Parliament, and several such associations were formed, but
none of these came to much except that of the Eastern
counties, which was known by way of preeminence as 'The
Association.' Its object was to keep the war entirely beyond
the borders of the counties of which it consisted. The reason
of its success was the genius and energy of Cromwell."
J. F. Bright,
History of England, period 2,
page 659.
{869}
"This winter there arise among certain Counties 'Associations'
for mutual defence, against Royalism and plunderous Rupertism;
a measure cherished by the Parliament, condemned as
treasonable by the King. Of which 'Associations,' countable to
the number of five or six, we name only one, that of Norfolk,
Suffolk, Essex, Cambridge, Herts; with Lord Gray of Wark for
Commander; where and under whom Oliver was now serving. This
'Eastern Association' is alone worth naming. All the other
Associations, no man of emphasis being in the midst of them,
fell in a few months to pieces; only this of Cromwell
subsisted, enlarged itself, grew famous;--and kept its own
borders clear of invasion during the whole course of the War."
T. Carlyle,
Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches,
part 2, preliminary.
ALSO IN:
S. R. Gardiner,
History of the Great Civil War,
chapters 2-4 (volume l).
W. Godwin,
History of the Commonwealth,
chapter 2 (volume 1).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1643 (May).
Cromwell's Ironsides.
"It was ... probably, a little before Edgehill, that there
took place between Cromwell and Hampden the memorable
conversation which fifteen years afterwards the Protector
related in a speech to his second Parliament. It is a piece of
autobiography so instructive and pathetic that it must be set
forth in full in the words of Cromwell himself:
'I was a person who, from my first employment, was suddenly
preferred and lifted up from lesser trusts to greater; from my
first being Captain of a Troop of Horse. ... I had a very
worthy friend then; and he was a very noble person, and I know
his memory was very grateful to all,--Mr. John Hampden. At my
first going out into this engagement, I saw our men were
beaten at every hand. ... Your troops, said I, are most of
them old decayed serving-men, and tapsters, and such kind of
fellows; and, said I, their troops are gentlemen's sons,
younger sons and persons of quality: do you think that the
spirits of such base mean fellows will ever be able to
encounter gentlemen, that have honour and courage and
resolution in them? Truly I did represent to him in this
manner conscientiously; and truly I did tell him: You must get
men of a spirit: and take it not ill what I say,--I know you
will not,--of a spirit that is likely to go on as far as
gentlemen will go: or else you will be beaten still. I told
him so; I did truly. He was a wise and worthy person; and he
did think that I talked a good notion, but an impracticable
one. ... I raised such men as had the fear of God before them,
as made some conscience of what they did; and from that day
forward, I must say to you, they were never beaten, and
wherever they were engaged against the enemy they beat
continually.' ... The issue of the whole war lay in that word.
It lay with 'such men as had some conscience in what they
did.' 'From that day forward they were never beaten.' ... As
for Colonel Cromwell,' writes a news-letter of May, 1643, 'he
hath 2,000 brave men, well disciplined; no man swears but he
pays his twelve-pence; if he be drunk, he is set in the
stocks, or worse; if one calls the other roundhead he is
cashiered: insomuch that the countries where they come leap
for joy of them, and come in and join with them. How happy
were it if all the forces were thus disciplined!' These were
the men who ultimately decided the war, and established the
Commonwealth. On the field of Marston, Rupert gave Cromwell
the name of Ironside, and from thence this famous name passed
to his troopers. There are two features in their history which
we need to note. They were indeed 'such men as had some
conscience in their work'; but they were also much more. They
were disciplined and trained soldiers. They were the only body
of 'regulars' on either side. The instinctive genius of
Cromwell from the very first created the strong nucleus of a
regular army, which at last in discipline, in skill, in
valour, reached the highest perfection ever attained by
soldiers either in ancient or modern times. The fervour of
Cromwell is continually pressing towards the extension of this
'regular' force. Through all the early disasters, this body of
Ironsides kept the cause alive: at Marston it overwhelmed the
king: as soon as, by the New Model, this system was extended
to the whole army, the Civil War was at an end."
F. Harrison,
Oliver Cromwell,
chapter 4.
ALSO IN:
J. Forster,
Statesmen of the Commonwealth: Cromwell.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1643 (JUNE-SEPTEMBER).
The King calls in the Irish.
"To balance the accession of power which the alliance with
Scotland brought to the Parliament, Charles was so unwise, men
then said so guilty, as to conclude a peace with the Irish
rebels, with the intent that thus those of his forces which
had been employed against them, might be set free to join his
army in England. No act of the King, not the levying of
ship-money, not the crowd of monopolies which enriched the
court and impoverished the people, neither the extravagance of
Buckingham, the tyranny of Strafford nor the prelacy of Laud, not
even the attempted arrest of the five members, raised such a
storm of indignation and hatred throughout the kingdom, as did
this determination of the King to withdraw (as men said), for
the purpose of subduing his subjects, the force which had been
raised to avenge the blood of 100,000 Protestant martyrs. ...
To the England of the time this act was nauseous, was
exasperating to the highest degree, while to the cause of the
King it was fatal; for, from this moment, the condition of the
Parliamentary party began to mend."
N. L. Walford,
Parliamentary Generals of the Great Civil War,
chapter 2.
"None of the king's schemes proved so fatal to his cause as
these. On their discovery, officer after officer in his own
army flung down their commissions, the peers who had fled to
Oxford fled back again to London, and the Royalist reaction in
the Parliament itself came utterly to an end."
J. R. Green,
Short History of England,
chapter 8, section 7.
ALSO IN:
S. R. Gardiner,
History of the Great Civil War,
chapter 11 (volume 1).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1643 (JULY).
Meeting of the Westminster Assembly of Divines.
At the beginning of July, 1643, "London was astir with a new
event of great consequence in the course of the national
revolution. This was the meeting of the famous Westminster
Assembly. The necessity of an ecclesiastical Synod or
Convocation, to cooperate with the Parliament, had been long
felt.
{870}
Among the articles of the Grand Remonstrance of December 1641
had been one desiring a convention of 'a General Synod of the
most grave, pious, learned, and judicious divines of this
island, assisted by some from foreign parts,' to consider of
all things relating to the Church and report thereon to
Parliament. It is clear from the wording of this article that
it was contemplated that the Synod should contain
representatives from the Presbyterian Church of Scotland.
Indeed, by that time, the establishment of a uniformity of
Doctrine, Discipline, and Worship between the Churches of
England and Scotland was the fixed idea of those who chiefly
desired a Synod. ... In April, 1642 ... it was ordered by the
House, in pursuance of previous resolutions on the subject,
'that the names of such divines as shall be thought fit to be
consulted with concerning the matter of the Church be brought
in tomorrow morning,' the understood rule being that the
knights and burgesses of each English county should name to
the House two divines, and those of each Welsh county one
divine, for approval. Accordingly, on the 20th, the names were
given in. ... By the stress of the war the Assembly was
postponed. At last, hopeless of a bill that should pass in the
regular way by the King's consent, the Houses resorted, in
this as in other things, to their peremptory plan of Ordinance
by their own authority. On the 13th of May, 1643, an Ordinance
for calling an Assembly was introduced in the Commons; which
Ordinance, after due going and coming between the two Houses,
came to maturity June 12, when it was entered at full length
in the Lords' Journals. 'Whereas, amongst the infinite
blessings of Almighty God upon this nation,'--so runs the
preamble of the Ordinance,--'none is, or can be, more dear to
us than the purity of our religion; and for as much as many
things yet remain in the discipline, liturgy and government of
the Church which necessarily require a more perfect
reformation: and whereas it has been declared and resolved, by
the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament, that the
present Church Government by Archbishops, Bishops, their
Chancellors, Commissaries, Deans, Deans and Chapters,
Archdeacons, and other ecclesiastical officers depending on
the hierarchy, is evil and justly offensive and burdensome to
the kingdom, and a great impediment to reformation and growth
of religion, and very prejudicial to the state and government
of this kingdom, and that therefore they are resolved the same
shall be taken away, and that such a government shall be
settled in the Church as may be agreeable to God's Holy Word,
and most apt to procure and preserve the peace of the Church
at home, and nearer agreement with the Church of Scotland, and
other reformed Churches abroad. ... Be it therefore ordained,
&c.' What is ordained is that 149 persons, enumerated by name
in the Ordinance ... shall meet on the 1st of July next in
King Henry VII.'s Chapel at Westminster; ... 'to confer and
treat among themselves of such matters and things, concerning
the liturgy, discipline and government of the Church of
England ... as shall be proposed by either or both Houses of
Parliament, and no other.' ... Notwithstanding a Royal
Proclamation from Oxford, dated June 22, forbidding the
Assembly and threatening consequences, the first meeting duly
took place on the day appointed--Saturday, July 1, 1643; and
from that day till the 22d of February, 1648-9, or for more
than five years and a half, the Westminster Assembly is to be
borne in mind as a power or institution in the English realm,
existing side by side with the Long Parliament, and in
constant conference and cooperation with it. The number of its
sittings during these five years and a half was 1,163 in all;
which is at the rate of about four sittings every week for the
whole time. The earliest years of the Assembly were the most
important."
D. Masson,
Life of John Milton,
book 3, chapter 3 (volume 2).
ALSO IN:
A. F. Mitchell,
The Westminster Assembly,
lectures 4-5.
D. Neal,
History of the Puritans,
volume 3, chapters 2 and 4.
SEE, also, INDEPENDENTS.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1643 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).
The Solemn League and Covenant with the Scottish nation.
"Scotland had been hitherto kept aloof from the English
quarrel. ... Up to this time the pride and delicacy of the
English patriots withheld them, for obvious reasons, from
claiming her assistance. Had it been possible, they would
still have desired to engage no distant party in this great
domestic struggle; but when the present unexpected crisis
arrived ... these considerations were laid aside, and the
chief leaders of the Parliament resolved upon an embassy to
the North, to bring the Scottish nation into the field. The
conduct of this embassy was a matter of the highest difficulty
and danger. The Scots were known to be bigoted to their own
persuasions of narrow and exclusive church government, while
the greatest men of the English Parliament had proclaimed the
sacred maxim that every man who worshipped God according to
the dictates of his conscience was entitled to the protection
of the State. But these men, Vane, Cromwell, Marten and St.
John, though the difficulties of the common cause had brought
them into the acknowledged position of leaders and directors
of affairs, were in a minority in the House of Commons, and
the party who were their superiors in numbers were as bigoted
to the most exclusive principles of Presbyterianism as the
Scots themselves. Denzil Holies stood at the head of this
inferior class of patriots. ... The most eminent of the
Parliamentary nobility, particularly Northumberland, Essex and
Manchester belonged also to this body; while the London
clergy, and the metropolis itself, were almost entirely
Presbyterian. These things considered, there was indeed great
reason to apprehend that this party, backed by the Scots, and
supported with a Scottish army, would be strong enough to
overpower the advocates of free conscience, and 'set up a
tyranny not less to be deplored than that of Laud and his
hierarchy, which had proved one of the main occasions of
bringing on the war.' Yet, opposing to all this danger only
their own high purposes and dauntless courage, the smaller
party of more consummate statesmen were the first to propose
the embassy to Scotland. ... On the 20th of July, 1643, the
commissioners set out from London. They were four; and the man
principally confided in among them was Vane [Sir Henry, the
younger]. He, indeed, was the individual best qualified to
succeed Hampden as a counsellor in the arduous struggle in
which the nation was at this time engaged. ... Immediately on
his arrival in Edinburgh the negotiation commenced, and what
Vane seems to have anticipated at once occurred. The Scots
offered their assistance heartily on the sole condition of an
adhesion to the Scottish religious system on the part of
England.
{871}
After many long and very warm debates, in which Vane held to
one firm policy from the first, a solemn covenant was
proposed, which Vane insisted should be named a solemn league
and covenant, while certain words were inserted in it on his
subsequent motion, to which he also adhered with immovable
constancy, and which had the effect of leaving open to the
great party in England, to whose interests he was devoted,
that last liberty of conscience which man should never
surrender. ... The famous article respecting religion ran in
these words;
'That we shall sincerely, really, and constantly, through the
grace of God, endeavour, in our several places and callings,
the preservation of the Reformed religion in the Church of
Scotland, in doctrine, worship, discipline and government,
against our common enemies; the reformation of religion in the
kingdoms of England and Ireland, in doctrine, worship,
discipline, and government, according to the Word of God, and
the example of the best Reformed churches; and we shall
endeavour to bring the churches of God in the three kingdoms
to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in religion,
confessing of faith, form of church government directory for
worship and catechizing; that we and our posterity after us,
may as brethren live in faith and love, and the Lord may
delight to dwell in the midst of us. That we shall in like
manner, without respect of persons, endeavour the extirpation
of popery, prelacy (that is, church government by archbishops,
bishops, their chancellors and commissaries, deans, deans and
chapters, archdeacons, and all other ecclesiastical officers
depending on that hierarchy).' Vane, by this introduction of
'according to the Word of God,' left the interpretation of
that word to the free conscience of every man. On the 17th of
August, the solemn league and covenant was voted by the
Legislature and the Assembly of the Church at Edinburgh. The
king in desperate alarm, sent his commands to the Scotch
people not to take such a covenant. In reply, they 'humbly
advised his majesty to take the covenant himself.' The
surpassing service rendered by Vane on this great occasion to
the Parliamentary cause, exposed him to a more violent hatred
from the Royalists than he had yet experienced, and Clarendon
has used every artifice to depreciate his motives and his
sincerity. ... The solemn league and covenant remained to be
adopted in England. The Scottish form of giving it authority
was followed as far as possible. It was referred by the two
Houses to the Assembly of Divines, which had commenced its
sittings on the 1st of the preceding July, being called
together to be consulted with by the Parliament for the
purpose of settling the government and form of worship of the
Church of England. This assembly already referred to,
consisted of 121 of the clergy; and a number of lay assessors
were joined with them, consisting of ten peers, and twenty
members of the House of Commons. All these persons were named
by the ordinance of the two Houses of Parliament which gave
birth to the assembly. The public taking of the Covenant was
solemnized on the 25th of September, each member of either
House attesting his adherence by oath first, and then by
subscribing his name. The name of Vane, subscribed immediately
on his return, appears upon the list next to that of
Cromwell."
J. Forster,
Statesmen of the Commonwealth: Vane.
ALSO IN:
J. K. Hosmer,
Life of Young Sir Henry Vane,
chapter 8.
A. F. Mitchell,
The Westminster Assembly,
lectures 5-6.
D. Neal,
History of the Puritans,
volume 3, chapter 2.
S. R. Gardiner,
Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution,
page 187.
The following is the text of the Solemn League and Covenant:
"A solemn league and covenant for Reformation and defence of
religion, the honour and happiness of the King, and the peace
and safety of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland and
Ireland. We noblemen, barons, knights, gentlemen, citizens,
burgesses, ministers of the Gospel, and commons of all sorts
in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, by the
providence of God living under one King, and being of one
reformed religion; having before our eyes the glory of God,
and the advancement of the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ, the honour and happiness of the King's Majesty
and his posterity, and the true public liberty, safety and
peace of the kingdoms, wherein everyone's private condition is
included; and calling to mind the treacherous and bloody
plots, conspiracies, attempts and practices of the enemies of
God against the true religion and professors thereof in all
places, especially in these three kingdoms, ever since the
reformation of religion; and how much their rage, power and
presumption are of late, and at this time increased and
exercised, whereof the deplorable estate of the Church and
kingdom of Ireland, the distressed estate of the Church and
kingdom of England, and the dangerous estate of the Church and
kingdom of Scotland, are present and public testimonies: we
have (now at last) after other means of supplication,
remonstrance, protestations and sufferings, for the
preservation of ourselves and our religion from utter ruin and
destruction, according to the commendable practice of these
kingdoms in former times, and the example of God's people in
other nations, after mature deliberation, resolved and
determined to enter into a mutual and solemn league and
covenant, wherein we all subscribe, and each one of us for
himself, with our hands lifted up to the most high God, do
swear,
I. That we shall sincerely, really and constantly, through the
grace of God, endeavour in our several places and callings,
the preservation of the reformed religion in the Church of
Scotland, in doctrine, worship, discipline and government,
against our common enemies; the reformation of religion in the
kingdoms of England and Ireland, in doctrine, worship,
discipline and government, according to the Word of God, and
the example of the best reformed Churches; and we shall
endeavour to bring the Churches of God in the three kingdoms
to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in religion,
confession of faith, form of Church government, directory for
worship and catechising, that we, and our posterity after us,
may, as brethren, live in faith and love, and the Lord may
delight to dwell in the midst of us.
II. That we shall in like manner, without respect of persons,
endeavour the extirpation of Popery, prelacy (that is, Church
government by Archbishops, Bishops, their Chancellors and
Commissaries, Deans, Deans and Chapters, Archdeacons, and all
other ecclesiastical officers depending on that hierarchy),
superstition, heresy, schism, profaneness and whatsoever shall
be found to be contrary to sound doctrine and the power of
godliness lest we partake in other men's sins, and thereby be
in danger to receive of their plagues; and that the Lord may
be one, and His name one in the three kingdoms.
{872}
III. We shall with the same sincerity, reality and constancy,
in our several vocations, endeavour with our estates and lives
mutually to preserve the rights and privileges of the
Parliaments, and the liberties of the kingdoms, and to
preserve and defend the King's Majesty's person and authority,
in the preservation and defence of the true religion and
liberties of the kingdoms, that the world may bear witness
with our consciences of our loyalty, and that we have no
thoughts or intentions to diminish His Majesty's just power
and greatness.
IV. We shall also with all faithfulness endeavour the
discovery of all such as have been or shall be incendiaries,
malignants or evil instruments, by hindering the reformation
of religion, dividing the King from his people, or one of the
kingdoms from another, or making any faction or parties
amongst the people, contrary to the league and covenant, that
they may be brought to public trial and receive condign
punishment, as the degree of their offences shall require or
deserve, or the supreme judicatories of both kingdoms
respectively, or others having power from them for that
effect, shall judge convenient.
V. And whereas the happiness of a blessed peace between these
kingdoms, denied in former times to our progenitors, is by the
good providence of God granted to us, and hath been lately
concluded and settled by both Parliaments: we shall each one
of us, according to our places and interest, endeavour that
they may remain conjoined in a firm peace and union to all
posterity, and that justice may be done upon the wilful
opposers thereof, in manner expressed in the precedent
articles.
VI. We shall also, according to our places and callings, in
this common cause of religion, liberty and peace of the
kingdom, assist and defend all those that enter into this
league and covenant, in the maintaining and pursuing thereof;
and shall not suffer ourselves, directly or indirectly, by
whatsoever combination, persuasion or terror, to be divided
and withdrawn from this blessed union and conjunction, whether
to make defection to the contrary part, or give ourselves to a
detestable indifferency or neutrality in this cause, which so
much concerneth the glory of God, the good of the kingdoms,
and the honour of the King; but shall all the days of our
lives zealously and constantly continue therein, against all
opposition, and promote the same according to our power,
against all lets and impediments whatsoever; and what we are
not able ourselves to suppress or overcome we shall reveal and
make known, that it may be timely prevented or removed: all
which we shall do as in the sight of God. And because these
kingdoms are guilty of many sins and provocations against God,
and His Son Jesus Christ, as is too manifest by our present
distresses and dangers, the fruits thereof: we profess and
declare, before God and the world, our unfeigned desire to be
humbled for our own sins, and for the sins of these kingdoms;
especially that we have not as we ought valued the inestimable
benefit of the Gospel; that we have not laboured for the
purity and power thereof; and that we have not endeavoured to
receive Christ in our hearts, nor to walk worthy of Him in our
lives, which are the causes of other sins and transgressions
so much abounding amongst us, and our true and unfeigned
purpose, desire and endeavour, for ourselves and all others
under our power and charge, both in public and in private, in
all duties we owe to God and man, to amend our lives, and each
one to go before another in the example of a real reformation,
that the Lord may turn away His wrath and heavy indignation,
and establish these Churches and kingdoms in truth and peace.
And this covenant we make in the presence of Almighty God, the
Searcher of all hearts, with a true intention to perform the
same, as we shall answer at that Great Day when the secrets of
all hearts shall be disclosed: most humbly beseeching the Lord
to strengthen us by His Holy Spirit for this end, and to bless
our desires and Proceedings with such success as may be a
deliverance and safety to His people, and encouragement to the
Christian Churches groaning under or in danger of the yoke of
Anti-Christian tyranny, to join in the same or like
association and covenant, to the glory of God, the enlargement
of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, and the peace and tranquility
of Christian kingdoms and commonwealths."
ENGLAND: A. D. 1643 (August-September).
Siege of Gloucester and first Battle of Newbury.
"When the war had lasted a year, the advantage was decidedly
with the Royalists. They were victorious, both in the western
and in the northern counties. They had wrested Bristol, the
second city in the kingdom, from the Parliament. They had won
several battles, and had not sustained a single serious or
ignominious defeat. Among the Roundheads, adversity had begun
to produce dissension and discontent. The Parliament was kept
in alarm, sometimes by plots and sometimes by riots. It was
thought necessary to fortify London against the royal army,
and to hang some disaffected citizens at their own doors.
Several of the most distinguished peers who had hitherto
remained at Westminster fled to the court at Oxford; nor can
it be doubted that, if the operations of the Cavaliers had, at
this season, been directed by a sagacious and powerful mind,
Charles would soon have marched in triumph to Whitehall. But
the King suffered the auspicious moment to pass away; and it
never returned. In August, 1643, he sate down before the city
of Gloucester. That city was defended by the inhabitants and
by the garrison, with a determination such as had not, since
the commencement of the war, been shown by the adherents of
the Parliament. The emulation of London was excited. The
trainbands of the City volunteered to march wherever their
services might be required. A great force was speedily
collected, and began to move westward. The siege of Gloucester
was raised. The Royalists in every part of the kingdom were
disheartened; the spirit of the parliamentary party revived;
and the apostate Lords, who had lately fled from Westminster
to Oxford, hastened back from Oxford to Westminster."
Lord Macaulay,
History of England,
chapter 1.
After accomplishing the relief of Gloucester, the
Parliamentary army, marching back to London, was intercepted
at Newbury by the army of the king, and forced to fight a
battle, September 20, 1643, in which both parties, as at
Edgehill, claimed the victory. The Royalists, however, failed
to bar the road to London, as they had undertaken to do, and
Essex resumed his march on the following morning.
{873}
"In this unhappy battle was slain the lord viscount Falkland;
a person of such prodigious parts of learning and knowledge,
of that inimitable sweetness and delight in conversation, of
so flowing and obliging a humanity and goodness to mankind,
and of that primitive sincerity and integrity of life, that if
there were no other brand upon this odious and accursed war
than that single loss, it must be most infamous and execrable
to all posterity."
Earl of Clarendon,
History of the Rebellion,
book 7, section 217.
This lamented death on the royal side nearly evened, so to
speak, the great, unmeasured calamity which had befallen the
better cause three months before, when the high-souled patriot
Hampden was slain in a paltry skirmish with Rupert's horse, at
Chalgrove Field, not far from the borders of Oxfordshire. Soon
after the fight at Newbury, Charles, having occupied Reading,
withdrew his army to Oxford and went into winter quarters.
N. L. Walford,
Parliamentary Generals of the Great Civil War,
chapter 2.
ALSO IN:
Sir E. Cust,
Lives of the Warriors of the Civil Wars,
part 2.
S. R. Gardiner,
History of the Great Civil War,
chapter 10 (volume 1).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1644 (January).
Battle of Nantwich and siege of Lathom House.
The Irish army brought over by King Charles and landed in
Flintshire, in November, 1643, under the command of Lord
Byron, invaded Cheshire and laid siege to Nantwich, which was
the headquarters of the Parliamentary cause in that region.
Young Sir Thomas Fairfax was ordered to collect forces and
relieve the town. With great difficulty he succeeded, near the
end of January, 1644, in leading 2,500 foot-soldiers and
twenty-eight troops of horse, against the besieging army,
which numbered 3,000 foot and 1,800 horse. On the 28th of
January he attacked and routed the Irish royalists completely.
"All the Royalist Colonels, including the subsequently
notorious Monk, 1,500 soldiers, six pieces of ordnance, and
quantities of arms, were captured." Having accomplished this
most important service, Sir Thomas, "to his great annoyance,"
received orders to lay siege to Lathom House, one of the
country seats of the Earl of Derby, which had been fortified
and secretly garrisoned, with 300 soldiers. It was held by the
high-spirited and dauntless Countess of Derby, in the absence
of her husband, who was in the Isle of Man. Sir Thomas Fairfax
soon escaped from this ignoble enterprise and left it to be
carried on, first, by his cousin, Sir William Fairfax, and
afterwards by Colonel Rigby. The Countess defended her house
for three months, until the approach of Prince Rupert forced
the raising of the siege in the following spring. Lathom House
was not finally surrendered to the Roundheads until December
6, 1645, when it was demolished.
C. R. Markham,
Life of the Great Lord Fairfax,
chapter 13.
ALSO IN:
Mrs. Thompson,
Recollections of Literary Characters and Celebrated Places,
volume 2, chapter 2.
E. Warburton,
Memoirs of Prince Rupert and the Cavaliers,
page 2, chapter 4.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1644 (January-July).
The Scots in England.
The Battle of Marston Moor.
"On the 19th of January, 1644, the Scottish army entered
England. Lesley, now earl of Leven, commanded them. ... In the
meantime, the parliament at Westminster formed a council under
the title of 'The Committee of the Two Kingdoms,' consisting
of seven Lords, fourteen members of the Commons, and four
Scottish Commissioners. Whatever belongs to the executive
power as distinguished from the legislative devolved upon this
Committee. In the spring of 1644 the parliament had five
armies in the field, paid by general or local taxation, and by
voluntary contributions. Including the Scottish army there
were altogether 56,000 men under arms; the English forces
being commanded, as separate armies, by Essex, Waller,
Manchester, and Fairfax. Essex and Waller advanced to blockade
Oxford. The queen went to Exeter in April, and never saw
Charles again. The blockading forces around Oxford had become
so strong that resistance appeared to be hopeless. On the
night of the 3d of June the king secretly left the city and
passed safely between the two hostile armies. There had again
been jealousies and disagreements between Essex and Waller.
Essex, supported by the council of war, but in opposition to
the committee of the two kingdoms, had marched to the west.
Waller, meanwhile, went in pursuit of the king into
Worcestershire, Charles suddenly returned to Oxford; and then
at Copredy Bridge, near Banbury, defeated Waller, who had
hastened back to encounter him. Essex was before the walls of
Exeter, in which city the queen had given birth to a princess.
The king hastened to the west. He was strong enough to meet
either of the parliamentary armies thus separated. Meanwhile
the combined English and Scottish armies were besieging York.
Rupert had just accomplished the relief of Lathom House, which
had been defended by the heroic countess of Derby for eighteen
weeks, against a detachment of the army of Fairfax. He then
marched towards York with 20,000 men. The allied English and
Scots retired from Hessey Moor, near York, to Tadcaster.
Rupert entered York with 2,000 cavalry. The Earl of Newcastle
was in command there. He counselled a prudent delay. The
impetuous Rupert said he had the orders of the king for his
guidance, and he was resolved to fight. On the 2nd of July,
having rested two days in and near York, and enabled the city
to be newly provisioned, the royalist army went forth to
engage. They met their enemy on Marston Moor. The issue of the
encounter would have been more than doubtful, but for
Cromwell, who for the first time had headed his Ironsides in a
great pitched battle. The right wing of the parliamentary army
was scattered. Rupert was chasing and slaying the Scottish
cavalry. ... The charges of Fairfax and Cromwell decided the
day. The victory of the parliamentary forces was so complete
that the Earl of Newcastle left York, and embarked at
Scarborough for the continent. Rupert marched away also, with
the wreck of his army, to Chester. Fifteen hundred prisoners,
all the artillery, more than 100 banners, remained with the
victors; 4,150 bodies lay dead on the plain."
C. Knight,
Crown History of England,
chapter 25.
ALSO IN:
T. Carlyle,
Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches,
part 2, letter 8.
B. M. Cordery and J. S. Phillpotts,
King and Commonwealth,
chapter 7.
W. Godwin, History of the Commonwealth, chapter 12,
(volume 1).
E. Warburton, Memoirs of Prince Rupert and the
Cavaliers, volume 2, chapter 4.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1644 (August-September).
Essex's surrender.
The second Battle of Newbury.
{874}
"The great success at Marston, which had given the north to
the Parliament, was all undone in the south and west through
feebleness and jealousies in the leaders and the wretched
policy that directed the war. Detached armies, consisting of a
local militia, were aimlessly ordered about by a committee of
civilians in London. Disaster followed on disaster. Essex,
Waller, and Manchester would neither agree amongst themselves
nor obey orders. Essex and Waller had parted before Marston
was fought; Manchester had returned from York to protect his
own eastern counties. Waller, after his defeat at Copredy, did
nothing, and naturally found his army melting away. Essex,
perversely advancing into the west, was out-manœuvred by
Charles, and ended a campaign of blunders by the surrender of
all his infantry [at Fowey, in Cornwall, September 2, 1644].
By September 1644 throughout the whole south-west the
Parliament had not an army in the field. But the Committee of
the Houses still toiled on with honourable spirit, and at last
brought together near Newbury a united army nearly double the
strength of the King's. On Sunday, the 29th of October, was
fought the second battle of Newbury, as usual in these
ill-ordered campaigns, late in the afternoon. An arduous day
ended without victory, in spite of the greater numbers of the
Parliament's army, though the men fought well, and their
officers led them with skill and energy. At night the King was
suffered to withdraw his army without loss, and later to carry
off his guns and train. The urgent appeals of Cromwell and his
officers could not infuse into Manchester energy to win the
day, or spirit to pursue the retreating foe."
F. Harrison, Oliver Cromwell, chapter 5.
ALSO IN:
B. M. Cordery and J. S. Phillpotts,
King and Commonwealth,
chapters 7.
S. R. Gardiner,
History of the Great Civil War,
chapters 19 and 21.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1644-1645.
The Self-denying Ordinance.
"Cromwell had shown his capacity for organization in the
creation of the Ironsides; his military genius had displayed
itself at Marston Moor. Newbury first raised him into a
political leader. 'Without a more speedy, vigorous and
effective prosecution of the war,' he said to the Commons
after his quarrel with Manchester, 'casting off all lingering
proceedings, like those of soldiers of fortune beyond sea to
spin out a war, we shall make the kingdom weary of us, and
hate the name of a Parliament.' But under the leaders who at
present conducted it a vigorous conduct of the war was
hopeless. They were, in Cromwell's plain words, 'afraid to
conquer.' They desired not to crush Charles, but to force him
back, with as much of his old strength remaining as might be,
to the position of a constitutional King. ... The army, too,
as he long ago urged at Edgehill, was not an army to conquer
with. Now, as then, he urged that till the whole force was new
modeled, and placed under a stricter discipline, 'they must
not expect any notable success in anything they went about.'
But the first step in such a reorganization must be a change
of officers. The army was led and officered by members of the
two Houses, and the Self-renouncing [or Self-denying]
Ordinance, which was introduced by Cromwell and Vane, declared
the tenure of civil or military offices incompatible with a
seat in either. In spite of a long and bitter resistance,
which was justified at a later time by the political results
which followed this rupture of the tie which had hitherto
bound the army to the Parliament, the drift of public opinion
was too strong to be withstood. The passage of the Ordinance
brought about the retirement of Essex, Manchester, and Waller;
and the new organization of the army went rapidly on under a
new commander-in-chief, Sir Thomas Fairfax, the hero of the
long contest in Yorkshire, and who had been raised into fame
by his victory at Nantwich and his bravery at Marston Moor."
J. R. Green,
Short History of England,
chapter 8, section 7.
ALSO IN:
W. Godwin,
History of the Commonwealth,
chapter 15 (volume l).
J. K. Hosmer,
Life of Young Sir Henry Vane,
chapter 11.
J. A. Picton,
Oliver Cromwell,
chapter 10.
J. Forster,
Statesmen of the Commonwealth: Vane.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1645 (January-February).
The attempted Treaty of Uxbridge.
A futile negotiation between the king and Parliament was
opened at Uxbridge in January, 1645. "But neither the king nor
his advisers entered on it with minds sincerely bent on peace;
they, on the one hand, resolute not to swerve from the utmost
rigour of a conqueror's terms, without having conquered; and
he though more secretly, cherishing illusive hopes of a more
triumphant restoration to power than any treaty could be
expected to effect. The three leading topics of discussion
among the negotiators at Uxbridge were, the church, the
militia, and the state of Ireland. Bound by their unhappy
covenant, and watched by their Scots colleagues, the English
commissioners on the parliament's side demanded the complete
establishment of a presbyterian polity, and the substitution
of what was called the directory for the Anglican liturgy.
Upon this head there was little prospect of a union."
H. Hallam,
Constitutional History of England,
chapter 10, part 1.
ALSO IN:
Earl of Clarendon,
History of the Rebellion,
book 8, sections 209-252 (volume 3).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1645 (January-April).
The New Model of the army.
The passage of the Self-denying Ordinance was followed, or
accompanied, by the adoption of the scheme for the so-called
New Model of the army. "The New Model was organised as
follows:
10 Regiments of Cavalry of 600 men, 6,000;
10 Companies of Dragoons of 100 men, 1,000;
10 Regiments of Infantry of 1,400 men, 14,000:
Total, 21,000 men.
All officers were to be nominated by Sir Thomas Fairfax, the
new General, and (as was insisted upon by the Lords, with the
object of excluding the more fanatical Independents) every
officer was to sign the covenant within twenty days of his
appointment. The cost of this force was estimated at £539,460
per annum, about £1,600,000 of our money. ... Sir Thomas
Fairfax having been appointed Commander-in-Chief by a vote of
both Houses on the 1st of April [A. D. 1645], Essex,
Manchester and others of the Lords resigned their commissions
on the 2nd. ... The name of Cromwell was of course, with those
of other members of the Commons, omitted from the original
list of the New Model army; but with a significance which
could not have escaped remark, the appointment of
lieutenant-general was left vacant, while none doubted by whom
that vacancy would be filled."
N. L. Walford,
The Parliamentary Generals of the Great Civil War,
chapter 4.
ALSO IN:
Sir E. Cust,
Lives of the Warriors of the Civil Wars,
part. 2: Fairfax.
{875}
ENGLAND: A. D. 1645 (JUNE).
The Battle of Naseby.
"Early in April, Fairfax with his new army advanced westward
to raise the siege of Taunton, which city Goring was
besieging. Before that task was completed he received orders
to enter on the siege of Oxford. This did not suit his own
views or those of the Independents. They had joined their new
army upon the implied condition that decisive battles should
be fought. It was therefore with great joy that Fairfax
received orders to proceed in pursuit of the royal forces,
which, having left Worcester, were marching apparently against
the Eastern Association, and had just taken Leicester on their
way. Before entering on this active service, Fairfax demanded
and obtained leave for Cromwell to serve at least for one
battle more in the capacity of Lieutenant-General. He came up
with the king in the neighbourhood of Harborough. Charles
turned back to meet him, and just by the village of Naseby the
great battle known by that name was fought. Cromwell had
joined the army, amid the rejoicing shouts of the troops, two
days before, with the Association horse. Again the victory
seems to have been chiefly due to his skill. In detail it is
almost a repetition of the battle of Marston Moor."
J. F. Bright,
History of England, period 2,
page 675.
"The old Hamlet of Naseby stands yet, on its old hill-top,
very much as it did in Saxon days, on the Northwestern border
of Northamptonshire; nearly on a line, and nearly midway,
between that Town and Daventry. A peaceable old Hamlet, of
perhaps five hundred souls; clay cottages for laborers, but
neatly thatched and swept; smith's shop, saddler's shop,
beer-shop all in order; forming a kind of square, which leads
off, North and South, into two long streets; the old Church
with its graves, stands in the centre, the truncated spire
finishing itself with a strange old Ball, held up by rods; a
'hollow copper Ball, which came from Boulogne in Henry the
Eighth's time,'--which has, like Hudibras's breeches, 'been
at the Siege of Bullen.' The ground is upland, moorland,
though now growing corn; was not enclosed till the last
generation, and is still somewhat bare of wood. It stands
nearly in the heart of England; gentle Dullness, taking a turn
at etymology, sometimes derives it from 'Navel'; 'Navesby,
quasi Navelsby, from being, &c.' ... It was on this high
moor-ground, in the centre of England, that King Charles, on
the 14th of June, 1645, fought his last Battle; dashed
fiercely against the New-Model Army which he had despised till
then: and saw himself shivered utterly to ruin thereby.
'Prince Rupert, on the King's right wing, charged up the hill,
and carried all before him'; but Lieutenant-General Cromwell
charged down hill on the other wing, likewise carrying all
before him,--and did not gallop off the field to plunder, he.
Cromwell, ordered thither by the Parliament, had arrived from
the Association two days before, 'amid shouts from the whole
Army': he had the ordering of the Horse this morning. Prince
Rupert, on returning from his plunder, finds the King's
Infantry a ruin; prepares to charge again with the rallied
Cavalry; but the Cavalry too, when it came to the point,
'broke all asunder,'--never to reassemble more. ... There were
taken here a good few 'ladies of quality in carriages';--and
above a hundred Irish ladies not of quality, tattery
camp-followers 'with long skean-knives about a foot in
length,' which they well knew how to use; upon whom I fear the
Ordinance against Papists pressed hard this day. The King's
Carriage was also taken, with a Cabinet and many Royal
Autographs in it, which when printed made a sad impression
against his Majesty,--gave in fact a most melancholy view of
the veracity of his Majesty, 'On the word of a King.' All was
lost!"
T. Carlyle,
Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches,
part 2, letter 29.
ALSO IN:
Earl of Clarendon,
History of the Rebellion,
book 9, sections 30-42 (volume 4).
E. Warburton,
Memoirs of Prince Rupert and the Cavaliers,
volume 3, chapter 1.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1645 (JUNE-DECEMBER).
Glamorgan's Commissions, and other perfidies of the King
disclosed.
"At the battle of Naseby, copies of some letters to the queen,
chiefly written about the time of the treaty of Uxbridge, and
strangely preserved, fell into the hands of the enemy and were
instantly published. No other losses of that fatal day were
more injurious to [the king's] cause. ... He gave her [the
queen] power to treat with the English catholics, promising to
take away all penal laws against them as soon as God should
enable him to do so, in consideration of such powerful
assistance as might deserve so great a favour, and enable him
to affect it. ... Suspicions were much aggravated by a second
discovery that took place soon afterwards, of a secret treaty
between the earl of Glamorgan and the confederate Irish
catholics, not merely promising the repeal of the penal laws,
but the establishment of their religion in far the greater
part of Ireland. The marquis of Ormond, as well as lord Digby,
who happened to be at Dublin, loudly exclaimed against
Glamorgan's presumption in concluding such a treaty, and
committed him to prison on a charge of treason. He produced
two commissions from the king, secretly granted without any
seal or the knowledge of any minister, containing the fullest
powers to treat with the Irish, and promising to fulfil any
conditions into which he should enter. The king, informed of
this, disavowed Glamorgan. ... Glamorgan, however, was soon
released, and lost no portion of the king's or his family's
favour. This transaction has been the subject of much
historical controversy. The enemies of Charles, both in his
own and later ages, have considered it as a proof of his
indifference, at least, to the protestant religion, and of his
readiness to accept the assistance of Irish rebels on any
conditions. His advocates for a long time denied the
authenticity of Glamorgan's commissions. But Dr. Birch
demonstrated that they were genuine; and, if his dissertation
could have left any doubt, later evidence might be adduced in
confirmation."
H. Hallam,
Constitutional History of England,
chapter 10 (volume 2).
ALSO IN:
S. R. Gardiner,
History of the Great Civil War,
chapters 39 and 44 (volume 2).
T. Carte,
Life of James, Duke of Ormond,
book 4 (volume 3).
J. Lingard,
History of England,
volume 10, chapter 3.
{876}
ENGLAND: A. D. 1645 (JULY-AUGUST).
The Clubmen.
"When Fairfax and Cromwell marched into the west [after Naseby
fight], they found that in these counties the country-people
had begun to assemble in bodies, sometimes 5,000 strong, to
resist their oppressors, whether they fought in the name of
King or Parliament. They were called clubmen from their arms,
and carried banners, with the motto--'If you offer to plunder
our cattle, Be assured we will give you battle.' The clubmen,
however, could not hope to control the movements of the
disciplined troops who now appeared against them. After a few
fruitless attempts at resistance they dispersed."
B. M. Cordery and J. S. Phillpotts,
King and Commonwealth,
chapter 8.
"The inexpugnable Sir Lewis Dives (a thrasonical person known
to the readers of Evelyn), after due battering, was now soon
stormed; whereupon, by Letters found on him it became apparent
how deeply Royalist this scheme of Clubmen had been:
'Commissions for raising Regiments of Clubmen'; the design to
be extended over England at large, 'yea into the Associated
Counties': however, it has now come to nothing."
T. Carlyle,
Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches,
part 2, letter 14.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1645 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).
The storming of Bridgewater and Bristol.
"The continuance of the civil war for a whole year after the
decisive battle of Naseby is a proof of the King's
selfishness, and of his utter indifference to the sufferings
of the people. All rational hope was gone, and even Rupert
advised his uncle to make terms with the Parliament. Yet
Charles, while incessantly vacillating as to his plans,
persisted in retaining his garrisons, and required his
adherents to sacrifice all they possessed in order to prolong
a useless struggle for a few months. Bristol, therefore, was
to stand a siege, and Charles expected the garrison to hold
out, without an object, to the last extremity, entailing
misery and ruin on the second commercial city in the kingdom.
Rupert was sent to take the command there, and when the army
of Sir Thomas Fairfax approached, towards the end of August,
he had completed his preparations." Fairfax had marched
promptly and rapidly westward, after the battle of Naseby. He
had driven Goring from the siege of Taunton, had defeated him
in a sharp battle at Langport, taking 1,400 prisoners, and had
carried Bridgewater by storm, July 21, capturing 2,000 prisoners,
with 36 pieces of artillery and 5,000 stand of arms. On the
21st of August he arrived before Bristol, which Prince Rupert
had strongly fortified, and which he held with an effective
garrison of 2,300 men. On the morning of the 10th of September
it was entered by storm, and on the following day Rupert, who
still occupied the most defensible forts, surrendered the
whole place. This surrender so enraged the King that he
deprived his nephew of all his commissions and sent him a pass
to quit the kingdom. But Rupert understood, as the King would
not, that fighting was useless--that the royal cause was lost.
C. R. Markham,
Life of the Great Lord Fairfax,
chapter 21-22.
ALSO IN.
Earl of Clarendon,
History of the Rebellion,
book 9.
W. Hunt,
Bristol,
chapter 7.
E. Warburton,
Memoirs of Prince Rupert and the Cavaliers,
volume 3, chapter 1.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1645 (SEPTEMBER).
Defeat of Montrose at Philiphaugh.
See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1644-1645.
ENGLAND: A. D. 1646 (MARCH).
Adoption of Presbyterianism by Parliament.
"For the last three years the Assembly of Divines had been
sitting almost daily in the Jerusalem Chamber of Westminster
Abbey. ... They were preparing a new Prayer-book, a form of
Church Government, a Confession of Faith, and a Catechism; but
the real questions at issue were the establishment of the
Presbyterian Church and the toleration of sectarians. The
Presbyterians, as we know, desired to establish their own form
of Church government by assemblies and synods, without any
toleration for non-conformists, whether Catholics,
Episcopalians, or sectarians. But though they formed a large
majority in the assembly, there was a well-organized
opposition of Independents and Erastians, whose union made it
no easy matter for the Presbyterians to carry every vote their
own way. ... After the Assembly had sat a year and a half, the
Parliament passed an ordinance for putting a directory,
prepared by the divines, into force, and taking away the
Common Prayer-book (3rd January, 1645). The sign of the cross
in baptism, the ring in marriage, the wearing of vestments,
the keeping of saints' days, were discontinued. The communion
table was ordered to be set in the body of the church, about
which the people were to stand or sit; the passages of
Scripture to be read were left to the minister's choice; no
forms of prayer were prescribed. The same year a new directory
for ordination of ministers was passed into an ordinance. The
Presbyterian assemblies, called presbyteries, were empowered
to ordain, and none were allowed to enter the ministry without