8 The Life of William, Duke of Newcastle 



rebellious and unhappy Parliament, which was the cause of 

 all the ruins and misfortunes that afterwards befell this king- 

 dom, was privately advertised, that the Parliament's design 

 was to take the government of the Prince from him, which he, 

 apprehending as a disgrace to himself, wisely prevented, and 

 obtained the consent of his late Majesty, with his favour, to 

 deliver up the charge of being governor to the Prince, and 

 retire into the country 1 . Which he did in the beginning of 

 the year 1641, and settled himself, with his lady, children, 

 and family, to his great satisfaction, with an intent to have 

 continued there, and rested under his own vine, and managed 

 his own estate. But he had not enjoyed himself long, but an 

 express came to him from his Majesty, who was then unjustly 

 and unmannerly treated by the said Parliament, to repair 

 with all possible speed and privacy to Kingston-upon-Hull, 

 where the greatest part of his Majesty's ammunition and 

 arms then remained in that magazine, it being the most consi- 

 derable place for strength in the northern parts of the kingdom. 

 Immediately upon the receipt of these his Majesty's orders 

 and commands, my Lord prepared for their execution, and 

 about twelve of the clock at night, hastened from his own 

 house when his family were all at their rest, save two or three 

 servants which he appointed to attend him. The next day 



1 Newcastle resigned his post in May 1 641, and was succeeded by the Marquis of 

 Hertford, whose appointment is dated by Whitelock May 17 (vol. i, p. 44). Clarendon's 

 account of the Earl's retirement is, that he, knowing the hostility of the Earls of Essex 

 and Holland to himself, knowing also ' that they liked not his having the government 

 of the Prince as one who would infuse such principles into him as would not be agree- 

 able to their designs, and would not rest till they saw another man in that province ', 

 therefore ' upon these considerations and some other imaginations upon the prospect of 

 affairs he very wisely resolved to retire from the court ', and suggested the Marquis 

 of Hertford to the King as his successor. {Rebellion, iv, 293.) The real cause of this 

 retirement, however, seems to have been the other imaginations alluded to by Clarendon. 

 The Earl was implicated in the Army plot, and his share in it became publicly known 

 early in May. Suckling and Jermyn selected the Earl of Newcastle to be titular General 

 of the Army in place of the Earl of Northumberland, and Gorfng was to be his Lieutenant- 

 General. Though the King disapproved of the proposal and did not make the suggested 

 appointment, the Queen encouraged the plot, and the plan for bringing the army up 

 to London was persisted in. It was proposed to the officers, testifies Lieutenant-Colonel 

 Ballard, ' that, if there were occasion, the army should remove their quarters into Notting- 

 hamshire, where the Prince and the Earl of Newcastle should meet them with a thousand 

 horse, and all the French that were in London should be mounted, and likewise meet 

 them.' 'Sergeant-Major Willis said, moreover', according to Captain Chudleigh, 

 that the army would be very well kept together, for that the Prince was to be brought 

 thither, which would confirm their affections . . . and Willis told them also, that if 

 my Lord of Newcastle was their General, he would feast them in Nottinghamshire, and 

 would not use them roughly, but that they should be governed by a council of war.' — 

 Husband's Exact Collection, quarto 1643, p. 222 ; Portland MSS. i, 20. Gardiner, History 

 of England, ix, 313. With these facts before them it would have been impossible for the 

 Parliament to trust the Prince longer in Newcastle's hands, and he therefore avoided 

 an attack by retiring. 



