accept their services and incorporate them with his forces. The dependants of these classes followed the fortunes of their masters. On the side of the parliament, the yeomen of the country, and generally the merchants and artizans of towns enlisted. These classes had most to hope from the parliament in the way of freedom from monopolies and illegal taxation, besides their being mostly in favor of church reform. The defect of both these forces, in a military point of view, are well stated by Lingard :"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".

6. Battle of Edgehill or Kineton. Oct. 23, 1642. Charles quitted Nottingham on the 20th of September, to establish his head quarters at Shrewsbury, with the hope of increasing his forces in a district which showed some zeal in his cause. Essex had left London on the 9th and found on his arrival at Northampton an army of about twenty thousand. His instructions were to transmit a petition to the king, requesting him to return to London, and if he refused, to follow him, and "by battle or otherwise rescue his majesty, his two sons the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York, from their perfidious counsellors, and bring them back to the parliament". Charles gathered strength at Shrewsbury, recruits came in which raised his force to eighteen thousand: to equip them the arms of the militia were taken from several counties, and arms sent by the parliament for service in Ireland, fell into the hands of the royalists. Rupert, who had lately joined his uncle, scoured the country with his cavalry for pillage, and was the first to encounter the parliamentary forces. Essex followed the king, proposing to put himself

between the royalists and the capital, by taking possession of Worcester. It was in doing so, that parts of the two armies came first into collision, Rupert endeavouring to hold Worcester, from which however he was driven out with the loss of about fifty men. This cavalry skirmish took place at Powick-bridge on the 23rd September. Essex unaccountably lay at Worcester three weeks, without making any movement. Encouraged by the inaction of his enemies, and by his own accession of men and money, the king resolved to march on London, and finish the war at one blow. The royalist army moved (Oct. 12) by way of Bridgenorth, Wolverhampton, and Birmingham. As soon as Essex understood the king's object, he put himself in motion, and on the evening of the 22nd entered Kineton, the royal army having halted on Edgehill, a few miles in advance. On the morning of the 23rd, Charles posted his army on the heights, but the parliamentarians were not anxious to engage at a disadvantage, for their artillery and many of their men had not yet come up. Essex drew out his forces on a rising ground in the vale of the Red Horse, about half a mile in front of the village. A delay now took place till two o'clock, when the royalists descended the hill, and Rupert charging the left wing of the enemy, weakened by the desertion of Fortescue with two troops of horse, drove it before him as far as Kineton, where his men took to plundering the enemy's baggage. Driven off by the arrival of Hampden's regiment, he returned to find the royalists broken and dispersed, for the right wing of the parliamentary army had been eminently successful. In this battle, it is said that four thousand fell, but the clergyman who superintended the burial of the dead says there were but twelve hundred. Both armies rested on the field for the night, and on the morrow when Charles would have renewed the engagement, it was found that one-third of his force was missing, a part had fallen, but many more had deserted. Neither on the other side would they agree to fight again at that time, it being necessary, so said the professional soldiers, to train the recruits better, and not risk all at once. Essex drew off to Warwick, and the king advanced towards London, and establishing his head-quarters at Oxford, his troops spread themselves over the country; Banbury, Abingdon, and other places opened at once their gates, and even the garrison of Reading, commanded by Martyn, a friend of Cromwell, fled before a trifling force.

7. Battle of Brentford. Nov. 1642. The consternation of the inhabitants of London, occasioned by the report of a defeat sustained by Essex, had scarcely subsided, when the city was again alarmed by Rupert's pillaging the country, up to the very environs of the capital. The general was at once ordered to

move his troops for the protection of London, and negotiations were opened with the king. Charles marched to Colnbrook, and received the commissioners with favor on the 11th of November, professing himself always ready to treat. On the 12th, his answer was read in the Lords, and Essex ordered to suspend hostilities. Sir P. Killigrew being sent to the king to conclude an armistice, found the forces engaged at Brentford, for Charles had advanced his army to that place and fallen on Hollis's regiment, hoping under cover of a November fog to reach the artillery train at Hammersmith, and perhaps London itself. As soon as additional forces were drawn together, Rupert retired. Essex was soon at the head of twenty-four thousand men, and the two armies faced each other a whole day on Turnham Green, without either making a movement. The king drew off by way of Reading, to winter at Oxford, the parliamentary force to Windsor. The affair at Brentford put an end to the negotiation, and was taken to be an instance of the king's perfidy, though he defended himself by saying that the parliament was playing him false, inasmuch as they were drawing troops around his quarters, while they amused him with a show of negotiation.

SECTION XV. PROCEEDINGS OF THE LONG

PARLIAMENT. 1643.

1. Negotiations opened with Charles at Oxford. March 20, 1643. In the city the peace party made itself heard, and petitions were sent in to both Houses, calling upon the parliament to restore peace to the nation. But the parliament could not agree on any measure, it was therefore arranged that a deputation from the common council should proceed to Oxford. An answer sent by the king was read to the citizens, but it was bitter and full of recrimination, which gave no indication of a wish for peace. The arrival of the queen in the North, and the falling off of the parliamentary interest in consequence, troubled the leaders in London, and consent was given that five commismissioners should proceed to Oxford, and offer terms to the king. They required of Charles, that he should disband his army and return to his parliament: pass a bill for abolishing bishops, and other bills necessary for reformation: remove malignant counsellors settle the militia according to the will of parliament: vindicate by a bill, Kimbolton and the five commoners: ally himself with his Protestant neighbours: grant a general pardon : and restore parliamentary members to their offices. Charles on the other side demanded the restoration of his revenue, ships, forts, &c.; that what had been done contrary to law and his rights should be recalled: that the parliament should disclaim

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all illegal power: that the Book of Common Prayer be preserved : that all persons excepted in the treaty be tried by their peers: and that there should be a cessation of arms and a free trade. The negotiation came to nothing, for neither party would yield; indeed the commissioners had no power to make concessions, every proposal having to be sent to London for discussion. As a final answer, Charles offered to return to the parliament, if they would remove their place of meeting twenty miles from London. To this the parliament objected, and recalled the commissioners on the 15th of April.

2. Waller's Plot. May 31, 1643. This plot had for its object, the seizure of the leading members of the Commons, the arming of the royalists, and the introduction of the king's troops into London, and was proposed to be carried into effect on the 31st of May. Edmund Waller, a poet of some celebrity, himself a member of the House, and related to Hampden and Cromwell, was the principal conspirator. With him were associated, Tomkins his brother-in-law, Challoner a rich citizen, and several others. The secret being discovered, they were arrested; Waller to save his life made a full confession, which compromised the Earl of Northumberland and many other persons. Six were condemned to death, but only Tomkins and Challoner were hanged, one in Holborn, the other in Cornhill, and both within sight of their own dwellings. The remainder were imprisoned. Waller after being twelve months in the Tower, obtained his release to travel on the continent, by payment of £10,000. Advantage was taken of the excitement occasioned by this discovery to propose a new oath, "never to consent to the laying down of arms so long as the papists, in open war against the parliament, should be protected from the justice thereof, but according to their power and vocation, to assist the forces raised by the parliament against the forces raised by the king". This oath was first taken by the Commons, then by the Lords, the citizens, and the army; by an ordinance every man was required, in his parish church, to make the same vow.

3. The Lords adopt proposals for peace. Aug. 4, 1643. The inactivity of Essex, the ill-fortune of general Waller, the cowardice of Fiennes, governor of Bristol, together with the success and increasing means of the royalists, made the cause of the parliament desperate. The Lords inclined to peace, and seeing the opportunity favorable, adopted on the motion of Northumberland, proposals to the king, that both armies should be forthwith disbanded; that the members expelled for joining the king should be recalled; and that the questions of the militia and the church should be left for future decision, one by the parliament,

the other by a synod. These propositions were sent down to the Commons, and though the war party did its best, it was resolved to take them into discussion. Every effort was now made to rouse the public mind against the plan proposed to destroy the hopes of the patriots. From the pulpits, the people were exhorted to resist a movement which would ruin the city, placards on the walls called on the people to rise and prevent the triumph of the malignants, and the common council voted a petition to Westminster urging the continuance of the war. In the Commons, the resolutions of the Lords were rejected by a majority of seven. Vengeance was threatened against the peers, and seven, almost half of the upper House, left London, six of them joining the court at Oxford, where however they were ungraciously received.

4. The Solemn League and Covenant sanctioned by both Houses, Sept. 18, 1643. Negotiations had been commenced with the Scots in the preceding year, when London was threatened by the king, but nothing was concluded till parliament sent the younger Vane and three other commissioners to Edinburgh. It was the object of the Scots to make their assistance depend on a pledge to be given by the English parliament, that the covenant should bind the two nations to establish a conformity of doctrine, discipline, and church government throughout the island. This meant that the English should adopt, in all its completeness, Presbyterianism as established in Scotland. The adroitness of Vane, an Independent, procured the wording of the article in a form less objectionable to his party; the Kirk was to be preserved in its existing purity, and the Church of England "be reformed according to the Word of God, and after the example of the best reformed churches". In this form the National Covenant, or as from this time it was called, The Solemn League and Covenant, was approved by the Assembly and the Estates. In England, both Houses sanctioned the Covenant on the 18th of September, and ordered it to be taken and subscribed by all persons in office. On the 25th of September, the members of the Commons, in St. Margaret's church, uncovered and hands uplifted, took the oath of adhesion, first verbally, and then in writing. By the League or civil part of the compact, the Scots agreed to aid the parliament with twenty one thousand men, to be paid by England at the rate of £31,000 per month, and an advance of £100,000 for the outfit.

5. The Assembly of Divines meet at Westminster, July 1, 1643. One of the great grievances of which the House had complained, was that of the Established Church. Power being now in their hands, it was employed to bring about what