their homes, and the militia was soon triumphantly to justify its existence on the day of Worcester.
56. Inverkeithing.—While David Leslie organized and drilled the king’s new army beyond the Forth, Cromwell was, slowly and with frequent relapses, recovering from his illness. The English army marched to Glasgow in April, then returned to Edinburgh. The motives of the march and that of the return are alike obscure, but it may be conjectured that, the forces in England under Harrison having now assembled in Lancashire, the Edinburgh-Newcastle-York road had to be covered by the main army. Be this as it may, Cromwell’s health again broke down and his life was despaired of. Only late in June were operations actively resumed between Stirling and Linlithgow. At first Cromwell sought without success to bring Leslie to battle, but he stormed Callendar House near Falkirk on July 13, and on the 16th of July he began the execution of a brilliant and successful manœuvre. A force from Queensferry, covered by the English fleet, was thrown across the Firth of Forth to Northferry. Lambert followed with reinforcements, and defeated a detachment of Leslie’s army at Inverkeithing on the 20th. Leslie drew back at once, but managed to find a fresh strong position in front of Stirling, whence he defied Cromwell again. At this juncture Cromwell prepared to pass his whole army across the firth. His contemplated manœuvre of course gave up to the enemy all the roads into England, and before undertaking it the lord general held a consultation with Harrison, as the result of which that officer took over the direct defence of the whole Border. But his mind was made up even before this, for on the day he met Harrison at Linlithgow three-quarters of his whole army had already crossed into Fife. Burntisland, surrendered to Lambert on the 29th, gave Cromwell a good harbour upon which to base his subsequent movements. On the 30th of July the English marched upon Perth, and the investment of this place, the key to Leslie’s supply area, forced the crisis at once. Whether Leslie would have preferred to manœuvre Cromwell from his vantage-ground or not is immaterial; the young king and the now predominant Royalist element at headquarters seized the long-awaited opportunity at once, and on the 31st, leaving Cromwell to his own devices, the Royal army marched southward to raise the Royal standard in England.
57. The Third Scottish Invasion of England.—Then began the last and most thrilling campaign of the Great Rebellion. Charles II. expected complete success. In Scotland, vis-à-vis the extreme Covenanters, he was a king on conditions, and he was glad enough to find himself in England with some thirty solidly organized regiments under Royalist officers and with no regular army in front of him. He hoped, too, to rally not merely the old faithful Royalists, but also the overwhelming numerical strength of the English Presbyterians to his standard. His army was kept well in hand, no excesses were allowed, and in a week the Royalists covered 150 m.—in marked contrast to the duke of Hamilton’s ill-fated expedition of 1648. On the 8th of August the troops were given a well-earned rest between Penrith and Kendal.
But the Royalists were mistaken in supposing that the enemy was taken aback by their new move. Everything had been foreseen both by Cromwell and by the Council of State in Westminster. The latter had called out the greater part of the militia on the 7th. Lieutenant-General Fleetwood began to draw together the midland contingents at Banbury, the London trained bands turned out for field service no fewer than 14,000 strong. Every suspected Royalist was closely watched, and the magazines of arms in the country-houses of the gentry were for the most part removed into the strong places. On his part Cromwell had quietly made his preparations. Perth passed into his hands on the 2nd of August, and he brought back his army to Leith by the 5th. Thence he despatched Lambert with a cavalry corps to harass the invaders. Harrison was already at Newcastle picking the best of the county mounted troops to add to his own regulars. On the 9th Charles was at Kendal, Lambert hovering in his rear, and Harrison marching swiftly to bar his way at the Mersey. Fairfax emerged for a moment from his retirement to organize the Yorkshire levies, and the best of these as well as of the Lancashire, Cheshire and Staffordshire militias were directed upon Warrington, which point Harrison reached on the 15th, a few hours in front of Charles’s advanced guard. Lambert too, slipping round the left flank of the enemy, joined Harrison, and the English fell back (16th), slowly and without letting themselves be drawn into a fight, along the London road.
58. Campaign of Worcester.—Cromwell meanwhile, leaving Monk with the least efficient regiments to carry on the war in Scotland, had reached the Tyne in seven days, and thence, marching 20 m. a day in extreme heat—with the country people carrying their arms and equipment—the regulars entered Ferrybridge on the 19th, at which date Lambert, Harrison and the north-western militia were about Congleton.[1] It seemed probable that a great battle would take place between Lichfield and Coventry about the 25th or 26th of August, and that Cromwell, Harrison, Lambert and Fleetwood would all take part in it. But the scene and the date of the denouement were changed by the enemy’s movements. Shortly after leaving Warrington the young king had resolved to abandon the direct march on London and to make for the Severn valley, where his father had found the most constant and the most numerous adherents in the first war, and which had been the centre of gravity of the English Royalist movement of 1648. Sir Edward Massey, formerly the Parliamentary governor of Gloucester, was now with Charles, and it was hoped that he would induce his fellow-Presbyterians to take arms. The military quality of the Welsh border Royalists was well proved, that of the Gloucestershire Presbyterians not less so, and, based on Gloucester and Worcester as his father had been based on Oxford, Charles II. hoped, not unnaturally, to deal with an Independent minority more effectually than Charles I. had done with a Parliamentary majority of the people of England. But even the pure Royalism which now ruled in the invading army could not alter the fact that it was a Scottish army, and it was not an Independent faction but all England that took arms against it. Charles arrived at Worcester on the 22nd of August, and spent five days in resting the troops, preparing for further operations, and gathering and arming the few recruits who came in. It is unnecessary to argue that the delay was fatal; it was a necessity of the case foreseen and accepted when the march to Worcester had been decided upon, and had the other course, that of marching on London via Lichfield, been taken the battle would have been fought three days earlier with the same result. As affairs turned out Cromwell merely shifted the area of his concentration two marches to the south-west, to Evesham. Early on the 28th Lambert surprised the passage of the Severn at Upton, 6 m. below Worcester, and in the action which followed Massey was severely wounded. Fleetwood followed Lambert. The enemy was now only 16,000 strong and disheartened by the apathy with which they had been received in districts formerly all their own. Cromwell, for the first and last time in his military career, had a two-to-one numerical superiority.
59. The “Crowning Mercy.”—He took his measures deliberately. Lilburne from Lancashire and Major Mercer with the Worcestershire horse were to secure Bewdley Bridge on the enemy’s line of retreat. Lambert and Fleetwood were to force their way across the Teme (a little river on which Rupert had won his first victory in 1642) and attack St John’s, the western suburb of Worcester. Cromwell himself and the main army were to attack the town itself. On the 3rd of September, the anniversary of Dunbar, the programme was carried out exactly. Fleetwood forced the passage of the Teme, and the bridging train (which had been carefully organized for the purpose) bridged both the Teme and the Severn. Then Cromwell on the left bank and Fleetwood on the right swept in a semicircle 4 m. long up to Worcester. Every hedgerow was contested by the stubborn Royalists, but Fleetwood’s men would not be denied, and Cromwell’s extreme right on the eastern side of the town repelled, after three hours’ hard fighting, the last desperate attempt of the Royalists to break
- ↑ The lord general had during his march thrown out successively two flying columns under Colonel Lilburne to deal with the Lancashire Royalists under the earl of Derby. Lilburne entirely routed the enemy at Wigan on the 25th of August.
