CHAP. 1647 The case of the Presbyterians. have come to such a pitch was the result of Presbyterian bungling in the early stages of the conflict. When the army had been once estranged, mutual distrust rose so high that the supporters of Parliamentary authority easily convinced themselves that it was better to accept the aid of the Scots than to allow English opinion to be crushed even by an English army. "It's now come to this," Sir Walter Erle had been heard to say of the soldiers, "that they must sink us, or we sink them." The real weakness of the Presbyterians was that they had neither a policy which would conciliate nor a leader in whom they could repose confidence. They could not uphold civilian against military organisation without replacing the King in at least some part of his old authority, and the King was prepared to outwit them as soon as he regained power. Charles was an ally who never failed to ruin any man or party that trusted in him. 1 Rushw. vi. 515. CHAPTER L. THE MANIFESTOES OF THE ARMY. L. 1647 June 2. Lilburnian ON June 2, the day on which Joyce was riding CHAP. towards Holmby, the framers of the three Lilburnian petitions, the last of which had been burnt by the Commons,1 laid before the House a fourth petition, A fourth couched in more violent language than was to be petition. found in the other three. It asked, as the Agitators had asked not long before,? that the leaders of the majority might be called to account; that a committee might be appointed to dismiss untrustworthy officials; that the grievances of the soldiers might be heard and redressed; and that the old City Militia Committee 3 might be restored.4 The Presbyterian majority was by this time somewhat cowed. Though nothing was yet known at Westminster of Joyce's movements, it was at least suspected that trouble was impending, and the manifest understanding between the petitioners and the Agitators was not calculated to allay the prevailing sense of danger. Consequently the House did not venture to burn the fourth petition as it had burnt the third, and only by a majority of 128 to 112 voted that its immediate consideration should be postponed.5 An answer postponed. The House was perhaps the more irresolute as old Disbanded 2 See p. 81. 1 See pp. 75, 76. soldiers. 5 C.J. v. 195. CHAP. L. 1647 June 3. Resolu tions against bribery, and for meeting arrears. soldiers of the armies disbanded when the New Model "All gentlemen commoners that enter therein If long you delay, sure all will be naught." These lines were followed by a summons to all gentlemen soldiers that are justly behind in their arrears' to meet in the churchyard of Westminster Abbey on the following day.1 Assailed by these threats, the House awoke to the necessity of regaining confidence. On the 3rd it reappointed a committee which had been instructed to receive complaints against members or their servants charged with bribery. It also passed resolutions to expedite the taking of soldiers' accounts, and to find a security for the eventual payment of arrears. Scarcely had this been done when the House was News from startled by news that Joyce's party had arrived in the neighbourhood of Holmby on the preceding evening, and that one of his men had been heard to say that their design was to carry off the King. The reception of this news was followed by the reading of a letter from the commissioners for disbandment, announcing their complete failure at Chelmsford.3 Holmby, and from Chelmsford. Steps taken in Under this pressure the Presbyterian majority the House. took a step which three months before might have averted disaster. They moved that the considera 1 MS. E. 390, 14. 2. L.J. ix. 232. The time of the reception of the message is not given in the Commons Journal, and is only indicated by the order dismissing Harris, the bearer of the message. 3 C.J. v. 196. See p. 82. THE ARMY COURTED BY PARLIAMENT. L. 1647 97 the Inde tion of money for the common soldiers, be proceeded CHAP. with in the first place,' and this resolution they carried by 154 to 123. Full arrears, it was agreed, and no beggarly instalment of six or eight weeks, should be given to every soldier. As a counter-stroke the A move of Independents asked that the Declaration of March 30,1 pendents. in which those soldiers who held firmly by their first petition of grievances were qualified as enemies of the State,' should be expunged from the journals. The Presbyterians resisted, keeping up the debate till two in the morning of the 4th, when in a House June 4. already thinned and weary the Independents carried Declaratheir point by a majority of 96 to 79. The tion expunged. Joyce has Holmby. of, the When after a brief rest the House met again, it News that was to hear that Holmby was actually occupied by occupied Joyce. It was one more reason for giving tardy satisfaction to the material grievances of the soldiers, and the House resolved to reconsider the Ordinance Measures of Indemnity,3 and to render it more complete. On Commons. the other hand, in order to win over a body of men who might be useful if the army still held out, a resolution was adopted for satisfying the disbanded soldiers of the old armies who had lately been clamouring for their arrears. On the 5th it was known at Westminster that Charles was actually on gain the his way to Newmarket, and the Houses, making a virtue of necessity, directed Fairfax to appoint for the 9th a general rendezvous on Newmarket Heath, when the votes which Parliament had recently passed in favour of the soldiers might be laid before them." The Declaration is in the motion called the Declaration of March 29. It passed the Lords on the 30th, but the date on which it passed the Commons was the 29th. See p. 43. 2 C.J. v. 197; Whitacre's Diary, Add. MSS. 31, 116 fol. 311b. 5 The Houses to Fairfax, June 5, L.J. ix. 241. June 5. Fairfax to army. CHAP. In the afternoon Dunfermline appeared, bearing a message in which the King stated that he had left Dunferm- Holmby against his will, and that he expected Parlia 1647 line's message from the King. June 6. The Scots remon strate. ment to preserve its own honour and the established laws of the land.1 Charles was evidently anxious to hinder a good understanding between Parliament and army by every means in his power. What backing the Scots could give to the English Presbyterians was now given. On the 6th, Lauderdale and his fellow-commissioners presented a strong remonstrance against the abduction of the King, and called on Parliament to bring Charles up to the June 7 neighbourhood of London. On this the Lords reminded the Commons of the vote sent down to them some days before for bringing the King to Oatlands.2 The Commons, less rash than the other House, contented themselves with writing to Fairfax to send him back to Holmby.3 Proposals of the Houses. June 6. Attitude of the Presbyterians. As far as the Presbyterian leaders were concerned, the conciliatory votes of Parliament were a mere blind. On the 6th Massey, on whose military support they were able to count, rode through the City, calling on the citizens to defend themselves against the madmen of the army, whose aim was the beheading of the best men in the Parliament and the City. The Presbyterians in combination with the Scottish commisDunferm- sioners had already despatched Dunfermline across to France. the Channel. When he arrived in France he was to urge Henrietta Maria to send the Prince of Wales to Scotland in order that he might head the projected army of invasion," and to assure the Queen that as line sent 2 Ib. ix. 243, 244. 3 C.J. v. 201. 1 L.J. ix. 242. 4 Letter of Intelligence, June 7, Clarendon MSS. 2,528. 5 Montreuil, who had been at Edinburgh since the beginning of February, wrote in May that this plan had already been adopted. Montreuil to Brienne, May 29 Carte MSS. lxxxiii. fol. 176. June 8' |