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Home From the Civil War to the Restoration, 1645-1660 The rule of the "Rump Parliament", 1649-1653 1649-1653; Part 2 |
1649-1653; Part 2There ensued a war between England and Scotland. Cromwell, on his return from Ireland, invaded Scotland (Fairfax refused to command an army against the Scots), but he was outmanoeuvred by Leslie, the Scottish commander, and was cornered in the peninsula of Dunbar, with no base but his ships. With his army, in his own words, "poor, shattered, hungry, discouraged", and with Leslie secure on the hills and ready to attack if he tried to escape, the outlook for Cromwell was black. But then Leslie, instead of waiting, "shogged" (Le. moved on; the word is Cromwell's) his right wing still further to the right on to the low ground, so that he might hold the road by which Cromwell could escape. In so doing, Leslie's left wing became isolated, whilst his centre, being still up in the hills, was unable to manoeuvre easily. Cromwell saw this, and next morning attacked and rolled up the right wing, whilst the rest of the Scottish army, entangled between a hill and a ravine, was helpless. Cromwell lost only twenty men, but the Scots lost three thousand in the battle beside ten thousand prisoners (When the Scots were defeated " the Lord General", said one of Cromwell's captains, " made a halt and sang the hundred and seventeenth Psalm " till his horse could gather for the chase-another instance of his practical piety) (September 3, 1650).Cromwell then marched on to Edinburgh, and in 1651 took Perth. His departure, however, towards the north of Scotland, had left the way open to England, and Charles, entering England by Carlisle, reached Worcester. Here, however, Cromwell, who had returned south, caught him up, and blocked his way to London. On the anniversary of Dunbar, Cromwell attacked Charles from both sides of the river, and after "as stiff a contest", in Cromwell's words, " for four or five hours, as ever I have seen ", absolutely defeated him (September 3, 1651). Though Charles himself escaped and got eventually to the Continent (Charles had six weeks' wandering in England, full of adventures, before he finally got across the Channel from Brighton. He had to hide in an oak at one place, and in a "priest's hole ", up a chimney, in another. He witnessed in a village the rejoicings at the news which, had been received of his own death. In another village the blacksmith said he had not heard that "that rogue, Charles Stuart, had been taken". "If that rogue were taken," answered Charles, "he deserves to be hanged more than the rest for bringing in the Scots"), yet not one troop of his cavalry or one company of his infantry succeeded in following his example. Worcester decided the Royalist cause tip till the Restoration of 1660; though there were numberless Royalist plots, they were never really serious. The battle also destroyed the independence of Scotland. An English army invaded that country, took its strong places, and Monck, who was a general in the army, governed it for the rest of the Commonwealth (For the later history of Scotland). |
Chronology |
| freelance jurist Annerveenschekanaal | copyright by uuo-ununoctium.info |