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Memoirs of a Cavalier
by Daniel Defoe
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The enemy going now on in a full current of success, and the king reduced to the last extremity, and Fairfax, by long marches, being come back within five miles of Oxford, his Majesty, loth to be cooped up in a town which could on no account hold long out, quits the town in a disguise, leaving Sir Thomas Clemham governor, and being only attended with Mr Ashburnham and one more, rides away to Newark, and there fatally committed himself to the honour and fidelity of the Scots under General Leven.

There had been some little bickering between the Parliament and the Scots commissioners concerning the propositions which the Scots were for a treaty with the king upon, and the Parliament refused it. The Parliament, upon all proposals of peace, had formerly invited the king to come and throw himself upon the honour, fidelity, and affection of his Parliament. And now the king from Oxford offering to come up to London on the protection of the Parliament for the safety of his person, they refused him, and the Scots differed from them in it, and were for a personal treaty.

This, in our opinion, was the reason which prompted the king to throw himself upon the fidelity of the Scots, who really by their infidelity had been the ruin of all his affairs, and now, by their perfidious breach of honour and faith with him, will be virtually and mediately the ruin of his person.

The Scots were, as all the nation besides them was, surprised at the king's coming among them; the Parliament began very high with them, and send an order to General Leven to send the king to Warwick Castle; but he was not so hasty to part with so rich a prize. As soon as the king came to the general, he signs an order to Colonel Bellasis, the governor of Newark, to surrender it, and immediately the Scots decamp homewards, carrying the king in the camp with them, and marching on, a house was ordered to be provided for the king at Newcastle.

And now the Parliament saw their error, in refusing his Majesty a personal treaty, which, if they had accepted (their army was not yet taught the way of huffing their masters), the kingdom might have been settled in peace. Upon this the Parliament send to General Leven to have his Majesty not be sent, which was their first language, but be suffered to come to London to treat with his Parliament; before it was, "Let the king be sent to Warwick Castle"; now 'tis, "To let his Majesty come to London to treat with his people."

But neither one or the other would do with the Scots; but we who knew the Scots best knew that there was one thing would do with them, if the other would not, and that was money; and therefore our hearts ached for the king.

The Scots, as I said, had retreated to Newcastle with the king, and there they quartered their whole army at large upon the country; the Parliament voted they had no farther occasion for the Scots, and desired them to go home about their business. I do not say it was in these words, but in whatsoever good words their messages might be expressed, this and nothing less was the English of it. The Scots reply, by setting forth their losses, damages, and dues, the substance of which was, "Pay us our money and we will be gone, or else we won't stir." The Parliament call for an account of their demands, which the Scots give in, amounting to a million; but, according to their custom, and especially finding that the army under Fairfax inclined gradually that way, fall down to L500,000, and at last to L400,000; but all the while this is transacting a separate treaty is carried on at London with the commissioners of Scotland, and afterwards at Edinburgh, by which it is given them to understand that, whereas upon payment of the money, the Scots army is to march out of England, and to give up all the towns and garrisons which they hold in this kingdom, so they are to take it for granted that 'tis the meaning of the treaty that they shall leave the king in the hands of the English Parliament.

To make this go down the better, the Scotch Parliament, upon his Majesty's desire to go with their army into Scotland, send him for answer, that it cannot be for the safety of his Majesty or of the State to come into Scotland, not having taken the Covenant, and this was carried in their Parliament but by two voices.

The Scots having refused his coming into Scotland, as was concerted between the two Houses, and their army being to march out of England, the delivering up the king became a consequence of the thing—unavoidable, and of necessity.

His Majesty, thus deserted of those into whose hands he had thrown himself, took his leave of the Scots general at Newcastle, telling him only, in few words, this sad truth, that he was bought and sold. The Parliament commissioners received him at Newcastle from the Scots, and brought him to Holmby House, in Northamptonshire; from whence, upon the quarrels and feuds of parties, he was fetched by a party of horse, commanded by one Cornet Joyce, from the army, upon their mutinous rendezvous at Triplow Heath; and, after this, suffering many violences and varieties of circumstances among the army, was carried to Hampton Court, from whence his Majesty very readily made his escape; but not having notice enough to provide effectual means for his more effectual deliverance, was obliged to deliver himself to Colonel Hammond in the Isle of Wight. Here, after some very indifferent usage, the Parliament pursued a farther treaty with him, and all points were agreed but two: the entire abolishing Episcopacy, which the king declared to be against his conscience and his coronation oath; and the sale of the Church lands, which he declared, being most of them gifts to God and the Church, by persons deceased, his Majesty thought could not be alienated without the highest sacrilege, and if taken from the uses to which they were appointed by the wills of the donors, ought to be restored back to the heirs and families of the persons who bequeathed them.

And these two articles so stuck with his Majesty, that he ventured his fortune, and royal family, and his own life for them. However, at last, the king condescended so far in these, that the Parliament voted his Majesty's concessions to be sufficient to settle and establish the peace of the nation.

This vote discovered the bottom of all the counsels which then prevailed; for the army, who knew if peace were once settled, they should be undone, took the alarm at this, and clubbing together in committees and councils, at last brought themselves to a degree of hardness above all that ever this nation saw; for calling into question the proceedings of their masters who employed them, they immediately fall to work upon the Parliament, remove Colonel Hammond, who had the charge of the king, and used him honourably, place a new guard upon him, dismiss the commissioners, and put a stop to the treaty; and, following their blow, march to London, place regiments of foot at the Parliament-house door, and, as the members came up, seize upon all those whom they had down in a list as promoters of the settlement and treaty, and would not suffer them to sit; but the rest who, being of their own stamp, are permitted to go on, carry on the designs of the army, revive their votes of non-addresses to the king, and then, upon the army's petition to bring all delinquents to justice, the mask was thrown off, the word all is declared to be meant the king, as well as every man else they pleased. 'Tis too sad a story, and too much a matter of grief to me, and to all good men, to renew the blackness of those days, when law and justice was under the feet of power; the army ruled the Parliament, the private officers their generals, the common soldiers their officers, and confusion was in every part of the government. In this hurry they sacrificed their king, and shed the blood of the English nobility without mercy.

The history of the times will supply the particulars which I omit, being willing to confine myself to my own accounts and observations. I was now no more an actor, but a melancholy observator of the misfortunes of the times. I had given my parole not to take up arms against the Parliament, and I saw nothing to invite me to engage on their side. I saw a world of confusion in all their counsels, and I always expected that in a chain of distractions, as it generally falls out, the last link would be destruction; and though I pretended to no prophecy, yet the progress of affairs have brought it to pass, and I have seen Providence, who suffered, for the correction of this nation, the sword to govern and devour us, has at last brought destruction by the sword upon the head of most of the party who first drew it.

* * * * *

If together with the brief account of what concern I had in the active part of the war, I leave behind me some of my own remarks and observations, it may be pertinent enough to my design, and not unuseful to posterity.

1. I observed by the sequel of things that it may be some excuse to the first Parliament, who began this war, to say that they manifested their designs were not aimed at the monarchy, nor their quarrel at the person of the king; because, when they had in their power, though against his will, they would have restored both his person and dignity as a king, only loading it with such clogs of the people's power as they at first pretended to, viz., the militia, and power of naming the great officers at court, and the like; which powers, it was never denied, had been stretched too far in the beginning of this king's reign, and several things done illegally, which his Majesty had been sensible of, and was willing to rectify; but they having obtained the power by victory, resolved so to secure themselves, as that, whenever they laid down their arms, the king should not be able to do the like again. And thus far they were not to be so much blamed, and we did not on our own part blame them, when they had obtained the power, for parting with it on good terms.

But when I have thus far advocated for the enemies, I must be very free to state the crimes of this bloody war by the events of it. 'Tis manifest there were among them from the beginning a party who aimed at the very root of the government, and at the very thing which they brought to pass, viz., the deposing and murdering of their sovereign; and, as the devil is always master where mischief is the work, this party prevailed, turned the other out of doors, and overturned all that little honesty that might be in the first beginning of this unhappy strife.

The consequence of this was, the Presbyterians saw their error when it was too late, and then would gladly have joined the royal party to have suppressed this new leaven which had infected the lump; and this is very remarkable, that most of the first champions of this war who bore the brunt of it, when the king was powerful and prosperous, and when there was nothing to be got by it but blows, first or last, were so ill used by this independent, powerful party, who tripped up the heels of all their honesty, that they were either forced by ill treatment to take up arms on our side, or suppressed and reduced by them. In this the justice of Providence seemed very conspicuous, that these having pushed all things by violence against the king, and by arms and force brought him to their will, were at once both robbed of the end, their Church government, and punished for drawing their swords against their masters, by their own servants drawing the sword against them; and God, in His due time, punished the others too. And what was yet farther strange, the punishment of this crime of making war against their king, singled out those very men, both in the army and in the Parliament, who were the greatest champions of the Presbyterian cause in the council and in the field. Some minutes, too, of circumstances I cannot forbear observing, though they are not very material, as to the fatality and revolutions of days and times. A Roman Catholic gentleman of Lancashire, a very religious man in his way, who had kept a calculate of times, and had observed mightily the fatality of times, places, and actions, being at my father's house, was discoursing once upon the just judgment of God in dating His providences, so as to signify to us His displeasure at particular circumstances; and, among an infinite number of collections he had made, these were some which I took particular notice of, and from whence I began to observe the like:—

1. That King Edward VI. died the very same day of the same month in which he caused the altar to be taken down, and the image of the Blessed Virgin in the Cathedral of St Paul's.

2. That Cranmer was burnt at Oxford the same day and month that he gave King Henry VIII. advice to divorce his Queen Catherine.

3. That Queen Elizabeth died the same day and month that she resolved, in her Privy Council, to behead the Queen of Scots.

4. That King James died the same day that he published his book against Bellarmine.

5. That King Charles's long Parliament, which ruined him, began the very same day and month which that Parliament began, that at the request of his predecessor robbed the Roman Church of all her revenues, and suppressed abbeys and monasteries.

How just his calculations were, or how true the matter of fact, I cannot tell, but it put me upon the same in several actions and successes of this war. And I found a great many circumstances, as to time or action, which befell both his Majesty and his parties first;

Then others which befell the Parliament and Presbyterian faction, which raised the war;

Then the Independent tyranny which succeeded and supplanted the first party;

Then the Scots who acted on both sides;

Lastly, the restoration and re-establishment of the loyalty and religion of our ancestors.

1. For King Charles I.; 'tis observable, that the charge against the Earl of Strafford, a thing which his Majesty blamed himself for all the days of his life, and at the moment of his last suffering, was first read in the Lords' House on the 30th of January, the same day of the month six years that the king himself was brought to the block.

2. That the king was carried away prisoner from Newark, by the Scots, May 10, the same day six years that, against his conscience and promise, he passed the bill of attainder against the loyal, noble Earl of Strafford.

3. The same day seven years that the king entered the House of Commons for the five members, which all his friends blamed him for, the same day the Rump voted bringing his Majesty to trial, after they had set by the Lords for not agreeing to it, which was the 3rd of January 1648.

4. The 12th of May 1646, being the surrender of Newark, the Parliament held a day of thanksgiving and rejoicing, for the reduction of the king and his party, and finishing the war, which was the same day five years that the Earl of Strafford was beheaded.

5. The battle at Naseby, which ruined the king's affairs, and where his secretary and his office was taken, was the 14th of June, the same day and month the first commission was given out by his Majesty to raise forces.

6. The queen voted a traitor by the Parliament the 3rd of May, the same day and month she carried the jewels into France.

7. The same day the king defeated Essex in the west, his son, King Charles II., was defeated at Worcester.

8. Archbishop Laud's house at Lambeth assaulted by the mob, the same day of the same month that he advised the king to make war upon the Scots.

9. Impeached the 15th of December 1640, the same day twelvemonth that he ordered the Common Prayer-book of Scotland to be printed, in order to be imposed upon the Scots, from which all our troubles began.

But many more, and more strange, are the critical junctures of affairs in the case of the enemy, or at least more observed by me:—

1. Sir John Hotham, who repulsed his Majesty and refused him admittance into Hull before the war, was seized at Hull by the same Parliament for whom he had done it, the same 10th day of August two years that he drew the first blood in that war.

2. Hampden of Buckinghamshire killed the same day one year that the mob petition from Bucks was presented to the king about him, as one of the five members.

3. Young Captain Hotham executed the 1st of January, the same day that he assisted Sir Thomas Fairfax in the first skirmish with the king's forces at Bramham Moor.

4. The same day and month, being the 6th of August 1641, that the Parliament voted to raise an army against the king, the same day and month, anno 1648, the Parliament were assaulted and turned out of doors by that very army, and none left to sit but who the soldiers pleased, which were therefore called the Rump.

5. The Earl of Holland deserted the king, who had made him general of the horse, and went over to the Parliament, and the 9th of March 1641, carried the Commons' reproaching declaration to the king; and afterwards taking up arms for the king against the Parliament, was beheaded by them the 9th of March 1648, just seven years after.

6. The Earl of Holland was sent by the king to come to his assistance and refused, the 11th of July 1641, and that very day seven years after was taken by the Parliament at St Neots.

7. Colonel Massey defended Gloucester against the king, and beat him off the 5th of September 1643; was taken after by Cromwell's men fighting for the king, on the 5th of September 1651, two or three days after the fight at Worcester.

8. Richard Cromwell resigning, because he could not help it, the Parliament voted a free Commonwealth, without a single person or House of Lords. This was the 25th of May 1658; the 25th of May 1660, the king landed at Dover, and restored the government of a single person and House of Lords.

9. Lambert was proclaimed a traitor by the Parliament April the 20th, being the same day he proposed to Oliver Cromwell to take upon him the title of king.

10. Monk being taken prisoner at Nantwich by Sir Thomas Fairfax, revolted to the Parliament the same day nineteen years he declared for the king, and thereby restored the royal authority.

11. The Parliament voted to approve of Sir John Hotham's repulsing the king at Hull, the 28th of April 1642; the 28th of April 1660, the Parliament first debated in the House the restoring the king to the crown.

12. The agitators of the army formed themselves into a cabal, and held their first meeting to seize on the king's person, and take him into their custody from Holmby, the 28th of April 1647; the same day, 1660, the Parliament voted the agitators to be taken into custody, and committed as many of them as could be found.

13. The Parliament voted the queen a traitor for assisting her husband, the king, May the 3rd, 1643; her son, King Charles II., was presented with the votes of Parliament to restore him, and the present of L50,000, the 3rd of May 1660.

14. The same day the Parliament passed the Act for recognition of Oliver Cromwell, October 13th, 1654, Lambert broke up the Parliament and set up the army, 1659, October the 13th.

Some other observations I have made, which, as not so pertinent, I forbear to publish, among which I have noted the fatality of some days to parties, as—

The 2nd of September: The fight at Dunbar; the fight at Worcester; the oath against a single person passed; Oliver's first Parliament called. For the enemy.

The 2nd of September: Essex defeated in Cornwall; Oliver died; city works demolished. For the king.

The 29th of May: Prince Charles born; Leicester taken by storm; King Charles II. restored. Ditto.

Fatality of circumstances in this unhappy war, as—

1. The English Parliament call in the Scots, to invade their king, and are invaded themselves by the same Scots, in defence of the king whose case, and the design of the Parliament, the Scots had mistaken.

2. The Scots, who unjustly assisted the Parliament to conquer their lawful sovereign, contrary to their oath of allegiance, and without any pretence on the king's part, are afterwards absolutely conquered and subdued by the same Parliament they assisted.

3. The Parliament, who raised an army to depose their king, deposed by the very army they had raised.

4. The army broke three Parliaments, and are at last broke by a free Parliament; and all they had done by the military power, undone at once by the civil.

5. Abundance of the chief men, who by their fiery spirits involved the nation in a civil war, and took up arms against their prince, first or last met with ruin or disgrace from their own party.

(1.) Sir John Hotham and his son, who struck the first stroke, both beheaded or hanged by the Parliament.

(2.) Major-General Massey three times taken prisoner by them, and once wounded at Worcester.

(3.) Major-General Langhorn, (4.) Colonel Poyer, and (5.) Colonel Powell, changed sides, and at last taken, could obtain no other favour than to draw lots for their lives; Colonel Poyer drew the dead lot, and was shot to death.

(6.) Earl of Holland: who, when the House voted who should be reprieved, Lord Goring, who had been their worst enemy, or the Earl of Holland, who excepting one offence, had been their constant servant, voted Goring to be spared, and the Earl to die.

(7.) The Earl of Essex, their first general;

(8.) Sir William Waller;

(9.) Lieutenant-General Ludlow;

(10.) The Earl of Manchester;

—all disgusted and voted out of the army, though they had stood the first shock of the war, to make way for the new model of the army, and introduce a party.

* * * * *

In all these confusions I have observed two great errors, one of the king, and one of his friends.

Of the king, that when he was in their custody, and at their mercy, he did not comply with their propositions of peace, before their army, for want of employment, fell into heats and mutinies; that he did not at first grant the Scots their own conditions, which, if he had done, he had gone into Scotland; and then, if the English would have fought the Scots for him, he had a reserve of his loyal friends, who would have had room to have fallen in with the Scots to his assistance, who were after dispersed and destroyed in small parties attempting to serve him.

While his Majesty remained at Newcastle, the queen wrote to him, persuading him to make peace upon any terms; and in politics her Majesty's advice was certainly the best. For, however low he was brought by a peace, it must have been better than the condition he was then in.

The error I mention of the king's friends was this, that after they saw all was lost, they could not be content to sit still, and reserve themselves for better fortunes, and wait the happy time when the divisions of the enemy would bring them to certain ruin; but must hasten their own miseries by frequent fruitless risings, in the face of a victorious enemy, in small parties; and I always found these effects from it:—

1. The enemy, who were always together by the ears, when they were let alone, were united and reconciled when we gave them any interruption; as particularly, in the case of the first assault the army made upon them, when Colonel Pride, with his regiment, garbled the House, as they called it. At that time a fair opportunity offered; but it was omitted till it was too late. That insult upon the House had been attempted the year before, but was hindered by the little insurrection of the royal party, and the sooner they had fallen out, the better.

2. These risings being desperate, with vast disadvantages, and always suppressed, ruined all our friends; the remnants of the Cavaliers were lessened, the stoutest and most daring were cut off, and the king's interest exceedingly weakened, there not being less than 30,000 of his best friends cut off in the several attempts made at Maidstone, Colchester, Lancashire, Pembroke, Pontefract, Kingston, Preston, Warrington, Worcester, and other places. Had these men all reserved their fortunes to a conjunction with the Scots, at either of the invasions they made into this kingdom, and acted with the conduct and courage they were known masters of, perhaps neither of those Scots armies had been defeated.

But the impatience of our friends ruined all; for my part, I had as good a mind to put my hand to the ruin of the enemy as any of them, but I never saw any tolerable appearance of a force able to match the enemy, and I had no mind to be beaten and then hanged. Had we let them alone, they would have fallen into so many parties and factions, and so effectually have torn one another to pieces, that whichsoever party had come to us, we should, with them, have been too hard for all the rest.

This was plain by the course of things afterwards; when the Independent army had ruffled the Presbyterian Parliament, the soldiery of that party made no scruple to join us, and would have restored the king with all their hearts, and many of them did join us at last.

And the consequence, though late, ended so; for they fell out so many times, army and Parliament, Parliament and army, and alternately pulled one another down so often till at last the Presbyterians who began the war, ended it, and, to be rid of their enemies, rather than for any love to the monarchy, restored King Charles the Second, and brought him in on the very day that they themselves had formerly resolved the ruin of his father's government, being the 29th of May, the same day twenty years that the private cabal in London concluded their secret league with the Scots, to embroil his father King Charles the First.

[Footnote 1: General Ludlow, in his Memoirs, p. 52, says their men returned from Warwick to London, not like men who had obtained a victory, but like men that had been beaten.]



NOTES.

p. 1. The preface to the first edition, which appeared in 1720, was written by Defoe as "Editor" of the manuscript. The second edition appeared between 1740 and 1750, after the death of Defoe. (He was probably born in 1671 and he died in 1731.) In the preface to that edition it was argued that the Cavalier was certainly a real person.

p. 2, l. 35. "Nicely" is here used in the stricter and more uncommon sense of "minutely." This use of words in a slightly different sense from their common modern significance will be noticed frequently; cf. p. 8, l. 17 "passionately," p. 18, l. 40 "refined," p. 31, l. 18 "particular."

p. 3, l. 3. Charles XII the famous soldier king of Sweden died in 1718.

p. 3, l. 31. Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, was one of the staunchest supporters of Charles I, and Chancellor under Charles II. His History of the Rebellion is naturally written from the Royalist standpoint. This statement concerning "the editors" can only be intended by Defoe to give colour of truth to his story of the manuscript.

p. 10, l. 17. England had been nominally at war with Spain since the beginning of the reign of Charles I. Peace was actually made in 1630.

p. 12, l. 3. A pistole was a gold coin used chiefly in France and Spain. Its value varied but it was generally worth about fifteen or sixteen shillings.

p. 14, l. 5. Cardinal Richelieu, one of the greatest statesmen of the seventeenth century, was practically supreme in France during the reign of Louis XIII.

p. 14, l. 16. The cause of the war with Savoy is told at length on page 23. Savoy being the frontier province between France and Italy it was important that France should maintain her influence there.

p. 14, l. 18. Pinerolo was a frontier fortress.

p. 14, l. 36. The queen-mother was Mary de Medicis who had been regent during the minority of Louis XIII.

p. 15, l. 3. The Protestants or Huguenots of Southern France had been tolerated since 1598 but Richelieu deprived them of many of their privileges.

p. 15, l. 21. In 1625 when England was in alliance with France English ships had been joined with the French fleet to reduce la Rochelle, the great stronghold of Protestantism in Southern France.

p. 16, l. 7. The Louvre, now famous as a picture gallery and museum, was formerly one of the palaces of the French Kings.

p. 17, l. 16. The Bastille was the famous prison destroyed in 1789 at the outbreak of the French Revolution.

p. 18, l. 13. In the seventeenth century Italy was still divided into several states each with its own prince.

p. 18, l. 22. Susa was another Savoyard fortress.

p. 19, l. 17. A halberd was a weapon consisting of a long wooden shaft surmounted by an axe-like head.

p. 21, l. 30. The Cantons were the political divisions of Switzerland.

p. 23, l. 7. Casale, a strong town on the Po.

p. 25, l. 14. A dragoon was a cavalry soldier armed with an infantry firearm and trained to fight on foot as well as on horseback.

p. 27, l. 25. Saluzzo a town S.E. of Pinerolo.

p. 29, l. 12. This truce prepared for the definite "Peace of Cherasco," April 1631, which confirmed the Duchy of Mantua to the Duke of Nevers but left only Pinerolo in the hands of the French.

p. 31, l. 12. This refers to the Treaty of Baerwalde, 1631, by which Gustavus Adolphus promised to consider the interests of the French (who were the natural enemies of the Empire).

p. 31, l. 16. In 1628 the Duke of Pomerania had been obliged to put his coast line under the care of the imperial troops. In attacking it therefore in 1639 Gustavus Adolphus was aiming a blow at the Emperor and obtaining a good basis for further conquests.

p. 31, l. 25. Gazette is the old name for newspaper.

p. 33, l. 12. Bavaria was the chief Catholic State not under the direct government of the Emperor. Maximilian, its elector, was appointed head of the Catholic League which was formed in 1609 in opposition to the Protestant Union which had been formed in 1608.

p. 33, l. 20. By the end of the sixteenth century the Turks had advanced far into Europe, had detached half of Hungary from the Emperor's dominions and made him pay tribute for the other half. During the seventeenth century, however, they were slowly driven back.

p. 33, l. 37. In 1628 the two Dukes of Mecklenburg had been "put to the ban" by the Emperor for having given help to Christian of Denmark who had taken up the cause of the Protestants.

p. 34, l. 10. Gustavus Adolphus had been at war with Poland from 1617 to 1629.

p. 34, l. 30. This was not a treaty of active alliance. Both John George of Saxony and George William of Brandenburg were Protestant princes but they were at first anxious to maintain neutrality between Sweden and the Emperor. The impolitic action of Ferdinand drove them to join Gustavus Adolphus in 1631.

p. 34, l. 33. The German Diet was the meeting of the German princes to consult on imperial matters. Ratisbon is one of the chief towns of Bavaria.

p. 35, l. 17. The story of Magdeburg is told on p. 42.

p. 36, l. 1. Count Tilly was a Bavarian General of genius who had been put at the head of the forces of the Catholic League in 1609.

p. 36, l. 31. The Protestant Union formed in 1608 had been forced to dissolve itself in 1621.

p. 37, l. 5. Wallenstein is one of the greatest generals and the most interesting figure in seventeenth century history. A Bohemian by birth he fought for the Emperor with an army raised by himself.

p. 37, l. 16. The Conclusions of Leipsic are described on p. 39.

p. 38, l. 29. The King of Hungary was Ferdinand (afterwards Ferdinand III) son of Ferdinand II. The "King of the Romans" was a title bestowed on the person who was destined to become Emperor. (The Empire was elective but tended to become hereditary.)

p. 39, l. 39. The Peace of Augsburg, 1555, had been intended to settle the differences between the Lutherans and Catholics but it had left many problems unsolved.

p. 42, l. 21. The Protestant bishopric of Magdeburg had been forcibly restored to the Catholics in 1629. In 1631 the citizens of their own accord, relying on Swedish help, declared against the Emperor.

p. 47, l. 40. Torgau, a strongly fortified town in Saxony.

p. 57, l. 37. The Prince of Orange at this time was William II who married Mary, daughter of Charles I.

p. 59, l. 3. Except for the date, which should be 17th of September, and the numbers on both sides which he exaggerates, the Cavalier's account of the battle of Leipsic is fairly accurate.

p. 61, l. 39. Cuirassiers were heavy cavalry wearing helmet and cuirass (two plates fastened together for the protection of the breast and back).

p. 65, l. 10. Crabats is an old form of Croats the name of the inhabitants of Croatia.

p. 66, l. 38. Rix dollar is the English form of Reichsthaler or imperial dollar.

p. 67, l. 6. "Husband" is here used in the sense of "thrifty person."

p. 69, l. 18. A ducat was a gold coin generally worth about nine shillings.

p. 70, l. 29. This passage describes the conquest of the string of ecclesiastical territories known as the "Priest's Lane."

p. 71, l. 23. A partisan was a military weapon used by footmen in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and not unlike the halberd in form.

p. 73, l. 10. "Bastion" is the name given to certain projecting portions of a fortified building.

p. 78, l. 23. The Palatinate (divided into Upper and Lower) was a Protestant state whose elector, the son-in-law of James I, had been driven out by the Emperor in 1620.

p. 79, l. 11. Reformado: A military term borrowed from the Spanish, signifying an officer who, for some disgrace is deprived of his command but retains his rank. Defoe uses it to describe an officer not having a regular command.

p. 81, l. 15. Frederick, Elector Palatine, had been elected King by the Protestants of Bohemia in opposition to the Emperor Ferdinand. It was his acceptance of this position which led to the confiscation of his Palatinate together with his new kingdom.

p. 81, l. 24. James I had, after much hesitation, sent in 1625 an expedition to the aid of the Elector, but it had miscarried. Charles I was too much occupied at home to prosecute an active foreign policy.

p. 81, l. 35. The Elector died in the same year as Gustavus Adolphus. His son Charles Lewis was restored to the Lower Palatinate only, which was confirmed to him at the end of the war in 1648.

p. 82, l. 3. The battle of Nieuport, one of the great battles between Holland and Spain, was fought in 1600 near the Flemish town of that name. Prince Maurice won a brilliant victory under very difficult conditions.

p. 82, l. 30. A ravelin is an outwork of a fortified building.

p. 86, l. 16. It was the attempt in 1607 to force Catholicism on the Protestants of the free city of Donauwoerth which led to the formation of the Protestant Union in 1608.

p. 87, l. 9. The Duringer Wald.—Thuringia Wald.

p. 97, l. 29. Camisado (fr. Latin Camisia=a shirt) is generally used to denote a night attack.

p. 98, l. 4. Note the inconsistency between this statement of the Cavaliers interest in the curiosities at Munich and his indifference in Italy where he had "no gust to antiquities."

p. 99, l. 7. Gustavus Adolphus had entered Nuremberg March 1631. Wallenstein was now bent on re-taking it.

p. 100, l. 29. The Cavalier's enthusiasm for Gustavus Adolphus leads to misrepresentation. The Swedish king has sometimes been blamed for failing to succour Magdeburg.

p. 101, l. 23. Redoubts are the most strongly fortified points in the temporary fortification of a large space.

p. 107, l. 13. The Cavalier glosses over the fact that Gustavus Adolphus really retreated from his camp at Nuremberg, being practically starved out, as Wallenstein refused to come to an engagement.

p. 110, l. 38. Though the honours of war in the battle of Luetzen went to the Swedes it is probable that they lost more men than did the Imperialists.

p. 113, l. 37. The battle of Noerdlingen was one of the decisive battles of the war. It restored to the Catholics the bishoprics of the South which Gustavus Adolphus had taken.

p. 114, l. 39. The title "Infant" or "Infante" belongs to all princes of the royal house in Spain. The Cardinal Infant really brought 15000 men to the help of the Emperor.

p. 116, l. 37. The King of Hungary had succeeded to the command of the imperial army after the murder of Wallenstein in 1634.

p. 119, l. 34. The treaty of Westphalia in 1648 ended the Thirty Years' War by a compromise. The Emperor recognised that he could have no real authority in matters of religion over the states governed by Protestant princes, North Germany remained Protestant, the South, Catholic.

p. 120, l. 11. This statement is an anachronism. Prince Maurice of Nassau the famous son of William the Silent died in 1625.

p. 120, l. 39. The Netherlands belonged to Spain in the seventeenth century but revolted. The Northern provinces which were Protestant won their independence, the Southern provinces which were Catholic (modern Belgium) submitted to Spain on conditions.

p. 121, l. 19. The siege of Ostend, then in the hands of the Dutch, was begun in July 1601 and came to an end in September 1604, when the garrison surrendered with the honours of war.

p. 122, l. 31. In 1637 Laud had tried to force a new liturgy on Scotland but this had been forcibly resisted. In 1638 the National Covenant against "papistry" was signed by all classes in Scotland. In the same year episcopacy was abolished there and Charles thereupon resolved to subdue the Scots by arms. This led to the first "Bishops' War" of 1639 which the Cavalier proceeds to describe.

p. 126, l. 4. Mercenaries (soldiers who fought in any army for the mere pay) were chiefly drawn from Switzerland in the seventeenth century.

p. 127, l. 38. By the Treaty of Berwick signed in June 1638 Charles consented to allow the Scotch to settle their own ecclesiastical affairs. When they again resolved to abolish episcopacy he broke his word and in 1640 the Second "Bishops' War" took place. It was the expenses of these wars which forced Charles to call parliament again.

p. 135, l. 34. It was the English Prayer Book with some slight changes that Laud had attempted to impose on the Scotch.

p. 137, l. 31. Charles had in fact called the "Short Parliament" to meet between these two expeditions but had quarrelled with it and dissolved it.

p. 138, l. 7. The Scotch had no real part in the death of the King. The Presbyterians indeed upheld monarchy though not as Charles understood it.

p. 140, l. 26. The Long Parliament of 1640 passed an act by which it could not be dissolved without its own consent.

p. 143, l. 4. The Treaty of Ripon (October 1640) left Northumberland and Durham in the hands of the Scotch until the King should be able to pay the L850 a day during their stay in England which he promised them.

p. 143, l. 9. The permanent treaty signed in 1641 gave consent to all the demands of the Scotch, including their freedom to abolish episcopacy.

p. 143, l. 29. The Earl of Stafford had been the chief supporter of Charles' method of government without parliament. He was executed in 1641 and Laud suffered the same fate in 1645.

p. 144, l. 21. By the "Grand Remonstrance" the parliament tried to seize on the royal power.

p. 146, l. 13. The "gentry" of England were not, of course, all on the Royalist side. Many of them, and some of the nobility, fought for the parliament, though it is true that the majority were for the King.

p. 151, l. 27. In 1643 by the Solemn League and Covenant the Scotch consented to help parliament against the King on condition that Presbyterianism should be adopted as the English state religion.

p. 159, l. 33. The left wing was under the command of Lord Wilmot.

p. 170, l. 36. Leicester was taken by the King in 1645.

p. 180, l. 28. The Cavalier ascribes to himself the part taken by Prince Maurice (the brother of Prince Rupert) and Lord Wilmot in bringing aid to Hopton.

p. 187, l. 29. It was the King rather than the parliamentarians who was anxious to give battle. The Royalists barred the way to London.

p. 189, l. 32. See note to p. 61, l. 39.

p. 192, l. 29. The parliamentarians certainly won a victory at the second battle of Newbury.

p. 194, l. 2. The Scotch nobles, alarmed at the violence of the parliamentarians, supported Charles in the second civil war (1648), and after his death Scotland recognised Charles II as King. Cromwell however conquered their country.

p. 194, l. 27. In 1641 a great Irish rebellion had followed the recall of Strafford who had been Lord Lieutenant of that country.

p. 195, l. 12. It was not until 1645, when his cause was declining in England, that Charles determined to seek direct help from the Irish. This he did in the Glamorgan Treaty of that year by which he agreed to the legal restoration of Catholicism in Ireland. But the Treaty was discovered by the Parliament and Charles denied any knowledge of it.

p. 196, l. 11. The "Grand Seignior" was the name generally given to the Sultan of Turkey.

p. 197, l. 5. William Prynne was the famous Puritan lawyer whose imprisonment by the Star Chamber had made him one of the heroes of Puritanism. George Buchanan was the famous Scotch scholar from whom James I had derived much of his learning.

p. 197, l. 28. The dates are given both according to our present mode of reckoning and according to the old system by which the year commenced on 25th March.

p. 198, l. 6. The Scots besieged Newcastle for nine months, not merely a few days as the Cavalier relates.

p. 202, l. 39. The great Spanish general, the Duke of Parma, went to the relief of Paris which was in the hands of the Catholics and was being besieged by the then Protestant Henry of Navarre in 1590.

p. 204, l. 9. As pointed out in the introduction the Cavalier's account of the disposition of forces in this battle is inaccurate.

p. 205, l. 27. It was really Rupert's hitherto unconquered cavalry which was thus borne down by Cromwell's horse.

p. 216, l. 4. A posset was a drink of milk curdled with an acid liquid.

p. 219, l. 40. The Grisons are the people of one of the Swiss Cantons.

p. 222, l. 36. Newcastle was not retaken by Rupert.

p. 230, l. 8. By the Self-Denying Ordinance of 1645 all members of Parliament were compelled to resign their commands. This rid the parliamentarians of some of their most incapable commanders. Exception was made in favour of Cromwell who was soon appointed Lieutenant General.

p. 230, l. 17. On the "New Model" the armies of the parliamentary side were reorganized as a whole, made permanent, and given a uniform and regular pay.

p. 231, l. 15. It was not only the ecclesiastical conditions laid down by the parliamentarians at the Treaty of Uxbridge which determined the King's refusal. He was asked besides taking the Covenant to surrender the militia.

p. 243, l. 26. The estates of many of the Cavalier gentlemen were forfeited. Some were allowed to "compound," i.e. to keep part of their estates on payment of a sum of money.

p. 253, l. 32. Montrose had created a Royalist party in Scotland and was fighting there for the King.

p. 258, l. 1. The "forlorn" was a body of men sent in advance of an expedition.

p. 272, l. 21. After the defeat of the Royalists dissension arose between the parliament and the army and naturally the army was able to coerce the parliament.

p. 274, l. 2. Cornet Joyce secured the person of the King by the order of Cromwell, the idol of the army.

p. 274, l. 26. The Cavalier exaggerates the likelihood of an understanding between the King and the parliament. In reality Charles was merely playing off one party against the other.

p. 275, l. 7. In January 1648 parliament had passed a vote of "No Addresses," renouncing any further negotiation with the King, but after the second civil war of that year (in which the Presbyterians joined the King) they resumed them again in the Treaty of Newport. The army however became more violent, and the result was the forcible exclusion of all moderate members of parliament in "Pride's Purge," December 1648. The trial and execution of the King followed.

p. 275, l. 35. The Cavalier refers to the acts of retaliation which followed the Restoration of Charles II.

p. 276, l. 27. There were many republicans among the "Independents" or "Sectaries" in the army, but the policy actually carried out can hardly have been planned before the war.

p. 278, l. 5. Cardinal Bellarmine was one of the great Controversialists of the Counter-Reformation.

THE END

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