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

by Leopold von Ranke

As early as March 1640, on the receipt of the first intelligence of the warlike designs of Charles I, the Scots had resolved to renew their preparations for war. Lesley and the other commanders were confirmed in their posts: in every county people began to arm. Hostilities again broke out between the castle and the town of Edinburgh: but Ruthven did not allow himself to be overpowered as easily as his predecessor had been. When an attack was made upon him he replied to it by an artillery fire from the walls.

While shots were being exchanged, and men on both sides were falling, the Scottish Parliament reassembled on June 2. Its proceedings could not fail to breathe a similar tone of hostility. It met without the presence of the King or of his commissioner; as men observed with astonishment ‘without sword, sceptre, and crown.’ In place of the commissioner the Parliament established a president of its own, elected from among its members. The session lasted only eight days; but it was said that for six centuries there had been no Parliament more remarkable and more thoroughgoing. Those resolutions were repeated, and even enlarged, which had been adopted in the last session before it was interrupted by adjournment, and to which the King had refused his consent. Though hitherto the clergy had taken a high place in the constitutions of all European kingdoms, even in Northern and German countries in spite of the Reformation, yet in Scotland it was resolved that this order should no longer be represented in Parliament. In its room the gentry appeared as the third order, standing between the nobles and the citizens: they A.D. 1640. took definitive possession, as before mentioned, of the political influence which they had won for themselves in the late commotions. In this new form, so it was enacted, Parliament was to be held every three years[181]: proclamations which ran counter to the laws and liberties of the Parliament were to be forbidden under the penalties attached to high treason: only natives, and moreover only those natives who were disposed to protect the reformed religion in the shape in which it had been established, and to maintain the union between King and people, were to be appointed to the command of the three strong castles of Edinburgh, Stirling, and Dumbarton. Such further changes were introduced into the resolutions as made it necessary that the most important military commands should be filled according to the wish of the Estates. The clergy were also excluded from the Courts of Justice; for people did not wish that an order, which had shown itself so amenable to the influence exercised on it by the crown, should be seen exercising any political functions. The inferior clergy were quite content with this, as the continuance of their Assemblies and the independence of their jurisdiction was expressly secured to them. The monarchy was certainly allowed to remain, but care was taken to surround it with independent powers, which took away from it the substance of its authority. The Parliament authorised the Committee of the Estates, which was already appointed, to carry on the government. This committee was so composed that the resolutions always conformed to the wishes and proposals of the leading men, especially of Argyle, who was considered even then as the most important person of all, though he was not himself one of the members.

We should mistake the feelings of the Scots, if we assumed that these arrangements had been approved by every one. Even Thomas Hope, the King’s Advocate, who had at first so entirely concurred in the movement, warned the Earl of Rothes not to go so far as to give the King good ground for A.D. 1640. saying to other sovereigns that people in Scotland had an eye, not so much to religion, as to the abolition of the monarchy. Hope told the Earl that they ought to strengthen their religion, that they should then see what he would do or suffer in its behalf, but that in matters of civil government they must not reckon on his going with them. The same views were entertained by many other of the more reflecting spirits among the clergy and scholars. The government had thought it necessary to appoint as Professors in the Universities men who shared its tendencies, and knew how to gain acceptance for them in the minds of the young. These regulations did not enjoy entire popularity. While in the English Parliament the boroughs returned a majority, in Scotland the gentry had an ascendancy by which the commons, at first at all events, felt themselves oppressed[182]. And meanwhile the Covenant was not yet by any means everywhere accepted. Those counties that repudiated it even made attacks upon others which had submitted: the old Scottish lawlessness and desire for plunder now availed itself of religious pretexts. A small army was required to be permanently in the field in order to extinguish the flames of revolt which kept flickering here and there. In the minds of many of the great men who concurred in the religious demands of their countrymen, their political demands awakened all the more opposition because their rivals were just the people who derived advantage from the new constitution; or else in fact feelings of loyal devotion to the King awoke in them; they did not wish to allow the crown to be robbed of all its splendour and all its power.

One might almost wonder that the dominant party was still in such good spirits.

For even the arming which had been determined on proceeded but slowly; it appeared hardly possible to collect a serviceable body of cavalry. A tithe-penny had been laid upon property; but in order to collect it a valuation of property would have been necessary, and hence a great difficulty arose. From the first extreme measures were necessary; for A.D. 1640. example, the exaction from private individuals of the silver they had in use, under a guarantee of making good its value. But, as Baillie says, what was all that compared with the requirements of the army, for which 20,000 marks were daily needed? And what would ultimately happen, when Scotland was entirely cut off on the side of Ireland and England from its maritime commerce, as was intended? The resolutions of the English Privy Council and of the Irish Parliament created a great impression among the Scots.

A much greater impression however was now created by the proceedings of the English Parliament.

It has been always assumed that the Scots were strengthened in their attitude and induced to determine on advancing into England by overtures from English peers in the ranks of the opposition. And there is no doubt that invitations of this kind reached them.

Lord Loudon, the man who had first formed a connexion with the French, and who was one of those who had signed the letter to the King of France already referred to, had been thrown into the Tower immediately before the opening of Parliament; but he there received visits from English peers, and among others from Lord Savile. The Saviles were old opponents of the Wentworths: their families imported their county quarrels into public affairs. It was indeed by the favour shown to a Savile at one time that Wentworth had been driven into the ranks of the opposition. The high position to which, on the other hand, a Wentworth now rose, may have contributed to turn Lord Savile into an opponent of the whole system[183]. So far as we know, he is the man through whom it was intimated to Loudon as the wish of some English lords, that the Scots should advance on England with their army. Shortly after the dissolution of Parliament, Loudon received permission to return to Scotland[184]: he immediately A.D. 1640. sought out Argyle, who was still stationed with his small army in the North, in order to apprise him of the position of affairs. But it was not possible that the expressions of a peer, who was not even one of the most important members of his order, should afford sufficient security. Then Savile, who had always affirmed that he was the spokesman of many other nobles and gentlemen, sent in a declaration on the part of some others of great name, the Earls of Warwick and Essex, Lords Say, Brooke, and Mandeville, in which the Scots were invited to cross over into England. The genuineness of the signatures was denied afterwards in terms, the truth of which can hardly be called in question. The Scots however at that time could entertain no suspicion of deception. And this invitation undoubtedly produced a great impression upon them, as they could now venture to count upon the support of a considerable portion of the House of Lords.

But the attitude of the House of Commons no doubt supplied them with the principal motive for their decisions. As the Scots affirm in their manifesto, after they had been proclaimed as rebels in every parish church, the English Parliament—convoked with the sole purpose of supporting a war against them—could not be moved by any threatenings, fears, promises, or hopes, to grant any subsidies for the war, but had rather undertaken to justify the Scots by parallel complaints and statements of grievances. The Scots now laid the greatest emphasis upon the coincidence of the interests of both realms. The only design of both kingdoms, they said, was the maintenance of true religion, and of the just liberties of the subject; but the King was surrounded by a faction which was endeavouring to set up superstition and bondage in place of religion: it was intended by the war against the Scots to stir up the English against them that they might with their own swords extirpate their own religion; set up a new Rome in their midst, and establish the slavery of both countries for ever. With such adversaries no agreement could be concluded: no just desires were listened to by them: to sit still and wait their hostility would be contrary to sense and religion: they themselves, the Scots, were determined to seek in England their own peace, the maintenance of their A.D. 1640. laws, and the punishment of the enemies of both kingdoms. It might perhaps be doubtful whether it was warrantable for them to advance into England, but there was a necessity which justified proceedings of this sort, and constituted a law above all laws. ‘The question is not,’ they say, ‘whether we shall content ourselves with our own poverty, or enrich ourselves in England: that question is impious and absurd. But this is the question, whether it be wisdome and piety to keep ourselves within the Borders till our throats be cut, and our Religion, Lawes, and Countrey be destroyed; or shall wee bestirre ourselves and seeke our Safeguard, Peace, and Liberty in England. Or shall we fold our hands, and waite for the perfect slavery of our selves, and our posterity in our Souls, Bodies, and Estates, and (which is all one) foolishly to stand to our defence where we know it is impossible; or shall we seek our reliefe in following the calling of God (for our necessity can be interpreted to be no lesse), and entering by the doore which his providence hath opened unto us, when all wayes are stopped beside?’ They do not enter into a full statement of the innovations which had been undertaken in their Parliament; they hardly touch upon them; they bring into prominence only the great questions from which everything had sprung, and they express the hope that England will sympathise with them in the stress of affairs which compelled them to overstep their borders, and will aid them in the measures which they are taking to obtain their just desires. They promise that in their advance they will exact nothing by force: but should their resources be exhausted they reckon upon the support of the English[185].

This lofty mode of expression, to which a certain amount of truth cannot be denied, accounts for the silence of all opposition, at all events in those circles which had attached themselves to the religious cause for which the Scots contended. In the army moreover there were men serving who did not wish to see the monarchy put down. In all the churches A.D. 1640. prayers were offered for the General, who purposed to go to England with his army, and to confer with the King.