Cassell's History of England, Vol. 3 (of 8): From the Great Rebellion to the Fall of Marlborough.Anonymous
History
Cassell's History of England, Vol. 3 (of 8): From the Great Rebellion to the Fall of Marlborough.
Anonymous
Great Britain -- History
On Friday, the 6th of August, Fairfax entered the City, preceded by
a regiment of infantry and another of cavalry. He was on horseback,
attended by his body-guards and a crowd of gentlemen. A long train
of carriages, containing the fugitive Speakers and members (Lords
and Commons), followed, and then another regiment of cavalry. The
soldiers marched three abreast, with boughs of laurel in their hats.
The late turbulent multitudes completed their shame by raising forced
acclamations as they passed. Fairfax thus proceeded through Hyde Park,
where the Corporation met him, and offered him a great gold cup,
which he curtly declined, and so rode on to the Houses of Parliament,
where he replaced the Speakers in their respective chairs, and the
members in their old places. Not one of the Lords who had remained,
except the Earl of Pembroke, ventured to appear, and he declared that
he considered the proceedings since the departure of the Speakers as
null. No sooner were the Speakers in their places than Parliament voted
thanks to the general and the army; made Fairfax commander of all the
forces in England and Wales, and Constable of the Tower. It ordered
a gratuity of a month's pay for the army, and that the City militia
should be divided, and Southwark, Westminster, and the Tower Hamlets
should command their own. The Lords voted all Acts of Parliament from
the departure of the Speakers, on the 26th of June, to their return on
the 6th of August, void; but the resolution did not pass the Commons,
where there was a large body of Presbyterians, without much opposition.
The eleven impeached members fled, and were allowed to escape into
France, whereupon they were voted guilty of high treason, as well
as the Lord Mayor and four aldermen of London, two officers of the
train-band, and the Earls of Suffolk, Lincoln, and Middleton, the
Lords Willoughby, Hunsdon, Berkeley, and Maynard. The civic officers
were sent to the Tower. The City was ordered to find the one hundred
thousand pounds voted for the army. Fairfax distributed different
regiments about Whitehall and the Houses of Parliament for their
protection, and others in the Strand, Holborn, and Southwark, to keep
the City quiet. His headquarters were moved to Putney, with forces
at Chelsea and Fulham. On Sunday he and the officers attended the
preaching of Hugh Peters, the army chaplain, at Putney Church, and thus
the Independents were in full power, and the Presbyterians signally
humbled.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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