1643.]

THE COURT AT OXFORD.

18

The spring of 1643 was passed by the court at Oxford. The noble city of academical palaces must have presented the most singular contrasts of gown and cuirass crowding the streets; of grave doctors and ardent students talking the most impassioned loyalty to throngs of ladies in those ancient halls; of outward splendour amidst secret want, and of gay hearts struggling with anxious fears. Lady Fanshawe, one of the most interesting of royalists,

-at that time unmarried,-has given the following picture of the Oxford of 1643:

66

My father commanded my sister and myself to come to him to Oxford, where the Court then was, but we, that had till that hour lived in great plenty and great order, found ourselves like fishes out of the water, and the scene so changed, that we knew not at all how to act any part but obedience, for, from as good a house as any gentleman of England had, we came to a baker's house in an obscure street, and from rooms well furnished, to lie in a very bad bed in a garret, to one dish of meat, and that not the best ordered; no money, for we were as poor as Job; nor clothes more than a man or two brought in their cloak bags: we had the perpetual discourse of losing and gaining towns and men: at the windows the sad spectacle of war, sometimes plague, sometimes sicknesses of other kind, by reason of so many people being packed together, as, I believe, there never was before of that quality; always in want, yet I must needs say that most bore it with a martyr-like cheerfulness. For my own part, I began to think we should all, like Abraham, live in tents all the days of our lives."

14

ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE.

[1643.

To this Oxford came Commissioners from the parliament, towards the end of March, authorised to negotiate a suspension of arms, and a treaty of peace. The earl of Northumberland, the chief of the commission, made the somewhat miserable city brilliant with his feasts. He had a magnificent retinue. His table was covered with luxurious dishes and rich wines. His plate was sumptuous. The royalists accepted his feasts-and persuaded the king to reject his propositions. Charles displayed his usual vacillation. He made concessions one day, and revoked them another. The queen's especial friends were always about him. The queen wrote to him, "Why have you taken arms? You are betrayed. I will let you see it. Never allow your army to be disbanded till it [the parliament] is ended, and never let there be a peace till that is put an end to." * The officers of the garrison, in a petition to the king, opposed a suspension of arms. Charles had instigated them to petition. The parliament peremptorily recalled its commissioners. The battle must be fought out.

:

We have mentioned that during the Civil War the judges went their usuai circuits. In the spring of 1643 this local administration of justice was temporarily suspended. The two Houses of Parliament, embarrassed by the king's possession of the Great Seal, ordered that the Session of Oyer and Terminer should not be proceeded with "until it shall please God to end these distractions between the king and people." Charles issued a proclamation, commanding that the Easter term should be held at Oxford instead of Westminster. The judges were ordered there to attend the king. Had this state of things continued, a greater evil would have ensued than the bloodshed and plunder of the war. But, by what was a practical compromise for the remedy of an enormous social mischief-one that might have led to a general insecurity of life and property-the Parliament resolved to establish a Great Seal and under this authority, and that of the king, judges executed their functions as usual, after a suspension of a few months. No doubt, according to their political prepossessions, they regarded the king either as deriving his power from divine right, or as a trustee for his people. At a later period, we find a judge of assize laying down as a principle, "that kings, rulers, and governors, and particularly the king of this realm, should be accountable to the people for their misgovernments;" and, on the other hand, there were, we may conclude, judges who maintained the position which this judge controverts, "that the king had an original right to rule over men upon earth; and that God had not given power to earthly men to call him to account." These were the two great theories with regard to "a pure monarchy," and "a political monarchy, or monarchy governed by laws." + But whatever was considered the original foundation of government, none of the administrators of justice relaxed the principle that the law should be rigidly maintained, as regarded all private transactions. During these unhappy times England was in a great degree exempt from crimes of violence, except those committed under the pretence of martial necessity. No bands of plunderers infested the country; no lawless and ferocious spirits who, as many passages of the histories of other countries record, considering a time of public commotion as their opportunity, held the peaceful in terror. England was safe from those massacres and spoliations

* Green's "Letters of Henrietta Maria," p. 182..

* Serjeant Thorpe's Charge to the Grand Jury. Harleian Miscellany, vol. vi. p. 113.

1643.1

READING SURRENDERED TO ESSEX.

13

which characterise a nation when the reins of just government are loosened. This immeasurable blessing she owed to her ancient civil organisation, and to that respect for law which has made the constable's staff the efficient representative of the sovereign's sceptre.

The

The repose of Oxford was soon broken up by new military enterprises. The suspension of arms contemplated in the negotiations which commenced at the end of March, were, on the 15th of April, declared by the parliament to be at an end. On that day Essex marched his army to the siege of Reading. The town had been fortified; and the garrison there, although wanting provisions and ammunition, was composed of resolute men. approaches were regularly constructed, batteries erected, and trenches dug. The possession of Reading was considered of great importance. The king himself, on the 24th of April, set out from Oxford to head a force for the relief of the besieged. The army which he led was numerous and well appointed. At Caversham bridge the royalist forces were repulsed by those of the parliament, and fell back upon Wallingford. That day Reading was surrendered to Essex. The cavaliers were indignant that the commander of the garrison had not longer held out; and he was tried, and sentenced to death. The king reprieved him. Hampden, who had taken an active part in the siege of Reading, now urged Essex to follow up their success by an attack upon Oxford. The bold counsels were overruled. The parliamentary commander gradually became distrusted by his party. His honour and his capacity were unquestionable; but he was too inclined to forego present good in the contemplation of uncertain evils. He could not make war upon his king and his fellow-countrymen as if he were in a foreign land. Such a man should not have drawn the sword at all. Meanwhile, the war was proceeding with doubtful fortune in other quarters. Sir William Waller was successful against the royalists in the south and west. Fairfax was disputing with lord Newcastle the supremacy of the north. The Cornish men, in arms for the king, had gained a battle over lord Stamford. What could not be accomplished in the open field by the Cavaliers was sought to be effected by a secret plot. The lady Aubigny had received a permission from the parliament, with a pass, to proceed to Oxford to transact some business arising out of the death of her husband, who was killed at Edgehill. On her return to London she was commissioned by the king to convey a box thither, with great care and secrecy. His majesty told her "it much concerned his own service." This is Clarendon's account, who represents the box to have contained a commission of array to certain persons in the city, for the promotion of the king's service. Ludlow says, "The king, to encourage his friends in the city to rise for him, sent them a commission for that purpose by the lady Aubigny, which she brought, made up in the hair of her On the 31st of May, the members of the two Houses were listening to a sermon in St. Margaret's church, when a note was delivered to Pym. He hastily left. That night Edmund Waller, once famous as a poet, but whose "smooth " verse we now little regard, was arrested. His brother-inlaw, Mr. Tomkins, Mr. Challoner (a citizen), and other persons, were also taken into custody. Waller was a member of parliament, and had been at Oxford, in March, with the commissioners. There was unquestionably a plot to arm the royalists in London, to seize the persons of the parliamentary

head."

16

WALLER'S PLOT-CHALGROVE FIELD.

[1643. leaders, and to bring the king's troops into the capital. Waller, in a base spirit which contrasts with the conduct of most of the eminent of either party, made very abject confessions, with exaggerated denunciations of others, to save his own life. The Parliament behaved with honourable moderation. Five persons were condemned by court-martial: two, Challoner and Tomkins, were executed. Waller was reserved, to exhibit in his literary character a subserviency to power which has fortunately ceased to be an attribute of poets-to eulogise the happy restoration of Charles II., as he had eulogised the sovereign attributes of the Protector Cromwell. "He had much ado to save his life," says Aubrey, "and in order to do it sold his estate in Bedfordshire, about 1300l. per annum, to Dr. Wright, for 10,0007. (much under value), which was procured in twenty-four hours' time, or else he had been hanged. With this money he bribed the House, which was the first time a House of Commons was ever bribed." *

Important events succeeded each other rapidly during this summer. Rupert's trumpet sounded to horse in Oxford streets on the 17th of June. After the occupation of Reading, the troops of Essex were distributed in cantonments about Thame and Wycombe. Rupert dashed in amongst the small towns and villages where these troops were quartered. Hampden had been visiting the scattered pickets, and urging upon Essex a greater concentration of his forces. Lord Nugent, with accurate local knowledge, has described the localities into which Rupert had made his irruption. "Hampden had obtained in early life, from the habits of the chase, a thorough knowledge of the passes of this country. It is intersected, in the upper parts, with woods and deep chalky hollows, and in the vales, with brooks and green lanes; the only clear roads along the foot of the hills, from east to west, and those not very good, being the two ancient Roman highways, called the upper and lower Ickeneld way." Hampden had expected some attack, and immediately he heard of Rupert's movement, he was in the saddle. On the morning of the 19th the prince was with a large force in Chalgrove Field, near Thame. Hampden, with a small detachment, attacked the cavaliers; expecting the main body of the parliamentary army soon to come up with reinforcements. The man who had triumphed in so many civil victories fell in this skirmish. On the first charge he was shot in the shoulder. The parliamentary troops were completely routed before Essex came up. Rupert retreated across the Thames to Oxford. The news of the great leader having received a serious wound soon reached Oxford: "One of the prisoners taken in the action said, 'that he was confident Mr. Hampden was hurt, for he saw him ride off the field before the action was done, which he never used to do, with his head hanging down, and resting his hands upon the neck of his horse.'" He was alone. The troops of Rupert were in the plain between the battle field and Thame, where the wounded man desired to go for help. A brook crossed the grounds through which he must pass. By a sudden exercise of the old spirit of the sportsman he cleared the leap, and reached Thame; there to die, after six days of agony. "O Lord, save my bleeding country," were his last words. Clarendon has done justice, though not full justice, to the character of the man with whom he was so intimately associated in the struggle against

1613.]

DEATH OF HAMPDEN.

17

despotism. "He was of that rare affability and temper in debate, and of that seeming humility and submission of judgment, as if he brought no opinion of his own with him, but a desire of information and instruction; yet he had so subtle a way of interrogating, and, under the notion of doubts, insinuating his objections, that he infused his own opinions into those from whom he pretended to learn and receive them. * * * * He was indeed a very wise man, and of great parts, and possessed with the most absolute spirit of popularity, and the most absolute faculties to govern the people, of any man I ever knew. For the first year of the parliament, he seemed rather to moderate and soften the violent and distempered humours, than to inflame them. **** After he was among those members accused by the king of high treason, he was much altered; his nature and carriage seeming much fiercer than it did before. * He was very temperate in diet, and a supreme governor over all his passions and affections, and had thereby a great power over other men's. He was of an industry and vigilance not to be tired out or wearied by the most laborious; and of parts not to be imposed upon by the most subtle or sharp; and of a personal courage equal to his best parts; so that he was an enemy not to be wished wherever he might have been made a friend; and as much to be apprehended where he was so, as any man could deserve to be. And therefore his death was no less pleasing to the one party, than it was condoled in the other."*

"Rebellion," vol. iv. p. 92.

VOL. IV.

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