History of Civilization in England, Vol. 2 of 3. Henry Buckley
It was the political form of a movement, of which the Reformation was the religious form. As the Reformation was aided, not by men in high ecclesiastical offices, not by great cardinals or wealthy bishops, but by men filling the lowest and most subordinate posts, just so was the English rebellion a movement from below, an uprising from the foundations, or as some will have it, the dregs of society. The few persons of high rank who adhered to the popular cause were quickly discarded, and the ease and rapidity with which they fell off was a clear indication of the turn that things were taking. Directly the army was freed from its noble leaders, and supplied with officers drawn from the lower classes, the fortune of war changed, the royalists were every where defeated, and the king made prisoner by his own subjects. Between his capture and execution, the two most important political events were his abduction by Joyce, and the forcible expulsion from the House of Commons of those members who were thought likely to interfere in his favour. Both these decisive steps were taken, and indeed only could have been taken, by men of great personal influence, and of a bold and resolute spirit. Joyce, who carried off the king, and who was highly respected in the army, had, however, been recently a common working tailor;369 while Colonel Pride, whose name is preserved in history as having purged the House of Commons of the malignants, was about on a level with Joyce, since his original occupation was that of a drayman.370 The tailor and the drayman were, in that age, strong enough to direct the course of public affairs, and to win for themselves a conspicuous position in the state. After the execution of Charles, the same tendency was displayed, the old monarchy being destroyed, that small but active party known as the fifth-monarchy men increased in importance, and for a time exercised considerable influence. Their three principal and most distinguished members were Venner, Tuffnel, and Okey. Venner, who was the leader, was a wine-cooper;371 Tuffnel, who was second in command, was a carpenter;372 and Okey, though he became a colonel, had filled the menial office of stoker in an Islington brewery.373
Nor are these to be regarded as exceptional cases. In that period, promotion depended solely on merit; and if a man had ability he was sure to rise, no matter what his birth or former avocations might have been. Cromwell himself was a brewer;374 and Colonel Jones, his brother-in-law, had been servant to a private gentleman.375 Deane was the servant of a tradesman; but he became an admiral, and was made one of the commissioners of the navy.376 Colonel Goffe had been apprentice to a drysalter;377 Major-general Whalley had been apprentice to a draper.378 Skippon, a common soldier who had received no education,379 was appointed commander of the London militia; he was raised to the office of sergeant-major-general of the army; he was declared commander-in-chief in Ireland; and he became one of the fourteen members of Cromwell's council.380 Two of the lieutenants of the Tower were Berkstead and Tichborne. Berkstead was a pedlar, or at all events a hawker of small wares;381 and Tichborne, who was a linendraper, not only received the lieutenancy of the Tower, but became a colonel, and a member of the committee of state in 1655, and of the council of state in 1659.382 Other trades were equally successful; the highest prizes being open to all men, provided they displayed the requisite capacity. Colonel Harvey was a silk-mercer;383 so was Colonel Rowe;384 so also was Colonel Venn.385 Salway had been apprentice to a grocer, but, being an able man, he rose to the rank of major in the army; he received the king's remembrancer's office; and in 1659 he was appointed by parliament a member of the council of state.386 Around that council-board were also gathered Bond the draper,387 and Cawley the brewer;388 while by their side we find John Berners, who is said to have been a private servant,389 and Cornelius Holland, who is known to have been a servant, and who was, indeed, formerly a link-boy.390 Among others who were now favoured and promoted to offices of trust, were Packe the woollen-draper,391 Pury the weaver,392 and Pemble the tailor.393 The parliament which was summoned in 1653 is still remembered as Barebone's parliament, being so called after one of its most active members, whose name was Barebone, and who was a leather-seller in Fleet Street.394 Thus too, Downing, though a poor charity-boy,395 became teller of the exchequer, and representative of England at the Hague.396 To these we may add, that Colonel Horton had been a gentleman's servant;397 Colonel Berry had been a woodmonger;398 Colonel Cooper a haberdasher;399 Major Rolfe a shoemaker;400 Colonel Fox a tinker;401 and Colonel Hewson a cobbler.402
Such were the leaders of the English rebellion, or to speak more properly, such were the instruments by which the rebellion was consummated.403 If we now turn to France, we shall clearly see the difference between the feelings and temper of the two nations. In that country, the old protective spirit still retained its activity; and the people, being kept in a state of pupilage, had not acquired those habits of self-command and self-reliance, by which alone great things can be effected. They had been so long accustomed to look with timid reverence to the upper classes, that, even when they rose in arms, they could not throw off the ideas of submission which were quickly discarded by our ancestors. The influence of the higher ranks was, in England, constantly diminishing; in France, it was scarcely impaired. Hence it happened that, although the English and French rebellions were contemporary, and, in their origin, aimed at precisely the same objects, they were distinguished by one most important difference. This was, that the English rebels were headed by popular leaders; the French rebels by noble leaders. The bold and sturdy habits which had long been cultivated in England, enabled the middle and lower classes to supply their own chiefs out of their own ranks. In France such chiefs were not to be found; simply because, owing to the protective spirit, such habits had not been cultivated. While, therefore, in our island, the functions of civil government, and of war, were conducted with conspicuous ability, and complete success, by butchers, by bakers, by brewers, by cobblers, and by tinkers, the struggle which, at the same moment, was going on in France, presented an appearance totally different. In that country, the rebellion was headed by men of a far higher standing; men, indeed, of the longest and most illustrious lineage. There, to be sure, was a display of unexampled splendour; a galaxy of rank, a noble assemblage of aristocratic insurgents and titled demagogues. There was the Prince de Condé, the Prince de Conti, the Prince de Marsillac, the Duke de Bouillon, the Duke de Beaufort, the Duke de Longueville, the Duke de Chevreuse, the Duke de Nemours, the Duke de Luynes, the Duke de Brissac, the Duke d'Elbœuf, the Duke de Candale, the Duke de la Tremouille, the Marquis de la Boulaye, the Marquis de Laigues, the Marquis de Noirmoutier, the Marquis de Vitry, the Marquis de Fosseuse, the Marquis de Sillery, the Marquis d'Estissac, the Marquis d'Hocquincourt, the Count de Rantzau, the Count de Montresor.
These were the leaders of the Fronde;404 and the mere announcement of their names indicate the difference between the French and English rebellions. And, in consequence of this difference,
‘Cornet Joyce, who was one of the agitators in the army, a tailor, a fellow who had two or three years before served in a very inferior employment in Mr. Hollis's house.’
Ludlow (
‘The fifth-monarchy, headed mainly by one Venner, a wine-cooper.’
‘The second to Venner was one Tuffnel a carpenter living in Gray's Inn Lane.’
‘He was stoaker in a brewhouse at Islington, and next a most poor chandler near Lion-Key, in Thames Street.’
Some of the clumsy eulogists of Cromwell wish to suppress the fact of his being a brewer; but that he really practised that useful trade is attested by a variety of evidence, and is distinctly stated by his own physician, Dr. Bates.
‘John Jones, at first a serving-man, then a colonel of the Long Parliament, … married the Protector's sister.’
‘Richard Deane, Esq., is said to have been a servant to one Button, a toyman in Ipswich, and to have himself been the son of a person in the same employment; … was appointed one of the commissioners of the navy with Popham and Blake, and in April (1649) he became an admiral and general at sea.’
‘Apprentice to one Vaughan a dry-salter.’
‘Bound apprentice to a woollen-draper.’
‘Altogether illiterate.’
‘Berkstead, who heretofore sold needles, bodkins, and thimbles, and would have run on an errand any where for a little money; but who now by Cromwell was preferred to the honourable charge of lieutenant of the Tower of London.’
‘Edward Harvy, late a poor silk-man, now colonel, and hath got the Bishop of London's house and manor of Fulham.’
Owen Rowe, ‘put to the trade of a silk-mercer, … went into the parliament army, and became a colonel.’
‘A silkman in London; … went into the army, and rose to the rank of colonel.’
He was ‘a woollen-draper at Dorchester,’ and was ‘one of the council of state in 1649 and 1651.’
‘A brewer in Chichester; … in 1650–1 he was appointed one of the council of state.’
John Berners, ‘supposed to have been originally a serving-man,’ was ‘one of the council of state in 1659,’
‘Holland the link-boy,’
‘A poor child bred upon charity.’
See
Ludlow who was well acquainted with Colonel Hewson, says that he ‘had been a shoemaker.’
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.’
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.’