Rupert retired with his shattered forces into Lan cashire, York surrendered to the victors, and in that city Lord Fairfax established his authority over the whole county. While the Scottish army marching northward, joined Lord Callender with new forces, and took New castle by storm.
The campaign in other parts of the kingdom pre sented great vicissitudes of fortune. Waller, alter having defeated the royalists in the south, under General Hopton, turned to Oxford, where the king was already pressed by Essex ; but the king escaped by a nightly march to Worcester, leaving some troops in Oxford, which, for the present, were not molested, as Essex proceeded against Prince Maurice into Cornwall, and left the king to Waller. Charles, whose measures were taken wisely, either by his own contrivance or that of his general, Ruthven, suddenly rejoined his foot at Oxford ; and Waller, who was stunned by a check which his troops sustained on the Charwell, as well as by the recal of his London auxiliaries, allowed the king to pursue Essex, who was soon enclosed between Charles's troops and those of Maurice, and his army reduced to surrender their foot, artillery, and baggage, while his cavalry, with difficulty, broke through the lines of their surrounding enemies, and the general himself escaped to Plymouth.
Though Essex appeared to have despaired of the public cause, the parliament wisely expressed their opinion of his fidelity after this disaster : and as no stipulation had been made, that the troops who had been taken and dismissed by Charles, should not serve again, they were equipped again in six weeks. The generals Manchester, Cromwell, Waller, and Middleton, and the soldiers of Essex, (for Essex himself was unfitted by sickness for commanding them,) gave battle to Charles at Newbury, which became a second time the scene of bloodshed. Night alone prevented the king from a total overthrow. His ordnance was deposited in Den nington Castle, as be continued his precipitate retreat to Oxford ; but within a few days he returned reinforced by Prince Rupert's arrival from the north, and, in pre sence of a victorious army, withdrew his artillery, and distributed his troops into winter quarters.
The war in Scotland was supported on the side of royalty by the single ability of Montrose. That active leader, with a few troops collected in Westmoreland, made at first an unsuccessful attempt to erect the royal standard at Dumfries. Retiring to Athol in disguises.
with only two attendants, he was met by a body of Irish who had been sent over from Ulster by the earl of Antrim, and had already ravaged the coast of At the head of these, and of his Highland adherents, who flocked immediately to his standard, he gave the Covenanters a sanguinary defeat, first at Tippermuir near Perth, and after obtaining possession of that city, another at the bridge of Dee. Aberdeen fell into his
hands, which he gave up to pillage and slaughter. Argyle, who was his chief antagonist in the field, could not prevent him from descending, by rapid marches, into the remote recesses of Argyleshirc, and extending his devastations over Braedalbin, Argyle, and Lorn, td the confines of Lochaber ; but, baffled by his superior boldness and skill, fled by sea to escape being involved in the ruin of his clan.
Negotiations for peace were renewed in England, Although the parliament, by their late answer to the king's propositions from Oxford, held out the most rigorous offers, and a list of proscriptions ; yet the rising power of the Independents made it now the interest of many of the Presbyterians to conclude a peace, if it could be obtained with security. Sixteen commissioners from Charles, twelve from parliament, and four from the Scotch, assembled at Uxbridge. The treaty was limited to three subjects,—religion, the militia, and Ireland. On the first head, the king's op ponents required prelacy to be abolished, and the acts of the assembly of divines at Westminster to be confirmed, and the solemn league and covenant to be taken by the king, and universally enjoined. Charles refused their propositions, and the reformations in episcopacy which he offered to concede appeared insignificant to the op posite party. On the second head, parliament reduced their demand of managing the militia, to seven or three years after peace, when it might be again adjusted, and proposed an act of mutual oblivion. On the subject of Ireland, the parliament required, that the cessation of arms should be declared void ; that the Irish war should be directed by them, and no peace concluded without their consent. Charles would make no concession on this point ; no offer of compromise, nor attempt to make his own pretensions approach nearer to those of the par liament, came from his side. On the contrary, his com missioners studiously obstructed a conclusion. The earl of Southampton, one of them more faithful to his interests, knelt and implored him to yield to the neces sity of the times. His assent was obtained to the most material propositions ; but the news of Montrose's vic tories in Scotland made Charles recal this assent ; and reliance on this partizan, together with the hopes of 10,000 men tinder the duke of Lorrain, for which the queen had negotiated, were the chief causes of the failure of a treaty, in which Charles's letters to the queen chew him to have been insincere.