THE GREAT REBELLION (_concluded_).
The Assembly at Westminster--Trial and Death of Laud--Negotiations
at Uxbridge--Meeting of the Commissioners--Impossibility
of a Settlement--Prospect of Help to the King from the
Continent--Charles agrees to the demands of the Irish
Catholics--Discipline and Spirit of the Parliamentary
Army--Campaign of the New-modelled Army--Hunting the King--Battle
of Naseby--Fairfax in the West--Exploits of Montrose--Efforts of
Charles to join Him--Battle of Kilsyth--Fall of Bristol--Battle
of Philiphaugh--Last Efforts of the Royalists--Charles Offers to
Treat--Discovery of his Correspondence with Glamorgan--Charles
Intrigues with the Scots--Flight from Oxford--Surrender to
the Scots at Newark--Consequent Negotiations--Proposals for
Peace--Surrender of Charles to Parliament.
Whilst these events were happening in the field and the Parliament,
other events were occurring also both in England and Scotland, the
account of which, not to interrupt the narrative of the higher
transactions, has been deferred. From the month of June, 1643, the
Synod of divines at Westminster had been at work endeavouring to
establish a national system of faith and worship. This Westminster
Assembly consisted of one hundred and twenty individuals appointed by
the Lords and Commons. They included not only what were called pious,
godly, and judicious divines, but thirty laymen, ten lords, and twenty
commoners, and with them sat the Scottish commissioners. The Scottish
and English Presbyterians had a large majority, and endeavoured to
fix on the nation their gloomy, ascetic, and persecuting notions;
but they found a small but resolute party of a more liberal faith,
the Independents, including Vane, Selden, and others, whose bearing
and spirit, backed by Cromwell, Whitelock, St. John, and others in
Parliament, were more than a match for this overbearing intolerance.
On the subject of Church government, therefore, there could be no
agreement. Cromwell demanded from the House of Commons an act of
toleration, and that a Committee should be formed of deputies from
both Houses and from the Assembly to consider it. The subject was
long and fiercely debated, the Lords Say and Wharton, Sir Henry Vane,
and St. John contending for the independence of the Church from all
bishops, synods, and ruling powers. The only thing agreed on was, that
the English Common Prayer-book should be disused, and a Directory of
worship introduced which should regulate the order of the service,
the administration of the Sacrament, the ceremonies of marriage and
burial--but left much liberty to the minister in the matter of his
sermons. This Directory was, by an ordinance of both Houses, ordered to
be observed both in England and Scotland.
Poor old Archbishop Laud, who was still in prison, was in the turmoil
of civil war almost totally forgotten. But the Puritans of England and
the people of Scotland needed only a slight reminder to demand the
punishment of the man who, with so high a hand, had trodden down their
liberties and their religion. This was given them by the Lords, who,
insisting on appointing ministers to livings in his gift, called on
Laud to collate the vacant benefices to such persons as they should
nominate. The king forbade him to obey. At length, in February, 1643,
the rectory of Chartham, in Kent, became vacant by the death of the
incumbent, the Lords nominated one person, the king another, and Laud,
placed in a dilemma dangerous to his life under his circumstances,
endeavoured to excuse himself by remaining passive. But the Lords,
in the month of April, sent him a peremptory order, and on his still
delaying, sent a request to the Commons to proceed with his trial.
There were fourteen articles of impeachment already hanging over his
head, and the Commons appointed Prynne, still smarting under the
ear-lopping, branding, and cruelties of the archbishop, to collect
evidence and co-operate with a Committee on the subject.
What an apparition must that earless man, with those livid brand marks
on his cheeks, have been as he entered the cell of Laud, and told him
that the day of retribution was come! Prynne collected all his papers,
even the diary which he had been so long employed in writing, as the
defence of his past life, and sought everywhere for remaining victims
and witnesses of the archbishop's persecutions and cruelties, to bring
them up against him. In six months the Committee had obtained evidence
enough to furnish ten new articles of impeachment against him, and on
the 4th of March, 1644, more than three years after his commitment,
Laud was called upon to take his trial. He demanded time to consult his
papers, and to have them for that purpose restored, to have counsel,
and money out of the proceeds of his estate to pay his fees and other
expenses. He was not likely to find much more tenderness from his
enemies than he had showed to them; the Scots demanded stern justice
upon him, as the greatest enemy which their country had known for
ages. Time was given him till the 12th of March, when he was brought
to the bar of the House of Lords. There, after the once haughty but
now humbled priest had been made to kneel a little, Mr. Serjeant Wild
opened the case against him, and went over, at great length, the whole
story of his endeavours to introduce absolutism in Church and State
in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the dreadful cruelties and
oppressions which he had inflicted on the king's subjects in the Star
Chamber and High Commission Courts.
When he had done, Laud defended himself from a written paper,
contending that though he had leaned towards the law, he had never
intended to overthrow the laws, and that he had in the Church laboured
only for the support of the external form of worship, which had been
neglected. But the hearers had not forgotten the "Thorough," nor the
utter suppression of all forms of religion but his own, the sweeping
away utterly of the faith of Scotland, and the substitution of
Arminianism and the liturgy.
It was not till the 2nd of September that Laud was called to the bar of
the Lords to deliver his recapitulation of the arguments in answer to
his charges. Mr. Samuel Brown, a member of the Commons, and a Manager
of the trial, replied to them. Laud was then allowed counsel to speak
to the parts of law, who took the same course of defence as had been
taken in the case of Strafford, declaring that the prisoner's offence
did not amount to high treason, and the Commons then adopted their plan
in Strafford's case, of proceeding by attainder. He was, therefore,
on the 2nd of November, brought to the bar of their own House, where
Mr. Brown repeated the sum of the evidence produced in the Lords, and
Laud was called on to reply himself to the charges. He demanded time to
prepare his answer, and obtained eight days. On the 11th of November
he was heard, and Brown in reply; and the Commons the same day passed
their Bill of Attainder, finding him fully convicted of the offences
charged against him. On the 16th they sent up this Bill to the Lords;
but it was not till the 4th of January, 1645, that the Lords also
passed the Bill, and soon after fixed the day of his execution for the
10th. The last effort to save the old man's life was by the production
of a pardon which had been prepared at Oxford, as soon as the danger of
his conviction was seen, and was signed and sealed by the king. This
pardon was read in both Houses, but was declared of no effect, the
king having no power to pardon a crime adjudged by Parliament. On the
appointed day, the archbishop was beheaded on Tower Hill. Meanwhile
some useless negotiations had been set on foot by the Presbyterian
party at Uxbridge.
Charles had, during the last summer, after every temporary success,
proposed negotiations, thus showing his readiness to listen to
accommodation, and throwing on the Parliament the odium of continued
warfare. At the same time it must be confessed that he was by no
means inclined to accept terms which would surrender altogether his
prerogative, or sacrifice the interests of those who had ventured
everything for him. He was constantly exhorted by the queen from France
to make no peace inconsistent with his honour, or the interests of
his followers. She contended that he must stipulate for a bodyguard,
without which he could enjoy no safety, and should keep all treaty
regarding religion to the last, seeing plainly the almost insuperable
difficulty on that head; for since nothing would satisfy the Puritans
but the close binding down of the Catholics, that would effectually
cut off all hope of his support from Ireland, or from the Catholics of
England. Charles, in fact, was in a cleft stick, and the contentions of
his courtiers added so much to his embarrassments, that he got rid of
the most troublesome by sending them to attend the queen in France. He
then assembled his Parliament for the second time, but it was so thinly
attended, and the miserable distractions which rent his Court were so
completely imported into its debates, that he was the more disposed
to accept the offer of negotiation with the Parliament. His third
proposal, happening to be favoured by the recommendation of the Scots,
was at length acceded to by Parliament, but the terms recommended by
the Scots--the recognition of Presbytery as the national religion, and
the demands of the Parliament of the supreme control not only of the
revenue but of the army--rendered negotiations from the first hopeless.
In November, 1644, the propositions of the Scots, drawn up by Johnston
of Wariston, were sent to the king by a Commission consisting
of the Earl of Denbigh, the Lords Maynard and Wenman, and Mr.
Pierpoint, Denzil Holles, and Whitelock, accompanied by the Scottish
Commissioners--Lord Maitland, Sir Charles Erskine, and Mr. Barclay.
[Illustration: INTERVIEW BETWEEN CHARLES AND THE EARL OF DENBIGH. (_See
p._ 36.)]
Charles probably received a private copy of the propositions, for he
received the Commissioners most ungraciously. They were suffered to
remain outside the gates of Oxford in a cold and wet day for several
hours, and then conducted by a guard, more like prisoners than
ambassadors, to a very mean inn. On the propositions being read by
the Earl of Denbigh, Charles asked him if they had power to treat,
to which the earl replied in the negative, saying that they were
commissioned to receive his majesty's answer. "Then," said Charles,
rudely, "a letter-carrier might have done as much as you." The earl,
resenting this, said, "I suppose your majesty looks upon us as persons
of another condition than letter-carriers." "I know your condition,"
retorted the king, "but I repeat it, that your condition gives you
no more power than a letter-carrier." Whilst Denbigh had read over
the list of persons who were to be excepted from the conditions of
the treaty, Rupert and Maurice, who were of the excepted, and were
present, laughed in the earl's face. This insolence displeased even the
king, and he bade them be quiet. The interview terminated, however, as
unfavourably as it began. The king gave them a reply but sealed up, and
not addressed to the Parliament or anybody. The commissioners refused
to carry an answer of which they did not know the particulars, on which
Charles insolently remarked, "What is that to you, who are but to carry
what I send; and if I choose to send the song of Robin Hood or Little
John, you must carry it?" As they could get nothing else, not even an
address upon it to Parliament, the commissioners, wisely leaving it to
Parliament to treat the insult as they deemed best, took their leave
with it.
When this document was presented to both Houses on the 29th of
November, 1644, assembled for the purpose, it was strongly urged by
many to refuse it; but this was overruled by those who wisely would
throw no obstacle in the way of negotiation; and the king thought well
immediately to send the Duke of Richmond and the Earl of Southampton
with a fuller answer. They, on their part, found a safe-conduct refused
them by Essex, then the commander, unless he were acknowledged by the
king as general of the army of the Parliament of England, and the
Commons informed them that they would receive no further Commission
which was not addressed to the Parliament of England assembled at
Westminster, and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland.
With this the king was compelled to comply; but at the same time he
wrote to the queen--"As to my calling those at London a Parliament, if
there had been two besides myself of my opinion, I had not done it;
and the argument that prevailed with me was that _the calling did no
wise acknowledge them to be a Parliament_, upon which construction and
condition I did it, and no otherwise."
[Illustration: ROUNDHEAD SOLDIERS.]
Under these unpromising circumstances, Commissioners on both sides were
at length appointed, who met on the 29th of January, in the little
town of Uxbridge. Uxbridge was within the Parliamentary lines, and the
time granted for the sitting was twenty days. The Commissioners on the
part of the king were the Duke of Richmond, the Marquis of Hertford,
the Earls of Southampton, Chichester, and Kingston, the Lords Capel,
Seymour, Hatton, and Colepepper, Secretary Nicholas, Sir Edward Hyde,
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Edward Lane, Sir Orlando Bridgeman,
Sir Thomas Gardener, Mr. Ashburnham, Mr. Palmer, and Dr. Stewart. On
that of the Parliament appeared the Earls of Northumberland, Pembroke,
Salisbury, and Denbigh, Lord Wenman, Sir Henry Vane the younger,
Denzil Holles, Pierpont, St. John, Whitelock, Crew, and Prideaux. The
Scottish Commissioners were the Earl of Loudon, the Marquis of Argyll,
the Lords Maitland and Balmerino, Sir Archibald Johnston, Sir Charles
Erskine, Sir John Smith, Dundas, Kennedy, Robert Barclay, and Alexander
Henderson. John Thurloe, afterwards Oliver Cromwell's secretary,
and the friend of Milton, was secretary for the English Parliament,
assisted by Mr. Earle, and Mr. Cheesly was secretary for the Scottish
Commissioners.
The four propositions submitted to the king by the Parliament
concerning religion were, that the Common Prayer Book should be
withdrawn, the Directory of the Westminster divines substituted, that
he should confirm the assemblies and synods of the Church, and take the
Solemn League and Covenant. These, contrary to the warning of Queen
Henrietta, were brought on first, and argued with much learning and
pertinacity, and as little concession on either side, for four days.
Then there arose other equally formidable subjects, the command of the
army and navy, the cessation of the war in Ireland; and the twenty
days being expired, it was proposed to prolong the term, but this
was refused by the two Houses of Parliament, and the Commissioners,
separated, mutually satisfied that nothing but the sword would settle
these questions. The Royalists had not been long in discovering that
Vane, St. John, and Prideaux had come to the conference, not so much
to treat, as to watch the proceedings of the Presbyterian deputies,
and to take care that no concessions should be made inimical to the
independence of the Church.
Gloomy as to the general eye must have appeared the prospects of the
king at this period, he was still buoyed up by various hopes. He
had been using every exertion to obtain aid from the Continent, and
at length was promised an army of ten thousand men by the Duke of
Lorraine, and Goffe was sent into Holland to prepare for their being
shipped over. On the other hand, he had made up his mind to concede
most of their demands to the Irish Catholics, on condition of receiving
speedily an army thence. He wrote to Ormond, telling him that he had
clearly discovered, by the treaty of Uxbridge, that the rebels were
aiming at nothing less than the total subversion of the Crown and
the Church; that they had made the Earl of Leven commander of all
the English as well as Scottish forces in Ireland, and therefore he
could no longer delay the settlement of Ireland in his favour, through
scruples that at another time would have clung to him. He therefore
authorised him to grant the suspension of Poynings' Act, and to remove
all the penal acts against the Catholics on condition that they at once
gave him substantial aid against the rebels of Scotland and Ireland. At
this moment, too, the news of the successes of Montrose in Scotland
added to his confidence.
The two armies in England now prepared to try their strength. Charles,
lying at Oxford, had a considerable number of troops: the west of
England was almost entirely in his interest, north and south Wales
were wholly his, excepting the castles of Pembroke and Montgomery. He
had still Scarborough, Carlisle, and Pontefract; but his army, though
experienced in the field, was not well disciplined. The Parliamentary
army, now new-modelled, presented a very different spectacle to that
of the king. The strictest discipline was introduced, and the men
were called upon to observe the duties of religion. The officers had
been selected from those who had served under Essex, Manchester, and
the other lords; but having cleared the command of the aristocratic
element, a new spirit of activity and zeal was infused into it. The
king's officers ridiculed the new force, which had no leaders of great
name except Sir Thomas Fairfax, and was brought together in so new a
shape, that it appeared a congregation of raw soldiers. The ridicule
of the Cavaliers even infected the adherents of the Commonwealth,
and there was great scepticism as to the result of such a change.
May, the Parliamentary historian, says, never did an army go forth
who had less the confidence of their friends, or more the contempt
of their enemies. But both parties were extremely deceived. Cromwell
was now the real soul of the movement, and the religious enthusiasm
which glowed in him was diffused through the whole army. The whole
system seemed a revival of that of the pious Gustavus Adolphus--no
man suffered a day to go over without religious service, and never
commenced a battle without prayer. The soldiers now employed their time
in zealous military exercises and in equally zealous prayer and singing
of psalms. They sang in their march, they advanced into battle with a
psalm. The letters of Cromwell to the Parliament, giving an account of
the proceedings of the army, are full of this religious spirit, which
it has been the custom to treat as cant, but which was the genuine
expression of his feelings, and was shown by effects such as cant and
sham never produce. Victory, which he and his soldiers ascribed only to
God, success the most rapid and wonderful, attended him.
It is remarkable that the very man who had introduced the Self-denying
Ordinance was the only man who was never debarred by it from
pursuing his military career. This has, therefore, been treated as an
artifice on his part; but, on the contrary, it was the mere result
of circumstances. Cromwell was the great military genius of the age.
Every day the success of his plans and actions was bursting more and
more on the public notice, and no one was more impressed by the value
of his services than the new Commander-in-Chief, Sir Thomas Fairfax.
He had sent Cromwell, Massey, and Waller into the West, before laying
down their commissions, to attack Colonel Goring, who was threatening
the Parliamentary lines. They had driven him back towards Wells and
Glastonbury, and not deeming it safe to push farther with their small
force into a quarter where the Royal interest was so strong, and
Cromwell advising Parliament to send more troops to Salisbury to defend
that point against Rupert, who was reported at Trowbridge, he had
returned to Windsor to resign his command according to the Ordinance.
There, however, he found the Parliament had suspended the Ordinance in
his instance for forty days, in order that he might execute a service
of especial consequence, and which it particularly wished him to
undertake. This was to attack a body of two thousand men conveying the
king's artillery from Oxford to Worcester, to which place Rupert had
marched, having defeated Colonel Massey at Ledbury.
This was on the 22nd of April, and Cromwell took horse the next
morning, dashed rapidly into Oxfordshire and at Islip Bridge routed
the enemy, consisting of four regiments of cavalry, took many of their
officers, and especially those of the queen's regiment, seizing the
standard which she had presented to it with her own hands. Many of
the fugitives got into Bletchington House, which Cromwell immediately
assaulted and took. The king was so enraged at the surrender of
Bletchington, that he ordered the commander, Colonel Windebank, to
be shot, and no prayers or entreaties could save him. Cromwell next
sent off his cannon and stores to Abingdon, and pushed on to Radcot
Bridge, or Bampton-in-the-Bush, where others of the enemy had fled:
here he defeated them, and took their leaders Vaughan and Littleton.
Cromwell next summoned Colonel Burgess, the governor of the garrison at
Faringdon, to surrender; but he was called away to join the main army,
the king being on the move.
Charles, in fact, issued from Oxford, and, joined by both Rupert
and Maurice, advanced to relieve Chester, then besieged by Sir
William Brereton. Fairfax, instead of pursuing him, thought it a good
opportunity to take Oxford and prevent his returning there; but the
king's movements alarmed him for the safety of the eastern counties, to
which he had despatched Cromwell to raise fresh forces and strengthen
their defences. Cromwell was recalled, and Fairfax set out in pursuit
of the king. Charles relieved Chester by the very news of his march.
Brereton retired from before it, and the Scottish army, which was
advancing southward, fell back into Westmoreland and Cumberland, to
prevent a rumoured junction of the king and the army of Montrose.
Whatever had been Charles's intentions in this movement, he wheeled
aside and directed his way through Staffordshire into Leicestershire,
and took Leicester by assault. From Leicester he extended his course
eastward, and took up his headquarters at Daventry, where he amused
himself with hunting, and Rupert and his horse with foraging and
plundering the whole country round.
Fairfax, now apprehensive of the royal intentions being directed to
the eastern counties, which had hitherto been protected from the
visitations of his army, pushed forward to prevent this, and came in
contact with the king's outposts on the 13th of June, near Borough
Hill. Charles fired his huts, and began his march towards Harborough,
intending, perhaps, to proceed to the relief of Pontefract and
Scarborough; but Fairfax did not allow him to get far ahead. A council
of war was called, and in the midst of it Cromwell rode into the lines
at the head of six hundred horse. It was now determined to bring the
king to action. Harrison and Ireton, officers of Cromwell--soon to be
well known--led the way after the royal army, and Fairfax, with his
whole body, was at once in full chase. The king was in Harborough, and
a council being called, it was considered safer to turn and fight than
to pursue their way to Leicester like an army flying from the foe. It
was therefore resolved to wheel about and meet the enemy.
At five o'clock the next morning, the 14th of June, the advanced
guards of each army approached each other on the low hills a little
more than a mile from the village of Naseby, in Northamptonshire,
nearly midway between Market Harborough and Daventry. The Parliament
army ranged itself on a hill yet called the Mill Hill, and the king's
on a parallel hill, with its back to Harborough. The right wing was
led by Cromwell, consisting of six regiments of horse, and the left,
consisting of nearly as many, was, at his request, committed to his
friend, Colonel Ireton, a Nottinghamshire man. Fairfax and Skippon took
charge of the main body, and Colonels Pride, Rainsborough, and Hammond
brought up the reserves. Rupert and his brother Maurice led on the
right wing of Charles's army, Sir Marmaduke Langdale the left, Charles
himself the main body, and Sir Jacob Astley, the Earl of Lindsay, the
Lord Baird, and Sir George Lisle the reserves. The word for the day of
the Royalists was, "God and Queen Mary!" that of the Parliamentarians,
"God our strength!" A wide moorland, called Broad Moor, lay between
them. The Cavaliers made themselves very merry at the new-modelled
army of Roundheads, for which they had the utmost contempt, having
nothing aristocratic about it, and its head being farmer Cromwell, or
the brewer of Huntingdon, as they pleased to call him. They expected
to sweep them away like dust, and Rupert, making one of his headlong
charges, seemed to realise their anticipations, for he drove the
left wing of the Roundheads into instant confusion and flight, took
Ireton prisoner, his horse being killed under him, and himself wounded
severely in two places; and, in his regular way, Rupert galloped after
the fugitives, thinking no more of the main battle. But the scattered
horse, who had been diligently taught to rally, collected behind him,
returned to the defence of their guns, and were soon again ready for
action. On the other hand, Cromwell had driven the left wing of the
king's army off the field, but took care not to pursue them too far.
He sent a few companies of horse to drive them beyond the battle, and
with his main body he fell on the king's flank, where at first the
royal foot was gaining the advantage. This unexpected assault threw
them into confusion, and the soldiers of Fairfax's front, which had
given way, rallying and falling in again with the reserves as they
came to the rear, were brought up by their officers, and completed the
rout. Rupert, who was now returning from the chase, rode up to the
waggon-train of the Parliamentary army, and, ignorant of the state of
affairs, offered quarter to the troops guarding the stores. The reply
was a smart volley of musketry, and falling back and riding forward
to the field, he found an overwhelming defeat. His followers stood
stupefied at the sight, when Charles, riding up to them in despair,
cried frantically, "One charge more, and the victory is ours yet!"
But it was in vain, the main body was broken, that of Fairfax was
complete; the artillery was seized, and the Roundheads were taking
prisoners as fast as they could promise them quarter. Fairfax and
Cromwell the next moment charged the dumfoundered horse, and the whole
fled at full gallop on the road towards Leicester, pursued almost to
the gates of the town by Cromwell's troopers.
The slaughter at this battle was not so great as might have been
expected. But though the loss on the Parliamentarian side was small,
amounting to about two hundred men, the Royalists had one thousand
killed. Five thousand prisoners were taken, including a great number
of officers, and a considerable number of ladies in carriages. All
the king's baggage and artillery, with nine thousand stand of arms,
were taken, and amongst the carriages that of the king containing
his private papers: a fatal loss, for it contained the most damning
evidences of the king's double-dealing and mental reservations, which
the Parliament took care to publish, to Charles's irreparable damage.
Clarendon accuses the Roundheads of killing above a hundred women, many
of them of quality, but other evidence proves that this was false, the
only women who were rudely treated being a number of wild Irish ones,
who were armed with skeans--knives a foot long--and who used them like
so many maniacs.
The next day Fairfax sent Colonel Fiennes and his regiment to London
with the prisoners and the colours taken, above a hundred of them,
and he prayed that a day of thanksgiving might be appointed for the
victory. But the most essential fruit of the victory was the reading
in Parliament of the king's letters. In these the affair of the Duke
of Lorraine came to light--the attempt to bring in the Lorrainers, the
French, the Danes, and the Irish to put down the Parliament, whilst
Charles had been making the most sacred protestations to that body
that he abhorred bringing in foreign soldiers. There appeared his
promise to give the Catholics full liberty of conscience, whilst he had
been vowing constantly that he would never abrogate the laws against
Popery; and his letter to his wife, showing that at the treaty of
Uxbridge he was merely conceding the name of a Parliament, with a full
determination, on the first opportunity, to declare it no Parliament
at all. These exposures were so dreadful, and gave such an assurance
that the king was restrained by no moral principle, that the Royalists
would not believe the documents genuine till they had examined them
for themselves; and for this examination the Parliament wisely gave
the amplest facilities. There were copies of his letters to the queen,
in which he complained of the quarrels and harassing jealousies of his
own courtiers and supporters, and of his getting rid of as many as he
could by sending them on one pretence or another to her. The sight of
these things struck his own party dumb with a sense of his hollowness
and ingratitude; and the battle of Naseby itself was declared far less
fatal to his interests than the contents of his cabinet. From this
moment his ruin was certain, and the remainder of the campaign was only
the last feeble struggles of the expiring Cause. His adherents stood
out rather for their own chance of making terms than from any possible
hope of success.
[Illustration: CHARLES AT THE BATTLE OF NASEBY. (_See p._ 40.)]
The defeated and dishonoured king did not stop to pass a single night
at Leicester, but rode on to Ashby that evening, and after a few
hours' rest pursued his course towards Hereford. At Hereford Rupert,
fearful of the Parliamentary army attacking their only remaining strong
quarter, the West, left the king and hastened to Bristol to put it into
a state of defence. Charles himself continued his march into Wales,
and took up his headquarters at Raglan Castle, the seat of the Marquis
of Worcester. There, pretty sure that Fairfax was intending to go
westward, he spent the time as though nothing had been amiss, hunting
like his father, when he should have been studying the retrieval of
his affairs, and passing the evenings in entertainments and giving of
audiences. The most probable cause of Charles thus spending his time
there and at Cardiff, to which he next retired, is that he had been
urging the despatch of an Irish army, and was expecting it there.
At the same time he could there more easily communicate with Rupert
regarding the defence of the west of England.
The Parliament forces under Cromwell marched on Bristol where Rupert
lay, whilst Fairfax met and defeated Goring at Langport, and then
besieged and took Bridgewater on the 23rd of July. Matters now
appeared so threatening that Rupert proposed to Charles to sue for
peace; but the king rejected the advice with warmth, declaring that,
though as soldier and statesman he saw nothing but ruin before him,
yet as a Christian he was sure God would not prosper rebels, and that
nothing should induce him to give up the Cause. He avowed that whoever
stayed by him must do so at the cost of his life, or of being made
as miserable as the violence of insulting rebels could make him. But
by the grace of God he would not alter, and bade Rupert not on any
consideration "to hearken after treaties." He would take no less than
he had asked for at Uxbridge.
Charles, blind to the last, was still hoping for assistance from
Ireland, and was elated by the news of successes from Montrose.
It will be recollected that the Earls of Antrim and Montrose had been
engaged by Charles to exert themselves in Ireland and Scotland on his
behalf. Their first attempt was to take vengeance on the Covenanting
Earl of Argyll, who had so much contributed to defeat the king's
attempts on the Scottish Church and Government. Montrose, therefore,
unfurled the royal standard as the king's lieutenant-general at
Dumfries; but having before been a strong Covenanter, he did not all at
once win the confidence of the Royalists. His success was so poor that
he returned to England. At Carlisle he was more effective in serving
the king, and was made a marquis in consequence. After the battle of
Marston Moor he again returned into the Highlands, and there learned
the success of Antrim's labours in Ireland. He had sent over a body of
fifteen hundred men under the command of his kinsman Alaster Macdonald,
surnamed MacColl Keitache, or Colkitto. They landed at Knoidart, but
a fleet of the Duke of Argyll's burnt their ships, and hung in their
rear waiting a fitting chance to destroy them. To their surprise
they received no welcome from the Scottish Royalists. However, they
continued their march to Badenoch, ravaging the houses and farms of
the Covenanters, but every day menaced by the gathering hosts of their
foes, and learning nothing of their ally Montrose. At last Montrose
obtained tidings of them: they met at Blair Athol, in the beginning of
August, 1644. Montrose assumed the command, and published the royal
commission. At the sight of a native chief the Highlanders flocked to
his standard, and the Covenanters saw to their astonishment an army
of between three and four thousand men spring at once, as it were,
out of the ground. Montrose wrote to Charles that if he could receive
five hundred horse on his way, he would soon be in England with twenty
thousand men.
The movements and exploits of Montrose now became rather a story of
romance than of sober modern warfare. Argyll and Lord Elcho dogged his
steps, but he advanced or disappeared, with his half-clad Irish and
wild mountaineers, amongst the hills in a manner that defied arrest.
At Tippermuir, in Perthshire, he defeated Elcho, took his guns and
ammunition, and surprised and plundered the town of Perth. As was
constantly the case, the Highlanders, once loaded with booty, slipped
off to their homes; and, left alone with his Irish band, who were
faithful because their way home was cut off, he retreated northward,
in hope of joining the clan Gordon. Montrose found himself stopped
at the Bridge of Dee by two thousand seven hundred Covenanters under
Lord Balfour of Burleigh, but he managed to cross at a ford higher
up, and, falling on their rear, threw them into a panic. They fled to
Aberdeen, pursued by the Irish and Highlanders, and the whole mass of
pursuers and pursued rushed wildly into the city together. The place
was given up to plunder, and for three days Aberdeen became a scene of
horror and revolting licence, as it had been from an attack of Montrose
four years before, when fighting on the other side. The approach of
Argyll compelled the pillagers to fly into Banffshire, and, following
the banks of the Spey, he crossed the hills of Badenoch, and, after
a series of wild adventures in Athol, Angus, and Forfar, he was met
by the Covenanters at Fyvie Castle, and compelled to retreat into the
mountains. His followers then took their leave of him, worn out with
their rapid flights and incessant skirmishes, and he announced his
intention of withdrawing for the winter into Badenoch.
The Earl of Argyll, on his part, retired to Inverary and sent his
followers home. He felt secure in the mighty barrier of mountains
around, which in summer offered a terrible route to an army, but which,
now blockaded with snow, he deemed impregnable. But he was deceived;
the retirement of Montrose was a feint. He was busily employed in
rousing the northern clans to a sweeping vengeance on Argyll, and the
prospect of a rich booty. In the middle of December he burst through
all obstacles, threaded the snow-laden defiles of the mountains, and
descended with fire and sword into the plains of Argyleshire. The earl
was suddenly roused by the people from the hills, whose dwellings
were in flames behind them, and only effected his escape by pushing
across Loch Fyne in an open boat. Montrose divided his host into three
columns, which spread themselves over the whole of Argyleshire, burning
and laying everything waste. Argyll had set a price upon Montrose's
head; and Montrose now reduced his splendid heritage to a black and
frightful desert. The villages and cottages were burnt down, the cattle
destroyed or driven off, and the people slain wherever found with arms
in their hands. This miserable and melancholy state of things lasted
from the 13th of December to the end of January, 1645.
Argyll by that time had mustered the Clan Campbell, and Lord Seaforth
the mountaineers of Moray, Ross, Sutherland, and Caithness, to bear
down on the invaders. Montrose, therefore, led forth his Highlanders
and Irish to encounter them, and came first on Argyll and his army at
Inverlochy Castle, in Lochaber. There he totally defeated Argyll, and
slew nearly fifteen hundred of his people. This success brought to
his standard the clan Gordon and others. The whole north was in their
power, and they marched from Inverlochy to Elgin and Aberdeen. At
Brechin they were met by Baillie with a strong force, which protected
Perth; but Montrose marched to Dunkeld, and thence to Dundee, which
he entered, and began plundering, when Baillie arrived with his
Covenanters and caused him to retire. Once more he escaped to the
mountains, but this time not without severe losses, for his indignant
foes pursued him for threescore miles, cutting off many of his
soldiers, besides those that had perished in the storming of Dundee.
When he appeared again it was at Auldearn, a village near Nairn, where,
on the 9th of May, he defeated the Covenanters (under John Urry or
Hurry) after a bloody battle, two thousand men being said to be left
upon the field.
The General Assembly addressed a sharp remonstrance to the king,
which was delivered to him soon after the battle of Naseby, but it
produced no effect. In fact, it was more calculated to inflame a man of
Charles's obstinate temper, for it recapitulated all his crimes against
Scotland, from his first forcing the Common Prayer upon them till
then, and called on him to fall down at the footstool of the Almighty
and acknowledge his sins, and no longer steep his kingdom in blood.
They did not merely remonstrate; the Covenanters continued to fight.
But, unfortunately, their commanders having divided their forces, as
Urry was defeated at Auldearn, so Baillie was soon afterwards routed
at Alford, in Aberdeenshire, with such effect that scarcely any but
his principal officers and the cavalry escaped. Again the Covenanters
raised a fresh army of ten thousand men, and sent them against
Montrose; and the Scottish army, which lay on the borders of England
under the Earl of Leven, commenced their march southward, to attack the
king himself. On the 2nd of July, the very day on which Montrose won
the battle of Alford, they were at Melton Mowbray, whence they marched
through Tamworth and Birmingham into Worcestershire and Herefordshire.
On the 22nd they stormed Canon-Frome, a garrison of the king's between
Worcester and Hereford; and, as they were pressing on, Charles sent
Sir William Fleming to endeavour to seduce the old Earl of Leven and
the Earl of Callender from their faith to Parliament by magnificent
promises, but they sent his letters to the Parliament and marched on
and laid siege to Hereford.
Charles, thus pressed by the Scottish army, quitted Cardiff and made
a grand effort to reach the borders of Scotland to effect a junction
with Montrose. He flattered himself that could he unite his forces with
those of Montrose, by the genius of that brilliant leader his losses
would be retrieved, and that he should bear down all before him. But
he was not destined to accomplish this object. He at first approached
Hereford, as if he designed the attempt of raising the siege; but this
was too hazardous, and, dismissing his foot, he dashed forward with
his cavalry to cut his way to the North. But the Earl of Leven sent
after him Sir David Leslie, with nearly the whole body of the Scottish
cavalry; and from the North, the Parliamentarian commanders, Poyntz
and Rossiter, put themselves in motion to meet him. He had made a
rapid march through Warwickshire and Northamptonshire to Doncaster,
when these counter-movements of the enemy convinced him that to reach
the Border was hopeless; and he made a sudden divergence south-east,
to inflict a flying chastisement on those counties of the Eastern
Association, which had so long kept him at bay, and sent out against
him the invincible Cromwell and his Ironsides. These were now engaged
in the West, and he swept through Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire,
ravaging and plundering without stint or remorse. On the 24th of August
he took Huntingdon itself by assault; he did not delay, however, but
continued his marauding course through Woburn and Dunstable, thence
into Buckinghamshire, and so to Oxford, where he arrived on the 28th.
In this flying expedition, Charles and his soldiers had collected much
booty from his subjects, and especially from the town of Huntingdon,
no doubt with much satisfaction, from its being Cromwell's place of
residence.
At Oxford Charles received the cheering news that Montrose had
achieved another brilliant victory over the Covenanters. He had, on
again issuing from the mountains, menaced Perth, where the Scottish
Parliament was sitting, and then descended into the Lowlands. It was
evident that he was acting in concert with the king, who at that very
time was making his hurried march for the Border. Montrose crossed the
Forth near Stirling, where at Kilsyth he was met by Baillie and his
new army. The Committee of Estates insisted on Baillie giving battle.
Fasting and prayer for four days had been held, and they were confident
of success. But at the first charge the cavalry of the Covenanters were
scattered, the infantry fled almost without a blow, and such was the
fury of the pursuit, that five thousand of them were slain (August 15,
1645). This victory opened all the Lowlands to the Royalists. Argyll
and the principal nobles escaped by sea to England. Glasgow opened
its gates to the conqueror, and the magistrates of Edinburgh hastened
to implore his clemency towards the city, and to propitiate him by
liberating all the Royalist prisoners, promising obedience to the king.
Most of these liberated prisoners, and many of the nobility, joined the
standard of Montrose.
Had the king been able to effect a junction with him at this moment,
the result must have been important, but it could only have occasioned
more bloodshed, without insuring any decided victory, for all England
was by this time in the hands of the Parliament. Sir David Leslie,
instead of following the king with his cavalry southward again, had
continued his march northward, to prevent any inroad on the part of
Montrose, and the Earl of Leven, quitting Hereford, advanced northward
to support him. Charles immediately left Oxford, and advanced to
Hereford, where he was received in triumph. Thence he set out to
relieve Rupert, who was besieged by Fairfax and Cromwell in Bristol;
but on reaching Raglan Castle, he heard the appalling news that it had
surrendered. The prince had promised to hold it for four months, yet he
surrendered it in the third week of the siege. Fairfax having decided
to storm it on the 10th of September, 1645, this was done accordingly.
It was assaulted by the troops under Colonel Welden, Commissary-general
Ireton, Cromwell, Fairfax, General Skippon, Colonels Montague, Hammond,
Rich, and Rainsborough, from different sides at the same time. The
town was set on fire in three places by the Royalists themselves, and
Rupert, foreseeing the total destruction of the city, capitulated. He
was allowed to march out, and was furnished with a convoy of cavalry,
and the loan of one thousand muskets to protect them from the people on
the way to Oxford, for he had made himself so detested by his continual
ravagings of the inhabitants that they would have knocked him and his
men on the head. Even as he passed out of the city the people crowded
round with fierce looks, and muttered, "Why not hang him?"
[Illustration: CAVALIER SOLDIERS.]
We have Cromwell's account of the taking of the place. He says that the
royal fort was victualled for three hundred and twenty days, and the
castle for nearly half as long, and that there were abundant stores
of ammunition, with one hundred and forty cannon mounted, between two
and three thousand muskets, and a force of nearly six thousand men in
foot, horse, train-bands, and auxiliaries. Well might Charles feel
confounded at the surrender. He was so exasperated that he overwhelmed
Rupert with reproaches: he even accused him of cowardice or treason,
revoked his commission, and bade him quit the kingdom. He ordered
the Council to take him into custody if he showed any contumacy. He
arrested Rupert's friend, Colonel Legge, and gave the prince's office
of Governor of Oxford to Sir Thomas Glenham. And yet Rupert appears
to have only yielded to necessity. He was more famous at the head of
a charge of horse than for defending cities. Bristol was carried by
storm by a combination of the best troops and the most able commanders
of the Parliament army, and was already burning in three places.
Further resistance could only have led to indiscriminate massacre.
But allowance must be made for the irritation of Charles. The fall of
Bristol was a most disheartening event, and it was followed by news
still more prostrating.
The success of Montrose had proved the ruin of his army. A Highland
force is like a Highland torrent; under its clan chiefs it is impetuous
and overwhelming; but it is soon exhausted. The soldiers, gathered only
for the campaign, no sooner collected a good booty than they walked
off back to their mountains, and thus no Highland force, under the old
clan system, ever effected any lasting advantage, especially in the
Lowlands. So it was here; Montrose's descent from the hills resembled
the torrent, and disappeared without any traces but those of ravage. He
had secured no fortified places, nor obtained any permanent possession.
He executed a few incendiaries, as they were called, at Glasgow, and
then advanced towards the Border, still in hope of meeting the royal
forces. But the Gordon clan had disappeared; Colkitto had led back
the other Highlanders to their mountains, and Montrose found himself
at the head of only about six hundred men, chiefly the remains of the
Irish. Meanwhile, Sir David Leslie, with his four thousand cavalry, was
steadily advancing towards the Forth, to put himself between Montrose
and the Highlands, and then suddenly wheeling westward, he returned on
the unwary marquis, and surprised the commander who had before been
accustomed to surprise every one else.
Montrose was in Selkirk busy writing despatches to the king, and
his little army was posted at Philiphaugh. Leslie had approached
cautiously, and, favoured by the unvigilant carelessness of the
Royalists, came one night into their close vicinity. Early in the
morning, under cover of a thick fog, he crossed the Ettrick, and
appeared to their astonishment in the encampment on the Haugh.
Notwithstanding their surprise, the soldiers formed hastily into a
compact body; and Montrose, being informed of the danger, flew to the
rescue at the head of a body of horse; but the odds were too great,
the troops were surrounded and cut to pieces. In vain they begged
quarter. Sir David consented, but the ministers raised a fierce shout
of indignation, denounced the sparing of a single "malignant" as a sin,
and the whole body was massacred (September 13, 1645).
Before receiving this disastrous news, Charles resolved to make another
effort to form a junction with Montrose. He retraced his steps through
Wales, and advanced to the relief of Chester, which was invested by
the Parliamentarians. He reached that place on the 22nd of September,
and posted the bulk of his cavalry on Rowton Heath, near the city,
under Sir Marmaduke Langdale, himself being able to get into the city
with a small body of troopers. But the next morning his cavalry at
Rowton Heath was attacked by Poyntz, the Parliamentary general, who
had been carefully following on the king's heels, and now, having his
little army penned between his troops and those of the Parliamentary
besiegers, a simultaneous attack was made on the Royalists from both
sides. More than six hundred of Charles's troopers were cut to pieces,
one thousand more obtained quarter, and the rest were dispersed on
all sides. The king escaped out of the city and fled to Denbigh with
the remnant of his cavalry. By this blow the only port which had been
left open for his expected succours from Ireland was closed. Still
the news of Montrose's defeat at Philiphaugh had not reached him,
and Lord Digby advised the king to allow him to make the attempt to
reach him with the seventeen hundred cavalry still remaining. Charles
accepted the offer, but before Digby left, it was agreed that the
king should get into his castle of Newark, as the securest place for
him to abide the result. Having seen his majesty safely there, Digby
set out northward. At Doncaster he defeated a Parliamentary force,
but was a few days after defeated himself by another at Sherburn.
Notwithstanding this, with the remainder of his horse he pushed
forward, entered Scotland, and reached Dumfries, but finding Montrose
already defeated, he returned to the Border, and at Carlisle disbanded
the troop. Sir Marmaduke Langdale and the officers retired to the
Isle of Man, the men got home as they could, and Digby passed over to
Ireland, to the Marquis of Ormond. But the greatest loss which Digby
had made during this expedition was that of his portfolio with his
baggage, at Sherburn. In this, as in the king's at Naseby, the most
unfortunate discoveries were made of his own proceedings, and of his
master's affairs. There was a revelation of plottings and agents in
sundry counties for bringing foreign forces to put down the Parliament.
Goffe was in Holland promoting a scheme for the marriage of the Prince
of Wales to the daughter of the Prince of Orange, and for forces to be
furnished in consequence. There were letters of the queen to Ireland,
arranging to bring over ten thousand men, and of Lord Jermyn--who was
living in Paris with the queen in such intimacy as to occasion much
scandal--to Digby himself, regarding probable assistance from the King
of Denmark, the Duke of Lorraine, and the Prince of Courland, and of
money from the Pope. But perhaps the most mischievous was a letter from
Digby, written a few days before, letting out how much the Marquis of
Ormond was secretly in the king's interest, though appearing to act
otherwise. These disclosures were precisely such as must wonderfully
strengthen the Parliament with the public, and sink the king still
lower.
The king's ruin was virtually complete. The enemy was pressing close
on his quarters, and at midnight, on the 3rd of November, he quitted
Newark with five hundred horse, and reached Belvoir, where the
governor, Sir Gervas Lucas, attended him with his troop till break of
day. Thence the king made a harassing and dangerous journey to Oxford,
pursued by detachments of the enemy as he passed Burleigh-on-the-Hill,
the garrison sallying and killing some of his attendants. In the
evening Charles was obliged to rest for five hours at Northampton, and
then push forward by Banbury, and so reached Oxford the next evening,
"finishing," says Clarendon, "the most tedious and grievous march
that our king was exercised in." In truth, never was king reduced to
such a melancholy and pitiable condition--a condition which cannot be
contemplated without commiseration, blind and incorrigible believer as
he was in the divine right of despotism.
Whilst Charles had been making these unhappy tours and detours, Fairfax
and Cromwell had been clearing away his garrisons, and driving back
his troops into the farthest West. Cromwell first addressed himself
by command of Parliament to reduce Winchester, Basing House, Langford
House, and Donnington Castle. On Sunday, September 28th, he appeared
before Winchester, which surrendered after a breach had been made; and,
on the 16th of October he also carried Basing by storm. Basing House
and Donnington had long annoyed Parliament and the country with their
royal garrisons, so that there was no travelling the Western road for
them. Basing House belonged to the Marquis of Winchester, and was one
of the most remarkable places in the country. Hugh Peters, who was sent
up by Cromwell to give an account of the taking of it to Parliament,
declaring that its circumvallation was above a mile in circumference.
It had stood many a siege, one of four years, without any one being
able to take it. Cromwell, however, now bombarded and stormed it,
taking prisoners the marquis, Sir Robert Peak, and other distinguished
officers. Eight or nine gentlewomen of rank ran out as the soldiers
burst in, and were treated with some unceremonious freedoms, but, says
Peters, "not uncivilly, considering the action in hand."
Having demolished Basing, Cromwell next summoned Langford House, near
Salisbury, and thence he was called in haste down into the West, where
Fairfax and he drove back Goring, Hopton, Astley, and others, beating
them at Langport, Torrington, and other places, storming Bridgewater,
and forcing them into Cornwall, where they never left them till they
had reduced them altogether in the spring of 1646.
Charles lying now at Oxford, his council, seeing that his army was
destroyed, except the portion that was cooped up by the victorious
generals in the West, and which every day was forced into less compass,
advised him strongly to treat with the Parliament, as his only chance.
They represented that they had no funds even for subsistence, except
what they seized from the country around, which exasperated the people,
and made them ready to rise against them. There were some circumstances
yet in his favour, and these were the jealousies and divisions of his
enemies. The Parliament and country were broken up into two great
factions of Presbyterians and Independents. The Presbyterians were
by far the most numerous, and were zealously supported by the Scots,
who were nearly all of that persuasion, and desired to see their form
of religion prevail over the whole country. They were as fiercely
intolerant as the Catholics, and would listen to nothing but the entire
predominance of their faith and customs. But the Independents, who
claimed and offered liberty of conscience, and protested against any
ruling church, possessed almost all the men of intellect in Parliament,
and the chiefs at the head of the army. Cromwell, in his letter from
the field of Naseby, called for toleration of conscience, and Fairfax
urged the same doctrine in all his despatches from the West. There
was, moreover, a jealousy growing as to the armies of the Scots, who
had got most of the garrisons in the North of England and Ireland into
their hands. These divisions opened to Charles a chance of treating
with one party at the expense of the other, and in his usual way he
made overtures to all. To the Scots he offered full concession of all
their desires, and great advantages from the influence which their
alliance with him would give. To the Independents he offered the utmost
toleration of religious opinion, and all the rewards of pre-eminence in
the State and the army. To the Presbyterians he was particularly urged
by the queen to promise the predominance of their Church and the like
advantages. With the Catholics of Ireland he was equally in treaty;
but whilst his secret negotiations were going on in Ireland, the Scots
endeavoured to bring theirs to a close, by applying to the queen in
Paris. Three great changes had taken place, all favourable to Charles.
Both the king, Louis XIII., and Richelieu, were dead. Richelieu had
never forgiven Charles's attempts on La Rochelle, and his effort to
raise the Huguenots into an independent power in France, nor his
movements in Flanders against his designs. Mazarin, who now succeeded
as the minister of Louis XIV., had no particular resentment against
Charles, and though cautious in taking direct measures against the
English Parliament, did not oppose any of the attempts at pacification
between the king and his subjects. The Scots had always found
Richelieu their ally, and they now applied to his successor to assist
them in bringing matters to bear with Charles. In consequence of this,
Montreuil was sent over to London, who conferred with the Scottish
Commissioners, and then conveyed to Charles their proposals. But the
king, who had promised them all concessions consistent with his honour,
found the very first proposition to be that Episcopacy should be for
ever abolished not only in Scotland, but in England, and Presbytery
made the Established Church. He had conceived that they would be
satisfied with the supremacy of their faith in their own country, and
he at once refused this demand. It was in vain that Montreuil pointed
out to him that the Scots and the Presbyterians of England were agreed
upon this point, and that consequently any arrangement with the
latter party must inevitably be upon the same basis. Charles declared
that rather than consent to any such terms, he would agree with the
Independents. Montreuil replied that the Scots sought only to make him
king, first having their own wishes as to religion gratified; but the
Independents, he was confident, contemplated nothing less than the
subversion of his throne. He informed him that the queen had given to
Sir Robert Murray a written promise that the king would accede to the
demand of the Scots, which promise was now in the hands of the Scottish
Commissioners; moreover, that this was the earnest desire of the queen,
the queen-regent of France, and of Mazarin.
Nothing, however, could shake Charles's resolution on this head, and
he therefore made a direct application to Parliament to treat for an
accommodation. They received his offer coolly, almost contemptuously.
He desired passports for his Commissioners, or a safe-conduct for
himself, that they might treat personally; but it was bluntly refused,
on the ground that he was not to be trusted, having, on all similar
occasions, employed the opportunities afforded to endeavour to
corrupt the fidelity of the Commissioners. Not to appear, however,
to reject the treaty, they sent fresh proposals to him, but so much
more stringent than those at Uxbridge, that it was plain that they
were rather bent on delaying than treating. The king was now in a very
different position since the battle of Naseby and the fall of Bristol;
and it was obviously the interest of Parliament to allow Fairfax and
Cromwell to put down his last remains of an army in the West, when
they would have nothing to do but to shut up the king in Oxford, and
compel him to submit at discretion. Montreuil, seeing this, again
urged him to come to terms with the Scots, and that not a moment was
to be lost. But nothing could move him to consent to their demand of
a universal Presbyterianism, and he again, on the 26th of January,
1646, demanded a personal interview with the Parliament at Westminster.
His demand, however, arrived at a most unfortunate crisis, for the
discovery of his negotiations with the Irish Catholics had just been
made: the entire correspondence was in the hands of the Commons, and
the whole House was in the most violent ferment of indignation. The
king's letter was thrown aside and left without notice.
On October 17th, 1645, the titular Archbishop of Tuam was killed in a
skirmish between two parties of Scots and Irish near Sligo, and in his
carriage were discovered copies of a most extraordinary negotiation,
which had been going on for a long time in Ireland between Charles
and the Catholics, for the restoration of popish predominance in
that country, on condition of their sending an army to put down the
Parliament in England.
We have already spoken of the confederate Irish Catholics, who
maintained an army for their own defence, and had a council at
Kilkenny. Charles had instructed the Marquis of Ormond, the
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, to make a peace with these Confederates:
he had some time ago obtained a cessation of hostilities, but they
would not consent to a permanent peace, nor to furnish the king troops
until they obtained a legal guarantee for the establishment of their
own religion. Lord Ormond, in his endeavours, did not satisfy the king,
or rather his position disabled him from consenting publicly to such a
treaty, as it would have roused all the Protestants, and the Scottish
and English Parliaments against him. Charles, therefore, who was always
ready with some underhand intrigue to gain his ends, and break his
bargain when it became convenient, sent over Lord Herbert, the son of
the Marquis of Worcester, and whom he now created Earl of Glamorgan, to
effect this difficult matter.
[Illustration: RAGLAN CASTLE.]
Glamorgan was as zealous in his loyalty as in his speculative pursuits.
He and his father had spent two hundred thousand pounds in the king's
cause, and he was now engaged in an enterprise where he risked
everything for Charles--name, honour, and life. He was furnished
with a warrant which authorised him to concede the demands of the
Catholics regarding their religion, and to engage them to send over ten
thousand men. After many difficulties he reached Dublin, communicated
to Ormond the plan, saw with him the Catholic deputies in Dublin, and
then hastened to Kilkenny, to arrange with the council there. But at
this time occurred the revelation of the scheme by the seizure of the
Archbishop of Tuam's papers. The Parliament was thrown into a fury;
the Marquis of Ormond, to make his loyalty appear, seized Glamorgan,
and put him into prison, and the king sent a letter to the two Houses
of Parliament, utterly disavowing the commission of Glamorgan, and
denouncing the warrant in his name as a forgery. All this had been
agreed upon before between the king and Glamorgan, should any discovery
take place; and on searching for Glamorgan's papers a warrant was
found, not sealed in the usual manner, and the papers altogether
informal, so that the king might by this means be able to disavow them.
But that Ormond and the council of Kilkenny had seen a real and formal
warrant, there can be no question. The king, by a second letter to the
two Houses, reiterated his disavowal of the whole affair, and assured
them that he had ordered the privy council in Dublin to proceed against
Glamorgan for his presumption. The proceedings were conducted by Lord
Digby, who assumed a well-feigned indignation against Glamorgan,
accusing him of high treason. The animus with which this accusation
appeared to be made has induced many to believe that Digby was really
incensed, because he had not been let wholly into the secret of
Glamorgan's commission; and his letter to the king on the subject,
noticed by Clarendon as rude and unmanly, would seem to confirm this.
However, Glamorgan, on his part, took the whole matter very cheerfully,
allowed the king's disclaimers without a remonstrance or evidence of
vexation, and produced a copy of his secret treaty with the Catholics,
in which he had inserted an article called a _defeasance_, by which the
king was bound by the treaty no further than he pleased till he had
seen what the Catholics did for him, and by which the Catholics were
to keep this clause secret till the king had done all in his power to
secure their claims.
Surely such a system of royal and political hocus-pocus had never been
concerted before. Ormond, on seeing the defeasance, declared that
it was quite satisfactory, binding the king to nothing; in fact, he
had to avoid the danger of alarming the Catholics and losing their
army for the king; and the Protestants having seen the affected zeal
to prosecute Glamorgan had become greatly appeased. Glamorgan was,
therefore, liberated, and hastened again to Kilkenny to urge on the
sending of the forces. But the late disclosures had not been without
their effect. One part of the council insisted on the full execution
of the king's warrant, the open acknowledgment of Catholicism as the
established religion, and the pope's nuncio, Runcini, who had lately
arrived, strongly urged them to stand by that demand. But another part
of the council were more compliant, and by their aid Glamorgan obtained
five thousand men, with whom he marched to Waterford, to hasten their
passage for the relief of Chester, where Lord Byron was driven to
extremities by the Parliamentarians. There, however, he received the
news that Chester had fallen, and there was not a single port left
where Glamorgan could land his troops; he therefore disbanded them.
Despite the failure of his efforts, the unfortunate monarch still
endeavoured to negotiate some terms for himself, first with one party
and then with another, or with all together. The Parliament had treated
with contempt two offers of negotiation from him. They did not even
deign him an answer. But his circumstances were now such that he
submitted to insults that a short time before would have been deemed
incredible. On the 29th of January, 1646, he made his second offer; he
repeated it on the 23rd of March. He offered to disband his forces,
dismantle his garrisons--he had only five, Pendennis in Cornwall,
Worcester, Newark, Raglan, and Oxford--and to take up his residence
at Westminster, near the Parliament, on a guarantee that he and his
followers should be suffered to live in honour and safety, and his
adherents should retain their property. But the Parliament were now
wholly in the ascendant, and they made the wretched king feel it.
Instead of a reply, they issued an order that if he should come within
their lines, he should be conducted to St. James's, his followers
imprisoned, and none be allowed to have access to him. At the same time
they ordered all Catholics, and all who had borne arms for the king,
to depart within six days, or expect to be treated as spies, and dealt
with by martial law.
But whilst thus ignominiously repelled by Parliament, Montreuil was
still pursuing negotiations on his behalf with the Scots. He obtained
for the purpose the post of agent from the French Court to Scotland,
and with some difficulty obtained from the Parliament leave to visit
the king at Oxford with letters from the King of France and the Queen
Regent, before proceeding northwards. He employed his time there in
urging Charles to agree with the Scots by conceding the point of
religion; and at length it was concluded that Charles should force
his way through the Parliamentary army investing Oxford, and that the
Scots at Newark should send three hundred horse to receive him, and
escort him to their army. Montreuil delivered to Charles an engagement
from the Scottish commissioners for the king's personal safety, his
conscience, and his honour, as well as for the security and religious
freedom of his followers. This was also guaranteed by the King and
Queen Regent of France on behalf of the Scots who had applied to them
for their good offices. Charles wrote to Ormond in Ireland, informing
him that he had received this security, and on the 3rd of April, 1646,
Montreuil set forward northwards.
[Illustration: ENGLAND During the CIVIL WAR 1642-1649.
_Artiste Illustrators. Ltd. 84_]
Montreuil carried with him an order from the king to Lord Bellasis,
to surrender Newark into the hands of the Scots, but on arriving at
Southwell, in the camp of the Scots, he was astonished to find that the
leaders of the army professed ignorance of the conditions made with the
Scottish Commissioners in London. They would not, therefore, undertake
the responsibility of meeting and escorting the king--which they
declared would be a breach of the solemn league and covenant between
the two nations--till they had conferred with their Commissioners,
and made all clear. The security mentioned by Charles to Ormond
would, if this were true, have been from the Commissioners only; and
there must have been gross neglect in not apprising the officers of
it. Montreuil was greatly disconcerted by this discovery, burnt the
order for the surrender of Newark, and wrote to Charles to inform him
of the unsatisfactory interview with the Scots. It is doubtful whether
Charles ever received this letter. At all events, impatient of some
results, for the Parliamentary army was fast closing round Oxford, he
snatched at another chance. Captain Fawcett, Governor of Woodstock,
sent to tell him that that garrison was reduced to extremities, and to
inquire whether he might expect relief, or whether he should surrender
it on the best terms he could obtain. Charles immediately applied to
Colonel Rainsborough, the chief officer conducting the siege of Oxford,
for passports for the Earl of Southampton and Lindsay, Sir William
Fleetwood, and Mr. Ashburnham, to treat with him about the surrender
of Woodstock; but the main thing was to propose the coming of the king
to them on certain conditions. Rainsborough and the other officers
appeared much pleased, but said they could not decide so important an
affair without reference to their superior officers, but if the offer
were entertained, they would the next day send a pass for them to
come and complete the negotiation. If the pass did not come, it must
be understood that the offer was not accepted. No pass came, and the
king was reduced to great straits, for the Parliamentarian armies were
coming closer and closer. He applied then to Ireton who was posted at
Woodstock, but he returned him no answer; to Vane, but he referred
him to Parliament; and thus was the humiliated king treated with the
most insulting contempt. It was believed that it was the intention of
Parliament to keep Charles there till Fairfax and Cromwell, who were
now marching up from the west, should arrive, when they would capture
him and have him at their mercy.
At length Montreuil informed Charles that deputies from the army had
met the Commissioners at Royston, and that it was settled to receive
the king. There are conflicting accounts of the proceedings at this
period. Clarendon and Ashburnham, who have both left narratives, vary
considerably. Ashburnham, the king's groom of the chambers, says that
word was sent that David Leslie would meet his majesty at Gainsborough
with two thousand horse, but Montreuil's message was that the Scots
would send a strong party to Burton-on-Trent, beyond which they could
not go with that force, but would send a few straggling horse to
Harborough, and if the king informed them of the day he would be there,
they would not fail him. As to a proposal that Charles was impolitic
enough to make to these Scottish Covenanters, to form a junction with
Montrose, a man whom they hated with a deadly hatred for his ravages
and slaughters of their party, they treated it with scorn; and, says
Montreuil, "with regard to the Presbyterian government, they desire
his majesty to agree with them as soon as he can. Such is the account
they make here of the engagement of the king, my master, and of the
promises I had from their party in London." He adds that if any better
conditions could be had from any other quarter, these ought not to
be thought of. Montreuil wrote twice more, the last time on the 20th
of April, expressing no better opinion of the Scots, and saying that
they would admit none of his majesty's followers save his two nephews,
Rupert and Maurice, and such servants as were not excepted from the
pardon; and that they could not then refuse to give them up to the
Parliament, but would find means to let them escape.
A gloomier prospect for the king than the one in that quarter could
scarcely present itself. It appears that he had not yet agreed to
the ultimatum of the Scots--the concession of the supremacy of the
Presbyterian Church--and therefore there was no actual treaty between
them. But all other prospects were closed; Charles must choose between
the Scots and the Parliament, the latter body pursuing a contemptuous
and ominous silence. Fairfax and Cromwell were now within a day's march
of the city, and Charles made his choice of the Scots. Yet so undecided
even at the moment of escaping from the city was he, that he would not
commit himself irrevocably to the Scots, by announcing to them his
departure and the direction of his journey. It is remarkable, indeed,
that he had not before, or even now, thought of endeavouring to escape
to Ireland, and making a second stand there with the confederates, or
of getting to the Continent and awaiting a turn of fortune. But he
seemed altogether like a doomed mortal who could not fly his fate.
About two o'clock on the morning of the 27th of April, Charles set out
from Oxford, disguised as the servant of Ashburnham. He had his hair
cut short by Ashburnham, and rode after that gentleman and Hudson the
chaplain, who knew the country well and was their guide. They rode
out unsuspected over Magdalen Bridge, Charles having, groom-like,
a cloak strapped round his waist. To prevent particular attention
or pursuit, several others of them rode out at the same time in
different directions. Charles and his pretended masters got without
suspicion through the lines of the Parliamentary army, and reached
Henley-on-Thames. But now that he was in temporary safety, he appeared
more undecided than ever. He did not attempt to send word to the Scots
to meet him; but, says Clarendon, he was uncertain whether to go to the
Scottish army, or to get privately into London, and lie concealed there
till he might choose what was best. Clarendon declares that he still
thought so well of the City of London, as not to have been unwilling to
have found himself there. But certainly the City had never shown itself
more favourable to him than the Parliament; and now with the Parliament
in the ascendant, it was not likely that it would undertake to contend
with it for the protection or rights of the king. Charles still trusted
that he might hear of Montrose making a fresh movement on his behalf,
in which case he would endeavour to get to him; and he never for long
after abandoned the hope of still hearing something from Ireland in his
favour. From Henley, he therefore directed his way to Slough, thence
to Uxbridge, Hillingdon, Brentford, so near did he reach London, and
then again off to Harrow. His uncertainty increased more and more. He
proceeded towards St. Albans, and near that town was alarmed by the
sound of horses' feet behind them. It was only a drunken man; but to
avoid danger they kept out of St. Albans, and continued through the
bye-ways to Harborough, where he was on the 28th. Two days afterwards
he reached Downham in Norfolk, and spent some time in inquiring after a
vessel that might carry him to Newcastle or Scotland. He seems to have
expected at Harborough some message from the Scots or from Montreuil,
but as none was there, he had despatched Hudson to Montreuil at
Southwell. No prospect of escape by sea offering--for the coasts were
strictly guarded by the Parliamentary vessels--Charles determined to
go over to the Scots on Hudson returning with a message from Montreuil
that they still declared that they would receive the king on his
personal honour; that they would press him to do nothing contrary to
his conscience; that Ashburnham and Hudson should be protected; that
if the Parliament refused, on a message from the king, to restore him
to his rights and prerogatives, they would declare for him, and take
all his friends under their protection; and that if the Parliament did
agree to restore the king, not more than four of his friends should be
punished, and that only by banishment. All this Montreuil, according to
Hudson's own account afterwards to Parliament, assured Charles by note,
but added that the Scots would only give it by word of mouth and not by
writing.
At the best this was suspicious; but where was the king to turn? He was
treated with the most contemptuous silence by the Parliament, which was
at this very moment hoping to make him unconditionally their prisoner.
Fairfax had drawn his lines of circumvallation round Oxford five days
after the king's departure, ignorant that he had escaped, and in the
full hope of taking him. For nine days Charles was wandering about,
nobody knowing where he was, and during that time Clarendon says he had
been in different gentlemen's houses, where "he was not unknown, but
untaken notice of."
On the 5th of May he resolved, on the report of Hudson, to go to the
Scots, and accordingly, early on that morning he rode into Southwell,
to Montreuil's lodgings, and announced his intention. The manner
in which he was received there is related in very contradictory
terms by Ashburnham and Clarendon. Ashburnham says that some of the
Scottish Commissioners came to Montreuil's lodgings to receive him,
and accompanied him with a troop of horse to the headquarters of the
Scottish army at Kelham, where they went after dinner, and were well
received, many lords coming instantly to wait on him with professions
of joy that his majesty had so far honoured their army as to think it
worthy of his presence after so long an opposition. Clarendon, on the
other hand, declares that "very early in the morning he went to the
general's lodgings, and discovered himself to him, who either was, or
seemed to be, exceedingly surprised and confounded at his majesty's
presence, and knew not what to say, but presently gave notice to the
committee, who were no less perplexed."
Both of them, however, agree that the Scots soon convinced Charles that
they considered that he had surrendered himself unconditionally into
their hands; that he had not complied with their terms, and that there
was no treaty actually between them; and from all that appears, this
was the case. Charles had trusted to the assurances of Montreuil, and
had really no written evidence of any engagement on the part of the
Scots, nor was any ever produced. Some of the lords, says Ashburnham,
desiring to know how they might best testify their gratitude to his
majesty for the confidence he had reposed in them, he replied that the
only way was to apply themselves to the performance of the conditions
on which he had come to them. At the word "conditions," Lord Lothian
expressed much surprise, and declared he knew of no conditions
concluded, nor did he believe any of the Commissioners residing with
the army knew of such. On this Charles desired Montreuil to present a
summary of the conditions concluded with the Commissioners in London,
sanctioned by the King of France. It should, however, be borne in mind
that since then the army Commissioners had met with the commissioners
from London at Royston, and had agreed to the terms to be offered
to the king. When Ashburnham, therefore, affirms that many of the
Commissioners of the army still protested their ignorance of these
conditions, it can only mean that such conditions were not concluded
with the king, either there or anywhere, for Charles had never
consented to accept them. When Charles, therefore, asked them what they
meant, then, by inviting him to come to them, and why they had sent
word that all differences were reconciled, and that David Leslie should
meet him with an escort of horse, they replied that this was on the
understanding that his majesty meant to accept their terms, from which
they had never receded, and that they now thought that by his coming to
them he had meant to accept the cardinal condition--the taking of the
Covenant.
[Illustration: FLIGHT OF CHARLES FROM OXFORD. (_See p._ 51.)]
Charles must have been well aware of the truth of all this, but he was
a man who played fast and loose so constantly, that it was impossible
to make any treaty with him. At the very time that he was preparing
to leave Oxford, so alive were all these quibbles and evasions in his
mind, that he wrote to Lord Digby, expressing his intention to get to
London if he could, "not," he says, "without hope that I shall be able
so to draw either the Presbyterians or the Independents to side with
me, for extirpating one another, that I shall really be king again."
This proves that on setting out from Oxford, he had held himself loose
from any compact with the Scots, and did not mean to go to them at all
if he could manage to cozen the Presbyterians or Independents to take
his part, and "extirpate one another."
Such a man was as slippery as an eel. He now insisted solemnly on the
existence of the very conditions that he had purposely kept clear of.
The Scots stood by their offered terms, and exhorted him to accept
the Covenant, entreating him with tears and on their knees to take
it, or to sanction the Presbyterian worship if he could not adopt it,
and pledging themselves on that condition to fight for him to the
last man. But this Charles would not do. He was still--though beaten
and voluntarily surrendered to his enemies--as full of the persuasion
of the divinity of kingship as ever. He therefore undertook to give
the word to the guard, in virtue of his being the chief person in the
army; but old Leven quickly undeceived him, by saying, "I am the older
soldier; your majesty had better leave that office to me."
It was now necessary to apprise the Parliament of the king having
entered their camp--a piece of intelligence which produced a wonderful
sensation. Fairfax had already announced to the Parliament that the
king had escaped out of Oxford, and was believed to have gone towards
London, whereupon the two Houses had issued a proclamation forbidding
any one to harbour or conceal his person on pain of high treason, and
of forfeiting the whole of their estate, and being put to death without
mercy. All Papists and other disaffected persons were ordered, on the
supposition that the king might be in London, to remove before the 12th
of May to twenty-five miles' distance from the metropolis, leaving,
before they went, a notice at Goldsmiths' Hall of the places to which
they intended to retire. When the letter arrived from the Scottish
Commissioners, the Parliament was filled with jealousy and alarm.
There had long been a feeling of the design of the Scots, supported
by the Presbyterians, assuming an undue power; and now to hear that
they had the king in their hands was most embarrassing. They instantly
sent word to the Scots that his majesty must be disposed of according
to the will of the two Houses of Parliament, and that for the present
he must be sent to Warwick Castle; that Ashburnham and Hudson, the
king's attendants, should be sent for by the sergeant-at-arms or his
deputy, to be dealt with as delinquents; and that a narrative must be
prepared of the manner in which the king came to the Scottish camp,
and forthwith sent to the two Houses. To enforce these orders, they
commanded Poyntz to watch the Scottish army with five thousand men, and
Sir Thomas Fairfax to prepare to follow him.
The Scots were not prepared to enter into a civil war with England
for the restoration of the king, who would not comply even with their
propositions; but they knew too well the power they possessed in the
possession of his person, to let the Parliament frighten them out
of their advantage till they had secured their own terms with them.
They therefore immediately addressed a letter to the Parliament,
expressing their astonishment at finding the king coming among them,
for which they solemnly but untruly protested there had been no treaty
nor capitulation. Perhaps they saved their word by meaning no treaty
concluded. They assured the two Houses that they would do everything
possible to maintain a right understanding between the two kingdoms,
and therefore solicited their advice, as they had also sent to solicit
that of the Committee of Estates in Scotland, as to the best measures
to be adopted for the satisfactory settlement of the affairs of the
kingdom. Charles also sent to Parliament, repeating his offers of
accommodation and requesting the two Houses to forward to him the
propositions for peace. To show his sincerity, he ordered his officers
to surrender the fortresses still in their hands to the Committee of
both kingdoms for the English Parliament. He had offered to surrender
them to the Scots, but they refused to accept them, knowing that it
must embroil them with the Parliament. This surrender on the part of
the king, on the 10th of June, closed the war. The last to pull down
the royal standard was the old Marquis of Worcester, the father of
Glamorgan, who held Raglan Castle, and who, though he was eighty years
of age, was compelled by Parliament to travel from Raglan to London,
where he immediately died. Worcester had refused to give up Raglan,
as it was his own house. He did not surrender it till the 19th of
August. Oxford was given up on the 24th of June. Rupert and Maurice
were suffered to withdraw to the Continent. The Duke of York, Charles's
second son, was sent up to London to the custody of Parliament, and put
under the care of the Earl of Northumberland.
Things being in this position, and both Charles and the Scots being
anxious to keep at a distance from Fairfax and his army till the terms
were settled, the Scots rapidly retreated to Newcastle, carrying the
king with them.
The treaty between the Scots and the English Parliament was now carried
on with much diplomacy on both sides, and was not finally settled
till the 16th of January, 1647. The Scots, soon after leaving Newark,
proposed a meeting with the Parliamentary Commissioners, to explain
the reasons of their retreat northwards, and also for not surrendering
Ashburnham and Hudson; but the meeting did not take place, and soon
after Ashburnham contrived to escape and get into France, to the queen.
Charles said that he could have escaped, too, had he been so disposed;
but Hudson attempting it, was stopped.
Charles did not neglect to try the effect of brilliant promises on
David Leslie and others of the Scottish officers, if they would side
with him and make a junction with Montrose for his restoration. He
offered to make David Earl of Orkney, but the Committee of Estates sent
the Earls of Argyll and Loudon, and Lord Lanark, to Newcastle, to see
that all was kept in order in the camp; and they told Charles plainly
that he must take the Covenant, and order Montrose to disband his
forces in the Highlands, if he expected them to do anything important
for him. Charles consented to order the disbanding of Montrose's
followers and his retirement to France, but he could not bring himself
to accept the Covenant. In fact, on the same day that he gave the
order to surrender his remaining fortresses, he sent a letter to the
English Parliament, informing them that he was in full freedom, and
in a capacity to settle with them a peace, and offering to leave the
question of religion to the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, to
place the militia in their hands as proposed at Uxbridge, for seven
years, and, in short, to do all in his power to settle the kingdom
without further effusion of blood. The Parliament, however, knew that
he was in no condition to make war on them, and were too sensible of
their power to notice such overtures, further than that they thought
his terms now too high.
At this very time Charles was in active secret endeavour to obtain an
army from Ireland and France. Glamorgan and the Pope's nuncio were
busy in Ireland; the queen was equally busy in France; Mazarin again
promised her ten thousand men, and incited Lord Jermyn to seize Jersey
and Guernsey; and the king, though he had ordered Montrose to disband
his forces and quit Scotland, desired him to be ready to raise the
royal standard once more in the Highlands in conjunction with the
French and Irish. All these wild schemes, however, were knocked on
the head by the Earl of Ormond making peace with the Parliament on
condition that he should recover his estates. He surrendered the Castle
of Dublin and the fortresses to Parliament, went over to England, and
all hope of aid from Ireland was at an end.
Whilst these political designs were in agitation, Charles was deeply
engaged with the religious difficulty of giving up Episcopacy and
consenting to the dominance of Presbyterianism. He consulted Juxon,
the ex-Bishop of London, and gave him leave to advise with Dr.
Sheldon and the late Bishop of Salisbury, whether he might not accept
Presbyterianism as a man under compulsion, and therefore not really
bound by it; and he was at the same time engaged with Alexander
Henderson on the Scriptural authority of Episcopacy or Presbyterianism.
During this dispute, in which each champion supported his opinion with
Scriptural passages, and yet came no nearer than such disputants ever
do, the Scottish divine was taken ill and died, and the Royalists
declared that the king had so completely worsted him that he died of
chagrin.
On the 23rd of July the English Parliament at length made proposals
of peace, sending the Earls of Pembroke, Denbigh, and Montague, and
six members of the Commons, to Newcastle, to treat with him. The
conditions were not so favourable as those offered at Uxbridge, things,
indeed, being now very different; the great point, however, being the
abandonment of Episcopacy. They were to receive an answer or return
in ten days; but the king would not yield the question of the Church.
The Scottish Commissioners were present, and urged the king warmly to
consent to the conditions, and thus to restore peace. The Earls of
Loudon and Argyll implored it on their knees. Then Loudon, Chancellor
of Scotland, told him "that the consequences of his answer to the
propositions were so great, that on it depended the ruin of his crown
and kingdoms; that the Parliament, after many bloody battles, had
got the strongholds and forts of the kingdom into their hands; that
they had his revenue, excise, assessments, sequestrations, and power
to raise all the men and money in the kingdom; that they had gained
victory over all, and that they had a strong army to maintain it, so
that they might do what they would with Church or State; that they
desired neither him nor any of his race longer to reign over them,
and had sent these propositions to his majesty, without the granting
whereof the kingdom and his people would not be in safety; that if
he refused to assent, he would lose all his friends in Parliament,
lose the city, and lose the country; and that all England would join
against him as one man to process and depose him, and to set up another
Government; and that both kingdoms for safety would be compelled to
agree to settle religion and peace without him, to the ruin of his
majesty and posterity;" and he concluded by saying, "that if he left
England, he would not be allowed to go and reign in Scotland." This,
it must be confessed, was plain and honest, and therefore loyal and
patriotic speaking. The General Assembly of the Kirk had already come
to this conclusion; but all was lost on the king.
Parliament now having proved that all negotiation was useless, their
Commissioners returned, and reported that they could obtain no
answer from the king, except that he was ready to come up to London
and treat in person. A Presbyterian member, on hearing this report,
exclaimed--"What will become of us, now the king has rejected our
propositions?" "Nay," replied an Independent member, "what would have
become of us had he accepted them?" And really it is difficult to
see what could have been the condition of the kingdom had a man of
Charles's incorrigible character been again admitted to power. The
Parliament returned thanks to the Scottish Commissioners for their
zealous co-operation in the endeavour to arrange matters with the
king--a severe blow to Charles, who had till now clung to the hope of
seizing some advantage from the jealousies which for many months had
prevailed between the Parliament and the Scottish army.
On the 12th of August the Scottish Commissioners presented a paper to
the House of Lords, stating that the kingdom of Scotland had, on the
invitation of both Houses, carefully undertaken and faithfully managed
their assistance in the kingdom towards obtaining the ends expressed
in the covenant; and as the forces of the common enemy were now broken
and destroyed, through the blessing of God, they were willing to
surrender up the fortresses in their hands, and retire into their own
country, on a reasonable compensation being made for their sufferings
and expenses. They stated truly that many base calumnies and execrable
aspersions had been cast upon them by printed pamphlets and otherwise,
which they had not suffered to turn them from that brotherly affection
which was requisite for the great end in view, and which they trusted
would yet be effected, notwithstanding the lamentable refusal of their
propositions by the king. They claimed, moreover, still to be consulted
on the measure for accomplishing the common object of peace for the
kingdom. The Commons appointed a committee to settle the accounts
between them. The Scots demanded six hundred thousand pounds as the
balance due, but agreed to receive four hundred thousand pounds, one
half of which was to be paid before quitting the kingdom.
Scarcely had this amicable arrangement been made, when the two English
Houses of Parliament passed a resolution that the disposal of the
king's person belonged to them. This alarmed the Scots, who instantly
remonstrated, saying that as Charles was king of Scotland as well as
of England, both nations had an equal right to be consulted regarding
the disposal of his person. This is a sufficient answer to the calumny
so zealously propagated by the Royalists that the Scots had sold
the king to the Parliament. On the contrary, they had claimed a sum
of money as a just payment of their expenses and services, and the
person or liberty of the king had not entered at all into the bargain.
This bargain, in fact, was made five months--that is, on the 5th of
September--before they delivered up the king, that is, on the 30th
of January, 1647, and during these five months they were zealously
engaged in contending for the personal security of the monarch to the
very verge of a civil war. All this time they strove equally to induce
Charles to accept the terms, which would have removed all difficulties.
From September 21st, when the English Parliament voted this resolution,
to October 13th, a fierce contest was carried on on this subject, and
various conferences were held. The Scots published their speeches on
these occasions; the English seized them, and imprisoned the printers;
there was imminent danger of civil war, and on the 13th of October the
Commons voted payment for the army for the next six months, giving an
unmistakable proof of their resolve on the question.
All this was beheld with delight by Charles; and he wrote to his wife
that he believed yet that they would have to restore him with honour.
He believed one party or the other would, to settle the question,
concede all to him, and with his sanction put the other down. For some
time the public spirit in Scotland favoured his hopes. The question
was discussed there with as much vehemence as in England. His friends
exerted themselves, the national feeling was raised in his favour,
and the Scottish Parliament passed a vote on the 10th of December,
under the management of the Hamiltons, that they would exert all their
power and influence to maintain the monarchical system of government,
and the king's title to the English crown, which it was now notorious
that the Independents sought to subvert. This gave wonderful spirit
to the royal party; but the Commission of the Kirk instantly reminded
Parliament that Charles had steadily refused to take the Covenant, and
that even if he were deposed in England, he could not be allowed to
come into Scotland; or if he did enter it, his royal functions must be
suspended till he had embraced the Covenant, and given freedom to their
religion. This brought the Parliament to reflection, and the next day
it rescinded the resolution.
[Illustration: QUEEN HENRIETTA'S DRAWING-ROOM AND BEDROOM, MERTON
COLLEGE, OXFORD.]
This dashed the last hopes of the king, and, now that it was too late,
he began seriously to contemplate escape to the Continent. Montreuil
wrote to the French Court on the 21st of January, 1647--the very day
that the money was paid to the Scots, and a receipt given previous to
their departure--that Charles still continued to dream of escaping,
though to himself it appeared impossible, unless the Scots had rather
see him do so than fall into the hands of the Independents. The king
had arranged with Sir Robert and William Murray his scheme of escape in
disguise, but it was found impossible. Once more, therefore, he wrote
to the Parliament of England for permission to go to London and open
a free debate with both Houses for the settlement of all differences.
The message received no notice whatever; but the two Houses went on
debating as to the disposal of the king's person. The Lords voted
that he should be allowed to come to Newmarket; the Commons that he
should go to Holmby, in Northampton, one of his houses, to which he was
considerably attached. After further debate this was agreed to by the
Lords.
The Scots, seeing that they must yield up the person of Charles to
the English Parliament or prepare to fight for it, asked themselves
what they were to gain by a civil war for a king who would not move
one jot towards complying with their wishes? They made one more effort
to persuade him to take the Covenant, but in vain. In reply to their
solicitation, he made this ominous reply:--"It is a received opinion by
many, that engagements, acts, or promises of a restrained person, are
neither valid nor obligating; how true or false this is I will not now
dispute, but I am sure if I be not free, I am not fit to answer your or
any propositions." And he demanded if he went to Scotland whether he
should be free, with honour and safety. It was clear what was in his
mind--that if he did take the Covenant he would be at liberty to break
it when he had the power; and as the Scots had determined that they
would not receive him into Scotland at the certain cost of civil war,
when they could with such a person have no possible guarantee of his
keeping his engagements even were he brought to make them, they replied
that he must at once accept their propositions, or they must leave
him to the resolution of Parliament. Two days afterwards (the 16th of
January, 1647), the Parliament of Scotland acceded to the demand of the
English Parliament that the king should be given up, a promise being
exacted that respect should be had to the safety of his person in the
defence of the true religion, and the liberties of the two kingdoms,
according to the Solemn League and Covenant. More was demanded by the
Scots, namely, that no obstacle should be opposed to the legitimate
succession of his children, and no alteration made in the existing
government of the kingdom. To this the Lords fully assented, but the
Commons took no notice of it.
On the 5th of January the two hundred thousand pounds, engaged to
be paid to the Scots before leaving England, arrived at Newcastle,
in thirty-six carts, under a strong escort, and having been duly
counted, a receipt was signed on the 21st at Northallerton, and on the
30th Charles was committed to the care of the English Commissioners,
consisting of three lords and six commoners, the Earl of Pembroke being
at their head. He professed to be pleased with the change, as it would
bring him nearer to his Parliament. The Scots, having finished their
business in England, evacuated Newcastle, and marched away into their
own country.
In all these transactions we have endeavoured in vain to discover any
ground for the common calumny against the Scots, that they bought
and sold the king. On the contrary, we have shown that all contract
regarding their reimbursements and remunerations was completed five
months before the delivery of the king; and that they did all in their
power to induce him to accept their Covenant, and with that their
pledge to defend him to the last drop of their blood. Montreuil says,
that even at the last moment the Earls of Lauderdale and Traquair
again pressed the king to consent to accept the Covenant and establish
Presbyterianism, and they would convey him to Berwick and compel the
English to be satisfied with what he had thus offered them. He stated
that the Scots offered him (Montreuil) twenty thousand Jacobuses to
persuade the king to comply, but that he could not prevail. It must
be remembered, too, that when they did surrender him, it was only on
promise of safety to his person, and that they delivered him not to the
Independents, who made no secret of their designs against the monarchy,
but to their fellow believers, the Parliament, which entertained no
such intentions, and had already offered Charles the same terms on the
same conditions.
Before the close of this year, that is in September, the Earl of Essex
died; Ireton married Bridget Cromwell, second daughter of Oliver
Cromwell; and a great number of officers in the army were again in
Parliament--the Self-denying Ordinance, having served its turn, being
no more heard of.