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In this extremity he left that City in disguise on the 27 day of April, Anno 1646. and on the fourth of May put himself into the hands of the Scots, then lying at the siege of Newark. After the taking of which Town, they carri∣ed him to Newcastle, and there kept him under a Restraint.
The news hereof being brought to Oxford, and seconded by the coming
of the whole Army of Sir Thomas Fair∣fax, who laid siege unto it, disposed the Lords of the Council, and such of the principall Gentry who had the conduct of the Affair, to come to a speedy Com∣position. According whereunto, that City was surrendered on Midsomer day; James Duke of York the Kings second Son, together with the Great Seal, Pri∣vy Seal, and Signet, were delivered up into the hands of the enemy: by whom the young Duke was sent to Westminster, and kept in the House of S. James under a Gard with his Bro∣ther and Sisters; the Seals being carried into the House of Peers, and there broke in pieces.
But long these young Princes were not kept together under that restraint, the Princess Henrietta being in a short time after conveyed into France by the Lady Dalkieth; and the Duke of York, attired in the habit of a young Lady transported into Holland by one Captain Bamfield.
The Scots in the meane time being
desirous to make even with their Ma∣sters, to receive the wages of their ini∣quity, and to get home in safety, with that spoil and plunder which they had gotten in their marching and remarch∣ing betwixt Tweed and Hereford, had not the patience to attend the leisure of any more voluntary surrendries They there∣fore pressed the King to give order to the Marquesse of Ormond in Ireland, and to all the Governours of his Garrisons in England, to give up all the Towns and Castles which remained untaken, to such as should be appointed to receive them for the Houses of Parliament, assuring him that otherwise they neither could nor durst continue him in their protecti∣on.
To this necessity he submitted, but found not such a generall obedience to his commands as the Scots expected. For not the Marquesse of Ormand one∣ly, but many of the Governours of Towns and Castles in England conside∣red him as being under a constraint and speaking rather the sense of others then
his own; upon which grounds they con∣tinued still upon their guard, in hope of better times or of better conditi∣ons.
But nothing was more hotly pressed by the Scots, then that the Marquesse of Montrosse should lay down his Com∣mission, who with small strength in the beginning, and inconsiderable for∣ces when they were at the best, had acted things in Scotland even unto ad∣miration. For besides many victories of lesse consequence, he had twice bea∣ten the Marquesse of Argile out of the field, followed him home, and wasted his Countrey with Fire and Sword. He vanquisht Baily, one of the best Soul∣diers of the Faction, commanding over a well-formed Army in a set battell fought between them; followed his blow, and made himself Master of the City and Castle of Edenburgh, relea∣sing divers of his Friends who had been seized and imprisoned there when he first took Arms. Had the Lord Digby's Horse come to him, he had not onely
perfected, but assured the conquest of that Kingdome. But instead of those aids which he expected, he was unex∣pectedly set upon, and his whole Army broken by David Lesley, sent from the Scots Army in England with six thousand Horse to oppose the progresse of his fortune; whose coming being known to the Earl of Roxborow and Traquair, (in whom the King continued still his wonted confidence) was purposely concealed from him; to the end that he being once suppressed, and in him the Kings power destroyed in Scotland, they might be sure from being called to an account of their former Treasons: however he began to make head again, and was in a way of well-doing, when he received the Kings command to disband his Forces; to which he readily conformed, took ship, and put himself into a voluntary exile.
These Obstacles removed, his Maje∣sty conceived some thoughts of find∣ing Sanctuary in Scotland, the Scots
having first assured him, (as he signifi∣ed by Letter to the Marquesse of Or∣mond) before he put himself into their hands, that they would not onely take his person, but so many of his party al∣so as repaired unto him, into their pro∣tection, and stand to him with their lives and fortune. According to which hopes on his part, and those assurances on theirs, he had a great mind to return to his Native Countrey, his Ancient and Native Kingdome, as he used to call it, there to expect the bettering of his condition in the changes of time.
But the Scots hearing of his purpose, and having long ago cast off the yoke of Subjection, voted against his com∣ing to them in a full Assembly; so that we may affirm of him as the Scripture doth of Christ our Saviour, viz. He came unto his own, and his own recei∣ved him not. The like resolution also was entertained by the Commissio∣ners of that Nation, and the chiefe Leaders of their Army, who had con∣tracted
with the Houses of Parliament, and for the summe of two hundred thou∣sand pounds in ready money, sold and betrayed him into the hands of his Ene∣mies, as certainly they would have done with the Lord Christ himself for halfe the money, if he had bowed the Heavens and came down to visit them.
By the Commissioners sent from the Houses to receive him, he was condu∣cted to Holdenby a fair house of his own, and one of the goodliest Piles in Eng∣land, scituate not far from Naseby, (to the intent that he might be continually grieved with the sight of the fatall place of his overthrow) but kept so close that none of his Domestick servants, no, not so much as any of his own Chaplains were suffered to have Accesse unto him.
In the mean time a breach began be∣twixt the Presbyterian Party in both Houses and some chief Officers of the Army, which growing every day wi∣der and wider, one Cornet Joice,
with a considerable party of Horse, was sent to seize on his Majesties Person, and bring him safe to their head Quar∣ters. There at the first he was recei∣ved with all possible demonstrations of Love and Duty, some of his Chaplains licensed to repair unto him, and read the Book of Common-Prayer, as in former times, and the way open to all those of his party who desired to see him.
This made the Animosities between those of the two Houses and the Army to be far greater then before, the City closing with that party of the Houses which desired the Kings coming to the Parliament, and going down in a tu∣multuous manner required the present voting of a Personal Treaty. This made the Speaker and such of both Houses, as either held for the Army, or had no mind to see the Kings Return to London, to quit the Parliament, and to betake themselves to their Protecti∣on; incouraged wherewith they resol∣ved upon their march towards London,
to restore those members to their Hou∣ses, and those Houses to the Power and Freedom of Parliaments. Upon the noise of whose Approach, the Ci∣tizens who before spake big, and had begun to raise an Army, under the Command of the Lord Willowby of Par∣ham, sent their Petitions for a peace, and gladly opened all their works be∣tween Hide-Park Corner and the Thames, to make an entrance for the Army; who having placed their Spea∣kers in their severall Chaires, and sup∣prest those of the opposite party, made a triumphant passage through the chief Streets of the City, with Trumpets sounding, Drums beating, and Colours flying.
The King removed from one place to another, was brought in the course of those Removes to Casam Lodge, an House of the Lord Cravens not far from Reading, where he obtained the favour of giving a meeting to his Chil∣dren at Maydenhith, and there they di∣ned together; the Generall willingly
consenting, and the Houses then not da∣ring to make any denyall.
From thence he was at last brought to his own Palace of Hampton Court, where being terrified with the Appre∣hension of some Dangers, which were given out to be designed against his per∣son by the Agitators, who for a time much governed the lower part of the Army, he left that place, accompanied onely with two or three of his servants, and put himself unfortunately into the power of Collonel Hammond in the Isle of Wight, where no relief could come unto him.
Being secured in Carisbrook Castle, Propositions are sent to him from the Houses of Parliament, as had been done before at Newcastle, and Holden∣by-House: to which he returned the same Answer now as he did before, their Demands being nothing bet∣tered, and his condition nothing worse then before it was. Provoked wherewith, the Houses past their Votes of Non-Addresses to his Majesty,
and take the Government upon them∣selves, as in the times of Ʋacancy and Inter-regnum in the State of Rome; wherein they were confirmed by a De∣claration from the Army, binding them∣selves to stand to them in defence of those Votes.
During the time of these restraints, he betook himself to meditation, and then composed that most excellent Book entituled 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or the Pourtraiture of his sacred Majesty in his Solitudes and Sufferings. The Honour of this work some mercenary Stick∣lers for the two Houses of Parliament have laboured to deprive him of, and to transfer it to some other, though they know not whom. But it is well known to all that knew him, that his Majesty had alwayes a fine stroke with his pen, which he practised at all times of leasure and recesse from businesse, from before his coming to the Crown, to these last extremities. By which means he became Master of a pure and elegant Stile, as both his intercepted
Letters, and those to Mr. Henderson at New-Castle in the point of Episcopacy (where he could have no other helps but what he found in himself) do most clearly evidence.