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CHAPTER IX.

CHARLES I. (CONTINUED).

1647-1649.

The parliament and army.-Seizure of the king;-his treaties with Cromwell and Ireton ;-flight from Hampton-court.-Change of conduct in Cromwell and Ireton.-Second civil war.-Defeat of Hamilton.-Surrender of Colchester.-Treaty at Newport.-King seized again by the army.-Pride's Purge.-Proceedings of the parliament.—Trial of the king;—his execution; -character.-Reflections.

THE presbyterians were still, as we have seen, the more numerous party in parliament. The main strength of the other party lay in the army, in which, since the new model, the spirit of fanaticism had under the auspices of Cromwell greatly increased: for the English presbyterian clergy, less zealous or less prudent than their Scottish brethren, had preferred the enjoyment of good livings to the toils of a military life; the regiments therefore were without chaplains; the officers, and soon the privates, took on them the offices of praying and preaching; goodness of memory and volubility of speech were regarded as inspiration; spiritual pride soon followed, and they regarded themselves alone as the godly, the saints who were to possess the earth.

The parliament saw the danger likely to result from the continuance in arms of a body of men animated with fanaticism and formidable by discipline. To reduce their number was therefore the first object. As the royalists were utterly crushed and the Scots withdrawn, they proposed that a moderate force should be retained to preserve the peace in England, a sufficient army be sent to reduce Ireland, and the remainder be disbanded. To this arrange

ment the army had an invincible repugnance. The service in Ireland, however flattering to their fanatic spirit, promised only toil, privation and danger, and they looked for

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ward in preference to the quiet enjoyment of their pay in England. The habits of a military life had rendered their former plodding pursuits distasteful to them, particularly to the officers, many of whom had risen from very humble stations in society*. Cromwell too, now their actuating spirit, seems to have even then formed his plans for governing parliament by the army. The commons meantime voted (Mar. 8), that excepting the general there should be no further any officer of higher rank than colonel; that no member of the house should have a command, that all the officers should take the covenant and conform to the new form of church-government. It is quite evident that Cromwell was the person chiefly aimed at. But the parliament had unwisely suffered the pay of the army to fall into arrears, and thus furnished them with a plausible ground of complaint. The army on hearing of this vote suddenly broke up from their quarters about Nottingham and came to Saffron-Walden in Essex. Commissioners from the parliament met them there (22nd) on the subject of the service in Ireland; but the officers required to be previously satisfied on certain points, and a petition was meantime circulated for signatures through the army requiring an act of indemnity for all past actions, payment of arrears, exemption from impressment, pensions for the maimed and for widows, and pay till they should be disbanded. The parliament (30th) voted this petition to be mutinous, and forbade any further proceeding in it; but of this the soldiers took little heed.

The army had at this time a parliament of its own; the

*Colonel Pride for instance is said to have been a drayman, colonel Huson a cobler. We must not however on all occasions give implicit credit to the royalist writers in these matters. Thus they always say that Harrison had been a butcher, whereas the truth is that his father was a respectable grazier, and himself a member of one of the inns of court. Mrs. Hutchinson however says, (p. 315) that he was "but a mean man's son and of a mean education, and no estate before the war"; but a grazier must have been a mean man in the eyes of the daughter of sir Allen Apsley. She adds, that Harrison "had gathered an estate of 2000l. a year, besides engrossing great offices and encroaching upon his under-officers, and maintained his coach and family at a height as if they had been born to principality."

superior officers formed a supreme council, while two adjutators, or, as they were soon named, agitators*, being chosen from each regiment by the common soldiers, formed a lower house. It seems probable that Cromwell and his able son-in-law Ireton were the founders of this institution.

Throughout the months of April and May the parliament vainly sought to rid themselves of their refractory servants. At length, urged by the impetuosity of Hollis, Stapylton and Glynn, they sent (May 25) instructions to the general to disband the various regiments without delay. This measure produced results which they had by no means anticipated.

The king had been all this time at Holmby. The commissioners sent by the parliament to take charge of him treated him with respect, and he enjoyed the recreations of riding about the country and playing at bowls in the bowling-green at Althorpe but his servants were selected by the parliament; he was refused the attendance of any of his chaplains, and even the people who resorted to be touched for the king's-evil were not allowed to approach him. On the 12th of May he wrote to the parliament offering to establish presbytery for three years, to resign the command of the army for ten years, and to give full satisfaction respecting the war in Ireland. He had received no answer, when, on the 2nd of June, as he was at bowls, an officer in the uniform of Fairfax's regiment was observed among the spectators. The answers of the stranger to the inquiries of colonel Greaves, who commanded the guards at Holmby, exciting suspicion, the king was hurried home and the guards were doubled. About two in the morning (3rd) the stranger (who proved to be cornet Joice, formerly a tailor) appeared with a party of four hundred horse before the gates, where they were received by the guards as brethren they said they were come to prevent their ene

*This is the word employed by Ludlow, Berkeley and Hobbes. The change was probably made by the ignorant soldiers. Adjutator is incorrect, the proper Latin word being adjutor.

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mies from carrying away the king. They set guards and passed the day in consultation. At ten at night Joice having placed guards on the commissioner's apartments proceeded to that of the king, which he entered with his hat in one hand and his pistol in the other. He behaved with civility, and he seems to have satisfied the king on the subject of his removal; Charles only required that he should repeat next day in public what he then said in private ; Joice then withdrew.

At six next morning (4th) Joice drew up his men before the door. The king standing on the steps asked him what authority he had for conveying him away. He replied, that of the army. The king then demanded if he had a written commission from the general, and on his repeating the question, Joice pointing to his men said, "There is my commission." Charles smiled and said, "I never before read such a commission; but it is written in characters fair and legible enough; a company of as handsome, proper gentlemen as I have seen a long while." He then demanded to be treated with respect if he went with them, and not to have his conscience forced. The troopers acclaimed their assent, and Joice replied that it was not their principle to force any man's conscience, much less their king's. He offered him his choice of residences; Charles fixed on Newmarket; he was allowed the attendance of his own servants. The commissioners protested in vain against this act; the king when ready mounted his horse with a cheerful air and set out with the troopers, whom the commissioners also accompanied.

Fairfax, on hearing what had taken place, sent colonel Whalley with two regiments of horse to reconduct the king to Holmby, but he refused to return. Next day Fairfax, Cromwell, Ireton, and others, waited on him. In a private interview Fairfax made a proffer of his services. 66 Sir," ," said the king, "I have as good an interest in the army as you." On this Fairfax remarks, "By this I plainly saw the broken reed he leaned on; the agitators had brought him into an opinion that the army was for him." Fairfax

tried in vain to bring Joice to a court-martial. Hollis asserts, and probably with truth, that the whole matter had been planned by Cromwell and Ireton, and that Joice was only their agent.

When the parliament heard of this bold proceeding of the army they recalled their precipitate vote of the 25th of May. But this was of no avail; the army mustered (10th) on Triplow-heath near Cambridge, and prepared to march for London, and two days after they were at St. Albans, whence (16th) they sent a charge against eleven of the leading presbyterians, requiring them to be sequestered from parliament and thrown into prison. The headquarters of the army were then moved to Berkhamstead (25th) and next day to Uxbridge. Addresses from the counties round London, who now saw where the power really lay, were presented to the general and the army. Messages passed and repassed between the houses and the army; at length (July 20th) the eleven members desired and obtained leave to go into the country or beyond sea for six months; "and here," says Hallam, "may be said to have fallen the legislative power and civil government of England, which, from this hour to that of the restoration, had never more than a momentary and precarious gleam of existence, perpetually interrupted by the sword.”

The king meantime was treated with unusual indulgence. He moved with the army, but things were so arranged as to enable him to stop at his own houses or the mansions of the nobility, by whom he was splendidly entertained. He was allowed the attendance of his episcopal chaplains; his friends were freely admitted to him. The parliament had always rudely refused to gratify him by the sight of his children, whom they had committed to the charge of the earl of Northumberland; but now, by a letter from Fairfax, the earl was directed to take them down to Cavesham-house near Reading, where they remained for two days with their father. Cromwell, who wanted not for natural feelings, and who was present at their first interview, declared to Berkeley that it was "the tenderest sight that