The History of England - Vols. 1 to 6 (419 page)

letters or messages be received from him; and that it be treason for any one, without leave of the two houses, to have any intercourse with him. The lords concurred in the same ordinance.
s

By this vote of non-addresses, so it was called, the king was, in reality, dethroned, and the whole constitution formally overthrown. So violent a measure was supported by a declaration of the commons no less violent. The blackest calumnies were there thrown upon the king; such as, even in their famous remonstrance, they thought proper to omit, as incredible and extravagant: The poisoning of his father, the betraying of Rochelle, the contriving of the Irish massacre.
t
By blasting his fame, had that injury been in their power, they formed a very proper prelude to the executing of violence on his person.

No sooner had the king refused his assent to the four bills, than Hammond, by orders from the army, removed all his servants, cut off his correspondence with his friends, and shut him up in close confinement. The king afterwards showed to Sir Philip Warwick, a decrepid old man, who, he said, was employed to kindle his fire, and was the best company he enjoyed, during several months that this rigorous confinement

lasted.u
No amusement was allowed him, nor society, which might relieve his anxious thoughts: To be speedily poisoned or assassinated was the only prospect, which he had, every moment, before his eyes: For he entertained no apprehension of a judicial sentence and execution; an event, of which no history hitherto furnished an example.

Meanwhile the parliament was very industrious in publishing, from time to time, the intelligence, which they received from Hammond; how chearful the king was, how pleased with every one that approached him, how satisfied in his present condition:
w

As if the view of such benignity and constancy had not been more proper to inflame, than allay, the general compassion of the people. The great source whence the king derived consolation amidst all his calamities, was undoubtedly religion; a principle, which, in him, seems to have contained nothing fierce or gloomy, nothing which enraged him against his adversaries, or terrified him with the dismal prospect of futurity. While every thing around him bore a hostile aspect; while friends, family, relations, whom he passionately loved, were placed at a distance, and unable to serve him; he reposed himself with confidence in the arms of that being, who penetrates and sustains all nature, and whose severities, if received with piety and resignation, he regarded as the surest pledges of unexhausted favour.

The parliament and army, meanwhile, enjoyed not, in tranquility, Second civil war.

that power, which they had obtained with so much violence and injustice. Combinations and conspiracies, they were sensible, were every where PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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forming around them; and Scotland, whence the king’s cause had received the first fatal disaster, seemed now to promise it support and assistance.

Before the surrender of the king’s person at Newcastle, and much more, since that event, the subjects of discontent had been daily multiplying between the two kingdoms. The independents, who began to prevail, took all occasions of mortifying the Scots, whom the presbyterians looked on with the greatest affection and veneration. When the Scottish commissioners, who, joined to a committee of English lords and commons, had managed the war, were ready to depart, it was proposed in parliament to give them thanks for their civilities and good offices. The independents insisted, that the words,
Good offices,
should be struck out; and thus the whole brotherly friendship and intimate alliance with the Scots resolved itself into an acknowledgment of their being well-bred gentlemen.

The advance of the army to London, the subjection of the parliament, the seizing of the king at Holdenby, his confinement in Carisbroke-castle, were so many blows, sensibly felt by that nation; as threatening the final overthrow of presbytery, to which they were so passionately devoted. The covenant was profanely called, in the house of

commons, an almanac out of date,x
and that impiety, though complained of, had passed uncensured. Instead of being able to determine and establish orthodoxy by the sword and by penal statutes, they saw the sectarian army, who were absolute masters, claim an unbounded liberty of conscience, which the presbyterians regarded with the utmost abhorrence. All the violences, put on the king, they loudly blamed, as repugnant to the covenant, by which they stood engaged to defend his royal person.

And those very actions, of which they themselves had been guilty, they denominated treason and rebellion, when executed by an opposite party.

The earls of Loudon, Lauderdale, and Laneric, who were sent to London, protested against the four bills; as containing too great a diminution of the king’s civil power, and providing no security for religion. They complained, that, notwithstanding this protestation, the bills were still insisted on; contrary to the solemn league, and to the treaty between the two nations. And when they accompanied the English commissioners to the isle of Wight, they secretly formed a treaty with the king, for

arming Scotland in his favour.y

Three parties, at that time, prevailed in Scotland: The
Royalists,
Invasion from

who insisted upon the restoration of the king’s authority, without Scotland.

any regard to religious sects or tenets: Of these Montrose, though absent, was regarded as the head. The
Rigid presbyterians,
who hated the king, even more than they abhorred toleration; and who determined to give him no assistance, till he should subscribe the covenant: These were governed by Argyle. The
Moderate
presbyterians,
who endeavoured to reconcile the interests of religion and of the crown, and hoped, by supporting the presbyterian party in England, to suppress the sectarian army, and to re-instate the parliament, as well as the king, in their just freedom and authority: The two brothers, Hamilton and Laneric, were leaders of this party.

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When Pendennis castle was surrendered to the parliamentary army, Hamilton, who then obtained his liberty, returned into Scotland; and being generously determined to remember ancient favours, more than recent injuries, he immediately embraced, with zeal and success, the protection of the royal cause. He obtained a vote from the Scottish parliament to arm 40,000 men in support of the king’s authority, and to call over a considerable body under Monro, who commanded the Scottish forces in Ulster.

And though he openly protested, that the covenant was the foundation of all his measures, he secretly entered into correspondence with the English royalists, Sir Marmaduke Langdale and Sir Philip Musgrave, who had levied considerable forces in the north of England.

The general assembly, who sat at the same time, and was guided by Argyle, dreaded the consequence of these measures, and foresaw, that the opposite party, if successful, would effect the restoration of monarchy, without the establishment of presbytery, in England. To join the king before he had subscribed the covenant, was, in their eyes, to

restore him to his honour before Christ had obtained his;z
and they thundered out anathemas against every one, who payed obedience to the parliament. Two supreme independent judicatures were erected in the kingdom; one threatening the people with damnation and eternal torments, the other with imprisonment, banishment, and military execution. The people were distracted in their choice; and the armament of Hamilton’s party, though seconded by all the civil power, went on but slowly. The royalists he would not, as yet, allow to join him, lest he might give offence to the ecclesiastical party; though he secretly promised them trust and preferment, as soon as his army should advance into England.

While the Scots were making preparations for the invasion of England, every part of that kingdom was agitated with tumults, insurrections, conspiracies, discontents. It is seldom, that the people gain any thing by revolutions in government; because the new settlement, jealous and insecure, must commonly be supported with more expence and severity than the old: But on no occasion was the truth of this maxim more sensibly felt, than in the present situation of England. Complaints against the oppression of ship–money, against the tyranny of the star-chamber, had rouzed the people to arms: And having gained a complete victory over the crown, they found themselves loaded with a multiplicity of taxes, formerly unknown; and scarcely an appearance of law and liberty remained in the administration. The presbyterians, who had chiefly supported the war, were enraged to find the prize, just when it seemed within their reach, snatched by violence from them. The royalists, disappointed in their expectations, by the cruel treatment which the king now received from the army, were strongly animated to restore him to liberty, and to recover the advantages, which they had unfortunately lost. All orders of men were inflamed with indignation at seeing the military prevail over the civil power, and king and parliament at once reduced to subjection by a mercenary army. Many persons of family and distinction had, from the beginning of the war, adhered to the parliament: But all these were, by the new party, deprived of authority; and every office was entrusted to the most ignoble part of the nation. A base populace exalted above their superiors: Hypocrites exercising iniquity under the vizor of religion: These circumstances promised not much liberty or lenity to the people; and these were now found united, in the same usurped and illegal administration.

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Though the whole nation seemed to combine in their hatred of military tyranny, the ends which the several parties pursued, were so different, that little concert was observed in their insurrections. Langhorne, Poyer, and Powel, presbyterian officers, who commanded bodies of troops in Wales, were the first that declared themselves; and they drew together a considerable army in those parts, which were extremely devoted to the royal cause. An insurrection was raised in Kent by young Hales and the earl of Norwich. Lord Capel, Sir Charles Lucas, Sir George Lisle, excited commotions in Essex. The earl of Holland, who had several times changed sides, since the commencement of the civil wars, endeavoured to assemble forces in Surrey.

Pomfret castle in Yorkshire was surprized by Morrice. Langdale and Musgrave were in arms, and masters of Berwic and Carlisle in the north.

What seemed the most dangerous circumstance; the general spirit of discontent had seized the fleet. Seventeen ships, lying in the mouth of the river, declared for the king; and putting Rainsborow, their admiral, ashore, sailed over to Holland, where the prince of Wales took the command of them.
a

The English royalists exclaimed loudly against Hamilton’s delays, which they attributed to a refined policy in the Scots; as if their intentions were, that all the king’s party should first be suppressed, and the victory remain solely to the presbyterians.

Hamilton, with better reason, complained of the precipitate humour of the English royalists, who, by their ill-timed insurrections, forced him to march his army, before his levies were completed, or his preparations in any forwardness.

No commotions, beyond a tumult of the apprentices, which was soon suppressed, were raised in London: The terror of the army kept the citizens in subjection. The parliament was so over-awed, that they declared the Scots to be enemies, and all who joined them, traitors. Ninety members, however, of the lower house had the courage to dissent from this vote.

Cromwel and the military council prepared themselves with vigour and conduct for defence. The establishment of the army was, at this time, 26,000 men; but by inlisting supernumeraries, the regiments were greatly augmented, and commonly consisted of more than double their stated complement.
b
Colonel Horton first attacked the revolted troops in Wales, and gave them a considerable defeat. The remnants of the vanquished threw themselves into Pembroke, and were there closely besieged, and soon after taken, by Cromwel. Lambert was opposed to Langdale and Musgrave in the north, and gained advantages over them. Sir Michael Livesey defeated the earl of Holland at Kingston, and pursuing his victory, took him prisoner at St. Neots. Fairfax, having routed the Kentish royalists at Maidstone, followed the broken army: And when they joined the royalists of Essex, and threw themselves into Colchester; he laid siege to that place, which defended itself to the last extremity. A new fleet was manned, and sent out under the command of Warwic, to oppose the revolted ships, of which the prince had taken the command.

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companions, restored to the presbyterian party the ascendant, which it had formerly lost. The eleven impeached members were recalled, and the vote, by which they were expelled, was reversed. The vote too of non-addresses was repealed; and commissioners, five peers and ten commoners, were sent to Newport in the isle of

Wight, in order to treat with the king.c
He was allowed to summon several of his friends and old counsellors, that he might have their advice in this important

transaction.d
The theologians on both sides, armed with their syllogisms and

quotations, attended as auxiliaries.e
By them, the flame had first been raised; and their appearance was but a bad prognostic of its extinction. Any other instruments seemed better adapted for a treaty of pacification.