: CHAP. LIX. 1647. In this fituation, it was thought more prudent to fubmit, and by compliance to stop the fury of the enraged army. The declaration, by which the 8th June. military petitioners had been voted public enemies, was recalled and erafed from the journal-book'. This was the firft fymptom which the parliament gave of fubmiffion; and the army, hoping, by terror alone, to effect all their purposes, ftopped at St. Albans, and entered into negotiation with their mafters. 16th June. HERE commenced the encroachments of the military upon the civil authority. The army, in their ufurpations on the parliament, copied exactly the madel which the parliament itself had set them, in their recent ufurpations on the crown. EVERY day they rofe in their demands. If one claim was granted, they had another ready, ftill more enormous and exorbitant; and were determined never to be fatisfied. At first they pretended only to petition for what concerned themfelves as foldiers: Next, they must have a vindication of their character: Then it was neceffary, that their enemies be punished": At laft they claimed a right of modelling the whole government, and fettling the nation". THEY preferved, in words, all deference and refpect to the parliament; but, in reality, infulted them and tyrannifed over them. That affembly, they pretended not to accufe: It was only evil counfellors, who feduced and betrayed it. THEY proceeded fo far as to name eleven members, whom, in general terms, they charged with high treafon, as enemies to the army and evil coun Rush. vol. vii. p. 503. 547. Clarendon, vol. v. p. 45. u Rush. vol. vii. p. 509. P. 567.633. Ibid. vol. viii. p. 731. w Ibid. vol. vii. fellors LIX. fellors to the parliament. Their names were, Hollis, CHAP. fir Philip Stapleton, fir William Lewis, fir John Clotworthy, fir William Waller, fir John Maynard, Maffey, Glyn, Long, Harley, and Nicholas*. These were the very leaders of the prefbyterian party. THEY infifted, that these members fhould immediately be fequeftered from parliament, and be thrown into prifon. The commons replied, that they could not, upon a general charge, proceed so far 2. The army obferved to them, that the cafes of Strafford and Laud were direct precedents for that purpofe. At last, the eleven members themselves, not to give occafion for difcord, begged leave to retire from the houfe; and the army, for the prefent, feemed fatisfied with this mark of fubmiffion". PRETENDING that the parliament intended to levy war upon them, and to involve the nation again in blood and confufion, they required, that all new levies fhould be ftopped. The parliament complied with this demand. THERE being no figns of refiftance, the army, in order to fave appearances, removed, at the defire of the parliament, to a greater diftance from London, and fixed their head-quarters at Reading. They carried the king along with them in all their marches. THAT prince now found himself in a better fituation than at Holdenby, and had attained fome greater degree of freedom, as well as of confideration, with both parties. ALL his friends had access to his presence: His correfpondence with the queen was not interrupted: His chaplains were reftored to him, and he was allowed the ufe of the liturgy: His children were * Rush, vol. vii. p. 570. z Ibid. vol. vii. p. 592. locke, p 259. y Ibid. vol. vii. p. 572. a Ibid. vol. vii. p. 594. Whitb Rufh. vol. vii. p. 593, 594. Ibid. vol. vii. p. 572. 574. VOL. VII. H once 1647. 1647. CHAP. once allowed to vifit him, and they paffed a few LIX. days at Caversham, where he then refided'. He had not feen the duke of Glocefter, his youngest fon, and the princefs Elizabeth, fince he left London, at the commencement of the civil diforders; nor the duke of York, fince he went to the Scottifh army before Newark. No private man, unacquainted with the pleafures of a court and the tumult of a camp, more paffionately loved his family, than did this good prince; and fuch an inftance of indulgence in the army was extremely grateful to him. Cromwel, who was witnefs to the meeting of the royal family, confeffed, that he never had been prefent at so tender a scene; and he extremely applauded the benignity which difplayed itself in the whole difpofition 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, feemed again to fmile upon him. The parliament, afraid of his forming fome accommodation with the army, addreffed him in a more respectful ftyle than formerly; and invited him to refide at Richmond, and contribute his affiftance to the fettlement of the nation. The chief officers treated him with regard, and fpake on all occafions of restoring him to his juft powers and prerogatives. In the public declarations of the army, the fettlement of his revenue and authority was infifted on. The royalifts, every where, entertained hopes of the reftoration of monarchy; and the favour which they univerfally bore to the army, contributed very much to difcourage the parliament, and to forward their fubmiffion. & Clarendon, vol. i. p. 51, 52. 57. When the king applied to have his children, the parliament always told him, that they could take as much care at London, both of their bodies and fouls, as could be done at Oxford. Parl. Hift, vol. Xil. p. 127. Ruth. vol. vii. p. 590. THE LIX. 1647. THE king began to feel of what confequence he CHAP. was. The more the national confufions increafed, the more was he confident that all parties would, at length, have recourfe to his lawful authority as the only remedy for the public diforders. You cannot be without me, faid he, on feveral occafions: You cannot fettle the nation but by my affiftance. A people without government and without liberty, a parliament without authority, an army without a legal matter: Diftractions every where, terrors, oppreffions, convulfions: From this fcene of confufion, which could not long continue, all men, he hoped, would be brought to reflect on that ancient government, under which they and their ancellors had fo long enjoyed happiness and tranquillity. THOUGH Charles kept his ears open to all propofals, and expected to hold the balance between the oppofite parties, he entertained more hopes of accommodation with the army. He had experienced the extreme rigour of the parliament. They pretended totally to annihilate his authority: They had confined his perfon. In both thefe particulars, the army fhowed more indulgence. He had a free intercourfe with his friends. And in the propofals, which the council of officers fent for the fettlement of the nation, they infifted neither on the abolition of epifcopacy, nor of the punishment of the royalifts; the two points to which the king had the most extreme reluctance: And they demanded, that a period fhould be put to the prefent parliament; the event for which he most ardently longed. His conjunction too seemed more natural with the generals, than with that ufurping affembly, who had fo long affumed the entire fovereignty of the ftate, and who had declared their refolution ftill to continue mafters. By gratifying a few perfons with g Warwick, p. 303. vol. v. p. 50. Parl. Hift. vol. xvi. p. 40. Clarendon, H 2 titles LIX. 1647. CHAP. titles and preferments, he might draw over, he hoped, the whole military power, and, in an inftant, reinftate himfelf in his civil authority. To Ireton he offered the lieutenancy of Ireland: To Cromwel, the garter, the title of earl of Effex, and the command of the army. Negotiations to this purpose were fecretly conducted. Cromwel pretended to hearken to them; and was well pleased to keep the door open for an accommodation, if the courfe of events fhould, at any time, render it neceffary. And the king, who had no fufpicion that one born a private gentleman, could entertain the daring ambition of feizing a fceptre tranfmitted through a long line of monarchs, indulged hopes that he would, at laft, embrace a measure which, by all the motives of duty, intereft, and safety, feemed to be recommended to him. WHILE Cromwel allured the king by these expectations, he ftill continued his fcheme of reducing the parliament to fubjection, and depriving them of all means of resistance. To gratify the army, the parliament invefted Fairfax with the title of general in chief of all the forces in England and Ireland and entrusted the whole military authority to a perfon who, though well inclined to their fervice, was no longer at his own difpofal. THEY Voted that the troops which, in obedience to them, had inlifted for Ireland, and deferted the rebellious army, fhould 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 affociation with that body of the army which was fo fuccessfully employed in exalting the military above the civil authority". THAT no refource might remain to the parlia ment, it was demanded, that the militia of London Rush. vol. vii. p. 620. fhould |