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transport, and loudly expressed their indignation against the disloyal Batten, whom they accused of having designedly pointed his cannon to the very house in which she lodged; a great number of Roman Catholics came from all quarters to enlist in her ranks; in vain was this violation of the laws of the kingdom denounced to the king and parliament, and the appellation of the army of the queen and the papists', given to lord Newcastle's troops, with the hope of intimidating him; it was openly sanctioned by the king, and had been so for a long time "; he contemptuously dismissed all complaints, and retained his new soldiers. Indeed he soon found himself at the head of a considerable force. The queen continued to reside at York, not so anxious to join her husband, as she was delighted to command alone, and to preside without restraint over all the projects which were agitated in her court. Hamilton and Montrose came over from Scotland, to discourse with her on the means of engaging that kingdom in the king's cause; Hamilton, always conciliating and prudent, maintained that it was possible to gain the Scottish parliament, notwithstanding the decidedly adverse influence of the marquis of Argyle; Montrose, bold and presumptuous, proposed that under the command of the earl of Antrim, a powerful nobleman of the north of Ireland, who had also come to York to offer his

Clarendon, Hist. of the Rebellion. vol. v. p. 246.

Bradie, History of the British Empire, vol. iii p. 489, in the note.

services, a body of Irishmen should land on the coast of Scotland, that the highlanders should be excited to rise and be put in arms, and the presbyterian chiefs massacred; offering himself to arrange and execute his projects. The queen lent a ear to all these designs, secretly favouring the most violent, though careful to propitiate all who came to render homage to her power, at the same time she used all her endeavours to gain over some of the parliamentary leaders, who were already disgusted with their party, or influenced by their proximity to her; Sir Hugh Cholmondley, governor of Scarborough, who less than a month before had defeated a body of royalists, promised to deliver this town into her hands'; even Sir John Hotham seemed on the point of opening the gates of Hull to her, which before the beginning of the war he had so rudely shut against the king. In short, throughout the north the royalists were full of zeal and hope, the parliamentary party were silent and disquieted, and repeatedly wrote to London to beg for assistance and advice.

The parliament itself felt troubled when the war first broke out it had indulged in the hope of obtaining immediate success. The increase of taxes excited murmurs; reports of conspira

Rushworth, part 3, vol. ii. p. 353, 980; Baillie's Letters, vol. i.p. 304; May, Hist. of the Long Parl. vol. ii p. 175.

y Towards the end of March, 1643.

z Parl. Hist. vol. iii. col. 77; the new taxes imposed on the city of London amounted to 10,000l. a week, and those on the whole kingdom to 33,518/. a week; Clarendon's Rebell. vol. v. p. 296.

cies spread in the city; and notwithstanding the absence of many members friendly to peace, it was never spoken of but it found many advocates even in the commons. The negotiations were not quite broken off; a proposition was made both to renew them, and, as a proof of sincerity, to disband the armies on both sides as soon as a treaty should be commenced: the motion was supported by Sir Benjamin Rudyard : "I have long feared," said he, " that this terrible cup, which has so long circulated from nation to nation in Europe, would at last be brought amongst us; it is now come, and it may be that we are destined to drain its bitterest dregs. From this, may God preserve us! one consolation remains to us, that our misery cannot be of long duration; we cannot fight here as they do in Germany, that vast continent, where war can rage around, and yet plenty of peaceable lands remain, where they may sow and reap and obtain a supply of food. But we are shut in on all

sides by the sea, we fight as in a cockpit; we have no other ramparts than our own skulls and ribs to oppose to our enemies. It has been said in this house that we are in conscience obliged to punish the shedding of innocent blood; but who will answer for all the innocent blood which will yet be shed if we do not show our willingness for peace by means of an immediate treaty ? Some have talked of trust in God; we might surely as well trust in God for a treaty of peace as for war; it is he who gives wisdom to nego

U

tiate as well as courage to fight, according to his own divine pleasure. The effusion of blood is a crime which calls for vengeance, it stains a whole country: let us hasten to put a stop to it." The motion was, however, rejected', but only by a majority of three voices, and the words of Rudyard were in the mouths of many well-disposed persons. The leaders of the commons secretly shuddered at the idea of seeing themselves obliged to solicit for peace, which they knew could only be obtained on conditions which would render it fatal. Yet they gave way; many even among their friends were so far dispirited as to look upon the national miseries as inevitable. On the 20th of March, after a few preliminary negotiations, five commissioners departed for Oxford, charged to debate during twenty days, first for a suspension of arms, and afterwards for a treaty.

They were well received by the king; their intercourse with the court was noble and polite; the earl of Northumberland, president of the committee, affected to display great magnificence: he had brought with him all his servants, his plate, his wine; and provisions were sent to him from London: the royalists visited and

a Parl. Hist., vol. iii. col. 80.

b February 17th, 1643; there were two divisions in the house; in the first the motion was upheld by seventy-three voices against seventy-six; in the second by eighty-three against eighty-six; Parl. Hist., vol. iii. col. 79.

The earl of Northumberland, Sir John Holland, Sir William Armyn, William Pierpoint, and Bulstrode; Whitelocke.

dined with him: the king even deigned to accept a few presents for his own table from him ". Some of the earl's coadjutors, who were simply members of the commons, took pleasure in appearing at Oxford with so much parade. But when negotiations commenced, these brilliant demonstrations were without effect: neither the parliament nor the king could accept the mutual conditions, for they were the same as those which had been so strenuously rejected before the war commenced; and they involved the giving up either party without defence into the hands of its adversaries. One evening the parliamentary commissioners hoped that they had at last obtained from the king a concession of some importance, probably on the subject of the militia; after a long conference he had appeared to be convinced, and was to give them a written answer the next morning. But to their great surprise it proved quite different from what had been agreed upon; and they learnt that before the king went to bed, the gentlemen of the bedchamber, the confidants of the queen, had, in the absence of his ministers, induced him to change his resolution. "If the king," said Mr. Pierpoint, one of the commissioners, "would only treat favourably some of the lords attached to parliament, their influence might be of use to him." But Charles was haughty and unforgiving with his courtiers as well as with his people, and

d Whitelocke, p. 64.

• Ibid. p. 65.

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