Memoirs of a Cavalier Part 19

6. The queen voted a traitor by the Parliament the 3rd of May, the same day and month she carried the jewels into France.

7. The same day the king defeated Ess.e.x in the west, his son, King Charles II., was defeated at Worcester.

8. Archbishop Laud's house at Lambeth a.s.saulted by the mob, the same day of the same month that he advised the king to make war upon the Scots.

9. Impeached the 15th of December 1640, the same day twelvemonth that he ordered the Common Prayer-book of Scotland to be printed, in order to be imposed upon the Scots, from which all our troubles began.

But many more, and more strange, are the critical junctures of affairs in the case of the enemy, or at least more observed by me:--

1. Sir John Hotham, who repulsed his Majesty and refused him admittance into Hull before the war, was seized at Hull by the same Parliament for whom he had done it, the same 10th day of August two years that he drew the first blood in that war.

2. Hampden of Buckinghams.h.i.+re killed the same day one year that the mob pet.i.tion from Bucks was presented to the king about him, as one of the five members.

3. Young Captain Hotham executed the 1st of January, the same day that he a.s.sisted Sir Thomas Fairfax in the first skirmish with the king's forces at Bramham Moor.

4. The same day and month, being the 6th of August 1641, that the Parliament voted to raise an army against the king, the same day and month, _anno_ 1648, the Parliament were a.s.saulted and turned out of doors by that very army, and none left to sit but who the soldiers pleased, which were therefore called the Rump.

5. The Earl of Holland deserted the king, who had made him general of the horse, and went over to the Parliament, and the 9th of March 1641, carried the Commons' reproaching declaration to the king; and afterwards taking up arms for the king against the Parliament, was beheaded by them the 9th of March 1648, just seven years after.

6. The Earl of Holland was sent by the king to come to his a.s.sistance and refused, the 11th of July 1641, and that very day seven years after was taken by the Parliament at St Neots.

7. Colonel Ma.s.sey defended Gloucester against the king, and beat him off the 5th of September 1643; was taken after by Cromwell's men fighting for the king, on the 5th of September 1651, two or three days after the fight at Worcester.

8. Richard Cromwell resigning, because he could not help it, the Parliament voted a free Commonwealth, without a single person or House of Lords. This was the 25th of May 1658; the 25th of May 1660, the king landed at Dover, and restored the government of a single person and House of Lords.

9. Lambert was proclaimed a traitor by the Parliament April the 20th, being the same day he proposed to Oliver Cromwell to take upon him the t.i.tle of king.

10. Monk being taken prisoner at Nantwich by Sir Thomas Fairfax, revolted to the Parliament the same day nineteen years he declared for the king, and thereby restored the royal authority.

11. The Parliament voted to approve of Sir John Hotham's repulsing the king at Hull, the 28th of April 1642; the 28th of April 1660, the Parliament first debated in the House the restoring the king to the crown.

12. The agitators of the army formed themselves into a cabal, and held their first meeting to seize on the king's person, and take him into their custody from Holmby, the 28th of April 1647; the same day, 1660, the Parliament voted the agitators to be taken into custody, and committed as many of them as could be found.

13. The Parliament voted the queen a traitor for a.s.sisting her husband, the king, May the 3rd, 1643; her son, King Charles II., was presented with the votes of Parliament to restore him, and the present of 50,000, the 3rd of May 1660.

14. The same day the Parliament pa.s.sed the Act for recognition of Oliver Cromwell, October 13th, 1654, Lambert broke up the Parliament and set up the army, 1659, October the 13th.

Some other observations I have made, which, as not so pertinent, I forbear to publish, among which I have noted the fatality of some days to parties, as--

The 2nd of September: The fight at Dunbar; the fight at Worcester; the oath against a single person pa.s.sed; Oliver's first Parliament called.

For the enemy.

The 2nd of September: Ess.e.x defeated in Cornwall; Oliver died; city works demolished. For the king.

The 29th of May: Prince Charles born; Leicester taken by storm; King Charles II. restored. Ditto.

Fatality of circ.u.mstances in this unhappy war, as--

1. The English Parliament call in the Scots, to invade their king, and are invaded themselves by the same Scots, in defence of the king whose case, and the design of the Parliament, the Scots had mistaken.

2. The Scots, who unjustly a.s.sisted the Parliament to conquer their lawful sovereign, contrary to their oath of allegiance, and without any pretence on the king's part, are afterwards absolutely conquered and subdued by the same Parliament they a.s.sisted.

3. The Parliament, who raised an army to depose their king, deposed by the very army they had raised.

4. The army broke three Parliaments, and are at last broke by a free Parliament; and all they had done by the military power, undone at once by the civil.

5. Abundance of the chief men, who by their fiery spirits involved the nation in a civil war, and took up arms against their prince, first or last met with ruin or disgrace from their own party.

(1.) Sir John Hotham and his son, who struck the first stroke, both beheaded or hanged by the Parliament.

(2.) Major-General Ma.s.sey three times taken prisoner by them, and once wounded at Worcester.

(3.) Major-General Langhorn, (4.) Colonel Poyer, and (5.) Colonel Powell, changed sides, and at last taken, could obtain no other favour than to draw lots for their lives; Colonel Poyer drew the dead lot, and was shot to death.

(6.) Earl of Holland: who, when the House voted who should be reprieved, Lord Goring, who had been their worst enemy, or the Earl of Holland, who excepting one offence, had been their constant servant, voted Goring to be spared, and the Earl to die.

(7.) The Earl of Ess.e.x, their first general;

(8.) Sir William Waller;

(9.) Lieutenant-General Ludlow;

(10.) The Earl of Manchester;

--all disgusted and voted out of the army, though they had stood the first shock of the war, to make way for the new model of the army, and introduce a party.

In all these confusions I have observed two great errors, one of the king, and one of his friends.

Of the king, that when he was in their custody, and at their mercy, he did not comply with their propositions of peace, before their army, for want of employment, fell into heats and mutinies; that he did not at first grant the Scots their own conditions, which, if he had done, he had gone into Scotland; and then, if the English would have fought the Scots for him, he had a reserve of his loyal friends, who would have had room to have fallen in with the Scots to his a.s.sistance, who were after dispersed and destroyed in small parties attempting to serve him.

While his Majesty remained at Newcastle, the queen wrote to him, persuading him to make peace upon any terms; and in politics her Majesty's advice was certainly the best. For, however low he was brought by a peace, it must have been better than the condition he was then in.

The error I mention of the king's friends was this, that after they saw all was lost, they could not be content to sit still, and reserve themselves for better fortunes, and wait the happy time when the divisions of the enemy would bring them to certain ruin; but must hasten their own miseries by frequent fruitless risings, in the face of a victorious enemy, in small parties; and I always found these effects from it:--

1. The enemy, who were always together by the ears, when they were let alone, were united and reconciled when we gave them any interruption; as particularly, in the case of the first a.s.sault the army made upon them, when Colonel Pride, with his regiment, garbled the House, as they called it. At that time a fair opportunity offered; but it was omitted till it was too late. That insult upon the House had been attempted the year before, but was hindered by the little insurrection of the royal party, and the sooner they had fallen out, the better.

2. These risings being desperate, with vast disadvantages, and always suppressed, ruined all our friends; the remnants of the Cavaliers were lessened, the stoutest and most daring were cut off, and the king's interest exceedingly weakened, there not being less than 30,000 of his best friends cut off in the several attempts made at Maidstone, Colchester, Lancas.h.i.+re, Pembroke, Pontefract, Kingston, Preston, Warrington, Worcester, and other places. Had these men all reserved their fortunes to a conjunction with the Scots, at either of the invasions they made into this kingdom, and acted with the conduct and courage they were known masters of, perhaps neither of those Scots armies had been defeated.

But the impatience of our friends ruined all; for my part, I had as good a mind to put my hand to the ruin of the enemy as any of them, but I never saw any tolerable appearance of a force able to match the enemy, and I had no mind to be beaten and then hanged. Had we let them alone, they would have fallen into so many parties and factions, and so effectually have torn one another to pieces, that whichsoever party had come to us, we should, with them, have been too hard for all the rest.

This was plain by the course of things afterwards; when the Independent army had ruffled the Presbyterian Parliament, the soldiery of that party made no scruple to join us, and would have restored the king with all their hearts, and many of them did join us at last.

And the consequence, though late, ended so; for they fell out so many times, army and Parliament, Parliament and army, and alternately pulled one another down so often till at last the Presbyterians who began the war, ended it, and, to be rid of their enemies, rather than for any love to the monarchy, restored King Charles the Second, and brought him in on the very day that they themselves had formerly resolved the ruin of his father's government, being the 29th of May, the same day twenty years that the private cabal in London concluded their secret league with the Scots, to embroil his father King Charles the First.

[Footnote 1: General Ludlow, in his Memoirs, p. 52, says their men returned from Warwick to London, not like men who had obtained a victory, but like men that had been beaten.]