THE EARL OF STRAFFORD.
[Sidenote: 1621.]
During the time that the king had been engaged in the attempt to
govern England without Parliaments, he had, besides Laud, a very
efficient co-operator, known in English history by the name of the
Earl of Strafford. This title of Earl of Strafford was conferred upon
him by the king as a reward for his services. His father's name was
Wentworth. He was born in London, and the Christian name given to him
was Thomas. He was educated at the University of Cambridge, and was
much distinguished for his talents and his personal accomplishments.
After finishing his education, he traveled for some time on the
Continent, visiting foreign cities and courts, and studying the
languages, manners, and customs of other nations. He returned at
length to England. He was made a knight. His father died when he was
about twenty-one, and left him a large fortune. He was about seven
years older than King Charles, so that all these circumstances took
place before the commencement of Charles's reign. For many years after
this he was very extensively known in England as a gentleman of large
fortune and great abilities, by the name of Sir Thomas Wentworth.
[Sidenote: The Earl of Strafford.]
[Sidenote: His early life.]
[Sidenote: Strafford's course in Parliament.]
[Sidenote: His opposition to the king.]
Sir Thomas Wentworth was a member of Parliament in those days, and
in the contests between the king and the Parliament he took the side
of Parliament. Charles used to maintain that _his_ power alone was
hereditary and sovereign; that the Parliament was his council; and
that they had no powers or privileges except what he himself or his
ancestors had granted and allowed them. Wentworth took very strong
ground against this. He urged Parliament to maintain that their
rights and privileges were inherent and hereditary as well as those
of the king; that such powers as they possessed were their own, and
were entirely independent of royal grant or permission; and that the
king could no more encroach upon the privileges of Parliament, than
Parliament upon the prerogatives of the king. This was in the beginning
of the difficulties between the king and the Commons.
[Sidenote: 1628.]
[Sidenote: The leaders removed.]
[Sidenote: The opposition still continues.]
It will, perhaps, be recollected by the reader, that one of the plans
which Charles adopted to weaken the opposition to him in Parliament
was by appointing six of the leaders of this opposition to the office
of sheriff in their several counties. And as the general theory of
all monarchies is that the subjects are bound to obey and serve the
king, these men were obliged to leave their seats in Parliament and go
home, to serve as sheriffs. Charles and his council supposed that the
rest would be more quiet and submissive when the leaders of the party
opposed to him were taken away. But the effect was the reverse. The
Commons were incensed at such a mode of interfering with their action,
and became more hostile to the royal power than ever.
[Sidenote: Wentworth imprisoned.]
[Sidenote: His return to Parliament.]
Wentworth himself, too, was made more determined in his opposition by
this treatment. A short time after this, the king's plan of a forced
loan was adopted, which has already been described; that is, a sum
of money was assessed in the manner of a tax upon all the people of
the kingdom, and each man was required to lend his proportion to the
government. The king admitted that he had no right to make people
_give_ money without the action of Parliament, but claimed the right to
require them to _lend_ it. As Sir Thomas Wentworth was a man of large
fortune, his share of the loan was considerable. He absolutely refused
to pay it. The king had him brought before a court which was entirely
under his influence, and he was condemned to be imprisoned. Knowing,
however, that this claim on the part of the king was very doubtful,
they mitigated his confinement by allowing him first a range of two
miles around his place of confinement, and afterward they released him
entirely.
He was chosen a member of Parliament again, and he returned to his seat
more powerful and influential than ever. Buckingham, who had been his
greatest enemy, was now dead, and the king, finding that he had great
abilities and a spirit that would not yield to intimidation or force,
concluded to try kindness and favors.
[Sidenote: Wentworth is courted.]
[Sidenote: He goes over to the king.]
In fact, there are two different modes by which sovereigns in all ages
and countries endeavor to neutralize the opposition of popular leaders.
One is by intimidating them with threats and punishments, and the other
buying them off with appointments and honors. Some of the king's high
officers of state began to cultivate the acquaintance of Wentworth, and
to pay him attentions and civilities. He could not but feel gratified
with these indications of their regard. They complimented his talents
and his powers, and represented to him that such abilities ought to be
employed in the service of the state. Finally, the king conferred upon
him the title of baron. Common gratitude for these marks of distinction
and honor held him back from any violent opposition to the king. His
enemies said he was bought off by honors and rewards. No doubt he was
ambitious, and, like all other politicians, his supreme motive was love
of consideration and honor. This was doubtless his motive in what he
had done in behalf of the Parliament. But all that he could do as a
popular leader in Parliament was to acquire a general ascendency over
men's minds, and make himself a subject of fame and honor. All places
of real authority were exclusively under the king's control, and he
could only rise to such stations through the sovereign's favor. In a
word, he could acquire only _influence_ as a leader in Parliament,
while the king could give him _power_.
[Sidenote: The king appoints Wentworth to office.]
Kings have always, accordingly, a great control over the minds of
legislators by offering them office; and King Charles, after finding
that his first advances to Wentworth were favorably received, appointed
him one of his Privy Council. Wentworth accepted the office. His former
friends considered that in doing this he was deserting them, and
betraying the cause which he had at first espoused and defended. The
country at large were much displeased with him, finding that he had
forsaken their cause, and placed himself in a position to act against
them.
Persons who change sides in politics or in religion are very apt to
go from one extreme to another. Their former friends revile them, and
they, in retaliation, act more and more energetically against them. It
was so with Strafford. He gradually engaged more and more fully and
earnestly in upholding the king. Finally, the king appointed him to a
very high station, called the Presidency of the North. His office was
to govern the whole north of England--of course, under the direction of
the king and council. There were four counties under his jurisdiction,
and the king gave him a commission which clothed him with enormous
powers--powers greater, as all the people thought, than the king had
any right to bestow.
[Sidenote: Wentworth is appointed President of the North.]
Strafford proceeded to the north, and entered upon the government of
his realm there, with a determination to carry out all the king's plans
to the utmost. From being an ardent advocate of the rights of the
people, as he was at the commencement of his career, he became a most
determined and uncompromising supporter of the arbitrary power of the
king. He insisted on the collection of money from the people in all the
ways that the king claimed the power to collect it by authority of his
prerogative; and he was so strict and exacting in doing this, that he
raised the revenue to four or five times what any of his predecessors
had been able to collect. This, of course, pleased King Charles and
his government extremely; for it was at a time during which the king
was attempting to govern without a Parliament, and every accession to
his funds was of extreme importance. Laud, too, the archbishop, was
extremely pleased with his exertions and his success, and the king
looked upon Laud and Wentworth as the two most efficient supporters of
his power. They were, in fact, the two most efficient promoters of his
destruction.
[Sidenote: 1632.]
Of course, the people of the north hated him. While he was earning the
applause of the archbishop and the king, and entitling himself to new
honors and increased power, he was sowing the seeds of the bitterest
animosity in the hearts of the people every where. Still he enjoyed all
the external marks of consideration and honor. The President of the
North was a sort of king. He was clothed with great powers, and lived
in great state and splendor. He had many attendants, and the great
nobles of the land, who generally took Charles's side in the contests
of the day, envied Wentworth's greatness and power, and applauded the
energy and success of his administration.
[Sidenote: Wentworth appointed to the government of Ireland.]
[Sidenote: Wentworth's arbitrary government.]
Ireland was, at this time, in a disturbed and disordered state, and
Laud proposed that Wentworth should be appointed by the king to the
government of it. A great proportion of the inhabitants were Catholics,
and were very little disposed to submit to Protestant rule. Wentworth
was appointed lord deputy, and afterward lord lieutenant, which made
him king of Ireland in all but the name. Every thing, of course, was
done in the name of Charles. He carried the same energy into his
government here that he had exhibited in the north of England. He
improved the condition of the country astonishingly in respect to
trade, to revenue, and to public order. But he governed in the most
arbitrary manner, and he boasted that he had rendered the king as
absolute a sovereign in Ireland as any prince in the world could be.
Such a boast from a man who had once been a very prominent defender of
the rights of the people against this very kind of sovereignty, was
fitted to produce a feeling of universal exasperation and desire of
revenge. The murmurs and muttered threats which filled the land, though
suppressed, were very deep and very strong.
[Sidenote: He is made an earl.]
The king, however, and Laud, considered Wentworth as their most able
and efficient coadjutor; and when the difficulties in Scotland began
to grow serious, they recalled him from Ireland, and put that country
into the hands of another ruler. The king then advanced him to the rank
of an earl. His title was the Earl of Strafford. As the subsequent
parts of his history attracted more attention than those preceding
his elevation to this earldom, he has been far more widely known
among mankind by the name of Strafford than by his original name of
Wentworth, which was, from this period, nearly forgotten.
[Sidenote: 1640.]
[Sidenote: Difficulties.]
[Sidenote: Laud's administration of his office.]
To return now to the troubles in Scotland. The king found that it
would be impossible to go on without supplies, and he accordingly
concluded, on the whole, to call a Parliament. He was in serious
trouble. Laud was in serious trouble too. He had been indefatigably
engaged for many years in establishing Episcopacy all over England, and
in putting down, by force of law, all disposition to dissent from it;
and in attempting to produce, throughout the realm, one uniform system
of Christian faith and worship. This was his idea of the perfection
of religious order and right. He used to make an annual visitation
to all the bishoprics in the realm; inquire into the usages which
prevailed there; put a stop, so far as he could, to all irregularities;
and confirm and establish, by the most decisive measures, the
Episcopal authority. He sent in his report to the king of the results
of his inquiries, asking the king's aid, where his own powers were
insufficient, for the more full accomplishment of his plans. But,
notwithstanding all this diligence and zeal, he found that he met with
very partial success. The irregularities, as he called them, which he
suppressed in one place, would break out in another; the disposition to
throw off the dominion of bishops was getting more and more extensive
and deeply seated; and now, the result of the religious revolution in
Scotland, and of the general excitement which it produced in England,
was to widen and extend this feeling more than ever.
[Sidenote: Defense of Episcopacy.]
[Sidenote: Progress of non-conformity.]
He did not, however, give up the contest. He employed an able writer
to draw up a defense of Episcopacy, as the true and scriptural form
of Church government. The book, when first prepared, was moderate in
its tone, and allowed that in some particular cases a Presbyterian
mode of government might be admissible; but Laud, in revising the
book, struck out these concessions as unnecessary and dangerous, and
placed Episcopacy in full and exclusive possession of the ground, as
the divinely instituted and only admissible form of Church government
and discipline. He caused this book to be circulated; but the attempt
to reason with the refractory, after having failed in the attempt to
coerce them, is not generally very successful. The archbishop, in his
report to the king this year of the state of things throughout his
province, represents the spirit of non-conformity to the Church of
England as getting too strong for him to control without more efficient
help from the civil power; but whether it would be wise, he added, to
undertake any more effectual coercion in the present distracted state
of the kingdom, he left it for the king to decide.
[Sidenote: A Parliament called.]
[Sidenote: Strafford appointed commander-in-chief.]
Laud proposed that the council should recommend to the king the calling
of a Parliament. At the same time, they passed a resolution that,
in case the Parliament "should prove peevish, and refuse to grant
supplies, they would sustain the king in the resort to extraordinary
measures." This was regarded as a threat, and did not help to
prepossess the members favorably in regard to the feeling with which
the king was to meet them. The king ordered the Parliament to be
elected in December, but did not call them together until April. In
the mean time, he went on raising an army, so as to have his military
preparations in readiness. He, however, appointed a new set of officers
to the command of this army, neglecting those who were in command
before, as he had found them so little disposed to act efficiently in
his cause. He supplied the leader's place with Strafford. This change
produced very extensive murmurs of dissatisfaction, which, added to
all the other causes of complaint, made the times look very dark and
stormy.
[Sidenote: Meeting of Parliament.]
[Sidenote: The king's speech.]
The Parliament assembled in April. The king went into the House of
Lords, the Commons being, as usual, summoned to the bar. He addressed
them as follows:
"My Lords and gentlemen,--There was never a King who had a more great
and weighty Cause to call his People together than myself. I will not
trouble you with the particulars. I have informed my Lord keeper, and
now command him to speak, and I desire your Attention."
The keeper referred to was the keeper of the king's seals, who was,
of course, a great officer of state. He made a speech, informing the
houses, in general terms, of the king's need of money, but said that it
was not necessary for him to explain minutely the monarch's plans, as
they were exclusively his own concern. We may as well quote his words,
in order to show in what light the position and province of a British
Parliament was considered in those days.
"His majesty's kingly resolutions," said the lord keeper, "are seated
in the ark of his sacred breast, and it were a presumption of too
high a nature for any Uzzah uncalled to touch it. Yet his Majesty is
now pleased to lay by the shining Beams of Majesty, as Phœbus did
to Phaeton, that the distance between Sovereignty and Subjection
should not bar you of that filial freedom of Access to his Person and
Counsels; only let us beware how, with the Son of Clymene, we aim not
at the guiding of the Chariot, as if that were the only Testimony
of Fatherly Affection; and let us remember, that though the King
sometimes lays by the Beams and Rays of Majesty, he never lays by
Majesty itself."
[Sidenote: Address of the lord keeper.]
[Sidenote: Grievances.]
[Sidenote: Messages.]
When the keeper had finished his speech, the king confirmed it by
saying that he had exaggerated nothing, and the houses were left to
their deliberations. Instead of proceeding to the business of raising
money, they commenced an inquiry into the grievances, as they called
them--that is, all the unjust acts and the maladministration of the
government, of which the country had been complaining for the ten years
during which there had been an intermission of Parliaments. The king
did all in his power to arrest this course of procedure. He sent them
message after message, urging them to leave these things, and take up
first the question of supplies. He then sent a message to the House
of Peers, requesting them to interpose, and exert their influence to
lead the Commons to act. The Peers did so. The Commons sent them back a
reply that their interference in the business of supply, which belonged
to the Commons alone, was a breach of their privileges. "And," they
added, "therefore, the Commons desire their lordships in their wisdom
to find out some way for the reparation of their privileges broken by
that act, and to prevent the like infringement in future."
[Sidenote: Parliament dissolved.]
Thus repulsed on every hand, the king gave up the hope of accomplishing
any thing through the action of the House of Commons, and he suddenly
determined to dissolve Parliament. The session had continued only about
three weeks. In dissolving the Parliament the king took no notice of
the Commons whatever, but addressed the Lords alone. The Commons and
the whole country were incensed at such capricious treatment of the
national Legislature.
The king and his council tried all summer to get the army ready to be
put in motion. The great difficulty, of course, was want of funds. The
_Convocation_, which was the great council of the Church, and which
was accustomed in those days to sit simultaneously with Parliament,
continued their session afterward in this case, and raised some money
for the king. The nobles of the court subscribed a considerable amount,
also, which they lent him. They wanted to sustain him in his contest
with the Commons on their own account, and then, besides, they felt a
personal interest in him, and a sympathy for him in the troubles which
were thickening around him.
[Sidenote: The Scots cross the borders and invade England.]
The summer months passed away in making the preparations and getting
the various bodies of troops ready, and the military stores collected
at the place of rendezvous in York and Newcastle. The Scots, in the
mean time, had been assembling their forces near the borders, and,
being somewhat imboldened by their success in the previous campaign,
crossed the frontier, and advanced boldly to meet the forces of the
king.
[Sidenote: March of the Scots.]
[Sidenote: The king goes to York.]
They published a manifesto, declaring that they were not entering
England with any hostile intent toward their sovereign, but were only
coming to present to him their humble petitions for a redress of
their grievances, which they said they were sure he would graciously
receive as soon as he had opportunity to learn from them how great
their grievances had been. They respectfully requested that the people
of England would allow them to pass safely and without molestation
through the land, and promised to conduct themselves with the utmost
propriety and decorum. This promise they kept. They avoided molesting
the inhabitants in any way, and purchased fairly every thing they
consumed. When the English officers learned that the Scotch had crossed
the Tweed, they sent on immediately to London, to the king, urging him
to come north at once, and join the army, with all the remaining forces
at his command. The king did so, but it was too late. He arrived at
York; from York he went northward to reach the van of his army, which
had been posted at Newcastle, but on his way he was met by messengers
saying that they were in full retreat, and that the Scotch had got
possession of Newcastle.
[Sidenote: Defeat of the English.]
The circumstances of the battle were these. Newcastle is upon the
Tyne. The banks at Newcastle are steep and high, but about four miles
above the town is a place called Newburn, where was a meadow near the
river, and a convenient place to cross. The Scotch advanced in a very
slow and orderly manner to Newburn, and encamped there. The English
sent a detachment from Newcastle to arrest their progress. The Scotch
begged them not to interrupt their march, as they were only going to
_present petitions to the king_! The English general, of course, paid
no attention to this pretext. The Scotch army then attacked them, and
soon put them to flight. The routed English soldiers fled to Newcastle,
and were there joined by all that portion of the army which was in
Newcastle in a rapid retreat. The Scotch took possession of the town,
but conducted themselves in a very orderly manner, and bought and paid
for every thing they used.
[Sidenote: Perplexities and dangers.]
The poor king was now in a situation of the most imminent and terrible
danger. Rebel subjects had got full possession of one kingdom, and
were now advancing at the head of victorious armies into the other. He
himself had entirely alienated the affections of a large portion of his
subjects, and had openly quarreled with and dismissed the Legislature.
He had no funds, and had exhausted all possible means of raising
funds. He was half distracted with the perplexities and dangers of his
position.
His deciding on dissolving Parliament in the spring was a hasty step,
and he bitterly regretted it the moment the deed was done. He wanted
to recall it. He deliberated several days about the possibility of
summoning the same members to meet again, and constituting them again
a Parliament. But the lawyers insisted that this could not be done. A
dissolution was a dissolution. The Parliament, once dissolved, was no
more. It could not be brought to life again. There must be new orders
to the country to proceed to new elections. To do this at once would
have been too humiliating for the king. He now found, however, that the
necessity for it could no longer be postponed.
[Sidenote: The king calls a council of peers.]
There was such a thing in the English history as a council of peers
alone, called in a sudden emergency which did not allow of time for the
elections necessary to constitute the House of Commons. Charles called
such a council of peers to meet at York, and they immediately assembled.
[Sidenote: Message from the Scots.]
[Sidenote: The king compromises with the Scots.]
In the mean time the Scotch sent embassadors to York, saying to the
king that they were advancing to lay their grievances before him!
They expressed great sorrow and regret at the victory which they
had been compelled to gain over some forces that had attempted to
prevent them from getting access to their sovereign. The king laid
this communication before the lords, and asked their advice what to
do; and also asked them to counsel him how he should provide funds to
keep his army together until a Parliament could be convened. The lords
advised him to appoint commissioners to meet the Scotch, and endeavor
to compromise the difficulties; and to send to the city of London,
asking that corporation to lend him a small sum until Parliament could
be assembled.
[Sidenote: Opposition to Strafford.]
[Sidenote: Strafford desires to return to Ireland.]
[Sidenote: The king's promised protection.]
This advice was followed. A temporary treaty was made with the rebels,
although making a treaty with rebels is perhaps the most humiliating
thing that a hereditary sovereign is ever compelled to do. The Earl
of Strafford was, however, entirely opposed to this policy. He urged
the king most earnestly not to give up the contest without a more
decisive struggle. He represented to him the danger of beginning to
yield to the torrent which he now began to see would overwhelm them
all if it was allowed to have its way. He tried to persuade the king
that the Scots might yet be driven back, and that it would be possible
to get along without a Parliament. He dreaded a Parliament. The king,
however, and his other advisers, thought that they must yield a little
to the storm. Strafford then wanted to be allowed to return to his
post in Ireland, where he thought that he should probably be safe from
the terrible enmity which he must have known that he had awakened in
England, and which he thought a Parliament would concentrate and bring
upon his devoted head. But the king would not consent to this. He
assured Strafford that if a Parliament should assemble, he would take
care that they should not hurt a hair of his head. Unfortunate monarch!
How little he foresaw that that very Parliament, from whose violence he
thus promised to defend his favorite servant so completely as to insure
him from the slightest injury, would begin by taking off his favorite's
head, and end with taking off his own!