THE TRIAL OF CHARLES THE FIRST. INTRODUCTION. The events that led from the extraordinary seizure of Charles I. by Cornet Joyce and the army at Holdenby House, in Northamptonshire, to his imprisonment in the Isle of Wight, his prosecution, and his death, are familiar to most persons, either in the delightful narratives of Clarendon and Hume, the more detailed memorials of Rushworth, Whitlock, and Ludlow, or the late works of Godwin1 and D'Israeli. As long as the power of the parliament formed, in some degree, a balance to that of Cromwell, the officers, and the army, the cause of the King, though he was in strict custody of the latter, appeared slightly to gain ground. He was treated with respect even by the agitators of the army, courted 1 Godwin's History of the Commonwealth of England. D'Israeli's Commentaries on the Life and Reign of Charles I. 2 "All the officers of the army kissed his hand, and all kneeled, except Fairfax and Cromwell." Clarendon State Papers, vol. ii. Append. B by the parliamentary leaders, negotiated with by Cromwell, Ireton, and Fairfax; and he was frequently heard to say, with some imprudence and with his usual sanguineness, "You cannot do without me; you cannot settle the nation without my assistance." But when the parliament gradually yielded to all the encroachments of the army, and were subdued by the troops in July, 1647, (when Manchester and Lenthal, the speakers of the two Houses, and deputations of the members met Cromwell and the army at Hounslow,) the hopes of the loyal and the cause of the King declined. His confident rejection of the propositions now made to him by the army exasperated that body, at the very time when the parliament had become too weak to be looked to for any support. His abode at Hampton Court (whither he had been removed from Caversham, and where he lived at first with comfort and dignity 2,) became now every day more irksome, and even dangerous. His guards were doubled, restric 1 When the General Fairfax heard of Joyce's seizure of the King (which Joyce confessed was done by secret orders of Cromwell), he sent Colonel Whalley with two regiments of horse to remove the force, and to apologise to the King for the outrage; but Charles was then advanced several miles towards Cambridge, with the army. Fairfax waited on him next day at Sir John Cutts's, near Cambridge, and persuaded him to return to Holderby; but the King refused, having been deluded into the belief that Joyce and the soldiers and agitators were really his friends. He told Fairfax at parting, "Sir, I have as good an interest with the army as you." "By which," says Fairfax, "I plainly saw the broken reed he leaned upon." See Fairfax's Memoirs, by himself. 2 See Baron Maseres's Tracts, in two vols. tions placed on his intercourse with his friends, and intimations perpetually sent to him (whether by Cromwell or by the royalists) of atrocious designs against his person. Under these circumstances, Charles took the hasty and ill-contrived, but perhaps necessary, step of making his escape to Tichfield, and thence to the Isle of Wight, where he was made prisoner by 1 There can be little doubt that Charles, in flying to the Isle of Wight, was only pursuing, unwittingly, the course which the machinations of Cromwell drove him upon. Andrew Marvell, writing of his friend Cromwell, says,"And Hampton shows what part He had of wiser art, Where twining subtle fears with hope, That Charles himself might chase To Carisbrook's narrow case. Ode on Cromwell's Return from Ireland. There is no doubt that Cromwell informed Colonel Whalley, the officer commanding at Hampton, that the agitators designed to seize his person, and that Cromwell advised him to remove as soon as possible. Ten days before his departure, Charles received an anonymous letter, signed E. R., giving the same information, and stating that "Mr. Dell and Mr. Peters, two of the preachers of the army, would willingly bear company in the design; for they had often said to the agitators that 'your Majesty is but as a dead dog.'" - Parliamentary Hist. vol. xvi. 328. 2 The details of this flight have given rise to much speculation, and are differently represented by Clarendon, Ludlow, Sir John Berkley, and Dugdale. The matter seems now to be cleared up by Lord Ashburnham's recent publication of the full narrative of Ashburnham, the King's favourite groom of the bedchamber, who, along with Berkley, accompanied him. From this it appears that, in consequence of apprehensions of danger to his life Hammond the governor, (the friend of Cromwell and son-in-law of Hampden, who had been from the soldiers and agitators of the army, the King determined to leave Hampton Court, and that Ashburnham (who, from a short conversation with Hammond not long before, had reason to think him well affected towards the King,) suggested that he should go to Sir John Oglander's house, in the island, and remain concealed till he could learn whether the governor would protect him. On arriving within twenty miles of the coast, Charles resolved to go himself with Colonel Legge to the Earl of Southampton's, at Tichfield; and desired Ashburnham and Berkley to proceed to the island and learn what conduct the King could expect from Hammond, and then to bring their report to Tichfield. Ashburnham, though unwilling to leave the King, went accordingly, with Berkley, to Newport; and on meeting the governor, Berkley, according to Ashburnham's account (which appears confirmed by Hammond's letter to the House), very unskilfully and abruptly announced that the King had left Whitehall for fear of assassination, and was in the neighbourhood. Hammond gave a vague answer, in substance that he would act as must be expected from a man of honour in his position. After dinner, it was at first agreed that Berkley should remain in the castle, while Ashburnham went to the King to announce Hammond's answer; but afterwards the extraordinary measure was adopted, (with the full concurrence, if not on the suggestion, of Ashburnham,) that Hammond should accompany them at once to the King; and, accordingly, Berkley and Ashburnham, the governor, and a captain, went directly to Tichfield. Ashburnham alone went up stairs to the King, and astonished him by announcing the governor's presence. The King exclaimed, "Oh, Jack! you have undone me; for I am, by this means, made fast from stirring." Ashburnham wept bitterly, and, in his despair, proposed to the King that he should make away with the governor and the captain. Charles dissented, and said, "It is too late to think of any thing but going through the way you have forced upon me, and so lately appointed to the governorship,) and confined in Carisbrook Castle. The parliament being at his feet, and the King thus quietly imprisoned, Cromwell directed his energies against those violent seditions in the regiments, which he had before fomented for his own ambitious ends,—and which were, indeed, the necessary consequence of the institution of agitators1, and the sort of leave the issue to God;" and he accordingly went with Hammond to Carisbrook. Ashburnham accounts for his conduct by saying it was the best way to meet the difficulty occasioned by Berkley's indiscretion; since the governor, after Berkley's disclosure, would have sent spies to follow him, and find where the King was. Charles acquitted Ashburnham of all treachery, as did Berkley and Clarendon. See John Ashburnham's Narrative, published by the late Earl of Ashburnham. Sir John Berkley's Memoirs. Lord Ashburnham has reprinted these Memoirs in an appendix to his work. 1 Mr. Godwin says, "their office being to aid the regular council of war, or to agitate such questions as the interest of the army required to have considered." It seems probable that the first was the object which their name was intended to imply, and that their proceedings procured them the significant appellation of agitators. Ludlow, Ashburnham, Berkley, and Hobbes, in his Behemoth, spell the word "adjutator;" but writers in general use the other spelling, which is used in most pamphlets of the day. At first, two persons were chosen by the private soldiers (for they now refused to be called common soldiers) of each troop or company, to form a sort of representative or lower assembly; while the superior officers formed a general council of themselves. But this body being found too numerous, afterwards acted as electors; and chose two or more representatives, either soldiers or subalterns, for each regiment, forming a "council of agitators." Berry, who had been a gardener, and was captain in Fairfax's regiment of horse, a confidential ally of Cromwell, was president of this council soon after its |