middle of February, resolved to make a reply to this proclamation,
which was drawn up by Henderson, and entitled, “The Remonstrance of the
Nobility, Barons, Burgesses, Ministers, and Commons, within the Kingdom
of Scotland, vindicating them and their proceedings from the crimes
wherewith they are charged by the late proclamation in England,” &c.
“These three or four most dainty sheets of paper of Mr Henderson,” says
Baillie, “made such an impression, that we, over all England, began to
be much more pitied than before, and our enraged party, [antagonists,]
the Bishops, to be more detested.” These, and various other tracts by
Henderson, Baillie, and others, on the “lawfulness of our defence in
arms,”[150] and which were distributed extensively through England by
pedlers and otherwise, had a powerful moral influence in that kingdom;
in which, besides, there was a growing discontent, occasioned by the
King’s arbitrary disuse of Parliaments, and other grievances peculiar
to themselves.
“When we had done diligence,” says Baillie, “to inform our neighbours
of England, and make sure the courage of all our friends at home, in
the third place we took course for a real opposition to our enemies.”
On the 7th of March, a full meeting of the deputies and leaders of the
Covenant was held, at which, resolving not to depend on any foreign
auxiliaries, a general committee of the nobles, barons, and burgesses,
and two senators of the College of Justice, being twenty-six in
number, was appointed, (thirteen being a quorum,) to give out orders,
receive intelligence, levy troops, raise money, &c.; and, exercising
all the functions of a supreme, legislative, and executive body, this
“Committee of Estates” issued an edict that every fourth man should
be armed and trained: local committees of war were appointed, and
a complete plan of military organization was established in every
burgh and county in Scotland; and we have Bishop Burnet’s authority
for stating, that “these committees found small resistance, and no
difficulty, of levying men—greater numbers being offered than could
be either armed or maintained.”[151] Thus, the chimera of royal and
indefeasible prerogative was reduced in Scotland to a nonentity; and
the nice metaphysical problem of the lawfulness of resistance by
subjects, was practically solved by the entire Kingdom appearing in
arms, to resist the undefined and unlimited claims of the first Charles
Stuart, to absolute power over all estates in the realm, when about to
be enforced by foreign invasion.
While these transactions were in progress, the Court of Session, it
appears, had remonstrated strongly with their Sovereign against his
belligerent purposes. Their earlier communications on the subject
appear to have been intercepted, probably by the incendiary courtiers;
but, in the month of March, their Lordships sent another remonstrance
to his Majesty by the Lord Justice-Clerk, which we have not observed
in any of the common histories or printed collections, and which we,
therefore, subjoin among the documents hereto appended, being a piece
of evidence entitled to great weight, as emanating from the supreme
civil judicatory of Scotland.[152]
Their Lordships state that, “when your Majestie was pleased to indict a
General Assembly, we, and most parte of all your good subjects of this
kingdome, wer overjoyed, in expectation that the doubts in religious
worship and kirk government, quhilk was tossed to and fro this whyle
bygone, should have then beine cleerlie settled; and altho’ the greater
part of your people be weill pleased with the constitutions therein
concluded, yet your Majesties displeasure against that Assembly, and
the proceedings thereof, and your expresse dislike of those who adheres
to the same, and the fearfull consequences therefra like to ensue,
hes turned all the hopes of comfort which we expected, in sorrowes
and teares.”—“Your Majestie may be pleased to pardon us to avere,
that in this, they are but badd counsellours, and no better patriots,
who will advis your Majestie to adde oyle and fewall to the fire.”
And among their “Instructions,” (advices,) their Lordships inform his
Majesty, “that, if our neighbour nation doe invaid this countrie, it
will assuredlie be taken be all Scotsmen, albeit not affected the
present way, for a national quarrel; and all will strive as one man, to
defend themselves, as for their lives, estates, and liberties of the
countrie.” This salutary advice, however, was slighted by King Charles.
We shall not pause to notice all the deliberations and preparations
on either side which ensued, but hasten on to the main points of our
narrative.
On the 21st of March, Leslie, and other officers, commanding about
1000 men, took Edinburgh Castle—having forced the outer gate—securing
twenty-five field-pieces, and other munitions. The day following,
Rothes, Lowdoun, Home, and Lothian, with a similar force, invested
Dalkeith House, which was surrendered, without resistance, by Traquair,
the keeper: and they seized the Regalia of Scotland, forty-eight
barrels of gunpowder, twenty-four of balls, and six cart-loads of
muskets, which they deposited in Edinburgh Castle. On the 23d of March,
(being a Sunday,) Dumbarton Castle was secured by a stratagem; and,
besides these chief forts, (Stirling was in the hands of Mar, one of
their own party,) Strathaven Castle and Douglas Castle, in Lanarkshire,
and Tantallan Castle, in East Lothian, Dairsy, in Fife,[153] and
Broderick Castle, in Arran were seized; the only enterprise of this
kind which failed, being in the case of Karlaverock Castle, in the
south, which it would have been hazardous to attack, and difficult
to maintain. Dumfries, however, was taken possession of by a body of
Covenanters.
In the north, the Earl of Montrose, with a well-appointed force,
of seven or eight thousand men, (“the most were brave, resolute,
and well-armed gentlemen,”) levied in Angus and Mearns, moved to
Aberdeen, appalled Huntly and his adherents, who fled; and Montrose
took possession of Aberdeen, where he levied contributions, though
very generously. There was a subsequent rallying of the Royalists,
headed by Aboyne, Huntly’s son, and Ogilvy of Banff, who gained some
petty advantages; but they were worsted in a skirmish at Turreff;
and Montrose kept all the north country in awe and subjection—Huntly
being seized and conveyed to Edinburgh Castle, as the only security
his opponents could get for his neutrality. In the Western Highlands,
Argyle was on the alert, with a sufficient force. The enthusiasm was so
high, that nobility, gentry, ladies, and persons of all ranks, joined
in the humblest labours for self-defence. “Leith fortifications went
on speedily—above 1000 hands daily employed; plat up towards the sea,
sundry perfect and strong bastions, well garnished, with a number of
double cannon, that we feared not much any landing of ships on that
quarter. The towns of Fife, all along the shore, made up such sconces
and fosses, and planted such a number of ship-cannon upon batteries,
that they were all in the case of a tolerable defence. Thus, in a
short time, by God’s extraordinary help, we cut the main sinews of our
adversaries hopes; all the strength of our land came in our hands;
no man among us but those who swore they were stout friends. All
otherwise disposed, both Noblemen, Gentlemen, and Ministers, were got
away to our professed enemies, and the whole country put in such an
order and magnanimity, that we found sensibly in every thing, the hand
of God going before us; so all fear of human force was clean banished
away.”[154]
Such were the energetic and successful movements, which, in the course
of a few days, put the Covenanters in possession of all the strongholds
of Scotland, and inspired them with assured confidence. Let us now turn
to the preparations of King Charles for his enterprise against them.
About the middle of March, the King published a declaration of the
reasons for his expedition against Scotland, and soon after issued the
“Large Declaration,” or Manifesto, containing a more minute statement
of the grounds of his projected invasion. The latter of these, as
has been already noticed, was written by Balcanquel, Dean of Durham;
and, although we have had occasion to select public documents from
it, which could not be materially falsified, it is to be regarded
merely as a varnished and partial statement on behalf of the King’s
policy, on which no reliance can be placed, except when his testimony
operates against the cause which he advocated. His Majesty thereafter
took his departure from London, on the 27th of March, and, on the
1st of April, arrived at York, where he remained till the beginning
of May, when he moved on to Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He marched thence
to Berwick-upon-Tweed, in the vicinity of which he arrived about the
beginning of the month, and continued there till the negotiations and
treaty, betwixt him and the Covenanters, put a stop to the impending
hostilities, on the 18th of June following.
The movements of the two armies, however, during that interval, form
too prominent a picture of the times to be passed over without a brief
notice—referring to the Royal Letters, and other documents of the day,
which will be found annexed, as embodying the most authentic accounts,
not merely of what was visible to the common eye, but of what was
passing behind the scenes, in the secret councils of the antagonist
courts and camps.
Charles, with a well-appointed army, which had preceded and accompanied
him from London to York, was there joined by the English nobility;
and, from the splendour of the national chivalry who there joined his
standard, the march, from thence to Berwick; of betwixt 20,000 and
30,000 infantry, cavalry, and artillery, is described as resembling a
military triumph. The English host was under the nominal command of the
Earl of Arundel and Essex, but having its monarch and his standard in
the midst. It finally encamped at the Birks, a few miles above Berwick,
on the southern bank of the Tweed. The long inaction, however, which
ensued—the peculiar nature of the service, in which the sympathies of
the officers, as well as of the common soldiers, were, to a great
extent, with the Scotch—and the unpopularity of Charles’ Government in
England, created by his arbitrary dissolutions and discontinuance of
Parliaments, paralysed the energies of this showy army; and Charles ere
long discovered symptoms that there was peril in relying on a force
the military prowess of which was unnerved by these inherent moral
affections.
During the progress of this prolonged and hesitating advance towards
the boundary which divided the kingdoms, the Marquis of Hamilton,
who had remained in London at the King’s departure, to superintend
the outfit of the naval expedition, had only reached Yarmouth Roads
on the 15th of April, and being there detained by adverse winds, it
was not till the 29th of that month that he reached Holy Island with
his squadron, on board of which there were about 5000 raw levies,
so inefficient that the greater part of them, including even the
non-commissioned officers, did not even know how to fire a musket.
On the 1st of May, he entered the Frith of Forth; and his squadron,
consisting of about twenty vessels, cast anchor in Leith Roads.
The Covenanters were not unprepared for the threatened invasion.
Whenever the fleet appeared in the offing, the beacon fires blazed
along the summits of the mountains, awakening the land to a sense of
its dangers and its duties. From all quarters, the stout peasantry and
burgesses of Scotland followed, with ardour; the Nobles and gentry, and
veteran officers, as their “Crowners” and commanders, to the point of
danger; and, ere Hamilton could refresh his sickly troops, by landing
them on Inchkeith and Inchcolm, or issue the King’s proclamations, the
shores of the Forth, on both sides of his fleet, gleamed with twenty
thousand Scottish spears and broadswords—the well-known symbols of
ancient renown and national victory—and stood, “a wall of fire,” in
defence of their native land, against what every man deemed an invasion
by a foreign foe. Whatever we may now think of the circumstances of
a political nature which led to this unhappy difference betwixt the
King and his Scottish subjects, and however clearly we may trace, as
it appears to us, through the backward vista of two hundred years, the
errors and the failings of our fathers—there is not a true Scotchman,
of these times, or in any future generations, who can look back on the
records of such a scene, without a throb of pride and of patriotism
swelling in his heart, that he is descended of a race who thus gathered
themselves around the altar of their country and their God, in the hour
of peril—in defence of what they deemed the highest and the holiest
privileges of their fathers, of themselves, and of their children.
This splendid demonstration of national spirit and power, seems to
have warned Hamilton that his purposes of attack were effectually
frustrated, even if he was not paralyzed by the feelings inseparable
from a generous nature in such a position. He lingered on in a
fruitless series of negotiations with the leaders of the Covenanters,
(of which the particulars are too minute for recapitulation here)—his
strength frittered away by detaching a portion of his troops, and
by the ravages of disease; and he continued in a state of listless
distraction and impotence for many weeks, neither attempting anything
hostile, nor receiving any aggression from his sagacious antagonists,
until he was recalled by his royal master to headquarters, in the camp
near Berwick.
It will be recollected that, by the proclamations of 9th and 22d
September 1638, the General Assembly was indicted for the 21st of
November that year, and the Scottish Parliament to meet on the 16th
of May following.[155] The time had now arrived for the assembling
of Parliament, to which, in compliance with the proclamation, the
Nobles, Barons, and others liable or entitled to serve in the Supreme
Legislature convened at Edinburgh, while public affairs were in the
attitude of which we have thus given a brief outline—the King’s
Commissioner on board a naval armament in Leith Roads, for the
subjection of Scotland by force, and the nation mustered in arms to
resist him; the Sovereign himself being at the head of a foreign army,
(for, as regarded Scotland then, it was a foreign army,) on the eve
of invading her territories, and issuing proclamations against the
whole nation, as guilty of treason and rebellion. It was under these
extraordinary circumstances that Parliament assembled on the 16th of
June 1639; and it is necessary to advert to the proceedings which the
Estates, thus convoked by royal authority, adopted.
It was surmised by the royalist partisans that the Covenanters would
hold a Parliament according to the indiction, and proceed, without
either the King or a Commissioner being present, and establish some
form of government, more or less anti-monarchical; in this, however,
they were mistaken. When his Majesty sent orders to prorogate the
Parliament, all agreed that it should be prorogued, after being
fenced, to any period his Majesty thought fit; and it was prorogued
accordingly, and by subsequent adjournment, till September following.
Before separating, however, the Members concurred in granting a
very ample commission to General Leslie, as Commander-in-Chief,
and appointed Balmerino Governor of Edinburgh Castle. Meanwhile,
the Covenanting chiefs omitted no opportunity of appealing to the
justice and patriotism of the King, by supplications to himself, and
communications to others whom they thought likely to have influence in
his councils.
We now turn our attention to that quarter where it appeared probable
the main battle would be fought, had not the consciousness of danger in
the battle-field, and a sinister and double policy, induced the King to
listen to the proposals of peace from his subjects; and it is one of
the most honourable traits in the character of the Covenanters, that,
however mistaken they might be in some of their views and actions,
they ever manifested a desire to avoid the calamities of war, and ever
cherished feelings of loyalty to the King, and of submission to his
constitutional authority.
As the plans of the King began to be developed by his own march to
the Eastern Border, and Hamilton’s expedition to the Forth, the
Covenanters concentrated their forces to meet the threatened invasion
at all points. On the 18th of May, peremptory orders were given by
the Committee of War for general and energetic exertions. The forces
which had been organized and disciplined on the Western Borders, under
Monro, advanced from Dumfries through Nithsdale, Annandale, Liddisdale,
and Teviotdale, towards the Merse, and took up cantonments at Kelso;
while the main army (after leaving sufficient force to keep Hamilton in
check) marched toward the royal camp, under the command of Alexander
Leslie as _Generalissimo_, and pitched their tents in an entrenched
camp at Dunglas, on the confines of East Lothian and Berwickshire—each
body being so placed as to interpose an opposing force if the King’s
army should attempt to enter Scotland through Berwick or further up the
Tweed—and so posted that either portion of the army could presently
coalesce with the other at any point of attack by the English. While
the opposing armies were thus situated, the King was busied in issuing
proclamations, one of which was more mild in its tone than those which
preceded it, offering amnesty to all who should relinquish hostilities,
but denouncing all who should not do so, and holding out an insidious
temptation to the tenantry of Scotland that the estates of their
landlords would be forfeited and partitioned among them, but withal
forbidding them to come within ten miles of the royal camp, &c. Early
in June these proclamations were published along the Border—at Dunse
by Arundel, having an armed force along with him, without opposition;
but not so at Kelso. Holland was dispatched, on the 3d of June, with
1000 horse and 3000 foot, to Kelso, professedly for a similar purpose,
but evidently with the view of attacking and dispersing Monro’s corps
of the Covenanters. He “advanced towards them with the horse (leaving
the foot three miles behind) to a place called Maxwel-heugh, a height
above Kelso; which, when the rebels discovered, they instantly marched
out with 150 horse, and (as my Lord Holland sayes) eight or ten
thousand foot—five or six thousand there might have been. He thereupon
sent a trumpet, commanding them to retreat, according to what they
had promised by the proclamation. They asked whose trumpet he was: he
said—my Lord Holland’s. Their answer was—he was best to be gone; and so
my Lord Holland made his retreat, and waited on his Majesty this night,
to give him this account.”[156] We learn, from the same authority,
that this untoward result operated strongly on the royal mind.
“This morning,” says Vane, in his Letter, “advertisement is brought
his Majestie that Lesley, with 12,000 men, is at Cockburnspath—that
5000 will be this night or tomorrow at Dunce—6000 at Kelso; so his
Majestie’s opinion is, with many of his Council, to keep himself upon
a defensive, and make himself here as fast as he can.” He therefore
instructed Hamilton not to act on the offensive, but to leave his fleet
in the Forth in as good a posture as he could, and go in person to the
royal camp.
Baillie gives an account of this same affair, varying but little from
Lord Holland’s. After stating that the Scotch troops willingly stood
at the required distance from the King’s encampment, in order to shew
that they did not meditate any invasion of England, and mentioning the
proclamation at Dunse, he adds:—“The like was intended at Kelso; but
there Monro, Fleming, and Erskine, presenting themselves in battle
array, made Holland, with some thousand foot and horse, with their
show alone, to retire in haste in a shamefull disorder. It is thought
Holland’s commission was to cut off all he met in opposition to him;
but his soldiers that day was a great deal more nimble in their legs
than arms, except their cavilliers, whose right arms were no less weary
in whipping, than their heels in jading their horses. We were informed
that, to repair that disgrace, Holland was commanded to return with far
more forces to execute his former commission; wherupon our Generall
raises his camp from Dunglass, advertises his troops at Kelso to march
towards him. Both of them met together that night at Dunse, and there
they sat down on the head of their fair Law.”[157] He continues—“This
our march did much affray the English camp. Dunse Law was in their
sight within six or seven miles; for they lay in pavilions some two
miles above Berwick, on the other side of the Tweed, in a fair plain
along the river. The King himself, beholding us through a prospect,
conjectured us to be about 16,000 or 18,000 men. We were, indeed,
above twelve; but at once we were above twenty-four. We might have
doubled that number, but we had none there from the one full half of
Scotland—not a man beyond Tay—few from Lothian, Fife, Edinburgh, the
Merse; for they were waiting on the ships or employed in carriages; the
south behoved to observe the border about Carlisle; and the west, the
Irish shore; albeit that was needless.”
Baillie states the English army at that time to have been only about
16,000, “and these not of the stoutest.” “One night,” says he, “a false
alarm being in our camp, when our drums began to beat, and our matches
on the hill to shine through the darkness, there arose such a fray in
the English camp, that very many betook them to their heels, expecting
from us a present invasion; yea, had not our wise and valorous Prince,
with his General Arundel, done diligence to encourage and to find out
the grundless vanity of the fray, there had bein a greater flight than
with honour could have been gotten stayed.”
Although anxious to compress, as much as possible, these illustrative
historical details, we cannot resist gratifying ourselves, and,
we trust, our readers, by giving Baillie’s most graphical, though
quaint, description of the Scottish camp on Dunse Law. It affords a
more lively impression of the character, the manners, and the spirit
of those times, than any modern description could possibly convey;
and as this was, perhaps, the last great national demonstration of
“Scotland’s might and Scotland’s right” which her a___ls afford, we
must be forgiven for recording it in these pages, in connection with
the history of the Presbyterian Church.
“It would have done you good,” says the reverend patriot, “to have
cast your eyes athort our brave and rich hills, as oft as I did, with
greater contentment and joy; for I was there among the rest, being
chosen preacher by the gentlemen of our shire, who came late with
Lord Eglinton. I furnished to half a dozen of good fellows, muskets
and pikes, and to my boy a broad sword. I carried myself, as the
fashion was, a sword, and a couple of Dutch pistols at my saddle; but
I promise, for the offence of no man except a robber in the way; for
it was our part alone to pray and preach for the encouragement of our
countrymen, which I did to my power most chearfully.
“Our hill was garnished on the top, towards the south and east, with
our mounted cannon, well near to the number of forty, great and small.
Our regiment lay on the sides of the hill, almost round about. The
place was not ample in circle; a pretty round, rising in a declivity,
without steepness, to the height of a bow-shot; on the top somewhat
plain; about a quarter of a mile in length, and as much in breadth, as
I remember, capable of tents for 40,000 men. The Crowners lay in canvas
lodges, high and wide; their captains about them in lesser ones; the
soldiers about, all in huts of timber, covered with divot or straw. Our
Crowners for the most part were noblemen; Rothes, Lindsay, Sinclair,
had among them two full regiments at least from Fife; Balcarras a
horse-troop; Loudon, Montgomery, Erskine, Boyd, Fleming, Kircudbright,
Dalhousie, Yester, Eglinton, Cassils, and others, either with a whole
or half regiments. Montrose’s regiment was above 1500 men in the castle
of Edinburgh; himself was expected; but what detained him ye shall hear
at once.