This Day in History: 1648-11-20

On 20th November 1648, Oliver Cromwell wrote from his Knottingley quarters to Robert Jenner and John Ashe: ‘GENTLEMEN, – I received an order from the Governor of Nottingham, directed to him from you, To bring up Colonel Owen, or take bail for his coming up to make his composition, he having made an humble Petition to the Parliament for the same.
If I be not mistaken, The House of Commons did vote all those to be Traitors that did adhere to, or bring in, the Scots in their late Invading of this Kingdom under Duke Hamilton. …this being a more prodigious Treason than those that had been perfected before; because the former quarrel was that Englishmen might rule over one another; this to vassalize us to a foreign Nation………….But now, when you have such men in your hands, and it will cost you nothing to do justice; now after all this trouble and the hazard of a Second War,- for a little more money, all offences shall be pardoned!….’