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I found that it had been discoursed among the adjutators, whether for their justification the king ought not to be brought to a trial; which he held in the affirmative: not, he said, that he would have one hair of his head to suffer, but that they might not bear the blame of the war." On reaching Windsor, Berkeley went to Fairfax's quarters, and found the officers met there in a general council. After waiting an hour he was admitted into that full assembly; and, having delivered his letters to the general, he was desired to withdraw. After waiting another half hour he was again called in. "The general," says he, "looked very severely upon me, and, after his manner, said that they were the parliament's army, and therefore could not say anything to his majesty's motion of peace, but must refer those matters to them, to whom they would send his majesty's letters." Berkeley then looked about, upon Cromwell and Ireton and the rest of his acquaintance among the officers, who saluted him very coldly, and had their countenance quite changed towards him. The next morning Berkeley contrived to let Cromwell know that he had secret letters of instruction to him from the king; but Cromwell now sent him word that he durst not see him, bade him be assured that he would serve his majesty as long as he could do it without his own ruin, but desired him not to expect that he should perish for the king's sake. Berkeley thereupon proceeded to London, and put himself in communication with the Lords Lauderdale and Lanark. At the same time, the queen was applied to for a ship of war to carry off Charles from the Isle of Wight. Almost at the same moment, while the parliament were again deliberating about fresh propositions to be sent to the king, Charles addressed a letter to the Speaker of the Lords' House, to be communicated also to the House of Commons. He reiterated his scruples of conscience concerning the abolition of episcopacy, but said that he hoped he should satisfy the parliament with his reasons, if he might personally treat with them. The commissioners of Scotland, who were almost frantic at the triumphant march of the Independents, urged with great vehemence that this desire of the king for a personal treaty might be granted, The parliament "resolved upon a middle way," and on the 14th of December they passed four propositions, drawn up in the form of acts, which, when the king had signed, he was to be admitted to a personal treaty at London. These propositions were. 1. That his majesty 1. That his majesty should concur in a bill for settling of the militia. 2. That he should call in all declarations, oaths, and proclamations, against the parliament, and those who had adhered to them. 3. That all the lords who were made after the great seal was carried away should be rendered incapable of sitting in the House of Peers. 4. That power should be given to the two Houses of Parliament to adjourn as they should think fit. The commissioners of Scotland, who had been acted upon by Lauderdale and Lanark and Berkeley, and who had received

several communications from Charles himself, protested against the sending of these four bills to the king before he should be treated with at London. On the 24th of December the bills were presented to Charles at Carisbrook Castle, where the king, understanding the mind of the Scots, and the factions in London, absolutely refused to give his assent; and the commissioners, with this stern denial, returned to London. But, by this time, Charles, notwithstanding his scruples of conscience, had made up his mind to a secret treaty with the Scots, in which he engaged to renounce episcopacy and accept the covenant, the Scots, on their part, engaging to restore him by force of arms; and on the 28th of December he privately signed this treaty.

A.D. 1648.-And now Charles thought of flying from the Isle of Wight, being probably alike apprehensive of the consequences of his refusing the four propositions of parliament, and of those which must follow any detection of his treaty with the Scots or of his other plans-for other plans of various kinds were certainly entertained. But Hammond had now sent Ashburnham, Berkeley, and Legge out of the island, so that they could no longer be active in the business of contriving the king's escape from Carisbrook, and the guards had been doubled at the castle. In fact, Charles was now, for the first time, a close prisoner. A French vessel had arrived in Southampton Water, but it was dismissed. Ashburnham and Berkeley, however, kept a relay of saddle-horses on the coast, hoping that Charles might get out of the castle; and such was the activity and ingenuity of these men, and of the king himself, that an active correspondence was still carried on between the royal captive and his friends in France, Scotland, and London. On one dark night Charles well nigh got out of the castle. "Being confident," says Ashburnham," of the assistance of one about him, and having discovered (upon trial) that he could pass his body between the bars of the window of his chamber, because he found there was room for his head (the rule being that where the head can pass the body may); but most unhappily he mistook the way of measure, for, instead of putting forth his head sideways, he did it right forward; by which error, when all things were adjusted for his escape the second time, and that he thought to put in execution what he thought so sure (his pas sage through the window) he stuck fast in it, and (as he was pleased to send me word) did strain so much in the attempt, as he was in great extremity, though with long and painful strugglings he got back again without any certain notice taken by any man, but by him who waited to have served him when he had come down." On another occasion a drum beat suddenly at dead of night in the quiet little island town of Newport; and one Captain Burley tried to get up an insurrection and rescue the king-" a design so impossible for those that undertook it to effect, they consisting chiefly of women and children, without any arms, saving

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CARISBROOK CASTLE,

In its present state; from an Original Drawing.

one musket, that no sober man could possibly have been engaged in it." Poor Burley was made prisoner and subsequently put to death as a traitor. Silken cords wherewith to descend and aqua fortis wherewith to corrode the bars of his prison, it is said, were adroitly conveyed to the royal prisoner. But the parliament were now working with more corrosive acids. On the 3rd of January, 1648, the Commons took into consideration the king's refusal of their four propositions." The dispute," says May, was sharp, vehement, and high, about the state and government of the commonwealth; and many plain speeches made of the king's obstinate averseness and the people's too long patience. It was there affirmed, that the king, by this denial, had denied his protection to the people of England, for which only subjection is due from them; that, one being taken away, the other falls to the ground; that it is very unjust and absurd that the parliament, having so often tried the king's affections, should now betray to an implacable enemy both themselves and all those friends who, in a most just cause, had valiantly adventured their lives and fortunes; that nothing was now left for them to do, but to take care for the safety of themselves and their friends, and settle the Commonwealth (since otherwise it could not be) without the king."+ Sir Thomas Wroth declared that kings of late had carried themselves as if they were more According to Herbert, while Charles was in Carisbrook Castle he spent much of his time in reading. "The Sacred Scripture was the book he most delighted in: he read often in Bishop Andrews' Villalpandus upon Ezekiel, Sands's Paraphrase of King David's Psalms, Herbert's Divine Poems, and also Godfrey of Bulloigne, writ

Sermons, Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, Dr. Hammond's works,

in Italian by Torquato Tasso, and done into English heroic verse by Mr. Fairfax,-a poem his majesty much commended,-as he did also Ariosto, by Sir John Harrington, a facetious poet, much esteemed &c., and Spenser's Fairy Queen, and the like, for alleviating his spirits after serious studies."-Memoirs.

+ Breviary.

fit for Bedlam than Tophet-that he cared not what forms of government were set up, so it were not by kings or devils; and there were other members equally violent against monarchical government. Ireton spoke with great force, declaring that the king had denied that protection to the people which was the condition of their obedience to him; that they ought not to desert the brave men who had fought for them beyond all possibility of retreat or forgiveness, and who would never forsake the parliament, unless the parliament first forsook them. "After some further debate, Cromwell brought up the rear. It was time, he said, to answer the public expectation; that they were able and resolved to govern and defend the kingdom by their own power; and teach the people they had nothing to hope from a man whose heart God hardened in obstinacy." It is said, that in warning the House of the danger of driving the army to despair, he laid his hand upon his sword, and told them he trembled to think of what might follow. The end of all this was a vote, in which the Lords concurred with the Commons-that no further addresses or applications should be made to the king, or any message received from him, without the consent of both Houses, under the penalties of high treason.† At the same time, it was voted that a committee should draw up a declaration to satisfy the kingdom.

On the 9th of January there was sent up from head-quarters at Windsor," a declaration from his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax and the general council of the army, of their resolution to adhere to the parliament, in their proceedings concerning

• Walker, Hist. of the Independents.-This Presbyterian writer is not free from the most violent prejudices.

Whitelock.-May.

the king." After a rapid review of the history of the case, of the king's denials, &c., this remarkable declaration ended thus: "We do freely declare for ourselves and the army, that we are resolved, through the grace of God, firmly to adhere to, and stand by, the parliament, in the things voted concerning the king, and in what shall be further necessary for prosecution thereof, and for settling and securing of the parliament and kingdom, without the king, and against him, or any other that shall hereafter partake with him." Both Houses passed a vote of thanks to the army for this declaration.

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The Scottish commissioners, whose secret treaty with the king was more than suspected, now ran down to Scotland to prepare for war. As long as these noble Scots remained in London and in good agreement with the English parliament, they had had a share in the executive power, which was vested in a committee of both kingdoms. Now this executive power was lodged solely in an English committee, called the Committee for the Safety of the Commonwealth. It was composed of seven peers-the Earls of Northumberland, Kent, Warwick, and Manchester, the Lords Saye, Wharton, and Roberts; and thirteen members of the House of Commons-Mr. Pierpoint, Mr. Fiennes, Sir Harry Vane, senior, Harry Vane, junior, Sir William Armine, Sir Arthur Haselrig, Sir Gilbert Gerrard, Sir John Evelyn, Lieutenant-General Cromwell, Mr. St. John, Mr. Wallop, Mr. Crew, and Mr. Browne, who all sat together at Derby House, and who had power to suppress tumults and insurrections, and to raise forces as they saw occasion: Part of the army, which had certainly overawed the House of Lords and driven them into compliances, was now quartered about Westminster, the Mews, and the city. "The parliament," says May, "though victorious, though guarded with a gallant army, no forces visibly appearing against it, was never in more danger. All men began, in the spring, to prophesy that the summer would be a hot one, in respect of wars, seeing how the countries were divided in factions, the Scots full of threats, the city of London as full of unquietness. And more sad things were feared, where least seen; rumours every day frightening the people of secret plots and treasonable meetings.... The king's party began to swell with great hopes, and look upon themselves not as vanquished, but as conquerors; nor could they forbear vaunting every where, and talking of the king's rising, and the ruin of the parliament. The same thing seemed to be the wish of those whom they called Presbyterians, who were ready to sacrifice themselves and their cause to their hatred against the Independents, who wished that quite undone, which themselves could not do, and desired that liberty might be quite taken away by the king, rather than vindicated by the IndependThe king himself (though set aside, and confined within the Isle of Wight) was more • May.-Whitelock.

formidable this summer than in any other, when he was followed by his strongest armies. The name of king had now a further operation, and the pity of the vulgar gave a greater majesty to his person. Prince Charles also, by his absence, and the name of banishment, was more an object of affection and regard to those vulgar people, than he had ever been before; and, by his commissions (which his father privately sent him) seeming to be armed with lawful power, did easily command those that were willing to obey him; and, by commands, under his name, was able to raise (as will afterwards appear) not only tumults, but wars."

In the course of the late debate which ended in the vote against more addresses one member of the Commons at least had proposed setting the king aside and confining him for life in some inland fortress; but the present aspect of things showed that, be where he would, Charles would ever be a most dangerous enemy. The first insurrectionary movement of any consequence took place in London, upon Sunday, the 9th of April, when a mob of apprentices and other young people stoned a captain of the train-bands, in Moorfields, took away his colours, and marched in disorderly rout to Westminster, crying out, as they went," King Charles! King Charles!" They were quickly scattered by a troop of horse that sallied out of the King's Mews; but, running back into the city, they filled it with fears and disorders all that Sabbath night, broke open houses to procure arms, and enforced the lord mayor to escape privately out of his house and fly into the Tower. On the morrow morning Fairfax stopped this mischief in the beginning, but not without bloodshed. Shortly after, a body of about three hundred men came out of Surrey to Westminster, demanding that the king should presently be restored. As they cursed the parliament and insulted the soldiers on guard there, a collision ensued, in which several lives were lost. At the same time the men of Kent drew together in great numbers, and, on the other side of the Thames, Essex became the scene of a great rising for the king. In various other parts of the kingdom there were tumultuary gatherings or attempts made by the royalists to surprise castles and magazines of arms. Pontefract Castle

was nearly carried in the night by eighty cavaliers, each with a foot soldier mounted behind him. The Presbyterians, uniting with the concealed royalists, seemed again to acquire the ascendancy in the House of Commons; and to Cromwell and the Independents the triumph of the Presbyterians would have been nothing less than destruction. On the 24th of April a Presbyterian majority voted that the military posts and defences of the

On the preceding day, "at a conference the Lords acquainted the Commons that the Duke of York, with the Duke of Gloucester, and the Lady Elizabeth, being together playing in a room the last night after supper by themselves, the Duke of York privately slipped from them down the back stairs without cloak or coat, in his shoes and stockings, and by the way of the Privy Garden, having got a key of the door, he escaped away through the park, and could not be found."-Whitelock. Charles, who, as we have mentioned, contrived to maintain communications with St. James's, had ordered his second son to fly.

city of London should be again intrusted to the common council; and four days after they carried their motion that the government of the kingdom should continue to be by king, lords, and commons, and that a new treaty should be opened with King Charles, notwithstanding the recent vote of non-addresses. And, being as intolerant as ever,hating the Independents much more on account of their religious opinions than on that of their republicanism, they revived an ordinance which punished heresy and blasphemy with death.

The men of Kent, after threatening the parliament for some time at a distance, marched boldly upon London. Fairfax encountered them in the end of May on Blackheath, with seven regiments, and drove them back to Rochester. But Lord Goring, with several officers of the late army of the king, made head again and got into Gravesend, while other bodies of the Kentish men took possession of Canterbury and tried to take Dover. Ireton and Rich soon gave an account of the latter, and Goring was soon fain to cross the Thames and raise his standard in Essex. He was followed by Fairfax, who drove him into Colchester, and shut him up in that place. Simultaneously with these movements the rovalists had risen in Wales and had taken Pembroke Castle; and at this time it may be said that scarcely any part of England was quiet. But victorious Cromwell got again to horse, rode rapidly into Wales, defeated Langhorn and the royalists there, and retook Pembroke Castle. The whole of the north of England was in commotion, and every day a Scottish army was expected across the borders, not to fight as aforetime against the king, but for him. Upon the return of their commissioners, the Scottish parliament, after demanding from the English the establishment of presbytery, the extirpation of heresy, the disbanding of Fairfax's heretical army, the immediate restoration of the king, and other things equally unlikely to be granted, voted that they would preserve the union and ends of the covenant, and oppose the popish, prelatical, and malignant party, as well as the sectaries, if they should be put to engage in a new war; that they would endeavour to rescue his majesty, and put the kingdom of Scotland into a posture of defence. And soon after they began to raise an army, not for the defence of Scotland, but for the invasion of England. Duke Hamilton and his party, who managed these matters, took care to proclaim that Charles would take the covenant, and give his assurance by oath and under his hand and seal to uphold the true Presbyterian kirk; but the old Covenanters, now headed by Argyle, the declared enemy of Hamilton, and the clergy, the most effective soldiers in all these warfares, were as far as possible from being satisfied with these assurances, and soon the whole kirk of Scotland cursed the war as impious. The vote which Hamilton had carried in parliament was for 30,000 foot and 6000 horse; but he could only raise 10,000 foot and 400 horse, nor even these till the month of July, by which time Cromwell

and Ireton and Fairfax had restored order in most parts of England. When the Scots crossed the borders, they were disgusted and horrified at the thought of being joined by the English royalists under Langdale, because they were prelatists or papists, or men that had fought against the blessed covenant. The forces of the parliament in the north, being too weak to risk a battle, retreated before Langdale and Hamilton, but not far; for Cromwell, who had entirely finished his work in Wales, came up, joined Lambert and Lilburne, surprised Langdale near Preston, in Lancashire, drove him back upon the main body of the Scots, and then, on the same day, completely routed Hamilton, whom the conqueror pursued to Warrington. Lieutenant-General Baillie, with a great part of the Scotch army, who had only quarter for their lives, was taken prisoner. Duke Hamilton himself was captured within a few days at Uttoxeter, and Langdale not long after was taken in a little village near Widmerpool. And this was the success of Duke Hamilton's invasion of England to liberate the king. His party, never strong in Scotland, was utterly annihilated; Argyle, the friend and correspondent of Cromwell, organised a new government,* invited the conqueror, who had pursued part of the routed army beyond the Tweed, to Edinburgh Castle, and there most honourably entertained him. Thanks were given by the ministers to Cromwell, whom they styled the preserver of Scotland under God. And it was forthwith ordered by the committee of estates and the assembly of the kirk, that no man who had joined with Hamilton in the late invasion of England should be elected for the new parliament or admitted a member of the assembly, for the faction of Hamilton were adjudged enemies to religion and to both the kingdoms.†

On the 16th of October, having finished his business in Scotland, Cromwell left Edinburgh, being conducted some miles on his road by Argyle and the Scottish nobles of that party; at whose parting great demonstrations of affection passed betwixt them. During his absence in the north the royalists had not been idle in the south. Earl of Holland, who had served and deserted

The

Soon after," Argyle took at Leith a ship with 10,000 arms, from Denmark, designed for Duke Hamilton."-Whitelock.

May, Breviary.-"It was worthy of noting," adds this contemporary, whose affections were with the Independents, "that that Eng. lish army which were by the religious party of Scotland called a bundle of sectaries, and reviled by opprobrious names, should now be acknowledged by the same Scots to be the instruments of God, and vindicators both of the church and of the kingdom of Scotland. The greatest peers of Scotland, also, did ingenuously confess their rashness and error the year before, for accusing this army as rebellious, for acting the very same things in England, which now themselves were enforced to act in Scotland, for preservation of that kingdom. This great change in the council of Scotland would have been much to be wondered at, if the change that then happened in the English parliament had not been a still greater miracle. Who would not be amazed at this, that Cromwell, for vanquishing a Scottish army (by which he delivered England from the worst of miseries), should be acknowledged there to have been the preserver of Scotland, and yet should not here be allowed to have been the preserver of England! And that the same victory of his against the Scots should please the Presbyterian Scots for religion's sake, and yet, for religion's sake, should displease the Presbyterians of Eng land! Edipus himself cannot unriddle this; especially if he judge according to reason, and not according to what envy, hatred, and em. bittered faction, can produce."

The Perfect Politician.

every party, veered round once more to the court, irritated by the contempt in which the parliament held him, and animated perhaps by a hope that the Presbyterians, united with the Scots, must now prove victorious. He corresponded with Duke Hamilton, and engaged to make a rising in London on the same day on which Hamilton should cross the border. And upon the 5th of July, whilst Fairfax was busy at Colchester, he collected five hundred horse in the city, and called upon the citizens to join him for King Charles. This call was little heeded, for the citizens had suffered severely for their late apprentice-boy riot, and the earl marched away to Kingston-upon-Thames, whence he issued invitations to join him, and manifestos of his intention of ending the calamities of the nation. Sir Michael Levesey and other gentlemen," who took occasion by the forelock," fell suddenly upon him, and put him to flight after a short but sharp engagement, in which the Lord Francis Villiers, who, with his brother the Duke of Buckingham, had joined Holland, was piteously slain. Holland fled with a small part of his horse to the town of St. Neots, but, being pursued by Colonel Scrope, whom Fairfax detached for that purpose, he surrendered at discretion on the 10th of July. On the 27th of August Goring and the royalists, who had bravely defended themselves in Colchester for more than two months, surrendered at discretion to Fairfax, who refused any other terms, as the officers had been declared traitors by parliament. Cromwell had set the example at Pembroke Castle, by shooting one officer, whose fate was determined by drawing lots; and now Fairfax shot two, Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle, in the same manner at Colchester. Goring was

committed to close prison to abide the doom of parliament.

While the Earl of Holland was going over to the king, his brother, the Earl of Warwick, remained steady to the parliament, and performed the most important of services. About the beginning of June several of the chief ships in the national fleet revolted, put their vice-admiral, Rainsborough, ashore, affirming that they were for the king, and would serve Prince Charles, and sailed away to Holland, where the prince then was, and with him his brother the Duke of York. The parliament at this crisis re-appointed the Earl of Warwick to be lord high admiral; and this nobleman, so beloved by the seamen, entered upon the command with a cheerful certainty of success. From the moment that he raised his flag mutiny and desertion ceased. He stationed himself at the mouth of the Thames to watch the Essex coast, to prevent supplies and reinforcements being sent to Colchester, and to defend the approach to London. In the month of July the Prince of Wales appeared in the Downs with a good fleet, consisting of the English ships which had deserted to him, and of some which he had procured abroad. Men would naturally have imagined that the son's first attempt would have been for the liberation of his father from Carisbrook Castle; but, though young Charles remained absolute master of the sea and coasts for several weeks, Warwick being too weak to face him, no such attempt was ever made. Clarendon says plainly that the person of the king was not wanted, or at least that "it cannot be imagined how wonderfully fearful some persons in France were that he should have made his escape, and the dread they had of his coming thither."

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