Regicides, vol. ii. p. 283. ‘A broken silk-man in Cheapside.’ Winstanley's Martyrol. p. 130.
386
Walker's Independency, part i. p. 143; Parl. Hist. vol. iii. p. 1608; Ludlow's Mem. vol. ii. pp. 241, 259; Noble's Regicides, vol. ii. pp. 158, 162.
387
He was ‘a woollen-draper at Dorchester,’ and was ‘one of the council of state in 1649 and 1651.’ Noble's Regicides, vol. i. p. 99: see also Parl. Hist. vol. iii. p. 1594.
388
‘A brewer in Chichester; … in 1650–1 he was appointed one of the council of state.’ Noble's Regicides, vol. i. p. 136. ‘William Cawley, a brewer of Chichester.’ Winstanley's Martyrol. p. 138.
389
John Berners, ‘supposed to have been originally a serving-man,’ was ‘one of the council of state in 1659,’ Noble's Regicides, vol. i. p. 90.
390
‘Holland the link-boy,’ Walker's Independency, part iii. p. 37. ‘He was originally nothing more than a servant to Sir Henry Vane; … upon the establishment of the Commonwealth, he was made one of the council of state in 1649, and again in 1650.’ Noble's Regicides, vol. i. pp. 357, 358.
391
Noble's Mem. of Cromwell, vol. ii. p. 502.
392
Walker's Hist. of Independency, part i. p. 167.
393
Ellis's Original Letters illustrative of English History, third series, vol. iv. p. 219, Lond. 1846.
394
Parl. Hist. vol. iii. p. 1407; Rose's Biog. Dict. vol. iii. p. 172; Clarendon's Rebellion, p. 794.
395
‘A poor child bred upon charity.’ Harris's Stuarts, vol. v. p. 281. ‘A man of an obscure birth, and more obscure education.’ Clarendon's Life of Himself, p. 1116.
396
See Vaughan's Cromwell, vol. i. pp. 227, 228, vol. ii. pp. 299, 302, 433; Lister's Life and Corresp. of Clarendon, vol. ii. p. 231, vol. iii. p. 134. The common opinion is, that he was the son of a clergyman at Hackney; but if so, he was probably illegitimate, considering the way he was brought up. However, his Hackney origin is very doubtful, and no one appears to know who his father was. See Notes and Queries, vol. iii. pp. 69, 213.
397
Noble's Regicides, vol. i. p. 362. Cromwell had a great regard for this remarkable man, who not only distinguished himself as a soldier, but, judging from a letter of his recently published, appears to have repaired the deficiencies of his early education. See Fairfax Correspond. vol. iv. pp. 22–25, 108. There never has been a period in the history of England in which so many men of natural ability were employed in the public service as during the Commonwealth.
398
Noble's House of Cromwell, vol. ii. p. 507.
399
Noble's Cromwell, vol. ii. p. 518; Bates's Troubles, vol. ii. p. 222.
400
Bates's Late Troubles, vol. i. p. 87; Ludlow's Mem. vol. i. p. 220.
401
Walker's Hist. of Independency, part ii. p. 87.
402
Ludlow who was well acquainted with Colonel Hewson, says that he ‘had been a shoemaker.’ Ludlow's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 139. But this is the amiable partiality of a friend; and there is no doubt that the gallant colonel was neither more nor less than a cobbler. See Walker's Independency, part ii. p. 39; Winstanley's Martyrol. p. 123; Bates's Late Troubles, vol. ii. p. 222; Noble's Cromwell, vol. ii. pp. 251, 345, 470.
403
Walker, who relates what he himself witnessed, says, that, about 1649, the army was commanded by ‘colonels and superior officers, who lord it in their gilt coaches, rich apparel, costly feastings; though some of them led dray-horses, wore leather-pelts, and were never able to name their own fathers or mothers.’ Hist. of Independ. part ii. p. 244. The Mercurius Rusticus, 1647, says, ‘Chelmsford was governed by a tinker, two cobblers, two tailors, two pedlars.’ Southey's Commonplace Book, third series, 1850, p. 430. And, at p. 434, another work, in 1647, makes a similar statement in regard to Cambridge; while Lord Holles assures us, that ‘most of the colonels and officers (were) mean tradesmen, brewers, taylors, goldsmiths, shoe-makers, and the like.’ Holles's Memoirs, p. 149. When Whitelocke was in Sweden in 1653, the prætor of one of the towns abused the parliament, saying, ‘that they killed their king, and were a company of taylors and cobblers.’ Whitelocke's Swedish Embassy, vol. i. p. 205. See also note in Carwithen's Hist. of the Church of England, vol. ii. p. 156.
404
Even De Retz, who vainly attempted to organise a popular party, found that it was impossible to take any step without the nobles; and, notwithstanding his democratic tendencies, he, in 1648, thought it advisable ‘tâcher d'engager dans les intérêts publics les personnes de qualité.’ Mém. de Joly, p. 31.
405
Mably (Observations sur l'Hist. de France, vol. i. p. 357) frankly says, ‘L'exemple d'un grand a toujours été plus contagieux chez les Français que partout ailleurs.’ See also vol. ii. p. 267: ‘Jamais l'exemple des grands n'a été aussi contagieux ailleurs qu'en France; on dirait qu'ils ont le malheureux privilège de tout justifier.’ Rivarol, though his opinions on other points were entirely opposed to those of Mably, says, that, in France, ‘la noblesse est aux yeux du peuple une espèce de religion, dont les gentilshommes sont les prêtres.’ Mém. de Rivarol, p. 94. Happily, the French Revolution, or rather the circumstances which caused the French Revolution, have utterly destroyed this ignominious homage.
406
The Duke de la Rochefoucauld candidly admits that, in 1649, the nobles raised a civil war, ‘avec d'autant plus de haleur que c'était une nouveauté.’ Mém. de Rochefoucauld, vol. i. p. 406. Thus too Lemontey (Etablissement de Louis XIV, p. 368): ‘La vieille noblesse, qui ne savait que combattre, faisait la guerre par goût, par besoin, par vanité, par ennui.’ Compare, in Mém. d'Omer Talon, vol. ii. pp. 467, 468, a summary of the reasons which, in 1649, induced the nobles to go to war; and on the way in which their frivolity debased the Fronde, see Lavallée, Hist. des Français, vol. iii. pp. 169, 170.
407
Hence the duchesses were called ‘femmes assises;’ those of lower rank ‘non assises.’ Mém. de Fontenay Mareuil, vol. i. p. 111. The Count de Ségur tells us that ‘les duchesses jouissaient de la prérogative d'être assises sur un tabouret chez la reine.’ Mém. de Ségur, vol. i. p. 79. The importance attached to this is amusingly illustrated in Mém. de Saint-Simon, vol. iii. pp. 215–218, Paris, 1842; which should be compared with De Tocqueville, Règne de Louis XV, vol. ii. p. 116, and Mém. de Genlis, vol. x. p. 383.
408
‘Survint incontinent une autre difficulté à la cour sur le sujet des tabourets, que doivent avoir les dames dans la chambre de la reine; car encore que cela ne s'accorde régulièrement qu'aux duchesses, néanmoins le feu roi Louis XIII l'avoit accordé aux filles de la maison de Bouillon,’ &c. Mém. d'Omer Talon, vol. iii. p. 5. See also, on this encroachment on the rights of the duchesses under Louis XIII., the case of Séguier, in Duclos, Mémoires Secrets, vol. i. pp. 360, 361. The consequences of the innovation were very serious; and Tallemant des Réaux (Historiettes,
Regicides, vol. ii. p. 283. ‘A broken silk-man in Cheapside.’ 