1647]

TERMS OFFERED BY THE ARMY

683

approaching or withdrawing as its demands were refused or complied with.

the army.

The purified House had declared Fairfax's army to be the army of Parliament, and the new militia ordinance was repealed; and, although the parties were almost evenly balanced, the fear Moderate terms of the army gave such predominance to the Independents offered by that it seemed as if the settlement which the army demanded might have been brought about. That settlement was gradually being arranged by Fairfax and a council of officers. It was considerably more liberal than the propositions which the Parliament had offered the King. The objects of the Independents were before all else the quiet settlement of the country and freedom of conscience. For these objects they were willing to sacrifice a good deal. They offered to go so far as to allow of the existence of the Church side by side with the Presbyterian worship, if only all coercive power was removed from both. They consented to except only five individuals from the general pardon, and even to restore the army and navy to the Crown at the end of ten years. At the same time they saw the necessity of restraining not only the Crown, but the Parliament which had introduced the Presbyterian tyranny. They consequently demanded biennial Parliaments and a reform of the constituency; and, as general improvements, desired the removal of the excise, an equalized land-tax, the abolition of tithes, and a shortening of the processes of law. On these terms they were willing to re-establish Charles in his power. For, as in one of their papers, probably written by Cromwell (June 10), they declare, "We desire no alteration in the civil government, as little do we desire to interrupt the settlement of the Presbyterial government, only we wish that every good citizen, and every man who walks peaceably in a blameless conversation, and is beneficial to the commonwealth, might have liberty and encouragement, this being according to the true policy of all states, and even to justice itself."

Presbyterian

London.

The quiet progress of this settlement was suddenly interrupted by a great outbreak of Presbyterian London on the 26th of July. On that day the apprentices, "and many other reaction in rude boys and fellows among them, came into the House of Commons, and kept the door open, and their hats on, and called out as they stood, 'Vote, vote,' and in that elegant posture stood till votes passed," replacing the London militia in the hands of Presbyterians, and recalling the eleven. This scene of violence induced the Speakers of both Houses and the Independent members, on the plea

that they were under coercion, to withdraw from Parliament and take refuge with the army, which at once set itself to march towards the capital. It was in vain that the Presbyterian remnant of the House attempted to organize opposition, and to enlist forces under Massey, Waller and Poyntz. The approach of the army dissolved all these preparations; the Southwark militia fraternized with the troops, and at last the Common Council "resolved to send the General a humble letter, beseeching that there might be a way The army then marched through

The army

marches through of composure."

the capital. Aug. 6.

London, and subsequently took up its position round Putney and Hampton Court.

It might have been hoped that Charles would have embraced the opportunity thus offered him for a prosperous settlement of affairs. But in his folly he still hoped that the rival parties would extirpate each other; and when the final propositions were brought to him, to the astonishment of his old friends no less than of his enemies,

Charles refuses their terms already accepted.

although the terms had they believed been already settled with him, he returned a flat negative. The secret reason of this was probably that, by the instrumentality of Lauderdale, one of the Parliamentary Commissioners, he was again intriguing with the Scotch, and not with the Scotch only, but at the same time with both Ormond and Capel, for a movement in his favour among his own followers. His constant duplicity, and the impossibility that was found of bringing about any treaty with him, was rapidly changing the views of the army. Cromwell, who had been foremost in the late negotiations, began to see his error and to throw himself more and more into the general feelings of the troops, among whom a stern and angry feeling was rapidly rising, leading them to demand the execution of the King. Indeed, a democratic and destructive party was being formed among them, known as the Levellers, whose influence renders compro- gradually spread through all the ranks, reaching even mise hopeless. those who did not thoroughly hold with them. Charles's residence at Hampton Court, where at first he had been well entertained, gradually assumed more and more the appearance of an imprisonment. He began to fear for his life. An unsigned warning, coming it is said from Cromwell himself, of approaching danger, and a belief in the probable success of the intrigues he was carrying on, induced him to fly (Nov. 11). The anonymous notice and a letter giving the reasons of his flight were found upon his table, while he himself pursued his course through the South of England. Ulti

His duplicity

1648]

ROYALIST REACTION

Flight to

1648.

685

mately, about the middle of November, he took refuge in the Isle of Wight, where he hoped that Colonel Hammond, the nephew of one of his chaplains, would give him a Carisbrook. favourable reception. From Carisbrook Castle, out of immediate reach of his enemies, Charles continued his negotiations on all sides. Their first effect was to make an open breach between the Parliament and the Scotch. Fresh efforts were made by the Parliament to bring about a final treaty. Four clauses were drawn up as an ultimatum ; but before they could be arranged the feeling of the Scotch was shown by an attempt of their Commissioners to object to them. Parliament, in anger, passed a strong vote against any "foreign interference, and the bills were laid before the King. But meanwhile the Scotch had obtained access to Charles; he had made a private treaty with them, and rejected the four clauses. He intrigues Parliament at once broke with the Scotch, dismissed with the Scotch. their Commissioners, re-established the old Committee of Public Safety, and passed (Jan. 15) what is known as the Vote of Non-addresses, by which it was resolved that no message should be received from the King, or application made to him, under the penalties of high treason. But the delay of any final settlement, now that the war appeared over, was beginning to have an effect upon the nation. While the Scotch were thus estranged, a reaction was taking place in England, and as a natural consequence the feelings of the army were becoming more and more envenomed against the King. In vain Cromwell tried to bring the views of the army and Parliament into unison. It became plain that he must choose between one party and the other. The course of affairs during the last year, and the danger of a total subversion of all the work of the civil war which began to show itself, induced him frankly to embrace the side of the army. A curious description is given us of a prayer-meeting in which he took part, where the army arrived at the conclusion that the present uneasy state of affairs arose from their turning aside from the simplicity of their course, and attempting to act politically, by entering into negotiation with Charles in the preceding year.

The storm was soon to break, and the Scotch, the Presbyterians, and the Royalists to make common cause against the army. Hamilton, whose conduct had throughout the war been so questionable that the King had once imprisoned him in Pendennis Castle, had now, by a pretence of strict Presbyterianism, succeeded in procuring a vote from the Scotch Estates that 40,000 men should be Scotch invade raised for the invasion of England. In March, Poyer, a

Reaction.

England.

Are defeated at Preston.

Presbyterian colonel, had declared for the King in Wales. An insurrection under Capel had broken out in Kent; the fleet had declared for the King; and in London a sufficient reaction had taken place to re-establish the Presbyterian influence. In fact, a second civil war had begun ; and if the whole work of the Revolution was not to be swept away, it was necessary that the army should return to its proper work, and leave for the time political affairs in the hands of its enemies. It was not long in asserting its pre-eminence. While Fairfax defeated the Kentish men at Maidstone, and Capel was driven to take refuge in Colchester, Cromwell reduced Wales, and in union with Lambert defeated and annihilated at Preston Hamilton's Scotch army. This, with the subsequent fall of Colchester and the retirement of the fleet to Holland, completed the defeat of the Royalists. But during the absence of the army in service, the general feeling of the nation had induced Parliament to consent once more to attempt a reconciliation, and to open a final personal treaty with the King at Newport. But the success of the army had been too complete and too rapid to allow of its completion. Strengthened by their victories, the Independents began to raise their demands. Formidable hints occurred in their petitions suggesting the punishment of the King and the substitution of elective for hereditary monarchy. In vain the Treaty of Negotiations Newport was hurried forward. The King still conat Newport. tested every point, trusting to the chapter of accidents. He procrastinated too long. The appearance of Colonel Ewer, with orders to take the King from the charge of Hammond, and the summons of Hammond himself to London, induced him, when too late, hurriedly to agree on the two chiefly disputed points. He allowed that seven of his friends should be excepted from the pardon, and that the Bishops should be suspended. The concession came too late. The army was again predominant. The from Carisbrook. King was carried off and confined in Hurst Castle. The army marched to London, and on the Parliament declaring by a majority of forty-six in favour of the Newport treaty, extreme measures were adopted. On the following day Colonel Pride appeared at the door of the House. Lord Grey of Groby stood beside him; and, as the most important members of the majority approached, on a whisper from Lord Grey, Pride ordered his troopers to carry them off one by one to prison. Thus, on the whole, more than a hundred were excluded. The transaction is known as "Pride's Purge," and the remnant of the House, about fifty in num

Charles taken

Pride's Purge.

1649]

CHARLES'S EXECUTION

687

ber, is spoken of as "The Rump." The army was now absolutely supreme, Parliament was its obedient subject, and government was really carried on by two military councils-an upper one, consisting of the officers, which was regarded with some suspicion by the mass of the army, and a lower one, consisting of representatives of the soldiers. Measures approved of by these councils were brought to the Parliament and there obediently sanctioned.

By this time the King's fate was sealed. On the 7th of December Colonel Harrison brought him from Hurst Castle to Trial and death Whitehall. On the 23rd a bill was passed ordering his of the King. trial. On the first of the new year, to levy war against the Parliament and Kingdom of England was declared high treason, and a High Court of Justice was appointed to decide whether Charles had been guilty of that treason or not. The Lords indeed had the courage to refuse it, but the Commons determined to act upon their own authority. Though treated with much indignity as a prisoner, Charles seems still to have had hope. But the War of the Fronde incapacitated the French from coming to his assistance. The suppression of the late war had rendered the power of the army too absolute for opposition at home. On the 20th of January the High Court assembled in the Painted Chamber, under the presidency of Bradshaw, and with all the solemn apparatus of a court of justice. When called upon to plead, Charles refused to acknowledge the authority of the court. By the letter of the law no doubt he was right; but, as Bradshaw replied, the objection was not to the point, no court would allow its own jurisdiction to be questioned. Charles attempted in vain to demand a conference with a joint-committee of the Lords and Commons; and as he still refused to plead, sentence of death was passed upon him. He bore himself, as usual on public occasions, with calm dignity; and the words in which he declared himself the champion of the liberties of the English people, and the calm and religious temper in which he passed the last days of his life, went far to obliterate from the popular mind the tyranny of his earlier, and the duplicity of his later life. He was beheaded, before Whitehall, on the 29th of the month, saying upon the scaffold, "Sirs, it is for the liberties of the people that I am come here; if I would have assented to an arbitrary sway, to have all things changed according to the power of the sword, I needed not to have come hither, and therefore I tell you, and I pray God it be not laid to your charge, that I am a martyr to the people."