1643.]

State of the earl of Essex's army.

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of Essex's advance towards Oxford, within four or five days after the loss of Reading, he once resolved, and that by the advice of the chief officers of his army, to march away towards the north, to join with the earl of Newcastle. And if the earl of Essex had, at that time, but made any show of moving with his whole body that way, I do verily persuade myself, Oxford itself, and all the other garrisons of those parts, had been quitted to them; but those fears were quickly composed, by an assurance of the earl's stay at Reading; and that he was not in a posture for a present march, and that his numbers had been shrewdly lessened by the siege whereupon the king resolved to abide him, and give him battle about Oxford, if he advanced; and, in the mean time, encamped his foot upon the down, about a mile, from Abingdon; which was the head quarter for his horse.

When the season of the year grew ripe for taking the field, the earl of Essex found that his too early march had nothing advanced his affairs; the soldiers having performed so strict duty, and lodging upon the ground, in frost and rain, before Reading, had produced great sickness and diseases in his army, which had wasted abundance of his men; so that he wanted rather another winter quarter to recover and recruit his men, than an opportunity to engage them in action; which he found would be too often administered. He sent daily importunities to the parliament for supplies of all kinds, which they were not enough furnished with to satisfy him; new divisions and animosities arose there, to perplex their counsels. Their triumph upon the taking of Reading, which they

had celebrated with loud festivity, and made the city believe, that all those benefits would attend it, which they knew would be most grateful to them, appeared now without any fruit; the king had all his forces and army entire, and had only lost a town that he never meant to keep, and which they knew not what to do with; and was now ready to come into the field, when theirs was destitute of health, and all those accommodations, which must enable them to march and their general every day reiterated his complaints, and reproached them with the unskilful orders they had sent him, by which, against all the advice and arguments he had given them, he was reduced to that extremity.

The absurd and uncivil breaking off of the treaty with the king was urged by their commissioners; who thought themselves disobliged by it, and published the king's gracious disposition, and the temper of the council in Oxford, to be different from what the parliament desired it should be believed. They complained of jealousies which had been entertained of their integrity; and the earl of Northumberland, having discovered that Harry Martin had opened a letter, which he had writ from Oxford to his wife, to know what was included in it, took him aside, after a conference in the painted chamber between the two houses, and questioned him upon it; and the other giving him some rude answers in justification of it, the earl cudgelled him in that presence; upon which many swords were drawn, to the great reproach and scandal of the parliament.

These and the like instances of distraction and confusion brought the reputation of that party low;

1643.] and the city is importuned for money. 49

and made it looked upon, as like to destroy itself without an enemy; whilst the king's party, at that distance, seemed to be more united, and to have recovered their spirits, of which they received frequent evidence by the news of some of their quarters being beat up, and many of their men being lost by the unexpected incursions of the king's horse; whereof some parties, by night marches, and unusual lanes, went often near London, and took many prisoners, who thought themselves secure, in their houses, and in journeys they made ; and who were put to ransom themselves with good sums of money: so that, after all those mountains of promises, and undertakings, the wants were greater, and the city more importuned for money, and the parliament visibly more necessitated for want of it, than they had been before; and instead of dispersing the king's army, and bringing the king back to his parliament, a sudden direction was given, and a vigorous execution of that direction was begun, to draw a line about the city of London and Westminster, and to fortify it; lest the king's forces might break in upon them; which made the people suspect the state of their affairs to be worse than in truth it was; and so far were they from any thoughts of peace and accommodation, that the house of commons raged more furiously than ever; and every day engaged themselves in conclusions more monstrous than they had yet entered upon. For the supply of the charge of the war, they proposed settling and imposing an excise upon such commodities as might best bear it; which was a burden the people of England had hitherto reproached other nations

with, as a mark of slavery, and as never feared by themselves; and for the exercise of the sovereign power, they resolved it fit to make a new great seal, to be always resident with the houses. But the lords were not yet arrived at that presumption, but plainly refused to concur with them in either.

Whilst both armies lay quiet, the one about Reading, the other about Abingdon, or Oxford, without attempting one upon the other, or any action, save some small enterprises by parties, (in which the king got advantage; as the young earl of Northampton fortunately encountered a party of horse and foot from Northampton, which thought themselves strong enough to attempt upon Banbury: and having routed their horse, killed above two hundred of their foot, and took as many more prisoners, most whereof were shrewdly hurt, the young earl that day sacrificing to the memory of his father,) the king received from the earl of Newcastle, bya strong party of horse, a good and ample supply of ammunition; the want whereof all men looked upon with great horror. As soon as this was arrived, and the king heard that his armies, both in the north and west, began to flourish, and thought himself well provided to encounter the earl of Essex, if he desired it; his majesty resolved once more to try, whether the two houses would incline to a reasonable peace; and to that purpose sent a message to them by an express servant of his own, in these words:

"Since his majesty's message of the 12th of April (in which he conceived he had made such an overture for the immediate disbanding of all armies, and composure of those miserable and

1643.]

to the two houses, May 20.

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present distractions, by a full and free convention "of parliament, that a perfect and settled peace "would have ensued) hath in all this time, above a "full month, procured no answer from both houses,

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his majesty might well believe himself absolved, "both before God and man, from the least possible charge of not having used his utmost endeavours "for peace: yet, when he considers, that the scene "of all this calamity is in the bowels of his own kingdom; that all the blood, which is spilt, is of "his own subjects; and that what victory soever "it shall please God to give him, must be over "those who ought not to have lifted up their "hands against him; when he considers, that "these desperate civil dissensions may encourage "and invite a foreign enemy, to make a prey of the “ whole nation; that Ireland is in present danger "to be totally lost; that the heavy judgments of God, plague, pestilence, and famine, will be the " inevitable attendants of this unnatural contention; and that in a short time there will be so general a habit of uncharitableness and cruelty contracted through the whole kingdom, that even peace it"self will not restore his people to their old temper and security; his majesty cannot but again call "for an answer to that his gracious message, which 'gives so fair a rise to end these unnatural dis"tractions. And his majesty doth this with the more earnestness, because he doubts not the con"dition of his armies in several parts; the strength "of horse, foot, artillery, his plenty of ammunition, "(when some men lately might conceive he wanted,) is so well known and understood, that it "must be confessed, nothing but the tenderness

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