King and commonwealth

ESSEX’ ARMY SURRENDERS.

Essex and the foot marched from Lostwithiel for Foy, hoping as a last resource to escape across the river and sail from Lanteglos to Plymouth. Before leaving Lostwithiel, they tried to break down the bridge over the river, but were prevented by the enemy’s infantry, who followed them through the town and down the valley, forcing them to a hasty retreat. On the march they came to some high ground and enclosures, which they occupied, and succeeded for the time in making a successful stand and driving the enemy back. The next day, Essex sailed from Foy, in company with his principal officers. As he left the harbour, he narrowly escaped being taken prisoner by the garrison of Pernon Fort. The infantry, about 6000 in number, surrendered their ammunition, artillery, and arms, on condition that they should be allowed their liberty and conducted to the nearest quarters of their friends. The terms, however, were not kept; the men were maltreated and plundered all the way on their march through the enemy’s country, and so many were the deaths and desertions, that only some 1000 arrived at Poole in safety. Thus the two Presbyterian generals in the west were crushed in a single campaign. “Mr. Sheriff,” said Charles, on his departure from Cornwall, “I leave the country entirely at peace in your hands.”[116]

MONTROSE IN SCOTLAND.

Civil war in Scotland. At this time the flames of civil war had spread from England into Scotland. Before the cessation of arms had been concluded with the Irish, and before the Scots had declared themselves for the Parliament, the Marquis of Montrose had formed with Charles a secret plan of raising the Highlanders and uniting them with a body of troops to be transported from Ireland, and thus beginning a second civil war in Scotland. An attempt was made to carry this plan into execution during the present summer; and Montrose, coming down from the Highlands at the head of a brave, but savage and undisciplined, army of Highlanders and Irishmen, twice defeated such forces as the Covenanters were able to bring together during the absence of their best troops in England.[117]

Hostilities were carried on in a more and more brutal spirit. This was especially the case after the introduction of Irish troops into England. The introduction of troops of a lower order of civilization is always looked upon with horror. If not savages as Indians in America, or ‘Turcos’ in France, both Highlanders and Irish were looked upon as such.Irish and Highlanders. They both fought without regard to the ordinary rules of war. Montrose’s Highland ‘hell hounds,’ as they were called, were allowed to plunder and butcher at will; while the Irish came stained with the blood of massacred Protestants. An ordinance passed by the Parliament forbidding quarter to be given to any Irishmen or Papists taken in arms (Oct. 3rd), was in their case literally enforced. Irish soldiers seized on their way to English ports were tied back to back and cast into the sea; those made prisoners in England were shot by hundreds. The more moderate of the Royalists had objected to the introduction of the Irish; but the less scrupulous, not to be behind in acts of cruelty, would retaliate by hanging English prisoners, taken in arms, twelve at a time, on a tree, or by putting members of garrisons to death on slight excuses, contrary to articles of capitulation. Thus the war was more and more embittered as it went on.

Charles, on hearing of Montrose’s victories, regarded the disastrous day of Marston Moor as already retrieved. He expected either that the Scotch army would return to defend their homes, or else that Montrose would march into England, fight the Scots, and recover his lost ascendancy in the north. But his wishes made him overlook the character of Montrose’s army. After a raid on the Lowlands, the Highlanders’ custom was to return to the mountains, and enjoy their spoil. The present expedition was nothing to them but a raid on a larger scale than usual; and no sooner did the winter set in, than they melted away from their leader, who found his Irish troops insufficient to protect him, and was fain to follow his Highlanders and take refuge in their mountains.

SECOND BATTLE OF NEWBURY.

Charles, meantime, was marching back from Cornwall to Oxfordshire. He had passed through Wiltshire, and reached Newbury, when he heard that the armies of Waller, Essex, and Manchester were advancing from London to meet him. The Independents, content with the proved superiority of their army, had not pressed their victory over the fallen Essex and Waller. Waller’s army had been recruited once more; and Essex’ men had been re-furnished with arms on returning from their catastrophe in the west. Essex himself pleaded sickness, and remained absent from his army, feeling that since the relief of Gloucester, the day of his triumphs was over.

As the united armies of the enemy were 16,000 strong, and his own forces not above 8000, Charles, not venturing to risk a battle in the open field, took up a strong defensive position in Newbury, between the rivers Kennet and Lamborne. On the south the town was protected by the Kennet. On the north-east troops were quartered in Shaw village, which was strengthened with a breastwork, and in a large house, called Doleman’s, still standing, as the map shows (p. 144), a little in advance of the village on the northern bank of the Lamborne. Bodies of horse occupied a gentle eminence rising immediately east of Doleman’s House, and a few neighbouring hedges were lined with musketeers. On the west Prince Maurice’s infantry was quartered in the village of Speen; and in two large fields, lying north of Newbury, between the rivers Kennet and Lamborne, was stationed a large body of horse together with a train of artillery. Approach to this quarter was rendered the more difficult by the neighbourhood of Donnington Castle, which was held by a strong garrison for the king.

CROMWELL VERSUS MANCHESTER.

The Parliament’s generals took possession of Clay Hill, lying to the north-east of Newbury, and agreed to make a combined attack upon Shaw and Speen. For this purpose, the greater part of Manchester’s horse, all Essex’ horse and foot, and almost all the forces under Waller, separated from Manchester, and making a detour beyond Donnington Castle, surprised the Royalists in their quarters on the north-west. Many of the king’s guards being absent from their posts, the Lamborne was crossed without opposition, and Prince Maurice’s infantry quickly dislodged from Speen. A fierce three-hours’ contest followed in the fields lying between Donnington and Newbury. The king, who was present in person, could not prevent some of his troops from flying under the walls of the castle for protection. Essex’ men, crying out “that they would be revenged for the business of Cornwall,” carried off in triumph the very cannon they had before surrendered. The Royalists, however, succeeded in retaining possession of the field, and when night caused the battle to end, Waller retired into Speen. Meanwhile, on the other side of the town, a still fiercer struggle had been maintained. Manchester had agreed with Waller that as soon as the sound of cannon should be heard from Speen, he would advance with his forces upon the Royalist quarters at Shaw. During the morning he “rode about from regiment to regiment to encourage the soldiers, and to keep them in due order fit for that service which every hour almost was expected.” It was about four o’clock in the afternoon when, says an eye-witness, “we saw the firing of the muskets in Speen, which discovered the service to be very hot, and with joy and thankfulness beheld the hasty disorderly retreat of the enemy towards Newbury.” On this encouraging sight 3000 of Manchester’s foot burst down Clay Hill singing a psalm as they came, intending to storm the defences of the Royalists, and meet their friends in the fields lying between Newbury and Donnington. Charging furiously, the Parliamentarians forced the king’s horse back into the garden of Doleman’s House, and made their way right up to the breastworks. Here, however, they were exposed to a murderous fire, and fell in numbers, while they were able to do little execution upon enemies sheltered by walls and earthworks. As was not seldom the case in this war, with the approach of night, friends were mistaken for foes; so that after one company of Manchester’s foot had possessed themselves of one of the enemy’s outworks, a second beat them out again with great loss of life to both. After four hours’ hard fighting, the Parliamentarians gave up the attack and drew off, while sheltered from pursuit by their own horse, which had stayed all the time barely beyond range of the enemy’s pistols. It was now ten o’clock, and a clear, moonlight night. Charles, seeing that he had lost ground upon the western side of the town, forsook his quarters, and, without meeting any opposition, withdrew by Donnington Castle to Wallingford, passing between Waller’s and Manchester’s armies.[118]

It was a victory, but not a victory to break the king’s power in the south, as Marston Moor had broken it in the north.Dissensions in London. When the generals returned to London, Cromwell laid a heavy charge against the Presbyterian earl in the House of Commons; how Manchester had always been for such a peace as a victory would be a disadvantage to; how he had often acted as if he thought the king too low and the Parliament too high, but especially at Donnington Castle: “Though,” said Cromwell, “I showed him evidently how this success might be obtained, and only desired leave with my own brigade of horse, to charge the king’s army in their retreat, leaving it to the earl’s choice, if he thought proper to remain neutral with the rest of his forces. But he positively refused his consent, and gave no other reason but that, if we met with a defeat, there was an end of our pretensions—we should all be rebels and traitors, and be executed and forfeited by law.”

Manchester, in turn, retorted on his lieutenant-general charges of insubordination, and of deep dark designs; of having said, “that it would never be well in England till I were plain Mr. Montague, and there was never a peer nor a lord in the land.” Indeed, it was reported that Cromwell said to his soldiers, “if he met the king in battle, he would fire his pistol at the king as at another.” The charges were not pressed on either side, and no judgment was passed. But the Presbyterians from this time feared Cromwell as the ablest and most determined of their opponents. Pym was dead nearly a year now, and there had risen up in his place a man they owned to be “of a very wise and active head, universally well-beloved as religious and stout, being a known Independent, and loved by the soldiers.” Their fears made them the more eager to effect a peace, which would secure their own ascendancy, and crush the hated Independents. Peace propositions were accordingly brought forward, and passed both Houses of Parliament after meeting much opposition from the Independent party (9th Nov.). Charles agreed to send seventeen commissioners to Uxbridge, to discuss the terms proposed, with thirty-five members of Parliament and the Scottish commissioners.

SELF-DENYING ORDINANCE.

But while the Presbyterians were intending peace, the Independents were preparing to re-model the army, and place it in the hands of men who knew how to conquer; for it was evident that the war would never be brought to a successful close while the command of the forces of the Parliament was divided between rival generals of different principles, some of whom did not wish to push matters to an extreme.Self-denying ordinance. To effect their purpose, they proposed to deprive of office, civil and military, all members of Parliament. The House was considering the sad condition of the kingdom, when Cromwell rose and spoke to the following effect: “It is now time to speak, or for ever hold the tongue. The important occasion now is no less than to save a nation out of a bleeding, nay almost out of a dying condition.... For what do the enemy say? Nay, what do men say that were friends at the beginning of the Parliament? Even this, that the members of both Houses have got great places, and commands, and the sword into their hands, and will not permit the war speedily to end, lest their own power should determine with it.” “Whatever is the matter,” continued another member; “two summers are passed over, and we are not saved. A summer’s victory has proved but a winter’s story; the game has shut up with autumn, to be new played again next spring, as if the blood that has been shed were only to manure the field of war. I determine nothing, but it is apparent that the forces being under several great commanders has oftentimes hindered the public service.” “There is but one way of ending so many evils,” said a third member. “I move that no member of either house shall, during this war, execute any office or command, civil or military” (9th Dec.).

The motion was acted upon, and a ‘self-denying ordinance’ to the effect proposed was ordered to be brought into the House. Since the Presbyterians fully understood that this measure was intended to place the army under the sole control of the Independents, they were not inclined to relax in their opposition. But they had now been three years at the head of affairs and not yet brought the war to an end. Public opinion was strong against them and turned the waverers, so that the ordinance was carried by a small majority of seven votes (19th Dec.).

In the Upper House, the opposition was even stronger than in the Commons. The peers of England had always held the highest command in the state, and were now unwilling to make way for the rise of their inferiors in rank, by yielding up honours that they regarded as their hereditary right. They accordingly rejected the ordinance, saying, that they did not know what shape the army would take (15th Jan., 1645).Ordinance for re-modelling army. The Independents answered the objection by introducing into the Commons a second ordinance for the re-modelling of the army. There was only to be one army, to consist of 21,000 men. Sir Thomas Fairfax was named commander-in-chief; Skippon, major-general; and a blank was left for the name of the new lieutenant-general. This ordinance also passed the Commons, and was sent up to the Lords (28th Jan.).

UXBRIDGE NEGOTIATIONS.

Uxbridge negotiations. Meanwhile, commissioners from king and Parliament met, as agreed, at Uxbridge. The question of religion was first discussed. The Parliament demanded that Episcopacy should be abolished, the Presbyterian Church established, and the king himself take the covenant. The king’s commissioners offered so far to reduce the power of bishops that, in most points, they should be incapable of acting without the consent of the ministers of their respective dioceses. This concession might have been accepted at the beginning of the war, before the hopes of the Presbyterians had soared so high. But the two nations were now bound together by their solemn league and covenant, and nothing would satisfy Scotch or English Presbyterians but the entire abolition of the order of bishops. Next came the question of the militia. The king offered to resign the command to Parliament for seven years, on condition it should then revert to the crown. Two years ago, this concession also might have given satisfaction, but the strength of the Independent party was now far too great to allow of its acceptance by the Commons. Thirdly it was required that the cessation of arms, made by Charles with the Irish, should be declared void, and, hardest of all, that all his friends, even his very nephews, should be excepted from receiving the benefit of the royal prerogative of pardon. It was through the Independents that the stringency of the terms had been increased. The offer of peace was genuine on the part of the Presbyterians, who were most anxious that the king should accept terms before the army passed out of their hands. It was certainly a time for Charles to consider the question seriously. If he accepted, the Presbyterians would restore him—at least, in a manner—to his throne; the army of the Scots, the armies of Essex and Waller, united with the Cavaliers, would present a force more than enough to meet any opposition the Independents might offer. On the other hand, if he refused, the Independents would gain the sole control of the forces of the Parliament, and the result was sure to be some crushing defeat to himself.

Charles opposed to peace. This was the sober truth; but Charles’ eyes were dazzled by a far more brilliant prospect, as he sat over letters and despatches in his rooms at Oxford. The queen, who had fled from Exeter to France, when Essex marched into the west, constantly sent her husband advice, much in the shape of command, bidding him be careful of making any peace that should not restore him to his full rights, and ensure her own safety. Montrose, who had gained a third victory in Scotland, at Inverlochy (2nd Feb.), wrote to implore him not to make himself ‘a king of straw,’ promising, before the end of the next summer, to be in England at the head of a gallant army. Charles, however, did not need to be dissuaded from accepting the terms offered by the Parliament, for he still believed in the final success of his arms. He was soliciting both France and Denmark for assistance, and, through the queen, was carrying on a negotiation with the Duke of Lorraine for the transportation of 10,000 soldiers into England. He was writing to Ormond that if the Irish Catholics should assist him, and he be restored to his throne by their means, he would consent to repeal all the penal statutes made against them.[119] He was trusting for success to the divisions of his enemies, and believed that, if he failed in the field, he could still play off one against the other, and that either section must be glad to bid high for his support against the other. Buoyed up by such hopes, Charles wrote to the queen, that he would never quit Episcopacy, nor the sword which God had put into his hands, and that she need not doubt the issue of the negotiations, for there was “no probability of a peace.” He forbade the commissioners to make any further concessions, and the negotiations at Uxbridge were accordingly broken off (21st Feb.).

The king’s rejection of the propositions was a terrible blow to the Presbyterians.Lords pass self-denying ordinance. The Lords, of whom only five or six had any sympathy with the Independents, had now to pass the ordinance for the re-modelling of the army (15th Feb.), and a second self-denying ordinance, depriving members of any office conferred on them since the election of the Parliament (3rd April). Any further opposition on their part would only have accelerated the speed of the revolution, by causing the Commons to declare their ordinance good at law without the consent of the House of Lords. For, in times of revolution, when the real powers in the State are the sword and the people, an upper chamber is useless and weak. The Commons, now acting as the executive, commanded the sword, the people supported the Commons, and the Lords were powerless to guide or stay the march of events.

EXECUTION OF LAUD.

The self-denying ordinance, which now passed the Upper House, differed in an important point from the one before rejected. By this, members were not precluded from taking office on any future occasion. Its only effect was, in fact, to make, as it were, a fresh start. The existing Presbyterian generals were practically cashiered, but new nominees could be generals as well as members. But the Presbyterians, though foiled in these matters through their political half-heartedness, could still console themselves with their ecclesiastical supremacy. In that sphere they never pretended to be tolerant. Their victim now was Laud.Impeachment of Laud. He had been impeached of high treason at the same time as Strafford, but the charge in his case was not pressed to an issue, and Pym and his party had contented themselves with leaving him to die a natural death in the Tower. Now, however, through the bigotry of Scotch and English Presbyterians, these proceedings were revived against the old man, already a four years’ prisoner. His innovations in religion, the cruel sentences of the Star Chamber, and his interference with the judges, were charged against him, as an endeavour to subvert the laws and overthrow the Protestant religion. The judges, on being asked their opinion by the Lords, replied that the charges did not fall within the legal definition of high treason. The Lords would doubtless have followed the opinions of the judges.Laud condemned by ordinance of Parliament. The Presbyterians, however, being determined on his death, voted him guilty by an ordinance of Parliament, which the House of Lords wanted spirit to reject. The verdict of the judges marked this as far more unjustifiable than Strafford’s case. The fact that the chief prosecutor was Prynne, whose body showed the marks of the cruel judgments of the Star Chamber, roused, no doubt, a strong feeling against the archbishop. But a Parliament cannot plead the excuses of a mob, and cruelty did not constitute high treason. The conviction shows how little the securities that fence justice round are likely to be regarded when a popular assembly usurps the functions of the judicature. It shows, also, the evil of the precedent which was set when Strafford’s conviction was secured by a Bill of Attainder instead of the legal process of an impeachment. The ordinance was simply a Bill of Attainder without the king’s consent. The Presbyterians desired the blood of their former persecutor; and the Independents, in return for the passing of the self-denying ordinance, refrained from offering opposition to the gratification of their rivals’ vengeance.