A history of England principally in the seventeenth century, Volume 2 (of 6)

If the war between the King and Parliament could be regarded as at an end, the controversy between them was by no means concluded. The King in spite of his defeat maintained the position which he had taken up on quitting London; he was as firm in it as ever. So far as the pacification of the country depended on an understanding of the King with Parliament, not a step had been gained; the questions had rather grown more complicated through the course of events. The people, crying for peace, would undoubtedly have been contented with the restoration of a Parliamentary régime without the abasement of the royal power. But in the tumult of violence and faction how could moderate wishes have had any chance even of full expression, to say nothing of being carried out? The men who gave the tone to the Lower House required of the crown a sort of renunciation of the military authority, which was opposed to the ancient notions of the monarchy. They deemed themselves compelled for their own sakes to persist. But it was not the strength of Parliament alone which had prevailed over the King. The great change to his disadvantage had been wrought by the Scots, the last blow in the field and his ruin by the Independents: and these victorious allies had their own objects and sought to gain them. The Scots desired the uprooting of the episcopal system; their last alliance with England was founded on the assent to this demand. The Independents meditated new forms in both Church and State. They vehemently opposed the Scottish system, and sought to alienate Parliament from it, and bring it over to their own ideas.

How the cause of the King and his fate should be decided was an element in the intestine strife between the parties: it depended mainly on whether the Presbyterians or the Independents gained the upper hand.