that time. There was not one regiment of foot yet brought thither, so that the trained bands which the sheriff had drawn together were all the strength the king had for his person and the guard of the standard. There appeared no conflux of men in obedience to the proclamation; the arms and ammunition were not yet come from York, and a general sadness covered the whole town. The standard was blown down the same night it had been set up, by a very strong and unruly wind, and could not be fixed again in a day or two, till the tempest was allayed. This was the melancholy state of the king's affairs when the standard was set up."*

The king's dejection of spirits was increased by the failure of an attempt which he had made two or three days before upon the town of Coventry. Learning that Hampden's regiment and some other corps of parliamentarians were marching, by order of the Earl of Essex, to garrison Coventry, he had struck aside in that direction at the head of his cavalry, amounting to about 800 men, not doubting that he should secure the town, provided only he could arrive before the parliamentarian foot. But the people of Coventry, like those of most manufacturing places, loved their parliament and their puritan preachers; and, though he did arrive first, the gates were shut in his face and some shots fired from the walls, by which some of his attendants were wounded. He had then retired to Stoneleigh, near Warwick, to pass the night there; and in the morning he had seen his horse in an open plain

⚫ Clarendon, Hist.-Rushworth says that the standard was raised, not on the twenty-fifth of August, but on the twenty-second. His account differs in other essentials:-"Monday being the 22nd of August, in the morning his majesty left his forces before Coventry, and with some lords, and others in company, rode to Leicester, where he dined that day at the Abbey, the Countess of Devonshire's house. Presently after dinner the king again took horse, and with his com pany rode to Nottingham, where was great preparation for the setting up of the standard that day, as was formerly appointed. Not long after the king's coming to town, the standard was taken out of the castle, and carried into the field a little on the backside of the castle wall. The likeness of the standard was much of the fashion of the city streamers used at the lord mayor's show, having about twenty supporters, and was carried after the same way; on the top of it hangs a flag, the king's arms quartered, with a hand pointing to the crown, which stands above with this motto-Give Cæsar his due. The names of those knights-baronets who were appointed to bear the standard, namely the chief of them, were Sir Thomas Brooks, Sir Arthur Hopton, Sir Francis Wortley, and Sir Robert Dadington. Likewise there were three troops of horse to wait upon the standard, and to bear the same backward and forward, with about 600 foot soldiers. It was conducted to the field in great state, his majesty, the prince, Prince Rupert (whom his majesty had lately made Knight of the Garter), going along with it, with divers other lords and gentlemen of his majesty's train, besides a great company of horse and foot, in all to the number of about 2000. So soon as the standard was set up, and his majesty and the other lords placed about it, a herald-at-arms made ready to publish a proclamation, declaring the ground and cause of his majesty's setting up of his standard, namely, to suppress the rebellion of the Earl of Essex, in raising forces against him, to which he required the aid and assistance of all his loving subjects; but, before the trumpeters could sound to make proclamation, his majesty called to view the said proclamation, which, being given him, he privately read the same over to himself, and seeming to dislike some passages therein, called for pen and ink, and with his own hand crossed out and altered the same in some places, and then gave it the herald, who proclaimed the same to the people, though with some difficulty, after his majesty's corrections: after the reading whereof, the whole multitude threw up their hats, and cried God save the King, with other such like expressions. Not long after the reading of the said proclamation, it being towards night, the standard was taken down, and again carried into the castle with the like state as it was brought into the field; and the next day it was set up again, and his majesty came along with it, and made proclamation as the day before; and the like was also done on Wednesday, his majesty being also present; but after that it was set up with less ceremony."

decline giving combat to Hampden's foot, and retreat before them without making a single charge for the honour of arms. Discouraged, hopeless, and wavering, the royalists at Nottingham proposed the king's immediate return to York, conceiving that not even his person was secure at Nottingham, as Essex was concentrating his forces at Northampton, where in fact that earl soon saw himself surrounded by an army of 15,000 men, composed of substantial yeomen and industrious burghers, the inhabitants of trading and manufacturing towns.* Charles would not hear of this retreat; and when some of his council urged the expediency of making overtures for an accommodation with his parliament, he was so offended at the advice, that he declared he would never yield to it, and hastily broke up the council, that it might be no longer urged. The next day, however, the king yielded to the earnestness of the Earl of Southampton, who suggested to his majesty that if the parliament should refuse to treat, as it was thought they would, they would render themselves odious to the people, and thus dispose men to serve the king. It was upon this plea that Charles reluctantly agreed to send the Earls of Southampton and Dorset and Sir John Culpeper to London on the third day after raising the standard at Nottingham. Culpeper was very obnoxious in the capital, for he was one of those who were considered as renegades; but all three of the king's messengers were watched very suspiciously, and all the answer they

The instructions given by parliament to the Earl of Essex con. tained the following clauses:

"1. You shall carefully restrain all impieties, prophaneness, and disorders, violence, insolence, and plundering in your soldiers, as well by strict and severe punishment of such offences, as by all other means which you in your wisdom shall think fit.

"2. Your lordship is to march with such forces as you think fit towards the army raised in his majesty's name against the parlia ment and kingdom. And you shall use your utmost endeavours, by battle or otherwise, to rescue his majesty's person, and the persons of the prince and the Duke of York, out of the hands of those desperate persons who are now about them.

"3. You shall take an opportunity, in some safe and honourable way, to canse the petition of both houses of parliament, herewith sent unto you, to be presented unto his majesty; and if his majesty shall thereupon please to withdraw himself from the forces now about him, and to resort to the parliament, you shall cause all those forces to disband, and shall serve and defend his majesty with a sufficient strength in his return.

4. You shall publish and declare that, if any who have been so seduced by the false aspersions cast upon the proceedings of the par liament as to assist the king in the acting of those dangerous coun sels, shall willingly, within ten days after such publication in the army, return to their duty, not doing any hostile act within the time limited, and join themselves with the parliament in defence of religion, his majesty's person, the liberties and laws of the kingdom, and privileges of parliament, with their persons and estates, as the members of both Houses and the rest of the kingdom have done, that the Lords and Commons will be ready upon their submission to receive such persons in such manner as they shall have eause to acknow ledge they have been used with clemency and favour; provided that this shall not extend to admit any man into either house of parlia ment who stands suspended, without giving satisfaction to the House whereof he shall be à member; and except all persons who stand impeached in parliament of treason as have been eminent persons and chief actors in those treasons; and except the Earl of Bristol, the Earl of Cumberland, the Earl of Newcastle, the Earl Rivers, Secretary Nicholas, Mr. Endymion Porter, Mr. Edward Hyde (Cla rendon), the Duke of Richmond, the Earl of Caernarvon, the Lord Viscount Newark, the Lord Viscount Falkland, one of the principal secretaries of state to his majesty.

"7. You shall carefully protect all his majesty's loving subjects from rapine and violence by any of the cavaliers or other soldiers of his majesty's pretended army, or by any of the soldiers of the army which you command; and you shall cause the arms and goods of any person to be restored to them from whom they have been unjustly taken."

could get was, that the parliament would enter upon no negotiations whatever until the king should have taken down his standard, and called in those proclamations by which he had declared the Earl of Essex and his adherents to be traitors, and had put the two Houses out of his protection, proclaiming their actions to be treasonable. Another message was sent from the king to the two Houses: but, on every ground, it was now hopeless to think of a peaceful arrangement; and Charles's nephew, Prince Rupert, who had at last arrived in England, insulted all the royalists that still ventured to recommend pacific measures. This rash young man, who was instantly appointed to the highest command, so excited some of the principal officers with indignation at the thought of the overture recently made to parliament, that they were well nigh offering personal violence to the members of the council who had recommended that measure. Rupert, whom the English people soon learned to call Prince Robber, was accompanied by his younger brother Prince Maurice, and both "showed themselves very forward and active . . . and if more hot and furious than the tender beginnings of a civil war would seem to require, it may be imputed to the fervour of their youth, and great desire which they had to ingratiate themselves to the king; upon whom, as being no more than soldiers of fortune, their hopes of advancement wholly depended."* Prince Rupert,

• May.

the elder brother, and the more furious of the two, within a fortnight after his arrival at Nottingham took the command of a small party and scoured through divers counties, hoping to roll himself, like a snow-ball, into a larger bulk, by the accession of recruits. He flew rather than marched through parts of Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Worcestershire, and Cheshire, not so much inviting the people by fair promises and kind demeanour, as compelling them by extreme rigour to take his side. "Many towns and villages he plundered, which is to say robbed (for at that time first was the word plunder used in England, being born in Germany, when that stately country was so miserably wasted and pillaged by foreign armies), and committed other outrages upon those who stood affected to the parliament, executing some, and hanging up servants at their masters' doors for not discovering of their masters."*

Charles vainly loitered at Nottingham, few or none joining his standard, or seeming likely to do so, when Essex was at hand with such a superior force. About the middle of September he began to move towards the West of England, where the Marquess of Hertford engaged to do great things, and where several regiments were actually raised for his service. Essex had tendered to him the parliament's petition, praying for his return to his capital, and for the disbanding of his army; but

• May.

Charles had refused to receive what he termed the insulting message of a set of traitors. On his march westward the king did not act like the fierce Rupert, but in a gentler and calmer way.

"Pro

fessions of love, persuasions, and protestations of his affection to his people, were the chief instruments which he used to raise himself a strength, with complaints against the proceedings and actions of the parliament."* Between Stafford and Wellington he halted his troops, and, having caused his orders of the day to be read at the head of each corps, he advanced to the front, and told the men, for their comfort, that they should meet no enemies but traitors, most of them Brownists, Anabaptists, or Atheists, who would destroy both church and commonwealth. He then made one of his solemn protestations, imprecating the vengeance of heaven upon himself and his posterity if his intentions were not solely for the maintenance of the true reformed Protestant religion established in the church of England, the laws and liberties of the kingdom, and the just privileges of parliament. He had already, at York, issued a proclamation against papists, forbidding the resort of any men of that religion to his camp; and yet at this moment he was surrounded by Catholics, and on his way to meet many more. His protestation and declaration only tended, therefore, to confirm his reputation for habitual falsehood and duplicity; but at the same time we cannot pass without reprobation the religious intolerance of the parliament and the great mass of the nation, which seemed in Charles's eyes to render this double course necessary. In the end he told his troops that they were already condemned to ruin for being loyal to him; that, after what they had heard, they must believe they could not fight in a better quarrel, in which he promised to live and die with them.† Clarendon intimates that this conduct, and addresses of this kind, had a wonderful effect in increasing the king's party; but Charles could not always adhere to the line of mildness and persuasion. In part of his march he courteously summoned the county train-bands to attend him and guard his royal person; and, when they were met, he expressed doubts of their loyalty, forcibly disarmed them, gave their arms to others, and sent them away. Besides, he levied contributions, or, to use the quaint language of a contemporary, "he got good sums of money, which, not without some constraint, he borrowed from them." On the 20th of September he reached Shrewsbury, where he was cordially received. There he made a very courteous speech to the gentlemen, freeholders, and other inhabitants of the county, telling them that he had sent for a new mint,-that he would melt down all his plate, and offer all his lands to sale or mortgage, in order to press the less severely upon them for the support of his army. He implored them, however, not to suffer so good a cause to be lost for want of supplying him with that which

would be taken from them by those who were pursuing him with such violence. "And," continued Charles, "whilst these ill men sacrifice their money, plate, and utmost industry to destroy the commonwealth, be you no less liberal to preserve it, assuring yourselves, if it please God to bless me with success, I shall remember your assistance." With fresh protestations on his lips that he would never suffer an army of papists to be raised, he wrote away to the Earl of Newcastle in the North, bidding him raise as many men as he could without any regard to their religion;* and at this moment, or a little later, he sent over to Ireland for Anglo-Irish troops, or for troops of native Catholics. Considerable quantities of plate were brought in, both voluntarily and by force; and a mint having been erected, money was struck with great rapidity. The Catholics of Shropshire and Staffordshire advanced the king 5000l. in cash; a country gentleman paid him 60001. for the title of baron; and a few sums were secretly remitted by his partisans in London. And, presently, a royal lord had to report that Charles was very averse to peace; that it was conceived that he had taken a resolution not to do anything in that way till the queen should come; and that people's advising the king to agree with the parliament was the occasion of the queen's return, an event which was now daily looked for. The same noble writer also affirmed that the discontent which he and other men received from those about the king was great beyond expression-that, if the king and the papists should prevail, the country would be in a sad condition.†

In the meantime the Earl of Essex, having secured the country round Northampton, put a good garrison into Coventry, and taking possession of Warwick, struck off to the west, in order to throw himself between the king and the capital, and get possession of the important city of Worcester. Prince Rupert and a detachment of the parliamentarians had a struggle for the possession of Worcester, before Essex, whose movements were generally slow and formal, could come up. Colonel Sandys, a gallant officer, fell in charging Rupert up a narrow lane, but, in the end, the Prince was driven from the town and across the bridge, leaving twenty dead, and thirty prisoners behind him. Essex appeared almost immediately after this fight, and took an assured possession of Worcester; Prince Rupert rode back to the king. For three weeks Essex lay at Worcester

This is the king's letter:"NEWCASTLE,

"This is to tell you that this rebellion is grown to that height that I must not look what opinion men are who at this time are willing and able to serve me. Therefore I do not only permit, but command you, to make use of all my loving subjects' services without examining their consciences (more than their loyalty to me), as you shall find most to conduce to the upholding of my just regal power.

"Your most assured faithful friend, "CHARLES R. "Shrewsbury, 23rd September, 1649." (Sir Henry Ellis, iii. 291.)

+ Letter from Robert Lord Spencer to his lady (the Saccharissa of Waller), dated Shrewsbury, 21st of September, in Sydney Papers.

doing nothing.* Encouraged by this strange inaction, and by his own great accession of men, arms, and money, Charles quitted Shrewsbury on the 20th of October, with the intention of turning Essex's army, and marching straight upon London by Wolverhampton, Birmingham, and Kenilworth. Essex, it appears, was wholly ignorant of his movements till the king had got behind him; but he then followed with some alacrity, and entered the village of Keinton, in Warwickshire, on the 22nd, the same evening that the royalists halted at Edgehill, a very little in advance. Charles, by the advice of a council of war, resolved to turn round and face his pursuers, who, in their late and sudden movement, had left whole regiments behind them. The night passed tranquilly. On the following morning, Sunday, the 23rd of October, when Essex looked towards Edgehill, he saw that the royalists had not retreated, but were there drawn up in order of battle. He presently arranged his own forces, placing the best of his field-pieces upon his right wing, guarded by two regiments of foot and some horse. But the parliamentarians liked not to charge the royalists up hill, and the royalists seemed determined not to quit their advantageous position. It might well be, too, that other considerations, apart from merely military ones, imposed a long and solemn pause. Many generations of men had gone peacefully to their graves since the last day on which Englishmen had stood opposed to Englishmen on the battle-field; and, from the spirit that animated either party, both must have known that, begin when it would, this would be a bloody conflict. It is also said by one of the royalists, that the king had given orders not to begin, nor engage in any way until the enemy should first have shot their cannon at him ;† and it is very probable that Essex had an equal reluctance to fire the first shot. But whatever were the causes of the delay, it is certain that the two armies spent many hours in gazing at each other-long hours, infinitely more trying than the heat and hurry of actual combat to the spirits of men, particularly to men newly, and for the far greater part for the first time in their lives, under arms. Charles was on the field in complete armour, wearing a black velvet mantle, with the star and George, and he addressed an encouraging speech to his soldiers. He had retained to himself the title of generalissimo, naming the Earl of Lindsay, a brave and experienced old soldier, who in former times had been the comrade of Essex in the foreign wars, chief general under him: but Lindsay, disgusted with the petulance and impertinence of Prince Rupert, regarded himself as only a nominal chief, and took his place, pike in hand, at the head of his own regiment. Sir Jacob Astley was major

Ludlow accounts for the inactivity of the parliamentary general, by saying that Essex expected an answer to a message sent by him to the king from the parliament, inviting him to return to London, adding that the king took advantage of this time to complete and arm his forces.-Memoirs,

Sir Philip Warwick, VOL. III.

general under the Earl of Lindsay. Prince Rupert commanded the right wing of the horse, and Lord Wilmot the left, and two reserves of horse were commanded, the one by Lord Digby, and the other by Sir John Byron. The royalists exceeded the parliamentarians in total number and in horse, but Essex had the better train of artillery. Pike in hand, Essex advanced into the broad plain at foot of Edgehill, called the Vale of the Red Horse-" a name," says May, "suitable to the colour which that day was to bestow upon it-for there happened the greatest part of the encounter." Sir John Meldrum's brigade was posted in the van, three regiments of horse were on the right wing, commanded by Sir Philip Stapleton and Sir William Balfour. The left wing, consisting of about twenty troops of horse, was commanded by Sir James Ramsay; the foot were considerably behind the cavalry, and the centre was occupied by Colonel Essex's regiment; in the rear were Lord Broke and Denzil Hollis, who were flanked by two reserves of horse. At last, about two o'clock in the afternoon, the Earl of Essex commanded his artillery to fire upon the enemy, and, according to Ludlow, this was done twice upon that part of the army wherein the king was reported to be. The royalists presently replied with their cannon, and " the great shot was exchanged for the space of an hour or thereabout." Then the royalists began to descend the hill, and their main body of foot, surrounding the king's standard, advanced within musket-shot. The parliamentarians made a charge to break them and seize the standard, but they were repulsed with some loss by their pikes. Then Prince Rupert with his cavalry charged the left wing of the parliamentarians, broke it, and pursued it like a madman, as far as the village of Keinton, where his men took to plundering, instead of thinking of the main body which they had left. Though their left wing was thus broken, the right wing of the parliamentarians was intact, and a charge from that quarter, under Sir William Balfour, was so successful, that the king's artillerymen were driven from their guns, and several of the cannons spiked. After this brilliant charge, Sir William Balfour fell back upon the main body, whence the Earl of Essex advanced two regiments of foot to attack the mass of infantry which surrounded the royal standard. This body of royalists stood firm, and fought most gallantly; but presently Balfour came up with his horse, turned them, and attacked them in the rear, while some other squadrons of parliamentarians threatened them in flank; and then the royalists broke and ran back towards the hill. Many of them were killed upon the spot, and amongst these were Sir Edward Varney, (who was engaged on that side, not out of any good opinion of the cause, but" on the point of honour,") and Colonel Munro. The Earl of Lindsay, the nominal general-in-chief under the king, was mortally wounded and taken prisoner, together with his son and Colonel Vavasour. The parliamentarians

2 Q