.\«\
*f..
.W #1/
N^t
^m
V .•
,♦.'
» • i w > ^ ' ' -i i.
f#' V
v*^
,»y^iA^^
THE COVENANTERS
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2008 with funding from
IVIicrosoft Corporation
http://www.archive.org/details/covenantershisto02hewiuoft
JAMES GRAHAM. FIRST MARQUIS OF MONTROSE
ks?f
V PPrORT'^TATTOX
IN,): F?i. RIES OF :
M
wm^Mm^
WTV^il
s-
THE
COVENANTERS
A HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND FROM THE REFORMATION TO THE REVOLUTION, BY
JAMES KING HEWISON
M.A., D.D. (eDIN.) : FELLOW OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND : EDITOR OF THE WORKS OF ABBOT NINIAN WINZET : AUTHOR OF *THE ISLE OF BUTE IN THE OLDEN TIME,' ETC.
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOLUME II
GLASGOW: JOHN SMITH AND SON
1908
Edinburgh : T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty
CONTENTS
CHAPTER XVIII
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS— CHURCH, CHARLES, AND CROMWELL— 1650-1651
|
King Charles subscribes Covenant, |
23rd |
|
|
June 1650 .... |
I |
|
|
Cromwell invades Scotland, 22nd July |
3 |
|
|
Leslie's Covenanted host |
3 |
|
|
Purging out Malignants |
4 |
|
|
Lewdness in the Carolan age |
5 |
|
|
Cromwell's pious Declarations |
6 |
|
|
Skirmishes before Edinburgh |
7 |
|
|
Cromwell retreats to Dunbar |
7 |
|
|
The West Kirk Resolution, 1 3th August |
||
|
1650 ..... |
8 |
|
|
Cromwell's disclaimer . |
9 |
|
|
Declaration at Dunfermline |
9 |
|
|
Deception by Charles . |
10 |
|
|
Cromwell in a trap at Dunbar |
II |
|
|
Leslie's position at Dunbar, 2nd |
Sep- |
|
|
tember |
12 |
|
|
Carelessness of the Scots army . |
13 |
|
|
The Battle of Dunbar, 3rd September |
||
|
1650 |
13 |
|
|
' Dunbar Drove ' . |
14 |
|
|
Cruel fate of Scots prisoners |
15 |
|
|
Cromwell enters Edinburgh, 7th Sep- |
||
|
tember |
16 |
|
|
Leslie's troubles .... |
16 |
|
|
The Public Resolutions |
17 |
|
|
James Guthrie and the Protesters |
17 |
|
|
The King under surveillance |
18 |
'The Start,' 4th October 1650
The Forfar Bond
Collapse of Royalist rising .
Whiggamore conference at Dumfries
The Remonstrance — a Western Cove
nant ..... The King's vow .... Whiggamores crushed Origin of the Resolutioners . Church ordains fasting and humiliation Coronation of Charles 11. at Scone, ist
January 1651 . King Charles's oath The secret policy of Charles Charles 11. and Lady Ann Campbell Parliament meets at Perth, 13th March
1651
Act securing Covenanters . Act of Classes repealed, 2nd June 1651 Military successes of Cromwell . Charles and Scots army march into
England ..... Battle of Worcester, 3rdSepteniber 165 1 Wanderings of King Charles Assembly at St. Andrews, Perth, and
Dundee in July Deposition of Protesters
20 20 21 21
22
24
24
^5 26
27 28
30 30
31 31 32 32
34 35
VI
THE COVENANTERS
CHAPTER XIX
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES— 1651-1660
PAGE I
Cromwell's ' crowning mercy ' . • 38 i Alured captures Scots Council at Alyth 39 Siege of Dundee, ist September 1651 . 39 i Subjugation of Scotland, 1652 . . 40 English annexation of Scotland . . 41
'The Tender' 41
Appointment of English judges . 42
Submission of Argyll . . .42
Rival Assemblies in Edinburgh^ 1652 . 43 Highlanders rise under Glencairn, 1653 43 Cromwell appointed Lord Protector 44
Edinburgh Assembly dissolved by
Colonel Cotterel . . . -45 Protest of Protesters ; aggressiveness of
Protesters 46
Cromwell's policy . . -47
Monck, his life and work, 1608-1670 . 47
Dispersion of Royalist forces Cromwell's attempt to settle religion Cromwell supports toleration Failure of Presbyterianism in England Advent of James Sharp Envoys of the Protesters Wariston becomes a Cromwellian Death of Cromwell, 3rd September 1658 Accession of Richard Cromwell, 1659 Monck at Westminster Monck prefers Presbyterianism Sharp's negotiations and craft Triumph of Hyde's diplomacy Sharp's share in the Restoration Monck a cautious plotter Resolutioners congratulate the King
49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 62
CHAPTER XX
THE RESTORATION— 1660-166]
Popular joy at the Restoration, May 1660 .....
Sharp plays false, June 1660
The office of Hyde .
The arrest of Argyll .
The King reconstitutes the Scots Government ....
Severities of Privy Council .
Return of Sharp ; the volte face of Lauderdale ....
Plan of the treacherous trio .
Churchmen grateful and jubilant
64 65 67 67
68 69
70
71 72
Inquisition instituted .
Sharp an enigma
Sharp's sin .
EarlofMiddleton, 1619-1674
First Restoration Parliament, ist Jan
1661
The exhumation and burial of Montrose Statutes of 166 1 . King Charles, Pope of Scotland . Statute repudiating the Covenant, 25th
January 1661 .... Rescissory statute
73
74 75 76
77 78
79
80
80 81
CONTENTS
Vll
|
Act concerning religion |
l-AGE . 8x |
|
Act appointing Restoration Day . |
. 82 |
|
Terror created by new statutes . |
. 82 |
|
Argyll summoned to trial . |
■ 83 |
|
Argyll's indictment and defences . |
. 84 |
|
Monck's incriminating letters |
• 85 |
|
Argyll in prison .... |
. 86 |
|
Argyll on the scaffold, 27th May it |
61 87 |
|
Character of Argyll |
• 87 |
|
Leighton toasts Middleton . |
. 88 |
|
Indictment of James Guthrie |
. 89 |
|
Doom of Guthrie |
. 90 |
Guthrie in prison ....
Guthrie's testimony and martyrdom,
1st June 1661 ..... Execution of Govan .... The summons of Samuel Rutherford . Death of Rutherford, 29th March 1661 Escape of Patrick Gillespie . Robert . MacWard and Alexander
Moncriefif
Robert Trail, James Kirko, Sir John
Chiesley, and Wariston . The Earl of Traquair, a beggar .
I' AGE 91
92
93 94 95 95
96
97 98
CHAPTER XXI
CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY- THE COVENANTERS : THE GENTLEMEN OF THE RESTORATION
|
Buckle's libel of the Covenanters |
PAGE |
|
Donaldson, pastor of Dalgety . |
lOI |
|
Virtues of the Covenanters |
102 |
|
Music and mirth |
102 |
|
Scottish sports .... |
104 |
|
Humanitarianism of the Covenanting |
1 |
|
ministry .... |
105 |
|
Wit of William Guthrie . |
106 |
|
Kindness of Covenanting times . |
106 |
|
Spiritual condition of Scotland (1649 |
|
|
1661) |
107 |
|
Kirkton's testimony corroborated |
108 |
|
The Three R's in 1642 |
109 |
|
Pictures from Naphtali |
109 |
|
Survivals of Paganism |
no |
|
Belief in spirits ; witchcraft |
III |
|
Public worship .... |
112 |
|
Results of Westminster Assembly |
114 |
Innovations in church services .
Gentlemen of the Restoration .
Charles 11. ; James 11.
Lauderdale; Rothes .
Scandalous aristocracy
Bankrupt gentry
Ruffians of the law .
'The Muscovy Beast'; Sir James
Turner ..... John Graham of Claverhouse Carnal Carolan cavaliers . Archbishop Sheldon ; Archbishop
Sharp
Archbishop Burnet ; Bishop Paterson Character of Episcopal clergy . Character of the persecuted clergy Corrupt rulers .... Aims of Covenanting agitators .
PAGE
IIS
116 117 118 119
120
121
122 122
123 124 125 126 126 127
Vlll
THE COVENANTERS
CHAPTER XXII
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH— 1 66 1
Various parties in Scotland
Clerical opposition to reconstruction of Church ....
Synod of Fife, 2nd April 1661 .
Erastianism of Aberdeen Synod
New Church legislation
Sharp's progress in defection
Letter of Sharp to Middleton, May 1661
Charles resolves to restore Episco Pacy
Royal decree proclaimed, 6th Septem bar 1661 ....
Protest of Robert Baillie .
Blair accuses Sharp of treachery
Ejectment of Blair ; his death, 1666
The new bishops ....
Douglas refuses to apostatise
Sharp appointed Primate, 14th Nov- ember 1661 .
FairfuU, Archbishop of Glasgow Hamilton, Bishop of Galloway
Leighton, Bishop of Dunblane .
Leighton, a hypochondriac and mystic
Leighton signs the Covenant in which he did not believe ....
Scottish hierarchy consecrated in West- minster, 1 66 1
Wishart, Bishop of Edinburgh .
Consecration of other bishops, 1662 .
List of the bishops ; their emoluments
The prelates carnal ....
The second session of Parliament, 1662
Re-establishment of Episcopacy
1>AGE 128
129 129 130
132
134 135 135 136
137 138
138
138 139 140
141
142
143
144
145 146
146 M7
Act of Oblivion ....
The Billeting Act, 9th September
1662 ..... Recall of Middleton . Degradation of Solemn League and
Covenant at Linlithgow Middleton and the Court visit West
Country ....
Edict of eviction and evil effects of
the proclamation . Leighton's diocesan work . Innovations of the Prelates Robert Baillie dies of a broken heart
August 1662 .... Carlyle's portrait of Baillie Scotia sub Cruce Eviction of Donald Cargill Doom of Argyll averted Eviction of John Blackadder Expulsion of John Welsh . Parliament summons the ministers
1662 ..... Thomas WyHe and Hugh M'Kail John Brown of Wamphray John Livingstone Fate of other clergy . Eviction of Presbyterian clergy . Andrew Donaldson . ' The King's Curates ' Sir Robert Moray's testimony . Riots at churches Origin of the Galloway Rising . The Earlston Gordons Peden the Prophet . The Lowlanders incensed .
PAGE 148
149
153 154
156
158
159 160 161 162 163 163 164 164
165 166 167 167 168
CONTENTS
IX
CHAPTER XXIII
THE RULE OF ROTHES AND THE RISING OF RULLION GREEN-
1663-1667
The mission of Lauderdale, June 1663 169 The Duke of Rothes . . . .169 Session of Parhament, 1663 . .169 Johnston, Lord Wariston ; his execu- tion; his character . . 1 70-1 71 James Wood's testimony . . .172 Sharp's vindictiveness . . .172 Fate of Middleton . . . .173 ' The Bishops' drag-net ' . . 173 Proposed synod . . • ' 74 'Twenty Mile Act,' 13th August 1663 175 Exactions by Government officials . 176 Disturbances in Galloway ; Sir James
Turner, 1615-1686 . . . . 177 Changes in the hierarchy . . .178 Sharp miserable . . , • 179
Court of High Commission, 1664 . 179 Sharp humbled and exalted . .180 The new Commission ;' The Crail Court ' 180 James Scott of Ancrum's case . . 181 Cruelty to Alexander Smith . .182 Sufferings of James Hamilton and
Porterfield 183
William Guthrie of Fenwick, 1620-65 • ^84
Spreul's case 185
Foreign politics and troubles with
Holland and France . . 185-186 Measures for suppressing the Whigs . 187 Turner's device . . . .188
An Apologetical Relatio?i, 1665 . .189 Cause of rising in the Glenkens, 1666 190 Rescue by Barscob . . . . 191 '■ Muster of conventiclers . . . 192 j Capture of Turner in Dumfries . . 192 i VOL. II. b
March of the regulars and insurgents
under Commandei James Wallace Covenant renewed at Lanark Insurgents march to Edinburgh The last stand at RuUion Green General Dalyell's position . The fight on RuUion Green Captain Paton's heroism . Losses by the fight . Sharp's delight after the victory Hugh M'Kail's fate . Trial and execution of prisoners Neilson of Corsock . Doom of Robertson and others M'Kail's testimony . Scene at M'Kail's execution Gallant ending of Colquhoun The Justices in Glasgow and Ayr Sutherland, the Christian hangman Sharp, an incubus on the politicians Meeting of Parliament, 1667 Atrocities of Dalyell and Drummond The shooting of David Finlay . Villainies of the soldiery , Lauderdale's investigations and Sir
Robert Moray's report, July 9, 1667 The testimony of the Covenanters
corroborated
The resurrection of Sharp . Conciliation advocated by Moray Turner discharged and Ballantine
banished, 1668 .... Failure of Moray's policy . Michael Bruce and Hog of Kiltearn .
194
195 196 196 198 199 200 201 201 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 209 210 21 1 212 212 213 214
215
216 216 217
218 219 219
THE COVENANTERS
CHAPTER XXIV
THE SCHEMES OF ANGELIC LEIGHTON AND IRON-HANDED LAUDERDALE— 1668-1678
The widows' petition Fines, escheats, and fugitations . Case of Thomas Forrester . Conformists desire a National Synod Sharp and Lauderdale suppress Bishop
Ramsay
The policy of iron and blood Letters of Intercommuning, 6th
August 1675
Outlaws in Fife — Donald Cargill
Richard Cameron . John Balfour — ' Burly '—of Kinloch David Hackston of Rathillet Brutal torture of James Mitchell, 1675 A fresh Inquisition, 1st March 1676 Convention of the outed clergy. May
1676 .... The Scots Star Chamber . Ker of Kersland ; Donaldson Exiles in Holland Assembly of Presbyterian parties, 167 James Eraser of Brea Prisoners on the Bass Conventicles
Lauderdale in Scotland, 1677 Sir George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh Affair at Kinloch Scotland under martial law, 1677 Muster of the Highland host, 1678 Return of Claverhouse, 1678 ' The Black Bond ' . . . March of the Highlanders King Charles approves of the exped
tion
|
PAGE |
||
|
Robert Leighton, a visionary |
221 |
|
|
The Accommodation |
222 |
|
|
James Mitchell, ' stickit minister,' |
||
|
shoots at Sharp, nth July 1668 |
223 |
|
|
Sharp scared out of his wits |
224 |
|
|
Advent of Gilbert Burnet . |
225 |
|
|
A conditional Indulgence, 1669 |
225 |
|
|
Opposition of irreconcilables |
226 |
|
|
A new western Remonstrance . |
227 |
|
|
The new Royal Pope .... |
228 |
|
|
Deposition of Archbishop Alexander |
||
|
Burnet |
228 |
|
|
Bishop Leighton's ' Six Evangelists ' . |
229 |
|
|
Parliament of July 1670 . |
230 |
|
|
New 'Clanking Acts,' 1670 |
231 |
|
|
Conference at Paisley, 14th December |
||
|
1670 |
232 |
|
|
Development of conventicling . |
233 |
|
|
Blackadder's reminiscences |
234 |
|
|
Gilbert Burnet's ingenious project |
235 |
|
|
The second Indulgence, 2nd Septem- |
||
|
ber 1672 |
236 |
|
|
Lauderdale's ' Queen of Love ' |
237 |
|
|
Parliament, June 1672 |
237 |
|
|
Estimate of Leighton |
238 |
|
|
Clerical victims of the law |
239 |
|
|
Bishops a failure |
239 |
|
|
Rottenness in high places . |
240 |
|
|
Attacks on Lauderdale frustrated |
241 |
|
|
Mitchell's confession and imprison- |
||
|
ment |
242 |
|
|
Prison on the Bass Rock . |
243 |
|
|
'The Blynk,' 1674 . . . . |
243 |
|
|
Capture of Peden |
244 |
PAGE 244
. 245 246
247
248 249
250
252 253
253 255
256
257 258 258
259 260 261 1-263 263 264 265 266 267 267 268 269
CONTENTS
XI
Meeting of Parliament, June 1678 Trial of James Mitchell, 7th January
.67S
Perjury of Privy Councillors Execution of Mitchell, 18th January
1678
|
371 |
Punishment of the Whigs . |
275 |
|
ScufHe at Whitekirk .... |
276 |
|
|
272 |
Blackadder's conventicle in Irongray |
|
|
273^ |
parish |
276 |
|
Invention of thumbscrews . |
277 |
274
CHAPTER XXV
THE EXIT OF SHARP— 1679
The harrying of William Veitch Stripping conventiclers New Commissioners of the Peace Drubbing of Major Johnston Enormities of Sheriff- depute Car
michael
Plot to dispatch Sharp Dehberations of the twelve plotters The final labours of Sharp . Sharp on the road to St. Andrews
I'AGE ■
278 I
279 i 280 281
282
.831
284 I 285
A chase and a deadly assize on Sharp 286 The coup de grace ^ 3rd May 1679 . 287 The dispatch of Sharp preconcerted . 288 Estimate of Archbishop Sharp . . 289 Vengeance of the Government ant!
flight of the assassins . . .290 Richard Cameron ; the irreconcilables 291 Sir Robert Hamilton, . . .291 Testimony at Rutherglen, sglh May
1679 ...... 292
CHAPTER XXVI
THE RISE OF CLAVERHOUSE — 1678-1679
Lineage of Graham of Claverhouse .
Views of Claverhouse
Personal appearance of Claverhouse .
Morrison's description
Torfoot's delineation ; a serving-maid's
reminiscences ....
Claverhouse appointed Sheriff; his
love proposal ....
Drumclog and Loudoun Hill . Battle of Drumclog, ist June 1679 Defeat and flight of Claverhouse
294 I Hamilton and the ' No Quarter ' order 30.^
295 I The march of the insurgents . . 304
296 i Victors in Glasgow .... 305
297 ! Hamilton, a feckless general . . 306
Divided councils .... 306
298 1 The Hamiltonians, Extremists, Moder-
ates ...... 307
299 The Hamilton Declaration, 13th June
300 1679 307
301 Arrival of Monmouth and an army . 308
302 Bothwell Bridge .... 309
THE COVENANTERS
The fight, 22nd June 1679 Stampede of Covenanters . Surrender of a craven mob Prisoners enter Edinburgh Sufferings in (keyfriars' Churchyard The King's gratitude The Act of Indemnity Two clerical victims — Kid and King Trial of refusers of the bond
PAGE 310
312
314 315 316
317 318
Thomas Brown, Andrew Sword, James Wood, John Waddell, John Glide, executed, iSth November 1679 . 319 Favourites enriched with forfeitures . 320 The third Indulgence . . -321 Indictment of Lauderdale and his
policy .322
Forfeiture of heritors in the south- west 323
CHAPTER XXVII
THE REMNANT— 1679-16S2
Suffering, the cult of the persecuted . The Duke of York in Holyrood, 1680 Return of Richard Cameron, October
T679
Cargill, Douglas, and other field
preachers . , . . Capture and death of Henry Hall The Queensferry Paper, June 1680 The Sanquhar Declaration, 22nd June
1680
Tenor of the Declaration . . ^
Doom of Captain Niving .
The fight at Ayrsmoss, 22nd July
Fate of the vanquished
The brutal ending of Hackston .
Aftermath of Battle of Bothwell Bridge
At Torwood, Cargill excommunicates
the King, September 1680 Execution of Skene, Stewart, and
Potter
Torture of Spreul . . . . The Gibbites or Sweet Singers . Cargill visits Gibb . . . .
PAGE
324 I
325 I
325
327 328
329
329 331 332
333
334 335 336
337
338 339 340 34T
The Gibbites in Canongate Tolbooth, 1681-1682
Blackadder sent to the Bass, 1681
Gabriel Semple and Eraser in prison
Examination of Isobel Alison and Marion Harvey ....
Executions of Alison and Harvey, Gougar, Millar, and Sangster
Hay and Pitilloh, martyrs from Fife
Capture of Cargill by Bonshaw .
Trial of Cargill and others
Death of Rothes
Cargill, Smith, Boig, Thomson, and Cuthill on the scaffold, 27th July 1681
Argyll's ill-timed interjection
The Parliament of 168 1 .
The Test
Paterson's explication ; views of clergy
Argyll's caveat ; his trial .
Escape of Argyll
Pranks of students in Edinburgh
342 .343 344
345
346 347 347 348 349
349 350 351 352
353 354 355 355
CONTENTS
xni
Impeachment of Hatton Six fresh victims Dalyell's brutality Renwick's bold exploit
'AGE PAGE
356 Lanark Declaration, 12th January
356 I 1682 358
357 I Unpopularity of the Test . . . 359
358 Influence of the Duke of York . . 360
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE POLICY OF ROPE AND GUN— 1682-1681
Chancellor Gordon, a rising Royalist . The Marquis of Queensberry ; Moray Exit of Lauderdale, 24th August 1682 Agents for obliterating dissent . TJie Reformed Bishop Authorisation of Liturgy . Archbishop Ross and Bishop Paterson Professor Laurence Charteris Wodrow's stories of brutality now
corroborated
Invasion of Cheisley's house by soldiers,
1682
Horrors of this epoch Patrick Walker's youthful exploit The subjugator of the westlands Method of Claverhouse Claverhouse's opinion of the situation Robbery by Claverhouse . Convention of the Societies, June 1682 Claverhouse opposes the Dalrymples . Triumph of Claverhouse . Trials of Patrick Vernor
Henry Erskine
Claverhouse shoots William Graham,
1682 (?)
TJu Despot's Champion
The Graham tragedies in the Wod-
roiv MSS.
|
PAGE ; |
PAGE |
|
|
36. |
James Gray's case |
378 |
|
362 |
Robert Nairn, Bonhill |
379 |
|
362 |
The ' Lady ' of Cavers ; Ure of Shar |
|
|
363 |
garton and other prisoners |
380 |
|
364 |
The Bloody Vintage, 1682 |
381 |
|
364 |
Execution of AVilliam Harvey ; Chris |
|
|
36s |
tian Fyfe sentenced to death . |
3S2 |
|
366 |
Gray, an English sufferer . Three Cargillites hanged, 15th De |
383 |
|
366 |
cember 1682 .... Intrepidity of Alexander Home |
384 |
|
367 |
martyr |
385 |
|
367 |
Reward of Claverhouse |
386 |
|
36S |
Variety of oppressors and oppressions |
387 |
|
369 |
Muir of Glanderston, Michael Potter |
|
|
370 |
and M'Gilligen |
• 38S |
|
371 |
Laurie of Blackwood |
• 3S9 |
|
372 |
Claverhouse in London meddles with |
|
|
372 |
the policy of the Crown |
• 390 |
|
373 |
Cruel proclamation, 13th April 1683 |
391 |
|
374 |
The last offer of mercy |
• 392 |
|
374 |
Claverhouse now a Privy Councillor |
|
|
375 |
1683 Sufferings of the Caldwell family ; Johi |
• 393 |
|
376 |
Nisbet hanged |
• 394 |
|
377 |
John Wilson's testimony . |
395 |
|
Children's Covenants |
396 |
|
|
378 |
The projected Carolina colony, 1682 |
397 |
XIV
THE COVENANTERS
The Rye House Plot, 1 683 ; the Courts on Circuit ....
Bogue, an unworthy martyr
Claverhouse demands Bogue's death
Rescue at Inchbelly Bridge, 8th June 1683
Gallant deaths of Wharry and Smith
Renunciations of property
The Justiciary Court in Edinburgh 1 2th July 1683 .
Heroic exit of Guillan
398 I
399 i 400
401
402 I
403
404 405
Earlston in the boots, 23rd November
1683
Robert Hamilton condemned Effects of the repressive methods An almost incredible statement of Wodrow substantiated ; blockhouses for Claverhouse .... The valiant ending of John Dick The advent of James Renwick in September 1683 ....
406 407 408
409 4IO
41
CHAPTER XXIX
THE ADVENT OF RENWICK: CLAVERHOUSE AND THE KILLING TIMES— 1683-1685
PAGE
Ubiquitous Peden, 1626-1686 . . 413 James Renwick, 1 662-1 688 . 413-415 The Societies of nonconformists . 415 Renwick's call and fugitive ministry . 416 A new drag-net for Covenanters . 417
Another trio hanged, 22nd February
1684 418
Trial of slayers of Barscob, March
1684 419
The infamous Cessnock case . . 420 Five men hanged in Glasgow . .421 Nisbet executed . . . .422 Influential sufferers ; Captain John
Baton of Meadowhead executed . 423 Chivalry of General Dalyell . -423 Prisons crammed; emptied into planta- tions 424
The great Porteous roll of 1684 . 425
Claverhouse woos Jean Cochrane . 425 Marriage of Claverhouse, loth June j
1684 426 I
Shooting of ShiUilau, July 1684 427 I
Government's investigation into national discontent ; torture of William Spence ; ' thumbikins ' • introduced, 23rd July 1684 . . 428 Claverhouse, Dalyell, etc., interested
in torture of Carstares . . -429 Taiket tortured and hanged . . 429 Patrick Walker's experiences . . 430 Ambuscade and rescue of prisoners
in Enterkin, 29th July 16S4 . .431 Heroes of the ambuscade . -432
Trial and execution of the Enterkin
rescuers 433
The Campbells of Over-Wellwoud . 434 A red-letter day, 6th September 1684 435 Changes in the hierarchy, and death
of Burnet 436
Claverhouse credited with pity . . 437 Minutes of the autumn Circuit Courts 438 The ' flies,' or informers . . . 439 The Apologetical Declaration, 8th
November 1684 . . . 440
CONTENTS
Aims of the Renwickian party
The Abjuration Oath, 25th November
1684
Victims at the altar .
A weird incident
The assassination of Peter Peirson
The assassins ....
Four assenters to the Declaration
hanged .... James Graham's case
|
PAGE |
PACE |
|
|
• 44T |
A deadly scuffle at Auchcncloy, |
18th |
|
r |
December 1684 |
• 448 |
|
•• 442 |
Claverhouse exhumes the fallen |
wan- |
|
• 443 |
derers |
• 449 |
|
• 444 |
Baillie of Jerviswood . |
• 450 |
|
• 445 |
Trial of BaiUie .... |
• 451 |
|
• 446 |
Grizzel Hume .... |
. 452 |
|
n |
A new commission, 1685 . |
• 453 |
|
■ 447 |
Instructions— warrant for drowning . 454 |
|
|
• 447 |
CHAPTER XXX THE INLET OF POPERY— 1685-1688
Claverhouse and Queensberry quarrel 455 General Maitland's extraordinary testi- mony 456
Grierson of Lag, 1657-1733 . . 457 Illustrations of recorded brutalities in
1685 458
Victims of the law . . . -459
Theheroic death of Daniel MacMichael 459 Dispatch of William Adam, and an
execution at Paisley . . . 460 The Lochenkit martyrs . . .461 Death of Charles 11., 6th February
1685 462
James vii. proclaimed King . . 463
Fresh vintage of blood . . . 464 March of prisoners to 'The Whigs'
Vaults,' Dunnottar . . . 465
Horrors wellnigh incredible . . 466 | Shooting of Bell and others, February |
1685 467 I
Shooting of William Smith . . 468 j
Trial and doom of Thomas Ritchart . 469 The Ingliston tragedy . . .470
Drummond's commission . . . 470
Claverhouse in the chase .
John Brown — the Christian carrier
Widow Brown's account of the murder
on May Day
The Wigtown martyrdom, 2nd May
1685
Appeals to the Privy Council
Two sacrifices at the stake
The Mauchline tragedy, 6th May
1685
Westerhall and Claverhouse execute
Hislop
Martyrdoms unrecorded by Wodrow . Brigadier Graham chases Renwick Three Polmadie victims Betrayal of James Kirko . William, first Duke of Queensberry,
1637-1695
The rival Parliament of Blackgannoch Protestation at Sanquhar . The Renwickites refuse to join Argyll Argyll sets sail, 2nd May 1685 . The fiery cross fails ....
471 472
473
474 475 476
478
479 4S0 48 1 482
4S3 484 485 4S6 487 488
Capture and execution of Argyll 48S-489
THE COVENANTERS
Fate of Monmouth and Rumbold Execution of Archer .... Ear-lopping; death of General Dalyell;
' The White Flag of the Devil ' The MacLellans of Barmagechan Captain John Nisbet hanged Queensberry under a shade Shooting of Steel, 20th December 1686 The King's veiled projects Deposition of Archbishop Cairncross Renwick interviews Peden Death of Peden ....
An Informatory Vi?tdicatJo?i
|
PAGE |
Growth of Romanism |
PAGE |
|
491 |
Effects of the royal Irenicon |
504 |
|
Prosecution of Gilbert Burnet . |
505 |
|
|
492 |
The grand oblation .... |
S06 |
|
493 |
Capture of Renwick, ist February |
|
|
494 |
1688 |
506 |
|
496 |
Trial of Renwick .... |
507 |
|
497 |
Renwick in prison .... |
508 |
|
498 |
Renwick on the scaffold . |
509 |
|
499 |
Appreciation of Renwick . |
510 |
|
500 |
Thomas Carlyle on Renwick |
511 |
|
501 |
The last martyr— George Wood (July |
|
|
502 |
1688?) |
512 |
CHAPTER XXX
THE REVOLUTION— 1688-T690
A tottering throne
Declaration by William of Orange
October 1688 The Society-men testify against
Jacobites and Dutch Representative conventions Melee at Holyrood . Society-men and rabbling . Liberation of Alexander Gordon Covenant subscribed at Lesmahagow Convention of Scots Estates, 141!
March 1689 .... Viscount Dundee's intrigues and ex
ploits
Proclamation of William and Mary Origin of the Cameronian regiment , King William repudiates the persecut
ing clause . . . . , Settlement of the Church . The Pass of Killiecrankie .
514
515
517 518
519 520
521
522 523 524
525 525 526
PAGB
Mackay's position . . . -527 The fall of Dundee .... 528 Flight of Mackay .... 529 Estimate of Dundee .... 530 ' The Sacred Band ' at Dunkeld . 531 Proclamations in 1689 . . . 532 The surprising restraint of Presby- terians 533
Fate of the hierarchy . . -534
The deadness of the Church . . 535
'The Club' 536
Act ratifying confession and settHng
Presbyterian Church government . 537 Abolition of patronage . . -538 Petition of the persecuted . . . 539 The General Assembly meets, 16th
October 1690 .... 540 Purpose of the Covenants . . -541 Opinions of Burns, Froude, and Carlyle 54r-542
APPENDICES
APPENDICES
I. Literary Men and their Works
from 1625 till 1690 II. Epitaphs on the Monuments of some of the most famous of the Martyrs .... III. The United Societies
|
IV. |
The Cess 559 |
|
|
543 |
V. |
The Wodrow MSS. . . .560 |
|
VI. |
Acts of Parliament repealed in 1906 560 |
|
|
550 |
VII. |
Ordination in the Church of |
|
557 |
Scotland .... 564 |
Index
565
ERRATA
Vol. i. p. 481, 1. iZJor * Rep. ix.' read ' Rep. xi.'
„ p. 496, 1. j,\,for ' lae ' read ' Jac' Vol. ii. p. 501, 1. i\,for 'churchyard' read 'cemetery.'
„ p. 513, 1. 14, delete ' The'
„ p. 550, 1. 19, a/^er ' Societies ' read ' Hugh Clark.
VOL. II.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
James, Marquis of Montrose . . . * . . • Frontispiece
Vignette, The Netherbow Port ...... Titlepage
The Covenants subscribed by King Charles II. in 1650, and
Kirk Session Record of Kirkinner Parish . . . Facing page 2
Royalist and Covenanting Leaders . . . . „ 64
John Graham of Claverhouse— Viscount Dundee . . . „ 122
From the Portrait in Melville House. By the permission of Mrs. Milbank.
The Pentland Rising— From Dalry to Rullion Green . „ 192
The Grassmarket, Edinburgh, and Monuments of Martyrs . „ 220
Portrait of Balfour of Kinloch — 'Burly' ... „ 252
By the permission of Charles Pearson, Esq., Alloa.
Effigy of Archbishop Sharp in the Parish Church of St.
Andrews ........ „ 288
Portraits of Claverhouse, Leven, and Balfovr . . „ 298
Battle of Bothwell Bridge ..... ,, 3^°
From an Engraving of an old Picture in possession of the Duke of Buccleuch.
Memorable Scenes and Places of Burial ... „ 35°
Declaration that the Covenant was Illegal ... „ 400
Enterkin Pass ....... „ 43°
From a Photograph by the Author.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Martyrs' Graves in St. John's Churchyard, Dalry From a Photograph by the Author.
An Act against Conventicle-Preachers, etc.
Monuments of the Martyrs ....
Peden's Grave and other Historic Spots
Letter from James Renwick ....
Preserved in the New College Library, Edinburgh.
Battlefield of Killiecrankie . . . . • „ 526
From a Photograph by Mr. G. W. Wilson, Aberdeen.
|
XIX |
|
|
Facingpage |
448 |
|
.. |
453 |
|
» |
470 |
|
" |
500 |
|
)> |
510 |
HISTORY OF THE COVENANTERS
CHAPTER XVIII
Scotland's three rulers — church, charles, and cromwell
Charles arrived at Speymouth on the 23rd June 1650. Before he King charies was permitted to place a foot on Scottish soil he was required to swear covenlnt^
and subscribe both Covenants. He wished to subscribe with reserva- ^s^d June
1650. tions, and struo-aled hard to be freed from the clause which bound
him to give legal sanction to the Presbyterian system in both England and Ireland whenever he ascended the southern throne. His opposi- tion gave rise to angry discussions on Sabbath morning before sermon. The Commissioners were inexorable. At length Charles appeared to surrender, and accepted the bitter terms. He vowed to be a Kirk-man. This compliance grieved John Livingstone, the preacher and exhorter that day, and he craved delay because he realised the King's hypo- crisy in accepting the Covenants ' without any evidence of any reall change in his heart, and without forsaking former principles, counsells, and company.' ^ Livingstone was overruled and Charles was permitted to perjure himself, thus bringing guilt, according to Livingstone, on 'the Church and realm.' 'Our sin was more than his,' confessed Jaffray.^ In Parliament, then sitting in Edinburgh, two of the Com- missioners, ' Brodie and Libertone, made a full relation of all ther negotiation with his Maiestie ; they producit the couenant, withe the Churche explanation, subscriued with the Kinge's hand, as also the Concessions subscriued by his Maiestie.'^
* 'Livingstone's Account,' Select Biog., i. 183 ; Rec. Com. Gen. Assem., ii. 437. 2 Diary, 55.
^ 1st July 1650 : Balfour, Amials, iv. 67. For Breda propositions, cf. deed in Clar. State Pap. (June-September 1650), 55, 56, 57 (Bodleian Library). King Charles il. subscribed the VOL. H. A
THE COVENANTERS
Rejoicings on the arrival of Charles II.
Progress of Charles.
Official deputations of clergy and Parliament-men soon arrived to welcome Charles. The people, ignorant of the deceit practised upon them, were excited with joy at the news of the coming of their Prince. Edinburgh, in particular, was riotous with enthusiasm expressed by crackling bonfires, clanging bells, blaring trumpets, yelling dancers, and jovial kail-wives.^ Contrary to the orders of Parliament, Charles had brought with him a retinue of Malignants, who were compelled to hive off and seek safety abroad. Only a select coterie, including Buckingham, Wentworth, Wilmot, Sir Edward Walker, Chiffinch, was allowed to remain. The following Scots were forbidden to accompany Charles until they had given satisfaction to Church and State : Hamilton, Lauderdale, Seaforth, Callendar, Forth, Dumfries, St. Clair, Napier, Sir Robert Dalziel, Thomas Dalyell of Binns, Lockhart, Charteris of Amisfield, Monro, and Cochrane. This rigour was long remembered and repaid with usury by these political convicts when the tables were turned in 1660.
Charles had entered into a tutelage which he little anticipated. His progress to Falkland Palace, of evil memory, by way of Aberdeen, Dunnottar, Kinnaird, St. Andrews, was officially appointed. In Aberdeen he passed under the uplifted arm of Montrose, but there is no record that the heartless opportunist felt any qualms at the gruesome sight. He reached Falkland on 5th July. One of his first acts was personally to instruct the Lyon- King as to a design for new colours for the Life Guards. The motto selected was significant : ' Covenant,
Oath and Covenants more than once. First, on 26th March (O.S. 5th April) 1650 at Breda, he subscribed the original terms of the Oath. On 23rd June he subscribed both Covenants and the terms of the Declaration changed to include the words, 'Acts of Parliament, Bills or Ordinances, past or to be past.' The deed was signed ' aboard the Skidai)! of Amsterdam lying at anchor at the mouth of Spay, Sabboth, 23 Junii 1650,' according to John Livingstone {Rec. Com. Gen. Assem.., ii. 368, 370, 382, 392, 403, 438). The Covenants, with the Declara- tion, as signed by Charles— the deed which is preserved in the Bodleian Library {Clarcndofi MSS., 40 f. 80)— shows the Oath amended on the margin and signeted by Charles (cf. photo- graphic facsimile in this volume facing page 2), so that I conclude that it was signed after 20th May 1650, and in all likelihood on the 23rd June. It is endorsed by Archibald Johnston, Clerk-Register, and Andrew Ker, Clerk of the Assembly. It was read in Parliament on 1st July 1650 {Act. Pari. Scot.., vi. ii. 59O), and Johnston was ordered to preserve it. Eleven days later it was also produced in the General Assembly. Cf. Appendix iv. vol. i. ' Nicoll, 16, 17.
^
^t
I
-cjrfWj^-
m\
r^.
The Covenants signed by Charles ii. at SpL-yi
Page of the Kirk-Session Record of Kirk
5»ji-"
,JJ .^ (^
&'/.-((
,..^£L «A-< W-J -.- M -f /
...,-,. !!i
^CC^f^jrff-k
I
„..- ^.,>
,./.
mil I ii—Ji
Kecora oi i<^irKinner, A\"igto\vn (1711), giving an Account of the Mariyrdom of Margaret Lauchlison— one of the Wigtown Martyrs
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 3
For Religion, Kirg and Kingdomes.' Charles was fast developing into a polished dissimulator.
Cromwell had already been recalled from Ireland, where he had Cmm well constituted himself the well-paid minister of God's justice to avenge |"nd,2^2nd° the massacres of the saints in 1641, and had completely subjugated J"^y- that miserable isle/ The English Parliament, rightly interpreting all these sinister movements in the north to be a menace, determined to strike the first blow and to invade Scotland,^ General Fairfax had conscientious scruples regarding this unconstitutional procedure, and declined the duty of leading the army. Cromwell, having consulted the Psalms, found the necessary authority to take command in the hope that the Lord would ' enable this poor worm and weak servant to do His will.'
Cromwell crossed the Tweed on 22nd July with a force of 10,500 foot and 5500 horse. A naval squadron supported him along the coast.^ In ordinary circumstances this was no formidable host for Scotland to oppose with the 20,000 regulars and levies who assembled on the Links of Leith under David Leslie, Cromwell's comrade at, and the hero of, Marston Moor. Cromwell's merciless massacres in Ireland had conferred on him a notoriety as fearful as the plague. It was Leslie's safest plan to avoid the terrible Ironsides. The Scots soon transformed into wastes those districts through which the invaders might pass, thus making local victualling impossible. None capable of bearing a weapon stayed to provoke a fight. The Covenanting Leslie's host, however, wanted the strength and unity of former national armies. hos7"^"^^^ Before the campaign began, the purgation of the public services was carried out, on the demand of the Assembly's Commission, and after- wards of the Assembly, by the removal from the army ' of all men of a scandalous conversatione, and of a questionable integrity and affectione in the cause of God.' ^ This mistaken policy weakened the army of
1 His salary was ;{;45,ooo : Ca/. State Pap. (Charles II.), i. 45.
2 On 31st July 1650 the English Council ordered the demolition of the statues of James and Charles, and the publication of this inscription : ' Exit Tyrannus Regum ultimus anno primo restitutae libertatis Angliae, 1648' : ibid., ii. 261. ^ Whitelocke, Memoirs, i. 450-71.
^ Peterkin, 620. It is said 5000 men were cast out : Cat. State Pap., ii, 324.
4 THE COVENANTERS
defence in numbers, fighting power, and experience — many capable officers and privates being set aside. Probably Whitelocke was re- cording incredible gossip when he mentioned that some ministers in their prayers said, that ' if God did not deliver them from the Sectaries He would not be their God any longer.' ^
Round the Capital Leslie made strenuous exertions to oppose Cromwell. A great entrenchment, strengthened with redoubts, was cut from the foot of the Canongate to the Port of Leith, and behind it encamped the Scots, from Broughton village to St. Leonard's Craigs. Purging out The Lammas floods befriended the Scots. The Covenanters have a ignants. ^fj-^j^ been severely criticised for their intolerant suppression of the Malignant faction at this juncture. But extant records prove that Scotland was being threatened with a repetition of that moral decadence which a hundred years before sorely exercised Queen Mary and ruined the Church. The nobility, gentry, and clergy included many profligate members. The ' Old Man ' was much in evidence. The advent of Charles ii. alone was needed to popularise wickedness in Royalist society, and bring about that recrudescence of vice justly feared by the Covenanters. As yet the ' gracious ' Lauderdale was not ' swollen with gluttony and brutalised with vice ' ; ^ nor was young Rothes — ' un- happily made for drunkenness,' as Burnet wrote — who afterwards was both and worse, indulging that sin they blamed his stricter father for :
' In the old cause your father led the van, But you bring up the rear with Lady Ann.'^
The gallant soldier Nathaniel Gordon had already been processed for adultery, and the similar scandals of Chancellor Loudoun and Ludovick Lindsay, Earl of Crawford, were coming into court.*
The wanton imitators of the Merry Monarch had many precursors and imitators, over whose unsavoury lives it might be better to draw a veil. It is to the national credit that there survived some honest and fearless men who were willing to tear the blister from the front
> Memoirs^ i. 465. - Pref. Lauderdale Papers. ^ Ballad, MitcheVs Ghost.
^ Gordon, Keith, 150, 426 ; Lamont, Diary., 38, 130 ; Scot, Staggeiing State, 24.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 5
of virtue.^ The Commission of Assembly, which was very represen- tative, influential, and large, busied itself putting the stringent Acts against Engagers into operation in the autumn. In the visitation of lax Presbyteries they found and deposed many ministers and teachers guilty of vices incompatible with their offices, as well as doubtful characters whose chief fault seems to have been preference for the Royalist policy." The growing lewdness of the Carolan age had even Lewdness in crept into manses and destroyed the usefulness of preachers, who ^„^ ^"^"^^ incurred deposition for inefficiency, drunkenness, and immorality. With few exceptions the deposed Malignants were of no distinction. More notable were : Henry Guthry, minister of Stirling, who had been a member of the High Commission in 1634, was a noisy zealot in the Assembly, and survived to become Bishop of Dunkeld after the Restoration ; Andrew Ramsay, the sturdy opponent of Laud's Liturgy, now senile and dotard, vented silly views regarding Pres- bytery and law ; William Colvin, also an Edinburgh minister, was as loquacious a wire-puller in the Assembly as he was sly in concealing his Royalist leanings.^ Scandalous facts like these grieved earnest men such as George Gillespie, who on 15th December 1648, on his death-bed, gave a testimony declaring the Malignant party to be ' the seed of the Serpent.' *
* Ci.posiea, Chapter xxi. "^ Rec. Cotn. Gen. Assem., ii. 125. ^ Peterkin, 592.
* On 14th April 1650 the Earl of Buchan 'did stand up in his daske,' in Auchterhouse Church, confessed his sin of Engaging, held up his hand, swore to the Covenant, and sub- scribed it. In the same place fifteen years afterwards his widow, Alarjory Ramsay, Countess of Buchan, confessed the sin of immorality with the parish minister, James Campbell, who also had to sit on the repentance pillar, December 1665 {Kirk-Sess. Rec. ; Inglis, Annals of Auchterhouse, 108, 131, 132). 'At Bottarie, 15 Martii 1648, The Lady Altar, Jean Gordon,' was accused 'of ane barne in aduiterie to Nathaniel Gordon, and also of ane uther baime in fornication with Captain Mortimer.' 'May 21, 1651, Elspeth Crukshanks, Botarie, confessed adultery with Ludovick Lindsay, Earl of Crawfurd ' {Pres. Rec. Strathbogie ; J. F. S. Gordon, Keith, 150, 426). Patrick Graham of Inchbrakie, \.\\& fidus Achates of Montrose, an old man in 1678, knelt in the church of Auchterarder, confessing immorality, gave money to the poor and to Christian prisoners in Turkey, and on the bishop's recommendation was absolved {Sess. Rec. of Auchterarder, anno 1678). ' Patrick Lesley, Lord of Londors, was never married, but had aboue 67 basse children' (Balfour, Annals, 12th August 1649, iii. 423). ' 1651, Jun.
. . . The Commission of the kirk satt at Stirling, att which tyme Chancelour Campbell (Loudoun) was brought up before them and challenged for aduiterie with ane Major Jhonston's wife, surnamed Linasay. This Jhonston was he that went in shortlie before to Cromwell, and reveilled to him the purpose of a pairtie of our armie that went forth to beat up his quarters ' (Lament, Diary, 3 1 ).
pious Declara tions.
6 THE COVENANTERS
If purgation led to the disintegration of the Covenanted host in Scotland, as has been often asserted, Cromwell found it to be a method of selection of the fittest which rendered his Ironsides both stable and invincible.
On his northward march Cromwell, ' a God-intoxicated man,' com- posed and dispatched various Declarations, ' To all that are saints Cromwell's and Partakers of the F'aith of God's Elect in Scotland,' and, 'To the People in Scotland,' repudiating the false accusations by Scottish enemies, that the Sectaries were brutal monsters, further asserting that in Charles ii. there was no salvation possible, and assuring them that the English had come to fight for the substance of the Covenant.^ Replies and counter-replies passed to and fro.^ This correspondence called forth the oft-quoted letter of Cromwell, dated Musselburgh, 3rd August 1650, in which he accused the Scottish leaders of having ' a carnal confidence upon misunderstood and misapplied precepts, which may be called spiritual drunkenness.' This insobriety deluded them with the idea that their policy was established 'upon the Word of God.' He inquired, 'Is it therefore infallibly agreeable to the Word of God, all that you say ? I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken. . . . There may be a Covenant made with Death and Hell : I will not say yours was so.'^
Two days later the ' scornful men ' of the Covenant answered the 'blasphemer' — such many styled Cromwell — with an emphatic dis- claimer of Malignancy, which but made matters worse. Some influential members of the extreme section of the Covenanters — Colonels Ker, Strachan, and others — were not averse to contemplating an alliance with the Cromwellians in the event of the King not accepting their demands. But the unforeseen action of the unscrupu- lous Sovereign in consenting to promote the Covenants was a disappointment to Cromwell and to these concordant friends in the opposing camp.
' Aldis, Ltstf 1407, Declaration of the Army upon their March, etc. ^ Reply 1431 ; other Replies, 1410, 141 1, 1417, 1428, 1429. •'' Cromwell, Letter cxxxvi.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 7
Cromwell came into contact with Leslie's insuperable barrier on Skirmishes 29th July, and the Scots had as little difficulty in rolling back his ^1°^^^ weary and wet troops to their fortified camp at Musselburgh as they in turn repulsed the assault on it two days later.^ The King, on the invitation of the Earl of Eglinton, came from Stirling to Leith, where he was received with an enthusiasm which disconcerted the Govern- ment. They permitted him to watch the first conflict from the Castle, but were uneasy until he had left the lines. The extremists believed his presence would blight the holy army.^ He was forced to retire to Dunfermline to prevent intrigues. Meantime the Committee of Purging was busy weeding out eighty officers and three thousand of the rank and file who were tainted with Malignancy and other offences distasteful to Covenanting purists — a handful of the elect being deemed more invincible than a legion of those lost by un- pardonable sin.
Cromwell, having retired to Dunbar to replenish his commissariat, Cromweii returned to Musselburgh, whence he made a wide flank movement to Dunbar. ° the west, as he intended to assault Leslie to the rear of his own lines. He camped upon the Braid Hills and watched Leslie from Blackford Hill. Leslie would not be tempted to a general engagement. A strategist, and knowing the ground well, Leslie marched the Scots round to the slopes above Corstorphine, which now look down on green meadows, then marshy and impassable with water. Cromwell could not dislodge his wily opponent ; the way to Queensferry and to the roadstead in the Forth was effectually barred ; and there was no alternative to a retreat, more especially since disease was spreading in the English ranks. Cromwell made for Dunbar and arrived there on ist September, closely chased by Leslie, who got between him and the Borders.
The Scottish army was miserably rent by factious parties, and Dissensions military discipline had suffered severely in consequence of the loss covenanters. of unity caused by the constant purging process and the growth of
^ Balfour, iv. 87 ; Douglas, CromwelVs Scotch Campaigns, 37-52.
» Hist. MSS. Coin. Rep., xi., App. vi. 132, No. 293 {Hamilton MSS.) ; Row, Blair, 235.
8
THE COVENANTERS
The West Kirk resolu- tion, I3lh August 1650.
divisive views of the situation. Before John Livingstone took leave of his Sovereign he adjured him to divert the shock of the EngHsh invasion by making a personal declaration that, while maintaining his title to the English Crown, he would not prosecute it with the sword until political confusions had vanished. Not relishing the proposal, Charles replied to his wise adviser, ' he hoped I would not wish him to sell his father's blood.' ^ This snub convinced the preacher that he was not ' called to meddle in any publick state matters.' The Covenanters were not unanimous in their idea of this demand. Cromwell knew this, and vainly hoped to win over the extremists to his side. He had formerly insisted on the passing of an Act of Classes, and subsequently tried to convince the Presby- terians that to trust another Malignant ruler was a fatal error. The leaders in the Church and Estates, especially in the former, were as determined to exact from Charles some safeguarding Declaration as he was obstinate in giving any satisfaction as to his intentions. Robert Douglas, like Livingstone, in a private interview with Charles, failed to convince him of the necessity for declaring his views. They were also resolved not to brook the well-timed taunt of Cromwell as to their inconsistency in professing the Covenants at the same time that they drew the sword in the Malignant cause.
This is not to be wondered at. The demands of the Covenanters, who bitterly stigmatised the parents of King Charles as murderers and idolaters, were as humiliating and insulting as they could possibly be. Nevertheless Charles stooped to agree to them, merely stipu- lating that the harsh terms of the Declaration should be altered. The Protesters refused to do this after obtaining the King's signature.^ He was further subdued by a resolution of the Church and of the Estates, subscribed at the West Kirk, Edinburgh, on the 13th August, for the purpose of satisfying the scruples of some officers, wherein it was declared that the Kirk and Kingdom would only fight for the settled Cause of the Covenant ; disclaimed the sins of the Royal House; and would not own the King or his interest, unless he
1 Select Biog., i. 185. - Wodrow, i. 47.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 9
subordinated himself to God, prosecuted their holy aims in a holy manner, and repudiated the enemies of the Covenant/
Robert Douglas, who had assented to this Act providing a private solace to the sensitive commanders of the Covenanters, was chagrined to learn that General Leslie had immediately forwarded the Resolution to Cromwell, with the request that he should read it to his officers.^ This was duly done. Cromwell sent back a masterly, scathing reply, wherein he disclaimed all intention to interfere with the Cromwell's religion of the Scots, and accused the Scots of inconsistency in con- ^'^'^i^™^'^- demning Malignancy, while they used the Covenant in order to impose a Malignant King upon England, who was actually then employing a Popish army to fight for him ; nor could he see how any * Godly Interest' could centre in such a man as Charles was, or make the English army enemies of the Presbyterians. Those Covenanters who agreed with Cromwell were in a minority and unable to coalesce with him. Doubtless their views were right, and they soon saw the error of trusting a ruler who never meant to keep his vows.^
Cromwell was answered. Charles was terrified. He was afraid of being deserted by the army. He was practically a prisoner under the surveillance of Lord Lome, captain of the Foot Guards, nor could he outwit, with lies and all, the astute Argyll —
• That Hylander whose conscience and whose eyes Play handy-dandy with deceit and lyes.' *
As an easy way out of his dilemma and present troubles Charles Declaration at signed the Declaration at Dunfermline on i6th August. Its seven heads bore that Charles humbled himself for his father's opposition to the * Worke of God ' and to the Covenants, and for the idolatry, especially of his mother, in the royal household ; acknowledged that he had no crooked design in signing the Covenant and would have no friends except Covenanters; annulled the Irish Treaty; would
1 Balfour, iv. 95. - Wodrow, i. 48.
3 Leslie's letter is printed in Cromwell, Letters (cxxxvi.), ii. I7i- Cromwell's reply is Letter cxxxvii. For Cromwell's letter written at Pentland Hills, cf. Clar. State Pap. (June- Sept., 1650), 171 (Bodleian Library).
* Scot. Hist. Misc., ii. 287 ; Hist. Man. Com. Rep.., xi., App. vi. 1 32.
VOL. II. B
^m
fiir rr\V'i:
L
sec LANDS THREE RULERS
ubordinated him*^ to God. prosecuted their holy aims in a nanner. and 1 the enemies of the Covenant.'
Koh» rl I ' ' ' trd to this Act prMMv:i:.^ .
•rivatc soia«- ndcrs of the Covcnanlrrv •» hagrined to learn .it (jcneral Leslie had immediately formArde*
he Rcs^ ' • mwcll. with the request that he should rrad i:
0 hi*^ '^" s .- .|i.K, (lone. Cr«>mwcll sent back a tM. trr*?\ catr. iimcd all intention to interfcrr elijpon ot t: md accused the Scots of inconsistency* to gob
*' ' "' il the (.'ovcnani in order lo
who was actually then ei
1 Popish anny to 6lu for him ; nor could he see how any *
r t ' as Charles was, or make ti»
— ..., 4 :::.. i XL .t.yicrians. lliosc Coirc
ed with Lrnwell were in a minority and unable to mh him. 1 ' their views were right, and they looo ii
rror ^ •- "^- - .-- ni to kcrp his vows.'
c was terrified. He was
.f bcinf^ deserted b)ihc army. He was practically a prisoner
' o( the Foot Guards, nor
As an r.. ijjned ih.r ! cads U
3 1}
e h;id no c:
o friends except
wtiote comcicncc and whose eyn )Jy viih deceit and 1>
of his ■ ■ in<l present troubles Qttcir*
it !)u: ' on i6th Auj^t Its wv
imbled himself for his father'i nppiBg 1 to the Covenants, and for the idr' .;,.. -..vr\! household; acknowle^ n\n^ the Covenant and w mnulled the Irish Tr
I
n
)tS
alcd
lo THE COVENANTERS
encourage trading by sea ; would promote the Covenant in England and Ireland ; would pass an act of oblivion for all except obstructors of the Reformation, traitors, and regicides ; and would advise the well-affected English to help the Covenanters in preference to the Sectaries. Patrick Gillespie, minister in Glasgow, who placed the Deception by pen in the hand of Charles to subscribe the document, said to him ' that if he was not satisfied in his soul and conscience, beyond all hesitation, of the righteousness of the subscription, he was so far from over-driving him to ruin upon that, that as he obtested him, yea he charged him, in his Master's name and in the name of those who sent him, not to subscribe this declaration, no, not for the three kingdoms.' ' Mr. Gillespie,' replied the King, ' Mr. Gillespie, I am satisfied with the Declaration, and therefore will subscribe it.'^ The unprincipled deceiver was but juggling with sacred things. With 'good and true natural inclinations to the Catholic faith,' Charles had already solicited Papal help, and at this very juncture, through the Dean of Tuam, he assured Ormond that he adhered to the Irish Peace : ' However I am forced by the necessity of my affairs to appear otherwise, yet that I am a true child of the Church of England, and still remain firm unto my first principles. Mr. King, I am a true Cavalier."' He wrote to Nicholas from Perth on 3rd September : ' Nothing could have con- firmed me more to the Church of England than being here seeing their hypocrisy.' How this discreditable artifice of a perfidious time- server could salve the consciences of the military champions of the Covenant it is hard to understand. Argyll, however, well aware of the hollowness of the King's professions, offered to him the con- ^ soling suggestion that his agreement was only a temporary expedient 'to please these madmen.'^ Reaching the coast at Dunbar, Cromwell saw his 'poor, shattered, hungry, discouraged army' of 11,000 men in a trap. Leslie, almost simultaneously on Sabbath, ist September, appeared with 23,000 men on the Dun, an eminence 600 feet high, one mile south from Dunbar, whose very name describes a
1 A. Shields, A Hind Let Loose, 73. - Gardiner, Hisf. 0/ Commonwealth, i. 268, 279.
3 Cal. State Pap. {Dom.), ii. 325, 350.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS ti
military ' coign of vantage.' On the west it overlooks the course of the Broxburn, which had cut a deep and natural fosse 40 feet in depth and breadth, protecting the left declivity of the position. The front of the Dun is a steep, grassy slope with a gradient of 500 feet in half a mile facing the sea.
The peninsula of Dunbar, on which the English had pitched their Cromweii in tents, extends * about a mile from sea to sea ' — from Belhaven Bay to l^^^^h^^ Broxmouth House.^ Eight miles further east Leslie had posted a force sufficient to guard a deep ravine called Peaths Dean, at Cockburnspath, and thus doubly barred the Berwick Road into England. In the enemy's land Cromwell's only friend was the sea. ' Our condition was made very sad,' he wrote to Ireton, 'the Enemy greatly insulted and menaced us.' He might fortify the town and wait till relief came, or ship his foot and cut through with his sabres. But he had not transports enough to carry all his infantry. Leslie was sure he would attempt a massed cavalry charge. Indeed, 'the Scots boasted that they had Cromwell in a worse pound than the King had had Essex in Cornwall,'- and that his capture was inevit- able.^ Cromwell realised his peril, and, to inspire courage, openly lightlied it. On Monday he wrote anxiously, marking on the letter 'Haste, Haste,' to Haselrig from the battlefield: ' We are upon an Engagement very difficult. The Enemy hath blocked up our way at the Pass of Copperspath, through which we cannot get without almost a miracle. He lieth so upon the Hills that we know not how to come that way without great difficulty ; and our lying here daily consumeth our men, who fall sick beyond imagination.'* One can also gather from this letter that Cromwell intended to sit tight until Haselrig approached with reinforcements from Newcastle, which Cromwell had demanded and the Government had ordered.^ In his account sent to the English Parliament Cromwell acknowledged that the Lord had ' reduced our Army into such straits that room was only left for Believing.' ^'
^ Cromwell, Letter cxl, ^ Firth, Croniwell, 281.
^ Act. Pari. Scot., VI. ii. 808. ♦ Letter cxxxix.
5 Cal. State Pap., ii. 328. « Act. Pari. Scot., vi. ii. S08.
12
THE COVENANTERS
Leslie's position at Dunbar, 2nd September.
As the Scots faced the foe they proceeded with the ruinous purga- tion.^ Their strength was further undermined by RoyaHst traitors, who kept Cromwell informed of Leslie's designs." Leslie had the advantage of what counsel the veteran Leven, who ran from Marston Moor, could give him before he fled again ; and also the disadvantage of having to obey that advisory Council of War which ruined Baillie at Kilsyth. The fatal blunder at Kilsyth of moving to a less secure position in front of the foe was perpetrated again. For this tactical mistake the clergy have been wrongly blamed. The Protesters with reason repudiated the libel. ^ Cromwell himself testified that the clergy elected to fight, but the chief officers desired that he should escape, ' though it were by a golden bridge.' *
On Monday, 'toward the evening,' when Cromwell was praying for deliverance out of his dilemma, the Scottish Horse were seen to descend from the Dun ; the foot and guns followed, to extend east and to take up new positions, behind Little Pinkerton and nearer to the highway to Berwick. Cromwell marked this move to bar his road south. The fields in which the cavalry were picketed were yellow with the ripened corn. Leslie's object was to gain a better stand for threatening the unfinished embarkation, and for repelling the dash of the Ironsides. Besides, for days Leslie had been acting with the arrogance of a swaggerer, rather than the caution of a strategist.^ If Leslie's scouts had not been inefficient and untrust- worthy, he would not thus have acted on the mistaken belief that Cromwell had crippled his force by shipping those guns which next morning thundered out death over the Broxburn into his left
^ That some incorrigible scamps were still left in the army is proved by the report ot Haselrig on the Scots prisoners captured at Dunbar, whom he declared to be 'unruly, sluttish, and nasty'; 'they acted rather like beasts than men'; and some even murdered others for their money or clothes': Haselrig, Letter, 31st October 1650, quoted by Taylor, Pictorial Hist, of Scot., ii. 978. One of Cromwell's spies was Mein, son to the staunch Anti-liturgists, John Mein and Barbara Hamilton — the 'Jenny Geddes' of tradition. The upright old Covenanter got his son apprehended. He was condemned to the gallows, but reprieved by Charles : Balfour, iv. 297, 299. 'Old Jhone Meane' and his wife died in 1654 : Lamont, Chron., 97. 2 Balfour, iv. 97.
^ M'Crie, Sketches, ii. 43 note. * Letter cxlii.
" Act. Pari. Scot., vi. ii. 808 ; Cromwell, Letter cxlii.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 13
wing. Tradition maintains that when Cromwell saw the unexpected turn of good fortune in that fatal descent, he exclaimed : ' The Lord hath delivered them into our hands.' That strategist instantly- perceived that his opponent, Leslie, could no longer deploy his left wing for the ravine, nor yet could he re-form his right and centre on the hillside, should they be successfully assailed and thrown into disorder. Even with these unexpected advantages Cromwell had no justification for his assurance.
Had Leslie, in command of double the force of his antagonist, Carelessness kept on guard, and his officers been worthy of the name, the surprise ^^^^ ^^°^^ by Cromwell would have been ineffective. Cromwell's formations along the stream indicated a mere defence. During the evening he moved his divisions closer to the Broxburn, and was ready for crossing at daybreak. General Lambert, at the head of six regiments of horse, followed by three and a half regiments of foot, was ready to attack. The night was blustering, rainy, and cloudy. The Scots, shelterless, except those fortunate ones cowering behind the stooks of corn, spent a miserable night. Although they were ordered to stand to arms, sleep overpowered them. The cavalry off-saddled. Major-General Holborn in the dead of night relaxed the discipline, and permitted nearly all the musketeers to let their matches expire. Thus practically disarmed, the men lay down to rest. Some of the infantry officers slunk away to comfort and safety.^
Meantime the waning moon gave Cromwell light enough to The Battle carry out his crafty plan under the leadership of Generals Lambert, °,^ September Fleetwood, and Monck. Before dawn the half-awakened Scots were ^^5o. attacked ere they well could form up for action. Soon the air was rent with trumpet calls, musket shots, cannonading, noise of clanging steel, and cries of ' The Lord of Hosts,' answered by ' The Covenant,' ' from the hillside. Pride's brigade of three regiments, supported by Cromwell's regiment of horse, during the darkness crossed the stream below Broxmouth House, and made a wide detour to reach the Scots cavalry on the right wing. The main body of the English, headed
1 Walker, I/tsf. Disc, i8l.
Drove,
14 THE COVENANTERS
by Lambert's horse, crossed below Brant's Mill, and were supported by the great guns planted above it. A force of Scots, early astir to cross the ford on the Berwick road, met the English and for an hour gallantly contested the passage, at length being forced back.^ Lambert headed for the Scottish cavalry, but his first onset was repulsed. The foot under Monck attacked the Scottish centre and were driven back. The check was temporary. Pride's brigade advanced to the attack, Monck's division rallied, and although one Scottish foot regiment, under Campbell of Lawers, gallantly withstood a flank attack from Lambert's infantry, until cavalry broke through their ranks, the Scottish centre gave way. Dunbar The left wiug of the Scots, flanked by a small body of horse, was
in too confined a position to act effectively, and was held in check by the English artillery. The right wing of the Scots was thus driven diagonally towards the left, the troopers, with all their colours flying, riding pell-mell over their comrades. At this moment the red sun rose out of the German Ocean. Cromwell was heard to exclaim : * Now let God arise, and His enemies shall be scattered ' ; then a little afterwards : ' I profess they run.' He recorded how the Scots were 'made as by the Lord of Hosts as stubble to their swords.'^ It was a cowardly stampede. As many fugitives escaped unhurt as Cromwell had men to chase them. The Lord General sounded the rally, halted the victors, sang the hundred and seventeenth psalm, and unleashed the rested chargers again upon the bloody pursuit. It was the very shortest canticle which the avenger chose for praise, not wishing to defraud the thirsty sabres of their due. The singing veteran himself rode to the slaughter. Three thousand men fell and ten thousand men were taken, along with nearly two hundred standards and thirty guns.^ The most notable among the mortally wounded was Winram, Lord Libbertoun, negotiator at Breda and Dunfermline. A few colonels died at their posts. The craven generals, Council of War, the entire cavalry, and the officers of the infantry fled and left
' Douglas, CromwelVs Campaigns, 109 note. ' Letter cxl.
3 Alex. Jaflfray, Diary ^ 163. Jaffray, Libbertoun, Gillespie, Waugh were taken prisoners.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 15
the rank and file to their fate. Cromwell asserted that only twenty men and officers on his side were placed hors de combat. This indicates the absence of hand-to-hand combats, and of any serious defence by the Scots. An eye-witness declared that after the first onset ' wee lost none, they giving themselv's cheap to the execution.'^ The craven Leslie laid the blame of the disaster on the chicken- hearted officers. He wrote to Argyll, 5th September : * I tak God to witness wee might have as easily beaten them as wee did James Graham at Philipshauch, if the officers had stayed by theire troops and regiments.'^
Cromwell released over five thousand wounded men, and marched Cruei fate of nearly four thousand prisoners into England. These famished men, S'^o'sp"^®"^'^^- by hundreds, died of dysentery, contracted through the hardships of the campaign, and the eating of raw vegetables in a garden at Morpeth, where the prisoners were confined. In November only fourteen hundred of them survived. Cromwell gave the Countess of Winton a thousand ' in a gallantry.' ^ The English Council of State ordered that the sound prisoners should be deported to the planta- tions of Virginia and New England, and to French military service, and some kept for English salt-works.^ Few escaped from the scourge of disease to enter upon their servitude. Cromwell triumph- antly wrote to Lenthall, the Speaker : * It would do you good to see and hear our poor foot to go up and down making their boast of God for one of the most signal mercies God hath done for England and His people.'^ Clarendon, on the other hand, noted the absence of lamentation in Royalist society : ' So the King was glad of it, as the greatest happiness that could befall him, in the loss of so strong a body of his enemies.' Charles was even credited with falling on his knees and thanking God for the victory. Rutherford and the Godly Party also indulged in a pious joy because God had testified to His wrath.
Cromwell gave God the glory for having appeared at Dunbar ' to the refreshment of His saints.' He speedily followed up his advan-
' ' A Brief Relation,' Terry, Leslie^ 478. ^ Ancram and Lothian Correspondence, ii. 298. ' Walker, Hist. Disc, 181. ^ Cal. State Pap., ii. 334, 346. ' Letter cxl.
i6 THE COVENANTERS
tage and captured Edinburgh and Leith, the Castle of Edinburgh, Cromwell howevcr, holding out. Arriving at Edinburgh on Saturday, 7th bul^'h^'''" September, Cromwell found that, while the military had converted 7th September. St. Giles' Church into a store for munitions of war, the city ministers had sought safety in the Castle and deserted their pulpits. He invited them to return to their duty. They not only refused, but also sent to him an insolent reply, taunting him and the Sectaries with persecuting the English clergy. Even John Livingstone refused to meet Cromwell.^ Cromwell took the trouble personally to answer their unfounded accusations.^ He severely reprimanded them for not 'yielding to the mind of God in the great day of His power and visitation,' and pointed out their mistake in supposing that their present policy would work out the blessed Reformation. Never had the preachers received so well merited a castigation. Their craven conduct makes a poor contrast beside that of Zachary Boyd, who stayed to confront Cromwell in the Cathedral of Glasgow, a month later. That bold rhymer improved the occasion in flouting the Sectaries to their faces. The irate Ironsides would have pistolled him on the spot had Cromwell not reserved the audacious railer for a worse revenge — a compulsory hearing of Old Noll's own interminable prayers.
If Cromwell could read the clerical mind he could also anticipate the next royal move. From the battlefield he wrote in a prophetic mood to Haselrig : * Surely it's probable the Kirk has done their do. I believe their King will set up upon his own score now ; wherein he will find many friends.'^ Cromwell lost no time in seeking an encounter with Leslie, who had raked together his runaways at Stirling and occupied a position too strong for Cromwell to take. Leslie's Leslie had more irritating opponents in his own camp. Colonels
troubles. Strachan and Gilbert Ker, the victors of Carbisdale and other fights
for the Covenant, the Gideons of the extreme party, the irreconcilable malcontents at the West Kirk meeting, with other anti-Malignants, publicly and rightly accused Leslie of losing the battle of Dunbar, and
1 Select Biog., i. 1 86. "- Letters cxlvii., cxlviii. ' Letter cxli.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 17
refused to serve under him, or Leven. It is painful to think that after Worcester fight Charles should have made a similar charge of cowardice and implied treachery against Leslie.^ Leslie resigned his commission and, following the example of Baillie, resumed it on the entreaty of the Estates.
The Royalist party, including the King, resolved if possible to The Public effect a conjunction of the diverse parties in the State and Church for the good of religion and the safety of the kingdom, and this proposal was discussed by the leaders of both Estates assembled in Stirling. Opinions differed as to the wisdom of acquiescing in this proposal, which afterwards was known as The Public Resolutions, and soon there were two opposing parties, laymen and clerics associated, for and against the proposal.
Harmony in the Scottish camp was now impossible. The opponents of the new policy of enlisting all and sundry into the Royalist ranks — Ker, Strachan, Chiesley, and others — were permitted to go into south-west Scotland and there to raise an independent command of untainted brethren in the valleys of Clyde, Ayr, and Nith. Sir Edward Walker is the authority for the story that Strachan wrote to Cromwell a letter, which was intercepted, assuring Cromwell that if he would quit Scotland, Strachan ' would so use the matter as that he should not fear any prejudice from this nation.' "
This Godly Party assured themselves that God would strengthen them to cope with the opponents of the Covenant without the aid of foreign arms.
While these dissensions tore the army, the Commission of the James Guthr General Assembly also met in Stirling. The influence of James p"otes^ers. Guthrie, minister there, Patrick Gillespie, Johnston of Wariston, Samuel Rutherford, and other opponents of Malignancy was para- mount. The fruit of their labours was A Shorte Declaratione and Varninge to all the congregations, which was issued on 12th September.^ This document urged all parties to search for the
^ Cal. State Pap., iii. xxi, ; iv. 2. - Hist. Disc, 189.
3 Balfour, iv. 98 ; Row, Blair, 246 note. VOL. II, C
i8 THE COVENANTERS
iniquities which had provoked God to visit Scotland with His wrath, and summoned the King to mourn for the provocations of his guilty- father and himself, as well as to consider if his hypocritical acceptance of the Covenant, in order to gain an earthly crown, was not another sin depriving him of a heavenly crown. The ' honest party ' had not done. This summons prefaced another document, entitled ' Causes of a soleme public humiliatione vpone the defait of the Armey, to be keepit throughout all the Congregations of the Kirk of Scotland,' which, under thirteen heads, called on the kingdom to humble itself because of national sin, the provocation of the King's House, the home-coming of Malignants and the neglecting to expatriate them, the crooked ways of some negotiators sent to Breda, ingratitude to God, and the selfish policy of officials and officers in places of power and trust.^ These edicts, however, were not well received in many places. Some ministers in Fife refused to publish the documents, and even went the length of demanding the restoration to public employment of such of their own parishioners as had satisfied the Church for the sin of the Engagement.
Sir John Chiesley of Kerswell, speaking of these would-be penitents, as he laid his hand significantly on his sword, said, ' ! would rather join with Cromwell than with them.'^ This was the voice of the ' honest party,' who preferred an alliance with the Sectaries to government by indifferent Discovenanters, whom Argyll, in his weak-kneed policy of moderation, was reintroducing into official life, at least such as were personally friendly to himself. The King During all this time Charles was treated with a courteous vigilance
usually reserved for suspects, and for useful recreation he was expected to absorb, with the avidity of a proselyte, the Puritanical dogmatics he was treated to. In this enforced novitiate the carnal youth tried to look as grave as possible. Burnet testifies that Charles mortified his flesh,
' Balfour, A?inals, iv. 102. This document was the groundwork of Guthrie's famous Causes of God's Wrath, etc., published in 1653, the writing of which formed an item in his indictment. During these interminable dissensions David Calderwood, the historian of the Church, and a sufiferer for Presbyterianism, died at Jedburgh in the seventy-fifth year of his age, 29th October 1650. 2 Cheisley or Chiesly : Walker, 187.
under sur veillance,
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 19
standing to hear prolix prayers and sitting to digest tedious sermons, no less than six on one occasion. Few princes would brook this pain for any crown. His guardians made him observe Sabbath within doors and week-days free from dancing and card-playing. They gave him no opportunity to write private letters. The sinless game of golf he might play with sentinels in sight. No doubt these national school- masters had good reason for stringency with one whose passions drove him into vice and crime.^ There was another peril. He had won the hearts of the unthinking masses, who were scarce permitted to see the youth, and therefore invested him with many imaginary virtues. Marvel's description of him in after-years indicates his appearance : —
' Of a tall stature and a sable hue, Much like the son of Kish the lofty Jew, Ten years of need he suffered in exile, And kept his father's asses all the while.'
These months of penance made an ineffaceable impression on the young King's mind and confirmed him in his hatred of Presbyterianism. When, after the battle of Worcester, Charles appeared in France, Orleans told him that it was reported that he had gone back to Scotland. Charles replied, ' I had rather have been hanged.'^
The Commission of the Assembly urged the Committee of Estates to finish their half-done work of purging the King^s House. The Lyon- King was commanded to discharge the offending courtiers who had been detected plotting for a Royalist rising. In vain had Charles pleaded for the retention of some of his favourites, but even the servile petition of Hamilton was rejected.^ The King, smarting under these insults, and misled into the apprehension that the ' honest party' — the western army — under Strachan intended to seize and hand him over to Cromwell to be made an unwilling martyr, had completed a plan for escaping their toils. He arranged a secret meeting with his Royalist supporters in Fife. He cherished the fond dream that the raising of the royal banner and the mustering of the
1 Airy, Charles II., 95. - Cal. State Pap., iv. 2.
^ Balfour, iv. iio ; Cal. State Pap., ii. 321.
20
THE COVENANTERS
•The Start,' 4th October 1650.
The Forfar
Bond,
26th October
1650.
veterans of Montrose would create defection in the army of Leslie. However, too many were in the secret, which the Government learned from one of the plotters, probably Buckingham. The meeting was countermanded. Charles, nevertheless, on the afternoon of Friday, 4th October, accompanied by a few attendants, left Perth, as if on hunting bent in the south, crossed the Tay to Inchyra, and rode rapidly by Dudhope, Auchterhouse, and Cortachy to Clova, a distance of forty-two miles. He entered a wretched hovel and threw himself down to sleep on an old bolster laid on sedges and rushes.^ A company of Highlanders — the army of his dreams — kept guard over the weary and terrified monarch, until Colonel Montgomery and his horse regiment surrounded the captive. They timed his return into Perth after the hour of public worship and treated him to a special private sermon,^ so that in his sin he might not defraud his soul of the comforts of a Covenanter's sabbath.
The Committee of Estates, realising the peril they had been saved from, met on loth October, and for the first time gave the King a say in their councils. Next day he apologised for his credulity and his escapade, 'as he was a Christian man.' This ignominious incident is remembered under the name of 'The Start.'
The suppression of the armed Royalists in Angus and Athole was not so easily effected. Leslie mustered a force to crush them. With no little diplomacy the leaders of the rising forwarded to Leslie from Forfar a copy of their Bond, in which they pleaded for national unity, and summoned all patriots to combine against the invaders. The terms of the Bond are as follows : —
'The Northerne band and Othe of Engagement, sent by Mideltone to L.-Generall Dauid Lesley, 26 of October, 1650.
' We wndersubscriuers, being tuoched with a deepe sence of the sade condition this our natiue kingdome of Scotland is in, by a prewailling armey of sectaries, quho hauing murthered our lait king, and ouerturned religione and gouuerniment in our nighboure kingdomes of England and Ireland, hath invaded this kingdome, and are in a way ... to reduce the quoll to a province. . . .
'Therfor, and for satisfactione to all quho are satisfiable, wee doe promisse
Gardiner, Hist, of Commonwealih^ i. 337.
Balfour, iv. 113.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 21
and sweare, that wee shall manteiiic the trew religionc, as it is established in Scotland ; the couenant, leauge and couenant ; the Kings Maiesties persone, prerogatiue, gratnes, and authoritie ; the preulidges of parliament and fredome of the subiects,
So helpe ws Ood.
Sic subscribitur,
Huntley. Pat. Grhame.
Athole. Sr Geo. Monro.
Seaforth. Th. Mackenzie.
St. Clare. Jo. Gordon.
Jo. Mideltone. Wanderrosse.
W. Horrie, etc.'^
Middleton sent a covering letter explaining that the aim of the new Engagers was simply union and the avoiding of bloodshed among brother Scots.
The Commission of the Church, on the motion of James Guthrie, resolved on Middleton's summary excommunication.^
Two days after the Bond was signed the King and the Committee Coiiapseof of Estates published an 'Acte of Pardon and Indemnitie' to these ^^°J[^''^' rebels on condition that they laid down their arms. This alteration of the circumstances gave the King, Committee of Estates, and Com- mission a reason for requesting Guthrie to stay the excommunication, with which he was entrusted, but Guthrie was too much in earnest, and laid the ban on Middleton in Stirling Church. On 4th November Leslie received their submission at Strathbogie. The whole move- ment was a crafty device to unify the forces of the Crown on a field where the principle of patriotism was to be recognised as of first importance in the crisis. In taking action, men were to consider that patriotism took precedence of Covenanted religion. This was a demand the least likely to appeal to Strachan and his unbending Whiggamores. This party, which Carlyle styles 'the old Whigga- more Raid of 1648 under a new figure,' had already mustered over four thousand men in the western shires under Colonels Strachan and whiggamore Gilbert Ker. They held a conference at Dumfries, when Wariston ^^^^f^.^^^^ "^^ gave them assistance in framing a policy and pronouncement antago-
^ Balfour, iv. 129. ^ Row, B/ai'r. 244.
THE COVENANTERS
The Remon- strance— a Western Covenant, I7lh October 1650.
Views of the Remonstrants.
nistic to the new coalition.^ Strachan had opened friendly correspond- ence with Cromwell, who, after sending to the Committee of Estates a firm letter stating that any blood further shed in defence of their Malignant King would lie on their heads, on 9th October marched to Glasgow, expecting a junction with the westland men.^ On 17th October, the Dumfries manifesto was ready for presentation to the Estates by Patrick Gillespie and John Stirling. It had the following- title : The Humble Remonstrance of the Gentlemen, Commanders and Ministers, attending the Forces in the West. This extraordinary document, prolix as all those viseed by Wariston are, attributed the Lord's wrath to —
(i) The admission of Charles to the Covenant without proof of the reality of his professions.
(2) Provoking God by the hasty conclusion of the Treaty, after the ' unstraight dealling ' of Charles stood disclosed, thus palliating his dissimulation.
(3) The King's action in conjunction with the apostate Montrose and other Malignants and Papists, in opposition to the work of God and the Covenant.
(4) The unjust design of some to invade England to obtain booty and to force a king upon an independent nation.
(5) Backsliding from the Covenant, neglecting to fill public offices with Covenanters, and tolerating Malignants.
(6) The sins of covetousness, extortion, self-seeking, and trust in the flesh instead of in God.^
* It closed,' wrote Baillie, ' with a solemn engadgement on all their hearts (if God blessed their armies) to see all these things performed.' "
The Remonstrants were careful to object to being classed with Sectaries and Levellers, and demanded the putting away of the sins
' The Remonstrant forces besieged and fired the house of Drumlanrig, wasting the hands and taking away the crops and plenishing of the tenantry, in October 1650. In 1661 the Earl of Queensberry pursued Wariston, Gilbert Ker, Stair, and other westland landlords with Captain John Gordon, 'wha burnt the gaits,' Patrick Gillespie, John Nevay, and other ministers. He was awarded ^^2000 sterling by Parliament : Ramage, Drumlanrig aiid the Douglases, 46-52 ; Act. Pari. Fcof., vi. ii. byjb ; vii. 95. - Letter cl. ; Balfour, iv. i6i.
2 Balfour, iv. 141 j Peterkin, Records, 604 ; Row, Blair, 246. ^ Letters, iii. 119.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 23
of the Kino- and people before they would join the royal army. This possibility of union, making these demands * too low for his meridian,' was the factor constraining Strachan to resign the command of the Kirk regiment and to seek refuge with Cromwell. The fiery Patrick Gillespie afterwards crystallised in a few words the demands of his party, when in his * pride of stomack ' he declared, ' that a hypocrite ought not to reign over us; that we ought to treat with Cromwell and give him securitie not to trouble England with a king ; and, who [soever] marred this treatie, the blood of the slaine in this quarrell should be on their head.' ^ There were extremer men than these, such as the two Cants of Aberdeen, who were so patriotic as to maintain that one crown was enough for any man.^
The Committee of Estates saw that the Remonstrance tended committee of to undo their labours for unity, and after a fruitless conference with ,fej^n^t\g°"' the Commission of Assembly on the subject, they, on 25th November, Remonstrance. resolved to suppress it. Argyll, Balcarres, Lothian, and Lord Advocate Nicolson were loud in disapproval of it as a divisive, scandalous, and treasonable production, and of Hope, Guthrie, and Gillespie as contrivers of the national mischiefs. Burleigh, Wariston, and Sir James Hope as strongly defended it. However, the Re- monstrance was voted to be scandalous, and Argyll and two others were commissioned to ask the Assembly to condemn it and its promoters, and to impeach Guthrie and Gillespie. The Commission of the Assembly on 28th November, with some diplomacy, admitted that the Remonstrance contained ' sad truths,' no doubt, * apt to breid division in Kirk and Kingdom,' but, since they loved the 'godlie men ' who framed it, they would defer criticism until these ' worthy gentlemen ' had an opportunity, at another diet, to explain their intentions.^ Guthrie, Patrick Gillespie, and others protested against this finding.
Perth was now the seat of the Government, and Parliament met there on 26th November 1650. The King, in his speech, acknow-
1 Baillie, Letters, iii. 124. ^ Balfour, iv. 161.
' Ibid., iv. 174 ; Row, Blair, 248.
24 THE COVENANTERS
The King's Icdged himsclf to be Sovereign of ' three Covenanted kingdoms,' and ^°^'' that God had 'moved me to enter a covenant with His people (a
favour no other king can claime), and that He inclyned me to a resolutione, by His assistance, to live and dye with my people in defence of it. This is my resolutione, I professe it before God and you, and in testimony heirof, I desyre to renew it in your presence ; and if it pleis God to lenthen my dayes, I houpe my actions shall demonstrat it.'^ This blasphemous vow was of a piece with the vulgar outrage on religion about to be perpetrated in Scone, and with the dishonour of the political opportunists, who publicly enforced the Covenants and Act of Classes, while they welcomed the return to Parliament of men who hated these bonds. The Church was made the confessional for aspirants to place, and Parliament a meeting-house for pious dissemblers, from the hour when Argyll became bewitched with the promises of relief from his bankruptcy, of advancement to ducal honours, and of the marriage of Charles to his daughter, Ann — a king's barter for a subject's honesty.^ Swashbucklers, such as James Turner, laughed at the credulity of the clergy. whiggamores Coloncl Robert Montgomery was commissioned to crush the
western army if it refused co-operation with the Nationalist party ; but, while Parliament sat, he was able to report that General Lambert had routed the Covenanters at Hamilton on ist December, and captured Ker, who was wounded. Ker was sent to an English prison, where he was consoled by sentimental letters from Samuel Rutherford. Strachan vainly made a final effort to rally the Whiggamores before he sought refuge at Cromwell's headquarters in Edinburgh. On 24th December the Castle of Edinburgh was delivered up, before Cromwell's heavy ordnance could pound it into submission, and soon the Lowlands, a few guerillas excepted, were in English hands.
The Estates agreed to the coronation of Charles, authorised that outward compliance with the Covenants should be the right of
1 Balfour, iv. 185 ; Act. Pari. Scot., vi. ii. 608a. 2 Gardiner, Hist, of Covimonwcalth, i. 349.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 25
entrance to the Royalist ranks, and contemplated penal Acts against Origin of the compliers with the Sectaries. Forgetting the old troubles over jurisdiction, they menacingly ordered Robert Douglas to convene the Commission of Assembly in Perth on 12th December, and to obtain a judgment on the main question then at issue, namely, whether it was lawful to reinstate those formerly purged out of the army by the Act of Classes. A quorum, chiefly of Fife ministers, assembled, and a majority, homologating the crafty proposition that it was a virtue to follow a Covenanted King, resolved to reply in the affirmative, that all persons except excommunicates, the forfeited, vicious, Discovenanters and professed enemies of God's cause, were eligible for defence of their country against the Sectaries. That was the first resolution. The Commission received a second query on 19th March as to the lawfulness of admitting to the Committee of Estates persons formerly debarred, but now after satisfaction admitted to the Covenant. On this point the second resolution was not intended to afford a full answer; at the same time, the Commission desired Parliament to admit to the Committee all save a few ' pryme actors against the state.' ^ Those who upheld those resolutions were henceforth styled Resolutioners, and those Remonstrants who protested against them were afterwards called Protesters.- The reply of the Commission gave great offence to the anti-Malignant party, and several of their leaders — Wariston, Chiesley, and others — dissociated themselves from assenters to the new policy, and with army officers left their appointments on the ground that there was a departure from principle. The Presbytery of Stirling made a strong protest, which Cromwell caused to be printed with the title : A Remonstrance of the Presbytery of Stirling against the present conjunction ivith the Malignant party. ^ The tendency of the extremists of the Covenanting party was towards
* Balfour, iv. 197, 270.
- Six hundred ministers adhered to the resolutions, and, with the exception of forty, all conformed to Episcopacy in 166 1 : Life of Blair, 362 note. Other authorities reckon there were seven hundred and fifty Resolutioners : Thurloe, State Pap., iv. 557-8; Baillie, Letters, iii. 299. 3 Row, Blair, 256.
VOL. II. D
26 THE COVENANTERS
an alliance with the English Sectaries, which caused the Commission, early in 165 1, to issue an Act censuring those who complied with the Sectarian army. Some of the Protesters visited Cromwell in Glasgow and discussed the situation with him.
This acknowledgment by the ministers was all the politicians wanted. An Act summoning fresh levies, the penitents included, was passed on 23rd December. This was the signal for the King's supporters to rush to church to be shriven and made eligible to attend at the coronation on New Year's Day. On the other hand, all that could be done for the slaves taken at Dunbar was to read their petition before enlisting other dastards, who met a worse fate at Church ordains Worcester. Before Parliament adjourned till 5th February, the humiUation. Chufch, Still auxious to secure a divine blessing on these dubious movements, ordained two preparatory services— Sabbath, 22nd Decem- ber, being devoted to fasting and humiliation for the national sins, and the Thursday thereafter for the particular sins of the Stuart dynasty.^ Charles was dutiful and gracious enough to fast and mourn with his subjects. After the penance was over he slyly said, ' I think I must repent too that ever I was born.' As remarkable a scene took place in Largo church, when the worldling, Lauderdale, compeared to own his sin, and heard Mr. James Makgill descant on Rehoboam from the text, ' And when he humbled himself the wrath of the Lord turned from him.' Thereafter Lauderdale lifted up his right hand and swore both Covenants.^ General Middleton was even more docile, and donned the sackcloth uniform of a penitent excom- municate in Dundee church, on 12th January, in order to obtain his certificate. To keep the balance true, that very day in Perth, Strachan was excommunicated and 'delivered to the devil. '^ Every- thing was in train for the restoration of the power of the Crown.
Two miles north-west from Perth, overlooking the Tay, stood the ancient palace of Scone, and near by a new parish church, built
1 Cf. Patrick Gillespie's sermon, Rulers' Sins the Causes of National Jtidi^mejtts, or a Sermon preached at the fast upon the zbth Day of Deceinber 1650.
2 Lamont, Diary, 25 ; Minutes of Presbyteries of St. Andrews and Cupar, 60, 61 (Abbots- ford Club). 3 Balfour, iv. 240.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 27
out of the old abbey. To that sacred 'Mount of BeHef the Kings of Alban came to sit on the Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny, and be crowned. There Charles 11. also came to take his ' tottering crown' and brook his realm, although the fabulous palladium now rested on foreign soil. Coronation day was ist January 1651, but Coronation of the brilliancy of that of 1633 could not be reproduced in the dead of scone^M't ^' winter, when many misfortunes had thrown a cloud over the land, January 1651. and dissipated its seasonable joy.' The bishops were gone, the English glory shone in a hostile camp, and sour Scots faces looked from beneath clerical hats and iron bonnets. Into the upholstered church the Prince, the Honours, and the Estates of Scotland were ushered. The elevated throne was vacant. A chair afforded the Prince a seat before the pulpit, in which the then Moderator, Robert Douglas, a kinglike man, with royal blood in his veins according to whisperers about Queen Mary, and a manly Resolutioner, was stand- ing, Charles could not forget him of the dark Dunfermline days. The ancient ceremonial he had to conduct was to be shorn of the anointing as savouring of superstition, and to be made more effective by sustained advices. After prayer, the celebrant expounded the coronation of Joash and the covenant of Jehoiada, and drew out every parallel to the case of his Prince. The sins of the Stuarts had made theirs a tottering crown, which now would fall if Charles put on crown and sin together. Unction was a popish device, with the 'limbs of Antichrist,' put to the door, and to be exchanged for the unction of Grace. The Covenant bound the King to the nation and to God, and must be renewed for the maintenance of Reformed Religion, the extirpation of false religion — Popery, Prelacy, profanity — and the unification of the people under the Crown, Parliament, and Church in the enjoyment of the national liberties. The people expected their King to remember his father's sins and turn good like Joash, to purge the Court, cleanse the Church, and reform the masses and himself. With the tormenting spirit of a risen Buchanan or Melville he trounced all round, and while disowning extremists, said a chari-
^ Baillie, Letters, iii. 127.
28 THE COVENANTERS
table word for the enlistment of penitent Malignants. The Covenant was the sine qua non. Although ' prayers are not much in request at Court,' said he, the King must pray and prevail. He must avoid the guilt of his meddlesome grandsire, who laid the foundation for the mischief done by his father. On this doctrine Douglas besought a blessing.
The representatives of the people in the General Assembly marched in and formed a bodyguard at the pulpit stairs. The two fateful Covenants, 1638 and 1643, written on one fair parchment, were produced and tediously read. The Moderator proceeded to pray that grace might be given to Charles to keep his vows. Charles knelt, held up his right hand, then swore this oath : —
King Charles's ' I> Charles, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, do assert and declare,
oath. by my solemn Oath, in the Presence of Almighty God, the Searcher of Hearts, my
Allowance and Approbation of the National Covenant, and of the Solemn League and Covenant, above written, and faithfully oblige myself to prosecute the Ends thereof in my Station and Calling ; and that I for Myself and Successors shall consent and agree to all Acts of Parliament enjoining the National Covenant and Solemn League and Covenant, and fully establishing Presbyterial Government, the Directory for Worship, Confession of Faith, and Catechisms, in the Kingdom of Scotland, as they are approven by the General Assemblies of this Kirk, and Parliaments of this Kingdom ; and that I shall give my royal assent to Acts or Ordinances of Parliament passed, or to be passed, enjoining the same in my other Dominions : And that I shall observe these in my own Practice and Family, and shall never make Opposition to any of these, or endeavour any change thereof.^
Charles then subscribed the Covenants — (National, and Solemn League) — to which the King's oath was subjoined. He ascended the platform, showing himself, and the Lyon-King demanded assent to his election. The audience responded, ' God save the King, Charles the Second.' He descended. The Moderator at the head of the clergy asked if he would take the Coronation Oath appointed by the first Parliament of James vi., and found him willing. He knelt again, lifted up his right hand, and swore the oath. After being robed in
' The Covenant signed by Charles is preserved in the Bodleian Library : Clarendon MSS., vol. 40 f. 80 {Cal. Clar. State Pap. ,67, No. 347). Cf. Appendix. Act. Pari. Scot.,\l. u. 161, 7 Feb. 1649 ; Decl. Gen. Asscm.., 27 July 1649 ; Bute, Scottish Coronations^ 192-3 ; Nicoll, 42-7. Cf. facsimile facing page 2 of this volume.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 29
purple, the Prince was asked to take the Sword of State in defence of The Corona- the Faith, the Church, the Covenants, and Justice. Douglas prayed ''°" ^' ^'^°"^' God to purge the Crown of the sins of Charles. Argyll placed it on his head. The nobles touched it and swore allegiance. The Earl of Crawford and Lindsay placed the sceptre in his hand, whereupon Argyll conducted him to the throne. For the first time in the national history had laymen ousted the Church from the office of proffering the symbols of sovereignty to the Monarch. Again Douglas interpreted the function, and warned Charles of the Stuart sins. A royal pardon was proclaimed. The King showed himself to the crowd, who shouted ' God save the King.'
On his return, the catalogue of the Scots Kings was recited. The Lords swore to be the King's liegemen according to the Covenants, then kissed the royal cheek. Standing, Charles received the benediction. Douglas had still his peroration to give, and, harping on the Covenants, adjured ruler and ruled that if they broke the Covenants, God would turn the King from his throne and the nobles from their possessions.
Charles, in order to evince his ingenuousness and sincerity, appealed to his lieges, ' that if in any time coming they did hear or see him breaking that Covenant, they would tell him of it, and put him in mind of his oath.' ^
King James was once more flagellated, and then the climax was charies, now reached — ' Sir, you are the only Covenanted King with God and His ]^i°J^ people in the world. ... Be strong and show yourself a man ! ' Prayer followed. The congregation sung the Twentieth Psalm, concluding —
* Deliver, Lord, and let the King Us hear, when we do call.'^
After the benediction was pronounced, the King, robed, sceptred, and crowned, escorted by the Court, re-entered the palace before returning to Perth. When night descended the hill-tops gleamed with bonfires.
* Somers, Tracts^ vi. 117 ; Row, Blair^ 256. ^ Form of the Coronatiott, Aldis, List, 1441-4.
a Covenanted
I ** ■• I V 'y
a8
G
guilt ol bis OK mi
The rr
m V
wrrc j
pray thai fj^ncr
knrlt. hrhl up •
TMt
s*
Charles th«>n »^
i h.
the Sccood He lifted
Til'
MS' 16 1
)<«
r/
scotiaNds threi- rulers
purple, the l*rincc w '- i - I to take the Sword of Stale it the Faith, the Chi.; ' ovcnants, and Justice. Doufivpi^
God to purge the Crow .! the sins of Charles. Ar|»)'U ^kttiMm his hciid. The nr,^ ' hcd it and swore alletjiance. Tlttb^
Crawford and Lm cd the sceptre in his hand, vhOTipB
Argyll conducted hinrii> the throne. For the fir»t tMK ii ^ national histor>' h > ousted the Church from titt «A» 4
proffering the s). t Mncrcignty to the MooafdL ApB
Douglas interpreted th function, and warned Charles of tlir Smbi sins. A royal par proclaimed. The King showed ha^
lo the crowd, u'- • ' *;;ivc the King.'
On his m .of the Scots Kings «M ihm
The Lords swore to(>c the King's liegemen accordu^ » ^
il(hcck. St '^tvm^
i still his |> . . jfiv^ ^
narping on the Co-. idjurcd ruler and ruled that if thnbik
the r God Willi (urn the King from his throne ^||Hf
noblt . cir jv -• • >ms. Hq
Charles, in or vince his ingenuousness and iimto ^i^i
t{)[>calcd to his li' t if in any time coming they did bar ><
sec him \ ' ^ ovcnant. they would tell him of ii, ^ lul
him in mn ' ish
King James w more tlagcllated, and then the diir its
rcach<-d — • Sir he only Covenaiitt:d King witi. ' ilic
people in the ..„ Be strong and show your^, ( es.
Prayer followed. Tfc congregation sung the Twai! itives
I oncluding— ^ 0 ot m
After the benedict i /
crowned, ' ^
to TVrtK /
30 THE COVENANTERS
For an indecent outrage on religion and patriotism one could not readily find a match to that perpetrated at Scone by the libertine, Charles. The secret Charles now had a good pretext for encouraging his secret aim to
Charles. revengc his father's death, to oust and destroy the regicides, and to
establish the autocracy cherished by the Stuart Kings. At the head of a Scottish army of Royalists, he might retrieve the fortunes of his house. In one ignorant of the complications of the times such enthusiasm was natural ; and there was an unpardonable insult in the shrewd counsel of the Hope brothers, Craighall and Hopetoun, that Charles should ' treatt with Cromwell for one half of his cloake before he lost the quhole.'^ He ostracised the Hopes and sought temporary comfort in the advice of Argyll, whose own influence was waning on account of his defection from the extremists of his own party. The increasing success of the new policy, whereby the King was sur- rounded by former opponents of the rigid system of the Covenanters, resulted in the depreciation of Argyll. Charles had already craved Hamilton to try to mitigate that 'rigidness,' and in the recall of Hamilton there was the plain signal to Argyll that his power was on the wane. Taking the hint, Argyll left the Court. Yet, because Charles conceived that the lever of Presbyterianism in Scotland and England could raise him to dominion, he tried to fulfil his Covenanted promises ; and, to accomplish the end in view, offered to marry Charles II. and Argyll's daughter, Ann. He asked his mother to approve of this Campbdi" sacrifice to a hated faith. But the Queen-mother and Cardinal Mazarin abhorred the regicide tribe and their compatriots, and rejected the base artifice. No one could imagine Charles imple- menting his betrothal after he had utilised Argyll and his redshanks in the victorious campaign of his imagination. In due course the match was departed from.^
The raising of the northern levies went on apace, notwithstanding the vituperations of the Remonstrant clergy. For their offence of
' Balfour, iv. 239.
* Gardiner, Hist. 0/ Cotntnontvealth, i. 201, 349, 352 — citing authorities.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 31
preaching against the resolutions ' as involving ane conjunctione with the malignant partie in the land,' which they considered contrary to the Word and Covenant, James Guthrie and David Bennet, ministers of Stirling, were cited before the Committee of Estates and ordered to remain in ward in Perth for a time. On 20th February, they in turn refused to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the Crown in such a purely ecclesiastical cause.^
Charles sat with the Parliament when it met in Perth on 1 3th Parliament March under the presidency of Lord Burleigh, who superseded Lord ".^j^ ^larc^ ' Loudoun. The latter too much favoured 'the Campbell faction' to '^^i- be retained in the chair at this crisis. The chief business was to elect Charles to be generalissimo of the army, to restore the known friends of the throne, and to propound a query to the Commission of the Church as to the advisability of reponing on the Committee of Estates those persons debarred under former acts of disability. While the Commission declined to give a full categorical answer to the query, as before stated (p. 25), they recommended the employ- ment of all penitents, excepting a few notable persons. They further supported this recommendation by the issue from Perth, 20th March 165 1, of an 'Exhortation and Warning,' in reality a patriotic mani- festo, adjuring the people to rise under the King and defend their country. Even this was not a sufficient concession. The Commis- sion of Assembly was next asked to agree to a repeal of the ' Act of Classes' and to promote a 'general unity.' The Commission, before agreeing to this recalcitrant measure, stipulated that Parliament should first pass a statute 'for the security of religion, the worke of Act securing Reformation, and persons quho have beine steadfast in the Covenant and causse.' The King took an active part in the appointment of a War Committee, which provoked so much dissent from the Argyll party that the Chancellor and Lothian flouted the King with deserting his friends who set him on the throne. This desertion was more apparent after the return of the envoy with the ultimatum that Lady
' Peterkin, Records, 639 ; Balfour, iv. 247-53, 263.
32
THE COVENANTERS
Act of Classes repealed, 2nd June 165 1
Military successes of Cromwell.
Charles and Scots army march into England.
Ann Campbell was not to be Queen. The new national policy was not to be guided by Argyll, at least.
The Parliament met in Stirling in May, gave the Church the demanded security in an Act ratifying other relative Acts since 1649, and providing a bond whereby those excluded from Parliament should be readmitted on binding themselves not to carp at these Acts and their consequences. The Act of Classes, 1646, and the Act of 1649 were repealed on 2nd June. The King had proved a match for his astute opponents.^
Meantime Cromwell had failed to draw Leslie off his strong post on the hills south of Stirling, and had recourse to an unexpected movement. He established a camp under Lambert at North Oueensferry, whence Lambert issued to attack and rout a force of Scots under Sir John Brown and Colonel Hoi born at Inverkeithing, 20th July, where 2000 Scots fell, and Brown and 1500 men were captured. Cromwell crossed the Forth and marched to Perth, thus getting between the northern army under Middleton and Leslie, and leaving the way into England open for the latter. The apparent peril of the situation was nullified by the arrangements made by Cromwell for the movement of his southern armies. Despair, not courage, constrained the War Committee to essay the rash enterprise to which Cromwell tempted them." They counted on a Royalist rising in England and Wales. They were doomed to disappoint- ment. The only man of influence who joined the invaders was the Earl of Derby with 300 retainers. Presbyterians and Episcopalians equally looked askance at the Scots. English Presbyterianism was in a moribund condition, and its leaders knew their own impotency.
On 31st July, Charles and Leslie with 20,000 men left Stirling for Carlisle by way of Annandale and Eskdale. Argyll, Loudoun, and the party of conciliation stood aloof from this mad enterprise, and allowed Hamilton and the pretended penitents to march to disaster. Charles
1 Balfour, iv. 301-7 ; Act. Pari. Scot., vi. ii. 672-7 ; Act, 8th January 1646 ; Act, 23r(l January 1649 : Act. Pari. Scot., vi. i. 503 ; vi. ii. 143.
2 Hamilton to Crofts, 8th August : Gary, Metnoirs, ii. 305.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 33
and his 16,000 wearied followers reached Worcester on 22nd August. Four days later he issued a manifesto declaring for the Covenant, and promising an Act of Oblivion for all except the regicides. Cromwell followed hard upon his heels, while the armies of Harrison, Fleetwood, and Lambeth bore down upon Charles. Cromwell, taking the east coast road as far as Durham, crossed central England, passed through Stratford-on-Avon and entered Evesham, between Worcester and London, on 27th August. The Parliamentary forces were double those of the Scots.
Leslie drew up his army on the right or western bank of the Battle of Severn, in a corner where the Teme joins the Severn, and he 3rd September destroyed the bridge over the Teme. It was the anniversary of the '^5r. rout of Dunbar, 3rd September. Cromwell lay to the east across the river. He divided his force into three : one division lay across the road to London, another moved south and lay ready to cross the Severn, and the third crossed in the south and marched up to the Teme. The movement of these two divisions over two bridges of boats succeeded. The Scots were stubbornly driven from hedge to hedge into Worcester city. Charles watched the unequal fight from the cathedral tower. He saw the weakening of the division on the London road, and hurled troops through the Sudbury gate, and himself gallantly charged against the enemy. At first the English gave way. Cromwell himself hurried back over the bridge of boats with reinforcements, and, gallantly leading his men, repelled the Scots and made them break. The Ironsides cut them to pieces. Capturing ' Fort Royal,' Cromwell turned its guns upon the fugitives fleeing through the streets. Charles was reluctant to fly. ' Shoot me dead,' said he, 'rather than let me live to see the sad consequences of this day.'^ Into every avenue where the Scots ran they fell into cleverly prepared traps. Few escaped death or capture." The peasantry helped the regulars to wipe out the invaders. The baggage and munitions of war were all taken. Of prisoners over six thousand were brought in, including Leslie, Rothes, Lauderdale,
1 Airy, Charles II., i6i. 2 Firth, Oliver Croiincell, 291.
VOL. II. E
34
THE COVENANTERS
Wanderings of The King escapcd.
King Charles,
Assembly at St. Andrews, Perth, and Dundee, in July 1651.
Kelly, Middleton, Montgomery, Thomas Dalyell (Binns), and many other officers, as well as nine ministers.^ The Duke of Hamilton, before he died of his wounds, had four painful days given him in which to ponder over that essay on death and immortality which he wrote the night before the battle. The Earl of Derby, by recovering from his wounds, met a worse fate on the traitor's block at Bolton. For six weeks, there followed the romantic hunt and hair-breadth escapes in circumstances evincing devotion only equalled in that shown to * Bonnie Prince Charlie.' His adherents scorned the reward offered for him. Yet he preferred his terrible privations to seeking security among the Scots. They afterwards had a feeble joke at his expense, saying their Achan hid himself in an aik (oak). At length, in the unsanitary plight of dirty vagrants, Charles, with his companion Wilmot, reached France on i6th October and cast himself, a starveling, on the charity of friends,^ The Pope would not grant him a subsidy until he implemented in face of Holy Church his proposal to be converted to Romanism.^
Argyll, as soon as Charles took command of his army, with Hamilton as lieutenant-general and Leslie as major-general, realised that his Sovereign discounted the Campbells as a military factor. While the Scots levies were being dragged reluctantly into the field, and cavaliers were counterfeiting repentance in order to obtain mercenary employment in the so-called army of patriots, the Assembly was endeavouring to silence the dissentients from the Royalist policy. It met in St. Andrews on i6th July, and Balcarres was Commissioner. Members had the unedifying experience of hearing Andrew Cant open the meeting with a condemnation of the recalcitrant policy, and Douglas, the Moderator, traverse Cant's opinions. Before the business was allowed to begin, Guthrie protested against certain members taking their seats, while Professor John Menzies, Aberdeen, proposed debarring the whole Commission for their defections. There was the
' Lamont, 43.
2 Cf. extant begging letters to John Knox, minister of Leith, 3rd and 4th August 1652, as to his 'straights and necesitys.' Sold by W. Brown, Bookseller, Edinburgh. His 'friend' Knox was deprived in 1662 ! ^ Airy, 168.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 35
usual wrangle, Douglas challenging this slander, and Blair offering mediation. Rutherford, and other twenty-one sympathisers, protested against the meeting as unconstitutional/ The Resolutioners voted Douglas into the chair. The temper of the diets was not improved by an impolitic request from the King that the opponents of the Resolutions should be censured, nor by a trenchant epistle from Wariston. Before they could settle to legislation, the news from Inverkeithing made them seek safety in Dundee. There, on 22nd July, Rutherford's cogent Protest declining the Assembly was read. Balcarres in vain demanded that the twenty-two absent Protesters Deposition of should be reported for civil punishment for their reflections on the King, Parliament, and Church. The Assembly ordered Presbyteries to deal with them. It was ultimately agreed to cite Guthrie, Patrick Gillespie, James Simson, James Naismith, and John Menzies. They did not compear. The Assembly deposed Guthrie, Gillespie, and Simson, suspended Naismith, and referred Menzies to the Commission.^
After the meeting of the Assembly at St. Andrews, a work was published entitled A Vindication of the Freedom and Lawfulness of the late Assembly, etc.^
This was answered by The NtUlity of the Pretended Assembly at Saint Andrews and Dundee!^
This ill-advised policy of the Moderates of conciliating a faithless King and worthless politicians while coercing their conscientious and wiser co-religionists — the Protesters — was for ever fatal to the unity of the Church of Scotland. That great schism, which the Covenant
1 Peterkin, Records, 631 ; Lamont, 40. ^ Row, Blair, 278.
' Vindication, by James Wood : Review by Guihrie from notes of Wariston ; cf. Baillie, Letters, iii. 213.
* 4to, pp. 312, 1652. The Ntillity, p. 79, gives list of forty Remonstrants: Stranraer, Turnbull ; Kirkcudbright, S. Row ; Wigton, Richeson ; Ayr, Wylie ; Irvine, Mowet ; Dum- barton, Henry Semple ; Paisley, A. Dunlop ; Glasgow, P. Gillespie ; Hamilton, Nasmith ; Lanark, Sommerville ; Auchterarder, Murray ; Perth, Rollok ; Dunkeld, Oliphant ; Kirkcaldy, Moncrieff; Cupar, Macgill ; St. Andrews, S. Rutherfurd ; Forfar, Lindsay ; Arbroath, Reynolds ; Aberdeen, Cant ; Kincardine, Cant ; Dumfries, Henry Henderson ; Penpont, Samuel Austine ; Lochmaben, Thomas Henderson ; Middlebie, David Lang ; Jedburgh, John Livingston ; Turriff, Mitchell ; Garioch, Tellifer ; Kelso, Summervail ; Earlstoun, John Veitch ; Chirnside, Ramsay ; Edinburgh, Robert Trail ; Linlithgow, Melvill ; Biggar, Living- stone ; Dalkeith, Sinclair ; Stirling, James Guthrie ; Deer, Keith ; Elgin, Brodie ; Inveraray, Gordon ; Dundee, Oliphant.
36 THE COVENANTERS
itself banned, and time never remedied, was not the only fruit of this Laodicean assembly.
The public Resolutions were a source of discord to both sections of the protesting party — those who, like James Guthrie, held them to be unscriptural, and those who maintained their incongruity with the former resolutions of the Church to be done with the Malignant party. But both sections, and many other Covenanters as well, held that Sin, personal, ministerial, official, regal, and national, was the root of all their domestic troubles and ' The Causes of God's Wrath ' on a sinful land. They agreed that this opinion or fact should be publicly voiced, and promulgated in express terms. When they met to con- descend on the form of the declaration, there was division of opinion and adjournment of debate. The Commission had, after Dunbar, published Causes for Humiliation, but the anti-Resolutionists did not consider them exhaustive, at a meeting held at Glasgow in September 1 65 1, which was adjourned to meet at Edinburgh in October. Thither the Protesters came by urgent request.^ The whole questions
' The ministers and elders who attended the 'Confessions' of the Ministers in 1 651. which resulted in the production of The Causes of GoiVs Wrath, were named in the Process against Wariston as follows : —
Thomas Ramsay Alexander Moncrieff
Samuel Row John Murray
Thomas Wyllie Alexander Bartane
John Nevay Hugh Kennedy
Hary Semple John Sinclair
Patrick Gillespie John Cleland
John Carstairs Thomas Hog
James Nasmyth William Wishart
Frances Aird Robert Row, Elders, Robert Lockhart and laird of Hiltoune
William Jack laird of Greinhead
William Somervell laird Dolphinton
Alexander Livingston Sir James Melvill
James Donaldson Colonel Hacket
Samuel Rutherford Lord Wariston
James Guthrie Sir John Cheislie
Robert Traill Archibald Porteous
John Stirling Patrick Anderson
James Symson George Gray
William Oliphant Andrew Hay
George Nairn Colonel Ker
Gilbert Hall (Sir James Stewart ?).
Act. Pari. Scot., vii. App. 66.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS z7
of the hour, religious and political, were discussed, but ' they only emitted some causes of a fast,' and declared the root sin to be the Restoration/ The ten * General Heads of the Causes why the Lord contends with the land,' as agreed upon by the Commission, were accepted, and it was agreed that these should be amplified, after this meeting held in October, as stated in the work itself.
James Guthrie is usually credited with the clerical work of pre- paring the manifesto — Hugh Kennedy also being associated in it — which appeared with the title. Causes of the Lords wrath against Scotland manifested in his sad late Dispensations. Wheretinto is added a Paper, particularly holding forth the Sins of the Ministery? The manuscript, subscribed by Wariston, was given by him to John Ferrier, who carried it to Christopher Higgins the printer, who, in turn, executed the work as instructed by Colonel Fynick.^
The indictment of Guthrie bore that he was the compiler, but Guthrie in defence pleaded that he was only one of the compilers and enlargers of the ' Heads.' ^ The indictment of Wariston also accused him of being art and part in the compilation.^ Setting apart the fact that King Charles was a pledged Covenanter, the pamphlet was the rankest treason possible. Otherwise it was both legal and justifiable. So widespread was the influence of this pamphlet that Parliament enjoined that Remonstrators and persons accessory to it should remove ten miles from the Capital.^ It was burned by the common hangman.
The Assembly, as if ashamed of the West Kirk Declaration, authorised this interpretation of it : * That the King's interest is not to be owned but in subordination to God, the Kirk being ever willing, as their duty is, to own and maintain in their station his Majesty's interest in that subordination, according to the Covenants.' '
J Row, Blair, 266, 270 ; Suppl, 285, 286. - 4to, n.p., 1653, pp. 98 ; Aldis, List, I47--
3 Act. Pari. Scot., vii. App. 66. * Ibid., 35, 36-42.
^ Ibid., 10. s 1661, c. II. '' Petcrkin, Records, 636.
38
THE COVENANTERS
CHAPTER XIX
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES
Cromwell's * crowning mercy.'
Cromwell accepted his victory at Worcester as the divine sign of approval of a change of government.^ The day after the battle he sent a dispatch to Lenthall, the Speaker, in which he restrained his great exultation, expressing the hope 'that the fatness of these continued mercies may not occasion pride and wantonness,' so that righteousness, justice, mercy, and truth might be the nation's ' thankful return to our gracious God.' . . . ' The dimensions of this mercy are above my thoughts. It is for aught I know a crowning mercy.' That was prophetic ; the sword of the Ironside returned to its scabbard. He had probably heard of the success of Monck in the north. While the hunt ran on in England, Monck and his subordinates were active. On 14th August the governor of Stirling Castle surrendered that hold, and left Monck free with seven thousand men to invest Dundee.
Dundee in 165 1 was an exceedingly opulent, well-fortified city, whose roadstead was crowded with merchantmen, whose' lock-fast places were filled with the valuables of the surrounding districts.^ It was held for the Covenanters by an old campaigner with Gustavus Adolphus — Major-General Robert Lumsden of Mountquhanie — whom Cromwell had captured at Dunbar.
Acting-General Leven and the Committees of State and Church met in Alyth, on the Sidlaw Hills, in order to consider means for thwarting Monck and saving^ Dundee. Well informed of this inten- tion. Colonel Matthew Alured and eight hundred of Monck's Horse, after a bold night ride in the rain, surrounded the town early on
Letters clxxxii., clxxxii
- Scotland and Comtnonwcalt/i, ii. 66.
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES 39
Thursday 28th August, and captured the Council.' It is to be hoped Mured cap- that Monck spared the gallant defenders of Dundee the galling sight counclraT of the procession of these crestfallen patriots wending its way down ^^y'^- to Broughty Ferry harbour to be shipped to English prisons — a goodly company, Leven, Crawford, Marischal, Ogilvy, Hepburn of Humbie, Fowlis of Colinton, Cockburn of Ormiston, Fotheringham of Powrie, Hamilton of Bargany, Archibald Sydserf, Colonel Andrew Mill, and the following clerics : the moderator Douglas, the clerk Andrew Ker, Mungo Law, John Smith, James Hamilton, John Rattray, minister of Alyth, George Pitilloch, junior, and the historical James Sharp, then minister at Crail. The people seemed to think 'the loons were weel away,' since they refused to pay a reek- tax to purchase the liberty of their ecclesiastical leaders. For grim Leven it was a sorrier ending than the ddbdcle at Dunbar. That argosy bore away the last hope of a crushed nation. On Monck's demand that the governor Lumsden should deliver up Dundee — a course recom- mended by the city ministers — a refusal was sent to that ' collericke and merciless commander.' ^ Monck began to batter his way in, and Siege and fail succeeded on ist September. According to Balfour, the * drunken ist September deboscht people' could not resist the English veterans, who entered ^^5i- the breaches shouting, ' God with us.' With no little humour in so grim a situation, each besieger displayed his shirt tail for a flying signal, distinguishing friend from foe in the gory pursuit. An indiscriminate carnage ensued. Age, sex, nor holy place was respected. The parish church was the last stand of Lumsden and his braves, who, it was said, were slaughtered after quarter was allowed. It is not to the credit of Monck that this brave man's head was fixed on a pike over the door of the old steeple, unless Lumsden had broken his parole.^ The victors were unleashed for blood, lust, and loot. The sight of a puling infant sucking the breast of its dead mother staggered the butchers and stayed their hands.^ After passion was surfeited in this red carnival, the soldiery gaily dressed themselves,
^ Scot, and Common.^ ii. 9 ; Lamont, C/iron., 41. ^ Balfour, iv. 315.
3 Miller, Fife Pictorial, etc., ii. 313. * Kidd, Guide to Dundee, 21.
40 THE COVENANTERS
being undistinguishable from officers, and swaggered along loaded with fortunes. Prisoners were plentiful. A fleet of one hundred and ninety ships was captured in the anchorage. Monck has been accused of descending to personal barbarity when he threatened to ' scobe ' the mouth of a minister who persisted in pleading for mercy. ^ Subjugation The Other fortified towns be-north Tay soon capitulated, as
of Scotland, ^jj Huntly and his men on 21st November, and Balcarres on 3rd December. When Blackness was blown up, the Devil, according to report, was seen sitting on its walls.^ Dunnottar, under Ogilvy, held out till 26th May 1652. Hunger alone compelled him to surrender that imperious rock washed by the German Ocean, and to treat with Colonel Morgan, its besieger. In Dunnottar were deposited the Honours of Scotland. By a well-conceived stratagem of Ogilvy and Mrs. Granger, wife of the minister of Kinneff, the ancient regalia were smuggled out, and hidden in Kinneff Church, before the English entered the fortress.^
Scotland, kingless, governmentless, beaten, lay at Cromwell's feet. A few garrisons terrorised it. In February 1652 Monck left the work of disarming and pacifying the Scots to his successor, Major-General Richard Deane. The aim of the conquerors v/as to unify the three kingdoms in a strong political confederation with- out regard to distinctive religious systems.^
Soon after the battle of Worcester, a bill was introduced into the English Parliament asserting the proprietorship of the Commonwealth in Scotland, and proposing the settlement of its government. A Council of twenty-one persons, of whom Cromwell was one, was appointed to govern the two conquered kingdoms. Early in 1652 eight Commissioners were elected to visit Scotland and inaugurate
' Scot, and Common., 12; Whitelocke, 490; Jervise, Memorials., 286; Maxwell, Old Dundee^ 542 ; Miinic. Hist., 75 ; Gumble, Monck, 42 ; Gardiner, Hist, of Common., ii. 67 ; Row, Blair, 281 ; Nicoll, 57 ; Balfour, iv. 315.
2 Nicoll, 92.
' Scott, Antiq., i. 1-49 ; Papers relative to the Regalia, Bann. Club, The Hofiours of Scotland, Scot. Hist. Soc, vol. xxvi. ; Row, Blair, 332. For new details, of. Scot. Hist. Review, iv. 15, 309, April 1907.
* Cf. The Cromwellian Union, C. S. Terry : Scot. Hist. Soc, 1902.
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES 41
the Government. They were Generals Monck, Deane, and Lambert, Lord St. John, Sir Harry Vane the younger, Colonel Fenwick, Major Soloway, and Alderman Tichborne.^ Crushed and humiliated English
,, , , , , , -ii' 1 • • annexation of
as Scotland was, she would not willingly assent to any incorporating scoUand. union. Diverse parties in Church and State were unanimous in rejecting the English resolutions. In vain did the conciliatory Com- mission promulgate a manifesto, promising justice and protection, as well as enunciating a broad scheme of toleration, with liberty of worship to the peaceable and law-abiding. Laymen and clergy alike remonstrated that Protestantism was being menaced. Sectarianism intruded, spiritual independence abolished, the Covenants wiped out, evil encouraged, and the Constitution violated. The Commissioners prohibited the exercise of all judicatories not licensed by Parliament, and forbade the subscription of oaths and Covenants unless previously sanctioned. An Act abolishing the authority of Charles 11. was ceremonially proclaimed, 4th February, and the destruction at the Cross of Edinburgh of the Royal Arms with every mark of indignity showed the determination of the victors.-
Nine days later, the English Commissioners met at Dalkeith with 'The Tender,' representatives of the counties and burghs, and proffered to them the ' Tender,' or proposal of incorporation with England, after accept- ance of which they were to be consulted as to practical details. Freedom of worship was guaranteed to the established and dissenting clergy. Some counties hailed the Tender with enthusiasm ; trading centres were favourable to it ; but the clergy, more truly interpreting the national feeling, would have none of it. James Guthrie and other stalwarts preached against it, and suffered for their patriotism in having troops quartered in their homes. Hatred of the Southron only slumbered, and frequently showed itself in armed risings. The Presbytery of Dunfermline went so far as to recommend the minister of Dalgetty not to marry an English soldier to a Scots girl on account of the unlawfulness of Cromwell's invasion.^
The Acts of the Executive, however, were approved of by the
1 Heath, Chronicle, 304. 2 Nicoll, S0-3. ^ Ross, Glimpses, 220.
VOL. II. F
42 THE COVENANTERS
Appointment Council of State in England, who, on 6th April 1652, sent down four judgef'^ judges, Owen, Smith, Marsh, and Mosely, to administer justice. The Court of Session was thus superseded. To these four Englishmen three Scots were added — Sir John Hope of Craighall, William Lockhart of Lee, John Swinton of Swinton — Hope being appointed President. At a later date, the impecunious Johnston accepted one of these judgeships under the title of Wariston, or Judge Johnston.^ The judges had full power to appoint subordinate magistrates, and, to their credit, it may be said that justice had never before been dispensed with so impartial a hand. The magistrates were as popular as they were effective. They undertook many duties now in the province of representative councils, such as Poor-law Boards, Road Boards, Trades Councils, Sanitary Authorities, and were a terror to evil-doers, and protectors of the well-doing. Submission of Arcfyll was the last of the powerful lords to submit to Monck.
Argyll. ^^ ^
After Worcester, Chancellor Loudoun and he had tried to galvanise into life a provisional government and to promote an arrangement with Monck. Monck replied that he could not negotiate without instructions from the English Parliament. Argyll, eager to vault into power again, lingered in his fastnesses and in vain endeavoured to parley with the Commissioners. That his diplomacy did not inspire much confidence in Monck is evidenced from the fact that after his submission, 26th April, Deane and an armed force penetrated the lordship of Argyle to establish garrisons, and to exact from Argyll an unequivocal submission. This he got in August, Lome being nominated as the hostage for its exact fulfilment. Argyll, with his curious fear of contingencies, satisfied his conscience by declaring that he agreed to the civil part of Scotland being made into a Common- wealth with England — ' My duty to religion according to my oath in the Covenant always reserved.' Argyll at his trial pleaded that he was not a free agent when he subscribed this submission.^
With the leading Resolutioners out of the way the Protesters
' Omond, 157 ef seg. ; Act Pari Scot., vi. ii. 747.
2 State Trials, v. 1427 ; Willcock, 280 ; Wodrow, i. 144.
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES 43
held an Assembly in Edinburgh, Livingstone in the chair, and after Rival Assem- disclaiming the Assemblies of their opponents, resolved to carry on Ed^nbur h in the work of the Church.^ The work of the Protesters was nugatory. 1^52. Another Assembly, under the presidency of David Dickson, now Professor of Divinity in Edinburgh, met in the Capital on 21st July 1652. The Protesters compeared to lodge a protestation subscribed by sixty-three ministers and eighty laymen, who declared the Assembly to be * unlawful, unfrie, and unjust.' The Assembly threatened them with discipline.^ They retaHated by making common cause with the Commonwealth, Others, persecuted for religion, also found a court of appeal in the alien Government. In 1652 the Presbytery of Aberdeen summoned Sir Alexander Irvine of Drum for alleged popery. He ignored their jurisdiction, and, on being excommunicated, appealed to Monck on the ground that Presbytery was not authorised by the Commonwealth. King Charles failed to allure Argyll from his new allegiance, but other Highland chieftains were more easily incited to take advantage of the conflict between England and Holland and to rise in arms while Monck was absent in England. Scotland was impoverished beyond description, and what with the confiscation of estates to English officers, and the general taxation for keeping up the army of occupation, no fewer than 35,000 arrestments for debt were made. With a beggared gentry it was not difficult to persuade Royalists such as Glencairn, Balcarres, Lome, Kenmure, Glengarry, and others to take the field. Middleton was first selected to be leader of the enterprise, but sickness laid him aside. Glencairn Highlanders received the royal commission and unfurled the standard at Killin c^encaim, on 27th July 1653.^ Robert Lilburn, the Parliamentary commander, '^S3- and the Commissioners considered Glencairn's military diversion to be a trivial outbreak, and reckoned that the influence of the Remon- strants would counterbalance the new rebellious movement. Still, the clergy could not be depended on. Judge Hope declared that few of them were honest, and that they twisted Scripture to the production
1 Lamont, 43 ; Row, Blair, 286. -' Lamont, 55.
? Scot, and Coinmon., 186.
44
THE COVENANTERS
Cromwell appoinled Lord Protector.
of error.^ The Church still hankered after a Covenanted King, and the ministers prayed for Charles till the custom was declared illegal. Two of their number, Waugh and Knox, were long in prison for breaking this law.^ Others evaded the statute by circumlocutions, as the Jacobites, a century afterwards, evaded similar orders. Patrick Gillespie was one of the few who openly prayed for Cromwell, and he had his reward in being appointed Principal of Glasgow University, to the chagrin of Baillie and others.
Meantime great events had happened in England. On 20th April 1653, Cromwell and the officers had, in a high-handed manner, dis- solved the Long Parliament (truncated after Pride's purge of Royalist members in 1648), and convened in its place the short-lived Barebones Parliament. The Cromwellian party in this Parliament immediately dissolved it in order to invest Cromwell with supreme authority as Lord Protector. A subsequent instrument of government modified the autocratic nature of this appointment, and provided for the establishing of a Parliament and Council of State. One result of this reformation was the promulgation of a scheme of religious toleration, to all but Papists, which provided for the establishment of Puritanism, with any of its many forms of ecclesiastical government, and for the permission of Episcopal worship when performed in private. The unbending Royalists so harassed the Government that ten major- generals were appointed to keep order in the provinces. Neither the first nor the second Protectorate Parliament was an unqualified success, and both were dissolved, the one in January 1655, the other in February 1658.
The contending clerics indicted their Assemblies to meet in Edinburgh on 20th July 1653. In St. Giles' Church only a thin partition separated Resolutioners from Protesters. Lilburn associated these conventions with the Highland rising and asked an injunction from Cromwell to suppress them. That astute diplomatist did not reply, and Lilburn determined to act on his own authority.^ In the
' Nicoll, 124. - Baillie, iii. 253.
^ Colville, Bye7vays — Scotland jnitier t/ie Roimdheads^ 236.
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES 45
Resolutioners' Assembly Dickson appositely expounded the differences of Peter and Paul, and further exhorted the Church to unity and peace. He was followed by his successor in the chair, Douglas, who dilated upon schism. This preparatory service ended at four o'clock. The prayer of Dickson constituting the Assembly was nearly finished when the clatter of hoofs and the tramp of infantry were heard, and Lieutenant-Colonel Cotterel, some officers, and a guard of musketeers with lighted matches appeared in church. A loud voice with English accent broke the silence. It came from Cotterel, who stood up on Edinburgh a bench and said : ' Gentlemen, I am commanded to ask you by ^liJJoWe/by what authority you sit here : if you have none from the Parliament, Coionei
^ . , 1 , T-i Cotterel, 20th
Commander-in-chief, or Judges, you are to go with me. Ihejuiyiess. Moderator, having cleared out non-members, replied : ' We sit here by the authority of Jesus Christ and by the law of this land, whereby we are authorised to keep General Assemblies from year to year, according to the several Acts of Parliament, and every Assembly meets by appointment of the former.' Cotterel bade them begone, 'or else he would make them rise on other terms.' Dickson craved time to constitute the meeting and to appoint the next Assembly. Cotterel was peremptory and summoned the musketeers. The Moderator's jfinal prayer and protest was interrupted rudely by one of the officers. They stood waiting with their helmets on. Out between the lines of soldiers the ministers were led, and were con- ducted through the west gate over Bruntsfield Links, and drawn up near the spot where the trunk of Montrose lay buried. On this spot, set apart for the bodies of criminals, the roll was taken. ^ Baillie, who was there, describes the scene : ' When he had led us a myle without the towne, he then declared what further he had in commission. That we should not dare to meet any more above three in number ; and that against eight o'clock to- morrow, we should depart the towne, under pain of being guiltie of breaking the public peace. And the day following, by sound
* 'An Account of the late violence,' etc., King's Pamfhlets, E. 708 (23); Lamont, 69: Scot. atJii Com/Hon., i6i.
46 THE COVENANTERS
of trumpet, we were commanded off towne under paine of present imprisonment. Thus our General Assembly, the glory and strength of our Church upon earth, is, by your souldarie, crushed and trod under feet, without the least provocatione from us, at this time, either in word or deed.'^ What made the situation more vexing was Protest of that the Protesters sat on a while unmolested ; but their meeting was also dissolved. And to their credit they drew up a protestation against the unjustifiable suppression of the Assembly.^ Of nine hundred parish ministers, seven hundred and fifty were computed to be Resolutioners, and this majority had now no supreme judicatory. This collapse, without a blow struck, and with few regrets expressed in favour of the Church, showed how very wearied the people were with the conflicts and intrigues in connection with religion. Times had changed since the interference of a foreign prelate had roused the nation as one man.
The Remonstrants made use of their friendship with the English Sectaries by appointing to vacant charges sympathisers with both interests. In some cases the parishioners resented this intrusion. Aggressiveness At Douglas, the Protesters ordained Francis Kidd on a hillside, the Prote^sters. celebrants being protected from the furious people by English troopers. At Bothkennar, John Galbraith was deposed, but remained in charge. The two opposing Presbyteries of Stirling prepared to settle another pastor. The parishioners nominated another Galbraith, while Guthrie's Presbytery chose a preacher named Blair. When the latter judicatory came to settle Blair, the parishioners defended the church with missiles until the sheriff appeared and protected the celebrants.^ Nevertheless the Remonstrants at heart were not favour- able to the intruded Republican Government ; " the Protesters were openly antagonistic to it. At the communion dispensed by Rutherford and Alexander Moncrieff, at Scoonie, in June 1652, all persons who had taken the Tender, as well as Englishmen, were debarred from the
' Letters^ iii. 225. - Scot, and Coinmon.^ 1C3 ; Row, Blair, 308.
- Baillie, iii. 247, 258.
^ Broghill to Cromwell, 26th February 1655 ; Act. Pari. Scot., Vl. ii. 899, 900.
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES 47
table.^ While a blight fell on the Moderate party the Protesters became more enthusiastic and tireless in ranging over the land, resuscitating the almost forgotten sacraments, rebuking sin, and re- inspiring evangelical fervour. By their zeal this remnant held itself together as the nucleus of the Church whose rehabilitation at the Revolution Settlement preserved Presbyterianism for Scotland."
Although at this time Cromwell in England was in a maze of Cromwell's religious difficulties he shrewdly saw that ' the root of the matter ' ^"^ '^^' was in the Protesting party, and, at the suggestion of Lilburn, sent for its leaders to deliberate on the deadlock and ' a way to satisfye the godly in Scotland.'"'' Patrick Gillespie, John Livingstone, and James Menzies went, but Douglas, Blair, and Guthrie refused the invitation.* The result of this visit of the triumvirate was the arrangement of subsidies to the Universities of Glasgow and Aberdeen, and the framing of an ordinance for the government of the Church.
This ordinance, 8th August 1654, practically established a 'Com- mission of Triers' for Scotland, in the instruction of the Council of State to the Commissioners for visiting Universities to see that godly presentees, who were capable preachers, as certified by four or more ministers and elders in each of five districts, were settled in livings. All parties spurned this method of extinguishing presbyterial power and privilege.
Monck returned to Scotland to restore peace by the sword, MoncU, his George Monck, first Duke of Albemarle (1608-70), was a Devon- ^^^3"^^°"^ ' shire man, in the prime of life, of knightly lineage, a daring soldier for Crown and Parliament. His loyalty to Charles got him two years of imprisonment in the Tower. He became a Covenanter and a devoted adherent of the Parliamentary party. His success in the Irish wars was repeated at Dunbar. Cromwell trusted him. His manliness and moderation made him a suitable administrator. His sympathies were with the Moderates in the Church.*^ On 4th May
1 Lament, 51. '^ Burnet, Hist., i. 113; Lee, //isi., il 376.
^ Johnston to Guthrie, 2gth March 1654 : Baillie, iii. 567.
* Baillie, iii. 243, 253. ^ Ibid., 567, 685.
48 THE COVENANTERS
1654, Monck with pomp announced at the Cross of Edinburgh the establishment of the Protectorate and the assumption of Scotland as an integral part of the Commonwealth. Throne, Parliament Courts, and other authorities were abolished, and new representative forms of government were to be set up. He heralded a new era of free trade, proportionate taxation, and national prosperity. Malcontents from civil rule alone would suffer punishment. Persons in authority would be responsible for rebels issuing from their estates, or presby- teries, or families. A reward of ;^200 was offered for Middleton, Seaforth, Kenmure, and Dalyell.^ This conciliatory policy did not appeal to the highest instincts, but it was popular and effective in view of the impoverished condition of the country, where bankrupt landlords became rebels out of sheer necessity. Argyll was arrested in London for debt. Despite his father's wishes Lome joined the rebels, now in arms under Middleton. Monck hunted them from Inverlochy by Kintail to Inverness, and down to Blair-Athole. He left his mark on the charred homesteads of the Camerons, Macdonalds, Mackenzies, and other clans, and in retaliation Middleton devastated the lands of the Campbells and their allies.
Still King Charles could not be prevailed upon to land and lead his supporters, giving as his reason that they were not agreed among themselves. He asked the Assembly's Commission to pray for him and send chaplains to the forces.-^ The peace made with Holland made these prayers belated. Dispersion of On 19th July Colonel Morgan and the Parliamentary troops came
into touch with Middleton at Dalnaspidal and dispersed the Royalists among the hills, capturing many, who were sent to the plantations and to foreign military service. A skirmish at Aberfoyle and an attack upon Campbeltown by Kenmure were unimportant incidents in this rising. Before the end of summer Glencairn and Kenmure submitted; Middleton fled to the Continent early in 1655. The Scots were forbidden the use of arms. Argyll loyally supported Monck in the suppression of the insurgents, and the informative
' Thurloe, ii. 261. -^ Scot, and Common., 28, 29, 32, 198.
Royalist forces.
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES 49
letters he then sent to Monck were produced at the trial of Argyll, to the dishonour of Monck.
In 1655 Gillespie and his party received a Commission from Cromweii's Cromwell for settling the troubled affairs of the Church on the lines s"ttiTrdi^ic set forth in the Ordinance of 1654. In this Commission, Cromwell expressed his approval of a national establishment of religion. It was evidently intended to put the Church under the charge of the Protesters, but had a different result in splitting up that party over the question of the lawfulness of the Commission, Wariston and Guthrie rejecting it for its Erastian character.^ In 1655 a Council of Eight, under the presidency of Lord Broghill (Roger Boyle, younger son of the first Earl of Cork, created Earl of Orrery after the Restoration, died 1679), was constituted in Edinburgh, and one of its good offices was the persuasion of the Resolutioners to accept the substance of the Ordinance and to live quietly under the Govern- ment. Lord Broghill informed Cromwell that he set himself to win the body of the ministry to accept his rule, but found the Wariston and Guthrie Protesting party to be like the Fifth Monarchy and All- hallows-men, impossible to conciliate. Douglas, Dickson, Wood, Hutchison, Smith, and 'Mr. Sharpe of Fife' were more reasonable and well disposed. This party was willing to coerce their intractable brethren and pray for the English Government. Of Douglas he wrote : ' I may truly say, he is the leadingest man in all the Church of Scotland.' His record of Sharp is noteworthy : * Mr. Sharpe is a man I have made good use of in all this business, and one who, I thinke, is devoted to your service.'^ These men were to gain over Patrick Gillespie, John Livingstone, and the Moderates to their party of conciliation. Deposed pastors who had suffered for Malignancy and the Engagement, such as Ramsay, Henry Guthry, Colville, and others, were now welcomed back to the ministry. The Protesters had only one panacea for the troubles — a fresh thorough purgation
1 Nicoll, 163-6.
- Broghill to Cromwell, 26th February 1655 : Act. Pari. Sco/., vi. ii. 900.
VOL. II. G
50
THE COVENANTERS
Unpopularity of Preshy- terianism in England.
Cromwell
supports
toleration.
all round. Cromwell had marked the failure of Presbyterianism to establish itself on English soil.
In June 1646, the English Parliament established Presbyterianism, but parishes were slow to appoint elderships, and ministers were tardy in assembling in 'Classes,' as the ministerial courts were called. Questions as to discipline and excommunication made the system unpopular. On 29th August 1648, a final ordinance was passed, authorising ' triers ' to test the fitness of the officials of the Church, so that elderships, classical precincts, or presbyteries, and provincial and national assemblies should be legally constituted. The toleration extended to the sects rendered the scheme inoperative.^ The West- minster Assembly debated the matter thoroughly, and declared that uniformity and toleration were incompatible, and that no platform could peacefully accommodate Presbyterians and Sectaries. The sword of the New Model at Naseby put a different complexion on this conflict of theologians, and gave the Independents a new status. The sword gave a title to the sects which Parliament had to legalise in an indulgence for tender consciences. The Scottish Covenanters opposed toleration as tending to schism and atheism. In the mean- time, King Charles agreed with the Scots in order to gain influence.
The second Civil War ended in the establishment of the principle of toleration. This was formulated in the ' Agreement of the People ' presented by the officers to Parliament in January 1649, but a long struggle ensued before Parliament legislated on the subject. Cromwell's own aim was to unify Protestantism throughout Christen- dom under the aegis of the Commonwealth, and he tried to make his dream substantial by promoting a secular policy which was unpopular abroad. His idea of toleration may be gathered from his declaration to the Irish: 'As for the people, what thoughts in the matter of religion they have in their own breasts, I cannot reach ; but shall think it my duty if they walk honestly and peaceably, not to cause them in the least to suffer for the same.'-
Cromwell's first Parliament took into consideration a pronounce-
^ Shaw, ii. 1-33. ^ Morley, Cromwell^ 296.
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES 51
ment on toleration embodied in the ' Instrument of Government,' of December 1653, and failing to define the limits of liberty of conscience, appointed a committee to nominate a council of theologians, who were to specify the fundamentals of religion. They duly reported their finding. But it was not till 1657 that the second Cromwellian Parliament resolved that the Scriptures should be the rule of faith, and believers in the Trinity and in the Scriptures should suffer no disability, unless they were Popish, prelatic, profligate, and blasphem- ing persons. Cromwell accepted these resolutions; so did the revived Rump Parliament in May 1659. The next Parliament, however, reverted to the Confession of Faith, and enacted that the Solemn League and Covenant should be read annually and hung up in every parish church,^
The Commonwealth did not by statute supersede Presbytery and Presbyterian- establish Independency. The Classes simply disappeared through l^'^^^fj}^^ innate constitutional weakness. The easy, tolerant, good-natured inherent weak- Englishman did not take kindly to the disciplinary office of elder. The average layman then had not the education to make him a critic, nor the coercive spirit to justify his judgments on men. The majority liked the old, easy-going, non-compulsive way they had been accustomed to. There was also an active opposition to the Presbyterians from the Independents, who considered that they had as good a title to worship in the parish churches as the unwelcome Presbyters. The inability of the latter to enforce discipline tended to laxity, so that the people were in many places not catechised, and had no opportunity, for long periods, of partaking of the Lord's Supper. This scandal in the State Church gave rise in 1653 to Voluntary Associations, who undertook to dispense the sacraments and to revive decadent piety. With no middle ground between Presbytery and Independency, and hating the thrall of Puritanism, the English people yearned for a truce between Church and State. The last General Assembly in England was held in May 1659."
^ Baillie, iii. 405 ; Com. Jour., vii. 662, 862, ist March 1660. - Shaw, ii. 161 ; Heath, 439.
James Sharp, 1613-1679,
52 THE COVENANTERS
At this crisis the most active promoter of a union between parties was Robert Blair, who with Durham, minister of Glasgow, and some brethren in Fife, regretted the censures passed on the Protesters.^ It was impossible to heal the rupture of the parties, who waged a pamphlet war against each other. The Resolutioners deemed it expedient that Cromwell should have authoritative informa- tion regarding Church affairs, but were unable to select a suitable Advent of delegate to present their case. At this point James Sharp, minister of Crail in Fife, was talked of in this relation. His neighbours, Wood of St. Andrews and Carmichael of Markinch, suggested his appointment ; but Blair, with remarkable insight, was unfavourable both to the delegate and his mission to an Erastian ruler. Sharp was now (1656) in his forty-third year. He was born in Banff Castle, on 4th May 16 13, his father, William, being factor to the Earl of Findlater, and his mother being a kinswoman of the Earl of Rothes. His reputed connection with some bagpiper is a jest or myth, like that regarding Montrose, who in his youth was said to have swallowed the devil in a toad. Sharp graduated at King's College, Aberdeen, where he imbibed the tenets of the famous Doctors, and repudiated the Covenant in 1638. He went to Oxford, and, it is said, would have taken orders in the English Church had not his health given way. His contemporaries accused him of carnal frailties during his college days, and even of the murder of his own illegitimate child ; but there is no evidence to sustain the horrid charges.^ He returned to Scotland and became a professor of philosophy in St. Andrews. A sympathiser with the Malignant faction, he found a patron in the Earl of Crawford, who appointed him to the Church of Crail, where he began his ministry on 27th January 1649. His portrait conveys the impression of a man of no great mental vigour or manly character, but rather of a cunning
' Row, Blair, 303.
2 Miscell. Scot., ii. ('Life of Sharp 'j, Pref. v., Sharp accused of immorality with his sister- in-law ; p. 19, with Isobel Lindsay; p. 22, strangles baby. Cf. also pp. 94, 97, loi. Eccl. Records (St. Andrews and Cupar, 1641-98), Edin. Abbots. Club, p. 89: ' I shell Lyndsay spouse to John Wilson in St. Andrews,' banished for reviling Sharp.
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES 53
busybody. Burnet declared that * he had a very small proportion of learning and was but an indifferent preacher.'^ He was ambitious. His idols were power, pelf, and persons of position. His first cross was laid on him when the General Assembly refused to sanction his transfer from Crail to Edinburgh — that Mecca of ambitious com- mitteemen and vain babblers of the Church.^ He managed to keep in touch with the Resolutioners and with the Executive Government. He was sent a prisoner from Alyth to London, but through the influence of Wariston he was soon liberated, and returned, loth April 1652, to take the Tender, and to become a friend of Monck and the English judges.^ His friend, Lord Broghill, considered Sharp to be a suitable minister to accompany him to London in August 1656. He was then instructed by Dickson, Douglas, and Wood as to what sharp sent as he should represent to Cromwell regarding the National Church." ^"^^j^'^°y° So early as this, Baillie describes Sharp as 'our professed friend.' August 1656. Cromwell was pleased with the manner in which Sharp conducted his business, but Argyll advised him to stay his judgment until he heard his opponents. The adroitness of Sharp drew from Cromwell the remark : ' That gentleman after the Scotch way ought to be called Sharp of that Ilk.'^ The credulous Resolutioners hailed him as 'the o^reat instrument of God,' sent to cross the desisfns of the Protesters and Remonstrants, especially of Wariston, who was a member of the Upper House in the Second Protectorate Parliament, 1656-8.^ They lived to change their judgment upon 'that very worthie, pious, wise, and diligent young man,' and to call their ' dear James' a Judas.
To nullify his specious pleading and to promote their own formu- Envoys of the lated demands for the appointment of committees to plant the Church ^'''^''^^^^'^• and settle its quarrels, especially by the renewal of the Act of Classes, the Protesters also sent up a spokesman to Cromwell. This was James Simson, minister at Airth, already mixed up in a vile
* Hist., i. 114. - Peterkin, Records, 589. " Cal State Pap., 165 1-2, p. 213 ; A. Hay, Diary, 42.
^ Baillie, iii. 324, 330, 352, 568 ; Row, Blair, 328. ' True and hnfariial Account, 3 ).
* Baillie, iii. 352 ; Row, Blair, 336.
54
THE COVENANTERS
A war of pamphlets.
Wariston becomes a Cromwellian.
scandal and deposed by the Assembly.^ He was joined by powerful advocates in Guthrie and Gillespie, and three elders, Wariston, Inglestoun, and Greenhead, who brought with them an incisive indictment of their ecclesiastical persecutors. At the same time the partisans Cant, Rutherford, and Trail, wrote to Cromwell explain- ing the perplexing situation. Cromwell summoned the parties to a debate, and with a cynical shrewdness appointed a council of twelve to listen to the wrangle, in which Sharp had an opportunity of deny- ing plain facts. In the spirit of Felix, Cromwell said he would hear them at a more convenient season, and bade them go home and live in peace. That they would not do. The Protesters so far prevailed as to get the Act of Classes renewed, while Sharp had compensation in being led to understand that this statute would remain a dead letter. The Resolutioners in 1658, in a Declaration, accused the Protesters of subverting the ecclesiastical government, and drew forth a pungent reply from the pen of James Guthrie, it is said, entitled Protesters no Sudverters, and Pj^esbytery no Papacy, A fresh war of pamphlets began. Rutherford wrote A Survey of the Survey of that Summe of Church Discipline, penned by Mr. Thomas Hooker^ The preface accused the Resolutioners of being worse persecutors than the bishops, and of being soul-murdering ministers who encouraged the vicious and ignorant.^ In August, Sharp wrote to his correspondent in London, Patrick Drummond, declaring that ' no peace can be had with these men [Remonstrants] but upon their own termes, how destructive soever to truth and order. "* Shortly after- wards we find Sharp urging the prosecution of his opponents.
One unexpected result of the conference was the confirmation of the allegiance of Wariston to the Protector. Wariston had seen his country flourishing under the Ironsides, and realised that Cromwell was a friend to religion and education. For his patriotism he had lost office, and now with his large family was poverty-stricken. He reaccepted his former post of Lord Clerk Register, and together
Baillie, iii. 353, 573. Baillie, iii. 362, 375.
- London, 165S.
< Add. A/'5.S-., 23113, f 66.
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES 55
with Cassillis and Sir William Lockhart, was elevated to Cromwell's House of Peers, wherein he continued to sit during the regime of Richard Cromwell. He also took a share in the new administration which succeeded Richard's rule, until he was dispossessed of his office in 1659.
On 3rd September 1658, his day of fate, Oliver Cromwell, weary Deaih of of the interminable strife of political and religious parties, found ^rd's^p^embcr rest, and died expressing his confidence in these words : ' I am a con- '^58- queror and more than a conqueror through Christ that strengtheneth me,' and praying earnestly for the people for whom he had fought. He was unquestionably the greatest Briton of his age. His Celtic blood determined his ideas in a religious mould. The secret of his power lay in his conviction that he was a humble instrument pre- destined to act for his country's welfare, under the guidance of the Divine hand. It moved him to become the representative and defender of Protestantism in Europe, in opposition to its Catholic rulers. In this action he was ably supported by the poet Milton. He strove to confer unity and peace on the British Empire, and if he followed the patterns of the Old Testament rather than the more gentle teachings of the New, he always at least sought a warrant for his actions in The Souldiers Pocket Bible, which every Ironside carried in his holster.^
If Cromwell achieved nothing more than the laying the foundations of that religious liberty which was re-established at the Revolution in 1688, he deserves to be held in esteem by all lovers of true religious and political freedom, such as Britain enjoys to-day. His character and place in British politics are well described by the late Principal Tulloch : * Cromwell then was no hypocrite and no mere enthusiast. He was simply the greatest Englishman of his time : the most powerful, if not the most perfect expression of its religious spirit, and the master-genius of its military and political necessities.' ^
1 ' The Souldiers Pocket Bible containing the most {if not all) those places contained in holy Scripture which doe show the qualifications of his inner man that is a fit souldicr tofi^ht the Lord's Battels both before the fight, in the fight, and after the fight, etc. London, 1643.'
2 English Puritanism and its Leaders, 160.
56 THE COVENANTERS
Accession of On the accessioii of Richard Cromwell, a Parliament purged
^vclC[es9°"^' ^^ Royalists assembled in January 1659, and was in May forced to resign along with Richard.^ The military faction invited the Rump to assume session in May, but finding it too severe on their order, turned it out of power again. The attempt of the military to govern was a fiasco, and, finding affairs lapsing into chaos, they restored the Rump to Westminster on 26th December 1659. During summer. Sharp had been making himself so officious in London, that the Government ordered him to cease meddling in public affairs, to return to Scotland, and 'to keep within the compass of his own calling. "- Sharp was not to be suppressed. The influence of Wariston, opponent of the toleration proposed to be granted to all kinds of schismatics, and soon to be advanced to be President of the Committee of Safety, was to be short-lived. Monckopposes General Monck was taking a lively interest in all the perplexing moves in England. The exiled King had been in communication with Monck, but had failed to break down the gallant soldier's allegiance to the Cromwells. Monck, however, after the death of Richard Cromwell, and the usurpation of the officers in barring out the Rump, felt himself called upon to interpose and redeem the country from anarchy.^ The sequel seems to indicate that he had a secret aim which it was not opportune to divulge to any one. He was the most reserved man living. He convened his officers in the historic church of Greyfriars in Edinburgh and announced his opposition to the English military party, and called for those willing to join him to 'make the military power subservient to the civil.' All offered him their swords. He next secured the Cromwellian citadels and a loyal army. He issued declarations, which Sharp helped him to frame, wherein he announced that he stood for popular liberties and the freedom of Parliament.
' Baker, C/iron., 636 ef seq.
2 29th June 1659: Add. MSS., 231 13, f. 69. '1659, Feb. 7. Mr. James Sharpe, Mr. of Craill, tooke journey from Edinboroughe to London sent by the ministrie for the public resolutions to withstand the actings of the protesters' : Lamont, Chron.^ 141.
' Baker, Chron.^ 651, 663 ; Heath, Chron.^ .\y> et scq. ; Row, Blait\ 339.
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES 57
On New Year's Day 1660, Monck crossed the Borders, andMonckat marched with six thousand men on London, which he reached on 3rd February. He boldly walked between files of soldiers into West- minster, and saw the Presbyterian members reseated who had been excluded by Pride. Thus obtaining the desired majority, Monck arranged for an early dissolution and for an appeal to the country for the election of a free Parliament. On the rising of the Long Parliament on i6th March, the first stage in the restoration of monarchy began. ^ The Presbyterian party made the best use of the time at their disposal to have the still unauthorised Confession of Faith legalised. A committee was appointed to consider it, and two Confession days later it was agreed to, with the exception of chapters thirty and "^g^i^sed, thirty-one, being finally placed in the Statute Book on 5th March 1660. 1660.^ This was the more readily agreed to since the Parliament men considered the Confession to be a simple corollary to the Solemn League and Covenant. The Solemn League and Covenant was also ordered to be reprinted, read annually in all churches, and hung up in Parliament House. This was the expiring effort, at this crisis, of ill-fated Presbytery in England. The Restoration of the King soon rendered these enactments inoperative. By agreeing to a dissolution the Covenanters threw away the only chance they had of reviving their unpopular cause in monarchical England. The elections went for the Crown and King.
Monck, by his urbanity, had so ingratiated himself with the Monck and Moderate party in the Church of Scotland, that their good wishes (.^"^^i^ ^^ and prayers followed him across the Borders. A few days after his departure, David Dickson and Robert Douglas requested Monck to permit James Sharp to accompany him and keep him informed of ecclesiastical affairs. But Monck, who assured his correspondents that the welfare of the Church was the object of his solicitude, had already invited Sharp to London on a mission which was to be mentioned to none but Douglas.^ Thus encouraged, the Resolu-
1 Heath, 439 ; Baker, 677. 2 Com. Jour., vii. 855, 862 ; Whitelocke, iv. 401-
3 Wodrow, i. 4 ei seq. ; Row, Blair, 344 ; Correspondence of Mr. James Sharp with Mr. VOL. II. H
58 THE COVENANTERS
tioners met in Edinburgh on 6th February, and drafted instructions to their envoy, who was to advocate : —
(i) That the Church was to be guaranteed in her freedoms, privileges, and legal judicatories.
(2) That lax toleration productive of sin and error should be remedied.
(3) That the malversation of vacant stipends should cease.
(4) That ministers should enter into enjoyment of their stipends and benefices by the Church's Act of Admission.
This memorandum was subscribed by Dickson, Douglas, Wood, Smith, Hutchison, and the Clerk of Assembly, Andrew Ker.^ The Resolutioners also put themselves into touch with the Presbyterian leaders in England.
Monck welcomed 'Mr. Sharp' . . . 'his good friend,' on 13th February. Edward Calamy and other nonconformists also welcomed him to London. Monck soon gave the Scots ministers to under- stand that ' it shall be his care that the Gospel ordinances and privileges of God's people may be established both here and there.' This equivocal language gave rise to a vision of Presbytery, restored, imperialised, glorified, by their new Joshua — 'called of God in a Monck prefers Strait.' But when Monck, probably at the suggestion of Sharp, isrJ^not r^gid"' although Sharp disclaimed the idea, reinstated the secluded members of Parliament in order to outvote the Rump, he plainly declared for 'Presbyterian government not rigid,' a differentiation which some- what blurred the vision of Douglas and the other restorers of Presby- tery then allied to Monck. These enthusiasts failed to comprehend wherein the rigid nature of Presbyterianism should make it unpopular and undesirable, and wrote Sharp to this effect. Sharp and Monck understood each other. Reading between the lines, and with the light thrown from subsequent events, one cannot fail to perceive that Sharp was early cognisant of the hatching of a policy which would take his co-presbyters by surprise. What other could it be than the
Robert Douglas^ David Dickson^ etc., in the year 1660, in Glasgow University Library. Press mark, BE. 8, d. 18. » Wodvow, i. 5.
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES 59
entire discarding of their * rigid ' religious system ? However, it is difficult to determine the exact date on which Sharp abandoned the idea, if he ever cherished it, that a King pledged to the Covenant was the only panacea for the national distemper. His constant assevera- tions that he was a genuine Presbyter, and that Lauderdale was no Episcopalian, ill harmonise with the agility he soon afterwards dis- played in leaping into prelatic place and power. In his long corre- spondence with Douglas, Sharp gave a partial and prejudiced account of current affairs in the Capital, always contriving to leave out, as if unknown or unimportant, those facts which were indicators of the hidden movements of the friends of Episcopacy and the exiled King. His written memoranda are equivocal and difficult to interpret.
Sharp reported that it was hinted that if the Parliament rose without securing religion, then ' the King would come in without terms,' that moderate Episcopalians were coming to the front, and the populace was demanding the return of the King. In these circum- stances Sharp thought that some of the Scots prisoners, who had been released on the advent of Monck, such as Crawford and Lauder- dale, should be retained in London as representatives of Scotland. Monck had not yet shown his hand. Sharp endeavoured to work Douglas into a state of nervousness by informing him that the author- ities reckoned the Resolutioners also to be republican and disloyal, and that Douglas's republished sermon, delivered at the Scone coronation, was being received with disfavour. Douglas and his associates wished to send special delegates to Monck and the Parlia- ment to confer on the crisis. Sharp then desired to be recalled, but, sharp's nego- in a subsequent letter, 5th April, he reported that Monck was averse J.'^^^*^!!""^ ^" to Commissioners being sent — Lauderdale and the emancipated Scots, in Monck's opinion, being able enough advocates of the Cause. He further mentioned Monck's distrust of the Remonstrants, and his promise, ' if we be quiet, our business would be done to our mind ' ; and, what staggered Douglas and his friends, Monck's avowal that none but Sharp would gain his confidence. To further hoodwink these simple believers. Sharp narrated how a trusty party of
6o
THE COVENANTERS
Triumph of
Hyde's
diplomacy.
Presbyterian clergy, with Lauderdale and himself, met and came to an agreement as to the Restoration of the King on Covenant lines/ As a correspondent, Sharp seemed to be quite transparent and honest, as Mr. Andrew Lang would have us believe." But Sharp never told the half of what he knew, and the other half he couched in oracular terms. After mentioning how Monck would not let him depart, how the King knew every move and Scotland's affection, how the King was on the eve of returning, to the joy of Presbyterians, and how the very Episcopalians were humbly seeking an accommodation from the Pres- byterians, Sharp thus sums up the matter (7th April) : ' The Lord having opened a fair door of hope, we may look for a settlement upon the grounds of the Covenant, and thereby a foundation laid for security against the prelatic and fanatic assaults ; but I am dubious if this shall be the result of the agitations now on foot.' The sly diplomatist did not inform his masters what he expected and was working for. He adjured them to make no approach to the King till the King came, warned them against Middleton's design, and blamed Murray's mission to the King. To throw them off the true scent he confessed by the way : • I smell that moderate episcopacy is the fairest accommodation, which moderate men who wish well to religion expect ... we (the Scots) shall be left to the King, which is best for us.' ^ The Resolutioners realising the peril, the more that they now knew how tired of rigid Presbytery the youth of Scotland were, let Sharp understand that Episcopacy was the prelude to prelatic tyranny, and that if the King would not accept their conditions they undeterred would maintain their Covenanted rights.
All this time Charles and Chancellor Hyde were exerting them- selves, by communicating with sympathisers in England, to create a public feeling in favour of the Restoration, and in this they succeeded so well that, before the Convention Parliament met on 25th April, the King had formulated his terms of settlement. On 4th April he signed the Declaration of Breda, wherein he offered a general pardon to all except to those whom Parliament might exempt, promised to 1 Wodrow, i. 18. ^ ui^t, Scot., iii. 284. ^ Wodrow, i. 20.
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES 6i
allow Parliament to settle possible disputes over confiscated estates, and, in a word, invited Parliament to specify the terms of his return to the Throne, On receipt of this document on May-day, Parliament resolved that, * according to the ancient and fundamental laws of the kingdom, the government is, and ought to be, by Kings, Lords, and Commons.' As far as England was concerned the Puritan Revolution was at an end. The faithful Hyde at length had triumphed.
Sharp had no little share in bringing about this consummation, sharp's share Both Monck and Doudas, and, according to Blair, the ministers in '" '^^ ^^^^'^^^-
^ *=• ' tion.
London also, requested him to go and interview the King in exile. Before Douglas had an opportunity to send Sharp fresh instructions on that point, Sharp had assumed the function of a legate and crossed the Channel to negotiate for the Church, and in its name. Sharp must have been sure of his ground before he took such an unwarrantable liberty. Since the release of the Scots nobles Charles had been in communication with them, writing to Lauderdale 'as entirely my owne,' as his royal father had done twenty-one years before, con- gratulating him on his release from prison, and also trusting him to raise a Royalist party. Sharp was in their secrets. That rake, Rothes, owned him as ' our caynd, honist, Sherp Frend ' who among other ministers was ' not to be compared uithe.' ^ Lauderdale, there- fore, entrusted his reply to his Sovereign to Sharp, therein informing the King that ' God hath made him [Sharp] as happy ane instrument in your Service all along as any I know of his country. . . . Nor need I say anything by so knowing a bearer, who is employed by him [Monck] who under God hath done this worke to give you a full account of those great transactions which layd the foundacion of this happiness we are now I hope so neir.' " In fine, Sharp was a secret envoy for Monck. The Earl of Glencairn went even further, accord- ing to Burnet, and recommended Sharp to Hyde ' as the only person capable to manage the design of setting up Episcopacy in Scotland,' ^
^ Airy, Laud. Pap.., i. lo.
^ Additional MS S.., 231 13, fol. 100 ; Laud. Pap., i. 24.
3 Hist., i. 165 ; V^odrow, i. 28.
62 THE COVENANTERS
Monck.a Moiick was too wary to trust himself to a proved knave like
piouer Sharp, and employed his own cousin, Sir John Grenville, to convey
his message to the King, verbatim, after Monck had repeated it several times in the hearing of Grenville. His advice was embodied in the Declaration of Breda. While on his way to Breda Sharp wrote to his friend Wood, cryptic, equivocal, and lugubrious letters confessing how he was passing through distractions and a toilsome life.^ He longed to be home. He had five interviews with the King, and, according to Douglas, he utilised these to prove that ' he was a great Resoiutioners enemy to the Presbyterian interest.'- On that very day on which Z^^T' ^^""^P ^'^"^ ^'^ ^''^^ interview with Charles, 8th May, Douglas and the brethren in Edinburgh penned a petition to the King, in which they rejoiced at his proposed restoration, and urging him not to repent of taking the Covenant and its pledge to maintain the Church. Douglas insisted on Sharp telling the King that Scotland was pledged to the Establishment, and that only ' naughty men ' desired toleration. A few days after this, in a hyper-excited state of joy, they wrote to Charles *as the man of God's right hand,' congratulating him on his recent profession of adherence to the Reformed Faith and on his moderation. In a letter from Brussels, loth April, Charles professed this adherence, and vindicated himself from the charge of leading a vicious life.^ This letter, transmitted by Rothes, was burked by Sharp, who treacherously had effected his purpose before his orders reached him. In his account of his mission, Sharp stated with verbosity and vagueness that 'he found his Majesty resolved to restore the kingdom to its former civil liberties, and to preserve the settled government of our church ' ; and that the King refrained from prosecuting uniformity, as it ' would be a most disgustful employment and successless,' since he knew that ' there was no English party for uniformity.' ' Charles, he wrote, was much improved by his afflictions. To these precisians this counted for sanctity. If his spiritual con- dition needed an illustration, it was afforded by Mr. Case, one of the
1 Add. MSS., 231 13, fol. 103. ^ Wodrow, i. 28.
3 Wodrow MSS., xxxii. 5. ■• Wodrow, i. 30.
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES 63
deputation of ministers from London who also visited Charles. He declared that he was taken where he might, by eavesdropping, hear the royal saint at his devotions. He heard him groaning and saying : * Lord, since thou art pleased to restore me to the throne of my ancestors, grant me a heart constant in the exercise and protection of thy true Protestant religion.' This trick of a scarcely disguised Papist was worse than the travesty of religion witnessed at Scone.
^-»--..
^' L JU ^' tJt
^ ; >
64
THE COVENANTERS
Popular joy at the Restora-
CHAPTER XX
THE RESTORATION
Charles, exalted from beggary to kingship, left Holland amid demonstrations of joy, and landed at Dover on 25th May 1660. There the jubilant ministers proffered him a clasped Bible ; victorious Monck as appropriately offered him his sword. His progress towards and entry into London resembled a Roman triumph. Indeed, Evelyn declared it was like the return of the Jews from Babylon. He entered the Capital on 29th May — his thirtieth birthday. That night, when the jubilation and racket had ceased, and the godly were in prayer bearing up their Covenanted Monarch at the Throne of Grace, he first made an oblation of thanks to God in the presence-chamber before seeking carnal repose within the arms of the beautiful adulteress, Barbara Villiers.^ He thus early inaugurated England's worst era of lust and falsehoods.
On realising the Restoration of the King, the people became frantic with joy, and soon their hilarity degenerated into ribaldry amid scenes of drunkenness and immorality.^
In Edinburgh a day of thanksgiving — 19th June — was appointed, and Restoration Day was observed with sermons, noises hallowed and unhallowed, feasting, and strong drink. A farce in fireworks was presented on the Castle Hill, and redoubtable Cromwell was depicted being pursued by the Devil till both were blown up, to the merriment of the crowds.^
Later, on Coronation Day, the otherwise staid magistrates of .Edinburgh converted the area round the Cross into a bacchanalian
1 Kirkton, 6i. She bore six children to Charles : Burnet, i. 168 and note (Airys edit.). * Burnet, i. 166 ; Clarendon, Co?i/., 36-8. * Nicoll, 294.
id amid i
y 1660.
iciorious towards Evel)ii 3n. He latniglit, were in ?i Grace, •dianiber
irsteraoi
ribaidr)'
John, first Earl of Traqioair
Tohn, sinh Elarl of Roihcs
hallowed wbwas
nerriinent siratesof
Sir George McKenzie of Roseliaiigh
Archibald, M^i^-^ c^f ArgyZ
rnrra] Tnomaf D.-
ArchbishC'p Laud Bisiiop Le.j,;
ROY.AI.1ST .\XD COVENANTING LEADERS
64 THE COVENANTERS
CHAPTER XX
THE RESTORATION
Charles, exalted from beggary to kingship, left Holland amid demonstrations of joy, and landed at Dover on 25th May 1660. There the jubilant ministers proffered him a clasped Bible ; victorious Monck as appropriately offered him his sword. His progress towards and entry into London resembled a Roman triumph. Indeed, Evelyn declared it was like the return of the Jews from Babylon. He entered the Capital on 29th May — his thirtieth birthday. That night, when the jubilation and racket had ceased, and the godly were in prayer bearing up their Covenanted Monarch at the Throne of Grace, he first made an oblation of thanks to God in the presence-chamber before seeking carnal repose within the arms of the beautiful adulteress, Barbara Villiers.^ He thus early inaugurated England's worst era of lust and falsehoods.
On realising the Restoration of the King, the people became frantic with joy, and soon their hilarity degenerated into ribaldry amid scenes of drunkenness and immorality.^ Popular joy at In Edinburgh a day of thanksgiving — 19th June — was appointed, and Restoration Day was observed with sermons, noises hallowed and unhallowed, feasting, and strong drink. A farce in fireworks was presented on the Castle Hill, and redoubtable Cromwell was depicted being pursued by the Devil till both were blown up, to the merriment of the crowds.^
Later, on Coronation Day, the otherwise staid magistrates of , Edinburgh converted the area round the Cross into a bacchanalian
' Kirkton, 6i. She bore six children to Charles : Burnet, i. 168 and note (Airy's edit.). 2 Burnet, i. 166 ; Clarendon, Co7it.^ 36-8. 3 Nicoll, 294.
the Restora-
^^^.
^
John, first Earl of Traquair
John, sixth Earl of Rothes
Sir George McKenzie of Rosehaugh Archibald, Marquis of Argyll General Thomas Dalyell
Archbishop Laud Bishop Leighlon
ROYALIST AND COVENAXTIXG LEADERS
THE RESTORATION 65
paradise, in which Bacchus, Silenus, and other bibulous divinities and wanton goddesses held court and revel, and the magistrates acted like coryphees in this fantastic vineyard. The mad orgy was prolonged until the citizens became 'not only drunk but frantic,' and worse/
As vultures swoop on a carcase, the needy Scots nobility and hungry unemployed soldiers of fortune made for London to welcome Charles, and to present petitions asking for the removal of the English garrison, the restoration of forfeited estates, the resuscitation of privileges, and patronage in view of other attainders.^
At Crawford's levee Charles gave them a pleasant reception. Fortune now smiled on the Engagers, since the other extreme parties in the State — Montrosians and Argyllians — were defunct. Sharp, too, remained in London negotiating, as he would make his colleagues believe. Burton, I think, rightly interpreted the intentions of the new authorities when he wrote : ' While all these things were written, Sharp was Archbishop of St. Andrews and virtually Primate of Scotland. It was believed, indeed [he should have added "soon afterwards "], that the bargain was struck at once when he arrived at Breda.' ^ On 2nd June, the Primate-elect wrote to Douglas that in Sharp plays London he found 'the presbyterian cause wholly given up and lost,' tjone^s faUe, while the leaders of that party were willing to accept a modified J""^ '^^• Episcopacy after Ussher's model, with an amended liturgy and curtailed ceremonies. '^ 'The cassock men swarm here,' he averred. He continued discouraging the sending up of more delegates, Douglas excepted — he had hopes of Douglas apostatising — on the ground that it would 'give suspicion of driving a disobliging design.' He disclaimed any personal manoeuvre. Douglas and his friends, instead of falling into the net, became fixed in their resolutions, and
1 Edinburgh's Joy for His Majesties Coronation in Enghmd^ 1661 ; Kiikton, 65 ; Crook- shanks, 81.
2 Kirkton, 66 ; Laud. Pap., i. 32-3. " Hist., vii. 134.
* Hallam, Const. Hist., ii. 319 : 'This consisted, first, in the appointment of a suffragan bishop for each rural deanery, holding a monthly Synod of the presbyters within his district ; and, secondly, in an annual diocesan Synod of suffragans and representatives of the presbyters, under the presidency of the bishop, and deciding upon all matters before them by a plurality of suffrages.'
VOL. II. I
66 THE COVENANTERS
more emphatically advised him to oppose the defections, prelacy, and the liturgy. It is not likely that Sharp repeated these instructions. When Douglas was bent on coming south, Sharp as firmly and plausibly discountenanced the proposed advocacy, declaring that the King was against it, since he was pledged to Presbytery already, and their advent would prejudice the cause. By these concoctions he kept them in their fool's paradise. His tactics were clever but dis- honourable. In the middle of June he writes : ' Discerning men see that the gale is like to blow for the prelatic party, and those who are sober will yield to a liturgy and moderate episcopacy which they phrase to be effectual presbytery' This was a specious fly well cast. This equation of 'effectual presbytery' explains the frequent boast of Sharp after he came to be suspected, that he ' had done more for the interest of presbyterian government than any minister who can accuse me,'^ The peculiarity of Sharp's letters is that, while prolix, they do not contain, except in his paraphrase, the substantial communications which he must have been receiving from others. On 19th June, when the Scottish deputation was imminent, he wrote that the King was about to grant all their demands — their wildest dream — and with the royal letter he would come home. It was a mean trick to hold back the deputies. While trying to make his brethren discard the chimera of uniformity, be it said to his credit, he declared, ' If we knew how little our interests are regarded by the most part here, we would not much concern ourselves in theirs.' It was probably on this principle that Sharp, while narrating the various moves for the restoration of prelacy and moderate Episcopacy, and even the fact that the Royalists attributed the King's misfortunes to his acquiescence in Presbytery, omitted to mention that the Commissioners from Ire- land thought it expedient to drop, in their negotiations, all mention of the Covenant and prelacy.'^
Monck, created Duke of Albemarle in July, was no politician, yet he had the shrewdness to advise his Sovereign lo select both
' Sharp to Drummond, 13th December 1660 : Laud. Pap.., i. 47. ^ Keid, Hist, of P res. C/iurc/i in Ireland, ii. 334-6.
THE RESTORATION 67
Cavaliers and Presbyterians for his new Privy Council. In Chancellor The ofike of Hyde the King possessed a Grand Vizier adept in statecraft and "^'^^" capable of anticipating and executing unswervingly the royal will. Hyde had the gift of selecting trustworthy subordinates to carry out the meanest policy. In this uncompromising Episcopalian and Monarchist, Charles had an effective agent in executing the terms of the Declaration of Breda, so that soon the short-lived Convention Parliament set an example to successive legislatures of the way to dishonour the regicides, alive or dead, in their enactments and even in their persons.
Considering his past career, Argyll would have appeared hypo- critical had he been an early visitant to Court. Yet, anxious to stand well with his Sovereign, Argyll, much against the advice of Douglas and other friends, sought the King's presence in the hope that in a personal interview Charles would accept his explanations for his apparent discourtesy and his disloyalty under the Cromwellian regime. There are discrepant accounts of the origin of the visit. According to some he went of his own accord ; to others that Charles invited him ; to still others that Lome, being well received, was used as a decoy to the trap, having informed his father that there was no danger.^ Sharp warned Douglas that the King would receive Argyll The arrest of badly. Lauderdale, now Secretary of State, was not averse to the '^ extinction of his new rival, if he had not already determined on vengeance for his old enemy. Consequently, when Argyll appeared in the presence-chamber the King had him promptly arrested there in circumstances which betokened a public affront. From the Tower he was conveyed by ship, along with Judge Swinton, down to Scot- land to be tried for treason. He arrived at Leith on 20th December and was thrown into Edinburgh Castle. A similar warrant was. sent to Major- General Morgan to seize Sir James Stewart, Provost of Edinburgh, Sir John Chiesley of Carsewell, and Lord VVariston. Wariston escaped to the Continent for a time. This was a foretaste
» Fraser, J^ed Book of Grandhilly, ii. 151 ; Argyll Papers, 17 ; Mackenzie. Memoirs, 13 ; Willcock, The Great Marquess, 302 note ; Burnet, i. 193.
68 THE COVENANTERS
of the arbitrary government which the country was to experience for twenty-eight years. The King re- The first care of Charles was to have a government reconstituted
GTvl'rnmem in fo^ Scotland.^ The following appointments were made : Middleton, Scotland. Commissioner to Parliament and Generalissimo ; Glencairn, Chan- cellor ; Lauderdale, Secretary ; Rothes, President of Council ; Craw- ford, Treasurer; Sir William Fleming, then Primrose, Clerk- Register. Lauderdale chose Sharp's brother, William, to be his secretary — a fateful appointment. This Council was meant to be a domestic one, associated with Hyde and other English statesmen close to the person of the King. The Committee of Estates, nominated in 1651, which Monck swept away from Alyth, was indicted to meet in Edinburgh on 23rd August, and to form a provisional government till Parliament should assemble. This Committee had limitless powers.^
While all former attempts at effecting a reconciliation between the Resolutioners and Remonstrants and Protesters had failed, the sinister reports and intrigues of Sharp helping to widen the gulf between them, the Protesters, after a final effort to induce the Resolutioners to join them in presenting an address of welcome to the King, resolved to make it on their own account. On the requisi- tion of five ministers, James Guthrie, Trail, and others, they met at Edinburgh in the house of Robert Simpson, on the same day (23rd Protesters met August) on which the Committee of Estates assembled. The Privy King are Council declared the meeting to be an unwarrantable and illegal con- arresied 23rd yocatiou tending to sedition and the rekindling of civil war, and three
August 1660. '^ o '
times ordered them to disperse. On their refusal, soldiers were dispatched to seize them and their papers and lodge them in the Castle. They apprehended James Guthrie of Stirling; Robert Trail, Edinburgh ; John Stirling, Edinburgh ; Alexander Moncriefif, Scone ; George Nairn, Burntisland ; Gilbert Hall, Kirkliston ; John Murray, Methven ; John Scott, Oxnam ; John Semple, Carsphairn ;
' Mackenzie's History is valuable here. According to a letter of Mackenzie to Lauderdale of date 1673, the first part of the book was revised by Lauderdale : Wodrow MSS., xxxii. 212 Advocates' Library.
-' Privy Council Rei^ister : Acta 1661-7, MSS. in Register House, Edinburgh.
THE RESTORATION 69
Gilbert Ramsay, Mordington, ministers ; and Kirko of Sandywell, Dunscore, an elder. They were committed to close prison in Edinburgh Castle. Robert Row, Abercorn, William Wishart, Kinneil, left the meeting before the soldiers arrived, and Andrew Hay of Craignethan escaped capture.^
A Supplication, seized at their capture, testifies that their inten- tions were harmless and praiseworthy. Loyally they congratulated Charles on his restoration, totally banned the regicides and their acts, including toleration, warned him of popery, prelacy, and prayer-books, prayed him to preserve the Scottish Church, craved him to own and make all others own the Covenant and the Westminster Standards. They concluded by praying that his piety would make him 'a king with all the virtues of all the godly kings of Israel.' The innocents did not know Charles, nor his abettors.- Glencairn and his fellows read treason into the document at once. The prisoners maintained that the printing of their Supplication would convince the public that their aims were laudable, and they petitioned to be relieved, promising to fall away from their Remonstrance of 1650. From his cell, Stirling- wrote to his kirk-session : ' Yet this is my comfort that whatever the world say or believe, the cause I suffer for is the Lord's, and no less than the avowing of his marriage contract in a sworn covenant betwixt the three kingdoms.' ^ To prevent other contemplated Severities of assemblies the Committee of Estates issued another illegal proclama- "'^' tion, 24th August, prohibiting under highest pains all meetings, con- venticles, and seditious papers unauthorised by the Crown. Victims were next singled out for punishment. During September, John Graham, Provost of Glasgow, John Spreul, town clerk there, Patrick Gillespie, Principal of Glasgow University, John Jaffray, Provost of Aberdeen, and William Wishart, minister of Kinneil, were thrown into jail. Gillespie and Guthrie were carried off to Stirling Castle into safest custody.
' Lamont, 158 ; Row, Blair, 357 ; Nicoll, 298 ; Mackenzie, 16 ; Act. Privy Councii, 23rd August 1660. - Wodrow, i. 68-71.
' nth September 1660 : Wodrow, i. 73 note.
^Q THE COVENANTERS
Return of At this vcry juncture Sharp returned from his mission. Although
^''"''' we find him in December informing his clerical correspondent in
London, Patrick Drummond, that he had pleaded for Guthrie and his fellows in misfortune, this boast is not in harmony with the im- placable hatred he evinced towards the Remonstrants in his letters to Lauderdale, wherein he urged Lauderdale to take extreme measures against the ' hairbrain ' rebels. He rendered Guthrie's petition inept by asserting that Guthrie not only justified the murder of the King, but proclaimed that Scotland's revulsion from the deed was a sin. A little later he practically recommended to Lauderdale the extinction of these 'leading impostors, Guthiree, Gillespy, Rutherford, which will daunt the rest of the hotheads who in time may be beat into sound minds and sober practises.' ^ Sharp knew this was palat- able counsel to his patron and master, to his peer in treachery and deceit. For years Lauderdale had disdained to look upon the extreme Covenanters as worthy to be reckoned Scotsmen.-
Lauderdale's regard for Presbyterianism, and the Covenants which he subscribed, was now merely the memory of the obsolete faith of his callow youth. Through dark days he had clung to his early love, but on the advent of regal splendour and pleasure, that affection sickened and died in a heart which had grown corrupt. He actually told Burnet that he had recommended Presbytery to the King, who replied, '^ht volte face 'let that go, for it was not a religion for a gentleman. '^ Lauderdale would be a loyal gentleman ; and, after that rebuff. Presbytery to him was a mere temporary political expedient to be cast out whenever it suited the King. Since no solitary fiat could in a trice obliterate the Pree Scottish Constitution — Church and State — Charles needed complotters in his nefarious design. The vision of an archiepiscopal throne glamoured the Judas of the Covenant, and a greed for pelf, power, and the pleasures which these can procure entangled the vulgar Lauderdale. Charles had got both rogues in the hollow of his hand.
' Land. Pap., i. 41, 57, 59, App. Ixx. - Add. AISS., 231 14, fol. 84.
3 //is/., i. 195.
of Lauderdale
THE RESTORATION 71
In the royal closet the trio completed a plan, the first detail of The plan of which was a letter to be borne to the King's Scottish lieges by Sharp, trio/"*^ "°"* This royal missive, dated 'At Whitehall, the loth of August 1660,' signed * Lauderdale,' was addressed to Robert Douglas and to the Presbytery of Edinburgh. The crafty document began by assuring the Presbyters that Sharp had loyally executed his mission, and fully explained the ecclesiastical situation. It animadverted on some disloyal brethren, of course hinting at the Protesters and extremists generally, without considering that Sharp too had, as already narrated, supported Cromwell and taken the Tender. No mention was made of the Covenant. With studied craft the royal intentions regarding the Church were expressed thus : * We do also resolve to protect and preserve the government of the Church of Scodand, as it is settled by law, without violation,* as well as the ministry living peaceably, ' as becomes men of their calling.' The joyful receivers did not per- ceive the quirk which Sir George Mackenzie afterwards pointed out : ' When Episcopacy was restored and this letter objected by the Presbyterians, it was answered, that before the restoration of Episcopacy all the acts whereby Episcopacy was abrogated or presbyterial government asserted, were annulled by the Act Rescis- sory ; so that Episcopacy being the only church government then established by law, his Majesty was by that letter obliged to own it.' ^ The letter further owned the legislation of the Assembly (of St. Andrews and Dundee) in 165 1, promised another Assembly, adjured the Church courts to attend to ecclesiastical business only (then, as if pointing directly to the Protesters and anti-Prelatists), while stamping out conventicles — the seedplots of disaffection — and invited the Church to pray God to give the King ' fresh and constant supplies of His grace.'- If the Devil ever appeared as an angel of light to the unsophisticated, he did so then in Charles. The jubilant Presbyters enshrined the letter in a silver casket. On 3rd September copies of it were transmitted to other Presbyteries. The rude, mercenary Middleton, who knew the intention of Charles to establish
^ Memoirs, i6. ^ Wodrow, i. S0-4.
72 THE COVENANTERS
Episcopacy, flouted Sharp for this trick, and could never get over its meanness.' To Primrose 'he spake often of it with great indigna- tion, since it seemed below the dignity of a king thus to equivocate with his people, and to deceive them.'^ Sharp, however, somewhat mollified Middleton by declaring that the letter was only a temporary expedient, and that the King could be relieved of his promise when- ever the existing establishment was abolished. It was, and was intended to be, a base incitement to clerical persecutors. Churchmen Thesc Presbyteriaus prepared a gracious address to their ruler,
fubiknt ^" subscribed by thirty-two ministers, in which they confessed how much their spirits had been revived by his royal intentions, and they transmitted it along with a grateful letter to Lauderdale, whom they still reckoned to be as dutiful a son of ' our Mother Church ' as he was that day he stood a penitent in Largo Church.^ The Synod of Lothian also blessed the King for his favours. While the dominant party in the Church was considering what steps might be taken with their own recalcitrant brethren, the Committee of Estates was forging new fetters for both discredited parties. On 19th September a proclamation was published calling in all copies of Rutherford's Lex Rex and Guthrie's Causes of God's Wrath, as works poisonous and treasonable, with certification that refusers would be held to be enemies of the King, and punishable according to the Committee's discretion. The executive government wished no aftermath of horrid reminiscences. The tombs of Henderson in the Greyfriars' Church- yard, and of George Gillespie in Kirkcaldy, had their inscriptions erased."* In another proclamation a wider net was spread to catch all injudicious critics of the authorities, and to silence glib pulpiteers,
' Laud. Pap.^ ii. App. Ixxviii. : Sharp to Middleton, 2ist May 1661.
2 Burnet, i. 198. - Wodrow, i. 83.
* Mackenzie, 17. Nicoll, 373-9, records the defacement at a later date: 'For . . . Mr. Alexander Hendirsone, minister at Edinburgh, a learned and pious man, depairttit this lytif upon the 18 day of August 1646. Efter qiihais death thair wes ane monument or sepulcher erectit with ane pyramite abone the sepulcher, to his honor and commendation, bot vvithall, a relatioun to the League and Couenant, ingrauen in great letters hevvin out of stone ; quhilkis letters wer all hewit doun and blottit out by ordour of the Estaites of Parliament now sitting in Edinburgh in Junii 1662.' The Cromwellian citadels were also speedily demolished.
THE RESTORATION 73
satirical rhymers, scurrilous rakers of unpalatable tales, sympathisers inquisition with the Remonstrance, listeners who failed to report libellers, and p^^j^^'^'^Jf^^^Jii orators outside the lawful courts of Church and State. ^ The mesh inspired by was small enough to catch the least that had an idea of his own. Every hearer was a catchpole to entrap his pastor. Dates were immaterial. A hair was made a tether of. Words once feeble enough appeared treasonable in an official 'hue and cry.' An uncon- stitutional inquisition was thus sprung upon the exhausted country. A reign of terror began. Great men tried to protect the little. Eglinton writes to Lauderdale craving pardon for one Ralston, probably a vassal, ' for he is a very pretty man.' " Every suspect, when disowning the Remonstrance, had to produce a substantial cautioner. The sermons of John Dickson, Rutherglen, James Naismith, Hamilton, and James Simpson, Airth, brought these honest men to jail. This Act of Silencing struck equally at Remon- strants, Protesters, and Resolutioners — meddlers in the affairs of State. Colonels Barclay and Ker preferred flight and ostracism to the tender mercies of the inquisitors. Wariston, for whom a reward of five thousand merks was offered, sought a refuge on the Continent. Not to be foiled in his scheme, Lauderdale sent down another proclamation, 12th October, referring to a Parliament to be convened in order to assert the royal prerogative, and to be constituted as the final judge of the conduct of the lieges. The sting was at the end : no subject was to ' presume to go out of the country, without licence of the Committee of the Estates, under pain of being esteemed and pursued as a contemner of our authority.' In the autumn the bench was packed with Royalists. The King's prerogative was the substi- tute for the Covenant, and the new touchstone to effect everything. Corrupt officials beean to scent fines and forfeitures, while poverty Reason
1 , - . for the
produced many parasites content with the leavmgs of these persecut- persecutions. ing extortioners. To this fact can be traced clearly the motives for the inhuman prosecution of the Covenanters. Many landed gentry
* 20th September 1660: 'A Proclamation against all seditious railers,' etc. 2 Adtl JfSS., 231 1 1, fol. 66: October 1660. VOL. II. K
M.v
y:rr
:(^--/!^i:?<v::;'.'A^:..C:t::va>;/;-^
Sharp pan]y
an pnigma
Vic»-s of
Sharp.
74 THE COVENANTERS
were summoned before the Committee of Estates, and were forced to sign bonds for their good behaviour.
The tortuous course which Sharp continued to pursue in order to rehabilitate the Scots Church on a basis of usefulness and influence, according to his own conception of the function of the Church, is now easily explained by means of the Laudej-dale Papers} Sharp's letters prove that he had the gift of hiding his ideas and intentions in copious language which seemed to reveal them. He could express a superfine distinction which an ordinary mind would not have noticed. They also prove that Sharp, dissimulator, liar, and traitor, well styled by Patrick Walker ' a compound of wicked- ness,' was not without a politic aim, I entirely homologate Mr. Dodds in this conclusion of his estimate of Sharp : ' For well-concocted, cold- blooded, systematic dissimulation, he stands almost without a match in histor)','- Nevertheless, what in March 1661 he confessed to his correspondent, Patrick Drummond, seems to have been a conception of long standing, that Presbyter)- had a foundation in Scripture, but that Scottish Presbyter)- was not ex jure divino} He could not conscientiously affirm with his co-prelate Leighton, that forms of government and ceremonies were merely human, happy expedients, and that the hierarchy might, with advantage to Church and State, retire altogether.^ Nor could he quite brook the purely Erastian conception that the King was head of the Church, which was merely a bureau of the State. Ten years after he had ascended the Episcopal throne he protested to Lauderdale that he had never been in ' the habitude of parting by my own consent with the rights of the episcopal order which have been ever acknowledged by the Christian Church.' ^ He convinced himself that he had the part of a patriotic reformer
• These papers in twenty-six volumes are preserved in the British Museum. I have consulted the originals. They consist of letters, reports, petitions, and memoranda which Lauderdale received while he was Secretary. A selection of them have been ably edited by Mr. Osmund Airy for the Camden Society, 1884. A large transcript of Sharp's letters is preserved in Edinburgh University Library. In Glasgow University copies of a few letters exist : press mark BE. 8, d. 18.
- The Fifty Years Struggle, 99. ^ Laud. Pap., i. 88.
* Leighton to Lauderdale, 9th Nov. 1673: ibid., ii. 238. '"" Ibid., ii. 215.
I
It
THE RESTORATION
/ D
to play in 'restoring the King's interest to its lustre in Scotland' by removing the Church's encroachments in civilibiis, and restoring what the Crown had evacuated in ecclesiasticis. He could well say, ' I am a Scot and a Presbyter,' if he believed in the primitive equation of bishop and presbyter, as scholars do now.' He claimed spiritual independence for the Church, and the right of the Church, in Assembly met, to make and alter her own polity. He disclaimed any personal intention of transforming Presbytery into Diocesan Episco- pacy, but asserted the right of the Church to arrange the conditions of the inter-relationship of regal authority and ecclesiastical jurisdic- tion. He desired a reference to a General Assembly.- The sequel compels one to imagine that this professed gospeller after the primitive model, all the same, had his tongue in his cheek while he was writing : ' Whatever lot I may meet with I scorne to prostitute my conscience and honesty to base unbecoming allurements,' such as a crozier, mitre, and throne ! ^ With Charles, Lauderdale, and Royalists generally, he abhorred extrem.e Presbyterians, Protesters, and suchlike, whom he designated impostors venting 'antimagis- tratical and pernitious principles' and devoid of 'reason and under- standing.' Douglas never suspected that his envoy had prelatical leanings, and the moderate Covenanters entrusted to Sharp the realisation of their most hallowed hopes. His error lay in concealing Sharp's sin,
, . ,., . ... . . 1 ... , . ambition.
his predilections ; his crime, in cunningly executing his predetermina- tion. His fall was not gradual, but was the quick result of his predetermination. We must admit that he had an ambition to serve and save the Church. Of quick wit and of open eyes and ears. Sharp could not fail to observe the low morale of King, courtiers, and country. The aristocracy made no secret of hating the disciplinar)- Church and rigid ministry, while legislators made religion subservient to private interests. He was convinced that Parliament-men aimed at humiliating the clergy to beggary, slavery, and contempt, against which, having no representation in the Government, they had no
^ Add. AfSS., 2^114. to!. 94 : /.aud. Pap.. s Ibid., i. 50. "
Laud. Pap., i. 4S.
AL
74 THE COVENANTERS
were summoned before the Committee of Estates, and were forced to sign bonds for their good behaviour. Sharp partly The tortuous course which Sharp continued to pursue in order
an enigma. ^^ rchabiHtate the Scots Church on a basis of usefulness and influence, according to his own conception of the function of the Church, is now easily explained by means of the Lauderdale Papers} Sharp's letters prove that he had the gift of hiding his ideas and intentions in copious language which seemed to reveal them. He could express a superfine distinction which an ordinary mind would not have noticed. They also prove that Sharp, dissimulator, liar, and traitor, well styled by Patrick Walker ' a compound of wicked- ness,' was not without a politic aim. I entirely homologate Mr. Dodds in this conclusion of his estimate of Sharp : ' For well-concocted, cold- blooded, systematic dissimulation, he stands almost without a match Views of in history.'" Nevertheless, what in March 1661 he confessed to his ^'^^'^P" correspondent, Patrick Drummond, seems to have been a conception
of long standing, that Presbytery had a foundation in Scripture, but that Scottish Presbytery was not ex jure divino? He could not conscientiously affirm with his co-prelate Leighton, that forms of government and ceremonies were merely human, happy expedients, and that the hierarchy might, with advantage to Church and State, retire altogether.^ Nor could he quite brook the purely Erastian conception that the King was head of the Church, which was merely a bureau of the State. Ten years after he had ascended the Episcopal throne he protested to Lauderdale that he had never been in * the habitude of parting by my own consent with the rights of the episcopal order which have been ever acknowledged by the Christian Church.' ^ He convinced himself that he had the part of a patriotic reformer
' These papers in twenty-six volumes are preserved in the British Museum. I have consulted the originals. They consist of letters, reports, petitions, and memoranda which Lauderdale received while he was Secretary. A selection of them have been ably edited by Mr. Osmund Airy for the Camden Society, 1884. A large transcript of Sharp's letters is preserved in Edinburgh University Library. In Glasgow University copies of a few letters e.xist : press mark BE. 8, d. 18.
- The Fifty Years Struggle^ 99. - Laud. Pap., i. 88.
* Leighton to Lauderdale, 9th Nov. 1673 = ibid., ii. 238. ^ Ibid., ii. 215.
THE RESTORATION 75
to play in ' restoring the King's interest to its lustre in Scotland '