friend that Mr. Jackson sent me complete mourning, desiring me to be one to hold up the pall at his magnificent obsequies; but my indisposition hindered me from doing him this last office1.

Diary.

LORD CLARENDON

[1609-1674]

SCENES FROM THE GREAT CIVIL WAR

I

PRELIMINARY STRUGGLE TO SECURE THE FLEET

THE Parliament

1642

immediately made the Earl of Warwick High Admiral of England by their ordinance and used all possible expedition in sending it to him at the fleet, together with a declaration to the seamen, by which they obliged them to continue firm to their service and to an entire obedience of the Earl of Warwick, both which were sent by some of their own members. Sir John Pennington3 made not so much haste, but first sent Mr. May and then Sir H. Palmer on board the fleet, to feel the pulses, and upon pretence of indisposition concealed himself at land. When Mr. May came thither, he found the conjuncture more favourable than he could expect. The weather being very fair, the Earl of Warwick was that day gone on shore to a jolly dinner, in which he naturally took great delight, at a gentleman's house who

1 Pepys's body was carried from Clapham and buried in St. Olave's Church, Hart Street, where the diarist worshipped while he was at the Navy Office in Crutched Friars. A monument to his memory was unveiled at St. Olave's as recently as 1884.

The fleet was in the Downs.

The King's nominee.

lived five or six miles from the shore, and had taken several of the officers with him; so that he1 had time and opportunity to deliver all his letters to the several captains, many of whom received them with all alacrity, as orders they had expected: and there seemed great reason to believe that if Sir J. Pennington had been then present, who had greater interest in the common seamen than any other person, having commanded them so many years, he might have carried all the fleet whither he would.

Batten, whom the King had made Surveyor of his navy, was Vice-Admiral of the fleet, and commanded in chief during the absence of the Earl. He was a man of a rough nature, and no breeding but that of a common mariner, from whence he came to be master of a ship in the service of the merchants; in which he had made many long voyages with good success and with the reputation of courage and conduct: from which station he was, by the mistake of that time, raised to the King's service. He received the King's letter with his natural rudeness and without speaking a word; but instantly sent a trusty messenger on shore to let the Earl know what was fallen out and calling those about him of whom he was most confident, they sent their emissaries on board those ships whose officers were most suspected to be at the King's devotion, to dispose the common seamen to disobey their commands.

But this poison would not have wrought so soon, if the Captains who were well resolved had done their parts and immediately weighed their anchors and stood with their ships to the north, without considering any thing but the performance of their own duties according to the directions they had received. But being men of no understanding and parts, how good soever their

1 Mr. May.

affections were, they wasted time in sending one to another whose resolutions they were acquainted with, making no doubt but that they could execute their part at any time.

Sir John Mennes, who was of clear and unalterable affection, which appeared on all occasions, and was of much the best parts amongst them, was at that time on shore with the Earl of Warwick; and they had a great desire to have him, who was Rear-Admiral of the fleet, in their company; and they had heard some mention of Sir John Pennington to be on the shore, ready to come to them; all which disturbed or delayed the execution of what they were resolved to do. So that the Earl of Warwick, who made all the haste he could after the advertisement, found his fleet still together, with what irresolutions soever divided; suffered not Sir John Mennes to go to his own ship, but took him with him on board the Admiral, whither he sent for all the Captains to attend him and he had not been long there, when his new commission and declaration were brought him by members of Parliament, which he made haste to publish and so wrought upon the seamen that they delivered up all their Captains and other officers who refused to go to him upon his summons and thought then to have carried their ships away when it was too late, and whom he sent presently on shore to follow their own inclinations, and put other officers into their places.

He used all the persuasions he could to Sir John Mennes, whom he and everybody loved, to induce him to continue his command under his new commission, which he refusing to do, he caused a boat to set him on shore, without permitting him to go to his own ship.

And so all the officers took a new oath of fidelity to the Parliament without any reservation. Kittleby and Stradling were with two excellent ships upon the coast

of Ireland for that guard, and were entirely devoted to the King's service; but they no sooner endeavoured to bring off their ships to the King but they were seized upon by the seamen, and kept prisoners till they could be sent to land1.

And in this manner the King was bereft of all his Royal Navy, in a time when their coming off might have turned the scale, and probably have disposed the Parliament to hearken to terms of accommodation2.

Life.

II

H.M.S. Providence

THERE was a small ship of 28 or 30 guns that was part of the fleet that wafted Her Majesty into Holland from Dover, which was called the Providence; under the command of Captain Straughan, when the fleet was commanded by Sir John Pennington, and before the Earl of

1 Here Lord Clarendon unconsciously touches on the real reason why the fleet went over to the Parliament. The common seamen coerced their officers: nor is it hard to understand why. Charles I took a real enough interest in the material of his fleet. His shipbuilding programmes, in spite of the opposition they aroused, had at least the merit of postponing for a generation the maritime struggle with the Dutch. But with money so hard to come by, there had to be economies somewhere. And it was the men who suffered. Their food was villainous. Admirals complained that the smell of the meat bred a pestilence. The poor wretches had not rags enough to cover their nakedness. They had not even hammocks to sleep in: they lay halfclad on the bare boards. Even when sick to death they were not allowed to come ashore, because the close of a commission entitled them to wages and there was not so much as a penny to divide amongst them. The popularity of men like Mennes and Pennington is in part explained by their boldness in selling the furniture of their ships, spare anchors and rigging, even sails, in order to provide the men who served them with the necessities of existence.

2 The history of England might have been different if, after the battle of Edgehill, King Charles had been able to blockade the Thames.

Warwick was superinduced into that charge against the King's will. That ship, the Captain whereof was known to be faithful to His Majesty, was by the Queen detained and kept in Holland from the time of Her Majesty's arrival, under several pretences, of which the Captain made use when he afterwards received orders from the Earl of Warwick to repair to the fleet in the Downs, until, after many promises and excuses, it was at last discerned that he had other business and commands; and so was watched by the other ships as an enemy. This vessel the Queen resolved to send to the King, principally to inform His Majesty of the straits she was in, of the provisions she had made; and to return with such particular advice and directions from His Majesty that she might take further resolutions. And because the vessel was light, and drew not much water, and so could run into any creek or open road or harbour, and from thence easily send an express to the King, there was put into it about two hundred barrels of powder, and two or three thousand arms, with seven or eight field-pieces; which they knew would be very welcome to the King and serve for a beginning and countenance to draw forces together. The Captain was no sooner put to sea but notice was sent to the fleet in the Downs; who immediately sent three or four ships to the north, which easily got the Providence in view, before it could reach that coast, and chased it with all their sails till they saw it enter into the river of Humber; when, looking upon it as their own, they made less haste to follow it, being content to drive it before them into their own port of Hull, there being as they thought no other way to escape them, until they plainly saw the ship entering into a narrow creek out of the Humber, which declined Hull and led into the country some miles above it; which was a place well known to the Captain, and designed by him from the beginning.

C. A.

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