Series 1 > Letters and papers illustrating the relations between Charles the Second and Scotland in 1650

INTRODUCTION
XVII
cry was, however, raised against this manoeuvre, and Lothian
refused to go on these conditions. On August 7, George
Winram of Liberton was substituted for Lothian, but when
his instructions came to be drawn they proved so unbending
in the matter of the Covenant that Winram too refused to
stir.1 Argyll’s part in the matter can be readily conjectured.
He was too sensible to be blind to the folly of the attempt to
force the Solemn League and Covenant on Charles, but too
much bound by party ties to avow honestly what he really
thought. When at last, on October 11, Winram sailed from
Leith, it was less because Argyll had changed his mind than
because he had heard of Cromwell’s success at Drogheda, and
hoped that Charles would accept conditions to which he was
not likely to give way as long as he could hope for support
in Ireland. Winram passed through Holland, where he held
conferences with the English Presbyterian exiles, and carried
with him Colonel Titus, who was to back him in urging Charles
to make terms with the Presbyterians of both countries.2
The feeling of the Cavaliers in Jersey is depicted in Berkeley’s
letter to Hyde (No. n.), whilst Charles’s reluctance to conclude
anything till Seymour’s return, on December 27, with bad news
from Ireland, may be traced in correspondence printed in
Hoskins’ Charles II. in the Channel Islands, vol. ii. p. 348,
and in Seymour’s letter of March to Ormond (No. xxi.),
whilst notes of subsequent proceedings in Council will be found
in the Nicholas Papers (Camden Society), vol. i. p. 160. The
Council, it appears, were for a treaty with the Scots ‘on
honourable terms.’
What Charles at this time meant by ‘honourable terms’
is clear from the well-known letter which he addressed on
January 11, 1650, to the Committee of Estates. What he
1 Balfour, vol. iii. p. 417 ; Baillie, vol. iii. p. 90; Acts of the Parliaments of
Scotland, vol. vi. part ii. pp. 538, 739, 740.
2 See Love’s case in the State Trials, vol. v., and Hillier’s Narrative of
the attempted escapes of Charles /.
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