brought round reinforcements from Portsmouth. Then the parliament's fleet was a match for the royalists, but the prince ventured no attack, fired not a gun, and, through a real or pretended want of provisions, stood round and steered away for the Dutch coast, without an effort for-apparently without a thought of his hapless father. While Cromwell, who had with him several of the republican leaders in parliament, was engaged as yet with the war in Wales, the Presbyterians carried several important votes, and entirely annulled and made void the resolution against making more addresses to the king. Emboldened by their success, they proposed that, without binding him to anything, they should bring the king to London, and there treat with him personally with honour, freedom, and safety; and this would have been carried but for Cromwell's decisive victories, the ruin of Hamilton, and the other circumstances which revived the hopes and courage of the Independents. At last, as a sort of compromise between the two parties, it was voted that fifteen commissioners - the Earls of Northumberland, Pembroke, Salisbury, Middlesex, and Say, of the upper house, and the Lord Wenman, Sir Harry Vane, junior, Sir Harbottle Grimston, Hollis, Pierpoint, Brown, Crew, Potts, Glynne, and Buckley, of the commons-should conduct a treaty personally with Charles, not in London, but at Newport, in the FREE GRAMMAR-SCHOOL, NEWPORT, Isle of Wight.1 Isle of Wight. The treaty was not fairly entered upon until the 18th of September, when Prince Charles had returned to Holland, and when Cromwell was thinking of returning from Scotland. "The king" says May, "during this treaty, found not only great reverence and ob In the school-room of this building Charles I. met the commissioners appointed by parliament to treat with him in 1648. This school was founded in 1619, and endowed with twenty-nine acres of land by the Earl of Southampton, then governor of the island. servance from the commissioners of parliament, but was attended with a prince-like retinue, and was allowed what servants he should choose, to make up the splendour of a court. . . . . But whilst this treaty proceeded, and some months were spent in debates, concessions, and denials, behold, another strange alteration happened, which threw the king from the height of honour into the lowest condition. So strangely did one contrary provoke another. While some laboured to advance the king into his throne again upon slender conditions, or none at all, others, weighing what the king had done, what the commonwealth, and, especially, what the parliament's friends might suffer, if he should come to reign again with unchanged affections, desired to take him quite away. From hence divers and frequent petitions were presented to the parliament, and some to the General Fairfax, that whosoever had offended against the commonwealth, no persons excepted, might come to judgment." first of these petitions, entitled "The humble petition of many thousands of well-affected men in the cities of London and Westminster, in the borough of Southwark and the neighbouring villages," was presented to parliament on the 11th of September; it was followed by many others from different counties of England, and from several regiments of the army, the scope of them all being the same-that the king should be called to judgment; that the parliament should not ungratefully throw away so many miraculous deliverances, nor betray themselves and their faithful friends by deceitful treaties with an implacable enemy. The The articles submitted to the king at the Isle of Wight were substantially the same as those which had been proposed to him at Hampton Court. He objected to the articles regarding religion, and refused to assent to the abolition of Episcopacy, though ready to agree to a suspension of it. The Presbyterian commissioners knelt, and wept, and prayed, but all was in vain. Other points Charles yielded readily enough, but he promised, as he had ever done, with a mental reservation to break his promises as soon as he should be able. The fact is proved by his own secret letters. He had previously agreed in the most solemn manner to cease all connection with the Papists in Ireland, and yet, encouraged by some circumstances which had occurred in that island, he now wrote to Ormond, urging him again to take the field with an Irish Catholic army. All this time he was buoying himself up with hopes that his friends would relieve him. "Though they cannot relieve me in the time I demand," said he, "let them relieve me when they can, else I will hold it out till I make some stone in this building my tombstone. And so will I do the 2d of December, but while they were in high by the Church of England."' The Presbyterians in parliament added twenty days to the forty originally prescribed for the duration of the treaty. This brought them down to the 27th of November; but, in the interval, their schemes had been shaken to pieces by the Independents. The army had assembled together in the town of St. Alban's, and had drawn up a startling remonstrance to the House of Commons. This remonstrance was presented by a deputation from their own body, and seconded by a letter from Fairfax. "It induced a long and high debate; some inveighed sharply against the insolency of it, others palliated and excused the matters in it, and some did not stick to justify it, but most were silent because it came from the army." In fact, Cromwell was now at hand; and he, the most powerful of all, was determined, above all, to break alike the delusive treaty in the Isle of Wight, debate, Fairfax and his army arrived at London, and took up their quarters in Whitehall, St. James's, the Mews, York House, and other places near the Houses of Parliament. The two houses adjourned till the 4th of December. It was on that day that Cromwell arrived in London. The commons continued their debate upon the treaty with the king, and sat all that night. They met HURST CASTLE, HAMPSHIRE.3-From a drawing by P. Sandby. and the power of the Presbyterians. Perceiving that Hammond withstood his appeals, and inclined to keep the king for the parliament, he and Ireton procured his recall to head-quarters, and got Colonel Ewer appointed in his stead. Ewer, a zealous republican, hastened to the Isle of Wight; and there, on the 30th of November, he sent Colonel Cobbet with a squadron of horse to seize his majesty and send him over to the surer prison of Hurst Castle. Cobbet executed his commission without flinching and without any difficulty. On the same day on which the king was removed from the Isle of Wight, the question whether the remonstrance of the army should be taken into speedy consideration was negatived by the Presbyterian majority. And on the same eventful day a "declaration" from a full council of the army was presented to the house, signifying to it that they were drawing up with the whole army to London, there to follow providence as God should clear their way. The Presbyterian majority mustered courage to fall with some dignity. They met on the morrow; they debated on the treaty with the king, and they sent to order Fairfax to stop the march of the army. They took their seats again on the following day, 1 Sir Philip Warwick's Memoirs. Warwick was allowed to attend upon the king at Newport. 2 Whitelock. again on the 5th, and then voted by a majority of 140 to 104 that the king's concessions were sufficient grounds for settling the peace of the kingdom. But the mighty stream of revolution could not now be checked-the sword was all powerful20,000 enthusiastic men had vowed in their hearts that they would purge this parliament, and on the morning of the 6th, the regiment of horse of Colonel Rich and the foot regiment of Colonel Pride surrounded the houses. Colonel Pride, from whose active part in it the operation has been called "Pride's Purge," posted himself in the lobby, and arrested forty-one leading Presbyterian members as they arrived, and sent them to safe prison. The purge was continued on the following day. Not a few of the obnoxious members fled into the country or hid themselves in the city; so that, by the 8th of December all that were left in the House of Commons were some fifty Independents, who were afterwards styled the "Rump." Cromwell went into the purged house, and received their hearty thanks for his great services. 3 Hurst Castle lies near the extremity of a natural causeway. scarcely 200 yards in breadth, which stretches two miles into the sea, opposite the Isle of Wight, which it approaches to within a mile. It was erected by Henry VIII., to defend the passage between the coast of Hampshire and the Needles. In a day or two the Rump were informed that the Irish Papists were again in insurrection, and that Ormond was acting openly with them for the king. On the 13th of December they voted the treaty in the Isle of Wight to have been a monstrous error, a dishonour, and a great peril to the country. On the 16th a strong party of horse, under the command of Colonel Harrison, were detached to Hurst Castle with orders to remove the king to Windsor Castle. It was at the dead of the night when Charles was startled by the creaking of the descending drawbridge and the tramp of horsemen,' and he thought that his last hour was come. When the commander of the detachment was named to him, his trepida-, tion increased, and he wept as well as prayed. Upon being taken out of Hurst Castle he apprehended that the terrible Harrison would murder him somewhere on the road. On the 22d of December he slept at Bagshot, and on the 23d he was safely lodged in Windsor Castle.' A.D. 1649. On the same day the Independents, calling themselves the House of Commons, appointed a committee of thirtyeight "to consider of drawing up a charge against the king, and all other delinquents that may be thought fit to bring to condign punishment." A few voices were raised for the saving of life; but on the 1st of January an ordinance, prepared by a committee of thirty-eight, was reported to the fragment of the house. The preamble stated that Charles Stuart, having been admitted King of England, "with a limited power," and to govern by and according to law, had endeavoured "to erect and uphold in himself an unlimited and tyrannical power," and that for accomplishing his designs he had "traitorously and maliciously levied war against the present parliament and the people therein represented." This ordinance was sent up to the lords on the next day. Those few lords that remained in the house rejected it without a dissentient voice, and then adjourned. Forthwith, the commons, with closed doors, came to this resolution "That the commons of England, in parliament assembled, do declare that the people are, under God, the origin of all just power. And do also declare that the commons of England in parliament assembled, being chosen by representing the peo 1 Herbert, Memoirs. While these things were passing at Westminster, Charles, confident in the sacred dignity of majesty, was deluding himself with unaccountable hopes at Windsor. But in the House of Commons the storm rolled onward with increasing rapidity. On the 6th of January the ordinance for trial of the king was brought in, and the same day engrossed and passed. By this ordinance the Independents erected what they styled a High Court of Justice for trying the king, and proceeding to sentence against him; to consist of 135 commissioners, of whom any twenty were to form a quorum. Among the commissioners were Fairfax, Cromwell, Ireton, Waller, Skippou, Harrison, Whalley, Pride, Ewer, Tomlinson in all, three generals and thirty-four colonels of the army; the Lords Monson, Grey of Groby, and Lisle; most of the members of the Rump; Wilson, Fowkes, Pennington, and Andrewes, aldermen of the city; Bradshaw, Thorpe, and Nichoias, serjeants-at-law; twenty-two knights and baronets; various citizens of London, and some few country gentlemen. But of all this number, there never met at one time more than eighty. On the 8th of January, fifty-three assembled in the Painted Chamber, headed by Fairfax, who never appeared after that day, and ordered that, on the morrow, a herald should proclaim, and invite the people to bring in what matter of fact they had against Charles Stuart. On the 9th the residue of the commons voted that the great seal in use should be broken, and a new one forthwith made, and that this new seal should have on one side the inscription, "The Great Seal of England;" and on the other, "In the First Year of Freedom, by God's blessing restored, 1648.”’ The commissioners for the trial chose Serjeant Bradshaw to be their president, Mr. Steel to be attorney-general, Mr. Coke to be solicitor-general, and Dr. Dorislaus and Mr. Aske to act as counsel with them in drawing up and managing the charges against the prisoner. All preliminaries which his majesty could not persuade himself to believe, nor did imagine that they durst ever produce him in the sight of the people under any form whatsoever of a public trial."-Hist. 3 Herbert; Rushworth; Whitelock. 4 Rushworth. 5 It appears that there were only twelve, or at the most thirteen lords present. 6 Rushworth, 8 Whitelock. 2 Clarendon says, “In this journey, Harrison observing that the king had always an apprehension that there was a purpose to murder him, and had once let fall some words of the odiousness and wickedness of such an assassination and murder, which could never be safe to the person who undertook it; he told him plainly that he needed not to entertain any such imagination or apprehension-that the parliament had too much honour 9 It would be 1649, New Style. Whitelock says, "This was and justice to cherish so foul an intention-and assured him for the most part the fancy of Mr. Henry Martin, a noted mem that whatever the parliament resolved to do would be very ber of the House of Commons, more particularly the inscrippublic, and in a way of justice, to which the world should be tions." The hypocritical speeches attributed to Cromwell on Fitness, and would never endure a thought of secret violence; this occasion rest on very indifferent authority. Sydney Papers. without moving his hat. His judges returned his severe glances, and also kept on their hats. Upon a calling of the names, sixty of the commissioners answered. Bradshaw, as president, in a short speech acquainted the prisoner with the cause of his being brought thither. Then Coke, as solicitor for the commonwealth, stood up to speak; but Charles held up his cane, touched him two or three times on the shoulder with it, and cried "Hold! hold!" In so doing the gold head dropped from his This drawing is adapted from the frontispiece to A True Copy of the Journal of the High Court of Justice for the Tryal of King Charles I. By John Nalson, LL.D. Fol. London, 1684. From this work the following particulars are derived :-The space as set apart for the trial was from the south end of Westminster Hall, to the stone steps leading to the Court of Chancery, and the floor of this space was raised three feet above the floor of the hall. Benches for the commissioners or judges were erected at the south end of the hall, from the floor to within five or six feet of the window. There were free passages, kept by soldiers, down and across the hall, and officers walked along these to preserve order. Where the king sat was covered with a Turkey carpet, cane. Nevertheless Bradshaw ordered Coke to go on, who then said, "My lord, I am come to charge Charles Stuart, King of England, in the name of all the commons of England, with treason and high misdemeanours: I desire the said charge may be read." Coke then delivered the charge in writing to the clerk, who began to read it. Charles again cried "Hold!" but, at the order of the president, the clerk went on, and the prisoner sat down, "looking sometimes on the high court, and the table at his side, covered also with a like carpet, was for nished with an inkstand. Bradshaw, Lisle, and Say, as lawyan sat in their robes-the other commissioners in their usual dresses In the engraving the king is represented seated, and standing at his right hand are the counsel conducting the trial. Bradsh Lisle, and Say are in the centre, elevated three steps abore their fellow-commissioners, Bradshaw having a table in front of him. The clerks of the court are at a table in the front of the commissioners. Cromwell's place at the trial is shown by a figure standing on the left of the escutcheon of arms under the great window. The banners on the walls are those take from Charles's troops at the battles of Naseby, &c. sometimes up to the galleries; and having risen again, and turned about to behold the guards and spectators, sat down again, looking very sternly, and with a countenance not at all moved, till these words-namely, ' Charles Stuart to be a tyrant, a traitor,' &c., were read; at which he laughed, as he sat, in the face of the court." When the long charge was finished, taxing the king with the whole of the civil war, with the death of thousands of the free people of the nation, with divisions within the land, invasions from foreign parts, the waste of the public treasury, the decay of trade, the spoliation and desolation of great parts of the country, the continued commissions to the prince and other rebels, to the Marquis of Ormond, the Irish Papists, &c., Bradshaw, the lord-president, told him that the court expected his answer. Charles replied with great dignity and clearness. He demanded by what lawful authority he was brought thither. "I was not long ago," said he "in the Isle of Wight; how I came there is a longer story than is fit at this time for me to speak of; but there I entered into a treaty with both Houses of Parliament with as much public faith as is possible to be had of any person in the world. I treated there with a number of honourable lords and gentlemen, and treated honestly and uprightly. I cannot say but they did very nobly with me. We were upon a conclusion of the treaty. Now, I would know by what authority, I mean lawful -for there are many unlawful authorities in the world, thieves and robbers by the highway -but I would know by what authority I was brought from thence, and carried from place to place. Remember I am your lawful king. Let me know by what lawful authority I am seated here; resolve me that, and you shall hear more of me." Bradshaw told him that he might have observed he was there by the authority of the people of England, whose elected king he was. "England," cried Charles, "was never an elective kingdom, but an hereditary kingdom for near these thousand years. I stand more for the liberty of my people than any here that come to be my pretended judges." "Sir," said Bradshaw, "how well you have managed your trust is known. If you acknowledge not the authority of the court they must proceed." "Here is a gentleman," said Charles, pointing to Colonel Cobbet, "ask him if he did not bring me from the Isle of Wight by force. I do not come here as sub On this day, Whitelock says, "There were strict guards, many soldiers, and a great press of people at the trial of the king.... Some who sat on the scaffold about the court at the trial (particularly the Lady Fairfax), did not forbear to exclaim aloud against the proceedings of the high court, and the inveter. ate usage of the king by his subjects, insomuch that the court was interrupted, and the soldiers and officers of the court had much to do to quiet the ladies and others." mitting to this court. I see no House of Lords here that may constitute a parliament; and the king, too, must be in and part of a parliament." "If it does not satisfy you," exclaimed Bradshaw, "we are satisfied with our authority, which we have from God and the people. The court expects you to answer; their purpose is to adjourn to Monday next." He then commanded the guard to take him away, upon which Charles replied, "Well, Sir." And as he went away facing the court, he added, pointing to the sword, "I do not fear that." Some of the people cried "God save the king!" others shouted "Justice justice!" He was remanded to Sir Robert Cotton's house, SIR ROBERT COTTON'S HOUSE.2-From a view by J. T. Smith. and thence to St. James's; and the high court adjourned, and kept a fast together at Whitehall. On Monday, the 22d of January, in the afternoon, Charles was led back to Westminster Hall. As soon as he was at the bar, Coke rose and said, "I did, at the last court, exhibit a charge of high treason and other crimes against the prisoner in the name of the people of England. Instead of answering, he did dispute the authority of this high court. I move, on behalf of the kingdom of 2 Cotton House, Westminster, near the west end of Westminster Hall. The town-house of Sir Robert Cotton (died 1631), the founder of the famous Cotton Library; of his son, and of his grandson. Sir Christopher Wren describes the house in his time as in a "very ruinous condition." Charles I. lay at Cotton House during his trial in Westminster Hall. After the trial he slept at Whitehall, and the night before the execution at St. | James's-Cunningham's Hand-Book of London. |