THE PARLIAMENT OF 1634
[Sidenote: A Parliament to be held.]
[Sidenote: Want of money.]
[Sidenote: The King reluctant to call a Parliament.]
[Sidenote: Hopes of Wentworth,]
[Sidenote: who proposes to hold the balance between parties.]
Wentworth was determined that his government, and especially his army,
should not depend upon benefactions extorted from the fears of the
Protestants and bought by dispensations or promises from the Recusants.
The officials of his Council were in favour of a Parliament, which
they might expect to manage, and which he, on the other hand, felt
confident in his ability to rule. People in Ireland had an idea that it
was safer to keep the revenue short, because a surplus would be sent
to England, whereas a deficit would have to be supplied from thence.
This short-sighted policy seemed wise to English settlers as well as
to the natives, for they had all good reason to distrust the King.
The result had been that the business of government was ill done, and
that the Crown owed 80,000_l._ The ordinary revenue, when there was no
parliamentary subsidy or voluntary assessment, fell 20,000_l._ short
of the expenses. The Lord Deputy's brother George was sent to England
on a special mission in February, and came back next month with the
King's leave to hold a Parliament. Charles had cause to dread these
assemblies, but Wentworth pointed out that Poynings' law made them safe
in Ireland. The order of business and the introduction of Bills being
controlled by the English Government, an enterprising viceroy might be
trusted to manage the rest. Wentworth's plan was to have two sessions,
one for supply, the other for redress of grievances. He believed that
the landowners would willingly agree to a money vote in order to
relieve themselves from the ever-present dread of having the existing
contributions established like quit-rents on their estates. And all
in Ireland realised that they could expect no redress of grievances
without having first provided for the support of the Government and
army. Charles accepted the proposed arrangement, but advised that
it should be kept secret until the time came. The next matter of
importance was the composition of the House of Commons. Wentworth
resolved that the Protestant and Roman Catholic parties should be
nearly balanced. The Protestant party might be slightly the larger,
but its subservience was to be secured by procuring the election of
many placemen. Wentworth hoped to get three subsidies of 30,000_l._
each payable in three years. This would yield 30,000_l._ over and above
current expenses, and with that much ready money he hoped to compound
for the whole debt, public creditors having been reduced to a proper
state of humility. A little more money might be hoped for after the
second session, and with this it might be possible to buy up some
of the pensions and rent-charges with which the Irish Exchequer was
burdened.[189]
[Sidenote: Wentworth's speech to his Council, April, 1634.]
[Sidenote: Everything belongs to Cæsar.]
[Sidenote: Opinions in England.]
[Sidenote: Charles on the parliamentary hydra.]
Having been allowed to hold a Parliament and to do it in his own way,
Wentworth at once set to work to make it a success. He summoned his
Council, who thought supply should be accompanied by some assurance
from the King that grievances would be remedied. They also wished to
limit the levies to the actual expenses, having a well-founded fear
that surplus money would be squandered in England, and not applied
to the liquidation of the Irish debt. Wentworth at once told them
that the King called a Parliament because he preferred standing on
the ancient ways, that he had absolute right and power to collect
all the revenue he required without the consent of anybody, and that
their business as councillors was to trust their sovereign without
asking questions. 'I told them plainly,' he said, 'I feared they began
at the wrong end, thus consulting what might please the people in a
Parliament, when it would better become a Privy Councillor to consider
what might please the King, and induce him to call one.' He would
not take less than three subsidies of 30,000_l._ each, but would get
as much more as possible without conditions, and they were not to
propose any. The State could not be too well provided. 'What,' he asked
prophetically, 'if the natives should rebel? There was no great wisdom
to be over-confident in them, being of a contrary religion and so great
in number.' And he concluded by asking them to take warning by the
troubles which the Commons' distrust of their King had brought upon the
late Parliaments in England. When this was read at the English Council
Cottington could not refrain from the obvious comment 'et quorum pars
magna fui.' Wentworth owed his own political position to his exertions
in favour of the Petition of Right, and now he said that everything the
subject had was, and ought to be, at the disposition of the Crown. That
Laud should have joked with his friend on this subject and that the
latter should have taken it as a joke, is not the least extraordinary
thing in Wentworth's career. 'As for that hydra,' said Charles of the
House of Commons, 'take good heed; for you know that here I have found
it as well cunning as malicious. Your grounds are well laid and I have
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 break
them'.[190]
[Sidenote: Wentworth and the Irish nobility,]
[Sidenote: whom he treats with contempt.]
Wentworth's speech to his Council, which less earnest people in
England thought a superfluous display of strength, reduced that body
to complete subjection. He would allow no discussions anywhere about
the King's policy, and he treated the Roman Catholic nobility in the
same way as the Protestant Council. The Lord Chancellor ventured to
suggest that the Lords of the Pale should be consulted according to
precedent, but he was 'silenced by a direct and round answer.' Three
or four days later Lord Fingall came to the Castle and asked for
information on the part of his friends and neighbours, 'who had been
accustomed to be consulted before those meetings.' Wentworth, who seems
to have disliked the man as well as his communication, told him that
his Majesty would 'reject with scorn and disdain' any advice their
lordships could give. Their business was only to hear the King's will
in open Parliament, to make such remarks there as might be fitting for
obedient subjects, and to be content with such answers as his Majesty
thought fit to give. 'A little out of countenance' from the storm of
viceregal eloquence, Lord Fingall unluckily remarked that he only
wished to draw attention to precedents, and that Falkland had consulted
the lords. Wentworth said that was no rule for him, and advised his
visitor 'not to busy his thoughts with matters of that nature, but to
leave all to the royal wisdom.'[191]
[Sidenote: How a Government majority was secured]
[Sidenote: Clerical influence.]
As long as there was a Parliament in Ireland the Government generally
found means to secure a majority. Wentworth had to depend chiefly
on the boroughs, for many counties were not amenable to pressure.
Lord Cork has recorded that when he was in his coach one day with
Lord Esmond and Lord Digby a pursuivant brought him six letters from
the Lord Deputy directing the return of certain members for places
he controlled. Sir George Wentworth, the viceroy's brother, was to
sit for Bandon, his secretaries Mainwaring and Little for Lismore, a
second Mainwaring for Dingle, and other less prominent Englishmen for
Askeaton and Tallow. Wentworth and William and Philip Mainwaring were
elected accordingly, while Little procured a seat at Cashel. Every
important man whom the Lord Deputy could influence found his way into
the House of Commons. Sir William Parsons sat for the county and Sir
George Radcliffe for the city of Armagh, Charles Price for Belfast,
and Sir Adam Loftus for Newborough in Wexford. Sir Beverley Newcomen,
a distinguished naval officer, represented Tralee, and Wandesford
the borough of Kildare. Sir Charles Coote, Sir William Cole, Sir
Robert King, and many others who were well known a few years later,
also had seats. It was on the Protestants that the Crown depended in
the long run, but they had not a large majority. 'The priests and
Jesuits,' Wentworth wrote, 'are very busy in the election of knights
and burgesses, call the people to their masses, and there charge them
on pain of excommunication to give their voices to no Protestant.' A
sheriff in Dublin who seemed inclined to yield to these influences was
fined 700_l._ and declared incapable of serving, and his successor
promptly returned Sergeant Catelin and a Protestant alderman.[192]
[Sidenote: Parliamentary precedents.]
[Sidenote: The primacy secured to Armagh.]
[Sidenote: Political value of etiquette.]
[Sidenote: The opening ceremonies.]
[Sidenote: Wentworth and Ormonde.]
In matters of form and ceremony Wentworth was willing to be guided
by precedents. He found all the officials very ignorant about
parliamentary order, as Falkland's blunder had already shown, and he
sent to England for full instructions. Questions of precedence being
left by special commission entirely in his hands, the primacy of Armagh
over Dublin was settled by an order in Council, and in the established
Church this point was never again disputed, a decision which was
undoubtedly right; but Archbishop Talbot afterwards attributed it to
the slavish fears of Wentworth's Council, to his leaning in favour of
Ussher, and to the prevalent ignorance of Latin in high places. He
admitted that Bishop Leslie of Raphoe was learned, but then was he
not a suffragan of Armagh? Wentworth decided such questions when they
came in his way, but they had little interest for him--'this matter of
place I have ever judged a womanly thing.' If it had turned out that
he could not determine between the rival claims of peers and prelates,
they would, he thought be 'fit to keep the House itself busied about,'
and prevent them from talking politics. It was arranged that six or
seven lords on whom the Lord Deputy could rely should hold four or
five proxies each, so that he was in no danger of being outvoted, for
the bishops were safe enough. It was not until 1661 that the number
of proxies which could be held by any one peer was reduced to two.
The committee for privileges in Wentworth's House of Lords proposed
that every peer having Irish honours but no Irish estate should be
obliged to purchase land in proportion to his rank, but this was
never carried into effect. When the day of meeting came, Wentworth
accompanied the Peers to St. Patrick's Cathedral in great state. His
Parliament opened, Wentworth wrote, 'with the greatest civility and
splendour Ireland ever saw, where appeared a very gallant nobility
far above that I expected ... my Lord Primate made a very excellent
and learned sermon.' The afternoon was spent in formalities and the
taking of oaths. One incident at the beginning of the business session
is worth recording on account of the great celebrity of the person
principally concerned. Orders had been given to admit no one armed into
either House, and when the young Earl of Ormonde, who had carried the
sword of state at the opening ceremony, presented himself, Black Rod
peremptorily demanded his weapon. 'In your guts,' was the contemptuous
answer. Ormonde sat armed during the day, and when summoned before the
Council, produced his writ of summons which ordered him to attend 'girt
with a sword.' Wentworth had met his match for the first time, and he
held a private consultation with his two chief advisers as to what was
to be done with this formidable young man. Wandesford was for crushing
him, but Radcliffe advised conciliation, and Ormonde became a Privy
Councillor at the early age of twenty-four.[193]
[Sidenote: The case of Lord Slane.]
Among the sixty-six lords present at the beginning of this session
was William Lord Slane, who was allowed to sit and vote pending the
possible reappearance of his elder brother Thomas, who had been tried
by a jury in England for murder committed in Ireland, had become a
friar, and had not been heard of for fourteen years. This precedent
was afterwards relied on in Lord Maguire's case as establishing the
principle that an Irish peer was a commoner in England.[194]
[Sidenote: Wentworth's speech.]
[Sidenote: Private consultations forbidden.]
[Sidenote: The Recusants threatened.]
[Sidenote: Election of Speaker.]
On the second day Wentworth made a speech to both Houses, in what he
calls his mildest manner; but it was not very mild. He told them that
there was a debt of 100,000_l._ and an annual deficit of 20,000_l._
What they had to do was simply to clear off the debt and to provide a
permanent equilibrium between receipts and expenditure, so that the
necessary maintenance of the army might no longer trouble his Majesty's
princely thoughts. That would be the King's session. Later on they
would have a session of their own, where the King would grant all the
favours he thought proper, and where they were to accept his gifts
with confidence and gratitude, and without asking for more. 'Take
heed,' he said, 'of private meetings and consults in your chambers, by
design and privity aforehand to contrive, how to discourse and carry
the public affairs when you come into the Houses. For besides that
they are themselves unlawful, and punishable in a grievous measure, I
never knew them in all my experience to do any good to the public or
to any particular man; I have often known them do much harm.' With a
Deputy who knew his own mind, a session strictly limited by the King's
orders to three weeks, and no opportunity for private consultation,
the House of Commons was almost powerless. Wentworth's instinct and
the experience of 1613 told him that the chief danger would come from
the Roman Catholics, whom he had taken care should form nearly one
half of the Lower House. He told them that if adequate supplies were
withheld there would be no way of paying the army but 'by levying the
twelvepence a Sunday upon the Recusants.' The King wished to make no
distinction between English and Irish, but if it came to a fight the
predominant partner would take care not to be beaten. The first trial
of strength was about the choice of a Speaker. The official candidate
was Sergeant Catelin, recorder of Dublin and member for the city,
against whom there were many mutterings; but the House was told that
the King had a veto upon every election, and that it would be steadily
exercised until the right man was chosen. Wentworth's nominee became
Speaker without a contest, and expressed himself to his patron's
satisfaction. He was knighted at the end of the Parliament, and
received 1,600_l._ for his services. A copy of what purported to be
the Viceroy's speech was shown by Cottington before its delivery; but
this was probably a hoax, for Wentworth declared that it had not been
written down beforehand. Cottington had Wentworth's own account of his
harangue to the Irish Council, and the speech to Parliament was little
more than a repetition of it.[195]
[Sidenote: Attempt to purge the Commons.]
[Sidenote: Supply is demanded at once,]
[Sidenote: and six subsidies are voted.]
[Sidenote: The session is talked out.]
[Sidenote: The two Houses at variance.]
[Sidenote: The demand for a prescriptive title to land.]
On the fourth day of the Session the House of Commons met for business
and the Roman Catholics at once demanded that the House should be
purged, that is that all members should be expelled who did not
inhabit the districts represented by them. This would have been fatal
to the Protestant party, which comprised many official persons living
in Dublin, and it had been decided in 1613 that residence was not
essential. On the other hand Sir Thomas Bramston, who as sovereign
of Belfast had returned himself, was declared not duly elected and
ordered to refund 16_l._ which he had received as wages. These payments
were fixed as in 1613, at 18_s._ 4_d._ a day for counties, 10_s._
for cities, and 6_s._ 8_d._ for boroughs. A committee for privileges
was appointed and the Protestants carried the nomination of it by
a majority of eight. Seeing that power lay with the party who were
certain in the long run to support the Government, Wentworth summoned
his Council the same day and Chief Baron Bolton proposed to go on with
supply the next morning. He was supported, of course, by Wandesford,
Mainwaring, and Radcliffe; but Wilmot, Parsons and St. Leger, the
president of Munster, were inclined for a later day. Wentworth then
spoke in favour of the bolder and prompter course. The committee,
he said, could not possibly increase the Protestant majority, and
might have the contrary effect. The Roman Catholics would be anxious
to secure the rewards of loyalty by voting for what they could not
prevent. His real fear, though he did not say this openly, was lest
time should be given for the formation of parties. Wilmot, whom he
suspected of intriguing with members of the House of Commons, said he
retained his opinion in favour of delay, but that it was useless for
any one to speak after the Lord Deputy. The Chancellor then declared
himself on the side of power, saying that he should have been for
prompt action even if Wentworth had taken the opposite view. After a
lecture from the Viceroy on their duty to the King, the Council broke
up, and next morning Wandesford proposed a resolution to give six
subsidies 'to be levied in a parliamentary way in four years,' two in
the first and second years, and one each in the third and fourth. Some
of the Recusant party, finding themselves in a temporary majority,
at once moved to postpone the vote until the House had been purged,
and carried it by twenty-eight. But this was recognised as being what
is nowadays called a snap division, and when the original motion was
nevertheless put both parties feared to lose their credit with the
Government. The Roman Catholics, having made their protest, supported
Wandesford's motion, which passed unanimously, and all was over before
noon. The rest of this session, said the Lord Deputy compendiously,
'we have entertained and spun them out in discourses, but kept them
nevertheless from concluding anything. No other laws passed but the
two Acts of subsidies, and that other short law for confirming all
such compositions as are or shall be made upon the commission of
defective titles.' The Government was strengthened by a difference of
opinion between the two Houses, which prevented a joint petition in
favour of the graces. The Commons claimed the right to sit covered at
a conference; this was denied them, no conference took place, and the
petition forwarded was in the name of the Lower House only. Wentworth
took no trouble to reconcile the two chambers, having learnt in England
that a strict understanding between them was not favourable to the
Crown. The Lords were, however, quite as anxious for the graces as the
elected chamber, and especially for that which promised that sixty
years possession should be a good title against the Crown. Indeed,
Lord Fingall and Lord Ranelagh were more perseveringly outspoken than
any member of the House of Commons. The first, as the head of an
ancient family with a very chequered history, who had been treated with
scant civility by Wentworth, and the latter, as the son of Archbishop
Jones, had doubtless many reasons to fear an inquisition into their
titles.[196]
[Sidenote: Wentworth is refused an earldom.]
Conscious of having done great service Wentworth asked the King for
an earldom, taking precautions that no one should know he had done
so. His suit was refused in a rather disagreeable letter, and much
indignation has been expressed by many writers, but it is questionable
whether this refusal should be added to the load of blame which Charles
I. must bear. Wentworth was only forty-one, he had opposed the court
until his thirty-sixth year, and he had already received a viscounty
and two of the greatest places in the gift of the Crown. Burghley
never became an earl. Both Cranfield and Weston had to serve much
longer for the coveted honour, and neither of them had ever been in
opposition. In later times not only earls but marquesses and dukes have
been multiplied exceedingly, and it seems a small favour that Charles
refused to a great man. Thousands of people now know something about
Strafford who have scarcely heard of Cottington or Windebank, but this
was not so at the time. Indeed the fact that his work was chiefly done
in the North and in Ireland made him less prominent in the eyes of his
contemporaries than inferior men who were always about the Court.[197]
[Sidenote: Debate on the graces]
[Sidenote: Petition of the Commons.]
[Sidenote: The King's promise as to titles.]
[Sidenote: Free Trade demanded.]
The Lords had discussed the graces, and had ventured to suggest what
laws should be passed to carry out the remedial policy foreshadowed
by them. The debates had no conclusion, but Wentworth protested even
against talk as an infringement of Poynings' Act. According to him
they had no business to do anything more than offer humble prayers
to the Lord Deputy; and that was the course adopted by the Commons.
The petition begins by reciting that titles in Ireland were generally
uncertain, many documents having been lost or stolen during rude and
disturbed times, and others being defective through the ignorance of
those who drew or engrossed them; 'whereof divers indigent persons,
with eagle eyes piercing thereinto commonly took advantage to the utter
overthrow of many noble and deserving persons, that for the valuable
consideration of service unto the Crown, or money, or both, honourably
and fairly acquired their estates, which is the principal cause of
the slow improving planting and building in this land.' While this
uncertainty existed no one had the courage to make improvements, and
everyone longed for the English law of James I., which made sixty years
possession a good title even against the Crown. This grace, the Commons
said, had been 'particularly promised by his Majesty, approved by both
the Councils of State of England and Ireland, and published in all the
Irish counties at the assizes, and was most expected of all the other
graces.' They also protested, though in very guarded language, against
the common law being overridden by the Council and the Star Chamber.
Next to the security of real property the most important matter was
the encouragement of trade and manufactures, for want of which Ireland
swarmed with 'vagabonds and beggars, sound of limb and strong of body.'
Free trade was what they really asked for, which was for the benefit of
both King and people. On the faith of the graces which they believed
would give them prosperity, the subjects of Ireland had already given
310,000_l._ and now they had voted six subsidies more, which was
far in excess of what had been done in past ages. They acknowledged
Wentworth's 'strong propension' to advancing the good of the country,
and exhorted him to increase his reputation by persuading his Majesty
to redeem past promises and thus to 'conserve a right intelligence
between the best of Kings and his most faithful and dutiful subjects of
Ireland.'[198]
[Sidenote: The King's promises are not kept.]
[Sidenote: The King can do no wrong.]
[Sidenote: Prorogation August 2.]
[Sidenote: Second session, Nov. 4.]
[Sidenote: The Commons are unmanageable.]
[Sidenote: Sir Piers Crosbie.]
Wentworth's answer was what might have been expected. Official
extortion he was ready to repress, and all administrative reforms he
would further to the utmost, but rather by way of concession from
the King than by law. Orders in Council were to be preferred to Acts
of Parliament, unless the latter were likely to bring profit to the
Exchequer. Nothing was to be done to limit the royal power in any way.
The much-desired sixty years' title was not to be established by law,
for it would involve the loss of fees and fines under the commission
for confirmation of defective titles, it would interfere with the
King's profit upon tenures, and it would almost entirely prevent the
colonisation schemes from which Wentworth expected so much. These
ideas were readily adopted at Court, and the word of a King was once
more shown to be of none effect. Wentworth dreaded the imputation of
refusing to redress grievances after the price of reform had been paid,
but hardly seems to have realised that he was doing that very thing. He
had the courage of his opinions, and he knew his 'great master' as he
is fond of calling Charles. 'In these particulars,' he said, 'wherein
the request of the petition shall be yielded to by your Majesty, we
desire to reserve entirely to yourself the beauty of the act, and the
acknowledgment thereof; so in the other particulars, wherein there is
reason to deny them their requests, we your servants will assume the
same to ourselves.' The Chancellor, Lord Cork, and Sir William Parsons
lent the weight of their signatures to Wentworth's memorandum, but
the name of Mountnorris is wanting. Rumours that the graces would be
withheld were soon in circulation, and on November 4, after a three
months' recess, Parliament met again in very bad humour. There had
been some delay in transmitting final instructions from England, and
it was not till the 27th that Wentworth announced the denial of the
most important graces. In the House of Commons the Roman Catholics,
through the negligence or secret sympathy of some Protestants, found
themselves in a majority upon that day, and at once broke into open
revolt. They rejected every Bill presented to them, though some were
evidently useful and harmless, and business was at a standstill. 'Had
it continued two days in that state,' said Wentworth, 'I had certainly
adjourned the House, advertised over, and craven his Majesty's
judgment.' For a moment the lead of the Opposition was assumed by
Sir Piers Crosbie, member for the Queen's County, a Protestant and a
Privy Councillor, and here Wentworth saw his opportunity. He summoned
the Council, and easily persuaded them to suspend Crosbie, and he
afterwards had instructions from England to expel him altogether. He
then went to the House of Lords. 'I told them,' he said, 'what a shame
it was for the Protestant party, that were in number the greater, to
suffer their religion to be insensibly supplanted, his Majesty in some
degree disregarded, the good ordinances transmitted for their future
peace and good government to be thus disdainfully trodden under foot by
a company of wilful, insolent people, envious both to their religion
and to their peace, and all this for want of a few days' diligent
attendance upon the service of the public.'
[Sidenote: Wentworth rallies the Protestant majority.]
[Sidenote: Expulsion of Geoffrey Baron.]
He urged each peer to exert his influence with friends in the House of
Commons; this was done, and a working majority was again secured. Among
the wilful insolent people was Geoffrey Baron, member for Clonmel, 'a
young man, a kind of petty chapman's son, who by peddling left him some
200_l._ a year,' who opposed everything and who recklessly misstated
facts. Wentworth determined to make an example of him, and the motion
for his expulsion was carried by sixteen. After this things went
smoothly, and all the Government Bills were passed into law.[199]
[Sidenote: Sir Vincent Gookin's case.]
[Sidenote: An impeachment threatened.]
[Sidenote: Judicial functions of Parliament.]
[Sidenote: Gookin on the English settlers.]
Soon after the beginning of the second session both Houses were much
excited by a letter of Sir Vincent Gookin, an enterprising English
settler who had much property in the county of Cork. It was addressed
to the Lord Deputy, though never delivered to him, and it is doubtful
whether it was printed or not. In any case it was freely circulated in
Munster, and a copy of it read out in the House of Commons. It was,
says Wentworth, 'a most bitter invective against the whole nation,
natives, old English, new English, Papist, Protestant, captains,
soldiers and all ... it was evident they would have hanged him if
they could. The libel indeed is wondrous foul and scandalous.' An
impeachment was threatened, and the two Houses had a conference, where
Lord Mountnorris pointed out that the House of Commons had no power to
administer an oath, but that the Lords would examine their witnesses
and give sentence even in the delinquent's absence. The judges were
consulted, and declared that his land could not be seized as security
for his appearance. Mountnorris said nothing about the Deputy and
Council, and Wentworth, to prevent the assumption of judicial authority
by Parliament, had already sent a pursuivant to arrest Gookin, who
made haste to get out of Ireland, where his life was hardly safe.
Wentworth in person informed Parliament that the principle of Poynings'
Act extended to judicial as well as to legislative functions, and
that moreover the case was already in his hands. He observed that the
King had no reason to be pleased with the exercise of parliamentary
jurisdiction in England, and having always an eye to revenue, he added
that Sir Vincent, who was a very rich man, was well able to bear a
fine great in proportion to his offence. Early in the following year
Gookin was brought back from England and imprisoned in the Castle, and
Wentworth received the thanks of Parliament with a request that he
would continue the prosecution, which the English Government left in
his hands. It does not appear whether this was done, but Gookin, who
paid 1,000_l._ a year to labourers and fishermen in the neighbourhood
of Bandon, and who had thirty years' experience of Ireland, came into
frequent collision with Lord Cork, which was likely to make Wentworth
lenient. Gookin was a strong Protestant, who hated the Irish and their
priests, and was quite willing to be hated by them in return, but he
thought the English Irish even worse. It might have been different if
the settlers could have been kept to themselves, but as it was the
English influence had a constant tendency to grow weaker. 'As soon as
any Englishman cometh over and settleth himself in this country and
hath gotten any estate, he findeth himself environed with the Irish,
and hath no safety both for himself and posterity but by some way
to stick themselves by marriage and gossiping or the like.' Gookin
died some four years later, and his son, who played a considerable
part during the Commonwealth, took a somewhat different view of the
country.[200]
[Sidenote: Wentworth's regard for privilege of Parliament.]
[Sidenote: Submissiveness of the Commons.]
[Sidenote: A parliamentary bravo.]
Another incident occurred during this same session which is important
only as an illustration of Wentworth's high-handed methods. Sir John
Dongan having made a speech unpleasing to the official party in the
House of Commons, Captain Charles Price remarked in a loud tone that he
did not know what he was doing. An altercation followed which Dongan
evidently tried to avoid, for he said he meant no harm. Price then
called him saucy, and Sir John very naturally gave him the lie. All
this happened inside the bar of the House of Commons, yet the Council
took the case up. Dongan was imprisoned in the Castle, forced to give a
written apology, fined, and ordered to be brought by the constable of
the Castle to the bar of the House and to repeat his submission there
upon his knees. This was carried out to the letter a few days later,
and entered in the journals, without comment. A committee of six was
appointed to wait on the Lord Deputy and beg him to remit the penalty
for offending the King, the offence to Parliament and to the Lord
Deputy having been already purged. Price was employed by Wentworth as
an agent at Court, for which purpose he had very long leave from his
military duties. We may judge from a letter of Lord Keeper Coventry
what sort of man he was. 'Your servant, Captain Price, is now with us,
and I assure you is not silent in anything that concerns your honour,
and in truth serves you with his tongue and protests he will not fail
to do it with his sword. I hope your lordship hath no need of the
latter in Ireland, and your friends here are well pleased to hear how
he lays about him with the former, and therefore it is hoped you will
yet spare him from his garrison till he have done here what is meet to
be done.'[201]
[Sidenote: Assessment of the subsidies.]
[Sidenote: Wentworth wishes to keep his Parliament together,]
[Sidenote: but the King insists on a dissolution.]
[Sidenote: Parliament dissolved, April 18, 1635.]
No subsidy had hitherto yielded more than about 30,000_l._, but there
had been many exemptions and many cases of fraud whereby the great
transferred their share of the burden to the poor. Wentworth succeeded
in raising each subsidy to rather more than 40,000_l._ from the
Commons, with over 6,000_l._ from the nobility, and 3,000_l._ from the
clergy. The two last sums were to be levied by the Government, but the
House of Commons, fearing lest the Deputy should be tempted to take
even more than had been agreed upon, themselves assessed the amount
which their constituents were to pay in each county. Leinster was set
down for 13,000_l._, Ulster for 10,000_l._, Munster for 11,200_l._, and
Connaught for 6,800_l._ The highest rated county was Cork, which with
the city paid nearly 4,000_l._ Dublin city and county were assessed
at 1,000_l._ apiece. The House of Commons also inquired into arrears
due by the Crown, and these they found amounted to about 130,000_l._
They recommended that certain sums due to the Archbishop of Dublin,
the Bishop of Meath, and the Dean of Christchurch should be paid at
once in full. The next to be satisfied were ladies, the attainder of
whose husbands or fathers had enriched the Crown; Lady Desmond and
her daughters, Lady Mary O'Dogherty, and Lady Mary O'Reilly being
mentioned by name. Arrears of pay due to civil or military officers
were to be satisfied in proportion to the actual benefit derived from
their services, sinecurists being left in the lurch, and all useless
places recommended to be abolished. When the work of the Parliament was
done, Wentworth wished to prorogue it. 'This House,' he said, 'is very
well composed; so as the Protestants are the major part, clearly and
thoroughly with the King, which would be difficult to compass again,
if you were now to call another.' He thought that the existence of this
obedient majority would serve to overawe the Roman Catholics, who alone
were dangerous, and who would be deterred from opposing schemes of
colonisation by the knowledge that the English recusancy laws might be
passed over their heads at any moment. But Charles was of opinion that
Parliaments 'are of the nature of cats, they ever grow curst with age,'
and directed Wentworth to dissolve as soon as the necessary business
was done. Coke had intercepted a large budget of letters between the
Irish Recusants and their French friends, and he had no doubt that as
soon as there was danger either from Spain or France 'all would join
together to replant themselves at home.' Wentworth thought a Parliament
well in hand would be a useful instrument to have ready, but he was not
allowed to keep it. The royal consent was given to a number of Acts,
and the subsidy arrangements being complete, the two Houses had little
to do except to squabble about matters of etiquette, and were dissolved
without settling them. 'We have now,' Wentworth wrote, 'under the
conduct of our prudent and excellent master, concluded this Parliament,
with an universal contentment, as I take it.' He thought it had done
more than all former Parliaments put together, both for King, Church
and subject, and that Charles was 'more absolute master by his wisdom,'
than his predecessors had ever been by the sword.[202]
[Sidenote: Meeting of Convocation, 1613-1615.]
[Sidenote: The Hundred and Four Articles.]
[Sidenote: Character of the Irish Articles.]
'Proctors in the Convocation House' are officially mentioned in Henry
VIII.'s time, but the first regular Convocation of the Irish Church
was held in connection with the Parliament of 1613. It was summoned
by the King's writ, and met in St. Patrick's Cathedral on May 24 in
that year. It consisted of the bishops and of representatives from
the four provincial synods. Lord Chancellor Jones as Archbishop
of Dublin presided in the Upper, and Randolph Barlow, after wards
Archbishop of Tuam, in the Lower House; both were Cambridge men. The
principal business of this assembly was to pass the Articles, one
hundred and four in number, which are generally attributed to James
Ussher, then professor of divinity in Dublin. Ussher's Puritanism was
more pronounced in his earlier days than afterwards, and James was
less hostile to that school than he later became. These Articles,
which superseded those of 1566, received the royal assent, though they
practically incorporated those promulgated at Lambeth in 1595. They
were more Calvinistic and more polemical than the thirty-nine received
by the Church of England upon which Burnet, in the interest of peace
and comprehension, expended his latitudinarian casuistry. It may
suffice to note that of the Irish Articles the twelfth declares that
'God hath predestinated some unto life and reprobated some unto death:
of both which there is a certain number, known only to God, which can
neither be increased nor diminished'; and the eightieth that the Pope
is 'that man of sin foretold in the Holy Scriptures whom the Lord shall
consume, &c.' In 1615 this Convocation granted one subsidy to the
King.[203]
[Sidenote: The Thirty-nine Articles are adopted, 1634,]
[Sidenote: but without repealing the others.]
[Sidenote: How Wentworth treated Convocation.]
[Sidenote: Non-subscribers to be excommunicated.]
Convocation met at the same time as Parliament, Ussher presiding
in the Upper and Henry Leslie Dean, and afterwards Bishop, of Down
in the Lower House. Wentworth's 'thorough' extended to Church as
well as to State, and his great object was to have the Thirty-nine
Articles established. Ussher and others were attached to the Irish
Articles of 1615, and the Lord Deputy thought it prudent to leave them
unrepealed while superseding them in practice, a course in which Laud
acquiesced. 'I was,' says Bramhall, now Bishop of Derry, 'the only
man employed from him to the Convocation, and from the Convocation to
him.' Wentworth had, however, private discussions with Ussher, and
of these Bramhall may have known nothing. The 'dovelike simplicity'
of the Primate, to use Bramhall's phrase, was easily borne down by
the imperious viceroy, and the House of Bishops adopted the English
Articles readily enough, as well as the canon which directed their
use. The Lower House appointed a Committee, over which George Andrews,
Dean of Limerick, presided, whose draft report excited Wentworth's
wrath, for it provided among other things that the Articles of 1615
should be received on pain of excommunication. The Lord Deputy sent
for Andrews and called him Ananias, impounded his papers, and forbade
him to report anything to the House. He then wrote to the prolocutor
Leslie, enclosing a form of canon drawn up by himself, after rejecting
one composed by Ussher, and ordered him to put it to the House 'without
admitting any debate or other discourse.' The Articles of the Church
of England were not to be disputed, and the names of those who voted
aye and no were to be sent to him. This drastic procedure succeeded,
and there was but one dissentient. As a formal concession to the
independence of the Irish Church, the canons agreed upon were not quite
identical with those of England, but the first, which established the
Thirty-nine Articles, effected all that Wentworth wanted. It provided
that 'if any hereafter shall affirm that any of those Articles are in
any part superstitious or erroneous, or such as he may not with a good
conscience subscribe unto, let him be excommunicated, and not absolved
before he make a public revocation of his error.' Ussher and Bramhall
are agreed that the Articles of 1615 were not abrogated, but the latter
informs us that any bishop 'would have been called to an account' who
had required subscription to them after the English Articles were
authorised under the Great Seal of Ireland.[204]
[Sidenote: Wentworth and the Queen of Bohemia.]
[Sidenote: Unpopularity of Laud.]
The veteran diplomatist Sir Thomas Roe was so much struck by
Wentworth's success that he advised the unfortunate Queen of Bohemia
to make him her friend. 'He is severe abroad and in business, and sweet
in private conversation, retired in his friendships but very firm, a
terrible judge, and a strong enemy; a servant violently zealous in his
master's ends, and not negligent of his own; one that will have what he
will, and though of great reason, he can make his will greater when it
may serve him; affecting glory by a seeming contempt; one that cannot
stay long in the middle region of fortune, but _entreprenant_; but will
either be the greatest man in England or much less than he is; lastly
one that may--and his nature lies fit for it, for he is ambitious to
do what others will not--do your Majesty very great service if you can
make him.' Laud had been misrepresented, and he also might be very
useful. Elizabeth took Roe's advice, and afterwards corresponded pretty
often with the Lord Deputy, whom she had never seen. Her great object
was to get some provision made for the poor ministers who were driven
out of the Palatinate. 'As for Laud,' she said, 'I am glad you commend
him so much, for there are but a few who do it.'[205]
FOOTNOTES:
[189] Wentworth to Charles I., January 22, 1633-34, enclosing his
opinion concerning a Parliament, with the King's answers dated April
12; Wentworth to the Lord Marshal (Arundel), March 22, 1633-34--all in
_Strafford Letters_.
[190] The King to Wentworth, April 17, 1634; Wentworth to Coke, April
29 and May 13; Laud to Wentworth, May 14, all in _Strafford Letters_.
[191] Wentworth to Coke, May 13, 1634, _Strafford Letters_.
[192] Earl of Cork's Diary at May 30, 1634, in vol. iv. of _Lismore
Papers_, 1st series. Wentworth to Coke, June 24, _Strafford Letters_.
[193] The primacy of Armagh was practically settled on this occasion,
but the Roman Catholics still agitated the question for some time. The
controversy is exhausted in Archbishop Hugh MacMahon's _Jus Primatiale
Armachanum_, published in 1728. Carte's _Ormonde_, i. 64. Wentworth to
Coke, May 13, June 24, August 18, 1634. The order of proceeding, with
the roll of the Lords, is given in the _Strafford Letters_ after the
last date, and in the journals.
[194] _Irish Lords Journals._ July 14 and 15, 1634.
[195] Wentworth to Coke, August 18, 1634. The Lord Deputy's speech
in _Strafford Letters_, i. 286, is not entered in the Journals of
Parliament. Wentworth to Cottington, _ib._ August 22; to Laud, _ib._
August 23, State Papers, _Ireland_, February 23, 1641.
[196] Wentworth to Coke, August 18, 1634. _Irish Statutes_, 10 Car.
I., session 2. Parliament was prorogued on August 2, on account of the
harvest and circuits. The Subsidy Bill was read a third time and sent
to the Lords on July 26, _Irish Commons Journals_.
[197] Wentworth's letter to the King is dated September 20, and the
answer October 23, _Strafford Letters_.
[198] Commons of Ireland to the Lord Deputy, in _Strafford Letters_, i.
310. The Lord Deputy's Protestation, _ib._ 290.
[199] Parliament met November 4, 1634, and was prorogued December 15.
The graces, with the advice of the Lord Deputy and Council, October 6,
Wentworth to Coke, December 16, _Strafford Letters_.
[200] Wentworth to Coke, December 16, 1634; Coke to Wentworth, March
25, 1635, _Strafford Letters_. _Lords' Journals_, November 25, 1634,
April 6 and 15, 1635. Gookin's letter is calendared among State Papers,
_Ireland_, under 1633, p. 181 (Addenda): it was not written until after
Wentworth's arrival, late in July.
[201] _Irish Commons Journals_, November 4 and 15, 1634. The act of
Council condemning Dongan was signed by George Shirley, Wandesford,
Mainwaring, Sir Charles Coote, Sir J. Erskine, and Adam Loftus.
Coventry to Wentworth, December 24, 1635, and the answer, March 1,
1636, announcing a further leave of six months to Price, _Strafford
Letters_; Wentworth to Price, February 14, 1636, in State Papers,
_Ireland_.
[202] Wentworth to Coke, December 16, 1634, with the King's answer of
January 22; Coke to Wentworth, January 21; Wentworth to Coke, April 7,
1635; the Commons of Ireland to the Lord Deputy, April 1, in _Strafford
Letters_, i. 408; _Irish Commons Journal_, March 20, 1634-5; Wentworth
to the Earl of Danby, April 21, 1635. There were two short sessions
between January 26 and April 18, the date of dissolution. At the
beginning a good many days were lost by the non-arrival of Bills from
England.
[203] Mant's _Irish Church_, 121; Ball's _Reformed Church of Ireland_,
108; Cal. of State Papers, _Ireland_, April 28, 1615. The Irish
Articles of 1565 and 1615 are printed as an appendix of Elrington's
Life of Ussher, _Works_, i. xxxv.
[204] Wentworth to Laud, August 23 and December 16, 1634, and Laud's
answer of October 20, in _Strafford Letters_; Wentworth's letter to
Leslie, December 10, 1634, is in Laud's _Works_, vii. 98; Ussher to Dr.
Ward, September 15, 1635, in his _Works_, xvi. 9; Bramhall's account of
the proceedings, written some years later, is in his _Works_, v. 80.
[205] Sir Thomas Roe to the Queen of Bohemia, December 10, 1634, from
London, and her answer from the Hague, February 11/21, 1635, in State
Papers, _Domestic_. Roe contemplated a visit to Ireland about this
time, but does not seem to have made it; see Wentworth's letter to him
of September 1, 1634.