[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1648.  August 30.] [Sidenote b:  A.D. 1648.  July 28.] [Sidenote c:  A.D. 1648.  August 3.] [Sidenote d:  A.D. 1648.  Sept. 1.] [Sidenote e:  A.D. 1648.  Sept. 15.] [Sidenote f:  A.D. 1648.  Sept. 18.]

he was suffered to call around him his servants, his chaplains, and such of his counsellors as had taken no part in the war; and, as far as outward appearances might be trusted, he had at length obtained the free and honourable treaty which he had so often solicited.  Still he felt that he was a captive, under promise not to leave the island till twenty days after the conclusion of the treaty, and he soon found, in addition, that he was not expected to treat, but merely to submit.  How far the two houses might have yielded in other circumstances is uncertain; but, under the present superiority of the army, they dared not descend from the lofty pretensions which they had previously put forth.  The commissioners were permitted to argue, to advise, to entreat; but they had no power to concede; their instructions bound them to insist on the king’s assent to every proposition which had been submitted to his consideration at Hampton Court.  To many of these demands Charles made no objection; in lieu of those which he refused, he substituted proposals of his own, which were forwarded to the parliament, and voted unsatisfactory.  He offered new expedients and modifications; but the same answer was invariably returned, till the necessity of his situation wrung from the unfortunate prince his unqualified assent to most of the articles in debate.  On four points only he remained inflexible.  Though he agreed to suspend for three years, he refused to abolish entirely, the functions of the bishops; he objected to the perpetual alienation of the episcopal lands, but proposed to grant leases of them for lives, or for ninety-nine years, in favour of the present purchasers; he contended that all his followers, without any exception, should be admitted to compound for their delinquency; and he protested that, till his conscience were satisfied of the lawfulness of the covenant, he would neither swear to it himself, nor impose it upon others.  Such was the state of the negotiation, when the time allotted by the parliament expired;[a] and a prolongation for twenty days was voted.[1]

The Independents from the very beginning had disapproved of the treaty.  In a petition presented[b] by “thousands of well-affected persons in and near London,” they enumerated the objects for which they had fought, and which they now claimed as the fruit of their victory.  Of these the principal were, that the supremacy of the people should be established against the negative voice of the king and of the lords; that to prevent civil wars, the office of the king and the privileges of the peers should be clearly defined; that a new parliament, to be elected of course and without writs, should assemble every year, but never for a longer time than forty or fifty days; that religious belief and worship should be free from restraint