According to a Yorkshire tradition, recorded by Miss Strickland in her Queens of England (viii. 98), while the Queen’s stores were being laden and put in order of march, she stayed at Boynton Hall, a place some two miles to the west of Burlington or Bridlington, belonging to Sir William Strickland who, although he had received a baronetcy from Charles I was now on the side of the Parliament. Sir William happened to be away from home, but—probably owing to the presence of Newcastle’s troops—the Queen was received as a guest, if only as an enforced guest, by either Lady Strickland, or by whatever person may have been in charge of the house. Among other efforts of hospitality for the benefit of Her Majesty, a great display was made of gold and silver plate.

When the Queen went away, she expressed her excessive gratitude for the excellent entertainment which had been provided for herself and her train, adding that, as the Parliament was granting no subsidies to the King, she regretted to be under the painful necessity of carrying away with her the plate of which there had been such a magnificent display. She said that she should look upon it only as a loan—in fact its temporary removal would be a mere matter of form—and she left a portrait of herself as a pledge for its repayment. There never was any return or repayment; but the portrait is stated to have become, in course of time, at least as valuable as the plate for which it was pledged. So says Miss Strickland who, as one of the family, should have been able to judge; but, in making this calculation, we doubt whether she sufficiently considered the increase in the value of the plate during the same course of time. Silver plate of the reign of Charles I has been sold for as much as £40 an ounce. The writer of these pages has a silver box, given to an ancestress of his own by Charles II, and it was lately valued for insurance, by a professional expert, at £30 an ounce.

The Queen then retired to York, under the protection of Newcastle. The Duchess says:—

“My Lord finding Her Majesty in this condition, drew his Army near the place where she was, ready to attend and protect Her Majesties Person, who was pleased to take a view of the Army as it was drawn up in order; and immediately after, which was in March, 1643, took Her journey towards York, whither the whole Army conducted Her Majesty and brought her safe into the City. About this time, Her Majesty having some present occasion for Money, My Lord presented Her with 3,000£ Sterling, which she graciously accepted”—Charles and Henrietta seldom “graciously refused”—“and having spent some time there in Consultation about the present affairs, she was pleased to send some Armes and Ammunition to the King, who was then in Oxford; to which end, my Lord ordered a Party, consisting of 1500, well commanded, to conduct the same, with whom the Lord Percy, who then had waited upon Her Majesty from the King, returned to Oxford; Which Party His Majesty was pleased to keep with him for his own Service,” much to the loss and inconvenience of Newcastle.

The Queen’s presence did much for the King’s cause in Yorkshire. Some time earlier, Sir Hugh Cholmley had been induced by his friend, Sir John Hotham, to take the side of the Parliament; and, as a reward, he had been made Governor of the Castle of Scarborough, a fortress of considerable importance. But, when the Queen came, says Clarendon, he “very frankly revolted to his allegiance; and waited on Her Majesty for her assurance of her pardon”. He then delivered up the Castle of Scarborough to Newcastle, who reinstated him as Governor of it, on behalf of the King. It may be worth mentioning that Clarendon says Cholmley had[59] “oftener defeated the Earl of Newcastle’s troops ... than any other officer of those parts”.

The Queen wrote, in a letter to Charles I, on 20 March, 1643: “Sir Hugh Cholmley is come in with a troop of horse to kiss my hand; the rest of his people he left at Scarborough, with a ship laden with arms, which the ships of the Parliament had brought thither. So she is ours.”

To some extent, the propinquity of the Queen was also influencing the Hothams; although they hesitated to follow the example of Cholmley by delivering up Hull to Newcastle. Sir Philip Warwick says[60]:—

“The Queen presently after landed at Burlington Bay with good provision of arms, ordnance, and ammunition, and was by the Earl of Newcastle conveyed to York; and she so influenced Sir Hugh Cholmley, who commanded the port of Scarborough for the Parliament, and old Sir John Hotham and his son, who commanded Hull, that important garrison; that had she been as successful in the last as she was in the first, the whole North had been cleared, and that undoubtedly would have turned the scale upon the South, and restored his Majesty unto his just rights, the people unto their true liberties, and the nation unto its former profound peace. But Hotham’s timorous temper betrayed himself and the design.”

Cholmley immediately became very active in the King’s service; and, to some extent by his assistance, Newcastle obtained command of almost the whole of Yorkshire. The younger Hotham at about this time explained the position of himself and his father to Newcastle, in the following letters:—

“Captain John Hotham to the Earl of Newcastle.[61]

“1643. Mar. 22. I have sent this other letter to excuse me for not granting Sir Marmaduke Langdale a safe conduct, and, to deal freely with your Lordship, he shall never have one from me, I know him too well. For a letter to the Queen, that I will certainly come in and at such a time, I cannot do it. This enclosed you may show her, if you please, or burn, for your Lordship knows that I ever said to you that I would do anything which might further his Majesty’s service in the peace of the kingdom, and that if the Parliament did stand upon unreasonable terms with him, I would then declare myself against them and for him, but otherwise to leave my party that I had set up with, and no real cause given that an honest man may justify himself for so doing before God and the world, I would never do it, although I endured all the extremities in the world, for I well knew no man of honour or worth will ever think such a man worthy of friendship or trust. For the prejudice you undergo for not spoiling the East Riding truly you have put an obligation upon me by sparing it thus long, but rather than your Lordship shall suffer anything of prejudice either in your honour or affairs, I shall not desire the thing any longer, but you may take what course you please, and we shall do so for our defense. For Sir Hugh Cholmley and his manner of coming in, every man must satisfy his own conscience and then all is well! All are not of one mind.” Captain Hotham was intensely jealous of Cholmley but dared not follow his example.

To this letter Newcastle would seem to have sent a civil reply; for within a fortnight, Hotham wrote again:—[62]

“1643. Mar. 30. I thank you for your two letters in which you are pleased so favourably to interpret the actions of your servant, and, if your Lordship knew my real intentions, you would be far from blaming me.... You have got by Sir Hugh Cholmley’s turning, when he could give no reason for it, but an old castle,” [Scarborough] “which will cost you more keeping than it is worth: his captains and soldiers are all here and have left him naked enough.”

One would infer from the next letter that Newcastle had written too hopefully to the Hothams about the probability of a renewal of their allegiance to the King, and that, in retaliation, Captain Hotham was trying to shake the allegiance of Newcastle himself, by telling him that he was distrusted by the Royalists.

“Captain John Hotham to the Earl of Newcastle.[63]

Newcastle was evidently disturbed in his mind by this very disagreeable news, as well he might be; for he must have sent immediately to Hotham asking for fuller particulars. A couple of days after the preceding letter, Captain Hotham sent him these details:—

“The words were these: ‘that you were a sweet General, lay in bed until eleven o’clock and combed till twelve, then came to the Queen, and so the work was done, and that General King did all the business’. They were spoken by my Lady Cornwallis in the hearing of Mr. Portington, a fellow cunning enough; and this to my father and another gentleman with many other words of undervaluing, which he said were spoken by others.... You can expect nothing at Court: truly the women rule all.... You have now done great service; that will be forgotten when they think they can shift without you.”

How far Hotham may have been perfectly honest and sincere in his correspondence with Newcastle it is difficult to determine. That there was a good deal of truth in what he said as to Newcastle having enemies among the Royalists and the rumours of his living a too easy and luxurious life in a campaign, and leaving the work of the Commander-in-Chief to General King, is made probable by certain statements which we have already seen in the words of Clarendon. But both the Hothams were anxious to be on the winning side; they were doubtful as to which side that would be, and it seems likely that, in spite of all the high-sounding professions in the letters of the younger Hotham, the motives of both the father and the son were personal rather than patriotic.

Later in the same month, Hotham appears to have been trying to bring about peace, by interesting some of the leading supporters of the Parliament, with whom he came in contact, in favour of the King. On 14 April he wrote to Newcastle from Lincoln: “I have not been idle since I writ last to do his Majesty and your Lordship the best service I could, although to bring that about I was glad to go seemingly by the contrary. I have since I came into this town dealt with some of my friends that they would not be so violent against his Majesty’s service, and was bold (enough) to promise them a pardon if they would retire and give way, that this country might be wholly at his devotion. The gentlemen are so considerable that of my knowledge, if they desist, there shall not be a man here to hold up his hand against his Majesty.” This was very cheering news for Newcastle and was almost enough to make him fancy that the end of the campaign was in sight.

On 4 May Captain Hotham wrote to Newcastle: “I think you are mistaken in my father, for the reason of his standing a little aloof is, that he so infinitely wishes the peace of the kingdom, which he thinks the King’s last answer tends not to, that I know staggered him much.... It was said from a good hand that the Queen thought much you did not enough communicate with her and take her directions.... I confess I am in a very great strait in these businesses, your Lordship’s wisdom can best give directions in it.”

Yet the very next day Captain Hotham wrote with others to Lenthall about joining his forces to those of Cromwell. This, however, may have been with the object of throwing dust in the eyes of the Parliament; and it is the more likely because the Parliament itself seems to have thought that something of this sort was his object. Whitelock says:—[64]

“Captain Hotham, being suspected by the Parliament, was imprisoned at Nottingham, from whence escaping, he under-hand treated with the Earl of Newcastle.”

We may as well dispose of the Hothams once for all; albeit to do so will make it necessary to anticipate considerably beyond the period of Newcastle’s campaign with which we are now dealing. Although long, the following statement of the whole affair of the Hothams by Sir Hugh Cholmley is worth reading, especially as the writer had been on intimate terms both with the Hothams and with Newcastle. Yet it may be that the statement should be taken cum grano salis; as Cholmley probably felt considerable resentment towards the Hothams for regarding him as a base renegade from the Parliamentary cause in which he had at one time shown so much zeal.

“An Original, endorsed by Clarendon ‘Sir Hugh Cholmley’s Memorials’.[65]

“If Sir John Hotham could have been assured of what he had done or said in Parliament, and received into grace and favour,”—Cholmley seems to mean: If he could have been assured that what he had said in Parliament in the past would have been forgiven him and that he would be received into grace and favour by the King—“he might have been made a faithful and serviceable person; the denying of which (or at least answering it coldly) was a great motive to his undertaking that employment at Hull....

“Sir John Hotham, when he departed from London, gave assurance to some of his nearest friends, that he would not deny the King entrance into Hull, and surely had not done it, but that he was informed by some person near the King, in case he permitted his Majesty entrance, he would lose his head; and it is conceived the same person did most prompt the King to go to Hull....

“The Earl of Newcastle had not been long with his forces in Yorkshire, when there began a treaty between him and young Hotham; whom together with his father they sought to draw to the King’s party.

Sir Marmaduke Langdale, a great friend of young Hotham’s,[66] was the mover between him and the Earl; and this was sooner laid hold on, in that the Lord Fairfax was now made a General for the Parliament of the forces of Yorkshire, and some adjacent counties; which discontented old Hotham, and though the son had as much as in reason he could expect (and more than fell to his share), being made Lieutenant General to Fairfax, yet he was not well pleased.

“The Queen’s army coming to Bridlington had brought such a magazine of arms and ammunition, my Lord of Newcastle’s army began to be very formidable and young Hotham having retired himself (and those forces which belonged to him and his father) from the Lord Fairfax, and being then at Beverley, began to have fresh notions of treating; and thereupon makes a journey for one night to the Earl at Bridlington, upon colour and pretences of a change of prisoners; there he demanded his father to be made a Viscount, and himself a Baron, that they might have £20,000 in money, and a Patent to the father to be Governor of Hull during his life”;—this was, indeed, the very converse of the system of purchasing peerages mentioned in an early chapter—“all which, as it would have been granted, so probably accepted, but that in this nick of time, Sir John received some assurance of the Scots coming into England, and that young Hotham (by his alliance and friendship with the Wrays) was chosen General of Lincolnshire; yet both parties made this advantage by the treaty, that as the Lord Newcastle forebore to come near Hull and Beverley, so young Hotham, though he had above 1,000 horse and dragoons, did not interrupt the Lord Newcastle’s march from Bridlington; which might easily have been done, his army being over-charged with baggage, and the season so tempestuous that his forces were very much dispersed.

“Immediately after this young Hotham goes to be General for the Parliament in Lincolnshire, so that the treaty was off the hinge, till such time as he was laid hold of at Nottingham by Cromwell, which the father did so much resent as he did not only write to the close committee in a menacing style for his son’s enlargement, but was otherwise so passionate in words and deportment that it gave the Parliament a great suspicion of him.... In the interim young Hotham breaks loose from Cromwell, and comes to Hull where the father and son think it very opportune to renew the treaty with my Lord of Newcastle; and thereupon Sir John writes that letter, which was after (at the battle of York) taken in my Lord’s cabinet,” i.e. Newcastle’s, “and cost both the Hothams their heads.”...

It is a matter of English history that Sir John Hotham and his son were arrested, imprisoned for many months in London, tried, and beheaded. And it is a somewhat remarkable fact—journalists would call it “the irony of fate”—that Sir John Hotham, who had been one of the first to express a wish in Parliament for proceedings against Archbishop Laud, should have been executed a few days before that Archbishop. Possibly a knowledge of this fact may have helped to mitigate the sadness of the last days of Laud.

During the months dealt with in a portion of the present chapter;—to be exact, on the 17th of April, 1643,—Newcastle lost his first wife. It is scarcely possible that he can have been with her when she died; but of her illness and death, the collector of these historical odds and ends has been unable to discover any details.