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Title: A Student's History of England, v. 2 (of 3)
1509-1689
Author: Samuel Rawson Gardiner
Release Date: July 10, 2012 [EBook #40192]
Language: English
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A
STUDENT'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND
VOL. II.
WORKS BY SAMUEL RAWSON GARDINER.
HISTORY OF ENGLAND, from the Accession of James I. to the Outbreak
of the Civil War, 1603-1642. With Maps. 10 vols. crown 8vo. 5_s._
net each.
A HISTORY OF THE GREAT CIVIL WAR, 1642-1649. With Maps. 4 vols.
crown 8vo. 5_s._ net each.
A HISTORY OF THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE PROTECTORATE. 1649-1656. With
Maps. 4 vols. crown 8vo. 5_s._ net each.
THE LAST YEARS OF THE PROTECTORATE, 1656-1658. By CHARLES HARDING
FIRTH, M.A., Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of
Oxford. With 3 Plans. 2 vols. 8vo. 24_s._ net.
A STUDENT'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. From the Earliest Times to the Death
of King Edward VII.
Vol. I. B.C. 55-A.D. 1509. With 173 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 4_s._
Vol II. 1509-1689. With 96 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 4_s._
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* * * * *
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* * * * *
LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO., 39 Paternoster Row, London, New York,
Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras.
A STUDENT'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND
_FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE DEATH OF KING EDWARD VII_
BY
SAMUEL R. GARDINER, D.C.L., LL.D.
LATE FELLOW OF MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD ETC.
_NEW EDITION (1902)_
VOL. II.
A.D. 1509-1689
_NEW IMPRESSION (1912)_
REISSUE
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
FOURTH AVENUE & 30th STREET, NEW YORK
BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS
1914
_All rights reserved_
CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME
PART V
_THE RENASCENCE AND THE REFORMATION_ 1509-1603
CHAPTER XXIV
HENRY VIII. AND WOLSEY. 1509-1527
PAGE
1. The New King. 1509 361
2. Continental Troubles. 1508-1511 363
3. The Rise of Wolsey. 1512 363
4. The War with France. 1512-1513 364
5. Peace with France. 1514 364
6. Wolsey's Policy of Peace. 1514-1518 364
7. Wolsey and the Renascence 366
8. The Renascence in England 367
9. The Oxford Reformers 367
10. 'The Utopia.' 1515-1516 367
11. More and Henry VIII. 368
12. The Contest for the Empire. 1519 369
13. The Field of the Cloth of Gold. 1520 369
14. The Execution of the Duke of Buckingham. 1521 369
15. Another French War. 1522-1523 369
16. The Amicable Loan. 1525 372
17. Closing Years of Wolsey's Greatness. 1525-1527 372
CHAPTER XXV
THE BREACH WITH THE PAPACY. 1527-1534
1. The Papacy and the Renascence 374
2. Wolsey and the Papacy 375
3. Wolsey's Legatine Powers 375
4. Henry VIII. and the Clergy 377
5. German Lutheranism 377
6. Henry's Controversy with Luther 379
7. Queen Catharine and Anne Boleyn 379
8. Henry's Demand for a Divorce. 1527-1528 382
9. The Legatine Court. 1529 382
10. The Fall of Wolsey. 1529-1530 383
11. The House of Commons and the Clergy. 1529 385
12. The Universities Consulted. 1530 385
13. The Clergy under a Præmunire. 1530-1531 385
14. The King's Supreme Headship acknowledged by the
Clergy. 1531 386
15. The Submission of the Clergy. 1532 386
16. Sir Thomas More and the Protestants. 1529-1532 386
17. Resignation of Sir Thomas More. 1532 388
18. The First Act of Annates. 1532 388
19. The King's Marriage and the Act of Appeals. 1533 388
20. Archbishop Cranmer and the Court at Dunstable. 1533 389
21. Frith and Latimer. 1533 389
22. Completion of the Breach with Rome. 1533-1534 390
CHAPTER XXVI
THE ROYAL SUPREMACY. 1534-1547
1. The Act of Succession. 1534 392
2. The Acts of Treason and Supremacy. 1534 392
3. The Monks of the Charterhouse. 1534 393
4. Execution of Fisher and More. 1535 394
5. The Dissolution of the Smaller Monasteries. 1536 394
6. The Execution of Anne Boleyn. 1536 395
7. The Ten Articles. 1536 395
8. The Translation of the Bible authorised. 1536 396
9. The Pilgrimage of Grace. 1536-1537 396
10. Birth of a Prince. 1537 397
11. The Beginning of the Attack on the Greater Monasteries.
1537-1538 397
12. Destruction of Relics and Images. 1538 398
13. The Trial of Lambert. 1538 399
14. The Marquis of Exeter and the Poles. 1538 399
15. The Six Articles. 1539 399
16. Completion of the Suppression of the Monasteries.
1539-1540 400
17. Anne of Cleves and the Fall of Cromwell. 1539-1540 400
18. Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr. 1540-1543 401
19. Ireland. 1534 401
20. The Geraldine Rebellion. 1534-1535 402
21. Lord Leonard Grey. 1536-1539 402
22. Henry VIII. King of Ireland. 1541 404
23. Solway Moss. 1542 404
24. War with Scotland and France. 1542-1546 405
25. The Litany and the Primer. 1544-1545 409
26. The Last Days of Henry VIII. 1545-1547 410
CHAPTER XXVII
EDWARD VI. AND MARY
EDWARD VI., 1547-1553. MARY, 1553-1558.
1. Somerset becomes Protector. 1547 412
2. The Scotch War. 1547-1548 412
3. Cranmer's Position in the Church of England. 1547 413
4. Ecclesiastical Reforms. 1547-1548 414
5. The First Prayer Book of Edward VI. 1549 415
6. The Insurrection in the West. 1549 415
7. Ket's Rebellion. 1549 415
8. The Fall of Somerset. 1549 416
9. Warwick and the Advanced Reformers. 1549 416
10. Latimer's Sermons. 1548-1550 417
11. Warwick and Somerset. 1550-1552 417
12. The Second Prayer Book of Edward VI. 1552 418
13. The Forty-two Articles. 1553 419
14. Northumberland's Conspiracy. 1553 421
15. Lady Jane Grey. 1553 421
16. Mary restores the Mass. 1553 422
17. Mary's First Parliament. 1553 422
18. Wyatt's Rebellion. 1554 423
19. The Queen's Marriage 423
20. The Submission to Rome. 1554 424
21. The Beginning of the Persecution. 1555 424
22. Death of Cranmer. 1556 425
23. Continuance of the Persecution. 1556-1558 426
24. The Queen's Disappointment. 1555-1556 426
25. War with France and the Loss of Calais. 1557-1558 427
26. Death of Mary. 1558 427
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE ELIZABETHAN SETTLEMENT IN CHURCH AND STATE. 1558-1570
1. Elizabeth's Difficulties. 1558 428
2. The Act of Uniformity and Supremacy. 1559 429
3. The new Bishops and the Ceremonies. 1559-1564 429
4. Calvinism 430
5. Peace with France. 1559 431
6. The Reformation in Scotland. 1559 432
7. The Claims of Mary Stuart. 1559 432
8. The Treaty of Edinburgh. 1560 433
9. Scottish Presbyterianism. 1561 434
10. Mary and Elizabeth. 1561 435
11. The French War. 1562-1564 436
12. End of the Council of Trent. 1563 436
13. The Jesuits 436
14. The Danger from Scotland. 1561-1565 437
15. The Darnley Marriage. 1565 438
16. The Murder of Rizzio. 1566 438
17. The Murder of Darnley. 1567 439
18. The Deposition and Flight of Mary. 1567-1568 439
19. Mary's Case before English Commissioners. 1568-1569 440
20. The Rising in the North. 1569 441
21. The Papal Excommunication. 1570 441
CHAPTER XXIX
ELIZABETH AND THE EUROPEAN CONFLICT. 1570-1587
1. The Continental Powers. 1566-1570 442
2. The Anjou Marriage Treaty and the Ridolfi Plot.
1570-1571 443
3. Elizabeth and the Puritans 444
4. Elizabeth and Parliament. 1566 444
5. A Puritan Parliament. 1571 445
6. The Duke of Norfolk's Plot and Execution. 1571-1572 445
7. The Admonition to Parliament. 1572 446
8. Mariners and Pirates 446
9. Westward Ho! 447
10. Francis Drake's Voyage to Panama. 1572 448
11. The Seizure of Brill, and the Massacre of
St. Bartholomew. 1572 449
12. The Growth of the Dutch Republic. 1572-1578 449
13. Quiet Times in England. 1572-1577 450
14. Drake's Voyage. 1577-1580 450
15. Ireland and the Reformation. 1547 451
16. Ireland under Edward VI. and Mary. 1547-1558 451
17. Elizabeth and Ireland. 1558-1578 452
18. The Landing at Smerwick, and the Desmond Rising.
1579-1583 452
19. The Jesuits in England. 1580 453
20. The Recusancy Laws. 1581 454
21. Growing Danger of Elizabeth. 1580-1584 454
22. The Association. 1584-1585 456
23. Growth of Philip's Power. 1584-1585 456
24. Babington's Plot, and the Trial of Mary Stuart. 1586 457
25. Execution of Mary Stuart. 1587 458
CHAPTER XXX
ELIZABETH'S YEARS OF TRIUMPH. 1587-1603
1. The Singeing of the King of Spain's Beard. 1587 458
2. The Approach of the Armada. 1588 458
3. The Equipment of the Armada. 1588 459
4. The Equipment of the English Fleet. 1588 460
5. The Defeat of the Armada. 1588 462
6. The Destruction of the Armada. 1588 462
7. Philip II. and France. 1588-1593 464
8. Maritime Enterprises. 1589-1596 464
9. Increasing Prosperity 464
10. Buildings 465
11. Furniture 465
12. Growing Strength of the House of Commons 468
13. Archbishop Whitgift and the Court of High Commission.
1583 468
14. The House of Commons and Puritanism. 1584 470
15. The Separatists 470
16. Whitgift and Hooker 472
17. Spenser, Shakspere, and Bacon 473
18. Condition of the Catholics. 1588-1603 475
19. Irish Difficulties. 1583-1594 475
20. O'Neill and the Earl of Essex. 1595-1600 475
21. Essex's Imprisonment and Execution. 1599-1601 476
22. Mountjoy's Conquest of Ireland. 1600-1603 478
23. Parliament and the Monopolies. 1601 478
24. The Last Days of Elizabeth. 1601-1603 479
PART VI
_THE PURITAN REVOLUTION._ 1603-1660
CHAPTER XXXI
JAMES I. 1603-1625
1. The Peace with Spain. 1603-1604 481
2. The Hampton Court Conference. 1604 481
3. James and the House of Commons 482
4. Gunpowder Plot. 1604-1605 483
5. The Post-nati. 1606-1608 483
6. Irish Difficulties. 1603-1610 483
7. Bate's Case and the New Impositions. 1606-1608 484
8. The Great Contract. 1610-1611 484
9. Bacon and Somerset. 1612-1613 486
10. The Addled Parliament. 1614 486
11. The Spanish Alliance. 1614-1617 488
12. The Rise of Buckingham. 1615-1618 488
13. The Voyage and Execution of Raleigh. 1617-1618 489
14. Colonisation of Virginia and New England. 1607-1620 489
15. The Beginning of the Thirty Years' War. 1618-1620 490
16. The Meeting of James's Third Parliament. 1621 490
17. The Royal Prerogative. 1616-1621 492
18. Financial Reform. 1619 492
19. Favouritism and Corruption 494
20. The Monopolies Condemned. 1621 494
21. The Fall of Bacon. 1621 495
22. Digby's Mission, and the Dissolution of Parliament.
1621 496
23. The Loss of the Palatinate. 1622 497
24. Charles's Journey to Madrid. 1623 497
25. The Prince's Return. 1623 498
26. The Last Parliament of James I. 1624 500
27. The French Alliance 501
28. Mansfeld's Expedition, and the Death of James I.
1624-1625 501
CHAPTER XXXII
THE GROWTH OF THE PERSONAL GOVERNMENT OF CHARLES I. 1625-1634
1. Charles I. and Buckingham. 1625 502
2. Charles's First Parliament. 1625 502
3. The Expedition to Cadiz. 1625 502
4. Charles's Second Parliament. 1626 503
5. The Forced Loan. 1626 505
6. The Expedition to Ré. 1627 506
7. The Five Knights' Case. 1627 506
8. Wentworth and Eliot in the Third Parliament of Charles I.
1628 508
9. The Petition of Right. 1628 508
10. Tonnage and Poundage. 1628 509
11. Buckingham's Murder. 1628 510
12. The Question of Sovereignty. 1628 510
13. Protestantism of the House of Commons. 1625-1628 511
14. Religious Differences. 1625-1628 511
15. The King's Declaration. 1628 512
16. The Second Session of the Third Parliament of Charles I.
1629 512
17. Breach between the King and the Commons. 1629 513
18. The Constitutional Dispute. 1629 513
19. The Victory of Personal Government. 1629-1632 514
20. Star Chamber Sentences. 1630-1633 514
21. Laud's Intellectual Position. 1629-1633 515
22. Laud as the Upholder of Uniformity 516
23. The Beginning of Laud's Archbishopric. 1633-1634 517
24. Laud and Prynne. 1633-1634 519
CHAPTER XXXIII
THE OVERTHROW OF THE PERSONAL GOVERNMENT OF CHARLES I. 1634-1641
1. The Metropolitical Visitation. 1634-1637 520
2. Prynne, Bastwick, and Burton. 1637 521
3. Financial Pressure. 1635-1637 521
4. Ship-money. 1634-1637 523
5. Hampden's Case. 1637-1638 523
6. Scottish Episcopacy. 1572-1612 524
7. The Scottish Bishops and Clergy. 1612-1637 525
8. The Riot at Edinburgh and the Covenant. 1637-1638 525
9. The Assembly of Glasgow, and the Abolition of Episcopacy.
1638 526
10. The First Bishops' War. 1639 526
11. Wentworth in Ireland. 1633-1639 527
12. The Proposed Plantation of Connaught 528
13. The Short Parliament. 1640 528
14. The Second Bishops' War. 1640 529
15. The Meeting of the Long Parliament. 1640 529
16. The Impeachment of Strafford. 1641 530
17. Strafford's Attainder and Execution 530
18. Constitutional Reforms. 1641 531
CHAPTER XXXIV
THE FORMATION OF PARLIAMENTARY PARTIES AND THE FIRST YEARS OF THE
CIVIL WAR. 1641-1644
1. The King's Visit to Scotland. 1641 532
2. Parties formed on Church Questions. 1641 532
3. Irish Parties. 1641 533
4. The Irish Insurrection. 1641 533
5. The Grand Remonstrance. 1641 534
6. The King's Return. 1641 534
7. The Impeachment of the Bishops. 1641 535
8. The Impeachment of the Five Members. 1642 535
9. The Attempt on the Five Members. 1642 536
10. The Commons in the City. 1642 536
11. The Struggle for the Militia. 1642 536
12. Edgehill and Turnham Green. 1642 537
13. The King's Plan of Campaign. 1643 537
14. Royalist Successes. 1643 538
15. The Siege of Gloucester. 1643 538
16. The First Battle of Newbury. 1643 539
17. The Eastern Association. 1643 539
18. Oliver Cromwell. 1642-1643 539
19. The Assembly of Divines. 1643 540
20. The Solemn League and Covenant. 1643 540
21. The Irish War. 1641-1643 541
22. Winceby and Arundel. 1643-1644 542
23. The Committee of Both Kingdoms. 1644 542
24. The Campaign of Marston Moor. 1644 542
25. Presbyterians and Independents. 1644 543
26. Essex's Surrender at Lostwithiel. 1644 544
27. The Second Battle of Newbury. 1644 544
CHAPTER XXXV
THE NEW MODEL ARMY. 1644-1649
1. The Self-denying Ordinance and the New Model. 1645 545
2. Milton's 'Areopagitica.' 1644 545
3. The Execution of Laud. 1645 546
4. Montrose and Argyle. 1644 546
5. Montrose and the Highlands. 1644-1645 547
6. The New Model Army in the Field. 1645 547
7. The Battle of Naseby. 1645 548
8. The Results of Naseby. 1645 548
9. Charles's Wanderings. 1645 549
10. Glamorgan in Ireland. 1645-1646 549
11. The King's Flight to the Scots. 1646 550
12. Charles at Newcastle. 1646 551
13. The Removal of the King to Holmby. 1647 553
14. Dispute between the Presbyterians and the Army. 1647 553
15. Cromwell and the Army. 1647 554
16. The Abduction of the King. 1647 554
17. The Exclusion of the Eleven Members. 1647 555
18. The Heads of the Proposals. 1647 555
19. The King's Flight to the Isle of Wight. 1647 556
20. The Scottish Engagement, and the Vote of No Addresses.
1647-1648 556
21. The Second Civil War. 1648 556
22. Pride's Purge. 1648 557
23. The High Court of Justice. 1649 557
24. The King's Trial and Execution. 1649 559
25. Results of Charles's Execution. 1649 560
CHAPTER XXXVI
THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE PROTECTORATE. 1649-1660
1. Establishment of the Commonwealth. 1649 561
2. Parties in Ireland. 1647-1649 562
3. Cromwell in Ireland. 1649-1650 562
4. Montrose and Charles II. in Scotland. 1650 563
5. Dunbar and Worcester. 1650-1651 563
6. The Navigation Act. 1651 564
7. The Dutch War. 1652-1653 565
8. Unpopularity of the Parliament. 1652-1653 565
9. Vane's Reform Bill. 1653 566
10. Dissolution of the Long Parliament by Cromwell. 1653 566
11. The so-called Barebone's Parliament. 1653 566
12. The Protectorate, and the Instrument of Government.
1653 568
13. Character of the Instrument of Government 568
14. Oliver's Government. 1653-1654 569
15. The First Protectorate Parliament. 1654-1655 570
16. The Major Generals. 1655 570
17. Oliver's Foreign Policy. 1654-1655 571
18. The French Alliance. 1655 572
19. Oliver's Second Parliament, and the Humble Petition and
Advice. 1656 572
20. The Dissolution of the Second Protectorate Parliament.
1658 573
21. Victory Abroad and Failure at Home. 1657-1658 573
22. Oliver's Death. 1658 574
23. Richard Cromwell. 1658-1659 574
24. The Long Parliament Restored. 1659 575
25. Military Government. 1659 575
26. Monk and the Rump. 1660 575
27. End of the Long Parliament. 1660 576
28. The Declaration of Breda. 1660 576
PART VII
_THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION._ 1660-1689
CHAPTER XXXVII
CHARLES II. AND CLARENDON. 1660-1667
1. Return of Charles II. 1660 578
2. King and Parliament. 1660 579
3. Formation of the Government. 1660 580
4. The Political Ideas of the Convention Parliament. 1660 580
5. Execution of the Political Articles of the Declaration
of Breda. 1660 581
6. Ecclesiastical Debates. 1660 583
7. Venner's Plot and its Results. 1661 584
8. The Cavalier Parliament and the Corporation Act. 1661 585
9. The Savoy Conference, and the Act of Uniformity.
1661-1662 585
10. The Dissenters. 1662 585
11. The Parliamentary Presbyterians. 1662 586
12. Profligacy of the Court. 1662 586
13. Marriage of Charles II. and Sale of Dunkirk. 1662 587
14. The Question of Toleration Raised. 1662-1663 587
15. The Conventicle Act. 1664 588
16. The Repeal of the Triennial Act. 1664 588
17. Growing Hostility between England and the Dutch.
1660-1664 589
18. Outbreak of the First Dutch War of the Restoration.
1664-1665 589
19. The Plague. 1665 590
20. The Five Mile Act. 1665 590
21. Continued Struggle with the Dutch. 1665-1666 590
22. The Fire of London. 1666 592
23. Designs of Louis XIV. 1665-1667 592
24. The Dutch in the Medway, and the Peace of Breda. 1667 593
25. Clarendon and the House of Commons. 1667 593
26. The Fall of Clarendon. 1667 594
27. Scotland and Ireland. 1660 595
CHAPTER XXXVIII
CHARLES II. AND THE CABAL. 1667-1674
1. Milton and Bunyan. 596
2. Butler and the Dramatists. 596
3. Reason and Science. 598
4. Charles II. and Toleration. 1667 598
5. Buckingham and Arlington. 1667-1669 599
6. The Triple Alliance. 1668 599
7. Charles's Negotiations with France. 1669-1670 600
8. The Treaty of Dover. 1670 600
9. The Cabal. 1670 602
10. Ashley's Policy. 602
11. Buckingham's Sham Treaty. 1671 603
12. The Stop of the Exchequer. 1672 603
13. The Declaration of Indulgence. 1672 604
14. The Second Dutch War of the Restoration. 1672 605
15. 'Delenda est Carthago.' 1673 606
16. Withdrawal of the Declaration of Indulgence. 1673 606
17. The Test Act. 1673 606
18. Results of the Test Act. 1673 607
19. Continuance of the Dutch War. 1673 607
20. The Duke of York's Marriage and Shaftesbury's Dismissal.
1673 608
21. Peace with the Dutch. 1674 608
CHAPTER XXXIX
DANBY'S ADMINISTRATION AND THE THREE SHORT PARLIAMENTS. 1675-1681
1. Growing Influence of Danby. 1675 610
2. Parliamentary Parties. 1675 610
3. The Non-Resistance Bill. 1675 611
4. Charles a Pensionary of France. 1675-1676 611
5. Two Foreign Policies. 1677 612
6. The Marriage of the Prince of Orange. 1677 613
7. Danby's Position. 1677 613
8. The Peace of Nymwegen. 1678 614
9. The Popish Plot. 1678 615
10. Growing Excitement. 1678 615
11. Danby's Impeachment and the Dissolution of the Cavalier
Parliament. 1678-1679 616
12. The Meeting of the First Short Parliament. 1679 616
13. The Exclusion Bill and the Habeas Corpus Act. 1679 617
14. Shaftesbury and the King. 1679 617
15. Shaftesbury and Halifax. 1679 618
16. The Divine Right of Kings. 1679 619
17. The Highland Host. 1677-1678 619
18. Drumclog and Bothwell Bridge. 1679 619
19. Petitioners and Abhorrers. 1680 620
20. The Second Short Parliament. 1680-1681 620
21. The Third Short Parliament. 1681 621
CHAPTER XL
THE LAST YEARS OF CHARLES II. 1681-1685
1. Tory Reaction. 1681 622
2. 'Absolom and Achitophel.' 1681 623
3. The Scottish Test Act and the Duke of York's Return.
1681-1682 623
4. The City Elections. 1682 623
5. Flight and Death of Shaftesbury. 1682-1683 624
6. The Attack on the City. 1682-1683 624
7. The Remodelling of the Corporations. 1683-1684 625
8. The Rye House Plot. 1683 625
9. The Whig Combination. 1683 625
10. Trial and Execution of Lord Russell. 1683 625
11. Execution of Algernon Sidney. 1683 626
12. Parties at Court. 1684 626
13. Death of Charles II. 1685 627
14. Constitutional Progress. 1660-1685 627
15. Prosperity of the Country. 628
16. The Coffee Houses. 630
17. The Condition of London. 631
18. Painting. 631
19. Architecture. 631
20. Science. 632
21. Difficulties of Communication. 632
22. The Country Gentry and the Country Clergy. 633
23. Alliance between the Gentry and the Church. 633
CHAPTER XLI
JAMES II. 1685-1689
1. The Accession of James II. 1685 634
2. A Tory Parliament. 1685 636
3. Argyle's Landing. 1685 636
4. Monmouth's Landing. 1685 637
5. The Bloody Assizes. 1685 637
6. The Violation of the Test Act. 1685 638
7. Breach between Parliament and King. 1685 638
8. The Dispensing Power. 1686 638
9. The Ecclesiastical Commission. 1686 639
10. Scotland and Ireland. 1686-1687 639
11. The Fall of the Hydes. 1686-1687 640
12. The Declaration of Indulgence. 1687 640
13. The Expulsion of the Fellows of Magdalen. 1687 641
14. An Attempt to pack a Parliament. 1687 641
15. A Second Declaration of Indulgence. 1688 642
16. Resistance of the Clergy. 1688 642
17. The Trial of the Seven Bishops. 1688 643
18. Invitation to William of Orange. 1688 643
19. Landing of William. 1688 644
20. William's March upon London. 1688 645
21. A Convention Parliament Summoned. 1688 646
22. The Throne Declared Vacant. 1689 646
23. William and Mary to be Joint Sovereigns. 1689 647
24. Character of the Revolution. 647
_LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS_
FIG. PAGE
174. Henry VIII. 368
(_From a painting by Holbein about 1536, belonging to
Earl Spencer_)
175. Cardinal Wolsey 365
(_From an original picture belonging to the
Hon. Sir Spencer Ponsonby-Fane, K.C.B._)
176. The embarkation of Henry VIII. from Dover, 1520 370
(_From the Society of Antiquaries' engraving
of the original picture at Hampton Court_)
177. Silver-gilt cup and cover, made at London in 1523; at
Barber Surgeons' Hall, London 371
(_From Cripps's_ 'College and Corporation Plate')
178. Part of Hampton Court; built by Cardinal Wolsey;
finished in 1526 373
(_From a photograph_)
179. Portrait of William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury,
1503-1532, showing the ordinary episcopal dress, with
the mitre and archiepiscopal cross 376
(_From a painting by Holbein, belonging to Viscount
Dillon, F.S.A., dated 1527_)
180. Tower of Fountains Abbey church; built by Abbot Huby,
1494-1526 378
(_From a photograph by Valentine and Sons, Dundee_)
181. Catharine of Aragon 380
(_From a painting in the National Portrait
Gallery_)
182. The gatehouse of Coughton Court, Warwickshire; built
about 1530 381
(_From Niven's_ 'Illustrations of Old Warwickshire
Houses')
183. Hall of Christchurch, Oxford; built by Cardinal Wolsey;
finished in 1529 384
(_From a photograph by W. H. Wheeler, Oxford_)
184. Sir Thomas More, wearing the collar of SS. 387
(_From an original portrait painted by Holbein in 1527,
belonging to Edward Huth, Esq._)
185. John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, 1504-1535 393
(_From a drawing by Holbein in the Royal Library,
Windsor Castle_)
186. Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, brother of Jane Seymour,
afterwards Duke of Somerset, known as 'the Protector,'
at the age of 28, 1507-1552 395
(_From a painting at Sudeley Castle_)
187. Henry VIII. 403
(_From a painting by Holbein, belonging to the Earl
of Warwick_)
188. Angel of Henry VIII., 1543 405
(_From an original example_)
189. Part of the encampment at Marquison, 1544, showing
military equipment in the time of Henry VIII. 406
190, 191. Part of the siege of Boulogne by Henry VIII.,
1544, showing military operations 407, 408
(_From the Society Of Antiquaries' engravings, by
Vertue, of the now destroyed paintings formerly at
Cowdray House, Sussex_)
192. Armour as worn in the reign of Henry VIII.; from the
brass of John Lymsey, 1545, in Hackney church 409
193. Margaret, wife of John Lymsey; from her brass in Hackney
church, showing the costume of a lady circa 1545 409
(_From Haines's_ 'Manual of Monumental Brasses')
194. Thomas Howard, third Duke of Norfolk, 1473(?)-1554 410
(_From a painting by Holbein at Windsor Castle_)
195. Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1533-1556 414
(_From a painting by Holbein dated 1547, at Jesus
College, Cambridge_)
196. Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London, 1550-1553 417
(_From the National Portrait Gallery_)
197. King Edward VI. 419
(_From a picture belonging to H. Hucks Gibbs, Esq._)
198. Queen Mary Tudor 422
(_From a painting by Lucas de Heere, dated 1554,
belonging to the Society of Antiquaries_)
199. Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, 1535-1539,
burnt 1555 425
(_From the National Portrait Gallery_)
200. A milled half-sovereign of Elizabeth, 1562-1568 435
(_From an original example_)
201. Silver-gilt standing cup made in London in 1569-70,
and given to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, by
Parker 440
(_From Cripps's_ 'College and Corporation Plate')
202. Sir Francis Drake in his forty-third year 448
(_From the engraving by Elstracke_)
203. Armour as worn during the reign of Elizabeth; from the
brass of Francis Clopton, 1577, at Long Melford,
Suffolk 451
(_From Haines's_ 'Manual of Monumental Brasses')
204. Hall of Burghley House, Northamptonshire, built about
1580 455
(_From Drummond's_ 'Histories of Noble British
Families')
205. Sir Martin Frobisher, died 1594 459
(_From a picture belonging to the Earl of Carlisle_)
206. The Spanish Armada. Fight between the English and Spanish
fleets off the Isle of Wight, July 25, 1588 461
(_From Pine's engravings of the tapestry formerly in
the House of Lords_)
207. Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), and his eldest son Walter
at the age of eight 463
(_From a picture dated 1602, belonging to Sir J. F.
Lennard, Bart._)
208. A mounted soldier at the end of the sixteenth century 465
(_From a broadside printed in 1596, in the Society of
Antiquaries' collection_)
209. Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire; built by Thorpe for
Sir Francis Willoughby, about 1580-1588 466
(_From a photograph by R. Keene, Derby_)
210. Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire; built by Elizabeth,
Countess of Shrewsbury, about 1597 467
(_From a photograph by R. Keene, Derby_)
211. E-shaped house at Beaudesert, Staffordshire; built by
Thomas, Lord Paget, about 1601 469
(_From a photograph by R. Keene, Derby_)
212. Ingestre Hall, Staffordshire; built about 1601 471
(_From a photograph by R. Keene, Derby_)
213. Coaches in the reign of Elizabeth 473
(_From_ 'Archæologia,' vol. xx. pl. xviii.)
214. William Shakspere 474
(_From the bust on his tomb at Stratford-on-Avon_)
215. Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex, K.G., 1567-1601 476
(_From a painting by Van Somer, dated 1599, belonging
to the Earl of Essex_)
216. Queen Elizabeth, 1558-1603 477
(_From a painting belonging to the University of
Cambridge_)
217. William Cecil, Lord Burghley, K.G., 1520-1591 479
(_From a painting in the Bodleian Library, Oxford_)
218. Royal arms borne by James I. and succeeding Stuart
sovereigns 482
(_From Boutell's_'English Heraldry')
219. North-west view of Hatfield House, Herts; built for
Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury, between 1605 and
1611 485
(_From a photograph by Valentine and Sons, Dundee_)
220. An unknown gentleman 487
(_From a painting belonging to T. A. Hope, Esq._)
221. King James I. 491
(_From a painting by P. Van Somer, dated 1621, in the
National Portrait Gallery_)
222. Civil costume, about 1620 492
(_From a contemporary broadside in the collection of
the Society of Antiquaries_)
223. The banqueting-hall of the Palace of Whitehall (from the
north-east); built from the designs of Inigo Jones,
1619-1621 493
(_From a photograph_)
224. Francis Bacon, Viscount St. Alban, Lord Chancellor 495
(_From a painting by P. Van Somer in the National
Portrait Gallery_)
225. Costume of a lawyer 497
(_From a broadside dated 1623 in the collection of the
Society of Antiquaries_)
226. The Upper House of Convocation 498
227. The Lower House of Convocation 499
(_From a broadside dated 1623, in the collection of
the Society of Antiquaries_)
228. King Charles I. 504
(_From a painting by Van Dyck_)
229. Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I. 505
(_From a painting by Van Dyck_)
230. Tents and military equipment in the early part of the
reign of Charles I. 507
(_From the monument of Sir Charles Montague (died in
1625), in the church of Barking, Essex_)
231. George Villiers, first duke of Buckingham, 1592-1628 509
(_From the painting by Gerard Honthorst in the
National Portrait Gallery_)
232. Sir Edward and Lady Filmer; from their brass at East
Sutton, Kent, showing armour and dress worn about 1630 515
(_From Waller's_ 'Monumental Brasses')
233. Archbishop Laud 517
(_From a copy in the National Portrait Gallery by
Henry Stone, from the Van Dyck at Lambeth_)
234. Silver-gilt tankard made at London in 1634-5; now
belonging to the Corporation of Bristol 518
(_From Cripps's_ 'College and Corporation Plate')
235. The 'Sovereign of the Seas,' built for the Royal Navy in
1637 522
(_From a contemporary engraving by John Payne_)
236. Soldier armed with a pike 527
237. Soldier with musket and crutch 527
(_From a broadside printed about 1630, in the
collection of the Society of Antiquaries_)
238-243. Ordinary civil costume, _temp._ Charles I., viz:--
A gentleman and a gentlewoman 550
A citizen and a citizen's wife 551
A countryman and a countrywoman 552
(_From Speed's map of_ 'The Kingdom of England,' 1646)
244. View of the west side of the Banqueting-House, Whitehall,
dated 1713, showing the window through which Charles I.
is said to have passed to the scaffold 558
(_From an engraving by Terasson_)
245. Execution of King Charles I., January 30, 1649 559
(_From a broadside in the collection of the late
Richard Fisher, Esq., F.S.A._)
246. A coach in the middle of the seventeenth century 564
(_From an engraving by John Dunstall_)
247. Oliver Cromwell 567
(_From the painting by Samuel Cooper, at Sidney Sussex
College, Cambridge_)
248. Charles II. 579
(_From the portrait by Sir Peter Lely in Christ's
Hospital, London_)
249. Edward Hyde, first Earl of Clarendon, 1608-1674 581
(_From an engraving by Loggan_)
250. A mounted nobleman and his squire 582
(_From Ogilby's_ 'Coronation Procession of
Charles II.')
251. Dress of the Horseguards at the Restoration 583
(_From Ogilby's_ 'Coronation Procession of
Charles II.')
252. Yeoman of the Guard 583
(_From Ogilby's_ 'Coronation Procession of
Charles II.')
253. Shipping in the Thames, circa 1660 584
(_From Pricke's_ 'South Prospect of London')
254. Old St. Paul's, from the east, showing its condition
just before the Great Fire 591
(_From an engraving by Hollar_)
255. John Milton in 1669 597
(_From the engraving by Faithorne_)
256. Temple Bar, London, built by Sir Christopher Wren in
1670 601
(_From a photograph_)
257. Anthony Ashley-Cooper, first Earl of Shaftesbury,
1621-1683 604
(_From the painting by John Greenhill in the National
Portrait Gallery_)
258. Ordinary dress of gentlemen in 1675 611
(_From Loggan's_ 'Oxonia Illustrata')
259. Cup presented, 1676, by King Charles II. to the Barber
Surgeons' Company 612
(_From Cripps's_ 'College and Corporation Plate')
260. Steeple of the church of St. Mary-le-Bow, London,
built by Sir Christopher Wren between 1671 and 1680 614
(_From a photograph_)
261. Dress of ladies of quality 628
(_From Sandford's_ 'Coronation Procession of
James II.')
262. Ordinary attire of women of the lower classes 628
(_From Sandford's_ 'Coronation Procession of
James II.')
263. Coach of the latter half of the seventeenth century 629
(_From Loggan's_ 'Oxonia Illustrata')
264. Waggon of the second half of the seventeenth century 629
(_From Loggan's_ 'Oxonia Illustrata')
265. Reaping and harvesting in the second half of the
seventeenth century 630
(_From Loggan's_ 'Cantabrigia Illustrata')
266. Costume of a gentleman 632
(_From Sandford's_ 'Coronation Procession of
James II.')
267. James II. 635
(_From the painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller in 1684-5
in the National Portrait Gallery_)
268. Yeomen of the Guard 636
(_From Sandford's_ 'Coronation Procession of
James II.')
269. Dress of a bishop in the second half of the seventeenth
century 642
(_From Sandford's_ 'Coronation Procession of
James II.')
GENEALOGICAL TABLES
I
_KINGS AND QUEENS OF ENGLAND (AFTER 1541 OF ENGLAND AND IRELAND)
FROM HENRY VII. TO ELIZABETH._
HENRY VII. = Elizabeth
1485-1509 | of York
_____________________________|
| |
Arthur = Catharine = HENRY VIII. = (2) Anne Boleyn = (3) Jane Seymour
Prince of Aragon | 1509-1547 | |
of | | |
Wales | | |
MARY I. ELIZABETH EDWARD VI.
1553-1559 1558-1603 1547-1553
II
_KINGS OF SCOTLAND AND GREAT BRITAIN, FROM JAMES IV. OF SCOTLAND TO
WILLIAM AND MARY._
HENRY VII.,
king of | England
|
JAMES IV. = Margaret = Archibald, Earl of
king of Scotland | | Angus
1488-1513 | |
__________________| |
| |
JAMES V. = Mary of Guise Margaret Douglas = Matthew Stuart
1513-1542 | | Earl of Lennox
| |
|__________________________ |
| |
(1) Francis II. = MARY = (2) Henry Stuart
king of France 1542-1567 | (Lord Darnley)
|
JAMES VI.
1567-1625
king of Great Britain
as JAMES I.
1603-1625
III
_KINGS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND FROM JAMES I. TO GEORGE I._
JAMES I. = Anne of Denmark
1603-1625 |
|
|
____________________________________________
| | |
| | |
Henry CHARLES I.=Henrietta Elizabeth=Frederick V.
Prince of 1625-1649 | Maria of | Elector
Wales | France | Palatine
| |
| |_____________
__________________________________________________________ |
| | | |
| | | |
CHARLES II.=Catharine Mary=WILLIAM II. (1)Anne Hyde=JAMES II.=(2)Mary|
(nominally) of | Prince of |1685-1689| of |
1649-1660 Braganza | Orange | |Modena |
(actually) | | | |
1660-1685 | ______________| | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
WILLIAM III. = MARY II. ANNE James |
Prince of 1689-1694 1702-1714 (The Old |
Orange, Pretender) |
king of Great | |
Britain and | |
Ireland Charles Edward |
1689-1702 (The Young |
Pretender) |
|
______________________________|
|
|
_______________________________________
| | |
| | |
Charles Lewis Prince Rupert Sophia
Elector Palatine |
|
GEORGE I.
1714-1727
IV
_GENEALOGY OF THE KINGS OF FRANCE FROM LOUIS XII. TO LOUIS XIV.,
SHOWING THEIR DESCENT FROM LOUIS IX._
(St.) Louis IX.
1226-1270
|
+--------------------------------+
| |
Philip III. Robert of Clermont
1270-1285 |
| |
| Louis I. Duke of
+----------------+ Bourbon
| | :
Philip IV. Charles :
1283-1314 of Valois '...............
| | :
| | :
(For descendants Philip VI. :
of 1328-1350 :
Philip IV. | :
see Part I. | :
Table IV.) JOHN :
1350-1364 :
| :
+-------------+ :
| | :
CHARLES V. Louis :
1364-1380 Duke of Orleans :
| | :
| +---------------------+ :
| | | :
CHARLES VI. Charles John :
1380-1422 Duke of Orleans Count of Angoulême :
| | | :
| | | :
CHARLES VII. LOUIS XII. Charles :
1422-1461 1498-1515 | :
| | :
| | :
LOUIS XI. FRANCIS I. :
1461-1483 1515-1547 :
| | :
| +---------------------+ :
CHARLES VIII. | .....................'
1483-1498 | :
| :
HENRY II. Antony = Jeanne d'Albret,
1547-1559 | queen of
| | Navarre
+-------------+-----------+-----+-----+ |
| | | |
FRANCIS II. CHARLES IX. Francis HENRY III. HENRY IV.
1559-1560 1560-1574 Duke of 1574-1589 1589-1610
Alençon |
|
Louis XIII.
1610-1643
|
|
Louis XIV.
1643-1715
V
_GENEALOGY OF THE KINGS OF SPAIN FROM FERDINAND AND ISABELLA TO
CHARLES II._
Maximilian I. FERDINAND = ISABELLA
Emperor king of Aragon | queen of
| 1479-1516 | Castile
| ___________________| 1474-1504
| | |
PHILIP I. = Juana Catharine = (1) Arthur, Prince of Wales
Archduke of | (2) Henry VIII. king of England
Austria, |
king of |
Castile |
1504-1506 |____________________________
| |
CHARLES I. Ferdinand I.
(the Emperor Charles V.) Emperor
king of Castile, 1506-1556,
king of Aragon, 1516-1556
|
PHILIP II.
1556-1598
|
PHILIP III.
1598-1621
|
PHILIP IV.
1621-1665
|
CHARLES II.
1665-1700
VI
_GENEALOGY OF THE GERMAN BRANCH OF THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA FROM
FERDINAND I. TO LEOPOLD I._
(The dates given are those during which an archduke was emperor.)
FERDINAND I.
1556-1564
|__________________
| |
MAXIMILIAN II. Charles
1564-1576 Duke of Styria
_______________________| |
| | |
RUDOLPH II. MATTHIAS FERDINAND II.
1576-1612 1612-1619 1619-1635
|
FERDINAND III.
1635-1658
|
LEOPOLD I.
1658-1705
VII
_GENEALOGY OF THE PRINCES OF ORANGE FROM WILLIAM I. TO WILLIAM III._
WILLIAM I.
(The Silent)
1558-1584
_________________|________________
| | |
PHILIP WILLIAM MAURICE FREDERICK HENRY
1584-1618 1618-1625 1625-1647
|
WILLIAM II.
1647-1650
|
WILLIAM III.
1650-1702
_SHORTER AND SOMETIMES MORE DETAILED GENEALOGIES will be found in
the following pages._
PAGE
Genealogy of the Poles 399
" " children of Henry VIII. 411
" " Greys 421
" " last Valois kings of France 433
" " Guises 435
" of Mary and Darnley 438
" of the descendants of Charles I. 609
PART V
_THE RENASCENCE AND THE REFORMATION_ =1509-1603=
CHAPTER XXIV
HENRY VIII. AND WOLSEY. =1509-1527=
LEADING DATES
Reign of Henry VIII., 1509-1547
Accession of Henry VIII. 1509
Henry's first war with France 1512
Peace with France 1514
Charles V. elected Emperor 1519
Henry's second French war 1522
Francis I. taken captive at Pavia 1525
The sack of Rome and the alliance between England and
France 1527
[Illustration: Henry VIII.; from a painting by Holbein about 1536,
belonging to Earl Spencer.]
1. =The New King. 1509.=--Henry VIII. inherited the handsome face,
the winning presence, and the love of pleasure which distinguished
his mother's father, Edward IV., as well as the strong will of his
own father, Henry VII. He could ride better than his grooms, and
shoot better than the archers of his guard. Yet, though he had a
ready smile and a ready jest for everyone, he knew how to preserve
his dignity. Though he seemed to live for amusement alone, and
allowed others to toil at the business of administration, he took
care to keep his ministers under control. He was no mean judge of
character, and the saying which rooted itself amongst his subjects,
that 'King Henry knew a man when he saw him,' points to one of the
chief secrets of his success. He was well aware that the great
nobles were his only possible rivals, and that his main support was
to be found in the country gentry and the townsmen. Partly because
of his youth, and partly because the result of the political
struggle had already been determined when he came to the throne, he
thought less than his father had done of the importance of
possessing stored up wealth by which armies might be equipped and
maintained, and more of securing that popularity which at least for
the purposes of internal government, made armies unnecessary. The
first act of the new reign was to send Empson and Dudley to the
Tower, and it was significant of Henry's policy that they were tried
and executed, not on a charge of having extorted money illegally
from subjects, but on a trumped up charge of conspiracy against the
king. It was for the king to see that offences were not committed
against the people, but the people must be taught that the most
serious crimes were those committed against the king. Henry's next
act was to marry Catharine. Though he was but nineteen, whilst his
bride was twenty-five, the marriage was for many years a happy one.
2. =Continental Troubles. 1508-1511.=--For some time Henry lived as
though his only object in life was to squander his father's treasure
in festivities. Before long, however, he bethought himself of aiming
at distinction in war as well as in sport. Since Louis XII. had been
king of France (see p. 354) there had been constant wars in Italy,
where Louis was striving for the mastery with Ferdinand of Aragon.
In =1508= the two rivals, Ferdinand and Louis, abandoning their
hostility for a time, joined the Emperor Maximilian (see pp. 337,
348) and Pope Julius II. in the League of Cambrai, the object of
which was to despoil the Republic of Venice. In =1511= Ferdinand
allied himself with Julius II. and Venice in the Holy League, the
object of which was to drive the French out of Italy. After a while
the new league was joined by Maximilian, and every member of it was
anxious that Henry should join it too.
3. =The Rise of Wolsey. 1512.=--England had nothing to gain by an
attack on France, but Henry was young, and the English nation was,
in a certain sense, also young. It was conscious of the strength
brought to it by restored order, and was quite ready to use this
strength in an attack on its neighbours. In the new court it was
ignorantly thought that there was no reason why Henry VIII. should
not take up that work of conquering France which had fallen to
pieces in the feeble hands of Henry VI. To carry on his new policy
Henry needed a new minister. The best of the old ones were Fox, the
Bishop of Winchester, and Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, who, great
nobleman as he was, had been contented to merge his greatness in the
greatness of the king. The whole military organisation of the
country, however, had to be created afresh, and neither Fox nor
Surrey was equal to such a task. The work was assigned to Thomas
Wolsey, the king's almoner, who, though not, as his enemies said,
the son of a butcher, was of no exalted origin. Wolsey's genius for
administration at once manifested itself. He was equally at home in
sketching out a plan of campaign, in diplomatic contests with the
wariest and most experienced statesmen, and in providing for the
minutest details of military preparation.
4. =The War with France. 1512-1513.=--It was not Wolsey's fault that
his first enterprise ended in failure. A force sent to attack France
on the Spanish side failed, not because it was ill-equipped, but
because the soldiers mutinied, and Ferdinand, who had promised to
support it, abandoned it to its fate. In =1513= Henry himself landed
at Calais, and, with the Emperor Maximilian serving under him,
defeated the French at Guinegatte in an engagement known, from the
rapidity of the flight of the French, as the Battle of the Spurs.
Before the end of the autumn he had taken Terouenne and Tournai. War
with France, as usual, led to a war with Scotland. James IV., during
Henry's absence, invaded Northumberland, but his army was destroyed
by the Earl of Surrey at Flodden, where he himself was slain.
5. =Peace with France. 1514.=--Henry soon found that his allies were
thinking exclusively of their own interests. In =1512= the French
were driven out of Italy, and Ferdinand made himself master of
Navarre. In =1513= the warlike Pope, Julius II., died, and a fresh
attempt of Louis to gain ground in Italy was decisively foiled.
Henry's allies had got what they wanted, and in =1514= Henry
discovered that to conquer France was beyond his power. Louis was
ready to come to terms. He was now a widower. Old in constitution,
though not in years, he was foolish enough to want a young wife.
Henry was ready to gratify him with the hand of his younger sister
Mary. The poor girl had fallen in love with Henry's favourite,
Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, a man of sturdy limbs and weak
brain, and pleaded hard against the marriage. Love counted for
little in those days, and all that she could obtain from her brother
was a promise that if she married this time to please him, she
should marry next time to please herself. Louis soon relieved her by
dying on January 1, =1515=, after a few weeks of wedlock, and his
widow took care, by marrying Suffolk before she left France, to make
sure that her brother should keep his promise.
[Illustration: Cardinal Wolsey: from an original picture belonging
to the Hon. Sir Spencer Ponsonby-Fane, K.C.B.]
6. =Wolsey's Policy of Peace. 1514-1518.=--In =1514= the king made
Wolsey Archbishop of York. In =1515= the Pope made him a Cardinal.
Before the end of the year he was Henry's Chancellor. The whole of
the business of the government passed through his hands. The
magnificence of his state was extraordinary. To all observers he
seemed to be more a king than the king himself. Behind him was
Henry, trusting him with all his power, but self-willed and
uncontrollable, quite ready to sacrifice his dearest friend to
satisfy his least desire. As yet the only conflict in Henry's mind
was the conflict about peace or war with France. Henry's love of
display and renown had led him to wish to rival the exploits of
Edward III. and Henry V. Wolsey preferred the old policy of Richard
II. and Henry VI., but he knew that he could only make it palatable
to the king and the nation by connecting the idea of peace with the
idea of national greatness. He aspired to be the peacemaker of
Europe, and to make England's interest in peace the law of the
world. In =1515= the new king of France, Francis I., needed peace
with England because he was in pursuit of glory in Italy, where he
won a brilliant victory at Marignano. In =1516= Ferdinand's death
gave Spain to his grandson, Charles, the son of Philip and Juana
(see p. 358), and from that time Francis and Charles stood forth as
the rivals for supremacy on the Continent. Wolsey tried his best to
maintain a balance between the two, and it was owing to his ability
that England, thinly populated and without a standing army, was
eagerly courted by the rulers of states far more powerful than
herself. In =1518= a league was struck between England and France,
in which Pope Leo X., the Emperor Maximilian, and Charles, king of
Spain, agreed to join, thus converting it into a league of universal
peace. Yet Wolsey was no cosmopolitan philanthropist. He believed
that England would be more influential in peace than she could be in
war.
7. =Wolsey and the Renascence.=--In scheming for the elevation of
his own country by peace instead of by conquest, Wolsey reflected
the higher aspirations of his time. No sooner had internal order
been secured, than the best men began to crave for some object to
which they could devote themselves, larger and nobler than that of
their own preservation. Wolsey gave them the contemplation of the
political importance of England on the Continent. The noblest minds,
however, would not be content with this, and an outburst of
intellectual vigour told that the times of internal strife had
passed away. This intellectual movement was not of native growth.
The Renascence, or new birth of letters, sprung up in Italy in the
fourteenth century, and received a further impulse through the
taking of Constantinople by the Turks in =1453=, when the dispersal
of Greek teachers from the East revived the study of the Greek
language. It was not merely because new teachers landed in Italy
that the literature of the ancient world was studied with avidity.
Men were weary of the mediæval system, and craved for other ideals
than those of the devotees of the Church. Whilst they learnt to
admire the works of the Greek and Latin authors as models of
literary form, they caught something of the spirit of the ancient
world. They ceased to look on man as living only for God and a
future world, and regarded him as devoting himself to the service of
his fellow-men, or even--in lower minds the temptation lay
perilously near--as living for himself alone. Great artists and
poets arose who gave expression to the new feeling of admiration for
human action and human beauty, whilst the prevailing revolt against
the religion of the middle ages gave rise to a spirit of criticism
which refused belief to popular legends.
8. =The Renascence in England.=--The spirit of the Renascence was
slow in reaching England. In the days of Richard II. Chaucer visited
Italy, and Italian influence is to be traced in his Canterbury
Tales. In the days of Henry VI. the selfish politician, Humphrey,
Duke of Gloucester, purchased books, and gave to Oxford a collection
which was the foundation of what was afterwards known as the
Bodleian Library. Even in the Wars of the Roses the brutal John
Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, and the gentle Earl Rivers, the brother
of Elizabeth Woodville, were known as patrons of letters. The
invention of printing brought literature within reach of those to
whom it had hitherto been strange. Edward IV. patronised Caxton, the
first English printer. In the peaceful reign of Henry VII. the seed
thus sown sprang into a crop. There was, however, a great difference
between the followers of the new learning in England and in Italy.
In Italy, for the most part, scholars mocked at Christianity, or
treated it with tacit contempt. In England there was no such breach
with the religion of the past. Those who studied in England sought
to permeate their old faith with the new thoughts.
9. =The Oxford Reformers.=--Especially was this the case with a
group of Oxford Reformers, Grocyn, Linacre, and Colet, who were
fighting hard to introduce the study of Greek into the University.
Among these Colet specially addicted himself to the explanation of
the epistles of St. Paul, insisting on following their plain meaning
instead of the mystical interpretations then in vogue. In =1510= he
founded St. Paul's School, that boys might be there taught without
being subjected to the brutal flogging which was in those days the
lot even of the most diligent of schoolboys. The most remarkable
member of this group of scholars was Thomas More. Young More, who
had hoped much from the accession of Henry VIII., had been
disappointed to find him engaging in a war with France instead of
cultivating the arts of peace. He meditated deeply over the miseries
of his fellow-men, and longed for a time when governments would
think it to be their highest duty to labour for those who are too
weak to help themselves.
10. ='The Utopia.' 1515-1516.=--In =1515= and =1516= More produced a
book which he called _Utopia_, or Nowhere, intending it to serve as
a satire on the defects of the government of England, by praising
the results of a very different government in his imaginary country.
The Utopians, he declared, fought against invaders of their own land
or the land of their allies, or to deliver other peoples from
tyranny, but they made no wars of aggression. In peace no one was
allowed either to be idle or overworked. Everyone must work six
hours a day, and then he might listen to lectures for the
improvement of his mind. As for the religion of Utopia, no one was
to be persecuted for his religious opinions, as long as he treated
respectfully those who differed from him. If, however, he used
scornful and angry words towards them, he was to be banished, not as
a despiser of the established religion, but as a stirrer up of
dissension. Men of all varieties of opinion met together in a common
temple, the worship in which was so arranged that all could take
part in it. Amongst their priests were women as well as men. More
practical was the author's attack on the special abuses of the
times. England swarmed with vagrants, who easily passed into
robbers, or even murderers. The author of _Utopia_ traced the evil
to its roots. Soldiers, he said, were discharged on their return
home, and, being used to roving and dissolute habits, naturally took
to vagrancy. Robbery was their only resource, and the law tempted a
robber to murder. Hanging was the penalty both for robbing and
murder, and the robber, therefore, knowing that he would be hanged
if he were detected, usually killed the victim whom he had plundered
in order to silence evidence against himself; and More consequently
argued that the best way of checking murder would be to abolish the
penalty of death for robbery. Another great complaint of More's was
against the ever-growing increase of inclosures for pasturage.
"Sheep," he said, "be become so great devourers and so wild that
they eat up and swallow down the very men themselves. They consume,
destroy, and devour whole fields, houses, and cities." More saw the
evil, but he did not see that the best remedy lay in the
establishment of manufactures, to give employment in towns to those
who lost it in the country. He wished to enforce by law the
reversion of all the new pasturage into arable land.
11. =More and Henry VIII.=--Henry VIII. was intolerant of those who
resisted his will, but he was strangely tolerant of those who
privately contradicted his opinions. He took pleasure in the society
of intelligent and witty men, and he urged More to take office under
him. More refused for a long time, but in =1518=--the year of the
league of universal peace--believing that Henry was now a convert to
his ideas, he consented, and became Sir Thomas More and a Privy
Councillor. Henry was so pleased with his conversation that he tried
to keep him always with him, and it was only by occasionally
pretending to be dull that More obtained leave to visit his home.
12. =The Contest for the Empire. 1519.=--In January =1519= the
Emperor Maximilian died. His grandson Charles was now possessed of
more extensive lands than any other European sovereign. He ruled in
Spain, in Austria, in Naples and Sicily, in the Netherlands, and in
the County of Burgundy, usually known as Franche Comté. Between him
and Francis I. a struggle was inevitable. The chances were
apparently, on the whole, on the side of Charles. His dominions,
indeed, were scattered, and devoid of the strength given by national
feeling, whilst the smaller dominions of Francis were compact and
united by a strong national bond. In character, however, Charles had
the superiority. He was cool and wary, whilst Francis was impetuous
and uncalculating. Both sovereigns were now candidates for the
Empire. The seven electors who had it in their gift were open to
bribery. Charles bribed highest, and being chosen became the Emperor
Charles V.
13. =The Field of the Cloth of Gold. 1520.=--Wolsey tried hard to
keep the peace. In =1520= Henry met Francis on the border of the
territory of Calais, and the magnificence of the display on both
sides gave to the scene the name of the Field of the Cloth of Gold.
In the same year Henry had interviews with Charles. Peace was for a
time maintained, because both Charles and Francis were still too
much occupied at home to quarrel, but it could hardly be maintained
long.
[Illustration: The embarkation of Henry VIII. from Dover, 1520: from
the original painting at Hampton Court.]
14. =The Execution of the Duke of Buckingham. 1521.=--Henry was
entirely master in England. In =1521= the Duke of Buckingham, son of
the Buckingham who had been beheaded by Richard III., was tried and
executed as a traitor. His fault was that he had great wealth, and
that, being descended from the Duke of Gloucester, the youngest son
of Edward III., he had not only cherished some idea of claiming the
throne after Henry's death, but had chattered about his prospects.
In former days justice was not to be had by those who offended the
great lords. Now, one despot had stepped into the place of many, and
justice was not to be had by those who offended the king. The legal
forms of trial were now as before observed. Buckingham was indeed
tried before the court of the Lord High Steward, which consisted of
a select number of peers, and which had jurisdiction over peers when
Parliament was not sitting. These, however, were no more than forms.
It was probably a mingled feeling of gratitude and fear which made
peers as well as ordinary juries ready to take Henry's word for the
guilt of any offender.
[Illustration: Cup and Cover, 1523, at Barber Surgeons' Hall,
London.]
15. =Another French War. 1522-1523.=--The diplomacy of those days
was a mere tissue of trickery and lies. Behind the falsehood,
however, Wolsey had a purpose of his own, the maintenance of peace
on the Continent. Yet, in =1521= war broke out between Charles and
Francis, both of whom laid claim to the Duchy of Milan, and it was
evident that Wolsey would be unable to keep England out of the
struggle. If there was to be fighting Henry preferred to fight
France rather than to fight Charles. In =1522=, in conjunction with
Charles, he invaded France. There was burning and ravaging enough,
but nothing of importance was done. Nevertheless in =1523= Henry was
in high spirits. A great French noble, the Duke of Bourbon, provoked
by ill-treatment, revolted against Francis, and Henry and Charles
fancied that he would open a way to them into the heart of France.
If Henry was to be crowned at Paris, which was the object on which
he was bent, he must have a supply of money from his subjects.
Though no Parliament had been summoned for nearly eight years, one
was summoned now, of which More was the Speaker. Wolsey asked for an
enormous grant of 800,000_l._, nearly equal to 12,000,000_l._ at the
present day. Finding that the Commons hesitated, he swept into the
House in state to argue with them. Expecting a reply, and finding
silence, he turned to More, who told him that it was against the
privilege of the House to call on it for an immediate answer. He had
to depart unsatisfied, and after some days the House granted a
considerable sum, but far less than that which had been demanded.
Wolsey was now in a position of danger. His own policy was pacific,
but his master's policy was warlike, and he had been obliged to
make himself the unquestioning mouthpiece of his master in demanding
supplies for war. He had long been hated by the nobles for thrusting
them aside. He was now beginning to be hated by the people as the
supposed author of an expensive war, which he would have done his
best to prevent. He had not even the advantage of seeing his master
win laurels in the field. The national spirit of France was roused,
and the combined attack of Henry and Charles proved as great a
failure in =1523= as in =1522=. The year =1524= was spent by Wolsey
in diplomatic intrigue.
16. =The Amicable Loan. 1525.=--Early in =1525= Europe was startled
by the news that Francis had been signally defeated by the
Imperialists at Pavia, and had been carried prisoner to Spain.
Wolsey knew that Charles's influence was now likely to predominate
in Europe, and that unless England was to be overshadowed by it,
Henry's alliance must be transferred to Francis. Henry, however, saw
in the imprisonment of Francis only a fine opportunity for
conquering France. Wolsey had again to carry out his master's wishes
as though they were his own. Raking up old precedents, he suggested
that the people should be asked for what was called an Amicable
Loan, on the plea that Henry was about to invade France in person.
He obtained the consent of the citizens of London by telling them
that, if they did not pay, it might 'fortune to cost some their
heads.' All over England Wolsey was cursed as the originator of the
loan. There were even signs that a rebellion was imminent. In
Norfolk when the Duke of Norfolk demanded payment there was a
general resistance. On his demanding the name of the captain of the
multitude which refused to pay, a man told him that their captain's
'name was Poverty,' and 'he and his cousin Necessity' had brought
them to this. Wolsey, seeing that it was impossible to collect the
money, took all the unpopularity of advising the loan upon himself.
'Because,' he wrote, 'every man layeth the burden from him, I am
content to take it on me, and to endure the fame and noise of the
people, for my goodwill towards the king ... but the eternal God
knoweth all.' Henry had no such nobility of character as to refuse
to accept the sacrifice. He liked to make his ministers scapegoats,
to heap on their heads the indignation of the people that he might
himself retain his popularity. For three centuries and a half it was
fully believed that the Amicable Loan had originated with Wolsey.
[Illustration: Hampton Court; built by Cardinal Wolsey, finished in
1526.]
17. =Closing Years of Wolsey's Greatness. 1525-1527.=--All idea of
continuing the war being now abandoned, Wolsey cautiously
negotiated for an alliance with France, and in the autumn of
=1525= peace was signed between France and England. In February
=1526= Charles set Francis at liberty on his promising to abandon to
him large tracts of French territory. As soon as he was out of Spain
Francis declared that, without the consent of his subjects, such
promises were not binding on him. An Italian league, jealous of
Charles's power, gathered round the Pope, Clement VII., to oppose
him. In May =1527= the exiled Duke of Bourbon, who was now one of
Charles's generals, took Rome by assault. He was himself slain as he
mounted the wall, but his followers took prisoner the Pope, and
sacked Rome with horrible barbarity. Wolsey was too worldly-minded
to be shocked at the Pope's misfortunes; but he had much to fear
from the enormous extension of the Emperor's power. For some weeks
he had been negotiating a close alliance with France on the basis of
a marriage between Henry's only surviving child, Mary, and the
worn-out voluptuary Francis. Suddenly the scheme was changed to a
proposal for a marriage between Mary, who was ten years old, and the
second son of Francis, who was but six. The bargain was concluded,
and for a time there was some thought of carrying it out. At all
events when the news of the sack of Rome arrived, England and France
were already in close alliance. Wolsey's position was, to all
outward appearance, secure.
CHAPTER XXV
THE BREACH WITH THE PAPACY. 1527-1534
LEADING DATES
Reign of Henry VIII., 1509-1547
Henry seeks for a divorce 1527
His suit before a Legatine Court 1529
Fall of Wolsey 1529
The clergy acknowledge Henry to be Supreme Head of the
Church of England 1531
The first Act of Annates 1532
The king's marriage to Anne Boleyn and the Act of
Appeals 1533
Cranmer's sentence of divorce 1533
The final separation from Rome 1534
1. =The Papacy and the Renascence.=--The Renascence alone could not
make the world better, and in many respects it made it worse. The
respect which it paid to humanity, which was its leading
characteristic, allied itself in More with a reverence for God,
which led him to strive to mellow the religious teaching of the
Middle Ages, by fitting it for the needs of the existing world. Too
many threw off all religious restraints, and made it their first
thought to seek their own enjoyment, or the triumphs of their own
intellectual skill. Sensual delights were pursued with less brutal
directness, but became more seductive and more truly debasing by the
splendour and gracefulness of the life of which they formed a part.
In Italy the Popes swam with the current. Alexander VI.
(=1492-1503=) gave himself up to the most degrading vices. Julius
II. (=1503-1513=) was a passionate warrior struggling for the
extension of his temporal possessions. Leo X. (=1513-1521=) was a
polished lover of art, perfectly indifferent to religious duty. "Let
us enjoy the Papacy," he said when he was elected, "since God has
given it to us." Amidst the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life, the Popes became as other Italian princes, no
better and no worse. Spiritual guidance was no longer to be expected
of them.
2. =Wolsey and the Papacy.=--By Wolsey and his master the Papacy was
respected as a venerable and useful institution, the centre of a
religious organisation which they believed to be of divine origin,
though when it came in conflict with their own projects they were
quite ready to thwart it. In =1521= Leo X. died, and Wolsey, having
some hopes of being himself elected, asked Charles V. to send troops
to compel the cardinals to choose him, promising to pay the expenses
of the armament. Charles, though, in the previous year, he had
offered to support Wolsey's candidature at the next vacancy, now
deserted him, and the new Pope was Adrian VI., who in =1523= was
succeeded by Clement VII. (see p. 374).
[Illustration: Portrait of William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury,
1503-1532 showing the ordinary episcopal dress, with the mitre and
archiepiscopal cross: from a painting belonging to Viscount Dillon,
dated 1527.]
3. =Wolsey's Legatine Powers.=--It is unlikely that Wolsey was much
disappointed. His chief sphere of action was England, where since
=1518= he had held unwonted authority, as in that year he had been
appointed Legate _a latere_[1] by Leo X. at Henry's request, and the
powers of a Legate _a latere_ were superior even to those of Warham,
the Archbishop of Canterbury. Wolsey was therefore clothed with all
the authority of king and Pope combined. His own life was, indeed,
like those of many churchmen in his day, very far from the ideal of
Christianity; but for all that he had that respect for religious
order which often lingers in the hearts of men who break away from
the precepts of religion, and he was too great a statesman to be
blind to the danger impending over the Church. The old order was
changing, and Wolsey was as anxious as More, though from more
worldly motives, that the change should be effected without
violence. He knew that the Church was wealthy, and that wealth
tempted plunderers, and he also knew that, with some bright
exceptions, the clergy were ignorant, and even when not absolutely
dissolute were remiss and easy-going in their lives. He was,
therefore, anxious to make them more worthy of respect, and, with
the consent of king and Pope, he began in =1524= to dissolve several
small monasteries, and to apply their revenues to two great
colleges, the one founded by him at Oxford and the other at Ipswich.
He hoped that without any change of doctrine or organisation the
Church would gradually be purified by improved education, and would
thus once more command the respect of the laity.
[Footnote 1: _i.e._ a Legate sent from the Pope's side, and
therefore having power to speak almost with full Papal authority.]
4. =Henry VIII. and the Clergy.=--With Wolsey's object Henry, being
himself well educated and well read, fully sympathised. For many
years there had been a tacit understanding between the king and the
Pope, and now that both the king and the Pope supported Wolsey's
action there seemed to be less danger than ever of any disturbance
of the friendly relations between Church and State. Yet though Henry
was on good terms with the Pope, he had made up his mind that
whenever there was a conflict of jurisdiction in ecclesiastical
matters his own will, and not that of the clergy, was to be
predominant. As early as in =1515=, when a question of this kind was
moved, Wolsey asked on behalf of the clergy that it might be
referred to the Pope. "We," said Henry proudly, "are by God's grace
king of England, and have no superior but God; we will maintain the
rights of the crown like our predecessors; your decrees you break
and interpret at your pleasure, but we will not consent to your
interpretation of them any more than our predecessors have done."
Henry VIII., in short, took up the position which Henry II. had
assumed towards the clergy of his day, and he was far more powerful
to give effect to his views than Henry II. had ever been. Such an
act of self-assertion would probably have caused a breach with the
great Popes of the middle ages, such as Gregory VII. or Innocent
III. Leo X. was far too much a man of the world to trouble himself
about such matters.
[Illustration: Tower of Fountains Abbey church; built by Abbot Huby.
1494-1526.]
5. =German Lutheranism.=--Before many years had passed the
beginnings of a great religious revolution which appeared in Germany
served to bind Henry and Leo more closely together. Martin Luther, a
Saxon friar, had been disgusted by the proceedings of a hawker of
indulgences, who extracted small sums from the ignorant by the sale
of the remission of the pains of purgatory. What gave world-wide
importance to Luther's resistance was that he was not only an
eloquent preacher of morality, but the convinced maintainer of a
doctrine which, though not a new one, had long been laid aside. He
preached justification by faith, and the acceptance of his teaching
implied even more than the acceptance of a new doctrine. For
centuries it had been understood that each Christian held
intercourse with God through the sacraments and ordinances of the
Church. His individuality was, as it were, swallowed up in the vast
community to which he belonged. Luther taught each of his hearers
that the important thing was his faith, that is to say his immediate
personal relation with God, and that the intervention of human
beings might, indeed, be helpful to him, but could be no more. Such
a doctrine touched all human activity. The man who in religion
counted his own individual faith as the one thing necessary was
likely to count his own individual convictions in social or
political matters as worth more to him than his obedience to the
authority of any government. In Luther's teaching was to be found
the spirit of political as well as of religious liberty. This side
of it, however, was not likely to reveal itself at once. After a
time Luther shook off entirely the claims of the Papacy upon his
obedience, but he magnified the duty of obeying the princes who gave
him their support in his struggle with the Pope.
6. =Henry's Controversy with Luther.=--Luther, when once he was
engaged in controversy with the Papacy, assailed other doctrines
than those relating to justification. In =1521= Henry, vain of his
theological learning, wrote a book against him in defence of the
seven sacraments. Luther, despising a royal antagonist, replied with
scurrilous invective. Pope Leo was delighted to have found so
influential a champion, and conferred on Henry the title of Defender
of the Faith. If Henry had not been moved by stronger motives than
controversial vanity he might have remained the Pope's ally till the
end of his life.
[Illustration: Catharine of Aragon: from a painting in the National
Portrait Gallery.]
7. =Queen Catharine and Anne Boleyn.=--It was a great disappointment
to Henry that he had no surviving male children. England had never
been ruled by a queen, and it was uncertain whether Henry's
daughter, Mary, would be allowed to reign. Henry had already begun
to ask himself whether he might not get rid of his wife, on the plea
that a marriage with his brother's wife was unlawful, and this
consideration had the greater weight with him because Catharine was
five years older than himself and was growing distasteful to him.
When in =1521=, in his book against Luther, he assigned a divine
origin to the Papacy, he told More of a secret reason for this
exaltation of the Pope's power, and it is possible that this reason
was his desire to obtain from the Pope a divorce under the pretext
that it would secure a peaceful succession. At all events his
scruples regarding his marriage with Catharine were quickened in
=1522= by the appearance at court of Anne Boleyn, a sprightly
black-eyed flirt in her sixteenth year, who took his fancy as she
grew into womanhood. Flirt as she was, she knew her power, and
refused to give herself to him except in marriage. The king, on his
part, being anxious for a legitimate son, set his heart on a divorce
which would enable him to marry Anne. Wolsey, knowing the obstacles
in the way, urged him to abandon the project; but it was never
possible to turn Henry from his course, and Wolsey set himself, in
this as in all things else, to carry out his master's wishes, though
he did so very reluctantly. Moral scruples had little weight with
Wolsey, but in =1525=, when he learnt the king's design, there were
strong political reasons against its execution, as England was in
alliance with Catharine's nephew, the Emperor, Charles V., and a
divorce would be certain to endanger the alliance.
[Illustration: The Gatehouse of Coughton Court, Warwickshire; built
about 1530.]
8. =Henry's Demand for a Divorce. 1527-1528.=--Two years later, in
=1527=, as Henry was veering round towards a French alliance (see p.
374), he had no longer much reason to consider the feelings of the
Emperor. On the other hand, the strong position which Charles
occupied in Italy after the sack of Rome made it improbable that
Clement VII. who was then Pope, and who thought more of his
political than of his ecclesiastical position, would do anything to
thwart the Emperor. An attempt made by Henry in =1527= to draw
Clement to consent to the divorce failed, and in =1528= Wolsey sent
to Rome his secretary, Stephen Gardiner, an adroit man of business,
to induce Clement to appoint legates to decide the question in
Henry's favour. Clement, anxious to please all parties, appointed
Wolsey and another cardinal, Campeggio, as his legates, but took
care to add that nothing done by them should be valid until it had
received his own approval.
9. =The Legatine Court. 1529.=--The court of the two legates was
opened at Blackfriars in =1529=. Before proceeding to business they
tried hard to induce either Henry to abstain from asking for a
divorce or Catharine to abstain from resisting his demand. In such a
matter Catharine was as firm as the self-willed Henry. Even if she
could consent to leave the throne, she could not, if she retained
any sense of womanly dignity, acknowledge that she had never been a
wife to Henry, or suffer her daughter to be branded with
illegitimacy. When king and queen were at last cited to appear
Catharine knelt before her husband. She had, she said been his true
and obedient wife for twenty years, and had done nothing to deserve
being put to open shame. As it was, she appealed to Rome. The
queen's cause was popular with the masses, who went straight to the
mark, and saw in the whole affair a mere attempt to give a legal
covering to Henry's lust. The legates refused to consider the
queen's appeal, but when they came to hear arguments on the merits
of the case they were somewhat startled by the appearance of the
aged Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, one of the holiest and most
learned prelates of the day, who now came voluntarily, though he
knew that Henry's wrath was deadly, to support the cause of
Catharine. Campeggio took advantage of the strong feeling which was
growing against the king to interpose delays which he knew to be
well-pleasing to Clement, and before these delays were at an end
Clement annulled all the proceedings in England and revoked the
cause to Rome. Most probably he was alarmed at the threats of the
Emperor, but he had also reasons of his own for the course which he
took. Henry did not ask for a divorce on any of the usual grounds,
but for a declaration that his marriage had been null from the
beginning. As, however, his marriage had been solemnised with a
Papal dispensation, Clement was asked to set aside the dispensation
of one of his predecessors, a proceeding to which no Pope with any
respect for his office could reasonably be expected to consent.
10. =The Fall of Wolsey. 1529-1530.=--Henry was very angry and made
Wolsey his victim. Wolsey's active endeavours to procure the divorce
counted as nothing. It was enough that he had failed. He was no
longer needed to conduct foreign affairs, as Henry cared now only
for the divorce, and raised no objection when Charles and Francis
made peace at Cambrai without consulting his interests. The old
nobility, headed by the Duke of Norfolk, the son of the victor of
Flodden, had long hated Wolsey bitterly, and the profligate
courtiers, together with the friends and relatives of Anne, hated
him no less bitterly now. Before the end of the year proceedings
under the Statute of Præmunire (see pp. 258, 382) were taken against
him on the ground that he had usurped legatine powers. It was
notorious that he had exercised them at the king's wish, and he
could have produced evidence to show that this had been the case. In
those days, however, it was held to be a subject's duty not to
contest the king's will, and Wolsey contented himself with an abject
supplication for forgiveness. He was driven from his offices, and
all his goods and estates seized. The college which he had founded
at Ipswich was sold for the king's use, and his college at Oxford,
then known as Cardinal College, was also seized, though it was
afterwards refounded under the name of Christchurch by the robber
king. Wolsey was reduced to extreme poverty. In =1530= he was
allowed to return to the possession of the archbishopric of York;
but he imprudently opened communications with the French ambassador,
and harmless as they were, they gave a handle to his enemies. Henry
ordered him to be charged with treason. The sufferings of his mind
affected his body, and on his way to London he knew that he was a
dying man. "Father Abbot," he said, in taking shelter in Leicester
Abbey, "I am come hither to leave my bones among you." "If I had
served my God," he acknowledged as he was passing away, "as
diligently as I have done my king, He would not have given me over
in my grey hairs."
[Illustration: Hall of Christchurch, Oxford; built by Cardinal
Wolsey, and finished in 1529.]
11. =The House of Commons and the Clergy. 1529.=--No king ever felt
the importance of popularity like Henry, and the compassion which
had been freely given to Catharine by the crowd, on her appearance
in the Legatine Court, made it necessary for him to find support
elsewhere. It had been Wolsey's policy to summon Parliament as
seldom as possible. It was to be Henry's policy to summon it as
frequently as possible. He no longer feared the House of Lords, and
either he or Wolsey's late servant, Thomas Cromwell, an able and
unscrupulous man, who rose rapidly in Henry's favour, perceived the
use which might be made of the House of Commons. By his influence
the king could carry the elections as he pleased, and when
Parliament met in =1529= it contained a packed House of Commons
ready to do the king's bidding. The members were either lawyers or
country gentlemen, the main supports of the Tudor monarchy, and
Henry strengthened his hold upon them by letting them loose on the
special abuses which had grown up in the ecclesiastical courts.
Lawyers and country gentlemen were very much what they had been in
the fifteenth century, without large political ideas or fine
spiritual perceptions; but now that they were relieved of the
oppression of the great nobles they turned upon the clergy, who
claimed fees and dues which they disliked paying, and who used the
powers of the ecclesiastical tribunals to exact heavy payments for
moral and spiritual offences.
12. =The Universities Consulted. 1530.=--Henry had as yet no thought
of breaking with the Pope. He wanted to put pressure on him to make
him do what he had come to regard as right. In =1530= he sent to the
universities of Europe to ask their opinion on the question whether
a marriage with a brother's widow was contrary to the law of God.
The whole inquiry was a farce. Wherever Henry or his allies could
bribe or bully the learned doctors, an answer was usually given in
the affirmative. Wherever the Emperor could bribe or bully, then the
answer was usually given in the negative. That the experiment should
have been tried, however, was a proof of the strength of the spirit
of the Renascence. A question of morals which the Pope hesitated to
decide was submitted to the learning of the learned.
13. =The Clergy under a Præmunire. 1530-1531.=--Towards the end of
=1530= Henry charged the whole clergy of England with a breach of
the Statute of Præmunire by their submission to Wolsey's legatine
authority. A more monstrous charge was never brought, as when that
authority was exercised not a priest in England dared to offend the
king by resisting it. When the Convocation of Canterbury met in
=1531=, it offered to buy the pardon of the clergy by a grant of
100,000_l._, to which was afterwards added 18,000_l._ by the
Convocation of York. Henry refused to issue the pardon unless the
clergy would acknowledge him to be supreme head of the Church of
England.
14. =The King's Supreme Headship acknowledged by the Clergy.
1531.=--The title demanded by Henry was conceded by the clergy, with
the qualification that he was Supreme Head of the English Church and
clergy so far as was allowed by the law of Christ. The title thus
given was vague, and did not bar the acknowledgment of the Papal
authority as it had been before exercised, but its interpretation
would depend on the will of the stronger of the two parties. As far
as the Pope was concerned, Henry's claim was no direct invasion of
his rights. The Pope had exercised authority and jurisdiction in
England, but he had never declared himself to be Supreme Head of the
Church either in England or anywhere else. Henry indeed alleged that
he asked for nothing new. He merely wanted to be known as the
supreme authority in the relations between the clergy and the laity.
Nevertheless it was a threat to the Pope, who might well fear lest
the clergy, after giving way to the assumption of a title which
implied authority over themselves, might give way to the widening of
that same authority over matters on which the Pope's claims had
hitherto been undoubted.
15. =The Submission of the Clergy. 1532.=--Everything done by Henry
at this crisis was done with a view to the securing of his purposed
divorce. In the Parliament which sat in =1532= the Commons were
again let loose upon the clergy, and Henry, taking their side,
forced Convocation[2] to sign a document known as the submission of
the clergy. In this the clergy engaged in the first place neither to
meet in Convocation nor to enact or execute new canons without the
king's authority, and, secondly, to submit all past ecclesiastical
legislation to examination with a view to the removal of everything
prejudicial to the royal prerogative. The second article was never
carried into effect, as the first was enough for Henry. He was now
secure against any attempt of the clergy in Convocation to protest
against any step that he might take about the divorce, and he was
none the less pleased because he had incidentally settled the
question of the relations between the clerical legislature and the
Crown.
[Footnote 2: There were two Convocations, of the two provinces of
Canterbury and York, but the former was so much more important that
it is usually spoken of simply as Convocation.]
[Illustration: Sir Thomas More, wearing the collar of SS: from an
original portrait painted by Holbein in 1527, belonging to Edward
Huth, Esq.]
16. =Sir Thomas More and the Protestants. 1529-1532.=--The
submission of the clergy cost Henry the services of the best and
wisest of his statesmen. Sir Thomas More had been appointed
Chancellor on Wolsey's fall in =1529=. When More wrote the _Utopia_,
Luther had not yet broken away from the Papacy, and the tolerant
principles of the author of that book had not been put to the test.
Even in the _Utopia_ More had confined his tolerance to those who
argued in opposition to the received religion without anger or
spite, and when he came to be in office he learnt by practical
experience that opposition is seldom carried on in the spirit of
meekness. Protestantism, as the Lutheran tenets began to be called
in =1529=, spread into England, though as yet it gained a hold only
on a few scattered individuals. Here and there thoughtful men,
dissatisfied with the teaching given to them and with the lives of
many of their teachers, embraced the Lutheran doctrine of
justification by faith. Even the best of them could hardly be
expected to treat with philosophic calm the doctrines which they had
forsaken; whilst some of their converts took a pleasure in reviling
the clergy and the common creed of the vast majority of Englishmen.
With many again the doctrine of justification by faith slipped into
the condemnation of the merit of good works, and even into a light
estimation of good works themselves. For this bitterness of speech
and mind More had no tolerance, and while he pursued his antagonists
with argument and ridicule, he also used his authority to support
the clergy in putting down what they termed heresy by the process of
burning the obstinate heretic.
17. =Resignation of Sir Thomas More. 1532.=--More had no ground for
fearing that the increase of the king's authority over the clergy
would at once encourage revolt against the Church. Henry was a
representative Englishman, and neither he nor the House of Commons
had the least sympathy with heresy. They wanted to believe and act
as their fathers had done. More, however, was sufficiently prescient
to foresee that a lay authority could not for ever maintain this
attitude. Laymen were certain to be moved by the current of thought
which prevailed in their age, and it was only, he believed, the
great Papal organisation which could keep them steady. Though Henry
had not yet directly attacked that organisation, he might be
expected to attack it soon, and, in =1532=, More retired from all
connection with Henry's government rather than take part in that
attack.
18. =The First Act of Annates. 1532.=--Having secured himself, as it
were, in the rear by the submission of the clergy, Henry proceeded
to deal with the Pope. He still wished if possible to win him to his
side, and before the end of =1532= he obtained from Parliament an
Act of Annates. Annates were the first-fruits or first year's income
of ecclesiastical benefices, and by this Act the first-fruits of
bishoprics, which had hitherto been paid to the Pope, were to be
kept back. The Act was not, however, to come into force till the
king had ratified it, and Henry refused for a time to ratify it
hoping to reduce Clement to submission by suspending over his head a
threat upon his purse.
19. =The King's Marriage and the Act of Appeals. 1533.=--Henry,
however, found that Clement was not to be moved, and his patience
coming at last to an end, he was secretly married to Anne Boleyn on
January 25, =1533=. Now that he had reluctantly given up hope of
obtaining a favourable decision from the Pope, he resolved to put an
end to the Papal jurisdiction in England. Otherwise if he obtained a
sentence in an English ecclesiastical court declaring his marriage
with Catharine to be null from the beginning, his injured wife might
appeal to the superior court of the Pope. He accordingly obtained
from Parliament the Act of Appeals, declaring that the king held the
supreme authority in England, and that as under him all temporal
matters were to be decided by temporal judges, and all spiritual
matters by spiritual judges, no appeals should hereafter be suffered
to any authority outside the realm. Henry was capable of any
meanness to serve his ends, but he also knew how to gain more than
his immediate ends by connecting them with a large national policy.
He almost made men forget the low design which prompted the Act of
Appeals by fixing their eyes on the great object of national
independence.
20. =Archbishop Cranmer and the Court at Dunstable. 1533.=--Henry
found a convenient instrument for his personal as well as for his
national policy in Thomas Cranmer, whom he appointed Archbishop of
Canterbury in the spring of =1533=. Cranmer was intellectually
acute, and took a worthy part in the further development of the
English Church; but he was morally weak, and inclined to carry out
orders whatever they might be, especially if they came from a king
as strong-willed as Henry. He had already thrown himself as an
active agent into the cause of Henry's divorce, and he was now
prepared as archbishop to give effect to his arguments. In March
Convocation was half persuaded, half driven to declare Catharine's
marriage to be void, and in May Cranmer, sitting at Dunstable in his
archiepiscopal court, pronounced sentence against her. In accordance
with the Act of Appeals the sentence was final, but both Henry and
Cranmer feared lest Catharine should send her counsel to make an
appeal to Rome, and they were therefore mean enough to conceal from
her the day on which sentence was to be given. The temporal benefits
which the Pope derived from England were now to come to an end as
well as his spiritual jurisdiction, and in July the king ratified
the Act of Annates.
21. =Frith and Latimer. 1533.=--When a man of special intellectual
acquirements like Cranmer could descend to the trick which he had
played at Dunstable, it was time that some one should be found who,
in the steadfastness of his faith, would refuse to truckle to the
king, and would maintain the rights of individual conscience as well
as those of national independence. The teaching of Zwingli, a Swiss
reformer, who held that the bread and wine in the Sacrament of the
Lord's Supper was a mere sign of the Body and Blood of the Redeemer,
was beginning to influence the English Protestants, and its
reception was one more reason for the mass of Englishmen to send to
prison or the stake those who maintained what was, in their eyes, so
monstrous a heresy. Amongst the noblest of the persecuted was John
Frith, who whilst he stoutly held to the belief that the doctrine of
transubstantiation was untrue, begged that men should be left 'to
think thereon as God shall instil in any man's mind, and that
neither part condemn other for this matter, but receive each other
in brotherly love, reserving each other's infirmity to God.' Frith
was in advance of his time as the advocate of religious liberty as
well as of a special creed, and he was burnt alive. Henry meant it
to be understood that his supreme headship made it easier, and not
harder, to suppress heresy. He might have succeeded if he had had
merely to deal with a few heroes like Frith. That which was beyond
his control was the sapping process of the spirit of the Renascence,
leading his bishops, and even himself, to examine and explain
received doctrines, and thus to transform them without knowing what
they were doing. Hugh Latimer, for instance, a favourite chaplain of
the king, was, indeed, a preacher of righteousness, testing all
things rather by their moral worth than by their conformity to an
intellectual standard. The received doctrines about Purgatory, the
worship of the saints, and pilgrimages to their images seemed to him
to be immoral; but as yet he wished to purify opinion, not to change
it altogether, and in this he had the support of the king, who, in
=1535=, made him Bishop of Worcester.
22. =Completion of the Breach with Rome. 1533-1534.=--Before =1533=
was over Henry appealed from the Pope to a General Council. Clement
not only paid no heed to his appeal, but gave sentence in favour of
Catharine. When Parliament met in =1534=, therefore, Henry was
obliged to strengthen his position of hostility to the Pope. He
procured from it three Acts. The first of these was a second Act of
Annates, which conferred on him absolutely not only the
first-fruits of bishoprics which had been the subject of the
conditional Act of Annates in =1532= (see p. 388), but also the
first-fruits of all the beneficed clergy, as well as a tenth of each
year's income of both bishops and beneficed clergy, all of which
payments had been hitherto made to the Pope. Incidentally this Act
also regulated the appointment of bishops, by ordering that the king
should issue a _congé d'élire_ to the chapter of the vacant see,
together with a letter missive compelling the choice of his nominee.
The second was an Act concerning Peter's pence, abolishing all minor
payments to the Pope, and cutting away all interference of the Pope
by transferring his right to issue licences and dispensations to the
Archbishop of Canterbury. The third confirmed the submission of the
clergy and enacted that appeals from the courts of the Archbishop
should be heard by commissioners appointed by the King, and known as
the delegates of Appeals. It was by these Acts that the separation
between the Churches of England and Rome was finally effected. They
merely completed the work which had been done by the great Act of
Appeals in =1533=. The Church of England had indeed always been a
national Church with its own ecclesiastical assemblies, and with
ties to the Crown which were stretched more tightly or more loosely
at various times. It had, however, maintained its connection with
the Continental Churches by its subordination to the Pope, and this
subordination had been made real by the subjection of its courts to
appeals to Rome, and by the necessity of recurring to Rome for
permission to do certain things prohibited by English ecclesiastical
law. All this was now at an end. The old supremacy of the king was
sharpened and defined. The jurisdiction of the Pope was abolished.
Nominally the English ecclesiastical authorities became more
independent; more capable of doing what seemed to them to be best
for the Church of the nation. Such at least was the state of the
law. In practice the English ecclesiastical authorities were
entirely at Henry's bidding. In theory and in sentiment the Church
of England was still a branch of the Catholic Church, one in
doctrine and in discipline with the Continental Churches.
Practically it was now, in a far more unqualified sense than before,
a national Church, ready to drift from its moorings and to accept
new counsels whenever the tide of opinion should break strongly
upon it.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE ROYAL SUPREMACY. 1534-1547
LEADING DATES
Reign of Henry VIII., 1509-1547
The Acts of Succession and Supremacy 1534
Execution of Fisher and More 1535
Dissolution of the smaller monasteries and the Pilgrimage
of Grace 1536
Destruction of relics and images 1538
The Six Articles and the Act granting to the king the
greater monasteries 1539
Fall of Cromwell 1540
Henry VIII. king of Ireland 1541
Solway Moss 1542
Death of Henry VIII. 1547
1. =The Act of Succession. 1534.=--In September =1533= Anne had
given birth to a daughter, who was afterwards Queen Elizabeth. In
=1534= Parliament passed an Act of Succession. Not only did it
declare Anne's marriage to be lawful and Catharine's unlawful, and
consequently Elizabeth and not Mary to be heir to the crown, but it
required all subjects to take an oath acknowledging their approval
of the contents of the Act. More and Fisher professed themselves
ready to swear to any succession which might be authorised by Act of
Parliament; but they would not swear to the illegality of
Catharine's marriage. It was on this point that Henry was most
sensitive, as he knew public opinion to be against him, and he threw
both More and Fisher into the Tower. In the year before the language
held in the pulpit on the subject of Henry's marriage with Anne in
his wife's lifetime had been so strong that Cranmer had forbidden
all preaching on the subject of the king's laws or the succession to
the throne. Of the clergy, the friars were still the most resolute.
Henry now sent commissioners to visit the friaries, and those in
which the oath was refused were summarily suppressed.
2. =The Acts of Treason and Supremacy. 1534.=--In =1534= Parliament
also passed a new Act of Treasons which made it high treason to wish
or practise harm to the king, the queen, and their heirs, to use
words denying their titles, or to call the king a 'heretic,
schismatic, tyrant, infidel, or usurper of the crown.' Later in the
same year, but in a fresh session, Parliament passed the Act of
Supremacy, which confirmed the title of Supreme Head on earth of the
Church of England, a title very similar to that to which the king
had obtained the qualified assent of the clergy in =1531= (see p.
386). From that time anyone who denied the king to be the Supreme
Head of the Church of England was liable to a traitor's death.
[Illustration: John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, 1504-1535; from a
drawing by Holbein in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle.]
3. =The Monks of the Charterhouse. 1534.=--It can hardly be doubted
that Henry's chief adviser in these tyrannical measures was the able
and unscrupulous Cromwell. It was Cromwell's plan to exalt the royal
authority into a despotism by means of a subservient Parliament. He
was already Henry's secretary; and in =1535= was appointed the
king's Vicar-General in ecclesiastical matters. He was quite ready
to push the Acts of Parliament which had recently been passed to
their extreme consequences. His first object was to get rid of the
Friars Observant, who had shown themselves most hostile to what they
called in plainness of speech the king's adultery. All their houses
were suppressed, and some of the inmates put to death. Then Cromwell
fell on the London Charterhouse,[3] the inmates of which had been
imprisoned in the year before simply for a refusal to take the oath
of the Act of Succession, though they had not uttered a word against
the king's proceedings. They could now be put to death under the new
Treason Act, for denying the king's supremacy, and many of them were
accordingly executed after the usual barbarous fashion, whilst
others perished of starvation or of diseases contracted in the
filthy prisons in which they were confined. "I profess," said the
Prior, Houghton, "that it is not out of obstinate malice or a mind
of rebellion that I do disobey the king, but only for the fear of
God, that I offend not the Supreme Majesty; because our Holy Mother
the Church hath decreed and appointed otherwise than the king and
Parliament hath ordained." Houghton and his fellows were as truly
martyrs as Frith had been. They at least had sown no seeds of
rebellion, and they died because a tyrannical king insisted on
ruling over consciences as well as over bodily acts.
[Footnote 3: The Charterhouse here means the house of the
Carthusians.]
4. =Execution of Fisher and More. 1535.=--Fisher and More were the
next to suffer on the same charge, though their sentences were
commuted to death by beheading. More preserved his wit to the last.
"I pray you," he said as he mounted the scaffold, "see me safe up,
and for my coming down I will shift for myself." After he had knelt
to place his head on the block, he raised it again to move his beard
aside. "Pity," he muttered, "that should be cut that has not
committed treason."
5. =The Dissolution of the Smaller Monasteries. 1536.=--Money never
came amiss to Henry, and Cromwell now rooted himself firmly in his
master's favour by pointing out to him fresh booty. The English
monasteries were rich and weak, and it was easy to trump up or
exaggerate charges against them. Cromwell sent commissioners to
inquire into their moral state (=1535=), and the commissioners, who
were as unscrupulous as himself, rushed round the monasteries in
such a hurry that they had no time to make any real inquiry, but
nevertheless returned with a number of scandalous tales. These tales
referred to some of the larger monasteries as well as the smaller,
but, when Parliament met in =1536=, Henry contented himself with
asking that monasteries having property worth less than 200_l._ a
year should be dissolved, and their estates given to himself, on the
ground that whilst the smaller ones were dens of vice the larger
ones were examples of virtue. Parliament granted his request, and
the work of spoliation began. There can be no doubt that vice did
exist in the monasteries, though there was not so much of it as the
commissioners asserted. It would have been indeed strange if
innocence had been preserved in communities living in enforced
celibacy, with no stress of work to occupy their thoughts, and with
the high ideals of their profession neglected or cast aside. On the
other hand, the monks were easy landlords, were hospitable to the
stranger and kindly to the poor, whilst neither the king himself nor
those to whom he gave or sold the lands which he acquired cared for
more than to make money. The real weakness of the monks lay in
their failure to conciliate the more active minds of the age, or to
meet its moral needs. The attack upon the vast edifice of Henry's
despotism in Church and State could only be carried on successfully
by the combined effort of men like the scholars of the Renascence,
whose thoughts were unfettered, and of those who, like the
Protestants, were full of aggressive vigour, and who substituted for
the duty of obedience the duty of following their own convictions.
[Illustration: Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, brother of Jane
Seymour, afterwards Duke of Somerset, known as 'the Protector', at
the age of 28 (1535), 1507-1552: from a painting at Sudeley Castle.]
6. =The Execution of Anne Boleyn. 1536.=--Before the end of =1536=
there was a new queen. Henry became tired of Anne, as he had been
tired of Catharine, and on a series of monstrous charges, so
monstrous as to be hardly credible, he had her tried and executed.
Her unpardonable crime was probably that her only living child was a
daughter, and not a son. Ten days after Anne's death Henry married a
third wife, Jane Seymour. As Catharine was now dead, there could be
no doubt of the legitimacy of Jane's offspring, but to make
assurance doubly sure, a new Parliament passed an Act settling the
succession on Jane's children, and declaring both Mary and Elizabeth
illegitimate.
7. =The Ten Articles. 1536.=--It is probable that when Henry took
the title of Supreme Head he intended to maintain the doctrines and
practices of the Church exactly as he found them. In =1536= the
clergy were crying out not merely against attacks on their faith,
but against the ribaldry with which these attacks were often
conducted. One assailant, for instance, declared the oil used in
extreme unction to be no more than the Bishop of Rome's grease or
butter, and another that it was of no more use to invoke a saint
than it was to whirl a stone against the wind. Many of the clergy
would have been well pleased with mere repression. Henry, however,
and the bishops whom he most trusted wished repression to be
accompanied with reasonable explanations of the doctrines and
practices enforced. The result was seen in the Ten Articles which
were drawn up by Convocation, and sent abroad with the authority of
the king. There was to be uniformity, to be obtained by the
circulation of a written document, in which the old doctrines were
stripped of much that had given offence, and their acceptance made
easy for educated men. Of the seven sacraments, three only, Baptism,
Penance, and the Sacrament of the Altar, were explained, whilst the
other four--those of Marriage, Orders, Confirmation, and Extreme
Unction--were passed over in silence. On the whole the Ten Articles
in some points showed a distinct advance in the direction of
Lutheranism, though there was also to be discerned in them an
equally distinct effort to explain rather than to reject the creed
of the mediæval Church.
8. =The Translation of the Bible authorised. 1536.=--The same
tendency to appeal to educated intelligence showed itself in the
sanction given by the king and Cromwell in =1536= to a translation
of the Bible which had been completed in =1535= by Miles Coverdale,
whose version of the New Testament was founded on an earlier one by
Tyndale. It is probable that Henry, in authorising the circulation
of this version, thought of the support which he might derive from
the silence of the Bible on the Papal claims. The circulation of the
Bible was, however, likely to work in a direction very different
from that of the Ten Articles. The Ten Articles were intended to
promote unity of belief. The Bible, once placed in the hands of
everyone who could read, was likely to promote diversity. It would
be the storehouse in which Lutherans, Zwinglians, and every
divergent sect would find weapons to support their own special
ideas. It would help on the growth of those individual opinions
which were springing up side by side with the steady forward
progress of the clergy of the Renascence. The men who attempted to
make the old creed intellectually acceptable and the men who
proclaimed a new one, under the belief that they were recurring to
one still older, were together laying the foundations of English
Protestantism.
9. =The Pilgrimage of Grace. 1536-1537.=--Slight as these changes
were, they were sufficient to rouse suspicion that further change
was impending. The masses who could neither read nor write were
stirred by the greed and violence with which the dissolution of the
smaller monasteries was carried on, and by the cessation of the
kindly relief which these monasteries had afforded to the wants of
the poor. A rumour spread that when Cromwell had despoiled the
monasteries he would proceed to despoil the parish churches. In the
autumn of =1536= there was a rising in Lincolnshire, which was
easily suppressed, but was followed by a more formidable rising in
Yorkshire. The insurgents, headed by Robert Aske, called it the
Pilgrimage of Grace, and bore a banner embroidered with the five
wounds of Christ. They asked among other things for the restoration
of the monasteries, the punishment of Cromwell and his chief
supporters, the deprivation of the reforming bishops, the
extirpation of heresy, and the restoration of the Papal authority in
a modified form. Their force grew so large that the Duke of Norfolk,
who was sent to disperse it, did not venture to make the attempt,
and the king found himself obliged to issue a general pardon and to
promise that a Parliament should meet in the North for the redress
of grievances. On this the insurgents returned home. Early in =1537=
Henry, who had no intention of keeping his word, took advantage of
some new troubles in the North to declare that his engagement was no
longer binding, and seized and executed, not merely the leaders, but
many of the lesser supporters of the insurrection. Of the Parliament
in the North nothing more was heard, but a Council of the North was
established to keep the people of those parts in order, and to
execute justice in the king's name.
10. =Birth of a Prince. 1537.=--In =1537= Jane Seymour gave birth to
a boy, who was afterwards Edward VI. Henry had at last a male heir
of undoubted legitimacy, but in a few days his wife died.
11. =The Beginning of the Attack on the Greater Monasteries.
1537-1538.=--The failure of the Pilgrimage of Grace brought in fresh
booty to Henry. Abbots and priors who had taken part in it, or were
accused of doing so, were hanged, and their monasteries confiscated.
Where nothing could be proved against the greater monasteries, which
had been declared by Parliament to be free from vice, their heads
were terrified into an appearance of voluntary submission. Cromwell
had his spies and informers everywhere, and it was as easy for them
to lie as to speak the truth. In =1537= and =1538= many abbots bowed
before the storm, and, confessing that they and their monks had been
guilty of the most degrading sins, asked to be allowed to surrender
their monasteries to the king. Cromwell's commissioners then took
possession, sold the bells, the lead on the roof, and every article
which had its price, and left the walls to serve as a quarry for
the neighbourhood. The lands went to the king. It not unfrequently
happened that Henry promoted to ecclesiastical benefices those monks
who had been most ready to confess themselves sinners beyond other
men. There is no doubt that the confessions were prepared beforehand
to deceive contemporaries, and there is therefore no reason why they
should deceive posterity.
12. =Destruction of Relics and Images. 1538.=--The attack on the
monasteries was accompanied by an attack on relics and such images
as attracted more than ordinary reverence. The explanation of the
zeal with which they were hunted down is in many cases to be found
in the gold and jewels with which they were adorned. Some of them
were credited with miraculous powers. The figure of the Saviour on
the rood at Boxley, in Kent, moved its head and eyes. A phial at
Hales, in Worcestershire, contained a substance which had been
brought from Germany in the thirteenth century, and was said to be
the blood of the Saviour. Pilgrims thronged in numbers to adore, and
their offerings brought in no small profit to the monks who owned
such treasures. What was fondly believed by the common people was
derided by critical spirits, and Henry was well pleased to destroy
all reverence for anything which brought credit to the monks. The
rood of Boxley was exhibited in London, where the Bishop of
Rochester pulled the wires which caused its motions, and the blood
in the phial of Hales was declared to be no more than a coloured
gum. An ancient wooden figure, worshipped in Wales under the name of
Darvel Gathern, served to make a fire which burned Friar Forest, who
maintained that in spiritual things obedience was due to the Pope
and not to the king. Instead of hanging him under the Treason Act
(see p. 392) Henry had him burnt as a heretic. It was the first and
only time when the denial of the royal supremacy was held to be
heresy. When war was made against superstition, the shrine of St.
Thomas of Canterbury could hardly be allowed to escape. Thomas was a
saint who had bearded a king, and his shrine, which had attracted
such crowds of pilgrims that the marks which they left as they
shuffled forward on their knees towards it are still to be seen on
the stone floor, was smashed, and the bones of the saint burnt.
Shrines were usually covered with gold and jewels, and all shrines
shared the fate of that of St. Thomas.[4] The images in parish
churches, not being attractive to the covetous, and being valued by
the people for ordinary purposes of devotion, were still left
untouched.
[Footnote 4: Shrines were receptacles above ground of the bodies of
saints. That of Edward the Confessor at Westminster was rebuilt by
queen Mary, and that of St. Alban at St. Albans in recent times.
These two are the only shrines now to be seen in England.]
13. =The Trial of Lambert. 1538.=--Henry's violence against
monasticism and superstition made him extremely anxious to show his
orthodoxy. The opinion held by Zwingli, the reformer of Zürich, that
the Body and Blood of Christ were in no way present in the sacrament
of the Lord's Supper was now spreading in England, and those who
held it were known as Sacramentaries. One of these, John Lambert,
was tried before Henry himself. Henry told Lambert scornfully that
the words of Christ, 'This is My Body,' settled the whole question,
and Lambert was condemned and burnt.
14. =The Marquis of Exeter and the Poles. 1538.=--Amongst the
descendants of the Duke of Clarence was Reginald Pole.[5] He had
been scandalised by the divorce, had left England, had been made a
Cardinal in =1536=, and had poured out a torrent of invective
against the wickedness of Henry. In the end of =1538= Henry, having
been informed that some of Pole's kinsfolk had been muttering
dissatisfaction, sent them to execution together with his own
cousin, the Marquis of Exeter, the son of his mother's sister.
[Footnote 5: Genealogy of the de la Poles and Poles:--
Richard, Duke of York
|
+---------------+--------+------------------------+
| | |
EDWARD IV. Elizabeth = John de la Pole, George, Duke of
| Duke of Suffolk Clarence
| |
+---------------+------+-----------+ |
| | | |
John Edmund Richard Margaret, = Sir R. Pole
de la Pole, de la Pole, de la Pole, Countess |
Earl of Lincoln, Earl of Suffolk, killed at Pavia, of |
killed at Stoke, beheaded 1525 Salisbury |
1487 (see p. 347) 1513 |
Reginald Pole]
15. =The Six Articles. 1539.=--Cruel and unscrupulous as Henry was,
he was in many respects a representative Englishman, sympathising
with the popular disgust at the spread of ideas hitherto unheard of.
In a new Parliament which met in =1539= he obtained the willing
consent of both Houses to the statute of the Six Articles. This
statute declared in favour of: (1) the real presence of 'the natural
Body and Blood of Christ' in the Lord's Supper; (2) the sufficiency
of communion in one kind; (3) clerical celibacy; (4) the perpetual
obligation of vows of chastity; (5) private masses; and (6)
auricular confession. Whoever spoke against the first was to be
burnt; whoever spoke against the other five was to suffer
imprisonment and loss of goods for the first offence, and to be
hanged for the second. By those who suffered from the Act it was
known as 'The Whip with Six Strings.' Cranmer, who was a married
archbishop, was forced to dismiss his wife. Bishops Latimer and
Shaxton, whose opinions had gradually advanced beyond the line at
which Henry's orthodoxy ended, were driven from their sees; but the
number of those put to death under the new Act was not great.
16. =Completion of the Suppression of the Monasteries.
1539-1540.=--So completely was the statute of the Six Articles in
accordance with public opinion, that Henry had no difficulty in
obtaining the consent of Parliament to an Act giving to his
proclamations the force of law, and to another Act securing to him
the whole of the monasteries whether they had been already
suppressed or not. Before the end of =1540= not a single monastery
was left. Three abbots, those of Glastonbury, Colchester, and
Reading, had been hanged the year before after the mere semblance of
a trial. The disappearance of the abbots from the House of Lords
made the lay peers, for the first time, more numerous than the
ecclesiastical members of the House. The lay peers, on the other
hand, were reinforced by new creations from amongst Henry's
favourites, whom he had enriched by grants of abbey lands. The new
peers and the more numerous country gentlemen who had shared in the
spoil were interested in maintaining the independence of the English
Church, lest the Pope, if his jurisdiction were restored, should
insist on their disgorging their prey. Of that which fell into the
hands of the king, a small portion was spent on the foundation of
five new bishoprics, whilst part of the rest was employed on
shipbuilding and the erection of fortifications on the coast, part
in meeting the general expenditure of the Crown.
17. =Anne of Cleves and the Fall of Cromwell. 1539-1540.=--In all
that had been done Cromwell had been the leading spirit. It had been
his plan to erect an absolute despotism, and thereby to secure his
own high position and to enrich himself as well as his master. He
was naturally hated by the old nobility and by all who suffered from
his extortions and cruelty. In the summer of =1539= he was eager for
an alliance with the German Protestants against the Emperor Charles
V., and suggested to Henry a fourth marriage with a German princess,
Anne of Cleves. Holbein, a great German painter settled in England,
was sent to take a portrait of the lady, and Henry was so pleased
with it that he sent for her to make her his wife. When she arrived
he found her anything but good-looking. In =1540= he went through
the marriage ceremony with her, but he divorced her shortly
afterwards. Fortunately for herself, Anne made no objection, and was
allowed to live in England on a good allowance till her death. For a
time Cromwell seemed to be as high as ever in Henry's good opinion,
and was created Earl of Essex. Henry, however, was inwardly annoyed,
and he had always the habit of dropping ministers as soon as their
unpopularity brought discredit on himself. Cromwell was charged with
treason by the Duke of Norfolk. A Bill of attainder[6] was rapidly
passed, and Cromwell was sent to the scaffold without being even
heard in his own defence.
[Footnote 6: A Bill of attainder was brought into one or other of
the Houses of Parliament, and became law, like any other Act of
Parliament, after it had passed both Houses and received the Royal
assent. Its object was condemnation to death, and, as the
legislative powers of Parliament were unlimited, it need not be
supported by the production of evidence, unless Parliament chose to
ask for it. Henry VIII. preferred this mode of getting rid of
ministers with whom he was dissatisfied to the old way of
impeachment; as in an impeachment (see p. 262) there was at least
the semblance of a judicial proceeding, the Commons appearing as
accusers, and the Lords as judges.]
18. =Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr. 1540-1543.=--In =1540=
Henry married a fifth wife, Catherine Howard. Norfolk, who was her
uncle, gained the upper hand at court, and was supported by Gardiner
(see p. 382), now Bishop of Winchester, who was strongly opposed to
all further ecclesiastical innovations. Those who denied the king's
supremacy were sent to the gallows, those who denied the doctrine of
transubstantiation to the stake. In =1541= the old Countess of
Salisbury, the mother of Cardinal Pole, and the daughter of the
brother of Edward IV., was executed in the belief that she had
favoured an abortive conspiracy. Before the end of =1540= Henry
discovered that his young wife had, before her marriage, been guilty
of incontinency, and in =1542= she was beheaded. In =1543= Henry
married a sixth wife, Catherine Parr, who actually survived him.
19. =Ireland. 1534.=--Henry's masterful rule had made him many
enemies abroad as well as at home, and he was therefore constantly
exposed to the risk of an attack from the Continent. In the face of
such danger he could no longer allow Ireland to remain as
disorganised as it had been in his father's reign and in the early
years of his own, lest Ireland should become the stepping-stone to
an invasion of England. In Ireland the Celtic chiefs maintained
their independence, carrying on destructive wars with one another,
both they and their followers being inspired with a high spirit of
tribal patriotism, but without the slightest idea of national union.
The Anglo-Norman lords ruling a Celtic population were quite as
quarrelsome and even more oppressive than the Celtic chiefs, whilst
the inhabitants of the English Pale (see p. 265), ruled over by what
was only in name a civilised government, were subjected alike to the
oppressive exactions of the authorities at Dublin and to the
plundering of the so-called 'Irish enemies,' from whom these
authorities were unable to protect them. The most powerful of the
Anglo-Norman lords was still the Earl of Kildare (see p. 347), who,
whenever he bore the title of Lord Deputy, unblushingly used the
king's name in wreaking vengeance on his private enemies.
20. =The Geraldine Rebellion. 1534-1535.=--In =1534= Henry summoned
Kildare to England and threw him into the Tower. On a rumour of
Kildare's death his son, Lord Thomas Fitzgerald--Silken Thomas, as
he was called in Ireland--rose against the king. The Geraldines, as
the Fitzgeralds were sometimes called, had often frightened kings by
rebelling, but this time they failed in their object. In =1535= the
Lord Deputy Skeffington brought heavy guns and battered down the
walls of the great Geraldine castle at Maynooth. One by one all the
males of Kildare's family, with the exception of two boys, were
captured and put to death.
[Illustration: King Henry VIII.: from a picture belonging to the
Earl of Warwick.]
21. =Lord Leonard Grey. 1536-1539.=--Lord Leonard Grey became Lord
Deputy in =1536=. The Irish Parliament which met in that year was
still only a Parliament of the English Pale, but its acts showed
that Henry intended, if possible, to rule all Ireland. On the one
hand the royal supremacy was declared. On the other hand an Act was
passed which showed how little was, in those days, understood of the
difficulties standing in the way of the assimilation of two peoples
at different stages of civilisation. The native Irish were ordered
to be exactly as the English. They were to use the English language,
to adopt the English dress, and to cut their hair after the English
fashion. It was to be in the Church as it was to be in the State. No
one was to receive any ecclesiastical preferment who did not speak
English. Such laws naturally could not be put in force, but they
served as indications of the spirit of the Government. Even more
obnoxious was the conduct of the Archbishop of Dublin, George
Browne, a mere creature of Henry and Cromwell. The assertion of the
royal supremacy, indeed, if it had stood alone, would have made
little difference in the church-life of Ireland. Browne, however,
persisted, in obedience to orders from England, in destroying
relics and images which were regarded by the whole population with
the deepest reverence. The doubting spirit of the Renascence found
no echo in Ireland, because that country was far behind England in
education and culture. It would have been of less consequence if
these unwise proceedings had been confined to the English Pale. Lord
Leonard Grey was, however, a stern warrior, and carried his arms
successfully amongst the Irish tribes. When he left Ireland in
=1539= a large part of the Celtic population had been compelled to
submit to Henry, and that population was even less prepared than
were the inhabitants of the Pale for violent alterations of
religious ceremonial.
22. =Henry VIII. King of Ireland. 1541.=--In =1541= a Parliament at
Dublin acknowledged Henry to be king of Ireland. Hitherto he had
been but Lord of Ireland. As that title had been granted by Pope
Adrian IV. to Henry II. (see p. 152), Henry VIII. wished to have a
new one which should mark his complete independence of Rome. This
Parliament was the first attended by the native chiefs, and the
assumption of the new title therefore indicated a new stage in Irish
history. Unfortunately Henry bent himself to conciliate the chiefs
rather than their tribes. He gave to the chiefs English titles--the
O'Neill, for instance, becoming Earl of Tyrone, and O'Brien, Earl of
Thomond--whilst he hoped to win their support by dissolving the
monasteries, and by giving them a share in the plunder. All this
Henry did in the hope that the chiefs would use their influence to
spread English habits and English law amongst a people who were
attached to their own ways. For the time he gained what he wanted.
As long as the plunder of the abbeys was to be had the chiefs kept
quiet. When that had been absorbed both chiefs and people would
revolt against a Government which wanted to bring about, in a few
years, a complete change in their mode of life. It is indeed useless
to regret that Henry did not content himself with forcing the tribes
to keep peace with one another, whilst allowing them gradually to
grow in civilisation in their own fashion. There are often things
which it would be well to do, but which no government can do. In the
first place Henry had not money enough to enforce peace, the whole
revenue of Ireland at that time being no more than 5,000_l._ a year.
In the second place he was roused to futile efforts to convert
Irishmen into Englishmen because he was in constant dread of the
intervention in Ireland of his Continental enemies.
23. =Solway Moss. 1542.=--Henry was probably the more distrustful of
a possibly independent Ireland because an actually independent
Scotland gave him so much trouble. In Scotland there had been no
Wars of the Roses, and the warlike nobility still resembled petty
kings in their own districts. James V., the son of Henry's sister
Margaret, strove to depress the nobles by allying himself with the
Church and the Commons. Scotland was always ready to come to blows
with England, and the clergy urged James to break with a king of
England who had broken with the Pope. From =1532= to =1534= there
had been actual war between the kingdoms. Even after peace was
restored James's attitude was constantly menacing. In =1542= war
broke out again, and the Duke of Norfolk crossed the Tweed and
wasted the border counties of Scotland. Then James launched an army
across the Border into Cumberland. His distrust of the nobles,
however, made him place at the head of it a mere court favourite,
Oliver Sinclair. The Scottish army was harassed by the horsemen of
the English border, and as night was drawing on was suddenly
assailed by a small English party. Having no confidence in Sinclair,
the whole multitude fled in a panic, to be slain or captured in
Solway Moss. James's health broke down under the evil tidings. As he
lay sick, news was brought to him that his wife had given birth to a
child. Hearing that the child was a girl, and remembering how the
heiress of the Bruces had brought the crown to the House of Stuart
(see p. 295), he was saddened by the thought that the Stuart name
also would come to an end. "It came with a lass," he murmured, "and
it will go with a lass." In a few days he died, and his infant
daughter, the Queen of Scots, received the name of Mary.[7]
[Footnote 7: James's foreboding was not realised, because Mary
married a Stuart.]
[Illustration: Angel of Henry VIII. 1543.]
[Illustration: Part of the encampment at Marquison, 1544, showing
military equipment in the time of Henry VIII.: from an engraving
made by Vertue for the Society of Antiquaries from the now destroyed
painting at Cowdray House.]
[Illustration: Part of the siege of Boulogne by Henry VIII., 1544,
showing military operations: from an engraving made by Vertue for
the Society of Antiquaries from the now destroyed painting at
Cowdray House.][2 Illustrations.]
24. =War with Scotland and France. 1542-1546.=--Henry, anxious to
disarm Scottish hostility, proposed a marriage between his son
Edward and the young queen. The proposal was rejected, and an
alliance formed between Scotland and France. In =1544= Henry, having
formed an alliance with Charles V., who was now at war with France,
invaded France and took Boulogne after a long siege--thus enlarging
the English possessions in the neighbourhood of Calais--whilst
Charles concluded a peace with Francis at Crêpy and left his ally in
the lurch. In the same year Henry sent Lord Hertford, Jane
Seymour's brother, to invade Scotland. Hertford burnt every house
and cottage between Berwick and Edinburgh, took Edinburgh itself,
and burnt the town. In =1546= peace was made between England and
France, in which Scotland was included. The war had been expensive,
and in =1544= Parliament had come to Henry's help by enacting that
he need not repay a loan which he had gathered, yet even then Henry
had had recourse to the desperate remedy of debasing the coinage.
[Illustration: Armour as worn in the reign of Henry VIII.: from the
brass of John Lymsey, 1545, in Hackney Church.]
[Illustration: Margaret, wife of John Lymsey: from her brass in
Hackney Church, showing the costume of a lady _circa_ 1545.]
25. =The Litany and the Primer. 1544-1545.=--In =1544=, when Henry
was besieging Boulogne, Cranmer ordered prayers to be offered for
his success. In the true spirit of the Renascence he wished these
prayers to be intelligible, and directed that they should be in
English. In the same year he composed the English Litany, intended
to be recited by priests and people going in procession. This
Litany was the foundation-stone of the future Book of Common Prayer.
It was issued in =1544= together with a Primer, or book of private
prayer, also in English. In the public services the Creed, the
Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments were to be in English, the
remainder being left in Latin as before.
[Illustration: Thomas Howard, third Duke of Norfolk, 1473(?)--1554:
from the picture by Holbein at Windsor Castle.]
26. =The Last Days of Henry VIII. 1545-1547.=--When once inquiring
intelligence is let loose on an antiquated system, it is hard to say
where the desire of making alterations will stop, and there are
reasons to believe that Henry was contemplating further changes.
There were two parties at court, the one anxious to resist further
change, headed, amongst the temporal lords, by the Duke of Norfolk
and his son, the Earl of Surrey, and amongst the bishops by
Gardiner; the other, desiring doctrinal innovations, especially if
money was to be got by them, headed by the Earl of Hertford. In
=1545= an Act had been passed for the dissolution of chantries,
hospitals, and free chapels. The chantries had been founded for the
maintenance of priests to say mass for the souls of the founders,
and it was convenient for those who sought to divert this
maintenance to their own use to believe that it was wrong to pray
for the dead. In the end of =1546= Henry was taken ill, and, feeling
himself to be dying, ordered the arrest of Norfolk and Surrey on
charges of treason. It is probable that Henry turned against Norfolk
and Surrey because he thought Hertford, as the uncle of the young
Prince of Wales, more likely to be faithful to the future king. On
January 27, =1547=, Surrey was executed. His father was to have
suffered on the 28th. Before he reached the scaffold, Henry died,
and he was conducted back to prison. Henry, before his death, had
done something to provide against the danger of a disputed
succession. An Act of Parliament, passed in =1544=, had given back
to Mary and Elizabeth the places in the line of inheritance to which
they would have been entitled if no doubt had ever been cast on the
legitimacy of their birth,[8] and had authorised Henry to provide by
will for the future occupancy of the throne in case of the failure
of his own descendants. In accordance with this Act he left the
crown, in case of such failure, to the descendants of his younger
sister Mary, leaving out those of his elder sister Margaret, with
whose son, James V., he had had so much reason to be displeased.
[Footnote 8: Genealogy of the children of Henry VIII.:--
(1) Catharine = HENRY VIII. =(2) Anne =(3) Jane Seymour =(4) Anne of
of Aragon | | Boleyn | Cleves
| | | =(5) Catherine
MARY ELIZABETH EDWARD VI. Howard
(1553-1558) (1558-1603) (1547-1553) =(6) Catherine
Parr]
CHAPTER XXVII
EDWARD VI. AND MARY
EDWARD VI., 1547-1553. MARY, 1553-1558.
LEADING DATES
Somerset's Protectorate 1547
First Prayer Book of Edward VI. 1549
Fall of Somerset 1549
Second Prayer Book of Edward VI. 1552
Death of Edward VI. and accession of Mary 1553
Mary's marriage with Philip 1554
Submission to Rome and re-enactment of the heresy laws 1554
Beginning of the persecution 1555
War with France 1557
Loss of Calais and death of Mary 1558
1. =Somerset becomes Protector. 1547.=--The new king, Edward VI.,
was but a boy, and Henry had directed that England should be
governed during his son's minority by a body composed of the
executors of his will and other councillors, in which neither the
partisans of change nor the partisans of the existing order should
be strong enough to have their own way. The leading innovators,
pretending to be anxious to carry out his wishes, asserted that he
had been heard to express a desire that they should be made peers or
advanced in the peerage, and should receive large estates out of the
abbey lands. After gaining their object, they set aside Henry's real
plan for the government of the realm, and declared Hertford (who now
became Duke of Somerset) to be Protector. A council was formed, from
which Gardiner and the Lord Chancellor Wriothesley were excluded as
likely to take part against them.
2. =The Scotch War. 1547-1548.=--Somerset was as greedy of Church
property as the greediest, but he was covetous also of popularity,
and had none of that moderating influence which Henry, with all his
faults, possessed. He had always too many irons in the fire, and had
no sense of the line which divides the possible from the impossible.
His first thought was to intervene in Scotland. For some time past
Protestant missionaries had been attempting to convert the Scottish
people, but most of them had been caught and burnt. Cardinal
Beaton, the Archbishop of St. Andrews, had lately burnt George
Wishart, a noted Protestant. In =1546= the Cardinal was murdered in
revenge by a party of Protestants, who seized on the castle of St.
Andrews. A French fleet, however, recaptured the castle, and
Somerset, who had sent no help to the Protestants in St. Andrews,
marched into Scotland in the hope of putting an end to all future
troubles between the kingdoms by marrying the young Queen of Scots
to Edward. He carried with him a body of foreign mercenaries armed
with the improved weapons of Continental warfare, and with their
help he defeated and slaughtered the Scotch army at Pinkie Cleugh,
burnt Holyrood and Leith, and carried destruction far and wide. Such
rough wooing exasperated the Scots, and in =1548= they formed a
close alliance with Henry II., who had succeeded Francis I. as king
of France, and sent their young queen across the sea, where she was
married to Henry's eldest son, the Dauphin Francis. Somerset had
gained nothing by his violence.
3. =Cranmer's Position in the Church of England. 1547.=--Somerset's
ecclesiastical reforms were as rash as his political enterprises.
Cranmer had none of that moral strength which would have made some
men spurn an alliance with the unscrupulous politicians of the time.
He was a learned student, and through long study had adopted the
principle that where Scripture was hard to understand it was to be
interpreted by the consent of the writers of the first ages of
Christianity. As he had also convinced himself that the writers of
the first six centuries had known nothing of the doctrine of
transubstantiation, he was now prepared to reject it--though he had
formerly not only believed it, but had taken part in burning men who
denied it. It is quite possible that if Henry had been still alive
Cranmer would have been too much overawed to announce that he had
changed his opinion. His exact shade of belief at this time is of
less importance than the method by which he reached it. In accepting
the doctrines and practices of the existing Church till they were
tested and found wanting by a combination of human reason and
historical study of the scriptures, interpreted in doubtful points
by the teaching of the writers of the early Church, Cranmer more
than any one else preserved the continuity of the Church of England,
and laid down the lines on which it was afterwards to develop
itself. There was, therefore, a great gulf between Cranmer and the
advanced Protestants, who, however much they might differ from one
another, agreed in drawing inferences from the Scripture itself,
without troubling themselves whether these inferences conformed in
any way to the earlier teaching. This gulf was constantly widening
as time went on, and eventually split English Protestantism into
fractions.
[Illustration: Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1533-1556:
from a painting dated 1547, at Jesus College, Cambridge.]
4. =Ecclesiastical Reforms. 1547-1548.=--In =1547= a fresh blow was
struck at the devotions of the people. In the churches--by the order
of the Government--there was much smashing of images and of painted
glass bright with the figures of saints and angels. Gardiner, who
protested that the Government had no authority to alter religion
till the king was of age, was sent to prison as the easiest mode of
confuting him. As Parliaments were usually packed in those days, it
does not follow that the nation was eager for changes because
Parliament ordered them. There was, however, no difficulty in
filling the benches of the House of Commons with men who profited
by the plunder of the Church, and when Parliament met, it showed
itself innovating enough. It repealed all the statutes giving
special powers to Henry VIII. and all laws against heresy. It also
passed an Act vesting in the reigning king the whole of the
chantries and other like foundations which Henry had been permitted
to take, but which he had left untouched. Cranmer, indeed, would
have been glad if the money had been devoted to the relief of the
poorer clergy, but the grasping spirit of the laymen was too strong
for him. So violent was the race for wealth that the Act decreed the
confiscation even of the endowments of lay corporations, such as
trading companies and guilds, on the excuse that part of their funds
was applied to religious purposes. It was soon, however, found that
an attempt to enforce this part of the Act would cause resistance,
and it was therefore abandoned. In =1548= the Government issued
orders abolishing a great variety of Church practices, and, in
consequence of the opposition offered by the clergy to these sudden
measures ordered that no sermons should be preached except by a few
licensed preachers.
5. =The First Prayer Book of Edward VI. 1549.=--In =1549= Parliament
authorised the issue of a Prayer Book in English, now known as the
First Prayer Book of Edward VI. The same Parliament also passed an
Act permitting the marriage of the clergy.
6. =The Insurrection in the West. 1549.=--Somerset's own brother,
Lord Seymour of Sudley, was sent to the block by this Parliament. He
had spoken rashly against the Protector's government, but it has
been thought by some that his main fault was his strong language
against the rapacity with which Church property was being divided
amongst the rich. That rapacity was now reaching its height. The
Protector had set an evil example in order to raise the palace
which, though it has since been rebuilt, still bears the name of
Somerset House. He had not only seized on a vast amount of
ecclesiastical property, but had pulled down a parish church and had
carted off the bones of the dead from their graves. The Reformers
themselves, men of the study as most of them were, had gone much
farther than the mass of the people were prepared to follow. In
=1549= an insurrection burst out in Devon and Cornwall for the
restoration of the old religion, which was only suppressed with
difficulty.
7. =Ket's Rebellion. 1549.=--Another rising took place in Norfolk,
headed by Ket, a tanner. Ket's rebellion was directed not so much
against ecclesiastical reforms, as against civil oppression. The
gentry, who had been enriching themselves at the expense of the
clergy, had also been enriching themselves at the expense of the
poor. The inclosures against which More had testified were
multiplied, and the poor man's claims were treated with contempt.
Ket gathered his followers under a tree, which he called the Oak of
Reformation, on Mousehold Hill, outside Norwich, and sent them to
pull down the palings of the inclosures. The Earl of Warwick--the
son of that Dudley who, together with Empson, had been the object of
popular hatred in the reign of Henry VII. (see p. 357)--dispersed
the insurgents with great slaughter; but it was noted that both here
and in the West the Government was driven to use the bands of German
and Italian mercenaries which Somerset had gathered for the war in
Scotland. It was the first time since the days of John (see p. 182)
that foreign troops had been used to crush an English rising.
8. =The Fall of Somerset. 1549.=--Somerset no longer pleased any
single party. His invasion of Scotland had led to a war with France,
and to carry on that war he had found it necessary to debase the
coinage still further than it had been debased by Henry VIII. All
the disturbance of trade, as well as the disturbance of religion,
was laid to his door. At the same time he was too soft-hearted to
satisfy his colleagues in the Council, and had shown himself
favourable to the outcry against inclosures. Accordingly, before the
end of =1549= his colleagues rose against him, and thrust him into
the Tower. The Protectorate was abolished. Henceforth the Council
was to govern, but the leading man in the Council was Warwick.
9. =Warwick and the Advanced Reformers. 1549.=--Religion was a
matter to which Warwick was supremely indifferent. It was an open
question when he rose to power whether he would protect the men of
the old religion or the advanced reformers. He chose to protect the
advanced reformers. Even before Somerset's fall Cranmer had been
pushing his inquiries still farther, and was trying to find some
common ground with Zwinglian (see p. 399) and other reformers, who
went far beyond Luther. Foreign preachers, such as Bucer and Peter
Martyr, were introduced to teach religion to the English, as foreign
soldiers had been introduced to teach them obedience. Bishops were
now appointed by the king's letters-patent, without any form of
election. Gardiner and Bonner, refusing to accept the new state of
things, were deprived of their sees of Winchester and London, and
Ponet and Ridley set in their places. Ridley's moral character was
as distinguished as Ponet's was contemptible. Hooper was made Bishop
of Gloucester. For some time he hung back, refusing to wear the
episcopal vestments as being a mark of Antichrist, but at last he
allowed himself to be consecrated in them, though he cast them off
as soon as the ceremony was over.
[Illustration: Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London, 1550-1553: from
the National Portrait Gallery.]
10. =Latimer's Sermons. 1548-1550.=--Latimer had refused to return
to the bishopric from which he had been thrust by Henry VIII., but
he lashed from the pulpit the vices of the age, speaking plainly in
the presence of the court of its greed and oppression. It was not
enough, he said, for sinners to repent: let them make restitution of
their ill-gotten gains. In =1550= the courtiers became tired of his
reproofs, and he was no longer allowed to preach before the king.
11. =Warwick and Somerset. 1550-1552.=--In =1550= Warwick was
compelled to make a peace with France, and gave up Boulogne as its
price. In =1551= he was very nearly drawn into war with the Emperor
on account of his refusal to allow mass to be celebrated in the
household of the king's sister, Mary. Finally, however, he gave way,
and peace was maintained. There was a fresh issue of base money, and
a sharp rise of prices in consequence. Now that there were no
monasteries left to plunder, bishoprics were stripped of their
revenues, or compelled to surrender their lands. Hooper was given
the ecclesiastical charge of the see of Worcester in addition to
that of Gloucester, but he was driven to surrender all the income of
the bishopric of Gloucester. The see of Durham was not filled up,
and before the end of the reign it was suppressed by Act of
Parliament, and ceased to have a legal existence till it was
restored by Edward's successor. So unpopular did Warwick become that
Somerset began to talk as though he might supplant his supplanter.
His rash words were carried to the young king, who had for some time
shown an interest in public affairs, and who now took the part of
Warwick, whom he created Duke of Northumberland, against his own
uncle. Somerset was arrested, and in =1552= was tried and beheaded.
12. =The Second Prayer Book of Edward VI. 1552.=--In =1552=
Parliament authorised the issue of a revised Prayer Book, known as
the Second Prayer Book of Edward VI. The first book had been framed
by the modification of the old worship under the influence of
Lutheranism. The second book was composed under the influence of the
Swiss Reformers. The tendency of the two books may be gathered from
the words ordered to be employed in the administration of the bread
in the Communion. In the first Prayer Book they had been: "The Body
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy
body and soul unto everlasting life." In the second they were: "Take
and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on
Him in thy heart by faith with thanksgiving." There were some who
urged that the Communion should no longer be received kneeling. It
was significant that their leaders were foreigners--John Alasco, a
Pole, and John Knox, a Scot, who was hereafter to be the father of a
Scottish reformation more drastic than that of England. Cranmer
withstood them successfully. The dispute marked the point beyond
which the spirit of the Renascence refused to go. In the midst of
his innovations Cranmer preserved not only a reverent spirit, but an
admiration for the devotional style of the prayers of the medieval
Church, which he therefore maintained even in the midst of the great
changes made, mainly at least by himself, in the second Prayer Book.
Happily, amidst these disputations, there was one point on which
both parties could combine--namely, on the encouragement of
education. The reign of Edward VI. is marked by the foundation of
grammar-schools--too scantily carried out, but yet in such a measure
as to mark the tendencies of an age which was beginning to replace
the mainly ecclesiastic education of the monasteries by the more
secular education of modern times.
[Illustration: King Edward VI.: from a picture belonging to H. Hucks
Gibbs, Esq.]
13. =The Forty-two Articles. 1553.=--Edward was now a precocious
youth, taught by much adulation to be confident in his own powers.
He had learnt to regard all defection from Protestant orthodoxy as a
crime. The statute which repealed the heresy laws did not altogether
stop the burning of heretics, as the lawyers discovered that heresy
was punishable by the common law. In =1550= Joan Bocher was burnt
for denying the Incarnation, and in =1551= Van Parris, a Fleming,
was burnt on the same charge. The persecution, however, was much
more restricted than in the preceding reign. Few persons were
punished, and that only for opinions of an abnormal character. In
=1553= forty-two articles of faith, afterwards, in the reign of
Elizabeth, converted into thirty-nine, were set forth as a standard
of the Church's belief by the authority of the king. So completely
did the reforming clergy recognise their entire dependence on the
king, that by a slip of the pen Hooper once wrote of 'the king's
majesty's diocese of Worcester and Gloucester.'
14. =Northumberland's Conspiracy. 1553.=--A religious system built
up solely on the will of the king, was hardly likely to survive him.
By this time it was known that Edward was smitten with consumption,
and could not live. Northumberland cared little for religion, but he
cared much for himself. He knew that Mary was, by Henry's will
sanctioned by Act of Parliament, the heiress of the throne, and that
if Mary became queen he was hardly likely to escape the scaffold. He
was daring as well as unscrupulous, and he persuaded Edward to leave
the crown by will to Lady Jane Grey, the granddaughter of Mary,
Duchess of Suffolk, the younger sister of Henry VIII. He secured (as
he hoped) Lady Jane's devotion by marrying her to his own son, Lord
Guilford Dudley. As Lady Jane was a convinced Protestant, Edward at
once consented. His father, he thought, had left the crown by will
in the case of the failure of his own heirs (see p. 411), and why
should not he? He had been taught to think so highly of the kingship
that he did not remember that his father had been authorised by Act
of Parliament to will away the crown in the case of his children's
death without heirs, whereas no such authority had been given by
Parliament to himself. He forced--by commands and entreaties--the
councillors and the judges to sign the will. Cranmer was the last to
sign, and was only moved to do so by the sad aspect of his suffering
pupil. Then Edward died, assured that he had provided best for the
Church and nation.
15. =Lady Jane Grey. 1553.=--On July 10 Lady Jane Grey, a
pure-minded, intelligent girl of sixteen, was proclaimed queen in
London. She was a fervent Protestant, and there were many
Protestants in London. Yet, so hated was Northumberland, that even
Protestants would have nothing to say to one who had been advanced
by him. Lady Jane passed through the streets amidst a dead silence.
All England thought as London. In a few days Mary was at the head of
30,000 men. Northumberland led against her what troops he could
gather, but his own soldiers threw their caps in the air and
shouted for Queen Mary. On the 19th Mary was proclaimed queen in
London, and the unfortunate Jane passed from a throne to a
prison.[9]
[Footnote 9: Genealogy of the Greys:--
HENRY VII. (1485-1509)
|
+--------------+----+------------------+
| | |
HENRY VIII. Margaret = James IV. Mary = (2) Charles
(1509-1547) of Scotland m. (1) | Brandon,
Louis XII. | Duke of
of France | Suffolk
|
+------+
|
Frances = Henry
| Grey,
| Marquis of
| Dorset and
| Duke of
| Suffolk
|
+----------------------------------+----------+----+
| | |
Jane Grey = Guilford Dudley Catherine Grey Mary Grey]
16. =Mary restores the Mass. 1553=.--Mary, strong in her popularity,
was inclined to be merciful. Amongst those who had combined against
her only Northumberland and two others were executed--the miserable
Northumberland declaring that he died in the old faith. Mary made
Gardiner her Chancellor. Some of the leading Protestants were
arrested, and many fled to the Continent. The bishops who had been
deprived in Edward's reign were reinstated, and the mass was
everywhere restored. The queen allowed herself to be called Supreme
Head of the Church, and at first it seemed as though she would be
content to restore the religious system of the last year of Henry's
reign, and to maintain the ecclesiastical independence of the
country.
[Illustration: Queen Mary Tudor: from a painting by Lucas de Herre,
dated 1554, belonging to the Society of Antiquaries.]
17. =Mary's First Parliament. 1553=.--By taking this course Mary
would probably have contented the great majority of her subjects,
who were tired of the villainies which had been cloaked under the
name of Protestantism, and who were still warmly attached to the
religion of their fathers. She was, however, anxious to restore the
authority of the Pope, and also to marry Philip, the eldest son of
her cousin, the Emperor Charles V. It was natural that it should be
so. Her mother's life and her own youth had been made wretched, not
by Protestants, but by those who, without being Protestants, had
wrought the separation from Rome in the days of Henry, at a time
when only the Pope's adherents had maintained the legitimacy of her
own birth and of her mother's marriage. In subsequent times of
trouble Charles V. had sympathised with her and it was by her
intervention that she had been allowed to continue her mass in her
brother's reign. Mary also wished to restore to the Church its
lands. On the other hand, when Parliament met it appeared that her
subjects wished neither to submit to Rome, nor to surrender the
property of which they had deprived the Church, though they were
delighted to restore the worship and practices which had prevailed
before the death of Henry VIII. Parliament, therefore, authorised
the re-establishment of the mass, and repealed the Act allowing the
clergy to marry, but it presented a petition against a foreign
marriage. Although the hatred of Spain which grew up a few years
later was not yet felt, Englishmen did not wish their country to
become a dependent province on any foreign monarchy whatever. Mary
dissolved Parliament rather than take its advice.
18. =Wyatt's Rebellion. 1554.=--The result was an insurrection, the
aim of which was to place Mary's half-sister, Elizabeth, on the
throne. Lady Jane's father, the Duke of Suffolk, was to raise the
Midlands and Sir Thomas Wyatt to raise Kent. Suffolk failed, but
Wyatt, with a large following, crossed the Thames at Kingston, and
pushed on towards the City. His men, however, were for the most part
cut off in an engagement near Hyde Park corner, and it was with only
three hundred followers that he reached Ludgate--to find the gate
closed against him. 'I have kept touch,' he said, and suffered
himself to be led away a prisoner. Mary was no longer merciful. Not
only Suffolk and Wyatt, but the innocent Lady Jane and her young
husband, Guilford Dudley, were sent to the block. Elizabeth herself
was committed to the Tower. She fully believed that she was to die,
and sat herself down on a wet stone, refusing for some time to
enter. In many ways she had shown that she bore no goodwill to her
sister or her sister's plans, but she had been far too prudent to
commit to writing any words expressing sympathy with Wyatt. Being
far too popular to be safely put to death on any testimony which was
not convincing, Elizabeth was before long removed from the Tower and
placed at Woodstock, under the charge of Sir Henry Bedingfield, but
was after a few months allowed to retire to Hatfield.
19. =The Queen's Marriage.=--A Parliament which met in April =1554=
gave its consent to Mary's marriage, but it would not pass Bills to
restore the old statutes for the persecution of heretics. Though it
was now settled that the queen was to marry Philip, yet never was a
wooer so laggard. For some weeks he would not even write to his
betrothed. The fact was that she was twelve years older than
himself, and was neither healthy nor good-looking. Philip, however,
loved the English crown better than he loved its wearer, and in July
he crossed the sea and was married at Winchester to the queen of
England. Philip received the title of king, and the names of Philip
and Mary appeared together in all official documents and their
heads on the coins.
20. =The Submission to Rome. 1554.=--After the marriage a new
Parliament was called, more subservient than the last. In most
things it complied with Mary's wishes. It re-enacted the statutes
for the burning of heretics and agreed to the reconciliation of the
Church of England to the see of Rome, but it would not surrender the
abbey lands. Only after their possession had been confirmed did it
give its consent to the acknowledgment of the Pope's authority. Then
Cardinal Pole (see p. 399), who had been sent to England as the
Pope's legate, was allowed to receive the submission of England. The
queen, the king, and both Houses knelt before him, confessed their
sin of breaking away from the Roman see, and received absolution
from his mouth. To Mary the moment was one of inexpressible joy. She
had grieved over the separation from Rome as a sin burdening her own
conscience, and she believed with all her heart that the one path to
happiness, temporal and eternal, for herself and her realm, was to
root out heresy, in the only way in which it seemed possible, by
rooting out the heretics.
21. =The Beginning of the Persecution. 1555.=--It was not only Mary
who thought it meet that heretics should be burnt. John Rogers, who
was the first to suffer, had in the days of Edward pleaded for the
death of Joan Bocher (see p. 419). He was followed to the stake by
Bishop Hooper, who was carried to Gloucester, that he might die at
the one of his two sees which he had stripped of its property to
enrich the Crown (see p. 418). He and many another died bravely for
their faith, as More and Forest had died for theirs (see pp. 394,
398). Rowland Taylor, for instance (a Suffolk clergyman), was
condemned in London to be burnt, and sent to his own county to die.
As he left his prison in the dark of the early morning he found his
wife and children waiting for him in the street. He was allowed to
stop for a moment, and knelt down on the stones, repeating the
Lord's Prayer with his family. "Farewell, my dear wife," he said, as
soon as he had risen from his knees; "be of good comfort, for I am
quiet in my conscience. God shall stir up a father for my children."
"Thanked be God," he exclaimed when he at last reached the village
where his voice had once been heard in the pulpit, and where now the
stake rose up amidst the faggots which were to consume him, "I am
even at home!" After he had been tied to the stake a wretch threw a
faggot at his face. "O friend," he said gently, "I have harm enough:
what needed that?" The flames blazed up around his suffering body,
and Rowland Taylor entered into his rest. Ridley and Latimer were
burnt at Oxford, in the town ditch, in front of Balliol College. "Be
of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man," cried Latimer,
when the fire was lighted at his feet. "We shall this day light such
a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put
out."
[Illustration: Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, 1535-39, burnt
1555: from the National Portrait Gallery.]
22. =Death of Cranmer. 1556.=--Cranmer would have accompanied Ridley
and Latimer to the stake, but as he alone of the three had been
consecrated a bishop in the days when the Pope's authority was
accepted in England, it was thought right to await the Pope's
authority for the execution of his sentence. In =1556= that
authority arrived. Cranmer's heart was as weak as his head was
strong, and he six times recanted, hoping to save his life. Mary
specially detested him, as having sat in judgment on her mother (see
p. 389), and she was resolved that he should die. Finding his
recantation useless, he recovered his better mind, and renounced
his recantation. "I have written," he said, "many things untrue; and
forasmuch as my hand offended in writing contrary to my heart, my
hand therefore shall be the first burnt." He was hurried to the
stake, and when the flames leapt up around him held his right hand
steadily in the midst of them, that it might be 'the first burnt.'
23. =Continuance of the Persecution. 1556-1558.=--Immediately after
Cranmer's death Pole became Archbishop of Canterbury. The
persecution lasted for two years more. The number of those who
suffered has been reckoned at 277. Almost all of these were burnt in
the eastern and south-eastern parts of England. It was there that
the Protestants were the thickest. New opinions always flourish more
in towns than in the country, and on this side of England were those
trading towns, from which communication with the Protestants of the
Continent was most easy. Sympathy with the sufferers made these
parts of the kingdom more strongly Protestant than they had been
before.
24. =The Queen's Disappointment. 1555-1556.=--Mary was a sorrowful
woman. Not only did Protestantism flourish all the more for the
means which she took to suppress it, but her own domestic life was
clouded. She had longed for an heir to carry on the work which she
believed to be the work of God, and she had even imagined herself to
be with child. It was long before she abandoned hope, and she then
learnt also that her husband--to whom she was passionately
attached--did not love her, and had never loved anything in England
but her crown. In =1555= Philip left her. He had indeed cause to go
abroad. His father, Charles V., was broken in health, and, his
schemes for making himself master of Germany having ended in
failure, he had resolved to abdicate. Charles was obliged to leave
his Austrian possessions to his brother Ferdinand; and the German
electors, who detested Philip and his Spanish ways, insisted on
having Ferdinand as Emperor. Charles could, however, leave his
western possessions to his son, and in =1556= he completed the
surrender of them. Mary's husband then became Philip II. of Spain,
ruling also over large territories in Italy, over Franche Comté, and
the whole of the Netherlands, as well as over vast tracts in
America, rich in mines of silver and gold, which had been
appropriated by the hardihood, the cruelty, and the greed of Spanish
adventurers. No prince in Europe had at his command so warlike an
army, so powerful a fleet, and such an abounding revenue as Philip
had at his disposal. Philip's increase of power produced a strong
increase of the anti-Spanish feeling in England, and conspiracies
were formed against Mary who was believed to be ready to welcome a
Spanish invading army.
25. =War with France and the Loss of Calais. 1557-1558.=--In =1557=
Philip was at war with France, and, to please a husband who loved
her not, Mary declared war against Philip's enemy. She sent an
English army to her husband's support, but though Philip gained a
crushing victory over the French at St. Quentin, the English troops
gained no credit, as they did not arrive in time to take part in the
battle. In the winter, Francis, Duke of Guise, an able French
warrior, threatened Calais. Mary, who, after wringing a forced loan
from her subjects in the summer, had spent it all, had little power
to help the governor, Lord Wentworth, and persuaded herself that the
place was in no danger. Guise, however, laid siege to the town. The
walls were in disrepair and the garrison too small for defence. On
January 6, =1558=, Guise stormed Calais, and when, a few days
afterwards, he also stormed the outlying post of Guisnes, the last
port held by the English in France fell back into the hands of the
French. Calais was now again a French town, after having been in the
hands of strangers for 211 years.
26. =Death of Mary. 1558.=--The loss of Calais was no real
misfortune to England, but it was felt as a deep mortification both
by the queen and by her people. The people distrusted Mary too much
to support her in the prosecution of the war. They were afraid of
making Philip more powerful. Mary, hoping that Heaven might yet be
gracious to her, pushed on the persecution, and sent Protestants in
large numbers to the stake. Philip had visited her the year before,
in order to persuade her to join him against France, and she again
fancied herself to be with child. Her husband had once more deserted
her, and she now knew that she was suffering--without hope--from
dropsy. On November 17 she died, sad and lonely, wondering why all
that she had done, as she believed on God's behalf, had been
followed by failure on every side--by the desertion of her husband
and the hatred of her subjects. Happily for himself, Pole too died
two days afterwards.[10]
[Footnote 10: The 19th is the date of Machyn's contemporary diary;
but other authorities make it the 17th or 18th.]
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE ELIZABETHAN SETTLEMENT IN CHURCH AND STATE
1558-1570
LEADING DATES
Reign of Elizabeth, 1558-1603
Accession of Elizabeth 1558
The Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity 1559
The Treaty of Edinburgh 1560
Mary Stuart lands in Scotland 1561
End of the Council of Trent 1563
Marriage of Mary and Darnley 1565
Murder of Darnley 1567
Escape of Mary into England 1568
The rising in the North 1569
Papal excommunication of Elizabeth 1570
1. =Elizabeth's Difficulties. 1558.=--Elizabeth, when she received
the news of her sister's death, was sitting under an oak in Hatfield
Park (see p. 423). "This," she exclaimed, "is the Lord's doing, and
it is marvellous in our eyes." Her life's work was to throw down all
that Mary had attempted to build up, and to build up all that Mary
had thrown down. It was no easy task that she had undertaken. The
great majority of her subjects would have been well pleased with a
return to the system of Henry VIII.--that is to say, with the
retention of the mass, together with its accompanying system of
doctrine, under the protection of the royal supremacy, in complete
disregard of the threats or warnings of the Pope. Elizabeth was
shrewd enough to see that this could not be. On the one hand, the
Protestants, few as they were, were too active and intelligent to be
suppressed, and, if Mary's burnings had been unavailing, it was not
likely that milder measures would succeed. On the other hand, the
experience of the reign of Edward VI. had shown that immutability in
doctrine and practice could only be secured by dependence upon the
immutable Papacy, and Elizabeth had made up her mind that she would
depend on no one but herself. She would no more place herself under
the Pope than she would place herself under a husband. She cared
nothing for theology, though her inclinations drew her to a more
elaborate ritual than that which the Protestants had to offer. She
was, however, intensely national, and was resolved to govern so that
England might be great and flourishing, especially as her own
greatness would depend upon her success. For this end she must
establish national unity in the Church, a unity which, as she was
well aware, could only be attained if large advances were made in
the direction of Protestantism. There must be as little persecution
as possible, but extreme opinions must be silenced, because there
was a danger lest those who came under their influence would stir up
civil war in order to make their own beliefs predominant. The first
object of Elizabeth's government was internal peace.
2. =The Act of Uniformity and Supremacy. 1559.=--Elizabeth marked
her intentions by choosing for her secretary Sir William Cecil, a
cautious supporter of Protestantism, the best and most faithful of
her advisers. As Convocation refused to hear of any change in the
Church services, she appointed a commission composed of divines of
Protestant tendencies, who recommended the adoption, with certain
alterations,[11] of the second Prayer Book of Edward VI. Elizabeth's
first Parliament, which met in =1559=, passed an Act of Uniformity
forbidding the use of any form of public prayer other than that of
the new Prayer Book. The same Parliament also passed a new Act of
Supremacy, in which the title of Supreme Head of the Church was
abandoned, but all the ancient jurisdiction of the Crown over
ecclesiastical persons was claimed. This Act imposed an oath in
which the queen was acknowledged to be the Supreme Governor of the
Realm 'as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things as
temporal'; but this oath, unlike that imposed by Henry VIII., was
only to be taken by persons holding office or taking a university
degree, whilst a refusal to swear was only followed by loss of
office or degree. The maintenance of the authority of any foreign
prince or prelate was to be followed by penalties increased upon a
repetition of the offence, and reaching to a traitor's death on the
third occasion.
[Footnote 11: The most noteworthy of these alterations was the
amalgamation of the forms used respectively in the two Prayer Books
of Edward VI. at the administration of the Communion (see p. 418).]
3. =The new Bishops and the Ceremonies. 1559-1564.=--All the bishops
except one refusing to accept the new order of things, new ones were
substituted for them, the old system of election by the chapters on
a royal _congé d'élire_ being restored (see pp. 391, 415). Matthew
Parker, a moderate man after Elizabeth's own heart, became
Archbishop of Canterbury. Very few of the old clergy who had said
mass in Mary's reign refused to use the new Prayer Book, and as
Elizabeth prudently winked at cases in which persons of importance
had mass said before them in private, she was able to hope that, by
leaving things to take their course, a new generation would grow up
which would be too strong for the lovers of the old ways. The main
difficulty of the bishops was with the Protestants. Many of those
who had been in exile had returned with a strengthened belief that
it was absolutely unchristian to adopt any vestments or other
ceremonies which had been used in the Papal Church, and which they,
therefore, contumeliously described as rags of Antichrist. A large
number even of the bishops sympathised with them, and opposed them
only on the ground that, though it would have been better if
surplices and square caps had been prohibited, still, as such
matters were indifferent, the queen ought to be obeyed in all things
indifferent. To Elizabeth refusal to wear the surplice was not only
an act of insubordination, but likely to give offence to lukewarm
supporters of the Church system which she had established, and had,
therefore, a tendency to set the nation by the ears. In Parker she
found a tower of strength. He was in every sense the successor of
Cranmer, with all Cranmer's strength but with none of Cranmer's
weakness. He fully grasped the principle that the Church of England
was to test its doctrines and practices by those of the Church of
the first six hundred years of Christianity, and he, therefore,
claimed for it catholicity, which he denied to the Church of Rome;
whilst he had all Cranmer's feeling for the maintenance of external
rites which did not directly imply the existence of beliefs
repudiated by the Church of England.
4. =Calvinism.=--The returning exiles had brought home ideas even
more distasteful to Elizabeth than the rejection of ceremonies. The
weak point of the Lutherans in Germany, and of the reformers in
England, had been their dependence upon the State. This dependence
made them share the blame which fell upon rulers who, like Henry
VIII., were bent on satisfying their passions, or, like
Northumberland, on appropriating the goods of others. Even Elizabeth
thought first of what was convenient for her government, and
secondly, if she thought at all, of the quest after truth and
purity. In Geneva the exiles had found a system in full working
order which appeared to satisfy the cravings of their minds. It had
been founded by a Frenchman, John Calvin, who in =1536= had
published _The Institution of the Christian Religion_, in which he
treated his subject with a logical coherence which impressed itself
on all Protestants who were in need of a definite creed. He had
soon afterwards been summoned to Geneva, to take charge of the
congregation there, and had made it what was extensively believed to
be, a model Church. With Calvin everything was rigid and defined,
and he organised as severely as he taught. He established a
discipline which was even more efficacious than his doctrine. His
Church proclaimed itself, as the Popes had proclaimed themselves, to
be independent of the State, and proposed to uphold truth and right
irrespective of the fancies and prejudices of kings. Bishops there
were to be none, and the ministers were to be elected by the
congregation. The congregation was also to elect lay-elders, whose
duty it was to enforce morality of the strictest kind; card-playing,
singing profane songs, and following after amusements on the
Sunday--or Sabbath as it was called in Geneva--being visited with
excommunication. The magistrates were expected to inflict temporal
penalties upon the offender. This Presbyterian system, as it was
called, spread to other countries, especially to countries like
France, where the Protestant congregations were persecuted by the
Government. In France a final step was taken in the Presbyterian
organisation. The scattered congregations elected representatives to
meet in synods or assemblies, and the French Government, in this
way, found itself confronted by an ecclesiastical representative
republic.
5. =Peace with France. 1559.=--It was this Calvinistic system which
was admired by many of the exiles returning to England, but which
Elizabeth detested as challenging her own authority. Her only chance
of resisting with success lay in her power of appealing to the
national instinct, and of drawing men to think more of unity and
peace at home than of that search after truth which inevitably
divides, because all human conceptions of truth are necessarily
imperfect, and are differently held by different minds. To do this
she must be able to show that she could maintain her independence of
foreign powers. Though her heart was set on the recovery of Calais,
she was obliged in =1559= to make peace with France, obtaining only
a vague promise that it might be restored at a future time. Shortly
afterwards peace was made between France and Spain at Câteau
Cambresis. Elizabeth was aware that, though neither Philip II. of
Spain nor Henry II. loved her, neither of them would allow the other
to interfere to her detriment. She was therefore able to play them
off one against the other. Her diplomacy was the diplomacy of her
time. Elizabeth like her contemporaries, lied whenever it suited her
to lie, and made promises which she never intended to perform. In
this spirit she treated the subject of her marriage. She at once
rejected Philip, who, though he was her brother-in-law, proposed to
marry her immediately after her accession, but when he suggested
other candidates for her hand, she listened without giving a decided
answer. It was convenient not to quarrel with Philip, but it would
be ruinous to accept a husband at his choice.
6. =The Reformation in Scotland. 1559.=--Philip was formidable to
Elizabeth because he might place himself at the head of the English
Catholics. Henry was formidable because the old alliance between
France and Scotland, confirmed by the recent marriage of the Dauphin
with Mary Stuart, made it easy for him to send French troops by way
of Scotland into England. Early in Elizabeth's reign, however,
events occurred in Scotland which threatened to sever the links
between that country and France. The Regent, Mary of Guise--mother
of the absent queen and sister of the Duke of Guise, the French
conqueror of Calais, and leader of the French Catholics--was hostile
to the Protestants not only by conviction, but because there had
long been a close alliance between the bishops and the Scottish
kings in their struggle with the turbulent nobles. The wealth of the
bishops, however, great according to the standard of so poor a
country, tempted the avarice of the nobles, and their profligacy,
openly displayed, offended all who cared for morality. In =1559= a
combination was formed amongst a large number of the nobles, known
as the Lords of the Congregation, to assail the bishops. John Knox,
the bravest and sternest of Calvinists, urged them on. The Regent
was powerless before them. The mass was suppressed, images
destroyed, and monasteries pulled down. Before long, however, the
flood seemed about to subside as rapidly as it rose. The forces of
the lords consisted of untrained peasants, who could not keep the
field when the labours of agriculture called them home, and rapidly
melted away. Then the Lords of the Congregation, fearing disaster,
called on Elizabeth for help.
7. =The Claims of Mary Stuart. 1559.=--Elizabeth was decided enough
when she could see her way clearly. When she did not she was timid
and hesitating, giving contradictory orders and making contradictory
promises. She detested Calvinism, and regarded rebellion as of evil
example. She especially abhorred Knox, because in her sister's reign
he had written a book against _The Monstrous Regimen of Women_,
disbelieving his assertion that she was herself an exception to the
rule that no woman was fit to govern. It is therefore almost certain
that she would have done nothing for the Lords of the Congregation
if France had done nothing for the Regent. Henry II., however, was
killed by an accidental lance-thrust which pierced his eye in a
tournament, and on the accession of his son as Francis II., Mary
Stuart, now queen of France, assumed the arms and style of queen of
England.[12] The life-long quarrel between Elizabeth and Mary could
hardly be staved off. Not only did they differ in religion, but
there was also between them an irreconcilable political antagonism
closely connected with their difference in religion. If the Papal
authority was all that Mary believed it to be, Elizabeth was a
bastard and a usurper. If the national Church of England had a right
to independent existence, and the national Parliament of England to
independent authority, Mary's challenge of Elizabeth's title was an
unjustifiable attack on a sovereignty acknowledged by the
constitutional authorities of the English nation.
[Footnote 12: Genealogy of the last Valois kings of France:--
Francis I.
1515-1547
|
Henry II. = Catherine de Medicis
1547-1559 |
|
+----------------+--------------+----------------+
| | | |
Francis II. Charles IX. Henry III. Francis, Duke
1559-1560 1560-1574 Duke of of Alençon,
Anjou, king afterwards
of France, Duke of Anjou
1574-1589]
8. =The Treaty of Edinburgh. 1560.=--In spite of Cecil's urgency
Elizabeth was slow to assist the Scottish rebels. For some months
Mary of Guise had been gathering French troops to her support, and
she at last had a foreign army at her command powerful enough to
make her mistress of Scotland, and to form the nucleus of a larger
force which might afterwards be sufficiently powerful to make her
mistress of England. This was more than Elizabeth could bear, and in
January =1560= she sent her fleet with troops to the help of the
Lords of the Congregation. The French retreated into Leith, where
they were besieged by the allied forces. In June the Regent died,
and in July Leith surrendered. By a treaty signed at Edinburgh the
French agreed to leave Scotland, and to acknowledge Elizabeth's
title to the English crown. In December Francis II. died, and as his
brother, who succeeded him as Charles IX., was too young to govern,
his mother, Catherine de Medicis, acted as regent. Catherine was
jealous of the Duke of Guise, and also of his niece, Mary Stuart,
the widow of her eldest son.[13] Mary, finding no longer a home in
France, was driven for refuge to her own unruly realm of Scotland.
[Footnote 13: Genealogy of the Guises:--
Claude, Duke of Guise
|
+------------+-----------+
| |
Francis, Duke Mary = James V.
of Guise, of Guise, | king of
killed at died in | Scotland
Dreux, 1563 1560 |
| |
+------------+--------------+ |
| | | |
Henry Charles, Louis, Cardinal Mary Stuart,
Duke of Guise, Duke of of Guise, Queen of Scots
murdered in 1588 Mayenne murdered in
1588]
9. =Scottish Presbyterianism. 1561.=--The Scots had not failed to
profit by the cessation of authority following on the death of Mary
of Guise. They disclaimed the authority of the Pope and made it
punishable to attend mass, the penalty for the third offence being
death. The English Reformation had been the work of the king and of
the clergy of the Renascence, and had, therefore, been carried on
under the form of law. The Scottish Reformation had been the
revolutionary work of the nobility and of the Calvinistic clergy. In
England the power of the State had been strengthened. In Scotland it
was weakened. Almost from the beginning the nobles who had taken
part in the revolution showed signs of disagreement. A few of them
were earnest Protestants, but there were more who cared only for
political or personal ends. "I have lived many years," said the aged
Lord Lindsay; "now that it hath pleased God to let me see this day
... I will say with Simeon, 'Now lettest Thou thy servant depart in
peace.' "Hey then!" said Maitland of Lethington sarcastically, when
he heard that the clergy claimed to govern the Church and own its
property in the place of the bishops, "we may all bear the barrow
now to build the house of the Lord." Knox organised the Church on a
democratic and Presbyterian basis with Church Courts composed of the
minister and lay elders in every parish, with representative
Presbyteries in every group of parishes, and with a representative
General Assembly for all Scotland. Like a prophet of old, Knox
bitterly denounced those who laid a finger on the Church's
discipline. The nobles let him do as he would as far as religion
was concerned, but they insisted on retaining nominal bishops, not
to rule the Church, but to hold the Church lands and pass the rents
over to themselves.
[Illustration: A 'milled' half-sovereign of Elizabeth, 1562-1568.]
10. =Mary and Elizabeth. 1561.=--In August =1561= Mary landed in
Scotland, having come by sea because Elizabeth refused to allow her
to pass through England unless she would renounce her claim to the
English crown. Mary would perhaps have yielded if Elizabeth would
have named her as her successor. Elizabeth would do nothing of the
kind. She had a special dislike to fixing on any one as her
successor. About this time she threw into prison Lady Catherine Grey
for committing the offence of marrying without her leave. Lady
Catherine was the next sister of Lady Jane Grey, and therefore
Elizabeth's heir if the will of Henry VIII. in favour of the Suffolk
line (see p. 410) was to be held binding. Elizabeth no doubt had a
political object in showing no favour to either of her expectant
heirs. By encouraging Catherine's hopes she would drive her Catholic
subjects to desperation. By encouraging Mary's she would drive her
Protestant subjects to desperation. Yet there was also strong
personal feeling to account for her conduct. She was resolved never
to marry, however much her resolution might cost her. Yet she too
was a very woman, hungry for manly companionship and care, and,
though a politician to the core, was saddened and soured by the
suppression of her womanly nature. To give herself a husband was to
give herself a master, yet she dallied with the offers made to her,
surely not from political craft alone. The thought of marriage,
abhorrent to her brain, was pleasant to her heart, and she could not
lightly speak the positive word of rejection. Even now, in the vain
thought that she might rule a subject, even if she became his wife,
she was toying with Lord Robert Dudley, the handsome and worthless
son of the base Northumberland. So far did she carry her flirtations
that tales against her fair fame were spread abroad, but marry him
she never did. Her treatment of the Lady Catherine was doubtless
caused far less by her fear of the claims of the Suffolk line than
by her reluctance to think of one so near to her as a happy wife,
and as years grew upon her she bore hardly on those around her who
refused to live in that state of maidenhood which she had inflicted
on herself.
11. =The French War. 1562-1564.=--Elizabeth and Mary were not merely
personal rivals. The deadly struggle on which they had entered was a
European one, and the success or failure of the Catholic or the
Protestant cause in some Continental country might determine the
future history of Britain. In =1562= a civil war broke out between
the French Protestants--or Huguenots,[14] as they were usually
called in France--and their Catholic fellow-subjects. The leaders of
the Huguenots obtained Elizabeth's aid by offering her Havre, which
she hoped to exchange for Calais. The Huguenots were, however,
defeated at the battle of Dreux, though Guise, who commanded the
Catholics, was in the moment of victory shot dead by an assassin. In
=1563= peace was patched up for a time between the French parties,
but Elizabeth refused to surrender Havre, till a plague broke out
amongst the English garrison, and drove the scanty remnants of it
back to England. In =1564= Elizabeth was forced to make peace
without recovering Calais. The war thus ended was the only one in
which she ever took part except when absolutely no alternative was
left to her.
[Footnote 14: Probably from _Eidgenossen_, the name of the Swiss
Confederates, because the first Protestants who appeared at Geneva
came from Switzerland, and no French-speaking mouth could pronounce
such a word as 'Eidgenossen.']
12. =End of the Council of Trent. 1563.=--If Rome was to be
victorious she must use other than carnal weapons. The main cause of
the growth of Protestantism had been the revolt of honest minds
against the profligacy of the Popes and the clergy. The Popes had
after a long time learnt the lesson, and were now as austerely moral
as Calvin himself. They had of late busied themselves with bringing
the doctrines of the Church into a coherent whole, in order that
they might be referred to with as much certainty as the
_Institution_ of Calvin was referred to by the Calvinist. This work
was accomplished by an ecclesiastical council sitting at Trent, and
composed mainly of Spanish and Italian prelates. The Council, having
completed its task, broke up in =1563=.
13. =The Jesuits.=--The main instruments of the Popes to win back
those who had broken loose from their authority were the members of
the Society of Jesus, usually known as Jesuits. The society was
founded in =1540= by Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish knight who, having
been incapacitated by a wound for a military career, had devoted
himself to the chivalry of religion. The members of the society
which he instituted were not, like the monks, to devote themselves
to setting an example of ascetic self-denial, nor, like the friars,
to combine asceticism with preaching or well-doing. Each Jesuit was
to give himself up to winning souls to the Church, whether from
heathenism or from heresy. With this end, the old soldier who
established the society placed it under more than military
discipline. The first virtue of the Jesuit was obedience. He was to
be in the hands of his superior as a stick in the hand of a man. He
was to do as he was bidden, unless he was convinced that he was
bidden to commit sin. What was hardest, perhaps, of all was that he
was not allowed to judge his own character in choosing his work. He
might think that he was admirably qualified to be a missionary in
China, but if his superior ordered him to teach boys in a school, a
schoolmaster he must become. He might believe himself to be a great
scholar and fitted by nature to impart his knowledge to the young,
but if his superior ordered him to go as a missionary to China, to
China he must go. Discipline voluntarily accepted is a great power
in the world, and this power the Jesuits possessed.
14. =The Danger from Scotland. 1561-1565.=--Whilst the opposing
forces of Calvinism and the reformed Papacy were laying the
foundations of a struggle which would split western Europe in twain,
Elizabeth was hampered in her efforts to avert a disruption of her
own realm by the necessity of watching the proceedings of the Queen
of Scots. If in Elizabeth the politician predominated over the
woman, in Mary the woman predominated over the politician. She was
keen of sight, strong in feeling, and capable of forming
far-reaching schemes, till the gust of passion swept over her and
ruined her plans and herself together. After her arrival in Scotland
she not only acknowledged the new Calvinistic establishment, but put
down with a strong hand the Earl of Huntly, who attempted to resist
it, whilst on the other hand she insisted, in defiance of Knox, on
the retention of the mass in her own chapel. It is possible that
there was in all this a settled design to await some favourable
opportunity, as she knew that there were many in Scotland who
cherished the old faith. It is possible, on the other hand, that she
thought for a time of making the best of her uneasy position, and
preferred to be met with smiles rather than with frowns. Knox,
however, took care that there should be frowns enough. There was no
tolerant thought in that stern heart of his, and he knew well that
Mary would in the end be found to be fighting for her creed and her
party. Her dancing and light gaiety he held to be profane. The mass,
he said, was idolatry, and according to Scripture the idolater must
die. There was in Scotland as yet no broad middle class on which
Mary could rely, and, feeling herself insulted both as a queen and
as a woman, she took up Knox's challenge. She had but the weapons of
craft with which to fight, but she used them admirably, and before
long, with her winning grace, she had the greater number of the
nobility at her feet.
15. =The Darnley Marriage. 1565.=--The sense of mental superiority
could not satisfy a woman such as Mary. Her life was a lonely one,
and it was soon known that she was on the look-out for a husband.
The choice of a husband by the ruler of Scotland could not be
indifferent to Elizabeth, and in =1564= Elizabeth offered to Mary
her own favourite Dudley, whom she created Earl of Leicester. Very
likely Elizabeth imagined that Leicester would be as pleasing to
Mary as he was to herself. Mary could only regard the proposal as an
insult. In =1565= she married her second cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord
Darnley.[15] Elizabeth was alarmed, taking the marriage as a sign
that Mary intended to defy her in everything, and urged the Scottish
malcontents, at whose head was Mary's illegitimate brother, the Earl
of Murray, to rebel. Mary chased them into England, where Elizabeth
protested loudly and falsely that she knew nothing of their
conspiracy.
[Footnote 15: Genealogy of Mary and Darnley:--
(1) James IV. = Margaret Tudor = (2) Archibald Douglas,
1488-1513 | | Earl of Angus
| +---------+
| |
Mary of Guise = James V. Matthew Stuart = Margaret Douglas
| 1513-1542 Earl of Lennox |
| |
| +-------------------+
| |
Francis II. = Mary = Henry Stuart,
King of 1542- | Lord Darnley
France 1567 |
|
James VI.
1567-1625]
16. =The Murder of Rizzio. 1566.=--Mary had taken a coarse-minded fool
for her husband, and had to suffer from him all the tyranny which a
heartless man has it in his power to inflict on a woman. Her heart
craved for affection, and Darnley, who plunged without scruple into
the most degrading vice, believed, or affected to believe, that his
wife had sacrificed her honour to David Rizzio, a cultivated Italian
who acted as her secretary, and carried on her correspondence with the
Continental powers. A league for the murder of Rizzio--such things
were common in Scotland--was formed between Darnley and the Protestant
lords. On March 9, =1566=, they burst into Mary's supper-room at
Holyrood. Rizzio clung to his patroness's robe, but was dragged off
and slain. Murray with his fellow-conspirators came back to Scotland.
Mary, however, with loving looks and words, won over the husband whom
she despised, broke up the confederacy, and drove most of the
confederates out of the country.
17. =The Murder of Darnley. 1567.=--On June 19, =1566=, Mary gave
birth to a son, afterwards James VI. of Scotland, and James I. of
England. His birth gave strength to the party in England which was
anxious to have Mary named heiress of the crown. Whatever little
chance there was of Elizabeth's consent being won was wrecked
through a catastrophe in which Mary became involved. Mary despised
her miserable husband as thoroughly as he deserved. He at least,
weak as water, could give her no help in her struggle with the
nobles. Her passionate heart found in the Earl of Bothwell one who
seemed likely to give her all that she needed--a strong will in a
strong body, and a brutal directness which might form a complement
to her own intellectual keenness. Mary and Bothwell were both
married, but Bothwell at least was not to be deterred by such an
obstacle as this. The evidence on Mary's conduct is conflicting, and
modern enquirers have not succeeded in coming to an agreement about
it. It is possible that she did not actually give her assent to the
evil deed which set her free; but it can hardly be doubted that she
at least willingly closed her eyes to the preparations made for her
husband's murder. Whatever the truth as to her own complicity may
be, it is certain that on February 10, =1567=, Darnley was blown up
by gunpowder at Kirk o' Field, a lonely house near Edinburgh, and
slain by Bothwell, or by Bothwell's orders, as he was attempting to
escape. Bothwell then obtained a divorce from his own wife, carried
Mary off--not, as was firmly believed at the time, against her
will--and married her.
18. =The Deposition and Flight of Mary. 1567-1568.=--Mary, in
gaining a husband, had lost Scotland. Her subjects rose against her
as an adulteress and a murderess. At Carberry Hill, on June 15,
=1567=, her own followers refused to defend her, and she was forced
to surrender, whilst Bothwell fled to Denmark, remaining in exile
for the rest of his life. Mary was imprisoned in a castle on an
island in Loch Leven, and on July 24 she was forced to abdicate in
favour of her son. Murray acted as regent in the infant's name. On
May 2, =1568=, Mary effected her escape, and rallied to her side the
family of the Hamiltons, which was all-powerful in Clydesdale. On
May 13 she was defeated by Murray at Langside, near Glasgow. Riding
hard for the Solway Firth, she threw herself into a boat, and found
herself safe in Cumberland. She at once appealed to Elizabeth,
asking not for protection only, but for an English army to replace
her on the throne of Scotland.
[Illustration: Silver-gilt standing cup made in London in 1569-70,
and given to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, by Archbishop
Parker.]
19. =Mary's Case before English Commissioners. 1568-1569.= Elizabeth
could hardly replace her rival in power, and was still less inclined
to set her at liberty, lest she should go to France, and bring with
her to Scotland another French army. After innumerable changes of
mind Elizabeth appointed a body of commissioners to consider the
case against Mary. Before them Murray produced certain letters
contained in a casket, and taken after Bothwell's flight. The casket
letters, as they are called, were alleged to be in Mary's
handwriting, and, if genuine, place out of doubt her guilty passion
for Bothwell, and her connivance in her husband's murder. They were
acknowledged by the commissioners, with the concurrence of certain
English lords who were politically partisans of Mary, to be in her
hand. Mary--either, as her adversaries allege, because she knew that
she was guilty, or as her supporters allege, because she was afraid
that she could not obtain justice--withdrew her advocates, and
pleaded with Elizabeth for a personal interview. This Elizabeth
refused to grant, but on the other hand she denied the right of the
Scots to depose their queen. Mary remained virtually a prisoner in
England. She was an interesting prisoner, and in spite of all her
faults there were many who saw in her claim to the English crown the
easiest means of re-establishing the old Church and the old
nobility.
20. =The Rising in the North. 1569.=--The old Church and the old
nobility were strongest in the North, where the Pilgrimage of Grace
had broken out in =1536= (see p. 397). The northern lords, the Earls
of Northumberland and Westmorland, longed to free Mary, to proclaim
her queen of England, and to depose Elizabeth. They were, however,
prepared to content themselves with driving Cecil from power, with
forcing Elizabeth to acknowledge Mary as her heir, and to withdraw
her support from Protestantism. Mary, according to this latter plan,
was to marry the Duke of Norfolk, the son of that Earl of Surrey who
had been executed in the last days of Henry VIII. (see p. 411). On
October 18 Elizabeth, suspecting that Norfolk was entangling himself
with the Queen of Scots, sent him to the Tower. Northumberland and
Westmorland hesitated what course to pursue, but a message from the
Queen requiring their presence at Court decided them, and they rose
in insurrection. On November 14, with the northern gentry and
yeomanry at their heels, they entered Durham Cathedral, tore in
pieces the English Bible and Prayer Book, and knelt in fervour of
devotion whilst mass was said for the last time in any one of the
old cathedrals of England. Elizabeth sent an army against the earls.
Both of them were timorous and unwarlike, and they fled to Scotland
before the year was ended, leaving their followers to the vengeance
of Elizabeth. Little mercy was shown to the insurgents, and cruel
executions followed this unwise attempt to check the progress of the
Reformation.
21. =The Papal Excommunication. 1570.=--Elizabeth, it seemed for all
her triumph over the earls, had a hard struggle still before her. In
January =1570= the regent Murray was assassinated by Hamilton of
Bothwellhaugh, and Mary's friends began again to raise their heads
in Scotland. In April Pope Pius V. excommunicated Elizabeth and
absolved her subjects from their allegiance. In May, a fanatic named
Felton affixed the Pope's bull of excommunication to the door of the
Bishop of London's house. Felton was eventually seized and executed,
but his deed was a challenge which Elizabeth would be compelled to
take up. Hitherto she had trusted to time to bring her subjects into
one way of thinking, knowing that the younger generation was likely
to be on her side. She had taken care to deal as lightly as possible
with those who shrank from abandoning the religion of their
childhood, and she had recently announced that they were free to
believe what they would if only they would accept her supremacy. The
Pope had now made it clear that he would not sanction this
compromise. Englishmen must choose between him and their queen. On
the side of the Pope it might be argued with truth that with
Elizabeth on the throne it would be impossible to maintain the Roman
Catholic faith and organisation. On the side of the queen it might
be argued that if the Papal claims were admitted it would be
impossible to maintain the authority of the national government. A
deadly conflict was imminent, in which the liberty of individuals
would suffer whichever side gained the upper hand. Nations, like
persons, cannot attend to more than one important matter at a time,
and the great question at issue in Elizabeth's reign was whether the
nation was to be independent of all foreign powers in ecclesiastical
as well as in civil affairs.
CHAPTER XXIX
ELIZABETH AND THE EUROPEAN CONFLICT. 1570-1587
LEADING DATES
Reign of Elizabeth, 1558-1603
The Execution of the Duke of Norfolk 1572
The foundation of the Dutch Republic 1572
The arrival of the Jesuits 1580
The Association 1584
Babington's Plot 1586
Execution of Mary Stuart 1587
1. =The Continental Powers. 1566-1570.=--If the Catholic powers of
the Continent had been able to assist the English Catholics
Elizabeth would hardly have suppressed the rising in the North. It
happened, however, that neither in the Spanish Netherlands nor in
France were the governments in a position to quarrel with her. In
the Netherlands Philip, who burnt and slaughtered Protestants
without mercy, was in =1566= opposed by the nobility, and in =1568=
he sent the Duke of Alva, a relentless soldier, to Brussels with a
Spanish army to establish the absolute authority of the king and the
absolute authority of the Papacy. In =1569= Alva believed himself to
have accomplished his task by wholesale executions, and by the
destruction of the constitutional privileges of the Netherlanders.
His rule was a grinding tyranny, rousing both Catholics and
Protestants to cry out for the preservation of their customs and
liberties from the intruding Spanish army. Alva had therefore no men
to spare to send to aid the English Catholics. In France the civil
war had broken out afresh in =1568=, and in =1569= the Catholics
headed by Henry, Duke of Guise, the son of the murdered Duke Francis
(see p. 436), and by Henry, Duke of Anjou, the brother of the young
king, Charles IX., won victories at Jarnac and Moncontour. Charles
and his mother took alarm lest the Catholics should become too
powerful for the royal authority, and in =1570= a peace was signed
once more, the French king refusing to be the instrument of
persecution and being very much afraid of the establishment of a
Catholic government in England which might give support to the
Catholics of France. Accordingly in =1570=, France would not
interfere in England if she could, whilst Spain could not interfere
if she would.
2. =The Anjou Marriage Treaty and the Ridolfi Plot. 1570-1571.=--For
all that, Elizabeth's danger was great. In =1570= she had done her
best to embroil parties in Scotland lest they should join against
herself. The bulk of the nobility in that country had thrown
themselves on the side of Mary, and were fighting against the new
regent, Lennox, having taken alarm at the growth of the popular
Church organisation of Knox and the Presbyterians, who sheltered
themselves under the title of the little James VI. At home Elizabeth
expected a fresh outbreak, and could not be certain that Alva would
be unable to support it when it occurred. Cecil accordingly pleaded
hard with her to marry the frivolous Duke of Anjou. He thought that
unless she married and had children, her subjects would turn from
her to Mary, who, having already a son, would give them an assured
succession. If she was to marry, an alliance with the tolerant
Government of France was better than any other. Elizabeth indeed
consented to open negotiations for the marriage, though it was most
unlikely that she would ever really make up her mind to it. The
English Catholics, in consequence, flung themselves into the arms of
the king of Spain, and in March =1571=, Ridolfi, a Florentine banker
residing in England, who carried on their correspondence with Alva,
crossed to the Netherlands to inform him that the great majority of
the lay peers had invited him to send 6,000 Spanish soldiers to
dethrone Elizabeth and to put Mary in her place. Norfolk, who had
been released from the Tower (see p. 441), was then to become the
husband of Mary, and it was hoped that there would spring from the
marriage a long line of Catholic sovereigns ready to support the
Papal Church.
3. =Elizabeth and the Puritans.=--Elizabeth's temporising policy had
naturally strengthened the Calvinism of the Calvinistic clergy. In
every generation there are some who ask not what is expedient but
what is true, and the very fact that they aim at truth, in defiance
of all earthly considerations, not merely assures them influence,
but diffuses around them a life and vigour which would be entirely
wanting if all men were content to support that which is politically
or socially convenient. Such were the best of the English Puritans,
so called because, though they did not insist upon the abolition of
Episcopacy or the establishment of the Calvinistic discipline (see
p. 431), they contended for what they called purity of worship,
which meant the rejection of such rites and vestments as reminded
them of what they termed the idolatry of the Roman Church. Elizabeth
and Parker had from time to time interfered, and some of the Puritan
leaders had been deprived of their benefices for refusing to wear
the cap and surplice.
4. =Elizabeth and Parliament. 1566.=--From =1566= to =1571=
Elizabeth abstained from summoning a Parliament, having been far
more economical than any one of the last three sovereigns. Early in
her reign she had restored the currency, and after the session of
=1566= had actually returned to her subjects a subsidy which had
been voted to her and which had been already collected.[16] Her
reason for avoiding Parliaments was political. Neither of the Houses
was likely to favour her ecclesiastical policy. The House of Lords
wanted her to go backwards--to declare Mary her successor and to
restore the mass. The House of Commons wanted her to go forwards--to
marry, and have children of her own, and to alter the Prayer Book in
a Puritan direction. In =1566=, if the House of Commons had really
represented the average opinion of the nation, she would have been
obliged to yield. That it did not was partly owing to the imposition
in =1562= of the oath of supremacy upon its members, by which all
who favoured the Pope's authority were excluded from its benches,
but still more on account of the difficulty of packing a Parliament
so as to suit the queen's moderate ideas. Those who admired the
existing Church system were but few. The majority of the nation,
even if those who refused to accept the Royal supremacy were left
out of account, was undoubtedly sufficiently attached to the old
state of things to be favourable at least to Mary's claim to be
acknowledged as heir to the throne. To Elizabeth it was of the first
importance that the influence of the Crown should be used to reduce
the numbers of such men in the House of Commons. If, however, they
were kept out, there was nothing to be done but to favour the
election of Puritans, or at least of those who had a leaning towards
Puritanism. The queen, therefore, having to make her choice between
those who objected to her proceedings as too Protestant and those
who objected to them as not Protestant enough, not unnaturally
preferred the latter.
[Footnote 16: A subsidy was a tax on lands and goods voted by
Parliament to the Crown, resembling in many respects the modern
income-tax.]
5. =A Puritan Parliament. 1571.=--In =1571= Elizabeth had to deal
with a Puritan House of Commons. The House granted supplies, and
wanted to impose new penalties on the Roman Catholics and to
suppress ecclesiastical abuses. One of the members named Strickland,
having proposed to ask leave to amend the Prayer Book, the Queen
ordered him to absent himself from the House. The House was
proceeding to remonstrate when Elizabeth, too prudent to allow a
quarrel to spring up, gave him permission to return. She had her
way, however, and the Prayer Book remained untouched. She was
herself a better representative of the nation than the House of
Commons, but as yet she represented it only as standing between two
hostile parties; though she hoped that the time would come when she
would have a strong middle party of her own.
6. =The Duke of Norfolk's Plot and Execution. 1571-1572.= For the
present Elizabeth's chief enemies were the conspirators who were
aiming at placing Mary on her throne. In April =1571= Ridolfi
reached the Netherlands, and urged Alva to send a Spanish army to
England. Alva was cautious, and thought the attempt dangerous unless
Elizabeth had first been killed or captured. Philip was consulted,
gave his approval to the murder, but afterwards drew back, though he
ordered Alva to proceed with the invasion. In the meanwhile Cecil,
who had just been made Lord Burghley, came upon traces of the plot.
Norfolk was arrested, and before the end of the year everything was
known. Though the proposal of a marriage between Elizabeth and the
Duke of Anjou had lately broken down, she now, in her anxiety to
find support in France against Spain, entered into a negotiation to
marry Anjou's brother, the Duke of Alençon, a vicious lad twenty-one
years younger than herself. Then she was free to act. She drove the
Spanish ambassador out of England, and Norfolk was tried and
convicted of treason. A fresh Parliament meeting in =1572= urged the
queen to consent to the execution of Mary. Elizabeth refused, but
she sent Norfolk to the block.
7. =The Admonition to Parliament. 1572.=--The rising in the North
and the invitation to bring a Spanish army into England could not
but fan the zeal of the Puritans. At the beginning of the reign they
had contented themselves with calling for the abolition of certain
ceremonies. A more decided party now added a demand for the
abolition of episcopacy and the establishment of Presbyterianism and
of the complete Calvinistic discipline. The leader of this party was
Thomas Cartwright, a theological professor at Cambridge, the
university which had produced the greater number of the reformers,
as it now produced the greater number of Puritans. In =1570=,
Cartwright was expelled from his Professorship. He sympathised with
_An Admonition to Parliament_ written in =1572= by two of his
disciples, and himself wrote _A Second Admonition to Parliament_, to
second their views. Cartwright was far from claiming for the
Puritans the position of a sect to be tolerated. He had no thought
of establishing religious liberty in his mind. He declared the
Presbyterian Church to be the only divinely appointed one, and asked
that all Englishmen should be forced to submit to its ordinances.
The civil magistrate was to have no control over its ministers. All
active religious feeling being enlisted either on the Papal or the
Puritanical side, Elizabeth's reformed, but not Puritan, Church
seemed likely to be crushed between two forces. It was saved by the
existence of a large body of men who cared for other things more
than for religious disputes, and who were ready to defend the Queen
as ruler of the nation without any special regard for the
ecclesiastical system which she maintained.
8. =Mariners and Pirates.=--Of all Elizabeth's subjects there were
none who stood their country in such good stead in the impending
conflict with Spain and the Papacy as the mariners. Hardy and
reckless, they cared little for theological distinctions or for
forms of Church government, their first instinct being to fill their
own purses either by honest trade if it might be, or by piracy if
that seemed likely to be more profitable. Even before Elizabeth's
accession, the Channel and the seas beyond it swarmed with English
pirates. Though the pirates cared nothing for the nationality of the
vessels which they plundered, it was inevitable that the greatest
loss should fall on Spain. Spain was the first maritime power in the
world, and her galleons as they passed up to Antwerp to exchange the
silks and spices of the East for the commodities of Europe, fell an
easy prey to the swift and well-armed cruisers which put out from
English harbours. The Spaniards retaliated by seizing English
sailors wherever they could lay their hands upon them, sometimes
hanging them out of hand, sometimes destroying them with starvation
and misery in fetid dungeons, sometimes handing them over to the
Inquisition--a court the function of which was the suppression of
heresy--in other words, to the torture-room or the stake.
9. =Westward Ho!=--Every year the hatred between the mariners of
Spain and England grew more bitter, and it was not long before
English sailors angered the king of Spain by crossing the Atlantic
to trade or plunder in the West Indies, where both the islands and
the mainland of Mexico and South America were full of Spanish
settlements. In those days a country which sent out colonies claimed
the sole right of trading with them; besides which the king of Spain
claimed a right of refusing to foreigners an entrance into his
American dominions because, towards the end of the fifteenth
century, Pope Alexander VI. being called on to mediate between Spain
and Portugal, had drawn a line on the map to the east of which was
to be the Portuguese colony of Brazil, whilst all the rest of
America to the west of it was to be Spanish. From this the Spaniards
reasoned that all America except Brazil was theirs by the gift of
the Pope--which in their eyes was equivalent to the gift of God.
English sailors refusing to recognise this pretension, sailed to the
Spanish settlements to trade, and attacked the Spanish officials who
tried to prevent them. The Spanish settlers were eager to get negro
slaves to cultivate their plantations, and Englishmen were equally
eager to kidnap negroes in Africa and to sell them in the West
Indies. A curious combination of the love of gain and of
Protestantism sprang up amongst the sailors, who had no idea that to
sell black men was in any way wrong. One engaged in this villanous
work explained how he had been saved from the perils of the sea by
'Almighty God, who never suffers his elect to perish!' There was
money enough to be got, and sometimes there would be hard fighting
and the gain or loss of all.
[Illustration: Sir Francis Drake, in his 43rd year: from the
engraving by Elstracke.]
10. =Francis Drake's Voyage to Panama. 1572.=--The noblest of these
mariners was Francis Drake. Sickened by one experience of the slave
trade, and refusing to take any further part in it, he flew at the
wealth of the Spanish Government. In =1572= he sailed for Nombre de
Dios, on the Atlantic side of the isthmus of Panama. Thither were
brought once a year gold and silver from the mines of Peru. In the
governor's house Drake found a pile of silver bars. "I have now," he
said to his men, "brought you to the mouth of the treasury of the
world." He himself was wounded, and his followers, having little
spirit to fight without their leader, were beaten off. "I am
resolved," he said somewhat later to a Spaniard, "by the help of
God, to reap some of the golden harvest which you have got out of
the earth and sent to Spain to trouble the earth." It was his firm
conviction that he was serving God in robbing the king of Spain.
Before he returned some Indians showed him from a tree on the
isthmus the waters of the Pacific, which no civilised people except
the Spaniards had ever navigated. Drake threw himself on his knees,
praying to God to give him life and to allow him to sail an English
vessel on those seas.
11. =The Seizure of Brill, and the Massacre of St. Bartholomew.
1572.=--Exiles from the Netherlands took refuge on the sea from
Alva's tyranny, and plundered Spanish vessels as Englishmen had done
before. In =1572= a party of these seized Brill and laid the
foundations of the Dutch Republic. They called on Charles IX. of
France to help them, and he (being under the influence of Coligny,
the leader of the Huguenots) was eager to make war on Spain on their
behalf. Charles's mother, Catherine de Medicis, was, however,
alarmed lest the Huguenots should grow too powerful, and frightened
her son with a tale that they were conspiring against him. He was an
excitable youth, and turned savagely on the Huguenots, encouraging a
fearful butchery of them, which is known as the Massacre of St.
Bartholomew, because it took place on August 24, which was St.
Bartholomew's day. Coligny himself was among the victims.
12. =The Growth of the Dutch Republic. 1572-1578.=--By this time the
provinces of Holland and Zeeland had risen against Spain. They
placed at their head the Prince of Orange with the title of
Stadtholder or Lieutenant, as if he had been still the lieutenant of
the king of Spain whom he resisted. The rebels had but a scanty
force wherewith to defend themselves against the vast armies of
Spain. Alva took town after town, sacked them, and butchered man,
woman and child within. In =1574= Leyden was saved from his attack.
Holland is below the sea-level, and the Dutch cut the dykes which
kept off the sea, and when the tide rushed in, sent flat-bottomed
vessels over what had once been land, and rescued the town from the
besiegers. Alva, disgusted at his failure, returned to Spain. In
=1576= his successor Requesens died. Spain, with all the wealth of
the Indies pouring into it, was impoverished by the vastness of the
work which Philip had undertaken in trying to maintain the power of
the Roman Catholic Church in all western Europe. The expenses of the
war in the Netherlands exhausted his treasury, and on the death of
Requesens, the Spanish army mutinied, plundered even that part of
the country which was friendly to Spain, and sacked Antwerp with
barbarous cruelty. Then the whole of the seventeen provinces of the
Netherlands drove out the Spaniards, and bound themselves by the
Pacification of Ghent into a confederate Republic. In =1578=
Alexander, duke of Parma, arrived as the Spanish governor. He was a
great warrior and statesman, and he won over the Catholic provinces
of the southern Netherlands to his side. By the Union of Utrecht the
Prince of Orange formed a new confederate republic of the seven
northern provinces, which were mainly Protestant.
13. =Quiet Times in England. 1572-1577.=--The Spaniards were no
longer able to interfere in England. Elizabeth was equally safe from
the side of France. In =1574= Charles IX. died, and was succeeded by
Elizabeth's old suitor Anjou as Henry III. There were fresh civil
wars which gave him enough to do at home. In =1573= Elizabeth sent
aid to the party of the young king in Scotland, and suppressed the
last remnants of Mary's party there. In England she pursued her old
policy. Men might think what they would, but they must not discuss
their opinions openly. There must be as little preaching as
possible, and when the clergy began to hold meetings called
prophesyings for discussion on the Scriptures, she ordered Grindal,
who had succeeded Parker as Archbishop of Canterbury, to suppress
them, and on his refusal in =1577= suspended him from his office,
and put down the prophesyings herself.
14. =Drake's Voyage. 1577-1580.=--Elizabeth had no sympathy with the
heroic Netherlanders, who fought for liberty and conscience, but she
had sympathy with the mariners who by fair means or foul brought
treasure into the realm. In =1577= Drake sailed for that Pacific
which he had long been eager to enter. Passing through the Straits
of Magellan, he found himself alone on the unknown ocean with the
'Pelican,' a little ship of 100 tons. He ranged up the coast of
South America, seizing treasure where he landed, but never doing any
cruel deed. The Spaniards, not thinking it possible that an English
ship could be there, took the 'Pelican' for one of their own
vessels, and were easily caught. At Tarapaca, for instance, Drake
found a Spaniard asleep with bars of silver by his side. At another
landing place he found eight llamas laden with silver. So he went
on, till he took a great vessel with jewels in plenty, thirteen
chests of silver coin, eighty pounds' weight of gold, and twenty-six
tons of silver. With all this he sailed home by way of the Cape of
Good Hope, arriving in England in =1580=, being the first commander
who had circumnavigated the globe.[17] The king of Spain was
furious, and demanded back the wealth of which his subjects had been
robbed. Elizabeth gave him good words, but not a penny of money or
money's worth.
[Footnote 17: Magellan died on the way, though his ship completed
the voyage round the world.]
[Illustration: Armour as worn during the reign of Elizabeth: from
the brass of Francis Clopton, 1577, at Long Melford, Suffolk.]
15. =Ireland and the Reformation. 1547.=--Since the death of Henry
VIII. the management of Ireland had been increasingly difficult. An
attempt had been made in the reign of Edward VI. to establish the
reformed religion. All that was then done had been overthrown by
Mary, and what Mary did was in turn overthrown by Elizabeth. As yet,
however, the orders of the English Government to make religious
changes in Ireland were of comparatively little importance. The
power of the Government did not reach far, and even in the districts
to which it extended there was none of that mental preparation for
the reception of the new doctrines which was to be found in England.
The Reformation was accepted by very few, except by English
officials, who were ready to accept anything to please the
Government. Those who clung to the old ways, however, were not at
all zealous for their faith, and there was as yet no likelihood that
any religious insurrection like the Pilgrimage of Grace or the
rising in the North would be heard of in Ireland. The lives of the
Celtic chiefs and the Anglo-Norman lords were passed in
blood-shedding and looseness of life, which made them very unfit to
be champions of any religion whatever.
16. =Ireland under Edward VI. and Mary. 1547-1558.=--The real
difficulty of the English Government in Ireland lay in its relations
with the Irish tribes, whether under Celtic chiefs or Anglo-Norman
lords. At the end of the reign of Edward VI. an attempt had been
made to revert to the better part of the policy of Henry VIII., and
the heads of the tribes were entrusted by the government with powers
to keep order in the hope that they would gradually settle down into
civilisation and obedience. Such a policy required almost infinite
patience on the part of the Government, and the Earl of Sussex, who
was Lord Deputy under Mary, began again the old mischief of making
warlike attacks upon the Irish which he had not force or money
enough to render effectual. It was Mary and not a Protestant
sovereign who first sent English colonists to occupy the lands of
the turbulent Irish in King's County and Queen's County--then much
smaller than at present. A war of extermination at once began. The
natives massacred the intruders and the intruders massacred the
natives, till--far on in Elizabeth's reign--the natives had been all
slaughtered or expelled. There was thus introduced into the heart of
Ireland a body of Englishmen who, no doubt, were far more advanced
in the arts of life than the Irish around them, but who treated the
Irish with utter contempt, and put them to death without mercy.
17. =Elizabeth and Ireland. 1558-1578.=--From the time of the
settlement of King's and Queen's Counties all chance of a peaceable
arrangement was at an end. Elizabeth had not money enough to pay an
army capable of subduing Ireland, nor had the Irish tribes
sufficient trust in one another to unite in national resistance.
There was, in fact, no Irish nation. Even Shan O'Neill, the most
formidable Irish opponent of the English Government, who was
predominant in the North during the early part of Elizabeth's reign,
failed because he tried to reduce the other Ulster chiefs to
subjection to himself, and in =1567= was overthrown by the
O'Donnells, and not by an English army. When the English officials
gained power, they were apt to treat the Irish as if they were
vermin to be destroyed. New attempts at colonisation were made, but
the Irish drove out the colonists, and Ireland was in a more chaotic
state than if it had been left to its own disorder.
18. =The Landing at Smerwick, and the Desmond Rising.
1579-1583.=--Elizabeth's servants were the more anxious to subdue
Ireland by the process of exterminating Irishmen, because they
believed that the Irish would welcome Spaniards if they came to
establish a government in Ireland hostile to Elizabeth. On the other
hand, the English Catholics, and especially the English Catholic
clergy in exile on the Continent, fancied, wrongly, that the Irish
were fighting for the papacy, and not for tribal independence, or,
rather, for bare life, which tribal independence alone secured. In
=1579= Sir James Fitzmaurice landed with a few men at Dingle, under
the authority of the Pope, but was soon defeated and slain. In
=1580= a large number of Spaniards and Italians landed at Smerwick,
but was overpowered and slaughtered by Lord Grey, the Lord Deputy.
Then the Earl of Desmond, the head of a branch of the family of
Fitzgerald, all-powerful in Munster, rose. The insurrection was put
down, and Desmond himself slain, in =1583=. It is said that in
=1582= no less than 30,000 perished--mostly of starvation--in a
single year. It is an English witness who tells us of the poor
wretches who survived, that 'out of every corner of the woods and
glens they came creeping forth upon their hands, for their legs
could not bear them; they spoke like ghosts crying out of their
graves; they did eat the dead carrions, happy where they could find
them.'
19. =The Jesuits in England. 1580.=--In England the landing of a
papal force at Smerwick produced the greater alarm because Parma
(see p. 450) had been gaining ground in the Netherlands, and the
time might soon come when a Spanish army would be available for the
invasion of England. For the present what the Government feared was
any interruption to the process by which the new religion was
replacing the old. In =1571= there had been an act of Parliament in
answer to the Papal Bull of Deposition (see p. 442), declaring all
who brought Bulls into the country, and all who were themselves
reconciled to the see of Rome, or who reconciled others to be
traitors, but for a long time no use was made by Elizabeth of these
powers. The Catholic exiles, however, had witnessed with sorrow the
gradual decay of their religion in England, and in =1568= William
Allen, one of their number, had founded a college at Douai (removed
in =1578= to Reims) as a seminary for missionaries to England. It
was not long before seminary priests, as the missionaries were
called, began to land in England to revive the zeal of their
countrymen, but it was not till =1577= that one of them, Cuthbert
Mayne, was executed, technically for bringing in a copy of a Bull of
a trivial character, but really for maintaining that Catholics would
be justified in rising to assist a foreign force sent to reduce
England to obedience to the Papacy. There were, in fact, two rival
powers inconsistent with one another. If the Papal power was to
prevail, the Queen's authority must be got rid of. If the Queen's
power was to prevail, the Pope's authority must be got rid of. In
=1580= two Jesuits, Campion and Parsons, landed. They brought with
them an explanation of the Bull of Deposition, which practically
meant that no one need act on it till it was convenient to do so.
They went about making converts and strengthening the lukewarm in
the resolution to stand by their faith.
20. =The Recusancy Laws. 1581.=--Elizabeth in her dread of religious
strife had done her best to silence religious discussion and even
religious teaching. Men in an age of religious controversy are eager
to believe something. All the more vigorous of the Protestants were
at this time Puritans, and now the more vigorous of those who could
not be Puritans welcomed the Jesuits with joy. There were never many
Jesuits in England, but for a time they gave life and vigour to the
seminary priests who were not Jesuits. In =1581= Parliament, seeing
nothing in what had happened but a conspiracy against the Crown,
passed the first of the acts which became known as the Recusancy
laws. In addition to the penalties on reconciliation to Rome and the
introduction of Bulls, fines and imprisonment were to be inflicted
for hearing or saying mass, and fines upon lay recusants--that is to
say, persons who refused to go to church. Catholics were from this
time frequently subjected to torture to drive them to give
information which would lead to the apprehension of the priests.
Campion was arrested and executed after cruel torture; Parsons
escaped. If the Government and the Parliament did not see the whole
of the causes of the Jesuit revival, they were not wrong in seeing
that there was political danger. Campion was an enthusiast. Parsons
was a cool-headed intriguer, and he continued from the Continent to
direct the threads of a conspiracy which aimed at Elizabeth's life.
[Illustration: Hall of Burghley House, Northamptonshire, built about
1580: from Drummond's _Histories of Noble British Families_, vol.
i.]
21. =Growing Danger of Elizabeth. 1580-1584.=--Elizabeth was seldom
startled, but her ministers were the more frightened because the
power of Spain was growing. In =1580= Philip took possession of
Portugal and the Portuguese colonies, whilst in the Netherlands
Parma was steadily gaining ground. Elizabeth had long been nursing
the idea of the Alençon marriage (see p. 446), and in =1581= it
seemed as if she was in earnest about it. She entertained the Duke
at Greenwich, gave him a kiss and a ring, then changing her mind
sent him off to the Netherlands, where he hoped to be appointed by
the Dutch to the sovereignty of the independent states. In the
spring of =1582= a fanatic, Jaureguy, tried to murder the Prince of
Orange at Philip's instigation. Through the summer of that year
Parsons and Allen were plotting with Philip and the Duke of Guise,
for the assassination of Elizabeth, on the understanding that as
soon as Elizabeth had been killed, Guise was to send or lead an army
to invade England. They hoped that such an army would receive
assistance from Scotland, where the young James had become the tool
of a Catholic intriguer whom he made Duke of Lennox. Philip,
however, was too dilatory to succeed. In August James was seized by
some Protestant Lords, and Lennox was soon driven from the country.
In =1583= there was a renewal of the danger. The foolish Alençon,
wishing to carve out a principality for himself, made a violent
attack on Antwerp and other Flemish towns which had allied
themselves with him, and was consequently driven from the country;
whilst Parma, taking advantage of this split amongst his enemies,
conquered most of the towns--Antwerp, however, being still able to
resist. He now held part of the coast line, and a Spanish invasion
of England from the Netherlands once more became feasible. In
November =1583= a certain Francis Throgmorton, having been arrested
and racked, made known to Elizabeth the whole story of the intended
invasion of the army of Guise. In January =1584= she sent the
Spanish ambassador, Mendoza, out of England. On June 29 Balthazar
Gerard assassinated the Prince of Orange.
22. =The Association. 1584-1585.=--Those who had planned the murder
of the Prince of Orange were planning the murder of Elizabeth. In
their eyes she was a usurper, who by main force held her subjects
from all hope of salvation by keeping them in ignorance of the
teaching of the true Church, and they accordingly drew the inference
that it was lawful to murder her and to place Mary on her throne.
They did not see that they had to do with a nation and not with a
queen alone, and that, whether the nation was as yet Protestant or
not, it was heart and soul with Elizabeth against assassins and
invaders. In November =1584=, at the instigation of the Council, the
mass of Englishmen--irrespective of creed--bound themselves in an
association not only to defend the Queen, but, in case of her
murder, to put to death the person for whose sake the crime had been
committed--or, in other words, to send Mary to the grave instead of
to the throne. In =1585= this association, with considerable
modifications, was confirmed by Parliament. At the same time an act
was passed banishing all Jesuits and seminary priests, and directing
that they should be put to death if they returned.
23. =Growth of Philip's Power. 1584-1585.=--In the meantime Philip's
power was still growing. The wretched Alençon died in =1584=, and a
far distant cousin of the childless Henry III., Henry king of
Navarre, who was a Huguenot, became heir to the French throne. Guise
and the ardent Catholics formed themselves into a league to exclude
Huguenots from the succession, and placed themselves under the
direction of the king of Spain. A civil war broke out once more in
=1585=, and if the league should win (as at first seemed likely)
Philip would be able to dispose of the resources of France in
addition to his own. As Guise had now enough to do at home, Philip
took the invasion of England into his own hands. He had first to
extend his power in the Netherlands. In August the great port of
Antwerp surrendered to Parma. The Dutch had offered to make
Elizabeth their sovereign, and, though she had prudently refused,
she sent an army to their aid, but neutralised the gift by placing
the wretched Leicester at its head, and by giving him not a penny
wherewith to pay his men. In =1586=, after an attempt (after
Alençon's fashion) to seize the government for himself, Leicester
returned to England, having accomplished nothing. What Elizabeth did
not do was done by a crowd of young Englishmen who pressed over to
the Netherlands to fight as volunteers for Dutch freedom. The best
known of these was Sir Philip Sidney, whose head and heart alike
seemed to qualify him for a foremost place amongst the new
generation of Englishmen. Unhappily he was slain in battle near
Zutphen. As he lay dying he handed a cup of water untasted to
another wounded man. 'Thy necessity,' he said to him, 'is greater
than mine.' Parma took Zutphen, and the territory of the Dutch
Republic--the bulwark of England--was the smaller by its loss. By
sea England more than held her own, and in =1586= Drake returned
from a voyage to the West Indies laden with spoils.
24. =Babington's Plot, and the Trial of Mary Stuart. 1586.=--The
Spanish invasion being still delayed, a new plot for murdering
Elizabeth was formed. A number of young Catholics (of whom Anthony
Babington was the most prominent) had been allowed to remain at
Court by Elizabeth, who was perfectly fearless. Acting under the
instructions of a priest named Ballard, they now sought basely to
take advantage of their easy access to her person to assassinate
her. They were detected and executed, and Walsingham, the Secretary
of State who conducted the detective department of the government,
discovered, or said that he had discovered, evidence of Mary
Stuart's approving knowledge of the conspiracy. Elizabeth's servants
felt that there was but one way of saving the life of the queen, and
that was by taking the life of her whose existence made it worth
while to assassinate Elizabeth. Mary was brought to trial and
condemned to death on a charge of complicity in Babington's plot.
When Parliament met it petitioned Elizabeth to execute the sentence.
Elizabeth could not make up her mind. She knew that Mary's execution
would save herself and the country from enormous danger, but she
shrank from ordering the deed to be done. She signed the warrant for
Mary's death, and then asked Mary's gaoler Paulet to save her from
responsibility by murdering his prisoner. On Paulet's refusal she
continued her vacillations, till the Council authorised Davison,
Walsingham's colleague in the Secretaryship, to send off the
warrant without further orders.
25. =Execution of Mary Stuart. 1587.=--On February 8, =1587=, Mary
Stuart was beheaded at Fotheringhay. Elizabeth carried out to the
last the part which she had assumed, threw the blame on Davison,
dismissed him from her service, and fined him heavily. After Mary's
death the attack on England would have to be conducted in open day.
It would be no advantage to Philip and the Pope that Elizabeth
should be murdered if her place was to be taken, not by Mary, but by
Mary's Protestant son, James of Scotland.
CHAPTER XXX
ELIZABETH'S YEARS OF TRIUMPH. 1587-1603
LEADING DATES
Reign of Elizabeth, 1558-1603
Drake singes the King of Spain's beard 1587
The defeat of the Armada 1588
The rising of O'Neill 1594
The taking of Cadiz 1596
Essex arrives in Ireland 1599
Mountjoy arrives in Ireland 1600
The Monopolies withdrawn 1601
Conquest of Ireland, and death of Elizabeth 1603
1. =The Singeing of the King of Spain's Beard. 1587.=--After Mary's
execution Philip claimed the crown of England for himself or his
daughter the Infanta Isabella, on the plea that he was descended
from a daughter of John of Gaunt, and prepared a great fleet in the
Spanish and Portuguese harbours for the invasion of England. In
attempting to overthrow Elizabeth he was eager not merely to
suppress English Protestantism, but to put an end to English
smuggling and piracy in Spanish America, and to stop the assistance
given by Englishmen to the Netherlanders who had rebelled against
him. Before his fleet was ready to sail Drake appeared off his
coast, running into his ports, burning his store-ships, and thus
making an invasion impossible for that year (=1587=). Drake, as he
said on his return, had singed the king of Spain's beard.
2. =The Approach of the Armada. 1588.=--The Invincible Armada,[18]
as some foolish Spaniards called Philip's great fleet, set out at
last in =1588=. It was to sail up the Channel to Flanders, and to
transport Parma and his army to England. Parma's soldiers were the
best disciplined veterans in Europe, while Elizabeth's were raw
militia, who had never seen a shot fired in actual war. If,
therefore, Parma succeeded in landing, it would probably go hard
with England. It was, therefore, in England's interest to fight the
Armada at sea rather than on land.
[Footnote 18: 'Armada' was the Spanish name for any armed fleet.]
[Illustration: Sir Martin Frobisher, died 1594: from a picture
belonging to the Earl of Carlisle.]
3. =The Equipment of the Armada. 1588.=--Even at sea the odds were
in appearance against the English. The Spanish ships were not indeed
so much larger than the largest English vessels as has often been
said, but they were somewhat larger, and they were built so as to
rise much higher out of the water, and to carry a greater number of
men. In fact, the superiority was all on the English side. In great
military or naval struggles the superiority of the victor is usually
a superiority of intelligence, which shows itself in the preparation
of weapons as much as in conduct in action. The Spanish ships were
prepared for a mode of warfare which had hitherto been customary. In
such ships the soldiers were more numerous than the sailors, and the
decks were raised high above the water, in order that the soldiers
might command with their muskets the decks of smaller vessels at
close quarters. The Spaniards, trusting to this method of fighting,
had not troubled themselves to improve their marine artillery. The
cannon of their largest ships were few, and the shot which they were
capable of firing was light. Philip's system of requiring absolute
submission in Church and State had resulted in an uninventive frame
of mind in those who carried out his orders. He had himself shown
how little he cared for ability in his selection of an admiral for
his fleet. That post having become vacant by the death of the best
seaman in Spain, Philip ordered the Duke of Medina Sidonia to take
his place. The Duke answered--with perfect truth--that he knew
nothing about the sea and nothing about war; but Philip, in spite of
his candour, bade him go, and go he did.
4. =The Equipment of the English Fleet. 1588.=--Very different was
the equipment of the English fleet. Composed partly of the queen's
ships, but mainly of volunteers from every port, it was commanded by
Lord Howard of Effingham, a Catholic by conviction. The very
presence of such a man was a token of a patriotic fervour of which
Philip and the Jesuits had taken no account, but which made the
great majority of Catholics draw their swords for their queen and
country. With him were old sailors like Frobisher, who had made his
way through the ice of Arctic seas, or like Drake, who had beaten
Spaniards till they knew their own superiority. That superiority was
based not merely on greater skill as sailors, but on the possession
of better ships. English shipbuilders had adopted an improved style
of naval architecture, having constructed vessels which would sail
faster and be more easily handled than those of the older fashion,
and--what was of still greater importance--had built them so as to
carry more and heavier cannon. Hence, the English fleet, on board of
which the number of sailors exceeded that of the soldiers, was in
reality--if only it could avoid fighting at close quarters--far
superior to that of the enemy.
[Illustration: The Spanish Armada. Fight between the English and
Spanish fleets off the Isle of Wight, July 25, 1588: from tapestry
formerly in the House of Lords.]
5. =The Defeat of the Armada. 1588.=--When the Armada was sighted at
the mouth of the Channel, the English commander was playing bowls
with his captains on Plymouth Hoe. Drake refused to break off his
amusement, saying that there was time to finish the game and to beat
the Spaniards too. The wind was blowing strongly from the
south-west, and he recommended Lord Howard to let the Spaniards
pass, that the English fleet might follow them up with the wind
behind it. When once they had gone by they were at the mercy of
their English pursuers, who kept out of their way whenever the
Spaniards turned in pursuit. The superiority of the English gunnery
soon told, and, after losing ships in the voyage up the Channel, the
Armada put into Calais. The English captains sent in fire-ships and
drove the Spaniards out. Then came a fight off Gravelines--if fight
it could be called--in which the helpless mass of the Armada was
riddled with English shot. The wind rose into a storm, and pursuers
and pursued were driven on past the coast of Flanders, where Parma's
soldiers were blockaded by a Dutch fleet. Parma had hoped that the
Armada when it came would set him free, and convoy him across to
England. As he saw the tall ships of Spain hurrying past before the
enemy and the storm, he learnt that the enterprise on which he had
set his heart could never be carried out.
6. =The Destruction of the Armada. 1588.=--The Spanish fleet was
driven northwards without hope of return, and narrowly escaped wreck
on the flats of Holland. "There was never anything pleased me
better," wrote Drake, as he followed hard, "than seeing the enemy
flying with a southerly wind to the northwards.... With the grace of
God, if we live, I doubt not, ere it be long, so to handle the
matter with the Duke of Sidonia as he shall wish himself at St. Mary
Port[19] amongst his orange trees." Before long even Drake had had
enough. Elizabeth, having with her usual economy kept the ships
short of powder, they were forced to come back. The Spaniards had
been too roughly handled to return home by the way they came. Round
the north of Scotland and the west of Ireland they went, strewing
the coast with wrecks. About 120 of their ships had entered the
Channel, but only 54 returned. "I sent you," said Philip to his
admiral, "to fight against men, and not with the winds." Elizabeth,
too, credited the storms with her success. She struck a medal with
the inscription, "God blew with his wind and they were scattered."
The winds had done their part, but the victory was mainly due to the
seamanship of English mariners and the skill of English shipwrights.
[Footnote 19: A place near Cadiz where the Duke's residence was.]
[Illustration: Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618) and his eldest son
Walter, at the age of eight: from a picture, dated 1602, belonging
to Sir J. F. Lennard, Bart.]
7. =Philip II. and France. 1588-1593.=--Philip's hopes of
controlling France were before long baffled as completely as his
hopes of controlling England. In =1588= Guise, the partisan of
Spain, was murdered at Blois by the order of the king in his very
presence. In =1589= Henry III. was murdered in revenge by a fanatic,
and the Huguenot king of Navarre claimed the crown as Henry IV. The
League declared that no Huguenot should reign in France. A struggle
ensued, and twice when Henry seemed to be gaining the upper hand
Philip sent Parma to aid the League. The feeling of the French
people was against a Huguenot king, but it was also against Spanish
interference. When in =1593= Henry IV. declared himself a Catholic,
Paris cheerfully submitted to him, and its example was speedily
followed by the rest of France. Elizabeth saw in Henry IV. a king
whose position as a national sovereign resisting Spanish
interference much resembled her own, and in =1589= and again in
=1591= she sent him men and money. A close alliance against Spain
sprang up between France and England.
8. =Maritime Enterprises. 1589-1596.=--It was chiefly at sea,
however, that Englishmen revenged themselves for the attack of the
Armada. In =1592= Drake and Sir John Norris sacked Corunna but
failed to take Lisbon. Other less notable sailors plundered and
destroyed in the West Indies. In =1595= Drake died at sea. In the
same year Sir Walter Raleigh, who was alike distinguished as a
courtier, a soldier, and a sailor, sailed up the Orinoco in search
of wealth. In =1596= Raleigh, together with Lord Howard of Effingham
and the young Earl of Essex, who was in high favour with the Queen,
took and sacked Cadiz. Essex was generous and impetuous, but
intensely vain, and the victory was followed by a squabble between
the commanders as to their respective merits.
9. =Increasing Prosperity.=--It was not so much the victories as the
energy which made the victories possible that diffused wealth and
prosperity over England. Trade grew together with piracy and war.
Manufactures increased, and the manufacturers growing in numbers
needed to be fed. Landed proprietors, in consequence, found it
profitable to grow corn instead of turning their arable lands into
pasture, as they had done at the beginning of the century. The
complaints about inclosures (see pp. 368, 415) died away. The
results of wealth appeared in the show and splendour of the court,
where men decked themselves in gorgeous attire, but still more in
the gradual rise of the general standard of comfort.
10. =Buildings.=--Even in Mary's days the good food of Englishmen
had been the wonder of foreigners. "These English," said a Spaniard,
"have their houses of sticks and dirt, but they fare commonly as
well as the king." In Elizabeth's time the houses were improved.
Many windows, which had, except in the houses of the great, been
guarded with horn or lattice, were now glazed, and even in the
mansions of the nobility large windows stood in striking contrast
with the narrow openings of the buildings of the middle ages. Glass
was welcome, because men no longer lived--as they had lived in the
days when internal wars were frequent--in fortified castles, where,
for the sake of defence, the openings were narrow and infrequent.
Elizabethan manor-houses, as they are now termed, sometimes built in
the shape of the letter E, in honour, as is sometimes supposed, of
the Queen's name, rose all over the country to take the place of the
old castles. They had chimneys to carry off the smoke, which, in
former days, had, in all but the largest houses, been allowed to
escape through a hole in the roof. See pp. 466, 467, 469-471.
[Illustration: A mounted soldier at the end of the sixteenth
century: from a broadside printed in 1596.]
[Illustration: Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire; built by Thorpe for
Sir Francis Willoughby about 1580-1588.]
[Illustration: Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire; built by Elizabeth,
Countess of Shrewsbury, about 1597.]
11. =Furniture.=--The furniture within the houses underwent a change
as great as the houses themselves. When Elizabeth came to the throne
people of the middle class were content to lie on a straw pallet,
with a log of wood, or at the best a bag of chaff, under their
heads. It was a common saying that pillows were fit only for sick
women. Before many years had passed comfortable bedding had been
introduced. Pewter platters and tin spoons replaced wooden ones.
Along with these improvements was noticed a universal chase after
wealth, and farmers complained that landlords not only exacted
higher rents, but themselves engaged in the sale of the produce of
their lands.
12. =Growing Strength of the House of Commons.=--This increase of
general prosperity could not but strengthen the House of Commons. It
was mainly composed of country gentlemen, and it had been the policy
of the Tudors to rely upon that class as a counterpoise to the old
nobility. Many of the country gentlemen were employed as Justices of
the Peace, and Elizabeth had gladly increased their powers. When,
therefore, they came to fulfil their duties as members of
Parliament, they were not mere talkers unacquainted with business,
but practical men, who had been used to deal with their own local
affairs before being called on to discuss the affairs of the
country. Various causes made their opinions more important as the
reign went on. In the first place, the national uprising against
Spain drew with it a rapid increase of Protestantism in the younger
generation, and, for this reason, the House of Commons, which, at
the beginning of the reign, represented only a Protestant minority
in the nation itself (see p. 428), at the end of the reign
represented a Protestant majority, and gained strength in
consequence. In the second place, Puritanism tended to develop
independence of character, whilst the queen was not only unable to
overawe the Puritan members of the House, but, unlike her father,
had no means of keeping the more worldly-minded in submission by the
distribution of abbey lands.
[Illustration: E-shaped house, Beaudesert, Staffordshire; built by
Thomas, Lord Paget, about 1601.]
13. =Archbishop Whitgift and the Court of High Commission.
1583.=--The Jesuit attack in =1580= and =1581= strengthened the
queen's resolution to put an end to the divisions which weakened the
English Church, as she was still afraid lest Puritanism, if
unchecked, might give offence to her more moderately-minded subjects
and drive them into the arms of the Papacy. In =1583=, on Grindal's
death, she appointed to the Archbishopric of Canterbury Whitgift,
who had taken a leading part in opposing Cartwright (see p. 446).
Whitgift held that as questions about vestments and ceremonies were
unimportant, the queen's pleasure in such matters ought to be the
rule of the Church. He was, however, a strict disciplinarian, and he
was as anxious as the queen to force into conformity those clergy
who broke the unity of the Church for the sake of what he regarded
as mere crotchets of their own, especially as some of them were
violent assailants of the established order. In virtue of a clause
in the Act of Supremacy, passed in =1559=, the queen had in that
year erected a Court of High Commission. Though many laymen were
members of this court, they seldom attended its sittings, and it was
practically managed by bishops and ecclesiastical lawyers. Its
business was to enforce conformity on the clergy, and now under
Whitgift it acted most energetically, sitting permanently, and
driving from their livings and committing to prison clergymen who
refused to conform.
14. =The House of Commons and Puritanism. 1584.=--The severity of
the High Commission roused some of the Puritan clergy to attempt--in
private meetings--to bring into existence something of the system of
Presbyterianism, but the attempt was soon abandoned. Few amongst the
Protestant laity had any liking for Presbyterianism, which they
regarded as oppressive and intolerant, and it had no deep roots even
amongst the Puritan clergy. If many members of the House of Commons
were attracted to Puritanism, as opposed to Presbyterianism, it was
partly because at the time of a national struggle against Rome, they
preferred those amongst the clergy whose views were most
antagonistic to those of Rome; but still more because they admired
the Puritans as defenders of morality. Not only were the Church
courts oppressive and meddlesome, but plain men were disgusted at a
system in which ignorant and lazy ministers who conformed to the
Prayer Book were left untouched, whilst able and energetic preachers
who refused to adopt its ceremonies were silenced.
[Illustration: Ingestre Hall, Staffordshire; built about 1601.]
15. =The Separatists.=--The desire for a higher standard of
morality, which made so many support the Puritan demand for a
further reformation of the Church, drove others to denounce the
Church as apostate. Robert Browne, a clergyman, was the first to
declare in favour of a system which was neither Episcopal nor
Presbyterian. He held it to be the duty of all true Christians to
separate themselves from the Church, and to form congregations
apart, to which only those whose religion and morality were beyond
question should be admitted. These separatists, as they called
themselves, were known as Brownists in common speech. Unfortunately
their zeal made them uncharitably contemptuous of those who were
less zealous than themselves, and it was from amongst them that
there came forth--beginning in =1588=--a series of virulent and
libellous attacks on the bishops, known as the Marprelate Tracts,
printed anonymously at a secret press. Browne and his followers
advocated complete religious liberty--denying the right of the
State to interfere with the conscience. The doctrine was too
advanced for general acceptance, and the violence of the Marprelate
Tracts gave offence even to the Puritans. Englishmen might differ as
to what sort of church the national church should be, but almost all
were as yet agreed that there ought to be one national church and
not a number of disconnected sects. In =1593= an act of Parliament
was passed imposing punishment on those who attended conventicles or
private religious assemblies, and in the course of the year three of
the leading separatists--Barrow, Greenwood, and Penry--were hanged,
on charges of sedition.
16. =Whitgift and Hooker.=--The Church of England would certainly
not have sustained itself against the Puritans unless it had found a
champion of a higher order than Whitgift. Whitgift maintained its
organisation, but he did no more. Cranmer, at the beginning of the
Reformation, had declared the Bible as interpreted by the writers of
the first six centuries to be the test of doctrine, but this
assertion had been met during the greater part of Elizabeth's reign,
on the one hand by the Catholics, who asserted that the Church of
the first six centuries differed much from the Church of England of
their day, and on the other hand by the Puritans, who asserted that
the testimony of the first six centuries was irrelevant, and that
the Bible alone was to be consulted. Whitgift had called both
parties to obedience, on the ground that they ought to submit to the
queen in indifferent matters. Hooker in the opening of his
_Ecclesiastical Polity_ called the Puritans to peace. "This unhappy
controversy," he declared, "about the received ceremonies and
discipline of the Church of England, which hath so long time
withdrawn so many of her ministers from their principal work and
employed their studies in contentious oppositions, hath, by the
unnatural growth and dangerous fruits thereof, made known to the
world that it never received blessing from the Father of peace."
Hooker's teaching was distinguished by the importance which he
assigned to 'law,' as against the blind acceptance of Papal
decisions on the one side and against the Puritan reverence for the
letter of the scriptures on the other. The Puritans were wrong, as
he taught, not because they disobeyed the queen, but because they
did not recognise that God revealed Himself in the natural laws of
the world as well as in the letter of Scripture. "Of law," he wrote,
"there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom
of God, her voice the harmony of the world: all things in heaven and
earth do her homage--the very least as feeling her care, and the
greatest as not exempted from her power: both angels and men and
creatures of what condition soever--though each in different sort
and manner, yet all with universal consent--admiring her as the
mother of their peace and joy." It was therefore unnecessary,
according to Hooker's teaching, to defend certain usages on the
ground of their sanction by tradition or by Papal authority, as it
was unreasonable to attack them on the ground that they were not
mentioned in Scripture. It was sufficient that they were fitting
expressions of the feelings of reverence which had been implanted by
God in human nature itself.
[Illustration: Coaches in the reign of Elizabeth: from
_Archæologia_.]
17. =Spenser, Shakspere, and Bacon.=--With the stately periods of
Hooker English prose entered on a new stage. For the first time it
sought to charm and to invigorate, as well as to inform the world.
In Spenser and Shakspere are to be discerned the same influences as
those which made Hooker great. They, too, are filled with reverence
for the reign of law. Spenser, in his _Faerie Queen_, set forth the
greatness of man in following the laws which rule the moral
world--the laws of purity and temperance and justice; whilst
Shakspere, in the plays which he now began to pour forth, taught
them to recognise the penalties which follow hard on him who
disregards not only the moral but also the physical laws of the
world in which he lives, and to appraise the worth of man by what he
is and not by the dogmas which he accepts. That nothing might be
wanting to point out the ways in which future generations were to
walk, young Francis Bacon began to dream of a larger science than
had hitherto been possible--a science based on a reverent inquiry
into the laws of nature.
[Illustration: William Shakspere: from the bust on his tomb at
Stratford-on-Avon.]
18. =Condition of the Catholics. 1588-1603.=--Bacon cared for many
matters, and one of his earliest recommendations to Elizabeth had
been to make a distinction between the Catholics who would take an
oath to defend her against all enemies and those who would not. The
patriotism with which many Catholics had taken her side when the
Armada appeared ought to have procured the acceptance of this
proposal. It is seldom, however, that either men or nations change
their ways till long after the time when they ought to change them.
Spain and the Pope still threatened, and all Catholics were still
treated as allies of Spain and the Pope, and the laws against them
were made even more severe during the remainder of the reign.
19. =Irish Difficulties. 1583-1594.=--The dread of a renewal of a
Spanish invasion was productive of even greater mischief in Ireland
than in England. After the suppression of the Desmond insurrection,
an attempt was made to colonise the desolate lands of Munster (see
p. 453) with English. The attempt failed, chiefly because--though
courtiers willingly accepted large grants of lands--English farmers
refused to go to Ireland in sufficient numbers to till the soil. On
the other hand, Irishmen enough reappeared to claim their old lands,
to rob, and sometimes murder, the few settlers who came from
England. The settlers retaliated by acts of violence. All over
Ireland the soldiers, left without pay, spoiled and maltreated the
unfortunate inhabitants. The Irish, exasperated by their cruelty,
longed for someone to take up their cause, and in =1594= a rising in
Ulster was headed by Hugh O'Neill, known in England as the Earl of
Tyrone. How bitter the Irish feeling was against England is shown by
the fact that the other Ulster chiefs, who usually quarrelled with
one another, now placed themselves under O'Neill.
20. =O'Neill and the Earl of Essex. 1595-1600.=--In =1595= O'Neill
applied to the king of Spain for help; but Spain was weaker now than
in former years, and though Philip promised help, he died in =1598=
without fulfilling his engagement, being succeeded by his son,
Philip III. In the same year O'Neill utterly defeated an English
army under Bagenal on the Blackwater. All Celtic Ireland rose in his
support, and in =1599= Elizabeth sent her favourite, Essex, to
conquer Ireland in good earnest, lest it should fall into the hands
of the king of Spain. Essex, through mismanagement, failed entirely,
and after a great part of his army had melted away he came back to
England without leave. On his arrival, knowing Elizabeth's fondness
for him, he hoped to surprise her into forgiveness of his
disobedience, and rushed into Elizabeth's presence in his muddy and
travel-stained clothes.
[Illustration: Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex, K.G.;
1567-1601: from a painting by Van Somer, dated 1599, belonging to
the Earl of Essex.]
[Illustration: Queen Elizabeth, 1558-1603: from a painting belonging
to the University of Cambridge.]
21. =Essex's Imprisonment and Execution. 1599-1601.=--The queen, who
was not accustomed to allow even her favourites to run away from
their posts without permission, ordered him into confinement. In
=1600=, indeed, she restored him to liberty, but forbade him to come
to court. Essex could not brook the disgrace, especially as the
queen made him suffer in his pocket for his misconduct. As she had
little money to give away, Elizabeth was in the habit of rewarding
her courtiers by grants of monopoly--that is to say, of the sole
right of selling certain articles, thus enabling them to make a
profit by asking a higher price than they could have got if they had
been subjected to competition. To Essex she had given a monopoly of
sweet wines for a term of years, and now that the term was at an end
she refused to renew the grant. Early in =1601= Essex--professing
not to want to injure the queen, but merely to force her to change
her ministers--rode at the head of a few followers into the City,
calling on the citizens to rise in his favour. He was promptly
arrested, and in the course of the enquiries made into his conduct
it was discovered that when he was in Ireland he had entered into
treasonable negotiations with James VI. At his trial, Bacon, who had
been most kindly treated by Essex, shocked at the disclosure of
these traitorous proceedings, turned against him, and, as a lawyer,
argued strongly that he had been guilty. The Earl was convicted and
executed.
22. =Mountjoy's Conquest of Ireland. 1600-1603.=--In =1600=, after
Essex had deserted Ireland, Lord Mountjoy was sent to take his
place. He completed the conquest systematically, building forts as
places of retreat for his soldiers whenever they were attacked by
overwhelming numbers, and from which he could send out flying
columns to devastate the country after the enemy had retreated. In
=1601= a Spanish fleet and a small Spanish army at last arrived to
the help of the Irish, and seized Kinsale. The English forces hemmed
them in, defeated the Irish army which came to their support, and
compelled the Spaniards to withdraw. The horrid work of conquering
Ireland by starvation was carried to the end. "No spectacle," wrote
Mountjoy's English secretary, "was more frequent in the ditches of
the towns, and especially in wasted countries, than to see
multitudes of these poor people dead, with their mouths all coloured
green by eating nettles, docks, and all things they could rend up
above ground." In one place a band of women enticed little children
to come among them, and murdered them for food. At last, in =1603=,
O'Neill submitted. Ireland had been conquered by England as it had
never been conquered before.
23. =Parliament and the Monopolies. 1601.=--The conquest of Ireland
was expensive and in =1601= Elizabeth summoned Parliament to ask for
supplies. The House of Commons voted the money cheerfully, but
raised an outcry against the monopolies. Elizabeth knew when to give
way, and she announced her intention of cancelling all monopolies
which could be shown to be burdensome. "I have more cause to thank
you all than you me," she said to the Commons when they waited on
her to express their gratitude; "for had I not received a knowledge
from you, I might have fallen into the lap of an error, only for
lack of true information. I have ever used to set the last
judgment-day before mine eyes, and so to rule as I shall be judged
to answer before a higher Judge--to whose judgment-seat I do appeal,
that never thought was cherished in my heart that tended not to my
people's good. Though you have had, and may have, many princes, more
mighty and wise, sitting in this seat, yet you never had, or ever
shall have, any that will be more careful and loving."
[Illustration: William Cecil, Lord Burghley, K.G., 1520-1598: from a
painting in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.]
24. =The Last Days of Elizabeth. 1601-1603.=--These were the last
words spoken by Elizabeth to her people. She had many faults, but
she cared for England, and, more than any one else, she had made
England united and prosperous. She had found it distracted, but by
her moderation she had staved off civil war, till the country had
rallied round the throne. No doubt those who worked most hard
towards this great end were men like Burghley and Walsingham in the
State, and men like Drake and Raleigh at sea; but it was Elizabeth
who, being what she was, had given to each his opportunity. If
either Edward VI. or Mary had been in her place, such men would have
found no sphere in which their work could have been done, and,
instead of telling of 'the spacious times of great Elizabeth,' the
historian would have had to narrate the progress of civil strife and
of the mutual conflict of ever-narrowing creeds. The last days of
the great queen were gloomy, as far as she was personally concerned.
Burghley, the wisest of her ministers, died in =1598=. In his last
days he had urged the queen to bring to an end the war with Spain,
which no longer served any useful purpose; and when Essex pleaded
for its continuance, the aged statesman opened the Bible at the
text, "Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days."
In =1603= Elizabeth herself died at the age of sixty-nine. According
to law, the heir to the crown was William Seymour, who, being the
son of the Earl of Hertford and Lady Catherine Grey, inherited the
claims of the Suffolk line (see pp. 411, 435). There were, however,
doubts about his legitimacy, as, though his parents had been married
in due form, the ceremony had taken place in private, and it was
believed by many that it had never taken place at all. Elizabeth had
always refused to allow her heir to be designated; but as death
approached she indicated her preference for James, as having claim
to the inheritance by descent from her own eldest aunt, Margaret
(see p. 411). "My seat," she said, "hath been the seat of kings, and
I will have no rascal to succeed me." "And who," she added, "should
that be but our cousin of Scotland?"
_Books recommended for further study of Part V._
BREWER, J. S. The Reign of Henry VIII. from his Accession to the
Death of Wolsey.
DIXON, CANON R. W. History of the Church of England from the
Abolition of the Roman Jurisdiction.
FROUDE, J. A. History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the
Death of Elizabeth. Vols, v.-xii.
MOTLEY, J. L. The Rise of the Dutch Republic.
------- The History of the United Netherlands.
MULLINGER, J. B. History of the University of Cambridge. Vol. ii.
STRYPE, J. Annals of the Reformation.
------- Life and Acts of Aylmer.
------- " " Grindal.
------- " " Whitgift.
NICOLAS, SIR W. H. Life of Sir C. Hatton.
------- " W. Davison.
SPEDDING, J. Letters and Life of Francis Bacon. Vol. i.-iii. p. 58.
EDWARDS, E. The Life of Sir W. Raleigh.
FISHER, H. A. L. The Political History of England. Vol. v. From the
Accession of Henry VII. to the Death of Henry VIII. (1485-1547).
POLLARD, A. F. The Political History of England. Vol. vi. From the
Accession of Edward VI. to the Death of Elizabeth (1547-1603).
PART VI
THE PURITAN REVOLUTION. 1603-1660
CHAPTER XXXI
JAMES I. 1603-1625
LEADING DATES
Accession of James I. 1603
The Hampton Court Conference 1604
Gunpowder Plot 1605
Foundation of Virginia 1607
The Great Contract 1610
Beginning of the Thirty Years' War 1618
Foundation of New England 1620
Condemnation of the Monopolies and fall of Bacon 1621
Prince Charles's visit to Madrid 1623
Breach with Spain 1624
Death of James I. 1625
1. =The Peace with Spain. 1603-1604.=--At the end of Elizabeth's
reign there had been much talk of various claimants to the throne,
but when she died no one thought seriously of any one but James. The
new king at once put an end to the war with Spain, though no actual
treaty of peace was signed till =1604=. James gave his confidence to
Sir Robert Cecil, Lord Burghley's second son, whom he continued in
the office of Secretary of State, which had been conferred on him by
Elizabeth. The leader of the war-party was Raleigh, who was first
dismissed from his offices and afterwards accused of treason, on the
charge of having invited the Spaniards to invade England. It is most
unlikely that the charge was true, but as Raleigh was angry at his
dismissal, he may have spoken rashly. He was condemned to death, but
James commuted the sentence to imprisonment.
2. =The Hampton Court Conference. 1604.=--The most important
question which James had to decide on his accession was that of
religious toleration. Many of the Puritan clergy signed a petition
to him known as the Millenary Petition, because it was intended to
be signed by a thousand ministers. A conference was held on January
14, =1604=, in the king's presence at Hampton Court, in which some
of the bishops took part, as well as a deputation of Puritan
ministers who were permitted to argue in favour of the demands put
forward in the petition. The Puritan Clergy had by this time
abandoned Cartwright's Presbyterian ideas (see p. 446) and merely
asked that those who thought it wrong to wear surplices and to use
certain other ceremonies might be excused from doing so, without
breaking away from the national church. James listened quietly to
them, till one of them used the word Presbytery. He at once flew
into a passion. "A Scottish Presbytery," he said, "agreeth as well
with a monarchy as God with the devil. Then Jack and Tom and Will
and Dick shall meet, and at their pleasures censure me and my
council.... Until you find that I grow lazy--let that alone." James
ordered them to conform or to leave the ministry. He adopted the
motto, "No bishop, no king!" Like Elizabeth, he used the bishops to
keep the clergy from gaining power independent of the Crown. The
bishops were delighted, and one of them said that 'his Majesty spoke
by the inspiration of God.'
[Illustration: Royal Arms borne by James I. and succeeding Stuart
sovereigns.]
3. =James and the House of Commons.=--In =1604= Parliament met. The
members of the House of Commons had no more wish than James to
overthrow the bishops, but they thought that able and pious
ministers should be allowed to preach even if they would not wear
surplices, and they were dissatisfied with the king's decision at
Hampton Court. On the other hand, James was anxious to obtain their
consent to a union with Scotland, which the Commons disliked, partly
because the king had brought many Scotsmen with him, and had
supplied them with English lands and money. Financial difficulties
also arose, and the session ended in a quarrel between the king and
the House of Commons. Before the year was over he had deprived of
their livings many of the clergy who refused to conform.
4. =Gunpowder Plot. 1604-1605.=--Not only the Puritans, but the
Catholics as well, had appealed to James for toleration. In the
first year of his reign he remitted the recusancy fines (see p.
454). As might be expected, the number of recusants increased,
probably because many who had attended church to avoid paying fines
stayed away as soon as the fines ceased to be required. James took
alarm, and in February =1604= banished the priests from London. On
this, a Catholic named Robert Catesby proposed to a few of his
friends a plot to blow up king, Lords, and Commons with gunpowder at
the opening of Parliament. The king had two sons, Henry and Charles,
and a little daughter, Elizabeth. Catesby, expecting that the two
princes would be destroyed with their father, intended to make
Elizabeth queen, and to take care that she was brought up as a Roman
Catholic. Guy Fawkes, a cool soldier, was sent for from Flanders to
manage the scheme. The plotters took a house next to the House of
Lords, and began to dig through the wall to enable them to carry the
powder into the basement. The wall, however, was nine feet thick,
and they, being little used to mason's work, made but little way. In
the spring of =1605= James increased the exasperation of the
plotters by re-imposing the recusancy fines on the Catholic laity.
Soon afterwards their task was made more easy by the discovery that
a coal-cellar reaching under the floor of the House of Lords was to
be let. One of their number hired the cellar, and introduced into it
barrels of powder, covering them with coals and billets of wood.
Parliament was to be opened for its second session on November 5,
and in the preceding evening Fawkes went to the cellar with a
lantern, ready to fire the train in the morning. One of the
plotters, however, had betrayed the secret. Fawkes was seized, and
his companions were pursued. All the conspirators who were taken
alive were executed, and the persecution of the Catholics grew
hotter than before.
5. =The Post-nati. 1606-1608.=--When another session opened in
=1606= James repeated his efforts to induce the Commons to do
something for the union with Scotland. He wanted them to establish
free trade between the countries, and to naturalise his Scottish
subjects in England. Finding that he could obtain neither of his
wishes from Parliament, he obtained from the judges a decision that
all his Scottish subjects born after his accession in England--the
_Post-nati_, as they were called--were legally naturalised, and were
thus capable of holding land in England. He had to give up all hope
of obtaining freedom of trade.
6. =Irish Difficulties. 1603-1610.=--James was the first English
sovereign who was the master of the whole of Ireland. He tried to win
the affection of the tribes by giving them the protection of English
law against the exactions of their chiefs. Naturally, the chiefs
resented the change, while the tribesmen distrusted the interference
of Englishmen from whom they had suffered so much. In =1607= the
chiefs of the Ulster tribes of O'Neill and O'Donnell--known in England
as the Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell--seeing resistance hopeless,
fled to Spain. James ignored the Irish doctrine that the land belonged
to the tribe, and confiscated six counties as if they had been the
property of the chiefs, according to the feudal principles of English
law. He then poured in English and Scottish colonists, leaving to the
natives only the leavings to live on.
7. =Bate's Case and the New Impositions. 1606-1608.=--The state of
James's finances was almost hopeless. Elizabeth, stingy as she was,
had scarcely succeeded in making both ends meet, and James, who had
the expense of providing for a family, from which Elizabeth had been
free, would hardly have been able to meet his expenditure even if he
had been economical. He was, however, far from economical, and had
given away lands and money to his Scottish favourites. There was,
therefore, a large deficit, and James wanted all the money he could
get. In =1606= a merchant named Bate challenged his right to levy an
imposition on currants, which had already been levied by Elizabeth.
The Court of Exchequer, however, decided that the king had the right
of levying impositions--that is to say, duties raised by the sole
authority of the king--without a grant from Parliament--holding that
the _Confirmatio Cartarum_ (see p. 221), to which Bate's counsel
appealed, only restricted that right in a very few cases. Whether
the argument of the judges was right or wrong, they were the
constitutional exponents of the law, and when Cecil (who had been
James's chief minister from the beginning of the reign, and was
created Earl of Salisbury in =1605=) was made Lord Treasurer as well
as Secretary in =1608=, he at once levied new impositions to the
amount of about 70,000_l._ a year, on the plea that more money was
needed in consequence of the troubles in Ireland.
[Illustration: North-west view of Hatfield House, Herts; built for
Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury, between 1605 and 1611.]
8. =The Great Contract. 1610-1611.=--Even the new impositions did
not fill up the deficit, and Parliament was summoned in =1610= to
meet the difficulty. It entered into a bargain--the Great Contract,
as it was called--by which, on receiving 200,000_l._ a year, James
was to abandon certain antiquated feudal dues, such as those of
wardship and marriage (see p. 116). An agreement was also come to
on the impositions. James voluntarily remitted the most burdensome
to the amount of 20,000_l._ a year, and the House of Commons agreed
to grant him the remainder on his passing an Act declaring illegal
all further levy of impositions without a Parliamentary grant.
Unfortunately, before the details of the Great Contract were finally
settled, fresh disputes arose, and early in =1611=, James dissolved
his first Parliament in anger without settling anything either about
the feudal dues or about the impositions.
9. =Bacon and Somerset. 1612-1613.=--In =1612= Salisbury died, and
Bacon, always ready with good advice, recommended James to abandon
Salisbury's policy of bargaining with the Commons. Bacon was a warm
supporter of monarchy, because he was anxious for reforms, and he
believed that reforms were more likely to come from the king and his
Council than from a House of Commons--which was mainly composed of
country gentlemen, with little knowledge of affairs of State. Bacon,
however, knew what were the conditions under which alone a
monarchical system could be maintained, and reminded James that king
and Parliament were members of one body, with common interests, and
that he could only expect the Commons to grant supplies if he
stepped forward as their leader by setting forth a policy which
would commend itself to them. James had no idea of leading, and,
instead of taking Bacon's advice, resolved to do as long as he could
without a Parliament. A few years before he had taken a fancy to a
handsome young Scot named Robert Carr, thinking that Carr would be
not only a boon companion, but also an instrument to carry out his
orders, and relieve him from the trouble of dispensing patronage. He
enriched Carr in various ways, especially by giving him the estate
of Sherborne, which he took from Raleigh on the ground of a flaw in
the title--though he made Raleigh some compensation for his loss. In
=1613= he married Carr to Lady Essex, who had been divorced from her
husband under very disgraceful circumstances, and created him Earl
of Somerset. Somerset was brought by this marriage into connection
with the family of the Howards--his wife's father, the Earl of
Suffolk, being a Howard. As the Howards were for the most part Roman
Catholics at heart, if not openly, Somerset's influence was
henceforth used in opposition to the Protestant aims which had found
favour in the House of Commons.
10. =The Addled Parliament. 1614.=--In spite of Somerset and the
Howards, James's want of money drove him, in =1614=, to call
another Parliament. Instead of following Bacon's advice that he
should win popularity by useful legislative projects, he tried first
to secure its submission by encouraging persons who were known as
the Undertakers because they undertook that candidates who supported
the king's interests should be returned. When this failed, he again
tried, as he had tried under Salisbury's influence in =1610=, to
enter into a bargain with the Commons. The Commons, however, replied
by asking him to abandon the impositions and to restore the
nonconforming clergy ejected in =1604= (see p. 482). On this James
dissolved Parliament. As it granted no supplies, and passed no act,
it became known as the Addled Parliament.
[Illustration: An unknown gentleman: from a painting belonging to
T. A. Hope, Esq.]
11. =The Spanish Alliance. 1614-1617.=--James was always anxious to
be the peacemaker of Europe, being wise enough to see that the
religious wars which had long been devastating the Continent might
be brought to an end if only the contending parties would be more
tolerant. It was partly in the hope of gaining influence to enable
him to carry out his pacificatory policy that he aimed, early in his
reign, at marrying his children into influential families on the
Continent. In =1613= he gave his daughter Elizabeth to Frederick V.,
Elector Palatine, who was the leader of the German Calvinists, and
he had long before projected a marriage between his eldest son,
Prince Henry, and a Spanish Infanta. Prince Henry, however, died in
=1612=, and, though James's only surviving son, Charles, was still
young, there had been a talk of marrying him to a French princess.
The breaking-up of the Parliament of =1614= left James in great want
of money; and, as he had reason to believe that Spain would give a
much larger portion than would be given with a French princess, he
became keenly eager to marry his son to the Infanta Maria, the
daughter of Philip III. of Spain. Negotiations with this object were
not formally opened till =1617=, and in =1618= James learnt that the
marriage could not take place unless he engaged to give religious
liberty to the English Roman Catholics. He then offered to write a
letter to the king of Spain, promising to relieve the Roman
Catholics as long as they gave no offence, but Philip insisted on a
more binding and permanent engagement, and, on James's refusal to do
more than he had offered to do, Gondomar, the very able Spanish
ambassador who had hitherto kept James in good humour, was withdrawn
from England, and the negotiation was, for the time, allowed to
drop.
12. =The rise of Buckingham. 1615-1618.=--In =1615= Somerset and his
wife were accused of poisoning Sir Thomas Overbury. There can be no
doubt that the Countess was guilty, but it is less certain what
Somerset's own part in the matter was. In =1616= they were both
found guilty, and, though James spared their lives, he never saw
either of them again. He had already found a new favourite in George
Villiers, a handsome youth who could dance and ride gracefully, and
could entertain the king with lively conversation. The opponents of
the Spanish alliance had supported Villiers against Somerset, but
they soon found that Villiers was ready to throw himself on the side
of Spain as soon as he found that it would please the king. James
gave him large estates, and rapidly advanced him in the peerage,
till, in =1618=, he created him Marquis of Buckingham. He also made
him Lord Admiral in the hope that he would improve the navy, and
allowed all the patronage of England to pass through his hands.
Statesmen and lawyers had to bow down to Buckingham if they wished
to rise. No wonder the young man felt as if the nation was at his
feet, and gave himself airs which disgusted all who wished to
preserve independence of character.
13. =The Voyage and Execution of Raleigh. 1617-1618.=--In =1617=
Raleigh, having been liberated through Buckingham's influence,
sailed for the Orinoco in search of a gold-mine, of which he had
heard in an earlier voyage in Elizabeth's reign (see p. 464). He
engaged, before he sailed, not to touch the land of the king of
Spain, and James let him know that, if he broke his promise, he
would lose his head. It was, indeed, difficult to say where the
lands of the king of Spain began or ended, but James left the burden
of proving this on Raleigh; whilst Raleigh, imagining that if only
he could find gold he would not be held to his promise, sent his men
up the river, without distinct orders to avoid fighting. They
attacked and burnt a Spanish village, but never reached the mine.
Heart-broken at their failure, Raleigh proposed to lie in wait for
the Spanish treasure-ships, and, on the refusal of his captains to
follow him in piracy, returned to England with nothing in his hands.
James sent him to the scaffold for a fault which he should never
have been given the chance of committing. Raleigh was the last of
the Elizabethan heroes--a many-sided man: soldier, sailor,
statesman, historian, and poet. He was as firmly convinced as Drake
had been that there was no peace in American waters, and that to rob
and plunder Spaniards in time of peace was in itself a virtue.
James's unwise attempt to form a close alliance with Spain made
Raleigh a popular hero.
14. =Colonisation of Virginia and New England.
1607-1620.=--Gradually Englishmen learned to prefer peaceable
commerce and colonisation to piratical enterprises. In =1585=
Raleigh had sent out colonists to a region in North America to which
he gave the name of Virginia, in honour of Elizabeth, but the
colonists either returned to England or were destroyed by the
Indians. In =1607= a fresh attempt was made, and, after passing
through terrible hardships, the Colony of Virginia grew into a
tobacco-planting, well-to-do community. In =1608= a congregation of
Separatists emigrated from England to Holland, and, after a while,
settled at Leyden, where, anxious to escape from the temptations of
the world, many of them resolved to emigrate to America, where they
might lead an ideally religious life. In =1620= the emigrants, a
hundred in all, 'lifting up their eyes to heaven, their dearest
country,' crossed the Atlantic in the 'Mayflower,' and found a new
home which they named Plymouth. These first emigrants, the Pilgrim
Fathers, as their descendants fondly called them, lost half their
number by cold and disease in the first winter, but the remainder
held on to form a nucleus for the Puritan New England of the future.
15. =The Beginning of the Thirty Years' War. 1618-1620.=--As yet,
however, these small beginnings of a colonial empire attracted
little attention in England. Men's thoughts ran far more on a great
war--the Thirty Years' War--which, in =1618=, began to desolate
Germany. In that year a revolution took place in Bohemia, where the
Protestant nobility rose against their king, Matthias, a Catholic,
who was at the same time Emperor, and, in =1619=, after the death of
Matthias, they deposed his successor, Ferdinand, and chose
Frederick, the Elector Palatine, James's Calvinist son-in-law, as
king in his place. Almost at the same time Ferdinand became by
election the Emperor Ferdinand II. James was urged to interfere on
behalf of Frederick, but he could not make up his mind that the
cause of his son-in-law was righteous, and he therefore left him to
his fate. Frederick's cause was, however, popular in England, and in
=1620=, when there were rumours that a Spanish force was about to
occupy the Palatinate in order to compel Frederick to abandon
Bohemia, James--drawing a distinction between helping his son-in-law
to keep his own and supporting him in taking the land of
another--went so far as to allow English volunteers, under Sir
Horace Vere, to garrison the fortresses of the Palatinate. In the
summer of that year, a Spanish army, under Spinola, actually
occupied the Western Palatinate, and James, angry at the news,
summoned Parliament in order to obtain a vote of supplies for war.
Before Parliament could meet, Frederick had been crushingly defeated
on the White Hill, near Prague, and driven out of Bohemia.
[Illustration: King James I.: from a painting by P. van Somer, dated
1621, in the National Portrait Gallery.]
16. =The Meeting of James's Third Parliament. 1621.=--Parliament,
when it met in =1621=, was the more distrustful of James, as
Gondomar had returned to England in =1620= and had revived the
Spanish marriage treaty. When the Houses met, they were disappointed
to find that James did not propose to go to war at once. James
fancied that, because he himself wished to act justly and fairly,
every one of the other Princes would be regardless of his own
interests, and, although he had already sent several ambassadors to
settle matters without producing any results, he now proposed to
send more ambassadors, and only to fight if negotiation failed. On
learning this, the House of Commons only voted him a small supply,
not being willing to grant war-taxes unless it was sure that there
was to be a war. Probably James was right in not engaging England in
hostilities, as ambition had as much to do with Frederick's
proceedings as religion, and as, if James had helped his German
allies, he could have exercised no control over them; but he had too
little decision or real knowledge of the situation to inspire
confidence either at home or abroad; and the Commons, as soon as
they had granted a supply, began to criticise his government in
domestic matters.
17. =The Royal Prerogative. 1616-1621.=--Elizabeth had been high-handed
enough, but she had talked little of the rights which she claimed, and
had set herself to gain the affection of her subjects. James, on the
other hand, liked to talk of his rights, whilst he took no trouble to
make himself popular. It was his business, he held, to see that the
judges did not break the law under pretence of administering it. "This,"
he said in =1616=, "is a thing regal and proper to a king, to keep every
court within its true bounds." More startling was the language which
followed. "As for the absolute prerogative of the Crown," he declared,
"that is no subject for the tongue of a lawyer, nor is it lawful to be
disputed. It is atheism and blasphemy to dispute what God can do: good
Christians content themselves with His will revealed in His word; so it
is presumption and high contempt in a subject to dispute what a king can
do, or say that a king cannot do this or that; but rest in that which is
the king's will revealed in his law." What James meant was that there
must be in every state a power above the law to provide for
emergencies as they arise, and to keep the authorities--judicial and
administrative--from jostling with one another. At present this power
belongs to Parliament. When Elizabeth handed on the government to James,
it belonged to the Crown. What James did not understand was that, in the
long run, no one--either king or Parliament--will be allowed to exercise
powers which are unwisely used. Such an idea probably never entered into
James's mind, because he was convinced that he was himself not only the
best but the wisest of men, whereas he was in reality--as Henry IV. of
France had said of him--'the wisest fool in Christendom.'
[Illustration: Civil costume about 1620: from a contemporary
broadside.]
[Illustration: The Banqueting Hall of the Palace of Whitehall (from
the north-east): built from the designs of Inigo Jones. 1619-1621.]
18. =Financial Reform. 1619.=--James not only thought too highly
of his own powers of government, but was also too careless to check
the misdeeds of his favourites. For some time his want of money led
him to have recourse to strange expedients. In =1611= he founded the
order of baronets, making each of those created pay him 1,080_l._ a
year for three years to enable him to support soldiers for the
defence of Ulster. After the first few years, however, the money,
though regularly required of new baronets, was invariably repaid to
them. More disgraceful was the sale of peerages, of which there were
examples in =1618=. In =1619=, however, through the exertions of
Lionel Cranfield, a city merchant recommended to James by
Buckingham, financial order was comparatively restored, and in quiet
times the expenditure no longer much exceeded the revenue.
19. =Favouritism and Corruption.=--Though James did not obtain much
money in irregular ways, he did not keep a watchful eye on his
favourites and ministers. The salaries of Ministers were low, and
were in part themselves made up by the presents of suitors.
Candidates for office, who looked forward to being enriched by the
gifts of others, knew that they must pay dearly for the goodwill of
the favourites through whom they gained promotion. In =1620= Chief
Justice Montague was appointed Lord Treasurer. "Take care, my lord,"
said Bacon to him, when he started for Newmarket to receive from the
king the staff which was the symbol of his office, "wood is dearer
at Newmarket than in any other place in England." Montague, in fact,
had to pay 20,000_l._ for his place. Others, who were bachelors or
widowers, received promotion on condition of marrying one of the
many penniless young ladies of Buckingham's kindred.
20. =The Monopolies Condemned. 1621.=--The Commons, therefore, in
looking for abuses, had no lack of subjects on which to complain.
They lighted upon monopolies. James, soon after his accession, had
abolished most of those left by Elizabeth, but the number had been
increased partly through a wish to encourage home manufactures, and
partly from a desire to regulate commerce. One set of persons, for
example, had the sole right of making glass, because they bound
themselves to heat their furnaces with coal instead of wood, and
thus spared the trees needed for shipbuilding. Others had the sole
right of making gold and silver thread, because they engaged to
import all the precious metals they wanted, it being thought, in
those days, that the precious metals alone constituted wealth, and
that England would therefore be impoverished if English gold and
silver were wasted on personal adornment. There is no doubt that
courtiers received payments from persons interested in these grants,
but the amount of such payments was grossly exaggerated, and the
Commons imagined that these and similar grievances owed their
existence merely to the desire to fill the pockets of Buckingham and
his favourites. There was, therefore, a loud outcry in Parliament.
One of the main promoters of these schemes, Sir Giles Mompesson,
fled the kingdom. Others were punished, and the monopolies recalled
by the king, though as yet no act was passed declaring them to be
illegal.
[Illustration: Francis Bacon, Viscount St. Alban, Lord Chancellor:
from the National Portrait Gallery.]
21. =The Fall of Bacon. 1621.=--After this the Commons turned upon
Bacon. He was now Lord Chancellor, and had lived to find that his
good advice was never followed. He had, nevertheless, been an active
and upright judge. The Commons, however, distrusted him as having
supported grants of monopolies, and, when charges of bribery were
brought against him, sent them up to the Lords for enquiry. At first
Bacon thought a political trick was being played against him. He
soon discovered that he had thoughtlessly taken gifts even before
judgment had been given, though if they had been taken after
judgment, he would--according to the custom of the time--have been
considered innocent. His own opinion of the case was probably the
true one. His sentence, he said, was 'just, and for reformation's
sake fit.' Yet he was 'the justest Chancellor' that had been since
his father's time, his father, Sir Nicholas Bacon, having creditably
occupied under Elizabeth the post which he himself filled under
James. He was stripped of office, fined, and imprisoned. His
imprisonment, however, was extremely brief, and his fine was
ultimately remitted. Though his trial was not exactly like that of
the old impeachments, it was practically the revival of the system
of impeachments which had been disused since the days of Henry VI.
It was a sign that the power of Parliament was increasing and that
of the king growing less.
22. =Digby's Mission, and the Dissolution of Parliament. 1621.=--The
king announced to Parliament that he was about to send an ambassador
to Vienna to induce the Emperor Ferdinand to be content with the
re-conquest of Bohemia, and to leave Frederick undisturbed in the
Palatinate. Parliament was therefore adjourned, in order to give
time for the result of this embassy to be known; and the Commons, at
their last sitting, declared--with wild enthusiasm--that, if the
embassy failed, they would support Frederick with their lives and
fortunes. When Lord Digby, who was the chosen ambassador, returned,
he had done no good. Ferdinand was too anxious to push his success
further, and Frederick was too anxious to make good his losses for
any negotiation to be successful. The Imperialists invaded the
Palatinate, and in the winter James called on Parliament--which had
by that time re-assembled after the adjournment--for money
sufficient to defend the Palatinate till he had made one more
diplomatic effort. The Commons, believing that the king's alliance
with Spain was the root of all evil, petitioned him to marry his son
to a Protestant lady, and plainly showed their wish to see him at
war with Spain. James replied that the Commons had no right to
discuss matters on which he had not consulted them. They drew up a
protestation asserting their right to discuss all matters of public
concernment. James tore it out of their journal-book, and dissolved
Parliament, though it had not yet granted him a penny.
23. =The Loss of the Palatinate. 1622.=--In =1614=, James, being in
want of money, had had recourse to a benevolence--the lawyers having
advised him that, though the Act of Richard III. (see p. 342) made
it illegal for him to compel its payment, there was no law against
his asking his subjects to pay it voluntarily. He took the same
course in =1622=, and got enough to support the garrisons in the
Palatinate for a few months, as many who did not like to give the
money feared to provoke the king's displeasure by a refusal. Before
the end of the year, however, the whole Palatinate, with the
exception of one fortress, had been lost.
[Illustration: Costume of a lawyer: from a broadside, dated 1623.]
24. =Charles's Journey to Madrid. 1623.=--It was now time to try if
the Spanish alliance was worth anything. Early in =1623=, Prince
Charles, accompanied by Buckingham, started for Madrid to woo the
Infanta in person. The young men imagined that the king of Spain
would be so pleased with this unusual compliment, that he would use
his influence--and, if necessary, his troops--to obtain the
restitution of the Palatinate to Charles's brother-in-law, the
Elector Frederick. The Infanta's brother, Philip IV., was now king
of Spain, and he had lately been informed by his sister that she was
resolved not to marry a heretic. Her confessor had urged her to
refuse. "What a comfortable bedfellow you will have!" he said to
her: "he who lies by your side, and will be the father of your
children, is certain to go to hell." Philip and his prime minister
Olivares feared lest, if they announced this refusal, it would lead
to a war with England. They first tried to convert the prince to
their religion, and when that failed, secretly invited the Pope to
refuse to grant a dispensation for the marriage. The Pope, however,
fearing that, if he caused a breach, James and Charles would punish
him by increasing the persecution of the English Catholics, informed
Philip that he should have the dispensation for his sister, on
condition not only that James and Charles should swear to grant
religious liberty to the Catholics in England, but that he should
himself swear that James and Charles would keep their word.
[Illustration: The Upper House of Convocation: from a broadside,
dated 1623.]
[Illustration: The Lower House of Convocation: from a broadside,
dated 1623.]
25. =The Prince's Return. 1623.=--Philip referred the point whether
he could conscientiously take the oath to a committee of
theologians. In the meantime, Charles attempted to pay court to the
Infanta. Spanish etiquette was, however, strict, and he was not
allowed to speak to her, except in public and on rare occasions.
Once he jumped over a wall into a garden in which she was. The poor
girl shrieked and fled. At last Charles was informed that the
theologians had come to a decision. He might marry if he pleased,
but, the moment that the ceremony was over, he was to leave for
England. If, at the end of six months, he had not only promised
religious liberty to the Catholics, but had actually put them in the
enjoyment of it, then, and only then, his wife should be sent after
him. Charles was indignant--the more so because he learnt that there
was little chance that the king of Spain would interfere to restore
the Protestant Frederick by force--and returned to England eager for
war with Spain. Never before or after was he so popular as when he
landed at Portsmouth--not so much because he had come back, as
because he had not brought the Infanta with him.
26. =The Last Parliament of James I. 1624.=--James's foreign policy
had now hopelessly broken down. He had expected that simply because
it seemed to him to be just, Philip would quarrel with the Emperor
for the sake of restoring the Palatinate to a Protestant. When he
found that this could not be, he had nothing more to propose. His
son and his favourite, who had been created Duke of Buckingham
whilst he was in Spain, urged him to go to war, and early in =1624=
James summoned a new Parliament, which was entirely out of his
control. For the time Buckingham, who urged on the war, was the most
popular man in England. A large grant of supply was given, but the
Commons distrusting James, ordered the money to be paid to
treasurers appointed by themselves, and to be spent only upon four
objects--the repairing of forts in England, the increase of the army
in Ireland, the fitting-out of a fleet, and the support of the Dutch
Republic, which was still at war with Spain, and of other allies of
the king. The king, on his part, engaged to invite friendly states
to join him in war for the recovery of the Palatinate, and to summon
Parliament in the autumn to announce the result. The Commons were
the less anxious to trust James with money as they were in favour of
a maritime war against Spain, whilst they believed him to be in
favour of a military war in Germany. They had reason to think that
Cranfield, who was now Earl of Middlesex and Lord Treasurer, had
used his influence with the king to keep him from a breach with
Spain; and, with Charles and Buckingham hounding them on, they now
impeached Middlesex on charges of malversation, and drove him from
office. It was generally believed that the Lord Treasurer owed his
fall to his dislike of a war which would be ruinous to the finances
which it was his business to guard. The old king could not resist,
but he told his son that, in supporting an impeachment, he was
preparing a rod for himself. Before the end of the session the king
agreed to an act abolishing monopolies, except in the case of new
inventions.
27. =The French Alliance.=--Even before Parliament was prorogued, a
negotiation was opened for a marriage between Charles and Henrietta
Maria, the sister of Louis XIII., king of France. Both James and
Charles had promised Parliament that, if the future queen were a
Roman Catholic, no religious liberty should be granted to the
English Catholics by the marriage treaty. Both James and Charles
gave way when they found that Louis insisted on this concession, and
promised religious liberty to the Catholics. Consequently, they did
not venture to summon Parliament till the marriage was over and it
was too late to complain. Yet Buckingham, who was more firmly rooted
in Charles's favour than he had ever been in that of his father, had
promised money in all directions. Before the end of the year he had
engaged to find large sums for the Dutch Republic to fight Spain,
30,000_l._ a month for Christian IV., king of Denmark, to make war
in Germany against the Emperor, 20,000_l._ a month for Count
Mansfeld, a German adventurer, to advance to the Palatinate, and
anything that might be needed for a fleet to attack the Spanish
ports. James, in short, was for a war by land, the Commons for a war
by sea, and Buckingham for both.
28. =Mansfeld's Expedition, and the Death of James I.
1624-1625.=--Before the end of =1624=, twelve thousand Englishmen
were gathered at Dover to go with Mansfeld to the Palatinate. The
king of France, who had promised to help them, refused to allow them
to land in his dominions. It was accordingly resolved that they
should pass through Holland. James, however, had nothing to give
them, and they were consequently sent across the sea without money
and without provisions. On their arrival in Holland they were put on
board open boats to make their way up the Rhine. Frost set in, and
the boats were unable to stir. In a few weeks three-fourths of the
men were dead or dying. It was Buckingham's first experience of
making war without money and without Parliamentary support. Before
anything further could be done, James was attacked by a fever, and,
on March 27, =1625=, he died. Though his reign did not witness a
revolution, it witnessed that loosening of the bonds of sympathy
between the ruler and the ruled which is often the precursor of
revolution.
CHAPTER XXXII
THE GROWTH OF THE PERSONAL GOVERNMENT OF CHARLES I.
1625-1634
LEADING DATES
The Reign of Charles I., 1625-1649
Charles's first Parliament and the expedition to Cadiz 1625
Charles's second Parliament and the impeachment of
Buckingham. 1626
The expedition to Ré 1627
Charles's third Parliament and the Petition of Right 1628
Dissolution of Charles's third Parliament 1629
Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury 1633
Prynne's sentence executed 1634
1. =Charles I. and Buckingham. 1625.=--The new king, Charles I., was
more dignified than his father, and was conscientiously desirous of
governing well. He was, unfortunately, extremely unwise, being both
obstinate in persisting in any line of conduct which he had himself
chosen, and ready to give way to the advice of others in matters of
detail. Buckingham, who sympathised with him in his plans, and who
was never at a loss when called on to express an opinion on any
subject whatever, had now made himself completely master of the
young king, and was, in reality, the governor of England far more
than Charles himself. On May 1 Charles was married by proxy to
Henrietta Maria, and Buckingham fetched home the bride.
2. =Charles's First Parliament. 1625.=--Charles was eager to meet
his first Parliament, because he thought that it would grant him
enormous sums of money to carry on the war with Spain, on which he
had set his heart. He forgot that its members would be disgusted at
the mismanagement of Mansfeld's expedition, and at the favour shown
by himself to the Catholics in consequence of his marriage. When
Parliament met on June 18, the House of Commons voted a small sum of
140,000_l._, and asked him to put in execution the recusancy laws.
Charles adjourned Parliament to Oxford, as the plague was raging in
London, in order that he might urge it to vote him a larger sum. It
met at Oxford on August 1, but the Commons refused to vote more
money, unless counsellors in whom they could confide--in other
words, counsellors other than Buckingham--had the spending of it.
Charles seeing that, if the Commons could force him to accept
ministers against his wish, they would soon control himself,
dissolved the Parliament. On everything else he was ready to give
way--making no objection to the renewal of the persecution of the
Catholics, whom a few months ago he had solemnly promised in his
marriage treaty to protect. Though the question now raised was
whether England was to be ruled by the king or by the House of
Commons, it would be a mistake to think that the Commons were
consciously aiming at sovereignty. They saw that there was
mismanagement, and all that they wanted was to stop it.
3. =The Expedition to Cadiz. 1625.=--Charles thought that, if he
could gain a great victory, there would be no further talk about
mismanagement. Scraping together what money he could, he sent a
great fleet and army, under the command of Sir Edward Cecil, to take
Cadiz, the harbour of which was the port at which the Spanish
treasure ships arrived from America once a year, laden with silver
and gold from the mines of America. The greater part of Cecil's
fleet was made up of merchant-vessels pressed by force into the
king's service. Neither soldiers nor sailors had any heart in the
matter. The masters of the merchant-vessels did all they could to
keep themselves out of danger. The soldiers after landing outside
the town got drunk in a body, and would have been slaughtered if any
Spaniards had been near. Cecil failed to take Cadiz, and after he
left it, the Spanish treasure-ships from America, which he hoped to
capture, got safely into Cadiz harbour, whilst he was looking for
them in another part of the sea. The great expedition sent by
Buckingham to Cadiz was as complete a failure as that which he had
sent out the year before under Mansfeld. Whilst Cecil was employed
in Spain Buckingham himself went to the Hague to form a continental
alliance for the recovery of the Palatinate, hoping especially to
secure the services of Christian IV., king of Denmark. Finding
Christian quite ready to fight, Buckingham tried to pawn the king's
jewels at Amsterdam in order to supply him with 30,000_l._ a month,
which he had promised to him. No one would lend money on the jewels,
and Buckingham came back, hoping that a second Parliament would be
more compliant than the first.
[Illustration: King Charles I.: from a painting by Van Dyck.]
4. =Charles's Second Parliament. 1626.=--The new Parliament met on
February 6, =1626=. Charles, in order to secure himself against what
he believed to be the attacks of interested and ambitious men, had
hit on the clever expedient of making sheriffs of the leaders of the
Opposition, so as to secure their detention in their own counties.
The Opposition, however, found a leader in Sir John Eliot, who,
though he had formerly been a friend of Buckingham, was now shocked
at the misconduct of the favourite and regarded him as a selfish and
unprincipled adventurer. Eliot was not only a natural orator, but
one of the most pure-minded of patriots, though the vehemence of his
temperament often carried him to impute more evil to men of whom he
thought badly than they were really guilty of. At present, he was
roused to indignation against Buckingham, not only on account of the
recent failures, but because, in the preceding summer, he had lent
some English ships to the French, who wanted to use them for
suppressing the Huguenots of Rochelle, then in rebellion against
their king, Louis XIII. Before long the Commons, under Eliot's
guidance, impeached Buckingham of all kinds of crime, making against
him charges of some of which he was quite innocent, whilst others
were much exaggerated. The fact that the only way to get rid of an
unpopular minister was to accuse him of crime, made those who would
otherwise have been content with his dismissal ready to believe in
his guilt. Charles's vexation reached its height when he heard that
Eliot had branded Buckingham as Sejanus. "If he is Sejanus," he
said, "I must be Tiberius." Rather than abandon his minister, he
dissolved Parliament, before it had voted him a sixpence.
[Illustration: Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I.: from a
painting by Van Dyck.]
5. =The Forced Loan. 1626.=--If the war was to go on, money must in
some way or other be had. Charles asked his subjects to bestow on
him a free gift for the purpose. Scarcely any one gave him anything.
Then came news that the king of Denmark, to whom the promised
30,000_l._ a month had not been paid (see p. 501, 503), had been
signally defeated at Lutter, so that the recovery of the Palatinate
was further off than ever. Some clever person suggested to Charles
that, though the Statute of Benevolences (see p. 342) prohibited him
from making his subjects give him money, no law forbade him to make
them lend, even though there was no chance that he would ever be
able to repay what he borrowed. He at once gave orders for the
collection of a forced loan. Before this was gathered in, troubles
arose with France. Louis XIII. was preparing to besiege Rochelle,
and Charles believed himself to be in honour bound to defend it
because Louis had at one time promised him that he would admit his
Huguenot subjects to terms. Besides, he had offended Louis by
sending out of the country the queen's French attendants, thinking,
probably with truth, that they encouraged her to resent his breach
of promise about the English Catholics (see p. 501).
6. =The Expedition to Ré. 1627.=--In =1627= war broke out between
France and England. Payment of the forced loan was urged in order to
supply the means. Chief Justice Crewe, refusing to acknowledge its
legality, was dismissed. Poor men were forced to serve as soldiers;
rich men were sent to prison. By such means a considerable sum was
got together. A small force was sent to help the king of Denmark,
and a fleet of a hundred sail, carrying soldiers on board, was sent
to relieve Rochelle, under the command of Buckingham himself. On
July 12 Buckingham landed on the Isle of Ré, which would form a good
base of operations for the relief of Rochelle. He laid siege to the
fort of St. Martin's on the island, and had almost starved it into
surrender, when, on September 27, a relieving force of French boats
dashed through the English blockading fleet, and re-victualled the
place. Buckingham, whose own numbers had dwindled away, called for
reinforcements from England. Charles did what he could, but
Englishmen would lend no money to succour the hated Buckingham; and,
before reinforcements could arrive, a French army landed on the Isle
of Ré, and drove Buckingham back to his ships. Out of 6,800
soldiers, less than 3,000--worn by hunger and sickness--returned to
England.
[Illustration: Tents and military equipment in the early part of the
reign of Charles I.: from the monument of Sir Charles Montague (died
in 1625) in the church of Barking, Essex.]
7. =The Five Knights' Case. 1627.=--Buckingham was more unpopular
than ever. "Since England was England," we find in a letter of the
time, "it received not so dishonourable a blow." Attention was,
however, chiefly turned to domestic grievances. Soldiers had been
billeted on householders without their consent, and martial law had
been exercised over civilians as well as soldiers. Moreover, the
forced loan had been exacted, and some of those who refused to pay
had been imprisoned by the mere order of the king and the Privy
Council. Against this last injury, five knights, who had been
imprisoned, appealed to the Court of King's Bench. A writ of _habeas
corpus_ was issued--that is to say, an order was given to the gaoler
to produce the prisoners before the Court, together with a return
showing the cause of committal. All that the gaoler could show was
that the prisoners had been committed by order of the king,
signified by the Privy Council. The lawyers employed by the five
knights argued that every prisoner had a right to be tried or
liberated on bail; that, unless cause was shown--that is to say,
unless a charge was brought against him--there was nothing on which
he could be tried; and that, therefore, these prisoners ought to be
bailed. The lawyers for the Crown argued that when the safety of the
state was concerned, the king had always been allowed to imprison
without showing cause, and that his discretion must be trusted not
to imprison any one excepting in cases of necessity. The judges did
not decide this point, but sent the five knights back to prison. In
a few days, all the prisoners were set free, and Charles summoned a
third Parliament, hoping that it would vote money for a fresh
expedition to relieve Rochelle.
8. =Wentworth and Eliot in the Third Parliament of Charles I.
1628.=--Charles's third Parliament met on March 17, =1628=. The
leadership was at once taken by Sir Thomas Wentworth, who, as well
as Eliot, had been imprisoned for refusing to pay the loan. Though
the two men now worked together, they were, in most points, opposed
to one another. Eliot had been a warm advocate of the war with
Spain, till he found it useless to carry on the war under
Buckingham's guidance. Wentworth disliked all wars, and especially a
war with Spain. Eliot believed in the wisdom of the House of
Commons, and thought that, if the king always took its advice, he
was sure to be in the right. Wentworth thought that the House of
Commons often blundered, and that the king was more likely to be in
the right if he took advice from wise counsellors. Wentworth,
however, believed that in this case Charles had unfortunately
preferred to take the advice of foolish counsellors, and though not
sharing the opinions of Eliot and his friends, threw himself into
the struggle in which the House of Commons was trying to stop
Buckingham in his rash course. From time to time Wentworth contrived
to show that he was no enemy of the king, or of a strong government
such as that which had existed in the reign of Elizabeth. He was,
however, an ardent and impetuous speaker, and threw himself into any
cause which he defended with more violence than he could, in calmer
moments, have justified to himself. He saw clearly that the late
aggressions on the liberty of the subject weakened, instead of
strengthening, the Crown; and he now proposed a bill which should
declare them illegal in the future. Charles refused to accept the
bill, and Wentworth, unwilling to take a prominent part in a
struggle with the king himself, retired into the background for the
remainder of the session.
9. =The Petition of Right. 1628.=--Instead of Wentworth's bill,
Eliot and the lawyers--Coke and Selden being prominent amongst
them--brought forward a Petition of Right, not merely providing for
the future, but also declaring that right had actually been violated
in the past. Charles was willing to promise everything else asked of
him, but he resisted the attempt to force him to promise never to
imprison without showing cause, and thus to strip himself of the
power of punishing offences directed against the safety of the
State. The Commons, who held that he had directed his powers
against men who were patriots, proved inexorable. Charles needed
money for another fleet which he was preparing for the relief of
Rochelle, which was straitly besieged by the French king. He tried
hard to get over the difficulty by an evasive answer, but at last,
on June 7, he gave way, and the Petition of Right became the law of
the land. After that, so far as the law went, there was to be no
more martial law or enforced billeting, no forced loans or taxes
imposed without a Parliamentary grant, or imprisonment without cause
shown.
[Illustration: George Villiers, first Duke of Buckingham, 1592-1628:
from the National Portrait Gallery.]
10. =Tonnage and Poundage. 1628.=--Before the end of the session a
fresh question was raised. For many reigns Parliament had voted to
each king for life, at the beginning of his reign, certain customs
duties known as Tonnage and Poundage. In addition to these James had
added the impositions (see p. 484) without a Parliamentary grant. In
the first Parliament of Charles, the Commons, probably wishing to
settle the question of impositions before permanently granting
Tonnage and Poundage, had passed a bill granting the latter for a
single year; but that Parliament had been dissolved before the bill
had passed the Lords. The second Parliament was dissolved before the
Commons had even discussed the subject, and the third Parliament now
sitting had found no time to attend to it till after the Petition of
Right had been granted. Now that the session was drawing to a close
the Commons again proposed to grant Tonnage and Poundage for a year
only. Charles, who had been levying the duties ever since his
accession, refused to accept a grant on these terms, and the Commons
then asserted that the clause of the Petition of Right forbidding
him to levy taxes without a vote of Parliament made his raising of
Tonnage and Poundage illegal. It was a nice legal point whether
customs were properly called taxes, and Charles answered that he did
not think that in demanding the petition they had meant to ask him
to yield his right to Tonnage and Poundage, and that he was sure he
had not meant to do so. The Commons then attacked Buckingham, and on
June 26 Charles prorogued Parliament.
11. =Buckingham's Murder. 1628.=--In return for the Petition of
Right Charles had received a grant of money large enough to enable
him to send out his fleet. In August Buckingham went to Portsmouth
to take the command. He was followed by John Felton, an officer to
whom he had refused employment, and who had not been paid for his
former services. Language used by the House of Commons in their
recent attack on Buckingham persuaded Felton that he would render
service to God and man by slaying the enemy of both. On August 23 he
stabbed the Duke as he came out from breakfast, crying, 'God have
mercy on thy soul!' Buckingham fell dead on the spot. The fleet went
out under the command of the Earl of Lindsey to relieve Rochelle,
but it failed utterly. There was no heart in the sailors or
resolution in the commanders. Rochelle surrendered to the King of
France, and Charles was left to bear the weight of the unpopularity
of his late favourite.
12. =The Question of Sovereignty. 1628.=--Charles was anxious to
come to terms with his Parliament on the question of Tonnage and
Poundage, and would probably have consented to accept the compromise
proposed in =1610= (see p. 486). Neither party, indeed, could
afford to surrender completely to the other. The customs duties were
already more than a third of the revenue, and, if Charles could levy
what he pleased, he might so increase his income as to have no
further need of parliaments; whereas, if the Commons refused to make
the grant, the king would soon be in a state of bankruptcy. The
financial question, in short, involved the further question whether
Charles or the Parliament was to have the sovereignty. Dangerous as
it would be for both parties to enter upon a quarrel which led up to
such issues, it was the more difficult to avoid it because the king
and the Commons were already at variance on another subject of
pre-eminent importance.
13. =Protestantism of the House of Commons. 1625-1628.=--That
subject was the subject of religion. The country gentlemen, who
almost entirely filled the benches of the House of Commons, were not
Puritan in the sense in which Cartwright had been Puritan in
Elizabeth's reign (see p. 446). They did not wish to abolish
episcopacy or the Prayer Book; but they were strongly Protestant,
and their Protestantism had been strengthened by a sense of danger
from the engagements in favour of the English Catholics into which
James and Charles had entered. Lately, too, the power of the
Catholic States on the Continent had been growing. In =1626= the
King of Denmark had been defeated at Lutter. In =1628= the French
Huguenots had been defeated at Rochelle. It was probably in
consequence of these events that there was in England a revival of
that attachment to Calvinistic doctrines which had accompanied the
Elizabethan struggle against Spain and the Pope.
14. =Religious Differences. 1625-1628.=--On the other hand, a small
but growing number amongst the clergy were breaking away from the
dogmas of Calvinism, and especially from its stern doctrine on the
subject of predestination. The House of Commons claimed to represent
the nation, and it upheld the unity of the national belief as
strongly as it had been upheld by Henry VIII. In =1625= the House
summoned to its bar Richard Montague, who had challenged the
received Calvinist opinions on the ground that they were not the
doctrines of the Church of England. In =1626= it impeached him.
Naturally, Montague and those who agreed with him warmly supported
the royal power, and in =1627= urged the duty of paying the forced
loan. Another clergyman, Roger Manwaring, preached sermons in which
Parliaments were treated with contempt, and the Commons retaliated
by impeaching the preacher. Charles would have acted in a spirit in
advance of his times, and certainly in advance of his opponents, if
he had merely upheld the right of the minority to liberty of
speech. Instead of contenting himself with this he made Montague
Bishop of Chichester and gave Manwaring a good living.
15. =The King's Declaration. 1628.=--With the intention of smoothing
matters down, Charles issued a declaration prefixed to the Articles,
which would, as he hoped, make for peace. No one was in future to
speak in public on the controverted points. Charles probably
believed himself to be acting fairly, whilst, in reality, his
compromise was most unfair. The Calvinists, who believed their views
about predestination to be of the utmost importance to the souls of
Christians, were hardly treated by the order to hold their tongues
on the subject. Their opponents did not care about the doctrine at
all, and would be only too glad if nothing more was heard of it.
Charles, however, was but following in Elizabeth's steps in imposing
silence and calling it peace. But the times were different. There
was no longer a Catholic claimant of the throne or a foreign enemy
at the gates to cause moderate men to support the government, even
in its errors.
16. =The Second Session of the Third Parliament of Charles I.
1629.=--The Houses met for a second session on January 20, =1629=.
The Commons attacked the clergy on a side on which they were
especially vulnerable. Some of those who had challenged the
Calvinistic doctrines had revived certain ceremonial forms which had
generally fallen into disuse. In Durham Cathedral especially, parts
of the service had been sung which had not been sung before, and the
Communion table, which had hitherto stood at the north door and had
been moved to the middle of the choir when needed, had been
permanently fixed at the east end of the chancel. The Commons were
indignant at what they styled Popish practices, and summoned the
offenders before them. Then they turned to Tonnage and Poundage.
Eliot, instead of confronting the difficulty directly, attempted to
make it a question of privilege. The goods of a member of the House,
named Rolle, had been seized for non-payment of Tonnage and
Poundage, and Eliot wished to summon the Custom House officers to
the bar, not for seizing the goods of an Englishman, but for a
breach of privilege in seizing the goods of a member of Parliament.
Pym, who occupied a prominent position amongst the popular party,
urged the House to take broader ground: "The liberties of this
House," he said, "are inferior to the liberties of this kingdom. To
determine the privileges of this House is but a mean matter, and the
main end is to establish possession of the subjects."[20] Eliot
carried the House with him, but Charles supported his officers, and
refused to allow them to appear at the bar of the House. Once more
the question of sovereignty was raised. The House was adjourned by
the king's order in the hope that a compromise might be discovered.
[Footnote 20: _i.e._ to establish the right of the subjects to
possess their property.]
17. =Breach between the King and the Commons. 1629.=--No compromise
could be found, and on March 2 a fresh order for adjournment was
given. When Finch, the Speaker, rose to announce it, two strong
young members, Holles and Valentine, pushed him back into his chair
whilst Eliot read three resolutions to the effect that whoever
brought in innovations in religion, or introduced opinions differing
from those of the true and orthodox church; whoever advised the levy
of Tonnage and Poundage without a grant by Parliament; and whoever
voluntarily paid those duties, was an enemy to the kingdom and a
betrayer of its liberties. A wild tumult arose. A rush was made to
free the Speaker, and another rush to hold him down. One member, at
least, laid his hand on his sword. The doors were locked, and,
amidst the hubbub, Holles repeated the resolutions, which were
accepted with shouts of 'Aye, aye.' Then the doors were opened, and
the members poured out. The king at once dissolved Parliament, and
for eleven years no Parliament met again in England.
18. =The Constitutional Dispute. 1629.=--The constitutional system
of the Tudor monarchy had practically broken down. The nation had,
in the sixteenth century, entered upon a struggle for national
independence. Henry VIII. and Elizabeth had headed it in that
struggle, and the House of Commons had but represented the nation in
accepting Henry VIII. and Elizabeth as supreme rulers. The House of
Commons now refused to admit that Charles was its supreme ruler,
because he could neither head the nation, nor understand either its
wants or its true needs. Yet the House had not as yet shown its
capacity for taking his place. It had criticised his methods of
government effectively, but had displayed its own intolerance and
disregard for individual liberty. Yet, till it could learn to
respect individual liberty, it would not be likely to gain the
sovereignty at which it aimed. A king becomes powerful when men want
a strong government to put down enemies abroad or petty tyrants at
home. A Parliament becomes powerful when men want to discuss
political questions, and political discussion cannot thrive when
voices disagreeable to the majority are silenced. The House of
Commons had thought more of opposing the king than of laying a wide
basis for its own power, and now it was, for a time at least,
silenced.
19. =The Victory of Personal Government. 1629-1632.=--Charles was
now to show whether he could do better than the Commons. He had
gained one great convert soon after the end of the first session of
the last Parliament. Wentworth, satisfied, it is to be supposed,
with the Petition of Right, and dissatisfied with the claim to
sovereignty put forward by the Commons, came over to his side and
was made first a baron and then a viscount, after which before the
end of =1628= he was made President of the Council of the North (see
p. 397). Wentworth was no Puritan, and the claim of the Commons, in
the second session, to meddle with religion no doubt strengthened
him in his conviction that he had chosen the right side. Before the
end of =1629= he became a Privy Councillor. The most influential
member of Charles's Council, however, was Weston, the Lord
Treasurer. Peace was made with France in =1629=, and with Spain in
=1630=. To bring the finances into order, the king insisted on
collecting the customs without a Parliamentary grant, and Chambers,
a merchant who refused to pay, was summoned before the Council, and
then fined 2,000_l._ and imprisoned for saying that merchants were
more wrung in England than they were in Turkey. The leading members
who had been concerned in the disturbance at the last meeting of
Parliament were imprisoned, and three of them, Eliot, Holles, and
Valentine, were charged before the King's Bench with riot and
sedition. They declined to plead, on the ground that the judges had
no jurisdiction over things done in Parliament. The judges held that
riot and sedition must be punished somewhere, and that as Parliament
was not always sitting it must be punished by themselves. As the
accused still refused to plead they were fined and imprisoned. Eliot
died of consumption in the Tower in =1632=. Charles had refused to
allow him to go into the country to recover his health, and after
his death he refused to allow his children to dispose of his body.
Eliot was the martyr, not of individual liberty, but of
Parliamentary supremacy. Charles hated him because he regarded him
as the factious accuser of Buckingham.
20. =Star Chamber Sentences. 1630-1633.=--The first years of
unparliamentary government were, on the whole, years of peace and
quiet. The Star Chamber, which under Henry VII. had put down the old
nobility, was now ready to put down the opponents of the king. Its
numbers had grown with its work, and all of the Privy Councillors
were now members of it, the only other members being two judges. It
was therefore a mere instrument in the king's hands. In =1630=
Alexander Leighton was flogged and mutilated by order of the Star
Chamber for having written a virulent libel against the bishops; in
which he blamed them for all existing mischiefs, including the
extravagance of the dress of the ladies, and ended by advising that
they should be smitten under the fifth rib. In =1633= the same court
fined Henry Sherfield for breaking a church window which he held to
be superstitious. The bulk of Englishmen were not touched by these
sentences, and there was more indignation when, in order to pay off
debts contracted in time of war, Charles ordered the enforcement of
fines upon all men holding by military tenure lands worth 40_l._ a
year who had neglected to be knighted. The Court of Exchequer held
that the fines were legal; but the whole system of military tenure
was obsolete, and those who suffered regarded themselves as wronged
through a mere technicality.
[Illustration: Sir Edward and Lady Filmer: from their brass at East
Sutton, Kent, showing armour and dress worn about 1630.]
21. =Laud's Intellectual Position. 1629-1633.=--For all matters
relating to the Church Charles's principal adviser was William Laud,
now Bishop of London. As far as doctrine was concerned Laud carried
on the teaching of Cranmer and Hooker. He held that the basis of
belief was the Bible, but that the Bible was to be interpreted by
the tradition of the early church, and that all doubtful points were
to be subjected, not to heated arguments in the pulpits, but to
sober discussion by learned men. His mind, in short, like those of
the earlier English reformers, combined the Protestant reliance on
the Scriptures with reverence for ancient tradition and with the
critical spirit of the Renascence. Laud's difficulty lay, as theirs
had lain, in the impossibility of gaining over any large number of
his fellow-countrymen. Intelligent criticism and intelligent study
were only for the few. Laud, as he himself plaintively declared, was
in danger of being crushed between the upper and lower mill-stones
of Puritanism and the Papacy.
22. =Laud as the Upholder of Uniformity.=--In all this there was
nothing peculiar to Laud. What was peculiar to him was his
perception that intellectual religion could not maintain itself by
intellect alone. Hooker's appeals to Church history and to the
supremacy of reason had rolled over the heads of men who knew
nothing about Church history, and who did not reason. Laud fell back
upon the influence of ceremonial. "I laboured nothing more," he
afterwards said, "than that the external public worship of God--too
much slighted in most parts of the kingdom--might be preserved, and
that with as much decency and uniformity as might be; being still of
opinion that unity cannot long continue in the Church when
uniformity is shut out of the Church door." He, like Eliot and the
Parliamentarians, was convinced that there could be but one Church
in the nation. As they sought to retain their hold on it by the
enforcement of uniformity of doctrine, Laud sought to retain his
hold on it by enforcing uniformity of worship. To do this he
attempted to put in force the existing law of the Church as opposed
to the existing practice. What he urged men to do he believed to be
wholly right. He himself clung with all his heart to the doctrine of
the divine right of episcopacy, of the efficacy of the Sacraments,
and to the sobering influence of appointed prayers and appointed
ceremonies. What he lacked was broad human sympathy and respect for
the endeavour of each earnest man to grow towards perfection in the
way which seems to him to be best. Men were to obey for their own
good, and to hold their tongues. The king was the supreme governor,
and with his authority, as exercised in the Courts of Star Chamber
and High Commission, Laud hoped to rescue England from Pope and
Puritan.
[Illustration: Archbishop Laud: from a copy in the National Portrait
Gallery by Henry Stone, from the Van Dyck at Lambeth.]
[Illustration: Silver-gilt tankard made at London in 1634-35, now
belonging to the Corporation of Bristol.]
23. =The Beginning of Laud's Archbishopric. 1633-1634.=--In =1633=
Laud became Archbishop of Canterbury. He at once made his hand felt
in every direction. By his advice, in consequence of an attempt of
the judges to put an end to Sunday amusements, Charles republished
the _Declaration of Sports_ which had been issued by his father,
authorising such amusements under certain restrictions. Where,
however, James had contented himself with giving orders, Charles
insisted on having the Declaration read in church by all the clergy,
and roused the resistance of those who regarded Sunday amusements as
a breach of the Sabbath. Laud was also anxious to see the Communion
table standing everywhere at the east end of the church. No doubt
his anxiety came in part from his reverence of the holy sacrament
for which it was set apart, but it also arose from his dislike to
the base purposes for which it was often made to serve. Men often
put their hats on it, or used it as a writing table. The canons, or
laws of the Church, indeed, directed that the position of the table
should, when not in use, be at the east end, though at the time of
Communion it was to be placed in that part of the church or chancel
from which the minister could best be heard. A case was brought
before the king and the Privy Council in =1633=, and it was then
decided that the bishop or other proper authority should settle what
was the position from which the minister could best be heard. Of
course the bishops settled that that place was the east end of the
chancel.
24. =Laud and Prynne. 1633-1634.=--Amongst the most virulent
opponents of Laud was William Prynne, a lawyer whose extensive study
of theology had not tended to smooth away the asperities of his
temper. He was, moreover, a voluminous writer, and had written books
against drinking healths and against the wearing of long hair by
men, in which these follies had been treated as equally blameworthy
with the grossest sins. Struck by the immorality of the existing
drama, he attacked it in a heavy work called _Histrio-mastix_, or
The scourge of stage players, in which he held the frequenting of
theatres to be the cause of every crime under the sun. He pointed
out that all the Roman emperors who had patronised the drama had
come to a bad end, and this was held by the courtiers to be a
reflection on Charles, who patronised the drama. He inserted in the
index a vile charge against all actresses, and this was held to be
an insult to the queen, who was at the time taking part in the
rehearsal of a theatrical representation. Accordingly in =1633=
Prynne was sentenced by the Star Chamber to lose his ears in the
pillory, to a heavy fine, and to imprisonment during the king's
pleasure. In =1634= the sentence was carried out. Prynne's case,
however, awakened no general sympathy, and the king does not appear
to have as yet become widely unpopular. The young lawyers came to
Whitehall to give a masque or dramatic representation in presence of
the king and queen, in order to show their detestation of Prynne's
conduct, whilst John Milton, the strictest and most pure-minded of
poets, wrote a masque, _Comus_, to show how little sympathy he had
with Prynne's sweeping denunciations. Yet, though Milton opposed
Prynne's exaggeration, his own poetry was a protest against Laud's
attempt to reach the mind through the senses. Milton held to the
higher part of the Puritan teaching, that the soul is to lead the
body, and not the body the soul. "So dear," he wrote in _Comus_,
to Heaven is saintly chastity,
That, when a soul is found sincerely so,
A thousand liveried angels lackey her,
Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt,
And, in clear dream and solemn vision,
Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear,
Till oft converse with heavenly habitants
Begin to cast a beam on the outward shape,
The unpolluted temple of the mind,
And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence,
Till all be made immortal.
CHAPTER XXXIII
THE OVERTHROW OF THE PERSONAL GOVERNMENT OF CHARLES I. 1634-1641
LEADING DATES
The Reign of Charles I., 1625-1649
The Metropolitical Visitation 1634
First Ship-money Writ (to the port-towns) 1634
Second Ship-money Writ (to all the counties) 1635
Prynne, Burton, and Bastwick in the pillory 1637
Riot in Edinburgh 1637
Scottish National Covenant 1638
Judgment in Hampden's Case 1637-1638
First Bishops' War 1639
Short Parliament 1640
Second Bishops' War 1640
Meeting of the Long Parliament 1640
Execution of Strafford, and Constitutional Reforms 1641
1. =The Metropolitical Visitation. 1634-1637.=--The antagonism which
Laud had begun to rouse in the first months of his archbishopric
became far more widely spread in the three years beginning in =1634=
and ending in =1637=, in consequence of a Metropolitical
Visitation--that is to say, a visitation which he conducted by the
Metropolitan or Archbishop--either in person or by deputy--to
enquire into the condition of the clergy and churches of the
Province of Canterbury; a similar visitation being held in the
Province of York by the authority of the Archbishop of York. Every
clergyman who refused to conform to the Prayer Book, who resisted
the removal of the Communion table to the east end of the chancel,
or who objected to bow when the sacred name of Jesus was pronounced,
was called in question, and if obstinate, was brought before the
High Commission and suspended from the exercise of his functions or
deprived of his living. Laud wanted to reach unity through
uniformity, and made the canons of the Church his standard of
uniformity. Even moderate men suspected that he sought to subject
England again to the Pope. The queen, too, entertained a Papal agent
at her Court, and a few successful conversions, brought about by
Con, who at one time resided with her in that capacity, frightened
the country into the belief that a plot existed to overthrow
Protestantism. Some of Laud's clerical supporters favoured this
idea, by talking about such topics as altars and the invocation of
the saints, which had hitherto been held to have no place in
Protestant teaching. The result was that moderate Protestants now
joined the Puritans in opposing Laud.
2. =Prynne, Bastwick, and Burton. 1637.=--Laud had little hope of
being able to abate the storm. One of his best qualities was that he
was no respecter of persons, and he had roused animosity in the
upper classes by punishing gentlemen guilty of immorality or of
breaches of church discipline as freely as he punished more lowly
offenders. In =1637= he characteristically attempted to defend
himself from the charge of being a Papist and an innovator in
religion by bringing three of his most virulent assailants--Prynne,
Bastwick, and Burton--before the Star Chamber. The trial afforded
him the opportunity of making a speech in his own defence, to which
nobody paid the least attention. As a matter of course the accused
were heavily punished, being sentenced to lose their ears in the
pillory, to pay a fine of 5,000_l._, and to imprisonment for life.
It was not now as it had been in =1634=, when Prynne stood alone in
the pillory, no man regarding him. The three victims had a triumphal
reception on their way to the pillory. Flowers and sweet herbs were
strewed in their path. The crowd applauded them whilst they
suffered. On their way to their several prisons in distant parts of
the country men flocked to greet them as martyrs.
[Illustration: The 'Sovereign of the Seas,' built for the Royal Navy
in 1637: from a contemporary engraving by John Payne.]
3. =Financial Pressure. 1635-1637.=--Revolutions are never
successful without the guidance of men devoted to ideas; but on the
other hand they are not caused only by grievances felt by religious
or high-minded people. To stir large masses of men to resistance,
their pockets must be touched as well as their souls. In =1635=
Weston, who had been created Earl of Portland, died, and a body of
Commissioners of the Treasury, who succeeded him, laid additional
impositions on commerce and established corporations for exercising
various manufactures under the protection of monopolies. This
proceeding was according to the letter of the law, as corporations
had been exempted from the act in restraint of monopolies which had
been passed in =1624= (see p. 501). So, too, was a claim put forward
by Charles in =1637= to levy fines from those who had encroached on
the old boundaries of the forests. It is true that, in the teeth of
the opposition roused, Charles exacted but a small part of the fines
imposed, but he incurred almost as much obloquy as if he had taken
the whole of the money.
4. =Ship-money. 1634-1637.=--More important was Charles's effort to
provide himself with a fleet. As the Dutch navy was powerful, and
the French navy was rapidly growing in strength, Charles, not
unnaturally, thought that England ought to be able to meet their
combined forces at sea. In =1634=, by the advice of Attorney-General
Noy, he issued writs to the port towns, to furnish him with ships.
He took care to ask for ships larger than any port--except
London--had got, and then offered to supply ships of his own, on
condition that the port towns should equip and man them. In
=1635=--Noy having died in the meantime--Charles asked for ships not
merely from the ports, but from the inland as well as from the
maritime counties. Again London alone provided ships; in all the
rest of England money had to be found to pay for the equipment and
manning of ships belonging to the king. In this way Charles got a
strong navy which he manned with sailors in the habit of managing
ships of war, and entirely at his own orders. The experience of the
Cadiz voyage had shown him that merchant-sailors, such as those who
had done good service against the Armada, were not to be trusted to
fight in enterprises in which they took no interest, and it is from
the ship-money fleet that the separation of the naval and mercantile
marine dates. Necessarily, however, Englishmen began to complain,
not that they had a navy, but that the money needed for the navy was
taken from them without a Parliamentary grant. Year after year
ship-money was levied, and the murmurs against it increased. In
February, =1637=, Charles consulted the judges, and ten out of the
twelve judges declared that the king had a right to do what was
necessary for the defence of the realm in time of danger, and that
the king was the sole judge of the existence of danger.
5. =Hampden's Case. 1637-1638.=--It was admitted that, in accordance
with the Petition of Right, Charles could not levy a tax without a
Parliamentary grant. Charles, however, held that ship-money was not
a tax, but money paid in commutation of the duty of all Englishmen
to defend their country. Common sense held that, whether ship-money
was a tax or not, it had been levied without consulting Parliament,
simply because the king shrank from consulting Parliament; or, in
other words, because he was afraid that Parliament would ask him to
put an end to Laud's system of managing the Church. Charles was
ready, as he said, to allow to Parliament liberty of counsel, but
not of control. The sense of irritation was now so great that the
nation wanted to control the Government, and knew that it would
never be able to do so if Charles could, by a subterfuge, take what
money he needed without summoning Parliament. Of this feeling John
Hampden, a Buckinghamshire squire, became the mouthpiece. He refused
to pay 20_s._ levied on his estate for ship-money. His case was
argued before the twelve judges sitting in the Exchequer Chamber. In
=1638= two pronounced distinctly in his favour, three supported him
on technical grounds, and seven pronounced for the king. Charles
continued to levy ship-money, but the arguments of Hampden's lawyers
were circulated in the country, and the judgment of the majority on
the Bench was ascribed to cowardice or obsequiousness. Their
decision ranged against the king all who cared about preserving
their property, as the Metropolitical visitation had ranged against
him all who cared for religion in a distinctly Protestant form. Yet,
even now, the Tudor monarchy had done its work too thoroughly, and
had filled the minds of men too completely with the belief that
armed resistance to a king was unjustifiable, to make Englishmen
ripe for rebellion. They preferred to wait till some opportunity
should arrive which would enable them to express their disgust in a
constitutional way.
6. =Scottish Episcopacy. 1572-1612.=--The social condition of
Scotland was very different from that of England. The nobles there
had never been crushed as they had been in England, and they had
tried to make the reformation conduce to their own profit. In =1572=
they obtained the appointment of what were known as Tulchan bishops,
who, performing no episcopal function, received the revenues of
their sees and then handed them over to certain nobles.[21] The
Presbyterian clergy, however, represented the popular element in the
nation--and that element, though it had hitherto been weak, was
growing strong through the discipline which it received in
consequence of the leading share assigned to the middle and lower
classes in the Church Courts (see p. 434). The disagreement between
these classes and the nobles gave to James the part of arbitrator,
and thus conferred on him a power which no Scottish king had had
before. After much vacillation, he consented, in =1592=, to an act
fully re-establishing the Presbyterian system. It was not long
before he repented. The Presbyterian clergy attacked his actions
from the pulpit, and one of them, Andrew Melville, plucking him by
the sleeve, called him 'God's silly vassal.' The nobles, too, were
angry because the clergy assailed their vices, and tried to subject
them to the discipline of the Church. Though their ancestors had, at
almost all times, been the adversaries of the kings, they now made
common cause with James. Gradually episcopacy was restored. Bishops
were re-appointed in =1599=. Step by step episcopal authority was
regained for them. In =1610= three of their number were consecrated
in England, and in =1612= the Scottish Parliament ratified all that
had been done.
[Footnote 21: A Tulchan was a stuffed calf's skin set by a cow to
induce her to give her milk freely.]
7. =The Scottish Bishops and Clergy. 1612-1637.=--In England bishops
had a party (lay and clerical) behind them. In Scotland they were
mere instruments of the king and the nobles to keep the clergy
quiet. In =1618=, James, supported by the bishops and the nobles,
forced upon a general assembly the acceptance of the Five Articles
of Perth, the most important of which was a direction that the
Communion should be received in a kneeling posture. Yet, in spite of
all that James had done, the local popular Church courts still
existed, and the worship of the Church remained still distinctly
Calvinistic and Puritan. Charles was more eager than his father to
alter the worship of the Scottish Church, and, in =1637=, at his
command, certain Scottish bishops--often referring for advice to
Laud--completed a new Prayer Book, not unlike that in use in
England, but differing from it, for the most part, in a sense
adverse to Puritanism. The clergy declared against it, and this time
the clergy had on their side the nobles, who not only feared lest
Charles should take from them the Church lands appropriated by their
fathers, but were also irritated at the promotion of some bishops to
high offices which they claimed for themselves.
8. =The Riot at Edinburgh and the Covenant. 1637-1638.=--On July 23,
=1637=, an attempt was made to read the new service in St. Giles's,
at Edinburgh. The women present burst into a riot, and one of them
threw her stool at the head of the officiating minister, fortunately
missing him. All Scotland took part with the rioters. The new Prayer
Book was hated, not only because it was said to be Popish, but also
because it was English. In November four committees, known as the
Tables, practically assumed the government of Scotland. In February,
=1638=, all good Scots were signing a National Covenant. Nothing
was said in it about episcopacy, but those who signed it bound
themselves to labour, by all means lawful, to recover the purity and
liberty of the Gospel, as it was established and professed before
the recent innovations.
9. =The Assembly of Glasgow, and the Abolition of Episcopacy.
1638.=--The greater part of =1638= was passed by Charles in an
endeavour to come to an understanding with the Scots. On September 2
he revoked the Prayer Book, and offered to limit the powers of the
bishops. On November 21 a general assembly met at Glasgow, in which
ninety-six lay members--for the most part noblemen--sat with 144
clergymen, and which may therefore be regarded as a sort of
Ecclesiastical Parliament in which the clergy predominated as the
nobles predominated in the single house which made up the real
Parliament. The Assembly claimed to judge the bishops, on which the
king's commissioner, the Marquis of Hamilton, dissolved the Assembly
rather than admit its claim. The Assembly, however, on the ground
that it possessed a Divine right to settle all affairs relating to
the Church independently of the King, sat on, as if nothing had
happened, deposed the bishops, and re-established the Presbyterian
system.
10. =The First Bishops' War. 1639.=--In refusing to obey the order
for dissolution, the Scottish General Assembly had practically made
itself independent of the king, and Charles was driven--unless he
cared to allow the establishment of a precedent, which might some
day be quoted against him in England--to make war upon the Scots.
Yet he dared not summon the English Parliament, lest it should
follow their example, and he had to set forth on what came to be
known as the First Bishops' War--because it was waged in the cause
of the bishops--with no more money than he could get from a
voluntary contribution, not much exceeding 50,000_l._ Soon after he
reached Berwick with his army, he found that the Scots had, on Dunse
Law,[22] an army almost equal to his own in numbers, commanded by
Alexander Leslie, an old soldier who had fought in the German wars,
and mainly composed of veterans, who had seen much service on the
Continent, whilst his own men were raw recruits. His money soon came
to an end, and it was then found impossible to keep the army
together. The war was one in which there was no fighting, and in
which only one man was killed, and he by an accident. On June 24
Charles signed the Treaty of Berwick. Both sides passed over in
silence the deeds of the Glasgow Assembly, but a promise was given
that all affairs civil and ecclesiastical should be settled in an
assembly and Parliament. Assembly and Parliament met at Edinburgh,
and declared in favour of the abolition of episcopacy; but Charles,
who could not, even now, make up his mind to submit, ordered the
adjournment of the Parliament, and prepared for a new attack on
Scotland.
[Footnote 22: 'Law,' in the Lowlands of Scotland, means a solitary
hill.]
[Illustration: Soldier armed with a pike: from a broadside, printed
_circa_ 1630.]
[Illustration: Soldier with musket and crutch: from a broadside
printed about 1630.]
11. =Wentworth in Ireland. 1633-1639.=--In preparing for a new war,
Charles had Wentworth by his side. Wentworth, who was by far the
ablest of his advisers, after ruling the north of England (see p.
514) in a high-handed fashion, had, in =1632=, been appointed Lord
Deputy of Ireland. In =1634= he summoned an Irish Parliament, taking
care that the English Protestant settlers and the Irish Catholics
should be so evenly balanced that he could do what he would with it.
He carried through it admirable laws and a vote of money which
enabled him to be independent of Parliament for some time to come.
As far as its material interests were concerned, Ireland had never
been so prosperous. Trade grew, and the flax industry of the North
sprang into existence under Wentworth's protection. Churches which
had lain in ruins since the desolating wars of Elizabeth's reign
were rebuilt, and able and active ministers were invited from
England. The Earl of Cork, who had illegally seized Church property
to his own use, was heavily fined, and Lord Mountnorris, a
self-seeking official, who refused to resign his office, was brought
before a court-martial and condemned to death; though Wentworth let
him know that his life was in no danger, and that all that was
wanted of him was the resignation of an office which he was unfitted
to fill. Wentworth required all the officers of the Crown to live up
to the motto of 'Thorough,' which he had adopted for himself, by
which he meant a 'thorough' devotion to the service of the king and
the State, without regard for private interests.
12. =The Proposed Plantation of Connaught.=--Wentworth gave great
offence to the English officials and settlers by the harsh and
overbearing way in which he kept them in order. His conduct to the
Celtic population was less violent than that of some other lord
deputies, but he had no more idea than his predecessors of leaving
the Irish permanently to their own customs and religion. He believed
that, both for their own good and for the safety of the English
Crown, they must be made as like Englishmen as possible, and that,
to effect this, it would be necessary to settle more Englishmen in
Ireland to overawe them. Accordingly, in =1635=, he visited
Connaught, where he raked up an old claim of the king's to the whole
land of the province, though Charles had promised not to put forward
any such claim at all. In every county of Connaught except Galway, a
jury was found to give a verdict in favour of the king's claim. The
jury in County Galway refused to do his bidding, and Wentworth had
the jurymen fined, and the land of the county seized by the order of
the Irish Court of Exchequer, which pronounced judgment without a
jury. He then invited English settlers to Connaught; but he found
that few English settlers would go to such a distance from their
homes. Perhaps many refused to come because they distrusted
Wentworth. Yet, for the moment, his government appeared successful.
In =1639= he visited England, and Charles, who needed an able
counsellor, made him Earl of Strafford, and from that time took him
for his chief adviser.
13. =The Short Parliament. 1640.=--Strafford's advice was that
Charles should summon an English Parliament, whilst he himself held
a Parliament in Dublin, which might show an example of loyalty. The
Irish Parliament did all that was expected of it, the Catholic
members being especially forward in voting supplies in the hope
that, if they helped Charles to conquer the Scots, he would allow
freedom of religion in Ireland. In England, Parliament met on April
13. Pym at once laid before the Commons a statement of the
grievances of the nation, after which the House resolved to ask for
redress of these grievances before granting supply. Charles offered
to abandon ship-money if the Commons would give him twelve subsidies
equal to about 960,000_l._ The Commons hesitated about granting so
much, and wished the king to yield on other points as well as upon
ship-money. In the end they prepared to advise Charles to abandon
the war with Scotland altogether, and, to avoid this, he dissolved
Parliament on May 5. As it had sat for scarcely more than three
weeks, it is known as the Short Parliament.
14. =The Second Bishops' War. 1640.=--In spite of the failure of the
Parliament, Charles gathered an army by pressing men from all parts
of England, and found money to pay them for a time by buying a large
quantity of pepper on credit and selling it at once for less than it
was worth. The soldiers, as they marched northwards, broke into the
churches, burnt the Communion rails, and removed the Communion
tables to the middle of the building. There was no wish amongst
Englishmen to see the Scots beaten. The Scots, knowing this, crossed
the Tweed, and, on August 28, routed a part of the English army at
Newburn on the Tyne. Even Strafford did not venture to advise a
prolongation of the war. Negotiations were opened at Ripon, and
Northumberland and Durham were left in the hands of the Scots as a
pledge for the payment of 850_l._ a day for the maintenance of their
army, till a permanent treaty could be arranged. Charles, whose
money was already exhausted, summoned a Great Council, consisting of
Peers alone, to meet at York. All that the Great Council could do
was to advise him to summon another Parliament, and that advice he
was obliged to take.
15. =The Meeting of the Long Parliament. 1640.=--On November 3,
=1640=, the new Parliament, which was to be known as the Long
Parliament, met. Pym once more took the lead, and proposed the
impeachment of Strafford, as the king's chief adviser in the attempt
to carry on war in defiance of Parliament. Strafford had also
collected an Irish army for an attack on Scotland, and it was
strongly believed that he had advised the king to use that army to
reduce England as well as Scotland under arbitrary government. The
mere suspicion that he had threatened to bring an Irish army into
England roused more than ordinary indignation, as, in those days,
Irishmen were both detested and despised in England. Strafford was
therefore impeached, and sent to the Tower. Laud was also imprisoned
in the Tower, whilst other officials escaped to the Continent to
avoid a similar fate. The Houses then proceeded to pass a Triennial
Bill, directing that Parliament should meet every three years, even
if the king did not summon it, and to this, with some hesitation,
Charles assented. He could not, in fact, refuse anything which
Parliament asked, because, if he had done so, Parliament would give
him no money to satisfy the Scots, and if the Scots were not
satisfied, they would recommence the war.
16. =The Impeachment of Strafford. 1641.=--On March 22, =1641=,
Strafford's trial was opened in Westminster Hall. All his
overbearing actions were set forth at length, but, after all had
been said, a doubt remained whether they constituted high treason,
that crime having been strictly defined by a statute of Edward III.
(see p. 250). Young Sir Henry Vane, son of one of the Secretaries of
State, found amongst his father's papers a note of a speech
delivered by Strafford in a Committee of the Privy Council just
after the breaking up of the Short Parliament, in which he had
spoken of the king as loose and absolved from all rules of
government. "You have an army in Ireland," Strafford was reported to
have said, "you may employ here to reduce this kingdom, for I am
confident as anything under heaven, Scotland shall not hold out five
months." The Commons were convinced that 'this kingdom' meant
England and not Scotland; but there were signs that the lords would
be likely to differ from them, and the Commons accordingly abandoned
the impeachment in which the lords sat as judges, and introduced a
Bill of Attainder (see p. 401, note), to which, after the Commons
had accepted it, the lords would have to give their consent if it
was to become law, as in the case of any ordinary Bill.
17. =Strafford's Attainder and Execution.=--Pym would have preferred
to go on with the impeachment, because he believed that Strafford
was really guilty of high treason. He held that treason was not an
offence against the king's private person, but against the king as a
constitutional ruler, and that Strafford had actually diminished the
king's authority by attempting to make him an absolute ruler, and
thereby to weaken Charles's hold upon the goodwill of the people.
This argument, however, did not break down the scruples of the
Peers, and if Charles had kept quiet, he would have had them at
least on his side. Neither he nor the queen could keep quiet.
Before the end of =1640= she had urged the Pope to send her money
and soldiers, and now she had a plan for bringing the defeated
English army from Yorkshire to Westminster to overpower Parliament.
Then came an attempt of Charles to get possession of the Tower, that
he might liberate Strafford by force. Pym, who had learnt the secret
of the queen's army-plot, disclosed it, and the peers, frightened at
their danger, passed the Bill of Attainder. A mob gathered round
Whitehall and howled for the execution of the sentence. Charles,
fearing lest the mob should take vengeance on his wife, weakly
signed a commission appointing commissioners to give the royal
assent to the Bill, though he had promised Strafford that not a hair
of his head should be touched. With the words, "Put not your trust
in princes" on his lips, the great royalist statesman prepared for
the scaffold. On May 12 he was beheaded, rather because men feared
his ability than because his offences were legally punishable with
death.
18. =Constitutional Reforms. 1641.=--Englishmen would not have
feared Strafford if they could have been sure that the king could be
trusted to govern according to law, without employing force to
settle matters in his own way. Yet, though the army-plot had made it
difficult to feel confidence in Charles, Parliament was at first
content to rely on constitutional reforms. On the day on which
Charles assented to the bill for Strafford's execution he assented
to another bill declaring that the existing Parliament should not be
dissolved without its own consent, a stipulation which made the
House of Commons legally irresponsible either to the king or to its
constituents, and which could only be justified by the danger of an
attack by an armed force at the bidding of the king. Acts were
passed abolishing the Courts of Star Chamber and the High
Commission, declaring ship-money to be illegal, limiting the king's
claims on forests, prohibiting fines for not taking up knighthood,
and preventing the king from levying Tonnage and Poundage or
impositions without a Parliamentary grant. Taking these acts as a
whole, they stripped the Crown of the extraordinary powers which it
had acquired in Tudor times, and made it impossible for Charles,
legally, to obtain money to carry on the government without the
goodwill of Parliament, or to punish offenders without the goodwill
of juries. All that was needed in the way of constitutional reform
was thus accomplished. As far as law could do it, the system of
personal government which Charles had in part inherited from his
predecessors and in part had built up for himself, was brought to
an end.
CHAPTER XXXIV
THE FORMATION OF PARLIAMENTARY PARTIES AND THE FIRST YEARS OF THE
CIVIL WAR. 1641-1644
LEADING DATES
Reign of Charles I., 1625-1649
The Debate on the Grand Remonstrance Nov. 23, 1641
The Attempt on the Five Members Jan. 4, 1642
The Battle of Edgehill Oct. 23, 1642
The Fairfaxes defeated at Adwalton Moor June 30, 1643
Waller's Defeat at Roundway Down July 13, 1643
The Raising of the Siege of Gloucester Sept. 5, 1643
The First Battle of Newbury Sept. 20, 1643
The Solemn League and Covenant taken by the
Houses Sept. 25, 1643
The Scottish Army crosses the Tweed Jan. 19, 1644
The Battle of Marston Moor July 2, 1644
Capitulation of Essex's Infantry at Lostwithiel Sept. 2, 1644
The Second Battle of Newbury Oct. 27, 1644
1. =The King's Visit to Scotland. 1641.=--If Charles could have
inspired his subjects with the belief that he had no intention of
overthrowing the new arrangements by force, there would have been
little more trouble. Unfortunately, this was not the case. In
August, indeed, the Houses succeeded in disbanding the English army
in Yorkshire, and in dismissing the Scottish army across the Tweed;
but, in the same month, Charles set out for Scotland, ostensibly to
give his assent in person to the Acts abolishing episcopacy in that
country, but in reality to persuade the Scots to lend him an army to
coerce the English Parliament. Pym and Hampden suspecting this,
though they could not prove it, felt it necessary to be on their
guard.
2. =Parties formed on Church Questions. 1641.=--There would,
however, have been little danger from Charles if political questions
alone had been at stake. Parliament had been unanimous in abolishing
his personal government, and no one was likely to help him to
restore it by force. In ecclesiastical questions, however,
differences arose early. All, indeed, wished to do away with the
practices introduced by Laud, but there was a party, which though
willing to introduce reforms into the Church, and to subject it to
Parliament, objected to the introduction of the Presbyterian
system, lest presbyters should prove as tyrannical as bishops. Of
this party, the leading members were Hyde, a politician who surveyed
State affairs with the eyes of a lawyer, and the amiable Lord
Falkland, a scholar and an enthusiast for religious toleration. On
the other hand, there was a party which believed that the abolition
of episcopacy was the only possible remedy for ecclesiastical
tyranny. If Charles had openly supported the first party, it might,
perhaps, have been in a majority; but as he did nothing of the sort,
an impression gained ground that if bishops were not entirely
abolished, they would sooner or later be restored by the king to
their full authority, in spite of any limitations which Parliament
might put upon them. Moreover, the lords, by throwing out a bill for
removing the bishops from their House, exasperated even those
members who were still hesitating. A majority in the Commons
supported a bill, known as the Root and Branch Bill, for the
abolition of episcopacy and for the transference of their
jurisdiction to committees of laymen in each diocese. Though this
bill was not passed, its existence was sure to intensify the dislike
of the king to those who had brought it in.
3. =Irish Parties. 1641.=--Before the king returned from Scotland,
news arrived from Ireland which increased the difficulty of
maintaining a good understanding with Charles. Besides the English
officials, there were two parties in Ireland discontented with
Strafford's rule. Of these one was that of the Catholic lords,
mostly of English extraction, who wanted toleration for their
religion and a large part in the management of the country. The
other was that of the native Celts, who were anxious to regain the
lands of which they had been robbed and to live again under their
old customs. Both parties were terrified at the danger of increased
persecution by the Puritan Parliament at Westminster, especially as
the government at Dublin was in the hands of two lords justices, of
whom the more active, Sir William Parsons, advocated repressive
measures against the Catholics, and the introduction of fresh
colonists from England to oust the Irish more completely from the
land. In the spring of =1641= the Catholic lords had emissaries at
Charles's court offering to send an army to his help in England, if
he would allow them to seize Dublin and to overthrow the Government
carried on there in his name.
4. =The Irish Insurrection. 1641.=--Nothing was settled when Charles
left England, and in October the native Irish, impatient of delay,
attempted to seize Dublin for themselves. The plot was, however,
detected, and they turned savagely on the English and Scottish
colony in Ulster. Murders, and atrocities worse than ordinary
murder, were committed in the North of Ireland. At Portadown the
victims were driven into a river and drowned. Women were stripped
naked and turned into the wintry air to die of cold and starvation,
and children were slaughtered as ruthlessly as full-grown men. The
lowest estimate of the destruction which reached England raised the
number of victims to 30,000, and, though this was doubtless an
immensely exaggerated reckoning, the actual number of victims must
have reached to some thousands. In England a bitter cry for
vengeance went up, and with that cry was mingled distrust of the
king. It was felt to be necessary to send an army into Ireland, and,
if the army was to go under the king's orders, there was nothing to
prevent him using it--after Ireland had been subdued--against the
English Parliament.
5. =The Grand Remonstrance. 1641.=--The perception of this danger
led the Commons to draw up a statement of their case, known as the
Grand Remonstrance. They began with a long indictment of all
Charles's errors from the beginning of his reign, and, though the
statements were undoubtedly exaggerated, they were adopted by the
whole House. When, however, it came to the proposal of remedies,
there was a great division amongst the members. The party led by Pym
and Hampden, by which the Remonstrance had been drawn up, asked for
the appointment of ministers responsible to Parliament, and for the
reference of Church matters to an Assembly of divines nominated by
Parliament. The party led by Hyde and Falkland saw that the granting
of these demands would be tantamount to the erection of the
sovereignty of Parliament in Church and State; and, as they feared
that this in turn would lead to the establishment of Presbyterian
despotism, they preferred to imagine that it was still possible to
make Charles a constitutional sovereign. On November 23 there was a
stormy debate, and the division was not taken till after midnight. A
small majority of eleven declared against the king. The majority
then proposed to print the Remonstrance for the purpose of
circulating it among the people. The minority protested, and, as a
protest was unprecedented in the House of Commons, a wild uproar
ensued. Members snatched at their swords, and it needed all
Hampden's persuasive pleadings to quiet the tumult.
6. =The King's Return. 1641.=--Charles had at last got a party on
his side. When, on November 25, he returned to London, he announced
that he intended to govern according to the laws, and would maintain
the 'Protestant religion as it had been established in the times of
Elizabeth and his father.' He was at once greeted with enthusiasm in
the streets, and felt himself strong enough to refuse to comply with
the request of the Remonstrance. If only he could have kept quiet,
he would probably, before long, have had a majority, even in the
House of Commons, on his side. It was, however, difficult for
Charles to be patient. He was kept short of money by the Commons,
and he had not the art of conciliating opponents. On December 23 he
appointed Lunsford, a debauched ruffian, Lieutenant of the Tower,
and the opponents of the Court naturally saw in this unwarrantable
proceeding a determination to use force against themselves. On
December 26 they obtained Lunsford's dismissal, but on the following
day they heard that the rebellion in Ireland was spreading, and the
increased necessity of providing an army for Ireland impressed on
them once more the danger of placing under the orders of the king
forces which he might use against themselves.
7. =The Impeachment of the Bishops. 1641.=--In order to make sure
that the House of Lords would be on their side in the time of danger
which was approaching, the Commons and their supporters called out
for the exclusion of the bishops and the Roman Catholic peers from
their seats in Parliament. A mob gathered at Westminster, shouting,
No bishops! No Popish lords! The king gathered a number of disbanded
officers at Whitehall for his protection, and these officers sallied
forth beating and chasing the mob. Another day Williams, Archbishop
of York, having been hustled by the crowd, he and eleven other
bishops sent to the Lords a protest that anything done by the House
of Lords in their absence would be null and void. The Peers, who had
hitherto supported the king, were offended, and, for a time, made
common cause with the other House against him; whilst the Commons
impeached as traitors the twelve bishops who had signed the protest,
wanting, not to punish them, but merely to get rid of their votes.
8. =The Impeachment of the Five Members. 1642.=--Charles, on his
part, was exasperated, and fancied that he could strike a blow which
his opponents would be unable to parry. He knew that the most active
of the leaders of the opposition, Lord Kimbolton in the House of
Lords, and Pym, Hampden, Hazlerigg, Holles, and Strode in the
Commons, had negotiated with the Scots before they invaded England
in =1640=, and he believed that they had actually invited them to
enter the kingdom in arms. If this was true, they had legally been
guilty of treason, and on January 3, =1642=, Charles ordered the
Attorney-General to impeach them as traitors. Doubts were afterwards
raised whether the king had a right to impeach, but Charles does not
seem to have doubted at the time that he was acting according to
law.
9. =The Attempt on the Five Members. 1642.=--As the Commons showed
signs of an intention to shelter these five members from arrest,
Charles resolved to seize them himself. On the 4th of January,
followed by about 500 armed men, he betook himself to the House of
Commons. Leaving his followers outside, he told the House that he
had come to arrest five traitors. As they had already left the House
and were on their way to the city, he looked round for them in vain,
and asked Lenthall, the Speaker, where they were. "May it please
your Majesty," answered Lenthall, kneeling before him, "I have
neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place, but as this
House is pleased to direct me." Charles eagerly looked round for his
enemies. "The birds are flown," he exclaimed, when he failed to
descry them. He had missed his prey, and, as he moved away, shouts
of "Privilege! privilege!" were raised from the benches on either
side.
10. =The Commons in the City. 1642.=--The Commons, believing that
the king wanted, not to try a legal question, but to intimidate the
House by the removal of its leaders, took refuge in the City. The
City, which had welcomed Charles in November, when it was thought
that he was come to maintain order according to law, now declared
for the Commons. On January 10 Lord Kimbolton and the five members
were brought back in triumph to Westminster by the citizens. Charles
had already left Whitehall, never to return till the day on which he
was brought back to be tried for his life.
11. =The Struggle for the Militia. 1642.=--There was little doubt
that if Charles could find enough support, the questions at issue
would have to be decided by arms. To gain time, he consented to a
Bill excluding the bishops from their seats in the House of Lords,
and he then sent the queen abroad to pawn or sell the Crown jewels
and to buy arms and gunpowder with the money. He turned his own
course to the north. A struggle arose between him and the Houses as
to the command of the militia. There was no standing army in
England, but the men of military age were mustered every year in
each county, the fittest of them being selected to be drilled for a
short time, at the expiration of which they were sent home to pursue
their ordinary avocations. These drilled men were liable to be
called out to defend their county against riots or invasion, and
when they were together were formed into regiments called trained
bands. All the trained bands in the country were spoken of as the
militia. The Houses asked Charles to place the militia under
officers of their choosing. "Not for an hour," replied Charles; "it
is a thing with which I would not trust my wife and children." The
feeling on both sides grew more bitter; Charles, after taking up his
quarters at York, rode to Hull, where there was a magazine of arms
of which he wished to possess himself. Sir John Hotham, the
Parliamentary commander, shut the gates in his face. Both Charles
and the Parliament began to gather troops. The Parliament appointed
the Earl of Essex, the son of Elizabeth's favourite, a steady,
honourable man, without a spark of genius, as their general. On
August 22, =1642=, Charles set up his standard at Nottingham as a
sign of war.
12. =Edgehill and Turnham Green. 1642.=--The richest part of
England--the south-east--took, on the whole, the side of the
Parliament; the poorer and more rugged north-west took, on the
whole, the side of the king. The greater part of the gentry were
cavaliers or partisans of the king; the greater part of the middle
class in the towns were partisans of the Parliament, often called
Roundheads in derision, because some of the Puritans cropped their
hair short. After a successful skirmish at Powick Bridge Charles
pushed on towards London, hoping to end the war at a blow. On
October 23 the first battle was fought at Edgehill. The king's
nephew, Prince Rupert, son of Elizabeth and the Elector Palatine,
commanded his cavalry. With a vigorous charge he drove before him
the Parliamentary horse in headlong flight; but he did not pull up
in time, and when he returned from the pursuit he found that the
royalist infantry had been severely handled, and that it was too
late to complete the victory which he had hoped to win. The fruits
of victory, however, fell to the king. The cautious Essex drew back
and Charles pushed on for London, reaching Brentford on November 12.
That he did not enter London as a conqueror was owing to the
resistance of the London trained bands, the citizen-soldiery of the
capital. On the 13th they barred Charles's way at Turnham Green. The
king hesitated to attack, and drew back to Oxford. He was never to
have such another chance again.
13. =The King's Plan of Campaign. 1643.=--Charles's hopes of
succeeding better in =1643= were based on a plan for overwhelming
London with superior force. He made Oxford the headquarters of his
own army, and he had a second army under Sir Ralph Hopton in
Cornwall, and a third army under the Earl of Newcastle in Yorkshire.
His scheme was, that whilst he himself attacked London in front,
Hopton should advance through the southern counties into Kent, and
Newcastle through the eastern counties into Essex. Hopton and
Newcastle would then be able to seize the banks on either side of
the Thames below London, and thus to interrupt the commerce of the
city, without which it would be impossible for it to hold out long.
14. =Royalist Successes. 1643.=--The weak point in Charles's plan
was that his three armies were far apart, and that the Earl of
Essex, now stationed in London, might fall upon his main army before
Newcastle and Hopton could come to its aid. Towards the end of
April, Essex besieged and took Reading, but his troops melted away
from disease, and he did not advance against Oxford till June, when
his cautious leadership was not likely to effect anything decisive.
In the meanwhile the king's party was gaining the upper hand
elsewhere. On May 16 Hopton completely defeated the Parliamentarians
at Stratton in Cornwall, and was then ready to march eastwards. On
June 18 Hampden received a mortal wound in a skirmish at Chalgrove
Field. On July 5 Hopton got the better of one of the most energetic
of the Parliamentary generals, Sir William Waller, on Lansdown, near
Bath, and on July 13 his army thoroughly overthrew the same
commander at Roundway Down, near Devizes. On July 26 Bristol was
stormed by Rupert. Hopton now hoped to be able to push on towards
Kent without difficulty. In the north, too, the king's cause was
prospering. On June 30, Newcastle defeated the Parliamentarians,
Lord Fairfax and his son, Sir Thomas Fairfax, at Adwalton Moor,
close to Bradford. He, too, hoped to be able to push on southwards.
It seemed as if the king's plan would be carried out before the end
of the summer, and that London would be starved into surrender.
15. =The Siege of Gloucester. 1643.=--Charles, however, failed to
accomplish his design, mainly because the armies of Hopton and
Newcastle were formed for the most part of recruits, levied
respectively in the west and in the north of England, who cared more
for the safety of their own property and families than for the
king's cause. In the west, Plymouth, and in the north, Hull, were
still garrisoned by the Parliament. Hopton's men were, therefore,
unwilling to go far from their homes in Cornwall as long as their
fields were liable to be ravaged by the garrison of Plymouth, and in
the same way, Newcastle's men would not go far from Yorkshire as
long as their fields were liable to be ravaged by the garrison of
Hull. The Welshmen, also, who served in the king's own army found
their homes endangered by a Parliamentary garrison at Gloucester,
and were equally unwilling to push forward. Charles had, therefore,
to take Plymouth, Hull, and Gloucester, if he could, before he could
attack London. In August he laid siege in person to Gloucester. The
London citizens at once perceived that, if Gloucester fell, their
own safety would be in peril, and amidst the greatest enthusiasm the
London trained bands marched out to its relief. On September 5 the
king raised the siege on their approach.
16. =The First Battle of Newbury. 1643.=--Charles did not, however,
give up the game. Hurrying to Newbury, and reaching it before Essex
could arrive there on his way back to London, he blocked the way of
the Parliamentary army. Essex, whose provisions were running short,
must force a passage or surrender. On September 20 a furious battle
was fought outside Newbury, but when the evening came, though Essex
had gained ground, the royal army still lay across the London road.
It had, however, suffered heavy losses, and its ammunition being
almost exhausted, Charles marched away in the night, leaving the way
open for Essex to continue his retreat to London. In this battle
Falkland was slain. He had sided with the king, not because he
shared the passions of the more violent Royalists, but because he
feared the intolerance of the Puritans. Charles's determination to
conquer or perish rather than to admit of a compromise had saddened
his mind, and he went about murmuring, 'Peace! peace!' He was weary
of the times, he said, on the morning of the battle, but he would
'be out of it ere night.' He threw himself into the thick of the
fight and soon found the death which he sought.
17. =The Eastern Association. 1643.=--Whilst in the south the
resistance of Gloucester had weakened the king's power of attack, a
formidable barrier was being raised against Newcastle's advance in
the east. Early in the war, certain counties in different parts of
the country had associated themselves together for mutual defence,
and of these combinations the strongest was the Eastern Association,
comprising the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridge and
Hertford. These five counties raised forces in common and paid them
out of a common purse.
18. =Oliver Cromwell. 1642-1643.=--The strength which the Eastern
Association soon developed was owing to its placing itself under the
leadership of Oliver Cromwell, a member of Parliament, who had taken
arms when the civil war began, and who soon distinguished himself
by his practical sagacity. "Your troops," he said to Hampden after
the flight of the Parliamentary cavalry at Edgehill, "are, most of
them, old decayed serving men and tapsters, and such kind of
fellows, and their troops are gentlemen's sons, younger sons, and
persons of quality; do you think that the spirits of such base and
mean fellows will ever be able to encounter gentlemen that have
honour and courage and resolution in them? You must get men of a
spirit, and take it not ill what I say--I know you will not--of a
spirit that is likely to go on as far as gentlemen will go; or else
you will be beaten still." It was this idea which Cromwell, having
been appointed a colonel, put in execution in the Eastern
Association. He took for his soldiers sternly Puritan men, who had
their hearts in the cause; but he was not content with religious
zeal alone. Every one who served under him must undergo the severest
discipline. After a few months he had a cavalry regiment under his
orders so fiery and at the same time so well under restraint that no
body of horse on either side could compare with it.
19. =The Assembly of Divines. 1643.=--Whilst the armies were
fighting with varying success, Pym, with undaunted courage, was
holding the House of Commons to its task of resistance. After the
Royalist successes in June and July, the great peril of the
Parliamentary cause made him resolve to ask the Scots for help. The
Scots, thinking that if Charles overthrew the English Parliament he
would next fall upon them, were ready to send an army to fight
against the king, but only on the condition that the Church of
England should become Presbyterian like their own. Already some
steps had been taken in this direction, and on July 1 a Puritan
Assembly of divines met at Westminster to propose ecclesiastical
alterations, which were to be submitted to Parliament for its
approval.
20. =The Solemn League and Covenant. 1643.=--In August,
commissioners from the English Parliament, of whom the principal was
Sir Henry Vane, arrived in Edinburgh to negotiate for an alliance.
The result was a treaty between the two nations, styled the Solemn
League and Covenant--usually known in England simply as the
Covenant, but altogether different from the National Covenant,
signed by the Scots only in =1638= (see p. 525). The Scots wished
the English to bind themselves to 'the reformation of religion in
the Church of England according to the example of the best reformed
churches'; in other words, according to the Presbyterian system.
Vane, however, who was eager for religious liberty, insisted on
slipping in the words, 'and according to the Word of God.' The
Scots could not possibly refuse to accept the addition, though, by
so doing, they left it free to every Englishman to assert that any
part of the Presbyterian system which he disliked was not 'according
to the Word of God.' The Covenant, thus amended, was carried to
England, and on September 25, five days after the battle of Newbury,
was sworn to by the members of the House of Commons, and was soon
afterwards ordered to be sworn to by every Englishman. Money was
then sent to Scotland, and a Scottish army prepared to enter England
before the opening of the next campaign.
21. =The Irish War. 1641-1643.=--Whilst Parliament looked for help
to Scotland, Charles looked to Ireland. The insurrection in the
north of Ireland in October, =1641= (see p. 533) had been the affair
of the Celtic natives; but in December they were joined by the
Catholic lords and gentry of Norman or English descent. For the
first time in Ireland there was a contest between Catholic and
Protestant, instead of a contest between Celts on one side, and
those who were not Celts on the other. The allies were not likely to
be very harmonious, as the Celts wished to return to their old
tribal institutions, and the Catholic lords wished to be predominant
in Parliament in agreement with the king. For the present, however,
they were united by the fear that the Puritan Parliament in England
and the Puritan Government in Dublin (see p. 533) would attempt to
destroy them and their religion together. The outbreak of the Civil
War in England, in =1642=, made it impossible for either king or
Parliament to send sufficient troops to overpower them. In May they
had chosen a Supreme Council to govern revolted Ireland, and in
October a General Assembly of the Confederate Catholics, as they
styled themselves, was held at Kilkenny. The Assembly petitioned
Charles for the redress of grievances, and in January, =1643=,
Charles opened negotiations with them, hoping to obtain an Irish
army with which he might carry on war in England. In March they
offered him 10,000 men if he would consent to allow a Parliament
mainly composed of Catholics to meet at Dublin and to propose bills
for his approval. Charles, who liked neither to make this concession
nor to relinquish the hope of Irish aid, directed a cessation of
arms in Ireland, in the hope that an agreement of some kind might
ultimately be come to. In accordance with this cessation, which was
signed on September 15, the coast-line from Belfast to Dublin, and a
patch of land round Cork, was in the possession of the English
forces, whilst a body of Scots, under Monro, held Carrickfergus, but
all the rest of Ireland was in the hands of the Confederates.
22. =Winceby and Arundel. 1643-1644.=--As yet Charles had to depend
on his English forces alone. In the beginning of September,
Newcastle, lately created a Marquis, laid siege to Hull. If Hull
fell, he would be able to sweep down on the Eastern Association. The
Earl of Manchester--known as Lord Kimbolton at the time of the
attempt on the five members--had been appointed general of the army
of that Association, with Cromwell as his lieutenant-general. On
October 11 Cromwell defeated a body of Royalist horse at Winceby. On
the 12th, Newcastle raised the siege of Hull. All danger of
Newcastle's marching southwards was thus brought to an end. In the
South, Hopton succeeded in reaching Sussex, and, in December, took
Arundel Castle; but the place was retaken by Sir William Waller on
January 6, =1644=. Here, too, the Royalist attack received a check,
and there was no longer any likelihood that the king's forces would
be able to starve out London by establishing themselves on the banks
of the Thames.
23. =The Committee of Both Kingdoms. 1644.=--Pym, whose
statesmanship had brought about the alliance with the Scots, died on
December 8, =1643=. On January 19 the Scots crossed the Tweed again
under the command of Alexander Leslie (see p. 526), who had been
created Earl of Leven when Charles visited Edinburgh in =1641=. On
the 25th, Sir Thomas Fairfax defeated, at Nantwich, a force of
English soldiers who had been freed from service in Ireland by the
cessation of arms, and had been sent by Ormond, who had recently
been named by Charles Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, to support the
royalist cause in England. Pym's death, and the necessity of
carrying on joint operations with the Scots, called for the
appointment of some definite authority at Westminster, and, on
February 16, a Committee of Both Kingdoms, composed of members of
one or other of the two Houses, and also of Scottish Commissioners
sent to England by the Parliament of Scotland, was named to control
the operations of the armies of the two nations.
24. =The Campaign of Marston Moor. 1644.=--The spring campaign
opened successfully for Parliament. In March, indeed, Rupert
relieved Newark, which was hardly pressed by a Parliamentary force;
but in March Waller defeated Hopton at Cheriton near Alresford,
whilst in the North, Sir Thomas Fairfax, together with his father,
Lord Fairfax, seized upon Selby, and joined the Scots in besieging
York, into which Newcastle had been driven. In May, Manchester
stormed Lincoln, and he too joined the forces before York. At the
king's headquarters there was deep alarm. Essex and Waller were
approaching to attack Oxford, but Charles slipping out of the city
before it was surrounded despatched Rupert to the relief of York. At
Rupert's approach the besiegers retreated. On July 2 Rupert and
Newcastle fought a desperate battle on Marston Moor, though they
were decidedly outnumbered by their opponents. The whole of the
right wing of the Parliamentarians, and part of the centre, fled
before the Royalist attack; but on their left, Cromwell restored the
fight, and drove Rupert in flight before him. Cromwell did not,
however, as Rupert had done at Edgehill, waste his energies in the
pursuit of the fugitives. Promptly drawing up, he faced round, and
hurled his squadrons upon the hitherto victorious Royalists in the
other parts of the field. The result was decisive. "It had all the
evidence," wrote Cromwell, "of an absolute victory, obtained by the
Lord's blessing upon the godly party principally. We never charged
but we routed the enemy. God made them as stubble to our swords."
All the north of England, except a few fortresses, fell into the
hands of Parliament and the Scots.
25. =Presbyterians and Independents. 1644.=--Cromwell spoke of Marston
Moor as a victory of the 'godly party.' The Westminster Assembly of
Divines had declared strongly in favour of Presbyterianism, but there
were a few of its members--only five at first, known as the five
Dissenting Brethren--who stood up for the principles of the
Separatists (see p. 470) wishing to see each congregation independent
of any general ecclesiastical organisation. From holding these
opinions they were beginning to be known as Independents. These men
now attracted to themselves a considerable number of the
stronger-minded Puritans, such as Cromwell and Vane, of whom many,
though they had no special attachment to the teaching of the
Independent divines, upheld the idea of toleration, whilst others gave
their adherence to one or other of the numerous sects which had
recently sprung into existence. Cromwell, especially, was drawn in the
direction of toleration by his practical experience as a soldier. It
was intolerable to him to be forbidden to promote a good officer on
the ground that he was not a Presbyterian. On one occasion he was
asked to discard a certain officer because he was an Anabaptist.
"Admit he be," he had replied; "shall that render him incapable to
serve the public? Take heed of being too sharp, or too easily
sharpened by others, against those to whom you can object little but
that they square not with you in every opinion concerning matters of
religion." He had accordingly filled his own regiments with men of
every variety of Puritan opinion, choosing for promotion the best
soldier, and not the adherent of any special Church system. These he
styled 'the godly party,' and it was by the soldiers of 'the godly
party,' so understood, that Marston Moor had been won.
26. =Essex's Surrender at Lostwithiel. 1644.=--Essex was the hope of
the Presbyterians who despised the sects and hated toleration. Being
jealous of Waller, he left him to take Oxford alone, if he could,
and marched off to the West, to accomplish what he imagined to be
the easier task of wresting the western counties from the king.
Charles turned upon Waller, and fought an indecisive action with him
at Cropredy Bridge, after which Waller's army, being composed of
local levies with no heart for permanent soldiering, melted away.
Charles then marched in pursuit of Essex, and surrounded him at
Lostwithiel, in Cornwall. Essex's provisions fell short; and on
September 2, though his horse cut their way out, and he himself
escaped in a boat, the whole of his infantry capitulated.
27. =The Second Battle of Newbury. 1644.=--London was thus laid
bare, and Parliament hastily summoned Manchester and the army of the
Eastern Association to its aid. Manchester, being good-natured and
constitutionally indolent, longed for some compromise with Charles
which might bring about peace. Cromwell, on the other hand,
perceived that no compromise was possible with Charles as long as he
was at the head of an army in the field. A second battle of Newbury
was fought, on October 27, with doubtful results: Manchester showed
little energy, and the king was allowed to escape in the night.
Cromwell, to whom his sluggishness seemed nothing less than treason
to the cause, attacked Manchester in Parliament, not from personal
ill-will, but from a desire to remove an inefficient general from
his command in the army. Two parties were thus arrayed against one
another: on the one side the Presbyterians, who wanted to suppress
the sects and, if possible, to make peace; and on the other side the
Independents, who wanted toleration, and to carry on the war
efficiently till a decisive victory had been gained.
CHAPTER XXXV
THE NEW MODEL ARMY. 1644-1649
LEADING DATES
Reign of Charles I., 1625-1649
Battle of Naseby June 14, 1645
Glamorgan's Treaty Aug. 25, 1645
Charles in the hands of the Scots May 5, 1646
Charles surrendered by the Scots Jan. 30, 1647
Charles carried off from Holmby June 5, 1647
The Army in Military Possession of London Aug. 7, 1647
Charles's Flight from Hampton Court Nov. 11, 1647
The Second Civil War April to Aug., 1648
Pride's Purge Dec. 6, 1648
Execution of Charles Jan. 30, 1649
1. =The Self-denying Ordinance and the New Model. 1645.=--Cromwell
dropped his attack on Manchester as soon as he found that he could
attain his end in another way. A proposal was made for the passing
of a Self-denying Ordinance,[23] which was to exclude all members of
either House from commands in the army. The Lords, knowing that
members of their House would be chiefly affected by it, threw it
out, and the Commons then proceeded to form a New Model Army--that
is to say, an army newly organised, its officers and soldiers being
chosen solely with a view to military efficiency. Its general was to
be Sir Thomas Fairfax, whilst the lieutenant-general was not named;
but there can be little doubt that the post was intended for
Cromwell. After the Lords had agreed to the New Model, they accepted
the Self-denying Ordinance in an altered form, as, though all the
existing officers were directed to resign their posts, nothing was
said against their re-appointment. Essex, Manchester, and Waller
resigned, but when the time came for Cromwell to follow their
example, he and two or three others were appointed to commands in
the new army. Cromwell became Lieutenant-General, with the command
of the cavalry. The New Model was composed partly of pressed men,
and was by no means, as has been often said, of a sternly religious
character throughout; but a large number of decided Puritans had
been drafted into it, especially from the army of the Eastern
Association; and the majority of the officers were Independents,
some of them of a strongly Sectarian type. The New Model Army had
the advantage of receiving regular pay, which had not been the case
before; so that the soldiers, whether Puritans or not, were now
likely to stick to their colours.
[Footnote 23: An ordinance was at this time in all respects similar
to an Act of Parliament, except that it did not receive the Royal
assent. In the middle ages an ordinance was exactly the reverse,
being issued by the King without Parliamentary approval.]
2. =Milton's 'Areopagitica.' 1644.=--By Cromwell, who in consequence
of his tolerance was the idol of the Sectarians in the army,
religious liberty had first been valued because it gave him the
service of men of all kinds of opinions. On November 24, =1644=,
Milton, some of whose books had been condemned by the licensers of
the press appointed by Parliament, issued _Areopagitica_, in which
he advocated the liberty of the press on the ground that excellence
can only be reached by those who have free choice between good and
evil. "He that can apprehend," he wrote, "and consider vice with all
her baits and seeming pleasures, and yet abstain--he is the true
warfaring Christian. I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered
virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and seeks
her adversary, but slinks out of the race, when that immortal
garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat." Liberty was
good for religion as much as it was for literature. "These are the
men," he continued, "cried out against for schismatics and
sectaries, as if, while the temple of the Lord was building, there
should be a sort of irrational men who could not consider there must
be many schisms and many dissections made in the quarry and in the
timber ere the house of God can be built." The perfection of the
building consisted "in this--that out of many moderate varieties and
brotherly dissimilitudes that are not vastly disproportional, arises
the goodly and the graceful symmetry that commends the whole pile
and structure."
3. =The Execution of Laud. 1645.=--In Parliament, at least, there
was one direction in which neither Presbyterian nor Independent was
inclined to be tolerant. They had all suffered under Laud, and
Laud's impeachment was allowed to go on. The House of Lords
pronounced sentence against him, and on January 10, =1645=, he was
beheaded. The Presbyterians had the majority in the House of
Commons, and they were busy in enforcing their system, as far as
Parliamentary resolutions would go. The Independents had to wait for
better times.
4. =Montrose and Argyle. 1644.=--For the present, however, the two
parties could not afford to quarrel, as a powerful diversion in the
king's favour was now threatening them from Scotland. The Marquis of
Montrose, who, in the Bishops' Wars, had taken part with the
Covenanters, had grown weary of the interference of the Scottish
Presbyterian clergy with politics, and still more weary of the
supremacy in Scotland of the Marquis of Argyle, who had all the
organisation of the Presbyterian Church at his disposal. Montrose
saw that, though Argyle was too strong for him in the Lowlands, it
was possible to assail him with effect in the Highlands, where he
had made many enemies. In the Lowlands Argyle was regarded as a
Scottish nobleman. In the Highlands he was the chief of the clan of
the Campbells, which had often unscrupulously extended its borders
at the expense of its neighbours, especially at the expense of the
various clans of the Macdonalds. Montrose therefore hoped that if he
threw himself into the Highlands, he might make use of the enmity of
these clans against the Campbells to crush Argyle and to exalt the
king.
5. =Montrose in the Highlands. 1644-1645.=--In =1644=, shortly after
the battle of Marston Moor, Montrose made his way to the Highlands
with only two followers. He was the first to discover the capacity
of the Highlanders for war. With their help, and with the help of a
trained Irish contingent, mostly composed of the descendants of
Highlanders who had emigrated to Ireland, he beat the Scottish
forces at Tippermuir and Aberdeen, and then, crossing the mountains,
amidst the snows of winter, harried the lands of the Campbells. On
February 2, =1645=, he defeated Argyle's clansmen at Inverlochy,
whilst Argyle himself--who was no warrior--watched their destruction
from a boat. Wherever Montrose went the heavy Lowland troops toiled
after him in vain. On May 9 he overthrew another army under Baillie
at Auldearn. Leven's Scottish army in Yorkshire had enough to do to
bar the way against Montrose in case of his issuing from the
mountains and attempting to join forces with Charles in England.
With any other troops Montrose would probably have made the attempt
already; but his Highlanders were accustomed to return home to
deposit their booty in their own glens as soon as a battle had been
won, and, therefore, victorious as he had been, he was unable to
leave the Highlands.
6. =The New Model Army in the Field. 1645.=--The New Model army
started on its career in April. Cromwell, with his highly-trained
horse, swept round Oxford, cutting off Charles's supplies; whilst
Fairfax was sent by the Committee of Both Kingdoms (see p. 542) to
the relief of Taunton, which had been gallantly holding out under
Robert Blake. A detachment of Fairfax's force sufficed to set
Taunton free. His main force was stupidly sent by the Committee to
besiege Oxford, though the king was marching northwards, and might
fall upon Leven's Scots as soon as he reached them. On May 31,
however, Charles turned sharply round, and stormed Leicester. The
popular outcry in London compelled the Committee to allow their
commander-in-chief to act on his own discretion; and Fairfax,
abandoning the siege of Oxford, marched straight in pursuit of the
Royal army.
7. =The Battle of Naseby. 1645.=--On June 14 Fairfax overtook the
king at Naseby. In the battle which followed, the Parliamentary army
was much superior in numbers, but it was largely composed of raw
recruits (see p. 545), and its left wing of cavalry--under Ireton,
who, in the following year, became Cromwell's son-in-law--was routed
by the king's right, under Rupert. As at Edgehill, Rupert galloped
hard in pursuit, without looking back. The Parliamentary infantry in
the centre was by this time pressed hard, but Cromwell, on the
right, at the head of a large body of cavalry, scattered the enemy's
horse before him. Then, as at Marston Moor, he halted to see how the
battle went elsewhere. Sending a detachment to pursue the defeated
Royalists, he hurled the rest of his horse on the king's foot, who
were slowly gaining ground in the centre. In those days, when half
of every body of infantry fought with pikes, and the other half with
inefficient muskets, it was seldom that foot-soldiers could
withstand a cavalry charge in the open, and the whole of Charles's
infantry, after a short resistance, surrendered on the spot. Rupert
returned only in time to see that defeat was certain. The king, with
what horse he could gather round him, made off as fast as he could.
The stake played for at Naseby was the crown of England, and Charles
had lost it.
8. =The Results of Naseby. 1645.=--Disastrous as Charles's defeat
had been, he contrived to struggle on for some months. The worst
thing that befel him after the battle was the seizure of his cabinet
containing his correspondence, which revealed his constant intrigues
to bring alien armies--French, Lorrainers, and Irish--into England.
It was, therefore, in a more determined spirit than ever that
Parliament carried on the war. After retaking Leicester, on June 18,
Fairfax marched on to the West, where the king's eldest son,
Charles, Prince of Wales, had been since the summer of =1644=, and
where debauched and reckless Goring was at the head of a Royalist
army. On July 10 Fairfax routed him at Langport, and on July 23 took
Bridgwater. Then, leaving forces to coop up Goring's remaining
troops, Fairfax turned eastward, took Sherborne on August 2, whilst
the Scots, who after Naseby had marched southwards, were besieging
Hereford. On September 1, however, the king relieved Hereford, and
fancied he might still retrieve his fortunes. On September 10, he
received a severe blow. Fairfax stormed the outer defences of
Bristol, and Rupert, who commanded the garrison, at once
capitulated. There can be little doubt that he had no other choice;
but Charles would hear no excuse, and dismissed him from his
service.
9. =Charles's Wanderings. 1645.=--Charles's hopes were always
springing up anew, and now that Rupert had failed him, he looked to
Montrose for deliverance. Montrose, on July 2, had won another
victory at Alford, and, on August 15, a still more crushing victory
at Kilsyth, after which he had entered Glasgow, and received the
submission of the Lowlands. Charles marched northward to meet him,
but on the way was met and defeated by the Parliamentary general,
Poyntz, on Rowton Heath. Almost immediately afterwards he heard the
disastrous news that David Leslie, an able officer who had won
renown in the German wars, and had fought well at Marston Moor, had
been despatched from the Scottish army in England, had fallen upon
Montrose at Philiphaugh, at a time when he had but a scanty
following with him, and had utterly defeated him. After this
Cromwell reduced the South, capturing Winchester and Basing House,
whilst Fairfax betook himself to the siege of Exeter. In October,
Charles, misled by a rumour that Montrose had recovered himself,
made one more attempt to join him; but he was headed by the enemy,
and compelled to retreat to Oxford, where, with all his followers
ardently pleading for peace, he still maintained that his conscience
would not allow him to accept any terms from rebels, or to surrender
the Church of England into their hands.
10. =Glamorgan in Ireland. 1645-1646.=--Not one of Charles's
intrigues with foreign powers did him so much harm as his continued
efforts to bring over an Irish army to fight his battles in England.
In =1645= he despatched the Roman Catholic Earl of Glamorgan to
Ireland, giving him almost unlimited powers to raise money and men,
and to make treaties with this object, but instructing him to follow
the advice of Ormond. When Glamorgan arrived in Ireland, in August,
he found that the Confederate Catholics were resolved to demand that
all the churches in Ireland, except the few still in the hands of
the English, should be given permanently to the Catholics, and that
permission should be granted to their clergy to exercise
jurisdiction in matters spiritual and ecclesiastical. Though
Glamorgan knew that Charles had never approved of these concessions,
he signed a treaty, on August 25, =1645=, in which he granted all
that was asked, in consideration of an engagement by the
Confederates to place him at the head of 10,000 Irishmen destined
for England. Before anything had been done, a Papal Nuncio,
Rinuccini, landed in Ireland and required fresh concessions, to
which Glamorgan readily assented. On January 16, =1646=, however,
before Glamorgan's army was ready to start, the treaty which he had
made in August became known at Westminster; and, though Charles
promptly disavowed having authorised its signature, there remained a
grave suspicion that he was not as innocent as he pretended to be.
[Illustration: A gentleman. A gentlewoman.
Ordinary civil costume _temp._ Charles I.: from Speed's map of 'The
Kingdom of England,' 1646.]
11. =The King's Flight to the Scots. 1646.=--In the beginning of
=1646= the Civil War virtually came to an end. On March 14,
Charles's army in the West surrendered to Fairfax in Cornwall, and
in the same month the last force which held the field for him was
overthrown at Stow-on-the-Wold. Many fortresses still held out, but,
as there was no chance of relief, their capture was only a question
of time; and though the last of them--Harlech Castle--did not
surrender till =1647=, there was absolutely no doubt what the
result would be. Charles, now again at Oxford, had but to choose to
whom he would surrender. He chose to give himself up to the Scots,
whose army was at the time besieging Newark. He seems to have
calculated that they would replace him on the throne without
insisting on very rigorous conditions, thinking that they would
rather restore him to power than allow the English army, formidable
as it was, to have undisputed authority in England, and possibly to
crush the independence of Scotland. The Scots, on the other hand,
seem to have thought that, when Charles was once in their power, he
must, for his safety's sake, agree to establish Presbyterianism in
England, by which means the party which would of necessity lean for
support on themselves would have the mastery in England. On May 5,
=1646=, Charles rode in to the quarters of the Scottish army at
Southwell, a few miles from Newark.
[Illustration: A citizen. A citizen's wife.
Ordinary civil costume _temp._ Charles I.: from Speed's map of 'The
Kingdom of England', 1646.]
12. =Charles at Newcastle. 1646.=--Newark at once surrendered, and
Charles was conveyed to Newcastle, where, as he refused to consent
to the establishment of Presbyterianism in England, he was
practically treated as a prisoner. At the end of =1645= and the
beginning of =1646= there had been fresh elections to fill up seats
in the House of Commons left vacant by Royalists expelled for taking
the king's part; but, though many Independent officers were chosen,
there was still a decidedly Presbyterian majority. On July 14
propositions for peace were delivered to Charles on behalf of
Parliament and the Scots. He was to surrender his power over the
militia for twenty years, to take the Covenant, and to support
Presbyterianism in the Church. Charles, in his correspondence with
his wife, showed himself more ready to abandon the militia than to
abandon episcopacy; whilst she, being a Roman Catholic, and not
caring for bishops whom she counted as heretics, advised him at all
hazards to cling to the command of the militia. Charles hoped
everything from mere procrastination. "All my endeavours," he wrote
to the queen, "must be the delaying of my answer till there be
considerable parties visibly formed"--in other words, till
Presbyterians and Independents were ready to come to blows, and,
therefore, to take him at his own price. In order to hasten that
day, he made in October a proposal of his own, in which he promised,
in case of his being restored to power, to establish Presbyterianism
for three years, during which time the future settlement of the
Church might be publicly discussed. He, however, took care to make
no provision for the very probable event of the discussion leaving
parties as opposed to one another as they had been before the
discussion was opened, and it was obvious that, as he had never
given the royal assent to any Act for the abolition of episcopacy,
the whole episcopal system would legally occupy the field when the
three years came to an end. The Presbyterians would thus find
themselves checkmated by an unworthy trick.
[Illustration: A countryman. A countrywoman.
Ordinary civil costume _temp._ Charles I.: from Speed's map of 'The
Kingdom of England,' 1646.]
13. =The Removal of the King to Holmby. 1647.=--The Scots,
discontented with the king's refusal to accept their terms, began to
open their ears to an offer by the English Parliament to pay them
the money owing to them for their assistance, on the open
understanding that they would leave England, and the tacit
understanding that they would leave the king behind them. Once more
they implored Charles to support Presbyterianism, assuring him that,
if he would, they would fight for him to a man. On his refusal, they
accepted the English offer, took their money, and on January 30,
=1647=, marched away to their own country, leaving Charles in the
hands of Commissioners of the English Parliament, who conveyed him
to Holmby House, in Northamptonshire.
14. =Dispute between the Presbyterians and the Army. 1647.=--The
leading Presbyterians, of whom the most prominent was Holles (see p.
535), were so anxious to come to terms with the king, that before
the end of January they accepted Charles's illusory proposal of a
three years' Presbyterianism (see p. 552), offering to allow him to
come to London or its neighbourhood in order to carry on
negotiations. The fact was, that they were now more afraid of the
army than of the king, believing it to be ready to declare not
merely for toleration of the sects, but also for a more democratic
form of government than suited many of the noblemen and gentlemen
who sat on the benches of the Lords and Commons. In March the
Commons voted that only a small body of cavalry should be kept up in
England, and no infantry at all, except a small force needed to
garrison the fortresses, and also that when the infantry regiments
were broken up the disbanded soldiers should be asked to volunteer
for service in Ireland. Of the cavalry in England Fairfax was to be
general, but no officer under him was to hold a higher rank than
that of colonel, a rule which would enable Cromwell's opponents in
Parliament to oust him from his position in the army. So strong was
the feeling in the nation for peace, and for the diminution of the
heavy burden of taxation which the maintenance of the army required,
that the Presbyterians would probably have gained their object had
they acted with reasonable prudence, as a large number of soldiers
had no sympathy with the religious enthusiasts in the ranks. There
were, however, considerable arrears of pay owing to the men, and had
they been paid in ready money, and an ordinance passed indemnifying
them for acts done in war-time, most, if not all, would, in all
probability, either have gone home or have enlisted for Ireland.
Instead of doing this, Parliament only voted a small part of the
arrears, and fiercely denounced the army for daring to prepare a
petition to Fairfax asking for his support in demanding full pay and
indemnity. In a few weeks Parliament and army were angrily
distrustful of one another, and the soldiers, organising themselves,
chose representatives, who were called Agitators[24] or agents, to
consult on things relating to their present position.
[Footnote 24: The name 'Adjutator,' often given to these men, is
undoubtedly a mere blunder. The use of the verb 'to agitate' in the
sense of 'to act,' and of the noun 'agitator,' in the sense of an
agent, is now obsolete.]
15. =Cromwell and the Army. 1647.=--Cromwell's position during these
weeks was a delicate one. He sympathised not only with the demands
of the soldiers for full pay, but also with the demand of the
religious enthusiasts for toleration. Yet he had a strong sense of
the evil certain to ensue from allowing an army to overthrow the
civil institutions of the country,[25] and both as a member of the
House of Commons and as an officer he did his best to avert so dire
a catastrophe. In March he had even proposed to leave England and
take service in Germany under the Elector Palatine, the son of
Frederick and Elizabeth (see p. 488). As this plan fell through, he
was sent down, in May, with other commissioners, to attempt to
effect a reconciliation between the army and the Parliament. In this
he nearly succeeded; but a few days after his return to Westminster
Parliament decided to disband the army at once, without those
concessions which, in consequence of Cromwell's report, it at first
seemed prepared to make. The soldiers, finding that only a small
portion of their arrears was to be paid, refused to disband, and
before the end of May everything was in confusion.
[Footnote 25: Cromwell did not hold that, in fighting against the
king, he had himself been assailing the civil institutions of the
country. In his eyes, as in the eyes of all others on his side, the
king was the aggressor, attacking those institutions, and war
against him was therefore defensive, being waged to save the most
important part of them from destruction.]
16. =The Abduction of the King. 1647.=--The fact was that the
Presbyterian leaders fancied themselves masters of the situation.
Receiving a favourable answer from the king to the proposals made by
them in January (see p. 553), they entered into a negotiation with
the French ambassador and the Scottish commissioners to bring about
a Scottish invasion of England on the king's behalf, and this
invasion was to be supported by a Presbyterian and Royalist rising
in England. In the meanwhile Charles was to be conveyed away from
Holmby to preserve him from the army. This design was betrayed to
Cromwell, and, in consequence, he secretly gave instructions to a
certain Cornet Joyce to take a body of cavalry to hinder the Scots
and Presbyterians from carrying off the king, but only, as it seems,
to remove him from Holmby if force was likely to be used on the
other side. On June 3, Joyce, with a picked body of horse, appeared
at Holmby, where he received news which led him to think that a
Presbyterian body of troops was approaching with the intention of
taking possession of the king's person. Late in the evening,
therefore, imagining that the danger foreseen as possible in
Cromwell's instructions had really arrived, he invited the king to
leave Holmby the next morning. When the morning came Charles,
stepping out on the lawn, asked Joyce for a sight of the commission
which authorised him to give such unexpected orders. "There is my
commission," answered Joyce, pointing to his soldiers. There was no
resisting such an argument, and Charles was safely conducted to
Newmarket.
17. =The Exclusion of the Eleven Members. 1647.=--Parliament,
dissatisfied with this daring act, began to levy troops in London,
and reorganised the London trained bands, excluding all Independents
from their ranks. The army declared that eleven members of the House
of Commons--the leaders of the Presbyterian party--were making
arrangements for a new war, and sent in charges against them. The
eleven members, finding themselves helpless, asked leave of absence.
The City of London was as Presbyterian as Parliament. A mob burst
into the House, and, under stress of violence, the Independent
members, together with the Speakers of the two Houses, left
Westminster and sought protection with the army. The Presbyterians
kept their seats, and voted to resist the army by force. The army
took advantage of the tumult to appear on the scene as the
vindicators of the liberties of Parliament and, marching upon
London, passed through the City on August 7, leaving sufficient
forces behind to occupy Westminster and the Tower. The eleven
Presbyterian members sought refuge on the Continent.
18. =The Heads of the Proposals. 1647.=--In the meanwhile Cromwell
was doing his best to come to an understanding with Charles. A
constitutional scheme, to which was given the name of _The Heads of
the Proposals_, was drawn up by Ireton and presented in the name of
the army to the king. It provided for a constant succession of
biennial Parliaments with special powers over the appointment of
officials, and it proposed to settle the religious difficulty by
giving complete religious liberty to all except Roman Catholics.
Those who chose to do so might submit to the jurisdiction of
bishops, and those who chose to do so might submit to the
jurisdiction of a presbytery; but no civil penalties were to be
inflicted on those who objected either to Episcopacy or to
Presbyterianism or to both.
19. =The King's Flight to the Isle of Wight. 1647.=--No proposals so
wise and comprehensive had yet been made, but neither Charles nor
the Parliament was inclined to accept them. Many of the Agitators,
finding that there was still a Presbyterian majority in Parliament,
talked of using force once more and of purging the Houses of all the
members who had sat in them whilst the legitimate Speakers were
absent. In the meanwhile the king grew more hostile to Cromwell
every day, and entered secretly into a fresh negotiation with the
Scottish commissioners who formed part of the Committee of both
Kingdoms, asking them for the help of a Scottish army. The more
advanced Agitators proposed a still more democratic constitution
than _The Heads of the Proposals_, under the name of _The Agreement
of the People_, and attempted to force it upon their officers by
threats of a mutiny. At the same time, they and some of the officers
talked of bringing the king to justice for the bloodshed which he
had caused. Charles, becoming aware of his danger, fled on November
11 to the Isle of Wight, thinking that it would be easy to escape
whenever he wished. He was, however, detained in Carisbrooke Castle,
where he was treated very much as a prisoner.
20. =The Scottish Engagement, and the Vote of No Addresses.
1647-1648.=--Cromwell put down the mutiny in the army, but he learnt
that the king was intriguing with the Scots, and at last abandoned
all hope of settling the kingdom with Charles's help. On December
26, =1647=, Charles entered into an _Engagement_ with the Scottish
commissioners. On the condition of having toleration for his own
worship, according to the Prayer Book, he agreed to establish
Presbyterianism in England for three years, and to suppress all
heresy. The Scottish army was then to advance into England to secure
the king's restoration to power in accordance with the wishes of a
free Parliament, to be chosen after the existing one had been
dissolved. The English Parliament, indeed, had no knowledge of this
engagement, but finding that Charles refused to accept their terms,
they replied, on January 17, =1648=, by a Vote of No Addresses,
declaring that they would make no more proposals to the king.
21. =The Second Civil War. 1648.=--The majority of Englishmen were,
on the contrary, ready to take Charles at his word. Men were weary
of being controlled by the army, and still more of paying the taxes
needed for the support of the army. There were risings in Wales and
Kent, and a Scottish army prepared to cross the borders under the
Duke of Hamilton. The English army had, however, made up its mind
that Charles should not be restored. Fairfax put down the rising in
Kent after a sharp fight at Maidstone, and drove some of the
fugitives across the Thames into Essex, where being outnumbered they
took refuge in Colchester. Fairfax, following them up, laid siege to
Colchester, though the Londoners threatened to rise in his rear, and
a great part of the fleet deserted to the Prince of Wales, who came
from France to take the command. In the meanwhile Cromwell
suppressed the insurrection in Wales, and then marched northwards.
On August 17, with less than 9,000 men, he fell upon the 24,000 who
followed Hamilton, and, after three days' fighting, routed them
utterly. On August 28 Colchester surrendered to Fairfax.
22. =Pride's Purge. 1648.=--The army had lost all patience with the
king, and it had also lost all patience with Parliament. Whilst
Fairfax and Cromwell were fighting, the Houses passed an ordinance
for the suppression of heresy, and opened the negotiations with the
king which bear the name of the Treaty[26] of Newport. The king only
played with the negotiations, trying to spin out the time till he
could make his escape, in order that he might, with safety to his
own person, obtain help from Ireland or the Continent. The army was
tired of such delusions, seeing clearly that there could be no
settled government in England as long as Charles could play
fast-and-loose with all parties, and it demanded that he should be
brought to justice. By military authority he was removed on December
1 from Carisbrooke to the desolate Hurst Castle, where no help could
reach him. On December 5 the House of Commons declared for a
reconciliation with the king. On the 6th a body of soldiers, under
the command of Colonel Pride, forced it to serve the purposes of the
army by forcibly expelling all members who took the side of the
king. This act of violence is commonly known as Pride's Purge.
[Footnote 26: A treaty then meant a negotiation, not, as now, the
document which results from a successful negotiation.]
[Illustration: View of the west side of the Banqueting House,
Whitehall: from an engraving by Terasson, dated 1713. It is believed
that Charles came out through the window above which a crown is
marked.]
23. =The High Court of Justice. 1649.=--On January 1, =1649=, the
purged House proposed to appoint a High Court of Justice to try
Charles, but the Lords refused to take part in the act. On the 4th
the Commons declared that the people were, under God, the source
of all just power, and that the House of Commons, being chosen by
the people, formed the supreme power in England, having no need of
either king or House of Lords. Never was constitutional pedantry
carried further than when this declaration was issued by a mere
fragment of a House which, even if all its members had been present,
could only claim to have represented the people some years before.
On January 6 a special High Court of Justice was constituted by the
mutilated House of Commons alone, for the trial of the king. On
January 19 Charles was brought up to Westminster. Only the sternest
opponents of Charles would consent to sit on the Court which tried
him. Of 135 members named, only 67 were present when the trial
began. Fairfax was amongst those appointed, but he absented himself,
and when his name was called, his wife cried out, "He is not here,
and will never be; you do wrong to name him."
[Illustration: Execution of King Charles I., January 30, 1649: from
a contemporary broadside.]
24. =The King's Trial and Execution. 1649.=--Charles's accusers had
on their side the discredit which always comes to those who, using
force, try to give it the appearance of legality. Charles had all
the credit of standing up for the law, which, in his earlier life,
he had employed to establish absolutism. He refused to plead before
the Court, on the ground that it had no jurisdiction over a king.
His assailants fell back on the merest technicalities. Instead of
charging him with the intrigues to bring foreign armies into
England, of which he had been really guilty, they accused him of
high treason against the nation, because, forsooth, he had appeared
in arms against his subjects in the first Civil War. The Court, as
might have been expected, passed sentence against him, and, on
January 30, he was beheaded on a scaffold in front of his own palace
at Whitehall.
25. =Results of Charles's Execution. 1649.=--With the king's
execution all that could be permanently effected by his opponents
had been accomplished. When the Long Parliament met, in November
=1640=, all Englishmen had combined to bring Charles to submit to
Parliamentary control. After the summer of =1641= a considerable
part of the nation, coming to the conclusion that Charles was ready
to use force rather than to submit, took arms against him to compel
him to give way. Towards the end of =1647= a minority of Englishmen,
including the army, came to the conclusion that it was necessary to
deprive Charles of all real power, if the country was not to be
exposed to constantly recurring danger whenever he saw fit to
re-assert his claims to the authority which he had lost. In =1648= a
yet smaller minority came to the conclusion that security could only
be obtained if he were deprived of life. In depriving the king of
life all had been done which force could do. The army could guard a
scaffold, but it could not reconstruct society. The vast majority of
that part of the nation which cared about politics at all disliked
being ruled by an army even more than it had formerly disliked being
ruled by Charles, and refused its support to the new institutions
which, under the patronage of the army, were being erected in the
name of the people.
CHAPTER XXXVI
THE COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE. 1649-1660
LEADING DATES
The Establishment of the Commonwealth 1649
Cromwell in Ireland 1649
Battle of Dunbar Sept. 3, 1650
Battle of Worcester Sept. 3, 1651
The Long Parliament dissolved by Cromwell April 20, 1653
The so-called Barebones Parliament July 4 to Dec. 11, 1653
Establishment of the Protectorate Dec. 16, 1653
The First Protectorate Parliament Sept. 3, 1654, to Jan. 22, 1655
Treaty of Alliance with France Oct. 24, 1655
The Second Protectorate Parliament Sept. 17, 1656, to Feb. 4, 1658
Death of Oliver Cromwell Sept. 3, 1658
Richard Cromwell's Protectorate Sept. 3, 1658, to April 22, 1659
The Long Parliament Restored May 7 to Oct. 13, 1659
Military Government Oct. 13 to Dec. 26, 1659
The Long Parliament a Second Time
Restored Dec 26, 1659, to March 16, 1660
The Declaration of Breda April 4, 1660
Meeting of the Convention Parliament April 14, 1660
Resolution that the Government is by King, Lords,
and Commons May 1, 1660
1. =Establishment of the Commonwealth. 1649.=--It was not to be
expected that the men in Parliament or in the army by whom great
hopes of improvement were entertained should discover that they had
done all that it was possible for them to do. They believed it to be
still in their power to regenerate England. The House of Commons
declared England to be a Commonwealth, 'without a king or House of
Lords,' and, taking the name of Parliament for itself, appointed
forty-one persons to be a Council of State, charged with the
executive government, and renewed annually. Most members of the
Council of State were also members of Parliament; and, as the
attendance in Parliament seldom exceeded fifty, the Councillors of
State (if they agreed together) were able to command a majority in
Parliament, and thus to control its decisions. Such an arrangement
was a mere burlesque on Parliamentary institutions, and could hardly
have existed for a week if it had not been supported by the
ever-victorious army. In the army, indeed, it had its opponents,
who, under the name of Levellers, called out for a more truly
democratic government; but they had no man of influence to lead
them. Cromwell had too much common sense not to perceive the
difficulty of establishing a democracy in a country in which that
form of government had but few admirers, and he suppressed the
Levellers with a strong hand. In quiet times, Cromwell would
doubtless have made some attempt to place the constitution of the
Commonwealth on a more satisfactory basis, but for the present it
needed to be defended rather than improved.
2. =Parties in Ireland. 1647-1649.=--In Ireland the conjunction
formed at the end of =1641= between the Catholic lords and the
native Irish broke down in =1647=. Rinuccini, the Papal Nuncio (see
p. 550), discovered that Ireland could only be organised to resist
English Puritanism under the authority of the Papal clergy, as there
was not sufficient union amongst the Irish themselves to admit the
existence of lay national institutions. He was unable to carry his
idea into effect. Ormond, the king's Lord-lieutenant, who was
himself a Protestant, left Ireland, and handed over Dublin to the
Parliamentary troops under Michael Jones, rather than see it in the
hands of Rinuccini and the Celts. Even the Catholic lords objected
to become the servants of a clerical State, and Rinuccini, baffled
on every side, was obliged to return to Italy. In September, =1648=,
Ormond returned to Ireland, where he soon afterwards entered into a
close alliance with the Catholic lords, who were to receive
religious toleration, and in return to defend the king. After the
king's execution, Charles II. was proclaimed in Ireland. Ormond,
having now an army in which Irish Catholics and English Royalist
Protestants were combined, hoped to be able to overthrow the
Commonwealth both in Ireland and in England.
3. =Cromwell in Ireland. 1649-1650.=--To Cromwell such a situation
was intolerable. His Puritan zeal led him to regard with loathing
Ormond's league with the Catholics, and he was too thorough an
Englishman not to resolve that, if there was to be a struggle,
England must conquer Ireland, and not Ireland England. On August 15
he landed at Dublin. On September 11 he stormed Drogheda, where he
put 2,000 men to the sword, a slaughter which was in strict
accordance with the laws of war of that day, which left garrisons
refusing, as that of Drogheda had done, to surrender an indefensible
post, when summoned to do so, to the mercy or cruelty of the enemy.
Cromwell had a half-suspicion that some farther excuse was needed.
"I am persuaded," he wrote, "that this is a righteous judgment of
God upon those barbarous wretches who have imbrued their hands in
so much innocent blood; and that it will tend to prevent the
effusion of blood for the future--which are the satisfactory grounds
to such actions, which otherwise cannot but work remorse and
regret." At Wexford, where the garrison continued to defend itself
after the walls had been scaled, there was another slaughter. Town
after town surrendered. In the spring of =1650= Cromwell left
Ireland. The conquest was prosecuted by his successors, Ireton and
Ludlow, with savage effectiveness; and when at last, in =1652=, the
war came to an end, a great part of three out of the four provinces
of Ireland was confiscated for the benefit of the conquering race.
The Catholic landowners and other persons who had borne arms against
the Parliament were driven into the wilds of Connaught, to find
there what sustenance they could.
4. =Montrose and Charles II. in Scotland. 1650.=--In =1650=
Cromwell's services were needed in Scotland. In the spring, Montrose
reappeared in the Highlands, but was betrayed, carried to Edinburgh,
and executed as a traitor. On June 24 Charles II. landed in
Scotland, and, on his engaging to be a Presbyterian king, found the
whole nation ready to support him. Fairfax declined to lead the
English army against Charles, on the plea that the Scots had a right
to choose their own form of government. Cromwell had no such
scruples, knowing that, if Charles were once established in
Scotland, the next thing would be that the Scots would try to impose
their form of government on England. Cromwell, being appointed
General in the room of Fairfax, marched into Scotland, and attempted
to take Edinburgh; but he was out-manoeuvred by David Leslie (see p.
549), who was now the Scottish commander, and, to save his men from
starvation, had to retreat to Dunbar.
5. =Dunbar and Worcester. 1650-1651.=--Cromwell's position at Dunbar
was forlorn enough. The Scots seized the passage by which alone he
could retreat to England by land, whilst the mass of their host was
posted inaccessibly on the top of a long hill in front of him. If he
sailed home, his flight would probably be the signal for a rising of
all the Cavaliers and Presbyterians in England. The Scots, however,
relieved him of his difficulties. They were weary of waiting, and,
on the evening of September 2, they descended the hill. Early on the
morning of the 3rd, Cromwell, crying "Let God arise; let His enemies
be scattered," charged into their right wing before the whole army
had time to draw up in line of battle, and dashed them into utter
ruin. Edinburgh surrendered to him, but there was still a large
Scottish army on foot, and, in August =1651=, its leaders, taking
Charles with them, pushed on into England, where they hoped to raise
an insurrection before Cromwell could overtake them. On they
marched, with Cromwell following hard upon their heels. Fear kept
those who sympathised with Charles from rising, and, at Worcester,
on September 3--the anniversary of the battle of Dunbar--Cromwell
absolutely destroyed the Scottish army. Those who were not slain
were taken prisoners, and many of the prisoners sent as slaves to
Barbadoes. "The dimensions of this mercy," wrote Cromwell, "are
above my thoughts. It is, for aught I know, a crowning mercy." He
spoke truly. Never again was he called on to draw sword in England.
Charles succeeded in making his escape to France, on one occasion
concealing himself amidst the thick leafage of an oak, whilst his
pursuers rode unwittingly below.
[Illustration: A coach of the middle of the seventeenth century:
from an engraving by John Dunstall.]
6. =The Navigation Act. 1651.=--Ever since the days of James I.
there had existed a commercial rivalry between England and the Dutch
Republic, and disputes relating to trade constantly arose. Latterly
these disputes had been growing more acute. Early in =1648= Spain
came to terms with the Dutch by acknowledging their independence,
and, later in the same year, the Thirty Years' War in Germany was
brought to an end by the Peace of Westphalia, though war between
France and Spain still continued. Henceforth religion was no longer
made the pretext for war on the Continent; and States contended with
one another because they wished either to annex territory, or to
settle some trade dispute in their own favour. In =1650= the
Stadholder, William II.--the son-in-law of Charles I.--died, and the
office which he held was abolished, the government of the Dutch
Republic falling completely under the control of the merchants of
the Province of Holland, in which were situated the great commercial
ports of Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The Dutch had got into their hands
the carrying trade of Europe. In =1651= the English Parliament
passed the Navigation Act, to put an end to this state of things.
English vessels alone were to be allowed to import goods into
England, except in the case of vessels belonging to the country in
which the goods which they carried were produced.
7. =The Dutch War. 1652-1653.=--War with the Dutch soon followed.
Vane, the leading man in the Committee of the Council of State which
managed the navy, had put the fleet into excellent condition. Its
command was given to Blake, who had been noted as a soldier by the
defence of Taunton (see p. 547) in the Civil War, but who never went
to sea till =1649=, when he was over fifty. Yet Blake soon found
himself at home on board ship, and won the confidence of officers
and men. Battle after battle was fought between the English and
Dutch fleets. The sturdy antagonists were well matched, though the
English ships were larger and more powerfully armed. In November
=1652=, Tromp (the Dutch Admiral) got the better of Blake, but in
February =1653= there was another battle, in which Blake got the
upper hand; but it was no crushing victory, like Dunbar and
Worcester. In the summer of =1653= the English gained two more
victories, but though they attempted to blockade the Dutch ports,
they were obliged to give up the attempt.
8. =Unpopularity of the Parliament. 1652-1653.=--At home, the
truncated Parliament was becoming increasingly unpopular. Ever since
the end of the first Civil War, Parliament had supplied itself with
money by forcing Royalists to compound--that is to say, to pay down
a sum of money, without which they were not allowed to enjoy their
estates; and these compositions, as they were called, were still
exacted from men who had joined in the second Civil War, or had
favoured the invasion by Charles II. The system, harsh in itself,
was not fairly carried out. Members of Parliament took bribes, and
let the briber off more easily than they did others who neglected to
give them money. Those who were not Royalists had grievances of
their own. Many of the members used their power in their own
interest, disregarding justice, and promoting their sons and nephews
in the public service.
9. =Vane's Reform Bill. 1653.=--For a long time Cromwell and the
officers had been urging Parliament to dissolve itself and to
provide for the election of a new Parliament, which would be more
truly representative. Vane had, indeed, brought in a Reform Bill,
providing for a redistribution of seats, depriving small hamlets of
the franchise, and conferring it upon populous towns and counties;
but the discussion dragged on, and the army was growing impatient.
Yet, impatient as the army was, officers and politicians alike
recognised that a freely-elected Parliament would probably overthrow
the Commonwealth and recall the king. Cromwell suggested that a
committee of officers and politicians should be formed to consult on
securities to be taken against such a catastrophe. The securities
which pleased the members of Parliament were, that all members then
sitting should continue to sit in the next Parliament, without fresh
election, and should be formed into a committee having power to
reject any new member whom they considered it desirable to exclude.
10. =Dissolution of the Long Parliament by Cromwell.
1653.=--Cromwell, who disliked this plan, was assured, on April 19,
by one of the leading members of Parliament that nothing would be
done in a hurry. On the next day, April 20, he heard that the House
was passing its bill in the form which he disliked. Going to the
House, when the last vote on the bill was about to be taken he rose
to speak. Parliament, he said, had done well in its care for the
public good, but it had been stained with 'injustice, delays of
justice, self-interest.' Being interrupted by a member, he blazed up
into anger. "Come, come!" he cried; "we have had enough of this. I
will put an end to this. It is not fit you should sit here any
longer." He called in his soldiers, and bade them clear the House,
following the members with words of obloquy as they passed out.
"What shall we do with this bauble?" he asked, taking up the mace.
"Take it away." "It is you," he said to such of the members as still
lingered, "that have forced me to do this. I have sought the Lord
night and day, that He would rather slay me than put me upon the
doing of this work."
[Illustration: Oliver Cromwell: from the painting by Samuel Cooper
at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.]
11. =The so-called Barebone's Parliament. 1653.=--Cromwell and the
officers shrank from summoning an elected Parliament. They gathered
an assembly of their own nominees, to which men gave, in derision,
the title of the Barebone's Parliament, because a certain Praise-God
Barebone sat in it. In a speech at its opening, on July 4, Cromwell
told them that England ought to be governed by godly men, and that
they had been selected to govern it because they were godly.
Unfortunately, many of these godly men were crotchety and
unpractical. A large number of them wanted to abolish the Court of
Chancery without providing a substitute, and a majority resolved to
abolish tithes without providing any other means for the support of
the clergy. At the same time, enthusiasts outside Parliament--the
Fifth Monarchy men, as they were called--declared that the time had
arrived for the reign of the saints, and that they were themselves
the saints. All who had anything to lose were terrified, and turned
to Cromwell for support, as it was known that no man in England had
stronger common sense, or was less likely to be carried away by such
dreamers. In the Parliament itself there was a strong minority which
thought it desirable that, if tithes were abolished, support should
be provided for the clergy in some other way. These men, on December
11, got up early in the morning, and, before their opponents knew
what they were about, declared Parliament to be dissolved, and
placed supreme authority in the hands of Cromwell.
12. =The Protectorate, and the Instrument of Government. 1653.=--On
December 16 a constitutional document, known as _The Instrument of
Government_, was drawn up by Cromwell's military supporters, and
accepted by himself. Cromwell was to be styled Lord Protector, a
title equivalent to that of Regent, of which the last instance had
been that of the Protector Somerset (see p. 412). The Protector was
to enter, to some extent, upon the duties which had formerly
devolved on the king. There was to be a Parliament consisting of a
single House, which was to meet once in three years, from which all
who had taken the king's part were excluded, as they also were from
voting at elections. The constituencies were to be almost identical
with the reformed ones established by Vane's Reform Bill (see p.
566). The Protector was to appoint the executive officials, and to
have a fixed revenue sufficient to pay the army and navy and the
ordinary expenses of Government; but if he wanted more for
extraordinary purposes he could only obtain it by means of a
Parliamentary grant. New laws were to be made by Parliament alone,
the Protector having no veto upon them, though he was to have an
opportunity of criticising them, if he wished to urge Parliament to
change its purpose. The main lines of the constitution were,
however, laid down in the Instrument itself, and Parliament had no
power given it to make laws contrary to the Instrument. In the
executive government the Protector was restrained, not by
Parliament, but by a Council of State, the members of which he could
not dismiss as the king had dismissed his Privy Councillors. The
first members were nominated in the Instrument, and were appointed
for life; but when vacancies occurred, Parliament was to give in six
names, of which the Council was to select two, leaving to the
Protector only the final choice of one out of two. Without the
consent of this entirely independent Council, the Protector could
take no step of importance.
13. =Character of the Instrument of Government.=--The Instrument of
Government allowed less Parliamentary control than had been given
to the Long Parliament after the passing of the Triennial Act and
the Tonnage and Poundage Act (see pp. 530, 531): as, though
Parliament could now pass laws without any check corresponding to
the necessity of submitting them to the royal assent, it could not
pass laws on the constitutional points which the Instrument of
Government professed to have settled for ever. Neither--except when
there was an extraordinary demand for money--could it stop the
supplies, so as to bring the executive under its power. It was,
rather, the intention of the framers of the Instrument to prevent
that Parliamentary absolutism which had proved so hurtful in the
later years of the Long Parliament. On the other hand, they gave to
the Council of State a real control over the Protector; and it is
this which shows that they were intent on averting absolutism in the
Protector, as well as absolutism in Parliament, though the means
taken by them to effect their end was different from anything
adopted by the nation in later years.
14. =Oliver's Government. 1653-1654.=--Before meeting Parliament,
Oliver had some months in which he could show the quality of the new
Government. On April 5, =1654=, he brought the war with the Dutch to
a close, and subsequently concluded treaties with other European
powers. On July 10 he had Dom Pantaleon Sa, the brother of the
Portuguese ambassador, beheaded for a murder. He had more than
enough domestic difficulties to contend with. The Fifth-Monarchy
men, and other religious enthusiasts, attacked him for treachery to
republicanism, whilst Charles II. incited his followers to rise in
insurrection against the usurper. Some republicans were imprisoned,
and the royalists Gerard and Vowel, who tried to assassinate Oliver,
were executed. In the meanwhile, the Protector and Council moved
forward in the path of conservative reform. The Instrument allowed
them to issue ordinances, which would be valid till Parliament could
examine them; and, amongst others which he sent forth, was one to
reform the Court of Chancery, and another to establish a Commission
of Triers, to reject all ministers presented to livings, if it
considered them to be unfit, and another Commission of Ejectors, to
turn out those who, being in possession, were deemed unworthy.
Oliver would have nothing to say to the Voluntary system. Tithes
were to be retained, and religious worship was to be established;
but there was to be no inquiry whether the ministers were
Presbyterians, Independents, or anything else, provided they were
Puritans. There was to be complete toleration of other Puritan
congregations not belonging to the established churches; whilst the
Episcopalians, though not legally tolerated, were as yet frequently
allowed to meet privately without notice being taken of them. Other
ordinances decreed a complete Union with Scotland and Ireland, both
countries being ordered to return members to the Parliament at
Westminster. As far as the real Irish were concerned, the Union was
entirely illusory, as all Roman Catholics were excluded from the
franchise.
15. =The First Protectorate Parliament. 1654-1655.=--On September 3,
=1654=, the First Protectorate Parliament met. Its first act was to
question the authority of private persons to frame a constitution
for the State, on which Oliver required the members of Parliament to
sign a paper acknowledging the government as established in a single
person and in Parliament, and turned out of the House those who
refused to sign it. The House, thus diminished, drew up a new
constitution, altering the balance in favour of Parliament, and
expressly declaring that the constitution was liable to revision
whenever the Protector and Parliament agreed to change it. It is
probable that Oliver would have consented to this change, but a
dispute arose upon the control of the army. Oliver wished that it
should permanently remain under the Protector, and that Parliament
should be unable to withdraw the sums of money fixed for its
maintenance. Parliament, on the other hand, insisted on voting the
money only for five years, thus claiming to determine, at the end of
that time, whether the army should be disbanded or not. The only
real solution of the difficulty lay in a frank acknowledgment that
the nation must be allowed to have its way for evil or for good.
Oliver, however, suspected--doubtless with truth--that, if the
nation were freely consulted, it would sweep away not only the
Protectorate, but Puritanism itself. Practically, therefore, the
question at issue was whether the Government should be controlled by
Parliament or by the army. On January 22, finding that the House was
not likely to give way, he dissolved Parliament.
16. =The Major-Generals. 1655.=--The Instrument of Government
authorised the Protector to levy sufficient taxes without consent of
Parliament to enable him to meet the expenditure in quiet times, and
after the dissolution Oliver availed himself of this authorisation.
Many people, however, refused to pay, on the ground that the
Instrument, unless recognised by Parliament, was not binding; and,
as some of the judges agreed with them, Oliver could only enforce
payment by turning out those judges who opposed him, and putting
others in their places. Moreover, the Government was embarrassed by
attempts to overthrow it. There were preparations for resistance by
the republicans in the army--suppressed, indeed, by the arrest and
imprisonment of the leaders--and there was an actual Royalist
outburst, with wide ramifications, which showed itself openly in the
South of England, where a Royalist gentleman named Penruddock rode
into Salisbury at the head of 200 men, and seized the judges who had
come down for the assizes. In the face of such danger, Oliver
abandoned all pretence of constitutional government. He divided
England into eleven military districts, over each of which he set a
Major-General, with arbitrary powers for maintaining order, and, by
a mere stroke of the pen, ordered a payment of 10 per cent. on the
incomes of Royalists. Military rule developed itself more strongly
than before. On November 27 Oliver, in his fear of the Royalists,
ordered the suppression of the private worship of those who clung to
the Book of Common Prayer; perceiving rightly that the most
dangerous opponents of his system were to be found amongst sincere
Episcopalians. He also made use of the Major-Generals to suppress
vice and immorality by shutting up alehouses and imprisoning persons
whose lives were disorderly.
17. =Oliver's Foreign Policy. 1654-1655.=--Partly, perhaps, because
he hoped to divert attention from his difficulties at home, partly
because he wished his country to be great in war as well as in
peace, Oliver had for some time been engaging in naval enterprise.
In the early part of his career he had been friendly to Spain,
because France intrigued with the Presbyterians and the king. France
and Spain were still at war, and when Cromwell became Protector he
offered his alliance to Spain, on condition that Spain would help
him to reconquer Calais, and would place Dunkirk in his hands as a
pledge for the surrender of Calais after it had been taken. He also
asked that commerce between England and her own West Indian colonies
should be free from Spanish attacks, and for more open liberty of
religion for the English in the Spanish dominions than had been
offered by Spain in its treaty with Charles I. The Spanish
ambassador replied that to ask these two things was to ask his
master's two eyes, and plainly refused to admit an English garrison
into Dunkirk. Upon this, Cromwell sent out, in the end of =1654=,
two fleets, one--under Blake--to go to the Mediterranean, to get
reparation from the pirates of Tunis and Algiers for wrongs done to
English commerce; and the other--under Penn and Venables--to seize
a Spanish island in the West Indies. Blake was successful, but Penn
and Venables failed in an attempt on San Domingo, though they took
possession of Jamaica, which at that time was not thought to be of
much value.
18. =The French Alliance. 1655.=--As Oliver could not get what he
wanted from Spain, he agreed to a treaty with France to end what had
been virtually a maritime war, in which trading-ships had been
seized on both sides. Freedom of religion was to be accorded to
Englishmen in France. Before any treaty had been signed, news
arrived that the Duke of Savoy had sent his soldiers to compel his
Vaudois subjects to renounce their religion, which was now similar
to that of the Protestants, though they had revolted from the Papacy
long before Luther's Reformation. These soldiers committed terrible
outrages amongst the peaceful mountaineers. Those who escaped the
sword were carried off as prisoners, or fled to the snowy mountains,
where they perished of cold and hunger. Milton's voice was raised to
plead for them. "Avenge," he wrote--
"O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold--
Even men who kept thy truth, so pure of old,
When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones."
Cromwell at once told Mazarin that, if he cared for peace with
England, this persecution must stop. Mazarin put pressure on the
Duke of Savoy, and liberty of worship was secured to the Vaudois.
Then, on October 24, =1655=, Oliver concluded the treaty with
France.
19. =Oliver's Second Parliament, and the Humble Petition and Advice.
1656.=--War with Spain was a necessary consequence of the seizure of
Jamaica, and, in =1656=, Oliver called a second Parliament, to give
him money. Yet it was certain that any freely-elected Parliament
would try to grasp authority for itself. When Parliament met, on
September 17, Cromwell began by excluding about a hundred members
who were likely to oppose him. After this, his relations with the
House were smoother than they had been in =1654=--especially as news
arrived that Stainer, with some of Blake's ships, had captured part
of the Spanish treasure-fleet on its way from America; and, soon,
thirty-eight waggons laden with Spanish silver, rolled through the
London streets. Parliament voted the money needed, and Oliver, in
return, withdrew the Major-Generals. Then there was discovered a
plot to murder the Protector, and Parliament, anxious for security,
drew up amendments to the Constitution, known as _The Humble
Petition and Advice_. Members of the Council of State were to be
approved by Parliament, and the power of excluding members from the
House of Commons was to be renounced by the Protector. There was
also to be a second House named in the first instance by the
Protector, who was given power to exclude members subsequently named
by himself or his successors from taking their seats. The object of
this curious provision was to secure a house which might be trusted
for all time to throw out measures opposed to Puritanism, even when
they were supported by the House of Commons. Oliver was asked to
take the title of king, with the right of naming his own successor.
He refused the kingship, as the army disliked it, and also, perhaps,
because he felt that there would be an incongruity in its assumption
by himself. The rest of the terms he accepted, and, on June 26,
=1657=, before the end of the session, he was installed as Lord
Protector with greater solemnity than before. It was already known
that, on April 20, Blake had destroyed a great Spanish fleet at
Santa Cruz, in Teneriffe. On his way back, on August 7, he died at
sea, and was brought home to be buried in Westminster Abbey.
20. =The Dissolution of the Second Protectorate Parliament.
1658.=--On January 20, =1658=, Parliament met for its second
session. The House of Commons had to take back the hundred excluded
members who were enemies of Oliver, and to lose a large number of
Oliver's warmest supporters, who were removed to the other House.
The Commons had no longer an Oliverian majority, and, without
attacking the Protector himself, they now attacked the second House,
which gave itself the airs of the ancient House of Lords. On
February 4, in a speech of mingled sadness and irritation, Oliver
dissolved his second Parliament. "The Lord," he said, "judge between
me and you."
21. =Victory Abroad and Failure at Home. 1657-1658.=--Abroad,
Oliver's policy was crowned with success. In =1657=, a treaty of
alliance was made with France, and 6,000 English troops,
co-operating with the French army, captured Mardyke. On June 4,
=1658=, they defeated the Spanish army in a great battle on the
Dunes, and on the 14th Dunkirk surrendered, and was placed in the
hands of the English. It has often been doubted whether these
successes were worth gaining. France was growing in strength, whilst
Spain was declining, and it would not be long before France would
become as formidable to England as Spain had been in the days of
Elizabeth. Cromwell, however, was not the man to base his policy on
the probabilities of the future. At home and abroad he faced the
present, and, since the day on which the king had mounted the
scaffold, the difficulties at home had been overwhelming. Though his
efforts to restore constitutional order had been stupendous, and his
political aims had been noble, yet he was attempting that which he,
at least, could never do. Men will submit to the clearly expressed
will of the nation to which they belong, or to a government ruling
in virtue of institutions which they and their ancestors have been
in the habit of obeying, but they will not long submit to a
successful soldier, even though, like Oliver, he be a statesman as
well.
22. =Oliver's Death. 1658.=--Oliver was growing weary of his
unending, hopeless struggle. On August 6, =1658=, he lost his
favourite daughter, and soon afterwards he sickened. There were
times when old doubts stole over his mind: "It is a fearful thing,"
he repeated, "to fall into the hands of the living God." Such fears
did not retain their hold on his brave spirit for long: "I am a
conqueror," he cried, "and more than a conqueror, through Christ
that strengtheneth me." On August 30 a mighty storm passed over
England. The devil, said the Cavaliers, was fetching home the soul
of the usurper. Oliver's own soul found utterance in one last prayer
of faith: "Lord," he murmured, "though I am a miserable and wretched
creature, I am in covenant with Thee through grace; and I may, I
will come to Thee, for Thy people. Thou hast made me, though very
unworthy, a mean instrument to do them some good, and Thee service;
and many of them have set too high a value upon me, though others
wish, and would be glad of, my death.... Pardon such as desire to
trample upon the dust of a poor worm, for they are Thy people too;
and pardon the folly of this short prayer, even for Jesus Christ's
sake, and give us a good night, if it be Thy pleasure. Amen." For
three days more Oliver lingered on. On September 3, the anniversary
of Dunbar and Worcester, he passed away to the rest which he had
never known on earth.
23. =Richard Cromwell. 1658-1659.=--On his deathbed Oliver named, or
was said to have named, his eldest son Richard as his successor. The
nation preferred Richard to his father, because he was not a
soldier, and was very little of a Puritan. On January 27, =1659=, a
new Parliament met, chosen by the old, unreformed constituencies, as
they had existed in the time of Charles I.; and not by those
reformed ones appointed by the Instrument of Government, though
Royalists were still excluded both from voting at the elections and
from sitting in Parliament. In this Parliament a majority supported
Richard, hoping that he would consult the wishes of the army less
than his father had done. For that very reason the officers of the
army turned against him, and asked not only that Fleetwood, Oliver's
son-in-law, should be their commander, but that he should be
entirely independent of the authority of the Protector. Richard
nominated Fleetwood, but insisted upon his acting under the
Protector as his Lieutenant-General. Parliament upheld the control
of the civil power over the army. On April 22 the soldiers forced
Richard to dissolve Parliament. On May 25 Richard abdicated and the
Protectorate came to an end.
24. =The Long Parliament Restored. 1659.=--Already on May 7, at the
invitation of the soldiers, forty-two members of the so-called
Rump--the portion of the Long Parliament which had continued sitting
till it was ejected by Cromwell in =1653= (see p. 566)--had
installed themselves at Westminster. No hereditary king was ever
more tenacious of his rights than they. They told the officers 'that
the Parliament expected faithfulness and obedience to the Parliament
and Commonwealth,' and, declaring all Oliver's acts to have been
illegal, resolved that all who had collected taxes for him must
repay the money. The officers, many of whom had, as Major-Generals,
gathered taxes by authority from Oliver, were naturally indignant.
"I know not," said Lambert--one of the most distinguished of
Oliver's officers--"why they should not be at our mercy as well as
we at theirs." Before anything could be done, news arrived that Sir
George Booth had risen in Cheshire for Charles II. Lambert marched
against him, and defeated him at Winnington Bridge. When he
returned, the officers made high demands of Parliament, and, when
these were rejected, they sent troops, on October 13, to keep the
members out of the House. "Do you not know me?" said the Speaker,
Lenthall. "If you had been with us at Winnington Bridge," said a
soldier, "we should have known you."
25. =Military Government. 1659.=--The soldiers had come to despise
civilians merely because they were civilians. They tried to govern
directly, without any civilian authority whatever. The attempt
proved an utter failure. It was discovered that taxes were paid less
readily than when there had been a civilian Government to exact
them. The soldiers quarrelled amongst themselves, and the officers,
finding themselves helpless, restored the Rump a second time. On
December 26 it resumed its sittings at Westminster.
26. =Monk and the Rump. 1660.=--George Monk, who commanded the
forces in Scotland, had little inclination to meddle with politics;
but he was a thorough soldier, and being a cool, resolute man, was
determined to bear this anarchy no longer. On January 1, =1660=, he
crossed the Border with his army, and on January 11 was joined by
Fairfax at York, who brought with him all the weight of his
unstained name and his high military reputation. On February 3 Monk
entered London, evidently wishing to feel his way. On February 6 the
City of London, which had no members sitting in the Rump, declared
that it would pay no taxes without representation. Monk was ordered
by the Rump to suppress the resistance of the City. On the 10th he
reached Guildhall. Keeping his ears open, he soon convinced himself
that the Rump was detested by all parties, and, on the morning of
the 16th, declared for a free Parliament.
27. =End of the Long Parliament. 1660.=--It was easy to coerce the
Rump, without the appearance of using violence. On February 26,
under pressure from Monk, it called in the Presbyterian members shut
out by Pride's Purge (see p. 557). After they had taken their seats,
a dissolution, to be followed by new elections, was voted. At last,
on March 16, the Long Parliament came, by its own act, to its
unhonoured end. The destinies of England were to be placed in the
hands of the new Parliament, which was to be freely elected. The
Restoration was a foregone conclusion. The predominant wish of
Englishmen was to escape from the rule of soldiers, and, as every
recent form of civil government had been discredited, it was natural
to turn back to that which had flourished for centuries, and which
had fallen rather through the personal demerits of the last king
than through any inherent vices of the system.
28. =The Declaration of Breda. 1660.=--On April 4 Charles signed a
declaration, known as the Declaration of Breda. He offered a general
pardon to all except those specially exempted by Parliament, and
promised to secure confiscated estates to their new owners in
whatever way Parliament should approve. He also offered to consent
to a bill for satisfying the arrears of the soldiers, and to another
bill for the establishment of 'a liberty for tender consciences.' By
the Declaration of Breda, Charles had carefully thrown upon
Parliament the burden of proposing the actual terms on which the
settlement was to be effected, and at the same time had shaken
himself free from his father's policy of claiming to act
independently of Parliament. The new Parliament, composed of the
two Houses of Lords and Commons, was known as the Convention
Parliament, because, though conforming in every other respect to the
old rules of the Constitution, the House of Commons was chosen
without the king's writs. It met on April 25. The Declaration of
Breda reached it on May 1. After unanimously welcoming the
Declaration, Parliament resolved that, 'according to the ancient and
fundamental laws of this kingdom, the Government is, and ought to
be, by King, Lords, and Commons.' The Puritan Revolution had come to
an end.
_Books recommended for further study of Part VI._
RANKE, L. History of England (English Translation). Vol. i. p.
386--vol. iii. p. 308.
HALLAM, H. Constitutional History of England. Chaps. VI.-X.
GARDINER, S. R. History of England from 1603-1642.
--------- History of the Great Civil War.
MASSON. Life of Milton, and History of his Time. Vols. i.-v.
FORSTER, J. Life of Sir John Eliot.
---------- The Grand Remonstrance.
---------- Arrest of the Five Members.
GUIZOT, F. Charles I.
---------- Cromwell.
---------- Richard Cromwell.
HANNAY, D. Admiral Blake.
MONTAGUE, F. C. The Political History of England. Vol. vii. From the
Accession of James I. to the Restoration (1603-1660).
PART VII
_THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION._ 1660-1689
CHAPTER XXXVII
CHARLES II. AND CLARENDON. 1660-1667
LEADING DATES
Reign of Charles II., 1660-1685.
Charles II. lands at Dover May 25, 1660
Dissolution of the Convention Parliament Dec. 29, 1660
Meeting of the Cavalier Parliament May 8, 1661
Corporation Act 1661
Act of Uniformity 1662
Expulsion of the Dissenting Ministers Aug. 24, 1662
The King declares for Toleration Dec. 26, 1662
Repeal of the Triennial Act 1664
Conventicle Act 1664
First Dutch War of the Restoration 1665
The Plague 1665
Five Mile Act 1665
Fire of London 1666
Peace of Breda July 31, 1667
Clarendon's Fall 1667
1. =Return of Charles II. 1660.=--On May 25, =1660=, Charles II.
landed at Dover, amidst shouting crowds. On his thirtieth birthday,
May 29, he entered London, amidst greater and equally enthusiastic
crowds. At Blackheath was drawn up the army which had once been
commanded by Cromwell. More than anything else, the popular
abhorrence of military rule had brought Charles home, whilst the
army itself, divided in opinion, and falling under the control of
Monk, was powerless to keep him away. When the king reached
Whitehall he confirmed Magna Carta, the Petition of Right, and other
statutes by which the royal power had at various times been
limited.
[Illustration: Charles II.: from the portrait by Sir Peter Lely in
Christ's Hospital, London.]
2. =King and Parliament. 1660.=--Something more than Acts of
Parliament was needed to limit the power of the king. It had been
found useless to bind Charles I. by Acts of Parliament, because he
tried again and again to introduce foreign armies into England to
set Parliament at naught. Charles II. was, indeed, a man of far
greater ability than his father, and was quite as ready as his
father to use foreign help to get his way at home. In the first year
after his return he tried to get money both from the Dutch and from
the Spaniards in order to make himself independent of Parliament,
but his character was very different from his father's, in so far as
he always knew--what Charles I. never knew--how much he could do
with impunity. Having none of his father's sense of duty, he was
always inclined to give way whenever he found it unpleasant to
resist. He is reported to have said that he was determined that,
whatever else happened, he would not go on his travels again, and he
was perfectly aware that if a single foreign regiment were brought
by him into England, he would soon find himself again a wanderer on
the Continent. The people wished to be governed by the king, but
also that the king should govern by the advice of Parliament. The
restoration was a restoration of Parliament even more than a
restoration of the king.
3. =Formation of the Government. 1660.=--The Privy Council of
Charles II. was, at the advice of Monk, who was created Duke of
Albemarle in July, composed of Cavaliers and Presbyterians. It was,
however, too numerous to direct the course of government, and
Charles adopted his father's habit of consulting, on important
matters, a few special ministers, who were usually known as the
Junto. Albemarle, as he knew little and cared less about politics,
soon lost the lead, and the supreme direction of affairs fell to
Hyde, the Lord Chancellor. Charles was too indolent and too fond of
pleasure to control the government himself, and was easily guided by
Hyde, who was thoroughly loyal to him, and an excellent man of
business. Hyde stood to the king's other advisers very much in the
position of a modern Prime Minister, but he carefully avoided
introducing the name, though it was already in vogue in France, and
contented himself with the real influence given him by his superior
knowledge. In religion and politics he was still what he had been in
=1641= (see pp. 533, 534). He was a warm supporter of episcopacy and
the Prayer Book. As a lawyer, he applauded the political checks upon
the Crown which had been the work of the first months of the Long
Parliament, whilst he detested all the revolutionary measures by
which, in the autumn of =1641=, attempts had been made to establish
the supremacy of Parliament over the king.
4. =The Political Ideas of the Convention Parliament. 1660.=--Hyde's
position was the stronger because, in politics at least, the
Convention Parliament agreed with him. The Cavaliers in it naturally
accepted the legislation of the Long Parliament, up to August
=1641=, when Charles I. left for Scotland (see p. 532), as their own
party had concurred in it. The Presbyterians, on the other hand, who
now represented the party which had formerly been led by Pym and
Hampden, saw no reason to distrust Charles II. as they had
distrusted his father, and were, therefore, ready to abandon the
demand for further restrictions on the royal power, on which they
had vehemently insisted in the latter part of =1641= and in the
earlier part of =1642= (see p. 534). In constitutional matters,
therefore, Cavaliers and Presbyterians were fused into one, on the
basis of taking up the relations between the Crown and Parliament as
they stood in August =1641=. This view of the situation was favoured
by the lawyers, one of whom, Sir Orlando Bridgman, pointed out that,
though the king was not responsible, his ministers were; and, for
the time, every one seemed to be satisfied with this way of keeping
up the indispensable understanding between king and Parliament. What
would happen if a king arose who, like Charles I., deliberately set
himself against Parliament, no one cared to inquire.
[Illustration: Edward Hyde, first Earl of Clarendon, 1608-1674: from
an engraving by Loggan.]
5. =Execution of the Political Articles of the Declaration of
Breda. 1660.=--Of the four articles of the Declaration of Breda,
three were concerned with politics, and these were adopted by
Parliament, with such modifications as it pleased to make. The
estates of the king and of the bishops and chapters were taken out
of the hands of those who had acquired them, but all private sales
were declared valid, though Royalists had often sold their land in
order to pay the fines imposed on them by the Long Parliament. An
Act of Indemnity was passed, in which, however, there were many
exceptions, and, in the end, thirteen regicides, together with Vane,
were executed, and the bodies of Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw dug
up and hanged. The bodies of other noted persons, including those of
Pym and Blake, which had been buried in Westminster Abbey, were also
dug up, and thrown into a pit outside. Many regicides and other
partisans of the Commonwealth and Protectorate were punished with
imprisonment and loss of goods, whilst others, again, who escaped,
remained exiles till their death. Money was raised in order that the
army might be paid as had been promised, after which it was
disbanded. Feudal dues and purveyance were abolished, and an excise
voted to Charles in their place. The whole revenue of the Crown was
fixed at 1,200,000_l._
[Illustration: A mounted nobleman and his squire: from Ogilby's
_Coronation Procession of Charles II._]
[Illustration: Dress of the Horse Guards at the Restoration: from
Ogilby's _Coronation Procession of Charles II._]
[Illustration: Yeoman of the Guard: from Ogilby's _Coronation
Procession of Charles II._]
6. =Ecclesiastical Debates. 1660.=--On ecclesiastical matters the
two parties were less harmonious. The cavaliers wanted to restore
episcopacy and the Prayer Book. The Presbyterians were ready to go
back in religion, as in politics, to the ideas of August, =1641=,
and to establish a modified episcopacy, in which bishops would be
surrounded with clerical councillors, whose advice they would be
bound to take. To this scheme Charles gave his approval, and it is
probable that if nothing else had been in question Parliament would
have accepted it. Charles, however, had an object of his own. His
life was dissolute, and, being without any religious convictions, he
cherished, like some other dissolute men of that time, a secret
attachment to the Church of Rome. In order to do that Church a good
turn, he now asked for a toleration in which all religions should be
included. The proposal to include Roman Catholics in the proposed
toleration wrecked the chances of modified episcopacy. Cavaliers and
Presbyterians were so much afraid of the Roman Catholics that when
a bill for giving effect to the scheme for uniting episcopacy and
Presbyterianism was brought into Parliament, it was rejected through
fear lest it should be a prelude to some other tolerationist measure
favouring the Roman Catholics. On December 29, =1660=, the
Convention Parliament was dissolved.
[Illustration: Shipping in the Thames, _circa_ 1660: from Pricke's
_South Prospect of London_.]
7. =Venner's Plot and its Results. 1661.=--No one in the Convention
Parliament had had any sympathy with the Independents, and still
less with the more fanatical sects which had received toleration
when the Independents were in power. The one thing which the people
of England as a body specially detested was the rule of the
Cromwellian army, and the two parties therefore combined to
persecute the Independents by whom that army had been supported. In
January, =1661=, a party of fanatics, knowing that they at least had
nothing to hope, rose in insurrection in London under one Venner, a
cooper. The rising was easily put down, but it gave an excuse to
Charles--who was just then paying off the army--to retain two
regiments, one of horse and one of foot, besides a third, which was
in garrison at Dunkirk. There was thus formed the nucleus of an army
the numbers of which, before long, amounted to 5,000. To have an
armed force at all was likely to bring suspicion upon Charles,
especially as his revenue did not suffice for the payment of 5,000
men without having recourse to means which would cause ill-feeling
between himself and Parliament.
8. =The Cavalier Parliament, and the Corporation Act. 1661.=--On May
8, =1661=, a new Parliament, sometimes known as the Cavalier
Parliament, met. In times of excitement, nations are apt to show
favour to the party which has a clear and decided opinion; and, on
this occasion, nine-tenths of the new members were Cavaliers. The
new Parliament voted that neither House could pretend to the command
of the militia, nor could lawfully make war upon the king. Before
the end of =1661= it passed the Corporation Act, which was aimed at
the Presbyterians as well as at the Independents. All who held
office in municipal corporations were to renounce the Covenant, and
to take an oath of non-resistance, declaring it to be unlawful to
bear arms against the king; and no one in future was to hold
municipal office who had not received the Sacrament according to the
rites of the Church of England. This Act did more than exclude from
corporations those who objected to submit to its injunctions. In
many towns the corporations elected the members of the House of
Commons, and hence, by excluding non-conformists from corporations
in towns, Parliament indirectly excluded them from many seats in the
House of Commons.
9. =The Savoy Conference, and the Act of Uniformity.
1661-1662.=--After the dissolution of the Convention Parliament, the
old number of bishops was filled up, and, in April =1661=, a
conference between some bishops and some Presbyterian clergy was
held at the Savoy Palace, and has therefore been known as the Savoy
Conference. The two parties differed too much to come to terms, and
the whole question of the settlement of the Church was left to the
Cavalier Parliament. In =1662= Parliament decided it by passing the
Act of Uniformity. Every clergyman and every schoolmaster refusing
to express, by August 24, his unfeigned consent to everything
contained in the Book of Common Prayer, was to be precluded from
holding a benefice. On August 24 (St. Bartholomew's day), about
2,000 clergy resigned their cures for conscience' sake, as their
opponents had, in the time of Puritan domination, been driven from
their cures, rather than take the Covenant.
10. =The Dissenters. 1662.=--The expulsion of the dissenting clergy,
as they were now called, made a great change in the history of English
Christianity. The early Puritans wished, not to separate from the
national Church, but to mould the national Church after their own
fashion. The Independents set the example of separating from the
national Church, in order to form communities outside it. The
Presbyterian clergy who kept up the tradition of the early Puritans
were now driven out of the national Church, and were placed in very
much the same position as the Independents. Hence, these two bodies,
together with the Baptists and the Society of Friends--popularly known
as Quakers--and other sects which had recently arisen, began to be
known by the common name of Dissenters. The aim of those who had
directed the meeting of the Savoy Conference had been to bring about
comprehension, that is to say, the continuance within the Church of
those who, after its close, became Dissenters. Their failure had
resulted from the impossibility of finding any formularies which could
satisfy both parties; and in consequence of this failure the
Dissenters now abandoned all thought of comprehension, and contented
themselves with asking for toleration, that is to say, for permission
to worship apart from the Church, in their own assemblies.
11. =The Parliamentary Presbyterians. 1662.=--The Presbyterian
clergy were followed by most of their supporters among the tradesmen
and merchants of the towns. They were not followed by the
Presbyterians among the gentry. The party in Parliament, which had
hitherto styled itself Presbyterian, had originally become so mainly
through dislike of the power of the bishops. They now consented to
accept the Prayer Book, when they found that the regulation of the
Church was to depend on Acts of Parliament and not either on the
bishops or the king. The few members of the House of Commons who had
hitherto been known as Presbyterians formed the nucleus of a party
of toleration, asking for a modification of the law against
Dissenters, though refusing to become Dissenters themselves.
12. =Profligacy of the Court. 1662.=--On the other hand, the members
of the Cavalier party had, in =1641=, become Royalists because they
desired the retention of the doctrine and discipline of the Church
of England, and, in =1662=, the Cavaliers were supporters of the
Church even more than they were Royalists. As soon as Charles
expressed his approval of the Act of Uniformity, and not before, the
House of Commons voted him a chimney tax of two shillings on every
chimney. If Charles had been an economical man, instead of an
extravagant one, he might possibly have contrived to live within his
income. He was, however, beyond measure extravagant. The reaction
against Puritanism was not political only. There were plenty of
sober men amongst the English gentry, but there were also many who
had been so galled by the restrictions of Puritanism that they had
thrown off all moral restraint. Riot and debauchery became the
fashion, and in this bad fashion Charles's court led the way.
13. =Marriage of Charles II., and Sale of Dunkirk. 1662.=--In =1662=
Charles married Catharine of Braganza, a Portuguese Princess. He
professed his intention of leading a new life, but he was weak as
water, and he soon returned to his evil courses. Politically alone
was the marriage of importance. Catharine brought with her the
possessions of Tangier, and of Bombay, the first spot on the soil of
India acquired by the English Crown. It was also a seal of
friendship between Charles and Louis XIV. of France. Louis had made
peace with Spain by the Treaty of the Pyrenees in =1659=, but he
still sympathised with the efforts of Portugal to maintain the
independence of which Spain had robbed her in =1580= (see p. 454),
and which she had recovered in =1640=. Charles's marriage was,
therefore, a declaration in favour of France. In November, =1662=,
after Parliament had dispersed for a vacation, he further showed his
attachment to France, by selling Dunkirk to Louis for 200,000_l._ By
abandoning Dunkirk, Charles saved an annual cost of 120,000_l._,
which he would be able, if he pleased, to spend on an army. It may
be doubted whether the possession of Dunkirk was of any real use,
but there was a howl of indignation, in consequence of its loss,
especially directed against Hyde, who had been created Earl of
Clarendon in =1661=, and was building a town house on a scale
commensurate with his dignity. This house was popularly called
Dunkirk House, it being falsely supposed that Clarendon received
from Louis bribes which were expended upon it.
14. =The Question of Toleration Raised. 1662-1663.=--Before
Parliament met, Charles, on December 26, =1662=, issued a
declaration in favour of toleration. He asked Parliament to pass an
Act enabling him to mitigate the rigour of the Act of Uniformity by
exercising that dispensing power 'which he conceived to be inherent
in him.' Again and again, in former reigns, the king had dispensed
from the penalties imposed by various laws, though there had been
times when Parliament had remonstrated in cases where those
penalties were imposed to restrain the Roman Catholic religion. When
Parliament met again in =1663=, the Cavaliers rejected the king's
proposal. They would hear nothing of toleration for Dissenters, and
still less of toleration for 'Papists.' The fear of a restoration of
'Popery' was the strongest motive of Englishmen of that day, and
Charles, who, unlike his father, always recoiled from strong
opposition, even consented to banish all Roman Catholic priests. Yet
it was in their interest and not in that of the Dissenters that he
had issued his declaration. This affair sowed the first seeds of
ill-will between Charles and Clarendon, as the latter had warmly
supported the opposition to the Declaration.
15. =The Conventicle Act. 1664.=--Parliament was roused to proceed
still farther in its course of intolerance. The Act of Uniformity
had turned the Dissenting clergy out of the Church, but had not
prevented them from holding meetings for worship. In May =1664= a
Conventicle Act was passed, by which any adult attending a
conventicle was made liable to an ascending scale of penalties,
ending in seven years' transportation, according to the number of
times that the offence had been committed. A conventicle was defined
as being a religious meeting not in accordance with the practice of
the Church of England, at which more than four persons were present
in addition to the household. The sentence of transportation was,
indeed, a terrible one, as it implied working like a slave,
generally under the burning sun in Barbadoes or some West India
colony. The simple-minded Pepys, whose Diary throws light on the
social conditions of the time, met some of the worshippers on their
way to the inevitable sentence. "They go like lambs," he writes,
"without any resistance. I would to God they would conform, or be
more wise and not be catched." It was fear which produced the
eagerness of English gentlemen to persecute Dissenters. They
remembered how they had themselves been kept under by Cromwell's
Puritan army, and, knowing that most of Cromwell's soldiers were
still in the prime of life, they feared lest, if the Dissenters were
allowed to gather head, they might become strong enough to call
again to arms that ever-victorious army.
16. =The Repeal of the Triennial Act. 1664.=--In the spring of
=1664=, before the passing of the Conventicle Act, the Cavalier
Parliament had been alarmed lest it should be thought that it ought
to be dissolved in the following May, because it would then have sat
three years, in compliance with the Triennial Act. In reality there
was nothing in the Triennial Act or in any other Act which rendered
Parliament liable to dissolution, as long as the king lived, unless
he chose to dissolve it; but Charles, who did not like the fetters
which that Act imposed upon him, took the opportunity to ask
Parliament to repeal it. This was promptly done, though in the Act
of Repeal was included a clause to the effect that there should, in
future, be no intermission of Parliaments for more than three years.
As the whole of the machinery invented by the Long Parliament for
giving effect to such a clause (see p. 530) had vanished, no king
could now be compelled to summon Parliament unless he wished to do
so.
17. =Growing Hostility between England and the Dutch.
1660-1664.=--It was not fear, but commercial rivalry, which made
England hate the Dutch. In =1660= the Convention Parliament had
re-enacted the Navigation Act (see p. 565). Legislation alone,
however, could not prevent the Dutch from driving the English out of
the markets of the world, either by superior trading capacity, or by
forcibly excluding them from ports in which Dutch influence was
supreme. Besides this, the Dutch refused to surrender Pularoon, a
valuable spice-bearing island in the East Indies, though they had
engaged to do so by treaty. If there was anything about which
Charles II. was in earnest it was in the spread of English colonies
and commerce. He had also private reasons for bearing ill-will
against the Dutch, who by abolishing the office of Stadholder (see
p. 565) in =1650=, had deprived the young William of Orange, the son
of Charles's sister Mary, of any post in the Republic. The seven
provinces were held together by the necessity of following the
counsels of the Province of Holland, by far the most extensive and
the wealthiest of the seven, if they were to preserve any unity at
all. The opinion of this Province was the more readily accepted
because the provincial states by which it was governed submitted to
be led by their pensionary, John de Witt, one of the most vigorous
and most prudent statesmen of the age. A pensionary was only an
officer bound to carry out the orders of the States, but the fact
that all business passed through his hands made a man of John de
Witt's ability, the director of the policy which he was supposed to
receive from others.
18. =Outbreak of the First Dutch War of the Restoration.
1664-1665.=--In =1664= hostilities broke out between England and the
Dutch Republic, without any declaration of war. English fleets
captured Dutch vessels on the coast of Africa, seized islands in the
West Indies, and took possession of the Dutch settlement in America
called by its founders New Amsterdam, but re-named by the English
New York, after the king's only surviving brother, the Duke of York,
who was Lord High Admiral. Later in the year, De Ruyter, one of the
best of the Dutch admirals, retaliated by seizing most of the
English forts on the coast of Guinea, and in =1665= war was openly
declared. Parliament made what was then the enormous grant of
2,500,000_l._, and on June 3 a battle was fought off Lowestoft in
which the English were completely victorious.
19. =The Plague. 1665.=--The rejoicing in England was marred by a
terrible calamity. For more than half a century the Plague had
appeared in England, at intervals of five years. It now broke out
with unusual virulence, especially in London. The streets there were
narrow and dirty, and the air was close, because the upper storeys
of the houses overhung the lower ones. No medical aid appeared to
avail anything against the Plague. On the door of every house in
which it appeared was painted a red cross with the words, "The Lord
have mercy upon us." Every one rich enough fled into the country and
spread the infection. "How fearful," wrote a contemporary, "people
were, thirty or forty, if not a hundred miles from London, of
anything that they brought from any mercer's or draper's shop; or of
any goods that were brought to them; or of any persons that came to
their houses! How they would shut their doors against their friends:
and if a man passed over the fields, how one would avoid another!"
The dead were too numerous to be buried in the usual way, and carts
went their rounds at night, accompanied by a man ringing a bell and
calling out, "Bring out your dead." The corpses were flung into a
huge pit without coffins, there being no time to provide them for so
many. It was not till winter came that the sickness died away.
20. =The Five Mile Act. 1665.=--In October, Parliament met at
Oxford, through fear of the Plague. It offered the king
1,250,000_l._ for the war if he would consent to fresh persecution
of the Dissenters. He took the money, and gave his assent to the
Five Mile Act. The Conventicle Act had been largely evaded, and,
during the Plague, Dissenting ministers had preached in pulpits from
which the clergy had fled through fear of infection. The Five Mile
Act was to strike at the ministers ejected on St. Bartholomew's day.
Not one of them was allowed to come within five miles of a borough
town, or of any place in which he had once held a cure, and was
therefore likely to find a congregation, unless he would take the
oath of non-resistance, and swear that he would never endeavour to
alter the government in Church or State, a condition to which few,
if any, of the Dissenters were willing to submit.
[Illustration: Old St. Paul's, from the east, showing its condition
just before the Great Fire from an engraving by Hollar.]
21. =Continued Struggle with the Dutch. 1665-1666.= In the autumn of
=1665= the ravages of the Plague kept the English fleet in the
Thames, and the Dutch held the sea. On land they were exposed to
some peril. Ever since their peace with Spain, in =1648=, they had
allowed their military defences to fall into decay, on the
supposition that they would have no more enemies who could dispose
of any formidable land-force. Now even a petty prince like the
Bishop of Münster, hired by Charles, was able, in October, to
over-run two of their eastern provinces. The Dutch called upon the
king of France, Louis XIV., for help, and he, being bound by treaty
to assist them, declared war against England in January =1666=. If
he had given earnest support to the Dutch the consequences would
have been serious for England, but though he and other continental
allies of the Dutch frightened off the Bishop of Münster from his
attack on the Republic, Louis had no wish to help in the destruction
of the English navy. What he wanted was to see the Dutch and English
fleets destroy one another in order that his own might be mistress
of the sea. Through the first four days of June a desperate naval
battle was fought between the English and the Dutch, off the North
Foreland, at the end of which the English fleet, under Albemarle and
Rupert, was driven to take shelter in the Thames, whilst the Dutch
had been so crippled as to be forced to put back to refit. On July
25 and 26 there was another battle off the mouth of the Thames. This
time the Dutch had the worst, and in August the English fleet sailed
along the islands at the entrance of the Zuyder Zee, destroying 160
merchant ships and burning a town. The struggle had been a terrible
one. The sailors of both nations were equally brave, and equally at
home in a sea-fight, but the English ships were better built and the
English guns were better, whilst the Dutch commanders did not work
well together in consequence of personal and political jealousies.
22. =The Fire of London. 1666.=--In September, =1666=, London
suffered a calamity only second to that of the Plague. A fire broke
out, and burnt for three days. All the City from the Tower to the
Temple, and from the Thames to Smithfield, was absolutely destroyed.
Old St. Paul's, the longest cathedral in England, perished in the
flames. Great as the suffering caused by the fire was, it was not
without its benefits, as the old houses with their overhanging
storeys were destroyed by it, and were replaced by new ones built in
the modern fashion, so that there was more air in the streets. After
this reconstruction of London it was never again visited by the
Plague.
23. =Designs of Louis XIV. 1665-1667.=--Soon after the fire died
down Parliament voted 1,800,000_l._ for continuing the war, but the
country was exhausted, and it was known that it would be impossible
to collect so large a sum. Both king and Parliament were therefore
anxious for peace, and there were now reasons which made the Dutch
also ready to make peace. In =1665= Philip IV. of Spain died, and
was succeeded by his only surviving son, Charles II., as yet a mere
child, hopelessly weak in body and mind. Philip also left two
daughters, the elder, Maria Theresa, a child of his first wife,
being the wife of Louis, whilst the younger, Margaret Theresa, the
wife of the Emperor Leopold I., was, with Charles II., the offspring
of a second marriage.[27] Both of the daughters had renounced all
future claim to the Spanish Crown, but Louis, knowing that the
young Charles II. of Spain was so sickly as to make his early death
probable, was prepared to assert his wife's claim whenever that
event took place. In the meanwhile he put forward a demand that the
greater part of the Spanish Netherlands should be immediately handed
over to her, because in those countries there was a law, known as
the law of devolution, enacting that the daughter of a first wife
should receive a larger share of her father's property than a son of
the second. Louis chose to construe a right to succeed to property
as though it implied a right to govern. In March, =1667=, he made a
secret treaty with Charles II. of England, in which, on condition of
his engaging not to help the Dutch, he was allowed to do as he
pleased in the Spanish Netherlands. In May he began what is known as
the War of Devolution, with Spain. Spain had neither money nor means
to defend her territory in the Netherlands, and the French armies
captured one place after another.
[Footnote 27: Genealogy of the surviving children of Philip IV:--
1. Elizabeth of France = Philip IV. = 2. Mary of Austria.
| |
+----------------+ +---+------------------------+
| | |
Maria Theresa = Louis XIV. Margaret Theresa = Leopold I. Charles II.]
24. =The Dutch in the Medway, and the Peace of Breda. 1667.=--The
advance of Louis into the Spanish Netherlands and the establishment
of the French armies so near their frontier in the place of the now
exhausted forces of Spain greatly alarmed the Dutch. The mere risk
of this danger had, even before the war between France and Spain
began, inclined them to peace with England, and a conference was
opened at Breda to consider the terms. All was quickly agreed on
except the question about the right of England to Pularoon (see p.
589), and Charles, imagining that this would be settled in his
favour, dismissed his sailors and dismantled his fleet, in order to
save money to spend on his own extravagant pleasures. The Dutch
fleet at once entered the Thames, sailed up the Medway, burnt three
men-of-war, and carried off a fourth. For some days it blockaded the
Thames, so that the Londoners could get no coals. Men openly said
that such things would not have happened if Oliver had been living.
Orders were sent to the English ambassadors at Breda to give up
Pularoon, and on July 31 the Treaty of Breda was signed. It was not
wholly disastrous. If England lost her last hold on the spice
islands of the East, she gained New York and all the territory
formerly Dutch in the West, which had broken up the continuity of
her colonies in America.
25. =Clarendon and the House of Commons. 1667.=--The events of the
last months of the war had produced important effects upon the
temper of Parliament. Long before the Dutch appeared in the Medway,
the House of Commons had demanded an inquiry into the expenditure
of the money granted to the Crown, suspecting that much of the
supply distinctly intended for purposes of war had been diverted to
pay for the amusements of the Court. This demand, which opened a new
chapter in the history of the financial struggle between the House
of Commons and the Crown, brought the Commons into collision with
Clarendon. It had been settled by the Long Parliament that the king
was to levy no taxes without a grant from Parliament. The Cavalier
Parliament, Royalist as it was, was beginning to ask that the king
should not spend the proceeds of taxes without the approbation of
Parliament. When once this had been secured, Parliament would
indubitably become supreme. Against this attempt to obtain the
mastery Clarendon struggled. He was a good lawyer and an excellent
man of business, but he was not a statesman of genius. He wanted
each part of the government to act in harmony with the others; but
he could never understand the meaning of the saying that if two men
ride on horseback, one must ride in front. He wanted the king and
Parliament both to ride in front, both--that is to say--to have
their own way in certain directions. His notion of a king was that
of one prudently doing his best for his people, always ruling
according to law, and irresponsible in everything, even in the
expenditure of money. A wasteful, riotous Charles II. was a
phenomenon for the control of which his constitutional formulas were
not prepared.
26. =The Fall of Clarendon. 1667.=--Though Clarendon was unable to
concur in any diminution of the power of the Crown, his eyes were
widely open to the profligacy of Charles's life. Again and again he
had remonstrated with him, and had refused to pass under the great
seal grants in favour of Lady Castlemaine, to whom, amongst his many
mistresses, Charles was at this time most completely subjugated. As
might have been expected, this abandoned woman irritated her
paramour against his upright Chancellor, telling him that he was no
king as long as he was ruled by Clarendon. As Parliament continued
its attacks, Charles, on August 30, dismissed Clarendon from office.
On October 10, the fallen minister was impeached by the House of
Commons, on charges the greater part of which were ridiculously
untrue. He tried to rouse Charles to support him, reminding him
that, after Charles I. allowed Strafford to die, the king's own head
had fallen on the scaffold. Charles II., an easy-going but clever
politician, probably thought that he could always escape his
father's fate by refraining from imitating his father's stiffness.
He gave Clarendon a strong hint to withdraw, and on November 29 the
minister who had done more than any other man to establish the
restored monarchy, fled to France, never to return alive.
27. =Scotland and Ireland. 1660.=--At the Restoration, the close
connection established by Cromwell between England and Scotland was
necessarily broken up. Scotland hated English control even when it
came in the guise of a union of Parliaments, and the old relation of
separate states united only by the Crown was at once resumed. Argyle
and his principal followers were executed as traitors. The main
profit of the restoration in Scotland, however, fell to the
nobility. The clergy was discredited by its divisions, and the
noblemen, whose fathers had supported Presbyterianism against
Charles I., now supported Charles II. against Presbyterianism. Once
more, as in the days of James I., the clergy were muzzled by the
restoration of episcopacy and the assertion of the authority of the
Crown. In Ireland the main question was how to satisfy alike the
recent English immigrants who had received lands from Cromwell and
the Irish proprietors who had been deprived of their lands in favour
of the intruders. In =1661=, at the king's desire, an Act of
Settlement was passed, making, in elaborate detail, an attempt to
satisfy as many as possible of both parties; but as men of English
descent and Protestant religion filled the Irish House of Commons,
the English settlers contrived to maintain, by constitutional
authority, much of what they had taken with the strong hand.
According to the best evidence now procurable, whereas before =1641=
about two-thirds of Irish lands fit for cultivation had been in the
hands of Catholics, before the end of the reign of Charles II.
two-thirds were in the hands of Protestants.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
CHARLES II. AND THE CABAL. 1667-1674
LEADING DATES
Reign of Charles II., 1660-1685
Treaty of Dover June 1, 1670
Second Dutch War of the Restoration March 13, 1672
Declaration of Indulgence March 15, 1672
Test Act March 29, 1673
Dismissal of Shaftesbury Nov. 9, 1673
Peace with the Dutch Feb. 19, 1674
1. =Milton and Bunyan.=--Whilst Clarendon and his allies were
fortifying the legal position of the Church of England, the old
Puritanism which they attempted to crush found a voice in
literature. Milton, who had become blind, in consequence of his
intense devotion to the service of the State, as the secretary of
Cromwell, at last, after long preparation, gave to the world
'Paradise Lost,' in =1667=. The poem was Puritan, not only because
its main theme was the maintenance or destruction of the purity of a
single human soul, but because it based that purity on obedience to
the commands of the great Taskmaster; whilst, in the solemn cadence
of its blank verse there is something to remind the reader of the
stern world of duty, in the midst of which the nobler spirits of the
Commonwealth and Protectorate had moved. As Milton was the poet of
Puritanism, John Bunyan was the prose-poet of Dissent. He had
himself fought as a soldier on the side of Parliament in the Civil
War, and, having become an earnest Baptist preacher, he continued to
preach after the Restoration, and, boldly defying the law, was
requited with a long imprisonment. His masterpiece, 'The Pilgrim's
Progress,' was probably not written till =1675=, but many of his
religious writings were published before that date. His force of
imagination made him the greatest allegorist the world has seen. His
moral aim lay in the preservation of a few choice souls from the
perils and temptations of a society wholly given up to evil.
[Illustration: John Milton in 1670.]
2. =Butler and the Dramatists.=--There was, doubtless, much in the
world round Milton and Bunyan to awake indignation. Samuel Butler
was a man of genius, but his 'Hudibras,' which appeared in =1663=,
shows but poorly by the side of 'Paradise Lost' and 'The Pilgrim's
Progress.' This mock-heroic account of a Puritan knight is the work
of a strong writer, who can find nothing better to do with the
warriors and disputants who had lately controlled England than to
laugh at them. The mass of Restoration poetry was far weaker than
'Hudibras,' whilst its dramatic writers vied with one another in the
expression of licentious thought either in prose or in the regular
heroic couplets which were, at this time, in vogue. It was, indeed,
impossible to put much human passion into two neat lines which had
to be made to rhyme; but at Court love-making had been substituted
for passion, and the theatres, now re-opened, after they had been
suppressed by the Puritans, were meant for the vicious Court and not
for the people at large.
3. =Reason and Science.=--The satire of Butler, and the
licentiousness of the dramatists, both sprang from a reaction
against the severe morality of the Puritans; but it would have been
a poor prospect for the generation following that of Puritan
repression if the age had not produced any positive work of its own.
Its work was to be found in the increase of respect for human
reason. In the better minds amongst the clergy of the Restoration,
the reasonable character of the Church of England was more than ever
predominant. A few, such as Wilkins, Bishop of Chester, and
Stillingfleet, Dean of St. Paul's, were even anxious to find some
way of comprehension by which Dissenters might be reconciled to the
Church, whilst others, like Morley and Barrow, attached far more
importance to arguments addressed to the understanding, than to that
uniformity of ceremonial which had been so dear to the mind of Laud.
Still more important was the spread of devotion to natural science.
The Royal Society, founded for its promotion in =1660=, brought
together men who thought more about air-pumps than about the
mysteries of theology; and it was mainly the results of their
inquiries which made any renewed triumph of Puritanism impossible.
In 'The Pilgrim's Progress' the outer world was treated as a mere
embarrassment to the pursuit of spiritual perfection. By the Fellows
of the Royal Society it was treated as calling for reverent
investigation, in order that, in the words of Bacon, nature might be
brought into the service of man by his obedience to her laws.
4. =Charles II. and Toleration. 1667.=--In the long run the rise of
the scientific spirit would conduce to religious toleration, because
scientific men have no reason to desire the suppression of any form
of religious belief. The first step taken after the restoration in
the direction of religious toleration had come from Charles (see p.
581), who was actuated partly by a sneaking fondness for the Roman
Catholic Church and partly by dislike of being dictated to by
Parliament. He therefore, after Clarendon's fall, gave his
confidence mainly to men who, for various reasons, were inclined to
support his wishes in this respect.
5. =Buckingham and Arlington. 1667-1669.=--Amongst these men the
principal were the Duke of Buckingham and Lord Arlington.
Buckingham, the son of the favourite of Charles I.--'everything by
turns and nothing long'--was trying his hand at politics by way of
amusement. Arlington, who, like Charles, hardly knew whether he was
Catholic or Protestant, was entrusted, as Secretary of State, with
the direction of foreign affairs. He was a man of considerable
ability, but perfectly unscrupulous in shifting his ground to suit
his personal ambition. Both hated Clarendon as sour and austere, and
both were ready to support the king in any scheme upon which he
might set his heart. The Dissenters confined to prison were
liberated, and a Bill prepared to modify the ceremonies of the
Church, so as to enable the expelled Presbyterians to re-enter the
Church. When, however, Parliament met in February, =1668=, it showed
its determination to have nothing to do with either toleration or
comprehension (see p. 598). It offered the king 300,000_l._, but
only under the implied condition that he would abandon his scheme.
Charles took the money and dropped his scheme. He prorogued
Parliament in May, and did not re-assemble it till October, =1669=.
Whilst Parliament was not in session Charles sheltered the
Dissenters from persecution, and even thought of dissolving
Parliament. Albemarle (see p. 580), however, cautiously reminded him
that, even if he got a new Parliament in which the Dissenters and
their friends were predominant, it would probably cause him trouble
by wanting to persecute those who had hitherto persecuted the
Dissenters. Accordingly Charles, who hated nothing so much as
trouble, not only allowed the old Parliament to meet again, but even
issued a proclamation enforcing the penal laws against Dissenters.
6. =The Triple Alliance. 1668.=--In =1668= a triple alliance was
formed between England, the Dutch Republic, and Sweden, to put an
end to the War of Devolution (see p. 593). Its originators were De
Witt, and Sir William Temple, the English ambassador at the Hague.
The allies demanded that Louis should content himself with certain
strong towns on his northern frontier which he had already conquered
from Spain, and should desist from attempting to conquer more. Louis
assented, and the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed on these
conditions. In England there was already a rising feeling against
the French, and Charles acquired no little popularity by his
supposed firmness. In reality he had betrayed the secrets of the
alliance to Louis, and had only shown his teeth to gain good terms
for himself from the French king.
7. =Charles's Negotiations with France. 1669-1670.=--Louis owed the
Dutch a deep grudge, and set himself to win Charles to neutrality,
if not to active help, in the war which he now purposed to make
against them. Charles disliked the Dutch as the commercial rivals of
England, and was ready to sell himself to Louis if only the price
offered was high enough. Though Charles never suffered religion of
any kind to be a check on his conduct, his facile nature yearned
after the imposing authority of the Roman Church. In =1669= his
brother, James, avowed himself a Catholic, and in the same year
Charles, under the strictest secrecy, declared his own conversion to
a small circle of men whom he could trust. Before the end of the war
he offered Louis support against the Dutch, but asked such enormous
concessions in return that Louis refused to agree to them. Charles,
before lowering the terms of his bargain with Louis, drove another
bargain with his Parliament. In the spring of =1670=, by dropping
his demand for toleration, he obtained a grant of 300,000_l._ a year
for eight years. In return he gave the royal assent to a second
Conventicle Act, even more stringent than the first.
[Illustration: Temple Bar, London, built by Sir Christopher Wren in
1670. Taken down in 1878 and since rebuilt at Waltham Cross.]
8. =The Treaty of Dover. 1670.=--Having secured a grant, Charles
prorogued Parliament, which he had deceived by giving it to
understand that he had abandoned the idea of toleration, and turned
to Louis. Louis sent over Charles's youngest sister, Henrietta,
Duchess of Orleans, to conclude an alliance, and on June 1, =1670=,
a treaty between England and France was secretly signed at Dover.
Charles agreed to join Louis in his projected war against the Dutch,
by sending an English force of 6,000 men to serve in the French
army, and to assist Louis to seize upon the territories of the
Spanish monarchy in the event of the death of Charles II. of Spain
without male heirs. Charles was also to acknowledge himself a
Catholic whenever he thought fit to do so. To support Charles
against his subjects in case of their resisting him in the
declaration of his conversion, Louis was to give him 154,000_l._ and
the aid of 6,000 troops to be employed in England in his defence.
Moreover, Charles was to receive 230,000_l._ a year during the
proposed war, and thirty French ships were to serve under an English
admiral. At the end of the war he was to receive Walcheren, Sluys
and Cadsand from the Dutch Republic, and ultimately, if Louis made
good his claims to the Spanish monarchy, he was to gain from Spain,
Ostend, Minorca, and various territories in South America. Charles
II. was no more scrupulous than his father had been about using the
troops of foreign princes to suppress the opposition of his own
subjects, but he was shrewd enough to know--what Charles I. had
never known--that foreign princes would not lend him troops unless
he gave them something in return. The breach of the Triple Alliance
and the assistance offered by Charles to Louis in the proposed war
against the Dutch were considered in France to be a fair equivalent
for the payments which Louis had bound himself to make. It was
another question whether Charles could be kept to his engagements.
To secure this as much as possible Louis sent him over a new French
mistress, Louise de Keroualle. Charles soon created her Duchess of
Portsmouth, and she fulfilled her duty to her own king by betraying
to him all the secrets of her lover.
9. =The Cabal. 1670.=--After Clarendon's fall Charles had been his
own chief minister. The ministers whom he consulted from time to
time were known as his Cabal, a word then applied to any body of
secret advisers, without carrying with it the opprobrious meaning
which it now has. At last the wits discovered that the initials of
five ministers who were principally consulted about the time of the
Treaty of Dover, Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and
Lauderdale, spelt the word cabal, and writers have since talked
about them as forming what has been called the Cabal Ministry,
though no such ministry, in the modern sense of the word, ever
existed. Not only did they not form a council meeting for purposes
of government, but, though they agreed together in favouring
toleration, they disagreed on other points. Nor were they usually
consulted by Charles in a body. Sometimes he took the advice of
persons not of their number; sometimes he took the advice of some of
them only, whilst he kept the others entirely in the dark. Thus
Clifford, who was a brave and honest Catholic, and Arlington, who
would support any measure as long as it was his interest to do so,
knew all about the Treaty of Dover, whilst Buckingham, Lauderdale,
and Ashley were in complete ignorance of it. Of Buckingham and
Arlington enough has been already said (see p. 599). Lauderdale, who
had little to do with English affairs, kept himself almost entirely
to the task of building up the king's authority in Scotland, where
he had already got together an army completely at Charles's
disposal. The character of Ashley deserves a longer consideration.
10. =Ashley's Policy.=--Anthony Ashley Cooper,[28] who had been
created Lord Ashley since the Restoration, had changed sides again
and again during the late troubles. He was a born party-leader, and
had signalised himself as a youth at Exeter College, Oxford, by
leading a successful revolt of the freshmen against the older
undergraduates, who, according to custom, tried to skin the chins of
the freshmen and to force them to drink a nauseous compound prepared
for the occasion. Though in party conflict he was quite unscrupulous
and despised no means which would enable him to gain his ends, he
had the statesmanlike qualities of common sense and moderation. He
had deserted Charles I. when he leant upon the Catholics (see p.
541), had supported Cromwell in his struggle with the zealots of the
Barebone's Parliament (see p. 566), and had left him when he
rejected the constitutional scheme of the first Parliament of the
Protectorate (see p. 570). In disgust at the humours of the Rump and
the army, he had done everything in his power to hasten the
Restoration, and had soon shown hostility to Clarendon and to the
persecuting laws of the Cavalier Parliament. In fact, there were two
principles to which he was never entirely false, a love of
Parliamentary government and a love of toleration, which last was
based, not as was that of Oliver, upon sympathy with religious zeal
of every kind, but upon dislike of clerical interference. At present
he attached himself to Charles, because he knew of Charles's alleged
wish to establish toleration, and knew nothing of the conspiracy
against Parliament on which Charles had embarked, or of Charles's
secret design to favour the Roman Church under cover of a general
scheme of toleration.
[Footnote 28: Two Christian names were exceedingly rare in the
seventeenth century.]
11. =Buckingham's Sham Treaty. 1671.=--To deceive those who were in
ignorance of the secret treaty of the previous year, Buckingham was
sent to Paris to negotiate a sham treaty in which all mention of
Charles's conversion was omitted, and the whole of the money offered
by Louis represented as given solely for the war. Charles
particularly enjoyed making a fool of Buckingham, who imagined
himself to be exceedingly clever, and he had also the temporary
satisfaction of gaining the hearty support of Ashley as well as
Buckingham, because Ashley was quite ready to accept Louis' help in
a joint enterprise for crushing the commerce of the Dutch, and had
no scruples about abandoning the Triple Alliance. Charles was the
more ready to begin the war because he had lately succeeded in
obtaining from Parliament another 800,000_l._ on the false plea that
he wanted the money to enable him to hold head at sea against the
French as well as the Dutch. As soon as the money was obtained he
prorogued Parliament.
12. =The Stop of the Exchequer. 1672.=--Charles prudently delayed
the declaration of his conversion to a more convenient season, but
the opening of the war was fixed for the spring of =1672=. In spite
of the large sums which he drew from Louis and from Parliament, his
finances were in hopeless confusion, because of the enormous amount
of money which he squandered on his numerous mistresses and his
illegitimate children. It is said that the yearly income of the
Duchess of Portsmouth was 40,000_l._, and that in one year she
received no less than 136,000_l._ A caricature published in Holland
aptly represented him as standing between two women, with empty
pockets hanging out. At this time he had in his exchequer
1,400,000_l._, lent to him by the goldsmiths who, in those days,
acted as bankers. On January 2, =1672=, probably at Clifford's
suggestion, he refused to repay the principal, and arbitrarily
diminished the interest from 12 to 6 per cent.[29] In consequence of
this stop of the exchequer, as it was called, many of the goldsmiths
became bankrupt, but Clifford became a peer and Lord High Treasurer.
[Footnote 29: In the time of James I. the usual interest was 10 per
cent. The Long Parliament paid 8.]
[Illustration: Anthony Ashley-Cooper, first Earl of Shaftesbury,
1621-1683: from the National Portrait Gallery.]
13. =The Declaration of Indulgence. 1672.=--On March 15, Charles,
though still hesitating to proclaim himself a Catholic, issued a
Declaration of Indulgence. Claiming a dispensing power,[30] he
suspended all penal laws in matters ecclesiastical, affecting either
recusants or non-conformists, thus giving complete religious liberty
to Roman Catholics as well as to Dissenters. To this measure, wise
and statesmanlike in itself, but marred by the motives of its author
and by its defiance of the law and of public opinion, Ashley gave
his hearty support. He was rewarded with the Earldom of Shaftesbury.
He had shortly before been made Lord Chancellor: being the last who
held that post without being a lawyer. At that time the decisions of
the Court of Chancery were still given in accordance with the view
taken by the Chancellor of what seemed fair and equitable, and did
not therefore require any elaborate legal knowledge. Even
Shaftesbury's bitterest enemies acknowledged that he was
scrupulously just.
[Footnote 30: The right of pardon allows the king to remit the
consequences to a particular person of a sentence passed on him. The
right of dispensation allows him to remit beforehand the
consequences of a breach of a law either to such persons as are
named, or to all persons generally who may commit such a breach.]
14. =The Second Dutch War of the Restoration. 1672.=--Both Charles
and Louis had resolved to take the Dutch by surprise. On March 13,
Admiral Holmes, obeying orders, attacked a rich Dutch merchant fleet
sailing up the Channel, before war was declared, but only succeeded
in taking two vessels. In the war now begun the discipline of the
English navy was worse, and that of the Dutch navy better, than it
had been in the former war (see p. 591). On June 7 there was a
fierce sea-fight in Southwold Bay, in which the Dutch had slightly
the advantage. Louis, on his part, crossed the Rhine, and fell upon
the Dutch territory. As a land attack had not been expected, the
military preparations were incomplete, and the fortresses out of
repair. One place after another capitulated to the French. The young
William III., Prince of Orange, Charles's nephew, had been named
Captain-General, but his army was too small to encourage him to risk
a battle. Then De Witt took a heroic resolution. On June 18 he cut
the dykes which protected the low-lying land from the sea which
stood at a higher level. In rushed the waters, Louis found his
progress stopped. De Witt had the blame of the failure to prevent
the invasion; William, coming after him, had the credit of the
resistance. The Republic needed a strong hand to preserve it, and
the office of Stadholder was revived and given to William. Shortly
afterwards De Witt, together with his brother, was brutally murdered
at the Hague. William, who detested De Witt for having so long
deprived him of the power which he considered his due, not only took
no steps to hinder the assassination, but actually protected the
murderers. Disgraceful as his conduct was, he had a temper as heroic
as De Witt's. Buckingham came to urge him to submit to Louis'
terms. "Do you not see," said the Englishman, "that the Republic is
lost?" "I know one sure means of never seeing it," was William's
firm reply--"to die on the last dyke." His confidence was justified.
Louis could not pierce the girdle of waters which surrounded the
Dutch towns, and, returning to Paris, brought the campaign to an
end.
15. ='Delenda est Carthago.' 1673.=--On February 4,
=1673=.--Charles, having once more spent all his money, again met
his Parliament. Shaftesbury urged the voting of supply for the war
with the Dutch, whom he styled the eternal enemies of England,
quoting the saying of Cato--_Delenda est Carthago_--as though they
were to be destroyed as being to England what Carthage had been to
Rome. So far as the war was concerned, the House of Commons answered
his appeal by offering 1,260,000_l._, though they kept back the Bill
till they had brought him to terms.
16. =Withdrawal of the Declaration of Indulgence. 1673.=--It was at
the withdrawal of the Declaration of Indulgence that the House was
aiming. In vain Charles simulated firmness, declaring himself to be
resolved to stick to his declaration. The Commons bitterly resented
his interference with the law. Forty statutes, it was said, had been
violated by the Declaration, and the house passed a resolution that
'penal statutes in matters ecclesiastical cannot be suspended but by
act of Parliament.' Both sides were anxious to limit the question to
ecclesiastical statutes: Charles, because the powers over the Church
conferred on the Tudor sovereigns were vague, and therefore more
defensible than those exercised by them in political matters; the
Commons, because they had precedents of Parliamentary resistance to
dispensations granted to recusants, whereas former kings had usually
been allowed without contradiction to suspend the law in commercial
matters. Charles tried to evade the summons of the Commons, but the
Lords having come on March 7 to the same conclusion as the other
House, he gave way on the 8th and recalled his Declaration. As no
new statute was passed on the subject, the legal question remained
just where it was before.
17. =The Test Act. 1673.=--Charles had entered on a struggle with
Parliament and had been defeated. The Royalist Parliament of =1661=
was still Royalist so far as the maintenance of the throne was
concerned, but it had entered on a course of opposition which had
brought it into open collision with the king. From first to last the
chief characteristic of this Parliament was its resolution to
maintain the supremacy of the Church, and it was now obvious that
the Church was in more danger from Roman Catholics than from
Dissenters. Though Charles's conversion (see p. 600) was unknown, it
was no secret that the Duke of York, the heir to the throne, was a
Catholic, and, in spite of the veil thrown over the terms of the
Treaty of Dover, the danger of an invasion by French troops in
support of the English Catholics was obvious to all. For the first
time since the Restoration a Bill was brought in to relieve
Protestant Dissenters, and, though this proposal came to nothing,
the very fact of its being made showed that a new state of feeling
was growing up. Arlington, seeing how things stood, and wishing to
oust the Catholic Clifford from the Treasury that he might be his
successor, put up a member of the Commons to propose a Bill which
soon became law under the name of the Test Act. By it, no one was to
hold office who refused to take the test--that is to say, to make a
declaration of his disbelief in the doctrine of Transubstantiation
and to receive the Sacrament according to the rites of the Church of
England. It was only after Charles had given his assent to this Act
on March 29 that the proposed grant of 1,260,000_l._ was actually
made.
18. =Results of the Test Act. 1673.=--Though most Dissenters were
excluded from office by the latter clause of the Test Act, there
were some who did not feel their opposition to the Church to be so
strong as to preclude them from taking the Sacrament occasionally
according to its rites. Every honest Roman Catholic, on the other
hand, was at once driven from office. The Duke of York surrendered
the Admiralty and Clifford the Treasury. The Test Act was not a
persecuting Act in the sense in which the Conventicle Act and the
Five Mile Act were persecuting Acts. It inflicted no direct penalty
on the mere holding of a special belief, or on the attendance on a
special form of worship, but excluded persons holding a certain
religious belief from offices the retention of which, according to
the prevalent conviction, would be dangerous to the State.
19. =Continuance of the Dutch War. 1673.=--The Treasurer-ship, taken
from Clifford, was given, not to Arlington, but to Sir Thomas
Osborne, whose sentiments, being strongly in favour of maintaining
the predominance of the Church of England, were likely to commend
him to the goodwill of the Houses. In foreign policy he represented
what was fast becoming a general opinion, that, as the main danger
to England came from France, it had been a mistake to go to war with
the Dutch. This belief was driven home by disasters at sea in the
summer of =1673=. In May, a combined French and English fleet, under
Prince Rupert, fought without advantage against the Dutch. In August
Rupert was defeated off the Texel, because the French fleet, which
accompanied him, took no part in the action, Louis not wishing to
see the English masters of the sea. On this, the English nation
turned all its hatred against France.
20. =The Duke of York's Marriage and Shaftesbury's Dismissal.
1673.=--The alarm inspired by the Catholics was increased in the
course of =1673= by a marriage which took place in the Royal family.
Soon after the Restoration the Duke of York had married Clarendon's
daughter, Anne Hyde, and had by her two daughters, Mary and Anne,
both of whom were brought up as Protestants, so that, if the Duke
outlived his brother, he would, when he himself died, transmit the
crown to a Protestant queen. He was now, however, a widower, and
took as his second wife a Catholic princess, Mary of Modena. If the
new Duchess should bear a son, the boy, who would inevitably be
educated as a Catholic, would be the future king of England. When
Parliament met in October it was highly indignant, and, as it
attacked the king's ministers, it was prorogued after a session of a
few days. Charles revenged himself by dismissing a minister whom the
Commons had not attacked. Shaftesbury had, earlier in the year,
learned the contents of the secret articles of the Treaty of Dover,
and had thereby discovered that Charles had made a fool of him as
completely as he had made a fool of Buckingham when he sent him to
negotiate a sham treaty (see p. 603). Shaftesbury remained true to
his policy of toleration, but it was now to be toleration for
Dissenters alone. Toleration for Catholics, he now knew, was
connected with a scheme for overthrowing English independence with
the aid of French soldiers. Accordingly, he supported the Test Act,
and, as he continued uncompliant, Charles, on November 9, dismissed
him. Shaftesbury at once threw himself into the most violent
opposition. Buckingham was dismissed not long afterwards, and the
so-called Cabal was thus finally broken up.
21. =Peace with the Dutch. 1674.=--The war with the Dutch was
brought to an end by a treaty signed on February 19, =1674=. On the
24th Charles prorogued Parliament, and did not summon it again for
more than a year. During the interval, he attempted to win friends
all round, without committing himself to any definite policy. On the
one hand, he remained on friendly terms with Louis, whilst, on the
other hand, he offered the hand of Mary, the eldest child of his
brother James, to her cousin, William of Orange. William's position
was far higher than it had been two years before. He was now at the
head of an alliance in which the Emperor Leopold, the King of Spain,
and the Duke of Lorraine combined with him to restrain the
inordinate ambition of Louis. It is true that his generalship was
less conspicuous than his diplomacy, and that in the whole course of
his life he never succeeded in beating a French army in the field.
Yet even in war his indomitable courage and conspicuous coolness
stood him in good stead, and he knew better than most commanders how
to gather his troops after a defeat and to place them in strong
positions in which the enemy did not dare to attack them. The
history of Europe during the remainder of his life was the history
of a duel between the ambitious and autocratic Louis and the
cool-headed William, the first magistrate of a republic in which his
action was checked by constitutional restraints on every side, and
the head of a coalition of which the members were always prone to
take offence and to pursue their individual interests at the
sacrifice of the common good. To win England to the alliance was,
for William, a most desirable object, but he knew that James might
very well have a son by his second marriage, and, knowing that in
that case he would reap no political advantage from a marriage with
Mary, he for the present refused the offer of her hand.[31]
[Footnote 31: Genealogy of some of the descendants of Charles I.:--
CHARLES I. = Henrietta Maria
1625-1649 |
|
+---------+-------------------------------------+
| | |
CHARLES II. Mary = William II. Anne Hyde = JAMES II. = Mary of
1660-1685 | (Prince of | (Duke of York) | Modena
| Orange) | King of Great |
| | Britain and |
| | Ireland |
| +------------+ 1685-1688 |
| | | |
WILLIAM III. = MARY ANNE Maria = James Francis
(Prince of Queen of Queen of Clementina| Edward (The
Orange) Gt. Britain Gt. Britain Sobieski | Old Pretender)
King of Gt. and Ireland and Ireland |
Britain 1689-1694 1702-1714 |
and Ireland |
1689-1702 |
+----------------------+
| |
Louisa = Charles Edward Louis Henry Benedict
Princess of Philip Casimir Marie Clement
Stolberg (The Young Pretender) (Duke of York and
Cardinal)]
CHAPTER XXXIX
DANBY'S ADMINISTRATION AND THE THREE SHORT PARLIAMENTS. 1675-1681
LEADING DATES
Reign of Charles II., 1660-1685
Rejection of the Non-Resistance Bill 1675
Marriage of William and Mary Nov. 15, 1677
The Peace of Nymwegen July 31, 1678
The Popish Plot 1678
Dissolution of the Cavalier Parliament Jan. 24, 1679
The First Short Parliament March 6--May 27, 1679
The Second Short Parliament Oct. 21, 1680--Jan. 18, 1681
The Third Short Parliament March 21--March 28, 1681
1. =Growing Influence of Danby. 1675.=--Charles's effort to govern
in his own way having ended in failure, and, in what he thought to
be of more consequence, discomfort to himself, he discovered that he
would lead an easier life if he were on good terms with his
Parliament than if he quarrelled with it. Being now disposed to
throw over whatever troublesome convictions he had imagined himself
to have, he gave his confidence to Osborne (see p. 607), whom he had
recently created Earl of Danby. Danby revived the domestic policy of
Clarendon by maintaining, in accordance with the majority of the
Cavalier Parliament, the supremacy of the Church of England over
Catholics and Dissenters, and, equally in accordance with the
majority of that Parliament, opposed Louis abroad.
2. =Parliamentary Parties. 1675.=--The decision of Charles to
support Danby in carrying out a definite policy completed the
formation of separate Parliamentary parties. These had, indeed,
existed in the Long Parliament under various names, and had
reappeared after the Restoration; but in the Cavalier Parliament the
minority in favour of toleration had, at first, been exceedingly
small, and, though it had grown larger in the days of the Cabal, it
had been distracted by distrust of Charles when he appeared as a
patron of toleration. The situation was now clear and the leaders
distinctly known. On the one side was Danby and 'No toleration,' on
the other side was Shaftesbury and 'Toleration for Dissenters
only.' Neither side shrank from base means of acquiring strength.
The ministers who formed the Cabal are said to have been the first
who bribed members of the House of Commons, but it was Danby who
reduced bribery to a system which was afterwards extended by his
successors. Shaftesbury's followers, on the other hand, were quite
ready to enter into the pay of Louis, if he would help them to
overthrow Danby and would strengthen them against the king.
[Illustration: Ordinary dress of gentlemen in 1675: from Loggan's
_Oxonia Illustrata_.]
3. =The Non-Resistance Bill. 1675.=--When Parliament met in April
=1675=, Danby produced a Bill which was intended to secure his hold
on the House of Commons, whatever might be the opinion prevailing in
the country. No one was to be allowed to hold office or to sit in
Parliament unless he would swear that he believed resistance to the
Crown to be in all cases illegal, and that he would never endeavour
to alter the government in Church or State. If the Bill had passed,
the future liberty of Parliament would have been fettered, and few,
if any, who did not approve of the existing Church system could have
entered Parliament. The Bill passed the Lords, but while it was
still under discussion in the Commons Shaftesbury stirred up so
bitter a quarrel between the Houses, that Charles prorogued
Parliament before the Bill could be converted into law.
4. =Charles a Pensionary of France. 1675-1676.=--Parliament, in its
distrust of the king, refused him supplies, upon which Charles
prorogued it for fifteen months. Louis, who feared lest Parliament
should drive Charles into joining the alliance against him, was so
pleased to see its sittings interrupted for so long a time that he
granted to Charles a pension of 100,000_l._ a year, to make him
independent of his subjects. The result was that whilst Charles
allowed Danby to have his own way in domestic affairs, he refused to
allow him to detach England from the French alliance. It was not,
however, merely his personal interests which drew him to Louis, as
he took a real interest in the prosperity of English trade, and was
unable to get over his jealousy of the Dutch. In November =1676=, he
obtained from Louis a treaty by which the French renounced a claim
made by them to seize Dutch goods conveyed in English ships, hoping
by this to gain the goodwill of Parliament at its next meeting. He
could not understand how completely the alarm of his subjects lest
their national religion and independence should be assailed by the
French had made them forgetful of their commercial jealousy of the
Dutch.
[Illustration: Cup presented, 1676, by King Charles II. to the
Barber Surgeons' Company.]
5. =Two Foreign Policies. 1677.=--On February 15, =1677=, Parliament
again met. Shaftesbury and his allies attempted to steal a march on
Danby by producing two old statutes of Edward III. which directed
that Parliaments should be held every year, founding on it an
argument that the existing Parliament, not having met for a year,
had legally ceased to exist. The House of Lords sent Shaftesbury and
three other peers to the Tower for their pains, and the Commons
contemptuously rejected a similar argument put forward in their own
House. Danby found himself triumphant. The Commons granted
600,000_l._ for increasing the navy. Danby then carried a Bill
through the House of Lords for securing the Protestant religion in
the event of a Catholic--James being, of course, intended--coming to
the throne, though the Bill did not pass the Commons, apparently
from a feeling that its provisions were insufficient. The eyes of
Englishmen were, however, principally fixed on the Continent. In the
preceding year the French had gained two great naval victories, in
one of which De Ruyter had been slain, and in the spring of =1677=
Louis carried one place after another in the Spanish Netherlands.
Both Houses now asked Charles to join the alliance against France,
whereupon Charles indignantly prorogued Parliament. When he was
urged by the Dutch ambassador to act upon the wishes of the Houses
he threw his handkerchief into the air, with the accompanying words:
"I care just that for Parliament."
6. =The Marriage of the Prince of Orange. 1677.=--Louis paid to
Charles 1,600,000_l._ for the prorogation which rid France for a
time from the danger of a war with England. Charles, however, shrank
from a renewal of the struggle with his Parliament on its next
meeting, and, though he was resolved not to go to war with France if
he could help it, he was ready to help in bringing about a general
peace which would relieve him from all further invitation to join
the allies. He accordingly welcomed Danby's suggestion that the plan
for a marriage between the Prince of Orange and James's daughter
Mary should be again taken up, especially as he hoped that it would
break down the good understanding which existed between the Prince
and Shaftesbury, and would smooth away the hostility of his subjects
to his brother's right of succession. William, knowing that the
feeling of Englishmen of both parties was in his favour, visited his
uncles, and his marriage with Mary took place on November 15,
=1677=. The marriage, which was to prove of incalculable importance
in the future, was of great significance even at the time, as it
marked the end of the hostile feeling against the Dutch which, for
so many years, had been the dominant note of English foreign
politics.
7. =Danby's Position. 1677.=--Though Danby had brought Charles round
to support his foreign as well as his domestic policy, his success
was more apparent than real. The fact was that his foreign and
domestic policies were inconsistent with one another. In the long
run it would be found impossible to contend against the French king
and the English Catholics supported by him, without calling in the
aid of those Protestant Dissenters who were most hostile to Louis.
Englishmen attached to the Church were being led by their growing
distrust of France to a tenderer feeling towards Dissenters, and the
spread of this feeling made in favour of Shaftesbury, who favoured
toleration, and not in favour of Danby, who opposed it. For the
present, however, Danby could count on the Parliamentary majority
which agreed with him, and neither he nor the king wished to risk a
dissolution.
[Illustration: Steeple of the Church of St. Mary-le-Bow, London;
built by Sir Christopher Wren between 1671 and 1680.]
8. =The Peace of Nymwegen. 1678.=--When Parliament met in February
=1678=, Charles appeared full of determination. He declared that,
unless Louis agreed to make peace with the Dutch on reasonable
terms, he would go to war with France. The Commons at once resolved
to grant him 1,000,000_l._, and to support an army of 30,000 men and
a fleet of 90 ships. Before this resolution was embodied in an Act,
without which Charles could not touch the money, the followers of
Shaftesbury took alarm. They believed--and, as is now known, not
without reason--that Charles intended to use the troops to make
himself absolute. They not only pressed him to disband what troops
he had, but they entered into communication with Louis' ambassador,
in the hope that he would support them in forcing Charles to dismiss
his troops and to dissolve Parliament, some of them even accepting
from him gifts of money. Charles, on his part, vacillated, doubting
which was the best policy for him to adopt. At one time he was eager
to assist the Dutch, and sent troops to their succour in the hope
that a victorious army might afterwards be useful to him in England.
At another time he made overtures to Louis with the object of
securing his support. In the end, on July 31, Louis and the Dutch
made peace at Nymwegen without consulting Charles at all. Louis
gained Franche Comté and a large number of fortresses on his
northern frontier, which had formerly belonged to Spain. Though he
had failed to destroy the Dutch Republic, he had shown himself
superior in war to a great continental coalition, and had made
France the predominant power in Europe.
9. =The Popish Plot. 1678.=--The part played by the king left the
English people gravely dissatisfied with him. They feared lest he
should seek to overwhelm their liberties by military force and
should bring in French regiments to support his own troops. Their
suspicions were heightened by the knowledge that, if Charles died,
his brother, an uncompromising Roman Catholic, would succeed him. In
August, =1678=, a villain appeared to profit by this prevalent
distrust. Titus Oates, a liar from his youth up, who had tried
various religions and had recently professed himself a Catholic,
announced the existence of a great 'Popish plot.' Charles, he said,
was to be murdered, and James set upon the throne as the agent of
the Jesuits. A French army was to land to support him, and
Protestantism was to be absolutely suppressed. It was true that many
Catholics were anxious to see James on the throne and had expressed
contempt at Charles's conduct in refusing to declare himself one of
themselves, but the rest of Oates's story was absolutely false.
10. =Growing Excitement. 1678.=--Oates's depositions were taken
before a Middlesex magistrate, Sir Edmond Berry Godfrey. Not long
afterwards Godfrey was found murdered in the fields near Primrose
Hill. All London was wild with excitement. It was widely believed
that 'the Papists' had murdered him to punish him for listening to
Oates. It was also held to be an undoubted truth that 'the Papists'
were about to set fire to London, and to murder all good
Protestants. A joiner named College made his fortune by inventing a
pocket flail, tipped with lead, which was called the Protestant
flail, and was to be used by sober citizens to brain 'Popish'
assassins. When Parliament met on October 21 Shaftesbury, who had
been liberated early in the year, unscrupulously encouraged belief
in the supposed plot. Up to that time Catholic peers had kept their
seats in the House of Lords, and a few Catholics had surreptitiously
sat in the Commons. A new Test Act was now passed by which they were
excluded[32] from both Houses, though the Duke of York was exempted
by name from its operation. Five Catholic peers were thrown into the
Tower, and Coleman, the secretary of the Duchess of York, who had in
his custody papers implying that James had a design for forwarding
the interests of his religion, was tried and executed.
[Footnote 32: By the Test Act of 1673 offices only were closed to
the Catholics (see p. 607); the oath of supremacy, which had to be
taken by every member of the House of Commons, being held sufficient
to exclude them from that Assembly. Peers might sit in the House of
Lords without taking the oath.]
11. =Danby's Impeachment and the Dissolution of the Cavalier
Parliament. 1678-1679.=--The mark at which Shaftesbury aimed was the
overthrow of Danby. Danby had always, as far as his own opinion
went, been a warm antagonist of France, but a minister was still, in
those days, in reality the servant of the king, and was bound to
carry out his master's orders, even when they were against his own
conviction. Danby had, therefore, at the time when the Peace of
Nymwegen was under discussion, written letters to Ralph Montague,
the English ambassador in France, bidding him to ask Louis for a
considerable payment to Charles, and, at the same time, explaining
that the money was needed to make Charles independent of Parliament.
Montague, having subsequently returned to England, brought this
letter before the House of Commons. The House at once impeached
Danby, under the false impression that he had been really
subservient to France all the while. Charles had become attached to
Danby, and knew that, if the proceedings against him were carried
on, matters would come to light which he had every reason to
conceal. To save himself and his minister, on January 24, =1679=, he
dissolved the Cavalier Parliament, which had now sat for more than
seventeen years.
12. =The Meeting of the First Short Parliament. 1679.=--When the
elections to a new Parliament--the first of three short
Parliaments--were completed, Charles found that, with the exception
of at most thirty members, the opposition had gained every seat.
Bowing to the storm, he sent his brother to Brussels, and expressed
his readiness to place himself at the head of the Protestants of the
Continent. When, however, Parliament met, on March 6, =1679=, it
was found that both Houses were more anxious about the fate of
Protestantism at home than about that of Protestants abroad. The
Commons renewed the impeachment of Danby, upon which Danby produced
a free pardon from the king. The Lords decided that a pardon could
not be pleaded in bar of an impeachment, but, in the end,
proceedings against Danby were dropped on his being deprived of
office and committed to the Tower. By the advice of Sir William
Temple, Charles tried a new experiment in government. A new Privy
Council was appointed of thirty members, fifteen being ministers of
the Crown and fifteen influential lords and commoners, by the advice
of which the king was always to be guided. Shaftesbury was appointed
President of this Council, but it was soon found to be too large a
body to manage affairs which required secrecy, and a small committee
was therefore formed out of it for the consideration of all
important business.
13. =The Exclusion Bill and the Habeas Corpus Act. 1679.=--Charles,
now that he experienced the strength of the opposition, was prepared
to give way on every point except one--the maintenance of his
brother's right of succession, which the new House of Commons was
prepared to attack. He accordingly offered to place the strongest
restrictions upon the power of a Catholic king. To the House of
Commons, on the other hand, all restrictions appeared insufficient.
The members believed seriously that no law would be able to bind a
'Popish' king. They thought that if he was determined--and it was
taken for granted that he would be determined--to overthrow the
Protestant religion, he would be able to do so. Lord Russell, the
eldest son of the Duke of Bedford--the chief leader of Shaftesbury's
party in the House of Commons--was not in the habit of using
exaggerated language. Yet even he declared that, if James became
king, his subjects must make up their mind to become 'Papists' or to
be burnt. An Exclusion Bill was brought in, excluding the Duke of
York from the throne. It was read twice, but not passed, as Charles
first prorogued, and then, on May 27, dissolved Parliament. The only
Act of importance produced in this Parliament was the _Habeas Corpus
Act_, which finally put an end to sundry methods by which the Crown
had evaded the rule requiring the issue of writs of _Habeas Corpus_,
by which prisoners secured their right to be tried or liberated.
14. =Shaftesbury and the King. 1679.=--New elections were held, with
the result that a House of Commons was chosen even more bitterly
hostile to the Court than its predecessor. Shaftesbury was now at
the height of his glory. Oates and other informers were adding new
lies to those which they had told before, and the continual trials
and executions of the Catholics for participation in the supposed
Popish Plot kept the excitement in favour of the Exclusion Bill at a
fever heat. Shaftesbury's position was very similar to Pym's in
=1641=. He had on his side the fundamental principle that a nation
cannot safely be governed by a ruler whose ideas on the most
important question of the day are directly opposed to those of his
subjects, and he was right, as the result showed, in holding that,
in the seventeenth century, a Catholic king could not satisfactorily
govern a Protestant people. After Danby's fall, the king became the
real head of the party opposed to Shaftesbury. His ability had
always been great, but hitherto he had alienated those who were
disposed to be his friends by attempting to establish an absolute
government with the help of the king of France and of an army
dependent on himself. He now set himself to overthrow Shaftesbury by
appealing to a popular sentiment which was quite as strong, and
might be stronger, than the dislike of a Catholic successor; that is
to say, to the horror with which anything which threatened a new
civil war filled the hearts of his subjects.
15. =Shaftesbury and Halifax. 1679.=--Shaftesbury had already
allowed it to be known that he intended, if he carried the Exclusion
Bill, to propose that the future king should be the Duke of
Monmouth. Monmouth was the eldest of Charles's illegitimate sons,
and it was currently, though falsely, believed that Charles had been
privately married to his mother, so that he might rightly be
regarded as the heir to the Crown. Charles, who knew better than any
one else that this story was untrue, stood faithfully by his
brother, and, though his constancy made little impression as yet, he
had on his side a man whose judgment might usually be taken as an
indication of the ultimate decision of public opinion. That man was
George Savile, Earl, and afterwards Marquis of Halifax. He had been
one of the bitterest enemies of Danby, but he devoted himself to no
party. He called himself a Trimmer, as if his business was to trim
the boat, and to throw himself against each party in turn as it grew
violent in consequence of success. He now supported the king against
Shaftesbury, on the ground that it was uncertain whether James would
survive his brother, and that, if he did, he was not likely to
survive him long; whereas, the succession of the Duke of Monmouth
would not only exclude from the throne the Catholic James, but also
his daughters, who were both Protestants. As Monmouth had no real
hereditary right, there was every likelihood that, even if he
ascended the throne, his claim would be opposed by partisans of
James's eldest daughter, the Princess of Orange, and that a civil
war would ensue.
16. =The Divine Right of Kings. 1679.=--The fear of civil war
already frightened some, and would in time frighten more, into the
acceptance of a doctrine which seems very absurd now--the doctrine
of Divine indefeasible hereditary right--that is to say, that the
succession as it was established by English law was established by
Divine appointment, so that, though indeed subjects might refuse to
obey the king, if he ordered them to commit sin, it was their duty
to bear uncomplainingly any punishment that he might impose on them,
however tyrannical he might be. Such a doctrine was credited, not
because those who held it were absolutely silly, but because they
were more afraid of rebellion and civil war than they were of the
tyranny of kings. For the present, however, such ideas had little
hold on the new Parliament, and Charles prorogued it to give time
for them to grow.
17. =The Highland Host. 1677-1678.=--Events were in the meanwhile
passing in Scotland which helped to impress upon those who were
easily frightened the idea that the only security against rebellion
lay in a general submission to established institutions in Church
and State. For many years Lauderdale had been, with Charles's full
support, the absolute ruler of Scotland. He put down with a high
hand the opposition of noblemen in Parliament, but he could not put
down the religious zeal of the peasants, who, especially in the
western Lowlands, combined zeal for Presbyterianism and the Covenant
with exasperation against a Government which persecuted them. They
held meetings for prayer and preaching on the open hill-sides, and
the Government, failing to suppress these Conventicles, as they were
called, by process of law, sent into the disaffected districts, in
=1677=, a body of half-savage Highlanders known as the Highland
Host, to reduce them to obedience by plunder and outrage.
18. =Drumclog and Bothwell Bridge. 1679.=--When the Highland Host
had done its work it left behind a people whose temper was
thoroughly soured. Political hatred of the oppressors mingled with
religious zeal. The Covenanters, as those were called who denounced
episcopacy as a breach of the Covenant (see p. 525), regarded
themselves as God's chosen people and all who supported their
persecutors as the children of the devil, against whom it was
lawful to draw the sword. To many of the Scottish gentry such talk
as this appeared to be contemptible and dangerous fanaticism.
Amongst those who strove most heartily against it was an active
officer, John Graham of Claverhouse, who, being employed to quiet
the country, shot or haled to prison men whom he thought likely to
be forward in rebellion. On May 3, =1679=, a band of fanatics
murdered, on Magus Moor, near St. Andrews, James Sharp, Archbishop
of St. Andrews, who was known to be eager to call for the
persecution of the Covenanters, and who was peculiarly hated as
having been once a Presbyterian himself. On June 3 Claverhouse was
driven back at Drumclog by an armed conventicle which he attempted
to suppress. The peasants of the West rose in arms and declared
against the king's supremacy over the Church, and against Popery,
Prelacy, and the succession of the Duke of York, but on June 22,
Monmouth, who had been sent at the head of an army against them,
defeated them at Bothwell Bridge, near Hamilton, and entirely
suppressed the rebellion. Many of the prisoners were executed after
being tortured to extract from them information against their
accomplices, and this cruelty was exercised under the orders of the
Duke of York, who had been sent to Scotland as Lord High
Commissioner.[33]
[Footnote 33: Scott's _Old Mortality_ is founded on these events.]
19. =Petitioners and Abhorrers. 1680.=--Encouraged by his success in
Scotland, Charles dismissed Shaftesbury from the presidency of the
Council and got rid of his principal supporters. Temple's reformed
Council came thereby to an end. When Monmouth returned from Scotland
his father refused to see him and sent him away from London. In the
beginning of =1680= Shaftesbury's party sent up numerous petitions
to ask Charles to allow Parliament to meet, and his opponents sent
up petitions expressing abhorrence at such an attempt to force the
king's will. For a time the two parties were known as Petitioners
and Abhorrers, names which were soon replaced by those of Whigs and
Tories. These celebrated names were at first merely nicknames. The
courtiers called the Petitioners Whigs--an abbreviation of
Whigamore, the name by which the peasants of the west of Scotland
were familiarly known, from the cry of 'Whiggam' with which they
were accustomed to encourage their horses. The name Whig therefore
implied that the petitioners were no better than Covenanting rebels.
The Petitioners, on the other hand, called their opponents
Tories--the name given to brigands in Ireland, implying that they
were no better than Popish thieves.
20. =The Second Short Parliament. 1680-1681.=--Each party did all
that could be done to court popularity. Monmouth made a triumphant
progress in the west of England. On the other hand, James, on his
return from Scotland, had a good reception even in London, the
headquarters of his opponents. On June 26, =1680=, Shaftesbury
appeared at Westminster and indicted James as a recusant. At last,
on October 21, the second Short Parliament met. The Exclusion Bill
was rapidly passed through the Commons. In the Lords, Halifax
carried the House with him by an eloquent and closely-reasoned
speech, in which the claims of the Princess of Orange were dwelt on
as superior to those of Monmouth, and the Bill was, in consequence,
rejected. On December 29 Lord Stafford, a Catholic peer, was
executed on a false charge of a design to murder the king. When he
protested his innocence on the scaffold, shouts were raised of "God
bless you, my lord! We believe you, my lord!" Charles saw in these
shouts an indication that the tide of opinion was turning in his
favour, and, on January 18, =1681=, dissolved Parliament.
21. =The Third Short Parliament. 1681.=--Charles summoned a new
Parliament to meet at Oxford, where it would not be exposed to any
violent interruption by Shaftesbury's 'brisk boys'--as his noisy
London supporters were called--who might, it was feared, repeat the
exploits of the City mob in =1641= (see p. 535). The new House of
Commons was again predominantly Whig, and it was thought by the
Whigs that Oxford had been selected as the place of meeting because
the University was eminently Tory, with the deliberate intention of
overpowering them by force. Their alarm increased when they learned
that the king was bringing his guards with him. Accordingly the
Whigs armed themselves and their servants in self-defence, and, in
this guise, rode into Oxford. Parliament was opened on March 21,
=1681=, and Charles then offered to assent to any scheme for
stripping his brother of royal authority, if only he were recognised
as king. Shaftesbury replied that the only way of ending the dispute
was to declare Monmouth heir to the Crown. As the Commons supported
Shaftesbury, Charles, on March 28, dissolved his third Short
Parliament. So much was he afraid that the Whig members and their
servants might lay violent hands on him, that he drove in one coach
to Christchurch Hall, where the House of Lords was sitting, and sent
his robes by another, in order that it might not be guessed that a
dissolution was intended. He soon found that he could now count on
popular support in almost every part of England. The mass of people
judge more by what they see than by what they hear. The pistols in
the hands of the Whig members when they rode into Oxford had driven
into men's heads the belief that they intended to gain their ends by
civil war, and, much as the nation disliked the idea of having a
'Popish' king, it disliked the idea of civil war still more, and
rallied round the king.
CHAPTER XL
THE LAST YEARS OF CHARLES II. 1681-1685
LEADING DATES
Reign of Charles II., 1660-1685
Tory Reaction 1681
Flight of Shaftesbury 1682
Forfeiture of the Charter of the City of London 1683
The Rye House Plot 1683
Executions of Russell and Sidney 1683
Death of Charles II. Feb. 6, 1685
1. =Tory Reaction. 1681.=--The Tory reaction which followed made
itself especially felt in the law-courts. Judges and juries who had
combined to send to death innocent Catholics, upon the testimony of
forsworn informers, now combined to send to death ardent Whigs, upon
the testimony of informers equally base. College, the inventor of
the Protestant flail (see p. 615), was condemned to death, as having
borne arms in Oxford during the last Parliament, and others shared
his fate on equally slight grounds. In the City of London, however,
it was still impossible to secure a verdict against a Whig. Juries
were everywhere nominated by the sheriff of the county, and sheriffs
were, in political cases, ready to compose a jury of political
partisans. In every part of England except Middlesex, the sheriffs
were named by the king, and were, therefore, Tories. The City of
London, which was strongly Whig, had the privilege of electing
sheriffs for London and Middlesex, and these sheriffs took care that
Middlesex juries should be composed of Whigs. Shaftesbury was
accused of high treason, but before he could be tried the Grand Jury
of Middlesex had to find a true bill against him--that is to say, to
declare that there was sufficient evidence against him to call for a
trial. On November 24, =1681=, the Grand Jury, composed of his own
political partisans, threw out the bill, and he was at once set at
liberty.
2. ='Absolom and Achitophel.' 1681.=--A few days before
Shaftesbury's release, Dryden, the greatest living master of the
heroic couplet, strove to stir up men's minds against the prisoner
by his satire of 'Absolom and Achitophel,' in which the part of the
tempter Achitophel was assigned to Shaftesbury and the part of the
tempted Absolom to Monmouth. Shaftesbury was described as
For close designs and crooked councils fit;
Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit;
Restless, unfixed in principles and place;
In power unpleased, impatient of disgrace;
A fiery soul, which worketh out its way,
Fretted the pigmy body to decay,
And o'er-informed the tenement of clay.
A daring pilot in extremity;
Pleased with the danger when the waves ran high,
He sought the storms; but, for a calm unfit,
Would steer too nigh the sands to show his wit.
3. =The Scottish Test Act and the Duke of York's Return.
1681-1682.=--The 'daring pilot's' course was nearly run. Before
long, on May 27, =1682=, Shaftesbury's most conspicuous enemy, the
Duke of York, returned from Scotland. Whilst he was in Scotland he
had obtained an Act from the Scottish Parliament, binding on all
officials a new test, requiring them to swear to the doctrine of
hereditary right and to the maintenance of the episcopal Church. The
Earl of Argyle, the son of the Marquis of Argyle, the political
leader of the Covenanters against Charles I., having inherited his
father's Presbyterianism, not only refused the oath, but gave
reasons for refusing. The Crown lawyers declared that his reasons
poisoned the minds of the subjects against the king, and he was
tried and condemned to death under an old statute against
leasing-making--literally, the making of lies--which had been passed
about a century before to punish court favourites who sowed
dissension between the king and his people by poisoning the mind of
the king against his subjects. Argyle, however, escaped to Holland,
and on April 20, =1682=, James reached London.
4. =The City Elections. 1682.=--The first thing on which, after
James's return, the king's ministers set their heart, was to strike
a blow at Shaftesbury. As he lived in his house in Aldersgate Street
and took care never to leave the City, it was impossible to bring
him to trial as long as the sheriffs of London and Middlesex were
Whigs. The Lord Mayor, Moore, was gained by the Court, and, by
various unscrupulous contrivances, he secured the appointment of two
Tory sheriffs, and, even before the end of =1682=, of a Tory Lord
Mayor named Prichard as his own successor. There would no longer be
any difficulty in filling the Middlesex jury box with Tories.
5. =Flight and Death of Shaftesbury. 1682-1683.=--Shaftesbury had
for some time been keenly alive to the danger impending over him. He
had wild followers in the City ready to follow him in acts of
violence, and he had proposed to Russell and Monmouth that the
king's guards at Whitehall should be attacked, and the king
compelled to do his bidding. Russell and Monmouth recoiled from an
act of violence which would certainly end in bloodshed. Shaftesbury
still hoped to effect his end by the aid of his less scrupulous
supporters; but time slipped away, and on October 19, three days
before Prichard's election, he fled to Holland, where he died on
January 22, =1683=. With all his faults, he had led the way on that
path in which the English nation was, before long, to walk, as he
had latterly striven for a combination of Parliamentary supremacy
with toleration for dissenters and without toleration for Catholics.
His personal failure was due to the disquietude caused by his
turbulence in the minds of that large part of the community which
regards orderly government as a matter of primary necessity.
6. =The Attack on the City. 1682-1683.=--The difficulty which
Charles had experienced in bending the city to his will made him
anxious to provide against similar resistance in the future. Taking
care to effect his objects under, at least, the form of law, he
enforced on the electors in the City, who were called in December to
choose the Common Council, the oath of supremacy and the proof
required by the Corporation Act of having received the Sacrament in
the Church. The result was that a Tory majority was returned on the
Common Council. Following up this blow in =1683=, he called on the
City to show cause, by a writ known as '_Quo Warranto_,' before the
King's Bench, why its charter should not be forfeited, in
consequence of its having imposed irregular tolls and having
attacked the king's authority in a petition exhibited in =1680=. The
King's Bench decided against the City, and the king then offered to
restore the charter on certain conditions, of which the principal
was, that he was to have a veto on the election of its principal
officers. At first the City accepted his terms, but, before the end
of the year, it drew back, and the king then named the Lord Mayor
and other officers directly, paying no further regard to the
municipal self-government under which the City had, for many
centuries, conducted its own affairs.
7. =The Remodelling of the Corporations. 1683-1684.=--A large
number of other corporate towns were treated as London had been
treated. By a plentiful use of writs of _Quo Warranto_, the judges
on circuit obtained the surrender of their charters, after which the
king issued new ones in which Tories alone were named as members of
the corporations. It was said of Jeffreys, one amongst the judges
who was most subservient, that he 'made all charters, like the walls
of Jericho, fall down before him.' The object of these proceedings
was to make sure of a Tory Parliament when the time came for fresh
elections. In a large number of boroughs the corporations chose the
members, and in such cases wherever the corporation had been
remodelled, there would be a safe Tory seat. At the same time the
laws against the Dissenters were strictly executed, and the prisons
filled with their ministers.
8. =The Rye House Plot. 1683.=--When injustice is done under legal
forms, there are usually some persons who think it allowable to
appeal to force. Some of Shaftesbury's more violent followers formed
a plot to attack the king and his brother at the Rye House on their
return from Newmarket, and either to seize or murder them. The plot
failed, as Charles passed the Rye House some days earlier than was
expected, and several of the conspirators were taken and executed.
9. =The Whig Combination. 1683.=--The discovery of the Rye House
Plot brought to light a dangerous combination amongst the
Parliamentary Whigs, in which Monmouth, Russell, Essex, Lord Howard
of Escrick, and other notable persons were implicated. They had,
indeed, kept themselves free from any intention to offer personal
violence to the king, but they had attempted to form an association
strong enough to compel him to summon another Parliament, though
apparently without coming to a definite conclusion as to the way in
which they were to use compulsion. In their own eyes their project
was no more than constitutional agitation. In the eyes of the king
and of the Crown lawyers it was a preparation for rebellion. Essex
committed suicide in prison, whilst Howard of Escrick turned
informer against his friends.
10. =Trial and Execution of Lord Russell. 1683.=--Russell was
accordingly put on his trial as a traitor. In those days no one on
his trial for treason was allowed to be defended by a lawyer, as far
as the facts of the case were concerned, but no objection was taken
to his having some one near him to take notes of the evidence and to
assist his memory. "Your friends," wrote his wife to him shortly
before the trial, "believing I can do you some service at your
trial, I am extremely willing to try. My resolution will hold out,
pray let yours." Her offer was accepted, and she gave her husband
all the help that it was possible to give. The jury, however,
brought in a verdict of guilty, and sentence of death followed. In
prison Russell was visited by two ministers, Tillotson and Burnet.
No clergymen in England were more liberal-minded than these two, yet
they urged the prisoner to acknowledge that resistance to the king
was in all cases unlawful. Russell maintained that, in extreme
cases, subjects might resist. Here lay the root of the political
animosity between Whig and Tory. Whether an extreme case had
occurred was a matter of opinion. "As for the share I had in the
prosecution of the Popish Plot," Russell declared on the scaffold,
"I take God to witness that I proceeded in it in the sincerity of my
heart, being then really convinced, as I am still, that there was a
conspiracy against the king, the nation, and the Protestant
religion." It was because the nation at large no longer held this to
be true that the Tories were in power.
11. =Execution of Algernon Sidney. 1683.=--Russell's trial was
followed by that of Algernon Sidney. Though the real charge against
him was that of having conspired against the king, only one, and
that a not very credible, witness could be produced as evidence of
this; and the prosecuting lawyers then brought forward a treatise,
written in his own hand, but neither printed nor circulated in
manuscript, in which he had advocated the right of subjects to
depose their king. This was held to be equivalent to having a second
witness against him, and Sidney was condemned and executed. He was a
theoretical Republican, and it was hard to bring up against him a
writing which he had never published. Other less important Whigs
were also put to death. Monmouth owed his pardon to his father's
tenderness, but, as he still continued to bear himself as the head
of a party, he was sent into honourable exile in Holland.
12. =Parties at Court. 1684.=--In the spring of =1684= three years
had passed without a Parliament, although the statute repealing the
Triennial Act (see p. 588) had declared that Parliament ought to be
summoned every three years. So sure was Charles of his ground that
he liberated Danby without causing a murmur of complaint. At Court
there were two parties, one led by Halifax, which urged that, by
summoning a Parliament now, Charles would not only comply with the
law, but would have a Parliament as loyal as the Cavalier Parliament
had been; the other, led by Lawrence Hyde, the second son of
Clarendon, who had recently been created Earl of Rochester.
Rochester, who was the highest of Tories, pointed out that the law
prescribed no means by which the king could be compelled to call a
Parliament if he did not wish to do so, and that, after all, the
Cavalier Parliament, loyal as it was at first, had made itself very
disagreeable to the king during the latter years of its existence.
All through the year Charles hesitated and left the question
undecided. The king of France, who was renewing his aggressions on
the Continent under the guise of legal claims, was ready to do all
he could to prevent the meeting of an English Parliament, which
would, in all probability, declare against him, and by sending money
to Charles from time to time, he saved him from the necessity of
asking his subjects for support.
13. =Death of Charles II. 1685.=--On February 2, =1685=, before
anything had been decided, Charles was struck down by an apoplectic
stroke. It was soon known that he was dying. Sancroft, the
Archbishop of Canterbury, spoke plainly to him: "It is time," he
said, "to speak out; for, sir, you are about to appear before a
Judge who is no respecter of persons." The king took no notice, and,
after a while, the Duke of York came to his bed-side and asked his
brother whether he wished to be reconciled to the Church of Rome.
"Yes," murmured the dying man, "with all my heart!" James sent for a
priest, directing the bishops and the courtiers to leave the room.
Charles was duly reconciled, receiving absolution and the sacraments
of the Roman Church. He lingered for some days, and begged pardon of
those around him. He had been, he said, an unconscionable time in
dying, but he hoped they would excuse it. On February 6 he died.
14. =Constitutional Progress. 1660-1685.=--The twenty-five years of
the reign of Charles II. were years of substantial constitutional
progress. Charles did not, indeed, acknowledge that Parliament had
that right of directing the choice of his ministers which the Long
Parliament had upheld against his father in the Grand Remonstrance;
but though he took care that his ministers should be responsible to
himself and not to Parliament, he had also taken care, on the whole,
to adapt the selection of his ministers to the changing temper of
Parliament and the nation. Clarendon, the Cabal, and Danby had all
been allowed to disappear from office when Parliament turned against
them. The formation of Parliamentary parties, again, was itself a
condition of Parliamentary strength. The Cavalier Parliament had
been weakened in its later years by the uncertainty of its aims. At
one time the king's reliance upon France and his tendency to rest
his government on armed force provoked a majority to vote against
him. At another time some concession made by him to their wishes
brought round a majority to his side. In the latter years of
Charles's reign this uncertainty was at an end. Charles had thrown
his dependence on France and the army into the background, and in a
struggle, the successful issue of which would bring no personal
advantage to himself, had taken his stand on the intelligible
principle of defending his brother's succession. He had consequently
rallied round the throne all who thought the maintenance of order to
be of supreme importance, whilst all who suspected that the order
which Charles maintained was hurtful and oppressive combined against
him. This sharp division of parties ultimately strengthened the
power of Parliament. The intemperance of Charles's adversaries had
indeed given him the upper hand for the time, but, if ever the day
came when a king made himself unpopular, a Parliament opposed to him
would be all the stronger if its majority were of one mind in
supporting definite principles under definite leaders. Charles II.,
in short, did not live to see the establishment of Parliamentary
government, but he unwittingly prepared the way for it.
[Illustration: Dress of ladies of quality: from Sandford's
_Coronation Procession of James II._]
[Illustration: Ordinary attire of women of the lower classes: from
Sandford's _Coronation Procession of James II._]
15. =Prosperity of the Country.=--The horror of a renewal of civil
war, which was partly the result of sad experience, was also the
result of the growth of the general well-being of the community. The
population of England now exceeded 5,000,000. Rents were rising, and
commerce was rapidly on the increase. Fresh colonies--amongst them
Pennsylvania and Carolina--were founded in America. In England
itself the growth of London was an index to the general prosperity.
In those days the City was the home of the merchants, who did not
then leave the place where their business was done to spend the
evening and night in the suburbs. Living side by side, they clung to
one another, and their civic ardour created a strength which weighed
heavily in the balance of parties. The opposition of the City to
Charles I. had given the victory to Parliament in the civil war, and
its dislike of military government had done much to bring about the
Restoration. The favour of the City had been the chief support of
Shaftesbury, and it was only by overthrowing its municipal
institutions that Charles II. had succeeded in crippling its power
to injure him. In the meantime a new forest of houses was springing
up on sites between Lincoln's Inn and what is now known as Soho
Square, and round St. James's Church. The Court and the frequent
meetings of Parliament attracted to London many families which, a
generation earlier, would have lived entirely in the country.
[Illustration: Coach of the latter half of the seventeenth century:
from Loggan's _Oxonia Illustrata_.]
[Illustration: Wagon of the second half of the seventeenth century:
from Loggan's _Oxonia Illustrata_.]
16. =The Coffee Houses.=--Nothing has made a greater change in the
material habits of Europeans than the introduction of warm
beverages. Chocolate first made its way into England in the time of
the Commonwealth, but it was for some time regarded merely as a
medicine, not to be taken by the prudent except under a physician's
orders, though those interested in its sale declared that it was
suitable for all, and would cure every possible complaint. Chocolate
was soon followed by coffee, and coffee soon became fashionable, not
as a medicine, but as a pleasant substitute for beer and wine. The
introduction of tea was somewhat later. It was in the reign of
Charles II. that coffee-houses arose in London, and became places of
resort, answering the purposes of the modern clubs. They soon
acquired political importance, matters of state being often
discussed in them, and the opinion of their frequenters carrying
weight with those who were directly concerned with Government. The
gathering of men of intellectual prominence to London was a marked
feature of the time, and, except at the universities, there was
scarcely a preacher or a theological writer of note who was not to
be found either in the episcopate or at the head of a London parish.
[Illustration: Reaping and harvesting in the second half of the
seventeenth century; Cambridge in the distance: from Loggan's
_Cantabrigia Illustrata_.]
17. =Condition of London.=--The arrangements for cleanliness did not
keep pace in London with the increased magnificence of the
dwellings. The centre of Lincoln's Inn Fields, for instance, was a
place where rubbish was shot, and where beggars congregated. St.
James's Square was just as bad, whilst filthy and discoloured
streams poured along the gutters, and carts and carriages splashed
mud and worse than mud over the passengers on foot. At the beginning
of the reign of Charles II. the streets were left in darkness, and
robbers made an easy prey of those who ventured out after dark.
Young noblemen and gentlemen when drunk took pleasure in knocking
down men and insulting women. These were they of whom Milton was
thinking when he declared that
In luxurious cities, when the noise
Of riot ascends above their loftiest towers,
And injury, and outrage: and when night
Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons
Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.
Something was, however, done before the end of the reign to mitigate
the dangers arising from darkness. One man obtained a patent for
lighting London, and it was thought a great thing that he placed a
lantern in front of one door in every ten in winter only, between
six and midnight.
18. =Painting.=--The art of the time, so far as painting was
concerned, was entirely in the hands of foreigners. Van Dyck, a
Fleming, from Antwerp, had left to the world numerous representations
of Charles I. and Henrietta Maria, of Strafford and Laud, and of the
ladies and gentlemen who thronged the Court. An Englishman, Samuel
Cooper, made posterity acquainted with the features of Cromwell (see
p. 567). Charles II. again called in the services of a foreigner,
whose real name was Van der Goes, but who called himself Lely, because
his father's house on the borders of Germany and the Netherlands was
known by the sign of the Lily. Lely painted Court beauties and Court
gentlemen. He had far less power than Van Dyck of presenting on canvas
the mind which lies behind the features, and in many cases those who
sat to him had minds less worthy of being presented than those with
which Van Dyck had to do. When Charles II. wished for a painting of
the sea and of shipping he had to send for a Dutch painter,
Vandevelde; whilst an Italian, Verrio, decorated his ceilings with
subjects taken from heathen mythology.
19. =Architecture.=--In architecture alone English hands were found
to do the work required; but the style in which they built was not
English but Italian. The rows of pillars and round arches, with the
meaningless decorations which bespoke an age preferring
sumptuousness to beauty, superseded the quaint Elizabethan and early
Jacobean houses, which seemed built for comfort rather than for
display, such as Ingestre Hall (see p. 471) and Hatfield House (see
p. 485). In the reign of James I., Inigo Jones planned the great
banqueting hall at Whitehall (see p. 493), and so contemptuous was
he of the great architecture of the middle ages, that he fitted on
an Italian portico to the west front of the old St. Paul's. This
style of building culminated in the work of Sir Christopher Wren.
The fire of London gave him an opportunity which he did not throw
away. The steeple of St. Mary-le-Bow is an example of his powers of
design (see p. 614), but his greatest achievement, the new St.
Paul's, was, when Charles II. died, only slowly rising from the
ground, and it remained uncompleted till long after Charles II. had
been laid in the grave.
20. =Science.=--The foundation of the Royal Society (see p. 598) had
borne ample fruit. Halley and Flamsteed were the astronomers of the
time till their fame was eclipsed by that of Isaac Newton, who
before the end of the reign of Charles II. was already meditating on
the views contained in his 'Principia,' in which the law of
gravitation was set forth, though that work was not written till
after the death of that king.
[Illustration: Costume of a gentleman: from Sandford's _Coronation
Procession of James II._]
21. =Difficulties of Communication.=--Difficulties of communication
served both to encourage town life and to hinder the increase of
manufactures at any considerable distance from the sea. The roads
were left to each parish to repair, and the parishes usually did as
little as possible. In many places a mere quagmire took the place of
the road. Young and active men, and sometimes ladies, travelled on
horseback, and goods of no great weight were transmitted on
packhorses. The family coach, in which those who were too dignified
or too weak to ride made their way from one part of the country to
another, was dragged by six horses, and often sank so deeply in the
mud as only to be extricated by the loan of additional plough horses
from a neighbouring farm, whilst heavy goods were conveyed in
lumbering waggons, still more difficult to move even at a moderate
speed. For passengers who could not afford to keep a coach the
carrier's waggon served as a slow conveyance; but before the end of
the reign of Charles II. there had been introduced a vehicle known
as The Flying Coach, which managed to perform a journey at the rate
of fifty miles a day in summer and thirty in winter, in districts in
which roads were exceptionably good.
22. =The Country Gentry and the Country Clergy.=--These difficulties
of communication greatly affected the less wealthy of the country
gentry and the country clergy. A country gentleman of large fortune,
indeed, would occasionally visit London and appear as a visitor at
the house of some relative or friend to whom he was specially
attached. The movements, however, even of this class were much
restricted, whilst men of moderate estate seldom moved at all. The
refinements which at present adorn country life were not then to be
found. Books were few, and the man of comparatively slender means
found sufficient occupation in the management of his land and in the
enjoyment of field sports. His ideas on politics were crude, and,
because they were crude, were pertinaciously held. The country
clergyman was relatively poorer than the country squire; and had few
means of cultivating his mind or of elevating the religion of his
parishioners. The ladies of the houses of even the richest of the
landed gentry were scarcely educated at all, and, though there were
bright exceptions, any one familiar with the correspondence of the
seventeenth century knows that, if he comes across a letter
particularly illegible and uninteresting, there is a strong
probability that the writer was a woman.
23. =Alliance between the Gentry and the Church.=--A common life
passed in the country under much the same conditions naturally drew
together the squire and the rector or vicar of his parish. A still
stronger bond united them for the most part in a common Toryism.
They had both suffered from the same oppression: the squire, or his
predecessor, had been heavily fined by a Puritan Parliament or a
Puritan Lord Protector, whilst the incumbent or his predecessor had
been expelled from his parsonage and deprived of his livelihood by
the same authority. They therefore naturally combined in thinking
that the first axiom in politics was to keep Dissenters down, lest
they should do again what men like-minded with themselves had done
before. Unless some other fear, stronger still, presented itself to
them, they would endure almost anything from the king rather than
risk the return to power of the Dissenters or of the Whigs, the
friends of the Dissenters.
CHAPTER XLI
JAMES II. 1685-1689
LEADING DATES
Accession of James II. Feb. 6, 1685
Meeting of Parliament May 19, 1685
Battle of Sedgemoor July 6, 1685
Prorogation of Parliament Nov. 20, 1685
The Judges allow the King's Dispensing Power June 21, 1686
First Declaration of Indulgence April 4, 1687
Second Declaration of Indulgence April 22, 1688
Birth of the Son of James II. June 10, 1688
Acquittal of the Seven Bishops June 30, 1688
Landing of William of Orange Nov. 5, 1688
The Crown accepted by William and Mary Feb. 13, 1689
1. =The Accession of James II. 1685.=--The character of the new
king, James II., resembled that of his father. He had the same
unalterable belief that whatever he wished to do was absolutely
right; the same incapacity for entering into the feelings or motives
of his opponents, and even more than his father's inability to see
faults in those who took his side. He was bent on procuring
religious liberty for the Catholics, and at first imagined it
possible to do this with the help of the clergy and laity of the
Church of England. In his first speech to the Privy Council he
announced his intention of preserving the established government in
Church and State. He had mass, indeed, celebrated with open doors in
his chapel at Whitehall, and he continued to levy taxes which had
been granted to his brother for life only; yet, as he issued writs
for a Parliament, these things did not count much against him.
Unless, indeed, he was to set the law and constitution at defiance
he could do no otherwise than summon Parliament, as out of
1,400,000_l._ which formed the revenue of the Crown, 900,000_l._
lapsed on Charles's death. James, however, secured himself against
all eventualities by procuring from Louis a promise of financial aid
in case of Parliament's proving restive. Before Parliament met, the
king's inclinations were manifested by sentences pronounced by
judges eager to gain his favour. On the one hand, Titus Oates was
subjected to a flogging so severe that it would have killed anyone
less hardy than himself. On the other hand, Richard Baxter, the most
learned and moderate of Dissenters, was sent to prison after being
scolded and insulted by Jeffreys, who, at the end of the late reign,
had, through James's influence, been made Chief Justice of the
King's Bench.
[Illustration: James II.: from the National Portrait Gallery.]
2. =A Tory Parliament. 1685.=--Parliament met on May 19. The House
of Commons was Tory by an enormous majority, partly because the
remodelled corporations (see p. 625) returned Tory members, but
still more because the feeling of the country ran strongly in
James's favour. The Commons granted to him the full revenue which
had been enjoyed by his brother, and refused to listen to a few of
its members who raised objections to some things which had been
recently done. The House had not been long in session when it heard
of two invasions, the one in Scotland and the other in England.
[Illustration: Yeomen of the Guard: from Sandford's _Coronation
Procession of James II._]
3. =Argyle's Landing. 1685.=--In Scotland the upper classes were
animated by a savage resolve to keep no terms with the Covenanters,
whose fanatical violence alarmed them. The Scottish Parliament, soon
after the accession of James, passed a law punishing with death any
one attending a conventicle. Argyle, believing, in his exile in
Holland, that all honest Scots would be ready to join him against
the tyranny of the Government, sailed early in May at the head of a
small expedition, and arrived in the Firth of Clyde. He had himself
no military skill, and his followers, no less ignorant than himself,
overruled everything that he proposed. Soon after landing he was
captured and carried to Edinburgh, where, as he was already legally
condemned to death (see p. 623), he was executed on June 30 without
further trial. On the night before his death a member of the Council
came to see him in his cell, where he found him in a placid slumber.
The visitor rushed off in agony to the house of a friend. "I have
been," he said, "in Argyle's prison. I have seen him within an hour
of eternity, sleeping as sweetly as ever man did. But as for me--"
His voice failed him, and he could say no more.
4. =Monmouth's Landing. 1685.=--In the meanwhile Monmouth, the
champion of the Dissenters and extreme Protestants, had, on June 11,
landed at Lyme. So popular was he in the west of England that the
trained bands could not be trusted to oppose him, and he was left
unassailed till regiments of the regular army could be brought
against him. The peasants and townsmen of the western counties
flocked to join Monmouth, and he entered Taunton at the head of
5,000 men; but not a single country gentleman gave him his support.
Parliament passed against him an Act of Attainder, condemning him to
death without further trial, and the king marched in person against
him at the head of a disciplined force. Monmouth declared himself to
be the legitimate king, and, his name being James, he was popularly
known amongst his followers as King Monmouth, in order to prevent
confusion. He advanced as far as Philip's Norton: there, hopeless of
gaining support amongst the governing classes, he fell back on
Bridgwater. The king followed him with 2,500 regular troops, and
1,500 from the Wiltshire trained bands. Monmouth was soldier enough
to know that, with his raw recruits, his only chance lay in
surprising the enemy. The king's army lay on Sedgemoor, and
Monmouth, in the early morning of July 6, attempted to fall on the
enemy unawares. Broad ditches filled with water checked his course,
and the sun was up before he reached his goal. It was inevitable
that he should be beaten; the only wonder was that his untrained men
fought so long as they did. Monmouth himself fled to the New Forest,
where he was captured and brought to London. James admitted him to
his presence, but refused to pardon him. On July 15 he was executed
as an attainted traitor without further trial.
5. =The Bloody Assizes. 1685.=--Large numbers of Monmouth's
followers were hanged by the pursuing soldiers without form of law.
Many were thrust into prison to await their trial. Jeffreys, the
most insolent of the judges, was sent to hold, in the western
counties, what will always be known as the Bloody Assizes. It is
true that the law which he had to administer was cruel, but Jeffreys
gained peculiar obloquy by delighting in its cruelty, and by
sneering at its unhappy victims. At Winchester he condemned to death
an old lady, Alice Lisle, who was guilty of hiding in her house two
fugitives from vengeance. At Dorchester 74 persons were hanged. In
Somersetshire no less than 233 were put to death. Jeffreys
overwhelmed his victims with scornful mockery. One of them pleaded
that he was a good Protestant: "Protestant!" cried Jeffreys, "you
mean Presbyterian; I'll hold you a wager of it, I can smell a
Presbyterian forty miles." Some one tried to move his compassion in
favour of one of the accused. "My lord," he said, "this poor
creature is on the parish." "Do not trouble yourselves," was the
only answer given, "I will ease the parish of the burden," and he
ordered the man to be hanged at once. The whole number of those who
perished in the Bloody Assizes was 320, whilst 841 were transported
to the West Indies to work as slaves under a broiling sun. James
welcomed Jeffreys on his return, and made him Lord Chancellor as a
reward for his achievements.
6. =The Violation of the Test Act. 1685.=--James's success made him
believe that he could overpower any opposition. He had already
increased his army and had appointed officers who had refused to
take the test. On his return to London he resolved to ask Parliament
to repeal the Test Act, and dismissed Halifax for refusing to
support his proposal. It would probably have been difficult for him
to obtain the repeal even of the Recusancy Laws which punished
Catholics for acting on their religious belief. It was not only
hopeless, but rightly hopeless, for him to ask for a repeal of the
Test Act, which, as long as a Catholic king was on the throne, stood
in the way of his filling all posts in the army as well as in the
state with men who would be ready to assist him in designs against
the religion and liberties of Englishmen. If anything could increase
the dislike of the nation to the repeal of the Test Act it was the
fact that, in that very year, Louis had revoked the Edict of Nantes
issued by his ancestor, Henry IV., to protect the French
Protestants, and had handed them over to a cruel persecution. It
might be fairly argued that what Louis had done, James, if he got
the power, might be expected to do hereafter.
7. =Breach between Parliament and King. 1685.=--When the Houses,
which had adjourned when the king went into the West, met again on
November 9, James informed them not only that he had appointed
officers disqualified by law, but that he was determined not to part
with them. The House of Commons, the most loyal House that had ever
been chosen, remonstrated with him, and there were signs that the
Lords intended to support the remonstrance. On November 20 James
prorogued Parliament.
8. =The Dispensing Power. 1686.=--Like his father, James liked to
think that, when he broke the laws, he was acting legally, and he
remembered that the Crown had, in former days, exercised a power of
dispensing with the execution of the laws (see p. 604). This power
had, indeed, been questioned by the Parliament in =1673= (see p.
606), but there was no statute or legal judgment declaring it to be
forbidden by law. James now wanted to get a decision from the judges
that he possessed the dispensing power, and when he found that four
of the judges disagreed with him, he replaced them by four judges
who would decide in his favour. Having thus packed the Bench, he
procured the bringing of a collusive action against Sir Edward
Hales, who, having been appointed an officer in the army, had, as a
Catholic, refused to take the test. Hales produced a dispensation
from the king, and, on June 21, =1686=, the judges decided that such
dispensations freed those who received them from the penalties
imposed by any laws whatever.
9. =The Ecclesiastical Commission. 1686=.--James, in virtue of his
dispensing power, had already authorised some clergymen of the
Church of England, who had turned Roman Catholics, to retain their
benefices. Obadiah Walker, the Master of University College, Oxford,
became a Roman Catholic, set up a press for the printing of Roman
Catholic tracts, and had mass celebrated openly in the college. Yet
he was allowed to retain his post. Then the king appointed Massey,
an avowed Roman Catholic, to the Deanery of Christchurch, and
Parker, a secret Roman Catholic, to the Bishopric of Oxford.
Naturally the clergy who retained the principles of the Church of
England preached sermons warning their hearers against the errors of
the Church of Rome. James ordered them to be silent, and directed
Compton, Bishop of London, to suspend Sharp, the Dean of Norwich,
for preaching against the Papal doctrines. As Compton refused to
obey, James, on July 11, constituted an Ecclesiastical Commission
Court, at the head of which was Jeffreys. It is true that the Court
of High Commission had been abolished by a statute of the Long
Parliament, but James argued that his father's court, having power
to punish the laity as well as the clergy, could be abolished by Act
of Parliament, whereas, a king being supreme governor of the Church,
might provide for the punishment of the clergy alone, in any way
that he thought fit, without taking account of Acts of Parliament.
The first act of the new court was to suspend Compton for his
refusal to suspend Sharp. James therefore had it in his power to
stop the mouths of all the religious teachers in the realm.
10. =Scotland and Ireland. 1686-1687.=--In Scotland James insisted
on a Parliamentary repeal of all laws imposing penalties on Roman
Catholics. The Scottish Parliament, subservient as it had been to
Charles II., having refused to comply with this demand, James
dispensed with all these laws by his own authority, thereby making
Scottish Episcopalians almost as sullen as Scottish Covenanters. In
Ireland James had on his side the whole Catholic Celtic population,
which complained of wrongs committed against their religion and
property by the English colonists. James determined to redress these
wrongs. In February, =1687=, he sent over to Ireland as Lord Deputy
the Earl of Tyrconnel, whose character was low, and who had been
known at Charles's Court as Lying Dick Talbot. He was, however, a
Roman Catholic, and would carry out the king's will in Ireland
without remorse.
11. =The Fall of the Hydes. 1686-1687.=--To make way for Tyrconnel,
the former lord-lieutenant, Clarendon, the eldest son of the late
Chancellor, was recalled from Ireland, his fall being preceded by
that of his younger brother Rochester (see p. 627). Rochester was
devoted to the maintenance of the Royal power; but James told him
that he must change his religion if he wished to keep his office,
and on his refusal he was dismissed.
12. =The Declaration of Indulgence. 1687.=--The dismissal of
Rochester was the strongest possible evidence that James's own
spirit was intolerant. Yet he was driven, by the course which he had
taken, into the adoption of the principle of toleration, and no
doubt persuaded himself that he accepted toleration on its own
merits. At first he had hoped to obtain favours for the Roman
Catholics with the goodwill of the Church of England, whilst
continuing the persecution of Dissenters. He now knew that this was
impossible, and he therefore resolved to make friends of the
Dissenters by pronouncing for a general toleration. He first had
private interviews with the leading men in both Houses, in the hope
that they would, if Parliament were re-assembled, assist in the
repeal of all penal laws bearing on religion. These closetings, as
they were called,[34] proving ineffectual, he issued, by his own
authority, on April 4, =1687=, a Declaration of Indulgence,
suspending all laws against Roman Catholics and Dissenters alike,
and giving permission to both to worship publicly. The result of the
Declaration was not all that James desired. Many of the Dissenters,
indeed, accepted their freedom joyfully. Most of them, however,
dreaded a gift which seemed only intended to elevate the Roman
Catholics, and opened their ears to the pleadings of the Churchmen,
who now assured their old enemies that if they would have a little
patience they should, in the next Parliament, have a toleration
secured by law. This, argued the Churchmen, would be of far more use
to them than one granted by the king, which would avail them nothing
whenever the king died and was succeeded by his Protestant daughter,
the Princess of Orange.
[Footnote 34: Because the interviews took place in the king's
closet, or private room.]
13. =The Expulsion of the Fellows of Magdalen. 1687.=--Scarcely was
the Declaration issued when James showed how little he cared for law
or custom. There was a vacancy in the President-ship of Magdalen
College, Oxford, and James commanded the Fellows to choose one
Farmer, a man of bad character, and a Roman Catholic. On April 15
the Fellows, as they had the undoubted right to do, chose Hough. In
June they were summoned before the Ecclesiastical Commission, which
declared Hough's election to be void, and ordered them to choose
Parker, who, though at heart a Roman Catholic, was nominally the
Protestant Bishop of Oxford (see p. 638). They answered simply that,
as Hough had been lawfully elected, they had no right to choose
another President in his lifetime. Jeffreys bullied them in vain.
James insisted on their accepting Parker, and on acknowledging the
legality of the proceedings of the Ecclesiastical Commission. All
but two, having refused to submit, were turned out of the College
and left to beg their bread. When the Commissioners attempted to
install Parker in his office not a blacksmith in Oxford would
consent to break open the lock of the President's lodgings. The
servants of the Commissioners were at last employed to force the
door, and it was in this way that Parker took possession of the
residence to which Hough alone had a legal claim. The expelled
Fellows were not left to starve, as there was scarcely a gentleman
in England who would not have been proud to receive one of them into
his house.
14. =An Attempt to pack a Parliament. 1687.=--James was anxious to
obtain Parliamentary sanction for his Declaration of Indulgence. He
dissolved the existing Parliament, hoping to find a new one more to
his taste. As he had packed the Bench of Judges in =1686=, he tried
to pack a Parliament in =1687=. A board of regulators was appointed,
with Jeffreys at its head, to remodel the corporations once more,
appointing Roman Catholics and Dissenters to sit in them. James
expected that these new members would elect tolerationists to the
next House of Commons. So strong, however, was public opinion
against the king that even the new members chosen expressly to vote
for the king's nominees could not be relied on. The design of
calling a new Parliament was therefore abandoned for the time.
15. =A Second Declaration of Indulgence. 1688.=--On April 22,
=1688=, James issued a second Declaration of Indulgence, which he
ordered to be read in all the churches. Most of the clergy objecting
to read it, seven bishops signed a petition asking that the clergy
might be excused. Six of these bishops--Sancroft, the Archbishop of
Canterbury, who was the seventh, having been forbidden to appear
before the king--presented the petition to James at Whitehall. James
was startled when it was placed in his hands. "This," he said, "is a
great surprise to me. I did not expect this from your Church,
especially from some of you. This is a standard of rebellion." In
vain the bishops protested that they hated the very sound of
rebellion. James would not listen to their excuses. "This," he
persisted in saying, "is rebellion. This is a standard of rebellion.
Did ever a good churchman question the dispensing power before? Have
not some of you preached for it and written for it? It is a standard
of rebellion. I will have my declaration published." One of the
bishops replied that they were bound to fear God as well as to
honour the king. James only grew more angry and told them, as he
sent them away, that he would keep their petition, with the evident
intention of taking legal proceedings against them. "God," he said,
as he dismissed them, "has given me the dispensing power, and I will
maintain it. I tell you there are still seven thousand of your
Church who have not bowed the knee to Baal."
[Illustration: Dress of a bishop in the second half of the
seventeenth century: from Sandford's _Coronation Procession of James
II._]
16. =Resistance of the Clergy. 1688.=--When the day came for the
reading of the Declaration scarcely a clergyman obeyed the king's
order. In one of the London churches Samuel Wesley, father of the
John Wesley who was, by his preaching, to move the hearts of the
next generation, preached a sermon on the text, "Be it known unto
thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the
golden image which thou hast set up." In Westminster Abbey, when
the officiating minister, Bishop Sprat, a courtly prelate, began to
read the Declaration, the whole congregation rose in a body and
streamed out of the church.
17. =The Trial of the Seven Bishops. 1688.=--James ordered that the
seven bishops should be tried, on the plea that their petition was a
seditious libel. The trial took place in Westminster Hall on June
29. The first difficulty of the prosecution was to show that the
so-called libel had been published--that is to say, had been shown
to any one--as no one was present besides the bishops when James
received it, and the king could not be put into the witness-box. At
last sufficient evidence was tendered by the Earl of Sunderland--a
minister who, unlike Rochester, had changed his religion to keep his
place--to convince the court that the petition had been delivered to
James. The lawyers on both sides then addressed the jury on the
question whether the petition was really a libel. The jury retired
to deliberate, and at first nine of them were for the bishops and
three for the king. Two of the latter gave way, but the other, a
certain Arnold, who was the king's brewer, held out. "Whatever I
do," he said, "I am sure to be half ruined. If I say _Not Guilty_ I
shall brew no more for the king, and if I say _Guilty_ I shall brew
no more for anybody else." He decided that the king's custom was the
best worth keeping. To a gentleman named Austen who proposed to
argue with him he replied that his mind was already made up. "If you
come to that," replied Austen, "look at me. I am the largest and
strongest of this twelve; and before I find such a petition a libel,
here I will stay till I am no bigger than a tobacco pipe." The jury
were locked up through the night, and when the morning of the 30th
came Arnold had given way. A verdict of _Not Guilty_ was given in.
The crowds in Westminster Hall and in the streets of London burst
out into shouts of joy. At Hounslow, where James was reviewing the
regiments on which he trusted to break down all popular resistance,
the soldiers shouted like the rest. James asked what it all meant.
"Nothing," he was told; "the soldiers are glad that the bishops are
acquitted." "Do you call that nothing?" he answered. "So much the
worse for them."
18. =Invitation to William of Orange. 1688.=--The acquittal of the
Bishops would, but for one circumstance, have strengthened the
nation in its resolution patiently to wait till James's death placed
his daughter on the throne. On June 10, however, a son had been born
to James, and that fact changed the whole situation. The boy would
be educated in his father's religion, and England was threatened
with a Roman Catholic dynasty in which each successive ruler would,
from his childhood, be brought up in the belief that he might break
through all legal restraints whenever he could have the approval of
judges appointed by himself and liable to dismissal whenever he
pleased. At first the general dislike of this disagreeable fact took
the shape of incredulity, and it was almost universally believed,
without a shadow of foundation, that the boy was a supposititious
child procured from some poor mother and brought in a warming-pan
into the queen's chamber. Whether he were supposititious or not,
there was no doubt that he would be treated as James's heir. Tories
were as much concerned as Whigs at the prospect before them. The
doctrine of non-resistance was forgotten, and on June 30, the day of
the bishops' acquittal, seven important personages, some being Whigs
and some Tories, invited the Prince of Orange to land with an armed
force to defend the liberties of England.
19. =Landing of William. 1688.=--William would probably not have
accepted the invitation if the constitutional rights of Englishmen
had alone been at stake; but he had made it the object of his life
to struggle against Louis, and he knew that war was on the point of
breaking out between Louis and an alliance in which almost every
European prince took part excepting James. He accepted the
invitation that he might bring England into that alliance; and made
preparations, which could not be hidden from James. James made
concessions, abolished the Ecclesiastical Commission, gave back the
charters of the City of London and the other corporations, and
restored the Fellows of Magdalen. Anxious as William was to come, he
was delayed for some time. The army of Louis was on the southern
frontier of the Spanish Netherlands, and William could not stir as
long as an invasion of his Spanish allies was threatened. Louis,
however, offered James the assistance of his fleet to repel the
expected Dutch expedition. James replied that he was quite able to
take care of himself. Louis lost his temper, withdrew his army from
the frontier of the Netherlands, and sent it to begin the war with
the allies by burning and ravaging the Palatinate. William put to
sea, intending to land in Torbay. On the morning of November 5 it
was found that the fleet had passed the haven for which it was
bound; and as the wind was blowing it strongly on, there seemed no
possibility of returning. William believed that nothing but failure
was before him. "You may go to prayers, doctor," he said to Burnet,
an English clergyman who accompanied him; "all is over." In a moment
the wind changed and bore the fleet back into Torbay, and William
was enabled to land safely at Brixham. Burnet, a warm-hearted but
garrulous and inquisitive man, began asking him questions about his
plans. If there was one thing that William disliked more than
another, it was the interference of clergymen in military matters.
He therefore looked Burnet in the face, replying only by another
question: "Well, doctor, what do you think of predestination now?"
Both he and Burnet were convinced that God had Himself guided them
thus far in safety for the deliverance of His people.
20. =William's March upon London. 1688.=--William marched upon
London, and, after a while, the gentry of the counties through which
he passed poured in to support him. The north and the midlands rose
under the Earls of Devonshire and Danby and other lords, Whig and
Tory. The doctrine of non-resistance was thrown to the winds. James
set out with his troops to combat William. He reached Salisbury, but
the officers of his own army and his courtiers deserted him. Amongst
those who fled to William was Lord Churchill, afterwards known as
the Duke of Marlborough and the greatest soldier of the age. He had
received many favours from James, which he now repaid by inciting
all those whom he could influence to abandon their king. Amongst
these was James's younger daughter Anne, over whom Churchill's wife
exercised a most powerful influence, and who now, together with her
husband, Prince George of Denmark, fled to William. James, left
almost alone, made his way back to London, which he reached on
November 27. On the 30th he ordered the preparation of writs for the
election of a Parliament, and proposed an accommodation with
William, who by that time had reached Hungerford. It was agreed that
both armies should remain at a distance of forty miles from London
in order to enable the new Parliament to meet in safety. James was,
in reality, determined not to submit. On December 10 he sent his
wife and son to France. On the 11th he attempted to follow them,
burning the writs and dropping the great seal into the Thames, in
the hope that everything might fall into confusion for want of the
symbol of legitimate authority. There were riots in London, and the
Roman Catholic chapels were sacked and destroyed. There was a
general call to William to hasten his march. On the 12th, however,
James was stopped near Sheerness by some fishermen and brought back
to London. William had no mind to have a second royal martyr on his
hands, and did everything to frighten James into another flight. On
December 18 James left London and William arrived at Whitehall. On
December 23, with William's connivance, James embarked for France.
21. =A Convention Parliament Summoned. 1688.=--Amongst the crowd
which welcomed William was Sergeant Maynard, an old man of ninety.
"You must," said William to him, "have survived all the lawyers of
your standing." "Yes, sir," replied Maynard, "and, but for your
Highness, I should have survived the laws too." He expressed the
general sense of almost every Englishman. How to return to a legal
system with the least possible disturbance was the problem to be
faced. William consulted the House of Lords and an assembly composed
of all persons who had sat in any of Charles's Parliaments, together
with special representatives of the City. Members of James's one
Parliament were not summoned, on the plea that the return to it of
members chosen by the remodelled corporations made it no true
Parliament. The body thus consulted advised William to call a
Convention, which would be a Parliament in everything except that
there was no king to summon it.
22. =The Throne declared Vacant. 1689.=--On January 22, =1689=, the
Convention met. The House of Commons contained a majority of Whigs,
whilst the Tories were in a majority in the Lords. On the 28th the
Commons resolved that "king James II., having endeavoured to subvert
the constitution of the kingdom by breaking the original contract
between king and people, and by the advice of Jesuits and other
wicked persons having violated the fundamental laws and having
withdrawn himself out of the kingdom, had abdicated the government,
and that the throne had thereby become vacant." This lumbering
resolution was unanimously adopted. The Whigs were pleased with the
clause which made the vacancy of the throne depend on James's
misgovernment, and the Tories were pleased with the clause which
made it depend on his so-called voluntary abdication. The Tories in
the Lords proposed that James should remain nominally king, but that
the country should be governed by a regent. Danby, however, and a
small knot of Tories supported the Whigs, and the proposal was
rejected. Danby had, indeed, a plan of his own. James, he held, had
really abdicated, and the crown had therefore passed to the next
heir. That heir was not, according to him, the supposititious
infant, but the eldest daughter of James, Mary Princess of Orange,
who was now in her own right queen of England. It was an ingenious
theory, but two circumstances were against its being carried into
practice. In the first place, Mary scolded Danby for daring to set
her above her husband. In the second place William made it known
that he would neither be regent nor administer the government under
his wife. Danby therefore withdrew his motion, and on February 6 the
Lords voted, as the Commons had voted before, that James had
abdicated and the throne was vacant.
23. =William and Mary to be Joint Sovereigns. 1689.=--A Declaration
of Rights was prepared condemning the dispensing power as lately
exercised and the other extravagant actions of James II., while both
Houses concurred in offering the crown to William and Mary as joint
sovereigns. As long as William lived he was to administer the
government, Mary only attaining to actual power in the event of her
surviving her husband. After the death of both, the crown was to go
first to any children which might be born to them, then to Anne and
her children, and, lastly, to any children of William by a second
wife in case of his surviving Mary and marrying again. As a matter
of fact, William had no children by Mary, who died about eight years
before him, and he never married again. On February 13 William and
Mary accepted the crown on the conditions offered to them.
24. =Character of the Revolution.=--The main characteristic of the
revolution thus effected was that it established the supremacy of
Parliament by setting up a king and queen who owed their position to
a Parliamentary vote. People had been found to believe that James
II. was king by a Divine right. Nobody could believe that of
William. Parliament, which had set him up, could pull him down, and
he would have therefore to conform his government to the will of the
nation manifested in Parliament. The political revolution of =1689=
succeeded, whilst the Puritan Revolution of =1641= failed, because,
in =1641=, the political aim of setting the Parliament above the
king was complicated by an ecclesiastical dispute which had split
Parliament and the nation into two hostile parties. In =1689= there
was practically neither a political nor an ecclesiastical dispute.
Tories and Whigs combined to support the change, and Churchmen and
Dissenters made common cause against the small Roman Catholic
minority which had only been dangerous because it had the Crown at
its back, and because the Crown had been supported by Louis and his
armies. A Revolution thus effected was, no doubt, far less complete
than that which had been aimed at by the more advanced assailants of
the throne of Charles I. It did not aim at changing more than a
small part of the political constitution of the country, nor at
changing any part whatever of its social institutions. Its
programme, in short, was one for a single generation, not one, like
that of the '_Heads of the Proposals_' (see p. 555) or the
'_Agreement of the People_' (see p. 556) for several generations.
Consequently it did not rouse the antagonism which had been fatal
even to the best conceived plans of the Commonwealth and
Protectorate. It is much to be regretted that the moral tone of the
men who brought about the Revolution of =1689= was lower than that
which had brought about the Revolution of =1641=. That this was the
case, however, was mainly the fault of the unwise attempt of the
Puritans to enforce morality by law. The individual liberty which
was encouraged by the later revolution would in due time work for
morality as well as for political improvement.
_Books recommended for further study of Part VII._
RANKE, L. English History (English translation). Vol. iii. p.
310-vol. iv. p. 528.
AIRY, O. The English Restoration and Louis XIV.
CHRISTIE, W. D. Life of A. A. Cooper, first Earl of Shaftesbury.
MACAULAY, Lord. History of England from the Accession of James II.
Vols. i. and ii.
HALLAM, H. Constitutional History. Chapters XI.-XIV.
MAHAN, A. T. Influence of the Sea-power upon History. Chapters
I.-III.
LODGE, R. The Political History of England. Vol. viii. From the
Restoration to the Death of William III. (1660-1702).
INDEX TO THE SECOND VOLUME
Abbey lands, the, distributed by Henry VIII., 400;
Mary wishes for the restoration of, 422
Aberdeen, Montrose's victory at, 547
Abhorrers, party name of, 620
Addled Parliament, the, 486
_Admonition to Parliament, An_, 446
Adwalton Moor, battle of, 538
Agitators, choice of, 554;
propose to purge the House, 556
_Agreement of the People, the_, drawn up by the Agitators, 556
Agriculture, More's views on the decline of, 368;
progress of, in Elizabeth's reign, 464
Aix-la-Chapelle, peace of, 599
Alasco, opinions of, 418
Albemarle, George Monk, Duke of, as George Monk, commands in
Scotland, 575;
effects the restoration, 576;
created Duke of Albemarle, 580;
holds a command in the battle off the North Foreland, 592;
advises Charles II. not to dissolve Parliament, 599
Alençon, Francis, Duke of, Elizabeth proposes to marry, 446;
entertained by Elizabeth, 454;
attacks Antwerp, 455;
death of, 456
Alexander VI., Pope, character of, 375
Alford, battle of, 549
Allen, Cardinal, founds a college at Douai, 453;
plots to murder Elizabeth, 454
Alva, Duke of, his tyranny in the Netherlands, 443;
discusses the murder of Elizabeth, 445;
fails to reduce the Dutch, 449
Amicable Loan, the, 372
Anjou, Henry, Duke of, _see_ Henry III., king of France
Annates, first Act of, 388;
second Act of, 390
Anne, daughter of James II., birth of, 608;
deserts James II., 645;
settlement of the crown on, 647
Anne Boleyn, appears at Court, 380;
is married to Henry VIII., 389;
execution of, 395
Anne of Cleves married to Henry VIII., 400;
divorce of, 401
Antwerp attacked by Alençon, 455;
taken by Parma, 456
Appeals, Act of, 389;
provision for the hearing of, 391
Architecture, Elizabethan, 465;
Stuart, 631, 632
_Areopagitica_, 546
Argyle, Archibald Campbell, Earl of, execution of, 636
Argyle, Archibald Campbell, Marquis of, opposed to Montrose, 547;
execution of, 595
Arlington, Henry Bennet, Earl of, secretary to Charles II., 599;
intrigues against Clifford, 607
Armada, the Invincible, sailing of, 458;
destruction of, 462
Army, the New Model, formation of, 545;
attempt of Parliament to disband, 553;
choice of Agitators in, 554;
gains possession of the king's person, 555;
the heads of the proposals presented in the name of, _ib._;
drives out the eleven members, _ib._;
turns against the king, 556, 557;
expels members by Pride's Purge, _ib._;
its inability to reconstruct society after the king's execution, 560;
overthrows Richard Cromwell, restores and expels the Rump, 575;
brings back the Rump, _ib._;
receives Charles II. on Blackheath, 578;
paid off, 584
Army, the Royal, beginning of, 584
Army plot, the, 531
Articles, the ten, 395;
the six, 399;
the forty-two, 420;
the thirty-nine, _ib._;
declaration of Charles I., prefixed to, 512
Arundel Castle taken and lost by Hopton, 542
Ashley, Lord, _see_ Shaftesbury, Earl of
Aske heads the Pilgrimage of Grace, 397
Assembly of divines, proposal to refer church questions to, 534;
meeting of, 540;
declares for Presbyterianism, 543
Association, the, in defence of Elizabeth, 456
Attainder, Bill of, against Thomas Cromwell, 401;
nature of a, _ib._, note i.;
against Strafford, 531
Auldearn, battle of, 547
Babington plots the murder of Elizabeth, 457
Bacon, Francis (Lord Verulam and Viscount St. Alban), scientific
aspirations of, 474;
advises Elizabeth as to the treatment of the Catholics, 475;
his conduct to Essex, 478;
gives political advice to James I., 486;
his jest on Montague's promotion, 494;
attacked about monopolies, 495;
disgrace of, 496
Bagenal defeated by Hugh O'Neill, 475
Ballard takes part in Babington's plot, 457
Barbadoes, prisoners sent to, 564;
dissenters sent to, 588
Barebone's Parliament, the, origin of the name of, 566;
dissolution of, 567
Baronets, origin of the order of, 494
Barrow, Henry, a separatist, hanged, 470
Barrow, Isaac, addresses his sermons to the understanding, 598
Basing House taken by Cromwell, 549
Bastwick sentenced by the Star Chamber, 521
Bate's case, 484
Baxter, imprisoned by Jeffreys, 635
Beaton, Cardinal, burns Wishart, 412;
is murdered, 414
Bedingfield, Sir Henry, takes charge of Elizabeth, 423
Benevolences raised by James I., 497
Berwick, Treaty of, 526
Bible, the, Henry VIII. authorises the translation of, 396
Bishops, nominated by _congé d'élire_, 391;
first Bill for removing from the House of Lords, 533;
impeachment of the twelve, 535;
excluded from the House of Lords, 536
Bishops' War, the first, 526;
the second, 529
Blackwater, the, defeat of Bagenal on, 475
Blake, defends Taunton, 548;
appointed to command the fleet, 565;
sent to the Mediterranean, 571;
destroys Spanish ships at Santa Cruz, 573;
death of, _ib._
Bloody Assizes, the, 637
Bocher, Joan, burnt, 419
Bohemia, outbreak of the Thirty Year War in, 490
Boleyn, Anne, _see_ Anne Boleyn
Bombay acquired by Charles II., 587
Bonner, Bishop, deprived of his see, 416
Booth, Sir George, defeated at Winnington Bridge, 575
Bothwell, James Hepburn, Earl of, career of, 439
Bothwell Bridge, defeat of the Covenanters at, 620
Boulogne, taken by Henry VIII., 405;
surrendered by Warwick, 417
Bourbon, the Duke of, revolt of, 371;
death of, 374
Boxley, destruction of the rood of, 398
Breda, declaration of, 576;
treaty of, 593
Brentford, Charles I. at, 537
Bridgman, Sir Orlando, declares that the king's ministers are
responsible, 581
Bridgwater taken by Fairfax, 549;
Monmouth at, 637
Brill seized by exiles from the Netherlands, 449
Bristol stormed by Rupert, 538
Browne, Archbishop of Dublin, destroys relics and images in Ireland, 402
Browne, Robert, founder of the Separatists, 470
Brownists, _see_ Separatists
Bucer, Martin, teaches in England, 410
Buckingham, George Villiers, First Duke of, becomes Marquis of
Buckingham and Lord Admiral, 488;
accompanies Charles to Madrid, 497;
becomes Duke of Buckingham, and advocates war with Spain, 500;
promises money for foreign wars, 501;
his ascendency over Charles I., 502;
tries to pawn the crown jewels, 503;
lends ships to fight against Rochelle, 504;
impeachment of, 505;
leads an expedition to Ré, 506;
feeling of Wentworth towards, 508;
murder of, 510
Buckingham, George Villiers, Second Duke of, in favour with
Charles II., 599;
his sham treaty with France, 603;
dismissal of, 608
Buckingham, Henry Stafford, Duke of, execution of, 369
Buildings, improvement in, in Elizabeth's time, 465
Bunyan writes _Pilgrim's Progress_, 596
Burghley, William Cecil, Lord, as Sir William Cecil becomes the
chief adviser of Elizabeth, 429;
urges Elizabeth to assist the Scotch Protestants, 433;
becomes Lord Burghley and discovers the Ridolfi plot, 445;
death of, 480
Burnet, Gilbert, his conversation with William of Orange, 645
Burton, sentenced by the Star Chamber, 521
Butler, author of _Hudibras_, 597
Cadiz, capture of, 464;
Cecil's expedition to, 503
Calais, loss of, 427;
Elizabeth's hope of regaining, 436;
the Armada takes refuge in, 462;
Cromwell's anxiety to recover, 571
Calvin, his work at Geneva, 430
Calvinism influences Elizabethan Protestantism, 430
Cambrai, league of, 363;
treaty of, 383
Campeggio, Cardinal, appointed legate to hear the divorce case
of Henry VIII., 382
Campion lands in England, 453;
execution of, 454
Carberry Hill, Mary's surrender at, 439
Cardinal College founded by Wolsey, 377, 383;
_see_ Christchurch
Carisbrooke Castle, detention of Charles I. in, 556
Carolina, colonisation of, 629
Cartwright advocates the Presbyterian system, 446
Casket letters, the, 440
Castlemaine, Lady, uses her influence against Clarendon, 594
Câteau Cambresis, peace of, 431
Catesby plans Gunpowder Plot, 483
Catharine of Aragon, marriage of, 363;
Henry VIII. grows tired of, 379;
divorce suit against, 382;
is divorced, 389;
the sentence of Clement VII. in favour of, 390;
death of, 395
Catharine of Braganza marries Charles II., 587
Catherine de Medicis, widow of Henry II., king of France, becomes
regent, 433;
takes part in the massacre of St. Bartholomew, 449
Catherine Howard, marriage and execution of, 401
Catherine Parr, marriage of, 401
Catholics, Roman, laws directed against, 453, 454;
their position at the end of Elizabeth's reign, 475;
increased persecution of, after Gunpowder Plot, 483;
negotiation between James I. and Spain for the relief of, 488;
tendency of Charles II. to support, 584;
declaration for the toleration of, issued by Charles II., 587;
persecuted about the Popish Plot, 616;
efforts of James II. in favour of, 634, 638, 640
Cecil, Sir Edward, commands the Cadiz expedition, 503
Chancery, Court of, proposal of the Barebone's Parliament to
suppress, 567;
reformed by Cromwell, 569;
nature of the decisions of, 605
Chantries, Act for the dissolution of, 412;
their income vested in the king, 415
Charles I., intention of the Gunpowder plotters to blow up, 483;
proposals of marriage for, 488;
visits Spain, 497;
is eager for war with Spain, 500;
negotiation for marriage with Henrietta Maria, 501;
becomes king and marries Henrietta Maria, 502;
adjourns his first parliament to Oxford, _ib._;
dissolves his first parliament and sends out the Cadiz expedition, 503;
meets his second Parliament, _ib._;
dissolves his second Parliament, 505;
orders the collection of a forced loan, 506;
meets his third Parliament, 508;
consents to the Petition of Right, 509;
claims a right to levy Tonnage and Poundage, 510;
issues a declaration on the Articles, 512;
dissolves his third Parliament, 513;
his personal government, 514;
levies knighthood fines, 515;
insists on the reading of the _Declaration of Sports_, 517;
levies fines for encroaching on forests, 523;
levies ship-money, _ib._;
imposes a new prayer-book on Scotland, 525;
leads an army against the Scots, 526;
consults Wentworth, 527;
makes Wentworth Earl of Strafford, and summons the Short
Parliament, 528;
dissolves the Short Parliament, marches again against the Scots,
and summons the Long Parliament, 529;
assents to the Triennial Act, 530;
signs a commission for Strafford's execution, 531;
visits Scotland, 532;
returns to England, 534;
rejects the Grand Remonstrance, 535;
attempts to arrest the five members, 536;
fights at Edgehill, 537;
his plan of campaign, _ib._;
besieges Gloucester, and fights at Newbury, 539;
looks to Ireland for help, 541;
sends Rupert to relieve York, 543;
compels Essex's infantry to surrender at Lostwithiel, and fights
again at Newbury, 544;
is defeated at Naseby, 548;
attempts to join Montrose, 549;
sends Glamorgan to Ireland, _ib._;
gives himself up to the Scots, 551;
negotiates at Newcastle, _ib._;
explains his plans to the Queen, 552;
conveyed to Holmby House, 553;
conducted by Joyce to Newmarket, 555;
attempt of Cromwell to come to an understanding with, 555;
takes refuge in the Isle of Wight, and enters into the _Engagement_
with the Scots, 556;
removed to Hurst Castle, 557;
trial of, 559;
execution of, 560
Charles II., as Prince of Wales, possesses himself of part of the
fleet, 557;
lands in Scotland, 563;
escapes to France, 564;
offers a reward for Cromwell's murder, 569;
issues the declaration of Breda, 576;
restoration of, 578;
confirms _Magna Carta_, _ib._;
character of, 579;
leaves the government to Hyde, 580;
revenue voted to, 582;
approves a scheme of modified episcopacy, 583;
keeps a small armed force, 584;
retains three regiments on paying off the army, _ib._;
profligacy of the court of, 586;
issues a declaration in favour of toleration, 587;
marriage of, and sale of Dunkirk by, _ib._;
dismisses Clarendon, 594;
favours the Roman Catholics, 598;
thinks of tolerating dissenters, and supports Buckingham and
Arlington, 599;
agrees to the treaty of Dover, 600;
supports the Cabal, 602;
extravagance of, 603;
issues a Declaration of Indulgence, 604;
goes to war with the Dutch, 605;
withdraws the Declaration of Indulgence, 606;
assents to the Test Act, 607;
dismisses Shaftesbury and makes peace with the Dutch, 608;
supports Danby, 610;
receives a pension from Louis XIV., 611;
is interested in commerce, 612;
refuses to make war on France, 613;
threatens France with war, 614;
dissolves the Cavalier Parliament, 616;
dissolves the first Short Parliament, 617;
supports his brother's claim to the crown, against Shaftesbury, 618;
prorogues the second Short Parliament, 619;
dismisses Shaftesbury, 620;
dissolves the second and third Short Parliaments, 621;
plot to murder, 625;
death of, 627;
constitutional progress in the reign of, _ib._
Charles II., king of Spain, bad health of, 592
Charles V., Emperor, as king of Spain becomes the rival of
Francis I., 366;
vast inheritance of, 369;
is chosen emperor, _ib._;
goes to war with France, 371;
captures Francis I. at Pavia, 372;
liberates Francis I., 374;
allies himself with Henry VIII., 405;
makes peace with France at Crêpy, 406;
defends Mary's mass, 417;
abdication of, 426
Charles IX., king of France, accession of, 433;
takes part in the massacre of St. Bartholomew, 449;
death of, 450
Charterhouse, the persecution of the monks of, 393
Chaucer, influences of the Renascence on, 367
Cheriton, battle of, 542
Chocolate, introduction of, 630
Christchurch, foundation of, 377, 383
Christian IV., king of Denmark, Buckingham's overtures to, 501, 504;
defeated at Lutter, 505, 506
Church of England, _see_ England, Church of
Churchill, Lord, _see_ Marlborough, Duke of
Clarendon, Edward Hyde, first Earl of, as Edward Hyde is one of the
leaders of the Anti-Presbyterian party in the Long Parliament, 533;
becomes Lord Chancellor after the Restoration, 580;
character of, _ib._;
created Earl of Clarendon, 587;
is falsely supposed to be bribed, _ib._;
fall of, 594;
escapes to France, 595
Clarendon, Henry Hyde, second Earl of, recalled from Ireland, 640
Claverhouse, _see_ Graham, John
Clement VII., Pope, forms an Italian league against Charles V., 374;
appoints legates to try the divorce suit of Henry VIII., 382;
revokes the cause to Rome, 383;
gives sentence in favour of Catharine, 390
Clergy, the country, 633
Clifford, Thomas, Lord, a member of the Cabal, 602;
probable suggester of the Stop of the Exchequer, 604;
resignation of, 607
Coaches, improvement in, 633
Coffee-houses, introduction of, 630
Coinage debased by Henry VIII., 409;
further debased by Somerset, 416
Coke, Sir Edward, takes part in drawing up the Petition of Right, 508
Colchester, execution of the Abbot of, 400;
reduced by Fairfax, 567
Colet promotes the study of Greek, and founds St. Paul's School, 367
Coligny, murder of, 449
College invents the Protestant flail, 615;
condemned to death, 622
Colonies founded in Virginia and New England, 489;
in Carolina, 629
Common Prayer, the Book of, beginnings of, 409, 410;
the first, of Edward VI., 415;
the second, of Edward VI., 418;
alterations in, in Elizabeth's reign, 429;
Strickland proposes to amend, 445;
generally accepted by the Parliamentary Presbyterians, 586
Commonwealth, the, establishment of, 561
Commons, the House of, Wolsey's appearance in, 371;
made use of by Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII., 389;
Elizabeth's relations with, 444;
Puritanism of, 445;
growing strength of, 468;
its tendencies to Puritanism rather than to Presbyterianism, 470;
attack on monopolies by, 478;
quarrels with James I., 482;
anxious to go to war for the Palatinate, 490;
votes a small supply, 491;
brings charges against Bacon, 495;
is eager for war with Spain, 500;
refuses supplies to Charles I., unless spent by counsellors in
whom it confides, 502;
impeaches Buckingham, 504, 505;
insists on the Petition of Right, 508;
claims Tonnage and Poundage, 510;
religious ideas prevailing in, 511;
its breach with the king, 513;
violent scene before the dissolution of, 514;
formation of parties in, 532;
scene in, at the passing of the Grand Remonstrance, 534;
Presbyterian majority in, 546;
new elections to, 551;
a mob in possession of, 555;
the Agitators propose to purge, 556;
Pride's purge of, 557;
declares itself supreme, _ib._;
constitutes a high court of justice, 558;
dissolved by Cromwell, 566;
inquires into the expenditure of the crown, and impeaches
Clarendon, 594;
impeaches Danby, 616;
the Exclusion Bill in, 617, 621;
Tory majority in, 636;
James II. attempts to pack, 641;
discusses the abdication of James II., 646
Committee of Both Kingdoms, formation of, 542
Communion table, Laud's wish to fix at the east end, 517;
decision of the Privy Council on the position of, 519;
removed by the soldiers, 529
Comprehension favoured by some of the clergy, 598;
attempt of Charles II. to establish, 599
Compton, Bishop of London, refuses to suspend Dr. Sharp, 639
Con, Papal agent at the court of Henrietta Maria, 521
Confederate Catholics of Ireland, the, cessation of hostilities with, 541
_Congé d'élire_, provision for the issue of, 391
Connaught, proposed plantation of, 528
Constantinople taken by the Turks, 366
Conventicle Act, the, 588
Convention Parliament, the first, 577;
the second, 646
Convocation of province of Canterbury offers money for a pardon, 385;
agrees to the submission of the clergy, 386
Cornwall, insurrection in, 415
Corporation Act, the, 585
Corporations, remodelling of the, 625
Council of State, the, appointment of, 561
Covenant, the Scottish National, 525;
_see_ Solemn League and Covenant
Covenanters, the rise of, 619;
insurrection of, 620
Coverdale translates the New Testament, 396
Cranfield, _see_ Middlesex, Earl of
Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, pronounces Catharine's marriage
to be null, 389;
is forced to dismiss his wife, 400;
composes the English litany, 409;
character and position of, 413;
wishes to preserve the revenue of the chantries for the poor
clergy, 415;
tries to find common ground with the Zwinglian reformers, 416;
leaves his mark on the Prayer Book, 418;
supports Lady Jane Grey, 420;
burnt, 426
Crêpy, peace of, 406
Cromwell, Oliver, practical sagacity of, 539;
introduces discipline in the Eastern Association, 540;
defeats the royalists at Winceby, 542;
fights at Marston Moor, 543;
advocates toleration, _ib._;
accuses Manchester, 544;
becomes Lieutenant-General of the New Model Army, 545;
cuts off the king's supplies, 547;
wins the victory at Naseby, 548;
reduces Winchester and Basing House, 549;
proposes to leave England, 554;
gives instructions to Cornet Joyce, 555;
attempts to come to an understanding with Charles, _ib._;
puts down a mutiny in the army, 556;
suppresses a rising in Wales and defeats the Scots at Preston, 557;
suppresses the Levellers, 562;
his campaign in Ireland, _ib._;
his victory at Dunbar, 563;
his victory at Worcester, 564;
dissolves the Long Parliament, 566;
opens the Barebone's Parliament, 567;
becomes Protector, 568;
plots against, 569;
ecclesiastical arrangements of, _ib._;
convenes and dissolves his first Parliament, 570;
establishes major-generals, _ib._;
foreign policy of, 571;
calls a second Parliament, 572;
joins France against Spain, _ib._;
dissolves his second Parliament, 573;
makes war against Spain, _ib._;
death of, 574
Cromwell, Richard, succeeds to the Protectorate, 574;
abdicates, 575
Cromwell, Thomas, advises Henry VIII. to rely on the House
of Commons, 385;
becomes the king's secretary, and vicar-general, 393;
attacks the monks of the Charterhouse, _ib._;
inquires into the state of the monasteries, 394;
attacks the greater monasteries, 397;
execution of, 401
Cropredy Bridge, battle of, 544
Danby, Thomas Osborne, Earl of, as Sir T. Osborne, becomes
Lord Treasurer, 607;
policy of, 610;
fails to pass a Non-resistance Bill, 611;
promotes the marriage of William of Orange, 613;
impeachment of, 616;
imprisonment of, 617;
liberated, 626;
rises in support of William, 645;
recommends that the crown be given to Mary, 646
Darnley, Henry Stuart, Lord, marries Mary, 438;
murder of, 439
Darvel Gathern, burning of the wooden figure of, 398
Davison sends the warrant for Mary's execution, 457;
dismissal of, 458
Declaration of Breda, _see_ Breda, Declaration of
Declaration of Indulgence issued by Charles II., 604;
withdrawn by Charles II., 606;
issued by James II., 640;
reissued, 642
Declaration of Rights, the, 647
Declaration of Sports, the, ordered to be read in churches, 517
Defender of the Faith, title of, 379
Desmond, Gerald Fitzgerald, Earl of, insurrection and death of, 453
Devolution, the war of, 593
Devonshire, insurrection in, 415
Devonshire, William Cavendish, Earl of, rises in support of William
of Orange, 645
Digby, John, Lord, his mission to Germany, 497
Dispensing power, the, claimed by Charles II., 604;
acknowledged by the judges, 639
Dissenters, the, origin of their name, 585;
Charles II. issues a declaration for the toleration of, 587;
Conventicle Act against, 588;
Five-mile Act against, 590;
favour of Charles II. to, 599;
reception of the Declaration of Indulgence by, 640
Dissenting Brethren, the five, 543
Divine Right of Kings, doctrine of the, 619
Douai, College at, 453
Dover, treaty of, 600
Drake, Francis, lands at Nombre de Dios, 448;
vows to sail on the Pacific, 449;
his voyage round the world, 450;
(Sir Francis) singes the king of Spain's beard, 458;
has a command against the Armada, 460;
pursues the Armada, 462;
sacks Corunna, and fails before Lisbon, 464;
death of, _ib._
Dramatic writers of the Restoration, 598
Dreux, battle of, 436
Drogheda, slaughter at, 562
Drumclog, skirmish at, 620
Dublin, attempt to seize, 533
Dudley, _see_ Empson and Dudley
Dudley, Lord Guilford, marries Lady Jane Grey, 420;
executed, 423
Dunbar, battle of, 563
Dunes, the, battle of, 573
Dunkirk, Cromwell wishes Spain to place in his hands, 571;
taken from Spain by Cromwell's troops, 573;
abandoned by Charles II., 587
Dunkirk House, 587
Dunse Law, Scottish army on, 526
Dunstable, marriage of Catharine of Aragon annulled at, 389
Durham, temporary suppression of the see of, 418;
celebration of the mass in the cathedral of, 441
Dutch Republic, the, foundation of, 449;
abolition of the Stadholderate in, 565;
war between the English Commonwealth and, _ib._;
peace with, 569;
first war between Charles II. and, 589;
military weakness of, 591;
treaty of Breda with, 593;
takes part in the Triple Alliance, 599;
combination of England and France against, 600;
towns to be taken from, _ib._;
the second war between Charles II. and, 605;
resists Louis XIV., _ib._;
animosity of Shaftesbury against, 606;
peace made by England with, 608;
makes peace with France at Nymwegen, 614
Eastern Association, the, formation of, 539;
Cromwell's activity in, 540;
Manchester in command of the army of, 542
Ecclesiastical Commission, the, established by James II., 639;
abolition of, 644
Ecclesiastical Courts, the, attacks on, 385
Edgehill, battle of, 537
Edinburgh, burnt by Hertford, 409;
riot in St. Giles's in, 525;
Montrose executed at, 563;
surrenders to Cromwell, _ib._
Edinburgh, treaty of, 433
Edward VI., birth of, 397;
accession of, 412;
precocity of, 419;
death of, 420
Ejectors, Commission of, 569
Eleven Members, the, excluded from the House of Commons, 555
Eliot, Sir John, attacks Buckingham, 504;
compares Buckingham to Sejanus, 505;
his policy compared with that of Wentworth, 508;
vindicates the privileges of the House, 512;
imprisonment and death of, 514
Elizabeth, daughter of James I., intention of the Gunpowder plotters
to crown, 483;
married to the Elector Palatine, 488
Elizabeth, Queen, birth of, 392;
her succession acknowledged, 411;
sent to the Tower and afterwards removed to Woodstock and
Hatfield, 423;
accession of, 428;
character and policy of, _ib._;
modification of the title of, 429;
plays off France and Spain against one another, 431;
hesitates to assist the Scotch Protestants, 432;
assists the Lords of the Congregation, 433;
her ill-treatment of Catherine Grey, 435;
contrasted with Mary, Queen of Scots, _ib._;
hopes to recover Calais by assisting the Huguenots, 436;
appoints commissioners to examine the case against Mary, 440;
detains Mary a prisoner, and suppresses a rising in the North, 441;
excommunicated by Pius V., _ib._;
negotiates a marriage with the Duke of Anjou, 443;
her attitude towards the Puritans and towards Parliament, 444;
the Ridolfi plot against, 445;
proposes to marry the Duke of Alençon, 446;
intervenes in Scotland on behalf of James VI., 450;
refuses to restore Drake's plunder, 451;
her treatment of Ireland, 452;
kisses the Duke of Alençon, 454;
plot of Allen and Parsons to murder, _ib._;
Throgmorton's plot to murder, 456;
Babington's plot to murder, 457;
hesitates to allow the execution of the Queen of Scots, _ib._;
dismisses Davison, 458;
her triumph at the defeat of the Armada, 462;
allies herself with Henry IV., 464;
shows favour to Essex, _ib._;
erects the Court of High Commission, 470;
sends Essex to Ireland, 475;
turns against Essex, 476;
withdraws monopolies, 478;
nature of the work of, 479;
death of, 480
Elizabethan architecture, 465
Empson and Dudley, execution of, 363
_Engagement, the_, between Charles I. and the Scottish Commissioners, 556
England, the Church of, relations of Henry VIII. with, 377;
dealings of Henry VIII. with, 386;
the clergy acknowledge the king supreme head of, 386;
becomes more national, 391;
Parliament acknowledges the king to be supreme head of, 393;
Cranmer's position in, 413;
ecclesiastical changes in, 414;
issue of the first Prayer Book of Edward VI. for, 415;
Zwinglian teaching in, 416;
issue of the second Prayer Book of Edward VI. for, 418;
reconciled to the see of Rome, 424;
Elizabeth's settlement of, 429;
position of, during Parker's archbishopric, 430;
Presbyterian movement in, 446;
Presbyterianism adopted by the Assembly of Divines for, 543;
restoration of episcopacy in, 583;
proposal to establish a modified episcopacy in, _ib._;
promise of James II. to protect, 634
Essex, Arthur Capel, Earl of, suicide of, 625
Essex, Frances, Countess of, divorce and remarriage of, 486
Essex, Robert Devereux, second Earl of, joins in the capture of
Cadiz, 464;
sent to Ireland, 475;
placed in confinement on his return, 476;
insurrection of, 477;
trial and execution of, 478
Essex, Robert Devereux, third Earl of, divorce of, 486;
appointed general of the Parliamentary army, 537;
commands at Edgehill, _ib._;
takes Reading, 538;
relieves Gloucester and commands at the first battle of Newbury, 539;
escapes from Lostwithiel, 544;
resigns, 545
Exclusion Bill, the, brought in, 617;
rejected by the House of Lords, 621;
lost by dissolution, _ib._
Exeter, besieged by Fairfax, 549
Exeter, Henry Courtenay, Marquis of, executed, 399
Expenditure of the Crown, parliamentary inquiry into, 593
Fairfax, Ferdinando, second Lord, defeated at Adwalton Moor, 538
Fairfax, Thomas, third Lord Fairfax, as Sir Thomas Fairfax, is
defeated at Adwalton Moor, 538;
wins a victory at Nantwich, 542;
appointed General of the New Model army, 545;
relieves Taunton, 547;
commands at Naseby, 548;
follows up his successes, 548, 549;
reduces the king's army in Cornwall, 550;
proposed as commander of the forces retained after the disbandment
of the army, 553;
as Lord Fairfax, puts down the rising in Kent and takes
Colchester, 557;
absents himself from the High Court of Justice, 559;
refuses to command in the war against Charles II., 563;
joins Monk, 576
Falkland, Lucius Cary, Viscount, one of the leaders of the
anti-Presbyterian party in the Long Parliament, 533;
death of, 539
Fawkes, Guy, takes part in the Gunpowder Plot, 483
Felton, John, affixes the Pope's excommunication to the door of the
Bishop of London's house, 442
Felton, John, murders the Duke of Buckingham, 510
Ferdinand I., Emperor, inherits the German territories of Charles V., 426
Ferdinand II., Emperor, loses and regains the crown of Bohemia, 490
Ferdinand V. of Aragon, Italian wars of, 363;
conquers Navarre, 364;
death of, 366
Feudal dues, bargain offered by James I. for, 484;
abolition of, 582
Field of the Cloth of Gold, the, 369
Fifth-Monarchy men, 567;
oppose Cromwell, 569
Fire of London, the, 592
Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, opposes the divorce of Henry VIII., 382;
sent to the Tower, 392;
execution of, 394
Fitzmaurice, Sir James, lands in Ireland, 452
Five Articles of Perth, the, 525
Five Knights' case, the, 507
Five Members, the, 535;
brought back to Westminster, 536
Five Mile Act, the, 590
Flamsteed, astronomer, 632
Fleetwood named General by the army, 575
Flodden, battle of, 364
Forest, Friar, burnt, 398
Forests, the, fines for encroaching on, 523;
the king's claims on, limited, 531
Fotheringhay, execution of Mary Stuart at, 458
Fox, Richard, Bishop of Winchester, minister of Henry VII. and
Henry VIII., 363
France, reign of Louis XII. in, 363;
attack of Henry VIII. on, 364;
in alliance with England, 366;
invaded by Henry VIII., 371;
peace with, 374;
Mary at war with, 426;
recovery of Calais by, 427;
civil wars in, 436-443;
Philip II. supports the League in, 464;
allied with James I., 501;
Charles I. breaks with, 506;
Charles I. makes peace with, 514;
allied with Cromwell against Spain, 572;
Danby's policy directed against, 610
Francis I., king of France, his rivalry with Charles V., 366-369;
meets Henry VIII. on the Field of the Cloth of Gold, 369;
goes to war with Charles V. about Milan, 371;
captured at Pavia, 372;
liberated, 374
Francis II., king of France, married as Dauphin to Mary Queen
of Scots, 413;
accession and death of, 433
Frederick V., Elector Palatine, marries Elizabeth, daughter
of James I., 488;
elected King of Bohemia, 490;
driven out of Bohemia, _ib._;
diplomatic efforts of James I., in favour of, 496;
loses the Palatinate, 497
Frith burnt, 390
Frobisher holds a command against the Armada, 460
Furniture, improvement of, in Elizabethan houses, 465
Galway, County, Wentworth punishes the jury of, 528
Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, sent to Rome by Henry VIII.,
before he is a bishop, 382;
opposes farther innovations, 411;
excluded from the Council, 412;
sent to the Tower, 414;
deprived of his see, 416;
made Lord Chancellor by Mary, 421
Geneva, establishment of Calvin's system at, 430
Gentry, the country, 633
George of Denmark, Prince, deserts James II., 645
Geraldine rebellion, the, 402
Gerard murders William of Orange, 456
Gerard and Vowel's plot, 569
Ghent, pacification of, 450
Glamorgan, Edward Herbert, Marquis of, his secret mission to Ireland, 549
Glasgow, the Assembly of, 526
Glastonbury, the Abbot of, executed, 400
Gloucester, raising of the siege of, 539
Godfrey, Sir Edmund Berry, murder of, 615
'Godly party,' the, 544
Gondomar, Count of, negotiates a Spanish alliance with James I., 488, 490
Goring, George Goring, Lord, defeated at Langport, 548
Graham of Claverhouse, John, attempts to suppress the Covenanters, 620
Grammar-schools, foundation of, 419
Grand Remonstrance, the, 534
Great Contract, the, 484
Great Council, the, meets at York, 529
Greenwood hanged, 472
Grey, Arthur Lord, slaughters foreign soldiers at Smerwick, 453
Grey, Lady Catherine, marriage and imprisonment of, 435
Grey, Lady Jane, is proclaimed Queen, 420;
executed, 423
Grey, Lord Leonard, becomes Lord Deputy of Ireland, 402;
conquers a great part of Ireland, 404
Grindal, Archbishop of Canterbury, suspension of, 450
Grocyn encourages the study of Greek at Oxford, 367
Guiana, Raleigh's voyage to, 489
Guinegatte, battle of the Spurs at, 364
Guise, Henry, Duke of, heads the French Catholics, 443;
conspires to murder Elizabeth, 454;
heads the League, 456;
murdered, 464
Guise, Francis, Duke of, takes Calais, 427;
murder of, 436
Guisnes, taken by the French, 427
Gunpowder Plot, the, 483
_Habeas Corpus Act_, 617
_Habeas corpus_, writ of, dispute whether it ought to show the
cause of imprisonment, 507
Hales, destruction of the phial at, 398
Hales, Sir Edward, holds an appointment by the dispensing power, 639
Halifax, George Savile, Earl, afterwards Marquis of, supports the
Duke of York's succession, 618;
persuades the House of Lords to reject the Exclusion Bill, 621;
advises Charles II. to summon Parliament, 626;
dismissed by James II., 638
Halley, astronomer, 632
Hamilton, James Hamilton, Duke of, as Marquis of Hamilton dissolves
the Assembly of Glasgow, 526;
is defeated at Preston, 557
Hamilton family support Mary, 440
Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh assassinates the regent Murray, 441
Hampden resists ship-money, 524;
calms the House of Commons after the passing of the Grand
Remonstrance, 534;
one of the five members, 535;
death of, 538
Hampton Court Conference, the, 482
Harlech Castle, surrender of, 550
Havre occupied and abandoned by Elizabeth, 436
Hazlerigg, Sir Arthur, one of the five members, 535
_Heads of the Proposals, the_, 555
Henrietta Maria, Queen, negotiations for the marriage of, 500;
marries Charles I., 502;
a papal agent at the Court of, 521;
carries abroad the crown jewels, 536;
urges Charles not to abandon the militia, 552
Henry VIII., character of, 361;
marries Catharine of Aragon, 363;
foreign policy of, _ib._;
promotes Wolsey, _ib._;
favours More, 368;
meets Francis I. on the Field of the Cloth of Gold, 369;
has Buckingham executed, _ib._;
invades, France, 371;
his views on his relations with the Church, 377;
is named Defender of the Faith, 379;
thinks of obtaining a divorce, _ib._;
urges Clement VII. to divorce him, 382;
demands a sentence of nullity, 383;
makes a victim of Wolsey, _ib._;
gains the support of the House of Commons, 385;
consults the universities, and charges the clergy with being
under a _præmunire_, _ib._;
obtains from Convocation the title of Supreme Head, 386;
has no tenderness towards heresy, 383;
obtains the Act of Annates, _ib._;
marries Anne Boleyn, and is divorced, 389;
attempts to suppress heresy, and obtains fresh powers from
Parliament, 390;
sends More and Fisher to the Tower, 392;
Act of Supremacy in favour of, 393;
dissolves the smaller monasteries, 394;
marries Jane Seymour, 395;
issues the ten articles, and authorises the translation of
the Bible, 396;
deals hardly with the Pilgrimage of Grace, 397;
begins the confiscation of the greater monasteries, _ib._;
attacks relics and images, 398;
presides at Lambert's trial, 399;
obtains from Parliament the six articles, 399;
marries and divorces Anne of Cleves, 400-401;
marries and beheads Catherine Howard, 401;
marries Catherine Parr, _ib._;
his government of Ireland, 401-404;
takes Boulogne, 405;
makes war with Scotland, 406;
debases the coinage, 409;
death of, 411
Henry II., king of France, allied with Scotland, 413;
his attitude towards Elizabeth, 432;
death of, 433
Henry III., King of France, proposes, as Duke of Anjou, to marry
Elizabeth, 443;
accession of, 450;
murder of, 464
Henry IV., King of France, his succession to the French crown
disputed, 456;
overpowers the League, 464
Henry, Prince of Wales, son of James I., intention of the Gunpowder
plotters to blow up, 483;
death of, 488
Hereford, besieged by the Scots, 549
Heresy held to be punishable by the Common Law, 419
Hertford, Earl of, _see_ Somerset, Edward Seymour, Duke of
High Commission, the, Court of, erection of, 470;
its activity in the reign of Charles I., 520;
abolition of, 531
High Court of Justice, the, proposal to constitute rejected
by the Lords, 557;
constituted by the Commons, 558
Highland Host the, 619
Holland, province of, its influence in the Dutch Republic, 489
Holmby House, Charles I. at, 553;
Charles I., removed from, 555
Holmes, Admiral, attacks the Dutch fleet, 605
Hopton, Sir Ralph, commands the Royalists in Cornwall, 537, 538;
fights on Lansdown, 538;
takes and loses Arundel Castle, 542;
is defeated at Cheriton, _ib._
Holles takes part in holding down the Speaker, 514;
one of the five members, 535
Holy League, the, 363
Hooker, his _Ecclesiastical Polity_, 472
Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester, refuses to wear vestments, 417;
receives the bishopric of Worcester, 418;
speaks of his dioceses as the king's, 420;
burnt, 424
Hotham, Sir John, shuts the gates of Hull against Charles I., 537
Hough, chosen President of Magdalen College, 641
Houghton, prior of the Charterhouse, execution of, 394
Hounslow, James II. reviews regiments at, 643
Howard of Effingham, Charles Howard, Lord, commands the fleet
against the Armada, 460;
takes part in the capture of Cadiz, 464
Howard of Escrick, Edward Howard, Lord, informs against the Whigs, 625
_Hudibras_, 597
Huguenots, the, supported by Elizabeth, 436;
Buckingham lends ships to fight against, 504
Hull, its gates shut against Charles I., 537;
besieged by Newcastle, 542
Huntley, George Gordon, fourth Earl of, overpowered by Mary, 437
_Humble Petition and Advice_, the, 573
Hurst Castle, Charles I. imprisoned in, 557
Hyde, Anne, marries the Duke of York, 608
Images, destruction of, 398
Impeachment of Bacon, 496;
of Buckingham, Montague and Manwaring, 511;
of Strafford, 530;
of twelve bishops, 535;
of the five members, 536;
of Laud, 546;
of Danby, 616;
pardon not to be pleaded in bar of, 617
Impositions, the New, first levy of, 484;
question of the legality of, 505;
act preventing the king from levying, 531
Inclosures, More's attack on, 368;
Ket's rebellion directed against, 416;
cessation of complaints against, 464
Independents, the, originally known as Separatists, 543;
driven from the House, and reinstated by the army, 555;
are unpopular after the Restoration, 584
Infanta, the, _see_ Maria, the Infanta
_Instrument of Government, the_, 568
Inverlochy, battle of, 547
Ipswich, Wolsey's college at, founded, 377;
sold by Henry VIII., 383
Ireland, under Henry VIII., 401;
legislation of Henry VIII. in, 402;
destruction of relics and images in, _ib._;
conquest of a great part of, 404;
Henry VIII. named king of, _ib._;
under Edward VI. and Mary, 451;
introduction of English colonists into, 452;
landing of Sir James Fitzmaurice in, _ib._;
the slaughter at Smerwick, and the Desmond rising in, 453;
O'Neill's rising in, 475;
Essex's invasion of, _ib._;
Mountjoy's conquest of, 478;
plantation of Ulster in, 484;
Wentworth's government of, 527, 528;
army collected by Strafford in, 529;
insurrection in, 533;
massacre in, 534;
the confederate Catholics in, 541;
Glamorgan's mission to, 549;
Rinuccini in, 550;
soldiers asked to volunteer for, 553;
Cromwell in, 562;
Ireton and Ludlow in, 567;
act of settlement in, 595;
James II. supported by the Celtic population of, 640
Ireton draws up _The Heads of the Proposals_, 555;
in Ireland, 563
Italy, the French wars in, 363;
the French driven from, 364
Jamaica, conquest of, 572
James I., King of Great Britain (_see_ James VI., king of Scotland),
becomes king of England, 481;
imprisons Raleigh, _ib._;
attacks the Puritans at Hampton Court, 482;
quarrels with his first House of Commons, _ib._;
obtains a legal decision in the case of the _Post-nati_, 483;
his government of Ireland, 484;
his financial difficulties, _ib._;
makes Somerset his favourite, 486;
offers to bargain with the Addled Parliament, 487;
negotiates a Spanish marriage for his son, 488;
makes Buckingham a favourite, _ib._;
sends Raleigh to execution, 489;
watches the development of the Thirty Years' War, and summons
Parliament to vote supplies, 490;
his views on the prerogative, 492;
sells peerages, 494;
improvement of the finances of, _ib._;
revokes monopolies, 495;
sends Digby to Germany and dissolves Parliament, 496;
raises a benevolence, 497;
his last Parliament, 500;
seeks to marry his son to a French princess, 501;
death of, _ib._
James II., as Duke of York, declares himself a Roman Catholic, 600;
his conversion known, 607;
resigns the Admiralty, _ib._;
marriages of, 608;
attempt to exclude from the throne, 617;
his cruelty to the Scottish covenanters, 620;
is present at his brother's death, 627;
accession of, 634;
first acts of the reign of, 635;
marches against Monmouth, 637;
violates the Test Act and prorogues Parliament 638;
claims the dispensing power and establishes an ecclesiastical
commission, 639;
his government of Scotland and Ireland, 640;
issues a declaration of indulgence, _ib._;
expels the Fellows of Magdalen and tries to pack a Parliament, 641;
issues a second declaration of indulgence, 642;
hears of the acquittal of the seven Bishops, 643;
birth of a son of, 644;
makes concessions on hearing of William's approach, _ib._;
attempts to escape, 645;
embarks for France, 646;
alleged virtual abdication of, _ib._
James (the old Pretender), birth of, 644
James IV., King of Scotland, killed at Flodden, 364
James V., King of Scotland, policy of, 404;
death of, 405
James VI., King of Scotland, birth and accession of, 439;
assisted by Elizabeth, 450;
becomes the tool of Lennox, 454;
is captured by Protestant lords, 455;
becomes king of England, 481;
_see_ James I., King of Great Britain
Jane Seymour marries Henry VIII., 395;
death of, 397
Jaureguy tries to murder William of Orange, 454
Jeffreys enforces the surrender of charters, 625;
sends Baxter to prison, 635;
is made Chief Justice, _ib._;
conducts the Bloody Assizes, 637;
becomes Chancellor, 638
Jesuits, the, origin of, 436;
land in England, 453;
Act of Parliament against, 456
Jones, Inigo, buildings by, 632
Jones, Michael, commands in Dublin, 562
Joyce, Cornet, carries off Charles I. from Holmby, 555
Julius II., papacy of, 363;
character of, 375
Kent, rising in, suppressed by Fairfax, 557
Keroualle, Louise de, _see_ Portsmouth, Duchess of
Ket's rebellion, 415
Kildare, Earl of, imprisonment of, 402
Kilkenny, meeting of the Confederate Catholics at, 541
Kilsyth, battle of, 549
Kimbolton, Lord, _see_ Manchester, Earl of
Kinsale, Spanish expedition to, 478
Knighthood fines, 515;
prohibited, 531
Knox, John, opinions of, 418;
urges on the Lords of the Congregation, 432;
writes _The Monstrous Regimen of Women_, _ib._;
organises the Presbyterian Church, 434;
his treatment of Mary, 438
Lambert burnt as a heretic, 399
Lambert, Major-General, defeats Booth at Winnington Bridge, 575
Langport, battle of, 548
Langside, defeat of Mary at, 440
Lansdown, battle of, 538
Latimer made Bishop of Worcester, 390;
driven from his see, 400;
sermons preached at Court by, 417;
burnt, 425
Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, character and opinions of, 516;
becomes Archbishop of Canterbury, and advises the republication of
the _Declaration of Sports_, 517;
wishes that the communion table shall stand at the East end, _ib._;
conducts a metropolitical visitation, 520;
unpopularity of, 521;
imprisonment of, 530;
execution of, 546
Lauderdale, John Maitland, Earl of, strengthens the king's authority
in Scotland, 602;
his management of Scotland, 619
League, the, formed against Henry of Navarre, 456
Leicester, Robert Dudley, Earl of, favoured by Elizabeth, 435;
made Earl of Leicester, 438;
commands an army in the Netherlands, 457
Leighton punished by the Star Chamber, 514
Leith, surrender of the French garrison of, 433
Lely, Sir Peter, portraits by, 631
Lennox, Esmè Stuart, Duke of, favourite of James VI., 455
Lennox, Matthew Stuart, Earl of, Regent of Scotland, 443
Lenthall, Speaker of the Long Parliament, 536
Leo X., Pope, character of, 375
Leopold I., Emperor, marries the daughter of Philip IV. of Spain, 592
Leslie, David, overthrows Montrose, 549;
is defeated at Dunbar, 563
Levellers, the, 561
Leven, Alexander Leslie, Earl of, as Alexander Leslie, commands
the Scots on Dunse Law, 526;
becomes Earl of Leven, and invades England, 542
Leyden, relief of, 449;
congregation of English Separatists at, 489
Linacre, promotes the study of Greek at Oxford, 367
Lincoln, stormed by Manchester, 542
Lindsey, Robert Bertie, Earl of, fails to relieve Rochelle, 510
Lisle, Alice, execution of, 637
Litany, the English, composed by Cranmer, 409
Loch Leven Castle, Mary imprisoned in, 410
London, Lady Jane Grey unpopular in, 420;
provides ships instead of money for the ship-money fleet, 523;
welcomes Charles I. on his return from Scotland, 534, 535;
declares against Charles I., 536;
sends out trained bands to Gloucester, 539;
attaches itself to the Presbyterian party, 555;
influences the Whigs in, 622;
Tory elections in, 623;
forfeiture of the charter of, 624;
growth of, 629;
condition of the streets of, 631;
restoration of the charter of, 644
Lords, House of, results of the disappearance of the abbots from, 400;
a bill thrown out for removing the bishops from, 533;
bishops excluded from, 536;
refuses to join in constituting a High Court of Justice, 557;
dissolution of, 561;
imprisons Shaftesbury, 612;
discusses the abdication of James II., 646
Lords of the Congregation, rise against Mary of Guise, 432;
are helped by Elizabeth, 433
Louis XII., King of France, Italian wars of, 363;
marriage and death of, 364
Louis XIII., King of France, negotiates for his sister's marriage, 501;
resistance of Rochelle to, 504;
besieges Rochelle, 506
Louis XIV., King of France, buys Dunkirk from Charles II, 587;
gives a slight support to the Dutch against England, 591;
his designs on the Spanish inheritance, 592;
signs the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, 599;
obtains the treaty of Dover from Charles II., 600;
invades the Dutch territory, 605;
pensions Charles II., 611;
is successful in the Netherlands, 613;
sends money to Charles II. to prevent the summoning of a
parliament, 627;
offers financial help to James II., 635;
revokes the Edict of Nantes, 638;
offers to send his fleet to help James II., 644
Lowestoft, battle off, 590
Loyola, Ignatius, founds the Jesuit Society, 437
Ludlow, Edmund, in Ireland, 563
Lunsford, Thomas, Lieutenant of the Tower, 535
Luther, Martin, opposes the Papacy, 377;
has a controversy with Henry VIII., 379
Lutheranism, character of, 376, 377;
its influence in England, 396
Lutter, Christian IV. defeated at, 506
Madrid, journey of Prince Charles to, 497
Magdalen College, Oxford, expulsion of the Fellows of, 641;
restoration of the Fellows of, 644
Maitland of Lethington, William, opposes the Presbyterian clergy, 434
Major-generals, the, 571
Manchester, Edward Montague, Earl of, impeached, as Lord Kimbolton, 535;
brought back to Westminster, 536;
becomes Earl of Manchester and is placed in command of the Eastern
Association, 542;
attacked by Cromwell, 544;
resigns his command, 545
Mansfeld, Count, failure of his expedition, 501
Manwaring, Roger, impeached, 511;
receives a good living from Charles I., 512
Margaret, daughter of Henry VII., excluded from the succession, 411
Margaret Theresa, daughter of Philip IV., marries Leopold I., and
renounces the Spanish succession, 592
Maria, the Infanta, proposal to marry her to Prince Charles, 488;
shrinks from marrying a heretic, 497;
is courted by Charles, 498
Maria Theresa, daughter of Philip IV., marries Louis XIV., and
renounces the Spanish succession, 592
Marignano, battle of, 366
Marlborough, John Churchill, Duke of, as Lord Churchill, deserts
James II., 645
Marprelate Tracts, the, 470
Marston Moor, battle of, 543
Mary I., daughter of Henry VIII., as princess, successively engaged to
Francis I. and his second son, 374;
her place in the succession acknowledged by statute, 411;
protected by Charles V., 414;
popularity of, 420;
is proclaimed queen, 421;
her feelings and opinions, _ib._;
wishes to restore the Church lands, 422;
is married to Philip II., 423;
obtains the reconciliation of England to the Roman see, 424;
supports the persecution of Protestants, _ib._;
resolves to put Cranmer to death, 425;
deserted by her husband, 426;
declares war with France, 427;
death of, _ib._
Mary II., birth of, 608;
her hand offered to William of Orange, 609;
marriage of, 613;
finds fault with Danby, 646;
the crown offered to, 647
Mary, daughter of Henry VII., marriages of, 364;
her place in the succession acknowledged in exclusion of her
sister Margaret, 411
Mary of Guise, Regent of Scotland, her contests with the
Protestants, 432;
death of, 433
Mary of Modena marries the Duke of York, 608
Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, birth of, 405;
taken to France and married to the Dauphin, 413;
assumes the style of Queen of England, 433;
returns to Scotland, 434, 435;
character of, 437;
marries Lord Darnley, 438;
being charged with the murder of Darnley, marries Bothwell, 439;
imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle, 440;
escapes to England, _ib._;
is retained as a prisoner, 441;
marriage with the Duke of Norfolk, proposed for, _ib._;
Ridolfi's plot on behalf of, 445;
trial of, 457;
execution of, 458
Massey, Roman Catholic Dean of Christchurch, 639
Matthias, the Emperor, resistance of the Bohemians to, 490
Maximilian I., Emperor, Italian wars of, 363;
death of, 369
Mayflower, the, voyage of, 490
Maynard, Sergeant, his answer to William III., 646
Mayne, Cuthbert, execution of, 453
Maynooth taken by Skeffington, 402
Mazarin, Cardinal, makes an alliance with Cromwell, 572
Medina Sidonia, Duke of, commands the Spanish Armada, 460;
is received by Philip II. after his defeat, 462
Medway, the, the Dutch in, 593
Melville, Andrew, insults James VI., 525
Mendoza sent out of England by Elizabeth, 456
Metropolitical Visitation, the, 520
Middlesex, Lionel Cranfield, Earl of, improves the finances of
James I., 494;
impeachment of, 500
Milan, struggle between Charles V. and Francis I. for, 371
Militia, the, struggle for the command of, 536;
the Scots urge Charles I. to abandon, 552
Millenary Petition, the, 482
Milton writes _Comus_, 519;
writes _Areopagitica_, 546;
writes a sonnet on the Vaudois, 572;
publishes _Paradise Lost_, 596
Mompesson, Sir Giles, flies from the kingdom, 495
Monasteries, dissolution of the smaller, 394;
surrender of some of the greater, 397;
completion of the suppression of, 400
Monk, _see_ Albemarle, Duke of
Monmouth, Duke of, proposed as heir to the crown, 618;
defeats the Covenanters at Bothwell Bridge, 620;
refuses to take part in acts of violence, 624;
implicated in a Whig plot, 625;
rebellion and execution of, 637
Monopolies, the, Elizabeth recalls some of, 478;
attacked by Parliament in the reign of James I., 494;
revocation of, 495;
Act of, 500
Monro, Major-General Robert, holds Carrickfergus, 541
Montague, Chief Justice, becomes Lord Treasurer, 494
Montague, Ralph, accuses Danby, 616
Montague, Richard, impeached, 511;
made a bishop, 512
Montrose, James Graham, Marquis of, his campaign in the
Highlands, 547, 549;
execution of, 563
More, Sir Thomas, writes _Utopia_, 367;
in favour with Henry VIII., 368;
is Speaker of the House of Commons, 371;
becomes Chancellor, 387;
his displeasure with the Protestants, 388;
resigns the chancellorship, _ib._;
is sent to the Tower, 392;
execution of, 394
Morley, Bishop, sermons of, 548
Mountjoy, Charles Blount, Lord, conquers Ireland, 478
Mountnorris, Francis Annesley, Lord, court martial on, 528
Munster, attempt to colonise, 475
Münster, the Bishop of, overruns two Dutch provinces, 591
Murray, Earl of, is driven into England, 438;
returns to Scotland, 439;
becomes Regent, 440;
produces the Casket letters, _ib._;
assassinated, 441
Nantwich, battle of, 542
Naseby, battle of, 548
Navarre conquered by Ferdinand of Aragon, 364
Navigation Act, the, passing of, 565;
re-enactment of, 589
Navy, the English, defeats the Spanish Armada, 460-464;
equipped by means of ship-money, 523;
desertion of part of, to the Prince of Wales, 557;
Blake in command of, 565;
its contests with the Dutch, 591;
deterioration in the discipline of, 605
Netherlands, the, inherited by Philip II., 426;
Alva's government of, 443;
beginning of the Dutch Republic in, 449;
division into two parts, 450;
_see_ Netherlands, the Spanish, and Dutch Republic
Netherlands, the Spanish, Alexander of Parma in, 450
New Amsterdam captured by the English, 589
New England, colonisation of, 489
New Model Army, _see_ Army, the New Model
New York, named after the Duke of York, 589;
secured to England, 593
Newark surrenders to the Scots, 551
Newburn, rout of, 529
Newbury, first battle of, 539;
second battle of, 544
Newcastle, Charles I. at, 551
Newcastle, William Cavendish, Earl, afterwards Marquis of, commands
a Royalist army in Yorkshire, and defeats the Fairfaxes at
Adwalton Moor, 538;
is created Marquis, and besieges Hull, 542;
besieged in York, _ib._;
defeated at Marston Moor, 543
Newport, the treaty of, 557
Newton, Sir Isaac, 632
No Addresses, vote of, 556
Non-resistance Bill, the, 611
Norfolk, resistance to the Amicable Loan in, 372;
Ket's rebellion in, 415
Norfolk, Thomas Howard, second Duke of, defeats the Scots, as Earl
of Surrey, at Flodden, 364
Norfolk, Thomas Howard, third Duke of, opposes Wolsey, 383;
charges Cromwell with treason, 401;
wastes the Scottish Borders, 405;
condemned to death, 411
Norfolk, Thomas Howard, fourth Duke of, sent to the Tower, 441;
is liberated and proposes to marry Mary Stuart, 444;
arrested, 445;
executed, 446
Norris, Sir John, joins Drake in sacking Corunna, 464
North Foreland, battle off, 591
Northumberland, John Dudley, Duke of, as Earl of Warwick, overpowers
Ket's rebellion, 416;
leads the government after Somerset's fall, _ib._;
becomes Duke of Northumberland, 418;
supports Lady Jane Grey, 420;
execution of, 421
Northumberland, Thomas Percy, Earl of, takes part in the rising
of the North, 441
Nottingham, Charles I. sets up his standard at, 537
Nymwegen, peace of, 615
Oates, Titus, tells the story of the Popish Plot, 615
O'Donnell, Rory, flight of, 484
O'Neill, Hugh, defeats Bagenal at the Blackwater, 475;
submission of, 478;
flight of, 484
O'Neill, Shan, defeat of, 452
Orleans, Henrietta, Duchess of, negotiates the Treaty of Dover, 600
Ormond, Thomas Butler, Marquis of, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 542;
abandons Ireland to Parliament, 562;
returns to Ireland, _ib._
Overbury, Sir Thomas, poisoned, 488
Oxford, study of Greek in the University of, 367;
Parliament adjourned to, 502;
headquarters of Charles I. at, 537;
Parliament held at, during the Plague, 590;
the third Short Parliament meets at, 621;
Roman Catholic propaganda of James II. in, 639
Painting, mainly in the hands of foreigners, during the Stuart
period, 631
Palatinate, the, Spinola's invasion of, 490;
Imperialist invasion of 496;
loss of, 497;
failure of the negotiation to induce the king of Spain to obtain
the restitution of, 500;
attempt to send Mansfeld to recover, 501
Papacy, the, immorality of, 375;
legislation against the payment of annates and Peter's pence
to, 388, 390
Papal jurisdiction in England, abolition of, 389, 391
_Paradise Lost_, publication of, 596
Paris submits to Henry IV., 464
Parker, Matthew, becomes Archbishop of Canterbury, 429;
character and position of, 430
Parker, Samuel, Bishop of Oxford, a secret Roman Catholic, 639;
intrusive President of Magdalen College, 641
Parliament, relations of Henry VIII. with, 385;
relations of Elizabeth with, 444;
the Addled, 485;
the Short, 528;
the Long, 529;
formation of parties in, 532;
struggles with Charles I. for the militia, 536;
raises forces against the king, 537;
tries to disband the army, 553;
its speakers take refuge with the army, 555;
dissolution of, by Cromwell, 566;
the Barebone's, _ib._;
the first, of the Protectorate, 570;
the second, of the Protectorate, 572;
Richard Cromwell's, 574;
restoration of the Long, 575;
final dissolution of the Long, 576;
the first convention, 577-584;
the Cavalier, 585;
supports the Church more than the king, 586;
rejects the declaration of Charles II. in favour of toleration, 587;
Albemarle resists the dissolution of, 599;
opposes James II., 638;
James II. attempts to pack, 641
Parma, Alexander Farnese, Prince of, governor of the Spanish
Netherlands, 450;
gains ground in the Netherlands, 454-456;
takes Antwerp, 456;
takes Zutphen, 457;
hopes to transport an army to England, 459;
blockaded by the Dutch, 462;
sent to aid the League, 464
Parris, Van, burnt, 419
Parsons, Robert, lands in England, 453;
escapes, 454
Parsons, Sir William, one of the Lords Justices in Ireland, 533
Parties, Parliamentary, formation of, 532;
development of, 610, 628
Paulet, Sir Amias, refuses to put Mary Stuart to death, 457
Pavia, battle of, 372
Penn and Venables, expedition of, to the West Indies, 571
Pennsylvania, colonisation of, 629
Penruddock captures the judges at Salisbury, 571
Penry, John, hanged, 472
Pepys pities dissenters, 588
Perth, the five articles of, 525
Peter Martyr teaches in England, 416
Peter's Pence, abolition of, 391
Petition of Right, the, 508
Petitioners, party name of, 620
Philip II., King of Spain, marries Mary, 423;
abdication of Charles V. in favour of, 426;
deserts Mary, _ib._;
induces Mary to declare war against France, 427;
makes peace with France, 431;
proposes to marry Elizabeth, 432;
persecutes the Protestants in the Netherlands, 443;
annexes Portugal, and shares in a plot for the invasion of England
and the murder of Elizabeth, 454;
undertakes the invasion of England, 456;
claims the English crown, 458;
appoints a commander for the Armada, 460;
supports the League in France, 464
Philip III., King of Spain, James I. seeks an alliance with, 488
Philip IV., King of Spain, receives Prince Charles, and negotiates
with the Pope about his sister's marriage, 497;
consults theologians, 498;
informs Charles of his terms, 500;
death of, 592
Philiphaugh, battle of, 549
Philip's Norton, Monmouth at, 637
Pilgrim Father, the, 489
_Pilgrim's Progress_, publication of, 596
Pilgrimage of Grace, the, 396, 397
Pinkie Cleugh, battle of, 413
Pius V., Pope, excommunicates Elizabeth, 441
Plague, the, devastations of, 590
Plymouth held by a Parliamentary garrison, 538
Pole, Reginald, opposes Henry VIII. and becomes a cardinal, 399;
as Papal legate reconciles England to the see of Rome, 424;
becomes archbishop of Canterbury, 426;
death of, 427
Ponet made Bishop of Winchester, 416
Popish Plot, the, 615
Portland, Richard Weston, Earl of, as Lord Weston, becomes Lord
Treasurer, 514;
made Earl of Portland and dies, 521
Portsmouth, Louise de Keroualle, Duchess of, betrays the secrets
of Charles II., 602;
extravagance of, 603
Portugal subdued by Philip II., 454
_Post-nati_, the, 483
Powick Bridge, skirmish at, 537
Poyntz, Major-General, defeats Charles I. at Rowton Heath, 549
Prayer Book, the, _see_ Common Prayer, Book of
Prayer Book, the Scottish, introduced by Charles I., 525
Prerogative, the, opinion of James I. about, 492
Presbyterian clergy, the, prepared to accept a modified episcopacy, 583;
expelled from their livings, 585;
proposal of Charles II. to obtain comprehension for, 599
Presbyterian party, the, in a majority in the House of Commons, 546;
attempts to disband the army, 553;
negotiates with the Scots for a fresh invasion of England, 554;
generally accepts the Prayer Book, 586
Presbyterianism emanates from Geneva, 430;
its organisation completed in France, 431;
adopted in Scotland, 434;
attempts to establish, in England, 470;
feeling in the Long Parliament about, 532;
adopted by the Assembly of Divines, 543;
Charles I. urged to establish in England, 551
Preston, Cromwell's victory at, 557
Prichard, Lord Mayor, 624
Pride's Purge, 557
Privilege of Parliament, Strickland's case of, 445;
Eliot's vindication of the, 512
Privy Council, the, Temple's scheme for reforming, 617
Prophesyings, the, 450
Protectorate, establishment of the, 568
Protestants, the English, feeling of Henry VIII. and More towards, 388;
parties amongst, 413;
the Marian persecution of, 424;
local distribution of, 426;
their position at Elizabeth's accession, 428;
influence of Calvinism on, 430
Prynne, character and writings of, 519;
his sentence in the Star Chamber, _ib._;
second sentence on, 521
Pularoon, refusal of the Dutch to surrender, 589;
abandoned by the English, 593
Puritans, the, aims of, 444;
gain influence in the House of Commons, 445, 468;
the Court of High Commission directed against, 470;
opinions of, at the Hampton Court Conference, 482;
unpopular after the restoration, 586
Purveyance, abolition of, 582
Pym differs from Eliot on the method of dealing with the question of
Tonnage and Poundage, 512;
addresses the Short Parliament on grievances, 529;
proposes in the Long Parliament the impeachment of Strafford, _ib._;
his view of Strafford's case, 530;
discloses the army plot, 531;
is one of the leaders of the party of the Grand Remonstrance, 534;
accused as one of the five members, 535;
urges the House of Commons to resist Charles I., 540;
death of, 542
_Quo warranto_, writs of, 624, 625
Raleigh, Sir Walter, takes part in the capture of Cadiz, 464;
sentenced to death and imprisonment, 481;
loses Sherborne, 486;
voyage to Guiana and execution of, 499;
his colony in Virginia, _ib._
Ré, Buckingham's expedition to, 506
Reading taken by Essex, 538
Reading, the abbot of, executed, 400
Recusancy laws, the, penalties inflicted by, 454
Regicides, the, execution of, 582
Reims, College at, 453
Relics, destruction of, 398
Renascence, the, character of, 366;
its influence on England, 367;
immorality of, 374, 375
Requesens, governor of the Netherlands, 449
Ruyter, De, captures English forts in Guinea, 589
Revenue of the crown fixed after the Restoration, 582
Revolution of 1688-9, 646-648
Ridley made Bishop of London, 416;
burnt, 425
Ridolfi plot, the, 444
Rinuccini, Archbishop, arrives in Ireland, 550;
leaves Ireland, 562
Ripon, treaty of, 529
Rising in the North, the, 441
Rizzio, David, murder of, 439
Roads, improvement in, 633
Rochelle, Buckingham lends ships to fight against the Huguenots of, 504;
siege of, 506;
expedition to the relief of, 510
Rochester, Lawrence Hyde, Earl of, advises against the summoning
of Parliament, 626;
dismissal of, 640
Rogers, John, burnt, 424
Rome taken by the Duke of Bourbon, 374
Root and Branch Bill, the, 533
Roundway Down, battle of, 538
Rowton Heath, battle of, 549
Royal Society, the, foundation of, 598
Rump, the name given to the remnant of the Long Parliament, 565;
dissolved by Cromwell, 566;
brought back, expelled and brought back again, 575;
final dissolution of, 576
Rupert, Prince, commands the cavalry at Edgehill, 537;
storms Bristol, 538;
is defeated at Marston Moor, 543;
takes part in the battle of Naseby, 548;
surrenders Bristol, 549;
holds a command in the battle off the North Foreland, 592;
defeated off the Texel, 608
Russell, William Russell, Lord, supports the Exclusion Bill, 617;
refuses to take part in acts of violence, 624;
trial of, 625;
execution of, 626
Rye House Plot, the, 625
Sa, Dom Pantaleon, execution of, 569
St. Andrews captured by the French and recaptured, 413
St. Bartholomew, massacre of, 449
St. Bartholomew's day, ejection of the Presbyterian clergy on, 585
St. Paul's, Old, burnt, 592
Salisbury, Penruddock captures the judges at, 571
Salisbury, Robert Cecil, Earl of, as Sir Robert Cecil, secretary to
Elizabeth and James I., 480, 481;
becomes Earl of Salisbury and Lord Treasurer, 484;
orders the levy of new impositions, _ib._;
death of, 486
Salisbury, Countess of, executed, 401
San Domingo, Penn and Venables attack, 572
Santa Cruz, Blake destroys Spanish ships at, 573
Savoy Conference, the, 585
Savoy, Duke of, persecutes the Vaudois, 572
Scotland, power of the nobles in, 404;
Hertford's invasion of, 409;
Protestant missionaries in, 412;
Somerset's invasion of, 413;
the Reformation in, 432;
the intervention of Elizabeth in, 433;
Presbyterianism in, 434;
Mary lands in, 435;
Mary's government of, 437-440;
civil war in, 443;
projected union with, 482;
Episcopacy and Presbyterianism in, 524;
introduction of a new prayer book in, 525;
national covenant signed in, _ib._;
first Bishops' war with, 526;
episcopacy abolished by the Assembly and Parliament of, 527;
the second Bishops war with, 529;
visit of Charles I. to, 532;
solemn league and covenant with, 540;
sends an army into England, 542;
its army recalled, 553;
proposal of a new invasion of England by, 554;
engagement signed with Charles I. by Commissioners of, 556;
Charles II. and Cromwell in, 563;
Restoration settlement of, 595;
Lauderdale's influence in, 602;
Lauderdale's management of, 619;
Covenanters in, _ib._;
rising of the Covenanters in, 620;
under James II., 639
Scottish army, the, encamps on Dunse Law, 526;
routs the English at Newburn, 529;
invades England, 542;
besieges York, _ib._;
takes part in the battle of Marston Moor, 543;
receives Charles I. at Southwell, and conveys him to Newcastle, 551;
negotiation for the abandonment of Charles I. by, 553;
returns to Scotland, 553;
is defeated at Dunbar, 563;
and at Worcester, 564
Second Civil War, the, 556, 557
Sedgemoor, battle of, 637
Selby taken by the Fairfaxes, 542
Selden, John, takes part in drawing up the Petition of Right, 508
Self-denying Ordinance, the, 545
Seminary priests, the, 453;
Act of Parliament against, 456
Separatists, the, principles of, 470;
settlement of, in Leyden and New England, 469;
receive the name of Independents, 543;
_see_ Independents
Settlement, Irish Act of, 595
Seven Bishops, the, petition presented by, 642;
trial of, 643
Seymour, Jane, _see_ Jane Seymour
Seymour of Sudley, Lord, execution of, 415
Seymour, William, heir of the Suffolk line, 480
Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of, early life of, 602;
policy of, 603;
supports the Declaration of Indulgence, 605;
becomes Earl of Shaftesbury and Chancellor, _ib._;
his invective against the Dutch, 606;
dismissal of, 608;
leads the opposition, _ib._;
supports toleration for Dissenters only, 610;
declares the present Parliament to be dissolved, 612;
encourages belief in the Popish Plot, 616;
his position similar to that of Pym, 618;
supports the Exclusion Bill, _ib._;
indicts the Duke of York as a recusant, 621;
supported by the third Short Parliament, _ib._;
the Grand Jury throw out a Bill against, 622;
Dryden's satire on, 623;
proposes to attack the king's guards, 624;
exile and death of, _ib._
Shakspere, William, teaching of, 474
Sharp, Archbishop, murder of, 620
Sherborne taken by Fairfax, 548
Sherfield, Henry, fined by the Star Chamber, 515
Ship-money, levy of, 523;
resisted by Hampden, 524
Ships, comparison between English and Spanish, 459
Shrines, destruction of, 398
Sidney, Algernon, execution of, 626
Sidney, Sir Philip, death of, 457
Sinclair, Oliver, killed at Solway Moss, 405
Skeffington, Lord Deputy, takes Maynooth, 402
Slave trade, the, carried on by Elizabethan sailors, 447
Smerwick, slaughter at, 453
Solemn league and covenant, the, 540
Solway Moss, defeat of the Scots at, 405;
Charles I. urged by the Scots to take, 551
Somerset, Edward Seymour, Duke of, invades Scotland as Earl of
Hertford, 406;
becomes Duke of Somerset and Protector, 412;
defeats the Scots at Pinkie Cleugh, 413;
possession of Church property by, 415;
expelled from the Protectorate, 416;
execution of, 418
Somerset, Robert Carr, Earl of, favourite of James I., 486;
disgrace of, 488
Somerset House, building of, 435
Southwell, Charles I. surrenders to the Scots at, 551
Southwold Bay, battle in, 605
Spain, resources of, 426;
maritime power of, 447;
authority of, in the West Indies challenged by English sailors, _ib._;
navy of, 459;
English attacks on, 464;
sends an expedition to Kinsale, 478;
its alliance sought by James I., 486;
attack of Raleigh on the colonies of, 489;
sends troops to occupy the Palatinate, 490;
protest of the Commons against an alliance with, 496;
visit of Prince Charles to, 497;
eagerness in England for war with, 500;
money voted for war with, 501;
expedition against Cadiz in, 503;
Charles I. makes peace with, 514;
Cromwell makes war on, 571;
question of the succession to, 592
Spenser, Edmund, his _Faerie Queen_, 473
Spinola, Ambrogio, invades the Palatinate, 490
Spurs, battle of the, 364
Stadholder, office of, 449;
abolition of the office of, 565
Stainer, Admiral, captures a Spanish fleet, 572
Star Chamber, Court of, its sentences in the reign of
Charles I., 514, 519, 521;
abolition of, 531
Stillingfleet aims at comprehension, 598
Stop of the Exchequer, the, 604
Stow-on-the-Wold, surrender of the last Royalist army at, 550
Stafford, William Howard, Viscount, execution of, 621
Strafford, Thomas Wentworth, Earl of, as Sir Thomas Wentworth, his
policy contrasted with that of Eliot, 508;
brings in a bill to secure the liberty of the subject, _ib._;
becomes Lord Wentworth and President of the Council of the North, 514;
becomes Lord Deputy of Ireland, 527;
created Earl of Strafford, and advises the summoning of the Short
Parliament, 528;
does not advise the prolongation of the second Bishops war, 529;
collects an Irish army, _ib._;
is impeached, 530;
Bill of Attainder against, _ib._;
execution of, 531
Stratton, battle of, 538
Strickland moves for an amendment of the Prayer Book, 445
Strode, William, one of the five members, 535
Submission of the clergy, the, 386
Succession, Act of, 392
Suffolk, Charles Brandon, Duke of, marries Mary, sister of
Henry VIII., 364
Suffolk, Thomas Howard, Earl of, 486
Suffolk line, its title to the succession, 410;
Elizabeth's feeling towards, 435;
William Seymour, the heir of, 480
Supremacy, Act of, 393;
Elizabethan Act of, 429
Supreme head of the Church of England, title of, conferred by
Convocation on Henry VIII., 386;
abandoned by Elizabeth, 429
Surrey, Henry Howard, Earl of, execution of, 411
Surrey, Thomas Howard, Earl of, minister of Henry VIII., 363
Surrey, Thomas Howard, Earl of, the commander at Flodden, _see_
Norfolk, Duke of
Sussex, Thomas Ratcliffe, Earl of, Lord Deputy of Ireland, 452
Sweden takes part in the Triple Alliance, 599
Tangier acquired by Charles II., 587
Taunton, siege of, 548
Taylor, Rowland, burnt, 424
Temple, Sir William, negotiates the Triple Alliance, 599;
advises the reform of the Privy Council, 617;
failure of his scheme, 620
Terouenne, 364
Test Act, the, passed, 607;
a second, 616;
violated by James II., 638
Texel, the, Rupert defeated off, 608
Thirty Years' War, the, beginning of, 490;
end of, 564
Thomas of Canterbury, St., destruction of the shrine of, 398
Throgmorton's conspiracy, 456
Tippermuir, battle of, 547
Tithes, proposal of the Barebone's Parliament to abolish, 567
Toleration, Cromwell's advocacy of, 543;
Charles II. proposes to adopt, 583;
Charles II. issues a declaration in favour of, 587;
tendency of science to promote, 598
Tonnage and Poundage, nature of, 509;
claimed by Charles I. in spite of the Petition of Right, 510;
Act preventing the king from levying, 531
Torbay, arrival of William III. in, 644
Tory party, the, origin of the name of, 620;
reaction in favour of, 622;
elects officers in the city, 623;
gains a majority in the Common Council, 624
Tournai, 364
Treasons, Act creating new, 392
Trent, the Council of, 436
Triennial Act of Charles I., the, 530;
repealed, 588
Triers, Commission of, 569
Trimmer, origin of the name of, 618
Triple Alliance, the, 599
Tulchan bishops, the, 524
Tunis, Blake sent against, 571
Turnham Green, the militia of the city resist Charles I. at, 537
Tuscany, Duke of, Blake sent against, 571
Tyndale, William, translates the New Testament, 396
Tyrconnel, Earl of, _see_ O'Donnell
Tyrconnel, Richard Talbot, Earl of, Lord Deputy in Ireland, 640
Tyrone, Earl of, _see_ O'Neill, Hugh
Ulster, plantation of, 484;
insurrection and massacre in, 534
Undertakers, the, 487
Uniformity, Elizabethan Act of, 429;
Restoration Act of, 585
Universities consulted on the divorce of Henry VIII., 385
_Utopia_, 367
Utrecht, union of, 450
Valentine takes part in holding down the Speaker, 514
Vandevelde paints marine subjects, 631
Van Dyck, portraits by, 631
Vane, Sir Henry, the younger, produces evidence against Strafford, 530;
negotiates the Solemn League and Covenant, 540;
brings in a Reform bill, 566
Vaudois, the, Cromwell intervenes in favour of, 572
Venice, League of Cambrai formed against, 363
Venner's plot, 584
Vere, Sir Horace, defends the Palatinate, 490
Verrio paints ceilings, 631
Vestments, ecclesiastical, Hooper's rejection of, 417;
Puritan resistance to the use of, 444;
Whitgift's opinion on the propriety of, 468
Virginia, colonisation of, 489
Vote of No Addresses, 556
Walker, Obadiah, Roman Catholic Master of University College, 639
Waller, Sir William, defeated at Lansdown and Roundway Down, 538;
takes Arundel Castle and defeats Hopton at Cheriton, 542;
fights at Cropredy Bridge, 544;
resigns his command, 545
Walsingham, Sir Francis, Secretary to Elizabeth, 457
Warwick, Earl of, _see_ Northumberland, Duke of
Wentworth, Sir Thomas, _see_ Strafford, Earl of Wentworth, Thomas
Wentworth, Lord, governor of Calais, 427
Wesley, Samuel, sermon by, 642
West Indies, the, conflicts between English and Spanish sailors in, 447
Weston, Lord, _see_ Portland, Earl of
Westphalia, Peace of, 564
Westmorland, Charles Neville, Earl of, takes part in the rising
of the North, 441
Westward Ho! 447
Wexford, slaughter at, 563
Whig party, the, origin of the name of, 620;
has a hold on the city of London, 622
'Whip with six strings, the,' 400
Whitgift, John, Archbishop of Canterbury, opinions of, 468;
the High Commission Court under, 470;
compared with Hooker, 472
Wilkins, Bishop, aims at comprehension, 598
William I., Prince of Orange, Stadholder of the Dutch republic, 449;
Jaureguy's attempt to murder, 454;
murdered by Gerard, 456
William II., Prince of Orange, death of, 565
William III., Prince of Orange, defends the Dutch republic, 605;
is offered the hand of Mary, daughter of the Duke of York, 608;
at the head of a continental alliance, 609;
marriage of, 613;
invited to England, 644;
lands at Brixham and marches on London, 645;
arrives at Whitehall, 646;
the crown offered to, 647
Williams, John, Archbishop of York, impeachment of, 535
Winceby, fight at, 542
Winchester taken by Cromwell, 549
Winnington Bridge, Booth defeated at, 575
Wishart, George, burnt, 413
Witt, John de, Pensionary of Holland, 589;
negotiates the Triple Alliance, 599;
murder of, 605
Wolsey, Thomas, Cardinal, rise of, 363;
magnificence of, 364;
supports a policy of peace, 365, 366;
comes into the House of Commons, 371;
becomes unpopular on account of the Amicable Loan, 372;
secures his position by an alliance with France, 374;
aspires to the papacy, 375;
is named legate _a latere_, _ib._;
his views on Church reform, 376;
founds two colleges, 377;
fails to persuade Henry VIII. to abandon Anne Boleyn, 380;
is appointed legate to try Henry's divorce, 382;
fall of, 383;
death of, 384
Worcester, battle of, 564
Wren, Sir Christopher, buildings by, 632
Wriothesley, Lord Chancellor, excluded from the Council, 412
Wyatt, Sir Thomas, rebellion and execution of, 423
York, Charles I. at, 537;
siege of, 542
York, James, Duke of, _see_ James II.
Zutphen, death of Sir Philip Sidney at, 457
Zwingli, teaching of, 390
Zwinglianism, spread of, in England, 399;
Cranmer's attitude towards, 416
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