The Earl of Essex, the Parliamentary general, fought an indecisive battle with the king at Edgehill. Charles then made Oxford his headquarters. Early in the war, two men of spotless character fell,—Hampden, on the popular side (1643), and Lord Falkland (1643), who, not without hesitation, had joined the Royalists. The cavalry of Charles, under a gallant but rash leader, Prince Rupert, son of the Electress Palatine, and grandson of James I., was specially effective. Charles made peace with the Irish insurgents in order to get their help in fighting Parliament. Parliament united with the Scots in the Solemn League and Covenant, by which there was to be uniformity in religion in England, Ireland, and Scotland.
PRESBYTERIANS AND INDEPENDENTS.—Presbyterianism was now made the legal system; and about two thousand beneficed clergymen in England, who refused to subscribe to the Covenant, were deprived of their livings. The Westminster Assembly met in 1643, and organized a church system without bishops and without the liturgy. But Parliament did not give up its own supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs. There was no "General Assembly" to rule the Church, as in Scotland. Another party, the Independents, were gaining strength, and by degrees getting control in the army. Of their number was Oliver Cromwell, a gentleman of Huntingdonshire, who had been a member of the House of Commons, where he spoke for the first time in 1629.
CROMWELL: NASEBY.—By many of his adversaries, and by numerous writers since that day, Cromwell has been considered a hypocrite in religion, actuated by personal ambition. The Puritan poet, John Milton, who became his secretary after he acquired supreme power, gives to him the warmest praise for integrity and piety, as well as for genius and valor. Of his religious earnestness after the Puritan type, and of his sincere patriotism, there is at present much less doubt. As to the transcendent ability and sagacity that lay beneath a rugged exterior, there has never been any question. He raised and trained a regiment of Puritan troops, called the "Ironsides," who were well-nigh invincible in battle, but whose camp was a "conventicle" for prayer and praise. With their help, the Royalists were defeated at Marston Moor (1644). The army was now modeled anew by the Independents. The Self-denying Ordinance excluded members of Parliament from military command. Cromwell was made an exception. He came to the front, with no other general except Fairfax, who had replaced Essex, above him. Laud was condemned for high treason by an ordinance of Parliament, and beheaded (1645). The Royalist army experienced a crushing defeat at Naseby in June of the same year.
TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF CHARLES.—Charles surrendered to the army of the Scots before Newark (1646); and by them he was delivered for a ransom, in the form of an indemnity for war expenses, to their English allies. The king hoped much from the growing discord between the Presbyterians, who favored an accommodation with him if they could preserve their ecclesiastical system; and the Independents, who controlled the army, and were in favor of toleration, and of obtaining more guaranties of liberty against regal usurpation. In June, 1647, the army took the king out of the hands of Parliament, into their own custody. He negotiated with all parties, and was trusted by none. In 1648 he agreed, in a secret treaty with the Scots, to restore Presbyterianism. There were Royalist risings in different parts of England, which Cromwell suppressed. He defeated at Preston Pans a Scotch army, led into England by the Duke of Hamilton to help Charles. Cromwell's army were now determined to baffle the plans of the Parliamentary majority. Col. Pride, with a regiment of foot, excluded from the House of Commons about a hundred members. This measure, dictated by a council of officers, was called Pride's Purge. The Commons closed the House of Lords, and constituted a High Court of Justice for the trial of the king. He refused to acknowledge the tribunal, and behaved with calmness and dignity to the end. He was condemned, and beheaded on a scaffold before his own palace at Whitehall, Jan. 30, 1649. By one party he was execrated as a tyrant, whose life was a constant danger to freedom. By the other party he was revered as a martyr. His two eldest sons were Charles, born in 1630, and James, born in 1633.
THE COMMONWEALTH.—The monarchy was now abolished; and England was a free commonwealth, governed by the House of Commons. A council of state, under the presidency of Bradshaw, who had presided at the trial of the king, was appointed to carry on the government. In Ireland, a rebellion in behalf of young Charles, son of the late king, was organized by Butler, Marquis of Ormond (1649). In nine months Cromwell subdued it, treating the insurgents with unsparing severity. There was a savage massacre of the garrisons at Drogheda and Wexford. The massacre at Drogheda was by his orders. Soldiers of Parliament were settled in Munster, Leinster, and Ulster. The country was reduced to complete subjection. In 1650 Charles landed in Scotland, subscribed to the Covenant, and was proclaimed king. Cromwell fought the Scots at Dunbar, and totally routed them. Returning to England, he overtook Charles and his army at Worcester, and defeated them (1651). Cromwell called this victory "a crowning mercy." Charles escaped in disguise, and, after strange perils and adventures, landed in Normandy.
WAR WITH HOLLAND.—England, under its new government, engaged in a contest for dominion on the sea. The new order of things, contrary to the expectation of Cromwell, was regarded with hostility in Holland, where the Orange family were in power. In 1651 the English Navigation Act, requiring all goods from abroad to be brought in, either in English ships, or in ships of the countries on the Continent in which the imported wares were produced, struck a heavy blow at Dutch commerce. War followed, in which the great Dutch admirals, Van Tromp, De Ruyter, De Witt, found more than a match in the English commander, Blake. The terms of peace were dictated by Cromwell, and Holland had to attach itself to his policy (1654).
THE LORD PROTECTOR.—There was a growing discord between the unworthy remnant of the Parliament—now called the "Rump Parliament"—and the army. In 1653 Cromwell used his military force to dissolve the assembly. By the "Little Parliament" which he called together, he was constituted Lord Protector, with a Council of State composed of twenty-five members. Later he declined the title of king, out of respect to the feelings and prejudices of his party. But he reigned in state, and exercised regal functions. His attempts to restore the old forms of parliamentary government, in an orderly form, with two houses, were baffled by difficulties beyond control. He insisted on a large degree of toleration, so long as "religion was not made a pretense for arms and blood."
CROMWELL'S GOVERNMENT.—Under the Protector, England once more took the proud and commanding place in Europe which she had not held since the death of Elizabeth. Cromwell made his power to be everywhere respected. Blake chastised the pirates of the Barbary States, and punished the Duke of Tuscany for attacks on English commerce. In 1655 Jamaica was wrested from Spain; and, two years after, Blake burned the Spanish treasure-ships in the harbor of Santa Cruz, in Teneriffe. Cromwell efficiently protected the adherents of the Protestant faith in Piedmont, and wherever they were subjected to persecution. In the last year of his life, in conjunction with the French, he took Dunkirk from the Spaniards.
POWER OF CROMWELL.—Cromwell's power was not diminished in his closing years. Macaulay, who pronounces him the greatest prince that ever ruled England, says of him, "It is certain that he was to the last honored by his soldiers, obeyed by the whole population of the British Isles, and dreaded by all foreign powers; that he was laid among the ancient sovereigns of England with funeral pomp such as England had never before seen; and that he was succeeded by his son, Richard as quietly as any king had ever been succeeded by any Prince of Wales." (1658).
The talents of Cromwell, and the vigor of his administration, deeply impressed those who heartily disliked him. A strong illustration of this fact is presented in the character of the Protector as depicted by Lord Clarendon, in the History of the Great Rebellion; and by the poet Cowley in his essay or Discourse.