1653-1660 92

BOOK VIII

THE REVOLUTION. 1660-1760

CHAPTER I

THE RESTORATION. 1660-1667 160

CHAPTER II

THE POPISH PLOT. 1667-1683 244

MAPS

I. MAP OF MARSTON MOOR[vii:1] _Pages 20, 21_

II. MAP OF NASEBY FIGHT[vii:1] _To face page 38_

III. MAP OF EUROPE, WITH FRANCE AS
IT WAS UNDER LEWIS XIV. _To face page 293_

FOOTNOTES:

[vii:1] By permission of Mr. Markham.

CHAPTER IX

THE CIVIL WAR

1642-1646

[Sidenote: Edgehill.]

The breaking off of negotiations was followed on both sides by
preparations for immediate war. Hampden, Pym, and Holles became the
guiding spirits of a Committee of Public Safety which was created by
Parliament as its administrative organ. On the twelfth of July 1642 the
Houses ordered that an army should be raised "for the defence of the
king and the Parliament," and appointed the Earl of Essex as its
captain-general and the Earl of Bedford as its general of horse. The
force soon rose to twenty thousand foot and four thousand horse; and
English and Scotch officers were drawn from the Low Countries. The
confidence on the Parliamentary side was great. "We all thought one
battle would decide," Baxter confessed after the first encounter; for
the king was almost destitute of money and arms, and in spite of his
strenuous efforts to raise recruits he was embarrassed by the reluctance
of his own adherents to begin the struggle. Resolved however to force on
a contest, he raised the Royal Standard at Nottingham "on the evening of
a very stormy and tempestuous day," the twenty-second of August, but the
country made no answer to his appeal. Meanwhile Lord Essex, who had
quitted London amidst the shouts of a great multitude with orders from
the Parliament to follow the king, "and by battle or other way rescue
him from his perfidious councillors and restore him to Parliament," was
mustering his army at Northampton. Charles had but a handful of men, and
the dash of a few regiments of horse would have ended the war; but Essex
shrank from a decisive stroke, and trusted to reduce the king peacefully
to submission by a show of force. But while Essex lingered Charles fell
back at the close of September on Shrewsbury, and the whole face of
affairs suddenly changed. Catholics and Royalists rallied fast to his
standard, and the royal