THIRD PART
THIRD PART
I shall not try to relate the particulars of the great civil war betweenKing Charles the First and the Long Parliament, which lasted nearly fouryears, and a full account of which would fill many large books. It was asad thing that Englishmen should once more be fighting against Englishmenon English ground; but, it is some consolation to know that on both sidesthere was great humanity, forbearance, and honour. The soldiers of theParliament were far more remarkable for these good qualities than thesoldiers of the King (many of whom fought for mere pay without muchcaring for the cause); but those of the nobility and gentry who were onthe King's side were so brave, and so faithful to him, that their conductcannot but command our highest admiration. Among them were great numbersof Catholics, who took the royal side because the Queen was so stronglyof their persuasion.
The King might have distinguished some of these gallant spirits, if hehad been as generous a spirit himself, by giving them the command of hisarmy. Instead of that, however, true to his old high notions of royalty,he entrusted it to his two nephews, PRINCE RUPERT and PRINCE MAURICE, whowere of royal blood and came over from abroad to help him. It might havebeen better for him if they had stayed away; since Prince Rupert was animpetuous, hot-headed fellow, whose only idea was to dash into battle atall times and seasons, and lay about him.
The general-in-chief of the Parliamentary army was the Earl of Essex, agentleman of honour and an excellent soldier. A little while before thewar broke out, there had been some rioting at Westminster between certainofficious law students and noisy soldiers, and the shopkeepers and theirapprentices, and the general people in the streets. At that time theKing's friends called the crowd, Roundheads, because the apprentices woreshort hair; the crowd, in return, called their opponents Cavaliers,meaning that they were a blustering set, who pretended to be verymilitary. These two words now began to be used to distinguish the twosides in the civil war. The Royalists also called the Parliamentary menRebels and Rogues, while the Parliamentary men called _them_ Malignants,and spoke of themselves as the Godly, the Honest, and so forth.
The war broke out at Portsmouth, where that double traitor Goring hadagain gone over to the King and was besieged by the Parliamentary troops.Upon this, the King proclaimed the Earl of Essex and the officers servingunder him, traitors, and called upon his loyal subjects to meet him inarms at Nottingham on the twenty-fifth of August. But his loyal subjectscame about him in scanty numbers, and it was a windy, gloomy day, and theRoyal Standard got blown down, and the whole affair was very melancholy.The chief engagements after this, took place in the vale of the Red Horsenear Banbury, at Brentford, at Devizes, at Chalgrave Field (where Mr.Hampden was so sorely wounded while fighting at the head of his men, thathe died within a week), at Newbury (in which battle LORD FALKLAND, one ofthe best noblemen on the King's side, was killed), at Leicester, atNaseby, at Winchester, at Marston Moor near York, at Newcastle, and inmany other parts of England and Scotland. These battles were attendedwith various successes. At one time, the King was victorious; at anothertime, the Parliament. But almost all the great and busy towns wereagainst the King; and when it was considered necessary to fortify London,all ranks of people, from labouring men and women, up to lords andladies, worked hard together with heartiness and good will. The mostdistinguished leaders on the Parliamentary side were HAMPDEN, SIR THOMASFAIRFAX, and, above all, OLIVER CROMWELL, and his son-in-law IRETON.
During the whole of this war, the people, to whom it was very expensiveand irksome, and to whom it was made the more distressing by almost everyfamily being divided--some of its members attaching themselves to oneside and some to the other--were over and over again most anxious forpeace. So were some of the best men in each cause. Accordingly,treaties of peace were discussed between commissioners from theParliament and the King; at York, at Oxford (where the King held a littleParliament of his own), and at Uxbridge. But they came to nothing. Inall these negotiations, and in all his difficulties, the King showedhimself at his best. He was courageous, cool, self-possessed, andclever; but, the old taint of his character was always in him, and he wasnever for one single moment to be trusted. Lord Clarendon, thehistorian, one of his highest admirers, supposes that he had unhappilypromised the Queen never to make peace without her consent, and that thismust often be taken as his excuse. He never kept his word from night tomorning. He signed a cessation of hostilities with the blood-stainedIrish rebels for a sum of money, and invited the Irish regiments over, tohelp him against the Parliament. In the battle of Naseby, his cabinetwas seized and was found to contain a correspondence with the Queen, inwhich he expressly told her that he had deceived the Parliament--amongrel Parliament, he called it now, as an improvement on his old termof vipers--in pretending to recognise it and to treat with it; and fromwhich it further appeared that he had long been in secret treaty with theDuke of Lorraine for a foreign army of ten thousand men. Disappointed inthis, he sent a most devoted friend of his, the EARL OF GLAMORGAN, toIreland, to conclude a secret treaty with the Catholic powers, to sendhim an Irish army of ten thousand men; in return for which he was tobestow great favours on the Catholic religion. And, when this treaty wasdiscovered in the carriage of a fighting Irish Archbishop who was killedin one of the many skirmishes of those days, he basely denied anddeserted his attached friend, the Earl, on his being charged with hightreason; and--even worse than this--had left blanks in the secretinstructions he gave him with his own kingly hand, expressly that hemight thus save himself.
At last, on the twenty-seventh day of April, one thousand six hundred andforty-six, the King found himself in the city of Oxford, so surrounded bythe Parliamentary army who were closing in upon him on all sides that hefelt that if he would escape he must delay no longer. So, that night,having altered the cut of his hair and beard, he was dressed up as aservant and put upon a horse with a cloak strapped behind him, and rodeout of the town behind one of his own faithful followers, with aclergyman of that country who knew the road well, for a guide. He rodetowards London as far as Harrow, and then altered his plans and resolved,it would seem, to go to the Scottish camp. The Scottish men had beeninvited over to help the Parliamentary army, and had a large force thenin England. The King was so desperately intriguing in everything he did,that it is doubtful what he exactly meant by this step. He took it,anyhow, and delivered himself up to the EARL OF LEVEN, the Scottishgeneral-in-chief, who treated him as an honourable prisoner. Negotiationsbetween the Parliament on the one hand and the Scottish authorities onthe other, as to what should be done with him, lasted until the followingFebruary. Then, when the King had refused to the Parliament theconcession of that old militia point for twenty years, and had refused toScotland the recognition of its Solemn League and Covenant, Scotland gota handsome sum for its army and its help, and the King into the bargain.He was taken, by certain Parliamentary commissioners appointed to receivehim, to one of his own houses, called Holmby House, near Althorpe, inNorthamptonshire.
While the Civil War was still in progress, John Pym died, and was buriedwith great honour in Westminster Abbey--not with greater honour than hedeserved, for the liberties of Englishmen owe a mighty debt to Pym andHampden. The war was but newly over when the Earl of Essex died, of anillness brought on by his having overheated himself in a stag hunt inWindsor Forest. He, too, was buried in Westminster Abbey, with greatstate. I wish it were not necessary to add that Archbishop Laud diedupon the scaffold when the war was not yet done. His trial lasted in allnearly a year, and, it being doubtful even then whether the chargesbrought against him amounted to treason, the odious old contrivance ofthe worst kings was resorted to, and a bill of attainder was brought inagainst him. He was a violently prejudiced and mischievous person; hadhad strong ear-cropping and nose-splitting propensities, as you know; andhad done a world of harm. But he died peaceably, and like a brave oldman.