A detailed contemporary report relates that the King had yet a third alternative offered to him, that the Lord Mayor of London had undertaken to keep him safe if he came to the city, and that the plan had even been formed for his appearance at a review of the militia, fixed for May 5 in Hyde Park, but that Parliament had been informed of the scheme and postponed the review. The story is of a somewhat apocryphal character and wrong in its date[455], and therefore cannot be accepted; but it is true that a review was to have been held, and was put off by Parliament on pretexts which have no importance[456]. The Parliament declared A.D. 1646. it to be high treason secretly to receive and harbour the King: it forbade any Royalist to remain in London or its vicinity. Its resolutions betray agitation, and a fear that the King would find sympathy among the people. He would not have been freed in London from the necessity of assenting to the introduction of Presbyterianism; but the court at Oxford was convinced that the city would not compel him to such hard conditions, and that his liberty of conscience would be safer than with the Scots[457]. And in fact the King all but took the way to London. He did not take his two nephews with him, though that had been his intention hitherto, for Rupert was easily recognisable by his great stature, and was hated in the country. Attended only by his captain, Hudson, and the faithful Ashburnham, whose servant he pretended to be, with a valise behind his saddle, Charles I on April 27 quitted Oxford, and reached Brentford and Harrow-on-the-Hill, in the immediate neighbourhood of the capital: and here the King was very near venturing into London itself[458]. But the vigilance of Parliament seems to have been too severe, his prospects not clear enough. After remaining there two days in concealment, during which fresh negotiations had been entered into with the Scots, he at last resolved to betake himself to their camp at Newark. Although his earlier dealings with them had had no result, yet he did not appear quite as a fugitive seeking help. His arrival gave the Scots an advantage; for they were much afraid of his falling, in one way or another, into the hands of the Independents, and giving to their views the authority of his name: it was much better and safer if the King found shelter in their camp. The English troops who were taking part in the siege of Newark, were not only astonished, but also jealous, at seeing their King enter the abode of the French ambassador, near their quarters in Southwell, and soon afterwards, surrounded by Scottish troops, remove to A.D. 1646. the head-quarters of General Lesley. The Scots were afraid that the English army, which was far stronger than theirs, might try to carry off the King by force[459]. In London this unexpected dénouement produced the greatest impression on both sides. The Presbyterians were satisfied; the Independents, says Baillie, were very wroth thereat.
After Newark had been surrendered to the English troops at the wish of the Scots, with consent of the King—for they did not wish to excite their jealousy any further—they hastened to conduct him to Newcastle, near their own frontier. They knew perfectly well how valuable he was to them. They calculated that his presence would serve to keep in dependence the still unconquered Royalists in Scotland, and above all the English Presbyterians. They thought further that the King would ultimately not refuse to sign the Covenant, whereupon they would strengthen his authority. Their object was to bring to completion that combination which has been so often mentioned, with the French, the King, and the English Presbyterians, who formed the most numerous party in the country, and by this means to make head against the Independents.
FOOTNOTES:
[436] Areopagitica. Milton’s Prose Works ii. 48.
[437] ‘The power which is directive and states and ascertains the morality of the rule for obedience, is in the law of God: but the original, whence all just power arises, which is magistratical and coercitive, is from the will or free gift of the people who may either keep the power in themselves, or give up their subjection and will in the hand of another.’ (Vane, The People’s Case Stated.)
[438] Baillie, September 16, 1644. ‘Manchester a sweet meek man permitted his lieutenant Ol. Cromwell to guide all the army at his pleasure—being a known independent, the most of the Sojours (soldiers) who loved new wayes put themselves under his command.’ 20 October: ‘All sectaries who pleased to be sojours, for a long time casting themselves from all the other, arrived under his command in one bodie.’
[439] Reliquae Baxterianae 50.
[440] So Lord Holland told the French minister Montereuil: ‘ils avoient dispose des séditieux aux lieux où la lecture s’en devait faire, avec ordre de porter le peuple à la demande de la déposition de leur roi.’
[441] Memoirs of Denzil Lord Hollis, in Maseres i. 207.
[442] Copies of two letters sent to the Independent party by H. M’s command. Clarendon Papers ii. 226. The first begins ‘You cannot suppose the work is done, though God should suffer you to destroy the King.’