RISE OF INDEPENDENTS.--BATTLE OF MARSTON MOOR.--SELF-DENYING
ORDINANCE.--1643-1645.
Ἐπέπεσε πολλὰ καὶ χαλεπὰ κατὰ στάσιν ταῖς πόλεσι, γιγνόμενα μὲν
καὶ ἀεὶ ἐσόμενα ἕως ἄν ἡ αὐτὴ φύσις ἀνθρώπων ᾖ, μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ
ἡσυχαίτερα καὶ τοῖς εἴδεσι διήλλαγμένα ὡς ἂν ἕκασται αἱ μεταβολαὶ
τῶν ξυντυχιῶν ἐφιστῶνται. ἐν μὲν γὰρ εἰρήνῃ καὶ ἀγαθοῖς πράγμασιν
αἵ τε πόλεις καὶ οἱ ἰδιῶται ἀμείνους τὰς γνώμας ἔχουσι, διὰ τὸ μὴ
ἐς ἀκουσίους ἀνάγκας πίπτειν. ὁ δὲ πόλεμος, ἀφελὼν τὴν εὐπορίαν
τοῦ καθ’ ἡμέραν βίαιος διδάσκαλος καὶ πρὸς τὰ παρόντα τὰς ὀργὰς
τῶν πολλῶν ὁμοιοῖ.--THUC. iii. 82.
The communities of Greece suffered all the embittering results
of civil strife that visit men, and always will visit them,
so long as human nature remains the same, though with more or
less intensity, and varying in form, according to the special
circumstances that arise in each case. The fact is, that, in
times of peace and prosperity, states alike and individuals
form their judgments in a better spirit from the absence of
constraining necessities, while war, by besetting daily life with
difficulties, teaches violence, and frames men’s temper to suit
their surroundings.
Though the Parliament was saved, the Royalists might fairly boast
that the balance of success was on their side. In the west they had
driven their enemies out of every important town but Gloucester. In
the north, the reduction of Hull would leave them masters of the whole
of Yorkshire. It might well seem that the current of their success
would remain unchecked, or that if there was a check, they could at any
moment win a favourable peace by negotiation; but there were causes at
work which made either of these results impossible.
%WAR EMBITTERED.%
♦Character of king’s troops.♦ Success did not improve the character
of the king’s troops. The cavaliers and officers were becoming cruel
and rapacious in their habits of warfare; while the common soldiers,
often in want of pay, and retained in little discipline, followed the
example of their leaders, and plundered the country people without
distinction of friend or foe. Though feelings of honour still caused
generals and officers to treat prisoners, their own equals in rank,
with courtesy if not with generosity, the common soldier was too often
ruthlessly handed over to the care of some inhuman gaoler.
♦Cruelty to prisoners.♦ Rupert, on one occasion, marched prisoners
from Cirencester to Oxford, half-clad, bareheaded, barefooted, bound
together by cords, with gaping wounds still undressed, though there
was a cutting wind and snow on the ground; the king, the two princes,
and several lords, rode about a mile out of Oxford on purpose to see
Rupert’s prisoners come in; Charles was observed to smile: no words of
pity, no order for their relief, passed his lips. If a tender-hearted
Lord Falkland were by, what wonder he grew weary of his life, when
such were the acts of his party? For the captives such marches were
but the beginning of misery. Prisoners were kept crowded together
for months in noisome dungeons, and sometimes left two days together
without food. “I was so hungry,” said one prisoner, after making a vain
attempt to cut his throat, “the devil tempted me to cut it and be out
of my misery.”[104] This cruel usage of prisoners was not confined to
the Royalists. The governor of Windsor Castle so starved the common
soldiers committed to his keeping, that three men, it was said, fell
down dead in the street on their release. Some hypocrites went so far
as to parade their brutality as a proof of godliness. “My soul abhors
to see this favour done to the enemies of God,” said a turn-coat
captain, addressing the wife of the governor of Nottingham Castle, as
she bound up the wounds of her Royalist prisoners. Tales such as these,
sayings ascribed to Puritans or Cavaliers, not to mention the harrowing
details of battles and sieges--all these were published weekly,
almost daily, in papers and pamphlets, and spread broadcast over the
kingdom. No story was too foul or false to be refused a place in these
publications. For instance, the _Mercurius Aulicus_, the chief Oxford
paper, selecting domestic grief as an instance of God’s judgments,
after relating in a tone of exultation that death had deprived Hampden
of his two eldest children, added gratuitously the lie that of his
two remaining sons, the one was a cripple, the other a lunatic.[105]
Slander thus did its part with violence and cruelty in embittering
the feelings of men who, in the outset of the war, had felt almost as
friends. Religious animosity helped to broaden the gulf. Ministers
especially suffered.
♦Sufferings of clergy.♦ If they refused to read out the king’s
declarations, where the king had power, or the Parliament’s
declarations, where it had power, they had to fly their parishes to
escape imprisonment. Thus deprived of home and livelihood, Puritans
and Episcopalians had no choice but to take refuge with the nearest
friendly garrison or come to regiments as chaplains. As they suffered
most, they hated most. It was not bad usage only; as wars go on, the
questions which touch men’s hearts most deeply come more and more to
the front. The church question was one of these, and one on which the
ministers could not but feel deeply. So it was that the religious
influence which should have tempered the bitterness of faction, gave
its sanction to acts breathing more of the Old Testament than the
New; and those who should have been the mediators taught that any
parleying with the foe was treason against God. Thus the demands of the
Parliamentarians increased, and there was no basis for negotiation,
unless Charles would consent not simply to lessen the power of bishops,
but to establish a non-Episcopal church.
♦Assembly of divines.♦ Through Scottish influence, Parliament had
already summoned to London an assembly of divines to settle uniformity
of worship for the two countries. This, of course, simply meant to
discuss the means for the establishment of the Presbyterian Church in
England (1st July). The bishops had completely lost all influence in
the country, and as far as that went, Episcopacy was already dead.
♦London a Puritan city.♦ London was quite changed from the time
when a gay court was held at Whitehall, when Laud lived at Lambeth,
when cavaliers daily visited the artillery gardens, when crowds
frequented the theatres. The grass was already growing in the courts of
Whitehall;[106] Lambeth Palace was deserted, and was soon to be used
as a prison. In the artillery gardens, once so gay, grave citizens now
learnt the use of pike and musket; the theatres were all closed by
order of Parliament (September 2nd, 1642). Services, preachings, and
fasts had taken the place of the old bonfires, dances, and feasts. The
book of sports had been burnt by the common hangman by another order
of Parliament (5th May, 1643). Services were no more conducted with
vestments and postures, lighted candles, and choirs. The wearing of
any vestment was become a matter of indifference; the liturgy was read
or prayers extemporized as minister and congregation pleased; organs,
images, altars, were gone from churches. The beautiful old crosses,
remains of Catholic times, and still left standing in the streets, were
removed by order of Parliament. Presbyterians rejoiced to see bonfires
made of “fine pictures of Christ and the saints, of relics, beads, and
the like remains of Catholic superstition.”[107]
%PRESBYTERIAN INTOLERANCE.%
The gaming houses were put down, and laws and ordinances for the
punishment of vice[108] so strictly enforced, that no swearing was to
be heard, no drunken man to be seen in the streets. Everybody led, or
affected to lead, a life of strictness; for he who failed to attend
some place of worship, or in public swore or drank, was looked upon as
a reprobate, and could not hope to exercise any influence amongst his
fellows. Sundays were no longer holidays of pleasure, but were strictly
spent in religious services. In the evening men might pass through
the town, and hear nothing but the voice of prayer and praise, from
private houses as from churches.[109] No fruiterer or herb woman dared
stand about and sell in the streets; no milk-woman cry her milk on that
day, but at stated hours; no one but travellers by necessity might
be received in taverns. Even if a child danced round a maypole, its
parents were fined twelvepence for the offence. Fast days were observed
after each success or failure, and, soon after the breaking out of the
Irish rebellion, an order of Parliament was issued, enacting that the
last Wednesday in every month should be kept regularly as a solemn fast
and day of humiliation (8th January, 1642).
♦Presbyterian intolerance.♦ The Presbyterians, who now ruled, regarding
as they did their own as the true church coeval with the early ages of
Christianity, were unwilling to tolerate any other worship, and had
they possessed the power would have been as despotic as the bishops. As
it was, they persecuted as far as they dared. They hunted out Catholic
priests, and put to death on an average about three a year;[110] others
they sent into banishment or left to die in prison. To keep under the
sectarians, they tried to restrain the liberty of the press by passing
an ordinance for the suppression of slanderous papers and pamphlets
(11th June). But the sectarians were now too numerous to be crushed,
and could disobey the ordinance with impunity.
%NEW POLITICAL REFORMERS.%
Ideas grow rapidly in times of revolution. The habit of private
judgment grows still more rapidly. The very means by which the popular
leaders have carried the mass to their point of view, soon carry it
beyond them. The pamphlets of the Presbyterians and Episcopalians had
made the people controversialists; and in many cases undermined the
authority of the teachers who had converted them. The same phenomenon
occurred in the region of political strife. The war of words, bandied
between patriots and Royalists, discussing the rights of King and
Parliament, had familiarized the people with the discussion of
constitutional questions. When such questions are left to popular
discussion moderation is soon lost; violent opinions grow apace, and
the claims of custom and prescription evaporate, like subtler elements,
in that rough crucible.
♦New political reformers.♦ Out of the ranks of the sectarians arose a
new set of political reformers, who no longer ascribed the divisions
existing between King and Parliament to evil counsellors, but spoke
of Charles as personally in fault. Some went further. A pamphlet was
published, saying that if the king did not yield to what was demanded
of him, he and his race ought to be destroyed. Henry Marten, one of
the Independent party, defended the writer in the Lower House. “I see
no reason,” he said, “to condemn him; it is better one family should
be destroyed than many.” “I move,” said another member, “that Mr.
Marten be ordered to explain what one family he means.” “The king and
his children,” replied the Republican boldly. The use of such language
horrified the Presbyterians, and Marten was for some time expelled the
House.
%SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT.%
It was evident that there was an advanced party with whom the
Presbyterians were as much at issue as they were with the Royalists.
But the presence of a common danger checked a schism for the time.
The Presbyterians still far outnumbered all other sections on their
side, and the misfortunes that befell the arms of the Parliament in
this summer of 1643, made the Independents not merely rally to them,
but agree to call in the aid of Scotland on terms which would require
the establishment of the national church of the north. The interest of
the Scots was really identical with that of the English Presbyterians,
for if Charles and Episcopacy were restored together, Scotland would
not long be allowed to retain her own form of worship.
♦Solemn league and covenant.♦ They tried, therefore, to bind their
allies down by prescribing a solemn league and covenant (August).
Subscribers to this document bound themselves: (1.) To endeavour to
reform religion in England and Ireland according to the Word of God,
and practice of the best reformed churches, and to bring the three
churches in the three kingdoms to uniformity in confession of faith,
form of church government, and directory or prayer-book for worship;
(2.) To extirpate Popery, prelacy, schism; (3.) To preserve the
liberties of the kingdom, the king’s person and authority, and to bring
malignants to punishment; (4.) To assist and defend all such as should
enter into the covenant. All civil and military officers, all ministers
holding livings, and all members of Parliament were required to take
the covenant. Thus Episcopalian representatives were obliged to leave
the Assembly of Divines, and over 1500 ministers resigned their livings.
Union in a State must of course necessitate many sacrifices of the
individual. A subject must often be required to give a passive
submission, and sometimes an active co-operation, to acts of which
he does not approve.
♦Covenant a test.♦ There are two limits to such interference.
Firstly, it should be confined, as far as possible, to political as
distinguished from religious duties, since it is only when religious
questions have taken a political form that they can lead to the
disruption of the State; and further, in political matters the duty of
bowing to the majority is more clear, and the conscience less tender,
than in cases which seem to touch the intercourse of man with his
Maker. Secondly, the interference should be limited to overt acts as
distinguished from opinions; if a man does what is required by the
law, he should not be required to make a declaration of his feelings.
Such a requirement is simply inquisitorial, and generally defeats its
own ends, by encouraging either open defiance, or a disregard of the
sanctity of oaths. The Presbyterian system recognized no such limits to
interference. Some of the Independents, indeed, had learnt the lesson
of a higher duty, and strove earnestly to make the league with Scotland
a political league only, and not a religious covenant; in fact, Sir
Henry Vane, had power been in his hands, would have been ready to grant
toleration even to Catholics. The Scots, however, were impracticable,
and all Vane could do was procure the insertion of the ambiguous words
“to endeavour the reformation of religion according to the Word of
God and the best reformed churches.” These words, though, when taken
in connection with their context, they obviously referred to the
Presbyterian Church, yet served as a loophole for the Independents in
the army, the Parliament, and the Assembly of Divines, who subscribed
in numbers to a test which was intended to eliminate them.
♦Failure of test. Covenant subscribed to by Independents.♦ The 2nd
clause left the Episcopalians no such opening, yet many followed the
example of the Independents, putting some forced meaning on the words
to suit their own consciences. Such laxity of conscience must not
be too severely censured. In these cases the real guilt lies rather
on those who induce hypocrisy than on those who practise it. The
determination of successive governments to exact oaths of fidelity to
themselves resulted finally in a general relaxation of the moral fibre
of the nation.
For the time, however, the power of the Presbyterians seemed to have
overwhelmed the Independents. Four Scotch ministers were admitted into
the Assembly of Divines; a Scotch army was engaged to enter England
early in the ensuing spring; and Scotch commissioners were joined with
a committee of the two Houses, who sat in the capital at Derby House to
direct the operations of the war.
%DEATH OF PYM.%
♦Causes of decline of Presbyterian ascendancy.♦ In spite, however, of
Scotch support, the ascendancy of the Presbyterians was already on the
decline; for though superior in position and in numbers, their leaders
were no match for the Independents in ability. Hampden’s death had
been a blow to the moderate party. Pym, like Hampden, had possessed
the trust of both parties, of Independents, because of the vigour with
which he had prosecuted the war, and of Presbyterians because he seemed
to acquiesce in their views of church matters, and had agreed with them
politically in advocating a limited monarchy. Himself sincere, yet no
bigot, he had long kept the peace between the intolerant Presbyterians
and Independents.
♦Death of Pym (8th Dec.).♦ His death now came after a short illness, in
which he preserved his usual calmness of temper, telling his chaplain
“that it was a most indifferent thing to him to live or die; if he
lived, he would do what service he could; if he died, he would go to
God whom he had served, and who would carry on his work by others” (8th
Dec.).
In Oxford bonfires were lighted the night the news came that Pym
was dead, and the Cavaliers “drank deeper healths than usual to the
confusion of the Roundheads.” In London there was real sorrow among all
parties. The Commons paid off a sum of £10,000, the amount of debts
their great leader had incurred in his country’s service, and erected a
monument in his honour in Westminster Abbey.
%ARMY OF INDEPENDENTS.%
The political reformers, who hitherto had implicitly followed Pym, now
drifted to the right or the left, and either became absorbed in the
ranks of the Presbyterians, or passed over to the new men who were now
rising into influence.
♦False position of Presbyterians.♦ Thus after Pym’s death the breach
with the Independents widened rapidly, and the Presbyterians were soon
in a false position. Obliged to continue the war, because the king
refused to grant them the establishment of their Church, they were, at
the same time, afraid of winning a decisive victory, which they saw
would only encourage the sectarians and men of new ideas in politics.
On the other hand, the Independents desired nothing more than to crush
the king’s forces, and so bring the war to a speedy end. They were
already in possession of a force fitted, if any, for the accomplishment
of the task.
♦Eastern counties’ army.♦ Cromwell, lieutenant-general of the horse to
the Earl of Manchester, had been very active in forming a new army,
raised by order of Parliament in the eastern counties. He had long
seen that Essex and Waller’s half-hearted soldiers were not the men to
gain great victories. “Your troops,” he said one day to Hampden, “are
most of them old decayed serving men, and tapsters, and such kind of
fellows; their troops are gentlemen’s sons, younger sons, and persons
of quality; do you think that the spirits of such base and mean fellows
will ever be able to encounter gentlemen, that have honour and courage
and resolution in them; you must get men of a spirit; and take it not
ill what I say--I know you will not--of a spirit that is likely to go
as far as gentlemen will go--or else you will be beaten still.” Hampden
thought the notion good, but impracticable. Cromwell undertook to put
it into practice.
♦Cromwell’s Ironsides.♦ He sought out soldiers amongst the more
independent classes, the sons of freeholders and artisans, sectarians,
who fought not for pay and plunder, but with the higher motive of
winning liberty to worship God according to their own fashion. From
the very first, when Cromwell only commanded a troop of horse in
Essex’ army, it was observed that his men were of a different stamp
to their fellow-soldiers. They did not plunder or drink; he who swore
paid his twelvepence; he who drank was put in the stocks. And now
Cromwell was forming a whole army on the same principles, not heeding
to what despised sect his recruits belonged, so long as they proved
good soldiers. “I raised such men,” he boasted long afterwards, “as had
the fear of God before them, as made some conscience of what they did,
and from that time forward, I must say, they were never beaten, and
wherever they were engaged against the enemy, they beat continually.”
The valour of the troops thus raised was early attested by their
popular name of “The Ironsides.”
%CHARLES’ IRISH TROOPS.%
The rise of the Independents created no alarm at Oxford, as Charles
expected to reap a new advantage from the divisions of his enemies.
He exulted, moreover, in having found a fresh means of increasing the
strength of his own armies.
♦Cessation of arms with Irish.♦ Since the rebellion broke out in 1641,
the war in Ireland had been carried on with great success on the
part of the Catholics, and a Catholic council of twenty-four persons
established at Kilkenny now ruled the larger part of the kingdom. The
old English settlers at the head of this party were, however, now eager
to make peace with the king, and caused numerous petitions to be sent
to Oxford, begging for the free exercise of the Catholic worship, and
the calling of a Parliament. Charles, making no absolute promises,
agreed to a cessation of arms for a year, and then ordered the Duke of
Ormond, his general in Ireland, a devoted and able Royalist, to send
over to England ten regiments of the troops that had hitherto been
engaged in fighting Irish rebels.
This truce with the Irish Catholics excited indignation not only
amongst Charles’ enemies, but also amongst his Protestant friends. It
was believed that many rebels were to be found among the regiments sent
over by Ormond. “The queen’s army,” it was commonly said, “of French
and Walloon Papists, the king’s army of English Papists, together
with the Irish rebels, are to settle the Protestant religion, and the
liberties of England.”[111]
♦Oxford Parliament.♦ Hyde suggested to the king that, in order to make
his cause more popular with the nation, which reverenced the very
word ‘Parliament’, he should summon to sit at Oxford those members
whom fear had driven from Westminster. Charles unwillingly consented;
he feared the proposed assembly would force peace on him, and so mar
the success he hoped from the new accession to his forces. His fears
proved correct. This body, though it was Royalist, showed a strong
dislike to certain of the council, as Papists, and as having been the
old instruments of tyranny. They even showed some suspicion of the
king’s own intentions; and, in fact, this half Parliament was evidently
inclined to make peace with its other half at Westminster. All
overtures, however, proved nugatory, for “the Lords and Commons” of the
Long Parliament refused to hold any communication with the king while
he spoke of the Oxford assembly as on an equality with themselves.
After a three months’ session, Charles gladly adjourned the Parliament
of his friends (16th April), which he described, in writing to his
wife, as “this mongrel assembly, the haunt of cowardly and seditious
motions.”
%ARMIES OF KING AND PARLIAMENT.%
♦Armies of the Parliament.♦ When hostilities re-commenced, the
Parliament had no less than five armies afoot; the army of Lord
Fairfax, now moving freely in Yorkshire, as the siege of Hull had been
raised by the advance of the Scots; that of Essex, now being recruited
in London after its successes at Gloucester and Newbury; that of
Waller, now reinforced after its expulsion from the west; the eastern
counties’ army, under the command of Cromwell and Manchester; and,
lastly, the army of the Scots, 21,000 strong, commanded by a Scotchman,
Leslie, Earl of Leven.
♦Armies of the King.♦ Charles had two large armies--his own, at Oxford,
of 10,000 men; that of Newcastle, in Yorkshire, of 14,000 men; besides
several considerable forces scattered over the country, and regiments
of English and Irish troops landing from time to time in Wales, and at
Chester and Bristol.
♦Taxes.♦ The Parliament had laid on the country heavy taxes for the
maintenance of its armies. Custom duties were levied on various
articles of export and import. An ordinance had been passed for a
weekly assessment of £10,000 on London, and of £24,000 on the rest of
the kingdom. This tax, like the subsidy, was levied on lands and goods,
but not after the same fashion. The subsidies had been levied after
an old rate, and by commissioners appointed by the Chancellor from
amongst the inhabitants of the county or borough. Through the laxity
of these commissioners the receipts had steadily decreased. Now a
specific sum was laid upon each county, and raised by commissioners
named by Parliament. By further ordinances, the excise duty, a tax
hitherto unknown in England, was introduced, which consisted of a tax
on the manufacture of commodities as distinct from the custom duties on
their importation, and as touching home rather than foreign produce.
The ignorant always prefer customs to excise, because the incidence of
the former is less visible; but the objection to customs is that they
take much more out of the pocket of the consumer than they bring to the
exchequer. Customs, being mainly levied on raw produce, have to be paid
by the merchant; his payment has to be recouped by the manufacturer and
the dealers, besides other intermediaries, all of whom require a profit
on the money sunk in the payment of the tax. Excise, being levied on
the last stage before sale, is, therefore, a more economical tax. The
Dutch had employed it before this, but its introduction into England
was due to the genius of Pym.
Such excise was now laid upon many articles of every-day use and
consumption; upon ale, cider, perry, wine, oil, sugar, pepper, salt,
silk, soap, and even meat (May, 1643-July, 1644). Counties under the
power of the Royalists were no better off than those under the power
of the Parliament. The Oxford Parliament copied that of Westminster,
and laid on an excise; irregular contributions were constantly levied
by the king’s troops, and his whole army, when unpaid, as it now often
was, lived at free quarters.
%SIEGE OF OXFORD.%
The committee of the two nations, sitting at Derby House, directed the
movements of the generals. Fairfax, Manchester, and Leslie received
instructions to attack Newcastle’s army, and lay siege to York; Essex
and Waller to invest Oxford.
♦Discontent in Oxford.♦ When it was known within Oxford that a siege
was impending, faction and discontent broke all bonds of control. Money
was getting scarce, and everybody was out of humour. The queen took
fright, and departed for Exeter, bidding Charles her last farewell.
Courtiers grumbled, and considered themselves neglected. The officers
wanted to govern everything, and quarrelled with the civilians in the
council. The number of Papists in the town annoyed many of the king’s
Protestant friends. Charles was incapable of silencing discontent and
making men work together. He had no faculty for putting the right
man into the right place. Promotion went by caprice or importunity.
His officers quarrelled with one another for command. In fact it was
a reign of jealousy before; and now, to gratify his nephews Rupert
and Maurice, he displaced and offended some of the best and most
trustworthy of his servants.
Oxford was already nearly invested, when Charles, by a skilful
manœuvre, saved both his army and the town. At the dead of night,
accompanied by his cavalry and 2500 foot, he passed undiscovered
between the two armies of Essex and Waller (3rd June), and proceeded by
quick marches to Worcester, and thence across the Severn to Bewdley.
Rupert, in command of his Cavaliers and some of the troops which had
been sent over from Ireland, was now in Lancashire, engaged in reducing
the fortified places which were held for the Parliament. But Charles,
hearing that Newcastle--who was closely besieged in York--could not
hold out for six weeks longer unless relieved, sent orders to Rupert to
march straight to York and relieve it by engaging the Scots.
%BATTLE OF CROPREDY BRIDGE.%
Meanwhile, the Parliamentary leaders, as soon as they became aware of
Charles’ escape, agreed that Waller and his army should pursue the
royal forces, while Essex and his army reduced the towns in the west.
Waller thought the king was making for Lancashire to join Rupert, and
so kept ahead of him on the eastern bank of the Severn. But Charles’
plan was much bolder; on hearing the Parliament’s forces were divided,
his aim was to regain his head-quarters immediately and attack before
his enemies could re-unite. With this view he crossed the river behind
Waller, and on the 20th June was again in Oxford. Without giving any
time for Essex to reappear, he marched out at once at the head of
his whole army, and soon fell in with Waller, who, on hearing of his
movements, had returned in haste to cover the road to London. The two
armies were in sight of one another as they marched northwards from
Banbury, Charles being on the eastern, Waller on the western, bank of
the Cherwell.
♦Battle of Cropredy Bridge. (Map, p. 127.)♦ About midday, Waller,
observing that the rear of the king’s army was some distance behind
the main body, forced a passage across Cropredy Bridge, and fell upon
it in front, while at the same time he sent a body of horse to make
their way over a ford about a mile lower down the river. Charles,
seeing his rear about to be attacked on two sides, at once recalled his
advanced troops, and a succession of skirmishes followed, in which the
Royalists were generally victorious, taking several pieces of cannon,
and beating the enemy back both over the ford and the bridge. Fighting
lasted until night caused the two armies to separate. The action in
itself might have been called indecisive, but the king gained all the
advantages of a victory, for death and desertion soon reduced Waller’s
army to half its numbers.
%MARSTON MOOR.%
Three days after the battle of Cropredy Bridge, the eastern counties’
army was brought into action in Yorkshire. It was supporting the Scots
in besieging York; but the generals of the Parliament, on hearing
that Rupert was marching from Lancashire with 20,000 men to raise the
siege, withdrew from their entrenchments to Hessay Moor in order to
oppose his approach (30th June). The prince, however, disappointed
their expectations, for instead of following the high road from
Knaresborough, over Skip Bridge, he crossed the Ouse with his army
above its junction with the Nidd, and entered York the same evening
without opposition (1st July).
As Rupert had already effected his object in relieving the town,
Newcastle wished to avoid, or at least delay a battle; urging in the
first place that divisions would probably break out in the enemy’s
army, composed as it was of Scots and English, Presbyterians and
Independents, in the second, that he was expecting a reinforcement
of 3000 men, and that no battle ought to be fought until after their
arrival. But Rupert, confident of victory, put forward the king’s
letter: “I have his Majesty’s commands,” he said; “I am bound to
fight.” “I am ready to obey your Highness,” replied Newcastle, “as
if the king himself were here.” The prince’s army was encamped a few
miles to the north of York, and it was agreed that Newcastle’s foot
should be ready by two o’clock at night to march out and unite with
it. Their sudden and unlooked-for deliverance seemed, however, for the
time to have demoralized the York forces. Some of the soldiers were
out seeking for booty in the deserted trenches of the enemy; others
were already drawn together, when a report spread that before marching
they were to receive their pay; at once the men broke from their ranks
and dispersed, and some hours elapsed before they could be gathered
together again.[112] Rupert rode out of the town at daybreak, without
waiting for Newcastle,[113] and proceeded to lead his army across the
Ouse at Poppelton, where the Scots had left standing a bridge of boats
(2nd July).
The counsels of the Parliament’s generals were, like those of the
Royalists, divided. The English were for seeking out the enemy and
fighting, but the Scots proposed to retreat to Cawood, where, by
forming a _tête-de-pont_ to defend the bridge at the junction of the
branches of the Ouse, they might oppose Rupert’s further advance south.
The Scots’ counsel prevailed, and the army drew off from Hessay Moor
southwards, in the direction of Tadcaster: those in the van had already
advanced some miles, when it was attacked in the rear by Rupert’s horse
at Marston village and forced hastily to turn and form in order of
battle.
%POSITION OF FAIRFAX.%
Both Hessay and Marston Moors form part of a low plain, watered by the
Ouse and the Nidd. Drainage and tillage have now changed the character
of a tract that was then in the main really moor, open and unenclosed.
Immediately south of the road that joins Tockwith and Marston, the
dead level ends, and an easy ascent of ten minutes leads to the summit
of a line of higher ground, running from one village to the other.
The Parliamentarians on the first attack promptly faced about to the
north, and formed upon the brow of this hill, on Marston Field, a large
enclosure with crops of rye then dotted over it. Their right wing,
consisting of Sir Thomas Fairfax’ regiments of horse and foot, together
with the larger part of the Scotch horse, and a reserve of Scottish
infantry, occupied a position immediately west of Marston village,
where the elevation is highest. Their main battle was composed of
Scotch and English infantry, commanded by Lords Leven and Manchester
and Sir Thomas’s father, Lord Fairfax. Still farther west, resting on
the village of Tockwith, where the hill is much lower than at Marston,
was the left wing, comprised of three regiments of Scottish cavalry and
the eastern counties’ horse, under the command respectively of David
Leslie and Lieutenant-General Cromwell. Its outer flank was supported
by a body of Scotch dragoons.
[Illustration: BATTLE OF MARSTON MOOR 2^{nd} July, 1644.]
%POSITION OF ROYALISTS.%
Rupert, who was following from the north-east, finding that his enemies
were facing about to accept battle, formed his army upon Marston
Moor, awaiting meanwhile impatiently the arrival of the York forces.
After some delay the marquis, “accompanied with all the gentlemen of
quality which were in York, came to the prince, who said, ‘My lord, I
wish you had come sooner with your forces, but, I hope we shall yet
have a glorious day.’ The marquis informed him how his foot had been
a-plundering in the trenches, and that it was impossible to have got
together all at the time fixed, but that he had left General King
about the work, who would bring them up with all the expedition that
might be. The prince, seeing the marquis’ foot were not come up, would
with his own forces have been falling upon the enemy, but the marquis
dissuaded him, telling him that he had 4000 good foot as were in the
world coming. About four o’clock in the afternoon General King brought
up the marquis’ foot, of which yet many were wanting, for there was not
above 3000. The prince demanded of King how he liked the marshalling of
his army, who replied, he did not approve of it, being drawn too near
the enemy and in a place of disadvantage. Then said the prince, ‘They
may be drawn a further distance.’ ‘No, sire,’ said King, ‘it is too
late.’”
The two armies were drawn up so close together that “their foot,” says
a Parliamentarian, “was close to our noses.” Rupert had been beforehand
in gaining possession of a deep ditch that ran in a straight line
between them. In this he placed four bodies of musketeers opposite the
eastern counties’ army. His right wing he led in person. Newcastle’s
foot fell into position on the extreme left of the main body, which was
placed under the command of General King; the left wing was commanded
by Colonel Goring. A few fields cut up the moor on this side, so that
the only approach for the horse on the enemy’s right lay up a narrow
lane with a hedge on one side and a ditch on the other, both lined with
dismounted dragoons. All along the line waved banners magnificent with
gold and silver fringes. Here a red pennon with a white cross, and
motto, ‘Pro rege et regno;’ there a black coronet and sword reaching
from the clouds, ‘Terribilis ut acies ordinata;’ while far on the right
the presence of the prince was marked by a standard nearly five yards
long and broad, with a red cross in the centre. Each army was nearly
23,000 strong, so that never before in the course of the war had such
large forces met face to face. The Parliamentarians wore as their mark
a white paper or handkerchief in their hats; their word for the day was
‘God with us.’ The Royalist mark was to be without bands or scarfs;
their word ‘God and the king.’
Since two o’clock the cannon had been booming, but still the two armies
delayed to join battle. The Parliament’s generals, trusting in Rupert’s
proverbial daring, waited for him to disorder his lines by being the
first to charge across the ditch. Their soldiers meanwhile ‘fell to
singing psalms,’ a sign that they at least were nerved and ready for
any odds.
When the forces from York had at last arrived, Rupert’s impetuosity
was restrained by the representations of Newcastle and King, both of
whom were averse to fighting because of the lateness of the hour. He
declared accordingly his intention of delaying the battle till the next
day, ordered provisions to be brought for his army from York, and with
most culpable neglect suffered many of his horsemen to dismount and lie
on the ground, with their horses’ bridles in their hands.
But that long summer’s day was not so to end. It was already seven
o’clock when Leven, who acted as commander-in-chief, finding that the
enemy would not charge him, determined to charge them, and ordered
the whole line of his army to advance. “We came down the hill,” says
Oliver’s scout-master, “in the bravest order, and with the greatest
resolution--I mean the left wing of our horse, led by Cromwell, which
was to charge their right wing, led by Rupert, in which was all their
gallant men.” At the sound of the enemy’s alarums, the prince in hot
haste sprung to horse and galloped up to the front of the field.
He found his own regiment taken by surprise, and in some disorder.
“’Swounds!” he cried, “do you run--follow me!” and fiercely led the way
to meet the enemy’s charge. Meanwhile Manchester’s foot, in the face
of a fierce fire, dashed down the hill at a bit of level, where there
was a break in the ditch, and thus taking the Royalist musketeers in
flank, drove them out of their shelter. A desperate struggle ensued.
The horsemen discharged their pistols, and then, flinging them at one
another’s heads, fell to with their swords. A company of Cavaliers, led
by Rupert in person, charged Cromwell’s own division of three hundred
horse in front and flank. A shot grazed the lieutenant-general’s
neck. “A miss is as good as a mile,” he exclaimed, and scattering
his assailants before him “like a little dust,” pressed onwards till
he broke through the lines of the enemy. “Manchester’s foot, on the
right hand, went on by our side,” says Oliver’s scout-master again,
“dispersing the enemy’s foot almost as fast as they charged them, still
going by our side, cutting them down that we carried the whole field
before us, thinking the victory wholly ours, and nothing to be done but
to kill and take prisoners.” Soon Rupert’s whole wing, horse and foot,
was in full flight, and the Cavaliers were swept off the field, flying
northwards “along by Wilstrop woodside as fast and thick as could be.”
Meanwhile the Parliament’s troops on the right wing found their advance
impeded by the hedge and ditch which protected the enemy’s left. They
could only march up the lane three or four abreast, and were exposed
all the while to a hot fire from the musketeers stationed by Rupert
on either side. After forcing their way to the open ground at the end
of the lane, they were received by large bodies of the enemy, who
fell upon each party as it emerged. Fairfax, indeed, in face of all
difficulties, charged right through Goring’s squadrons, at the head of
four hundred horse. But finding himself left unsupported, he was fain
to take the white handkerchief out of his hat, and pass for a Royalist
commander while he rode hastily back to his own side.
%ROUT OF FAIRFAX’ WING.%
Meantime his van, composed of newly-levied regiments, had wheeled
round before the enemy, and disordered his own infantry and the Scots’
reserve, so that on his return, he found his whole wing broken and
already in flight. Some of the Cavaliers, with their usual impetuosity,
pursued the flying enemy over the hill which shut out their view of
the field, and miles on to the south in the direction of Cawood and
Tadcaster; others tarried to plunder the carriages and baggage left by
the Parliamentarians on the top of the hill; others under the command
of Goring joined Newcastle’s regiment of Whitecoats, and wheeled round
on the unprotected right flank of the enemy’s centre. Thus attacked in
front and flank, the Scots’ infantry on this side gave way. In vain
Leven exhorted his men to stand. “Though you run from your enemies,” he
cried, “yet leave not your general.” Believing the battle to be lost,
he joined the stream of fugitives, and never drew rein until he came to
Leeds.
♦The general confusion--account of an eye-witness.♦ The confusion was
not confined to the Parliament side. “I knew not for my soul,” says
one who was there looking for Rupert, “whither to incline: runaways on
both sides, so many, so breathless, so speechless, not a man of them
able to give me the least hope where the prince was to be found, both
armies being mingled, horse and foot. In this terrible distraction did
I scour the country, here meeting with a shoal of Scots crying out,
‘Wae’s us, we’re a’ undone!’ then with a ragged troop, reduced to four
and a cornet, by-and-by with a little foot-officer, without hat, band,
or anything but feet.”
It is a time of confusion such as this that gives an opening for
the calm and collected officer who has his men well in hand. Half
the Royalist left wing were far away, triumphantly driving the blow
home, as they thought, by a hot pursuit. Goring had only Newcastle’s
Whitecoats and a sprinkling of his own Cavaliers, when the fading light
revealed to him a new enemy occupying the very ground he had himself
held in the morning.
♦Cromwell redeems the day.♦ It was the Parliament’s left wing, led by
Cromwell and Leslie; who, after dispersing the Royalist right, had
relinquished pursuit and crossed the battle-field to support their less
fortunate friends. Once again Cavaliers and Ironsides fiercely charged,
and once again victory remained with the Ironsides. The Cavaliers fled
the field, while Newcastle’s regiment of Whitecoats, a thousand brave
Northumbrians raised out of his own tenantry, scorning to receive
quarter or to fly, were all, save some thirty, cut down to a man, in
the same order and rank in which they stood. Major-General Porter,
who had forced back part of the Parliament’s main battle, now, in the
moment of success, found foes in his own rear, and had to surrender
with his men.
Broken and routed, the Royalists on all sides fled, and were chased
with terrible slaughter to within a mile of York. By ten o’clock, the
battle was over, and after scarce three hours’ fighting, more than 3000
Royalists lay dead upon the field. The Parliamentarians lost, it was
said, only some 300 men; they made 1500 prisoners, and took all the
enemy’s artillery, ammunition, and baggage. “The Earl of Manchester,”
says his chaplain, “about eleven o’clock that night, did ride about
to the soldiers both horse and foot, giving them many thanks for the
exceeding good service they had done for the kingdom; and he often
earnestly entreated them to give the honour of the victory unto God
alone. The soldiers unanimously gave God the glory of their great
deliverance and victory, and told his lordship with much cheerfulness
that, though they had long fasted and were faint, yet they would
willingly want three days longer, rather than to give up the service or
leave his lordship.”
♦Leven bewails his flight.♦ It was not, however, till noon the next
day, that the joyful news reached Leven, who had fled in the belief
that the battle was irrecoverably lost. Upon hearing of this, he
knocks upon his breast, and says, “I would to God I had died upon the
plain.”[114]
Newcastle, in disgust at seeing his army destroyed and power gone
through Rupert’s rashness, went beyond seas, accompanied by more than
eighty gentlemen. The prince returned to Chester, with the remnants of
a broken army. York surrendered to the Parliament, and the king lost
all hold in the north.
♦Results of battle.♦ Such was one result of the battle; but there was a
second hardly less momentous. The Independents had triumphed not only
over the Royalists, but over the Presbyterians. In London, it was told
how “Cromwell, with his unspeakable valorous regiments, had done all
the service; the Presbyterians, the Scots, had fled.”[115] As though
to render the triumph of the Ironsides the more complete, a terrible
misfortune befell the army in which the Presbyterians placed their
trust.
%ESSEX IN WEST.%
The Royalist leader, Sir Richard Grenville, on hearing of the presence
of Essex in the west, raised the siege of Plymouth, and marched for
refuge into Cornwall. Essex had already advanced as far as Exeter,
when the news reached him that the king had defeated Waller, and was
now following in pursuit of himself. Some of his officers, who had
estates in Cornwall which they wished to visit, persuaded him to march
after Grenville, instead of turning at once to meet the royal forces.
He soon found that he had taken a fatal step. The country people were
Royalists, and gave him no support. The country itself is enough to
embarrass a general, with its bare back-bone of mountain, moor, or
marsh, while the southern coast, which is the least desolate, is split
up into a succession of deep valleys running to the sea.
Essex had his head-quarters at Lostwithiel, in the valley of the
Fowey, then spelt, as it is still pronounced, Foy, when the king,
advancing from Liskeard, pitched his camp and standard on Broadoak or
Braddoc Downs, near Boconnoc. Hoping to profit by the enmity existing
between the Presbyterian and Independent commanders, he wrote Essex a
letter, calling on him to end the war by uniting the two armies, and
promising on the word of a king that he would ever prove a faithful
friend to both him and his army. The Royalist officers afterwards set
their names to a letter, in which they undertook to see carried out
all that his Majesty might promise. But Essex’ honesty stood the test.
In answer to their overtures he declared his inability to treat, and
referred the king to the Parliament. His generalship, however, did not
prove equal to his honesty. Though he was in possession of the valley
of the Foy, from the haven itself to Lanhydrock, a house belonging to
the Parliamentarian Lord Robartes, so that supplies could be brought
into his army, both by sea and land, from all sides, excepting the
east; yet with little opposition, he suffered the king to draw the
toils so closely round him, that starvation or surrender were the only
alternatives left.
♦Surrender at Lostwithiel.♦ Grenville, at the head of 1400 men,
advanced from Bodmin, gained possession of Lanhydrock, and thus opened
communication with Charles on Broadoak Downs, and shut in the army of
the enemy on the north (12th August). Essex had neglected to occupy
View Hall, a house on the east bank of the river opposite Foy, and
Pernon Fort, standing on the same side and commanding the entrance of
the harbour. These important positions were now seized and occupied
by the Royalists, so that the Parliamentarians were prevented any
longer from bringing provisions into Fowey by sea (13th August).
Their position at Lostwithiel soon became still more circumscribed.
Sir Richard Grenville advanced from Lanhydrock and drove Essex out
of Lestormel Castle, which commands the Fowey valley scarce a mile
above Lostwithiel (21st August). The same day the king, advancing from
enclosures which bounded the south side of Boconnoc Park, forced the
Parliamentarians to quit their quarters on a beacon hill, which stands
about a mile east of Lostwithiel. Here the following night, he raised
a battery, whence he shot right into their camp. The west was now the
only side still open to Essex, and even from this he was shortly to be
cut off. Goring and the horse seized possession of St. Austell, and
thus commanded all the country round Tywardreath Bay, whence provisions
had still reached Lostwithiel by sea (25th August). Essex had now no
choice left but to surrender.
The horse escaped by riding off about three o’clock one misty morning,
between the armies of the king and Prince Maurice, which were encamped
a small distance apart (31st August).
[Illustration: Map of Lostwithiel area]
%ESSEX’ ARMY SURRENDERS.%
Essex and the foot marched from Lostwithiel for Foy, hoping as a
last resource to escape across the river and sail from Lanteglos to
Plymouth. Before leaving Lostwithiel, they tried to break down the
bridge over the river, but were prevented by the enemy’s infantry,
who followed them through the town and down the valley, forcing them
to a hasty retreat. On the march they came to some high ground and
enclosures, which they occupied, and succeeded for the time in making
a successful stand and driving the enemy back. The next day, Essex
sailed from Foy, in company with his principal officers. As he left
the harbour, he narrowly escaped being taken prisoner by the garrison
of Pernon Fort. The infantry, about 6000 in number, surrendered their
ammunition, artillery, and arms, on condition that they should be
allowed their liberty and conducted to the nearest quarters of their
friends. The terms, however, were not kept; the men were maltreated and
plundered all the way on their march through the enemy’s country, and
so many were the deaths and desertions, that only some 1000 arrived
at Poole in safety. Thus the two Presbyterian generals in the west
were crushed in a single campaign. “Mr. Sheriff,” said Charles, on his
departure from Cornwall, “I leave the country entirely at peace in your
hands.”[116]
%MONTROSE IN SCOTLAND.%
♦Civil war in Scotland.♦ At this time the flames of civil war had
spread from England into Scotland. Before the cessation of arms had
been concluded with the Irish, and before the Scots had declared
themselves for the Parliament, the Marquis of Montrose had formed
with Charles a secret plan of raising the Highlanders and uniting
them with a body of troops to be transported from Ireland, and thus
beginning a second civil war in Scotland. An attempt was made to carry
this plan into execution during the present summer; and Montrose,
coming down from the Highlands at the head of a brave, but savage
and undisciplined, army of Highlanders and Irishmen, twice defeated
such forces as the Covenanters were able to bring together during the
absence of their best troops in England.[117]
Hostilities were carried on in a more and more brutal spirit. This
was especially the case after the introduction of Irish troops into
England. The introduction of troops of a lower order of civilization is
always looked upon with horror. If not savages as Indians in America,
or ‘Turcos’ in France, both Highlanders and Irish were looked upon as
such.
♦Irish and Highlanders.♦ They both fought without regard to the
ordinary rules of war. Montrose’s Highland ‘hell hounds,’ as they were
called, were allowed to plunder and butcher at will; while the Irish
came stained with the blood of massacred Protestants. An ordinance
passed by the Parliament forbidding quarter to be given to any Irishmen
or Papists taken in arms (Oct. 3rd), was in their case literally
enforced. Irish soldiers seized on their way to English ports were
tied back to back and cast into the sea; those made prisoners in
England were shot by hundreds. The more moderate of the Royalists had
objected to the introduction of the Irish; but the less scrupulous, not
to be behind in acts of cruelty, would retaliate by hanging English
prisoners, taken in arms, twelve at a time, on a tree, or by putting
members of garrisons to death on slight excuses, contrary to articles
of capitulation. Thus the war was more and more embittered as it went
on.
Charles, on hearing of Montrose’s victories, regarded the disastrous
day of Marston Moor as already retrieved. He expected either that the
Scotch army would return to defend their homes, or else that Montrose
would march into England, fight the Scots, and recover his lost
ascendancy in the north. But his wishes made him overlook the character
of Montrose’s army. After a raid on the Lowlands, the Highlanders’
custom was to return to the mountains, and enjoy their spoil. The
present expedition was nothing to them but a raid on a larger scale
than usual; and no sooner did the winter set in, than they melted away
from their leader, who found his Irish troops insufficient to protect
him, and was fain to follow his Highlanders and take refuge in their
mountains.
%SECOND BATTLE OF NEWBURY.%
Charles, meantime, was marching back from Cornwall to Oxfordshire. He
had passed through Wiltshire, and reached Newbury, when he heard that
the armies of Waller, Essex, and Manchester were advancing from London
to meet him. The Independents, content with the proved superiority of
their army, had not pressed their victory over the fallen Essex and
Waller. Waller’s army had been recruited once more; and Essex’ men
had been re-furnished with arms on returning from their catastrophe
in the west. Essex himself pleaded sickness, and remained absent from
his army, feeling that since the relief of Gloucester, the day of his
triumphs was over.
As the united armies of the enemy were 16,000 strong, and his own
forces not above 8000, Charles, not venturing to risk a battle in the
open field, took up a strong defensive position in Newbury, between
the rivers Kennet and Lamborne. On the south the town was protected by
the Kennet. On the north-east troops were quartered in Shaw village,
which was strengthened with a breastwork, and in a large house, called
Doleman’s, still standing, as the map shows (p. 144), a little in
advance of the village on the northern bank of the Lamborne. Bodies of
horse occupied a gentle eminence rising immediately east of Doleman’s
House, and a few neighbouring hedges were lined with musketeers. On the
west Prince Maurice’s infantry was quartered in the village of Speen;
and in two large fields, lying north of Newbury, between the rivers
Kennet and Lamborne, was stationed a large body of horse together with
a train of artillery. Approach to this quarter was rendered the more
difficult by the neighbourhood of Donnington Castle, which was held by
a strong garrison for the king.
%CROMWELL _VERSUS_ MANCHESTER.
The Parliament’s generals took possession of Clay Hill, lying to the
north-east of Newbury, and agreed to make a combined attack upon Shaw
and Speen. For this purpose, the greater part of Manchester’s horse,
all Essex’ horse and foot, and almost all the forces under Waller,
separated from Manchester, and making a detour beyond Donnington
Castle, surprised the Royalists in their quarters on the north-west.
Many of the king’s guards being absent from their posts, the Lamborne
was crossed without opposition, and Prince Maurice’s infantry quickly
dislodged from Speen. A fierce three-hours’ contest followed in the
fields lying between Donnington and Newbury. The king, who was present
in person, could not prevent some of his troops from flying under
the walls of the castle for protection. Essex’ men, crying out “that
they would be revenged for the business of Cornwall,” carried off in
triumph the very cannon they had before surrendered. The Royalists,
however, succeeded in retaining possession of the field, and when night
caused the battle to end, Waller retired into Speen. Meanwhile, on the
other side of the town, a still fiercer struggle had been maintained.
Manchester had agreed with Waller that as soon as the sound of cannon
should be heard from Speen, he would advance with his forces upon the
Royalist quarters at Shaw. During the morning he “rode about from
regiment to regiment to encourage the soldiers, and to keep them in
due order fit for that service which every hour almost was expected.”
It was about four o’clock in the afternoon when, says an eye-witness,
“we saw the firing of the muskets in Speen, which discovered the
service to be very hot, and with joy and thankfulness beheld the hasty
disorderly retreat of the enemy towards Newbury.” On this encouraging
sight 3000 of Manchester’s foot burst down Clay Hill singing a psalm
as they came, intending to storm the defences of the Royalists, and
meet their friends in the fields lying between Newbury and Donnington.
Charging furiously, the Parliamentarians forced the king’s horse back
into the garden of Doleman’s House, and made their way right up to the
breastworks. Here, however, they were exposed to a murderous fire,
and fell in numbers, while they were able to do little execution upon
enemies sheltered by walls and earthworks. As was not seldom the case
in this war, with the approach of night, friends were mistaken for
foes; so that after one company of Manchester’s foot had possessed
themselves of one of the enemy’s outworks, a second beat them out again
with great loss of life to both. After four hours’ hard fighting, the
Parliamentarians gave up the attack and drew off, while sheltered from
pursuit by their own horse, which had stayed all the time barely beyond
range of the enemy’s pistols. It was now ten o’clock, and a clear,
moonlight night. Charles, seeing that he had lost ground upon the
western side of the town, forsook his quarters, and, without meeting
any opposition, withdrew by Donnington Castle to Wallingford, passing
between Waller’s and Manchester’s armies.[118]
It was a victory, but not a victory to break the king’s power in the
south, as Marston Moor had broken it in the north.
♦Dissensions in London.♦ When the generals returned to London, Cromwell
laid a heavy charge against the Presbyterian earl in the House of
Commons; how Manchester had always been for such a peace as a victory
would be a disadvantage to; how he had often acted as if he thought the
king too low and the Parliament too high, but especially at Donnington
Castle: “Though,” said Cromwell, “I showed him evidently how this
success might be obtained, and only desired leave with my own brigade
of horse, to charge the king’s army in their retreat, leaving it to
the earl’s choice, if he thought proper to remain neutral with the
rest of his forces. But he positively refused his consent, and gave no
other reason but that, if we met with a defeat, there was an end of our
pretensions--we should all be rebels and traitors, and be executed and
forfeited by law.”
Manchester, in turn, retorted on his lieutenant-general charges of
insubordination, and of deep dark designs; of having said, “that
it would never be well in England till I were plain Mr. Montague,
and there was never a peer nor a lord in the land.” Indeed, it was
reported that Cromwell said to his soldiers, “if he met the king in
battle, he would fire his pistol at the king as at another.” The
charges were not pressed on either side, and no judgment was passed.
But the Presbyterians from this time feared Cromwell as the ablest and
most determined of their opponents. Pym was dead nearly a year now,
and there had risen up in his place a man they owned to be “of a very
wise and active head, universally well-beloved as religious and stout,
being a known Independent, and loved by the soldiers.” Their fears made
them the more eager to effect a peace, which would secure their own
ascendancy, and crush the hated Independents. Peace propositions were
accordingly brought forward, and passed both Houses of Parliament after
meeting much opposition from the Independent party (9th Nov.). Charles
agreed to send seventeen commissioners to Uxbridge, to discuss the
terms proposed, with thirty-five members of Parliament and the Scottish
commissioners.
%SELF-DENYING ORDINANCE.%
But while the Presbyterians were intending peace, the Independents were
preparing to re-model the army, and place it in the hands of men who
knew how to conquer; for it was evident that the war would never be
brought to a successful close while the command of the forces of the
Parliament was divided between rival generals of different principles,
some of whom did not wish to push matters to an extreme.
♦Self-denying ordinance.♦ To effect their purpose, they proposed to
deprive of office, civil and military, all members of Parliament. The
House was considering the sad condition of the kingdom, when Cromwell
rose and spoke to the following effect: “It is now time to speak,
or for ever hold the tongue. The important occasion now is no less
than to save a nation out of a bleeding, nay almost out of a dying
condition.... For what do the enemy say? Nay, what do men say that were
friends at the beginning of the Parliament? Even this, that the members
of both Houses have got great places, and commands, and the sword
into their hands, and will not permit the war speedily to end, lest
their own power should determine with it.” “Whatever is the matter,”
continued another member; “two summers are passed over, and we are not
saved. A summer’s victory has proved but a winter’s story; the game
has shut up with autumn, to be new played again next spring, as if
the blood that has been shed were only to manure the field of war.
I determine nothing, but it is apparent that the forces being under
several great commanders has oftentimes hindered the public service.”
“There is but one way of ending so many evils,” said a third member. “I
move that no member of either house shall, during this war, execute any
office or command, civil or military” (9th Dec.).
The motion was acted upon, and a ‘self-denying ordinance’ to the
effect proposed was ordered to be brought into the House. Since the
Presbyterians fully understood that this measure was intended to place
the army under the sole control of the Independents, they were not
inclined to relax in their opposition. But they had now been three
years at the head of affairs and not yet brought the war to an end.
Public opinion was strong against them and turned the waverers, so that
the ordinance was carried by a small majority of seven votes (19th
Dec.).
In the Upper House, the opposition was even stronger than in the
Commons. The peers of England had always held the highest command in
the state, and were now unwilling to make way for the rise of their
inferiors in rank, by yielding up honours that they regarded as their
hereditary right. They accordingly rejected the ordinance, saying,
that they did not know what shape the army would take (15th Jan.,
1645).
♦Ordinance for re-modelling army.♦ The Independents answered the
objection by introducing into the Commons a second ordinance for the
re-modelling of the army. There was only to be one army, to consist
of 21,000 men. Sir Thomas Fairfax was named commander-in-chief;
Skippon, major-general; and a blank was left for the name of the new
lieutenant-general. This ordinance also passed the Commons, and was
sent up to the Lords (28th Jan.).
%UXBRIDGE NEGOTIATIONS.%
♦Uxbridge negotiations.♦ Meanwhile, commissioners from king and
Parliament met, as agreed, at Uxbridge. The question of religion was
first discussed. The Parliament demanded that Episcopacy should be
abolished, the Presbyterian Church established, and the king himself
take the covenant. The king’s commissioners offered so far to reduce
the power of bishops that, in most points, they should be incapable
of acting without the consent of the ministers of their respective
dioceses. This concession might have been accepted at the beginning of
the war, before the hopes of the Presbyterians had soared so high. But
the two nations were now bound together by their solemn league and
covenant, and nothing would satisfy Scotch or English Presbyterians but
the entire abolition of the order of bishops. Next came the question
of the militia. The king offered to resign the command to Parliament
for seven years, on condition it should then revert to the crown. Two
years ago, this concession also might have given satisfaction, but
the strength of the Independent party was now far too great to allow
of its acceptance by the Commons. Thirdly it was required that the
cessation of arms, made by Charles with the Irish, should be declared
void, and, hardest of all, that all his friends, even his very nephews,
should be excepted from receiving the benefit of the royal prerogative
of pardon. It was through the Independents that the stringency of the
terms had been increased. The offer of peace was genuine on the part of
the Presbyterians, who were most anxious that the king should accept
terms before the army passed out of their hands. It was certainly a
time for Charles to consider the question seriously. If he accepted,
the Presbyterians would restore him--at least, in a manner--to his
throne; the army of the Scots, the armies of Essex and Waller, united
with the Cavaliers, would present a force more than enough to meet
any opposition the Independents might offer. On the other hand, if he
refused, the Independents would gain the sole control of the forces of
the Parliament, and the result was sure to be some crushing defeat to
himself.
♦Charles opposed to peace.♦ This was the sober truth; but Charles’
eyes were dazzled by a far more brilliant prospect, as he sat over
letters and despatches in his rooms at Oxford. The queen, who had fled
from Exeter to France, when Essex marched into the west, constantly
sent her husband advice, much in the shape of command, bidding him be
careful of making any peace that should not restore him to his full
rights, and ensure her own safety. Montrose, who had gained a third
victory in Scotland, at Inverlochy (2nd Feb.), wrote to implore him not
to make himself ‘a king of straw,’ promising, before the end of the
next summer, to be in England at the head of a gallant army. Charles,
however, did not need to be dissuaded from accepting the terms offered
by the Parliament, for he still believed in the final success of his
arms. He was soliciting both France and Denmark for assistance, and,
through the queen, was carrying on a negotiation with the Duke of
Lorraine for the transportation of 10,000 soldiers into England. He
was writing to Ormond that if the Irish Catholics should assist him,
and he be restored to his throne by their means, he would consent to
repeal all the penal statutes made against them.[119] He was trusting
for success to the divisions of his enemies, and believed that, if he
failed in the field, he could still play off one against the other, and
that either section must be glad to bid high for his support against
the other. Buoyed up by such hopes, Charles wrote to the queen, that
he would never quit Episcopacy, nor the sword which God had put into
his hands, and that she need not doubt the issue of the negotiations,
for there was “no probability of a peace.” He forbade the commissioners
to make any further concessions, and the negotiations at Uxbridge were
accordingly broken off (21st Feb.).
The king’s rejection of the propositions was a terrible blow to the
Presbyterians.
♦Lords pass self-denying ordinance.♦ The Lords, of whom only five
or six had any sympathy with the Independents, had now to pass the
ordinance for the re-modelling of the army (15th Feb.), and a second
self-denying ordinance, depriving members of any office conferred on
them since the election of the Parliament (3rd April). Any further
opposition on their part would only have accelerated the speed of
the revolution, by causing the Commons to declare their ordinance
good at law without the consent of the House of Lords. For, in times
of revolution, when the real powers in the State are the sword and
the people, an upper chamber is useless and weak. The Commons, now
acting as the executive, commanded the sword, the people supported the
Commons, and the Lords were powerless to guide or stay the march of
events.
%EXECUTION OF LAUD.%
The self-denying ordinance, which now passed the Upper House, differed
in an important point from the one before rejected. By this, members
were not precluded from taking office on any future occasion. Its only
effect was, in fact, to make, as it were, a fresh start. The existing
Presbyterian generals were practically cashiered, but new nominees
could be generals as well as members. But the Presbyterians, though
foiled in these matters through their political half-heartedness, could
still console themselves with their ecclesiastical supremacy. In that
sphere they never pretended to be tolerant. Their victim now was Laud.
♦Impeachment of Laud.♦ He had been impeached of high treason at the
same time as Strafford, but the charge in his case was not pressed to
an issue, and Pym and his party had contented themselves with leaving
him to die a natural death in the Tower. Now, however, through the
bigotry of Scotch and English Presbyterians, these proceedings were
revived against the old man, already a four years’ prisoner. His
innovations in religion, the cruel sentences of the Star Chamber, and
his interference with the judges, were charged against him, as an
endeavour to subvert the laws and overthrow the Protestant religion.
The judges, on being asked their opinion by the Lords, replied that the
charges did not fall within the legal definition of high treason. The
Lords would doubtless have followed the opinions of the judges.
♦Laud condemned by ordinance of Parliament.♦ The Presbyterians,
however, being determined on his death, voted him guilty by an
ordinance of Parliament, which the House of Lords wanted spirit to
reject. The verdict of the judges marked this as far more unjustifiable
than Strafford’s case. The fact that the chief prosecutor was Prynne,
whose body showed the marks of the cruel judgments of the Star Chamber,
roused, no doubt, a strong feeling against the archbishop. But a
Parliament cannot plead the excuses of a mob, and cruelty did not
constitute high treason. The conviction shows how little the securities
that fence justice round are likely to be regarded when a popular
assembly usurps the functions of the judicature. It shows, also, the
evil of the precedent which was set when Strafford’s conviction was
secured by a Bill of Attainder instead of the legal process of an
impeachment. The ordinance was simply a Bill of Attainder without the
king’s consent. The Presbyterians desired the blood of their former
persecutor; and the Independents, in return for the passing of the
self-denying ordinance, refrained from offering opposition to the
gratification of their rivals’ vengeance.
FOOTNOTES:
[104] Somers, Tracts, iv. 510, 532.
[105] Forster, ii. 358.
[106] Scotsman’s letter in Somers Tracts, v.
[107] Birch, ii. 355; Baillie, i. 425.
[108] Neal, ii. 506.
[109] Neal, ii. 503; iii. 37.
[110] Lingard, viii. 35, 323.
[111] May, Brev.; Whitelock.
[112] There is a curious account of the ‘battle of York’ (_i.e._,
Marston Moor) in the Clarendon State Papers at Oxford. The writing is
in the same hand as a paper printed in the Clar. State Papers, ii.
p. 181, which is endorsed by Hyde, ‘Sir Hugh Cholmeley’s Memorials.’
The writer, whoever he is, tells us he received his account ‘from
a gentleman of quality of that country who was a colonel and had
a command there and present all the time.’ The other accounts
of the battle given by eye-witnesses are nearly all written by
Parliamentarians.
[113] William Cavendish, Earl of Newcastle (p. 134), now Marquis.
[114] Rushworth; Ormond Pap., i. 56; Fairfax’ Mem.; Cromwelliana; Sir
H. Slingsby’s Mem.; Letters and Accounts of Ash, Watson, and Steward,
in King’s Pamphlets, 164, 166; Memorials touching the battle of York,
in Clarendon Papers in Bodleian.
[115] Baillie, ii. 40.
[116] Letter of Sir F. Basset; Hals’ Parochial History (both _apud_
Davies Gilbert’s History of Cornwall); Clar. Hist.; Sir E. Walker’s
Historical Discourses.
[117] At Tipper Muir, 1st September, 1644. At Bridge of Dee, 14th
September, 1644.
[118] Ludlow Mem.; Clar. Hist.; E. Walker’s Hist. Discourses; A true
relation of the most chief occurrences at and since the Battle at
Newbury, (by Simeon Ash, chaplain to Manchester) in King’s Tracts.
[119] Ludlow, iii. 232, Letter to Ormond.