords of the council, on the other. Their ladies were entertained
by the lady protectress. After dinner, both parties joined in the
drawing-room; pieces of music were performed, and a psalm was sung, a copy
of which Cromwell gave to the ambassadors, observing that it was the best
paper that had ever passed between them. The entertainment concluded with a
walk in the gallery.[1]
This treaty with the United Provinces was the first which engaged the
attention of the protector, and was
[Footnote 1: Clarendon Papers, iii. 240. Thurloe, i. 50, 69, 154, 257. It
appears from the Council Book that the quarterly expense of the protector's
family amounted to thirty-five thousand pounds. 1655, March 14.]
not concluded till repeated victories had proved the superiority of the
English navy, and a protracted negotiation had exhausted the patience
of the States. In the preceding month of May the hostile fleets, each
consisting of about one hundred sail, had put to sea, the English commanded
by Monk, Dean, Penn, and Lawson; the Dutch by Van Tromp, De Ruyter, De
Witte, and Evertsens. While Monk insulted the coast of Holland, Van Tromp
cannonaded[a] the town of Dover. They afterwards met each other off the
North Foreland, and the action continued the whole day. The enemy lost two
sail; on the part of the English, Dean was killed by a chain-shot. He fell
by the side of Monk, who instantly spread his cloak over the dead body,
that the men might not be alarmed at the fete of their commander.
The battle was renewed the next morning.[b] Though Blake, with eighteen
sail, had joined the English in the night, Van Tromp fought with the
most determined courage; but a panic pervaded his fleet; his orders were
disobeyed; several captains fled from the superior fire of the enemy; and,
ultimately, the Dutch sought shelter within the Wielings, and along the
shallow coast of Zeeland. They lost one-and-twenty sail; thirteen hundred
men were made prisoners, and the number of killed and wounded was great in
proportion.[1]
Cromwell received the news of this victory with transports of joy. Though
he could claim no share in the merit (for the fleet owed its success to the
exertions
[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 557. Ludlow, ii. 27. Heath, 344. Le Clerc, i. 333.
Basnage, i. 307. It appears from the letters in Thurloe, that the English
fought at the distance of half cannon-shot, till the enemy fell into
confusion, and began to fly, when their disabled ships were surrounded, and
captured by the English frigates.--Thurloe, i. 269, 270, 273, 277, 278.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. June 2.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1653. June 3.]
of the government which he had overturned), he was aware that it would shed
a lustre over his own administration; and the people were publicly called
upon to return thanks to the Almighty for so signal a favour. It was
observed that on this occasion he did not command but invite; and the
distinction was hailed by his admirers as a proof of the humility and
single-mindedness of the lord-general.[1]
To the States, the defeat of their fleet proved a subject of the deepest
regret. It was not the loss of men and ships that they deplored; such loss
might soon be repaired; but it degraded them in the eyes of Europe, by
placing them in the posture of suppliants deprecating the anger of a
victorious enemy. In consequence of the importunate entreaties of the
merchants, they had previously appointed ambassadors to make proposals of
peace to the new government; but these ministers did not quit the coast
of Holland till after the battle;[a] and their arrival in England at this
particular moment was universally attributed to a conviction of inferiority
arising from the late defeat. They were introduced[b] with due honour to
his excellency and the council; but found them unwilling to recede from
the high demands formerly made by the parliament. As to the claim of
indemnification for the past, the ambassadors maintained that, if a balance
were struck of their respective losses, the Dutch would be found the
principal sufferers; and, to the demand of security for the future, they
replied, that it might be obtained by the completion of that treaty, which
had been interrupted by the sudden departure of St. John and Strickland
from the Hague. The obstinacy of the council induced the ambassadors to
demand[c] passports
[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 558.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. May 26.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1653. June 22.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1653. July 19.]
for their return; but means were found to awaken in them new hopes, and to
amuse them with new proposals. In the conferences, Cromwell generally
bore the principal part. Sometimes he chided the ambassadors in no very
courteous terms; sometimes he described with tears the misery occasioned
by the war; but he was always careful to wrap up his meaning in such
obscurity, that a full month elapsed before the Dutch could distinctly
ascertain his real demands. They were then informed[a] that England would
waive the claim of pecuniary compensation, provided Van Tromp were removed
for a while from the command of their fleet, as an acknowledgment that he
was the aggressor; but that, on the other hand, it was expected that the
States should consent to the incorporation of the two countries into one
great maritime power, to be equally under the same government, consisting
of individuals chosen out of both. This was a subject on which the
ambassadors had no power to treat; and it was agreed that two of their
number should repair to the Hague for additional instructions.[1]
But, a few days before their departure, another battle had been fought[b]
at sea, and another victory won by the English. For eight weeks Monk had
blockaded the entrance of the Texel; but Van Tromp, the moment his fleet
was repaired, put to sea, and sought to redeem the honour of the Belgic
flag. Each admiral commanded about one hundred sail; and as long as Tromp
lived, the victory hung in suspense; he had burst through the English line,
and returned to his first station, when he fell by a musket-shot; then the
[Footnote 1: See on this subject a multitude of original papers in Thurloe,
i. 268, 284, 302, 308, 315, 316, 340, 362, 370, 372, 381, 382, 394, 401.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. July 26.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1653. July 31.]
Dutch began to waver; in a short time they fled, and the pursuit continued
till midnight. That which distinguished this from every preceding action
was the order issued by Monk to make no prizes, but to sink or destroy the
ships of the enemy. Hence the only trophies of victory were the prisoners,
men who had been picked up after they had thrown themselves into the water,
or had escaped in boats from the wrecks. Of these, more than a thousand
were brought to England, a sufficient proof that, if the loss of the enemy
did not amount to twenty sail, as stated by Monk, it exceeded nine small
vessels, the utmost allowed by the States.[1]
During the absence of the other ambassadors, Cromwell sought several
private interviews with the third who remained, Beverning, the deputy
from the States of Holland; and the moderation with which he spoke of the
questions in dispute, joined to the tears with which he lamented the enmity
of two nations so similar in their political and religious principles,
convinced the Dutchman that an accommodation might be easily and promptly
attained. At his desire his colleagues returned; the conferences were
resumed; the most cheering hopes were indulged; when suddenly the English
commissioners presented seven-and-twenty articles, conceived in a tone of
insulting superiority, and demanding sacrifices painful and degrading. A
few days later the parliament was dissolved; and, as it was evident that
the interests of the new protector required a peace, the ambassadors began
to affect indifference on the subject, and demanded passports to depart.
Cromwell, in his turn, thought proper to yield; some claims
[Footnote 1: Le Clerc, i. 335. Basnage, i. 313. Several Proceedings, No.
197. Perfect Diurnal, No. 187. Thurloe, i. 392, 420, 448.]
were abandoned; others were modified, and every question was adjusted, with
the exception of this, whether the king of Denmark, the ally of the Dutch,
who, to gratify them, had seized and confiscated twenty-three English
merchantmen in the Baltic,[1] should be comprehended or not in the treaty.
The ambassadors were at Gravesend on their way home, when Cromwell
proposed[a] a new expedient, which they approved. They proceeded, however,
to Holland; obtained the approbation of the several states, and returned[b]
to put an end to the treaty. But here again, to their surprise, new
obstacles arose. Beverning had incautiously boasted of his dexterity;
he had, so he pretended compelled the protector to lower his demands by
threatening to break off the negotiation; and Cromwell now turned the
tables upon him by playing a similar game. At the same time that he rose in
some of his demands, he equipped a fleet of one hundred sail, and ordered
several regiments to embark. The ambassadors, aware that the States
had made no provision to oppose this formidable armament, reluctantly
acquiesced;[c] and on the 5th of April, after a negotiation of ten months,
the peace was definitively signed.[2]
By this treaty the English cabinet silently abandoned those lofty
pretensions which it had originally put forth. It made no mention of
indemnity for the past, of security for the future, of the incorporation
of the two states, of the claim of search, of the tenth herring, or of the
exclusion of the prince of Orange
[Footnote 1: Basnage, i. 289.]
[Footnote 2: Thurloe, i. 570, 607, 616, 624, 643, 650; ii. 9, 19, 28,
36, 74, 75, 123, 137, 195, 197. Le Clerc. i, 340-343. During the whole
negotiation, it appears from these papers that the despatches of, and to,
the ambassadors were opened, and copies of almost all the resolutions taken
by the States procured, by the council of state.--See particularly Thurloe,
ii. 99, 153.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. Jan. 6.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1654. Feb. 28.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1654. April 5.]