Characters from the Histories & Memoirs of the Seventeenth Century
History
Characters from the Histories & Memoirs of the Seventeenth Century
Great Britain -- Biography; Great Britain -- History -- Stuarts, 1603-1714
He had a particular Reverence for the Person of the King, and the
more extraordinary Devotion for that of the Prince, as he had had the
honour to be trusted with is Education as his Governour; for which
office, as he excelled in some, so he wanted other Qualifications.
Though he had retired from his great Trust, and from the Court,
to decline the insupportable Envie which the powerfull Faction had
contracted against him, yet the King was no sooner necessitated to
possess himself of some place of strength, and to raise some force
for his defence, but the Earl of Newcastle (he was made Marquiss
afterwards) obeyed his first call, and, with great expedition and
dexterity, seised upon that Town; when till then there was not one
port town in England, that avowed their obedience to the King: and
he then presently raised such Regiments of Horse and Foot, as were
necessary for the present state of Affairs; all which was done purely
by his own Interest, and the concurrence of his numerous Allies in
those Northern parts; who with all alacrity obeyed his Commands,
without any charge to the King, which he was not able to supply.
And after the Battle of Edge Hill, when the Rebells grew so strong in
Yorkshire, by the influence their Garrison of Hull had upon both the
East and West riding there, that it behoved the King presently to make
a General, who might unite all those Northern Counties in his Service,
he could not choose any Man so fit for it as the Earl of Newcastle,
who was not only possessed of a present force, and of that important
Town, but had a greater Reputation and Interest in Yorkshire itself,
than at that present any other Man had: the Earl of Cumberland being
at that time, though of entire affection to the King, much decayed
in the vigour of his Body, and his mind, and unfit for that Activity
which the Season required. And it cannot be denied, that the Earl
of Newcastle, by his quick march with his Troops, as soon as he had
received his Commission to be General, and in the depth of Winter,
redeemed, or rescued the City of York from the Rebells, when they
looked upon it as their own, and had it even within their grasp: and
as soon as he was Master of it, he raised Men apace, and drew an Army
together, with which he fought many Battles, in which he had always
(this last only excepted) Success and Victory.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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