either the presbyterians or independents to side with me for extirpating one the other, that I shall be really king again. I will conclude with this assurance, that, whatsoever becomes of me, by the grace of God I will never forsake the church, my friends, nor my crown "." 'Carte, Vol. III, No. 433. XXVI. 1646. 134 XXVII. 1646. Precarious ation. CHAPTER XXVII. PRECARIOUSNESS OF THE KING'S SITUATION.— OF CHARLES.-PREPARATIONS FOR HIS RETREAT CHAP. IT was daily growing more and more beyond question that the king could not remain much longer in safety at Oxford, or in any of the garness of the risons that had hitherto held out for him against king's situ- the parliament. Thus circumstanced, the most obvious alternative that presented itself, was that he should either throw himself upon the metropolis, and trust to the terms he could make with the independents, either from generosity on their part, or from the awe in which they were held by the presbyterians, a party in many respects more formidable than their own,-or, that, escaping from Oxford, he should endeavour to make his way secretly through the heart of the kingdom, one hundred miles, to the Scots' army, which was at this time besieging Newark. CHAP. 1646. He nego both par ties. Inclines to the inde Charles was engaged in tendering his overtures to both these parties. Mr. John Ashburnham ciates with by his direction addressed himself by letter to sir Henry Vanea; but it does not appear that any progress was made in this attempt. As the professed object of the independents was only li- pendents. berty of conscience, and as their aversion was at least as great to presbyterian, as to episcopal tyranny, the king felt himself strongly inclined to join his forces to theirs, and, with the least encouragement on their part, would have repaired to London, and tried his fortune in the head-quarters of his adversaries. But they entertained a greater repugnance to him than the presbyterians did, and had a worse opinion of his integrity and good faith. At length therefore he began to look with more partiality to the other party, and to imagine that he should find on that side a wider field for the subtlety and intrigue to which he was addicted. He entertained indeed the utmost antipathy to the presbyterian discipline, and recollected that it was this party that first excited against him the hostility in both kingdoms to which he had now fallen a victim. But kings are accustomed to regard their subjects as so much beneath them, that, for Turns to wards the other party. CHAP. that reason especially, they are sometimes found XXVII. mutable in their resentments, considering other men rather as tools to be employed, than as beings whose feelings and impulses are entitled to their The Scots had experienced several 1646. Becomes desirous of Scottish army. attention. joining the bitter affronts from the parliament, in which the independent interest at this time predominated; and their love of the presbyterian system, which they regarded as one and the same thing with our common Christianity, and which they held to be in great danger from the latitudinarianism of the independents, still further inflamed their resentments. Charles regarded this temper in them as a fit material to work upon: Montrose, though baffled and disgraced, was still in arms in the northern kingdom: and the king deemed it by no means impossible to reconcile and unite the Scottish royalists and presbyterians, which, if effected, might yet lead to the restoration of his full and undiminished prerogatives. Negociations of the queen with the Scots, Strong reports were circulated in the autumn of 1645, of negociations going on between the king and the leaders of the Scottish army. Shortly after, it is certain that an emissary was sent from Scotland to the queen at Paris, to ascertain the practicability of an adjustment in that quarter. The conclusion most earnestly desired ↳ Clarendon, Vol. II, p. 751. Clarendon, State Papers, Vol. II, p. 210, by the Scots, was that Charles should give his unfeigned assent to the establishment of the presbyterian form of church-government. This they required as a preliminary; and the queen applied all the vast influence she had hitherto exercised over her husband, to prevail on him to gratify them in that particular c. CHAP XXVII. 1646. sent by the court of France into Louis the Thirteenth, and his minister Riche- Montreville lieu, had lately died; and the queen of England found somewhat more consideration in the England. new court, than had been granted her under the former reign, where the principal minister had been actuated by a certain degree of personal hostility against Charles. She therefore obtained that an envoy, Montreville, should now be sent from the French government, who under her direction should endeavour to place the disastrous affairs of her husband on a more advantageous footing. His instructions were to bring about the best practicable understanding between Charles and the Scottish forces before Newark, preparatory to the king's yielding himself to their protection c. ciations. Montreville arrived in London early in Ja- His nego nuaryf. He appears to have had several interviews with the Scots' commissioners there; and, being satisfied that they would not recede from • Ibid. d Richelieu died 4 Dec. 1642, and Louis 14 May 1643. |