Marple and the Chartists 6

Marple

October 1842

Our school consists of a long narrow two storey stone building with one large classroom downstairs and the same upstairs.  We actually have just the one big room for five classes, so sometimes it is very noisy. I learned as much as I have because often when I was bored with the lessons for our standard, I listened into the lessons of the more advanced class. My teacher was Mrs. Earnhill, and I liked her very much. Her husband Josiah taught there too.

Shortly after I began my work at Marple Hall, I decided to ask Mrs. Earnhill if our class could learn more about the history of the Civil War, and in particular, the part that our town’s most famous man, John Bradshawe played in it. She said that although she thought it was a good idea, it didn’t really fit within the required lessons and she couldn’t see how she could make it fit. But then she suggested that I should do my own special project, including a report which I could then read out to the class which could count for both reading and writing on my assessments.I was very bold and asked Mrs. Isherwood if I could use her library for my research on Sundays, after church, of course.

For the most part the strikes had abated and most had gone back to work. Some were tempted by a raise in salary; some were frightened of losing their jobs, as it became clear that many employers were going to use the strike as an excuse to lose any extra employment they had.

 Mrs. Isherwood agreed to let me use her library on Sunday afternoons between two and four, when she would be busy entertaining guests elsewhere in the house. Their guests on the first Sunday I went there I knew full well, Reverend and Mrs. Fell. It was jokingly said that when the Vicar gave an exceptionally good sermon, he would be invited to Marple Hall for dinner. I was at church this morning and could not see anything remarkable about his sermon, but that not withstanding, there they were.

I spent my two hours wisely in the library, looking at anything I could find with a relevance to the Civil War, making copious notes.

I decided that for my presentation I would make a sort of play. John Bradshawe would be called to answer for his conduct by the members of our class, and each would have a question to ask him. I would play the part of John Bradshawe and supply them with the answers. I couldn’t wait to tell Mrs. Earnhill my plan to see how she would take to it.

Old Eliza told me about another of the ghosts of Marple Hall one day.

“Elizabeth Brabyns is featured in the magnificent oriel window in the drawing room, and also has her portrait on the stairs, sitting with her spaniel beside her. She married Nathaniel Bradshaw Isherwood who died before her. She was the daughter of Mr. Brabyn of Brabyn’s Hall. The story is that when she haunts, she is searching Marple Hall for her wedding ring. I don’t know why but she apparently didn’t like children, possibly because she was childless. Several of the children in the family have seen her but none of the grown ups.”

The library was just off the main hall and was similar in style to the rest of the house. Two long latticed windows had lozenges of stained glass (much like the ones in the church) and also had deep carved window seats and the canopies above were covered with heraldic arms.

I found a book of poems about Cheshire. Remembering how Old Eliza had told me the story of the ghost of Miss Bradshawe I was intrigued to read the poem about it. It was called The Young Cavalier and told the story of love and death at the time of the Civil wars

In sooth, he was a gay Cavalier

As e’er delighted maiden’s eye to see,

And jingled at each step his horse’s gear

As he pricked onward over hill and lea.

I hold my Sovereign’s will my highest law

To Heaven’s anointed will I hold my leal.

A soldier’s duty is but to obey,

Not his to judge what’s for his country’s weal.

 

Beth has had a reply from Johnny. She rushed to tell me during her free afternoon, meeting me as I returned from school. He says he is being held with the charge of causing bodily harm which is patently ridiculous. He says he was not involved in the violence, but they are making an example of him because he was leading the group - and therefore they felt he should take responsibility for the actions of the group. He says he is ill fed, cold, and very angry with whoever set him up in this situation.

I blanched at hearing that. I knew that I had a responsibility in his being where he was, and although I tried to justify over and over in my head what I had done, I couldn’t convince myself of it.

The next Saturday when I had an occasion to speak to Mrs. Isherwood on her own, I told her of Johnny’s letter and how upset I was by it. She said she would look into the matter. What could I do but hope that she would be able to do some good somehow.

I spent many of my Sunday afternoons over the next few weeks at Marple Hall’s Library. The servants were both amused and perhaps a little annoyed that I was being given this privilege of free access to the library when I was the lowliest of servants. But I didn’t let that deter me. My play began to take shape.

An Interview with John Bradshawe of Marple Hall.

First student (Tommy I think will do this): Judge Bradshawe, we all know your name, as you predicted, but we would like to know how and why these things happened. First of all, could you tell us what King Charles was like?

John: ¹Well first of all laddie, let me tell you what his father was like, King James I.

When I was finally allowed by my father to go to London to Gray's Inn in 1622 I found out what the real world was about while drinking, brawling and imbibing the gossip that hung like a pestilential fog around the government of Scotch Jimmy, his stuttering stinking Majesty, King James. Opinions were shaped by those years at Gray’s Inn, as Scotch Jimmy and his leeches misgoverned and plundered the state. Had he been succeeded by his son, Prince Henry, who predeceased him to all our woe, we must have been spared our civil wars.

Henry had the making of a good king - intelligent, scholarly, sociable but above all reasonable. When he died young he was succeeded as heir by the choleric dwarf, his brother Charles. Therein dwelt the seeds of misfortune and evil.

Charles Stuart came to the throne in 1625, and set about governing this realm in a manner more arbitrary and unjust than his father, when some had though it not possible. He called the Parliament only when he wanted money from it, and when as often as not he was refused he went ahead and raised illegal taxes, punishing barbarously those who protested and spending his ill-gotten revenues on aggrandising his private domains rather than on the legitimate business of state.

Second student (Mary, I think): How did you become a judge?

John: I wasn’t a judge for quite awhile. After my time in London I returned to the north and was made Mayor of Congleton in 1637. I thought that war between Charles and the people was inevitable and yet I knew I could not prevent it, but I determined to make provision so as to mitigate it. In Congleton I drew up ordinances to ensure that a citizens’ militia should be ready to defend the town when the time came, every householder furnishing himself with a sword, helmet and breastplate and exercising regularly those skills needed to make them effective.

Four years after my term as Mayor ended, the King declared war on the people and Parliament, having failed to crush their spirit by terror and tyranny. My brother, Henry became an officer in the Parliamentary army. We were independent minded men and though we disagreed with army and Parliament as to the future governance of England, we could have no truck with a king who broke his word at every turn.

I put myself at the service of the Parliament and made many a hazardous journey between Cheshire and London, appointed as both chief justice of Chester and North Wales and chairman of the committee for examining the financial affairs of delinquent and malignant Royalists.

In 1644 I was the counsel for Parliament in the prosecution of Irish rebels and shortly after this I was made Serjeant at Law, so was the natural choice for the Lord President of the Court at Charles’ trial.

Student 3 (William): How did Cromwell come into the picture, and what was he like?

John: In the early days of the war, our side did not do well and it was only with the rise of Oliver Cromwell, MP for Huntingdon, that our fortunes began to change. He bragged that he had read but two books, the Bible and a treatise on Swedish cavalry manoeuvres but in truth his head had little need of anything else, nor did England require more of him.

When Charles was soundly beaten by our forces, he surrendered himself to the Scottish army thinking to place himself at the head of it, so confusing our purpose and determination and prolonging the war to his own advantage and eventual triumph. But after the Battle of Edgehill in 1642 we had the battles of Marston Moor in 1644, and Naseby in June 1645, and finally his surrender in 1646 to the Scots who handed him over to us in 1647 and we clapped him up in Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight while we thought what to do with him.

He escaped once and with his friends set out on a second Civil War which finished with his recapture in August 1648. Then we were divided in purpose and determination. Many wanted no more than religious reform, content to see him trussed and tied into the shape of a constitutional King, doing their bidding. But Cromwell and the wiser independents, and I sided with him, knew the depths of the King’s treachery and the lengths to which he would go to sow dissent amongst us until he could break us altogether. For proof of this, we found treasonable correspondence during his imprisonment.

All those who would deal with the King were excluded from Parliament, and I was made the Parliament’s chief legal officer.

4^thstudent (Maybe Jane): But didn’t the King try to defend himself at all. Didn’t he offer a compromise?

John: The king had to be put on trial to answer for all the blood spilled in the wars and the outcome was predetermined - that he must die. Murder in secret is not fair beginning to the age of Truth and Justice. Had we sent the King into exile he would have stirred trouble for us in Europe and wreaked his legal vengeance upon all who had defied him. No he must die, and openly so that others might live in peace.

Who should try him? The Chief Justice refused, as owing his oath of appointment to Charles. Other senior judges likewise. It became plain that all expectations were settled on me. I refused at first, but the Parliament would not be gain said and when it was agreed the burden should be laid upon a commission of members of the House with myself at its head, I finally assented.

Student 5 ( George): Weren’t you frightened by doing that job?

John: Indeed I was very frightened, as I knew there would be King’s men who would think nothing of trying to assassinate me. Before the trial which began on the 10^thof January, 1649, I had a hat made for my defence against this possibility. It was presumed that gunfire at a distance might provide the greatest hazard, and as I would be sitting on a raised dais against the Hall’s window, short of bricking up that window, another defence must be found. So I had a Puritan tall hat made which was lined with iron bands and hoops like a cask that no musket shot might penetrate it.

Student 6 (Elizabeth): Tell us about the trial.

John: It was held in the Painted Chamber of Westminster Hall. Precautions were taken to protect the King’s life but the jury sat in full view of members of the public who were allowed in. Charles was charged by the High Court of Justice, of which I was Lord President, that he had traitorously and maliciously levied war against the present parliament and the people therein represented and that he had caused the second civil war of 1848 in which much innocent blood had been split, many families have been undone, the public treasury wasted and exhausted, trade destroyed and miserably decayed, vast expense to the nation incurred and many parts of the land spoiled, some of them even to desolation.

He laughed at that and refused plea or to answer the charge, thinking he was above the law, in his God given Kingship.

When the King interrupted these charges, banging with his cane, its silver head flew off, which all those present thought an omen that its owner should certainly lose his own.

And so the People of England impeached "the said Charles Stuart as a tyrant, traitor, murderer and a public and implacable enemy to the Commonwealth of England".

Although the conclusion of the Trial was always foregone, the King won himself few friends when I asked him what answer he should give to the charges, and his reply termed us an unlawful authority, comparing us with thieves and robbers by the highways.

In the earlier hours of the proceedings I took pains to treat him with courtesy. A brave man, who knows his course is fixed upon death, deserves respect. But his bravery became insolence as the days of the trial moved on and my forbearance was worn away.

When I reminded him that a King owed duties to the people who elected him by their acclamation on his coronation day, and had thus for a thousand years, he thought to tell me that he owed his crown to no man, but held it by the right of inheritance.How little he understood England.

And these sharp exchanges became more frequent and more acrimonious, until I was obliged to tell Charles Stuart to sit down and be silent. Who would have thought that the younger son of a Marple squire should find himself commanding a King in such a fashion?

On Thursday 25th January, the High Court met in closed session, and we resolved to curtail the mummer's play this trial had become, and decided upon the King's death.

All declared against him, and mine was the first signature on King Charles’ death warrant. One of my ushers Thomas Wogan signe it as well, using one of the Bradshawe seals. Cromwell was the 4^thto sign. It was decided that he would be beheaded.

Our law is that when sentence is passed, it is over. Two days elapsed before we met in open session again, and when Charles was once more brought before us, I donned my scarlet robes of Justice, (pictured above) and warned him that his refusal to plead or to recognise the Court amounted to a confession of guilt. At this juncture the prisoner, having refused to offer a defence or a plea for the whole of the trial, now demanded the right to present his case but he was not to be heard after the sentence.

This could not at such a stage be countenanced, and I told him I would brook no further delay, quoting Magna Carta to him. "To no-one will we refuse, to no-one will we sell, to no-one will we delay Justice." Then I ordered the Clerk of the Court to read the Sentence.

"This Court does now adjudge that he, Charles Stuart, is a tyrant, traitor, murderer and public enemy to the good people of this nation, shall be put to death by the severing of his head from his body. Guards take away your prisoner.”

I should record that the King received the Court's Judgement with calm and dignity, which perplexed many, myself included. He was then taken away under guard and we withdrew to consider the practicalities of the execution.