Lord-lieutenant thereof, the Marquis of Ormond, being in no condition to resist him: Whereupon the Scotch war then newly beginning, Cromwell was sent for over, and the Presbyterian ministers, set on, no doubt, by some of his agents, having inveigled Fairfax with the unlawfulness of his engaging against their good brethren, he laid down his commission, which was readily conferred on, and taken up by Cromwell. CHAP. IX. Of Cromwell's March into Scotland, his Victories at Dunbar and GLADLY did Oliver undertake this war, for now he was sure to make the army his own, by placing and displacing of officers. Long it was, and many delays were used by the Scots, before they would be brought to fight, intending to starve the English army, which was near done to their hands, and Oliver sneaking away home, when the precipitate blue cap, greedy of spoil and victory, would needs fall upon them at Dunbar, Sept. 3, 1650, and were there, by the prowess and desperate valour of their enemies, totally overcome. Cromwell, therefore, now marches back again to Edinburgh, and buys that impregnable castle, of the traitor Dundass, and advances against king Charles the Second, who lay encamped by Stirling; but he not stirring out of his fortified camp, and there being no other or further passage into Scotland, but over the Frith, an arm of the sea: Cromwell wafts over most part of his army, and defeats a Scots party, while the king gives Cromwell the go-by, being two days march before him, and after a tedious march, came to Worcester, August 22; whither, not long after, came Cromwell in great doubt and perplexity by the way (having left General Monk, to carry on the war in Scotland, who, shortly after, reduced the whole kingdom) and beset the town, being recruited, and made up with his old army, to above fortythousand men; what shall I say, of that unfortunate day? The king was worsted, and most miraculously escaped, and so Cromwell might have leave to play. But no such matter, the time was come, he had long expected, to act his own game, and appear in it for himself, for by the year 1653, Scotland and Ireland being wholly subdued, and in the hands of his most trusty privado's and confidents, his new Son-inLaw Fleetwood (for Ireton was dead of the plague at Limerick) being Deputy of Ireland, and General Monk Governor of Scotland; he proposeth to the parliament the desires of the army, for their dissolution, to make way for succession of a new represen tative; which they endeavouring to delay, and to impose upon him with the necessities of their sitting a while longer, his ambition could brook no longer retardments, but sent Major-general Harrison on the 20th of April, 1653, to out their rump-ships; which he accordingly did, to the general rejoicing of the people, who considered nor cared, who should come next, so they were rid of these. C CHAP. X. How Cromwell ordered the Government afterward, and how he made himself Lord Protector of England. AFTER the rump was thus dissolved, Oliver by the advice (forsooth) of his general council of officers, erected a council of state, of such as were true to his interest, and the army, and were well fledged with the spoils of the kingdom; but, perceiving that was but a slender authority to derive the government to himself, which was the first and last thing intended, he called a picked conventicle, of the like batch as himself and his followers, all of the godly party, whom he stiled a parliament; the name whereof was enough to authorise and dignify the resignation of the authority they had from, to, him and their odious actions, moreover, would make a single person (himself) more acceptable; for these wild fellows were upon abolishing the ministry, and opening the floodgate to heresy and atheism; when Cromwell dissolved them, and with them discarded his old friend, and their darling, Major-general Harri. son, who was tampering with the army to unhorse Oliver; but he smelt him out, and cashiered him, as he did his trusty friend Lambert, soon after, as finding they were both greater in the army, than his safety and interest would suffer: So impossible it is for brethren in iniquity long to continue in love and friendship. Oliver would endure no competitor, but resolved to be single and supreme. CHAP. XI. How Oliver was sworn Protector, and how he managed the Government, briefly. THAT little or foolish parliament being divided among themselves, one part thereof resigned their power unto Oliver, who straight. with caused the commissioner of the seal, Mr. Lisle, to administer him an oath, on the sixteenth of December, 1653, before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the city of London, in Westminster-hall, to observe a model of government in forty-two articles; which instrument of his, as was said, was found in my Lady Lambert's placket, and thereupon he was proclaimed lord protector; in February he was feasted sumptuously in the city, and knighted the lord mayor, as he did many others afterwards, upon whom he had better have pissed: He made, also, one lord, but he never owned it. Now, though he was proclaimed protector, yet he knew the people took him for no such thing; therefore he called a parliament according to form, thinking to have been declared so by them; but they would not own him, or his authority. Seeing, therefore, he could neither get reputation nor money at home, he resolved to have it from the king of Spain's West-Indies; but, at Hispaniola, his forces, under General Venables, were strangely defeated, and forced to plant themselves in Jamaica, and fight for bread instead of gold. He likewise started several plots (the fox was the finder) against cavaliers, such as Colonel Gerrard, and afterwards Colonel Penruddock (maintaining intelligence, at the price of one-thousand-five-hundred per annum, with one Manning, a clerk to the king's secretary, who then resided at Colen, who discovered most of the king's council, till he was discovered himself, and executed) on purpose to terrify people, and those especially, from rising against him. Now, when Oliver saw he could not attain his will by whole parliaments, he resolved on his old expedient, to garble a parliament, call it, and then cull it, which he did, and secluded those members that would not, before they entered, recognise and own his highness; by which means two parts of three were excluded, and he, by the remainder, complimented with the stile of king; but, for fear of Lambert and Harrison, and, indeed, the whole kingdom, especially the army, he durst not accept of it; but was content to take the title of protector from their hands; and was accordingly, on the sixteenth of June, 1657, solemnly installed by the speaker, Sir Thomas Widdrington, again, in Westminsterkall, and the parliament adjourned, who had likewise passed an act for erecting of a thing called another house, consisting of such lords as Pride, Hewson, and Barkstead; but, upon the mecting of a full house, after the adjournment, all this new structure was questioned, even to Oliver himself; who thereupon, in a passion, and transported beyond his vizarded sanctity, with an oath, by the living God, dissolved them. In the year 1658, he assisted the French against the Spaniard, and helped them to take Dunkirk, which, for his pains, he had delivered to him; and, no doubt, it was the best service he ever did to his country. But, during this unenvied triumph, having drenched his polluted hands in more innocent and loyal blood, namely, that of Dr. Hewet, and Sir Henry Slingsby, God put a hook into the mouth of this Leviathan, and having snatched away his beloved daughter, Claypoole, just before, on the third of September, 1658, his great successful day, he was hurried in a tem pest out of the world, which he had so long troubled; and, on the sixteenth of November following, was most magnificently buried, to the only sorrow of those who furnished the mourning and pageantry thereof, leaving his wife Elisabeth, alias Joan, with two sons, Richard, who succeeded, till he tamely and cowardly resigned, and is now fled for his father's debts; and Henry, and a daughter ycleped Frances Rich. A person, as it is well charactered of him, fit to be a prince of Tartars or Cannibals. Before the king returned into England, Colonel Henry Cromwell, son of Sir Oliver Cromwell, obtained license of the king to change that hateful name into Williams, which was the name of this family, before they married with a daughter and heir of Cromwell; which was upon condition they should take her name, as well as estate. A NARRATIVE OF THE IMPRISONMENT AND USAGE OF COLONEL JOHN Of Owthorp, in the County of Nottingham, Esq. now close Prisoner in the Tower of London. Written by himself, on the sixth of April, 1664, having then received intimation that he was to be sent away to another Prison; and therefore he thought fit to print this, for the satisfying his Relations and Friends of his Innocence. Let the proud be ashamed, for they deal perversly with me, without a cause; but I will meditate in thy precepts. Psal. cxix. 78. Printed in the Year 1664. Quarto, containing twelve Pages. ADVERTISEMENT. THE following Narrative, being written with an air of the strictest veracity, ought to be preserved among the other Materials for History, which we accumulate in these Collections, as it affords a very just idea of the Methods of Justice, which were at that time in use, and may assist our Readers in forming a judgment of the Reign of Charles the Second. One advantage at least will be afforded by the perusal of this piece; the Reader, amidst his Indignation at the Cruelties, and his Pity of the Hardships which are here recounted, cannot fail to congratulate himself upon the Happiness of living at a Time, when no such Miseries are to be felt, or such Practices to be feared.- -J.* UPON PON the eleventh day of October, 1663, being the Lord'sday, about seven of the clock at night, there being at that time no one person but my own family in the house with me, a party of horse came to my house at Owthorp in Nottinghamshire, commanded by one Coronet Atkinson, who told me, I must immediately go with him to Newark. I demanded to see his warrant; and, after some dispute, he shewed me a scrip of paper, signed by Mr. Francis Leke, one of the deputy lieutenants, to this effect, as near as I can remember, for he would not give me a copy of it. YOU To Coronet Atkinson. OU are hereby required, to repair to the house of John Hutchinson, Esq. at Owthorp, with a party of horse, and him to seize and bring forthwith to Newark, and to search the said house for what arms you can find, and bring them away also. IMPRISONMENT OF COLONEL HUTCHINSON. 285 Having shewed me this order, they searched the house, and found no arms, but four birding guns of my sons, which hung openly in the kitchen, and them at that time they left; but although the night was very foul and rainy, and I myself was not at that time well, and had not any accommodation for riding, neither of horses, saddles, or other necessaries, not having been on horseback for many months before; and though I and my family urged these reasons to them, offering all civil entertainment, if they would but have staid till the next morning, when I might have gone with the less hazard of my life and health; yet could I not prevail with them, but he forced me to borrow horses and go out of my house at midnight; and, about four of the clock the next morning, they brought me to the Talbot at Newark, which is twelve miles distant from my house, and set two sentinels upon me in my chamber. While I was thus kept prisoner at Newark, a greater party of horse than that which fetched me, was sent again to my house at Owthorp, under the command of Tomson the Innkeeper where I lay, who, on Tuesday the 13th of October at night, came thither, and made a stricter search all over the house, in every box and trunk, in all the barns, mows, and every hole they could imagine, yet found no more arms than the four guns, which the former party left behind them, but these took away; the rest of the arms, which I had of old, having been all taken away immediately after the act of oblivion past, which, as I conceive, left me as rightful a possessor of my own goods, as any other Englishman; yet, when I was at London, Mr. Cecil Cooper sent a party of soldiers, and took them all out of my house, leaving me not so much as a sword, though at that time there was no prohibition of my wear. ing one. Having been removed out of the chamber where I was first lodged at Tomson's, into a very bad room, upon pretence that the other looked into the market place, I received many more insolences and affronts from the drunken Host, till at length I was resolved to hear them no longer; seeing, although I had now been four days at Newark, neither the gentleman by whose warrant I was fetched, tho' he came every day to the house where I was, nor any of the king's officers came at me, to let me know why I was kept there. Whereupon, being provoked by the insolence of the Host to throw something at his head, upon the bustle between us, Mr. Leke came in, and I had then opportunity to tell him that I stood upon my justification, and desired to know my crime, and my accuser; and in the mean time that I might be kept as safe as they pleased, so I might be delivered out of the hands of this insolent fellow, and have accommodation fit for a gentleman; which when they saw I would no longer want, with much difficulty, after two days, I obtained to be removed to the next Inn, where I was civilly treated, with guards still remaining upon me. On Monday, October the nineteenth, Mr. Leke carried me with a guard of horse to Welbeck, the Marquess of Newcastle's house, |