The great civil war of the times of Charles I and Cromwell; with thirty highly-finished engravings
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\^^' ^^^ *^' '■ ^^ ^ W?,!^ '^' y7t^^\\ N-Ni'^N t^, ^f%^ c:^/:^ ^/^-^ ^-v^^^t ^^*Vs. -...V >^^V' ,' :#*\ .j^^x i^-^^\ wm- fM ^ ,,,^«0!.rS »l«STOT« s,^^ til. I? Mmu0 nf (CMAkLE^ fME 1^5 A)SfB (GMOMWE ILIL< LONDON. HEFRT G. BOHJSr, YORK r;TRT:KT. COV£NT GARDEN. THE GREAT CIYIL WAR OF THE TIMES OF CHARLES I. AND CROMWELL BY THE REV. RICHARD CATTERMOLE, B.D. WITH Cftirtp fjiff6Ip--fmi£ft)elr ®ng:rabfng:£f, from Bratoingsi &p GEORGE CATTERMOLE, ESQ. LONDON: HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1852, BOSTON CO l.l.Mi.- I \ .i;.^i»^ CBEST^^T HILL, MASS. 0 3U ADVERTISEMENT. This volume is the result of considerable reflection on the possible means of raising" a very attractive class of publications into a hig-her field of literary design, without depriving- them of those charms of novelty and g^race which have so long* seciu'ed to them the public favour. The Author wishes to add, that, thoug-h it did not come Avithin his purpose to encumber his pages with authorities, strict and conscientious historical accuracy was the first object at which he aimed. In endeavouring to set before the reader. History in action — in avoiding, as much as possible, all formal or dry detail, and giving prominence and amplitude only to those heroic deeds, those eloquent discussions, and those noble traits of personal character, which disting-uish all great events or eras in the world — he has sought to avoid those extreme differences of opinion, and partisan views, that have unhappil}' entered so largely into most Avorks respecting the Great Civil War of the Seventeenth Century. He cannot acknowledge indifference to any cause which has inspired high achievements among mankind. He looks upon the great drama of human events as, in all its provinces, the Avork of ONE who assigns no prominent part Avhatever to minds undeserving of earnest regard. Great qualities still find a sanctuary in the heart, even though the ends to which they Avere devoted may be disapproved by the principles and the judgment ; and history, in common with all true knowledge, promotes the noblest charities of our nature. ■■(.i 657 LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. PAGE Charles I. ........... • fRosTispiEcr. 143 Plundering of a  of the Standard . 48 Death of the Earl of Lindsey 60 Death of the Earl of Northampton 69 The Queen at Burlington ........... 72 The King and Hyde 77 Defence of Wardour Castle 85 Storming of Biistol ............  . 128 Goring Carousing ............. 135 The King's Camp before Donnington Castle 142 Montrose discovered in disguise .......... 156 Destruction of Royalists' Property ..........  The King on his journey to the Scots ......... 203 Seizure of the King at Holdenby 224 Treaty in the Isle of Wight 251 The retreat of the Scots from Preston ........ 264 Charles's defeated attempt to escape from Carisbrooke ...... 268 Excluding Presbyterian Members from the House ...... 271  , . .279 THE GREAT CIVIL WAR. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. . If tlie Petition of Rights, wliich in the thii'cl Parliament of Charles I., confinnecl those liberties that were already the bu-thright of EngUshmen, had been ingenuously assented to by the king, and taken by the brave and strong-minded men who were its authors for a final measure, it is possible the kingdom might have been spared the calamities of the following twenty years. But when, in the confidence of victory, the popidar leaders pro- ceeded to make that just and necessary enactment a vantage-ground for direct attacks on the prerogative of the crown ; and when, on the other hand, the distnistful sovereign withdi'cw, in effect, that assent to it which had diffused among the people universal joy; a breach was made, which the li^'ing generation, though they successively flung into it everytliing dear to man, were never to see closed. The triumphs of that assembly were achieved by men whom, or whose like, even the great period we propose to sketch saw not again met together. The fiery Eliot, foremost, if not greatest, perished long ere another pai-hament was called — imhappily in prison. Su- Thomas Wentworth, satisfied with that noble victory, so lai-ge a share of which was his own, mindful to which of the great parties in the state was now due the devotion of his vast political genius, went over to the king. His example was followed by Digges, Littleton, Noy, and others of inferior note. Yet, that the spnit of the party swrvived, and would sm-vive, while one man in pai'ticular lived, was apparent from a now familiar anecdote of the time. That man was Pym; whose sterUng eloquence, learning, application, and matchless tenacity of pm-pose, admi- rably fitted him for his office, as leader of an opposition so weighty in talent and vast in its designs. Wentworth, before carrying into efi"ect his final resolve, sought an interview in private with his inflexible associate, in which he imparted liis present news, suggesting the advantages that would acci"ue from conciliation. -; ■i,^ . B INTRODUCTION. "You need not/^ inten-upted Pym^ mdignantly, at once perccmng Wentvrortli's di-iftj while idsions of impeaclunent rose upon liis sight, " to tell me that you have a mind to leave us. But remember what I say — ^you are going to be undone. And remember, also, that though you leave us now, I will never leave you while your head is on yoiu- shoulders." Refusing to pass a bill for supplies, which the wants of the executive rendered urgent, the thii'd parliament was dissolved in the midst of an ominous storm of contimiacy on the part of the commons, and of disappointment and displeasure on that of the king. The representatives of the people retii-ed to their homes, to brood over thcii' personal wi'ongs and the despotism which now more than threatened the country, and to inflame, by their various statements of grievance, the popular discontent. The coui'se pm-sued by the king had in it so much of iuconsiderateness and ob-sious impolicy, beside what wilfulness may be imputed to it, as no hypothesis can explaia, but one that includes a thorough convic- tion in the royal mind of its justice, in existing circumstances. He now commenced in earnest the fatal plan of governing by the bare force of prerogative, until a parhament could be convened with the prospect of a more complying temper. It is fair to acquit Charles of a wish to encroach upon the known rights of his people; but a crisis had arrived, when the people would no longer distinguish between such a wish and a resolu- tion to maintain those adverse claims of the crown, which he had inherited from his pre- decessors, and thought himself boiuid to defend in his oatti person, and transmit, unim- paired, to liis childi'en. King Charles really desired to be the father of his people ; but in his code of parental duty he included denial and coiTcction with indulgence. We have no disposition to Aindicate those infcactions of the constitution, as now defined, which followed rapidly on each other. The brightest track along the course of the years which followed, is, with all its errors, the path of Wentworth. Raised to the dignities of baron and \iscouut, and to the offices of a privy-counsellor and president of the Council of the North, this great statesman, on the dissolution of the parliament, instantly applied himself with characteristic ardour to the high and peiilous duties of his presidency. The Council of the North was a court erected at York, in the reign of Henry VIII., with jurisdiction over the five northern counties, in those times the theatre of frequent insun-ection. The great and irregular powers exercised by this court, were, on Went- worth's appointment, enlarged to an almost unlimited extent. In administering them with strict but haughty and severe impartiality, he succeeded in the twofold object of bearing down with a high hand every show of disafiTection towards the government, and of raising to an unprecedented amount the income derived from that part of the kingdom to the royal exchequer. Charles had soon to acknowledge, rather than discover, sucli extraordinary zeal and ability in his new minister, as manifestly qualified him to serve INTRODUCTION. the state in a ■wider sphere. Wentworth was nominated lord-dejjiity of Ireland, -without being required to resign the chau* of the northern presideney. That ever -unhappy country was now for the first time governed by a hand vigorous and steady enough for the task. Wentworth made his appeai-ance in Dublin -with the pomp and ceremonial of royalty : it w.as his acknowledged principle of government to rule, not merely as a vice-king, but as the deputed sovereign of a conquered province. Benefits and severities lie dispensed with a sternly equal hand ; but even the severities of a master-mind, when first placed at the head of an ai'bitrary government, being for the most part merely the extinction of minor oppressions in tlie sovereign sway, are, for the people, blessings in disguise. One of the many historians who have poured their vials of angry censm'e on the proud head of Wentworth, bears this rekictant testimony : — "the RicheUeu of Ireland, he made that island wealthier in the midst of exactions, and, one might almost say, happier in the midst of oppressions." The benefits conferred on Ireland by Wentworth were diffused through all her insti- tutions. We trace them in a more than quadrupled revenue ; in the church strengthened and made more efficient ; in the courts of justice reformed ; in the ai'my disciplined ; in commerce and manufactiu-es cherished and extended ; in a population wealthier, more peaceful, and more humane. Its concomitant excesses are illustrated (among other less- remembered instances) by the trial and sentencing to death of the Lord Mountnorris, ostensibly for an impatient or disrespectfid word ; an outbreak of tyrannous pride, made available to the strengthening of the government, which Wentworth's enemies did not forget. The sentence was meant only to himible the victim ; but a stretch of power so violent in itself, and yet so capable of aggi-avation by unii-iendly tongues, swelled prodi- giously the gathering indignation against the viceroy, and was grimly noted down in the ffveat impeachment-book, by those who watched with patience tiU the shadow upon the darkening political sun-dial should point the hour of his undoing. Beyond the esteem of the sovereign, to whom he was ai-dently attached, Wentworth — with one exception — cared little to supply the vacancies in his former friendsliips from the party which he had now joined. Sincere, laborious, proud, he had no sympathy with the heartlessness and indolence of the coui'tiers. The exception refers to Laud; whose translation to the see of London, and paramount authority in the administration, nearly coincided with the period of Wentworth's elevation, as both did with the fall of Buck- ingham. With a mind of less majestic dimensions, though more learnedly cultivated; with dii-ectness and integrity equal to Wentworth's steady and unquenchable ardour ; below him in pride, as became a churchman, but as keenly capable of rigour, for con- science' sake ; as great in courage, as inflexible in constancy ; above aE, animated by like devotedness to the master whom both served " not wisely," but, in their view of duty, " well ;" — Laud, whatever may be thought by those who strangely discover the bond of these men's union in that most dissociative of principles, a common despotic will, was not unworthy of that intimacy with the larger-minded Wentworth which remained firm till violently and most affectingly terminated by death. Such as they were, these eminent persons continued to be the main agents of King Charles's government in Church and 4 INTRODUCTION. StatGj through many difficult, and, finally, disastrous years. They did not originate all his plans, but they were ever ready, in the fearlessness of duty, to carry forward even the worst of them. If they erred in an honest view of their duty, mistook the times, wounded the immatm-e constitution, overrated even their abihties, or indvdged private passion at the cost of the public weal ; they received in their persons, and wQl ever be paying in their fame, the penalty of those whom Providence places, as doomed yet not useless barriers to the violent cun-ent of changeful times; augmenting, while they brave, the fiu-y of the waters, but prepai-ing fertility for other generations, by forcing them to sweep away injmious impediments, and then to waste their rage in diffusion. The means by which the government of Charles I., endeavoured to provide for its exigencies, without parliamentary aid, are known to every one. Taxes on merchandise (the "tonnage and poundage" of the period) ; compositions for declining to receive knighthood ; fines from those whose estates were discovered to have encroached on the ancient boundaries of the royal forests; patents of monopoly on an infinite number of articles of ordinaiy consumption ; with other sources of revenue, some of them unprece- dented and illegal, the greater part arbitrarily and oppressively leaded ; all proved insuffi- cient. Large sums were extorted, of which no more than a trifling proportion found its way into the treasury; for an unsettled despotism is always plundered, and always improvident. " It is now almost fifteen years," said Pym, in the first session of the Long Parliament, "since his majesty had any assistance from his people; and these Ulegal ways of supplying the king were never pressed with more violence and art than they have been in this time : and yet I may, upon very good grounds, affirm, that in the last fifteen years of Queen Ehzabeth she received more by the bounty and afl'ection of her subjects than hath come to his majesty's coflers by all the inordinate and rigorous courses which have been taken." Refusal to comply with these demands was frequent, and was followed in numerous instances by fine and imprisonment in the Star Chamber, or other oppressive com'ts. A more memorable tax is celebrated under the name of Ship-money. A feeble and distracted government at home had diminished the respect in which England had formerly been held by foreign nations. Her ancient dominion of her own seas was slighted by her neighbom-s ; corsairs from Barbary made descents upon her coasts. To repel these disgraceful aggressions, the sea-ports were requii'ed to equip vessels for the king's service; and the demand was presently extended to the whole kingdom, the inland counties compounding for their assessments in money. The funds thus raised were honestly and successfully apphed to the purposes for which they were requii-ed. But the demand was startUng and novel — ^revived, at least, from the dust of forgotten records. Numbers opposed it, and were thrown into prison. Among the most memorable and important processes in judicial histoiy, is that by which the legahty of this impost was tried in the case of Hampden. The patriot's assessment, upon an extensive landed property, was twenty sliiUings. On so small a point turned the issue of a great consti- tutional question! Judgment was given for the crown; but as the judges were believed to be corrupted, and as the elaborate arguments of Hampden's counsel had convinced INTBODUCTION. O tlie nation tliat suTistantial riglit, if not the technical construction of statutes, favoured his cause, " the judgment," says Clai-endou, " proved of more advantage to the gentleman condemned than to the king's sgrvice." Hampden, indeed, reaped a cheap immortality; but he -was a man who had studied the art of winning golden opinions; a man whose constancy of purpose was shaded by caution, or smoothed by the blandest of demeanours ; and ship-money was in aU men's ears a hated word. But, as will always be the case in this serious nation in unsettled times, the deepest and widest grotmds of discontent were occupied by questions of religion. The people were kept in perpetual terror of popery by the slumber allowed to the existing statutes against papists, and by the insolence or indiscretion of that party, in consequence of Charles's marriage with a daughter of Roman Catholic Prance, and of his kno\vn deference to the personal predilections of his queen. This, however, was only an aggravation of an older and more deeply-seated grievance. It could not but befall, in the great conflict of the Reformation, that the antagonists of popery, driven at once by indignation, fear, and hati-ed, would take up on the other side some extreme, and such as in cooler times would appear, to sound judgments, untenable or worthless positions. These, when the purified National Church had been fixed on her own secure basis, all sane persons would have been ready to abandon, had no fresh cause of excitement arisen. But events kept alarm wakeful ; and timid natures, remembering as a temble dream whose images oppress the waking fancy, the sanguinary and flaming horrors of the past, thought themselves less secure in the efficiency of their arms and ramparts than in remoteness from the hated foe. The most primitive vestment, if the Romish, though only in common with other churches, had adopted its use, retained the infection of Antichrist : observances the most venerable, in passing through that " chamber of abominable ima- gery," had become symbols of the mystic Babylon. That aversion to apostolical govern ment, and that impatience of uniformity in rites and ceremonies, which abhorrence of popish corruption had already generated at home, were heightened by the sojom-n of the Marian exiles among those reformed communities abroad, whom not choice, but the pres- sure of cii'ciunstances, had deprived of episcopacy and the decorous adjuncts of a national church. The strictness of EHzabeth's ecclesiastical government, acting on the stubborn nature of conscientious Puritanism, iucreased both the number and the vehemence of the Church's enemies. A further element of mischief was brought in after James had sent over his committee of divines to grace the synod of Dort. Davenant and his compeers, on theii' return, innoculated the factions with a more virulent type of religious dissidence — the disputes of Prelatist and Puritan were henceforth to be sharpened by the reproachful appellations of Cahdnist and Arminian ; and, by a strange contradiction, a slavish theo- logy, in which the Father of mankind takes the character of a despot, became the watch- word of political and religious fi'eedom. With the authority. Laud had succeeded to the pi nciples of Cranmer, Whitgift, and Parker ; but in worse times, and, as both prime minis' ;r and metropoUtan, in circumstances at once more likely to betray him into violence, and expose him to obloquy. The Puritans who in EHzabeth's reign, though turbulent, were comparatively inconsiderable, and hardly. INTRODUCTION. till towai'ds the close of that biiUiant period, lifted tlieu- hands as a political party, gi-ew formidable under James, and, after the accession of Charles, insolent ; concessions — which they regarded as less than their due, and sHght punishments — ^which raised them into credit with the multitude, tm-ning equally to their advantage. Laud was fully awake to the greatness of the danger ; his error as a statesman lay in beheving that the danger could be averted by an appliance, on the part of the rulers, of bai-e unyielding piinciple. He knew he had the king's perfect confidence ; he felt he had a strong heart and unquench- able zeal ; he trusted in the help of God, for he esteemed it his cause. Thus supported^ he judged himself able to work out the justification of that pohcy which he felt convinced was just — to keep no terms with an implacable foe. "Resolve — there is no end of yielding," was his motto. This is the sole secret of that frequent reference to " thorough," which has been so much commented on in his con-espondence with Strafford. To this principle we confidently refer all those pubhc acts, which, often iireconcilable both with charity and prudence, and rendered doubly irritating by a sharp ungracious demeanour, overwhelmed him at length in a tide of popular hatred without example. His preference of Papists to Pui'itans, as less dangerous and inveterate enemies to the Church (ia which he agreed with Queen Ehzabeth) ; his excessive zeal for the splendid externals of public worship ; his measures for checking the perversion of pulpit iafluence to the furtherance of pohtical designs ; his revival of the obsolete jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts, in punishing gross profligacy of manners ; even the enormity of his shai-e in the mulcts and mutilations inflicted by the Star Chamber, in such cases as those of Leighton, Pryime, Bastwick, and Burton ; — had all that origin. The ofifence for which these individuals were indicted, m. the publication of libels on the hierarchy, was one so prevalent and popular, that the existence of the Church seemed to depend on steps being taken for its discouragement. Their " censure" has nevertheless been, with justice, reprobated by historians, as equally cruel and impolitic. It proceeded from a tribunal already the object of popular odium ; it was known to have been instigated by the prelates, whose actions needed no character of harshness to secui'e them an unfiiendly colouring ; the ignominy of the punishment outraged all the three great professions — for Prynne was a lawyer, Bastwick a physician, Burton a clergyman, and Leighton a Presbyterian divine ; finally, the manner of its execution was calculated, as penalties for licentiousness of language and opinions commonly are, to invest aspiring malevolence with the honours of martyrdom. While these and other concurrent events prepared England for a great political and religious explosion, it was in the king's northern dominions that the torch of revolution was fii'st apphed. In the march of rapacity and violence which hurried forward the Reformation in Scotland, episcopacy was almost swept away. Only an obscure name and powerless existence remained, during many years, to intimate that law had not sealed its actual extinction. To restore the primitive worship and government of the church, in his native land, was among the fondest desires of Charles's heart, as it had been of his father's. Some distant preparatory steps towai'd this object had been taken by King James; but the attendance of Laud at the coronation of his royal successor, in the northern capital. INTRODUCTION. 7 was iudignantly perceived to have reference to an immediate plan for bringing tliat desu-e to efFect. All orders of men looked on the progress of this design with unqualified dis- gust ; for in Scotland hatred of episcopacy (where, indeed, from the ignorant or designed confounding of the ideas of pope and prelate, it had, as an absti'act principle, its bii-th,) was continually kept alive by two of the most powerful motives of hiunan action — by self-interest among the nobles, and by religious enthusiasm among the people. In the mean time fatality, or infatuation, waited on every proceeding of the government. The Scotch bishops — persons in no esteem with the people, and whom the primate's fatal pohcy had made hateful to the nobUity, by conferring on them the highest secular pre- ferments— were directed to prepare a Litm-gy and Canons. The residt of their labours was submitted for re^'isal to the heads of the Anglican church; but, whether from dis- tnist or contempt, the sanction of the native clergy was wholly overlooked. This was extreme imprudence towards a body who carried their notions of independence so high, and whose influence over their congregations was unbounded. Moreover, by a prepos- terous inadvertency, the canons made their appearance before the liturgy, to which they prescribed submission. Both were, in reality, inoffensive ; the canons being chiefly a compilation from the acts of the General Assembly of Scotland, and the liturgy or service-book only just so much vaiied from the English Book of Common Prayer as was required by the national vanity of the northern prelates. Nevertheless the people were taught to regard both as instruments of antichi-istian tyi-anny ; and, as such, a deter- mined stand was to be made against their introduction. Till the day appointed for the publication of the service-book not a murmur- was heard. The suppressed ire of the populace then fi^rst escaped in a riot of the lowest classes, chiefly women, which interrupted the public reading of the prayers, and endan- gered the Hves of the oflSciating clergy. More perilous and decisive tumults succeeded ; in which, by degrees, fii-st the wealthy citizens, and finally the nobles, took part. For several months the government, contemptuously looking on, left the impotent local authorities to deal with its seditious subjects. At length a proclamation was sent down to assure the people of his majesty's regard for the Protestant religion, and to enforce the peace. By the treachery of some members of the privy council, the contents of this document became known in Scotland before its an-ival. A counter proclamation was instantly prepared by the popidar leaders, which, as if of equal authority with the king's, they read and posted up at Stirling, Lithgow, and Edinbm'gh ; their armed partizans forcibly detaining the royal heralds to witness the completion of tliis daring act. The pretext of the tumultuous assemblies which convulsed the nation being to present peti- tions against the bishops and the liturgy, the magisti'ates consented to a plan devised and insidiously proposed by the leaders, for the establishment of central " tables," or committees, to represent the petitioning parties. So ably were these boards conducted, that in a few weeks they had possessed themselves of unhmited authority throughout Scotland. An easy way was thus laid open to introduce the confederacy, so well remem- bered under the name of the " Solemn League and Covenant." The subscribers to this great national vow, after abjuring the superstitions of popery, in the language of a former MJ^ INTRODUCTION. covenant adopted in the reign of King James, and citing tlie several acts of parliament for the maintenance of the kii-k, bound themselves, " according to the laudable example of their worthy and free progenitors, by the great name of the Lord their God," to defend their religion against all novations, and to stand by each other in resistance to the contrary errors and corruptions, to the uttermost, against aU persons without exception. A solemn fast was observed, preparatory to subscribiag. On the day appointed, multi- tudes of every rank, age, and sex, thronged the great church of St. Giles's and its pre- cincts. The force, the freedom, and the extravagance of the repubhcan model of devo- tion, rose, on this occasion, to the highest pitch. Lifting their out-stretched hands towards heaven, the vast assembly swore to the national bond, amid shouts, and tears, and mutual embracements. The enthusiasm flew through the country; and all Scotland, with the exception of the immediate servants of the government, a few Roman Catholics, and the sohtary town of Aberdeen, was bound together in this vast confederacy, by the strongest tie of human associations, a burning rehgious zeal. Three months longer the government continued wavering and in'csolute. It then sent down the Marquess of Hamilton, Charles's principal minister for Scotch aifairs, with a commission " to conclude and determine all things respecting the peace of the kingdom." To impress the commissioner with a high notion of their union and strength, the Covenanters, to the number of twenty thousand, on foot and on horseback, met and conducted him into the city; and seven hundred robed ministers are said to have placed themselves on an eminence by the roadside, and with one voice intonated a psabn as he passed by. Hamilton had undertaken a difficult task. The demands of the confederates grew bolder as the negotiations advanced. Tvrice he jom-neyed to London, and t^vice returned to his increasingly-excited countrymen with modified powers ; bringing, on his second re- appearance, a surrender of everything demanded — the abohtion of the Liturgy, Canons, and High Commission Com-t ; on the single condition, that for the new Covenant should be substituted that of King James. At the same time, a national assembly and a parlia- ment were fixed, to discuss freely all questions in dispute. With these concessions the clergy and the people were disposed to be content. Not so the secular leaders. The king, they said, could not mean to grant all he had promised ; his object was to gain time to reduce them by force. In a large body, headed by several noblemen, they mounted a scafl'old at the Mai-ket Cross of Edinbm-gh ; where, sword in hand, they delivered a formal protest, asserting theii- dctenninatiou to persist in adherence to the Covenant. The assembly met at Glasgow j but the members having been almost all returned by the overpowering influence of "the tables," the commissioner found himself whoUy powerless before a majority resolved to carry forwai'd the plans of the confederates. At the end of seven days, therefore, he dissolved the unmanageable convention, quitting it in the midst of a burst of real or affected grief, and departed for England. But the assembly refused to separate. Under the auspices of the Marquess of Argyle, who from this time became the acknowledged head of the Covenanters, the dissolution was annulled. INTRODUCTION. 9 and Episcopacy abolislied, with eveiy otlier existing institution -wliich could interfere with the joyful dehverauce of Scotland from the absorbing teri'or of "popish and prelatic tyranny." Naturally concluding that the king would seek by force to suppress the rebellion, the Covenanters now began to make warlike preparations. Troops were levied, arms pur- chased, the Scottish soldiers of fortune serving on the Continent invited home. Encou- ragement was not wanting from the discontented party in England ; fi'om France came the not less important aid of money. Lesley, a veteran from the wars of Germany, was appointed to the chief command ; and forthmth began hostihties by seizing the castles of Edinbm-gh and Dumbarton. The king, on his part, proceeded with as much alacrity as his want of resom'ces permitted. At York, in which point the royal forces were concen- trated, he was met by a briUiant feudal gathering of the nobihty and chief gent; y of the realm; from thence he advanced to the vicinity of Berwick. Tliither Lesley drew his Covenanters — twenty thousand men, indifferently equipped, but inspired with zeal which was kept constantly at a boiling temperatui'e by the unwearied vehemence of pidpit oratory. Charles's troops were equal in number, and far better provided ; but without heart for the quan'el. Conscious of the unpopularity of his cause, and reluctant to shed his subjects' blood, he readily admitted commissioners from the Scottish camp; with whom was presently concluded, on the basis of the conditions before proposed at Edin- burgh by Hamilton, the miserable annistice known in the history of the time as the Pacification of Berwick. It was a fatal hour for England, when — whoever might be its true author — the attempt was made to force rehgious uniformity on the associated kingdom. The temper in which that measure was long pm-sued was plainly contempt — contempt for the independence of the kirk, and for the spuit of Scotchmen. But it is a dangerous thing to despise a nation, — even for a great nation to despise a mean one. Scotland became powerful, less in her own deep sense of wi'ong endured, than in England's consciousness of wrong inflicted ; unnerved by a sympathy half magnanimous, half traitorous, England became the dupe and the victim of her wily sister, in requital for having treated her in a delicate point as her vassal. 10 CHAPTER II. STRAFFOKD. While that hapless an-angement, the Pacification of Berwick, was looked upon as dis- honoui-able in England, by the Scots its stipulations were disregarded. Instead of disbanding their army, which they had engaged to do, the Covenanters dismissed a part only of the troops, and kept in pay all the officers ; nor were the lawless proceedings of the unarmed revolters abated. Already, in Scotland, Wentworth's was a name of hatred and of terror. A report that he intended to cross the Channel at the head of a body of troops, was among the earUest pretexts of the Covenanters for fljdng to anns. Tliis report had no foundation in fact ; yet the energy of his government awed into stiUuess and inaction theu' numerous countrj^- men settled in Ireland, who had begun to take the Covenant, and had shown an eager disposition to join the insurgents. "Wentworth, however, was not blinded, either by the boldness of his temper or by the readiness of his I'esources, to the deUcacy of the king's position ; he well knew the financial difficulties of the government, and its want of sup- port in pubUc opinion ; and justly apprehended the odiimi that would attach to the side which shoidd be the foremost to shed blood in civil strife. Though not du'ectly consulted, it is probable that to the lord-deputj'^s earnest advice, in his correspondence with the king, to remain on the defensive, was chiefly owing the faciUty with which Charles yielded to an accommodation. Foreseeing — perhaps designing — in that measure, a delay merely of the war, Charles now sent for the sole minister on whose counsels he could depend for its conduct. Pre- ceded in the atmosphere of the coxa't by dread of his paramount influence, in the nation by anxious curiosity respecting its probable resvdts, "Wentworth hm-ried over; scarcely, in his zeal to serve his master, allowing himself to be retarded by a terrible attack of one of his habitual diseases, which at that time weighed him down. Of several honours con- ferred on him by the king at his arrival, the most distinguished was an earldom, by the title — which his gi'catness and misfortunes aftenvards impressed so deeply on the national memory — of Straff'ord. The Earl of Strafford's ad\'ice decided the renewal of the wai', and the assembling of a parliament. Laying down a munificent contribution towards the expense of raising an army, he again, though severe illness continued to press on him, hastened to Ireland ; and, in an incrediblj'' short space of time, retimied once more, with a large subsidy from the parliament of that country, having besides secm-ed for the king a levy of eight thousand horse and foot. Not so obsequious was the parhament which now met in England. Although, of the great popvilar orators of 1628 some were wanting, and with them was absent the fervid STRAFI'OKD. 11 excitement of that period, yet tlie same spii-it was there — only calmer, because more assured ; more cautious, because too confident to risk anything by prematurely advau- cing. The manifest wants of the king were coldly put aside, on the old ground of prece- dence being due to the people's grievances. In vain Charles, among other arguments to enforce his assertion that delay was ruin, brought forward the celebrated letter, in which the Scotch had traitorously soUcited aid of the French king. The opposition were in no haste to put down a movement, which, they had long foreseen, was to be their most effect- tive auxiHary. Abeady an interchange of friendly offices and familiar counsels had been estabUshed. It is said, that Scotch uitrigue had carried the election of more than one member : that the commissioners of the Covenanters, now in London, were in the full confidence of the EngUsh party, is certain. To none were the doors of the Lords Dun- ferline and Loudon more familiarly thrown open than to Essex, Bedford, and Holland, to Say, to Hampden, and to Pym. Hither came the representatives of eveiy class in Eng- land who felt, or fancied, any oppression, or indulged a hope of change ; those who had been taxed without law, and those who had been imprisoned mthout mercy ; the haters of bishops, and the friends of the presbytery; the restless patriot, who was seeking reformation of the state by any means ; the sullen or the smooth repubhcan, who by any means had vowed its overthrow. The sudden dissolution of this parliament was followed by the regret of most honest and unsuspicious men; and by the rage of the populace, who had been prematm'cly taught that the day of its assembling was theii' time of promise. Those in the secret, wlio saw farther, smUed — as the usurer smiles, his finger on the bond, and his eye turned to the day of reckoning, when the prodigal flings over to him all but his last possession. The blame of the dissolution has been unfairly divided between the elder Vane, whose weakness, or treachery, was really in fault ; and Laud, who had as Httle share in it as any other of the king's ministers, popidar odium, however, fixed it, as it did every sinister occru'rence in church or state, ujion the archbishoj) ; and this imputation nearly cost the aged primate his hfe, in a tumultuous assault upon his palace at Lambeth. Meantime, in the noi-th "rebeUion prospered." Lesley's ai'my had been ready to march towards the in^'iting south, whenever the crisis might be judged meetest for " pro- moting," by their presence beyond the border, " the peace of both nations and the honom' of the king." The king, on the contrary, had to contend ^nth. two fatal difficulties in raising the means to receive, as he thought became him, this armed visit of his northern subjects — want of money, and a more than unwilling disposition in his levies. At length, by order of Strafford — who, with the title of Lieutenant-General, had taken the chief command. Lord Conway, with tlu-ee thousand foot and fifteen hundred horse, but in a state bordering on mutinj'^, advanced to dispute the passage of the Tyne. " When," says M. Guizot, " the army came in sight of the Scots, the insubordination increased. The soldiers beheld the Covenant float on their banners ; they heard the di'um summon the troops to sermon, and their camp at sunrise resound with the voice of prayer and psalmody. At this spectacle, at the accounts which had reached them of the pious ardour aud friendly dispositions of Scotland for the English people, by turns softened to tender- 12 STRAFFOED. ricss and stung witli indignation, tliey cursed the impious war, and were already van- quished, for they conceived themselves brought to fight against their brethren and their God." The Scots, with little resistance, passed the river at Newbovune ; the English retreating before them towards Yorkshire : not, perhaps, so sentinlentally affected, as in the preceding extract they are described ; but, certainly, with such a remarkable melting away of the ancient contemptixous valoui' of Englishmen, when opposed to their northern neighbours, as can be explained only on the supposition of a strong sympathy, whether the consequence of mutual misrepresentation, or of a sense of common injmies. Indignation at the novel pusUlanimity of his countrymen, mingling with scorn for the rebel Scots — which that people repaid ■\rith an animosity that nothing less than his blood could assuage — Straiford wasted himself in strenuous efforts to inspire his officers with the same spu'it of loyalty that animated his own bosom, and to put the retreating anny in a condition to chastise the invaders. Vain were all his exertions : in spite of threats and blandishments, he was borne back upon York, leaving the northern counties in the undisputed possession of the enemy. No longer able to forego the aid of his people, Charles, as an alternative at once readier and less galling than a parliament, now summoned, at York, a great coimsel of peers, in conformity with the feudal practice of some of his predecessors. An interval of fifteen days, which elapsed between the issuing of the proclamation and the assembling of the coimsel, was employed by Pym, Hampden, and St. John, in procming the signatm-es of twelve noblemen to a petition for a parhament. A second petition, with the same prayer, sub- scribed by ten thousand citizens of London, was quickly followed by others ; all set on foot by the same untiling band of patriots. Charles found it impossible to consider the assembly at York in any other Hght than as an expedient to supply the instant emergency. In liis opening speech he announced a pai-liament for the ensiung November, and, at the same time, the actual commencement of negotiations with the Scots ; the management of the treaty he consented to mtmst to sixteen peers, every one of whom was connected ^vith the popular party. The king desired to have it conducted at York ; but to this the Covenanters, who had now the game in their own hands, objected, on the pretence that Strafford, their grand enemy, the chief " firebrand " of the commonwealth, held the government of that city : it was, in consequence, opened at Ripon. Strafford now felt that the cause was lost, for which he had so long toiled and suffered. 