Chapter IV: , VII (7)

155. But withal we cannot forget that these venomous councils
did manifest themselves in some endeavours to hinder these
good acts.

156. And for both Houses of Parliament we may with truth and
modesty say thus much: that we have ever been careful not to
desire anything that should weaken the Crown either in just
profit or useful power.

157. The triennial Parliament for the matter of it, doth not
extend to so much as by law we ought to have required (there
being two statutes still in force for a Parliament to be once
a year), and for the manner of it, it is in the King's power
that it shall never take effect, if he by a timely summons
shall prevent any other way of assembling.

158. In the Bill for continuance of this present Parliament,
there seems to be some restraint of the royal power in
dissolving of Parliaments, not to take it out of the Crown,
but to suspend the execution of it for this time and occasion
only: which was so necessary for the King's own security and
the public peace, that without it we could not have undertaken
any of these great charges, but must have left both the armies
to disorder and confusion, and the whole kingdom to blood and
rapine.

159. The Star Chamber was much more fruitful in oppression
than in profit, the great fines being for the most part given
away, and the rest stalled at long times.

160. The fines of the High Commission were in themselves
unjust, and seldom or never came into the King's purse. These
four Bills are particularly and more specially instanced.

161. In the rest there will not be found so much as a shadow
of prejudice to the Crown.

162. They have sought to diminish our reputation with the
people, and to bring them out of love with Parliaments.

163. The aspersions which they have attempted this way have
been such as these:

164. That we have spent much time and done little, especially
in those grievances which concern religion.

165. That the Parliament is a burden to the kingdom by the
abundance of protections which hinder justice and trade; and
by many subsidies granted much more heavy than any formerly
endured.

166. To which there is a ready answer; if the time spent in
this Parliament be considered in relation backward to the long
growth and deep root of those grievances, which we have
removed, to the powerful supports of those delinquents, which
we have pursued, to the great necessities and other charges of
the commonwealth for which we have provided.

167. Or if it be considered in relation forward to many
advantages, which not only the present but future ages are
like to reap by the good laws and other proceedings in this
Parliament, we doubt not but it will be thought by all
indifferent judgments, that our time hath been much better
employed than in a far greater proportion of time in many
former Parliaments put together; and the charges which have
been laid upon the subject, and the other inconveniences which
they have borne, will seem very light in respect of the
benefit they have and may receive.

168. And for the matter of protections, the Parliament is so
sensible of it that therein they intended to give them
whatsoever ease may stand with honour and justice, and are in
a way of passing a Bill to give them satisfaction.

169. They have sought by many subtle practices to cause
jealousies and divisions betwixt us and our brethren of
Scotland, by slandering their proceedings and intentions
towards us, and by secret endeavours to instigate and incense
them and us one against another.

170. They have had such a party of Bishops and Popish lords in
the House of Peers, as hath caused much opposition and delay
in the prosecution of delinquents, hindered the proceedings of
divers good Bills passed in the Commons' House, concerning the
reformation of sundry great abuses and corruptions both in
Church and State.

171. They have laboured to seduce and corrupt some of the
Commons' House to draw them into conspiracies and combinations
against the liberty of the Parliament.

172. And by their instruments and agents they have attempted
to disaffect and discontent His Majesty's army, and to engage
it for the maintenance of their wicked and traitorous designs;
the keeping up of Bishops in votes and functions, and by force
to compel the Parliament to order, limit and dispose their
proceedings in such manner as might best concur with the
intentions of this dangerous and potent faction.

173. And when one mischievous design and attempt of theirs to
bring on the army against the Parliament and the City of
London, hath been discovered and prevented;

174. They presently undertook another of the same damnable
nature, with this addition to it, to endeavour to make the
Scottish army neutral, whilst the English army, which they had
laboured to corrupt and envenom against us by their false and
slanderous suggestions, should execute their malice to the
subversion of our religion and the dissolution of our
government.

175. Thus they have been continually practising to disturb the
peace, and plotting the destruction even of all the King's
dominions; and have employed their emissaries and agents in
them, all for the promoting their devilish designs, which the
vigilancy of those who were well affected hath still
discovered and defeated before they were ripe for execution in
England and Scotland.

{865}

176. Only in Ireland, which was farther off, they have had
time and opportunity to mould and prepare their work, and had
brought it to that perfection that they had possessed
themselves of that whole kingdom, totally subverted the
government of it, routed out religion, and destroyed all the
Protestants whom the conscience of their duty to God, their
King and country, would not have permitted to join with them,
if by God's wonderful providence their main enterprise upon
the city and castle of Dublin, had not been detected and
prevented upon the very eve before it should have been
executed.

177. Notwithstanding they have in other parts of that kingdom
broken out into open rebellion, surprising towns and castles,
committed murders, rapes and other villainies, and shaken off
all bonds of obedience to His Majesty and the laws of the
realm.

178. And in general have kindled such a fire, as nothing but
God's infinite blessing upon the wisdom and endeavours of this
State will be able to quench it.

179. And certainly had not God in His great mercy unto this
land discovered and confounded their former designs, we had
been the prologue to this tragedy in Ireland, and had by this
been made the lamentable spectacle of misery and confusion.

180. And now what hope have we but in God, when as the only
means of our subsistence and power of reformation is under Him
in the Parliament?

181. But what can we the Commons, without the conjunction of
the House of Lords, and what conjunction can we expect there,
when the Bishops and recusant lords are so numerous and
prevalent that they are able to cross and interrupt our best
endeavours for reformation, and by that means give advantage
to this malignant party to traduce our proceedings?

182. They infuse into the people that we mean to abolish all
Church government, and leave every man to his own fancy for
the service and worship of God, absolving him of that
obedience which he owes under God unto His Majesty, whom we
know to be entrusted with the ecclesiastical law as well as
with the temporal, to regulate all the members of the Church
of England, by such rules of order and discipline as are
established by Parliament, which is his great council in all
affairs both in Church and State.

183. We confess our intention is, and our endeavours have
been, to reduce within bounds that exorbitant power which the
prelates have assumed unto themselves, so contrary both to the
Word of God and to the laws of the land, to which end we
passed the Bill for the removing them from their temporal
power and employments, that so the better they might with
meekness apply themselves to the discharge of their functions,
which Bill themselves opposed, and were the principal
instruments of crossing it.

184. And we do here declare that it is far from our purpose or
desire to let loose the golden reins of discipline and
government in the Church, to leave private persons or
particular congregations to take up what form of Divine
Service they please, for we hold it requisite that there
should be throughout the whole realm a conformity to that
order which the laws enjoin according to the Word of God. And
we desire to unburden the consciences of men of needless and
superstitious ceremonies, suppress innovations, and take away
the monuments of idolatry.

185. And the better to effect the intended reformation, we
desire there may be a general synod of the most grave, pious,
learned and judicious divines of this island; assisted with
some from foreign parts, professing the same religion with us,
who may consider of all things necessary for the peace and
good government of the Church, and represent the results of
their consultations unto the Parliament, to be there allowed
of and confirmed, and receive the stamp of authority, thereby
to find passage and obedience throughout the kingdom.

186. They have maliciously charged us that we intend to
destroy and discourage learning, whereas it is our chiefest
care and desire to advance it, and to provide a competent
maintenance for conscionable and preaching ministers
throughout the kingdom, which will be a great encouragement to
scholars, and a certain means whereby the want, meanness and
ignorance, to which a great part of the clergy is now subject,
will be prevented.

187. And we intended likewise to reform and purge the
fountains of learning, the two Universities, that the streams
flowing from thence may be clear and pure, and an honour and
comfort to the whole land.

188. They have strained to blast our proceedings in
Parliament, by wresting the interpretations of our orders from
their genuine intention.

189. They tell the people that our meddling with the power of
episcopacy hath caused sectaries and conventicles, when
idolatrous and Popish ceremonies, introduced into the Church
by the command of the Bishops have not only debarred the
people from thence, but expelled them from the kingdom.

190. Thus with Elijah, we are called by this malignant party
the troublers of the State, and still, while we endeavour to
reform their abuses, they make us the authors of those
mischiefs we study to prevent.

191. For the perfecting of the work begun, and removing all
future impediments, we conceive these courses will be very
effectual, seeing the religion of the Papists hath such
principles as do certainly tend to the destruction and
extirpation of all Protestants, when they shall have
opportunity to effect it.

192. It is necessary in the first place to keep them in such
condition as that they may not be able to do us any hurt, and
for avoiding of such connivance and favour as hath heretofore
been shown unto them.

193. That His Majesty be pleased to grant a standing
Commission to some choice men named in Parliament, who may
take notice of their increase, their counsels and proceedings,
and use all due means by execution of the laws to prevent all
mischievous designs against the peace and safety of this
kingdom.

194. Thus some good course be taken to discover the
counterfeit and false conformity of Papists to the Church, by
colour whereof persons very much disaffected to the true
religion have been admitted into place of greatest authority
and trust in the kingdom.

{866}

195. For the better preservation of the laws and liberties of
the kingdom, that all illegal grievances and exactions be
presented and punished at the sessions and assizes.

196. And that Judges and Justices be very careful to give this
in charge to the grand jury, and both the Sheriff and Justices
to be sworn to the due execution of the Petition of Right and
other laws.

197. That His Majesty be humbly petitioned by both Houses to
employ such counsellors, ambassadors and other ministers, in
managing his business at home and abroad as the Parliament may
have cause to confide in, without which we cannot give His
Majesty such supplies for support of his own estate, nor such
assistance to the Protestant party beyond the sea, as is
desired.

198. It may often fall out that the Commons may have just
cause to take exceptions at some men for being councillors,
and yet not charge those men with crimes, for there be grounds
of diffidence which lie not in proof.

199. There are others, which though they may be proved, yet
are not legally criminal.

200. To be a known favourer of Papists, or to have been very
forward in defending or countenancing some great offenders
questioned in Parliament; or to speak contemptuously of either
Houses of Parliament or Parliamentary proceedings.

201. Or such as are factors or agents for any foreign prince
of another religion; such are justly suspected to get
councillors' places, or any other of trust concerning public
employment for money; for all these and divers others we may
have great reason to be earnest with His Majesty, not to put
his great affairs into such hands, though we may be unwilling
to proceed against them in any legal way of charge or
impeachment.

202. That all Councillors of State may be sworn to observe
those laws which concern the subject in his liberty, that they
may likewise take an oath not to receive or give reward or
pension from any foreign prince, but such as they shall within
some reasonable time discover to the Lords of His Majesty's
Council.

203. And although they should wickedly forswear themselves,
yet it may herein do good to make them known to be false and
perjured to those who employ them, and thereby bring them into
as little credit with them as with us.

204. That His Majesty may have cause to be in love with good
counsel and good men, by shewing him in an humble and dutiful
manner how full of advantage it would be to himself, to see
his own estate settled in a plentiful condition to support his
honour; to see his people united in ways of duty to him, and
endeavours of the public good; to see happiness, wealth, peace
and safety derived to his own kingdom, and procured to his
allies by the influence of his own power and government."

ENGLAND: A. D. 1642 (JANUARY).
The King's attempt against the Five Members.

On the 3d of January, "the king was betrayed into ... an
indiscretion to which all the ensuing disorders and civil wars
ought immediately and directly to be ascribed. This was the
impeachment of Lord Kimbolton and the five members. ...
Herbert, attorney-general, appeared in the House of Peers,
and, in his majesty's name, entered an accusation of high
treason against Lord Kimbolton and five commoners, Hollis, Sir
Arthur Hazlerig, Hambden, Pym, and Strode. The articles were,
That they had traitorously endeavoured to subvert the
fundamental laws and government of the kingdom, to deprive the
king of his regal power, and to impose on his subjects an
arbitrary and tyrannical authority; that they had endeavoured,
by many foul aspersions on his majesty and his government, to
alienate the affections of his people, and make him odious to
them; that they had attempted to draw his late army to
disobedience of his royal commands, and to side with them in
their traitorous designs; that they had invited and encouraged
a foreign power to invade the kingdom; that they had aimed at
subverting the rights and very being of Parliament; that, in
order to complete their traitorous designs, they had
endeavoured, as far as in them lay, by force and terror, to
compel the Parliament to join with them, and to that end had
actually raised and countenanced tumults against the king and
Parliament; and that they had traitorously conspired to levy,
and actually had levied, war against the king. The whole world
stood amazed at this important accusation, so suddenly entered
upon, without concert, deliberation or reflection. ... But men
had not leisure to wonder at the indiscretion of this measure:
their astonishment was excited by new attempts, still more
precipitate and imprudent. A sergeant at arms, in the king's
name, demanded of the House the five members, and was sent
back without any positive answer. Messengers were employed to
search for them and arrest them. Their trunks, chambers, and
studies, were sealed and locked. The House voted all these
acts of violence to be breaches of privilege, and commanded
everyone to defend the liberty of the members. The king,
irritated by all this opposition, resolved next day to come in
person to the House, with an intention to demand, perhaps
seize, in their presence, the persons whom he had accused.
This resolution was discovered to the Countess of Carlisle,
sister to Northumberland, a lady of spirit, wit, and intrigue.
She privately sent intelligence to the five members; and they
had time to withdraw, a moment before the king entered. He was
accompanied by his ordinary retinue, to the number of above
two hundred, armed as usual, some with halberts, some with
walking swords. The king left them at the door, and he himself
advanced alone through the hall, while all the members rose to
receive him. The speaker withdrew from his chair, and the king
took possession of it. The speech which he made was as
follows: 'Gentlemen, I am sorry for this occasion of coming to
you. Yesterday, I sent a sergeant at arms, to demand some,
who, by my order, were accused of high treason. Instead of
obedience, I received a message. ... Therefore am I come to
tell you, that I must have these men wheresoever I can find
them. Well, since I see all the birds are flown, I do expect
that you will send them to me as soon as they return. But I
assure you, on the word of a king, I never did intend any
force, but shall proceed against them in a fair and legal way,
for I never meant any other.' ... When the king was looking
around for the accused members, he asked the speaker, who
stood below, whether any of these persons were in the House?
The speaker, falling on his knee, prudently replied: 'I have,
sir, neither eyes to see, nor tongue to speak, in this place,
but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am.
{867}
And I humbly ask pardon, that I cannot give any other answer
to what your majesty is pleased to demand of me.' The Commons
were in the utmost disorder; and when the king was departing,
some members cried aloud so as he might hear them, Privilege!
Privilege! and the House immediately adjourned till next day.
That evening, the accused members, to show the greater
apprehension, removed into the city, which was their fortress.
The citizens were the whole night in arms. ... When the House
of Commons met, they affected the greatest dismay; and
adjourning themselves for some days, ordered a committee to
sit in Merchant-Tailors' hall in the city. ... The House again
met, and after confirming the votes of their committee, instantly
adjourned, as if exposed to the most imminent perils from the
violence of their enemies. This practice they continued for
some time. When the people, by these affected panics, were
wrought up to a sufficient degree of rage and terror, it was
thought proper, that the accused members should, with a
triumphant and military procession, take their seats in the
House. The river was covered with boats, and other vessels,
laden with small pieces of ordnance, and prepared for fight.
Skippon, whom the Parliament had appointed, by their own
authority, major-general of the city militia, conducted the
members, at the head of this tumultuary army, to
Westminster-hall. And when the populace, by land and by water,
passed Whitehall, they still asked, with insulting shouts,
What has become of the king and his cavaliers? And whither are
they fled? The king, apprehensive of danger from the enraged
multitude, had retired to Hampton-court, deserted by all the
world, and overwhelmed with grief, shame, and remorse for the
fatal measures into which he had been hurried."

_D. Hume,
History of England,
volume 5, chapter 55, pages 85-91._

ALSO IN:
_S. R. Gardiner,
The First Two Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution,
chapter 6, section 5._

_S. R. Gardiner,
History of England, 1603-1642,
chapter 103 (volume 10)._

_J. Forster,
Statesmen of the Commonwealth: Pym; Hampden._

_L. von Ranke,
History of England, 17th Cent.,
book 8, chapter 10 (volume 2)._

ENGLAND: A. D. 1642 (JANUARY-AUGUST).
Preparations for war.
The marshalling of forces.
The raising of the King's standard.

"January 10th. The King with his Court quits Whitehall; the
Five Members and Parliament proposing to return tomorrow, with
the whole City in arms round them. He left Whitehall; never
saw it again till he came to lay down his head there.

March 9th. The King has sent away his Queen from Dover, 'to be
in a place of safety,'--and also to pawn the Crown-jewels in
Holland, and get him arms. He returns Northward again,
avoiding London. Many messages between the Houses of
Parliament and him: 'Will your Majesty grant us Power of the
Militia; accept this list of Lord-Lieutenants?' On the 9th of
March, still advancing Northward without affirmative response,
he has got to Newmarket; where another Message overtakes him,
earnestly urges itself upon him: 'Could not your Majesty
please to grant us Power of the Militia for a limited time?'
'No, by God!' answers his Majesty, 'not for an hour.'

On the 19th of March he is at York; where his Hull Magazine,
gathered for service against the Scots, is lying near; where a
great Earl of Newcastle, and other Northern potentates, will
help him; where at least London and its Puritanism, now grown
so fierce, is far off. There we will leave him; attempting
Hull Magazine, in vain; exchanging messages with his
Parliament; messages, missives, printed and written Papers
without limit: Law-pleadings of both parties before the great
tribunal of the English Nation, each party striving to prove
itself right and within the verge of Law: preserved still in
acres of typography, once thrillingly alive in every fibre of
them; now a mere torpor, readable by few creatures, not
rememberable by any."

_T. Carlyle,
Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches,
part 2, preliminary._

"As early as June 2 a ship had arrived on the North English
coast, bringing the King arms and ammunition from Holland,
purchased by the sale of the crown-jewels which the Queen had
taken abroad. On the 22d of the same month more than forty of
the nobles and others in attendance on the King at York had
put down their names for the numbers of armed horse they would
furnish respectively for his service. Requisitions in the
King's name were also out for supplies of money; and the two
Universities, and the Colleges in each, were invited to send
in their plate. On the other hand, the Parliament had not been
more negligent. There had been contributions or promises from
all the chief Parliamentarian nobles and others; there was a
large loan from the city; and hundreds of thousands, on a
smaller scale, were willing to subscribe. And already, through
all the shires, the two opposed powers were grappling and
jostling with each other in raising levies. On the King's side
there were what were called Commissions of Array, or powers
granted to certain nobles and others by name to raise troops
for the King. On the side of Parliament, in addition to the
Volunteering which had been going on in many places (as, for
example, in Cambridgeshire, where Oliver Cromwell was forming
a troop of Volunteer horse ... ), there was the Militia
Ordinance available wherever the persons named in that
ordinance were really zealous for Parliament, and able to act
personally in the districts assigned them. And so on the 12th
of July the Parliament had passed the necessary vote for
supplying an army, and had appointed the Earl of Essex to be
its commander-in-chief, and the Earl of Bedford to be its
second in command as general of horse. It was known, on the
other side, that the Earl of Lindsey, in consideration of his
past experience of service both on sea and land, was to have
the command of the King's army, and that his master of horse
was to be the King's nephew, young Prince Rupert, who was
expected from the Continent on purpose. Despite all these
preparations, however, it was probably not till August had
begun that the certainty of Civil War was universally
acknowledged. It was on the 9th of that month that the King
issued his proclamation 'for suppressing the present Rebellion
under the command of Robert, Earl of Essex,' offering pardon
to him and others if within six days they made their
submission. The Parliamentary answer to this was on the 11th;
on which day the Commons resolved, each man separately rising
in his place and giving his word, that they would stand by the
Earl of Essex with their lives and fortunes to the end. Still,
even after that, there were trembling souls here and there who
hoped for a reconciliation.
{868}
Monday the 22d of August put an end to all such fluttering:
--On that day, the King, who had meanwhile left York, and come
about a hundred miles farther south, into the very heart of
England, ... made a backward movement as far as the town of
Nottingham, where preparations had been made for the great
scene that was to follow. ... This consisted in bringing out
the royal standard and setting it up in due form. It was about
six o'clock in the evening when it was done. ... A herald read
a proclamation, declaring the cause why the standard had been
set up, and summoning all the lieges to assist his Majesty.
Those who were present cheered and threw up their hats, and,
with a beating of drums and a sounding of trumpets, the
ceremony ended. ... From that evening of the 22d of August,
1642, the Civil War had begun."

_D. Masson,
Life of John Milton,
book 2, chapter 8 (volume 2)._

ALSO IN:
_John Forster,
Statesmen of the Commonwealth: Pym; Hampden._

_S. R. Gardiner,
History of England, 1603-1642,
chapters 104-105 (volume 10)._

ENGLAND: A. D. 1642 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER).
The nation choosing sides.

"In wealth, in numbers, and in cohesion the Parliament was
stronger than the king. To him there had rallied most of the
greater nobles, many of the lesser gentry, some proportion of
the richer citizens, the townsmen of the west, and the rural
population generally of the west and north of England. For the
Parliament stood a strong section of the peers and greater
gentry, the great bulk of the lesser gentry, the townsmen of
the richer parts of England, the whole eastern and home
counties, and lastly, the city of London. But as the Civil War
did not sharply divide classes, so neither did it
geographically bisect England. Roughly speaking, aristocracy
and peasantry, the Church, universities, the world of culture,
fashion, and pleasure were loyal: the gentry, the yeomanry,
trade, commerce, morality, and law inclined to the Parliament.
Broadly divided, the north and west went for the king; the
south and east for the Houses; but the lines of demarcation
were never exact: cities, castles, and manor-houses long held
out in an enemy's county. There is only one permanent
limitation. Draw a line from the Wash to the Solent. East of
that line the country never yielded to the king; from first to
last it never failed the Parliament. Within it are enclosed
Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridge, Huntingdon, Bedford,
Bucks, Herts, Middlesex, Surrey, Kent, Sussex. This was the
wealthiest, the most populous, and the most advanced portion
of England. With Gloucester, Reading, Bristol, Leicester, and
Northampton, it formed the natural home of Puritanism."

_F. Harrison,
Oliver Cromwell,
chapter 4._

ENGLAND: A. D. 1642 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
Edgehill--the opening battle of the war.
The Eastern Association.

Immediately after the raising of his standard at Nottingham,
the King, "aware at last that he could not rely on the
inhabitants of Yorkshire, moved to Shrewsbury, at once to
collect the Catholic gentry of Lancashire and Cheshire, to
receive the Royalist levies of Wales, and to secure the valley
of the Severn. The movement was successful. In a few days his
little army was increased fourfold, and he felt himself strong
enough to make a direct march towards the capital. Essex had
garrisoned Northampton, Coventry and Warwick, and lay himself
at Worcester; but the King, waiting for no sieges, left the
garrisoned towns unmolested and passed on towards London, and
Essex received peremptory orders to pursue and interpose if
possible between the King and London. On the 22nd of October
he was close upon the King's rear at Keynton, between
Stratford and Banbury. But his army was by no means at its
full strength; some regiments had been left to garrison the
West, others, under Hampden had not yet joined him. But delay
was impossible, and the first battle of the war was fought on
the plain at the foot of the north-west slope of Edgehill,
over which the royal army descended, turning back on its
course to meet Essex. Both parties claimed the victory. In
fact it was with the King. The Parliamentary cavalry found
themselves wholly unable to withstand the charge of Rupert's
cavaliers. Whole regiments turned and fled without striking a
blow; but, as usual, want of discipline ruined the royal
cause. Rupert's men fell to plundering the Parliamentary
baggage, and returned to the field only in time to find that
the infantry, under the personal leading of Essex, had
reestablished the fight. Night closed the battle [which is
sometimes named from Edgehill and sometimes from Keynton]. The
King's army withdrew to the vantage-ground of the hills, and
Essex, reinforced by Hampden, passed the night upon the field.
But the Royalist army was neither beaten nor checked in its
advance, while the rottenness of the Parliamentary troops had
been disclosed." Some attempts at peace-making followed this
doubtful first collision; but their only effect was to
embitter the passions on both sides. The King advanced,
threatening London, but the citizens of the capital turned out
valiantly to oppose him, and he "fell back upon Oxford, which
henceforward became the centre of their operations. ... War
was again the only resource, and speedily became universal.
... There was local fighting over the whole of England. ...
The headquarters of the King were constantly at Oxford, from
which, as from a centre, Rupert would suddenly make rapid
raids, now in one direction, now in another. Between him and
London, about Reading, Aylesbury, and Thame, lay what may be
spoken of as the main army of Parliament, under the command of
Lord-General Essex. ... The other two chief scenes of the war
were Yorkshire and the West. In Yorkshire the Fairfaxes,
Ferdinando Lord Fairfax and his son Sir Thomas, made what head
they could against what was known as the Popish army under the
command of the Earl, subsequently Marquis of Newcastle, which
consisted mainly of the troops of the Northern counties, which
had become associated under Newcastle in favour of Charles.
Newark, in Nottinghamshire, was early made a royal garrison,
and formed the link of connection between the operations in
Yorkshire and at Oxford. In the extreme South-west, Lord
Stamford, the Parliamentary General, was making a somewhat
unsuccessful resistance against Sir Ralph, afterwards Lord
Hopton. Wales was wholly Royalist, and one of the chief
objects of Charles's generals was to secure the Severn valley,
and thus connect the war in Devonshire with the central
operations at Oxford. In the Eastern counties matters assumed
rather a different form. The principle of forming several
counties into an association ... was adopted by the
Parliament, and several such associations were formed, but
none of these came to much except that of the Eastern
counties, which was known by way of preeminence as 'The
Association.' Its object was to keep the war entirely beyond
the borders of the counties of which it consisted. The reason
of its success was the genius and energy of Cromwell."

_J. F. Bright,
History of England, period 2,
page 659._

{869}

"This winter there arise among certain Counties 'Associations'
for mutual defence, against Royalism and plunderous Rupertism;
a measure cherished by the Parliament, condemned as
treasonable by the King. Of which 'Associations,' countable to
the number of five or six, we name only one, that of Norfolk,
Suffolk, Essex, Cambridge, Herts; with Lord Gray of Wark for
Commander; where and under whom Oliver was now serving. This
'Eastern Association' is alone worth naming. All the other
Associations, no man of emphasis being in the midst of them,
fell in a few months to pieces; only this of Cromwell
subsisted, enlarged itself, grew famous;--and kept its own
borders clear of invasion during the whole course of the War."

_T. Carlyle,
Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches,
part 2, preliminary._

ALSO IN:
_S. R. Gardiner,
History of the Great Civil War,
chapters 2-4 (volume l)._

_W. Godwin,
History of the Commonwealth,
chapter 2 (volume 1)._

ENGLAND: A. D. 1643 (May).
Cromwell's Ironsides.

"It was ... probably, a little before Edgehill, that there
took place between Cromwell and Hampden the memorable
conversation which fifteen years afterwards the Protector
related in a speech to his second Parliament. It is a piece of
autobiography so instructive and pathetic that it must be set
forth in full in the words of Cromwell himself:

'I was a person who, from my first employment, was suddenly
preferred and lifted up from lesser trusts to greater; from my
first being Captain of a Troop of Horse. ... I had a very
worthy friend then; and he was a very noble person, and I know
his memory was very grateful to all,--Mr. John Hampden. At my
first going out into this engagement, I saw our men were
beaten at every hand. ... Your troops, said I, are most of
them old decayed serving-men, and tapsters, and such kind of
fellows; and, said I, their troops are gentlemen's sons,
younger sons and persons of quality: do you think that the
spirits of such base mean fellows will ever be able to
encounter gentlemen, that have honour and courage and
resolution in them? Truly I did represent to him in this
manner conscientiously; and truly I did tell him: You must get
men of a spirit: and take it not ill what I say,--I know you
will not,--of a spirit that is likely to go on as far as
gentlemen will go: or else you will be beaten still. I told
him so; I did truly. He was a wise and worthy person; and he
did think that I talked a good notion, but an impracticable
one. ... I raised such men as had the fear of God before them,
as made some conscience of what they did; and from that day
forward, I must say to you, they were never beaten, and
wherever they were engaged against the enemy they beat
continually.' ... The issue of the whole war lay in that word.
It lay with 'such men as had some conscience in what they
did.' 'From that day forward they were never beaten.' ... As
for Colonel Cromwell,' writes a news-letter of May, 1643, 'he
hath 2,000 brave men, well disciplined; no man swears but he
pays his twelve-pence; if he be drunk, he is set in the
stocks, or worse; if one calls the other roundhead he is
cashiered: insomuch that the countries where they come leap
for joy of them, and come in and join with them. How happy
were it if all the forces were thus disciplined!' These were
the men who ultimately decided the war, and established the
Commonwealth. On the field of Marston, Rupert gave Cromwell
the name of Ironside, and from thence this famous name passed
to his troopers. There are two features in their history which
we need to note. They were indeed 'such men as had some
conscience in their work'; but they were also much more. They
were disciplined and trained soldiers. They were the only body
of 'regulars' on either side. The instinctive genius of
Cromwell from the very first created the strong nucleus of a
regular army, which at last in discipline, in skill, in
valour, reached the highest perfection ever attained by
soldiers either in ancient or modern times. The fervour of
Cromwell is continually pressing towards the extension of this
'regular' force. Through all the early disasters, this body of
Ironsides kept the cause alive: at Marston it overwhelmed the
king: as soon as, by the New Model, this system was extended
to the whole army, the Civil War was at an end."

_F. Harrison,
Oliver Cromwell,
chapter 4._

ALSO IN:
_J. Forster,
Statesmen of the Commonwealth: Cromwell._

ENGLAND: A. D. 1643 (JUNE-SEPTEMBER).
The King calls in the Irish.

"To balance the accession of power which the alliance with
Scotland brought to the Parliament, Charles was so unwise, men
then said so guilty, as to conclude a peace with the Irish
rebels, with the intent that thus those of his forces which
had been employed against them, might be set free to join his
army in England. No act of the King, not the levying of
ship-money, not the crowd of monopolies which enriched the
court and impoverished the people, neither the extravagance of
Buckingham, the tyranny of Strafford nor the prelacy of Laud, not
even the attempted arrest of the five members, raised such a
storm of indignation and hatred throughout the kingdom, as did
this determination of the King to withdraw (as men said), for
the purpose of subduing his subjects, the force which had been
raised to avenge the blood of 100,000 Protestant martyrs. ...
To the England of the time this act was nauseous, was
exasperating to the highest degree, while to the cause of the
King it was fatal; for, from this moment, the condition of the
Parliamentary party began to mend."

_N. L. Walford,
Parliamentary Generals of the Great Civil War,
chapter 2._

"None of the king's schemes proved so fatal to his cause as
these. On their discovery, officer after officer in his own
army flung down their commissions, the peers who had fled to
Oxford fled back again to London, and the Royalist reaction in
the Parliament itself came utterly to an end."

_J. R. Green,
Short History of England,
chapter 8, section 7._

ALSO IN:
_S. R. Gardiner,
History of the Great Civil War,
chapter 11 (volume 1)._

ENGLAND: A. D. 1643 (JULY).
Meeting of the Westminster Assembly of Divines.

At the beginning of July, 1643, "London was astir with a new
event of great consequence in the course of the national
revolution. This was the meeting of the famous Westminster
Assembly. The necessity of an ecclesiastical Synod or
Convocation, to cooperate with the Parliament, had been long
felt.
{870}
Among the articles of the Grand Remonstrance of December 1641
had been one desiring a convention of 'a General Synod of the
most grave, pious, learned, and judicious divines of this
island, assisted by some from foreign parts,' to consider of
all things relating to the Church and report thereon to
Parliament. It is clear from the wording of this article that
it was contemplated that the Synod should contain
representatives from the Presbyterian Church of Scotland.
Indeed, by that time, the establishment of a uniformity of
Doctrine, Discipline, and Worship between the Churches of
England and Scotland was the fixed idea of those who chiefly
desired a Synod. ... In April, 1642 ... it was ordered by the
House, in pursuance of previous resolutions on the subject,
'that the names of such divines as shall be thought fit to be
consulted with concerning the matter of the Church be brought
in tomorrow morning,' the understood rule being that the
knights and burgesses of each English county should name to
the House two divines, and those of each Welsh county one
divine, for approval. Accordingly, on the 20th, the names were
given in. ... By the stress of the war the Assembly was
postponed. At last, hopeless of a bill that should pass in the
regular way by the King's consent, the Houses resorted, in
this as in other things, to their peremptory plan of Ordinance
by their own authority. On the 13th of May, 1643, an Ordinance
for calling an Assembly was introduced in the Commons; which
Ordinance, after due going and coming between the two Houses,
came to maturity June 12, when it was entered at full length
in the Lords' Journals. 'Whereas, amongst the infinite
blessings of Almighty God upon this nation,'--so runs the
preamble of the Ordinance,--'none is, or can be, more dear to
us than the purity of our religion; and for as much as many
things yet remain in the discipline, liturgy and government of
the Church which necessarily require a more perfect
reformation: and whereas it has been declared and resolved, by
the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament, that the
present Church Government by Archbishops, Bishops, their
Chancellors, Commissaries, Deans, Deans and Chapters,
Archdeacons, and other ecclesiastical officers depending on
the hierarchy, is evil and justly offensive and burdensome to
the kingdom, and a great impediment to reformation and growth
of religion, and very prejudicial to the state and government
of this kingdom, and that therefore they are resolved the same
shall be taken away, and that such a government shall be
settled in the Church as may be agreeable to God's Holy Word,
and most apt to procure and preserve the peace of the Church
at home, and nearer agreement with the Church of Scotland, and
other reformed Churches abroad. ... Be it therefore ordained,
&c.' What is ordained is that 149 persons, enumerated by name
in the Ordinance ... shall meet on the 1st of July next in
King Henry VII.'s Chapel at Westminster; ... 'to confer and
treat among themselves of such matters and things, concerning
the liturgy, discipline and government of the Church of
England ... as shall be proposed by either or both Houses of
Parliament, and no other.' ... Notwithstanding a Royal
Proclamation from Oxford, dated June 22, forbidding the
Assembly and threatening consequences, the first meeting duly
took place on the day appointed--Saturday, July 1, 1643; and
from that day till the 22d of February, 1648-9, or for more
than five years and a half, the Westminster Assembly is to be
borne in mind as a power or institution in the English realm,
existing side by side with the Long Parliament, and in
constant conference and cooperation with it. The number of its
sittings during these five years and a half was 1,163 in all;
which is at the rate of about four sittings every week for the
whole time. The earliest years of the Assembly were the most
important."

_D. Masson,
Life of John Milton,
book 3, chapter 3 (volume 2)._

ALSO IN:
_A. F. Mitchell,
The Westminster Assembly,
lectures 4-5._

_D. Neal,
History of the Puritans,
volume 3, chapters 2 and 4._

SEE, also, INDEPENDENTS.

ENGLAND: A. D. 1643 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).
The Solemn League and Covenant with the Scottish nation.

"Scotland had been hitherto kept aloof from the English
quarrel. ... Up to this time the pride and delicacy of the
English patriots withheld them, for obvious reasons, from
claiming her assistance. Had it been possible, they would
still have desired to engage no distant party in this great
domestic struggle; but when the present unexpected crisis
arrived ... these considerations were laid aside, and the
chief leaders of the Parliament resolved upon an embassy to
the North, to bring the Scottish nation into the field. The
conduct of this embassy was a matter of the highest difficulty
and danger. The Scots were known to be bigoted to their own
persuasions of narrow and exclusive church government, while
the greatest men of the English Parliament had proclaimed the
sacred maxim that every man who worshipped God according to
the dictates of his conscience was entitled to the protection
of the State. But these men, Vane, Cromwell, Marten and St.
John, though the difficulties of the common cause had brought
them into the acknowledged position of leaders and directors
of affairs, were in a minority in the House of Commons, and
the party who were their superiors in numbers were as bigoted
to the most exclusive principles of Presbyterianism as the
Scots themselves. Denzil Holies stood at the head of this
inferior class of patriots. ... The most eminent of the
Parliamentary nobility, particularly Northumberland, Essex and
Manchester belonged also to this body; while the London
clergy, and the metropolis itself, were almost entirely
Presbyterian. These things considered, there was indeed great
reason to apprehend that this party, backed by the Scots, and
supported with a Scottish army, would be strong enough to
overpower the advocates of free conscience, and 'set up a
tyranny not less to be deplored than that of Laud and his
hierarchy, which had proved one of the main occasions of
bringing on the war.' Yet, opposing to all this danger only
their own high purposes and dauntless courage, the smaller
party of more consummate statesmen were the first to propose
the embassy to Scotland. ... On the 20th of July, 1643, the
commissioners set out from London. They were four; and the man
principally confided in among them was Vane [Sir Henry, the
younger]. He, indeed, was the individual best qualified to
succeed Hampden as a counsellor in the arduous struggle in
which the nation was at this time engaged. ... Immediately on
his arrival in Edinburgh the negotiation commenced, and what
Vane seems to have anticipated at once occurred. The Scots
offered their assistance heartily on the sole condition of an
adhesion to the Scottish religious system on the part of
England.
{871}
After many long and very warm debates, in which Vane held to
one firm policy from the first, a solemn covenant was
proposed, which Vane insisted should be named a solemn league
and covenant, while certain words were inserted in it on his
subsequent motion, to which he also adhered with immovable
constancy, and which had the effect of leaving open to the
great party in England, to whose interests he was devoted,
that last liberty of conscience which man should never
surrender. ... The famous article respecting religion ran in
these words;

'That we shall sincerely, really, and constantly, through the
grace of God, endeavour, in our several places and callings,
the preservation of the Reformed religion in the Church of
Scotland, in doctrine, worship, discipline and government,
against our common enemies; the reformation of religion in the
kingdoms of England and Ireland, in doctrine, worship,
discipline, and government, according to the Word of God, and
the example of the best Reformed churches; and we shall
endeavour to bring the churches of God in the three kingdoms
to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in religion,
confessing of faith, form of church government directory for
worship and catechizing; that we and our posterity after us,
may as brethren live in faith and love, and the Lord may
delight to dwell in the midst of us. That we shall in like
manner, without respect of persons, endeavour the extirpation
of popery, prelacy (that is, church government by archbishops,
bishops, their chancellors and commissaries, deans, deans and
chapters, archdeacons, and all other ecclesiastical officers
depending on that hierarchy).' Vane, by this introduction of
'according to the Word of God,' left the interpretation of
that word to the free conscience of every man. On the 17th of
August, the solemn league and covenant was voted by the
Legislature and the Assembly of the Church at Edinburgh. The
king in desperate alarm, sent his commands to the Scotch
people not to take such a covenant. In reply, they 'humbly
advised his majesty to take the covenant himself.' The
surpassing service rendered by Vane on this great occasion to
the Parliamentary cause, exposed him to a more violent hatred
from the Royalists than he had yet experienced, and Clarendon
has used every artifice to depreciate his motives and his
sincerity. ... The solemn league and covenant remained to be
adopted in England. The Scottish form of giving it authority
was followed as far as possible. It was referred by the two
Houses to the Assembly of Divines, which had commenced its
sittings on the 1st of the preceding July, being called
together to be consulted with by the Parliament for the
purpose of settling the government and form of worship of the
Church of England. This assembly already referred to,
consisted of 121 of the clergy; and a number of lay assessors
were joined with them, consisting of ten peers, and twenty
members of the House of Commons. All these persons were named
by the ordinance of the two Houses of Parliament which gave
birth to the assembly. The public taking of the Covenant was
solemnized on the 25th of September, each member of either
House attesting his adherence by oath first, and then by
subscribing his name. The name of Vane, subscribed immediately
on his return, appears upon the list next to that of
Cromwell."

_J. Forster,
Statesmen of the Commonwealth: Vane._

ALSO IN:
_J. K. Hosmer,
Life of Young Sir Henry Vane,
chapter 8._

_A. F. Mitchell,
The Westminster Assembly,
lectures 5-6._

_D. Neal,
History of the Puritans,
volume 3, chapter 2._

_S. R. Gardiner,
Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution,
page 187._

The following is the text of the Solemn League and Covenant:

"A solemn league and covenant for Reformation and defence of
religion, the honour and happiness of the King, and the peace
and safety of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland and
Ireland. We noblemen, barons, knights, gentlemen, citizens,
burgesses, ministers of the Gospel, and commons of all sorts
in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, by the
providence of God living under one King, and being of one
reformed religion; having before our eyes the glory of God,
and the advancement of the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ, the honour and happiness of the King's Majesty
and his posterity, and the true public liberty, safety and
peace of the kingdoms, wherein everyone's private condition is
included; and calling to mind the treacherous and bloody
plots, conspiracies, attempts and practices of the enemies of
God against the true religion and professors thereof in all
places, especially in these three kingdoms, ever since the
reformation of religion; and how much their rage, power and
presumption are of late, and at this time increased and
exercised, whereof the deplorable estate of the Church and
kingdom of Ireland, the distressed estate of the Church and
kingdom of England, and the dangerous estate of the Church and
kingdom of Scotland, are present and public testimonies: we
have (now at last) after other means of supplication,
remonstrance, protestations and sufferings, for the
preservation of ourselves and our religion from utter ruin and
destruction, according to the commendable practice of these
kingdoms in former times, and the example of God's people in
other nations, after mature deliberation, resolved and
determined to enter into a mutual and solemn league and
covenant, wherein we all subscribe, and each one of us for
himself, with our hands lifted up to the most high God, do
swear,

I. That we shall sincerely, really and constantly, through the
grace of God, endeavour in our several places and callings,
the preservation of the reformed religion in the Church of
Scotland, in doctrine, worship, discipline and government,
against our common enemies; the reformation of religion in the
kingdoms of England and Ireland, in doctrine, worship,
discipline and government, according to the Word of God, and
the example of the best reformed Churches; and we shall
endeavour to bring the Churches of God in the three kingdoms
to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in religion,
confession of faith, form of Church government, directory for
worship and catechising, that we, and our posterity after us,
may, as brethren, live in faith and love, and the Lord may
delight to dwell in the midst of us.

II. That we shall in like manner, without respect of persons,
endeavour the extirpation of Popery, prelacy (that is, Church
government by Archbishops, Bishops, their Chancellors and
Commissaries, Deans, Deans and Chapters, Archdeacons, and all
other ecclesiastical officers depending on that hierarchy),
superstition, heresy, schism, profaneness and whatsoever shall
be found to be contrary to sound doctrine and the power of
godliness lest we partake in other men's sins, and thereby be
in danger to receive of their plagues; and that the Lord may
be one, and His name one in the three kingdoms.

{872}