A history of England principally in the seventeenth century, Volume 2 (of 6)

The King was and remained determined to give way on neither point: while the anti-episcopalian tendencies were gaining the upper hand in the Commons, he had in a measure newly constituted the episcopal bench. The vacant sees, of which there was a great number, he filled without any limitation of their authority: in order to give proof of his genuine Protestant sentiments, he chose learned men of moderate views. Dr. Prideaux, one of the best professors at Oxford, a scholar and logician, and possessed of the most extensive theological learning, obtained the bishopric of Worcester. Dr. Brownrigge, a Cambridge Fellow, and possessing the sort of intellect at once solid and versatile, which is calculated to shine in public discussions, received the see of Exeter; Westfield, a popular preacher, that of Bristol. Bishop Hall, whose moderation had brought him under suspicion of being inclined to Presbyterianism, was advanced to the bishopric of Norwich; and Bishop Williams of Lincoln, who at the moment had developed a rare episcopal activity, to the archbishopric of York. Thus it was not the adherents of the Canterbury system, the old friends of Laud, who obtained the preference. The King wished to give the Church representatives free from all suspicion of a leaning towards Catholicism; and by this he caused the most thorough satisfaction to all the friends of the Church.

On November 25, the third day after that stormy sitting, he returned to London: once more he was welcomed with joyful sympathy, and as heartily as he could wish. The A.D. 1641. Recorder, in the name of the city, expressed confidence that he would defend the established religion: the King answered that he would prove his love to the people by maintaining intact the laws of the realm and of religion, as they had stood under his father and Queen Elizabeth—as if with a presentiment of the coming storm, he added, even at the risk of his life and all that was dear to him[289]. He had just confirmed the city in its rights, and restored the possessions in Ireland which had been taken away under Strafford. To prove their gratitude the magistrates had invited him to a banquet in Guildhall. On the way thither, as well as in going thence by torchlight to Whitehall, he was greeted with triumphant shouts. He derived thence a conviction that he would have the general voice in his favour if it came to open war between him and the Parliament: and that war was imminent no one could doubt.

On December 1 the Remonstrance was presented to the King at Hampton Court, by a deputation of the Commons. It was accompanied by a petition, in which the two chief demands, on which all the rest depended, were repeated in strong terms—that he would deprive the bishops of their temporal authority, and moderate their spiritual power so far that all oppression in doctrine, government and discipline should cease—that he would banish the malignants from his council, and admit no influence from the opposite side, however near or high the quarter from which it came. The request was appended that the King would not restore to the rebels their forfeited possessions in England, but keep them for the public service. At this and some other points the King let an exclamation of ironical astonishment or disapproval escape him; at the rest he exhibited neither anger nor annoyance, he only expressed the wish that the Remonstrance should not be published without his concurrence.

He had undoubtedly however resolved to resist with all his might the purposes disclosed in it. On the day after the presentation of the petition he showed this by a proclamation A.D. 1641. which, in opposition to the ordinance of the Parliamentary commission, forbade all deviation from the Book of Common Prayer. In relation to the other disputed question he acted in the same manner as in reference to spiritual affairs. It had hitherto remained doubtful on what principle the highest posts not yet disposed of should be filled up: in the last few months there had been again a talk of introducing men like Hollis and Pym into the highest ranks of the administration[290]. Even for the household posts there were candidates who reckoned on the support of Parliament. When however the opposition, which it was hoped had been lulled, again exhibited itself in so direct and implacable a form, the King would no longer think of any such approximation, as it would in fact have been endorsing the claims of the Commons. The dignity of Lord Steward, to which the Lower House wished to see the Earl of Pembroke appointed, was conferred by Charles on James Stuart, Duke of Lennox and Richmond, who, like his ancestors, was in the confidence of the royal family. Just as little was he disposed to entrust the office of Lord Treasurer to the Earl of Salisbury, the son of Robert Cecil: he named as Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Colepepper, one of the leaders of the minority. The two Vanes lost their posts, the elder to his bitter chagrin the Secretaryship of State, in which he had grown grey; and Lord Falkland was induced to undertake it. Edward Hyde as yet received no office, though he took part in all deliberations: he busied himself in answering the Remonstrance which he had so vainly resisted at the time. But the soul of the ministry was Lord Digby, another of Charles I’s advisers who came over to him from the opposition. The Queen asserted that she had by her personal intervention induced him to change sides. After he had, in the debate on the Bill of Attainder, broken with the majority in the Commons, which threatened to make him answer for his language, he was transferred to the Upper House, and obtained a post about the King’s person. He was a man of universal culture, who had seen many countries, and possessed very varied knowledge, amiable when he liked, and spirited, at once versatile and A.D. 1641. resolute. His speeches are favourably distinguished by good taste and happy expression from the style of his contemporaries: in the history of parliamentary eloquence he deserves a place. He found his chief support in his father, Lord Bristol, the only one of those who had been admitted into the council at the beginning of the year who exerted any real influence. Charles I once more selected from Parliament an enemy of Buckingham, whom he had attacked with the help of Parliament in former times. Now however their sentiments were no longer those prevalent in Parliament: both father and son had become favourable to Spain and to royalty.

Regarded in the light of later events it may seem strange that the King should have chosen his ministers from the minority and not from the majority. At the moment however the prospect was adverse to the demands of Parliament: while the King was sure of a large minority in the Lower House, of a majority in the Lords, of the great episcopal interest, and of a favourable sentiment among the people, he thought that he need not fear a hostile majority. The Queen in the course of December believed that her party would supplant, conquer, and punish the opposition.

The French ambassador distinguished between the Spanish cabal, and the other which consisted of his friends. ‘Each of them,’ said he, at the beginning of December, ‘does all it can to ruin the other. The Spanish party has been strengthened by the arrival of the King; he has a great idea of the strength of his adherents in both houses, and hopes with their aid to be able to restore his authority.’ In Parliament there grew up against Bristol and Digby a hatred similar to that which had once been felt against Strafford: on the other hand Holland, Essex, Say, Hertford, saw themselves threatened in their offices by the court party. It was still very doubtful which side would remain masters of the field: meanwhile the leaders of the Commons had reason to fear for their lives.

When the nature of the opposing principles and the strength of the parties embodying them were such as to produce a sort of equilibrium, or state of suspense, a change in the municipal representation in London, which went in favour of the revolutionary cause, was of all the greater moment.

Although Episcopacy was liked by the magistrates and wealthy classes, Presbyterian opinions preponderated on the whole, and decidedly so in the middle and lower classes. The zealous and well-attended sermons, in which religious exhortation bore also a political character, contributed greatly to this. How great must have been the confusion when the deviations from Anglican usage which had been introduced under the protection of Parliament, were pronounced invalid, and had to be abandoned[291]. It is very intelligible that the declaration of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen in favour of the bishops should have been met by counter manifestations on the part of the commonalty. At the beginning of December a petition was prepared in the city, and accepted in spite of the opposition of the Lord Mayor, in which the city adhered to the views of the majority in the Lower House, and fully adopted as its own the idea already prevalent there, of excluding the popish lords and the bishops from the Upper House. The great contest on the relations of Church and State which divided the nation was first fought out in the city of London. A considerable part of the public authority was here in the hands of the Common Council: those elected to a seat there had come to enjoy almost a personal life-long right, and it was the first step to the magisterial bench. Hitherto men of moderate opinions, such as had been expressed on the occasion of the King’s return, had had the upper hand there: now however the city populace found them not zealous enough for religion, and too much inclined to make terms with the court. Their chief crime was intending to petition in favour of Episcopacy and the Book of Common Prayer. At the new elections, which took place at this time in the various parishes and wards, a sudden change was made. The adherents of the government and of the bishops, such as Benyon and Drake, were rejected, and zealous Presbyterians were elected instead, though they might be less wealthy: many belonged to the class of artisans[292].

The King had originally intended, since he did not fully trust the temper of London, to spend the winter at Hampton Court: he was induced by the good reception he met with at the city, and by the assurances of the authorities, to promise that he would spend Christmas at Westminster[293]. Thus he was very closely affected by this change.

In the city there appeared an ever-rising ferment. If anything in the world was calculated to rouse their passions it was the horrible violence committed against the Protestants in Ireland: this must necessarily have awakened Protestant fellow-feeling. They were ready to contribute towards the Irish war; even in the Common Council numerous subscriptions were offered: but at the same time they demanded security for the good management of the undertaking, and the most rigorous execution of the penal laws. It almost seemed as if they had to fear, from the system of government, similar terrible consequences in England: the outbreak of a fire in their neighbour’s house made them fear for their own. Then came the publication of the Remonstrance, which was printed in spite of the King’s request and the opposition of the minority. It appeared palpable that the King was ruled by Popish influence. We have political ballads extant in which the alliance of the bishops and the Papists is depicted as the great danger of the country and of religion. But there are, it is added, courageous hearts ready for resistance; the best of the King’s subjects are prepared to do what will break the yoke of Antichrist, and to gain for England the liberties which Scotland has secured.

A fast-day was held on December 22. In a letter of this day it is said that extraordinary devotions are necessary to implore the grace of God for the averting of the storms which are breaking over the country; he may deem himself happiest who has least to do with it.

During this general uneasiness the King issued an order A.D. 1641. which was exactly calculated to cause a complete outbreak. As a part of the system already adopted, of substituting for men of popular opinions and connexions, who held any important post, others of greater inclination towards the King’s service, William Balfour, a Scot, the Constable Lieutenant of the Tower, the same who had refused to allow the introduction of a small force, was dismissed from his office, and replaced by a friend of Digby’s, named Lunsford, a soldier by profession, who had served in the northern army. But he was regarded as one of the most dangerous of the malignants: he was said never to have been seen in a church, to be violent and dishonourable, laden with debt, and capable of any desperate resolve. His appointment made the worst possible impression on the city, which would not see a portion of its wealth, the gold and silver bullion in the Tower, left in such untrustworthy hands. The Lower House thought they saw in it the beginning of a violent reaction, and requested the Lords to unite with them in praying for the revocation of the appointment. Though the Upper House declared, in reply, that the appointment and removal of officers belonged to the royal prerogative, with which they had no right to interfere, the Commons proceeded to resolve that Lunsford was unfitted for the place, ‘as a person in whom the Commons of England cannot confide[294];’ and since the Upper House was only prevented from concurring by the votes of the bishops, they begged the members of that House who were of their opinion to act as men of honour. This message was received by the Lords on December 24: the majority was in favour of postponing the matter to the first sitting after Christmas, on the 27th. But at this moment the minority took the step which Pym had long ago recommended to them: twenty-two Lords protested against this postponement, saying that they would accept no responsibility for the evil consequences which might ensue[295].

Thus the Christmas which Charles I had thought to keep in the old cheerful fashion, and the following Sunday, were A.D. 1641. filled with anxiety, mutual accusations, profound and violent agitation. The apprentices at that time formed a peculiar element of popular movements in London: since the trade ordinances of Queen Elizabeth, which were directed to an easier administration of the poor-law, they had been compelled to serve a long period in shops and manufactories: though still dependent on their masters, they had with growing years the appearance, and even the feeling, of a sort of independence, and were specially apt at popular demonstrations. At this moment their masters, who were agreed with the Parliament, left them to their own devices: they prepared to go to Westminster on the following Monday, armed with swords and pistols, chiefly to enforce the dismissal of the hated Lunsford[296].

The King on the Sunday conferred with the Lord Mayor, who declared himself powerless to check the movement: the only resource seemed to be the withdrawal of Lunsford’s appointment; and at the Lord Mayor’s advice the King resolved to do this. In Lunsford’s place he selected John Byron, who also enjoyed his full confidence, without giving occasion for such demonstrations as had been made against the other.

The movement was however not to be stopped thus: on the appointed day, about the hour at which the morning sitting began, a tumultuous mob streamed into Westminster. There they came to blows with Lunsford and his armed followers, who were on the spot: but the demonstration told less against him than against those members of the Upper House who had refused to accede to the popular demand, namely the bishops. They were received with the cry that they could be endured no longer, at any rate in Parliament, and with insulting clamour: woe betide him who, like Archbishop Williams, desired to obtain justice personally against any one in the mob: he received double abuse. The hearts of some of the A.D. 1641. temporal lords smote them at this: they remembered their old-fashioned knightly pledge, which bound them to defend with their swords men in long garments. The Lords actually went to the Lower House with a prayer to this effect: the answer was that they could not discourage the people.

The next day these scenes were repeated: the barges in which some bishops sought to reach the Upper House were met with showers of stones, and driven back from the landing-place. It seemed that the prelates would be excluded from the house by open force: but they themselves furnished a pretext for this being done legally. In order to avoid any further insult, and yet not to surrender their ancient rights, Archbishop Williams hit on the idea of assisting their cause by a protest: he assembled eleven bishops, and induced them to sign an instrument in which they pronounced beforehand all proceedings null and void which should be taken during their enforced absence from Parliament. They laid this declaration before the King and before the Upper House, which communicated it to the Lower. This step however produced a totally different effect from what was intended. The Commons had a different idea of the English constitution from this meeting of bishops: it was observed that the bishops did not in England constitute an order whose absence would render parliamentary action invalid: their pretensions were declared to be an attack on the fundamental laws of Parliament and on its very existence: the Lower House impeached the bishops of high treason for making them. They had to kneel at the bar of the Upper House and hear the impeachment read, much to their astonishment, for they had had no thought of doing anything improper: they were sent to the Tower, or at any rate arrested. Thus the Commons were suddenly relieved of these unwelcome sharers in the counsels of Parliament: and in order to seize the favourable moment, a motion was immediately made for their definitive exclusion from all political affairs, nor under existing circumstances was there much doubt of its being passed.

It is obvious how greatly the movement in the city helped the Puritan party in the House of Commons, which was led by Pym and Hampden: for it must be reckoned as at least an A.D. 1641. indirect result of the tumult, that the bishops, who sought to maintain their rights in the face of it, were, perhaps in rather a clumsy manner, removed from the Upper House. This party united to consistency in their demands the skill to take advantage of every error or display of weakness on the part of their opponents. From a somewhat depressed position at the beginning of the session they had, within two months, worked their way up to predominant authority.

Nothing was wanting to their full possession of power except control over the court and the King’s counsellors. The obvious and immediate aim in all movements of this sort is always a change of the persons who wield executive power, or share the secrets of its deliberations. No one at this time possessed so much influence in both domestic and foreign affairs as the hated Lords Bristol and Digby, father and son. The French ambassador, who hated them as the heads of the Spanish faction, once talked with his friends in Parliament of the necessity for overthrowing them: he asserted that they swore to him to undertake the attack, even though they should perish in it. So it came to pass that formal impeachments against Digby and Bristol were proposed in the Lower House: the father for having advised the King to put the army into effective condition, which could only have been done with views hostile to Parliament: the son for having accused the Commons of encroachments on the liberties of the Lords, and on the rights of subjects, and for having said that Parliament was no longer free. The Lower House had this claim at any rate to supreme power, that it already treated as a crime every expression injurious to it. The matter advanced so far as a conference with the Lords.

A very widely spread idea was to proceed with an impeachment against the Queen, as the personage who gave the most support to Catholic and anti-Parliamentary tendencies.

The danger to the court arising from the influx of the mob to Whitehall evoked counter demonstrations for its protection. A number of officers were assembled, who had served in the old army, or were going to Ireland. One day the court gave them a banquet at Whitehall. Even then the intrusion of the mob could only be repelled by violence and A.D. 1641. even bloodshed[297]. The apprentices threatened to come back and take vengeance. Hereupon guards were posted in Scotland Yard, in Westminster Abbey, in the great reception room at Whitehall. The younger members of the gentry who were completing their studies in the Inns of Court appeared at court, and offered their services. They were admitted to kiss the hands of the Queen and Prince. Never had more of the nobility been seen at court than at this juncture: all were armed, and they went about brandishing their swords, and showing the daggers with which they would defend the King.

But the presence of a company of armed men aroused again in Parliament the fear of an intention to disperse the Houses by force. The Parliament on its side asked for a guard; there was even a talk of transferring the sittings into the city. A state of things had begun which must lead to some violent explosion.

In the middle of December the French ambassador sent information home that the court cabal, which he also described as Spanish, which just then had hoped to triumph, was become weaker than the other[298]. At the end of December he added that affairs were in greater confusion than ever, and that Parliament was in such a position that the one cabal or the other must perish[299].