END OF THE REIGN OF CHARLES I.
Differences between the Presbyterians and Independents--The King
at Holmby--Attempt to Disband the Army--Consequent Petitions
to Parliament--The Adjutators--Meeting at Newmarket--Seizure
of the King--Advance of the Army on London--Stubbornness
of the Presbyterians--The Army Marches through London--Its
Proposals to Charles--Their Rejection--The King throws away
his Best Chances--The Levellers--Cromwell's Efforts on
behalf of Charles--Renewed Intrigues of Charles--Flight to
Carisbrooke--Attempts to Rescue the King--Charles Treats with the
Scots--Consequent Reaction in his Favour--Battle of Preston and
Suppression of the Insurrection--Cromwell at Edinburgh--The Prince
of Wales in Command of the Fleet--Negotiations at Newport--Growing
Impatience of the Army--Petitions for the King's Trial--Charles's
Blindness and Duplicity--He is Removed to Hurst Castle--Pride's
Purge--Supremacy of the Independents--The Whiggamores--Hugh Peters'
Sermon in St. Margaret's, Westminster--Ordinance for the King's
Trial--Trial and Execution of Charles I.
For a long time the difference of opinion between the Presbyterians
and the Independents had been growing more marked and determined.
The latter, from a small knot of Dissenters, had grown into a
considerable one, and the more influential, because the most able
and active, leaders of both Parliament and army were of that sect.
Under the head of Independents, however, ranged themselves, so far as
politics were concerned, a variety of other Dissenters--Arminians,
Millenaries, Baptists and Anabaptists, Familists, Enthusiasts, Seekers,
Perfectists, Socinians, Arians, and others--all of whom claimed freedom
of worship, according to their peculiar faiths. On the other hand,
the Presbyterians, backed by the Scots, were bent on establishing a
religious despotism. Their tenets and form of government were alone
to be tolerated. They were as resolute sticklers for conformity as
the Catholics, or Charles and Laud themselves. They set up the same
claims to be superior to the State, and allowed of no appeal from their
tribunals to those of the civil magistrate. Having established the
Directory for the form of worship, they erected an assembly, with its
synods, and divided the whole kingdom into provinces, the provinces
into classes, the classes into presbyteries or elderships. They
declared that "the keys of the kingdom of heaven were committed to the
officers of the Church, by virtue whereof they had power to retain and
remit sins, to shut the kingdom of heaven against the impenitent by
censures, and to open it to the penitent by absolution." They claimed a
right to inquire into the private lives of persons, and of suspending
the unworthy from the Sacrament.
All these assumptions the Independents denied, and would not admit
any authority over the free action of individual congregations. The
Commons, through the influence of Selden and Whitelock, proposed
to the Assembly of Divines nine questions respecting the nature and
object of the divine right to which they aspired, and before they could
answer these, the army and the Independents, its leaders, had effected
still more embarrassing changes. The king being conquered, and the
Scots having withdrawn, the contest lay no longer between the king and
Parliament, but between the Presbyterians and Independents, or, what
was nearly synonymous, the Parliament and the Army.
The king was conducted to Holmby by easy journeys, and treated by his
attendants with courtesy. The people flocked to see him, and showed
that the traditions of royalty were yet strong in them. They received
him with acclamations, uttered prayers for his preservation, and not
a few of them pressed forward to be touched for the "evil." On his
arrival at Holmby, he found a great number of ladies and gentlemen
assembled to welcome him, with every demonstration of pleasure, and
his house and table well appointed and supplied. He passed his time in
reading, in riding about the country, and in different amusements--as
chess and bowls, riding to Althorpe, or even to Harrowden, because
there was no good bowling-green at Holmby. One thing only he complained
of, and requested to have altered. The Parliament sent him clergymen
of their own persuasion to attend him; he begged that any two out
of his twelve chaplains might be substituted, but was refused.
The Presbyterian ministers allotted him were Thomas Herbert, and
Harrington, the author of "Oceana," with whose conversation Charles was
much pleased on all subjects but religion and form of government. But
though Charles passed the bulk of his time in relaxation, he was not
insensible to his situation; and when he had been left there for three
months without notice, he addressed to Parliament a letter in which
he proposed to allow Presbyterian Church government for three years,
his own liberty of worship being granted, and twenty clergymen of the
Church of England admitted to the Westminster Assembly; the question of
religion at the end of that period was to be finally settled by himself
and the two Houses in the usual way, and the command of the army was
also to be left to Parliament for ten years, and then to revert to
him. The Lords gladly assented to this offer, but the Commons did not
entertain it, and other matters soon claimed their attention.
The Presbyterians had, during the active engagements of the army, and
the consequent absence of the leading Independents, strengthened their
ranks by many new members of Parliament, and they now set about to
reduce the power of their opponents by disbanding the greater part of
the army. They decreed in February that three thousand horse, twelve
hundred dragoons, and eight thousand four hundred foot, should be
withdrawn from Fairfax's army and sent to Ireland, and that besides one
thousand dragoons and five thousand four hundred horse, all the rest of
the army should be disbanded, except as many soldiers as were necessary
to man the forty-five castles and fortresses which remained. This would
have completely prostrated the power of the Independents; and Cromwell,
on whose shrewd character and military success they now looked with
terror, would have been first sacrificed, as well as Ireton, Ludlow,
Blake, Skippon, Harrison, Algernon Sidney, and others, who had fought
the real battle of the late contest. The heads of the Presbyterians
in Parliament consisted of unsuccessful commanders--Holles, Waller,
Harley, Stapleton, and others--who hated the successful ones, both on
account of their brilliant success and of their religion. Fairfax,
though a Presbyterian, went along with his officers in all the love of
toleration.
It was voted in the Commons, not only that no officer under Fairfax
should have higher rank than that of colonel, but that no one should
hold a commission who did not take the Covenant and conform to the
government of the Church as fixed by Parliament. This would have been
a sweeping measure, had the Parliament not had a very obvious party
motive in it, and had it paid its soldiers, and been in a condition
to discharge them. But at this moment they were immensely in arrears
with the pay of the army, and that body, feeling its strength, at once
broke up its cantonments round Nottingham, and marched towards London,
halting only at Saffron Walden. This movement created a terrible alarm
in the City, Parliament regarded it as a menace, but Fairfax excused
it on the plea of the exhausted state of the country round their old
quarters. The Commons hastened to vote sixty thousand pounds towards
the payment of arrears, which amounted to forty-three weeks for the
horse and eighteen for the infantry. In the City, the Council and
the Presbyterians got up a petition to both Houses, praying that the
army might be removed farther from London; but at the same moment a
more startling one was in progress from the Independents, addressed
to "the supreme authority of the nation, the Commons in Parliament
assembled." It not only gave this significant hint of its opinion
where the real power of the State lay, but denounced the House of
Lords as assuming undue authority, and complained of the persecution
and exclusion from all places of trust of those who could not conform
to the Church government imposed. The House of Commons condemned this
Republican petition, and ordered the army not to approach nearer than
twenty-five miles of London. A deputation was sent down to Saffron
Walden, where Fairfax summoned a convention of officers to answer them.
These gentlemen, on the mention of being sent to Ireland, said they
must know, before they could decide, what regiments, what commanders
were to go, and whether they were sure of getting their arrears and
their future daily pay. They demanded their arrears and some recompense
for past services. The Commissioners, not being able to answer these
demands, returned and reported to the Commons, mentioning also a
petition in progress in the army. Alarmed at this, the Commons summoned
to their bar some of the principal officers--Lieutenant-General
Hammond, Colonel Robert Hammond, his brother, Colonel Robert Lilburn,
Lieutenant-Colonel Grimes, and Colonel Ireton, Cromwell's son-in-law,
a member of the House; and they voted that three regiments, commanded
by the staunch Presbyterian officers Poyntz, Copley, and Bethell should
remain at home. But what roused the army more than all besides, was a
motion made by Denzil Holles, and carried, that the army's petition,
which was not yet presented, was an improper petition, and that all
who were concerned in it should be proceeded against as enemies to the
State and disturbers of the public peace.
This declaration of the 30th of March was little short of an act of
madness. It could only excite the indignation of a power against
which the Parliament, grown unpopular, and divided against itself, was
but as a reed in a whirlwind. The officers pronounced it "a blot of
infamy" upon them, and the Parliament was glad to attempt to lay the
storm by voting, on the 8th of April, that the regiments of Fairfax,
Cromwell, Rossiter, Whalley, and Graves, should remain in England. A
week afterwards the Commons sent down another deputation, accompanied
by the Earl of Warwick, who harangued the officers earnestly to engage
for Ireland, promising that Major-General Skippon should command them.
Many were pleased with them, but more cried out, "Fairfax and Cromwell!
Give us Fairfax and Cromwell, and then we all go!"
[Illustration: LORD FAIRFAX. (_After the Portrait by Cooper._)]
On the return of the deputation without success, the Commons debated
whether they should not disband the whole army. Holles strongly
recommended it, and that they should give the soldiers six weeks'
pay on disbanding. He thought it would be easy then to engage the
men to go to Ireland under other officers, and that four of those
officers who were regarded as most hostile in this movement should
be summoned to the bar of the House. How miserably he was mistaken
was immediately shown, for a petition was presented that very day
(the 27th of April), signed by Lieutenant-General Hammond, fourteen
colonels and lieutenant-colonels, six majors, and one hundred and
thirty captains, lieutenants, and other commissioned officers. It was
drawn up in energetic language, complaining of the calumnies spread
abroad regarding the army, and enumerating the services they had
done, the sacrifices they had made for the Commonwealth, and praying
for the payment of the soldiers' arrears. It declared, indeed, that
this movement of petitioning had commenced amongst the soldiers, and
that the officers had been induced to take it up to prevent anything
unacceptable to the House from being put forward.
But the petition of the officers did not prevent the petition of the
men. When they saw the Commons did not immediately comply with the
petition of the officers, smarting under the vote of disbandment,
coupled with the withholding of their pay, horse dragoons and infantry
went on their own way. They had lately entered into an association to
make their complaints known. The officers had established a military
council to consult on and take care of the interests of the army, and
the men established a council too. Two commissioned officers, but not
exceeding in rank ensigns, and two private soldiers from each regiment,
met from time to time to discuss the wants of the army. They were
called Adjutators or assistants in the cause, and the word soon became
corrupted into Agitators. Thus there was a sort of army Parliament--the
officers representing the Peers, the soldiers the Commons. The whole
scheme has been, and it is probable very justly, ascribed to the genius
of Cromwell. What confirms the supposition is, that an old friend
of his, Berry, a captain, became its president, and that Ayres and
Desborough, his two particular friends, the latter of whom had married
his sister, were in close communication with the leading officers
amongst the Agitators.
These movements on the part of the army, and the zealous manner in
which Cromwell rose and vindicated the conduct of the soldiers on this
occasion, warning the House not to drive so loyal and meritorious a
body as the army to desperation, caused them to order him, Skippon, and
Fleetwood to go down to the army and quiet its discontent by assuring
the soldiers of pay and indemnification. These three, on the 7th of
May, met the officers, who demanded time to prepare an answer after
consulting their regiments. There appeared to have been doubts and
dissension sown by the Presbyterians, and as the different regiments
came to opposite conclusions, the Parliament thought it might venture
to disband them. On the 25th it was settled that such regiments as
did not volunteer for Ireland should be disbanded at fixed times and
places. Fairfax, pleading indisposition, left the House and hastened
down to the army, and immediately marched it from Saffron Walden to
Bury St. Edmunds. The soldiers declared that they would not disband
till they were paid, and demanded a rendezvous, declaring that if
the officers did not grant it they would hold it themselves. Fairfax
announced this to the Parliament, praying it to adopt soothing
measures; and that, though he was compelled to comply with a measure
out of order, he would do what he could to preserve it. The House, on
the 28th, sent down the Earl of Warwick, the Lord Delaware, Sir Gilbert
Gerrard, and three other members of the Commons, to promise eight
weeks' pay, and to see the disbanding effected. On hearing the terms
from the Commissioners, the soldiers exclaimed:--"Eight weeks' pay!
We want nearer eight times eight!" There was universal confusion; the
men refused to disband without full payment. They hastened to their
rendezvous at Bury St. Edmunds, each man paying fourpence towards the
expenses; and they ordered that the army should draw together, and a
general rendezvous be held on the 4th of June. At Oxford the soldiers
seized the disbanding money as _part_ payment, and demanded the rest,
or no disbanding.
On the 4th and 5th of June, accordingly, the grand rendezvous was held
on Kentford Heath, near Newmarket. They entered into a covenant to see
justice done to one and all, and not till then to listen to any other
orders or terms. Meanwhile, a still more extraordinary scene had taken
place, of which the direct springs may be guessed, but which springs
were so closely concealed that no clever historian could ever lay them
bare. Scarcely was the honourable House of Commons in possession of the
news of the Kentford Heath rendezvous, when it was paralysed by this
still more amazing announcement.
The House of Lords, not liking the proceedings of the army, had ordered
the king for greater safety to be removed from Holmby to Oatlands,
nearer the capital. The army anticipated that move; and by whose orders
no man knows, nor ever will know, Cornet Joyce, of Whalley's regiment,
followed by a strong party of horse, presented himself on the 2nd of
June, a little after midnight, at Holmby House. After surrounding the
house with his troop, said to be one thousand strong, he knocked and
demanded admittance, telling Major-General Brown and Colonel Graves
that he was come to speak to the king. "From whom?" demanded these
officers, awoke from their sleep. "From myself," said Joyce; whereat
they laughed. But Joyce told them it was no laughing matter. They
then advised him to draw off his troops, and in the morning he should
see the Commissioners. Joyce replied that he was not come there to
be advised by them, or to talk to the Commissioners, but to speak to
the king; and speak to him he would, and that soon. At this threat
Brown and Graves bade their soldiers stand to their arms and defend
the place; but the soldiers, instead, threw open the doors, and bade
their old comrades welcome. Joyce then went direct to the chamber of
the Commissioners, and informed them that there was a design to seize
the king, and place him at the head of an army to put down that under
General Fairfax; and that, to prevent another war, he was come to
secure the person of the king, and see that he was not led into further
mischief; for, added the cornet, "there be some who endeavour to pull
down king and people, and set up themselves."
The Commissioners desired him not to disturb the king's sleep, but
to wait till morning, and they would tell his majesty of his arrival
and business. In the morning Joyce found that Brown had contrived to
send off Graves to fetch up the king's guard; and "some of his damning
blades did say and swear they would fetch a party." But Joyce--a stout
fellow for a tailor, which he had been--did not trouble himself about
that, for he knew the guard would not move, and at length insisted on
being admitted to the king himself.
According to Joyce's own account, it was ten o'clock in the evening
again when he was ushered, with two or three of his followers, into
the royal presence. The soldiers took off their hats, and displayed no
rudeness, but a blunt proceeding to business. According to Clarendon,
the cornet told the king that he was sorry to have disturbed his sleep,
but that he must go with him. Charles asked whither. He said to the
army. But where was the army, replied the king. The cornet said they
would show him. His majesty asked by what authority they came. Joyce
said "By this!" and showed him his pistol, and desired his majesty to
cause himself to be dressed, because it was necessary they should make
haste. The king sent for the Commissioners, who asked Joyce whether he
had any order from Parliament. He said no. From the general? No. What,
then, was his authority? He gave the same reply as to the king, by
holding up his pistol. They said they would write to the Parliament to
learn its pleasure, to which Joyce replied, they could do so, but the
king meanwhile must go with him.
Finding that the soldiers sent for would not come, and that the
officers of the guard said that Joyce's troop were not soldiers of one
regiment, but drawn from several regiments, and that Joyce was not
their proper officer, it was clear that there was a general design
in the affair, and the king said he would go with them at six in
the morning. At the hour appointed the king appeared on horseback,
and found the troop all mounted and ready. The king had overnight
demanded of Joyce whether he should be forced to do anything against
his conscience, and whether he should have his servants with him; and
Joyce replied that there was no intention to lay any constraint on
his majesty, only to prevent his being made use of to break up the
army before justice had been done to it. Before starting, Charles
again demanded from Joyce, in the presence of the troop, where was his
commission, enjoining him to deal ingenuously with him, and repeating,
"Where, I ask you again, is your commission?" "Here," said Joyce,
"behind me," pointing to the soldiers. Charles smiled, and said, "It is
a fair commission, and as well written as I have ever seen a commission
written in my life; a company of handsome, proper gentlemen, as I have
seen a great while. But what if I should refuse to go with you? I hope
you would not force me. I am your king; you ought not to lay violent
hands on your king. I acknowledge none to be above me here but God."
He then demanded again whither they proposed to conduct him. Oxford
and Cambridge were named, to both of which places Charles objected.
Newmarket was next named, and to that he consented. So the first day
they rode to Hinchinbrook, and the next to Childersley, near Newmarket.
The news of these proceedings of the army carried consternation into
the two Houses of Parliament, and into the City, where the Presbyterian
party was in full strength. They ordered the immediate arrest of
Cromwell, which they had been intending some time, but they were
informed that he left town the very same morning that Joyce appeared
at Holmby--a significant fact--and was seen riding away with only one
attendant. He reached the headquarters of the army with his horse all
in foam. The House voted to sit all the next day, though it was Sunday,
and have Mr. Marshall to pray for them. Rumour declared that the army
was on its march, and would be there the next day at noon. The House
ordered the Committee of Safety to sit up all night, taking measures
for the protection of the City; the train-bands to be called out, and
all the lines of communication guarded. The next day the shops were
shut, the town was in indescribable confusion, and terror in every
face, as though the army was already there. The Parliament wrote to
Fairfax, commanding that the army should not infringe the order of the
two Houses, by coming within twenty-five miles of London, that the
king should be returned to the care of the Commissioners who attended
him at Holmby, and that Colonel Rossiter's regiment should guard his
person. Fairfax replied that the army had reached St. Albans before he
received their command, but it should proceed no farther; that he had
sent Colonel Whalley with his regiment to meet his majesty on his way
from Holmby, and offered to return him thither, but that he preferred
the air of Newmarket, and that all care should be taken of his person.
[Illustration: CORNET JOYCE'S INTERVIEW WITH CHARLES. (_See p._ 63.)]
In fact, Charles was delighted with the change. He had escaped from
the harsh keeping and the strict regimen of the Presbyterians, whom he
detested, and felt himself, as it were, a king again at the head of
an army: the dissensions now rushing on so hotly between his enemies
wonderfully encouraging his hopes of making friends of the more liberal
party. He was in a condition of greater freedom and respect in the
army than he had been at Holmby: there was a larger number of troops
and the officers were superior. He was relieved from the presence of
Cornet Joyce. All restraint being taken off from persons resorting to
him, he saw every day the faces of many that were grateful to him. No
sooner did he ask for the attendance of his own chaplains than those
he named (Drs. Sheldon, Morley, Sanderson, and Hammond) were sent for,
and performed the service regularly, no one being forbidden to attend.
The king was left to his leisure and his friends, only removing with
the army as it moved, and in all places he was as well provided for
and accommodated as he had been in any progress. The best gentlemen,
Clarendon admits, of the several counties through which he passed,
daily resorted to him without distinction. He was attended by some of
his old trusty servants in the places nearest his person. On hearing of
his present condition, the queen sent Sir John Berkeley from Paris,
and his old groom of the chambers, who had been living at Rouen, to be
with him again, and they were freely admitted by Cromwell and Ireton.
"Many good officers," says Clarendon, "who had served his majesty
faithfully, were civilly received by the officers of the army, and
lived quietly in their quarters, which they could not do anywhere
else, which raised a great reputation to the army throughout England,
and as much reproach upon Parliament." This was raised still more by
the army's address to Parliament, desiring that "care might be taken
for settling the king's rights, according to the several professions
they had made in their declarations; and that the royal party might
be treated with more candour and less rigour." Even the most devoted
of Royalists, Sir Philip Warwick, says, "The deep and bloody-hearted
Independents all this while used the king very civilly, admitting
several of his servants and some of his chaplains to attend him, and
officiate by the service-book."
[Illustration: FAIRFAX HOUSE, PUTNEY. (_From a Photograph by W. Field &
Co., Putney._)]
The Commons ordered all officers to attend their regiments, and sent
down Commissioners to inform the army of the votes of the two Houses.
The army gave the Commissioners such a reception as no Commissioners
had ever witnessed before. Twenty-one thousand men had assembled to
a rendezvous on Triploe Heath, near Royston; and the General and
the Commissioners rode to each regiment, to acquaint them with the
Parliamentary votes as to their instalment of pay, their disbanding,
and their not approaching within twenty-five miles of London. The
answer was sent up in shouts of "Justice! justice!" A petition also
from the well-affected people of Essex was delivered on the field to
the General in presence of the Commissioners, against the disbanding,
declaring "that the Commonwealth had many enemies, who watched for such
an opportunity to destroy the good people." A memorial was, moreover,
drawn up and signed by the General and all the chief officers, to
the Lord Mayor and Corporation of London, warning them against false
representations of the intentions of the army, for that the war being
at an end, all that they desired and prayed for was that the peace
of the kingdom should be settled according to the declarations of
Parliament before the army was called out, and that being done, the
army should be paid before it was disbanded.
So far from pacifying the Parliament, these proceedings alarmed it
infinitely more, and it issued an order that the army should not
come within forty-five miles of the capital. On its part, the army
collected addresses from Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and the surrounding
counties, praying the purgation of the House from all such members as
were disqualified from sitting there by corruption, delinquency, abuse
of the State, or undue election; and on the 16th of June, from its
headquarters at St. Albans, the army formally impeached of high treason
eleven of the most active Presbyterian members. This impeachment was
presented to the House by twelve officers of the army--colonels,
lieutenant-colonels, majors, and captains. Within a few days the
General and officers sent a letter to the House, informing it that they
would appoint proper persons to conduct the impeachment, and make good
their charges; and desired the House to suspend the accused forthwith,
as it was not fitting that those persons who had done their best to
prejudice the army should sit as judges of their own actions.
This, says Clarendon, was an arrow out of their own quiver, which the
Commons did not expect; and though it was a legitimate consequence of
the impeachments of Strafford, Laud, and others, they endeavoured to
set it at defiance. The Parliament and its army were, in fact, come to
the pass which the brave old Royalist, Sir Jacob Astley, had foreseen
when he surrendered his regiment at Stowe, in 1646:--"You have done
your work, my masters, and may go and play, unless you will fall out
amongst yourselves."
The army, to settle the matter, marched from St. Albans to Uxbridge,
and at that sight the eleven members withdrew from the House of
Commons, and the Commons assumed a modest and complying behaviour,
voting the army under Fairfax to be the real army of England and worthy
of all respect. They sent certain proposals to Fairfax, which induced
him to remove his headquarters from Uxbridge to Wycombe. The eleven
members, looking on this as a degree of submission to Parliament,
immediately plucked up courage, and Holles and the rest appeared in
their places, preferring charges in return against the officers, and
demanding a fair trial. But they soon perceived their mistake, and,
soliciting the Speaker's leave of absence and his passport to go out of
the kingdom, disappeared.
The struggle between the army and Parliament--that is, between the
Presbyterian and Independent interests--was all this time raging.
For six weeks the army was advancing or retiring, according as the
Parliament acted; the Parliament only giving way through intimidation.
According as affairs stood, the City was either peaceful or in alarm,
now shutting its shops, now carrying on much negotiation; the army
lying still near, and paid more regularly, out of terror, by the
Parliament. At length the army had so far succeeded as to have the
insulting declaration of Holles--"the blot of ignominy"--erased
from the journals of the House, and the ordinance of the 4th of
May--procured by Holles--for the placing of the militia of the City
in more exclusively Presbyterian hands--revoked. But towards the end
of July the strong Presbyterian element in London was again in such
ferment that it forgot its terrors of the army, and proceeded to daring
extremities. The Presbyterian faction demanded that conventicles--that
is, the meeting-houses of all classes, except Presbyterians--should be
closed, and called on the citizens to meet in Guildhall to hear the
Covenant read, and sign an engagement--soldiers, sailors, citizens, and
apprentices--to drive away the army and bring the king to Westminster,
and make a treaty with him. A hundred thousand signatures were put
to this paper, and had the courage been half as great as the bluster
the army had been swept to destruction. On the 26th of July, a few
days afterwards, a vast rabble surrounded the Houses of Parliament,
calling on both Lords and Commons to restore the order regarding
the City militia; they crowded into the Houses with their hats on,
crying, "Vote! vote!" and their numbers keeping the doors open. Under
this intimidation both Lords and Commons voted the restoration of the
Presbyterian ordinance for the change of the militia, and adjourned to
Friday.
On Friday the two Houses met, but were astonished to find that their
Speakers had fled, accompanied by several members of both Houses, and
were gone to the army. It was found that Sir Henry Vane, the Earl of
Northumberland, the Earl of Warwick, and other Lords and Commoners
were gone. Had it been only Sir Henry Vane and the Independents who
had gone, it would have astonished nobody; but neither Lenthall, the
Speaker of the Commons, nor the Earl of Manchester, the Speaker of
the Lords, was suspected of any great leaning to the army, whilst
Warwick was a staunch Presbyterian, and Northumberland so much in
the favour of that party as to have the care of the royal children.
This circumstance showed the violence of the mob which had forced
Parliament, and rendered moderate men resolved to escape rather than
submit to be its puppets. There were no less than fifteen Lords and a
hundred Commoners who had thus resented mob intimidation.
On making this lamentable discovery, the two Houses elected temporary
Speakers, and issued orders forbidding the army to advance, recalling
the eleven fugitive members, and ordered Massey, Waller, and Poyntz to
call out the militia and defend the City.
No sooner had Fairfax heard the news of these proceedings than he
instantly sent the king to Hampton Court, and marched from Bedford to
Hounslow Heath, where he ordered a general rendezvous of the whole
army. On Hounslow Heath, at the appointed rendezvous, the Speakers
of the two Houses, with their maces, and attended by the fugitive
Lords and Commons, stated to the general that they had not freedom in
Westminster, but were in danger of their lives from tumult, and claimed
the protection of the army. The general and the officers received the
Speakers and members with profound respect, and assured them they
would reinstate them in their proper places, or perish in the attempt.
Nothing, in fact, could have been such a godsend to the army; for,
besides their own grievances, they had the grievances of the coerced
members to redress, and the sanctity of Parliament to defend. They
ordered the most careful accommodation for the comfort of the members,
and a guard to attend them, consulting them on all their measures.
Fairfax quartered his army about Hounslow, Brentford, Twickenham, and
the adjacent villages, at the same time ordering Colonel Rainsborough
to cross the Thames at Hampton Court with a brigade of horse and foot
and cannon, and to secure Southwark and the works which covered the end
of London Bridge.
Meanwhile, never was London in more terrible confusion. The Commons,
having no mace of their own, sent for the City mace. The colonels were
in all haste calling out the militia. On Saturday and Monday, August
1 and 2, the shops were all shut, nothing going on but enlisting
and mustering. St. James's Fields were in a stir with drilling;
news constantly coming of the approach of the army. "Massey," says
Whitelock, "sent out scouts to Brentford; but ten men of the army beat
thirty of his, and took a flag from them. The City militia and Common
Council sat late, and a great number of people attended at Guildhall.
When a scout came in and brought news that the army made a halt, or
other good intelligence, they cried, 'One and all!' But if the scouts
brought word that the army was advancing, then they would cry as loud,
'Treat! treat! treat!' and thus they spent the night."
Tuesday, August the 3rd, was a fearful day. The people of Southwark
declared that they would not fight against the army, and went in crowds
to Guildhall, demanding peace, at which Poyntz lost all patience, drew
his sword, and slashed many of them, some mortally.
The Southwarkers kept their word, for they received Rainsborough
and his troops; the militia openly fraternised with the soldiers,
shaking hands with them through the gates, and abandoned to them the
works which protected the City. Rainsborough took possession, without
opposition, of all the forts and works on that side of the river from
Southwark to Gravesend. In the morning the authorities of the City,
finding that Southwark was in possession of the army, and the City gate
on that side in their hands, were completely prostrated and hastened to
make their submission. Poyntz, accustomed to conquest in the field, and
the hardihood of the Presbyterian soldiers, was filled with contempt
for these cringing, cowering citizens. What! had they not ten thousand
men in arms, a loan of ten thousand pounds arranged and orders to
raise auxiliary troops to the amount of eighteen regiments? Had they
not plenty of ammunition and arms in the Tower, whence they had drawn
four hundred barrels of gunpowder and other material for present
defence? But all availed not; the citizens hastened to lay themselves
and the City at the feet of Fairfax. He had fixed his headquarters
at Hammersmith, but he met the civic authorities at Holland House,
Kensington, where he dictated the following conditions:--That they
should abandon the Parliament now sitting and the eleven impeached
members; should restore the militia to the Independents; surrender
all their forts, including the Tower; recall their declarations, and
conduct themselves peaceably.
On Friday, the 6th of August, Fairfax entered the City, preceded by
a regiment of infantry and another of cavalry. He was on horseback,
attended by his body-guards and a crowd of gentlemen. A long train
of carriages, containing the fugitive Speakers and members (Lords
and Commons), followed, and then another regiment of cavalry. The
soldiers marched three abreast, with boughs of laurel in their hats.
The late turbulent multitudes completed their shame by raising forced
acclamations as they passed. Fairfax thus proceeded through Hyde Park,
where the Corporation met him, and offered him a great gold cup,
which he curtly declined, and so rode on to the Houses of Parliament,
where he replaced the Speakers in their respective chairs, and the
members in their old places. Not one of the Lords who had remained,
except the Earl of Pembroke, ventured to appear, and he declared that
he considered the proceedings since the departure of the Speakers as
null. No sooner were the Speakers in their places than Parliament voted
thanks to the general and the army; made Fairfax commander of all the
forces in England and Wales, and Constable of the Tower. It ordered
a gratuity of a month's pay for the army, and that the City militia
should be divided, and Southwark, Westminster, and the Tower Hamlets
should command their own. The Lords voted all Acts of Parliament from
the departure of the Speakers, on the 26th of June, to their return on
the 6th of August, void; but the resolution did not pass the Commons,
where there was a large body of Presbyterians, without much opposition.
The eleven impeached members fled, and were allowed to escape into
France, whereupon they were voted guilty of high treason, as well
as the Lord Mayor and four aldermen of London, two officers of the
train-band, and the Earls of Suffolk, Lincoln, and Middleton, the
Lords Willoughby, Hunsdon, Berkeley, and Maynard. The civic officers
were sent to the Tower. The City was ordered to find the one hundred
thousand pounds voted for the army. Fairfax distributed different
regiments about Whitehall and the Houses of Parliament for their
protection, and others in the Strand, Holborn, and Southwark, to keep
the City quiet. His headquarters were moved to Putney, with forces
at Chelsea and Fulham. On Sunday he and the officers attended the
preaching of Hugh Peters, the army chaplain, at Putney Church, and thus
the Independents were in full power, and the Presbyterians signally
humbled.
Before, and also whilst, these events had been taking place, the army
had made overtures to the king for peace and a solid settlement of
the kingdom. As we have seen, from the moment that the king came into
their hands, they had treated him in a far different style to the
Presbyterians. He seemed, in his freedom of action, in the admission
of his children and friends to his society, in the respect and even
friendliness shown him to feel himself a king again. There were many
reasons why the Independents should desire to close with the king.
Though they had the army with them, they knew that the Presbyterians
were far more numerous. London was vehemently Presbyterian, and the
Scots were ready to back that party, because essentially the same
in religion as themselves. The Independents and all the Dissenters
who ranged themselves under their banners were anxious for religious
liberty; the Scottish and English Presbyterians had no more idea of
such a thing as belonging to Christianity than had the Catholics or the
Church of England as represented by Charles and Laud.
From the moment that the king was received by the army, he seems to
have won on the goodwill of the officers. Fairfax, on meeting him
on his way from Holmby, kissed his hand, and treated him with all
the deference due to the sovereign. Cromwell and Ireton, though they
did not so far condescend, and kept a degree of distant reserve, as
remembering that they had to treat Charles as an enemy, were soon
softened, and Cromwell sent him assurances of his attachment, and of
his desire to see his affairs set right. Many of the officers openly
expressed commiseration of his misfortunes, and admiration of his real
piety, and his amiable domestic character. It was not long before
such relations were established with him, and with his confidential
friends Berkeley, Ashburnham, and Legge, that secret negotiations were
commenced for a settlement of all the difficulties between him and his
people. The officers made him several public addresses expressive of
their sincere desire to see a pacification effected; and Fairfax, to
prepare the way, addressed a letter to the two Houses, repelling the
aspersion cast upon the army of its being hostile to the monarchy, and
avowing that "tender, equitable, and moderate dealings towards him, his
family, and his former adherents," should be adopted to heal the feuds
of the nation.
[Illustration: LORD CLARENDON. (_After the Portrait by Sir Peter
Lely._)]
It has been the fashion to consider Cromwell as a consummate hypocrite,
and to regard all that he did as a part acted for the ultimate
attainment of his own ends. This is the view which Clarendon has taken
of him; but, whatever he might do at a later period, everything shows
that at this time both he and his brother officers were most really
in earnest, and, could Charles have been brought to subscribe to any
terms except such as gave up the nation to his uncontrolled will, at
this moment his troubles would have been at an end, and he would have
found himself on a constitutional throne, with every means of honour
and happiness in his power. Nothing more convincingly demonstrates this
than the conditions which the Parliament submitted to him. They, in
fact, greatly resembled the celebrated conditions of peace offered at
Uxbridge, with several propositions regarding Parliament and taxation,
which mark a wonderfully improved political knowledge and liberality
in the officers. They did not even insist on the abolition of the
hierarchy, but merely stipulated for the toleration of other opinions,
taking away all penalties for not attending church, and for attending
what were called conventicles. The command of the army by Parliament
was to be restricted to ten years; only five of the Royalist adherents
were to be excluded from pardon, and some less objectionable mode
of protecting the State against Catholic designs than the present
oppressive laws against recusants was to be devised. Parliaments were
to continue two years, unless dissolved earlier by their own consent;
and were to sit every year for a prescribed term, or a shorter one, if
business permitted. Rotten boroughs, or such as were insignificant,
were to be disfranchised, and a greater number of members returned
from the counties in proportion to the amount of rates; and all that
regarded election of members or reforms of the Commons should belong
exclusively to the Commons. There were very judicious regulations for
the nomination of sheriffs and of magistrates; the excise was to be
taken from all articles of life at once, and from all other articles
very shortly: the land-tax was to be fairly and equally apportioned;
the irritating maintenance of the clergy by tithes was to be done away
with; suits at law were to be made less expensive; all men to be made
liable for their debts; and insolvent debtors who had surrendered all
their property to their creditors were to be discharged.
The whole project was decidedly creditable to the officers of the army.
Charles's own friends and advisers were charmed with it, and flattered
themselves that at length they saw a prospect of ending all troubles;
but they were quickly undeceived, and struck down in dumb astonishment
by Charles rejecting them.
Charles was still the same man; he was at the same moment secretly
listening to the overtures of the Scottish Commissioners, who were
jealous of the army, and instead of seizing the opportunity to be
once more a powerful and beloved king, he was flattering himself with
the old idea that he would bring the two great factions "to extirpate
each other." Sir John Berkeley, his earnest adviser, says:--"What
with having so concurring a second as Mr. Ashburnham, and what with
the encouraging messages of Lord Lauderdale and others from the
Presbyterian party and the city of London, who pretended to despise
the army, and to oppose them to death, his Majesty seemed very much
elated; inasmuch that when the proposals were solemnly sent to him,
and his concurrence most humbly and earnestly desired, his Majesty,
not only to the astonishment of Ireton and the rest, but even to mine,
entertained them with very tart and bitter discourses, saying sometimes
that he would have no man suffer for his sake, and that he repented of
nothing so much as the Bill against the Lord Strafford, which, though
most true, was unpleasant for them to hear; that he would have the
Church established according to law, by the proposals. They replied it
was none of their work to do it; that it was enough for them to waive
the point, and, they hoped, enough for his Majesty, since he had waived
the government of the Church in Scotland. His Majesty said that he
hoped God had forgiven him that sin, and repeated often, 'You cannot be
without me; you will fall to ruin if I do not sustain you!'"
It was still the old man; the old intolerable, incorrigible talk.
He could not give up a single proposition to save all the rest--his
life, his family, his crown, and kingdom. The officers looked at one
another in amazement; the king's friends in consternation. Sir John
Berkeley whispered in his ear that his Majesty seemed to have some
secret strength that they did not know of, on which Charles seemed to
recollect himself, and spoke more softly; but it was too late, for
Colonel Rainsborough, who was least inclined for the pacification,
rode to the army and made known the king's obstinacy. The agitators
rushed together in crowds, and, excessively chagrined at the rejection
of such terms, burst into the bedchamber of Lord Lauderdale, whom they
suspected of having thus perverted the king's mind, and compelled him,
in spite of his standing in his position as Commissioner from the
Estates of Scotland, to rise, and get off back again to Edinburgh.
At this crisis the alarm at the proceedings in London, and the march
upon it just related, took place. Still the officers did not cease
their exertions to persuade the king to adopt the proposals; but he
was waiting to see what turn affairs would take, and listening at the
same time to the Scots and the Irish Catholics. This idea was so little
concealed that, talking with Ireton, he let slip the observation,
"I shall play my game as well as I can." On which Ireton replied,
"If your Majesty has a game to play, you must give us leave also to
play ours." As the bluster of the City seemed to subside before the
approaching army, Charles sent Berkeley to ask the officers, "If he
should accept the proposals, what would ensue?" They said, "We will
offer them to the Parliament." "And if they should reject them, what
then?" The rest of the officers hesitating to answer such a question,
Rainsborough said bluntly, "If they won't agree, we will make them!" to
which all the rest instantly assented. Berkeley carried this decisive
answer to Charles, but there, he says, he had very different work; he
was just as unyielding as ever. Cromwell and Ireton then begged that
though the king would not sign the proposals, he would at least write a
kind letter to the army, which should show the country that they were
doing nothing contrary to his Majesty's mind. With the co-operation
of Berkeley, Ashburnham, and others of the king's friends, they met
at Windsor, and drew up such a letter, but they could not prevail on
him to sign it till the City had yielded, and it was too late. Still
the officers, to prove that their triumph had not altered in the least
their desire for agreement with the king, again voted the proposals
as their terms of settlement. Charles renewed his discussion with
them, and was every day sending messages by Ashburnham to Cromwell and
Ireton, yet never coming nearer; but, on the other hand, bringing those
officers into suspicion with a new and fanatic party which had arisen,
which originally called themselves Rationalists, but soon after
Levellers.
[Illustration: THE CHILDREN OF CHARLES I.
FROM THE PICTURE BY MISS MARGARET I. DICKSEE, IN THE OLDHAM ART GALLERY]
The Levellers were, in fact, a set of men amongst whom Lilburne, now
Colonel John Lilburne, was a leading character. They had imbibed
from the Old Testament, which was their favourite study, a spirit of
Republicanism combined with a wild fanatic style of language. They
found in the remarks on monarchs in the Scriptures, on the election of
Saul by Israel, a clear denunciation of all kings, and they declared
they would no longer seek after kings, who aimed only at absolute
power; nor after lords, who sought only honours and places; but they
would have a free government by a Parliament, and a free religion. They
drew up a paper called "The Case of the Army," and another called "The
Agreement of the People," which were presented to the general and the
Agitators of the eleven regiments. Religious Republicanism was abroad
in the army, and they drew up a new constitution, at which a biennial
Parliament, with six monthly sessions, a widely-extended franchise,
and a more equally-distributed representation, was at the head. There
were to be neither king nor lords in their system. Colonels Pride and
Rainsborough supported their views: Cromwell and Ireton strenuously
opposed them. They were, therefore, immediately the objects of attack,
and represented as being in a close and secret compact with the king,
the Ahab of the nation, to betray the people. Lilburne was busily
employed in writing and printing violent denunciations in flaming
style, and strongly garnished with Bible terms. Parliament denounced
the doctrines of the Levellers as destructive of all government, and
ordered the authors to be prosecuted.
Whilst this fanatic effervescence had broken out in the army, the
Presbyterians in Parliament and the Scottish Commissioners made one
effort more for the recovery of their ascendency. Regarding the
religious toleration proposed in the army conditions as something
horrible and monstrously wicked, they drew up fresh proposals of their
own, and presented them to the king. If Charles could not endure the
army proposals, he was not likely to accept those of the Presbyterians,
who gave no place to his own Church at all; and he told them that he
liked those of the army better. This answer Berkeley showed to the
officers of the army before it was sent; they highly approved of it,
and promised to do all they could in the House to get an order voted
for a personal treaty, "and," Berkeley adds, "to my understanding,
performed it, for both Cromwell and Ireton, with Vane and all their
friends, seconded with great resolution this desire of his Majesty."
Cromwell, indeed, he says, spoke so zealously in its favour that it
only increased, both in the House and out of it, the suspicion of
his having made a compact with the king to restore him. The more the
officers argued for a personal treaty, the more the Presbyterians in
the House opposed it; but at length a resolution was carried for it. It
was thought that it would occupy twenty days, but it went on for two
months, and came to nothing--other and strange events occurring.
The Levellers, after this display of zeal on the part of Cromwell,
vowed that they would kill both him and the king, whom they not only
styled an Ahab, a man of blood, and the everlasting obstacle to peace
and liberty, but demanded his head as the cause of the murder of
thousands of free-born Englishmen. Cromwell declared that his life
was not safe in his own quarters, and we are assured that Lilburne
and another Agitator named Wildman had agreed to assassinate him as
a renegade and traitor to liberty. To check this wild and dangerous
spirit in the army, Cromwell and Ireton recommended that it should be
drawn closer together, and thus more under the immediate discipline of
its chief officers. This was agreed upon, and a general rendezvous was
appointed to take place at Ware on the 16th of November.
During the interval Charles was royally lodged at Hampton Court, and
was freely permitted to have his children with him, but all the time
he was at his usual work of plotting. The Marquis of Ormond, having
surrendered his command in Ireland to the Parliament, was come hither;
and Lord Capel, who had been one of Charles's most distinguished
commanders, being also permitted by Parliament to return from abroad,
a scheme was laid, whilst Charles was amusing the army and Parliament
with the discussion of the "Proposals," that the next spring, through
the Scottish Commissioners, who were also in the plot, a Scottish
army should enter England forty thousand strong, and calling on the
Presbyterians to join them should march forward. At the same time
Ormond should lead an army from Ireland, whilst Capel summoned the rest
of the king's friends in England to join the converging forces, and
plant the king on the throne. But this wholesale conspiracy could not
escape the secret agents of Cromwell; the whole was revealed to him,
and he bitterly upbraided Ashburnham with the incurable duplicity of
his master, who, whilst he was negotiating with the army, was planning
its destruction.
From this moment, whatever was the cause, and the preceding incidents
appear both certain and sufficient, Cromwell, Ireton, and the army
in general, came to the conclusion that all attempts to bring so
double-faced and intriguing a person to honourable and enduring
terms were vain; that if he were restored to power, he would use it
to destroy every one who had been compelled to oppose his despotic
plans; if he were not restored, they would be in a perpetual state
of plottings, alarms, and disquietudes, destructive of all comfort
or prosperity to the nation. As the officers drew back from further
intercourse with the king, the menaces of the Levellers became
louder; and there were not wanting persons to carry these threats to
the king. He saw the Levellers growing in violence, and in numbers;
in fact, Leveller and Agitator were synonymous terms; the infection
had spread through the greater part of the army. The fact of the
officers having been friendly with him, had made them suspicious to
the men; they had driven Ireton from the council, and there were loud
threats of impeaching Cromwell. Several regiments were in a state
of insubordination, and it was doubtful whether, at the approaching
rendezvous, Fairfax could maintain the discipline of the army. The
reports of the proceedings of the Levellers (who really threatened to
seize his person to prevent the Parliament or officers agreeing with
him) and their truculent manifestoes, were all diligently carried to
Charles by the Scottish Commissioners, who, according to Berkeley,
"were the first that presented his dangers to him." He was assured by
Mr. Ackworth that Colonel Rainsborough, the favourite of the Levellers,
meant to kill him; and Clarendon says that "every day he received
little billets or letters, secretly conveyed to him without any name,
which advertised him of wicked designs upon his life;" many, he adds,
who repaired to him brought the same advice from men of unquestionable
sincerity.
Charles resolved to escape, and, as he was in some cases as religiously
scrupulous of his word as he was in others reckless of it, he withdrew
his promise not to attempt to escape, on the plea that he found
himself quite as rigorously watched as if he were not on honour.
Colonel Whalley, who commanded his guard, at once ordered it to be
doubled, and dismissed all the king's servants except Legge, refusing
further admittance to him. Notwithstanding this, he found means of
communicating with Ashburnham and Berkeley, and consulted with them
on the means of escape, and the place to escape to. He suggested the
City, and Ashburnham advised him to go to the house of the Lord Mayor,
in London, there to meet the Scottish Commissioners, agree with them
on their last propositions, and then send for the Lords. Berkeley
disapproved of this, believing they would not bring over the Commons;
and then Ashburnham recommended the king to flee to the Isle of Wight,
and throw himself on the generosity of Colonel Hammond, the governor
there. This, he says, he did, because Colonel Hammond had a few days
before told him he was going down to his government, "because he found
the army was resolved to break all promises with the king, and that he
would have nothing to do with such perfidious actions."
This seems to have inspired a belief in these men that Hammond was
secretly in favour of the king, strengthened, no doubt, by the fact
that Dr. Hammond, the king's chaplain, was his uncle, and had lately
introduced him to his Majesty as an ingenuous and repentant youth, and,
notwithstanding his post, of real loyalty. They forgot that Hammond had
another uncle, Lieutenant-General Hammond, who was as democratic as the
chaplain was loyal, and was a great patron of the Adjutators. They seem
to have reckoned as little on the honour of the young man, who was a
gentleman and officer, and had married a daughter of John Hampden.
There were other schemes, one to seek refuge in Sir John Oglander's
House, in the Isle of Wight; and there was a talk of a ship being
ordered to be somewhere ready for him; but when the escape was made,
it appeared to have been just as ill contrived as all the rest of
Charles's escapes. Ashburnham and Berkeley had contrived to meet the
king in the evening in the gallery of Hampton Court, and settled the
mode of escape. It was the king's custom, on the Mondays and Thursdays,
to write letters for the foreign post, and in the evenings he left his
bedchamber between five and six o'clock and went to prayers, and thence
to supper. On one of these evenings, Thursday, the 11th of November,
Whalley, finding the king much later than usual in leaving his chamber,
became uneasy, went thither, and found him gone. On the table he had
left some letters, one to the Parliament, another to the Commissioners,
and a third to Colonel Whalley. In the letter to the Parliament he
said liberty was as necessary to kings as others; that he had endured
a long captivity in the hope that it might lead to a good peace, but
that, as it did not, he had withdrawn himself; that, wherever he might
be, he should earnestly desire a satisfactory agreement without further
bloodshed, and was ready to break through his cloud of retirement and
show himself the father of his country whenever he could be heard with
honour, freedom, and safety.
[Illustration: CARISBROOKE CASTLE, ISLE OF WIGHT. (_From a photograph
by F. G. O. Stuart, Southampton._)]
It appeared that he had escaped by way of Paradise, a place so called
in the gardens; his cloak was found lying in the gallery, and there
were tramplings about a back gate leading to the waterside. Legge
accompanied him down the backstairs, and Ashburnham and Berkeley joined
them at the gate. The night was dark and stormy, which favoured their
escape. They crossed the river at Thames Ditton, and made for Sutton,
in Hampshire, where they had horses in readiness. Why they had not
provided horses at a nearer point does not appear. In the night they
lost their way in the forest, and reaching Sutton only at daybreak, and
hearing that a county committee on Parliamentary business was sitting
there, they got out their horses, and rode away towards Southampton.
That night Cromwell was aroused from his bed at Putney with a startling
express that the king had escaped. He at once despatched a letter to
the Speaker, Lenthall, dated twelve o'clock, with the tidings for
Parliament, and the news was announced next morning to both Houses. The
confusion may be imagined; orders were issued to close all ports; and
those who concealed the place of the king's retreat, or harboured his
person, were declared guilty of high treason, and menaced with loss of
all their estate, and with death without mercy. On the 13th of November
Whalley gave a narrative to the Lords of the particulars of his escape
as far as known. It appeared that the repeated howling of a greyhound
in the king's chamber first assured them that he could not be there.
However, on Monday, the 15th, a letter from Colonel Hammond, from the
Isle of Wight, much to the relief of Parliament and army, announced
that the absconded king was safe in his hands at Carisbrooke Castle.
Charles was at first treated by Colonel Hammond with great leniency,
and again employed the time on his hands in negotiation. As the army
had restored unity to itself, he sought to obtain its concurrence to a
personal treaty, and sent Berkeley to Fairfax, Cromwell, and Ireton,
at Windsor. On his way there he fell in with Cornet Joyce, who carried
off the king from Holmby, who informed him of an ominous proposition
discussed by the Agitators, namely, to bring the king to trial; not, he
said, with any design of putting him to death, but to prove on evidence
who really bore the blame of the war. This prelude too truly prefigured
the interview itself. Fairfax, Cromwell, and Ireton received Berkeley
with severe aspects and distant coldness, and told him that they were
but the servants of the Parliament, and referred him to it. He was not
prevented by this, however, from sending a secret message to Cromwell,
reminding him of his promises, and letting him know that he had secret
instructions from the king to him. But Cromwell had now had convincing
proofs of the king's duplicity; he refused to receive the letters,
informed Berkeley that he would do all in his power towards effecting
a real peace, but was not disposed to risk his head for the king's
sake. Repulsed here, Charles applied to Parliament, which sent him
four propositions as the basis of agreement, namely, that his Majesty
should concur in the Bill for settling the militia; should recall all
the proclamations, oaths, etc., against Parliament; should disqualify
all peers made since the renewal of the Great Seal from sitting in
the House of Peers; and should pass a Bill for the adjournment of
Parliament being placed in the power of the Houses themselves. These
Bills were sent by Commissioners to Carisbrooke; but the Scottish
Commissioners, who dreaded the acceptance of them as rendering the
English Parliament independent of the League and Covenant, hastened
there, too, with a modified treaty of their own. Charles, thus
encouraged, refused the four Bills; the Commissioners kissed hands
and returned, and Charles signed the proposals of the Scots, which
guaranteed the independence of their own religion, on condition of
finding an army of forty thousand men for the restoration of the king.
Charles was not left long in ignorance of the effect of his refusal of
the Parliamentary proposals, and of the discovery of his secret treaty
with the Scots. Colonel Hammond received orders to take every measure
for the safe keeping of the king, and for preventing the lurking of
suspicious vessels in Southampton Water, as it was known that a ship
had been engaged by the queen to carry off Charles and land him at
Berwick, in readiness to co-operate with the Scottish movement. Hammond
dismissed Ashburnham, Legge, and Berkeley, with all other Royalists,
from the island; sent away a vessel, supposed to be the very one
engaged by the queen; and put the king under strict surveillance and a
double guard. He was no longer an apparently free guest, but a close
prisoner.