Gates of Hull shut against Charles.-Manifestoes on both sides.Raising of Money and Troops.-Royal Standard raised at Nottingham.-Battle of Edgehill.-Affair at Brentford.-Treaty at Oxford.-Arrival of the Queen.-Waller's Plot.-Battles of Lansdown and Roundway-down.-Death and Character of Hampden.-Surrender of Bristol.-Siege of Gloucester.-Battle of Newbury.-Ill conduct of the King.--Cessation with the Irish Rebels.-Death and Character of Pym.-Oxford Parliament.-Progress of the War.-Battle of Cropredy Bridge.— Battle of Marston Moor.

THE nobility and gentry of York and the adjoining counties now resorted to the king with ardent expressions of sympathy and attachment. He had, in their estimation, placed the parliament in the wrong, and they were indignant at beholding the continued efforts (the secret motives of which they were ignorant of) for stripping the sovereign of all his powers and prerogatives. Many of the peers also now came to him from London; and, in the paper war of declarations, etc., carried on between him and the parliament, his manifestoes, prepared by Hyde, were drawn

selves, to the fullest extent, of every support that could be obtained from the side of the people; for on what but the popular support could they rely to sustain them in the stand which they had taken? Hence they encouraged petitions for the redress of grievances (a thing certainly very right in itself); political sermons favouring their cause (of more questionable propriety); popular movements of various kinds, &c. That all the expedients thus employed were entirely justifiable, will not be pretended; nor was it possible, perhaps, at such a time, that abuses should be entirely avoided. The actors in these scenes were men, and therefore committed, no doubt, many follies and some crimes; but their cause was a noble one, and it may be said, we think, that, on the whole, they nobly sustained it.-Am. Ed.

VOL. III.-B B

up with much ability. His tone now became more elevated; there was an end of concession, and he insisted on his rights; and, in the opinion of many, he required no more than he had a just claim to.

The pernicious influence of the queen, though absent, was still felt. In his devotedness to her, Charles thought himself bound, regardless of consequences, to fulfil any unwary promise which she had drawn from him; and he now, in compliance with her will, and in opposition to the opinion of his best advisers, required the earls of Essex and Holland to resign their staff and key of office. By this he merely gratified spleen, while he lost the substantial advantage of such restraint as honour might have imposed on these noblemen in their subsequent conduct.

The Earl of Northumberland, lord-admiral, being in delicate health, the commons petitioned that the Earl of Warwick should be appointed to command for a year in his stead; but the king, when this request was made known to him, returned for answer that it was his desire that Sir John Pennington should be appointed. The parliament, however, persisted, and Warwick took the command of the fleet without the king's consent. A petition was next presented that the magazine should be removed from Hull to London. This, of course, was refused; for to obtain possession of it was a principal cause of the king's going to the north. On the 8th of April he sent a message to the houses, declaring his intention to proceed in person to suppress the rebellion in Ireland, for which purpose he wished to raise a guard of two thousand foot and two hundred horse in the counties about West Chester, to be armed from the magazine at Hull. The reply of the parliament to this message was a positive refusal of their consent, and orders were sent to Hotham to transport the warlike stores in his keeping to London. The king, who regarded the magazine as his private property, resolved to go forthwith and take possession of it. He therefore, on the 22d, sent the young Duke of York, with some attendants, to Hull, where they were received with all

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due respect oy Hotham. The next morning he proceeded thither himself, with two or three hundred of his servants and of the gentlemen of the county; and, as he approached the town, he sent word to the governor that he was coming to dine with him. Hotham, an irresolute man, was in great perplexity; but the magistrates and officers persuaded him not to admit the king. Charles consequently found the bridges up, the gates shut, and the defences manned. Hotham appeared on the walls; and on his knees, with many professions of duty, declined admitting him, lest he should offend the parliament. The king, finding all his efforts vain, proclaimed Hotham a traitor, and retired, deeply mortified, to Beverley. The Duke of York and his retinue were allowed to depart in safety. In reply to the complaints of the king, the parliament justified the conduct of Hotham, and the ordnance and ammunition in Hull were shortly afterward removed to London.

The parliament now issued orders to the lords-lieutenant to put their ordinance* respecting the militia into execution: the king, on the other hand, forbade obedience to it, and issued commissions of array. While both sides were engaged in raising and disciplining men, the appeal to the people, by means of declarations and manifestoes, was kept up, and messages and replies to them were constantly passing between York and London. On the 2d of June the parliament sent their ultimatum in a petition containing nineteen articles, which, as Hallam well observes, "went to abrogate in spirit the whole existing constitution:" for they required that the king should consent to all the changes in church and state which they had proposed; that no office of any kind should be conferred without their approval, i. e., without their ap pointment; that the laws against recusants should be put in force; and that their children should be taken from them, to be educated by Protestants, etc., etc.

* An ordinance was a measure which had passed the two houses; but, not having had the royal assent, could not be called an act of parliament, though it was enforced as if it were such.

If he would consent to these demands, they promised to provide for him an abundant revenue. The king returned an indignant reply, "protesting that if he were both vanquished and a prisoner, in worse condition than any the most unfortunate of his predecessors had ever been reduced unto, he would never stoop so low as to grant those demands, and to make himself of a King of England a Duke of Venice."

A majority of the peers, and also many members of the lower house, were now with the king at York, and for this nine of the former were impeached by the commons. The lord-keeper Littleton had likewise been induced to send the great seal to the king, and he himself shortly after repaired to York. In the presence of the attendant peers, on the 13th of June, the king made a solemn declaration of his determination to maintain the laws and the Protestant religion; while they, in return, subscribed a pledge to defend the crown and the Protestant religion, the liberties of the people, and the just privileges of the king and parliament. Charles, moreover, on the 15th, made a solemn protestation before them that he had no intention of levying war against the parliament, and they subscribed a declaration of their full belief in his sincerity. Among the subscribers was the upright Falkland: we may therefore be certain that there was no fraud designed. As the parliament had passed an order for bringing in money or plate for maintaining horsemen and providing arms, the king wrote to the lord-mayor and aldermen of London not to raise any forces for them at the same time, he invited his subjects to bring him horses, arms, and money on the security of the royal parks and forests, and for which he would pay eight per cent. interest.

Charles went to Nottingham and Lincolnshire, where his addresses and declarations had a good ef

* May, 129.

+ Brodie (iii., 336) sneers at Lord Falkland for his share in this "melancholy picture of insincerity, nay, downright perfidy." He should have inquired if those who now sat at Westminster were regarded at York as the parliament.

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fect; and a vessel, sent by the queen with arms and ammunition (of which hitherto he had none), having arrived, he advanced, with three thousand foot and one thousand horse, to lay siege to Hull: but the Earl of Warwick having secured the fleet, on whose cooperation he had relied, and his raw train-bands not standing their ground when the besieged made a sally, he found it expedient to retire. The parliament, on their side, were far advanced in their preparations: they had, on the 4th of July, appointed a " Committee of Safety," consisting of fifteen persons, as an executive; and it was voted that an army of twenty regiments of foot and seventy-five troops of horse should be raised. Funds were easily obtained by means of loans; and, "by the endeavours of sundry ministers and others, a great quantity of money, plate, and ammunition was brought in, even by some poor women to their wedding rings and bodkins."*

The balance of power seemed greatly on the side of the parliament. They were in possession of all the magazines and forts, except Newcastle-on-Tyne; and the people of London and all the great towns were mostly in their favour, as were those of the southern and eastern counties: but those of the north and west, and of Wales, inclined more to the royal cause. The great body of the nobility and gentry were on the side of the king, and the Catholics were unanimous in his favour. But every county, every town and village, and almost every family, was divided in sentiment : some being, from principle or prejudice, in favour of the ancient order of things, while others were desirous of change, and ardent for revolution.

The parliament gave the command of their army to the Earl of Essex. This nobleman, whom we have seen in his early youth disgraced by the infamy of his countess, had long served in the Low Countries, and

* Whitelock. "The seamstress brought in her silver thimble, the chambermaid her bodkin, the cook her silver spoon; and some sort of females were free in their contributions so far as to part with their rings and earrings, as if some golden calf were to be set up and idolized."-Howel, Philanglus, p. 128.