Memoirs of the court of King Charles the First

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MEMOIRS

OF

THE COURT

KING CHARLES THE FIRST.

BY LUCY AIKIN.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR

LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMAN;
PATERNOSTER-ROW.

1833.

V.I

PRINTED BY RICHARD TAYLOR,
RKI> LION COURT, FLEET STREET.

PREFACE.

THE Memoirs of the Court of King James
which the present author published several
years ago, as a sequel to those of the Court
of Queen Elizabeth, were then designed by
herself to serve as an introduction to a simi-
lar work concerning the more memorable
reign of his son, should life and health be
lent her to complete so arduous an under-
taking. That work she now submits to the
candor of the public.

On the views which she has taken of her
subject, or the difficulties which she has en-
countered in the execution, it is not her pur-
pose here to expatiate. But gratitude forbids
her to preserve silence concerning those per-
sonal friends, or favorers of her pursuits,

a2

IV

to whose kindness she has been indebted for
the loan of valuable manuscripts or rare pub-
lications., for active researches into original
documents, or for learned information on the
more difficult or technical points of inquiry
connected with her subject.

She desires in an especial manner to record
her obligations and express her acknowledge-
ments to the marquis of Lansdowne; to vis-
count Eliot; to Benjamin H. Bright, Esq.;
to the Messrs. Merivale, father and son ; to
David Jardine, to Samuel Duckworth, and
Thomas Coltman, Esquires, and to the rev.
W. Shepherd ; to whose united contributions
she is conscious that her work will owe a
large share of whatever merit or interest it
may acquire, with the well informed reader,
as a source of novel information or correct
statement respecting the characters and events
of the most remarkable period in the annals
of Great Britain.

CONTENTS.

VOL. I.

CHAPTER I.

1600—1625.

Birth of Charles — His weakly infancy — Deformity of his
legs — Impediment in his utterance. — Is brought to En-
gland and created duke of York. — His early faults of
temper. — Good qualities — Acquirements — Taste for ob-
jects of art. — Is created Prince of Wales. — Attended by
Scotchmen. — Hjsj^ligious instruction. — Dr. Hakewill —
Treachery of the prince towards him. — Attends his mo-
ther's funeral and his father's. — His unpleasant position
at his father's court. — Buckingham's insolence. — He con-
ciliates the prince — Attends him to Madrid — Treatment
and behaviour of the prince there — Jealousy of the king
of Spain. — Return of the prince and duke. — False state-
ments of Buckingham vouched by the prince, who shares
in his measures against the earl of Middlesex and the earl
of Bristol. — Anecdote of his pertinacity. — His professions
against popery. — Marriage treaty with France. — Holland
sent ambassador. — Intrigues of Mary of Medicis. — Cha-
racter of Holland — His letters to the prince. — Earl of
Carlisle joined in commission. — Treaty ill-conducted. —

Page.

Marriage articles

VI

CHAPTER II.

1625.

Page.

State of England at the accession of Charles. — Voyages of
discovery and extension of commerce. — Colonies founded
in North America. — Commerce ill protected by king
James. — Englishmen made captive by Barbary corsairs.
— Dunkirk pirates. — Low state of the navy. — Rapid pro-
gress of luxury. — Court entertainments. — Country hospi-
tality.— Luxury in furniture. — Tapestry. — Paintings. —
Rich materials of furniture. — Inigo Jones's architecture.
— Taste for sculpture revived. — Collections of the earl of
Arundel and duke of Buckingham. — Researches of sir
Thomas Roe for antiques at Constantinople. — State of
literature. — Translations. — Books of voyages and travels.
— Hackluyt. — Purchas's Pilgrimage. — Sandys's Travels.
— History. — Camden. — Speed. — Daniel.— Biography. —
Lord Herbert of Cherbury. — Bacon. — Antiquities. — Spel-
man. — Cotton. — Selden and Usher. — Theology. — Donne.
— Hall. — Bishop Andrews. — State of Poetry. — Donne. —
Waller. — Suckling. — Carew. — Ben Jonson. — His criti-
cisms on contemporary poets. — Massinger. — Shirley. —
Decline of the drama. — Extended plans of education. —
Peacham's Complete Gentleman. • — Lord Herbert's plan
of 'study. — Female accomplishments. — Sir M. Hale on
education of daughters — of sons. — Condition of younger
brothers. — Art of Thriving. — Disuse of tilts and tourna-
ments.— Duelling. — Effects of wearing weapons. — Ladies
cudgel their maids. — Court diversions. — Strict separation
of ranks, broken down by king James. — Effects of in-
creasing the number of peers. — Concluding remarks . . 26

CHAPTER III.

1625.

Expectation of change of measures disappointed. — Bucking-
ham retains his power. — Lord keeper Williams disgraced

Vll

Page.

by his influence. — Marriage treaty hastened. — Parliament
summoned. — Funeral of king James preceded by his son's
marriage.- — Embassy of Buckingham to conduct the bride.
— His splendid appearance and intrigue with the French
queen. — Letter of Mary de' Medici to her daughter. —
Meeting of the king and queen. — Description and anec-
dotes of her. — Plague in London. — Meeting of Parliament.
— King's speech '^enianding supply. — Comnaons-though
dissatisfied grapt-two subsidies. — King's ungracious car-
riage.— Fears of popery. — Montague's book censured in
parliament. — King's interference. — Parliament adjourned
to Oxford. — Ships lent to^the king of France. — Parlia-
ment Jncensed. — King ^^demands supply. — Buckingham
attacked by the commons. — Parliament dissolved. — Ac-
counts of the plague. — Loan imposed. — Cadiz expedition.
— Embassy of Buckingham to the Hague. — Earl Holland
dissuades him from visiting France. — Williams deprived
of the seals and banished to his diocese. — King in want
of money. — Writs for a new parliament 63

CHAPTER IV.

1625. 1626.

Disagreement of king and queen. — French attendants. —
Letter of king to Buckingham. — Intrigues of Blainville —
of English catholics.— Order to disarm them. — Letter of
court news. — Wentworth and others compelled to serve as
sheriffs. — Coronation. — Williams forbidden to attend. —
Laud directs the ceremony. — Particulars of it. — Queen
not crowned nor ambassadors present. — French ambas-
sador in disfavor. — Parliament opened. — Servile speeches
of the lord keeper and the speaker. — Grievances consi-
dered.— Charges against Buckingham. — Interposition of
the peers. — King presses for supplies. — Disputes between
king and commons. — Adjournment. — Measures of Buck-
ingham against peers. — Oppressive treatment of Williams
— of earl of Bristol. — Countercharges of Buckingham and

V11J

Page.

of Bristol who is protected by parliament. — Committal
of earl of Arundel. — House of lords obtains his liberation.
— Impeachment of Buckingham. — Members sent to the
Tower. — Buckingham chancellor of Cambridge. — King
demands supply. — Commons complain respecting recu-
sants,— Require the removal of Buckingham. — Dissolu-
tion of parliament. — Remonstrance of the house of com-
mons,— King's proclamation against it 98

CHAPTER V.

1626—1628.

Arbitrary measures. — Illegal levy of tonnage and poundage.
— Loan. — Benevolence. — Composition with recusants. —
Conduct of Charles as head of the church. — Influence of
Laud. — Favor shown to Arminians. — Opposite notions of
Abbot and Laud respecting the church of Rome. — Go-
vernment unpopular in church and state. — Dismissal of
the queen's French servants. — Embassy of Bassompierre.
— Buckingham the cause of war with France. — Bassom-
pierre's description of the English court. — A loan imposed
by the council. — Gentlemen imprisoned for refusing to
contribute. — Sir Thomas Wentworth. — Chief-justice Crew
displaced. — Abbot commanded to his country seat. — Sib-
thorpe's sermon. — Catholics contribute to the loan. — To-
leration of them in Ireland opposed by the bishops. —
Loan-refusers denied their habeas corpus. — Expedition to
the Isle of Rhe. — Affectionate letters of Charles to Buck-
ingham.— Necessity of calling a parliament. — Liberation
of state -prisoners. — Writs sent to Williams, Abbot and
the earl of Bristol, but no change in the king's designs. —
Commission of excise. — Troops and arms prepared in the
Low Countries. ... ,146

IX

CHAPTER VI.

1628.

Parliament opened. — Haughty speech of the king. — Griev-
ances opened by Seymour, Philips and others. — Vain
efforts of secretary Cook to carry the king's measures. —
Petition of right put in preparation. — Judges called in
question for denial of habeas corpus. — Petition against re-
cusants assented to. — Supplies deferred, grievances pro-
ceeded with. — Offensive interposition of Buckingham. —
Conference between the two houses on liberty of persons.
— Billeting of soldiers and martial law debated. — Attempts
of the king to baffle the petition of right. — Amendment
of the peers rejected. — The bill passes both houses. —
Complaint of the commons against Manwaring. — King's
evasive answer to the petition of right. — Remarks. — In-
dignation of the commons. — Dissolution threatened. —
Pathetic scene in the house of commons. — King passes the
bill. — Commons vote the subsidies. — Complaints against
Buckingham. — Dr. Lamb beaten to death. — Remonstrance
prepared by the commons. — Parliament prorogued in
anger

189

CHAPTER VII.

1628. 1629.

Expedition prepared for the relief of La Rochelle. — The
duke of Buckingham assassinated by Felton. — Particulars.
— Treatment of Felton. — The judges declare against put-
ting him to the rack. — His death. — Character of Buck-
ingham.— Behaviour of the king respecting him. — His
funeral. — His expenses compared with those of Dudley
earl of Leicester. — Failure of the expedition and fall of
La Rochelle. — Williams restored to favor by Buckingham
but again expelled by Laud. — Wentworth gained over and
made a peer. — Laud bishop of London. — Preferment of
Montague and Manwaring. — Abbot conciliated. — King

X

Page.

resolves to take a high tone with parliament. — Its open-
ing.— Fraud of the king respecting the petition of right. —
Case of Mr. Rolls. — Disagreement of king and commons
on tonnage and poundage. — Vow of the commons to re-
sist ecclesiastical oppressions and encroachments. — Com-
plaints of the merchants. — King defends the acts of the
officers of customs. — Report of religion. — Oliver Crom-
well.— Licensing of books. — Eliot attacks ministers and
bishops. — The house commanded to adjourn. — Speaker
held in the chair and a remonstrance voted. — Members
committed. — Parliament dissolved. — Proceedings against
the imprisoned members, and conduct of judges. — Court
revenge upon the merchants. — Various encroachments of
arbitrary courts. — Conduct of imprisoned members. —
Account and letters of sir J. Eliot 221

CHAPTER VIII.

1629. 1630.

Principal members of administration. — Lord treasurer-
Lord keeper. — Earl of Manchester. — Marquis of Hamil-
ton.— Laud. — Wentworth. — Peace witli France. — Treaty
with Spain. — Rubens in England. — Banqueting-house. —
Birth of a prince of Wales. — Interference of the French
court. — Feelings of the puritans. — Death of the earl of
Pembroke. — Laud chancellor of Oxford. — -Marquis of
Hamilton raises troops to join Gustavus-Adolphus. —
Conduct of his agents. — His ill success and return. . . 274

CHAPTER IX.

1630 — 1632.

Court intrigues. — Growing influence of the queen. — She
founds a capuchin church, — Acts in a pastoral. — Prynn's
Histriomastix. — Leighton sentenced for libel. — Instruc-
tions to the bishops. — Domestic worship impeded. — Laud's
consecration of churches. — Society for buying impropria-

XI

tions condemned. — Re-edification of St. Paul's commenced.
— Illegal and oppressive modes of raising money for this
purpose. — Results of the undertaking. — Laud speaks in
public against a married clergy, — Seems to retract, — Ce-
lebrates marriage with new rites, — Obtains offices for
Windebank and Juxon, — Seizes upon church-patronage,
— Disposes of bishoprics at his pleasure, — Lays a fine
upon printers of the bible, — Causes Sherfield to be pu-
nished for destroying an idolatrous picture. — Remarks. —
Notice of sir Robert Cotton. — Proposed visit of Mary de'
Medici. — Queen of Bohemia declines visiting England.

Page.

300

CHAPTER X.

1633. 1634.

King's progress to Scotland to be crowned, — is entertained
by the earl of Newcastle, — Account of him, — Splendor
of the progress, — Expense to Scotch nobility, — State of
Scotch church, and king's measures and designs respect-
ing it. — Coronation. — Conduct of Charles towards Scotch
parliament, — He becomes unpopular, and why. — Edin-
burgh made a bishop's see. — Laud a privy-councillor for
Scotland. — English liturgy appointed to be used in Holy-
rood chapel. — King's return to England. — Death of arch-
bishop Abbot. — Laud succeeds him, — is offered to be a
cardinal. — Reflections. — State assumed by Laud, who re-
ceives the title of Holiness from the university of Oxford.
— Conduct of Wentworth as president of the North. —
Cases of Bellasis and sir D. Foulis. — Wentworth ap-
pointed lord-deputy of Ireland. — Troubled state of that
country. — Measures against the puritans. — Communion
tables turned into altars. — Book of sports. — Plays per-
formed at court. — Inns of Court masque. — Notice and
death of Noy. — Death and character of sir Edward Coke.
— Seizure of his papers 334

Xll

CHAPTER XI.

1634. 1635.

Page.

Expenses of government supplied by illegal and oppressive
means. — Imposition of ship-money. — Designs of the king
in equipping a fleet discussed. — Increasing influence of
Laud, — his patronage of the clergy. — Instances of their
growing power and pretensions. — Death of lord-treasurer
Portland, — his corruption sanctioned by the king. — Laud
chief commissioner of the treasury. — Juxon made lord-
treasurer. — Motives of Laud in this appointment. — Cha-
racter of Juxon. — French and Dutch refugee churches
persecuted by Laud for not using the English liturgy. —
Usurpations of Laud over the church of Ireland favored
by Wentworth. — Vigorous measures of Wentworth for
recovery of church property there. — Irish church articles
drawn by archbishop Usher and approved by king James
abrogated at the instigation of Laud, and English articles
substituted. — Laud gains the queen's favor by obtaining
admission for a papal envoy. — Arrival of Panzani. —
Scheme for uniting the Romish and Anglican churches, —
its failure and the results. — Hostility of Laud to the fo-
reign protestant churches. — Arrival of the prince Palatine. 365

CHAPTER XII.

1634. 1635.

Anecdotes and various notices from the Straflfbrd Letters. —
Proclamation for regulating prices of provisions, — for the
restraining of building in London. — Fines on new build-
ings.— Extortion practised on vintners. — Sea-coal ex-
ported.— Hackney coaches. — Sedan chairs. — Death of
Carew ; — his character and writings. — Installation of the
Garter, and rivalry between Scotch and English. — Trait
of the earl of Arundel. — Star-chamber fine on lord Mor-
ley. — Love story. — Account of sir Kenelm Digby, — letter
of Laud to him. — Percy family, — earl of Northumberland,

Xlll

Page.

lady Carlisle and Henry Percy. — Enmity of Laud against
bishop Williams, who is prosecuted and heavily sentenced
in the star-chamber. — Sentence against Osbaldeston, who
escapes. — Proceedings against lady Purbeck and sir R.
Howard. — Irish affairs. — Grants to English courtiers, —
letter of king to Wentworth respecting them. — Convoca-
tion of Irish parliament advised by Wentworth. — Feelings
of king regarding it ; — successful management of it by
Wentworth, — his petition for honors, — king's reply. —
Irish parliament dissolved 400

CHAPTER XIII.

1635. 1636.

Forest laws revived and penalties exacted. — Resumption of
crown grants in Ireland. — Several counties of Connaught
surrender to the king. — Resistance to his claims in Gal-
way, and violent measures of Wentworth in consequence.
— Oppression of earl Clanrickard, — his death. — Reflec-
tions.— Laud's advice to Wentworth. — Case of lord
Mountnorris. — King takes a bribe from Wentworth. —
Wentworth received at court and heard in council with
great favor, but refused an earldom. — King extorts a
great fine from the city of London for their Irish lands,
then seizes them. — Expedition against Sallee. — King
takes the judges' opinion on ship-money. — Proceedings
against such as resist this tax. — Account of Hampden. —
Decision of his case postponed. — Sketch of the progress
of emigration and of settlement in New England. — Ac-
count of sir H. Vane, junior. — Laud's claim of the visita-
tion of both universities awarded him by the king, — he
compiles statutes for Oxford, — entertains the king and
queen there, — founds Arabic professorship 445

XIV

CHAPTER XIV.

1637.

Page.
Failure of negotiations with the Emperor. — Charles threatens

war against Spain. — Wentworth dissuades it. — Unfriendly
conduct of France. — Bombardment of Sallee and peace
with the emperor of Morocco. — 111 success of the English
fleet against the Dutch. — Proceedings against Prynn, Bur-
ton, and Bastwick. — Exasperation against Laud in con-
sequence.— Decree of star-chamber against unlicensed
printing. — Punishment of JohnLilburn; — account of him.
— Quarrel of Laud with Archy the king's fool. — King and
Laud jealous of conversions to popery. — Account of Wal-
ter Montague. — Anecdotes of Toby Matthew. — Account
of Chillingworth, and his writings. — Milton sets out on his
travels, — returns from Italy confirmed in protestantism.
— Judgement against Hampden in the matter of ship-
money. — 111 effects of it on the king's affairs 484

CHAPTER XV.

1637. 1638.

Scotch affairs. — Arbitrary designs of the king. — Trial of
lord Balmerino. — Advancement of bishops to civil power.
— Canons and service-book compiled for the use of Scot-
land more Romish than those of England. — Canons sent
down to Scotland. — Spirit of resistance among the Scot-
tish clergy. — Lay members of the council temporize ;
bishops urge on the reading of the service-book. — Tu-
mult in Edinburgh. — King deceived as to its causes per-
sists in his measures. — Tumult at Glasgow. — Petitions
from all ranks against the service-book — Proclamations
for their suppression. — Letter of lord Traquair relating a
fresh tumult in Edinburgh. — Difficult situation of Tra-
quair.— Growing strength of the petitioners. — Obstinacy
of the king. — Institution of the four tables, — Proclama-

XV

tion declaring the petitioners traitors disconcerted by pro-
tests.— Alarm of Traquair. — Solemn league and covenant.
— Enthusiasm of the people. — They demand a parliament.
— King sends marquis Hamilton to Scotland as his com-
missioner.— General state of affairs. — King proposes to
exact recusants' fines. — Correspondence of Wentworth
and Laud on the subject. — Slow progress of English co-
lonies in Ireland. — Alarm caused to Wentworth by the
Scotch in Ulster. — Letter of earl of Northumberland. —
Wentworth's judgement on Scotch affairs. — Account of
earl of Antrim. — Wentworth's ill opinion of him. — In-
triguing and assuming spirit of the queen. — Tyrannical
conduct of Wentworth towards lord chancellor Loftus. —
Arrival of Mary de' Medici. — King enlarges Richmon^
park. — Earl of Newcastle appointed governor to the
prince of Wales 513

This day are Published,

MEMOIRS of the COURT of KING JAMES the FIRST. By

LUCY AIKIN. In 2 Vols. 8vo. with a Portrait, the 3rd Edit, price I/. 4.9.
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ENGLISH LESSON BOOK; for the Junior Classes. By LUCY
AIKIN. 2s. 6d. half-bound.

MEMOIRS

OF THE

COURT OF KING CHARLES I.

CHAPTER I.

1600 to 1625.

Birth of Charles — His weakly infancy — Deformity of his legs —
Impediment in his utterance. — Is brought to England and created
duke of York. — His early faults of temper. — Good qualities —
Acquirements — Taste for objects of art. — Is created Prince of
Wales. — Attended by Scotchmen. — His religious instruction. —
Dr. Hakewill — Treachery of the prince towards him. — Attends
his mother's funeral and his father's. — His unpleasant position
at his father's court — Buckingham's insolence. — He conciliates
the prince — Attends him to Madrid — Treatment and behaviour of
the prince there — Jealousy of the king of Spain. — Return of the
prince and duke. — False statements of Buckingham vouched by the
prince, who shares in his measures against the earl of Middlesex
and the earl of Bristol. — Anecdote of his pertinacity. — His pro-
fessions against popery . — Marriage treaty with France. — Holland
sent ambassador. — Intrigues of Mary of Medicis. — Character
of Holland — His letters to the prince. — Earl of Carlisle joined
in commission. — Treaty ill-conducted. — Marriage articles.

CHARLES STUART second son of James VI. of
Scotland by Anne of Denmark his queen, was born
at tbe royal castle of Dumfermline in Scotland on

-/VOL. I. B

November 9, 1600. On account of the weakness
of the infant, it was judged expedient to hasten his
baptism; the prince of Rohan, the chief of the
French hugonots, and his brother Soubise, kinsmen
of the house of Guise, were his godfathers. At three
years of age, he was committed to the care of the
lady of sir George Gary, afterwards created earl
of Monmouth, who mentions, in his memoirs of
himself, that the young prince was not yet able
to stand, owing to weakness and distortion of the
legs, an infirmity which he inherited from his father.
Under the attentive and judicious management of
lady Gary, the weakly constitution of the young
prince gradually improved ; it became firm and
vigorous when he had attained to manhood, and he
is said to have exhibited considerable activity in his
sports and exercises; his stature however remained
below the middle size, and the deformity of his
childhood was never entirely corrected a. Another
natural defect under which he laboured proved a
more serious inconvenience ; this was an impediment
in utterance, which through life was apt to manifest
itself whenever he became earnest in discourse,
and which had doubtless a great share in producing
the taciturnity for which he was remarkable.

On completing his fourth year, Charles was at
length brought to England, where the other mem-
bers of the royal family had been for many months

a In the fine equestrian portrait by Vandyke now at Hampton
court, a curvature at the knee is distinctly visible.

established, and on Twelfth-day 1 605 he was created
a knight of the Bath with twelve companions, and
afterwards solemnly invested with the dignity of
duke of York.

We search in vain among contemporary letters
and memoirs for early anecdotes of this prince. Du-
ring the life of that spirited and somewhat boisterous
youth his elder brother, who took pleasure in turn-
ing into ridicule his sedentary and studious habits,
he was of course a very subordinate object of public
interest ; even after the death of Henry had rendered
him immediate heir to the British crowns, he appears
to have lived much in seclusion; and when seen, his
manners and deportment were not greatly adapted
either to flatter the hopes or win upon the affections
of the people.

" His childhood," says his encomiastic biographer
Perinchief , c ' was blemished with a supposed obsti-
nacy, for the weakness of his body inclining him to
retirements, and the imperfection of his speech
rendering discourse tedious and unpleasant, he was
suspected to be somewhat perverse." " He was
noted," says another writer, "to be very wilful and
obstinate by queen Anne his mother and some others

who were about him The old Scotish lady

his nurse was used to affirm so much, and that he
was of a very evil nature even in his infancy; and
the lady who after took charge of him cannot deny
but that he was beyond measure wilful and un-
thankful^

a Lilly's Observations, p. 2.
B 2

As he advanced in age, these faults of temper,
though never eradicated, were however checked in
their growth by the expansion of his faculties, and
other qualities began at the same time to unfold
themselves which were observed with approbation
and respect. His reserve acted as a preservative
against any notorious indulgence in the common
excesses of youth; he was moderate in his expenses,
prudent in his conduct, regular at his devotions ;
his industry was considerable, and his pursuits for
the most part respectable or elegant. King James,
who exulted in the title of the most learned prince
in Christendom, was anxious that his son should
succeed to this commendation, and he exerted his
efforts to inspire him with a preference for his own
objects of pursuit. At the premature age of ten,
he was made to go through the forms of holding
a public disputation in theology, and he actually
acquired a more than princely familiarity with the
polemics of the time. His own inclinations how-
ever led him chiefly to the study of mechanics
and the fine arts. An attached adherent has thus
described his various accomplishments. " With
any artist or good mechanic, traveller, or scholar,
he would discourse freely ; and as he was com-
monly improved by them, so he often gave light
to them in their own art or knowledge. For there
were few gentlemen in the world that knew more of
useful or necessary learning than this prince did :
and yet his proportion of books was but small,
having like Francis the first of France learned more

by the ear than by study His exercises were

manly, for he rid the great horse very well ; and
on the little saddle he was not only adroit, but a
laborious hunter or fieldman, and they were wont
to say of him, that he never failed to do any of his
exercises artificially, but not very gracefully; like
some well-proportioned faces which yet want a
pleasant air of countenance a."

A collection of antiques and other objects of
curiosity bequeathed to him by prince Henry ap-
pears first to have directed his attention towards
painting and sculpture ; the taste was afterwards
fostered in him by the duke of Buckingham, and
his merits as a connoisseur, and a patron of art and
artists were unquestionably great.

At the age of sixteen Charles was solemnly created
prince of Wales, and a numerous household was
formed for him, of which it is remarkable that
almost all the officers were Scotch. Mr. Murray
his tutor, who had been about him from his sixth
year, was also of this nation, and a presbyterian.
These circumstances excited many fears and
jealousies; and on occasion of a dangerous illness
of the king's in 1618, we are told that bishop
Andrews, " as a confessor to his majesty, took an
opportunity of expressing to him the sad condition
of the church if God should at that time determine
his royal life ; the prince having only been con-
versant with Scotchmen, who made up the greater

* Memoirs of sir Philip Warwick, pp. 65, 66.

part of his family, and were ill-affected to the
government and worship of the church of England.''
Struck by this representation, the king made avow,
that if God should be pleased to restore his health,
he would give his son such instruction in religious
controversy as should secure his affections to the
English establishment; and so confident did he
afterwards feel of the success of his efforts, that on
giving his last instructions to the chaplains who
were to attend the prince in Spain, while he
cautioned them to avoid theological disputations
as much as might be, he remarked however, that
should any by chance arise, his son would be able
to moderate in them. The divines expressing by
their looks something of incredulity, he added with
vehemence ; ' ' Charles shall manage a point of con-
troversy with the best studied of you alla."

The religious instructor who was placed about
the prince in consequence of the representations of
bishop Andrews was Dr. Hakewill, an eminent
divine of Oxford, whose zeal was basely requited
by his pupil on the following occasion. In the
year 1621, when the long pending negotiations for
the marriage of Charles with the Spanish infanta
began to be pursued with a near prospect of success,
Dr. Hakewill, moved solely, as it should appear, by
a sense of duty to religion, to his country, and to
the prince himself, drew up a small tractate calcu-
lated to dissuade him from marriage with a catholic

* Rennet's Complete Hist. iii. p. 2.

princess. This he offered to him in manuscript,
entreating him at the same time to conceal it from
the king, " or he should be undone for his good will."
Charles took the piece, we are told, with many
thanks, and promised that " it should never go
further than the cabinet of his own breast;" but at
the same time inquired to whom it had been com-
municated previously. Hakewill replied, that he
had shown it to the archbishop of Canterbury, who
on returning it said, "Well done, thou good and
faithful servant;" and that Mr. Murray had like-
wise seen it, but no one else.

Two hours after, the prince, regardless of his
promise, carried the piece to the king; by whose
illegal command Hakewill, in common with all
others who had ventured to declare their opposition
to this favorite measure of his policy, was thrown
into prison; on his liberation he was immediately
deprived of his office about the prince, and for
ever debarred of further preferment. Murray was
also disgraced on the occasion, although he had
earnestly endeavoured to dissuade Hakewill from
risking the presentation of his piece to the prince;
but the provostship of Eton was afterwards conferred
upon him in recompense of his long service51.

The jealousy with which a reigning prince is
generally understood to regard his successor, has

a The particulars of this story are derived from Weldon's Ob-
servations of king Charles; but the general fact that his opposition
to the Spanish match was the cause of Hakewill's disgrace, we
also collect from his article in Wood's At hen. Oxon.

8

often the effect of placing the heir to a throne in a
position as trying to the temper as it is on many
other accounts unfavorable to the formation of the
character and moral habits ; and Charles, during
his early years, was unfortunate enough to be ex-
posed to the double mortification of finding himself
a cypher at his father's court, and of beholding an
assuming minion disposing with absolute com-
mand of offices and honors, attracting universal
homage, and filling the scene with his upstart mag-
nificence. It is not improbable that the retired
mode of life adopted by the prince on the formation
of his household, was prompted in part by a dis-
satisfaction at the predominance of Buckingham
which he feared at first to express more plainly;
but when his manly age, the real consequence which
was his birthright, and his own increasing interest
in public business, for which he had considerable
aptitude, forbade him longer to shroud himself in
obscurity, collision became inevitable, and there
succeeded an open jealousy and resentment on the
part of the prince, provoked by acts of almost in-
credible insolence and audacity on that of the
favorite.

On one occasion, in presence of a great company,
Buckingham is related to have defied his future
sovereign in terms of the vilest and most insulting
scurrility; on another, some dispute having arisen
between them at balloon, or tennis, he cried out to
him; "By God it shall not be so, nor you shall not
have it!" lifting up his racket at the same time in

9

such a position that the prince exclaimed, " What!
my lord, I think you intend to strike me."

We are left to conjecture in vain of what nature
the explanations, submissions, or reparations could
be which sufficed to obliterate from the mind of
Charles all memory, or at least all resentment, of
conduct so outrageous ; that such were offered we
are informed by Clarendon ; and it is uncertain
whether Buckingham made, or only sealed his
peace, by first causing to be suggested to the prince,
and afterwards finding means to carry into effect,
the romantic design of his journey to Spain for the
purpose of wooing the infanta.

No sooner was this enterprise concerted between
them, than Charles, in his eagerness for its accom-
plishment, suffered the duke in his own presence, to
bully his royal father into a reluctant acquiescence;
and during their journey the duke improved his
opportunities with so much acuteness and address,
as to establish over the mind of the prince that
ascendency which he preserved to the last moment
of his brief career.

As a piece of political history, the long and fruit-
less marriage treaty with the court of Spain, belongs
to the reign of king James ; but some particulars
more personal to the prince, and important to the
illustration of his character and principles, claim to
be here discussed.

It cannot be doubted that Buckingham, so far
from being originally adverse to the Spanish match,
as some have suggested, had long been using secret

10

means to augment the impatience of the prince for
its completion; of which he designed to arrogate to
himself the whole merit; and having thus cancelled
all former offences, to prolong into another reign
the duration of his power and favor. To Gondomar,
who is understood to have been his secret ally in
the affair, he had thus expressed himself several
months before the project of the prince's journey

was disclosed " To conclude all, I will use a

similitude of hawking, which you will easily under-
stand, being a great falconer. I told you already
that the prince is, God be thanked, extremely sharp
set upon this match ; and you know that a hawk
when she is first dressed and made ready to fly,
having a great will upon her, if the falconer do not
follow it at that time, she is in danger to be dulled
for ever after. Take heed therefore lest, in the fault
of your delays there, our prince and falcon gentle,
that you know was thought slow enough to begin to
be eager after the feminine prey, become not so dull
upon these delays, as in short time after he will not
stoop to the lure, though it were thrown out to hima."
But the Spanish court, even if at this time sincere
in the treaty, was at least bent on procrastinating
its conclusion till the ruin of the unfortunate elector
Palatine should be consummated ; and it neither
departed in consequence of these admonitions from
what king James called its "dull diligence," nor
yet, when the prince arrived to urge his suit in

a Cabala, p. 206.

11

person, could it be induced, in compliment to his
gallantry, to relax in the smallest degree the rigor
of its etiquette. He was never permitted to con-
verse with his mistress for an instant without wit-
nesses, nor was she allowed to receive and answer
his letters. No other favor was granted him than
to sit near her in public, to address her through an
interpreter, and to gaze at her ; but of this last
privilege he is said to have made such ample use,
that he was sometimes observed to keep his eyes
fixed upon her without moving for half an hour to-
gether. He watched her, said Gondomar, as a cat
watches a mouse.

The court and people of Madrid esteemed in
Charles a sobriety, gravity and stateliness of de-
meanor closely resembling their own, and a mag-
nificent bounty to which they had seen nothing
comparable ; but it was with extreme wonder and
disgust that they beheld him patiently endure the
disrespectful and even impertinent familiarity of a
favorite who took no pains to conceal either the
levity and presumption of his character or the gross
licentiousness of his life.

It would be difficult to assign rules for the con-
duct of a protestant prince who visits a catholic
country as the suitor of a catholic princess. In
such a situation some sacrifices of dignity and con-
sistency seem unavoidable. But when we find
Charles concurring with Buckingham in urging his
father to consent that a promised acknowledgement
of the pope's supremacy on his own part should stand

12

as a preliminary article of the treaty ; — answering
a letter addressed to him by the pontif with warm
professions of respect for the " Holy Father/' and
wishes for an unity of religion between them, ac-
companied by a declaration that he had never felt
any hostility towards that of Rome ; — and adding by
a secret article two years to the age up to which it
was stipulated that the children of the marriage
should remain under their mother's tuition; — every
protestant will feel and own that the limits of allow-
able and expedient compliance were on this occasion
greatly overpassed. Nor could it surely be regarded
as a palliation of the conduct of Charles, should it
be admitted that he meant nothing by such pro-
fessions but empty compliments, and regarded arti-
cles inserted in a solemn treaty and confirmed by
the oaths of all the parties, as words of no conse-
quence or effect. In other particulars he was not
less chargeable with gross dissimulation and the
unhesitating employment of promises and protesta-
tions never intended to be fulfilled or acted up to.
It was his last act before quitting Madrid to swear
to the terms of the treaty and lodge his marriage
proxy with the earl of Bristol; his first, on entering
an English ship of war at St. Andero's, to express
indignation at the injuries which he declared him-
self to have received at the hands of that court and
king which he had just quitted with the warmest
expressions of esteem and affection, and to forbid
by a private order the delivery of the marriage-
proxy which he had publicly given.

13

How far Charles might have been led to regard
the employment of artifice as necessary to secure
his safe return to England, is a question which it
is not easy to solve. A good deal of mystery still
hangs over the real history of this whole transaction ;
but there appears to be sufficient evidence that al-
most at the exact moment of the quarrel between
Olivares and Buckingham, the English favorite re-
ceived from the elector Palatine secret offers of
friendship, and even of an alliance between their
children, on condition of his employing his influence
to break off the treaty of marriage ; and that thus
motives of personal interest and ambition conspired
with the offended pride which already disposed him
to disconcert the measures of the court of Spain.
After this, there can be no doubt that he would
avail himself of every pretext to instil into the mind
of Charles a persuasion of the insincerity of that
court in its negotiations, and even apprehensions
for his personal safety ; but it is also certain that the
prince had met with real indignities ; for this even
the earl of Bristol, the minister most interested in
the success of the treaty, is compelled to acknowledge
in a letter addressed to Charles for the purpose
of urging him, nevertheless, to complete the mar-
riage. " In the time of your being here," says he,
1 ' admitting that their proceedings have been in many
things unworthy of you, and that divers distastes
have arisen by intervenient accidents, now things
are reduced to those terms that the match itself is
sure."

14

A remarkable anecdote on this subject occurs in
the Memoirs of Anne of Austria by Madame de
Motteville, who gives it on the authority of queen
Henrietta Maria, with whom she had much confi-
dential intercourse at Paris during the civil wars of
England, and afterwards. It is to this effect: That
when the king her husband was at Madrid, finding
the queen of Spain, a French princess and elder
sister to Henrietta, much to his taste, he sometimes
sought opportunities of addressing her without an
interpreter in French ; and that having spoken only
a few words to her, she replied in a whisper, " I
dare not speak to you in this language without leave,
but I will ask it : " That having obtained it, she
conversed with him once, when she told him, that
she should rather have wished him to marry her
sister Henrietta : That after this conversation, per-
haps on some tokens which he gave of liking to see
her at the theatre, he was privately desired to speak
to her no more, because it was the fashion in Spain
to poison queens' gallants. " After this charitable
hint," it is added, "he never talked with her again,
nor could he even see her plainly, for she was never
at the theatre but in a close boxa."

These outrageous demonstrations of a jealousy
which must have been much more political than
conjugal, — since nothing was more notorious than
the libertinism of Philip III. and his neglect of his

a Mem. pour servir ci I' Hist. d'Anne d'Autriche par Me. de
Motteville. Tom. i. p. 284, edit, d' Amsterdam, 1750.

15

consort, — could not fail highly to irritate the prince
of Wales, and it is evident from many signs, that in
breaking the match and urging on a war with Spain,
he was strongly impelled by passions of his own,
not merely swayed by the representations or per-
suasions of Buckingham. Charles, in fact, was far
from inheriting the pliancy of his father's disposi-
tion, or his consequent propensity to favoritism ;
and whatever hold Buckingham might gradually gain
upon his affections, faith is due to the declaration
once made by himself when king, that the capacity
in which the duke was received and valued by him
was solely that of a servant who distinguished him-
self by a prompt and effective performance of his
master's will. The prince and his attendant re-
turned however to England, strongly united by the
bond of a common enmity and a common purpose
of revenge ; while the views of private interest
which quickened the zeal of the duke appear to
have escaped entirely the penetration of the prince.
The overflowing joy of king James at the sight of
his favorite bringing back to him his son, for whose
freedom his fears had been studiously excited, pre-
pared him to lend an indulgent ear to the plausible
tale by which they sought to exculpate themselves
for bringing failure on the project which had cost
him years of negotiation and still lay nearest to his
heart ; and after venting his anger in a few chiding
speeches, he remained silenced, though neither sa-
tisfied nor convinced. A parliament was soon after
assembled by the desire of Buckingham, when

16

Charles, in a conference of the two houses, warmly
expressed his confidence in the duke, and his grati-
tude towards him for his care over him in Spain,
and especially for bringing him safe out of it ; and
ended by referring the parliament to him for a rela-
tion of the causes of the rupture. It was in Charles's
own presence that this relation was delivered,
charging the Spanish court with bad faith in the
treaty from beginning to end, and the earl of Bristol
with corrupt participation in its treachery, and also
with attempts to persuade the prince to change his
religion. All historians admit, and the original let-
ters of Buckingham to king James demonstrate,
that this narration was not merely tinged by the
coloring of passion and prejudice, but absolutely
distorted and falsified, both in its general bearings
and in many important particulars, and yet there
was no scruple on the part of the prince to sanction
the whole, both directly, by a solemn and public
attestation to its truth, and indirectly by concurring
with the efforts of the duke to impress upon parlia-
ment the necessity of an immediate commencement
of hostilities against Spain.

In all the subsequent measures employed by
Buckingham to crush the party in the council op-
posed to the war, Charles was deeply implicated.
On the impeachment of lord high treasurer Middle-
sex, entered upon in defiance of the most earnest
entreaties and warnings of his royal father, he took
the highly unbecoming step of soliciting many of
the peers, as a favor to himself, to give their voices

17

against him; and he lent himself to all the arbitrary
and iniquitous means by which the duke succeeded
in stifling the evidence which that honorable and
injured statesman the earl of Bristol, was eager to
produce to the king and parliament in vindication
of his own integrity and that of the court of Madrid.
He took less part in those flatteries addressed to the
popular party in the house of commons, and the
puritanical party in the church, by which Bucking-
ham rendered himself for a few moments the hero
of opposition, — for to these arts of government the
temper and the maxims of Charles were equally
adverse ; yet he deigned to appear on some occasions
in the character of a friend to the power and juris-
diction of parliaments, and he suffered the duke to
place about him in the office of a chaplain Dr. Pres-
ton, a leading presbyterian divine whom it was
judged important to gain over.

Charles's characteristic quality of pertinacious
adherence to his own principles or opinions, now
began strongly to display itself to those who ap-
proached him. In the diary of archbishop Laud we
find the following entry dated Feb. 1, 1624. " I
stood by the most illustrious prince Charles at din-
ner. He was then very merry, and talked of many
things occasionally with his attendants. Among
other things he said, that if he were necessitated to
take any particular profession of life, he could not
be a lawyer; adding his reasons. "I cannot,"
saith he, " defend a bad, nor yield in a good cause."

VOL. i. c

18

The prelate subjoins an ill-omened wish that he
might thus for ever prosper in his great affairs !

Charles is recorded to have said publicly on his
return from Madrid, that though he had never loved
popery, he had not hated it till he saw it in the
court of Spain; but as if to show that he hated it
only there, he had scarcely freed himself from the
snares of one catholic marriage-treaty, than he rushed
with his eyes open into those of another. In con-
templation of a rupture with Spain, it was indeed
obvious policy to seek the alliance of France ; and
Buckingham on his return to England lost no time
in dispatching the most favored of his adherents,
Henry Rich, now created lord Kensington and
soon after earl of Holland, as ambassador extra-
ordinary to Louis XIII. As the treaty for the hand
of the infanta was still ostensibly carried on, by
virtue of powers remaining with the earl of Bristol,
the conclusion of a league offensive and defensive be-
tween the two countries was the only object of the
mission as yet avowed, but Rich was also charged
secretly to sound the disposition of the French court
towards a matrimonial connection between the prince
of Wales and Henrietta Maria daughter of Henry
IV. and sister of the reigning monarch. These hasty
addresses were as little consistent with true policy
as with the personal honor of Charles who au-
thorized them. They apprised the French ministry
that the breach of the Spanish treaty was regarded
as irreparable, and taught them to set a higher price

19

on the friendship of their sovereign, now doubly
important to the British monarch. Mary de' Medici,
the queen-mother, applied herself to improve the
opportunity with all the craft and spirit of intrigue
which distinguished her. She employed agents to
negotiate for the marriage in England without the
privity of the king her son, and whilst the French
ministers skilfully held back from the conclusion of
the political alliance, no means were spared or
scrupled by herself or her agents to hasten on the
nuptials.

If ever the welfare and honor of the nation re-
quired that the blandishments and refinements of
French intrigue should be encountered on the part
of an English negotiator by a steady zeal for the
interests of his king and country ; by experience,
sagacity, extensive political knowledge, and a pro-
bity beyond suspicion, it was certainly on this occa-
sion ; when a marriage involving the spiritual as
well as temporal interests of the royal line, was to
be combined with a league on which hung the for-
tunes of the exiled Palatine and the other dispos-
sessed princes of Germany, of the French Hugonots,
and in fact of the whole protestant interest. But
the weaknesses and partialities of James had caused
an age of statesmen to be succeeded by one of mere
courtiers and favorites, by whom the most import-
ant public functions were at this juncture nearly
monopolized. Of this base class Holland was one
of the basest. Personal beauty and frivolous accom-
plishments, with great suppleness and a talent for

c 2

20

court intrigue, had been his passports to the favor
of the king and of Buckingham, and raised him from
the state of a needy younger brother of a dishonored
house to fortune, honors and influence. To preserve
or augment these advantages through the same arts
which had served for their acquisition, was now his
care ; and when once he had assured himself, by
means of the duchess de Chevreuse who was in love
with him, that his own influence with the future
queen was secured, no considerations of a public
nature led him to embarrass the progress of the
negotiations with rigid stipulations or jealous scru-
ples. He has left us the measure of his mind in
the following and similar passages of his fulsome
dispatches addressed to the prince.

"I find here so infinite a value of your person and
virtue, as what instrument soever, myself one of the
very weakest, having some commands as they ima-
gine from you, shall receive excess of honor from
them. They will not conceive me, scarce receive
me, but as a public instrument for the service of an
alliance that above all things in this world they do
so earnestly desire. The queen-mother hath ex-
pressed, as far as she thinks is fit for the honor of

her daughter, great good will in it And sir,

if your intentions proceed this way, (as by many
reasons of state and wisdom there is cause now
rather to press it than slacken it) you will find a
lady of as much loveliness and sweetness to deserve
your affection as any creature under heaven can do.
And sir, by all her fashions since my being here,

21

and by what I hear from the ladies, it is most visi-
ble to me her infinite value and respect unto you.
Sir, I say not this to betray your belief, but from a
true observation and knowledge of this to be so : I
tell you this, and must somewhat more in the way
of observation of the person of Madame ; for the
impressions I had of her were but ordinary, but the
amazement extraordinary to find her, as I protest
to God I did, the sweetest creature in France. Her
growth is very little short of her age, and her wis-
dom infinitely beyond it. I heard her converse with
her mother and the ladies about her with extraor-
dinary discretion and quickness. She dances, the
which I am a witness of, as well as ever I saw any
creature. They say she sings most sweetly ; I am
sure she looks so."

" I cannot but make you continual repetitions of
the value you have here to be, as justly we know
you, the most complete young prince and person in
the world. This reputation hath begotten in the
sweet princess Madame so infinite an affection to
your fame, as she could not contain herself from a
passionate desiring to see your picture, the shadow
of that person so honored, and not knowing by what
means to compass it, it being worn about my neck, —
for though others, as the queen and princess, would
open it and consider it, the which ever brought forth
admiration from them, yet durst not this poor young
lady look any otherwise on it than afar off, whose
heart was nearer it than any of the others that did
most gaze upon it : — But at the last, rather than

22

want that sight which she was so impatient of, she
desired the gentlewoman of the house where I am
lodged, that had been her servant, to borrow of me
the picture in all the secrecy that may be, and bring
it unto her, saying, she could not want that curio-
sity, as well as others, towards a person of his in-
finite reputation. As soon as she saw the party
that brought it, she retired into her cabinet, calling
only her in ; where she opened the picture in such
haste as showed a true picture of her passion, blush-
ing in the instant at her own guiltiness. She kept
it an hour in her hands, and when she returned it,
she gave it many praises of your person. Sir, this
is a business so fit for your secrecy, as I know it
shall never go further than unto the king your
father, my lord the duke of Buckingham, and my
lord of Carlisle's knowledge. A tenderness in this
is honorable ; for I would rather die a thousand
times than it should be published, since I am by
this young lady trusted, that is for beauty and
goodness an angel." Having thus attempted to
excite the passions by flattering the vanity of the
prince, he adds, " I have received from my lord of
Buckingham an advertisement that your highness 's
opinion is, to treat of the general league first, that
will prepare the other. Sir, whatsoever shall be
propounded will have a noble acceptation ; though
this give me leave to tell you, when you are free,
as by the next news we shall know you to be, they
will expect that upon those declarations they have
already made towards that particularity of the alii-

23

ance, that your highness will go that readier and
nearer way to unite and fasten by that knot the
affection of these kingdoms'1."

The better judgement of Charles himself in this
matter being thus overruled by the management
of Holland, in concert with the French court, the
marriage was propounded in form before a single
step was taken towards forming the league, and
matters were in this state when the Spanish treaty
being broken off in form, Hay, created earl of Car-
lisle on the occasion, was joined in commission with
Holland to conclude the affair.

The earl of Carlisle, though preeminent even
among the courtiers of James for the extravagance,
and even absurdity, of his pomp and profusion, had
yet some claims to the character of a man of busi-
ness and a statesman. His Scottish birth and
presbyterian education had nourished in him a pro-
found distrust and dread of the encroaching spirit
of the Romish church, and he penetrated with sa-
gacity and opposed with spirit in several instances
the insidious manoeuvres of the French. But he
was ill-supported at home; for the articles implying
a suspension of the penal laws against the catholics,
which in any treaty with a foreign power ought at
once to have been set aside as unconstitutional, and
therefore no object of negotiation, were conceded
without hesitation or scruple by the king and the
prince; and apparently from the disgraceful cause

» Cabala, pp. 287, 288, fol. edit.

24

assigned by a French diplomatist; that " there was
originally no intention in these contracting parties
to keep their engagements, but to promise all that
should be required, and to keep only what suited
thema."

To the reproach of all protestant principle, the
earl of Nithsdale, a catholic, was sent to Rome to
solicit a dispensation for the marriage, and to cul-
tivate a future good understanding with the sove-
reign pontif ; — to the disgrace of all political wisdom,
verbal assurances of cooperation on the part of
France in measures for the restoration of the Pala-
tinate were accepted as a satisfactory security. Yet
it is evident from the following passage of a letter
from the earl of Holland to Buckingham, that Charles
himself still manifested reluctance to assume the
character of a suitor. " I beseech you, put the
prince in mind to send his mistress a letter: And
though I might, as the first instrument employed
in his amours, expect the honor to deliver it, yet
will I not give my colleague that cause of envy.
But if his highness will write a private letter to
Madame, and in it express some particular trust of
me, and that my relations of her have increased his
passion and affection unto her service, I shall receive
much honor and some right, since I only have ex-
pressed what concerned his passion and affection
towards herV

Whilst the treaty was yet pending, a change in

;l Ambassade en Angleterre du Mareschal de Bassompiere.
b Cabala, p. 231.

25

the French ministry placed cardinal Richelieu at
the head of affairs, who contrived to impede its
ratification till he had succeeded in extorting new
concessions from the facility or treachery of the
English ministry. The claim of the princes of the
Roman church to take precedence of all but kings,
caused at first some perplexity in point of etiquette,
which could only be solved by Richelieu's feigning
sickness and receiving the visit of the earl of Carlisle
in bed; and the cardinal further exhibited his own
arrogance and offended that of the dictator of the
English court, by addressing a letter to " Monsieur "
— not Monseigneur — " le due de Buckingham ;"
who retorted by directing his answer to ' c Monsieur
le cardinal de Richelieu. " This impertinent squabble
of punctilio might even have gone on to occasion
the breach of the treaty, had not both parties had
their private reasons to desire its completion, and
therefore condescended to a reconciliation.

All the stipulations in behalf of the catholic reli-
gion which had been accorded in the late negotia-
tion with Spain, were now successfully demanded
by France; on other points some things additional
were granted; splendid preparations for the nuptials
were made on both sides of the water, arid they were
on the eve of celebration when the death of his royal
father on March 27, 1625, elevated the destined
bridegroom from the expectancy of a throne to its
occupation.

26

CHAPTER II.

1625.

State of England at the accession of Charles. — Voyages of discovery
and extension of commerce. — Colonies founded in North America.
— Commerce ill protected by king James. — Englishmen made cap-
tive by Barbary corsairs. — Dunkirk pirates. — Low state of the
navy. — Rapid progress of luxury. — Court entertainments. —
Country hospitality. — Luxury in furniture. — Tapestry. — Paint-
ings.— Rich materials of furniture. — Inigo Jones's architecture.
— Taste for sculpture revived. — Collections of the earl of Arundel
and duke of Buckingham. — Researches of sir Thomas Roe for
antiques at Constantinople. — State of literature. — Translations. —
Books of voyages and travels. — Hackluyt. — Purchases Pilgrim-
age.— Sandys' s Travels. — History. — Camden. — Speed. — Daniel.
— Biography. — Lord Herbert of Cherbury. — Bacon. — Antiquities.
— Spelman. — Cotton. — Selden and Usher. — Theology. — Donne.
— Hall. — Bishop Andrews. — State of Poetry. — Donne. — Waller.
— Suckling. — Carew. — Ben Jonson. — His criticisms on contempo-
rary poets. — Massing er. — Shirley. — Decline of the drama. —
Extended plans of education. — Peacham's Complete Gentleman. —
Lord Herbert's plan of study. — Female accomplishments. — Sir
M. Hale on education of daughters — of sons. — Condition of
younger brothers. — Art of Thriving. — Disuse of tilts and tourna-
ments.— Duelling. — Effects of wearing weapons. — Ladies cudgel
their maids. — Court diversions. — Strict separation of ranks,
broken down by king James. — Effects of increasing the number
of peers. — Concluding remarks.

THE undisputed sovereignty of the British isles,
appears at first sight an inheritance which, well
improved, could not fail to render its possessor,
abroad and at home, one of the most powerful

27

princes of Europe; but in order to appreciate cor-
rectly the circumstances favorable or adverse under
which it descended upon Charles I., it will be proper
to take a general view of the state of manners,
commerce, society and literature at the period of
his accession.

James I. had received the kingdom of England
from the hands of his illustrious predecessor rich in
resources of every kind, the accumulation of five
and forty years of a wise, frugal, and vigilant ad-
ministration. The union of the British crowns in
his person, though it brought little direct addition
to the wealth of England, was yet an accession
highly conducive to its internal strength and tran-
quillity, and eventually to its general prosperity;
and whilst the heedless prodigality of this prince
had impoverished the crown, by the alienation of
lands or the anticipation of its other principal
sources of independent revenue, his profound peace
of two and twenty years had afforded to his subjects
leisure and ample facilities for the acquisition of
wealth and the culture of every art by which human
life is supported and adorned; and the active genius
of the people had largely availed itself of these ad-
vantages.

Weary of the monotony and stagnation of a pacific
court, the enterprising spirits of the time, both under
Elizabeth and James, had eagerly thrown themselves
into voyages of discovery, which had sometimes
indeed degenerated into mere buccaneering expe-
ditions against the Spanish settlements in the new-

28

found regions of the West; but of which the general
and ultimate results were of incalculable importance
in promoting, together with the extension of trade,
the progress of knowledge, and of civilization. The
same spirit of adventure had guided English prows
in the track opened by the Portuguese to the shores
of Hindostan, and impelled English travellers to
explore by land the kingdoms of western Asia. It
was about the close of the reign of Elizabeth that
the learned Hackluyt was enabled thus to sum up,
with becoming pride, the results of all the missions
of discovery and commerce sent forth either under
the immediate auspices of the queen, or those of
the trading companies established by her.

" Which of the kings of this land before her
majesty had their banners ever seen in the Caspian
sea? Which of them hath ever dealt with the
emperor of Persia, as her majesty hath done, and
obtained for her merchants large and loving privi-
leges ? Who ever saw before this regiment an
English lieger in the stately porch of the grand
Seignor of Constantinople? Who ever found English
consuls and agents at Tripolis in Syria, at Aleppo,
at Babylon, at Balsara, and which is more, who
ever heard of Englishmen at Goa before now?
What English ships did heretofore ever anchor in
the mighty river of Plate, pass and repass the un-
passable, in former opinion, strait of Magellan,
range along the coast of Chili, Peru, and all the
backside of Nova Hispania, further than any Chris-
tian ever passed, traverse the mighty breadth of the

29

South sea, land upon the Luzones in despight of
the enemy, enter into alliance, amity and traffic
with the prince of the Moluccas and the isle of Java,
double the famous Cape of Bona Speranza, arrive
at the isle of Santa Helena, and last of all return
home most richly laden with the commodities of
China, as the subjects of this now flourishing mon-
archy have done?"a

During the reign of James all the marts of trade
here indicated continued to be frequented with in-
creasing diligence, and additional ones were opened.
The woollen cloths of England, as well as its tin
and its copper, were now bartered for the gold and
raw silk of Persia; an intercourse was opened with
the great Mogul ; and English ships maintained on
the coast of Coramandel a carrying trade of sufficient
importance strongly to excite the jealousy of the
Portuguese.

The first attempts at colonization in the New
World, of which Raleigh was the leader, had failed;
in fact, at the end of the sixteenth century England
was not yet possessed of a single foreign settlement,
but since that period prosperous plantations had
been formed on various points of the North American
coast. Lord Delaware, a catholic, had established
one in Virginia; governor Guy had formed another
on the island of Newfoundland; part of a congrega-
tion of persecuted independents, who had previously
taken refuge in Holland, had laid the foundations

* Hackluyt's Voyages, Epistle Dedicatorie.

30

of the important colony of New Plymouth, and a
small band of emigrant puritans had planted them-
selves in New Hampshire. But all these were
private undertakings, prompted by the love of
enterprise and the hope of gain, by public spirit,
or by the want of religious liberty; and to which
king James contributed nothing but his credentials
or letters patent. During the whole of his reign
the merchants and naval adventurers complained
heavily of the deficiency of that naval protection
which it was the duty of the state to have afforded
them.

Amid the important demands of favorite courtiers
on a failing exchequer, this spiritless prince had
suffered that glory and safeguard of the country, its
navy, to sink into a state of feebleness and decay
which exposed navigation to calamities and insults
altogether unprecedented. For want of a few crui-
sers to repress their audacity, the Barbary corsairs
made prey of English ships not in the Levant only,
but in the narrow seas, actually in sight of the Bri-
tish coasts ; and the crews and passengers of the
captured vessels were either massacred without dis-
tinction by the pirates, or carried away into slavery
and afterwards compelled to man the Moorish gal-
leys and aid in the commission of depredation and
outrage upon their fellow-christians.

It is mentioned by sir Thomas Roe, sent ambas-
sador to Constantinople in 1621, that touching at
the port of Messina in his way, he found in the
galleys there fifteen English, who cried out to him

31

as he passed to compassionate them : on inquiry he
found that two were renegades, but that the rest
were captives originally pressed by the Turks into
their service, who being taken on board their rovers
by the Spaniards, had been by them reduced, like
their shipmates, to the condition of galley-slaves.
The ambassador asked and obtained the liberation
of these men from the viceroy of Sicily, but as a
special favor. Many captives were redeemed by
Roe during his residence at the Porte, and he found
it necessary to conclude a disgraceful kind of treaty
with the Dey of Algiers for the protection of British
commerce in the Mediterranean, brought to the
brink of destruction by the unpunished ravages of
these barbarians. After the commencement of the
war with Spain, the Channel was likewise infested
by the privateers of Dunkirk, who made many cap-
tures off the coasts of England and Ireland. At
this period therefore the British navy had reached
its lowest stage of declension.

The progress of luxury in dress, diet, furniture
and decorations of every kind, had fully kept pace
with the extension of commerce and the increase of
national wealth.

In the article of court-dresses, especially those of
men, the extravagance was such as no succeeding
times have attempted to emulate. King James,
amongst his other weaknesses, had a childish ad-
miration of what was then called bravery. His
favorites could scarcely by their utmost efforts
satisfy his demands upon them for splendor and

32

variety in their personal decorations ; and the com-
mon phrase of a man's " wearing his estate on his
back," hyperbolical as it sounds in modern ears,
could scarcely be called an exaggeration at a time
when a court suit of the duke of Buckingham's was
estimated at 80,000/.

In their state entertainments the tables of the
great groaned under lofty piles of dishes of massy
silver, replenished with the most delicate as well as
substantial viands, the cost of which was enhanced
by a wonderfully elaborate art of confectionary, and
by the lavish use of ambergris, and sometimes of
musk and other scents to fume and flavor the
meats and wines. In conformity with this mode
Milton describes,

" A table richly spread in regal mode,
With dishes piled and meats of noblest sort
And savor, beasts of chace or fowl of game,
In pastry built, or from the spit, or boil'd,
Gris-amber steam' d "

and

" the wine

That fragrant smell diffused*."

Thus also Beaumont and Fletcher :

"Be sure

The wines be lusty, light, and full of spirit,
And amber' d allb."

Magisterial of pearl was likewise employed as an
article of cookery. It is observable however, that

* Par. Regained, B. ii.

b Custom of the Country, A. iii. Sc. 2.

33

whilst the court gave the example of this wanton-
ness and absurdity of pomp and luxury, the simple
old English hospitality in its primitive forms was
still maintained by the independent portion of the
nobility, who lived secluded in their own demesnes
in the midst of hereditary tenants and retainers.
The courtly poet Carew, several years after the ac-
cession of Charles I., thus describes in an epistle
the feasting in the great hall of Wrest, the seat of
the earls of Kent, in Bedfordshire ; which he de-
scribes as a mansion unadorned with carved marble
or porphyry, with lofty chimney-pieces or Doric or
Corinthian pillars, but built " for hospitality."

" The lord and lady of this place delight
Rather to be in act than seem in sight.
Instead of statues to adorn their wall,
They throng with living men their merry hall,
Where, at large tables fill'd with wholesome meats,
The servant, tenant, and kind neighbour eats :
Some of that rank, spun of a finer thread,
Are with the women, steward and chaplain, fed
With daintier cates ; others of better note,
Whom wealth, parts, office, or the herald's coat
Have sever'd from the common, freely sit
At the lord's table, whose spread sides admit
A large access of friends to fill those seats
Of his capacious sickle*, fill'd with meats
Of choicest relish, till his oaken back
Under the load of piled-up dishes crack."

The nobility and leading gentry of a former age,
whose rude ideas of grandeur were comprised in a

a A curved dining-table.
VOL. I. D

34

retinue of two or three hundred servants and re-
tainers, and a mansion capable of lodging and en-
tertaining half a county, had reared enormous piles
of building, court behind court, with long suites of
galleries and saloons, which when built they knew
not how suitably to furnish or adorn; but taste and
luxury were now busily at work upon their deco-
ration.

Under the patronage of king James, sir Francis
Crane had established at Mortlake in Surrey a manu-
factory where the weaving of tapestry was carried
to great perfection ; designs both in history and
grotesque being supplied by a native of Denmark
named Cleyne, an admirable artist, patronized by
the prince. In costliness its fabrics must apparently
have vied with the finest of the Netherlands. Charles,
in the first year of his reign, acknowledged a debt
to Crane of 6000/. for three sets of "gold hangings."
Archbishop Williams paid him 2500Z. for a piece
representing the Four Seasons, and the more affluent
of the nobility purchased of him at proportional
prices various rich hangings " wrought in silk."

Foreign artists of considerable eminence were
employed to paint walls, staircases, and ceilings
with figures and arabesques, and collections of pic-
tures began to be formed. Fine carving and gild-
ing was bestowed on various articles of furniture ;
and with such profusion were the richest mate-
rials brought into use, that state beds of gold and
silver tissue, embroidered velvet, or silk damask
fringed with gold ; silk carpets from Persia ; toilets

33

covered with ornamental pieces of dressing plate ;
tables of massive silver richly embossed with figures ;
and enormous cabinets elaborately carved in ebony,
became the familiar ornaments of the principal
mansions. Inigo Jones, with taste matured by a
second residence in Italy, had begun to supply de-
signs of edifices, both public and private, in which
the Greek or Roman style in its purity and beauty,
had superseded the incongruous mixtures of his
earlier works ; and king James, purposing to com-
mit to him the task of rebuilding the ancient palace
of Whitehall, had already caused him to execute the
only part of the building which was ever completed ;
that noble banqueting house on the ceiling of which
Rubens afterwards painted the apotheosis of the
monarch.

The art of sculpture could scarcely be said to
exist in the land. Tombs and monuments executed
by mere masons and stone-cutters, and gaudily be-
decked with colors and gilding, marked the misera-
ble declension of this branch since those ages when
the arts and artists of Rome had found free entrance
as followers in the train of her religion. But the
deficiency was felt, and steps had already been
taken for enriching the country with a store of
those immortal models bequeathed to the world by
Grecian antiquity.

The earl of Arundel, the earliest and greatest of
English collectors, was eagerly prosecuting his in-
quiries after the remains of ancient art both in Eu-
rope and Asia ; and the splendid Buckingham,

3G

whether from genuine taste for these objects, or
from that passion for every kind of magnificence
which sometimes assumes its semblance, trod zeal-
ously in his footsteps. Sir Thomas Roe, when at
Constantinople, acted as a kind of factor to both
these noblemen for the discovery and purchase of
marbles, coins, and other curiosities, and some
interesting details on these matters are supplied by
his correspondence. It appears that an extremely
skilful and enterprising agent had been sent out by
the earl of Arundel specially to explore the conti-
nent and islands of Greece, and the shores of Syria
and Lesser Asia ; the fruits of whose labors were
no less than 200 pieces of sculpture. The researches
of sir Thomas Roe on behalf of the duke of Buck-
ingham, were extended by means of consuls, Greek
priests, and other agents, from Smyrna to Prusa,
Troy, and Pergamus; to Sinope on the Euxine; and
zealously prosecuted along the coasts of Thessaly,
and at Delphi, Delos, Corinth, Thebes, Athens,
Sparta, and many other Grecian cities and islands;
and a splendid collection seems to have been the
result of these efforts ; although it is stated that,
between the scruples of the Turks and the avidity
of the Venetians, not a single statue was left stand-
ing, and all attempts to gain permission to make
excavations were encountered by the usual jealousies
of barbarians, who always imagine hidden treasure
to be the real object of such researches.

At Constantinople nothing was found worth re-
moving excepting some groups in alto relievo over

37

the golden gate of the city, placed there by its
founder; and these sir Thomas Roe certainly spared
no exertions to obtain. To ask permission to deface
the principal entrance of the Grand Seignor's palace
appeared too audacious ; the size of the pieces
made it impracticable to carry them away clandes-
tinely, and he therefore adopted the expedient of
hiring a mufti to demand their removal on the plea
of religion ; but it so happened that the government
was not at this juncture disposed to listen to scruples
of this nature. At length, during a crisis of the
Turkish treasury, the ambassador took courage, and
offered a sum for the marbles to the great treasurer
himself. The bribe was cordially accepted; but, on
the first attempt to take down the figures, a fancy
seized the people that they were enchanted, and
that the Christians knew of some old prophecy by
which the fall of the city was connected with their
removal. A violent tumult arose, the treasurer was
obliged to desist for fear of his life, and the ambas-
sador consoled himself under his disappointment by
observing, that though he failed to obtain the figures,
he had almost raised an insurrection in that part of
the city.

Roe was likewise commissioned to procure Greek
manuscripts of the Scriptures and the Fathers for
king James and archbishop Abbot, but he met with
fewer objects of this nature than he had hoped ; it
was, however, through his hands that the celebrated
Alexandrian manuscript of the Old and New Testa-

38

ment was transmitted by Cyril patriarch of Con-
stantinople to Charles I.

The ambassador collected coins and medals on
his own account, a catalogue of which he sent to
that prodigal but accomplished woman Lucy count-
ess of Bedford, accompanied with a dissertation
which could only be addressed with propriety to a
respectable proficient both in numismatic science
and the Latin language.

A slight sketch of the state of literature will
suffice to mark the important station which it now
occupied in the general system of life and manners.

Not in England alone, but throughout lettered
Europe, knowledge had been long perceived by men
of sagacity to be in a progressive and improving
state. In the works of Acontius, a man of abilities
and various learning, who wrote under the patronage
of queen Elizabeth, the following striking observa-
tion occurs. "I am aware that my lot is cast in an
age of very great cultivation ; yet I am not so much
awed by the judgements which now appear to rule,
as alarmed at the rising lights of an age of still
greater cultivation which I anticipate." "I believe,"
says Bayle, in commenting on this sentiment, "that
the sixteenth century produced a greater number of
men of learning than the seventeenth, yet the for-
mer age was not nearly so enlightened as the latter.
During the reign of criticism and philology several
prodigies of erudition appeared throughout Europe.
The study of the new philosophy and of modern

39

languages having introduced a different taste, that
vast and profound literature was no longer seen,
but on the other hand a finer taste has been diffused
over the republic of letters, attended by a more
accurate discernment. Men are now less learned
and more ableV

In conformity with these remarks, it is evident,
that at the period of Charles's accession a lively
curiosity after new and various knowledge had be-
gun to take place in England of that exclusive
devotion to the ancients which had prevailed from
the time of the revival of letters ; that few men
aimed at distinction by emulating the cumbrous
erudition of the founders of modern scholarship ;
and that general information began to be more
prized than what is technically called learning.

We find it affirmed, that few works of merit ap-
peared in any country of Europe which were not
speedily clothed in an English dress. Books of
voyages and travels were printed in considerable
numbers, and read with avidity. Besides all the
separate relations published by voyagers, two large
and important collections had appeared; that by
Hackluyt, a person of great knowledge and diligence
in his own line of pursuit, who had been appointed
lecturer on geography at Oxford, and was the first
to introduce maps, globes and spheres into the
common schools, and " Purchas his Pilgrimage/*
otherwise called " Hackluytus Posthumus;" a vo-

a Diet, de Bayle, Art. Aconce. *»

40

luminous compilation by a chaplain of archbishop
Abbots', designed to comprise whatever had been
related concerning the religions of all nations, from
the earliest times.

That learned and accurate traveller George San-
dys, had communicated to the public much infor-
mation both on the classical antiquities and the
modern state of Italy, Greece, Turkey in Europe,
Palestine and Egypt. Knowles had published an
esteemed history of the Turks, which has found
several continuators ; and there had been many
valuable contributions to national history. Camden
had completed his Annals of queen Elizabeth, and
made considerable progress in those of her successor,
before his hand was arrested by death : Speed had
compiled a meritorious chronicle ; and that estimable
man and writer Samuel Daniel had published a
history of England remarkable for judgement and
good sense, for purity of style, and for the novelty
of commencing with the Norman conquest, instead
of the Deluge, or the landing of Brute the Trojan,
the usual starting-posts of the chroniclers. The life
of Henry VIII. by lord Herbert of Cherbury, and
above all, that of Henry VII. by lord Bacon, had
afforded excellent models in this kind of writing.

Antiquities, general and national, civil and ecclesi-
astical, were diligently and ably cultivated by Spel-
man, the restorer of Anglo-saxon literature, by sir
Robert Cotton, who was likewise occupied in the
laborious work of collecting his noble library of
manuscripts, and by Selden and Usher, those great

41

names in European literature. Respecting theology,
it is sufficient in this place to advert to the well-
known fact, that religious controversy was the
mania of the age. A bare list of the writers in
divinity during the reign of James, with the titles
of their works, would make of itself a volume.
Never was the warfare so keen between popery and
protestantism, or the feud so active between the
Calvinistic and Arminian parties within the church
itself. The country could never before boast of so
numerous a body of learned divines or attractive
preachers ; but the pedantry, the quaintness, the
labored subtilty, and, it must be added, the solemn
and superstitious trifling with which they abound,
render the once admired productions of Donne, of
Hall, of bishop Andrews and their followers, signal
examples of the excess to which false taste and
judgement may be carried by men of undoubted
talents in an age of erudition.

The same frigid and unnatural style prevailed in
verse as in prose ; Donne had exhibited his quaint
conceits in satires and amatory pieces before he had
introduced them into sermons ; they had gained for
him the title of the first poet of the age, and that
the fashion of admiring him was not yet past is
evident from the circumstance that Cowley, who at
the end of James's reign was still in his childhood,
formed his style in great measure on this unfortunate
model. But the graces of harmony and diction
make too essential a part of the pleasure of poetry
to be generally, or for a long period discarded; and

42

in little more than twenty years after the death of
Spenser, the master of melody to our elder school
of poets, Waller was preluding to the strains of
Dryden and of Pope. Purity and sweetness of
numbers seemed in Waller a free gift of the muses ;
for his juvenile celebration of the escape of the
prince of Wales from shipwreck on his return from
Spain, is scarcely excelled in these respects by any
of his more mature productions. Suckling was
beginning to tune his verse to the harmony of
Waller, for which he seems to have abandoned the
imitation of Donne ; and Carew and a numerous
troop of gentlemen-writers prepared to hail the
accession of a monarch whose court was to be the
asylum of the arts and the home of the graces.

Ben Jonson, whose extensive learning, vigorous
judgement and classic taste, had caused him to be
revered as the great arbiter of literary claims, still
presided with absolute sway over the circle of lettered
courtiers and rising wits, though far in the wane
both of life and genius; and in that collection of
miscellaneous remarks called his Discoveries, we
find him thus aptly characterizing the rival schools
of verse which were at this time contending for the
mastery. "You have others that labor only to
ostentation, and are ever more busy about the
colors and surface of a work than in the matter
and foundation; for that is hid, the other is seen.
Others that in composition are nothing but what is
rough and broken. Quse per salebras altaque saxa
cadunt. And if it would come gently, they trouble

43

it of purpose. They would not have it run without
rubs; as if that style were more strong and manly
that stroke the ear with a kind of unevenness.
These men err not by chance, but knowingly and
willingly; they are like men that affect a fashion
by themselves, have some singularity in a ruff,
cloke, or hatband; or their beards specially cut to
provoke beholders and set a mark upon themselves.

Others there are that have no composition

at all; but a kind of tuning and riming fall in what
they write. It runs and slides, and only makes a
sound. Women's poets they are called, as you
have women's taylors.

They write a verse as smooth, as soft as cream,
In which there is no torrent, nor scarce stream.

You may sound these wits and find the depth of
them with your middle finger. They are cream-
bowl, or but puddle deep."

The prevalent affectation of wit is another object
of his satire. " I do hear them say often, some
men are not witty, because they are not everywhere

witty; than which nothing can be more foolish

But now nothing is good that is natural. Right
and natural language seems to have the least of wit
in it; that which is writhen and tortured is counted

the more exquisite Nothing is fashionable till

it be deformed, and this is to write like a gentle-
man. All must be as affected and preposterous as
our gallants' clothes, sweetbags and night dressings;
in which you would think our men lay in like ladies,
it is so curious."

44

The aged poet repeats the reproaches familiar to
the masters of every art in every age, of the igno-
rant and erroneous judgement of the multitude. ' ' If
it were put to the question of the water-rimer's works
against Spenser, I doubt not," says he, " but they
would find more suffrages:" and he concludes with
the complaint that " Poetry in this latter age hath
proved but a mean mistress to such as have wholly
addicted themselves to her," though " they who
have but saluted her on the bye, and now and then
rendered their visits, she hath done much for, and
advanced in the way of their own professions, both
the law and the gospel, beyond all they could have
hoped or done for themselves without her favor."

After the death of Shakespeare, no one had ap-
peared to contest the supremacy of Jonson in the
drama, till Massinger printed in 1622 his noble
tragedy of the Virgin Martyr: the drama in fact
was rapidly declining from its state of unrivalled
prosperity and glory; and Shirley, the immediate
successor of Massinger, was destined to close the
long and brilliant catalogue of the masters of the
earliest school of English dramatists.

Among the first and most natural results of the
intellectual progress of j^he age, was an extension
of the established plan of education, as far at least
as respected youths of family and fortune exempted
by their station from an observance of the routine
of professional instruction. In Peacham's " Com-
plete Gentleman," addressed to his pupil Thomas
Howard, fourth son of the earl of Arundel, we

45

possess a summary of the acquirements at this time
necessary to a man of quality desirous of doing
honor to his rank, interesting from the topics of
comparison and reflection which it is formed to
suggest. This writer treats in some preliminary
chapters, on the duties of parents to their children
respecting education, and points out prevailing
errors. He stigmatizes the class of schoolmasters
as often ignorant and incompetent, and generally
chargeable with a high degree of ill-manners and
even barbarity towards their pupils. Ingenuous
youths, he well observes, cannot brook such con-
tempt as to be called by opprobrious names, and
" which is more ungentlemanly, nay barbarous and
inhumane, pulled by the ears, lashed over the face,
beaten about the head with the great end of the rod,
smitten upon the lips for every slight offence with
the ferula, — not offered to their fathers' scullions
at home." Domestic tutors, however, he represents
as usually still worse; ignorant and mean-spirited
persons, engaged by sordid parents at a pitiful
salary, and encouraged to expect their reward from
some family -living to be bestowed as the meed of
their servility and false indulgence.

Some parents he blames for the vanity or incon-
sideration which moved them to send to the uni-
versities " young things of twelve, thirteen, or four-
teen, that have no more care than to expect the
carrier, and where to sup on Fridays and fasting-
nights : no further thought of study than to trim up
their studies with pictures, and to place the fairest

46

books in open view, which, poor lads, they scarce
ever opened, or understand not." " Other fathers,
if they perceive any wildness or unstayedness in
their children," hastily despairing of their " ever
proving scholars or fit for any thing else, to mend
the matter, send them either to the court to serve
as pages, or into France and Italy to see fashions
and mend their manners, where they become ten
times worse."

The first branches of study of which he treats
are, " Style and History," which he joins, seeming
to regard a familiarity with correct and elegant
writers as the chief advantage to be derived from
the perusal of the Latin and English historians, the
only ones of whom he makes mention.

Cosmography, or what would now be termed
geography and the use of the globes, he earnestly
recommends and shortly treats of ; after which he
proceeds to geometry. Under this head he amuses
his disciple with an account of several ingenious
mechanical toys, ancient and modern, and of a
11 heaven of silver," showing the motions of all the
heavenly bodies, sent by the emperor Ferdinand to
Soliman the great Turk ; and he endeavours to
show the utility of this science to a country gentle-
man, as connected with a knowledge of land-sur-
veying, building, draining, and the construction of
mills and water- works ; or, should the bent of his
genius prove military, with fortification.

In a chapter on Poetry, he gives brief characters
of the principal Latin poets, and a hurried list of

47

the English ones from Chaucer to Spenser. Whilst
exhibiting with some complacency his own know-
ledge of Greek, it is remarkable that he never pro-
poses to his pupil the acquisition even of the rudi-
ments of that language; nor does he recommend to
his attention any modern tongue excepting French,
though he occasionally quotes Italian. Music he
most earnestly recommends, being, as he says,
"verily persuaded" that those who love it not " are
by nature very ill-disposed, and of such a brutish
stupidity, that scarce any thing else that is good
and savoureth of virtue is to be found in them."
On antiquities, under the three heads of statues,
inscriptions, and coins, he is pretty full ; nor does
he neglect the opportunity of paying a just tribute
to the earl of Arundel in the character of a collector.
He gives many directions for the practice of ' ' draw-
ing and limning," of which arts he declares himself
an earnest votary; but a much more elaborate dis-
sertation follows on the practice of blazonry, which
in that age was probably considered as the branch
of knowledge most peculiarly appropriated, and as
it were professional, to a gentleman. A chapter
Cl On exercises of the body," and another " Of
observations military," conclude this course of in-
struction; the university and foreign travel must
then complete the gentleman.

If we compare this summary, not with our present
affluence of knowledge, but with the penury and
rudeness of the preceding ages, we shall be struck
with the rapid increase of useful and ornamental

48

learning which it implies. It is true indeed that
some of the most accomplished individuals for a
century preceding ; as for example, the English
sovereigns, male and female, from Henry VIII. to
James I. inclusive, were most of them better classics
than the Gentleman of Peacham ; and all were
skilled in theology; a branch of study totally
omitted by this writer; perhaps in consideration of
the Roman catholic predilections of the Howard
family. But Henry VIII. is said to have been
destined to the church, and somewhat of an ecclesi-
astical education might well be judged fitting for
his successors, who were to preside over the national
religion; and few, it is probable, of their nobility
could have emulated them in these scholastic ac-
quirements. On the other hand, geography, with
the elements of astronomy, geometry and mecha-
nics ; the study of antiquities, comprising mythology
and the knowledge of medals, and the theory and
practice of the arts of design, were parts of learning
now almost for the first time enumerated amongst
the becoming accomplishments of an English gen-
tleman ; and what fruitful sources were here opened
of extended utility and elegant delight !

Lord Herbert of Cherbury, a considerable name
in literature and philosophy, in the curious and in-
structive, though boastful narrative of his own life,
which he left to his posterity, has sketched a plan
of education varying in many particulars from that
of Peacham, and on the whole more extensive, being
modelled apparently on his own acquirements. He

49

advises, that after mastering the grammars the pupil
should proceed with Greek, in preference to Latin,
on account of the excellence of the writers of that
language " in all learning." Geography and the
state and manners of nations he would have tho-
roughly learned, and the use of the celestial globe;
judicial astrology for general predictions only, as
having no power to foreshow particular events ;
arithmetic and geometry " in some good measure,"
and rhetoric, and oratory. Of the logic and philo-
sophy of the schools he speaks with the disesteem
natural to a follower of Bacon. Like that great
man also, he seems much addicted to medical
empiricism, boasts of some marvellous cures per-
formed by himself, and enjoins on his descendants
the study of drugs in pharmacopoeias and anti-
dotaries, and the perusal of the best medical authors
from Hippocrates downwards. He speaks of botany
as a pursuit highly becoming a gentleman, and beau-
tifully recommends anatomy as a remedy against
atheism. In moral philosophy and theology he
advises to begin with the Morals of Aristotle, as
what all schools and churches may agree in, and
warmly enforces the general practice of virtue and
repentance for all occasional transgressions, as the
greatest perfection attainable in this life and the
pledge of eternal happiness. On the study of
Christian divinity he is equally silent with Peacham,
but probably from a different cause,

Passing from the accomplishments of the mind
to those of the body, he enlarges with much com*

VOL. i. I

50

placency on the exercises which he had " chiefly
used," riding the great horse, and fencing. Those
which he does not greatly approve are, " riding of
running horses/' because there is " much cheating
in that kind," and hunting, which takes up too
much time. " Dicing and carding" he utterly
condemns.

Female education, in the higher class, appears to
have shared in the extension given to the objects of
liberal pursuit. In classical learning indeed the
reign of James seems to have supplied no rivals to
the daughters of sir Thomas More and sir Anthony
Coke, to Jane Grey, or queen Elizabeth; but lady
Anne Clifford received instructions from Daniel in
history, poetry, and general literature; Lucy Har-
rington, afterwards countess of Bedford, besides
enjoying, as we have seen, the repute of a medalist
and a Latin scholar, was celebrated by sir William
Temple, long after her death, for the singular skill
and taste which she had exercised in laying out the
gardens of Moor Park: lady Wroth, born a Sidney,
was both herself a writer, and distinguished as a
patroness of the learned; a merit shared by other
ladies of rank and fortune. Mrs. Hutchinson, whose
admirable Memoirs of her husband bespeak a mind
not less adorned by culture than elevated by prin-
ciple, informs us that at about the age of seven, she
" had at one time eight tutors in several qualities,
languages, music, drawing, writing and needle-
work."

Sir Matthew Hale, whose sentiments and manners

51

tended towards puritanical strictness, has traced in
his " Advice to his grandchildren," and " Counsels
of a father," a very different plan of instruction and
employment for females, which he represents as a
return to ancient order from modern extravagance,
dissipation and idleness ; and it must, be recollected
that he was writing in the times of Charles II.
He would have them to read well, but " in the
scriptures and good books, not in play -books,
romances and love-books." To learn the use of
the needle, but chiefly in useful kinds of works ;
others c< more curious" are to be learned, if at all,
only to keep them employed and ' ' out of harm's
way." " Excessively chargeable" ones are not to
be used. To learn and practise as there is occasion
all points of good housewifery, as, " spinning of
linen, the ordering of dairies, and to see to the
dressing of meal, salting and dressing of meat,
brewing and baking, and to understand the common
prices of corn, meat, malt, wool, butter, cheese, and
all other household provisions ; and to see and know
what stores of all things necessary for the house are
in readiness, what and when more are to be pro-
vided. To have the prices of linen cloths, stuffs

and woollen cloth to cast about to provide

all things at the best hand; to take and keep ac-
counts of all things; to know the condition of the
poultry about the house (for it misbecometh no
woman to be a hen.- wife.) To cast about how to
order your clothes with the most frugality ; to mend
them when they want, and to buy but when it is

E 2

52

necessary, and with ready money; to love to keep
at home."

To compensate this life of household care the
sole ll recreations of young gentlewomen" which he
allows are, " walking abroad in the fields .... some
work with their needle, reading of histories or
herbals, setting of flowers or herbs, practising their
music."

His plan of instruction for sons is the following.
Till eight, English reading only. From eight to
sixteen the grammar school. Latin to be thoroughly
learned, Greek more slightly. From sixteen to
seventeen at the university or under a tutor, more
Latin, but chiefly arithmetic, geometry and geodesy.
From seventeen to nineteen or twenty, " logic, na-
tural philosophy, and metaphysics, according to the
ordinary discipline of the university;" but after
" some systems or late topical or philosophical
tracts," the pupil to be chiefly exercised in Aristotle.
Afterwards, should he follow no profession, yet to
gain some knowledge of divinity, law. and physic,
especially anatomy. Also of " husbandry, planting,
and ordering of a country farm." He thus recom-
mends a gentleman to live upon his land and cul-
tivate it. "He lives more plentifully, breeds up
his children more handsomely and in a way of in-
dustry, is better loved in his country, and doth more
good in it than he that hath twice the revenue and
lives upon his rents, or it may be in the city."

For recreations he advises, reading of history,
mathematics, experimental philosophy, nature of

53

trees, plants, or insects, mathematical observations,
measuring land; "nay, the more cleanly exercise
of smithery, watchmaking, carpentry, joinery work
of all kinds."

A marking feature of the system of manners at
this period was the extreme disparity in station and
fortune between the eldest son and all the other
children of a gentleman's family. The unfortunate
condition of a "younger brother" is thus vividly
depicted by bishop Earle in his Microcosmography.

" His father .... tasks him to be a gentleman, and
leaves him nothing to maintain it. The pride of
his house has undone him, which the elder's knight-
hood must sustain, and his beggary that knighthood.
His birth and bringing up will not suffer him to de-
scend to the means to get wealth; but he stands at
the mercy of the world and, which is worse, of his
brother. He is something better than the serving-
men; yet they more saucy with him than he bold
with the master, who beholds him with a counte-
nance of stern awe, and checks him oftener than

his liveries If his annuity stretch so far, he is

sent to the university, and with great heart-burning
takes upon him the ministry, as a profession he is
condemned to by his ill-fortune. Others take a
more crooked path, though the king's highway;
where at length their vizard is plucked off, and they
strike fair for Tyburn; but their brother's pride, not
love, gets them a pardon. His last refuge is the
Low-countries, where rags and lice are no scandal,
where he lives a poor gentleman of a company, and

54

dies without a shirt. The only thing that may
better his fortunes is an art he has to make a
gentlewoman, wherewith he baits now and then
some rich widow, that is hungry after his blood.
He is commonly discontented and desperate, and
the form of his exclamation is, That churl my
brother!"

A tract published in 1636, called "The Art of
Thriving," under the form of a dialogue with a
Northamptonshire gentleman, furnishes some curi-
ous hints of the modes of educating and placing
out the portionless sons and daughters of good
families. In the first place, the young heir, whilst
he is still in his father's power, and tractable to his
will, is to be disposed of in marriage <( at the highest
rate," and the fortune of his wife shared amongst the
younger children for their advancement in life. The
other sons, according to their abilities or inclina-
tions, are to become divines, lawyers, physicians,
" sea or land soldiers," courtiers, mechanics or
tradesmen, navigators or husbandmen, and parti-
cular directions are added for the course to be pur-
sued, and the patronage to be sought in every
line, with intimations of the kind of presents, or
" bribes," to be offered to fit persons on proper
occasions. A vein of low cunning not unmixed
with humor, runs through the whole. The young
divine in search of a benefice is to inquire " where
the mattins are read with spectacles, or where the
good man is lifted up into the pulpit." If he stands
for a city living, and preaches a probationary ser-

55

mon, he is to give the leading citizens " the style
of right worshipful, though the best man of the
company be but a wine-cooper, and his judgement
better in claret than in concioclerum a great deal."
Of the common lawyer he says, that if he be " suf-
ficiently able in his profession, he shall want no
practice, if no practice no profit." With allusion
no doubt, to the sway of the Villiers family, he
adds; " The time was that the younger counsel had
some such help as to be a favorite, a kindred; to
marry a niece, cousin, or chambermaid. But those
days be past, and better supply their rooms."

" Physic," he says, " with us is a profession can
maintain but a few; and divers of those more in-
debted to opinion than learning, and (for the most
part) better qualified in discoursing of their travels
than in discerning their patients' maladies. For it
is grown to be a very huswife's trade, where fortune
prevails more than skill."

" If a land soldier think to thrive and rise, by de-
grees of service, from a common soldier to a cap-
tain in this age, alas, he is much deceived." He
goes on to recommend the Low-countries as the best
school of the art military, and mentions that the
sale of commissions is there neither illegal nor
"markable."

Respecting the daughters, our author says, " I
would have their breeding like the Dutch woman's
cloathing, tending to profit only and comeliness.
And though she never have a dancing-schoolmaster,
a French tutor nor a Scotch taylor ... it makes no

56

matter. For working in curious Italian purles, or
French borders, it is not worth the while. Let

them learn plain works of all kind Instead of

song and music, let them learn cookery and laundry,
and instead of reading sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia,
let them read the grounds of good huswifery. I
like not a female poetresse at any hand.

" If the mother of them be a good huswife and
religiously disposed, let her have the bringing up
of one of them. Place the other two forth betimes.

The one in the house of some good merchant

or citizen of civil and religious government ; the
other in the house of some lawyer, some judge, or
well-reported justice, or gentleman of the country.

In any of these she may learn what belongs

to her improvement, for sempstry, confectionary,
and all requisites of huswifery. She shall be sure
to be restrained from all rank and unfitting liberty.

A merchant's factor, or a citizen's servant of

the better sort, cannot disparage your daughters
with their society. And the judges', lawyers', and
justices' followers, are not ordinary serving men, but
of good breed, and their educations for the most

part clerkly Your daughter at home will

make a good wife for some yeoman's eldest son,
whose father will be glad to crown his sweating
frugality with alliance to such a house of gentry.

For your daughter at the merchant's and her

sister, if they can carry it wittily, the city affords
them variety. The young factor being fancy-caught
in his days of innocence, and before he travel so far

57

into experience as into foreign countries, may lay
such a foundation of first love in her bosom as no
alteration of climate can alter. So likewise may
Thomas, the foreman of the shop, .... be entangled
and belimed with the like springes. . . . With a little
patience your [other] daughter may light upon some
counsellor at law, who may be willing to take the
young wench, in hope of favor with the old judge.
An attorney will be glad to give all his profit of a
Michaelmas term but to woo her through a crevice.
And the parson of the parish, being her lady's
chaplain, will forswear eating of the pig for a whole
year for such a parcel of gleb land at all times. "a

The progress of society was fast leaving behind
the manners and institutions of the feudal ages.
Ben Jonson in one of his masques, had poetically
represented the Genius of Chivalry as starting from
a lethargic slumber at the name of prince Henry;
but the revival was transient, and he may be said
to have closed his eyes for ever on the tomb of that
lamented youth. The lance, nearly disused in ac-
tual warfare, was couched no longer in the listed
field, henceforth tilts and tournaments were seen no
more. That it is to a more general cause than the
personal character 6f king James, whose aversion
to war and duelling might be thought likely to ex-
tend to the games which were their image, that this
cessation is to be ascribed, appears from the fact of
their abolition nearly at the same time in France,

* Somerss Tracts, vii. 187, et seq.

58

under that gallant and warlike monarch Henry IV.
Marshal Bassompierre, in the journal of his own life,
mentions a tilting in the lists which was held in
1605 as the only one during this reign. The mar-
shal on that occasion received a challenge to break
three lances in the open field; an antiquated species
of combat of which there had been no example in
France for a hundred years. In the trial of skill
which ensued, he was dangerously wounded by the
glancing of a spear, and the king would never give
his consent to the repetition of so dangerous a sport;
nor was the practice revived by his successor.

Though checked by the laudable vigilance of
king James and his council, a savage species of
duel in which the seconds, often several on a side,
were expected to take part with their principals,
was still frequent. Nor was this the only relic of
primitive ferocity in the manners of the people. It
was still the custom for gentlemen to go constantly
armed ; and in what manner they often exercised
their weapons we may learn from what is said in
Microcosmography of " a Sergeant or Catchpole."
— * e The common way to run from him is to run
thorough him, which is often attempted and achieved,
and no man is more beaten out of charity. He is
one makes the streets more dangerous than the
highways, and men go better provided in their
walks than their journey. He is the first handsel
of the young rapiers of the Templers, and they are
as proud of his repulse as an Hungarian of killing
a Turk.'1 That even ladies bore the " household

59

sceptre" somewhat rudely, may be inferred from
the same book; where it is said of a " she-precise
hypocrite:" " She overflows so with the bible that
she spills it upon every occasion, and will not
cudgel her maids without scripture."

It was a considerable point gained, that every
thing fierce or boisterous was now banished from
the diversions of the court. These chiefly consisted
of plays, masques, revels and balls, followed by
splendid banquets. Something of a romantic spirit
they still retained, a last memory of chivalry, but
pomp and luxury were their principal characteristics.
The cruel combats of the cock-pit, prohibited by
Elizabeth, were indeed revived and diligently fre-
quented by her successor ; but the ruder, if not
more inhuman sports of the bear-garden, appear to
have been no longer patronized by the court, nor
often witnessed by ladies. Even the chace, though
passionately followed by James himself, and by
most of the rural gentry, was no longer an object
of paramount or universal interest to the highest
class of society, which now comprised many indi-
viduals whose manners were refined and their leisure
occupied by literature and the elegant arts; many
also whose attention was largely shared by the pur-
suits of politics and the pleasures of the town.

The gradations of rank, down to the termination
of the reign of Elizabeth, had remained fenced about
with all the jealous precautions of the ancient feudal
aristocracy. The liberal maxim that in the inter-
courses of society all gentlemen are to be regarded

60

as equals, had not yet obtained currency even in
France, where it was first promulgated. In the
mansions of the principal English noblemen guests
were usually entertained at three different tables,
answering to the degrees of lords, knights and gen-
tlemen; and that it was by no means the general
rule for commoners to partake of the same fare with
their titled host, may be inferred from the exception
recorded by Ben Jonson in his "Address to Pens-
hurst/' the seat of the earl of Leicester ; a house
long consecrated to the Muses and propitious to
their votaries;

" Where comes no guest but is allowed to eat
Without his fear, and of thy lord's own meat ;
Where the same bread and beer, and self-same wine
That is his lordship's shall be also mine."

We find sir John Hollis, one of the most wealthy
and considerable knights in England, and whose
heir actually purchased under James the title of earl
of Clare, refusing to marry his daughter to the earl
of Cumberland, because he would not " be obliged
to stand cap in hand to his son-in-law;" and so far
was it from being accounted any disparagement to
belong to the household of a person of rank and
consequence, that Peacham deems it necessary to
admonish his pupil, a Howard, not to consider men
as ennobled, or made gentle in blood, "because they
followed some great person." But the whole course
of James's conduct had tended to disturb ancient
order, to confound established distinctions, and as
it were, to smooth away the steps of honor into an

61

almost imperceptible slope. The lavish hand with
which he distributed not only knighthood but peer-
ages in the beginning of his reign, and the open
manner in which dignities were afterwards set to
sale by his courtiers, the creation of the order of
baronets, the intermingling of Scotch peers with
English without any formal adjustment of pre-
cedency between them, and lastly, his practice of
conferring Scotch and Irish peerages on English-
men often of mean birth and small estate, might
seem the results of a deliberate plan for lessening
the importance of the ancient baronage of England,
though they were more probably the uncalculated
results of his facile disposition, and the embarrass-
ments of his treasury. In fact, the times were long
passed when a king of England could view with
reasonable jealousy the power of the greatest amongst
his nobles ; a far more real danger to royal autho-
rity was in the extension of the privileges of peerage
to individuals free from the prejudices, or strangers
to the maxims, of the old hereditary aristocracy,
Osborn observes, that through the introduction of
so many new men into the house of lords, it began
to participate in all the "humors" of the commons.
"The ancient nobility/' he adds, ' c never carried
their opposition to kings so high, being in their
greatest fury and pride wise enough to remember
the plume of state could not be ruffled without put-
ting in disarray all their smaller feathers."

From this survey of the commerce, the arts, the
luxury, the literature, the education and the manners

62

of the age, we may certainly conclude the general
state of the country at the accession of Charles I.
to have been highly prosperous and rapidly im-
proving. To its felicity however an important alloy
was found in the abuses which had crept into the
administration of justice and every other department
of civil government, through the rapacity and cor-
ruption of men in power, and the arbitrary spirit of
the prince, which inclined him to disdain the limits
of law and the control of parliament ; and also in
the oppression to which large bodies of peaceable
subjects were exposed through the operation of un-
just and cruel laws enacted for the enforcement of
religious conformity.

From many signs and tokens sagacity might have
predicted, that whatever might be the personal qua-
lities of the successor of James I., it was on con-
flicts between the maxims of passive obedience in
church and state, and the rising spirit of civil and
religious liberty amongst a moral and enlightened
people, that the historic interest of his reign and the
crisis of his fate, must turn.

CHAPTER III.

1625.

Expectation of change of measures disappointed. — Buckingham re-
tains his power. — Lord keeper Williams disgraced by his influ-
ence.— Marriage treaty hastened. — Parliament summoned. — Fu-
neral of king James preceded by his son's marriage. — Embassy
of Buckingham to conduct the bride. — His splendid appearance
and intrigue with the French queen. — Letter of Mary de' Medici
to her daughter. — Meeting of the king and queen. — Description
and anecdotes of her. — Plague in London. — Meeting of parlia-
ment.— King's speech demanding supply. — Commons though dis-
satisfied grant two subsidies. — King's ungracious carriage.-^-
Fears of popery. — Montague's book censured in parliament.
King's interference. — Parliament adjourned to Oxford. — Ships
lent to the king of France. — Parliament incensed. — King demands
supply. — Buckingham attacked by the commons. — Parliament dis-
solved.— Accounts of the plague. — Loan imposed. — Cadiz expedi-
tion.— Embassy of Buckingham to the Hague. — Earl Holland
dissuades him from visiting France. — Williams deprived of the
seals and banished to his diocese.— 'King in want of money. —
Writs for a new parliament.

J_ HE parentage and birth-place of king James, his
personal qualities, and the general course of his
policy foreign and domestic, had all conspired to
render his rule generally and profoundly distasteful
to the English nation; and any appearances of cor-
diality with which the accession of a second Stuart
might be hailed, seem to have been principally at-
tributable to the hope of some important change of
men and measures under a new reign,

64

Buckingham had already forfeited his short-lived
popularity. His supposed merit in the breach of
one catholic marriage being cancelled by the zeal
which he had evinced in negotiating another, and
his eagerness for the declaration of a war with Spain
being neutralized by the slackness with which he had
suffered it to be carried on, the odium formerly ex-
cited by his arrogance, his arbitrary conduct, and
his monopoly of power, places, and honors had
returned with redoubled vehemence ; and it had
become the general wish that the downfall of this
imperious favorite might supply an omen to the
coming reign. But the first steps of the new sove-
reign were formed to disappoint this hope.

In his progress from Theobalds to London, on
the day after his father's decease, Charles was ac-
companied in his carriage by the duke, and by Dr.
Preston, the chaplain whom he had lately given
him ; and at his first privy council no change of the
slightest political importance was made in the mem-
bers of the board. Bishop Williams, the sole great
officer of state whom the personal favor of king
James had sustained against the declared hostility
of Buckingham, received the empty or sarcastic
compliment of a command to preach that monarch's
funeral sermon ; but he was called no more to the
council; on the third day of the reign he was
menaced in the king's presence with an impeach-
ment, and he was soon after informed that the duke
loudly threatened to deprive him of the office of
lord keeper ; — a striking proof of the confidence of

G5

this minister in the augmentation of his own autho-
rity by the change of masters.

The treaty for the royal marriage proceeded with-
out the slightest pause; letters on this business
being dispatched on the very morning after king
James's death; and it was soon understood that the
war with Spain was now to be prosecuted with fresh
vigor. So impatient indeed was Charles to obtain
the requisite supplies, that he proposed to reassem-
ble the old parliament; but being informed by the
lord keeper that the legal existence of this body
ceased with the life of the sovereign by whose au-
thority it was convoked, he contented himself with
commanding writs to be issued for a new election
at the shortest possible notice. This measure like-
wise was condemned for its precipitation by Wil-
liams, who, much better acquainted than his master
with the state of public opinion, earnestly recom-
mended that " the usual means " should previously
be taken for making the elections fall on persons
acceptable to the court. But the adviser being
suspected, his suggestions were of course disre-
garded, and the young king and his rash minister
were left to learn too late how far it exceeded their
power and skill to direct the votes of an independent
and purely-chosen house of commons a.

King James's body was conveyed from Theobalds
to Somerset House, where it was still lying in state
when, on May 1st, the nuptials of his son and suc-

a Racket's Life of Williams, part ii. p, 5.
VOL. I. F

66

cessor were celebrated at Paris. The funeral was
performed on the 7th of the same month, the royal
bridegroom sustaining the part of chief mourner ;
and it was merely an intrigue of the papal nuncio,
who sought to detain Henrietta at Amiens till she
should have performed a solemn act of penance for
consenting to marry a heretic prince without a dis-
pensation from Rome, which postponed till June 12
the landing of the bride, and the consequent public
rejoicings.

The duke of Buckingham was sent ambassador
extraordinary to Paris, for the purpose of witness-
ing the marriage and conducting the queen to En-
gland. He declined the honor of officiating as his
master's proxy, probably on account of some un-
settled punctilio, and that office devolved in conse-
quence on the duke of Chevreuse, a prince of the
house of Loraine, distantly related to the royal
family of Scotland through Mary of Guise ; but all
the display was made by the English favorite, who
exhibited on the occasion a pomp and magnificence
which could not easily have been exceeded by the
king in person; in fact it was believed by the French
that the very crown jewels were lent him for his
own wearing*. We are likewise informed, that of
twenty-seven suits prepared for his use, the richest,
— one of white velvet set all over with diamonds, —
was valued at 80,000/. exclusive of a feather of
great diamonds, and a hatband, sword, girdle, and

a Motteville, Mem, d'Anne d'Autriche.

G7

spurs set with the same. He had three coaches
lined with velvet, covered with gold lace, and drawn
by eight horses each, and his train is said to have
amounted to six or seven hundred persons, many
of them distinguished by rank and family, and all
gorgeous with gold, gems, velvet, silks, and em-
broidery. This blaze of magnificence which assorted
well with the distinguished beauty of his counte-
nance, the symmetry of his commanding person,
and the haughty graces of his manner and deport-
ment, called forth enthusiastic plaudits at the court
of France, and raised to such a height the presump-
tion of this spoiled child of nature and fortune, that
disdaining all meaner conquests, he aspired, with
a strange openness, to the favors of Anne of Austria
herself, queen consort of France. This princess,
then in the bloom of youth and beauty, and deeply
imbued with the romantic gallantry of her native
court of Spain, neglected by her melancholy hus-
band and insignificant at his court, was by no means
displeased to witness the effect of her charms on
the brilliant stranger. She, as well as the queen
mother, thought proper to accompany the royal
bride as far as Amiens, and the facilities of inter-
course afforded by the journey were sedulously im-
proved by Buckingham. On one occasion he joined
her as she was walking in the garden of the house
where she was lodged; and her attendants, who
were much in his interests, retiring out of sight, the
freedom of his behaviour became so extreme, that
the queen's cries of alarm quickly compelled them

r2

68

to return for her protection. Even after this scan-
dalous scene, which caused the speedy dismissal of
several of the queen's household, she permitted him
to take a tender farewell of her as she sat in her
carriage with the princess of Conti, who afterwards
confessed that the looks of the queen testified at
least compassion for the despair which he exhi-
bited.

Hurried away by the violence of his passion, or,
more probably, by the headlong will which governed
him, Buckingham afterwards swore that he would
see and speak with that lady again in spite of all
the power of France ; and regardless of the threats
of assassination thrown out against him by the cour-
tiers of Louis XIII., he actually quitted upon the
road the queen of England, whom it was his duty
to attend, returned post-haste to Paris, on some
pretext of a secret negotiation, hastened to the
chamber of Anne, who had been prepared to expect
his visit, threw himself on his knees by her bedside,
and acted a scene of frantic passion which ended in
his being pushed out of the room by the lady in
waiting a.

This extraordinary intrigue appears to have ex-
erted a powerful influence over the public relations
of the two countries, and it seems almost equally
difficult to conceive that Charles could have been

a See for all these particulars the " Memoires " of Madame de
Motteville, by whom the story is no doubt told in the most lenient
manner for the reputation of her royal mistress.

69

kept in ignorance of the intolerable conduct of the
duke, or that, knowing it, he could have failed to
visit it with exemplary marks of his royal displea-
sure.

At Amiens, where Mary de' Medici took leave
of her daughter Henrietta, she presented her with
a letter in her own name and hand- writing, but of
which Richelieu was the real author. This docu-
ment has fortunately been preserved to the present
time, and it is on various accounts so curious and
important that an abstract of its contents may here
claim a place.

After some general exhortations to piety and de-
votion, and customary phrases on the nothingness
of this world compared with eternity, the princess
is enjoined to recollect that she is a daughter of the
church, and that this is the most exalted title she
can ever bear ; and to pray constantly that the pre-
cious gifts of faith and grace may be preserved to
her, and that she may rather lose her life than fall
from them. She is reminded of the devotion of
her ancestor St. Louis, and exhorted to be, like
him, firm and zealous in her religion, and never to
listen to anything, or suffer anything to be said in
her presence contrary to her faith. " We have the
promise," it is added, " of the late king of Great
Britain and the king his son, that such things shall
not be said ; but, on your part, you must show so
firm a resolution, and such severity on this point,
that any one making such an attempt may perceive
at once that you cannot endure such license ; your

70

zeal and courage will be properly exerted on this
matter; and with the knowledge you possess of every
thing necessary to your salvation, your humility
will be approved if you shut your ears against all
discourse on religion, leaving the church to speak
for you." To confirm her faith, she is recommended
to open her mind to those who have the care of her
conscience, to frequent the sacraments, and to com-
municate on the first Sunday of every month, and
at all the feasts of Jesus Christ and of his holy
mother, to whom, as being named after her, she is
exhorted to pay a peculiar devotion.

The next duties enjoined upon her respect the
catholic subjects of her husband, whom she is so
to patronize with him that they may not relapse
into the misery whence her marriage had rescued
them : she is to be to them another Esther, who
had the grace from God to be the defence and
deliverance of her people by her intercession with
Ahasuerus. " Through them," she is told, " God
will bless you even in this world ; all that you do
for them he will account as done unto himself.
Forget them not, my daughter, God has sent you
into that country for them, for they are his people,
who have suffered many years; welcome them with
affection, listen to them with willingness, protect
them with assiduity ; it is your duty ; they are
worthy of regard not only on account of the afflic-
tions they have endured, but still more for the sake
of the religion in the cause of which they have suf-
fered."

71

In treating of her duties to her husband, she is
told, that she ought to love his soul and to seek his
salvation, and daily to pray, and to cause special
prayer to be made, that God would draw him to
the true religion, in which, and even for which, his
grandmother died. " She has this wish for her
grandchild in heaven, and it ought to be your ardent
desire on earth; it is one of the designs which God
has respecting you ; he will make you the Bertha
of our days; she, like you a daughter of France, like
you a queen of England, obtained by her holy life
and her prayers the gift of faith for her husband
and for the city which you are about to enter."
This holy desire, it is suggested, ought to be a mo-
tive with her to put a force upon her own humor
and submit herself to the will and inclinations of
the king in everything except religion, in which she
is again exhorted to firmness and perseverance, on
pain of her mother's malediction.

In the conclusion of the letter, it is said to be
one of the chief interests of France and England to
be inseparably united, and that the queen should
make herself the bond between them. She is then
enjoined to use with great discretion " the license
which the English manner of living allows to ladies,"
and sound rules are given for her conduct towards
her household, and her own deportment and beha-
viour ; but to these common-places of moral in-
struction, inserted by her crafty counsellors merely
as matters of custom and decorum, it was probably
not expected that she should pay very serious at-

72

tention. The real purport of the letter, to prompt
her to make herself the head of a formidable fac-
tion within her husband's kingdom, was much more
consonant to the temper and inclinations of Henri-
etta, as well as to the secret views of the French
cabinet, and of this fatal suggestion she seems never
to have lost sight a.

The king met his bride at Dover on June 13,
and proceeded with her to Canterbury, and thence
on the following day to Gravesend, where the royal
barge was in attendance to convey them to the
palace of Whitehall. Henrietta was at this time
little more than fifteen years of age, and the small-
ness of her stature made her appear still younger.
Her shape was somewhat awry, and her features
were not regular; a pair of bright black eyes and a
sprightly and agreeable countenance formed there-
fore her chief pretensions to beauty, as a lively style
of talking was her principal claim to the reputation
of talent. She had received no solid instruction,
and was almost totally illiterate. On her first intro-
duction to the king, she kneeled and kissed his hand,
saying, as he raised and cordially embraced her,
that she was come into his kingdom to be at his

a This letter, now first presented to the English reader, has
been published amongst the " Eclair cissements et Pieces Histo-
riques " appended to the great general collection of French M4-
moires, where it is given on the authority of a MS. collection of
the 17th century; but a copy of it has also been found in the
French State Paper Office in the hand- writing of cardinal Riche-
lieu.

73

service and command. Afterwards, gracefully re-
marking that her youth and ignorance of the country
might easily lead her into errors, which however
she would constantly be willing to correct, she
begged as a favor that he would engage always to
let her hear of her faults from himself. He gave
her a promise to this effect, and observed it with
more exactness than she in truth desired ; for be-
neath this air of diffidence and humility, which she
had probably been instructed to assume in the com-
mencement, Henrietta concealed great haughtiness,
an impetuous will, and a turn for intrigue which it
was the business of her French attendants to im-
prove to the utmost.

At the first meal to which the royal pair sat down
together, the queen's confessor, taking his station
beside her chair, warned her not to partake of the
venison and pheasant carved to her by her husband,
because " it was the eve of St. John Baptist, and
was to be fasted, and that she should take heed how
she gave ill example, or a scandal, at her first ar-
rival." Nevertheless, "she eat heartily of both*,"
to the great consolation of the protestant bystand-
ers, who on this slight foundation flattered them-
selves with hopes of her speedy conversion.

Preparations had been made in the city of Lon-
don to celebrate the expected entry of the king and
queen with the accustomed pomps and pageants ;
but all thoughts of this ceremony and all tokens of

8 Ellis's Letters, iii. 198.

74

public rejoicing were broken off by the appearance
of the plague ; a visitation regarded by the people
as a manifestation of the wrath of heaven against a
popish marriage, and the certain omen of a dis-
astrous reign. But no omen was required by men
of sagacity when once they had witnessed the posi-
tions respectively taken by the king and the house
of commons on the meeting of parliament.

This assembly was opened by the king in person
on June 18. It was well noted that he wore the
crown on his head, contrary to the custom of
English kings previously to their coronation, a
solemnity regarded by all who understood the con-
stitution of their country as the election, rather
than the mere recognition, of a sovereign. This
innovation was probably adopted by Charles as an
assertion of the right divine to which, after the ex-
ample of his father, he thought proper to lay claim.
His speech, in marked contrast to the long, ram-
bling, quaint orations of king James, was brief,
plain, and somewhat peremptory. He observed
indeed, with reference to the defect of his utterance,
that he was " not made for much speaking." In-
correctly identifying the present parliament with
the last, he desired to remind them that he was
engaged in a war undertaken by their advice, ex-
pressed a confidence of their support, and required
them to expedite the supplies of which he stood in
need preferably to all other matters, partly on ac-
count of the urgency of his affairs, partly because
the progress of the pestilence rendered their con-

75

tinuance together dangerous to themselves : He
concluded by protesting his attachment to the re-
ligion he professed, which certain ill-disposed per-
sons had called in question.

The commons, conscious of their own strength,
and determined to employ it for the protection of
the people against the progressive encroachments
of royal authority on the ancient constitution of the
country, were little disposed to proceed in the busi-
ness of supply with the expedition which the king
prescribed. Some members thought it reasonable
first to expect the redress of grievances complained
of but not remedied under the former reign ; others
desired an account of the employment of the last
subsidy, granted for the recovery of the Palatinate;
others were anxious for the enforcement of the laws1
against popery, which had lately been illegally sus-
pended by the king's authority; whilst others again
pressed for the repeal of a duty on wines imposed
by the late king without consent of parliament.
But through a natural and becoming desire in the
majority to conciliate the affections of a new sove-
reign, these motions were all for the present over-
ruled, and the house passed a vote for two subsidies,
" as the first fruits of their love to their prince."
The king in return gave a complying answer to
their petition against the catholics, and for the
manner of their supply he returned them thanks,
but let them know that in amount it fell far short
both of his wants and expectations ; he also took
upon him to express surprise that they should en-

76

tertain so much as a thought of interfering with the
levy of the duties on wines, since the amount had
been bestowed in the relief of the Palatine and his
family. ' ' The most that aggrieved the council of
parliament," observes an acute contemporary, "was
that the king's concessions for the good of the peo-
ple came not off cheerfully; he wanted a way indeed
to give a gift, and to make it thank- worthy in the
manner of bestowing*."

In these early transactions we plainly discern the
germs of civil contest, nor were the seeds of religious
dissension more tardy in disclosing themselves.
The king's marriage with a Rom an -catholic princess,
and the large establishment of ecclesiastics, in-
cluding monks and a bishop, which she had been
allowed to bring with her ; — the evident predilec-
tion of Buckingham for the same church, of which
both his mother and his wife were acknowledged
members ; — the late interference exerted for the sus-
pension of the penal laws against priests and recu-
sants ; — slights of various kinds put upon the re-
formed churches abroad, and the hostility which
Charles appeared to inherit from his father against
the calvinistic or puritanical party in his own king-
doms, had all concurred to excite in the English
parliament and people violent suspicions of an in-
tended toleration of catholic worship, or perhaps
even of a meditated reunion between the Anglican
and Romish churches. Neither the declaration of

a Racket's Life of Williams, part ii. p. 9.

77

his attachment to the protestant faith with which
Charles had concluded his first address to the legis-
lature, nor yet his favorable answer to its petition
against the growth of popery, had greatly conduced
to the quieting of these misgivings, because his ac-
tions were plainly at variance with his professions
or promises, and an incident which now occurred
was well adapted to add strength to all the former
jealousies.

Towards the close of the former reign, Richard
Montague, a court divine, had written a book en-
titled, according to the quaint fashion of the times,
" A new gag for an old goose," which, though a
professed answer to a Roman-catholic book called,
"A gag for the new Gospel," leaned so much to
the tenets of that church, that the house of com-
mons then sitting summoned the author to their
bar, but afterwards turned him over to the au-
thority of archbishop Abbot, who prohibited him
from writing more on these topics, and so dis-
missed him. Montague however, encouraged by
Laud, ventured to compose a defence of his book,
which he called " Appello Csesarem," and had de-
signed to present to king James, but on his decease
inscribed to his successor. It was approved by
several bishops, licensed without scruple by a Dr.
Francis White, and published. In this piece, the
Romish was asserted to be a true church, resting
on the same authority and foundations as the En-
glish, and not differing from it in fundamentals,
but only in some points of lesser importance ; the

78

use of images was defended ; the saints were af-
firmed to have knowledge and memory of human
things, and to exercise a peculiar patronage over
certain places and persons ; the real presence was
maintained ; ordination was numbered among the
sacraments ; and confession and absolution, and
the use of the sign of the cross, were approved.
On the other hand, there was much bitterness
against the puritans ; lecturing and preaching were
decried, and even the reading of the scriptures was
alluded to with a sneer. The writer had also paid
homage to the despotic propensities of the king, by
claiming for him a prerogative founded on right
divine and paramount to the laws of the land.

The commons, greatly alarmed at the promulga-
tion of such doctrine, so patronized, appointed a
committee to examine the book, and on receiving
its report, bound Montague in a recognisance of
2000/. to answer such articles of accusation as should
be brought against him. This proceeding roused
the activity of Laud, who, anxious at once for the
diffusion of his own doctrines in religion and govern-
ment, and jealous and disdainful to the last degree
of all authority exerted by the representatives of the
people over ecclesiastical persons or causes, pre-
vailed on two other prelates to join with him in
addressing a vehement letter to the duke of Buck-
ingham, in which they actually went so far as to
declare that it was impossible to conceive how any
civil government could be supported, if the con-
trary of Montague's doctrines should be maintained,

79

and urged him to engage the king to reclaim to
himself the judgement of the cause, as a branch of
his prerogative. The Suggestion was but too wel-
come to the mind of Charles, and he lost no time
in intimating to the house of commons his displea-
sure at their alarming the nation with fears of po-
pery, and especially at their commencing pro-
ceedings against a chaplain of his, without his spe-
cial license previously obtained ; adding, that he
would himself call Montague before the council,
and sentence him according to his deserts. By
this interference the polemic was rescued for a
time from parliamentary animadversion, but with
such a diminution of the confidence and attachment
of the house of commons, as a prudent prince would
have hesitated or refused to incur, even in a much
clearer case, and one of greater consequence.

The alarming progress of the plague in London
now prompted the two houses to petition the king
for a short recess, which he granted ; but in the
hope of inducing them to enlarge their vote of sup-
ply he reassembled them at Oxford about the be-
ginning of August. Unfortunately for this design,
circumstances in the mean time transpired which
seemed to justify the darkest suspicions entertained
of the court, and which confirmed the commons in
requiring a change of men and measures before they
would intrust the king with the application of larger
grants of the public money.

King James, in the last year of his reign, had
consented to accommodate his ally Louis XIII. with

80

the loan of a ship of war called the Vanguard and
seven armed merchantmen to be employed against
Genoa ; but afterwards suspecting that it was de-
signed to use them in the blockade of the hugonot
fortress of Rochelle, he had given directions that the
crews should be chiefly composed of English, in
order to keep the power over them still in his own
hands. After the accession of Charles, these ships,
by a secret understanding with the French ambas-
sador entered into by the king and Buckingham,
and carefully concealed from the rest of the coun-
cil, were sent to Dieppe under a contract to fight
for the king of France against any nation but their
own ; Buckingham at the same time having artfully
raised a false report of an accommodation between
the hugonots and their sovereign. Pennington,
the admiral, protested against this contract as sur-
reptitiously obtained, and the commanders of the
merchantmen, resolute not to be thus trepanned
into an odious service, held off, and suffered their
commander to enter the port of Dieppe alone. Here
the French ambassador produced to him letters from
the duke and an order by secretary Conway in the
king's name, for the delivery of the ships into the
power of the French ; but Pennington, not con-
ceiving himself obliged, or even authorized, to dis-
miss his officers and give up the vessels nearly un-
manned, as the ambassador required, refused to
comply without express orders from home. The
ambassador, on this, entered a protest against him
as a traitor to his king and country, and by his me-

81

nacing language so enraged the soldiers and sailors
of the Vanguard, that they broke into tumult, and
weighing anchor set sail for England, declaring that
they would rather be hanged at home than surrender
the ship, or be slaves to the French and fight against
their own religion. The captains and crews of the
merchantmen made the same declaration, and they
all returned to the Downs, whence Pennington wrote
to the duke, complaining of the terms of the con-
tract, announcing the resolution of his squadron,
and desiring further directions. Meantime, depu-
ties had arrived from the duke of Rohan and the
French protestants, deprecating the employment of
English ships for their destruction ; and fair answers
were returned them not only by the body of the
council, but even by the king himself, who never-
theless dispatched an express to Pennington com-,
manding him to surrender the Vanguard to the
French, and to compel the other vessels, " even to
sinking, ' ' to follow the example. The admiral obey-
ed ; he fired after the merchantmen as they attempted
to make their escape, and succeeded in delivering
the whole squadron into the hands of the French,
excepting one ship, with which sir Ferdinando
Gorges broke through and came home. But the
crews, with the exception of a single gunner, unani-
mously refused the service and quitted their vessels,
and Pennington on landing "hasted "to Oxford,
"but, as was voiced, was there concealed till the
parliament was dissolved a."

a Rushworth, vol. i. p. 180.
VOL. I. G

82

In spite of this precaution, accounts of the trans-
action quickly reached the house of commons, and
exceedingly exasperated the general indignation
against Buckingham. The consideration of griev-
ances was resumed; a committee was appointed for
secret affairs, and to inquire into the application of
the last supplies granted to king James ; Montague
was called up for further examination; heavy com-
plaints were made against the duke as lord-admiral
for his neglect to guard the narrow seas, through
which the Turkish corsairs had been enabled to
land and carry off captives from the Western coasts,
and articles of accusation against him were put in
preparation.

The king, on the other hand, pressed the house
for further supplies, and caused estimates of his
debts and of the sums required for the maintenance
of the navy, and for general purposes, to be laid
before them. But all his efforts were unavailing;
in the debates which ensued it was alleged, "that
the public money was ill- employed, and the king
ill-advised; our necessities arose from improvidence :
that although a former parliament had engaged the
king in the war, yet, if things were managed by
contrary designs, the present parliament was not
bound by their act, nor to be carried blindfold into
acts not guided by sound counsels; they had more
reason to petition the king for a stout hand and
sounder counsels to manage his affairs; and that it
was not usual to grant subsidies upon subsidies, and
no grievances redressed." Several particular in-

83

stances of misgovernment were likewise brought
forward as worthy to be represented to the king,
among which neither the ' ' manifold miscarriages
of the duke, the sale of places for enormous sums,
the ships lent against Rochelle, nor the terms of the
French marriage-treaty were forgotten." In a con-
ference with the lords, the commons desired their
concurrence in further representing to the king,
that notwithstanding such an answer from him as
had assured them of the execution of the penal laws,
the royal pardon had been granted on the very next
day to a Jesuit and ten other papists, at the inter-
cession of some foreign ambassador. It was also
observed, that this pardon was passed by immediate
warrant, without payment of fees, and signed by
the principal secretary of state ; and that by it
several statutes provided to keep the subject in due
obedience were dispensed with.

By way of blunting the force of these animad-
versions, Charles now summoned the two houses
to receive a fuller and more explicit assent than he
had yet given to the petition regarding religion,
and the duke, by his command, made them a report
of the state of the fleet, and gave an explanation of
such parts of his own conduct as had been most
called in question. These condescensions made
some impression, and several members urged the
grant of a further supply, on account of the neces-
sity of the king's affairs. But it was answered, that
necessity is a bad counsellor, and a continual argu-
ment for supplies in all parliaments; "that those

84

counsellors who have put the king and kingdom
into such a necessity and hazard ought to answer
for it, whosoever they be; that if the state of things
will not admit a redress of grievances, surely there
is not so much necessity for money;" — meaning
probably, that if the king hesitated to deserve a
grant by redress of grievances, his want of money
ought not to be considered as urgent. It was men-
tioned also, that in the reign of Henry III. there
was one punished for pressing of more subsidies
when subsidies had been granted before in that
parliament a. Convinced at length that it was
vain to expect from this house of commons any
further supplies without the redress of grievances
which he was resolute not to redress ; urged also by
Buckingham, who was both irritated at the reflec-
tions thrown out against him, and alarmed by the
preparations made for his impeachment, Charles
abruptly dissolved the parliament by commission on
August 12. An angry and ill-considered act, by
which he certainly prepared the misfortunes of his
whole succeeding reign !

In the meantime, the augmenting ravages of the
plague had gone on diffusing a general consterna-
tion, heightened by the superstitious ideas which
then infested the minds of men. It was remarked,
that this visitation was severer even than that which
had ushered in the reign of James, which was more
fatal than any former one ; whence it was argued

a Rush worth.

85

that the rule of the present king would prove ca-
lamitous beyond all precedent ; and many persons
beheld in it a mark of the displeasure of heaven
against the ^Egyptia conjux, the " papist and ido-
later " so lately made the consort of the chief of pro-
testant princes. All persons who were able, fled
from London, the centre of contagion, and com-
munication, was as much as possible cut off between
it and the provinces. The pestilence diffused itself
notwithstanding ; the king was deterred from ap-
proaching Windsor by the appearance of the disease
on a yeoman of the guard, and the parliament had
sat in terror even at Oxford. A striking picture of
the desolation of the city is thus drawn by the hand
of a contemporary. ''The plague still raged in
London, so that in one week there died 5000 per-
sons ; it was also spread in many places in the
country. In some families, both master and mis-
tress, children and servants, were all swept away.
For fear of infection, many persons who were to
pay money did first put it into a tub of water, and
then it was taken out by the party that was to re-
ceive it. When the plague was somewhat assuaged,
and there died in London but 2500 in a week, it
fell to judge Whitlocke's turn to go to Westminster
hall, to adjourn Michaelmas term from thence to
Reading ; and accordingly he went from his house
in Buckinghamshire to Horton near Colnbrook, and
the next morning early to Hyde Park corner, where
he and his retinue dined on the ground, with such
meat and drink as they brought in the coach with

86

them, and afterwards he drove fast through the
streets, which were empty of people and overgrown
with grass, to Westminster hall ; where the officers
were ready, and the judge and his company went
straight to the King's bench, adjourned the court,
returned to his coach and drove away presently out
of townV

The noted John Lilly, the astrologer, was at this
time confidential servant, or clerk to a gentleman
who, flying himself from London, left him in charge
of his house and effects; and he thus describes the
mode in which he and others passed away that in-
terval of melancholy vacation. ' ' My master was no
sooner gone down but I bought a base viol, and got
a master to instruct me ; the intervals of time I spent
inbowling in Lincolns-Inn Fields with Wat thecobler,
Dick the blacksmith, and such like companions.
We have sometimes been at our work at six in the
morning, and so continued till three or four in the
afternoons, many times without bread or drink all
that while. Sometimes I went to church and heard
funeral sermons, of which there were then great
plenty. At other times I went early to St. An-
tholin's in London, where there was every morning
a sermon. The most able people of the city and
suburbs were out of town ; if any remained, it was
such as were engaged by parish offices to remain ;
no habit of a gentle-man or woman continued ; the
woful calamity of that year was grievous, people

a Whitlocke's Memorials, p. 2.

87

dying in the open fields and in the open streets.
At last, in August, the bills of mortality had so in-
creased, that very few people had thoughts of sur-
viving the contagion a."

He goes on to mention, that " the Sunday before
the great bill came forth, which was of 5000 and
odd hundreds," there was a sacrament appointed
at St. Clement Danes, at which the communicants
were so numerous that three ministers were em-
ployed in the distribution, two of whom were taken
ill of the plague before the conclusion of the service,
and one died. To the imprudence of thus congre-
gating the people at such a time, the increased mor-
tality which ensued is probably to be attributed.
Lilly elsewhere estimates the deaths in London
during this pestilence at more than 50,000, and
adds, "I do well remember this accident, that going
in July 1625, about half an hour after six in the
morning, to St. Antholin's church b, I met only
three persons in the way, and no more, from my
house over against Strand bridge till I came there ;
so few people were then alive, and the streets so
unfrequented0."

In consequence of the abrupt dissolution of par-
liament, the vote of supply had not passed into an
act, and the subsidies therefore could not legally be
levied. This circumstance, in the previously embar-
rassed state of his affairs, ought perhaps to have

Lilly's Life and Times, p. 17. b In Watling Street

Lilly's Observations on the life and death of K. Charles.

88

sufficed to induce the king to forgo the prosecution
of a war entered upon rashly, and with little prospect
of any advantageous results : but pertinacity was one
of the chief characteristics of Charles's mind; the
natural presumption of youth combined with the
exalted notions of the kingly office in which he had
been educated, to flatter him that his will must con-
stantly triumph over all that opposed it, and he
formed the contrary determination of pursuing his
military designs with redoubled ardor. It thus be-
came necessary for him to hazard the illegal, and
therefore perilous step, of raising upon his subjects
by way of loan a sum equal to the two subsidies.

The people, not ripe as yet for direct resistance to
royal authority, complied in general with the requi-
sition, though reluctantly; and strengthened by this
supply he speedily equipped an armament, consisting
of 80 ships and 10,000 men, destined to make a
descent on the coast of Spain, and intercept the
homeward-bound galleons. It was expected that
the duke, as lord high admiral, would have taken
the command in person ; but he projected for him-
self a more welcome employ, and the appointment
was conferred on Thomas Cecil viscount Wimble-
don, an officer of slender reputation, to whom the
earl of Essex was joined as second in command.

Failure in every way disgraceful, was the result
of this attempt. The want of any preconcerted
plan rendered it necessary to call a council of war
off Cape St. Vincent, and before the jarring opinions
of the commanders could be reconciled, the Spa-

89

niards were prepared against the attack. A landing
was however effected near Cadiz and a fort taken ;
but a store of wine falling into the hands of the
captors, the ill-disciplined soldiery indulged in such
excesses as rendered it impossible to proceed, and a
work of difficulty and danger even to reembark.
The capture of the Plate fleet might still have com-
pensated the failure on land, and richly repaid the
cost of the expedition ; but a pestilential disease
having broken out on board one or two of the ships,
it was speedily communicated to the rest by the
strange imprudence of the commander in causing
the sick to be distributed over the healthy ships ;
and under these circumstances he judged it expe-
dient to sail for England without even awaiting the
arrival of the galleons.

It was whilst the lord-admiral was superintending
the embarkation of the troops for this expedition that
he was summoned back to court by an urgent letter
from the king, reminding him that his journey to
the queen his sister, and to France, daily required
more haste ; for that though the king of Denmark
had lately had good success against the imperialists,
he needed present encouragement, and Mansfelt
without instant help would dissolve to nothing*.
Buckingham, who required no urging, set out im-
mediately on his diplomatic mission, and concluded
at the Hague, then the asylum of the queen of
Bohemia and her children, a league for the reco-

a Miscellaneous State Papers, vol. ii. p. 12.

90

very of the Palatinate, in which several of the
Northern powers took part. To this alliance, it
was agreed that the king of England should invite
his brother of France to accede, and that he should
likewise intercede with him to grant terms of favor
to the hugonots; and Buckingham flattered himself
that under color of negotiating these affairs, he
might be enabled to fulfil his promise, or menace,
of revisiting the lady of his affections. But his
calculations deceived him. Richelieu had a double
motive for excluding him ; the line of policy which
he was commissioned to recommend to the cabinet
of France was opposed to that which this great
minister had determined to pursue, while the suit
of gallantry which he sought occasion to urge, was
deeply offensive to the presumptuous and slighted
passion which the cardinal, in despite of his age and
profession, was yet believed to cherish. The result
was, that the earl of Holland, the most devoted
adherent of Buckingham, and the confident of his
amour, after carefully sounding the dispositions of
the French court, found himself obliged to address
to his patron the unwelcome intimation conveyed
in the following remarkable letter.

* ' My dearest lord,

11 All the joy I have hath such a flatness set upon
it by your absence from hence, as, I protest to God,
I cannot relish it as I ought ; for though beauty and
love I find in all perfection and fulness, yet I vex
and languish to find impediment in our designs and

91

services for you: first, in the business, for I find
our mediation must have no place with this king
concerning a peace. We must only use our power
over those of the religion to humble them to reason-
able conditions, and that done, they would, as far as
I can guess, have us gone, not being willing that we
should be so much as in the kingdom when peace
is made, for fear the protest ants may imagine we
have had a hand in it. For our confederation, made
by you at the Hague, they speak so of it as they
will do something in it, but not so really or friendly
as we could wish. But for these things you allow
me, I trust, to refer you to the general dispatch.

" I now come to other particulars; I have been
a careful spy to observe intentions and affections
towards you. I find many things to be feared, and
none to be assured of a safe and real welcome. For
the [king] continues in his suspects, making (as
they say) very often discourses of it; and is willing
to hear Villanis say that [the queen] hath infinite
affections, you imagine which way. They say there
is whispered among the foolish young bravadoes of
the court, that he is not a good Frenchman who
suffers [you] to return out of France, considering
the reports that are raised. Many such bruits fly
up and down. I have, since my coming, given the
queen-mother, by way of discourse, occasion to say
somewhat concerning your coming ; as the other
night, when she complained to me that things were
carried harshly in England towards France ; I then
said, that the greatest unkindness and harshness

92

came from hence, even to forbid your coming hither,
a thing so strange and so unjust, as our master had
cause, and was, infinitely sensible of it. She fell
into discourse of you, desiring you would respect
and love her daughter; and likewise that she had,
and ever would, command her to respect you above
all men, and follow your counsels, (the matter of
her religion excepted,) with many professions of
value and respect unto your person; but would
never either excuse what I complained of, or invite
you to come upon that occasion. But though neither
the business gives cause to persuade your coming,
nor my reason, for the matter of your safety; yet
know, you are the most happy unhappy man alive,
for [the queen] is beyond imagination right, and
would do things to destroy her fortune, rather than
want satisfaction in her mind. I dare not speak as
as I would; I have ventured I fear too much con-
sidering what practices accompany the malice of
the people here ; 1 tremble to think whether this
will find a safe conveyance unto you. Do what
you will, I dare not advise you; to come is danger-
ous, not to come is unfortunate V

So warned, the duke decided to postpone his visit,
and returned to England disappointed and indignant,
but not as yet disposed to resign as unattainable
the object of his audacious and criminal pursuit.
At home he found the aspect of his affairs scarcely
less disquieting; for though planted on the pinnacle

» Cabala, p. 233.

93

of royal favor, the tide of popular indignation
threatened every moment to sweep him from his
station. That bold, crafty, and persevering strug-
gler for place and influence, bishop and lord keeper
Williams, had continued, notwithstanding the me-
naced dismissal, to profess a willingness to serve the
duke, and through him his sovereign, by promoting
a better understanding between the court and the
house of commons. To this end he had advised that
parliament, instead of being reassembled at Oxford
after its adjournment to conclude the session, should
be at once prorogued, and not summoned again
till Christmas ; when in a new session the king
might without irregularity demand a fresh supply.
In the meantime he engaged, by " undertaking with
the chief sticklers/' to take off their malice against
the duke. This advice had been disregarded; the
meeting at Oxford had proved to the full as unpro-
pitious to the duke and to the policy of his master
as Williams had anticipated ; and hoping that expe-
rience might now give weight to his suggestions, he
presented himself to Buckingham unsent for, and in a
manner forced upon him this sound, but unpalatable
counsel. "Wind up a session quickly: the occa-
sion is for you, because two colleges in the univer-
sity and eight houses in the city are visited with
the plague. Let the members be promised fair and
friendly that they shall meet again after Christmas.
Requite their injuries done unto you with benefits
and not revenge. For no man that is wise will show
himself angry with the people of England

94

Confer one or two of your greatest places upon
your fastest friends: so shall you go less in envy
and not less in power. Great necessities will ex-
cuse hard proposals and horrid counsels At

the close of this session declare yourself to be the
forwardest to serve the king and commonwealth,
and to give the parliament satisfaction. Fear them
not when they meet again in the same body : whose
ill affections I expect to mitigate: but if they pro-
ceed, trust me with your cause when it is trans-
mitted to the house of lords, and I will lay my life
upon it to preserve you from sentence, or the least
dishonor. This is my advice, my lord ; if you like
it not, truth in the end will find an advocate to de-
fend it." The duke replied no more but, " I will
look whom I trust to ; " and flung out of the cham-
ber with menaces in his count enanceV

After this repulse the bishop made one vigorous
effort to supplant the favorite whom he was not
allowed to guide. This was on occasion of the re-
solution taken at court to dissolve the parliament,
when he, "with reasons, with supplications, with
tears," besought the king to remember that his
father, in his hearing, " had charged him to call
parliaments often, and to continue them, though
their rashness sometimes did offend him; that in
his own experience he never got good by falling out

with them But chiefly, sir," says he, " let it

never be said that you have not kept good cor-

a Racket's Life of Williams, part ii. p. 16.

95

respondence with your first parliament. Do not
disseminate so much unkindness through all the
counties and boroughs of your realm. The love of
the people is the palladium of your crown. Con-
tinue this assembly to another session, and expect
alteration for the better. If you do not so, the next
swarm will come out of the same hive." To this the
lords of the council did almost all concur ; but it
wanted Buckingham's suffrage, who was sure that
the king's judgement would follow him against all
the table*."

This pertinacity of opposition filled the measure
of the lord keeper's offences in the eyes of Bucking-
ham, and he would no longer suspend his threatened
vengeance. In the month of October the king, who
had now no will separate from that of his minister,
sent to Williams an order to resign the seals, and
also to retire to his bishopric of Lincoln. To the
first mandate, the prelate bowed with due submis-
sion to his master's will; but against the last, as a
disgrace arbitrarily and unjustly imposed on one
who had been accused of no offence, he remon-
strated with a firm and manly spirit; and the re-
striction was in consequence softened down to a
prohibition of presenting himself at the council
board uncalled-for ; to which he submitted. Sir
Thomas Coventry, attorney general, was appointed
lord keeper in his stead, and proved himself an ob-
sequious instrument of arbitrary power.

a Racket's Life of Williams, part ii, p. 16.

96

Buckingham had thus succeeded, almost without
an effort, in banishing from public life the importu-
nate monitor who had dared to sound in his own
ears and those of his master denunciations of ap-
proaching dangers ; but the dangers themselves were
not the less real; they were advancing with accele-
rated pace and accumulating on every hand. The
Cadiz expedition had failed from obvious and gross
mismanagement, and indignation was strongly ex-
cited against the minister who had entrusted to
hands so incompetent the execution of a plan so
ill-digested; whilst the enormous cost thus fruitlessly
incurred, had oppressed the exchequer with a fresh
load of debt. The coronation, already deferred till
the people began to suspect some sinister design in
its postponement, must speedily be celebrated at
an expense which could ill be afforded. Large sums
were required for carrying on the war, for the main-
tenance of a splendid court, and to discharge former
debts. At the same time it appeared that all irre-
gular modes of levying money on the people had
been carried as far as could be ventured, since in
order to raise a present supply, Charles had been
reduced to commit a great part of his plate and
jewels to the hands of Buckingham, by whom it
had been carried to the league and there pawned.
Thus, the first parliament of the reign had no sooner
been dissolved in displeasure, than every member of
the administration confessed the absolute necessity
of assembling a new one, which it was not apparent
that the court possessed any effectual means of

97

rendering more obsequious to the king and less
hostile to the minister than its predecessor.

The coronation, announced for Christmas, was
further postponed to Candlemas, parliament was
summoned to meet two days later in February, and
the year closed upon this eventful prospect.

VOL. I.

H

98

CHAPTER IV.

1625. 1626.

Disagreement of king and queen. — French attendants. — Letter of
king to Buckingham. — Intrigues of Blainville — of English catho-
lics. — Order to disarm them. — Letter of court news. — Wentworth
and others compelled to serve as sheriffs. — Coronation. — Williams
forbidden to attend. — Laud directs the ceremony. — Particulars
of it. — Queen not crowned nor ambassadors present. — French
ambassador in disfavor. — Parliament opened. — Servile speeches
of the lord keeper and the speaker. — Grievances considered. —
Charges against Buckingham. — Interposition of the peers. — King
presses for supplies. — Disputes between king and commons. — Ad-
journment. — Measures of Buckingham against peers. — Oppressive
treatment of Williams — of earl of Bristol. — Countercharges of
Buckingham and of Bristol who is protected by parliament. —
Committal of earl ofArundel. — House of lords obtains his libera-
tion.— -Impeachment of Buckingham. — Members sent to the Tower.

— Buckingham chancellor of Cambridge. — King demands supply.

— Commons complain respecting recusants, — Require the removal
of Buckingham* — Dissolution of parliament. — Remonstrance of
the house of commons, — King's proclamation against it.

the various infelicities which clouded the mind
of Charles amid the prime of youth and the first
lustre of royalty, none appear to have wounded his
peace so deeply as those which he experienced in
the character of a husband; and that such was the
case is honorable alike to his principles and his
heart. His was a temper formed to cherish stead-
fastly one strong attachment; and whilst he faith-

99

fully endeavoured to fix it on the wedded partner of
his throne and life, he found a malignant influence
perpetually interposed to check his purpose, and
forbid the union of their hearts. This influence
was that of the crowd of French priests and attend-
ants which the queen had been preposterously per-
mitted to bring with her, who availed themselves of
the pretext of securing her religion to form a close
cabal around her, keeping all the English at a di-
stance, while they moulded her to their own purposes
and those of France, — purposes dangerous to the
tranquillity of the state, and equally inconsistent
with the rights and the happiness of her husband,
and her own true and permanent interests. The
king's disgust at their proceedings was not long a
secret. In a private letter of news dated June 1 625,
we already read ; " These priests have been very
importunate to have the chapel finished at St.
James's, but they find the king very slow in doing
that. His answer, one told me, was, that if the
queen's closet, where they now say mass, were not
large enough, let them have it in the great chamber;
and if the great chamber were not wide enough,
they might use the garden ; and if the garden would
not serve their turn, then was the park the fittest
placeV The same person writes soon after; "The
friars so frequent the queen's private chamber, that
the king is much offended, and so told them, having,
as he said, granted them more than sufficient liberty

a Ellis's Letters, iii. 202.
H2

100

in public." The following trait of the queen's be-
havior is added: " The queen, howsoever very little
of stature, yet of a pleasing countenance, (if she be
pleased,) but full of spirit and vigor ; and seems of
a more than ordinary resolution. With one frown,
divers of us being at Whitehall to see her, (being at
dinner, and the room somewhat overheated with the
fire and company,) she drave us all out of the cham-
ber. I suppose none but a queen could cast such
a scowla."

Buckingham was the chosen depositary of his
master's domestic disquiets, and has probably been
justly charged with aggravating differences between
the royal pair. In a letter addressed to him just
before the sailing of the Cadiz expedition, the king
thus expresses himself: " As for news, my wife be-
gins to mend her manners ; I know not how long it
will continue, for they say it is by advice; but the
best of all is, they say the Monsieurs desire to re-
turn home; I will not say this is certain, for you
know, nothing they say can be sob." It proved
indeed untrue that the French attendants were de-
sirous to quit a country which opened so wide a
field for their intrigues, and Charles in consequence
formed, so early as November 1625, a firm resolu-
tion to expel them, which he thus imparted to
Buckingham whilst on his embassy to Holland,
whence, as we have seen, he expected to obtain
permission to proceed to Paris.

d Ellis's Letters, iii. 206. l) Miscel State Papers, ii. 12,

101

' ' Steenie :

"I writ to you by Ned Clarke, that I thought
I would have cause enough in short time to put
away the Monsieurs, either by attempting to steal
away my wife, or by making plots with my own
subjects. For the first, I cannot say certainly whe-
ther it was intended, but I am sure it is hindered;
for the other, though I have good grounds to believe
it, and am still hunting after it, yet seeing daily the
maliciousness of the Monsieurs, by making and
fomenting discontentments in my wife, I could
tarry no longer from advertising of you that I mean
to seek for no other grounds to cashier my Mon-
sieurs, having for this purpose sent you this other
letter, that you may, if you think good, advertise
the queen-mother with my intention; for this being
an action that may have a show of harshness, I
thought it was fit to take this way, that she, to
whom I have many obligations, may not take it
unkindly, and likewise I think I have done you no
wrong in my letter, though in some place of it I
may seem to chide you. I pray you send me word,
with what speed you may, whether ye like this course
or not, for I shall put nothing of this in execution
while I hear from you. In the meantime I shall
think of the convenientest means to do this business
with the best mine, but I am resolved it must be
done, and that shortly3."

The accompanying letter, chiefly remarkable for
the solicitude evinced by the writer to represent his

* Harleian MSS. 6988.

102

friend and confident in the light of a peacemaker,
is as follows:

"Steenie:

" You know what patience I have had with the
unkind usages of my wife, grounded upon a belief
that it was not in her nature, but made by ill-
instruments, and overcome by your persuasions to
me that my kind usages would be able to rectify
those misunderstandings. I hope my ground may
be true; but I am sure you have erred in your
opinion, for I find daily worse and worse effects
of ill offices done between us, my kind usages
having no power to mend any thing. Now neces-
sity urges me to vent myself to you in this parti-
cular, for grief is eased being told to a friend ; and
because I have many obligations to my mother-in-
law (knowing that these courses of my wife are
so much against her knowledge that they are con-
trary to her advice,) I would do nothing concerning
her daughter that may taste of any harshness without
advertising her of the reasons and necessities of the
thing, therefore I have chosen you for this purpose,
because you have been one of the chief causes that
have withheld me from these courses hitherto, you
may well be one of my chief witnesses that I have
been forced into these courses now. You must
therefore advertise my mother-in-law that I must
remove all those instruments that are causes of
unkindness between her daughter and me, few or
none of her servants being free of this fault in one
kind or other; therefore I would be glad that she
might find a means to make themselves suitors to be

103

gone. If this be not, I hope there can be no excep-
tions taken at me to follow the example of Spain
and Savoy in this particular a. So requiring of thee
a speedy answer in this business, for the longer it is
delayed the worse it will grow, I rest &c.b"

With respect to the plot which the king suspected
for stealing away his wife, it is remarkable that
Madame de Motteville mentions having been told
long after by Henrietta herself, that soon after her
marriage, finding her situation in England uneasy,
she had intended to ask her husband's permission
to return to France on a visit to her mother, in
which design she was encouraged by Buckingham,
who hoped to be appointed to attend her. It is
probable that it was the refusal of Louis to receive
the duke at his court which disconcerted this in-
trigue, and that Charles always remained in igno-
rance of the part taken in it by his ungrateful and
perfidious favorite. The patience of this prince was
not however so nearly exhausted by the petulance
of his spouse and the insolences of her servants as
he himself imagined ; a proof that Henrietta knew
how to mingle smiles and blandishments with her
frowns, and that she had already made herself an
interest in the affections of her husband. The
French attendants appear to have neither requested
their discharge nor mended their manners; yet he

a The French attendants of the sisters of Henrietta, married to
these countries, had been dismissed; as had also the Spanish ser-
vants of the queen of Louis XIII.

h Harlcian MSS. 6988.

104

suspended for many months their threatened dis-
missal, and he still tolerated the presence of Blain-
ville, the French envoy commissioned to settle
affairs connected with the queen's household and
revenue; a busy intriguer who, while he pretended
to be empowered to treat concerning the accession
of his master to the league against Austria, was in
reality solely intent on fomenting the discontents of
the English catholics, and encouraging the queen in
opposition to the will of her husband. The popu-
lace of London, less forbearing than their sovereign,
repeatedly insulted this emissary in the streets; he
even believed, or affected to believe, his life in
danger from their violence, and the earl of Holland
wrote from Paris that he and his fellow-ambassador
lord Carlisle, were likely to receive harsh treatment
in retaliation of any affronts which might be offered
him.

Emboldened by French protection, the English
catholics inspired the government with so much
jealousy, that sir Thomas Gerard, a Lancashire re-
cusant, was taken into custody on a charge of
treasonable designs, and strict orders were issued
by the council for the seizure of all arms found in
the houses of recusant noblemen and others, and
the execution of the penal statutes against them;
special care however being taken, as secretary Con-
way wrote to Buckingham, to exempt from the
search all persons nearly connected with his grace.

These steps, which like all others tending to cast
a stigma on the Catholics were at this time certain

105

of being hailed with general applause, may probably
be in part regarded as an attempt of the administra-
tion to conciliate popularity against the impending
meeting of parliament, and the resolution taken to
abandon Montague to the resentment of the com-
mons, bore the same aspect. At the same time
however, some measures of an opposite complexion
were adopted, resulting from the personal apprehen-
sions of the duke, and his predominance in the
royal councils.

A letter from sir Robert Ingram to sir Thomas
Wentworth, written immediately after the dismissal
of the lord keeper, thus unfolds the state of parties

at the court. " Coming up here into the

South, I find your and my good friend removed
from his place, and the seal given to sir Thomas

Coventry Another good friend of yours, which

is my lord marshal [the earl of Arundel] hath the
hand of the great duke upon him, who by his means
hath brought the king that he will hardly speak
with him. My lord chamberlain [the earl of Pem-
broke] and he hath been out, but by mediation of
some friends there is a formal peace made between
them. The duke's power with the king for certain
is exceeding great ; and who he will advance shall
be advanced, and who he doth frown upon shall be
thrown down. All the great officers of the kingdom
be now his creatures and at his command. He hath
now brought in sir Robert Heath to be attorney,
and Mr. Shelton to be solicitor. He was and is
possessed that there were four in the higher house,

106

that upon any complaint that should come up of
him to them, that they with all their strength should
set it forwards there. He is likewise possessed that
there was divers combined against him in the lower
house. For them in the higher house, it was my
lord's grace of Canterbury, my lord keeper, my lord
marshal, and my lord chamberlain. For them of
the lower house, he doth conceive there were many
who had their conferences with these four lords and
others, that were depending upon them, among
which you are not altogether freea."

What were the expedients adopted by Bucking-
ham to free himself from the hostility of his oppo-
nents in the upper house will appear in the sequel.
Those whom he principally dreaded in the commons,
were incapacitated from being elected by having the
office of sheriff forced upon them in the manner
related in the following letter, also addressed by
Ingram to sir Thomas Wentworth, of whose eminent
talents and unbounded ambition the duke had thus
early conceived a jealousy which does some honor
to his penetration.
' « Noble sir:

"God give you joy, you are now the great
officer of Yorkshire, but you had the endeavours
of your poor friend to have prevented it. But I
think if all the council that was at court had joined
together in request for you, it would not have pre-
vailed: For it was set and resolved what should be
done before the great duke's going over, and from

a Strafford Letters and Dispatches, i. 28.

107

that the king would not change a tittle. You go
along with good company, five parliament men be-
sides yourself, and a seventh cometh in to prevent
him from doing hurt. Sir Edward Coke is captain,
yourself, sir Francis Seymour, sir Robert Phillips,
sir Guy Palmes, Mr. Edward Alford, and the last,
who was not of the last parliament, is sir William
Fleetwood. The judges proceeded in their course,
and so it went to the king ; but when the names
came to the king, the king declared himself that he
had the names of seven that he would have sheriffs,
and so named them himself and my lord keeper set
them down. It was told me by two counsellors
that in the naming of you, the king said you were
an honest gentleman, but not a tittle to any of the
rest. This much advantage you have that way.
For your being chosen, my poor opinion is, that
there did not any thing befal you in the whole course
of your life that is, and will be, more honor to you
in the public, who speak most strangely of it, &c.a"
The public did indeed " speak strangely" of an act
so offensive in its character, and at the same time
apparently so incompetent to its purpose: the duke,
it might be thought, had taken a very inadequate
measure of the danger which threatened him from the
parliament, if he expected to avert it by the exclu-
sion of half a dozen leading members ; but it was
more to be apprehended that this step, designed for
intimidation, would be followed up by others of a

a Sir afford Letters, i. 29.

108

like nature, and all men looked with anxiety towards
the approaching time of trial.

Some of these compulsory sheriffs conceived that
they might nevertheless be returned members for
any borough out of their own county : this was the
declared opinion of sir Edward Coke himself; and
sir Francis Seymour offered to bring the question
to a decision, by causing Wentworth to be elected
for some place in the West, who in return should
procure for him the representation of a town in
Yorkshire. But this proposal was declined; it was
by no means the intention of Wentworth to sacri-
fice to the popular cause all hope of reconciliation
and future favor at court ; and he prudentially de-
cided, that this was a business in which it was better
to be a spectator than an actor : a judgement of
which his father-in-law the earl of Clare pronounced
his approbation, because, as he expressed it, " we
live under a prerogative government, where book-law
submits unto lex loquens," and that " it is not good
to stand within the distance of absolute power3."

The various preparatives for the coronation now
occupied the attention of the court, and several cir-
cumstances marked strongly the spirit of Charles
and his advisers. An order was issued, directing
all persons possessed of landed property to the
amount of 401. per annum, either to come in and
receive the dignity of knighthood, or compound for
the omission. No one absolutely denied the legality

a Straford Letters, i. 31.

109

of this command; but the great depreciation in the
value of money since the rate of knight's fees had
been fixed, rendered its strict enforcement an act of
great oppression, and the imposition of fines for neg-
lect at discretion, was a violent stretch of prerogative.
The choice of ecclesiastics to prepare and administer
the king's oath, was the next point which afforded
scope for remark ; and in nothing perhaps was the
overbearing and vindictive temper of Buckingham
suffered to display itself more offensively. The
archbishop of Canterbury, his early patron, was
indeed suffered to take his proper place in the cere-
mony, though now classed by the duke amongst
his personal enemies; but Williams, whom he justly
regarded, on account of his superior abilities, as
more formidable, was peremptorily excluded from
all participation in the solemnity. " A coronation,"
says the biographer of this prelate, " being usually
accompanied with a general pardon, should have
cast a frown upon none ; yet his place was not
granted him to do his homage among the spiritual
lords, nor to assist the archbishop at the sacred
parts of that high solemnity, as dean of Westmin-
ster3." The sting of this insult was envenomed by
a seeming compliment. Some articles of the regalia
being reposited in the custody of the dean of West-
minster, by whom they were to be solemnly brought
forth for the king's investiture, it was necessary that
some substitute for him should be appointed, and

a Life of Williams, part ii. p. 67,

110

Williams was requested to nominate one himself
from among the prebendaries of the church. The
snare was manifest ; Laud was one of them ; and
to have passed him by to fix his choice on an eccle-
siastic of lower rank, would have been to affront,
without necessity or advantage, both the bishop and
the duke his patron ; on the other hand, to have
conferred a mark of esteem on his known and in-
veterate foe and rival, would have passed for a trait
of meanness and hypocrisy; he adroitly evaded the
dilemma by transmitting to the king the names of
all the prebendaries, and requesting that his majesty
would make his own election. Laud was imme-
diately named, and although three or four prelates,
with the primate at their head, were appointed to
consult for the arrangement of the ritual, it was in
effect on the bishop of St. Davids alone that the
business devolved ; nor has he escaped heavy im-
putations respecting the manner in which he ac-
quitted himself of the office.

That Laud had altered or omitted some clauses
of the coronation oath favorable to popular rights,
formed afterwards an article of his impeachment ;
but the charge is so far unfounded, that he appears
to have been guided by the precedent of the oath
administered to king James, which was followed
verbatim. It is not denied however, that it was he
who brought back into the ritual an ancient clause,
discontinued for several reigns even before the re-
formation, by which the king was exhorted to give
greater honor to the clergy than the laity, as being

Ill

those who come nearer to the altar than others ;
and another which seemed to ascribe to the king
himself somewhat of a sacred and sacerdotal cha-
racter. He also thought proper to bring forth an
old neglected crucifix and place it conspicuously on
the altar. Buckingham officiated as lord-high-con-
stable on the occasion.

The coronation of Charles, which took place
Feb. 2nd, is described in a contemporary letter as
"one of the most punctual since the conquest;"
but in one principal circumstance of splendor it was
deficient ; the presence and participation of the
queen. We are told by sir John Finet, at this time
assistant master of the ceremonies, that Henrietta
refused to be crowned with her husband, as she must
then have shared in a rite administered by protest-
ant bishops ; she having made previously, without
success, the monstrous demand, that the ceremony
should be separately performed for herself by a pre-
late of her own religion. She would not even ap-
pear in the church as a spectator, but viewed the
procession from a room over the palace gatea. It
appears from other authority, that at this period
there was great dissension between the royal couple ;
and Blainville chose likewise to absent himself on
the occasion, not, as he said, that he was so ex-
tremely scrupulous, but because he had taken some
offence in matter of ceremony : yet he did think it
" incongruous " for him to be a spectator where his

a Fineti Philoxenus, p. 169.

112

master's sister " excused her presence." The Ve-
netian ambassador professed to entertain no scru-
ples, because he regarded a coronation as a civil
rite, but since Blainville had refused to attend, and
no other ambassador except " the heretic Dutch "
was to be present, he likewise declined to appear3.
Such were the indignities to which the profession
of protestantism at this time exposed the head of
the Anglican church! Unless we should rather say,
such was the fraternal amity so lately pledged by
the sovereign of France to the king of England ! It
must however be confessed, that so long as the ex-
ercise of the protestant religion was forbidden in
most catholic countries, and that of the Roman-
catholic religion in England was visited with heavy
civil penalties, greater courtesy could not reason-
ably be expected ; and the prevalent emotion excited
by these circumstances must be one of astonishment
at the infatuation which could prompt a protestant
prince so circumstanced, to form the closest of all
human ties with a princess strictly educated in the
opposite profession.

As soon as the coronation was over, the king,
11 after three days silence, spoke graciously to the
queen, but forbade the [French] ambassador the
court," as the cause of their disagreement. Blain-
ville hereupon removed to Greenwich, on which
the king sent to the ports to stop all passage out-
wards, and dispatched a messenger with letters into

a Fineti Philoxenus, p. 169.

113

France. He also remanded the ambassador to his
lodgings at Durham-house, and diminished his
daily allowance from sixty pounds to fifty a.

The new parliament was opened on Feb. 4, 1626,
by the king in person ; but the speech was delivered
in his presence by the lord keeper. This oration
was remarkable for a studied exaltation of the cha-
racter and office of the sovereign, and a proportional
abasement of the people and their representatives ;
who were prompted to reflect upon ' ' that incompara-
ble distance between the supreme height and ma-
jesty of a mighty monarch, and the submissive awe
and lowliness of a loyal subject." Sir Heneage Finch,
being chosen speaker, "made," says Whitelock,
" an harangue suitable to the times ; extolling the
king, and praising monarchy, parliaments, bishops,
lords, commons, laws, judges, and all that were in
place, and inveighing against popery and the king
of Spain b." But the popular representatives were
neither to be awed nor flattered into the abandon-
ment of their fixed purpose to make the overthrow
of Buckingham and a material change of measures,
the condition of their supplies. According to the
prediction of Williams, this parliament began where
the last had left off, with the consideration of griev-
ances ; which they reduced to heads and referred
to different committees. The principal ones were
the following. The diminution of the kingdom
in strength and honor. The increase and counte-

a Ellis's Letters, iii. 223. b Whitelock's Mem. p. 3.

VOL. I. I

114

nancing of papists. The not guarding of the narrow
seas. Plurality of offices in one hand. Sales of
honors and places of judicature. The delivering up
of ships to the French. The misemploy ment of
three subsidies and three fifteenths. It was likewise
ordered that the duke, on whom these charges
principally reflected, should have notice of the in-
tention of the house speedily to resume its debates
on these matters.

Charles and his minister now sought a resource
in the authority of the house of peers. At the king's
suggestion, the lords appointed a committee to con-
sider of the safety and defence of the kingdom ; and
a report having been speedily prepared, in which it
was declared expedient that two fleets should be
immediately sent out, one for the defence of the
British coasts, the other to act offensively against
Spain, the lords desired a conference on the subject
with the commons, who declined it however, with
a civil intimation, that they should ever be careful
of the national defence, and that they would also
maintain their own privileges. They then resumed
their debate on the conduct of the duke.

Again the king interposed by a more urgent de-
mand of supply in the form of a letter to the speaker,
stating, that because their " unreasonable slowness"
might produce as ill effects at home as a denial, and
hazard all abroad, he has thought fit thus to let the
commons know, that without more loss of time he
looks for an answer what they will give, according
to his expectations and their promises, " wherein,"

115

he adds, " as we press for nothing beyond the pre-
sent state and condition of our subjects, so we accept
no less than is proportionable to the greatness and

goodness of the cause." ' ' And for the business

at home," he concludes, " we command you to pro-
mise them in our name, that after they shall have
satisfied us in this our reasonable demand, we shall
not only continue them together at this time so long
as the season will permit, but call them shortly again
to perfect those necessary businesses which shall now
be left undone; and we shall willingly apply fit and
reasonable remedies to such just grievances as they
shall present unto us in a dutiful and mannerly way,
without throwing an ill-odor upon our present go-
vernment, or upon the government of our late blessed
father ; and if there be yet who desire to find fault,
we shall think him the wisest reprehender of times
past who, without reflecting backward, can give us
counsel how to settle the present state of things,
and to provide for the future safety and honor of
the kingdom."

To this address, equally unconstitutional and un-
gracious,— since it demanded in the tone of a master
supplies which former princes had been content to
solicit as a boon, and which it was the undoubted
right of the people, through their representatives, to
grant or refuse at pleasure, whilst it prescribed to
the parliament the subjects of their deliberations
and the order of their proceedings ; and prohibited,
in effect, all such inquiries into the malversations
of public functionaries as it was not only the right

i 2

116

but the duty of the house to institute with a view,
if necessary, to the impeachment of offenders, — the
commons returned an answer at once firm and tem-
perate. They assured his majesty of their love and
loyalty, their zeal for his honor and greatness on
all occasions, and especially for the success of the
cause in which he and his allies were justly engaged;
" And," they added, "because they cannot doubt but
your majesty in your great wisdom, and even out of
justice, and according to the example of your most
famous predecessors, will be pleased graciously to
accept the faithful and necessary information and
advice of your parliament, which can have no end
but the service of your majesty and the safety of
your realm, in discovering the causes and proposing
the remedies of these great evils which have occa-
sioned your majesty's wants and your people's grief.
They therefore, in confidence and full assurance of
redress therein, do with one consent propose (though
in former time such course hath been unused,) that
they really intend to assist and supply your majesty
in such a way, and in so ample a measure, as may
make you safe at home and feared abroad ; for the
dispatch whereof they will use such diligence as your
majesty's pressing occasions shall require."

Charles, whether prompted by Buckingham or
urged by his own rash and haughty spirit is uncer-
tain, replied to their answer as follows: —

Mr. Speaker: — The answer of the commons de-
livered by you I like well of, and do take it for a full
and satisfactory answer, and I thank them for it, and

117

I hope you will with all expedition take a course for
performance thereof, the which will turn to your
own good as well as mine; but for your clause therein
of presenting of grievances, I take that but for a
parenthesis in your speech, and not a condition ;
and yet, for answer to that part, I will tell you, I
will be as ready to hear your grievances as my pre-
decessors have been, so that you will apply your-
selves to redress grievances and not to inquire after
grievances. I must let you know that I will not
allow any of my servants to be questioned amongst
you ; much less such as are of eminent place and
near unto me : The old question was ; ' What shall
be done to the man whom the king will honor ? '
but now it hath been the labor of some to seek
what may be done against him whom the king
thinks fit to honor. I see you specially aim at the
duke of Buckingham ; I wonder what hath so al-
tered you. I do well remember that in the last
parliament in my father's time, when he was an
instrument to break the treaties, all of you (and
yet I cannot say all, for I know some of you are
changed, but yet the house of commons is always
the same,) did so much honor and respect him, that
all the honor conferred on him was too little ; and
what he hath done since, to alter or change your
minds, I wot not ; but can assure you he hath not
meddled, or done any thing concerning the public
or commonwealth, but by special directions and
appointment, and as my servant, and is so far from

118

gaining, or improving his estate thereby, that I
verily think he hath rather impaired the same.

" I would you would hasten my supply, or else it
will be worse for yourselves ; for if any ill happen,
I think I shall be the last shall feel it."

The commons forbore to reply upon their sove-
reign, but they proceeded with added zeal and vigor
in their attack on his minister. Dr. Turner, a
civilian, propounded to the house six queries re-
specting acts of mal- administration imputed to the
duke by common fame, and the house, supported
by the opinions of Selden, Noy, and other lawyers
among its members, came to a resolution that com-
mon fame was a good ground for its proceeding
either by inquiry, or by presenting the complaint
to the king or the lords.

The next day, as the debate on this subject was
proceeding, sir Richard Weston interposed with a
message from the king, complaining of a seditious
speech used in the house by Mr. Clement Coke,
youngest son of sir Edward, — that it was better to
be eaten up by a foreign enemy than destroyed at
home, — and still more of Dr. Turner's having "made
an inquiry of sundry articles against the duke of
Buckingham, as he pretended, but indeed against
the honor and government of the king his late
father. This," he added, " his majesty saith is
such an example that he can by no means suffer,
though it were to make inquiry of the meanest of
his servants, much less against one so near unto

119

him, and doth wonder at the foolish impudency of
any man that can think he should be drawn out of
any end to offer such a sacrifice, much unworthy
the greatness of a king and master of such a servant.
And therefore his majesty can no longer use his
wonted patience, but desireth the justice of the
house against the delinquents ; not doubting bnt
such course will be taken that he shall not be con-
strained to use his regal authority to right himself
against these two persons."

The house, referring the consideration of this
lofty message to another opportunity, resumed
its former topic in a tone which evinced in the
majority a spirit above intimidation ; but they
found leisure to make a vote for three subsidies
and three fifteenths, which was to pass into an act
as soon as the grievances should be presented to
the king and answered by him. This clause, by
which a condition was unequivocally appended to
the grant, filled the measure of Charles's indigna-
tion, and after the example of his father he sent for
the two houses to Whitehall, to listen to an oration
addressed to the commons only, and delivered partly
by his own mouth, partly by that of the lord keeper,
in which he professed to show them "their errors,"
in hopes they would amend them. These errors as
explained by the lord keeper were, their omitting to
punish either the speech of Clement Coke or the
insolency of Turner, whose reproaches against the
government of the king and his father they had on
the contrary adopted ; — their persisting to accuse

120

the duke contrary to the express prohibition of his
majesty, who was the best judge of his actions ; —
their suffering the privy council to be traduced
in that house by men whose years and education
could not attain to that depth, and finally, the in-
adequacy of the supply which they had voted, and
the manner of it, which was "dishonorable and full
of distrust." They were commanded to amend these
faults by yielding to the directions they had already
received, and ceasing this il unparliamentary inqui-
sition" into abuses which were to be left to the cor-
rection of the king himself; and with respect to the
supply, they were commanded to go together, and
by Saturday return their answer how much they
would add to it, which unless they did, and unless
the supply were ample, and without condition ex-
press or implied, his majesty would no more expect
a supply this way, nor suffer them to sit longer. If
they should listen to this "gracious admonition," his
majesty was ready to forget the past.

The king now spoke again ; — he desired to remind
them that they had made him their instrument with
his father to break the treaties ; and added, " Now
that you have all things according to your wishes,
and that I am so far engaged that you think there
is no retreat ; now you begin to set the dice, and
make your own game ; but I pray you be not de-
ceived ; it is not a parliamentary way, nor a way
to deal with a king. Mr. Coke told you it was
better to be eaten up by a foreign enemy than to
be destroyed at home ; indeed I think it is more

121

honor for a king to be invaded and almost destroyed
by a foreign enemy than to be despised by his own
subjects.

"Remember that parliaments are altogether in
my power for their calling, sitting, and dissolution ;
therefore, as I find the fruits of them good or evil,
they are to continue or not to be ; and remember
that if in this time, instead of mending your errors,
by delay you persist in your errors, you make them
greater and irreconcilable. Whereas on the other
side, if you do go on cheerfully to mend them, and
look to the distressed state of Christendom, and the
affairs of the kingdom, as it lieth now by this great
engagement, you will do yourselves honor, you shall
encourage me to go on with parliaments, and I hope
all Christendom shall feel the good of it."

The commons, on their next meeting, resolved
themselves into a grand committee to debate with
locked doors on the resolutions to be taken re-
specting these manifestations of the royal will ; and
his majesty learning that his commands and direc-
tions were "subject to misunderstanding, "appointed
Buckingham, at a conference of the two houses, to
explain, or, in other words, to relinquish both the
peremptory demand of supply by a certain day, and
the prohibition to discuss grievances. He was also
to offer a defence of his own conduct and admini-
stration ; but this late and awkward retraction could
no more be accepted as an atonement for the in-
sulted dignity and violated privileges of an English
house of commons, than the plausible explanations

122

of the duke, unsupported by witnesses or documents,
could be received as a satisfactory answer to the
serious charges which it was believed could be sub-
stantiated against him ; and they proceeded to em-
body their sentiments in a remonstrance. After
some previous explanations of their conduct, it is
thus firmly and zealously that they defend the right
and utility of parliamentary impeachment : c ' We
humbly beseech your majesty to be informed by us
your faithful commons, who can have no private end
but your majesty's service and the goodof our country,
that it hath been the ancient, constant, and undoubted
right and usage of parliaments to question and com-
plain of all persons, of what degree soever, found
grievous to the commonwealth in abusing the power
and trust committed to them by their sovereign.
A course approved not only by the examples in
your father's days, of famous memory, but by fre-
quent precedents in the best and most glorious
reigns of your majesty's noble progenitors, ap-
pearing both in records and histories ; without
which liberty in parliament, no private man, no
servant to a king, perhaps no counsellor, without
exposing himself to the hazard of great enmity and
prejudice, can be a means to call great officers in
question for their misdemeanors, but the common-
wealth might languish under their pressures without
redress : And whatsoever we shall do accordingly
in this parliament, we doubt not but it shall redound
to the honor of the crown, and welfare of your sub-
jects.'' With respect to supplies, they desire his

123

majesty to put confidence in their promises of sup-
port, and generally, not to give ear to the reports
of private persons for their own ends, nor to judge
their proceedings whilst in agitation, but to expect
the issue and conclusion of their labors.

To this unwelcome address, the king declined to
give any present answer, and the court party in the
commons carried by a small majority an adjourn-
ment of a week, to give him leisure for concerting
his further measures. In the meantime, several
transactions had occurred concerning members of
the house of peers, too important as examples of
the spirit of despotism exhibited by the king and his
ruling counsellor, to be lightly passed over.

Buckingham had succeeded, as we have seen, in
depriving bishop Williams of his office of lord
keeper, in driving him from the council-board, and
banishing him to his episcopal seat of Buckden.
He had also caused him to be prohibited from
tendering the performance of any of his official
functions at the coronation; and with a view to
humble his spirit still more, and deter him from
entering the ranks of opposition, spies were set over
him, prejudices were excited against him in the mind
of the king, dark hints were dropped of an impend-
ing prosecution for misdemeanors not specified, and
Buckingham even threatened, in defiance of funda-
mental laws, to deprive him of his bishopric. But
Williams was not of a temper to desert himself and
his fortunes, and whilst he cautiously avoided any
act which might bring him within the scope -of a

124

star-chamber prosecution, or which might even
render his breach with the court irreparable, he
cultivated his interest in the country, — kept his
house hospitably and popularly open to men of all
parties, showed some countenance to that class of
divines who were under displeasure with the king,
and thus proclaimed himself as a chief who, far from
acquiescing in his exclusion from public life as final
and irreversible, confidently anticipated a speedy
recall, either by entering into a composition with
the favorite, or by conspiring with his other enemies
to effect his ruin.

At present, Buckingham, who had given his con-
fidence to Laud, was rather inclined to brave than
to conciliate his rival ; but judging it expedient to
deprive him of the means of exerting his hostility
in parliament, he rashly procured from his infatuated
master the unheard-of command, that no writ of
summons should be issued to the bishop of Lincoln.
Williams, who had silently acquiesced in his exclu-
sion from offices of pure ceremony, did not think
proper to submit with the same passiveness to a
denial of the most important of the civil rights
attached to his rank; and whilst he represented to
the king that he was willing, in obedience to his
gracious pleasure, to abstain from attending the
parliament in person, he strongly insisted on re-
ceiving a writ of summons, as a thing which under
the last reign had not been denied even to prisoners
and condemned persons, and without which he could
not make a proxy. After a hard contest, — for the

125

king struggled to have at least the nomination of
the proxy, and proposed one disagreeable to the
bishop, — he carried his point, and lodged his pro-
curation with Andrews the venerable bishop of
Winchester a.

In a letter addressed by Williams to the king on
this business, after a spirited remonstrance against
the injuries done him by Buckingham, and the
calumnious reports by which he had blackened
him to his sovereign, we find the following striking
representation of the evil effects of his majesty's
blind devotedness to the dictates of an arrogant
favorite. " My case, dread sovereign, is miserable;
and the more because it is not mine alone. Your
commands come immediately in your own name,
and therefore must be readily obeyed. Your graces
are strained through the hands of another, and
therefore are either not at all, (as in my case,) or
not so purely and sincerely received. And when
your majesty punisheth, (pardon a truth plainly
delivered, which you were wont to love, dread
sovereign ;) you do it not like yourself, because you
do it not yourself. A king, be he never so severe,
when he chasteneth his subjects, doth punish them
with justice because they are his subjects; but yet
with mercy because they are his own. An angry
lord that makes bold with the king's authority, lays
on load, as upon men, and that without mercy, as
upon the subjects of another And in my case

a Life of Williams, part ii. p. 68.

126

for the present, if I should stand upon my right,
and refuse your majesty, I must expect all severity,
because another hath your rod. If I shall yield and
obey, I must hope for no acceptation, because an-
other holds the garland. And for this other, if I
seek him, my letters are showed, and I am made
foul and guilty; if I let him alone, I am deprived of
the sun and the rain, the ordinary graces and in-
fluences of your majesty. Lastly, when I know,
and all the world besides, that I sink only under the
causeless malice of a subject, yet doth that great
man wash his hands, and publish to the vexation of
my honest soul, that 1 lie buried under the imme-
diate hatred of my sovereign. And therefore, with
a humble protestation against fear of punishment,
which cannot fall upon my innocency, or hope of
favor, sure to be kept back by the greatness of my
adversary; I do, out of religious duty and mere
obedience to your sacred majesty, and no other
respect whatever, send this proxy for my lord of
Winchester a."

Another opponent, who had been still more deeply
injured by the duke, and of whose retaliation, at
this crisis of his fortune, he stood in greater dread,
was the earl of Bristol. By two years' patient and
courtier-like endurance of unjust persecutions and
arbitrary restraint, this statesman had vainly striven
to expiate his knowledge of the accumulated mis-
demeanors of the favorite respecting the Spanish

a Life of Williams, part ii. p. 69.

127

negotiations, and the falsehoods in which he had
involved both himself and Charles by his narrative
to parliament of these transactions ; and should
despair, or the hope of vengeance now urge him to
a public disclosure of these circumstances, Buck-
ingham might fear lest the king would be com-
pelled, for the sake of his own honor, to disgrace the
adviser or partner of so much baseness. To avert
this danger seemed perhaps as much the interest of
the sovereign as the minister, and command was
given that the earl of Bristol's writ of summons
should likewise be withheld. A short time before,
they had sought to intimidate him by subjecting
him to an examination by certain lords-commis-
sioners on several articles ; but to these his answers
had proved so clear and satisfactory that the com-
mission was never called upon to make a report, yet
he was now asked whether he would put himself
upon his trial, or be content to sit still and take the
benefit of a general pardon of king James, and of
the king's coronation pardon; and whether, in the
last case, he would forbear to cast dishonor upon
the king by asserting his own innocence. In reply,
Bristol declined to renounce the benefit of the par-
dons to which he was entitled ; but he required to
know whether it was intended to restore him to the
common rights of a free man and a peer, and he
absolutely refused to forgo the power of asserting
and proving his innocence to his family and friends.
Soon after, convinced that he had nothing to hope
either from the favor or the justice of his sovereign,

128

he took the decided step of presenting a petition to
the house of lords, showing that he, a peer of the
realm, had not received his summons to parliament,
desiring their lordships to mediate with his majesty
that he might enjoy the liberty of a subject and the
privilege of the peerage, and praying that if any
charge be brought against him, he may be tried by
parliament a. The business having been referred to
a committee of privilege who reported that the
house ought to beseech his majesty to send writs
to the earl of Bristol and to such other lords whose
summonses had been stopped without lawful cause,
Buckingham signified to the house, that the king
had already sent the earl his writ, but accompanied
by a letter which he read, in which, to serve the
present purpose, Charles in a rude and harsh style,
revived against the earl the charge of attempting to
induce him, when at Madrid, to renounce his pro-
test ant faith.

In a second petition, the earl acquainted the house
that, thanks to their intercession, he had indeed re-
ceived his writ, but along with it a letter from the
lord keeper, commanding him in his majesty's name
to forbear his personal attendance, and referred it
to their wise consideration c ' how far this may trench
upon the liberty and safety of the peers and the
authority of their letters patents, to be in this sort
discharged by a letter missive of a subject without
the king's hand." He went on to impute all the

a Rush worth, i. 240, et seq.

129

wrongs he had endured to " the power and industry
of the duke," who sought to keep him from the
presence of the king and parliament lest he should
disclose many crimes concerning him, and he be-
seeched the house to mediate with the king that he
might come to parliament, there to be heard in ac-
cusation of him. Charles, in return, sent a message
to the peers signifying that he had heard of a peti-
tion preferred by the earl of Bristol to the house,
1 ' so void of duty and respects that he hath great
cause to punish him;" and that being resolved to
put his own cause against the earl upon the honor
and justice of the house, it was his. royal pleasure
that he should be sent for as a delinquent, to answer
his offences committed both in the Spanish negoti-
ation and since; and his scandalizing the duke of
Buckingham immediately, and by reflection his
majesty, " with whose privity and directions the
duke did guide his actions."

Nothing could be plainer, than that the charge
thus brought against Bristol for acts which, if any
offences at all, had been expressly covered by royal
pardons, was merely an artifice designed to put him
out of a capacity of prosecuting his accusation
against Buckingham, and the peers, viewing it in
this light, declared that they would nevertheless
receive his articles against the duke and his instru-
ment secretary Conway; and they further resolved
that the testimony of the earl should not be " pre-
vented, prejudiced or impeached" by it. Accord-
ingly, on May 1st, Bristol tendered his accusation,

VOL, I, K

130

being himself brought up in custody of the gentle-
man-usher to answer the charge of the king, which
was to have the precedence; but on which the lords
absolutely refused to commit him to the Tower.

Baffled in this design, the king and his favorite
sought to avail themselves of expedients equally
unconstitutional and still more iniquitous. They
made an attempt to carry the cause out of the juris-
diction of the house of lords into the King's bench,
where the prisoner could be assisted by no counsel,
could examine no witnesses against the king, and
could not be informed of the charges against him in
convenient time to prepare his defence; and by an
arraignment in which court he might be disabled
from making good his charge against the duke.
On all which accounts, as well as because it was an
unexampled infringement on the privileges of the
peerage, and the honor and justice of the house, the
earl of Bristol petitioned the lords against such a
proceeding. The judges being hereupon questioned
how a peer impeached of high-treason should be
tried, and answering that it must be before his
peers in parliament, this scheme was also, of neces-
sity, abandoned. The king, who had caused him-
self to be named as the earl's accuser to the house,
now came forward with a strange offer to appear
himself in the capacity of a witness against him
respecting certain transactions in Spain, and on
reference being made by the lords to the judges to
know whether his majesty could lawfully be a wit-
ness in a case of high-treason, they received the

131

royal command not to answer the question. But
all these efforts to oppress an innocent man by acts
of power, served only to interest the parliament and
people the more strongly in his behalf, and to aggra-
vate the odium against Buckingham, no small por-
tion of which now began to be reflected on a master
who took so much pains to identify himself with the
most obnoxious acts of his minister, and evinced so
fixed a resolution to protect him at all hazards.

The case of the earl of Arundel was another and,
if possible, a still grosser attempt upon the privileges
of the peerage, and one which plainly warned them
to unite more firmly in their common defence.
Shortly after the meeting of parliament, this peer,
the known enemy of Buckingham, and the holder
of five proxies, which, as well as his own vote, were
lost by his absence, had been committed to the
Tower by warrant from the king without any special
cause assigned; though it was given out to be on
account of a marriage privately contracted between
his son lord Maltravers and the sister of the duke of
Lenox, a lady of the Stuart family and his majesty's
ward. In the first instance, the peers contented
themselves with inquiring the cause of the earl's
absence from the house; to which the lord keeper
answered, that he was restrained for a misdemeanor
personal to his majesty, which lay within his own
knowledge, and had no relation to matters of par-
liament. Next day, the king by message avowed
this answer, and affirmed it to be no invasion of the
privileges of the peerage. The lords on this ap-

K2

132

pointed a committee of privilege to search the re-
cords, who could find no precedent of the committal
of a peer during the sitting of parliament but by
judgement of the house itself, unless in cases of
treason, felony, or breach of the peace. A petition
and remonstrance to the king, claiming the earl's
release as of undoubted right, was in consequence
carried unanimously, and a committee appointed to
present it to his majesty for his answer. The king
demurred, promising a reply in convenient time.
After several fruitless applications, the house pre-
sented on May 9th a fresh petition, in which they
declared themselves humble suitors for a gracious
and present answer. Charles, taking fire at the word
present, answered, in his rude and choleric style,
that he had never known such a message from one
house to the other, and when he received a message
fit to come from them to their sovereign, they should
receive an answer. Omitting only the word at which
offence had been taken, the house again tendered
its petition, and again received a dilatory answer.
On May 19th they presented a fresh petition; the
king in reply affected to take umbrage at their
importunity as a mistrusting of his promises, and
reasserting his pretended right of committing for an
offence directly against himself, added, for their
further satisfaction, that he had also things of far
greater importance to lay to ArundeFs charge, which
however he would not yet disclose, because they
were not " ripe," and it would greatly prejudice
his service.

133

Again the committee of privileges met, and still
another petition was presented, to which no better
answer being returned than an admonition from his
majesty not to distrust him, and a promise that he
would give them satisfaction before the end of the
session, the house took at length the efficacious re-
solution of adjourning, and entertaining no other
business whatsoever till their member should be
restored to them. Finding them determined, the
king, on June 8th, with undisguised reluctance, at
length liberated the earl of Arundel. As his majesty
never brought forward in any shape the highly im-
portant charges which he said he had to make
against this nobleman, but on the contrary shortly
after admitted him to his presence, and subsequently
conferred upon him offices of high honor and trust,
it is impossible to regard his assertions on this sub-
ject in any other light than deliberate falsehoods
employed for the purpose of deluding the peers into
an acquiescence in the violation of the most sacred
and indispensable of all their privileges as members
of the legislature.

Meantime, the house of commons were busied in
preparing their impeachment of the duke, and at a
conference with the lords, thirteen articles of accu-
sation were presented by the eight managers to
whom this business had been specially intrusted,
amongst whom were included the patriots Pym,
Selden and Eliot, Serjeant Glanville, sir Dudley
Digges, lately ambassador to the Czar and after-
wards master of the rolls, and Christopher Wands-

134

ford the relation and confidential agent of Sir
Thomas Wentworth. Sir Dudley Digges opened
the business in " an eloquent speech," according to
the taste of the times, in which " he compared En-
gland to the world, the commons to the earth and
sea, the king to the sun, the lords to the planets,
the clergy to the fire, the judges and magistrates
to the air, and the duke of Bucks, to a blazing star."
The other managers successively enlarged on the
several articles, which turned chiefly on the follow-
ing charges : His sale of offices and titles of honor,
his accumulation of these and of pensions upon
himself and his family, and the corrupt trafficking
by which he had procured the surrender of places
to himself; — his neglect of the duties of lord-high-
admiral; — his unwarrantable seizure of goods out
of a French ship; — his extortion of the sum of
£10,000 from the East India Company by staying
their vessels from sailing; — his causing the Van-
guard and other ships to be given up to the French,
knowing them to be designed against La Rochelle;
— his embezzling the king's money, and procuring
to himself grants of crown lands to a great value,
and his causing a plaister and potions to be given
to king James in his last illness; styled " a tran-
scendent presumption of a dangerous quality."

Digges and Eliot, after their speeches delivered
on this occasion, were beckoned out, under pretence
of a message from the king, and committed to the
Tower, and Charles coming to the house of lords
attended by the accused favorite, avowed the act ;

135

and also offered himself as a witness in the duke's
behalf, declaring that he could clear him of every
one of the matters laid to his charge. The peers,
unwilling to carry matters to extremity against a
minister thus protected, declined compliance with a
message of the lower house requesting that the duke
might be committed to custody; and Buckingham
made on the occasion a braving speech, desiring
that his trial might be hastened, and complaining
of the malice of his accusers. On the other hand,
the commons, resenting the imprisonment of their
members, would proceed with no other business till
this wrong to their liberties should be repaired; and
they had resolved themselves into a grand com-
mittee to deliberate on the steps to be taken, when
sir Dudley Carlton, whose long employment in
foreign embassies had rendered him familiar with
the laws and manners of other nations, and a stranger
to the constitution and spirit of his own, took upon
him seriously to admonish the house to beware how
they trenched upon the king's prerogative, lest, by
incensing him, they should enforce him to use new
counsels, that is, as he explained himself, to follow
the example of other kings, who finding their own
strength, had overthrown for their turbulency the
parliaments by which all Christian kingdoms had
been formerly governed " in a most flourishing
manner," and had reduced their subjects to hunger,
nakedness, and the most deplorable misery, by
arbitrary taxes and oppression. "Let us be careful
then," concluded the orator, "to preserve the king's

136

good opinion of parliaments, which bringeth this
happiness to this nation, and makes us envied of
all others, while there is this sweetness between his
majesty and the commons; lest we lose repute of a
free-born nation by our turbulency in parliament."
On the conclusion of this speech, several members,
moved by the audacious and unheard-of menace,
exclaimed, "To the bar, to the bar!" and would
have brought the courtier to beg pardon on his
knees. Rightly considered however, it was the king
himself who had most cause to be indignant at this
intimation of the existence of designs on his part
calculated, by the very statement of the speaker, to
reduce the whole people of England to slavery,
beggary, and wretchedness. It is difficult to believe
that Charles had actually formed intentions so
atrocious ; but king James had pretty openly as-
serted the doctrine, that kings made, as it were, a
species, every individual belonging to which was,
by right divine, invested with all the powers which
had been anywhere, or at any time, attached to
the character : nothing therefore was more likely to
arouse suspicion than any reference to the example
of foreign absolute princes ; and who that truly
knew the spirit of the people, could doubt that a
threatened attack upon the most sacred sanctuary
of English liberty would prove an alarum to the
defence, not a signal for surrender?

With respect to the two imprisoned members,
sir Dudley Carlton stated that filiot was committed
for urging too bitterly against the duke the charge

137

of taking for his own profit valuable commodities
out of a French ship, in retaliation of which the
goods of English merchants were seized in France ;
and for treating so great a person with too little
ceremony, calling him "this man." Digges was
charged with saying in reference to the remedies
administered to king James, " that he did forbear
to speak further, in regard of the king's honor ;"
but the members of both houses solemnly attested
that he had employed no such expressions ; and
this attempt at intimidation having failed of its
purpose in a manner hereafter to be explained, the
two members were released.

The duke of Buckingham, though attainted by
the commons of high-treason, was neither impri-
soned, as we have seen, nor restrained from sitting
and voting with the peers who were to be his
judges ; in the court and the council he was still
paramount, and his audacity carried him so far as
to move in the house of peers that the crown
lawyers might be allowed to conduct his defence.
On this subject Hacket gives us the following very
curious particulars. "The duke demanded that
the attorney general might plead for him in the
house of peers against the charge transmitted by
the commons, which was opposed, because the at-
torney was one of the king's learned counsel, and
sworn to plead in causes concerning the king, and
not against them. And the king is supposed to be
ever present in the noble senate of the lords. It
was rejoined, that the king would dispense with the

138

attorney's oath : It came to a case of conscience,
and was referred to the bishop [of Lincoln's] learn-
ing. Some of them judged for the duke, that this
was not an assertory oath, which admits no altera-
tion, but a promisory oath, from which promise the
king, if he pleased, might release his learned coun-
sel. Bishop Felton, a devout man, and one that
feared God, very learned, and a most apostolical
overseer of the clergy whom he governed, argued,
that some promisory oaths might indeed be relaxed,
if great cause did occur; yet not without great
cause, lest the obligation of so sacred a thing as an
oath should be wantonly slighted. And in this oath
which the attorney had taken, it was dangerous to
absolve him from it, lest bad example should be
given to dispense with any subject that had sworn
faithful service to the crown ; for which plain
honesty he was wounded with a sharp rebuke.
And the reverend author told me this with tearsV
That a case of conscience should ever have been
made of a point so plain in law and reason as the
duty of an attorney general in an impeachment of
high-treason, is an astonishing proof of that unfor-
tunate addiction to casuistry which, in many subse-
quent instances, enabled this misguided prince to
palliate to his own conscience those violations of
faith or truth which rendered him despicable in the
eyes of his subjects ; and since Buckingham cer-
tainly received in private the assistance of the crown

a Life of Williams, part ii. p. 70.

139

lawyers, it is probable that had the cause come to
a hearing, in despite of the judgement of the bishop
who " feared God," the peers would have been
called upon either to sanction or rebuke so gross an
irregularity.

The defence read by the duke in the house, was
a temperate and well-constructed plea, but certainly
not of a kind to establish his innocence. The acts
of corruption or extortion are either denied, ex-
plained, or extenuated; the loan of ships to the
French is slurred over ; many things are defended
by the unconstitutional plea of the privity or direc-
tion of the king himself; and in conclusion, the
benefit of the general pardon of king James and
the coronation pardon of his son, is distinctly
claimed. Having delivered this answer, Bucking-
ham urged the lords to send to the commons to
expedite their reply, and the commons as earnestly
desired a copy of his defence.

While the impeachment of the duke was yet
pending, the office of chancellor of the university
of Cambridge becoming vacant by the death of the
earl of Suffolk, Charles was induced to give a
memorable token of his blind attachment to his
minister, and a no less memorable one of his hos-
tility to the commons of England and disdain of all
decent observances towards them, by recommend-
ing him to this distinguished station. Of the means
used to procure the duke's election, the zealous
servility of the Arminian clergy, and the indignant
feelings excited in the more respectable members

140

of the university, the following extract of a letter
written on the spot by Mr. Mead, and addressed to
sir Martin Stuteville, may serve as a monument.

' ' . . . . Our chancellor my lord of Suffolk died on
Sunday about two o'clock in the morning ; which
no sooner came to our ears on Monday, but about
dinner time arrives Dr. Wilson, my lord of London's
chaplain, without letters, but with a message from
his lord that we should choose the duke ; such being
his majesty's desire and pleasure. Our Heads met
after the sermon, when by Drs. Wren, Beale, Maw
and Pask, this motion was urged with vehemency,
and as it were confidence of authority ; that the rest
were either awed or persuaded ; and those that
would not, yet durst not adventure to make further
opposition, though they inclined, if it be lawful to
say so, to more advised counsel. It was in vain to
say that Dr. Wilson's bare word from his lord was
no sufficient testimony of his majesty's pleasure ;
nor such as might be a ground of an act of such
consequence as that we should by this act prejudge
the parliament : that instead of patronage we sought
for, we might bring a lasting scandal and draw a
general contempt upon the university as men of
most prostitute flattery : that it would not be safe
for us to engage ourselves in public differences :
that at least, to avoid the imputation of folly and
temerity in the doing, it would be wisdom to wait
our full time of fourteen days, and not to precipitate
the election. To this it was answered; ' the sooner
the better, and the more acceptable.' If we stayed

141

to expect the event in parliament, it would not be
worth ' God ha' mercy/

"Upon the news of this consultation and resolu-
tion of the Heads, we of the body murmur, we run
one to another to complain. We say the Heads in
this election have no more to do than any of us,
wherefore we advise what to do, and who to set up.
Hereupon, on Tuesday morning, notwith-
standing every Head sent for his Fellows to persuade
them for the duke, some durst be so bold as to visit

for the contrary in public But the same day

. . . the bishop of London arrived unexpectedly, yet
found his own college, Queen's, most bent and re-
solved another way, to his no small discontentment.
At the same time comes to town Mr. Mason, my
lord duke's secretary, and Mr. Cozens, and letters
from my lord of Durham, expressly signifying in
his master's name, as they told and would make us
believe, that his majesty would be well pleased if
we chose the duke. My lord bishop labors, Mr.
Mason visits for his lord, Mr. Cozens for the most
true patron of the clergy and of all scholars. Mas-
ters belabor their Fellows Divers in town got

hackneys and fled to avoid importunity. Very
many, some whole colleges, were gotten by their
fearful masters, the bishop and others, to suspend,
who otherwise were resolved against the duke, and
kept away with much indignation : and yet for all
this stir, the duke carried it but by three votes from
my lord Andover, whom we voluntarily set up
against him, without any motion on his own behalf,

142

yea without his knowledge We had but one

Dr. in the whole town durst, for so I dare speak,

give with us against the duke What will the

parliament say to us? Did not our burgesses con-
demn the duke in their charge given up to the
lords? Pray God we hear well of it; but the actors
are as bold as lions, and I half believe would fain
suffer that they might be advanced*."

Charles addressed to the university a public letter
of thanks for their obedience to his royal mandate,
taking occasion at the same time to praise and vin-
dicate the duke: the parliament on the other hand,
highly incensed at such an insult upon their pro-
ceedings, had entertained the design of visiting the
principal actors with some marks of their displea-
sure, when they were interrupted by an admonition
to forbear interfering in a matter which, as the king
affirmed, lay entirely within his royal cognisance.

His majesty now thought proper again to urge
the commons to pass their bill of subsidy with such
speed as was required by the great preparations of
the enemy, of which they had daily advertisements ;
warning them as before that any delay beyond a
day which he fixed would be taken by him as a
refusal, and force him upon other resolutions. By
way of retort, the commons presented a petition for
the removal of all recusants, and even of suspected
papists and those whose wives and children were
such, from all places of authority and government ;

* Ellis's Letters, iii. 228.

143

subjoining a list of ninety-five noblemen and gentle-
men against whom tbey particularly excepted ; at
the head of which stood the earl of Rutland, father-
in-law to the duke. They likewise directed their
speaker to read to the king an answer to his letter,
in which, in urgent indeed but respectful and af-
fectionate language, they, on their parts, required
the removal of Buckingham from the royal presence
and counsels, as being, by his misrepresentations
of their proceedings, the sole cause of the inter-
ruption and delay of the measures which they had
designed for his majesty's service. But nothing
could move the stubborn spirit of Charles on a
point which he had so completely identified with
the assertion of his own authority as the protection
of his hated minister, and he quickly announced to
the upper house an immediate dissolution of parlia-
ment. Alarmed for the consequences of an act
which must of necessity draw on the violation of
every principle of constitutional government, the
lords in an earnest petition implored him to lay
aside this rash resolution, as the sole means of
averting great and apparent dangers both at home
and abroad, and of preserving to his majesty the
affections of his subjects. They also sent a depu-
tation to entreat him to give audience to the whole
house on this business, which was refused : and to
their final supplication that he would at least sus-
pend his resolution for a few days, he peremptorily
replied—' ' Not a minute a ! ' '

a Saunderson's Reign of King Charles, p. 58.

144

The commons, assembling in haste, drew and
voted a remonstrance, which the dissolution by
commission on June 1 5th prevented them from de-
livering. Its leading topics were the misconduct
of the duke, to whom the dissolution of this and
the preceding parliament is ascribed, and the mis-
conduct of those ministers by whose advice his
majesty had been induced to levy the duties of ton-
nage and poundage without the grant of parliament.
But by far the most memorable passage is the fol-
lowing exposure of the remarkable circumstances
attending the apprehension of Digges and Eliot, with
which the parliament thus reproaches the king,
under the constitutional form of making him ac-
quainted with the facts. " For whereas, by

your majesty's warrant to your messengers for the
arresting of them, you were pleased to command
that they should repair to their lodgings and there
take them ; your majesty's principal secretary the
lord Conway gave the messengers, as they affirmed,
an express command, contrary to the said warrants,
that they should not go to their lodgings, but to the
house of commons, and there take them, and if they
found them not there, they should stay until they
were come into the house, and apprehend them
wheresoever they should find them. Which, be-
sides that it is contrary to your majesty's command,
is an apparent testimony of some mischievous in-
tention there had against the whole house of com-
a Rush worth, i. 406.

145

That the immediate intention of the king on this
occasion was rather to strike terror into the house
by the manner of the arrest, than to secure the
persons of the two members, appears certain from
their immediate liberation on the failure of this part
of the scheme. — The prudence of the messengers in
obeying the terms of the warrant rather than the
verbal directions of the secretary, perhaps saved the
nation at this time from the crisis which Charles's
memorable attempt to seize the five members in the
body of the house brought on several years later ;
and the conformity of the two designs goes far to
fix the contrivance in both cases on the king him-
self; since his confidential advisers were all changed
in the interval.

The parliament caused their remonstrance to be
printed; the king on the other side published a de-
claration in which he endeavoured to throw from
himself upon them the reproach of impeding the
public service ; he likewise issued a proclamation
against the remonstrance, commanding, upon pain
of his indignation and high displeasure, all persons
of whatsoever quality possessing copies of the same
to burn them, that it might be utterly forgotten,
and "never give occasion to his majesty to renew
the memory of that which out of his grace and
goodness he would gladly forget."

Such were the terms on which the youthful
monarch parted with the second parliament of his
reign!

VOL. i. L

146

CHAPTER V.

1626 to 1628.

Arbitrary measures. — Illegal levy of tonnage and poundage. — Loan.
— Benevolence. — Composition with recusants.— Conduct of Charles
as head of the church. — Influence of Laud. — Favor shown to Ar-
minians. — Opposite notions of Abbot and Laud respecting the
church of Rome. — Government unpopular in church and state. —
Dismissal of the queen's French servants. — Embassy of Bassom-
pierre. — Buckingham the cause of war with France. — Bassom-
pierre's description of the English court. — A loan imposed by the
council. — Gentlemen imprisoned for refusing to contribute. — Sir
Thomas Wentworth. — Chief-justice Crew displaced. — Abbot com-
manded to his country seat. — Sibthorpe's sermon. — Catholics con-
tribute to the loan. — Toleration of them in Ireland opposed by
the bishops. — Loan-refusers denied their habeas corpus. — Expe-
dition to the Isle of RM. — Affectionate letters of Charles to
Buckingham. — Necessity of calling a parliament. — Liberation of
state-prisoners. — Writs sent to Williams, Abbot and the earl of
Bristol, but no change in the king's designs. — Commission of ex-
cise.— Troops and arms prepared in the Low Countries.

THE strain of the royal declaration setting forth
the motives of the late dissolution of parliament
seemed to threaten a long discontinuance of these
assemblies, and the people awaited in anxious sus-
pense the results of the " new counsels" by which
affairs were henceforth to be conducted. They
were not long permitted to doubt either of the
nature of these counsels or of the spirit in which
it was designed to pursue them. The earl of
Bristol, sir Dudley Digges, and sir John Eliot were

147

immediately remanded to their illegal confinement,
whilst a kind of mock proceeding was instituted
against the duke of Buckingham in the Star-cham-
ber for irregularly administering remedies to king
James in his last illness ; but the charge was never
permitted to come to a hearing. A false alarm of
invasion was got up, and the king and council, on
the plea of this pretended emergency, took autho-
rity to levy supplies on the people. It was ordered
that the duties of tonnage and poundage should be
paid in the same manner as if they had been granted
by parliament ; loans were required in the king's
name from the nobility and other men of property,
and a particular one to the amount of 1005OOOZ.
from the city of London : the sea-ports and maritime
counties were required to furnish ships for the navy ;
a benevolence, or free gift, was demanded from the
people in general, equal in amount to the intended
parliamentary subsidies, and a commission was grant-
ed to the archbishop of York and others to compound
with the Roman catholics in the northern counties
for all acts of recusancy committed by them since
the tenth year of king James, or which should be
committed by them in future for any term not ex-
ceeding forty-one years ; such compositions to be
held good, any law or statute to the contrary notwith-
standing, and the produce to be applied to the naval
defence of the kingdom. Commissions of muster
and array were likewise issued to the lord lieutenants,
with large powers, unwarranted by the constitution,
of executing martial law in case of '" invasions, in-

L2

148

surrections and riots." A defeat being at this time
sustained by his majesty's uncle and ally the king
of Denmark, a fast-day was appointed, on which
the clergy were required to explain to their flocks
the necessities and dangers of the state, and to en-
force upon their consciences the pretended religious
duty of complying with the demands of their sove-
reign, though contrary to law. To secure the hi-
erarchy as his ally, or accomplice, in rendering him-
self independent of the control of parliaments, had in-
deed been from the first a design labored by Charles
with extreme assiduity, and it will be proper to
point out the steps which he had already taken
towards this end in his character of head of the
church.

Before the death of king James, bishop Laud had
already succeeded, by an assiduity and subserviency
unexcelled by any of the lay parasites, in firmly
fixing himself in the favor of Buckingham, and
through him of the king. He was constant in his
attendance at court ; during the illness of Neil
bishop of Durham he had officiated as clerk of the
closet ; he served the duke in the capacity of con-
fessor, and was employed by him in many secret
services ; and though but an aspirant as yet to the
higher seats on the episcopal bench, he might already
be regarded as filling the more important political
station of secretary for ecclesiastical affairs. In the
first days of the reign he had supplied the duke with
a list of churchmen having the letters O and P, for
orthodox and puritan, affixed to their names, to

149

serve the king as a guide in the distribution of pre-
ferment. He was likewise sent to inquire of bishop
Andrews, " what he would have done in the cause
of the church," especially with respect to the cal-
vinistic articles sanctioned by the synod of Dort
with the concurrence of king James's divines, com-
monly called " the five articles." But this mild
and virtuous prelate discouraged, as unseasonable
and inexpedient, all those unpopular innovations,
whether in doctrine or discipline, which the impe-
tuous Laud was on fire to begin.

On the first agitation of the charges against
Buckingham in the house of commons, the king,
sending for all the bishops, graciously reproved
them because "in this time of parliament they
were silent in the cause of the church, and did not
make known to him what might be useful or pre-
judicial to it;" at the same time professing his
readiness to promote its interests. Having thus
conciliated the prelates, he enjoined them, in the
causes depending between the duke of Bucking-
ham and the earl of Bristol, " to follow their own
consciences, and be led by proofs, not by reports,"
meaning, no doubt, that they should not be in-
fluenced by that " common fame " against the duke
on which the house had grounded its proceedings.
Some time afterwards, Laud had prevailed upon two
other bishops to join him in the petition already
mentioned, addressed to the duke in favor of Mon-
tague, and although Charles and Buckingham found
it expedient to withdraw from this furious partisan

150

their open protection, Laud was permitted to give
him a private assurance of the royal favor. From
all these indications, it could not fail to be generally
understood that Arminian principles in divinity,
what have since been called high-church principles
with respect to discipline, rites and ceremonies, and
in politics, the doctrines of passive obedience and
the divine right of kings, were henceforth to be the
indispensable passports to church preferment. Ac-
cordingly, the royal directions to preachers, by
which they were prohibited from treating upon
controverted points of theology, were understood
as designed to be enforced against the Calvinistic
party alone. The court bishops or their chaplains,
whose license for the publication of books, though
required by no law of the land, was now necessary
to protect the authors from prosecution in the Star-
chamber, were careful to give currency to all works
in support of the fashionable system, and to sup-
press those on the contrary part ; and Laud, a lofty
assertor of the power of the church and of a divine
right of bishops, the counterpart of that of kings,
founding his schemes not on the maxims of the
English constitution, but on the Romish canons and
the precedents of what he styled ' ' uncorrupt anti-
quity," began to announce that ecclesiastical dis-
cipline should henceforth be a thing felt as well as
talked of; and that the high as well as the low,
laity as well as clergy, should be taught to bow
beneath its yoke.

For the present however, the enterprises of Laud

151

found some check from the opposition of archbishop
Abbot, who took a very different view of protestant
doctrine, and of the line of conduct which it became
the Anglican church to pursue. This prelate, in
common with most of the foreign protestants, traced
the succession of the visible church of Christ through
the Berengarians and Albigenses to the Wickliffites
and Hussites, and thence to the later reformers.
Laud, on the contrary, traced it from the apostles
through the church of Rome, and other churches of
the South and East ; nor would he admit that there
could be any true church without bishops. These
opinions, maintained in a sermon preached before
the university of Oxford, had drawn upon him,
twenty years before, a public censure, which Abbot,
then vicechancellor, was believed to have prompted;
and this had been the foundation of a lasting enmity
between the two polemics. Nor in fact was the
dispute a trifling one, or void of practical applica-
tion : on the question of apostolical succession,
almost the whole controversy between the presby-
terian and prelatical, the Calvinistic and Arminian
parties, might be made to hinge; and the different
modes of deciding it manifestly led to directly oppo-
site systems of ecclesiastical policy, both foreign
and domestic. If the church of Rome were totally
erroneous and antichristian, every approach towards
it, all conformity or community with it, even in
externals and things in their own nature indifferent,
was to be regarded as odious and sinful; and it. be-
came a duty to bear an unceasing testimony against

152

it ; to wage with it a war of extermination. Thus the
scruples of the puritans respecting ceremonies and
vestments, the cross and the surplice, would become
consistent and respectable, and even their intolerance
might appear justified ; and though the Anglican
church should see fit as matter of expediency, to
retain her own episcopacy, it would become her to
stretch forth the right hand of fellowship to all the
reformed churches without distinction, and to aid
them by every possible exertion in making head
against the common enemy, — the great popish con-
federacy of Europe. On the other hand, if the
church of Rome, although erroneous and corrupt
in certain points, were still to be regarded as a true
and mother church, it would follow, that in all mat-
ters either indifferent or undetermined, her example
was to be respectfully consulted, nor was even
her authority to be without special cause rejected.
The decisions of her canonists and the decrees of
her councils must still be held in force; even her
traditions were entitled to regard ; and as the ques-
tion was no longer between the kingdom of Christ
and that of Antichrist, but between a venerable
though erring parent, and a daughter still affec-
tionate though no longer implicitly obedient, schemes
of mutual conciliation might be innocently, nay,
meritoriously attempted, and might even yet suc-
ceed in producing an entire reunion, and closing up
for ever the long and lamented schism of the British
isles.

It is not surprising that with so avowed a de-

153

ference for the church of Rome, Laud should in
those days have passed both with catholics and
puritans for a concealed papist ; yet it is certain
that he differed from this church in some points,
both of doctrine and discipline, and the history of
theological controversy has proved by numerous
examples, that a narrow field of debate rnay be con-
tested with full as much obstinacy as a wider one.
On the other hand it may be observed, that the
principle laid down by the illustrious Chillingworth,
that ' ' the scripture is the only rule whereby to
judge of controversies, "^ould equally have excluded
Laud from the name of protest ant ; since he strenu-
ously asserted the power of judging in controversies
of faith to reside in the church.

The principles of Laud and his Arminians were
very far from being acceptable to the English peo-
ple, and the close alliance formed between a church
tending, as it was suspected, to popery, and a king
tending, as it was more than suspected, to arbitrary
power, cast upon both a double weight of odium.
Respecting the fast-day above mentioned, the bio-
grapher of Williams, after remarking by the way
that none was ever enjoined against the appearance
of the Armada, adds, that the " main scope" of it
was, " that great humiliation, with fasting and ex-
traordinary prayer, should be joined together to
avert the peril of a Spanish invasion ; therefore
that we, on the defensive, should be ready, with our
bodies and purses, to avert the fury of our enemies."
' ( Though, he adds, ' ' the land was admonished of this

154

in a religious way, yet they condescended to part with
money very hardly. They did only hear of an enemy,

but they saw their coin collected from them

Say it was a wound to our great charter to call for

contribution without a parliamentary way what

we lost in the privilege of liberty it was presumed

we got in safety But the most did want that

charitable presumption, and paid the irregular levy
with their hand and not with their heart V

Charles put in execution his meditated expulsion
of the queen's French attendants in the summer of
1626. Her priests seem to have filled the measure
of their offences by the absurd and audacious act of
causing the queen to walk to Tyburn to perform her
devotions at the foot of the gallows on which father
Garnet and other participators in the powder-plot
had been executed as traitors, or, according to the
phrase of the papists, had received the crown of
martyrdom. A contemporary letter, from Mr. John
Pory , supplies some curious particulars of this trans-
action.

" On Monday last about noon, the king pass-
ing into the queen's side and finding some French-
men her servants unreverently dancing and curvet-
ing in her presence, took her by the hand and led
her into his lodgings, locking the door after him,
and shutting out all, save only the queen. Pre-
sently upon this my lord Conway called forth the
French bishop and others of that clergy into St.

a Life of Williams, part ii, p. 72.

155

James's park, where he told them the king's pleasure
was, all her majesty's servants of that nation, men
and women, young and old, should depart the king-
dom, together with the reasons that enforced his
majesty so to do. The bishop stood much upon it,
that being in the nature of an ambassador, he could
not go unless the king his master should command
him; but he was told again, that the king his master
had nothing to do here in England, and that if he
were unwilling to go, England would find force
enough to convey him hence. The bishop had as
much reason to dance loth to depart as the king and
all his well-affected subjects had to send him pack-
ing ; for he had as much power of conferring orders
and dispensing sacraments, oaths, &c. as the pope
could give, and so by consequence was a most dan-
gerous instrument to work the pope's ends here.
The king's message being thus delivered by my lord
Conway, his lordship, accompanied with Mr. Trea-
surer and Mr. Comptroller, went into the queen's
lodgings, and told all the French likewise that were
there, that his majesty's pleasure was, they should all
depart thence to Somerset House, and remain there
till they know further his majesty's pleasure. The
women howled and lamented as if they had been
going to execution, but all in vain, for the yeomen
of the guard, by that lord's appointment, thrust
them and all their countryfolks out of the queen's
lodgings and locked the doors upon them. It is
said also that the queen, when she understood the
design, grew very impatient, and brake the glass

156

windows with her fist; but since, I hear, her rage
is appeased, and the king and she, since they went
together to Nonsuch, have been very jocund to-
gether. The same day, the French being all at
Somerset House, the king, as I have heard some to
affirm, went thither, and made a speech to them to
this purpose : That he hoped the king his good
brother of France would not take amiss what he
had done. For the French, he said, particular
persons he would not tax, had occasioned many
jars and discontents between the queen and him;
such indeed as longer were insufferable. He prayed
them therefore to pardon him if he sought his own
ease and safety, and said moreover that he had
given orders to his treasurer to reward every one
of them for their year's service. So the next morn-
ing there was distributed among them eleven thou-
and pounds in money, and about twenty thousand
pounds worth of jewels." The writer goes on to
state as the " satisfactory reasons" of this somewhat
peremptory proceeding, " the extravagant power of
this French bishop," the superstitious and turbulent
spirit of these " jesuited priests," and their intoler-
able insolencies towards the queen. After men-
tioning the procession to Tyburn, he adds; " Had
they not also made her dabble in the dirt in a foul
morning from Somerset House to St. James', her Lu-
ciferian confessor riding along by her in his coach ?
Yea, they have made her to go barefoot, to spin, to
eat her meat out of treen dishes, to wait at the table
and serve her own servants, with many other ridi-

157

culous and absurd penances Besides all this,

letters from some of these French about her majesty
are said to have been intercepted, by which it hath
appeared that they have not only practiced with
the pope on one side and the English catholics on
the other side, but have had intelligence also with
the Spaniard. It was intended they should presently

have departed, but they are not yet gone

Meanwhile they took possession of all the queen's
apparel and linen which they found at Somerset

House, as being their vales but the queen

having left her but one gown and two smocks to
her back, these French freebooters were intreated
by some of the lords of the council to send her
majesty some apparel, and so they sent her only
one old sattin gown, keeping all the residue to
themselves*."

Shortly after the removal of the French from
Whitehall to Somerset House, the king addressed
to Buckingham the following characteristic order
respecting them.
" Steenie,

11 1 have received your letter by Dick Graham, this
is my answer. I command you to send all the
French away tomorrow out of the town. If you
can, by fair means, (but stick not long in disputing,)
otherwise force them away like so many wild beasts
until ye have shipped them, and so the devil go
with them Let me hear no answer but the per-

• Ellis's Letters, vol. iii. p. 238.

158

formance of my command. So I rest, your faithful,
constant, loving friend,

«• Oaking the 7th of August 1626." " CHARLES R."

When, in consequence of this order, the royal
officers attended upon the French with coaches and
carts, they still contumaciously refused to depart
until they should receive orders from their own
king, and " ahove all the bishop stood upon his
punctilios." Word being brought to the king of
this conduct, he dispatched to London " the captain
of the guard attended with a competent number of
his yeomen, as likewise with heralds, messengers
and trumpeters, first to proclaim his majesty's
pleasure at Somerset house gate; which, if it were
not speedily obeyed, the yeomen of the guard were
to put it in execution, by turning all the French out
of Somerset house head and shoulders, and shutting
the gate after them. Which news as soon as the
French heard, their courage came down, and they
yielded to be gone the next tide*."

We may judge how many projects and intrigues
were broken by these prompt measures of the king,
from the excessive indignation manifested by the
French court. Carlton, now a peer, who had been
dispatched to announce and justify to Louis and the
queen-mother the expulsion from Whitehall, was
ill-received ; Walter Montague, sent soon after to
congratulate Monsieur and Madame on their mar-

a Ellis's Letters, vol. iii, p. 245.

159

riage, being additionally unwelcome as an instrument
through whom the duke of Buckingham was helieved
to carry on his correspondence with the French
queen, was ordered to make the best of his way
back ; and marshal de Bassompierre was then com-
missioned to come and demand satisfaction of king
Charles for his various infractions of the marriage-
treaty. This ambassador was met by the master of
the ceremonies at Gravesend, and by the earl of
Dorset with the king's barge near Greenwich; but
Charles, who had been with difficulty prevailed upon
to show him these customary attentions, absolutely
refused to lodge or defray him.

Bassompierre himself has fortunately left us a
copious narrative of his transactions in England,
whence we derive some particulars strongly illus-
trative of the character of Charles, the influence of
the duke, and the spirit of the French or catholic
party a. Besides the expulsion of the servants, the
ambassador was instructed to urge the following
grounds of complaint. That a church had not been
built for the queen at St. James's ; and that, not-
withstanding the secret article by which the king
had promised that his Roman catholic subjects
should not be molested either in person or property
for their religion, or constrained to take any oath
contrary to it, " the most severe laws against
catholics, established during the most violent per-
secutions and since in a manner abolished, were

a See Bassompierre's " Mttmoires" and his " Ambassades "
passim.

160

renewed." These further grievances were added :
That within a few days four protestant ladies of the
bedchamber had been placed about the queen ;
namely the duchess of Buckingham, the marchioness
of Hamilton, and the countesses of Denbigh and
Carlisle ; also, that the lands set out for the queen's
demesne were not of the stipulated value ; that the
patents for them ' ' had not been registered in par-
liament," and that the queen had not been permitted
to gratify English catholics by herself appointing
" the officers of her demesne." The king of France
openly imputed these violations of faith to the duke
of Buckingham, who had filled all the vacant offices
in the queen's household with his own relations and
friends, and he had the confidence to add ; that even
should the French servants have offended, it would
have been decent and friendly in his brother of
England to have informed him of it, and have left
to him the punishment of his own subjects; but
that, " thank God, he cannot find that they have
been wanting in the least to the fidelity and devoted-
ness which he had a right to expect of them."

The queen-mother sent at the same time the sieur
de la Barre to her daughter, to enjoin her to keep
up her spirit, to show openly the utmost eagerness
to have the French back again, and covertly to
evince her attachment to her friends in England,
and her indignation against those who had disserved
her. He was also charged to encourage her sole
remaining Frenchwoman in her fidelity, and to tell
the queen that she must abstain from confession in

161

case no priest were left excepting two, mentioned
by name, whom the French court distrusted. By
command of the queen-mother, Bassompierre had
likewise brought with him father Sancy, a priest so
obnoxious, for some unknown reason, to Charles,
that the ambassador, immediately on his landing,
was required to send him back again ; he refused,
on which account his audience was for some time
delayed, — talked in a high and insolent tone of the
privileges of ambassadors, so recently violated in
his own court by the dismissal of Montague, — and
finally, gained the point by his pertinacity. When
a first audience was to be granted him, the king
stipulated, that as it was to be public, and in the
queen's presence, there should be no mention of
business, because he feared that she would burst
into tears and make a scene, and that he might then
be provoked to some unseemly violence of speech.
Henrietta was freely permitted to see the ambassa-
dor in private, and he testifies that she was extremely
well treated, that her court was very brilliant, and
that she would have nothing to complain of if she
had only her priests again, and a few French people
for her consolation. " She is," says he, " the best
and prettiest princess in the world, and one who,
contrary to my expectation, has no will of her own,
referring herself on all points to that of the king her
brother and the queen her mother. She told me,
that knowing me for their good and faithful servant,
and sent by them, she should approve all I did, and
would only act by my advice."
VOL. j. M

162

Buckingham made great professions of his desire
to reconcile matters, notwithstanding the hatred
borne him by the queen, the resentment manifested
by the French court, and a sharp letter written him
by the queen-mother. Bassompierre put no faith
at first in his fair promises, because, as he says, he
had entire power over the mind of the king, and
yet he had neither prevented the expulsion of the
French, nor procured their restoration. In the
progress of the treaty however, he became con-
vinced of the sincerity of the duke, to whom he
persuaded the queen to reconcile herself, and he
then anticipated no difficulties but from " the obsti-
nate and perverse temper of the king himself."

About a fortnight after his arrival, he was ad-
mitted to a private audience which lasted nearly
two hours, and was far from amicable. After
hearing all the complaints and remonstrances of
the ambassador, the king remarked, that he won-
dered he had not completed his errand by declaring
war. Bassompierre replied, that he was not a
herald to declare war, but a marshal of France to
carry it on when it should be his master's pleasure ;
but at present he wished to treat with his majesty
as a brother. If that were the case, Charles rejoin-
ed, he ought to leave him in peace and freedom in
his own house, where neither he nor any other had
a right to interfere : that the religion of the queen
was secured ; he should take no means, direct or
indirect, to make her change it ; and for the rest,
he would not have his wife look to any one but

163

himself for protection. That he had been compelled
to send away her French attendants for their ill
behaviour, and the intrigues and monopolies which
they carried on in his kingdom. That they diverted
from him the affection of his queen, whom they
constantly surrounded, preventing her from paying
any attention to the English, discouraging her from
learning the language, and causing her not to
behave to him as she ought ; of which he had
already sent repeated information to her brother
and her mother. That now, since their departure,
the queen his wife lived better with him, and he
hoped that in future she would give him all manner
of satisfaction ; he was resolved not to subject him-
self again to the evils from which he had escaped,
and the king his good brother ought not to urge
him to it. He had given the queen a train suited
to her rank, and would treat her as a queen, but he
would have her behave herself to him as she ought,
and show him the respect and obedience of a wife.
With regard to the treatment of the catholics, he
said, that the proceedings of the French servants
had caused their present evils, and overcome his
previous wish and intention of leaving them at
peace ; which it was however his intention to do in
future, as far as he could without prejudice to his
own affairs and those of the state.

It can scarcely be denied, that in all this matter
Charles had substantially reason and justice on his
side, although his manner might be somewhat more
harsh, his expressions less conciliating, than the

164

circumstances required ; yet Bassompierre wrote
home, that he was sorry his instructions did not
warrant him to quit England immediately on re-
ceiving so peremptory an answer. The council,
to which the king referred him, remained laudably
firm to the maxim of granting nothing to the catho-
lics through the mediation of the king of France ;
but held out promises of more indulgence towards
them provided the queen would ask it of the king ;
they also thought fit to intimate, that she would
obtain most of her wishes by employing the duke,
and seeking favors from the king's goodness alone.
Two of the French demands, that the queen should
have a bishop in her service, and that some of her
priests should be regulars, were strenuously resisted
by the English council; at length it was settled, by
way of compromise, that her priests should all be
seculars excepting her confessor and his companion,
who had not been expelled, and who were fathers
of the Oratory, and that herbishop should confinehis
functions to the queen's household, and not confer
orders, or perform other episcopal acts in England.
The earl of Carlisle, whom Bassompierre represents
as a great puritan and very subtle in his religion,
long contested these points, and also demanded that
the king should have the choice of the priests, in
order that he might select those of the Gallican
rather than of the Ultramontane school ; but the
ambassador was warm on the last article, and car-
ried it. He yielded the appointment of a French
master of the horse, because the queen was content

165

to retain Henry Percy in this post, he being brother
to lady Carlisle " who governed the queen very
much." The number of French servants and officers
receiving salaries was one hundred and six, but of
followers and hangers-on of one kind or other there
were nearly twice as many more, so that the whole
number expelled was little short of three hundred.
The king adhered inflexibly to his resolution of not
suffering a single individual of these to return ; ex-
cepting Chartier the physician ; but he consented
that forty-six persons, male and female, should be
sent over in their stead ; and with this concession
the French court consented to be appeased.

These matters being arranged, and some remain-
ing disputes concerning mutual captures of ships
being referred to the ambassador in ordinary, Bas-
sompierre took his leave ; and he was already at
Dover, waiting for a fair wind, when Buckingham
sent to entreat him to return in order to confer
with him at Canterbury. In this meeting, the duke
mentioned certain detentions of English ships in
the French ports, and represented the affair as of
so much consequence that on this sole account, as
he said, he had accepted the appointment of am-
bassador extraordinary to France, and would return
with Bassompierre. The marshal frankly replied,
that he could not approve his project, and that it
would not be agreeable to his king; and he spent
the evening in persuading him to give up, or at
least postpone, his journey. Buckingham at length
agreed to defer his departure till the ambassador

166

could write to his court: he wrote, and received in
answer positive orders from his master to impede
the duke's design even, if necessary, by plainly
informing him that after what had passed, he could
not go without the French king's permission; but,
if possible, to put him off civilly, as a minister
favorable to France and to catholics, and totally
opposed to the puritans. Bassompierre accordingly
wrote a polite letter requesting him to defer his
mission till all disputes should be concluded, and
offering to procure the immediate release of the
English ships if Buckingham, on his part, would
interpose for the liberation of some French ones.
It was almost immediately upon this check to the
favorite that Charles declared war against France.
In the royal manifesto published on this occasion,
there was actually mentioned among the causes of
war, Louis's employment of the English ships lent
to him, against the Hugonots of La Rochelle ; an act
to which it is in proof that both Buckingham and
his master were consenting, and even instrumental.
But it was thought expedient to make this oblation
to the protestant prejudices of the English people ;
and the French sovereign, apparently respecting the
mysteries of king-craft even in an enemy, was con-
tent to excuse himself on this head by " the neces-
sity of his affairs."

The following trait is given by Bassompierre of
what he justly calls "the boldness, or rather impu-
dence," of Buckingham. At his first private inter-
view with Charles, who, as he says, put himself in a

167

great passion, and to whom he replied with spirit ;
at the moment when both parties were most heated,
the duke ran up and threw himself between them,
crying out, "I am come to keep the peace between
you two ! " On this strange interruption, the am-
bassador took off his hat, to intimate that he regard-
ed the audience as at an end. He was witness to
several quarrels between the king and the queen,
in which he thought her so much in the wrong,
that on one occasion he threatened her that he
would return without concluding the business, and
inform her brother and mother that the fault was
hers.

On Lord-mayor's day, the queen, after viewing
the water-procession from Somerset-house, took
Bassompierre in the coach with her into Cheapside,
to see the ceremony, which, he says, is the greatest
which takes place at the reception of any officer in
the world. Afterwards he went to walk in Moor-
fields, then newly planted and laid out, and a fa-
shionable place of resort even for the nobility.
Himself the mirror of magnificence at home, the
admiration which he expresses of the splendor and
gaiety of the English court is a testimony of great
weight. He mentions several exceedingly hand-
some entertainments given to himself by different
persons of rank, but one at which he was present,
given by Buckingham to the king and queen at
York House, was, he confesses, the most magnifi-
cent banquet he ever saw in his life. The table at
which he supped with the king and queen, waited

168

upon by the duke himself and the earls of Holland
and Carlisle, "was served by a complete ballet at
every course," with music and changes of scenery,
and various representations. After supper they
were led into another apartment, where there was a
splendid mask in which the duke danced ; after-
wards there were country-dances till four in the
morning, then a collation. The king and queen
slept in the house, and the next day the queen had
music, and the king ordered a ball and a play, after
which they returned to Whitehall. Charles sent
the ambassador at his departure a rich present of
diamonds, for his anger had now cooled, and he
probably regarded Bassompierre, and with reason,
as the most sound and moderate of all Henrietta's
French counsellors.

The prospect of a new war, added to the reverses
sustained in Germany, occasioned fresh demands
upon the treasury, and there was now no mercy for
those who offered any resistance to the new mea-
sures. A general loan having been agreed upon in
the council instead of the benevolence, which had
proved unproductive, the most odious means were
adopted for enforcing compliance. Soldiers were
billeted on private persons by way of punishment
for their refractoriness, and the commissioners for
the levy of the imposition received the following
among other instructions : That they should treat
apart with those who were to lend, and not in the
presence of others, — that if any should refuse to
lend, or make delays or excuses, they should exa-

169

mine them on oath whether they had been " dealt
withal" to refuse, by whom, and what speeches
had been used tending to such purpose ? They
were also to charge such persons in his majesty's
name not to disclose what their answer had been;
" That they endeavour to discover whether any,
publicly or underhand, be workers or persuaders of
others to dissent from this course, or hinder the
good disposition of others ; and that as much as
they may, they hinder all discourse about it ; and
certify to the privy council in writing the names,
qualities, and dwelling-places of such refractory
persons with all speed, and especially if they shall
discover any combination or confederacy against
these proceedings. " Thus was a political Inquisi-
tion, with all its detestable apparatus of secret exa-
minations, arbitrary oaths, and private accusations,
suddenly established throughout the kingdom ! But
there were many minds in which the character of
these proceedings excited anger or contempt rather
than terror. Numerous knights and gentlemen in
various parts of the country, of whom Mr. Hamp-
den was one, refused to lend their money, and were
in consequence committed to close custody, often
in the common gaols, and sometimes in distant
counties ; sir Peter Hayman, on the same account,
was sent on an errand to the Palatinate, and per-
sons of inferior rank were pressed for foreign ser-
vice either in the army or navy. Sir John Eliot,
from the Gatehouse prison, addressed to Charles a
well-drawn petition setting forth the statutes by

170

which it was declared unlawful for the king to im-
pose taxes by his own authority, and criminal in
the subject to pay them, and pleading conscience
for his refusal; but without avail.

Sir Thomas Wentworth, having been, after a
feigned reconciliation, deprived by Buckingham in
the most public and offensive manner of the office
of custos rotulorum for Yorkshire, finding his hum-
blest submissions, tendered through his friend sir
Richard Weston, ineffectual to procure his restora-
tion, conceived that an imposing show of patriotic
opposition would now best serve the interests of his
ambition; and having preremptorily refused his con-
tribution, he assumed the attitude of a man pre-
pared to stand all consequences. Being summoned
before the privy council, he there justified his con-
duct, and was in consequence, in May 1627, com-
mitted to the Marshalsea, where he remained six
weeks, after which he was banished to Dartford in
Kent, and ordered to confine himself within that town
and a space of two miles round it ; under which
restraint he continued till the ensuing Christmas.
On the first rumor of his collision with the court,
several of his friends, by whom his designs and plan
of action seem to have been but imperfectly un-
derstood, began eagerly to ply him with their
prudential counsels ; and the court intelligence on
which they grounded the opinions expressed in their
letters will often be found curious and interesting.
Lord Clifford, his brother-in-law, writes thus on
April 30th, 1627:—

171

" This night your friends have thought fit to give
you this speedy advertisement that the stream runs
daily stronger and stronger against the refusers, and
this day the gentlemen of Lincolnshire are all com-
mitted to the prisons here in London, and those
which have remained so long imprisoned are to be
sent to private houses severally, into several shires,
most remote from their own country, without so
much as liberty to go to church. And every man
here that loves you, wish you may not run so great
a hazard both of your life and fortune. The letters
I hear are gone to the commissioners to receive
your answer, and therefore we that wish you would
give, do wish you would do it readily and freely at
their motion. But if you cannot be persuaded there-
unto, then, for my part, I would have you desire the
commissioners to give you leave to give your answer
here in person before the lords, engaging your word
unto them to come up presently; which we would
have you do with all speed. My dear brother, how
perplexed I am about this particular, these ragged

lines can partly witness Accept them, I pray

you, as the present of a faithful and affectionate
heart, which affects nothing more than your safety
and happiness: For which that you may provide in
time, I have expressly sent this bearer by posta."

Lord Haughton, also a brother-in-law, writes to
him as follows on May 19, 1627.

11 It was supposed this humour of com-

a Straford Letters, i. 36.

172

mitting had been spent, till your antagonist did
revive it ; who, I hear, brags he hath you in a
toil or dilemma ; if you refuse you shall run the
fortune of the other delinquents, if you come in at
the last hour into the vineyard, he hopes it will
lessen you in the country. Sir Harbottle Grimstone
of Essex was laid up last week ; his neighbours of
Chelmsford, the six poor tradesmen, stand out stiff-
ly, notwithstanding the many threats and promises
made them ; which made one say, that honor,
that did use to reside in the head, was now, like the
gout, got into the foot. Some of the judges stagger,
and incline to pressing them, but Hyde, the late
chief justice, will rather quit his minivers than sub-
scribe to it.

" The duke's going so often adjourned,

makes men suspect he will not stir at all : And I
heard from a good hand he moved the king to that
purpose, who would not consent unto it, saying
his honor was engaged, the eyes of the kingdom
were upon him ; whereupon his grace grew melan-
choly.

* ' Middlesex hath now his quietus est ; the other
day kissed the king's hand, and was used so graci-
ously that the treasurer is afraid of himself. Not
one of the refractory lords is come in, though gene-
rally said Northumberland had yielded, but nothing
so. The lords are ill troubled with the Irish, who
being commanded to defray 5000 foot and 500 horse,
through the whole country have generally refused,
and the sheriffs also to serve any writs upon the

173

refusers : This paper will tell you of a toleration
intended and rejected there*. "

Lord Clifford in a subsequent letter earnestly ex-
horting Wentworth to compliance, has the follow-
ing strong expressions : " My dear brother, lean-
not hope to see you receive the least favor that the
great ones can abridge you of, if you still refuse ;
neither dare any move the king in the behalf of
any gentleman refuser; for his heart is so inflamed
in this business, as he vows a perpetual remem-
brance as well as a present punishment. And
though the duke will be gone shortly, yet no man
can expect to receive any ease by his absence, since
the king takes the punishment into his own direc-
tion15."

It is worthy of remark, that chief justice sir
Randal Crew had already been dismissed from his
office as not sufficiently favorable to the loan ; and
that sir Nicholas Hyde who had succeeded him is
mentioned by his own nephew lord Clarendon as
one who having been promoted ' ' from a private
practiser of the law to the supreme judicatory in it,
by the power and recommendation of the great fa-
vorite, of whose private counsel he had been, — was
exposed to much envy and some prejudice0;" and
yet, it seems, even his . instrumentality was not
without difficulty obtained ; so thoroughly illegal
were these proceedings.

a Straff or d Letters, i. 37. b Ibid, i, 38.

c Life of Edward earl of Clarendon, p. 3.

174

The benchers of Lincoln's inn received, to their
honor, a letter of reproof from the council, for
" neglecting to advance the service in their so-
ciety," and to return the names of the refractory.
The church might also boast of one confessor in
the cause of the constitution, and he of no less
eminence than Abbot archbishop of Canterbury.
Laud had now fully succeeded in communicating to
the all-powerful favorite his own animosity against
this zealous and popular prelate, and the opportu-
nity to ruin or disgrace him, which had long been
sought, offered itself on the following occasion.
One Sibthorp, an obscure but aspiring clergyman,
had ingratiated himself with the ruling party by an
assize-sermon, preached at Northampton, in which
he had maintained the unlimited nature of regal
power, and asserted the right of the sovereign both
to make laws and levy contributions by his own
authority; the subject being bound, under pain of
everlasting perdition, to afford an active obedience
in all things not contrary to the laws of God and
nature ; a passive obedience in all cases. This
sermon was sent to the archbishop by a gentleman
of the bedchamber with a message from the king
himself that it was his pleasure it should be licensed
to the press. The primate pleaded that it was the
business of his chaplains ; but being informed that
it was required of him to give this piece his own
attention, he took it to read, and then returned a
conscientious refusal to give it his sanction. To
repeated and urgent requisitions to the same effect

175

he remained inflexible ; till at length Charles was
provoked to command him to banish himself to one
of his seats in Kent, and to issue a commission to
four bishops, Laud being one, for the exercise of
archiepiscopal jurisdiction in his stead a ; and all
this without law, without form of process, without
even an accusation brought against him!

Sib thorp's sermon was next carried to Worral,
one of the chaplains of Laud, now become bishop
of London, who hastily signed the imprimatur, but,
alarmed at what he had done, ran immediately to
beg the advice of Selden. Having read the piece,
this eminent lawyer and patriot, prudently avoiding
to commit his opinion to paper, sent for Worral and
addressed him to this effect. "What have you
done ? You have allowed a strange book ; which,
if it be true, there is no meum or tuum, no man in
England hath any thing of his own. If ever the
tide turn and matters be called to a reckoning, you
will be hanged for such a book. You must scrape
out your name, and not suffer so much as the sign
of any letter to remain." The chaplain took the
sound advice, but his less wary diocesan signed
the imprimatur without hesitation ; — on points like
these, Laud was visited with neither fears nor scru-
ples11.

The English catholics at this time excited pecu-
liar jealousy in the popular party by their cheerful
and liberal contributions to the loan, suspected to

* Abbot's Narrative in Rushworth, i. 440. b Rushworth, i. 448.

176

be the fruit of a secret understanding, that the king,
by his own authority and in contravention of his
repeated promises to parliament, would suspend the
operation of the penal laws. In Ireland, where a
great majority of the inhabitants still adhered to
the old religion, they judged themselves strong
enough openly to demand a redress of their most
pressing grievances, civil and religious, as the price
of those supplies which they knew to be indispensa-
ble to their sovereign. The maintenance of a body
of troops by the country had there been firmly re-
sisted, as we have seen, until the king had sanc-
tioned by his own assent and promised to assemble
a parliament in Ireland for the purpose of ratifying,
certain graces, as they were called, which might be
regarded as a charter of emancipation to that un-
happy people. By some of these the country was
to be relieved from various oppressions in civil,
judicial and commercial matters ; by another, all
inquiries into defective titles to lands on the part of
the crown, which had hitherto been carried on with-
out regard to any length of prescription, were to be
restricted to a retrospection of sixty years ; by an-
other, catholic land-owners were to be admitted to
sue out their liveries without taking the oath of
abjuration, — and by another of still greater import-
ance, the rites of the Roman catholic worship were
to be admitted to a free toleration. The last article
instantly roused the fears and the zeal of the pro-
test ant heirarchy, and twelve Irish bishops, with
their learned primate Usher at their head, met and

177

signed a protestation, that the religion of the papists
being " superstitious and idolatrous, their faith and
doctrine erroneous and heretical, their church in
respect of both apostatical," to grant them a tole-
ration was " a grievous sin," and to do so for money,
was " to set religion to sale."

This opposition, in which the protest ant laity
appear to have concurred, had other motives besides
those suggested by religious bigotry, which it was
judged politic to make the ostensible ones. The
voluntary contribution which was to purchase the
graces, and to which protestants were to be equally
assessed with catholics, was no less offensive to the
patriots of Ireland than the loan to those of England ;
being equally a mode of enabling the king to raise
money without the assistance of a parliament, which
it was clearly perceived that nothing but pecuniary
distress would ever induce him to convoke. The
conduct of Charles on the occasion was highly cha-
racteristic. He violated his word to the catholics
by substituting a bare connivance, which left them
still at his mercy, for the stipulated toleration; and
being inwardly resolved neither to set limits to the
searches into defective titles regarded by himself
and his courtiers as a mine of unexhausted treasure,
nor to permit the assembling of an Irish house of
commons, he availed himself of a perhaps not
undesigned irregularity in the writ of summons
issued by lord-deputy Falkland, which might have
been speedily and easily remedied, to defer indefi-
nitely the meeting of parliament solemnly promised

VOL. I. N

178

to the Irish nation, and expected both by catholics
and protestants with extreme anxiety. Meantime
the contribution for the maintenance of the army
continued to be levied.

In November 1627 five of the knights who had
been imprisoned for refusing the loan, all persons
of fortune and distinction, resolved to bring their
cause to an issue by suing out a writ of habeas cor-
pus in the king's bench. Stripped of technical
forms, the question to be decided on this occa-
sion was no other than the following. Whether
English judges would interpose, according to the
law and their duty, to liberate persons detained,
without any specific charge, "by the king's special
command;" or whether, through their iniquitous
and base subserviency, the ancient charters of the
land were to be virtually abolished, and the per-
sonal liberty of every subject was henceforth to lie
at the mercy of an arbitrary prince. The cause of
the prisoners, or rather of the English people, was
pleaded by lawyers of great eminence, for Noy and
Selden were of the number. Selden laid it down,
1 c that by the constant and settled laws of this king-
dom, without which we have nothing, no man can
be justly imprisoned, either by the king or council,
without a cause of the commitment, and that ought
to be expressed in the return." "This right," said
Serjeant Branston, " is the only means that a sub-
ject hath whereby to obtain his liberty; and the
end of it is to return the cause of the imprisonment,
that it may be examined in the court whether the

179

parties ought to be discharged or not : Which can-
not he done upon this return ; for the cause of the
imprisonment is so far from appearing particularly

by it, that there is no cause at all expressed

the cause ought to be expressed so far that it ought
to be none of those causes for which, by the laws
of the kingdom, the subject ought not to be impri-
soned. For observe but the consequence : If those
gentlemen who are committed without any cause
shown, should not be bailed but remanded, the
subjects of the kingdom may be restrained of their
liberty for ever, and by law there can be no remedy."
"If upon a habeas corpus a cause of commitment be
signified, then," said Mr. Noy, " the cause is to be
tried before your lordships ; but if no cause be shown,
the court must do that which standeth with law and
justice, and that is to deliver the party."

Notwithstanding these and other arguments of
irrefragable cogency, chief-justice Hyde, now victor
over all his scruples, dared to pronounce, for him-
self and his brother judges, Dodderidge, Jones and
Whitelock, a judgement which, by denying either
liberation or bail to the prisoners, closed all the
doors of justice against them, and held out to them
as their sole hope of deliverance from perpetual
incarceration, the mercy of the tyrannical prince
whom their just resistance had offended.

Having thus, as they fondly hoped, crushed all
opposition at home by the strong arm of power,
Charles and his minister prepared to exhibit their
talents in the conduct of a war with France. The

N2

180

prince of Soubize, a hugonot leader of the house of
Rohan, was received with high favor at the English
court, and through his influence it was hoped that
the people of La Rochelle, forgetful of recent in-
juries, might be brought to cooperate with a pow-
erful armament prepared for a descent on the French
<joast. Buckingham, who had arrpgated to himself
the chief command by land as well as sea, being in
both services equally and totally ignorant and inex-
perienced, urged on the preparations with charac-
teristic impetuosity ; and a considerable fleet being
assembled, with a body of 7000 men on board, he
embarked at Portsmouth in July 1 627, and appeared
before La Rochelle. The inhabitants however were
neither prepared nor inclined to admit him, and
finding himself disappointed in this quarter, he
landed on the Isle of Rhe, where there was no force
capable of withstanding him. From a want of skill
or promptitude, he allowed the governor to provi-
sion a fort which held out against him till the month
of November, though he had at first written to
assure the king that he should be master of it in a
week. A large French force then advancing to
relieve it, Buckingham, after several pernicious
fluctuations of purpose, commenced a retreat, which
was conducted with such precipitation and want of
judgement, on broken ground, over a narrow causey,
and amid salt pans and marshes, that the loss of a
battle could scarcely have been more fatal. " The
retreat," says Clarendon emphatically, "had been
a rout without an enemy, and the French had their

181

revenge by the disorder and confusion of the En-
glish themselves ; in which great numbers, both of
noble and ignoble, were crowded to death, or drowned
without the help of an enemy : and as some thou-
sands of the common men were wanting, so few of
those principal officers who attained to a name in
war, and by whose courage and experience any war
was to be conducted, could be found."

A general consternation over the whole kingdom
was the result of this disaster ; mutinies broke out
in the fleet and army on pretext of want of pay,
"but in truth, out of detestation of the service and
the authority of the duke." The counties refused
to suffer the troops to be billeted upon them. The
illegal practice of pressing recruits for the army
found opposition in many places. " This produced
a resort to martial law, by which many were exe-
cuted; which raised an asperity in the minds of
more than the common people*. "

The military character of the nation was low at
this period, and several of the creatures of Buck-
ingham, more conversant in courts than camps,
incurred severe reproach : " For here in England/'
says a memorialist, "the earl of Holland trifled away
the time in which he should have brought new
supplies of men, victuals and shipping unto the
duke, and was found in harbour at Portsmouth,
when he should have been found a month before in
the bay at Rochelle ; and here his brother Mount-

a Hist, of Rebellion, book i.

182

joy, afterward earl of Newport, and the lord Con-
way, then sir Edward, who with the horse were to
make the retreat, to say no more, fell under great
suspicion V Concerning the degree of personal
courage exhibited by the duke in this unhappy ex-
pedition, we have contradictory reports which it is
not worth while to balance ; his general conduct
was commended by no one excepting his infatuated
master, and the instruments whose express charge
it was to keep up his gross delusion.

The letters written by Charles to Buckingham
during his absence, taken without reference to the
merits of him to whom they were addressed, deserve
a place among the most pleasing records of royal
friendship. In perusing them we are irresistibly
impressed with the unhappiness of princes who,
precluded by their station almost from the possibi-
lity of forming just estimates of men and things,
can scarcely give way to the best and sweetest
affections of the human heart without peril to
themselves and mischief to their people. The fol-
lowing are a few of the most remarkable passages.

11 1 [write] rather to assure you that upon all
occasions I am glad to remember you, and that
no distance of place nor length of time can make
me slacken, much less diminish, my love to you,
than that I have any business to advertise you of.
I know too that this is nothing, it being nothing
but what you know already ; yet imagining that

* Warwick's Memoirs, p. 27.

183

we, like usurers, love sometimes to look upon our
riches, I think it is not unacceptable to you to bid
you look of that that I esteem to be the greatest
riches, and now hardest to be found, true friendship;
there being no style justlier to be given to any man
than that to me of being, your faithful" &c.

" It rejoices me not a little to hear [Dalbier]
being a stranger and a soldier, give so just a de-
scription of your disposition, which I know to be
true; that making me believe the rest he says con-
cerning your proficiency in the trade you have now
so happily begun, which though I never doubted,
yet I am glad to see that truth forces all men to

approve my judgement of you Only I must

chide you if it be true that I hear, that you hazard
yourself too boldly. This I must command you to
mind and take care of ; there being more inconve-
nience in it than I almost dare write, or fit for you
to hear ; but it is enough that you are willed to
preserve yourself for his sake that is, and ever shall
be, your loving" &c.

The king gave his personal attention to the care
of sending Holland with supplies and reinforce-
ments to the army, and he often apologizes for
tardiness in this affair as proceeding from the em-
barrassments of the times, and by no means from
any slackness in himself, — and perhaps the earl of
Holland's conduct might claim the benefit of the
same excuse. " Be not disheartened with our by-
past slowness ; for, by the grace of God, it is all
past. This I say, not that I fear thy constant,

184

stout heart can slack in an honest cause, but that
some rascal may cast doubts in the army as if I
neglected you; which I imagine is likely enough to
fall out, since some villains here stick not to divulge
it. And it is possible that those who were the
cause of your consultation of leaving the siege and
coming home (for the resisting of which I give thee
a thousand thanks) may mutter such things. Now
I pray God but to prosper me as I shall stick to
thee on all occasions, and in this action as I shall
show myself your loving" &c.

The Danish ambassadors had endeavoured to
mediate a peace between France and England, and
had desired that powers to treat should be sent to
the duke, which Charles says he would not grant,
but adds, "Now, honest rascal, though I refused,
being demanded, to send thee powers to treat, yet
thou, knowing my well-grounded confidence of thee,
may'st easily judge the warrant -dormant power
thou hast in this, as in any thing else where confi-
dence may be placed on any man : but for fear thy
modesty in this particular might hinder thee to
remember thy power of trust, which I have given
thee, I thought not amiss to write as I have writ-
ten."

On receiving an intimation to prepare his mind
for the probable abandonment of the enterprise, we
find it the king's first care to console and encourage
the unsuccessful general: "This is therefore to give
you power, in case ye should imagine that ye have
not enough already, to put in execution any of

185

those designs ye mentioned to Jack Epslie, or any
other that ye shall like of. So that I freely leave
it to your will whether after your landing in En-
gland ye will set forth again to some design, before
you come hither ; or else that ye will first come to
ask my advice before ye undertake a new work ;
assuring you that with whatsomever success ye
shall come to me, ye shall be ever welcome ; one
of my greatest griefs being that I have not been
with you in this time of suffering, for I know we

would have much eased each other's griefs To

conclude, you cannot come so soon as ye are wel-
come; and unfeignedly, in my mind, ye have gained
as much reputation, with wise and honest men, in
this action, as if ye had performed all your desires.
I have no more to say at this time, but conjure
thee, for my sake, to have a care of thy health."
Even after the calamitous retreat, the blinded king
sends Endymion Porter to Portsmouth, "to assume
you our misfortune has been not to send you sup-
plies in time, that all honest men cannot but judge
that you have done past expectation, and, if a man
may say it, beyond possibility."

One or two passages show the indiscreet and ex-
cessive openness with which he imparted to Buck-
ingham the state of his conjugal feelings. " I can-
not omit to tell you that my wife and I were never
better together; she upon this action of yours
showing herself so loving to me, by her discretion
upon all occasions, that it makes us all wonder,
and esteem her." And again, after the return of

186

the duke to England : " I have sent you here in-
closed a letter to my wife, in answer to one that
Lodowic brought me, which was only a dry cere-
monious compliment, and answered accordingly ;
by which I see that my last denial is not digested
yet ; which you would do well to find out of your-
self, (without taking notice of any knowledge from
me,) to set her in tune against my returning to
London ; for if I shall find her reserved, fro ward,
or not kind at my return, we shall not agree; which
I am sure cannot fall out between you and your
lovinga" &c.

Steadfastness in his attachments, or, as it might
perhaps be called, persistence in his own judgement
of characters, was in fact one of the qualities on
which Charles prided himself the most ; and as his
haughty temper and despotic principles led him to
regard his ministers in the light of personal attend-
ants, household counsellors and assistants, and by
no means as responsible servants of the people, he
was ever prone to pledge himself to their protection
in all, and against all. Thus Laud has recorded in
his diary, that having been alarmed at the report
of a murmur, that in consequence of the failure at
the Isle of Rhe a parliament must be called, in
which some must be sacrificed, and himself as likely
as any, he repeated it to the king, whose answer
was ; ' ' Let me desire you not to trouble yourself
with any reports till you see me forsake my other
friends."

il Miscel. State Papers, ii. 14. et seq.

187

The necessity of his affairs, however, compelled
him to assemble a council, in which sir Robert
Cotton, being expressly called upon for his senti-
ments, gave an opinion in favor of calling a parlia-
ment, backed by arguments so cogent, drawn from
the ill state of almost every department of admini-
stration, that the measure was adopted, and writs
issued for its meeting on March 17th, 1628. Mean-
time it was judged expedient to mollify the spirits
of the people by liberating Digges and Eliot, and
also the knights, gentlemen, and London citizens,
to the number of seventy-eight, who were under
confinement or restraint for resisting the loan ; a
large proportion of the chief of whom, as confessors
in the cause of the constitution, were immediately
elected to seats in the house of commons. Arch-
bishop Abbot, bishop Williams, and the earl of
Bristol also received their writs of summons, and
the honor of these counsels was studiously ascribed
to the duke of Buckingham. But Charles, equally
unfitted by temper and by system for pursuing the
policy of a constitutional ruler, could not refrain
from blending with these conciliatory measures,
others of a diametrically opposite character. A
commission was issued to several privy counsellors
and others to consider of modes of raising money
' ' wherein form and circumstance must be dispensed
with, rather than the substance be lost;" and the
projects of a general excise, and of ship-money, had,
in consequence, been debated in the council, though
the execution was for the present suspended. What

188

was still more alarming, not only the troops returned
from foreign service were still kept on foot and
quartered in private houses, evidently for the pur-
pose of quelling the spirit of the people, but secret
orders, accompanied by the sum of 30,OOOZ., had
been transmitted by the king to sir William Balfour
and colonel Dalbier in the Low Countries, for the
levy of 1000 German horse and the purchase of
above 10,000 stand of arms, to be immediately
transported to England ; transactions which could
not be kept so secret as not speedily to become the
subjects of parliamentary animadversion.

189

CHAPTER VI.

1628.

Parliament opened. — Haughty speech of the king, — Grievances
opened by Seymour, Philips and others. — Vain efforts of secre-
tary Cook to carry the king's measures. — Petition of right put in
preparation. — Judges called in question for denial of habeas cor-
pus.— Petition against recusants assented to. — Supplies deferred,
grievances proceeded with. — Offensive interposition of Bucking-
ham.— Conference between the two houses on liberty of persons. —
Billeting of soldiers and martial law debated. — Attempts of the
king to baffle the petition of right. — Amendment of the peers re-
jected.— The bill passes both houses. — Complaint of the commons
against Manwaring. — King's evasive answer to the petition of
right. — Remarks. — Indignation of the commons. — Dissolution
threatened. — Pathetic scene in the house of commons. — King
passes the bill. — Commons vote the subsidies. — Complaints against
Buckingham. — Dr. Lamb beaten to death. — Remonstrance pre-
pared by the commons. — Parliament prorogued in anger.

PARLIAMENT was opened on March 17th by the
king in person, with a speech in which menace and
the expression of offended pride were still unhappily
predominant over the tone of conciliation which
experience as well as reason might by this time have
taught him to employ. " These times," said the
monarch, " are for action, wherefore, for example's
sake, I mean not to spend much time in words;
expecting that your, as I hope, good resolutions,
will be speedy, not spending time unnecessarily, or

190

that I may better say, dangerously I think there

is none here but knows , that common danger is the
cause of this parliament, and that supply is at this

time the chief end of it I therefore, judging a

parliament to be the ancient, speediest, and best way,
in this time of common danger, to give such supply
as to secure ourselves, and to save our friends from
imminent ruin, have called you together. Every
man must now do according to his conscience :
Wherefore if you, as God forbid, should not do your
duties in contributing what the state at this time
needs, I must, in discharge of my conscience, use
those other means which God hath put into my
hands, to save that which the follies of particular
men may otherwise hazard to lose. Take not this
as a threatening, for I scorn to threaten any but my
equals; but an admonition from him that both out
of nature and duty hath most care of your preserva-
tions and prosperities. And though I thus speak,
I hope that your demeanors at this time will be such,
as shall not only make me approve your former
counsels, but lay on me such obligations as shall
tie me by way of thankfulness to meet often with

you You may imagine that I came here with

a doubt of success of what I desire, remembering
the distractions of the last meeting : But I assure
you that I shall very easily and gladly forget and
forgive what is past, so that you will at this present
time leave the former ways of distractions."

This harangue gave extreme offence, alike by its
style and its matter ; it was plain that no redress of

191

grievances was proposed in return for the supplies
thus imperiously demanded ; and after all the recent
acts of oppression perpetrated by royal authority,
it might be thought that it was not the part of the
king to offer pardon and oblivion as a boon. Lord
keeper Coventry pronounced a speech nearly to the
same effect, which he concluded by warning the
two houses that if the parliamentary way of supply
were delayed, " necessity and the sword of the
enemy make way to the others." " Remember,"
he emphatically added, "his majesty's admonition,
I say remember it ! "

The house of commons, undismayed, though by
no means unmoved, by these menaces, immediately
formed its committees for religion, for grievances
and for trade, and then proceeded to debate on the
late invasions of law and liberty ; when Sir Francis
Seymour thus gave utterance to the general feeling.
" How can we express our affection while we retain
our fears, or speak of giving till we know whether
we have any thing to give ? For if his majesty may
be persuaded to take what he will, what need we
give ? That this hath been done, appeareth by

the billeting of soldiers the imprisonment of

gentlemen for refusal of the loan; who if they had
done the contrary for fear, their faults would have
been as great as theirs who were the projectors of it.
To countenance these proceedings, hath it not been
preached in the pulpit, or rather prated; all we have
is the king's, jure divino? When preachers forsake
their own calling and turn ignorant statesmen, we

192

see how willing they are to exchange a good con-
science for a bishopric."

Sir Robert Philips, to the wrongs already enume-
rated, added one which he treated as the " main
one;" ''Religion made vendible by commission,
and men for pecuniary annual rates dispensed withal,
whereby papists may, without fear of law, practise
idolatry, scoff at parliaments, laws and all." After-
wards, in pleading that freedom had always been
the birth-right of the people, he triumphantly asked,
" Was there ever yet king of England that directly
violated the subjects' liberty and property, but their
actions were ever complained of and redressed?"
The oppressions under which the country groaned,
he divided into acts of power without law, and
judgements of law against liberty, and wound up
all with " that fatal last judgement against the
liberty of the subject argued and pronounced but
by one judge alone.". . . ."I can live," pursued the
passionate orator, " although another who has no
right be put to live with me ; nay, I can live, although
I pay excises and impositions more than I do; but
to have my liberty, which is the soul of my life,
taken from me by power; and to have my body pent
up in a gaol, without remedy by law, and to be so
adjudged — O improvident ancestors ! O unwise
forefathers ! To be so curious in providing for the
quiet possession of our laws, and the liberties of
parliament, and to neglect our persons and bodies,
and to let them lie in prison, and that during plea-
sure, remediless ! If this be law, why do we talk of

193

liberties ? Why do we trouble ourselves with a dis-
pute about law, franchises, property of goods and
the like ? What may any man call his own, if not
the liberty of his person ? I am weary of treading
these ways, and therefore conclude to have a select
committee deputed to frame a petition to his majesty
for the redress of these things."

Sir John Eliot and other members expressed
themselves to the same effect, and in a style not
less pure and excellent; for it is worthy of remark,
that no sooner was servile adulation, long since re-
marked among the principal causes of the corruption
of eloquence, effectually checked, and a higher tone
of moral sentiment attained, than the pedantic and
garrulous inanity of king James's school of rhetoric
passed away and was forgotten. English law had
been trampled upon, English liberty cried aloud for
champions and assertors, and not in vain ; deep
thoughts and high resolves were maturing in manly
bosoms; great and important principles were to be
laid down, noble sentiments to be uttered and in-
spired; and they seized at once upon the language
of truth and nature as their inalienable right.

Sir Thomas Went worth was in the number of the
loan-refusers returned for this parliament; he still
enrolled himself in the ranks of opposition, and
spoke with some show of vehemence against the
principal grievances of the time; but he was suffi-
ciently the courtier to conclude his speech in these
words: " This hath not been done by the king,
under the pleasing shadow of whose crown I hope

VOL. i. o

194

we shall ever gather the fruits of justice ; but by
projectors, who have taken from us all means of
supplying the king, and ingratiating ourselves with
him, by tearing up the roots of all property."

Secretary Cook, affrighted at the gathering storm,
now endeavoured to qualify the peremptoriness of
the royal demands and soothe the house to com-
pliance, by admitting that grievances should have
their turn as well as supply ; he begged however to
suggest, that the king's business ought, in honor of
him, to have the precedence, and that unity of the
parliament with the sovereign, and of the house
within itself, was the most important point to be
secured, from the efficacy it would have in prevent-
ing { ' practices to sow divisions amongst us both at
home and abroad. " ' { The first sower of distractions
amongst us," he added, "was an agent of Spain,
Gondomar, that did his master great service here
and at home. Since that, we have had other
ministers that have blown the fire. The ambassador
of France told his master at home what he had
wrought here the last parliament, namely divisions
between king and people, and he was rewarded for
it. Whilst we sat here in parliament, there was
another parliament of Jesuits and other ill-willers
within a mile of this place; that this is true, was
discovered by letters sent to Rome. The place of
their meeting is changed, and some of them are
where they ought to be."

There was some address in this attempt, on the
part of the secretary, to suggest that the popular

195

party, by opposing the demands of the king and
reprobating his measures, were in effect strengthen-
ing the hands of foreign enemies, and especially of
the recusants whom they feared and hated: and in
a certain degree it might be the case; but these
enlightened statesmen well knew, that the " dis-
tractions " complained of had sprung from another,
and a far deeper root, than the busy intrigues of
foreign agents or their tools or accomplices ; and
disdaining the idea of a unity of which abject sub-
mission to the exorbitances of power must serve as
the bond, they remained firm to their own plan
of securing the lasting repose of the nation by
causing regal authority again to respect the bounds
marked out for it by the laws. They turned a deaf
ear therefore to repeated messages from the king
urging supply; and in the different committees the
late oppressions and grievances were set forth and
warmly commented upon by the most distinguished
speakers and patriots; the fundamental principles
of the English constitution being at the same time
firmly laid down, and the venerated precedents of
former ages drawn forth in long array for their
support, by the eminent lawyers who formed a con-
siderable body in the house, and who showed them-
selves for the most part faithful champions of the
people's rights. The combined results of all their
labors came forth at length in the celebrated Petition
of Right ; and during the many weeks that this bill
was in preparation, the struggles of the opposing
parties, and the facts and arguments thus elicited,

o 2

196

offered to the whole nation scenes and topics of the
deepest interest.

It was discovered by the examination of witnesses
before a committee, that the attorney-general had
earnestly and repeatedly demanded, that the refusal
of the judges to admit to bail the gentlemen impri-
soned by the king's command should be entered
upon the record as a special judgement decisive of
the general question in dispute; to this the judges
had prudently refused their consent ; yet he ceased
not his importunities till a week before the meeting
of parliament ; then, indeed, he had voluntarily
taken back the draught which he had framed for
the purpose, and allowed the business to drop
in silence. ''This draught of a judgement," re-
marked the venerable sir Edward Coke, " will sting

us Being committed by the king's command,

he must not be bailed, — what is this but to declare
that any subject committed upon such absolute
command may be detained in prison for ever ? I
fear, were it not for this parliament that followed
so close after that form of a judgement was drawn
up, there would have been hard putting to have had
it entered. But a parliament brings judges, officers,
and all men into order."

In fact these judges were soon after called upon
by the commons to justify their conduct in the
house of lords, when Mr. Justice Whitelock affirmed
that their refusal of present redress to these gentle-
men was not a final decision \ that they were but
remitted till the court had better advised of the

1-97

matter, and might have had a new writ the next
day; adding, " They say we ought not to have
denied bail ; I answer, if we had not done so, it
must needs have reflected upon the king, as if he

had unjustly imprisoned them I have spent

my time in this court, and I speak confidently, I
did never see, or know by any record, that upon
such a return as this, a man was bailed, the king
not first consulted with, in such a case as this. The
commons house do not know what letters and
commands we receive ; for these remain in our
court, and are not viewed by them." His brethren
excused themselves nearly in the same manner,
none of them daring to urge even the shadow of
law for their defence, but basely pleading those
" letters and commands" which they had chosen
to obey in violation of their duty and their oaths.
The recent displacement of lord chief justice Crew,
had indeed feelingly taught these functionaries by
what tenor they held their offices, and a few months
afterwards the lesson was repeated in the person of
chief baron Walter ; the same who, under the pre-
ceding reign, being selected as the instrument of
the court in the prosecution of Coke, returned
his brief, saying, "May my tongue cleave to the
roof of my mouth whenever I open it against sir
Edward Coke!" A similar repugnance to rise upon
his ruin was manifested even by the judge whose
subserviency had most disgraced him. " The chief
baron Walter is put out," says Bulstrode White-
lock in his Memorials, " and the king said of judge

198

Whitelock that he was a stout, wise, and a learned
man, and one who knew what belonged to uphold
magistrates and magistracy in their dignity ; and
there was some speech of making him chief baron
in the room of Walter ; but my father had no great
mind to succeed Walter ; because Walter alleged
that his patent of that office was quamdiu bene se
gesserit, and that he ought not to be removed but
by a scire facias."

A petition against recusants was agreed upon at
a conference of the two houses, in which, amongst
other proofs of the increasing boldness of the ca-
tholics, it was mentioned, that they had now in
England a bishop consecrated by the pope, with
all subaltern officers, who exercised jurisdiction
throughout the kingdom, made visitations, kept
courts, and decided ecclesiastical causes ; and that
even the regulars had taken deep root ; that they
had planted their societies and colleges of both
sexes, had settled revenues, libraries and vestments;
and proposed to hold a concurrent assembly with
the parliament ; on all which accounts full and due
execution of the laws was prayed against them.
But it was said at court, that in the essential point
of religion, a cheerful contribution to the loan, the
papists were perfectly orthodox, and the puritans
the only recusants ; and the king was on that ac-
count so exceedingly loth to give them any molesta-
tion, that although he found it expedient to return
first a general, and afterwards a more particular
assent to the petition, he could not refrain from

199

exhibiting great displeasure on the occasion. On
a petition being moved by the puritanical party for
the appointment of a day of fasting and humiliation,
he remarked, that as we pray to God to help us, so
we must help ourselves. For we can have no assu-
rance of his assistance if we do lie in bed and only
pray, without using other means. * ' And therefore,"
he added, " I must remember you, that if we do not
make provision speedily, we shall not be able to put
one ship to sea this year." Having however com-
plied with the sense of both houses in the matter
of recusants, he caused the supplies to be again
proposed to the commons ; but sir Edward Coke
stated, that subsidies had been obstructed in the
time of Henry IV., when one or two great men
about the king so mewed him up, that he took no
advice but from them ; and sir Thomas Wentworth
and others, opposed to the power of the duke,
strongly supporting the same side, it was agreed
to waive the royal propositions and proceed with
grievances.

A resolution now passed, that no freeman ought
to be confined by warrant from the king or privy
council, or others, unless by due course of law ;
and the learned Selden took occasion to explain,
that confinement was a different thing from impri-
sonment, and that it was a punishment totally un-
known to the English law, except that the Jews
had been confined in former times to the Old Jewry ;
that the civilians indeed had perpetual and coercive
prisons. Sir Thomas Hobby added, that recusants

200

were confined in strong places in the year 1588,
but that it was not held legal, and that when the
Armada was dispersed, they were liberated, and
the parliament petitioned the queen for a law to
warrant the confinement. Two successive messages
were brought from the king ; the first a conciliatory
one, contradicting for the duke a report of sharp
speeches made by him in council against the par-
liament, and, for the king himself, disclaiming all
intention of encroaching upon the people's liberties ;
the second, another and more pressing demand for
money. On this, five subsidies were voted ; a
greater number than had ever before been granted
at one time, though the amount, as his majesty
took care to make known, was still inferior to his
wants. Secretary Cook informed the house, that
the king, on learning that the supply had been
carried unanimously, was greatly affected by such
a proof of their duty and affection, and professed
that it would bring him back to his pristine love of
parliaments, which he had lost he knew not how.
This declaration being well received, the secretary
was encouraged to go on, and repeated a speech of
the duke's made to the king at the council, ex-
pressing his approbation also of the proceeding of
the commons, in reward of which, said he, " I am
a humble suitor that I, who have had the honor to
be your favorite, may now give up that title unto
them ; they to be your favorites, and I to be your
favorite;" going on to express his sorrow that he
should have been thought ' ' the mean of separation

201

that divided the king from the people," and pro-
mising to approve himself " a good spirit, breathing
none but the best of services to them all."

But this lofty patronage of the representative
body by the only man who had ever dared in Eng-
land openly to arrogate to himself the odious title
of a favorite, was felt as an additional insolence,
which was thus reprehended by Eliot. "Is it that
any man conceives that the mention of others, of
what quality soever, can add encouragement or af-
fection to us in our duties towards his majesty, or
give them greater latitude or extent than naturally
they have ? Or is it supposed that the power or
interest of any man can add more readiness to his
majesty in his gracious inclination to us, than his

own goodness gives us ? I cannot believe it ;

I am sorry there is this occasion that these things
should be argued, or this mixture, which was for-
merly condemned, should appear again. I beseech
you, sir, let it not be hereafter ; let no man take
this boldness, within these walls to introduce it."

The commons now transmitted to the lords their
"resolves" respecting the liberty of persons, and
several members were appointed to take up par-
ticular parts of the argument in this momentous
conference. Sir Dudley Digges, by way of intro-
duction, showed the immemorial, and as it were
sacred antiquity of the English common law,
" grounded on reason more ancient than books,
and continued in most part the same from Saxon
times ;" and he then set forth the oppressions, and

202

still more the denial of legal redress, which had
compelled the parliament thus solemnly " to examine
by acts of parliament, precedents and reasons, the
truth of the English subjects' liberties." Mr. Lit-
tleton then cited magna charta and the confirma-
tions of it by successive princes, with all the later
enactments by which personal liberty and private
property were secured. The king's counsel here
brought some technical objections, and argued for
his majesty's power of committing by prerogative
without cause assigned ; yet were obliged to ac-
knowledge that the seven statutes urged by the
commons were in force. Their objections were
cleared and answered, and Selden argued next.
" It might seem," he said, " that after the many
acts of parliament which are the written law of the
land, and are expressly in the point, had been read
and opened, and objections answered, little re-
mained needful to be added ; but that the house of
commons, taking into consideration that in this
question, being of so high a nature, that never any
exceeded it in any court of justice whatsoever, all
the several ways of just examination of the truth
should be used, have also carefully informed them-
selves of all former judgements or precedents con-
cerning this great point; " and these he was charged
to unfold. He explained, that whenever any right,
or liberty belonged to the subject, whether by the
written or the unwritten law, some remedy had also
been given by law, for enjoying or regaining this
right or liberty, when violated or taken from him.

203

That the writ of habeas corpus was the remedy pro-
vided in cases of arbitrary imprisonment by special
command of the king or council ; and he produced
twelve precedents to show that under it, persons
so imprisoned ought to be liberated on bail by the
court of king's bench.

Last of all, sir Edward Coke, the Nestor of the
host, "took up the argument as to the rational
part of the law." The lapse of eighty years had
neither dissipated the mighty stores of legal learn-
ing which it had been the business of his life to ac-
cumulate, blunted his perspicacity, nor quenched
his ardor. Long since a confessor in the cause of
English law, of which he had been the vigilant and
almost sole protector against the encroachments of
civilians and the prerogative doctrines of king James,
habit as well as reflection had served to rivet his
attachment to that venerable system ; and when he
again saw its very foundations assailed and in dan-
ger to be overthrown, it was rather with the spirited
alacrity of youth than the ' sober zeal of age' that
he sprang forth to its defence. "I am much trans-
ported with joy," he said, "because of the good
hope of success in this mighty business, your lord-
ships being so full of justice : And the very theme
and subject doth promise success the free-
dom of an Englishman not to be imprisoned with-
out cause shown ; wherein I will not be prolix nor
copious ; for to gild gold were idle and superfluous. "
Yet he proceeded to pour upon the subject a full
stream of law and logic, and in the close skilfully

204

brought the subject home to the bosoms of the peers
by observing, that this unlimited claim of the power
of arbitrary imprisonment touched them as much
as the lower house ; and that common dangers re-
quired common aid ; wherefore their concurrence
had now been sought in a declaration of rights,
and in such further course as might secure both
their lordships and the commons and all their pos-
terity in the enjoyment of their ancient, undoubted,
and fundamental liberties*.

The two following days were occupied in debates
respecting the unlawful billeting of soldiers ; and in
the meantime the king was busied in seeking expe-
dients to obstruct the petition of right in its pro-
gress through the two houses ; as an act to which
he abhorred to grant, yet dared not openly refuse
his assent. A message which he sent to the com-
mons desiring that on account of the urgency of
business they would make no recess at Easter, was
an interference which gave offence. " I am as ten-
der of the privileges of this house, " said sir Edward
Coke, " as of my life, and they are the heartstrings
of the commonwealth. The king makes a proro-
gation, but this house adjourns itself." And it
adjourned accordingly.

On resuming, the commons were again urged by
repeated messages for supply ; and when they per-
sisted in following their own course, the secretary
informed them, and as he said, with grief, that

a Rushworth, i. 533> et seq.

205

et notice was taken as if this house pressed not
upon the abuses of power only, but upon power
itself." This was again " very unpleasing" to the
commons, and it was observed that such messages
in the time of the king's father had done no good.
An address was now drawn up for the purpose of
setting his majesty right as to the sentiments and
intentions of parliament, accompanied by a petition
against the billeting of soldiers in private houses.
The king replied in a tone of displeasure, and de-
ferred giving an answer to the petition.

Martial law was the next grievance debated, and
a conference of the two houses was held respecting
it, at which Serjeant Ashley, for saying that the
propositions of the commons tended to anarchy,
and that they must allow the king to govern by
acts of state, was committed by the lords and
obliged to retract.

The peers now delivered to the commons, by the
hands of archbishop Abbot, some propositions for
saving to the king a power of committing by pre-
rogative, that is to say illegally, in extraordinary
cases, of which he was left the sole judge ; but to
these, as destructive of the whole object of the pe-
tition of right, they refused their assent. On the
failure of this attempt, the king on April 28th came
to the house, and in his presence the lord keeper, by
his command, delivered a speech again pressing for
supply, and assuring the house that his majesty held
magna charta and the other statutes in force; that
he would maintain his subjects in the just freedom

206

of their persons and safety of their estates, and
would govern according to the laws ; and that they
should find as much security in his royal word as
in any law they could make, so that they should
never in future have cause to complain. He con-
cluded thus: "The wrath of a king is like the
roaring of a lion, and all laws with his wrath are
to no effect ; but the king's favor is like the dew of
the grass ; there all will prosper." This was the
phraseology of oriental despotism, not of the En-
glish constitution ; it was in itself an insult to the
legislature, and it could not be believed that the
prince who caused it to be employed was sincere
in his professed intention of respecting the liberties
of the people in his administration. Evasion might
even be detected in the very terms in which the
royal word was tendered ; and the representatives
of the people would have viewed themselves as be-
trayers of their trust, had they now rested satisfied
with less than the most solemn and authentic pledge
which they could ask or he could give. It was ac-
cordingly resolved to proceed with the draught of
the bill.

On May 1st, the king sent by the secretary to
know decidedly whether the house would rest on
his royal word or no? " Upon this there was si-
lence for a good space." Secretary Cook then rose,
and after excusing what was past on the plea of
the king's necessities at first coming to the crown,
asked what better security than his word they could
desire for the future ? He intimated that the pro-

207

posed bill would be considered as an encroachment
on the prerogative, and would " find difficulty with
the king or with the lords ;" and he audaciously
added, " Do not think that by cases of law and
debate we can make that not to be law which in
experience we every day find necessary : make
what law you will, if I do discharge the place I
bear, I must commit men, and must not discover
the cause to any jailor or judge." Sir Robert
Philips said on this, "that if the words of kings
strike impressions in the hearts of subjects, then
do these words upon this occasion strike an im-
pression in the hearts of us all ; to speak in a plain
language, we are now come to the end of our jour-
ney, and the well-disposing of an answer to this
message, will give happiness or misery to this
kingdom." Sir Edward Coke represented, that
the king had previously sent word that the parlia-
ment might "secure themselves any way, by bill or
otherwise, he promised to give way to it;" and
therefore his royal word was to be taken in the
solemn form of a grant, or an assent to a bill :
And this resolution prevailed. In a peremptory
message, Charles now warned the house against
encroaching on his prerogative, and announced his
intention of ending the session by Tuesday sen-
night at the furthest. Sir John Eliot complained
of the king's persisting to believe that they " went
about to make any thing new ;" of the intended
shortness of the session, and of these frequent in-
terruptions, proceeding from " misreports and mis-

208

representations" to his majesty. It was then de-
termined to make a conclusive answer to all these
royal messages by the mouth of the speaker ; and
in very respectful terms his majesty was assured of
the loyal and dutiful attachment of the house; but
informed, that in consequence of the late public
violations of the laws and the people's liberties,
they should proceed to frame a bill to which, as it
would attempt not the smallest encroachment on
the prerogative, they should hope for his majesty's
gracious assent.

The king, in reply, again reproached them with
delay of the public business, and showed a jealousy
of their seeking to tie him ' ' by new and indeed im-
possible bonds," which would render them account-
able to God and the country for the ill-success of
this meeting. He promised however to consent to
a bill simply confirmatory of the ancient charters ;
but this concession was again invalidated by a new
message urging reliance on the king's simple word.
By these multiplied evasions distrust was necessarily
increased, and the very repugnance of the king to
concede, offered a strong additional motive to the
house to insist.

Baffled by the commons, Charles applied himself
to the lords by a letter in which he manifested ex-
treme reluctance to disclaim the power of arbitrary
imprisonment, and expressed an anxious desire that
his declaration that he would never pervert such a
power to purposes of oppression or arbitrary exac-
tion, but would use it conscientiously in cases of

209

state necessity only, might be accepted as a suffi-
cient security for personal liberty. The peers ac-
cordingly proposed to add to the bill a saving clause
for " that sovereign power with which his majesty
was trusted for the protection, safety, and happiness
of the people." But the sagacious leaders in the
house of commons, with their jealous vigilance
fully aroused, were no fit subjects for an artifice so
futile. Selden, Pym, Noy, Went worth and others,
immediately protested against an exception which,
if they admitted it, would destroy the whole force
of the rule, and in effect, leave the subject in a
worse state than ever. "It is a matter of great
weight," said sir Edward Coke; "and to speak
plainly it will overthrow all our petition, it trenches

to all parts of it I know that prerogative is

part of the law, but sovereign power is no parlia-
mentary word. In my opinion it weakens magna
charta and all our statutes ; for they are absolute,
without any saving of sovereign power ; and shall
we now add it, we shall weaken the foundation of
law, and then the building must needs fall ......

Magna charta is such a fellow that he will have no
sovereign11." On this momentous affair repeated
conferences were held between the two houses ; and
the peers, yielding at length, perhaps not unwill-
ingly, to the pertinacity of the commons, withdrew
the clause and passed the bill in its original form.
It was then presented to his majesty with a request

VOL. I.

* Rushworth, i. 568.
P

210

that he would give it his assent in full parliament ;
and the eyes of the whole nation watched with in-
tense anxiety for the event.

In the meantime, complaint was made in the
house of commons of two sermons preached by
Roger Manwaring, a royal chaplain, before the king
and court, in which he, like Sibthorp, had ascribed
to the sovereign an authority superior to the laws
and independent of parliaments, and a power of
levying taxes by his sole prerogative, which it was
an impiety worthy of everlasting perdition for the
subject to resist. As a specimen of the language
which this clerical sycophant, in the prodigality of
his baseness, had addressed without reproof to the
ear of a prince eulogized for his piety, the following
sentence may be offered. " Of all relations, the
first and original is between the Creator and the
creatures ; the next between husband and wife ; the
third between parents and children; the fourth be-
tween lord and servants ; from all which forenamed
respects there doth arise that most high, sacred, and
transcendent relation between king and subject."

Charles did not think proper, in the present crisis
of his affairs, to interpose to screen his slave from
the animadversion of parliament ; and Manwaring
in spite of his palliations and excuses, and the sub-
mission which he pronounced with many tears, was
sentenced by the lords, at the suit of the commons,
to be imprisoned during the pleasure of the house,
to pay 1000/. to the king, and to be suspended for
three years from his clerical functions; he was de-

21!

clared for ever incapable of ecclesiastical prefer-
ment, and his book was ordered to be called in and
burned. Pym was the chief conductor of this
impeachment, in which the severe and arbitrary
spirit of the star-chamber seems to have been too
closely copied.

At length the important day arrived ; on June 2nd
the king went to the house of lords, and after assuring
the parliament of his purpose to give them satisfaction
respecting the Petition both in form and substance,
— to the general surprise and disappointment,
evading the customary form of royal assent, pro-
nounced these words. ' ' The king willeth that right
be done according to the laws and customs of the
realm ; and that the statutes be put in due execution,
that his subjects may have no cause to complain of
any wrong or oppressions, contrary to their just
rights and liberties, to the preservation whereof he
holds himself in conscience as well obliged, as of
his prerogative." There was perhaps no weaker
act than this in the whole life of Charles, and its
consequences were irreparable. The commons of
England, having repeatedly declared and fully
proved, that they sought nothing but their un-
doubted right to be governed by the laws of the
land; to which the king had pledged obedience by
his coronation oath, but which in points of the most
vital interest he had manifestly and repeatedly
violated; — having rejected the evasion proposed by
the other branch of the legislature, and obtained its
full concurrence in their original bill ; — willing to,

p2

212

forgive, but unable to forget, the past delinquencies
of their prince ; — having rejected as worthless all
slighter securities, came to demand of him a solemn
pledge for his future conduct in the authentic form
of legal assent to a declaratory law. — Was this a
time, was this a cause " to palter with them in a
double sense?" Could there be any middle way
in such a case ? They had required nothing more
than their right, they had refused to be contented
with less: The king, without troops, without trea-
sure, almost without a party, wanted alike strength
and boldness to refuse their bill and openly assert
the tyrant. After numerous delays and various
shiftings he had promised them full satisfaction, he
had sent for them to receive it, — he dismissed them
with a subterfuge, and had the incredible folly not
to perceive, that it was a negative imbittered by a
mockery and accompanied by a confession of weak-
ness.

On the return of the commons to their own house,
the general indignation burst forth ; the popular
leaders suffered themselves to be transported beyond
the bounds of their former respectful forbearance,
and sir John Eliot " stood up and made a long
speech, wherein he gave forth so full and lively a
representation of all grievances, both general and
particular, as if they had never before been men-
tioned." Some members were displeased, fearing
that such a representation would only serve to
exasperate the king, whom they still hoped to re-
concile; but the majority urged him to proceed;

213

and it was resolved, on the motion of sir Edward
Coke, to present his majesty a remonstrance c ' touch-
ing the dangers and means of safety of the king and
kingdom." Meantime the business of the subsidy
was postponed. A royal message now announced,
that his majesty was resolved to abide by his answer,
" full of grace and justice," to their petition, and
urged them to conclude their business before the
early day fixed for the dissolution. Two days after,
the king sent to assure them once more, that he
would keep his time for ending the session, and to
command them to enter into no new business which
might spend time, or " lay any scandal or aspersion
upon the state, government, or ministers thereof."
Sir Robert Philips then rose, and with the most
pathetic earnestness bewailed the unhappy issue of
all their well-meant endeavours to cure the peo-
ple's wounds and do that which would have made
the king himself great and glorious: — to have given
him true information of his and the nation's danger.
"But," said he, "we being stopped, and stopped
in such a manner, as we are enjoined, so we must
now cease to be a council. I hear this with that
grief, as the saddest message of the greatest loss in
the world; but let us still be wise, be humble; let
us make a fair declaration to the king." Sir John
Eliot followed; and after solemnly protesting that
the commons intended nothing but to vindicate
their king and country from dishonor, he proceeded
thus. " It is said also as if we cast some aspersions
on his majesty's ministers ; I am confident no

214

minister, how dear soever, can " Here the

Speaker, apprehending he was about to fall upon
the duke, started from the chair, saying; " There
is a command upon me that I must command you
not to proceed." Sir John Eliot sat down.

A scene ensued the most pathetic, and in its
augury the most appalling ever exhibited in the
English house of commons; thus vividly depicted
in a letter written by Mr. Alured, one of the mem-
bers present, on the following morning. " . . . . The
house was much affected to be so restrained, since
the house in former times had proceeded by finding
and committing John of Gaunt the king's son, and
others, and of late have meddled with and censured
the lord chancellor Bacon and the lord treasurer
Cranfield. Then sir Robert spake, and mingled
his words with weeping; Mr. Prynn did the like;
and sir Edward Coke, overcome with passion, see-
ing the destruction likely to ensue, was forced to
sit down when he began to speak, through the
abundance of tears ; yea, the Speaker in his speech
could not refrain from weeping and shedding of
tears, besides a great many whose great griefs made
them dumb and silent; yet some bore up in that
storm, and encouraged others. In the end, they
desired the Speaker to leave the chair, and Mr.
Whitby was to come into it, that they might speak
the freer and the frequenter, and commanded no
man to go out of the house upon pain of going to
the Tower. Then the Speaker humbly and earnestly
besought the house to give him leave to absent him-

215

self for half an hour, presuming they did not think
he did it for any ill intention; which was instantly
granted him. Then upon many debates about their
liberties hereby infringed, and the eminent danger
wherein the kingdom stood, sir Edward Coke told
them he now saw God had not accepted of their
humble and moderate carriages and fair proceed-
ings, and the rather, because he thought they dealt
not sincerely with the king and with the country,
in making a true representation of the causes of all
these miseries, which now he repented himself, since
things were come to this pass, that we did it not
sooner ; and therefore he, not knowing whether ever
he should speak in this house again, would now do
it freely ; and there protested that the author and
cause of all these miseries was the duke of Buck-
ingham, which was entertained and answered with
a cheerful acclamation of the house; as when one
good hound recovers the scent, the rest come in
with a full cry, so they pursued it, and every one
came on home, and laid the blame where they
thought the fault was ; and as they were voting it
to the question whether they should name him in
their intended remonstrance, the sole, or the prin-
cipal cause of all their miseries at home and abroad,
the Speaker, having been three hours absent and
with the king, returned with this message ; That the
house should then rise till tomorrow morning.
What we shall expect this morning, God of heaven
knows V

* Rushworth, i. 568.

216

These extraordinary signs of agitation in the
house of commons, had evidently inspired the mi-
nisters with extreme alarm ; it was plain that no
concession would come from that quarter; the vote
of subsidy would not be passed into a law till the
petition of right were secured ; and to dissolve an-
other parliament without any relief to the king's
necessities, was to plunge again into the most ap-
palling difficulties. It was therefore found neces-
sary for Charles, by a new message, to disclaim,
however inconsistently, all intention of restraining
the commons from their "just privileges" to com-
plain of his ministers ; and the commons, having
prevailed upon the lords to join them in a humble
request to the king for a more satisfactory answer
to their petition, resumed its consideration of griev-
ances with an inquiry respecting the secret levy of
foreign troops in Holland.

At length, on June 8th, the king once more made
his appearance in the house of lords, and causing
the petition of right to be read, after some expres-
sions which looked like a lingering reservation for
what he was pleased to consider as his prerogative,
gave his assent to it in the customary form. The
joy of the people on this event was unbounded :
bells were rung, bonfires lighted, and a day of fes-
tivity celebrated throughout the metropolis.

This memorable charter of English liberties con-
sists simply of a perpetual renunciation on the part
of the king of four kinds of oppression stated to
have been lately exercised against the people, con-

217

trary to the common law and statutes: The levy of
loans or taxes not enacted by common consent in
parliament, and the imposition of unlawful oaths
and the subjecting of men to confinement and other
molestations respecting them: Imprisonment with-
out due process of law by the king's special com-
mand : The billeting of soldiers in private houses :
and lastly, Commissions for subjecting soldiers and
others to martial law, when they are rightly amena-
ble to the common justice of the country. It was
perfectly true that nothing was added by this in-
strument to the recorded rights of Englishmen, nor
anything taken away from the legal powers of the
crown ; but tyranny and oppression had in some of
these points been exercised so frequently by his
predecessors, and in all of them had been carried
so far by himself, that the subjects of Charles
esteemed it more than a victory to be but promised
hereafter the unmolested enjoyment of what was
incontrovertibly their own.

Great alacrity was now manifested in the com-
mons to carry through the bill for subsidy, which
the king was understood to have earned by his late
compliance, and also that for tonnage and pound-
age; but it still appeared expedient to the majority
to present a remonstrance capable of opening his
eyes to the chief abuses and grievances of his go-
vernment, still unredressed. In the debates on this
topic, the forbidden question, — who was the chief
cause of all these grievances ? was still recurring,
and indeed could not but recur ; and after warm

218

discussions it was determined that a complaint of
the excessive and abused power of the duke of
Buckingham, and a prayer for his removal from
office, should form a prominent feature of the re-
monstrance. At this juncture, the king caused the
bill exhibited against the duke in the star-chamber,
together with his answer and all the further pro-
ceedings, to be taken off the file ; upon his own
certain knowledge, as he expressed himself, toge-
ther with other proofs, of his innocence ; and in
order that no record should remain against him
tending to his disgrace. The duke likewise made
an attempt to vindicate himself to the house from
certain calumnies. But all these efforts were use-
less, if not injurious ; and the exasperation of the
people against him mounted to a kind of fury. An
empiric of infamous character named Lamb, com-
monly called the duke's conjurer, arid popularly
believed to have been employed by him in poison-
ings and other deeds of darkness, was set upon by
the London mob in the streets, in open day, and
beaten to death; and a rude rhyme was on the lips
of the multitude, threatening his master with a like
fate. No one would inform against the perpetrators
of this outrage, in order to bring them to justice,
and on that account a fine of 6000/. was arbitrarily
imposed upon the city by the council.

Within the walls of the house of commons as
well as without, the duke had now been pointed
out as the evil counsellor who had obstructed the
royal assent to the petition of right, and sown

219

dissensions between the king and the parliament
for the purpose of averting the impeachment which
hung over him. Under these circumstances, the
safety of the favorite and the longer duration of the
session were manifestly incompatible ; and Charles,
determined which to prefer, awaited only a pretext
to end the struggle. This was soon supplied; — the
illegal commission of excise granted before the
meeting of parliament, as well as the unauthorized
levy of tonnage and poundage, having been added
to the topics of the remonstrance, already a long
and severe one, the king, on June 26th, suddenly
appeared in the house during the reading of this
piece, and abruptly announcing that he came to end
the session, declared as the motive ; That he had
never intended by the petition of right to restrain
himself from levying tonnage and poundage, a chief
branch of his revenue, and one which he could not
dispense with ; and that he was resolved to receive
no remonstrance to which he must give a harsh
answer. He took occasion to assert, that he owed
an account of his actions to God alone, and ended
by claiming for himself, through his judges, the
sole right of interpreting the laws and declaring the
true intent and meaning of his own concessions :—
An evasion by means of which all the barriers against
arbitrary power just erected with such consummate
skill and inflexible resolution, seemed again to va-
nish into thin air.

It is a remarkable trait of the hasty and passion-
ate character of Charles's political measures, that

220

his appearance in the house on this occasion was so
sudden, that the peers had not time even to put on
their robes ; and the subsidy-bill and some others
were of necessity submitted for the royal assent
without certain customary forms.

Parliament was at this time prorogued to a day
in October, and afterwards to the ensuing January.

221

CHAPTER VII.

1628. 1629.

Expedition prepared for the relief of La Rochelle. — The duke of Buck-
ingham assassinated by Felton. — Particulars. — Treatment of Fel-
ton. — The judges declare against putting him to the rack. — His
death. — Character of Buckingham. — Behaviour of the king re-
specting him. — His funeral. — His expenses compared with those
of Dudley earl of Leicester. — Failure of the expedition and fall of
La Rochelle. — Williams restored to favor by Buckingham but again
expelled by Laud. — Wentworth gained over and made a peer. —
Laud bishop of London. — Preferment of Montague and Man-
waring. — Abbot conciliated. — King resolves to take a high tone
with parliament. — Its opening. — Fraud of the king respecting the
petition of right. — Case of Mr. Rolls. — Disagreement of king
and commons on tonnage and poundage. — Vow of the commons to
resist ecclesiastical oppressions and encroachments. — Complaints
of the merchants. — King defends the acts of the officers of cus-
toms.— Report of religion. — Oliver Cromwell. — Licensing of
books. — Eliot attacks ministers and bishops. — The house com-
manded to adjourn. — Speaker held in the chair and a remonstrance
voted. — Members committed. — Parliament dissolved. — Proceed-
ings against the imprisoned members, and conduct of judges. —
Court revenge upon the merchants. — Various encroachments of
arbitrary courts. — Conduct of imprisoned member s . — Account and
letters of sir J. Eliot.

VV 1TH coffers recruited by the subsidies of his
people, Charles again turned his attention from
parliamentary contests to foreign warfare ; and the
fleet under the earl of Denbigh having failed even
to attempt anything for the relief of the ill-fated La

222

Rochelle, now closely invested by the forces of the
French monarch under the active superintendence
of Richelieu, a new expedition was projected for
that purpose, in which Buckingham flattered him-
self with hopes of retrieving the honor, personal
and national, squandered in his rash attack on the
Isle of Rhe.

The armament was to sail from Portsmouth,
whither the duke had repaired to inspect the pre-
parations ; the king with his court was lodged four
miles distant, and all was nearly in readiness. On
the morning of August 23rd a brilliant circle of naval
and military officers, nobility, courtiers and suitors
of different classes, attended the levee of the duke.
The prince de Soubize and other French refugees
had been in eager debate with him, laboring to
prove that some intelligence which he had received
of the relief of La Rochelle was false and designed
to damp his enterprise. The conversation being
ended, he was passing out from his dressing-room
to the hall, when, amid the crowd in the lobby, an
unseen hand, striking from behind, planted a knife
in his bosom; he plucked it himself from the wound,
and staggering a few steps dropped and expired.
In the confusion which ensued, no one having
marked the assassin, suspicion turned on the French
gentlemen, owing to the altercation which had just
occurred, and they were with difficulty saved by
calmer bystanders from the fury of the duke's at-
tendants. A hat was then picked up, in which was
sewed a paper containing these lines : ' ' That man

223

is cowardly base, and deserveth not the name of a
gentleman or soldier, that is not willing to sacrifice
his life for the honor of his God, his king and his
country. Let no man commend me for the doing
of it, but rather discommend themselves, as the
cause of it ; for if God had not taken our hearts for
our sins, he had not gone so long unpunished.

" JOHN FELTON*."

Time sufficient had elapsed for the owner of the
hat to have made his escape, had he been so dis-
posed; but glorying in the deed, and careless of the
consequences, he remained on the spot ; and hearing
the cry, " Where is the man that killed the duke?"
he advanced, and calmly answered, "I am he." On
being seized, he was immediately thrust into a small
guard-house, " horribly laden with manacled irons,
neither to sit nor to lie down, but to be crippled
against the wall5/' and a gentleman was sent off to
know his majesty's further pleasure. A royal
chaplain was speedily dispatched to visit the pri-
soner, and under pretence of affording him spiritual
consolation to find out if possible his motives and
accomplices. Felton sagaciously observed, that he
was not so ignorant as to believe himself worthy of
the reverend gentleman's consolations, but he would
receive him as an examiner ; and after some further
discourse, "Sir," he said, "I shall be brief; I killed
him for the cause of God and my country." The

a From the original in the possession of Mr. Upcot.
b Sanderson, p. 122.

divine replied, using a pious or political fraud,—
that the surgeons gave hopes of his life. ' * It is
impossible," exclaimed the enthusiast ; "I had the
power of forty men, assisted by him that guided my
hand." From subsequent interrogations these par-
ticulars were collected : That he was named John
Felton, a younger brother of a decayed house in
Norfolk, and formerly a lieutenant of foot under
sir James Ramsey ; that he had failed of obtaining
a captain's commission in the present expedition,
but that he bore no ill-will on that, or any other
private account to the duke, from whom he had
received handsome treatment. But that, " the re-
monstrance of parliament published him as so
odious, that he appeared to him deserving of death,
which no justice durst execute. Something he said
of a sermon at St. Faith's, where the preacher spoke
in justification of every man's being, in a good
cause, the judge and executioner of sin ; which he
interpreted as meant for him : That passing out at
the postern upon Tower-hill, he espied that knife
in a cutler's glass case and bought it ; and from that
time he resolved to stab the duke with it. Some
days after, he followed him to Portsmouth, and
sharpened his knife on a cross erected by the way-
side ; believing it more proper in justice to advan-
tage his design, than for the superstitious intent it
was first erected. That he found continual trouble
and disquiet of mind until he should perform this
fact, and came to town but that morning. That no
li ving soul was accessory with him : That he was

225

assured his fact was justified, and he the redeemer
of the people's sufferings under the power of the
duke's usurpations*."

It was thought proper to treat the assassin of so
great a person in all respects as a state-criminal ;
he was therefore conveyed to the Tower, and exa-
mined by members of the privy-council; and on his
persisting to deny that he had any accomplices, he
was threatened with the rack, both, as it is said, by
the duke of Dorset, and by Laud, whose dread of
a like fate, the effect of the popular odium in which
he largely shared, no less than his attachment to
his patron, added exasperation on this occasion to
the native fierceness of his temper. The king also
was desirous that this atrocity should be resorted
to, if the judges could be brought to sanction it ;
but on their honorable and unanimous declaration,
that the use of torture had been at all times unwar-
rantable by the English law, his majesty, we are
told, "declined to use his prerogative" in the affair.
For some time the prisoner continued to maintain
the lawfulness of his deed, but at length, "through
the continual inculcation of his majesty's chaplains,
and others of the long robeb," he was brought to
such a sense of guilt as to desire that the hand
which struck the blow should be cut off before his
execution. The king was not backward in express-
ing his wish that advantage should be taken of the
offer ; but the opinion of the judges was again in-

a Sanderson, p. 122. b Osborne's Advice, part ii. c. 45.
VOL. I. Q

226

terposed to save English justice from the stain of
cruelty; "neither himself nor the endeavours of
the king's friends could procure him a sharper
punishment than law and custom provides, in case
of a murder, for the meanest subject3;" and about
three months after the fact, he was sent down to
Portsmouth and there hung in chains.

George duke of Buckingham, that eminent fa-
vorite of two successive sovereigns to whose power
and arrogance English history has happily never
since produced a parallel, was cut off at the age of
thirty-six, after a domination of about twelve years,
reckoning from the fall of his predecessor Somerset.
As it was neither by genius nor industry, by wis-
dom in counsel nor valor in the field, that the hand-
some Villiers had possessed himself of the " soon
won affections " of king James, the rapidity of his
rise at court, " where," says Clarendon, " as if he
had been born a favorite, he was supreme the first
month he came," forms no just criterion of his
capacity. Even in contemplating him during a
course of public employment apparently calculated,
whatever causes might have introduced him to it,
to bring forth all his qualities into open day, it will
be found less easy to estimate his powers of in-
tellect, than to catch the strong lights and shades
of his temper, and to portray his moral qualities.
Nature and fortune by endowing him with beauty,
grace, spirit, a haughty confidence, and the pre-

a Osborne's Advice, part ii. c, 45.

227

eminent favor of his prince, had done almost enough
to render him absolute at the court of James ; yet
it is evident that his unceasing vigilance and active
energies powerfully cooperated to maintain him at
his giddy height ; and the conquest which he achieved
over the sullen reserve of the heir-apparent, and
the just indignation with which his insolent as-
sumption had inspired him, was clearly due to skill
and not to fortune. Changing adroitly his man-
ners with his masters, he appears to have dropped
with the son the imperious tone, the importunate
urgency, which had secured his ascendancy over
the weak fondness and indolent good-nature of the
father ; and content to put on the servant in order
to be in effect the master, he learned to receive
back as original emanations of the royal mind, sug-
gestions of which he was himself the secret author,
and thus to sway by submitting. Availing himself
of the leading foibles of Charles's mind, excessive
pride of station and despotic will, he led him to
believe that it was for the interest of his own glory
to crush by acts of power the opposition audaciously
aimed against the royal favorite; and thus, carrying
along his master with the momentum of his own
impetuosity, he was enabled to subdue all his ene-
mies, humble the whole court beneath his feet, dis-
concert an impeachment, break two parliaments,
whose necks he could not bend, and plunge the
nation into two unnecessary and inglorious wars,
the fruits of his own selfish intrigues or ungoverned
passions. All this time he knew how to counter-

Q2

228

feit loyal devotedness so skilfully, that the deluded
monarch conceived the notion that his favorite
minister, solely intent on subduing faction, re-
ducing the popular branch of the legislature to in-
significance, and establishing the revenue of the
crown on an independent footing, was generously
braving the indignation of a whole people in his
cause alone and that of his cherished prerogative.

With all due allowance then for many favoring
circumstances, facts prove him to have possessed
boldness, promptitude, great insight into the cha-
racters which it was his interest to study, and per-
haps as much depth of thought as is consistent with
unbridled sensuality, and a spirit merely worldly, —
with base designs and selfish ends. Neither was
he destitute of such plausible qualities as win ad-
herents and pass in courts for virtues. He was
courteous and affable to all men, excepting the
peculiar objects of his jealousy and resentment ;
splendid, magnificent, and bountiful even to profu-
sion. Warmly attached to his family and con-
nexions, he was unwearied in heaping upon them
wealth, places and honors ; their merits, or their
capacities for the public service, he never deigned
to estimate or to make any part of his considera-
tion. His brothers, as well as himself, profited by
the most oppressive and iniquitous monopolies; his
mother, a bad and artful woman who had great in-
fluence over him, received enormous bribes from
suitors of every class ; and either by himself or his
relations, all offices, even of judicature, were ren-

229

dered grossly venal. He was not less vehement or
less open in his enmities than his friendships, usu-
ally giving full notice to his intended victim of his
fixed purpose of ruining him, and of the impossi-
bility of appeasing his anger or averting its effects.
But the frankness of offended pride or rancorous
resentment, is not to be placed in the list of virtues;
and where he judged it more for his interest to cir-
cumvent than boldly to confront a rival or a foe,
he willingly, as in the case of Bacon, availed him-
self of artifice.

It is said by one delineator of his character3, to
have been his chief misfortune that he never formed
a worthy or equal friendship ; his rise being so sud-
den, that he required dependents before he was
aware that he could ever stand in need of coadjutors.
But favorites are proverbially destitute of friends ;
and much more to be deplored was the misfortune
of a nation in which the weakness or caprice of the
prince was of force to lift an unpractised youth out
of his native obscurity to a station where his pri-
vate vices, and even his failings and infirmities,
could acquire the dignity of public mischiefs.

In his manners, his propensities, and even in the
footing on which he stood in society, Buckingham
more resembled a prince than a minister ; and al-
though it is said that much experience, seconding
the elaborate instructions of king James, had given
him a quick apprehension of business, and the
power of speaking pertinently and gracefully, his

a Lord Clarendon.

230

want of prudence, of moderation and self-command,
his ignorance and carelessness of the true interests
of the state, and his insolent contempt of the people
and their representatives, must for ever have dis-
qualified him for conducting the administration of
affairs with credit to himself or advantage to his
king or country.

His ambition prompted him to grasp at an uni-
versal dictatorship ; besides being in effect prime
minister, and holding many other places of honor
and profit, he was lord admiral, and at length gene-
ralissimo; but as admiral, both gross negligence and
shameful acts of rapacity and extortion were laid to
his charge, and to his incapacity as a general, the
misfortune at the Isle of Rhe was chiefly attributa-
ble. There can be no doubt that he exerted himself
effectually, though covertly, in sowing dissensions
between Charles and his young queen, and that so
long as he lived she obtained no influence in public
affairs. Some extraordinary traits have been pre-
served of the insolence of behaviour in which he
habitually indulged himself towards her majesty :
On one occasion, when she had failed of paying a
promised visit to his mother, he told her she should
repent it; and on her answering somewhat sharply,
he dared to remind her, that there had been queens
in England who had lost their heads. Charles
thought proper to pass over his insults to his wife
with as much tameness as those which he had for-
merly offered to himself, and even the haughty
Henrietta condescended, at the instance of Bassom-
pierre, and with a view to certain matters of interest,

231

to dissemble, if not to lay aside, her resentment,
and accept of his patronage and protection with her
royal husband.

Whatever judgement men might pass on the
tyrannicide of Felton, which some even approved,
it is certain that the fall of Buckingham, beyond
the immediate sphere of his relations and creatures,
was hailed both by the court and country as a signal
and fortunate deliverance ; within two hours of his
death, the mansion in which he had held his state
was completely emptied of clients, of flatterers,
and even of the curious throng whom the horrible
nature of the deed had drawn together ; and the
breathless body was left in such solitude, says a
contemporary, "as if it had been lying in the sands
of Ethopia." All were gone for the court, to bustle,
to intrigue ; to beg for new favors or to secure the
old ; to hear and utter conjectures, to observe in-
clinations, to improve occasion, and above all, to
learn how the king stood affected by the event.

It was as the king was at prayers in his presence
chamber, with his courtiers kneeling around him,
that a gentleman, bursting in and striding with un-
mannerly haste over the heads of the congregation,
reached the king and whispered in his ear that the
duke was stabbed to the heart by an assassin. The
officiating chaplain stopped short; but the king,
with an untroubled countenance, bade him go on ;
and to the end of the service, no sign of emotion
was observed to escape him. As soon as this was
known, the crowd of courtiers rushed to the con-

232

elusion that their master was, in fact, not displeased
to be even thus relieved from a haughty favorite,
hated by the people and accused by the parliament,
whom he could neither abandon with dignity, nor
protect without hazards and sacrifices. Imme-
diately, all mouths were opened against the dead ;
his basest flatterers became, in course, his most
envenomed calumniators, and his known enemies
stood forth the expectant heirs of his power and
favor. But they were speedily taught their rash-
ness and error. The apparent apathy of the king
was no more than stateliness, or a sense of deco-
rum, and it was thrown off the moment he retired
to his private apartments ; sir Dudley Carleton, in
the letter which announced the death of the duke
to the queen, tells her that, "his majesty's grief
was expressed to be more than great, by the many
tears he hath shed for hima." No indication fol-
lowed of any inclination on the part of Charles to-
wards conciliating the people by a withdrawal from
the high prerogative course in which his minister
was supposed to have engaged him ; and in the
next month, we find a court intelligencer transmit-
ting to his correspondent the following report of the
sate of affairs.

" Some that observe the passages in court

say the king seems as much affected to the duke's
memory as he was to his person ; minding nothing
so much for the present as the advancement of his

a Ellis's Letters, iii. p. 259.

233

friends and followers. And if any accuse him in
any thing whereof his majesty might take notice,
he imputes it wholly to himself; or if in other
matters, he answers, 'The party durst not say so if
the duke were alive/ Besides, he saith, ' Let not
the duke's enemies seek to catch at any of his
offices, for they will find themselves deceived.' And
whereas sir Ralph Clare and sir William Croftes,
ever since they were turned out of their places in
the privy chamber for opposing the duke in the
second parliament of king Charles, have lyen within
his majesty's house of St. James's, now, since the
duke's death, his majesty hath banished them thence
also. His majesty since his death has been used
to call him his martyr, and to say the world was
much mistaken in him ; for whereas it was com-
monly thought he ruled his majesty, it was clean
otherwise, having been his majesty's most faithful
and obedient servant in all things ; as his majesty
hereafter would make sensibly appear to all the
world*."

The same letter mentions further, that the lord
chamberlain had given orders to the heralds ' ' to
project as ample and stately a funeral as could be
performed," to be at the king's cost, and that his
majesty would also pay the duke's debts, amounting
to 60,000/. It seems however that his debt had
been contracted by his advances for the public
service, and that the king performed no more than

* Ellis's Letters, iii. p. 262.

234

an act of justice in discharging ita. As for the fu-
neral, on better advice, said to have been that of lord
treasurer Weston, who was probably perplexed to
find the money, all the projected display was laid
aside, and it was at length performed at ten o'clock
at night, "in as poor and confused a manner," says
a letter-writer, "as hath been seen; marching from
Wallingford house over against Whitehall, to West-
minster Abbey ; there being not much above an
hundred mourners, who attended upon an empty
coffin borne upon six men's shoulders ; the duke's
corpse itself being there interred yesterday ; as if
it had been doubted the people in their madness
would have surprised it. But to prevent all dis-
order, the trainbands kept a guard on both sides
of the way, all along from Wallingford house to
Westminster church, beating up their drums loud,
and carrying their pikes and musquets upon their
shoulders, as in a march, not trailing them at their
heels, as is usual at a mourning. And as soon as
the coffin was entered the church, they came away
without giving any volley of shot at allb."

It is related that the lord treasurer, who had di-
verted his majesty from making a public funeral
for the duke, by suggesting that it would be a more
lasting honor to build him a monument, being re-
minded of his own project by the king, who had
thoughts of putting it in execution, disconcerted
that design also, by observing, that he should be

a Clarendon. b Ellis's Letters, iii. 264.

235

loth to acquaint his majesty what would be said all
over Christendom if he should erect a monument
to the duke, before he had raised one to the king
his father. Possibly Charles himself, who was not
habitually profuse, might begin to be of opinion
that further cost would be ill bestowed on the de-
ceased, whose life had been expensive to the crown
no less than to the people.

From his first appearance at court, Buckingham
had been pre-eminently distinguished for the pomp
and splendor of every kind with which he affected
to surround himself. He had studied in France
the art of dress, and the gaiety and fashion of his
apparel had greatly contributed to delight the eyes
of king James. The amazing extravagance of his
wardrobe and equipage on his French embassy has
been already noticed. His jewels are said to have
been underrated at his death at 200,OOOZ., and we
have seen the testimony of Bassompierre to the
unrivalled magnificence of his mansion and enter-
tainments. Ignorant as he undoubtedly was of
the letters, and probaby of the arts, of Greece and
Rome, he had formed a collection of antiques se-
cond only to that of the earl of Arundel ; and he
had begun to make purchases of manuscripts to be
presented, as tokens of his munificence, to the uni-
versity which had been compelled to choose him
its chancellor. He was the first Englishman who
drove a coach and six, and the first who used a
sedan-chair ; a novelty which gave great offence to

236

the people, who exclaimed that he put his fellow-
creatures to the service of brutes.

We happen to possess an inventory of the goods
of Robert earl of Leicester, the favorite of Elizabeth,
which, opposed to the foregoing particulars, may
afford some grounds for an instructive comparison
of times and persons. This nobleman, like Buck-
ingham, died much involved in debt ; the whole of
his personal property was valued at somewhat less
than 30,000/. His jewels and trinkets of every
kind, exclusive of those appropriated to his coun-
tess, were estimated at 8000Z. Apparel 1500/. ;
his best cloak 20/., his best gown 15/. Plate
4700Z. Armour, carriages and horses 2000/.
The furniture of his three houses, somewhat more
than 11,000/. The expenses of his funeral were
4000/., whilst the estimate of that intended, but
not performed, for Buckingham, was 40,000/. ; a
difference, perhaps, nearly proportionate to all the
rest. The interval of time between the deaths of
the two was no more than forty years, but the in-
crease of national wealth and the progress of luxury
had been rapid.

The grief of the king for the death of his favorite,
however sincere, certainly did not interfere for an
instant with his attention to public affairs. On the
very next day, the earl of Lindsey was appointed
lord admiral, with a vice- and a rear-admiral under
him, and it was said, that by the presence and exer-
tions of the king, more business was dispatched in

237

a fortnight than the duke had transacted in two or
three months.

The fleetsailed on September 18th, but ill-equipped
and ill-provisioned, and steered for La Rochelle, now
reduced to extremity by famine. No French fleet
appeared to oppose the English armament ; but the
vast mole stretched across the harbour was by this
time completed ; all attempts to break through it
were found fruitless ; and even in sight of their
allies, the wretched Hugonots were driven to the
necessity of surrendering their town, with the
famishing remnant of its brave and religious popu-
lation, to the mercy of their bigoted and exasperated
sovereign. The protestant people of England deeply
sympathized in the miseries of their brethren ; many
murmurs were heard against the cowardice or trea-
chery of the earl of Denbigh, who had failed to
succour the place while it was yet practicable.—
But what better could have been expected, it was
asked, from the brother-in-law of Buckingham,
who was either himself a papist, or at least a fa-
vorer of papists? The French protestants, driven
to despair by the rigor with which they found
themselves treated after the loss of La Rochelle
their tower of strength, made one more application
to the king of England for aid, in letters which, as
they pathetically expressed themselves, were written
with their tears and their blood ; but a peace was
now in agitation between the two courts, the French
king would admit of no stipulations in favor of his
rebellious subjects, and according to the usual fate

238

of every sect or party which, finding itself the
weakest at home, ventures on the perilous if not
guilty expedient of calling in foreign aid, the power
which for its own ends had encouraged them to re-
sistance, now abandoned them without pity to their
fate.

Many indications evince that Buckingham, du-
ring the last months of his life, had regarded his
position as one surrounded with perils. Vague
presages of approaching evil had haunted the
minds of his nearest relations previously to his
last journey to Portsmouth ; mysterious warnings
to guard his life had reached him from various
quarters, and during his encampment on the Isle
of Rhe, he declared to Dr. Mason, his confidential
secretary, " whom he lodged in his own chamber,"
says Wotton, " for natural ventilation of his
thoughts," that the multiplicity of cares and soli-
citudes imposed upon him by his high and respon-
sible offices as admiral and generalissimo in that
important expedition, were yet light in comparison
of the anguish which he endured from the ingrati-
tude of some of his dependents, and his dread of
intrigues against him in the court : Accordingly,
some of his latest steps were directed to gain ad-
herents or conciliate opponents. He had been in-
duced secretly to readmit Williams to his presence,
brought him to kiss the king's hand, and promised
him a renewal of favor, and in return, " had the
bishop's consent, with a little asking, that he would
be his grace's faithful servant in the next session of

239

parliament ; and he was allowed to hold up a seem-
ing enmity and his own popular estimation, that he
might the sooner do the workV But the gleam
of favor which thus broke upon the deprived lord
keeper was brief and delusory. Soon after the
duke's death, some attempts which he made to
persuade the king to conciliate the puritans, roused
afresh the jealousy of Laud, through whose intrigues
he was once more disgraced, and subjected to
groundless and vexatious prosecutions in the star-
chamber. But a more lasting accession to the
ministry, and one which drew long consequences
after it, was made about the same time in the
person of sir Thomas Went worth, whose formi-
dable opposition thus gained what seems to have
been from the first its real object. The duke had
been induced, apparently by the suspicion of some
intrigue between Wentworth and Williams, to vio-
late his former assurances of favor and protection
to the Yorkshire baronet, who now, more wary,
required from him something beyond professions
as the price of his adherence; and obtained, through
the mediation of his friend lord treasurer Weston,
a specific assurance of speedy promotion to the
office of lord-president of the North.

That amid these changes of men no change of
principles had been contemplated either by Buck-
ingham or his master, the preferment of certain
noted ecclesiastics gave evident proof. It had long

a Hacket's Life of Williams, part ii. p. 80.

240

been their joint wish to translate Laud from the see
of Bath and Wells to that of London, in the room
of Mountain, whom the king judged unfit, from his
indolence and voluptuousness, to preside in that
city which was * * the retreat and receptacle of the
grandees of the puritan faction;" and over which
he desired to place, for example's sake, " a bishop
of such parts and power as they should either be
unable to withstand or afraid to offend*." Various
impediments however had delayed the completion
of this arrangement ; Laud was already a privy-
counsellor, and by far the most potent ecclesiastic
at court, but it was not till the middle of July 1628
that he was actually installed in his new dignity.
In this capacity it was immediately his welcome
office to assist in the consecration of Montague,
who, in defiance of the recorded judgement of the
legislature, declaring him for ever incapable of
church preferment, was nominated to the bishopric
of Chichester; "which action in the king," says
Heylyn, " seemed more magnanimous than safe,"
on account of " the matter of exasperation" which
it would minister to the house of commons, from
whom a subsidy was within a few months to be re-
quired. A good living vacated by the new bishop
was immediately conferred on his fellow-culprit
Manwaring, disabled by a similar sentence, which
was followed by the deanery of Worcester and the
bishopric of St. Davids. It is true that after the

* Heylyn's Life of Laud, p. 165.

241

death of Buckingham, and immediately hefore the
meeting of parliament, the king gave way to a few
acts of a contrary aspect. Archbishop Abbot was
" sent for to court about Christmas, and from out
of his barge received by the archbishop of York,
and the earl of Dorset, and by them accompanied
to the king, who giving him his hand to kiss,
enjoined him not to fail the council-table twice
a week." Barnaby Potter a " thorough-paced Cal-
vinian," but the king's <c ancient servant," was pre-
ferred to the bishopric of Carlisle; and Montague's
Appeal, after having been published three years and
questioned in three parliaments; the copies being
all sold and dispersed, the author made a bishop,
and many answers ready to appear, was at length
called in ; without however any censure of its doc-
trine, but only as having been " the first cause of
those disputes and differences which have since so
much troubled the church," and on which his
majesty had forbidden more to be written on either
side. " Whether," adds the disciple and biographer
of Laud, "his majesty did well in doing no more, if
the book contained any false doctrine in it; or in
doing so much, if it were done only to please the
parliament, I take not upon me to determine; but
certainly it never falleth out well with Christian
princes, when they make religion bend to policy,
or think to gain their ends on men by doing such
things as they are not plainly guided to by the light
of conscience : And so it happened to his majesty
at this time ; these two last actions being looked

VOL. I, R

242

upon only as tricks of king-craft, done only out of
a design for getting him more love in the hearts of
his people than before he hada." Such were the
comments to which the double-dealing of Charles
already subjected him, even from that party which
had most cause to boast of his favor and protection !
Preparatory to the opening of the session, a
select, or cabinet- council was held, in which the
following plan of proceedings was agreed upon.
The ministerial members were to urge the speedy
passing of a bill for tonnage and poundage, grant-
ing these duties to his majesty from the beginning
of his reign; and the king, if necessary, was to
declare that he had hitherto levied them not of
right, but as a matter of expediency; but should
this fail to satisfy the house, and it should be moved,
"with any strength," that goods illegally seized
from merchants who had refused payment of these
impositions, be first restored to them, a breach
should be avowed " upon just cause given, and not
sought by the king." So in other points: should
the commons attack the memory of the duke, or
accuse the king's ministers upon common fame, or
charge them with giving evil counsels to his majesty ;
or " handle questions touching religion, proper for
his majesty and a convocation to determine, or raise
objections against his majesty's speech the last day
of the last session, as trenching upon the liberty of
the subject, in these and the like cases," should the

a Life of Laud, p. 185.

243

government members fail in their utmost efforts to
persuade a good agreement between his majesty
and the parliament, and the house should "draw
towards a resolution" upon any of these particulars,
" that the members who were privy-councillors
should intimate that these debates would not be
allowed of, and would tend to a breach, and that
the king should thereupon declare " that he will
not suffer such irregular courses of proceeding1."
In other words, the king was to begin with taking
a moderate tone, but upon the least opposition, was
rather to recur again to an abrupt dissolution than
depart from his arbitrary pretensions or illegal
practices.

The parliament met ; their first inquiry was,
whether the petition of right, with the royal assent,
had been duly enrolled according to his promise ?
It was discovered on search that the act was indeed
enrolled, but with the king's first evasive answer,
in place of his legal assent, and that his majesty's
speech on the last day of the session, by which its
provisions were all invalidated, had also been ap-
pended. The king's printer being summoned and
examined, pleaded his majesty's own commands
through the attorney-general for the suppression of
one edition which had been printed with the second
answer, and for the addition complained of. Roused
by this disclosure of royal perfidy, the house next
inquired into the actual violations of the funda-

* Rushworth.
R2

244

mental rights asserted by this law which had been
already perpetrated. Mention was now made of a
command sent to the sheriff not to execute a re-
plevin when goods and merchandise had been un-
lawfully taken from men who had refused tonnage
and poundage, and of the seizure in particular, of
property belonging to a merchant named Rolls, a
member of the house, to whom some officers of the
customs had gone so far as to say : c ' If the whole
parliament were in you, we would take your goods."
A committee was immediately appointed which sum-
moned the officers before it ; but the king interposed
for their protection by avowing the act as performed
under his own special direction.

Charles now thought it time to assemble the two
houses at Whitehall, where he made the precon-
certed declaration, that he had not taken these
duties as appertaining to his hereditary prerogative ;
and having thus, as he said, cleared the only scruple
which could trouble them in this business, he re-
quired them to pass the bill for granting tonnage and
poundage in the same manner as they had been held
by his ancestors ; taking at the same time some merit
to himself that he had not immediately resented
their inquiry into the violent acts of his officers.
"This," he added, "I have spoken to show you
how slow I am to believe harshly of your proceed-
ings, likewise to assure you, that the house's reso-
lutions, not particular men's speeches, shall make
me judge well or ill; not doubting but according to
my example you will be deaf to ill reports concern-

245

ing me, till my words and actions speak for them-
selves, that so this sessions beginning with confi-
dence towards one another, it may end with a per-
fect good understanding between us, which God
grant a." This speech was immediately followed
up by a royal message through secretary Cook, to
hasten the bill, inforced by an intimation, " that
moderation in their proceedings would be a great
advantage to them." But the house, " being
troubled to have the bill imposed upon them, which
ought naturally to arise from themselves," resolved
11 to husband their time;" and empowered their
committee to examine further into violations of
liberty and property since the last session, after
which they were to proceed with matters of religion,
and particularly against the sect of Arminians.
Notwithstanding repeated interruptions by royal
messages, Mr. Pym proceeded to offer to the con-
sideration of the house, first, the impunity and en-
couragement granted to papists, and the violation
of law by the introduction of popish and superstitious
ceremonies into the church, particularly by Cozens
bishop of Durham; secondly, the doctrines incon-
sistent with the Articles, introduced by Arminians.
11 Let us show," said he, " wherein these late opi-
nions are contrary to those settled truths, and what
men have been since preferred that have professed
those heresies; what pardons they have had for false
doctrine, what prohibiting of books and writings

a Rush worth, i. 656.

246

against their doctrine, and permitting of such books
as have been for them: Let us inquire after the
abettors. Let us inquire also after the pardons
granted of late to some of these, and the presump-
tion of some that dare preach the contrary to truth
before his majesty. It belongs to the duty of par-
liament to establish true religion and punish false.

Our parliaments have confirmed general

councils For the convocation, it is but a pro-
vincial synod of the province of Canterbury, and
cannot bind the whole kingdom. As for York,
that is distant, and cannot do anything to bind us
or the laws ; for the High-commission, it was de-
rived from parliament." Afterwards, sir John Eliot
enlarged upon the danger of admitting, what had
lately been asserted in a royal declaration, of which
Laud was the author, the right of the bishops and
clergy in convocation to decree all matters of out-
ward regulation in the church, and determine con-
troversies concerning the interpretation of the Arti-
cles, by which, he remarked, " popery and Arminian-
ism may be introduced by them, and then it must
be received by all."

The house, in testimony of its hostility to the
new doctrine and still more perhaps to the assumed
authority by which it was sought to establish it,
now entered into a solemn vow, declaring its " ad-
herence to the sense of the articles of religion settled
in the 13th year of Elizabeth, delivered to them by
the public act of the church of England, and by the
general and concurrent expositions of the writers of

247

the church;" and their rejection of the sense of the
Jesuits and Arminians and all others, in as far as
they differed from these. As a further manifesta-
tion of their religious sentiments, both houses con-
curred in petitioning his majesty to appoint a day
of fasting on account of the distressed state of the
pro test ant churches abroad. Charles bluntly re-
plied, that fighting would do them more good than
fasting, yet he did not wholly disallow of the other;
that he would now grant their request, though he
did not perceive the necessity of it, and would not
have it drawn into a precedent for frequent fasts,
except on great occasions. This language was
doubtless intended to intimate to parliament, that
religious concerns should be left to the care of the
king and his bishops. The parliament, on the other
hand, offered him a declaration, intended to show
the expediency of giving religion the precedency of
all other affairs; but with this his majesty's answer
showed him much displeased. Nevertheless, the
house, having already represented to the king, that
his frequent messages were a hindrance to their
business, and often a violation of their privileges,
went on in its own course.

The barons of the exchequer had been wrought
upon to give a judgement for the Crown against the
merchants who had refused tonnage and poundage,
and in consequence they had suffered new oppres-
sions, which now became the subject of discussion.
Mr. Rolls stated that since his last complaint his
warehouse had been locked up by a pursuivant,

248

and that he himself was called out from a committee
and served with a subpoena to appear in the star-
chamber. Smart debates ensued; it was voted that
a breach of privilege had been committed , and the
officer who had carried the subpoena was called up.
The attorney-general had apologized for the act as
a mistake, but it was now proved before the house
that he had himself directed the process, and that
in the bill before the exchequer the merchants were
said to plot, practise and combine against the peace
of the kingdom. Several other merchants presented
petitions complaining of the seizure of their goods,
and of informations laid against them in the star-
chamber; and the committee inclined to require
restitution to be made to them before there should
be any proceeding in the bill for tonnage and
poundage; Mr. Noy in particular thus expressing
himself: "We cannot give unless we be in pos-
session and the proceedings in the exchequer nulli-
fied ; as also the informations in the star-chamber,
and the annexation to the petition of right; for it
will not be a gift, but a confirmation; neither will
I give without the removal of these interruptions,
and a declaration in the bill that the king hath no
right but by our free gift ; if it will not be accepted
as it is fit for us to give, we cannot help it; if it be
the king's already, we do not give ita."

As a step towards restoring the due course of
justice, the sheriff of London was committed to the

a Rushworth, i. 666.

249

Tower for refusing to replevin seized goods, and
the barons of the exchequer were sent for and re-
quired to make void their order concerning the de-
tention of merchandise; and on their returning an
answer by which they showed themselves more in-
clined to persist in a decision which they yet dared
not affirm to be legal, than to offer satisfaction for
it, a motion was made to take their conduct into
consideration, and to inquire whether there was any
precedent for it. Some farmers of the customs were
also called in question for their delinquency in the
affair of Mr. Rolls, whose only plea of defence was,
ignorance of the privileges of parliament; but as
the house were about to pass sentence upon them,
secretary Cook notified from his majesty that all
they had done was by his direction, so that his act
could not be severed from theirs, nor punished
without his great dishonor. Hereupon the house
adjourned in high indignation.

On resuming, a report of the committee of reli-
gion was received concerning the pardons granted
to Montague and other obnoxious divines, of which
Neil bishop of Winchester was found to have been
an active promoter. It was this debate which first
introduced into parliamentary history the name of
Oliver Cromwell; who represented the bishop as a
countenancer of some who preached " flat popery,"
adding, " If these be the steps to church preferment,
what are we to expect?"

A petition from the London printers and book-
sellers, complaining of the licensing of Arminian

250

books and the restraining of those opposed to them
by bishop Laud, who, with his chaplains, had en-
grossed the office of licensing; and also showing,
that some of their number had been summoned by
pursuivants for printing books against popery, —
called up Selden; who observed that there was no
law in England against the printing of any books,
but only a decree in star-chamber ; and he went on
to recommend that a law should be made concern-
ing printing ; otherwise a man might be fined, im-
prisoned, and his goods taken from him by virtue
of that decree, which was a great invasion of the
liberty of the subject a.

An inquiry into the circumstances under which
certain Romish priests and Jesuits, after detection
and apprehension, had been dismissed with im-
punity, supplied a fresh example of the king's con-
tempt for the laws, and of the daring manner in
which he authorized various public functionaries to
plead his immediate authority and commands as a
protection against the consequences of all irregular
and arbitrary acts.

On March 2nd, the house having reassembled after
an adjournment imposed upon them by the king's
command, that distinguished patriot sir John Eliot
addressed to them a speech containing the following
passages: "The misfortunes we suffer are many;
Arminianism undermines us ; popery comes in upon
us. They mask not in strange disguises, but expose

a Rush worth, i. 667.

251

themselves to the view of the world. In the search
of these, we have fixed our eyes not on the actors,
the Jesuits and priests, but upon their masters,

those who are in authority: You have some

prelates who are their abettors; the great bishop of
Winchester; we know what he hath done to favor
them. This fear extends to some others ; the lord-
treasurer, in whose person all evil is contracted,
both for the innovation of our religion, and the in-
vasion of our liberties ; he is a great enemy of the
commonwealth. I have traced him in all his
actions, and I find him building on the grounds
laid by his master the great duke: he is secretly
moving for this interruption. And from this fear
they go about to break parliaments, lest parliaments
should break them. I find him the head of all that
party, the papists; and all the Jesuits and priests
derive from him their shelter and protection. And
I protest, as I am a gentleman, if my fortune shall
be ever again to meet in this honorable assembly,
where I now leave, I shall begin again3."

By this threatened attack upon bishops and mi-
nisters of state, the bounds to parliamentary liberty
secretly laid down by the king and his most con-
fidential advisers were passed ; and the Speaker
rising, announced that he was the bearer of a royal
message for adjournment. Eliot offered, notwith-
standing, a remonstrance respecting tonnage and
poundage ; and it was contended by the popular

a Crew's Proceedings of Commons, p. 145.

252

party, that it was not the business of the Speaker,
an officer of the house, to deliver such a message,
and that properly, adjournment belonged not to
the king, but to the house itself. Accordingly, it
was again moved to put the remonstrance to the
question ; but the Speaker, pleading the royal com-
mand, refused. " Dare you not, Mr. Speaker, "
asked the illustrious Selden, " put the question
when we command you ? If you will not put it,
we must sit still ; thus we shall never be able to do
any thing. They that come after you may say,
they have the king's command not to do it. We
sit here by the command of the king under the
great seal ; and you are by his majesty, sitting in
his royal chair before both houses, appointed for our
Speaker, and now you refuse to do your office*. "
The Speaker, trembling, pleaded again his majesty's
command that he should leave the chair after deli-
vering his message ; and he attempted to rise, but
was held down by Mr. Hollis and Mr. Valentine :
Strange confusion arose : sir Thomas Edmonds and
other adherents of the court, struggled, but in vain,
to set him free. He wept and supplicated, but still
refused to obey the orders of the house : " I do not
say I will not," he sobbed out, " I dare not. Do
not command my ruin. I dare not sin against the
command of my sovereign." Selden pleaded and
argued with him, but to no purpose. Mr. Peter
Hayman told him " he was sorry he was his kins-

a Rushworth, i. 670.

253

man, for that he was the disgrace of his country,
and n blot upon a noble family ; that all the incon-
veniences that should follow, yea their destruction,
should be derived to posterity as the issue of his
baseness, by whom he should be remembered with
scorn and disdain ; and that he, for his part, since
he would not do his duty, thought he should be
called to the bar, and a new Speaker chosen." But
nothing could change the determination of the
Speaker ; and it was Hollis therefore who under-
took to read, for the concurrence of the house, a
protestation, that whoever introduced innovations
in religion, and whoever advised the levy of tonnage
and poundage without parliament, should be re-
puted a public enemy ; and that all who submitted
to these impositions should likewise be held enemies
and betrayers of the liberties of England. Whilst
these articles were preparing, which passed by ac-
clamation, the king, hearing of the refusal of the
commons to obey his command of adjournment,
sent the gentleman usher of the house of lords to
carry away the mace from the table ; but he found
the door locked against him. Charles, in fury,
sent orders to the captain of the pensioners of the
guard to force it open; but the house, having passed
their protestation prevented, by a voluntary ad-
journment, the meditated violence and the mischief
which, at a time when all gentlemen wore weapons,
could scarcely have failed to ensue. During the
adjournment, the members principally concerned
in these transactions, Hollis, Eliot, Valentine, Cur-

254

riton, Selden, Hobart and a few others, received
summonses to appear before the council ; and the
four first presented themselves, but refusing to an-
swer out of parliament for any thing transacted
in it, they were committed close prisoners to the
Tower, and a proclamation was issued for the ap-
prehension of the rest ; the studies of several
amongst them being also sealed up.

On March 10th, 1629, the day to which the com-
mons had adjourned, the king went in state to the
house of lords, and without requiring the attendance
of the lower house, dissolved the parliament with
the following characteristic sentences.

" My lords ; I never came here upon so unplea-
sant an occasion, it being the dissolution of a par-
liament ; therefore men may have some cause to
wonder why I should not rather choose to do this
by commission, it being a general maxim of kings
to leave harsh commands to their ministers, them-
selves only executing pleasing things ; yet con-
sidering that justice as well consists in reward and
praise of virtue as punishing of vice, I thought it
necessary to come here to day, and declare to you
and all the world, that it was merely the undutiful
and seditious carriage in the lower house that hath
made the dissolution of this parliament ; and you,
my lords, are so far from being any causers of it,
that I take as much comfort in your dutiful demea-
nour, as I am justly distasted with their proceedings :
yet to avoid their mistakings, let me tell you that
it is so far from me to adjudge all the house alike

255

guilty, that I know there are many there as dutiful
subjects as any in the world ; it being but some few
vipers among them that did cast this mist of undu-
tifulness over most of their eyes ; yet to say truth,
there was a good number there that could not be
infected with this contagion ; insomuch that some
did express their duties in speaking, which was the
general fault of the house the last day. To con-
clude, as these vipers must look for their reward of
punishment, so you, my lords, must justly expect
from me that favor and protection that a good king
oweth to his loving and faithful nobility a."

The parliament was then dissolved by procla-
mation.

The next step was, to ascertain how far the judges
could be induced to lend themselves to the schemes
of royal vengeance against the parliamentary leaders ;
and towards the end of April, the attorney-general
proposed to them the following questions . Whether
any subject having received probable information of
any treason or treacherous attempt against the king
or state, ought not to make it known to the king
or his commissioners, and whether his refusal to be
examined, or to answer questions in such a case,
be not a high contempt punishable in the star-
chamber ? Answer ; That it is an offence punish-
able, provided it do not concern himself, and that
his answering would bring him into danger. —
Whether it were a good excuse or answer to say,
that he received such information in parliament,

* Rushworth, i. 672.

256

being a parliament man, and that parliament being
ended, he would answer such questions in no other
place? This, the judges privately informed the
attorney-general, was in the nature of a plea, and
was not punishable till he were overruled in an
orderly way to make another answer. — Whether
or no a member of parliament committing an of-
fence against the king and council not in a parlia-
mentary way, might afterwards be punished for it ?
The judges here took a very subtile distinction; — for
things done in a parliamentary way, they agreed
that he could not be punished, but that he might,
" where things are done exorbitantly, for those are
not the acts of a court," and parliament should not
give privilege to any, contrary to the custom of
parliament, to exceed the limits of his place and
duty. To the question whether, — if one, or two, or
three members only, should covertly conspire to
raise false rumours and slanders against the lords
of the council and judges, not with intent to ques-
tion them in a legal course, but in order to bring
them into hatred of the people, and the govern-
ment into contempt, that were punishable in the
star-chamber after the parliament was ended ?
They answered, That it was " an offence exorbi-
tant," and beyond the duty of a parliament man.
— To the question, Whether if a parliament man
should say, by way of digression, that the council
and judges agreed to trample upon the liberty of
the subject and the privileges of parliament, — words
uttered by sir John Eliot, — it were punishable ?

257

They declined to answer, because it concerned
themselves.51

The judges appear to have advised the attorney-
general to proceed against the prisoners not in the
star-chamber, where they could have no counsel,
but in the court of king's bench, where a less ini-
quitous form of trial prevailed. In fact, though
these magistrates wanted the virtue to declare the
law boldly and plainly, at the hazard of the king's
displeasure and its heavy consequences, they pain-
fully felt both the disgrace and the danger which
they incurred by being thus compelled to exhibit
themselves to the whole nation in the character of
counsel for the crown against the liberties of the
people. " My father," says the son of judge
Whitelock, "did often and highly complain against
this way of sending to the judges for their opinions
beforehand ; and said that if bishop Laud went on in
this way, he would kindle a flame in the nationV

The prisoners having moved for their habeas cor-
pus, the judges, "somewhat perplexed," "wrote
an humble and stout letter to the king, that by
their oaths they were to bail the prisoners ; but
thought fit, before they did it, or published their
opinions therein, to inform his majesty thereof, and
humbly to advise him, as had been done by his
noble progenitors in like case, to send a direction
to the judges of his bench to bail the prisoners'."

u Rushworth, i. 673. b Whitelock' s Memorial^ p. 13,

e Ibid. p. 14.
VOL. I. S

258

But so little was his majesty inclined to grant to
these patriot leaders their undoubted right, even
under the guise of a favor, that having ordered the
judges of theking'sbenchto attendhim at Greenwich,
he expressed his displeasure at their determination,
and commanded them not to proceed without a
reference to the rest of the twelve : These, thinking
fit to hold consultations and hear arguments on the
case, the business was delayed till the end of the
term, when, the court of king's bench being at
length ready to deliver its judgement, his majesty
caused the prisoners to be removed from other
places of confinement to the Tower, and having by
this base device prevented them from making their
personal appearance, without which the court re-
fused to bail them, they were detained in close
custody during the whole of the long vacation.
By a letter to the judges under his own hand,
Charles assigned as the cause of this fresh rigor,
the " having heard how most of them, a while since,
did carry themselves insolently and unmannerly,
both towards us and towards your lordships," and
an unwillingness to ' ' afford them favor till we
should find their temper and discretions to be such
as may deserve it." It was however promised in
this letter that Selden and Valentine should, out of
respect to the court, be permitted to appear ; but a
second letter three hours after, retracted the con-
cession, on more mature deliberation, and joined
them with their brother-confessors a.

a Rushworth, i. 690, 691.

259

At the opening of Michaelmas term, the prisoners
having been already thirty weeks in close custody,
denied the sight of their nearest friends, and the
use of books and pen and ink, the king sent for
chief-justice Hyde and judge Whitelock to Hamp-
ton Court, and declared himself contented that they
should be bailed, notwithstanding their obstinacy
in refusing to present a petition declaring their
sorrow to have offended him. He also seemed to
acquiesce in their judgement, " though it was not
to his mind," that by law the offence was not ca-
pital and the prisoners ought to be bailed. He
would never," he said, "be offended with his
judges, so that they did not speak oracles, or rid-
dles,'7 and they both used their endeavours to per-
suade him " to heal this breach." The next day
the sufferers were informed that their bail would be
taken, on their giving security for good behaviour.
Selden, for himself and the rest, refused to comply
with this condition, now first propounded, as a
thing unreasonable and irregular, and one to which
they could not submit without great offence to the
parliament. On this, they were all remanded to
the Tower. Soon after, the subserviency of the
judges having been sufficiently ascertained, the at-
torney-general stopped proceedings in the star-
chamber, and exhibited informations against them
in the king's bench, but to these, as having reference
to things done in parliament, they refused to plead
before an inferior tribunal ; the court, however, by
what must be styled a deliberate act of usurpation,

s 2

260

decided in favor of its own jurisdiction ; sentenced
them all, on a nihil dicit,to imprisonment during the
king's pleasure, and fined three of them severely.

The check of a popular representation being, as
it was hoped, permanently removed, the vengeance
of the court now fell also with an overwhelming
weight on the unfortunate merchants who had ren-
dered themselves obnoxious by their resistance to
the payment of tonnage and poundage. Alderman
Chambers, one of the principal among them, after
undergoing seizure of his goods and various other
oppressions from the inferior officers of the cus-
toms, had been at length summoned to a hearing
before the privy council : in the course of his ex-
amination, a sense of intolerable injury moved him
to exclaim, " that in no part of the world were
merchants so screwed up as in England, — in Turkey
they had more encouragement." And for this speech,
which though uttered only to the council, and not
divulged among the people, was yet accounted libel-
lous, he was brought before the star-chamber and
unanimously sentenced to a fine which the princi-
pal members of the administration, and especially
bishops Laud and Neil, would have carried as high
as 30001. ; whilst smaller sums, down to 500/., were
proposed by others ; but it was finally fixed at no
less than 2000/. By the votes of all excepting the
two chief justices, he was further required to sign
a humble submission, acknowledging his fault ; but
to this paper he had the spirit to subscribe, that
he did " utterly abhor and detest the contents as

261

most unjust and false." His fine was immediately
estreated; and for not submitting himself to his
sentence, atrociously iniquitous as it was, he suf-
fered six years imprisonment, to the utter ruin of
his fortunes.

By these examples, every kind of irregular and
arbitrary jurisdiction in the kingdom was embold-
ened to attempt fresh encroachments; but they were
not allowed by the sufferers to pass unquestioned,
and in a variety of different forms one great question
was brought to issue : Whether or not the salutary
rule of law should be swallowed up and lost in the
exceptions of prerogative ?

Philip earl of Montgomery, a weak and choleric
nobleman, took upon him, in his office of lord-
chamberlain, to commit one Atkinson, for having
sued, without his permission, a servant of the king's;
and after his liberation by habeas corpus he com-
mitted him again ; " in contempt of the court and
admiration of all wise men." Three of the judges,
uninfluenced by the refusal of chief-justice Hyde,
gave a warrant for a new habeas corpus in this
case, " but before the return of it, the lord cham-
berlain, upon wiser thoughts, discharged Atkinson
from prison a."

Huntley, a clergyman in Kent, having failed to
preach at a visitation, though required so to do,
first by his archdeacon and afterwards by letters
from the archbishop, was for these contempts sum-

a Whitelock, p. 13.

262

moned before the high commission, heavily fined,
and thrown into jail. After long confinement, he
sued out his habeas corpus, and the cause of his
committal being returned, " default in his canonical
obedience," he was delivered by the judges; because
this offence was only punishable by the ecclesiasti-
cal censures of the ordinary, and not by the high
commission, nor by fine and imprisonment. On
this, Huntley brought his action of false imprison-
ment against the jailor and against several of the
commissioners by name, and the court of king's
bench decided that two of the commissioners should
give bond to answer the charge. But the arch-
bishop, with whom the wrong, or error, had origi-
nated, prevailed on the king, by the interposition of
Laud, to send to the judges to stay proceedings.
After consulting together, the judges informed the
lord keeper and the bishop, that an indefinite delay
of justice between party and party was contrary to
law and their oaths. The high commissioners,
alarmed with reason at the extent of the legal re-
sponsibility to which they might thus become ex-
posed, sought shelter, as usual, behind the throne;
and Charles was induced to summon the judges
before him, and in presence of the lord keeper and
others to lay his absolute command upon them,
" not to put the defendants to answer." They
"stoutly" replied, "that they could not without
breach of their oaths perform that command ; and
so they parted in displeasure." The affair was then
brought before the council, and after a long and

263

warm debate, the honorable perseverance of the
judges gained its end, and it was determined that
the commissioners should be held responsible for
unwarrantable exertions of the dangerous authority
entrusted to them.

Sir Henry Martyn, judge of the admiralty, com-
plained to the king of the judges for granting pro-
hibitions against the proceedings of his court ; and
in this instance also they " mannerly and stoutly,'1
in the royal presence, justified their proceedings as
" according to law, and as their oaths bound them."

But, deprived of the protection, or released from
the control of parliaments, the sages of the law
opposed by degrees less and less resistance to the
advancing strides of arbitrary power : Eminent
lawyers, such as Noy and Littleton, were gained
over to the measures of the court ; no appeal to
public opinion could be made through a press en-
chained by the licenser ; — and to the cries and
struggles of assaulted Liberty succeeded a long
trance of indignation or terror, which the satellites
of power have applauded as submission and cele-
brated as felicity.

Meantime, the imprisoned members of parlia-
ment, with only a single exception, were generously
earning the gratitude of their country by a perse-
vering refusal to enter into the bond for good be-
haviour which would at any time have procured
their immediate release ; regarding it as an evil
precedent, a snare, and an injury to the rights and
privileges of the English people. The consequences

264

of this firmness to themselves were various. Sel-
den's final release, after successive mitigations of
his captivity, which at last rendered it little more
than nominal, was effected, at the distance of two
years and a half from his first committal, through
the intercession of two nohlemen, who pleaded that
they required his professional services to conclude
an important law-suit in which he had formerly
been consulted. Hollis, after twelve months close
custody in the Tower, regained his liberty with dif-
ficulty. None were dismissed till after long and
severe imprisonment, but, sooner or later, deliver-
ance was granted to all, excepting Eliot, whom the
monarch regarded with peculiar indignation as the
ringleader; — a person of whose life, character, and
sentiments, ample records have fortunately been
preserved for the instruction of posterity.

John Eliot, only son of a gentleman of family
and fortune, was born at his father's seat of Port
Eliot in Cornwall in 1590, educated at Oxford and
one of the inns of court, knighted by king James
and elected to his last parliament and the first of
Charles by the borough of Newport. In the se-
cond parliament of Charles he sat for St. Germains,
but having greatly distinguished himself in the
house, was in the next returned for the county
of Cornwall. At an early period of his life, the
warmth of his temperament impelled him to an
act of ferocity. In the midst of a dispute he drew
his sword upon a gentleman his neighbour of the
name of Moyle, and slightly wounded him. But on

265

his repentance and acknowledgement he was for-
given, and the cordial friendship which subsisted
between them ever after, speaks loudly in praise of
botha.

a The misrepresentations of this fact which have obtained cur-
rency induce me to subjoin an extract from an original letter on
this subject now in my possession, written by a most respectable
Cornish gentleman named Trehawke in the year 1767. "The
fact, as related to me by Mr. Moyle's own daughter, stood thus.
Sir John Eliot when young had been extravagant in his expenses,
so that Mr. Moyle thought it friendly to acquaint his father with
his son's conduct, and this being represented to the young gen-
tleman with some exaggerating circumstances, he hastily went
to Mr. Moyle's house (two miles from his own). What words
past, I know not, but sir John drew his sword and made a thrust
at Mr. Moyle, but it being against his ribs, the hurt was slight.
However, that being more than sir John knew, and there being
no time for talking after what was done, sir John fled. On re-
flection, he soon detested the fact, and from thenceforward became
as remarkable for his private deportment in every view of it as
his public conduct. Mr. Moyle was so entirely reconciled to him
that no person of his time held him in higher esteem. I have an
original paper before me which I conceive refers to this transac-
tion. It runs in these words. ' I do acknowledge to have done
you a great injury, which I wish I had never done, and do desire
you to remit it, and that all unkindness may be forgiven and for-
gotten between us, and henceforward I shall desire and deserve
your love in all friendly offices, as I hope you will mine/ Sub-
scribed J. Eliot, directed to Mr. Moyle without date, and signed
in the presence of and attested by Grenvil and many other gen-
tlemen."

Amongst the Eliot papers I have found a copy of this ac-
knowledgement, and also some letters written during Eliot's im-
prisonment, which prove the friendship then existing between the
parties.

266

On the parliamentary conduct of Eliot it is su-
perfluous here to enlarge. That the strain of pas-
sionate eloquence which pervades his speeches
flowed from the pure source of public virtue ; — in
particular that the vehemence with which he, be-
yond all the rest, inveighed against the corruption
of Buckingham, his malversation in his high office,
and the arrogance with which he assumed upon the
royal favor, was prompted by no private pique or
private ends, many circumstances fully warrant us
in concluding : The constant esteem in which he
was held by the best men of his own party, — the
unrelenting persecution exercised against him by
the king, — the magnanimous firmness with which
he refused to purchase his liberty, his health, his
life, by base petitions and baser acknowledgements
of fault where he was guiltless, — and above all, the
noble, the calm and the pious strain of the letters
which during his tedious captivity he addressed,
sometimes by stealth, to the objects of his tenderest
love and the sharers of his inmost thoughts. In
these we behold the reflection of a mind of the first
order in morals, combined with very considerable
intellectual powers and accomplishments ; and as
far as the intentions of a party are to be estimated
by the principles and sentiments of one of its leaders,
certainly they may be considered as forming an
important document for the justification of the
opposers of the court in the long parliament.

In a letter which Eliot contrived to address to
his sons by stealth, at the end of four months of

267

such close custody that, as he says, his feelings
towards them could have " no other expression
than his prayers," after some fatherly and religious
exhortations to them, adverting to his own situa-
tion involved in a course of " sufferings of which
there is. yet no end," — he thus displays the temper
of his soul, and the consolations of religion and
philosophy by which it was sustained.

" Should these evils be complained? Should

I make lamentation of these crosses? Should I con-
ceive the worse of my condition that my adversities
oppose me ? No, I may not ; (and yet I will not
be so stoical as not to think them evils, I will not
do that prejudice to virtue by detraction of her ad-
versary;) they are evils, so I do confess them, but
of that nature, and so followed, so neighbouring
upon good, as they are no cause of sorrow but of
joy: seeing whose enemies they make us: Enemies
of fortune, enemies of the world, enemies of their
children : And to know for whom we suffer ; for
Him that is their enemy, for him that can command
them, whose agents only and instruments they are
to work his trials on us, which may render us more
perfect and acceptable to himself. Should these
infuse a sorrow which are the true touches of His
favor, and not 'affect us rather with higher appre-
hensions of our happiness? Amongst my many
obligations to my God, which prove the infinity of
his mercies, that like a full stream have been al-
ways flowing on me, there is none concerning this
life wherein I have found more pleasure or advan-

268

tage than in these trials and afflictions : — (nay, I
may not limit it so narrowly within the confines of
this life, which I hope shall extend much further;)
the operations they have had, the new effects they
work, the discoveries they make upon ourselves,
upon others, upon all, showing the scope of our
intentions, the sum of our endeavours, the strength
of all our actions to be vanity. And how can it
then but leave an impression upon our hearts that
we are nearest unto happiness when we are furthest
off from them, I mean the vain inventions of this
world, the fruitless labors and endeavours that they
move, from which nothing so faithfully delivers us
as the crosses and afflictions that we meet ; those
mastering checks and contraventions that like tor-
rents break all outward hopes ? Nay, this specu-
lation of the vanity of this world does not only
show a happiness in those crosses by the exemption
which we gain ; but infers a further benefit in that
nearer contemplation of ourselves : Of what we do
consist, what original we had, to what end we were
directed ; and in this we see whose image is upon
us, and where we do belong; what materials we are
of; that, besides the body (which only is obnoxious
to these troubles,) the better part of our composition
is the soul, whose freedom is not subject to any
authority without us, but depends wholly on the
disposition of the Maker, who framed it for himself,
and therefore gave it dispositions incompatible of
all power and dominion but his own. This happi-
ness I confess, in all the trials I have had, has

269

never parted from me, (how great then is his favor
by whose mercy I have enjoyed it ?) the days have
all seemed pleasant, nor night has once been tedi-
ous ; no fears, no terrors have possessed me, but a
constant peace and tranquillity of the mind, whose
agitation has been chiefly in thanks and acknow-
ledgements to Him, by whose grace I have subsisted,
and shall yet I hope participate of his blessings
upon you.

"I have the more enlarged myself in this that you
might have a right view of the condition which I
suffer, least from a bye relation, as through a per-
spective not truly representing, some false sense
might be contracted," &c.

(Dated Tower, July 8th, 1629.)

Amongst the friends of Eliot the most conge-
nial and affectionate was Hampden. He performed
much of the duty of a guardian, and expressed an
affection almost paternal towards the sons of his
incarcerated friend, and from the correspondence
between-'them several interesting particulars of the
state and treatment of the prisoner may be collected.
The caution with which political subjects are touch-
ed, and often unequivocal expressions, prove that
their letters were frequently exposed to inspection.
Sometimes late or future visits of Hampden to the
Tower are referred to, at other times this intercourse
was interrupted. We know from different sources,
that after a time the rigor of Eliot's confinement was
somewhat mitigated, on account of the declining
state of his health, and in one letter his friend says,

270

"You enjoy as much as without contradiction you
may, the liberty of a prison." The captive deceived
the time with literary pursuits, sometimes with phi-
losophical disquisitions, sometimes with a work on
government, entitled the "Monarchy of Man," and
all his manuscripts were duly submitted to the cri-
tical judgement of his accomplished friend. Books
were supplied to him both by Hampden and by
another of his correspondents, the learned Richard
James, librarian to sir Robert Cotton. Sometimes
reports of an approaching parliament would flatter
himself and his friends with hopes of a near deliver-
ance ; at other times attempts were made to bend
his spirit to submission by a renewal of severity.
At Christmas 1631 he thus writes to Hampden.

" That I write not to you anything of intelli-
gence, will be excused when I do let you know that
I am under a new restraint, by warrant from the
king, for a supposed abuse of liberty in admitting a
free resort of visitants, and under that color holding
consultations with my friends. My lodgings are
removed, and I am now where candle-light may be
suffered, but scarce fire. I hope you will think that
this exchange of places makes not a change of
minds. The same protector is still with me, and
the same confidence, and these things can have end
by Him that gives them being. None but my ser-
vants, hardly my sons, may have admittance to me.
My friends I must desire for their own sakes to
forbear coming to the Tower: you among them are
chief, and have the first place in this intelligence.

271

" I have now leisure, and shall dispose myself to
business, therefore those loose papers which you
had I would cast out of the way, being now returned
again unto me. In your next give me a word or
two of note ; for those translations51 you excepted
at, you know we are blind towards ourselves, our
friends must be our glasses, therefore in this I crave
(what in all things I desire) the reflection of your
judgement, and rest/' &c.

(Tower, 26th December, 1631.)

In this state of cruel durance, shut up from the
sight of children and friends, and deprived of com-
mon comforts, this martyr of patriotism patiently
beheld his life brought to an untimely end. His
last extant letter to Hampden, written in the fol-
lowing May, describes the state of bodily suffering
and feebleness to which he had been brought by an
illness of which cold was the original cause; he was
then hoping, with the self-flattery of the consump-
tive, to receive benefit by the air and exercise which
he had begun to take. This could only have been
however within the precincts of his prison ; further
indulgence, as we learn, though not from his own
pen, was denied, except on terms which his spirit
to the last disdained.

The following letter of an unknown writer gives
the concluding circumstances of his life.

a The word translation was at this time used in its Latin sense
of metaphor, which is probably its meaning here. The style of
Eliot was flowery.

272

"A gentleman not unknown to Sir Thomas Lucy,
told me from my lord Cottington's mouth, that sir
John Eliot's late manner of proceeding was this.
He first presented a petition to his majesty by the
hand of the lieutenant his keeper, to this effect:

" 'Sir, your judges have committed me to prison
here in your Tower of London, where, by reason of
the quality of the air, I am fallen into a dangerous
disease. I humbly beseech your majesty you will
command your judges to set me at liberty, that for
recovery of my health I may take some fresh air,'
&c. &c.

11 Whereunto his majesty's answer was, it was not
humble enough. Then sir John sent another petition
by his own son to the effect following. ' Sir, I am
heartily sorry I have displeased your majesty, and
having so saill, do humbly beseech you once again
to set me at liberty, that when I have recovered my
health, I may return back to my prison, there to
undergo such punishment as God hath allotted unto
me,' &c. &c. Upon this the lieutenant came and
expostulated with him, saying it was proper to him,
and common to none else, to do that office of deli-
vering petitions for his prisoners. And if sir John
in a third petition would humble himself to his ma-
jesty in acknowledging his fault and craving pardon,
he would willingly deliver it, and made no doubt
but he should obtain his liberty. Unto this sir
John's answer was; 'I thank you, sir, for your
friendly advice : but my spirits are grown feeble
and faint, which when it shall please God to re-

273

store unto their former vigor, I will take it further
into my consideration.5 Sir John dying not long
after, his son petitioned his majesty once more, he
would be pleased to permit his body to be carried
into Cornwall, there to be buried. Whereto was
answered at the foot of the petition : ' Let sir John
Eliot's body be buried in the church of that parish
where he died/ And so it was buried in the Towera."

a Harl. MSS. 7000, fol. 186. as quoted by lord Nugent in his
Memorials of Hampden. — The foregoing extracts from the cor-
respondence of sir John Eliot are taken from the originals preserved
in the Eliot family, for the loan of which I acknowledge with gra-
titude my obligations to the great liberality and kindness of
viscount Eliot.

VOL. I.

274

CHAPTER VIII.

1629. 1630.

Principal members of administration. — Lord treasurer. — Lord keep-
er.— Earl of Manchester. — Marquis of Hamilton. — Laud. —
Wentworth. — Peace with France. — Treaty with Spain. — Rubens
in England. — Banqueting -house. — Birth of a prince of Wales.
— Interference of the French court. — Feelings of the puritans.
— Death of the earl of Pembroke. — Laud chancellor of Oxford.
— Marquis of Hamilton raises troops to join Gustavus-Adolphus.
— Conduct of his agents. — His ill success and return.

A HE death of Buckingham had left his master
without a favorite and without a prime minister,
and he gave him no full successor in either capacity.
The haughty temper of Charles had caused him to
repel with disdain the suggestion that he was ruled
even by the duke, and henceforth he seems to have
conceded to none but his queen that ascendency
which is founded on affection. Neither did his
propensities lead him to devolve on any substitute
the toils and cares of state. Habitually punctual
and industrious, he willingly gave his time to the
ordinary routine of public business ; fond of power,
and jealous to excess of what he considered as po-
pular encroachment, he was prompted by cogent
motives to exercise a constant vigilance over every
question or incident bearing a political aspect ; and
with respect to the odium, or eventual danger which

275

he might incur by taking upon himself the prime
responsibility of the highly unconstitutional system
of rule which he contemplated, he too much disdained
the people, he too literally believed that "the king's
name is a tower of strength," to shrink back from
it for a moment. The official persons therefore who
at this time composed his council can be regarded
in no other light than that of subordinate instru-
ments ; yet it will be interesting even in this view
to "contemplate them more nearly ; since they had
at least been selected by the chief artificer as tools
peculiarly fitted to the work in hand.

The lord-treasurer Weston, now earl of Portland,
had been one of the creatures of the mighty duke,
but either some decided tokens of his unfitness for
high place, or more probably, some personal causes
of disgust, had so irritated his patron against him,
that nothing, it was believed, but the event of his
death could have prevented the speedy transference
of the white staff to other hands. In fact, the ca-
pacity and attainments of this great officer exceeded
in no degree the ordinary standard, and his moral
qualities were of still baser alloy. His extraction
and education were those of a private gentleman ;
after a residence at the Middle Temple and a course
of foreign travel, he had entered among the retain-
ers of the court; and it was not till after dissipating
in his attendance there most of his own patrimony,
and involving in securities with him such friends
as were " willing to run his hopeful fortune*," that

a Clarendon .
T2

276

he succeeded in obtaining some diplomatic employ.
In this however he managed to give such satisfac-
tion that he was admitted of the privy council, and
lord Brooke, the " courtier of queen Elizabeth, the
counsellor of king James, and the friend of Philip
Sidney," was persuaded, or compelled, to resign to
him the office of chancellor of the exchequer. In
this post he showed himself a competent man of
business, whilst by the arts of a courtier, and espe-
cially by a dexterous conduct in parliament, calcu-
lated to serve his master without bringing upon
himself the displeasure of the commons, he so in-
gratiated himself, as to be placed, a few months
before the termination of the duke's career, at the
head of the treasury; a post less indeed the object
of ambition at this time than usual, on account of
the exhausted state of the exchequer, and the un-
certain tenure by which all offices were held under
the sway of venality or caprice : five ex-lord-trea-
surers being then alive. No sooner had the removal
of his patron freed the lord-treasurer from the con-
trol which his subaltern nature required, than he
began to exercise with insolence the authority which
he had earned by obsequiousness ; and openly as-
piring to become the new dictator of the court and
state, he succeeded so far as to share almost equally
with Laud the obloquy which attached to the mea-
sures of government ; but in other respects his pre-
tensions encountered a speedy check. The king
was evidently determined to be his own prime mi-
nister, and for that portion of authority which he

277

was disposed to accord to his officers of state, the
earl of Portland discovered that he had many and
formidable competitors. With an unskilful imita-
tion of the prosperous audacity of Buckingham, he
affected to slight the queen ; opposed all who de-
sired the increase of her influence, and " often
crossed her pretences and desires with more rude-
ness than was natural to hima." At the same time,
the inborn cowardice and meanness which the ar-
rogance of his demeanour imperfectly disguised,
would often lead him to inquire with anxiety what
her majesty said of him in private, and when any
of her sharp speeches were reported to him by his
spies, he would either make complaint of them to
the king, or seek by submissions and entreaties to
obtain her forgiveness ; usually concluding the scene
by betraying his informers. No one had more am-
bition to raise a family, and to leave a great fortune
behind him, than the lord-treasurer, yet he suffered
the expenses of his household to become so enor-
mous, that in spite of " all the means he used for
supply, which were all which occurred b," he was
constantly overburthened with debts, towards the
discharge of which the king largely contributed at
two different times. He obtained great donations
also of crown-lands, which excited the more envy
because it was peculiarly the duty of his office to
oppose such alienations, and he in fact resisted with
great rigor the pretensions of other men to similar

a Clarendon. b Ibid.

278

favors, and was believed to restrain almost every
exertion of the royal bounty towards them. It is to
be observed however, that the king, now solely in-
tent upon his plan of establishing his independence
on parliaments, was bent on practising a strict eco-
nomy, as the necessary means towards this end ;
and his munificence was now seldom called into
exercise.

Little beloved at court, the lord-treasurer was
suspected and hated by the people, who believed
him a secret votary of that obnoxious faith which
was openly professed by the females of his family
and his principal adherents : Nor was this opinion
unfounded, since it was in the Romish communion
that he died a few years afterwards ; yet by the
catholics themselves he was regarded rather in the
light of a real enemy than a timid friend; for never,
it is said, were the penal laws, with the exception
of those of a sanguinary nature, executed with
greater strictness ; never did the crown derive so
large a revenue from the compositions of recusants,
never did they pay so dear for " the favors and in-
dulgences of his office towards them." Here again
however, it may be remarked, that every source of
revenue had now become so important an object to
Charles, that in all probability the mitigation of
fines and penalties to the catholics was by no means
left at the sole discretion of the treasurer.

Lord keeper Coventry, an enemy whom the earl
of Portland had already made an unsuccessful effort
to displace, is said to have been a sound lawyer and

279

a man of sense and discretion; although his hyper-
bolical representations of regal power and dignity
in his harangues to parliament might serve in some
measure to invalidate his claims to both parts of this
character. "He knew," says lord Clarendon, "the
temper and disposition and genius of the kingdom
most exactly ; saw their spirits grow every day
more sturdy, and inquisitive and impatient, and
therefore naturally abhorred all innovations," (mean-
ing all assumptions of prerogative,) "which he fore-
saw would produce ruinous effects. Yet many who
stood at a distance thought he was not active and
stout enough in the opposing those innovations.
For though, by his place, he presided in all public
councils, and was most sharpsighted in the conse-
quence of things, yet he was seldom known to speak
in matters of state, which, he well knew, were for
the most part concluded before they were brought
to that public agitation; never in foreign affairs —
nor indeed freely in any thing but what immediately
and plainly concerned the justice of the kingdom,
and in that, as much as he could, he procured re-
ferences to the judges." It is added as an excuse
for his raising no warning voice to save his sove-
reign from rushing blindly to destruction, that few
persons were strongly attached to him or his in-
terests; and that knowing himself thus unprovided
of friends either zealous or powerful at court, it
was "no wonder, nor to be imputed to him, that he
retired within himself as much as he could, and
stood upon his defence without making desperate

280

sallies against growing mischiefs, which he well
knew he had no power to hinder, and which might
probably begin in his own ruin." " His security,"
concludes the noble historian, "consisted very much
in the little credit he had with the king."

The earl of Manchester, lord privy seal, grandson
to that lord chief justice Montague who was one of
the executors of Henry VIII. , had himself borne
the same high judicial office, and afterwards, for a
short time, that of lord-treasurer. He still pre-
served his activity and his sagacity in business un-
impaired by age; but these qualities, as he employed
them, tended chiefly to the injury of his country
and his own disgrace. "His honors," says Claren-
don, "had grown upon him faster than his fortunes,
which made him solicitous to advance the latter by
all the ways that offered themselves; whereby he
exposed himself to some inconveniences and many
reproaches, and became less capable of serving the
public by his counsels and authority." He was
"too much used as a check upon the lord Coventry;
and when the other perplexed their counsels and
designs with inconvenient objections in law, his
authority, who had trod the same paths, was still
called upon ; and he did too frequently gratify their
unjustifiable designs and pretences ; a guilt and
mischief" which, it is properly intimated, all men
conscious of being themselves open to accusation,
are liable to, and can scarcely escape*. Yet the

a Clarendon, book i.

281

sincere attachment to the protestant religion as by
law established, and the loyalty and fidelity towards
his prince of which he enjoyed the credit, preserved
him for the present in good reputation both with
the king and people, and it was his good fortune to
close his career before the great and dreaded day of
parliamentary inquisition arrived.

Other conspicuous members of the council were
the earls of Arundel, Montgomery, Dorset, Holland,
and Carlisle, all well-known official characters under
the former reign, but belonging rather to the class
of great nobles or courtiers, than that of states-
men ; for the most part they were men fond of plea-
sure and expense ; many of them involved in debt
and consequently servile and rapacious ; indifferent
to public rights or public safety, and alone solicit-
ous to secure their selfish ends by flattering the
propensities of their master. But the projects of
the king and the complexion of the times, demanded
men of more daring minds and longer views, and
the old councillors, with the single exception of
Holland, who supported himself on the favor of the
queen, were on the point of yielding to the ascend-
ency of that triumvirate through whom Charles
administered for several years the affairs of his three
kingdoms, — the marquis of Hamilton, Laud, and
Wentworth.

James marquis of Hamilton and earl of Cam-
bridge, a nobleman not very distantly related to
the king, and high in the order of succession to the
crown of Scotland, was born in that country in

282

1606, and there he received his education till his
fourteenth year; at which period king James com-
pelled his father to send for him to court and marry
him to lady Mary Fielding, daughter of the earl of
Denbigh and niece to Buckingham ; after which the
young heir was dismissed on his travels. On his
return, king Charles gave him early admission to
the council hoards both of England and Scotland,
and attached him to his court and person by the
post of gentleman of the bedchamber. Afterwards
he retired in some discontent to Scotland ; but on
the death of Buckingham was recalled and appointed
master of the horse. His character even at this
early period gave indications of the craftiness and
spirit of intrigue by which he was distinguished in
after life. " I must concur," says sir Philip War-
wick, "in that general opinion that naturally he
loved to gain his point rather by some serpentine
winding than by a direct path." " He had a large
proportion," adds the writer, " of his majesty's
favor and confidence, and knew very well how to
manage both, and to accompany the king in his
hard chases of the stag, and in the toilsome plea-
sures of a racket : by which last he often filled his
own and emptied his master's purse ; and though
he carried it very modestly and warily, yet he had
a strong influence upon the greatest affairs at court,
especially when they related unto his own country a."
Whether personal ambition or zeal for his order

* Memoirs of sir Philip Warwick.

283

were the most actuating principle, or ruling passion
of bishop Laud, would be a question more curious
than profitable. It is certain, that in his successful
struggles to establish himself in the favor and con-
fidence, first of Buckingham and afterwards of the
king, he had employed without scruple the deepest
arts of men who seek advancement superior to their
merits: — Observance, profession, and assiduous adu-
lation towards the patron or the master; intrigue,
circumvention, and the sly insinuations of an ever-
watchful malice, against competitors or opponents;
and towards dependents, those haughty menaces,
mingled with tempting intimations of conditional
favor, which are most effectual to extort base com-
pliances, or prompt to acts of guilty boldness. At
the same time it is not to be doubted, that he was
even fanatically devoted to the grand design of re-
storing to the English church whatever of riches, of
power, or of splendor it had lost by, or since, the
reformation, and of reestablishing its independence
on the civil power. This design he deemed it me-
ritorious to advance by all means, at all costs, and
through all hazards.

In order to his spiritual ends, the bishop was
tempted to assume to himself a large and increasing
share in the management of all the temporal affairs
of the state; and though his unfitness for the exer-
cise of power became proportionally conspicuous, it
was cheerfully conceded to him by a master partial
alike to the man and to his order. But the ministers
and courtiers viewed his encroachments with other

284

eyes. Their attachment was to the Crown, the sole
fountain to them of honors and emoluments; and
they were quick to infer from the temper of the
people, that the church, in the advancement of its
new pretensions, was likely to need more support
than it would be able to requite. In the bishops
and court chaplains who had exhibited themselves
so conspicuously as the devoted satellites of absolute
power, they beheld competitors rather than auxili-
aries,— in Laud himself they found an importunate
pedagogue, and often a stern and inflexible opponent.
Haughty, fond of the exercise of authority, and
severe in his own manners, he was little indulgent
to the frailties of the young and the gay. Con-
scious of his own pecuniary integrity, he found
small temptation as a minister, to conciliate friends
or gratify dependents by a compliance with the
corrupt and mercenary propensities of others ; on
the contrary, his zeal for the king and the cause,
often prompted him to institute strict inquiry after
any malversations by which the exchequer would
be the loser; and this scrutiny he even extended
into the collection of the most oppressive and illegal
taxations, in levying which men expected to be re-
munerated not for their labor alone, but for the
odium, the guilt and the danger. To suitors gene-
rally he was harsh and unpropitious ; but to the
members of his own profession, when perfectly
conformable and sufficiently humble, he could show
himself not only a munificent, but a benign and
gracious patron ; and in the society of a chosen

285

few, lie was capable of unbending even to mirth-
fulness.

Went worth, perhaps alone amongst the lay ad-
visers of the king, was closely united with Laud,
and cordially promoted his designs for the aggran-
dizement of the church ; but less, perhaps, from a
reverence for ecclesiastical authority abstractedly
considered, than from opposition to the puritans,
whom, as the great supporters of the constitutional
cause which he had publicly abandoned, he hated
and pursued with the inveteracy of an apostate.
The character of this eminent statesman was one so
strongly drawn by the hand of nature, that all the
portraitures of it, whether by the hand of friend or
foe, offer the same grand lines; it is in the tone of
coloring only that they vary. It has been thus
delineated by one who loved his cause better than
his person. . . . "He was every way qualified for
business ; his natural faculties being very strong
and pregnant; his understanding, aided by a good
fancy, made him quick in discerning the nature of
any business; and through a cold brain he became
deliberate, and of a sound judgement. His memory
was great, and he made it greater by confiding in
it. His elocution was very fluent, and it was a
great part of his talent readily to reply and freely
to harangue upon any subject. And all this was
lodged in a sour and haughty temper; so as it may
probably be believed he expected to have more ob-
servance paid to him than he was willing to pay to
others, though they were of his own quality; and

286

then he was not like to conciliate the good-will of
men of the lesser station.

" His acquired parts, both in university and inns
of court learning, as likewise in his foreign travels,
made him an eminent man before he was a con-
spicuous; so as when he came to show himself first
in public affairs, which was in the house of com-
mons, he was soon a bell-wether in that flock.
As he had these parts, he knew how to set a price
on them, if not overvalue them: and he too soon
discovered a roughness in his nature, which a man
no more obliged by him than I was, would have

called an injustice In his person he

was of a tall stature, but stooped much in the neck.
His countenance was cloudy whilst he moved or sat
thinking ; but when he spake, either seriously or
facetiously, he had a lightsome and a very pleasant
air: and indeed, whatever he then did, he performed
very gracefully*." To this we may add, that his
natural pride and self-consequence had been fostered
by coming early to the possession of a great patri-
monial estate, with which there had devolved upon
him the charge of a numerous family of brothers
and sisters, over whom he appears to have assumed
all the authority of a lord and patron. He also
valued himself on an ancient lineage, embellished,
as he regarded it, by a spurious descent from the
Plantagenets through Margaret countess of Rich-
mond, which he had caused to be ostentatiously set

* Warwick's Memoirs, pp. 109, 112.

287

forth in his* patent of nobility. To gain a predomi-
nating influence in his own county, and especially
to humiliate his neighbour and sworn enemy, Lord
Savile, were doubtless the primary objects of the
intrigues which he had long been weaving at the
court. These ends he had fully attained about the
close of the year 1628, when his advancement to
the rank of viscount had restored to him the pre-
cedence which he had lost by the prior elevation of
Savile to the baronage; and when he had further
succeeded in stripping him of the office of custos ro-
tulorum for Yorkshire, which they had borne alter-
nately, and had sent him home from court a dis-
graced and almost broken-hearted man. But ambi-
tion is as little to be satiated with a first success, as
quelled by a single failure. Wentworth, as a privy
councillor, had been called upon to assist his majesty
by the suggestion of expedients for the establishment
of his new plan of government; and when, in De-
cember 1628, he repaired to York to be pompously
installed in his high office of president of the council
of the North, it was with the purpose of rendering
himself meritorious with his master by the organi-
zation of a complete system of arbitrary government
over the five northern counties, which might serve
as a large experiment upon the passive endurance
of the English people, and if successful, as a grand
precedent for the obedience of the rest of the king-
dom. A brief notice of the history and constitution
of the court in which he was called to preside, will
serve to illustrate this part of his policy.

388

The court of the North was instituted by Henry
VIII. in the 31st year of his reign, for the purpose
chiefly of suppressing the tumults in those parts
arising out of the abolition of the smaller mona-
steries. The original commission, addressed to the
bishop of Llandaff and others, was no more than an
ordinary one of oyer and terminer, except that it
ended with a captious and dangerous clause em-
powering the commissioners to hear and decide all
causes, real or personal, between parties who,
through poverty, should be unable to obtain justice
by ordinary means. Yet not only was this clause,
conferring an equity jurisdiction, held to be illegal,
but even the whole commission ; because it took
certain counties permanently out of the jurisdiction
of the courts at Westminster : no complaints how-
ever appear to have been made for many years,
partly because the minds of men were otherwise
occupied, and partly, it is probable, because the
proceedings of the court were lenient and discreet.
Under Elizabeth, an attachment was granted against
the archbishop of York then president, for prohibit-
ing the jailer at York from delivering a prisoner
who had sued out his habeas corpus in the king's
bench; and the last clause of the commission was
then solemnly declared illegal. Yet James on his
accession renewed this commission, and in his 7th
year he was guilty of granting a new one in which,
by an enormous stride of usurpation, the court was
directed to determine causes, not, as before, "by
the oaths of twelve good men and true," and " ac-

289

cording to the laws of England," but according to
instructions sent them which were kept secret a.
Wentworth's commission, as at first granted, far
exceeded in its powers all former ones ; yet he twice
afterwards applied for an extension of his authority,
and with success. Some of its more important
clauses were the following:

The lord president, or in his absence the vice-
president assisted by two of the council, was autho-
rized to take cognisance of all felonies, and commit
for them till the prisoners should be, either "law-
fully, or by sufficient warrant and authority, deli-
vered." They were armed with full powers to pur-
sue recusants and all other religious delinquents in
the manner of the high-commission: To punish all
riots and every other misdemeanour with fine and
imprisonment according to their " discretion," and
according to the laws and ordinances : To punish
perjury, provided it were not with less severity than
was authorized by the statute : To punish at dis-
cretion, by fine and imprisonment, all libels, except-
ing such as appeared dangerous to the state, on
which they were to report to the privy council :
To exercise an equity jurisdiction in matters of
property both real and personal: To decide personal
actions on the same principle : To make inquiry of
wrongful inclosures, and punish rich offenders : To
summon and instruct justices of the peace: To en-
force obedience to their own proclamations, and
punish contempts of the authority of the court.

3 Rushworth, ii. p. 162, et seq.
VOL. I. U

290

By these and other provisions, this awful tribunal
was enabled to unite the powers of the court of
chancery, the star-chamber, and in effect, of the
high-commission and ecclesiastical courts likewise,
with the jurisdiction of the courts of common law;
and this authority it might also exercise without
the intervention of a jury, and with the substitution
of discretionary punishments for those awarded by
the laws; and the spirit in which this discretion
was designed to be exercised, was thus unequivo-
cally proclaimed in the conclusion of the commission
itself: "And whereas we perceive that mildness
and favor doth much bolden the evil-disposed, we
earnestly require the said lord president and whole
council for some convenient season from henceforth,
to use severity against notable offenders ; and to
punish them without any long delay, not only by
pain of body and imprisonment, but also by good
fines and amerciaments, so as the opinion and re-
putation of severity may work that by force which
is, and hath long been seen will not be obtained by
favor and gentleness a."

When we reflect that he who had solicited and
obtained this commission, extending in every direc-
tion the discretionary power of a court in itself
illegally established, had been once an undaunted
confessor in the cause of English liberty, — after-
wards, an able, bold, and sagacious assertor of the
laws and constitution, and that he was at this time

a Rymer, Fcedera, Date Dec. 15, 1629.

291

a sworn and responsible adviser of the very king
from whom the petition of right had been extorted,
— we stand confounded at the political prostitution
of the minister, the faithlessness of the prince, and
the audacity of both. But in order to carry into
effect the " new measures" which had been resolved
upon, these preliminaries were indispensable ; — to
stifle by means of severe chastisements the expres-
sion of public discontent ; to coerce the puritans
and squeeze the catholics ; to recruit the exchequer
by oppressive fines and confiscations levied under
pretext of law or prerogative ; and above all, to en-
force the general payment of taxes laid by the king's
sole authority. And to objects like these the vulgar-
minded ambition of Wentworth, seconded by his
inborn love of domineering, lent itself rather with
cheerfulness and alacrity than with any show of
scruple or hesitation.

By the financial expedients just intimated, Charles
flattered himself that the expenses of his court and
government during a state of peace might perma-
nently be defrayed; but the supplies of war could
only be furnished, he was well aware, by the aid of
parliament. He therefore found it necessary to
listen to the advice of his council, who now unani-
mously concurred in recommending negotiations
both with France and Spain. Since the king of
England was content to leave the French protestants
without stipulation to the mercy of their sovereign,
there was nothing to impede an amicable arrange-
ment with that court, which was concluded, by the

u2

292

mediation of Venice, in April 1629. The treaty
with Spain was not actually signed till November
1630, though all military operations had ceased;
and so long before as the November of the preceding-
year, Cottington had been sent ambassador to Ma-
drid; " maugre the French ambassador," says a
letter of that time, " who with all the strength he
had, opposed his journey, and used the queen's
assistance therein: so that when sir Francis Cot-
tington came to take his leave of her, and to know
what service her majesty would please to command
him to her sister, answered as I told you in my last
[that she would have nothing to do with Spain, nor
with any person there] . And when she could not
prevail with his majesty to cross the ambassage,
she shed tears in angera."

We have here perhaps the earliest instance on
record of the open interference of Henrietta in af-
fairs of state, and it seems that she had not yet
learned the art of making this interference effective.
The only additional circumstance of any interest
connected with this lingering negotiation is, that
the first overtures passed through the hands of sir
Balthasar Gerbier of Antwerp, a painter and sculptor
long in the service of Buckingham and knighted by
his means, and that its further progress was en-
trusted to Rubens, and the occasion of that visit
to England of which his pencil has left a celebrated
and enduring memorial. This illustrious painter

a Ellis, vol. iii. p. 284.

293

after three years spent in adorning the Luxembourg,
according to a lively writer, with "the ostensible
history " of the life of Mary de' Medici, c< had re-
turned to Antwerp, where his various talents were
so conspicuous, that he was pitched upon to nego-
tiate a treaty of peace between Spain and England.
The infanta Isabella sent him to Madrid for instruc-
tions, where he ingratiated himself so much with
the conde-duc d'Olivarez, that besides many valu-
able presents he had a brevet for himself and his
son of secretary of the privy council, and was dis-
missed with a secret commission to king Charles,

in which he had the honor of succeeding21."

Delighted with the opportunity of employing
such talents more appropriately in the art he loved,
Charles engaged the ambassador, for the sum of
3,000/., to paint the ceiling of theBanqueting-house,
the beautiful work of Inigo Jones. The subject
chosen was the strange one of the apotheosis of
king James ; and thus the painting was contrived
in some degree to supply the place of the royal
monument proposed, but never carried into execu-
tion.

On the 29th of May 1630, the queen gave birth
to a prince of Wales, afterwards Charles II. In
the preceding year she had brought forth a son
who had lived just long enough to occasion a vigo-
rous effort on the part of her household priests to
secure to themselves the performance of the rite of

a Lord Orford's Anecdotes of Painting.

294

baptism ; and it is said to have been only by great
vigilance on the protestant side that this popish plot
was disconcerted. It does not appear that this
attempt was repeated on the birth of the second
child; but the French court seized the opportunity
to renew its busy interference with the appointments
of the royal household. " Earnest instance" was
made that a bishop and a physician might be sent
over to the queen; and notwithstanding " his ma-
jesty's express pleasure to the contrary," declared
to the marquis de Chateauneuf in England, and by
sir Thomas Edmonds in France, the physician was
actually sent by the queen-mother, addressed to
the French ambassador, and Henrietta was " per-
suaded in plain and clear terms to speak to the
king to admit him as domestic." But Charles was
resolute ; and the intruder was informed that " he
might return as he was come, with intimation he
should do it speedily8." By ancient privilege the
archbishops of Canterbury are ordinaries of the
royal household, wherever it may be, and entitled
to perform all rites of the church for the members
of the royal family ; but Abbot being, according to
the expression of Heylyn, " at that time infirm, or
otherwise of no desirable company," the office of
baptism devolved on Laud, as dean of the chapel.
Williams was likewise excluded from the general in-
vitation given to the bishops to assist at the cere-
mony. He avenged the slight by remarking, that

a Ellis, 2nd series, vol. iii. p. 260.

295

if present he could not have joined in the prayer
composed by Laud on the occasion and recom-
mended to all parish-churches, in which was the peti-
tion ; "Double his father's graces, O Lord, upon
him, if it be possible !" which he justly stigmatized,
though with some forgetfulness of his own former
excesses of alike nature, as " three-piled flattery
and loathsome divinity a."

Some remarkable indications of the feelings of
the puritans on this joyful event to the royal fa-
mily, are supplied by the biographer of Laud.
" One of their leading men scrupled not to observe
at an entertainment, whilst others were expressing
their satisfaction, that he saw no great cause of joy
in it ; for that God had already better provided for
us than we had deserved, in giving such a hopeful
progeny by the queen of Bohemia, brought up in
the reformed religion, whereas it was uncertain
what religion the king's children would follow,
being to be brought up under a mother so devoted
to the church of Rome." A memorable and pro-
phetic judgement ! " And I remember," adds the
writer, " that being at a town in Gloucestershire
when the news came of the prince's birth, there
was great joy showed by all the rest of the parish,
in causing bonfires to be made, and the bells to
be rung, and sending victuals unto those of the
younger sort, who were most busily employed in
the public joy ; but so that from the rest of the

a Life of Williams, part ii. p. 96.

296

houses, being of the presbyterian or puritan party,
there came neither man nor child, nor wood nor
victuals ; their doors being shut close all the even-
ing as in a time of general mourning and disconso-
lation»."

During this year William Herbert earl of Pem-
broke closed his mortal career. His death took
place without previous illness on his fiftieth birth-
day, according to a prediction said to have been
made to him several years before, but whether by
Allen, a celebrated mathematician of Oxford, by
Sandford his tutor, or by the noted prophetess lady
Davies, authors, as usual in the circumstances of a
marvellous story, are divided. This peer is con-
fessed to have disgraced himself by the extreme of
prodigality, and by excess of every kind ; but his
splendid manner of living, his bounty, his elegant
accomplishments, and above all, his manly and
disinterested spirit, the lofty contempt which he
had displayed for all the royal favorites of his time,
and his steady attachment to the constitution, had
rendered him perhaps the most popular of English
noblemen. He was fond of poetry, and composed
verse, but of no high order ; a whole volume written
by him in praise of Christian countess of Devon,
was published by Dr. Donne with a dedication to
herself. As a patron of letters, the merits of the
earl were more eminent. Posterity will account
it the highest of his honors to have received, in

a Cyprianus Anglicanus, p. 198.

297

conjunction with his brother, the dedication of the
first edition of the collected works of Shakespeare ;
offered by his humble executors to the " noble pair"
with what they style, "a kind of religious address,"
yet not without some intimations of a due sense of
the inestimable value of what they presented.

The death of Pembroke left vacant the office of
chancellor of the university of Oxford, which he
had sustained with dignity and applause ; and no
sooner was his death announced, than the adherents
of bishop Laud, eager to flatter his ambition, and
anxious to anticipate an intended opposition, met
in haste, and elected that prelate his successor.

Gustavus Adolphus king of Sweden was at this
time in the midst of his splendid career of victory
and conquest, and sanguine hopes were entertained
of the restoration of the exiled palatine by the arms
of this protestant hero, in conjunction with his
German allies. The English people took a warm
interest in the cause, and some zealous partisans
industriously raised the report, that a parliament
would be summoned to grant the king supplies for
joining in the enterprise. But Charles feared to
commit himself by any decided steps; and pursuing
the futile policy of his father, he continued to pro-
fess his expectation of effecting the same object
through the friendly mediation of Spain with the
emperor. The marquis of Hamilton however, by
means of the strong personal influence which he
enjoyed with his master, succeeded in obtaining
from him in secret the sum of 100,000/., with

298

permission to enlist 6,000 men, half English and
half Scotch, and lead them to the assistance of the
king of Sweden. The clandestine nature of this
transaction conspired with the opinion commonly
entertained of the dark and designing nature of
Hamilton, to excite strange expectations or suspi-
cions. Meldrum and Ramsey, two countrymen
of his own whom he had sent as his agents and
precursors into Germany, hazarded some disloyal
expressions against the person and government of
their sovereign, and lord Rea, a man of honor, re-
turning to the English court from the camp of
Gustavus, repeated expressions employed to himself
by Ramsey tending to engage him in some plot
for seating the marquis on the throne of Scotland.
Ramsey denied the words, and demanded a judicial
combat for vindication of his honor ; to this the
king at first consented; but after great prepara-
tions made, the combat was forbidden and the
inquiry finally quashed. During the whole of
these proceedings Charles strikingly displayed his
unshaken confidence in the loyalty of his kinsman
and friend by lodging him, often singly, in his
own bedchamber. No sooner was the investiga-
tion ended, than Hamilton embarked for Elsinore,
and joined the army of Gustavus in Silesia ; but
either from his own unskilfulness in the duties of
a commander, or from a want of due cooperation, his
troops were suffered to waste the summer without
achieving or attempting any enterprise of moment.
Their ranks were quickly thinned by famine and

299

sickness, and after seeing them dwindle to two
slender regiments, their commander left them to
the disposal of their colonels and returned himself
to court. The mortification of the failure must
have been to the king a severe one ; but he mani-
fested his equanimity, and perhaps his justice also,
by receiving the unsuccessful leader into his ac-
customed place of trust and favor.

300

CHAPTER IX.

1630 to 1632.

Court intrigues. — Growing influence of the queen. — She founds a
capuchin church, — Acts in a pastoral. — Prynn's Histriomastix . —
Leighton sentenced for libel. — Instructions to the bishops. —
Domestic worship impeded. — Laud's consecration of churches. —
Society for buying impropriations condemned. — Re-edification of
St. Paul's commenced. — Illegal and oppressive modes of raising
money for this purpose. — Results of the undertaking. — Laud
speaks in public against a married clergy, — Seems to retract, —
Celebrates marriage with new rites, — Obtains offices for Winde-
bank and Juxon, — Seizes upon church-patronage, — Disposes of
bishoprics at his pleasure, — Lays a fine upon printers of the
bible, — Causes Sherfield to be punished for destroying an idolatrous
picture. — Remarks. — Notice of sir Robert Cotton. — Proposed
visit of Mary de' Medici. — Queen of Bohemia declines visiting
England.

I1 ROM the period of Buckingham's death, Hen-
rietta, freed from the rivalry of a favorite, had been
silently occupied in spreading the network of her
intrigues over the whole court, which she aspired
to rule. She now began to operate more openly.
By her power, Henry Jermyn, already, as it seems,
her favored lover, was supported, against the judge-
ment of the king himself, in refusing the reparation
of marriage to a maid of honor of the house of Villiers,
whom he had seduced. There is some reason to be-
lieve that the noted division of the court into king's

301

side and queen's side arose out of the factions to
which this affair of gallantry gave birth. The wily
Hamilton, whose influence with the king was second
to none, having, as we are told, obtained indubitable
proof of the queen's intimacy with Jermyn, and thus
enabled himself to make his own terms with her,
from her enemy, became her allya. Partly, it is
probable, by his aid, partly by her own arts and
blandishments, she established an ascendancy over
the spirit of her husband which went on augment-
ing to the end ; and even Laud and Wentworth,
although jealous and repining, found themselves
compelled on many occasions, to tolerate her inter-
ference, to promote her objects, and even to humble
themselves so far as to sue for her favor.

Not so the puritan divines: with them Henrietta
was still, and ever, an object of unmitigated abhor-
rence, and their hostility against her increased in
exact proportion to the increase of what they re-
garded as her power of doing mischief. Bernard,
a London lecturer, publicly prayed to the Lord to
4 'open the queen's majesty's eyes, that she may

a For the proofs on which I have ventured to give the particu-
lars of this very curious piece of secret history, compare the my-
sterious story told by Clarendon, in the beginning of his " Life,"
of his own introduction to the court and its intrigues, which his
designed suppression of the name of Jermyn has rendered hitherto
unintelligible, with a note of lord Dartmouth's in Burnet's "Own
Times," Oxford edit. 1823, vol. i. p. 63, and with Strofford
Letters, vol. i. 174, 225. For the understanding of the last-cited
authority, it should be known, that sir Thomas the father of
Henry Jermyn bore the office of vice -chamberlain.

302

see Jesus Christ, whom she has pierced with her
infidelity, superstition, and idolatry*;" expressions
for which he was summoned before the high-com-
mission, but on his humble submission dismissed.
By another polemic, who neither sought nor found
the same indulgence, Dr. Alexander Leighton, a
Scotch divine but beneficed in England, in a rude
and bigoted tract entitled, " An appeal to parlia-
ment, or Zion's plea against prelacy," she was
stigmatized as an " idolatress," a " Canaanitess,"
a "daughter of Heth." It is possible however that
even this degree of insolence towards the queen
might likewise have met with remission, had not the
author vehemently inveighed against the tyranny of
the bishops, and exhorted the parliament and peo-
ple to abolish episcopacy as an institution utterly
antichristian. For these offences he was seized by
pursuivants, who terrified his family and plundered
his goods ; carried in the first instance to the
episcopal palace of Laud, and then thrown into
Newgate, where he was visited by the attorney-
general, for the purpose of drawing from him, by
artful questions mixed with offers of pardon, the
names of those at whose instigation he had written.
On his firm refusal to criminate his friends, he
was proceeded against in the star-chamber, where
the two chief justices did not scruple to assure him,
that in their own courts they would have declared
him guilty of high treason. His sentence was, to

a Neal's Hist, of the Puritans, vol. ii. p. 201.

303

pay a fine of 10,000/., to be imprisoned for life, to
stand twice in the pillory, and each time to be
whipped, to have an ear cut off, a nostril slit, and
a cheek branded. It is affirmed, that on the pro-
nouncing of this judgement, Laud pulled off his cap,
and publicly gave thanks to God. From what was
called reverence to the priesthood, Leighton was
first degraded by the high-commission; the whole
savage punishment was then inflicted upon him
without the slightest mitigation.

The obloquy to which it exposed her from the
opposite sect, and the consequence which it gave
her with her own, tended alike to endear to Hen-
rietta the religion she professed, and she lost no
occasion of signalizing her zeal. By the absurd
and culpable indulgence of the king, she had been
permitted again to introduce a fraternity of capu-
chins as an appendage to her household. A church
was likewise to be built for them in a court of
Somerset-house, and of this, as a contemporary
letter informs us, " her majesty with her own hands
helped to lay the two first corner-stones, with a
silver plate of equal dimensions between them, —
which stones, in the presence of 2000 people at
least, they consecrated with great ceremony, hav-
ing caused to be engraven upon the upper part of
that plate, the pictures of their majesties as founders,
and the lower side, of the capuchins as conse-
crators."

Even in her amusements the queen afforded sub-
jects of indignant comment to those by whom her

304

religion and her national manners were held in
almost equal reprobation. A pastoral having been
composed by Walter Montague, a favorite courtier,
to be performed by her ladies and maids of honor,
she herself condescended to study a part in it, " as
well for her recreation, as for the exercise of her
English." This was a striking novelty at the
English court : Anne of Denmark and her ladies
had indeed been accustomed to sustain parts in the
performance of masques, but they were always mute
ones; these entertainments, as far as the amateur
performers were concerned, being nothing more
than displays of fancy dresses and figure-dancing.
No English female had ever yet appeared on the
public stage ; the women's parts both in tragedy
and comedy being constantly sustained by boys ;
and the introduction of such an innovation under
the sanction of so high authority and example,
might reasonably have been viewed with alarm and
displeasure by persons far removed from puritan-
ism. It was immediately after the performance of
her majesty's pastoral, that Laud brought to her
a book called " Histriomastix," in the index to
which <f women actors" were referred to under a
most opprobrious designation. Her majesty, natu-
rally incensed by what she regarded as a personal
insult of the grossest kind, called upon her royal
consort for the vindication of her honor by the
exemplary punishment of the libeller. It was well
known to the prelate that the work in question had
been printed and licensed by the archbishop's chap-

305

lain several weeks before the court-pastoral was
thought of: but the author, William Prynn, having
already published some attacks upon episcopacy
and upon the Arminians, for which he had escaped
the bishop of London's vengeance by obtaining a
prohibition against the proceedings of the high-
commission, he seized without any hesitation this
opportunity of bringing him into trouble. Peter
Heylyn, afterwards the biographer of Laud, a divine
more eager for his patronage than scrupulous about
the means of obtaining it, was employed by him to
draw from the book heads of scandal against the
king, queen, state and government ; on which Noy,
now attorney-general, notwithstanding the reluc-
tance which he manifested, was directed by the
prelate to institute proceedings; the author being
in the mean time committed to close custody in the
Tower. This affair drew with it long consequences,
and both the man and the work are sufficiently re-
markable to claim an ample notice.

William Prynn, born of a good family at Swans-
wick in Somersetshire in 1600, graduated at Oxford
in 1 620 ; after which he entered at Lincoln's Inn, and
became a laborious student of the law. He was at
the same time a constant attendant on the discourses
of the celebrated Dr. Preston, and adopted in all its
rigor the system of Calvin both in doctrine and dis-
cipline, with the principles, the manners, and above
all the scruples, characteristic of theEnglish puritans.
Of this sect indeed, Prynn may be regarded as
the grand exemplar, and a catalogue of his astonish-

VOL. i. x

306

ingly numerous and quaintly entitled polemical
tracts, would of itself afford a pretty compre-
hensive notion of its leading opinions and points of
controversy.

To renounce as antichristian the pomps and
vanities, the elegancies and the amenities of life,
was no sacrifice to Prynn; under any system, he
would have been by temper gloomy, unsocial, and
severe. His views were narrow, his imagination dull,
and his sympathies defective ; on the other hand, his
reading was extensive, his earnestness commen-
surate with his opinion of the certainty and vital
importance of the doctrines he embraced, his in-
tegrity above all suspicion, his fortitude inflexible,
his diligence stupendous. It has been calculated
that during his whole life, after the attainment of
man's estate, he wrote on an average one printed
sheet daily. He would rarely intermit his solitary
studies to partake of any regular meal, contenting
himself with an occasional morsel or draught from
the bread and ale which were constantly placed by
his side; and thus, in the midst of a capital and
engaged in a profession, he led the life of an ascetic
and almost of an anchoret.

" Histriomastix, the player's scourge or actor's
tragedy," is an invective consisting of no less than
1000 closely printed quarto -pages. Of the mode
in which theatrical amusements were in his own
time conducted, and their practical effects upon
morals, the author was little qualified by personal
knowledge to speak ; for he informs his readers,

307

that having once in his life heen drawn hy the im-
portunity of his companions to the theatre, the
compliance appeared to him so exceedingly sinful,
that he sat during the whole performance with his
hat plucked over his eyes, groaning in spirit, and
wondering what amusement any person could pos-
sibly find in these exhibitions. His information on
his subject appears nevertheless to have been full
and correct; and the work has gained an artificial
value with posterity from the curious notices which
it preserves of the manners and fashions of the times,
which have been culled with profane diligence from
the mass, and employed to illustrate various obscure
points in the early history of the English drama.
It is inscribed to his brother- students of the inns of
court, whom he solemnly calls upon to falsify the
following censure, passed upon them by English
writers; here refering to a passage in bishop Earle's
witty book entitled Microcosmography.

1 ' That the inns of court men were undone but
for the players; that they are their chiefest guests
and employment, and the sole business that makes
them afternoon's men: that this is one of the first
things they learn, as soon as they are admitted; to
see stage-plays and take smoke at a playhouse,
which they commonly make their study; and where
they quickly learn to follow all fashions, to drink
all healths, to wear favors and good clothes, to
consort with ruffianly companions ; to swear the
biggest oaths, to quarrel easily, fight desperately,
game inordinately; to spend their patrimony ere it

x 2

308

fall, to use gracefully some gestures of apish com-
pliment, to talk irreligiously, to dally with a mis-
tress to prove altogether lawless instead

of lawyers, and to forget that little grace and virtue
which they had before: so that they grow at last
past hopes of ever doing good, either to the church,
their country, or their own or others souls."

The body of the work may be described as a vast
farrago of texts of scripture, decisions of synods
and councils, — which it is to be remarked that the
puritans of those days cited with as much reverence
as their prelatical or even their Romish adversaries,
— quotations from Christian fathers, from divines,
ancient and modern, catholic and protestant; from
acts of parliament, statutes of universities, and even
from heathen poets, philosophers and historians,
all tending to show, according to the title-page,
" That popular stage plays, (the very pomps of the
devil which we renounce in baptism if we believe
the fathers,) are simply heathenish, leud, ungodly
spectacles, and most pernicious corruptions ; con-
demned in all ages as intolerable mischiefs to
churches, to republics, to the manners, minds, and
souls of men." Of reasoning there is little or no-
thing; the author's part is all railing. Nor does
he confine himself to the professed object of his
attack; dancing, dress, fashions, diversions of vari-
ous kinds, the Book of Sports, — by which certain
games were permitted on Sundays, — the new cere-
monies introduced into public worship by the pre-
lates, and even the festivities of Christmas, — or

309

Christ-tide, as his sect preferred to call it, — all par-
take of his anathema.

Idolatry, whether heathenish or popish, was the
mode of superstition of which the puritans stood
most super stitiously in dread; and one of this writer's
leading objections to the drama is deduced from its
original appropriation to the worship of Bacchus.
To this he admits that it might be answered, that
there was nothing either profitable or pleasing to
man, which had not been dedicated to some false
god or other; but that such dedications could not
render whole species for ever unclean; nor was it
unlawful for Christians to use inventions which
heathens had abused. " This," says he, " I allow,
in case of profitable inventions or God's good crea-
tures," and "it may be true in some particular
cases, (as perchance in case of needful ceremonies,
or of temples built and dedicated to idolatry,) that
their impiety in tract of time may vanish, and then
they may be consecrated to God's service, and re-
duced to a lawful use ; as the cathedral church of
St. Paul's, aforetime the temple of Diana, as some
record, and most of our English churches, at first
devoted unto mass and popish idolatry, are now
designed to God's public worship ; whence the
Brownists style them idols' synagogues, Baal's
temples, abominable sties, and would have them
razed to the ground; for which we all condemn
them: yet it cannot hold in stage plays;" because
these are " altogether unnecessary vanities and
superfluous pleasures, which may be better spared

310

than retained;" because " they have always been
scandalous and offensive to the church, and no re-
straining laws have ever been able to abridge, much
less reform, their exorbitant corruptions." Such
were the distinctions of this writer, such his logic !
He even urges the danger of a revival of idolatry
by means of classical dramas and poems, and com-
plains that forty thousand plays had been written
within a few years, and printed on better paper
than the bible itself. Acting, he styles hypocrisy;
face-painting " an accursed hellish art." He men-
tions that ' ' they have now their female players in
Italy and other foreign parts, and had such French-
women actors in a play not long since personated
in Blackfriars playhouse, to which there was great
resort."

Lovelocks, hairpowder, the effeminate fashions
of the men, and the cropped hair of " our men-
women monsters , ' ' are fiercely stigmatized. Dancing
is a thing " to God's to Christ's dishonor, religion's
scandal, chastity's shipwreck, sin's advantage, and
the eternal ruin of many precious souls." il Dan-
cing," he adds, " yea even in queens themselves
and the very greatest persons, who are most com-
monly devoted to it, hath been always scandalous
and of ill repute among the saints of God." With
a kind of savage exultation he records several pre-
tended judgements of the Deity against the fre-
quenters of theatrical entertainments ; he reprobates
the mirth which they excite, as " cachinnations un-
becoming a Christian;" and to the ordinary plea

311

for frequenting them, that some recreation is neces-
sary, he triumphantly replies, that at least men can
have no need of pastimes such as these in London,
where they may hear excellent sermons on almost
every day of the week.

After a long and rigorous imprisonment, the star-
chamber passed upon Prynn the following atrocious
sentence : To be fined 5000Z. to the king, expelled
the university of Oxford and Lincoln's Inn, and
incapacitated to practise in the law : To stand in
the pillory, to lose his ears, to have his book burned
before his face, and be imprisoned for life. Sir Sy-
monds D'Ewes the antiquary, in his private journal,
thus commemorates the sentence and the sufferer.

" Notwithstanding this censure, which most

men were affrighted at, to see that neither his aca-
demical nor barrister's gown could free him from
the infamous loss of his ears, yet all good men
generally conceived it would have been remitted ;
and many reported it was, till the sad and fatal
execution of it this Midsummer term. I went to
visit him a while after in the Fleet, and to comfort
him; and found in him the rare effects of an upright
heart and a good conscience, by his serenity of spirit
and cheerful patience."

Several other nearly contemporary transactions
deserve record as illustrations of the spirit and po-
licy of Laud, which, through his daily augmenting
influence over the mind of the king, had now be-
come in a manner identified with those of the go-
vernment itself.

312

Certain royal "Instructions" drawn up by the
hand of this prelate were issued to the bishops, the
purport of which was, to impose effectual restraints
upon the party among the clergy opposed to his
ecclesiastical innovations. By these, the prelates
were enjoined constant residence and unremitting
vigilance ; catechising was to be substituted for af-
ternoon sermons, lecturers were laid under fresh
restraints ; and they were commanded " to use all
means, by some of their clergy, or others, to learn
what was said by preachers and lecturers in their
discourses, that they might take orders for any
abuses accordingly: " An injunction fit to have been
addressed by a grand-inquisitor to his familiars !
No private chaplains were to be allowed in the
houses of any ' ' under noblemen and men qualified
bylaw, " — qualified, that is, to enable their chaplains
to hold more than one cure, — for the law had de-
barred no man from maintaining a chaplain in his
house, and "the country gentlemen," says Heylyn,
" took it ill to be deprived of this liberty," and
commanded to a constant attendance at their parish
churches : — But this was a necessary step towards
the maintenance of exact ritual conformity and the
suppression of the Calvinistic doctrines.

To illustrate this subject it may be mentioned that
sir Henry Slingsby, who, after bravely maintaining
the royal cause in the field, at length died for it on
the scaffold, in recording in his private diary for
1639 the baptism of his son, mentions thus feelingly
the obstacles systematically opposed to the exercise

313

of domestic worship. "The company at the chris-
tening was not many Mr. Thurcrosse preached,

having corned from York on foot that morning ; he
refused to preach without leave from the chancellor,
Dr. Easdell, because the chapel is not consecrated,
so having with much ado got leave, he came unex-
pected Notwithstanding this inhibition, we

venture to have sermons in our chapel now and
then, although we incur some danger if it were
complained of . .... I once essayed to get it conse-
crated by our bishop that now is (Neile), but he
refused, having, as he says, express commands not
to consecrate any, lest it may be the occasion of
conventicles: And so I think it may be abused, yet
it would be of great use to us that live here at Red-
house, to have a sermon in the chapel, being so far
from our parish church at More Monkton, especi-
ally in winter weather. It is not amiss to have a
place consecrated for devotion, as our churches are,
thereby to separate them for that use, but we can-
not stay ourselves here, but believe a sanctity in
the very walls and stones of the church, and herein
we do of late draw near to the superstition of the
church of Rome, who do suffer such external devo-
tion to efface and wear out the internal devotion of
the heart*."

The consecration of churches was in the eyes of
Laud an affair of the highest importance ; and in
January 1 63 1 he first prepared to astonish the peo-

a From a manuscript diary of sir H. Slingsby.

314

pie of London by an exhibition of this kind. It is
worthy of note, that the ritual of the church of
England supplied no formula for this act, which the
earlier reformers may thence be suspected to have
regarded as superfluous, if not superstitious. Laud
professed to employ, though not, he owned, without
alterations and additions, a service composed by
bishop Andrews for his own use ; but the fact was,
that he had adopted for the purpose, with little or
no variation, the forms of the Romish ritual. St.
Catherine Creed church, which had not been re-
built, but only repaired, was pronounced by him to
stand in need of this operation, on account of the
new materials introduced, and thither he repaired
in great state, " an infinite number of people of all
sorts," says Heylyn, " drawing together to behold
that ceremony, to which they had so long been
strangers, ignorant altogether of the antiquity and
the necessity of it."

Without entering into the curious, but tedious
and often-told particulars of this most superstitious
performance, and of the bowings and acts of adora-
tion introduced into the administration of the eu-
charist, — the mass it might almost be called, — with
which he concluded the scene, — it may be stated
that the Romish aspect of the whole gave infinite
scandal and alarm to the spectators, and according
to the statement of his own partial biographer,
might well have exposed any other than this bishop
to a prosecution3; but his power and favor were

a Cyprianus Anglicus, p. 200.

315

such as to put out of the question all opposition on
the part of individuals, and no parliament existed;
and thus the opportunity was afforded him of seve-
ral times repeating the offensive ceremony in dif-
ferent churches of London or its vicinity.

A society had been instituted ahout the beginning
of the reign, maintained by voluntary subscriptions,
for the purpose of buying in lay impropriations,
and endowing what was called " a preaching mi-
nistry " with the revenues. In this there was no-
thing contrary to law ; but it was no sooner sug-
gested to Laud, through the interested officiousness
of Heylyn, that the clergy presented by the feoffees
belonged to the puritanical party, than he resolv-
ed to put an end to the whole design ; and Noy
lending his aid to the injustice, the feoffees were
summoned before the court of exchequer, the trust
annulled, the impropriations already purchased con-
fiscated to his majesty's use, and "the merit of the
cause referred to a further censure*;" that is, they
were menaced with a prosecution in the star-cham-
ber, which however was not proceeded in, after the
society had submitted to the wrongful seizure of all
its property.

The cathedral church of St. Paul, the most spa-
cious, and anciently the most magnificent structure
in the kingdom, had long since fallen into a dilapi-
dated and almost ruinous state. During the reign
of James, materials had been provided and money

a Cyprianus Anylicus, p. 200.

316

raised for its repair ; but the task had been continu-
ally procrastinated, the funds being probably di-
verted to other purposes. On the translation of
Laud to the see of London, it became one of his
favorite objects to remove what might justly be re-
garded as a reproach to the city, and even to the
government, by rescuing this venerable edifice from
decay, and restoring it to all its pristine splendor.
But in this, as in all his other enterprises, his im-
petuous zeal, as it hurried on to its end, seized
without scruple upon all the means which offered,
and trampled alike on the prejudices, the interests,
the feelings, and the rights of men.

No juncture could have been more unpropitious
to such an undertaking. In catholic times, the re-
sources for works of this nature were obvious and
abundant. The ecclesiastics of rank, unmarried
and with vast revenues at their disposal, delighted
to perpetuate their names in monuments of archi-
tectural taste and magnificence, consecrated to the
purposes of religion. Princes, noblemen and ladies,
were actuated by similar motives of piety or ambi-
tion ; and even the common artisans were easily in-
cited by their priests to bring their contributions
in labor, for which they were to be repaid by
indulgences, and the prayers of the church. But
these springs the Reformation had dried up. The
clergy no longer possessed incomes to the same
amount, or equally disposable : the funds of the
nobility were absorbed by the increasing luxury of
private life, and in the popular system of religion,

317

faith had taken place of the good works of the
church, which were declaimed against as supersti-
tious, and shunned as expensive. Contributions
purely voluntary could not therefore be relied upon
for the completion of so vast an enterprise ; during
the suspension of parliaments no tax could legally
be imposed for this or any other object, and the
deficiency could only be supplied by the most odi-
ous and exasperating modes of extortion.

To give a distinguished commencement to the
work, the king, at the bishop's suggestion, visited
St. Paul's in state ; and after hearing an appropriate
sermon, "took a view of the decays of the church,"
and promised that his efforts should not be want-
ing. Soon after, to give as much as possible an air
of lawful authority to the intended collection, a
commission was issued under the great seal, ap-
pointing money brought in for this purpose to be
paid into the chamber of London, and a register to
be kept of the contributors, and the amount of their
subscriptions; and declaring further, that "the
judges of the prerogative courts, and all officials
throughout the several bishoprics of England and
Wales, upon the decease of persons intestate, should
be excited to remember this church out of what was
proper to be given to pious usesa." It is surprising
that the last clause should have escaped the pointed
animadversion of historians. The goods of intes-
tates had indeed, in very early times, been granted

a Life of Laud, p. 208.

318

by the crown, which had previously laid claim to
them, to be employed by the ordinaries in what
were then called pious uses ; but trig flagrant abuses
which grew out of the exercise of this power, — or
rather perhaps the hardship and injustice of the
thing itself, — had prompted the legislature to inter-
pose; and by a statute dated as far back as the 31st
of Edward III. compelling the ordinaries to appoint
administrators, who were bound to account in the
same manner as executors under a will, the power
of applying any part of the property of intestates to
such uses, had been finally and completely taken
away. Yet we here find the existence of such a
power assumed as a thing of course, and a door
thus reopened to a mode of ecclesiastical extortion
which had been suppressed as intolerable by the
legislative wisdom of the fourteenth century.

A previous step to ecclesiastical encroachment in
these affairs, may be traced in a proclamation of
October 1629, addressed to the bishops for the re-
pair of decayed churches throughout the kingdom.
The churches, it is said, ought to be repaired by
the inhabitants and landholders (and not, it seems,
out of the tithe), and the bishops are directed " to
use the powers of the ecclesiastical court, for put-
ting the same in due execution; and that the judges
be required not to interrupt this good work by their
too easy granting of prohibitions V That is, they
were enjoined not to grant the subject legal redress

a Rush worth, part ii. p. 28.

319

against the extortions of the spiritual power. As a
further check upon the interposition of the law, a
commission was issued in May 1631, empowering
the privy- council, in all future time, " to hear and
examine all differences which shall arise betwixt
any of our courts of justice, especially between the
civil and ecclesiastical jurisdictions a." An enor-
mous stretch of power, though the commission does
not seem to have been acted upon !

In this, as in many of his undertakings, Laud
found few willing cooperators ; " though," says
Heylyn, "it be affirmed by a late historian that
many had no fancy to the work because he pro-
moted it, yet on the contrary it is known, that had
he not promoted it, there were not many would
have had the fancy to a work of that nature. Some
men in hope of favor and preferment from him,
others to hold fair quarter with him, and not a few
for fear of incurring his displeasure, contributing
more largely to it than they had done otherwise ; if
otherwise they had contributed at all." The clergy,
being summoned by their ordinaries, gave a kind of
annual subsidy ; the king contributed in the whole
about 10,OOOZ., sir Paul Pindar 4000/. besides other
assistance, Laud himself no more than 1001. per
annum; the public subscription amounted to about
100,OOOL But these resources falling very short
. of what was required, a further supply was sought
in the fines imposed by the high-commission and

a Rymer, Feed. xix. 279.

320

the star-chamber, concerning which lord Clarendon
writes, that Laud, desirous of bringing high as well as
low under the rod of church discipline, "thereupon
called for and cherished the discovery of those who
were not careful to cover their own iniquities,
thinking they were above the reach of other men's,
or their power or will to chastise. Persons of honor
and great quality, of the court and of the country,
were every day cited into the high-commission court
upon the fame of their incontinence, or other scan-
dal in their lives, and were there prosecuted to their

shame and punishment: and as the shame was

never forgiven, but watched for revenge, so the
fines imposed there were the more questioned and
repined against, because they were assigned to the
repairing and rebuilding of St. Paul's church ; and
thought therefore to be the more severely imposed,
and the less compassionately reduced and excused;
which likewise made the jurisdiction and rigor of
the star-chamber more felt and murmured against/'
Thus St. Paul's was said, like St. Peter's, to be
built with the sins of the people ; and the result
was scarcely less disastrous to that church-esta-
blishment which the edifice was designed to honor
and adorn.

In another and a very different point of view, the
time was ill-chosen for restoring this grand national
monument: This was the transition-age between the
Gothic and the Grecian and Italian architecture ;
and Inigo Jones, attached with a kind of bigotry to
the Palladian style, which he had the principal

321

merit of introducing into Great Britain, made no
scruple of sacrificing that most indispensable prin-
ciple of taste, congmity, by affixing to the western
end of the cathedral, the sides of which he had
restored with a bad and clumsy Gothic, a portico of
the Corinthian order. This portico, described as
in itself "a grand and beautiful composition, and not
inferior to anything of the kind which modern times
have produced/' was designed as an ambulatory,
that the church itself might no more be profaned
by the kind of exchange which had long been cus-
tomarily held in its middle aisle, called Paul's walk;
and men were now strictly prohibited from making
it a common thoroughfare, or carrying burdens
through it. By the unremitting assiduity of the
bishop, the work proceeded with such diligence,
that before the year 1640 the whole body of the
church was finished, and preparation made for taking
down and rebuilding the steeple ; but " as he fell,
the work fell with him." The annual contributions
sank rapidly to nothing, and during the civil wars,
the parliament seized all the remaining stores of
money and materials. At that time, whilst the choir
was still occupied as a place of worship, the rest of
the building was converted into barracks for dra-
goons ; the pavement was in various parts broken up
for saw-pits, and many other injuries were inflicted
upon it by rapacity, fanaticism and wantonness.
Soon after the Restoration, its repair was taken into
consideration; but nothing considerable had been
done towards it, when the fire of London, by com-
VOL. i. Y

322

pleting its ruin, fortunately made way for the erec-
tion of that sublime temple which now dignifies the
metropolis and immortalizes the genius of Wren.
The cost of this edifice was 760, OOO/., many times
more than the sum extorted with so much harsh-
ness and tyranny, and productive of such danger-
ous disaffection, under Charles I. But it was mostly
raised by a tax on coals, regularly and constitu-
tionally assessed upon the people by their own re-
presentatives, and therefore paid without a mur-
mur.

Disputes having about this time arisen at Oxford
between the champions and opponents of the eccle-
siastical innovations, Laud persuaded the king to
usurp the office of an umpire, and the adversaries
of Arminianism were in consequence condemned,
and visited with marks of displeasure. In speak-
ing publicly before his majesty on this affair, the
bishop took occasion to drop some expressions in
disparagement of the married clergy, announcing,
that in the disposal of benefices, other things being
equal, he should always give the preference to such
as lived in celibacy ; but this proved to be too daring
an approach towards Rome ; and the general mur-
mur admonished him of the expediency of a retrac-
tion, which he made indirectly, by negotiating a
marriage between one of his own chaplains and a
daughter of Windebank, clerk of the signet ; and
performing for them himself, in the chapel of Lon-
don-house, the nuptial service, " with all other
ecclesiastical rites," says Heylyn, "which belonged

323

to the solemnization of matrimony by the rules of
this church." Remarkable expressions, which seem
to imply an administration of the sacrament, pre-
ceded possibly, as among the catholics, by auricular
confession, known to be one of the practices of
what he regarded as the primitive church which
this prelate labored to restore,

In the bishop's diary, the following entry appears
for June 15th, 1632. "Mr. Francis Windebank,
my old friend, was sworn secretary of state, which
place I obtained for him of my gracious master
King Charles." On July 10th of the same year,
he notes; " Dr. Juxon, then dean of Worcester, at
my suit sworn clerk of his majesty's closet. That
I might have one that I could trust near his ma-
jesty, if I grow weak or infirm, as I must have a
time.a." "So that," as Hey lyn observes, "Winde-
bank having the king's ear on one side, and the
clerk of the closet on the other, he might presume
to have his tale well told between them ; and that
his majesty should not easily be possessed with any
thing to his disadvantage11." These transactions
are sufficient to evince that by this ecclesiastic the
worst arts of a court were neither unstudied nor
unpractised ; his grasping spirit neglected, in fact,
no occasions of extending, which he believed to be
the same with perpetuating, his own power and in-
fluence and those of his order. Thus, a contest

* Troubles and Trials of Archbishop Laud, p. 47.
b Cyprianus Anglicus, p. 214.

v2

324

arising between the lord keeper and the master of
the wards respecting the disposal of benefices in the
presentation of the king's wards, Laud, in the words
of his eulogist, " ends the difference by taking all
unto himself;" persuading the king first to seize
and then to grant to him this branch of patronage,
under pretence of rewarding army chaplains. In
the disposal of bishoprics his authority was para-
mount, and he now found opportunity to advance
his designs by several important changes.

On the death of Harsnet, archbishop of York,
he prevailed with his ancient patron and coadjutor
Neile, to remove thither from Winchester ; and
since the bishop of this last see, as visitor of five
colleges in Oxford, had the means, if so disposed,
of putting a curb on the authority of the chancellor
of the university, he thought it "most condi^cible
to his peace and power," to remove thither Curie
bishop of Bath and Wells. At Norwich he placed
the witty and jovial Corbet, irreconcilably opposed
by temper and manners to Calvinistic gloom and
austerity, and endeared to Laud as an old fellow-
sufferer in the Arminian cause at Oxford. By every
one of the translations consequent upon these, he
likewise contrived to gain some favorite point ; often
the permanent annexation of a rich living to the
bishopric, by way of compensation for the spolia-
tion which all episcopal revenues had suffered from
the hands of the Tudors.

Two other characteristic exertions of his autho-
rity are recorded about this time. The king's print-

325

ers, in an edition of the Bible, had committed the
awkward error of omitting the word not in the
seventh commandment: the bishop, not content
with ordering the impression to be called in for
correction, caused the high-commission to inflict
on the involuntary culprits an exorbitant fine, with
part of which he directed fine Greek types to be
provided for publishing such ancient manuscripts
as should be brought to light. Sherfield recorder
of Sarum, having by direction of a vestry, and in
obedience both to statutes and canons, commanding
the destruction of monuments of idolatry, ordered
a disgusting representation of God the Father in the
window of his parish church to be taken down and
broken to pieces, Laud caused him to be prosecuted
in the star-chamber for what he pretended to be a
lay usurpation on the jurisdiction of the bishop, or
on that of his majesty, as head of the church.
Here, "he did not only aggravate the crime as
much as he could, in reference to the dangerous
consequences which might follow on it, — amongst
which he mentioned that of deterring moderate
catholics from attending the church, — but defended
the use itself of " painted images," "in the way of
ornament and remembrance." In conclusion, after
warm debates, in which some members of the court
ventured to express their jealousy of the bishop's
leaning towards popery, the majority concurred in
sentencing the accused, by a judgement compara-
tively lenient, to pay 500/. to the king, — to lose his
office of recorder, and be bound to his good beha-

326

viour; " as also, to make a public acknowledgement
of his offence, not only in the parish church of St.
Edmonds where it was committed, but in the cathe-
dral church itself, that the bishop, in contempt of
whose authority he had played this pageant, might
have reparation*."

This act, by the confession of his biographer,
drew upon Laud " such a clamor as not only fol-
lowed him to his death, but hath since been con-
tinued in sundry pamphlets." In fact, a more fla-
grant breach of every principle by which civil
society is held together, cannot easily be conceived;
and it is impossible to reflect without a kind of
wonder at the guilty boldness of this ecclesiastic,
who in his efforts to reassert the most arrogant
assumptions of his order, had taken means to ren-
der it more penal for an Englishman to give effect
to the laws of his country than to violate them.
That such proceedings should have obtained the
sanction of any proportion of the lay judges in the
star-chamber, — thoseprime counsellors of the nation,
— is an equal reproach to their wisdom and their
integrity. If once the power of the church were
thus enabled to erect itself above the authority of
the law, it signified little whether that power were
to be wielded by a pope or a patriarch ; for not
only the spirit of the Reformation was gone, but
that of the English nation itself, and of its venera-
ble and free constitution.

a Cyprianus Anglicus, p. 215, et seq.

327

In May 1631 died sir Robert Cotton, one of the
most learned legal and historical antiquaries of his
time, and honored by posterity as the founder of a
noble library of manuscripts, which, being protected
from dispersion by his last will, now augments the
treasures of the British Museum. His character in
other respects presents some remarkable contrarie-
ties, and the closing scenes of his life afford a me-
lancholy exemplification of the principles and prac-
tices of the age.

Robert Cotton was born of an ancient family in
Huntingdonshire in 1570; and after completing his
course at Trinity College Cambridge, and passing
some time in studious retirement at his father's
seat, he took up his permanent residence in Lon-
don. He was a member of the society of Antiqua-
ries before the political fears of king James com-
pelled it to suspend its sittings; and in 1600, he
gave what must then have appeared an almost he-
roical proof of attachment to his favorite pursuits,
by accompanying Camden in a journey to Carlisle
for the purpose of exploring the remains of the
Picts Wall. He likewise supplied this meritorious
writer with some valuable materials for his " Bri-
tannia," derived chiefly from records and charters
dispersed into private hands at the dissolution of
the monasteries, which he now made it his business
to collect ; adding such other ancient documents as
he was able to procure. As his fame and his know-
ledge increased, Cotton was frequently consulted
by the ministers and privy councillors of James,

328

and afterwards of Charles, on questions relating to
the English constitution, and he composed on sub-
jects of this nature many learned tracts and memo-
rials. King James likewise employed him to draw
up a refutation of some of Buchanan's charges
against his mother, said to be incorporated with
Camden's Annals. He is reported to have been the
first projector of the order of baronets, into which
he gained an early admission. Some part of his
political conduct is exposed to suspicion, for in
1615 we find an order for the committal of sir Ro-
bert Cotton, and the sealing up of his library, on
information of his entertaining a dangerous cor-
respondence with the Spanish ambassador : it has
likewise been recorded, that in a list of the pen-
sioners of Spain in England delivered by Gondomar
to his own court, sir Robert Cotton was charged
with the receipt of WOOL ; but on his denial and
demand of reparation in honor, his name was with-
drawn as the error of a secretary3. But whatever
might be the degree of his culpability in these in-
trigues, there is good reason to believe that the earl
of Somerset was much more deeply implicated in
them, and through his interest, probably, Cotton
was speedily liberated. He was examined however
on the trial of the earl, as the depositary of some
of his political secrets. It is also stated, that the
form of that scandalous pardon for all treasons,
murders and felonies, by him "committed or to be

a Annals of king James and king Charles, p. 47.

329

committed," under which this guilty minion sought,
but in vain, to protect himself from the justice
which he dreaded, was furnished to him from an-
cient precedents by sir Robert Cotton. In the same
year he employed himself by king James's command
in drawing up a plan for the repression of Jesuits,
priests and recusants " without drawing blood."
Afterwards he composed an answer to certain argu-
ments urged by members of the lower house " to
prove that ecclesiastical laws ought to be enacted
by temporal men."

It is certain however, that this learned antiquary
was by no means disposed to lend his countenance
to the extravagant pretensions or arbitrary mea-
sures of the court. Law and precedent were on all
occasions the rule to which he referred ; and he
seems to have been equally ready to apply it by
whichever party it was appealed to. In a learned
tract published long after, under the title of " The
antiquity and dignity of parliaments," he vindicated
the rights of the commons against the arrogance
of king James ; he advised his successor to sum-
mon a parliament notwithstanding the reluctance
of Buckingham, and being called to the privy coun-
cil, earnestly exhorted him to abstain from unwar-
rantable acts of power, and not to attempt to raise
money without the concurrence of the commons.
He also supported the complaints of grievances in
the first parliament of Charles, who so early as 1 626
threatened to take his books from him, because he
was accused of imparting ancient precedents to the

330

lower house*; a menace which was at length car-
ried into effect on the following occasion. During
the year 1629 a few copies had been handed about
in manuscript, amongst the leaders of the popular
party in both houses, of a piece called " A Propo-
sition to bridle the impertinency of parliaments ;"
in which the sovereign was advised to levy troops,
to place garrisons in his chief towns, and then to
rule without control. The king, on its being shown
to him, treated it as an insidious or ironical piece,
designed to bring him into suspicion with the peo-
ple, and by his command Mr. Oliver St. John was
committed to the Tower as the suspected author.
This gentleman now confessed that the piece had
been lent him for hire, without the owner's knowledge,
out of sir Robert Cotton's library ; against whom,
as also against the circulators of it, namely the earls
of Clare, Bedford and Somerset, Selden and St.
John, proceedings were immediately commenced in
the star-chamber. It was proved by the earl of So-
merset on the trial, that this tract, so far from being
the recent production of a popular leader, had been
sent to himself sixteen or seventeen years before,
to be presented to king James, and that it was
written with a serious design to serve the cause of
monarchy, by the noted projector sir Robert Dud-
ley, then an exile at Florence.

On this evidence, all the defendants were, with
a great parade of royal clemency, dismissed, and

* See Brodie's British Empire, vol. i. p. 8.

331

the proceedings taken off the file ; but at the be-
ginning of the affair an order had been made for
certain privy councillors to enter the house of sir
Robert Cotton, and search his books, records and
papers, setting down such as ought to belong to the
croivn* ; and on this authority, such as it was, his
whole collection was shut up from his use.

Of the effects of this detestable act of oppression
on the sufferer, sir Symonds D'Ewes thus writes
in his diary : " When I went several times to visit
and comfort him in the year 1630, he would tell
me, ' they had broken his heart that had locked
up his library from him.' I easily guessed the
reason, because his honor and esteem were much
impaired by this fatal accident ; and his house,
that was formerly frequented by great and honor-
able personages, as by learned men of all sorts,
remained now, upon the matter, empty and de-
solate. I understood from himself and others, that
Dr. Neile and Dr. Laud, two prelates that had been
stigmatized in the first session of parliament in 1628,
were his sore enemies. He was so outworn, within
a few months, with anguish and grief, as his face,
which had been formerly ruddy and well colored,

was wholly changed into a grim blackish

paleness, near to the resemblance and hue of a
dead visage." We have seen that he survived but
a few months. It is said, in a contemporary letter,
" that before he died he requested sir Henry Spel-

a Rymer, xix. 198.

332

man to signify to the lord privy seal and the rest
of the lords of the council, that their so long de-
taining of his books from him, without rendering
any reason for the same, had been the cause of his
mortal malady ; upon which message the lord privy
seal came to sir Robert, when it was too late, to
comfort him from the king ; from whom the earl
of Dorset also came, within half an hour after sir
Robert's death, to condole with sir Thomas Cotton
his son for his death ; and to tell him, from his
majesty, that as he loved his father, so he would
continue to love him." But the writer trusted
little to the effects of this " court holy-water a."

From a curious letter lately made public5, ad-
dressed to sir Robert Cotton by Augustine Baker,
a learned catholic priest then resident at Cambray,
requesting him to bestow upon a convent of English
nuns in that city some English books, printed or
manuscript, fit for their perusal, such as " contem-
plations, saints' lives, or other devotions," we seem
authorized to conclude that his respect for autho-
rity and antiquity had either made or preserved
this eminent person a member of the church of
Rome.

About the end of the year 1632, Mary de' Me-
dici and her son Gas ton duke of Orleans, whose
plots and intrigues against the peace of the king-
dom of France and the power of cardinal Richelieu
had banished them from that country, proposed to

a Chalmers's Gen. Biog. Diet. b Ellis, 2nd series, iii. 257.

333

make England a place of retreat for themselves and
their adherents ; but a timely message sent by
king Charles to the queen-mother, then at Brus-
sels, averted for the present the obvious mischiefs
of her presence in a court and country where her
religion, her character, and her influence over the
mind of her daughter, must all have concurred to
render her an object of dislike and suspicion equally
to the king and the people. Another royal exile,
whose claims were cheerfully admitted by every
English heart, — the widowed queen of Bohemia,
— received about the same time from Charles an
invitation to his court, honorable, by its apparent
cordiality, to his fraternal feelings. It was declined,
on the plea that the grief of the queen for her
recent loss would cloud too much the pleasure of
the meeting: but the high-spirited Elizabeth was in
fact dissatisfied with the abject tone which Charles
had directed the earl of Arundel, his ambassador,
to employ towards the emperor in his negotiations
for the restoration of her children to their heredi-
tary rights and possessions ; and it was more con-
sonant with her inclinations to remain in Holland
to stimulate or direct the efforts then making by
the States in her son's behalf.

334

CHAPTER X.
1633 and 1634.

King's progress to Scotland to be crowned, — is entertained by the
earl of Newcastle, — Account of him, — Splendor of the progress,
— Expense to Scotch nobility, — State of Scotch church, and
king's measures and designs respecting it. — Coronation. — Conduct
of Charles towards Scotch parliament, — He becomes unpopular,
and why. — Edinburgh made a bishop's see. — Laud a privy-coun-
cillor for Scotland. — English liturgy appointed to be used in
Holyrood chapel. — King's return to England. — Death of arch-
bishop Abbot. — Laud succeeds him, — is offered to be a cardinal.
— Reflections. — State assumed by Laud, who receives the title of
Holiness from the university of Oxford. — Conduct of Wentworth
as president of the North. — Cases of Bellasis and sir D. Foulis.
— Wentworth appointed lord-deputy of Ireland. — Troubled state of
that country. — Measures against the puritans. — Communion tables
turned into altars. — Book of sports. — Plays performed at court.
— Inns of Court masque. — Notice and death of Noy. — Death and
character of sir Edward Coke. — Seizure of his papers.

CHARLES I. on his accession, as if taking for
granted the existence of that union of his two British
kingdoms for which his father had sought in vain
the concurrence of their separate legislatures, had
caused himself to be proclaimed by the novel style
of King of Great Britain. From this act it seemed
not an improbable inference that he designed to
dispense with the ceremony of a coronation for
Scotland ; and eight years' delay of this rite had
served to confirm the impression. But no sooner
had he and his favorite prelate organized theii

335

system of government civil and ecclesiastical in
England, than they began to extend their schemes
to Scotland. In pursuance of these, it was indus-
triously given out, that the Scots had long mur-
mured that their native prince did not think their
crown worth coming for ; and great preparations
being made, on May 13th, 1633, Charles set forth
for Edinburgh in order to his coronation.

For the purpose of swelling his train and aug-
menting the effect of that display of power and
majesty by which it was his object to overawe the
spirit of the Scottish people, the king made no
scruple of issuing his commands to many of the
chief nobility of England to attend him, at their
own expense, in this royal progress, which occupied
no less than twenty-four days ; and his mandates
were obeyed with at least a seeming alacrity.

Much show and considerable demonstrations of
loyal sentiment attended the movements of the
king. Those of the nobility and gentry whose
mansions bordered on the north road, exerted
themselves to the utmost in showing hospitality to
the lords and courtiers in attendance ; and the
king himself accepted invitations from many. But
the efforts of all others were totally eclipsed by the
prodigality of the earl of Newcastle, who enter-
tained the king and court, according to the expres-
sions of lord Clarendon, which bear however an
air of exaggeration, " in such a wonderful manner,
and in such an excess of feasting, as had never
been before known in England ; and would be still

336

thought very prodigious, if the same noble person
had not, within a year or two afterwards, made the
king and queen a more stupendous entertainment ;
which (God be thanked) though possibly it might
too much whet the appetite of others to excess, no
man ever after imitated*."

A slight sketch of the history of this nobleman,
for whom destiny had a much more eventful career
in reserve, will sufficiently explain the causes and
inducements to this extraordinary display of loyalty.
William Cavendish, born in 1592, was the son and
heir of sir Charles Cavendish of Welbeck, knight,
by a coheiress of Cuthbert lord Ogle. He was
grandson of that William Cavendish, the attached
dependent of Wolsey, who laid the foundation of
the almost unexampled prosperity of his house, by
his intermarriage with Elizabeth Hard wick, cele-
brated for her adroitness, her talents for business,
and her insatiable rapacity ; who rose by her fourth
marriage to the rank of countess of Shrewsbury, but
bore children only to her second husband Cavendish,
who consequently became the heirs of her vast
accumulations. At the creation of Henry prince
of Wales, Cavendish was made a knight of the
bath; and was sent abroad with sir Henry Wotton,
then ambassador to Savoy. He succeeded to his
father at the age of twenty-three, and soon married
a Staffordshire heiress, after which he lived chiefly
on his own estates, keeping great hospitality, and

* Hist, of Rebellion, restored edit., vol. i. p. 139.

337

devoted to field sports. James was induced to
confer upon him the titles of viscount Mansfield
and baron Bolsover ; to which honors king Charles
added those of earl of Newcastle and baron of
Bothal ; with the appointment of warden of Sher-
wood forest and lord -lieutenant of Nottinghamshire.
On the decease of his cousin the first earl of De-
vonshire of the name of Cavendish, he became
lord-lieutenant of Derbyshire likewise ; but re-
signed the office when the second earl came of
age. "In these and all public and private employ-
ments/' says his lady in her biography of him, "my
lord hath ever been careful to keep up the king's
rights to the uttermost of his power."

Without being a scholar, the earl of Newcastle
was a lover of polite literature, a patron of its pro-
fessors, and even an author ; he wrote many lyrical
poems and comedies, now forgotten, and a book
on horsemanship and the art of the " manege,"
which gained him contemporary applause, and is
still valued as a curiosity. In the more trying
scenes of his life his honor, humanity, and per-
sonal courage were conspicuous, and under all
circumstances of fortune he was addicted to a
magnificence excessive even in proportion to a
rental estimated before the civil war at the vast
sum, for those days, of 22,393Z. Of his entertain-
ments given to the king and royal family, his wife
thus speaks.

" When his majesty was going into Scotland to
VOL. i. z

338

be crowned, he took his way through Nottingham-
shire, and lying at Worksop manner, hardly two
miles distant from Welbeck, where my lord then
was, my lord invited his majesty thither to a dinner,
which he was graciously pleased to accept of. This
entertainment cost my lord between four and five
thousand pounds; which his majesty liked so well,
that a year after his return out of Scotland, he was
pleased to send my lord word, that her majesty the
queen was resolved to make a progress into the
Northern parts, desiring him to prepare the like
entertainment for her as he had done formerly for
him. Which my lord did, and endeavoured for it
with all possible care and industry, sparing nothing
that might add splendor to that feast, which both
their majesties were pleased to honor with their
presence. Ben Jonson he employed in fitting such
scenes and speeches as he could best devise, and
sent for all the gentry of the country to come and
wait on their majesties; and in short did all that
ever he could imagine to render it great, and worthy
their royal acceptance. This entertainment he made

at Bolsover castle and resigned Welbeck for

their majesties' lodging; it cost him in all between
fourteen and fifteen thousand pounds.

''Besides these there was another small entertain-
ment which my lord prepared for his late majesty,
in his own park at Welbeck, when his late majesty
came down with his two nephews, the now prince
elector Palatine and his brother prince Rupert, into

339

the forest of Sherwood ; which cost him fifteen hun-
dred pounds V

The splendor of the royal progress was enhanced
by the circumstance of the offices of the English
royal household being at this time almost equally
divided between English and Scottish courtiers,
who on this occasion were prompted by the spirit
of nationality strenuously to vie with each other in
displays of dress, equipage, and attendance. Im-
mediately on the king's crossing the border, the
whole of the English household resigned their func-
tions to the corresponding officers for Scotland,
whose places were mostly hereditary, and who very
nobly discharged the duties of hospitality which at
the same time devolved upon them. Such in fact
was the excessive expense thus incurred by many
of the Scottish nobles, bent on vindicating their
country from the reproach of poverty, as to bring
upon them embarrassments the chagrin of which
has been suggested as one of the motives of that
disaffection to their prince which quickly succeeded
to these vehement demonstrations of loyal senti-
ment : But in truth the general causes of this
altered state of feeling lay far deeper.

It will be recollected that king James, almost
from the period when he first assumed the reins of
government in Scotland, had been in a constant
state of hostility with the national church, and that

* The Life of the duke of Netvcastle by Margaret duchess of
Newcastle.

z 2

340

there were few projects which he had pursued with
more ardor and perseverance than that of restoring
episcopacy in Scotland, and introducing a liturgic
form of worship with rites and ceremonies after the
Anglican model. He had proceeded so far towards
the accomplishment of his design as to appoint
bishops by virtue of his prerogative ; but as the
episcopal order had been abolished by law, and
its authority, like its revenues, had passed into
hands which refused to relax their grasp, these
dignities were little more than titular. On his visit
to Scotland in 1617, this sovereign had further suc-
ceeded in extorting the sanction of a synod held at
Perth for the adoption of five articles taken from
the English ritual ; and had erected a court of high-
commission for the protection of these innovations
and others which he meditated ; but the whole of
his measures had been encountered by so formidable
a spirit of resistance, that he had thenceforth given
up the cause in despair ; and when Laud, almost
on his first introduction at court, had ventured to
offer to him some suggestions for the renewal of his
attempts, bitter experience prompted him not only
to reject the idea, but to cast reproach and dis-
countenance on the author of it, as a rash and evil
counsellor. Through his wonted facility, however,
James had afterwards yielded, at the intercession of
Buckingham and Williams, to that advancement of
Laud which had eventually rendered him the favorite
adviser of his son and successor ; and it was with
the purpose of pursuing, under the guidance of this

341

prelate, those very schemes which his more prudent
father had rejected or abandoned, and of the hazard
of which he had himself made some experiment,
that Charles now revisited his native kingdom, a
suspected and inauspicious guest : The event was
such as to yield fresh testimony to the sagacity of
him whose fears had so often proved prophetic.

It was legal, and had been customary, for every
Scottish king on his accession to revoke any dona-
tions which might have been made by his prede-
cessor of such lands as formed a part of the patri-
mony annexed by law to the crown. Charles,
improving upon this practice, had passed an act in
the first year of his reign, for the resumption of all
those impropriated tithes and benefices which, hav-
ing reverted to the crown since the Reformation, —
that is, during a period of more than eighty years,
— had been subsequently granted by the sovereign
to reward the services, or silence the importunities,
of his nobles. These impropriations were destined
by the monarch to form an endowment for the new
dignitaries of the church, and in the year 1626 the
earl of Nithisdale had been sent to Edinburgh with
the character of king's commissioner to enforce their
surrender by threats and promises. A convention
was summoned to treat of the affair; bat at a pre-
vious meeting of the parties interested, who were
considerable both for rank and numbers, it was re-
solved that the demand should be peremptorily
rejected, and even, that "when they were called
together, if no other argument did prevail to make

342

the earl of Nithisdale desist, they would fall upon
him and all his party in the old Scottish manner,
and knock them on the head." " The appearance
at that time was so great," adds the historian,
"and so much heat was raised upon it, that the earl
of Nithisdale would not open all his instructions,
but came back to court, looking on the service as
desperate ; so a stop was put to it for some timeV

A kind of compromise had afterwards been forced
upon the impropriators, which gave them extreme
discontent; but Charles and his episcopal adviser
were not to be satisfied with partial success or
modified obedience, and they would not suffer them-
selves to doubt for a moment that all opposition
would be prostrated before the frown of a present
and offended sovereign.

The king's entry and coronation ' ' were managed/'
we are told, "with such magnificence that the country
suffered much by itb;" and the coronation service,
as performed by the archbishop of St. Andrews,
gave high offence to the people on account of the
introduction of an altar, and of rites closely border-
ing on the ceremonial of the mass. Also, the arch-
bishop of Glasgow, having presented himself with-
out the embroidered robes prepared for his use,
which he scrupled to wear, was publicly removed
from the side of the king of Scotland, by his favorite
English bishop, with an insolent and indecorous
violence.

" Burnet's Own Times, i. 35. edit. 1823. b Ibid. i. 36.

343

In the parliament which succeeded, stratagem
was employed to secure the election of lords of the
articles whose subserviency to the royal will could
be relied upon ; and after a grant had been obtained
of supplies to an unprecedented amount, an act was
proposed for confirming to the king the whole of
that indefinite extent of prerogative which had been
conceded to his father, and also for confirming reli-
gion, "as at present professed," and enabling his
majesty to regulate the vestments of churchmen.
The last article met with strong opposition. The
cope and the surplice were objects of horror to the
Scotch ; and an aged nobleman exclaimed aloud, that
he had sworn with the king's father and the whole
nation to a confession of faith in which these in-
tended innovations were solemnly abjured. Charles,
disconcerted by this remark, retired for a few mo-
ments, but resuming on his return his imperious
tone, he commanded the members not to debate,
but to vote, and producing a list of their names,
he added; " I shall know today who will do me
service." Through a fraud of the lord-register in
taking the votes, the articles appeared to be carried,
although the majority was in fact against them :
lord Rothes demanded a scrutiny, but it was autho-
ritatively refused by the king, unless that nobleman
would take upon himself to charge the lord-register
with the capital crime of wilfully falsifying the
votes, which, on failure of proof, subjected the
accuser to the like punishment. Lord Rothes de-

344

clining to incur this formidable responsibility, the
articles passed.

By these acts of overmastering power, tending
to deprive the nobles of revenues which long pos-
session had taught them to regard as inalienable,
the parliament of its independence, and the people
of the only safeguards of a religious system to which
they were irremoveably attached, Charles speedily
drew upon himself such unequivocal marks of re-
sentment from all classes as attracted his own
attention, and in the simplicity of that ignorance
of mankind characteristic of princes who have con-
versed with flatterers from their cradle, he expressed
to a Scottish bishop his surprise at the change.
The prelate, instead of embracing the opportunity
to impress on his mind some wholesome truths,
replied, ominously as it was thought, that the
Scotch were ready to crucify tomorrow him whom
they had yesterday saluted with hosannasa. But
all apprehension of personal responsibility was still
immeasurably distant from the king's conceptions,
and the tokens of disaffection exhibited by those
whom he regarded as born for implicit obedience,
sullenly received and haughtily retorted, ministered
only to mutual exasperation.

By the king's command, Edinburgh was now
erected into a bishopric and endowed with church
lands which, for example's sake, certain great nobles

a Laing's Hist, of Scotland, iii. 113.

345

were privately bribed to surrender: Laud, who, to
the just displeasure of the Scottish clergy, had been
admitted to preach before the king in his chapel
of Holyrood, arrayed in vestments which they scru-
pled to wear, a discourse in praise of rites and
ceremonies which they abhorred, was likewise
appointed a privy councillor for Scotland ; and
certain clerical aspirants, already prepared to regard
him as a spiritual head and ruler, began to pay court
to him by making their pulpits resound with the
doctrines of Arminianism, which the indignant
partisans of the kirk denounced with fury on the
other hand, as the sure harbinger of popery.

Having to outward appearance completely effected
the immediate objects of his expedition, and taken
measures for the further advancement of his schemes
of ecclesiastical policy, Charles, after performing a
progress through the principal cities of Scotland,
4 f made a posting journey to the queen at Green-
wich," where he arrived on July 20th, having crossed
the water at Blackwall without passing through
London. A contemporary writer well remarks,
that in this last act he laid aside the majesty of his
predecessors, and especially of queen Elizabeth,
who seldom ended any of her summer progresses
without shaping her course so as to make her pas-
sage to Whitehall through some part of the City;
when the lord-mayor and corporation, and the
trading companies, were always drawn out in
their formalities to meet her; by which she kept
the citizens " in a reverent opinion and estimation

346

of her." These and other acts of popularity and
majesty combined, were, as he adds, disused by
king James, " who brooked neither of them," and
not being taken up again by his son, "who loved
them not much more," first a neglect of their per-
sons, and ultimately a dislike of their government
ensued*.

The first important incident after the king's re-
turn, was the death of archbishop Abbot; a prelate
disgraced by the king, revered by the people, and
cherished by all, in every class, whose consciences
were alarmed at the late approximations to popery
in the English ritual, or whose spirits revolted at
the violent and tyrannical means by which it was
attempted to establish them. Laud, who had already
been allowed to assume the authority, was instantly
invested with the dignity of the departed primate ;
and his ambition was at the same time tempted by
the offer of a much more remarkable piece of pre-
ferment.

It is from his own diary we learn, what would
be scarcely credible on any other authority, that
on August 4th, the very day on which the news of
Abbot's death arrived at court, there came one to
him, " seriously, and that avowed ability to perform
it," and offered him to be a cardinal. He went
immediately and informed the king of the proposal;
— a few days after it was repeated: "But my
answer," he says, " again was, that somewhat

a Heylyn's Life of Laud, p. 228.

347

dwelt within me which would not suffer that, till
Rome were other than it is." In adverting to this
subject in the narrative of his trial, the archbishop
adds, " his majesty, very prudently and religiously,
yet in a calm way, the person offering it having
relation to some ambassador, freed me from that
both trouble and danger a."

No incident of the whole life of Laud has exposed
him to severer comment than this, and certainly
not without reason. Addressed to any private
gentleman, an invitation to apostatize would be a
heinous insult ; to an ecclesiastic, a prelate, the
expectant primate of a rival church, — a controver-
sialist also, who boasted of the conversions or re-
conversions which he had effected from this very
faith, — a faith too absolutely proscribed by the laws
of his country, — it seems an outrage scarcely to be
paralleled : Yet that it was not regarded in this
light by Laud, is manifest, both from the com-
placent tone in which he records the circumstance,
and still more from his readmitting the emissary
to his presence, and sustaining a repetition of the
offer. The fair inference is, that the proposal
flattered either his ambition, or at least his vanity;
and that whatever the something dwelling within
him might be, which opposed his acceptance of it
under present circumstances, — whether conscience
or worldly prudence, — he was not disinclined to
encourage negotiations on the principle of a com-

d Troubles and Trial of archbishop Laud, pp. 49, 388.

348

promise, by which at some future time he might he
enabled to grasp the tempting prize. What were
the precise views or sentiments of the king on the
subject we do not learn: it is plain that he did not
put an end to the negotiation, till after Laud had
informed him of the repetition of the proposal; and
that he then forbore to visit it with any exemplary
marks of his royal displeasure, although the fact
of a foreign ambassador being implicated in this
dangerous intrigue seems at once the basest and
the most impolitic of all reasons for passing it over
thus smoothly. With respect to the proposal itself,
supposing it to have been seriously made and
authorized by the pope, which may still be doubted,
it argues that the catholic potentates of Europe,
regarding arbitrary power as firmly established in
England by the suppression of parliaments, flattered
themselves that popery would not be slow to follow
in its train. They seem to have imagined that the
fiat of a prince would still be of force, as under the
rule of the Tudor s, to change the religion of the
nation; and the ambiguous conduct and flattering
language held by Charles towards the catholics,
together with the innovations introduced into the
church by Laud under his sanction, gave them
hopes, — delusory ones as it proved, — that by timely
offers of support to the king and a tempting bait to
the ambition of the primate, this fiat might be
obtained. Either Laud himself, or some of the
agents in this transaction, were less secret than the
nature of the business required; and the alarms and

349

disaffection of the puritans were exasperated by a
half-accredited whisper of the strange and odious
proposition. Hobbes in his tractate " De Give,"
printed in Paris in 1642, alludes to such a rumor,
but the diary of the archbishop not having yet been
made public, he naturally considered himself as au-
thorized to treat it as the most absurd and malicious
of party calumnies. Laud might perhaps relinquish
with a sigh the attainment of that illustrious rank
in the hierarchy of Europe which Wolsey had
achieved; yet, on reflection, the independent dig-
nity of primate or patriarch of the British isles, to
which he aspired, might seem a prouder station
than any which a sovereign pontiff could confer ;
and in the state and splendor which he loved, he
took care that even that pontiff should scarcely go
beyond him. A celebrated puritan libel of the day,
amid its vehement invectives against the pomp and
pride of the prelates, supplies us with the following
traits, delineated indeed by a hostile hand, but
evidently from the life.

" Take notice of the sumptuosity of their service
at their meals, their dishes being ushered in with
no less reverence than the king their lord and
master's ; their sewers and servants going before
and crying out ; ' Gentlemen, be uncovered, my
lord's meat is coming up.' So that all are forced
to stand uncovered to his platters, and no more
state can there be in a king's house. To say no-
thing of the bishop of London that was pat into his
office with such supreme dignity and incomparable

350

majesty, as lie seemed a great king or mighty
emperor to be inaugurated and installed in some
superlative monarchy, rather than a priest; having
all the nobility and the glory of the kingdom wait-
ing upon him But see the prelate of Can-
terbury in his ordinary garb riding from Croydon
to Bagshot, with forty or fifty gentlemen all mounted
attending upon him; two or three coaches, with
four or six horses apiece in them, all empty, wait-
ing on him; two or three dainty steeds of pleasure
most rich in trappings and furniture likewise led by
him; and wherever he comes his gentleman -ushers
and his servants crying out, ' Room, room for my
lord's grace ; gentlemen be uncovered, my lord's

grace is coming !' Again, if you should meet

him coming daily from the starchamber, and see
what pomp, grandeur and magnificence he goeth
in; the whole multitude standing bare wherever he
passeth, having also a great number of gentlemen
and other servants waiting on him, all uncovered,

some of them carrying up his tail others

going before him, calling out to the folks before

them to put off their hats and give place

tumbling down and thrusting aside the little children
a-playing there, flinging and tossing the poor coster-
mongers and souce-wives fruit and puddings, baskets
and all, into the Thames (though they hindered not

their passage) you would think, seeing and

hearing all this, and also the speed and haste they
make, that it were some mighty proud Nimrod, or
some furious Jehu, running and marching for a

351

kingdom, rather than a meek, humble and grave
priest V

It may be added, with reference to this part of
Laud's character, that he willingly accepted from
the sycophancy of the university of Oxford in their
Latin epistles to him, the titles of " Sanctitas tua,"
11 Summus Pontifex," " Spiritu sancto effusissime
plenus," "Archangelus, et ne quid nimis," " Quo
rectior non stat regulus," &c.; and that on his trial
he justified the use of these and similar forms of
address towards the sacred order of bishops, by the
examples of St. Augustine, St. Gregory the great,
and other popes and fathers of the church b.

Wentworth, meantime, had been laboring with
no inferior zeal in the province committed to his
charge. More perspicacious than his master, who
long persisted to believe in the possibility of arguing
or entrapping men into the surrender of their dearest
rights, he had lost not a moment in giving strength
to his authority by causing the militia to be embo-
died and disciplined, after which he securely pro-
ceeded in exacting to the utmost, compositions for
knighthood, fines for recusancy, and all other arbi-
trary or odious impositions, and by such means he
was speedily enabled to boast, that under his ad-
ministration the royal revenue from the Northern
counties had been more than quadrupled. Nor did
he as yet find cause to complain of any want of that

a The Litany of John Bastwick, Doctor of Physic, 1637.
b Troubles and Trial, pp. 284, 325.

352

countenance and cooperation which a minister like
himself might reasonably expect from a government
by which service of such a nature was required.
For no other offence than neglecting to make due
obeisance to the lord-president at a public meeting,
Henry Bellasis, the son of lord Faulconberg, was
visited, at the earnest request of the offended party,
with a month's imprisonment. At his instigation
and solicitation also, sir David Foulis, who was
accused, falsely as he contended, of having spoken
with disrespect of the council of the North, and
indulged in certain insinuations against its pre-
sident, and who had without doubt encouraged some
of his neighbours to resist the composition for
knighthood, was prosecuted in the star-chamber ;
deprived of his offices of member of the council of
the North, deputy -lieutenant, and justice of the
peace; fined 5000/. to the king and 3000Z. to Went-
worth; commanded to make public acknowledge-
ment of his offence both against the king and the
president, in the star-chamber, and in the court at
York; and sentenced to imprisonment during his
majesty's pleasure. A judgement so gratifying to
the arrogant and vindictive temper of his opponent,
that he could not restrain himself from returning
to all the members of the court by which it had
been pronounced, thanks which ought to have been
regarded as alike disgraceful to the bestower and the
receiver.

But what was of more importance to the views
of Wentworth, his master had taken notice of his

353

capacity, his vigor, and his thorough-going obedi-
ence; and he received their reward in the appoint-
ment of lord-deputy of Ireland. It was conferred
upon him on the recall of lord Falkland, a less apt
instrument of tyrannic rule, in January 1 632, though
certain reasons induced him on various pretences to
delay his voyage to that island till the July of the
following year.

It was now three years since the king had given
his assent to the graces, and the Irish had already
paid up the last instalment of the 120,000/. which
was the valuable consideration stipulated on their
side; but the promised fruits of their liberality were
still, for the most part, withheld ; and what was
still more alarming, no prospect yet appeared of
the assembling of the parliament, to which they
looked for the solemn acknowledgement and ratifi-
cation of their rights civil and religious. The nation
was full of faction and discontent ; the king possessed
no independent means of keeping on foot such a
force as experience had proved indispensable to the
maintenance of the public peace of that kingdom ;
that the people could be either coerced or deluded
into the granting of any further supplies excepting
in a constitutional, that is, a parliamentary manner,
seemed a vain hope, and a parliament the king was
still obstinately bent on refusing them.

To accept with cheerfulness and alacrity the
government of Ireland at such a crisis, required all
the conscious ability, all the vigor, and it may be
added, all the remorselessness of Wentworth's cha-

VOL. i. 2 A

354

racter; but to him, the line of policy to be pursued
appeared obvious, and its execution easy. Holding
it for a maxim that the Irish were still to be viewed
as a conquered and subject people, he proposed, by
shaking, as it were, the scourge of discipline over
their heads, to admonish them, that it was their
place rather to acknowledge with thankfulness the
mercy of their lord and master in the privileges he
had left them, than to press for the extension of
such as it pleased him still to withhold. It is true,
that it was at the same time his intention to confer
real benefits on the country over which he was to
preside by the repression of all subaltern tyranny,
all abuse which brought no revenue to the crown,
and also to advance its wealth and prosperity by
the encouragement of trade and industry, and the
introduction of various arts and manufactures.
But in all his measures he took a pride in declaring,
that the profit of his king should ever be his chief,
or rather his sole motive of action, and he held out
to Charles the flattering hope, that henceforth he
should be enabled to draw from this island a great,
a certain, and an augmenting revenue, — not only
without the slightest concessions to the wishes and
claims of the people, but by means which should
at the same time render him, in this island at least,
as absolute as any prince in Europe. The results
of this system, and the effects of the temper and
manners of him with whom it originated, on all
who came within the sphere of his influence, will
amply appear in the sequel by numerous extracts

355

from his official and private correspondence, — an
invaluable collection of documents for the illustra-
tion of the characters and events of this momentous
period.

Meantime, the crusade against puritanism long
since proclaimed at court was pursued with still
increasing activity; and it is matter of some curi-
osity to observe the variety of forms in which the
warfare was carried on. Laud enforced his darling
ceremonies with redoubled zeal: at his desire, com-
munion tables were by an order of council directed
to be removed from their central situation to the
east end of churches, railed in, and restored to the
Romish appellation of altars ; and ministers and
churchwardens were fined, and even excommuni-
cated, for any neglect of obedience: Evening lec-
tures and extemporary prayer were strictly sup-
pressed, and what was more harassing than all the
rest, the clergy were commanded to republish king
James's Declaration in favor of Sunday sports,
which had hitherto remained almost a dead letter,
by reading it in their respective churches. The
immediate pretext for this injunction was an order
somewhat irregularly made by the judges of assize
in Somersetshire, some months before, for the sup-
pression of the anniversary dedication-feasts of
churches, customarily held on the Sunday, but
which had been complained against by the stricter
sort as a fertile source of intemperance and disorder
amongst the peasantry. Chief justice Richardson,
being summoned before the council on this business,

2 A2

356

and commanded to reverse his order, received at the
same time fromLaud, who regarded it as an encroach-
ment on the jurisdiction of the ordinary, " such a
rattle," says Heylyn, " that he came out blubbering
and complaining that he had been almost choaked
with a pair of lawn sleeves." But the distress and
annoyance which it could not fail to occasion to the
puritan clergy, — all, to a man rigid Sabbatarians,
was no doubt the real inducement to this measure;
and it fully answered its unwise and uncharitable
purpose. Many who in their hearts abhorred the
command, complied with reluctance and compunc-
tion ; many, by a courageous refusal, incurred
suspension, deprivation, or the necessity of banish-
ing themselves their country ; in either case it
operated as an effectual test, and left to those who
were the objects of it no alternative between the
vengeance of power on one hand, and the anger
and contempt of their own party on the other.

The court exhibited at the same time an unabated
ardor for those amusements which had been the
chosen objects of Prynn's vituperation; the queen
entertained her consort with a representation of
Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess ; and it was sug-
gested to the members of the four principal inns of
court, that to present the king and queen with the
solemn pageantry of a grand mask, would be re-
ceived as an acceptable proof of their loyalty and
orthodoxy. The hint was taken, and a committee
formed for the business, comprising amongst others
the grave and distinguished names of Noy, Hyde,

357

Whitelock and Selden. From a long and somewhat
pompous account of this spectacle supplied to us
by Whitelock himself, it appears to have been of
almost unrivalled cost and splendor. Henrietta
had sufficient tact to reward their pains by dancing
with some of the maskers herself, and to " judge
them as good dancers as ever she saw ; and the
great ladies were very free and civil in dancing
with all the maskers." She even hinted a wish to
see the exhibition repeated, in consequence of which
the lord-mayor invited their majesties and the
maskers into the city, " and entertained them with
all state and magnificence." Whitelock mentions,
that one of the antimasks exhibited on this occasion
was a satire on certain patentees or projectors, as
they were called, — whose country was indicated by
an accompaniment of bagpipes, — by means of whom
the pernicious abuse of monopolies had arisen under
another name to a greater height than ever. " And
it pleased the spectators the more," he adds, " be-
cause by it an information was covertly given to
the king, of the unfitness and ridiculousness of
these projects against law: and the attorney Noy,
who had most knowledge of them, had a great hand
in this antimask of the projectors." This passage
is remarkable, and may serve to evince the strong
dislike to the financial schemes which the false
measures of the king had compelled him to adopt,
entertained by the very ministers employed in
carrying them into execution.

William Noy, the son of a Cornish yeoman, had

358

early entered at Lincoln's inn, and zealously devoted
himself to the study of the law, in which he attained
a high reputation both for ability and learning. In
the two last parliaments of James he had represented
the borough of Helston, and in the two first of his
successor, that of St. Ives in his native county, and
under both reigns showed himself firmly and strenu-
ously opposed to the encroachments of prerogative.
In all the proceedings relating to the petition of
right, in particular, he had taken a distinguished
part. But the lure of professional advancement
proved in the end too tempting for his integrity
and patriotism to resist. In the year 1631 he was,
" by great industry and importunity from court,
persuaded to accept that place for which all other
men labored, being the best, for profit, that pro-
fession is capable of, — and so he suffered himself
to be made the king's attorney general." "The
court," adds lord Clarendon, " made no impression
upon his manners, — upon his mind it did ; and
though he wore about him an affected morosity,
which made him unapt to flatter other men, yet even
that morosity and pride rendered him the most liable
to be grossly flattered himself, that can be imagined.
And by this means the great persons who steered
the public affairs, by admiring his parts and extoll-
ing his judgement, as well to his face as behind his
back, wrought upon him by degrees, for the emi-
nency of the service, to be an instrument in all
their designs ; thinking that he could not give a
clearer testimony that his knowledge in the law

359

was greater than all other men's, than by making
that law which all other men believed not to be so.
So he moulded, framed, and pursued the odious
and crying project of soap; and with his own hand
drew and prepared the writ for ship-money; both
which will be the lasting monuments of his fameV

Noy however died before the writs for ship-money
were issued ; and as the project was then taken up
by lord-keeper Finch, and extended in a manner
which it seems probable that the superior sense
and knowledge of Noy would have refused to
sanction, the odium of this memorable infringe-
ment of law and liberty ought perhaps to be shared
equally between them.

It appears from Prynn's narrative of the proceed-
ings against him on account of the Histriomastix,
that Noy exhibited considerable reluctance to pro-
secute ; and in fact took no step in the business till
urged by Laud, who had employed Heylyn to extract
the passages regarded as libellous. After the inflic-
tion of the barbarous corporal punishments which
made a part of the sentence against him, this indo-
mitable spirit addressed to Laud, from the prison
in which he was still detained, an indignant epistle
respecting the injustice with which he had been
treated; and this the prelate quickly transmitted to
the attorney-general with a sharp letter demanding
the institution of further proceedings against the
writer. Noy sent for the culprit, and required to

3 Hist, of Rebellion, vol. i. p. 129, edit. 1826.

360

know whether he confessed himself the author of
the letter. Prynn pleaded, that he must see it be-
fore he could return an answer. Upon this, Noy
put it into his hands ; and having taken occasion to
turn his back upon him for a few minutes, gave him
the opportunity, which he seized, to tear the paper
and throw it out at the window. The evidence
against him being thus destroyed, the attorney-
general declared it impracticable to proceed, and
the disappointed prelate had no resource but to
claim, with a bad grace, the merit of a free forgive-
ness. It is difficult not to ascribe to Noy in this
instance, an honorable repugnance to become the
instrument of episcopal vengeance against a pro-
fessional brother whose learning and courage he
could not but respect, and from whose political
principles it is probable that in his heart he did not
widely differ. Laud however in noting the death
of Noy in his diary, which took place in August
1634, adds; " I have lost a dear friend of him, and
the church the greatest she had of his condition
since she needed any such."

Of the moroseness ascribed to this eminent lawyer,
a singular instance appears in the following clause
of his last will. " All the rest of my estate I leave
to my son Edward (who is executor to this my will) ,
to be squandered as he shall think fit: I leave it
him for that purpose, and I hope no better from
him." The young man did not long survive to
verify his father's ill opinion ; he was slain in a
duel within two years after.

361

The death of Noy was closely followed by that
of a much more eminent ornament of the same pro-
fession, and one whose actings and sufferings in the
cause of the English people have secured for his
memory the reverence and gratitude of all posterity.
This was sir Edward Coke, who expired at his seat
of Stoke Fogeys in Buckinghamshire on September
3rd, 1634, in his 86th year. It was the extraor-
dinary destiny of this memorable person, after com-
mencing his public career as a legal adviser of the
crown, sustaining the part of attorney-general with
a spirit of adulation towards the sovereign and acri-
mony against the accused which did him little honor,
and subsequently reaping the reward of his efforts,
and attaining the goal of his professional ambition,
in the appointment of lord chief justice, — to end his
course out of office and unpensioned, the chosen
object of royal displeasure, and the most revered
champion of popular rights. Yet so remarkable a
contradiction to the usual course of events is attri-
butable neither to the turbulence of his spirit, nor
to any singularity in his principles or views, but
solely to the unprecedented designs and circum-
stances of the times in which he lived. No one
was less addicted than sir Edward Coke to experi-
mental innovations under the guise of reforms. The
English law, which had been the sole study of his
life, and in which his erudition surpassed all com-
petitors, might almost be called his gospel likewise,
so sacred did he hold its maxims and its sanctions.
To the regal prerogative, in as far as it was a por-

362

tion of the law, he was firmly attached ; he was
also a friend to the church, as by law established,
and no government which had confined itself within
the bounds of statutes and precedents could ever
have found him in the list of its opponents. If the
pride which was a large ingredient in his composi-
tion, by rendering him tenacious of all his rights of
office, tended to involve him in contests with rival
courts or jurisdictions, it was balanced by a love of
place, which speedily admonished him, on questions
of a personal nature, to recede from claims which
he could not establish, or to yield to encroachments
which he found it vain to resist. But he had in his
mind a fixed limit beyond which subserviency to the
prince, was in his estimation treason to the coun-
try, and which no private considerations could
tempt him to overpass : which limit was the law.
Rather than surrender this bulwark, he had braved
to his face the awakened anger of king James, and
without an attempt at deprecation had submitted
himself to its effects in a suspension from the du-
ties of his judicial office, and from his seat at the
council board ; and although he afterwards conde-
scended to appease the private hostility of the royal
favorite by some offerings to his rapacity, he had
suffered the total loss of place, and of the favor of
his prince, imprisonment, and the seizure of his
papers, rather than make any surrender of the
chartered rights of Englishmen.

The poor and shallow artifice which Buckingham
prevailed on Charles to employ, in order to exclude

363

Coke and a few others from seats in his first parlia-
ment, has been already mentioned ; but personal
exasperation was not needed to point out to him,
on his readmission to the house of commons, the
path in which it became him to tread. In 1628 he
set the seal to his public life by drawing up the
memorable petition of right; and having performed
this last service to his afflicted country, he calmly
withdrew to await in silence and retirement the ap-
proach of the last and great deliverer. The letter
of a contemporary supplies a characteristic anec-
dote of the veteran in his retreat.

11 Sir Edward Coke being now very infirm in body,
a friend of his sent him two or three doctors to re-
gulate his health; whom he told, that he had never
taken physic since he was born, and would not now
begin ; and that he had now upon him a disease,
which all the drugs of Asia, the gold of Africa, the
silver of America, nor all the doctors of Europe
could cure, Old Age. He therefore both thank t
them and his friend that sent them, and dismist
them nobly with a reward of twenty pieces to each
mana." He expired pronouncing the words, " thy
kingdom come, thy will be done." Whilst sir Ed-
ward Coke was actually lying on his death-bed, sir
Francis Windebank, secretary of state, was sent
with an order of council to search his house for
dangerous or seditious papers, by virtue of which
he carried off his Commentary on Littleton, to

a Ellis's Letters, 2nd series, iii. 263.

364

which was prefixed a history of his life written by
his own hand, several of his unpublished works on
legal subjects, and fifty-one other manuscripts, one
of which was his will. None of these were restored
till seven years afterwards, when the long parlia-
ment made an order that they should be delivered
to his heir ; and several of them, including his last
will, were never heard of more.

The reader will recollect that a similar outrage
had a little before been perpetrated against sir Ro-
bert Cotton : To Charles and his advisers even the
fetters of iron in which they had bound the press,
appeared an insufficient safeguard to their new sy-
stem of government, so long as authentic docu-
ments, and learned commentaries illustrative of the
English law and constitution, were suffered to re-
main unmolested in the private repositories of anti-
quaries and jurists !

365

CHAPTER XL

1634 and 1635.

Expenses of government supplied by illegal and oppressive means. —
Imposition of ship-money. — Designs of the king in equipping a
feet discussed. — Increasing influence of Laud, — his patronage
of the clergy. — Instances of their growing power and pretensions.
— Death of lord-treasurer Portland, — his corruption sanctioned
by the king. — Laud chief commissioner of the treasury. — Juxon
made lord-treasurer. — Motives of Laud in this appointment. —
Character of Juxon. — French and Dutch refugee churches perse-
cuted by Laud for not using the English liturgy. — Usurpations
of Laud over the church of Ireland favored by Wentworth. —
Vigorous measures of Wentworth for recovery of church property
there. — Irish church articles drawn by archbishop Usher and ap-
proved by king James abrogated at the instigation of Laud, and
English articles substituted. — Laud gains the queens favor by
obtaining admission for a papal envoy. — Arrival of Panzani. —
Scheme for uniting the Romish and Anglican churches, — its fail-
ure and the results. — Hostility of Laud to the foreign protestant
churches. — Arrival of the prince Palatine.

_L HROUGH the long intermission of parliaments
and the consequent suspension of subsidies, the
exchequer had now been brought into such a state
that it is probably no exaggeration to affirm that
the whole of the supplies required for the public
service were raised by means either illegal, irregular,
or at least oppressive ; for the revenue of the still
unalienated crown lands, together with all that
could be derived from purveyance and from ward-

366

ship, — themselves prerogatives of at least a very
vexatious nature, — can scarcely be supposed to have
been more than adequate to the demands of what
in modern phrase would be called the civil list.

Tonnage and poundage, the principal tax which
the English people had been in the habit of grant-
ing to their princes for the protection of the seas
and the general expenses of government, had now
assumed the character of an illegal extortion, the
period for which it had been conferred by parlia-
ment having long since expired. Composition for
knighthood, which brought in considerable sums,
founded indeed on an undisputed though obsolete
prerogative, had been irregularly extended, and
perverted, for the first time, into a pretext for se-
vere and arbitrary exactions, and sometimes into
an instrument for the chastisement of political de-
linquencies. The fines for recusancy, on the other
hand, were indeed imposed by clear and recent sta-
tutes, and Charles, like his father, constantly re-
mitted a very large proportion of their legal amount ;
yet, partaking in their own nature of wrong and
grievance, they could never be collected without
expostulation or murmur on the part of the suf-
ferers. Most of the other penalties payable to the
crown were imposed by arbitrary tribunals, such
as the privy council, the star-chamber, the mar-
shal's court, or that of high-commission ; and being
usually excessive, either in proportion to the offence,
or to the means of the offender, — in which last case
they violated the great charter, — or inflicted for acts

367

which were no crimes in the eye of the law, — such
as disobedience to royal proclamations, and words
of contumely or acts of opposition directed against
the oppressions of the times and their authors,—
were justly classed amongst the most odious per-
versions of right and justice. The patents, granted
at the suit of rapacious projectors, who bribed the
treasury with a small part only of what they were
empowered to extort from the public, were notori-
ously contrary to law, and the objects, as we have
seen, of general indignation and complaint. So
unproductive however is extortion, even when
pushed to the utmost bounds of a people's patience,
in comparison with very moderate taxation, skilfully
laid and equitably assessed by the representative
body, that to defray by these various expedients
the necessary current expenses of a state of pro-
found peace, always proved to Charles, though a
man of business and a professed economist, a task
of the utmost difficulty ; and for extraordinaries he
was wholly unprepared.

Under these circumstances, that great national
arm the navy, had been suffered to sink into a state
of extreme feebleness and decay; but the king now
adopted a resolution to place it again on a respect-
able, if not a formidable footing; and in this reso-
lution, combined with his obstinate persistence in
the plan of ruling without parliaments, the memo-
rable project of ship-money took its birth.

It is on Noy, as we have seen, that the reproach
rests of searching out and setting in array all the

368

ancient precedents which could serve to give a color
of right to this exaction ; lord-keeper Coventry also
afforded it his support; and sir Robert Heath, chief-
justice of the common pleas, being suddenly dis-
missed, and sir John Finch, a more willing instru-
ment of tyranny, set in his place, a writ was issued
in October 1634, addressed to the lord-mayor and
commonalty of London, commanding them to fit
out a certain number of ships for the royal navy,
and to lay a rate on the citizens for the purpose,
with power to imprison such as should refuse pay-
ment. Similar writs followed, to all the sea-ports.
The corporation of London, avoiding to urge the
general principle of the illegality of taxation with-
out the authority of parliament, pleaded a special
exemption by their charter ; but it was overruled,
and the next year the imposition was extended over
the whole kingdom.

The particular designs or motives by which
Charles was impelled to recur to so violent an ex-
pedient for fitting out an armament in a time of
profound peace, have been variously stated, and
still remain rather matter of conjecture than proof.
It is indeed certain that both the English and Irish
channel were at this time infested by Barbary cor-
sairs, and that Dunkirk pirates occasionally made
captures in sight of the British shores. We also
know that the fishing vessels both of Holland and
France, by frequenting the coasts of Scotland with-
out purchasing a license from its sovereign, had
encroached upon that dominion of the seas which

369

James I., destitute as he was of the power to support
it, had thought proper to assert in loftier terms than
any either of his Scottish or English predecessors.
But to repress insults like these, a few cruisers would
have amply sufficed, and it is in the political in-
trigues of the monarch that we must seek adequate
causes for the equipment of a fleet.

The paramount importance of those civil contests
in which his system of domestic policy served to
involve the later years of Charles, have eclipsed
from popular view the propensity of this prince to
take a busy part in all the concerns of neighbouring
states ; yet evidence enough remains of his aims
and projects, to render his foreign transactions a
characteristic and important part of his private hi-
story. So far back as during his visit to Madrid, a
secret treaty had been commenced for the conquest
of the United Provinces by the joint arms of Spain
and England. In the event of success a partition
was to be made, and the islands of Zealand were to
come under the British sceptre. The subsequent
rupture between the two courts suspended a design
which might have eventually endangered even the
throne of Charles, from the just indignation it was
formed to excite in the breasts of a protestant peo-
ple. After the return of peace the intrigue was
renewed, and in 1631 a treaty was actually drawn
up and signed by Cottington on one part and Oli-
varez on the other, which stipulated that in con-
sideration of the interference of king Philip for the
restoration of the palatine, a certain number of

VOL. i. 2 B

370

English ships should cooperate with a Spanish fleet
in the invasion of Holland. Some fears however,
if not scruples, restrained Charles from giving the
instrument his immediate ratification ; and the next
year changing his views, he entered into a secret
agreement to give support to a discontented party
in the Netherlands in their design of shaking off
the Spanish yoke, receiving in return the transfer
of their allegiance. By the infidelity of Cottington
this plot was revealed to the court of Madrid, which
thus acquired fresh proof of that bad faith with
which it had already found so much reason to re-
proach the British sovereign. Yet the disclosure
caused no open rupture ; for the king of Spain
thought he should best secure his revenge by car-
rying on to its completion a pending negotiation,
in which it was his design first to secure the aid of
Charles against the Dutch, and afterwards, by the
cooperation of a faction in his cabinet, to baffle and
overreach him.

The antipathy entertained by Charles for the
principles, religious and political, on which the re-
public of Holland had been established, joined to
the jealousy which its rising commerce was fitted
to inspire, might seem a sufficient pledge of his
sincerity in that part of his treaty with Spain which
had the humiliation of this state for its object; and
induce us to give easy credit to the common opi-
nion that it was against the Dutch that his present
armament was designed. Yet in a letter respecting
the sovereignty of the seas, written many years

371

afterwards by Evelyn, and addressed to Pepys, then
treasurer of the navy, the following remark is found.
"As for the years 1635 and 1637, you cannot but
espy an intrigue in the equipping those formidable
fleets ; and that they were more to awe the French

than terrify Holland I fancy were no difficult

matter to proveV

Perplexed amid these labyrinths of artifice and
intrigue, framed on no intelligible plan, and en-
compassing no distinct object, we seem reduced to
the supposition that Charles exerted himself to be-
come master of a formidable fleet with no more
definite intention than that of availing himself of
whatever opportunity of aggrandizement the situa-
tion of any one of the neighbouring powers might
offer to his ambition, regardless of subsisting
leagues or pending treaties. Conduct so fitted to
inspire all his contemporaries with jealousy and
disgust was ultimately visited with its due penalty
in the indifference, if not complacency, with which
his distresses and downfall were beheld by every
state and potentate in Europe.

After the ineffectual protest of the city of Lon-
don, ship-money was for some time paid by the
people ; not indeed without indignation and mur-
muring, but without any appeal to the violated
charters of the land. In the mean time, however,
that spirit of hostility against the government which
resulted in open resistance, was silently gathering
force from various causes of provocation.

a Memoirs of John Evelyn, Esq. vol. ii. p. 225,
2 B 2

372

At the court and in the council, the influence
of Laud became daily more predominant. This
prelate, who gave in his own person an example
of the ecclesiastical celibacy which he regarded
as edifying, if not obligatory, was free from the
ordinary temptations to amass wealth, as he was
inaccessible to the ambition of founding a family.
No tribe of hungry Villierses followed him in his
elevation, exasperating the people by their arrogant
rapacity.

But it was soon observed, that with the primate,
as with many powerful churchmen, his order stood
in the place of wife, children, and relations. For it
he was covetous; for it he was ambitious, arrogant,
oppressive ; for it he scrupled not to stretch his
authority and credit beyond all due and customary
limits; and being aided in his designs by the pre-
judices of the king, who seems to have agreed with
him in confounding the elevation of the clergy with
the advancement of religion, he succeeded in raising
this favored class to wealth, power and consequence
absolutely unprecedented since the Reformation.
As an inevitable result, it became, with himself,
the preeminent object of jealousy, of obloquy, of
public odium.

The valuable Memorials of Whitelock afford no-
tices strikingly illustrative of this remarkable fea-
ture of the times.

In Michaelmas term 1631, two questions were
propounded to the judges on the part of the clergy.
First, whether they were bound to find watch and

373

ward like others? Secondly, whether they could be
compelled to take parish apprentices? — On the first,
the judges took time to inform themselves of the
custom throughout the country; but on the second,
they decided that no man was out of the statute.
"This case," adds Whitelock, "1 have reported,
because it showeth somewhat of the temper and
expectation of the clergy in that time."

" In the censure of Bastwick, all the bishops then
present denied openly that they held their jurisdic-
tion as bishops from the king, for which perhaps
they might have been censured themselves in the
time of Henry II. or Edward III. But they affirmed
that they had their jurisdiction from God only; which
denial of the supremacy of the king under God,
Henry VIII. would have taken ill, and it may be
would have confuted them by his kingly arguments,
and regia manu."

Whitelock further informs us, that in the levy of
ship-money * 'great care was taken of the clergy;" and
from other authority it appears that in case of sur-
charge they were allowed an appeal to their diocesan.
He likewise notices that " Spotteswood archbishop
of St. Andrews was made chancellor of Scotland ;
and though he was a learned man, and of good
reputation and life, yet it gave offence to many that
he, being a clergyman, should be invested with that
dignity, which they affirmed not to have been done
before since the Reformation."

In the year 1 635 this eminent lawyer was chairman
of the Oxford quarter sessions, and in that capacity

374

charged the grand jury. " I took occasion," he
says, " in this place to enlarge myself upon the
points of jurisdiction of the temporal courts in
matters ecclesiastical, and the antiquity thereof;
which I did the rather because the spiritual men
began in these days to swell higher than ordinary,
and to take it as an injury to the church that any
thing savoring of the spirituality should be within
the cognizance of ignorant laymen ; yet was I wary
in my expressions, and so couched the matter as it
might seem naturally to arise from the subject of
my discourse The gentlemen and free-
holders seemed well pleased with my charge."

The death of lord-treasurer the earl of Portland
afforded the primate an opportunity of intruding
himself in a remarkable manner into one of the
most important branches of the civil administration.
Cottington, who had long filled the office of chancel-
lor of the exchequer, regarded the white staff almost
as his due; and other competitors had arisen, all
men of rank and consequence, when the king de-
clared his intention of putting it into commission,
and to the universal disgust of the laity named the
archbishop first commissioner.

The base character of Portland has been already
touched upon. During the whole of his administra-
tion, his corrupt and venal practices had been the
public theme of complaint and reproach, and the
heaviest charges brought against him by his con-
temporaries received several years afterwards a re-
markable confirmation by a discovery which also

375

exhibited his royal master as a deep partaker in his
guilt.

Amongst the papers found in the king's cabinet
when it fell into the hands of the victors at Naseby,
and published by order of parliament, was one, as
Whitelock informs us, "in which the lord-treasurer
acknowledgeth to have received of the king's gift
10,OOOZ., and in gratuities, which some call bribes,
33,500/. more, and the king's hand was to it, in
allowance of it." Under such a system of author-
ized iniquity, mismanagement and abuse must of
course have pervaded every inferior department ;
and from the acknowledged pecuniary integrity of
Laud and his anxiety to render the king independent
of parliamentary supplies, we may believe that whilst
his ignorance of the forms of business, and the pride
and passion which perpetually broke forth in his
demeanor towards persons who resorted to him on
the concerns of his office gave just offence to the
public at large, it was chiefly by his vigilant fidelity
to the interests of his master, that he exasperated
the corrupt tribe of court followers and arrayed
against him a formidable party in the ministry
itself.

Permanently to occupy an office the duties of
which were so manifestly incompatible with the
devotion of his time and thoughts to the primary
objects of his public life, had never probably been
the intention of the primate; and after presiding
over the commission for a year, he gave a memorable
proof of his influence by prevailing upon the king to

376

nominate to the great office of lord high treasurer,
William Juxon bishop of London. In his diary he
comments upon the appointment in these terms :
" No churchman had it since Henry VII. time.
I pray God bless him to carry it so, that the church
may have honor, and the king and the state service
and contentment by it. And now if the church
will not hold up themselves under God, I can do

no morea."

His biographer Heylyn, after observing that in
this appointment, though of a most upright man,
the archbishop was generally conceived neither to
have consulted his present ease, for which he should
have procured the staff for Cottington, nor his future
safety, for which he ought to have advised the de-
livery of it to some popular nobleman, such as the
earl of Bedford, Hertford or Essex, or lord Say,
adds, " But he preferred his majesty's advantages
before his particular concernments, the safety of
the public before his own. Nor did he want some
seasonable considerations in it for the good of the
church. The peace and quiet of the church de-
pended much on the conformity of the city of Lon-
don, and London did as much depend in their trade
and payments upon the love and justice of the lord-
treasurer of England.

' ' This therefore was the more likely way to con-
form the citizens to the directions of their bishop,
and the whole kingdom unto them, no small

a Laud's Troubles and Trial.

377

encouragement being thereby given to the London
clergy for the improvement of their tithes. For
with what confidence could any of the old cheats
adventure on a public examination in the court of
exchequer (the proper court for suits and grievances
of that nature), when a lord-bishop of London sat
therein as the principal judge a ?" More cogent
arguments, it might be thought, could not readily
be found for the separation of two offices, than those
which are here suggested for their union !

Juxon was at this time known only as a depen-
dent much loved and trusted by Laud, through
whose interest he had been chosen successor to
himself in the mastership of St. John's college Ox-
ford, in 1621, some years after made a royal chap-
lain, in 1632 clerk of the closet, and finally bishop
of London on the translation of his powerful patron
in 1 633. Prudence, integrity, and a mild inoffensive
conduct guided by plain good sense, appear to have
been his characteristics ; they were such as could
give no jealousy to his protector, whilst they served
to reconcile by degrees the public mind to an
appointment justly obnoxious. He proved a good
and frugal manager for the king during the few
years he presided over the treasury, and finally
quitted it with a fair reputation, when political cir-
cumstances obliged him to resign.

A complete intolerance of all protestant deviation
from exact conformity, or uniformity, within the

* Cyprianus Anglicus, pp. 285, 286.

378

sphere of his authority, was the leading feature of
the religion, or rather the policy of Laud. He
appears to have been greatly disturbed at the
triumphs afforded to the Romish controversialists
by the differences and separations amongst the
reformed themselves; and having contrived to in-
troduce again amongst the English articles that
unauthorized one by which the power of the church
to ordain ceremonies and decide controversies of
faith is asserted, he was fully determined not to
suffer it to remain a dead letter; but to exhibit to
the Christian world, and especially to Rome herself,
the edifying spectacle of a church, as absolute in
authority, as strict in regulation, nearly as imposing
in outward show, and above all equally exclusive and
intolerant with her own. The unremitting activity
and the spirit of detail which belonged to him fitted
him in a peculiar manner for the part of a discipli-
narian, and scarcely anything was found remote
enough or minute enough to evade the relentless
scrutiny which he made to himself a duty of exer-
cising.

As early as 1622 he had offered " some consider-
ations" to the lords of the council for the regulation
of public worship amongst the English factories and
regiments beyond sea, and for reducing the French
and Dutch churches in London " unto some con-
formity;" and keeping these objects still in view,
he was scarcely enthroned at Lambeth when he
procured an order in council for the exact observance
of the liturgy with all its rites and ceremonies by the

379

factories and regiments in Holland, composed either
of Scotch or of English puritans who had fled from
the like impositions at home. A chaplain of his
own choice was immediately afterwards sent to the
factory at Delf with strict orders to report the
names of any who should prove refractory; the
former preacher being, says Heylyn, " either dead
or otherwise departed to avoid conformity." The
better to insure obedience, the church in Holland
was formally placed under the immediate jurisdic-
tion of the bishop of London for the time being.
"The like course was prescribed for our factories
in Hamburgh and those further off, that is to say
in Turkey, in the Mogul's dominions, the Indian
islands, the plantations in Virginia, the Barbadoes,
and all other places where the English had any
standing residence in the way of trade. The like
done also for regulating the divine service in the
families of all ambassadors." " The English agents
and ambassadors in the courts of foreign princes,"
adds Heylyn, " had not formerly been so regardful
of the honor of the church of England as they might
have been, in designing a set room for religious
uses, and keeping up the vestments, rites and
ceremonies prescribed by law in the performance of
them. It was now hoped that there would be a
church of England in all the courts of Christendom,
in the chief cities of the Turk, and other great
Mahometan princes, and all our factories and
plantations in every known part of the world, by

380

which it might be rendered as diffuse and catholic
as the church of RomeV

His next exertions were directed against the
French and Dutch churches at home, which he
sought to regulate by his metropolitan authority
without deigning to ask the concurrence of the king
in council. As a preliminary he addressed to the
French church in Canterbury and the Dutch ones
in Sandwich and Maids tone, three questions : —
Whether they did not use the French or Dutch
liturgy ? Of how many descents they were for the
most part born subjects ? And whether those born
subjects would conform to the church of England ?
The Kentish congregations, by advice of their
ccetus, put in a declinator to these interrogatories,
on the ground of privileges and exemptions granted
them by Edward VI. and confirmed by acts of
council under Elizabeth, James, and Charles him-
self.

The archbishop, notwithstanding, issued a per-
emptory order to the Kentish congregations, that such
of them as were natives should attend their parish
churches, and perform all duties and payments re-
quired in that behalf, and that such as were aliens
should use the English liturgy as it was, or might
be, faithfully translated into French or Dutch.

Ten congregations of protestant refugees then
subsisted within the province of Canterbury, and

* Cyprianus Anglfcus.

381

they immediately convoked a synod to consult for
their common defence in this emergency. In the
mean time the Kentish congregations were advised
to seek a respite, by addressing to the primate a
petition for his favor and the enjoyment of their
privileges. It was answered by him, with all the
fierceness of bigotry and the insolence of new
authority, in the following terms : That he did
nothing but what had been communicated to the
king and resolved by the council : That neither the
letters patent of king Edward, nor any reason by
them alleged, should hinder him from proceeding :
That their churches were nests and occasions of
schism, which he would prevent : That it were
better there were no foreign churches nor strangers
in England, than to have them thereby give occa-
sion of prejudice or danger to the church-govern-
ment of it: That they endeavoured to make them-
selves a state in a state, and had vaunted that they
feared not his injunctions ; but that he hoped the
king would maintain him in them, so long as he
governed by the canons : That the dissipation of
their churches, and maintenance of two or three
ministers, was not to be laid in the same balance
with the peace and happiness of the church of
England : That their ignorance in the English
tongue ought not to be used as a pretext for their
not going to their parish churches, considering that
it was an affected Ignorance, and they might avoid it
when they would: And finally, that he was resolved
to have his injunctions put in execution, and that

382

they should conform to them at their peril by the
time appointed.

Rebuffed in this quarter, the synod presented a
petition to the king. To this no answer was vouch-
safed ; but a second was transmitted to him through
the hands of the prince of Soubize, who strengthened
the cause by pleading the danger of a persecution
arising against the reformed in France, as soon as
it should be known how their brethren in England
were discountenanced and distressed. A speech
was also repeated of cardinal Richelieu, to the
effect, that if a king of England, who was a pro-
testant, would not permit two disciplines in his
kingdom, why should a king of France, a catholic,
permit two religions?

By all these efforts the king was at length moved
to consent, that those born aliens, and such other
strangers as should hereafter join them, should still
enjoy the use of their own liturgy; but their child-
ren born in England were peremptorily commanded
to attend their parish churches. This was the rule
for the province of Canterbury; in that of York,
where the congregations were more feeble, and found
less aid from powerful protectors, the original in-
junctions, in their unmitigated rigor, were imposed.

But the spirit of Laud was not that of the times
or of the people at large, and at the risk of his high
displeasure, ministers of parishes and churchward-
ens, with whom it rested to put the injunctions in
force, were found backward to apply the scourge of
persecution to brother protestants exemplary for

383

their industry, their regular and inoffensive beha-
vior, and their earnest piety. So long therefore as
the congregati'ons besides maintaining, as they had
always done, their own poor, submitted without a
murmur to the payment of English church dues, to
which they were now first rendered liable, their
nonconformity usually found connivance and re-
spect. It is even intimated by Heylyn, that in
their hearts the greater part of the English clergy
wished themselves equally free with those of foreign
churches from the authority and inspection of ec-
clesiastical superiors*.

Whilst by these and other measures of repression
and coercion, the primate exerted himself to esta-
blish the plenitude of his metropolitan authority in
England, and by gradual advances was encroaching
upon the liberty of the church of Scotland, his am-
bition extended its pretensions to Ireland likewise,
and was making still bolder strides of usurpation
there.

Long before the departure of Wentworth for his
Irish government, a strict league had been con-
cluded between these congenial spirits, in virtue of
which we shall find the lord-deputy aiding in de-
livering up the independent church of Ireland bound
and helpless into the hands of the archbishop of
Canterbury; and Laud, in return, lending his stre-
nuous and unscrupulous support to all the acts of
power by which the lord-deputy aimed at rendering

a Cyprianus Anglicus, p. 262, et seq.

384

himself despotic in the state. It was indeed in the
name of the king and of orthodoxy that Laud was
to wield his pontifical supremacy ; in the name of
the king and his divine right that Went worth was
to trample on the civil rights of his fellow-subjects:
but in either case we may detect in the minister the
further purpose of gratifying his own haughty and
domineering spirit. And although the antipopular
prejudices of Charles, his bigotry, and a mistaken
view of his own interests, powerfully conspired to
draw him into the measures of the confederates, he
was much more accessible than either to doubts and
fears ; and far from being on any occasion the
prompter of their enterprises, we shall find him on
some, hesitating to lend them his full and avowed
sanction.

In the first letter addressed by Laud to Wentworth
after his arrival in Ireland, we find him thus express-
ing himself respecting the obstacles which impeded
his career. t( I must desire your lordship not to
expect more at my hands than I am able to per-
form, either in church or state For, as for the

church, it is so bound up in the forms of the com-
mon law, that it is not possible for me or for any
man to do that good which he would, or is bound
to do. For your lordship sees, no man clearer,
that they which have ,got so much power in, and

over, the church, will not let go their hold

And for the state, indeed my lord I am for thorough,
but I see that both thick and thin stays somebody,
where I conceive it should not ; and it is impossi-

385

ble for me to go thorough alone. Besides, private
ends are such blocks in the public way, and lie so
thick, that you may promise what you will, and I
must perform what I can, and no moreV

In some of the acts of Laud respecting the church
of Ireland, it is not easy to determine whether he
conceived himself to be only performing the part of
his majesty's minister or secretary for ecclesiastical
affairs, or whether he assumed to himself a kind of
metropolitical or patriarchal authority; but in many
cases, as when he addressed a chiding letter to the
exemplary Bedel, then bishop of Kilmore, for daring
to sign a petition against the arbitrary assessment
for the maintenance of the army, he certainly
usurped the right of speaking in his own narneb.

At his instigation, Wentworth caused the com-
munion table to be restored to the station and name
of the Romish altar, in the chapel of Dublin castle
and the cathedral of that city, and issued peremp-
tory commands to the earl of Cork, vice-treasurer,
and one of the most powerful men in the kingdom,
to remove a splendid family monument which he
had lately erected in the church of St. Patrick in
the same city, because it obstructed a similar resto-
ration there. The earl resisted long, though vainly,
and the affront was never forgotten. The lord-
deputy next procured the university of Dublin to
elect Laud its chancellor, who immediately assu-
ming the active superintendence of its affairs, oc-

a Stra/ord Letters, i. 111. b Ibid. i. 133.

VOL. I. 2 C

386

cupied himself in planning new statutes for its go-
vernment.

In consideration of the continued payment of the
voluntary contribution for the maintenance of the
army, and in compliance with the graces promised
to the catholics in return, Charles had consented to
forbear for the present the exaction of the legal
penalty of twelve-pence the Sunday on such as
absented themselves from church; and Went worth,
whilst he confessed that although on account of the
seditions and disturbances stirred up by the priests
and Jesuits, "the introduction of conformity was by
far the greatest service which in that kingdom could
be rendered to the crowna," was yet desirous of
deferring so arduous an undertaking. * c To attempt
it," he said, " before the decays of the material
churches be repaired, and an able clergy provided,
that so there may be wherewith to receive, instruct,
and keep the people, were as a man going to war-
fare without ammunition or armsV His first mea-
sures therefore were directed to the establishment
of a commission for the repair of religious edifices,
which had been suffered throughout the kingdom to
fall into great dilapidation, and to a general reco-
very of such tithes and church lands as had become
impropriated to laymen. That Wentworth was
prompted to this design, in part at least, by a sense
of duty, is scarcely to be questioned: in the begin-
ning of his administration he thus expresses himself
in a letter to secretary Coke; — " I will be careful

a Stratford Letters, i, 367. b Ibid. 187.

387

too to vindicate the church from the fraud and co-
vetousness of ill bishops and sacrilegious lords com-
bining together to carry away the patrimony of the
church, and by that means leaving God's portion

naked and desolate to posterity I speak this

upon the general finding daily that the church hath
been impiously preyed upon by persons of all sorts,
that I dare say you would be amazed and astonished
at it as much as I am, if you were but here amongst
us. By means whereof the clergy here are reduced
to such a contempt, as is a most lamentable and
scandalous thing to see in any Christian common-
wealth*."

In the prosecution of a favorite object, Went-
worth, like Laud, was superior to all dread of pro-
voking enmities, and certainly no respecter of per-
sons. Thus we find that the earl of Cork was again
the first sufferer by the ecclesiastical policy of the
lord-deputy, who compelled him to disgorge church
revenues to the amount of 2000Z. per annum. For
this act of vigor the primate rewards him with ve-
hement applause, somewhat coarsely expressed, and
adds, "But if any of them (the bishops,) be as bad
for oppression of the church as any layman, that I
am sure is unanswerable; and if it appear so to you,
great pity it is but some one or other of the chief
offenders should be made a public example, and
turned out of his bishopric. And I believe such a
course once held, would do more good in Ireland

* Stra ford Letters, i. 151.

2 c 2

388

than any thing that hath been there these forty
years a." Immediately afterwards, a certain sir
Daniel O 'Brian, who held possession of lands to the
value of 500Z. per annum, which he feared that the
church would now reclaim, "did so juggle with the
bishop (of Killala) underhand" that he compounded
the whole interest of the church for a rent of 261.
" I got notice of it," writes Wentworth, " sent to
the bishop, told him roundly he had betrayed the
bishopric; that he deserved to have his rochet (set-
ting the dignity of his calling aside,) pulled over his
ears, and to be turned to a stipend of four nobles a
year ; and so warmed his old sides, as I made him
break the agreement, crave pardon, and promise to
follow the cause with all diligence b."

But it was characteristic of these high allies, in
pursuance of the system which they designated by
the term thorough, to respect law and justice quite
as little as the persons or stations of men. Great
part of the impropriations of tithes and bishops'
lands in Ireland dated as far back as the dissolution
of monasteries and the reformation of religion0, and
were doubtless sanctioned by several statutes ; yet
there is no appearance that property so circum-
stanced was intended to be exempted from the re-
clamations of the church. The king having been
prevailed upon to give back that portion of it which
had vested in the crown, — not however without a

a Straff or d Letters, i. 156. b Ibid. 171,

c Heylyns Cyprianus Ang. p. 253.

389

reserved rent, — Wentworth would see no injustice
in requiring as much from private persons, though
by his own account this was more than could be
got " where the common law was chancellor." In
that country, as he afterwards explained himself,
usurpations upon the church had been a contagion
so widely spread, that scarcely a jury could be pro-
cured in which there would not be found some per-
sonally interested ; so that " God's portion," to use
his own shocking expression, was not " to be reco-
vered, unless a little violence and extraordinary
means be used for the raising again as there hath
been for the pulling down of ita." Rightly judging
that means such as these to be effective must be
wielded by him in person, he solicited and ob-
tained from his majesty a " letter of direction" au-
thorizing him, by a daring infringement of the most
sacred provisions of the constitution, to take all
such causes out of the cognizance of the courts of
law, and decide them himself, with the concurrence
of his council, in the castle-chamber.

Having thus provided for the temporalities of the
church, he proceeded in the same overbearing spi-
rit to regulate her doctrine and discipline according
to his own or his friend's opinion of orthodoxy or
expediency.

The ecclesiastical establishment of Ireland, richly
endowed from early times, and amply furnished
with bishops and archbishops, had never under the

a Stra/ord Letters, i. 381.

390

Romish system been placed in subjection to either
of the metropolitans of England, nor had any such
yoke been imposed upon it at the reformation. Yet
it was so far considered in the light of a colony,
that the English articles had been established in that
kingdom by royal authority, without the interven-
tion of a national synod or convocation. The Irish
bishops and clergy bore with impatience this badge
of inferiority ; and when they saw the whole island
reduced to a state of tranquillity and civil obedience,
they took occasion, in 1615, to hold a convocation,
in which they resolved to frame articles and canons
of their own for the government of the church of
Ireland. The hand of Usher was that principally
employed in both ; and such was the deference paid
by king James to the authority of this eminent
scholar and divine, that when finished they had
obtained his immediate and unhesitating assent,
and had been in consequence established without
the slightest opposition on any part. The articles
were 104 in number ; in substance they differed
from those of the church of England in little ex-
cepting two points of Calvinism; the positive asser-
tion of the doctrine of predestination, and that of
the perpetual obligation of the sabbatical rest. A
prescription of twenty years had now lent them its
additional sanction, and the high station of their
venerable author, to whom, as archbishop of Armagh,
the dignity of primate of all Ireland had lately been
solemnly awarded, seemed to afford a firm pledge
for their present security. But in pursuit of a favor-

391

ite scheme, still greater obstacles might have failed
to shake the courage of the two confederates. Of
the approbation, or acquiescence, of the king they
were secure, and not less so of the submissive loy-
alty of the Irish primate ; the wishes or sentiments
of the protest ant clergy and people, were in their
eyes of little or no account.

Along with the Irish parliament of 1634, a con-
vocation was, in course, held ; the spirit of which
proved so favorable to the doctrine expressed by the
national articles, that both in its higher and lower
house a motion was made for their confirmation in
that assembly. The proposal was felt to be the more
embarrassing because it could not be openly resisted,
and the lord- deputy's party were reduced to the
necessity of parrying it by the suggestion that such
a confirmation would rather weaken than corrobo-
rate the authority of articles which had already
received all the sanction which the church could
afford. This difficulty being thus surmounted, the
courtiers moved the primate to allow a canon to be
drawn up and passed in expression of their unity
with the church of England and approbation of her
articles. Usher inadvertently consented; and it was
drawn in such terms, expressing not merely an ap-
probation, but a reception of that confession of
faith, that the primate and his friends had no sooner
passed it than they were told, not without some
show of reason, that having adopted other articles,
they had now, by their own act and deed, abrogated
their former ones. Alarmed and indignant at this

392

chicane, the primate and his suffragans protested
strongly against it, declaring that they should still
require subscription to the articles of the churcb of
Ireland, and the primate again desired from the
lord-deputy a confirmation of them. " But," says
Heylyn, "he found but little comfort there, the
lord-deputy threatening to cause the said confession
to be burned by the hand of the hangman ; if at
least the Scotch commissioners may be believed,
amongst whose articles against him I find this for
one." Repulsed in this quarter, Usher transmitted
to England his complaint and appeal ; but the credit
of Laud triumphed, as might have been expected,
over all that could be urged in a cause which had
little but justice to support it; and the independent
church of Ireland was abolished at his nod. "And
certainly," observes his biographer, who sees no-
thing in such a victory but honor and profit com-
bined, " the gaining of this point did much advan-
tage the archbishop, conducing visibly to the pro-
motion of his ends and counsels in making the Irish
clergy subject to the two declarations, and account-
able for their breaking and neglect thereof; that is
to say, his majesty,' s declaration about lawful sports,
and that prefixed before the book of articles for
appeasing controversies11."

In the diary of Laud is found the following entry
under the date of August 30th, 1634. "At Oat-
lands the queen sent for* me, and- gave me thanks

a Cyprianus Ang. p. 255, et seq.

-

393

for a business with which she trusted me; her pro*
mise then that she would be my friend, and that I
should have immediate address to her when I had
occasion." In the ensuing May, he also mentions
giving up his "account" to the queen, and that he
had received from her " assurance of all that was
desired by him." This "great business" which the
queen was anxious to compass, and in which the
archbishop had been won over to give his assist-
ance, is well understood to have been the reception
of an accredited agent from the pope. The osten-
sible objects of the sovereign pontiff in this mission
were, the termination of a long dispute between the
secular and the regular priests of England concern-
ing the expediency of placing them under the go-
vernment of a bishop ; and also the decision of the
much agitated question of the oath of allegiance,
which one party of the priests was willing to ac-
cept, whilst it was rejected by the greater number.
But more important motives lurked behind: The
ecclesiastical innovations of Laud had excited the
ambitious hopes of the court of Rome, in the same
proportion as they had inspired indignation and
alarm into the Calvinistic party at home, and the
reformed churches of the continent. Flattering re-
ports of the Romanizing spirit which had begun to
manifest itself in the English establishment had
been transmitted by the missionary priests to their
superiors : eminent personages both in church and
state had been hinted at as already catholic in heart,
and ready to become so by profession : the zealous

394

cooperation of Henrietta might be relied upon, and
on the whole, the aspect and conjuncture of affairs
were such as the Holy Father judged it expedient
to send an able politician to witness, to investigate,
and to report upon. It was perhaps partly by the
bait of some reparation to be obtained for the un-
fortunate Palatine family through the intercession
of the pope, that Charles was at first enticed to
give his consent to the appearance of so ominous a
visitant at the court of a protestant prince ; and
when about Christmas 1634, Panzani, an Italian
priest of the Oratory, arrived in this capacity in
London*, he was received by the king with very
distinguished courtesy, though in secret, and wel-
comed by the queen and her partisans with joy and
confidence ; secretary Windebank hastening to as-
sure him that he had nothing to fear from the laws
by which capital punishment was denounced against
any papal emissary found at large within the king-
dom.

At this juncture there were at least two confi-
dential advisers of the crown who had privately
reconciled themselves to the church of Rome,
Windebank, and lord Cottington, whose treachery
to his master in disclosing to the court of Madrid
his intrigues with the discontented Netherlander
has been already commemorated. These persons
having associated to themselves Montague bishop
of Chichester, lost no time in proposing to Panzani
a scheme of reconciliation between the Roman and
Anglican churches on the principle of a compromise,

395

and it unquestionably appears to have undergone
amongst themselves frequent and serious discussion;
by which however this momentous design was not
in effect advanced one step nearer to a conclusion.
Authorization seems to have been wanting on both
sides. Panzani had been strictly commanded to
abstain from pledging the sovereign pontiff to any
definite terms ; and although Montague, who would
scarcely have ventured to act without prompting,
made no scruple of answering for the concurrence
of the English primate, whom he represented as
holding back from a personal share in the treaty
only through fear or caution, there is no direct evi-
dence that Laud was a party to it, and none what-
ever that it had been communicated to the king.

But although both should have openly concurred,
and had even the nation agreed to the attempt, it
is evident, on due consideration of the subject, that
the remaining difficulties must still have proved
insuperable. " If," said Charles's predecessor, "the
pope will give up his infallibility, and his usurping
over kings, I can be content to own him for the
head of Christendom." This was a concession little
becoming a protestant prince to offer, and what no-
thing but his eagerness for his son's marriage with
the Infanta would have extorted from king James ;
but still the points reserved were precisely those
which the pope would have uncrowned himself by
conceding. The church of Rome has always per-
ceived that the vital question between her and pro-
testants is one of authority and jurisdiction, and

396

consistently with this view of the case, all or none
has been from the first her proud yet politic motto.
No approaches therefore, whether on points of doc-
trine, of discipline, or of ceremonial, — no confor-
mities, whether in mere externals or in what some
would regard as essentials, have ever been con-
sidered by her as worthy of encouragement or ac-
ceptance, and by nothing has she been more apt to
regard herself as disparaged than by proposals of
compromise. Thus it happened on the present oc-
casion ; Panzani, for having dared to hold out ex-
pectations that the crime of heresy might be, as it
were, compounded, was abruptly recalled by his
court, and the whole intrigue thus vanished into
air. If the primate had indeed been the real ori-
ginator of this design, — and we may ask what other
inference it is natural to deduce from the whole
scope of his ecclesiastical policy, crowned by the
decisive part which he took in prevailing upon the
king to admit an agent from Rome, — he may be
thought to have received from its result a lesson by
which he profited. The project of reconciliation
does not appear to have been resumed ; distinct
traces of a jealousy of the growing zeal and bold-
ness of the popish faction are discernible in the be-
haviour of Laud towards them almost from this
time, and the marks of indignation which he in
consequence provoked from the queen and the Je-
suits, are satisfactory proofs how wide had been
their mistake in each other, how severe their mu-
tual disappointment.

397

Notwithstanding the failure of these designs, it
was still an object of importance with the court of
Rome to be permitted to entertain an agent in
London commissioned to watch over the interests
of the church in the three kingdoms, and to pro-
mote as far as could be done with safety, the cause
of proselytism : by what arguments the mind of
king Charles could be so far warped as to believe
that any interests of his could be served either by
suffering the residence of such a person in England,
or reciprocally maintaining an agent at Rome, it is
difficult even to conjecture ; but certain it is, that
by an anomaly equally strange and disgraceful, a
priest of Scottish birth named Con was allowed to
succeed Panzani under the character of envoy to
her majesty the queen, whilst in return a brother
of the duke of Hamilton was accredited to the court
of Rome with the title of her ambassador ! Of the
negotiations of Hamilton or their results we hear
nothing ; but in the letters of the time frequent no-
tices occur of " signor Con," as he was styled, in
the character of a busy and mischievous intriguer,
who certainly did his part in bringing the religion
of the king and the court into suspicion with the
people at large, whilst he was himself beheld with
feelings of dislike and alarm by the rulers of the
national church.

It is not a little curious to observe, that at the
very time that the hopes of prevailing upon the
pope to intercede for the restoration of the prince

398

Palatine, though a pro test ant, and to promote the
marriage of one of his sisters with the king of Po-
land, were held out as the motives or pretexts for
entering into diplomatic relations with the court of
Rome, the high-church principles of Laud were
leading him to renounce, in the most offensive man-
ner, all fraternity with this prince's religion. At
the entreaty of the queen of Bohemia, a collection
for the exiled ministers of the Palatinate was to be
set on foot, under the authority of the king's letters
patent, which having been already drawn and sealed,
were brought to the primate for his further direc-
tions. They contained a passage expressing that
the cases of these persons were the more to be de-
plored, since this extremity had fallen upon them
for their sincerity and constancy in the " true reli-
gion " which we together with them professed, and
were bound in conscience to maintain to the utmost
of our power, and that these religious and godly
men might have enjoyed their estates and fortunes,
if, with other backsliders in the times of trial, they
would have submitted themselves to the antichris-
tian yoke. To this he took two exceptions, — first
that the religion of the Palatines, being Calvinistic,
both in respect of the interpretation of the doctrine
of predestination, and in maintaining the parity of
ministers, had no claim to be identified with our
" true religion," which we are bound to defend;
and secondly, that the pope's being Antichrist was
a doubtful point of controversy, not fit to be de-

399

cided in letters patent ; — and on his representation
of these matters to the king, they were called in
and the passage expunged3-.

Some months afterwards, Charles Lodowick the
prince Palatine came to England in order to solicit
in person the aid of his royal uncle, by whom he
was received with every mark of respect and affec-
tion. Fully aware of the importance of conciliating
the favorable opinion of the all-powerful primate,
the young prince almost immediately after his ar-
rival, crossed over from Whitehall, where he was
lodged in the apartments of the prince of "Wales,
and joined the archbishop in the evening prayer
then solemnly performed at Lambeth ; he likewise
diligently frequented the morning and evening ser-
vice in his majesty's closet, and on Christmas-day
received the communion in the chapel royal. But
the primate had still his jealousies, and " some busy
heads " having put forth a book entitled "A decla-
ration of the faith and ceremonies of the Palsgrave's
churches," he caused it to be called in "on the
same prudential grounds " as the letters patent.
"The prince," adds Heylyn, "was welcome, but
the book might better have staid at home, brought
hither in Dutch, and here translated into English,
printed, and exposed to the public view, to let the
vulgar reader see how much we wanted of the pu-
rity and simplicity of the Palatine churches b."

a Cypnanus Ang. p. 287. b Ibid. 288.

400

CHAPTER XII.

1634 and 1635.

Anecdotes and various notices from the Strafford Letters. — Procla-
mation for regulating prices of provisions, — -for the restraining of
building in London. — Fines on new buildings. — Extortion prac-
tised on vintners. — Sea-coal exported. — Hackney coaches. — Sedan
chairs. — Death of Carew; — his character and writings. — Instal-
lation of the Garter, and rivalry between Scotch and English. —
Trait of the earl of Arundel. — Star-chamber fine on lord Morley.
— Love story. — Account of sir KenelmDigby, — letter of Laud to
him. — Percy family, — earl of Northumberland, lady Carlisle and
Henry Percy. — Enmity of Laud against bishop Williams, who is
prosecuted and heavily sentenced in the star-chamber. — Sentence
against Osbaldeston, who escapes. — Proceedings against lady
Purbeck and sir R. Howard. — Irish affairs. — Grants to English
courtiers, — letter of king to Wentworth respecting them. — Con-
vocation of Irish parliament advised by Wentworth. — Feelings of
king regarding it; — successful management of it by Wentworth,
— his petition for honors, — king's reply. — Irish parliament dis-
solved.

J. HE lord-lieutenant of Ireland, like most consi-
derable men of the time, when absent from court
on public employments, engaged an intelligencer to
inform him of all news public and private. A cler-
gyman of the name of Garrard was intrusted by him
in this capacity, and from his and other letters of a
similar nature inserted amongst the Strafford ' ' Let-
ters and Dispatches " we gain many interesting
notices of the state of affairs, mingled with various
anecdotes and traits of manners. Court projects

401

for extorting money, and star-chamber prosecutions,
which had often the same purpose in view, form
leading topics of the correspondence. The harass-
ing interference of the government with the private
concerns of men is frequently exhibited, and there
are some facts which indicate the rapid advance then
taking place in the accommodations and luxuries of
life. A few extracts will illustrate these points.

Great reformation is said to have been effected
in the prices of all "achates" (provisions) , the lord-
mayor, by order of the council-board, first setting
the prices for the city, and then the king, by his
proclamation, doing the same for all places near
London. Afterwards it is announced that these
arbitrary measures had not produced the expected
benefit ; men would no longer bring their commo-
dities to the London market as before, so that
housekeeping was become much more chargeable
than it had ever been. This high price of provi-
sions in the capital, which had long been a subject
of complaint, had been one of the pretexts, though
not the real motive, of some tyrannical acts of
Elizabeth, and afterwards of a proclamation of
James, against the erection of any new buildings in
London, unless on the site of old ones, without a
special license, and Mr. Garrard thus writes of
further proceedings at this time relative to the
same matter.

1 ' Here are two commissions a-foot which are
attended diligently, which will bring, as it is con-
ceived, a great sum of money to his majesty. The

VOL. i. 2 D

402

first, concerning the licensing of those who shall
have a lease for life to sell tobacco in and about
London, and so in all the boroughs and villages in
England ; fifteen pounds fine, and as much rent by

the year The other is for buildings in and

about London since a proclamation in the thirteenth
of king James." He adds, that divers had been
called ore tenus this term, of whom the "most noto-
rious " was Moor, one of the clerks of the signet,
who for his buildings in St. Martin's in the Fields
was fined 1000Z. and ordered to pull them all down
by Easter, being 42 dwelling-houses, stables and
coach-houses, on pain of 1000/. more. Some months
after, it appears that star-chamber writs had actually
gone forth to the sheriff to pull down these houses,
and levy on the owner 2000/. for not doing it him-
self by Easter. c ' And I verily think," says the letter
writer, "that they will do both, for he hath carried
himself so foolishly and so peevishly, that he de-
serves little commiseration." Probably he had pre-
sumed to make some appeal or remonstrance !

Three years' rent, and " some little rent to the
king" additional, was required by the commission-
ers as a composition, when the buildings were suf-
fered to stand. " How far this will spread," adds
Garrard, " I know not, but it is confidently spoken
that there are above 100,000/. rents upon this string
about London; I speak much within compass: For
Tuttle (Tothill), St. Giles's, St. Martin's Lane,
Drury Lane, Covent Garden, Lincoln's Inn Fields,
Holborn, and beyond the Tower from Wapping to

403

Blackwall, all come in and are liable to fining for
annoyances, or being built contrary to proclamation,
though they have had licenses granted to do so ;
my lord of Bedford's license in this case, as it is
said, will not avail hima."

Extortion now descended to humble game. The
vintners and tavern-keepers of London were re-
strained by a prohibition from dressing meat in their
houses ; afterwards, some obtained special permis-
sion, and at length we find, " Tis said that the vint-
ners within the city will give 6000/. to the king to
dress meat as they did before ; and the suburbs will
yield somewhat V Afterwards however, on the
refusal of the vintners to pay to the king an impo-
sition on wines, the interdict was renewed.

Every new branch of commerce, every project or
invention was made the subject of a monopoly,
under the name of a patent or grant to a chartered
company. The first notice, probably, of coal, as
an article of export, is conveyed in these terms :
" My lords of Dorset and Holland have obtained a
beneficial suit of the king, worth better than 1000/.
a-year a-piece to them, for sea-coal exported to
Dunkirk and other places in the late archduchess's
country. They found so great a benefit of our coal,
which they took by way of prize in the late differ-
ence between us and Spain, that they are contented
to give four shillings upon the chaldron to have
them brought to them." The introduction of a

a Stra/ord Letters, i. 206. b Ibid. 262.

2 D 2

404

great accommodation of life in London is thus com-
memorated. " Here is one captain Baily, he hath
been a sea captain, hut now lives on the land about
this city, where he tries experiments. He hath erected
according to his ability some four hackney coaches,
put his men in a livery, and appointed them to
stand at the Maypole in the Strand, giving them
instructions at what rates to carry men into several
parts of the town, where all day long they may be
had. Other hackney men seeing this way, they
flocked to the same place, and perform their jour-
neys at the same rate. So that sometimes there is
twenty of them together, which disperse up and
down, so that they and others are to be had any-
where." In two months after this plan had been
established which "pleased everyone," from the
great reduction it effected in the rates of coach
hire, we find mention of " a proclamation coming
forth, about the reformation of hackney coaches,
and ordering of other coaches about London; 1900
was the number of hackney coaches of London, base
lean jades, unworthy to be seen in so brave a city,
or to stand about a king's court." If the numbers
here given be correct, the progress of luxury in this
article had been surprisingly rapid. Rushworth
records, that in the first year of king Charles, there
were not above twenty coaches to be had for hire
in and about London. " The grave judges of the
law constantly rid on horseback in all weathers to
Westminster*."

* Rushworth's Collections, ii. 317.

405

In the same year, 1634, we find another project,
for " carrying people up and down in close chairs,
for the sole doing whereof sir Sander Duncombe, a
traveller, now a pensioner, hath obtained a patent
from the king, and hath forty or fifty making ready
for use."

In May 1634, Garrard mentions "Mr. Thomas
Carey's death, and the pretenders to his place in
the bedchamber." Thomas Carew the poet, gen-
tleman of the privy chamber and sewer in ordinary
to the king, must be the person here alluded to,
although his biographers have conjecturally dated
his death about five years later. He merits com-
memoration both as a writer, and as a member of
that distinguished society of wits and scholars into
which the future earl of Clarendon makes it his
boast to have early gained admission.

1 ( Thomas Carew," he says in his own Life,
" was a younger brother of a good family, and of
excellent parts, and had spent many years of his
youth in France and Italy j and returning from travel
followed the court, which the modesty of that time
disposed men to do some time before they pretended
to be of it : and he was very much esteemed by the
most eminent persons in the court, and well looked
upon by the king himself some years before he could
obtain to be sewer to the king ; and when the king
conferred that place upon him, it was not without
the regret even of the whole Scotch nation, which
united themselves in recommending another gen-
tleman to it He was a person of a pleasant

406

and facetious wit, and made many poems, especially
in the amourous way, which, for the sharpness of
the fancy, and the elegancy of the language in
which that fancy was spread, were at least equal,
if not superior, to any of that time : But his glory
was, that after fifty years of his life, spent with less
severity or exactness than it ought to have been,
he died with the greatest remorse for that license
and with the greatest manifestations of Christianity,
that his best friends could desire*. "

It may be remarked, that the glory, if so it should
be called, of this very tardy repentance, does not
extend to the character of Carew in the sole capacity
in which he belongs to posterity, since his writings
bear no traces of his death, and too many of his life.

His greatest work however, the masque of Ccelum
Brittanicum, performed before their majesties at
Whitehall, affects, in compliment to the royal pair,
a high tone of moral purity, and it affords strains
of a rich and noble poesy only surpassed by that
of Comus. This piece has been claimed for Da-
venant, and even printed amongst his works, but
it bears in every part the stamp of the superior
workmanship of Carew. Suckling in his " Sessions
of the Poets" gives to this writer an honorable
place, next to " good old Ben," but adds, — "he
had a fault

" That could not well stand with a laureate,

His Muse was hard-bound, and th' issue of his brain
Was seldom brought forth but with trouble and pain."

a Life of the earl of Clarendon, fol. edit. p. 9.

407

The reader however, where the result has been
finished excellence, will be little disposed to join
with rival wits in ridicule of the labor by which his
pleasure has been purchased.

On occasion of the installation of two knights of
the garter, the earls of Danby and Morton, there
was "a secret vye" between the English and the
Scottish lord which should ride through London to
Windsor best attended. " But my lord Danby
carried it sheer ; for he clothed fifty men in tissue
doublets and scarlet hose thick laced, twelve foot-
men, two coaches set out bravely, and all the an-
cient nobility of England that were not of the garter
rode with him, and many other earls and barons."
There rode with lord Morton a few English noble-
men and knights, and some of the equerries, all the
rest Scottish lords and gentlemen ; and most of the
company were supplied with the king's horses.
But what " added much to his show," and still more
it may be thought to the moral interest of the
scene, was the attendance of all the Scottish colo-
nels who had shared in the glorious campaigns of
Gustavus Adolphus, and had lately come to London
in the suite of count Oxenstiern, son of the cele-
brated Swedish minister; and ambassador of the
infant queen Christina.

At the chapter of the order held on this occasion
a dispute arose worthy of such an assemblage ; and
it was ordered " that the officers of the garter who
at Windsor the last year eat in the same room with
the king, with their hats on, shall hereafter never

408

eat again in the same room. The earl marshal
stood stiff for them, and said it was a dignity to
the order rather than any diminution. It suffered
much debate, but it was carried by votes, for none
concurred with hima." In a question of punctilio,
it can scarcely be doubted that an "-earl-marshal of
the character of lord Arundel would be in the right,
whilst his pertinacity in the affair gives token of
the high baronial pride noted in him by lord Cla-
rendon, who says, " he resorted sometimes to the
court, because there only was a greater man than
himself; and went thither the seldomer because
there was a greater man than himself V

Of the proportion between offence and penalty
observed in the court of star-chamber, we have a
striking instance in the report of lord Morley's case,
charged with holding abusive and threatening lan-
guage towards sir George Theobalds, " punching
him on the breast, and catching him by the throat
with his hand. All which was said and done nigh
to the chair of state, in that room where their ma-
jesties were entering." His lordship appears to
have been intoxicated, and his counsel confessed
the charge and submitted to the king's mercy :
Yet " the attorney pursues him fiercely, shows his
learning and brings his precedents ;" they proceed
to censure, and all concur in the sentence of 10,000/.
to the king and 1000Z. to sir George Theobalds, ex-

a Str afford Letters, i. 242.

b Hist, of Rebellion, restored edit,, vol. i. p. 98.

409

cepting the lord privy-seal (the earl of Dorset) and
the archbishop, who, voting last, sentenced him
20,000/. to the king, besides imprisonment in the
Tower, "where," says the reporter, " I leave hima."
A curious story occurs, connected with an odious,
but not novel, species of royal interference in those
concerns of private life which ought to be held
most inviolably sacred from such intrusion. One
Sutling, whose father had held an office at court,
but who was himself known only as a gambler,
imagining that he had secured the affections of a
young heiress, procured, through some court friend,
a letter from the king to her father, sir Henry Wil-
loughby, to give his consent to the match. The
young lady however, indignant at his boastful
speeches, employed another of her suitors, of the
spirited race of Digby, to compel him to sign a dis-
claimer of his pretensions which she dictated ; who,
on Sutling's refusal, fell upon him with " a cudgel
which, being a yard long, he beat out upon him al-
most to a handful." He likewise gave several blows
with his fist to a confederate who accompanied him.
Instead of retaliating, Sutling and his friend carried
their complaints to court; and a messenger was in
consequence sent to bring up, not Digby, but sir
Henry Willoughby and his daughter, when " the
whole business of discerning the young woman's
affection" was committed to " the lord Holland
and sir Henry Vane the comptroller, " but still,

a Straford Letters, i. 335.

410

<c she would have none of Sutling. " An assault
like this, committed, too, against a suitor armed
with the royal letter, would have certainly furnished
ample matter for a ruinous sentence in the star-
chamber ; yet Digby appears to have escaped with
impunity, and his brother sir Kenelm, immediately
after the occurrence, went to court and there
" avowed to his friends every particle of the busi-
ness." This circumstance, which implies no ordi-
nary confidence in the strength of his own favor
with the highest personages, may give us occasion
to look into the life and character of one of the
most singular men of his age, a person, according
to the happy expression of lord Clarendon, " very
eminent and notorious throughout the whole course
of his life."

Kenelm, eldest son of sir Everard Digby who
forfeited his life for his share in the powder plot,
was born in 1603. We learn on his own authority
that he was educated in the religion of Rome, and
though too young at the time of his father's death
to preserve any recollection of him, he would doubt-
less be imbued with a veneration for his memory
and the cause in which he died, likely to exert a
powerful influence over his principles and conduct
in later life. In common with the sons of other
recusants of distinction about this period, he was
sent for education to Oxford, where it was easy,
amid outward conformity to the English church, to
place a youth under the secret inspection of some
one of the disguised priests or Jesuits who made

411

that university their resort. It was here that he
formed an acquaintance with Laud then dean of
Gloucester, which ripened into a lasting and affec-
tionate friendship ; but we do not learn whether this
prelate had any share in that sincere conversion to
the protestant faith which he states himself to have
undergone in early life. He followed with ardor the
natural bent of his genius towards the sublimer, or
more mystical parts of all which was then called
philosophy ; and the extraordinary acuteness of his
mind, aided by a confident spirit and a great flow
of language, caused him to be regarded as a kind
of prodigy, and compared to the celebrated Pico of
Mirandula, surnamed the Phoenix.

On leaving Oxford, he entered upon an extensive
tour in Europe, and made one in the crowd of En-
glish who hastened to form a court round Charles
and Buckingham during their visit to Madrid in
1623. He was knighted on his return by king
James, who felt no repugnance to conferring honors
on the heir of the hero and martyr of the powder
plot, whilst the son of the injured Raleigh was ba-
nished from his presence as an importunate remem-
brancer.

It deserves mention, as illustrative alike of the
man and the age, that Digby increased his celebrity
by bringing home from his travels a recipe for pre-
paring a powder for the cure of wounds by sympa-
thy, which made much noise at the time, and which,
it may be added, the eminent court-physician sir
Theodore Mayern has not disdained to include

412

amongst the articles of his pharmacopoeia. Digby
afterwards published a single case of a cure per-
formed by it on the person of James Howel the
letter- writer, which has been characterized as exhi-
biting "much charlatanery in the operator, and ap-
parently an artful collusion in the patient a."

In his zeal for the support of the doctrine of
sympathies, he became the promulgator of the ab-
surd tale, which has obtained general currency,
though authenticated by no other writer, of king
James's dread of the sight of a sword, which he
assumes to have been caused by the fright of his
mother on witnessing the murder of Rizzio. Early
in the reign of Charles, sir Kenelm rose into such
favor as to be appointed a gentleman of the bed-
chamber and a commissioner of the navy and go-
vernor of the Trinity House, and impelled by an
adventurous spirit, he equipped a squadron at his
own expense, and having obtained the king's com-
mission sailed for the Mediterranean, where he
attacked the Algerines and rescued many British
captives. Also, " upon an injury received or ap-
prehended from the Venetians, he encountered their
whole fleet, killed many of their men, and sunk one
of their galeasses ; which in that drowsy and inac-
tive time was looked upon with a general estima-
tion, though the crown disavowed itb." We may
add, that in the dispatches of sir Thomas Roe, then

a Aikin's General Biography, article Digby.
b Life of lard Clarendon, p. 9.

413

ambassador at the Porte, these vaunted exploits are
severely reprobated as contrary to the law of na-
tions, and seriously injurious in their effects to the
interests of the British merchants in the Levant, and
an ordinary person might have reaped punishment
from them instead of glory and applause. But in
Digby were wonderfully united all the gifts of na-
ture, education and fortune which attract the eyes,
dazzle the imaginations and overawe the under-
standings of men; and which, to their favored pos-
sessor, serve not less for defence than ornament.
Poets, wits and scholars combined to praise him ;
Ben Jonson celebrated his victory at Scanderoon,
Suckling in his "Sessions of the Poets" placed him
amongst the favorite courtiers of Apollo, and he
secured the thanks and praises of his alma mater
by presenting to the Bodleian a large collection of
books, comprising valuable manuscripts, the legacy
of his Oxford tutor.

After his return from the Levant, he seems to
have revisited France ; but we are too little informed
of the circumstances of his life at this period to
judge decidedly of the justice of the accusation, af-
terwards brought against him by the long parlia-
ment, of having been the person through whom the
offer of a cardinal's hat was conveyed to Laud. The
archbishop in his diary adverts to this emissary as
"having relation to some ambassador," which seems
rather to mark him as a foreigner ; and the fact that
after this time he regarded Digby as still a member
of the church for which he had deserted that of

414

Rome, seems almost conclusive against the charge.
Subsequently we find him again in France, where
the efforts of Romish theologians, aided by his own
early impressions, and by the turn for prodigy and
mystery which was the darling foible of his mind,
were successful, after a short struggle, in recon-
verting him to the faith of his fathers. A letter
addressed to him by Laud on this occasion, and in-
cluded amongst his published writings, is a piece
worthy of some notice. It is written with a tone of
friendliness, mildness, and candor which on a simi-
lar occasion would do honor to the dignitary of any
church, the leader of any sect. Sincere sorrow he
expresses that <ca man whose discourse did so much
content " him, should have slid away from him be-
fore he was so much as awakened to a suspicion
that he was going. "Had you put me into a dispen-
sation, " he adds, " and communicated your thoughts
to me before they had grown up into resolutions, I
am a priest, and would have put on what secrecy
you should have commanded. A little knowledge I
have (God knows a little) , I would have ventured it
with you in that serious debate you have had with
yourself. I have ever honored you since I knew
your worth, and I would have done all good offices
of a friend to keep you nearer than now you are.
But since you are gone, and settled another way
before you would let me know it, I know not now
what to say to a man of judgement and .so resolved:
For to what end should I treat, when a resolution
is set already? So set, as that you say no clear and

415

evident proof can be found against it : Nor can I
tell how to press such a man as you to ring the
changes in religion. In your power it was not to
change ; in mine it is not to make you change again.
Therefore, to the moderation of your own heart,
under the grace of God, I must and do now leave
you for matter of religion ; but retaining still with
me, and entirely, all the love and friendliness which
your worth won from me ; well knowing that all dif-
ferences in opinion shake not the foundations of re-
ligion*." It is curious to contrast these sentiments
with those which the primate evinced towards pro-
testant nonconformity. With respect to Digby, this
relapse into a proscribed faith was attended by no
sacrifice of worldly advantages ; on the contrary, it
augmented his personal importance by restoring to
him his hereditary influence, and rendering him in
some degree the hero of a formidable and busy fac-
tion. The queen received him to a distinguished
place in her favor and confidence, and henceforth
political intrigue was added to the other subtile and
mysterious sciences in which he delighted to bewil-
der and delude himself and others.

Kenelm Digby was the author of numerous works
in various branches of philosophy, which displayed
acuteness and ingenuity, but alloyed with much of
the visionary and absurd, much of credulity and
not a little of the spirit of imposture. They have
long fallen into complete neglect, and their author,

a Troubles and Trial, p. 614.

416

like some vaunted actor, may be said to have left
nothing to posterity but the fact that such a man
was once the talk and the gaze of his contempo-
raries.

The great family of Percy possessed at this period
no less than three members, children of Henry ninth
earl of Northumberland, all deserving of commemo-
ration amongst the public characters of the reign.
These were, Algernon who inherited the family ho-
nors, Henry, and Lucy countess of Carlisle. There
was another sister also, married to Robert Sidney
earl of Leicester, an alliance which whilst it served
as the cement of a truly fraternal intimacy between
the earls of Leicester and Northumberland, rendered
her the mother of a memorable offspring, — Alger-
non Sidney, and Waller's Sacharissa, who became
countess of Sunderland.

Algernon Percy, born in 1602, had been called
up to the house of peers in his father's lifetime on
the accession of king Charles ; he succeeded to the
earldom in 1632, and the following year attended
the king on his progress to Scotland. In 1635 he
received the garter through the interest of his bro-
ther with the queen. " Henry Percy," writes vis-
count Conway to the lord-deputy of Ireland, "hath
lately had a fortunate occasion ; the earl of Mar
dying, he spake to the queen to speak to the king
to give the garter to his brother, and to make it her
act solely, that the thanks may be only hers. So she
did ; and when the earl of Northumberland kissed
the king's hand for his favor, no man knew the

417

cause ," We are told, of his installation, that
" never subject of this kingdom rode better attended
from his house than he did, nor performed the bu-
siness more nobly or more sumptuously." " The
garter," it is added, " is grown a dear honor, few
subjects will be able to follow this pattern V In
fact it was followed by none ; this being the last
cavalcade of that kind. He was next called to the
privy council. Soon after, the king having equipped,
with the produce of ship-money, a fleet of sixty sail,
gave the command of it to this earl, who, on ap-
pointing his captains, gave token of an uncourtly
zeal against popery, by persisting in administering
to them the oath of abjuration as well as that of
allegiance, a test which seems to have excluded sir
Kenelm Digby and another of that family from the
service. Northumberland then proceeded on an
action which appears scarcely worthy of so great an
armament, the attack of the Dutch herring-boats
fishing off the English coasts, many of which he
took or destroyed, and brought their government to
purchase a license to fish of the king of Great Bri-
tain, for which they paid, or rather promised to pay,
a sum of 30,OOOZ.

The next year the earl was appointed lord high
admiral. On the breaking out of the civil war we
shall find him siding with the parliament, and per-
forming an important and honorable part; he was
anxious, however, for a pacification on principles of
mutual concession, and Clarendon informs us that

a Strafford Letters, i. 363. l Ibid. i. 427.

VOL. I. 2 E

418

by the restoration of his office of admiral, the king
might have regained him. And his subsequent ter-
giversation confirms the fact. We ought however
to take with grains of allowance the character drawn
for him by the pencil of this writer. After mention-
ing him as the chief of all those who having been of
the king's council, stayed and acted with the parlia-
ment, as well in respect of his family, his fortune, his
high office, and * f the general reputation he had among
the greatest men," the historian sums up the king's
favors to him, and then adds : " He was in all his
deportment a very great man, and that which looked
like formality, was a punctuality in preserving his
dignity from the invasion and intrusion of bold men,
which no man in that age so well preserved himself
from. Though his notions were not large or deep,
yet his temper and reservedness in discourse, and
his unrashness in speaking, got him the reputation
of an able and a wise man; which he made evident
in the excellent government of his family, where no
man was more absolutely obeyed ; and no man had
ever fewer idle words to answer for ; and in debates
of importance, he always expressed himself very
pertinently. If he had thought the king as much
above him, as he thought himself above other con-
siderable men, he would have been a good subject ;
but the extreme undervaluing those, and not enough
valuing the king, made him liable to the impressions
which they who approached him by those addresses
of reverence and esteem which usually insinuate
themselves into such natures, made in hima," &c.

a Hist. Rebel., restored edit. iii. 552.

419

Sir Philip Warwick says of this lord, that " being
a graceful young man, of great sobriety and regu-
larity, and in all kinds promising and hopeful to be
an ornament to the crown, the king cast a friendly,
nay fatherly eye upon him, and was observed to use
him with respect as well as kindness." It seems
then, that in joining the party opposed to the arbi-
trary measures of the king, the earl of Northumber-
land was not actuated by any private resentment ;
though from other personal motives he might not
be free.

Henry Percy and his sister were both courtiers
on what was called the queen's side. Lady Carlisle
was a distinguished beauty, wit, and political in-
triguer, nor is her memory free from the suspicion,
at least, of gallantry; no court lady of her time was
equally celebrated or conspicuous. She was flattered
in French by Voiture, and in her native tongue by al-
most all the contemporary wits and poets, and more
especially by Waller in verse, and in prose by that
singular and mysterious person, sir Toby Matthew;
who composed an elaborate character of her which
is sufficiently hyperbolical to wear some appearance
of irony, especially in the eulogium which he seems
to bestow upon that arrogant scorn with which it
was her practice to treat persons of every rank.
Either through the interest of her husband, or that
of her cousin, and perhaps lover, lord Holland,
the joint negotiators of the royal marriage, lady
Carlisle was early appointed to a high office in the
household of the queen ; and notwithstanding occa-

2 E 2

420

sional quarrels, such as could scarcely fail to arise
between two ladies so distinguished for high spirit,
she long enjoyed, and singularly abused the favor
and confidence of Henrietta. Wentworth is sup-
posed at one period to have stood high in her good
graces; and it is manifest from the correspondence
of this statesman with Laud, that even the rigid
primate paid homage at her shrine as a presiding
power in that court over which he sought to esta-
blish his sway. " I will write to my lady of Car-
lisle," says the lord-deputy, " as your grace ap-
points me. In good sadness I judge her ladyship
very considerable, for she is often in place, and is
extremely well skilled how to speak with advantage
and spirit for those friends she professeth unto,
which will not be many. There is this further in
her disposition, she will not seem to be the person
she is not, an ingenuity I have always observed and
honored her for." And again : " I have writ fully
to my lady of Carlisle, and am very confident, if it
be in her ladyship's power, she will express the es-
teem she hath your lordship in to a very great
height."

A letter from viscount Conway to Wentworth
dated in January 1634-5 gives a lively sketch of
the temper and position both of this lady and her
brother Henry.

" My lady of Carlisle, upon the end of the pro-
gress was long from the court at my lord's house in
the Strand, but it was because she took physic, and
my lord was sick, having taken cold. Now, and a

421

long time, she hath been at Whitehall as she was
wont to be, which is as when you left her: But she is
not now in the masque. I think they were afraid to
ask and be refused, and she would not offer herself.
Henry Percy and my lady have had unkindnesses,
and he and my lord of Carlisle. Mr. Percy is a di-
ligent courtier, his chief patron the duke of Lenox;
his addresses are most on the queen's side ; but I
cannot find that he gains much love any where. He
had a quarrel with my lord Dunluce this last sum-
mer, out of which he came not so handsomely as
did become Henry Hotspur ; I believe he will not
make any great profit by the court, because he be-
gins the Paternoster with, ' Give us this day our
daily bread.' His wits did long bombinare upon
projects in Ireland, and I believe they are not all
yet at an end, there being little hope for him here,
now that he hath missed going ambassador into
France. There was unkindness between his sister
and him ; what the words were I know not, but J
conceive they were spoken on the queen's side,
where there never will be perfect friendship. For,
my lady of Carlisle will be respected and observed
by her superiors, be feared by those that will
make themselves her equals, and will not suffer
herself to be beloved but of those that are her ser-
vants51."

Notwithstanding the " little love " which Percy
at this time excited, and the doubt thrown on his

* Stra/ord Letters, i. 363.

422

courage, we shall find him in the sequel recommend-
ing himself to the king and queen by a daring,
though unfortunate enterprise. He was created lord
Percy of Alnwick in 1 643 ; was much consulted by
the king in military affairs, and afterwards became
lord chamberlain to Charles II. during his exile. It
is probable that he derived from his father some
taste for the exact sciences, since it was he who in-
troduced the philosopher Hobbes to his master, at
Paris, as a teacher of mathematics. Lord Percy
died at Paris unmarried in 1659.

Among the chosen objects of hatred and persecu-
tion to the archbishop, there was one who stood pre-
eminent ; and his animosity towards this individual
it must have been difficult, if not impossible, for him
to disguise to himself under any pretext of zeal for
religion or attachment to his prince. Bishop Wil-
liams, the dismissed lord keeper, was to Laud the
Mordecai sitting at the king's gate, who marred all
the enjoyment of his present greatness. It was not
enough to have driven him from his judgement-
seat ; — to have caused the king to exclude him from
his presence and expunge his name from the list of
his privy councillors; — so long as he continued to
flourish under the frown of power, governing his
diocese in peace and maintaining at his palace of
Buckden that open hospitality to which his temper
and his policy alike inclined him, — but especially,
so long as by retaining his deanery of Westminster
he secured to himself a lawful cause for visiting
London, and keeping up his court connexions, he

423

was still formidable, still a stone of offence to be
removed by any means which offered.

Williams, it must be confessed, was little disposed
to conciliate his powerful adversary by compliance
or submission. On the contrary, he contested,
though vainly, the claim of the metropolitan to
visit his diocese, which he affirmed to be exempted
by ancient bulls ; he published a tract, not the less
galling for the wit and sound learning with which
it was seasoned, entitled, "The holy table," and
aimed against Laud's favorite superstition concern-
ing altars ; and neither threats nor promises could
prevail with him to resign his deanery and cease
his visits to the court.

The star-chamber appeared to the primate the
only instrument capable of effecting the destruction
of an enemy so strongly intrenched in courage,
ability, indefatigable perseverance, and, in the main,
innocence. Accordingly, through some of his in-
struments, he caused a bill to be filed against him on
a charge of betraying the king's counsels, so frivo-
lous that it was immediately thrown out by the four
privy councillors to whom it was referred. The
king at this time, on the submission and petition of
the bishop, gave a promise that this accusation
should never more be heard against him ; but by the
continual suggestions of Laud, he was afterwards in-
duced to break his word, and to permit it to be made
one of the grounds of a star-chamber prosecution*.

8 Life of Williams, part ii. pp. 114, 115.

424

In the meantime, further plots were hatching
against the devoted bishop. The eyes of politicians
and courtiers seem to have watched with anxious
curiosity the final event of this tedious struggle,
and several hints in contemporary letters show how
well its causes and objects were understood. Gar-
rard writes to Wentworth in January 1634-5, that
four of the prebendaries of Westminster had exhi-
bited charges against the bishop, as dean, which
the king had referred to some of the council ; the
other eight prebendaries, he adds, "complain not."
4 ' Would he have quitted his deanery, perhaps he
might have been quiet long since a."

The prosecution was now urged on with greater
vehemence than ever. Laud, assisted by Winde-
bank, and sir J. Lamb, engaged by splendid pro-
mises one Kilvert, a person of very indifferent re-
putation, to assume the office of accuser, who, says
the biographer of Williams, " interloping into the
prosecution of the cause, disturbed it in every point
of the due proceeding, left not one rule or practice
of the court unbroken, menacing and intimidating
witnesses, clerks, registers, examiners, judges, and
the lord keeper himself." Williams appealed to the
king for redress of these wrongs, but could obtain
no permission to call the perpetrator to account.
Even when the audacity of the man carried him so
far as to declare openly, " that he cared not what
orders the lords made in court, for he would go to

s Stra/ord Letters, i. 360.

425

Greenwich and cause them all to be changed,

the lords perceiving upon the archbishop's motion,
that it was not safe to punish him, it past over with
a slight submission." Chief-justice Heath, who
sat as one of the assessors, complained that " Kil-
vert threatened to procure him to be turned out of
his place for his forwardness;" but this also was
" slubbered over with a little acknowledgement of
rashness;" and in fact "sir Robert Heath was dis-
placed, and for no misdemeanour proved," and one
put in his place "who was more forward to undo
Lincoln than ever the lord Heath was to preserve
him."

It was the policy of the defendant to gain time ;
by means of traverses he spun out the cause for a
period of eighteen months. Almost incredible vio-
lences and iniquities were in the meantime put in
practice by Kilvert, with the assistance of secretary
Windebank, to deprive the bishop of his just de-
fence : witnesses were thrown into prison to make
them tractable, and several of the judges themselves
were terrified into rescinding, or altering, an order
of their own, and readmitting rejected evidence. One
of this number was lord Finch, who on the bishop's
asking him why he had so used an old acquaintance,
replied; "he had been soundly chidden by his
majesty, and would not destroy himself for any
man's sake."

In spite of all this violence however, the charge
was finally quashed. That it had been first raised
and supported by an unworthy combination of

426

suborned and perjured witnesses, seems well esta-
blished; but it was certainly much less to his inno-
cence than to the interposition of some powerful
enemies of Laud, of whom Cottington was the chief,
that Williams owed his present deliverance. The
king now seemed to mitigate his displeasure, "and
hearkened to some conditions to have all the bills
against the bishop cast out, and to let him purchase
his peace with his purse." In other words, his ma-
jesty was inclined to take a bribe from him. Wil-
liams, aware that the king alone could protect him
from utter ruin by the machinations of the primate,
consented to come to terms ; those first brought him
by Cottington were " to part with 4000/. with his
deanery, and two inconsiderable commenda." On
the bishop's refusal to give up his preferments, an
additional 4000/. was required in lieu of them.
1 1 The bishop held up his hands in amazement at it.
* But you will lift your hands at a greater wonder/
says lord Cottington, * if you do not pay it;'" and
he consented to " satisfy the king." " I care not
for poverty," said this munificent man, after all had
been wrung from him, " but I shall not be able to
requite a benefit." " God grant every good king,"
adds his biographer, * ' a better way than this was,
to enrich him."

A pardon was now offered to Williams, in terms
more comprehensive than his sense of innocence
would allow him to accept of. The affair however
seemed concluded on, and was reported to be com-
pleted, when Laud hurried to the king and over-

427

threw all. The monarch without restoring the mo-
ney, broke the conditions on which he had received
it, and a new information was brought against the
bishop on a charge of tampering with witnesses, in
order to shield the character of one who had im-
portant evidence to give for the defence in his late
cause. Tampering was, it seems, no offence by any
law, nor had this charge the slightest bearing upon
the other matters charged against him : Yet the
court was occupied ten days in the hearing ; the
former iniquities, or worse, were repeated, through
the instrumentality of Finch ; and in conclusion the
bishop was sentenced to pay a fine of 10,OOOL, to be
imprisoned in the Tower during pleasure, and during
pleasure likewise, to be suspended in the high-com-
mission from all his jurisdiction. Laud, who had
diligently canvassed the judges of the star-chamber
for this sentence, had even pressed for the degra-
dation and deportation of his episcopal brother. In
fact, the high-commission had no legal power even
to suspend in this case, and as little had Laud to
assume to himself, as he did, the whole jurisdiction
of the see during this suspension.

The speech of the primate at the sentence, may
justly be characterized as one of the most detesta-
ble monuments of malice and hypocrisy extant.
He praises the endowments and acquisitions of his
enemy merely as an aggravation of his criminality,
protests that he himself had been five times on his
knees to the king to present his petitions and plead
his cause, but condemns his pride and stubbornness

428

which would not merit mercy by confessing that he
had done amiss, and ends with the most hyperboli-
cal description of his offence, as a sin unheard of in
holy writ before the days of Jezabela.

"And here," observes the episcopal biographer
of Williams, "began the way to episcopal disgrace
and declension. It was his turn now, it was Can-
terbury's not long after And what became, in

three years, or little more, of that honorable court
of star-chamber ? "

But there was more trouble still in store for the
persecuted prelate. No mercy was shown in the
levying of his fine ; Kilvert was sent to Lincoln and
Buckden with an extent, — all his moveables were
seized, and not the tenth part accounted for ; his
timber was felled, and his deer killed, his stores of
every kind consumed by his prosecutor, who lived
in his principal mansion during three summers, and
owing to a letter written by Windebank, directing
that the juries impanneled to value his benefices,
lands and leases should receive no evidence against
the king's profit, they were all taken at half their
value. In short he was given up for a spoil to his
enemies : but Laud still repined that out of the
wreck of his fortunes he found means to draw friends
around him, and to spread a table in his prison.
He now strained every nerve to carry a sentence of
deprivation against him on account of his "Holy
table." Having first endeavoured to incense the

a See Rushworth's CoL, vol. iii. 438, for the speech at large.

429

king by a false report of its doctrine, in which he
failed, he sent it to the attorney-general to be put
into an information ; but this officer returned for
answer that it would not bear it. Next, four bishops
and three civilians were sent to the Tower to exa-
mine him on a long list of articles ; but his courage
and presence of mind proved his protection ; nothing
could be made out against him, and Laud was com-
pelled, however loth, to desist from this attack.
But it was only to renew the assault in a different
quarter.

By threats or promises the bishop's steward and
secretary were won over to betray him; and in the
summer of 1637 two letters were brought forward
addressed to him by an eminent scholar, Osbaldes-
ton, master of Westminster school, in which the
primate was reviled under the names of " vermin,"
" little urchin," and " meddling hocus-pocus/' and
Williams was invited to join with the lord- treasurer
in bringing charges against him.

It appeared that the bishop had made no answer
to Osbaldeston, but to his secretary he had written,
that if the lord-treasurer really desired his aid, he
must " use a more solid and sufficient messenger."
On production of these letters in the star-chamber,
the unfortunate schoolmaster was * c sentenced out of
all his freehold and condemned to branding," which
he escaped however by concealing himself, leaving
behind him a note, that he was "gone beyond Can-
terbury." The bishop was condemned in a further
fine of 8000Z. , which was exacted to the uttermost

430

farthing. Nor was this expiation sufficient; he was
still detained in prison, — in close prison; further
interrogatories were administered to him, further
proceedings begun, and it was not till after the
lapse of three years and a half that on appeal to the
long parliament his bonds were broken and this te-
dious persecution put an end toa.

An affair of a very different nature, but in which
the primate equally exhibited the violence and per-
tinacity of his temper, and his contempt for the
boundaries of law, was the case of lady Purbeck.
This unfortunate woman was the daughter of sir
Edward Coke by lady Hatton, the granddaughter of
Burleigh. Her marriage with viscount Purbeck,
the brother of Buckingham, had been the stipulated
price of her father's restoration to the favor of king
James ; it had been the ground of high dissensions
between him and her mother, and was certainly an
affair in which her inclinations were the thing least
consulted. Soon after the marriage, lord Purbeck
became insane, and thus the illicit connexion
subsequently formed by his lady with sir Robert
Howard, a highly lettered and accomplished gen-
tleman, may seem entitled to all the palliation
which the offence admits. But at this time Buck-
ingham had not yet a son, and the apprehension
that a spurious child of which his brother's wife
had been delivered, might prove the heir to his

R For all the details of the case of Williams, see his Life by
Hacket, part ii. p. 115, et seq.

431

honors and estates, incited the favorite to pursue
her with all the vengeance of irritated power. No
steps indeed were taken for the dissolution of the
marriage, the only remedy for the apprehended in-
convenience, but in 1627, she was brought into the
high-commission, where Laud spoke against her
with the severity which he knew would be accepta-
ble to his patron, and she was sentenced, besides
other things, to do public penance. From this in-
expressible ignominy she was preserved by friends
who contrived her escape, and the death of the duke
of Buckingham quickly succeeding, she was suffered
to remain in an unmolested retirement till this year;
when, having unadvisedly visited the metropolis,
and there given vent to her feelings in " words full
of deep disgrace and reproach a " against the primate,
which were duly carried to his watchful ear, he
caused her to be committed to the Gatehouse. A
warrant was also issued against sir Robert Howard,
though the former proceedings against him by the
high-commission had been annulled by the parlia-
ment then sitting. The lady having made her escape,
Howard as the suspected contriver of her deliverance
was imprisoned by the archbishop's order in her
stead, till such time as he should produce her. After
a month's confinement however, he was released,
on giving a bond of 2000/. never to approach her
more, and another for his appearance when required.
But the vengeance of the prelate against the unfor-

a Cyprianus Ang.

432

tunate lady was yet unsatiated, and Garrard writes
many months after, that she had been heard of in
some part of France, "where," says he, "I wish
she might stay, but it seems not good so to the
higher powers: For there is of late an express mes-
senger sent to seek her, with a privy seal from his
majesty, to summon her into England within six
weeks after the receipt thereof, which if she do not
obey, she is to be proceeded against according unto
the laws of this kingdom8."

Lady Purbeck, it is scarcely necessary to say,
declined the summons; she was joined by Howard,
and both went over to the church of Rome. The
long parliament gave Howard 500/. damages against
the archbishop, and 250/. each against his two as-
sessors, as a compensation for his illegal imprison-
ment.

It will now be proper to take a rapid view of the
administration of public affairs in Ireland, chiefly
for the purpose of illustrating from the correspond-
ence of the king himself with the lord-deputy, at
once the political principles of Charles and some
leading features of his moral character.

It had been much the practice of English princes
to grant with extreme facility to their English
courtiers, petitions for crown lands and leases, pa-
tents, monopolies, military commissions, and all
other court favors in Ireland, partly because the
sovereign was commonly ignorant of the value or

* Straff ord Letters, i. 447.

433

importance of his gift, partly because it had been
customary to regard the Irish as a people still "ly-
ing at the proud foot of a conqueror," whose busi-
ness it was to endure with patience such burthens
as their masters should be pleased to impose upon
them. But Wentworth saw plainly the necessity
of cutting off this source of misery to the people,
since it was also a cause of impoverishment to the
exchequer and embarrassment to the local govern-
ment ; and by earnest representations he had labored
to draw from his master a promise that no Irish
grant should pass, until it should have been referred
to him. The following letter of the king dated in
October 1633 alludes to this request, and at the same
time puts no small price upon his own compliance.

" Wentworth,

" I hope you have found by effects, or, to say
better, by the doing myself no hurt, as yet, the
answer in part of those letters you wrote unto me.

But I must not be so long unassuring of you

by my own hand, that which others tell you, the
good acceptance of the beginnings of your services
where you are, assuring you, that though I am very
confident of your good progress in those affairs, yet
ye may be confident that great expectation shall so
little hurt you, that I shall look upon your services
as they shall prove, not according to imaginary
prophetical hopes.

" Now as I recommended several persons to you
according to the reasonableness of their suits, by
my secretaries ; so, having the pen in my hand, and

VOL. i. 2 F

434

because of their quality, I must name some at this
time to you; to wit, the duke of Lenox, Arundel,

and Nithisdale I recommend them all to you

heartily and earnestly ; but so as may agree with
the good of my service and no otherwise ; yet so
too, as that I may have thanks howsoever ; that if
there be any thing to be denied, you may do it, and
not I ; commanding you to be confident, until I
deceive you, that I shall back you, in whatsoever
concerns the good of my service, against whomso-
ever, whensoever there shall be needa."

Secretary Windebank soon after writes to the
lord-deputy, from his majesty, ' ' What letters soever
may be won from him by importunity, his express
pleasure is that you depart not from such rules and
instructions as have been given you, or you have
settled to yourself, for the advancement of his ser-
vice. Only to free his majesty from harsh and flat
denials, you must be content to take upon you the
refusing partV Probably this was an old compact
between sovereign and minister, and what occa-
sioned the desponding Spenser to include in his list
of the miseries of a court-suitor,

" To have thy prince's grace, yet want her peers' ;
To have thy asking, yet wait many years."

Wentworth had no sooner taken a deliberate
survey of the state of his island, than he formed a
decided opinion both that the summoning of a par-
liament there was absolutely necessary in order to

a Strajford Letters, i. 140. b Ibid. i. 160.

435

satisfy the people, and that it would be entirely
within his power so to control and manage this
assembly as to render it entirely subservient to the
purposes of the crown. He determined therefore
to hazard this unpalatable proposition in an elabo-
rate letter to the king, and supported it by argu-
ments so well adapted to lull the fears of his master,
that Charles, surrendering for once his cherished
prejudices, was won upon to accord a half-reluctant
consent.

The grand purpose of the meeting was to be the
raising of supplies; and Wentworth set the seal to
his apostasy from popular principles by represent-
ing to the king, that should there be any refusal
on their parts to gratify his wishes to their full
extent on this point, " their unthankfulness to
God and the best of kings becomes inexcusable
before all the world, and the regal power more war-
rantably to be at after extended for redeeming and
recovering your majesty's revenues thus lost, and
justly to punish so great a forfeit as this must needs
be judged to be in them." Two sessions were to be
held ; if in the first, which was to be given entirely
to the service of the king, they proved duly tract-
able, in the second, such of the graces, and only
such, as seemed to his majesty and his attorney-
general quite free from all tendency to " prejudice
the crown," were to be passed into laws ; and yet
the deluded people had already paid down the sti-
pulated purchase money for the whole. By the law
called Poyning's, the Irish parliament were restrain-

2 F2

436

ed from taking any subject into discussion without
the previous sanction of the English privy council :
but even with this bridle Charles felt a jealousy of
its proceedings, resulting from a consciousness of
his own breach of faith, which strongly appears in
the remarks appended by him to Wentworth's pro-
posals. After signifying his will that none should
know that two sessions were intended, until the
parliament were set, he adds, "And further, we
will admit no capitulations nor demands of any as-
surance under our broad seal, nor of sending over
deputies or committees to treat here with us, nor of
any restraint in our bill of subsidies, nor of any
condition of not maintaining the army ; but in case
any of these be insisted upon, and that they will
not otherwise proceed, or be satisfied with our royal
promise for the second session, or shall deny or
delay the passing of our bills, we require you there-
upon to dissolve the parliament; and forthwith to
take order to continue the contributions for our
army, and withal to proceed to such improvements
of our revenue as are already in proposition, or
may hereafter be thought upon for the advantage of
our crown."

On the humane and politic suggestion of Went-
worth, that "it is to be feared the meaner sort of
subjects here live under the pressures of the great
men ; and there is a general complaint, that officers
exact much larger fees than of right they ought to
do;" on which account it would be popular for his
majesty to make some examples of offenders, and

437

to regulate fees by a commission, Charles remarks:
" We approve the reformation of these pressures
and extortions by examples, and by commissions,
by our authority ; but by no means to-be done by
parliament."

In this parliament protestants and recusants were
to be nearly balanced, and to be played off against
each other ; elections were to fall upon dependents
of the crown ; the prelates, by royal command to
the primate, were to be " directed" by the lord-de-
puty ; and for the English and absentee lords, in the
words of the king, "That their proxies may be well
disposed, we would have you send with speed the
names of those there in whom you repose special
trust. And in case your list cannot be here in time,
we will give orders that all the proxies be sent to
you with blanks, to be assigned there. In general,
for the better preventing of practices and disorders,
you shall suffer no meetings during the sitting of
the houses, save only in public and for the service
of the houses by appointment a."

In a subsequent letter the king thus further ex-
presses his jealousies and exhibits his morality: " As
for that hydra, take good heed ; for you know that
here I have found it as well cunning as malicious.
It is true that your grounds are well laid, and I
assure you that I have a great trust in your
care and judgement; yet my opinion is, that it
will not be the worse for my service, though their

f Slra/ord Letters, i. 182.

438

obstinacy make you to break them, for I fear that
they have some ground to demand more than it is
fit for me to give. This I would not say if I had
not confidence in your courage and dexterity, that
in that case, you would set me down there an ex-
ample what to do herea."

The example, however, which Wentworth was
ambitious of holding forth to his master was rather
that of ruling over a parliament, than ruling with-
out one ; and he found in his own audacious and
imperious character, a force adequate to the occa-
sion. Having summoned the privy council, he
first caused a committee to be named to prepare the
bills according to Poyning's law, by which he might
discover "how their pulse beat;7' then finding
them somewhat disinclined to grant subsidies with
all the liberality he desired, and anxious that a con-
firmation of certain of the graces should precede or
accompany their money bills ; " I," says he, " not
knowing what this might grow to, went instantly
unto them where they were in council, told them
plainly I feared they begun at the wrong end, thus
consulting what might please the people in a par-
liament, when it would better become a privy coun-
cil to consider what might please the king, and in-
duce him to call one." Having then explained at
length his sense of this part of the subject, and
suggested measures founded upon it, he adds : "In
conclusion, I did assume unto them upon my life

* Strafford Letters, i. 233.

439

and the life of my children, that it was absolutely
in their power to have the happiest parliament that
ever was in this kingdom ; that their way was most
easy, no more than to put an absolute trust in the
king, without offering any condition or restraint at
all upon his will, and then let them assure them-
selves to receive back unasked all that reasonably
and fittingly they could expect, and if this confi-
dence misled them, I would be content they es-
teemed me, neither a person of discretion, trust, or
honor, at after." And be it observed, that he well
knew the confidence he claimed would be betrayed !
" Again I did beseech them to look well about, and
be wise by others' harms. They were not ignorant
of the misfortunes these meetings had run in En-
gland of late years, that therefore they were not to
strike their foot upon the same stone of distrust,
which had so often broken them : for, I could tell
them, as one that had, it may be, held my eyes as
open upon those proceedings as another man, that,
what other accident this mischief might be as-
cribed unto, there was nothing else that brought it
upon us, but the king's standing justly to have the
honor of trust from his people, and an ill grounded
narrow suspicion of theirs ." The effrontery of this
allusion to an opposition in which he had himself
borne so conspicuous a part, seems to have asto-
nished, and almost scandalized, both Cottington and
Laud. It truly indicated that he was prepared to

a Strafford Letters, i. 237, 239.

440

go all lengths. In fine, his tone and demeanour
struck such awe and terror into the Irish committee,
that they submissively declared they would send
over no bills but such as should be pleasing to him ;
that if he thought good, they would even send over
the subsidy bill alone. The lords of the pale who
had customarily been consulted with, and allowed
to propound popular laws, were insolently dis-
missed by the lord-deputy with the remark, that
the king had no need of their advice. These pre-
vious steps being taken, the parliament was opened
with the pomp which Wentworth affected as much
from pride as policy. His speech to the houses
was in the same lofty strain as his address to the
committee; and whilst it was still echoing in their
ears he demanded and obtained the extraordinary
grant of six subsidies, unshackled by any stipulation
for the previous confirmation of the graces.

The results of the second session, from which the
Irish were led to expect the reward of their trust
and their bounty, and which commenced in the
same year, might justly have been an object of
apprehension to Charles and his substitute. Faith
was to be broken with the people ; and some of the
most important graces expunged, and from the
basest motives. In particular, both that by which
the crown was to be restrained from carrying back
beyond a period of sixty years its inquiries into
defective titles, and one for securing proprietors of
land in Connaught, according to the tenor of an
agreement made with them by king James for a

441

valuable consideration, against certain doubtful
claims of the crown, were to be withheld, because
projects of spoliation had been devised for the pro-
fit of the king and his courtiers, which were on no
consideration to be defeated. But the vigor and
dexterity of Wentworth proved superior to all dif-
ficulties. He boldly took upon himself the re-
sponsibility of the royal breach of promise by af-
firming, that he had struck out certain of the graces
from the list transmitted to England, and that by
the law of Poyning he and his council were in-
vested with this right. On the first symptom of
refractoriness in the house of peers, he interposed
to curtail their privileges, and wrest from them
even the vital one of impeachment ; and in the
universal dread and astonishment which he inspired,
the name itself of the graces died away upon the
lips of Irishmen.

Having thus exceeded the expectations and re-
alized all the wishes of his master, establishing a
surplus revenue in the place of debt, and substi-
tuting implicit obedience for turbulence and com-
plaint, the lord-deputy judged it time to claim, what
with him was seldom out of view, his reward. That
which he now proposed to himself was an earldom :
in what terms the suit was urged we do not find ;
but it encountered from the pen of Charles himself,
the following stern reply :
" Wentworth,

" Before I answer any of your particular letters
to me, I must tell you that your last public dis-

442

patch has given me a great deal of contentment,
and especially for keeping of the envy of a neces-
sary negative from me, of those unreasonable graces
that that people expected from me, not in one par-
ticular dissenting from your opinion, that is of mo-
ment, as I remember, but concerning the tallow,
and that but ad referendum neither. Now I will
begin concerning your suit, though last come to
my hands ; and first for the form, that is to say,
in coming to me not only primarily but solely,
without so much as acquainting any body with it:
This I do not only commend, but recommend to
you to follow always hereafter, at least in what con-
cerns your own particular. For, to servants of
your quality, and some degrees under too, I allow
of no mediators, though friends are commendable ;
for the dependence must come merely from me and
to me. And as for the matter, I desire you not to
think, that I am displeased with the asking, though
for the present I grant it not. For, I acknowledge
that noble minds are always accompanied with law-
ful ambitions. And be confident that your services
have moved me more than it is possible for any
eloquence or importunity to do. So that your let-
ter was not the first proposer of putting marks of
favour on you ; and I am certain that you will
willingly stay my time, now ye know my mind so
freely, that I may do all things a mio modo*." &c.
The king, it was evident, had the discernment to

a Stratford Letters, i. 331.

443

perceive, what Wentworth expected him to over-
look, that to crown the Irish viceroy with honors
at this juncture, would be to draw back upon his
own head all that weight of obloquy which this of-
ficer had made it one of his principal merits to have
taken wholly upon himself. At the same time, it
may be regarded as no small indication of the te-
merity almost inseparable from great ambition, that
after so frank an exposure of the principles and sen-
timents of the king on this head, Wentworth should
have persevered in hazarding for his service acts of
the most arbitrary nature, for which, in any trying
emergency, it was perfectly evident that he would
be left alone responsible.

Proud of the success of his political management,
which, he observed, had made the king as absolute
there as any prince in the world could be, the lord-
deputy was desirous of prolonging the existence of
the parliament for future use, after the conclusion
of the second session ; and he stated his reasons
for this measure with great earnestness to the king
and his confidential advisers for Irish affairs. But
the force of Charles's prepossessions on this head
was not to be overcome, and he thus declared him-
self in reply.

" The accounts that you give me are so good, that
if I should answer them particularly, my letters
would rather seem panegyrics than dispatches ; so
leaving them, I come to those things wherein you

require directions Concerning two of them

I must express my own sense ; to wit, the not con-

444

tinning the parliament, and the guard of the coast.
For the first, my reasons are grounded upon my
experience of them here ; they are of the nature of
cats, they ever grow curst with age, so that if ye
will have good of them, put them off handsomely
when they come to any age ; for young ones are
ever most tractable : And in earnest you will find,
that nothing can more conduce to the beginning of
a new, than the well-ending of a former parliament,
wherefore now that we are well, let us content our-
selves therewith a." The chagrin of Went worth
breaks out in his next dispatch to Cottington : —
" Concerning my opinion for the proroguing of this
parliament, you have plainly heard my reasons, and
now obedience is all which is left me ; and so his
majesty's pleasure shall be pursued by me, as one
of those that after I have discharged my duty, think
only how to accomplish what shall at after be com-
manded me, without dispute. And indeed, in my
condition it is the safest when my weak counsels
are least followed, for so you leave me much less to
account forb." The dissolution took place in April
1635.

* Str a/or d Letters, i. 365. b Ibid. 370.

445

CHAPTER XIII.
1635 and 1636.

Forest laws revived and penalties exacted. — Resumption of crown
grants in Ireland. — Several counties of Connaught surrender to
the king. — Resistance to his claims in Galway, and violent mea-
sures of Wentworth in consequence. — Oppression of earl Clan-
rickard, — his death. — Reflections. — Laud's advice to Went-
worth.— Case of lord Mountnorris. — King takes a bribe from
Wentworth. — Wentworth received at court and heard in council
with great favor, but refused an earldom. — King extorts a great
fine from the city of London for their Irish lands, then seizes
them. — Expedition against Sallee. — King takes the judges' opi-
nion on ship-money. — Proceedings against such as resist this tax.
— Account of Hampden. — Decision of his case postponed. —
Sketch of the progress of emigration and of settlement in New
England. — Account of sir H. Vane, junior. — Laud's claim of the
visitation of both universities awarded him by the king, — he
compiles statutes for Oxford, — entertains the king and queen
there, — founds Arabic professorship.

ONE of the most obnoxious measures of this pe-
riod of the reign of Charles, was his attempt to re-
vive the ancient forest laws, and to compel neigh-
bouring landholders to compound at high rates for
real or pretended encroachments on the wide wastes
originally usurped from the cultivators and set
apart for the sylvan pleasures of the Norman line
of kings. The earl of Holland, appointed chief
justice in eyre, now held his courts annually, and

446

the awe and dread which his proceedings inspired
may be estimated from a variety of contemporary
notices. "My lord of Holland," writes Howell,
" passed yesterday through London in the king's
coach and twenty more, with some of the guard to
attend him, to keep the forest court at Stratford in
Essex." " The justice seat in Essex," says Gar-
rard, "hath been kept this Easter week, and all
Essex is become forest ; and so, they say, will all
the counties of England but three, Kent, Surry
and Sussex." He adds, as if assigning the final
cause of these proceedings: "The commissioners
for the treasury sit constantly thrice a week ; they
look back for five years past, how things have been
carried, and some of them are amazed to see the
greatness of the king's debts*."

By these proceedings the earl of Southampton
sustained an almost ruinous loss ; being despoiled
of his manor of Beawley in the New Forest ; the
circuit of that of Rockingham was extended from
six miles to sixty, and enormous fines for encroach-
ment were awarded against several noblemen and
other persons of consequence ; as, twenty thousand
pounds against the earl of Salisbury, nineteen thou-
sand against the earl of Westmorland, twelve thou-
sand against sir Christopher Hatton. Smaller sums
against many others. That meaner persons might
not escape the gripe of extortion in their degree,
there was at the same time " a commission in exe-

8 Straford Letters, i. 413.

447

cution against cottagers who have not four acres
of ground laid to their houses, upon a statute made
the 31 Eliz., which," adds Garrard, " vexeth the
poor people mightily, is far more burthensome to
them than the ship-monies, all for the benefit of
the lord Morton, and the secretary of Scotland, the
lord Stirling : Much crying out there is against it,
especially because mean, needy, and men of no good
fame, prisoners in the Fleet, are used as principal
commissioners to call the people before them, to
fine and compound with them:" In Ireland spo-
liation on a grander scale was carried on.

By the forfeiture of an Irish chief in the reign of
Edward IV., the whole province of Connaught was
asserted to have devolved to the crown. It had
since been granted out in parcels by patents which
the holders supposed to be as good in law as in
equity ; but when king James was casting about
for the means of civilizing other parts of Ireland by
such colonies, or plantations, as he had success-
fully established in Ulster, the crown lawyers flat-
tered him with the promise of finding, or making,
such flaws in these titles as should place all Con-
naught at his disposal. James, fortunately for him-
self, was withheld, whether by fear or scruple, from
the perpetration of an act of injustice, comprehend-
ing within its sweep the lands and livings of one
fourth of the Irish proprietors ; but neither of these
considerations sufficed to restrain the rapacity of
his successor. That grace by which the landhold-
ers of Connaught were to have been confirmed in

448

their possessions, was, as we have seen, rejected ;
a commission had been formed, as in England, to
receive the surrender of defective titles, and grant
valid ones on such terms as the king's mercy should
dictate ; and it now became the task of the lord-
deputy to compel the whole body to submit them-
selves to this extortion.

In a letter to the king on this business, the lord-
deputy, whose pique seems to have set an edge on
his zeal for the service, takes notice that he had
not been assisted by " the discovery of any title,"
either to Connaught or Ormond, by any minister
on the English side ; but that he trusts singly " to
work through all these difficulties." Accordingly,
proceeding at the head of the commissioners to Ros-
common, he caused a jury to be returned for trying
the king's title, purposely composed of " gentlemen
of the best estates and understandings," in order
that, if their decision were favourable, it might
prove a leading case, and if, on the contrary, they
should "prevaricate," that they might "answer
the king a round fine in the castle-chamber." The
" gracious pleasure of his majesty " to suffer the
lawyers to plead freely against his right, was then
ostentatiously proclaimed ; and after the counsel on
both sides had ended, the lord-deputy summed up
with so skilful an alternation of cajolery and me-
nace, that a verdict for the crown was found without
hesitation. In the counties of Sligo and Mayo the
same success attended the commission ; in that of
Galway the event was different. This county was

449

in a manner totally Irish and catholic ; and the
intrusion of English settlers which would result
from the surrender of the lands to the king, was
a grievance deprecated by the proprietors almost
as much as the immediate pecuniary loss to them-
selves ; they were numerous and united, and being
strongly assured by their counsel of the goodness
of their cause, they resolved that no enticing ex-
amples of submission, no nice calculations of the
consequences of resistance, should induce them to
surrender what they deemed their undoubted birth-
right. The jury therefore, two only excep ted, "all
out of will," as the lord-deputy expresses it, "and
accompanied in divers of them with great want of
understanding, most obstinately and perversely re-
fused to find for his majesty." Transported with
rage, Went worth immediately, by his own autho-
rity, levied a fine of 1000Z. on the sheriff, for
returning what he termed a packed jury, and fines
of 4000/. each were imposed on the jurymen them-
selves in the castle-chamber, — a tribunal which now
emulated the English star-chamber. Nor did his
vengeance stop here. The greatest proprietor in
the county was the earl of Clanrickard and St.
Albans, a nobleman of distinguished merit and high
alliances, the head of the family of de Burgh or
Burke, and who possessed, as president of Galway,
a power which, according to the statement of the
lord-deputy, in the exercise of it was " found to be
little less than that of a count palatine." From jea-
lousy of any authority capable of interfering with
VOL. i. 2 G

450

his own, mingled probably with some private ani-
mosity against this earl, Wentworth was eager to
improve the opportunity to the ruin at once of his
fortune and his consequence. The earl was at this
time in England, and no proof was or could be ad-
duced of any concern of his in the obnoxious verdict ;
but the jurors were some of them of his kindred ;
his nephew viscount Clanmorris had been warm in
the cause ; it might be supposed that he spoke the
sentiments of his uncle, — and on these grounds, or
pretences, the Irish deputy vehemently urged upon
his sovereign such measures as the following : That
if the earl should not, within the time limited by a
proclamation of grace lately issued, come in and
acknowledge the king's title to the lands, he should
be peremptorily excluded from any composition
whatever, — that he and his son should be re-
strained from quitting England until the whole
business were finished, — that by an exchequer
process, for which he had already given orders, the
lands of the jurors and all others not complying with
the proclamation should be seized for the king, —
that before such seizure the fort of Galway should
be repaired, more troops marched into the neigh-
bourhood, and the foot-companies of the earl and
his son quietly removed from the county : — that
1 ' since the dependencies upon the earl were greater
than in reason of state ought to be allowed to any
subject, especially in so remote a corner of the
kingdom, and amongst a people so ill affected,"
the presidential power should no longer be con-

451

tinned to him, much less to his son, who had it in
reversion; "but rather that that government be
dissolved, and the county reduced back, as it for-
merly was, under the provincial government of the
president of Connaught." Finally, that the roman-
catholic lawyers who had been employed for the
county, should be compelled to take the oath of
supremacy or give up their profession a.

These actings and suggestions were but too con-
genial to the temper and maxims of Charles : we
find him returning, through secretary Coke, his
cordial approbation of the whole, excepting that
the reduction of the presidential powers, " though
thought very fit to be provided for in a due time,"
was not now seasonable to be done at onceb.

The Galway proprietors were not disposed to sit
down in silence under these injuries: "I hear,"
writes Wentworth, "they have sent over agents,
forsooth, into England, to what intent I know not,
but I trust they will be welcomed as they deserve ;
if having been anciently the chief art of this nation,
by the intervention of these agencies, to destroy the
services of the crown, and strike through the honor
and credit of the ministers thereof." Their recep-
tion was such as he desired ; being brought to the
presence of the king at Royston by lord Tunbridge,
the son of the earl of Clanrickard, who informed his
majesty that they were come to justify themselves
and others in a business in which his father had

Str afford Letters, i. 450, et seq. " Ibid. i. 465.

2 o2

452

been " much taxed," his majesty, though taken by
surprise, was prompt to answer by complaints and
upbraidings of this sole refractory county ; treated
the mission of the deputation as a presumptuous
perseverance in offence, on which he designed to in-
stitute further proceedings, and justified in all points
the conduct of the lord-deputy. The deputies were
finally sent back to Ireland as prisoners.

Clanrickard survived these proceedings a few
weeks only. The lord-deputy, with that unrelent-
ing vindictiveness which no English statesman has
pushed so far or disguised so little, thus refers to the
event in a letter to the king. "The last packet
advertised the death of the earl of St. Albans, and
that it is reported my harsh usage broke his heart:
they might as well have imputed unto me for a
crime his being threescore and ten years old. But
these calumnies must not stay me humbly to offer
to your majesty's wisdom this fit opportunity, that
as that cantoned government of Galway begun, so
it may determine in his lordship's person." He
afterwards returns to the charge, observing that
the reversion of the government of Galway, granted
to the son of the earl in his father's patent, it being
a judicial place, would prove " clearly void in law,
and 50 nothing in honor or justice " to prevent his
majesty from disposing of it as he should now see
fit*.

The earl of Clanrickard was the third husband of

* Strafford Letters, i. 473, 476, 492, and 493.

453

that daughter and heiress of sir Francis Walsing-
ham who had married in succession two of the most
conspicuous ornaments of the court of Elizabeth,
sir Philip Sidney, and Robert earl of Essex. He was
consequently stepfather to the Essex of Charles's
days; and it has been thought that the inflexibility
with which this nobleman refused to concur in any
compromise by which the forfeit life of the lord-
deputy might be preserved, exhibited a persevering
resentment of the insolent and tyrannical acts by
which he had imbittered, if not abridged, the days
of the Irish chieftain. But to "consider the end "
made no part of Wentworth's wisdom ; hurried on
by his own headlong passions as well as by that
system which, in the words of Clarendon, compelled
him "upon reason of state to exercise many acts of
power," he triumphed in his present success in
overpowering resistance and stifling complaint; nor
was he to be recalled to moderation or mildness
even by the fears and representations of his own
thorough-going associate, Laud.

In a letter written at this juncture, the primate
after advising him to spare the earl of Cork the
disgrace of a public sentence in the matter of some
usurped church lands, which he was to be compelled
to restore, thus proceeds: "My lord, I am the
bolder to write this last line to you, upon a late
accident, which I have very casually discovered in
court : I find that notwithstanding all your great
services in Ireland, which are most graciously ac-
cepted by the king, you want not them which

454

whisper, and perhaps speak louder where they think
they may, against your proceedings in Ireland, as
being over-full of personal prosecutions against men
of quality, and they stick not to instance in St.
Albans, the lord Wilmot, and this earl: And this is
somewhat loudly spoken by some on the queen's
side. And although I know a great part of this
proceeds from your wise and noble proceedings
against the Romish party in that kingdom, yet that
shall never be made the cause in public, but advan-
tages taken . , , , from these and the like particulars,

to blast you and your honor I know you have

a great deal more resolution in you, than to decline
any service due to king, state, or church, for the

barking of discontented persons And yet, my

lord, if you could find a way to do all these great
services and decline these storms, I think it would
be excellent well thought of a." It is a curious trait
of human nature, that it was in the heat of his own
persecution of bishop Williams, that Laud addressed
to Wentworth these exhortations to mildness and
moderation.

In Ireland the lord-deputy was often threatened
with a Felton or a Ravaillac, — but to such a temper
threats or warning served but as exasperation, and
we shall find him proceeding to acts still more out-
rageous and scandalous.

Lord Mountnorris, vicetreasurer of Ireland, a man
of consequence and long standing, had fallen under

1 Straford Letters, i. 479.

455

the displeasure of the deputy, whose confidence he
had previously enjoyed. Wentworth accused him to
the king of extortion and corruption, and at his in-
stigation a commission of inquiry had attempted,
but in vain, to fix on him this charge. During the
state of mutual exasperation produced by these cir-
cumstances, it was mentioned to lord Mountnorris,
as he sat at the table of the lord-chancellor, that a
gentleman of his blood, an attendant on the lord-
deputy, had hurt his gouty foot in moving a stool :
1 'Perhaps/7 remarked Mountnorris, "it was done in
revenge of that public affront which my lord- deputy
had done him formerly, but he has a brother who
would not have taken such a revenge." These am-
biguous words being reported to Wentworth, it was
determined to proceed against the speaker, who held
a captain's commission, as "a delinquent in a high
and transcendent manner against the person of his
general and his majesty's authority."

A council of war was assembled, in which the
lord -deputy of course presided, and the vice-trea-
surer, on two counts as guilty of reproachful words,
and of words likely to stir up a mutiny, was by
martial law adjudged first to be cashiered and
publicly disarmed, and then to be shot or to lose
his head. This extraordinary sentence was indeed
transmitted to England accompanied by the unani-
mous recommendation of the lord-deputy and the
council that the royal mercy should be extended to
the life of the prisoner ; — but that such a judgement
should have passed, or that such a court should have

456

been held on a peer, a privy-councillor, a high civil
functionary, for such an offence, filled all men with
astonishment, indignation, and horror. Wentworth
meanly endeavoured to shift the odium from him-
self, by stating that he had sat silent in the court,
and given no sentence of his own. He had however
signed, as he no doubt dictated, the sentence passed
by others in his own cause; and he writes to secre-
tary Coke that he foresees how he shall be " skir-
mished upon" in England on this account ; adding
with characteristic effrontery: "Causeless traducing
and calumniating of me is a spirit that hath haunted
me through the whole course of my life, and now
become so ordinary a food, as the sharpness and
bitterness of it in good faith distempers not my taste
one jota."

After the remission of the capital part of his sen-
tence, Mountnorris was still detained in confinement
to answer certain charges of malversation brought
against him in the castle-chamber. His treatment
relative to this prosecution was full of rigor and
injustice ; a pathetic letter addressed to the lord-
deputy by lady Mountnorris, — the kinswoman of
Arabella Hollis, the wife whose memory he affected
to idolize, — in which she besought him by that
memory to have pity on her and her little ones by
taking off his " heavy hand " from her dear lord,
— drew no mercy from his hard heart ; — he now
openly triumphed in the barbarous sentence ; de-

Stra/ord Letters, i. 505.

457

claring, that he would not lose his share in the ho-
nor of it ; and when the decree of his subservient
castle-chamber had loaded Mountnorris with dis-
grace, and stripped him of every office and emolu-
ment he held in Ireland, it was not without his
majesty's special command, that, on humble sub-
mission made to the lord-deputy by his unhappy
victim, he suffered him to quit Ireland for England,
— which no suitor could then do without his special
license. The permanent displacement and incapa-
citation of Mountnorris seems to have been the real
object aimed at by the lord-deputy in all these per-
secutions, and he now sought to reap the fruits of
his intrigue by obtaining the sole disposal of his
vacant offices. But he knew too well the practice
of the court to suppose that such patronage would
be gratuitously conceded; and he placed at the dis-
posal of his friend Cottington a sum of 6000/., which
he requested him to distribute in the manner most
likely to render his suit effectual. The answer of
Cottington is a memorable document :

"...-.. When William Raylton first told me of
your lordship's intention touching Mount norr is 's
place for sir Adam Loftus, and the distribution of
monies for the effecting thereof, I fell upon the right
way, which was, to give the money to him that
really could do the business, which was the king
himself; and this hath so far prevailed, as by this
post your lordship will receive his majesty's letter
to that effect ; so as there you have your business
done without noise : And now it rests that the

458

money be speedily paid, and made over hither with
all expedition. For the king hath already assigned
it in part of twenty and two thousand pounds for

land, which he hath bought in Scotland

You said right that Mountnorris his business
would make a great noise: For so it hath, amongst
ignorant, but especially ill-affected people ; but it
hath stuck little among the wiser sort, and begins
to be blown away amongst the resta."

What aggravates inexpressibly the ignominy of
this transaction on the part of Charles, is the con-
sideration, that what he had here bartered for money
was not patronage alone, but the right of redressing
injury. By sharing the profits of Wentworth's ty-
ranny and oppression, the monarch at once rendered
himself an accessory to public crime, and ensured
to the original offender, so far as depended on him-
self, complete impunity. It even appears that after
this, the king gave express directions to the lord-
deputy for proceeding to censure Mountnorris in the
castle-chamber.

Shortly after, Wentworth obtained the royal per-
mission to present himself at the English court :
His master received him with gracious welcome,
and called upon him at a full council for the de-
tailed report, which he gave with a pride in some
respects justly grounded, of his diligent, able and
prosperous administration. He spoke of the church
brought into strict uniformity with that of England,

a Stra ford Letters, i. 511.

459

— the crown debts paid, and an increased and in-
creasing revenue established, — of an army now first
well clothed, " reasonably well armed," well exer-
cised and well paid, — of public justice dispensed
without respect of persons, and the poor protected
against the oppression of the great, — of "the mini-
sters of justice not warped by any importunity or
applications of private persons, never in so much
power and estimation in the state and with the
subject as now, yet contained in that due subordi-
nation to the crown as is fit, ministering wholly to
uphold the sovereignty, carrying a direct aspect upon
the prerogatives of his majesty, without squinting
aside upon the vulgar and vain opinions of the po-
pulace." He boasted of the flower of the English
laws since Henry VII. established in Ireland, — of
the vast increase of trade and the commencement
of the linen manufacture, encouraged by him in
opposition to that of woollen, in which Ireland
might have become the rival of England. After-
wards he turned to the task of self-justification ;
adverting to the proceedings against individuals for
which he had incurred most censure, and vindi-
cating them as acts which the necessity of his ma-
jesty's service had forced upon one traduced as an
austere and hard-conditioned man, — whereas, if he
knew his own disposition, it was quite the contrary.
A sharp rule, he contended, was necessary where
he had found "a crown, a church and a people
spoiled," and "sovereignty was going down the

460

hill." — And here he was interrupted by the voice
of his master acquitting him of all severity, and
declaring that if he served him otherwise, it would
not be as he expected from him. — In conclusion he
mentioned somewhat apologetically his infirmity of
choler, which more winters would he hoped correct,
and which he thanked God had hitherto hurt none
but himself ! With the applauses of the king and
council, and exhortations to proceed in the same
course, he then re tired a.

One token of the royal favor, however, the lord-
deputy hoped and craved in vain. The earldom,
the darling object of his aims and wishes, was still
withheld. The cause was evidently the same as be-
fore,— Charles's fear of espousing too far the part of
a man generally obnoxious : yet Wentworth, unable
to view in a true light his own conduct and its na-
tural effects, continued to urge the very imputa-
tions he had incurred, and the number and violence
of his enemies, as claims upon his master for hono-
rary rewards, — on the plea however, in which there
was some plausibility, that his being sent back with-
out any public mark of royal favor would encou-
rage clamors and opposition, to the hindrance of
the service of the crown. He therefore requested to
be again admitted to relate his grievances and press
his suit with his majesty at his return from visit-
ing his northern presidency. — The following was
Charles's answer.

a Strafford Letters, ii. 13, et seq.

461

" Wentworth,

"Certainly I should be much to blame not to
admit so good a servant as you are to speak with
me, since I deny it to none that there is not a
just exception against : yet I must freely tell you,
that the cause of this desire of yours, if it be
known, will rather hearten than discourage your
enemies : for if they can once find that you appre-
hend the dark setting of a storm, when I say No,
they will make you leave to care for any thing in a
short while but for your fears. And believe it, the
marks of my favors that stop malicious tongues are
neither places nor titles, but the little welcome I
give to accusers, and the willing ear I give to my
servants: This is not to disparage those favors, for
envy flies most at the fairest mark, but to show
their use ; to wit, not to quell envy, but to reward
service; it being truly so, when the master without
the servant's importunity does it, otherwise men
judge it more to proceed from the servant's wit
than the master's favor. I will end with a rule
that may serve for a statesman, a courtier, or a
lover; Never make a defence or apology before you
be accused."

The high-spirited Wentworth did not hesitate to
reply upon his ungracious master in the tone of an
injured man, though tempered with expressions of
profound submission, and demonstrations of a zeal
in the service quite superior to the fears imputed to
him. It appears from this letter that the earl of
Holland, to whom the queen's favor gave increasing

462

consequence, was at this time the court adversary
he most dreaded.

A star-chamber suit of the highest importance,
from the magnitude both of the pecuniary and po-
litical interests involved, was about this time brought
to a termination. The great and augmenting wealth
of the city of London had long been viewed by the
monarch and his courtiers with jealous and rapaci-
ous eyes: "It was looked upon," says lord Claren-
don, "as a common stock not easy to be exhausted,
and as a body not to be grieved by ordinary acts of
injustice ; and therefore it was not only a resort, in
all cases of necessity, for the sudden borrowing
great sums of money, in which they were com-
monly too good merchants for the crown, but it
was thought reasonable, upon any specious pre-
tences, to void the security that was at any time
given for money so borrowed. Thus after many
questionings of their charter, which were ever re-
moved by considerable sums of money, a grant
made by the king in the beginning of his reign, in
consideration of great sums of money, of good quan-
tities of land in Ireland, and the city of London-
derry there, was avoided by a suit in the star-
chamber; all the lands, after a vast expense in
building and planting, resumed into the king's
hands, and a fine of fifty (seventy) thousand pounds
imposed upon the citya." To this intolerable wrong
is justly ascribed the deep resentment cherished by

* Hist. Rebel., restored edit.ii. 151.

463

the citizens against the king, and the formidable
and persevering hostility with which they ever after
pursued him. Charles made himself scandalously
busy in the affair; secretary Coke, writing to Went-
worth, assures him, that the business, coldly follow-
ed hitherto, was " now carried on by his majesty's
own resolution. " Wentworth exhibited on the occa-
sion more moderation and a sounder policy : Being
taxed by the king for setting his hand to an offer
of composition on the part of the city, which he
esteemed "very low and mean," he replied, that it
would be worth 150,OOOZ. to his majesty: "That it
could not be denied but the Londoners were out
great sums upon the plantation, and that it were
not only very strict in their case, but would dis-
courage all other plantations, if the uttermost ad-
vantage were taken : Besides it was very consider-
able, the too much discouraging of the city, which
in a time thus conditioned, and when they were to
be called upon still for those great payments to-
wards the shipping business, might produce sad

effects ; whereas they were rather to be

as tenderly as possible might be dealt with, if
not favored, and kept in life and spirit a." In
the result, the king, after squeezing from them as
great a sum for composition as they were able to
raise, kept possession of the lands until the power
of the long parliament compelled him to restore the
plunder.

a Strafford Letters, ii. 25.

464

The difficulty of levying ship-money was obvi-
ously increasing daily. Resistance to the demand
had already been made by several individuals, and
the spirit was spreading. Yet the king, whose ne-
cessities were likewise increasing, was bent on aug-
menting the tax and rendering it general over the
kingdom, whereas it had hitherto been demanded
in the ports and maritime counties only. At this
juncture, we find Wentworth with forward zeal in-
viting his master to try the new assessment first in
the northern counties, where he and not the law
presided, and where as he assured him no opposi-
tion was to be apprehended.

As a further security, Charles had recourse to
another expedient, which drew after it long conse-
quences. The case of the crown was stated in a
royal letter addressed to the judges, and their opi-
nions required on the legality of the imposition.
"And after much solicitation from the lord chief
justice Finch, who was the prime adviser of this
appeal, promising preferment to some, and highly
threatening others, whom he found doubting*, " the
following answer was obtained under the signature
of all the twelve : That when the good of the king-
dom in general was concerned, and the whole king-
dom in danger, his majesty might under the great
seal require his subjects to provide such ships, so
armed and provisioned, and for such time, as he
should see good, and might compel the doing of it

* Whitelock,

465

in case of refractoriness ; and that of the dangers and
mode of prevention, his majesty was the sole judge.
"This opinion and subscription of all the judges was
enrolled in all the courts of Westminster, and much
distasted many gentlemen of the country, and of
their own profession, as a thing extrajudicial, un-
usual, and of very ill consequence in this great
business or any other." It was determined never-
theless not to suffer it to remain a dead letter.
Hitherto, when refusers of ship-money had been
brought before the courts, the judges on circuit
had overruled, or declined to entertain, any plea
founded on the assumed illegality of the imposition,
and thus the question of right had remained unde-
cided ; but it was now resolved to cite such delin-
quents before the court of exchequer, and there
obtain a solemn decision for the king. The person
singled out for an example on this occasion was
John Hampden, Esq. of Great Hampden, Bucks.

It is matter of regret and of some surprise, that
of him whose name stands confessedly first in the
illustrious list of English patriots, few domestic
anecdotes are on record, and that the contemporary
delineations even of his public character are chiefly
traced by hostile pens. The principal circumstances
of his life however are well authenticated, and were
as follows. He was born in London in the year 1 594,
and lost his father almost in infancy. Magdalen
College Oxford had the honor of his education.
On quitting the university, which he did without a
degree, he complied with the laudable practice of

VOL. i. 2 H

466

the first English gentlemen of those times, by enter-
ing himself of an inn of court, and becoming an
assiduous student of the laws and constitution of
his country. He received through a long unbroken
line the estate of Hampden, the original gift of Ed-
ward the Confessor to his ancestor ; and his posses-
sions were on the whole so ample that his mother
urged him, though without effect, to purchase a
peerage ; within his own county his influence was
probably second to none. His natural disposition
was sprightly, his demeanor courteous, and he is said
on his first entrance into manhood to have indulged
himself in manly exercises, field sports, and jovial
company. But he quickly withdrew "to a life,"
says Clarendon, " of extraordinary sobriety and
strictness, and yet retained his usual cheerfulness
and affability." He married in 1619, and two years
after entered upon public life as a member of the
last parliament of king James. From the first he
showed himself attentive to the business of the
house, and a friend of reforms and of the people ;
and though he did not yet come prominently for-
ward as a speaker, he began to be appreciated by
the leaders of the popular party, and enlisted him-
self in its ranks.

In the first parliament of Charles, Hampden sat
for the borough of Wendover, to which the right of
returning representatives, long suspended, had been
restored in great measure through his exertions. In
the succeeding parliament he was again returned
for the same place, and became conspicuous as a

467

debater. After the dissolution, being required to
contribute to the loan which the king was then en-
deavouring to levy in lieu of parliamentary supplies,
he refused, thus pointedly assigning his reason;
"That he could be content to lend, as well as others,
but feared to draw upon himself that curse in Magna
Charta which should be read twice a year against
those that infringe it." Upon this he was com-
mitted by the council to close custody in the Gate-
house prison ; where Eliot, now in durance for his
parliamentary conduct, must have been his fellow-
prisoner. On a repetition of his refusal, he was
afterwards confined to some place in Hampshire,
under which restraint he remained till the general
liberation of political delinquents by which the king
found it necessary to prepare for the meeting of
his third parliament. In this assemblage likewise
Hampden took his seat, and was conspicuous in all
the great committees, on questions of privilege,
religion and supply. It is remarkable however,
that before the precipitate and stormy dissolution
at the end of the second session, Hampden had re-
tired to the domestic scene, to brood in silence, or
confer with a few chosen and congenial friends, on
the misery and degradation which seemed to await
his country from the rapid and unresisted progress
of tyranny, civil and ecclesiastical.

The character of this great man's understanding
and of his eloquence is thus delineated by the pen of
one who well knew him, and in despite of the widest
political differences appears to have regarded him

2 H 2

468

with admiration and reverence. "He was certainly
a person of the greatest abilities of any of that party.
He had a great knowledge both in scholarship and
in the law. He was of a concise and significant
language, and the mildest yet subtillest speaker of
any man in the house ; and had a dexterity, when
a question wras going to be put which agreed not
with his sense, to draw it over to it by adding some
equivocal or sly word, which would enervate the
meaning of it as first put. He was very well read
in history ; and 1 remember the first time I ever
saw that of Davila, of the civil wars of France, it
was lent me under the title of Mr. Hampden's vade

me cum

a »

There is not the slightest evidence for classing
him amongst the fanatics of the time, though he
might in some sense be a sectary. Clarendon,
speaking of this period of his life, says, that "though
they who conversed nearly with him found him
growing into a dislike of the ecclesiastical govern-
ment of the church, yet most believed it rather a
dislike of some churchmen, and of some introduce-
ments of theirs, which he apprehended might dis-
quiet the public peace b." At his death also he
received the sacrament with the declaration, that
1 ' though he could not away with the governance
of the church by bishops, and did utterly abomi-
nate the scandalous lives of some clergymen, he
thought its doctrine in the greater part primitive,

Warwick's Memoirs, p. 240. b Hist. Rebel, iv. p. 91.

469

and conformable to God's word, as in holy scripture
revealed3."

In 1634 he lost his wife, an heiress of the family
of Symeon, who had made him the father of nine
children, and who is emphatically described on the
monument which he raised to her memory, as "in
her pilgrimage the stay and comfort of her neigh-
bours, the love and glory of a well-ordered family,
the delight and happiness of tender parents, but a
crown of blessings to a husband."

It was in 1636 that he rendered himself again
obnoxious to power by his refusal of ship-money ;
and in the same year the opinions of the judges
were taken, and legal proceedings commenced. The
conduct of Hampden through the whole was marked
by that calm and deliberate spirit which is the pledge
of unshaken perseverance. "He often advised in
this great business," says Whitelock, " with Hoi-
born, St. John, and myself, and others of his friends
and counsel." Nothing was spared on either side
to render the momentous decision one from which
there could be no appeal ; and to give full scope for
preparation, the solemn day of trial was procrasti-
nated to the month of December 1637.

a Clough's Narrative. It may be worth while to mention that
his mother was a patroness of the noted John Goodwin, vicar of
St. Stephen's Coleman Street, and received in 1641 the dedica-
tion of one of his earliest works, entitled "God a good master
and protector." Goodwin had before this time been " convent-
ed" by Laud for some breach of the canons, but on his submis-
sion was no further proceeded against. See Jackson's Life of
John Goodwin, M.A. London, 1822, pp. 15, 16.

470

We have good evidence that the subject of trans-
atlantic colonization deeply engaged the attention
of the lovers of liberty, in those years when along
with parliaments the chief blessings of the English
constitution were taken away from the people. As
early as December 1631, a letter of Hampden to sir
John Eliot contains the following sentence. "The
paper of considerations concerning the plantation
might be very safely conveyed to me by this hand,
and after transcribing should be as safely returned
if you vouchsafe to send it to mea."

During the year 1635, when the gloom occasioned
by the recent loss of the beloved partner of his life,
would be likely to deepen the despondency with
which Hampden had long contemplated the state
and prospects of his country, and perhaps to enfee-
ble or destroy his local attachments, — we find his
name joined with those of six other gentlemen of
family and fortune who united with the lords Say
and Brook in making a purchase from the earl of
Warwick of an extensive grant of land in a wide
wilderness then called Virginia, but which now
forms a part of the State of Connecticut. That
these transatlantic possessions were designed by the
associates, ultimately, or under certain contingen-
cies, to serve as an asylum to themselves and a
home to their posterity, there is no room to doubt;
but it is evident that nothing short of circumstances
constituting a moral necessity, would have urged

a Eliot Letters, MS.

471

persons of their rank, fortune, and habits of life, to
encounter the perils, privations, and hardships at-
tendant upon the pioneers of civilization in that in-
hospitable clime. Accordingly they for the present
contented themselves with sending out an agent to
take possession of their territory and to build a fort.
This was done; and the town called Saybrook from
the united names of the two noble projectors, still
preserves the memory of the enterprise. But it
was a part of their design to establish in the new
settlement an order of nobility and an hereditary
magistracy; than which nothing could be less con-
genial to the views of the body of settlers with
whom they were in connexion ; and after some
time wasted in disputes on this subject, they finally
abandoned the whole design, and sold the land.
This termination appears to have taken place in
1636 ; that is, during the dependence of the great
cause of ship-money ; and this coincidence would
of itself almost suffice to prove that no later scheme
of emigration was ever entertained by Hamp-
den. From this epoch his name was reechoed
throughout England as that of the most firm and
undaunted champion of the invaded freedom of his
native land ; from this epoch, notwithstanding the
judicial decision in favor of the crown, near hopes
of deliverance began to dawn upon him and his
confederates ; — from this epoch in short, his hand
was on the plough, from which assuredly he looked
not back. Yet it was as long after as May 1 , 1638,
that there were arrested in the Thames by an order

472

in council eight ships bound for New England and
filled with puritan families, and amongst them are
said to have been found Cromwell and Hampden,
together with Arthur Hazelrig.

This celebrated story, notwithstanding the ready
acceptance it has met with, may be safely pro-
nounced unfounded. In addition to the moral ob-
jections just mentioned in the case of Hampden, it
is to be observed that so striking an incident is not
even hinted at in any contemporary account either
of this patriot or of Cromwell. Both Clarendon
and Whitelock are totally silent respecting it ;
and the original authorities for it are stated to be
no other than Dr. Georges Bates, author of ''Lives
of the Regicides," and Dugdale ; both zealous roy-
alists8, from one or other of whom Cotton Mather
seems to have transcribed it into his History of New
England. But the insurmountable objection to the
story appears in the following passages of Rush-
worth. After citing a proclamation issued in April
1637, by which the king "did command his officers,
and ministers of the ports, not to suffer any persons,
being subsidy-men, or of their value, to pass to any
of those plantations without a license from his
majesty's commissioners for plantations first ob-
tained ; nor any under the degree of subsidy-men,
without a certificate from two justices of peace
where they lived, that they have taken the oaths of
allegiance and supremacy, and a testimony from

5 Neal, Hist, of Puritans, ii. 316.

473

the minister of the parish, of their conformity to
the orders and discipline of the church of England;"
he thus writes under the date of May 1, 1638.

* ' The privy-council made another order for reasons
importing the state best known to themselves ; That
the lord-treasurer of England shall take speedy and
effectual course for the stay of eight ships now in
the river of Thames, prepared to go for New En-
gland, and shall likewise give order for the putting
on land all the passengers and provisions therein
intended for that voyage. And some days after his
majesty and the board, taking into consideration
the frequent resort into New England of divers per-
sons ill-affected to the religion established in the
church of England, and to the good and peaceable
government of this state ; howbeit, upon the hum-
ble petition of the merchants, passengers, and own-
ers of the ships now bound for New England, and
upon the reasons by them represented to the board,
his majesty was then graciously pleased to free them
from the late restraint to proceed in their intended
voyage*."

From which it is plain that all who had embark-
ed for New England on board those ships must ac-
tually have proceeded thither.

A few particulars however respecting the rise and
progress of colonization in this part of the North
American continent, and of the conduct of Charles

a Rushworth, part ii. p. 409.

474

respecting it, may here be inserted, as strikingly
illustrative of the state of religious and political
parties.

At this period, toleration was totally unknown
to the laws of England. A refusal to attend divine
worship in the parish church was, in all persons
without exception, punishable in the first instance
by fine, and on a repetition of such refusal, by ba-
nishment. Popish recusants, indeed, were allowed
to compound for these penalties by a heavy annual
payment, and the celebration of mass, though ille-
gal, was connived at. But no similar indulgence
was extended to the religious services of protestant
sectaries. Their ministers did not yet form a di-
stinct class ; with scarcely an exception they were
ordained and beneficed clergy of the English church,
and being thus lawfully subject to the authority of
their diocesan, the means of detecting and punish-
ing their deviations from conformity were easy and
obvious. Abbot, indeed, had sparingly and reluc-
tantly exercised against men whose piety he revered,
whose doctrine he approved, and whose scruples he
respected, the terrific powers with which the high-
commission had armed him ; but from Laud and
the bishops preferred by him, they found no quar-
ter. At every episcopal visitation the clergy trem-
bled. Lecturers were put to silence, domestic chap-
lains in the houses of private gentlemen cashiered,
and their patrons commanded to attend their parish
churches ; and the parochial clergy, where uncon-

475

formable, were fined, suspended or deprived ; and
frequently, with the more zealous of their followers,
driven into banishment.

Thus in the archbishop's account of his province
for the year 1636, delivered to the king and apos-
tilled by his own hand, we find the following no-
tices. " . . . . There are still about Ashford and Eger-

ton divers Brownists and other separatists. But
they are so very poor and mean people that we
know not what to do with them. They are said to
be the disciples of one Turner and Fennar, who
were long since apprehended and imprisoned by
order of your majesty's high-commission court.
r ...... Neither do I see any remedy like to be unless

some of their chief seducers be driven to abjure the
kingdom, which must be done by the judge -at the
common law, but is not in our power." The King:
"Inform me of the particulars, and I shall com-
mand the judges to make them abjure." And again:
"In Norwich one Mr. Bridge, rather than he would
conform, hath left his lecture and two cures, and is
gone into Holland." The King: " Let him go ; we
are well rid of hima."

From Holland, their earliest asylum, the zealous
sectaries, anxious for more power of enforcing the
sabbatical observance of Sunday than was allowed
them there, gradually found their way over to New
England.

King James, about the year 1620, by the advice

8 Laud's Trial and Troubles, pp. 538, 541.

476

of secretary Naunton, had granted to the first set-
tlers, chiefly Independents, or Brownists, what in
those deserts they could not easily be deprived of,
that liberty of conscience which they desired above
every earthly blessing ; possessed of this, all diffi-
culties, all sufferings, appeared easy to overcome,
or light to bear. By a perseverance and endurance
which well deserve the epithet heroic, they succeeded
in establishing the settlement of New Plymouth ;
and encouraged by this example successive bands
of emigrants arrived, all animated by the same
principles, whose efforts were crowned with similar
results; and thus was colonization rapidly extended
along the borders of Massachusetts Bay, and into
the adjoining territories of Rhode Island and Con-
necticut.

By degrees, the growing strength and prosperity
of these settlements awakened the jealousy of Charles
and his episcopal adviser. Here were towns, al-
most provinces, in great measure self- governed,
both as to civil and ecclesiastical matters. Their
inhabitants owned indeed allegiance to the parent
state, but they denied that they held of the king of
England lands which they had purchased from their
aboriginal occupants. They were bound by a gene-
ral engagement to rule themselves by the laws of
England, but they excepted out of their obligation
all those which concerned religion. The Anglican
ritual, far from being established, was not even to-
lerated by the New Englanders, and some who had
gone out with the design of setting up that form,

477

had been sent out of the country. To permit an
example of such danger and scandal to continue,
was out of the question. Laud actually contem-
plated the hazardous experiment of sending out a
bishop to them for their better government, backed
by " some forces to compel, if he were not other-
wise able to persuade obedience a," and instead of
driving the sectaries to abjure the realm, as before,
it was sought, with a refinement of tyranny of which
the annals of persecution have afforded few equally
strong examples, to deprive the conscientious suf-
ferers of that last and most melancholy of all re-
sources, a rude, and distant, and perpetual exile.
But time and fate pressed on too fast ; the resistance
offered by the Scots to similar attempts prevented
the execution of all designs against the religious
liberties of the New Englanders, and the prohibi-
tions of emigration, as far as they were at all effec-
tive, served only to minister a dangerous exaspera-
tion to those on whom they closed all the doors of
escape.

The first colonists then, were religious, not poli-
tical confessors ; in their ranks were reckoned no
fewer than seventy-seven expelled clergymen, and
sixteen students who afterwards became ministers.
Some venerated pastor, excommunicated by the
spiritual courts, or deprived by the high-commission,
for rejecting the surplice, for omitting the genuflec-
tions to the altar and at the name of Jesus, or for

a Cyprianus Aug. p. 347.

478

disobeying the illegal command to read in his church
the declaration in favor of Sunday sports, was usu-
ally the leader of each little band of exiles. His
flock followed at his bidding, and the infant settle-
ment was only a transplanted church. With few
exceptions, these, like the confessors and exiles of
the days of Mary, were persons of the middling and
lower classes of society ; such as perceived no shame,
and no ridicule, but perhaps, felt even a kind of
honorary distinction attached to the name of Non-
conformist. But the fashion was rapidly gaining
the higher ranks: " subsidy -men " began to take
flight, and this circumstance seems to account for
the altered policy of the government. Between the
puritanical sect and the constitutional party a na-
tural connexion existed which was daily drawing
into a closer intimacy. The victims of episcopal
oppression could hope for no relief but through the
restoration of the popular branch of the legislature,
and the champions of civil liberty could not view
without as much alarm as indignation the progress
of religious tyranny. Several of those who had
been opposers of illegal taxation in the early years
of the reign, were already included amongst the
exiles ; the enterprise of lords Brook and Say and
their coadjutors had been entered upon, and there
is good proof that both Cromwell, who had given
some proof of his power in the last parliament, and
Hazelrig were publicly mentioned as preparing for
their departure.

Oneperson of fortune and family, memorable both

479

in his after-life and his death, had already transported
himself to the colonies under circumstances worthy
of record. This was Henry, son of sir Henry Vane,
a distinguished courtier who chiefly by the favor of
the queen had become a privy councillor, commis-
sioner of the navy, and comptroller of the household.
Vane the younger, born in 1612, had received his
early education at Westminster school, under Os-
baldeston, the unfortunate correspondent of the
bishop of Lincoln. Hence he removed to Magdalen
college Oxford, and after completing his course
" spent," says lord Clarendon, " some little time in
France, and more in Geneva ; and after his return
into England, contracted a full prejudice and bitter-
ness against the church, both against the form of
the government, and against the liturgy." This
state of his opinions greatly displeased his father ;
but finding no remedy for it, he was induced, with
the consent, or, according to some accounts, by the
persuasion of the king, to suffer him to transport
himself to New England. The circumstance is thus
recorded in one of the letters of Garrard, dated in
September 1635.

' 'Mr. Comptroller sir Henry Vane's eldest son
hath left his father, his mother, his country, and
that fortune which his father would have left him
here, and is for conscience' sake gone into New
England, there to lead the rest of his days, being
about twenty years of age. He had abstained two
years from taking the sacrament in England, be-
cause he could get nobody to administer it to him

480

standing. He was bred up at Leyden, and I hear
that sir Nathaniel Rich and Mr. Pym have done
him much hurt in their persuasions this way. God
forgive them for it if they be guilty*."

The results of this self-expatriation were remark-
able. Flattered by the rank and dazzled by the
zeal and talents of their new associate, the people
of Massachusetts immediately conferred on him the
freedom of the colony, and in the following year
elected him their governor, in which capacity he
gained credit by conducting a formidable warfare
with one of the native tribes to a successful termi-
nation. Unfortunately there arose soon after a
female fanatic who, professing at first to instruct her
own sex alone in separate meetings which she styled
" gossipings," extended her influence by degrees
amongst the other till a schism was effected which
seemed likely to rend asunder the infant state. The
youthful governor adopted her opinions and party
with all the fervor of his nature, but the majority
of the colonists adhered to their regular teachers
and original creed. At the ensuing annual elec-
tion for governor, a trial of strength took place ;
Vane was thrown out by a great majority ; and the
prophetess and her adherents being soon after ba-
nished on a compound charge of heresy and sedi-
tion, he thought fit to secure his return to England.
This personal experience of the uncharitableness
and intolerance exercised upon one another by men

* Stra/ord Letters, i. 463.

481

who had themselves been the victims of a similar
spirit at home, seems to have produced for some
time a tranquillizing effect on the mind of Vane :
he married by his father's direction a lady of family,
obtained through the interest of the earl of North-
umberland the place of joint treasurer of the navy,
and exhibited for some time no hostility to the mea-
sures of the government. But his fire was smo-
thered only, not extinguished, and we shall find it
again getting vent, and blazing forth with all its
pristine ardor.

The ambition of Laud, disguising itself, as usual,
under the form of zeal for the service of the church,
and a just desire to assert all the privileges belong-
ing to him as its spiritual head, exhibited itself in
a conspicuous manner by the new and extraordi-
nary claim which he now advanced to visit, as
metropolitan, both the universities, and correct at
his pleasure all omissions or irregularities in matters
of church discipline which he should there detect.
In Oxford, his office of chancellor of the university
had already given him such authority that appa-
rently no irregularities were left to be amended
there ; but in Cambridge, he found cause to com-
plain, that two chapels remained unconsecrated,
and that the wearing of surplices was sometimes
neglected, and on these grounds he justified the ne-
cessity of claiming what he called his own power.
Neither university however was disposed to submit
tamely to this unheard-of assumption ; they pleaded
that the right of visitation resided in the king alone,

VOL. i. 2 i

482

as sovereign and founder ; and the cause ' ' came
to a hearing before his majesty sitting in council ;
sir John Banks, the king's attorney general, pleading
for the archbishop's right and the king's ; the king
then in person arguing and giving judgment against
himself a." A striking example of the sacredness
attached by Charles to the prelatical character, and
his propensity to favor the most exorbitant preten-
sions urged in its behalf !

Just at this time the primate completed a body
of statutes for the government of the university of
Oxford, which were published in convocation.
" The preface disparaged king Edward's times and
government, declaring that the discipline of the
university was then discomposed and troubled by
that king's injunctions, and the flattering novelty
of the age, and that it did revive and flourish again
in queen Mary's days, under the government of
cardinal Pole ; when, by the much to be desired fe-
licity of those times, an inbred candor supplied the
defect of statutes5."

Having carried these points to his satisfaction,
the primate testified his gratitude and displayed his
munificence by a splendid reception of their ma-
jesties at Oxford. The royal visitors were regaled
by the university with customary presents, — the
king receiving " a fair and costly pair of gloves,"
the queen, " a fair English bible," the prince Pa-
latine, " Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity," and his

a Rush worth, ii. 324. b Id. ibid.

483

brother prince Rupert, who had lately arrived in
England, Csesar's Commentaries, illustrated by sir
Clement Edmonds, a selection which indicated
that the destination of this young prince to the
military profession was already fixed. The two
princes and several of the nobility were decorated
with doctors degrees, and plays and sermons al-
ternately engaged the illustrious visitors. Three
comedies were performed, one of them entitled,
11 Passions calmed, or the settling of the floating
Islands," is said to have had " more of the philo-
sopher than the poet in it," and perhaps partook of
the Platonic taste then prevalent. The interludes
which diversified the other pieces, were represented
1 1 with as much variety of scenes and motions as the
great wit of Inigo Jones could extend untoa." The
"stately and magnificent dinner" was given by
the archbishop in his own college, St. John's, and
in a new gallery of his own building. cc It was St.
Felix his day," he quaintly remarks in his diary,
" and all went happily." A short time previously
the primate, with characteristic munificence, had
founded in Oxford an Arabic lecture, and appointed
to the chair that very eminent orientalist and ex-
cellent man, Dr. Edward Pocock.

a Cyprianus Ang. pp. 299, 300.

2 i 2

484

CHAPTER XIV.

1637.

Failure of negotiations with the Emperor. — Charles threatens war
against Spain. — Wentworth dissuades it. — Unfriendly conduct of
France. — Bombardment of Sallee and peace with the emperor of
Morocco. — III success of the English fleet against the Dutch. —
Proceedings against Pry nn, Burton, and Bastwick. — Exasperation
against Laud in consequence. — Decree of star-chamber against
unlicensed printing. — Punishment of John Lilburn ; — account of
him. — Quarrel of Laud with Archy the king's fool. — King and
Laud jealous of conversions to popery. — Account of Walter Mon-
tague.— Anecdotes of Toby Matthew. — Account of Chillingworth,
and his writings. — Milton sets out on his travels, — returns from
Italy confirmed in protestantism. — Judgement against Hampden in
the matter of ship-money . — /// effects of it on the king's affairs.

JL HE earl of Arundel, sent to negotiate with the
Emperor in the forlorn cause of the Palatine family,
returned at the beginning of this year to report a
total want of success in his object, aggravated by
scornful treatment. The pride of Charles was ex-
asperated, and it threw him into certain measures
thus explained by himself in a letter to the lord de-
puty. " Upon Arundel's return I have per-
ceived that directly which heretofore I have much
feared, to wit, the impossibility of restoring my
sister and nephews by fair means, at least without
threatening. This has made me fall in with France
in a strict defensive league : (the treaties are not yet
ratified by France, but I make no question of their

485

ratifying of them,) and if we and the confederates
(viz. Denmark, Swede, and the States,) can agree
both how and what to ask, upon refusal, or so long
delay as upon agreement set down we shall account
as ill as a denial, we are jointly to proclaim the house
of Austria with all their adherents, our enemies.
But I have professed that all my warfare must be
by sea and not by land. What likelihood there is,
that upon this I should fall foul with Spain, you now
may see as well as I ; and what great inconvenience
this war can bring to me, now that my sea-contribu-
tion is settled, and that I am resolved not to meddle
with land armies, I cannot imagine, except it be in
Ireland ; and there too I fear not much, since I find
the country so well settled by your vigilant care :
Yet I thought it necessary to give you this watch-
word, both to have the more vigilant eye over the
discontented party, as also to assure you, that I am
as far from a parliament as when you left mea."

Wentworth received with extreme alarm this in-
timation of the warlike dispositions of the king ;
perfectly aware that to continue to raise the neces-
sary supplies for the support of government without
the intervention of parliament, would amply task
the skill and courage of ministers even in a season
of profound peace, he could not doubt that the ex-
pense and embarrassment of a war must prove dan-
gerous or fatal to the whole system, and especially
to all his own designs for raising a revenue from the

» Stra/ord Letters, ii. 53.

486

tranquillity and improvement of Ireland ; and in an
able letter he laid before his sovereign the powerful
political motives for a return to milder counsels. To
Laud we find him avowing with frankness his per-
sonal reasons for dreading a war, as follows. "Good
my lord, if it be not too late, use your best to divert
us from this war, for I foresee in it nothing but dis-
tractions to his majesty's affairs, and mighty dan-
gers to us that must be the ministers, albeit not the
authors of the counsel. It will necessarily put the
king into all the high ways possible, else will he
not be able to subsist under the charge of it : and if
these fail, the next will but be the sacrificing of
those that have been his ministers therein. I profess
I will readily lay down my life to serve my master,
my heart should give him that very freely ; but it
would something trouble me to find even those that
drew and engaged him in all these mischiefs, busy
about me themselves in fitting the halter about my
neck, and in tying the knot sure that it should not
slip, as if they were the persons in the whole world
the most innocent of guilt, howbeit in truth as black
as hell itself, and on whom alone the punishment
ought to liea."

The concluding expressions allude to the French
party at court, and especially to its leader the earl
of Holland, against whom the wrath of Wentworth
burned so fiercely, that he once told the king he
would do well to cut off his head, — a speech which

a Strn/ord Letters, ii. 66.

487

was faithfully remembered against its author in the
day of vengeance.

It appears by Charles's answer, that the argu-
ments of Wentworth against a war made a consi-
derable impression upon his mind ; but it was the
long delays on the part of the court of France, al-
ways insincere in these negotiations, which decided
the question, by protracting the treaty of alliance
till the British sovereign found himself inextricably
involved in the great contest of his reign, and un-
able to look abroad.

Of the hostile spirit of the French at this junc-
ture, when so much friendship was professed, a
letter of Wentworth's affords the following glaring
instance. " The pillage the Turks have done upon
the coast is most insufferable, and to have our sub-
jects thus ravished from us, and at after to be from
Rochelle driven over land in chains to Marseilles,
all this under the sun, is the most infamous usage
of a Christian king by him that wears Most Christian
in his title, that I think was ever heard of. Surely
I am of opinion, if this be past over in silence the
shipping business will not only be much backened
by it, but the sovereignty of the seas become an
empty title, and all our trade in fine utterly losta."

Charles seems to have obtained no redress for
this injury from his royal brother, who had lately
formed an alliance with the Turks ; but being now
master of a powerful navy, he sent a squadron to

a Stra/ord Letters, ii. 25.

488

bombard Sallee, and concluded a peace with the
emperor of Morocco, stipulating for the release of
English captives. The main fleet under the earl of
Northumberland was less successful in its cruise
against the Dutch fishing-busses : Under the protec-
tion of their own superior fleet, they continued to
take herrings as formerly off the British coasts, and
refused all payment for the royal license.

The severities instigated by Laud against the as-
sailants of episcopacy had not yet produced their
intended effect in subduing the courage of the suf-
ferers and reducing them to silence. Prynn, from
the perpetual prison which the sentence of the star-
chamber had assigned him, resumed his warfare upon
the " Luciferian prelates," in a tract called " News
from Ipswich." Burton, formerly a royal chaplain,
who for two sermons which he had preached at his
own church in London had been suspended by the
high-commission and committed to prison till he
should recant, ventured to aggravate his offence by
an " Apology " in which he called upon the people
to resist with obstinacy the novelties introduced by
the bishops. Dr.Bastwick, a learned physician, then
the fellow-prisoner of Prynn, having on account of
a former attack on the divine right of episcopacy
been also excommunicated, suspended from the exer-
cise of his profession, and heavily fined, followed up
his blow in a piece entitled his "Letanie." The lan-
guage of all these tracts was violent and provoking
in the extreme ; that of Bastwick even descends
in some passages to a kind of scurrilous banter. In

489

the quaint phraseology of his day, reprobating the
difference of degrees in the church, he styles bishops,
priests and deacons, " little toes of Antichrist." On
account of the mixture of scripture in the prayer
book he calls it " linsey woolsey service, " adding,
' ' It is indeed a mere translation of Latin supersti-
tion into English superstition." The following is the
extraordinary menace which he fulminates against
the bishops if he be not speedily liberated from his
confinement. " I will with a pen of iron, corre-
spondent to the iron age of the prelates, so plague
the metropolicality of York and Canterbury, and
the hyperocality of all the other prelates, as I will
never leave them till I have sent them to the place
where the two fulmina belli, Alexander the great
cries mustard and green sauce ; and where Julius
Caesar plays Pluto's rat-catcher."

By the dignitaries of a church which felt itself
strong in the reverence and attachment of the peo-
ple, such railing accusations might with equal dig-
nity and safety have been passed over in silence ;
but the unpopular primate, in whom they inspired
no less alarm than indignation, was impelled by both
these sentiments to visit their authors with exem-
plary, and if possible deterring punishment.

After a vain attempt to extort from the judges
an opinion that these libels on the church formed a
species of high treason, it was determined to proceed
in the star-chamber by a joint bill against all the
three ; — a strange decision, since it was not in proof
that any of the tracts charged in the bill as libellous,

490

and of which two were anonymous, had been writ-
ten by them in common ; neither were they allowed
to confer together in order to the making of a com-
mon defence.

Prynn having tendered a cross bill against the
primate, it was refused as irrelevant and an aggra-
vation of his offence; he was then debarred pen and
ink, and the servant employed to solicit his cause
was carried off by a pursuivant and attached till the
hearing was over, and the order to admit counsel to
him was evaded. All the defendants were then or-
dered to put in their answers by an early day, and
it was required that they should be signed by two
counsel. But the answers, drawn by themselves,
and which they refused with pertinacity to modify,
proved to be of such a nature that lawyers de-
clined to put their names to them ; in consequence
they were rejected by the court, and the matter of
charge taken pro confesso ; and sentence was to be
given accordingly.

On June the 14th the three prisoners being brought
up for judgement were allowed to speak for them-
selves, so that it were without libelling or offence,
and Prynn had leave to make several motions : he
again offered his cross bill against the prelates, which
was refused ; he moved that the prelates, their pro-
secutors by name, might not sit as their judges,
other lords having retired from causes in which they
were interested : this was scouted. He moved that
his answer might be received, to which he had now
got one counsel's hand; he was told it came too late.

491

Chief-justice Finch, though no judge in the star-
chamber, complained that Prynn's ears had not been
cut short enough, and the court ordered his hair to
be turned back to examine, and were offended that
his former sentence had been no better executed.

Five books hadbeen named in the indictment, three
by Burton and Bastwick,the others anonymous; and
Prynn justly complained that he should be joined in
the accusation when none of them had been laid to
his charge, when he had confessed nothing nor had
any witness been brought to testify against him ;
and again he offered his answer, which' was again
refused and he commanded to hold his peace. The
other defendants were likewise checked in their an-
swers. The sentence given by lord Cottington was,
that the prisoners should lose their ears, pay a fine
of 5000/. each, and be perpetually imprisoned in
the castles of Caernarvon, Cornwall, and Lancaster.
To which lord Finch added, that Prynn should be
branded in the cheeks with the letters S L, (seditious
libeller,) although he was only punished for a con-
tempt.

Burton having been previously degraded from his
priesthood, — a ceremony by which Laud intended to
save the credit of his order, — the three martyrs, as
they were considered by themselves and by a great
portion of the spectators, were brought forth to un-
dergo their barbarous sentence; Prynn, as the prin-
cipal delinquent, being placed on a single, the others
on a double pillory. Undaunted courage marked
the deportment of all the three, but a considerable di-

492

versity of character was observable in other respects.
WhenBastwick mounted the scaffold, on whom the
mutilation was first to be performed, "his wife im-
mediately following came up to him, and like a lov-
ing spouse saluted each ear with a kiss, and then
his mouth ; whose tender love, boldness and cheer-
fulness so wrought upon the people's affections that
they gave a marvellous great shout, for joy to behold
it. Her husband desired her not to be in the least
dismayed at his sufferings. And so for a while they
parted ; she using these words: 'Farewell, my dear-
est, be of good comfort, I am not dismayed.' ' " I
know," said this sufferer in his speech to the people,
"there be many here who have set many days apart
for our behalf, (let the prelates take notice of it,) and
they have sent up strong prayers to heaven for us ;
we feel the strength and benefit of them at this
time." And he went on to say, that if he had as
much blood as would swell the Thames, he would
shed it willingly on this account.

The speech of Burton was in effect a sermon, long
and quaint. He was watchful to interpret every
trivial circumstance which occurred into a special
providence sent as testimony to himself and his
cause, and was not even ashamed to run a parallel
between his own sufferings and those of Christ.
These arts were well adapted to work upon the
feelings of the already sympathizing and indignant
crowd: "The place was full of people," writes Gar-
rard, " who cried and howled most terribly, espe-
cially when Burton was cropped."

493

Prynn, in whom all personal considerations were
swallowed up in his zeal for the cause, appeared
solely anxious to improve the opportunity of argu-
ing against the divine right of bishops ; and the
primate, being informed as he was sitting in star-
chamber of the purport of his speech, moved that
he should " be gagged and some further censure
laid ; but the lord keeper replied, ' his grace should
do well not to notice what men spoke in pain on the
pillory ; ' so it rested."

The three learned professions felt themselves in-
sulted by the ignominy of the punishment inflicted
on their respective members, and with regard to
Prynn in particular, who, says Fuller, " was com-
mended for more kindly patience than his predeces-
sors in that place, so various were men's fancies in
reading the same letters, imprinted in his face, that
some made them to spell the guiltiness of the suf-
ferer, but others the cruelty of the imposer. Of the
latter sort, many for the cause', more for the man',
most for humanity' sake, bestowed pity upon him."

But the contrivers of an infliction which filled all
impartial persons with horror and indignation, had
aggravations of rigor still in store for their unhappy
victims. A supplemental order was made in the
star-chamber, on the mere motion of the attorney-
general, for debarring the prisoners from pen and
ink, and all books excepting a bible, a prayer-book,
and some works of devotion of the kind which were
then accounted orthodox.

It is a generous characteristic of the English peo-

494

pie, — and one which rulers have never found their
account in overlooking, — to side with the weak and
the persecuted. Mutilated, stigmatized, pilloried
and ruined, the puritan confessors instantly became
the objects of sympathy, esteem, enthusiasm ; and
this we learn not alone from the boast of themselves
or their partisans, but from the splenetic remarks
of the primate himself, who deduced nothing from
so formidable a manifestation of public opinion, ex-
cepting a ground of complaint against the lenity or
laxity of his coadjutors. " I am verily of your lord-
ship's mind," he writes to Wentworth, "that a little
more quickness in the government would cure this
itch of libelling, and something that is amiss besides;
but you know what I have written, and truly I have

done expecting of thorough on this side But

what say you to it when Prynn and his fellows should
be suffered to talk what they pleased while they
stood in the pillory, and win acclamations from the
people, and have notes taken of what they spake,
and those notes spread in written copies about the
city, and that when they went out of town to their
several imprisonments, there were thousands suf-
fered to be upon the way to take their leave, and
God knows what else." And again: " By that which
I have written your lordship will easily see, that the
triumviri will be far enough from being kept dark.
It is true that when this business is spoken of, some
men speak as your lordship writes, that this busi-
ness concerns the king and government more than
me. But when any thing comes to be acted against

495

them, be it but the execution of a sentence, in which
lies the honor and safety of all justice, yet there 's
little or nothing done, nor shall I ever live to see it
otherwise a."

Garrard mentions " strange nocking of the peo-
ple after Burton, when he removed from the Fleet
toward Lancaster Castle. Mr. Ingram, sub-warden
of the Fleet, told the king that there was not less
than 100,000 people gathered together to see him
pass by, betwixt Smithfield and Brown's Well, which
is two miles beyond Highgate; his wife went along
in a coach, having much money thrown to her as
she passed along." He also records that " complaint
hath been made to the lords of the council of a she-
riff of West Chester, who when Prynn passed that
way through Chester to Caernarvon Castle, he with
others met him, brought him into the town, feasted
and defrayed him ; besides this sheriff gave him a
suit of coarse hangings to furnish his chamber at
Caernarvon Castle; other presents were offered him,
money and other things, but he refused them. This
sheriff is sent for up by a pursuivant b."

Prynn himself has placed on record the following
particulars connected with these transactions0. That
on his journey he was visited both at Coventry and
at Chester by friends and partisans who showed him
kindness ; that the wife of the mayor of Coventry

a Strafford Letters, ii. 99, 100.
b Id. ii. 115.

c In his New Discovery of the Prelates' Tyranny, whence
many of the preceding particulars have also been derived.

49G

having visited him, Laud sent for her husband and
six more of the corporation, and ordered the attor-
ney-general to bring a quo warranto to seize their
liberties ; but that at length, there being nothing
against them, after much attendance on the council
and considerable expense, they were dismissed " with
a check." That the names of the persons who vi-
sited him at Chester were sent up to Laud by their
bishop, who also issued, and caused to be read in
all the churches of the city, a kind of manifesto
against such encouragers of schism, in which the
clergy were commanded to preach against Prynn
and the rest. That after this, his Chester adherents
having been apprehended by the pursuivants of the
high-commission, the ex officio oath was admini-
stered to them, and on their confession of having
visited him, they were smartly fined, bound to their
good behavior, and ordered to make public acknow-
ledgement of their fault both in the cathedral, and
before the mayor and corporation in the town hall.
The bonds of some of them were estreated on their
refusal to pronounce the confession drawn up for
them. Some pictures of Prynn were also seized in
Chester by the high-commission and defaced before
the bishop and a notary, and the frames burned at
the high cross by order of the archbishop of York.
Burton was conveyed to Lancaster Castle, where
his wife and daughter were not permitted to ap-
proach him even when he was sick, and where, as
Prynn emphatically complains, ''there were a com-
pany of witches purposely imprisoned in the cham-

497

ber under him, and a rank papist set to bring him
his meat and to be his chamber-fellow." But the
prisoners were not yet sufficiently secluded from
all means of intercourse with their families and
friends, to satisfy the vengeance or appease the jea-
lousies of their persecutor; and at the end of a few
weeks a fresh order was issued for conveying them
respectively to fortresses in the isles of Jersey,
Guernsey and Scilly. It was now further directed
that they should neither write nor receive letters;
that in their journey no one should be allowed to
speak to them ; and if the wives of Burton or Bast-
wick, who had made some efforts to gain a sight of
their husbands, should attempt to land in the islands
containing them, they were to be imprisoned till
further order, — an excess of tyranny, combined with
an insult upon the most universally revered of hu-
man ties, scarcely to be credited, and in English
history surely not to be paralleled !

Burton was incarcerated in the isle of Scilly,
where, as was asserted by his party, " many thou-
sands of robin-red-breasts, (none of which birds
were ever seen in those islands before or since,)
newly arrived at the castle there the evening be-
fore, welcomed him with their melody, and within
one day or two after took their flight thence, no
man knows whither."

The exasperation against the primate excited by
these severities, may be illustrated by a few notes
taken from his own diary. June 30. " The above
three libellers lost their ears." July 7. "A note

VOL. I. 2 K

498

was brought me of a short libel pasted on the cross
in Cheapside : That the arch-wolf of Cant, had his
hand in persecuting the saints, and shedding the
blood of the martyrs/' August 23. "My lord-
mayor sent me a libel found by the watch at the
south gate of St. Paul's : That the devil had let
that house to me, &c." August 25. " Another
libel brought me by an officer of the high-commis-
sion, fastened to the north gate of St. Pauls : That
the government of the church of England is a can-
dle in the snuff, going out in a stench." "The
same day at night my lord-mayor sent me another
libel, hanged upon the standard in Cheapside, my
speech in the star-chamber set in a kind of pillory,
&c." August 29. "Another short libel against me
in verse." In the face of all these evidences of
public opinion, the primate persevered in the per-
suasion that more punishments, more rigor, were
the only things necessary to the establishment of
exact conformity and universal obedience.

The star-chamber censure passed upon bishop
Williams, which has been anticipated in our nar-
rative, was delivered on July 1 1th in this year; and
though it was not calculated, like the former spec-
tacles of cruelty, to rouse popular indignation, it
no doubt served to confirm the purpose long che-
rished in the hearts of patriots, of seizing the earliest
occasion to check the exorbitant and oppressive
power both of the court itself and of him who was
its present dictator.

In the hope of giving an effectual check to the

499

circulation of pamphlets against the bishops and
the government, a decree was now made in the
star-chamber prohibiting the printing of any book
or pamphlet without the license of the archbishop
of Canterbury, the bishop of London, or such in-
spectors of manuscripts as they should appoint, on
pain to the printer of perpetual disqualification from
the exercise of his trade, and such further punish-
ment as by that court, or the high-commission,
should be thought fitting. It was not long before
this edict was found to have been transgressed by
one who gloried in a spirit able to endure all that
the most inventive cruelty could inflict.

John Lilburn, born in 1618, a younger son of a
gentleman's family in the North, had been sent
young, and with a scanty education, as apprentice
to a wholesale clothier in London. A resentment
against what he regarded as oppression, or undue
control, whether exercised against himself or others,
was from youth the leading principle, the ruling-
passion of his mind. By means of a charge which
he lodged against his master for ill-usage, he had
prematurely obtained his freedom ; and becoming
deeply imbued with religious zeal from the perusal
of the Book of Martyrs, and the study of the con-
troversial works of the puritans, to which he now
devoted himself, he obtained the notice of divines
and others of that party. Having gained access to
Dr. Bastwick in prison, he had been employed by
him to carry over and get printed in Holland some
of those pieces by which he and Prynn incurred

2 K2

500

their last sentence; and it was for this offence that
an information was preferred against him and one
Warton in the star-chamber. On an oath being
offered them to answer interrogatories, Lilburn re-
fused it, because no freeborn Englishman could
legally be compelled to accuse himself, — an answer
which obtained for him from the people the title of
" Freeborn John." Persisting in this course, the
court proceeded to sentence him in contempt, and
he was adjudged to pay a fine of 500/., to stand in
the pillory at Westminster, and to be whipped
thence to the Fleet prison, where he should remain
till he gave sufficient sureties for good behaviour.
Whilst standing in the pillory Lilburn distributed
from his pockets many pamphlets, held to be sedi-
tious, and proceeding to utter bold speeches against
the bishops, the court caused him to be gagged ;
when thus disabled from speaking, he continued to
stamp with his feet. He was then ordered to be
laid, with irons on his hands and legs, in the wards
of the Fleet, a noisome dungeon appropriated to the
basest sort of prisoners : no person whatever was to
be admitted to see him ; and all letters or books
brought him were to be seized and carried to the
lords in star-chamber, and notice to be given them
of all persons who attempted to see hima.

The primate soon after had it in contemplation
to make the same high court of judicature the in-
strument of his revenge on no less a personage than

a Rush worth, ii. p. 463, et seq.

501

Archy, or Archibald Armstrong, the king's fool.
This functionary was of long standing in the court,
and apparently in good acceptance with his master,
whom he had attended in his Spanish journey. He
was Scotch by birth, and partaking in the antipa-
thy to bishops which at this time possessed his
countrymen in general, he took particular delight
in making Laud the butt of sarcasms which wanted
neither wit nor truth to render them provoking.
What was worse, the numerous court enemies of
the archbishop, pleased to see his choler roused by
such an object, afforded the jester such effectual
protection that he was enabled to carry on the war
for several years. " Nor," says Osborn, "did this
too low-placed anger lead him (the primate) into a
less absurdity than an endeavour to bring him into
the star-chamber, till the lord Coventry had, by
acquainting him with the privileges of a fool, shown
him the ridiculousness of the attempt : yet not
satisfied, he, through the mediation of the queen,
got him at last discharged the court ; whither he
brought after the same mind under a cloak as he
had before borne in his fool's coatV

It was by an order in council of March 1 638 that
Archy was solemnly condemned to have his coat
pulled over his head and be discharged the king's
service.

Since the unwise permission given for the resi-
dence of a nuncio in London, the boldness of the

a Osborn's Advice to a Son, part ii. c. 4.

502

Romish party had sensibly increased ; the Jesuits
redoubled their activity in the work of conversion,
and at length their success, chiefly amongst ladies
of birth and fortune, began to awaken the displea-
sure of the king and the jealousy of Laud. The
countess of Newport having openly attended mass
in the queen's chapel, her husband, in high indig-
nation, complained to the primate, who brought
the affair before the council, and according to the
entry in his diary, made a free speech there to the
king " concerning the increasing of the Roman
party ; the freedom of Denmark (Somerset) House ;
the carriage of Mr. Walter Montague, and sir Toby
Mathew." The queen was incensed at this inter-
ference, and continued her displeasure against the
primate for several weeks, after which he "had
speech with her a good space, and all about the
business of Mr. Montague," but they " parted
fair."

Walter Montague, a younger son of the earl of
Manchester, lord privy seal, at an early age, during
his travels in France and Italy, had been induced
to change his religion and enter a French mona-
stery. He published an apology for his conversion
in a letter which was answered by lord Falkland in
1635. Being soon after introduced to the notice of
Mary de' Medici, and becoming, as was supposed,
her gallant, she not only bestowed upon him the
rich abbacy of Pontoise, but received him into her
cabinet council ; in which situation he contributed
to the advancement of Mazarine, who speedily for-

503

got the obligation. Through the recommendation
of her mother he had now obtained the favor and
confidence of Henrietta, and devoted himself with
much zeal to the interests of his church in England.
With Charles he appears to have been always an
object of suspicion and dislike, and on this occasion
both he and his fellow-convert Toby Mathew, who
had imbibed popery in Spain, and was already a
concealed priest and member of the society of Je-
suits, were visited with the royal rebuke, although
the influence of their patroness sufficed to preserve
them from the animadversion of the law. Lord
Conway in a letter to the lord-deputy of Ireland
relates, that at the council table "the king did use
such words of Wat. Montague and sir Toby Ma-
thew, that the fright made Wat. keep his chamber
longer than his sickness would have detained him,
and Don Tobiah was in such perplexity, that I find
he will make a very ill man to be a martyr, but
now the dog doth again wag his tail." This lively
letter- writer adds the following curious little story,
which may serve to mark the date of the introduc-
tion of chocolate into this country from Spain. It
will be remembered that sir Toby was the vowed
panegyrist and humble servant of the great lady
here mentioned. "The other day, he having infi-
nitely praised chocolate, my lady of Carlisle de-
sired that she might see some, with an intent to
taste it; he brought it, and in her chamber made
ready a cup full, poured out one half and drank it,
and liked that so well that he drank up the rest;

504

my lady expecting when she should have had a
part, had no share but the laughter3."

Busy intriguer as he was, Mathew had strong
claims on the forbearance or protection of Laud
himself, if we may rely on Prynn's information,
that he had been employed by the archbishop in
the scheme of an union between the churches.
Wentworth, on taking possession of his government,
had carried him over with him to Ireland; a cir-
cumstance which gave much offence and alarm, on
account of his religion, his insinuating address and
the general persuasion of his acting the part of a
spy. He afterwards resided for a time as principal
chaplain in the family of the earl of Worcester, but
on the breaking out of the civil war took refuge at
Ghent, where he renounced the world.

Amid these indefatigable efforts on the part of
the church of Rome to win back by detail its lost
sovereignty over the English people, nothing could
be more seasonable than the appearance of a work
of consummate ability bearing for its title, "The
religion of protestants a safe way to salvation."

Its author, the illustrious Chillingworth, a native
and student of Oxford, and a godson of archbishop
Laud, had been early remarked for his love of scho-
lastic disputation ; to which he brought, according to
lord Clarendon, who knew him well, "great subtility
of understanding," a temper which it was impossible
to provoke to passion, and "a sharpness and quick-

* Straford Letters, ii. 125.

505

ness of arguments and instances," in which his rare
facility gave him the advantage over all antagonists.
But with these endowments of intellect were not
unnaturally combined a sceptical and wavering turn
of mind; which, by persuading him of the necessity
of an infallible living guide of faith, laid him open
to the force of a leading argument in favor of the
church of Rome ; and the Jesuit Fisher urged it
upon him with such skill and cogency as to effect
his conversion. He quitted his country in conse-
quence, and repaired for a time to the college at
Douay. But further reflection, together with the
arguments of the primate, who had sustained with
great credit a public disputation against Fisher,
supplied him with reasons in behalf of protestantism
to which he finally yielded ; though not without
some lingering doubts and half-relapses which long
exposed him to obloquy and suspicion.

It was in this his great work that Chillingworth
established, as the bulwark of protestantism, the
great and fundamental principle, that Scripture is
the only rule for judging of controversies of faith.
He also maintained that the errors of conscientious
men do not incur the divine displeasure.

Milton, whose Comus was represented at Ludlow
Castle in 1635, gave to the world in this year his
Lycidas, the last written of his English poems be-
fore the awful circumstances of his country sum-
moned him to quit for a time the service of the
Muses and mingle in the field of religious and po-
litical controversy. Early in 1638 its author set

506

out on his travels to France and Italy, furnished
with a letter of advice from sir Henry Wotton, a
statesman whose peculiar praise it is, that genius
and merit never passed him unnoted or to the ex-
tent of his power unaided. In this letter he thus
quotes for the direction of his young friend in Italy,
and especially at Rome, the rule given to himself
on his first visit to that city by an experienced Ro-
man courtier. "I pensieri stretti et il viso sciolto;"
that is, * Your thoughts close and countenance
loose/ will go safely over the whole world. Of
which Delphian oracle (for so I have found it,) your
judgement doth need no commentary."

The maxim may be held a cold and a crafty one ;
it was certainly not taken for his guide by the great
and noble-minded man to whom it was addressed ;
but, at this juncture, extreme caution and reserve
were there indispensable to every English protestant
who desired at once to preserve his religion, to
enjoy the pleasures of lettered society, and not to
endanger his liberty. Notwithstanding the extra-
ordinary admiration which his classical taste and
learning, and especially his proficiency in their own
language and literature, excited in all the Italian
cities which he visited, Milton found himself pre-
cluded from the intimacy of Manso at Naples by
the protestant zeal which had manifested itself in
his discourse. It is also evident that before his
character was understood, those artful flatteries had
been practised upon him by which so many English
had been enticed, whilst on their travels, into a re-

507

conciliation with the church of Rome. Since a
papal nuncio had been admitted at London, a car-
dinal-protector had been appointed for the English
nation at Rome, and this office was borne by no
less a personage than cardinal Barberini, nephew
and prime minister to the pope. Milton was duly
introduced at his palace by the librarian of the
Vatican, who had previously gratified him by a free
admission to the treasures which he held under his
custody; and at a great entertainment the cardinal,
having singled him out amid the crowd at his door,
brought him into the assembly almost by the hand.
But Milton had already at Florence ' ' found and
visited the famous Galileo, grown old a prisoner
to the Inquisition, for thinking in astronomy other-
wise than the Franciscan and Dominican licensers
thought*;" and a confirmed abhorrence of the Ro-
mish system, as that of all others which had laid
the heaviest impositions on the freedom of the hu-
man mind, seems to have been a principal result of
his Italian travel.

The great cause against Hampden for his refusal
of ship-money now came on for decision, and in the
intense anxiety which it awakened, all other in-
terests seemed swallowed up and forgotten. It was
heard before the twelve judges in the exchequer
chamber, and the pleadings occupied no less than
eleven days. St. John and Holborn were counsel
for the defendant, and the attorney and solicitor

a Milton's Speech for unlicensed printing .

508

general, Banks and Littleton, for the crown. Against
the right of taxation by the crown without parlia-
ment were pleaded the general principles of En-
glish law, and many decisions ; Magna Charta and
the several confirmations of it, and last of all, the
Petition of Right ratified by the reigning sovereign.
On the other side were pleaded several precedents,
many of them inapplicable, and all drawn from un-
settled and very early times ; and because to the
strong and precise language of so many charters
and statutes no other defence could be opposed, the
crown lawyers and several of the judges were im-
pelled to justify this extortion on principles which,
it was evident, would leave to the subject nothing
which he could call his own ; such as the absolute
nature of royal authority, and the implicit submis-
sion due to the sovereign, who alone was to be ac-
counted the fit judge of the necessity of what he
required for the safety of the state. Some even
went so far as to deny the authority of parliament
to set limits to the inherent and transcendant pre-
rogatives of the crown, of which they affirmed the
power of arbitrary taxation to be one. It was an
error, judge Berkeley said, to maintain that by the
fundamental policy of this kingdom the king could
be restrained from taking money without a common
consent in parliament. "The law knows no such
king-yoking policy. The law is itself an old and
trusty servant of the king's ; it is his instrument or
means which he useth to govern his people by : I
never heard or read that lex was rex\ but it is com-

509

mon and most true that rex is lex." Chief-justice
Finch laid it down that no act of parliament could
bar a king of his regality; " therefore acts of par-
liament to take away his royal power in the defence
of his kingdom are void: they are void acts of par-
liament to bind the king not to command the sub-
jects, their persons and goods, and I say their mo-
ney too."

In the end, seven of the judges with Finch,
chief-justice of the common pleas, at their head,
gave judgement for the crown. Bramston, chief-
justice of the king's bench, and Davenport, chief
baron, though they pronounced in favor of Hamp-
den on some technical grounds, decided the general
question for the king. Of the other three, Den-
ham, being ill, gave in writing his decision against
the king ; and so anxious was he to place on record
his testimony to the law of England, that " he an-
nexed his opinion as a codicil to his will3." Hut-
ton and Croke now found courage to retract the
opinion in favor of the king's right which they, like
all the rest, had formerly signed, and to deny in the
most positive manner the pretended prerogative of
the crown and the lawfulness of the imposition.
1 1 Judge Croke," says Whitelock, "of whom I speak
knowingly, was resolved to deliver his opinion for
the king, and to that end had prepared his argu-
ment: Yet a few days before he was to argue, upon
discourse with some of his nearest relations, and
most serious thoughts of this business, and being

51 Stmford Letters, ii. 180.

510

heartened by his lady, who was a very good and
pious woman, and told her husband upon this
occasion, 'That she hoped he would do nothing
against his conscience, for fear of any danger or
prejudice to him or his family; and that she would
be contented to suffer want, or any misery with him,
rather than be an occasion for him to do or say
anything against his judgement and conscience:'
Upon these and many the like encouragements, but
chiefly upon his better thoughts, he suddenly altered
his purpose and arguments." ''But Hampden,"
he adds, " and many others of quality and interest
in their countries, were unsatisfied with this judge-
ment, and continued to the utmost of their power
in opposition to it ; yet could not at that time give
any further stop or hinderance to the prosecution
of the business of ship-money ; but it remained,
alt a mente repostum."

It was however still six months before the opi-
nions of all the judges were delivered and this me-
morable judgement carried into execution; and thus
was full leisure afforded to all men to debate it with
themselves and explore the sentiments and resolves
of others. No one doubted that the writ was ille-
gal ; of this the want of unanimity amongst the
judges was alone sufficient evidence ; and when
men saw, as in the denial of bail to the loan-refusers
some years previously, the case ruled against the
people, and the sages of the law themselves defend-
ing upon system acts of lawless power, and over-
throwing by technical chicane the sacred charters
of English liberty, they could no longer disguise

51 !

from themselves the awful truth, that all legal and
regular modes of redress being set aside, it must
speedily corne to be decided, whether they should
tamely surrender for all coming time their most
important rights, or strive to win them back again,
by intimidation, by resistance, and, if needful, by
the strong arm.

The^eneral sentiment was forcibly expressed in
the unbounded popularity and applause which hailed
the patriot who had followed up the cause with
perseverance at once so calm and so inflexible. The
name of Hampden grew instantly the most distin-
guished in the country, and his lawyer Mr. St. John,
who was " known to be of parts and industry, but
not taken notice of for practice in Westminster Hall
till he argued " in this question, derived from his
exertions a reputation ' ' which called him into all
courts, and to all causes, where the king's preroga-
tive was most contested a." Wentworth himself, in
a letter to the primate, observes that Hampden was
entitled by many the father of his country ; and his
impotent anger on this account thus vents itself.
" In truth I still wish, and take it also to be a very
charitable one, Mr. Hampden and others to his
likeness were well whipped into their right sense ;
if that the rod be so used as that it smarts not, I

am the more sorry As well as I think of

Mr. Hampden's abilities, I take his will and peevish-
ness to be full as great b."

* Hist. Rebel, i. 324. b Strafford Letters, ii. 158.

512

"Your mention of Mr. Hampden," Laud replies,
"(and I must tell you I like your censure of him
and the rest very well,) puts me in mind of the
ship-business as it now stands : the judges have
argued by four in a term, and so eight are past, and
four to come for the next term. Of the eight that
are past none have gone against the king but J.
Croke and J. Hutton, who both did it, and very
sourly: The accidents which have followed upon it
already are these: First, the faction are grown very
bold : Secondly, the king's monies come in a great
deal more slowly than they did in former years, and
that to a very considerable sum : Thirdly, it puts
thoughts into wise and moderate men's heads which
were better out ; for they think that if the judges
which are behind do not their parts both exceeding
well and thoroughly, it may much distemper this
extraordinary and great service a."

Clarendon mentions it as " notoriously known "
that the pressure of ship-money was borne with
more cheerfulness before the judgement for the
king than after, the principles upon which the ex-
action was justified being at once more dangerous
and more insulting than the thing itself; after this,
many men refused payment and several sheriffs de-
clined to enforce it, and the revenue derived from
this source went on constantly diminishing till the
intervention of the long parliament caused it to
cease entirely.

a Strafford Letters, ii. 170.

513

CHAPTER XV.

1637 and 1638.

Scotch affairs. — Arbitrary designs of the king. — Trial of lord Bal-
merino. — Advancement of bishops to civil power. — Canons and
service-book compiled for the use of Scotland more Romish,
than those of England. — Canons sent down to Scotland. — Spirit
of resistance among the Scottish clergy. — Lay members of the
council temporize ; bishops urge on the reading of the service-
book. — Tumult in Edinburgh. — King deceived as to its causes
persists in his measures. — Tumult at Glasgow. — Petitions from
all ranks against the service-book. — Proclamations for their sup-
pression.— Letter of lord Traquair relating a fresh tumult in
Edinburgh. — Difficult situation of Traquair. — Growing strength
of the petitioners. — Obstinacy of the king. — Institution of the
four tables. — Proclamation declaring the petitioners traitors dis-
concerted by protests. — Alarm of Traquair. — Solemn league and
covenant. — Enthusiasm of the people. — They demand a parlia-
ment.— King sends marquis Hamilton to Scotland as his commis-
sioner.— General state of affairs. — King proposes to exact recu-
sants' fines. — Correspondence of Wentworth and Laud on the
subject. — Slow progress of English colonies in Ireland. — Alarm
caused to Wentworth by the Scotch in Ulster. — Letter of earl of
Northumberland. — Wentworth' s judgement on Scotch affairs. —
Account of earl of Antrim.- — Wentworth' 's ill opinion of him. —
Intriguing and assuming spirit of the queen. — Tyrannical conduct
of Wentworth towards lord chancellor Loftus. — Arrival of Mary
de Medici. — King enlarges Richmond park. — Earl of Newcastle
appointed governor to the Prince of Wales.

WHEN Charles had quitted Scotland for the last
time, in 1633, it was, as we have seen, with the
VOL. i. 2 L

514

fixed purpose of rendering himself absolute master
both in church and state, and imposing upon all
orders of men such new laws and regulations as
accorded with his own views and principles. To
suppress by an intimidating example that spirit of
freedom amongst the nobility which had so strongly
excited his indignation during the sitting of the last
parliament, seemed an expedient preparation for
his further measures, and a state prosecution was
instituted against lord Balmerino, who had distin-
guished himself as a leader of opposition, on the
following occasion.

During the sitting of parliament a strong petition
against the measures of the government had been
prepared by the dissidents; but when, as a necessary
precaution, they had announced to the king their
intention of presenting it, he had expressed such
displeasure as caused the design to be relinquished.
A copy had however been retained by Balmerino,
which, two years after, he had communicated in
confidence to his lawyer; by this person it was be-
trayed to Hay, his private enemy, who divulged it
to archbishop Spottiswood, and the prelate carried
the tale to court, with the addition that the petition
was then circulating for subscriptions. On the first
alarm, the writer of the petition fled beyond sea,
but lord Balmerino was secured, and indicted on the
old and tyrannical law of leasing-making, first, for
having interlined a seditious petition with his own
hand, and secondly, for having suffered the author
of it to escape, instead of bringing him to justice.

The cause was committed to a jury, carefully packed
by the court, in which however the suffrages were
equally divided. Lord Traquair, the foreman, who
held the offices of lord-treasurer and secretary of
state, gave his casting vote of Guilty : this by the
Scotch law was sufficient, and sentence of death
was pronounced; but the people, incensed by a con-
demnation so cruel and iniquitous in all its circum-
stances, threatened such vengeance against all con-
cerned, that Traquair, in fear of his life, fled to
court and announced that the execution of the sen-
tence, however just, was by no means expedient.
It was accordingly suspended ; Balmerino, after a
long and severe imprisonment, was liberated, and
at length pardoned; but this tardy and reluctant
mercy was regarded by himself as a very imperfect
atonement for the injustice of his trial and condem-
nation, and his brother peers sympathized in his
feelings. They well knew that it was in reality his
parliamentary conduct which had drawn upon him
the vengeance of his sovereign ; his wrongs became
therefore those of the whole order, and the effect of
this intended assertion of authority was to complete
the ruin of the royal cause in Scotland.

Another measure from which the king seems to
have anticipated great results proved scarcely less
unfortunate. To elevate the church by conferring
upon her ministers the offices and honors of the
state, had long been a favorite idea with Laud ; he
had acted upon it in the advancement of Juxon,
and it was doubtless at his suggestion that the of-

2 L2

516

fice of chancellor of Scotland was conferred on
archbishop Spottiswood ; that the greater part of the
bishops were called to the privy council ; and that
on them the chief power in nominating the lords
of the articles had been devolved. Intoxicated by
their new authority, the prelates proposed the re-
vival of mitred abbots, to be endowed with revenues
and titles resumed from the lay impropriators ; they
obtained the royal warrant to establish throughout
the country an inquisition under the name of courts
of high-commission, and by the excessive arrogance
of their demeanor exasperated the jealousy and in-
dignation with which a proud and ancient nobility
beheld their new and rival greatness.

It is stated to have been the king's original de-
sign to cause the church of Scotland, like that ot
Ireland, to receive without modification the canons,
articles and ritual of the church of England, and
thus to establish throughout his dominions that ex-
act uniformity the importance of which had been
advanced in justification of all the acts of rigor
exercised against the English puritans: but on the
representation of the Scottish bishops that their
nation would resist, as a badge of inferiority and
dependence, the imposition of the entire system of
England, Laud received his master's commands to
employ a committee of those prelates in framing,
under his own inspection, new canons and a ser-
vice-book for the use of their country, taking how-
ever those of England for their model.

It afterwards suited the purposes of the primate

.517

to represent the variations thus introduced under
the sanction of his authority as matters of little or
no consequence, forming a distinction rather than
a difference between the religious systems of the
two kingdoms ; but there can be no doubt that the
character and spirit of the greater part of them was
that of a considerably nearer approach to Rome in
doctrine and ritual. We even learn that the king,
on the completion of the service-book, which had
been looked over and approved by himself, exhibited
it to the queen that she might see how small was
the difference between his religion and her own.

The canons were finished and sent down to Scot-
land some time before the liturgy. Neither synod
nor parliament was summoned to deliberate upon
them or sanction their reception ; the king contented
himself with addressing a letter to the privy coun-
cil commanding them, on his own authority, to re-
ceive and put them in force. By this code, all that
yet remained of the presbyterian form of discipline
was formally abrogated. The king assuming, as of
right divine, what neither law nor custom had
given him in Scotland, the character of head of the
church, imposed upon all ecclesiastical persons the
oath of supremacy. Excommunication, with its
civil consequences of outlawry and forfeiture, was
denounced against such as should deny the divine
right of bishops or the lawfulness of consecrating
them; and no preacher was to impugn the doctrine
delivered by any other preacher from the pulpit
without license of his ordinary. All meetings of

518

presbyters or any other private persons for religious
discussion or the exposition of scripture, as well as
all attempts to make new rules or orders without
the royal authority, were prohibited on pain of ex-
communication. No one was to teach, in public
or private, without episcopal license, and nothing
was to be printed without the license of visitors
appointed by the bishops, on pain of such punish-
ment as the prelates should think proper to inflict.
Severe penalties awaited those who should impugn
the future liturgy, to which the clergy were required
to declare their assent by anticipation. No worship
was hereafter to be permitted but according to that
form, and extemporary prayer, the universal prac-
tice of the presbyterians, was thus totally abolished.
Duty, conscience, the spirit of freedom, the inter-
ests of their calling, and the predilections of theo-
logians, alike forbade the clergy of Scotland to yield
obedience to the lordly mandate, and tamely to
surrender up to man the institutions, the principles,
the most cherished ordinances, of a religious system
derived, as they believed, from God himself. In
discourse and in the pulpit, undeterred by threat-
ened punishment, they warned, they roused, they
instigated their hearers against the machinations of
those who sought ' ( to gag the spirit of God, and
depose Christ from his throne by betraying to the
civil magistrate the authority of the kirk." By
such exhortations the polemical zeal which Knox
and his successors had deeply implanted in the bo-
soms of a rude but fervid people, was exalted to a

519

passion; and it was with a spirit of scorn, defiance,
and determined hostility, rather than any sense of
awe or apprehension, that they awaited the menaced
imposition of the royal rule of faith and worship.

Dismayed at the contest which they saw to he
approaching, the lay members of the Scottish coun-
cil manifested strong reluctance to cooperate in the
introduction of the new service; and even the bishop
of Edinburgh, in the hope of obtaining from the
king and from Laud some modification of the rigor
of their commands, had concurred in promising the
citizens a respite of some months. But the eager
desire of the archbishops of St. Andrews and Glas-
gow to recommend themselves by a proof of zeal at
the court whither they were hastening, added to
the great preponderance of ecclesiastical votes in
the privy council selected for the occasion, where
nine bishops were balanced by only two laymen,
caused the violation of this promise. On the arri-
val of the service-book with the king's letter com-
manding its use, the council, hoping to carry the
point by a kind of surprise, publicly announced that
on the next ensuing Sunday, July 23rd, 1637, the
liturgy would be performed in the principal churches
of Edinburgh.

Short as was the notice, there was still time for
the people to communicate their feelings and in
some degree to concert their measures, and the
result was a tumult the like of which had not been
witnessed in the country since the Reformation. In
the Grey Friars church there was, says a contem-

520

porary, " such a confused acclamation, such a co-
vered-headed gazing .... such a wringing of hands,
and such an eiFusion of eye-streams," that the pas-
tor ' ' was forced to put an end to that patched work
before he had scarce begun." The high church, or
cathedral, where the bishop and dean went to offi-
ciate, solemnly accompanied by the archbishops
and other prelates, the lords of session and the ma-
gistrates, exhibited a scene of still wilder confusion.
The dean, who introduced the service, was inter-
rupted by the weeping of the gentlewomen, the
lamentations and reproaches of the women of a
lower class, and by the hurling of stools against his
face. The bishop, who then mounted the pulpit,
was first assailed by cries of anger and epithets of
abuse, and then by such missiles as had been aimed
against the dean ; and when by great exertion the
most violent of the opposers had been turned out,
the windows were broken by the crowd, who threw
in stones, crying, " A pape, a pape, antichrist, stane
him, pull him down." In his retreat to his own
lodgings the bishop was again assailed, and was
nearly trodden to death before he could be rescued.
The evening service was performed with less inter-
ruption, through the precaution of excluding the
women, who were incited, partly by the violence of
their own feelings, partly, it may be suspected, by
the cautious policy of the men, to venture them-
selves in the foremost ranks of this tumultuary
warfare. But the bishop in his return from the
church was once more attacked with fury in ihe

521

street, and is said "to have narrowly escaped the
death of St. Stephen.

Deprived of all wisdom by their fears, the bishops
on the following day caused a proclamation to be
issued by the council, denouncing death without
mercy upon all who should speak either against
their own order or the lower clergy.

It was the great misfortune of Charles in this, as
in many other transactions of his life, not to be told,
or not to believe, the truth. Instead of perceiving
that he and his bishops stood alone defying a na-
tion, and that to yield or be overcome was now the
only alternative left him, he credulously listened to
the delusory excuses of parties who were probably
first deluded themselves by their passions or inter-
ests. The town council of Edinburgh submissively
deprecated his anger, laying all the blame upon the
"rascal multitude." Archbishop Spottiswood ac-
cused the absence of the earl of Traquair as the
source of the evil, and he in his turn imputed all
the mischief to the precipitation and presumption
of the prelates. Prone, to believe that royal autho-
rity must by the appointment of Providence ever
prove finally victorious over all opposition, the
monarch, having committed to the council the cog-
nizance and punishment of the late tumults, re-
peated his command for the adoption of the liturgy.
The prelates thus encouraged attempted to enforce
upon the clergy by legal means the purchase of the
service-book ; but four of them having protested
and appealed to the council, the lay interest, or

522

rather the spirit of the nation, so far preponderated
in that body, that it was decided that the clergy
had indeed been enjoined by the proclamation to
buy, but not to use the book. Seven or eight wo-
men, apprehended for their share in the riot, were
liberated without trial; and soon after the council
framed an address to the king informing him of the
numerous supplications against the book, and the
daily accession of persons of rank and consequence
to the party of opposition, and advising concession to
their religious scruples. But the pride and passion
of the king and his minister were too far engaged
for retreat ; and the council received no other an-
swer than a reprehension for their want of zeal and
duty in the prosecution of the business, and an ab-
solute denial of their request that a few of their
members might wait upon his majesty with fuller
information of the state of affairs.

The persistance of the king was encountered by
equal determination on the part of the people ; an
attempt to read the liturgy at Glasgow was resisted
by a tumult of which it was " thought not meet to
search either the plotters or actors, for numbers of
the best quality would have been found guilty."
Among the supplicants, as they called themselves,
there now appeared twenty peers, a great part of
the gentry, and eighty commissioners from towns
or parishes ; and the duke of Lenox accepted the
charge of presenting their petitions to the king, to-
gether with the representations of the council. The
royal answer was expected in October, and the

523

council suspended further proceedings till its arri-
val. By this delay leisure was given to the Scot-
tish leaders to rouse the whole country and concert
plans which might render resistance effectual, should
it prove to be necessary. Vast multitudes flocked
to Edinburgh at the appointed time, to learn the
issue, and two hundred parishes joined in petition
against the service-book.

At length the royal will was manifested by the
appearance of three proclamations ; one command-
ing the people to their homes, another directing the
removal of the supreme court of justice from Edin-
burgh to Linlithgow, and a third for the suppres-
sion of a book against the " English-popish " cere-
monies obtruded on the kirk of Scotland. The re-
sult of this mockery of the hopes and wishes of the
people cannot be so well expressed as in a letter
from lord Traquair, as secretary of state, to the
marquis of Hamilton, the minister for Scotch affairs.

11 The noblemen, gentry, and commissioners

from presbyteries and boroughs, seemed to acqui-
esce herewith, and every man, in a very peaceable
manner, to give obedience to the tenor of the pro-
clamations ; but the next day thereafter, the town
of Edinburgh, or, as our new magistrates call it,
the rascally people of Edinburgh, (although their
sisters, wives, children, and near kinsmen were the
special actors,) rose in such a barbarous manner, as
the like has never been seen in this kingdom ; set
upon the bishop of Galloway, and with great diffi-
culty was he rescued into the large council-house.

524

This beginning was so continued, that before a
course could be taken to secure him, the town
council-house, where the magistrates were sitting
upon their own private affairs, was environed with

huge numbers of all sorts of people The

reason of their rising and environing their own
magistrates was, as they publicly and confidently
affirm, because their magistrates, both before this
uproar and in the time of the pacification thereof,
had promised to them that they should be the last
in all this kingdom should be urged with this book.
.... My lord, believe that the delay in taking some
certain and resolved course in this business, has
brought business to such a height, and bred such a
looseness in this kingdom that I dare say was never
since his majesty's father's going into England.
The king is not pleased to allow any of us to come
to inform him ; and after debating with himself,
his commandments may be according to the neces-
sity of the time. No man stays here to attend or
assist the service ; and those on whom he lays, or
seems to entrust his commandments in this busi-
ness, most turn back upon it whenever any diffi-
culties appear. I am in all these things left alone,
and, God is my witness, never so perplexed what
to do. Shall I give way to this people's fury, which,
without force and the strong hand, cannot be op-
posed ? I am calumniated as an under-hand con-
triver. Shall I oppose it with that resolution and
power of assistance that such a business requires ?
It may breed censure and more danger than I dare

525

adventure upon without his majesty's warrant, tin-
der his own hand, or from his own mouth, My
lord, it becomes none better to represent these
things to our master than yourself; for God's cause,
therefore, do it. And seeing he will not give me
leave to wait upon himself, let him be graciously
pleased seriously and timely to consider what is
best for his own honor and the good of this poor
kingdom, and direct me clearly what I shall do/'
&c.a

The consequences which Traquair apprehended
to himself from a temporising policy, speedily
followed ; Laud censured his conduct, and Charles
doubted his fidelity, whilst the people pursued him
with threats and execrations, and on one occasion
violently assaulted him in the streets ; on all sides
he found himself surrounded with insuperable diffi-
culties ; what the king had willed was in effect im-
practicable, but the obstinacy of his temper refused
itself not merely to argument, but even to informa-
tion. Every day the strength and courage of the
opponents of authority augmented. The town
council were not liberated from their durance till
they had consented to unite themselves to the sup-
plicants against the book and to restore certain
silenced ministers. A complaint against the bishops,
as the causers of the troubles, was signed by all
classes; as was a solemn petition to the council for
the abolition of the canons and liturgy, in which it

a Miscel. State Papers, ii. 95.

526

was also prayed that the prelates should not sit as
judges in questions involving their own pretensions.
It was next proposed by some popular leaders, and
unwarily assented to by the council, that deputies
should be elected from the four classes of nobles,
gentry, clergy, and burghers, who should form stand-
ing committees at Edinburgh, under the name of
tables, to watch over the interests of the supplicants.
This measure, which, amongst other advantages,
secured the cause from suffering by the violence
and folly of its own mobs, may be regarded as a
masterpiece of policy on the part of the leaders ;
and from the moment it was carried into effect, the
revolt may be said to have assumed the dignity of
a revolution.

Charles now made an effort to disunite the peti-
tioners by a proclamation in which he held out
hopes of pardon to the people on disavowal of the
late riots ; professed his hatred of popery and su-
perstition, and disclaimed all designs against the
liberties of the nation. The attempt failed ; such
vague professions were of little force wrhen opposed
to the evidence of facts ; and the next recourse of
the king was to an act of authority, designed by its
unexpectedness to strike awe into the most refrac-
tory. This was the issuing of a new proclamation
in which he avowed the liturgy, denounced the
tables as an infringement of the prerogative, and
prohibited on pain of treason the reassembling of
the supplicants. But the project was disconcerted
by the good intelligence and prompt resolution of

527

the opposers; at its publication, first at Stirling and
afterwards at Edinburgh, the royal edict was en-
countered and neutralized by protests backed by
overwhelming numbers. Traquair, either through
fear or private enmities an unwilling instrument
in these measures, now wrote to the marquis of
Hamilton that so much were the minds of all sorts
and qualities of men in that kingdom commoved,
that it would be a great providence of God if some
mischief did not ensue before help could be pro-
vided. He added, that the king's new ratification
of the service-book by this proclamation was what
troubled men most, and that in his judgement it
would be as easy to establish the missal in that
country a. The opinion was correct ; and the next
measure of the petitioners was the promulgation of
that memorable bond of union, the solemn league
and covenant. This engagement was in part co-
pied from an earlier covenant instituted at the re-
formation containing a long and vehement abjura-
tion of popery. It also comprised a recitation of
the acts by which the kirk had been established,
and a vow " by the great name of the Lord their
God," to maintain the true religion, resist all con-
trary innovations, errors, and corruptions, and to
defend the king, his person and authority, in the
preservation of the religion, laws and liberties of
the kingdom. A day of solemn fast was proclaimed
as a preparation for the public reception of the

a Miscel. State Papers, ii. 99.

528

covenant at Edinburgh, and it was in the mean
time transmitted for subscription into all quarters
of the kingdom. The clergy preached it up with a
zeal comparable to that of the first crusaders, and
an equal enthusiasm seized both sexes, all ranks,
and all ages. In two months it had penetrated
into the remotest corners of the land ; it was em-
braced with tears of penitence for past backslidings,
and shouts of joy for the opportunity thus afforded
of reconcilement with Heaven. Confident in their
numbers, zeal and union, in the secret encourage-
ments which they received from the friends of li-
berty and presbytery in England, and in the aid of
Heaven, due, as they believed, to the unquestionable
purity of their faith and rectitude of their cause,
the Covenanters, — such was the name imposed upon
them by their enemies but cheerfully adopted by
themselves, — daily extended their views and rose
in their demands. Not content with the rejection
of the canons and liturgy, they now required the
abolition of the high-commission, a restriction of
the power of the bishops, the restoration of the
privileges of assemblies, and the convention of a
parliament.

It was at this crisis that Charles, still imputing
the progress of disobedience to the slackness or
treachery of Traquair and the council, nominated
the marquis of Hamilton as his commissioner, and
in May 1 638 sent him into Scotland. But before
we proceed to the results of this mission it may be
instructive to inquire into the general state of af-

529

fairs both in that country and in England, and with
what eyes the prospect was viewed by some of the
advisers most trusted by the king himself.

The distresses of the exchequer had now urged
the king, against his will, to exact the fines on re-
cusants, notwithstanding the compositions formerly
made with them, and part of the money was as-
signed for the restoration of St. Paul's. This alarmed
Wentworth ; he writes to the primate : " I am well
sure that the supersedeas from the council at York
in that matter of composition with recusants for
their estates, are barely for their recusancy only

but it is also very true, that it was privately

advised and resolved, the proceedings of the high-
commission should sleep awhile towards them, ex-
cept where the misdemeanors were insolent and
public, till we had got over the work and settled
the revenue, lest otherwise they might deter them
from composition, and so destroy the service. Now,
if in reason of state the time be found fit to set the

ecclesiastical courts loose again I have no

more to say, but wish that power be so executed as
may not, as formerly, carry the benefit of the for-
feitures upon those laws forth of his majesty's ex-
chequer into the purses of a company of catching
officers, greedy informers and pursuivants. . .
Believe me you have a wolf of this business by the
ear, and you must drive very even, or you will grate
on one side or other, either upon the king's reve-
nue, or upon the ecclesiastical courts : besides the
recusants will all be about you, engage the queen,
VOL. i. 2 M

530

and God knows who besides, which may chance to
trouble you more than you are aware of, and in fine
I fear raise an inconsiderable sum for the work you
intend ita."

Laud in answer wishes that the king's revenue
were raised some other way, but since " the wisdom
of his majesty and the state " had judged this ex-
pedient, he would neither oppose it, nor yet pro-
ceed in anything "but with public allowance."
"But," he adds, "if any of them shall commit
such crimes as that the conformable subject of En-
gland should be punished for them in the high-
commission, I hope in that case no man can think
it fit they should have impunity ; for if that should
be once resolved on, that very impunity would in
short time make a great step into the change of
religion, and God forbid it should have any such
operation11." From this passage it may be inferred
that Laud had now taken serious alarm at that re-
vival of the Romish faith in England which his
enemies had been forward to impute, and not with-
out reason, to the abandonment of the outworks at
least of the protestant system, of which he was
himself the author or adviser. The penalties how-
ever were after this seldom, if ever, exacted.

Wentworth was strenuously, but not it seems
very successfully, proceeding in the work of settling
English colonies in the lands which had been seized
by the crown from their Irish proprietors. " The

a Strafford Letters, ii. 159. b Ibid. 170.

531

plantations of Ormond and Clare," Laud writes,
"are a marvellous great work for the honor and

profit of the king and safety of that kingdom

but I am sorry to read in your letters that you want
men extremely to fill that work ; and this is the
more considerable a great deal, that you should
want men in Ireland, and that the while there
should be here such an universal running to New
England, and God knows whither ; but this it is,
when men think nothing is their advantage but to
run from government. As for your being left alone
in the envious and thorny part of the work, that's
no news at least to me, who am forced to the like
here, scarce a man appearing where the way is
rough indeed3."

The tyranny of Wentworth which deterred new
settlers from planting themselves in Ireland, and
that of Laud which in England had driven forth
thousands of the most conscientious members of
the community to seek shelter in the untrodden
wilds of America, was now on the point of bringing
retribution upon their own heads and confusion on
the three kingdoms of their master. Wentworth
had set on foot a persecution against the presbyte-
rians in Ulster, by banishing many of their mini-
sters for nonconformity ; they immediately passed
over to their brethren in Scotland, where they took
an active part in organizing the national revolt ;
their congregations in Ulster participated in the

a Strafford Letters, ii. 169.
2 M 2

532

same spirit, and in July 1638 an awful warning is
thus conveyed by the primate to the lord-deputy,

" I know too well that very little trifles in

church pretensions make much noise, and are hardly
laid down; as you may see by the Scotish business,
which is grown very ill. The Scotish business is
extreme ill indeed, and what will become of it God
knows, but certainly no good, and his majesty has
been notoriously betrayed by some of them : There
is a speech here that they have sent to know the
number of Scotchmen in Ulster; and that privately
there hath been a list taken of such as are able to
bear arms, and that they are found to be above
forty thousand in Ulster only. This is a very pri-
vate report, and perhaps false, but in such a time
as this, I could not think it fit to conceal it from
your lordship, coming very casually to my ears.
God bless his majesty and the statea."

In the same month the earl of Northumberland,
lately appointed lord high admiral, writes to the
lord-deputy thus: " It was expected that yesterday
at Theobalds the king would take his resolution to
make peace or war with the Scots. Of the com-
mittee for those affairs, the marshal, Cottington and
Windebank, are all earnest to put the king upon a
war; the comptroller is for peace, and secretary

Coke inclines that way rather than the other

the king hath commanded me to attend this com-
mittee ; nothing that I have yet heard doth persuade

• Strafford Letters, ii. 185.

533

me to be of the marshal's opinion. In the exche-
quer, being examined upon this occasion, there is
found but two hundred pounds ; nor by all the
means that can yet be devised, the treasurer and
Cottington, engaging both the king's and their own
credits, are able to raise but one hundred and ten
thousand pounds towards the maintaining this war:
The king's magazines are totally unfurnished of
arms and all sorts of ammunition ; and command-
ers we have none either for advice or execution :
The people throughout all England are generally
so discontented by reason of the multitude of pro-
jects daily imposed upon them, as I think there is
reason to fear that a great part of them will be
readier to join with the Scots, than to draw their
swords in the king's service. And your lordship
knows very well, how ignorant this long peace hath
made our men in the use of their arms. These con-
siderations move me to think it safer and better for
the king to give them their own conditions for the
present, than rashly enter into a war, not knowing
how to maintain, or indeed to begin it. God send
us a good end of this troublesome business; for to
my apprehension no foreign enemies could threaten
so much danger to this kingdom, as doth now this
beggarly nation a."

In reply, Wentworth offers freely and at large
his judgement on Scotch affairs ; differing widely,
as he says, from both parties in the council, he

* Straford Letters, ii. 186.

534

advises a middle course: "No better provided, I
must disadvise a rash and sudden declaring of a
war, and yet I would not fearfully sacrifice my will
and honor to their mutiny, nor entangle the king
with acts of parliament, oaths, or what not, which
you should be sure to have demanded, just with the
same height and rudeness they now call for a par-
liament, which to grant them upon these terms,
and thus distempered, I judge, under favor, the
greatest meanness and madness that were possible."
The people were therefore to be admonished of their
duty to wait the king's pleasure for granting their
wishes, to lay aside the thoughts of a parliament,
and "to consider the modesty, the reverence where-
with they were to approach God's anointed and
their king, and so to frame their petitions and sup-
plications, and that they might be granted without
diminution to his height and royal estate." "I am
confident," he adds, " this will not presently pro-
voke them to an offensive war upon England, and
for the rest, nothing they can do can be so bad as,
thus distempered in themselves, audacious towards
the king, to inforce him to bend to their crooked
rules and assumptions." Time being thus gained,
he would have garrisons put into Berwick and Car-
lisle, and troops raised in the northern counties ;
afterwards, should the Scots continue refractory, a
fleet should cut off their trade and seize their ships ;
a royal party should be formed in the country ; all
the presbyterian clergy who could be seized should
be closely imprisoned, but not further proceeded

535

against, " in regard nothing would more sharpen
the humour than their execution, howbeit the most
justly due unto them that ever was." The Irish
army should be drawn down into Ulster, to serve a
double purpose, — against the Scotch there, and in
Scotland itself; the English and Irish clergy should
preach against disobedience and rebellion ; finally,
a fleet should be sent to capture Leith, and hold it
till the English common prayer should be received,'
the bishops settled, "and peradventure that king-
dom both in temporal and ecclesiastical matters
wholly conformed to the government of England."

It is evident from the strain of these recommenda-
tions how imperfect a measure Wentworth had yet
taken of the present state of affairs and the dangers
which impended ; he mentions indeed in the same
letter that it fell upon the English ministers " un-
expectedly," owing to the " unhappy principle of
state " acted upon by Charles, as before by his
father, of keeping separate, and secret from the
English council, all the affairs of that nation, and
employing and entrusting in them none but Scotch,
which was " to continue them two kingdoms
stilK"

These times first brought into action the earl of
Antrim, grandson of the famous chieftain Tyrone,
a person too well known afterwards in the Irish
rebellion, but at this time, in the words of Claren-
don, <e notorious for nothing, but for having mar-

•l Sir a/ord Letters, ii. 190.

536

ried the dowager of the great duke of Buckingham,
within few years after the death of that favorite."
Partly through the influence of his wife, who was
not less distinguished by her wit and spirit than
her rank and high birth, partly through his reli-
gion, which recommended him to the favor of the
queen, he had been enabled, notwithstanding the
defects of his judgement and the excess of his pride
and vanity, to maintain a certain degree of credit
and consequence at court, " until his riot had con-
tracted so great a debt that he was necessitated to
leave the kingdom and retire to his own fortune in
Ireland*." This event had just occurred; and in
the same letter in which he desired of the lord-
deputy a king's ship to convey over his duchess
and family, we find him already entering upon a
business of great delicacy and importance.

Whether the earl of Antrim had his extraction
from Scotland, or the lord Lome, afterwards marquis
of Argyle, his from Ireland, was a dispute which the
noble historian resigns to ' ' the bards of the family
of the Macdonnels ; " to the chieftainship however
they both pretended, Antrim likewise laying claim
to certain estates held by Lome on the western
coast of Scotland, opposite to his own possessions
in Ulster. The marquis of Hamilton on his return
from Scotland had informed Antrim that his enemy
was providing men and arms, which he gave out were
intended against him ; and either on this account,

* Hist. Rebellion,

537

or on this pretence, Antrim states that he had ob-
tained from the king a grant of arms for his ma-
jesty's service, which he hereby requests the lord-
deputy might be delivered to him.

In his next dispatch to his majesty, Wentworth
thus notices the demand. "The earl of Antrim
shall be observed, as your majesty hath directed.
I wish his performance may answer the expectation
it seems is had of him. For me. ... I neither hope
much of his parts, of his power, or of his affections.
His lordship lately writ to me to be furnished of
arms, and that the magazine for them might be
kept at Coleraine. Communicate this with the
council here I durst not, for I am sure they would
never advise such strength to be intrusted with a
grandchild of the earl of Tyrone : And for myself,
I hold it unsafe any store of arms should be so near
the great Scotish plantations in those parts ; lest
if their countrymen grow troublesome, and they
partake of the contagion, they might chance to
borrow those weapons of his lordship for a longer
time, and another purpose, than his lordship might
thank them for. They are shrewd children, not
much won by courtship, especially from a Roman
catholic*."

Notwithstanding this wise and earnest remon-
strance, Antrim through the countenance of the
queen continued to be indulged in requests and en-
couraged in projects of which the results will appear

* Stra/ord Letters, ii. 184, 187.

538

in the sequel. The authority usurped by this shal-
low and intriguing woman had now become a source
of embarrassment and confusion in the conduct of
the most important affairs ; and it may be men-
tioned that, with an assumption of which it is pro-
bable that no other queen-consort of England has
ever afforded an example, we find her addressing
the lord-deputy in behalf of some courtier whom
she favored, in letters missive headed " Henriette
Marie R." and commencing with the official and
regal form of, "Right trusty and well-beloved cou-
sin, we greet you welK"

The danger to be apprehended from the settlers
in Ulster, added to the business of the plantations
in Connaught, rendered it wholly inexpedient, as
the lord-deputy informed the king, to draw any
forces from Ireland in his present exigency. "It
is not to be kept secret/' he writes to Laud, " that
there are forty thousand Scots in Ulster able to bear
arms; we hear the crack of it, if not the threat,

every day in the streets neither if now all the

English planted about the Derry be turned out,
will they be the weaker for that. What will be the

end if we thus arm against ourselves ? God

send them (the Scotch) well into their right wits —
say I, deliver the public peace from the ill of them,
and me out of their fingers. You may pray as
much, if you please, for your share ; for if truth
were known, they wish no better to you than my-
self, and that, believe me, is ill enough5."

* Sir afford Letters, ii. 178. b Ibid. 195.

539

It was in the midst of public dangers formidable
and urgent as these, that the unbridled passions
of the lord-deputy impelled him to an abuse of the
high authority entrusted to him more flagrant if
possible than that of which he had previously been
guilty in the case of lord Mountnorris. The lord
chancellor of Ireland, Loftus, an ancient servant of
the crown, had from his first arrival in Ireland en-
joyed much of the favor and countenance of the
lord-deputy, of whose plans and policy he and his
family had shown themselves earnest promoters.
Unfortunately, the intimacy thus established had
given opportunities to Wentworth, whose libertin-
ism was notorious, to seduce from the path of duty
lady Gifford, the daughter of the chancellor, and
proof of their connexion was furnished by the ac-
cidental discovery of his letters. Money quarrels
arose in the family, sir John Gifford summoned the
chancellor to make a settlement on his wife and
children ; and on his refusal brought an action
against him in the castle-chamber. By this tribunal,
in which the lord-deputy ruled with absolute sway,
a decision was given against the chancellor, who
refused however to obey the award, on the plea that
it was illegal as well as partial, and that the case
ought to have been tried in the ordinary courts.
For this contumacy, as it was called, Wentworth
procured from the king an order to sequester the
chancellor from the council, to deprive him of the
seals, and imprison him till he should make sub-
mission. The appeal of the unfortunate minister

540

to the justice of his sovereign was set aside, on pre-
tence of the insolent language which Wentworth
said he had received from him, and he could regain
his liberty on no other terms than compliance with
the award and a humble acknowledgement to the
seducer and champion of his degraded daughter.

The gross iniquity of the sentence raised a cla-
mor against its author which he endeavoured to
stifle by artifices and representations scarcely less
iniquitous. It is thus that he applies himself to the
jealousy of prerogative which he knew to be pre-
dominant in the mind of his master.

"Assuredly the endeavours of no servant have
been more awake to serve and effect your majesty's
commands without noise ; and yet such is my un-
happiness as ever to meet with contradictions : How
to avoid them is not in my power, since I am still
enforced to contend for your majesty's authority,
unmixt with the least private interest of my own :
And whilst my heart tells me, I am therein guided
by a perfect will and zeal, nay indeed a necessity
imposed upon me so to do, I am able without
amazement to hear myself reported, nay cried out
aloud in the streets, to be the outrageous, where
verily I take myself to be the patient; and that en-
tirely for the service of my master.

" I fear this evil hath not its root in me, I would
to God it lay no deeper, did not draw its sap from

a more malignantly fruitful soil I doubt much

rather, it grows from an universal distemper of this
age, where the subjection nestles itself too near the

541

sovereignty, where we are more apt wantonly to
dispute the powers which are over us than in for-
mer times : such a spreading evil indeed as, to my
seeming, it hath already left God and your majesty
only capable to correct and stay the madness of it.
And surely, sir, give me leave with all humility to
say, it is high time you early and seriously attend
the cure, when it is almost judged a crime roundly
to serve the crown ; and every voice that either
constrains or inclines this fury to the modesty and
moderation of our ancestors, heard, prejudged, as
if Gracchus were the speaker.

" I foresee this whole action as it hath proceeded
on the person of your chancellor, will be imputed
unto me; howbeit his lordship's committal is equal-
ly, if not more, the act of the board than mine.

I durst not go less in this particular, which

was a high and immediate contempt against your
majesty's own power and greatness, without the
shadow of any other private interest whatsoever a."

The queen, in pursuance of her propensity to in-
termeddle in everything, having intimated her in-
tention to interpose as a peacemaker between the
lord-deputy and the chancellor, we find Wentworth
in a letter to one of the officers of her household
indulging in the most furious abuse of his unfortu-
nate victim, and accusing him of every kind of
malversation and corruption in his office; but these
charges he never substantiated.

8 Straford Letters, ii. 161.

542

Amongst the untoward, and, as many imagined,
the ominous events of this year, is to be reckoned
the arrival of Mary de' Medicis, queen dowager of
France and mother to Henrietta, who landing at
Harwich in the month of October, was conducted
in great state through London, and received at St.
James's with every exterior sign of welcome. On
the part of the king however there could be little
sincerity in these demonstrations. From the time
that her intrigues and her hostility to Richelieu had
caused her banishment from the kingdom of France,
where she had once figured with such distinguished
splendor in the office of regent, this unprincipled
and turbulent female had suffered, not undeservedly,
the hardships and mortifications attached to the lot
of an exile. At first she had found an asylum at
Brussels, under the protection of the cardinal infant,
and hence she had more than once intimated her
intention of proceeding to England : but repeated
messages of discouragement from king Charles had
obliged her to postpone the visit, and for the last
year she had remained in Holland, vainly awaiting
an invitation from her daughter the queen of Spain.
All countries seemed alike to deny a resting-place
to this forlorn mother of a royal progeny. At
length, the filial entreaties of Henrietta prevailed,
and Charles, in the midst of his own poverty and
embarrassments, submitted to receive and maintain
her. Her country, her religion, and her relation-
ship to the queen, all conspired to render her ob-
noxious to the people. Laud notes in his diary,

543

" many and great apprehensions on this business. "
The equinoctial storms which assailed her on her
passage were called by the sailors " Queen-mother
weather," and even the pestilence then raging was
believed to be in some mysterious manner connected
with her presence. She obtained from the king an
enormous pension, and according to the corrupt
practice of the time, a patent, of which leather must
have been the object, for Cleveland, the royalist
poet, addressing the puritans, wishes she would ex-
tend, "According to your fears her patent to your
leathern ears."

Charles was not habitually profuse in his expen-
diture; but there were temptations to extravagance
which in the midst of all his embarrassments he
wanted fortitude to resist. Of this number was
the project, adopted this year, of greatly enlarging
Richmond Park and surrounding it with a wall, in
order that he might enjoy, at his own door as it
were, the amusement of stag -hunting, for which he
inherited the passion of his father. Besides the
vast expense of this design, it was pursued by the
king with a contempt of private rights which gave
just umbrage and supplied to his enemies a fresh
topic of invective. Such of the surrounding land-
owners as refused to part with their freeholds, were
forcibly dispossessed, and remunerated at the discre-
tion of arbitrators of his majesty's own appointment.
Cottington, extremely perplexed to find the money
for this idle indulgence, used every mode of dissua-
sion suggested by his long experience and consum-

544

mate address; Laud declared against it with all the
headlong vehemence of his temper, but equally
without effect; the king was inflexible and made
himself obeyed.

The prince of Wales having completed his eighth
year, it was now judged proper to take him out of
female hands and to assign him a separate house-
hold and a governor. This office, together with
the dignity of privy councillor, was conferred on the
earl of Newcastle, long an assiduous courtier and
particularly countenanced by Wentworth. The choice
was in many respects a judicious one ; few noble-
men of the age were equally distinguished by loyalty,
by munificence, and by the patronage of letters :
" As it was a great trust and honor," writes his lady
of this appointment, "so he spared no care and in-
dustry to discharge his duty accordingly ; and to
that end, left all the care of governing his own fa-
mily and estate, with all fidelity attending his mas-
ter, not without considerable charges and vast ex-
penses of his owna."

a Life of William duke of Newcastle, p. 7.

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

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