It was also very greatly to the King’s interest to keep down a party which sought to overthrow him, and openly uttered republican sentiments. On other points he would have been able to yield, but on this one he could not. His own convictions were the other way, and moreover he would have alienated the greater part of his friends. It was as much a matter of absolute necessity for the King to refuse, as for the Scots to urge, the concession.
This division contributed further to strengthen the opposite party, which day by day grew more powerful. At its head was the man of the age, Oliver Cromwell. He made no secret of his opinion that the future of England depended neither on the crown nor on the Lords, that a time would come when there would be neither king nor peers in England. He charged the Scots with having come to impose their hierarchical system on the English; but he would himself, he was heard to say, draw the sword against them, and extort the conditions which were indispensable for his co-religionists. He would on no account suffer the combination of aristocrats and Presbyterians, which was being formed, to establish itself A.D. 1645. in power: the mode in which he set to work is characteristic of his deep, subtle, calculating, and determined nature, biding its time, but always advancing towards its object.
He first attacked the English nobles: he accused of treason his former commander, Lord Manchester, who in these complications had exercised decisive influence. For a long time they had acted together, like the Independents and Presbyterians in general, Manchester being one of the leaders of the latter, Cromwell the acknowledged chief of the former; but now they separated from each other. As the nobles were of opinion that the King must be allowed to exist, it was attributed to their want of zeal that Charles I had not been altogether annihilated in the war. Cromwell accused Manchester of having occasioned the smallness of the results from the battle of Newbury, by neglecting advantages and throwing away excellent opportunities; saying that there was reason to think that Manchester had purposely spared the King and had not wished to turn the engagement into a complete victory[410]. We have no means of discovering how far Cromwell was right: Manchester rejoined by a charge of insubordination. It is obvious that Cromwell’s accusations fell upon others besides Manchester: the same charge had long ago been made against Essex and other generals; he only expressed the universal conviction.
The drift of this quarrel did not escape the Scots. They saw in Cromwell’s proceedings the intention to seize for himself the chief command of the army, to dissolve the union of the two kingdoms, and to destroy the House of Lords. Well might they desire the prayers of the faithful in their behalf, for the scheme seemed to involve danger to their religion also.
To rid themselves of this dangerous rival, they once seriously adopted the idea of impeaching Cromwell. One of the chief charges which had been urged against Strafford, that namely of destroying the peace between the two kingdoms, might, it was believed, be brought against Cromwell: he was an incendiary, that is, a man who kindled strife between the two A.D. 1645. countries[411]. The nobles of the Upper House and the Scots seem to have had an understanding on this matter. One day the Earl of Essex invited to his house two lawyers, members of the Lower House, Whitelocke and Maynard, who belonged to the moderate party; they found there, besides some Parliamentary friends of Essex, such as Hollis and Stapleton, Loudon, the Chancellor of Scotland, who formally propounded the question whether an impeachment on this ground might not be laid against Cromwell. Whitelocke and Maynard remarked that the case must be well prepared beforehand, and striking proofs offered, the more so as Cromwell had the greater part of the Lower House on his side, and friends in the Upper House also. Hollis was confident of being able to carry the matter through. The Scots, who at the same time were obliged to consider their national position, stood aloof from the attempt.
Meanwhile Cromwell was preparing another and most unexpected blow at his powerful enemies. He referred to the universal dissatisfaction at the conduct of the war hitherto, which in spite of their undoubted superiority had led to nothing decisive: what was gained one day had been lost again on another; the victories of the summer served as subjects for evening talk in winter: this was their only advantage, all this blood had been shed, treasure spent, and land devastated in vain. All the world cried out against the dissensions and untrustworthiness of the generals, and complained of the arbitrary conduct of members of Parliament, even in civil offices.
Relying on this, Cromwell and his friends proposed, at first as usual through a man of minor importance, that henceforth no member of Parliament should hold a public office either in the conduct of the war or in the civil government. The proposal was recommended by the fact that it wore a religious aspect; it implied an abnegation of all the advantages which were usually connected with these posts: it appeared a point of conscience to assent. That some thorough change was necessary was the universal A.D. 1645. opinion, because otherwise it was thought that the friends of peace in the country would agree to the proposals made by the King. The matter was so well prepared beforehand, that the proposition was accepted at the same sitting.
The Scots did not know what to think: they saw that now the contest between Manchester and Cromwell would be brought to an end once for all. Some admired the act as a proof of heroism, others saw in it audacity and danger. It is like a dream, exclaims Baillie; we cannot yet see the bottom of the affair.
It was at once plain that the Earl of Essex could no longer retain the command of the army. He had long had to contend against secret or avowed hostility in the Common Council and in the Lower House: he ascribed his last disasters in Cornwall to the hostile influence of his enemies in the Committee, but as yet he had held his ground. Even now he was not without friends in the Lower House, who proposed that an exception should be made in favour of the General-in-chief, with whom Parliament had once sworn to live and die; but they were in the minority. What could not be done by open attack, Cromwell attained, says Whitelocke, by a flank movement. Essex was included in a general ordinance, which every one had to obey.
Still the Upper House refused to accept the bill, on the ground that it had always been the right of the Lords to shed their blood for the lawful liberties of the country, and that by the terms of the protest and their assent to the Covenant they were more than ever pledged to this: if there were objections against individuals, let them be stated, and judged in the proper parliamentary fashion; but to exclude all by a resolution of Parliament was to punish individuals. Three times in succession they rejected the bill, but they had long ago begun to let the majority of the Commons lead them along a road which they did not fully approve; they had not strength for continued resistance.