A Child's History of England

by Dickens, Charles

buried in Westminster Abbey, with great state. I wish it were not

  necessary to add that Archbishop Laud died upon the scaffold when

  the war was not yet done. His trial lasted in all nearly a year,

  and, it being doubtful even then whether the charges brought

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  against him amounted to treason, the odious old contrivance of the

  worst kings was resorted to, and a bill of attainder was brought in

  against him. He was a violently prejudiced and mischievous person;

  had had strong ear-cropping and nose-splitting propensities, as you

  know; and had done a world of harm. But he died peaceably, and

  like a brave old man.

  FOURTH PART

  WHEN the Parliament had got the King into their hands, they became

  very anxious to get rid of their army, in which Oliver Cromwell had

  begun to acquire great power; not only because of his courage and

  high abilities, but because he professed to be very sincere in the

  Scottish sort of Puritan religion that was then exceedingly popular

  among the soldiers. They were as much opposed to the Bishops as to

  the Pope himself; and the very privates, drummers, and trumpeters,

  had such an inconvenient habit of starting up and preaching longwinded

  discourses, that I would not have belonged to that army on

  any account.

  So, the Parliament, being far from sure but that the army might

  begin to preach and fight against them now it had nothing else to

  do, proposed to disband the greater part of it, to send another

  part to serve in Ireland against the rebels, and to keep only a

  small force in England. But, the army would not consent to be

  broken up, except upon its own conditions; and, when the Parliament

  showed an intention of compelling it, it acted for itself in an

  unexpected manner. A certain cornet, of the name of JOICE, arrived

  at Holmby House one night, attended by four hundred horsemen, went

  into the King's room with his hat in one hand and a pistol in the

  other, and told the King that he had come to take him away. The

  King was willing enough to go, and only stipulated that he should

  be publicly required to do so next morning. Next morning,

  accordingly, he appeared on the top of the steps of the house, and

  asked Comet Joice before his men and the guard set there by the

  Parliament, what authority he had for taking him away? To this

  Cornet Joice replied, 'The authority of the army.' 'Have you a

  written commission?' said the King. Joice, pointing to his four

  hundred men on horseback, replied, 'That is my commission.'

  'Well,' said the King, smiling, as if he were pleased, 'I never

  before read such a commission; but it is written in fair and

  legible characters. This is a company of as handsome proper

  gentlemen as I have seen a long while.' He was asked where he

  would like to live, and he said at Newmarket. So, to Newmarket he

  and Cornet Joice and the four hundred horsemen rode; the King

  remarking, in the same smiling way, that he could ride as far at a

  spell as Cornet Joice, or any man there.

  The King quite believed, I think, that the army were his friends.

  He said as much to Fairfax when that general, Oliver Cromwell, and

  Ireton, went to persuade him to return to the custody of the

  Parliament. He preferred to remain as he was, and resolved to

  remain as he was. And when the army moved nearer and nearer London

  to frighten the Parliament into yielding to their demands, they

  took the King with them. It was a deplorable thing that England

  should be at the mercy of a great body of soldiers with arms in

  their hands; but the King certainly favoured them at this important

  time of his life, as compared with the more lawful power that tried

  to control him. It must be added, however, that they treated him,

  as yet, more respectfully and kindly than the Parliament had done.

  They allowed him to be attended by his own servants, to be

  splendidly entertained at various houses, and to see his children -

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  at Cavesham House, near Reading - for two days. Whereas, the

  Parliament had been rather hard with him, and had only allowed him

  to ride out and play at bowls.

  It is much to be believed that if the King could have been trusted,

  even at this time, he might have been saved. Even Oliver Cromwell

  expressly said that he did believe that no man could enjoy his

  possessions in peace, unless the King had his rights. He was not

  unfriendly towards the King; he had been present when he received

  his children, and had been much affected by the pitiable nature of

  the scene; he saw the King often; he frequently walked and talked

  with him in the long galleries and pleasant gardens of the Palace

  at Hampton Court, whither he was now removed; and in all this

  risked something of his influence with the army. But, the King was

  in secret hopes of help from the Scottish people; and the moment he

  was encouraged to join them he began to be cool to his new friends,

  the army, and to tell the officers that they could not possibly do

  without him. At the very time, too, when he was promising to make

  Cromwell and Ireton noblemen, if they would help him up to his old

  height, he was writing to the Queen that he meant to hang them.

  They both afterwards declared that they had been privately informed

  that such a letter would be found, on a certain evening, sewed up

  in a saddle which would be taken to the Blue Boar in Holborn to be

  sent to Dover; and that they went there, disguised as common

  soldiers, and sat drinking in the inn-yard until a man came with

  the saddle, which they ripped up with their knives, and therein

  found the letter. I see little reason to doubt the story. It is

  certain that Oliver Cromwell told one of the King's most faithful

  followers that the King could not be trusted, and that he would not

  be answerable if anything amiss were to happen to him. Still, even

  after that, he kept a promise he had made to the King, by letting

  him know that there was a plot with a certain portion of the army

  to seize him. I believe that, in fact, he sincerely wanted the

  King to escape abroad, and so to be got rid of without more trouble

  or danger. That Oliver himself had work enough with the army is

  pretty plain; for some of the troops were so mutinous against him,

  and against those who acted with him at this time, that he found it

  necessary to have one man shot at the head of his regiment to

  overawe the rest.

  The King, when he received Oliver's warning, made his escape from

  Hampton Court; after some indecision and uncertainty, he went to

  Carisbrooke Castle in the Isle of Wight. At first, he was pretty

  free there; but, even there, he carried on a pretended treaty with

  the Parliament, while he was really treating with commissioners

  from Scotland to send an army into England to take his part. When

  he broke off this treaty with the Parliament (having settled with

  Scotland) and was treated as a prisoner, his treatme
nt was not

  changed too soon, for he had plotted to escape that very night to a

  ship sent by the Queen, which was lying off the island.

  He was doomed to be disappointed in his hopes from Scotland. The

  agreement he had made with the Scottish Commissioners was not

  favourable enough to the religion of that country to please the

  Scottish clergy; and they preached against it. The consequence

  was, that the army raised in Scotland and sent over, was too small

  to do much; and that, although it was helped by a rising of the

  Royalists in England and by good soldiers from Ireland, it could

  make no head against the Parliamentary army under such men as

  Cromwell and Fairfax. The King's eldest son, the Prince of Wales,

  came over from Holland with nineteen ships (a part of the English

  fleet having gone over to him) to help his father; but nothing came

  of his voyage, and he was fain to return. The most remarkable

  event of this second civil war was the cruel execution by the

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  Parliamentary General, of SIR CHARLES LUCAS and SIR GEORGE LISLE,

  two grand Royalist generals, who had bravely defended Colchester

  under every disadvantage of famine and distress for nearly three

  months. When Sir Charles Lucas was shot, Sir George Lisle kissed

  his body, and said to the soldiers who were to shoot him, 'Come

  nearer, and make sure of me.' 'I warrant you, Sir George,' said

  one of the soldiers, 'we shall hit you.' 'AY?' he returned with a

  smile, 'but I have been nearer to you, my friends, many a time, and

  you have missed me.'

  The Parliament, after being fearfully bullied by the army - who

  demanded to have seven members whom they disliked given up to them

  - had voted that they would have nothing more to do with the King.

  On the conclusion, however, of this second civil war (which did not

  last more than six months), they appointed commissioners to treat

  with him. The King, then so far released again as to be allowed to

  live in a private house at Newport in the Isle of Wight, managed

  his own part of the negotiation with a sense that was admired by

  all who saw him, and gave up, in the end, all that was asked of him

  - even yielding (which he had steadily refused, so far) to the

  temporary abolition of the bishops, and the transfer of their

  church land to the Crown. Still, with his old fatal vice upon him,

  when his best friends joined the commissioners in beseeching him to

  yield all those points as the only means of saving himself from the

  army, he was plotting to escape from the island; he was holding

  correspondence with his friends and the Catholics in Ireland,

  though declaring that he was not; and he was writing, with his own

  hand, that in what he yielded he meant nothing but to get time to

  escape.

  Matters were at this pass when the army, resolved to defy the

  Parliament, marched up to London. The Parliament, not afraid of

  them now, and boldly led by Hollis, voted that the King's

  concessions were sufficient ground for settling the peace of the

  kingdom. Upon that, COLONEL RICH and COLONEL PRIDE went down to

  the House of Commons with a regiment of horse soldiers and a

  regiment of foot; and Colonel Pride, standing in the lobby with a

  list of the members who were obnoxious to the army in his hand, had

  them pointed out to him as they came through, and took them all

  into custody. This proceeding was afterwards called by the people,

  for a joke, PRIDE'S PURGE. Cromwell was in the North, at the head

  of his men, at the time, but when he came home, approved of what

  had been done.

  What with imprisoning some members and causing others to stay away,

  the army had now reduced the House of Commons to some fifty or so.

  These soon voted that it was treason in a king to make war against

  his parliament and his people, and sent an ordinance up to the

  House of Lords for the King's being tried as a traitor. The House

  of Lords, then sixteen in number, to a man rejected it. Thereupon,

  the Commons made an ordinance of their own, that they were the

  supreme government of the country, and would bring the King to

  trial.

  The King had been taken for security to a place called Hurst

  Castle: a lonely house on a rock in the sea, connected with the

  coast of Hampshire by a rough road two miles long at low water.

  Thence, he was ordered to be removed to Windsor; thence, after

  being but rudely used there, and having none but soldiers to wait

  upon him at table, he was brought up to St. James's Palace in

  London, and told that his trial was appointed for next day.

  On Saturday, the twentieth of January, one thousand six hundred and

  forty-nine, this memorable trial began. The House of Commons had

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  settled that one hundred and thirty-five persons should form the

  Court, and these were taken from the House itself, from among the

  officers of the army, and from among the lawyers and citizens.

  JOHN BRADSHAW, serjeant-at-law, was appointed president. The place

  was Westminster Hall. At the upper end, in a red velvet chair, sat

  the president, with his hat (lined with plates of iron for his

  protection) on his head. The rest of the Court sat on side

  benches, also wearing their hats. The King's seat was covered with

  velvet, like that of the president, and was opposite to it. He was

  brought from St. James's to Whitehall, and from Whitehall he came

  by water to his trial.

  When he came in, he looked round very steadily on the Court, and on

  the great number of spectators, and then sat down: presently he

  got up and looked round again. On the indictment 'against Charles

  Stuart, for high treason,' being read, he smiled several times, and

  he denied the authority of the Court, saying that there could be no

  parliament without a House of Lords, and that he saw no House of

  Lords there. Also, that the King ought to be there, and that he

  saw no King in the King's right place. Bradshaw replied, that the

  Court was satisfied with its authority, and that its authority was

  God's authority and the kingdom's. He then adjourned the Court to

  the following Monday. On that day, the trial was resumed, and went

  on all the week. When the Saturday came, as the King passed

  forward to his place in the Hall, some soldiers and others cried

  for 'justice!' and execution on him. That day, too, Bradshaw, like

  an angry Sultan, wore a red robe, instead of the black robe he had

  worn before. The King was sentenced to death that day. As he went

  out, one solitary soldier said, 'God bless you, Sir!' For this,

  his officer struck him. The King said he thought the punishment

  exceeded the offence. The silver head of his walking-stick had

  fallen off while he leaned upon it, at one time of the trial. The

  accident seemed to disturb him, as if he thought it ominous of the

  falling of his own head; and he admitted as much, now it was all

  over.

  Being taken back to W
hitehall, he sent to the House of Commons,

  saying that as the time of his execution might be nigh, he wished

  he might be allowed to see his darling children. It was granted.

  On the Monday he was taken back to St. James's; and his two

  children then in England, the PRINCESS ELIZABETH thirteen years

  old, and the DUKE OF GLOUCESTER nine years old, were brought to

  take leave of him, from Sion House, near Brentford. It was a sad

  and touching scene, when he kissed and fondled those poor children,

  and made a little present of two diamond seals to the Princess, and

  gave them tender messages to their mother (who little deserved

  them, for she had a lover of her own whom she married soon

  afterwards), and told them that he died 'for the laws and liberties

  of the land.' I am bound to say that I don't think he did, but I

  dare say he believed so.

  There were ambassadors from Holland that day, to intercede for the

  unhappy King, whom you and I both wish the Parliament had spared;

  but they got no answer. The Scottish Commissioners interceded too;

  so did the Prince of Wales, by a letter in which he offered as the

  next heir to the throne, to accept any conditions from the

  Parliament; so did the Queen, by letter likewise.

  Notwithstanding all, the warrant for the execution was this day

  signed. There is a story that as Oliver Cromwell went to the table

  with the pen in his hand to put his signature to it, he drew his

  pen across the face of one of the commissioners, who was standing

  near, and marked it with ink. That commissioner had not signed his

  own name yet, and the story adds that when he came to do it he

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  marked Cromwell's face with ink in the same way.

  The King slept well, untroubled by the knowledge that it was his

  last night on earth, and rose on the thirtieth of January, two

  hours before day, and dressed himself carefully. He put on two

  shirts lest he should tremble with the cold, and had his hair very

  carefully combed. The warrant had been directed to three officers

  of the army, COLONEL HACKER, COLONEL HUNKS, and COLONEL PHAYER. At

  ten o'clock, the first of these came to the door and said it was

  time to go to Whitehall. The King, who had always been a quick

  walker, walked at his usual speed through the Park, and called out

  to the guard, with his accustomed voice of command, 'March on