message he was to carry to the gentlemen at Westminster. Tell them, said the King, that you find me hard to satisfy, and then they will be anxious to secure your help. At any rate Heenvliet was to keep the negotiation on foot till he heard from the Prince of Orange, who, as Charles hardly doubted, would be ready to intervene on his behalf.

Heenvliet was then taken to the Queen.

and with

Henrietta Maria at once broke out into complaints against the Commons for their accusations against her, and protested that she the Queen. had never given evil counsels to the King, and that she detested the Irish rebellion. The King, she said, would be well content if he could enjoy his revenue as he had had it before these troubles, and if his Parliament met every three years instead of remaining in perpetual session. At present, he was worse off than a Venetian Doge. He would remain at Windsor for two days. If he had not then received satisfaction, he would go to Portsmouth. She and the Princess would remain there in safe custody, whilst the King and the Prince betook themselves to Yorkshire. Heenvliet here suggested. that there might be danger in such a course. No, she said, the King's name is reverenced everywhere except in London. In Scotland and Yorkshire it is especially respected. Newcastle had already occupied Hull in his name. There was a larger

quantity of munitions there than in the Tower itself. As to the Tower, Byron had been ordered to blow it up rather than surrender it. The King would publish a manifesto avowing his desire for peace, and forbidding the trained bands to obey any one but himself. Parliament had no right to meddle with them. If they refused obedience, all their property would be forfeited by law. The Prince of Orange must not allow the King to perish. "If we go to Portsmouth," she ended by saying, “I hope you will soon come there with good news."1

Before long both Charles and his wife discovered that they had been deceiving themselves with false hopes. The Cavaliers at Kingston were dispersed by the county trained bands. Not a soul in the North or in Wales was disposed to stir in 'Heenvliet to the Prince of Orange, Groen van Prinsterer, sér. 2,

iv. 2.

Charles's

vain.

Jan. 20. He sends a conciliatory message.

Charles's favour. Newcastle and Legg had failed utterly in their attempt on Hull. The Mayor had refused to admit hopes prove any troops into the town, whether under Newcastle or Hotham. The King had now but 200 men with him. It was therefore necessary to abate something of his high pretensions. On the 20th, abandoning his design on Portsmouth, he despatched to Westminster a more conciliatory message than any which he had penned since his return from Scotland. In this he asked the Houses to place upon paper all that they judged necessary on the one hand for the maintenance of his authority and the settlement of his revenue, and on the other hand for the establishment of their own privileges, the security of 'the true religion now professed in the Church of England, and the settling of the ceremonies in such a manner as may take away all just offence.' When all this had been digested 'into one entire body,' he would show how well disposed towards Parliament he was.

A month before, such a message would doubtless have been received with rapturous applause. Even now there were some who had hitherto opposed the King who were inIts reception. clined to see in it an augury of better things. No doubt it pointed to such a settlement of the Church as would have been in accordance rather with the views of Bristol than with the views of Pym. No doubt, too, the urgent question was not how the Church could be settled, but whether Charles could be trusted. Yet it was inevitable that those who wished to see the Church settled in Charles's way should be inclined to trust him, and that those who wished to see it settled in another way should be inclined to distrust him. There were certainly grounds enough for distrust. The message offered no security against an appeal to force, if force were at hand. Both Houses therefore agreed in

The Coinmons de.

sending for Newcastle to give an account of his con. duct at Hull. The Lords, however, wished to return a simple reply of thanks to the King's message; whilst the Commons, who had the day before ordered the circulation of the Protestation throughout the kingdom for

mand the fortresses and the militia,

1 Giustinian to the Doge, Jan.

21

Ven. Transcripts, R. O.

31

signature, as a token of the public disapprobation of the attempt on the members,' now asked that the fortresses and the militia Jan. 24. might be placed in the hands of persons in whom The Lords Parliament could confide. On the 24th the Lords refuse to join them. refused to join in this request; though the number of protests, which usually stood at 22 or 23, was on this occasion swollen to 32.

Pym's appeal to the Lords.

The next day Pym laid before the Lords petitions from London, Middlesex, Hertfordshire, and Essex, in support of his policy. The voice of the petitioners, he said, was the voice of England. He adjured the Peers to remove the obstructions to a peaceable settlement which still existed. The Commons would be glad of their help, and would be sorry 'that the story of this present Parliament should tell posterity that in so great a danger and extremity the House of Commons should be enforced to save the kingdom alone, and that the House of Peers should have no part in the honour of the preservation of it.'

Jan. 26. Lennox

When Pym's proposal was discussed in the House of Lords, Lennox rose to a motion for adjournment. "Let us put the question," he said hastily, "whether we shall adjourn for six months." The Peers felt that Digby's motion adjournment that Parliament was no longer free had come back to months. them in another form. To leave the House of Commons alone in session would be a direct admission that no con

moves for an

for six

stitutional remedies were any longer possible. Lennox was therefore compelled to acknowledge that he had given offence. Twenty-two lords of the Opposition protested against the mildness of the penalty. The Commons took the matter up warmly, and asked the Lords to join in petitioning the King to remove Lennox from his office at Court. The Lords refused to censure Lennox more heavily than they had already done.2

Irritation on both sides was the natural result of the abnormal situation. There was absolutely no Government in England. The King was projecting the restoration of his

1 C. F. ii. 353.

2 L. F. iv. 543. French News-Letter, Feb. 3, Arch. des Aff. Etr. 13' xlix. fol. 24.

Difficulty of the situation.

authority by reliance on anything except the loyalty of the English nation. A Government acting in accordance with Parliament would soon have dispersed the panic fears which exaggerated even the great danger which in reality existed; and the demand that the military forces of the realm should be commanded by persons in whom Parliament could confide, was the first step to the establishment of such a Government. It is useless to say that the Commons could afford to wait. The nation, at least, could not afford to wait. Men could not trade with security when they might expect at any moment to hear that foreign soldiers had landed, or that Irish rebels had been imported to wage war in England; whilst the whole military organisation of the country was thrown out of gear, because the King wished it to be employed for other objects than for the public safety.

Reasons for the Lords' resistance.

Though reason was on the side of the Commons, it was not unnatural that the Lords should take the opposite view. Tradition and precedent were on the King's side. Many of the Peers feared the sweep of a democratic tide. The Commons, still in name the Lower House, were speaking as if they were the undoubted masters of the Lords, and were already treating their House as a mere appendage to a greater and more powerful assembly. In the wake of distasteful social and political changes loomed religious changes equally distasteful. Yet the Lords hardly knew what to do. They distrusted the Commons, but as yet they distrusted Charles as well.

On the refusal of the Lords to join in asking for the fortresses and the militia, the Commons had independently pre

Jan. 25. The Commons' petition.

sented their request to the King. Charles had returned an evasive answer, and on the 31st the House voted the evasion to be equivalent to a denial,' Jan. 31. and also drew up an ordinance conferring power in The militia ordinance. each county upon persons to be afterwards named to train the inhabitants for war, to name deputy-lieutenants

with the approbation of Parliament, and to appoint officers, as well as to suppress all rebellions, insurrections, and invasions,' according to directions from the King signified by Parliament.

Something indeed had been already done to carry into

Hotham occupies Hull.

action the terms of the ordinance. The younger Hotham had made himself master of Hull in the name of the Parliament. Skippon and the City. The Tower trained bands were blockading the Tower, and blockaded. Byron acknowledged that it was not capable of offering a long resistance.

Jan 31. The Artifi cers' Pet.tion.

A position so strained could not last long. In the City the burden fell heavily on the poor. On the 31st a petition was presented to the Commons by the artificers of London and Westminster. It was immediately sent up to the Lords. The poor men, said Holles, who carried it up, had declared that they wanted bread. "The House of Commons said that they are not in fault, but have done what they could to take away the causes of these distempers; therefore they protest, for their own safeties, lest they should be involved, that they are not guilty of these mischiefs."

Feb. 1.

in Palace Yard.

1

When the Houses met the next morning an unusual sight presented itself to their eyes. Palace Yard was thronged by a crowd of women. "We had rather bring our chilThe women dren," they said, "and leave them at the Lords' door, than have them starve at home." The crowds of petitioners who had been appearing during the last few days at Westminster were not without effect on the House of Lords. The most persistent Royalists saw in them an organthe Lords. ised renewal of those scenes which had preceded the death of Strafford.2 Others may have been convinced of the gravity of the situation, and may have been disappointed at the King's letter, as containing no serious guarantees. On Feb1 L. F. iv. 559.

Position of

2 Giustinian's despatch, Feb. Ven. Transcripts, R. O. Salvetti's News-Letter, Feb. 4.

14

For the view that Charles, in his anxiety to save the Queen fron the