29th of January 1646 disavowed his agent's proceedings. He
simultaneously treated with the parliament, and promised toleration to
the Roman Catholics if they and the pope would aid in the restoration of
the monarchy and the church. Nor was this all. The parliamentary forces
had been closing round Oxford. On the 27th of April the king left the
city, and on the 5th of May gave himself up to the Scottish army at
Newark, arriving on the 13th with them at Newcastle. On the 13th of July
the parliament sent to Charles the "Newcastle Propositions," which
included the extreme demands of Charles's acceptance of the Covenants,
the abolition of episcopacy and establishment of Presbyterianism,
severer laws against the Roman Catholics and parliamentary control of
the forces, with the withdrawal of the Irish Cessation, and a long list
of royalists to be exempted from pardon. Charles returned no definite
answer for several months. He imagined that he might now find support in
Scottish royalism, encouraged by Montrose's series of brilliant
victories, but these hopes were destroyed by the latter's defeat at
Philiphaugh on the 3rd of September. The Scots insisted on the Covenant
and on the permanent establishment of Presbyterianism, while Charles
would only consent to a temporary maintenance for three years.
Accordingly the Scots, in return for the payment of part of their army
arrears by the parliament, marched home on the 30th of January 1647,
leaving Charles behind, who under the care of the parliamentary
commissioners was conducted to Holmby House. Thence on the 12th of May
he sent his answer to the Newcastle Propositions, offering the militia
to the parliament for ten years and the establishment of Presbyterianism
for three, while a final settlement on religion was to be reached
through an assembly of twenty divines at Westminster. But in the midst
of the negotiation with the parliament Charles's person was seized, on
the 3rd of June 1647, by Cornet Joyce under instructions of the army,
which soon afterwards occupied London and overpowered the parliament,
placing Charles at Hampton Court.

If Charles could have remained firm to either one or the other faction,
and have made concessions either to Presbyterianism or on the subject of
the militia, he might even now have prevailed. But he had learned
nothing by experience, and continued at this juncture his characteristic
policy of intrigue and double-dealing, "playing his game," to use