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kingdom, it was carried in the negative by a large majority; and then, without hesitation, they passed to the vote "that the House of Peers in parliament is useless and dangerous, and ought to be abolished, and that an act be brought in to that purpose.' This was carried by a majority of 44 to 29.* Harry Marten proposed that the word "dangerous" should be omitted, and the term "useless" alone retained; or that it should be declared that the Lords were useless, but not dangerous. And the peers had so acted and had fallen into such a condition as almost to justify this bitter sarcasm. On the very next day (the 7th of February) it was voted "that it hath been found by experience, and this House doth declare, that the office of a king in this nation, and the power thereof in any single person, is unnecessary, burdensome, and dangerous to the liberty, safety, and public interest of the people of this nation, and therefore ought to be abolished." This vote was soon followed by another, proposed by Marten, for the taking down of the late king's statues at the Royal Exchange and other places, and for the inscribing on the places where they stood these words:" Exit Tyrannus, Regum ultimus, Anno Libertatis Anglia restitutæ primo, Anno Dom. 1648,† Jan. 30." Two acts in conformity with these votes were soon passed; and an elaborate declaration was published in English, Latin, French, and Dutch, to explain and justify the late proceedings and the changing of England into a republic and free state. Six of

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the twelve judges-Bacon, Brown, Bedingfield, Creswell, Trevor, and Atkins-refused to act; but the others-Rolles, Jermyn, St. John, Pheasant, Wilde, and Yates-agreed to hold their offices, provided only that it should be declared, by act of the Commons, that the fundamental laws were not to be abolished. The new great seal was confided, during good behaviour, to Whitelock, Keble and Lisle being joined in the commission. St. John, who, almost as much as any single man, had helped to make this memorable revolution, became chief justice; the denomination of "King's Bench" being converted into that of "Commons' Bench."

For some time the executive had resided in the committee of government at Derby House; and this, with some very immaterial changes, was now converted into the "Executive Council of State," consisting of forty members, among whom were the earls of Pembroke, Salisbury, Denbigh, and Mulgrave; the Lord Grey of Werke, Viscount Lisle, the Lord Grey of Groby, Whitelock, St. John, Chief Baron Wilde, Fairfax, Cromwell, Skippon, Sir Arthur Haselrig, Sir Henry Mildmay, Sir Harry Vane, Harry Marten, Bradshaw, and Ludlow. The president of this council of state was Bradshaw, the king's judge; and its secretary for foreign correspondence was Bradshaw's friend and relative, the immortal Milton, who employed his genius in defending the judgment and execution.

The church was a more difficult matter to settle,

The other members of the Council of State were-the Lords Lisle and Rolle; Sir Gilbert Pickering, Sir William Masham, Sir William Armine, and Sir William Constable, baronets; Sir John Danvers and Sir James Harrington, knights; Valentine Walton, William Pourefy, Robert Wallop, John Hutchinson (the conscientious colonel and governor of Nottingham), Antony Stapeley, William Heveningham, Dennis Bond, Alexander Popham, John Jones, Alderman Rowland Wilson, Alderman Isaac Pennington, Thomas Scot, Cornelius Holland, and Luke Robinson.

or to give any appearance of settlement to, than was the state; and on this point the Commonwealthmen showed their wisdom by doing or attempting very little, and their right feeling by enlarging the bounds of toleration. The Catholics, who would have been harrowed out of the land by the Presbyterians, were allowed more liberty than ever they had known before since the days of Queen Mary, when they were the persecutors. It sufficed to escape the old penal code that men did not attack any of the fundamental principles of Christianity. The form and discipline of the Presbyterian church, slightly modified, were retained; but that fanatic clergy was left without any temporal power whatsoever.

The army remained under the command of the men that had created it, and made it the best army then in the world; and Fairfax, though he had abstained from committing himself upon the king's trial, continued to be commander-in-chief. But in the navy an important change was made immediately the Earl of Warwick was removed from the post of high-admiral; Blake, the double-handed, the sea-hero of the age, was appointed, with Dean and Popham, to command the fleet; and a board of admiralty, or committee for naval affairs, was formed, consisting only of three members, the head of whom was the zealous and capable Vane.

The trial of Duke Hamilton and the other two royalists, whose blood the Independents thirsted after, was probably hastened by the hostile demonstrations in Scotland. As early as the 5th of February it was reported in London "that the Scots were talking big of raising an army, in revenge of the king's blood, and saying that all would join unanimously against the sectaries of England, and ground themselves upon the breach of the Covenant." And on the 10th letters from Scotland were read in the House, "of their threatening revenge for the king's blood, and that some there had proclaimed Prince Charles king of Scotland; which was not contradicted by the parliament nor kirk." The High Court of Justice specially named by the Independents, who were in fact the prosecutors and the judges, sat in Westminster Hall to the number of fifty; and Duke Hamilton (in his unlucky English quality and title of Earl of Cambridge), Lord Goring, Lord Capel, and Sir John Owen were put to the bar, and charged with treason and other high crimes. Hamilton pleaded that he was of another nation; that what he had done was as a servant of the kingdom of Scotland; that he was never naturalized Earl of Cambridge, that he knew of; and that he was a prisoner of war, and had articles given him. The court caused the act to be read for the naturalization of his father, and consequently of him, being his heir. The Lord Goring pleaded not guilty, and was dismissed for the

But it was proved on the trial that the unfortunate Hamilton had been called by the late king's writ to sit in the House of Lords as Earl of Cambridge-that he had acted as a peer of England, sitting in the Lords' House and in divers committees,-that, as a peer of England, he had taken the national covenant, and subscribed "Cambridge."

present, "behaving himself with great respect to the court." The Lord Capel pleaded that he was prisoner of war to the Lord-General Fairfax, and had conditions given him, and his life promised him at Colchester; maintaining that if all the magistrates in Christendom were combined together they could not call him in question. Sir John Owen pleaded quarter. The Earl of Holland was not produced at first, his lady having represented that he was so ill that he could not with safety be removed up to London; but a few days after he was brought to the bar and charged, among other crimes, with being "an eminent courtier," and a double turn-coat. He pleaded (what was notoriously false) that he had free quarter given him when he was taken in his insane insurrection at Kingston. On the 6th of March the court pronounced judgment against them all,"that their heads should be severed from ther bodies, yet with relation to the mercy of parlia ment." The Earl of Warwick, his brother, and the Countess of Holland, his wife, presented a petition for the life of the Earl of Holland; and divers ladies petitioned for Hamilton, Goring, and the other two. The House, after some hours' debate, rejected these petitions, and left the prisoners to the justice of the court that sentenced them. Then the ladies petitioned the High Court itself, which only granted a reprieve for two days. On the 8th the condemned lords themselves petitioned the House; but Sir John Owen neglected or despised taking this course. The petitions of Hamilton and Capel were unanimously rejected: it was carried by one vote that the Lord Goring should be reprieved, and "this one vote was the Speaker's, who carried the House, being equally divided, four-andtwenty of each part; and he said he did it because he had formerly received some civilities from the Lord Goring, and his single vote now saved his life."* The House was also equally divided upon the question of the Earl of Holland's reprieve; but here the Speaker gave his voice for death. Sir John Owen was respited, and ultimately spared. On the very next day (the 9th of March) Hamilton, Holland, and Capel were beheaded upon a scaffold in Palace-yard.

Although the royalists had been greatly excited and increased in number by the incident of the king's death, the heroic way in which he met his fate, and by the publication of the Eikon Basilike (a specious cheat) which was distributed under his scaffold, and which went through many editions in the course of a few months, that party made no effort whatever to disturb the first days of the Commonwealth. The Presbyterians, who were equally inflamed against the Independents, were equally quiescent. If the two had united they might possibly have nipped the Republic in its bud; but the hatred the royalists bore to the Presbyterians, and the Presbyterians to the royalists, was scarcely inferior to that which they entertained in common towards the triumphant party. The first attack that was

• Whitelock.

made upon the new government was made by a part of that army which had raised them to their pre-eminence. "Freeborn John," who thought that the revolution had not gone half far enough, and that the leaders of it were betraying the cause of the people, put forth a vehement pamphlet entitled "England's New Change," and endeavoured to revive the spirit and practices of the agitators in the army. A mutiny broke out at Salisbury and Banbury; but Fairfax and Cromwell presently crushed it, and executed two cornets and two corporals. This, with the three executions already mentioned, was all the blood that was shed in this mighty revolution-less blood than ever was wasted at any similar convulsion. Lilburne was shut up in the Tower; and some few leaders of a set of madmen, who were sighing after something very like the republic of the illustrious Trinculo, were committed to meaner prisons. It was necessary to reconstruct the law which guarded the state; but, in doing this, that residue of the parliament which, for brevity, we must call the parliament, or House of Commons, entirely lost sight, in several cases, of the principles of liberty they professed, and took some of the worst pages out of the accursed book of despotism. They made it treason to affirm in speech or writing that the commonwealth was unlawful, usurped, or tyrannical; treason to deny the supremacy of parliament; treason to plot, or conspire, or levy war either against the commonwealth or the council of state; treason for any, not being of the army, to stir up mutiny or insubordination therein. Words spoken were made capital; and simple sedition was converted into high treason. The press was put into its old shackles, and extreme punishments declared against such as printed or put forth anything against the commonwealth, the council of state, &c.

In the mean time, the late king's eldest son had been proclaimed, as Charles the Second, in Scotland by the parliament, in Ireland by the Marquess of Ormond. Both countries, in taking up arms, had invited him over; but he had no affection for the Scots and their covenant, and Ireland offered but rude accommodation for a prince of such delicate nurture; and Charles therefore left the Scots and Irish to fight by themselves. On the 15th of August, Cromwell, with his son-in-law Ireton, landed near Dublin to suppress the formidable insurrection, and, if possible, to restore peace to a country which had never been quiet. His army did not exceed 6000 foot and 3000 horse; but it was an army of Iron-sides, the best disciplined and the best officered, and it carried with it a rare train of artillery. When these men landed hardly anything was left to the Protestants and the parliament except Dublin and Derry: in all the other principal towns floated the royal standard; but, now, town after town was retaken with the utmost rapidity, and the undisciplined Irish were beaten wherever they presented themselves in the open field. Drogheda was stormed on the 11th of September, Cromwell himself fighting in the breach.

VOL. III.

In the civil war in England he and his men had ever been merciful to the vanquished; but here and everywhere in Ireland little or no mercy was shown to the papists or idolaters. Wexford was taken by storm, and underwent the same barbarous fate as Drogheda : Cork, Kinsale, and numerous other places opened their gates; but the terrible state of the weather, the obstinacy of the resistance, and the strength of the place, obliged the conqueror to turn aside from Waterford. He put garrisons in Passage Fort and other places that were of great importance to the reduction of Munster, then moved to the south, and put his troops in winter-quarters at Kinsale, Cork, Wexford, Youghal, and Bandon-bridge. Whilst the army lay in these quarters Cromwell was not idle: he visited all the garrisons that were in his possession in Munster, and ordered all affairs both military and civil. By the end of January, 1650, before his soldiers "had breathed in their winterquarters fully two months," he marched out of Youghal with about 3000 men. This force he divided into two parties: one was led by Ireton towards Carrick; Cromwell led the other over the Blackwater, towards Limerick and Tipperary. In general, the Irish quailed before him; where they resisted they were cut to pieces. Ireton was equally successful; and, when they formed a junction under the walls of Kilkenny, they laid siege to that important city, and reduced it in six days. From Kilkenny the conquerors moved to Clonmel, where, according to Cromwell, they found "the stoutest enemy that ever was found by an army in Ireland." "These achievements being obtained," says an admiring Protestant contemporary, who, like the parliament, like the whole English nation, saw nothing wrong in the bloodshed by which they had been attended, "and care taken to secure what they had gotten, the lord-general addresses himself to his journey for England, having been in Ireland about ten months,—namely, from the middle of August, 1649, to the next May following, 1650; a time inconsiderable, respect had to the work done therein, which was more than ever could be done in ten years before by any king or queen of England. Queen Elizabeth, indeed, after a long and tedious war there, at last drove out the Spaniards that came in to the assistance of the rebellious natives, but could never utterly extinguish the sparks of that rebellion. And not only did the shortness of the time render the work admirable, but the nature of the work itself, it being against a most obstinately desperate, bloody enemy,-people that had put themselves out of all hopes of favour or mercy by acting the most bloody tragedy that ever hath been seen or related, in that their universal massacre of the English, yet recent in memory." There remained only Limerick, Waterford, and some few inconsiderable garrisons to be reduced; and this business was left to the charge of Ireton. Cromwell, after a boisterous passage, arrived at Bristol, where

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he was received with a thrice-repeated volley of great guns and other demonstrations of joy. From Bristol he proceeded post-haste to London, where his presence was most eagerly looked for. "Drawing near Hounslow Heath, he was met by the Lord-General Fairfax, accompanied by many members of parliament and officers of the army, with multitudes that came out of curiosity to see him of whom fame had made such a loud report. Hence, after mutual salutations, congratulations, and other testimonies of high respect, he proceeds on, and, passing near Hyde Park Corner, he is saluted with great guns and several volleys of small shot by Colonel Barkstead's regiment, which was drawn up in the highway for that purpose. Continuing thus their march (multitudes increasing to behold him), the Lord Cromwell is conducted to the house called the Cock-pit, near St. James's, which had been appointed and prepared for him. Here he was visited by the lord mayor and aldermen of London, and by many other persons of quality, all of them expressing their own and the nation's great obligations to him for his eminent services in Ireland. After some time of respite and refreshment he attended his charge in parliament, where the Speaker, in an elegant speech, gave him the thanks of the House."*

The parliament, "who had faithful scouts abroad in the world," had been, and still were, alarmed by secret combinations against them at home and open acts of hostility abroad. Scilly, Jersey, and the Isle of Man stood out and infested the seas with their piracy. Virginia and the islands in the Caribbee Sea revolted from them, "being very hot for monarchy and the Liturgy." In Russia the English merchants were insulted and ill-treated by the government; the French had fitted out ships which, under the flag of Charles II., made prize of every English vessel they could master; in Portugal a hostile fleet, which Prince Rupert had got to sea, was protected from the fleet of the Commonwealth; and in Holland, Dorislaus, the resident minister of the Commonwealth, was assassinated by six royalist ruffians in masks. "But," says Ludlow, which most threatened the disturbance of the parliament was that of Scotland, where all interests were united in opposition to the present authority in England. They had also many who favoured their designs in our nation, as well Presbyterians as Cavaliers; the former of these were most bold and active, upon presumption of more favour in case of ill success. The parliament being sensible of these things, published a declaration, showing that they had no design to impose upon the nation of Scotland anything contrary to their inclinations; that they would leave them to choose what government they thought most convenient for themselves, provided they would suffer the English nation to live under that establishment which they had chosen; but it evidently appeared that the Scots were actuated by a spirit of domination and rule;

Perfect Politician.

the enemy

| and, that nothing might be wanting to compel us to submit to their imposition, they had espoused the interests of that family, which they themselves had declared guilty of much precious blood, and resolved to force the same upon England."

But even after proclaiming Charles, the Scottish Presbyterians were not prepared to admit him, save upon conditions and the express acknowledgment of their kirk. These negotiations, which were carried on at Breda, occupied some time. As Charles's precursor, the Marquess of Montrose, who was shrewdly suspected of having headed or directed the murderers of Dorislaus, crossed over to the Orkneys in this spring (1650) with a few hundred foreign soldiers. From these isles, where he obtained a few recruits, Montrose proceeded to the mainland, and disembarked on the shores of Caithness, with the design of penetrating into the Highlands, and calling his former followers to his standard. But Montrose was a royalist such as the Presbyterian royalists could not tolerate; the Committee of Estates were well prepared, and Strachan, their general, surprised the marquess just as he had advanced beyond the pass of Invercarron, on the confines of Ross. After repulsing with his old gallantry the first charge of the Covenanters, he saw his men lay down their arms ou a second charge. His horse was shot under him, but a friend generously remounted him, and he fled from that his last fight, leaving his cloak and star, his sword, and the garter with which he had been lately invested behind him. He swam across a rapid river, disguised himself as a peasant, and got safe to the house of another friend; but that friend proved false, and basely betrayed him to the Covenanters, whose kirk had excommunicated him, and whose hearts were hardened against the sentiments of compassion or generosity. In the mean disguise in which he was betrayed, bound with ropes and subjected to all kinds of insult, he was carried to Edinburgh, and there, in virtue of a former attainder, he was hanged on a gallows thirty feet high. Such was the wretched end of Montrose, in the thirty-eighth year of his age, in the middle of the month of May. The day of his execution the Covenanters kept as a day of thanksgiving, and the ministers prayed exceedingly for the king's speedy coming, as one brought into the kirk, and therefore unto God. And, in effect, that godly prince Charles II. was coming, they having concluded their bargain with him at Breda, and he having promised, on the word of a prince, to recall and disclaim all commissions and declarations to the prejudice of the covenant; to acknowledge their present parliament; to swear, subscribe, and seal the national covenant, and the solemn league and covenant, as soon as he should reach Scotland, and before his admission to the exercise of royal power. He landed in the Frith of Cromarty in June, about a month after Montrose was hanged, being constrained to swallow the covenant as best he could ere he was allowed to set foot on shore. Troops had been already raised, and the

Border was in a ferment; and now an army was collected for the king of England, Scotland, and Ireland; and the English parliament were denounced as regicides and traitors. The latter, therefore, thought it not prudent to be behindhand with the enemy, nor stay till they should first invade England, but resolved rather to carry the war at once into Scotland. The command of the invading army was offered to Fairfax, who positively declined it; and it was then conferred upon Cromwell, an act being passed on the 26th of June for repealing the ordinance, whereby Fairfax was appointed commander-in-chief of all the forces of the parliament, and another act passed on the same day, nemine contradicente, for constituting and appointing Oliver Cromwell, Esq. to be captain-general-in-chief of all the forces raised, and to be raised, by authority of parliament within the commonwealth of England. By the 29th of June Cromwell had left London and was on his march to the Borders.*

The army, having come to a body and quartered upon the very edge of Scotland, Cromwell, upon the 22nd of July, drew them forth to a rendezvous upon a hill within Berwick bounds, whence they had a full view of the adjacent parts of Scotland, "a stage whereon they were to act their parts in the ensuing tragedy." He made a speech to his men, exhorting them to be faithful and courageous; and then not to doubt of a blessing from God, and all encouragement from himself. The soldiers answered with a loud and unanimous shout; and on the morrow, going cheerfully about their work, they advanced into Scotland by the eastern shore of the Frith of Forth. On that night they quartered in the fields near Mordington, and there Cromwell proclaimed throughout the camp that none, on pain of death, should offer violence or injury to the persons or goods of any in Scotland not in arms; and that no soldier should presume, without special licence, to straggle half a mile from the army. Part of this proclamation was altogether unnecessary, for there were no goods of any kind to injure or plunder; the whole country between Berwick and Edinburgh had been swept as if with a broom; nothing was left that could yield any comfort or succour to the invaders. Cromwell, who had expected no better entertainment, advanced to Dunbar, where he received provisions from English ships, sent thither on purpose. He then moved to Haddington, only seventeen miles from Edinburgh, not seeing all this while the face of an enemy in arms. But although the

We have mentioned the assassination of Dorislaus in the preceding year. In this month of June news was received of the vile murder of another of the Commonwealth diplomatists. This was Mr. Ascam, who had just arrived at Madrid and was lodging in an inn. Being at dinner in the inn with his interpreter, and with one footman attending him, six Englishmen-three dressed like merchants and three like soldiers-knocked at the door, and being admitted, because they were English, Mr. Ascam rose from the table to salute them. As he saluted them, the foremost laid hold of his hair and stabbed him; the interpreter endeavoured to escape, but he was stabbed also, and they both fell down dead. The murderers fled for refuge to the Venetian ambassador, but he denied them entrance, and then, knowing the customs of the country, they took sanctuary in the nearest church.-Whitelock.

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"The English army," says Ludlow, "drew up within sight of the town of Edinburgh, but the Scots would not hazard all by the decision of a battle, hoping to tire us out with frequent skirmishes and harassing our men, relying much upon the unsuitableness of the climate to our constitutions, especially if they should detain us in the field till winter. Their counsels succeeded according to their desires, and our army, through hard duty, scarcity of provisions, and the rigour of the season, grew very sickly, and diminished daily, so that they were necessitated to draw off to receive supplies from our shipping, which could not come nearer to them than Dunbar, distant from Edinburgh above twenty miles. The enemy, observing our army to retire, followed them close; and falling upon our rear-guard of horse in the night, having the advantage of a clear moon, beat them up to our rear-guard of foot; which alarm coming suddenly upon our men, put them into some disorder: but a thick cloud interposing in that very moment, and intercepting the light of the moon for about an hour, our army took that opportunity to secure themselves, and arrived without any further disturbance at Dunbar, where, having shipped their heavy baggage and sick men, they designed to return into England." But David Leslie and the army of the kirk had got between Dunbar and Berwick, and had possessed themselves of all the passes, confident of success, and calculating on the entire destruction of the invaders. And, indeed, the position of the English seemed very desperate; contrary winds had prevented the arrival of provisions at Dunbar, and the 12,000 men, to which the force was now reduced, had scarcely a mouthful of victuals, while Leslie, well provided, was girding them in with 27,000 men. It was Sunday, the 31st of August, when Cromwell drew up in the fields near Dunbar: the enemy flanked him in great force on the hills to the right; he could not, without great disadvantage, go up the hills to engage them, nor would they come down to engage him. Both parties stood to their arms, watching each other; the Scots still gathering and increasing upon all the adjacent hills, "like a thick cloud, menacing such a shower to the English as would wash them out of their country, if not out of the world; ... and they boasted that they had them in a worse pound than the king had the Earl of Essex in Cornwall." But, on the Monday morning, the Scots, urged on, it is said, by their impatient preachers, who proved by Scripture that their victory must be sure, drew

Perfect Politician.-Ludlow, Memoirs.

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