Berkeley, and Legge, though banished from the island, kept
saddle-horses on the coast ready, in case of the king's escaping from
Carisbrooke; and his friends from all quarters corresponded with him,
and their letters were conveyed to him by Henry Firebrace, who was in
some employment in the castle, and was occasionally engaged by one of
the warders to take his place before the king's chamber-door, when he
put the correspondence entrusted to him through a crevice of the door.
The whole island resented the incarceration of the king, and there were
loud threats of rising and liberating him by force. One Captain Burley
was mad enough to make the attempt. At midnight a drum was beaten.
Burley put himself at the head of a rabble in Newport, without, as
reported, having a single musket among them, and was speedily taken and
executed.
On the 3rd of January, 1648, the two Houses discussed the relations
with the king, and in the Commons the plainest Republican sentiments
were avowed. The refusal of the four Bills by the king was deemed
convincing proof that no possibility was left of ever coming to
agreement with him. Sir Thomas Wroth declared that kings of late had
conducted themselves more like inmates of Bedlam than anything else,
and that he did not care what government was set up if it were not
by kings or devils. Ireton contended that the relation of king and
subjects implied mutual bonds and duties; the king was to protect the
people, and the people to maintain the king in his duty, but that
Charles had abandoned his duty, had ceased to protect his people,
nay, had made war on them, and therefore had annulled the compact;
that, seeing this, the army was resolved to stand by the Parliament
for the establishment of national right. Cromwell, after many had
proceeded in a like strain, asserted that it was time to fulfil the
wearied expectation of the people, and to show that they could govern
and defend the kingdom by their own power, and to decide that there
was nothing to be hoped from a man whose heart God had hardened in
obstinacy. In fact, in Parliament, almost as much as in the army, a
large party had come to the conclusion that it was odious in the sight
of God to be governed by a king.
The result was a vote that Parliament would make no further
applications or addresses to the king, nor receive any message from
him, except by full consent of both Houses, under penalty of high
treason. The Lords concurred in the vote, and a public declaration was
circulated to that effect; and it was also agreed that the Committee of
Public Safety should again sit and act alone, without the aid of any
foreign coadjutors. This was a plain hint to the Scots that Parliament
knew of their late treaty. Hitherto they had formed part of the
Committee of both kingdoms, so that they had shared the government of
England. This was withdrawn; the Scots therefore demanded the payment
of the last one hundred thousand pounds due to them by the treaty of
evacuation, and announced their intention to retire on receiving it.
This decided step of Parliament, and the rigour with which Charles
was guarded, put the Scots, the Presbyterians, the Royalists all on
the alert. They stirred up everywhere a feeling of commiseration for
him, as harshly and arbitrarily used; it was represented that the
vote of non-address amounted to a declaration that all attempts at
reconciliation were at an end, and that the Independents meant to give
effect to the doctrines of the army and put the king to death. These
efforts were productive of a rapidly and widely spreading sentiment in
the king's favour, and soon formidable insurrections were on foot. The
king himself omitted no means of attempting his escape. By his plans
his second son, the Duke of York, had made his escape from the care
of the Earl of Northumberland in female attire, and got to Holland.
Towards the end of March Charles tried to escape out of the window
of his chamber. A silken cord was prepared to let him down; and, to
prove the safety of the descent, Firebrace forced himself between the
iron stanchions of the window and let himself down; but the king, in
essaying to follow, stuck fast, and, after violent efforts, found it
impossible to get through. Cromwell announced to Hammond, in a letter
still extant, that Parliament was informed that aquafortis had been
sent down to corrode this obstructing bar; that the attempt was to be
renewed during the coming dark nights, and that Captain Titus and some
others about the king were not to be trusted. At the same time he
informed him that the Commons, in reward of his vigilance and services
in securing and keeping the king, had raised his pay from ten to twenty
pounds a week, had voted him one thousand pounds, and settled upon him
and his heirs five hundred pounds per annum.
The reaction in favour of the king now began to discover itself on
all sides. Charles published an appeal to the nation against the
proceedings of Parliament, which seemed to cut off all further hope
of accommodation. Parliament issued a counter-statement, and numerous
rejoinders were the consequence--the most able from the pen of Hyde,
the Chancellor, and Dr. Bates, the king's physician. Whilst these
elements of strife were brewing in England, the Duke of Hamilton,
released from Pendennis Castle and restored to the favour of the king,
returned to Scotland, and the Marquis of Ormond to Ireland, to muster
forces to operate with a simultaneous rising in England. The Scottish
muster proceeded with vigour, though stoutly opposed by the Duke of
Argyll, and the work of revolt commenced in March, in Wales. Poyer, the
Mayor of Pembroke, and governor of the castle, declared for the king,
and at the summons of Fairfax refused to yield up his command. Powell
and Langherne, two officers of disbanded regiments, joined him, and
many of their old soldiers followed them. The Royalists ran to arms,
eight thousand men were soon afoot in the Principality, Chepstow and
Carnarvon were surprised, and Colonel Fleming was killed. Cromwell
was despatched to reduce these forces at the head of five regiments.
He quickly recovered Carnarvon and Chepstow, defeated Langherne, and
summoned Poyer to surrender. But Pembroke stood out, and was not
reduced till July, though Colonel Horton encountered Langherne at St.
Fagan's, near Cardiff, and completely routed him.
Meanwhile, in other quarters insurrections broke out. On the 9th
of April a mob of apprentices and other young fellows attacked the
train-bands in Moorfields, struck the captain, took his colours, and
marched with them to Westminster, crying, "King Charles! King Charles!"
There they were attacked and dispersed, but they rallied again in the
City, broke open houses to obtain arms, and frightened the mayor so
that he took refuge in the Tower. The next day Fairfax dispersed them,
but not without bloodshed. Soon after three hundred men from Surrey
surrounded the Parliament houses, cursing the Parliament, insulting
the soldiers, and demanding the restoration of the king. They were not
repulsed without some of them being killed. Similar outbreaks took
place in Norwich, Thetford, Canterbury, and other places. Pontefract
Castle was surprised by eighty cavaliers, each with a soldier mounted
behind him.
[Illustration: RISING OF THE LONDON APPRENTICES ON BEHALF OF CHARLES.
(_See p._ 75.)]
Parliament, at the same time, was besieged with petitions for
disbanding the army and restoring the king. To allay the ferment in
the capital, whilst the army was engaged in the provinces, Parliament
passed a resolution that no change should be made in the government by
kings, Lords, and Commons. Fairfax withdrew his troops from the Mews
and Whitehall, and Major-General Skippon was made commander of the
City militia, to act in concert with the Lord Mayor and Corporation.
The men of Kent and Essex rose in great numbers for the king. At Deal,
off which Colonel Rainsborough, now acting as admiral, was lying, the
people rose. The fleet, consisting of six men-of-war, revolted, hoisted
the royal colours, and sailed to Helvoetsluys, where they called for
the Duke of York to take the command. The effect of this event was
neutralised, however, by a victory, which Fairfax obtained on the 1st
of June over the Royalists at Maidstone, where, after a hard fight of
six hours, he slew two hundred in the streets, and took four hundred
prisoners. This defeat prevented the junction of this body with another
under Colonel Goring, now Earl of Newport, who marched to Blackheath,
and demanded entrance into the City. The Independent party were in a
perilous position there. There was, as we have seen, a numerous body
in London in favour of the king, who had no reliance on the militia.
To conciliate public opinion, the Parliament ordered the release of
the aldermen imprisoned at the desire of the army, and revoked the
impeachment against the six Lords and eleven Commoners. Holles and his
associates resumed their seats and their old measures, voted for a
renewed negotiation with Charles on condition that he should restore
Presbyterianism, and give the command of the army to Parliament for
ten years. Luckily for the Independents, the Lords rejected these
propositions, and voted a treaty without any conditions. At the same
time the Common Council, showing a decided leaning towards the king,
offered to protect him from danger and insult if he would come to the
capital. The danger to the Independent interest was only repelled by
the obstinacy of their old enemy Holles, who would consent to nothing
which did not establish Presbyterianism.
[Illustration: EXECUTION OF SIR CHARLES LUCAS AND SIR GEORGE LISLE.
(_See p._ 78.)]
Whilst these discussions agitated the City, Fairfax marched on Goring,
who quitted Blackheath, crossed the Thames into Essex with five
thousand horse, where he was joined by Lord Capel, with Royalists
from Hertfordshire, and Sir Charles Lucas, with a body of horse from
Chelmsford. They concentrated their united force at Colchester, where
they determined to hold out till the advance of the Scots, and thus
detain the commander-in-chief in the south. The Scots were now in
reality on the march. The Duke of Hamilton had not been able to muster
more than a fourth of his promised forty thousand. Though he proclaimed
everywhere that Charles had promised to take the Covenant and uphold
the Presbyterian religion, Argyll and the old covenanting body wholly
distrusted these assurances; the Assembly of the Kirk demanded proofs
of the king's engagement; the ministers from the pulpits denounced the
curse of Meroz on all who engaged in this unholy war, and the women
cursed the duke as he passed, and pelted him with stones from their
windows.
The English Royalists under Langdale, about four thousand brave
Cavaliers, had surprised Berwick and Carlisle, and awaited with
impatience Hamilton's arrival. Lambert, the Parliamentary general,
advanced and besieged Carlisle, and Hamilton was urged to advance
and relieve it. He sent forward a detachment, and on the 8th of July
arrived himself, being already supported by three thousand veterans
from the Scottish army in Ireland, and, now uniting with Sir Marmaduke
Langdale, he presented a formidable force. Lambert retired at his
approach, and had Hamilton been a man of any military talent, he
might have struck an effective blow. But from the moment that he
crossed the Border, he appeared to have lost all energy. His army was
paralysed by internal dissensions. The Scottish Presbyterian soldiers
were scandalised at having to fight side by side with Langdale's
Prelatists and Papists, whom they had been accustomed to see ranged
against them as the enemies of the Covenant. In forty days he had
advanced only eighty miles, and when he reached the left bank of the
Ribble, near Preston, Cromwell had reduced Pembroke, marched rapidly
northward through Gloucester, Warwick, Leicester, to Nottingham, where
he left his prisoners with Colonel Hutchinson, governor of the castle,
and soon joined Lambert at Otley Park, and forced back Langdale from
Clitheroe on the main body at Preston. Hamilton at the last moment
was all unprepared. Monroe, with his veterans, lay still at Kirkby
Lonsdale. Yet Hamilton, with his fourteen thousand, should have been
a match for Cromwell, Lambert, and Lilburne's nine thousand. But
Cromwell attacked them with such vigour that, after a hard battle
of six hours, he routed the whole force. The Cavaliers fought like
lions, and only retreated from hedge to hedge before the foe; they
called repeatedly on the Scots for reinforcements and ammunition, but
not being able to get either, retreated into the town. There they
discovered that their allies were engaged in a fierce contest with the
enemy for possession of the bridge. Cromwell won the bridge, and the
Scots fled in the night towards Wigan. Hamilton retreated with some
of the English towards Warrington. Lieutenant-general Baillie, with
a great party of the Scottish army, surrendered on quarter in that
town. Monroe, who was lying at Kirkby, ignorant of the battle or of
the coming up of the fugitives, retreated to Scotland--the only body
of Scots who regained their country. Hamilton, on the 20th of August,
three days after the battle, was overtaken by Lambert and Lord Grey of
Groby, and surrendered at Uttoxeter. Langdale's Cavaliers dispersed
in Derbyshire, and he himself, in woman's apparel, was discovered at
Widmerpool, in Nottinghamshire; but by the contrivance of Lady Saville,
escaped dressed as a clergyman to London, where he remained with Dr.
Barwick in the character of an Irish minister driven from his parish by
the Papists. So ended Hamilton's boasted invasion. This blow totally
annihilated his party in Scotland; Argyll and the Covenanters rose into
the ascendant. Argyll soon after this seized a ship containing ten
thousand stand of arms, which had been sent from Denmark for Hamilton's
expedition. He invited Cromwell to Edinburgh, where he was received
with great distinction, and was honoured by the thanks of the Scottish
ministers as the preserver of Scotland under God. The members of the
faction of Hamilton were declared enemies to religion and the kingdom,
and incapable of serving in Parliament or the Assembly of the Kirk. On
the 16th of August Cromwell left Edinburgh, Argyll and the nobles of
that party accompanying him some miles on his way, and taking leave of
him with many demonstrations of respect.
At the same time that the Scots began their march, a rising which had
been made in concert with Hamilton, took place in London. The Earl of
Holland, who had become contemptible to all parties by twice going
over to the Parliament and twice returning to the king, entered London
with five hundred horse, and called on the citizens to join him for
Charles. The inhabitants had been too recently punished for their
apprentice rising to make a second experiment. Holland fell back,
therefore, on Kingston-on-Thames, where he was attacked and defeated by
Sir Michael Levesey, and Lord Francis Villiers, brother to the young
Duke of Buckingham, was slain. Holland himself had induced the brother
of Buckingham to follow him; the latter escaped to the Continent, and
returned at the Restoration, like most of his party, no better for his
experience. Holland and Colonel Dalbier retreated to St. Neot's, where
a party of soldiers sent by Fairfax from Colchester met them, and took
Holland and killed Dalbier, who was cut to pieces by the soldiers on
account of his having been a renegade from the Parliamentary army.
The fate of the Scottish army decided that of Goring at Colchester.
There was nothing further to stand out for; he surrendered at
discretion, and was sent to prison to await the award of Parliament,
with Lord Capel, and Hastings, the brother of the Earl of Huntingdon.
But two of his officers, Sir George Lisle and Sir Charles Lucas--the
brother of Lord Lucas, and heir to his title and estates--were shot.
All sides were growing savage. These two officers fell bravely and
deserved a better fate. Lucas, tearing open his doublet, cried, "Fire,
rebels!" and instantly fell. Lisle ran to him, kissed his dead body,
and then turning to the soldiers, told them to come nearer. One of them
said, "I'll warrant you we shall hit you." He replied, "Friends, I have
been nearer, when you have missed me." The death of these noble fellows
sullied the fair reputation of Fairfax, who afterwards deeply regretted
it.
On the revolt of the ships at Deal, under the command of Rainsborough,
whom they left ashore, the Parliament appointed the Earl of Warwick,
the brother of the Earl of Holland, but more in the confidence of
the Reformers, Lord Admiral of the Fleet, and sent him to oppose the
insurgent fleet. No sooner was it heard in Paris that the English ships
had sailed for Holland, and called on the Duke of York to command them,
than it was thought highly expedient that the Prince of Wales should
hasten thither himself and take the command. Accordingly, he travelled
in all haste to the Hague, accompanied by Prince Rupert, and the Lords
Hopton and Colepepper. The prince was received with acclamations by
the fleet at Helvoetsluys, and with other vessels, making altogether
nineteen, he sailed to the coast of England. It was thought by that
party that it was best to sail along the English coast, showing their
strength for some time, and then to proceed to the mouth of the Thames.
At that time the insurrection in Kent was proceeding under Hales,
L'Estrange, and the Earl of Norwich, which Fairfax soon dealt with
at Maidstone; but whilst it was in force the prince might have made
a safe descent on the Isle of Wight, and attempted the rescue of his
father. The castle of Carisbrooke was not strong, and there were few
forces besides its garrison in the island; but though Charles anxiously
expected the fleet, and sent repeated messages, no attention was paid
to them. For nearly a month the prince had the full command of the
coast. Fairfax was engaged with the insurgents at Colchester, and the
rest of the army was occupied in Wales, and in waiting for the approach
of the invasion from Scotland; yet the heir-apparent made no movement
for the rescue of his father, which everyone would have thought would
have been the first thing with him.
Warwick posted himself at the mouth of the Thames, to prevent any
advance towards London, or any relief to Colchester; but he did not
deem himself strong enough till he should be joined by another fleet
under Sir George Ayscough, from Portsmouth. With this arrival Warwick
was in a condition to attack the prince's fleet, but he lay still, nor
did the prince appear more inclined to assail him. He was satisfied to
intercept merchantmen coming into port, and then demand their ransom
from the City. This occasioned a brisk correspondence between London
and the prince, under cover of which proposals were made by the prince
and his counsellors for the City opening its gates and declaring for
the king. But the demand of the prince for ten thousand pounds as
ransom of the merchant ships disgusted the City, and presently after
came the news of the total defeat of the Scottish army at Preston. On
this the prince sailed away again to Helvoetsluys, without attempting
anything more. His fleet, according to Clarendon, like the Court and
army of his father, was rusted with factions, and so incapable of any
decided course of action. But the Earl of Warwick did not present
a more flattering aspect. Though it is confessed that he was amply
strong enough after Ayscough's junction to have beaten the prince,
he satisfied himself with watching him off, and followed him at a
respectful distance to the Dutch coast. He is said there to have
persuaded the disappointed sailors to return to the service of the
Parliament, and thus recovered most of the ships. But the public was
greatly dissatisfied with his conduct, and the Independents did not
hesitate to declare that they were always betrayed by the cowardice
or disaffection of noble commanders. The whole war bore striking
evidences of this fact; and Clarendon asserts that Warwick had an
understanding with his brother Holland, and would almost certainly have
gone over had the Scottish invasion succeeded. Clarendon declares that
the Parliament of Scotland had sent Lord Lauderdale to the Hague, to
invite Prince Charles to go to Scotland and put himself at the head of
affairs there for his father, in order to encourage the endeavour to
put down the Independents, who were at once hostile to the king and the
Solemn League and Covenant; but that the news of the defeat of Hamilton
defeated that object. By the end of August all the attempts of the
Royalists were crushed.
The Presbyterians took the opportunity while Fairfax, Cromwell, and
the leading Independents were absent with the army, to propose a fresh
treaty with Charles. On hearing of this movement, Cromwell wrote to
the Parliament, to remind it of its vote of non-addresses, and that
to break it and make fresh overtures to the king, who would still
adhere to his inadmissible demands, would be an eternal disgrace to
them. But the immediate defeat of Hamilton so much raised the terror
of the Presbyterians at the overwhelming weight which this would
give to the army and the Independent party, that they hastened the
business. Charles readily acceded to it, and would fain have obtained
his wish of carrying on the negotiation in London, especially as a
large party there were urgent for accommodation with him. But the
Parliament dare not thus far run counter to the victorious army, and
a compromise was effected. Charles was permitted to choose any place
in the Isle of Wight where the conference should take place, and
he decided on the town of Newport. From the Parliament five Lords,
including Northumberland and Pembroke, and ten Commoners, including
Vane the younger, Grimstone, Holles, and Pierpoint, were appointed
Commissioners, and on Charles's part appeared the Duke of Richmond,
the Marquis of Hertford, the Earls of Southampton and Lindsay, with
other gentlemen, and a number of his chaplains and lawyers. These were
not admitted to sit with the Parliamentary Commissioners and the king,
and were not to interpose opinions or arguments during the discussion,
which were to be direct from Charles; but they were suffered to be
in the room behind a curtain, where they could hear all, and to whom
Charles was at liberty to retire to consult them. The conditions
were the same as were submitted at Hampton Court, and the king again
consented to the surrender of the command of the army for ten years;
but he would not accede to the abolition of Episcopacy, but merely to
its suspension for three years; moreover, the episcopal lands were not
to be forfeited, but granted on long leases, and he would not bind
himself to accept the Covenant. In fact, he stood just as rooted to his
own notions as if he had as great a chance as ever of obtaining them.
In vain the Presbyterians prayed him with tears to yield, to prevent
the utter ruin of himself and them. The Commission met on the 18th of
September, and it was limited to the 4th of November; but that time
arrived and nothing further was concluded. The Commissioners took their
leave and proceeded to Cowes, but they were met by a resolution of the
Commons to prolong the Conference to the 21st, which was afterwards
extended to the 25th of November.
There were signs and circumstances enough abroad to have brought any
other man to make the best terms he could. On the 11th of September,
before the meeting of the Commission, a petition of many thousands
of well-affected men in the cities of London and Westminster, in
the borough of Southwark, and the neighbouring villages, "had been
presented, praying that justice might be done on the chief author of
the great bloodshed which had been perpetrated in the war." They called
for the execution of Holland, Hamilton, Capel, Goring, and the rest
of the Royalist officers now confined at Windsor. Clarendon says that
Capel, at the execution of Lisle and Lucas at Colchester, had spoken
so fiercely about it, saying they had better shoot all the rest of
the prisoners, and had so upbraided Ireton in particular, to whose
vindictive disposition he attributed the bloody deed, that the army was
vehement for the death of these men. Numbers of other petitions to the
same effect came up from the country and from the regiments, declaring
that after so many miraculous deliverances from their treacherous and
implacable enemies by the Almighty, it was sinful to delay any longer
the punishment of these instruments of cruelty, and especially of the
king, the chief offender, the raiser of the war, and the stubborn
rejecter of all offers. The army was the more vehement, because one of
their most gallant and long-tried leaders, Colonel Rainsborough, had
been foully murdered by a number of Royalists.
No wonder that the army was become impatient of further tolerance of
such an enemy. Colonel Ludlow, who was also a member of Parliament,
protested that it was time that the country laid to heart the blood
spilt, and the rapine perpetrated by commission from the king, and to
consider whether the justice of God could be satisfied, or His wrath
appeased, if they granted an act of oblivion as the king demanded.
No; the blood of murdered thousands cried from the ground; as the
Book of Numbers declared, "blood defiled the land, and the land could
not be cleansed except by the blood of him who shed it." He failed in
converting Fairfax to his creed on this head; but Ireton was a more
willing listener, and he joined his regiment in petitioning, on the
18th of October, that crime might be impartially punished, without any
distinction of high or low, and that whoever should speak or act in
favour of the king, before he had been tried and acquitted of shedding
innocent blood, should be adjudged guilty of high treason. The example
was followed by several other regiments; on the 21st Ingoldsby's
regiment petitioned in direct terms for the trial of the king, and
declared the treaty at Newport a trap; and on the 16th of November a
long and stern remonstrance was addressed by the assembled officers of
the army to the House of Commons, demanding that "the capital and grand
author of all the troubles and woes which the nation had endured should
be speedily brought to justice for the treason, blood, and mischief
of which he had been guilty; that the Lords should be abolished, and
the supreme power vested in the Commons; that if the country desired
any more kings, they should be elected by the Commons; that a period
should be fixed for the close of this Parliament; and that any future
king should be sworn to govern by the aid of Parliament alone."
This startling remonstrance was signed by Rushworth, the historian,
secretary to Fairfax, the general himself accompanying the remonstrance
by a letter. A violent debate upon this remonstrance took place in the
House; but Cromwell was now fast advancing to the capital, and the
House adjourned.
[Illustration: ARRIVAL OF CHARLES UNDER GUARD AT HURST CASTLE. (_see
p._ 82.)]
All these ominous proceedings were lost on Charles; whilst he was
negotiating, he was, in his usual manner, secretly corresponding
with his party in various quarters, apologising for the smallest
concessions, on the principle that he did not mean to abide by them.
On the 24th of October, after conceding the command of the army, he
wrote to Sir William Hopkins, "To deal freely with you, the great
concession I made to-day was merely in order to my escape, of which if
I had not hope, I would not have done it." He had written on the 10th
of October to Ormond in Ireland, with which country he had agreed to
have no further intercourse, telling him that the treaty would come to
nothing, and encouraging him privately to prosecute the scheme for a
rising there with all his vigour, and to let his friends know that it
was by his command, but not openly, or this would, of course, knock the
treaty on the head. But a letter of Ormond's fell into the hands of the
Independents, by which they discovered for what he had been sent over
from France to Ireland, and the Commissioners would not proceed till
Charles had publicly written to deny any authority from him to Ormond.
All the while that the negotiations were proceeding, he was expecting
the execution of a plan for his escape; and he told Sir Philip Warwick
that if his friends could not rescue him by the time he had requested
relief, yet he would still hold on, till he had made some stone in that
building his tombstone.
With such a man all treaty had long been hopeless; he would never
consent to the demands upon him, and without his consent the whole war
had been in vain; nay, did he consent, it was equally certain that,
once at liberty, he would break every engagement. What was to be done?
The Independents and the army had come to a solemn conviction that
there was but one way out of it. The king must be tried for his treason
to the nation, and dealt with as any other incorrigible malefactor.
Cromwell, on his way back from Scotland, had called at Pontefract, to
take vengeance on the assassins of Colonel Rainsborough, but finding
affairs pressing in London, left Lambert to reduce the place and secure
the murderers, and hastened towards the capital. He had relied much on
Colonel Hammond to keep the king safe, and not to give him up into the
hands of Parliament, till full justice had been obtained. But no result
accruing from the treaty, the Commissioners prepared to take their
leave of the king on the 28th of November. On the 25th Hammond had
received an order from Fairfax to proceed to headquarters at Windsor,
and on the 26th Colonel Ewer, a zealous Republican, arrived at Newport
to take charge of the king, and confine him in Carisbrooke Castle, or
elsewhere.
Hammond, who knew well what was the meaning of this, refused to give up
his charge, declaring that in all military matters he would obey his
general, but that this charge was committed to him by the Parliament,
and that he would yield it to no order but theirs. Ewer returned, but
the next day was the last day of the Commissioners. Charles, seeing
the desperate pass at which matters had arrived, suddenly gave way,
and agreed that the seven individuals excepted from pardon should take
their trials--namely, the Marquis of Newcastle, Sir Marmaduke Langdale,
who had been confined in Nottingham Castle, but had escaped, Lord
Digby, Sir Richard Grenville, Sir Francis Doddrington, Lord Byron, and
Mr. Justice Jenkins; that the bishops should be abolished, and their
lands vested in the Crown till a final settlement of religion.
When the Commissioners took their leave, Charles warned the lords of
the party that in his ruin they saw their own. Though he had given up
everything at the last moment, he could not flatter himself that this
would be accepted, because he knew that the army, which held the real
power, had protested against this treaty altogether, as a violation
of the vote of non-addresses, and had no faith in his observance of
any conditions whatever. With the Commissioners Hammond also departed,
and Charles was left in the hands of Major Rolfe, a man who had been
charged with a design to take away the king's life six months before.
But Charles was not intended to remain in this man's custody; a body
of troops under Lieutenant-colonel Cobbet was already on its way to
receive the charge. The friends of the king, on learning this, once
more implored him to endeavour to escape. The Duke of Richmond, the
Earl of Lindsay, and Colonel Coke, urged him to instant flight; they
acquainted him with the watchword, and Coke told him he had a boat and
horses ready. But all their persuasions were vain; Charles would not
move. He pleaded that he had given his parole to the Parliament for
twenty days after the treaty. And this was the same man who had been
writing North and South during the whole treaty, to assure his friends
that he meant to break his word on every point of the treaty, the first
moment that he was at liberty. The real reason, we may believe, why
Charles did not attempt to escape, was, that he had no hope of it.
In all his attempts he never had escaped, and must have had a full
conviction that he never could. At five in the morning Cobbet and
his troop arrived, and the king was informed that he must arise and
accompany it.
The king, greatly agitated, demanded to see the order for his removal,
and to know whither they designed to convey him. Cobbet told him they
should take him out of the island, but would not show his order. His
nobles, bishops, and officers of his household crowded round in alarm
and confusion, but there was no alternative; the king was obliged to
take his leave of them, with much sorrow, and was conducted to Hurst
Castle, on the opposite coast of Hampshire. "The place," says Warwick,
"stood in the sea, for every tide the water surrounded it, and it
contained only a few dog-lodgings for soldiers, being chiefly designed
for a platform to command the ships." The sight of this dreary place
struck a serious terror of assassination into his heart, for he never
would believe that, though the Levellers talked of it, they would ever
dare to bring an anointed king to public trial. Unfortunately, his own
officers had lately been rendering assassination familiar to the public
mind, for besides the gallant Colonel Rainsborough, they had murdered
several other officers of less note, and there was a rumour that they
had made a compact to get rid of the king's enemies in this manner.
Charles, however, was to learn that the officers of the Parliamentary
army disdained murder, and dared arraign a king.
The same day that Charles was transferred to Hurst Castle, the
Parliament negatived the motion that the Parliamentary remonstrance
should be taken into consideration, and it voted a letter of Fairfax's,
demanding pay for the army, or threatening to take it where it could be
found, a high and unbeseeming letter. The same day, too, the council
of officers addressed a declaration to Parliament, assuring it that,
seeing that their remonstrance was rejected, they were come to the
conclusion that the Parliament had betrayed its trust to the people,
and that the army would, therefore, appeal from their authority "to the
extraordinary judgment of God, and all good people." They called on all
faithful members to put their confidence in the army, and protest with
them against the conduct of their colleagues. Parliament, on its part,
sent to Fairfax an order that the army should not advance any nearer
to the capital. But the army was advancing--several regiments from the
neighbourhood of York--with the avowal that they were following the
directions of Providence.
On the 1st of December the Commons met, and as if indifferent to the
advance of the army, voted thanks to Holles, Pierpoint, and Lord
Wenman, for their care and pains in the good treaty at Newport, and
proceeded to read twice the report of the Commissioners. Holles, who,
with his accused colleagues, was again in the House, moved that the
king's answer should be voted satisfactory; but that question was
postponed till the next day, when the House adjourned again till the
4th of December--Fairfax, in defiance of their prohibition, having that
day marched into the City, and quartered his troops around Whitehall,
York House, St. James's, the Mews, and other places. On the 4th they
went into the question of the treaty again, having debated all Friday
and Saturday; and on Monday they continued the debate all day until
five o'clock the next morning, Tuesday. Such a debate of three days and
a night had not hitherto been known, for no subject of such supreme
importance had ever yet come before Parliament. Oliver Cromwell arrived
in the midst of this memorable debate.
Sir Harry Vane the younger said that the treaty had been carried on
for months, and that although the king had appeared to concede much
at the last moment, yet they had his own declaration that he did not
hold himself bound by promises which he might make, and that it was the
conviction of himself, and thousands of others, that the king was not
to be trusted; that he, therefore, moved that the House should return
at once to its vote of non-addresses, which it ought never to have
violated, should cease all negotiations, and settle the commonwealth
on another model. Sir Henry Mildmay said the king was no more to be
trusted than a caged lion set at liberty. This was the conviction of
the whole body of the Independents, and no doubt a solid and rational
conviction. But the king did not lack defenders: Fiennes, to the
astonishment of his party, advocated the adoption of the report, and
even Prynne, who had suffered so severely under it, became a pleader
for royalty, that he might chastise Independency and the army. On a
division it was found that a majority of thirty-six, being one hundred
and forty against one hundred and four, had voted the concessions of
Charles at Newport satisfactory, and offering sufficient grounds for
settling the peace of the kingdom. But the army--or, in other words,
the Independent and Republican cause--was not going thus to be defeated.
On the morning of the 6th of December, Major-general Skippon discharged
the train-bands which had guarded the two Houses of Parliament, and
Colonel Rich's cavalry and Colonel Pride's regiment of foot took their
places. Colonel Pride took the lead in the proceeding, which has thence
acquired the name of Pride's Purge. The army determined to purge the
Parliament of all those who were weak enough or mischievous enough to
consent to the return of the king on his own promises, which had long
ceased to mean anything but deceit. Fairfax was engaged in conversation
with some of the members, and Colonel Pride, placing some of his
soldiers in the Court of Requests, and others in the lobby of the
Commons, stood in the latter place with a list of its members in his
hand, and as they approached--Lord Grey of Groby, who stood by him as
one of the doorkeepers, informing him who the members were--he stopped
such as were on his list, and sent them to the Queen's Court, the Court
of Wards, and other places appointed for their detention by the general
and council of the army. Fifty-two of the leading Presbyterians were
thus secured, and the next day, others who had passed the first ordeal
were also removed, so that Pride's Purge had left only about fifty
members for a House, who were Independents, for others had fled into
the country, or hidden themselves in the City to escape arrest. On the
whole, forty-seven members were imprisoned, and ninety-six excluded.
The purged remainder acquired the well-known name of the Rump.
The Independents were now uncontrolled; the royal party in Scotland,
weakened by the defeat of Hamilton's army, were opposed by the
Covenanters, who again denounced the curse of Meroz from the pulpit
against all who did not rise in defence of the Solemn League and
Covenant. Loudon and Eglinton were appointed commanders, and the Earl
of Argyll, with his Highlanders, joining them, they, with the forces
of Cassilis from Carrick and Galloway, marched to Edinburgh. This wild
army advancing from the west were called the "Whiggamores," either from
_whiggam_, a phrase used in driving their horses, or _whig_ (whey),
a beverage of sour milk, which was one of their articles of food.
Whichever it was, the term was soon used to designate an enemy of the
king, and in the next reign was adopted as a nickname for the opponents
of the Court, whence the political term "Whig." Lord Lanark and Monroe
were glad to treat with the Whiggamores, and disbanded their troops, so
that Argyll being a great partisan of Cromwell's, nothing more was to
be feared in the North. On Cromwell's visit Berwick and Carlisle had
been surrendered to him.
On the sitting of the purged Parliament on the 6th, the first day of
Pride's weeding out the suspected members, Cromwell appeared in his
place, and was received with acclamations for his services in the
North. The 8th was kept as a solemn fast, and a collection was made
for the wives and widows of the poor soldiers. They then adjourned
to the 11th, and on Sunday, Hugh Peters, the great enthusiast of
Republicanism, preached a sermon in St. Margaret's, Westminster, from
the text, "Bind your king with chains, and your nobles with fetters of
iron;" and he did not hesitate in the sermon to characterise the king
as Barabbas, the great murderer, tyrant, and traitor. It was remarkable
that not only four earls and twenty commoners of note sat out this
sermon, but the Prince Palatine himself, Charles's nephew. The king's
own family, whatever their pretences, had clearly given him up to his
fate, or the prince, with his powerful fleet, would never have scoured
the coasts of the south of England for several weeks without a single
attempt to save his father, the impetuous Prince Rupert being on board,
and one of his chief counsellors.
Instead of the House of Commons sitting according to adjournment,
on the 11th, the Military Councils, the Select Committee, and the
General sat, and framed a new scheme of government. It was called "A
new Representative, or an Agreement of the People." The composition
was said to be Ireton's, but had probably been framed by Cromwell,
Ireton, Peters, Vane, Pride, and the leading Republicans. It was but an
amplification of the late remonstrance; it proposed that the present
Parliament, which had now sat eight years, should be finally dissolved
in April next, and a new one elected according to this formula. It
declared that officers and malignants should be incapable of electing
or being elected; that the House of Commons should consist of three
hundred members, and the representation of the country should be more
equal. These propositions, having been sanctioned by the general
council of soldiers and inferior officers, were carried to Parliament.
The Commons the next day readily voted these measures, as well as that
both the Commons and Lords, by violating the vote of non-addresses, had
committed an act most unparliamentary and detrimental to the kingdom,
and that the treaty at Newport was a monstrous error, disgrace, and
peril to the country. They again restored the order expelling the
eleven Presbyterian members from the House.
On the 16th a strong party of horse was despatched under Colonel
Harrison to remove the king to Windsor Castle. On the very day that
he reached Windsor, the House of Commons, or the Rump fragment of it,
appointed a committee of thirty-eight "to consider of drawing up a
charge against the king, and all other delinquents that may be thought
fit to bring to condign punishment." On the 1st of January, 1649, the
committee made the following report:--"That the said Charles Stuart,
being admitted King of England, and therein trusted with a limited
power to govern by and according to the laws of the land, and not
otherwise; and by his trust, oath, and office, being obliged to use
the power committed to him for the good and benefit of the people, and
for the preservation of their rights and liberties; yet, nevertheless,
out of a wicked design to erect and uphold in himself an unlimited and
tyrannical power, to rule according to his will, and to overthrow the
rights and liberties of the people; yea, to take away and make void the
foundations thereof, and of all redress and remedy of misgovernment,
which by the fundamental constitutions of this kingdom were reserved on
the people's behalf, in the right and power of frequent and successive
Parliaments, or national meetings in council; he, the said Charles
Stuart, for accomplishing of such his designs, and for the protecting
of himself and his adherents in his and their wicked practices, to the
same ends hath traitorously and maliciously levied war against the
present Parliament, and the people therein represented." The report,
therefore, declared that he should be brought to judgment for his
treason to the nation.
[Illustration: TRIAL OF CHARLES I. (_See p._ 86.)]
The next day the ordinance of the Commons confirming the report was
sent up to the Lords, or at least to the few of them remaining, only
amounting to about a dozen, who rejected it without a dissenting voice,
and then adjourned. The Commons immediately closed their doors, and
passed a resolution that the Commons of England in Parliament assembled
were, under God, the origin of all just power as the representatives of
the people; that whatsoever they decreed was law, and did not require
any concurrence from the Lords.
On the 6th of January the Commons passed the ordinance for the trial of
the king. By it they erected a High Court of Justice for trying him,
and proceeding to judgment against him. It consisted of no less than a
hundred and thirty-five Commissioners, of whom twenty were to form a
quorum. Of these Commissioners no more than eighty assembled. On the
8th, fifty assembled in the Painted Chamber, Fairfax at their head, and
ordered that on the morrow the herald should proclaim the approaching
trial, and invite all people to bring in what matters of fact they had
against Charles Stuart. Accordingly that was done both at Westminster
and in the City the same day, the 9th. The Commons ordered the Great
Seal in use to be broken up, and a new seal introduced, bearing the
inscription, "The Great Seal of England," and on the reverse, "In the
first year of Freedom, by God's blessing restored, 1648" (_i.e._, 1649,
new style). The Commissioners then appointed John Bradshaw, a native
of Cheshire, and a barrister of Gray's Inn, who had practised much in
Guildhall, and had lately been made a serjeant, Lord President of the
High Court; Mr. Steel, Attorney-General; Mr. Coke, Solicitor-General;
Mr. Dorislaus and Mr. Aske, as Counsel for the Commonwealth; and,
appointing the old Courts of Chancery and King's Bench, at the upper
end of Westminster Hall, as the place of trial, they fixed the day for
the 19th of January. On the 20th of January the Commissioners assembled
in the Painted Chamber to the number of sixty-six, and proceeded in
state to Westminster Hall.
It may be imagined that such a spectacle drew immense throngs. Every
avenue to the hall was guarded by soldiers, and others stood armed
within it. The open space below the bar was densely crowded, and
equally packed throngs of nobles, gentlemen, and ladies, looked down
from the galleries right and left. A chair of crimson velvet for
the President stood elevated on three steps towards the upper end
of the hall, and behind and in a line with him right and left the
Commissioners took the seats placed for them, which were covered with
scarlet. Before the President stood a long table on which lay the mace
and sword, and just below him, at its head, sat two clerks. At the
bottom of the table, directly opposite to the President, was placed a
chair for the king.
After the commission had been read, Bradshaw ordered the prisoner to
be brought to the bar. He had been brought from Whitehall, to which
he had been removed from St. James's, in a sedan chair, and the
serjeant-at-arms conducted him to the bar. His step was firm, and
his countenance, though serious, unmoved. He seated himself covered,
according to the wont, not of a prisoner, but of a king; then rose and
surveyed the court and crowds around him. The Commissioners all sat
with their hats on, and Charles eyed them sternly. He then glanced
round on the people in the galleries and those around him with an air
of superiority, and reseated himself. Bradshaw then addressed him
to this effect:--"Charles Stuart, King of England,--The Commons of
England, being deeply sensible of the calamities that have been brought
upon this nation, which are fixed upon you as the principal author
of them, have resolved to make inquisition for blood; and, according
to that debt and due they owe to justice, to God, the kingdom, and
themselves, they have resolved to bring you to trial and judgment, and
for that purpose have constituted this High Court of Justice before
which you are brought." Coke, the Solicitor-General, then rose to
make the charge against him, but Charles, rising and crying, "Hold!
hold!" tapped him on the shoulder with his cane. In doing this the gold
head dropped from his cane, and though he took it up with an air of
indifference, it was an incident that made a deep impression both on
him and the spectators. He mentioned the circumstance to the Bishop of
London, who attended him in private, with much concern, and those who
saw it regarded it as an especial omen.
Coke, however, went on, and desired the clerk to read the charge,
and whilst it was reading, Charles again cried, "Hold!" but as the
clerk continued, he sat down, looking very stern; but when the words
of the charge declaring him to be a tyrant and a traitor were read,
he is said to have laughed outright. When the charge was finished,
Bradshaw demanded what he had to say in reply to it; but he in his turn
demanded by what authority he had been brought there? And he asserted
very forcibly that he was king; acknowledged no authority superior to
his own, and would not by any act of his diminish or yield up that
authority, but leave it to his posterity as he had derived it from his
ancestors. He reminded them that he had lately, in the Isle of Wight,
treated with a number of lords and gentlemen; that they were upon the
conclusion of that treaty, and he wanted to know by what authority he
had, under such circumstances, been brought thence.
This was very true, and would have been unanswerable, had he, as he
asserted, treated with them honestly and uprightly; but we know that
at the very time that he was carrying on that treaty, and to the very
last, he was also carrying on a secret correspondence with Ormond in
Ireland, his wife in France, and with other parties, informing them
that he was only doing this because there was no help for it; but
that he had games to play which would still defeat the whole affair.
He was meaning nothing less, and privately declaring nothing less,
than that he would, on the first opportunity, be as despotic as ever.
He continued, however, to demand, "By what authority am I here? I
mean lawful authority, for there are many unlawful authorities in the
world--thieves and robbers by the highways. Remember, I am your lawful
king: let me know by what lawful authority I am seated here; resolve
me that, and you shall hear more from me." Bradshaw told him that he
might have observed that he was there by the authority of the people
of England, whose elected king he was. That afforded Charles another
answer. "England," he said, "never was an elective but an hereditary
kingdom for nearly these thousand years. I stand more for the liberty
of my people than any here that are come to be my pretended judges."
Bradshaw might have told him that the people thought it time to put
an end to the hereditary form, and adopt a new one; but he replied,
"Sir, how well you have managed your trust is known. If you do not
acknowledge the authority of the court I must proceed." Charles,
however, turned to another weak place in his adversary's answer, and
exclaimed, "I see no House of Lords that may constitute a Parliament,
and the king, too, must be in and part of a Parliament." It was
unquestionable that Charles could not be answered on the constitutional
ground, but only on the revolutionary one, on that principle of the
power and right of the people to revolutionise, and shape anew their
constitution (which in 1688 was acknowledged and established as a great
fact of the rights of nations), and Bradshaw brought forward that
plea--"If you are not satisfied with our authority, we are satisfied
with it, which we have from God and the people." He informed Charles
that he would be expected to answer, and adjourned the court till
Monday.
The two following days were spent in receiving evidence of the king's
having not only commenced the war on his subjects, but of his having
commanded personally in it, and in settling the form of judgment to be
pronounced. On the third day, when Charles was again brought forward,
the same painful scene was renewed of the king's denying the court,
refusing to plead, and yet insisting on being heard. Bradshaw told
him in vain that if he pleaded, admitting the authority of the court,
he would be at liberty to make any observation in his defence that he
pleased; but that in no court could it be otherwise. He then demanded
a hearing before a committee of both Houses, but he was reminded that
the authority of the Lords was no longer admitted. He assured him that
though he contended that he had no superior in the State, the law was
his superior, and that there was a power superior to the law--the
people, the parent or author of the law--which was not of yesterday,
but the law of old; that there were such things as parliaments, which
the people had constructed for their protection, and these Parliaments
he had endeavoured to put down and destroy; and that what his
endeavours had been all along for the crushing of Parliament, had been
notorious to the whole kingdom. "And truly, sir," he continued, "in
_that_ you did strike at all, for the great bulwark of the liberties of
the people is the Parliament of England. Could you but have confounded
that, you had at one blow cut off the neck of England. But God hath
been pleased to confound your design, to break your forces, to bring
your person into custody, that you might be responsible to justice."
He then combated Charles's argument, that there was no law or example
of people deposing or destroying their kings. He quoted many instances
from foreign nations, in which they had resisted, fought against, and
destroyed their kings. Charles's own country of Scotland, before all
others, abounded with instances of the deposition and putting to death
of their sovereigns. His grandmother had been so set aside, and his
own father, a mere infant, put in her place. The Lord President then
referred to the depositions of Edward II. and Richard II., which he
contended were effected by Parliament, and said that their crimes were
not a tenth part so capital against the nation as those in this charge.
As Charles again continued to reply and argue without submitting to
plead, Bradshaw told him the court had given him too much liberty
already, and ordered the sentence to be read. But here John Downes,
one of the Commissioners, a citizen of London, said to those near him,
"Have we hearts of stone? Are we men?" and then rising and trembling
violently, exclaimed, "My lord, I am not satisfied to give my consent
to the sentence. I desire the court may adjourn to hear me." They
therefore adjourned, but in half an hour returned with a unanimous
verdict of guilty.
Bradshaw then proceeded to pronounce the sentence. When the names of
the Commissioners were read that morning, on that of Fairfax being
called, a female voice from one of the galleries cried out, "He has
more wit than be here." When the name of Cromwell was read, the same
voice exclaimed, "A rogue and a traitor." As Bradshaw now went on to
say, the king had been called to answer by the people, before the
Commons of England assembled in Parliament, the same female voice
shouted, "It is false! not one half-quarter of them!" There was a great
excitement; all turned towards the gallery whence the voice came,
from amid a group of masked ladies. Axtell, the officer commanding
the soldiers, brutally ordered them to fire into the group; but the
soldiers hesitated, and a lady rose and walked out of the gallery. It
was seen to be Lady Fairfax, the wife of the commander-in-chief, a
woman of very ancient and noble family, the Veres of Tilbury, who had
come to object most decidedly to the extreme measures of the army, and
had prevailed on her husband to keep away from the court.
After order had been restored, Bradshaw ordered the charge to be read,
the king still interfering; and then Bradshaw passed the sentence,
"That the court being satisfied in conscience that he, Charles Stuart,
was guilty of the crimes of which he had been accused, did adjudge him
as a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public enemy to the good people of
the nation, to be put to death by severing his head from his body."
After the sentence was pronounced, Charles again requested to be
heard; but Bradshaw told him that after the sentence it could not be
allowed, and ordered the guards to take him away. The Royalist writers
state that during the trial the people had cried, "Justice! justice!"
whilst others cried, "God save the king!" but that after the king was
condemned, the soldiers, as he passed, insulted him in the grossest
manner, spitting on him, blowing their tobacco in his face, throwing
their pipes at him, and yelling in his ears, "Justice! justice!
execution! execution!" But the popular party utterly denied the truth
of these assertions; declaring that they were got up to make the case
of Charles resemble that of the Saviour, to render his judges odious,
and himself a sacred martyr. One soldier, Herbert says, as the king was
proceeding to his sedan chair, said, "God help and save your majesty!"
and that Axtell struck him down with his cane, on which the king said,
"Poor fellow! it is a heavy blow for a small offence." To the hired
hootings of the military, Herbert says that he merely remarked, "Poor
souls! they would say the same to their generals for sixpence."
Charles went back to St. James's Palace, where he spent the remainder
of the day, Sunday, the 28th of January, and Monday, the 29th, the
execution being fixed for Tuesday, the 30th. He had the attendance of
Juxon, the late Bishop of London, and the next morning he received the
last visit of his only two remaining children in England, the Duke of
Gloucester and the Princess Elizabeth. The princess was not twelve,
and the king, setting her on his knee, began speaking to her--"But,
sweetheart," he said, "thou wilt forget what I tell thee." The little
girl, bursting into tears, promised to write down all that passed, and
she did so. In her account, preserved in the "_Reliquiæ Sacræ_," she
says, amongst other things, that he commanded her to tell her mother
that his thoughts had never strayed from her, that his love would be
the same for her to the last; and that he died a glorious death for
the laws and religion of the land. To the Duke of Gloucester he said,
"Sweetheart, now they will cut off thy father's head. Heed what I say,
they will cut off my head, and perhaps make thee a king. But mark
what I say; you must not be a king as long as your brothers Charles
and James live; therefore, I charge you, do not be made a king by
them." At which the child, sighing deeply, replied, "I will be torn in
pieces first." "And these words coming unexpectedly from so young a
child," says the princess, "rejoiced my father exceedingly." The whole
interview was extremely affecting.
Charles slept well, but woke early, and bade his man Herbert rise and
dress him with care, for it was his second marriage day, and he would
be as trim as possible. Whilst Herbert dressed him, he told him he had
dreamt of Archbishop Laud, who, on the king speaking seriously to him,
had sighed and fallen prostrate. Charles said, had he not been dead,
he might possibly have said something to Laud to cause him to sigh;
so that it is possible he felt that Laud's proceedings and advice had
brought things to this pass. He desired to have two shirts on, as the
weather was very cold; for if he shook, the rogues would think it was
through fear. He observed that he was glad he had slept at St. James's,
as the walk through the park would warm him. At ten o'clock the summons
came--Colonel Hacker knocked at the door to say they were ready. Hacker
turned pale on seeing the king come out, and was much affected. Ten
companies of infantry formed a double line on each side of his path,
and a detachment preceded him with banners flying and drums beating.
[Illustration: CHARLES'S FAREWELL INTERVIEW WITH THE DUKE OF GLOUCESTER
AND THE PRINCESS ELIZABETH. (_See p._ 88.)]
On the king's right walked Juxon, on his left the Parliamentary Colonel
Tomlinson, bareheaded. The king walked through the park at a brisk
rate, and said to the guard, "Come, my good fellows, step on apace."
He pointed out a tree planted by his brother Henry, and on arriving at
Whitehall, he ascended the stairs with a light step, passed through the
long gallery, and went to his chamber, where he remained with Juxon in
religious exercise. It was past one o'clock before he was summoned to
the scaffold, where the executioner, Brandon, and Hulet, a sergeant
appointed to assist him, disguised in black masks, awaited him. The
scaffold was raised in the street, in front of the Banqueting House
at Whitehall, and he passed through a window which had been taken
out, upon it. All was hung with black cloth, and in the middle of the
scaffold stood the block, with the axe enveloped in black crape lying
on it.
Charles made a speech, in which he denied making war on the Parliament,
but the Parliament on him, by claiming the militia. Church, Lords, and
Commons had, he said, been subverted with the sovereign power; if he
would have consented to reign by the mere despotism of the sword, he
asserted that he might have lived and remained king. He declared that
he forgave all his enemies; and yet when the executioner knelt and
begged his forgiveness, he said, "No, I forgive no subject of mine, who
comes deliberately to shed my blood." He said that the nation would
never prosper till they placed his son on the throne; and to the last
moment, rooted in his theory of divine right, he denied that the people
ought to have any share in the government--that being a thing "nothing
pertaining to them"--and yet that "he died the martyr of the people."
Whilst he spoke some one disturbed the axe, on which he turned and
said, "Have a care of the axe; if the edge be spoiled, it will be the
worse for me." After concluding his speech, he put up his hair under
a cap, and the bishop observed, "There is but one stage more, which,
though turbulent and troublesome, is yet a very short one. Consider
it will carry you a great way--even from earth to heaven." "I go,"
said the king, "from a corruptible crown to an incorruptible, where no
disturbance can take place." "You are exchanged from a temporal to an
eternal crown--a good exchange," replied the bishop. The king then took
off his cloak, and gave his _George_ to Juxon, saying impressively,
"Remember!" The warning is supposed, as the medallion of the George
concealed a portrait of Henrietta, to have regarded a message to his
wife. Having laid his head on the block, the executioner severed it at
a single stroke, and Hulet, the sergeant, holding it up, cried, "Here
is the head of a traitor." At that sight a universal groan seemed to go
through the crowd.
The body lay at Whitehall, to be embalmed, till the 7th of February,
when it was conveyed to Windsor, and laid in the vault of St. George's
Chapel, near the coffins of Henry VIII. and Jane Seymour. The day was
very snowy, and the coffin being deposited without any service, was
left without any inscription except the words, "Carolus Rex, 1648,"
the letters of which were cut out of a band of lead by the gentlemen
present, with their penknives, and the lead folded round the coffin.
In this condition it was discovered in 1813, when George IV., attended
by Sir Henry Halford, had it opened, and found proof that the head had
been separated from the body.