without hesitation have declined the commission of Lieutenant-Governor, but these were not times when feelings of private friendship or a sensitive apprehension of the misconstruction of motives could be suffered to determine the actions of men on whom the weight of public responsibility was laid. Sir Ralph Hopton had no personal interest in Prince Rupert beyond that which he might feel for the son of the Queen of Bohemia, "to "whom he had always borne an avowed and declared "reverence," and in whose service he had been actively engaged; but he plainly saw that, if he refused to receive this commission, it would produce fresh disturbance and be a serious hindrance to the King's affairs.

It was publicly understood that Lord Hertford had in obedience to the King declined all further contest; and should Sir Ralph Hopton now reject the Prince's offer he would re-open and add new difficulties to the whole question. “"He therefore," says Lord Clarendon,

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resolved, according to his rare temper throughout this war, to let him whom he professed to serve choose "in what kind he would be served by him, and cheerfully received the commission from Prince Rupert : 66 upon which all discourse or debate of difference was "for the present determined, what whisperings or mur"murings soever remained."1 There is no reason to suppose that these whisperings and murmurings led to any coldness or misunderstanding between Sir Ralph Hopton and Lord Hertford; but this quarrel between Lord Hertford and the Prince led to important results Hist. of the Rebellion, vol, iv. p. 109.

as regarded both his own career and the King's affairs in the West.

The recall of Lord Hertford, with which the King had acquainted Prince Rupert in his letter of the 28th of July, held good. Lord Hertford retired from military service, whilst Prince Maurice remained with the army. That Lord Hertford and Prince Maurice could no longer continue together with advantage to the King's service was plain, and the King judged wisely in determining that they should part: he was not insensible to the value of the services he forewent in withdrawing Lord Hertford from the West, where "the opinion of "the soundness of his religion and integrity of his justice "rendered him by much the most popular man in those (6 parts, ," but he thought he should "sooner reduce his "people by the power of his army than by the per"suasion of his counsel, and that the roughness of "one's nature might prevail more than the lenity and "condescension of the other, and therefore he sent the "Prince on that employment." The King knew well the "honour and affection" of Lord Hertford, and would "as soon have trusted his crown upon his fidelity

'Hist. of the Rebellion, vol. iv. p. 172.

Ibid. The opinion of Ludlow as to the King's reasons for displacing Lord Hertford, and placing Prince Maurice at the head of this army, differs but little from the account given by Lord Clarendon :

Marquis of Hertford carried the name of General, that thereby the country might be encouraged to come in; yet Prince Maurice, as he had "then the principal influence over them, so he was soon after placed in "the head of them, as more likely to promote that arbitrary and boundless "prerogative which the King endeavoured to set up over the people."— Ludlow's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 60.

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as upon any man's in his three kingdoms;" and he so far did justice to Lord Hertford's merits that he made to him the best atonement that remained in his power after the decision in favour of the Prince: he treated him with the consideration and sincerity due to his loyalty, and with many professions of personal regard he candidly avowed the reasons which had guided his decision; he declared his wish to "always have his company," and advice about him, and announced his intention to make him a gentleman of his bedchamber "and groom of the stole."

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But neither the most gracious and confiding openness nor the most flattering expressions of regard from the King could make the being withdrawn from the head of the army he had commanded agreeable to Lord Hertford." Lord Clarendon says, "The Marquis was "satisfied rather because he would not disobey him, "than that he was well pleased with the price of the obligations." 3 It was clear by the King's letter to the Queen' that Lord Hertford had, previous to his entering on his second campaign in the West, preferred to serve the King by his counsel and attendance rather than by heading an army; but he had been placed in that position by circumstances at once honourable to his reputation and gratifying to his feelings; and to be supplanted by the influence of the Princes, who had

Hist. of the Rebellion, vol. iv. p. 172.

Bishop Warburton says,-" All may discern plainly that the King "did it to humour Prince Maurice in his impotent passion for being a "general."-Warburton's notes on Hist. of the Rebellion, vol. vii. p. 581. Hist. of the Rebellion, vol. iv. p. 172.

3

Above, vol. i. p. 275.

thwarted him in his command and slighted his authority, was a trial that might have proved too much for the patience and loyalty even of Lord Hertford, but he was not unmindful that the distractions of the country and the necessities of the King were too urgent to permit the sense of any personal wrong to himself to augment the difficulties that already obstructed the performance of every public duty.

Lord Hertford's position as Commander-in-Chief does not appear to have developed in him any remarkable talent for military service: he was of undaunted courage, but he was too far advanced in life to overcome long-contracted habits of inactivity, and, having no professional experience, he often yielded his own better judgment to the guidance of men of inferior understanding, and was swayed by the advice of those whose minds and information gave them no title to such deference. But even with these defects as a military commander, the King's decision in favour of Prince Maurice was matter of regret to many "wise and honest men; they looked forward with dread to the consequences not only of the Prince's actual inexperience of the customs and manners of England, but to the aversion he displayed on all occasions to even the consideration of subjects so important; and if fears were entertained by some of undue advantage being taken of Lord Hertford's want of knowledge in military tactics, these fears were not lessened by the prospect of so much power being placed in the hands of a youth necessarily and wilfully ignorant of all that concerned the vital interests of their country, and far Hist. of the Rebellion, vol. iv.

p. 172.

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more open therefore to the unchecked influence of worse counsellors. Lord Clarendon distinctly states it as his own opinion, that if the Prince had waited on the King in his army, and "had never interposed in any com"mand not purely martial, and that Lord Hertford had "been sent with those forces into the West with the "Lord Hopton and some other steady persons who might have been assigned to special provinces, a greater tide of good fortune had attended that expe"dition." Prince Maurice had supplanted him in command, but he did not replace him in the affections of those who were to be commanded, nor could he acquire the personal influence in the West of which he had thus deprived the King's service. Bishop Warburton justly observes upon the King's conduct "that the Marquis of Hertford, who so well knew the country, "and who was so well beloved where he was known, "was displaced to make room for Prince Maurice, who

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was a stranger, and became hated as soon as he was known." 2

'Sir Ralph Hopton was created Lord Hopton of Stratton, in honour of his victory there : "he was now left at Bristol to intend his health and to "form that new garrison, which was to be a magazine for men, arms, "ammunition, and all that was wanted."-Hist. of the Rebellion, vol. iv. p. 172.

Bishop Warburton's notes on Hist. of the Rebellion, vol. vii. p. 588.