FIRST YEARS OF THE WAR.--BATTLES OF EDGEHILL AND NEWBURY.--1642-1643.
They stood aloof, the scars remaining,
Like cliffs which had been rent asunder,
A dreary sea now flows between,--
But neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder,
Shall wholly do away, I ween,
The marks of that which once hath been.
COLERIDGE.
♦Constitutional attitude of Commons.♦ It must not be supposed that the
Commons declared war against the king. The popular leaders were most
careful to maintain a quasi-legal ground for their resistance. Novel
and subtle as their principles seemed at the time, they have since been
largely accepted. Pym’s speeches in fact may be said to have laid down
the lines of the theory on which modern constitutional government is
based. Thus the Remonstrance was framed as an attack, not on the king,
but on his councillors; and when the king objected that actions which
he avowed as his own were ‘censured under that common style,’ Pym’s
answer was, “How often and undutifully soever these wicked counsellors
fix their dishonour upon the king, by making his Majesty the author of
those evil actions which are the effects of their own evil counsels,
we, his Majesty’s loyal and dutiful subjects, can use no other style,
according to that maxim in the law, ‘the king can do no wrong,’ but
if any ill be committed in matter of State, the council must answer
for it: if in matters of justice, the judges.”[88] So now the Commons
went to war with the actual king to protect the ideal king of the
constitution from evil counsellors. This appears in their declaration
“that, whereas the king was seduced by wicked counsel to make war
against the Parliament, who proposed no other end unto themselves than
the care of his kingdom and the performance of all loyalty to his
person, it was a breach of the trust reposed in him by his people, and
tending to the dissolution of his government.” The legal maxims of the
royal lawyers of the past had received a new reading from the popular
lawyers of the present. The new wine seemed bursting the old bottles,
but the bottles have since expanded to the strain. That these ideas
were genuine beliefs of the time, is shown as well by the cherished
clause of the covenant, “to preserve the king’s person and authority,”
as by the real horror felt when Republicans first broke through this
reserve, or when Cromwell averred that his pistol would be no respecter
of persons. The patriots were not, however, wanting in readiness to
chastise their ‘poor, semi-divine, misguided father, fallen insane.’[89]
%BATTLE OF EDGEHILL.%
Essex marched from London into the west (9th Sept., 1642), and took up
his head-quarters at Worcester, where he remained without venturing to
offer the Royalists battle. Charles, wishing to fight before the rebel
army could be reinforced, broke up his camp at Shrewsbury (12th Oct.),
and marched across the country in the direction of London, feeling
certain that Essex would follow him to protect the city. He went by way
of Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Kenilworth, and passing Southam, on the
road to Banbury and Buckingham, arrived at Edgecote, without having any
knowledge of his enemies’ movements (22nd Oct.).[90] Here, however,
Rupert, who was encamped with the rear at Wormleighton, learnt from
his scouts that fires were to be seen from the Dassett hills, and that
Essex had his head-quarters that night at the village of Kineton, half
way between Warwick and Banbury, and only ten miles to the north-west
of Edgecote. The king, aroused from sleep at three in the morning, on
hearing this news, at once summoned a council of war, in which it was
agreed to hold without delay a general rendezvous of the army on the
top of Edgehill.
%ARMOUR AND WEAPONS.%
♦Armour of foot soldiers.♦ To appreciate the tactics of the time it is
necessary to remember the nature of the weapons. The soldiers on either
side were armed after the same fashion. The introduction of fire-arms
had caused the defensive armour of the ordinary horse and foot soldiers
to be reduced to a back and breast piece and a broad iron hat, commonly
called a pot; calves’-leather boots reaching up to the knees, and
a long buff coat worn under the armour, completed their equipment.
Officers often wore open helmets, arm and shoulder pieces, and tassets
or skirts to protect the thighs.
♦Cavalry,--three classes.♦ The cavalry was divided into three
classes--the cuirassiers, the carabineers, and the dragoons.[91] The
cuirassiers being almost without exception gentlemen, arming themselves
at their own expense, came to battle magnificently appointed, with
silver-hilted swords, plumes of feathers waving above open helmets,
and buff coats gay with gold and silver trimmings. Their usual weapons
were the sword and pistol. The carabineers were so called from the name
of their carbine or musket. The dragoons were light armed, having only
the buff coat and iron hat, and were like mounted riflemen, fighting as
much on foot as on horse, but with swords for cavalry work.
♦Musket and pike.♦ The infantry was divided into bodies of pikemen and
musketeers, the use of musket and bayonet not yet being combined in the
same weapons. The pike, made of ash, was fifteen or sixteen feet long,
and headed with steel.
The musket or matchlock was not advanced beyond the first stage of
invention. The spark to fire the gunpowder was applied from the
outside, instead of being produced by the concussion of flint and
steel. The match consisted of little ropes of tow, boiled in spirit;
these, when lighted at one end, smouldered on until the whole was
consumed. The musket was still such a heavy and cumbersome weapon that
it had to be fixed on a rest. This rest was made of ash-wood, headed at
one end with iron to fix in the ground, and having at the other a half
hoop of iron. Before the end of the war the musketeer was relieved of
this additional burden. Rests were disused owing to the introduction
of lighter and more portable muskets. To a belt, fastened round the
musketeer’s left shoulder, hung a bullet bag, some twists of spare
match, a flask of touch powder, and a bandoleer, with twelve little
cases, made of leather or tin, each of which contained a separate
charge of powder. As loading and firing were both long operations,
only one rank fired at a time, and the musket was by no means so great
an advance in the art of destruction as we might suppose from our
experience of the modern rifle. Field guns were also cumbersome, and
seem to have done little execution. It was when the ranks had come to
push of pike, or when the victors mercilessly cut down flying foe with
the sword, that the dead fell thickest. There were no regular uniforms.
Different regiments of infantry on either side often wore buff coats
dyed the colour belonging to the house of their colonel. Thus Hampden’s
men wore green coats; Lord Grey’s blue; others, red, purple, and gray.
All the officers of the Parliament wore orange scarfs, the colour of
the house of Essex. But in the confusion of the battle, a twig of
green, a sprig of broom, or a bit of coloured riband, fastened to the
hat, with the help of the word for the day, was the chief guide by
which to distinguish friend from foe.
♦Battle of Edgehill.♦ Edgehill, which forms ‘the face or edge of the
tableland of the north of Oxfordshire,’ looks abruptly down on the
Warwickshire level below, and as it is approached from Kineton, stands
out a long bold line of hill against the horizon. The eastern slopes
rise more gently, and hither on Sunday morning, the 23rd of October,
came the Royalist regiments from their scattered quarters on the
Southam and Banbury road, many of them having to march eight miles or
more before they reached the summit. The side of the hill, which faces
Kineton, is now covered with large trees, wearing on an October day all
the varied tints of autumn, but then only a few bushes were scattered
over it. The undulating plain below, lying between Kineton and Radway,
now all brought under cultivation and crossed by innumerable hedgerows,
was then an open desolate-looking pasture ground; one long hedge alone,
which survives to the present day and probably marked the enclosure of
an old homestead there, struck across it about midway between the two
villages.
[Illustration: BATTLE OF EDGEHILL 23^{rd} Oct. 1642]
Essex saw the Royalist horse moving on the top of Edgehill before
eight o’clock, and at once formed his army in front of Kineton, facing
south-east, ready to fight if the king should come down and offer
battle on equal terms. Several causes induced Charles to gratify the
wishes of his enemies, and abandon his unassailable position on the
summit of Edgehill. Extreme confidence prevailed amongst the Cavaliers.
Rupert made no doubt of victory, and urged immediate battle. It was
known that two regiments of horse and one of foot under Colonel Hampden
were a day’s march behind the rest of Essex’ army, engaged in bringing
up some artillery, which it was hard to drag through the heavy clayey
soil. Lastly, ever since the army had reached Kenilworth, there was
no food to be got. The country people, in these Midland counties more
inclined to the Parliament than to the king, and frightened by reports
of the cruel and plundering habits of the Cavaliers, had hidden their
provisions, so that some of the common soldiers were half starved, and
had hardly eaten bread for forty-eight hours. The prince thought no
better remedy could be found to bring the people to their reason than
a victory gained over the rebels.
♦Disposition of armies.♦ Accordingly the Royalists formed on the top
of Edgehill, fronting the north-west, ready to march down the hill and
give the enemy battle on the level between Radway and Kineton. The
king’s army was about 12,000 strong; that of Essex about 10,000. Both
were disposed according to the tactics of the time. The main body of
foot held the centre. Every corps of infantry consisted of pikemen
and musketeers, the pikemen drawn up in the centre, the musketeers in
the flanks. The lines were rarely less than ten deep, in order that
when the front rank of musketeers had fired, they might have time to
retire to the rear, form and reload, while the other nine ranks were
severally performing the same motions. In either wing was placed the
horse, generally supported by regiments of infantry or dragoons. A body
of horse was kept in reserve, ready at any critical moment to assist
friends or press hard upon foes. Essex commanded his centre in person.
On his left wing, he placed his principal body of horse, and part of
five regiments of infantry; on his right, three regiments of horse, his
artillery on some slightly rising ground near where Battle Farm now
stands, and dragoons on foot to line the long hedge that ran across
the ground. The king’s centre was commanded by his general-in-chief,
the Earl of Lindsey. Rupert was half a mile off to the right; Colonel
Wilmot, who commanded the left wing, as far off on the left.
Rupert, though far more distinguished for courage than judgment,
and only twenty-three years old, had been made by Charles
lieutenant-general of the horse. His temper was imperious, his manners
overbearing, and now, refusing to obey any commands, except those
received directly from the king’s lips, he acted as though he was
entirely independent of the Earl of Lindsey.
About one o’clock, the Royalists, having a front of two miles, streamed
down the hill in three lines, their two wings gradually converging
towards their centre as they approached the enemy. It was already
three o’clock, and the October day on its decline, before the battle
commenced. “Come life or death,” said Charles to his principal
officers, as he left his tent, “your king will bear you company,” and
with his own hand fired the first piece of artillery.
%ESSEX’ WINGS ROUTED.%
As Rupert was advancing upon the enemy’s left wing, Sir Faithful
Fortescue, a major in Essex’ army, and his whole troop of horse,
rode forward and joined the ranks of the prince.
♦Essex’ left wing routed.♦ Thus encouraged, the Cavaliers charged
impetuously, while the Parliament’s horse, inexperienced, and
panic-stricken by the base desertion of their comrades, having once
fired their pistols into the air, turned their horses’ heads and
fled, throwing into confusion several regiments of infantry behind
them, which also took to flight, in spite of all the efforts of their
officers. “The Lord Mandeville’s[92] men would not stand the field,
though his lordship beseeched, nay cudgelled, them; no nor yet the Lord
Wharton’s men; Sir William Fairfax his regiment, except some eighty of
them, used their heels.” Horse and foot fled in one confusion together
towards Kineton, whither they were closely pursued by Rupert, who was
intent on plundering the baggage carts, which could be seen standing
unguarded in the village streets.
♦Essex’ right wing routed.♦ Meanwhile, on the king’s left wing, the
Royalists had been equally successful in clearing the field of the
larger part of the Parliamentary horse. But whatever advantage these
mounted gentlemen gained over the raw recruits of the Parliament, who
had but just learnt to sit a horse or fire a pistol, was all lost
through want of subordination to their general. For what folly in
Rupert to be plundering at Kineton, instead of seeing how the battle
went under Edgehill! What rashness in the king’s reserve of horse,
whose special function it was to decide the day by a charge at the
critical moment on the critical point, and as a reserve never to follow
up an advantage till the whole field was theirs, to clap spurs into
their horses, and without orders join in this idiotic pursuit of one
wing of the enemy, while his centre was still unbroken! These heedless
acts lost the king his victory.
♦Meeting of centres.♦ In the absence of all the Royalist horse from the
field, the Parliament’s reserve, after charging through the enemy’s
lines, and spiking several pieces of cannon, fell upon the rear of his
centre. At the same time Essex, supported by the officers from his
broken wings, who, scorning to fly with their men, had rallied around
their own main battle, put himself at the head of his infantry, and
fiercely charged the Royalist ranks in front. And now came the real
struggle of the day. Charles, conspicuous in his steel armour and
black velvet mantle, on which glittered his Star and George, rode into
the leading ranks, encouraging his troops to hold their ground. But
no valour could resist the odds against which his men were fighting,
attacked at once in front and rear, and outflanked through the absence
of their own wings and the superior numbers of the enemy. What slope
of the ground there was favoured the troops of the Parliament; the
slain and wounded fell by scores in the space of a few yards; the
Earl of Lindsey, badly shot, was carried off the field by the enemy;
the king’s standard-bearer was slain, and his standard placed in the
hands of Essex. But a gallant Royalist captain, by the simple artifice
of fastening an orange scarf to his person, and riding boldly up to
the earl’s secretary, to whose keeping the prize had been entrusted,
succeeded in quietly taking it from him, saying it was not fit for a
penman to have the honour of carrying that standard; then bearing it
back in triumph to the king, he was knighted beneath its shadow.
Charles, though he had only a hundred horse about him, and was within
half a musket-shot of the enemy, refused to retire. He ordered Charles
and James, his two boys of twelve and nine years old, who were by his
side, to be taken out of danger. His physician, the great Harvey, the
discoverer of the circulation of the blood, having retired with the
princes to the shelter of some bushes, took a book out of his pocket,
and read, quite regardless of the turmoil round him, until a bullet
grazed the ground close by, and warned him to remove his charges out of
range.
Meanwhile Rupert and the Cavaliers, after plundering the baggage,
were following up the pursuit of the Parliament’s horse, when they
were stopped at a hill a little beyond Kineton, which is still known
as Rupert’s headland, by the approach of Hampden’s three regiments
with the artillery.
♦Rupert retires before Hampden.♦ Rupert retreated hastily, but only to
find the Royal infantry forced up under the foot of the hill, and the
ground he had occupied in the morning now held by the troops of the
Parliament. “I can give a good account of the enemy’s horse,” he said,
when he saw the confusion of his party. “Ay!” exclaimed a Cavalier,
with an oath, “and of their carts too.” As it was now half-past five,
it was quite impossible to distinguish friends from foes, and the two
armies drew apart. The Royalists passed the night at the foot and on
the side of the hill, where, pinched with cold and hunger, they made
what fires they might out of the few bushes growing about. Essex’
troops also spent that Sunday night on the field, in little better
plight than their enemies. “I had tasted no meat,” says one, “since
the Saturday before, and having nothing to keep me warm but a suit of
iron, I was obliged to walk about all night, which proved very cold by
reason of a sharp frost.” Large numbers on both sides deserted during
the night, and the next morning there was, in either army, a general
unwillingness to renew the battle. The king retired, over Edgehill into
Oxfordshire; Essex to Warwick, whence he had come.[93]
%DOUBTFUL RESULT.%
♦Results of battle.♦ Though the Parliamentarians laid claim to a
victory, the results of the battle seemed to favour the king. Banbury,
Abingdon, Henley, opened their gates without a show of resistance; and
soon Rupert and the Cavaliers were plundering the country in the very
neighbourhood of London.
♦Disposition of Londoners.♦ The disposition of London was most
important. Not only did the opinions and acts of the Londoners
exercise weight all over the kingdom, but on the readiness of the city
merchants to lend money was likely for some time to depend the pay and
maintenance of the Parliament’s army. Though often terrified, the city
never failed in its support to the Parliament, nor was it unfairly
called by Charles “the nursery of the rebellion.” It opened wide its
coffers; sent out apprentices by thousands to enlist in the army;
organized a formidable force of its own under the name of the city
trained bands; and, in fact, was always ready to give the nation some
striking, if not turbulent, proof of its zeal.
The principal motive that urged the citizens to support the war was
their eager longing to be allowed to worship according to the forms of
the Presbyterian Church. Had Charles at this time granted toleration to
Presbyterians, he would have deprived the Parliament of some half of
its most zealous supporters. The day after Essex’ arrival in London,
Lord Brook,[94] who had fought at Edgehill, addressed a crowded
audience at the Guildhall (8th Nov.). “Gentlemen, citizens of London,”
he said, “you must not think to fight in the sighs and tears of your
wives and children. Therefore, when you hear the drums beat, say not, I
beseech you, I am not of the trained band, nor this, nor that, nor the
other, but doubt not to go out to the work, and this shall be the day
of your deliverance. What is it we fight for? It is for our religion,
and for our God, and for our liberty and all. And what is it they fight
for? For their lust, for their wills, and for their tyranny; to make us
slaves, and to overthrow all. Gentlemen, methinks I see your courage
in your faces. I spy you ready to do anything, and the general’s
resolution is to go out to-morrow, and do as a man of courage and
resolution, and never man did like him.”[95]
%LONDON THREATENED.%
♦Proposed Treaty. Attack on Brentford.♦ In spite, however, of the
exhortations of the leaders of the Parliament, and the presence of
Essex and his army, fear was so prevalent in the city that the Commons
sent a petition to the king, proposing a treaty. Charles, after
returning a gracious answer, in which he called God to witness his
great desire for peace and offered to treat at Windsor or wherever else
he might be (12th Nov.), took advantage of a thick mist to advance
unperceived from Colnbrook, and fall upon a few regiments of foot and
a small party of horse, that garrisoned Brentford and protected the
road to London (13th Nov.).[96] For this action he was accused by
his enemies of treachery. Since no cessation of arms had been made,
he was justified, by the rules of war, in seizing any advantage that
offered him an opportunity of treating from a more favourable position.
Still he had been trusted as a king rather than as an enemy, and the
citizens were exasperated on finding that his gracious answer to their
petition had been intended as a mere blind, and that his hope, when he
gave it, had been to enter London at the sword’s point. Not a word was
any longer heard of a treaty.
♦Indignation in London.♦ All the night after the action at Brentford,
the indignant city was pouring out men, encouraging its apprentices to
enlist, and reinforcing the army of Essex out of its own train-bands.
“Come, my boys, my brave boys,” said their commander, Skippon, to
these new troops, “I will run the same fortunes and hazards with you.
Remember, the cause is for God, and for the defence of yourselves, your
wives and children. Come, my honest and brave boys, pray heartily,
and fight heartily, and God will bless us.” Two days after the fight,
24,000 men were reviewed on Turnham Green, midway between London and
Brentford; yet Essex, habitually cautious, refused to risk a battle, so
that the king was allowed to withdraw his troops, without opposition,
to the neighbourhood of Oxford, a town devoted to his cause, which he
intended making his head-quarters for the winter.
♦Whole country engaged in struggle.♦ The whole country now began to
take part in the war. Leaders on either side appeared in nearly every
county, and maintained a desultory warfare. Towns, castles, houses,
were fortified, garrisoned, and besieged. The number of the troops on
each side depended on the inclinations of the people. Those counties
alone enjoyed peace within their borders, in which one party far
outnumbered the other.
%EAST VERSUS WEST.%
In the east, where there were many towns engaged in the staple
manufacture of England--woollen cloth--as Norwich, Sudbury, Colchester,
Yarmouth, and Lynn, the king’s enemies so far outnumbered his friends,
that all opposition to the Parliament was quickly crushed by the
energy of Colonel Cromwell, who associated the seven counties of
Norfolk, Essex, Suffolk, Cambridge, Huntingdon, Lincoln, and Hertford
together into a confederacy against the king. In Kent and the other
south-eastern counties, though many of the gentry were Royalists, the
Parliament’s friends were so far the stronger, that little opposition
could be offered them. Berkshire went with Oxford for the king,
while Hampshire and Wiltshire were battle-grounds between the two.
In the west, where there were fewer freeholders than in the east,
the king’s friends predominated, though even here many important
trading, manufacturing, or fishing towns were held for the Parliament,
as Bristol, the second town in the kingdom for size and wealth,
Gloucester, Weymouth, Plymouth, and Lyme. The backward district of
Wales, and the Cornish, like their Breton brethren in later time, went
wholly with their king and feudal lords: but elsewhere in the west,
the king’s enemies were generally to be found in numbers sufficient
to keep the country in a state of constant warfare. In the midland
counties, the partisans of the Parliament again predominated, though
here the Royalists made head against their enemies, and held a strong
garrison at Newark, in Nottinghamshire, by which communication was kept
up between Oxford and York. North of the Humber, the two parties were
about equally matched. The Earl of Newcastle and his numerous tenantry
declared for the king; but many of the county freeholders joined the
inhabitants of Bradford, Leeds, Wakefield, Halifax, Manchester, and the
other seats of the woollen manufacture, in adhering to the Parliament.
Thus, as generally happens in times of movement, the towns favoured
progress, the country reaction.
The queen, who had been successful in Holland, through the interest
of the Prince of Orange, her son-in-law, returned to England in the
spring, accompanied by four ships, laden with arms and ammunition,
soldiers and officers (22nd February.) She escaped the fleet of the
Parliament in her passage, but about two days after her landing at
Bridlington, in Yorkshire, the town was bombarded by Admiral Batten
with such effect, that she was forced to fly from her lodging, and
seek shelter in a ditch in the open fields, where balls scoured over
her head. She escaped however without injury, and by the union of
her resources with those of the Earl of Newcastle, a formidable army
was soon raised, which was called by the friends of the Parliament
‘the Northern Papist Army,’ being regarded with special aversion.
♦Newcastle’s army of ‘Papists.’♦ Papists there were in plenty amongst
its ranks, for Charles, though in his printed declarations he
constantly denied the fact, had ordered Newcastle to let any serve
who would. “You see,” said the joking earl, one day as he pointed out
the weakness of some fortifications, “though they call us the army of
Papists, we cannot trust in our good works.”
%PEACE PARTY IN LONDON.%
The increasing power and success of the Royalist forces now caused
discouragement to many friends of the Parliament, who had thought to
bring the king to terms within a few months.
♦Peace party formed in London.♦ In the Parliament and in the city, a
peace party appeared, composed in large part of men who observed with
annoyance the influence into which the war was raising both sectarians
and people of inferior rank. It was not pleasant to the lord to hear
himself spoken of as on an equality with a plain country gentleman; the
Presbyterian did not like to hear the sectarian demanding toleration
for all creeds; indignation burnt in more breasts than those of
Royalists, when the tale was told how Admiral Batten had done such an
ungracious, unchivalrous act as to fire on the very house the queen
was in. Some began to think it time to change sides. The governor
of Scarborough betrayed his trust, and surrendered the town to the
queen. Sir John Hotham, governor of Hull, would now have followed
this example, had not the Parliament discovered his intention in time
to prevent its execution. Many Presbyterians would gladly have made
peace, if only they could have obtained the king’s consent to the
establishment of their own Church: while the evils of the hour made
those who were no friends to arbitrary power overlook the many proofs
they had experienced of Charles’ ill faith, and forget the importance
of the cause for which they were engaged. But the leaders of the
Commons, Pym, Hampden, and their close followers, never wavered for
an instant; they had taken the resolution of continuing the war until
the king was really conquered and forced to submit to terms that would
deprive him of power to injure his subjects’ liberties, and from this
resolution they never swerved. These firmer spirits found their warmest
supporters in the sectarians, to whom peace and a consequent triumph of
Presbyterians or Episcopalians offered nothing but a prospect of bitter
persecution. At Oxford councils were as divided as at Westminster.
♦Parties in Oxford.♦ There also two parties appeared; the one desired
to restore Charles to the exercise of absolute power at the sword’s
point; the other to obtain by negotiations a peace restoring him to
the exercise of power bounded by law. The war party was led by the
king’s nephews, Rupert and Maurice, two imperious young foreigners.
“Tush,” Rupert would say, when any objection was made to his commands,
as contrary to law, “we will have no more law in England but the
sword.” This party was supported by the professional soldiers from the
continent, the Papists, many of the country gentlemen, and by courtiers
and self-seekers generally, who thought that if a peace were effected
by negotiation, the rebels at Westminster would get too good terms for
themselves, and the king be unable to reward his friends sufficiently
for their services. The peace party, on the other hand, was composed of
men of less selfish and less violent dispositions, who, though fighting
under Charles’ banner, loved their country’s liberties, and grieved
over its sufferings. The people, indeed, endured much, and the war was
raising up a bitter spirit even between members of the same families.
The nearest relations constantly fought in opposite ranks, and it was
no uncommon tale to hear of the dying soldier who took his death the
more heavily because he had seen the fatal shot fired by a brother’s
hand. The courteous and affable Lord Falkland was so altered by grief,
that to his friends he seemed hardly the same man. He became pale,
morose, short in his answers, untidy in his dress; and sitting among
his friends would after a long silence cry out passionately, “Peace,
peace,” and say, “that the very agony of the war, and the view of the
calamities and desolation the kingdom did and must endure, took his
sleep from him, and would shortly break his heart.” So loud was the cry
for peace raised, both in London and at Oxford, that the extreme party
on either side was obliged to yield and allow negotiations to be held
(March).
♦Peace propositions offered at Oxford.♦ The propositions now drawn up
for the king’s acceptance, like those before offered at York, required
him to abolish Episcopacy, and to resign the command of the militia and
other executive powers to Parliament.
Charles, having been proved a match for his opponents in arms, of
course refused these terms. Though he pretended to be exceedingly
desirous for peace, he belonged at heart to the war party, and looked
forward to being restored to an arbitrary throne by the force of his
friends’ swords. Angrily interrupting the Earl of Northumberland, when
reading as one of the Parliament’s propositions, ‘A bill to vindicate
the five members,’ he proposed as his final answer that the Parliament
should deliver into his hands forts, towns, magazines, ships, and
revenue, and adjourn to some place twenty miles from the capital,
in which case he would consent to the disbanding of the armies, and
speedily return to London. By this, negotiations were at once broken
off (15th April).
♦Waller’s plot.♦ Soon after a plot was discovered, which had been
formed by some of the disappointed peace party. Their design was to
seize the leaders of the Parliament, occupy the military posts, and
then admit the royal forces into the city (May).
The intercepted letters by which the plot was discovered implicated
Waller, the poet, a cousin of Hampden, and a member of Parliament; and
by his confessions, several others were involved. But though it was
startling to discover the presence of traitors within the very walls of
the Commons’ House, Pym, acting with his accustomed moderation, did not
increase the irritation of the friends of peace by pressing uncertain
evidence. Out of five persons condemned by court-martial, only two were
executed. Waller, who had made a most abject submission, was allowed to
escape with no greater punishment than a fine and a short imprisonment.
%DISTRUST OF ESSEX.%
Meanwhile, both parties made ready for a second summer’s campaign.
The Parliament’s officers were divided in counsel. Hampden advised an
immediate advance upon Oxford, but Essex persisted in first laying
siege to Reading.
♦Distrust of Essex.♦ The war party began to be doubtful of the zeal
of their general, and took little trouble to see that his troops were
well supplied with pay and clothing. His conduct led men to think
that he wished, not to reduce the king to the Parliament’s mercy, but
only to keep up a balance of parties and so bring about a peace by
negotiation. After Edgehill, he had retreated to Warwick, leaving the
road to London open to the enemy--a movement several of his officers
failed to understand. After the action at Brentford, he had refused to
risk a battle, saying he dared not trust his young and raw recruits.
Men who wished to conquer would gladly have seen Colonel Hampden
command in Essex’ place. Hampden’s regiment of green-coats, raised
and trained by himself, was known as one of the best in the army; his
military genius he had proved unmistakably in many minor actions; his
daring was more likely to lead to victory than Essex’ caution. But no
one ventured to propose to displace the earl. All the peace party, all
the Presbyterians, were warmly attached to him, while many noblemen and
gentlemen would have been averse to serving under any one his inferior
in rank.
%DEATH OF HAMPDEN.%
But the first and last duty of a general is to win, and he must be
chosen for no other object. A half-hearted policy ruins an army, and
either ruins a cause or prolongs the miseries of war. Through the
hesitation of their aristocratic leader, a series of disasters now
befell the Parliament’s forces. Essex’ head-quarters were at Thame, a
few miles east of Oxford. His army, through disease and desertion, had
gradually dwindled down to a force of about 5000 men. Though long urged
by Hampden to act boldly on the offensive, or at least to concentrate
his troops, now too scattered to be safe, he persisted in maintaining a
defensive attitude on a weak and extended line.
♦Essex at Thame.♦ His troops, thus dotted about in detachments, were
hardly able to defend their own outposts, much less the neighbouring
counties, against the Cavaliers, who weekly, almost nightly, crept out
of Oxford to burn and plunder villages and manor houses. It was on one
of these occasions that the Parliament experienced the loss of a leader
who was not to be replaced. A body of Royalists, commanded by Rupert
himself, had surprised a troop at Chinnor on the Chilterns, and were
bearing off booty and prisoners in triumph to Oxford. Colonel Hampden
started in pursuit from Watlington, and overtook them at Chalgrove
Common on their way to the bridge over the Thame at Chiselhampton. A
sharp skirmish followed.
♦Death of Hampden (24th June).♦ At the first charge two balls
entered Hampden’s shoulder and broke the bone. A prisoner brought the
news to Oxford. “I saw him,” he said, “ride off the field before the
action was done, which he never used to do, and with his head hanging
down, and resting his hands upon the neck of his horse” (18th June).
Hampden only lived for a week more. After receiving the sacrament, he
prayed with his last breath that the God of hosts would ‘have these
realms in His special keeping: that He would level in the dust those
who would rob the people of their liberty, and would let the king see
his error and turn the hearts of his wicked counsellors from the malice
of their designs.’ “O Lord, save my bleeding country,” were almost
the last words he spoke. His body, carried from Thame to be buried at
his native village of Hampden, was followed as a hero’s to the grave
by soldiers with heads uncovered, drums and ensigns muffled, arms
reversed. The grief of soldier and citizen was real enough. As general
and as statesman Hampden had the true leader’s spirit, whose presence
inspires followers with confidence and commands their sympathy by mere
contact. “The memory of the deceased colonel,” says a newspaper of the
day, “is such that in no age to come but it will more and more be
had in honour and esteem; a man so religious, and of that prudence,
judgment, temper, valour, and integrity, that he hath left few his like
behind.” After two hundred and thirty years we can but endorse the
verdict.
%ROYALIST TRIUMPHS IN WEST.%
It seemed as though all the forces of the Parliament were dispirited
by Hampden’s death.
♦Royalist successes in north and west.♦ In the north Fairfax, defeated
by Newcastle at Atherton Moor near Bradford (30th June), was shut up
in Hull, so that the eastern counties lay open to the approach of
the northern ‘Papist’ army. In the west their successful general,
Sir William Waller, suffered two severe defeats; in fact, the king’s
commanders there, Prince Maurice and Sir Ralph Hopton, ‘the soldier’s
darling,’ gained one success on another, until the Parliament lost
all its hold over the three counties of Devon, Somerset, and Wilts.
The Cornish peasants and the Cavaliers united overcame all enemies.
The former would ask their commander’s leave to fetch off cannon from
hills surmounted with breastworks, and dauntlessly perform what they
proposed--a feat repeated by their Breton brethren at La Vendée--the
latter would think it play-work to storm defences, on which the
soldiers of the Parliament would have looked askance. Stories went
about amongst the terrified garrisons “that the king’s soldiers made
nothing of running up walls twenty feet high, and that no works could
keep them out.” One town after another surrendered during the summer
and autumn months; Taunton, Bridgewater, Bath (July), Dorchester,
Weymouth, Portland, Barnstaple, Bideford (August), Exeter (September
4). Prince Rupert took Bristol by storm.
♦Bristol stormed by Cavaliers.♦ The governor, Nathaniel Fiennes,
capitulated without disputing his entrance by a hand to hand fight in
the streets, though Rupert’s losses had been heavy enough to warrant
the attempt (25th July). It was agreed that the garrison should
march off with arms and baggage, and the townspeople be preserved
from plunder and violence. But the Cavaliers, without regard to the
terms they had made, plundered the waggons belonging to the garrison
and sacked the city; and so mercenary was the spirit of some of the
Parliament’s troops, that they took service in Rupert’s army, and
pointed out to their new friends the houses where the most valuable
plunder might be found. By the middle of the summer, Gloucester was the
only important city still held for the Parliament in the west.
The news of the surrender of Bristol, the second town in the kingdom,
caused extreme depression in London.
♦Peace propositions of Lords.♦ The House of Lords drew up propositions
for peace, the most moderate yet brought forward. Both armies were
to be disbanded; the militia question was to be settled by a future
Parliament, the Church by a future synod. After a long and fierce
debate, the propositions were carried in the Commons by a majority of
twenty-nine votes (5th Aug.). The vote was an act of political suicide,
and the war party appealed from Parliament to the people, knowing that
if Charles returned to London on these terms, his word would be no
guarantee for the performance of his promises.
♦Tumults in London.♦ The result was that two days after the
propositions were passed, the Lord Mayor and Common Council came to the
door of the Commons to present a petition against peace, followed by a
tumultuous rabble of several thousands. The demonstration succeeded,
and the House agreed by a majority of seven to lay aside the peace
propositions (7th Aug.).
Two days after this scene had occurred, some hundreds of women, wearing
white silk ribands in their hats, as an emblem of their mission, came
to the Commons’ House, bearing a counter-petition for peace. Four or
five members went to the door, and telling them that the House was no
enemy to peace, ordered them to return to their homes. But dissatisfied
with this answer, they stayed on, and by noon there were some 5000
women, with men amongst them dressed in women’s clothes, pressing round
about the house, allowing none to pass in or out, and crying, “Peace,
peace,” “Give us those traitors that are against peace,” “Give us that
dog, Pym.”
The Parliament’s guards, after firing powder without dispersing the
mob, loaded with ball and shot a ballad-singer dead at the moment she
was urging her companions on with her songs. A troop of cavalry at the
same time coming up, charged in upon the crowd, slashing with their
swords at hands and faces, until the women fled on all sides, leaving
some seven or eight of their number lying wounded or dead upon the
ground (9th Aug.). The friends of peace, disgusted with such scenes
and with their own defeat, tried to persuade Essex to make use of his
army in forcing the Parliament to offer propositions to the king. But
Essex, though he had himself advised the Parliament to treat, was too
honourable to think of betraying his trust, and felt indignant that
such a proposal should have been made to him. In consequence of his
refusal, seven lords and several members of the Commons changed sides
and went to Oxford.[97]
%LONDON FORTIFIED.%
♦Ill success of Parliament.♦ Extreme danger now threatened the
Parliament. There was no force between Oxford and London to oppose the
king’s approach, except Essex’ wretched army, whose thinned ranks had
not yet been refilled. The Parliament, says May, its own historian,
“was then in a low ebb; and before the end of that July, they had
no forces at all to keep the field, their main armies being quite
ruined. Thus seemed the Parliament to be quite sunk beyond any hope of
recovery, and was so believed by many men. The king was possessed of
all the western counties from the farthest part of Cornwall, and from
thence northward as far as the borders of Scotland. His armies were
full and flourishing, free to march wherever they pleased, and numerous
enough to be divided for several exploits.”
♦Charles’ proposed march on London.♦ Charles judged rightly that the
time had come, when one bold stroke might finish the war. His plan was
conceived with unusual force and spirit. His own and Newcastle’s army
were to converge on the capital and form a junction within sight of it.
But his generals were jealous of one another, and slow to obey even
royal commands. Newcastle was not inclined to give up the independent
authority he had in the north, merely to be domineered over by Prince
Rupert; so he sent word to Charles, that he could not carry out his
orders and march through the associated counties upon London, because
he was sure the gentlemen in his army would refuse to leave Yorkshire
unless Hull were first reduced. Meanwhile, the desertion of many of
the peace party had united the friends of the Parliament, while the
extremity of the danger itself inspired them.
♦London fortified.♦ The Londoners were hard at work raising
fortifications for the protection of their threatened city. Thousands
were to be seen, men and women of every “profession, trade, and
occupation,” marching out daily in a body to dig at their appointed
place of labour, with colours flying and drums beating before them.
The tailors went out 8000 strong, the watchmen 7000, the shoemakers
numbered 5000; the very oyster women from Billingsgate 1000. It was one
of those stirring moments when all feel proud to labour, and knights,
ladies, and gentlemen might be seen marching out with the crowd, spade
and mattock in hand, so that within a few weeks a breastwork was
raised all round the city for a circuit of twelve miles, strengthened
by twenty-four forts and carrying 212 pieces of cannon.[98] Before,
however, these fortifications were fully completed, the citizens
breathed more freely. Newcastle’s aversion to leave Yorkshire brought
them a respite when their doom seemed fixed.
♦March on London deferred.♦ His dislike of the plan, falling in, as it
did, with the feeling of many of the officers, induced Charles to try
and make the conquest of the west complete by besieging Gloucester,
before marching east. The town was known to be badly provided with
stores; everybody said it could not hold out long; and Massey, the
governor, was suspected of an inclination to desert the side of the
Parliament. The king summoned the town, fully expecting it would
surrender at once, but a stern defiance was brought from ‘the godly
city of Gloucester’ by two citizens, whose plain garb, close cut hair,
Scripture phrases, and quiet yet assured demeanour marked them out as
undoubted Puritans. “Waller is extinct, and Essex cannot come,” replied
Charles, quietly, more surprised than disconcerted at the confidence
they displayed, so sure was he that the town would be compelled to
surrender before the Parliament could find an army for its relief (10th
Aug.).[99]
%SIEGE OF GLOUCESTER.%
Much hung on the resolution of this garrison of 1500 men, who
possessed but forty barrels of gunpowder and a slender artillery. If
they yielded, Charles would turn immediately upon the disheartened
and defenceless capital; if they resisted, the Parliament would
obtain a breathing time in which to recruit its forces.
♦Siege of Gloucester, 10th Aug.-5th Sept.♦ Neither soldiers nor
citizens showed any lack of resolution. They set on fire the suburbs of
the town, in order to deprive the Royalists of shelter while forming
their entrenchments. They made constant sallies, and met the besiegers’
mines by counter mines. The women and children daily laboured at
repairing the breaches, and sallied out under the eyes of the king’s
horse to fetch in the turf. There was little complaining heard in the
streets, and no disaffection took place amongst the garrison. Though
constant opportunities were offered by the sallies, only three soldiers
deserted. Though the country people, whose cattle the Royalists were
killing by thousands through mere wantonness, implored the town to
surrender, soldiers and citizens endured on, trusting that relief would
come to them in time.
%RELIEF OF GLOUCESTER.%
“Waller is extinct, and Essex cannot come,” Charles, in his confidence,
had said. But he was wrong. With wonderful speed the thinned ranks
of the Parliament’s army were filled up; four regiments of the
London train-bands volunteered for the service, and
♦Essex relieves Gloucester.♦ Essex left London on the 24th of August
at the head of 14,000 men. He conducted his march with speed and
dexterity, driving before him a body of horse sent by the king to
oppose him; but the besieged had no knowledge of the succour which was
coming, still less of its whereabouts, until, on the 4th of September,
they heard the sound of guns fired from the Presbury hills. The next
morning they saw the royal forces withdraw from their trenches, fire
their huts, and depart. Relief had come but just in time, for the
garrison had only three barrels of gunpowder left.[100]
♦March to Newbury.♦ Essex, after re-supplying Gloucester with
provisions and ammunition, returned eastwards for the protection of
London. The Royalists at first did not know what road he had taken, and
he succeeded in surprising their garrison at Cirencester and securing
their supplies for himself before pursuit commenced. He had nearly
crossed the Wiltshire Downs between Swindon and Hungerford, when Rupert
and the Cavaliers attacked his rear while embarrassed in some deep
lanes, near Aldbourn Chase, and a sharp skirmish took place, in which
the Parliamentarians suffered considerable loss. Charles, while Rupert
delayed the enemy, had pressed on with the infantry by forced marches
on a more direct road to Newbury, which he entered the following day,
so that Essex, on approaching it from the Hungerford side, found the
road to London barred (19th Sept.).
%FIRST BATTLE OF NEWBURY.%
South of Newbury, which lies low on the banks of the Kennet, the ground
gradually rises, until, at the distance of about a mile from the town,
it reaches the level of a long line of hill, running east and west, and
dividing the beds of the two rivers, the Kennet and the Emborne. This
high ground was then open common; but the side of the spur sloping down
to Newbury, as well as much of the low ground lying nearer the Kennet,
was under cultivation and crossed by hedgerows. Charles stationed his
left wing, centre, and artillery upon the brow of the hill, facing
west towards Emborne and Hungerford, his right wing only on the lower
ground in front of Newbury, protected by hedges and resting on the
Kennet. Aware of the strength of this position, he determined, with the
advice of his chief officers, to maintain a defensive attitude there,
and not advance to meet the enemy as the more hot-headed subordinates
would have liked. The Parliamentarians, on the other hand, could have
no choice but to attack, as the enemy lay between them and their
supplies, and to attack meant forcing their way up a hillside in the
face of an artillery fire before they could come to close quarters.
[Illustration: BATTLES OF NEWBURY. 20^{th} Sept. 1643 & 27^{th} Oct.
1644.]
On seeing the king’s tactics, Essex drew up his army upon some open
ground in front of Emborne. Two causes compelled him to fight at
all hazards. The first, that, for the protection of London, it was
necessary he should make his way through the enemy; the second, that,
while delay mattered nothing to the king, who could refresh his troops
in Newbury, and draw provisions, if necessary, from his garrisons at
Wallingford and Oxford, it was fatal to himself, lying in the open
fields and in an unfriendly country. The king, on the other hand,
failed to reap the advantages of his position; for he could not secure
the obedience of his own followers any more than of his Parliament. His
own wise resolution was broken by the rashness and insubordination of
his officers, some of whom, despising the London militia, and making
sure of victory, became so excited at the sight of an enemy drawn up
for action that they charged impetuously and, the battle soon becoming
general, obliged their friends to advance for their support, leaving
much of the artillery behind them on the hill. Many of the officers
flung off their doublets in bravado, and led on their men in their
shirts, as if armour was a useless encumbrance in dealing with the
base-born apprentices, whom they came rather to triumph over than to
fight.
%DEATH OF FALKLAND.%
♦Hedges prevent horse from deciding the day.♦ Essex’ left and the
king’s right were so impeded by the hedges that they could only engage
in small parties. The horse, however, on the king’s left found a free
passage down a lane by which Essex had intended to advance his right.
Essex’ horse, though at first thrown into some disorder, soon rallied,
and returned the charge of the impetuous Cavaliers. But in an enclosed
country as this was the cavalry could not have much effect in deciding
the day. It was the daring and skill of Essex, and the valour of
the troops he led--the very train-bands the Royalists despised--that
were destined to win the laurels of the field. The general, “being
foremost in person, did lead up the city regiments, and when a vast
body of the enemy’s horse had given so violent a charge, that they had
broken quite through, he quickly rallied his men together, and with
undaunted courage did lead them up the hill. In this way he did beat
the infantry of the king from hedge to hedge, and after six hours’ long
fight planted his ordnance upon the brow of the hill. The train-bands
of the City of London endured the chiefest heat of the day, for being
now upon the brow of the hill, they lay not only open to the horse but
to the cannon of the enemy; yet they stood undaunted and conquerors
against all, and like a grove of pines, in a day of wind and tempest,
they only moved their heads, but kept their footing sure.”
♦Death of Lord Falkland.♦ It was on this hard-fought day that Lord
Falkland met his death. In the morning he seemed to have recovered a
little of his old cheerfulness, and dressed himself with unusual care,
saying, “he was weary of his country’s misery, and believed he should
be out of it before night.” Though his duties as the king’s secretary
gave him no position in the field, he fought as a volunteer at the head
of Lord Byron’s regiment of horse. This was on the right wing, where
the ground was cut up by enclosures. Byron found his approach to a
body of the enemy’s infantry impeded by a high quick hedge. A single
gap offered a passage through, which was so narrow that only one horse
could pass at a time. The enemy stationed on the other side of the
hedge were keeping up a hot fire, and as Byron viewed the place his
horse was shot under him. While he retired to remount, Lord Falkland,
“more gallantly than advisedly,” clapped spurs into his horse, and
charged through the gap. In an instant horse and rider fell dead
together.[101] His end gives us a painful insight into the misery the
more delicate minds endured during such a time. There was no doubt his
life had been a burden to him for months. A patriot at heart, he had
chosen his side from chivalry rather than from insight; and, though he
followed his king, had no sympathy for that policy of ‘thorough’ which
lay at the root of the civil war.
%SUCCESS OF ESSEX.%
Darkness at last caused the two armies to separate. Both spent the
night on the hill, the Royalists retiring to the further side of it,
towards Greenham, and leaving the ground they had held in the morning
in the hands of the Parliament’s infantry. Essex fully expected the
battle to be renewed the next day, and determined to force his way
through the enemy or die. But the Royalists were dispirited. Though
the loss of life was not so great as might have been expected, it
had fallen heavily upon men of rank. More than twenty officers,
distinguished for birth or merit, were among the dead. Such a
catastrophe seemed to the king’s friends in no way compensated by the
loss of an equal number of obscure Parliamentary colonels.
♦Royalists withdraw into Newbury. Essex marches to London.♦ With these
feelings the Royalists withdrew during the night into Newbury. Essex,
finding the way by Greenham open before him, continued his march to
Reading and London.[102] Charles, after leaving Newbury, retired to
Oxford for the winter.[103]
FOOTNOTES:
[88] Forster, British Statesmen. Pym, p. 269.
[89] Carl. i. 160.
[90] See Map, p. 127.
[91] The dragoons are said to have received their name from the locks
of the first muskets in use amongst them, on which was represented a
_dragon’s_ head with a lighted match in its jaws, a natural image of
a death-dealing engine. Both weapon and name came from France. The
cuirassiers were so called from the original name of the back and
breast piece, a cuirasse. Like other pieces of defensive arms the
cuirasse was made of leather (cuir) before it was made of iron. Buff
was leather like buffalo-hide; it would often turn a sword-cut.
[92] Lord Kimbolton (p. 111), afterwards Earl of Manchester (p. 155).
[93] Clar. Hist., iii.; Ludlow, i.; Ellis, Orig. Letters, 2nd series,
iii. 303; May, 23; Warwick Mem., 231; Beesley, Hist. of Banbury, 308,
320; Grose, Hist. of Ancient Armour.
[94] Heir to Sir Fulke Greville, to whom James I. granted the barony,
with Warwick Castle.
[95] Parl. Hist., ii.
[96] On this occasion Milton fixed this sonnet on his door, claiming
the reverence Lysander showed to the city of Euripides, and Alexander
to the poet of Thebes:
Captain or colonel, or knight in arms,
Whose chance on these defenceless doors may seize,
If deed of honour did thee ever please,
Guard them, and him within protect from harms.
He can requite thee, for he knows the charms
That call fame on such gentle acts as these,
And he can spread thy name o’er lands and seas,
Whatever clime the sun’s bright circle warms.
Lift not thy spear against the muses’ bower:
The great Emathian conqueror bid spare
The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower
Went to the ground: and the repeated air
Of sad Electra’s poet had the power
To save the Athenian walls from ruin bare.
[97] Clar., iv. 175; May, 214.
[98] Somers, Tracts, iv.; May, 314.
[99] May, 218; Somers, Tracts, v.; Clar. Hist., iv. 167.
[100] Somers, Tracts, v.; May, 222.
[101] Lord Byron’s account of battle of Newbury, in a letter to Hyde,
in MSS. Clar. State Papers in Bodleian, No. 1738.
[102] Byron’s letter to Hyde leaves no doubt that Essex, instead of
marching through Newbury (as is often stated), kept south of the
Kennet. “The next morning early, Essex, finding the ground quitted by
us, drew his army upon it, and there made a bravado in sight of ours,
which was then drawn into the town of Newbury. Prince Rupert marched
with such horse as were nearest to him, and fell on the enemy’s rear
as they marched off. But the country being full of enclosures secured
them so that no great execution could be done upon them before they
recovered Reading, and thus concluded the battle.”
[103] May, Long Parl.; Clar. Hist.; Rush. Abr., v.; Account in Harl.
Miscellany; Lord Byron’s letter to Hyde in Clar. Papers in Bodleian,
1738.