he was first minister at Northampton, afterwards at Braisted in Kent, and at length chaplain in Sir Thomas Fairfax's army, where he always preached up love and unity: he meddled not with presbytery or independency, but labored to draw souls from sin to Christ. He published some treatises, by which it appears he was of antinomian principles. The manner of his death was extraordinary; December the 4th, 1647, being at his house at Ilford in Essex, he told his wife he had been in a trance, and received a message from God which he must immediately deliver to the army. He went that night to London, and next day to Windsor; being come to the council of officers he told them, that the Lord had left them; that he would not prosper their consultations, but destroy them by divisions among themselves, because they had sought to destroy the people of God, those who had stood by them in their greatest difficulties. He then went to the general, and without moving his hat told him, that God was highly displeased with him for committing of saints to prison. The like message he delivered to Cromwell, requiring him to take effectual measures for the enlargement of the members of the army, who were committed for not complying with the general council. He then took his leave of the officers, telling them, he had now done his errand, and must never see them any more. After which he went to London, and took leave of his friends there, telling them his work was done, and desiring some of them to be careful of his wife. Thursday December 9, he returned to Ilford in perfect health; next day he told his wife, that he had now finished his work, and must go to his Father. Saturday morning Dec. 11, he was taken speechless, and about four in the afternoon he died. Rushworth p. 944. The second Civil War. The Conclusion of the Assembly of Divines. The Progress of Presbytery. The Treaty of the Isle of Wight. Death and Character of King Charles I. His Works. And, the Authors of his unhappy Sufferings. ANNO 1648. THE king was all last winter a close prisoner in Carisbrook castle, attended only by two servants of his own, and debarred of all other conversation, without the knowledge of the governor; nevertheless, by the assistance of some particular friends, he sent and received several letters from the queen, though his correspondence was discovered oftner than he was aware. His majesty made several attempts to escape, but was always prevented; captain Burley attempted to raise the island for him, but was apprehended and executed. However, in pursuance of the secret treaty with the Scots, already mentioned, an army was raising in that kingdom, to be commanded by duke Hamilton; but the English cavaliers, impatient of delay, without concerting proper measures among themselves, or with the presbyterians, took up arms in several counties, to deliver the king from his confinement, and to restore him without any treaty with his parliament. The Welsh appeared first, under major-general Langhorn, colonel Poyer and Powel, three officers in the parliament army, who had privately accepted commissions from the prince of Wales. These were followed by others in Dorsetshire, Devonshire, Sussex, Surrey, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Kent, Northamptonshire, Essex, and in the city of London itself. The insurrection in the city began on Sunday April 9, in Moorfields, by a company of young fellows with clubs and staves, crying out, for God and king Charles. But after they had done some mischief in the night, and frighted the mayor into the Tower, they were dispersed next morning by the general at the head of two regiments. The Kentish * Rushworth, p. 1007. men under the earl of Norwich, having plundered some houses, were defeated near Maidstone, and having a promise of pardon, the main body laid down their arms; notwithstanding which, the earl with five hundred resolute men, crossed the Thames at the Isle of Dogs, and came as far as Mile-end green, expecting assistance from the city; but being disappointed, he joined the Essex cavaliers under Sir Charles Lucas and Lord Capel, who surprized the parliament's committee at Chemsford, and then shut themselves up in Colchester, where they maintained them. selves against general Fairfax for ten weeks, till being reduced to the last extremity, they were forced to surrender at discretion Aug. 28, after which the general marched round about the country, and having quieted all insurrections in those parts, returned to his head-quarters at St. Albans about Michaelmas. While Fairfax was in Kent and Essex, lieutenant-general Cromwell reduced the Welch about the end of June. At the same time, the earl of Holland and duke of Buckingham appeared at the head of five hundred horse and some foot near Kingston-upon-Thames, but they were soon dispersed; the earl was taken prisoner at St. Neot's in Huntingdonshire by colonel Scroop, and Dr. Grey is displeased with Mr. Neal, that he does not inform his readers, what use general Fairfax made of the power with which this unconditional surrender invested him. He seized Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle, and made them instant sacrifices to military justice. All the prisoners exclaimed against this as an unusual piece of severity and some historians have censured it as a bloody step. Mrs. Macaulay represents it as an instance of the humanity of the general, that, though he had been provoked by many irritating circumstances in the conduct of the besieged, he selected the two chief commanders only, to avenge the innocent blood they had caused to be spilt. The fact was, that these two gentlemen had shewnt hemselves most implacable ; had prevented the soldiers from accepting terms of indemnity offered by the parliament in the beginning; that the besieged had been exposed to the utmost extremities of famine; and that the independents regarded the engaging the kingdom in a second war as an unpardonable crime. When Sir Charles Lucas urged that the sentence of the general was unprecedented, a parliament soldier standing by, told him, that he had put to death with his own hand some of the parliament's ⚫ soldiers in cold blood." At which he was dismayed. A few days after, a gentleman in mourning for Sir Charles Lucas appearing in his presence, the king wept. Mrs. Macaulay's History, vol. iv. p. 362-3. Whitlocke's Memorials, p. 328, 29, 30. Ed. the duke of Buckingham, with great difficulty, escaped into the Low Countries. About the same time several of the parliament's ships revolted to the prince of Wales, then in Holland, who went on board, and with prince Rupert, lord Hopton, and others, sailed to the coast of England, with a design to relieve Colchester; but although disappointed, he landed five hundred men about Deal and Sandwich, and blocked up the Thames mouth; but when the earl of Warwick came up with the parliament's fleet, he sailed back to Holland, and most of the ships returned to the obedience of the parliament. It was not without great difficulty that the king's friends in Scotland prevailed with the parliament of that kingdom to consent to the raising an army against England, the commissioners of the kirk, and the whole body of their ministers, being vehemently against it; and when it was put to the vote, eighteen lords and forty commoners entered their protests, from a strong suspicion, that by the vast resort of loyalists to Edinburgh, there was a private agreement between Hamilton and that party, to lay aside the covenant, and restore the king without any conditions; to prevent which the Scots parliament gave express orders, that none should be received into their army, or join with them at their entrance into England, except such as should take the covenant; but Hamilton, who betrayed their cause, found means to evade the order, by which means he ruined himself, and the party he intended to serve.* The Scots army entered England July 11th, to the number of twenty thousand foot|| and six thousand horse, under * Rapin, vol. ii. p. 550, 553, folio. Hamilton's Mem. p. 339. Bishop Burnet endeavors to exculpate the duke from such a charge, and imputes the miscarriage of the expedition, in which he was leader, to his yielding to the counsels of others. The bishop sets against the report of his betraying the army several instances of his generous and disinterested conduct, in his care to preserve the army, and to act for the king's advantage, to the risk of his own liberty and safety. Memoirs of the Duke of Hamilion, p. 365. Ed. Dr. Grey here censures Mr. Neal for often speaking at random :~ because bishop Burnet, on the authority of Turner, the adjutant-general, says, that "the forces of the Scots amounted only to ten thousand foot and four thousand horse." Memoirs of Hamilton, p. 356. But the command of duke Hamilton, and were afterwards joined by Sir Marmaduke Langdale at the head of four thou sand foot, and seven or eight hundred horse; but these being Englishmen and cavaliers, who had not taken the covenant, were not incorporated with the Scots forces, but were obliged to march a day before them, which was Ham-. ilton's contrivance to evade his orders; nevertheless, they composed one army, Langdale being to receive all his orders from Hamilton, and to act only by his directions.. But though there was a private understanding between the generals, the subalterns and soldiers of both parties were not acquainted with it, and had the same incurable jealousy of each other as formerly; from the same motive, the presbyterians in the parliament at Westminster commissioned their army to oppose the Scots, though they came into England with an avowed intention of restoring the king upon the terms of the covenant; which was the supreme object of their wishes. It may seem surprising, however, that there was no good understanding between the two parliaments, when those of England sent commissioners to Edinburgh to accomplish it; but the Scots, being strongly persuaded that the parliament at Westminster was still governed by an army of independents, all that Mr. Marshall and the rest could say was not sufficient to divert them from their enterprize, which is the easier accounted for, when the strength of the Hamiltonian faction, and their obligations to the king by their secret treaty, are considered. This engagement appears from the duke's letter to Lambert, in which he acquaints him, that he was commanded to enter England with an army, for maintaining the solemn league and covenant; for settling religion; for delivering the king from his base imprisonment; and freeing the parliament from the constraint put upon them.* The state of affairs had undergone a considerable change by the rising of the English cavaliers; the army was in the field, and divided into several distant parts of the kingdom, and the presbyte it may afford a sanction to Mr. Neal's representation, that, since he wrote, Mrs. Macaulay and Mr. Hume have given the same estimate of the army, led by Duke Hamilton into England. With these agree Whitlocke. Memoirs, p. 327. Ed. * Rushworth, p. 1194. VOL. III. 60 |