Royalist Agents, Conspirators and Spies
Page 18
25 For a recent and impressive examination of this period, which contains harsh judgements of Ormond, see Micheál Ó Siochrú, God’s Executioner: Oliver Cromwell and the Conquest of Ireland (London: Faber and Faber, 2008), pp. 46–50.
26 Gilbert, Contemporary History, i, 671–2; Cregan, ‘Daniel O’Neill in the Civil Wars’, p. 122.
27 Bod.L. Carte MS 18, fos 89, 190, 226; MS 22, fol. 131; Gilbert, Contemporary History, i, 693, 700, 701, 710.
28 Ibid., 667; ibid., ii, 294; Jerrold Casway, Owen Roe O’Neill and the Struggle for Catholic Ireland (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania, 1984), pp. 143–7; Ohlmeyer, Civil War and Restoration, pp. 181–4.
29 CClSP, i, 336, 364, 381; Ohlmeyer, Civil War and Restoration, pp. 193–4.
30 CSP, Ireland, 1633–47, pp. 759–60; Casway, Owen Roe O’Neill, pp. 174. 182; Cregan, ‘Daniel O’Neill in the Civil Wars’, pp. 123, 124–5.
31 Patrick Little, ‘The Marquess of Ormond and the English Parliament, 1645–1647’, in Toby Barnard and Jane Fenlon (eds), The Dukes of Ormond, 1610–1745 (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2000), pp. 86–97; Ohlmeyer, Civil War and Restoration, pp. 192–3.
32 Cregan, ‘Daniel O’Neill in the Civil Wars’, p. 126.
33 For Ashburnham and Berkeley’s detailed and self-exculpatory accounts of the escape of the king from Hampton Court, see Ashburnham, Narrative, including appendices.
34 For Boswell, see Cary, Memorials of the Great Civil War, i, 188–9; CSPD, 1648–4 9, pp. 157, 320; Newman, Royalist Officers, p. 38; Firebrace, Honest Harry, p. 37.
35 CClSP, iii, 22; CSPD, 1652–53, p. 216; CSPD, 1655, p. 406; Newman, Royalist Officers, p. 38.
36 CJ, v, 137; Cary, Memorials of the Great Civil War, i, 188–9; Firebrace, Honest Harry, pp. 37–8.
37 For examples of all these traditional elements of cloak-and-dagger conspiracy, see ibid., pp. 254–61.
38 Barwick, Life, pp. 70, 73, 77; Firebrace, Honest Harry, pp. 29, 31–2, 33, 36.
39 For Denbigh, see John Adamson, ‘The Frightened Junto: Perceptions of Ireland, and the Last Attempts at Settlement with Charles I’, in Jason Peacey (ed.), The Regicides and the Execution of Charles I (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001), pp. 37, 39, 44–6.
40 Sir Henry Firebrace’s Narrative, in Firebrace, Honest Harry, Appendix A, p. 254. See also ibid., pp. 14–18, 22; Stephen Wright, ‘Firebrace, Sir Henry (1619/20–1691)’, ODNB, September 2004, online edn, May 2009, accessed 19 March 2010.
41 Firebrace, Sir Henry Firebrace’s Narrative, p. 255.
42 Hammond’s opinion is quoted in Firebrace, Honest Harry, p. 74. Titus was the son of a London soap manufacturer of Italian origin. A Presbyterian, on the rise of the New Model Army, he resigned his commission in protest at its pro- Independent policies. He was closely associated with General Edward Massey, another Presbyterian soldier moving towards royalism at this period. For Titus, see Firebrace, Honest Harry, passim; G. E. Aylmer, The Crown’s Servants: Government and Civil Service under Charles II, 1660–1685 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 164–5; Henning, House of Commons 1660–1690, iii, 570–74; Alan Marshall, ‘Titus, Silius (1622/3–1704)’, ODNB, September 2004, online edn, January 2008, accessed 19 March 2010.
43 BL Egerton MS 2550, fo. 52 (Oudart’s cipher key with Nicholas); NP, i, 164–5; Firebrace, Honest Harry, p. 55; CSPD, 1642–43, p. 444; Bampfield’s Apology, p. 46; W. W. Wroth, ‘Oudart, Nicholas (d. 1681)’, rev. S. A. Baron, ODNB, 2004, online edn, October 2008, accessed 19 March 2010.
44 S. R. Gardiner (ed.), The Hamilton Papers, being selections from the Original Letters in the Possession of his Grace the Duke of Hamilton and Brandon (London: Camden Society, 1880), pp. 155–6; CJ, v, 467.
45 For examples of the products of royalist underground presses in London at this time, see Mercurius Melancholicus, 21–28 July 1648, ed. John Crouch (Thomason, 72:E.455), Angliae Ruina by Bruno Ryves, in Mercurius Rusticus, 1648 (Wing/2412: 08). See also Jason McElligott, ‘John Crouch: A royalist journalist in Cromwellian England’, Media History, vol. 10, no. 3 (2004), esp. pp. 139–41.
46 For royalist strategies and projects at this time, see Robert Ashton, Counter-Revolution: The Second Civil War and its Origins, 1646–48 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994), passim.
47 CJ, iv, 657; CJ, v, 27, 198, 470; CSPD, 1648–49, p. 19; Bampfield’s Apology, pp. 70, 125; John Miller, James II: A Study in Kingship (London: Methuen, 1989), pp. 3–5; Gardiner, Civil War, iv, 99–100.
48 Bampfield’s Apology, pp. 52–70; John Loftis (ed.), The Memoirs of Anne, Lady Halkett and Ann, Lady Fanshawe (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979), pp. 23, 27.
49 Bampfield’s Apology, pp. 69–70, 125–6; Halkett and Fanshawe Memoirs, pp. 23–6, 196. On her marriage, Anne Murray became Lady Halkett; ClSP, ii, Appendix xlvii. For Lowe, see Clarendon, Rebellion, xi, 65.
50 Halkett and Fanshawe Memoirs, p. 25; David Stevenson, ‘Halkett, Anne Lady Halkett (1623–1699)’, ODNB, 2004, accessed 19 March 2010.
51 ClSP, ii, Appendix xlvii; CClSP, i, 421.
52 Firebrace, Honest Harry, p. 277.
53 Hamilton Papers Addenda (London: Camden Society, 1895), ix, 1–2, 9–10; HMC, 21, Hamilton MSS, 11th Report, 1887, Appendix, Part VI, i, 120.
54 Hamilton Papers, Addenda, ix, 26; Hamilton Papers, p. 207; CClSP, i, 431; HMC, Pepys MSS, pp. 219, 221; HMC 21, Hamilton MSS, 11th Report, Appendix, i, 124. Stevenson, Revolution and Counter-Revolution, pp. 85, 93.
55 CClSP, i, 431; ii, 142, 157, 188.
56 Carte, Letters and Papers, i, 179–80, 232.
57 Murdoch, Britain and Denmark-Norway, pp. 139–40.
58 Bampfield’s Apology, p. 127; Ashton, Counter-Revolution, pp. 84–5, 438–48; Royle, British Civil War, pp. 447–9, 355–6.
59 For Francis, Lord Willoughby of Parham, see Underdown, pp. 94, 116.
60 Wicquefort’s account is quoted in Bampfield’s Apology, pp. 127–7. For Bampfield’s defence of his actions, see ibid., pp. 70–72.
61 Clarendon’s harshly critical account in his History of the Rebellion of the ‘foul practices’ of Bampfield, whose ‘restless unquiet spirit’ fomented the ‘intrigues and designs’ that riddled the entourages of the two Stuart brothers, was of course written with the knowledge of Bampfield’s later employment as an agent of Thurloe. See Clarendon, Rebellion, xi, 33–5, 127, 141.
62 For the different possible options – to attempt to rescue the king from the Isle of Wight, to sail north to Scotland, to attempt to relieve the besieged city of Colchester, or to attack the parliamentary fleet commanded by the Earl of Warwick – see Hutton, Charles II, p. 27.
63 Clarendon, Rebellion, xi, 69. For royalist hopes that Warwick would join Prince Charles, see Adamson, ‘The Frightened Junto’, pp. 41–2, 64.
64 Hutton, Charles II, pp. 29–30.
65 Quoted in Ohlmeyer, Civil War and Restoration, p. 207. For Crelly, Abbot of Newry, see ibid., pp. 191–2.
66 Ibid., p. 207; Casway, Owen Roe O’Neill, pp. 206–7; Adamson, ‘The Frightened Junto’, pp. 47–9.
67 Ohlmeyer, Civil War and Restoration, pp. 207–8.
68 Ibid., pp. 210, 214; Casway, Owen Roe O’Neill, p. 208.
69 Ibid., pp. 207–10; Ohlmeyer, Civil War and Restoration, pp. 208, 214.
70 Gilbert, Contemporary History, i, 753–4; Casway, Owen Roe O’Neill, p. 231; Ohlmeyer, Civil War and Restoration, p. 219.
71 Mercurius Pragmaticus, 1647–49 (75: E. 470 [33]); Ohlmeyer, Civil War and Restoration, pp. 222–3; Ó Siochrú, God’s Executioner, pp. 52–3.
72 ClSP, ii, 430–31, 442; Carte, Life of Ormond, v, 24–5.
73 Moderate Intelligencer, 192 (16–23 November 1648); Adamson, ‘The Frightened Junto’, p. 52.
74 Quoted in C. V. Wedgwood, The Trial of Charles I (London: Collins, 1966), p. 29. See also Adamson, ‘The Frightened Junto’, pp. 51–2.
75 Sarah Poynting, ‘“I doe desire to be rightly understood’: rhetorical strategies in the letters of Charles I’, in McElligott and Smith (eds)
, Royalists and Royalism, p. 152; Firebrace, Honest Harry, pp. 128–42.
76 Quoted in ibid., p. 77. See also ibid., pp. 77–8, 138.
77 See the list of persons permitted to attend on the king during the Treaty of Newport negotiations; Francis Peck (ed.), Desiderata Curiosa, or a Collection of Divers Scarce and Curious Pieces, 2 vols (London, 1732–35), ii, Book IX, p. 52.
78 Ibid., ii, Book X, pp. 29–30.
79 John Fox, ‘Whorwood, Jane (bap. 1612, d. 1684)’, ODNB, May 2009, online edn, October 2009, accessed 19 March 2010 (Jane Whorwood); Keith M. Brown, ‘Courtiers and Cavaliers: Service, Anglicisation and Loyalty among the Royalist Nobility’, in John Morrill (ed.), The Scottish National Covenant in its British Context (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1990), p. 166; Firebrace, Honest Harry, pp. 50–52.
80 NP, i, 79–80 (Oudart to Nicholas, 4 March 1647).
81 Ibid., pp. 52, 294; ODNB (Jane Whorwood).
82 For a fascinating examination of the nature of the relationship between Charles I and Jane Whorwood, see Sarah Poynting, ‘Deciphering the King: Charles I’s Letters to Jane Whorwood’, Seventeenth Century, vol. 21 (2006), 128–40. See also Firebrace, Honest Harry, pp. 131–5, 293–4.
83 CClSP, i, 407.
84 Ashburnham, Narrative, pp. 58, 64, 108–17; ibid., Appendix, pp. clxiv–cxv; Clarendon, Rebellion, x, 128–33; Firebrace, Honest Harry, pp. 57–62; Bampfield’s Apology, pp. 127–9.
85 Ashburnham, Narrative, pp. 122–3; Firebrace, Honest Harry, pp. 62, 71–2.
86 Ibid., pp. 298–9, 301–2. For Newburgh, see Rosalind K. Marshall, ‘Livingston, James, of Kinnaird, first earl of Newburgh (1621/2–1670)’, ODNB, September 2004, online edn, January 2008, accessed 19 March 2010; Brown, ‘Courtiers and Cavaliers’, p. 173.
87 Clarendon, Rebellion, xii, 19–20.
88 Betcherman, Court Lady and Country Wife, pp. 297–8; Bampfield’s Apology, p. 118.
89 Quoted in Firebrace, Honest Harry, p. 83. See also ibid., pp. 83–6. See also Clarendon, Rebellion, xi, 65.
90 Firebrace, Honest Harry, pp. 113, 302.
91 Hamilton Papers, p. 180.
92 Firebrace, Narrative, in Honest Harry, pp. 256–7. See also Hamilton Papers, pp. 172, 178.
93 Ibid., passim; Ashburnham, Narrative, pp. 123–6. See NP, i, 73–4, for Oudart’s use of lemon-juice or synthetic ink. For the government’s knowledge of the escape plans, see for example a notice to Hammond from the Derby House committee on 13 November: ‘We are informed that there is an intention for the King’s escape on Thursday or Friday next at night’; CSPD, 1648–59, p. 322.
94 Firebrace, Narrative, pp. 258–9. See also Wedgwood, Trial of Charles I, pp. 34–6.
95 Ibid., pp. 34–6, 40–43, 62–3.
96 Desiderata Curiosa, ii, Book X, p. 30; Firebrace, Honest Harry, pp. 176–7.
97 Perfect Occurrences, 104 (22–30 December 1648); Firebrace, Honest Harry, pp. 179–81; Wedgwood, Trial of Charles I, pp. 65–6.
98 Memoirs of Thomas Herbert, pp. 253–4. See Adamson, ‘The Frightened Junto’, pp. 50, 67.
99 Perfect Occurrences, 105 (29 December 1638–5 January 1649); Wedgwood, The King’s Trial, p. 70. It is not known whether Isaac Wheeler was in any way related to the king’s intrepid laundress.
100 Richard Bonney, ‘The European Reaction to the Trial and Execution of Charles I’, in Peacey, The Regicides and the Execution of Charles I, pp. 250–51; Fraser, Charles II, pp. 74–5; Wedgwood, Trial of Charles I, pp. 91–2.
101 NP, i, 465–6; Wedgwood, Trial of Charles I, pp. 168, 170–71; Fraser, Charles II, pp. 74–5.
102 C. V. Wedgwood (ed.), ‘Memoirs of Sir Thomas Herbert’, in The Trial of Charles I (London: Folio Society, 1959), p. 122.
Chapter 5
The Cavalier Winter 1649–1650
It was not thought counsellable for the King to hazard his Person thither [to Ireland], till they were truly informed of the State of the Kingdom; to which purpose it was resolved to send an express, and Mr Seymour was pitched upon, as a person unbiased with any faction, and in whose discretion and integrity the King had great confidence.
John, Lord Byron to Daniel O’Neill, Jersey, December 1649
What Clarendon called the ‘lamentable tragedy’ of the execution of Charles I, ‘this unparalleled murder and parricide’, had a devastating impact on many royalists.1 The feelings of dismay and horror experienced by the king’s supporters were intensified by the other measures take by a precarious and unpopular regime to weaken its most significant opponents. A series of court-martials and show trials resulted in a number of royalist commanders captured in the second Civil War being brought either before a firing squad or to the scaffold, the most prominent victims being Hamilton and Holland. The combined impact of the harsh composition and sequestration regulations, new Treason Acts, the requirement to take the Engagement oath of loyalty to the Commonwealth as a condition of undertaking any legal proceedings, and various measures to prevent the printing or distribution of ‘seditious’ or ‘scandalous’ texts served for the time being to cripple opposition to the regime.2 According to Clarendon, the ‘spirit of all the loyal party was so broken and subdued, that they could scarce breathe under the insupportable burdens which were laid upon them by imprisonments, compositions and sequestrations’.3
During the bleak early months of 1649 the responses of royalists to the abolition of the monarchy, the establishment of the Commonwealth and the measures taken to suppress dissent varied widely. Between the polar opposites of docile and resigned submission or continued and renewed opposition there were a number of possible positions. At one extreme, some royalists made a passive withdrawal into a life of seclusion and study, of pious and melancholy reflection, while at the other, embittered and angry Cavaliers exhibited a fierce desire for revenge, a bloodthirsty intention to ‘chase, pursue, kill and destroy as traitors and rebels’ those responsible for the king’s death.4 In this context it is instructive to identify the varied circumstances of the principal royalist agents whose activities have been so far considered, and to explore how they confronted this new bleak and cheerless world.
Obviously, the household of Charles I, the core of which had shown a remarkable capacity to survive and reconstitute itself despite the various purges and expulsions that had accompanied its uneven progress from Newcastle to the Isle of Wight, was now totally dispersed. For most of those royal servants who had been active as couriers or as plotters in the various attempts to rescue the king, their period as royalist agents was over. For example, ‘Honest Harry’ Firebrace had never been a royalist by conviction. His devotion to the king had been total but strictly personal. It is not known whether he was in one of the four coaches containing gentlemen and royal servants that followed the king’s hearse to Windsor, but if he was, it marked the end of the most intense and dramatic phase in his career. Firebrace returned to the service of his original employer, the Earl of Denbigh, even although the earl had accepted membership of the Commonwealth’s new Council of State. When in 1651 Denbigh withdrew from political life to his Warwickshire estate, Firebrace, who after all had the welfare of a wife and child to consider, accompanied him as his secretary.5
The two women who had taken such risks in carrying letters and hatching escape plans, Jane Whorwood and the laundress Mrs Wheeler, both seem to have been in London during the king’s trial and execution, but their responses to what they must have regarded as an appalling crime remain unknown. In any case, their careers as royalist agents were over. Perhaps surprisingly, given her much-admired ‘boldness and art’, Whorwood seems to have withdrawn into private life; she had an unsatisfactory husband who was prone to violence, she had children, and allegedly a lover, so presumably she had plenty with which to occupy her time. In any case, her royalism seems to have been intensely personal, flourishing in the dangerous – for several reasons – circumstances of her intimate friendship with Charles I; it was not easily transferred to the wider field of espionage and conspiracy in th
e service of Charles II.6
For at least two of the king’s attendants, their careers as royalist agents did not end with the execution of their master. Nicholas Oudart was certainly in London in January, but not for long. He must by this time have been a highly suspect figure, and it is not surprising that he soon joined the flow of ‘persecuted Cavaliers’ across the Channel. By June he was established at The Hague, appointed secretary to Mary of Orange, and soon deeply embroiled in the intrigues that swirled constantly around the different Stuart courts in exile.7 His fellow royal servant, the ex-parliamentarian soldier Silius Titus, was still in the Isle of Wight in November 1648, in attendance on the king in Newport, but by this time no longer permitted to enter Carisbrooke Castle. His newfound royalism and his original Presbyterian loyalties, in particular his friendship with General Edward Massey, one of the more prominent victims of Pride’s Purge, made him a doubly suspect figure to the new regime, and during 1649 he also went into exile. Titus followed Oudart to Holland, where he offered his services to Charles II, at a time when his Presbyterian connections would possibly be useful as the royal advisers debated over what policies should be followed if the new king were ever to be seated on his father’s throne.8
Holland was clearly a popular destination for royalist agents who had been actively involved in the attempts to rescue Charles I. In the winter of 1648–49 the hunt was up in London for Humphrey Boswell, considered by the Derby House committee to be ‘a very dangerous person’, but he successfully made one of his many narrow escapes, also eventually turning up at The Hague.9 Lord Newburgh, whose last-minute scheme to provide Charles with a horse that could outrun any pursuers was unfortunately never put to the test, was also, in Clarendon’s words, ‘after the murder of the king … compelled, together with his wife, the lady Aubigny, to fly out of England’. The Newburghs also headed for The Hague, where for the time being the presence of the new king acted as a magnet to royalist fugitives in a way that the household of Henrietta Maria at St. Germain could not match.10