appointed by parliament to command the intended expedition to Ireland, with the title of marshal-general. He begged hard to be excused. ‘I am so sensible,’ he wrote to the speaker, ‘of my own exceeding indisposedness of mind, inability of body, and distractedness of estate and family, that I ingenuously confess myself most unfit, and unable to undertake or undergo such an employment’ (Lords' Journals, ix. 122, 138). But the parliament pressed Skippon hard, and on 29 April he signified his acceptance of the Irish command (Lords' Journals, ix. 138, 158). The same day he took his seat in the House of Commons as member for Barnstaple. The soldiers who had served under him at once applied to him to represent their grievances to the house, and on 30 April the ‘agitators’ of eight regiments of horse presented him with a letter of appeal, which he at once laid before the commons. He was forthwith ordered to repair to the army with Cromwell and other officers to inquire into the origin of the letter and to appease the rising discontent (Rushworth, vi. 463, 472–4; Cary, Memorials of the Civil War, i. 201). Skippon assembled the officers at Saffron Walden, heard their complaints, explained his reasons for accepting the Irish command, and urged them to acquiesce in the decision of parliament and enlist for Ireland (ib. i. 205, 207, 214; Clarke Papers, i. 28, 33–78, 94; Rushworth, vi. 480, 484). But even men who had been at first willing to serve if Skippon were commander, now declined to do so unless their grievances were redressed. The army refused to disband, derided the concessions of the parliament as insufficient, and when at Triplow Heath (10 June 1647) he made a final effort to win them to obedience, he was answered by a universal cry for ‘justice’ (ib. vi. 556). Skippon's attempt to mediate between army and parliament exposed him to imputations of treachery from the presbyterians, which were rendered more plausible by his refusal to take part in the attempted resistance of the city to the army at the end of July, and his entry into London with Fairfax in August (Holles, Memoirs, ed. Maseres, pp. 241, 242, 251, 283; Walker, History of Independency, ed. 1661, i. 45).
On the outbreak of the second civil war (18 May 1648) Skippon was made commander-in-chief of the London militia, while his salary of 300l. a year was raised by the common council to 600l. (Rushworth, vii. 1099, 1101, 1118). On 3 July 1648, when a royalist rising in London seemed imminent, Skippon was further commissioned by the House of Commons to raise a regiment of horse, an extension of his authority which led to a dispute between the two houses, and was loudly complained of by the presbyterians (Commons' Journals, v. 622, 648, 677; Walker, History of Independency, i. 121, 131, 136). At the same time the royalists falsely imputed to him a part in what was known as Captain Rolfe's plot to assassinate Charles I, basing the charge on the fact that Skippon had a son-in-law of that name. The House of Commons vindicated Skippon on his complaint to them, and ordered their votes to be posted up throughout the city (ib. i. 116; Commons' Journals, v. 614, 630). In the face of all these suspicions and attacks Skippon, while eager for a treaty with Charles I, effectively maintained the peace of the city, and prevented the London royalists from giving armed assistance to the risings in Kent and Essex (Gardiner, Great Civil War, iv. 209).
Skippon was appointed one of the king's judges, but never attended any of the meetings of the high court of justice. During the Commonwealth and protectorate he held high office both military and civil, but exercised little political influence. On 19 April 1648 the commons had voted him lands to the value of 1,000l. a year, but the act carrying this vote into effect was not passed till 8 July 1651 (Commons' Journals, vi. 237, 599, v. 537; Ludlow, Memoirs, i. 241). When Cromwell marched against the Scots an act was passed (25 June 1650) appointing Skippon commander-in-chief of all the forces in and about London (Commons' Journals, vi. 431). He was also elected a member of the first, second, third, and fifth councils of state which existed during the republic. Though he was not one of the Little parliament, and did not sit in the council appointed by the officers of the army after the dissolution of the Long parliament, he was a member of each of the two councils appointed by Cromwell. The Protector commissioned Skippon to command the forces to be raised in London in February 1655 to suppress the intended rising of the royalists; and when the major-generals were instituted, Skippon was appointed major-general for London and the district (Cromwelliana, pp. 151, 155). In the two parliaments of 1654 and 1656 Skippon represented Lyme, but he rarely opened his mouth in their debates. Yet in 1656 indignation at the blasphemies of James Naylor roused Skippon to unwonted eloquence. ‘The growth of these things,’ he declared, ‘is more dangerous than the most intestine or foreign enemies. I have often been troubled in my thoughts to think of this toleration. … If this be liberty, God deliver me from such liberty. … I was
