Hester gleamed at him and got into bed. ‘I did,’ she said. ‘But she’s a woman who knows her own mind. Give me credit for that at least.’

In the morning John wrote a note to John Lambert and sent it to him at Whitehall.

Your lordship,

I have heard that there is to be an uprising for Charles Stuart on 1 August. I know no more than this, and I wish with all my heart that I did not know this.

John Tradescant.

He received a reply brought by one of Lambert’s troopers, a man with a head like a cannon ball and a wide toothless grin.

Mr Tradescant,

If this is the first you have heard of the uprising then you are too much out of the way in Lambeth. They came to try to recruit me for it in June.

In any case, thank you for your loyalty to our great republic.

Lambert.

Lambert might joke about the royalist indiscretion but there was enough support for their cause for there to be uprisings all over the country. Every village, every town, was divided again between men who would fight for their liberties and men who would fight for their king. Some of them wanted a more lasting solution than a succession of argumentative parliaments. Some of them wanted a return to the old days of inefficient tax collection, and sports in the churchyard on Sunday. Some of them wanted the rich rewards that an incoming monarch must bring. Some of them hoped to get their old places back. Some were Roman Catholics, gambling on the widespread belief that the Stuarts were always Papists. One or two may even have believed that the libertine in the Hague was the best hope for the country. None of the fights came to more than a few broken windows and a couple of brawls except in the case of Sir George Booth at Chester.

The parliament, in grave fright at the news of an armed uprising, ordered five regiments to march to Cheshire led by Major General Lambert. Lambert left his botanical paintings, his rare garden, his orange garden, and his ornamental pheasants, kissed his wife goodbye and rode at the head of his restored regiment westwards.

He met Sir George Booth’s army at Winnington Bridge. Booth had one thousand men under the royal standard and Lambert had his full complement of four thousand. The outcome could not be in doubt. There was a brief, efficient battle which was notable for its economy and discipline. Only thirty men died and the rebellion was over. Lambert held his troops in tight order and there was no cruelty or looting or taking quarter. The royalist army were relieved of their weapons with careful courtesy and sent back to their homes.

Sir George Booth fled the battlefield disguised as a woman but was arrested when an inn keeper noticed that his ‘lady’ guest had called for a barber and a razor.