Undoubtedly this is true. His own expenditure upon the war was enormous, as the Duchess assures us and as contemporary writers testify; and his personal influence brought many great men, followed by large numbers of their servants, dependants and tenants, into the Royalist army. Again, his “humane behaviour” made him and his army popular in the counties which they occupied, a condition as important as difficult of attainment in a civil war.
Hume continues: “But amidst all the hurry of action, his inclinations were secretly drawn to the soft arts of peace, in which he took delight; and the charms of poetry, music, conversation, often stole him from his rougher occupations. He chose Sir William Davenant, an ingenious poet, for his lieutenant general”—“as one of his lieutenants generals” would have been more accurate—“The other persons, in whom he placed confidence, were more the instruments of his refined pleasures, than qualified for the business which they undertook. And the severity and application, requisite to the support of discipline, were qualities in which he was entirely wanting.”
Very probably these defects were more accountable for Newcastle’s failures than “the juggling, falsehood and treachery in his army and amongst some of his officers” of which his Duchess was fond of complaining. And it is more than likely that Granger was right in saying that Newcastle “was much better qualified for a court than a camp”.[89]
[89] Biog. Hist. of Eng., 4th edition, 1804, vol. II, p. 125.
Not the less should it be remembered that Newcastle was vastly outnumbered by his enemy from Scotland and that his troops which he had left in his rear had been defeated by his enemy in the South. Under such conditions even Napoleon would have been in difficulties.
CHAPTER XI.
Early in the year 1644 five Irish regiments were landed at Mostyn, on the north coast of Wales, to join the Royalist army, and probably that part of it under the command of Newcastle. They were unopposed as they marched through Wales, Chester, and a great portion of the county of Cheshire. But when they reached Nantwich, some seventeen miles to the south-east of Chester, they found it strongly garrisoned. They had not long laid siege to it, when Sir Thomas Fairfax, the son of Lord Fairfax, arrived with a superior force, and, after a stubborn battle of two hours, routed them. Thereupon nearly half of the Irish regiments “turned their coats” and joined the Parliamentary army under Sir Thomas Fairfax, who then, considerably strengthened in numbers, was free to join his forces with those of his father in Yorkshire. This made the position of Newcastle much more precarious. He must have written to the King asking for reinforcements, for Charles replied:—
(MS. Harl., 6988, art. 106. Orig. Entirely in the King’s hand.)