A history of England principally in the seventeenth century, Volume 2 (of 6)

by Leopold von Ranke

When forces are tolerably equal, and not numerous altogether, a reinforcement to one side, trifling in itself, will usually produce decisive effect. A splendid regiment of horse that Colonel Rossiter brought up at the right moment[424], joined the wing commanded by Cromwell, who was opposed to the least well-compacted corps of the Royalists, and had already gained the advantage: when after a short halt he renewed the attack on Langdale’s division, which he now could assail on the flank also, he soon mastered it, and drove it before him in headlong flight. Thereupon Rupert, who had been shamefully repulsed by the reserve, hastened back, to prevent the King from being endangered by the change of fortune. At the same moment Ireton was set free, and could again appear on the battle-field with a portion of his troops. The defeated Parliamentary infantry that had rallied again, united with a portion of the cavalry for an attack on the A.D. 1645. hitherto victorious Royal battalions. These defended themselves, like the Spanish infantry at Rocroy about the same time, according to the expression of a hostile report, ‘with incredible valour and most steadfastly.’ But being deprived of the usual protection from their cavalry, and attacked on all sides, both by horse and foot, these troops saw at last that further resistance would be their destruction: they could no longer be brought to face the enemy, but laid down their arms under the condition, which was very unwillingly granted, that no plundering of individuals should be allowed[425].

The King, who had with difficulty been prevented from plunging into the mêlée, had to abandon the field to the rebels. He re-entered Leicester in retreat that resembled flight, after immense loss. He had sustained a most ruinous defeat, his main army was annihilated, the terror of his arms lost: the Parliamentary army had gained an unequalled victory.

Charles I however was still very far from giving up his cause as lost. He moved into the counties in which from the first he had found most support, and which still seemed willing to stand by him. ‘A better reception,’ he writes from Hereford, ‘I could not have found, if I had arrived after gaining a victory: I hope soon to replace my losses with interest’ He believed that a considerable army might still be raised in Wales, from whence Gerrard met him with a couple of thousand men: the gentry of South Wales, who assembled at Abergavenny around him, gave him the best assurances on this head. New preparations began, and the Marquis of Worcester gave him as hospitable and splendid a reception in Raglan Castle, as though he were reigning in full authority and peace. Moreover there was a force in the associated western counties, which were in full tide of resistance. General Goring had 5000 foot and 4000 horse under his command: every day he hoped to become master of Taunton, where a Parliamentary garrison still held out.

But the superiority of the Parliamentary army was soon to be exhibited in these regions also. Victory had completed their A.D. 1645. organisation: it gave them self-reliance and confidence in their leaders[426]. After taking Leicester with its military magazines—a conquest which the inhabitants regarded as a deliverance—they moved towards the united western counties. At the passage of Langport, Goring placed himself in their way: but the Parliamentary army developed such complete superiority by the bravery of its cavalry and the skilful use of artillery, that Goring, after one repulse, no longer ventured to encounter it even with superior numbers. The fortresses which had been deemed impregnable fell one after the other before the assaults of Cromwell. By the middle of August the strong places captured or relieved, Lyme, Sherborne, Langport, Taunton, Bridgewater, formed a line which virtually cut off Devonshire and Cornwall from the rest of England. Colonel Poyntz pressed into South Wales and instantly stopped the attempts to form a new army there.

The dimensions to which the Royalist forces were reduced were already very small, and their chance of success very slight, when a misunderstanding took place within the party which utterly disintegrated it.

It must be reckoned an important event in the King’s life that at Naseby a part of his papers fell into the hands of the victors. Fairfax sent them to the Lower House, which communicated them to the Lords and to the Common Council, and ordered a selection of them to be printed forthwith[427]. These were the original drafts of the letters of Charles I to his wife, and her answers, and instructions for Uxbridge and Ireland: some papers seized elsewhere were added to these, together with a preface and an appendix which declared their authenticity and commented on their contents. Nothing could have happened more opportunely for the anti-royalist tendencies. The King’s determination to give way on neither of the main questions, and his last-formed purpose of drawing nearer to the Catholics, were brought into the full light of day. He could now be reproached with offering toleration to the idolatry of the A.D. 1645. Papists, and indemnity to the blood-stained Irish; of invoking the aid of foreign powers and princes for the destruction of English liberties and of Protestantism. The publication of course produced a great impression even on the King’s own friends. They saw now that the King, in opposition to his own Oxford Parliament, had preferred war to the continuance of the negotiations. At the very moment when arms offered no further hope this double disagreement broke out. The conviction everywhere gained ground that the King must submit further and more irrevocably than he seemed inclined to do. A negotiation was entered into between the members of the Privy Council in attendance on the Prince of Wales and the peacefully-inclined members of Parliament, arising out of the wish of both to help one another to a compromise. In the same direction went the views of the leading men in the united western counties, which were at the time of great weight from the independent character of the movement there.

This was exactly the constitutional standpoint which the Clubmen, who just then suddenly appeared in various places, sought to attain. They were the inhabitants of the counties who declined any longer to allow themselves to be violently treated and plundered, first by one party and then by the other. Assembling at their own will, with any weapons that came to hand, even clubs, from which they got their name, with the intention merely of resisting at every point where defence was possible the violence of the soldiery, they at once proceeded to a general manifesto: they most urgently demanded a truce between the King and the Parliament, and a renewal of the peace negotiations, for which purpose they would send delegates to both sides. They opposed the Royalist soldiery as well as the Parliamentarians, but on the whole were of moderate Royalist opinions. Fairfax treated them as enemies, but Prince Rupert entered into alliance with them: for the Prince was now himself inclined to a compromise. From Bristol, where he had taken the command, he sent word to the King that for the rescue of his crown, his posterity, and the nobility of the country, there was nothing left but to make a treaty: he urged that it would be better to save part than to lose the whole.

A.D. 1645.

King Charles I was at this moment as fully aware as any one else of the desperate state of his circumstances: at the beginning of August he arranged that, if danger pressed, his son should fly to France, for it was now necessary to prepare for the worst. For himself he adhered to his resolution not to give way a foot’s breadth. His was a nature which is not bent but steeled by adversity. At this time he wrote to his secretary in calm but strong language, that with God’s help he would never either abandon the Church to another form of government, or rob the crown of the authority which his ancestors had transmitted to him, or forsake his friends[428]. To Prince Rupert he replied that, as for his advice, as soldier and statesman he might perhaps approve it, as Christian he must reject it; whatever afflictions God might ever visit him with, he durst not abandon a cause which was that of God. He believes that in the end it will triumph, but for himself he has no such hope: all that is left him is to die with honour and a good conscience. In fact, he dares not reckon on success, but only on this, that God will hereafter avenge his cause. To those who will stand by him he must say that they have nothing to expect except death for the good cause, or a life made miserable by the oppression of the rebels[429]. His words imply the consciousness of a duty independent of accidental circumstances, transcending the complications of the moment, of great importance for the future of England, and highminded in themselves, if a prince can be called highminded, who, conscious of impending ruin, shows himself determined not to yield a hair’s-breadth. But they were not calculated to hold together or to strengthen his party: they died away without effect. To offer men ruin and endless troubles as the reward of their devotion is not the way to A.D. 1645. win them. Who would join the King’s cause with any pleasure when he himself treated it as lost? Men saw in his expressions only one proof more of his invincible obstinacy.

When Prince Rupert came to England to fight for his uncle, he had also the idea of gaining a princely establishment for himself: to expose himself to ruin for the English Church was not at all in his mind. He had already been put out of humour by the King’s rejection of his proposal, when he received from the Parliamentary army that was besieging him in Bristol, after he had made one or two fruitless sorties, a summons which in form was well calculated to make an impression upon him. It was at the same time a warning, reminding him that the Parliamentary party against which he was in arms, was the very one which had always sought to help the Palatine family, and had expended blood and money for it; that he need not think the crown was at stake, for that would remain where it must be, but that the contest now was merely between the Parliament, the King’s great council, and his actual evil advisers; that the party which he was now defending was the one which had always opposed the interests of his family. They referred to Digby, who had quarrelled with the Prince at Naseby, and had since kindled the flame of contention all the more eagerly because he thus kept away the King, who cherished the design of going with the Prince to Bristol, from fear of there losing all his influence. If Rupert now gave ear to the summons, there were military reasons to justify him, for one of the protecting forts had fallen already into the enemy’s hands: but still there is no doubt that political motives co-operated. It had been thought that he would fight to the death: he had promised to hold Bristol three months: that he should surrender in the third week, before any extreme necessity arose, excited general astonishment, and caused the most painful emotion in the King, who was just preparing to attempt a relief with a small flying force which he had assembled and some help which he expected from Goring. He thought he perceived that Rupert was guided by counsellors of corrupt heart. If his own relations treated him A.D. 1645. thus, what was he to expect from strangers? Of all the calamities with which he had been visited, none, he said, had grieved him more deeply.