Belloc-Lingard - The History of England - CHAPTER III.
Establishment Of The Commonwealth--Punishment Of The Royalists--Mutiny And
Suppression Of The Levellers--Charles Ii Proclaimed In Scotland--Ascendancy
Of His Adherents In Ireland--Their Defeat At Rathmines--Success Of Cromwell
In Ireland--Defeat Of Montrose, And Landing Of Charles In Scotland-Cromwell
Is Sent Against Him--He Gains A Victory At Dunbar--The King Marches Into
England--Loses The Battle Of Worcester--His Subsequent Adventures And
Escape.
When the two houses first placed themselves in opposition to the sovereign,
their demands were limited to the redress of existing grievances; now that
the struggle was over, the triumphant party refused to be content with
anything less than the abolition of the old, and the establishment of a new
and more popular form of government. Some, indeed, still ventured to raise
their voices in favour of monarchy, on the plea that it was an institution
the most congenial to the habits and feelings of Englishmen. By these
it was proposed that the two elder sons of Charles should be passed by,
because their notions were already formed, and their resentments already
kindled; that the young duke of Gloucester, or his sister Elizabeth, should
be placed on the throne; and that, under the infant sovereign, the royal
prerogative should be circumscribed by law, so as to secure from future
encroachment the just liberties of the people. But the majority warmly
contended for the establishment of a commonwealth. Why, they asked, should
they spontaneously set up again the idol which it had cost them so much
blood and treasure to pull down? Laws would prove but feeble restraints on
the passions of a proud and powerful monarch. If they sought an insuperable
barrier to the restoration of despotism, it could be found only in some of
those institutions which lodge the supreme power with the representatives
of the people. That they spoke their real sentiments is not improbable,
though we are assured, by one who was present at their meetings, that
personal interest had no small influence in their final determination. They
had sinned too deeply against royalty to trust themselves to the mercy, or
the moderation, of a king. A republic was their choice, because it promised
to shelter them from the vengeance of their enemies, and offered to them
the additional advantage of sharing among themselves all the power, the
patronage, and the emoluments of office.[1]
In accordance with this decision, the moment the head of the royal victim
fell[a] on the scaffold at Whitehall, a proclamation was read in Cheapside,
declaring it treason to give to any person the title of king without the
authority of parliament; and at the same time was published the vote of the
4th of January, that the supreme authority in the nation resided in the
representatives of the people. The peers, though aware of their approaching
fate, continued to sit; but, after a pause of a few days, the Commons
resolved: first,[b] that the House of Lords, and, next,[c] that the office
of king, ought to be abolished. These votes, though the acts
[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 391.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Jan. 30.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. Feb. 6.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1649. Feb. 7.]
to be ingrafted on them were postponed, proved sufficient; from that hour
the kingship (the word by which the royal dignity was now designated),
with the legislative and judicial authority of the peers, was considered
extinct, and the lower house, under the name of the parliament of England,
concentrated within itself all the powers of government.[1]
The next measure was the appointment, by the Commons, of a council of
state, to consist of forty-one members, with powers limited in duration
to twelve months. They were charged[a] with the preservation of domestic
tranquillity, the care and disposal of the military and naval force, the
superintendence of internal and external trade, and the negotiation of
treaties with foreign powers. Of the persons selected[b] for this office,
three-fourths possessed seats in the house; and they reckoned among them
the heads of the law, the chief officers in the army, and five peers, the
earls of Denbigh, Mulgrave, Pembroke, and Salisbury, with the Lord Grey
of Werke, who condescended to accept the appointment, either through
attachment to the cause, or as a compensation for the loss of their
hereditary rights.[2] But at the very outset a schism appeared among the
new counsellors. The oath required of them by the parliament contained
an approval of the king's trial, of the vote against the Scots and their
English associates, and of the abolition of monarchy and of the House of
Lords. By Cromwell and
[Footnote 1: Journals, 1649, Jan. 30, Feb. 6, 7. Cromwell voted in favour
of the House of Lords.--Ludlow, i. 246. Could he be sincere? I think not.]
[Footnote 2: The earl of Pembroke had the meanness to solicit and accept
the place of representative for Berkshire; and his example was imitated by
two other peers, the earl of Salisbury and Lord Howard of Escrick, who sat
for Lynn and Carlisle.--Journals, April 16, May 5 Sept. 18. Leicester's
Journal, 72.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Feb. 13.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. Feb. 14.]
eighteen others, it was taken cheerfully, and without comment; by the
remaining twenty-two, with Fairfax at their head, it was firmly but
respectfully refused.[a] The peers alleged that it stood not with their
honour to approve upon oath of that which had been done in opposition to
their vote; the commoners, that it was not for them to pronounce an opinion
on judicial proceedings of which they had no official information. But
their doubts respecting transactions that were past formed no objection
to the authority of the existing government. The House of Commons was
in actual possession of the supreme power. From that house they derived
protection, to it they owed obedience, and with it they were ready to
live and die. Cromwell and his friends had the wisdom to yield; the
retrospective clauses were expunged,[b] and in their place was substituted
a general promise of adhesion to the parliament, both with respect to the
existing form of public liberty, and the future government of the nation,
"by way of a republic without king or house of peers."[1]
This important revolution drew with it several other alterations. A
representation of the House of Commons superseded the royal effigy on the
great seal, which was intrusted to three lords-commissioners, Lysle, Keble,
and Whitelock; the writs no longer ran in the name of the king, but of
"the keepers of the liberty of England by authority of parliament;" new
commissions were issued to the judges, sheriffs, and magistrates; and in
lieu of the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, was required an engagement
to be true to the commonwealth of England. Of the
[Footnote 1: Journals, Feb. 7, 13, 14, 15, 19, 22. Whitelock, 378, 382,
383. The amended oath is in Walker, part ii. 130.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Feb. 17.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. Feb. 22.]
judges, six resigned; the other six consented to retain their situations,
if parliament would issue a proclamation declaratory of its intention to
maintain the fundamental laws of the kingdom. The condition was accepted
and fulfilled;[1] the courts proceeded to hear and determine causes after
the ancient manner; and the great body of the people scarcely felt the
important change which had been made in the government of the country. For
several years past the supreme authority had been administered in the name
of the king by the two houses at Westminster, with the aid of the committee
at Derby House; now the same authority was equally administered in the name
of the people by one house only, and with the advice of a council of state.
The merit or demerit of thus erecting a commonwealth on the ruins of the
monarchy chiefly belongs to Cromwell, Ireton, Bradshaw, and Marten, who by
their superior influence guided and controlled the opinions and passions of
their associates in the senate and the army. After the king's death they
derived much valuable aid from the talents of Vane,[2] Whitelock, and St.
John; and a feeble lustre was shed on their cause by the accession of the
five peers
[Footnote 1: Journals, Feb. 8. Yet neither this declaration nor the
frequent remonstrances of the lawyers could prevent the house from usurping
the office of the judges, or from inflicting illegal punishments. Thus,
for example, on the report of a committee, detailing the discovery of a
conspiracy to extort money by a false charge of delinquency, the house,
without hearing the accused, or sending them before a court of justice,
proceeded to inflict on some the penalties of the pillory, fine, and
imprisonment, and adjudged Mrs. Samford, as the principal, to be whipped
the next day from Newgate to the Old Exchange, and to be kept to hard
labour for three months.--Journals, 1650, Feb. 2, Aug. 13.]
[Footnote 2: Immediately after Pride's purge, Vane, disgusted at the
intolerance of his own party, left London, and retired to Raby Castle; he
was now induced to rejoin them, and resumed his seat on Feb. 26.]
from the abolished House of Lords. But, after all, what right could this
handful of men have to impose a new constitution on the kingdom? Ought they
not, in consistency with their own principles, to have ascertained the
sense of the nation by calling a new parliament? The question was raised,
but the leaders, aware that their power was based on the sword of the
military, shrunk from the experiment; and, to elude the demands of their
opponents, appointed a committee to regulate the succession of parliaments
and the election of members; a committee, which repeatedly met and
deliberated, but never brought the question to any definitive conclusion.
Still, when the new authorities looked around the house, and observed the
empty benches, they were admonished of their own insignificance, and of the
hollowness of their pretensions. They claimed the sovereign authority,
as the representatives of the people; but the majority of those
representatives had been excluded by successive acts of military violence;
and the house had been reduced from more than five hundred members, to
less than one-seventh of that number. For the credit and security of the
government it was necessary both to supply the deficiency, and, at the same
time, to oppose a bar to the introduction of men of opposite principles.
With this view, they resolved[a] to continue the exclusion of those who had
on the 5th of December assented to the vote, that the king's "concessions
were a sufficient ground to proceed to a settlement;" but to open the house
to all others who should previously enter on the journals their dissent
from that resolution.[1] By this expedient, and by occasional writs for
elections in those places where
[Footnote 1: Journ. Feb. 1. Walker, part ii. 115. Whitelock, 376.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Feb. 1.]
the influence of the party was irresistible, the number of members
gradually rose to one hundred and fifty, though it was seldom that the
attendance of one-half, or even of one-third, could be procured.
During the war, the dread of retaliation had taught the two parties to
temper with moderation the license of victory. Little blood had been
shed except in the field of battle. But now that check was removed. The
fanatics, not satisfied with the death of the king, demanded, with the
Bible in their hands, additional victims; and the politicians deemed it
prudent by the display of punishment to restrain the machinations of their
enemies. Among the royalists in custody were the duke of Hamilton (who was
also earl of Cambridge in England), the earl of Holland, Goring, earl of
Norwich, the Lord Capel, and Sir John Owen, all engaged in the last attempt
for the restoration of Charles to the throne. By a resolution of the House
of Commons in November, Hamilton had been adjudged to pay a fine of
one hundred thousand pounds, and the other four to remain in perpetual
imprisonment; but after the triumph of the Independents, this vote had been
rescinded,[a] and a high court of justice was now established to try the
same persons on a charge of high treason. It was in vain that Hamilton
pleaded[b] the order of the Scottish parliament under which he had acted;
that Capel demanded to be brought before his peers, or a jury of his
countrymen, according to those fundamental laws which the parliament had
promised to maintain; that all invoked the national faith in favour of that
quarter which they had obtained at the time of their surrender. Bradshaw,
the president, delivered the opinions of the court. To Hamilton, he
replied,
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Feb. 1.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. Feb. 10.]
that, as an English earl, he was amenable to the justice of the country; to
Capel, that the court had been established by the parliament, the supreme
authority to which all must submit; to each, that quarter given on the
field of battle insured protection from the sword of the conqueror, but not
from the vengeance of the law. All five were condemned[a] to lose their
heads; but the rigour of the judgment was softened[b] by a reference to
the mercy of parliament. The next day the wives of Holland and Capel,
accompanied by a long train of females in mourning, appeared at the bar, to
solicit the pardon of the condemned. Though their petitions were rejected,
a respite for two days was granted. This favour awakened new hopes;
recourse was had to flattery and entreaty; bribes were offered and
accepted; and the following morning[c] new petitions were presented. The
fate of Holland occupied a debate of considerable interest. Among the
Independents he had many personal friends, and the Presbyterians exerted
all their influence in his favour. But the saints expatiated on his
repeated apostasy from the cause; and, after a sharp contest, Cromwell and
Ireton obtained a majority of a single voice for his death. The case of
Goring was next considered. No man during the war had treated his opponents
with more bitter contumely, no one had inflicted on them deeper injuries;
and yet, on an equal division, his life was saved by the casting voice
of the speaker. The sentences of Hamilton and Capel were affirmed by the
unanimous vote of the house; but, to the surprise of all men, Owen, a
stranger, without friends or interest, had the good fortune to escape. His
forlorn condition moved the pity of Colonel Hutchinson; the efforts of
Hutchinson
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. March 6.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. March 7.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1649. March 8.]
were seconded by Ireton; and so powerful was their united influence, that
they obtained a majority of five in his favour. Hamilton, Holland, and
Capel died[a] on the scaffold, the first martyrs of loyalty after the
establishment of the commonwealth.[1]
But, though the avowed enemies of the cause crouched before their
conquerors, there was much in the internal state of the country to awaken
apprehension in the breasts of Cromwell and his friends. There could be no
doubt that the ancient royalists longed for the opportunity of avenging the
blood of the king; or that the new royalists, the Presbyterians, who sought
to re-establish the throne on the conditions stipulated by the treaty in
the Isle of Wight, bore with impatience the superiority of their rivals.
Throughout the kingdom the lower classes loudly complained of the burthen
of taxation; in several parts they suffered under the pressure of penury
and famine. In Lancashire and Westmoreland numbers perished through want;
and it was certified by the magistrates of Cumberland that thirty thousand
families in that county "had neither seed nor bread corn, nor the means of
procuring either."[2] But that which chiefly created alarm was the progress
made among the military by the "Levellers," men of consistent principles
and uncompromising conduct under the guidance of Colonel John Lilburne, an
officer distinguished by his talents, his eloquence, and
[Footnote 1: If the reader compares the detailed narrative of these
proceedings by Clarendon (iii. 265-270), with the official account in the
Journals (March 7, 8), he will be surprised at the numerous inaccuracies
of the historian. See also the State Trials; England's Bloody Tribunal;
Whitelock, 386; Burnet's Hamiltons, 385; Leicester's Journal, 70; Ludlow,
i. 247; and Hutchinson, 310.]
[Footnote 2: Whitelock, 398, 399.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Mar. 9.]
his courage.[1] Lilburne, with his friends, had long cherished a
suspicion that Cromwell, Ireton, and Harrison sought only their private
aggrandizement under the mantle of patriotism; and the recent changes had
converted this suspicion into conviction. They observed that the same
men ruled without control in the general council of officers, in the
parliament, and in the council of state. They contended that every question
was first debated and settled in the council of officers, and that, if
their determination was afterwards adopted by the house, it was only
that it might go forth to the public under the pretended sanction of the
representatives of the nation; that the council of state had been vested
with powers more absolute and oppressive than had ever been exercised by
the late king; and that the High Court of Justice had been established by
the party for the purpose of depriving their victims of those remedies
which would be afforded by the ordinary courts of law. In some of their
publications they went further. They maintained that the council of state
was employed as an experiment on the patience of the nation; that it was
intended to pass from the tyranny of a few to the tyranny of one; and
that Oliver Cromwell was the man who aspired to that high but dangerous
pre-eminence.[2]
A plan of the intended constitution, entitled "the
[Footnote 1: Lilburne in his youth had been a partisan of Bastwick, and had
printed one of his tracts in Holland. Before the Star-chamber he refused
to take the oath ex officio, or to answer interrogatories, and in
consequence was condemned to stand in the pillory, was whipped from the
Fleet-prison to Westminster, receiving five hundred lashes with knotted
cords, and was imprisoned with double irons on his hands and legs. Three
years later (1641), the House of Commons voted the punishment illegal,
bloody, barbarous, and tyrannical.--Burton's Diary, iii. 503, note.]
[Footnote 2: See England's New Chains Discovered, and the Hunting of the
Foxes, passim; the King's Pamphlets, No. 411, xxi.; 414, xii. xvi.]
agreement of the people," had been sanctioned by the council of officers,
and presented[a] by Fairfax to the House of Commons, that it might be
transmitted to the several counties, and there receive the approbation of
the inhabitants. As a sop to shut the mouth of Cerberus, the sum of three
thousand pounds, to be raised from the estates of delinquents in the county
of Durham, had been voted[b] to Lilburne; but the moment he returned from
the north, he appeared at the bar of the house, and petitioned against "the
agreement," objecting in particular to one of the provisions by which the
parliament was to sit but six months, every two years, and the government
of the nation during the other eighteen months was to be intrusted to the
council of state. His example was quickly followed; and the table was
covered with a succession of petitions from officers and soldiers, and "the
well-affected" in different counties, who demanded that a new parliament
should be holden every year; that during the intervals the supreme power
should be exercised by a committee of the house; that no member of the last
should sit in the succeeding parliament; that the self-denying ordinance
should be enforced; that no officer should retain his command in the army
for more than a certain period; that the High Court of Justice should be
abolished as contrary to law, and the council of state, as likely to become
an engine of tyranny; that the proceedings in the courts should be in the
English language, the number of lawyers diminished, and their fees reduced;
that the excise and customs should be taken away, and the lands of
delinquents sold for compensation to the well-affected; that religion
should be "reformed according to the mind of God;" that no one should be
molested or incapacitated
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Jan. 20.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. Feb. 26.]
on account of conscience; that tithes should be abolished; and that the
income of each minister should be fixed at one hundred pounds per annum, to
be raised by a rate on his parishioners.[1]
Aware of the necessity of crushing the spirit of opposition in the
military, general orders were issued[a] by Fairfax, prohibiting private
meetings of officers or soldiers "to the disturbance of the army;" and on
the receipt[b] of a letter of remonstrance from several regiments, four
of the five troopers by whom it was signed were condemned[c] by a
court-martial to ride the wooden horse with their faces to the tail, to
have their swords broken over their heads, and to be afterwards cashiered.
Lilburne, on the other hand, laboured to inflame the general discontent by
a succession of pamphlets, entitled, "England's New Chains Discovered,"
"The Hunting of the Foxes from Newmarket and Triploe Heath to Whitehall by
five small Beagles" (in allusion to the five troopers), and the second part
of "England's New Chains." The last he read[d] to a numerous assembly
at Winchester House; by the parliament it was voted[e] a seditious and
traitorous libel, and the author, with his associates, Walwyn, Prince, and
Overton; was committed,[f] by order of the council, to close custody in the
Tower.[2]
It had been determined to send to Ireland a division of twelve thousand
men; and the regiments to be employed were selected by ballot, apparently
in the fairest manner. The men, however, avowed a resolution not to march.
It was not, they said, that they
[Footnote 1: Walker, 133. Whitelock, 388, 393, 396, 398, 399. Carte,
Letters, i. 229.]
[Footnote 2: Whitelock, 385, 386, 392. Council Book in the State-paper
Office, March 27, No. 17; March 29, No. 27. Carte, Letters, i. 273, 276.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Feb. 22.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. March 1.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1649. March 3.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1649. March 25.]
[Sidenote e: A.D. 1649. March 27.]
[Sidenote f: A.D. 1649. March 29.]
refused the service; but they believed the expedition to be a mere artifice
to send the discontented out of the kingdom; and they asserted that by
their engagement on Triploe Heath they could not conscientiously move a
step till the liberties of the nation were settled on a permanent basis.
The first act of mutiny occurred in Bishopsgate. A troop of horse refused
to obey their colonel; and, instead of marching out of the city, took
possession of the colours. Of these, five were condemned to be shot; but
one only, by name Lockyer, suffered. At his burial a thousand men, in
files, preceded the corpse, which was adorned with bunches of rosemary
dipped in blood; on each side rode three trumpeters, and behind was led the
trooper's horse, covered with mourning; some thousands of men and women
followed with black and green ribbons on their heads and breasts, and were
received at the grave by a numerous crowd of the inhabitants of London and
Westminster. This extraordinary funeral convinced the leaders how widely
the discontent was spread, and urged them to the immediate adoption of the
most decisive measures.[1]
The regiments of Scrope, Ireton, Harrison, Ingoldsby, Skippon, Reynolds,
and Horton, though quartered in different places, had already[a] elected
their agents, and published their resolution to adhere to each other, when
the house commissioned Fairfax to reduce the mutineers, ordered Skippon to
secure the capital from surprise, and declared it treason for soldiers to
conspire the death of the general or lieutenant-general, or for any person
to endeavour to alter the government, or to affirm that the parliament or
council of state was either tyrannical or unlawful.[2]
[Footnote 1: Walker, 161. Whitelock, 399.]
[Footnote 2: Journals, May 1, 14. Whitelock, 399.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. May 7.]
At Banbury, in Oxfordshire, a Captain Thompson, at the head of two hundred
men, published a manifesto, entitled "England's Standard Advanced,"
in which he declared that, if Lilburne, or his fellow-prisoners, were
ill-treated, their sufferings should he avenged seventy times seven-fold
upon their persecutors. His object was to unite some of the discontented
regiments; but Colonel Reynolds surprised him at Banbury, and prevailed
on his followers to surrender without loss of blood.[1] Another party,
consisting of ten troops of horse, and more than a thousand strong,
proceeded from Salisbury to Burford, augmenting their numbers as they
advanced. Fairfax and Cromwell, after a march of more than forty miles
during the day, arrived soon afterwards,[a] and ordered their followers to
take refreshment. White had been sent to the insurgents with an offer of
pardon on their submission; whether he meant to deceive them or not, is
uncertain; he represented the pause on the part of the general as time
allowed them to consult and frame their demands; and at the hour of
midnight, while they slept in security, Cromwell forced his way into the
town, with two thousand men, at one entrance, while Colonel Reynolds,
with a strong body, opposed their exit by the other. Four hundred of the
mutineers were made prisoners, and the arms and horses of double that
number were taken. One cornet and two corporals suffered death; the others,
after a short imprisonment, were restored to their former regiments.[2]
This decisive advantage disconcerted all the plans of the mutineers. Some
partial risings in the
[Footnote 1: Walker, ii. 168. Whitelock, 401.]
[Footnote 2: King's Pamphlets, No. 421, xxii.; 422, i. Whitelock, 402.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. May 14.]
counties of Hants, Devon, and Somerset were quickly suppressed; and
Thompson, who had escaped[a] from Banbury and retired to Wellingborough,
being deserted by his followers, refused quarter, and fell[b] fighting
singly against a host of enemies.[1] To express the national gratitude
for this signal deliverance, a day of thanksgiving was appointed; the
parliament, the council of State, and the council of the army assembled[c]
at Christ-church; and, after the religious service of the day, consisting
of two long sermons and appropriate prayers, proceeded to Grocer's Hall,
where they dined by invitation from the city. The speaker Lenthall, the
organ of the supreme authority, like former kings, received the sword of
state from the mayor, and delivered it to him again. At table, he was
seated at the head, supported on his right hand by the lord general, and on
the left by Bradshaw, the president of the council; thus exhibiting to the
guests the representatives of the three bodies by which the nation was
actually governed. At the conclusion of the dinner, the lord mayor
presented one thousand pounds in gold to Fairfax in a basin and ewer of the
same metal, and five hundred pounds, with a complete service of plate, to
Cromwell.[2]
The suppression of the mutiny afforded leisure to the council to direct its
attention to the proceedings in Scotland and Ireland. In the first of these
kingdoms, after the departure of Cromwell, the supreme authority had been
exercised by Argyle and his party, who were supported, and at the same time
controlled, by the paramount influence of the kirk. The forfeiture
[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 403.]
[Footnote 2: Leicester's Journal, 74. Whitelock (406) places the guests in
a different order.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. May 20.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. May 31.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1649. June 7.]
and excommunication of the "Engagers" left to their opponents the
undisputed superiority in the parliament and all the great offices of the
state. From the part which Argyle had formerly taken in the surrender of
the king, his recent connection with Cromwell, and his hostility to the
engagement, it was generally believed that he had acted in concert with the
English Independents. But he was wary, and subtle, and flexible. At the
approach of danger he could dissemble; and, whenever it suited his views,
could change his measures without changing his object. At the beginning
of January the fate with which Charles was menaced revived the languid
affection of the Scots. A cry of indignation burst from every part of the
country: he was their native king--would they suffer him to be arraigned
as a criminal before a foreign tribunal? By delivering him to his enemies,
they had sullied the fair fame of the nation--would they confirm this
disgrace by tamely acquiescing in his death? Argyle deemed it prudent to
go with the current of national feeling;[1] he suffered a committee to
be appointed in parliament, and the commissioners in London received
instructions to protest against the trial and condemnation of the king. But
these instructions disclose the timid fluctuating policy of the man by whom
they were dictated. It is vain to look in them for those warm and generous
sentiments which the case demanded. They are framed with hesitation and
caution; they betray a
[Footnote 1: Wariston had proposed (and Argyle had seconded him) to
postpone the motion for interference in the King's behalf till the Lord had
been sought by a solemn fast, but "Argyle, after he saw that it was carried
by wottes in his contrarey, changed his first opinione with a
faire appologey, and willed them then presently to enter on the
business."--Balfour, iii. 386.]
consciousness of weakness, a fear of provoking enmity, and an attention to
private interest; and they show that the protestors, if they really sought
to save the life of the monarch, were yet more anxious to avoid every act
or word which might give offence to his adversaries.[1]
The commissioners delivered the paper, and the Scottish parliament, instead
of an answer, received the news of the king's execution. The next day the
chancellor, attended by the members, proceeded to the cross in Edinburgh,
and proclaimed Charles, the son of the deceased prince, king of Scotland,
England, France, and Ireland.[a] But to this proclamation was appended a
provision, that the young prince, before he could enter on the exercise of
the royal authority, should satisfy the parliament of his adhesion both to
the national covenant of Scotland, and to the solemn league and covenant
between the two kingdoms.[2]
At length, three weeks after the death of the king, whose life it was
intended to save, the English parliament condescended to answer the
protestation of the Scots, but in a tone of contemptuous indifference, both
as to the justice of their claim and the consequences of their anger.[b]
Scotland, it was replied, might perhaps have no right to bring her
sovereign to a public trial, but that circumstance could not affect the
right of England. As the English parliament did not intend to trench on the
liberties of others, it would not permit others to trench upon its own. The
recollection of the evils inflicted on the nation by the misconduct of the
king, and the consciousness that they
[Footnote 1: See the instructions in Balfour, iii. 383; and Clarendon, iii.
280.]
[Footnote 2: Balfour, iii. 387. Clarendon, iii. 284.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Feb. 3.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. Feb. 17.]
had deserved the anger of God by their neglect to punish his offences, had
induced them to bring him to justice, a course which they doubted not God
had already approved, and would subsequently reward by the establishment of
their liberties. The Scots had now the option of being freemen or slaves;
the aid of England was offered for the vindication of their rights; if it
were refused, let them beware how they entailed on themselves and their
posterity the miseries of continual war with their nearest neighbour, and
of slavery under the issue of a tyrant.[1]
The Scottish commissioners, in reply,[a] hinted that the present was not
a full parliament; objected to any alteration in the government by king,
lords, and commons; desired that no impediment should be opposed to the
lawful succession of Charles II.; and ended by protesting that, if such
things were done, the Scots were free before God and man from the guilt,
the blood, the calamities, which it might cost the two kingdoms. Having
delivered this paper, they hastened to Gravesend. Their object was to
proceed to the United Provinces, and offer the Scottish crown on certain
conditions to the young king. But the English leaders resolved to interrupt
their mission. The answer which they had given was voted[b] a scandalous
libel, framed for the purpose of exciting sedition; the commissioners were
apprehended[c] at Gravesend as national offenders, and Captain Dolphin
received orders to conduct them under a guard to the frontiers of
Scotland.[2]
[Footnote 1: Journals, Feb. 17, 20. Clarendon, iii. 282.]
[Footnote 2: Journals, Feb. 26, 28. Whitelock, 384. Balfour, iii. 388,
389. Carte, Letters, i. 233. Dolphin received a secret instruction not to
dismiss Sir John Chiesley, but to keep him as a hostage, till he knew that
Mr. Rowe, the English agent in Edinburgh, was not detained.--Council Book,
March 2.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Feb. 24.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. Feb. 26.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1649. March 2.]
This insult, which, though keenly felt, was tamely borne, might retard, it
could not prevent, the purposes of the Scottish parliament. The earl of
Cassilis, with four new commissioners, was appointed[a] to proceed to
Holland, where Charles, under the protection of his brother-in-law, the
prince of Orange, had resided since the death of his father.[1] His court
consisted at first of the few individuals whom that monarch had placed
around him, and whom he now swore of his privy council. It was soon
augmented by the earl of Lanark, who, on the death of his brother, became
duke of Hamilton, the earl of Lauderdale, and the earl of Callendar,
the chiefs of the Scottish Engagers; these were followed by the ancient
Scottish royalists, Montrose, Kinnoul, and Seaforth, and in a few days
appeared Cassilis, with his colleagues, and three deputies from the church
of Scotland, who brought with them news not likely to insure them a
gracious reception, that the parliament, at the petition of the kirk, had
sent to the scaffold[b] the old marquess of Huntley, forfaulted for his
adhesion to the royal cause in the year 1645. All professed to have in view
the same object--the restoration of the young king; but all were divided
and alienated from each other by civil and religious bigotry. By the
commissioners, the Engagers, and by both, Montrose and his friends, were
shunned as traitors to their country, and sinners excommunicated by the
kirk. Charles was perplexed by the conflicting opinions of these several
advisers. Both the commissioners and Engagers, hostile as they were to each
[Footnote 1: Whatever may have been the policy of Argyle, he most certainly
promoted this mission, and "overswayed the opposition to it by his reason,
authority, and diligence,"--Baillie, ii. 353.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. March 17.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. March 26.]
other, represented his taking of the covenant as an essential condition;
while Montrose and his English counsellors contended that it would
exasperate the Independents, offend the friends of episcopacy, and cut off
all hope of aid from the Catholics, who could not be expected to hazard
their lives in support of a prince sworn to extirpate their religion.[1]
While the question was yet in debate, an event happened to hasten the
departure of Charles from the Hague. Dr. Dorislaus, a native of Holland,
but formerly a professor of Gresham College, and recently employed to draw
the charge against the king, arrived as envoy from the parliament to the
States.[a] That very evening, while he sat at supper in the inn, six
gentlemen with drawn swords entered the room, dragged him from his chair,
and murdered him on the floor.[2] Though the assassins were suffered to
escape, it was soon known that they were Scotsmen, most of them followers
of Montrose; and Charles, anticipating the demand of justice from the
English parliament, gave his final answer to the commissioners, that he
was, and always had been, ready to provide for the security of their
religion, the union between the kingdoms, and the internal peace and
prosperity of Scotland; but that their other demands were irreconcilable
with his conscience, his liberty, and his honour.[b] They
[Footnote 1: Clar. iii. 287-292. Baillie, ii. 333. Carte, Letters, i.
238-263. In addition to the covenant, the commissioners required the
banishment of Montrose, from which they were induced to recede, and the
limitation of the king's followers to one hundred persons.--Carte, Letters,
i. 264, 265, 266, 268, 271.]
[Footnote 2: Clarendon, iii. 293. Whitelock, 401. Journals, May 10. The
parliament settled two hundred pounds per annum on the son, and gave five
hundred pounds to each of the daughters of Dorislaus.--Ib. May 16. Two
hundred and fifty pounds was given towards his funeral.--Council Book, May
11.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. May 3.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. May 19.]
acknowledged that he was their king; it was, therefore, their duty to obey,
maintain, and defend him; and the performance of this duty he should expect
from the committee of estates, the assembly of the kirk, and the whole
nation of Scotland. They departed with this unsatisfactory answer; and
Charles, leaving the United Provinces, hastened to St. Germain in France,
to visit the queen his mother, with the intention of repairing, after a
short stay, to the army of the royalists in Ireland.[1]
That the reader may understand the state of Ireland, he must look back to
the period when the despair or patriotism of Ormond surrendered to the
parliament the capital of that kingdom.[a] The nuncio, Rinuccini, had then
seated himself in the chair of the president of the supreme council at
Kilkenny; but his administration was soon marked by disasters, which
enabled his rivals to undermine and subvert his authority.[b] The Catholic
army of Leinster, under Preston, was defeated on Dungan Hill by Jones,
the governor of Dublin, and that of Munster, under the Viscount Taafe, at
Clontarf, by the Lord Inchiquin.[2][c] To Rinuccini
[Footnote 1: Balfour, iii. 405; and the Proceedings of the Commissioners
of the Church and Kingdoms of Scotland with his Majestie at the Hague.
Edinburgh, printed by Evan Tyler, 1649.]
[Footnote 2: Rushworth, 833, 916. In the battle of Dungan Hill, at the
first charge the Commander of the Irish cavalry was slain: his men
immediately fled; the infantry repelled several charges, and retired into
a bog, where they offered to capitulate. Colonel Flower said he had no
authority to grant quarter, but at the same time ordered his men to
stand to their arms, and preserved the lives of the earl of Westmeath,
Lieutenant-General Bryne, and several officers and soldiers who repaired
to his colours. "In the mean time the Scotch colonel Tichburn, and Colonel
Moor, of Bankhall's regiments, without mercy put the rest to the sword."
They amounted to between three and four thousand men.--Belling's History of
the late Warre in Ireland, MS. ii. 95. I mention this instance to show
that Cromwell did not introduce the practice of massacre. He followed his
predecessors, whose avowed object it was to exterminate the natives.]]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. July.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. August 2.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1649. Nov. 13.]
himself these misfortunes appeared as benefits, for he distrusted Preston
and Taafe on account of their attachment to Ormond; and their depression
served to exalt his friend and protector, Owen Roe O'Neil, the leader of
the men of Ulster. But from such beginnings the nation at large anticipated
a succession of similar calamities; his adversaries obtained a majority in
the general assembly; and the nuncio, after a declaration that he advanced
no claim to temporal authority, prudently avoided a forced abdication,
by offering to resign his office.[a] A new council, consisting, in equal
number, of men chosen out of the two parties, was appointed; and the
marquess of Antrim, the Lord Muskerry, and Geoffrey Brown, were despatched
to the queen mother, and her son Charles, to solicit assistance in money
and arms, and to request that the prince would either come and reside in
Ireland, or appoint a Catholic lieutenant in his place.[b] Antrim hoped to
obtain this high office for himself; but his colleagues were instructed
to oppose his pretensions and to acquiesce in the re-appointment of the
marquess of Ormond.[1]
During the absence of these envoys, the Lord Inchiquin unexpectedly
declared, with his army, in favour of the king against the parliament, and
instantly proposed an armistice to the confederate Catholics, as friends to
the royal cause. By some the overture was indignantly rejected. Inchiquin,
they said, had been their most bitter enemy; he had made it his delight
to shed the blood of Irishmen, and to pollute and destroy their altars.
Besides, what pledge could be
[Footnote 1: Philopater Irenaeus, 50-60. Castlehaven, Memoirs, 83.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. Jan. 4]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1648. Feb. 27]
given for the fidelity of a man who, by repeatedly changing sides, had
already shown that he would always accommodate his conscience to his
interest? It were better to march against him now that he was without
allies; and, when he should be subdued, Jones with the parliamentary
army would necessarily fall. To this reasoning it was replied, that the
expedition would require time and money; that provision for the free
exercise of religion might be made in the articles; and that, at a moment
when the Catholics solicited a reconciliation with the king, they could not
in honour destroy those who drew the sword in his favour. In defiance of
the remonstrances made by Rinuccini and eight of the bishops, the treaty
proceeded;[a] and the nuncio believing, or pretending to believe, that he
was a prisoner in Kilkenny, escaped in the night over the wall of the city,
and was received at Maryborough with open arms by his friend O'Neil.[b] The
council of the Catholics agreed to the armistice, and sought by repeated
messages to remove the objections of the nuncio.[c] But zeal or resentment
urged him to exceed his powers.[d] He condemned the treaty, excommunicated
its abettors, and placed under an interdict the towns in which it should be
admitted. But his spiritual weapons were of little avail. The council,
with fourteen bishops, appealed from his censures; the forces under Taafe,
Clanricard, and Preston, sent back his messengers;[e] and, on the departure
of O'Neil, he repaired to the town of Galway, where he was sure of the
support of the people, though in opposition to the sense of the mayor and
the merchants. As a last effort, he summoned a national synod at Galway;[f]
but the council protested against it; Clanricard surrounded the town with
his army; and
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. April 27.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1648. May 9.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1648. May 22.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1648. May 27.]
[Sidenote e: A.D. 1648. May 31.]
[Sidenote f: A.D. 1648. Sept. 1.]
the inhabitants, opening the gates, made their submission.[1]
War was now openly declared between the two parties. On the one hand, Jones
in Dublin, and Monk in Ulster, concluded truces with O'Neil, that he
might be in a better condition to oppose the common enemy; on the other,
Inchiquin joined with Preston to support the authority of the council
against O'Neil. Inroads were reciprocally made; towns were taken and
retaken; and large armies were repeatedly brought in face of each other.
The council, however, began to assume a bolder tone:[a] they proclaimed
O'Neil a rebel and traitor; and, on the tardy arrival of Ormond with the
commission of lord-lieutenant, sent to Rinuccini himself an order to quit
the kingdom,[b] with the information that they had accused him to the pope
of certain high crimes and misdemeanors.[2]
[Footnote 1: See Desiderata Cur. Hib. ii. 511; Carte, ii. 20, 31-36;
Belling, in his MS. History of the late War in Ireland, part iv. 1-40. He
has inserted most of the papers which passed between the parties in this
work. See also Philopater Irenaeus, i. 60, 86; ii. 90, 94; Walsh, History
and Vindication, App. 33-40; Ponce, 90.]
[Footnote 2: The charge may be seen in Philopater Iren. i. 150-160;
Clarendon, viii. 68. Oxford, 1726. It is evident that the conduct of
Rinuccini in breaking the first peace was not only reprehensible in itself,
but productive of the most calamitous consequences both to the cause of
royalty and the civil and religious interests of the Irish Catholics. The
following is the ground on which he attempts to justify himself. Laying it
down as an undeniable truth that the Irish people had as good a right
to the establishment of their religion in their native country, as the
Covenanters in Scotland, or the Presbyterians in England, he maintains that
it was his duty to make this the great object of his proceedings. When the
peace was concluded, Charles was a prisoner in the hands of the Scots,
who had solemnly sworn to abolish the Catholic religion; and the English
royalists had been subdued by the parliament, which by repeated votes and
declarations had bound itself to extirpate the Irish race, and parcel out
the island among foreign adventurers. Now there was no human probability
that Charles would ever be restored to his throne, but on such conditions
as the parliament and the Scots should prescribe; and that, on their
demand, he would, after some struggle, sacrifice the Irish Catholics,
was plain from what had passed in his different negotiations with the
parliament, from his disavowal of Glamorgan's commission, and from the
obstinacy with which his lieutenant, Ormond, had opposed the claims of the
confederates. Hence he inferred that a peace, which left the establishment
of religion to the subsequent determination of the king, afforded no
security, but, on the contrary, was an abandonment of the cause for which
the Catholics had associated; and that it therefore became him, holding
the situation which he did, to oppose it by every means in his power.--MS.
narrative of Rinuccini's proceedings, written to be delivered to the pope;
and Ponce, 271.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1648. Sept. 3.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1648. Oct. 19.]
But he continued to issue his mandates in defiance of their orders and
threats; nor was it till after the new pacification between Charles and the
confederates had been published, and the execution of the king had fixed
the public opinion on the pernicious result of his counsels,[a] that shame
and apprehension drove him from Ireland to France,[b] whence, after a few
months, he was recalled to Rome.
The negotiation between Ormond and the Catholics had continued for three
months;[c] in January the danger which threatened the royal person induced
the latter to recede from their claims, and trust to the future gratitude
and honour of their sovereign. They engaged to maintain at their own
expense an army of seventeen thousand five hundred men, to be employed
against the common enemy; and the king, on his part, consented that the
free exercise of the Catholic worship should be permitted; that twelve
commissioners of trust appointed by the assembly should aid the
lord-lieutenant in the internal administration; that the Court of Wards and
several other grievances should be abolished; that a parliament should be
called as soon as the majority of commissioners might deem it expedient,
and in that parliament the persecuting laws on the subject of religion,
with others injurious to the trade and commerce
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Jan. 17.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. Jan. 30.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1649. Feb. 23.]
of Ireland, should be repealed, and the independence of the Irish on the
English parliament should be established.[1]
The royal interest was now predominant in Ireland. The fleet under Prince
Rupert rode triumphant off the coast; the parliamentary commanders, Jones
in Dublin, Monk in Belfast, and Coote in Londonderry, were almost confined
within the limits of their respective garrisons; and Inchiquin in Munster,
the Scottish regiments in Ulster, and the great body of the Catholics
adhering to the supreme council, had proclaimed the king, and acknowledged
the authority of his lieutenant. It was during this favourable state of
things that Charles received and accepted the invitation of Ormond;[a] but
his voyage was necessarily delayed through want of money, and his ardour
was repeatedly checked by the artful insinuation of some among his
counsellors, who secretly feared that, if he were once at the head of a
Catholic army, he would listen to the demands of the Catholics for the
establishment of their religion.[2] On the contrary, to the leaders in
London, the danger of losing Ireland became a source of the most perplexing
solicitude. The office of lord lieutenant was offered to Cromwell.[b] He
affected to hesitate; at his request two officers from each corps received
orders to meet him at Whitehall, and seek the Lord in prayer;[c] and,
after a delay of two weeks, he condescended to submit his shoulders to the
burthen, because he had now learned that it was the will of Heaven.[3][d]
Hi demands,
[Footnote 1: Phil. Iren. i. 166. Walsh, App. 43-64. Whitelock, 391. Charles
approved and promised to observe this peace.--Carte's Letters, ii. 367.]
[Footnote 2: Carte, Letters, i. 258, 262.]
[Footnote 3: Journals, March 30. Whitelock, 389, 391, 392.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. March 29.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. March 15.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1649. March 23.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1649. March 29.]
however, were so numerous, the preparations to be made so extensive, that
it was necessary to have recourse in the interval to other expedients
for the preservation of the forces and places which still admitted the
authority of the parliament. One of these was to allure to the cause of
the Independents the Catholics of the two kingdoms; for which purpose, the
sentiments of Sir Kenelm Digby and Sir John Winter were sounded,[a] and
conferences were held, through the agency of the Spanish ambassador,
with O'Reilly and Quin, two Irish ecclesiastics.[b] It was proposed that
toleration should be granted for the exercise of the Catholic worship,
without any penal disqualifications, and that the Catholics in return
should disclaim the temporal pretensions of the pope, and maintain ten
thousand men for the service of the commonwealth.
In aid of this project, Digby, Winter, and the Abbé Montague were suffered
to come to England under the pretence of compounding for their estates; and
the celebrated Thomas White, a secular clergyman, published a work entitled
"The Grounds of Obedience and Government," to show that the people may be
released from their obedience to the civil magistrate by his misconduct;
and that, when he is once deposed (whether justly or unjustly makes no
difference), it may be for the common interest to acquiesce in his removal,
rather than attempt his restoration.
That this doctrine was satisfactory to the men in power, cannot be doubted;
but they had so often reproached the late king with a coalition with the
papists, that they dared not to make the experiment, and after some time,
to blind perhaps the eyes of the people, severe votes were passed against
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. March.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. April.]
Digby, Montague, and Winter, and orders were given for the apprehension of
priests and Jesuits.[1]
In Ireland an attempt was made to fortify the parliamentary party with
the friendly aid of O'Neil.[a] That chieftain had received proposals
from Ormond, but his jealousy of the commissioners of trusts, his
former adversaries, provoked him to break off the treaty with the lord
lieutenant,[b] and to send a messenger of his own with a tender of his
services to Charles.[c] Immediately the earl of Castlehaven, by order of
Ormond, attacked and reduced his garrisons of Maryborough and Athy;[d] and
O'Neil, in revenge, listened to the suggestions of Monk, who had retired
before the superior force of the Scottish royalists from Belfast to
Dundalk.[e] A cessation of hostilities was concluded for three months;[f]
and the proposals of the Irish chieftain, modified by Monk, were
transmitted to England for the ratification of parliament. By the
"grandees" it was thought imprudent to submit them to an examination, which
would make them public; but the answer returned satisfied the contracting
parties:[g] Monk supplied O'Neil with ammunition, and O'Neil undertook to
intercept the communication between the Scottish regiments of the north and
the grand army under Ormond in the heart of the kingdom.[2]
[Footnote 1: On this obscure subject may be consulted Walker, ii. 150;
Carte's Collection of Letters, i. 216, 219, 221, 222, 224, 267, 272, 297;
ii. 363, 364; and the Journals, Aug. 31.]
[Footnote 2: O'Neil demanded liberty of conscience for himself, his
followers, and their posterity; the undisturbed possession of their lands,
as long as they remained faithful to the parliament; and, in return for his
services, the restoration of his ancestor's estate, or an equivalent. (See
both his draft, and the corrected copy by Monk, in Philop. Iren. i. 191,
and in Walker, ii. 233-238.) His agent, on his arrival in London, was asked
by the grandees why he applied to them, and refused to treat with Ormond.
He replied, because the late king had always made them fair promises; but,
when they had done him service, and he could make better terms with their
enemies, had always been ready to sacrifice them. Why then did not O'Neil
apply to the parliament sooner? Because the men in power then had sworn to
extirpate them; but those in power now professed toleration and liberty
of conscience.--Ludlow, i. 255. The agreement made with him by Monk was
rejected (Aug. 10), because, if we believe Ludlow, the Ulster men had been
the chief actors in the murder of the English, and liberty of religion
would prove dangerous to public peace. But this rejection happened much
later. It is plain that Jones, Monk, Coote, and O'Neil understood that the
agreement would be ratified, though it was delayed.--Walker, ii 198, 231,
245. See King's Pamphlets, 428, 435, 437.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. August 31.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. Feb. 20.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1649. March 16.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1649. March 21.]
[Sidenote e: A.D. 1649. April 25.]
[Sidenote f: A.D. 1649. May 8.]
[Sidenote g: A.D. 1649. May 22.]
Though the parliament had appointed Cromwell lord lieutenant of Ireland,
and vested the supreme authority, both civil and military, in his person
for three years, he was still unwilling to hazard his reputation, and
his prospects in a dangerous expedition without the adequate means of
success.[a] Out of the standing army of forty-five thousand men, with
whose aid England was now governed, he demanded a force of twelve thousand
veterans, with a plentiful supply of provisions and military stores, and
the round sum of one hundred thousand pounds in ready money.[1] On the
day of his departure, his friends assembled at Whitehall; three ministers
solemnly invoked the blessing of God on the arms of his saints; and three
officers, Goff, Harrison and the lord lieutenant himself, expounded the
scriptures "excellently well, and pertinently to the occasion."[b] After
these outpourings of the spirit, Cromwell mounted his carriage, drawn by
six horses. He was accompanied by the great officers of state and of the
army; his life-guard, eighty young men, all of quality, and several holding
[Footnote 1: Cromwell received three thousand pounds for his outfit, ten
pounds per day as general while he remained in England, and two
thousand pounds per quarter in Ireland, besides his salary as lord
lieutenant.--Council Book, July 12, No, 10.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. June 22.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. July 10.]
commissions as majors and colonels, delighted the spectators with their
splendid uniforms and gallant bearing; and the streets of the metropolis
resounded, as he drove towards Windsor, with the acclamations of the
populace and the clangour of military music.[1] It had been fixed that
the expedition should sail from Milford Haven; but the impatience of the
general was checked by the reluctance and desertion of his men. The recent
transaction between Monk and O'Neil had diffused a spirit of distrust
through the army. It was pronounced an apostasy from the principles on
which they had fought. The exaggerated horrors of the massacre in 1641 were
recalled to mind; the repeated resolutions of parliament to extirpate the
native Irish, and the solemn engagement of the army to revenge the blood
which had been shed, were warmly discussed; and the invectives of the
leaders against the late king, when he concluded a peace with the
confederate Catholics, were contrasted with their present backsliding,
when they had taken the men of Ulster for their associates and for their
brethren in arms. To appease the growing discontent, parliament annulled
the agreement. Monk, who had returned to England, was publicly assured
that, if he escaped the punishment of his indiscretion, it was on account
of his past services and good intentions. Peters from the pulpit employed
his eloquence to remove the blame from the grandees; and, if we may judge
from the sequel, promises were made, not only that the good cause should be
supported, but that the duty of revenge should be amply discharged.[2]
While the army was thus detained in the neighbourhood
[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 413. Leicester's Journal, 76.]
[Footnote 2: Walker, ii. 230, 243. Whitelock, 416. Leicester's Journal,
82.]
of Milford Haven, Jones, in Dublin, reaped the laurels which Cromwell had
destined for himself. The royal army advanced on both banks of the Liffy to
the siege of that capital;[a] and Ormond, from his quarters at Finglass,
ordered certain works to be thrown up at a place called Bogatrath. His
object was to exclude the horse of the garrison from the only pasturage in
their possession; but by some mishap, the working party did not reach the
spot till an hour before sunrise; and Jones, sallying from the walls,
overpowered the guard, and raised an alarm in the camp.[b] The confusion
of the royalists encouraged him to follow up his success. Regiment after
regiment was beaten: it was in vain that Ormond, aroused from his sleep,
flew from post to post; the different corps acted without concert; a
general panic ensued, and the whole army on the right bank fled in every
direction. The artillery, tents, baggage, and ammunition fell into the
hands of the conquerors, with two thousand prisoners, three hundred of whom
were massacred in cold blood at the gate of the city. This was called
the battle of Rathmines, a battle which destroyed the hopes of the Irish
royalists, and taught men to doubt the abilities of Ormond. At court, his
enemies ventured to hint suspicions of treason; but Charles, to silence
their murmurs and assure him of the royal favour, sent him the order of the
garter.[1][c]
The news of this important victory[d] hastened the
[Footnote 1: King's Pamphlets, No. 434, xxi. Whitelock, 410, 1, 2, 4, 5, 7,
9. Clarendon, viii. 92, 93. Carte, Letters, ii. 394, 402, 408. Baillie, ii.
346. Ludlow, i. 257, 258. Ormond, before his defeat, confidently predicted
the fall of Dublin (Carte, letters, ii. 383, 389, 391); after it, he
repeatedly asserts that Jones, to magnify his own services, makes the
royalists amount to eighteen, whereas, in reality, they were only eight,
thousand men.--Ibid. 402, 413.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. August 1.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. August 2.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1649. August 13.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1649. August 18.]
departure of Cromwell. He sailed from Milford with a single division;
his son-in-law, Ireton, followed with the remainder of the army, and a
fortnight was allowed to the soldiers to refresh themselves after their
voyage. The campaign was opened with the siege of Drogheda.[a] Ormond had
thrown into the town a garrison of two thousand five hundred chosen
men, under the command of Sir Arthur Aston, an officer who had earned a
brilliant reputation by his services to the royal cause in England during
the civil war. On the eighth day a sufficient breach had been effected in
the wall:[b] the assailants on the first attempt were driven back with
immense loss. They returned a second, perhaps a third, time to the assault,
and their perseverance was at last crowned with success. But strong works
with ramparts and pallisades had been constructed within the breach, from
which the royalists might have long maintained a sanguinary and perhaps
doubtful conflict. These entrenchments, however, whether the men were
disheartened by a sudden panic, or deceived by offers of quarter--for
both causes have been assigned--the enemy was suffered to occupy without
resistance. Cromwell (at what particular moment is uncertain) gave orders
that no one belonging to the garrison should be spared; and Aston, his
officers and men, having been previously disarmed, were put to the sword.
From thence the conquerors, stimulated by revenge and fanaticism, directed
their fury against the townsmen, and on the next morning one thousand
unresisting victims were immolated together within the walls of the great
church, whither they had fled for protection.[1][c]
[Footnote 1: See Carte's Ormond, ii. 84; Carte, Letters, iv. 412; Philop.
Iren. i. 120; Whitelock, 428; Ludlow, i. 261; Lynch, Cambrensis Eversos,
in fine; King's Pamph. 441, 447; Ormond in Carte's Letters, ii. 412; and
Cromwell in Carlyle's Letters and Speeches, i. 457.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Sept. 3.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. Sept. 11.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1649. Sept. 12.]
From Drogheda the conqueror led his men, flushed with slaughter, to the
seige of Wexford. The mayor and governor offered to capitulate; but whilst
their commissioners were treating with Cromwell, an officer perfidiously
opened the castle to the enemy; the adjacent wall was immediately
scaled;[a] and, after a stubborn but unavailing resistance in the
market-place, Wexford was abandoned to the mercy of the assailants. The
tragedy, so recently acted at Drogheda, was renewed. No distinction was
made between the defenceless inhabitant and the armed soldier; nor could
the shrieks and prayers of three hundred females, who had gathered
round the great cross, preserve them from the swords of these ruthless
barbarians. By Cromwell himself, the number of the slain is reduced to two,
by some writers it has been swelled to five, thousand.[1]
Ormond, unable to interrupt the bloody career of his adversary, waited with
impatience for the determination of O'Neil. Hitherto that chieftain had
faithfully performed his engagements with the parliamentary commanders.
He had thrown impediments in the way of the royalists; he had compelled
Montgomery to raise the siege of Londonderry, and had rescued Coote and his
small army, the last hope of the parliament in Ulster, from the fate which
seemed to await them. At first the leaders in London had hesitated, now
after the victory of Rathmines they publicly refused, to ratify the
treaties made with him by their officers.[2] Stung
[Footnote 1: See note (D).]
[Footnote 2: Council Book, Aug. 6, No. 67, 68, 69, 70. Journals, Aug. 10,
24. Walker, ii. 245-248. King's Pamphlets, No. 435, xi.; 437, xxxiii. The
reader must not confound this Owen Roe O'Neil with another of the same
name, one of the regicides, who claimed a debt of five thousand and
sixty-five pounds seventeen shillings and sixpence of the parliament,
and obtained an order for it to be paid out of the forfeited lands in
Ireland.--Journ. 1653, Sept. 9.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Oct 12.]
with indignation, O'Neil accepted the offers of Ormond, and marched from
Londonderry to join the royal army; but his progress was retarded by
sickness, and he died at Clocknacter in Cavan. His officers, however,
fulfilled his intentions; the arrival of the men of Ulster revived the
courage of their associates; and the English general was successively
foiled in his attempts upon Duncannon and Waterford. His forces already
began to suffer from the inclemency of the season, when Lord Broghill, who
had lately returned from England, debauched the fidelity of the regiments
under Lord Inchiquin. The garrisons of Cork, Youghal, Bandon, and Kinsale
declared for the parliament, and Cromwell seized the opportunity to close
the campaign and place his followers in winter quarters.[1]
But inactivity suited not his policy or inclination. After seven weeks of
repose he again summoned them into the field;[a] and at the head of twenty
thousand men, well appointed and disciplined, confidently anticipated the
entire conquest of Ireland. The royalists were destitute of money, arms,
and ammunition; a pestilential disease, introduced with the cargo of a
ship from Spain, ravaged their quarters; in the north, Charlemont alone
acknowledged the royal authority; in Leinster and Munster, almost every
place of importance had been wrested from them by force or perfidy; and
even in Connaught, their last refuge, internal dissension prevented that
union which alone could save them from utter destruction. Their misfortunes
called into
[Footnote 1: Phil. Iren. i. 231. Carte's Ormond, ii. 102. Desid. Curios.
Hib. ii. 521.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. Jan. 29.]
action the factions which had lain dormant since the departure of the
nuncio. The recent treachery of Inchiquin's forces had engendered feelings
of jealousy and suspicion; and many contended that it was better to submit
at once to the conqueror than to depend on the doubtful fidelity of the
lord lieutenant. Cromwell met with little resistance: wherever he came,
he held out the promise of life and liberty of conscience;[1] but the
rejection of the offer, though it were afterwards accepted, was punished
with the blood of the officers; and, if the place were taken by force, with
indiscriminate slaughter.[2] Proceeding on this plan, one day granting
quarter, another putting the leaders only to the sword, and on the next
immolating the whole garrison, hundreds of human beings at a time, he
quickly reduced most of the towns and castles in the three counties of
Limerick, Tipperary, and Kilkenny. But this bloody policy at length
recoiled upon its author. Men, with no alternative but victory or death,
learned to fight with the energy of despair. At the siege of Kilkenny the
assailants, though twice repulsed from the breach, were, by the timidity of
some of the inhabitants,
[Footnote 1: Liberty of conscience he explained to mean liberty of internal
belief, not of external worship.--See his letter in Phil. Iren. i. 270.]
[Footnote 2: The Irish commanders disdained to imitate the cruelty of their
enemies. "I took," says Lord Castlehaven, "Athy by storm, with all the
garrison (seven hundred men) prisoners. I made a present of them to
Cromwell, desiring him by letter that he would do the like with me, as any
of mine should fall in his power. But he little valued my civility. For,
in a few days after, he besieged Gouvan; and the soldiers mutinying, and
giving up the place with their officers, he caused the governor, Hammond,
and some other officers, to be put to death."--Castlehaven, 107. Ormond
also says, in one of his letters, "the next day Rathfarnham was taken by
storm, and all that were in it made prisoners; and though five hundred
soldiers entered the castle before any officer of note, yet not one
creature was killed; which I tell you by the way, to observe the difference
betwixt our and the rebels making use of a victory."--Carte, Letters, ii.
408.]
admitted within the walls; yet, so obstinate was the resistance of the
garrison, that, to spare his own men, the general consented to grant them
honourable terms. From Kilkenny he proceeded to the town of Clonmel,[a]
where Hugh, the son of the deceased O'Neil, commanded with one thousand two
hundred of the best troops of Ulster. The duration of the siege exhausted
his patience; the breach was stormed a second time; and, after a conflict
of four hours, the English were driven back with considerable loss.[b] The
garrison, however, had expended their ammunition; they took advantage of
the confusion of the enemy to depart during the darkness of the night; and
the townsmen the next morning, keeping the secret, obtained from Cromwell a
favourable capitulation.[1][c] This was his last exploit in Ireland. From
Clonmel he was recalled to England to undertake a service of greater
importance and difficulty, to which the reader must now direct his
attention.
The young king, it will be remembered, had left the Hague on his circuitous
route to Ireland, whither he had been called by the advice of Ormond
and the wishes of the royalists.[d] He was detained three months at St.
Germains by the charms of a mistress or the intrigues of his courtiers, nor
did he reach the island of Jersey till long after the disastrous battle
of Rathmines.[e] That event made his further progress a matter of serious
discussion; and the difficulty was increased by the arrival of Wynram of
Libertoun, with addresses from the parliament and the kirk of Scotland.[f]
The first offered, on his acknowledgment of their authority as a
parliament, to treat with him respecting the
[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 449, 456. Castlehaven, 108. Ludlow, i. 265. Perfect
Politician, 70.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. March 28.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. May 8.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. May 10.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1649. June.]
[Sidenote e: A.D. 1649. September.]
[Sidenote f: A.D. 1649. October.]
conditions proposed by their former commissioners; but the latter, in
language unceremonious and insulting, laid before him the sins of his
youth; his refusal to allow the Son of God to reign over him in the pure
ordinances of church government and worship; his cleaving to counsellors
who never had the glory of God or the good of his people before their eyes;
his admission to his person of that "fugacious man and excommunicate rebel,
James Graham" and, above all, "his giving the royal power and strength to
the beast," by concluding a peace "with the Irish papists, the murderers of
so many Protestants." They bade him remember the iniquities of his father's
house, and be assured that, unless he laid aside the "service-book, so
stuffed with Romish corruptions, for the reformation of doctrine and
worship agreed upon by the divines at Westminster," and approved of the
covenant in his three kingdoms, without which the people could have no
security for their religion or liberty, he would find that the Lord's anger
was not turned away, but that his hand was still stretched against the
royal person and his family.[1]
This coarse and intemperate lecture was not calculated to make a convert
of a young and spirited prince. Instead of giving an answer, he waited to
ascertain the opinion of Ormond; and at last, though inclination prompted
him to throw himself into the arms of his Irish adherents, he reluctantly
submitted to the authority of that officer, who declared, that the only way
to preserve Ireland was by provoking a war between England and Scotland[2].
Charles now condescended[a]
[Footnote 1: Clar. State Papers, iii. App. 89-92. Carte's Letters, i. 323.
Whitelock, 439. The address of the kirk was composed by Mr. Wood, and
disapproved by the more moderate.--Baillie, ii. 339, 345.]
[Footnote 2: Carte's Letters, i. 333, 340.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. Jan. 11.]
to give to the convention the title of estates of parliament, appointed
Breda, a small town, the private patrimony of the prince of Orange, for
the place of treaty; and met[a] there the new commissioners, the earls of
Cassilis and Lothian, with two barons, two burgesses, and three ministers.
Their present scarcely differed from their former demands; nor were they
less unpalatable to the king. To consent to them appeared to him an
apostasy from the principles for which his father fought and died; an
abandonment of the Scottish friends of his family to the mercy of his and
their enemies. On the other hand, the prince of Orange importuned him to
acquiesce; many of his counsellors suggested that, if he were once on the
throne, he might soften or subdue the obstinacy of the Scottish parliament;
and his mother, by her letters, exhorted him not to sacrifice to his
feelings this his last resource, the only remaining expedient for the
recovery of his three kingdoms. But the king had still another resource;
he sought delays; his eyes were fixed on the efforts of his friends in the
north of Scotland; and he continued to indulge a hope of being replaced
without conditions on the ancient throne of his ancestors.[1]
Before the king left St. Germains[b] he had given to Montrose a commission
to raise the royal standard in Scotland. The fame of that nobleman secured
to him a gracious reception from the northern sovereigns; he visited each
court in succession; and in all obtained permission to levy men, and
received aid either in money or in military stores. In autumn he despatched
the first expedition of twelve thousand men from
[Footnote 1: Carte's Letters, i. 338, 355. Whitelock, 430. Clarendon, iii.
343.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. March 15.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. August.]
Gottenburg under the Lord Kinnoul; but the winds and waves fought against
the royalists; several sail were lost among the rocks; and, when Kinnoul
landed[a] at Kirkwall in the Orkneys, he could muster only eighty officers
and one hundred common soldiers out of the whole number. But Montrose was
not to be appalled by ordinary difficulties. Having received[b] from the
new king the order of the garter, he followed with five hundred men, mostly
foreigners; added them to the wreck of the first expedition, and to the
new levies, and then found himself at the head of a force of more than one
thousand men. His banners on which was painted a representation of the late
king decapitated, with this motto, "Judge and avenge my cause, O Lord," was
intrusted to young Menzies of Pitfoddels, and a declaration was circulated
through the Highlands, calling upon all true Scotsmen to aid in
establishing their king upon the throne, and in saving him from the
treachery of those, who, if they had him in their power, would sell him as
they had sold his father to English rebels. Having transported[c] his whole
force from Holm Sound to the Northern extremity of Caithness, he traversed
that and the neighbouring county of Sutherland, calling on the natives to
join the standard of their sovereign. But his name had now lost that magic
influence which success had once thrown around it; and the several clans
shunned his approach through fear, or watched his progress as foes. In the
mean time his declaration had been solemnly burnt[d] by the hangman in the
capital; the pulpits had poured out denunciations against the "rebel and
apostate Montrose, the viperous brood of Satan, and the accursed of God and
the kirk;" and a force of four thousand regulars had been collected
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1644. October.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. Jan. 12.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. March.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1650. Feb. 9.]
on Brechin Moor under the command of General Leslie, who was careful to cut
off every source of information from the royalists. Montrose had reached[a]
the borders of Ross-shire, when Colonel Strachan, who had been sent forward
to watch his motions, learned[b] in Corbiesdale that the royalists,
unsuspicious of danger, lay at the short distance of only two miles.
Calling his men around him under the cover of the long broom on the moor,
he prayed, sang a psalm, and declared that he had consulted the Almighty,
and knew as assuredly as there was a God in heaven, that the enemies of
Christ were delivered into their hands. Then dividing his small force of
about four hundred men into several bodies, he showed at first a single
troop of horse, whom the royalists prepared to receive with their cavalry;
but after a short interval, appeared a second, then a third, then a fourth;
and Montrose believing that Leslie's entire army was advancing, ordered
the infantry to take shelter among the brushwood and stunted trees on a
neighbouring eminence. But before this movement could be executed, his
horse were broken, and his whole force lay at the mercy of the enemy. The
standard-bearer with several officers and most of the natives were slain;
the mercenaries made a show of resistance, and obtained quarter; and
Montrose, whose horse had been killed under him, accompanied by Kinnoul,
wandered on foot, without a guide, up the valley of the Kyle, and over the
mountains of Sutherland. Kinnoul, unable to bear the hunger and fatigue,
was left and perished; Montrose, on the third day,[c] obtained refreshment
at the hut of a shepherd; and, being afterwards discovered, claimed the
protection of Macleod of Assynt, who had formerly served under him in the
royal army. But the
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. April 25.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. April 27.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. April 30.]
fidelity of the laird was not proof against temptation; he sold[a] the
king's lieutenant for four hundred bolls of meal; and Argyle and his
associates, almost frantic with joy, passed an act to regulate the
ignominious treatment to which their captive should be subjected, the
form of the judgment to be pronounced, and the manner of his subsequent
execution. When Montrose reached[b] the capital, he found the magistrates
in their robes waiting to receive him. First the royal officers,
twenty-three in number, were ranged in two files, and ordered to walk
forward manacled and bareheaded; next came the hangman with his bonnet on
his head, dressed in the livery of his office, and mounted on his horse
that drew a vehicle of new form devised for the occasion; and then on this
vehicle was seen Montrose himself, seated on a lofty form, and pinioned,
and uncovered. The procession paraded slowly through the city from the
Watergate to the common jail, whilst the streets resounded with shouts of
triumph, and with every expression of hatred which religious or political
fanaticism could inspire.[1]
From his enemies Montrose could expect no mercy; but his death was
hastened, that the king might not have time to intercede in his favour. The
following day, a Sunday, was indeed given to prayer; but on the next the
work of vengeance was resumed, and the captive was summoned[c] before
the parliament. His features, pale and haggard, showed the fatigue and
privations which he had endured; but his dress was
[Footnote 1: Carte's Letters, i. 345. Balfour, iii. 432, 439; iv. 8-13.
Whitelock, 435, 452, 453, 454, 455. Clarendon, iii. 348-353. Laing, iii.
443. The neighbouring clans ravaged the lands of Assynt to revenge the
fate of Montrose, and the parliament granted in return to Macleod twenty
thousand pounds Scots out of the fines to be levied on the royalists in
Caithness and Orkney.--Balf. iv. 52, 56.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. May 17.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. May 18.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. May 20.]
splendid, his mien fearless, his language calm, firm, and dignified. To the
chancellor, who, in a tone of bitterness and reprobation, enumerated the
offences with which he was charged, he replied, that since the king had
condescended to treat with them as estates, it became not a subject to
dispute their authority; but that the apostasy and rebellion with which
they reproached him were, in his estimation, acts of duty. Whatever he had
done, either in the last or present reign, had been done with the sanction
of the sovereign. If he had formerly taken up arms, it had been to divert
his countrymen from the impious war which they waged against the royal
authority in England; if now, his object was to accelerate the existing
negotiation between them and their new king. As a Christian, he had always
supported that cause which his conscience approved; as a subject, he always
fought in support of his prince; and as a neighbour, he had frequently
preserved the lives of those who had forfeited them against him in battle.
The chancellor, in return, declared him a murderer of his fellow-subjects,
an enemy to the covenant and the peace of the kingdom, and an agitator,
whose ambition had helped to destroy the father, and was now employed for
the destruction of the son. Judgment, which had been passed in parliament
some days before, was then pronounced, by the dempster, that James Graham
should be hanged for the space of three hours on a gibbet thirty feet high,
that his head should be fixed on a spike in Edinburgh, his arms on the
gates of Perth or Stirling, his legs on those of Glasgow and Aberdeen,
and his body be interred by the hangman on the burrowmuir, unless he were
previously released from excommunication by the kirk. During this trying
scene, his enemies eagerly watched his demeanour. Twice, if we may believe
report, he was heard to sigh, and his eyes occasionally wandered along
the cornice of the hall. But he stood before them cool and collected; no
symptom of perturbation marked his countenance, no expression of complaint
or impatience escaped his lips; he showed himself superior to insult, and
unscarred at the menaces of death.
The same high tone of feeling supported the unfortunate victim to the last
gasp. When the ministers admonished[a] him that his punishment in
this world was but a shadow of that which awaited him in the next, he
indignantly replied, that he gloried in his fate, and only lamented that he
had not limbs sufficient to furnish every city in Christendom with proofs
of his loyalty. On the scaffold, he maintained the uprightness of his
conduct, praised the character of the present king, and appealed from the
censures of the kirk to the justice of Heaven. As a last disgrace, the
executioner hung round his neck his late declaration, with the history of
his former exploits. He smiled at the malice of his enemies, and said that
they had given. him a more brilliant decoration than the garter with which
he had been honoured by his sovereign. Montrose, by his death, won more
proselytes to the royal cause than he had ever made by his victories. He
was in his thirty-eighth year.[1]
[Footnote 1: Balfour, iv. 13, 15, 16, 19-22. Wishart, 389. Clar. iii.
353-356. Whitelock, 456. Colonel Hurry, whom the reader has seen
successively serving under the king and the parliament in the civil war;
Spotiswood, the grandson of the archbishop of that name; Sir W. Hay, who
had been forefaulted as a Catholic in 1647; Sibbald, the confidential envoy
of Montrose, and several others, were beheaded. Of the common soldiers,
some were given to different lords to be fishermen or miners, and the rest
enrolled in regiments in the French service.--Balfour, iv. 18, 27, 28, 32,
33, 44.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. May 21.]
Long before this the commissioners from both parties had met at Breda;
and, on the very day of the opening of the conferences, Charles
had despatched[a] an order to Montrose to proceed according to his
instructions, and to bear in mind that the success of the negotiation
at Breda depended on the success of his arms in Scotland. A month
afterwards[b] he commended in strong terms the loyalty of Lord Napier,
and urged him to repair without delay to the aid of his lieutenant. It is
impossible after this to doubt of his approbation of the attempt; but, when
the news arrived of the action at Corbiesdale, his eyes were opened to the
danger which threatened him; the estates, in the insolence of victory,
might pass an act to exclude him at once from the succession to the
Scottish throne. Acting, therefore, after the unworthy precedent set by
his father respecting the powers given to Glamorgan, he wrote[c] to
the parliament, protesting that the invasion made by Montrose had been
expressly forbidden by him, and begging that they "would do him the justice
to believe that he had not been accessory to it in the least degree;" in
confirmation of which the secretary at the same time assured Argyle that
the king felt no regret for the defeat of a man who had presumed to draw
the sword "without and contrary to the royal command." These letters
arrived[d] too late
[Footnote 1: Carte, iv. 626.]
[Footnote 2: Napier's Montrose, ii. 528. Yet on May 5th the king signed an
article, stipulating that Montrose should lay down his arms, receiving a
full indemnity for all that was past.--Carte, iv. 630. This article reached
Edinburgh before the execution of Montrose, and was kept secret. I see not,
however, what benefit he could claim from it. He had not laid down arms in
obedience to it; for he had been defeated a week before it was signed.]
[Footnote 3: Balfour, iv. 24, 25. Yet on May 15th Charles wrote to Montrose
to act according to the article in the last note.--Ibid.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. March 15.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. April 15.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. May 12.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1650. May 25.]
to be of injury to the unfortunate victim, whose limbs were already
bleaching on the gates of the principal towns in Scotland; but the
falsehood so confidently put forth must cover with infamy the prince who
could thus, to screen himself from the anger of his enemies, calumniate the
most devoted of his followers, one who had so often perilled, and at length
forfeited, his life in defence of the throne.
Charles had now no resource but to submit with the best grace to the
demands of the Scots. He signed the treaty,[a] binding himself to take
the Scottish covenant and the solemn league and covenant; to disavow
and declare null the peace with the Irish, and never to permit the free
exercise of the Catholic religion in Ireland, or any other part of his
dominions; to acknowledge the authority of all parliaments held since the
commencement of the late war; and to govern, in civil matters, by advice of
the parliament, in religious, by that of the kirk.[1] These preliminaries
being settled,[b] he embarked on board a small squadron furnished by the
prince of Orange, and, after a perilous navigation of three weeks, during
which he had to contend with the stormy weather, and to elude the pursuit
of the parliamentary cruisers, he arrived in safety in the Frith of
Cromartie.[c] The king was received with the honours due to his dignity; a
court with proper officers was prepared for him at Falkland, and the sum
of one hundred thousand pounds Scots, or nine thousand pounds English, was
voted for the monthly expense of his household. But the parliament had
previously[d] passed an act banishing from Scotland several of the royal
favourites by name, and excluding the "engagers" from the verge of the
court, and all employment
[Footnote 1: Thurloe, i. 147.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. May 13.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. June 2.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. June 23.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1650. June 4.]
in the state. After repeated applications, the duke of Buckingham, the
Lord Wilmot, and a few English servants, who took the covenant, obtained
permission to remain with the king; many of the Scottish exiles embraced
the opportunity to withdraw from notice into the western isles, or the more
distant parts of the country.[1]
It was the negotiation between the Scots and their nominal king that
arrested Cromwell in the career of victory, and called him away from the
completion of his conquest. The rulers of the commonwealth were aware of
the intimate connection which the solemn league and covenant had produced
between the English Presbyterians and the kirk of Scotland, whence they
naturally inferred that, if the pretender to the English were once
seated on the Scottish throne, their own power would he placed on a very
precarious footing. From the first they had watched with jealousy the
unfriendly proceedings of the Scottish parliament. Advice and persuasion
had been tried, and had failed. There remained the resource of war; and
war, it was hoped, would either compel the Scots to abandon the claims of
Charles, or reduce Scotland to a province of the commonwealth. Fairfax,
indeed (he was supposed to be under the influence of a Presbyterian wife
and of the Presbyterian ministers), disapproved of the design;[2] but
his disapprobation, though lamented in public, was privately hailed as a
benefit by those who were acquainted with the aspiring designs of Cromwell,
and built on his elevation the flattering hope of their own greatness. By
their means, as soon as the
[Footnote 1: Balfour, iv. 41, 60, 61, 64, 65, 67, 73, 77, 78. Whitelock,
462. Clarendon, iii. 346, 356, 357.]
[Footnote 2: Whitelock, 438.]
lord lieutenant had put his troops into winter quarters, an order was
obtained from parliament for him to attend his duty in the house; but he
resumed his military operations,[a] and two months were suffered to elapse
before he noticed the command of the supreme authority, and condescended to
make an unmeaning apology for his disobedience.[b] On the renewal of the
order,[c] he left the command in Ireland to Ireton, and, returning to
England, appeared in his seat.[d] He was received with acclamations; the
palace of St. James's was allotted for his residence, and a valuable grant
of lands was voted[e] as a reward for his eminent services. In a few days
followed the appointment of Fairfax to the office of commander-in-chief,[f]
and of Cromwell to that of lieutenant-general of the army designed to be
employed in Scotland. Each signified his "readiness to observe the orders
of the house;" but Fairfax at the same time revealed his secret and
conscientious objections to the council of state. A deputation of five
members, Cromwell, Lambert, Harrison, Whitelock, and St. John, waited on
him at his house;[g] the conference was opened by a solemn invocation of
the Holy Spirit, and the three officers prayed in succession with the most
edifying fervour. Then Fairfax said that, to his mind, the invasion of
Scotland appeared a violation of the solemn league and covenant which he
had sworn to observe. It was replied that the Scots themselves had broken
the league by the invasion of England under the duke of Hamilton; and that
it was always lawful to prevent the hostile designs of another power. But
he answered that the Scottish parliament had given satisfaction by the
punishment of the guilty; that the probability of hostile designs ought
indeed to lead to measures of precaution, but that certainty was
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. Jan. 8.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. April 2.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. May 30.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1650. June 4.]
[Sidenote e: A.D. 1650. June 12.]
[Sidenote f: A.D. 1650. June 14.]
[Sidenote g: A.D. 1650. June 24.]
required to justify actual invasion. No impression was made on his mind;
and, though Cromwell and his brother officers earnestly solicited him to
comply, "there was cause enough," says one of the deputation, "to believe
that they did not overmuch desire it."[1] The next day[a] another attempt
ended with as little success; the lord general alleging the plea of infirm
health and misboding conscience, sent back the last commission, and at the
request of the house, the former also; and the chief command of all the
forces raised, or to be raised by order of parliament, was conferred on
Oliver Cromwell.[b] Thus this adventurer obtained at the same time the
praise of moderation and the object of his ambition. Immediately he
left the capital for Scotland;[c] and Fairfax retired to his estate in
Yorkshire, where he lived with the privacy of a country gentleman, till he
once more drew the sword, not in support of the commonwealth, but in favour
of the king.[2]
To a spectator who considered the preparations of the two kingdoms, there
could be little doubt of the result. Cromwell passed the Tweed[d] at the
head of sixteen thousand men, most of them veterans, all habituated to
military discipline, before the raw levies of the Scots had quitted their
respective shires. By order of the Scottish parliament, the army had been
fixed at thirty thousand men; the nominal command had been given to the
earl of Leven, the real, on account of the age and infirmities of that
officer, to his relative, David Leslie, and instructions had been
[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 460, 462. Ludlow says, "he acted his part so to the
life, that I really thought him in earnest; but the consequence made it
sufficiently evident that he had no such intention" (i. 272).
Hutchinson, who was present on one of these occasions, thought him
sincere.--Hutchinson, 315.]
[Footnote 2: Whitelock, 438, 450, 457. Journals, Jan. 8, Feb. 25, March 30,
April 15, May 2, 7, 30, June 4, 12, 14, 25, 26.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. June 25.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. June 26.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. June 29.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1650. July 16.]
issued that the country between Berwick and the capital should be laid
waste, that the cattle and provisions should be removed or destroyed, and
that the inhabitants should abandon their homes under the penalties of
infamy, confiscation, and death. In aid of this measure, reports were
industriously circulated of the cruelties exercised by Cromwell in Ireland;
that, wherever he came, he gave orders to put all the males between sixteen
and sixty to death, to deprive all the boys between six and sixteen of
their right hands, and to bore the breasts of the females with red-hot
irons. The English were surprised at the silence and desolation which
reigned around them; for the only human beings whom they met on their march
through this wilderness, were a few old women and children who on their
knees solicited mercy. But Cromwell conducted them by the sea coast; the
fleet daily supplied them with provisions, and their good conduct gradually
dispelled the apprehensions of the natives.[1] They found[a] the Scottish
levies posted behind a deep intrenchment, running from Edinburgh to Leith,
fortified with numerous batteries, and flanked by the cannon of the castle
at one extremity, and of the harbour at the other. Cromwell employed all
his art to provoke Leslie to avoid an engagement. It was in vain that for
more than a month the former marched and countermarched; that he threatened
general, and made partial, attacks. Leslie remained fixed within his lines;
or, if he occasionally moved,
[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 465, 466, 468. Perfect Diurnal, No. 324. See the
three declarations: that of the parliament on the marching of the army; of
the army itself, addressed "to all that are saints and partakers of the
faith of God's elect in Scotland;" and, the third, from Cromwell, dated
at Berwick, in the Parliamentary History, xix. 276, 298, 310; King's
Pamphlets, 473.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. July 28.]
watched the motions of the enemy from the nearest mountains, or interposed
a river or morass between the two armies. The English began to be exhausted
with fatigue; sickness thinned their ranks; the arrival of provisions
depended on the winds and waves; and Cromwell was taught to fear, not the
valour of the enemy, but the prudence of their general.[1]
The reader will already have observed how much at this period the exercises
of religion were mixed up with the concerns of state and even the
operations of war. Both parties equally believed that the result of
the expedition depended on the will of the Almighty, and that it was,
therefore, their duty to propitiate his anger by fasting and humiliation.
In the English army the officers prayed and preached: they "sanctified the
camp," and exhorted the men to unity of mind and godliness of life. Among
the Scots this duty was discharged by the ministers; and so fervent was
their piety, so merciless their zeal, that, in addition to their prayers,
they occasionally compelled the young king to listen to six long sermons
on the same day, during which he assumed an air of gravity, and displayed
feelings of devotion, which ill-accorded with his real disposition. But
the English had no national crime to deplore; by punishing the late king,
they had atoned for the evils of the civil war; the Scots, on the
contrary, had adopted his son without any real proof of his conversion, and
therefore feared that they might draw down on the country the punishment
due to his sins and those of his family. It happened[a] that Charles, by
the advice of the earl of Eglington, presumed to visit the army on the
Links of
[Footnote 1: Balfour, iv. 87, 88, 90. Whitelock, 467, 468.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. July 29.]
Leith. He was received with shouts of enthusiasm by the soldiers, who, on
their knees, pledged the health of their young sovereign; but the committee
of the kirk complained[a] that his presence led to ebriety and profaneness,
and he received a request,[b] equivalent to a command, to quit the camp.
The next day a declaration was made, that the company of malignants,
engagers, and enemies to the covenant, could not fail of multiplying
the judgments of God upon the land; an inquiry was instituted into the
characters of numerous individuals; and eighty officers, with many of their
men, were cashiered,[c] that they might not contaminate by their presence
the army of the saints.[1] Still it was for Charles Stuart, the chief of
the malignants, that they were to fight, and therefore from him, to appease
the anger of the Almighty, an expiatory declaration was required[d] in the
name of the parliament and the kirk.
In this instrument he was called upon to lament, in the language of
penitence and self-abasement, his father's opposition to the work of God
and to the solemn league and covenant, which had caused the blood of the
Lord's people to be shed, and the idolatry of his mother, the toleration of
which in the king's house could not fail to be a high provocation against
him who is a jealous God, visiting the sins of the fathers upon the
children; to declare that he had subscribed the covenant with sincerity of
heart, and would have no friends nor enemies but those who were friends or
enemies to it; to acknowledge the sinfulness of the treaty with the bloody
rebels in Ireland, which he was made to pronounce null and void; to detest
popery and prelacy, idolatry and heresy, schism
[Footnote 1: Balfour, iv. 86, 89.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. August 2.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. August 3.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. August 5.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1650. August 9.]
and profaneness; and to promise that he would accord to a free parliament
in England the propositions of the two kingdoms, and reform the church
of England according to the plan devised by the assembly of divines at
Westminster.[1]
When first this declaration, so humbling to his pride, so offensive to his
feelings, was presented[a] to Charles for his signature, he returned[b] an
indignant refusal; a little reflection induced him to solicit the advice
of the council, and the opinion of the principal ministers. But the godly
refused to wait; the two committees of the kirk and kingdom protested[c]
that they disowned the quarrel and interest of every malignant party,
disclaimed the guilt of the king and his house, and would never prosecute
his interest without his acknowledgment of the sins of his family and of
his former ways, and his promise of giving satisfaction to God's people
in both kingdoms. This protestation was printed and furtively sent to the
English camp; the officers of the army presented[d] to the committee of
estates a remonstrance and supplication expressive of their adhesion; and
the ministers maintained from their pulpits that the king was the root
of malignancy, and a hypocrite, who had taken the covenant without an
intention of keeping it. Charles, yielding to his own fears and the advice
of his friends; at the end of three days subscribed,[e] with tears, the
obnoxious instrument. If it were folly in the Scots to propose to the young
prince a declaration so repugnant to his feelings and opinions, it was
greater folly still to believe that professions of repentance extorted
[Footnote 1: Balfour, iv. 92. Whitelock, 469. "A declaration by the king's
majesty to his subjects of the kingdoms of Scotland, England, and Ireland."
Printed 1650.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. August 10.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. August 13.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. August 14.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1650. August 15.]
[Sidenote e: A.D. 1650. August 16.]
with so much violence could be sincere or satisfactory; yet his
subscription was received with expressions of joy and gratitude; both the
army and the city observed a solemn fast for the sins of the two kings, the
father and the son; and the ministers, now that the anger of Heaven had
been appeased, assured their hearers of an easy victory over a "blaspheming
general and a sectarian army."[1]
If their predictions were not verified, the fault was undoubtedly their
own. The caution and vigilance of Leslie had triumphed over the skill and
activity of "the blasphemer." Cromwell saw no alternative but victory or
retreat: of the first he had no doubt, if he could come in contact with the
enemy; the second was a perilous attempt, when the passes before him
were pre-occupied, and a more numerous force was hanging on his rear. At
Musselburg, having sent the sick on board the fleet (they suffered both
from the "disease of the country," and from fevers caused by exposure on
the Pentland hills), he ordered[a] the army to march the next morning to
Haddington, and thence to Dunbar; and the same night a meteor, which the
imagination of the beholders likened to a sword of fire, was seen to pass
over Edinburgh in a south-easterly direction, an evident presages in the
opinion of the Scots, that the flames of war would be transferred
[Footnote 1: Balfour, iv. 91, 92, 95. The English parliament in their
answer exclaim: "What a blessed and hopeful change is wrought in a moment
in this young king! How hearty is he become to the cause of God and the
work of reformation. How readily doth he swallow down these bitter pills,
which are prepared for and urged upon him, as necessary to effect that
desperate care under which his affairs lie! But who sees not the crass
hypocrisy of this whole transaction, and the sandy and rotten foundation
of all the resolutions flowing hereupon?"--See Parliamentary History, xix.
359-386.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. August 30.]
to the remotest extremity of England.[1] At Dunbar, Cromwell posted his men
in the vicinity of Broxmouth House; Leslie with the Scots moving along the
heights of Lammermuir, occupied[a] a position on the Doon Hill, about two
miles to the south of the invaders; and the advanced posts of the armies
were separated only by a ravine of the depth and breadth of about thirty
feet. Cromwell was not ignorant of the danger of his situation; he had even
thought of putting the infantry on board the fleet, and of attempting to
escape with the cavalry by the only outlet, the high road to Berwick; but
the next moment he condemned the thought as "a weakness of the flesh, a
distrust in the power of the Almighty;" and ordered the army "to seek
the Lord, who would assuredly find a way of deliverance for his faithful
servants." On the other side the committees of the kirk and estates exulted
in the prospect of executing the vengeance of God upon "the sectaries;" and
afraid that the enemy should escape, compelled their general to depart from
his usual caution, and to make preparation for battle. Cromwell, with his
officers, had spent part of the day in calling upon the Lord; while he
prayed, the enthusiast felt an enlargement of the heart, a buoyancy of
spirit, which he took for an infallible presage of victory; and, beholding
through his glass the motion in the Scottish camp, he exclaimed, "They are
coming down; the Lord hath delivered them into our hands."[2] During the
[Footnote 1: Balfour, iv. 94.]
[Footnote 2: Sagredo, the Venetian ambassador, in his relation to the
senate, says that Cromwell pretended to have been assured of the victory
by a supernatural voice. Prima che venisse alla battaglia, diede cuore ai
soldati con assicurargli la vittoria predettagli da Dio, con una voce, che
lo aveva a mezza notte riscosso dal sonno. MS. copy in my possession.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. August 31.]
night, he advanced the army to the edge of the ravine; and at an early hour
in the morning[a] the Scots attempted to seize the pass on the road from
Dunbar to Berwick. After a sharp contest, the Scottish lancers, aided
by their artillery, charged down the hill, drove the brigade of English
cavalry from its position, and broke through the infantry, which had
advanced to the support of the horse. At that moment the sun made its
appearance above the horizon; and Cromwell, turning to his own regiment
of foot, exclaimed, "Let the Lord arise, and scatter his enemies." They
instantly moved forward with their pikes levelled; the horse rallied; and
the enemy's lancers hesitated, broke, and fled. At that moment the mist
dispersed, and the first spectacle which struck the eyes of the Scots, was
the route of their cavalry. A sudden panic instantly spread from the right
to the left of their line; at the approach of the English they threw down
their arms and ran. Cromwell's regiment halted to sing the 117th Psalm; but
the pursuit was continued for more than eight miles; the dead bodies of
three thousand Scots strewed their native soil; and ten thousand prisoners,
with the artillery, ammunition, and baggage, became the reward of the
conquerors.[1]
Cromwell now thought no more of his retreat. He marched back to the
capital; the hope of resistance was abandoned; Edinburgh and Leith opened
their gates, and the whole country to the Forth submitted
[Footnote 1: Carte's Letters, i. 381. Whitelock, 470, 471. Ludlow, i. 283.
Balfour, iv. 97. Several proceedings, No. 50. Parl. Hist. xix. 343-352,
478. Cromwelliana, 89. Of the prisoners, five thousand one hundred,
something more than one-half, being wounded, were dismissed to their homes,
the other half were driven "like turkies" into England. Of these, one
thousand six hundred died of a pestilential disease, and five hundred were
actually sick on Oct 31.--Whitelock, 471. Old Parl. Hist. xix. 417.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. Sept. 3.]
to the will of the English general. Still the presumption of the six
ministers who formed the committee of the kirk was not humbled. Though
their predictions had been falsified, they were still the depositaries of
the secrets of the Deity; and, in a "Short Declaration and Warning," they
announced[a] to their countrymen the thirteen causes of this national
calamity, the reasons why "God had veiled for a time his face from the sons
of Jacob." It was by the general profaneness of the land, by the manifest
provocations of the king and the king's house, by the crooked and
precipitant ways of statesmen in the treaty of Breda, by the toleration of
malignants in the king's household, by suffering his guard to join in the
battle without a previous purgation, by the diffidence of some officers
who refused to profit by advantages furnished to them by God, by the
presumption of others who promised victory to themselves without eyeing of
God, by the rapacity and oppression exercised by the soldiery, and by the
carnal self-seeking of men in power, that God had been provoked to visit
his people with so direful and yet so merited a chastisement.[1]
To the young king the defeat at Dunbar was a subject of real and
ill-dissembled joy. Hitherto he had been a mere puppet in the hands of
Argyle and his party; now their power was broken, and it was not impossible
for him to gain the ascendancy. He entered into a negotiation with Murray,
Huntley, Athol, and the numerous royalists in the Highlands; but the
secret, without the particulars, was betrayed to Argyle,[b] probably by
Buckingham, who disapproved of the project; and all the cavaliers but three
received an order to leave the court in twenty-four hours--the
[Footnote 1: Balfour, iv. 98-107.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. Sept. 12.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. Sept. 27.]
kingdom in twenty days. The vigilance of the guards prevented the execution
of the plan which had been laid; but one afternoon, under pretence of
hawking, Charles escaped[a] from Perth, and riding forty-two miles, passed
the night in a miserable hovel, called Clova, la the braes of Angus. At
break of day he was overtaken by Colonel Montgomery, who advised him[b] to
return, while the Viscount Dudhope urged him to proceed to the mountains,
where he would be joined by seven thousand armed men. Charles wavered; but
Montgomery directed his attention to two regiments of horse that waited at
a distance to intercept his progress, and the royal fugitive consented[c]
to return to his former residence in Perth.[1]
The Start (so this adventure was called) proved, however, a warning to the
committee of estates. They prudently admitted the apology of the king, who
attributed[d] his flight to information that he was that day to have been
delivered to Cromwell; they allowed[e] him, for the first time, to preside
at their deliberations; and they employed his authority to pacify the
royalists in the Highlands, who had taken arms[f] in his name under
Huntley, Athol, Seaforth, and Middleton. These, after a long negotiation,
accepted an act of indemnity, and disbanded their forces.[2]
[Footnote 1: Balfour, iv. 109, 113, 114. Baillie, ii. 356. Whitelock, 476.
Miscellanea Aulica, 152. It seems probable from some letters published in
the correspondence of Mr. Secretary Nicholas, that Charles had planned his
escape from the "villany and hypocrisy" of the party, as early as the day
of the battle of Dunbar.--Evelyn's Mem. v. 181-186, octavo.]
[Footnote 2: Balfour, iv. 118, 123, 129-135, 160. Baillie, ii. 356.
A minister, James Guthrie, in defiance of the committee of estates,
excommunicated Middleton; and such was the power of the kirk, that even
when the king's party was superior, Middleton was compelled to do penance
in sackcloth in the church of Dundee, before he could obtain absolution
preparatory to his taking a command in the army.--Baillie, 357. Balfour,
240.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. Oct. 4.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. Oct. 5.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. Oct. 6.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1650. Oct. 10.]
[Sidenote e: A.D. 1650. Oct. 12.]
[Sidenote f: A.D. 1650. Nov. 4.]
In the mean while Cromwell in his quarters at Edinburgh laboured to unite
the character of the saint with that of the conqueror; and, surrounded as
he was with the splendour of victory, to surprise the world by a display
of modesty and self-abasement. To his friends and flatterers, who fed
his vanity by warning him to be on his guard against its suggestions,
he replied, that he "had been a dry bone, and was still an unprofitable
servant," a mere instrument in the hands of Almighty power; if God had
risen in his wrath, if he had bared his arm and avenged his cause, to
him, and to him alone, belonged the glory.[1] Assuming the office of a
missionary, he exhorted his officers in daily sermons to love one another,
to repent from dead works, and to pray and mourn for the blindness of their
Scottish adversaries; and, pretending to avail himself of his present
leisure, he provoked a theological controversy with the ministers in
the castle of Edinburgh, reproaching them with pride in arrogating to
themselves the right of expounding the true sense of the solemn league and
covenant; vindicating the claim of laymen to preach the gospel and
exhibit their spiritual gifts for the edification of their brethren; and
maintaining that, after the solemn fasts observed by both nations, after
their many and earnest appeals to the God of armies, the victory gained
at Dunbar must be admitted an evident manifestation of the divine will in
favour of the English commonwealth. Finding that he made no proselytes
of his opponents, he published his arguments for the instruction of the
Scottish people; but his zeal did not
[Footnote 1: See a number of letters in Milton's State Papers, 18-35.]
escape suspicion; and the more discerning believed that, under the cover of
a religious controversy, he was in reality tampering with the fidelity of
the governor.[1]
In a short time his attention was withdrawn to a more important
controversy, which ultimately spread the flames of religious discord
throughout the nation. There had all along existed a number of Scots who
approved of the execution of the late king, and condemned even the nominal
authority given to his son. Of these men, formidable by their talents,
still more formidable by their fanaticism, the leaders were Wariston, the
clerk register in the parliament, and Gillespie and Guthrie, two ministers
in the kirk. In parliament the party, though too weak to control, was
sufficiently strong to embarrass, and occasionally to influence, the
proceedings; in the kirk it formed indeed the minority, but a minority too
bold and too numerous to be rashly irritated or incautiously despised.[2]
After the defeat at Dunbar, permission was cheerfully granted by the
committee of estates for a levy of troops in the associated counties of
Renfrew, Air, Galloway, Wigton, and Dumfries, that part of Scotland where
fanaticism had long fermented, and the most rigid notions prevailed. The
crusade was preached by Gillespie; his efforts were successfully seconded
by the other ministers, and in a short time four regiments of horse,
amounting almost to five thousand men, were raised under Strachan, Kerr,
and two other colonels. The real design now began to unfold itself. First,
the officers refused to serve under Leslie; and the parliament consented to
exempt them from his authority. Next, they hinted doubts of the
[Footnote 1: Thurloe, i. 158-163.]
[Footnote 2: Baillie, ii. 353.]
lawfulness of the war in which they were engaged; and Cromwell, in whose
army Strachan had fought at Preston, immediately[a] opened a correspondence
with him.[1] Then came the accident of "the start," which embittered and
emboldened the zeal of the fanatics; and in a long remonstrance, subscribed
by ministers and elders, by officers and soldiers, and presented[b] in
their name to Charles and the committee of estates, they pronounced[c] the
treaty with the king unlawful and sinful, disowned his interest in the
quarrel with the enemy, and charged the leading men in the nation with the
guilt of the war, which they had provoked by their intention of invading
England. The intemperate tone and disloyal tendency of this paper, whilst
it provoked irritation and alarm at Perth, induced Cromwell to advance with
his army from Edinburgh to Glasgow, and Hamilton. But the western forces
(so they were called) withdrew to Dumfries, where a meeting was held with
Wariston, and a new draught of the remonstrance, in language still more
energetic and vituperative, was adopted. On the return[d] of Cromwell to
the capital, his negotiation with the officers was resumed, while Argyle
and his friends laboured on the opposite side to mollify the obstinacy of
the fanatics. But reasoning was found useless; the parliament condemned[e]
the remonstrance as a scandalous and seditious libel; and, since Strachan
had resigned[f] his commission, ordered Montgomery with three new regiments
to take the command of the whole force. Kerr, however, before his arrival,
had led[g] the western levy to attack Lambert in his
[Footnote 1: Baillie, ii. 350-352. Strachan was willing to give assurance
not to molest England in the king's quarrel. Cromwell insisted that Charles
should be banished by act of parliament, or imprisoned for life.--Ib. 352.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. Oct. 4.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. Oct. 17.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. Oct. 22.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1650. Oct. 30.]
[Sidenote e: A.D. 1650. Nov. 25.]
[Sidenote f: A.D. 1650. Nov. 28.]
[Sidenote g: A.D. 1650. Dec. 1.]
quarters at Hamilton; he was taken prisoner, designedly if we may believe
report, and his whole army was dispersed. Soon afterwards Strachan, with
sixty troopers, passed over to Lambert, and the associated counties, left
without defence, submitted to the enemy. Still the framers and advocates of
the remonstrance, though they knew that it had been condemned by the state
and the kirk, though they had no longer an army to draw the sword in
its support, adhered pertinaciously to its principles; the unity of the
Scottish church was rent in twain, and the separation was afterwards
widened by a resolution of the assembly,[a] that in such a crisis all
Scotsmen might be employed in the service of the country.[1] Even their
common misfortunes failed to reconcile these exasperated spirits; and after
the subjugation of their country, and under the yoke of civil servitude,
the two parties still continued to persecute each other with all the
obstinacy and bitterness of religious warfare. The royalists obtained
the name of public resolutioners; their opponents, of protestors or
remonstrants.[2]
Though it cost the young prince many an internal struggle, yet experience
had taught him that he must soothe the religious prejudices of the kirk, if
he hoped ever to acquire the preponderance in the state. On the first day
of the new year,[b] he rode in procession to the church of Scone, where his
ancestors had been accustomed to receive the Scottish crown: there on his
knees, with his arm upraised, he swore by the Eternal
[Footnote 1: With the exception of persons "excommunicated, notoriously
profane, or flagitious, and professed enemies and opposers of the covenant
and cause of God."--Wodrow, Introd. iii.]
[Footnote 2: Baillie, ii. 348, 354-364. Balfour, iv. 136, 141-160, 173-178,
187, 189. Whitelock, 475, 476, 477, 484. Sydney Papers, ii. 679. Burnet's
Hamiltons, 425.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. Dec. 14.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. Jan. 1.]
and Almighty God to observe the two covenants; to establish the
presbyterial government in Scotland and in his family; to give his assent
to acts for establishing it in his other dominions; to rule according to
the law of God and the lovable laws of the land; to abolish and withstand
all false religions; and to root out all heretics and enemies of the true
worship of God, convicted by the true church of God. Argyle then placed the
crown upon his head, and seated him on the throne, and both nobility and
people swore allegiance to him "according to the national covenant, and the
solemn league and covenant." At the commencement, during the ceremony, and
after the conclusion, Douglas, the minister, addressed the king, reminding
him that he was king by compact with his people; that his authority was
limited by the law of God, the laws of the people, and the association of
the estates with him in the government; that, though every breach did
not dissolve the compact, yet every abuse of power to the subversion of
religion, law, or liberty, justified opposition in the people; that it was
for him, by his observance of the covenant, to silence those who doubted
his sincerity; that the evils which had afflicted his family arose out of
the apostasy of his father and grandfather; and that, if he imitated them,
he would find that the controversy between him and God was not ended, but
would be productive of additional calamities. The reader may imagine what
were the feelings of Charles while he listened to the admonitions of the
preacher, and when he swore to perform conditions which his soul abhorred,
and which he knew that on the first opportunity he should break or
elude.[1] But he passed with credit through the
[Footnote 1: See "The forme and order of the Coronation of Charles II., as
it was acted and done at Scoune, the first day of January, 1651." Aberdene,
1651.]
ceremony; the coronation exalted him in the eyes of the people; and each
day brought to him fresh accessions of influence and authority. The
kirk delivered Strachan as a traitor and apostate to the devil; and the
parliament forefaulted his associates, of whom several hastened to make
their peace by a solemn recantation. Deprived of their support, the
Campbells gradually yielded to the superior influence of the Hamiltons.
Vexation, indeed, urged them to reproach the king with inconstancy and
ingratitude; but Charles, while he employed every art to lull the jealousy
of Argyle, steadily pursued his purpose; his friends, by submitting to the
humbling ceremony of public penance, satisfied the severity of the kirk;
and by the repeal[a] of the act of classes, they were released from all
previous forfeitures and disqualifications. In April the king, with Leslie
and Middleton as his lieutenants, took the command of the army, which had
been raised by new levies to twenty thousand men, and, having fortified
the passages of the Forth, awaited on the left bank the motions of the
enemy.[1]
In the mean while Cromwell had obtained[b] possession of the castle of
Edinburgh through the perfidy or the timidity of the governor. Tantallon
had been taken by storm, and Dumbarton had been attempted, but its defences
were too strong to be carried by force,
[Footnote 1: Carte, Letters, ii. 26, 27. Balfour, iv. 240, 268, 281,
301. It appears from this writer that a great number of the colonels of
regiments were royalists or engagers (p. 210, 213). The six brigades
of horse seem to have been divided equally between old Covenanters and
royalists. The seventh was not given to any general, but would be commanded
by Hamilton, as the eldest colonel.--Ib. 299-301. It is therefore plain
that with the king for commander-in-chief the royalists had the complete
ascendancy.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. May 21.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. Dec. 19.]
and its garrison too honest to be corrupted with money.[1] In February the
lord general was afflicted[a] with an ague, so ruinous to his health, and
so obstinate in its duration, that in May he obtained permission to return
to England, with the power of disposing, according to his judgment, of the
chief command.[2] A rapid and unexpected improvement[b] induced him to
remain; and in July he marched with his army towards Stirling. The Scots
faced him in their intrenched camp at Torwood; he turned aside to Glasgow;
they took[c] a position at Kilsyth; he marched[d] back to Falkirk; and they
resumed their position at Torwood. While by these movements the English
general occupied the attention of his opponents, a fleet of boats had been
silently prepared and brought to the Queensferry; a body of men crossed the
frith, and fortified a hill near Inverkeithing; and Lambert immediately
followed[e] with a more numerous division. The Scots despatched Holburn
with orders to drive the enemy into the sea; he was himself charged[f]
by Lambert with a superior force, and the flight of his men gave to the
English possession of the fertile and populous county of Fife. Cromwell
hastened to transport his army to the left bank of the river, and advance
on the rear of the Scots. They retired: Perth, the seat of government, was
besieged; and in a few days[g] the colours of the commonwealth floated on
its walls.[3]
[Footnote 1: Balfour, iv. 229, 249, 296. Baillie, ii. 368.]
[Footnote 2: The council had sent two physicians to attend him. His answer
to Bradshaw of March 24th runs in his usual style. "Indeed, my lord, your
service needs not me. I am a poor creature, and have been a dry bone, and
am still an unprofitable servant to my master and to you."--New Parl. Hist.
iii. 1363.]
[Footnote 3: Balfour, 313. Journals, May 27. Leicester's Journal, 109.
Whitelock, 490, 494, 497, 498, 499. Heath, 392, 393. According to Balfour,
the loss on each side was "almost alyke," about eight hundred men killed;
according to Lambert, the Scots lost two thousand killed, and fourteen
hundred taken prisoners; the English had only eight men slain; "so easy did
the Lord grant them that mercy."--Whitelock, 501. I observe that in all
the despatches of the commanders for the commonwealth their loss is
miraculously trifling.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Feb. 21.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. May 27.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1651. July 3.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1651. July 13.]
[Sidenote e: A.D. 1651. July 17.]
[Sidenote f: A.D. 1651. July 21.]
[Sidenote g: A.D. 1651. August.]
In the Scottish leaders the progress of the English excited the most
fearful anticipations; to Charles it suggested the execution of what had
long been his favourite object. The country to the south was clear of the
enemy; and a proclamation[a] to the army announced his resolve of marching
into England, accompanied by such of his Scottish subjects as were willing
to share the fortunes and the perils of their sovereign. The boldness of
the attempt dazzled the judgment of some; and the confidence of the young
king dispelled the apprehensions of others. Their knowledge that, in case
of failure, he must expect to meet with the same fate as his father,
justified a persuasion that he possessed secret assurances of a powerful
co-operation from the royalists and the Presbyterians of England. Argyle
(nor was it surprising after the decline of his influence at court)
solicited and obtained permission to retire to his own home; a few other
chieftains followed his example; the rest expressed their readiness to
stake their lives on the issue of the attempt, and the next morning eleven,
some say fourteen, thousand men began[b] their march from Stirling, in the
direction of Carlisle.[1]
Cromwell was surprised and embarrassed. The Scots had gained three days'
march in advance, and his army was unprepared to follow them at a moment's
notice. He wrote[c] to the parliament to rely on his industry and despatch;
he sent[d] Lambert from Fifeshire with three thousand cavalry to hang on
the rear, and ordered[e]
[Footnote 1: Leicester's Journal, 110. Whitelock, 501. Clarendon, iii.
397.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. July 30.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. July 31.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1651. August 4.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1651. August 5.]
[Sidenote e: A.D. 1651. August 7.]
Harrison with an equal number from Newcastle, to press on the flank of
the enemy; and on the seventh day led his army of ten thousand men by the
eastern coast, in the direction of York. The reduction of Scotland, a more
easy task after the departure of the royal forces, was left to the activity
of Monk, who had five thousand infantry and cavalry under his command.
So rapid was the advance of Charles, that he traversed the Lowlands of
Scotland, and the northern counties in England, without meeting a single
foe. Lambert had joined Harrison near Warrington; their united forces
amounted to nine thousand men; and their object was to prevent the passage
of the Mersey. But they arrived[a] too late to break down the bridge; and,
after a few charges, formed in battle array on Knutsford Heath. The king,
leaving them on the left, pushed forward till he reached[b] Worcester,
where he was solemnly proclaimed by the mayor, amidst the loud acclamations
of the gentlemen of the county, who, under a suspicion of their loyalty,
had been confined in that city by order of the council.[2]
At the first news of the royal march, the leaders at Westminster abandoned
themselves to despair. They believed that Cromwell had come to a private
understanding with the king; that the Scots would meet with no opposition
in their progress; and that the Cavaliers would rise simultaneously in
every part of the kingdom.[3] From these terrors they were relieved by
the arrival of despatches from the general, and by the indecision of the
royalists, who, unprepared for the event, had hitherto made no movement;
and with the
[Transcriber's Note: Footnote 1 not found in the text]
[Footnote 1: Leicester's Journal, iii. 117.
Balfour, iv. 314.]
[Footnote 2: Leicester's Journal, 113, 114. Whitelock, 502, 503. Clarendon,
iii. 402.]
[Footnote 3: Hutchinson, 336.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. August 16.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. August 22.]
revival of their hopes the council assumed a tone of defiance, which was
supported by measures the most active and energetic. The declaration of
Charles,[a] containing a general pardon to all his subjects, with the
exception of Cromwell, Bradshaw, and Cook, was burnt in London by the hands
of the hangman; and a counter proclamation was published,[b] pronouncing
Charles Stuart, his aiders and abettors, guilty of high treason. All
correspondence with him was forbidden under the penalty of death; it was
ordered that all persons known or suspected of attachment to his cause
should be placed in custody, or confined to their own houses; and the
militia of several counties, "tried and godly people," were called forth,
and marched towards the expected scene of action.[1] But Charles had to
contend not only with the activity of his enemies, but with the fanaticism
of his followers. The Presbyterians of Lancashire had promised to rise,
and Massey, a distinguished officer of that persuasion, was sent before to
organize the levy; but the committee of the kirk forbade him to employ any
man who had not taken the covenant; and, though Charles annulled their
order, the English ministers insisted that it should be obeyed. Massey
remained after the army had passed, and was joined by the earl of Derby,
with sixty horse and two hundred and sixty foot, from the Isle of Man. A
conference was held at Wigan; but reasoning and entreaty were employed in
vain; the ministers insisted that all the Catholics who had been enrolled
should be dismissed; and that the salvation of the kingdom should be
entrusted to the elect of God, who had taken the covenant. In the mean
while Cromwell had despatched Colonel Lilburne, with his
[Footnote 1: Journals, Aug. 12.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. August 11.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. August 25.]
regiment of horse, into the county, and ordered reinforcements to join him
from Yorkshire and Cheshire. Derby, with the concurrence of the royalists
in Manchester, undertook to surprise Lilburne in his quarters near that
town, but was himself surprised by Lilburne, who marched on the same day[a]
to observe the earl's motions. They met unexpectedly in the lane leading
from Chorley to Wigan. The heads of the opposite columns repeatedly charged
each other; but the desperate courage of the Cavaliers was foiled by the
steadiness and discipline of their opponents; the Lord Widrington, Sir
Thomas Tildesly, Colonel Throckmorton, Boynton, Trollop, and about sixty
of their followers were slain, and above three hundred privates made
prisoners. The earl himself, who had received several slight wounds on the
arms and shoulders, fled to Wigan with the enemy at his heels. Observing a
house open, he flung himself from his horse, and sprung into the passage.
A female barred the door behind him; the pursuers were checked for an
instant; and when they began to search the house, he had already escaped
through the garden. Weak with fatigue and the loss of blood, he wandered in
a southerly direction, concealing himself by day, and travelling by night,
till he found[b] a secure asylum, in a retired mansion, called Boscobel
House, situate between Brewood and Tong Castle, and the property of Mrs.
Cotton, a Catholic recusant and royalist. There he was received and
secreted by William Penderell and his wife, the servants entrusted with the
care of the mansion; and having recovered his strength, was conducted by
the former to the royal army at Worcester.[1]
[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 503, 504. Clarendon, iii. 399, 403. Memoirs of the
Stanleys, 112-114. Journals, Aug. 29. Leicester's Journal, 116. Boscobel,
6-8. Boscobel afterwards belonged to Bas. Fitzherbert, Mrs. Cotton's
son-in-law.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. August 25.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. August 29.]
The occurrences of each day added to the disappointment of Charles and the
confidence of his enemies. He had summoned[a] by proclamation all his male
subjects between the age of sixteen and sixty to join his standard at the
general muster[b] of his forces, on the 26th of August, in the Pitchcroft,
the meadows between the city and the river. A few of the neighbouring
gentlemen with their tenants, not two hundred in number, obeyed the
call;[1] and it was found that the whole amount of his force did not
exceed twelve (or according to Cromwell, sixteen)[2] thousand men, of whom
one-sixth part only was composed of Englishmen. But while a few straggling
royalists thus stole into his quarters, as if it were to display by their
paucity the hopelessness of his cause, the daily arrival of hostile
reinforcements swelled the army in the neighbourhood to more than thirty
thousand men. At length Cromwell arrived,[c] and was received with
enthusiasm. The royalists had broken down an arch of the bridge over the
Severn at Upton; but a few soldiers passed on a beam in the night; the
breach was repaired, and Lambert crossed with ten thousand men to the right
bank. A succession of partial but obstinate actions alternately raised and
depressed the hopes of the two parties; the grand attempt was reserved by
the lord general for his
[Footnote 1: They were lord Talbot, son to the earl of Shrewsbury, "with
about sixty horse; Mr. Mervin Touchet, Sir John Packington, Sir Walter
Blount, Sir Ralph Clare, Mr. Ralph Sheldon, of Beoly, Mr. John Washbourn,
of Wichinford, with forty horse; Mr. Thomas Hornyhold, of Blackmore-park,
with forty horse; Mr. Thomas Acton, Mr. Robert Blount, of Kenswick, Mr.
Robert Wigmore, of Lucton, Mr. F. Knotsford, Mr. Peter Blount, and divers
others."--Boscobel, 10.]
[Footnote 2: Cary's Memorials, ii. 361.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. August 23.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. August 26.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1651. August 28.]
auspicious day, the 3rd of September, on which twelve months before he had
defeated the Scots at Dunbar. On that morning Fleetwood, who had advanced
from Upton to Powick,[a] was ordered to force the passage of the Team,
while Cromwell, to preserve the communication, should throw a bridge of
boats across the Severn at Bunshill, near the confluence of the two rivers.
About one in the afternoon, while Charles with his staff observed from the
tower of the cathedral the positions of the enemy, his attention was drawn
by a discharge of musketry near Powick. He descended immediately, rode to
the scene of action, and ordered Montgomery with a brigade of horse and
foot to defend the line of the Team and oppose the formation of the bridge.
After a long and sanguinary struggle, Fleetwood effected a passage just at
the moment when Cromwell, having completed the work, moved four regiments
to his assistance. The Scots, though urged by superior numbers, maintained
the most obstinate resistance; they disputed every field and hedge,
repeatedly charged with the pike to check the advance of the enemy, and,
animated by the shouts of the combatants on the opposite bank, sought to
protract the contest with the vain hope that, by occupying the forces of
Fleetwood, they might insure the victory to their friends, who were engaged
with Cromwell.
That commander, as soon as he had secured the communication across the
river, ordered a battery of heavy guns to play upon Fort Royal, a work
lately raised to cover the Sidbury gate of the city, and led his troops
in two divisions to Perrywood and Red-hill. To Charles this seemed a
favourable opportunity of defeating one half of the hostile force, while
the other
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Sept. 3.]
half was separated from it by the Severn. Leading out the whole of his
disposable infantry, with the duke of Hamilton's troop of horse, and the
English volunteers, he marched to attack the enemy in their position, and
fought at the head of the Highlanders with a spirit worthy of a prince who
staked his life for the acquisition of a crown. Fortune favoured his first
efforts. The militia regiments shrunk from the shock, and the guns of the
enemy became the prize of the assailants. But Cromwell had placed some
veteran battalions in reserve. They restored the battle; and the royalists,
in their turn, began to retreat. Still they remained unbroken, availing
themselves of every advantage of the ground to check the enemy, and
anxiously expecting the aid of their cavalry, which, under the command of
Leslie, had remained in the city. From what cause it happened is unknown;
but that officer did not appear on the field till the battle was lost, and
the infantry, unable to resist the superior pressure of the enemy, was
fleeing in confusion to the gate under the shelter of the fort. The
fugitives rallied in Friar-street, and Charles, riding among them,
endeavoured by his words and gestures to re-animate their courage. Instead
of a reply, they hung down their heads, or threw away their arms. "Then
shoot me dead," exclaimed the distressed prince, "rather than let me live
to see the sad consequences of this day." But his despair was as unavailing
as had been his entreaties; and his friends admonished him to provide for
his safety, for the enemy had already penetrated within the walls.
We left Fleetwood on the right bank pushing the Scots slowly before him. At
length they resigned the hope of resistance; their flight opened to him the
way to St. John's, and its timid commander yielded at the first summons. On
the other bank, Cromwell stormed the Fort Royal, put its defenders, fifteen
hundred men, to the sword, and turned the guns upon the city. Within the
walls irremediable confusion prevailed, and the enemy began to pour in by
the quay, the castle hill, and the Sidbury gate. Charles had not a moment
to spare. Placing himself in the midst of the Scottish cavalry, he took the
northern road by the gate of St. Martin's, while a few devoted spirits,
with such troopers as dared to followed them, charged down Sidbury-street
in the contrary direction.[1] They accomplished their purpose. The royal
party cleared the walls, while they arrested the advance, and distracted
the attention of the enemy. It was past the hour of sunset; and before dark
all resistance ceased. Colonel Drummond surrendered the castle hill on
conditions; the infantry in the street were killed or led prisoners to the
cathedral; and the city was abandoned during the obscurity of the night to
the licentious passions of the victors.[2]
In this disastrous battle the slain on the part of the royalists amounted
to three thousand men, the taken to a still greater number. The cavalry
escaped in separate bodies; but so depressed was their courage, so
bewildered were their counsels, that they successively surrendered to
smaller parties of their pursuers. Many officers of distinction attempted,
single and disguised,
[Footnote 1: These were the earl of Cleveland, Sir James Hamilton, Colonel
Careless, and captains Hornyhold, Giffard, and Kemble.--Boscobel, 20.]
[Footnote 2: See Blount, Boscobel, 14-22; Whitelock, 507, 508; Bates, part
ii. 221; Parl. Hist. xx. 40, 44-55; Ludlow, i. 314. Nothing can be more
incorrect than Clarendon's account of this battle, iii. 409. Even Cromwell
owns that "it was as stiff a contest for four or five hours as ever he had
seen."--Cary's Memorials, ii. 356.]
to steal their way through the country; but of these the Scots were
universally betrayed by their accent, whilst the English, for the most
part, effected their escape.[1] The duke of Hamilton had been mortally
wounded on the field of battle; the earls of Derby, Rothes, Cleveland,
Kelly, and Lauderdale; the lords Sinclair, Kenmure, and Grandison; and the
generals Leslie, Massey, Middleton, and Montgomery, were made prisoners, at
different times and in separate places. But the most interesting inquiry
regarded the fortune of the young king. Though the parliament offered[a] a
reward of one thousand pounds for his person, and denounced the penalties
of treason against those who should afford him shelter; though parties of
horse and foot scoured the adjacent counties in search of so valuable a
prize; though the magistrates received orders to arrest every unknown
person, and to keep a strict watch on the sea-ports in their neighbourhood,
yet no trace of his flight, no clue to his retreat, could be discovered.
Week after week passed
[Footnote 1: Thus the duke of Buckingham was conducted by one Mathews, a
carpenter, to Bilstrop, and thence to Brooksby, the seat of Lady Villiers,
in Leicestershire; Lord Talbot reached his father's house at Longford in
time to conceal himself in a close place in one of the out-houses. His
pursuers found his horse yet saddled, and searched for him during four or
five days in vain. May was hidden twenty-one days in a hay-mow, belonging
to Bold, a husbandman, at Chessardine, during all which time a party of
soldiers was quartered in the house.--Boscobel, 35-37. Of the prisoners,
eight suffered death, by judgment of a court-martial sitting at Chester.
One of these was the gallant earl of Derby, who pleaded that quarter had
been granted to him by Captain Edge, and quarter ought to be respected by
a court-martial. It was answered that quarter could be granted to enemies
only, not to traitors. He offered to surrender his Isle of Man in exchange
for his life, and petitioned for "his grace the lord general's, and the
parliament's mercy." But his petition was not delivered by Lenthall before
it was too late. It was read in the house on the eve of his execution,
which took place at Bolton, in Lancashire, Oct. 15, 1651.--State Trials, v.
294. Heath 302. Leicester's Journal, 121. Journals, Oct. 14.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Sept. 10.]
away; of almost every other individual of note the fate was ascertained;
that of Charles Stuart remained an impenetrable mystery. At last, when a
belief prevailed, both among his friends and foes, that he had met
with death from the peasantry, ignorant of his person and quality, the
intelligence arrived, that on the 17th of October, forty-four days after
the battle, he had landed in safety at Fécamp, on the coast of Normandy.
The narrative of his adventures during this period of suspense and distress
exhibits striking instances of hair-breadth escapes on the part of the
king, and of unshaken fidelity on that of his adherents. During the night
after the battle he found himself in the midst of the Scottish cavalry, a
body of men too numerous to elude pursuit, and too dispirited to repel an
enemy. Under cover of the darkness, he separated from them with about sixty
horse; the earl of Derby recommended to him, from his own experience, the
house of Boscobel as a secure retreat; and Charles Giffard undertook, with
the aid of his servant Yates, to conduct him to Whiteladies, another house
belonging to Mrs. Cotton, and not far distant from Boscobel. At an early
hour in the morning, after a ride of five-and-twenty miles, they reached
Whiteladies;[a] and while the others enjoyed a short repose from their
fatigue, the king withdrew to an inner apartment, to prepare himself for
the character which he had been advised to assume. His hair was cut
close to the head, his hands and face were discoloured, his clothes were
exchanged for the coarse and threadbare garments of a labourer, and a heavy
wood-bill in his hand announced his pretended employment. At sunrise the
few admitted to the secret took their leave of
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Sept.]
him with tears, and, summoning their companions to horseback, rode away,
they scarcely knew whither but with the cheering hope that they should draw
the attention of the enemy from the retreat of the king to the pursuit of
themselves. In less than an hour a troop of horse from Cotsal, under the
command of Colonel Ashenhurst, arrived at Whiteladies; but the king was
already gone; a fruitless search only provoked their impatience, and they
hastily followed the track of the other fugitives.
Charles was now in the hands, and entirely at the mercy, of four brothers
(John, the fifth, had taken charge of the Lord Wilmot), labouring men, of
the name of Penderell, and of Yates, his former guide, who had married a
sister of the Penderells. He could not conceal from himself that their
poverty might make them more accessible to temptation; but Derby and
Giffard had conjured him to dismiss such thoughts; they were men of tried
fidelity, who, born in the domain, and bred in the principles of a loyal
and Catholic family, had long been successfully employed in screening
priests and Cavaliers from the searches of the civil magistrates and
military officers.[1] By one of them, surnamed the trusty Richard, he was
led into
[Footnote 1: The Penderells, whom this event has introduced to the notice
of the reader, were originally six brothers, born at Hobbal Grange, in the
parish of Tong. John, George, and Thomas served in the armies of Charles
I. Thomas was killed at Stowe; the other two survived the war, and were
employed as woodwards at Boscobel. Of the remaining three, William took
care of the house; Humphrey worked at the mill, and Richard rented part of
Hobbal Grange. After the Restoration, the five brothers waited on the king
at Whitehall on the 13th of June, 1660, and were graciously received, and
dismissed with a princely reward. A pension was also granted to them and
their posterity. In virtue of which grant two of their descendants, Calvin
Beaumont Winstanley, and John Lloyd, were placed on the pension list on the
6th of July, 1846, for the sum of twenty-five pounds to each.]
the thickest part of the adjoining wood, while the others posted themselves
at convenient stations, to descry and announce the approach of the enemy.
The day was wet and stormy; and Richard, attentive to the accommodation of
his charge, who appeared sinking under the fatigue, caused by his efforts
in the battle and the anxiety of his flight, spread a blanket for him under
one of the largest trees, and ordered the wife of Yates to bring him the
best refreshment which her house could afford. Charles was alarmed at the
sight of this unexpected visitant. Recovering himself, he said, "Good
woman, can you be faithful to a distressed Cavalier?"--"Yes, sir," she
replied, "and I will die sooner than betray you." He was afterwards visited
by Jane, the mother of the Penderells. The old woman kissed his hands, fell
on her knees, and blessed God that he had chosen her sons to preserve, as
she was confident they would, the life of their sovereign.
It had been agreed between the king and Wilmot, that each should make
the best of his way to London, and inquire for the other by the name of
Ashburnham, at the Three Cranes in the Vintry. By conversation with his
guardian, Charles was induced to adopt a different plan, and to seek an
asylum among the Cavaliers in Wales, till a ship could be procured for his
transportation to France. About nine in the evening they left the wood
together for the house of Mr. Wolf, a Catholic recusant at Madeley, not far
from the Severn; but an accidental alarm lengthened their road, and added
to the fatigue of the royal wanderer.[1]
[Footnote 1: The mill at Evelyn was filled with fugitives from the battle:
the miller, espying Charles and his guide, and afraid of a discovery,
called out "rogues;" and they, supposing him an enemy, turned up a miry
lane, running at their utmost speed,--Boscobel, 47. Account from the Pepys
MS. p. 16.]
They reached Madeley at midnight; Wolf was roused from his bed, and the
strangers obtained admission. But their host felt no small alarm for their
safety. Troops were frequently quartered upon him; two companies of militia
actually kept watch in the village and the places of concealment in his
house had been recently discovered. As the approach of daylight[a] made it
equally dangerous to proceed or turn back he secreted them behind the hay
in an adjoining barn, and despatched messengers to examine the passages
of the river. Their report that all the bridges were guarded, and all the
boats secured, compelled the unfortunate prince to abandon his design. On
the return of darkness he placed himself again under the care of his trusty
guide, and with a heavy and misboding heart, retraced his steps towards his
original destination, the house at Boscobel.
At Boscobel he found Colonel Careless, one of those devoted adherents who,
to aid his escape from Worcester, had charged the enemy at the opposite
gate. Careless had often provoked, and as often eluded, the resentment of
the Roundheads; and experience had made him acquainted with every loyal
man, and every place of concealment, in the country. By his persuasion
Charles consented to pass the day[b] with him amidst the branches of an old
and lofty oak.[1] This
[Footnote 1: This day Humphrey Penderell, the miller, went to Skefnal to
pay taxes, but in reality to learn news. He was taken before a military
officer, who knew that Charles had been at Whiteladies, and tempted, with
threats and promises, to discover where the king was; but nothing could be
extracted from him, and he was allowed to return.--Boscobel, 55. This, I
suspect, to be the true story; but Charles himself, when he mentions the
proposal made to Humphrey attributes it to a man, at whose house he had
changed his clothes.--Account from the Pepys MS. p. 9.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Sept. 5.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. Sept. 6.]
celebrated tree, which was afterwards destroyed to satisfy the veneration
of the Cavaliers, grew near to the common path in a meadow-field, which lay
in the centre of the wood. It had been partially lopped a few years before,
and the new shoots had thrown round it a thick and luxuriant foliage.
Within this cover the king and his companion passed the day. Invisible
themselves, they occasionally caught a glimpse of the red-coats (so the
soldiers were called) passing among the trees, and sometimes saw them
looking into the meadow. Their friends, William Penderell and his wife,
whom Charles called my dame Joan, stationed themselves near, to give
warning of danger; he pretending to be employed in his duty as woodward,
and she in the labour of gathering sticks for fuel. But there arose no
cause of immediate alarm; the darkness of the night relieved them from
their tedious and irksome confinement; and Charles, having on his return to
the house examined the hiding-place, resolved to trust to it for his future
security.[1]
The next day, Sunday,[a] he spent within doors or in the garden. But his
thoughts brooded over his forlorn and desperate condition; and the gloom
on his countenance betrayed the uneasiness of his mind. Fortunately in the
afternoon he received by John Penderell a welcome message from Lord Wilmot,
to meet him that night at the house of Mr. Whitgrave, a recusant, at
Moseley. The king's feet were so swollen and blistered by his recent walk
to and from Madeley,
[Footnote 1: Careless found means to reach London, and cross the sea to
Holland, where he carried the first news of the king's escape to the
princess of Orange. Charles gave him for his coat of arms, by the name of
Carlos, an oak in a field, or, with a fesse, gules, charged with three
royal crowns, and for his crest a crown of oak leaves, with a sword and
sceptre, crossed saltierwise.--Boscobel, 85.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1651. Sept. 7.]
that he gladly accepted the offer of Humphrey's horse from the mill; nor
did the appearance of the monarch disgrace that of the steed. He wore a
coat and breeches of coarse green cloth, both so threadbare that in many
places they appeared white, and the latter "so long that they came down to
the garter;" his doublet was of leather, old and soiled; his shoes were
heavy and slashed for the ease of his feet; his stockings of green yarn had
been much worn, were darned at the knees, and without feet; and an old grey
steeple-crowned hat, without band or lining, with a crooked thorn stick,
completed the royal habiliments. The six brothers attended him with arms;
two kept in advance, two followed behind, and one walked on each side. He
had not gone far before he complained to Humphrey of the heavy jolting pace
of the horse. "My liege," replied the miller, "you do not recollect that he
carries the weight of three kingdoms on his back."
At Moseley, cheered by the company of Wilmot, and the attention of
Whitgrave and his chaplain, Mr. Hudlestone,[1] he recovered his spirits,
fought the battle of Worcester over again, and declared that, if he could
find a few thousand men who had the courage to stand by him, he would not
hesitate to meet his enemies a second time in the field. A new plan of
escape was now submitted to his approbation. The daughter of Colonel Lane,
of Bentley, had obtained from the governor of Stafford a pass to visit Mrs.
[Footnote 1: Mr. Whitgrave had served as lieutenant, Hudlestone as
gentleman volunteer in the armies of Charles I. The latter was of the
family at Hutton John, in Cumberland. Leaving the service, he took orders,
and was at this time a secular priest, living with Mr. Whitgrave. He
afterwards became a Benedictine monk, and was appointed one of the queen's
chaplains.]
Norton, a relation near Bristol. Charles consented to assume the character
of her servant, and Wilmot departed on the following night to make
arrangements for his reception. In the mean time, to guard against a
surprise, Hudlestone constantly attended the king; Whitgrave occasionally
left the house to observe what passed in the street; and Sir John Preston,
and two other boys, the pupils of Hudlestone, were stationed as sentinels
at the garret windows.[1] But the danger of discovery increased every hour.
The confession of a cornet, who had accompanied him, and was afterwards
made prisoner, divulged the fact that Charles had been left at Whiteladies;
and the hope of reward stimulated the parliamentary officers to new and
more active exertions. The house of Boscobel, on the day after the king's
departure,[a] was successively visited by two parties of the enemy; the
next morning a second and more rigorous search was made at Whiteladies; and
in the afternoon the arrival of a troop of horse alarmed the inhabitants of
Moseley. As Charles, Whitgrave, and Hudlestone were standing near a window,
they observed a neighbour run hastily into the house, and in an instant
heard the shout of "Soldiers, soldiers!" from the foot of the staircase.
The king was immediately shut up in the secret place; all the other doors
were thrown open; and Whitgrave descending, met the troopers in front of
his house. They seized him as a fugitive Cavalier from Worcester; but he
convinced them by the testimony of his neighbours, that for several weeks
he had not quitted Moseley, and with much difficulty prevailed on them to
depart without searching the house.
[Footnote 1: Though ignorant of the quality of the stranger, the boys
amused the king by calling themselves his life-guard.--Boscobel, 78.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Sept. 9.]
That night[a] Charles proceeded to Bentley. It took but little time to
transform the woodcutter into a domestic servant, and to exchange his
dress of green jump for a more decent suit of grey cloth. He departed on
horseback with his supposed mistress behind him, accompanied by her cousin,
Mr. Lassells; and, after a journey of three days, reached[b] Abbotsleigh,
Mr. Norton's house, without interruption or danger. Wilmot stopped at
Sir John Winter's, a place in the neighbourhood. On the road, he had
occasionally joined the royal party, as it were by accident; more generally
he preceded or followed them at a short distance. He rode with a hawk
on his fist, and dogs by his side; and the boldness of his manner as
effectually screened him from discovery as the most skilful disguise.
The king, on his arrival,[c] was indulged with a separate chamber, under
pretense of indisposition; but the next morning he found himself in the
company of two persons, of whom one had been a private in his regiment of
guards at Worcester, the other a servant in the palace at Richmond, when
Charles lived there several years before. The first did not recognise him,
though he pretended to give a description of his person; the other, the
moment the king uncovered, recollected the features of the prince, and
communicated his suspicions to Lassells. Charles, with great judgment, sent
for him, discovered himself to him as an old acquaintance, and required his
assistance. The man (he was butler to the family) felt himself honoured
by the royal confidence, and endeavoured to repay it by his services. He
removed to a distance from the king two individuals in the house of known
republican principles; he inquired, though without success, for a
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Sept. 11.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. Sept. 14.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1651. Sept. 15.]
ship at Bristol to carry him to France or Spain; and he introduced Lord
Wilmot to his chamber at the hour of midnight. There they sat in council,
and resolved[a] that the king should remove the next day to the house of
Colonel Windham, a Cavalier whom he knew, at Trent, near Sherburn; that a
messenger should be despatched to prepare the family for his arrival; and
that to account for the sudden departure of Miss Lane, a counterfeit letter
should be delivered to her, stating that her father was lying at the point
of death. The plan succeeded; she was suffered[b] to depart, and in two
days the prince reached[c] his destination. The following morning[d] Miss
Lane took her leave, and hastened back with Lassells to Bentley.[1]
In his retirement at Trent, Charles began to indulge the hope of a speedy
liberation from danger. A ship was hired at Lyme to convey a nobleman and
his servant (Wilmot and the king) to the coast of France; the hour and
the place of embarkation were fixed; and a widow, who kept a small inn
at Charmouth, consented to furnish a temporary asylum to a gentleman in
disguise, and a young female who had just escaped from the custody of a
harsh and unfeeling guardian. The next evening[e] Charles appeared in a
servant's dress, with Juliana Coningsby riding behind him, and accompanied
by Wilmot and Windham. The hostess received the supposed lovers with a
hearty welcome; but their patience was soon put to the severest trial; the
night[f] passed away, no boat entered the creek, no ship could be descried
in the offing; and the disappointment gave birth to a thousand jealousies
[Footnote 1: This lady received a reward of one thousand pounds for her
services, by order of the two houses.--C. Journals, 1660, December 19, 21.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Sept. 17.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. Sept. 18.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1651. Sept. 19.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1651. Sept. 20.]
[Sidenote e: A.D. 1651. Sept. 23.]
[Sidenote f: A.D. 1651. Sept. 24.]
and apprehensions. At dawn of day the whole party separated; Wilmot, with a
servant, going to Lyme to inquire after the master of the vessel; Charles,
with his companions, proceeding to Bridport to wait the return of Wilmot.
In Bridport he found fifteen hundred soldiers preparing to embark on an
expedition against Jersey; but, unwilling to create a real, by seeking to
eschew an imaginary, danger, he boldly pushed forward to the inn, and led
the horses through the crowd with a rudeness which provoked complaint. But
a new danger awaited him at the stable. The hostler challenged him as
an old acquaintance, pretending to have known him in the service of Mr.
Potter, at Exeter. The fact was that, during the civil war, Charles had
lodged at that gentleman's house. He turned aside to conceal his alarm; but
had sufficient presence of mind to avail himself of the partial mistake of
the hostler, and to reply, "True, I once lived a servant with Mr. Potter;
but as I have no leisure now, we will renew our acquaintance on my return
to London over a pot of beer."
After dinner, the royal party joined Wilmot out of the town. The master of
the ship had been detained at home by the fears and remonstrances of his
wife, and no promises could induce him to renew his engagement. Confounded
and dispirited, Charles retraced his steps to Trent; new plans were
followed by new disappointments; a second ship, provided by Colonel Philips
at Southampton, was seized[a] for the transportation of troops to Jersey;
and mysterious rumours in the neighbourhood rendered[b] unsafe the king's
continuance at Colonel Windham's.[1] At Heale, the residence
[Footnote 1: A reward of one thousand pounds was afterwards given to
Windham.--C. Journals, Dec. 17, 1660.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Sept. 25.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Oct. 8.]
of the widow Hyde, near Salisbury, he found a more secure retreat in a
hiding-place for five days, during which Colonel Gunter, through the agency
of Mansel, a loyal merchant, engaged[a] a collier, lying at New Shoreham.
Charles hastened[b] through Hambleton to Brighton, where he sat down to
supper with Philips, Gunter, Mansel, and Tattershall the master of the
vessel. At table, Tattershall kept his eyes fixed on the king; after
supper, he called Mansel aside and complained of fraud. The person in grey
was the king; he knew him well, having been detained by him in the river,
when, as prince of Wales, he commanded the royal fleet in 1648. This
information was speedily communicated to Charles, who took no notice of it
to Tattershall; but, to make sure of his man, contrived to keep the party
drinking and smoking round the table during the rest of the night.
Before his departure, while he was standing alone in a room, the landlord
entered, and, going behind him, kissed his hand, which rested on the back
of a chair, saying at the same time, "I have no doubt that, if I live, I
shall be a lord, and my wife a lady." Charles laughed, to show that he
understood his meaning, and joined the company in the other apartment. At
four in the morning they all proceeded[c] to Shoreham; on the beach his
other attendants took their leave, Wilmot accompanied him into the bark.
There Tattershall, falling on his knee, solemnly assured him, that whatever
might be the consequence, he would put him safely on the coast of France.
The ship floated with the tide, and stood with easy sail towards the Isle
of Wight, as if she were on her way to Deal, to which port she was bound.
But at five in the afternoon, Charles, as he had previously concerted with
Tattershall,
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Oct. 14.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. Oct. 15.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1651. Oct. 16.]
addressed the crew. He told them that he and his companion were merchants
in distress, flying from their creditors; desired them to join him in
requesting the master to run for the French coast; and, as a further
argument, gave them twenty shillings to drink. Tattershall made many
objections; but, at last, with apparent reluctance, took the helm, and
steered across the Channel. At daybreak[a] they saw before them the small
town of Fécamp, at the distance of two miles; but the tide ebbing, they
cast anchor, and soon afterwards descried to leeward a suspicious sail,
which, by her manner of working, the king feared, and the master believed,
to be a privateer from Ostend. She afterwards proved to be a French hoy;
but Charles waited not to ascertain the fact; the boat was instantly
lowered, and the two adventurers were rowed safely into the harbour.[1]
The king's deliverance was a subject of joy to the nations of Europe, among
whom the horror excited by the death of the father had given popularity to
the exertions of the son. In his expedition into England they had followed
him with wishes for his success;
[Footnote 1: For the history of the king's escape, see Blount's Boscobel,
with Claustrum Regale reseratum; the Whitgrave manuscript, printed in
the Retrospective Review, xiv. 26. Father Hudleston's Relation; the True
Narrative and Relation in the Harleian Miscellany, iv. 441, an account of
his majesty's escape from Worcester, dictated to Mr. Pepys by the king
himself, and the narrative given by Bates in the second part of his
Elenchus. In addition to these, we have a narrative by Clarendon, who
professes to have derived his information from Charles and the other actors
in the transaction, and asserts that "it is exactly true; that there is
nothing in it, the verity whereof can justly be suspected" (Car. Hist. iii.
427, 428); yet, whoever will compare it with the other accounts will see
that much of great interest has been omitted, and much so disfigured as
to bear little resemblance to the truth. It must be that the historian,
writing in banishment, and at a great distance of time, trusted to his
imagination to supply the defect of his memory.--See note (E). See also
Gunter's narrative in Cary, ii. 430.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Oct. 17.]
after his defeat at Worcester they were agitated with apprehensions for his
safety. He had now eluded the hunters of his life; he appeared before them
with fresh claims on their sympathy, from the spirit which he had displayed
in the field, and the address with which he had extricated himself from
danger. His adventures were listened to with interest; and his conduct was
made the theme of general praise. That he should be the heir to the British
crowns, was the mere accident of birth; that he was worthy to wear them,
he owed to the resources and energies of his own mind. In a few months,
however, the delusion vanished. Charles had borne the blossoms of
promise; they were blasted under the withering influence of pleasure and
dissipation.
But from the fugitive prince we must now turn back to the victorious
general who proceeded from the field of battle in triumph to London. The
parliament seemed at a loss to express its gratitude to the man to whose
splendid services the commonwealth owed its preservation. At Ailesbury
Cromwell was met by a deputation of the two commissioners of the great
seal, the lord chief justice, and Sir Gilbert Pickering; to each of whom,
in token of his satisfaction, he made a present of a horse and of two
Scotsmen selected from his prisoners. At Acton he was received by the
speaker and the lord president, attended by members of parliament and of
the council, and by the lord mayor with the aldermen and sheriffs; and
heard from the recorder, in an address of congratulation, that he was
destined "to bind kings in chains, and their nobles in fetters of iron."
He entered[a] the capital in the state carriage, was greeted with the
acclamations of the people as the procession passed through the city, and
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Oct. 12.]
repaired to the palace of Hampton Court, where apartments had been fitted
up for him and his family at the public expense. In parliament it was
proposed that the 3rd of September should be kept a holiday for ever in
memory of his victory; a day was appointed for a general thanksgiving; and
in addition to a former grant of lands to the amount of two thousand five
hundred pounds per annum, other lands of the value of four thousand pounds
were settled on him in proof of the national gratitude. Cromwell received
these honours with an air of profound humility. He was aware of the
necessity of covering the workings of ambition within his breast with the
veil of exterior self-abasement; and therefore professed to take no merit
to himself, and to see nothing in what he had done, but the hand of the
Almighty, fighting in behalf of his faithful servants.[1]
[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 509. Ludlow, i. 372. Heath, 301. Journals, Sept.
6, 9, 11, 19. "Next day, 13th, the common prisoners were brought through
Westminster to Tuthill fields--a sadder spectacle was never seen except the
miserable place of their defeat--and there sold to several merchants, and
sent to the Barbadoes."--Heath, 301. Fifteen hundred were granted as
slaves to the Guinea merchants, and transported to the Gold Coast in
Africa.--Parl. Hist. iii. 1374.]
Belloc-Lingard - The History of England - CHAPTER III.