A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



camp forward ; then it removes with him.' l Drums were beating about 

 Nottingham for volunteers for the king, troops of horse were coming to be 

 billeted on the county, and already rapine and spoil was being committed 

 about Nottingham ; gentlemen's nouses were ransacked, and ' one Master 

 Needham's oune cart ' was made to ' bring away to Nottingham bedding, 

 linen, pewter, butter, cheese, and other things out of his house,' because he 

 was ' accounted a Roundhead.' * 



Three days after the setting up of the standard, the king by the advice 

 of his council sent a message to both Houses of Parliament hoping to find 

 * some remedy to prevent the miseries which are ready to overwhelm the 

 whole nation by a civil war,' and proposing a treaty between himself and 

 Parliament. 8 The Houses answered that the king by his proclamations and 

 declarations against Parliament and by setting up his standard had put ' the 

 two Houses of Parliament and in them the whole kingdom ' out of his 

 protection, and until His Majesty should recall the proclamation and take 

 down the standard the Houses for ' the good and safety of the kingdom ' 

 could give him no answer. The king answered that he never had declared 

 the Houses traitor, nor set up the standard against them, and if they would 

 revoke all their proclamations made against his party he would do the same 

 and would take down the standard. 4 The Parliament unmoved returned the 

 same answer as before, and declared that the arms they had been forced to 

 take up should not be laid down until His Majesty should withdraw his 

 protection from such persons as had been voted delinquents by both Houses.' 

 Meanwhile on 30 August the men of Nottinghamshire presented a petition 

 to the king, ' humbly imploring his sacred Majesty to returne and joyne 

 with both his Houses of Parliament,' and to take down the standard. There- 

 upon His Majesty ' struck with clemency immediately caused his standard to 

 be taken downe . . . but the Cavalliers were not a little moved at the happy 

 success this Petition found, wherefore some certain of them being ful of gall 

 and spleen, and withall taking a cloak for their wicked intention, saying that 

 the Petitioners were rather traytors than subjects . . . alleadging that his 

 Prerogative was dipt, and ere they would suffer it their lives (as for their 

 fortunes they had none) should be sacrificed to redeem his wrongs, in such , 

 like passions sought out for the Petitioners . . . and would have fallen upon 

 them, but they . . . sent to the mayor . . . intreating that some of the 



1 (B.M. Pamphlets, 669, fol. 675). Remarkable Passages from Nott. Letter from a Gentleman neere Nctt. to a 

 Friend in London. The writer goes on to describe the standard as ' a long pole like a maypole, painted red on the 

 upper end, whereof hangs a large silk flag (in form of a scutcheon) with a red crosse and two lyons passant upon 

 two crownes.' He also tells how ' Prince Robert ' (Rupert) was next day made general of the horse and how 

 the king declared that whoso would go that afternoon with the prince against Coventry and Warwick ' it 

 should be acceptable service.' A rather different account of the event is given in another description. There 

 the writer says that the standard was ' taken out of the castle and carried into a field a little on the back side of 

 the castle wall.' Of the standard he says that ' the likeness of the standard is much of the fashion of the City 

 streamers used at the Lord Mayor's Show, having about twenty supporters, and is to be carried the same 

 way ; on the top of it hangs a bloody flag, the king's arms quartered, with a hand pointing to the crowne 

 which stands above, with this motto : " Give to Caesar his due." ' A True and Exact Relation of the Manner 

 of Hit Majesty's Setting uf his Standard at Nottingham. 



' This account is, of course, written from a partial point of view. The writer of the letter has been 

 thought to be Col. Hutchinson, who was certainly in Nottingham at the time. See Mrs. Hutchinson's 

 Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson. 



' His Majesty's Gracious Message . . . sent from Nottingham, etc. (B.M. Pamphlets, E. 1 1 6, No. 2). 



4 B.M. Pamphlets, E. 116, No. 2. 



' Clarendon, Hist, of Great Rebellion, ii, 308. 



344 



