THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. (_continued_).
Visit of Charles to Scotland--Laud and the Papal See--His
Ecclesiastical Measures--Punishment of Prynne, Bastwick, and
Burton--Disgrace of Williams--Ship-money--Resistance of John
Hampden--Wentworth in the North--Recall of Falkland from
Ireland--Wentworth's Measures--Inquiry into Titles--Prelacy
Riots in Edinburgh--Jenny Geddes's Stool--The Tables--Renewal
of the Covenant--Charles makes Concessions--The General
Assembly--Preparations for War--Charles at York--Leslie at
Dunse Hill--A Conference held--Treaty of Berwick--Arrest of
Loudon--Insult from the Dutch--Wentworth in England--The Short
Parliament--Riots in London--Preparations of the Scots--Mutiny in
the English Army--Invasion of England--Treaty of Ripon--Meeting of
the Long Parliament--Impeachment of Strafford--His Trial--He is
Abandoned by Charles--His Execution--The King's Visit to Scotland.
Having reduced the refractory members of the Church and of Parliament in
England to silence for the present, Charles determined to make a journey
into Scotland, there to be crowned, to raise revenue, and to establish
the Anglican hierarchy in that part of his dominions. For the latter
purpose he took Laud with him. He reached Edinburgh on the 12th of June,
1633, where he was received by the inhabitants with demonstrations of
lively rejoicing, as if they were neither aware of the character and
views of the monarch, nor remembered the consequences of the visit of his
father. On the 18th he was crowned in Edinburgh by the Archbishop of St.
Andrews; but Laud did not let that opportunity pass without giving them
a foretaste of what was coming. "It was observed," says Rushworth, "that
Dr. Laud was high in his carriage, taking upon him the order and managing
of the ceremonies; and, for instance, Spotswood, Archbishop of St.
Andrews, being placed at the king's right hand, and Lindsey, Archbishop
of Glasgow, at his left, Bishop Laud took Glasgow and thrust him from the
king with these words:--'Are you a Churchman, and want the coat of your
order?'--which was an embroidered coat, which he scrupled to wear, being
a moderate Churchman--and in place of him put in the Bishop of Ross at
the king's right hand."
This question of the embroidered robes of the Roman hierarchy, with the
high altar, the tapers, chalices, genuflections, and oil of unction,
was introduced into Parliament, and forced on the reluctant Scots. They
had voted supplies with a most liberal spirit, and laid on a land tax
of four hundred thousand pounds Scots for six years; but when the king
proposed to pass a Bill authorising the robes, ceremonies, and rites just
mentioned, there was a stout opposition. Lord Melville said plainly to
Charles, "I have sworn with your father and the whole kingdom to the
confession of faith in which the innovations intended by these Articles
were solemnly abjured." And the Bishop of the Isles told him at dinner
that it was said amongst the people that his entrance into the city had
been with hosannas, but that it would be changed, like that of the Jews
to our Saviour, into, "Away with him, crucify him!" Charles is said
to have turned thoughtful, and eaten no more. Yet the next day he as
positively as ever insisted on the Parliament passing the Articles, and,
pointing to a paper in his hand, said, "Your names are here; I shall know
to-day who will do me service and who will not."
Notwithstanding this, the House voted against it by a considerable
majority, there being opposed to it fifteen Peers and forty-five
Commoners; yet the Lord Register, under influence of the Court,
audaciously declared that the Articles were accepted by Parliament. The
Earl of Rothes had the boldness to deny this and to demand a scrutiny
of the votes; but Charles intimidated both him and all dissentients by
refusing any scrutiny unless Rothes would arraign the Lord Register
of the capital crime of falsifying the votes. This was a course too
perilous for any individual under the circumstances. Rothes was silent,
the Articles were ratified by the Crown, and Parliament was forthwith
dissolved on the 28th of June.
Having thus carried his point with the Parliament, Charles took
every means, except that which had brought upon him so much odium in
England--namely, imprisoning and prosecuting the members who opposed
him--to express his dissatisfaction with them. He distributed lands and
honours upon those who had fallen in with his wishes, and treated the
dissentients with sullen looks, and even severe words, when they came
in his way. They were openly ridiculed by his courtiers, and dubbed
schismatics and seditious. Lord Balmerino was even condemned to death
for a pamphlet being found in his possession complaining of the king's
arbitrary conduct in these concerns; but the sentence was too atrocious
to be executed.
Charles and Laud erected Edinburgh into a bishopric, with a diocese
extending even to Berwick, and richly endowed with old Church lands,
which were obtained from the noblemen who held them. A set of singing
men was also appointed for Holyrood Chapel; and Laud, who had been made
a Privy Councillor, preached there in full pontificals, to the great
scandal of the Presbyterians. Thence Charles and his apostle made a
tour to St. Andrews, Dundee, Falkland, Dunblane, etc., to the singular
discomfort of Laud amongst the rough fastnesses of the Highlands.
Immediately after this, Charles posted to London in four days, leaving
Laud to travel more at leisure. No doubt both master and man thought
they had made a very fine piece of work in this forcing of the Scottish
consciences: they were destined in a while to feel what it actually was,
in rebellion and the sharp edge of the axe.
Scarcely had they reached London, when they heard the news of the death
of Archbishop Abbot, and Charles was thus enabled to reward Laud for
all his services in building up despotism and superstition by making
him Primate, which he did on the 6th of August, 1633. It was a curious
coincidence that about the same time Laud received a second offer of a
cardinal's hat, and he seems to have been greatly tempted by it. He says
that he acquainted his majesty with the offer, and that the king rescued
him from the trouble and danger; for, he adds, there was something
dwelling in him which would not suffer him to accept the offer till Rome
was other than she was. To have accepted a cardinal's hat was to have
gone over to the Church of Rome, and the Church of England was for him a
much better thing now he was Primate.
There undoubtedly did at this precise time take place an active private
negotiation between the courts of Rome and England on this topic.
The queen was anxious to have the dignity of cardinal conferred on a
British subject. Probably she thought that the residence of the English
cardinal at London would be a stepping-stone to the full restoration
of Catholicism. Towards the end of August, immediately after Laud's
elevation to the Primacy, Sir Robert Douglas was sent to Rome as envoy
from the queen, with a letter of credence, signed by the Earl of
Stirling, Secretary of State for Scotland. His mission was this proposal
of an English cardinal, as a measure which would contribute greatly to
the conversion of the king. To carry out this negotiation, Leander, an
English Benedictine monk, was despatched to England, followed soon after
by Panzani an Italian priest.
From the despatches of Panzani we find that there existed a strong party
at the English court for the return to the allegiance of Rome, amongst
whom were Secretary Windebank; Lord Chancellor Cottington; Goodman,
Bishop of Gloucester; and Montague, Bishop of Chichester. He was informed
that none of the bishops except three--those of Durham, Salisbury, and
Exeter--would object to a purely spiritual supremacy of the Pope, and
very few of the clergy.
Douglas was followed to Rome by Sir William Hamilton, to prosecute
this secret business, but it all came to nothing, for the king, who
was sincere in his attachment to the English Church, was not likely to
listen to any proposal for submitting again to the yoke of Rome; and the
Pope, on his part, would not comply with Charles's request to exert his
influence with Catholic Austria for the restoration of his sister and
her son in the Palatinate so long as they continued Protestants. Laud
was therefore relieved from his temptation to receive the cardinal's
hat by the resolve of the king to yield not one jot of his spiritual or
political power; and a Scottish Catholic named Conn being at Rome, was
mentioned as candidate for the purple instead. He came to England and was
graciously received, not only by the queen, but the king too. He resided
in England three years, but without the cardinal's hat, and was succeeded
by Count Rossetti as the Pope's envoy. The rumours of the offers of the
scarlet hat to Laud, and the residence of these Papal envoys in London,
excited the jealousy of the people and added immensely to Charles's
unpopularity; for no one felt sure of his real faith.
As Laud, however, could not array himself in scarlet as a cardinal,
he determined to make the Anglican Church as Popish, and himself as
much of a Pope, as possible. Before reaching the Primacy he had gone a
good way. The spoliation of the Church by Henry VIII. and Edward VI.,
and their greedy nobility, had deprived it of the means of keeping the
ecclesiastical buildings in repair. The Catholic Church in England had
devoted the property of the Establishment to three objects: one, to
the maintenance of the clergy and religious orders; the second, to
the maintenance of the buildings of the churches and cathedrals; and
the third to the support of the poor. Thus the patrimony of the poor
was swallowed up by the aristocracy, and the maintenance of the poor
thrown upon the country; and fixed there by the 43rd of Elizabeth. The
patrimony of the public for the maintenance of Church buildings being
equally shared by the Russells, Villierses, Seymours, Dudleys, and a
thousand other Court leeches, neither Charles nor Laud, with all their
stickling for the Church, dared to call upon them to disgorge their prey;
but a proclamation was issued to the bishops for the repairs of all the
churches and chapels, and they were to levy the necessary rates on the
parishioners at large, and to exert the powers of the ecclesiastical
courts against all such as resisted.
[Illustration: DUNBLANE IN THE 17TH CENTURY.]
This excited a serious ferment amongst the people, which was greatly
increased by the general opinion that these repairs should be done out
of the tithes which they paid either to lay or clerical personages. Laud
carried matters with far too high a hand to pay the slightest regard to
these complaints, and he proceeded to consecrate such churches as were
thus repaired, with all the splendid ceremony of Catholicism, as if they
had been desecrated by their neglect.
He obtained a commission under the Great Seal for the repair of St.
Paul's Cathedral. The judges of the prerogative courts, and their
officials throughout England and Wales, were ordered to pay into the
chamber in London all moneys derived from persons dying intestate, to be
applied to the restoration of this church. The clergy were called on by
the bishops in their several dioceses to furnish an annual subsidy for
this object. The king contributed at various times ten thousand pounds,
Sir Paul Pindar four thousand pounds, and Laud gave one hundred pounds
a year. He was bent on making St. Paul's a rival of St. Peter's; and as
more money became necessary, he summoned wealthy people into the High
Commission Court on all possible pleas, and fined them heavily; so that
there was a plentiful crop of money and of murmurs against the Primate,
who was said to be building the church out of the sins of the people.
Laud had obtained for his devoted adherents Windebank and Juxon, Dean
of Westminster, the posts of Secretary of State and of Clerk of the
King's Closet respectively; thus, as Heylin observes, the king was so
well watched by his staunch friends that it was not easy for any one to
insinuate anything to Laud's disadvantage; and the Primate went on most
sweepingly in his own way. He put down all evening lecturing, evening
meetings, and extemporary praying. He re-introduced in the churches
painted glass, pictures, and surplices, lawn-sleeves, and embroidered
caps; had the communion-tables removed, and altars placed instead, and
railed in; and he carried his innovations with such an arbitrary hand
that many who might have approved of them in themselves were set against
them. The stricter reformers complained of the looseness with which the
Sabbath was kept, and the Lord Chief Justice Richardson and Baron Denham
issued an order in the western circuit to put an end to the disorders
attending church-ales, bid-ales, clerk-ales, and the like. But no sooner
did Laud hear of it than he had the Lord Chief Justice summoned before
the Council and severely reprimanded as interfering with the commands of
King James for the practice of such Sunday sports, as recommended in his
Book of Sports, and since confirmed by Charles.
[Illustration: ARCHBISHOP LAUD.]
The country magistrates, who had seen the demoralisation consequent on
these sports and Sunday gatherings at the ale-houses, petitioned the king
to put them down; and the petition was signed by Lord Paulet, Sir William
Portman, Sir Ralph Hopeton, and many other gentlemen of distinction. But
they were forestalled by the agility of Laud, who procured from the king
a declaration sanctioning all the Sunday amusements to be found in the
Book of Sports, and commanding all judges on circuit, and all justices
of the peace, to see that no man was molested on that account. This
declaration was ordered to be read in all parish churches by the clergy.
Many conscientious clergy, who had seen too much of the dissolute riots
resulting from these rude gatherings on Sundays, refused to read the
declaration, and were suspended from their duties, and prosecuted to such
a degree that they had no alternative but to emigrate to America.
This dictation of Laud extended over the whole kingdom, into Wales,
Scotland, and Ireland. Charles was urged to issue proclamation after
proclamation interfering in things entirely beyond the range of his
episcopal jurisdiction, such as regulating the price of poultry and the
retailing of tobacco. In Ireland, Wentworth, now made Lord Deputy, went
hand-in-hand with him. That he might the better interfere in all kinds of
matters Laud was appointed in 1634 Chief of the Board of Commissioners
of the Exchequer, and--on the death of Weston, Lord Portland--the Lord
High Treasurer. He then got his friend Juxon made Bishop of London, and
in about a year surrendered to him the Treasurership, to the surprise and
murmuring of many, for Juxon, till the primate brought him forward, was a
man of no mark whatever. Lord Chancellor Cottington, who had been a fast
friend of Laud's, and calculated on the white staff of the Treasurer, now
fell away from Laud, and many noblemen who had had an eye to it began
to prophesy what the end of his career would be. But the University of
Oxford, going the whole way with him in his advances towards Popery,
styled him "His Holiness _Summus Pontifex, Spiritu Sancto effusissime
plenus, Archangelus et nequid minus_!" And Laud accepted all this base
adulation, and declared that these revolting titles were quite proper,
because they had been applied to the popes and fathers of the Romish
Church. In fact, he desired to be the pope of England.
And in this great Papal authority he was fain to stretch his coercing
hand over the churches wherever they were. He procured an order in
Council to shut the English factories in Holland, and compel the troops
serving there to conform to the Liturgy of the Church of England. Most
of the merchants and many of these soldiers had gone thither expressly
to enjoy their own forms of religion; but no matter, they must conform.
And says Heylin, "The like course was prescribed for our factories
in Hamburg, and those farther off, that is to say in Turkey, in the
Mogul's dominions, the Indian islands, the plantations in Virginia,
the Barbadoes, and all other places where the English had any standing
residence in the way of trade." This order was to be carried into the
houses and establishments of all ambassadors and consuls abroad.
William Prynne was a young graduate of Oxford, originally from Painswick,
near Bath, but now an outer barrister of Lincoln's Inn. He was a thorough
Puritan, grave, stern in his ideas, and rigid in his morals, a man who
was ready to sacrifice reputation, life, and everything, for his high
ideal of religious truth. He was persuaded that much of the dissoluteness
of the young men around him arose from the debasing effect of frequenting
the theatres; and in that he was probably correct, for the theatres
were not in that age, nor for long after, fitting schools for youth. He
therefore wrote (1632) a volume of a thousand pages against the stage,
called "Histriomastix." He stated that forty thousand copies of plays
had been exposed for sale within two years, and were eagerly bought up;
that the theatres were the chapels of Satan, the players his ministers,
and their frequenters were rushing headlong into hell. Dancing was, in
his opinion, an equally diabolical amusement, and every pace was a step
nearer to Tophet. Dancing made the ladies of England "frizzled madams,"
polluted their modesty, and would destroy them as it had done Nero,
and led three Romans to assassinate Gallienus. He went on to attack
everything that Laud had been supporting--Maypoles, public festivals,
church-ales, music, and Christmas carols: the cringings and duckings at
the altar which Laud had so much fostered, and all the silk and satin
divines, their pluralities, and their bellowing chants in the Church.
Laud had made two vain attempts to lay hold on this pestilent satirist,
but the lawyers had defeated him by injunctions from Westminster Hall.
But the third time, by accusing him more exclusively of reflecting on the
king and queen by his strictures on dancing, he obtained an order for
the Attorney-General Noye to indict him in the Star Chamber. There he
was condemned to be excluded from the bar and from Lincoln's Inn, to be
deprived of his University degree, to pay a fine of five thousand pounds,
to have his book burnt before his face by the hangman, to stand in the
pillory at Westminster and in Cheapside, at each place to lose an ear,
and afterwards to be imprisoned for life. This most detestable sentence
was carried into effect in May, 1634, with brutal ferocity, although the
queen interceded earnestly in his favour, and the nation denounced the
barbarity in no equivocal language.
Prynne, undaunted, nay, exasperated to greater daring by this cruelty,
resumed the subject in his prison, whence he issued a tract (1637) styled
"News from Ipswich," in which he charged the prelates with being the
bishops of Lucifer, devouring wolves, and execrable traitors, who had
overthrown the simplicity of the Gospel to introduce the superstitions
of Popery. He had found in prison a congenial soul, Dr. Bastwick, a
physician, who had written a treatise against the bishops, called
"_Elenchus papismi et flagellum episcoporum Latialium_," for which he had
been condemned to pay a fine of one thousand pounds to the king, to be
imprisoned two years, and to make recantation. He now, that is in 1636,
wrote a fresh tract: "_Apologeticus ad præsules Anglicanos_," and (in
1637) the "Litanie of John Bastwick, doctor of physic, lying in _Limbo
patrum_," in which he attacked both the bishops' and Laud's service books.
A third person was Henry Burton, who had been chaplain to Charles when
on his journey to Spain; but being now incumbent of St. Matthew's, in
London, he had preached against the bishops as "blind watchmen, dumb
dogs, ravening wolves, anti-Christian mushrooms, robbers of souls, limbs
of the beast, and factors of antichrist."
These zealous religionists, whom the cruelties and follies of Laud and
his bishops had driven almost beside themselves, were condemned in the
Star Chamber to be each fined five thousand pounds, to stand two hours in
the pillory, where they were to have their ears cut off, to be branded
on both cheeks with the letters S.L., for "seditious libeller," and then
imprisoned for life.
This sentence, than which the Spanish Inquisition has nothing worse to
show, was fully executed in Old Palace Yard, on the 30th of June, 1637.
Prynne from the pillory defied all Lambeth, with the Pope at its back,
to prove to him that such doings were according to the law of England;
and if he failed to prove them violators of that law and the law of God,
they were at liberty to hang him at the door of the Gate House prison. On
hearing this the people gave a great shout; but the executioner, as if
incited to more cruelty, cut off their ears as barbarously as possible,
rather sawing than cutting them. Prynne, who is said to have had his
ears sewed on again on the former occasion, had them now gouged out, as
it were; yet as the hangman sawed at them he cried out, "Cut me, tear
me, I fear thee not. I fear the fire of hell, but not thee!" Burton,
too, harangued the people for a long time most eloquently; but the sun
blazing hotly in their faces all the time, he was near fainting, when he
was carried into a house in King Street, saying, "It is too hot! Too hot,
indeed!"
This most disgraceful exhibition made a terrible impression on the
spectators, of whom the king was informed that there were one hundred
thousand; whilst the executioner sawed at the ears of the prisoners they
assailed him with curses, hisses, and groans. Both Charles and Laud
were unpleasantly surprised at the effect produced; and to remove the
sufferers from public sympathy, they determined to send them to distant
and solitary prisons, far separate from each other--to Launceston,
Carnarvon, and Lancaster. But the king and his high priest were still
more amazed and alarmed when they found on the removal of the prisoners
the crowds were equally immense, and that they went along from place
to place in a kind of triumph. To attend Burton from Smithfield to two
miles beyond Highgate, there were again at least one hundred thousand
people, who testified their deep sympathy, and threw money into the coach
to his wife as she drove along. Money and presents were also offered to
Prynne, but he refused them. Gentlemen of wealth and station pressed to
see and condole with the prisoners, whom they honoured and applauded as
martyrs. When Prynne reached Chester, on his way to Carnarvon, one of the
sheriffs, attended by a number of gentle men, met him, invited him to a
good dinner, discharged the cost, and gave him some hangings to furnish
his dungeon with in Carnarvon Castle.
This popular demonstration still more startled Laud, who summoned the
sheriff, as well as the other gentlemen, before the High Commission Court
at York, where they were fined in sums varying from two hundred and fifty
pounds to five hundred pounds, and condemned to acknowledge their offence
before the congregation in the cathedral and the Corporation in the town
hall of Chester. The prisoners themselves were ordered to be removed
farther still, and accordingly Bastwick was sent to the Isle of Scilly,
Burton to the Castle of Cornet in Guernsey, and Prynne to that of Mount
Orgueil in Jersey. But the king and archbishop had now roused a spirit,
by their cutting off of ears, which would be satisfied ere long with
nothing less than their whole heads.
To stop the outcry against their cruelties, they next determined to
gag the press. An order was therefore issued by the Star Chamber,
forbidding all importation of foreign books, and the printing of any
at home without licence. All books on religion, physic, literature, and
poetry must be licensed by the bishops, so that all truths unpleasant
to the Church would thus be suppressed. There were to be allowed only
twenty master printers in the kingdom, except those of his majesty and
the universities; no printer was to have more than two presses nor two
apprentices, except the warden of the Company. There were to be only four
letter-founders; and whoever presumed to print without licence was to be
whipped through London and set in the pillory. All this time the High
Commission Court kept pace with the Star Chamber in its prosecutions and
arbitrary fines, under pretence of protecting public morals.
Laud soon had delinquents against the atrocious order for gagging the
press. In about six months after the infliction of the sentence on Prynne
and his associates, he cited into the Star Chamber John Lilburne and John
Warton, for printing Prynne's "News from Ipswich" and other books called
libellous (1638). The accused refused to take the oath proposed to them,
protesting against the lawfulness of the court. Being called up several
times, and still obstinately refusing, they were condemned to be fined
five hundred pounds apiece, Lilburne to be whipped from the Fleet to the
pillory, and both to be bound to their good behaviour. Lilburne was one
of the most determined of men. He continued to declaim violently against
the tyranny of Laud and his bishops whilst he was standing in the pillory
and undergoing his whipping. He drew from his pockets a number of the
very pamphlets he was punished for printing, and scattered them from the
pillory amongst the crowd. The court of Star Chamber being informed of
his conduct, sent and had him gagged; but he then stamped with his feet
to intimate that he would still speak if he could. He was then thrown
into the Fleet, heavily ironed and in solitude.
To complete Laud's attacks on all persons and parties, there lacked
only an onslaught on the episcopal bench, and there he found Williams,
formerly Lord Keeper, and still Bishop of Lincoln, for a victim.
Williams, with all his faults, had been a true friend of Laud's at a time
when he had very few, and the wily upstart had declared that his very
life would be too short to demonstrate his gratitude: but he took full
occasion to display towards him his ingratitude. From the moment that
Laud was introduced to the king, Williams could ill conceal his disgust
at the clerical adventurer's base adulation. But Laud continued to
ascend and Williams to descend. Williams having lost the seals, retired
to his diocese, where he made himself very popular by his talents, his
agreeable manners, his hospitality, and still more by his being regarded
as a victim of the arbitrary spirit of the king and of Laud. Williams,
who had a stinging wit, launched a tract at the head of the Primate,
called the "Holy Table," in which he unmercifully satirised Laud's parade
of high altars and Popish ceremonies. The Primate very speedily had him
in the Star Chamber, where he received private information that if he
would give up to Laud his deanery of Westminster, that disinterested
prelate would let the prosecution slip. Williams refused, and then
commenced one of the most disgraceful scenes in history. Laud, Windebank,
and the king were determined to force the deanery and a heavy fine from
him. They browbeat his witnesses; threw them into prison to compel them
to swear falsely; removed Chief Justice Heath to put in a more pliant
man; and at length, through the medium of Lord Cottington, induced
Williams, from terror of worse, to give up the deanery and pay a fine of
ten thousand pounds. His servants and agents, Walker, Catlin, and Lunn,
were fined three hundred pounds apiece, and Powell two hundred pounds.
This being done, Laud uttered a most hypocritical speech, professing
high admiration of the talents, wisdom, learning, and various endowments
of Williams, and his sorrow to see him thus punished, declaring that he
had gone five times on his knees to the king to sue for his pardon. But
even so Williams was not destined to escape. The officers who went to
take possession of his effects, found amongst his papers two letters from
Osbaldeston, master of Westminster School, in one of which he said that
the great leviathan--the late Lord Treasurer, Portland--and the little
urchin--Laud--were in a storm; and in the other, that "there was great
jealousy between the leviathan and the little meddling hocus-pocus."
This, which was no crime of Williams, but of Osbaldeston, was, however,
made a crime of both. Williams was condemned on the charge of concealing
a libel on a public officer, and fined eight thousand pounds more, and
to suffer imprisonment during the king's pleasure. The chief offender,
Osbaldeston, could not be found; he had left a note saying he was "gone
beyond Canterbury;" but he was sentenced to deprivation of his office, to
be branded, and stand opposite to his own school in the pillory, with
his ears nailed to it. He took good care, however, not to fall into such
merciless hands.
[Illustration: JOHN LILBURNE ON THE PILLORY. (_See p._ 556.)]
Besides those means of raising a permanent revenue for the Crown,
independent of Parliament, which we have already detailed--as tonnage
and poundage, the fees on compulsory knighthood, and the resumption
of forest lands,--there was discovered another which was owing to
the ingenuity of Attorney-General Noye. The landed proprietors had
been much alarmed by the rumours that the king would lay claim to the
greater part of every county in England except Kent, Sussex, and Surrey,
but the whole public was struck with consternation at the additional
project of the Attorney-General. As he had been always of a surly and
morose disposition, he carried this ungracious manner with him into his
apostacy. Formerly he had acted like a rude ill-tempered patriot, now
he was the more odious from being at once obsequious to the Crown, and
coarsely insolent to those whose rights he had invaded.
In the Records of the Tower he discovered writs compelling the ports and
maritime counties to provide a certain number of ships during war, or for
protecting the coasts from pirates. It was now declared that the seas
were greatly infested with Turkish corsairs, who not only intercepted our
merchantmen at sea, but made descents on the coast of Ireland and carried
off the inhabitants into slavery. The French and Dutch mariners, it was
added, were continually interrupting our trade, and making prizes of our
trading vessels. It was necessary to assert our right to the sovereignty
of the narrow seas, which, it was contended, "our progenitors, Kings
of England, had always possessed, and that it would be very irksome to
us if that princely honour in our time should be lost, or in anything
diminished."
But the real cause was that Charles was at that time, 1634, engaged
in the treaty with Spain to assist it against the United Provinces of
Holland, on condition that Philip engaged to restore the Palsgrave.
Noye's scheme was highly approved and supported by the Lord Keeper
Coventry. On the 20th of October, 1634, a writ was issued by the Lords of
the Council, signed by the king, to the city of London, commanding it to
furnish before the 1st of March next, seven ships, with all the requisite
arms, stores, and tackling, and wages for the men for twenty-six weeks.
One ship was to be of nine hundred tons, and to carry three hundred and
fifty men; another of eight hundred tons, with two hundred and sixty
men; four ships of five hundred tons, with two hundred men each; and
one of three hundred tons, with one hundred and fifty men. The Common
Council and citizens humbly remonstrated against the demand as one from
which they were exempt by their charters, but the Council treated their
objections with contempt, and compelled them to submit.
In the spring of 1635 similar writs were issued to the maritime
counties, and even sent into the interior, a most unheard-of demand;
and instructions were forwarded to all parts, signed by Laud, Coventry,
Juxon, Cottington, and the rest of the Privy Council, ordering the
sheriffs to collect the money which was to be levied instead of ships, at
the rate of three thousand three hundred pounds for every ship. They were
to distrain on all who refused, and take care that no arrears were left
to their successors. The demand occasioned both murmuring and resistance.
The deputy-lieutenants of some inland counties wrote to the Council,
begging that the inhabitants might be excused this unprecedented tax; but
they were speedily called before the Council, and severely reprimanded.
The people on the coasts of Sussex absolutely refused to pay, but they
were soon forced by the sheriffs to submit. Noye died before this took
place, and squibs regarding him were publicly placarded, saying that
his body being opened, a bundle of proclamations was found in his head,
worm-eaten records were discovered in his stomach, and a barrel of soap,
alluding to the enforcement of the monopoly on that article, was found in
his paunch.
To put an end to all murmurs or resistance, Charles determined to
have the sanction of the judges, knowing that he could not have that
of Parliament. He therefore removed Chief Justice Heath on this and
other accounts, and put in his place the supple Sir John Finch, lately
conspicuous as Speaker of the Commons. The questions submitted to the
judges were whether, when the good and safety of the realm demanded it,
the king could not levy this ship-money, and whether he was not the
proper and sole judge of the danger and the necessity. Finch canvassed
his brethren of the Bench individually and privately. The judges met
in Serjeant's Inn on the 12th of February, 1636, when they were all
perfectly unanimous except Croke and Hutton, who, however, subscribed, on
the ground that the opinion of a majority settled the matter.
To obtain this opinion, Charles had let the judges know through Finch,
that he only required their decision for his private satisfaction; but
they were startled to find their sanction immediately proclaimed by the
Lord Keeper Coventry in the Star Chamber, order given that it should
be enrolled in all the courts at Westminster, and themselves required
to make it known from the Bench on their circuits through the country.
Nor was this all, for Wentworth, now become a full-fledged agent of
despotism, contended that "since it is lawful for the king to impose a
tax towards the equipment of the navy, it must be equally so for the levy
of an army; and the same reason which authorises him to levy an army to
resist, will authorise him to carry that army abroad, that he may prevent
invasion. Moreover, what is law in England is also law in Ireland and
Scotland. This decision of the judges will, therefore, make the king
absolute at home, and formidable abroad. Let him," he observed, "only
abstain from war a few years, that he may habituate his subjects to the
payment of this tax, and in the end he will find himself more powerful
and respected than any of his predecessors."
Such were the principles of Wentworth, ready on the smallest concession
to grant a dozen other assumptions upon it, and such the counsellors,
himself and Laud, who encouraged the already too fatally despotic king to
his destruction. The judges were, for the most part, equally traitorous
to the nation, and preached the most absolute doctrines and passed the
most absolute sentences. Richard Chambers, the London merchant, who had
already suffered so severely for resisting the king's illegal demands,
also refused payment of this, and brought an action against the Lord
Mayor for imprisoning him for his refusal. But Judge Berkeley would not
hear the counsel of Chambers in his defence; and afterwards, in his
charge to the grand jury at York, described ship-money as the inseparable
flower of the Crown. But they were not so easily to override the rights
of the people of England. There were numbers of stout hearts only waiting
a fitting opportunity to unite and crush the spirit of despotism now
growing so rampant. One of the most distinguished of these patriots was
John Hampden, a gentleman of Buckinghamshire, whose name has become a
world-wide synonym for sturdy constitutional independence. He determined
not only to resist the payment of ship-money, but to try the question,
so as to make known far and wide its illegality. He consulted his legal
friends, Holborne, St. John, Whitelock, and others, on the best means of
dealing with it, and encouraged by his example, thirty freeholders of
his parish of Great Kimble, in Buckinghamshire, also refused payment. No
sooner, therefore, had Charles obtained the opinion of the judges, than
he determined to proceed against Hampden in the Court of Exchequer. The
case was conducted for the Crown by the Attorney-General, Sir John Banks,
and the Solicitor-General, Sir Edward Littleton. The sum at which Hampden
was assessed was only twenty shillings: the trial lasted for twelve days
before the twelve judges, that is, from the 6th to the 18th of December,
1637.
It was argued on the part of the Crown that the practice was sanctioned
by the annual tax of Dane-gelt, imposed by the Saxons; by former monarchs
having pressed ships into their service, and compelled the maritime
counties to equip them; and that the claim on the part of the king was
reasonable and patriotic, for if he did not exercise this right of the
Crown, in cases of danger, before the Parliament could be assembled
serious damage might accrue. The Crown lawyers ridiculed the refusal of
a man of Mr. Hampden's great estates to pay so paltry a sum as twenty
shillings; and declared that the sheriffs of Bucks ought to be fined
for not putting upon him twenty pounds. But it was replied upon the
part of Hampden, that the amount of the assessment was not in question,
it was the principle of it. Nor could the Dane-gelt give evidence in
the case, the imperfect accounts to be drawn on the subject from our
ancient writers being too vague and uncertain. Moreover, the practice
of monarchs before or after Magna Charta could not establish any law on
the subject, for Magna Charta abrogated any arbitrary customs that had
gone before, and strictly and clearly forbade them afterwards. No breach
of that great Charter could be pleaded against it, for it was paramount
and perpetual in its authority. Again, various statutes since, and last
of all the Petition of Right, assented to by the king himself, made any
such taxation without consent of Parliament illegal and void; while
the very asking of loans and benevolences by different monarchs was
sufficient proof of this, for if they had the right to tax, they would
have taxed, and not borrowed. The most arbitrary prince that ever sat
on the English throne--Henry VIII.,--when he had borrowed, and was not
disposed to repay, did not consider his own fiat sufficient to cancel
the debt, but called in Parliament to release him from the obligation.
They reminded the judges of Edward I.'s confirmation of the charters, and
of the statute _De Tallagio non concedendo_. As to the plea of imminent
danger from foreign invasion, as in the case of the great Armada, as
the Crown lawyers had mentioned, such cases, they argued, were next to
impossible; notices of danger, as in the instance of the Armada itself,
being obtained in ample time to call together Parliament. In this case
there was no urgency whatever to forestall the measures of Parliament;
for neither the insolence of a few Turkish pirates, nor even the threats
of neighbouring States, were of consequence enough to warrant the
forestalling of the constitutional functions of Parliament.
The Crown lawyers, baffled by this unanswerable statement, then
unblushingly took their stand on the doctrine that the king was bound
by no laws, but all laws proceeded from the grace of the king, and that
this was a right which all monarchs had reserved from time immemorial.
Justice Crawley declared that the right of such impositions resided _ipso
facto_ in the king as king, that you could not have a king without these
rights--no, not by Act of Parliament. "The law," said Judge Berkeley,
"knows no such king-yoking policy. The law is an old and trusty servant
of the king's; it is his instrument or means which he useth to govern
his people by. I never read or heard that _Lex_ was _Rex_, but it is
common and most true that _Rex_ is _Lex_." The pliable Finch said, "Acts
of Parliament are void to bind the king not to command the subjects,
their persons, and goods, and, I say, their money, too, for no Acts of
Parliament make any difference." Certainly they made no difference to
him; and if these base lawyers could have talked away the rights of
the people of England, they would have done it for their own selfish
interests. When Holborne contended that it was not only for themselves,
but for posterity, that they were bound to preserve the constitution
intact, Finch testily exclaimed, "It belongs not to the Bar to talk of
future governments; it is not agreeable to duty to have you bandy what is
the hope of succeeding princes, when the king hath a blessed issue so
hopeful to succeed him in his crown and virtues." But Holborne replied,
"My lord, for that whereof I speak, I look far off--many ages off; five
hundred years hence!"
But all the judges were not of like stamp. Hutton and Croke, who had
dissented when the opinion of the judges was first taken, now made a bold
stand against the illegal practice. As the ruin of a judge who thus dared
to act in upright independence was pretty certain at that time, we may
estimate the degree of virtue necessary to such decision, and the noble
self-sacrifice of Lady Croke, who bade her husband give no thought to
the consequences of discharging his duty, for that she would be content
to suffer want, or any misery with him, rather than he should do or say
anything against his judgment and conscience.
The case was not decided till the Trinity Term, the third term from the
commencement of the trial, when, on the 12th of June, 1638, judgment was
entered against Hampden in the Court of Exchequer. But even then five
of the judges had the courage to decide for Hampden, though three of
them did this only on technical grounds, conceding the main and vital
question. The decision of this most important trial was apparently in
favour of the king, and there was, accordingly, much triumphing at Court;
but in reality, it was in favour of the people, for it had been so
long before the public, and the arguments of Hampden's counsel were so
undeniable, those of the Crown so absolutely untenable, and opposed to
all the history of the nation, that the matter was everywhere discussed,
and men's opinions made up that, without a positive resistance to such
claims and such doctrines as had here been advanced, the country was a
place of serfdom, and the bloodshed and the labour of all past patriots
had been in vain. It was accordingly found that people were more averse
than ever from paying these demands; and even the courtly Clarendon
confesses that "the pressure was borne with much more cheerfulness before
the judgment for the king than ever it was after." Lord Say made a
determined stand against it in Warwickshire, and would fain have brought
on another trial like that of John Hampden; but the king would not allow
another damaging experiment; and events came crowding after it of such a
nature, as showed how deep the matter had sunk into the public mind.
The course which matters were taking was exceedingly disgusting to the
ministers of King Charles--Laud and Wentworth. The latter had been
appointed Lord President of the North, where he had ruled with all
the overbearing self-will of a king. The Council of the North had been
appointed by Henry VIII., to try and punish the insurgents concerned
in the Pilgrimage of Grace, and it had been continued ever since on as
lawless a basis as that of the Star Chamber itself. In fact, it was the
Star Chamber of the five most northern counties of England, summoning and
judging the subjects without any jury, but at the will of the Council
itself. Wentworth had risen from a simple baronet to be Privy Councillor,
baron and viscount, and President of the North, with more rapidity than
Buckingham himself had done. On accepting this last office, his power
and jurisdiction were enlarged, and he displayed such an unflinching
spirit in exercising the most despotic will, that on difficulties arising
in Ireland, he was, without resigning his Presidency of the North,
transferred thither, where Charles had resolved to introduce the same
subjection to his sole will as in England and Scotland.
When the unfortunate expedition to Cadiz had been made, and the king
feared the Spaniards would retaliate by making a descent on Ireland, he
ordered the Lord-Deputy, Lord Falkland, to raise the Irish army to five
thousand foot and five hundred horse. There was no great difficulty in
that, but the question how they were to be maintained was not so easy.
Lord Falkland, who was one of the most honourable and conscientious of
men, called together the great landed proprietors, and submitted the
matter to their judgment. These, who were chiefly Catholics, offered to
advance the necessary funds on condition that certain concessions should
be made to the people of Ireland. These were, that, besides the removal
of many minor grievances, the recusants should be allowed to practise
in the courts of law, and to sue the livery of their lands out of the
court of wards on their taking the oath of Allegiance without that of
Supremacy; that the Undertakers on the several plantations should have
time to fulfil the conditions of their leases; that the claims of the
Crown should be confined to the last sixty years, the inhabitants of
Connaught being allowed a new enrolment of their estates; and finally,
that a parliament should be held to confirm these graces, as they were
called.
Delegates were sent to London to lay these proposals before the king,
and on the agreement to pay one hundred and twenty thousand pounds by
instalments in three years, Charles readily granted these articles
of grace, amounting to fifty-one. But meanwhile, a rumour of these
concessions having got out, the Irish Established Church had made a
great opposition, and though the parliament was called, nothing was done,
nor did Charles intend to do more than get the money. As Lord Falkland
was the last man in the world to be a party to anything so dishonourable,
he was recalled, and Wentworth was sent over, in the July of 1632, to do
the work.
[Illustration: THE BIRMINGHAM TOWER, DUBLIN CASTLE.]
Wentworth's arrival in Ireland was tantamount to a revolution there.
He introduced all the regulations of the English Court at the Castle,
assumed a guard like the king, which no Deputy before him had done, and
carried himself with a haughty demeanour which made the Irish lords stand
amazed. The only good which he effected was in putting down the multitude
of minor tyrants, but then he combined all their tyranny and oppressions
in himself. He was ready to bear any amount of odium, because he trusted
to the king's support. His object was to raise a large permanent revenue,
and Wentworth soon informed Charles that if this was to be done, there
must be an end to making grants to needy English nobles, who absorbed
what should flow to the Crown. Charles had promised such grants to
the Duke of Lennox, the Earl of Arundel, and others; but on learning
Wentworth's views, Secretary Windebank wrote, at the king's command, that
Wentworth was at liberty to refuse them these grants, provided that he
took "the refusing part" on himself.
As a first measure to raise money, he informed Charles that it would
be necessary to call a Parliament. The king, who had found Parliaments
too much for him, and was endeavouring to live without them, heard
the proposal with consternation, and warned Wentworth against such an
attempt; but the Lord Deputy informed him that he had a plan by which
he could manage them, and Charles wrote to him, consenting, but still
warning. "As for that hydra, take good heed, for you know that here I
have found it as well cunning as malicious. It is true that your grounds
are well laid, and I assure you that I have a great trust in your care
and judgment; yet my opinion is, that it will not be the worse for my
service though their obstinacy make you to break them, for I fear they
have some ground to demand more than it is fit for me to give."
Wentworth knew that very well, but meant to grant nothing of the kind.
He sent out a hundred letters of recommendation in favour of the return
of candidates on whom he could rely, and procured a royal order for the
absent peers to send blank proxies, which he might fill up as he pleased.
These were considerable in number, and consisted chiefly of Englishmen
who had obtained their estates or titles from Charles or his father. Thus
he secured a majority; and on opening Parliament he informed the members
that he meant to hold two Sessions--one for the benefit of the king, the
other for redressing the grievances of the people. Had the Irish noticed
what had been going forward in England, they would have augured no good
from such an arrangement, and might have followed the example of the
English Commons, who would always insist on stating their grievances
before parting with their money. But the unfortunate Irish listened to
the dulcet tones of the Lord-Deputy, who assured them that if they put
their trust in him and the king they would have the happiest Parliament
that had ever sat in that kingdom. He talked of the misfortunes which
had happened to the English Parliament through distrusting the king--he
himself having been one of the chief actors in these distrusts--and on
his assuring them that he was anxious to hasten to the second Session and
the removal of all their grievances they voted him out of the fulness
of their confidence six subsidies of larger amount than had ever been
granted before.
But when they came to the second Session, awful was the astonishment, and
terrible the consternation, of the liberal granters of subsidies. The
shameless trickster coolly informed them that of the fifty-one graces
promised them by the king, very few were of a kind which he, who knew
the circumstances of the country, could grant. In vain they reminded him
of his promises, and called on him to fulfil them. He gave them menaces
instead of promises, launched at them the most biting sarcasms, and
made them appear a set of criminals rather than deceived and insulted
legislators. His majority carried everything as he pleased, and after
passing a few insignificant graces, he negatived the bulk of them,
including all the important ones, and dismissed the Parliament.
He had been equally successful with the Convocation. He obtained from
it eight subsidies of three thousand pounds each, but he then refused
to grant the conditions promised. It was the settled plan of the king,
supported by Laud, to conform both the Scottish and Irish Churches to
the English, and Wentworth was the most unscrupulous agent in such a
work that they could have. The Irish prelates informed him that their
Church was wholly independent of that of England, had its own Articles,
of the Calvinistic class, and owed no obedience to the See of Canterbury.
He insisted, however, that they must admit the Thirty-nine Articles of
England; it was not necessary to parade them before the people, but they
must be admitted, and the old Irish Articles might quietly die out. The
prelates set about to frame a new code of ecclesiastical discipline; but
to his surprise, he learned that they had rejected the English Articles
and retained their own. He sent for the Archbishop and the Committee,
upbraided the Chairman with suffering such a proceeding, took possession
of the minutes, and ordered Archbishop Ussher himself to frame a canon
authorising the English Articles. Ussher's production, however, did
not satisfy him; he therefore drew up a form himself, and sent it to
the Convocation, commanding that no debate should take place, but the
Articles should be at once adopted, and informing them that every one's
vote should be reported to him. Only one member of the whole Convocation
dared to vote against his will; the rest submitted, but with the utmost
indignation.
Having thus with a high hand carried his measures--refused the
confirmation of the graces, conformed the Irish to the English Church
in one Session, and obtained such an amount of money as would not only
pay off the debts of the Crown, but would supply for some years the
extraordinary demands of the Government, he wrote exultingly to England,
declaring that the king was as absolute in Ireland as any king in the
world, and might be the same in England if they did their duty there.
He boldly demanded an earl's coronet, on account of these services,
which, however, Charles deferred for awhile, thinking that he should
hold such a man to his work rather by the hope than the possession of
high preferment. Wentworth was so delighted with his overruling the
Irish Parliament, that he proposed to the king to merely prorogue and
not dissolve it, as being the most convenient instrument for effecting
his further designs on the country. But Charles would not listen to it,
remarking that parliaments were like cats, they ever grew cursed with
age, and it was better to put an end to them early, young ones being most
tractable. He thanked him for what he had done, and especially for saving
him from the odium of breaking his promise about the graces.
How little did this bold bad man see that, whilst he was serving the
king's worst purposes, he was preparing his own destruction. In fact,
though he had stunned the Irish for a moment by the audacity of his
bearing, he had struck deep into their souls a resentment that no man,
however powerful or subtle, could withstand. He was, however, only on
the threshold of the sweeping changes which he contemplated in that
country, for he was resolved to reduce it to a condition of absolute
dependence on the Crown. He was not content with forcing the English
Articles on the Irish Church, but he refused to the Catholics every
relief that Charles had pledged himself to in order to get their money.
Instead of abolishing, as promised, the oppressive power of the court
of wards, he gave them a more virulent activity. The Catholic heir was
still obliged to sue out the livery of his lands, and before he could
obtain them, to take the oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy. To obtain his
rightful property, he was thus compelled to abjure his religion. But he
entertained a still more gigantic design, which was to seize on the fee
simple of the greater part of Ireland, on pretence of defective title.
We have seen that in the reigns of Elizabeth and James the titles of the
great landed proprietors both in Connaught and Ulster had been called in
question, and those monarchs had pretended to renew them on condition
of certain payments. These conditions had been repeatedly fulfilled
by the proprietors, but not by the Crown. Charles, in 1628, amongst
the other benefits promised, had engaged to ratify these titles; but
Wentworth showed him the folly of doing that while by alarming them on
the point he might draw immense sums from them, or get possession of the
lands. To this proposal Charles consented, and the experiment was begun
with Connaught. Wentworth proceeded (1635) at the head of a commission,
to hold an inquisition in every county of Connaught. He opened his
proceedings at Roscommon, where he summoned a jury of "gentlemen of
the best estates and understandings," that more weight might attach to
their decisions if favourable, or that, if adverse, he might levy heavy
fines upon them. He assured the jury that his majesty merely meant to
ascertain the condition of all titles, in order that if defective he
might render them legal. It was on this plea that the freeholders had
been wheedled into the surrender of their deeds and patents by Elizabeth
and James; but Wentworth added another alarming fiction. He contended
that Henry III., reserving only five cantreds to himself, had given the
remainder to Richard de Burgh, to be holden of him and his heirs of the
Crown, and that those tenures had now descended to the present king, by
the marriage of the heirs of De Burgh with the royal line. According to
this the king was the rightful owner of every acre of land in Ireland.
He assured the jury, therefore, that it was their best interest to
give a general verdict for the king, as he could without their consent
establish his right, and if compelled to do that in opposition to them,
the result might be much worse for them. By these means he induced
the juries in Roscommon, Sligo, Mayo, Clare, and Limerick, to return
a verdict in favour of the Crown, but the people of Galway stoutly
resisted. They declared that the title of the king, through Edward IV.,
from Richard de Burgh, could not be proved; there was a hiatus in the
genealogy. They were all Catholics, and were the more resolute from
having been so shamefully deluded in the matter of wardship. Wentworth
was rather glad to be able to make an example of them, and he therefore
fined the sheriff one thousand pounds for returning so obstinate and
perverse a jury, and dragged the jury into his Star Chamber, the chamber
of the Castle, and fined them four thousand pounds apiece. He fell
with especial vindictiveness on the old Earl of Clanricarde, and other
great landowners of Galway, and set about to seize the fort of Galway,
march a body of troops into the country, and compel it to submit to
the king's will. The proprietors, disbelieving that the king could know
of or sanction such infamous breaches of faith and acts of oppression,
sent over a deputation to Charles to lay the matter before him. But the
king received them with reproaches, declared his full approval of the
proceedings of the Lord-Deputy, and sent them back to Ireland as State
prisoners. The old Earl of Clanricarde, whose son had been the head of
the deputation, died soon after receiving the news of this conduct of the
monarch, and Wentworth wrote to Charles that he was accused of being the
cause of his death. "They might as well," he remarked haughtily, "impute
to me the crime of his being threescore and ten." He was still busily
pursuing other noblemen with the same rancour--the Earl of Cork, Lord
Wilmot, and others--when the Catholic party in England, who had a friend
in Queen Henrietta, made their complaints heard at Whitehall. Laud, who
was acting as outrageously himself in England, informed Wentworth of
it, and even hinted more caution, observing that if he could find a way
to do all those great services without raising so many storms, it would
be excellently well thought of. But Wentworth was as little disposed to
avoid storms as his adviser himself. He proceeded in the same autocratic
style both towards the public and individuals. It had been the original
intention to return to the proprietors three-fourths of their lands,
and retain one-fourth for the Crown, amounting to about one hundred and
twenty thousand acres, which were to be planted with Englishmen, on
condition of yielding a large annual income to the Crown. But now it
was resolved to retain a full half of Galway as a punishment of its
obstinacy, and Wentworth was proceeding with the necessary measurements,
when his career proved at an end.
[Illustration: SIR THOMAS WENTWORTH (EARL OF STRAFFORD).
(_After the Portrait by Vandyke._)]
The individual acts of injustice which he perpetrated were done at the
suggestion of his profligate desires or personal revenge, with the most
unabashed hardihood. He had seduced the daughter of Loftus, the Lord
Chancellor of Ireland, wife of Sir John Gifford, and wanted to confer
a good post on her relative Sir Adam Loftus. Such an opportunity soon
occurred by an inadvertent expression of Lord Mountnorris, Vice-Treasurer
of Ireland. It happened one day that Annesley, a lieutenant in the army,
accidentally set a stool on the foot of the Lord-Deputy, when he was
suffering from the gout. This Lieutenant Annesley had some time before
been caned by Wentworth in a paroxysm of passion, and Mountnorris hearing
the incident of the stool mentioned at the table of Chancellor Loftus,
said, "Perhaps Annesley did it as his revenge, but he has a brother who
would not have taken such a revenge." This being repeated to Wentworth,
he treated the observation as a suggestion to Annesley to perpetrate
a more bloody revenge; and though he dissembled his resentment for
some time, he then accused Mountnorris, who was also an officer in the
army, of mutiny, founded on this expression. Wentworth attended the
court-martial to overawe its proceedings, and obtained a sentence of
death against Mountnorris. The sentence was too atrocious to be carried
into execution, but it served Wentworth's purpose, for he cashiered
Mountnorris and gave his office to Loftus. Much as the Irish had suffered
before, this most lawless act excited a loud murmur of indignation
throughout the land; but Wentworth had secured himself from any censure
from the king by handing him six thousand pounds as the price of the
transfer of Mountnorris's treasurership to Sir Adam Loftus.
The resentment of the Irish was becoming so strong against Wentworth,
that the king thought it safest for him to come to England for a time;
but he soon returned thither, with the additional favour of the monarch,
where he remained till summoned by Charles to assist him by his counsels
against the Scots. But the fatal and memorable year 1640 was at hand,
to close the story of his tyrannies. We must now retrace our steps, and
bring up the conflicts of Scotland with the same blind and determined
despots to that period.
The storm against the despotism of Charles had broken out in that
country. From the moment of his visit to Edinburgh with his great apostle
Laud, he had never ceased pushing forward his scheme of conforming the
Presbyterian Church to Anglican episcopacy. He had restored the bishops
on that occasion, given them lands, erected deans and chapters, and
Laud had consecrated St. Giles's Church as a Cathedral. As he could not
persuade the Scottish Peers to submit to the liturgy as used in England,
which his father had attempted in vain before him, he consented that a
liturgy should be drawn up by four Scottish bishops, who were also to
form a code of ecclesiastical canons. They were to introduce into the
latter some of the acts of the Scottish assemblies, and some more ancient
canons, to make the whole more palatable. These laws and the liturgy
were afterwards revised by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops
of London and Norwich, and Charles ordered the amended copies to be
published and preserved.
None but a monarch so foolhardy as Charles would have dared such an
experiment on the Scots who had resisted so stoutly his father, and had
driven his grandmother from the country for her adhesion to Popery. The
people received the publication of the canon with unequivocal indications
of their temper; and when, therefore, the first introduction, of the
liturgy was fixed for the 23rd of July, 1637, in St. Giles's Church,
they went thither in crowds, to give a characteristic reception. The
archbishops and bishops, the Lords of Session, and the magistrates went
in procession, and appeared there in all their official splendour. This
display, however, so far from imposing on the people of Edinburgh, only
excited their wrath and contempt, as the trumpery finery of the woman of
Babylon. A considerable riot ensued, during which a woman named Jenny
Geddes is said to have thrown a stool at the bishop's head. The story is,
however, supported by indifferent evidence.
But it was not merely the base multitude, the nobility were as violent
against the new Liturgy as the people, and came to high words with the
bishops and their favourers amongst the clergy. Four ministers--Alexander
Henderson, of Leuchars; John Hamilton, of Newburn; James Bruce, of
Kingsbarns, and another--petitioned the Council on the 23rd of August,
to give them time to show the anti-Christian and idolatrous nature of
this ritual, and how near it came to the Popish mass, reminding them that
the people of Scotland had established the independence of their own
Church at the Reformation, which had been confirmed by Parliament and
General Assemblies, and that the people, instructed in their religion
from the pulpit, were not likely to adopt what their fathers had rejected
as contrary to the simplicity of the Gospel. But the Bishop of Ross,
Laud's right-hand man, replied for the Council that the liturgy was
neither superstitious nor idolatrous, but according to the formula of
the ancient Churches, and they must submit to that or to "horning," that
is, banishment. Still the Council delayed, and the people were pretty
quiet during the harvest time, but that over, the news having arrived of
a peremptory message from the king, commanding the enforcement of the
liturgy, and the removal of the Council from Edinburgh to Linlithgow,
thence in the following term to Stirling, and for the next to Dundee,
the people flocked into Edinburgh, and, incensed at the idea of their
ancient capital being deprived of its honours as the seat of government,
they became extremely irritated, attacked the bishops when they could see
them, and nearly tore the clothes from the back of the Bishop of Galway.
He escaped into the Council House, and the members of the Council in
their turn sent to demand protection from the magistrates, who could not
even protect themselves.
For greater security the Council removed to Dalkeith, and the Marquis of
Hamilton recommended to Charles to make some concessions; but far from
giving way, a more positive order for the enforcement of the obnoxious
liturgy arrived from the king. But it was found impossible to enforce it:
the Earl of Traquair was summoned up to London, sharply questioned as to
the causes of the delay, and was sent back with more arbitrary commands.
On the 18th of October these were made known, and fresh riots took place,
Traquair and two of the bishops nearly losing their lives. The king then
consented to the petitioners above mentioned being represented by a
deputation personally resident in Edinburgh. The object was to induce the
crowds of strangers to withdraw to their homes, when it was thought the
people of Edinburgh alone might be better dealt with; but the advocates
of the people seized on the plan, and converted it into one of the most
powerful engines of opposition imaginable.
At the head of these able politicians, and the contrivers of this
profoundly sagacious scheme, were the Lords Rothes, Balmerino, Lindsay,
Lothian, Loudon, Yester, and Cranstoun. Balmerino had been severely
treated by Charles, and had thus become hardened into the most positive
opponent of the episcopal movement. In his possession in 1634 was a copy
of a petition to the Scottish Parliament, too strong in its language
even for the Scottish dissentients to present. He had, under pledge of
strictest secrecy, lent this to a friend. For this he was committed to
prison, and at the instigation of Spottiswood, Archbishop of St. Andrews,
it was resolved to prosecute him for high treason, and a verdict was
procured against him. But the people were so enraged that they assembled
in vast crowds, vowing to murder both the jurors who had given the
verdict and the judges who had accepted it. Government was alarmed, and
the king was reluctantly induced to grant Balmerino a pardon. From that
moment he became the champion of the people.
He and his colleagues the nobles, the gentry, the Presbyterian clergy,
and the inhabitants of the burghs, formed themselves into four "Tables"
or Committees, each of four persons, and each Table sent a representative
to a fifth Table, a Committee of superintendence and government. Thus
in the capital there were sitting five Tables or Committees, to receive
complaints and information from the people, and decide on all these
matters. Throughout the country were speedily established similar Tables,
with whom they corresponded. Thus, instead of that mere representation of
the petitioners which the king contemplated as an expedient for getting
rid of the immediate pressure of the people, one of the most perfect and
most powerful systems of popular agitation was organised that the world
had ever seen. There was the most instant attention to the suggestions of
the people by the provincial Tables, and the most prompt and respectful
consideration of their reports by the Tables in the capital. A permanent
government of the people was, in fact, erected, to which the public
looked with the utmost confidence, and by which step its whole weight was
brought to bear on the unpopular government of the king.
The formidable nature of this novel engine of the popular will was
quickly perceived by the Court; and Traquair was ordered to issue a
proclamation declaring the Tables to be unlawful, commanding all people
to withdraw to their own homes, and menacing the penalties of treason
against all who disobeyed. This proclamation was made by Traquair at
Stirling, on the 19th of February, 1638; but it was disregarded. The
Tables had procured early information of the forthcoming proclamation,
and had summoned the provincial Tables from all parts to assemble in
Edinburgh and Stirling. These cities were thus crowded with the very life
and soul of the whole agitation. They had already risen in their demands
as they perceived their strength, and had ceased to petition for time
and some trifling alterations in "the buke." They demanded the formal
revocation of the liturgy, the canons, and the Court of High Commission.
Now, no sooner had the herald read the royal proclamation than the Lords
Hume and Lindsay read a counter proclamation, saw it affixed to the
market cross, and copies sent to Edinburgh and Linlithgow, to be read and
publicly placarded there.
Traquair, who had clearly foreseen these consequences, and in vain warned
the king to avoid them by timely concession, wrote to Hamilton, informing
him of what had taken place, and that there was no power in the kingdom
capable of forcing the liturgy down the people's throats; that they would
receive the Mass as soon. His words received a speedy confirmation. The
Tables determined to publish a Solemn Covenant between the people and
the Almighty to stand by their religion to the death. Their fathers, at
the time of the Reformation, had adopted such an instrument. The great
nobles of the time had sworn to maintain the principles of Wishart
and Knox, and to defend the preachers of those doctrines against the
powers of Antichrist and the monarchy. James had sworn to adhere to
this confession of faith, with all their households and all classes of
people, in the years 1580, 1581, and 1590. The name of Covenant was thus
become a watchword to the whole nation, which roused them like a trumpet.
This document had been composed by Alexander Henderson, one of the four
ministers who had petitioned, and Archibald Johnstone, an advocate, the
legal adviser of the party; and had been revised by Balmerino, Loudon,
and Rothes.
This famous document began by a clear exposition of the tenets of
the Reformed Scottish Church, and as solemn an abjuration of all the
errors and doctrines of the Pope, with his "vain allegories, rites,
signs, and traditions." It enumerated the anti-Christian tenets of
Popery--the denial of salvation to infants dying without baptism; the
receiving the Sacrament from men of scandalous lives; the devilish Mass;
the canonisation of men; the invocation of saints; the worshipping of
imaginary relics and crosses; the speaking and praying in a strange
language; auricular confession; the shaveling monks; bloody persecutions;
and a hundred other abominations. All these were made as great offences
against the Anglican hierarchy, which was fast running back into those
"days of bygone idolatry." The various classes--"noblemen, barons,
gentlemen, burgesses, ministers, and commons"--bound themselves by the
Covenant to defend and maintain the reformed faith before God, His
angels, and the world, till it was again established by free Assemblies
and Parliaments, in the same full purity and liberty of the Gospel as it
had been heretofore.
On the 1st of March, 1638, the church of St. Giles, which had witnessed
so lately the hasty flight of the bishops, was thronged with the
Covenanters of all ranks and from all parts of the country. The business
was opened by a fervent prayer from Henderson, and then the people were
addressed in a stirring harangue by the Earl of Loudon, the most eloquent
man in Scotland. The effect was such that the whole assembly rose
simultaneously, and with outstretched arms, amid torrents of tears, swore
to the contents of the Covenant. That done, they turned and embraced each
other, wept, and shouted aloud their exultation over this great victory,
for such they felt it, in the united energy and religious dedication of
the nation.
Dispersing to their various homes, the delegates carried the fire of
this grand enthusiasm with them. Over moor and mountain it flew, across
the green pastoral hills of the South, through the dark defiles of the
Highlands, and to the sea-swept isles. Thousands continued to pour into
the capital to add their signatures to the Covenant; and in every parish
on the Sunday the people streamed to listen to the fiery harangues from
the pulpits, and to give in their names, with the same tears, emotions,
and embraces as in Edinburgh. It was soon found that, except in the
county of Aberdeen, the Covenanters outnumbered their opponents in the
proportion of one hundred to one.
Nor did these determined reformers readily admit of any dissent or
lukewarmness. Where they found any opposed or inert, they roused them by
threats, and often by blows and coercion. Some they threw into prison,
and some they set in the stocks for refusing to sign. The Catholics were
those who principally stood aloof; but these were not calculated at a
thousand in all Scotland. Of such they entered the names in a list, and
made calculations of their property, with a view to confiscation. In
Lanark and other places the contending factions came to blows before
the lists were filled up. Active subscriptions were levied for the
maintenance of the Cause, and before the end of April there was scarcely
a single Protestant who had not signed the Covenant. The bishops had fled
to England, and all Scotland stood ready to fight for its faith.
[Illustration: THE PEOPLE SIGNING THE COVENANT IN ST. GILES'S CHURCH,
EDINBURGH. (_See p._ 567.)]
Here was a spectacle which would have shown the folly of his career
to any other monarch; but all reason or representation was wasted on
Charles. Traquair entreated him, before plunging into war, to listen to
the counsels of his most experienced Scottish Ministers; but Charles
seldom listened to anything except his own self-will, or any person
except his fatal counsellors, Laud and Wentworth. He is said on this
occasion to have consulted with a small council of Scotsmen living in
England, which had been formed by James on his accession to the English
throne, and in accordance with their advice and in opposition to that of
the Council in Scotland, he resolved on suppressing the Covenant by force.
In May he sent the Marquis of Hamilton to Scotland, with orders to
endeavour to soothe the people by assuring them that the liturgy and
canons should only be exercised in a fair and gentle manner, and that
the High Commission Court should be so remodelled as to be no grievance.
If these promises did not satisfy them, as Hamilton must have known they
would not, for Charles's promises were too notorious to be of any value,
he was to resort to any exercise of force that he thought necessary.
On the 3rd of June he arrived at Berwick, and sent to the nobility to
meet him at Haddington; but no one appeared except the Earl of Roxburgh,
who assured him that anything but a full revocation of the canons and
liturgy was hopeless. On reaching Dalkeith he was waited on by Lord
Rothes, who, on the part of the Covenanters, invited him to take up his
abode in Holyrood as more convenient for discussion.
Hamilton objected to enter a city swarming with Covenanters, where the
castle was already invested by their guards. These, it was promised him,
should be removed and the city kept quiet, on which he consented; and on
the 8th of June he set forward. But he found the whole of the way, from
Musselburgh to Leith and from Leith to Edinburgh, lined with Covenanters,
fifty thousand in number. There were from five to seven hundred clergymen
collected; and all the nobility and gentry assembled in the capital,
amounting to five thousand, came out to meet and escort him in. All this
he was informed was to do him honour, but he felt that its real design
was to impress him with the strength of the Covenant party.
[Illustration: ST. GILES'S CHURCH, EDINBURGH, IN THE 17TH CENTURY.]
Being settled in Holyrood, Hamilton received a deputation of the heads
of the League, and asked them what they required to induce them to
surrender opposition. They replied that in the first place they demanded
the summons of a General Assembly and a Parliament. They then renewed the
guard at the castle, and doubled the guards and watches of the city. The
preachers warned the people to be on their guard against propositions.
They informed the marquis that no English Service Book must be used in
the royal chapel, and they nailed up the organ as an "abomination to the
Lord." They then waited on Hamilton, requesting him and his officers
to sign the Covenant, as they hoped to be regarded as patriots and
Christians. The ministers whom the oppressions of Wentworth had chased
out of Ulster to make way for the Anglican service were in Edinburgh,
inflaming the people by their details of the cruelties and broken
promises of Charles and his Lord-Lieutenant in Ireland.
Hamilton saw that it was useless to publish Charles's proclamation, but
wrote advising him to grant them their demands, or to lose no time in
appearing with a powerful army. Charles replied desiring him to amuse the
Covenanters with any promises that he pleased, so that he did not commit
the king himself. He was to avoid granting an Assembly or Parliament, but
he added, "Your chief end being now to win time, they may commit public
follies until I be ready to suppress them." The marquis, therefore,
endeavoured to spin out the time by coaxing and deluding the Covenanters.
He promised to call a General Assembly and a Parliament, and redress all
their grievances. When pressed too closely, he declared that he would go
to London himself and endeavour to set all right with the king; but this
was part only of the plan of gaining time whilst Charles was preparing a
fleet and army. But the Scots were too wary to be thus deceived. They had
information that troops were being raised in England, and they too made
preparations. At the same time they waited on the marquis, professing
the most unabated loyalty, but resolute to have free exercise of their
religion. Hamilton promised to present their address to the king, and
set out on the 4th of July for England. He informed Charles of the real
state of the country, and that the very members of the Privy Council were
so infected by the Covenant that he had not dared to call them together.
But Charles was not to be induced to take any effective measures for
pacifying the public mind of Scotland. His instructions to the marquis
were to amuse the people with hopes, and to allow of the sitting of
a General Assembly, but not before the 1st of November. He was even
to publish the order for discharging the use of the Service Book, the
canons, and the High Commission Court, but was to forbid the abolition
of bishops, though the bishops were for the present not to intrude
themselves into the Assembly. They were, however, to be privately held to
be essentially members of the Assembly, and were to be one way or other
provided for till better times.
These half measures were not likely to be accepted, but they would serve
Charles's grand object of gaining time, and the marquis arrived with
them in Edinburgh on the 10th of August. Three days after his arrival
the Covenanters waited upon him to learn how the king had received their
explanations, and the marquis assured them with much grace and goodness;
but when they heard that the bishops were not to be abolished, they
treated his other offers with contempt, and Hamilton once more proposed
to journey to England to endeavour to obtain a full and free recall
of all the offensive ordinances. Before taking his leave, as a proof
of his earnestness, he joined with the Earls of Traquair, Roxburgh,
and Southesk, in a written solicitation to his Majesty to remove all
innovations in religion which had disturbed the peace of the country.
By the 17th of September Hamilton was again at Holyrood. On the 21st
he received the Covenanters and informed them that he had succeeded;
that the king gave up everything; that an Assembly was to be called
immediately, and a Parliament in the month of May next; and that the
king revoked the Service Book, the Book of Canons, the five Articles of
Perth, and the High Commission. The Covenanters were about to express
their unbounded satisfaction and loyal gratitude, when the marquis added
that his Majesty only required them to sign the old confession of faith
as adopted by King James in 1580 and 1590. This single reservation broke
the whole charm; their countenances fell, and they declared that they
looked upon this as an artifice merely to set aside their new bond of the
Covenant.
In all Charles's most solemn acts the cloven foot showed itself. Even
when seeming most honest, there was something which awoke a distrust in
him. He was not sincere, and he had not the art to look so. In any other
monarch the positive assurance that the innovations on the religion of
Scotland should be abandoned, would have settled the matter at once;
but Charles had so utterly lost character for truth and good faith that
it was believed throughout the country that he was still only deluding
them, and seeking time ultimately to come down resistlessly upon them.
And we know from his own correspondence preserved in the Strafford Papers
that it was so. These words addressed to Hamilton, "Your chief end is
to win time, that they may commit public follies, until I be ready to
suppress them," are an everlasting proof of it. Besides, they had ample
information from friends about the Court in England that this was the
case, and that in a few months the king meant to visit them with an
irresistible force. The people of England were suffering too much from
the same species of oppression not to sympathise warmly with the Scottish
patriots, and keep them well informed of what was going on there. We find
it asserted in the Hardwicke State Papers that the Government was very
jealous of the number of people who went about England selling Scottish
linen, and it was recommended to open all letters going between the
countries at Berwick.
The Covenanters therefore determined to hold together and be prepared.
On the 22nd of September, 1638, the Marquis of Hamilton caused the royal
proclamation to be read at the market-cross at Edinburgh, abandoning
the Anglican Service and the High Commission Court; but as it required
subscription to the old confession of faith, there was no rejoicing on
the occasion. There were two particulars in this proclamation which fully
justified the Scots in refusing to comply with it. It stated that the vow
of the Covenant was unauthorised by Government, and therefore illegal;
and it professed to grant a pardon for that act to all who signed the
confession, which would have acknowledged that the nation had been guilty
of a crime in accepting the Covenant, a thing they were not likely to
admit, for in that case they could not have refused the re-admission
of the very liturgy against which they were at war. They therefore
published a protest against the proclamation, founded on these reasons.
The marquis having obtained the signature of the Lords of the Secret
Council to the new bond, which Charles had previously signed, though it
contained many clauses repugnant to Arminianism, issued the proclamation
for the meeting of the Assembly in Glasgow on the 21st of November,
1638, and for that of the Parliament on the 17th of May, 1639. In a few
days afterwards, the Council published an act discharging the Book of
Common Prayer, the Book of Canons, etc., and called for the subscription
of all his Majesty's subjects. The municipal bodies, the ministers, and
the people hastened to thank the Council, and to express their joy at
the revocation of the obnoxious orders, but they refused to sign the
confession.
The marquis wrote to Charles, informing him of the determined spirit of
the people, and advising him to hasten his military preparations. He also
represented to him the protests of the bishops against the holding of the
Assembly; but the king bade him persist in holding it, so that he might
not appear to break faith with the public and thus precipitate matters,
but to counteract the effect of the Assembly by sowing discord amongst
the members, and protesting against their tumultuary proceedings.
But the Scots did not give Hamilton much time for such machinations
before the meeting of the Assembly. They were warned by a trusty
correspondent--notwithstanding the waylaying of the post was carried
into effect--that vigorous preparations were being made to invade
Scotland. There were arms for twenty thousand men, including forty
pieces of ordnance and forty carriages; but the writer did not believe
they would get two hundred men for the service, such was the desire of
all parties--nobles, gentry, and people--for their success, which if
obtained, he said, would lead many of all ranks to settle in Scotland for
freedom of conscience. He added that Wentworth had made large offers of
assistance to the king from Ireland, but that the Irish were themselves
so injured that he doubted whether any considerable help would be had
from Wentworth against them; yet if Charles could muster sufficient
force, they might expect no terms from him but such as they would get at
the cannon's mouth.
At the end of October the Earl of Rothes demanded from Hamilton a
warrant citing the bishops as guilty of heresy, perjury, simony, and
gross immorality, to appear before the approaching Assembly. The marquis
refused, on which the Presbytery of Edinburgh cited them. Charles had
ordered, as a sign of his favour, the restoration of the Lords of Session
of Edinburgh, but on condition of their signing the confession of faith.
Nine out of the fifteen were induced with much difficulty to sign, but
from that moment they were in terror of their lives from the exasperation
of the people.
When Hamilton arrived on the 17th of November in Glasgow to open the
Assembly, he found the town thronged with people from all quarters,
evidently in intense excitement. The Tables had secured the most popular
elections of representatives to the Assembly, sending one lay elder and
four lay assessors from every Presbytery. The marquis therefore found
himself overruled on all points. In his opening speech he read them the
king's letter, in which Charles complained of having been misrepresented,
as though he desired innovations in laws and religion; and to prove how
groundless this was, he had granted this free Assembly, for settling all
such matters to the satisfaction of his good subjects. He then of himself
protested against the foul and devilish calumnies against his sacred
Majesty, purporting that even this grant of the Assembly was but to gain
time whilst he was preparing arms to force on the nation the abhorred
ritual. The marquis, whilst he was making these solemn asseverations,
being well assured, as were most of his hearers, that the king was all
the while casting cannon and ball, and mustering soldiers for this "foul
and devilish purpose," the Assembly must have been perfectly satisfied
that no good was to be expected but from their own firmness. They at once
proceeded to elect Alexander Henderson as their Moderator, and Hamilton
protested as vigorously against it, but in vain. They next elected as
clerk-register Archibald Johnstone, the clerk of the Edinburgh Tables,
against which Hamilton again protested with as little effect, Johnstone
declaring that he would do his best to "defend the prerogative of the Son
of God."
Defeated on these important points, the marquis the next day entered
a protest against the return of lay members to the Assembly; and the
proctor on behalf of the bishops added their protest, declining the
authority of the Assembly, which he contended ought to be purely
ecclesiastical. James had, in fact, put the lay members out of the
Assembly, and the king therefore treated this original constitution of
the Assembly, as settled at the Reformation, as an innovation, turning
the charge of innovation on the Covenanters. The marquis would then
have read the protests of the bishops with which he was furnished; but
the Assembly declined to hear them, and repeated that they would pursue
the charges against the bishops so long as they had lives and fortunes.
On this Hamilton dissolved the Assembly, and the same day wrote a most
remarkable letter to Charles, which appears to leave little ground for
the suspicions of the royal party that he was secretly inclined to the
Covenant. He informed the king that he had done his utmost, but to no
purpose, with that rebellious nation. He seemed to apprehend danger to
his life, and that this might be the last letter he should ever write to
his Majesty. He blamed the bishops for persuading the king to bring in
the English liturgy and canons in so abrupt and violent a manner; that
their pride was great, their folly greater. He gives the king his opinion
of the character and degrees of the trustworthiness of the different
Ministers, and bids him beware of the Earl of Argyle, whom he declares to
be the most dangerous man in the State; so far from favouring episcopacy,
as had been supposed, that nobleman wished it abolished with all his
soul. This was immediately afterwards, as we shall see, made clear by
Argyle himself. Hamilton then proceeded to instruct the king how best to
proceed to quell what he deemed not merely a contest for religion, but an
incipient rebellion. It was to blockade the ports, and thus cut off all
trade, by which the burghs, the chief seats of the agitation, lived. As
fast as these burghs felt their folly and returned to their allegiance,
they should be restored to favour, and their ports opened, which would
make the rest anxious to follow. He said he had done his best to garrison
the castle of Edinburgh, though it was in a precarious state, but that
the castle of Dumbarton might be readily garrisoned by troops from
Ireland. If he preserved his life, which he seemed to doubt, he would
defend his post to the utmost, though "he hated the place like hell," and
as soon as he was free of it would forswear the country. He recommended
his brother to the king's favour and his children to his protection if
they lived; and to these, if they did not prove loyal, he left his curse.
His daughters, he desired, might never marry into Scotland.
The marquis clearly saw the dreadful conflict which was approaching,
and his tears and emotion on dismissing the Assembly struck every one
with that impression. But the Assembly had no intention of dispersing.
Like the Commons of England, they entertained too high an estimate of
their right, and of their duty in such a crisis. They therefore passed a
resolution declaring the Kirk independent of the civil powers, and the
dissolution of the Assembly by the Royal Commissioner illegal and void.
They said that if the Commissioner should see fit to quit the country,
and leave the Church and kingdom in that disorder, it was their duty to
sit; and that they would continue to sit till they had settled all the
evils which came within their lawful and undoubted jurisdiction.
Laud, in reply to Hamilton, lamented that fear of giving umbrage to
the Covenanters too soon had too long delayed the means to crush them.
He thanked him for having conveyed the bishops to Hamilton Castle to
protect them, and trusted that his own life would yet be preserved
from the diabolical fury of the Scots. What Hamilton had foreseen in
the meantime had come to pass. The Earl of Argyle declared plainly in
the Council that he would take the Covenant and sanction the Assembly.
Accordingly, though not a member of it, he took his place in the Assembly
as their chief director; and thus encouraged, they proceeded to abolish
episcopacy for ever, to deprive all the bishops, and to excommunicate
the greater part of them and all their abettors. Charles, and James
before him, had completely conferred all the power of Parliament on the
bishops, making eight of them the Lords of the Articles, with authority
to choose eight of the nobles, and these sixteen having power to choose
all the rest, so that all depended on the bishops, and they, again, on
the king. This effectually ranged the nobles against them. The Marquis of
Hamilton, notwithstanding his fears, was permitted quietly to withdraw
to England, whence he was soon to return against them at the head of the
fleet. The people received the news of the proceedings of the Assembly
with transports of joy, and celebrated the downfall of episcopacy by a
day of thanksgiving. Charles, on the other hand, issued a proclamation
declaring all its acts void, and hastened his preparations for marching
into Scotland.
But the Covenanters were not the less active on their part, and
everything tended to a civil war, the result of Charles's incessant
attacks on the liberties of the nation. They made collections of arms,
and as early as December they received six thousand muskets from Holland.
These had been stopped by the Government of that country, but Cardinal
Richelieu had suddenly shown himself a friend, by ordering the muskets
as if for his own use, receiving them into a French port, and thence
forwarding them to Scotland. However impolitic it might appear for France
to assist subjects against their prince, it must be remembered that
Charles had managed to create nearly as strong a feeling against him in
Louis and his minister Richelieu as in his own subjects. He had set the
example by assisting the Huguenots against their prince, and had provoked
France by defeating its plan of dividing the Spanish Netherlands between
that country and Holland. The present opportunity, therefore, was eagerly
seized to make Charles feel the error he had committed. Richelieu,
moreover, ordered the French Ambassador in London to pay over to General
Leslie, one of Gustavus Adolphus's old officers, who had been engaged
by the Assembly, one hundred thousand crowns. This last transaction,
however, was kept a profound secret, for the Scots, when advised to seek
the assistance of France and Germany, had indignantly refused, saying the
Lutherans of Germany were heretics, and the people of France Papistical
idolaters; that it became them to seek support from God alone, and not
from the broken reed of Egypt. The preachers thundered from the pulpits
against the bishops, and the determination of the king still to force
them on the country; and they refused the Communion to all who had not
signed the Covenant. The Tables called on the young men in every quarter
of the country to come forward and be trained to arms, and the Scottish
officers who had been engaged in the wars in Germany flocked over and
offered their services for the support of the popular cause. The nobles
contributed plate to be melted down, the merchants in the towns sent in
money, and an army of determined men was fast forming.
[Illustration: THE OLD COLLEGE, GLASGOW, IN THE 17TH CENTURY.]
Charles, on his part, was not the less busy preparing for the campaign,
and he was persuaded by many of the courtiers that he had only to appear,
to pacify the Scots. If we are to believe Clarendon, the Treasury was in
a flourishing condition, a most unlikely circumstance, considering the
unpopular mode of raising funds without a Parliament; and we are assured
of the contrary by a letter of the Earl of Northumberland, addressed
to Wentworth in January, 1639. He says, "I assure your lordship, to my
understanding, to my sorrow I speak it, we are altogether in as ill a
posture to invade others or to defend ourselves as we were a twelve-month
since, which is more than any one can imagine that is not an eye-witness
of it. The discontents here at home do rather increase than lessen,
there being no course taken to give any kind of satisfaction. The king's
coffers were never emptier than at this time, and to us that have the
honour to be near about him, no way is yet known how he will find means
either to maintain or begin a war without the help of his people."
Cottington wrote to Wentworth in the same strain.
So far from consulting Parliament, Charles had not even opened his
difficulties to his Council. He was now compelled to do the latter, and
on this occasion Laud was found entreating for peaceful measures. It is
probable that he had taken a more rational view of the belligerent temper
of the Scots, and saw more danger in the king's attempt to coerce them,
than he generally discerned in pushing on arbitrary counsels. His advice
was rejected, and the rest of the Council acquiesced in the determination
of the king. By the beginning of the year 1639, Charles had named his
generals and officers, had issued orders to the Lords-Lieutenant to
muster the trained bands of their several counties, and the nobles to
meet him at York on the 1st of April with such retinues as belonged to
their rank and fortune. To procure money he suspended the payment of
all pensions, borrowed where he could, and judges, lawyers, and the
clergy were called upon to contribute from their salaries and livings
in lieu of their personal service. The clergy were in general extremely
liberal. They considered that the cause was their own, and that if the
Presbyterians of Scotland became triumphant, the Puritans of England
might deal in similar fashion with the Church of England. Laud, moreover,
ordered the names of all clergymen who refused to be returned to him. The
queen also lent her aid by calling on the Catholics to assist, reminding
them that aid given to the king in this emergency was the most likely
means to securing future advantages to themselves. When the knowledge
of the queen's circular letter to the Catholics became known to the
Puritans, they were greatly scandalised; and the Catholics responding
readily to the call, and holding a meeting in London presided over by the
Pope's Nuncio, tended to strengthen their opinion of the papistical bias
of Charles and his Church.
The king, on his part, sought to take advantage of the ancient
antipathies between the two kingdoms, and issued proclamations calling
on all good subjects to resist the attempts of the Scots, who were
contemplating, he asserted, the invasion and plunder of the kingdom and
the destruction of the monarchy. But he found this was an empty alarm.
The reformers of England knew too well that the cause of the Scots and
their own were identical; that the purpose of the king was to destroy
the constitutional rights and freedom of religion in both kingdoms
alike. The Scottish nobles, as well as the English public, rejected all
attempts to divide them in this Cause. There was a time when they could
be bought by the money of England, which had been freely and successfully
employed by the Tudors. But Charles had little money to give; and to the
honour of the Scottish peers, when other temptations were tried, for the
most part the sacred cause of their religion triumphed over them. They
exhorted one another to stand fast by the Covenant. The most intimate
communication between the Scottish and English reformers was maintained
by pamphlets secretly circulated, by emissaries traversing all classes
and all quarters. The earliest information of the movements of the Court
was transmitted; and before Charles commenced his march towards York,
General Leslie, the elected Commander-in-Chief, took the initiative, and
surprised the castle of Edinburgh, on the 21st of March, at the head of
a thousand musketeers, and without losing a single man. The next day,
Saturday, the castle of Dalkeith was given over by Traquair, with all the
regalia and a large quantity of ammunition and arms. It was thought that
Traquair had shown great timidity, to surrender so strong a castle almost
without a blow; but he complained of having been left alone, without
countenance or advice. The Earls of Rothes and Balmerino took the castle,
and conveyed the regalia safely to the castle of Edinburgh. The following
day, Sunday, did not prevent even Scotsmen and Covenanters from seizing
the castle of Dumbarton. The governor was surprised on his return from
church, and threatened with instant death if he did not surrender the
keys to the provost of the town, a zealous Covenanter. Stirling was in
the hands of the Earl of Mar, who had taken the Covenant; and of all the
royal fortresses, only Carlaverock, the least important, remained in the
hands of the Crown. The Marquis of Huntly, who had undertaken to hold
the Highlands for the king, was overpowered or entrapped by Leslie and
Montrose, who at the head of seven thousand men compelled the reluctant
professors of Aberdeen to accept the Covenant, when Leslie returned to
Edinburgh, carrying Huntly with him. The Earl of Antrim, who was to have
invaded the domains of Argyle from Ireland, was unable to fulfil his
engagement, and thus every day brought the news of rapid disasters to
Charles on his march towards York. Hamilton, who had been despatched with
a fleet, appeared in the Forth on the 13th of April. He had five thousand
troops on board, and was expected to secure Leith, the port of Edinburgh,
and overawe if he could not take the capital; but he found the place
strongly fortified, and twenty thousand men were posted on the shores to
hinder his landing. All classes, from the noble to the peasant, had been
labouring industriously to repair fortifications and throw up batteries,
and ladies had carried materials for them. The marquis saw no chance of
effecting a landing, and therefore disembarked his men on the islands
in the Forth, to prevent them from perishing in the ships, for they
were landsmen, and had been hastily pressed into the service, and were
both sickly and mutinous. No prospect was ever more discouraging; even
Wentworth could not send him the small aid of five hundred musketeers
in time, and strongly advised Charles to avoid coming to an engagement
with his raw levies against the enthusiastic Scots and their practical
generals, but to garrison Berwick and Carlisle to prevent incursions, and
wait till the next year if necessary.
Charles arrived at York on the 19th of April, and proceeded to administer
to the lords who there awaited him with their followers, an oath of
allegiance, binding them to oppose all conspiracies and seditions,
even if they were veiled under the pretence of religion. The Lords
Say and Brooke declined to take the oath, saying they were willing to
accompany their sovereign from loyalty and affection; but that, as
they were ignorant of the laws and customs of Scotland, they could not
undertake to say that the Scots were rebels, or the war was just. Charles
with indignation ordered them to be arrested, but the Attorney and
Solicitor-Generals on being consulted declaring that there was no ground
for their prosecution, they were dismissed with the royal displeasure
and desired to return home. Nor had the king much more satisfaction with
the lords who had taken the oath, for they qualified it by signing a
paper stating in what sense they took it. To perform an act calculated
to please the people whom he was leaving behind, at York he issued a
proclamation, revoking no less than thirty-one monopolies and patents,
pretending that he had not discovered before how grievous they were to
his subjects; but the real fact was, that most of them had been granted
to Scotsmen who had now forfeited his favour.
On leaving York he complimented the Recorder, who had paid him the most
fulsome flattery, and the municipal authorities, by telling them that he
had there experienced more love than he ever had in London on which he
had showered so many benefits. At Durham by the bishop and clergy, and
at Newcastle by the corporation, he was magnificently entertained, and
at every halting-place fresh quotas of horse and foot came in. "But,"
remarks Clarendon, "if there had been none in the march but soldiers,
it is most probable that a noble peace would have quickly ensued, even
without fighting; but the progress was more illustrious than the march,
and the soldiers were the least part of the army, and the least consulted
with. For," he adds, "the king more intended the pomp of his preparations
than the strength of them." The certain proof, he might have added, of a
very foolish king, as Charles was. But the "ifs" which Clarendon summons
up on this occasion to explain the want of success are amusing. "If the
war had been vigorously pursued, it had been as soon ended as begun." "If
he had been duly informed of what was going on in Scotland," of course
he would have known. "If the whole nation of Scotchmen had been entirely
united in the rebellion, and all who stayed in the Court had marched in
their army, the king or kingdom could have sustained no damage by them;
but the monument of their presumption and their shame would have been
razed together, and no other memory preserved of their rebellion but in
their memorable and infamous defeat." That is, there would have been no
Scottish traitors about him to keep him misinformed. This is just as
true as the treasury being well furnished, for we know that Hamilton
and Traquair kept the king punctually informed of everything the whole
time. "If," however, Charles had more wisely chosen his generals,--but
Arundel, his general, was a man, says this veracious historian, "who
had nothing martial about him but his presence and his looks, and
therefore was thought to be made choice of for his negative qualities.
He did not love the Scots; he did not love the Puritans; which good
qualities were allayed by another negative--he did love nobody else." The
lieutenant-general, the Earl of Essex, was too proud and uncompromising,
and the Earl of Holland, general of the horse, was just no general at
all, "a man fitter for a show than a field." Yet, says Clarendon, "If the
king himself had stayed at London, or, which had been the next best, kept
his court and resided at York, and sent the army on its proper errand,
and left the matter of the war solely to them, in all human reason his
enemies had been speedily subdued." With such generals as Arundel and
Holland--for Essex was a brave commander, though, as afterwards appeared,
no great tactician--it is not so easy to see that. But Clarendon might
have safely reduced all his "ifs" into one--if Charles had been a wise
king he would not have got into a quarrel with his subjects at all.
With such generals, and an army of raw levies, hastily dragged
reluctantly from the plough and the mattock, to fight in a cause with
which they had no sympathy, and encumbered by heaps of useless nobles
and gentry, Charles marched on to Berwick, and encamped his forces on an
open field called the Birks. He had besides the garrison of Berwick three
thousand two hundred and sixty horse, and nineteen thousand six hundred
and fourteen foot. But, on the other hand, Leslie, says Clarendon, had
drawn up his forces on the side of a hill at Dunse, so as to make a great
show. "The front only could be seen, but it was reported that Leslie and
the whole army were there; and it was very true, they were all there
indeed--but it was as true that all did not exceed the number of nine
thousand men, very ill armed, and mostly country fellows, who were on
the sudden got together to make that show." Leslie, he informs us, had
so dispersed his knot of ragamuffins, with great herds of cattle on the
hills around, that it was naturally supposed that there was a large army,
the bulk of it concealed behind the hill; and he assures us that had the
royal army pushed forward the whole illusion would have vanished.
This account is as thoroughly opposed to all the credible historians
of the time, Rushworth, Nalson, Burnet, Baillie, and the letters of
distinguished persons engaged, as the whole array of "ifs." We are
assured that Leslie had pitched his camp at Dunglas, and twelve thousand
volunteers had crowded to his standard. The preachers everywhere called
on their hearers to advance the cause of God and the Kirk. Those in the
camp wrote and disseminated letters to the same effect. One demanded that
every true Scot should go forward to extort a reasonable peace from the
king, or to do battle with his and their common enemies, the prelates
and papists of England. Another denounced the curse of Meroz on all who
did not come to the help of the Lord, and of His champions. Another
ironically bade those who would not fight for God and their country to
bring spades and bury the saints whom they had abandoned to the swords
of the Amalekites. They had chosen for the motto on their banners the
words, "For Christ's Crown and the Covenant," and over every captain's
tent waved the arms of Scotland and these words. Soldiers therefore
flocked in on all sides to the sacred standard, and by the time that
Leslie marched for Dunse Hill his army numbered nearly twenty thousand
men, many of them new to arms, but all enthusiastic patriots. Twice a day
they were summoned by sound of drum to drill and to sermon; and when they
were not listening to the exciting harangues of the ministers, they were
solacing themselves with singing psalms and reading the Scriptures, or
with extempore prayer. "Had you lent your ear," says one of them, "and
heard in the tents the sounds of some singing psalms, some praying, some
reading Scripture, you would have been refreshed. For myself, I never
found my mind in better temper than it was. I was as a man who had taken
leave from the world, and was resolved to die in that service without
return. I found the favour of God shining upon me, and a sweet, meek,
humble, yet strong and vehement spirit leading me all along."
Leslie was joined by the Earl of Montrose, who had been posted at Kelso,
and the first of their proceedings was to issue proclamations, declaring
that they had no intention to invade England if their reasonable demands
were granted; and that their only object was to obtain from the king the
confirmation of his promises for the free enjoyment of their religion.
Whatever was done in the Scottish camp was freely circulated in the
royal camp, for they had plenty of friends there, and the strength, the
spirits, and resolution of their army were abundantly set forth daily.
It was the fortune of the Earl of Holland to lead the way first against
them. He passed the Tweed near Twizel, where the English army had crossed
to the battle of Flodden, and advanced towards the detachment of the
army near Kelso. He had with him the bulk of the horse and about three
thousand infantry. As if no enemy had been in the country, he trotted on
with his horse, till he found himself on the hill of Maxwellhaugh, above
Kelso, and not only saw the tents of the enemy, but his way barred by
an advanced post of one hundred and fifty horse and five or six thousand
foot. He then discovered that his foot and artillery were three or four
miles behind. On this he sent a trumpet to the enemy, commanding them
not to cross the Border, to which they replied by asking whose trumpet
that was, and being told the Earl of Holland's, they said the earl had
better take himself off; which it appears he lost no time in doing, and
rode back to the general camp without striking a blow. The Scots, when
they saw him retreating, sent after him a number of squibs and letters of
ridicule, which were speedily circulated through the English army. The
generals wrote letters to Essex, Holland, and Arundel, entreating them
to intercede with the king that matters might be accommodated without
bloodshed. Essex is said to have sent on their letters to the king
without a word of reply to their messengers. Arundel and Holland were
more gracious.
[Illustration: CHARLES AND THE SCOTTISH COMMISSIONERS. (_See p._ 578.)]