The History of England - Vols. 1 to 6 (417 page)

of the civil disorders;s
nor the duke of York, since he went to the Scottish army before Newark. No private man, unacquainted with the pleasures of a court, and the tumult of a camp, more passionately loved his family, than did this good prince; and such an instance of indulgence in the army was extremely grateful to him. Cromwel, who was witness to the meeting of the royal family, confessed, that he never had been present at so tender a scene; and he extremely applauded the benignity, which displayed itself in the whole disposition and behaviour of Charles.

That artful politician, as well as the leaders of all parties, payed court to the king; and fortune; notwithstanding all his calamities, seemed again to smile upon him. The parliament, afraid of his forming some accommodation with the army, addressed him in a more respectful style than formerly; and invited him to reside at Richmond, and contribute his assistance to the settlement of the nation. The chief officers treated him with regard, and spake on all occasions of restoring him to his just powers and prerogatives. In the public declarations of the army, the settlement of his revenue and authority was insisted on.
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The royalists, every where, entertained hopes of the restoration of monarchy; and the favour, which they universally bore to the army, contributed very much to discourage the parliament, and to forward their submission.

The king began to feel of what consequence he was. The more the national confusions encreased, the more was he confident, that all parties would, at length, have recourse to his lawful authority, as the only remedy for the public disorders.
You cannot be
without me,
said he, on several occasions:
You cannot settle the nation but by my
assistance.
A people without government and without liberty, a parliament without authority, an army without a legal master: Distractions every where, terrors, oppressions, convulsions: From this scene of confusion, which could not long continue, all men, he hoped, would be brought to reflect on that ancient government, under which they and their ancestors had so long enjoyed happiness and tranquillity.

Though Charles kept his ears open to all proposals, and expected to hold the balance between the opposite parties, he entertained more hopes of accommodation with the army. He had experienced the extreme rigour of the parliament. They pretended PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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totally to annihilate his authority: They had confined his person. In both these

particulars, the army showed more indulgence.u
He had a free intercourse with his friends. And in the proposals, which the council of officers sent for the settlement of the nation, they insisted neither on the abolition of episcopacy, nor of the punishment of the royalists; the two points to which the king had the most extreme reluctance: And they demanded, that a period should be put to the present parliament, the event for which he most ardently longed.

His conjunction too seemed more natural with the generals, than with that usurping assembly, who had so long assumed the entire sovereignty of the state, and who had declared their resolution still to continue masters. By gratifying a few persons with titles and preferments, he might draw over, he hoped, the whole military power, and, in an instant, reinstate himself in his civil authority. To Ireton he offered the lieutenancy of Ireland: To Cromwel, the garter, the title of earl of Essex, and the command of the army. Negociations to this purpose were secretly conducted.

Cromwel pretended to hearken to them; and was well pleased to keep the door open for an accommodation, if the course of events should, at any time, render it necessary.

And the king, who had no suspicion, that one, born a private gentleman, could entertain the daring ambition of seizing a sceptre, transmitted through a long line of monarchs; indulged hopes, that he would, at last, embrace a measure, which, by all the motives of duty, interest, and safety, seemed to be recommended to him.

While Cromwel allured the king by these expectations, he still continued his scheme of reducing the parliament to subjection, and depriving them of all means of resistance. To gratify the army, the parliament invested Fairfax with the title of general in chief of all the forces in England and Ireland; and entrusted the whole military authority to a person, who, though well inclined to their service, was no longer at his own disposal.

They voted, that the troops, which, in obedience to them, had inlisted for Ireland, and deserted the rebellious army, should be disbanded, or, in other words, be punished for their fidelity. The forces in the north, under Pointz, had already mutinied against their general, and had entered into an association with that body of the army, which was so successfully employed in exalting the military above the civil authority.
w

That no resource might remain to the parliament, it was demanded, that the militia of London should be changed, the presbyterian commissioners displaced, and the command restored to those, who, during the course of the war, had constantly exercised it. The parliament even complied with so violent a demand, and passed a vote in obedience to the army.
x

By this unlimited patience, they purposed to temporize under their present difficulties, and they hoped to find a more favourable opportunity for recovering their authority and influence: But the impatience of the city lost them all the advantage of their cautious measures.

A petition against the alteration of the militia was carried to 20th July.

Westminster, attended by the apprentices and seditious

multitude, who besieged the door of the house of commons; and by their clamour, PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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noise, and violence, obliged them to reverse that vote, which they had passed so lately. When gratified in this pretension, they immediately dispersed, and left the parliament at liberty .
y

No sooner was intelligence of this tumult conveyed to Reading, than the army was put in motion. The two houses being under restraint, they were resolved, they said, to vindicate, against the seditious citizens, the invaded privileges of parliament, and restore that assembly to its just freedom of debate and counsel. In their way to London, they were drawn up on Hounslow-Heath; a formidable body, twenty thousand strong, and determined, without regard to laws or liberty, to pursue whatever measures their generals should dictate to them. Here the most favourable event happened, to quicken and encourage their advance. The speakers of the two houses, Manchester and Lenthal, attended by eight peers, and about sixty commoners, having secretly retired from the city, presented themselves with their maces, and all the ensigns of their dignity; and complaining of the violence put upon them, applied to the army for defence and protection. They were received with shouts and acclamations: Respect was paid to them as to the parliament of England: And the army being provided with so plausible a pretence, which, in all public transactions, is of great consequence, advanced to chastise the rebellious city, and to re-instate the violated parliament.
z

Neither Lenthal nor Manchester were esteemed independents; and such a step in them was unexpected. But they probably foresaw, that the army must, in the end, prevail; and they were willing to pay court in time to that authority, which began to predominate in the nation.

The parliament, forced from their temporizing measures, and obliged to resign, at once, or combat for their liberty and power, prepared themselves with vigour for defence, and determined to resist the violence of the army. The two houses immediately chose new speakers, lord Hunsdon, and Henry Pelham: They renewed their former orders for enlisting troops: They appointed Massey to be commander: They ordered the trained bands to man the lines: And the whole city was in a ferment,

and resounded with military preparations.a

When any intelligence arrived, that the army stopped or retreated, the shout of
One
and all,
ran with alacrity, from street to street, among the citizens: When news came of their advancing, the cry of
Treat and capitulate
was no less loud and vehement.
b

The terror of an universal pillage, and even massacre, had seized the timid inhabitants.

As the army approached, Rainsborow, being sent by the general over the river, presented himself before Southwark, and was gladly received by some soldiers, who were quartered there for its defence, and who were resolved not to separate their interests from those of the army.

It behoved then the parliament to submit. The army marched in 6th Aug.

triumph through the city; but preserved the greatest order,

decency, and appearance of humility. They conducted to Westminster the two speakers, who took their seats as if nothing had happened. The eleven impeached members, being accused as authors of the tumult, were expelled; and most of them PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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retired beyond sea: Seven peers were impeached: The mayor, one sheriff, and three aldermen, sent to the Tower: Several citizens and officers of the militia committed to prison: Every deed of the parliament annulled, from the day of the tumult till the return of the speakers:

The lines about the city levelled: The militia restored to the The army subdue the

independents: Regiments quartered in Whitehall and the Meuse: parliament.

And the parliament being reduced to a regular formed servitude, a day was appointed of solemn thanksgiving for the restoration of its liberty.
c

The independent party among the commons exulted in their victory. The whole authority of the nation, they imagined, was now lodged in their hands; and they had a near prospect of moulding the government into that imaginary republic, which had long been the object of their wishes. They had secretly concurred in all encroachments of the military upon the civil power; and they expected, by the terror of the sword, to impose a more perfect system of liberty on the reluctant nation. All parties, the king, the church, the parliament, the presbyterians, had been guilty of errors, since the commencement of these disorders: But it must be confessed, that this delusion of the independents and republicans was, of all others, the most contrary to common sense and the established maxims of policy. Yet were the leaders of that party, Vane, Fiennes, St. John, Martin, the men in England the most celebrated for profound thought and deep contrivance; and by their well–coloured pretences and professions, they had over-reached the whole nation. To deceive such men would argue a superlative capacity in Cromwel; were it not, that, besides the great difference there is between dark, crooked councils and true wisdom, an exorbitant passion for rule and authority will make the most prudent overlook the dangerous consequences of such measures as seem to tend, in any degree, to their own advancement.

The leaders of the army, having established their dominion over the parliament and city, ventured to bring the king to Hampton-Court; and he lived, for some time, in that palace, with an appearance of dignity and freedom. Such equability of temper did he possess, that, during all the variety of fortune, which he underwent, no difference was perceived in his countenance or behaviour; and though a prisoner, in the hands of his most inveterate enemies, he supported, towards all who approached him, the majesty of a monarch; and that, neither with less nor greater state, than he had been accustomed to maintain. His manner, which was not in itself popular nor gracious, now appeared amiable, from its great meekness and equality.

The parliament renewed their applications to him, and presented him with the same conditions, which they had offered at Newcastle. The king declined accepting them, and desired the parliament to take the proposals of the army into consideration, and make them the foundation of the public settlement.
d
He still entertained hopes, that his negociations with the generals would be crowned with success; though every thing, in that particular, daily bore a worse aspect. Most historians have thought, that Cromwel never was sincere in his professions; and that, having, by force, rendered himself master of the king’s person, and, by fair pretences, acquired the countenance of the royalists, he had employed these advantages to the enslaving of the parliament: And afterwards thought of nothing but the establishment of his own unlimited authority, with which he esteemed the restoration, and even life of the king, altogether PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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incompatible. This opinion, so much warranted by the boundless ambition and profound dissimulation of his character, meets with ready belief; though it is more agreeable to the narrowness of human views, and the darkness of futurity, to suppose, that this daring usurper was guided by events, and did not, as yet, foresee, with any assurance, that unparalleled greatness, which he afterwards attained. Many writers of that age have asserted,
NOTE [HH]
that he really intended to make a private bargain with the king; a measure, which carried the most plausible appearance both for his safety and advancement: But that he found insuperable difficulties in reconciling to it the wild humours of the army. The horror and antipathy of these fanatics had, for many years, been artfully fomented against Charles; and though their principles were, on all occasions, easily warped and eluded by private interest, yet was some colouring requisite, and a flat contradiction to all former professions and tenets could not safely be proposed to them. It is certain, at least, that Cromwel made use of this reason, why he admitted rarely of visits from the king’s friends, and showed less favour than formerly to the royal cause. The agitators, he said, had rendered him odious to the army, and had represented him as a traitor, who, for the sake of private interest, was ready to betray the cause of God to the great enemy of piety and religion. Desperate projects too, he asserted to be secretly formed, for the murder of the king; and he pretended much to dread lest all his authority, and that of the commanding officers, would not be able to restrain these enthusiasts from their bloody purposes.
f