The

posed his principal force, exceeded not eight hundred, and were very ill provided with arms. forces of the parliament at Northampton, within a few days march from him, consisted of above six thousand men well armed and well appointed. But the earl of Essex, their general, had not yet received any orders, as the parliament were convinced that the royalists, sensible of their great inferiority in numbers, would immediately disperse.

Charles had declared against all advances towards an accommodation, and had said, that having now nothing left him but his honour, he was steadily resolved to preserve it, and rather to perish than yield any farther to the pretensions of his enemies. Yet by the unanimous advice of his council he was prevailed on to send lord Southampton to London with offers of a treaty. But the parliament demanded as a preliminary that he should dismiss his forces, and give up delinquents to their justice; that is, abandon himself and his friends to their mercy. Such terms put an end to all prospects of

peace.

The king, on the approach of the earl of Essex at the head of fifteen thousand men, retired by slow marches to Shrewsbury, and before reaching that place he solemnly declared before his whole army, "that he "would to the utmost of his power maintain the "true reformed protestant religion, and ever con"sidering the laws as the measure of his govern

ment, preserve the liberty and property of the "subject with the same care as his own just rights, " and should expect no aid or relief from man, nor "any protection from above, if he ever willingly "failed in these particulars."

During the king's stay at Shrewsbury, the news arrived of an action, the first that happened in this war, and in which his army was successful. On the appearance of commotions in England, the princes Rupert and Maurice, sons of the unfortunate

Palatine, had offered their services to the king; and the former at that time commanded a body of horse which had been sent to Worcester. No sooner had he arrived than he saw some cavalry of the enemy approaching the gates. He immediately attacked them as they were forming themselves. Colonel Sandys who led them being mortally wounded, the whole party was routed and pursued above a mile. The prince hearing of Essex's approach, returned to the main body, after having acquired that character of courage and activity which he eminently displayed to the end of the war.

The king, on mustering his army, found it amounted to ten thousand men. The earl of Lindesey was appointed general; prince Rupert commanded the horse; sir Jacob Astley, the foot; sir Arthur Aston, the dragoons; and sir John Heydon, the artillery. Lord Bernard Stuart was at the head of a troop of guards. The estates and revenue of this single troop, according to lord Clarendon's computation, were at least equal to those of all the members who at the commencement of the war voted in both houses. Their servants, under the command of sir William Killigrew, made another troop, and always marched with their masters.

With this army the king left Shrewsbury, resolving to give battle as soon as possible to the army of the parliament, which he heard was continually reinforcing by supplies from London. In order to bring on an action he directed his march towards the capital, which he knew the enemy would not abandon to him. At Banbury he received intelligence from prince Rupert that the enemy was encamped at Keinton, only a few miles distant. Though the day was far advanced the king resolved upon the attack. No sooner did his army approach, than partly from the furious shock made by prince Rupert on the left wing of the parliament's army,

partly from the defection of sir Faithful Fortescue, who had been compelled to join it with a troop he had levied for the Irish war, and who now put himself under the command of that prince, that whole wing of cavalry immediately fled and were pursued for two miles. The right wing had no better success, and took also to flight. The king's body of reserve judging, like raw soldiers, that all was over, and impatient to have some share in the action, heedlessly joined in the pursuit. Sir William Balfour, who commanded Essex's reserve, perceiving the advantage, fell upon the king's infantry, now quite unsupported by cavalry, and made great havock among them. Lindesey, the general, was mortally wounded and taken prisoner; sir Edmund Verney, who carried the king's standard, was killed, and the standard taken; but it was afterwards recovered. Some advised the king to leave the field, but he rejected such pusillanimous counsel. The two armies faced each other for some time, but neither discovered any disposition to renew the attack. All night they lay under arms, and next morning when they found themselves in sight of each other, both seemed equally averse to fighting. Essex first drew off and retired to Warwick. king returned to his former quarters, whence he continued his march to Oxford, the only town in his dominions which was altogether at his devotion. Such was the event of this first battle, fought at Keinton, or Edge-hill, and in which both parties equally pretended to have obtained a complete victory. Five thousand men are said to have been found dead on the field of battle, and the loss of the two armies was nearly equal.

The

After the royal army was recruited and refreshed, as the weather still continued favourable, it was again put in motion. A party of horse was sent to Reading, and immediately both the governor and

garrison, seized with a panic, fled with precipitation to London. The king advanced with his whole army to Reading, and a few days after to Colnbrook. The parliament, alarmed at his majesty's approach, while their own forces lay at a distance, voted an address for a treaty, in which they besought his majesty to appoint some convenient place where he might reside till committees could attend him with proposals. The king named Windsor, and desired that their garrison might be removed, and his own troops admitted into the castle.

Meanwhile Essex had arrived at London. But neither the presence of his army nor the precarious hopes of a treaty, retarded the king's approach. He attacked at Brentford two regiments quartered there, and after a sharp action, beat them from that village and took about five hundred prisoners. Though no suspension of hostilities had been demanded nor even mentioned by the commissioners sent to the king, loud complaints were raised against this attack, as if it had been the most flagrant perfidy. Inflamed with resentment as well as anxious for its own safety, the city marched its train bands in excellent order and joined the army under Essex.

The parliamentary forces amounted now to above twenty-four thousand men. After both armies had faced each other during some time, Charles retired to Reading, and thence to Oxford. During the winter the king and parliament were employed in seeming advances toward peace, and in real preparations for war. But the supplies which the king could procure, were still very unequal to the necessities under which he laboured, while the parlia ment, who had invaded every resource for money, had all military preparations in much greater order and abundance. Besides an imposition levied in London amounting to the twenty-fifth part of every

one's substance, they established on that city a weekly assessment of ten thousand pounds, and another of twenty-three thousand five hundred and eighteen pounds on the rest of the kingdom, and these taxes were levied with regularity, though they amounted to greater sums than the nation had formerly paid.

Ann. 1643.

The king and parliament send reciprocally their demands. His majesty insists on the restoration of his legal powers and constitutional prerogative. Among new concessions and further abridgment of regal prerogative, the parliament requires, in express terms, that the king should utterly abolish episcopacy; that all other ecclesiastical controversies should be determined by their assembly of divines; that he should submit to the punishment of his most faithful adherents, acquiesce in their settlement of the militia such as it had been voted, and confer on their adherents the entire power of the sword. In answer to the king's proposal that his magazines, towns, forts, and ships should be restored to him, the parliament required that they should be put into such hands as they could confide in.

The conferences went no farther. The parliament finding that there was no likelihood of coming to any agreement, suddenly recalled their commissioners; and Essex, with eighteen thousand men, was ordered to lay siege to Reading, a place esteemed of considerable strength in that age. In a little time, however, it was found to be no longer in a condition of defence, and colonel Fielding, the governor, was content to capitulate on condition that he should bring off all the garrison with the honours of war, and deliver up the deserters. An