CHAPTER XVII.

THE REIGN OF JAMES I.

The Stuart Dynasty--Hopes and Fears caused by the Accession of

James--The King enters England--His Progress to London--Lavish

Creation of Peers and Knights--The Royal Entrance into the

Metropolis--The Coronation--Popularity of Queen Anne--Ravages

of the Plague--The King Receives Foreign Embassies--Rivalry

of the Diplomatists of France and Spain--Discontent of

Raleigh, Northumberland, and Cobham--Conspiracies against

James--"The Main" and "The Bye"--Trials of the Conspirators--The

Sentences--Conference with Puritans--Parliament of

1604--Persecution of Catholics and Puritans--Gunpowder

Plot--Admission of fresh Members--Delays and Devices--The

Letter to Lord Mounteagle--Discovery of the Plot--Flight of the

Conspirators--Their Capture and Execution--New Penal Code--James's

Correspondence with Bellarmine--Cecil's attempts to get

Money--Project of Union between England and Scotland--The King's

Collisions with Parliament--Insurrection of the Levellers--Royal

Extravagance and Impecuniosity--Fresh Disputes with Parliament and

Assertions of the Prerogative--Death of Cecil--Story of Arabella

Stuart--Death of Prince Henry.

With the Stuart dynasty begins a new order of things. The direct line of

the Tudors ceased in Elizabeth, and the collateral one of the Stuarts

introduced the kings of Scotland to the English throne. After all the

ages of conflict to unite the two kingdoms under one crown, it was

effected, but in the reverse direction to that in which the monarchs

of England had striven. They had not mounted the throne of Scotland,

but Scotland sent her king to rule over England. With Elizabeth and the

Tudors terminated the reign of almost unresisted absolutism; with James

commenced that mighty struggle for constitutional liberty which did not

cease till it had expelled his dynasty from the throne, and placed on a

firm basis the independence of the people.

With great haste various messengers flew to Scotland to announce the

demise of Elizabeth; the winner in the race of loyalty, or, in other

words, of self-interest, being, as we have seen, Sir Robert Carey, to

whom the artifice of his sister, Lady Scrope, had communicated the

earliest news of the queen's decease. He reached Edinburgh four days

before Sir Charles Percy and Thomas Somerset, who were despatched

officially by the Council. Meanwhile, on March 24th, 1603, Cecil

assembled thirty-five individuals--members of Council, peers, prelates,

and officers of State--at Whitehall, and accompanied by the lord mayor

and aldermen, proclaimed James VI. of Scotland James I. of England, first

in front of Westminster Palace, and then at the High Cross, in Cheapside.

There were some who were apprehensive that the accession of James might

be opposed by the noblemen who had been so active in the death of his

mother. But these had taken care to make their peace with the facile

James, whose filial affection was not of an intensity to weigh much in

the scales with the crown of England. On the contrary, his accession

was hailed with apparent enthusiasm by all parties, for all parties

believed that they should reap decided advantages from his government.

The persecuted Catholics felt certain that the son of the queen of Scots

would at least tolerate their religion, as he had many a time privately

assured their agents. The Puritans were equally confident that a king

who had been educated in the strictest faith of Calvinism, would place

them in the ascendant. The Episcopal church--as it deemed, on equally

good grounds--rejoiced in the advent of a prince who had protested to

its friends that he was heartily sick of a religion which had domineered

over both his mother and himself with an iron rigidity. The populace, in

the hope of a milder yoke than that of the truculent Tudors, gave vent to

their joy in loud acclamations, by bonfires and ringing of bells, while

Elizabeth was lying a corpse, scarcely cold, on her bier.

James, who was in his thirty-seventh year, was transported at the

prospect of his escape from the poverty and religious restraint of

Scotland, to the affluence of so much more extensive an empire, and

one impediment alone checked his flight southward--the want of money

for the journey. He sent a speedy message to Cecil for the necessary

funds, and also added a request for the transmission of the Crown jewels

for the adornment of his wife. The money was forwarded, but the jewels

were prudently withheld till he reached his future capital. Once in

possession of the means of locomotion, James did not conceal his pleasure

at escaping from the control of his Presbyterian clergy and the haughty

rudeness of his nobles, to an accession of wealth and power which he

imagined would make him as absolute as Henry VIII., a condition for which

he had an intense yearning.

On the 5th of April James commenced his journey towards London, but

however much he rejoiced in the prospect of his new kingdom, he was in

no haste to reach the capital. The moment that he set foot in England

he seemed to have realised the full luxury of his new sovereignty, and

announced to those about him that they had indeed at last arrived at

the Land of Promise. At Berwick he fired a piece of ordnance himself

in his joy, which seemed for the moment to have raised him above his

constitutional timidity; and he then sate down and wrote to Cecil,

informing him of his progress, and of his intention to take York and

other places on his way. As he intended to enter York and pass through

other towns in state, he pressed on the obsequious minister the necessity

of forwarding to him coaches, litters, horses, jewels, and all that

was requisite for regal dignity, as well as a lord chamberlain; and he

forthwith appointed to that office the lord Thomas Howard. He stayed

three days at York, and did not reach Newark till the 21st of the month.

Cecil had met him at York, and accompanied his progress; and as he rode

forward the people crowded around to welcome their new sovereign with

the most hearty acclamations. To express his satisfaction to the gentry,

he made almost every man of any standing who approached him a knight; so

that by the time he reached London he is said to have created two hundred

and fifty, and before he had been in England three months, seven hundred

knights, a profusion which much diminished the value of the gift.

[Illustration: JAMES I.]

The truth was that James, who made himself very free and easy in his

immediate circle, disliked exposure to the mob, and dealt about his

smiles and knighthoods to get rid of his throngers as soon as possible.

By the time he had reached Berwick he had knighted three persons; at

Widdrington he knighted eleven, at York thirty-one, at Worksop in

Nottinghamshire eighteen, at Newark eight, on the road thence to Belvoir

Castle four, at Belvoir forty-five. Yet gracious as he was and agreeable

as he wanted to make himself, his new subjects did not behold his person

and manner without considerable astonishment. His ungainly figure and

his equally uncouth dialect no little amazed the stately courtiers of

Elizabeth, but nevertheless they paid him the most devoted homage, as the

dispenser of all honours and of every good.

At Theobalds Cecil had the opportunity of studying James's character and

of ingratiating himself with him. A new Council was formed, and whilst

James introduced six of his own countrymen, Cecil recommended six of his

partisans to balance them. During his correspondence with James Cecil had

managed to fix in the king's mind a deep and ineradicable aversion to the

men whom he himself regarded with jealous and hostile feelings--Raleigh,

Cobham, and Grey. It was in vain that they paid their court; they were

treated with coldness, and Raleigh, instead of receiving the promotion to

which he aspired, was even deprived of the valuable office of warden of

the Stannaries. Northumberland was equally the object of Cecil's dislike,

but Bacon was warmly in his favour, and the king received him graciously.

On the 7th of July James set out for his capital, and at Stamford Hill

was met by the lord mayor and aldermen in their scarlet robes, followed

by a great crowd, and with these he entered the City, and proceeded to

the Charterhouse. He immediately caused a proclamation to be made that

all licences and monopolies granted by Elizabeth, and which had excited

so much discontent, should be suspended till they had been examined by

the Council; that all protections from the Crown to delay the progress

of justice in the courts of law should cease, as well as the abuses of

purveyance, and the oppressions of saltpetre-makers and officers of the

household. From the Charterhouse he proceeded, according to routine,

to the Tower, and thence to Greenwich and back to Whitehall, at every

step making more knights and creating peers. He had sent for the Earl

of Southampton to meet him at York, and he now restored both him and

the son of his friend the Earl of Essex to their honours and estates.

Mountjoy and three of the Howards were raised to the rank of earls; nine

new barons were created, amongst them Cecil, who was made Lord Cecil, and

afterwards Viscount Cranbourne, and finally Earl of Salisbury. Buckhurst

and Egerton were promoted; and eventually, besides his seven hundred

spick-and-span new knights, he added sixty-two fresh members to the

peerage. So extravagant was his distribution of honours that a pasquinade

was affixed to the door of St. Paul's, offering to teach weak memories

the art of recollecting the titles of the nobility.

The coronation took place on the 25th of July. James's wife, Anne of

Denmark, was crowned with him. The weather had been intensely hot, but

it now set in very rainy. To spoil the pleasure of the people, the

plague was raging in the City, and the inhabitants were by proclamation

forbidden to enter Westminster. No queen-consort had been crowned since

Anne Boleyn, nor had any king and queen been crowned together since Henry

VIII. and Catherine of Aragon, and therefore the restriction was the more

mortifying. Queen Anne went to the coronation "with her seemly hair down

hanging on her princely shoulders, and on her head a coronet of gold. She

so mildly saluted her new subjects, that the women, weeping, cried out

with one voice, 'God bless the royal queen! Welcome to England, long to

live and continue!'"

That week there died in London and the suburbs eight hundred and

fifty-seven persons of the plague. On the 5th of August James ordered

morning and evening prayers and sermons, with bonfires all night to

drive away the pestilence, not forgetting to order that all men should

praise God for his Majesty's escape that day three years before, from the

Gowrie conspiracy; and on the 10th of August he commanded that a fast,

with sermons of repentance, should be held, and repeated every week on

Wednesday so long as the plague continued.

James's pride was soon gratified by the flocking in of ambassadors

from all the great nations of Europe, soliciting his alliance; and on

the first intimation of their approach he appointed Sir Lewis Lewknor

master of the ceremonies, to receive and entertain these distinguished

persons. This was the first establishment of such an office in England.

First arrived, from Holland and the United Provinces, Prince Frederick

of Nassau son of the Prince of Orange, attended by the three able

diplomatists Valck, Barneveldt, and Brederode. James, with equally high

notions of the royal prerogative, had not the sympathy of Elizabeth

with the struggles of Protestantism abroad, and therefore regarded the

revolted Netherlanders as rebels and traitors, and did not fail amongst

his courtiers to pronounce them so; the more particularly as they owed

the English crown large sums for past assistance, which they were in

no hurry to pay. He, therefore, framed various excuses to defer their

audiences till the arrival of the envoy of the King of Spain, Count

Aremberg, who was not long in appearing, bringing the agreeable news that

the Archduke had liberated all English prisoners, as the subjects of a

friendly power. Two days after Aremberg's arrival, Henry IV.'s great

minister, the Duke of Sully, reached London. Aremberg was in no condition

to negotiate on any positive terms till he received instructions from

Spain; and Sully seized time by the forelock, by distributing amongst the

courtiers sixty thousand crowns, a considerable part of which found its

way into the queen's purse. He prevailed on James to make a treaty with

Henry IV., in which he engaged to send money to the States in aid against

the Spaniards, and join France in open hostilities should Philip attempt

to invade that country. Sully, delighted with his success--for Henry

feared nothing more than James's making peace with Spain, and leaving him

to assist Holland alone--returned to France. But a little time convinced

the French court that nothing in reality had been secured by it, for

James had no money to send to Holland had he been really so disposed,

which is doubtful, and that he merely temporised with them as he had done

with different States before.

Meantime the Court of Spain, notwithstanding the activity of France, was

slow in deciding the course of policy to be adopted towards England under

the new king. After the decided hostility towards it under Elizabeth, and

the signal defeats experienced, pride forbade Philip to solicit a peace,

lest it should look like weakness. And, indeed, Spain had never recovered

from the severe blow received in the loss of its Armada, and the other

ravages of its ports and colonies by the English, added to the loss of a

great portion of the Low Countries; and this consciousness made it more

tardy in its proceedings. But while engaged in prolonged discussions on

this head, two Englishmen arrived at the court of Spain, whose mission

was of a nature to bring it to a decision. These were Wright and Fawkes,

who were soon to assume a conspicuous position in the strife between

the Catholics and Protestants of England. Previous to the death of

Elizabeth, Thomas Winter had negotiated with the Spanish Court a plan

for the invasion of England, which had been abandoned on her decease.

Now, however, the scheme was revived, and these two emissaries were

despatched to sound the present disposition of the Court of Madrid. This

direct appeal from the conspirators seems to have startled the Spanish

Government from its wavering policy. It was not prepared for anything

so desperate, and replied that it had no cause of complaint against

James, but, on the contrary, regarded him as a friend and ally, and had

appointed the Condé de Villa Mediana as ambassador to his Court.

This was decisive, and the way now seemed open towards a more friendly

tone between Spain and England; but at the same moment a secret

and mysterious correspondence seems to have been going on between

Aremberg, the agent of the King of Spain, and a discontented party in

England. Northumberland, Cobham, and Raleigh were ill at ease under

the disappointment which they had met with in their hopes of favour at

James's Court. Northumberland had been to a certain degree graciously

received, and even entertained with promises by James; but he felt that

while Cecil was so completely in the ascendant there was little hope of

a cordial feeling towards him in the monarch's heart. Cobham and Raleigh

were undisguisedly in disgrace, and were shunned by the courtiers as

fallen men. The three friends, therefore, entered into intrigues with the

Court of France through the resident minister Beaumont, and Sully the

envoy extraordinary. For a time their suggestions were listened to, but

the apparent success of Sully with James put an end to further overtures,

and there Northumberland was prudent enough to desist. But Cobham and

Raleigh, disappointed of Court favour and burning with resentment against

Cecil--whom they felt to be the cause of their disgrace--plotted for the

overthrow of the crafty minister.

Sully, the French envoy, had, while in London, done his best to inspire

James with distrust of Cecil; and there is little doubt that this was at

the suggestion, or with the co-operation of Cobham, Northumberland, and

Raleigh. When Northumberland drew back, these two held communication with

Aremberg, to whom they offered their services in promoting the objects

he sought on behalf of Spain and the Netherlands. Aremberg, who did not

know what was going on at the Spanish Court, communicated the proposal

to his master, who instructed him to give a favourable answer. What the

scheme proposed by Cobham and Raleigh precisely was seems never to have

been known, but we may suppose that in return for aid from the Continent,

these ambitious men were to attempt the removal of Cecil by some means,

and on their succeeding to power, their influence was to be exerted with

the king on behalf of Spain.

This was designated by those in the secret as "The Main" conspiracy; but

there was also another going on simultaneously, of which these gentlemen

are supposed to have been cognisant, but not mixed up with. This was

called "The Bye" conspiracy, and was composed of an extraordinary medley

of the discontented, the most determined of whom aimed at nothing less

than the seizure of the king, and the government of the country in his

name, for their own party purposes.

The grand cause of discontent was the disappointment of both Catholics

and Puritans in James. Before his coming to the English crown he had

held out the most flattering expectations to the Catholics that he

would grant them toleration, whilst the Puritans calculated on his

Presbyterian education for a decided adhesion to their views. But no

sooner did he reach England than he threw himself into the arms of the

High Church party, declaring that it was the only religion fit for a

king. To the Catholics he declared he would grant no toleration--rather

would he fight to the death against it; and he took no pains to conceal

his disgust at the Presbyterian clergy amongst whom he had spent his

youth. The antagonism of Catholic and Puritan was forgotten in the

resentment against this disclosure of the king's disposition. Instantly

plans were cogitated to avenge themselves of the royal perfidy, as it

was termed, and to secure themselves against the threatened storm. Sir

Griffin Markham, a Catholic gentlemen of no great property or influence,

concerted with two priests, Watson and Clarke, the means of raising the

Catholics against the Government. Watson had been sent into Scotland, to

James, on behalf of the Catholics, before the death of Elizabeth, and he

indignantly represented that James had given them, through him, the most

solemn promises of toleration, which he had now broken. He, therefore,

threw himself with the greatest heat into the conspiracy: he drew up an

awful oath of secrecy, and he and Clarke travelled far and wide amongst

the Catholic families, calling upon them to come forward in the name of

their religion and their property.

But their success was trivial; few or none of the Catholics of weight

and station would engage in the enterprise. Failing there, Watson turned

his attention to the Puritans; and with them he was more successful,

by artfully concealing from them the paucity of the Catholics who had

joined the conspiracy, and the full extent of his own intentions. Lord

Grey de Wilton, who was a leading Puritan, and had his discontent from

the same causes as Cobham and Raleigh, was induced by Watson to join the

conspiracy, under the impression that a strong Catholic body was engaged

in it. He agreed to furnish a troop of a hundred horse, but he was not

long in discovering that he had been imposed upon, and advised the

conspirators to defer the execution of their design to a more favourable

opportunity.

The conspirators proposed to meet during the darkness of night at

Greenwich; but the reflection that there were three hundred armed

gentlemen within the Palace, made that appear too hazardous; they,

therefore, altered their plan, and concluded to seize James as he was

hunting at Hanworth, and where he was accustomed to call for refreshment

at a gentleman's house. The plan, as communicated by Watson to the

conspirators, was to assemble in a numerous body under pretence of

presenting a petition to James as he went out hunting, seize the king,

and convey him to a place of safety, where they were to extort from him

a declaration of liberty of conscience. With the king in their hands,

they would then wreak their vengeance on Cecil and Sir George Howe; and

it was afterwards charged against them in the indictment, that they meant

to make Watson lord chancellor, Brooke, the brother of Cobham--who was a

most unprincipled man, and has been suspected of being Cecil's spy and

tool on the occasion--lord treasurer, Markham secretary, and Grey earl

marshal. Probably this was the scheme devised for them by the accusers,

for it appears too wild for belief; but be that as it may, the 24th of

June was the day named for the attempt, when the refusal of Lord Grey

caused it to be abandoned, and the party separated with much mutual

recrimination.

But Watson had already proceeded to a length which led to the revelation

of the plot to Cecil. He had endeavoured to engage in it the Society of

the Jesuits, and had communicated his plans to a Jesuit of the name of

Gerard. The Society not only refused to sanction the conspiracy, but the

archpriest went at once and revealed it to Cecil. The crafty minister

kept his information close, and resolved to let the conspirators go on

till the very day for the execution of their design, so that he might

the more summarily convict them; but the failure of their plan left him

no further reason for delay, and Anthony Copley, one of the "Bye," was

arrested, as a man well known to be of a timid character and likely

in his terror to betray his associates. Cecil had probably plenty of

intelligence of both the plan and its agitators from others as well as

from Gerard, and most probably from Brooke. But with great judgment he

neglected no means of making the conspirators furnish evidence against

each other, and thus he kept his own sources of knowledge secret. On the

heels of Copley's arrest, followed, as a natural consequence, the arrest

of Griffin, Markham, the priests Watson and Clarke, and the rest of

Copley's associates. Cecil said that the mere fact of Brooke being in the

conspiracy made him feel certain that Cobham, Raleigh, and Northumberland

were in it. They were therefore apprehended separately; and, by playing

on the fears of the fallen Cobham, Cecil speedily made him incriminate

Raleigh.

[Illustration: ST. THOMAS'S TOWER AND TRAITORS' GATE, TOWER OF LONDON.]

The coronation of the king, which took place on the 25th of July,

being his saint's day, the festival of St. James, and the violence of

the plague, which caused the king to flee into the country, postponed

the trials of the conspirators. The Court, followed by the judges and

their suitors, fled from place to place for several months, pursued by

the plague; and it was not till November that the trials took place in

the castle at Winchester. Another cause had, perhaps still more than

the plague, deferred them. Aremberg was deeply implicated, but his

intrigues could not be opened up whilst he was in the country, nor could

an order be issued directing him to leave, without embarrassing the

public relations with Spain. But in October he left, and on the 15th

of November the trials of the conspirators commenced. The accomplices

of the "Bye"--Brooke, Brookesby, Markham, Copley, Watson, and Clarke,

with others--were all condemned on their own confessions, for they had

been so managed that they not only accused each other, but made the most

ample confessions of their own guilt, as if each thought he should obtain

pardon by discovering most. These confessions, which had been carefully

compiled, were put in as evidence against them. Sir Edward Parham only

was acquitted, for he pleaded that he joined solely to rescue the king

from the hands of those who held him in captivity; Cecil threw in his

word in his favour, suggesting that the king's dignity consisted as much

in freeing the innocent as condemning the guilty. This conduct gave an

air of impartiality--of which no one could estimate the effect more fully

than the astute Cecil--to the proceedings.

Sir Walter Raleigh was next put upon his trial. His extraordinary

ability, and his knowledge of Court secrets, made it too dangerous an

attempt to connect him with the "Bye," and arraign him along with the

unhappy and weak members of that part of the conspiracy. He was not

placed at the bar even along with Cobham, for the only evidence against

him which the Court dared to bring forward, was that of Cobham; and

they knew too well that in Raleigh's presence, the wavering Cobham

would be worse than useless. Already repenting of his accusation of

Raleigh in the surprise of his resentment, Cobham had retracted his

accusations; and when pressed and cross-questioned by the Council, had so

contradicted himself, that to bring him into public would be to render

his evidence worthless. True, the Council had the intercepted letters,

which had passed between Aremberg and the Spanish authorities, which

were sufficiently criminatory of Raleigh and Cobham; but these could

not be produced without an exposure of the fact that the correspondence

of ambassadors and their principals was not safe in England. Indeed,

Coke, who was of course duly instructed in the particulars of this

correspondence, having made some too intelligible reference to Aremberg,

Cecil compelled him to apologise to the ambassador, and hastened to

assure the other ambassadors of foreign courts that Aremberg had no

notion of the purpose for which Cobham and Raleigh had solicited money

from Spain.

Coke's device was to mix the two plots. He went into the case at

length, and what he lacked in proof he endeavoured to supply by abuse.

He described in inflated language the intentions of the agitators of

the "Bye," and declared that amongst other things, they meant to make

proclamation against monopolies, as if that were absolute treason.

Raleigh calmly reminded him that he was not charged with the "Bye." "You

are not," replied Coke; "but it will be seen that all these treasons,

though they consisted of several parts, closed in together like Samson's

foxes, which were joined in their tails, though their heads were

separated." Raleigh still insisted that the "Bye" was the treason of the

priests, and said, "What is the treason of the priest to me?" "I will

then come close to you," said Coke. "I will prove you to be the most

notorious traitor that ever came to the bar; you are, indeed, upon the

'Main,' but you have followed them upon the 'Bye' in imitation."

Raleigh in reply demanded that his accuser should be brought face to

face with him. He demanded it on the authority of the statute law and

the law of God, both of which required that this should be done to prove

an offence. But Lord Chief Justice Popham told him that the Statutes of

Edward VI. to which he appealed, were cancelled by Philip and Mary; that

he must take his trial by the common law, as settled by Edward III.,

under which a trial by jury and written evidence was as valid as a trial

by jury and witnesses; and that at most one witness was sufficient. But

Raleigh replied that his case was peculiar, and that there was not a

single witness against him; for even the man who had borne testimony

against him had retracted his assertions. He, therefore, reiterated his

demand for the production of Cobham; declaring that if Cobham dared in

his presence to reaffirm a single charge, he would submit to his doom,

and would not add another word. When this challenge was passed over

without any notice, he produced a letter which Cobham had written to him

about a fortnight before, in which he said:--"To free myself from the cry

of blood, I protest, upon my soul and before God and His angels, I never

had conference with you in any treason, nor was ever moved by you to the

things I heretofore accused you of; and, for anything I know, you are as

innocent and as clear from any treasons against the king as is subject

living. And God so deal with me and have mercy on my soul, as this is

true."

This appeared a strong avowal, but Cecil was prepared for this, having,

no doubt, already seen this letter on its passage; and Coke produced in

defeat of it another letter written by Cobham to the Council but the day

before. In this letter Cobham stated that Raleigh had twice sent letters

to him in the Tower, which had been thrown into his window-sash in an

apple, and that in these letters he entreated him to do him right by

denying what he had said as to his wishing him to come from the Continent

by Jersey, and in other particulars. Cobham replied that he retracted the

assertion about Jersey, but went on to state that Raleigh had been the

original cause of his ruin, for that he had no dealings with Aremberg but

at Sir Walter's instigation. He added that at Aremberg's coming Raleigh

was to receive a pension of fifteen hundred pounds a year, for which he

was to keep the king of Spain informed of all designs against the Indies,

the Netherlands, or Spain; that he (Cobham) also counselled him (Raleigh)

not to be overtaken by preachers as Essex was, and that the king would

better allow of a constant denial than of the accusation of any one.

During the reading of this letter Raleigh could not conceal his

astonishment and confusion. When it was finished, he admitted that there

had been some talk of a pension, but mere talk and nothing more. But the

fact made a deep impression on the minds of the jury, and the prisoner

probably being conscious of it, repeated his demand for the production

of Cobham himself. "My lords," he exclaimed, "let Cobham be sent for; I

know he is in this very house! I beseech you let him be confronted with

me! Let him be here openly charged--upon his soul--upon his allegiance

to the king--and if he will then maintain his accusations to my face,

I will confess myself guilty!" But no notice was taken of this appeal:

Coke still strove to bear him down by the coarsest brow-beating, shouting

fiercely, "I will have the last word for the king!" "Nay," retorted

Raleigh, "I will have the last word for my life!" "Go to," said the

insolent lawyer; "I will lay thee upon thy back for the confidentest

traitor that ever came to the bar." Cecil here interposed, telling Coke

that he was too impatient and severe; but Coke cried, "I am the king's

sworn servant, and must speak. You discourage the king's counsel, my

lord, and encourage traitors."

The jury, but with evident reluctance, returned a verdict of guilty.

On being asked, in the usual form, whether he had anything to say why

judgment should not be pronounced against him, he replied that he was

perfectly innocent of the charges of Cobham, but that he submitted

himself to the king's mercy, and recommended to the compassion of his

majesty his wife and his son of tender years. After the sentence of high

treason, with all its disgusting details, had been pronounced, Raleigh

asked to speak privately with Cecil, Lord Henry Howard, and the Earls of

Suffolk and Devonshire, entreating them that, in consideration of the

position which he had held under the crown, his death might not be so

ignominious as the strict sentence required. They promised to use their

influence, and he was taken back to his quarters.

The charges of complicity which were made against Arabella Stuart, in

the indictment against Raleigh, were of a nature which called for denial

on her part. She was present at the trial in a gallery; and Charles

Howard, Earl of Nottingham, who was sitting by her, arose, and in her

name protested, on her salvation, that she had never meddled in any

such matters. There appeared, indeed, no disposition at this moment to

implicate the Lady Arabella, though her relation to the Crown made her

an object of anxiety to James, as we shall soon have occasion to see.

Cecil himself acquitted her of any concern in this treason, admitting

that though she had received a letter from Cobham, entreating her to

countenance it, she only laughed at it and at once sent it to the king.

Of the actual extent of Raleigh's participation, and what was his real

object, we have no means of judging, for though James was in possession

of the letters between the accused parties and Aremberg, they could not,

as already stated, be produced.

Cobham and Grey were arraigned before a tribunal of their peers,

consisting of eleven earls and nineteen barons. Nothing could be more

striking than the cowardice and meanness of Cobham, and the noble dignity

of Grey. They were both condemned.

The two priests were first conducted to execution. They suffered all

the bloody horrors of the law at Winchester, on the 29th of November.

It was surmised that James was glad to be rid of Watson as one of

the individuals to whom, before coming to the English throne, he had

promised toleration to the Catholics. There was an attempt to prove

the non-existence of such a promise, but it was crude and convinced

nobody. At the gallows both Watson and Clarke declared that they were

convinced they owed their death to their priesthood. They were cut down

alive and their bowels torn out--a revolting practice which but too well

illustrates the vindictive spirit of the age.

The next execution was that of Brooke. He was simply beheaded, also at

Winchester, on the 5th of December. The people expressed great sympathy

for him, under a belief that he had first been employed by Cecil in

the troubled waters of these conspiracies, and then victimised by him.

Markham, Grey, and Cobham were brought to the scaffold, induced to

confess, and, after an interval of suspense, reprieved. Raleigh was

imprisoned in the Tower of London for many years.

The effect of this conspiracy was to deepen James's suspicion of the

Catholics and his dislike of the Puritans. The Catholics, since his

coming to the English throne, had conducted themselves with more policy

than their robustious rivals, the Puritans. They had claimed, indeed,

the fulfilment of his promises whilst merely King of Scotland, to favour

them as the staunch friends of his mother and serious sufferers on her

account; but they had preferred their claims with a degree of courtesy

and moderation to which the brusque Reformers were strangers. The pope,

Clement VIII., probably led by the same expectations, had by two breves

addressed to the archpriest and provincial of the Jesuits, strictly

enjoined the missionaries to confine themselves to their spiritual

duties, and on no account to mix themselves up with the agitators for

political change. He condemned unequivocally the conduct of Watson and

Clarke, and sent a secret envoy to the English Court, expressing his

abhorrence of all acts of disloyalty, and offering to withdraw any

missionary from the kingdom who was in any way obnoxious to the king and

Council. James appeared so far influenced by this moderation, that though

he stoutly refused all application for a free exercise of the Catholic

worship, and even committed individuals to the Tower who offended in this

respect, yet he invited the Catholics to frequent his Court, he conferred

knighthood on some of them, and assured them generally that they should

not suffer for recusancy so long as they abstained from a breach of the

laws as regarded religion, and from all acts of political insubordination.

[Illustration: SIR WALTER RALEIGH. (_From the Portrait by Zucchero._)]

But towards the Puritans he was by no means so courteous. He could never

forget that they had kept him in restraint in his infancy and youth;

that they had been the defamers and persecutors of his mother; and that

to the very hour in which he escaped into the larger field of English

power, they had goaded him with their demands and defied his authority.

As he drew nearer to the English throne, the charms of the English church

increased in his imagination. A church which set up the king as its head

was a church as much after James's own heart as after that of Henry VIII.

Like that monarch, he dearly loved to shine in polemics, and long before

he arrived in England, it required no great shrewdness to perceive where

his affections lay.

[Illustration: THE DISSENTING DIVINES PRESENTING THEIR PETITION TO JAMES.

(_See p._ 416.)]

No sooner was he in England than he spoke his mind roundly as to his real

feelings towards the Puritans. He said to the bishops and courtiers: "I

will tell you, I have lived amongst this sect of men ever since I was

ten years old; but I may say of myself as Christ said of Himself, though

I lived amongst them, yet, since I had ability to judge, I was never of

them." And this was at least sincere. He had grown more undisguisedly

Episcopalian as he saw Elizabeth sinking, and felt his hold on the

throne through her own ministers. He had given seats in parliament to

a certain number of clergymen, thus making them bishops without the

name; but it was in his "Basilicon Doron"--a manual for the instruction

of his son, published in 1779--that he had let loose his deep dislike

of the Presbyterians. He tells his son to "take heed to such Puritans,

very pests in the church and commonwealth, whom no deserts can oblige,

neither oaths nor promises bind, breathing nothing but sedition and

calumnies, aspiring without measure, ruling without reason, making their

own imaginations, without any warrant of the Word, the square of their

conscience. I protest," he added, "before the great God, and since I am

here upon my testament, it is no place for me to lie in, that you shall

never find with any Highland or Border thieves greater ingratitude, and

more lies and perjuries than with these fanatic spirits; and suffer not

the principal of them to brook your land, if ye list to sit at rest;

except you would keep them for trying your patience, as Socrates did an

evil wife."

But whilst the royal Solomon thus plainly enunciated his hatred of

Puritanism, he was cautious not to let the English bishops too early

into his fixed intention to patronise them. He liked to feel himself

the undoubted head of that Church, and to see those dignitaries in

fear and trembling prostrate at his feet; and it was not till they had

sufficiently humbled themselves before him, that he revived their spirits

with the declaration of his real sentiments. The Puritans precipitated

this avowal, by urging on James a further reform of the Church, and

its purgation from ceremonies. In their millenary petition (so called

because it was expected it would have a thousand signatures, but in

reality it had only about eight hundred) they demanded a conference,

in which to settle the form and doctrines of the Church. This, of all

things, delighted James. It was the very arena in which to display his

theological knowledge; he gladly consented to it, and appointed it to

take place at Hampton Court early in January, 1604. On the 14th of that

month the first assembly took place; and the bishops, who were first

admitted to the royal presence alone, were so alarmed at the prospect

of a conference which had been demanded by Dissenters, that they threw

themselves on their knees, and earnestly entreated the king not to alter

the constitution of the Church, nor to give the Puritans the triumph in

the coming debate, lest the Popish recusants should rejoice over and

declare them justly punished for their repulsion and persecution of them.

Then James condescended to lift the weight of fear from their hearts. He

avowed to them that he was a sincere convert to the Church of England,

and thanked God "who had brought him to the promised land, to a country

where religion was purely professed, and where he sate among grave,

reverend, and learned men; not as before, elsewhere, a king without

state, without honour, and without order, and braved to his face by

beardless boys under the garb of ministers."

The delight of the bishops and dignitaries at this gracious confession

may be imagined. They were nearly twenty in number, whilst the Reformers

summoned numbered only four--namely, Doctors Reynolds and Sparkes,

divinity professors of Oxford, and Doctors Knewstub and Chatterton,

of Cambridge. James somewhat cooled the raptures of the Churchmen, by

adding that he knew all things were not perfect, and that, as some

modifications of the ritual and the ecclesiastical courts were, in his

opinion, needed, he had called them together in the first instance, in

order that they might settle what concessions should be made to the

Puritans. It was necessary to show some compliance; and after the day's

discussion it was agreed that some explanatory words should be added

in the Book of Common Prayer to the forms of general absolution and of

confirmation; that the Chancellor and the Chief Justice should reform

the practice of the commissary court; that excommunication should only

be inflicted for particularly serious offences; that the bishops should

neither confer ordinations nor pronounce censures, without the assistance

and concurrence of other eminent divines; that baptism should not be

administered by women or by laymen.

These points being determined, on the 16th the four Puritan divines were

admitted, and instructed to state their demands. These embraced a general

revision of the Book of Common Prayer, the withdrawal of excommunication,

of baptism by women, of the use of the ring in marriage, of bowing

at the name of Jesus, of confirmation, of the wearing of the cap and

surplice, of the reading of the Apocrypha. They further required that

pluralities and non-residence should cease, that obligation to subscribe

the Thirty-nine Articles be abrogated, as well as the commendatories

held by bishops. The bishops defended such parts of the church service

and practices as the king had agreed should remain, and the prelates of

London and Winchester argued in their behalf long and vehemently. As the

Puritan doctors were not thus to be satisfied, and had by much the best

of the argument, James himself took up the debate, and conducted it in

that royal style which admits of no contradiction. He was now in his true

element: theological discussion was his pride and glory, and he believed

himself capable of silencing all Christendom. Dr. Reynolds, however,

who was the chief speaker, undaunted by his crowned opponent, insisted

boldly on various points; but when he came to the demand for the disuse

of the Apocrypha in the Church service, James could bear it no longer. He

called for a Bible, read a chapter out of Ecclesiasticus, and expounded

it according to his own views; then turning to the lords of his Council,

he said, "What trow ye makes these men so angry with Ecclesiasticus? By

my soul, I think Ecclesiasticus was a bishop, or they would never use him

so." The bishops and courtiers applauded the royal wit. James continued

to hold forth on all sorts of topics--baptism, confirmation, absolution,

which he declared to be apostolical, and a very good ordinance--and

assured the anti-episcopal divines that in his opinion, if there were no

bishops, there would soon be no king.

When he had tired himself out with talking, Dr. Reynolds again ventured

to open his mouth, and inquired how ordinances of the Church agreed with

Christian liberty. This was touching James closely: it brought back to

his memory the harangues on the same liberty which he had heard from his

clergy in Scotland. He declared that he would not argue that point, but

answer as kings were wont to do in parliament, "_Le roy s'avisera_."

Without pretending to treat the matter as one of conviction, he treated

it as one of authority. He exclaimed, "I will have none of that: I will

have one doctrine and one discipline, one religion in substance and in

ceremony." He was resolved to be as absolute over every man's conscience

and understanding as Henry VIII. had been. "If that is what you be at,

then I tell you that a Scottish presbytery agreeth with monarchy as well

as God with the Devil. Then shall Jack and Tom and Dick meet, and at

their pleasure censure me and my council and all our proceedings. Then

Will shall stand up and say, 'It must be thus;' then Dick shall reply and

say, 'Nay, marry, but we will have it thus;' and therefore, here I must

once more reiterate my former speech, and say, _Le roy s'avisera_."

It was in vain that Dr. Reynolds, who was reputed one of the most

able divines and logicians of the age, attempted to state his views

and opinions. The king constantly interrupted him and scoffed at him,

treating him in the most insolently overbearing manner, and when he

paused, asked him, "Well, doctor, have you anything more to say?"

Reynolds, perceiving it useless, replied, "No, please your majesty;" on

which James told these brow-beaten divines, that had they disputed no

better in college, and he had been moderator, he would have had them all

fetched up and flogged for dunces; that if that was all they had to say

for themselves, he would make them conform, or hurry them out of the

kingdom, or worse. With this scandalous treatment they were dismissed

till the 18th, when the Conference met again. The greater part of the day

was consumed by the king, the Council, and prelates in inquiring into

the abuses of the high commission court, and devising means for checking

them. At a late hour the Dissenting delegates were again admitted, not to

continue the discussion, but to hear the fixed decision of the king. On

hearing it they prayed that a certain time might be allowed before the

new regulations were enforced. This was granted, but not strictly kept,

for the new Book of Common Prayer was immediately prepared and published

by authority.

Thus ended this curious Conference, in a complete triumph for the High

Church party. The Reformers complained bitterly of this, but James

himself was incapable of feeling the force of public opinion. He was

inflated with the idea of his own unrivalled eloquence and ability.

He boasted that he had "peppered the Dissenters soundly. They fled

me," he said, "from argument to argument like schoolboys." The bishops

and ministers of his Council added to his absurd egotism, by actually

pouring deluges of the most fulsome adulation upon him. Bancroft, Bishop

of London, flung himself on his knees before him, and exclaimed "that

his heart melted with joy, and made haste to acknowledge unto Almighty

God His singular mercy in giving them such a king, as since Christ's

time the like had not been"; and Whitgift, the primate, protested "that

his majesty spake by the special assistance of God's spirit." The Lord

Chancellor Ellesmere, emulating the sycophants of the Church, said that

"the king and the priest had never been so wonderfully united in the same

person;" and the peers echoed the plaudits, declaring that his majesty's

speeches proceeded from the spirit of God operating on an understanding

heart. "I wist not what they mean," wrote Harrington, in "Nugæ Antiquæ";

"but the spirit was rather foul-mouthed."

All parties connected with the Church having thus admitted that the king

was acting under the most luminous effusion of the Divine spirit, ought

not, therefore, to have murmured when soon afterwards, without waiting

for ecclesiastical sanction, he made his own alterations in the Book of

Common Prayer, and then issued a proclamation, warning all men neither to

attempt nor expect any further alterations in the Church, and commanding

all ecclesiastical and civil authorities to enforce the strictest

conformity. Whitgift soon after died (1604), and many attributed the

acceleration of his death to his mortification at the king's ordering the

affairs of the Church by his own will and wisdom, which Whitgift had been

one of the first to extol as infallible. Bancroft succeeded him in the

primacy, and showed himself a capable instrument of James's bigotry, and

ready to enforce whatever cruelty he would attempt.

James spent fully half of his year in hunting, and if any person or

party had an urgent matter to prefer, the only opportunity of doing so

was by waylaying him in his rides to the forest. The Dissenters, as the

time approached for the enforcement of the new canons of the Church,

presented a petition to him near Newmarket, praying a prolongation of

the time allowed them for conforming. James received them with savage

fierceness; told them that it was from such petitions that the rebellion

in the Netherlands originated; that his mother and he had been haunted by

Puritan devils from their cradles; that he would sooner lose his crown

than encourage such malicious spirits; and if he thought his son would

tolerate them in his time, he would wish to see him that moment lying in

his grave. The Nonconformists complained that he persecuted the disciples

whilst he favoured the enemies of the Gospel. This was referring to his

reception of Catholics at court, and his promises not to molest them if

they abstained from the open prosecution of their worship. But James left

them under no mistake on that head. He expressed an equally vehement

hatred of Papists; and on the 22nd of February he issued a proclamation

enjoining the banishment of all Catholic missionaries. He went to the

Star Chamber, framed regulations for the discovery and prosecution of

recusants, and issued orders to magistrates to see the penal laws put

in force against all persons, of whatever faith, who did not fully

conform to the rites and ordinances of the Church. Thus the miseries

and oppressions of religious persecution were renewed with all their

virulence; and the only consolation for those who refused to conform was

that they might persecute one another.

In the midst of this state of things James was compelled to call a

Parliament. This assembled on the 19th of March, 1604. It was one of the

most remarkable Parliaments in our history, for it came together, on the

part of both King and Commons, prepared to contest the great principles

of absolutism and constitutional liberty; a contest which never again

ceased till the people had triumphed over the Crown, and prescribed for

it those limits within which it continues still to exist. The Tudors had

made themselves absolute, but rather by acting than talking. They had

willed, but had only occasionally boasted of the supremacy of their will.

Whenever they had done so, especially in the person of Elizabeth, they

received a protest so spirited from Parliament, that they wisely again

veiled their pretensions. But James, possessing all their personal vanity

and love of unlimited power, had not the policy to keep his pretensions

in the background. He obtruded them on the public notice; he vaunted his

towering belief of his earthly divinity, declaring that as God killed or

made alive, so had He ordained kings to do the same at pleasure. Years

before he came to England, he published these imperious and imprudent

doctrines in a discourse "On the True Law of Free Monarchies; or, the

Reciprogue and Mutual Duty betwixt a Free King and his Natural Subjects."

He was, in short, a firm believer in the doctrine of the Divine Right of

Kings, which had taken such a firm root in Europe.

In the proclamation calling this Parliament, James took care to set forth

the supremacy of his prerogative, and commanded the sheriffs and other

officers to make no returns of members but such as were wholly agreeable

to his views; there were to be no "persons noted for their superstitious

blindness in religion one way, or for their turbulent humour the other."

That is, neither Puritans nor Catholics were to be elected. Instructions

were sent down to the various counties and boroughs, naming such persons

for candidates as were agreeable to the Court. But the Puritans were in

no humour to comply with such unconstitutional orders. They were justly

filled with resentment at the treatment of their representatives at

Hampton Court, and put forward their own men and returned them in great

numbers in defiance of the Government. One case led to a direct and

vehement collision between the Crown and the House of Commons. Sir John

Fortescue, a member of the Privy Council, had been named by the Court as

a member for the county of Buckingham. The people of Buckinghamshire,

afterwards so conspicuous in the struggles between the Stuarts and

Parliament, elected Sir Francis Goodwin. The clerk of the Crown refused

to receive the return, and sent it back to the sheriff as contrary to

the proclamation; for Goodwin had formerly been outlawed, and James had

forbidden the return of outlaws. A second writ was issued, and under it

Sir John Fortescue was elected. But the Commons refused to admit him,

declaring that as Goodwin's outlawry had been reversed, the proclamation

did not apply to him, and that his return was good and should stand.

[Illustration: THE OLD PALACE, WESTMINSTER, IN THE TIME OF CHARLES I.

(_Showing the Hall, Parliament House, Painted Chamber, and St. Stephen's

Chapel._)]

The Government, in the name of the Lords, proposed to the Commons that

there should be a conference between the two Houses on the subject

before any other business was proceeded with; but the Commons, with

a clear insight into their privileges, where the constitution and

functions of their own body were concerned, replied that it did not

consist with the honour of their House to give an account of their

proceedings and doings. On this they received a second message, in which

they were informed, through Coke, that his majesty being apprised of

their objection, conceived that his honour was touched, and desired

that there should be some conference between the Houses. On this the

Commons sent a deputation of their members, headed by the Speaker, to

represent to the king why they could not confer with the Lords on any

subject. The king was exceedingly high, and let them know that they

held all their privileges by the royal favour; but the members stoutly

denied that doctrine, as the House at large had already this session

denied it, saying "that new laws could not be instituted, nor imperfect

laws reformed, nor inconvenient laws abrogated, by any other power than

that of the High Court of Parliament, that is, by the agreement of the

Commons, the accord of the Lords, and the assent of the Sovereign;

that to him belonged the right either negatively to frustrate, or

affirmatively to ratify, but that he could not institute; every bill

must pass through the two Houses before it could be submitted to his

pleasure."

This was a doctrine that clashed disagreeably with James's absolute

notions, and he upbraided the Commons with their presumption. But they

stood firmly to their position and, what was extremely humiliating to

the new monarch, excused his unconstitutional ideas through ignorance or

misinformation of the custom and laws of England; the privileges of their

house, they said, were the birthright of Englishmen and could not be

surrendered. James claimed that all disputed matters should be referred

to his court of chancery; but they claimed to settle all such themselves,

as the essential to the government of their estate.

When James found that nothing would induce the Commons to confer with the

Lords, he ordered them to confer with the judges, and this command the

deputation carried back to the House. But the House, after a warm debate,

unanimously refused to refer the question to the judges; they drew up an

answer to all the king's arguments, and sent it to the Lords, requesting

them to present it to his majesty, and be mediators between them. James,

now finding that he could make no impression by express command, sent for

the Speaker and endeavoured to coax him over to his views; but that being

unsuccessful, he ordered him to deliver to the House his command, "as an

absolute king," to confer with the judges. This was a direct challenge

to the popular element to try its strength with the royal one--language

which was sure to put a high-spirited people on its mettle: the first

utterance of that language, which no warning, no experience could teach

a Stuart to abandon, till the utterance was quenched in blood.

When the Speaker delivered this command, there fell a profound silence

on the House--an augury and foreboding, as it were, of the gigantic

struggle which was commencing. At length the ominous silence was broken

by a member starting up and exclaiming that "the prince's command was

like a thunderbolt; his command over our allegiance," he said, "is like

the roaring of a lion! To his command there is no contradiction; but how,

or in what manner we should proceed to perform obedience, that will be

the question." It was finally agreed to send a deputation to confer with

the judges in the presence of the king and Council. At the conference

there appeared no better prospect of success, when the king happily

proposed that both Goodwin and Fortescue should be set aside, and a new

writ issued. The Commons gladly acceded to this proposal. The House was

rejoiced at this solution of the difficulty, but out of doors those they

represented were far from satisfied, and reproached the House with having

yielded the right which they had boldly claimed. But in reality, the

Commons had done no such thing, for they proceeded, by their Speaker's

warrant, to issue the new writ themselves, and they have ever since

exercised the right which they then assumed, of deciding all cases of

contested elections.

The king, on his part, was as little satisfied as the people. He laboured

under no mistake as to where the victory lay: he felt keenly that he

was defeated in his soaring claims of prerogative, and the Commons went

on to let him know that they were resolved on an exercise of power

still greater. They attacked the monopolies which James had declared by

proclamation that he would abolish, but towards which not a step was

taken. They complained of the continuance of the feudal grievances of

assarts, wardships, aids for royal marriages, and purveyance. The right

of guardianship of minors of estate continued a source of vast emolument

to the Crown, which received the proceeds of these estates and rendered

no account. This was, moreover, a source of equal peculation to the

minister for the time being, and Cecil was thought to draw enormous

wealth from this abuse; and as for purveyance, it seems to have been as

recklessly and insolently pursued as under any of the kings of York or

Lancaster. The royal purveyors seized the property of the subject just

as they pleased; took horses, carts, carriages, and provisions at will;

called out men to labour for the royal pleasure, paying or not as suited

them, felling trees, and committing sundry other depredations.

After much debate these grievances were referred to a committee; but

as the Lords would have nothing to do with it, the matter was obliged

to be dropped. Bacon, who was assiduously climbing into royal favour,

played a contemptible part on this occasion in the House. He affected

the character of a patriot, and discoursed feelingly of abuses and the

sufferings of the people, while in the Council, before the king, he

declared that his majesty was the voice of God in man, the good spirit of

God in the mouth of man.

The struggle continued between the Crown and the Commons through the

whole session. As the Crown would not agree to reform the abuses

complained of, the Commons declined to grant the king any money beyond

the usual rate of tonnage and poundage. So apprehensive, in fact, was

the king of another defeat in the present temper of the House, that he

sent a message requesting them not to enter on the business of subsidy,

notwithstanding his urgent need of money.

The struggle regarding religious liberty was carried on by the Puritans

in the House with equal obstinacy. Convocation sitting at the same time

with Parliament occupied itself in framing a new code of ecclesiastical

canons. In spite of the resolution of the Conference at Hampton Court,

which declared that no excommunication should issue except for very grave

offences, these canons--one hundred and forty-one in number--equalled

in ecclesiastical despotism anything which had been decreed under Henry

VIII. Excommunication was pronounced against all who denied the supremacy

of the king or the orthodoxy of the Church; who affirmed the Book of

Common Prayer to be superstitious or unlawful, that any one of the

Thirty-nine Articles was erroneous, or that the ordinal was opposed to

the Word of God. All who should separate from the Established Church,

or established conventicles, were equally denounced, and this bigoted

code James ratified by letters patent under the Great Seal. But it did

not pass without severe comment from the Puritan members of the House,

in the midst of which the king prorogued Parliament; and so remained the

question of the canon law of England, which in reality was and is a law

binding only on the clergy, having received their own sanction and that

of their head the king, but not that of the Legislature; for which reason

the judges have always held that it binds the clergy who framed, but not

the people whose representatives refused it.

No sooner was the canon law promulgated and Parliament prorogued, than

Bancroft, the new archbishop, let loose the fury of the Church against

nonconformists, whether Catholic or Protestant. All were called on to

conform to the new regulations, and no less than three hundred clergymen

were forced from their livings. The Catholics, on their part, were

equally harassed, fined, and insulted. The legal penalty of twenty

pounds a month for recusancy was again enforced, notwithstanding James

had promised to overlook this; and it was executed with a new rigour of

barbarity, the fines for the whole period during which James had been

professing leniency being levied. Thus the sufferers were called on to

make thirteen payments at one time, which at once reduced a vast number

of families to absolute beggary.

The Puritans did not submit to the outrages perpetrated on them without

sturdy resistance and remonstrance. The Catholics, or at least a section

of them, proceeded to something more dangerous. Smarting under their

renewed persecution, they felt it useless to remonstrate like the

Puritans, for both the Church party and Nonconformists were against them.

They, therefore, as a body, brooded in silence over their sufferings;

but there were amongst the oppressed spirits those who could not thus

endure in patience, but planned a desperate revenge. Amongst these was

Robert Catesby, the descendant of an ancient Catholic family, seated for

centuries at Ashby St. Legers, in Northamptonshire, and also possessing

considerable property in Warwickshire. Catesby's father had been a great

sufferer for recusancy, having several times been imprisoned, in addition

to the plundering of his substance. In his youth, the younger Catesby,

who was wild and extravagant, was not disposed to sacrifice his jollity

for the maintenance of a persecuted faith. He embraced Protestantism,

but in 1598 he returned to his original belief, and, feeling the bitter

force of persecution, he became stimulated to an active hatred of the

Government. He aided the insurrection of Essex on condition that he

should enjoy full religious freedom; and escaping the fate of his leader

by the forfeiture of three thousand pounds, he then secretly joined

himself to the Spanish party amongst the Catholics, in order to prevent

the succession of the Scottish prince. This hope being defeated, and

the Catholics not only seeing James prepared to falsify his promises of

Catholic indulgence, but all the heads of the Catholic world abroad--the

kings of France and Spain, and the Pope himself--seeking the friendship

of the king, Catesby conceived the gloomy idea that deliverance could

only proceed from the English Catholics themselves. In following out

this desperate idea, he gradually evolved a scheme of vengeance and

annihilation of all the persecutors of his faith. This was no other than

to blow up the king and Parliament with gunpowder.

Catesby first made a confidant in his terrible project of Thomas Winter,

the younger brother of Robert Winter, of Huddington, in Worcestershire.

Winter was the intimate friend of Catesby, and had been long associated

with him in the plans for the relief of the Catholics. He had been a

volunteer in the wars of the Netherlands, and then was sent to Madrid as

the secret agent of the Spanish party in England, amongst whom his friend

Catesby was an active partisan. But familiar as Winter was with the

sufferings and projects of the Catholics, this bloody revelation struck

him with horror, and he denounced it vehemently as most criminal and

inhuman. But Catesby spared no labour to reconcile his mind to the idea;

he painted in vivid colours the long, the pitiless, and the unmerited

cruelties inflicted on the Catholics. He enumerated the numbers who

had been exterminated by the axe and the rope of the executioner; who

had perished in their prisons, or who had been reduced from affluence

and honour to beggary by the relentless bigotry of the Government. He

demanded whence relief was to come, what hope there was left of effectual

intercession from abroad, or of resolute resistance from the dispirited

Catholics at home. He appealed to him whether God had not given to every

man the right to repel force by force, and whether the whole world

besides afforded them any other chance.

[Illustration: GREAT SEAL OF JAMES I.]

Winter was staggered but not convinced, and declared that he would

not consent to any such frightful measure until fresh attempts had

been made to procure a mitigation of their sufferings by milder means.

He, therefore, hastened over to the Netherlands, where the Spanish

ambassador, Velasco, had arrived, in order to conclude a peace between

England and Spain. At Bergen, near Dunkirk, he had an interview with

the ambassador, and urged upon him to demand a clause in the treaty for

the protection of the Catholics. He was soon convinced that Velasco,

though promising to use his influence for that end, would not risk the

completion of the peace by the advocacy of such a stipulation.

Indignant at this apathy, he hastened to Ostend on his return, where

he accidentally encountered an old comrade in the Netherland wars, of

the name of Guido or Guy Fawkes, a native of Yorkshire, and a man of

determined courage, as well as of great experience and address. He had

been Winter's companion in his mission to Madrid, and he now solicited

him to accompany him to England, and unite his endeavours with other

friends for Catholic relief. Winter, it would seem, had now made up his

mind to enter into Catesby's plot, but did not let Fawkes into the full

secret for some time.

Meanwhile, Catesby had been ardently at work in the prosecution of his

idea. He had communicated his plan to Percy and Wright. Thomas Percy was

of the Northumberland family, and steward to the earl, and John Wright

was brother-in-law to Percy, and reputed to be the best swordsman in

England. Percy had joined the Catholics about the same time as Catesby

returned to them, and like a zealous proselyte had, during the latter

days of Elizabeth, gone to James at Edinburgh and endeavoured to draw

from him a promise of favour to the Catholics on his accession. James is

reported to have assured Percy that he would at least tolerate the mass

in a corner. This James afterwards denied, but his denial can go for very

little, for it was perfectly in keeping with his king-craft to promise

what served to secure his ends for the time; and almost every monarch in

Europe had to make that complaint against him. Percy, on the breaking out

of the persecution under James, felt that he had been made the dupe of

James's duplicity. He presented a remonstrance to the king, to which no

answer was deigned, and Catesby found him in a mood of great resentment

against the king, and in a favourable temper for his views. He not only

agreed to co-operate but brought in his brother-in-law Wright, who was

also a recent proselyte to Catholicism.

[Illustration: GUY FAWKES'S CELLAR UNDER PARLIAMENT HOUSE.]

Percy appears to have been of a very excitable nature: the embryo

conspirators assembled at Catesby's lodging, and Percy demanded whether

they were merely to talk and never to act. Catesby said that before he

would open his plan to them, he must demand from every one an oath of

secrecy. This was assented to, and a few days afterwards, as appears by

the confession of Winter, the five--that is, Catesby, Winter, Percy,

Wright, and Fawkes--"met at a house in the fields beyond St. Clement's

Inn, where they did confer and agree upon the plot, and there they took

a solemn oath and vows by all their force and power to execute the same,

and of secrecy not to reveal it to any of their fellows but of such as

should be thought fit persons to enter into that action." When they had

all sworn and perfectly understood what was proposed, Catesby led them

into an upper chamber of the house, where they received the sacrament

from Gerard, the Jesuit missionary, but who, according to Winter's

confession, was not let into the secret.

This dreadful oath was taken on the 1st of May, 1604, but the

conspirators resolved to wait for the remotest chance of any good arising

out of the negotiations between England and Spain. But the treaty was

concluded on the 18th of August, without any clause protective of the

Catholics. Peace and commercial relations were restored between the

two countries, and James was left at liberty to do as he pleased with

the cautionary towns if the States did not redeem them. After the

ratification of the treaty, the Spanish ambassador solicited in the name

of his sovereign the goodwill of James towards his Catholic subjects;

but James assured Velasco that however much he might be disposed to such

indulgence, he dared not grant it, such was the terror of his Protestant

subjects of any return to power of the Catholics. Velasco took his

leave, and fresh orders were issued to judges and magistrates to enforce

the laws against the Catholics with all rigour. This put an end to the

patience of the conspirators, and they protested that it was but a

fitting retribution to bury the authors of their oppressions under the

ruins of the edifice in which they enacted such diabolical laws.

They now sought for a proper place to commence their operations, and they

soon found a house adjoining the Parliament House in the possession of

one Ferris, the tenant of Whinyard, the keeper of the king's wardrobe.

This Percy hired, in his own name, of Ferris, on pretence that his office

of gentleman pensioner compelled him to reside part of the year in the

vicinity of the Court. But the conspirators were debarred from immediate

operations, by the commissioners appointed by James to consider a scheme

for the union of the two kingdoms, taking possession of this house where

they sate for several months. Not wholly, however, to lose time, the

conspirators hired another house in Lambeth, on the banks of the river,

where they stored up wood, gunpowder, and other combustibles, which they

could easily remove by night in boats, as occasion served, to their house

in Westminster, as soon as it was in their hands. They confided the

charge of this house in Lambeth to Thomas Kay, a Catholic gentleman of

reduced means, who took the oath and entered into the plot.

On the 11th of December the conspirators obtained possession of their

house, when they again swore to be faithful to each other, and they

began their preparations by night. Behind the house, in a garden and

adjoining the Parliament House, stood an old building. Within this they

began to perforate the wall, one keeping watch while the others laboured.

The watching was allotted to Fawkes, whose person was unknown, and who

assumed the name of Johnson and appeared as the servant of Percy. Three

of the others worked whilst the fourth rested. During the day they toiled

at undermining the wall, and during the night they buried the rubbish

under the earth in the garden. They had laid in a store of eggs, dried

meats, and the like, so that no suspicion should be excited in the

neighbourhood by their going in and out, or by there being brought in

provisions for so many persons. They thus laboured indefatigably for a

fortnight, when Fawkes brought them the intelligence that Parliament was

prorogued from the 7th of February to the 3rd of October. On this they

resolved to suspend their work till after the Christmas holidays, and to

retire to their respective residences, agreeing neither to meet in the

interim, nor to correspond or send messages to each other regarding the

plot.

During their late labours, as they discussed various matters, Catesby,

to his dread and mortification, discovered a strong tendency amongst his

associates to doubt the lawfulness of their attempt, because innocent

people must perish with the guilty, Catholics amid the persecuting

Protestants. In vain he employed all his ingenuity in reasoning; he saw

the feeling remain, and he endeavoured to secure a plausible argument

before their coming together again. He therefore consulted Garnet,

the provincial of the Jesuits, on this point. Catesby had accepted a

commission as captain in a regiment of cavalry, to be commanded by Sir

Charles Percy, in the service of Spain. He now observed to Garnet in a

large company that he had no doubt about the justice of the war on the

side of Spain, but as he might be called on to make attacks in which

the innocent might fall with the guilty, women and children with armed

soldiers, could he do that lawfully in the sight of the Almighty? Garnet

replied certainly, otherwise an aggressor could always defeat the object

of the party invaded by placing innocent persons amongst guilty ones in

his ranks. This was enough for Catesby, the principle was admitted; and

on the meeting of the conspirators after the recess, he was prepared

to banish their scruple by assuring them that it was decided to be

groundless by competent ecclesiastical authority.

On the 30th of January, 1605, they resumed their operations. They found

the wall through which they had to dig was no less than three yards

thick, and composed of huge stones, so that the labour was intense, and

the danger of their blows being heard began to alarm them. They had an

accession of force to their numbers, the brothers of Wright and Winter,

and one John Grant, of Norbrook in Warwickshire, who had married a sister

of the Winters. He had suffered much from persecution under Elizabeth,

and his house was large and strongly fortified, offering a good depot for

horses and ammunition. Besides these, Catesby had admitted Bates, his

confidential servant, into the secret, believing he had more than half

guessed it, and sent him with arms and ammunition to Grant's house in

Worcestershire.

But at this point the operations of the conspirators received a severe

check. There arose a difficulty which seemed to be insurmountable; which

so disheartened some of the band that they were in favour of abandoning

their project altogether--or at least for a time. This formidable

obstacle appeared in the shape of ordinary water, which now began to ooze

in from the river, and put a stop to all hope of making the passage.

Fortune came to their aid, however. Whilst they were in this state of

dejection, they were extremely alarmed by a loud noise, which appeared to

come from a room just over their heads. Fawkes went to endeavour to learn

the cause of it, and returned with the intelligence that it proceeded

from the selling of the stock in trade of Bright, a coal merchant, who

was evacuating the cellar, which would be in a few days unoccupied. At

this joyful news, the mining of the foundation was abandoned; the cellar,

which lay directly under the House of Lords, was immediately taken by

Fawkes in the name of his pretended master, Percy. In a short time they

had removed thirty-six barrels of gunpowder from the house in Lambeth

in the darkness of night, and had covered them over in the cellar with

faggots and billets of wood. All being prepared, they once more separated

till September, a few days before the assembling of Parliament. They

dispersed themselves to avoid all suspicion, and Fawkes went over to

Flanders to endeavour to procure a supply of military stores, and to

win over Sir William Stanley, Captain Owen, and other officers of the

regiment in the pay of the archduke. Catesby was an officer of this

regiment; most of these officers were Catholics and his personal friends,

and he informed them through Fawkes, that things were come to that pass

that it was reported that the Catholics were to be utterly exterminated

throughout England, and that if they could not defend themselves by

peaceable means, they must do it by the sword; and he enjoined them

to engage as many of their brethren as possible to aid them in their

deliverance. Sir William Stanley was absent in Spain and Owen promised

that he would communicate with him; but little effect appears to have

been produced by Fawkes's mission, except that of exciting the attention

of Cecil, who received repeated intimations from Flanders that the

English exiles had some secret enterprise in agitation, though what it

was the informants could not discover.

Catesby at home was in constant activity. He had obtained a fresh

accomplice in Keyes, an intimate friend of his, who had been stripped of

his property and was prepared for the worst, being a man of determined

disposition; and he had his eye on others who appeared in a mood for it.

At the same time the growing excitement of Catesby endangered the secret.

There was a tone and a restlessness about him which attracted the notice

of his friends. He still delayed joining his regiment in Flanders, and

Garnet, the Jesuit, came to suspect that he was engaged in some plot and

warned him against such attempts. This only excited the anger of Catesby,

and Garnet wrote to Rome and obtained letters from the Pope and the

generals of his Order, strongly enjoining on the Catholics submission to

the Government. Catesby, uneasy in his conscience, at length confessed to

Garnet the existence of some plot. The Jesuit refused to hear anything

of it, but endeavoured to impress on the conspirator the necessity of

obedience to the breves from Rome. At length he prevailed on him to

promise that nothing should be done till they had sent a messenger to

the Pope fully detailing the condition of the Catholics in England, and

had received an answer. But Catesby had no intention of deferring his

enterprise on such grounds. Fawkes returned to England in September, and

they resolved to proceed. A second prorogation of Parliament, however,

from October to the 5th of November, disconcerted the conspirators, and

induced them to fear that their designs had become known to Government.

To ascertain this, if possible, Thomas Winter was deputed to attend

in the House of Lords and watch the countenances and behaviour of the

commissioners during the ceremony of prorogation. He returned, assuring

them that their secret was still safe, for the commissioners walked

about and conversed in the utmost unconsciousness of danger on the very

surface of the prepared volcano--the six-and-thirty barrels of gunpowder.

These repeated delays, however, ensured the defeat of the plot. All the

conspirators except Catesby were now ruined by fines, exactions, and

persecutions on account of their faith. They had depended for support

for the last twelve months on the assistance of relations and friends.

Catesby had purchased the military stores and other requisites: his means

were now exhausted, and yet more money must be in hand against the day

of explosion if they meant to take full advantage of it. This induced

them to extend the number of their accomplices, a perilous proceeding in

anything demanding secrecy; and yet Catesby ventured on divulging the

scheme to no less than three fresh associates, men of family and fortune.

The first was Sir Everard Digby, of Drystoke in Rutlandshire, Gotehurst

in Buckinghamshire, and of other large estates. Digby had been left as a

boy a ward of Queen Elizabeth's and had been educated at her court as a

Protestant. But a little before the death of the queen he embraced the

Catholic faith, and thus abandoning the brilliant prospects before him,

retired to his estates in the country. At the time of the conspiracy he

had a young wife and two children, was only twenty-five himself, and

thus had every imaginable earthly good within his reach. Subtle must

have been the persuasion which could have induced such a man to risk all

this in a desperate enterprise, and bold the spirit of Catesby who could

venture to tempt him to do it. It was not effected without difficulty.

Digby could not avoid seeing the hazard and doubting the innocence of

such a proceeding, but eventually he gave way, and promised to assemble

his Catholic friends on the opening of Parliament to hunt with him on

Dunsmoor in Warwickshire, and to advance one thousand five hundred pounds.

The next was Ambrose Rookwood of Coldham Hall, Suffolk, the head of

an ancient and wealthy family, who had suffered like his neighbours,

but was still affluent. He had a fine stud of horses, which made him

a very desirable coadjutor, independent of other considerations. He

seems to have had as little ambition as he had motive for conspiracy,

being, despite his share of persecutions, able to enjoy a quiet life;

but his attachment to Catesby was his snare. Like the rest, he at first

recoiled from the prospect of so much bloodshed; but Catesby managed to

reconcile him to the idea, and he removed his family to Clopton Hall,

near Stratford-on-Avon, in order to be near the Catholic rendezvous at

Dunsmoor.

The third new accomplice was Sir Francis Tresham. His father, Sir Thomas

Tresham, had long been severely handled on account of his religion, in

Elizabeth's reign, and his son Francis, who succeeded him, had been

engaged in several plots. He was in that of Essex in conjunction with

Catesby and Percy, and escaped by a prompt distribution of three thousand

pounds amongst the queen's favourites. His chief seat was at Rushton, in

Northamptonshire. The selection of Tresham was especially imprudent, for

he had the character of being selfish, reserved, and fickle; but he had

money, which induced Catesby to trust him. From the moment, however, that

he did so, he had no more peace of mind. Terrible fears and suspicions

seized him, dreams as terrible haunted him at night. His comrades had no

confidence in Tresham, whose character was well known; but the thing was

done, and there was no retracing the step which was to bring destruction

upon them. Tresham promised a contribution of two thousand pounds, and

Percy also engaging to advance four thousand pounds from the rents of the

Earl of Northumberland, whose steward he was, the pecuniary provision

appeared ample, and they proceeded to organise their plan of operations.

A list of all the peers and commons who were Catholics, or who had

opposed the penal statutes and other harsh measures against the

Catholics, was made out, and these were at the last moment on the fatal

morning to be called away from the House by some urgent message. Guy

Fawkes was appointed to fire the train with a slow burning match, which

should allow of his escape before the explosion; and a ship was to lie

ready in the river to carry him over to Flanders, where he was to publish

a manifesto justifying the deed and calling on the Catholic powers for

aid. Percy, as a gentleman pensioner, was to enter the palace and secure

the person of the young Prince Charles--it seems they were willing to

let Prince Henry perish--and on pretence of placing him in security,

convey him away to the appointed rendezvous at Dunchurch. Digby, Tresham,

Grant, and others, were to hasten to Combe Abbey, and secure the Princess

Elizabeth, whom, if the two young princes should not be saved, they were

at once to proclaim queen. Catesby was to proclaim the heir-apparent,

whoever it was, at Charing Cross; and on reaching Warwickshire a

declaration was to be issued abolishing monopolies, purveyance, and

wardships. A protector was to be appointed to conduct the Government

during the minority of the sovereign.

[Illustration: LORD MONTEAGLE AND THE WARNING LETTER ABOUT THE GUNPOWDER

PLOT. (_See p._ 426.)]

There were circumstances enough in these regulations to have alarmed

all but fanatics in the cause. Messages at the last moment to so many

members of the two Houses must have created suspicion, and the endeavour

to secure the royal children was full of hazard. But there were greater

dangers than these. As the time drew nigh, almost every one had friends

amongst the members of Parliament, and they were not contented with the

general plan of drawing them away at the critical moment. Each wished

to convey a particular warning to his own friends or relatives, which

should make their safety certain. Every such warning, however, menaced

the discovery of the whole scheme. Tresham was excessively anxious to

rescue the Lords Mordaunt and Monteagle, who had married two of his

sisters. Percy was equally desirous to save his relative, the Earl of

Northumberland; Keyes, the old gentleman who had the custody of the house

at Lambeth, was importunate to save Lord Mordaunt, who sheltered and

maintained his wife and children after his own ruin; and all were eager

to warn the young Earl of Arundel.