Cromwell's Cat Page 4
CRUMB
“What’s the matter?”
TOMKINS
“Catriona says she’d love to hear it.” …Thank-you, Catriona. Thank-you very much. But the answer’s still ‘No’ – and it’s no good giving me that ‘pretty please’. That may work in Arbroath but not here in this book – and not now – maybe later. Maybe. No promises. Not often I refuse to talk about myself, but love songs are different – confidential – don’t work if we don’t keep them to ourselves. “So, Crumb, where were we? Oh yes, you and your son Harry Ireton and your middle way to settle the nation. How did you plan to do that?”
CRUMB
“With ‘The Heads of the Proposals’, which he drafted and wherein I and our friends in parliament – the Lords in particular – helped. We reasoned that if the Lord had given us the victory in the war but made peace impossible to find – all sides demanding something the others could not give – that could only be because…”
TOMKINS
“He wanted the war back. He preferred it – well, some humans do.”
CRUMB
“But not the Lord.”
TOMKINS
“He’d lost patience with you?”
CRUMB
“I hope not, though I agree we were about to try His patience – severely (as you’ll see)”
TOMKINS
“…erm… Catriona again: ‘At Putney?’. She’s there before us and, yes Catriona, you could be right. And I’m sure Crumb will tell you all about it in a moment” – Try to stop him – bit of a bee in his bonnet that one
CRUMB
“How does she know about Putney?”
TOMKINS
“…did that at school as well…heavens, seems they all did. Hands going up everywhere – St Albans, yes…erm Rodney in Cardiff…erm not Rodney…’Rhodri’? What kind of name’s that? …”
CRUMB
“It’s Welsh – as am I (a little bit – and from Cardiff also a little bit)…We have something in common, Rhodri.”
TOMKINS
“He says he knew that but nobody at school seemed interested.”
CRUMB
“Stick around, Rodders, they’ll change their minds. I promise you that.”
TOMKINS
“…moving on – Karen from Massachusetts.”
CRUMB
“Aha – the vast and howling wilderness of New England! Has word reached there?”
TOMKINS
“She says ‘And how – and not so much of the ‘wilderness’, it’s not quite like that any more. Thanks, Karen, you must tell us more, some other time – possibly when I get us back to Ely”
CRUMB
“So, what’s she heard about Putney?”
TOMKINS
“…great day for democracy, she says.”
CRUMB
“But a bad one for the Lord. As I said just now, that was when He started to lose patience with us, and I learned that settlement might be harder to find than I imagined.”
TOMKINS
“So, we’re back to God” Where Crumb always seems to end up “…and why He made peace or settlement so hard to find? Go on”
CRUMB
“…not that He didn’t want peace, we couldn’t think that…but it seemed He didn’t want it from those parties on those terms. To come to a right understanding all involved must settle for something less – that was our thinking. So our middle road was to craft a settlement that would allow the army to disband in confidence, the parliament to dissolve – but with future parliaments assured – so also with confidence, and the king to rule with consent – something for everyone.”
TOMKINS
“Hands.”
CRUMB
“What?”
TOMKINS
“They’ve stopped stroking…You can talk about settlement all you like but if you don’t stroke you won’t get it – not from this cat”
CRUMB
“Sorry.”
TOMKINS
“That’s more like it.”
CRUMB
“So ‘The Heads of the Proposals’, our middle road – offered: – regular parliaments every two years on a fairer franchise; arrears and indemnity for the soldiers, – and freedom to worship in the gathered churches according to their conscience; and for the king – restoration to his throne; bishops and the book of common prayer in the church also restored – his ‘sine…’ “
TOMKINS
“Sinnykwaynun – what he can’t do without.”
CRUMB
“…that’s it – re-established but not compulsory and so hopefully acceptable – and, while control of the army and navy was to rest with the parliament for the next ten years (their and our ‘sine’), thereafter it would lie jointly in King and parliament. As I said – something for everyone”
TOMKINS
“So, what went wrong?”
CRUMB
“Putney. Or so it seemed to me…But it may be Harry and I pitched our hopes too high. And although it was there that it blew up in our faces, the charge, it seems, had been laid long before…”
TOMKINS
“They’re all agog. Go on.”
CRUMB
“…The king thought if we were prepared to offer this much all he need do was wait for others – parliament of course, but the Scots as well – to offer more. He was persuaded we needed him more than he needed us. So no middle road for him. He was going nowhere for the moment And the soldiers, worked on by those outside the army with their own agenda…Yes, Catriona, the Levellers”
TOMKINS
“How did you know that was what she was thinking?”
CRUMB
“Because John Lilburne never lacked an audience – and he found one in the army. The soldiers came to fear we meant to sell them out, that all Harry & I sought was great places for ourselves. Nothing could be further from the truth but, they’d been so worked on by their ‘levelling’ friends and misleaders, nothing we said could disabuse them… ”
TOMKINS
What did I tell you?
CRUMB
“…All our actions – our attempt to refer matters to a committee and to point the way to a settlement with King, Lords and Commons that might gain acceptance in the country at large and not just the army – all appeared to them to confirm our purpose to betray them. So, no meeting of minds there, no middle road. Instead we stalled, squabbling on a side road in Putney and the world watching”
TOMKINS
“As it still is apparently… Karen has something… ‘The poorest he that is in England hath a life to lead as the greatest’ ”
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CRUMB
“Tom Rainborough* – I knew it! – always ready to rouse a rabble – of which Putney was a prime example”
TOMKINS
“Rhodri’s shaking his head – as is Karen, as are rather a lot”
CRUMB
“I’m sorry. I can only tell it as I saw it. After all that’s why we’re here. Doesn’t make it right but – honest and unvarnished. That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”
TOMKINS
“…yes, just that. Tell it as you saw it…that seems to be the general reaction…Back to Putney – Karen again: ’I do not find anything in the law of God that a lord shall choose twenty members of parliament and a gentleman but two and a poor man none’ …”
CRUMB
“Well, of course not. It’s not from the law of God. ‘Tis of human institution – and it’s wrong – and in the Proposals we went about to amend it – elections being to be distributed ‘according to some rule of equality or proportion’ – only, as Harry said distributed equally, but not necessarily to all – not to servants and those dependent on others, who might overawe them”
TOMKINS
“…Catriona’s coming back in – Rainborough again: ‘I would fain know what the soldier hath fought for all this while. He hath fought to enslave himself, to give power to men of riches, men of estates, to make him a perpetual slave’ …and Rhodri says we’ve not yet heard from Edward Sexby…”
CRUMB
“Oh Rodders, I wish I had never heard from or of him.”
TOMKINS
“What was it, Rodders?… ‘We find in the word of God ‘I would heal Babylon, but she would not be healed’. Are not we going about to set up that power, which God will destroy? ‘ That’s telling you, Crumb… And St Albans, what do you have for us? … Maximilian Petty… ”
CRUMB
“Another civilian ‘misleader’ – one of the worst.”
TOMKINS
“ ‘The word ‘anarchy’ is much talked of. For my part I cannot see how that can be derived from this paper…” That’s their new-minted ‘Agreement of the People’*, asserting their sovereignty and denying any role to king or lords “… The truth is, when I see God going about to throw down king and Lords and property, then I shall be contented’.”
CRUMB
“Need I say more: the world watching and the king’s mind made up and is it any wonder? No matter that Harry had said – speaking to the world as much as to Putney: The main thing that I speak for is because I would have an eye to property”. No-one was listening – not to him”
TOMKINS
“Nor to you when you said – go on, tell them what you said.”
CRUMB
“What – ‘That I was not wedded and glued to forms of government…?… They were but dross and dung in comparison of Christ?’… ‘That I thought it would be good to frame our discourse to where we were, what we were bound to do, what we were free to do?’ ”
TOMKINS
“That’s getting closer – live in the real world – but no – what you said at the end”
CRUMB
“I know – ‘that though God had a purpose to destroy the king or the lords, yet He could do it without necessitating us to do a thing which would bring dishonour to His name. What He would have us do, He did not desire we should step out of the way to do it.’ ”
TOMKINS
“That’s it.”
CRUMB
“It was our duty as Christians to consider consequences and to consider the way – and their ‘Agreement’ was no way. None. If the people all subscribed to it there might be some security therein; but that they were never going to do – and an ‘Agreement’ in the army is the army’s agreement. And leading to the forcible dissolution of the parliament – for that would follow, the end of the monarchy – and the possible execution of the king, which some were already calling for? That would indeed dishonour the Lord’s name. At that moment my mind was made up. I yet hoped to lead the country down the middle road – but no more debate, no more ‘misleaders’. The army must be brought back to discipline (which it was at Corkbush field a week later, though not without costing one mutineer his life and others their jobs). But I hoped that would send out a signal and persuade the king that if he would accept the Proposals we would bring the parliament too into line even if it meant purging them to do so.”
TOMKINS
“But?”
CRUMB
“But he’d seen all he wanted – any faith he had in the army was gone and with it the best chance in the best year for settling the nation. At last, too late, the soldiers got the promise of arrears and indemnity – remember at the start of the chapter, I said that would do the business? – and the London levelling misleaders lost their hold over them. But the bird had flown – I mean the king – escaping from Hampton to the Isle of Wight, where he made terms with the Scots. They agreed to supply him with an army – to restore him to the throne and condemn England to another war. And I forced into a mea culpa and apology to the soldiers for allowing ‘the glories of the world so to dazzle my eyes that I could not discern clearly the great works the Lord was doing’”
TOMKINS
If they believed that, they’d believe anything.
CRUMB
“Nobody did, but they needed me – and, I think, after this setback the Lord’s work needed me even more. So I said it; they accepted it – at least the soldiers did so – not the misleaders who were loud in their disbelief. And here we are, January 1647…”
TOMKINS
1648 in your terms. Our year ends in March.2
CRUMB
“…Karen, Rhodri, Catriona – all of you out there – here we are. The army’s of one mind again. The parliament’s just voted to make ‘No (more) addresses’ to the king and with war against the Scots now inevitable, I fear things will get a lot worse before they get better. And I had such high hopes. 1647 could have changed all our lives, but sadly it wasn’t to be. Now, if you’ll excuse me…”
TOMKINS
“Whew. That’s good, he’s gone. As will I in a mo but only after throwing in my two penn’orth. All that Crumb told you about Putney was true, as I saw it – but not the whole truth and I doubt you’ll find that anywhere – not at school, not from your history books – something they missed. As you know I was there and when I saw Crumb being given such a hard time I was not best pleased – to put it mildly. But how could I register my disapproval – after all I was only one cat? What could I do? Any ideas?…’Bite their ankles?’…No …’Scratch their eyes out?’…No, you’d certainly have heard of that…Any other suggestions?…No…Then I’ll tell you – and the funny thing is the evidence has been out there all along only no-one was looking. There was a woodcut on the front page of a tract published at the time (‘Exercitus Divisus – et Damnatus’, I think it was called, but I could be wrong), showing the officers all in debate, heated debate in Putney Church. You remember Crumb told you the world was watching – and if you look closely you’ll see one of the officers – second row back slightly right of centre – holding his nose. That’s Rainbo
rough. And if you look even more closely – very closely in fact – you should be able to make out a small face looking over his shoulder and grinning from ear to ear…Any idea, who that might be?…No? Couldn’t be Tomkins could it, smiling because he’d just made his presence felt…er smelt? Who else? Didn’t change the course of history, but it gave Rainborough a nasty moment and serve him right. And, just for your information, all that you hear about Cheshire cats grinning because they love cheese, or they’ve got the cream? Don’t believe a word of it. They’ve just dropped one – works for us cats every time – always makes us smile. See you in chapter four – if you don’t smell me first.