side of royalty; and the first blood in this war was shed by lord Strange endeavouring to secure Manchester, where he was replied and driven out. Great expectations were entertained by the Royalists of the assistance of the numerous catholics in Lancashire and Cheshire, but they were either indifferent or overawed. In the west of England Charles had a strong party. Charles, in his commission of array, had appointed the marquis of Hertford lieutenant-general of the west, including seven counties in Wales, and the second skirmish took place in Somersetshire, between him and the deputy-lieutenant of the county, where ten men were killed and many wounded.
No exertions were spared by the parliament at the same time to induce the king to come to an arrangement; but he showed that he was at heart totally unchanged, for he replied to their overtures by still insisting that the lord Kimbolton and the five members of the commons should be given up to him, as well as alderman Pennington, the lord mayor of London, and captain Venn, commander of the train-bands. He demanded indictments of high treason against the earls of Essex, Warwick, and Stamford, Sir John Hotham, major-general Skippon, and all who had dared to put in force the ordinance of parliament for the raising of the militia. Yet at the same time he was in secret negotiation with Hotham for the betrayal of Hull; and Hotham sullied that reputation for patriotic bravery which he had acquired, by listening to bun. He was, however, stoutly resisted by the inhabitants, the garrison, and his own son. The king then invested Hull, and intrigued with some traitors within to set fire to the town, so that he might assault it in the confusion. But the plot was discovered, and the incensed inhabitants made a sortie under Sir John Meldrum, and put the king's forces to a precipitate flight.
Charles then marched away to Nottingham, where he raised his standard on the 25th of August, according to Clarendon, on the 22nd, according to Rushworth. It was a most tempestuous time; the standard, which was raised on the castle-hill, an elevated and exposed place, was blown down in the night, an ominous occurrence in the opinion of both soldiers and people, and it was three days before it could be erected again, owing to the fierceness of the wind. Besides the prostration of the standard, the condition of the king's affairs was equally discouraging. The people showed no enthusiasm in flocking to the royal banner, the arms and ammunition did not arrive from York, and the royal arms had received a severe repulse at Coventry. News came that the earl of Essex was at the head of fifteen thousand men at Northampton, and the earl of Southampton and his other officers entreated the king to make overtures of peace to the parliament, telling him that if they refused them, it would turn the tide of popular favour against him. At first Charles listened to such counsels with anger, but at length despatched Sir John Colepepper to London to treat. But the parliament would not hear of any accommodation till the king had pulled down his standard, and withdrawn his proclamations of high treason against the earl of Essex, the accused members of parliament, and all who had supported them. In fact, all attempts at agreement were become useless, and were rendered more so by the conduct of Charles's nephew, prince Rupert, who, with his younger brother Maurice, sons of Charles's sister, Elizabeth of Bohemia, had arrived in England, and were placed at the head of the royal cavalry. Whilst Colepepper was trading to effect a peace in London, Rupert, with that rashness which afterwards became so notorious, and so fatal to Charles's army, was making war all through the midland counties, insulting all who advocated peace, ordering rather than inviting men to the king's standard, and plundering towns and villages at will for the supply of his troopers.
About the middle of September Charles marched from Nottingham, intending to reach the west of England and unite his forces with those of the marquis of Hertford. He conducted himself in a very different manner to the fiery Rupert, or Robber, as the people named him. He everywhere issued the most positive assurances of his love for his people, and his resolve to maintain their liberties; but these assurances were not well maintained by his actions, betraying the fact that he was playing a part. He in one place invited the train-bands to attend his march as his body-guard, but when they arrived, he expressed his doubts of their loyalty, forcibly seized their arms, and sent them away. In spite of his professions of respecting his subjects rights, he still levied money and supplies in the old arbitrary manner. On the 20th of September he was at Shrewsbury, where he assured the inhabitants that he would never suffer an army of papists, and at the same time, the 23rd, he wrote to the earl of Newcastle, telling him that the rebellion had reached that height, that he must raise all the soldiers he could, without any regard to their religion. He received five thousand pounds in cash from the catholics of Shropshire, sold a title of baron for six thousand pounds more, and began minting money from plate brought in with great alacrity. And to put the finish to his insincerity, he despatched orders to Ireland to send him as many troops thence as they could, who were almost wholly catholic.
But the earl of Essex was carefully watching the king's progress; he had sent him the parliamentary proposals of accommodation, which he refused to receive from what he called a set of traitors. Essex reached Worcester in his march to cut off the king's movement towards London, just as prince Rupert and Colonel Sandys had had a skirmish in that town, from which Rupert was forced to fly. There Essex lay still for three weeks, till at length Charles, encouraged by his inaction, ventured to quit Shrewsbury on the 20th of October, and by a bold march by Wolverhampton, Birmingham, and Kenilworth, actually shot past Essex's position on the road to London. The parliamentary general, however, gave quick pursuit, and on the 22nd reached Keinton, in Warwickshire, just as the king encamped on Edge Hill, close above him.
Charles had the way open, but a council of war advised the attack of Essex, who had marched at such a rate, that a great part of his forces were left behind. On the following morning, the 23rd of October—it was Sunday—Essex accordingly found the royal army drawn up in order of battle on the heights of Edge Hill. It was a serious disadvantage to the parliamentary army to have to charge up hill, and both parties were loth to strike the first blow. They remained, therefore, looking at each other till about two o'clock at noon. On the royal side, Charles was on the field in com-
