The king was now placed in Holdenby Castle, and negotiations were opened for restoring him to power, under certain restrictions. While these were pending, the Parliament deemed it unnecessary to keep up the army, more especially as its spirit was plainly observed to be of a dangerous character. On attempting, however, to dismiss this powerful force, the English Commons found that their late servants were become their masters. The troops began to hold something like a Parliament in their own camp; a party of them, under Cornet Joyce, seized the king’s person, and brought him to Hampton Court. Cromwell, who was at the bottom of their machinations, received from them the chief command; and at his instigation they retorted upon the Parliament with a demand for the dismissal of the leaders of the Presbyterian party, and a general right of new-modeling the government and settling the nation. The House of Commons, supported by the city of London, made a bold opposition to these demands, but was ultimately obliged to yield to a force which it had no means of resisting. From that time military violence exercised an almost uncontrolled mastery over England.
TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF THE KING.
The leaders of the army being anxious to fortify themselves by all possible means against the Presbyterians, opened a negotiation with the king, whose influence, such as it now was, they proposed to purchase, by allowing Episcopacy to be the state religion, and leaving him in command of the militia. Charles, however, with characteristic insincerity, carried on at the same time a negotiation with the Presbyterians, which, being discovered by the military chiefs, caused them to break off all terms with him. Under dread of their resentment, he made his escape from Hampton Court (November 11, 1647): and after an unsuccessful atempt to leave the kingdom, was obliged to put himself under the charge of the governor of Carisbrooke Castle, in the Isle of Wight. Here he entered upon a new negotiation with the House of Commons, to whom he made proposals, and from whom he received certain proposals in return; all of which were, however, rendered of non-avail by a secret treaty which he at the same time carried on with a moderate party of the Scottish Presbyterians.
He finally agreed with the latter party, but under strict secrecy, to give their form of church government a trial of three years, and yield to them in several other points; they, in return, binding themselves to unite their strength with the English Royalists, for the purpose of putting down the Independent party, now predominant in the English Parliament. With some difficulty the Duke of Hamilton and others, who conducted this negotiation, succeeded, by a vote of the Scottish Parliament, in raising an army of 12,000 men, with which they invaded England in the summer of 1648. The more zealous of the clergy and people of Scotland protested against an enterprise, which, from its cooperating with Royalists and Episcopalians, and not perfectly insuring the ascendancy of the Presbyterian church, appeared to them as neither deserving of success nor likely to command it. As the Scottish army penetrated the western counties, parties of Presbyterians and Royalists rose in different parts of England, and for some time the ascendancy of the Independents seemed to be in considerable peril. But before the forces of the enemy could be brought together, Cromwell, with 8000 veteran troops, attacked and overthrew Hamilton at Preston, while Fairfax put down the insurgents in Kent and Essex. Hamilton was himself taken prisoner, and very few of his troops ever returned to their native country.
While Cromwell was employed in suppressing this insurrection, and in restoring a friendly government in Scotland, the Presbyterians of the House of Commons, relieved from military intimidation, entered upon a new negotiation with Charles, which was drawing towards what appeared a successful conclusion—though the king secretly designed to deceive them, and to pursue other means for an effectual restoration—when the army returned to London, breathing vengeance against him for the last war, of which they considered him as the author. Finding the Parliament in the act of voting his concessions to be satisfactory, Cromwell sent two regiments, under Colonel Pride, who forcibly excluded from it about two hundred members of the Presbyterian party; a transaction remembered by the epithet of Pride’s Purge. The remainder, being chiefly Independents, were ready to give a color of law to whatever farther measure might be dictated by the military leaders. Convinced of the utter faithlessness of the king, and that, if he continued to live, he would take the earliest opportunity of revenging himself for what had already been done, Cromwell and his associates resolved to put him to death. A high court of Justice, as it was called, was appointed by ordinance, consisting of a hundred and thirty-three persons, named indifferently from the Parliament, the army, and such of the citizens as were known to be well affected to the Independent party. This body sat down in Westminster Hall (January 20, 1649), under the presidency of a barrister named Bradshaw, while another named Coke acted as solicitor for the people of England. Charles, who had been removed to St James’ Palace, was brought before this court, and accused of having waged and renewed war upon his people, and of having attempted to establish tyranny in place of the limited regal power with which he had been intrusted. He denied the authority of the court, and protested against the whole of the proceedings, but was nevertheless found guilty and condemned to die. On the 30th of January, he was accordingly beheaded in front of his palace of Whitehall.
THE COMMONWEALTH—SUBJUGATION OF IRELAND AND SCOTLAND.
Though the execution of the king produced a considerable reaction in favor of royalty, the small remaining part of the House of Commons, which got the ridiculous name of the Rump, now established a republic, under the title of the Commonwealth, the executive being trusted, under great limitations, to a council of forty-one members, while in reality Cromwell possessed the chief influence. The House of Peers was voted a grievance, and abolished, and the people were declared to be the legitimate source of all power. Soon after the king’s death, the Duke of Hamilton, and a few other of his chief adherents, were executed.
During the progress of the civil war, Ireland had been the scene of almost ceaseless contention among the various parties of the king, the English House of Commons, and the Catholics, none of which could effectually suppress the rest. The most remarkable event was a secret agreement which Charles made, in 1646, with the Earl of Glamorgan, to establish the Catholic religion in Ireland, on condition that its partisans should assist him in putting down his enemies in England and Scotland; a transaction which ultimately injured his reputation, without leading to any solid advantage. At the time of his execution, the Royalists were in considerable strength under the Duke of Ormond, while Hugh O’Neill was at the head of a large party of Catholics, who were not indisposed to join the other party, provided they could be assured of the establishment of their religion. While the two parties in union could have easily rescued the country from the English connection, Cromwell landed (August 1649) with 12,000 horse and foot, and in a series of victories over the scattered forces of his various opponents, succeeded without any great difficulty in asserting the sway of the Commonwealth. One of his most important actions was the capture of Drogheda, where he put the garrison and a number of Catholic priests to the sword, in order to strike terror into the nation.
The people of Scotland, who had had scarcely any other object in the civil war than the establishment of their favorite form of worship, and were sincere friends to a limited monarchy, heard of the death of the king with the greatest indignation, and immediately proclaimed his eldest son Charles. Early in 1650, the young monarch, who had taken refuge in Holland, sent Montrose with a small force to attempt a Cavalier insurrection in Scotland; but this nobleman being taken and put to death, Charles found it necessary to accede to the views of the Scotch respecting the Presbyterian religion, and he was accordingly brought over and put at the head of a considerable army, though under great restrictions. Cromwell, who had now nearly completed the conquest of Ireland, lost no time in returning to London, and organizing an army for the suppression of this new attempt against the Commonwealth. On the 19th of July he crossed the Tweed, and advanced through a deserted country to Edinburgh, where the Scottish army lay in a fortified camp. Sickness in his army, and the want of provisions, soon after compelled him to retreat; and the Scottish army, following upon his rear, brought him into a straightened position near Dunbar, where he would soon have been under the necessity of surrendering. In the midst of his perplexities (September 3), he beheld the Scots advancing from the neighboring heights to give him battle, and, in a transport of joy, exclaimed ‘The Lord hath delivered them into our hands!’ The movement was solely the result of interference on the part of the clergy who followed the Scottish camp: the better sense of Gen. Leslie would have waited for the voluntary surrender of his enemy. In the fight which ensued, the veteran troops of Cromwell soon proved victorious. The Scots fled in consternation and confusion, and were cut down in thousands by their pursuers. This gained for Cromwell the possession of the capital and of all the south east provinces; but the Covenanters still made a strong appearance at Stirling.
Cromwell spent a whole year in the country, vainly endeavoring to bring on another action. During the interval (January 1, 1651), the Scots crowned the young king at Scone, part of the ceremony consisting in his acceptance of the Solemn League and Covenant. In the ensuing summer, Cromwell at length contrived to out-flank the position of the Scottish army; but the result was, that Charles led his troops into England without opposition and made a very threatening advance upon the capital. Ere the Royalists had time to rally around him, Cromwell overtook the king at Worcester, where, after a stoutly-contested fight (September 3, 1651), he proved completely victorious. Charles, with great difficulty, escaped abroad, and Scotland, no longer possessed of a military force to defend it self, submitted to the conqueror. All the courts of the Scottish church were suppressed, and the ministers were left no privilege but that of preaching to their flocks. The country was kept in check by a small army under General Monk, and in a short time was declared by proclamation to be united with England.