Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 35.djvu/368

Rh dale (, Hamiltons). Lauderdale left London on the 24th, and on 15 Feb., in order to rouse the Scots against the English, declared that the latter would endure neither the covenant, presbytery, monarchical government, nor the Scots; while a little later he was urging Charles to make greater concessions to Scottish opinion on the subject of religion (, iii. 328, 330).

In the contest which followed the publication of the ‘Engagement’ in Scotland, Lauderdale, though he sought to convince his old friends that he had been forced into compliance (, iii. 45), was prominent in Hamilton's party [see, third and first ]. From April to June he was in constant correspondence with royalists in England (Hamilton Papers, pp. 180–206). The doubt as to his fidelity to the covenant is seen in the fact that he was this year left out of the list of commissioners who were appointed to arrange uniformity of worship with England; and Baillie records his strong expression of opinion against the violent methods of the covenanters (, iii. 64). ‘More than any other man in Scotland he represented the insurrection of the lay feeling against clerical predominance’ (, iii. 417). On 1 May he joined in a letter to the queen and the prince, inviting the latter to Scotland (, Hamiltons, p. 346), and he urged upon his brother-engagers the immediate invasion of England. He was probably the author of the Scots manifesto against toleration of the sects or of those who used the prayer-book, though it did not really represent his feelings. The invasion took place in July, and was crushed by Cromwell and Lambert at Preston on 17 Aug. Lauderdale was not with the expedition, as he had been appointed on 19 July to carry the invitation of the committee of estates to the prince to come to Scotland upon comparatively easy conditions (, iii. 422), but he was at the time in correspondence with the queen, Lord Holland, and Lady Carlisle (Bodl. Libr. Mus. 203, p. 50). On 5 Aug. he was at Yarmouth Roads, and he joined the prince in the Downs on the 10th. He carried with him letters also from the estates to the Prince of Orange and the king and queen of France. The negotiations were conducted on board the fleet, but upon the arrival of the news of Hamilton's defeat, 20 Aug. (, Hamiltons, pp. 366, 367), the prince sailed to Holland. Lauderdale accomplished his mission with dexterity and success (Hamilton Papers, pp. 232–50), the prince accepting all his terms on the 16th; and it was no doubt at this time that he laid the foundation of his great influence with Charles II. His movements are now obscure. Burnet, however (Hamiltons, p. 377), states that he came back to Scotland at the end of January 1649, but that, warned by Balmerino, whom he had converted to royalism, and who supplied him with money (ib. p. 342), that the jealousy of Argyll would expose himself and Lanark to danger, he at once returned to Holland (, p. 38; see also the Moderate Intelligencer, 1–8 Feb. in Brit. Mus. E. 591. 27). Moreover, the ‘Engagement’ was condemned by the Scottish parliament. It is certain that Lauderdale was with Charles II to the end of April 1649, and that he was instrumental in inducing him to reject the proposals of Ormonde and Montrose, and to accept the parliament's invitation to Scotland in spite of the hard conditions imposed by the dominant Argyll faction (, iii. 73).

Lauderdale accompanied Charles to Scotland, but was debarred by the ‘protesters’ from his presence and councils, and ordered into banishment until he made public repentance in Largo Church on 26 Dec. 1650 for his participation in the Engagement. He continued, however, under suspicion, and it was now that he began to conceal his identity in correspondence under the pseudonym of ‘John Reid’ or ‘Red.’ In 1651 he followed Charles to Worcester, and was there taken prisoner. At the time he was on terms of close personal friendship with Charles. On 17 Sept. his trial was ordered, and he was kept prisoner, first in the Tower and then at Windsor (, vi. 238) and Portland, until Monck's entry into London in March 1660. He had been excepted from Cromwell's Indemnity Act, 1654 (, vii. 301), and his estates confiscated, a provision of 300l. a year only being given out of his estates to his wife and family (, Lauderdale Papers; MS. Corresp. of Sir R. Moray). On 23 March 1660 Thurloe notes that he was busily dealing with the presbyterians.

Immediately upon his release Lauderdale joined with Crawfurd and Sinclair in a letter to their friends in Scotland, urging unanimity in rallying the old ‘Engagement’ party; and he himself wrote to the prince at Brussels, receiving a reply in April signed ‘Your most affectionate friend.’ Poverty at first prevented him from going over in person, but he sent further letters through James Sharp, and on being furnished with funds by John Leslie, seventh earl of Rothes [q. v.], he went with the fleet in May to Breda (Lauderdale Papers; , Diary, 10 May). There he recommenced the close connection with Charles, Lauderdale and Sharp ‘having very much of