He expected that his Queen would supply him with money and even with military aid. The state of European affairs was then such that it seemed possible to gain for the cause of the English crown the assistance of Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine, who was ready to move in any direction, and who had gained military experience at the head of an army gathered by the sound of his name, but free from all territorial connexions, in France, Germany, and the Netherlands. The Queen took great trouble to induce him to assent, and, what was still more difficult, to supply him with the means. The King hoped to see him arrive in one of the ports which he still commanded, if not direct from France, from the Netherlands by the help of the Prince of Orange[415].
Finally the King had resolved to make offers of peace to the Catholic League, with the security of some temporary concessions; he reckoned on their acceptance, and also on help from Ireland.
A.D. 1645.
In Scotland a powerful reaction was already in progress. Montrose, who had returned secretly and remained in concealment for a time, had suddenly raised the King’s banner, as his representative, on the Grampian Hills. Irish troops, raised in Antrim, came to join him under Alexander Macdonald, called Colkitto, a man who made a great impression by his gigantic stature and desperate courage. Montrose formed his own army chiefly of Highlanders, whom he could not perhaps discipline, but knew how to manage according to their nature. He conducted the war not on strategical principles, but by sudden and weighty blows: the onset of his troops was compared to the rush of a suddenly swollen mountain stream, so unexpected, stormy, and irresistible was it: wherever he encountered the Covenanters, he gained the advantage. At the beginning of April 1645 he took Dundee: he then informed the King[416] that if he were supported by only 500 cavalry, he would in the course of the summer bring 20,000 foot-soldiers into England. At the very least the King might expect that the Scots would be too busy at home to be very dangerous to him in England. At the time he thought he had not much to fear from the Parliamentary army. It was the almost universal expectation that, deprived of its tried officers by the new model, it would stand trial even less than under Essex. And in fact its first undertakings had no special result[417]. Though the royal troops had been compelled to raise the siege of Taunton, yet it had been immediately renewed. It was assumed that the Parliament would seek at any cost to save a place so important for the western counties; which had all the more consequence, because the association uniting Cornwall and Devonshire was extended over Somerset and Dorset: the four counties undertook to put a considerable force in the field. At their request the King let the Prince of Wales, attended by some members of the Privy Council, take his place among them, while he A.D. 1645. left his second son, the Duke of York, in Oxford, under the military tutelage of a trustworthy officer, William Legge, to defend the capital of Royalist England against eventual attack. According to ancient ideas the presence of the royal princes was a pledge of redoubled devotion. The King himself wished to remain free to take up a position in the midland counties, and advance thence either northwards or eastwards. He did not expect to conquer the powerful foe, but hoped to occupy him everywhere, and to succeed in bearing the royal banner victorious in England as in Scotland, and after a prosperous campaign to enjoy a good winter.
It cannot be denied that he had some grounds for this hope. He relied mainly on the Celtic elements in the British kingdom, not only in Scotland and Ireland, but in England also, where they had operated powerfully, at any rate in Cornwall. Leaning on this support, he called to his banner the elements of the English commonwealth which were allied to the monarchy and were threatened along with it. He was their champion against the tendencies hostile to him and them alike, which had arisen more powerfully in the British isles than ever in any other part of the Teutonic world. His hope was to achieve a settlement, in which the old prerogative of the crown, not without some limitation of the exclusive domination of Protestantism, should be combined with parliamentary privileges. Was this unattainable?
I do not know whether he had thought out the question fully. Hitherto the initiative in government had proceeded from the Crown, which had enjoyed the preponderance. But through the revolution of 1640 the dominant power had been transferred to the Parliament, which in most parts of the kingdom was now recognised: and the Parliament wished to retain this. The question was, who should henceforth enjoy the supreme power: and the sword must decide.
The decision came unexpectedly to all parties, suddenly and irrevocably. The King had saved Chester from an assault by the Parliamentary troops: without letting himself be delayed over the trifling enterprises which were suggested to him, he broke up his camp in May, 1645, his brave nephew Rupert by his side, to execute the plan before mentioned. A.D. 1645. Already at the end of the month they had an unexpected success: the strong town of Leicester fell into their hands. A battery planted by the Prince on the right spot made a breach; but the assault was checked by defences erected behind it, till the walls were scaled at two weaker points. All resistance was then in vain, and the town had to expiate by a terrible sack its Parliamentary leanings.
Scarcely ever has a success been so ruinous to the victorious troops as this conquest to the King and his army. At once all the energies of his opponents were directed against him. In London an attack on the eastern counties was feared, on the possession of which the general security depended. When at the same time there were rumours of threatened movements in Kent and of an attack on Dover; the feeling gained ground that they were on the eve of a catastrophe. The two Houses vied with each other in taking the necessary precautions. New levies were ordered in the city and the counties, proclamation of martial law in Kent, increase of the powers of the generals. The Common Council, not yet satisfied, requested that orders might be given to the army to advance immediately, in order to fight with the King, and especially to recover Leicester before he had fortified it.
Fairfax had not, as was expected, let himself be entangled with the Parliamentary army in the western counties, but had advanced towards Oxford, where he obtained, it is true, no successes[418] sufficient to cause any serious danger, but prevailed so far that the King was most urgently requested to come to the aid of his most important city, where the court still was, and especially of the ladies thus endangered, and above all of his son. He set his army in motion in this direction: but severe losses had been sustained in the storming of Leicester, and he was obliged, in the face of a refractory population, to leave a considerable garrison there: when the army appeared in the field it was seen to be too weak A.D. 1645. to cope with Fairfax. Charles begged the besieged not to trouble him, for that he would not let them fall into the enemy’s hands, but he durst not stake all on the game like a madman. For the present he contented himself with sending them provisions and a portion of his troops. He himself stayed at Daventry, to await the return of this detachment, and the arrival of reinforcements from Devonshire and Wales.
The immediate staff of the King were divided in opinion as to the plan of the campaign. Prince Rupert would have liked to carry out the original scheme, and that by moving towards the northern counties. A considerable portion of the army consisted of horsemen who came from that quarter, chiefly Cavaliers, who desired nothing so much as to turn homewards. Rupert was convinced that Fairfax would not look on quietly, but would follow them, and so Oxford would be freed. On the other hand Lord Digby had directed his gaze towards Oxford, and held it to be necessary to go to the aid of the besieged in full strength.[419] Undoubtedly Rupert’s opinion was more correct, and more suitable to the circumstances, especially because it could be executed immediately. While the King was inclining towards Digby’s view (for was he not naturally above all things anxious for the liberation of his son?), and waiting for the reinforcements (as usual with serene temper, with no apprehensions for the future, and not without devoting himself in leisure hours to the pleasures of the chase), he gave his enemies time to come up against him with all their forces.