The History of England - Vols. 1 to 6 (403 page)

And they engaged the city to send four regiments of its militia to the relief of Glocester. All shops, meanwhile, were ordered to be shut; and every man expected, with the utmost anxiety, the event of that important enterprize.
c

Essex, carrying with him a well-appointed army of 14,000 men, took the road of Bedford and Leicester; and, though inferior in cavalry, yet, by the mere force of conduct and discipline, he passed over those open champaign countries, and defended himself from the enemy’s horse, who had advanced to meet him, and who infested him during his whole march. As he approached to Glocester, the king was obliged to raise the siege, and open the way for Essex to enter that city. The necessities of the garrison were extreme. One barrel of powder was their whole stock of ammunition remaining; and their other provisions were in the same proportion. Essex had brought with him military stores; and the neighbouring country abundantly supplied him with victuals of every kind. The inhabitants had carefully concealed all provisions from the king’s army, and, pretending to be quite exhausted, had reserved their stores for that

cause, which they so much favoured.d

The chief difficulty still remained. Essex dreaded a battle with the king’s army, on account of its great superiority in cavalry; and he resolved to return, if possible, without running that hazard. He lay five days at Tewkesbury, which was his first stage after leaving Glocester; and he feigned, by some preparations, to point towards Worcester. By a forced march during the night, he reached Cirencester, and obtained PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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the double advantage of passing unmolested an open country, and of surprising a

convoy of provisions, which lay in that town.e
Without delay, he proceeded towards London; but, when he reached Newbury, he was surprised to find, that the king, by hasty marches, had arrived before him, and was already possessed of the place.

An action was now unavoidable; and Essex prepared for it with 20th Sept. Battle of

presence of mind, and not without military conduct. On both

Newbury.

sides, the battle was fought with desperate valour and a steady bravery. Essex’s horse were several times broken by the king’s, but his infantry maintained themselves in firm array; and, besides giving a continued fire, they presented an invincible rampart of pikes against the furious shock of prince Rupert, and those gallant troops of gentry, of which the royal cavalry was chiefly composed.

The militia of London especially, though utterly unacquainted with action, though drawn but a few days before from their ordinary occupations, yet having learned all military exercises, and being animated with unconquerable zeal for the cause, in which they were engaged, equalled, on this occasion, what could be expected from the most veteran forces. While the armies were engaged with the utmost ardour, night put an end to the action, and left the victory undecided. Next morning, Essex proceeded on his march; and though his rear was once put in some disorder by an incursion of the king’s horse, he reached London in safety, and received applause for his conduct and success in the whole enterprize. The king followed him on his march; and having taken possession of Reading, after the earl left it, he there established a garrison; and straitened, by that means, London and the quarters of the enemy.
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In the battle of Newbury, on the part of the king, besides the earls of Sunderland and Carnarvon, two noblemen of promising hopes, was unfortunately slain, to the regret of every lover of ingenuity and virtue throughout the kingdom, Lucius Cary viscount Falkland, secretary of state. Before assembling the present parliament, this man, devoted to the pursuits of learning, and to the society of all the polite and elegant, had enjoyed himself in every pleasure, which a fine genius, a generous disposition, and an opulent fortune could afford. Called into public life, he stood foremost in all attacks on the high prerogatives of the crown; and displayed that masculine eloquence, and undaunted love of liberty, which, from his intimate acquaintance with the sublime spirits of antiquity, he had greedily imbibed. When civil convulsions proceeded to extremities, and it became requisite for him to chuse his side; he tempered the ardour of his zeal, and embraced the defence of those limited powers, which remained to monarchy, and which he deemed necessary for the support of the English constitution.

Still anxious, however, for his country, he seems to have dreaded the too prosperous success of his own party as much as of the enemy; and, among his intimate friends, often after a deep silence, and frequent sighs, he would, with a sad accent, re-iterate the word,
Peace.
In excuse for the too free exposing of his person, which seemed unsuitable in a secretary of state, he alledged, that it became him to be more active than other men in all hazardous enterprizes, lest his impatience for peace might bear the imputation of cowardice or pusillanimity. From the commencement of the war, his natural chearfulness and vivacity became clouded; and even his usual attention to dress, required by his birth and station, gave way to a negligence, which was easily observable. On the morning of the battle in which he fell, he had shown some care of adorning his person; and gave for a reason, that the enemy should not find his body in PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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any slovenly, indecent situation. “I am weary,” subjoined he, “of the times, and foresee much misery to my country; but believe, that I shall be out of it ere night.”
g

This excellent person was but thirty four years of age, when a period was thus put to his life.

The loss sustained on both sides in the battle of Newbury, and the advanced season, obliged the armies to retire into winter-quarters.

In the north, during this summer, the great interest and popularity Actions in the north.

of the earl, now created marquis of Newcastle, had raised a

considerable force for the king; and great hopes of success were entertained from that quarter. There appeared, however, in opposition to him, two men, on whom the event of the war finally depended, and who began about this time to be remarked for their valour and military conduct. These were Sir Thomas Fairfax, son of the lord of that name, and Oliver Cromwel. The former gained a considerable advantage at Wakefield
h
over a detachment of royalists, and took general Goring prisoner: The

latter obtained a victory at Gainsborowi
over a party commanded by the gallant Cavendish, who perished in the action. But both these defeats of the royalists were more than sufficiently compensated by the total rout of lord Fairfax at Atherton

moor,k
and the dispersion of his army. After this victory, Newcastle, with an army of 15,000 men, sat down before Hull. Hotham was no longer governor of this place. That gentleman and his son, partly from a jealousy entertained of lord Fairfax, partly repenting of their engagements against the king, had entered into a correspondence with Newcastle, and had expressed an intention of delivering Hull into his hands. But their conspiracy being detected, they were arrested and sent prisoners to London; where, without any regard to their former services, they fell, both of them, victims to

the severity of the parliament.l

Newcastle, having carried on the attack of Hull for some time, was beat off by a sally

of the garrison,m
and suffered so much, that he thought proper to raise the siege.

About the same time, Manchester, who advanced from the eastern associated countries, having joined Cromwel and young Fairfax, obtained a considerable victory over the royalists at Horn Castle; where the two officers last mentioned gained renown by their conduct and gallantry. And though fortune had thus balanced her favours, the king’s party still remained much superior in those parts of England; and had it not been for the garrison of Hull, which kept Yorkshire in awe, a conjunction of the northern forces with the army in the south might have been made, and had probably enabled the king, instead of entering on the unfortunate, perhaps imprudent, enterprize of Glocester, to march directly to London, and put an end to the war.
n

While the military enterprizes were carried on with vigour in England, and the event became every day more doubtful, both parties cast their eye towards the neighbouring kingdoms, and sought assistance for the finishing of that enterprize, in which their own forces experienced such furious opposition. The parliament had recourse to Scotland; the king, to Ireland.

When the Scottish covenanters obtained that end, for which they so earnestly contended, the establishment of presbyterian discipline in their own country, they PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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were not satisfied, but indulged still an ardent passion for propagating, by all methods, that mode of religion in the neighbouring kingdoms. Having flattered themselves, in the fervor of their zeal, that, by supernatural assistances, they should be enabled to carry their triumphant covenant to the gates of Rome itself, it behoved them first to render it prevalent in England, which already showed so great a disposition to receive it. Even in the articles of pacification, they expressed a desire of uniformity in worship with England; and the king, employing general expressions, had approved of this inclination, as pious and laudable. No sooner was there an appearance of a rupture, than the English parliament, in order to allure that nation into a close confederacy, openly declared their wishes of ecclesiastical reformation, and of

imitating the example of their northern brethren.o
When war was actually commenced, the same artifices were used; and the Scots beheld, with the utmost impatience, a scene of action, of which they could not deem themselves indifferent spectators. Should the king, they said, be able, by force of arms, to prevail over the parliament of England, and re-establish his authority in that powerful kingdom, he will undoubtedly retract all those concessions, which, with so many circumstances of violence and indignity, the Scots have extorted from him. Besides a sense of his own interests, and a regard to royal power, which has been entirely annihilated in this country; his very passion for prelacy and for religious ceremonies must lead him to invade a church, which he has ever been taught to regard as antichristian and unlawful. Let us but consider who the persons are that compose the factions, now so furiously engaged in arms. Does not the parliament consist of those very men, who have ever opposed all war with Scotland, who have punished the authors of our oppressions, who have obtained us the redress of every grievance, and who, with many honourable expressions, have conferred on us an ample reward for our brotherly assistance? And is not the court full of papists, prelates, malignants; all of them zealous enemies to our religious model, and resolute to sacrifice their lives for their idolatrous establishments? Not to mention our own necessary security; can we better express our gratitude to heaven for that pure light, with which we are, above all nations, so eminently distinguished, than by conveying the same divine knowledge to our unhappy neighbours, who are wading through a sea of blood in order to attain it?

These were in Scotland the topics of every conversation: With these doctrines the pulpits echoed: And the famous curse of Meroz, that curse so solemnly denounced and re-iterated against neutrality and moderation, resounded from all quarters.
p

The parliament of England had ever invited the Scots, from the commencement of the civil dissentions, to interpose their mediation, which, they knew, would be so little favourable to the king: And the king, for that very reason, had ever endeavoured, with the least offensive expressions, to decline it.
q
Early this spring, the earl of Loudon, the chancellor, with other commissioners, and attended by Henderson, a popular and intriguing preacher, was sent to the king at Oxford, and renewed the offer of mediation; but with the same success as before. The commissioners were also empowered to press the king on the article of religion, and to recommend to him the Scottish model of ecclesiastic worship and discipline. This was touching Charles in a very tender point: His honour, his conscience, as well as his interest, he believed to be intimately concerned in supporting prelacy and the liturgy.
NOTE [EE]
He begged the commissioners, therefore, to remain satisfied with the concessions which he had made to Scotland; and having modelled their own church according to their own principles, PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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to leave their neighbours in the like liberty, and not to intermeddle with affairs, of which they could not be supposed competent judges.
s

The divines of Oxford, secure, as they imagined, of a victory, by means of their authorities from church-history, their quotations from the fathers, and their spiritual arguments, desired a conference with Henderson, and undertook, by dint of reasoning, to convert that great apostle of the north: But Henderson, who had ever regarded as impious the least doubt with regard to his own principles, and who knew of a much better way to reduce opponents than by employing any theological topics, absolutely refused all disputation or controversy. The English divines went away, full of admiration at the blind assurance and bigotted prejudices of the man: He, on his part, was moved with equal wonder at their obstinate attachment to such palpable error and delusions.

By the concessions, which the king had granted to Scotland, it became necessary for him to summon a parliament once in three years; and in June of the subsequent year, was fixed the period for the meeting of that assembly. Before that time elapsed, Charles flattered himself, that he should be able, by some decisive advantage, to reduce the English parliament to a reasonable submission, and might then expect with security the meeting of a Scottish parliament. Though earnestly solicited by Loudon to summon presently that great council of the nation, he absolutely refused to give authority to men, who had already excited such dangerous commotions, and who showed still the same disposition to resist and invade his authority. The commissioners, therefore, not being able to prevail in any of their demands, desired the king’s passport for London, where they purposed to confer with the English parliament;
t
and being likewise denied this request, they returned with extreme dissatisfaction to Edinburgh.