1648. SECOND CIVIL WAR. A royalist insurrection in Wales was soon suppressed by Cromwell, who also defeated, at Preston, a Scotch army that had invaded England in behalf of the king (Aug. 17). The Presbyterians, in the absence of the army, being predominant in parliament, began a treaty with Charles at Newport; but while the negotiations were proceeding, the army directed Charles to be removed to Hurst Castle, and Colonel Pride “purged” the House by forcibly excluding many of the members unfavourable to the army: this proceeding was known as Pride’s Purge. The remainder, or Rump Parliament, voted that the king should be brought to trial as guilty of high treason against the people.
1649. THE KING was tried in Westminster Hall, and though he refused to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the high court of justice, he was CONDEMNED AND EXECUTED.
Principal Officers in the Civil War.—Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice (the king’s nephews), the earls of Lindsey, Newcastle, and Montrose, Sir Ralph Hopton, Sir Marmaduke Langdale, and Goring, royalist commanders. The earl of Essex, Lord Kimbolton, afterwards earl of Manchester, Sir William Waller, Sir Thomas Fairfax, Hampden, Cromwell, Ireton, and Lambert, parliamentary commanders.
The Commonwealth.
1649 to 1660.
1649. Charles II. proclaimed king in Scotland, and soon after in Ireland. The Commons voted that the House of Lords and the office of King should be abolished. A council of forty-one persons appointed to conduct the government. Cromwell went to Ireland, took Drogheda and Wexford by storm, and captured several other towns.
1650. Montrose appeared in arms in Scotland on behalf of Charles II., but was captured, and executed at Edinburgh. Cromwell returned from Ireland, and about a month after Charles’s arrival in Scotland, he crossed the Tweed (July), and defeated the Scots under General Leslie at Dunbar (Sept. 3).
1651. Charles crowned at Scone. He raised an army and invaded England, but was pursued by Cromwell, and defeated at Worcester (Sept. 3). After a series of perilous adventures he escaped to France. Navigation Act passed.
This act, which aimed a deadly blow at the Dutch carrying trade, forbade the importation of goods from Asia, Africa, or America, in any ships except such as belonged to English subjects, and in the case of European goods they must be imported in English ships, or in ships that were the property of the people of the country producing the goods.
1652. WAR WITH THE DUTCH. Van Tromp defeated by Blake off Dover (May 19), and an indecisive battle was fought between De Ruyter and Ayscue off Plymouth (Aug. 16). The English were victorious in the Downs (Sept. 28), and defeated in the same neighbourhood two months after (Nov. 29).