Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/119

 never live in the court if he kept his place’ (, v. 31; Lords' Journals, iv. 506, 680, 712).

In March and July 1642 the parliament chose Holland to bear its declarations to the king, but in each case Charles received him with pointed disfavour, by which the earl ‘was transported from his natural temper and gentleness into passion and animosity against the king and his ministers’ (ib. v. 224;, iv. 343, v. 415). He was one of the committee of safety appointed by parliament on 4 July 1642. After Edgehill he made two exhortations to the citizens of London, one urging them to defend the city; and another on 10 Nov. about the proposed negotiations with Charles (Old Parliamentary History, xi. 482, xii. 24). At Turnham Green on 13 Nov. he appeared in arms himself, marshalled Essex's army, and is credited with dissuading that general from fighting (, Memorials, ed. 1853, i. 191;, Memoirs, 1894, i. 47).

During the early part of 1643 Holland was one of the leaders of the peace party in the lords, and in August he endeavoured to induce Essex to back the peace propositions with the weight of the army (, Great Civil War, i. 103, 183). When this plan failed, he made his way to the king's quarters, confidently expecting to be received back into favour and restored at once to his old office of groom of the stole. In the privy council, however, only Hyde and one other were in favour of giving him a gracious reception; the rest exaggerated his ingratitude, and the king himself complained with bitterness that Holland made no attempt to apologise for his past misconduct. Therefore, though he attended the king to the siege of Gloucester, and charged in the king's regiment of horse at the first battle of Newbury, Charles gave the post he desired to the Marquis of Hertford; and, finding that there was nothing to be gained at Oxford, Holland returned to London (, Rebellion, vii. 174, 177, 183, 241). The House of Lords had him arrested, but, as he had returned at the special invitation of Essex, they readmitted him to sit (13 Jan. 1644), and persuaded the commons to release his estates from sequestration (Lords' Journals, vi. 297, 340, 349, 377, 639). To the kingdom at large Holland explained that he found the court too indisposed to peace, and the papists too powerful there for a patriot of his type (A Declaration made to the Kingdom by Henry, Earl of Holland, 1643, 4to). The commons were less easily satisfied than the lords, and obliged the upper house to pass an ordinance disabling the peers who had deserted the parliamentary cause from exercising their legislative powers during the existing parliament without the assent of both houses. An ordinance for the readmission of Holland and two other deserters was brought forward in 1646, but failed to pass the second reading (Lords' Journals, vi. 608, 610, viii. 718). In December 1645 Holland petitioned parliament for some pecuniary compensation for the losses which the civil war, and his adherence to the parliamentary party, had entailed upon him. His office of first gentleman of the bedchamber had been worth 1,600l. a year; he had lost also two pensions of 2,000l. a year apiece, a share in the customs on coal worth 1,300l. a year, and a legal office worth 2,000l. a year, besides smaller salaries as chief justice in eyre and constable of Windsor. Moreover, the king owed him 30,000l. (ib. viii. 45). The commons, however, laid aside the petition, and negatived a proposal to give him a pension of 1,000l. (Commons' Journals, iv. 380).

Under these circumstances Holland turned once more to the king's side. In September 1645 he had endeavoured to mediate between the Scottish commissioners and the English presbyterian leaders, suggesting to the French agent, Montreuil, that the king should take refuge in the Scottish army (, Great Civil War, ii. 340, iii. 2). He was also one of the authors of the scheme of settlement put forward by the presbyterian peers in January 1647 (ib. iii. 213). When the second civil war began he resolved to redeem his past faults by taking up arms for the king. He procured a commission as general from the Prince of Wales, and proceeded to issue commissions to royalist officers. Lady Carlisle pawned her pearl necklace to supply him with funds, and through her he carried on a correspondence with Lauderdale and Lanark (, Rebellion, xi. 5, 137; The Designs of the present Committee of Estates, 1648, 4to, p. 8; Hamilton Papers, Camden Society, i. 224). On 4 July Holland left London, and the next day appeared in arms at Kingston, intending to raise the siege of Colchester. He issued a declaration asserting that he sought a personal treaty between Charles and the parliament, a cessation of arms during the treaty, and the restoration of the king to his just regal authority (The Declaration of the Duke of Buckingham, the Earls of Holland and Peterborough, &c., 1648). Holland's preparations had been made with so little secrecy that they had no chance of success; nor could he get together more than six hundred men. On 7 July he was defeated by Sir Michael Livesey near Kingston; on 10 July what remained of his