plunge into the river at Coldstream, at the head of his battalions—his
secret alienation from the cause of the Covenant not having yet been
discovered. In order to break the force of the current, and lessen its
pressure on the infantry who waded it, Sir Thomas Hope, the King’s
Lord Advocate, at the head of the College of Justice troop of cavalry,
passed the river a little above them; and, having forded the river
in two columns, (one of them a little below the other,) the Scottish
army entered England as open enemies of their King. They encamped that
night at Hirslaw, whence, next morning, they marched southwards, and
encamped on Misfield Moor, and in the adjacent villages. On the 22d
of August, they marched to Middleton Haugh, near Wooller, where they
were attacked by some of the King’s troops from Berwick; but these
were speedily repulsed, and some of them taken prisoners. Next day,
(23d,) being a Sunday, they moved to Branton Field, after sermon;
and, next day, encamped on a hill betwixt the new and old towns of
Eglingham or Eglintown. On the 25th, they marched from thence, and
encamped at Nether Wotten—on the 26th, at Criech—and, on the 27th, at
Newburn-upon-Tyne, about four miles west from Newcastle. It may here be
noticed, that, on entering England, the Covenanters published certain
“Considerations,” in justification of their expedition.[258]
Not expecting, perhaps, such decisive courses as the Covenanters had
now taken, the English levies were not yet fully prepared for the
rencontre. In the month of July, the army was quartered chiefly in
Yorkshire, on its route northward to Newcastle, where Lord Conway
had his headquarters. On the 15th of August, that officer, who was
General of the Cavalry, but at this time in the chief command, received
intelligence of the intentions of the Scotch, and immediately wrote in
great haste to Secretary Windebanke, warning the King of their certain
approach.[260] On the 20th, the King set out hurriedly from
London, in consequence of this information, and issued a proclamation
the very day the Scotch had entered England, declaring that “all those
of Scotland who have already entred, or hereafter shall presume to
enter in an hostile manner into any part of the kingdom of England, and
their adherents, assistants, and others, who shall supply them with
money, &c., shall be adjudged traitors against his Majesty, his crown
and dignity, and incur the penalties of high treason;” but declaring
that he would forgive them if they would return to obedience, “and
professeth it before God and the world, as often formerly and in his
late declaration he hath done, that he never did nor will hinder his
subjects of Scotland from the enjoying of their religion and liberties,
according to the ecclesiastical, civil, and municipal laws of that
kingdom, and according to his promise and their desires, subscribed by
themselves at the Pacification,”[259] &c. This proclamation just left
matters precisely as they stood, on a vague foundation, such as they
were under the pacification of the last year, but gave no sanction,
on the part of the King, to the sweeping enactments of the Estates in
Scotland; and it had no effect.
On the 27th of August, the King, as well as Strafford, being then at
York, exerting themselves to raise the requisite supplies of money, the
latter dispatched a pacquet of instructions to Conway at Newcastle,
the Scotch army being posted in its vicinity. Rushworth, the compiler
of the Historical Collections, accompanied the courier who bore the
pacquet, and he states that, on their arrival at Newcastle, they learnt
that Conway had gone to the army near Newburn, whither they immediately
went and found the General holding a Council of War with his Field
Officers, about half a mile from the troops. On opening his dispatches,
these contained orders to prepare the army for an engagement with the
Scotch; and while the Council was in deliberation, a herald arrived
“in all haste from the army, to acquaint the Lord Conway and Council
of War, that the army was already engaged with the Scots, which seemed
strange to them, because orders were given not to fight but upon the
defence; but the Council of War suddenly broke up and hastened to the
army.”[260]
When the Scotch army reached Newburn, on the 27th, a drummer had been
sent to the English cantonments with certain despatches, but was
driven back with them before reaching Newcastle; and the same evening
the Scotch pitched their tents on Heddon-Law, above Newburn, from
whence there was a declivity towards the river. During the night, they
set fires all around their camp, which gave it the appearance of a
vast extent; and, during the same night, a part of the King’s army,
consisting of 3000 foot and 1500 horse, was drawn up in a meadow on
the south side of the Tyne, called Newburn-Haugh, or Stella-Haugh, to
oppose the Scotch passing the river during the night. There were two
breastworks raised by the English, opposite to the two fords which the
Scotch might pass at low water; and in each of these sconces were 400
men, with four field pieces. During all that night and the following
day, the English troops were under arms, guarding the passage of the
river, until an engagement commenced in the following manner:—the
Scotch, having the vantage position, could see from their heights the
whole force and disposition of the English army, they planted cannon
in Newburn church steeple, and their infantry in the church, houses,
lanes, and hedges.
While the opposing hosts were thus watching each other, and preparing
for the fray, the horses from both armies were watered in the river
during the forenoon of the 28th, without molestation on either side.
But a Scotch officer, well mounted, with a feather in his hat, having
gone to the river to water his horse, an English soldier, who had
noticed that the officer eyed the sconces, fired upon and wounded him.
He fell from his horse; on which the Scotch Musqueteers opened a fire
on the English, and speedily the artillery on both sides, as well as
the musketry, was brought into full play.
The fight continued till the tide had ebbed, and the river was left
fordable; and, by this time, the Scotch cannon had made a breach in
one of the breastworks, and many of the English were killed. Finally,
notwithstanding the utmost efforts of the English officers, the men
threw down their arms and fled, being exhausted with unintermitted
service all the day and previous night, under arms and in the battle.
The Scotch commander, seeing from his height, this discomfiture of his
antagonists at one point, ordered a forlorn party of twenty-six, being
gentlemen of the College of Justice troop, to pass the river, which
they did rapidly, their orders being to discover the plight of the
other breast-work not yet silenced. But a brisk fire was kept up on it;
and at length the English were compelled to retreat from it also; on
which more cavalry, commanded by Sir Thomas Hope, and two regiments of
foot, commanded by Lords Crauford-Lindsey and Loudoun, waded through
the river. Simultaneously with this movement, Leslie opened a battery
on the English cavalry, exposed to the range of his guns; and speedily
a retreat was sounded. A portion of the cavalry attempted to cover the
retreat up Ritan and Stella Banks; but the Scotch having now passed
the ford in sufficient numbers, overpowered and took them prisoners.
The loss in this skirmish was inconsiderable—only about sixty of the
English having been killed, although, doubtless, many were wounded. The
accounts, however, on this point do not agree.
The English army effected its retreat to Newcastle; and at midnight
a council of war was held, when it was resolved that the whole army
should retreat to Durham, which it did next morning (29th) at five
o’clock, leaving Newcastle unprotected and open to the Scotch troops.
During the afternoon of that day, Douglas, Sheriff of Teviotdale, went
with a trumpet and some troops of cavalry to the gates of Newcastle,
demanding a surrender; and being threatened with some batteries of
ordnance, the Mayor, after some parly, opened the gates. “Next day,
being Sunday, fifteen [Scotch] Lords and Douglas came and dined with
the Mayor—drank a health to the King—had their sermons that day by
their own divines;” and on Monday, Leslie, pitched his camp on Gateside
hill, in the vicinity of Newcastle.[261]
Having thus obtained decisive success in their first enterprise, and
an advantageous position, the Scotch leaders availed themselves of
their victory, but with moderation. They agreed for supplies, which
they required, but gave money in part, and security for the balance.
Their occupation of Newcastle, however, and the retreat of the King’s
army, produced the greatest consternation. Of the ten thousand persons
employed in the coal mines, not a man was to be seen. Four or five
hundred vessels, employed in the coal trade, either sailed from the
river, or refrained from entering it, when they discovered the state
of matters; and for several days all the shops were shut, and many
families fled, leaving their houses and property at the mercy of the
Scotch. The panic spread to Durham, where the shops were all shut, and
not one house in ten was occupied by its possessors, who had fled for
safety. The English army continued its retreat from Durham towards
York. The Bishop and clergy of Durham, too, all fled; among whom was Dr
Balcanquell, who had no desire, it is to be presumed, to experience the
tender mercies of the Sheriff of Teviotdale and Lord Kirkcudbright, or
the spiritual consolations of “Master Andro Cant.”
The news of this defeat reached Strafford at Darlington the day after.
He was on his way to join the army before any engagement should take
place. But he now sent orders to the troops, in full retreat, to rally
and concentrate in Yorkshire. The King had, at that time, reached
Northallerton on his way to the army; but, on learning the unfortunate
issue of the first conflict, he immediately returned to York; and next
day Strafford issued an order to the soldiers to destroy all millstones
on their retreat.
When the Royal army was mustered at York, it was found to amount to
17,383; and, on the 31st of August, the King issued a summons to all
the Lords, spiritual and temporal, and other Nobles, to attend his
Majesty at York, and, the same day, issued an order to the Earl of
Craufurd to engage a hundred Scotch officers in his service.
On the 4th of September, his Majesty received a Petition from the
Commissioners of the late Parliament in Scotland, in a letter to the
Earl of Lanerick, to which an answer was next day returned;[262]
and, on the 7th, a writ was issued summoning a council of the Peers
at York, upon, the 24th of the month.[263] Upon the 8th, the Scotch
Commissioners sent a second letter to Lanerick; and, on the 9th, they
sent another to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, setting forth
the objects and purposes of their expedition; and, about the same time,
the Earl of Essex and other Noblemen, and the Citizens of London,
also applied, by petition, to his Majesty to call a Parliament, which
last the Privy Council endeavoured, in vain, to quash. The purport of
all these documents, will be most satisfactorily seen in the writings
themselves;[264] and the result of the whole was, that the King
appointed Commissioners to meet others from the Scotch at Rippon, to
treat of peace, and called a Parliament for the 3d of November. The
negotiations were afterwards transferred to London; and the combined
movements of the English and Scottish malcontents ultimately ended
in a great revolution throughout the British empire, of which it is
difficult, even in later times, to predicate whether the evils or the
benefits preponderated.
The negotiations at Rippon commenced on the 1st of October, and, on
the 23d of that month, were transferred to London, that the English
Noblemen might attend the Parliament summoned to meet there, in the
beginning of November; and a cessation of hostilities was agreed
on.[265] It is needless here to enumerate all the points of treaty,
which were necessarily very numerous and complicated. From that affair,
therefore, we turn, for a brief space, to the proceedings in the Long
Parliament of England, which was opened by the King on the 3d of
November, and in which, the discontented party having a preponderance,
proceeded at once to the most decisive courses.
Strafford, by his energy and decision of character, although he had
governed Ireland for eight years with great advantage to the State,
became peculiarly obnoxious to the malcontents, English, Scottish,
and Irish, by reason of his devotion to the King’s service, and his
high talents and vigour. Whenever, therefore, he appeared in London,
a vehement and preconcerted attack was made upon him in the House of
Commons, on the 11th of November. Pym led on the attack, imputing it
to Strafford that he was one of the chief among those who had formed a
deliberate plan for changing the form of Government, and subverting the
ancient laws and liberties of the kingdom; and, after various elaborate
invectives, it was moved that he should be immediately impeached for
high treason. This motion was unanimously adopted, nor was even one man
found who had the moral courage to utter a word in his defence. The
impeachment was instantly voted and carried to the upper house, where
Strafford, who had just entered, unaware of what had been secretly
carried through in the other house, and who had come to London under
a royal guarantee that the Parliament should not touch a hair of his
head, was ordered into custody; and soon after Laud was similarly
treated, and, with Strafford, sent to the Tower.
It belongs to the History of England to trace these and other
proceedings of the Long Parliament to their issues; but one of the
immediate effects was a close alliance betwixt the leaders of the
Opposition and the Scottish Commissioners then in London, with whom
they made common cause against the King and his supporters. Rothes,
Loudoun, and other Scottish Statesmen, with an auxiliary force of
clergymen, availed themselves of this alliance; and, while in London,
busied themselves, not exclusively in effecting a favourable conclusion
to the treaty, but in preaching and intriguing for the subversion of
the English hierarchy and planting Presbytery in its stead; and they
joined their moiety of accusations against Strafford and Laud, before
the English Parliament, as incendiaries and prime causes of all their
own grievances. They were not inattentive, however, to the business
of their mission, and made various demands in the negotiations, of
very considerable importance:—That the Acts of the late Parliament of
Scotland should be ratified and published by the King; that public
incendiaries, who had excited hostilities betwixt the two kingdoms,
should be referred to the judgment of the respective Parliaments, and
not afterwards exempted from the punishments which might be awarded;
and these, with some subordinate matters about indemnification for
losses, &c., constituted the particulars for which they contended. To
these demands the King was, at length, (15th December,) constrained
to yield by the necessity of his circumstances; and thus his
favourite Episcopacy was not only overthrown in Scotland, but shaken
to its foundation in England; the royal prerogatives were virtually
relinquished; and the whole power of the State vested in the democratic
oligarchies of both kingdoms, under the guidance of aristocratical
leaders; and every man who had hazarded life and fortune, in what he
deemed a loyal adherence to his Sovereign, was thus delivered over to
the arbitrary power of these semi-republican Conventions. Among other
boons conferred on the Scottish by the English Parliament, was the sum
of £300,000 for “brotherly assistance”—a subsidy which was by many
understood, not merely as an indemnification for the expense of their
expeditions, but as a consideration, for similar instances of fraternal
aid, should the malcontent party in England require it on some future
occasion.[266]
The final pacification, however, was not concluded till the 7th of
August, 1641, when both armies were immediately disbanded; but during
the dependence of the treaty, the General Assembly, of the year 1641,
met at St Andrew’s, on Tuesday the 20th of July—John Earl of Weymes
being the King’s Commissioner. A deputation from the Parliament having
craved that its sittings should be transferred to Edinburgh, their
request was complied with; and an adjournment to that city, where its
next sederunt was appointed to be held on the 27th, took place. At
the adjourned meeting, Mr Alexander Henderson was once more chosen
Moderator.
We may just remark, that, during the protracted negotiations now
alluded to, the Scottish Commissioners and Ministers, in the moat
indecent manner, exerted themselves to overthrow the Church of England.
Henderson and Gillespie wrote and published tractates against it. They
openly approved of what was called the “Root and Branch Petition” of
the English nonconformists, and went the length of presenting to the
King a paper, in which they demanded “unity of religion and uniformity
of Church government”—in other words, the adoption of the Presbyterian
Covenant, and the coercive edicts for its adoption; thus violating
their duty as negotiators for the affairs of Scotland only, and
invading the rights and privileges of an independent nation; fostering
the spirit of intolerance and revolution; and propelling the movement
in which the Throne and both the Protestant Churches were, for many sad
years, involved in one common ruin.
This intrusion, by the Scotch Covenanters, into the internal affairs
of England, and their zealous exertions for the overthrow of its
ecclesiastical establishment, and the destruction of Strafford and
Laud, is one part of their conduct of which we have never seen any
tenable defence, and which, on every sound principle of international
law, was altogether unwarrantable, and incapable of justification.
Whatever be the relative merits of Episcopacy and Presbytery,
whatever the misdemeanours of Strafford, of Laud, or of other English
counsellors of the King—these were matters with which the Scottish
Commissioners, in their diplomatic character as the ambassadors of
Scotland, had no earthly warrant to intermeddle. Strafford and Laud
were the sworn Privy Councillors of England; and whether the advice
they gave in that capacity, or the services which they rendered to the
King, were, in the opinion of these Scotchmen, right or wrong—they were
responsible only to their Sovereign, and not amenable to the English
Parliament at the instance of any knot of foreigners, who had no title,
under any theory of the law of nations ever yet recognised, to impeach
men in such circumstances. The whole proceedings against Strafford were
an utter disgrace to the Parliament of England. He was not accused
of any single offence which subjected him, under the well-defined
law of England, to the penalties of high treason, wherewithal a bill
of attainder charged him; and the first principles of all civilized
jurisprudence were grossly outraged in the judgment by which,
although each item of imputed offence was found insufficient, yet, by
accumulating them all, they were _construed_ to amount to that crime.
But Strafford was a doomed man; the first victim of that reign of
terror which thus commenced—consigning to the scaffold a brave, loyal,
and splendid man, in violation of every principle of universe as well
as of municipal law—robbing the monarch of his brightest attribute—and
plunging the two kingdoms into the vortex of a fierce democracy, which
henceforward filled the land with tyranny and hypocricy under the mask
of Religion and Liberty. In the guilt of that foul judicial murder, the
leaders of the Scotch Covenanters were deeply implicated; and we record
the fact with shame and sorrow, upon grounds of historical evidence
which we believe cannot be shaken.
Before reprinting the Acts of Assembly 1641, it may be proper to note,
cursorily, the general proceedings of the previous year, which either
do not appear at all, or but partially, in the printed Acts of that
Assembly.
1. The greater part of the Assembly’s time was occupied in the
transportation of ministers, about which the patrons, presbyteries, and
parishes had many keen contests. Amongst others, Andro Cant was removed
from Newbottle to Aberdeen, and Robert Ramsay to Glasgow.
2. Rigorous proceedings were adopted against the Aberdeen Doctors
who had repudiated the Covenant. Dr Sibbald was deposed for alleged
heterodoxy and contumacy, and was ordained to be further proceeded
against, if he did not give speedy satisfaction. Doctors Forbes and
Scroggie were found guilty of Arminianism, &c., but were allowed a year
to repent; and a new Commission on the College was appointed.
3. Besides passing Acts against the profanation of the Sabbath,
witches, and idolatrous monuments, the Elders and Magistrates of Burghs
were directed to attend the Presbyteries of the Church, for the more
effectual enforcement of their decrees by the concurrence of civil
authority.
4. The controversy was agitated about Private Conventicles, of which
Baillie gives a minute account.[267]
* * * * *
THE PRINCIPALL ACTS
OF THE GENERALL ASSEMBLY HOLDEN AT ST ANDREWS
AND EDINBURGH, 1641.
Sess. I. 20 July 1641.
Iohn Earle of Weymes, His Majesties commissioner, presented His
Majesties Letter to the Assembly, whereof the tenor followeth.
CHARLES R.
Trustie and welbeloved, Wee greet you well. It is no small part of Our
Royall care and desires, that the true Reformed Religion, wherein by
the grace of God, We resolve to live and dye, be settled peaceably in
that Our ancient and native Kingdome of Scotland, and that the same be
truly taught, and universally received and professed by Our Subjects
there, of all degrees. For preventing of all division and trouble
hereafter, We did intend in Our Own Royall Person, to have been present
at this Assembly; but conceiving it to be unfitting, to detaine the
Ministers from their particular charges, till the time of Our coming
to the Parliament, We have resolved to make knowne unto you by these,
and by Our Commissioner, That in the approching Parliament, it is Our
intention by Our authority, to ratifie and confirm the Constitutions
of the late Assembly at Edinburgh, that they may be obeyed by all
Our Subjects living in that Our Kingdome. And that We will take into
Our Royall consideration, by what meanes the Churches belonging to
Our presentation, when any of them shall happen to vaik, may be best
provided with well qualified Preachers: Like as We are not unwilling
to grant presentations unto such as in these times of trouble have
entred into the Ministerie, providing they have been examined by the
Presbyteries, and approved by them: Because We want not Our own feares
of the decay of Learning in that Church and Kingdome, We intend also
to consider of the best meanes for helping the Schooles and Colledges
of Learning especially of Divinity, that there may be such a number
of Preachers there, as that each Parish having a Minister, and the
Gospel being preached in the most remote parts of the kingdome, all
Our Subjects may taste of Our care in that kinde, and have more and
more cause to blesse God that we are set over them. And, finally, so
tender is Our care, that it shall not be Our fault if the Churches and
Colledges there flourish not in Learning and Religion: For which Royall
testimonie of Our goodnesse, We require nothing upon your part, but
that which God hath bound you unto, even that you be faithfull in the
charge committed unto you, and care for the soules of the people: That
you study Peace and Unity amongst your selves, and amongst the people,
against all Schisme and Faction; and that you not only pray for Us, but
that you teach the People, which We trust are not unwilling to pay that
honour and obedience which they owe unto Us, as his Vicegerent set over
them, for their good; wherein We expect you will by your good example
goe before them. Which hoping you will doe, We bid you farewell. From
Our Court at Whitehall, the 10 day of July 1641.
* * * * *
Sess. III. 28 July 1641.
_Act approving the Overtures of the Assembly at Aberdene, for ordering
the Assembly-House._
The Overtures for ordering the Assembly-House, given in to, and
approved by the Assembly of Aberdene the 29 July 1640, Act Sess. 2,
were openly read, and again approved by this Assembly, and ordained to
be kept the whole time thereof.
* * * * *
Sess. V. 30 July 1641.
_Act anent old Ministers bruiking their Benefices._