Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/96

 according to Burnet (i. 105), even talked of marrying his daughter. Finally, a declaration was laid before him, in which, in addition to his previous consessions, he was made to anknowledge not only the sinfulness of his own dealings with the Irish, but his father's blood-guiltiness and his mother's idolatry. This declaration after some hesitation, ‘the Scots threatening to cast him off,' he signed for the declaration, dated Dunfermline, 18 Aug. 1650, see, iii. 233-4; cf. , i. 82-93 n.) Yet about this time he was extending liberal promises to the catholics in England (Cal. 1650, 88-9), and it was affirmed that letters were presented in his name to Pope Innocent X, expressing his good-will to the church of Rome, and appealing for pecuniary and pecuniary and diplomatic assistance (, iii. 234-5). The settlement between the Scots and Charles had been hastened by the approach of Cromwell, but it was not, till 3 Sept. that the battle of Dunbar was fought. In England and France the rumour spread that Charles was sick or dead (, vi. 476): but in Scotland the effects of the defeat, followed by the surrender of Edinburgrh, were not wholly unfavourable to him. It was felt that the reins had been drawn too tight, and a resolution of the general assembly at once relaxed the rigour of the Act of Classes. Meanwhile Charles had tried to escape from St. Johnstone's, hoping in the company of four horsemen to make his way to the north, where Huntly, the Athole men, and others were ready to receive him. He was, however, overtaken in the northern counties of Fife, and induced to return (Monarchy revived, 95-98), 'The start,' as it was called, rather improved his treatment at St. Johnstone's, where a chance record discovers him in a congenial company, commissioning pictures for which he ommitted to pay (Treasury Papers, 1556-1696, xviii. vi). But at his coronation at Scone, 1 Jan. 1651, he had to swear both to the covenant, and to the solemn league and covenant of 1643, whereby he would have become a presbyterian king on both sides of the Tweed (for the coronation, see Monarchy revived, 101-3; cf. as to the anti-absolutist sermon on the occasion,, i. 97 n.) After setting up his standard at Aberdeen, he, about April 1651, moved his court to Stirling. About midsummer Cromwell set his army in motion. While Lambert placed himself in the king's rear, Cromwell advanced upon Perth; but just before taking it he learned that Charles had (31 July) started with his army for England. It was a desperate resolution, but no other course remained, and Argyll alone had opposed the march, from whose orders Charles thus at last liberated himself. His expectations that his forces would increase as he went on, and that a thousand armed men would join him in Lancashire (Cal. 1061-2, 2), were disappointed, while the measures nf resistance taken by the council of state at Westminster were prompt and extensive. The army with which Charles entered England numbered about ten thousand men: it was commanded by David Lesley; according to Clarenden, the committee of ministers in it did much mischief. At Carlisle and elsewhere Charles was on his arrival proclaimed king; from the general pardon which he offered in his declaration, only Cromwell, Bradshaw, and a third regicide were excepted. In Lancashire he was joined hy the Earl of Derby; thence he continued his march through Cheshire, where the attempt of Lambert and Harrison to throw themself across his path had been defeated by Massey at Warrington, passed through Shropshire, where Shrewsbury shut its gates against him, and 22 Aug. entered Worcester. His fnrces, now about thirteen thousand in number, were but slightly increased by the gentlemen who had answered a general summons issued by him 26 Aug. Meanwhile Cromwell had reached the neighbourhood with an army of between thirty thousand and forty thousand men, and was preparing to surround the royalist forces. After two preliminary encounters (28 and 29 Aug.) the battle of Worcester was fought 3 Sept., which virtually annihilated Charles's army. He afterwards spoke with great bitterness of the conduct of Lesley, Middleton, and the greater part of the Scots; but there seems no cause for suspecting treason (Cal. 1651-2. 2. As to the king's march, we, Chronicle, and Monarchy revived; as to the battle, Cal. 1651, preface x, and 474-7). Charles had borne himself with conspicuous bravery during the day, charging the enemy in person and with temporary success, and even at the last mounting a fresh horse within the wulls, with the intent of renewing the struggle. About six in the evening he was, however, obliged to quit the town with the main body of the horse. While Lesley and the Scots took the direct road northwards, Charles, attended by Buckingham. Derby, Lauderdale. Wilmot, and others—about sixty horse in all—pressed on towards Kidderminster, near which they lost their way. Derby then suggested that Boscobel House, about twenty-five miles from Worchester, on the borders of Shropshire and Staffordshire, might afford to the king the shelter which he had himself found there a few nights before; but it was afterwards agreed that the king should first proceed to White Ladies, another seat of the Giffard