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

by Leopold von Ranke

In the latter half of July, the army mustered at Cheslaw Wood, near Dunse; one half of the Committee of Estates was to accompany it, the other half was to remain behind. It was not intended to take Highlanders across the border. Argyle led his own men into the field against the Ogilvies and the district of Athol, where the opposition was kept up. It was not until August 18 that the army broke up from the place of rendezvous. There may have been somewhat over 20,000 men: with the native leaders of high rank there were associated a number of captains who had gained experience in the German war, and who maintained military discipline. Lesley, who was connected with the former by political sympathies, and with the latter by common service in past time, was again invested with the supreme command.

Two days afterwards the Scots crossed the river Tweed, the boundary between the two countries. The cavalry halted in the water, in order to break the force of the stream, while the infantry waded across. Montrose dismounted from his horse, and marched over at the head of his regiment; he was the first of them all to tread on English soil.

The Scots did not find any dispositions made to meet them at the border; they advanced into Northumberland without opposition. It was only on arriving at the fords of the Tyne that they came upon a couple of breastworks upon which cannon were planted. They set up a camp, around which hundreds of coal-fires illuminated the horizon; they still however refrained from making any attack.

The engagement which then ensued is characteristic of the state of feeling. On the morning of the 28th a Scottish officer, wearing a hat with a black feather, rode his horse to the Tyne, in order to water it. An English musketeer, seeing the Scot fix his eye upon the breastworks, could not resist the temptation; he aimed well, and the officer fell wounded from his horse. Upon this the Scottish musketeers opened fire in return; both sides discharged their artillery upon their opponents. But the camp of the Scots was in a higher and stronger position than that of the English; they had also, A.D. 1640. without doubt, more practised artillerymen, and the English found themselves outmatched. But this was quite enough to bring the matter to a crisis. The English troops in the entrenchments complained that they had not been relieved from Newcastle as they should have been; they murmured that they were expected to do double duty. But they did not give vent to their discontent in words alone. They gave ear for a few minutes longer to the exhortations of their commander; but when they found that they had the worst of it, and were in danger from the Scottish artillery, they immediately abandoned their works and threw away their weapons, not so much from cowardice as from ill-humour excited by the war and the bad arrangements which had been made. On this the Scots, both horse and foot, under cover of their cannon, crossed the Tyne. The English were then completely driven from all their positions. On the next morning Lord Conway abandoned Newcastle[186].

Not less significant was the manner in which this town was taken possession of by the Scots, into whose hands, on the retreat of the troops, it inevitably fell.

The leader of a troop of Scots, James Douglas, on approaching the town found the magistrates at the bridge. He told them that the Scots were come to speak with their gracious King; that they carried in one hand a petition in favour of their rights and religion, in the other the sword, in order to defend themselves against the enemies who placed themselves between them and their King; that their hope was that their brethren of Newcastle would unite themselves with them for the advantage of both churches and kingdoms, and would, in the first place, allow them supplies of provisions and ammunition. The mayor and aldermen observed that such conduct was against their duty; and that as the Scots were subjects of the same sovereign as themselves, they hoped that no violence would be employed against them. The Scots replied that that would certainly be unavoidable if their requirements were not voluntarily satisfied. On the next day A.D. 1640. they occupied the gates of the town, and encamped their cavalry in them, while the infantry entrenched themselves upon the neighbouring heights. They first took provisions and munitions of war from the royal magazines; they then made out a requisition; the inhabitants were compelled to accept the Covenant, notwithstanding the fact that they were Englishmen; whoever opposed them was treated as a public enemy.

It was remarked as a flagrant inconsistency in the conduct of the Scots, that they continued to pray for the King in their public worship, while at the same time they prayed for the army which was advancing into the field against him. But the whole nature of their rising was involved in the same contradiction. While they were pressing forward into England with arms in their hands, and were taking up a strong position there, they still kept affirming that they were loyal subjects, as their demands were founded on the laws, and that even now they prayed for nothing but that the King should take these demands into consideration and grant them.

The royal army had meanwhile assembled in York. The Earl of Strafford, who had undertaken the command, together with the King, who himself was present with it, even appeared not displeased to see the Scots invade England, as he thought that such a proceeding would serve to rouse the old English feeling of hatred against them. He reminded the gentry of York of the old wars, of which the present was, he said, merely a repetition: he said that religion was only a pretext with the Scots; that their object was rebellion and invasion. He declared that the law of nature, reason, and the law of England demanded that they should support the King with their persons and property against them; to deny this would be ignorance, to hesitate would be little less than treachery. He added, that they ought not to allow the Scots to taste the superior advantages of the English soil; that they must attach themselves to the King’s cause, or run the risk of losing everything[187].

A.D. 1640.

Strafford obstinately persisted in the line of policy which he had once taken up. He persisted in attributing to the Scots those very intentions of which they declared their horror. Even in the proclamation of the King the enterprise of the Scots was described as a raid of freebooters, after the fashion of former centuries[188]. The spiritual and temporal lords were summoned in the style of former ages, to join the King’s standard with the followers whom they were bound to bring.