and by the authority of the same, that the people of England, and of all the dominions and territories thereunto belonging, are and shall be, and are hereby constituted, made, established, and confirmed to be, a Commonwealth or Free State; and shall from henceforth be governed as a commonwealth and free state, by the supreme authority of this nation, the representatives of the people in parliament, and by such as they shall appoint and constitute officers and ministers under them for the good of the people, and without any king or house of lords."
Whilst this act was preparing, the trials were going on: the votes for the sitting of the council and the commons were considered sufficient authority. The trials were probably hastened by the news of Charles II. being proclaimed in Scotland, and that the Scots were raising an army to avenge the king's death, and "to punish the sectaries of England for the breach of the covenant." The persons whom it was resolved to try, were the duke of Hamilton, the earl of Holland, lord Goring, lately created by the king earl of Norwich, lord Capel, and Sir John Owen. The high court appointed to try these prisoners consisted of fifty persons of both ex-peers and commons. The duke of Hamilton pleaded that he was not within the jurisdiction of an English court, that he was a subject of Scotland and a prisoner of war; but it was replied that he was also an English peer, as earl of Cambridge, and it was proved that not only was his father naturalised as an English peer, but he himself had been called to sit as such, and had sate. The earl of Holland was ill, and therefore made little defence, except pleading that he had free quarter given him when he was taken at St. Neots; but this was fully disproved. Lord Goring, or, as now called, the earl of Norwich, had been a steady partisan of the king's, and had shown little lenity to the parliamentarians; but he now conducted himself with great respect to the court, and seemed to leave himself in their hands. Lord Capel was one of the bravest and proudest of the royalist generals. During his imprisonment he escaped from the Tower, but was betrayed by the boatmen with whom he crossed the Thames. He had expressed great indignation at the deaths of Lisle and Lucas, and had excited the resentment of Ireton by it. He now demanded to be tried by court martial, and declared that when Lisle and Lucas were adjudged to die, Fairfax had declared that all other lives should be spared, and had evidence to prove it, if he were allowed. Ireton, who really seems to have felt a stern resentment against the free-speaking general, denied that Fairfax had given any such promise, and that if he had, he had no right to supersede the authority of parliament. He demanded that Fairfax should be sent for; but the court satisfied itself with sending to the general, who returned by letter a rather equivocating answer, saying that his promise only applied to a court martial, and not to any such court as parliament might see fit to appoint. Bradshaw told Capel, who was not satisfied with this, that he was tried by such judges as parliament thought proper to give him, and who had judged a better man than himself.
Sir John Owen, who was a gentleman of Wales, in the late outbreak had killed a sheriff. He pleaded quarter, and that he had only done what he thought his duty, in support of the king. As to killing the sheriff, the sheriff had risen against him with force, and was killed in the accident of war, which he might have avoided if he had staid quietly at home. All five were condemned to lose their heads, the earl of Holland as a double turn-coat, and his conduct had certainly been anything but consistent and noble. Sir John Owen, on hearing the sentence, made a low bow and thanked the judge; and being asked why, he replied, that it was a very great honour for a poor gentlemen of Wales to die like a lord, and he had not expected anything better than hanging. No sooner was the sentence passed, than the friends of Hamilton, Holland, and Capel, made great exertions to save their fives. The wives of Holland and Capel appeared at the bar, attended by long trains of females in mourning, to beg for their lives. Two days' respite was granted, and every exertion, persuasion, and bribery were put in force. Hamilton had fewer friends than the rest, but it was urged that his death might occasion trouble with Scotland; but Cromwell knew that they had the interest of Argyll, and that Hamilton's being out of the way would strengthen that interest. The case of Holland occasioned a great debate. The earl of Warwick, his brother, on one side urged his services to the parliament for a long period—his enemies, his revolt from it on the other. Cromwell and Ireton were firmly against them, and the sentences of these three were confirmed. The votes regarding Goring were equal, and Lenthall, the speaker, gave the casting vote in his favour, alleging that he formerly had done him an essential service. Sir John Owen, to the great satisfaction of those who admired his frank and quaint humour, was also reprieved, and ultimately liberated. He had softened even the heart of Ireton, and greatly moved the good colonel Hutchinson, who both spoke in his favour. Hamilton, Capel, and Holland, were beheaded in the Palace Yard on the 9th of March. The reader cannot but regret that the leaders of the commonwealth shed the blood of these men. They had done only what their notions of loyalty had led them to; and though it has been contended that less blood was shed by the successful party in this revolution than in any other on record, and far less than that which the royalists poured out on returning to power, it would have been more to the credit of reformers to have set a still nobler example of clemency. All these prisoners had been condemned, by a resolution of the house of commons in November, to perpetual imprisonment, with a fine on Hamilton of one hundred thousand pounds; and an adherence to that sentence, after the full triumph of the independents, would have been a beautiful example of forbearance.
The parliament was soon called on to defend itself against more dangerous enemies. The country was groaning under the exhaustion and ravages of the civil war. It had been for seven years bleeding at every pore; and now the war had ceased, the suffering people began to utter aloud their complaints, which, if uttered, had been drowned in the din of conflict. There was everywhere a terrible outcry against the burden of taxation; and famine and pestilence, the sure successors of carnage and spoliation, were decimating the people. In Lancashire and Westmoreland numbers were daily perishing, and the magistrates of Cumberland deposed that thirty thousand families in that county had neither
