among the Spaniards in Peru. At the time of his death, indeed, an envoy
from the Spanish court was on his way to Peru, who from his integrity
and wisdom might indeed have given rise to a hope that a happier day was
about to dawn. He was endowed with powers to assume the governorship in
the event of Pizarro's death, as well as instructions to bring about a
more peaceful settlement of affairs. He arrived to find himself indeed
the lawful governor, but had before him the task of enforcing his
authority. This brought him into collision with the son of Almagro, at
the head of a strong party of his father's followers. A bloody battle
took place on the plains of Chupas, in which Vaca de Castro was
victorious. Almagro was arrested at Cuzco and executed.
The history of the Spanish dominion now resolves itself into the history
of warring factions, the chief hero of which was Gonzalo Pizzaro, one of
the brothers of the great Pizarro. The Spaniards in Peru felt themselves
deeply injured by the publication of regulations from Spain, by which a
sudden check was put upon their spoliation and oppression of the
natives, which had reached an extreme pitch of cruelty and
destructiveness. They called upon Gonzalo to lead them in vindication of
what they regarded as their privileges by right of conquest and of their
service to the Spanish crown. His hands were strengthened by the rash
and high-handed behaviour of, Blasco Nuñez Vela, yet another official
sent out from Spain to deal with this turbulent province. Pizarro
himself was an able and daring leader, and, at least in his earlier
years, of a chivalrous spirit which made him beloved of his soldiers. He
had great personal courage, and, as says one who had often seen him,
"when mounted on his favourite charger, made no more account of a
squadron of Indians than of a swarm of flies." He was soon acclaimed as
governor by the Spaniards, and was actually supreme in Peru. But in the
following year, 1545, the Spanish government selected an envoy who was
to bring the now ascendant star of Pizarro to eclipse. This was an
ecclesiastic named Pedro de la Gasea, a man of great resolution,
penetration, and knowledge of affairs. After varying fortunes, in which
Pizarro for some time held his own, he was routed by the troops of
Gasea, largely through the defection of a number of his own soldiers,
who marched over to the enemy. Pizarro surrendered to an officer, and
was carried before Gasea. Addressing him with severity, Gasea abruptly
inquired, "Why had he thrown the country into such confusion; raising
the banner of revolt; usurping the government; and obstinately refusing
the offer of grace that had been repeatedly made to him?" Gonzalo
defended himself as having been elected by the people. "It was my
family," he said, "who conquered the country, and as their
representative here, I felt I had a right to the government." To this
Gasea replied, in a still severer tone, "Your brother did, indeed,
conquer the land; and for this the emperor was pleased to raise both him
and you from the dust. He lived and died a true and loyal subject; and
it only makes your ingratitude to your sovereign the more heinous." A
sentence of death followed, and thus passed the last of Pizarro's name
to rule in Peru.
Under the wise reforms instituted by Gasea, Peru was somewhat relieved
of the disastrous effects of the Spanish occupation, and under the mild
yet determined policy inaugurated by him, the ancient distractions of
the country were permanently healed. With peace, prosperity returned
within the borders of Peru, and this much-tried land settled down at
last to a considerable measure of tranquillity and content.
* * * * *
EDWARD HYDE
The History of the Rebellion
Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, who was born February 18,
1608; at Dinton, Wilts, and who died at Rouen, 1674, was son
of a private gentleman and was educated at Oxford, afterwards
studying law under Chief Justice Nicholas Hyde, his uncle.
Early in his career he became distinguished in political life
in a stormy period, for, as a prominent member of the Long
Parliament, he espoused the popular cause. The outbreak of the
Civil War, however, threw his sympathies over to the other
side, and in 1642 King Charles knighted him and appointed him
Chancellor of the Exchequer. When Charles, Prince of Wales,
afterwards King Charles II., fled to Jersey after the great
defeat of his father at Naseby, he was accompanied by Hyde,
who, in the island, commenced his great work, "The History of
the Rebellion," and also issued a series of eloquently worded
papers which appeared in the king's name as replies to the
manifestoes of Parliament. After the Restoration he was
appointed High Chancellor of England and ennobled with the
title of Earl of Clarendon. But the ill success of the war
with Holland brought the earl into popular disfavour, and his
unpopularity was increased by the sale of Dunkirk to the
French. Court intrigues led to the loss of his offices and he
retreated to Calais. An apology which he sent to the Lords was
ordered to be burnt by the common hangman. For six years, till
his death in Rouen, he lived in exile, but he was honoured by
burial in Westminster Abbey. His private character in a
dissolute age was unimpeachable. Anne Hyde, daughter of the
earl, became Queen of England, as wife of James II., and was
mother of two queens, Anne and Mary. The "History of the
Rebellion" is a noble and monumental work, invaluable as
written by a contemporary.
King James, in the end of March, 1625, died, leaving his majesty that
now is, engaged in a war with Spain, but unprovided with money to manage
it, though it was undertaken by the consent and advice of Parliament;
the people being naturally enough inclined to the war (having surfeited
with the uninterrupted pleasures and plenty of 22 years of peace) and
sufficiently inflamed against the Spaniard, but quickly weary of the
charge of it. Therefore, after an unprosperous attempt by sea on Cadiz,
and a still more unsuccessful one on France, at the Isle of Rhé (for
some difference had also begotten a war with that country), a general
peace was shortly concluded with both kingdoms.
The exchequer was exhausted by the debts of King James and the war, so
that the known revenue was anticipated and the king was driven into
straits for his own support. Many ways were resorted to for supply, such
as selling the crown lands, creating peers for money, and other
particulars which no access of power or plenty could since repair.
Parliaments were summoned, and again dissolved: and that in the fourth
year after the dissolution of the two former was determined with a
declaration that no more assemblies of that nature should be expected,
and all men should be inhibited on the penalty of censure so much as to
speak of a parliament. And here I cannot but let myself loose to say,
that no man can show me a source from whence these waters of bitterness
we now taste have probably flowed, than from these unseasonable,
unskilful, and precipitate dissolutions of parliaments. And whoever
considers the acts of power and injustice in the intervals between
parliaments will not be much scandalised at the warmth and vivacity
displayed in their meetings.
In the second parliament it was proposed to grant five subsidies, a
proportion (how contemptible soever in respect of the pressures now
every day imposed) never before heard of in Parliament. And that meeting
being, upon very unpopular and implausible reasons immediately
dissolved, those five subsidies were exacted throughout the whole
kingdom with the same rigour as if in truth an act had passed to that
purpose. And very many gentlemen of prime quality, in all the counties,
were for refusing to pay the same committed to prison.
The abrupt and ungracious breaking of the first two parliaments was
wholly imputed to the Duke of Buckingham; and of the third, principally
to the Lord Weston, then high treasurer of England. And therefore the
envy and hatred that attended them thereupon was insupportable, and was
visibly the cause of the murder of the first (stabbed to the heart by
the hand of an obscure villain).
The duke was a very extraordinary person. Never any man in any age, nor,
I believe, in any nation, rose in so short a time to such greatness of
honour, fame, and fortune, upon no other advantage or recommendation,
than that of the beauty and gracefulness of his person. He was the
younger son of George Villiers, of Brookesby, Leicestershire. After the
death of his father he was sent by his mother to France, where he spent
three years in attaining the language and in learning the exercises of
riding and dancing; in the last of which he excelled most men, and
returned to England at the age of twenty-one.
King James reigned at that time. He began to be weary of his favourite,
the Earl of Somerset, who, by the instigation and wickedness of his
wife, became at least privy to the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury. For
this crime both he and his wife, after trial by their peers, were
condemned to die, and many persons of quality were executed for the
same.
While this was in agitation, Mr. Villiers appeared in court and drew the
king's eyes upon him. In a few days he was made cupbearer to the king
and so pleased him by his conversation that he mounted higher and was
successively and speedily knighted, made a baron, a viscount, an earl, a
marquis, lord high admiral, lord warden of the cinque ports, master of
the horse, and entirely disposed of all the graces of the king, in
conferring all the honours and all the offices of the kingdom, without a
rival. He was created Duke of Buckingham during his absence in Spain as
extraordinary ambassador.
On the death of King James, Charles, Prince of Wales, succeeded to the
crown, with the universal joy of the people. The duke continued in the
same degree of favour with the son which he had enjoyed with the father.
But a parliament was necessary to be called, as at the entrance of all
kings to the crown, for the continuance of supplies, and when it met
votes and remonstrances passed against the duke as an enemy to the
public, greatly to his indignation.
New projects were every day set on foot for money, which served only to
offend and incense the people, and brought little supply to the king's
occasions. Many persons of the best quality were committed to prison for
refusing to pay. In this fatal conjuncture the duke went on an embassy
to France and brought triumphantly home with him the queen, to the joy
of the nation, but his course was soon finished by the wicked means
mentioned before. In the fourth year of the king, and the thirty-sixth
of his own age, he was assassinated at Portsmouth by Felton, who had
been a lieutenant in the army, to whom he had refused promotion.
Shortly after Buckingham's death the king promoted Dr. Laud, Bishop of
Bath and Wells, to the archibishopric of Canterbury. Unjust modes of
raising money were instituted, which caused increasing discontent,
especially the tax denominated ship-money. A writ was directed to the
sheriff of every county to provide a ship for the king's service, but
with the writ were sent instructions that, instead of a ship, he should
levy upon his county a sum of money and send it to the treasurer of the
navy for his majesty's use.
After the continued receipt of the ship-money for four years, upon the
refusal of Mr. Hampden, a private gentleman, to pay thirty shillings as
his share, the case was solemnly argued before all the judges of England
in the exchequer-chamber and the tax was adjudged lawful; which judgment
proved of more advantage and credit to the gentleman condemned than to
the king's service.
For the better support of these extraordinary ways the council-table and
star-chamber enlarged their jurisdictions to a vast extent, inflicting
fines and imprisonment, whereby the crown and state sustained deserved
reproach and infamy, and suffered damage and mischief that cannot be
expressed.
The king now resolved to make a progress into the north, and to be
solemnly crowned in his kingdom of Scotland, which he had never seen
from the time he first left it at the age of two years. The journey was
a progress of great splendour, with an excess of feasting never known
before. But the king had deeply imbibed his father's notions that an
Episcopal church was the most consistent with royal authority, and he
committed to a select number of the bishops in Scotland the framing of a
suitable liturgy for use there. But these prelates had little influence
with the people, and had not even power to reform their own cathedrals.
In 1638 Scotland assumed an attitude of determined resistance to the
imposition of the liturgy and of Episcopal church government. All the
kingdom flocked to Edinburgh, as in a general cause that concerned their
salvation. A general assembly was called and a National Covenant was
subscribed. Men were listed towards the raising of an army, Colonel
Leslie being chosen general. The king thought it time to chastise the
seditious by force, and in the end of the year 1638 declared his
resolution to raise an army to suppress their rebellion.
This was the first alarm England received towards any trouble, after it
had enjoyed for so many years the most uninterrupted prosperity, in a
full and plentiful peace, that any nation could be blessed with. The
army was soon mustered and the king went to the borders. But
negotiations for peace took place, and civil war was averted by
concessions on the part of the king, so that a treaty of pacification
was entered upon. This event happened in the year 1639.
After for eleven years governing without a parliament, with Archbishop
Laud and the Earl of Strafford as his advisers, King Charles was
constrained, in 1640, to summon an English parliament, which, however,
instead of at once complying with his demands, commenced by drawing up a
list of grievances. Mr. Pym, a man of good reputation, but better known
afterwards, led the remonstrances, observing that by the long
intermission of parliaments many unwarrantable things had been
practiced, notwithstanding the great virtue of his majesty. Disputes
took place between the Lords and Commons, the latter claiming that the
right of supply belonged solely to them.
The king speedily dissolved Parliament, and, the Scots having again
invaded England, proceeded to raise an army to resist them. The Scots
entered Newcastle, and the Earl of Strafford, weak after a sickness, was
defeated and retreated to Durham. The king, with his army weakened and
the treasury depleted, was in great straits. He was again constrained to
call a parliament, which met on November 3, 1640. It had a sad and
melancholic aspect. The king himself did not ride with his accustomed
equipage to Westminster, but went privately in his barge to the
parliament stairs. The king being informed that Sir Thomas Gardiner, not
having been returned a member, could not be chosen to be Speaker, his
majesty appointed Mr. Lenthall, a bencher of Lincoln's Inn. In this
parliament also Mr. Pym began the recital of grievances, and other
members followed with invectives against the Earl of Strafford, accusing
him of high and imperious and tyrannical actions, and of abusing his
power and credit with the king.
After many hours of bitter inveighing it was moved that the earl might
be forthwith impeached of high treason; which was no sooner mentioned
than it found a universal approbation and consent from the whole House.
With very little debate the peers in their turn, when the impeachment
was sent up to them, resolved that he should be committed to the custody
of the gentleman usher of the black-rod, and next by an accusation of
high treason against him also the Archbishop of Canterbury was removed
from the king's council.
The trial of the earl in Westminster Hall began on March 22, 1641, and
lasted eighteen days. Both Houses passed a bill of attainder. The king
resolved never to give his consent to this measure, but a rabble of many
thousands of people besieged Whitehall, crying out, "Justice, justice;
we will have justice!" The privy council being called together pressed
the king to pass the bill of attainder, saying there was no other way to
preserve himself and his posterity than by so doing; and therefore he
ought to be more tender of the safety of the kingdom than of any one
person how innocent soever. No one counsellor interposed his opinion, to
support his master's magnanimity and innocence.
The Archbishop of York, acting his part with prodigious boldness and
impiety, told the king that there was a private and a public conscience;
that his public conscience as a king might not only dispense with, but
oblige him to do that which was against his private conscience as a man;
and that the question was not whether he should save the earl, but
whether he should perish with him. Thus in the end was extorted from the
king a commission from some lords to sign the bill. This was as valid as
if he had signed it himself, though they comforted him even with that
circumstance, "that his own hand was not in it."
The earl was beheaded on May 12, on Tower Hill. Together with that of
the attainder of this nobleman, another bill was passed by the king, of
almost as fatal consequences to him and the kingdom as that was to the
earl, "the act for perpetual parliament," as it is since called. Thus
Parliament could not be adjourned, prorogued, or dissolved, without its
consent.
Great offence was given to the Commons by the action of the king in
appointing new bishops to certain vacant sees at the very time when they
were debating an act for taking away bishops' votes. And here I cannot
but with grief and wonder remember the virulence and animosity expressed
on all occasions from many of good knowledge in the excellent and wise
profession of the common law, towards the church and churchmen. All
opportunities were taken uncharitably to improve mistakes into crimes.
Unfortunately the king sent to the House of Lords a remonstrance from
the bishops against their constrained absence from the legislature. This
led to violent scenes in the House of Commons, which might have been
beneficial to him, had he not been misadvised by Lord Digby. At this
time many of his own Council were adverse to him. Injudiciously, the
king caused Lord Kimbolton and five members of the Commons to be accused
of high treason, advised thereto by Lord Digby. The king's attorney,
Herbert, delivered to Parliament a paper, whereby, besides Lord
Kimbolton, Denzil Hollis, Sir Arthur Haslerig, Mr. Pym, Mr. Hampden, and
Mr. Strode, stood accused of conspiring against the king and Parliament.
The sergeant at arms demanded the persons of the accused members to be
delivered to him in his majesty's name, but the Commons refused to
comply, sending a message to the king that the members should be
forthcoming as soon as a legal charge should be preferred against them.
The next day the king, attended by his own guard and a few gentlemen,
went into the House to the great amazement of all; and the Speaker
leaving the chair, the king went into it. Asking the Speaker whether the
accused members were in the House, and he making no answer, the king
said he perceived that the birds had flown, but expected that they
should be sent to him as soon as they returned; and assured them in the
word of a king that no force was intended, but that he would proceed
against them in a fair and legal way; and so he returned to Whitehall.
The next day the king went to the City, where the accused had taken
refuge. He dined with the sheriffs, but many of the rude people during
his passage through the City flocked together, pressed very near his
coach, and cried out, "Privilege of Parliament; privilege of Parliament;
to your tents, O Israel!" The king returned to Whitehall and next day
published a proclamation for the apprehension of the members, forbidding
any person to harbour them.
Both Houses of Parliament speedily manifested sympathy with the accused
persons, and a committee of citizens was formed in the City for their
defence. The proceedings of the king and his advisers were declared to
be a high breach of the privileges of Parliament. Such was the temper of
the populace that the king thought it convenient to remove from London
and went with the queen and royal children to Hampton Court. The next
day the members were brought in triumph to Parliament by the trained
bands of London. The sheriffs were called into the House of Commons and
thanked for their extraordinary care and love shown to the Parliament.
Though the king had removed himself out of the noise of Westminster, yet
the effects of it followed him very close, for printed petitions were
pressed on him every day. In a few days he removed from Hampton Court to
Windsor, where he could be more secure from any sudden popular attempt,
of which he had reason to be very apprehensive.
After many disagreements with Parliament the king in 1642 published a
declaration, that had been long ready, in which he recapitulated all the
insolent and rebellious actions which Parliament had committed against
him: and declared them "to be guilty; and forbade all his subjects to
yield any obedience to them": and at the same time published his
proclamation; by which he "required all men who could bear arms to
repair to him at Nottingham by August 25, on which day he would set up
his royal standard there, which all good subjects were obliged to
attend."
According to the proclamation, on August 25 the standard was erected,
about six in the evening of a very stormy day. But there was not yet a
single regiment levied and brought there, so that the trained bands
drawn thither by the sheriff was all the strength the king had for his
person, and the guard of the standard. There appeared no conflux of men
in obedience to the proclamation. The arms and ammunition had not yet
come from York, and a general sadness covered the whole town, and the
king himself appeared more melancholy than he used to be. The standard
was blown down the same night it had been set up.
Intelligence was received the next day that the rebel army, for such the
king had declared it, was horse, foot, and cannon at Northampton,
whereas his few cannon and ammunition were still at York. It was evident
that all the strength he had to depend upon was his horse, which were
under the command of Prince Rupert at Leicester, not more than 800 in
number, whilst the enemy had, within less than twenty miles of that
place, double the number of horse excellently well armed and appointed,
and a body of 5,000 foot well trained and disciplined.
Very speedily intelligence came that Portsmouth was besieged by land and
sea by the Parliamentary forces, and soon came word that it was lost to
the king through the neglect of Colonel Goring. The king removed to
Derby and then to Shrewsbury. Prince Rupert was successful in a skirmish
at Worcester. The two universities presented their money and plate to
King Charles, but one cause of his misfortunes was the backwardness of
some of his friends in lending him money.
Banbury Castle surrendered to Charles, and, marching to Oxford, he there
experienced a favourable reception and recruited his army. At the battle
of Edghill neither side gained the advantage, though altogether about
_5,000_ men fell on the field. Negotiations were entered into between
the king and the Parliament, and these were renewed again and again, but
never with felicitous issues.
On June 13, 1645, the king heard that General Fairfax was advanced to
Northampton with a strong army, much superior to the numbers he had
formerly been advised of. The battle began at ten the next morning on a
high ground about Naseby. The first charge was given by Prince Rupert,
with his usual vigour, so that he bore down all before him, and was soon
master of six pieces of cannon. But though the king's troops prevailed
in the charge they never rallied again in order, nor could they be
brought to make a second charge. But the enemy, disciplined under such
generals as Fairfax and Cromwell, though routed at first, always formed
again. This was why the king's forces failed to win a decisive victory
at Edghill, and now at Naseby, after Prince Rupert's charge, Cromwell
brought up his troops with such effect that in the end the king was
compelled to quit the field, leaving Fairfax, who was commander-in-chief
of the Parliamentary army, master of his foot, cannon, and baggage.