ply with the demands of the English parliament, and establish presbyterianism in England. In more than one letter he remonstrated with Charles with the greatest freedom, pointed out the insufficiency of the concessions which he offered, urged the necessity of immediate decision, and showed him the danger in which he stood (ib. pp. 386, 393). When all his arguments had failed, he opposed with equal vigour the decision of the Scots to surrender Charles to the English commissioners. 'As God shall have mercy upon my soul at the great day, I would choose rather to have my head struck off at the market cross of Edinburgh than give my consent to this vote' (ib. p. 396). In June 1647 Lanark was summoned by the king to London, and in company with the Earls of Loudon and Lauderdale arrived at Hampton Court in October (Clarendon State Papers, ii. 381 ). His first object now was to persuade the king to escape, and he suggested Berwick as a suitable place of refuge. After the king's flight to the Isle of Wight he pressed the parliament to permit the king to come to London for a personal treaty, and failing in this, publicly protested against the four bills tendered by parliament for the king's acceptance (ib. pp. 401-22). With the consent of his colleagues he undertook to engage Scotland to restore Charles to his throne, on condition that presbyterianism should be established in England, and signed a treaty to that effect at Carisbrooke on 26 Dec. 1647 (the full text of this treaty is for the first time printed in Gardiner, Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution, 1889, p. 259). Returning to Scotland, Lanark found the terms he had agreed upon far from sufficient to satisfy the Scotch clergy. 'Though an engagement upon the terms we parted on be impossible,' wrote Lanark, 'we shall either procure Scotland's undertaking for your Majesty's person or perish, let the hazard or opposition be what it can' (Burnet, p. 430). As a member of the 'committee of danger' and one of the six representative peers in the committee of estates he played a leading part in concerting the invasion, and penned some of the chief declarations issued by the Scots (Guthrie, p. 216; Baillie, pp. 37, 46). Lanark did not take part in the invasion himself, but when it became necessary to raise three regiments of horse against the covenanters of the west, he was appointed to command them (Guthrie, pp. 235, 237). Obliged to leave Edinburgh by the disaster of Preston and the advance of the Westland whigs, he joined Sir George Monro and the remains of Hamilton's army at Haddington. Very reluctantly he consented to treat with Argyll's party, and to lay down his arms (26 Sept. 1648 ; Burnet, pp. 467-77).
There was now no security for Lanark in Scotland. Believing that he was about to be arrested as an incendiary, and delivered up to the English army, he resolved to fly to Holland, first indignantly protesting against the breach of the late treaty (ib. p. 481; Rushworth, viii. 3288; Balfour, iii. 386). By the execution of his brother on 9 March 1649 Lanark succeeded to the title of Duke of Hamilton, and to some extent to the political position which his brother had occupied. He was present at the Hague when the commissioners of the Scotch parliament arrived to negotiate with Charles II. He was anxious, he wrote to Ormonde, that the king should, if possible, recover Scotland by fair means rather than by force, but could not advise him to 'an absolute compliance with all the extremities of their demands' (Carte, Original Letters, i. 243). However, when applied to for an opinion on the proposals of the Scots, he excused himself on the ground of his ignorance of the debates which had taken place on them, and of the state of the king's affairs (Cal. Clarendon State Papers, ii. 12). While at the Hague he was, by the intervention of Lady Newburgh, reconciled with Hyde, who describes him as moderate in his views, and ready for reconciliation even with Montrose (Rebellion, xii. 20-3). When the king at Breda treated a second time with the Scots in April 1650, Hamilton played a far more influential part in the negotiations. In January 1650 Charles had conferred upon him the order of the Garter, and on 7 April following he took his seat for the first time in the privy council (Report on the Hamilton Papers, 1887, p. 131 ; Hamilton Papers, Camden Society, 1880, p. 254). Persuaded that the stringency of the conditions imposed on the king would be speedily relaxed if he were personally in Scotland, he urged him to accept the terms offered. In return for this the Scotch commissioners allowed Hamilton to accompany the king to Scotland, but when he landed he was unable to make his peace with Argyll, and was obliged to retire to the Isle of Arran (Burnet, p. 538 ; Walker, Historical Discourses, p. 159). Charles afterwards told Burnet that when he wished to resent this usage of Hamilton as a breach of the treaty, Hamilton earnestly entreated him rather to use all possible means to gain Argyll absolutely to his cause, and to neglect his friends till a better season (Burnet, p. 538). The letters which Charles wrote to Hamilton in exile show that he was still trusted by the king, and that he was probably in the
