Never did a war seem more unequal than the present at its commencement. The king's revenue, which had been scantily dealt out to him before, was stopt after he fled to York. The armies raised for Ireland by parlia ment, were now devoted to act against him, under the command of Essex. In London, no less than 4000 en listed in one day. The requisition of the parliament for loans of money and plate was so well obeyed, that there was hardly room to stow the treasure, or men to receive it ; and such zeal animated the city, that the rich women bestowed their plate and ornaments, and the poorer their silver thimbles and bodkins. London, and all the seaports except Newcastle, were in the hands of parliament ; of which the customs yielded them a certain and considerable supply, and the seamen natu rally followed the disposition of the ports to which they belonged.
The king, it is true, was surrounded by a splendid nobility, and a faithful body of gentry, who diffused their loyalty among the rustic and hardy retainers whom they raised on their own estates. Above forty peers of the first rank attended him. The bishops and the cler gy, too, were on his side, although these, in a war with Puritans, were not likely to overawe their enemies. Spain, from motives of bigotry, supplied some money and arms to his unpopular auxiliaries the Irish ; and the Prince of Orange encouraged some English officers in his service to enlist on Charles's behalf. But the forts, magazines, arms, and fleet were in the hands of his ene mies. Only a part of the queen's succours arrived from Holland; and Charles was obliged, in order to arm his followers, to borrow the weapons of the train-bands, un der a promise of restoring them when peace should be settled.
The royal standard was first erected at Nottingham ; but whether from a natural hesitation to commence hos tilities, or from inattention to the preparations of a fee ble enemy, the parliament, with a superior force at Northampton, neglected to dissipate the few troops that resorted at first to the king. Charles was suffered to retire unmolested to Shrewsbury, to collect his levies, and to interpose with an equal army between Essex, the parliamentary general, and the capital. On mustering his army in that situation, the king found it amount to 10,000 men. The earl of Lindesey, who had acquired some military experience in the Low Countries, was made general ; Prince Rupert, a son of the elector pala tine, who was early in the war, distinguished by his promptitude and courage, commanded the horse ; Sir Jacob Astley the foot; Sir Arthur Aston the dragoons; Sir John Heydon the artillery. Such was the low state of military skill in England, produced by a long peace, that, after the hostile armies set out, the king's from Shrewsbury, the other from Worcester, they marched ten clays in mutual ignorance of each other's motions. On the 23d of October they met at Keinton, or Edge hill, in the county of Warwick. Both the wings of Es sex, the parliamentary general, were at first put to flight by the shock of Prince Rupert's cavalry, and the troops under Wilmot and Sir Arthur Aston ; but the king's re serve, judging, like raw soldiers, that the day was won, took too prompt a share in the chase, and were watched by Sir W. Balfour, the commander of the parliamentary reserve, who wheeled upon them suddenly, and convert ed their victory into a doubtful defeat. Returning to the charge, the two armies faced each other for some time, without courage on either side to renew the at tack. All night they lay under arms. Next day Essex first drew off towards Warwick, and the king to his for mer quarters. Five thousand are said to have perished, in nearly equal shares, on both sides. Charles's nearer advance to London, and a few slight successes after this victory, brought en the treaty of Oxford, when winter concluded this first campaign. As the condition of
Charles's recal, the parliamentary commissioners re quired the militia to be left to the disposal of the two houses, Episcopacy to be quite abolished, and ecclesias tical controversies to be determined by an assembly of divines. From their private conferences, it was ob vious that much would have been deducted from these demands, if Charles had not been extravagant in his ; and the failure of the negotiation may, on the authority of Clarendon, be ascribed to Charles's fidelity to an un happy promise which he had made to his queen, to ac cede to no terms without her intervention, and restore none to favour without her consent.
The parliamentary army took the field next spring 24,000 strong: The campaign of I G 13 was, on the whole, unfavourable to them ; and, considering the difficulty of raising money among the king's friends by spontaneous exertions, compared to the facility with which their an tagonists recruited their finances by taxes, that success is surprisingly honourable to the royalists. The city of Reading, however, surrendered to Essex, at the head of 18,00U men. In the north, Lord Fairfax, who command ed for the parliament, was dislodged by the Earl of Newcastle from Tadcaster, but the victory proved inde cisive. Waller, the poet, distinguished himself on the parliamentary side, by taking Winchester, Chichester, and Hereford. These successes were counterbalanced by victories of the royalists in the west, where, at Bra. doe-down, in Cornwall, the Cornishmen overthrew Ge neral Ruthven, and chased General Samford back to Plymouth and Exeter. The return of Stamford's forces under Major-General Chidley, in the same direction from which they had been repulsed, brought on the battle of Stratton, where the parliamentary forces were again attacked by the Cornish royalists, and completely routed. This victorious army, joined by the Marquis of Ilcrtford, and by Prince Rupert with a reinforcement of cavalry, soon after fought a pitched battle near Bath, with the army of Waller, without decisive advantage on either side; but, on the t3th of the same month, they routed and dispersed NValler's whole forces at Round away, and drove him into Bristol with only a few horse. That city yielded in a few days to Prince Rupert by ca pitulation, though not until the attempt to take it by storm had cost the royalists 500 men. The king, at this period, joined the camp at Bristol; and so impor tant were all the advantages he had gained by the defeat of Fairfax in the north, of Waller in the west, the re treat of Essex, and the reduction of Bristol, that a fair opportunity presented of advancing towards a distracted capital. But the parliament was preserved by the des tiny which ever attended Charles, whose arms were di verted, by an impulse of sudden indignation, to the siege of Gloucester. The approaches to that town were baf fled by the skilful defence of Massey. A general as sault was repelled by the desperate enthusiasm of the garrison and city, which was reduced, however, to ex treme necessity, when it was relieved by Essex. His return was opposed by Charles at Newbury, where a battle was fought with desperate and steady valour on both sides. Essex's horse were several times broken by the king's, but his infantry kept in firm array, and, besides giving their fire, presented an invincible ram part of pikes against the furious shock of Prince Ru pert and the gentry of the royal cavalry. Night put an end to the action, but left the victory undecided On the side of Charles, but already disgusted at the royal cause, fell the virtuous Lord Falkland. Essex next morning proceeded on his march to London, and, though he had gained no victory, obtained the approbation of parliament.