Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 36.djvu/271

Marten deal with the crowds who flocked to be cured by the king's touch, Marten scornfully remarked that he knew not but the parliament's great seal might do it as well it there were an ordinance for it. When it was moved to consider the question of the propositions to be sent to the king, he replied that the man to whom the said propositions were to be sent 'ought rather to come to the bar himself than be sent to any more' (Clarendon State Papers, vol. ii. App. p. xxxvii). He followed up this suggestion by proposing a motion that no further addresses should be made to Charles, but it was rejected by 84 to 34 votes (22 Sept. 1647;, Great Civil War, iii. 201). But on 3 Jan. 1648 the house came round to Marten's views, and a similar motion was passed by 141 to 91 votes.

Marten sided with the army in their quarrel with the parliament, and signed the engagement of 4 Aug. 1647, promising to stand by them in supporting the freedom of the parliament against the dictation of the London mob (, vii. 754). His readiness to attack abuses of all kinds and the straight-forwardness of his political career had gained him great popularity. 'The true lovers of their country in England,' said a member of parliament to John Lilburne [q. v.], 'were more beholden to Mr. Henry Marten for his sincerity, uprightness, boldness, and gallantry, than to half, if not all, of those that are called conscientious men in the house.' Such, at all events, was the belief of the levellers, with whom, during 1647, 1648, and the first half of 1649, Marten was intimately connected, lie was chairman of the committee appointed to consider Lilburne's imprisonment, and to him, in May 1647, Lilburne addressed a pamphlet, complaining that his negligence or wilful delay had prevented the presentation of their report (Rash Oaths Unwarrantable, 4to, 1647, p. 2). Other letters of the same nature followed, but in September, when the report was actually brought in, the house, in spite of Marten's efforts, referred it back to the committee (A Copy of a Letter written to Col. Henry Marten by John Lilburne, 20 July 1 647 ; Two Letters writ by Lieut.-Col. John Lilburne, prerogative prisoner in the Tower, to Col. Henry Marten upon the 1 3 and 5 September, 1647 ; The Additional Plea of Lieut.-Col. John Lilburne, 28 Oct. 1547, p. 22).

Lilburne was now convinced that Cromwell, not Marten, was to blame, and Cromwell's negotiations with the king had also roused Marten's suspicions. If Lilburne's statement may be believed, Marten was so convinced of Cromwell's treachery, that he resolved to emulate Felton, 'and for that end provided and charged a pistol, and took a dagger in his pocket, that if the one did not, the other should despatch him.' An accident prevented the first attempt to fulfil this design, but when Cromwell heard of Marten's armament, he was so terrified that he immediately changed his policy and supported the vote of ' No Addresses ' (A Declaration of some of the Proceedings of Lieut.-Col. John Lilburne, 4 to, 1648, n. 15). Much more probable is the report that Marten, like Rainsboro ugh, talked of impeaching Cromwell (Gardiner, Great Civil War, iii. 252). In February 1648 Cromwell is said to have desired a meeting with Marten in order to a reconciliation, but that they parted ' much more enemies than they met;' nor were Marten's suspicions removed till some months later (ib. pp. 295, 327 ). During the second civil war Marten, thinking, after the readmission of the impeached presbyterian leaders, that his further presence in parliament was useless, left the house and commenced raising a regiment of horse in Berkshire. He had no legal authority to do so, and his intention was to oppose the parliament by arms in the event of their concluding to restore Charles I. A commission given by him to one of his captains is couched in the following terms : ' By virtue of that right which I was born to as an Englishman, and in pursuance of that duty which I owe my said country, I have resolved to raise and conduct a regiment of harquebusiers on horseback, on the behalf of the people of England, for the recovery of their freedom, and for common justice against tyranny and oppression' (Clarke MSS.) The regiment was mounted by the simple process of stopping travellers on the highway, or breaking into the stables of country gentlemen. In response to loud complaints, parliament ordered the forces of the adjacent counties, under the command of Major Richard Fincher, to disperse Marten's adherents, and he was driven to remove to Leicestershire, and ultimately to join Cromwell in the north (Mercurius Pragmaticus, 22-9 Aug. 1648 ; Tanner MSS. lvii. 197 ; Portland MSS. i. 495; Grey, Examination of Neat's Puritans, vol. iii. App. p. 67 ; Commons 1 Journals, v. 676).

Marten returned to his place in parliament, in co npany' with Cromwell, on 7 Dec, after Pride's Purge, and took part in the meetings at Windsor and Whitehall, in which Lilburne and his committee drew up the draft ' Agreement of the People,' which was afterwards submitted to the council of war (Gardiner, Great Civil War, iii. 535, 540; Lilburne, Legal Fundamental Liberties, 1648, p. 88; Foundations of Freedom, or an Agreement of