the balance," and within eight days after, the Scottish council declared both to king and parliament their earnest desire to see them reconciled with one another; and they moreover humbly desired his majesty "to hearken to his greatest, his best, and most unparalleled council." The Scottish ministers, indeed, were checked in any exuberance of loyalty by the stern spirit of the people, who still looked upon the king as the enemy to their kirk and their liberties, and upon the English House of Commons as their best friends. No sooner had the people of Edinburgh heard of the correspondence carrying on between Charles and the council, than they petitioned the latter not to take part, by any verbal or real engagement to the king, against the parliament of England. "These passages in Scotland" were of much advantage to the affairs of the English parliament, who still protested their fidelity to the king, at the same time that they courted the Scots with very kind expressions." against the command of Charles, compelled Nor- ing of these proceedings, "took a course to turn thumberland to depute his authority to Warwick, and actually put Warwick, who was acceptable to the sailors, into the command of the fleet. Charles revoked Northumberland's commission, and appointed Pennington to the command of the fleet; but the sailors would not receive this officer, and the parliament declared his appointment to be illegal. The king hoped to gain over the fleet, as he had hoped to gain possession of Hull, by a ruse; but the event showed that he had widely miscalculated the temper of the English seamen. If we are to believe the royalist historian, the king had not at this time one barrel of powder, nor one musket, nor any other provision necessary for an army; and what was worse, he was not sure of any port at which warlike stores might be safely landed from the Continent. "He expected with impatience the arrival of all those necessaries by the care and activity of the queen, who was then in Holland, and by the sale of her own, as well as of the crown jewels, and by the friendship of Henry Prince of Orange, did all she could to provide all that was necessary." The parliament, well aware of these preparations in Holland, decreed, that whosoever should lend or bring money into the kingdom raised upon the crown jewels should be held as an enemy to the state. Some weeks before this, when the act was passed for the speedy reducing of the rebels in Ireland, and the immediate securing the future peace and safety of England, many members of parliament voluntarily subscribed large sums of money, and their example was followed by other gentlemen and freeholders, who set on foot subscriptions in their several counties. The county of Buckingham, for example, advanced £6000. Foremost in the list of the subscribing members in the commons, we find the names of Sir Henry Martin for £1200, Mr. Walter Long, Sir Arthur Hazlerig, and Sir John Harrison for the same sum each, Mr. Oliver Cromwell for £500, John Pym for £600, John Hampden for £1000, Bulstrode Whitelock, £600, &c. 2 Several members of both houses-some who were in the service of the court, others who believed that the parliament was going too far or too fast-now withdrew to the king at York. For the present, the commons satisfied themselves with passing an order that every member should be in his place by a certain day, or forfeit £100 to the Irish war. On his first arrival at York, Charles was attended by no other ostensible minister than Secretary Nicholas, a timid and wavering old man, who never knew half of his master's mind, or saw the full intention of any measure proposed by the king. Lord Falkland, Hyde, and Culpeper, who had abandoned the parliament and pledged themselves to the court, and who were, in fact, the chief directors of the royal councils (though they again scarcely knew more of Charles's mind than Nicholas), remained in London to watch the proceedings of the House of Commons, and to perform secret services of various kinds. About the end of April, Hyde received a letter from the king, commanding him to repair to York as soon as he could be spared While the king was lying at York he was writ-from his business in London. The historian says ing hard and working by other means to interest that he communicated this letter to his two the Scots in his favour, and to get up a strong friends, Lord Falkland and Sir John Culpeper, party among them. From the Scottish council who agreed with him that he should defer that he received a dutiful and affectionate answer, journey for some time, there being every day and he also got a petition from divers of the no- great occasion of consulting together, and of sendbility and people there full of expressions of zeal ing despatches to the king-which despatches, and loyalty. But the English parliament, hear-like nearly all the state papers, were written by 1 Clarendon, Hist. 3 Whitelock, Memorials. 2 Ibid. They had all three been in very decided opposition to the court; they had all been actively concerned in the impeachment of Strafford, and they had all, it should appear, voted for his bill of attainder-certainly not one of the three had voted against it. Hyde, so much better known by his title of Lord Clarendon, had been eloquently fierce against the council of York; Lord Falkland, the idol of his party, had voted for the exclusion of the bishops from the House of Lords. In fact, up to the end of the preceding year, Hyde, Falkland, and Culpeper, were all and each of them as enthusiastic ou the side of the parliament as Hampden or as Pym. "And it was a wonderful expedition that was then used 1 Hyde, the great penman of the royalist party. "And," adds Clarendon himself, "it was happy that he did stay; for there was an occasion then fell out in which his presence was very useful towards disposing the Lord-keeper Littleton to send the great seal to the king at York." It appears that Charles wanted the great seal, but not the lord-keeper; for Littleton had made himself very obnoxious to the court by swimming with the strong stream of parliament. Besides other of fences, he had recently voted in favour of the Militia ordinance, and had learnedly insisted both on the expediency and on the legality of that measure. Clarendon, however, says that he had always been convinced of Littleton's loyalty, and he describes him as an honourable and noble person, who was only acting a double part. 'Especially his majesty was assured by some whom he trusted that the affection of the Lord Littleton was very entire to his service, and his compliance only artificial to preserve himself in a capacity of serving him, which was true." The copious and magniloquent historian goes on to say that while Littleton was playing this part, he called upon him one evening, and spoke very freely with him. He told Littleton of the censure and hazard he incurred by his notable compliance and correspondence with "that party" which the king construed to be factious against his just regal power, and that some votes in which his lordship had concurred, and which were generally understood to be contrary to law, in which his lordship's knowledge was unquestionable, were very notorious and much spoken of. The lordkeeper then told Hyde the straits he was in"that the governing lords had a terrible apprehension of the king's sending for the great seal; and that nothing but his fair deportment towards them, and seeming to be of their mind, prevented their taking the seal into their own custody, allowing it only to be with him whilst he sat in the house and in the court; that they had made some order to that purpose, if, by his interest with them, he had not prevented it, well knowing that it would prove most fatal to the king, who, he foresaw, must be shortly compelled to wish the great seal with him for many reasons. "Now," said he, "let it be considered whether my voting with them in such particulars, which my not voting with them cannot prevent, be of equal prejudice to the king with the seal's being put into such a condition that the king shall never be able to get it when it is most necessary for him, which undoubtedly will be the case when, by my carriage and opposition against them, the confidence towards me shall be lessened." The end of this long conversation was, that Littleton promised to serve the king "in that article of moment," and even to go to him at York. Hyde and his compeers communicated the happy intelligence to their master, who thereupon despatched Mr. Eliot, a forward young man and a groom of the bedchamber, with a warrant to receive the great seal and a very kind letter to the lordkeeper, requiring him to make all possible haste to York. Littleton gave up the great symbol to Eliot, who posted back to York with it; and then Littleton posted after the seal, and, though he was indisposed, and a much less active traveller than the groom of the chambers, he arrived at York the next day after that gentleman had de between York and London, when gentlemen undertook the service, as enough were willing to do; insomuch as when they delivered the seal to his majesty. This is Clarenspatched a letter on Saturday night, at that time of the year, about twelve at night, they always received the king's answer, Monday, by ten of the clock in the morning."-Clarendon, Life. 2 Hist.; Oxford edition of 1826. 1 Life. 3 Clarendon says, that he particularly mentioned to Littleton his late vote upon the militia. 4 The seal measures six inches in diameter. don's account, or rather, we should say, one of | chamber carried off the seal, and that the lordClarendon's accounts; and, according to this nar- keeper stole out of London, and by by-roads got rative, he contributed mainly to the great event, to York, where he was regarded but coldly by by his ingenious conversation with the lord- his majesty. Clarendon says that the king was keeper. But Eliot, the active groom of the cham- not satisfied with Littleton;' that his majesty ber, told the king a very different story, affirm- would not for a long time re-deliver the seal to ing that he had found the lord-keeper altogether him, but always kept it in his own bedchamber, averse to the measure; that he had locked the and that men remarked "a visible dejectedness" door upon him, and had got the great seal from in the lord-keeper. The historian tells us that him only by threatening to blow out his brains. all this gave him much trouble, as well it might, The historian says that Mr. Eliot did this, and if his own story were the true one; and he takes told many stories to magnify his own service, to himself the credit of procuring better treatnot imagining that the lord-keeper intended to ment for the keeper. It is certain, however, that follow him to York. But may we not, on the Charles never placed any confidence in Littleton; other side, suspect that Clarendon magnified his and that adroit lawyer met with the usual fate of service in this particular, as he obviously does double-dealers, was despised by both parties, lost in many other cases? May, an excellent autho- all spirit and talent for business, and concluded rity, says, that the lord-keeper had continued in his career about two years after at Oxford, in all appearance firm to the parliament for some neglect, poverty, and mental wretchedness. space of time after the rest were gone to York; "insomuch that there seemed no doubt at all made of his constancy, till, at the last, before the end of the month of June, a young gentleman, one Master Thomas Eliot, groom of the privy chamber to the king, was sent closely from York to him; who, being admitted by the lordkeeper into his private chamber when none else were by, so handled the matter, whether by persuasions, threats, or promises, or whatsoever, that, after three hours' time, he got the great seal into his hands, and rid post with it away to the king at York. The Lord-keeper Littleton, after serious consideration with himself what he had done, or rather suffered, and not being able to answer it to the parliament, the next day early in the morning rode after it himself, and went to the king. Great was the complaint at London against him for that action; nor did the king ever show him any great regard afterwards. The reason which the Lordkeeper Littleton gave for parting so with the great seal to some friends of his who went after him to York was this: that the king, when he made him lord-keeper, gave him an oath in private, which he took, that, whensoever the king should send to him for the great seal, he should forthwith deliver it. This oath (as he averred to his friends) his conscience would by no means suffer him to dispense withal; he only repented (though now too late) that he accepted the office upon those terms." Whitelock says simply "The Lord-keeper Littleton, after his great adherence to the parliament, delivered the great seal to Mr. Eliot, whom the king sent to him for it; and shortly after Littleton followed the seal to the king, but was not much respected by him or the courtiers." And all that is perfectly clear in this strange manœuvre, which like most of Charles's measures, and all other manoeuvres, is liable to a contrariety of doubts, is, that a groom of the But it was now time for Clarendon himself to steal away to York. Shortly after Littleton's departure, the king told him that he would find him much to do there, and “that he thought now there would be less reason every day for his being concealed." Before Littleton's flight, Clarendon had arranged all matters for the journey, resolving with Lord Falkland to stay at a friend's house near Oxford, a little out of the road he meant to take for York, till he should hear of the keeper's motion; and to cover his absence from the House of Commons, he had told the speaker that it was very necessary he should take the air of the country for his health. As soon as the keeper had flown, notice was taken in the house of the absence of his friend Hyde; inquiries were made what was become of him, and it was moved that he might be sent for. The house, however, who probably did not consider the historian of quite so much importance as he considered himself, neglected to take any steps for his apprehension for the present; and when (as he says) "they had resolved upon his arrest, he was warned thereof by Lord Falkland, and judging it time for him to be gone," he then left Ditchley, the house of the Lady Lee (afterwards Countess of Rochester), and travelled by unusual ways through Leicestershire and Derbyshire, until he came to Yorkshire. At first he fixed himself at Nostall, within twenty miles of the city of York, and there lay close and secret, corresponding daily or hourly with the king, and preparing answers in his name to the papers and manifestoes of the parliament. It should appear that even the courtiers and ministers at York were kept in ignorance as to his whereabout; for he when, shortly after, he was summoned to York, the king received him very graciously, and asked some questions aloud of him, as if he thought A Hist edition of 1826. says, 2 Life. that, he had then come from London. But it was thus that Charles dealt even with the instruments of his plans and intrigues, concealing from the rest what was done by one, and never imparting to the whole body the schemes in which all were to work blindly, or at least seeing nothing beyond to the parliament. The commons instantly took their resolution, and on the 15th of June sent Denzil Hollis up to the House of Lords to impeach the whole of them. In an eloquent speech Hollis dwelt upon the history of the earlier parts of this reign; showed that it had ever been the DITCHLEY HOUSE.-From a drawing by Luke Sullivan, 1759. their own fixed path. After this public reception and masking of circumstances, the king called Hyde aside into the garden, saying that they need not now be afraid of being seen together; and he walked with him in consultation for a full hour.' Clarendon arrived in Yorkshire at the end of May; on the 2d of June the ship Providence, freighted by the queen in Holland, escaped the Earl of Warwick's cruisers, and ran ashore on the Yorkshire coast with sixteen pieces of artillery and great store of arms and ammunition, which had long been expected by the royal party, and the want of which had delayed the king's design of attempting Hull by a siege. The cannon, muskets, and gunpowder were all safely landed and carried to York. At this crisis the arrival of such a supply was of more consequence in the eyes of Charles than the coming of a great penman. The parliament, however, by this time began to be excited and convulsed by the great defection that was taking place, particularly among the lords. On the 30th of May they, by an order, summoned nine peers, the first that had gone away to York, to appear at Westmins policy of the court "to strike at parliaments, keep off parliaments, break parliaments, or divide parliaments." "A new plot," said Hollis, "is this: the members are drawn away, and persuaded to forsake their duty, and go down to York, thereby to blemish the actions of both houses, as done by a few and inconsiderable number, a party rather than a parliament, and perhaps to raise and set up an anti-parliament there. My lords, this is now the great design against this parliament, which is the only means to continue us to be a nation of freemen, and not of slaves, to be owners of anything: in a word, which must stand in the gap to prevent an inlet and inundation of all misery and confusion." He then, in the name of all the commons of England, impeached of high crimes and misdemeanours, Spenser, Earl of Northampton, William, Earl of Devonshire, Henry, Earl of Dover, Henry, Earl of Monmouth, Charles, Lord Howard of Charleton, Robert, Lord Rich, Charles, Lord Grey of Ruthven, Thomas, Lord Coventry, and Arthur, Lord Capel. The lords that remained made little or no attempt to screen the lords that had fled; and, shortly after, "being in their robes," they adjudged the fugitives never to sit more as members of that house, to be incapable of any benefit or privileges of parliament, and to suffer imprisonment during their pleasure. On June 2d the lords and commons sent a petition to the king with nineteen propositions, as the basis of a treaty of concord and lasting peace. They demanded that the king should dismiss all such great officers and ministers of state as were not approved of by both Houses of Parliament, and that an oath should be taken by all future members of the privy council; that the great affairs of the kingdom should not be transacted by the advice of private men or by any unknown or unsworn counsellors; that he or they unto whom the government and education of the king's children were committed should be approved of by both houses; that the church government and Liturgy should undergo such a reformation as both Houses of Parliament should advise; that his majesty should contribute his best assistance | dom should be put under the command and cusfor the raising of a sufficient maintenance for tody of such persons as his majesty should appreaching ministers throughout the kingdom, and point, with the approbation of parliament; that give his consent to laws for the taking away of the extraordinary guards and military forces now innovations, superstitions, and pluralities; that attending his majesty should be removed and he should rest satisfied with the course that the discharged, and that for the future he should raise lords and commons had taken for ordering of the no such guards or extraordinary forces, but, acmilitia until the same should be further settled, cording to the law, in case of actual rebellion or by a bill; that such members of either House of invasion, &c., &c.2 Parliament as had, during this present parliament, been put out of any place and office, might either be restored to that place and office, or otherwise have satisfaction for the same upon the petition of that house of which they were members; that all privy counsellors and judges should take an oath for the maintaining of the Petition of Right, and of other wholesome statutes made by this present parliament; that all the judges, and all the officers appointed by approbation of parliament, should hold their places during good behaviour; that the justice of parliament should be left to take its course with all delinquents, and that all persons cited by either house should appear and abide the censure of parliament; that the forts and castles of the king Charles, with lords about him, with arms and gunpowder, and with the prospect of more from Holland, thought himself as strong as the parliament: he received these propositions with great indignation, and, in replying to them, he taxed the parliament as cabalists and traitors, as the makers of new laws and new constitutional doctrines; and in the end he told them that their demands were unworthy of his royal descent from so many famous ancestors, unworthy of the trust reposed in him by the laws; protesting that, if he were both vanquished and a prisoner, in worse condition than the most unfortunate of his predecessors had ever been reduced to, he would never stoop to grant those demands, and make himself, from a King of England, a Doge of Venice. CHAPTER XIV.-CIVIL AND MILITARY HISTORY.-A.D. 1642—1644. CHARLES I. The season of war commences-Charles levies forces-The parliament follows the example-The fleet joins the parliament The parliamentary military commanders-Hampden and his regiment-Progress of the musters on either side-Preliminary skirmishes-Hostile manifestoes--Dr. Bastwick taken prisoner-His narrow escape from execution-Plots of the royalists to surprise Hull-They are unsuccessful-Charles erects his standard-His unsuccessful attempt on Coventry- Fruitless overtures for negotiation-Prince Rupert's early proceedings in the royalist cause-Proclamations of Charles-Their insincere character-His mode of raising supplies-Encounters of the rival parties-Battle of Edgehill-Particular movements of the conflict-Its indecisive termination-Charles welcomed in Oxford-Overtures for an accommodation between the king and parliament-It is broken by the royalists-Military blunders of the parliament army-The queen arrives with reinforcements to the royalists-Waller's conspiracy-Plot detected to deliver Bristol to the royalists- Prince Rupert's attempt at a night surprise-His encounter with the parliament troops at Chalgrove Field-Death of Hampden-Misfortunes to the parliamentary cause-Skirmishes-London fortified against the king-Battle of Newbury-Death of Lord Falkland-The parliament applies to the Scots for aid-Conditions on which they grant it-Charles in like manner applies to Ireland-The Earls of Montrose and Antrim consent to aid the king-The Irish assistance to the royalist cause ineffectual-Death of Pym-Meeting of the Westminster Assembly of Divines-Their proceedings to settle the government and form of worship of the Church of England-A royalist parliament convened at Oxford-Its speedy dissolution-Leslie and the Scots come to the aid of the parliamentarians-Battle of Marston Moor-Total defeat of the royalists. |