(M114)
The commencement of the reign of Charles I, like his father’s, was marked
by a recurrence of the plague, which greatly affected the trade of the
city. Matters were made worse by an application from the Lord High
Treasurer for a loan of £60,000 to the king within a few weeks of Charles
ascending the throne. He promised that the money, which was wanted for
fitting out the fleet which the late king was busy preparing at the time
of his death, should be repaid in six months. Interest would be allowed at
the rate of eight per cent., and Charles would give mortgage security for
repayment of this as well as of the sum of £100,000 borrowed by
James.(285) After mature deliberation the Common Council agreed (16 April)
to accede to the Lord Treasurer’s request, and appointed two
representatives of each ward to consult with the mayor and aldermen as to
the mode of raising the amount, as well as to consider the nature of the
security offered. On the 20th May the Common Council received the
committee’s report on the matter.(286) It recommended that the money
should be borrowed and taken up by twenty aldermen and one hundred
commoners nominated for the purpose; that five commoners should be
allotted to each alderman, and that they should stand bound for the sum of
£3,000. Any alderman or commoner refusing to be so joined was to be forced
to lend £1,000 on his own account. The assurance of the king’s lands was
to be made in the names of such aldermen and commoners as the Court of
Aldermen should appoint. A week later (27 May) the Court of Aldermen, in
anticipation of the money being raised, ordered an advance to be made to
the king out of the City’s Chamber of the sum of £14,000.(287) On the 2nd
June the king’s mortgage was executed;(288) and there being no longer any
necessity for keeping the bonds entered into by various aldermen for the
payment of interest due to contributors to the loan of £100,000, they were
ordered to be cancelled.(289) In November the lords of the council wrote
to the City for an extension of time for the repayment of the
£60,000.(290)
(M115)
On the 1st May Charles was married by proxy at Paris to Henrietta Maria.
When the news of the marriage treaty between England and France reached
London in the previous November the citizens showed their joy by bonfires
and fireworks.(291) They forgot for a while the danger likely to arise
from the heir to the throne allying himself in marriage with a Catholic
princess. On her arrival in the Thames in June the citizens gave her a
hearty welcome, whilst the fleet, which was about to set sail—few knew
whither—fired such a salute as the queen had never heard before.(292)
(M116)
In the meantime (1 May) Charles had issued his warrant to the lord mayor
for levying 1,000 men—"part of 10,000 to be raised by our dear father’s
gracious purpose, according to the advice of both his Houses of
Parliament, in contemplation of the distress and necessity of our dear
brother and sister."(293) He thought that if he could only gain a victory
it would serve to draw a veil over his delinquencies. The City was to be
assisted by the county of Middlesex in raising the men,(294) and an
allowance was made for "coat and conduct money" for the soldiers at the
rate of eightpence apiece per day for their journey to Plymouth, the place
where they were to embark (£400), and four shillings a coat (£200), the
pay of a captain being four shillings a day.(295) The mayor’s precept to
the aldermen to raise the men enjoined them to search all inns, taverns,
alehouses, "tabling-houses" and tobacco-houses, and to press, especially,
all "tapsters, ostlers, chamberlains, vagrants, idle and suspected
persons."(296) By August the condition of the troops at Plymouth was
pitiable. No money was forthcoming for wages, and the soldiers were forced
to forage for themselves in the neighbouring country. At last the fleet
set sail (8 Oct., 1625). Its destination proved to be Cadiz, whither it
was despatched in the hope of securing West Indian treasure on its way
home. The expedition, however, turned out to be as complete a failure as
that under Mansfeld in the previous year.
(M117)
The citizen soldiers returned to find their city almost deserted owing to
the ravages of the plague. In July the sickness had been so great as to
necessitate the adjournment of parliament to Oxford.(297) The colder
weather, as winter approached, appears to have made but little difference.
Dr. Donne, the Dean of St. Paul’s, estimated that in November there died a
thousand a day in the city of London and within the circuit of a mile.
"The citizens fled away as out of a house on fire," he writes,(298) they
"stuffed their pockets with their best ware and threw themselves into the
highways, and were not received so much as into barns, and perished so,
some of them with more money about them than would have bought the village
where they died." Donne himself removed to Chelsea, but the infection even
there became so great that "it was no good manners to go to any other
place," and Donne therefore did not go to court. As early as September the
want and misery in the city was described as being the greatest that ever
any man living knew: "No trading at all, the rich all gone, house-keepers
and apprentices of manual trades begging in the streets, and that in such
a lamentable manner as will make the strongest heart to yearn."(299)
(M118)
The new year brought relief, and Sunday, the 29th Jan. (1626) was
appointed a solemn day of thanksgiving to Almighty God for his mercy in
"stayinge his hand."(300) The civic authorities, however, were scarcely
rid of one trouble before they found others springing up. Towards the
close of the last year a committee had been appointed by the Court of
Aldermen to devise measures for relieving the City from the burden of
supplying military arms and "other like services" such as they had
recently been called upon to perform.(301) The committee had not been long
appointed before the City was called upon to look to its stock of
gunpowder, prepare the trained bands,(302) and furnish the king with five
ships towards protecting the river. This last demand was made on the
ground that they had furnished vessels for the same purpose in the reign
of Elizabeth.(303) The Court of Aldermen objected. Times were changed
since Elizabeth’s day, the lords of the council were informed in reply;
the galleys then furnished by the City were only wanted for a short time
and when the country was threatened with an invasion; but even then
considerable difficulty was experienced before the Common Council passed
an Act for supplying the vessels. At the present time, when the City was
in a far worse condition than then, there was little or no hope of a
similar Act being passed.(304)
(M119)
The disastrous expedition to Cadiz increased the necessity of summoning a
new parliament, and on the 16th December the lord keeper was directed to
issue the necessary writs. The enforcement of the recusancy laws, wrung
from Charles by the last parliament, had in the meantime been carried out,
and fresh proclamations were issued as the day for the meeting of
parliament (6 Feb.) approached.(305) As soon as the Commons assembled they
chose Sir Heneage Finch, the city’s Recorder, for their Speaker.(306) The
new parliament was not a whit more inclined to subject its ancient
privileges to the control of the Crown than its predecessor had been.
Buckingham himself, the king’s bosom friend and most trusted adviser, was
impeached; and the Commons declined to vote supplies until they had
presented their grievances to the king and received his majesty’s answer.
This was more than Charles could stand. He summoned them to Whitehall and
commanded them to cancel the condition. He would give them "liberty of
counsel, not of control." To the urgent entreaty of the Peers that he
would grant a short respite he replied, "Not a minute," and on the 15th
June the parliament of 1626 was dissolved.(307)
(M120)
If the war was to go on it was necessary that money should be found with
or without parliament. Application was made to the City by the lords of
the council, at first verbally, afterwards by letter, for a loan of
£100,000, and a deputation was ordered to wait upon the king at Greenwich
on Sunday, the 25th June, with the City’s answer.(308) The answer given
was to the effect that the City was unable to advance the sum required,
and it occasioned no little disappointment to the king, who referred the
matter back to the mayor and aldermen once more. It was not that Charles
had not offered sufficient security for the loan. The money could not be
raised. At length it was agreed (30 June) at another special court that
the aldermen themselves should advance the sum of £20,000 for one year on
the security of the petty customs.(309) In such haste was this trifling
sum required, in order to guard the coast against a rumoured attack from
Spain, that the mayor and aldermen were requested by the lords of the
council to part with the money before the exchequer tallies could be made
out.(310)
(M121)
Not only was money wanted, but men and ships. A demand made on the 15th
July by the lords of the council for the City to furnish 4,000 men for the
defence of the Isle of Sheppey(311) was quickly followed (4 Aug.) by
another for twenty of the best ships in the river, to be fitted out and
victualled in order that the war might be carried into the enemy’s
country.(312) To the first demand "there was made a double demur, one
because the letters came from some of the lords and not from the king;
secondly, for that by charter they are for the defence of the city, and
not to go further than the lord mayor goes, unless it be for guard of the
king’s person."(313) To the second the mayor was instructed to reply to
the following effect, viz.—that (1) the City was ready to share with the
rest of his majesty’s subjects in a matter which touched the state and
defence of the whole kingdom; (2) that inasmuch as the City had been
called upon in 1588, when the enemy was upon the coast, to furnish only
ten ships, and that each of the twenty ships now demanded would, from its
larger burden, cost treble the amount of the former ships, the citizens
humbly desired to be relieved of so great a charge, in respect of the
city’s decay in trade and commerce, and its impoverishment by the late
visitation and otherwise; (3) that the ships could not be furnished and
victualled in the time named; (4) that the city merchants would be the
more willing to adventure their lives and means against the enemy if they
were allowed letters of mark.(314)
The Lords expressed the greatest dissatisfaction at this answer, and
insisted upon the ships being forthcoming. It was in vain that the City
offered to provide ten ships and two pinnaces; nothing less than the full
number of vessels would suffice, and the City had eventually to give
way.(315)
(M122)
In order to fit out the vessels the sum of £18,000 had to be raised.(316)
Much indignation was caused by this further tax on the purses of the
citizens. Many stoutly refused to pay; and the constables whose duty it
was to distrain in such cases manifested great reluctance to proceed to
extremities. When they did make an effort to carry out their instructions
the people rescued one another. The result was that the Chamber of the
city had to make up a large deficiency.(317)
(M123)
The Duke of Buckingham, the king’s favourite, whose extravagant projects
had ended in nothing but disaster, had rendered himself most unpopular,
and one day in August his coach was stopped by a band of sailors, men who
had served in the ill-fated expedition to Cadiz or in the ships which
Buckingham had sent to assist the French king in suppressing the Huguenots
of Rochelle—who clamoured for arrears of pay. The duke put them off with
fair words, and so escaped with a whole skin; but for long afterwards the
streets of the city, and even the confines of the royal palace, were
infested with disaffected seamen, and special precautions had to be taken
to prevent riot.(318)
(M124)
Having failed to raise the necessary supplies by a free gift or
benevolence of the nation, Charles betook himself to a forced loan. The
sum to be raised was fixed at five subsidies. Commissioners were appointed
in September, 1626, to summon before them all men rated in the subsidy
books. At first the scheme was confined to the five counties nearest
London. Opposition was met by imprisonment. The City for awhile was left
untouched. It was unwise to try the temper of the citizens too much. It
was found that the nearer the City the greater was the opposition shown to
the commissioners; and the inhabitants of the Strand and the Savoy offered
a more determined resistance than those of the parish of St. Margaret,
Westminster, or St. Martin-in-the-Fields.(319) On the 7th October a
proclamation(320) appeared setting forth his majesty’s "clear intention"
in requiring the aid of his loving subjects by the loan. It was not to be
made a precedent, and a parliament should be called as soon as convenient
and as often as it should be necessary.
(M125)
Just at a time when privy councillors were about to set out for the more
distant counties to collect the subsidies the judges suddenly pronounced
an unanimous opinion against the legality of the new loan. The report of
their decision quickly spread, and increased the opposition of the country
gentry, many of whom were content to suffer imprisonment rather than yield
to the demands of the commissioners.
(M126)
On the 10th November the committee appointed to take in hand the
preparation of the citizens’ fleet reported to the Common Council that the
lords of the council had made a request that the City would provision ten
out of the twenty ships for a further period of two or three months, in
order that they might join two of his majesty’s ships and fifteen
Hollanders in a descent on the Spanish coast. The court, after due
consideration, directed the committee to wait upon the lords and inform
them that the City was prepared to spend £1,200 on further victualling,
provided the ships were commanded by officers of the City’s choosing, and
were sent to sea alone "to be at their own liberties and directions
without joining or being consorted with any others whatsoever." The City
was, moreover, to be provided with letters of mark, and to be allowed to
enjoy the benefit of all prizes.(321) The result of the interview was
reported to the Common Council on the 14th November, when it was clearly
pointed out what the lords of the council were ready to concede and what
not.(322) After more haggling,(323) the ships were at length got ready and
placed under the command of Captain John Pennington, a cousin of Alderman
Isaac Pennington, of whom we shall hear more later on. Pennington had but
a poor opinion of the fleet; the ships were badly manned and unfit for
men-of-war; "with two of the king’s ships he would undertake to beat the
whole fleet about which so much noise had been raised."(324)
(M127)
In 1627 war broke out between England and France, and payment of the
forced loan was more strictly exacted. On the 14th June the lords of the
council wrote to the mayor reminding him of the king’s urgent need of
money. The greatest part of the kingdom had well expressed their affection
and had sent in their moneys to the Exchequer. Because London had been
found so slack their lordships had been commanded to call upon the lord
mayor to send in forthwith the moneys already collected towards the loan,
and to call for all moneys promised.(325) Many of the citizens declined
altogether to contribute, and fourteen were committed to prison.(326)
Writs of _habeas corpus_ were obtained on their behalf—but not before
November—and Counsel, of whom the Recorder was one, were appointed for
their defence. They were eventually set at liberty without trial.(327)
(M128)
Whilst a small force, to which the City contributed a contingent of 300
men,(328) was sent to assist the King of Denmark, a fleet was despatched
(27 June, 1627) to the Isle of Rhé, under the Duke of Buckingham, with the
object of relieving Rochelle. The expedition failed in its purpose and
Buckingham had soon to ask for reinforcements. In August the City was
called upon by the king to furnish 100 men towards making up the losses
sustained, for which the Chamberlain was authorised to disburse £50 in
impress money.(329) In October Charles asked for 250 soldiers in addition
to those already raised, and these were found without drawing upon the
trained bands.(330) In spite of all efforts there was great delay in
forwarding to Buckingham the reinforcements in which he stood in sore
need, and in November he was forced to return home, baffled in his
enterprise, and with a loss from war and disease of little less than 4,000
men.(331)
(M129)
The time had now arrived for some arrangements to be made for discharging
the king’s debt to the City.(332) After protracted negotiations an
agreement, known at the present day as the "royal contract," was drawn up
and executed (3 Jan., 1628) whereby the citizens covenanted to advance the
king a further sum of £120,000 by instalments of £60,000 at an interval of
six months, whilst Charles, on the other hand, covenanted to convey to the
City certain lands, tenements and hereditaments.(333) The City at once set
to work to raise the money required among the livery companies. The
Merchant Taylors were called upon to contribute £6,300, the highest sum.
The Grocers came next with £6,000, after which follow the Haberdashers
(£4,800), the Drapers (£4,608), the Goldsmiths (£4,380), the Mercers
(£3,720), the Fishmongers and Clothworkers (each £3,390) and the Vintners
(£3,120).(334) Certain members of the Vintners’ Company having proved
refractory, the master and wardens complained to the Court of Aldermen,
who promptly committed the offenders to prison, thereby earning the
approval of his majesty.(335) In cases where the master and wardens of a
company had shown neglect in gathering the company’s quota they were
themselves committed to Newgate.(336)
The Court of Aldermen even committed one of their own body for refusing to
contribute his quota.(337) With difficulty the first instalment of £60,000
was raised, several of the companies being forced to part with their
plate.(338)
(M130)
In such a hurry was Charles for the money that the aldermen had to advance
him £20,000 out of the £60,000 on their own personal security. This was in
February. Discharged seamen were again clamouring for pay, and the
Exchequer was empty. The aldermen came to his assistance, but, inasmuch as
the lands and tenements had not yet been conveyed to the City according to
the terms of the late agreement, the Court of Aldermen passed a formal
resolution that no further advances should be made until "one or more
books of the lands to be assured by the contract be passed under the great
seale of England."(339)
(M131)
Notwithstanding the growing unpopularity of Buckingham, the king
absolutely refused to abandon his favourite, against whom all kinds of
rumours were astir. Nothing was too bad to be believed of him, and popular
fury spared neither him nor his friends. Dr. Lamb, an astrologer and quack
doctor, was set upon in the city as being one of the latter, and was
nearly done to death one night whilst returning home from supper. None
would receive into his house the almost lifeless body of the
necromancer—the duke’s devil, as he was called—who supplied him with love
potions wherewith to corrupt women. He was at last removed to one of the
compters, where he died the following day.(340) Charles was highly
incensed on hearing of the occurrence, more especially as some of the
murderers had been heard to say that if Lamb’s "master"—the duke
himself—had been there they would have handled him worse and so minced his
flesh that every one should have had a bit of him. He forthwith summoned
the mayor and sheriffs to court and threatened to take away their charter
if the murderers were not quickly discovered.(341) The lords of the
council also wrote to the mayor (15 June) reprimanding him for not taking
steps to repress the riot and ordering him to seize the principal actors
and abettors and commit them to prison.(342) These were not so easily to
be discovered, but the Court of Aldermen (17 June) committed to Newgate
two of the City Marshal’s men for neglecting to give notice of the
disturbance to the mayor or sheriffs, or even to the alderman or deputy of
the ward, as in duty bound.(343) Others were taken on suspicion but were
shortly afterwards set at liberty by order of the lords of the council (23
June).(344) The matter eventually ended by the City being fined
£1,000.(345) In the meantime libellous placards(346) appeared stuck up in
Coleman Street, and the Court of Aldermen committed a man to prison for no
other reason than because he took one down to read and after reading it
put it up again. That at least was the man’s own story.(347)
(M132) (M133)
Early in July the balance of the second instalment of £60,000 (part of the
late loan of £120,000) was due from the City, but Charles could not wait
so long. An expedition to Rochelle under the Earl of Denbigh had recently
proved a failure. Determined not to give way, Charles sent orders to the
earl to refit his squadron and remain in England until the whole available
maritime force of the country could be got ready to accompany him. Money
must be raised at once. Charles himself wrote to the mayor and aldermen
(30 June) stating that a sudden and important occasion of the relief of
Rochelle required present succours, and directing them to find immediately
the sum of £20,000 out of the moneys due on the last purchase of the Crown
lands. If they had not such a sum in hand they were to raise it on
credit.(348) This sum exactly represented the balance due from the City to
the king, and precepts had already been issued to the livery companies for
raising the amount. Another precept was sent out immediately on receipt of
the king’s letter, whilst other precepts were directed to levying the
subsidies granted by parliament.(349) The fate of Rochelle was, in spite
of every effort, soon to be sealed. The Duke of Buckingham fell by the
hand of an assassin (23 Aug.) whilst engaged at Portsmouth in
superintending preparations for its relief, and two months later (18 Oct.)
the fortress was compelled to capitulate.
(M134) (M135)
In the meantime the question of the king’s right to claim Tonnage and
Poundage for life had given rise to so much opposition that Charles had
occasion more than once to prorogue parliament. Merchants had refused to
pay the dues, and their goods had been seized. Recourse was thereupon had
to the Sheriffs’ Court of the City, where the owners sued out a replevin
as for property illegally distrained. Popular feeling was so much on the
side of the merchants that when parliament met Charles publicly renounced
all claim to tonnage and poundage as a right. Nevertheless the contest
continued, and the feeling of both parties was embittered by mutual
provocation and by proceedings taken in the Star Chamber against merchants
for protecting their property from these exactions. At length matters
reached such a crisis that Charles determined upon an adjournment; but no
sooner was the king’s intention divined than the Commons determined to put
their grievances into writing and to cause them to be read by the Speaker,
whom they forcibly detained in the chair. Sir John Finch having refused to
accede to their request, resolutions condemning religious innovation, as
well as the levying of tonnage and poundage, were hastily put and carried
by acclamation, whilst Black Rod was vainly endeavouring to gain admission
to the House with a message from the king. Before admittance was granted
the House had voted its own adjournment. On the 10th March it was
dissolved,(350) not to be summoned again until eleven years had passed
away.
(M136)
The years immediately succeeding the dissolution of Charles’s third
parliament, during which he was preparing a system of personal government
destined eventually to work his own destruction, were years of sorrow and
trouble to the citizens of London. A "pestilent sickness" again visited
the city in the autumn of 1629—brought over from Holland or Rochelle—and
remained until 1631. It was followed as usual by a great scarcity of
provisions. The civic authorities did what they could to prevent the
spread of infection and to alleviate the distress, but it was to little
purpose. Riots were of frequent occurrence, necessitating the keeping a
_posse_ of constables quartered in the Mercers’ chapel.(351) Doggrel
rhymes appeared in 1630(352) threatening the wealthier class with mischief
if food were not forthcoming—
The corne is so dear
I dout mani will starve this yeare.
If you see not to this
Sum of you will speed amiss.
Our souls they are dear,
For our bodyes have sume ceare.
Before we arise
Less will safise.
(M137)
In the midst of the general gloom one bright spot appeared, namely, the
birth of an heir to the crown (29 May, 1630), an event which the king lost
no time in communicating to the mayor and Common Council of the city—his
"principal city and chamber."(353) On the occasion of the christening of
the infant prince the bells of the city churches were set ringing,(354)
and he was presented with a fair large standing cup of gold with cover,
weighing nearly 300 ounces, and enclosed in a case of crimson velvet, the
cost of the whole exceeding £1,000.(355) Two years later, when the prince
was carried into the city to witness the pageants on lord mayor’s day, the
Court of Aldermen were so gratified with this unexpected mark of royal
favour that they forthwith voted the babe a gift of £500.(356)
(M138)
The year following the birth of Prince Charles the queen was robbed of a
great part of her plate and jewels. As the thieves were likely to dispose
of their booty among the goldsmiths of the city, a precept was issued to
the master and wardens of the Goldsmiths’ Company to try and recover
it.(357) The goldsmiths had long ago begun to leave Goldsmiths’ Row in
Cheapside, and to set up shops in different parts of the city, and in 1623
they had been ordered to resume their old quarters, which in the meantime
had been given up to poor petty trades.(358) It was easier to trace lost
property when all the goldsmiths were congregated together in one spot.
This order, however, was so ineffectually carried out that another order
was issued by the lords of the council ten years later directing all
goldsmiths to find shops for themselves either in Cheapside or Lombard
Street within the next six months, inasmuch as the practice of setting up
their shops in obscure places in different parts of the city offered
facilities for abuses, and more especially "in passing away of stolen
plate."(359)
(M139)
On the occasion of the king’s departure for Scotland in May, 1633, the
Court of Aldermen voted him a present of £2,000 "in two severall purses of
velvett or sattin," as a pledge of the City’s true loyalty, love and
obedience to his majesty.(360) After he had gone the mayor and aldermen
proceeded in State to Richmond to pay their respects to the queen and to
offer her a bason and ewer of gold of the value of £800, with her arms
engraved thereon.(361)
(M140)
In the following November the Duke of York was christened, the ceremony
being attended by the mayor, aldermen and sheriffs, as well as the chief
officers of the City. The infant prince was presented with a gilt cup and
cover weighing sixty ounces, and containing the sum of £500 in gold.
Similar fees were paid to the midwife, nurse and "rockers" to those paid
on the occasion of the baptism of his elder brother.(362) During the
absence of the mayor and aldermen at St. James’, where the ceremony took
place, a double watch was ordered to be kept in the city.(363)
(M141)
Five years had now elapsed since the dissolution of the last parliament,
during which time the country had submitted to the personal government of
Charles. Matters might have continued on the same footing for some time
longer had not Charles conceived the idea of claiming the sovereignty of
the seas as a pretext for raising a fleet. The difficulty then arose as to
how to equip a fleet without summoning a parliament. It had been the
custom ever since the time of the Plantagenets to call upon maritime towns
to furnish ships ready manned for the defence of the realm at a time of
threatened invasion. This custom had been rendered sufficiently elastic to
comprise the port of London, and the City had frequently been called upon
to furnish a contingent of vessels in time of war. Occasionally a protest
may have been made against such demands, but they were seldom, if ever,
altogether refused. On the 20th October, 1634, writs were issued calling
upon the city of London and various port towns and places along the coast
to furnish a certain number of ships of war, and to have them ready at
Portsmouth by the 1st March, 1635. In many cases it was impossible to
supply ships of the size required, and in these the king offered to supply
ships of his own on condition that the port towns should equip and man
them. London was called upon to supply seven ships varying in size from
300 to 900 tons, with an equipment of from 150 to 350 men.
(M142)
The Court of Aldermen appointed (13 Nov.) a committee to consider this
writ to the City as well as another sent to the borough of Southwark, and
to learn what had formerly been done in like case. The City’s records were
to be consulted with the view of ascertaining how far it was exempt from
such charges, and the City’s Solicitor was to attend them on that
behalf.(364) The law officers had previously been directed (6 Nov.) to
consult together on the matter, and the Town Clerk had received orders to
translate the writs into English and make copies of the same.(365)
(M143)
When the matter came before the Common Council that body, after serious
consideration, decided (2 Dec.) to present a petition to his majesty
setting forth that, by ancient privileges, grants and Acts of Parliament,
which were ready to be produced, the City was exempt from any such
obligation as that contained in the writ, and praying that the City’s
privileges might be upheld.(366)
(M144)
The only effect of this petition was to cause another writ to be issued a
week later (9 Dec.) enjoining specific performance of the former
writ.(367) Finding that there was no way of escape the mayor, Sir Robert
Parkhurst, began to take the necessary steps for raising £30,000, the sum
required from the different wards.(368) On Sunday, the 14th December,
Robert Mason, who had recently been appointed Recorder in succession to
Littleton, on the king’s own recommendation (although the election is
recorded as having been according to "antient custom and freedom of
election"!),(369) appeared before the lords of the council with an account
of the progress made in the city in the matter of the ships, with which
Charles was well pleased, and the Recorder was ordered to attend the
council every Sunday afternoon with a similar account "untill the worke be
perfected."(370) On the 19th the Court of Aldermen appointed a committee
to fit out the ships as required, but they were limited in expenditure to
the sum of £30,000.(371) On the 17th February, 1635, the committee
reported to the court that his majesty had resolved that two of the City’s
ships should be assigned to the admiral and vice-admiral of the fleet, and
that they should be fitted out by the care and oversight of officers of
the navy. For this purpose the sum of £11,475, out of the £30,000 already
voted, was ordered to be paid to the treasurer of the navy, whilst the
committee proceeded with the business of the other five ships.(372)
(M145)
Hitherto all had promised well, but on the 4th August Charles thought fit
to issue another writ calling upon the nation at large, and not only port
and maritime towns, to furnish ship money, on the ground that as all were
concerned in the mutual defence of one another, so all might contribute
towards the defence of the realm.(373) The City found itself called upon
to provide two more vessels of 800 tons apiece.(374) The authorities,
however, were so slow in executing this further order that the Sheriffs
were made to appear every Sunday before the lords of the council to report
what progress was being made.(375)
(M146)
In June, 1636, Richard Chambers, a merchant, who had previously displayed
a bold front against the king’s demand of tonnage and poundage, for which
the Star Chamber had condemned him to a term of imprisonment (1628-1629),
again came to the fore, and carried the question of the king’s right to
levy ship money to the Court of King’s Bench. The judges, however,
refused to allow the question to be argued. "There was a rule of law and a
rule of government"—said Justice Berkeley, scarce realising the true
import of his words—"and many things which might not be done by the rule
of law might be done by the rule of government." Chambers was again
committed for contempt, but was afterwards liberated from prison upon
payment of the £10 at which he had been assessed. He contented himself
with bringing an action in the King’s Bench against the mayor, who had
made the assessment on the ground of some technical informality.(376)
(M147)
Other matters had arisen lately—"great and important businesses"—all
tending towards an estrangement of the City from the king. Early in 1635
the City had been condemned by the Court of Star Chamber to a fine of
£70,000 and the loss of its Irish estate for having, as was alleged,
broken the terms of the charter under which their Irish estate was held.
One of the charges against the city and the companies was that they
continued to employ the "mere Irish" on their estates instead of
relegating them to the narrow limits reserved for them, there to perish of
disease or starvation.(377) There were differences too touching the Royal
Contract, differences as to the City’s rights to estreated recognisances,
as to pretended encroachments and other matters. It was felt that there
would be no peace until some arrangement could be made with Charles on all
the matters in question, and for this purpose a committee was appointed in
May, 1636, to see what could be done. A schedule of "thinges desired by
the cittie of London" was drawn up, and an offer was made to the king of
the sum of £100,000, to be paid by annual instalments of £20,000, if he
would make the concessions desired.(378) The king’s commissioners, who had
the business in hand, refused the offer. They informed the committee that
not only would the City have to surrender certain valuable fisheries and
other privileges in Ireland, as well as the castle of Culmore, but it
would have to provide an allowance of £5,000 to Sir Thomas Philips.
Instead of £100,000 it would have moreover to pay £120,000.(379)
Negotiations continued for two years. Eventually a compromise was effected
in June, 1638, and the city was fain to accept a pardon on surrendering
its Irish estates and payment of the comparatively small sum of
£12,000,(380) of which the queen happened at that time to stand in need.
The patents of the Irish Society and of the companies were not however
actually surrendered until 1639.(381)
(M148)
In the meantime Charles had given umbrage to the City in other matters,
more especially in the measures he had taken for regulating trade and the
institution of corporate monopolies. An order restricting the use of
coaches and carts, and forbidding anyone to keep a carriage unless he was
also prepared to keep four sufficient horses or geldings for the king’s
service, weighed heavily upon the mayor and aldermen of the city, who were
for the most part men advanced in years and whose duties carried them a
good deal abroad. They therefore petitioned the king for an exception to
be made in their favour. The petition was granted, but only after long
delay.(382)
(M149)
The civic authorities were not better pleased with the king for his having
(1636), in spite of all protest, created a new corporation which embraced
all tradesmen and artificers in the city and suburbs, and thus threatened
to be a formidable rival to the ancient corporation.(383)
(M150)
In the midst of a growing feeling of dissatisfaction at the existing state
of things, a third writ for ship money appeared (9 Oct., 1636). It raised
such a storm of opposition in every quarter, however, that Charles once
more appealed to the judges for a formal acknowledgment of his right.
Their opinion proving favourable,(384) the work went on and the City was
called upon (Sept., 1637) to furnish two ships each of 700 tons.(385)
In the following year, after Hampden’s case had been decided, Charles
continued to levy ship money, and the City was told to furnish a ship of
500 tons (5 Nov., 1638). The cost was estimated at £1,000. The usual
precept was issued (26 Nov.) to the alderman of each ward for the purpose
of ascertaining how best that sum could be raised.(386) The returns must
have been unfavourable, for on the 29th January (1639) the Court of
Aldermen appointed a committee to wait upon the lord high admiral and
explain to him that the City was not in a position to fit out another
ship.(387) The money was eventually raised by the twelve principal livery
companies, seven of which contributed £100 apiece and the other five
£60.(388)
(M151)
In the meantime troubles had arisen in Scotland through Charles’s
ill-advised and bigoted attempt to impose upon his northern subjects a
Book of Common Prayer. By midsummer (1638) he was preparing for war and
would shortly be under the necessity of applying to the city for money and
men. It was probably with this end in view that he granted (18 Oct., 1638)
to the citizens an ample inspeximus charter, confirming to them their
ancient privileges and franchises. Negotiations for a new charter had been
going on since the preceding March(389) (if not earlier), and it was only
now conceded on payment of a sum of £12,000.(390)
(M152)
At the opening of the new year (4 Jan., 1639) Charles applied by letter
under his hand to the City for a liberal contribution and assistance
towards putting down the disorders in Scotland, notifying at the same time
the fact that he had called upon the peers of the realm to attend in
person at York by the 1st April. The letter was read to the court of
Common Council on the 12th February, but the matter seemed of so great
importance that further consideration of it was adjourned to the 16th,
when it was agreed to issue a precept to the alderman of each ward to take
steps for raising a free and liberal contribution.(391) A month elapsed,
and notwithstanding every effort of the aldermen, less than £5,000 was got
together. The aldermen were directed to renew their efforts, but this only
resulted in increasing the amount by £200 or £220.(392) The whole amount
was so small that it was contemptuously refused. At the beginning of April
Charles found himself at York with an indifferent army, and with little
prospect of being in a position to maintain even that army beyond a very
limited period.
(M153)
In June he caused another application to be made to the City.(393) On the
7th the lord mayor, who had been summoned to appear before the lords of
the council, appeared with so few of his brother aldermen that he was
ordered to go back and to return on the 10th with the whole court. When
they at last made their appearance they were told that the king expected
from them no less a sum than £100,000. The war was, if possible, more
unpopular in the city than in the country. The memory of the recent
confiscation of their Irish estates had not been obliterated from the
minds of the citizens by the subsequent grant of a charter. The mayor and
aldermen replied that it was impossible to find the money. The council
told them that it must be done, one of the lords declaring that they ought
to have sold their chains and gowns before making such a reply. They were
ordered to appear once more on the 12th June with a final answer.(394)
(M154)
A warrant had in the meantime been issued for raising 3000 men from the
trained bands of the city for service in Scotland.(395) Although it does
not appear that this demand was acceded to,(396) seeing that the trained
bands were a force especially intended for the defence of the city,
greater activity was shown in making the city’s troops as perfect in their
drill as circumstances permitted.(397) Boys from Christ’s Hospital and
Bridewell were taught to play the drum and fife, weapons were marked, and
musters held in Goodman’s Fields and elsewhere under the eye of Captain
John Fisher, recently appointed muster-master.(398)
(M155)
That the citizens were not indisposed to assist the king, if left to
themselves and not subjected to threats and intimidation, is shown by the
fact that, in anticipation of the return of Charles from the North, the
Common Council voted him (31 July, 1639) the sum of £10,000 as a free gift
in consideration that the City had not contributed anything to his majesty
on his setting out, as had been required, "albeit the counties and private
personnes both nobles and others had done the same."(399) Even this small
sum could not be raised without resorting to sheriffs’ fines, no less than
sixteen individuals being mulcted for refusing to serve as sheriff in less
than two months.(400) It was no difficult task to find men unwilling to
serve such a thankless office at so critical a time.
(M156)
Before the close of the year (1639) the country was agreeably surprised at
the news that it was the king’s intention to summon a parliament.
Parliament opened on the 13th April (1640). Few of its members could have
served in the last parliament of eleven years before, but although so long
a time had elapsed since the Commons had met, they had not forgotten their
old constitutional claims to have the country’s grievances redressed
before proceeding to grant supplies. An offer to relinquish ship money
proved insufficient, and after three weeks the "short parliament" was
dissolved (5 May, 1640).
(M157)
For some days before parliament was dissolved every effort had been made
by the king to get the mayor and aldermen to lend him £100,000. This being
found impossible, the mayor, Henry Garway, or Garraway, was directed to
make out a list of the wealthiest commoners. After several attempts to
negotiate with the aldermen individually, they were summoned to appear in
a body on Sunday, the 11th April. Charles himself then told them that his
necessity at the time was so great that he must borrow £100,000 of the
City; that he must not be denied; the money he must have at once, as it
would benefit him more then than twenty subsidies granted by parliament
afterwards. After the king had finished speaking the Lord Privy Seal(401)
addressed them, setting forth that a similar sum had been advanced by the
City to King James; that he himself, being Recorder at the time, had lent
£3,000 towards it, and that the money had been repaid with interest. The
City, he continued, was rather beholden to his majesty for taking the
money and repaying it with interest, than the king beholden to the City
for lending it. He further instanced the case of the City having lent King
Henry III a sum of £100,000 rather than allow that monarch to pledge his
crown and jewels to the merchants of the Steelyard, and it was truly
repaid. To this the aldermen were not permitted to make any reply, but
were sent away to advise together how the sum should be raised.(402)
On Thursday, the 7th May, the mayor and aldermen were again summoned
before the council, when they were told that, having failed to provide the
sum previously asked for, they would now have to find £200,000. If the
latter sum was not forthcoming the king threatened to "have £300,000 of
the city." They were to come again on the following Sunday (10 May) and
bring with them a list of the rich men of the wards.
(M158)
On the day appointed they came, but brought with them a petition to be
excused making such a list as that required. The excuse was not allowed.
Strafford is recorded as having lost his temper at the obstinacy of the
aldermen. "Sir," said he, addressing the king, "you will never do good to
these citizens of London till you have made examples of some of the
aldermen," and recommended Charles, in his own "thorough" way, to hang a
few of them.(403) Charles did not take the advice offered. He would have
made, however, the mayor resign his sword and collar then and there but
for the intercession of the bystanders, and actually committed four of the
aldermen to prison, viz., Nicholas Rainton, John Gayre, Thomas Soame and
Thomas Atkins, for refusing to make a list of those inhabitants of their
respective wards who were able to lend from £50 upwards.(404) One of them,
Alderman Soame, gave particular offence. "I was an honest man whilst I was
a commoner," he told the king to his face, "and I would continue to be so
now I am an alderman." The other aldermen professed their readiness to
give in the names of the richer citizens, but objected to rate them
according to their means.
(M159)
Both Garway and Sir Thomas Gardiner, the Recorder, favoured the king. The
latter was particularly anxious that the City should lend the £100,000
originally requested, and did his best to get the money advanced. For his
zeal on this occasion, and for "other high crimes and misdemeanours," he
was afterwards (1642) impeached.(405)
(M160)
The aldermen were not long kept in confinement. Even before their
committal the city was in a ferment, and a placard had appeared posted up
in the Exchange inviting all who were lovers of liberty to assemble in St.
George’s Fields in Southwark early on Monday morning (11 May). Archbishop
Laud was a special object of hatred to the citizens, and against him the
mob directed their attack. As soon as the trained bands, which kept order
during the day, had retired for the evening, the rabble marched to
Lambeth. Laud, however, had been warned in time, and had made good his
escape across the river to Whitehall. The rioters finding themselves
baulked of their prey retired with threats of returning to burn down the
palace. For the next few days the city was under martial law. A double
watch was kept in its streets. The companies looked to their store of
powder and match. A strict guard was kept over servants and apprentices,
and a warrant issued for raising 1,000 men of the trained bands, or as
many more as the lord mayor should think necessary "to suppress, slay,
kill, destroy and apprehend all such as should be tumultuously assembled
in or about Southwark, Lambeth, Blackheath or elsewhere in parts
adjacent."(406)
(M161)
If the royal warrant was to be effectually and loyally carried out some
concession to the citizens was necessary, and accordingly, on the same day
(15 May) that the warrant appeared, the four aldermen were released.
(M162)
Pending the negotiations for a loan, payment of ship money had not been
strictly enforced; but now that threats and entreaties had failed to open
the purse-strings of the citizens Charles made a desperate effort to exact
ship money. On the 9th June, 1640, the lord mayor and both the sheriffs
were summoned to attend the council to give an account of the ship money
due from the city. Why had it not been paid in? The mayor replied that he
had sent his officers to collect, but few or none would pay.(407) Upon the
king telling him that he should have distrained, the mayor remarked that
one of his predecessors in office, Sir Edward Bromfield, was still a
defendant in a suit in the King’s Bench brought against him by Richard
Chambers for acting in that manner, and was likely to be cast. "No man,"
said Charles peremptorily, "shall suffer for obeying my commands." Thus
encouraged the mayor himself made a house-to-house visit the next day,
accompanied by the sheriffs, for the purpose of collecting the money.
Throughout the whole city, however, only one man was found ready and
willing to pay. When the mayor ordered the sheriffs to distrain they
refused on the plea that it was the mayor’s business, not theirs. Entering
a draper’s shop the mayor attempted to seize a piece of linen cloth; the
owner set about measuring it, and naming the price told the mayor that if
he persisted in taking it he should esteem it a purchase and put it to his
lordship’s account.(408)
(M163)
On the 11th June the Common Council took into consideration two
letters—one from Charles, dated the 17th March, and another from the lords
of the council, of the 31st May—asking for a city force of 4,000 men (but
none to be taken out of the trained bands) for service in the north of
England, and directing the mayor to see that coat and conduct money was at
once raised for the purpose.(409) The court declined to come to an
immediate decision; but on the 15th the lord mayor issued his precept for
the necessary funds to be levied on the wards.(410)
(M164)
On the 19th July news arrived from the North that the Scots were about to
seize Newcastle—a very serious matter to the Londoners, as they would
thereby be cut off from their supply of coal. Charles took advantage of
this, writes Dr. Gardiner,(411) and sent Lord Cottington and Sir Henry
Vane to the Common Council—specially summoned to meet on the 23rd by the
king’s order(412)—to assure them that if the long-desired loan of £200,000
were granted the citizens would hear nothing more of the project recently
promulgated of debasing the coinage, a project which, if carried out,
would have worked great mischief to the London merchant and tradesman.
"Leaving the Common Council to discuss the demand, the privy councillors
amused themselves by strolling through the Cloth Exchange at Blackwell
Hall. The owners of cloth gathered quickly round them. They hoped, they
said, that they were not to be compelled to sell for copper goods for
which sterling silver had been paid. After a debate of an hour and a half
Cottington and Vane were re-admitted, to be informed that the Common
Council had no power to dispose of the money of the citizens."
(M165)
Having failed once more in this direction, and driven to his wits’ end for
money, Charles applied to the livery companies for a loan of £120,000.
They were told that the money was not required for the purpose of making
war, but only to enable his majesty to make the more honourable peace,
sword in hand. It would be used to pay off the soldiers and so prevent
them pillaging the country after disbandment. Each company was assessed
according to its wealth; but most of the principal companies pleaded
inability to subscribe on the ground that the Londonderry plantation had
"consumed their stocks." It was believed at the time that not a tenth part
of the money would be raised.(413)
(M166)
Six weeks or more elapsed. The king and nobles were at York holding a
council. The City had been brought into a better humour by a confirmation
of its rights (5 Sept.) to tolls known as "package" and "scavage," and a
pardon for all past offences in daring to exact such tolls.(414) The
citizens were still better pleased with a promise of another parliament
which Charles made in answer to a petition (24 Sept.),(415) and with the
prospect of a speedy conclusion of peace with Scotland. Under these
circumstances one last effort was made to get them to advance the
long-wished-for loan of £200,000. Not only did the king and the lords ride
to the city, but the Earl of Manchester, the Lord Chamberlain, Viscount
Campden, and other lords paid a personal visit to the Guildhall and used
their utmost powers to persuade the citizens to advance the money. The
money might be paid by two instalments of £50,000 and one instalment of
£100,000 between October and December, and the Peers themselves would give
security for repayment.(416) This time the application was more
successful, thanks to a little high-handedness practised by the lords on
the Common Council. "With all diligence becoming us we have gone upon the
business wherewith your majesty and the Peers entrusted us," they wrote to
the king (3 Oct.), giving him a long account of their visit to the
city.(417) "On Friday morning (2 Oct.) we desired the lord mayor to call a
Court of Aldermen at Guildhall, whither we all went, sat with them in
council, and opened to them all our business, and read our letters, which
satisfied them very much, yet they reserved themselves till they saw how
it would take with the Commons. Then we all went to dinner with the lord
mayor and there appointed to have a Common Council that afternoon, amongst
which we mingled divers commoners that were not of the Common Council,
such as we knew well affected and powerful in the city." We are not
surprised to learn that this action on the part of the lords was strongly
objected to as not being altogether regular. The lords insisted, however,
and they were allowed to have their own way. "At three o’clock that
afternoon," the letter goes on to say, "we met at Guildhall, sat with them
in the Court of Common Council, and according to our instructions
acquainted them with the proceedings of the Assembly of Peers, and used
the best rhetoric, which was plain remonstrance of all the passages at
York, not concealing the admirable grace and freeness shown by your
majesty in this great council, to the infinite content of all the Peers,
nor the true affection shown to you by the Peers." They first read the
letter from the lords and then that from his majesty. They feared lest
some words which his majesty had (falsely) been reported to have uttered
on the occasion of the late petition from the City for a parliament might
have an injurious effect, so they had explained this and other matters,
and the Common Council appeared well satisfied. "We then withdrew, that
they before they rose might more freely debate upon the way of raising the
sum desired, for we persuaded ourselves it would not be denied." They were
not disappointed. Before the council rose it resolved to make application
to the livery companies, and a draft of a letter was prepared. A copy of
this letter the lords forwarded to his majesty. In conclusion they assured
the king of the great services done in the matter, more particularly by
Garway, the out-going mayor, the Recorder, and the whole bench of
aldermen, and suggested the advisability of sending them a letter of
thanks. If the letter were addressed to the whole commonalty so much the
better. This suggestion was carried out.(418) There was a difficulty about
the security for repayment of the loan. It was at one time proposed that
the queen’s jewels to the value of £100,000 should be taken in pledge, but
this suggestion was afterwards disavowed by the city.(419)
(M167)
On Michaelmas-day an election of a new mayor took place in succession to
Garway. William Acton was the senior alderman below the chair, but he was
set aside and Edmund Wright and Thomas Soame were returned by the Common
Hall. The former was selected by the Court of Aldermen. This much and no
more we learn from the City’s own record of the election.(420) From other
sources, however, it appears that the election was a very tumultuous one;
that the wishes of Charles were consulted, and that Acton was elected and
was afterwards discharged by parliament.(421)
(M168)
The loss of an adherent in the mayor of London did not affect Charles so
much as the immediate cutting down of the promised loan to the modest sum
of £50,000, an event which followed, if it were not occasioned by, the
election of Wright. The delay, moreover, in forwarding to the city the
writs for the parliament had created a general impression that the promise
of a parliament was a mere device to get money.(422) The king determined
to take no notice of the City’s withdrawal from its original undertaking,
but sent another letter "to quicken the business by reason of the
straitness of time."(423)
(M169)
It only remained for Charles to make the best terms with the Scots that he
could. Negotiations were accordingly opened at Ripon by commissioners
appointed by both parties (2 Oct.), with the result that a cessation of
arms, under certain conditions, was agreed to until a permanent treaty
could be arranged in London (21 Oct.).