THE SCOTS CROSS THE BORDER. 413 IX. 1640. Aug. 20. command army. For the army thus hurriedly ordered to be got CHAP. together it was now necessary to find a commander. Northumberland had always been hopeless of any good result, and his health had now broken down Strafford to under the strain. There was but one man capable the English of occupying the post. With the title of LieutenantGeneral Strafford was to be placed at the head of the English army. It was finally arranged that Hamilton's mutinous men should be disbanded.2 The Irish army was to be left to shift for itself. The ruin in the North was to come under the hand of Strafford. Not that Strafford was in any way despondent. He utterly refused to believe that Newcastle was indefensible, or that the trained bands of the North would not rally to the King when once he was amongst them.3 sets out. cross the Tweed. On the morning of the 20th the King set out from The King London. That night the Scottish army, some 25,000 The Scots strong, crossed the Tweed at Coldstream. Montrose was the first to plunge into the river to lead the way. Leaving the garrison of Berwick on their flank, the Scots pushed steadily on. They issued a proclamation assuring the men of Northumberland that they would not take a chicken or a pot of ale without paying for it. They brought with them cattle and sheep for their immediate necessities. Spectators who watched the blue-bonneted host as it passed, wondered at its discipline, and stared at the Highlanders with their bows and arrows. Strafford, when all military force appeared to be melting away, had 1 It has often been suspected that this illness was a feint to escape the responsibility of commanding, but the letters amongst the State Papers leave no doubt of its reality. See especially Garrard to Conway, Oct. 6, S. P. Dom. 2 Windebank's Notes, Aug. 29, S. P. Dom. cccclxiv. 45. Baillie, i. 256. CHAP. 1640. Aug. 24. Feeling in Northumberland. Aug. 21 Confusion in London. Aug. 22. Money to be raised on pepper. encouraged himself with the hope that an invasion would open the eyes of his countrymen in the North to the reality of their danger. In Northumberland, at least, no such result was visible. "They," wrote Conway of the Scots, "deal very subtily. They hurt no man in any kind, they pay for what they take, so that the country doth give them all the assistance it can. Many of the country gentlemen do come to them, entertain and feast them." The calculated courtesy of the Scots was not without its exceptions. Estates of recusants, with the lands of the Bishop or the Chapter of Durham, were regarded as lawful prey, to which no mercy was to be shown. In London, after the King had left, everything was in confusion. "We are here, and in every place,' wrote Sir Nicholas Byron, "in such distraction as if the day of judgment were hourly expected." Charles's system of government had not been such as to gather round him men capable of taking the initiative in moments of peril. The Council was at its wits' end. The City, once more applied to, persisted in its refusal of a loan. At last an expedient was thought of which offered some relief for the immediate necessity. It was known that the East India Company had just received a large consignment of pepper. On the 22nd Cottington appeared before the Company, and offered to buy the whole at a price above that at which it was immediately saleable. The Company refused to deal with the King, but they agreed to accept the substantial securities of private persons for the payment of the money by instalments within a year. The general result was that by the end of the month 1 Conyers to Conway, Aug. 21. Conway to Vane, Aug. 22, 26, S. P. Dom. cccclxiv..60, 61, 84. 2 Byron to Conway, Aug. 21, S. P. Dom. cccclxiv. 63. 3 Windebank's Notes of Business, Aug. 22, S. P. Dom. cccclxiv. 45. PREPARATIONS FOR RESISTANCE. 415 IX. Cottington saw his way to the receipt of 50,000l., advanced upon interest at the rate of 16 per cent., about double the rate at which money was usually Aug. 22. attainable.1 66 3 1640. Aug. 23. The King Aug. 24. Strafford's It might well be doubted whether even this provision would arrive in time. When the King reached York on the 23rd, his first thought was to urge upon at York. the Council his need of money. Certainly," he wrote on the 27th, "if ye send us none or little, the rebels will beat us without striking a stroke."2 Amidst the universal discouragement, Strafford's voice was alone raised in calm assurance. The actual invasion of the Scots, he said, was more to the King's ad- confidence. vantage than should have been had we been the aggressors.' The English army, too, would be at Newcastle before the Scots, and so secure the place.' If Strafford was over-sanguine, his hopes were not entirely without foundation. The county of The DurDurham offered to turn out its trained bands, and to Yorkshire send 2,000 men to defend the fords of the Tyne. the 24th the King collected round him the lords and gentry of Yorkshire, and adjured them to form a second line of defence on the Tees. In the presence of their Sovereign the gentlemen of Yorkshire laid aside their grievances for a time, and offered to follow where he should lead, within the county, on the receipt of a fortnight's pay. "I must tell you," wrote Vane, "had not his Majesty been in person, I do not conceive it had been possible to have induced this county to have risen by any other means, so great was the distemper when his Majesty arrived here; and by On 1 E. I. C. Court Minutes, Aug. 22, 26. Warrant, March? 1641. S. P. Dom. 2 The King to Windebank, Aug. 23, 27, Clar. St. P. ii. 91, 92. 3 Strafford to Cottington, Aug. 24, S. P. Dom. cccclxiv. 86. ham and trained bands. CHAP. 1640. Aug. 24. Time wanting to the King. this you see that the person of a king is always worth 20,000 men at a pinch." Encouraged by the example of Yorkshire, Charles ordered that the nine counties lying nearest to the southern border of that county should be summoned to send their trained bands to the common defence.1 In the meanwhile, the Council was not idle in London. So great did the danger appear, that they appointed Cottington Constable of the Tower, to prepare that fortress to stand a siege. Arundel was appointed Captain-General of all his Majesty's forces to the south of the Trent, and was directed to put into execution the Commission of Array, calling out a levy of all able-bodied men to the defence of the country.2 It was all too late. Time would in any case have been needed to weld these heterogeneous elements into a disciplined army, and time was not even allowed to unite the forces which Charles already had at his disposal. The Scots were hastening their march, in spite of the heavy rains which had soaked the roads and impeded their progress. Over the King's army there was no commander present, except himself. Strafford had been delayed by necessary preparations in London, and had been overtaken at Huntington by an attack of his old disease. In spite of failing health Aug 27 he pushed on to the scene of duty. On the 27th he was at the King's side at York, adjuring the Yorkshire gentry to give up their demand of a fortnight's pay. They were bound by their allegiance, he said, to follow his Majesty to resist invasion at their own costs; 'bound,' he repeated, by the common law of England, Strafford's appeal to Yorkshire. 1 Yorkshire Petition, Aug. 24, Rushw. iii. 1231. Vane to Windebank, Aug. 25, S. P. Dom. cccclxiv. 95. 2 Windebank's Notes, Aug. 25, 26, S. P. Dom. cccclxiv. 94. Order for the Commission of Array, Aug. 26, Rushw. iii. 1,233. CONWAY AND ASTLEY AT NEWCASTLE. 417 IX. by the law of nature, and by the law of reason.' They CHAP. were no better than beasts if they now hung back.1 1640. Worn out by fatigue and disease, Strafford had made his last effort for a time. He would gladly have hurried to the front, but his bodily weakness chained him to York. Racked with pain, he sent off an impatient letter to Conway, bidding him to defend to defend the passage of the Tyne at any cost.2 Urges Conway the Tyne. Conway When Strafford's letter reached Conway, it found Aug. 27. him in no mood to undertake anything heroic. Hav- despairs. ing been on the spot for some months, he had taken a truer measure of the military position. Astley had hurried up to Newcastle, and for some days the inhabitants had been labouring hard at the necessary fortifications. But there was no chance that the work would be completed before the Scots arrived. To meet the Scots in the field he was totally unprepared. It was true that by this time the two armies were about equal in numbers. But even if the composition of the two forces had been equal, the Royal army was too scattered to make resistance. Twelve thousand foot and five hundred horse were with the King at York. Ten thousand foot and two thousand 1 Strafford's Speech, Aug. 27, Rushw. ii. 1,235. 2 Strafford to Conway, Aug. 27, Clar. St. P. ii. 107. VOL. I. EE |