LETTER VII. ENGLAND FROM THE BATTLE OF NASEBY TO THE EXECUTION OF CHARLES I. AND THE SUBVERSION OF THE MONARCHY AFTER the battle of Naseby, the king's affairs went so fast to ruin in all quarters, that he ordered the prince of Wales, now fifteen years of age, to make his escape beyond sea, and save at least one part of the royal family from the violence of the parliament. The prince retired to Jersey, and afterward to Paris, where he joined the queen, who had fled thither from Exeter, at the time the earl of Essex conducted the parliamentary army to the west. The king himself retreated first to Hereford, then to Abergavenny; and remained some time in Wales, in hopes of raising a body of infantry in that loyal but exhausted country. In the mean time, the parliamentary generals and the Scots made themselves masters of almost every place of importance in the kingdom, and every where routed and dispersed the royalists. Fairfax and Cromwell immediately retook Leicester; and having also reduced Bridgewater, Bath, and Sherborne, they resolved, before they divided their forces, to besiege Bristol, into which prince Rupert had thrown himself, with an intention of defending to the uttermost a place of so much consequence. Vast preparations were made for an enterprize, which, from the strength of the garrison, and the reputation of the governor, was expected to require the greatest exertions of valour and perseverence. But so precarious a quality, in most men, is military courage, that a poorer defence was not made by any town during the course of the war. Though prince Rupert had written a letter to the king, in which he undertook to hold out four months if the garrison did not mutiny, he surrendered the place a few days after, on articles of capitulation, and at the first summons'. 1. Rushworth, vol. vii, Clarendon. vol iv. Charles, SEP. 24. Charles, astonished at this unexpected event, which was scarcely less fatal to the royal cause than the battle of Naseby, and full of indignation at the manner in which so important a city had been given up at the very time he was collecting forces for its relief, instantly recalled all prince Rupert's commissions, and ordered him to quit the kingdom. After an unsuccessful attempt to raise the siege of Chester, the king himself took refuge with the remains of his broken army in Oxford, where he continued during the winter season2. Fairfax and Cromwell having divided their armies, after the taking of Bristol, reduced to obedience all the west, and middle counties of England, while the Scots made themselves. masters of Carlisle, and other places of importance in the north. Lord Digby, in attempting to break into Scotland, and join Montrose with twelve hundred horse, was defeated at Sherburn, in Yorkshire, by colonel Coply; and, to complete the king's misfortunes, news soon after arrived, that Montrose, himself, the only remaining hope of the royal party, was at last routed. That gallant nobleman, having descended into the low country, had defeated the whole force of the covenanters at Kilsyth, and left them no remains of an army in Scotland. Edinburgh opened its gates to him; and many of the nobility and gentry, who secretly favoured the royal cause, when they saw a force able to support them, declared openly for it. But Montrose advancing still further south, in hopes of being joined by lord Digby, was suprized, through the negligence of his scouts, at Philiphaugh, in Eterick forest, by a strong body of cavalry under David Lesly, who had been detached from the Scottish army in England, in order to check the career of this heroic leader; and, after a sharp conflict, in which he displayed the highest exertions of va 2. Id. ibid. lour, lour, the marquis was obliged to quit the field, and fly with his broken forces into the Highlands3. The covenanters used their victory with great rigour, Many of the prisoners were butchered in cold blood; and sir Robert Spotswood, sir Philip Nisbet, sir William Rolls, colonel Nathaniel Gorden, Andrew Guthrie, son of the bishop of Murray, and William Murray, son of the earl of Tullibardine, were condemned and executed. The clergy incited the civil power to this severity, and even solicited that more blood might be spilt on the Scaffold. The pulpit thundered against all who did the work of the Lord deceit fully. "Thine eye shall not pity!" and "Thou shalt not spare!" were maxims frequently inculcated after every execution4. The king's condition during the winter, was truly deplorable. Harrassed by discontented officers, who over-rated those services and sufferings, which they now apprehended must forever go unrewarded, and by generous friends, whose misfortunes wrung his heart with sorrow; oppressed by past disasters, and apprehensive of future calamities, he was in no period of his unfortunate life more sincerely to be pitied. In vain did he attempt to negociate with the parliament they would not deign to listen to him, but gave him to understand, that he must yield at discretions. The only remaining body of his troops, on which fortune could exercise her rigour, and which he had ordered to march to 3. Wishart, chap. 13. Rushworth, vol. vii. Montrose's army, when attacked by Lesly, was much reduced by the desertion of the Highlanders, who had returned home in great numbers, in order to secure the plunder they had acquired in the south, and which they considered as inexhaustible wealth, Id. ibid. 4. Burnet, Hist vol. i. See also Cuthrie's Memoirs. The presbyteri ans about this time, by considering themselves as the chosen people of God, and regulating their conduct by the maxims of the old Testament, seem to have departed totally from the spirit of the Gospel. Instead of forgiving their enemies, they had no bowels of compassion for those who differed from them in the slightest article of faith. 5. Clarendon, vol. iv. ward ward Oxford under lord Astley, in order to reinforce the A. D. 1646. garrison of that place, was met by colonel MorMARCH 22. gan at Stowe, and totally defeated. "You have "done your work," said Astley, to the parliamentary officers by whom he was taken prisoner," and may now go to play, "unless you choose to fall out among yourselves"." Thus deprived of all hope of prevailing over the inflexibility of the parliament, either by arms or treaty, the only prospect of better fortune that remained to the king was in the dissensions of his enemies. The civil and religious disputes between the presbyterians and independents agitated the whole kingdom. The presbyterian religion was now established in England in all its forms: and its followers, pleading the eternal obligations of the covenant, to extirpate schism and heresy, menaced their opponents with the same rigid persecution, under which they themselves had groaned, while held in subjection by the hierarchy. But although Charles entertained some hopes of reaping advantage from these divisions, he was much at a loss to determine with which side it would be most for his interest to take part. The presbyterians were, by their principles, less inimical to monarchy, but they were bent upon the extirpation of prelacy; whereas the independents, though resolute to lay the foundation of a republican government, as they pretended not to erect themselves into a national church, might possibly admit the re-establishment of the hierarchy; and Charles was, at all times, willing to put episcopal jurisdiction in competition with regal authority. But the approach of Fairfax toward Oxford put an end to these deliberations, and induced the king to embrace a mea 6. Rushworth, vol. vii. It was the same Astley, who made the following short but emphatical prayer, before he led on his men at the battle of Edgehill: "O Lord, thou knoweft how busy I must be this day; if 1 forget "thee do not thou forget me!" and then cried, " March on boys !" Warwick, p. 229. sure sure that must ever be considered as imprudent. Afraid of falling into the hands of his insolent enemies, and of being led in triumph by them, he resolved to throw himself on the generosity of the Scots; without sufficiently reflecting that he must, by such a step, disgust his English subjects of all denominations, and that the Scottish covenanters, in whom he meant to repose so much confidence, were not only his declared enemies, but now acted as auxiliaries to the English parliament. He left Oxford, however, and retired to their camp before Newark. The Scottish generals and commissioners affected great surprise at the appearance of Charles though previously acquainted with his design: and, while they paid him all the exterior respect due to his dignity, and appointed him a guard, under pretence of protecting him, they made him in reality a prisoner. The next step which the Scots took, in regard to the unfortunate monarch, was to assure the English parliament, that they had entered into no treaty with the king, and that his arrival among them was altogether unexpected. Sensible, however, of the value of their prisoner, and alarmed at some motions of the English army, they thought proper to retire northward, and fixed their camp at Newcastle. This movement was highly agreeable to Charles, who now began to entertain the most sanguine hopes of protection from the Scots. But he soon found cause to alter his opinion; and had, in the mean time, little reason to be pleased with his situation. All his friends were kept at a distance, and all correspondence with them was prohibited. And the coveA. D. 1647.nanters, after insulting him from the pulpit, and JAN. 30. engaging him, by deceitful or unavailing negociations, to disarm his adherents in both kingdoms, agreed to deliver him up to the English parliament, on condition of being paid their arrears, which were compounded at four 7. Rushworth, vol. vii. Clarendon, vol. v. hundred |