590 



BRITAIN. 



Britain. 



CHARLES I. 

 1847. 



The king 



tscapes 



from 



Hampton 



court to 



(he Isieof 



Wight, 



Where he 

 is confined 

 in Caris- 

 brook 



castle. 



Charles of- 

 fi-rs terms 

 to I he 

 parliament. 



Proposals 

 made to the 

 king by the 

 parliament. 



clear that he could hate well rewarded, had they been 

 driven to exile. " You cannot," said Charles to the 

 Independents, " you cannot do without me ; you will 

 fall to ruin if I do not sustain you." This, it is true, 

 was but. a temporary obstinacy, but his hopes were 

 for ever blasted : The Independents, by the disclo- 

 sure of an intercepted letter to the queen, in which 

 the insincerity of his offers to that party were avow- 

 ed, as v.'ell as his intention to close with the Scotch, 

 with whom, as with the English Presbyterians, he 

 had been maintaining a negotiation at the same time. 



His situation at Hampton court became every day 

 more irksome and formidable after the failure of this 

 treaty wilii Cromwell and the leaders of the army. 

 Prompted by this inquietude, he escaped on the llth 

 of November, with three attendant?, Berkely, Ash- 

 burnham, and Leg, and travelling all night reached 

 Titchfield next day, where it was impossible he could 

 be concealed. Having attempted in vain to escape 

 by sea, he was obliged to entrust his personal safety 

 to Hammond, the governor of the Isle of Wight, a 

 man notoriously dependent on Cromweil, who con- 

 ducted him to Carisbrook castle, with demonstrations 

 of respect, but in reality as a prisoner. During '.he 

 king's confinement in this forlorn situation, the rising 

 power of Cromwell was threatened by the turbulence 

 of his own instruments, the agitators of the army, 

 who began to project the wildest forms of popular 

 government. But the levellers, (so they were called), 

 were speedily cured of their enthusiasm, by the rough, 

 but dextrous hand of Cromwell, who, after drawing 

 the whole army out in review, put himself at the 

 head of some faithful troops, boldly seized the ring- 

 leaders of the mutineers, an J by a severe example re- 

 duced the rest to obedience. An opportunity was 

 embraced by Charles to renew his correspondence 

 with the general officers, but his emissary was receiv- 

 ed with contempt. 



Charles began a new negotiation with the parlia- 

 ment, by communicating in a message from Caris- 

 brook castle, an offer to resign, during his own life, 

 the power of the militia, and the nomination to all 

 the great offices of state, provided that after his de- 

 mise, these prerogatives should revert to the crown. 

 The parliament were now certainly subservient to 

 Cromwell, the Independents, and the army, and their 

 treatment of this affair was seven;, as might be ex- 

 pected, from the victors to the vanquished. 



They returned him four proposals, as preliminaries 

 to all treaty ; that the command of the militia should 

 be vested in the two houses for twenty years, and 

 should not be exerted afterwards without their con- 

 sent ; that the peers created at Oxford should be 

 deprived of their titles ; and the parliament be em- 

 powered to adjourn from place to place. These 

 terms were severe; but since the covenant was omitted, 

 and the church reserved as an article susceptible of 

 future modification, they at least spared the king's 

 conscience in point of religion. Instead of clos- 

 ing with these preliminaries, Charles, who was not so 

 closely watched at Carisbrook castle but that he 



could maintain a clandestine treaty with the Scotch, 

 secretly agreed with their commissioners to confirm 

 the covenant iu parliament, and to establish the Pres- 



.byterian church, till it should be revised by the as- 

 sembly of divines. The Scotch, in return, engaged 

 to assert and restore his authority by arms ; the aid 

 of the Presbyterians in England, of Ormond in Ire- 

 land, and of the English royalists, was expected. 

 When the English commissioners received his refusal 

 to the preliminaries, his guards were redoubled, and 

 a resolution was adopted at the instigation of the In- 

 dependents, that in the settlement of the nation no 

 farther addresses should be made to Charles, nor any 

 applications received from him. He was in effect de- 

 throned. 



This treaty of the Scotch with Charles was after- 

 wards called the Engagement ; but though discon- 

 tents had multiplied between the two kingdoms, it 

 was found no easy matter to impose the engagement 

 on the whole nation. The Scotch royalists, under 

 Traquair and Callender, (Montroso being absent,) 

 were impatient for action ; the moderate Presbyte- 

 rians, under the Duke of Hamilton, wished to restore 

 the king and the power of the English Presbyterians. 

 Argyle, at the head of the wild Presbyterians, and 

 seconded by the church, denounced the engagement 

 as a deadly breach of the covenant, and protested 

 against hostilities with England. Hamilton was ap- 

 pointed general of the new levies for the invasion of 

 England, as David Lesly and the other officers 

 could not act without the church's sanction. In the 

 mean time, the English royalists and Presbyterians, 

 now uniting against their military tyrants, rose in 

 Wales, and in Kent and Essex. In the former part 

 of the country, they were overwhelmed by Crom- 

 well, in the latter by Fairfax. But during the ab- 



sence of the army, the Presbyterians resinning their 

 freedom in parliament, opened a last treaty with 

 Charles. Hamilton, an incapable leader at the head 

 of an undisciplined army, entered England, but durst 

 not unite his forces with those of the royalists under 

 Lan^dale, because the latter had not taken the cove- 

 nant. Cromwell did not fear, with 8000 men, to at- 

 tack their superior, but divided forces. Of Hamil- 

 ton's army, only a small body under Callender, who 

 disdained to surrender, made their escape back to 

 Scotland. New levies were raised by the Earl of 

 Lanark, Hamilton's brother ; but the Earls of Argyle 

 and Lothian, in the Highlands, and Cassilis and Eg- 

 linton in the west, marched with their mild Prcsbi/- 

 Icrians to Edinburgh, and inviting Cromwell, now 

 victor on the borders of England, to the metropolis, 

 conducted him thither in triumph ; and suppressing 

 the engagement made by their countrymen with 

 Charles at Carisbrook Castle, renewed with the Eng- 

 lish general the solemn league and covenant. * In 

 the absence of Cromwell, the treaty between Charles 

 and a parliament unintimidated by military power, 

 continued to proceed. After a long delay, he agreed 

 to surrender the militia, the chief offices ot state, and 

 the government of Ireland for twenty years ; to ac- 



Erita 



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rc f usc 



The 



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Cronr 



defeat 

 Scotcl 



The S 

 renew 

 \vithC 



leagut 

 coven 



New i 



CCsii'.ll 



made 

 Charli 



* This expedition of the Covenanters to Edinburgh, was called the Whigamore's inroad, from a word employed by the wes- 

 tern peasants in driving horses, the origin of the appellation Whig, of which British patriots have been so proud. Accord- 

 ing to others, the Covenanters were called Whigs, from whig or whey, their customary drink. 



