During the progress of operations against Gloucester, Lady Harley in her correspondence with her son, on the 14th of February, 1642, says:—“Nine days past my Lord Herbert was at Hereford, where he stayed a week. There was held a council of war, what was the best way to take Brompton [Castle—her residence]. It was concluded to blow it up, and which counsel pleased them all. The sheriff of Radnorshire, with the trained bands of that county, and some of the Hereford soldiers, were to come against me. My Lord Herbert had appointed a day to come to Preston, that so his presence might persuade them to go out of their county. He had commanded them to bring pay to victuals for 10 days. The soldiers came to Preston, but it pleased God to call my Lord Herbert another way, for those in the Forest of Dean grew so strong, that they were afraid of them.”[102]
We ascertain from his own later statement of expenditure that from February, 1641, to October, 1642, or thereabouts, he was actively engaged in dispensing his father’s immense loans in support of the royal cause; he says,—“With as much privacy as might be, keeping good correspondence with the Parliament; remaining in London, to avoid suspicion, being then trusted both by King and Parliament.”
Taking amounts as stated by his Lordship, the dates may be pretty correctly supplied from Iter Carolinum.[90]
| Between 28th February, and 18th March, 1641, he sent to Theobalds for the “pressing necessities of his dear master,” the sum of | £3,000 |
| About the same time to Huntingdon, after the King’s departure from Theobalds | 3,000 |
| On or after the 19th March, to York | 8,000 |
| On or after 21st July, 1642, to Nottingham, “where his Majesty set up his royal standard.” [90] | 4,000 |
| Officers’ expenses to York | 1,500 |
| Besides, by his Majesty’s command, victualling the Tower, Sir John Byron being Lord Lieutenant, for which purpose, he “sent him in old plate, under pretence of coining it” | 2,500 |
| And further, obtaining through some pretence, leave of absence, from the Parliament, he proceeded with their pass to York, carrying to the King in ready money | 15,000 |
| And in bills and assurances | 80,500 |
| For these his Majesty giving his “note for ninety-five thousand five hundred pounds,” his Lordship returned in two days. | |
| Raising Sir John Byron’s regiment of Horse, the first completed | 5,000 |
| Representing a total of | £122,500 |
Annexed to the record of this vast outlay, Lord Herbert has left us a short piece of autobiography. “Things being thus set in order, (he says) between his Majesty and me, I fairly took leave of the Parliament, to go down to my father; where I no sooner arrived but there came directed unto me from his Majesty a Commission of Array; whereof I presently, by a servant of my own, sent word to the Parliament, with a letter to the House of Lords, which I directed to my Lord of Holland, and to the House of Commons, to Mr. Pym; in both which I offered to intercede to his Majesty, and conceived I should prevail to suspend the Commission of Array, if they should make an Act that their Militia should not come into my country. But they with civil compliments and thanks replied that his Majesty’s [proceedings] was so illegal, and theirs for the good of the kingdom so just and necessary, that by no means would they waive the one for the other. At which I declared myself irritated, to see that they durst tell me that anything commanded by my master was illegal, and professed I would obey his Majesty’s commands, and let them send at their perils. So immediately, and in eight days’ time, I raised six regiments, fortified Monmouth, Chepstow, and Raglan, fetching away the magazine [of powder and ammunition] from the Earl of Pembroke’s town, Carlyon, and placed it in Raglan Castle, leaving a garrison in lieu thereof. Garrisoned likewise Cardiff, Brecknock, Hereford, Goodrich Castle and the Forest of Dean, after I had taken them from the enemy.”
We have here a striking instance of his unflinching loyalty, of his first public expression of his political sentiments, with a brief sketch of the course he adopted in his first decisive military measures.
In the month of September several horses, the property of Lord Herbert, being seized in Gloucestershire, the same was formally reported, as appears first from the Journals of the House of Commons,[B] as follows:
“Diè Martis, 13º Septembris, 1642.
“A letter, from the city of Gloucester, from Mr. Perry, &c. concerning the Lord Herbert, son of the Earl of Worcester, seven horses of war stayed there; and concerning some provisions they desire for the safety of the city; was this day read: And
“It is ordered, that Sergeant Wilde do prepare an Order concerning both these particulars.