Oliver Cromwell. His life, times, battlefields, and contemporaries

Front matter

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Preface

It is only necessary, in introducing this work, to inform the reader as to the intentions of the Author in writing it, and that which will be found in the course of its perusal. It is, then, simply true that, so far as I am aware, there is no popular and portable volume like that which I now present. Far more eloquent pages have been written vindicating the great Protector and his ^ork — far more archaeological pages the result of painstaking researches into the unexplored recesses and hiding-places of old documents. The Lives of Cromwell it would not be profitable to enumerate on this page — large and small, good, bad, and indifferent. Of these, I believe I have seen the greater number, but I have not seen one which answers the end projDOsed by this volume — that is, to set forth in a compendious manner, accessible to any person not possessed of too much time for wading through many or large volumes, the great Protector's claims. If I am told that this is a needless work to attempt after the noble epic of Carlyle, I may be permitted to say that my slight volume may serve to whet the appetite for the patient study of the lines of that great runic Saga or song.

Further, I have attempted, which no slight comprehensive biography has done before, to set forth some account of those great contemporaries of Cromwell, some knowledge of whose lives is necessary, as their names must inevitably appear in connection with his,

Vi PREFACE.

and who therefore at once iUustrate the great hero's work, while their works also receive illustration from his character and career. I would not have the reader expect too much ; but if he appreciate this volume according to its Author's intention, it will be found to be, lie trusts, neither uninteresting nor unuseful. Always let it be remembered that, boastful as this age is of its attainments in freedom of thought and liberty of conscience, even the most prominent agitators for such claims in our day have from Oliver Cromwell much yet to learn.

PAXTON HOOD.

I. The Farmer of St. Ives 261

II The Battle of Dunbar 201

III, The Martyrdom of Vane, 2G8

Index, -73

INTRODUCTORY.

CHAPTER I. CONFLICTING THEORIES OF CROMWELl's LIFE

In one of those stately old folio histories in which our forefathers wrote the chronicles of England more than a century since, it was the wont of our dear old nurse, who supplied the place of a mother to us, to permit us to look, when the rare occasion came round on which we were rewarded because we had behaved somewhat better than usual. But well do we remember, as we looked at the full-length portraits of the kings, and from these full-length portraits derived sometimes a better idea of the men than from the pages of the letterpress — midway through the book we came to a portrait that puzzled us : it stood opposite the page headed, " Interregnum — Commonwealth." Yes, there stood a rough, robust being, without a crown, and yet with a most ominous hat upon his head, a broad-brimmed and steeple-crowned hat, like that we had seen on the heads of witches : and we could not but say to our old nurse, *' What does he here ?" Our old nurse was a woman, therefore a Royalist and Conservative. Moreover, she was very old, and her memory touched the generation which had heard Cromwell talked about. From her we gathered that the \\ reason why this broad- hatted person stood there, was because he was a very badly-behaved character, and would on no account be induced to take his hat off, even before his king. We tried to make it out ; the story was very dark to us. But the son of our nurse was a very fine and thoughtful man ; and when to him we used to say, '' Why does he stand there with only a hat on ? Why has everybody else a crown, and he no crown ?" then he woukl tell lis that he believed that there was more in his head beneath a hat than in those of any of the other kings who wore a crown, and that lie was more king-like than all the kings. Thus our historical apprehensions were confused— as many wiser heads have been — at the commencement of our studies ; and even from our very earliest days we stumbled, and became perplexed, over the two theories of Cromwell's character.

For it may be, perhaps, asserted, that the variety of opinion with reference to tlie character of Cromwell is almost as diversified as ever, although the collection of his letters and speeches by Thomas Carlyle has done so much to set him forth in a fair and honorable light, for which even those most enthusiastic for the career he represented were scarcely prepared. And it cannot be doubted that the estimate of his character will always be formed, not merely from sympathy with a certain set of opinions, but even more from that strange, occult, .and undefinable sentiment 'which, arising from peculiarity of temperament, becomes the creator of intellectual and even moral appreciation. Hence there are those to whom, whatever may be tiie amount of evidence for his purity, Cromwell can only be hateful ; while there are others, again, to whom, even if certain flaws or faults of character appear in him, he can only be admirable. It is very interesting to notice the varied estimates which have been formed of this great man, even within the present, or within this and the immediately preceding, generation.

Robert Southey, for instance, a pleasant and venerable name in recent English letters, wrote a life of Cromwell to sustain his theory of the great Protector's character. To him Cromwell was *' the most fortunate and least flagitious of usurpers ; he gained three kingdoms, the price which he paid for them was innocence and peace of mind. He left an imperishable name, so stained with reproach, that notwithstandincr the redeeming virtues which adorned him, it were better for him to be forgotten than to be so remembered, and in tho

CONFLICTING TIIEOUIES OF CROMWELL'S LIFE. 11

world to come, — but it is not for us to anticipate the judgments, still less to limit the mercy, of the All-merciful." And then he continues, " Let us repeat that there is no portion of history in which it so behoves an Englishman to be thoroughly versed as in that of Cromwell's age." He says, indeed, that " Cromwell's good sense and good nature would have led him to govern equitably and mercifully, to promote literature, to cherish the arts, and to pour wine and oil into the wounds of the nation ;" and he adds that " the dangers to which he was exposed alone prevented him from carrying out all his wishes."* To Southey, Cromwell was hypocritical, always looking out for himself ; he was conscious of a guilty ambition, he knew that he was doing wrong through the wdiole process of the struggle. He felt that he was a traitor, he knew that monarchy, aristocracy, and episcopacy were essential to the well-being of the country ; he overthrew them, and yet he sought in some sense to retain their images, although he had got rid of the things. He committed a great crime, he attained to the possession of sovereign power by means little less guilty than Macbeth ; but he dared not take the crown, and he dared not confer it upon the young Charles Stuart, because he knew the young man would never forgive his father's death, and if he could he would be altogether unworthy to wear his father's crown. What would not Cromwell have given, says Southey, whether he looked to this world or the next, if his hands had been clean of the king's blood ! Such, in brief, was the portrait it pleased Robert Southey to portray — such was his theory of Cromwell's life.

Of the life of Cromwell by John Forster it is more difficult to speak. He never withdrew his life of Cromwell, never formally announced his dissent from the doctrine and theory of Cromwell's character contained in his " Lives of the Statesmen of the Commonwealth." We may fairly believe that this doctrine is still held by multitudes whose general opinions as to the Long Parliament, and the possibility of the establishment of a

* Southey's " Life of Cromwell," j). 77.

republic, are in unison ^vith Mr. Forster's. With Robert Southey, Cromwell was a traitor to Charles I. ; with Mr. Forster, ill his '* Lives of tho Statesmen," he was a traitor to tho cause of civil and religious liberty. Cromwell commenced his career in earnest and faithful love of liberty, certainly with a faithful determination, a sense of righteousness in his strong insubordination against tyjanny. He was a man of singular intellect, sincerely religious, but his religious nature was wrought upon by a temperament almost hypochondriacal. His shrewdness soon enabled him to see the probable issues of tho struggle ; liis force of character soon elevated him to be tho foremost man in it. Knowing, perhaps, nothing of Machiavelli, he became far greater and more perfect than Macliiavelli himself as a deep and designing deceiver, full of contrivances. As his personal ambition grew more and more within him, lie grasped at the shadow of personal authority ; but as he did so, and seemed to become possessed of the power at which he aimed, tho means of government eluded him, or crumbled in liis grasp, and difficulties and perplexities accumulated around him. The doctrine of Mr. Forster, in the work to which wc refer, appears to be that Cromwell was not so much untrue to himself, considering the complicated weft of his character, as that he was untrue to those great men, his friends, with whom lie had wrought, and untrue to those principles for whirh ho and they had struggled. He lived a life of torment, not because he had killed the king, not because he had been a traitor to the royal cause, but because he had been a traitor to his friends and principles. The day of death, therefore, to Cromwell was, not less than his great days at Worcester and Dunbar, *' his fortunate day," because it released his entangled spirit from its cares. Such was Mr. Forster's Cromwell, as portrayed in 1840.

Another, and a far inferior portrait, was attempted some years since by M. Guizot, the ex-minister of France. Judging from that great historian's lectures on the Civilization of Europe, it might have been supposed he would have taken a co:n'flictixg theories of cuomwell's life. 13

broad and eminently satisfactory view of the career of Cromwell. It is, in fact, the least satisfactory ; and he has contrived to delineate a really inferior man, a great man, but enamored of the world's substantial greatness. The business of his life was to arrive at government and to maintain himself in it ; and all who threw any bar or hindrance in his way were his enemies, and all whom he could use to that end were his friends, and they were his only friends. Hence, to substitute for a weak House of Stuart a strong House of Cromwell was the noblest aim of the Protectorate ; and he failed because, says M. Guizot, '' God does not grant to the great men who have set on disorder the foundations of their greatness, the power to regulate at their pleasure and for centuries, even according to their better desires, the government of nations." Guizot does not refuse to pay his meed of homage and justice to Cromwell ; but he seems to have been unable to conceive a great idea of the Protector's ends. In his opinion Cromwell was thoroughly conscious of the weakness by which he was smitten as the punishment of his own acts, and, feeling about in all directions for some prop on which he could lean for support, he selected liberty of conscience. Resigning the name of king, it was impossible for him to retain kingly authority. He had arrived at a slippery height, on which to stand still was impossible — there was no alternative but to mount higher or fall ; and therefore he died in the fulness of his power, though sorrowful — sorrowful " not only because he must die, but also, and above all, because he must die without having attained his true and final purpose." It is impossible not to perceive that iM. Guizot has, in his theory of Cromwell's character, delineated the Government, weak and selfish, of Louis Philippe, of which, in its fall, he was the minister. Men are usually unable to conceive a loftier public ideal than their own realization ; and such is the Cromwell of Guizot.

But in justice to Mr. John Forster, it must be said that he reviewed in a very able paper, entitled, " Cromwell, and the Civil Wars of England," in the Edinburgh Review^ this delincl-i OLIVER CROMWELL.

ation of M. Guizot, and sufficiently exhibited tlie unfaithfdness of the humiliating portrait ; for since his publication of the " Lives of the Statesmen" had appeared the great collection and commentary of Carlyle, and it may be thought that this publication sets the character of Cromwell in a niche of honorable security and rest forever. " Suppose," said Eliot Warburton, in his " Rupert and the Cavaliers," apologizing for the shameless perfidy revealed in the letters and correspondence of Charles I. — " suppose all the letters of the crafty Cromwell had been discovered, what a revelation Ave should then have had !" "Well, Cromwell's letters have all at length been discovered and bound together, and their publication lias been the best vindication of the consistent integrity and healthful whole-heartedness of the man. According to Caulvle, the faith of Cromwell never rested on any doubtful or insecure foundations. AVhoever else might forsake him, hope and faith never deserted him. He never consented to take part in any public affairs upon any compulsion less strong than that of conscience. Ho was guided by superior instinct and the practical good sense of a man set apart by God to govern. He had no premeditated jtlan or programme to which to conform. On the other hand, his principles were never to seek. He saw the drift of circumstances, but he was nevertheless to guide them, to use and control them, for the good of all. He had no personal ambition ; lie was distracted by no fear, dazzled by no honor. Southey's Cromwell was full of penitence for his treason against Charles. Forster's was full of penitence for his treason against the republican cause. Guizot's Cromwell was full of sorrow on account of his failure in clutching at sovereignty and founding a dynasty. The real Cromwell, according to Carlyle, has no penitence of any kind, no sorrow, save for the sorrow and sin, the sad heirlooms of our race. He was the great champion of the l^lritan cause, a sworn soldier to defend the rights of civil and spiritual freedom ; not to protect the interests of a party, but, so far as he could, to throw a shield over all ; having only a zeal for what he honestly believed to be God's truth ; one c»f

CONPLICTIi^'G THEORIES OF GKOJIWELL's LIEE. 15

tLose rare souls who could lay upon itself the lowliest and the loftiest duties ; a dutiful son ; for a large part of his life a quiet country gentleman ; a tender husband, a tender father ; a daring political leader ; a great soldier ; a man who knew men, and who could, as in his dealings with the subtle Mazarin, while preserving his own integrity, twist subtle statesmen to his pleasure ; at last a powerful sovereign, so living, praying, dying ; no hypocrite, no traitor, but a champion and martyr of the Protestant and Puritanical faith. Such is the Cromwell of Thomas Carlyle, and such the Cromwell of the following pages. But thus it is that the variety of opinion as to the character and motives of this singular man seem to call from time to time for such resettings as may enable readers to obtain and form a clear idea for themselves of his character.

We cannot readily find the instance of another personage in history whose acts and memory have been the subjects of such conflicting theories as those of Cromwell. The unphilosophical and paradoxical verdict of Hume, the historian of England, that he was a fanatical hypocrite, may now be dismissed ; we suppose that by all parties it is dismissed, with the contempt to which it is only entitled, to the limbo to which it properly belongs, with many other of the verdicts this writer ventured to announce in his history. Hume's character as an historian has not only been long since impeached, but, by Mr. Brodie,* reliance upon its veracity has been entirely destroyed ; and even the Quarterly Revieio many years since distinctly showed in how many instances bis prejudices have permitted him to distort evidence, and even to garble documents. And it was \ especially the case when writing concerning Charles I. and Cromwell, that '* he drew upon his imagination for his facts, and prejudices for his principles." It is very remarkable, however, that men, eminent for discrimination and judgment, well

* " A History of the British Empire from the Accession of Charles I. to the Restoration, etc., etc.; including a particular examination of Mr. Hume's statements relative to the character of the English Government." By George Brodie, Esq., Advocate. 4 vols., 1822.

16 OLlVKl: CKOiilAVKLL.

read in the story of tlic times, and in the interest of whose opinion it seemed the very memory of siieh a man as Cromwell %vas involved, spoke of him and his actions with a kind of bated breatli, as if they feared to incur some penalty in public opinion by too laudatory an utterance of his name. We think of such writers as William Okme, the more than respectable author of the Jives of John Owen and Richard Baxter : he speaks of Cromwell as one of whom it is diHicult to speak with candor and justice. He says that if '* to unmingled praise he is by no means entitled, unqualiiied censure is equally underserved " ; and he very oddly goes on to remark, that " he did much to promote the glory of his country ; and if not a religious man himself, he yet promoted religion in others, and was eminently the friend of religious liberty at home and abroad. If he did not always act as he ought, it can scarcely be denied that few men who have grasped the rod of power have used it with so much moderation, and so generally for the good of others, as Oliver Cromwell." The tone of Henry Kocjeks, in liis life of John Howe, is precisely the same. He admits that " Cromv.ell committed crimes" (!), but he *' docs not think that his fanaticism actually perverted liis moral judgment " (!), although " he was quite conscious that they were crimes which he had committed." (!) And the remarks of these two excellent writers concur in their attempts to solve the singular mystery that Cromwell was so unquestionably attached to men so eminently holy as John Howe and John Owen, that he sought their friendship, and would have them present with him in his palace.

This tone of remark has been long since dropped ; and among illustrious English writers, it is singular, perhaps, that even many years before Carlyle's magniticent vindication, Macaulay had, in his own eloquent and glowing style, as dispassionately as hcaitily, set forth the character of the great l^otector in his blaze of eloquent language. He says : " The ambition of Oliver was of no vulgar kind. He never seems to have coveted despotic power. He, at first, fought sincerely

COl^FLICTIXa THEORIES OF CROMAVELl/s LIFE. 17

and manfully for tlie Parliament, and never deserted it till it had deserted its duty. But even when thus placed by violence at the head of affairs, he did not assume unlimited power. He gave the country a constitution far more perfect than any which had, at that time, been known to the world. For himself, he demanded indeed the first place in the Commonwealth, but with powers scarcely so great as those of a Dutch stadtholder or an American president. He gave to Parliament a voice in the appointment of ministers, and left it to the whole legislative authority, not even reserving to himself a veto on its enactments ; and he did not require that the chief magistracy should be hereditary in his family. Thus far, if the circumstances of the time and the opportunities which he had for aggrandizing himself be fairly considered, he will not lose by comparison with Washington and Bolivar." And our readers surely remember w^hat ought to be a well-known passage, in which Macaulay prophesies that " truth and merit concerning Cromwell would at last prevail ; cowards, who had trembled at the very sound of his name — tools of office, who had been proud of the honor of lacqueying his coach, might insult him in loyal speeches and addresses— a fickle multitude might crowd to shout and scoff round the gibbeted remains of the greatest prince and soldier of the age ; but when the Dutch cannon startled an effeminate tyrant in his own palace — when the conquests which had been won by the armies of Cromwell were sold to pamper the harlots of Charles — when Englishmen were sent to fight under foreign banners against the independence of Europe and the Protestant religion, many honest hearts swelled in secret at the thought of one who had never suffered his country to be ill-used by any but himself. It must indeed have been difficult for any Englishman to see the salaried viceroy of France sauntering through his harem, yawning and talking nonsense, or beslobbering his brother and his courtiers in a fit of maudlin affection, without a respectful and tender remembrance of him before whose genius the young pride of Louis and the veteran craft of Mazarin had stood rebuked — who had humbled Spain

IS OLIVEU CKOMWELL.

on the land and Kolland on the sea, and wliose imperial voice had arrested the sails of the Libyan pirates and the persecuting fires of Rome. Even to the present day his character, though constantly attacked and scarcely ever defended, is popular with the great body of our countrymen." These eloquent words of the great essayist are simply true ; and in fact, the faith avowed by Macaulay was endorsed and demonstrated by the great vindication in the publication of the letters and speeches by Thomas Carlyle ; but wc believe that through all the years that have elapsed since the great Protector died, there has been an instinctive sense in the lioart of the English people that his name would be cleared from all mists and calumnies, and know a brilliant resurrection ; while we suppose it is true a thousandfold now, as compared with the time when Macaulay penned his eulogy, that his character is popular with the great body of our countrymen.

And yet, is it now a less didicult thing to bring before our readers with some vividness that strange and surely wraith-liko form of robust yet mysterious majesty, which rises to our vision in the later twilight of English story ? Like the patron saint of England, St. George of Cappadocia — he of the dragon — C.romwell seems a strangely mythic character. In an age when real kings were dying or dead, and sham kings were flying from their own weakness beneath the outspread shadowy wings of Right Divine ; when, out of the sea and scenery of confusion, beasts rose and reigned, like hydras, seven-headed and sevenhorned ; when every man sought to do what was right in his own eyes ; when the prisons were full of victims, when the churches were full of mummeries — there rose a wraith, unexpected, unprecedented in the history of the nation, perhaps of the world, and said, " Well, then, you must settle your account with me !" That quaint, broad-hatted majesty of our old folio histories was, without a doubt, the Pathfinder of his nation in that age. " Pray, Mr. Hampden," said Sir Philip Warwick, when Cromwell had been rather more forcible than usual, " who is that sloren who spoke just now ; for I see he

CONFLICTING THEORIES OF CROMWELL'S LIFE. 19

is on our side, by his speaking so warmly." " That sloven whom you see before you, and who hath no ornament in his speech — that sloven, I say, if we should ever come to a breach with the king, which God forbid — that sloven, I say, will be, in that case, the greatest man in England." For he was a true Pathfinder. He had a gift of simplicity as great as that finest creation of the American novelist, and an insight of wonderful power ; as one set down in the depth of a wilderness, where there seems to be no way, and is able to discover the thin, faint trail, and to detect the burning eyes of the savage where no life seemed to rustle beneath the tree. This was his gift : prescience beyond the lot of mortals. This, like the scabbard of the good sword Excalibur, was more to him than the sword itself ; its hilt was armed with eyes.

Vain, then, is the employment to ask : Is this man great ? — and vain to contest his sovereignty and his grandeur. Very vain. You say, indeed, * ' What do you here, farmer that you are ; what do you here in the gallery of kings ?" Thus when w^e have climbed old Helvellyn, and had reached the height of its three thousand feet, we found ourselves amid a sanhedrim of crows and choughs — a sublime council of ravens ; and they said to the old hill, *' Art thou larger than we ? See, we perch upon thee, and peck on thee. Why art thou here '*? Sublimely stood the old mountain, the lightning-scathed crags in his sides bearing testimony to the thunder-strokes of ages, and seeming to say, *' Let it suffice : I am here." It is the same with Oliver. He rises in the English story like a Helvellyn, or a sublime Peak of Teneriffe, and says, " Let it suffice ; I am. here!'*

A few years since it would have sounded too bold if a writer, in introducing the great hero of the English Commonwealth to his readers, intimated his determination to attempt, in defending him, to throw new light round his position, to plead for his right to a lofty place in human estimation, and to assert the honesty and integrity of his manhood, and the value and the worth of the great work he performed. To say this

X>0 OLIVEIi riiOMWELL.

now is almost a matter of supererogation. The time has gone by when Oliver Cromwell needed any man's good word : the evidences of his life-long consistency of purpose, the grandeur and durability of his legislative genius surround us on all hands. Gradually, from many quarters of a most opposite kind, proof has been accumulating. The wisest, who have been disposed to fonn an opinion adverse to the great English IVotector, liavc confessed themselves compelled to pause before pronouncing ; others, again, have ransacked the archives uf state paper oflices, the heaps of dingy family letters and scrolls, every shred of paper bearing CHiver's name that could be brought to light has been jjroduced ; and the result is, that no name, perhaps, in all history stands forth so transparent and clear, so consistent throughout. It is the most royal name in English history, rivalling in its splendor that of Eliziibetli, the Edwards, and the llonrys ; outshining the j»roudest names of the NoHDan, the Hantagcnet, <>r the Tudor.

Doubtless, as we have oftru heard, great men are the outbirths of their time ; there is a providence in their appearance, they are not the product of chance ; they come, God-appointed, to do their work among men, and they are imniortal till their work is done. AVe should not, perhaj>s, speak so much of the absolute greatness of the men of one ago as compared with the men of another ; they are all equally fitted to the task of the day. Let the man who most hates the memory of Cromwell, ask not so much what the land and the law were with him, as what they nnist inevitably liavc been witliout him. llemovc the leading man from any time, and you break the liarmony of the time, you destroy the work of that age ; for an age cannot move without its great men — they inspire it, they urge it forward, they are its priests and its proj)hets and its monarchs. The hero of a time, therefore, is the history of a time ; lie is the focus where influences are gathered, and from whence they shoot out. It has been said that all institutions are the projected shadow of some great man, he has absorbed all the light of his time in himself ; perhaps he has not created,

yet now he throws forth light from l.us name, clear, steady, practical light, that shall travel over a century ; his name shall he the synonym of an epoch, and shall inchidc all the events of that age. Thus it is with Cromwell ; hence, very happily, the time of the Commonwealth has been called the Cromwclliad.