Volume I Part 49 (1/2)
SIEGE OF LATHOM.
”Let me no longer live, she sayd, Than to my lord I true remain; My honour shall not be betray'd Until I see my love again.
”Oh! blame her not if she was glad When she her lord again had seen.
Thrice welcome home, my dear, she said,-- A long time absent thou hast been: The wars shall never more deprive Me of my lord whilst I'm alive.”
--_Mirrour for Married Women_.
No authentic drawing or representation of Lathom House, we believe, exists. The author has, however, had the temerity to present a restoration of this renowned edifice, as it appeared before the siege, and before ”the sequestrators under Cromwell, weary of the slow disposal of the building materials by sale, invited the peasants of the hundred of West Derby to take away the stones and timbers without any charge.”
The very numerous doc.u.ments to which he has had recourse were aided by measurements, and a visit to the spot, where he found that a tolerable accurate idea might be formed of the situation and extent of the walls and towers, together with the main entrance, and the ”great Eagle Tower.”
The accompanying view is taken from a hill above the valley or trench, where, it is said, the main army of the besiegers was encamped. It is called in the neighbourhood ”Cromwell's Trench,” and the engraving may serve to convey some idea of that magnificent and princely dwelling, which, as the old ballad expresses it, would hold ”two kinges, their traines and all.” Henry the Seventh, two years after his visit to Lathom, restored his palace at Richmond, the same authority tells us, ”like Lathom Hall in fas.h.i.+on.” The gate-house in the engraving is drawn from the description of a carving of the Stanley legend in Manchester Collegiate Church, executed in the time of James Stanley, Bishop of Ely.
From this it appears to have had two octagonal turrets on each side of an obtusely-pointed or circular archway with battlements, machicolated and pierced for cannon.
The Eagle Tower alone remained when part of the estate was transferred to John Lord Ashburnham, on his marriage, in 1714, with Henrietta, daughter of William, ninth earl of Derby. Lord Ashburnham sold it to a Furness, and he to Sir Thomas Bootle. Not a vestige now exists, and even the records of the family are destroyed. ”Golforden,” says Mr Heywood, in his interesting _Notes to a Journal of the Siege of Lathom,_ ”along whose banks knights and ladies have a thousand times made resort, hearkening to stories as varied as those of Boccaccio;--the maudlin well, where the pilgrim and the lazar devoutly cooled their parched lips;--the mewing-house,--the training round,--every appendage to antique baronial state,--all now are changed, and a modern mansion and a new possessor fill the place.”
This memorable siege, and the heroic defence by Lady Derby, though among the most prominent topics in the history of the county, supply but few materials which may not be found in records that already exist. Yet there are incidents connected with them which the historian has left unrecorded; occurrences, it might be, too trivial or too apocryphal for his pen. One of the main events in the following narrative, though not found amongst written and authenticated records, the author has listened to when a child, with a vigorous and greedy appet.i.te for wonder,--one of the earliest and most delightful exercises of the imagination.
We purpose to follow briefly the order of events as they appear in the several narratives to which we have had access, interweaving such traditionary matter as we have gathered in our researches, thereby interrupting and relieving the tediousness of this ”thrice-told tale.”
Lord Derby, from the usual unhappy fatality, or rather from the indecision and jealousies prevailing in his Majesty's councils, had been commanded to leave the realm, and proceed instantly to the Isle of Man, at the precise time when his presence here would have been the most serviceable, not only from his great zeal, activity, and loyalty to his sovereign, but by reason of the influence he possessed, and the example which his n.o.ble and valiant bearing had shown throughout the county. His house, children, and all other temporal concerns, he left to the care of his lady, first making provision, secretly, for their defence, supplying her with men, money, and ammunition, that she might not be unprepared in case of attack. His lords.h.i.+p's opinion of this disastrous and impolitic removal may be gathered from the following hasty expressions. After a perusal of the despatches, announcing the king's, or rather the queen's, pleasure that he should speedily repair to the Isle of Man, where an invasion was apprehended from the Scots,--speaking to the Lady Derby with more than ordinary quickness, he said, ”My heart, my enemies have now their will, having prevailed with his Majesty to order me to the Isle of Man, as a softer banishment from his presence and their malice.”
This valiant and high-born dame was daughter to Claude, Duke of Tremouille, and Charlotte Brabantin de Na.s.sau, daughter of William, Prince of Orange, and Charlotte de Bourbon, of the royal house of France. By this marriage the Earl of Derby was allied to the French kings, the Dukes of Anjou, the Kings of Naples and Sicily, the Kings of Spain, and many other of the sovereign princes of Europe. Her father was a staunch Huguenot, and a trusty follower of Henry IV. That she did not sully the renown acquired by so ill.u.s.trious a descent, the following narrative will abundantly prove.
It was at a special council of the Holy States,[43] held at Manchester on Sat.u.r.day the 24th of February 1644, that, after many former debates and consultations, the siege of Lathom was concluded upon. The parliament troops under Colonel Ashton of Middleton, Colonel Moore of Bank-Hall, and Colonel Rigby of Preston, on the same day began their march, proceeding by way of Bolton, Wigan, and Standish, under a pretence of going into Westmoreland, that the soldiers should not presently know of their destination.
Lathom, for magnificence and hospitality, was held in high reputation, a.s.suming, in these respects, the att.i.tude of a royal court in the northern parts of the kingdom; and the family were regarded with such veneration and esteem that the following harmless inversion was familiar ”as household words:”--”G.o.d save the Earl of Derby and the King;” the general feeling and opinion thereby apparent being love to their lord and loyalty to their prince.
On the 27th of February the enemy took up their quarters about a mile distant from the house. The next day Captain Markland was the bearer of a letter to her ladys.h.i.+p from Sir Thomas Fairfax, commander-in-chief of the parliamentary forces, and likewise an ordinance of parliament: the one requiring that she should surrender the house upon such honourable terms as he might propose; and the other setting forth and commending the great mercy they had manifested by thus offering to receive the Earl of Derby if he would submit himself. But she indignantly refused to surrender without the consent and commandment of her lord; and after many interviews, to which she a.s.sented only to gain time, and to complete the provisioning and fortifying of her little garrison, they began to find her answers too full of policy and procrastination, dangerous to the fidelity of their troops. In the end, seeing she was only amusing them by vain pretences, they sent the following as their final terms, by Colonel Morgan, commander of the engineers, who had been appointed by Sir Thomas Fairfax to conduct the siege:--
1st. ”That the Countess of Derby shall have the time she desires, and then liberty to transport her arms and goods to the Isle of Man, except the cannon, which shall continue there for the defence of the house.
2d. ”That her ladys.h.i.+p, by ten o'clock on the morrow, shall disband all her soldiers, except her menial servants, and receive an officer and forty parliament soldiers for her guard.”
Morgan is described as ”a litle man short and peremptory, who met with staidnes to coole his heat; and had the honor to carry backe this last answer--for her ladys.h.i.+pp could scrue them to noe more delayes, viz.--
”That she refused all their articles, and was truely happy they had refused hers, protesting shee had rather hazard her life than offer the like again;--
”That though a woman, and a stranger, divorced from her friends, and rob'd of her estate, she was ready to receive their utmost vyolence, trusting in G.o.d both for protection and deliverance.”
The next morning they discovered the enemy had been at work about a musket-shot from the house, in a sloping ground, where they appeared to be forming a breast-work and trench to protect the pioneers--mult.i.tudes of country people being every day forced into this laborious service.
The situation of Lathom deserves some notice, it being admirably calculated to resist any attack.
”It was encompa.s.sed by a strong wall, two yards thick; upon the walls were nine towers, flanking each other, and in every tower six pieces of ordnance, that played three one way and three another. Upon the tops of these towers were placed the best and choicest marksmen, who usually attended the Earl in his sports, as huntsmen, keepers, fowlers, and the like, who continually kept watch, with screwed guns and long fowling-pieces, to the great annoyance and loss of the enemy, especially of their commanders, who were frequently killed in the trenches. Without the wall was a moat eight yards wide and two yards deep; between the wall and the moat was a strong row of palisadoes. A high tower, called the Eagle Tower, stood in the midst, surmounting all the rest. The gate-house had a strong tower on each side, forming the entrance to the first court.”
The site of the house seemed to have been formed for a stronghold, or place of safety: thus described by Seacome:--