“No, I will not endure the laughter of the Court,” said Newcastle,[112] when, on the following morning, Rupert asked him to make an effort to recruit his forces. “I will go to Holland.”
[112] Warburton’s Rupert, II, 468.
“And I will rally my men!” said Rupert.
Before we blame Newcastle for deserting the King’s service and leaving England without his permission, we ought to remember that he was in a position widely different from that of most defeated Generals. He had been publicly proclaimed a traitor by the Parliament. When any indemnity had been proposed he had been specially excepted from it by name. If he fell into the hands of the enemy, the Tower and the block were almost inevitable; although, if he had been taken prisoner in such a great battle as that of Marston Moor, there is just a bare, but unlikely, possibility that he might have been liberated in an exchange of prisoners.
The most important evidence in his favour is a letter from Charles I, dated 28 November, 1644, that is about four months after Newcastle had fled the country; for, if the King excused his conduct, no one else had a right to complain.
“Charles R.
“Right trusty and entirely beloved Cousin and Councellor Wee greete you well. The misfortune of our Forces in the North wee know is ressented as sadly by you as the present hazard of the losse of soe considerable a porcion of this our Kingdom deserves: which also affects us the more, because in that losse so great a proporcion fals upon your self, whose loyalty and eminent merit we have ever held, and shall still, in a very high degree of our royall esteeme. And albeit the distracted condition of our Affaires and Kingdom will not afford us meanes at this present to comfort you in your sufferings, yet we shall ever reteyne soe gracious a memory of your merit, as when it shall please God in mercy to restore us to peace, it shalbe one of our principall endeavours to consider how to recompense those that have with soe great an affection and courage as yourself assisted us in the time of our greatest necessity and troubles. And in the meane time if there be any thing wherein we may ex-presse the reality of our good intentions to you, or the value we have of your person, we shall most readily doe it upon any occasion that shalbe ministred. And soe we bid you very heartily farewell. Given at our Court at Oxford the 28th day of November, 1644.
“By his Mats. command
Edw. Nicholas.