[Footnote 78: _Memoires of the Reigne of King Charles_, by Sir Philip Warwick. London: Ri. Chiswell, 1701.]
It was all very well for Newcastle to talk about his projects when he should be able to quit Yorkshire and leave it in a condition to defend itself; but very soon he was not in a position to do either.
On 10 October, Manchester, Fairfax, and Cromwell defeated a force which Newcastle had collected in Lincolnshire. According to Whitelock,[79] “The Earl of Manchester took in Lincoln upon surrender, and therein 2500 armes, 30 colours, 3 pieces of cannon”. The same authority states that: “The Lord Fairfax beat from about Hull part of the King’s,” i.e. Newcastle’s, “forces, took from them 9 pieces of cannon, of which one was a demy-culverin, one of those which they called ‘the Queen’s Gods,’ and 100 arms.... Colonel Cromwell routed 7 troops of the King’s horse in Lincolnshire under Colonel Hastings.” Newcastle was then obliged to raise the siege of Hull, much to the disappointment and alarm of the “nobility and gentlemen of Yorkshire”; and he marched back to York.
Of the state of the war after this event Clarendon says:[80] “Albeit the Marquis of Newcastle had been forced to rise as unfortunately from Hull, as the King had been from Gloucester, yet he had still a full power over Yorkshire, and a greater in Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire than the Parliament had”. The latter part of this statement is rather surprising when we consider the recent defeat of Newcastle’s forces in Lincolnshire.
[Footnote 80: _Hist._, vol. II, part I. book vii.]
In ending this chapter we will notice a letter from the Queen to Newcastle, written on 7 October, just before he raised the siege of Hull, in which the old matter of the Governorship of the Prince crops up again.[81]
[Footnote 81: _Letters of Henrietta Maria_, Mrs. Everett Green, p. 230.]
“There is one thing about which I want to be informed by you before doing it. The Marquis of Hertford desires to be made groom of the stole to the King. If that be, he must cease to be governor to Prince Charles, so that we must place some one else about Prince Charles, which I do not wish to do, without first knowing whether you wish to have it again.” Presently she says (if he does not wish for it again): “there are two other places and I desire to know which would be most agreeable to you, for I have nothing in my thoughts so much as to show you and all the world the esteem in which I hold you, therefore write frankly to me, as to a friend, as I am now doing to you, which you desire;—_chamberlain, or gentleman of the bedchamber_. If I had chosen to act ceremoniously, I should have had this written to you by another, that is all very well where there is no esteem, such I have for you; and as this is written with frankness, I request a reply of the same, and that you believe me, as I am, truly and constantly,