THE RULE OF THE STUARTS
In the 'Stag Parlour' of Lyme Hall is a framed piece of needlework done
by Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, when she stayed at Lyme. When she was
deposed by her Scottish subjects she threw herself on the mercy of Queen
Elizabeth, who permitted her to live in England. But plots were made
against the life of Elizabeth, and Mary was suspected of having a hand
in them, and in the end Mary had to pay the penalty of death.
Mary was a Catholic, but her son James, who succeeded to the English
throne on the death of Elizabeth, had been brought up among the Scottish
reformers. The extreme English reformers, or Puritans as they were now
called, hoped therefore that the king would be friendly to their wishes.
The Puritans were disappointed, but James agreed to one of their
demands, and said that he would have a new translation of the Bible
made. The Authorized Version of the Bible which is read in all Cheshire
churches and chapels to-day is the one noble work due to the first
Stuart king.
The Puritans were so named because they wished to 'purify' the Church of
certain forms and ceremonies, such as the use of the surplice, and the
sign of the cross at baptism, and even the ring in the marriage service.
They also objected to the rule of bishops, and wished the Church to be
governed by councils of elders or 'presbyters' after the manner of the
Presbyterian Church of Scotland.
During the reign of Elizabeth many Puritan clergymen had refused to
perform the services of the Church in the way ordered by the Prayer
Book. They were driven out of the Church, and formed separate
congregations of their own. Hence they received the name of
Independents, and they were the earliest of the Nonconformist
dissenters.
Many Independents suffered so severely at the hands of King James and
his archbishop, that they determined to leave the country and settle in
new homes across the sea. They gave the name of New England to their
colony in America, and thus became the founders of our American
possessions. Among the exiles was Samuel Eaton, a Wirral clergyman. He
returned in the reign of Charles the First, and became a minister in the
chapel attached to Dukinfield Hall, which thus became one of the
earliest places of worship for the Independents in Cheshire. The ancient
chapel now forms a portion of the modern Nonconformist church of
Dukinfield.
The Catholics were not more pleased with James than the Puritans were.
They were compelled to attend the new services of the Protestant Church.
Those who refused to do so were called 'recusants'. The Bishop of Chester
was ordered by James to hunt out all the Popish recusants in Cheshire
and bring them to trial. The secret hiding-places built in the walls of
many Cheshire halls must often have sheltered these fugitive priests,
for many great families in Cheshire, such as the Stanleys of Hooton and
the Masseys of Puddington, were strongly Catholic.
Chester was Protestant, and a Puritan Mayor of Chester stopped the
Midsummer show, and broke up the pasteboard giants, and abolished the
bull-ring; for the Puritans disliked shows and processions and sports of
all kinds, and even such harmless pastimes as the May-day dances.
The Midsummer revels were, however, revived, and held with great pomp
when King James paid a visit to Chester in 1617. His arms are carved in
a panel under one of the front windows of Bishop Lloyd's house. One of
the Fitton family was mayor on this occasion, and the king's sword was
borne by a Stanley. James rode to the minster, where he heard one of the
scholars of the King's School read a Latin address of welcome. 'After
the said oration he went into the choir, and there, in a seat made for
the king at the higher end of the choir, he heard an anthem sung. And
after certain prayers the king went from thence to the Pentice, where a
sumptuous banquet was prepared at the city's cost: which being ended,
the king departed to the Vale Royal: and at his departure the order of
knighthood was offered to the mayor, but he refused the same.' The sale
of knighthoods and baronetcies was one of King James's ways of raising
money, and the Mayor of Chester was not the only one who declined the
honour.
A zealous Puritan named William Prynne wrote against the performance of
stage plays, dancing, and other amusements. Some things that he said
were thought to refer to the Queen of Charles the First, and he was
tried by the Star Chamber and ordered to pay a fine of £5,000 and to
have his ears slit. There was a branch of the Court of Star Chamber at
Chester, but it was abolished in Charles the First's reign. In one of
the rooms of Leasowe Castle are some oak panels brought from the Star
Chamber at Westminster.
William Prynne passed through Chester on his way to his prison in
Carnarvon Castle. The Puritans turned out to welcome and cheer him in
the streets, but their leaders were punished by fines and imprisonment
for so doing.
Neither James nor Charles got on well with their Parliaments. The Tudor
monarchs had for the most part understood the people, and the people in
their turn allowed them to have their own way. But the Stuarts began to
claim powers which the people would not permit. When Parliament refused
to grant money they asked for, the Stuart kings tried to raise money by
means which the people thought illegal. Charles borrowed large sums of
money without the consent of Parliament. Sir Randolph Crewe, of Crewe
Hall, was one of the judges who thought that this was wrong, and he was
dismissed from his office by the king.
Charles also tried to impose a tax called Ship Money, a tax which had in
former times been levied on the counties on the seaboard for the support
of the navy. Now the king proposed that inland counties also should
contribute for this purpose. Sir William Brereton, a Cheshire knight,
objected strongly to the hateful tax, and was very angry with the people
of Chester for rating some land of his near Chester, called the Nunnery
Fields, for the payment of the money.
It is not surprising that trouble should arise between Parliament and a
king who refused to obey the wishes of the people over whom he ruled.
The Stuarts believed in the theory known as the Divine right of kings,
that is, that kings are made by God alone, and that from Him alone they
receive their power. But from the time of the great awakening the people
had begun to think for themselves, and the result of this was that they
were now determined that the king should carry out the will of the
nation through the mouth of its Parliament.
Moreover, Charles was suspected of being a Catholic; at any rate he had
married a Catholic wife, and Parliament was not in a mood to permit a
return to the unhappy state of affairs of Queen Mary's reign.