A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



a test, but that of Lord Strange never faltered. He endured the rebuke and 

 the indignity, and in addition had to incur the danger of a Parliamentary 

 impeachment for high treason."' The king's standard was to be raised 

 elsewhere, and it only remained for him to obey his royal master and fight 

 wheresoever it pleased the king to assign him a post. His first duty was 

 to be the taking of Manchester ; "■ and accordingly the earl with about four 

 thousand troops laid siege to it. 



Owing perhaps to the check which had been so unwisely placed upon 

 the zeal of the king's loyal lieutenant in Lancashire, the siege of Manchester 

 was not prosecuted with any extraordinary vigour. The earl seemed, indeed, 

 anxious to spare the place, and not to resort to extreme measures. Even 

 yet it is possible some compromise might have been effected, but for a stroke 

 of royal policy which outraged the feelings of even the more moderate 

 Parliamentarians in Lancashire. This was the king's acceptance of the aid 

 of the recusant party in Lancashire, who had petitioned him for the 

 restoration of their arms."' To the Puritan leaders in Lancashire such an 

 act following the reports of Irish massacres seemed little better than an 

 insult, and effectually barred any further advances from them to their 

 misguided sovereign, who, it appeared was ready to clutch at any straw to 

 preserve his authority. Their resistance was thenceforth stiffened to a 

 marvellous degree, waverers were convinced of the necessity of the struggle, 

 and they decided to apply to Parliament for assistance. 



It will have been gathered from these statements that the war was in 

 Lancashire a war of religion. This was here its characteristic feature. The 

 Roman Catholics, whose religion was proscribed as treason, who had seen ten 

 of their priests executed at Lancaster on this charge, and who had suffered 

 fine, confiscation, and imprisonment as rebellious subjects, were only too glad 

 to have an opportunity of proving their loyalty to the king. They were in 

 fact his main support in Lancashire and Sir Thomas Tyldesley is conspicuous 

 among them. The Protestants,"" on the other hand, who were probably 

 in a minority in the whole county, took advantage of the opportunity to 

 cripple their religious opponents, and succeeded. 'Recusancy' was as serious 

 an offence in the eyes of the Parliamentary Committees as 'delinquency,' 

 and in the histories of the various townships will be found abundant evidence 

 of the rigour with which it was treated. 



The Parliament, being convinced from the first of the importance of 

 the resistance in Lancashire, at once voted men and money, and arranged for 

 the raising of i,ooo dragoons to be sent to Lancashire under the command 

 of Sir John Seaton "* to strengthen the local forces. Meanwhile, on 29 Sep- 

 tember, Lord Strange receiving news of his father's death and of his accession 

 to the earldom "= found his own affairs a pressing reason for abandoning 

 the siege,"* a decision to which he was perhaps induced by the defection 

 of many of his followers and by the expressed unwillingness of the Cheshire 

 Array to fight against Manchester."^ 



'" CwU War Tracts, No. xiii, 35, 16 Sept. 1642. 



"Lxk'^-', fn u ,, u . "' Ibid. No. xiv, 38, 27 Sept. 1642. 



;;; S/ Par%^^Z:t'!':T, IT^t'^e;^'' '°'"^"" '°™"='^ '''^ --p-°- "-V- - ^^« -i- 



'" Ibid. 54. His summons to this town to surrender was signed ' I Derby ' 

 '"Ibid. 55, I Oct. 1642. '"Ibid. 159.' 



236 



