Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 36.djvu/272

Marten the People, 1648). In the preparations of parliament for bringing the king to trial Marten was extremely active (Commons' Journals, vi. 96, 103, 107, 110). He was appointed one of the king's judges, sat with great regularity, and signed the death-warrant. A witness at the trial of the regicides describes Marten, when the judges were endeavouring to find an answer to give the king in case he should demand by what authority they sat, as supplying them with the formula: 'In the name of the Commons in Parliament assembled, and all the good people of England.' The familiar story of Marten and Cromwell inking each other's faces as the king's death-warrant was being signed rests on the authority of Marten's servant, Ewer (Trial of the Regicides, 4to, 1660, pp. 247-8). At the Restoration Marten wrote a defence of the king's execution, in the form of a letter to a friend, but while he justified the act itself, he regretted its consequences. 'Had I suspected,' he said, 'that the axe which took off the king's head should have been made a stirrup for our first false general, I should sooner have consented to my own death than his' (, Familiar Epistles, p. 3).

No man was more prominent in the proceedings for the establishment of the republic. The device and the legend on the new great seal were, according to Whitelocke, 'for the most part the fancy of Mr. Henry Marten, more particularly the inscriptions' (Memorials; Commons' Journals, vi. 115). He was charged with the preparation of the act for taking down the arms of the late king and demolishing his public statues. The inscription 'Exit Tyrannus Regum ultimus,' &c, by which the statues were to be replaced is said to have been his composition (ib. vi. 142, 274; Author:John Forster (historian), British Statesmen, p. 519). He was one of the tellers in the division on the abolition of the House of Lords, and a member of the committee appointed to prepare the act for that purpose (Commons' Journals, vi. 132). On 14 Feb. 1649 parliament elected him a member of the council of state, thirteenth on the list of those chosen. On 3 July they further voted that lands to the value of 1,000l. a year should be settled upon him as compensation for his disbursements, arrears of pay, and services to the state. The manors of Hartington and Leominster were accordingly settled upon him by an ordinance of parliament, 28 Sept. 1649 (ib. vi. 141, 196,248, 300). By another vote on 2 Feb. 1649 parliament ordered that Marten's regiment of horse should be completed and taken on to the regular establishment of the army, but this intention was not carried out (ib. vi. 129;, Original Letters, 1739, i. 273). These favours were no doubt largely dictated by the desire of the government to conciliate the levellers through Marten. As one of the pamphleteers of that party observes: 'When the king was to come to the block and a bloody High Court of Injustice and a Council of State erected, then what a white boy was Col. Marten! A regiment of horse was voted for him by the House to keep the pretty baby at play with that fine tantarara tantara, while their work was over' (, Defiance, 1649, p. 7). After the levellers had been suppressed there was no inducement to continue Marten's regiment, and some risk in doing so. It does not appear that Marten countenanced the attacks made by Lilburne and his associates on the new government. He endeavoured rather to mediate between them, twice obtained Lilburne's release from imprisonment, and was instrumental in procuring the payment of his arrears (Commons' Journals, vi. 441;, A Preparative War Hue and Cry after Sir Arthur Haselrig, 1649, p. 40: The Trial of Lieut.-Col. John Lilburne, by , 1649, p. 143).

Marten was re-elected a member of the second council of state of the Commonwealth, and sat also in the fourth, but was omitted in the third and fifth. His influence was greater in the debates of the parliament than in the deliberations of the council. 'His speeches in the House,' says Aubrey, 'were not long, but wondrous poignant, pertinent, and witty. He was exceedingly happy in apt instances; he alone hath sometimes turned the whole House' (Letters from the Bodleian, ii. 436). His jests are said to have saved the lives of Judge Jenkins [see ] and [q. v.] when parliament would have had them sentenced to death (ib. ii. 308; Somers Tracts, ed. Scott, v. 129; Hist MSS. Comm. 13th Rep. iv. 389). Algernon Sydney describes the happy manner in which Marten allayed a wrangle about the oath to be taken by the council of state (Sydney Papers, ed. Blencowe, p. 238). In legislation Marten's most important work was an act for the relief of poor prisoners for debt (Commons' Journals, vi. 262, 270, 275, 289;, Collection of Acts, fol. 1658, pt. ii. p. 87). As an administrator he never earned any fame, nor did he show any sign of constructive statesmanship. His influence, therefore, which had been at its height in 1649, perceptibly declined during the next few years.

From the first foundation of the Commonwealth Marten's relations with Cromwell, if the newspapers can be trusted, were