King and commonwealth

RISE OF INDEPENDENTS.—BATTLE OF MARSTON MOOR.—SELF-DENYING ORDINANCE.—1643–1645.

Though the Parliament was saved, the Royalists might fairly boast that the balance of success was on their side. In the west they had driven their enemies out of every important town but Gloucester. In the north, the reduction of Hull would leave them masters of the whole of Yorkshire. It might well seem that the current of their success would remain unchecked, or that if there was a check, they could at any moment win a favourable peace by negotiation; but there were causes at work which made either of these results impossible.

WAR EMBITTERED.

Character of king’s troops. Success did not improve the character of the king’s troops. The cavaliers and officers were becoming cruel and rapacious in their habits of warfare; while the common soldiers, often in want of pay, and retained in little discipline, followed the example of their leaders, and plundered the country people without distinction of friend or foe. Though feelings of honour still caused generals and officers to treat prisoners, their own equals in rank, with courtesy if not with generosity, the common soldier was too often ruthlessly handed over to the care of some inhuman gaoler.Cruelty to prisoners. Rupert, on one occasion, marched prisoners from Cirencester to Oxford, half-clad, bareheaded, barefooted, bound together by cords, with gaping wounds still undressed, though there was a cutting wind and snow on the ground; the king, the two princes, and several lords, rode about a mile out of Oxford on purpose to see Rupert’s prisoners come in; Charles was observed to smile: no words of pity, no order for their relief, passed his lips. If a tender-hearted Lord Falkland were by, what wonder he grew weary of his life, when such were the acts of his party? For the captives such marches were but the beginning of misery. Prisoners were kept crowded together for months in noisome dungeons, and sometimes left two days together without food. “I was so hungry,” said one prisoner, after making a vain attempt to cut his throat, “the devil tempted me to cut it and be out of my misery.”[104] This cruel usage of prisoners was not confined to the Royalists. The governor of Windsor Castle so starved the common soldiers committed to his keeping, that three men, it was said, fell down dead in the street on their release. Some hypocrites went so far as to parade their brutality as a proof of godliness. “My soul abhors to see this favour done to the enemies of God,” said a turn-coat captain, addressing the wife of the governor of Nottingham Castle, as she bound up the wounds of her Royalist prisoners. Tales such as these, sayings ascribed to Puritans or Cavaliers, not to mention the harrowing details of battles and sieges—all these were published weekly, almost daily, in papers and pamphlets, and spread broadcast over the kingdom. No story was too foul or false to be refused a place in these publications. For instance, the Mercurius Aulicus, the chief Oxford paper, selecting domestic grief as an instance of God’s judgments, after relating in a tone of exultation that death had deprived Hampden of his two eldest children, added gratuitously the lie that of his two remaining sons, the one was a cripple, the other a lunatic.[105] Slander thus did its part with violence and cruelty in embittering the feelings of men who, in the outset of the war, had felt almost as friends. Religious animosity helped to broaden the gulf. Ministers especially suffered.Sufferings of clergy. If they refused to read out the king’s declarations, where the king had power, or the Parliament’s declarations, where it had power, they had to fly their parishes to escape imprisonment. Thus deprived of home and livelihood, Puritans and Episcopalians had no choice but to take refuge with the nearest friendly garrison or come to regiments as chaplains. As they suffered most, they hated most. It was not bad usage only; as wars go on, the questions which touch men’s hearts most deeply come more and more to the front. The church question was one of these, and one on which the ministers could not but feel deeply. So it was that the religious influence which should have tempered the bitterness of faction, gave its sanction to acts breathing more of the Old Testament than the New; and those who should have been the mediators taught that any parleying with the foe was treason against God. Thus the demands of the Parliamentarians increased, and there was no basis for negotiation, unless Charles would consent not simply to lessen the power of bishops, but to establish a non-Episcopal church.Assembly of divines. Through Scottish influence, Parliament had already summoned to London an assembly of divines to settle uniformity of worship for the two countries. This, of course, simply meant to discuss the means for the establishment of the Presbyterian Church in England (1st July). The bishops had completely lost all influence in the country, and as far as that went, Episcopacy was already dead.London a Puritan city. London was quite changed from the time when a gay court was held at Whitehall, when Laud lived at Lambeth, when cavaliers daily visited the artillery gardens, when crowds frequented the theatres. The grass was already growing in the courts of Whitehall;[106] Lambeth Palace was deserted, and was soon to be used as a prison. In the artillery gardens, once so gay, grave citizens now learnt the use of pike and musket; the theatres were all closed by order of Parliament (September 2nd, 1642). Services, preachings, and fasts had taken the place of the old bonfires, dances, and feasts. The book of sports had been burnt by the common hangman by another order of Parliament (5th May, 1643). Services were no more conducted with vestments and postures, lighted candles, and choirs. The wearing of any vestment was become a matter of indifference; the liturgy was read or prayers extemporized as minister and congregation pleased; organs, images, altars, were gone from churches. The beautiful old crosses, remains of Catholic times, and still left standing in the streets, were removed by order of Parliament. Presbyterians rejoiced to see bonfires made of “fine pictures of Christ and the saints, of relics, beads, and the like remains of Catholic superstition.”[107]

PRESBYTERIAN INTOLERANCE.

The gaming houses were put down, and laws and ordinances for the punishment of vice[108] so strictly enforced, that no swearing was to be heard, no drunken man to be seen in the streets. Everybody led, or affected to lead, a life of strictness; for he who failed to attend some place of worship, or in public swore or drank, was looked upon as a reprobate, and could not hope to exercise any influence amongst his fellows. Sundays were no longer holidays of pleasure, but were strictly spent in religious services. In the evening men might pass through the town, and hear nothing but the voice of prayer and praise, from private houses as from churches.[109] No fruiterer or herb woman dared stand about and sell in the streets; no milk-woman cry her milk on that day, but at stated hours; no one but travellers by necessity might be received in taverns. Even if a child danced round a maypole, its parents were fined twelvepence for the offence. Fast days were observed after each success or failure, and, soon after the breaking out of the Irish rebellion, an order of Parliament was issued, enacting that the last Wednesday in every month should be kept regularly as a solemn fast and day of humiliation (8th January, 1642).

Presbyterian intolerance. The Presbyterians, who now ruled, regarding as they did their own as the true church coeval with the early ages of Christianity, were unwilling to tolerate any other worship, and had they possessed the power would have been as despotic as the bishops. As it was, they persecuted as far as they dared. They hunted out Catholic priests, and put to death on an average about three a year;[110] others they sent into banishment or left to die in prison. To keep under the sectarians, they tried to restrain the liberty of the press by passing an ordinance for the suppression of slanderous papers and pamphlets (11th June). But the sectarians were now too numerous to be crushed, and could disobey the ordinance with impunity.

NEW POLITICAL REFORMERS.

Ideas grow rapidly in times of revolution. The habit of private judgment grows still more rapidly. The very means by which the popular leaders have carried the mass to their point of view, soon carry it beyond them. The pamphlets of the Presbyterians and Episcopalians had made the people controversialists; and in many cases undermined the authority of the teachers who had converted them. The same phenomenon occurred in the region of political strife. The war of words, bandied between patriots and Royalists, discussing the rights of King and Parliament, had familiarized the people with the discussion of constitutional questions. When such questions are left to popular discussion moderation is soon lost; violent opinions grow apace, and the claims of custom and prescription evaporate, like subtler elements, in that rough crucible.New political reformers. Out of the ranks of the sectarians arose a new set of political reformers, who no longer ascribed the divisions existing between King and Parliament to evil counsellors, but spoke of Charles as personally in fault. Some went further. A pamphlet was published, saying that if the king did not yield to what was demanded of him, he and his race ought to be destroyed. Henry Marten, one of the Independent party, defended the writer in the Lower House. “I see no reason,” he said, “to condemn him; it is better one family should be destroyed than many.” “I move,” said another member, “that Mr. Marten be ordered to explain what one family he means.” “The king and his children,” replied the Republican boldly. The use of such language horrified the Presbyterians, and Marten was for some time expelled the House.

SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT.

It was evident that there was an advanced party with whom the Presbyterians were as much at issue as they were with the Royalists. But the presence of a common danger checked a schism for the time. The Presbyterians still far outnumbered all other sections on their side, and the misfortunes that befell the arms of the Parliament in this summer of 1643, made the Independents not merely rally to them, but agree to call in the aid of Scotland on terms which would require the establishment of the national church of the north. The interest of the Scots was really identical with that of the English Presbyterians, for if Charles and Episcopacy were restored together, Scotland would not long be allowed to retain her own form of worship.Solemn league and covenant. They tried, therefore, to bind their allies down by prescribing a solemn league and covenant (August). Subscribers to this document bound themselves: (1.) To endeavour to reform religion in England and Ireland according to the Word of God, and practice of the best reformed churches, and to bring the three churches in the three kingdoms to uniformity in confession of faith, form of church government, and directory or prayer-book for worship; (2.) To extirpate Popery, prelacy, schism; (3.) To preserve the liberties of the kingdom, the king’s person and authority, and to bring malignants to punishment; (4.) To assist and defend all such as should enter into the covenant. All civil and military officers, all ministers holding livings, and all members of Parliament were required to take the covenant. Thus Episcopalian representatives were obliged to leave the Assembly of Divines, and over 1500 ministers resigned their livings.

Union in a State must of course necessitate many sacrifices of the individual. A subject must often be required to give a passive submission, and sometimes an active co-operation, to acts of which he does not approve.Covenant a test. There are two limits to such interference. Firstly, it should be confined, as far as possible, to political as distinguished from religious duties, since it is only when religious questions have taken a political form that they can lead to the disruption of the State; and further, in political matters the duty of bowing to the majority is more clear, and the conscience less tender, than in cases which seem to touch the intercourse of man with his Maker. Secondly, the interference should be limited to overt acts as distinguished from opinions; if a man does what is required by the law, he should not be required to make a declaration of his feelings. Such a requirement is simply inquisitorial, and generally defeats its own ends, by encouraging either open defiance, or a disregard of the sanctity of oaths. The Presbyterian system recognized no such limits to interference. Some of the Independents, indeed, had learnt the lesson of a higher duty, and strove earnestly to make the league with Scotland a political league only, and not a religious covenant; in fact, Sir Henry Vane, had power been in his hands, would have been ready to grant toleration even to Catholics. The Scots, however, were impracticable, and all Vane could do was procure the insertion of the ambiguous words “to endeavour the reformation of religion according to the Word of God and the best reformed churches.” These words, though, when taken in connection with their context, they obviously referred to the Presbyterian Church, yet served as a loophole for the Independents in the army, the Parliament, and the Assembly of Divines, who subscribed in numbers to a test which was intended to eliminate them.Failure of test. Covenant subscribed to by Independents. The 2nd clause left the Episcopalians no such opening, yet many followed the example of the Independents, putting some forced meaning on the words to suit their own consciences. Such laxity of conscience must not be too severely censured. In these cases the real guilt lies rather on those who induce hypocrisy than on those who practise it. The determination of successive governments to exact oaths of fidelity to themselves resulted finally in a general relaxation of the moral fibre of the nation.

For the time, however, the power of the Presbyterians seemed to have overwhelmed the Independents. Four Scotch ministers were admitted into the Assembly of Divines; a Scotch army was engaged to enter England early in the ensuing spring; and Scotch commissioners were joined with a committee of the two Houses, who sat in the capital at Derby House to direct the operations of the war.

DEATH OF PYM.

Causes of decline of Presbyterian ascendancy. In spite, however, of Scotch support, the ascendancy of the Presbyterians was already on the decline; for though superior in position and in numbers, their leaders were no match for the Independents in ability. Hampden’s death had been a blow to the moderate party. Pym, like Hampden, had possessed the trust of both parties, of Independents, because of the vigour with which he had prosecuted the war, and of Presbyterians because he seemed to acquiesce in their views of church matters, and had agreed with them politically in advocating a limited monarchy. Himself sincere, yet no bigot, he had long kept the peace between the intolerant Presbyterians and Independents.Death of Pym (8th Dec.). His death now came after a short illness, in which he preserved his usual calmness of temper, telling his chaplain “that it was a most indifferent thing to him to live or die; if he lived, he would do what service he could; if he died, he would go to God whom he had served, and who would carry on his work by others” (8th Dec.).

In Oxford bonfires were lighted the night the news came that Pym was dead, and the Cavaliers “drank deeper healths than usual to the confusion of the Roundheads.” In London there was real sorrow among all parties. The Commons paid off a sum of £10,000, the amount of debts their great leader had incurred in his country’s service, and erected a monument in his honour in Westminster Abbey.

ARMY OF INDEPENDENTS.

The political reformers, who hitherto had implicitly followed Pym, now drifted to the right or the left, and either became absorbed in the ranks of the Presbyterians, or passed over to the new men who were now rising into influence.False position of Presbyterians. Thus after Pym’s death the breach with the Independents widened rapidly, and the Presbyterians were soon in a false position. Obliged to continue the war, because the king refused to grant them the establishment of their Church, they were, at the same time, afraid of winning a decisive victory, which they saw would only encourage the sectarians and men of new ideas in politics.

On the other hand, the Independents desired nothing more than to crush the king’s forces, and so bring the war to a speedy end. They were already in possession of a force fitted, if any, for the accomplishment of the task.Eastern counties’ army. Cromwell, lieutenant-general of the horse to the Earl of Manchester, had been very active in forming a new army, raised by order of Parliament in the eastern counties. He had long seen that Essex and Waller’s half-hearted soldiers were not the men to gain great victories. “Your troops,” he said one day to Hampden, “are most of them old decayed serving men, and tapsters, and such kind of fellows; their troops are gentlemen’s sons, younger sons, and persons of quality; do you think that the spirits of such base and mean fellows will ever be able to encounter gentlemen, that have honour and courage and resolution in them; you must get men of a spirit; and take it not ill what I say—I know you will not—of a spirit that is likely to go as far as gentlemen will go—or else you will be beaten still.” Hampden thought the notion good, but impracticable. Cromwell undertook to put it into practice.Cromwell’s Ironsides. He sought out soldiers amongst the more independent classes, the sons of freeholders and artisans, sectarians, who fought not for pay and plunder, but with the higher motive of winning liberty to worship God according to their own fashion. From the very first, when Cromwell only commanded a troop of horse in Essex’ army, it was observed that his men were of a different stamp to their fellow-soldiers. They did not plunder or drink; he who swore paid his twelvepence; he who drank was put in the stocks. And now Cromwell was forming a whole army on the same principles, not heeding to what despised sect his recruits belonged, so long as they proved good soldiers. “I raised such men,” he boasted long afterwards, “as had the fear of God before them, as made some conscience of what they did, and from that time forward, I must say, they were never beaten, and wherever they were engaged against the enemy, they beat continually.” The valour of the troops thus raised was early attested by their popular name of “The Ironsides.”

CHARLES’ IRISH TROOPS.

The rise of the Independents created no alarm at Oxford, as Charles expected to reap a new advantage from the divisions of his enemies. He exulted, moreover, in having found a fresh means of increasing the strength of his own armies.

Cessation of arms with Irish. Since the rebellion broke out in 1641, the war in Ireland had been carried on with great success on the part of the Catholics, and a Catholic council of twenty-four persons established at Kilkenny now ruled the larger part of the kingdom. The old English settlers at the head of this party were, however, now eager to make peace with the king, and caused numerous petitions to be sent to Oxford, begging for the free exercise of the Catholic worship, and the calling of a Parliament. Charles, making no absolute promises, agreed to a cessation of arms for a year, and then ordered the Duke of Ormond, his general in Ireland, a devoted and able Royalist, to send over to England ten regiments of the troops that had hitherto been engaged in fighting Irish rebels.

This truce with the Irish Catholics excited indignation not only amongst Charles’ enemies, but also amongst his Protestant friends. It was believed that many rebels were to be found among the regiments sent over by Ormond. “The queen’s army,” it was commonly said, “of French and Walloon Papists, the king’s army of English Papists, together with the Irish rebels, are to settle the Protestant religion, and the liberties of England.”[111]

Oxford Parliament. Hyde suggested to the king that, in order to make his cause more popular with the nation, which reverenced the very word ‘Parliament’, he should summon to sit at Oxford those members whom fear had driven from Westminster. Charles unwillingly consented; he feared the proposed assembly would force peace on him, and so mar the success he hoped from the new accession to his forces. His fears proved correct. This body, though it was Royalist, showed a strong dislike to certain of the council, as Papists, and as having been the old instruments of tyranny. They even showed some suspicion of the king’s own intentions; and, in fact, this half Parliament was evidently inclined to make peace with its other half at Westminster. All overtures, however, proved nugatory, for “the Lords and Commons” of the Long Parliament refused to hold any communication with the king while he spoke of the Oxford assembly as on an equality with themselves. After a three months’ session, Charles gladly adjourned the Parliament of his friends (16th April), which he described, in writing to his wife, as “this mongrel assembly, the haunt of cowardly and seditious motions.”

ARMIES OF KING AND PARLIAMENT.

Armies of the Parliament. When hostilities re-commenced, the Parliament had no less than five armies afoot; the army of Lord Fairfax, now moving freely in Yorkshire, as the siege of Hull had been raised by the advance of the Scots; that of Essex, now being recruited in London after its successes at Gloucester and Newbury; that of Waller, now reinforced after its expulsion from the west; the eastern counties’ army, under the command of Cromwell and Manchester; and, lastly, the army of the Scots, 21,000 strong, commanded by a Scotchman, Leslie, Earl of Leven.

Armies of the King. Charles had two large armies—his own, at Oxford, of 10,000 men; that of Newcastle, in Yorkshire, of 14,000 men; besides several considerable forces scattered over the country, and regiments of English and Irish troops landing from time to time in Wales, and at Chester and Bristol.

Taxes. The Parliament had laid on the country heavy taxes for the maintenance of its armies. Custom duties were levied on various articles of export and import. An ordinance had been passed for a weekly assessment of £10,000 on London, and of £24,000 on the rest of the kingdom. This tax, like the subsidy, was levied on lands and goods, but not after the same fashion. The subsidies had been levied after an old rate, and by commissioners appointed by the Chancellor from amongst the inhabitants of the county or borough. Through the laxity of these commissioners the receipts had steadily decreased. Now a specific sum was laid upon each county, and raised by commissioners named by Parliament. By further ordinances, the excise duty, a tax hitherto unknown in England, was introduced, which consisted of a tax on the manufacture of commodities as distinct from the custom duties on their importation, and as touching home rather than foreign produce. The ignorant always prefer customs to excise, because the incidence of the former is less visible; but the objection to customs is that they take much more out of the pocket of the consumer than they bring to the exchequer. Customs, being mainly levied on raw produce, have to be paid by the merchant; his payment has to be recouped by the manufacturer and the dealers, besides other intermediaries, all of whom require a profit on the money sunk in the payment of the tax. Excise, being levied on the last stage before sale, is, therefore, a more economical tax. The Dutch had employed it before this, but its introduction into England was due to the genius of Pym.

Such excise was now laid upon many articles of every-day use and consumption; upon ale, cider, perry, wine, oil, sugar, pepper, salt, silk, soap, and even meat (May, 1643-July, 1644). Counties under the power of the Royalists were no better off than those under the power of the Parliament. The Oxford Parliament copied that of Westminster, and laid on an excise; irregular contributions were constantly levied by the king’s troops, and his whole army, when unpaid, as it now often was, lived at free quarters.

SIEGE OF OXFORD.

The committee of the two nations, sitting at Derby House, directed the movements of the generals. Fairfax, Manchester, and Leslie received instructions to attack Newcastle’s army, and lay siege to York; Essex and Waller to invest Oxford.Discontent in Oxford. When it was known within Oxford that a siege was impending, faction and discontent broke all bonds of control. Money was getting scarce, and everybody was out of humour. The queen took fright, and departed for Exeter, bidding Charles her last farewell. Courtiers grumbled, and considered themselves neglected. The officers wanted to govern everything, and quarrelled with the civilians in the council. The number of Papists in the town annoyed many of the king’s Protestant friends. Charles was incapable of silencing discontent and making men work together. He had no faculty for putting the right man into the right place. Promotion went by caprice or importunity. His officers quarrelled with one another for command. In fact it was a reign of jealousy before; and now, to gratify his nephews Rupert and Maurice, he displaced and offended some of the best and most trustworthy of his servants.

Oxford was already nearly invested, when Charles, by a skilful manœuvre, saved both his army and the town. At the dead of night, accompanied by his cavalry and 2500 foot, he passed undiscovered between the two armies of Essex and Waller (3rd June), and proceeded by quick marches to Worcester, and thence across the Severn to Bewdley. Rupert, in command of his Cavaliers and some of the troops which had been sent over from Ireland, was now in Lancashire, engaged in reducing the fortified places which were held for the Parliament. But Charles, hearing that Newcastle—who was closely besieged in York—could not hold out for six weeks longer unless relieved, sent orders to Rupert to march straight to York and relieve it by engaging the Scots.

BATTLE OF CROPREDY BRIDGE.

Meanwhile, the Parliamentary leaders, as soon as they became aware of Charles’ escape, agreed that Waller and his army should pursue the royal forces, while Essex and his army reduced the towns in the west. Waller thought the king was making for Lancashire to join Rupert, and so kept ahead of him on the eastern bank of the Severn. But Charles’ plan was much bolder; on hearing the Parliament’s forces were divided, his aim was to regain his head-quarters immediately and attack before his enemies could re-unite. With this view he crossed the river behind Waller, and on the 20th June was again in Oxford. Without giving any time for Essex to reappear, he marched out at once at the head of his whole army, and soon fell in with Waller, who, on hearing of his movements, had returned in haste to cover the road to London. The two armies were in sight of one another as they marched northwards from Banbury, Charles being on the eastern, Waller on the western, bank of the Cherwell.

Battle of Cropredy Bridge. (Map, p. 127.) About midday, Waller, observing that the rear of the king’s army was some distance behind the main body, forced a passage across Cropredy Bridge, and fell upon it in front, while at the same time he sent a body of horse to make their way over a ford about a mile lower down the river. Charles, seeing his rear about to be attacked on two sides, at once recalled his advanced troops, and a succession of skirmishes followed, in which the Royalists were generally victorious, taking several pieces of cannon, and beating the enemy back both over the ford and the bridge. Fighting lasted until night caused the two armies to separate. The action in itself might have been called indecisive, but the king gained all the advantages of a victory, for death and desertion soon reduced Waller’s army to half its numbers.

MARSTON MOOR.

Three days after the battle of Cropredy Bridge, the eastern counties’ army was brought into action in Yorkshire. It was supporting the Scots in besieging York; but the generals of the Parliament, on hearing that Rupert was marching from Lancashire with 20,000 men to raise the siege, withdrew from their entrenchments to Hessay Moor in order to oppose his approach (30th June). The prince, however, disappointed their expectations, for instead of following the high road from Knaresborough, over Skip Bridge, he crossed the Ouse with his army above its junction with the Nidd, and entered York the same evening without opposition (1st July).

As Rupert had already effected his object in relieving the town, Newcastle wished to avoid, or at least delay a battle; urging in the first place that divisions would probably break out in the enemy’s army, composed as it was of Scots and English, Presbyterians and Independents, in the second, that he was expecting a reinforcement of 3000 men, and that no battle ought to be fought until after their arrival. But Rupert, confident of victory, put forward the king’s letter: “I have his Majesty’s commands,” he said; “I am bound to fight.” “I am ready to obey your Highness,” replied Newcastle, “as if the king himself were here.” The prince’s army was encamped a few miles to the north of York, and it was agreed that Newcastle’s foot should be ready by two o’clock at night to march out and unite with it. Their sudden and unlooked-for deliverance seemed, however, for the time to have demoralized the York forces. Some of the soldiers were out seeking for booty in the deserted trenches of the enemy; others were already drawn together, when a report spread that before marching they were to receive their pay; at once the men broke from their ranks and dispersed, and some hours elapsed before they could be gathered together again.[112] Rupert rode out of the town at daybreak, without waiting for Newcastle,[113] and proceeded to lead his army across the Ouse at Poppelton, where the Scots had left standing a bridge of boats (2nd July).

The counsels of the Parliament’s generals were, like those of the Royalists, divided. The English were for seeking out the enemy and fighting, but the Scots proposed to retreat to Cawood, where, by forming a tête-de-pont to defend the bridge at the junction of the branches of the Ouse, they might oppose Rupert’s further advance south. The Scots’ counsel prevailed, and the army drew off from Hessay Moor southwards, in the direction of Tadcaster: those in the van had already advanced some miles, when it was attacked in the rear by Rupert’s horse at Marston village and forced hastily to turn and form in order of battle.

POSITION OF FAIRFAX.

Both Hessay and Marston Moors form part of a low plain, watered by the Ouse and the Nidd. Drainage and tillage have now changed the character of a tract that was then in the main really moor, open and unenclosed. Immediately south of the road that joins Tockwith and Marston, the dead level ends, and an easy ascent of ten minutes leads to the summit of a line of higher ground, running from one village to the other. The Parliamentarians on the first attack promptly faced about to the north, and formed upon the brow of this hill, on Marston Field, a large enclosure with crops of rye then dotted over it. Their right wing, consisting of Sir Thomas Fairfax’ regiments of horse and foot, together with the larger part of the Scotch horse, and a reserve of Scottish infantry, occupied a position immediately west of Marston village, where the elevation is highest. Their main battle was composed of Scotch and English infantry, commanded by Lords Leven and Manchester and Sir Thomas’s father, Lord Fairfax. Still farther west, resting on the village of Tockwith, where the hill is much lower than at Marston, was the left wing, comprised of three regiments of Scottish cavalry and the eastern counties’ horse, under the command respectively of David Leslie and Lieutenant-General Cromwell. Its outer flank was supported by a body of Scotch dragoons.

POSITION OF ROYALISTS.

Rupert, who was following from the north-east, finding that his enemies were facing about to accept battle, formed his army upon Marston Moor, awaiting meanwhile impatiently the arrival of the York forces. After some delay the marquis, “accompanied with all the gentlemen of quality which were in York, came to the prince, who said, ‘My lord, I wish you had come sooner with your forces, but, I hope we shall yet have a glorious day.’ The marquis informed him how his foot had been a-plundering in the trenches, and that it was impossible to have got together all at the time fixed, but that he had left General King about the work, who would bring them up with all the expedition that might be. The prince, seeing the marquis’ foot were not come up, would with his own forces have been falling upon the enemy, but the marquis dissuaded him, telling him that he had 4000 good foot as were in the world coming. About four o’clock in the afternoon General King brought up the marquis’ foot, of which yet many were wanting, for there was not above 3000. The prince demanded of King how he liked the marshalling of his army, who replied, he did not approve of it, being drawn too near the enemy and in a place of disadvantage. Then said the prince, ‘They may be drawn a further distance.’ ‘No, sire,’ said King, ‘it is too late.’”

The two armies were drawn up so close together that “their foot,” says a Parliamentarian, “was close to our noses.” Rupert had been beforehand in gaining possession of a deep ditch that ran in a straight line between them. In this he placed four bodies of musketeers opposite the eastern counties’ army. His right wing he led in person. Newcastle’s foot fell into position on the extreme left of the main body, which was placed under the command of General King; the left wing was commanded by Colonel Goring. A few fields cut up the moor on this side, so that the only approach for the horse on the enemy’s right lay up a narrow lane with a hedge on one side and a ditch on the other, both lined with dismounted dragoons. All along the line waved banners magnificent with gold and silver fringes. Here a red pennon with a white cross, and motto, ‘Pro rege et regno;’ there a black coronet and sword reaching from the clouds, ‘Terribilis ut acies ordinata;’ while far on the right the presence of the prince was marked by a standard nearly five yards long and broad, with a red cross in the centre. Each army was nearly 23,000 strong, so that never before in the course of the war had such large forces met face to face. The Parliamentarians wore as their mark a white paper or handkerchief in their hats; their word for the day was ‘God with us.’ The Royalist mark was to be without bands or scarfs; their word ‘God and the king.’

Since two o’clock the cannon had been booming, but still the two armies delayed to join battle. The Parliament’s generals, trusting in Rupert’s proverbial daring, waited for him to disorder his lines by being the first to charge across the ditch. Their soldiers meanwhile ‘fell to singing psalms,’ a sign that they at least were nerved and ready for any odds.

When the forces from York had at last arrived, Rupert’s impetuosity was restrained by the representations of Newcastle and King, both of whom were averse to fighting because of the lateness of the hour. He declared accordingly his intention of delaying the battle till the next day, ordered provisions to be brought for his army from York, and with most culpable neglect suffered many of his horsemen to dismount and lie on the ground, with their horses’ bridles in their hands.

But that long summer’s day was not so to end. It was already seven o’clock when Leven, who acted as commander-in-chief, finding that the enemy would not charge him, determined to charge them, and ordered the whole line of his army to advance. “We came down the hill,” says Oliver’s scout-master, “in the bravest order, and with the greatest resolution—I mean the left wing of our horse, led by Cromwell, which was to charge their right wing, led by Rupert, in which was all their gallant men.” At the sound of the enemy’s alarums, the prince in hot haste sprung to horse and galloped up to the front of the field. He found his own regiment taken by surprise, and in some disorder. “’Swounds!” he cried, “do you run—follow me!” and fiercely led the way to meet the enemy’s charge. Meanwhile Manchester’s foot, in the face of a fierce fire, dashed down the hill at a bit of level, where there was a break in the ditch, and thus taking the Royalist musketeers in flank, drove them out of their shelter. A desperate struggle ensued. The horsemen discharged their pistols, and then, flinging them at one another’s heads, fell to with their swords. A company of Cavaliers, led by Rupert in person, charged Cromwell’s own division of three hundred horse in front and flank. A shot grazed the lieutenant-general’s neck. “A miss is as good as a mile,” he exclaimed, and scattering his assailants before him “like a little dust,” pressed onwards till he broke through the lines of the enemy. “Manchester’s foot, on the right hand, went on by our side,” says Oliver’s scout-master again, “dispersing the enemy’s foot almost as fast as they charged them, still going by our side, cutting them down that we carried the whole field before us, thinking the victory wholly ours, and nothing to be done but to kill and take prisoners.” Soon Rupert’s whole wing, horse and foot, was in full flight, and the Cavaliers were swept off the field, flying northwards “along by Wilstrop woodside as fast and thick as could be.”

Meanwhile the Parliament’s troops on the right wing found their advance impeded by the hedge and ditch which protected the enemy’s left. They could only march up the lane three or four abreast, and were exposed all the while to a hot fire from the musketeers stationed by Rupert on either side. After forcing their way to the open ground at the end of the lane, they were received by large bodies of the enemy, who fell upon each party as it emerged. Fairfax, indeed, in face of all difficulties, charged right through Goring’s squadrons, at the head of four hundred horse. But finding himself left unsupported, he was fain to take the white handkerchief out of his hat, and pass for a Royalist commander while he rode hastily back to his own side.

ROUT OF FAIRFAX’ WING.

Meantime his van, composed of newly-levied regiments, had wheeled round before the enemy, and disordered his own infantry and the Scots’ reserve, so that on his return, he found his whole wing broken and already in flight. Some of the Cavaliers, with their usual impetuosity, pursued the flying enemy over the hill which shut out their view of the field, and miles on to the south in the direction of Cawood and Tadcaster; others tarried to plunder the carriages and baggage left by the Parliamentarians on the top of the hill; others under the command of Goring joined Newcastle’s regiment of Whitecoats, and wheeled round on the unprotected right flank of the enemy’s centre. Thus attacked in front and flank, the Scots’ infantry on this side gave way. In vain Leven exhorted his men to stand. “Though you run from your enemies,” he cried, “yet leave not your general.” Believing the battle to be lost, he joined the stream of fugitives, and never drew rein until he came to Leeds.

The general confusion—account of an eye-witness. The confusion was not confined to the Parliament side. “I knew not for my soul,” says one who was there looking for Rupert, “whither to incline: runaways on both sides, so many, so breathless, so speechless, not a man of them able to give me the least hope where the prince was to be found, both armies being mingled, horse and foot. In this terrible distraction did I scour the country, here meeting with a shoal of Scots crying out, ‘Wae’s us, we’re a’ undone!’ then with a ragged troop, reduced to four and a cornet, by-and-by with a little foot-officer, without hat, band, or anything but feet.”

It is a time of confusion such as this that gives an opening for the calm and collected officer who has his men well in hand. Half the Royalist left wing were far away, triumphantly driving the blow home, as they thought, by a hot pursuit. Goring had only Newcastle’s Whitecoats and a sprinkling of his own Cavaliers, when the fading light revealed to him a new enemy occupying the very ground he had himself held in the morning.

Cromwell redeems the day. It was the Parliament’s left wing, led by Cromwell and Leslie; who, after dispersing the Royalist right, had relinquished pursuit and crossed the battle-field to support their less fortunate friends. Once again Cavaliers and Ironsides fiercely charged, and once again victory remained with the Ironsides. The Cavaliers fled the field, while Newcastle’s regiment of Whitecoats, a thousand brave Northumbrians raised out of his own tenantry, scorning to receive quarter or to fly, were all, save some thirty, cut down to a man, in the same order and rank in which they stood. Major-General Porter, who had forced back part of the Parliament’s main battle, now, in the moment of success, found foes in his own rear, and had to surrender with his men.

Broken and routed, the Royalists on all sides fled, and were chased with terrible slaughter to within a mile of York. By ten o’clock, the battle was over, and after scarce three hours’ fighting, more than 3000 Royalists lay dead upon the field. The Parliamentarians lost, it was said, only some 300 men; they made 1500 prisoners, and took all the enemy’s artillery, ammunition, and baggage. “The Earl of Manchester,” says his chaplain, “about eleven o’clock that night, did ride about to the soldiers both horse and foot, giving them many thanks for the exceeding good service they had done for the kingdom; and he often earnestly entreated them to give the honour of the victory unto God alone. The soldiers unanimously gave God the glory of their great deliverance and victory, and told his lordship with much cheerfulness that, though they had long fasted and were faint, yet they would willingly want three days longer, rather than to give up the service or leave his lordship.”Leven bewails his flight. It was not, however, till noon the next day, that the joyful news reached Leven, who had fled in the belief that the battle was irrecoverably lost. Upon hearing of this, he knocks upon his breast, and says, “I would to God I had died upon the plain.”[114]

Newcastle, in disgust at seeing his army destroyed and power gone through Rupert’s rashness, went beyond seas, accompanied by more than eighty gentlemen. The prince returned to Chester, with the remnants of a broken army. York surrendered to the Parliament, and the king lost all hold in the north.Results of battle. Such was one result of the battle; but there was a second hardly less momentous. The Independents had triumphed not only over the Royalists, but over the Presbyterians. In London, it was told how “Cromwell, with his unspeakable valorous regiments, had done all the service; the Presbyterians, the Scots, had fled.”[115] As though to render the triumph of the Ironsides the more complete, a terrible misfortune befell the army in which the Presbyterians placed their trust.

ESSEX IN WEST.

The Royalist leader, Sir Richard Grenville, on hearing of the presence of Essex in the west, raised the siege of Plymouth, and marched for refuge into Cornwall. Essex had already advanced as far as Exeter, when the news reached him that the king had defeated Waller, and was now following in pursuit of himself. Some of his officers, who had estates in Cornwall which they wished to visit, persuaded him to march after Grenville, instead of turning at once to meet the royal forces. He soon found that he had taken a fatal step. The country people were Royalists, and gave him no support. The country itself is enough to embarrass a general, with its bare back-bone of mountain, moor, or marsh, while the southern coast, which is the least desolate, is split up into a succession of deep valleys running to the sea.

Essex had his head-quarters at Lostwithiel, in the valley of the Fowey, then spelt, as it is still pronounced, Foy, when the king, advancing from Liskeard, pitched his camp and standard on Broadoak or Braddoc Downs, near Boconnoc. Hoping to profit by the enmity existing between the Presbyterian and Independent commanders, he wrote Essex a letter, calling on him to end the war by uniting the two armies, and promising on the word of a king that he would ever prove a faithful friend to both him and his army. The Royalist officers afterwards set their names to a letter, in which they undertook to see carried out all that his Majesty might promise. But Essex’ honesty stood the test. In answer to their overtures he declared his inability to treat, and referred the king to the Parliament. His generalship, however, did not prove equal to his honesty. Though he was in possession of the valley of the Foy, from the haven itself to Lanhydrock, a house belonging to the Parliamentarian Lord Robartes, so that supplies could be brought into his army, both by sea and land, from all sides, excepting the east; yet with little opposition, he suffered the king to draw the toils so closely round him, that starvation or surrender were the only alternatives left.Surrender at Lostwithiel. Grenville, at the head of 1400 men, advanced from Bodmin, gained possession of Lanhydrock, and thus opened communication with Charles on Broadoak Downs, and shut in the army of the enemy on the north (12th August). Essex had neglected to occupy View Hall, a house on the east bank of the river opposite Foy, and Pernon Fort, standing on the same side and commanding the entrance of the harbour. These important positions were now seized and occupied by the Royalists, so that the Parliamentarians were prevented any longer from bringing provisions into Fowey by sea (13th August). Their position at Lostwithiel soon became still more circumscribed. Sir Richard Grenville advanced from Lanhydrock and drove Essex out of Lestormel Castle, which commands the Fowey valley scarce a mile above Lostwithiel (21st August). The same day the king, advancing from enclosures which bounded the south side of Boconnoc Park, forced the Parliamentarians to quit their quarters on a beacon hill, which stands about a mile east of Lostwithiel. Here the following night, he raised a battery, whence he shot right into their camp. The west was now the only side still open to Essex, and even from this he was shortly to be cut off. Goring and the horse seized possession of St. Austell, and thus commanded all the country round Tywardreath Bay, whence provisions had still reached Lostwithiel by sea (25th August). Essex had now no choice left but to surrender.

The horse escaped by riding off about three o’clock one misty morning, between the armies of the king and Prince Maurice, which were encamped a small distance apart (31st August).