Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 50.djvu/35

 pp. 496, 518); and having, after his return, been appointed lieutenant-general to Banier in Thuringia, and also to the command of a regiment of cavalry, he distinguished himself in several important engagements.

Ruthven, having finally quitted the Swedish service in 1638, was about the close of that year appointed muster master-general of the forces in Scotland. He was also one of the commissioners appointed in 1638 to require subscription to the king's covenant (, Scots Affairs, i. 109). Although his appointment as muster master-general implied the command of Edinburgh Castle, he was prevented by the covenanters from entering it, and finally retired to Newcastle, where he obtained a letter of thanks from the king, dated York, 6 April 1639. He was also created Lord Ruthven of Ettrick. After the treaty of the king with the Scots at Berwick, he was placed in command of the castle by his old Swedish companion-in-arms, the Marquis of Hamilton (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser. 1639, p. 349), and entered it with three hundred men and a large quantity of ammunition without any opposition from the estates (, Annals, ii. 373). On 11 Nov. 1639 he received special instructions from the king to hold it (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser. 1639–40, p. 86), and on 10 Feb. the covenanters, under protest, allowed reinforcements and a supply of ammunition to enter it (, Scots Affairs, iii. 100–2). Ultimately, realising the danger which threatened from Ruthven's occupation of the castle, the citizens began to take measures nominally to defend the town against attack, but in reality to reduce the castle by blockade; and in June 1640 Montrose, then acting with the covenanters, was sent under a flag of truce to demand its surrender (, ii. 279). This Ruthven refused, and on the 10th an act of forfaultry was passed against him by the Scottish parliament. To the demand for its surrender he replied that ‘if they aimed to take it by force, they should never have it so long as he had life; and if they should beat down the walls, he should fight it out upon the bare rock’ (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser. 1640, p. 361). A furious attack was made against it on 12 June, and, although it failed, the garrison ultimately surrendered after more than two hundred had died from accident or sickness. The garrison were permitted to march out with colours flying and drums beating. They ‘showed much resolution, but marched with feeble bodies,’ and ‘were guarded to Leith by six hundred men, otherwise those of the good town had torn them to pieces’ (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser. 1641–2, p. 136). Ruthven himself, who was ‘spoiled with the scurvy, his legs swelled, and many of his teeth fallen out’ (, ii. 403), after journeying to Berwick by coach, ultimately went south, to London.

Ruthven remained in London until 1641, when he returned to Edinburgh with a warrant from the king for a loan to him of the house of the dean of Edinburgh and an annual pension of 300l. until a grant of 5,000l. promised to him should be paid. On 12 Oct. he presented a petition for the repeal of the sentence of forfaultry (, iii. 102), which was granted on 9 Nov. (ib. p. 143). Shortly after being created Earl of Forth on 27 March 1642, he went to Germany on his private affairs; but returning to England in the autumn, bringing with him some officers for the king's service ( Memorials, ii. 198), he joined the king at Shrewsbury in October, and on the 22nd was created ‘marshal-general.’ From Shrewsbury he accompanied the king in his march towards London; and having greatly distinguished himself in the engagement at Edgehill on the 23rd, where he commanded the left wing, he was appointed by the king general-in-chief of the army in succession to the Earl of Lindsey, slain in the battle. From this time the king depended chiefly on his advice in the arrangement of the campaigns; and, if he somewhat lacked energy and promptitude on the battlefield, his plans indicated considerable strategic skill. On the day after Edgehill he earnestly urged the king to permit him to make a forced march on London with the horse and three thousand foot, assuring him that he would be able to reach it before the Earl of Essex, a proposal which, had it been accepted, would in all likelihood have been successful. As it was, Ruthven commanded at the successful capture of Brentford, after a sharp engagement, on 12 Nov. 1642.

On 26 April 1643 Ruthven was present with the king when a vain attempt was made to raise the siege of Reading; he was shot in the head on 7 August during the operations against Gloucester; and he was wounded at the battle of Newbury on 20 Sept. On 7 March 1644 he was sent to join Lord Hopton at Winchester and assist him with his advice; but after the battle of Brandon Heath, on the 29th, he returned again to the king at Oxford. On 27 May he was created by the king Earl of Brentford. On 25 July he was, however, declared a traitor by the Scottish parliament, and on the 26th his estates were forfeited and his