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Subject Area: Political Theory
Subject Area: History
Topic: The English Revolution

The Commissioners of the Army of Scotland to General Monck - Sir William Clarke, The Clarke Papers. Selections from the Papers of William Clarke, vol. 4 [1901]

Edition used:

The Clarke Papers. Selections from the Papers of William Clarke, Secretary to the Council of the Army, 1647-1649, and to General Monck and the Commanders of the Army in Scotland, 1651-1660, ed. C.H. Firth (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1901). 4 vols.

Part of: The Clarke Papers. Selections from the Papers of William Clarke, 4 vols.

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The Commissioners of the Army of Scotland to General Monck

May it please your Lordshipp,

i. f. 24b.Since our last of the 22nd instant this hath occurred yesterday: a letter was presented to the Lord Mayor and Common Councill, to which was your Lordshipp’s name and seale, and it was dated the 12th instant, and was presented by Collonel Markham of Ireland, and Collonel Atkins of Leith, the tennor of which letter was that your Lordshipp had sent them some former letters, which miscaryed, giving them an account of your purposes to maintaine the freedome of the Parliament lately interrupted, and setting forth the dangerouse consequences of slavery which would ensue to these nations if those who had a hand in interrupting the Parliament should take uppon them to repeale Acts of Parliament, as according to your information they had done, and that you did therefore invite them to give theire best assistance in the restoreing of the Parliament in this oppertunity, in which your Lordshipp had diverted a greate part of the forces towards the North.1 These (as neere as wee can remember) are the contents of the letter, at which the Lord Fleetwood and most of the officers heere take greate offence, and some have expressed themselves soe highly as to make it a breach of all that hath bin already done in order to an accomodation. Whether it bee your Lordshipp’s letter or noe wee know not; and whether it be fitt for your Lordshipp to declare it to bee soe or not soe wee must submitt to your owne prudence; onely this wee think convenient to let you know, that in all likelyhood those that presented it wilbee secured till they give an accompt how it came to theire hands. Two (as wee are informed) opposed the reading of the letter in Common Councill, but it was carried that it should bee read. And after it was read, some heighth of spiritt being observed in many of the Cittezens, the more prudentiall part thought fitt presently to dissolve the meeting, which accordingly was done. This afternoone the Lord Whitlock, Sir Henry Vane, Lord Warreston, Sir James Harrington, Mr. Salwey, Lt.-Gen. Ludlow, Col. Berry, two of the Commissioners of Ireland, and ourselves mett at the Horse Chamber in Whitehall, in pursuance of the 4th Article of the Agreement; but the Lord St. John, Mr. Scott, and Col. Thompson appeared not, and Sir Henry Vane and some others declared some unwillingnes to act in the busines of that Article untill your Lordshipp had ratified the Agreement; and it was by the same persons acknowledged that by the word Parliament, or supreame deligated authority of the Commonwealth mentioned in the 4th Article of the Agreement, it was not determined whether the Long Parliament or any other Parliament, soe that wee are not thereby concluded, but may still insist uppon restoreing of the late Parliament. And this wee hope will affoard your Lordshipp some measure of satisfaccion touching that perticuler. People are generally under greate discontents, but wee cannot perceive they will act anything considerable. Wee received nothing from your Lordshipp by the last post, but now wee daily waite the returne of your answer to the Agreement. Thus, with our humble duty to your Lordshipp, wee remaine,

Your Lordshipp’s most humble and faithfull servants,

Timo: Wilkes.

John Clobery.

R. Knight.

Charing Crosse,
24th November, 1659.

[1 ]Monck’s letter to the City, which is dated November 12, 1659, is amongst the Clarke MSS. (lii. 16b). It is printed in the Old Parliamentary History (xxii. 46), together with the answer of the City, which was not drawn up or sent till December 29 (cf. Sharpe, London and the Kingdom, ii. 357, 363). Both letters were printed at the time: A letter of November 12 from General Monck, directed and delivered to the Lord Mayor, etc., of London, inciting them, and all true Englishmen, to give their assistance for redemption of the almost lost Liberties of England; Two Letters, the one sent by the Lord Mayor, etc., to Gen. Monck; the other, his Excellency’s answer thereunto.

Monck’s letter, according to Whitelocke, ‘was not well relished’ by the prevailing party in the Common Council (Memorials, iv. 375; cf. Baker, p. 695). Accordingly the two gentlemen who delivered it were both committed to prison. A letter from Colonel Atkins to William Clarke about his imprisonment is printed in the Report on Mr. Leyborne-Popham’s MSS., p. 130. It was alleged that the letter was fictitious, on the ground that Monck made no reference to it in contemporaneous letters to his commissioners; and also that it was disavowed by the said commissioners, partly as inconsistent with the negotiations, and partly on account of the handwriting. ‘The body of the letter was not written in the hand of Mr. Clarke, his usual secretary, as also that the signing “George Monck” differed somewhat from his hand in those other letters, and that the seal appeared not so exact and clear as the other sealings’ (Mercurius Politicus, November 24-December 1, p. 912). The newspaper, however, made amends in a later number (December 22-29, p. 983), and, mentioning Colonel Markham, added that though Monck’s letter ‘was in those days censured, and upon some surmises represented as a fiction, time hath since manifested the contrary,’ and its delivery by Atkins and Markham ‘was a real and extraordinary service done for the Parliament in a doubtful time.’ Markham for this and other services was made one of the seven persons appointed by Parliament to command the army till the Parliamentary commissioners should come to London (December 26).