POLITICAL HISTORY 



thus Mrs. Hutchinson writes that whereas ' some counties were in the begin- 

 ning so wholly for the Parliament that the king's interest appeared not in 

 them ; some were so wholly for the king that the godly, for those generally 

 were the Parliament's friends, were forced to forsake their habitations and 

 seek other shelters : of this sort was Nottinghamshire.' l All the nobility 

 and gentry and their dependents were generally for the king, and among 

 them were the earl of Newcastle, the earl of Kingston, who ' a few months 

 stood neuter,' until at length ' his fate drew him to declare himself absolutely 

 on the king's side,' Lord Chesterfield, Lord Chaworth, the earl of Clare, who 

 was ' very often of both parties, and . . . never advantaged either,' Sir John 

 Byron, and Sir John Savill. Of the 'parliament men ' Mr. Sutton, afterwards 

 Lord Lexington and Sir Gervase Clifton ' forsook the Parliament, went to the 

 king and executed his commission of array.' Others who were firm to the 

 Parliament were Mr. Hutchinson and Mr. Henry Ireton. 2 Knowing the 

 strength of his party in the county the king was quick to visit first Newark 

 and then Nottingham and gather his forces. In July, 1642, he convened a 

 meeting at Newark of all the principal gentry and landowners of the county, 

 and declared that whereas he went to other places 'to confirm and undeceive' 

 his subjects, he had come there only to ' thank and encourage ' them. 3 A 

 few days later he went on to Nottingham, where he held a similar meeting 

 and summoned the trained bands which were arrayed under Sir Gervase 

 Clifton. 4 The mayor, Alderman James, a parliament man ' a very honest 

 bold man with no more but a burgher's discretion ' 6 had refused twice to 

 go to York at the king's command, and had not published the king's 

 proclamations, and the king, though he accepted the mace, ' gave him no 

 hand to kiss.' 8 By 1 2 August the king was again at York, where he 

 published his proclamation requiring the aid and assistance of all his ' well- 

 affected subjects north of the Trent . . . for the suppression of the rebellion 

 and the protection of his subjects from that slavery and insolvency which 

 threatened them.' 7 By 17 August he was at Newark, the next day at 

 Southwell, and the next at Nottingham, where he reviewed the cavalry. 

 On Monday, 22 August, came the formal declaration of war with the 

 setting up of the royal standard at Nottingham. A letter printed in 

 Remarkable Passages from Nottingham gives the graphic account of an eye- 

 witness : ' His Majesty came into the castle yard accompanied with the 

 prince-duke Prince Robert (Rupert) and Maurice his brother, the duke of 

 Richmond, and divers others, courtiers and cavaliers, and finding out the 

 highest pointed hill in the yard from whence it might be perspicuous the 

 standard was brought in and there erected. At which time all the courtiers 

 and spectators flung up their caps and whooped crying : " God save King 

 Charles and hang up the Roundheads " ! and so whooped the king to his 

 lodgings. After which the standard was removed to the highest tower of 

 the castle, where it hangs blowing, and so must till the king advanceth his 



1 Mrs. Hutchinson, Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson (Bohn ed.), p. 116. 



' Mrs. Hutchinson, op. cit, pp. 117-8. 



5 Rushworth, Hist. Coll. iii, vol. i, 653. 



4 Truths from Nott. and Leic. (B.M. Pamphlets, 669, fol. 657). 



'Mrs. Hutchinson, op. cit. p. 13*. 



* Truths from Natt. and Leic. April, 1642 (B.M. Pamphlets, 669, fol. 657). 



'Clarendon, Hist, of Great Rebellion, ii, 275. 



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