Great Britain -- History -- Commonwealth and Protectorate, 1649-1660 -- Fiction; Historical fiction
[1] Michael Hudson, the _plain-dealing_ chaplain of King Charles I.,
resembled, in his loyalty to that unfortunate monarch, the fictitious
character of Dr. Rochecliffe; and the circumstances of his death were
copied in the narrative of the Presbyterian’s account of the slaughter
of his school-fellow;—he was chosen by Charles I., along with John
Ashburnham, as his guide and attendant, when he adopted the
ill-advised resolution of surrendering his person to the Scots army.
He was taken prisoner by the Parliament, remained long in their
custody, and was treated with great severity. He made his escape
for about a year in 1647; was retaken, and again escaped in 1648.
and heading an insurrection of cavaliers, seized on a strong moated
house in Lincolnshire, called Woodford House. He gained the place
without resistance; and there are among Peck’s Desiderata Curiosa
several accounts of his death, among which we shall transcribe that
of Bishop Kenneth, as the most correct, and concise:—“I have been
on the spot,” saith his Lordship, “and made all possible enquiries,
and find that the relation given by Mr. Wood may be a little
rectified and supplied.
“Mr. Hudson and his party did not fly to Woodford, but had quietly
taken possession of it, and held it for a garrison, with a good
party of horse, who made a stout defence, and frequent sallies,
against a party of the Parliament at Stamford, till the colonel
commanding them sent a stronger detachment, under a captain, his
own kinsman, who was shot from the house, upon which the colonel
himself came up to renew the attack, and to demand surrender, and
brought them to capitulate upon terms of safe quarter. But the
colonel, in base revenge, commanded that they should not spare that
rogue Hudson. Upon which, Hudson fought his way up to the leads;
and when he saw they were pushing in upon him, threw himself over
the battlements (another account says, he caught hold of a spout or
outstone,) and hung by the hands, as intending to fall into the
moat beneath, till they cut off his wrists and let him drop, and
then ran down to hunt him in the water, where they found him
paddling with his stumps, and barbarously knocked him on the
head.”—_Peck’s Desiderata Curiosa_, Book ix.
Other accounts mention he was refused the poor charity of coming to
die on land, by one Egborough, servant to Mr. Spinks, the intruder
into the parsonage. A man called Walker, a chandler or grocer, cut
out the tongue of the unfortunate divine, and showed it as a trophy
through the country. But it was remarked, with vindictive
satisfaction, that Egborough was killed by the bursting of his own
gun; and that Walker, obliged to abandon his trade through poverty,
became a scorned mendicant.
For some time a grave was not vouchsafed to the remains of this
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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