Memoirs of a Cavalier

1. That King Edward VI. died the very same day of the same month in which he caused the altar to be taken down, and the image of the Blessed Virgin in the Cathedral of St Paul's.

2. That Cranmer was burnt at Oxford the same day and month that he gave King Henry VIII. advice to divorce his Queen Catherine.

3. That Queen Elizabeth died the same day and month that she resolved, in her Privy Council, to behead the Queen of Scots.

4. That King James died the same day that he published his book against Bellarmine.

5. That King Charles's long Parliament, which ruined him, began the very same day and month which that Parliament began, that at the request of his predecessor robbed the Roman Church of all her revenues, and suppressed abbeys and monasteries.

How just his calculations were, or how true the matter of fact, I cannot tell, but it put me upon the same in several actions and successes of this war. And I found a great many circumstances, as to time or action, which befell both his Majesty and his parties first;

Then others which befell the Parliament and Presbyterian faction, which raised the war;

Then the Independent tyranny which succeeded and supplanted the first party;

Then the Scots who acted on both sides;

Lastly, the restoration and re-establishment of the loyalty and religion of our ancestors.

1. For King Charles I.; 'tis observable, that the charge against the Earl of Strafford, a thing which his Majesty blamed himself for all the days of his life, and at the moment of his last suffering, was first read in the Lords' House on the 30th of January, the same day of the month six years that the king himself was brought to the block.

2. That the king was carried away prisoner from Newark, by the Scots, May 10, the same day six years that, against his conscience and promise, he passed the bill of attainder against the loyal, noble Earl of Strafford.

3. The same day seven years that the king entered the House of Commons for the five members, which all his friends blamed him for, the same day the Rump voted bringing his Majesty to trial, after they had set by the Lords for not agreeing to it, which was the 3rd of January 1648.

4. The 12th of May 1646, being the surrender of Newark, the Parliament held a day of thanksgiving and rejoicing, for the reduction of the king and his party, and finishing the war, which was the same day five years that the Earl of Strafford was beheaded.

5. The battle at Naseby, which ruined the king's affairs, and where his secretary and his office was taken, was the 14th of June, the same day and month the first commission was given out by his Majesty to raise forces.

6. The queen voted a traitor by the Parliament the 3rd of May, the same day and month she carried the jewels into France.

7. The same day the king defeated Essex in the west, his son, King Charles II., was defeated at Worcester.

8. Archbishop Laud's house at Lambeth assaulted by the mob, the same day of the same month that he advised the king to make war upon the Scots.

9. Impeached the 15th of December 1640, the same day twelvemonth that he ordered the Common Prayer-book of Scotland to be printed, in order to be imposed upon the Scots, from which all our troubles began.

But many more, and more strange, are the critical junctures of affairs in the case of the enemy, or at least more observed by me: —

1. Sir John Hotham, who repulsed his Majesty and refused him admittance into Hull before the war, was seized at Hull by the same Parliament for whom he had done it, the same 10th day of August two years that he drew the first blood in that war.

2. Hampden of Buckinghamshire killed the same day one year that the mob petition from Bucks was presented to the king about him, as one of the five members.

3. Young Captain Hotham executed the 1st of January, the same day that he assisted Sir Thomas Fairfax in the first skirmish with the king's forces at Bramham Moor.

4. The same day and month, being the 6th of August 1641, that the Parliament voted to raise an army against the king, the same day and month, anno 1648, the Parliament were assaulted and turned out of doors by that very army, and none left to sit but who the soldiers pleased, which were therefore called the Rump.

5. The Earl of Holland deserted the king, who had made him general of the horse, and went over to the Parliament, and the 9th of March 1641, carried the Commons' reproaching declaration to the king; and afterwards taking up arms for the king against the Parliament, was beheaded by them the 9th of March 1648, just seven years after.

6. The Earl of Holland was sent by the king to come to his assistance and refused, the 11th of July 1641, and that very day seven years after was taken by the Parliament at St Neots.

7. Colonel Massey defended Gloucester against the king, and beat him off the 5th of September 1643; was taken after by Cromwell's men fighting for the king, on the 5th of September 1651, two or three days after the fight at Worcester.

8. Richard Cromwell resigning, because he could not help it, the Parliament voted a free Commonwealth, without a single person or House of Lords. This was the 25th of May 1658; the 25th of May 1660, the king landed at Dover, and restored the government of a single person and House of Lords.

9. Lambert was proclaimed a traitor by the Parliament April the 20th, being the same day he proposed to Oliver Cromwell to take upon him the title of king.

10. Monk being taken prisoner at Nantwich by Sir Thomas Fairfax, revolted to the Parliament the same day nineteen years he declared for the king, and thereby restored the royal authority.

11. The Parliament voted to approve of Sir John Hotham's repulsing the king at Hull, the 28th of April 1642; the 28th of April 1660, the Parliament first debated in the House the restoring the king to the crown.

12. The agitators of the army formed themselves into a cabal, and held their first meeting to seize on the king's person, and take him into their custody from Holmby, the 28th of April 1647; the same day, 1660, the Parliament voted the agitators to be taken into custody, and committed as many of them as could be found.

13. The Parliament voted the queen a traitor for assisting her husband, the king, May the 3rd, 1643; her son, King Charles II., was presented with the votes of Parliament to restore him, and the present of £50,000, the 3rd of May 1660.

14. The same day the Parliament passed the Act for recognition of Oliver Cromwell, October 13th, 1654, Lambert broke up the Parliament and set up the army, 1659, October the 13th.

Some other observations I have made, which, as not so pertinent, I forbear to publish, among which I have noted the fatality of some days to parties, as —

The 2nd of September: The fight at Dunbar; the fight at Worcester; the oath against a single person passed; Oliver's first Parliament called. For the enemy.

The 2nd of September: Essex defeated in Cornwall; Oliver died; city works demolished. For the king.

The 29th of May: Prince Charles born; Leicester taken by storm; King

Charles II. restored. Ditto.

Fatality of circumstances in this unhappy war, as —

1. The English Parliament call in the Scots, to invade their king, and are invaded themselves by the same Scots, in defence of the king whose case, and the design of the Parliament, the Scots had mistaken.

2. The Scots, who unjustly assisted the Parliament to conquer their lawful sovereign, contrary to their oath of allegiance, and without any pretence on the king's part, are afterwards absolutely conquered and subdued by the same Parliament they assisted.

3. The Parliament, who raised an army to depose their king, deposed by the very army they had raised.

4. The army broke three Parliaments, and are at last broke by a free Parliament; and all they had done by the military power, undone at once by the civil.

5. Abundance of the chief men, who by their fiery spirits involved the nation in a civil war, and took up arms against their prince, first or last met with ruin or disgrace from their own party.

(1.) Sir John Hotham and his son, who struck the first stroke, both beheaded or hanged by the Parliament.

(2.) Major-General Massey three times taken prisoner by them, and once wounded at Worcester.

(3.) Major-General Langhorn, (4.) Colonel Poyer, and (5.) Colonel Powell, changed sides, and at last taken, could obtain no other favour than to draw lots for their lives; Colonel Poyer drew the dead lot, and was shot to death.

(6.) Earl of Holland: who, when the House voted who should be reprieved, Lord Goring, who had been their worst enemy, or the Earl of Holland, who excepting one offence, had been their constant servant, voted Goring to be spared, and the Earl to die.

(7.) The Earl of Essex, their first general;

(8.) Sir William Waller;

(9.) Lieutenant-General Ludlow;

(10.) The Earl of Manchester;

– all disgusted and voted out of the army, though they had stood the first shock of the war, to make way for the new model of the army, and introduce a party.

* * * * *

In all these confusions I have observed two great errors, one of the king, and one of his friends.

Of the king, that when he was in their custody, and at their mercy, he did not comply with their propositions of peace, before their army, for want of employment, fell into heats and mutinies; that he did not at first grant the Scots their own conditions, which, if he had done, he had gone into Scotland; and then, if the English would have fought the Scots for him, he had a reserve of his loyal friends, who would have had room to have fallen in with the Scots to his assistance, who were after dispersed and destroyed in small parties attempting to serve him.

While his Majesty remained at Newcastle, the queen wrote to him, persuading him to make peace upon any terms; and in politics her Majesty's advice was certainly the best. For, however low he was brought by a peace, it must have been better than the condition he was then in.

The error I mention of the king's friends was this, that after they saw all was lost, they could not be content to sit still, and reserve themselves for better fortunes, and wait the happy time when the divisions of the enemy would bring them to certain ruin; but must hasten their own miseries by frequent fruitless risings, in the face of a victorious enemy, in small parties; and I always found these effects from it: —

1. The enemy, who were always together by the ears, when they were let alone, were united and reconciled when we gave them any interruption; as particularly, in the case of the first assault the army made upon them, when Colonel Pride, with his regiment, garbled the House, as they called it. At that time a fair opportunity offered; but it was omitted till it was too late. That insult upon the House had been attempted the year before, but was hindered by the little insurrection of the royal party, and the sooner they had fallen out, the better.

2. These risings being desperate, with vast disadvantages, and always suppressed, ruined all our friends; the remnants of the Cavaliers were lessened, the stoutest and most daring were cut off, and the king's interest exceedingly weakened, there not being less than 30,000 of his best friends cut off in the several attempts made at Maidstone, Colchester, Lancashire, Pembroke, Pontefract, Kingston, Preston, Warrington, Worcester, and other places. Had these men all reserved their fortunes to a conjunction with the Scots, at either of the invasions they made into this kingdom, and acted with the conduct and courage they were known masters of, perhaps neither of those Scots armies had been defeated.

But the impatience of our friends ruined all; for my part, I had as good a mind to put my hand to the ruin of the enemy as any of them, but I never saw any tolerable appearance of a force able to match the enemy, and I had no mind to be beaten and then hanged. Had we let them alone, they would have fallen into so many parties and factions, and so effectually have torn one another to pieces, that whichsoever party had come to us, we should, with them, have been too hard for all the rest.

This was plain by the course of things afterwards; when the Independent army had ruffled the Presbyterian Parliament, the soldiery of that party made no scruple to join us, and would have restored the king with all their hearts, and many of them did join us at last.

And the consequence, though late, ended so; for they fell out so many times, army and Parliament, Parliament and army, and alternately pulled one another down so often till at last the Presbyterians who began the war, ended it, and, to be rid of their enemies, rather than for any love to the monarchy, restored King Charles the Second, and brought him in on the very day that they themselves had formerly resolved the ruin of his father's government, being the 29th of May, the same day twenty years that the private cabal in London concluded their secret league with the Scots, to embroil his father King Charles the First.

NOTES

p. 1. The preface to the first edition, which appeared in 1720, was written by Defoe as "Editor" of the manuscript. The second edition appeared between 1740 and 1750, after the death of Defoe. (He was probably born in 1671 and he died in 1731.) In the preface to that edition it was argued that the Cavalier was certainly a real person.

p. 2, l. 35. "Nicely" is here used in the stricter and more uncommon sense of "minutely." This use of words in a slightly different sense from their common modern significance will be noticed frequently; cf. p. 8, l. 17 "passionately," p. 18, l. 40 "refined," p. 31, l. 18 "particular."

p. 3, l. 3. Charles XII the famous soldier king of Sweden died in 1718.

p. 3, l. 31. Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, was one of the staunchest supporters of Charles I, and Chancellor under Charles II. His History of the Rebellion is naturally written from the Royalist standpoint. This statement concerning "the editors" can only be intended by Defoe to give colour of truth to his story of the manuscript.

p. 10, l. 17. England had been nominally at war with Spain since the beginning of the reign of Charles I. Peace was actually made in 1630.

p. 12, l. 3. A pistole was a gold coin used chiefly in France and Spain. Its value varied but it was generally worth about fifteen or sixteen shillings.

p. 14, l. 5. Cardinal Richelieu, one of the greatest statesmen of the seventeenth century, was practically supreme in France during the reign of Louis XIII.

p. 14, l. 16. The cause of the war with Savoy is told at length on page 23. Savoy being the frontier province between France and Italy it was important that France should maintain her influence there.

p. 14, l. 18. Pinerolo was a frontier fortress.

p. 14, l. 36. The queen-mother was Mary de Medicis who had been regent during the minority of Louis XIII.

p. 15, l. 3. The Protestants or Huguenots of Southern France had been tolerated since 1598 but Richelieu deprived them of many of their privileges.

p. 15, l. 21. In 1625 when England was in alliance with France English ships had been joined with the French fleet to reduce la Rochelle, the great stronghold of Protestantism in Southern France.

p. 16, l. 7. The Louvre, now famous as a picture gallery and museum, was formerly one of the palaces of the French Kings.

p. 17, l. 16. The Bastille was the famous prison destroyed in 1789 at the outbreak of the French Revolution.

p. 18, l. 13. In the seventeenth century Italy was still divided into several states each with its own prince.

p. 18, l. 22. Susa was another Savoyard fortress.

p. 19, l. 17. A halberd was a weapon consisting of a long wooden shaft surmounted by an axe-like head.

p. 21, l. 30. The Cantons were the political divisions of Switzerland.

p. 23, l. 7. Casale, a strong town on the Po.

p. 25, l. 14. A dragoon was a cavalry soldier armed with an infantry firearm and trained to fight on foot as well as on horseback.

p. 27, l. 25. Saluzzo a town S.E. of Pinerolo.

p. 29, l. 12. This truce prepared for the definite "Peace of Cherasco," April 1631, which confirmed the Duchy of Mantua to the Duke of Nevers but left only Pinerolo in the hands of the French.

p. 31, l. 12. This refers to the Treaty of Bärwalde, 1631, by which Gustavus Adolphus promised to consider the interests of the French (who were the natural enemies of the Empire).

p. 31, l. 16. In 1628 the Duke of Pomerania had been obliged to put his coast line under the care of the imperial troops. In attacking it therefore in 1639 Gustavus Adolphus was aiming a blow at the Emperor and obtaining a good basis for further conquests.

p. 31, l. 25. Gazette is the old name for newspaper.

p. 33, l. 12. Bavaria was the chief Catholic State not under the direct government of the Emperor. Maximilian, its elector, was appointed head of the Catholic League which was formed in 1609 in opposition to the Protestant Union which had been formed in 1608.

p. 33, l. 20. By the end of the sixteenth century the Turks had advanced far into Europe, had detached half of Hungary from the Emperor's dominions and made him pay tribute for the other half. During the seventeenth century, however, they were slowly driven back.

p. 33, l. 37. In 1628 the two Dukes of Mecklenburg had been "put to the ban" by the Emperor for having given help to Christian of Denmark who had taken up the cause of the Protestants.

p. 34, l. 10. Gustavus Adolphus had been at war with Poland from 1617 to 1629.

p. 34, l. 30. This was not a treaty of active alliance. Both John George of Saxony and George William of Brandenburg were Protestant princes but they were at first anxious to maintain neutrality between Sweden and the Emperor. The impolitic action of Ferdinand drove them to join Gustavus Adolphus in 1631.

p. 34, l. 33. The German Diet was the meeting of the German princes to consult on imperial matters. Ratisbon is one of the chief towns of Bavaria.

p. 35, l. 17. The story of Magdeburg is told on p. 42.

p. 36, l. 1. Count Tilly was a Bavarian General of genius who had been put at the head of the forces of the Catholic League in 1609.

p. 36, l. 31. The Protestant Union formed in 1608 had been forced to dissolve itself in 1621.

p. 37, l. 5. Wallenstein is one of the greatest generals and the most interesting figure in seventeenth century history. A Bohemian by birth he fought for the Emperor with an army raised by himself.

p. 37, l. 16. The Conclusions of Leipsic are described on p. 39.

p. 38, l. 29. The King of Hungary was Ferdinand (afterwards Ferdinand III) son of Ferdinand II. The "King of the Romans" was a title bestowed on the person who was destined to become Emperor. (The Empire was elective but tended to become hereditary.)

p. 39, l. 39. The Peace of Augsburg, 1555, had been intended to settle the differences between the Lutherans and Catholics but it had left many problems unsolved.

p. 42, l. 21. The Protestant bishopric of Magdeburg had been forcibly restored to the Catholics in 1629. In 1631 the citizens of their own accord, relying on Swedish help, declared against the Emperor.

p. 47, l. 40. Torgau, a strongly fortified town in Saxony.

p. 57, l. 37. The Prince of Orange at this time was William II who married Mary, daughter of Charles I.

p. 59, l. 3. Except for the date, which should be 17th of September, and the numbers on both sides which he exaggerates, the Cavalier's account of the battle of Leipsic is fairly accurate.

p. 61, l. 39. Cuirassiers were heavy cavalry wearing helmet and cuirass (two plates fastened together for the protection of the breast and back).

p. 65, l. 10. Crabats is an old form of Croats the name of the inhabitants of Croatia.

p. 66, l. 38. Rix dollar is the English form of Reichsthaler or imperial dollar.

p. 67, l. 6. "Husband" is here used in the sense of "thrifty person."

p. 69, l. 18. A ducat was a gold coin generally worth about nine shillings.

p. 70, l. 29. This passage describes the conquest of the string of ecclesiastical territories known as the "Priest's Lane."

p. 71, l. 23. A partisan was a military weapon used by footmen in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and not unlike the halberd in form.

p. 73, l. 10. "Bastion" is the name given to certain projecting portions of a fortified building.

p. 78, l. 23. The Palatinate (divided into Upper and Lower) was a Protestant state whose elector, the son-in-law of James I, had been driven out by the Emperor in 1620.

p. 79, l. 11. Reformado: A military term borrowed from the Spanish, signifying an officer who, for some disgrace is deprived of his command but retains his rank. Defoe uses it to describe an officer not having a regular command.

p. 81, l. 15. Frederick, Elector Palatine, had been elected King by the Protestants of Bohemia in opposition to the Emperor Ferdinand. It was his acceptance of this position which led to the confiscation of his Palatinate together with his new kingdom.

p. 81, l. 24. James I had, after much hesitation, sent in 1625 an expedition to the aid of the Elector, but it had miscarried. Charles I was too much occupied at home to prosecute an active foreign policy.

p. 81, l. 35. The Elector died in the same year as Gustavus Adolphus. His son Charles Lewis was restored to the Lower Palatinate only, which was confirmed to him at the end of the war in 1648.

p. 82, l. 3. The battle of Nieuport, one of the great battles between Holland and Spain, was fought in 1600 near the Flemish town of that name. Prince Maurice won a brilliant victory under very difficult conditions.

p. 82, l. 30. A ravelin is an outwork of a fortified building.

p. 86, l. 16. It was the attempt in 1607 to force Catholicism on the Protestants of the free city of Donauwörth which led to the formation of the Protestant Union in 1608.

p. 87, l. 9. The Duringer Wald. – Thuringia Wald.

p. 97, l. 29. Camisado (fr. Latin Camisia=a shirt) is generally used to denote a night attack.

p. 98, l. 4. Note the inconsistency between this statement of the Cavaliers interest in the curiosities at Munich and his indifference in Italy where he had "no gust to antiquities."

p. 99, l. 7. Gustavus Adolphus had entered Nuremberg March 1631. Wallenstein was now bent on re-taking it.

p. 100, l. 29. The Cavalier's enthusiasm for Gustavus Adolphus leads to misrepresentation. The Swedish king has sometimes been blamed for failing to succour Magdeburg.

p. 101, l. 23. Redoubts are the most strongly fortified points in the temporary fortification of a large space.

p. 107, l. 13. The Cavalier glosses over the fact that Gustavus Adolphus really retreated from his camp at Nuremberg, being practically starved out, as Wallenstein refused to come to an engagement.

p. 110, l. 38. Though the honours of war in the battle of Lützen went to the Swedes it is probable that they lost more men than did the Imperialists.

p. 113, l. 37. The battle of Nördlingen was one of the decisive battles of the war. It restored to the Catholics the bishoprics of the South which Gustavus Adolphus had taken.

p. 114, l. 39. The title "Infant" or "Infante" belongs to all princes of the royal house in Spain. The Cardinal Infant really brought 15000 men to the help of the Emperor.

p. 116, l. 37. The King of Hungary had succeeded to the command of the imperial army after the murder of Wallenstein in 1634.

p. 119, l. 34. The treaty of Westphalia in 1648 ended the Thirty Years' War by a compromise. The Emperor recognised that he could have no real authority in matters of religion over the states governed by Protestant princes, North Germany remained Protestant, the South, Catholic.

p. 120, l. 11. This statement is an anachronism. Prince Maurice of Nassau the famous son of William the Silent died in 1625.

p. 120, l. 39. The Netherlands belonged to Spain in the seventeenth century but revolted. The Northern provinces which were Protestant won their independence, the Southern provinces which were Catholic (modern Belgium) submitted to Spain on conditions.

p. 121, l. 19. The siege of Ostend, then in the hands of the Dutch, was begun in July 1601 and came to an end in September 1604, when the garrison surrendered with the honours of war.