Lieutenant-ColonelGeorge Joyce (born 1618) was an officer andAgitator in the ParliamentaryNew Model Army during theEnglish Civil War.[1]
Between 2 and 5 June 1647, while the New Model Army was assembling for rendezvous at the behest of the recently formedArmy Council, Joyce seized KingCharles I fromParliament's custody atHoldenby House and took him toThomas Fairfax's headquarters onTriplo Heath (8 miles south ofCambridge),[2] a move that weakened Parliament's position and strengthened the Army's.[3][4]
Before joining the army, Joyce worked as atailor inLondon.[5][6] According tothe Earl of Clarendon in his work, 'The History of the Rebellion', Joyce at one point, "served in a very inferior Employment inMr. Holles's House."[5]
By 1644, Joyce had enlisted in theArmy of the Eastern Association and was serving inOliver Cromwell's cavalry regiment, nicknamed the 'Ironsides'.[7] By 1647, he was commissioned as acornet in Sir Thomas Fairfax's lifeguard.[8][4] Fairfax would later describe Joyce as an "Arch-Agitator."[9]
In 1647, after the conclusion of theFirst English Civil War, Parliament ordered the New Model Army to disband without full payment of their arrears.[8] In response to this threat, Joyce was tasked with leading a troop of 500 men to take control ofCharles I from where he was held in Parliamentary custody atHoldenby House.[10] The plan was possibly formulated by a council of elected representatives of the army, known as 'Agitators,'[4] however Joyce also seemingly received tacit approval from Cromwell after visiting his house onDrury Lane on Mary 31.[10] Cromwell later admitted authorising Joyce to secure the King at Holdenby, but denied giving him orders to move him.[6]
On June 2, Joyce successfully occupied Holdenby. He soon received word that Colonel Graves, who had been in command of the regiment that was previously guarding the King, had fled the house.[4] Fearful that Graves would return with a superior force and take the King back into Parliament's control, Joyce made the decision to move Charles toNewmarket, where the New Model Army had set up headquarters.[10]
Armed with a pistol, he entered the King's bedchamber in the middle of the night on June 3, and told him that he must leave with his troop the next morning.[9][10] As they were about to depart, Charles asked to know by what commission Joyce had been authorised to remove him. In reply, Joyce was said to have simply gestured to the 500 troopers who stood behind him.[11]
Fairfax denied any prior knowledge of Joyce's actions and wanted to have himcourt-martialled. However, Cromwell andHenry Ireton not only interceded on his behalf, but promised him promotion.[12][6] Eventually Fairfax would come to appreciate Joyce's decision.[4] Concerning his arrest of the King, Joyce reported in a letter:
"Lett the Agitators know once more wee have done nothing in our owne name, but what wee have done hath been in the name of the whole Army."[12]
In early 1648, Joyce was promoted tocaptain and madegovernor ofSouthsea Castle.[7]
According to an account bySir John Berkley, in 1648, Joyce expressed the view that the King should be brought to trial, so that the parliamentary side "might not bear the blame of the war."[13][7]
Joyce spoke at thearmy council debates atReading in 1648, and atWhitehall in 1649. At Whitehall, he argued that legislative power rested in the hands of the army rather than Parliament, and urged Fairfax and theGrandees "not to shift off that [power] which the Lord hath called you to."[14] He then claimed that through acting as the instruments of God's will, the council would be able to "remove mountains, [and do] such things as were never yet done by men on earth."[7][15]
Under theCommonwealth, Joyce became aspeculator in confiscatedcrown lands. By 1651, he ownedPortland Castle outright, after buying out his partnerEdward Sexby.[7]
On 17 June 1650, Joyce was appointed governor of theIsle of Portland, in the August he was given a commission aslieutenant-colonel in a regiment raised byColonel James Heane.[6] In October 1651, he accompanied Heane on an expedition to retakeJersey.[16] The expedition was successful; thus the last remainingRoyalist stronghold in theBritish Isles fell to Parliament.[17]
In 1653, Joyce opposed the dissolution of theRump parliament without a more “righteous and equal Government” to replace it.[18] He was arrested and briefly imprisoned after allegedly stating thatRobert Lockyer should have assassinated Cromwell atBishopsgate.[19] According to Joyce’s own account however, the main reason for his arrest was a property dispute withRichard Cromwell.[7]
In June 1660, Parliament issued a warrant for Joyce’s arrest afterWilliam Lily alleged he had been the masked executioner of Charles I. Consequently, Joyce fled toRotterdam with his wife and children.[7]
He remained a concern to the newly restored monarchy, and was closely monitored by state intelligence agencies.[20] In 1664 he was implicated, along with several otherrepublican radicals, in a plot to raise a rebel army.[21]
In 1670,Charles II sentSir William Temple to Rotterdam toextradite Joyce to England, however Dutch authorities allowed him to escape. It is unknown what happened to him after this.[6]