HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



lad led the parliamentary forces at Marston 

 The real guiding spirit in the army, 

 lowever, was Cromwell, now commander of the 

 :avalry, and he shewed his genius in introducing 

 roper discipline into the army. In June 1645, 

 the reorganised army inflicted a crushing defeat 

 Dn the royalists at Naseby ; and although the 

 ting still held out, it was plain that his cause was 

 lopcless. 



MONTROSE'S CAREER IN SCOTLAND. 



Meanwhile the Marquis (formerly Earl) of Mon- 

 rose produced a diversion in Scotland in favour 

 the king. Having got 1500 foot from Ireland, 

 which he added a few Perthshire Highlanders, 

 be descended upon the Lowlands, and on the ist 

 September (1644) gained a complete victory 

 aver a larger and better-armed force at Tipper- 

 luir. At Aberdeen, whither he went for the 

 3urpose of increasing his army, he gained another 

 victory over a superior body of Covenanters. The 

 allowing winter Montrose burst into the country 

 >f his rival Argyll, and falling upon him at Inver- 

 ?chy (February 2, 1645), gained a complete victory. 

 le then moved along the eastern frontier of the 

 [ighlands, where fie found himself opposed by a 

 jurth army under General Baillie. After sacking 

 the town of Dundee, and eluding Baillie's troops, 

 ic encountered at Auldearn, in Nairnshire (May 4), 

 greatly superior force, which he also overthrew. 

 Then turning upon Baillie, whom he met at Alford, 

 Aberdeenshire (July 2), he gained a fifth victory, 

 Imost as complete as any of the rest. 

 Montrose now descended to the Lowlands ; and 

 Kilsyth, near Glasgow, was opposed by an army 

 6000 men, whom the Scotch government at 

 Edinburgh had hastily assembled from Fife and 

 3 erthshire. These, with a much smaller force, he 

 so defeated (August 15), killing great numbers 

 the pursuit. The committees of church and 

 tate then broke up, and left the kingdom, leaving 

 im in appearance its sole master. Montrose 

 id, however, in reality gained no real advantages. 

 Jesides his small army of mingled Irish and 

 Highlanders, there was hardly any portion of the 

 ition who did not regard him as only a great 

 ablic enemy. While lying with a diminished 

 arce at Philiphaugh, near Selkirk, he was sur- 

 rised (September 13) by a detachment of the 

 alar Scottish army, under General David Leslie, 

 who completely defeated his troops, and obliged 

 him to leave the kingdom. 



CONCLUSION OF THE CIVIL WAR. 



The king, who had retired first to Wales, and 

 thence to Oxford, now put himself under the protec- 

 tion of the Scottish army, which had advanced south 

 as far as Newark. The English parliament there- 

 upon made repeated and strenuous demands for 

 the surrender of his person by the Scots into their 

 hands. The Scots, however, though acting partly 

 as a mercenary army, asserted their right, as an 

 independent nation under the authority of the king, 

 to retain and protect him. At length, despairing 

 of inducing him to establish Presbyterianism 

 throughout his dominions, and tempted by the 

 sum of ,400,000, which was given to them as 

 remuneration for past military services, they con- 

 Dented to deliver up their monarch, but certainly 



without any apprehension of his life being in 

 danger, and, indeed, to a party different from that 

 by which he afterwards suffered. The Scottish 

 army then retired (January 1647) to their native 

 country, and were there disbanded. 



The king was now placed in Holmly House, 

 near Northampton, and negotiations were opened 

 for restoring him to power, under certain restric- 

 tions. Meanwhile the troops, who were composed 

 mainly of Independents, began to hold something 

 like a parliament in their own camp ; and a party 

 of them, under Cornet Joyce, seized the king's 

 person, and brought him to Hampton Court. They 

 at last made a demand for the dismissal of the 

 leaders of the Presbyterian party, and a general 

 right of new-modelling the government and settling 

 the nation. The House of Commons, supported 

 by the city of London, made a bold opposition 

 to these demands, but was ultimately obliged to 

 yield to a force which it had no means of resisting. 



TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF THE KING. 



The leaders of the army, being anxious to fortify 

 themselves by all possible means against the 

 Presbyterians, opened a negotiation with the king, 

 whose influence, such as it now was, they proposed 

 to purchase, by allowing Episcopacy to be the 

 state religion, and leaving him in command of the 

 militia. Charles carried on at the same time a 

 negotiation with the Presbyterians, and even with 

 the Scots, which, being discovered by the military 

 chiefs, caused them to break off all terms with 

 him. Under dread of their resentment, he made 

 his escape from Hampton Court (November n, 

 1647); and after an unsuccessful attempt to leave 

 the kingdom, was obliged to put himself under 

 the charge of the governor of Carisbrooke Castle, 

 in the Isle of Wight. Here he entered upon a 

 new negotiation with the House of Commons, 

 to whom he made proposals, and from whom 

 he received certain proposals in return ; all of 

 which were, however, rendered of non-avail by 

 a secret treaty which he at the same time carried 

 on with a moderate party of the Scottish Presby- 

 terians. 



He finally agreed with the latter party, but 

 under strict secrecy, to give their form of church- 

 government a trial of three years, and yield to 

 them in several other points ; they, in return, 

 binding themselves to unite their strength with 

 the English royalists, for the purpose of putting 

 down the Independent party, now predominant 

 in the English parliament. With some difficulty, 

 the Duke of Hamilton and others, who conducted 

 this negotiation, succeeded, by a vote of the Scot- 

 tish parliament, in raising an army of 12,000 men, 

 with which they invaded England in the summer 

 of 1648. The more zealous of the clergy and 

 people of Scotland protested against the enter- 

 prise, which appeared to them as neither deserving 

 of success, nor likely to command it. Before this 

 army gained any accession of strength in England, 

 Cromwell, with 8000 veteran troops, attacked and 

 overthrew it at Preston, while Fairfax put down 

 other insurgents in Kent and Essex. Hamilton 

 was himself taken prisoner, and very few of his 

 troops ever returned to their native country. 



During the absence of Cromwell and his army, 

 the Presbyterian party in the House of Commons 

 regained its ascendency, and it was coming to a 



