#presbyterians

Churches of Westminster: the Welsh Presbyterian Church on Charing Cross Road was built in 1886-1887 to a design by James Cubitt, and it remained active in 1964 before closure followed at some point after that.

The King’s Enemies Divided

King Charles Meeting the Scottish Covenanters. Source: Alamy Stock Photos

KING CHARLES entertained great hopes of military rescue from Ireland. If he could reach an agreement with the rebel Confederates, he estimated he could obtain military resource from two quarters: his remaining garrison troops in the country, under the command of his Lord Lieutenant, James Butler, Earl of Ormond and currently enjoying an uneasy truce with the rebels, and from the Confederates themselves, by promising an end to any further Scottish settlements and any attempts to introduce Presbyterianism to Ireland; Charles even hinted at Catholic toleration. However negotiations, such as they were, became bogged down, and Charles had neither the time nor the patience to wait for resolution. A siege of Oxford by the New Model Army could only be weeks away and so the King opened discussions with the Covenanters, facilitated by the French agents of Cardinal Mazarin, keen to keep England weak and divided. The notion of the King negotiating with the very people who had introduced civil strife to his two Kingdoms over a decade before, was not as folorn a hope as might be imagined. The Scots were very frustrated with their English Parliamentary allies, who had failed to deliver, or even to agree to, the introduction of Presbyterianism throughout the United Kingdom. In fact, Parliament’s own factionalism saw the rise of the Independents as a bloc within the Commons and their influence spread rapidly within the New Model Army. The Independents, who represented a range of low Church Protestant religious groupings, were opposed to any form of imposed or unified Church and sought religious toleration for all but Roman Catholics. To compound matters, the Scottish Commissioners remained infuriated that Parliament had still made no attempts to recompense the Covenanters for the costs of their crucial military contribution in the north of England, which now ran to hundreds of thousands of pounds. Therefore Charles and the Covenanters did indeed have potential common ground thanks to their mutual antipathy to the English Parliament.

Unfortunately, the King, despite his own self belief and optimism, was a poor negotiator. The Scots had been explicit about their wish to see Presbyterianism installed throughout the realm for over ten years: this was not negotiable, especially given the amount of blood and treasure now expended trying to achieve that aim. The only concession the King was willing to make however, was to “tolerate” Presbyterianism within, by implication, an Anglican settlement. The negotiations nearly foundered before they had begun. Perhaps for reasons best known to himself, Charles determined matters needed the personal touch and on 27th April 1646, he abandoned his court at Oxford and, disguised as a servant and accompanied by just two retainers, headed to Newark, one of the last Royalist hold outs and enduring a Covenanter siege. Despite having made no intimations to the King that they were open to an anti Parliamentary alliance with him, the Scots were astounded when on 7th May, Charles entered the besiegers’ encampment and gave himself up. The King was to remain a prisoner for the rest of his life.

Charles’ voluntary surrender to the Scots does, on the face of it, seem curious, but the King, after four years of increasingly bloody civil war, trusted a potentially vengeful English Parliament less than he did the Covenanters. He was convinced he could yet strike a deal with the Scots and use their forces to defeat his English enemies. In the meantime, as a highly valued prisoner, he knew he had their protection. The Scots moved Charles to their stronghold in Newcastle and made it clear to Parliament that, now the war was won, they expected the Solemn League and Covenant to be honoured and for the money owed them by the English to be paid.

The fact was that the coalition that had defeated the King was rapidly falling apart. The split between the English Presbyterians in Parliament and the Independents was becoming fundamental. The Scots sensed that their best route to achieving their prime religious aim was to make common cause with the Presbyterians in Parliament and see off the Independents. This situation offered possibilities to Charles as the Scots and Presbyterians hoped for Charles’ agreement to help introduce such a settlement. A more wily and pragmatic monarch could have made much of these divisions. In the event, the Presbyterian faction went so far as to offer the King and the Covenanters to break up the New Model Army altogether and to dissolve the Independents. Their demands in return however - formulated in the so-called “Newcastle Propositions” - were severe. Under these terms, not only was the King to agree to the end if episcopacy and to introduce unified Presbyterianism to England, he was also to agree to ceding control of the armed forces to Parliament for twenty years, the consent of the Commons to all new entrants to the House of Lords and to allow the confiscation of the property of his supporters and the prosecution of prominent Royalists; the King himself was to convert to Presbyterianism.

Even a pragmatic king would have struggled to sign up to the Propositions which the Presbyterians also made clear were not subject to negotiation. The King did not even pretend to engage with the proposals. Instead, he secretly reopened discussions with the Irish Confederates before making an abortive attempt to escape his Newcastle captivity at Christmas 1646. He was swiftly recaptured, but the Scots despaired both of the King and his Parliament. Giving up hope of ever seeing the Solemn League and Covenant implemented, they instead offered to “sell” Charles to the Presbyterian faction in return for a payment of £400,000 in war debts, actually less than half of what they were owed. Parliament agreed and on 27th January 1647, Charles was escorted by Presbyterian aligned Parliamentary troops to Holdenbury House in Northamptonshire where he was held in a comfortable house arrest. In February, the Covenanters duly withdrew their forces north of the border and demobilised, leaving the English to work out their own political settlement with the King. As far as the Covenanters were concerned after five years of warfare, their involvement in English affairs was over.

From a couple years back but it’s making the rounds again.  Another loudly “pro-life” Christian family.  (Presbyterians this time.)