and next day Waller and Massey led their booty in triumph to Gloucester. The assistance of the Scots had been formerly desired by the Parliament, which (notwithstanding their late protestations not to take arms against their Prince) they now hearken to, and having compleated their army, March 13, 1641, they cross the river Tyne, and march Southward, to employ the E. of Newcastle. 1 The Irish rebels about this time (notwithstanding the defeats they met with at Tredagh and Dundalk) were much increased in number; and the Pope (a more unhappy fisher than his pretended predecessor St. Peter, who was for saving, but he for destroying men) sends two letters to them, one subscribed to Owen O'Neal, and the other to all archbishops, bishops, nobles, and people of the kingdom of Ireland, in both which he commends those who had already appeared in the quarrel, and exhorts others to engage in the same, declaring his great joy for their late butcheries, and massacres upon the Protestants, and bestowing upon them his fatherly benediction, and plenary pardon and absolution for whatever villanies they had committed. By the Pope's thus publickly declaring himself for them, the rebels grew very powerful, and many who were at first afraid of being concerned, now openly appeared for them, insomuch that all parts of Ireland were overwhelmed by them as with an inundation. This year was remarkable fors the death of Cardinal Richlieu, that great firebrand and disturber of Europe, but more particularly these three kingdoms, of whose distractions he was both a principal causer, and fomenter; he led the way to his master Lewis XIII. who deceased soon after in the midst of his conquests in Catalonia, leaving for his successor his eldest son Lewis XIV. (the present French King) under the government of the Queen Dowager, and Cardinal Mazarine succeeded in Richlieu's stead. The year 1643, and the nineteenth of his Majesty's reign, began with a treaty of peace, which was formerly agreed on, but proceeded slowly, till it was again revived by Sir Benj. Rudyard. The commissioners on both parties now met at Oxford, and began to treat of the King's propositions, concerning his revenue, magazines, forts, and ships; and the Parliament's propositions concerning the disbanding of armies, which particulars taking up more time than the King expected, his Majesty, April 12, 1643, sends this message to the Parliament: That as soon as he was satisfied concerning his own revenue, magazines, ships, and forces, in which he desired nothing but his just and legal known rights to be restored to him, and to persons trusted by L him; and as soon as the members of both Houses should be restored to the same capacity of sitting and voting in Parliament as they had upon January 1, 1641, (excluding such whose votes had been taken away by bill, or by new elections, or new writs): and that as soon as his Majesty and both Houses may be secured from such tumultuous assemblies as to the high dishonour of the Parliament had awed the members of the same (which he conceived could not otherwise be done, but by adjourning the Parliament to some place twenty miles from London, such as the Houses should agree upon), his Majesty most chearfully and readily would consent to the disbanding of the armies, and would return speedily to his two Houses of Parliament according to the time and place which they should agree upon. Upon this message the Parliament resolved to call back their commissioners, and so, April 15, the treaty ended. About the beginning of last March, the L. Brook marched towards Northampton, and seizing the ammunition there he went from thence to Warwick, and so to Stratford-upon-Avon, and beat Col. Crocker's, and Lieut. Col. Wag. staff's forces out of that town; after which, besieging Litchfield, one of the King's party shooting at a venture at the window of his chamber, the bullet pierced him in the eye, of which he immediately died, yet his soldiers being heightened with revenge, took the Close with the Earl of Chesterfield and all his soldiers and ordnance; after which Prince Rupert and the Earl of Northampton joining their forces, fell upon the Parliamentarians at Litchfield, where the E. of Northampton was slain at the head of his troop, yet Lieut.-Col. Russel, who commanded it, despairing of succour, yielded up the place to Prince Rupert upon honourable conditions, and marched away to Coventry. April 17, 1643, the E. of Essex sat down before Reading, and made two assaults, but was repulsed. The King marched from Oxford to Wallingford for its relief, but Essex's army increasing daily with fresh supplies from London, both parties happened to skirmish at Causum-Bridge, where many of the King's forces were slain, and forced to retreat; whereupon the town was a while after surrendered by Col. Fielding, who was made Deputy Governor in the room of Sir Arthur Aston, who was disabled by a bruise he received in his head with a brick-bat: Fielding was for this sentenced by a Council of War, at Oxford, to lose his head, but by the intercession of friends was pardoned. : members of Parliament, the Lord Mayor, and Committee of the Militia, all the city's outworks, and forts, the Tower of London, and all the magazines, and then to let in the King's forces to surprise the city. Upon this indictment they were tried and condemned, but Tomkins and Challoner only were hanged. Some skirmishes passed between the Earl of Essex and Prince Rupert, who engaging about Tame, in Oxfordshire, the Prince routed a body of horse in Chalgrave field, where Mr. John Hambden received his mortal wound; but in the west the Parliament's forces had better success, where they took in the towns of Taunton and Bridgwater. At this time finding the want of a Great Seal, the Parliament after long debates voted, that a new seal should be made for confirmation of their acts and ordinances; which was forthwith done, and thereon was engraven the picture of the House of Commons and members sitting, and on the other side the arms of England and Ireland; but between the voting and making this seal, they passed this order, that if the Lord Keeper Littleton, upon summons did not return with the Great Seal within fourteen days, he should lose his place, and whatsoever should be sealed therewith by him after that time, should be null and void in law. And presently after, Mr. Henry Martin, a member of Parliament, seized upon the Regalia which were reposited in Westminster Abbey, telling some of his accomplices, that the time would come wherein there would be no need of crowns and scepters. July 5, 1643, Sir William Waller meets with Sir Ralph Hopton's forces at Landsdown, near Bath, who though fewer than Sir William's, yet maintained the fight from two in the afternoon till one the next morning, and then Sir William's party forsook the field. Hopton himself was hurt, and lost divers gentlemen of note, but the Parliament's loss was more. Hopton marches to the Devizes, in Wiltshire, and Waller after him; whereupon the King sent 1500 horse from Oxford to Hopton's relief. Waller draws off to Roundway Down, and there the fight began in which the Parliamentarians were defeated and fled, leaving the foot to the mercy of their adversaries, by whom hundreds of them were slain, and more taken, with four brass guns, ammunition, and baggage, twenty-eight colours, and nine cornets. Waller having thus lost his army, posts to London with a few followers for recruits. This fight happened July 13, 1643. Some difference arising in the north between Lord Fairfax, General for the Parliament, and Sir John Hotham, Governor of Hull, who refused to submit to the Lord Fairfax; the Parliament designed to displace Hotham, which he discovering by an intercepted letter, began to project new designs; and his son, Captain Hotham, being suspected by the Parliament, was imprisoned at Nottingham, but made his escape, and underhand treated with the Earl of Newcastle. Upon which orders were sent for seizing both father and son, which was done accordingly, together with his wife, and the rest of his children, who were all sent up prisoners to the Parliament; and some months after Sir John and his son were brought to trial in Guildhall, the Earl of Manchester and others being assigned their judges; and the father is charged, that he had traiterously betrayed the trust reposed in him by the Parliament, and adhered to the enemy, as appeared by his words, by his letters, and by his actions, and that he held correspondence with the Queen, the Earl of Newcastle, Lord Digby, and others of that party, and had endeavoured to betray Hull to them. His son was charged with things of the same nature; upon which they were both sentenced to be beheaded, which was accordingly executed, the son Jan. 1, 1644, and the father the day after. But to return; July 4, 1643, Prince Rupert sits down before Bristol, and though Colonel Fines had formerly hanged up some citizens for intending to have delivered up the town to the Prince, yet nevertheless the design took effect, for being at that time very ill provided for resistance (which Prince Rupert had notice of from his correspondents within), the Governor was constrained, after three days seige, to surrender it to him. August 12, the Earl of Lindsey being freed from his imprisonment wherein he was since Edge-hill fight, came to the King at Oxford; and soon after Prince Maurice besieged Exeter, flinging in granadoes and firing part of the suburbs, upon which a fruitless parley ensued; the next day the Prince masters the Great Sconce, and turns the great guns thereon upon the city, and then the garrison agreed to yield, the officers only to part with their swords, and the private soldiers to march out with cudgels in their hands. At this time Judge Berkley, who had been imprisoned by the Parliament about ship-money, was fined 20,000/. made incapable of all offices, and to continue a prisoner during pleasure. The Parliament were now busied for recruiting Sir William Waller's army, and to incline the Londoners to a more chearful compliance, Pennington the Lord Mayor, was made Lieutenant of the Tower; yet Waller was forced to stay because Essex's army wanted likewise reinforcements. Essex musters 10,000 men at Hounslow Heath, but this would not serve for so weighty an affair as the relief of Gloucester, now besieged by the King, and he must therefore make use of the London trained bands. |
