Records of the Kirk of Scotland / containing the Acts and Proceedings of the General Assemblies from 1638 downwards, as authenticated by the clerks of assembly.

by Church of Scotland. General Assembly

[207] Burnet, p. 137.

[208] Burnet, p. 133. Reported by Sir Henry Devick.

[209] Burnet, p. 138. Hamilton’s Letter, to which this is the answer, suppressed by Burnet.

[210] Burnet, p. 139.—This letter affords sufficient evidence of the King’s apprehensions as to the increasing power of the Covenanters, which made him resolve “to keep himself on a defensive;” and it is confirmed by the King’s postscript. And Burnet (p. 140) tell us that Hamilton had warned his Majesty in the Gallery of Whitehall, “that few of the English would engage in an offensive war with Scotland.” This apologist of Hamilton states farther that, on reaching the English camp early in June, “the Marquis did shew the King that, while the fire-edge was upon the Scotish spirits, it would not prove an easie task to tame them, but would be a work of some years, and cost much money and many men: he therefore desired the King would consider if it were not fit to consent to the abolishing of Episcopacy and giving way to their Covenant till better times; and that, as the chief leaders had entered upon that course, being provoked by some irritations and neglects they had met with, so it might be fit to regain them by cajolery and other favours. And to persuade the King to this course was easier, that both his reason and his affection to his subjects did co-operate with it—a great strengthening coming to it by my Lord Canterbury’s opinion, who saw a pacification absolutely necessary for the King’s service, and did advise it.” And Hamilton got a warrant under the King’s hand, to “deal with” the Scotch leaders in the way thus suggested. It was at this time that Montrose was induced, by what motives still remains unexplained, to forsake the Covenant and join the King’s party; and previously to the treaty, Home, Buccleugh, and some others also forsook the national banner.

It is curious to contrast these disclosures of the real state of facts at the time referred to, with a piece of gasconade in Heylyn’s Life of Laud, (p. 365,) which, in its leading points, is contradicted by letters under the King’s hand to Hamilton. “These preparations (for negotiation, says this Doctor of divinity) being made, they fand an easier business of it than they had any reason to expect, to bring his Majesty to meet them in the middle way. It was not his intent to fight them, as I have heard from a person of great trust and honour; but only by the terrour of so great an army to draw the Scots to do him reason. And this I am the more apt to credit, because when a Noble and well experienced commander offered him (then being in camp near Berwick) that with two thousand horse, (which the King might very well have spared,) he would so waste and spoil the country, that the Scots should creep upon their bellies to implore his mercy,—he would by no means hearken to the proposition.”

[211] Folio MS., f. 73.

[212] Folio MS., f. 74-75.—The looseness of Burnet and others who treat of this pacification, and the lack of dates to several of the documents, referable to the period of the negotiations, is apt to create uncertainty and indistinctness as to the several steps and stages in its progress; and it is somewhat difficult to fix the precise days on which some of the notes, &c. were written and communicated. Minute exactness in this respect is perhaps now but of small importance, (though historical truth depends much on chronological accuracy;) but attention to the following particulars enables us, with considerable certainty, to assign to the several documents their proper place.

The repulse of the King’s troops at Kelso took place on the 3d of June; and in the interval betwixt that day and the 7th, the Earl of Dunfermline was despatched from the Scotch to the King’s camp, with renewed supplications for opening negotiations. On the 7th, Sir E. Verney brought a message from the King, requiring his proclamation to be published; and it was read at General Leslie’s table on the 7th, when, accompanied by Dunfermline, Verney returned to the King’s camp with a favourable report. On the 8th, the King agreed to negotiate, and wrote a letter to that effect. On the 10th, (Burnet says the 11th,) the first meeting took place, and three more afterwards—viz., on the 12th, 15th and 18th—at the last of which the King’s Declaration was adjusted, and the articles of pacification agreed to.—Vide Baillie, vol. i. p. 179-183.

[213] Folio MS., f. 75.

[214] Folio MS., f. 75.