Читать книгу History of the Fylde of Lancashire онлайн

65 страница из 82

In 1651 the son of the unfortunate monarch, who had been proclaimed king by the Scotch under the title of Charles II., crossed the frontier and invaded England with a force of fourteen thousand men. That year the earl of Derby, Sir Thomas Tyldesley, and several other officers, sailed from the Isle of Man, whither they had retired, in obedience to the call of the young prince, and landed either on the Warren, at the mouth of the river Wyre, or at Skippool higher up the stream, with a regiment of two hundred and fifty infantry and sixty cavalry. Two of the vessels grounded during the operation of disembarking the horses, and in the heavy winds that ensued were reduced to total wrecks. As soon as the news of the earl of Derby’s arrival on the banks of the Wyre was rumoured abroad, “all the ships,” says the Perfect Diurnall, “were wafted out of the rivers of Liverpool, and set sail with a fair wind fore Wirewater, where the Frigots rid that brought the Lord Derby over with his company, to surprise them and prevent his Lordship escaping any way by water.” The earl marched through the Fylde, but the martial ardour of the inhabitants was not so readily excited as on former occasions, for the recollection of their abusive and piratical treatment by the troopers of Colonel Goring, in 1644, was still fresh in their minds, and effectually checked any feelings of enthusiasm at seeing the royal banners once again unfurled in their midst. A scattered few, however, there were who were willing to forget the misdeeds of the agents in their eagerness for the success of the cause, and with such meagre additions to his strength the earl hastened on. At Preston he raised six hundred horse, and shortly afterwards encountered the parliamentarians, under Colonel Lilburne, at Wigan-lane, where the royalists were defeated with great slaughter. Sir Thomas Tyldesley was slain, and the gallant earl escaped from the field only to be taken prisoner in Cheshire and suffer the fate of his late regal master, Charles I. Alexander Rigby, the grandson of the Alexander Rigby, of Layton, before mentioned, and only seventeen years of age, also took part in this eventful engagement, and twenty-eight years subsequently, when High Sheriff of the county of Lancaster, erected a monument to the memory of Major-General Sir Thomas Tyldesley near the spot where he fell. So universally esteemed was the valiant knight for his bravery and honourable conduct that the title of “Chevalier sans peur et sans reproche” was conferred upon him alike by friends and enemies. Charles II., after the overthrow of his army by Cromwell, adopted the disguise of a peasant, and having narrowly escaped detection by hiding himself amidst the foliage of an oak tree, fled at the first opportunity over to France. Cromwell was now installed in the chief seat of authority and held the reins of government under the style of Lord Protector.