The Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon V2

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THE LIFE OF EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON
LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND
VOLUME II

BY
SIR HENRY CRAIK, K.C.B., LL.D.

[Illustration: John Hampden from a miniature by Samuel Cooper in the
possession of Earl Spencer]

CONTENTS OF VOLUME II

CHAPTER

XIV. THE RESTORATION

XV. PROSPECT FOR THE RESTORED MONARCHY

XVI. DIFFICULTIES TO BE MET

XVII. SCOTTISH ADMINISTRATION

XVIII. THE PROBLEMS OF IRELAND

XIX. MARRIAGE TREATY AND RELIGIOUS SETTLEMENT

XX. DOMESTIC DISSENSION AND FOREIGN COMPLICATIONS

XXI. THE DUTCH WAR

XXII. ADMINISTRATIVE FRICTION

XXIII. DECAY OF CLARENDON'S INFLUENCE

XXIV. INCREASING BITTERNESS OF HIS FOES

XXV. THE TRIUMPH OF FACTION

INDEX

LIST OF PORTRAITS

VOLUME II

JOHN HAMPDEN
_From a miniature by Samuel Cooper, in the possession of Earl Spencer_

GEORGE MONK, DUKE OF ALBEMARLE
_From the original by Sir Peter Lely, in the National Portrait Gallery_

GENERAL LAMBERT
_From the original by R. Walker, in the National Portrait Gallery_

SIR HENRY VANE, THE YOUNGER
_From the original by William Dobson, in the National Portrait Gallery_

JOHN MAITLAND, DUKE OF LAUDERDALE
_From the original by Sir Peter Lely, in the National Portrait Gallery_

GEORGE DIGBY, SECOND EARL OF BRISTOL
_From the original by Sir Anthony Vandyke, in the Collection of Earl
Spencer_

SIR EDWARD NICHOLAS
_From the original by Sir Peter Lely, in the National Portrait Gallery_

ANNE HYDE, DUCHESS OF YORK
_From the original by Sir Peter Lely_

JAMES BUTLER, DUKE OF ORMONDE
_From the original by Sir Godfrey Kneller_

CHAPTER XIV

THE RESTORATION

After the death of Cromwell, on September 3rd, 1658, there ensued for the
exiled Court twenty months of constant alternation between hope and
despair, in which the gloom greatly preponderated. As the chief pilot of
the Royalist ship, Hyde, now titular Lord Chancellor, had to steer his way
through tides that were constantly shifting, and with scanty gleam of
success to light him on the way. Within the little circle of the Court he
was assailed by constant jealousy, none the less irksome because it was
contemptible. The policy of Charles, so far as he had any policy apart
from Hyde, varied between the encouragement of friendly overtures from
supporters of different complexions at home, and a somewhat damaging
cultivation of foreign alliances, which were delusive in their proffered
help, and might involve dangerous compliance with religious tenets
abhorred in England. The friends in England were jealous and suspicious of
one another, and their loyalty varied in its strength, and was marked by
very wide difference in its ultimate objects. It would have been hard in
any case to discern the true position amidst the complicated maze of
political parties in England; it was doubly hard for one who had been an
exile for a dozen years. To choose between different courses was puzzling.
Inaction was apt to breed apathy; but immature action would only lead to
further persecution of the loyalists, and to disaster to the most gallant
defenders of the rights of the King. With the true instinct of a
statesman, Hyde saw that the waiting policy was best; but it was precisely
the policy that gave most colour to insinuations of his want of zeal. In
spite of his exile, he understood the temper of the nation better than any
of the paltry intriguers round him; to study that temper was not a process
that commended itself to their impatient ambitions. His pen was unresting:
in preparing pamphlets, in writing under various disguises, in carrying on
endless correspondence, in drafting constant declarations. But all such
work met with little acknowledgment from those who thought that their own
intrigues were more likely to benefit the King, and, above all, to advance
themselves. They recked nothing of that sound traditional frame of
government which it was the aim of Hyde religiously to conserve. Few
statesmen have had a task more hard, more thankless, and more hopeless
than that which fell to him during these troubled months.

Hyde was saved from despair only by the intense dramatic instinct of the
historian that was implanted in him. He could, or--what came to the same
thing--he believed that he could, discern the greater issues of the time,
and what interested him above all was the vast influence upon those issues
of personal forces. When he recalled the events of his time, in the
enforced leisure of later years, it was to the action of great
personalities that he gave his chief attention, and the passing incidents
grouped themselves in his memory as mere accessories to the play of
individual character. All through his history it is this which chiefly
attracts us, and nowhere is it more striking than when he records the
passing of the greatest personal force of the age in Cromwell. It did not
occur to Hyde--and, to their credit be it said, it did not occur to any
even of the more friendly spectators on the other side--to regard Cromwell
as the embodiment of a mighty purifying force in which defects were to be
ignored or even justified on account of the heaven-inspired dictates under
which he was presumed to have acted. Just as little could Hyde conceive of
Cromwell as the great precursor of modern ideas, demanding the obedient
homage of every ardent partisan of popular rights. These were
eccentricities reserved for later historians under impulses of later
origin. Hyde was compelled by all his strongest traditions and most
cherished principles to regard Cromwell's work as utterly destructive, and
he never pretended to have anything but the bitterest prejudice against
him. To his mind, Cromwell was sent as a punishment from Heaven for
national defection, and he never concealed his hatred for Cromwell's
profound dissimulation or his abhorrence for the tyranny which the
Protector succeeded in imposing on the nation. To have assumed an
impartial attitude would only have been, to Hyde, an effort of
insincerity. It is precisely this which gives its weight to the measured
estimate which Hyde forms of his stupendous powers. His appreciation of
Cromwell is a pendant to that which he gives of Charles I. The latter is
inspired with a clear flame of loyalty; but this does not blind him to the
defects of the master for whom he had such a sincere regard. His deadly
hatred of Cromwell leaves him equally clear-sighted as to the Protector's
supreme ability.

"He was one of those men whom his very enemies could not condemn without
commending him at the same time; for he could never have done half that
mischief without great parts of courage, industry, and judgment." "He
achieved those things in which none but a valiant and great man could have
succeeded." "Wickedness as great as his could never have accomplished
these trophies without the assistance of a great spirit, an admirable
circumspection and sagacity, and a most magnanimous resolution." "When he
was to act the part of a great man, he did it without any indecency,
notwithstanding the want of custom." "He extorted obedience from those who
were not willing to yield it." "In all matters which did not concern the
life of his jurisdiction, he seemed to have great reverence for the law."
"As he proceeded with indignation and haughtiness with those who were
refractory and dared to contend with his greatness, so towards all who
complied with his good pleasure and courted his protection, he used a
wonderful civility, generosity, and bounty." "His greatness at home was
but a shadow of the glory he had abroad." "He was not a man of blood, and
totally declined Machiavel's method." When a massacre of Royalists was
suggested, "Cromwell would never consent to it; it may be out of too much
contempt of his enemies." "In a word, as he had all the wickedness against
which damnation is denounced, and for which hell-fire is prepared, so he
had some virtues which have caused the memory of some men in all ages to
be celebrated; and he will be looked upon by posterity as a brave bad
man."

These fierce words are inspired by exceeding hatred. But in spite of that,
we can see that Hyde felt himself in the presence of a greatness that
compelled respect. He was himself to exercise, in conformity with law, and
with a profound respect for it, very considerable power for a few years to
come, and was to leave his impress upon a century and a half of English
history. But that influence was only to come after a greater and a more
forceful spirit had passed away, leaving no one fit to wield the same
resistless power. Never has stern denunciation been relieved by a tribute
of more dignified admiration of unquestionable greatness. His warmest
admirers could not place Cromwell on a higher pedestal of acknowledged
grandeur, all untouched by sympathy and all unbending in condemnation
though Hyde's verdict is.

The same dramatic element is present in Hyde's picture of the scene that
followed. Cromwell's life had closed amidst clouds and thickening trouble.
The Earl of Warwick and his grandson and heir (Cromwell's son-in-law), had
both died. On that side his alliance with the great aristocracy of England
was broken. Another son-in-law, Lord Falconbridge, was alienated from him,
and refused to acquiesce in his later ambitions. Desborough, his brother-
in-law, was at least doubtful in his allegiance; and Fleetwood, a third
son-in-law, was a feeble craven, upon whom no reliance could be placed.
The fear of assassination had haunted him; and the death of Syndercombe in
prison had snatched away from him the chance of making a striking example
of one who had plotted against his life. The death of his daughter, the
wife of Claypole, had sorely tried the tenderness that was mingled with
his stern ambition, and it may be that the story of her grief at the blood
he shed had some foundation, and that the prick of conscience added to his
gloom. At least, it is certain that the sun of his success set in clouds
and darkness, which might portend the crash of the fabric he had raised.

But Hyde is keenly impressed with the absolute contrast between the
portents and the reality.

"Never monarch, after he had inherited a crown by many descents, died in
more silence nor with less alteration; and there was the same, or a
greater, calm in the kingdom than had been before." "The dead is interred
in the sepulchre of the Kings, and with the obsequies due to such. His son
inherits all his greatness and all his glory, without that public hate,
that visibly attended the other." "Nothing was heard in England but the
voice of joy." That state might have continued "if this child of fortune
could have sat still." But "the drowsy temper of Richard" was little
fitted to benefit by this apparent acceptance, much as it damped the hopes
of the exiled Court. The engagements already made with Sweden rendered
supplies necessary, and to raise these supplies it was necessary to summon
a Parliament. Cromwell's bold scheme of Parliamentary reform, by which he
had added to the county representatives and diminished those of the
smaller burghs, was departed from, and the burgh representatives were
again increased so as to give to the "Court" better opportunities of
interfering in elections. Parliament met on January 27th, 1658/9, and it
was not long before troublesome disputes again broke out. The votes were
carried by small majorities, and there were so many various parties in the
House that it was never certain when a combination of adverse factions
might outnumber the followers of the "Court." To these followers there was
opposed a strong phalanx of ardent Republicans, and the balance was held
by a nondescript element called the "Neuters," amongst whom there were
some even of Royalist leanings. Hyde was in constant correspondence with
Royalist adherents in England, as to the means by which these different
parties in Parliament might be used to involve the Government of Richard
in trouble, to accentuate such discontent as existed, and, if possible, to
steal an occasional adverse vote. But such schemes had little success.

Opposition to the Government, however, came from a source more powerful
than a divided Parliament. Lambert had been cashiered by the late
Protector; but he still retained an enormous influence in the army, and
the army had no mind to submit tamely to extinction by Parliament. A
council of the officers met to air their grievances, and Lambert, although
no longer an officer, had a place amongst them. They complained that their
pay was in arrear; that their services were neglected; that "the good old
cause was traduced by malignants"; and that Parliament must be moved to
redress their wrongs. With strange impolicy, Parliament passed a
resolution against any council of officers, and sought to impose its
authority upon a power greater than itself. The ready answer was a demand
for the dissolution of Parliament. Richard Cromwell was allowed no choice
in the matter; if he did not do it, the army, he was told, would do it for
him. He gave an involuntary assent. On April 22nd the dissolution took
place, and Richard found himself virtually deposed. For another year there
was little but anarchy in England, and any semblance of a constitution was
virtually in abeyance.

As the creature of the army, the old Rump Parliament was restored on May
7th. That was the name given to that section of the Long Parliament which
sat from 1648 (when "Pride's Purge," as it was called, was applied) to
1653, when Cromwell ejected the remaining members and summarily closed the
doors of Parliament. Of 213 members of the Long Parliament only ninety
were thus permitted to sit, and of these only seventy actually did sit.
Those who were not pronounced Republicans were excluded by the rough-and-
ready method of a military guard placed at the door of the House. Such an
assembly could have no respect from the nation, and was clearly only an
instrument by which the Council of the Army might exercise its power. "The
name of the Protector was no longer heard but in derision." [Footnote:
Richard Cromwell submitted himself, with abject and craven weakness, to
the will of this so-called Parliament. Nor did his younger brother, Henry,
the Lieutenant of Ireland, prove to have any larger share of his father's
courage.] But nothing was established to take the place of the authority
thus cast aside.

Once more, and in even greater degree, the hopes of the Royalists were
cast down. The restoration of the House which had destroyed the monarchy
seemed, in the words of Hyde, "to pull up all the hopes of the King by the
roots." In this despair the Duke of York was ready, at the persuasion of
those about him, to accept from the King of Spain the post of Admiral of
his Fleet. It offered, what there seemed but little likelihood of his
otherwise obtaining, a place of dignity and a means of livelihood. That it
necessarily involved a profession of the Roman Catholic religion was
sufficient to condemn it in the eyes of Hyde, as at once unprincipled and
impolitic. With the Duke's immediate advisers such considerations counted
for nothing.

Backed by the visible force of the army, of which Lambert, now restored to
his commission, was the virtual leader, the Rump Parliament showed a
temporary vigour. All Cavaliers were banished from London. Monk, who
commanded in Scotland, accepted the Parliament's authority. The fleet gave
in its allegiance, and the relations with foreign powers were for a brief
period renewed under the altered administration. The name of Parliament
sufficed for a time to carry conviction to the people at large that this
was the only means of preserving the Republican institutions which seemed
to embody all that they had fought for.

But the real popular support to this fantastic substitute for Government
was very small. All over the country discontent was widely spread, and had
penetrated deeply into the hearts of the people. The Royalists, detached
and ill-organized as they were, yet found themselves able to show some
boldness and to appeal more openly for armed support. John Mordaunt, a
brother of the Earl of Mordaunt, was daunted by no difficulties, and was
able without great danger to carry on correspondence with probable
adherents, to pass backwards and forwards between the exiled Court and
England, and to concoct armed risings in various parts of the kingdom. The
King took up his residence _incognito_ at Calais, in readiness to sail for
England and put himself at the head of the levies whose gathering was
confidently hoped for. The Duke of York was close at hand at Boulogne.
To the more cautious counsellors like Hyde the schemes seemed hazardous
and the time unripe for them. But even he could not refuse some response
to affections so warm and efforts so courageous as those of Mordaunt. At
the beginning of August all, it was hoped, would be ready for a series of
successful risings in different parts of the country.

There was indeed abundance of enthusiasm. From all parts of the country
offers of risings came. Sir George Booth was to seize Chester; Lord
Newport, Shrewsbury; and in Gloucestershire, Devonshire, Herefordshire,
Worcestershire, and North Wales, the Royalists were only too eager for the
work. The ludicrous weakness of the Parliament made it a matter of no
great danger to defy what could hardly be deemed an existing Government.
But the Royalists had been too long depressed and deprived of any share in
administration to take a just measure of the difficulties. They reckoned
without the army that was at the back of Parliament.

They reckoned also without that treachery which had only too ample
opportunity to work, amidst plans and associates so scattered and so
lamentably disorganized, A traitor was now, as often in these Royalist
plottings, received into their full confidence, and through him a detailed
account of all their plans was sent to Thurloe. [Footnote: John Thurloe
was born in 1616, and became a lawyer. He obtained active employment under
the Parliament, and was Secretary to the Parliamentary Commissioners at
Uxbridge. He acted as Secretary to Cromwell for secret correspondence, and
amassed enormous experience in the intricacies of foreign diplomacy, which
afterwards stood him in good stead when, after the Restoration, he wished
to make himself useful to the new Government, and thus escape the
penalties which his former political attachments would certainly have
involved. Until the Restoration was all but accomplished he gave useful
help to Richard Cromwell, but yet was able to ingratiate himself with the
new Ministers.] Hyde learned that Sir Richard Willis, [Footnote: Sir
Richard Willis had done good service to the royal cause in the war. As a
close adherent of Prince Rupert, he became, when Governor of Newark in
1645, involved in one of the many quarrels between the Civil Commissioners
and the army officers. Charles I. removed him from the Governorship, but
desired to do so without friction by providing him with a post in his own
escort. Willis's insolence in refusing this roused the King's anger so far
as to lead him to banish Willis from his presence. Willis was a good
soldier, rendered mutinous by the bad example of Prince Rupert; but it is
hard to account for his present treachery. As Warburton, in his note on
the _History of the Rebellion_ (Bk. XVI., para. 31) says, "he could
not think of starving for conscience' sake, though he had courage enough
to fight for it."] who had already played a double game of treachery, was
acting as he had acted before, when he betrayed Ormonde's presence in
London to Cromwell, and at the same time enabled Ormonde to escape by
telling him of Cromwell's knowledge. Willis's betrayal gave the
Parliamentary leaders time to collect forces sufficient to meet all
attacks; and when he had thus baulked the attempt, Willis was ready to
discover enough to prevent those whom he had betrayed from falling into
the trap. Messages were sent to delay the rising, and in most cases they
were in time to prevent outbreaks which were fore-doomed to failure. Only
Sir George Booth, in the seizure of Chester, and Middleton, in the North
Wales rising, actually carried out what had been planned. A very brief
campaign sufficed for Lambert to crush the nascent rebellion. Booth and
Lord Derby [Footnote: Son of the Earl who played so noble a part in the
war, and who was executed after the battle of Worcester in 1651.] were
prisoners in the hands of Lambert; and Middleton was compelled to consent
to the destruction of his house, Chirk Castle. Once more a brief gleam of
hope was succeeded by more profound despair, and there was nothing more to
be done by Charles and the Duke of York than to return from the French
coast to Brussels. But there was no Cromwell to crush future attempts by a
policy of ruthless revenge. A few prisoners were taken; but the time was
past for trials and executions. Legal processes were beyond the range of
the sorry faction that stood for administration in England.

But scarcely had these abortive attempts been crushed before another
avenue of hope opened itself to Charles and his adherents. It was one for
which Hyde had no great liking, and from which he expected little good
result. But obviously it was not to be neglected. After a long, barren,
and destructive war, both France and Spain were eager for peace. Neither
was ready to make the first overtures, and neither would confess an ardent
desire for peace. But an opportunity occurred, now that a wife had to be
found for Louis XIV. The Infanta of Spain offered a consort entirely
suitable, and a marriage might be arranged with the better augury if it
should prove a method of bringing to an end a mutually destructive war.
Mazarin viewed the proposal with suspicion, and was unwilling to conclude
a peace when the success of French arms seemed already secure. But the
Queen-Mother of France ardently desired the marriage, and mainly by her
efforts Cardinal Mazarin and Don Lewis de Haro were induced to treat. Most
men thought that the design was a vain one, fomented only in the
enthusiasm of family ties. But the desire for a cessation of a useless
struggle operated more powerfully than Mazarin was able to perceive; and
that desire overcame the delays and doubts of diplomatic action. The time
and place of meeting to arrange a treaty of peace were fixed; and there
was at least a fair prospect that the two Kings might soon find themselves
with free hands, and with greater power to prosecute the forcible
restoration of Charles II. to his throne. Both had often alleged that only
the poverty of their exchequer and the heavy expenses of the war prevented
any cordial and effective assistance being rendered to the exiled King.
What claim to consideration might Charles not make good, what sound
reasons of policy might it not be possible to suggest, if both were
relieved of the burdens of war?

Hyde, as we have abundant reason to know, placed no confidence in foreign
aid, and looked with suspicion upon the conditions under which it would be
granted. But he could interpose no obstacles to the present application.
He himself remained at Breda, and held the threads of all the discrepant
and varying negotiations; but he did not attempt to dissuade Charles from
making a somewhat venturesome and hopeless voyage to Fontarabia, where the
Treaty was being discussed in September, 1659. At first Charles attempted
to procure a pass from Cardinal Mazarin. But in the face of opposition by
the Queen this was hopeless, and, accompanied only by Ormonde and Bristol
and a small retinue, he made his way, incognito, through France. Even in
the strain of anxiety Charles's natural disposition showed itself in
wasting time in order to see parts of France which he had not yet visited.
The pleasure of the moment always weighed with him more than the
prosecution of business. Adversity, perhaps happily for himself, made him
callous rather than despondent.

The business of the treaty between France and Spain meanwhile advanced
more quickly than any one had ventured to hope. The difficulties as to
France's pledges to Portugal, and those of Spain to the Prince of Condé,
were somehow settled--or, at least, ignored. If France had to yield to
some pressure on the part of Don Lewis de Haro, she avenged herself by
retaining her hold on those former Spanish possessions in Flanders which
the fortune of war had placed in her hands. Sir Henry Bennet represented
Charles in Spain, and was sorely perplexed when the final ratification
approached, and the King made no appearance. Ormonde had been sent to
Fontarabia, but Charles lingered at Toulouse, before proceeding from there
towards Madrid. His presence there was not desired, and he found himself
compelled, after roundabout journeys, to put in an appearance at the scene
of the treaty. Both France and Spain held out delusive hopes of aid. Don
Lewis presented him with a dole of seven thousand pistoles, and promised a
good reception on his return to Flanders. There was nothing for it but to
make his way back to Brussels, and join once more in the plans of Hyde and
his council there. He found the prospect no more cheerful than before.

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