Read Ebook: The History of England from the First Invasion by the Romans to the Accession of King George the Fifth. Volume 08 of 11. by Belloc Hilaire Lingard John

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of THE EIGHTH VOLUME.

Battle Of Edge Hill--Treaty At Oxford--Solemn Vow And Covenant--Battle Of Newbury--Solemn League And Covenant Between The English And Scottish Parliaments--Cessation Of War In Ireland-Royalist Parliament At Oxford--Propositions Of Peace--Battle Of Marston Moor--The Army Of Essex Capitulates In The West--Self-Denying Ordinance--Synod Of Divines--Directory For Public Worship--Trial Of Archbishop Laud--Bill Of Attainder--His Execution.

Treaty proposed and refused. Royalists. Parliamentarians. State of the two armies. The king's protestation. Battle of Edge Hill. Action at Brentford. King retires to Oxford. State of the kingdom. Treaty at Oxford. Intrigues during the treaty. Return of the Queen. Fall of Reading. Waller's plot. Solemn vow and covenant. Death of Hampden. Actions of Sir William Waller. The Lords propose a peace. Are opposed by the Commons. New preparations for war. Battle of Newbury. New great seal. Commissioners sent to Scotland. Solemn league and covenant. Scots prepare for war. Covenant taken in England. Charles seeks aid from Ireland. Federative assembly of the Catholics. Their apologies and remonstrance. Cessation concluded. A French envoy. Royal parliament at Oxford. Propositions of peace. Methods of raising money. Battle of Nantwich. Scottish army enters England. Marches and Countermarches. Rupert sent to relieve York. Battle of Marston Moor. Surrender of Newcastle. Essex marches into the west. His army capitulates. Third Battle of Newbury. Rise of Cromwell. His quarrel with Manchester. First self-denying ordinance. Army new modelled. Second self-denying ordinance. Ecclesiastical concurrences. Persecution of the Catholics. Of the Episcopalians. Synod of divines. Presbyterians and Independents. Demand of toleration. New directory. Trial of Archbishop Land. His defence. Bill of attainder. Consent of the Lords. Execution.

Dissensions at court. Proposal of treaty. Negotiation at Uxbridge. Demands of Irish Catholics. Victories of Montrose in Scotland. State of the two parties in England. The army after the new model. Battle of Naseby. Its consequences. Victory of Montrose at Kilsyth. Surrender of Bristol. Defeat of Royalists at Chester. Of Lord Digby at Sherburn. The king retires to Oxford. His intrigues with the Irish. Mission of Glamorgan. Who concludes a secret treaty. It is discovered. Party violence among the parliamentarians. Charles attempts to negotiate with them. He disavows Glamorgan. Who yet concludes a peace in Ireland. King proposes a personal treaty. Montreuil negotiates with the Scots. Ashburnham with the Independents. Charles escapes to the Scots. The royalists retire from the contest. King disputes with Henderson. Motives of his conduct. He again demands a personal conference. Negotiation between the parliament and the Scots. Expedients proposed by the king. Scots deliver him up to the parliament. He still expects aid from Ireland. But is disappointed. Religious disputes. Discontent of the Independents. And of the Presbyterians.

The king at Holmby. Character of Fairfax. Opposition of the Independents. Demands of the Army. Refusal of parliament. The army carries off the king. Marches towards London. And treats the king with indulgence. The Independents are driven from parliament. Charles refuses the offers of the army. Which marches to London. Enters the city. And gives the law to the parliament. The king listens to the counsels of the officers. And intrigues against them. Rise of the Levellers. The king's escape. He is secured in the Isle of Wight. Mutiny suppressed. King rejects four bills. Vote of non-addresses. King subjected to farther restraint. Public opinion in his favour. Levellers prevail in the army. The Scots take up arms for the king. Also the English royalists. Feigned reconciliation of the army and the city. Insurrection in Kent. Presbyterians again superior in parliament. Defeat of the Scots. And of the earl of Holland. Surrender of Colchester. Prince of Wales in the Downs. Treaty of Newport. Plan of new constitution. Hints of bringing the king to trial. Petition for that purpose. King's answer to the parliament. His parting address to the commissioners. He is carried away by the army. Commons vote the agreement with the king. The House of Commons is purified. Cromwell returns from Scotland. Independents prevail. Resolution to proceed against the king. Appointment of the High Court of Justice. Hypocrisy of Cromwell. Conduct of Fairfax. King removed from Hurst Castle. Few powers interest themselves in his favour. Proceedings at the trial. Behaviour of the king. He proposes a private conference. Is condemned. Lady Fairfax. King prepares for death. Letter from the prince. The king is beheaded.

THE COMMONWEALTH.

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.

Abolition of the monarchy. Appointment of a council of state. Other changes. Attempt to fill up the house. Execution of the royalists. Opposition of the Levellers. Their demands. Resisted by the government. The mutineers suppressed. Proceedings in Scotland. Charles II proclaimed in Edinburgh. Answer of the Scots. Their deputies to the king. Murder of Dr. Dorislaus. State of Ireland. Conduct of the nuncio. His flight from Ireland. Articles of peace. Cromwell appointed to the command. Treaty with O'Neil. Cromwell departs for Ireland. Jones gains the victory at Rathmines. Cromwell lands. Massacre at Drogheda. Massacre at Wexford. Cromwell's further progress. Proceedings in Scotland. Charles hesitates to accept the conditions offered by the commissioners. Progress and defeat of Montrose. His condemnation. His death. Charles lands in Scotland. Cromwell is appointed to command in Scotland. He marches to Edinburgh. Proceedings of the Scottish kirk. Expiatory declaration required from Charles. He refuses and then assents. Battle of Dunbar. Progress of Cromwell. The king escapes and is afterwards taken. The godliness of Cromwell. Dissensions among the Scots. Coronation of Charles. Cromwell lands in Fife. Charles marches into England. Defeat of the earl of Derby. Battle of Worcester. Defeat of the royalists. The king escapes. Loss of the royalists. Adventures of the king at Whiteladies. At Madeley. In the royal oak. At Moseley. At Mrs. Norton's. His repeated disappointments. Charles escapes to France.

Vigilance Of The Government--Subjugation Of Ireland--Of Scotland--Negotiation With Portugal--With Spain--With The United Provinces--Naval War--Ambition Of Cromwell--Expulsion Of Parliament--Character Of Its Leading Members--Some Of Its Enactments.

The Commonwealth, a military government. Opposition of Lilburne. His trial and acquittal. And banishment. Plans of the royalists. Discovered and prevented. Execution of Love. Transactions in Ireland. Discontent caused by the king's declaration in Scotland. Departure of Ormond. Refusal to treat with the parliament. Offer from the duke of Lorraine. Treaty with that prince. It is rejected. Siege of Limerick. Submission of the Irish. State of Ireland. Trials before the High Court of Justice. Transportation of the natives. First act of settlement. Second act of settlement. Transplantation. Breach of articles. Religious persecution. Subjugation of Scotland. Attempt to incorporate it with England. Transactions with Portugal. With Spain. With United Provinces. Negotiations at the Hague. Transferred to London. Recontre between Blake and Van Tromp. The States deprecate a rupture. Commencement of hostilities. Success of De Ruyter. Of Van Tromp over Blake. Another battle between them. Blake's victory. Cromwell's ambition. Discontent of the military. Cromwell's intrigues. His conference with Whitelock. With the other leaders. He expels the parliament. And the council of state. Addresses of congratulation. Other proceedings of the late parliament. Spiritual offences. Reformation of law. Forfeitures and sequestrations. Religious intolerance.

THE PROTECTORATE.

Cromwell Calls The Little Parliament--Dissolves It--Makes Himself Protector--Subjugation Of The Scottish Royalists--Peace With The Dutch--New Parliament--Its Dissolution--Insurrection In England--Breach With Spain--Troubles In Piedmont--Treaty With France.

Establishment of a new government. Selection of members. Meeting of Parliament. Its character. Prosecution of Lilburne. His acquittal. Parties in parliament. Registration of births. Taxes. Reform of law. Zeal for religion. Anabaptist preachers. Dissolution of parliament. Cromwell assumes the office of protector. Instrument of government. He publishes ordinances. Arrests his opponents. Executes several royalists. Executes Don Pantaleon Sa. Executes a Catholic clergyman. Conciliates the army in Ireland. Subdues the Scottish royalists. Incorporates Scotland. Is courted by foreign powers. War with the United Provinces. Victory of the English. The Dutch offer to negotiate. Second victory. Progress of the negotiation. Articles of peace. Secret treaty with Holland. Negotiation with Spain. Negotiation with France. Negotiation respecting Dunkirk. Cromwell comes to no decision. The new parliament meets. Is not favourable to his views. Debates respecting the Instrument. The protector's speech. Subscription required from the members. Cromwell falls from his carriage. The parliament opposes his projects. Reviews the instrument. Is addressed by Cromwell. And dissolved. Conspiracy of the republicans. Conspiracy of the royalists. Executions. Decimation. Military government. Cromwell breaks with Spain. Secret expedition to the Mediterranean. Another to the West Indies. Its failure. Troubles in Piedmont. Insurrection of the Vaudois. Cromwell seeks to protect them. Sends an envoy to Turin. Refuses to conclude the treaty with France. The Vaudois submit and Cromwell signs the treaty.

Poverty And Character Of Charles Stuart--War With Spain--Parliament--Exclusion Of Members--Punishment Of Naylor--Proposal To Make Cromwell King--His Hesitation And Refusal--New Constitution--Sindercomb--Sexby--Alliance With France--Parliament Of Two Houses--Opposition In The Commons--Dissolution--Reduction Of Dunkirk--Sickness Of The Protector--His Death And Character.

Poverty of Charles in his exile. His court. His amours. His religion. He offers himself an ally to Spain. Account of Colonel Sexby. Quarrel between the king and his brother. Capture of a Spanish fleet. Exclusion of members from parliament. Speech of the protector. Debate on exclusion. Society of Friends. Offence and punishment of Naylor. Cromwell aspires to the title of king. He complains of the judgment against Naylor. Abandons the cause of the major-generals. First mention of the intended change. It is openly brought forward. Opposition of the officers. Cromwell's answer to them. Rising of the Anabaptists. Cromwell hesitates to accept the title. Confers on it with the committee. Seeks more time. Resolves to accept the title. Is deterred by the officers. Refuses. His second inauguration. The new form of government. Plot to assassinate him. It is discovered. Arrest and death of Sexby. Blake's victory at Santa Cruz. His death. Alliance with France. New parliament of two houses. The Commons inquire into the rights of the other house. Cromwell dissolves the parliament. Receives addresses in consequence. Arrival of Ormond. Treachery of Willis. Royal fleet destroyed. Trials of royalists. Execution of Slingsby and Hewet. Battle of the Dunes. Capitulation of Dunkirk. Cromwell's greatness. His poverty. His fear of assassination. His grief for his daughter's death. His sickness. His conviction of his recovery. His danger. His discourse. His death. His character.

The two sons of Cromwell. Richard succeeds his father. Discontent of the army. Funeral of Oliver. Foreign transactions. New parliament. Parties in parliament. Recognition of Richard. And of the other house. Charges against the late government. The officers petition. The parliament dissolved. The officers recall the long parliament. Rejection of the members formerly excluded. Acquiescence of the different armies. Dissension between parliament and the officers. The officers obliged to accept new commissions. Projects of the royalists. Rising in Cheshire. It is suppressed. Renewal of the late dissension. Expulsion of the parliament. Government by the council of officers. Monk's opposition. His secrecy. Lambert sent against him. Parliament restored. Its first acts. Monk marches to York. Monk marches to London. Mutiny in the capital. Monk addresses the house. He is ordered to chastise the citizens. He joins them. Admits the secluded members. Perplexity of the royalists. Proceedings of the house. Proceedings of the general. Dissolution of the long parliament. Monk's Interview with Grenville. His message to the king. The elections. Rising under Lambert. Influence of the Cavaliers in the new Parliament. The king's letters delivered. Declaration from Breda. The two houses recall the King. Charles lands at Dover. Charles enters London.

NOTES

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

Battle Of Edge Hill--Treaty At Oxford--Solemn Vow And Covenant--Battle Of Newbury--Solemn League And Covenant Between The English And Scottish Parliaments--Cessation Of War In Ireland-Royalist Parliament At Oxford--Propositions Of Peace--Battle Of Marston Moor--The Army Of Essex Capitulates In The West--Self-Denying Ordinance--Synod Of Divines--Directory For Public Worship--Trial Of Archbishop Laud--Bill Of Attainder--His Execution.

It had been suggested to the king that, at the head of an army, he might negotiate with greater dignity and effect. From Nottingham he despatched to London the earl of Southampton, Sir John Colepepper, and William Uvedale, the bearers of a proposal, that commissioners should be appointed on both sides, with full powers to treat of an accommodation. The two houses, assuming a tone of conscious superiority, replied that they could receive no message from a prince who had raised his standard against his parliament, and had pronounced their general a traitor. Charles offered to withdraw his proclamation, provided they on their part would rescind their votes against his adherents. They refused: it was their right and their duty to denounce, and bring to justice, the enemies of the nation. He conjured them to think of the blood that would be shed, and to remember that it would lie at their door; they retorted the charge; he was the aggressor, and his would be the guilt. With this answer vanished every prospect of peace; both parties appealed to the sword; and within a few weeks the flames of civil war were lighted up in every part of the kingdom.

Three-fourths of the nobility and superior gentry, led by feelings of honour and gratitude, or by their attachment to the church, or by a well-grounded suspicion of the designs of the leading patriots, had ranged themselves under the royal banner. Charles felt assured of victory, when he contemplated the birth, and wealth, and influence of those by whom he was surrounded; but he might have discovered much to dissipate the illusion, had he considered their habits, or been acquainted with their real, but unavowed sentiments. They were for the most part men of pleasure, fitter to grace a court than to endure the rigour of military discipline, devoid of mental energy, and likely, by their indolence and debauchery, to offer advantages to a prompt and vigilant enemy. Ambition would induce them to aspire to office, and commands and honours, to form cabals against their competitors, and to distract the attention of the monarch by their importunity or their complaints. They contained among them many who secretly disapproved of the war,

conceiving that it was undertaken for the sake of episcopacy,--an institution in the fate of which they felt no interest, and others who had already in affection enrolled themselves among the followers of the parliament, though shame deterred them for a time from abandoning the royal colours.

There was another class of men on whose services the king might rely with confidence,--the Catholics,--who, alarmed by the fierce intolerance and the severe menaces of the parliament, saw that their own safety depended on the ascendancy of the sovereign. But Charles hesitated to avail himself of this resource. His adversaries had allured the zealots to their party, by representing the king as the dupe of a popish faction, which laboured to subvert the Protestant, and to establish on its ruins the popish worship. It was in vain that he called on them to name the members of this invisible faction, that he publicly asserted his attachment to the reformed faith, and that, to prove his orthodoxy, he ordered two priests to be put to death at Tyburn, before his departure from the capital, and two others at York, soon after his arrival in that city. The houses still persisted in the charge; and in all their votes and remonstrances attributed the measures adopted by the king to the advice and influence of the papists

and their adherents. Aware of the impression which such reports made on the minds of the people, he at first refused to intrust with a commission, or even to admit into the ranks, any person, who had not taken the oaths of allegiance and supremacy; but necessity soon taught him to accept of the services of all his subjects without distinction of religion, and he not only granted permission to the Catholics to carry arms in their own defence, but incorporated them among his own forces.

While the higher classes repaired with their dependants to the support of the king, the call of the parliament was cheerfully obeyed by the yeomanry in the country, and by the merchants and tradesmen in the towns. All these had felt the oppression of monopolies and ship-money; to the patriots they were indebted for their freedom from such grievances; and, as to them they looked up with gratitude for past benefits,

so they trusted to their wisdom for the present defence of their liberties. Nor was this the only motive; to political must be added religious enthusiasm. The opponents of episcopacy, under the self-given denomination of the godly, sought to distinguish themselves by the real or affected severity of their morals; they looked down with contempt on all others, as men of dissolute or irreligious habits; and many among them, in the belief that the reformed religion was in danger, deemed it a conscientious duty to risk their lives and fortunes in the quarrel. Thus were brought into collision some of the most powerful motives which can agitate the human breast,--loyalty, and liberty, and religion; the conflict elevated the minds of the combatants above their ordinary level, and in many instances produced a spirit of heroism, and self-devoted-ness, and endurance, which demands our admiration and sympathy. Both parties soon distinguished their adversaries by particular appellations. The royalists were denominated Cavaliers; a word which, though applied to them at first in allusion to their quality, soon lost its original acceptation, and was taken to be synonymous with papist, atheist, and voluptuary; and they on their part gave to their enemies the name of Roundheads, because they cropped their hair short, dividing "it into so many little peaks as was something ridiculous to behold."

Each army in its composition resembled the other. Commissions were given, not to persons the most fit to

command, but to those who were most willing and able to raise men; and the men themselves, who were generally ill paid, and who considered their services as voluntary, often defeated the best-concerted plans, by their refusal to march from their homes, or their repugnance to obey some particular officer, or their disapproval of the projected expedition. To enforce discipline was dangerous; and both the king and the parliament found themselves compelled to entreat or connive, where they ought to have employed authority and punishment. The command of the royal army was intrusted to the earl of Lindsey, of the parliamentary forces to the earl of Essex, each of whom owed the distinction to the experience which he was supposed to have acquired in foreign service. But such experience afforded little benefit. The passions of the combatants despised the cool calculations of military prudence; a new system of warfare was necessarily generated; and men of talents and ambition quickly acquired that knowledge which was best adapted to the quality of the troops and to the nature of the contest.

Charles, having left Nottingham, proceeded to Shrewsbury, collecting reinforcements, and receiving voluntary contributions on his march. Half-way between Stafford and Wellington he halted the army, and placing himself in the centre, solemnly declared in the presence of Almighty God that he had no other design, that he felt no other wish, than to maintain. the Protestant faith, to govern according to law, and to observe all the statutes enacted in parliament. Should he fail in any one of these particulars, he renounced all claim to assistance from man, or protection from God; but as long as he remained faithful to his promise, he hoped for cheerful aid from his subjects, and was confident of obtaining the blessing of Heaven. This solemn and affecting protestation being circulated through the kingdom, gave a new stimulus to the exertions of his friends; but it was soon opposed by a most extraordinary declaration on the part of the parliament; that it was the real intention of the king to satisfy the demands of the papists by altering the national religion, and the rapacity of the Cavaliers by giving up to them the plunder of the metropolis; and that, to prevent the accomplishment of so wicked a design, the two houses had resolved to enter into a solemn covenant with God, to defend his truth at the hazard of their lives, to associate with the well-affected in London and the rest of the kingdom, and to request the aid of their Scottish brethren, whose liberties and religion were equally at stake.

In the meantime Waller had reduced Portsmouth, while Essex concentrated his force, amounting to fifteen thousand men, in the vicinity of Northampton. He received orders from the houses to rescue, by force if it were necessary, the persons of the king, the prince, and the duke of York, from the hands of those desperate men by whom they were surrounded, to offer a free pardon to all who, within ten days, should return to their duty, and to forward to the king a petition that he would separate himself from his evil counsellors, and rely once more on the loyalty of his parliament. From Northampton Essex hastened to Worcester to oppose the advance of the royal army.

he contrived to elude the vigilance of the enemy; and had advanced two days' march on the road to the metropolis before Essex became aware of his object. In London the news was received with terror. Little reliance could be placed on the courage, less on the fidelity of the trained bands; and peremptory orders were despatched to Essex, to hasten with his whole force to the protection of the capital and the parliament. That general had seen his error; he was following the king with expedition; and his vanguard entered the village of Keynton on the same evening on which the royalists halted on Edgehill, only a few miles in advance. At midnight Charles held a council of war, in which it was resolved to turn upon the pursuers, and to offer them battle. Early in the morning the royal army was seen in position on the summit of a range of hills, which gave them a decided superiority in case of attack; but Essex, whose artillery, with one-fourth of his men, was several miles in the rear, satisfied with having arrested the march of the enemy, quietly posted the different corps, as they arrived, on a rising ground in the Vale of the Red Horse, about half a mile in front of the village. About noon the Cavaliers grew weary of inaction; their importunity at last prevailed; and about two the king discharged a cannon with his own hand as the signal of battle. The royalists descended in good order to the foot of the hill, where their hopes were raised by the treachery of Sir Faithful Fortescue, a parliamentary officer, who, firing his pistol into the ground, ranged himself with two troops of horse under the royal banner. Soon afterwards Prince Rupert, who commanded the cavalry on the right, charged twenty-two troops of parliamentary horse led by Sir James

Ramsay; broke them at the very onset; urged the pursuit two miles beyond Keynton, and finding the baggage of the enemy in the village, indulged his men for the space of an hour in the work of plunder. Had it not been for this fatal imprudence, the royalists would probably have gained a decisive victory.

During his absence the main bodies of infantry were engaged under their respective leaders, the earls of Lindsey and Essex, both of whom, dismounting, led their men into action on foot. The cool and determined courage of the Roundheads undeceived and disconcerted the Cavaliers. The royal horse on the left, a weak body under lord Wilmot, had sought protection behind a regiment of pikemen; and Sir William Balfour, the parliamentary commander, leaving a few squadrons to keep them at bay, wheeled round on the flank of the royal infantry, broke through two divisions, and made himself master of a battery of cannon. In another part of the field the king's guards, with his standard, bore down every corps that opposed them, till Essex ordered two regiments of infantry and a squadron of horse to charge them in front and flank, whilst Balfour, abandoning the guns which he had taken, burst on them from the rear. They now broke; Sir Edward Varner was slain, and the standard which he bore was taken; the earl of Lindsey received a mortal wound; and his son, the lord Willoughby, was made prisoner in the attempt to rescue his father. Charles, who, attended by his troop of pensioners, watched the fortune of the field, beheld with dismay the slaughter of his guards;

and ordering the reserve to advance, placed himself at their head; but at the moment Rupert and the cavalry reappeared; and, though they had withdrawn from Keynton to avoid, the approach of Hampden with the rear of the parliamentary army, their presence restored the hopes of the royalists and damped the ardour of their opponents. A breathing-time succeeded; the firing ceased on both sides, and the adverse armies stood gazing at each other till the darkness induced them to withdraw,--the royalists to their first position on the hills, and the parliamentarians to the village of Keynton. From the conflicting statements of the parties, it is impossible to estimate their respective losses. Most writers make the number of the slain to amount to five thousand; but the clergyman of the place, who superintended the burial of the dead, reduces it to about one thousand two hundred men.

Both armies claimed the honour, neither reaped the benefit, of victory. Essex, leaving the king to pursue his march, withdrew to Warwick, and thence to Coventry; Charles, having compelled the garrison of Banbury to surrender, turned aside to the city of Oxford. Each commander wished for leisure to

reorganize his army after the late battle. The two houses, though they assumed the laurels of victory, felt alarm at the proximity of the royalists, and at occasional visits from parties of cavalry. They ordered Essex to come to their protection; they wrote for assistance from Scotland; they formed a new army under the earl of Warwick; they voted an address to the king; they even submitted to his refusal of receiving as one of their deputies Sir John Evelyn, whom he had previously pronounced a traitor. In the meanwhile the royal army, leaving Oxford, loitered-for what reason is unknown-in the vicinity of Reading, and permitted Essex to march without molestation by the more eastern road to the capital. Kingston, Acton, and Windsor were already garrisoned for the parliament; and the only open passage to London lay through the town of Brentford. Charles had reached Colnbrook in this direction, when he was met by the commissioners, who prevailed on him to suspend his march. The conference lasted two days; on the second of which Essex threw a brigade, consisting of three of his best regiments, into that town. Charles felt indignant at this proceeding. It was in his opinion a breach of faith; and two days later, after an obstinate resistance on the part of the enemy, he gained possession of Brentford, having driven part of the garrison into the river, and taken fifteen pieces of cannon and five hundred men. The latter he ordered to be discharged, leaving it to their option either to enter among his followers or to

promise on oath never more to bear arms against him.

This action put an end to the projected treaty. The parliament reproached the king that, while he professed the strongest repugnance to shed the blood of Englishmen, he had surprised and murdered their adherents at Brentford, unsuspicious as they were, and relying on the security of a pretended negotiation. Charles indignantly retorted the charge on his accusers. They were the real deceivers, who sought to keep him inactive in his position, till they had surrounded him with the multitude of their adherents. In effect his situation daily became more critical. His opponents had summoned forces from every quarter to London, and Essex found himself at the head of twenty-four thousand men. The two armies faced each other a whole day on Turnham Green; but neither ventured to charge, and the king, understanding that the corps which, defended the bridge at Kingston had been withdrawn, retreated first to Beading, and then to Oxford. Probably he found himself too weak to cope with the superior number of his adversaries; publicly he alleged his unwillingness to oppose by a battle any further obstacle to a renewal of the treaty.

The whole kingdom at this period exhibited a most melancholy spectacle. No man was suffered to remain neuter. Each county, town, and hamlet was divided into factions, seeking the ruin. of each other. All stood upon their guard, while the most active of either

party eagerly sought the opportunity of despoiling the lands and surprising the persons of their adversaries. The two great armies, in defiance of the prohibitions of their leaders, plundered wherever they came, and their example was faithfully copied by the smaller bodies of armed men in other districts. The intercourse between distant parts of the country was interrupted; the operations of commerce were suspended; and every person possessed of property was compelled to contribute after a certain rate to the support of that cause which obtained the superiority in his neighbourhood. In Oxford and its vicinity, in the four northern counties, in Wales, Shropshire, and Worcestershire, the royalists triumphed without opposition; in the metropolis, and the adjoining counties, on the southern and eastern coast, the superiority of the parliament was equally decisive. But in many parts the adherents of both were intermixed in such different proportions, and their power and exertions were so variously affected by the occurrences of each succeeding day, that it became difficult to decide which of the two parties held the preponderance. But there were four counties, those of York, Chester, Devon, and Cornwall, in which the leaders had already learned to abhor the evils of civil dissension. They met on both sides, and entered into engagements to suspend their political animosities, to aid each other in putting down the disturbers of the public peace, and to oppose the introduction, of any armed force, without the joint consent both of the king and the parliament. Had the other counties followed the example, the war would have been ended almost as soon as it began. But this was a consummation which the patriots deprecated. They pronounced such engagements

derogatory from the authority of parliament; they absolved their partisans from the obligations into which they had entered; and they commanded them once more to unsheath the sword in the cause of their God and their country.

But it soon became evident that this pacific feeling was not confined to the more distant counties. It spread rapidly through the whole kingdom; it manifested itself without disguise even in the metropolis. Mea were anxious to free themselves from the forced contribution of one-twentieth part of their estates for the support of the parliamentary army and the citizens could not forget the alarm which had been created by the late approach of the royal forces. Petitions for peace, though they were ungraciously received, continued to load the tables of both houses; and, as the king himself had proposed a cessation of hostilities, prudence taught the most sanguine advocates for war to accede to the wishes of the people, A negotiation was opened at Oxford. The demands of the parliament amounted to fourteen articles; those of Charles were confined to six. But two only, the first in each class, came into discussion. No argument could induce the houses to consent that the king should name to the government of the forts and castles without their previous approbation of the persons to be appointed; and he demurred to their proposal that both armies should be disbanded, until he knew on what conditions he was to return to his capital. They had limited the duration of the conference to twenty days; he proposed a prolongation of

the term; they refused; and he offered, as his ultimatum, that, whenever he should be reinstated in the possession of his revenues, magazines, ships, and forts, according to law; when all the members of parliament, with the exception of the bishops, should be restored to their seats, as they held them on the 1st of January, 1641; and when the two houses should be secure from the influence of tumultuary assemblies, which could only be effected by an adjournment to some place twenty miles distant from London, he would consent to the immediate disbanding of both armies, and would meet his parliament in person. The Commons instantly passed a vote to recall the commissioners from Oxford; the Lords, though at first they dissented, were compelled to signify their concurrence; and an end was put to the treaty, and to the hopes which it had inspired.

During this negotiation the houses left nothing to the discretion of their commissioners, the earl of Northumberland, Pierrepoint, Armyn, Holland, and Whitelock. They were permitted to propose and argue; they had no power to concede. Yet, while they acted in public according to the tenour of their instructions, they privately gave the king to understand that he might probably purchase the preservation, of the church by surrendering the command of the militia,--a concession which his opponents deemed

essential to their own security. At one period they indulged a strong hope of success. At parting, Charles had promised to give them satisfaction, on the following day; but during the night he was dissuaded from his purpose; and his answer in the morning proved little short of an absolute denial. Northumberland also made a secret offer of his influence to mollify the obstinacy of the patriots; but Charles, who called that nobleman the most ungrateful of men, received the proposal with displeasure, and to the importunity of his advisers coldly replied, that the service must come first and the reward might follow afterwards. Whether the parliament began to suspect the fidelity of the commissioners, and on that account recalled them, is unknown. Hyde maintains that the king protracted the negotiation to give time for the arrival of the queen, without whom he would come to no determination; but of this not a vestige appears in the private correspondence between Charles and his consort; and a sufficient reason for the failure of the treaty may be found in the high pretensions of each party, neither of whom had been sufficiently humbled to purchase peace with the sacrifice of honour or safety.

It was owing to the indefatigable exertions of Henrietta, that the king had been enabled to meet his opponents in the field. During her residence in

Holland she had repeatedly sent him supplies of arms and ammunition, and, what he equally wanted, of veteran officers to train and discipline his forces. In February, leaving the Hague, and trusting to her good fortune, she had eluded the vigilance of Batten, the parliamentary admiral, and landed in safety in the port of Burlington, on the coast of Yorkshire. Batten, enraged at his disappointment, anchored on the second night, with four ships and a pinnace, in the road, and discharged above one hundred shot at the houses on the quay, in one of which the queen was lodged. Alarmed at the danger, she quitted her bed, and, "bare foot and bare leg," sought shelter till daylight behind the nearest hill. No action of the war was more bitterly condemned by the gallantry of the Cavaliers than this unmanly attack on a defenceless female, the wife of the sovereign. The earl of Newcastle hastened to Burlington, and escorted her with his army to York. To have pursued her journey to Oxford would have been to throw herself into the arms of her opponents. She remained four months in Yorkshire, winning the hearts of the inhabitants by her affability, and quickening their loyalty by her words and example.

During the late treaty every effort had been made to recruit the parliamentary army; at its expiration, Hampden, who commanded a regiment, proposed to besiege the king within the city of Oxford. But the ardour of the patriots was constantly checked by the caution of the officers who formed the council of war. Essex invested Reading; at the expiration of ten days

it capitulated; and Hampden renewed his proposal. But the hardships of the siege had already broken the health of the soldiers; and mortality and desertion daily thinned their numbers, Essex found himself compelled to remain six weeks in his new quarters at Reading.

In the lower house no man had more distinguished himself of late, by the boldness of his language, and his fearless advocacy of peace, than Edmund Waller, the poet. In conversation with his intimate friends he had frequently suggested the formation of a third party, of moderate men, who should "stand in the gap, and unite the king and the parliament." In

this work they calculated on the co-operation of all the Lords excepting three, of a considerable number of the lower house, and of the most able among the advisers of the king at Oxford; and that they might ascertain the real opinion of the city, they agreed to portion it into districts, to make lists of the inhabitants, and to divide them into three classes,--of moderate men, of royalists, and of parliamentarians. The design had been communicated to Lord Falkland, the king's secretary; but it remained in this imperfect state, when it was revealed to Pym by the perfidy or patriotism of a servant, who had overheard the discourse of his master. Waller, Tomkins his brother-in-law, and half-a-dozen others, were immediately secured; and an annunciation was made to the two houses of "the discovery of a horrid plot to seize the city, force the parliament, and join with the royal army."

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