After taking the most urgent precautions for the defence of Oxford, he moved from thence with most part of his troops. He succeeded in fact in passing between the two hostile armies, which still remained separate: on June 6, four days after he started, he arrived with a few followers at Worcester, by way of Burford and Evesham.
What he had originally expected now took place: the two hostile armies separated. Essex would not be prevented from advancing into the western counties, where he hoped for great successes: the King had only Waller to deal with.
He would not let himself be shut up in Worcester, as Waller attempted, holding it to be essentially dishonourable for a King to be besieged, and moved farther northwards. While Waller followed in the same direction, the King succeeded in turning back, so that what was then taking place in the German war between Torstenson and Gallas, that sometimes one, sometimes the other was in advance, was repeated on a smaller scale in England. On June 16 we find the King on the heights of Camden, then at Witney near Oxford, where important reinforcements hastened to meet him. Surrounded by a pretty considerable army he could think of advancing on London, where a bold stroke A.D. 1644. would revive the dormant Royalist sympathies: the message had actually been drawn up which in that case was to be sent to Parliament. Waller, who had followed in his track, came up, and an action took place at Cropredy Bridge, in which the King obtained the advantage. Waller’s losses were not very severe, but he had lost his field guns and his most experienced artillery officer, and deemed it well to avoid another conflict. The King also found it advisable to give his troops rest and refreshment: then he moved back towards Evesham, in order not to bring the enemy again upon Oxford by returning thither, and so endanger it afresh.
Meanwhile Essex had made successful progress in his march westward: he had compelled the Royalist troops to raise the sieges of Lyme and Plymouth, and had advanced into Cornwall. Quite contrary to his expectation he there met with determined resistance and outspoken Royalist sentiments. After the King had refreshed and strengthened his troops in their quarters, he resolved after some hesitation to go to the aid of his adherents in that district. His chief motive was that his wife would now be endangered at Exeter by the proximity of the enemy. Strengthened by Prince Maurice and Lord Hopton, Charles I appeared with a very superior force in the rear of Essex, who was now in painful difficulties. He had neither provisions to maintain his troops, nor money to pay them: the inhabitants rose against him in all directions[387], he could obtain no answer, much less any help from Parliament, for he had long ago lost the favour of the leading men there. At this moment, the King, with the assent of the officers of his army, offered him terms. Essex however was a man of the Parliamentary majority, to whose principles he held firmly, though now personally ill-used. He rejected every offer, remaining convinced that the royal will expressed with the assent of the two Houses was the only thing binding on him. Still he had no inclination to fight against the King in person, which besides would then in the condition of his army have been ruinous. He A.D. 1644. resolved to escape to Plymouth with his chief companions in arms. The Parliamentary cavalry cut their way through the Royal troops, the infantry capitulated, the artillery and arms fell into the King’s hands.
The campaign of 1644 was the best success achieved by King Charles I. The French ambassador, who met him at Evesham and had a long audience on horseback, cannot praise him sufficiently: he is full, he reports, of judgment and sagacity, never lets himself be led to any precipitate action through his dangerous position, orders everything himself, both great and small, never signs anything that he has not read, and on horseback or on foot is ever at the head of his troops[388].
Meanwhile the campaign in the North had taken quite a different course. At the end of February the Scots crossed the Tyne: the manner in which they effected the passage did not altogether excite the admiration of veterans; the soldiers lacked discipline, and the officers experience[389]. They would with difficulty have held their ground against the Marquis of Newcastle had they encountered him in the open field, but they declined to quit their position, which was rendered unassailable by ditches, hedges, and marsh. The reason for this was that they could confidently reckon on seeing the troops of the Parliament approach in a short time from the other side.
By the express orders of the recently formed committee of the two kingdoms, Thomas Fairfax and his father Ferdinand Lord Fairfax moved towards them, the former issuing from Lancashire, the latter from Hull. Colonel Bellasis, who tried to prevent their junction, was surprised at Selby, defeated and taken prisoner,—a success in itself of no immediate importance, yet one for which Parliament was right to order a thanksgiving, for the Marquis of Newcastle was thereby compelled to retreat in order to cover York. The Scots could now advance from their position, and on April 20, Lesley Earl of Leven, joined the two Fairfaxes at Tadcaster. A.D. 1644. And as the levies of the united counties now appeared under Lord Manchester on the northern border of their own district, the three corps were able to undertake the formal investment of York, so that on June 16 an assault was made on the ramparts.
York was the second city of the kingdom, the place where the Royalist party had first made head: the whole of the North depended on it. The King durst not leave it without assistance: he requested his nephew Prince Rupert to abandon every other scheme and proceed immediately to the relief of York. If York fell, his crown was as good as lost: the only hope he had of retaining it lay in relieving York and defeating the rebel army which was besieging it. He conjured him by his duty and affection to accomplish this work without delay[390].
The prince was then at the zenith of his military fame. After his fortunate exploit at Newark he had gone to the assistance of the chivalrous Countess of Derby, who defended her castle of Lathom House, the walls of which she had herself made defensible, first against Thomas Fairfax and then against the more vehement attacks of Rigby; and had compelled the besiegers to relinquish their undertaking. They moved to Bolton, one of the chief seats of English Puritanism, and this place also was captured by Rupert. Then he advanced upon Liverpool, which fell into his hands without resistance. Now he was summoned by the King’s letter to the most important operation with which he could ever be entrusted, for on its result the issue of the war mainly depended.
With a force which had been regarded as insignificant, but which had now grown, through all the additions that had been made to it, to 8,000 horse and 10,000 foot-soldiers, Rupert at the end of June crossed the hills which separate Lancashire and Yorkshire: his arrival and name immediately produced a great effect. The united army of the English and Scots quitted its lines before York, and took up a position to bar his advance: but he avoided it, and entered York as a deliverer.