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LAMBERT, JOHN (1619-1694)
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See also:LAMBERT, See also: H. See also:Firth (Dict. Nat. Biog.), " that he was from the first regarded as an officer of exceptional capacity and specially selected for semi-See also:political employments."
When the See also:quarrel between the army and the parliament began, Lambert threw himself warmly into the army's cause. He assisted See also:Ireton in See also:drawing up the several addresses and remonstrances issued by the army, both men having had some experience in the law, and being " of a subtle and working See also:brain." Early in See also:August 1647 Lambert was sent by Fairfax as See also:major-general to take charge of the forces in the northern counties. His See also:wise and just managing of affairs in those parts is commended by See also:Whitelocke. He suppressed a See also:mutiny among his troops, kept strict discipline and hunted down the See also:moss-troopers who infested the moorland See also:country.
When the Scottish army under the See also:marquis of See also: When Cromwell was appointed to the command of the war in Scotland (See also:July 165o), Lambert went with him as major-general and second in command. He was wounded at See also:Mussel-See also:burgh, but returned to the front in time to take a conspicuous See also:share in the victory of See also:Dunbar. He himself defeated the " Protesters " or " Western Whigs " at Hamilton, on the 1st of December 165o. In July 1651 he was sent into See also:Fife to get in the See also:rear and flank of the Scottish army near See also:Falkirk, and force them to decisive See also:action by cutting off their supplies. This See also:mission, in the course of which Lambert won an important victory at See also:Inverkeithing, was executed with entire success, whereupon See also: At the same time Lambert was consulted by the See also:parliamentary leaders as to the possibility of dismissing Cromwell from his command, and on the 15th of March 1653 Cromwell refused to see him, speaking of him contemptuously as " bottom-less Lambert." On the loth of See also:April, however, Lambert accompanied Cromwell when he dismissed the council of See also:state, on the same See also:day as the forcible See also:expulsion of the parliament. Lambert now favoured the formation of a small executive council, to be followed by an elective parliament whose See also:powers should be limited by a written See also:instrument of government. Being at this time the ruling spirit in the council of state, and the idol of the army, there were some who looked on him as a possible See also:rival of Cromwell for the See also:chief executive See also:power, while the royalists for a See also:short time had hopes of his support. He was invited, with Cromwell, Harrison and See also:Desborough, to sit in the nominated parliament of 1653; and when the unpopularity of that See also:assembly increased, Cromwell See also:drew nearer to Lambert. In See also:November 1653 Lambert presided over a See also:meeting of officers, when the question of constitutional See also:settlement was discussed, and a proposal made for the forcible expulsion of the nominated parliament. On the 1st of December he urged Cromwell to assume the See also:title of king, which the latter refused. On the 12th the parliament resigned its powers into Cromwell's hands, and on the r3th Lambert obtained the consent of the officers to the Instrument of Government (q.v.), in the framing of which he had taken a leading part. He was one of the seven officers nominated to seats in the council created by the Instrument. In the See also:foreign policy of the See also:protectorate he was the most clamorous of those who called for See also:alliance with See also:Spain and war with See also:France in 1653, and he firmly withstood Cromwell's See also:design for an expedition to the West Indies. In the debates in parliament on the Instrument of Government in 1654 Lambert proposed that the office of See also:protector should be made hereditary, but was defeated by a See also:majority which included members of Cromwell's family. In the parliament of this year, and again in 1656, Lord Lambert, as he was now styled, sat as member for the West Riding. He was one of the major-generals appointed in August 1655 to command the See also:militia in the ten districts into which it was proposed to See also:divide England, and who were to be responsible for the See also:maintenance of See also:order and the administration of the law in their several districts. Lambert took a prominent part in the See also:committee of council which drew up instructions to the major-generals, and he was probably the originator, and certainly the organizer, of the See also:system of See also:police which these officers were to See also:control. See also:Gardiner conjectures that it was through divergence of See also:opinion between the protector and Lambert in connexion with these " instructions " that the estrangement between the two men began. At all events, although Lambert had himself at an earlier date requested Cromwell to take the royal dignity, when the proposal to declare See also:Oliver king was started in parliament (See also:February 1657) he at once declared strongly against it. A See also:hundred officers headed by See also:Fleetwood and Lambert waited on the protector, and begged him to put a stop to the proceedings. Lambert was not convinced by Cromwell's arguments, and their See also:complete estrangement, See also:personal as well as political, followed. On his refusal to take the See also:oath of See also:allegiance to the protector, Lambert was deprived of his commissions, receiving, however, a See also:pension of £2000 a year. He retired to his See also:garden at See also:Wimbledon, and appeared no more in public during Oliver Cromwell's lifetime; but shortly before his death Cromwell sought a reconciliation, and Lambert and his wife visited him at See also:Whitehall. When See also:Richard Cromwell was proclaimed protector his chief difficulty See also:lay with the army, over which he exercised no effective control. Lambert, though holding no military See also:commission, was the most popular of the old Cromwellian generals with the See also:rank and See also:file of the army, and it was very generally believed that he would instal himself in Oliver's seat of power. Richard's adherents tried to conciliate him, and the royalist leaders made overtures to him, even proposing that Charles II. should marry Lambert's daughter. Lambert at first gave a lukewarm support to Richard Cromwell, and took no part in the intrigues of the officers at Fleetwood's See also:residence, See also:Wallingford See also:House. He was a member of the parliament which met in January 1659, and when it was dissolved in April under compulsion of Fleetwood and Desborough, he was restored to his commands. He headed the deputation to See also:Lenthall in May inviting the return of the Rump, which led to the tame retirement of Richard Cromwell into obscurity; and he was appointed a member of the committee of safety and of the council of state. When the parliament, desirous of controlling the power of the army, withheld from Fleetwood the right of nominating officers, Lambert was named one of a council of seven charged with this See also:duty. The parliament's evident distrust of the soldiers caused much discontent in the army; while the entire See also:absence of real authority encouraged the royalists to make overt attempts to restore Charles II., the most serious of which, under Sir See also:George See also:Booth and the See also:earl of See also:Derby, was crushed by Lambert near See also:Chester on the 19th of August. He promoted a See also:petition from his army that Fleetwood might be made lord-general and himself major-general. The republican party in the House took offence. The See also:Commons (October 12th, 1659) cashiered Lambert and other officers, and retained Fleetwood as chief of a military council under the authority of the See also:speaker. On the next day Lambert caused the doors of the House to be shut and the members kept out. On the 26th a "committee of safety" was appointed, of which he was a member. He was also appointed major-general of all the forces in England and Scotland, Fleetwood being general. Lambert was now sent with a large force to meet See also: Monk marched to London unopposed. The " excluded " Presbyterian members were recalled. Lambert was sent to the See also:Tower (March 3rd, 166o), from which he escaped a See also:month later. He tried to rekindle the civil war in favour of the See also:Commonwealth, but was speedily recaptured and sent back to the Tower (April 24th). On the Restoration he was exempted from danger of See also:life by an address of both Houses to the king, but the next parliament (1662) charged him with high See also:treason. Thenceforward for the See also:rest of his life Lambert remained in custody in See also:Guernsey. He died in 1694. Lambert would have left a better name in See also:history if he had been a See also:cavalier. His genial, ardent and excitable nature, easily raised and easily depressed, was more akin to the royalist than to the puritan spirit. Vain and sometimes overbearing, as well as ambitious, he believed that Cromwell could not stand without him; and when Cromwell was dead, he imagined himself entitled and fitted to succeed him. Yet his ambition was less selfish than that of Monk. Lambert is accused of no See also:ill faith, no want of generosity, no See also:cold and calculating policy. As a soldier he was far more than a fighting general and possessed many of the qualities of a great general. He was, moreover, an able writer and speaker, and an accomplished negotiator and took pleasure in quiet and domestic pursuits. He learnt his love of gardening from Lord Fairfax, who was also his See also:master in the See also:art of war. He painted See also:flowers, besides cultivating them, and incurred the blame of Mrs See also:Hutchinson by " dressing his flowers in his garden and working at the See also:needle with his wife and his maids." He made no See also:special profession of See also:religion; but no imputation is See also:cast upon his moral See also:character by his detractors. It has been said that he became a See also:Roman See also:Catholic before his death. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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