Wight an order had been issued that no one should be allowed to visit or to leave the island without a pass; the King's friends were thus excluded from his service and society; his household had been broken up at Hampton Court on the 16th of November' (six days after his flight), and a list of attendants proposed by the Commons were voted by both Houses to wait upon him, and were given passes accordingly to proceed to the Isle of Wight.2 The proposed treaty of Newport again offered an opportunity for the King to summon to his presence a few of those followers on whose adherence and judgment he placed most reliance. On the 3rd of August commissioners were sent to the King to obtain his consent to a personal treaty. This done, the Parliament proceeded to draw up preliminary resolutions, and the King was desired to send a list of such persons as he held necessary to attend him on the occasion. Foremost in that list stood the names of the Duke of Richmond, the Marquis of Hertford, the Earl of Lindsay, and the Earl of Southampton. On the 2nd of September the 'Lords' Journals, vol. ix. p. 526. 2 Ibid., p. 540. 3 James Earl of Middlesex, Sir John Hippesley, and John Bulkeley, Esq.-Lords' Journals, vol. x. p. 417. The resolutions that were revoked, and the new resolutions proposed by the Lords, afterwards altered by the Commons, and those finally agreed to by both Houses, show well the King's position with Parliament before and at the time when the treaty of Newport was commenced. Vide Appendix N N. The names of the rest were as follows:-" Grooms of my bed-cham"ber: George Kirke, James Levingston, Henry Murray, John Ashburn"ham, William Legg.* Thomas Davis, barber. Pages of my back"stairs: Hugh Henn, Hum. Rogers, William Levitt. Rives, yeoman of Houses of Parliament appointed the Earl of Northumberland, the Earl of Pembroke, the Earl of Salisbury, the Earl of Middlesex, and Viscount Say and Sele, together with ten Commoners, to conduct the treaty on their side. On the 6th of September the King's Commissioners received their passes, and were ordered to attend the King at the Isle of Wight. The Parliamentary Commissioners reached the island on the 14th of September, and on the 18th the treaty commenced. Ten months of captivity, more or less stringent, had elapsed since the King had been separated from his friends and attendants; and their satisfaction at first finding themselves again in the presence of their master, and again resuming their duties in his service, must have been painfully damped by the tale of sorrow they could Hansted, 66 my robes. Equerries, with four or six of my footmen, as they find "fittest, to wait: Sir Ed. Sydenham, Robert Tirwitt, John Housdon. "Mrs. Wheeler, laundress, with such maids as she will choose. Persons (a groom of my presence) to wait as they did or as I shall appoint them: "Sir Foulke Grevill, Captain Titus, Captain Burroughes, Mr. Cresset, "Ab. Doucet,* Fyrebrasse. Chaplains: Bishop of London, Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. Sheldon,* Dr. Hammond,* Dr. "Ouldsworth, Dr. Sanderson, Dr. Turner, Dr. Heywood. Lawyers: "Sir Thomas Gardiner, Sir Or. Bridgman, Sir Robert Hobourne, Mr. F. "Palmer, Mr. Thomas Cooke, Mr. John Vaughan. Clerks and writers: "Sir Edward Walker, Mr. Philip Warwick, Nicholas Ondart, Charles "Whitakers."-Journals of House of Lords, vol. x. p. 474. 66 * The Parliament refused leave to those whose names are marked with a *, on the ground that they were under restraint. Mr. John Ashburnham was refused on the ground that his name stood in the first exemption from pardon.-Lords' Journals, vol. x. p. 484. At the King's request leave was given on the 10th of September to Dr. Rives and Dr. Ducke (civilians) to attend him (ibid., p. 498), and on the 4th of November he was allowed to summon to his aid Doctors Usher, Brontricke, Prideaux, Warner, Ferne, and Morley (ibid., p. 579). 'Lords' Journals, vol. x. p. 486. read in his looks. His countenance was greatly altered, and his whole aspect bore witness to that utter indifference to personal appearance and even to neatness of apparel which so often follows in the train of mental suffering; his hair had grown quite grey and very long; for from the time he had been deprived of his own servants he would not allow it to be cut, and his neglected dress showed that his wardrobe had never been renewed. These changes were the outward evidence of the care and anxiety with which for so many months he had been oppressed; they were not the traces left by physical malady or unmanly despair; his spirit was unquenched; he was in good health, and he had lost nothing of his dignity of manner and firmness of character. The Parliament had permitted the King to summon to his presence the majority of those persons whose assistance he required for the treaty; but the manner in which he was permitted to avail himself of their services was not generous or even just. The King was to bear alone the brunt of discussion, whilst the Parliamentary Commissioners had the advantage of acting as a body. Before the treaty began the Commissioners informed him "that they could not admit 66 Sir Philip Warwick touchingly alludes to the only occasion on which he saw the King for a moment overcome by his feelings. "I never," says he, saw him shed tears but once, and he turned presently his head away, for he was then dictating to me somewhat in a window, and he was loth to be discerned, and the lords and gentlemen were then in the room, though his back was towards them; but I can safely take my oath "they were the biggest drops that ever I saw fall from an eye, but he "recollected himself, and soon stifled them."-Memoirs of King Charles I. by Sir P. Warwick, p. 362, "that any person should be present in the room where "the treaty should be in debate; that they were Com"missioners sent from the Parliament to treat with his Majesty and with him alone; and that they might "not permit any particular and private persons to oppose or confer with them upon the demands of the "Parliament." 99 1 This was so completely to nullify any assistance that he might derive from his counsellors or from the lawyers and divines whom the Parliament had given him leave to gather round him, that a sort of compromise was in the end effected. Lord Clarendon says "that they "were at last contented, and his Majesty was obliged to "be contented too, that they might stand behind a cur"tain, and hear all that was said; and when any such "difficulty occurred as would require consultation, his 66 66 2 Majesty might retire to his chamber, and call those to "him, with whom he might advise, to attend him, and might then return again into the room for the treaty, "and declare his own resolution." Sir Philip Warwick, who acted as one of the King's private secretaries3 during this treaty, confirms Lord Clarendon's account of the King being forced to act for himself. "The King's lords and gentlemen," says he, "only stood "about his chair, but were not to speak a word in his "assistance, whilst he singly disputed with all those Hist. of the Rebellion, vol. vi. p. 157. 2 Lord Clarendon remarks-" This was the unequal and unreasonable "preliminary and condition to which the King was compelled to submit "before the treaty could begin."-Hist. of the Rebellion, vol. vi. p. 157. They were then called clerks. "able men upon the several heads of their propositions.' "If at any time the King found himself in need to ask "a question, or that any of his Lords thought fit to "advise him in his ear to hesitate before he answered, "he himself would retire into his own chamber, or one "of us penmen who stood at his chair prayed him from "the Lords to do so, but more liberty than this his "attendants were not allowed.' Under these circumstances it is impossible to form any idea of what degree of assistance the King may have derived from the judgment of his friends or the knowledge of his professional advisers; but towards the end of the treaty he expressed his regret to Sir Philip Warwick that he had conceded, by the advice of others, more than his conscience approved. "I wish," said he, “I had consulted nobody but my own self; for then, where in honour or "conscience I could not have complied, I could have "early been positive; for with Job I would willinglier "have chosen misery than sin." 3 Sir Philip Warwick truly describes "this and all "former treaties as but branches of the first nineteen "propositions," when it must be remembered the 1 Sir P. Warwick bears testimony to the ability with which the King conducted his cause under these disadvantages. "Through the whole treaty," says he, "managing all thus singly himself, he showed that he "was very conversant in divinity, law, and good reason; insomuch as, "one day whilst I turned the King's chair when he was about to rise, the "Earl of Salisbury came suddenly upon me, and called me by my name, "and said,The King is wonderfully improved;' to which I as suddenly "replied,No, my Lord, he was always so, but your Lordship too late "discerned it.'"-Memoirs of Charles I. by Sir P. Warwick, p. 360. 2 Ibid., |