The Assembly of 1644, at its rising, appointed the next meeting in May, 1645; but the important military and political movements which at that period agitated the whole British dominions, rendered an earlier meeting expedient. The first Triennial Parliament of Scotland (which met, according to the enactments on the subject, in 1641) having, at the close of its session, in the summer of 1644, been continued to the first Tuesday of January following—and the Assembly being now virtually an integral branch of the Scottish Legislature, in regard to political as well as spiritual affairs—the Commission convoked an extraordinary Assembly, to be held on the 22d of January, 1645, at the same time with the meeting of Estates, which assembled on the first Tuesday of that month.
It is quite impossible, in the narrow limits to which we are confined, to attempt giving anything like a full or correct picture of the miserable state of anarchy, wrangling, bloodshed, and terror, which pervaded these kingdoms during the few months which intervened betwixt the two Assemblies of 1644 and 1645: the interminable altercations which took place among theologians, politicians, and cavillers of every conceivable description, fill volumes. After above three years’ confinement in the Tower, Laud, the ousted Archbishop of Canterbury, was, to gratify the Scotch, put upon his trial by the English Parliament; and, on the 10th of January, 1644, the Covenanters were fully avenged, in his blood on the scaffold, for the part he took in regard to the Service-Book of 1637.
But, reverting to military operations, we may just notice that, on Sunday, the 3d of July, 1644, the Battle of Marston Moor was fought, betwixt the King’s troops and the combined armies of the English and Scotch Parliaments, when the latter obtained a decisive but dearly-won victory. The King lost 10,000 men in killed and prisoners, forty-seven standards, and twenty-five pieces of cannon, besides great store of arms and munitions. This battle is memorable as being the first great occasion on which the military genius of Oliver Cromwell shone forth conspicuously, and as the commencement of a course by which he ascended to supreme power in the State.
To counterbalance this and other successes in England, an insurrection in the King’s favour, of which Montrose was the guiding spirit, took place in Scotland, of which, however, it were superfluous to give minute details. But while the flower of the Scottish army was engaged in co-operating with the Parliamentary forces in England, Montrose successively achieved victories of the most brilliant and extraordinary character in Scotland. In various quarters, he carried all before his handful of brave but undisciplined followers. He ravaged Glenorchy and Argyle; and, throughout the eccentric tract of his daring and desultory career, he filled the hearts of the Covenanters with terror and with a dark revenge, which was only quenched in his blood when, after other triumphs equally splendid, he was betrayed into their hands. Suffice it to state that, on the 1st of September, 1644, he defeated at Tibbermuir, near Perth, a superior body of the Covenanters, commanded by Lord Elcho, although they were nearly double in numbers to his raw levies of Highlanders and Irish. A force, well appointed with cavalry and artillery, was completely routed by a band without artillery, and in which there were only three horses. Perth surrendered at discretion to the victors. He proceeded northwards to Aberdeen, secured the Bridge of Dee, and, on the 14th of the same month, stormed and sacked that city. He thence passed farther north; but superior forces being in his front, he doubled on his pursuer Argyle—who ever kept at a convenient distance in his rear—entered Badenoch, dashed through Atholl and Angus-shire, and back to Strathbogie—repulsed an attack on him by the Earl of Lothian, at Fyvie Castle; and, by all these rapid and successful movements, exhausted the military ardour of Argyle, who betook himself to winter quarters, and retired to Inverary, in a false security, which proved fatal to his military reputation.
About the middle of December, however, Montrose, even with diminished forces, penetrated through the snows of winter, and, in paths hitherto untrodden by the feet of soldiers in hostile array, descended like an avalanche upon Argyleshire, where, from the 13th of December, 1644, till the end of the month of January, 1645, the wild heroism of Montrose’s band carried slaughter and desolation throughout the territories of his chief antagonist, and the chief pillar also of the Covenant. Argyle himself, surprised and panic-struck, escaped in a fishing-boat, leaving his kinsmen and clan to the ravages of a fierce and vindictive enemy, without even striking, or attempting to strike, one gallant blow for the honour and the cause of Maccallamore. After satiating his followers with vengeance and plunder, Montrose retired towards Inverness, with the view of rallying the northern clans under the banner of the King, and of speedily renewing his campaign with renovated energy and augmented power. But here, for the present, we pause in our notices of his exploits; for it was while these operations were in progress—while the terror of his name filled all broad Scotland with alarm—and his meteor-like career inspired alike its chiefs and its peasantry with apprehension, lest some unexpected bolt might strike their dwellings—that the Estates and General Assembly convened in the end of January, 1645.
Coincident with the meeting of the Scottish Estates and Assembly, an attempt was made at pacification betwixt the King and both his Parliaments. On the 21st of January, the King granted a safe conduct to negotiators from both these bodies—Henderson being one of those from Scotland; and Uxbridge, near Oxford, was the place appointed for their meeting with Commissioners on the part of the King. Among the topics of negotiation, religion was, of course, a leading one. His Majesty was required to sanction a Bill for the Abolition of Prelacy—the Ordinance for the Assembly of Divines—to consent to a Directory, and certain other debatable propositions—all amounting to an establishment of Presbytery in England; and further, that the King should join in the Solemn League and Covenant, and concur in an Act of Parliament binding all the people of Britain to take it, under such penalties as might be decided on by the two Parliaments. After a fruitless and prolonged controversy—the King having refused to acquiesce in these proposals—the treaty broke off, and left the country in the same state of confusion. And even before the establishment of Presbytery in England was thus pertinaceously insisted on, the Independent faction in the English Parliament had laid a train of intrigues, by which the scheme was, ere long, rendered utterly abortive.