In addition to their
former demands, it was required that all capitulations granted by military
commanders during the war should be observed; that a time[a] should be
fixed for the termination of the present parliament; that the House of
Commons should be purged of every individual disqualified by preceding
ordinances;
[Footnote 1: Lords' Journals, 260, 263, 277. Holles says that these
petitions were drawn by Cromwell, and sent into the counties for
subscriptions.--Holles, 256.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1647. June 14.]
and, in particular, that eleven of its members, comprising Holles, Glyn,
Stapleton, Clotworthy, and Waller, the chief leaders of the Presbyterian
party, and members of the committee at Derby House, should be excluded,
till they had been tried by due course of law for the offence of
endeavouring to commit the army with the parliament. To give weight to
these demands, Fairfax, who seems to have acted as the mere organ of the
council of officers,[1] marched successively to St. Alban's, to Watford,
and to Uxbridge.[a] His approach revealed the weakness of his opponents,
and the cowardice, perhaps hypocrisy, of many, who foresaw the probable
issue of the contest, and deemed it not their interest to provoke by a
useless resistance the military chiefs, who might in a few hours be
their masters.
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