richer bishopric of Worcester.
After the death of Gauden his pretensions began to transpire, and became
the subject of an interesting controversy between his friends and the
admirers of Charles. But many documents have been published since, which
were then unknown, particularly the letters of
Gauden to the earl of Clarendon (Clarendon Papers, iii. App. xxvi.-xxxi.,
xcv.), and others from him to the earl of Bristol (Maty's Review, ii. 253.
Clarendon Papers, iii. App. xcvi.; and Mr. Todd, Memoirs of Bishop Walton,
i. 138). These have so firmly established Gauden's claim, that, whoever
denies it must be prepared to pronounce that prelate an impostor, to
believe that the bishops Morley and Duppa gave false evidence in his
favour, and, to explain how it happened, that those, the most interested to
maintain the right of the king, namely Charles II., his brother the duke of
York, and the two earls of Clarendon and Bristol, yielded to the deception.
These difficulties, however, have not appalled Dr. Wordsworth, who in
a recent publication of more than four hundred pages, entitled, "Who
wrote[Greek: EIKON BASILIKAe]" has collected with patient industry every
particle of evidence which can bear upon the subject; and after a most
minute and laborious investigation, has concluded by adjudging the work
to the king, and pronouncing the bishop an impudent impostor. Still my
incredulity is not subdued. There is much in the[Greek: EIKON BASILIKAe]
itself which forbids me to believe that Charles was the real author, though
the latter, whoever he were, may have occasionally consulted and copied the
royal papers; and the claim of Gauden appears too firmly established to be
shaken by the imperfect and conjectural improbabilities which have hitherto
been produced against it.
NOTE D, p. 276.
_The Massacres at Drogheda and Wexford_.
I. Drogheda was taken by storm on the 11th of September, 1649. Cromwell, on
his return to Dublin, despatched two official accounts of his success, one
to Bradshaw, president of the council of state; a second to Lenthall, the
speaker of parliament. They were dated on the 16th and 17th of September;
which probably ought to have been the 17th and 18th, for he repeatedly
makes such mistakes in numbering the days of that month. These two
documents on several accounts deserve the attention of the reader.
I. Both mention a massacre, but with this difference, that whereas the
earlier seems to confine it to
|