Feb. 23. To the messengers who brought him the militia ordinance Charles refused to give an immediate answer. He had plainly made up his mind to say nothing till the Queen was in safety. On the 23rd she was under sail, carrying with her The Queen her daughter and the Crown jewels, full of hope and courage, and half believing that she had inspired her husband with something of her own resolution. After a tender farewell, Charles galloped along the cliffs in the direction in which the vessel was sailing, keeping his eyes fixed upon it to the last.1 sets sail. Feb. 26. Charles at Greenwich. On the 26th the King was at Greenwich. He sent for the Prince of Wales, and, in spite of the remonstrances of Parliament, he kept the lad with him. He was now buoyed up with a fresh hope as unsubstantial as were the many others which had melted away in his hands. The militia ordinance had given rise to some dissatisfaction in the City as overriding the municipal authority of the Lord Mayor,2 and there had been a movement amongst the citizens to resist it, of which George Benyon, a wealthy merchant, was the leading spirit. Charles had therefore drawn up a sharp answer to the message with which the Houses accompanied 14 'Madame de Motteville's Mémoires, ch. ix. Giustinian to the Doge, March, Ven. Transcripts, R. O. The Queen's mingled feelings may be gathered from the following extract from à letter written after her arrival at the Hague: Il faloit que le Roy et moy fisions toute nos affaires tout seuls, qui ne sont pas petites; et à la fin la violance du Parlement a estté sy grande contre moy que pour esttre en seureté de ma vie, il m'a falu en aler; car après qu'ils ont jeté plusieurs imputations contre moy et m'accuser de avoir voulu changer le gouvernement de l'Estat et de la religion et que c'estoit moy qui encouragoit les Irlandois à une rebellion, ils ont dit publiquement que une Royne n'estoit que subjecte et que elle pouvoit estre punice comme une autre. Ce n'est pas toutefois la peur de la mort qui m'aye fait en aler, mais d'une prisone, en me separant du Roy monsr. que j'avoue m'ut estté plus insuportable que la mort, car cela orait ruiné toute nos affaires, et, estant en liberté, j'espère que je seray encore en estat de March le servir "The Queen to the Duchess of Savoy, 25, Lettres de April 4 Henriette-Marie à sa sœur, publiées par Hermann Ferrero. 2 Giustinian to the Doge, Feb. 25, Ven. Transcripts, R. O. their ordinance, though he allowed himself to be persuaded by Hyde to hold it back for further consideration. On the 27th he had a long interview with Hyde. Hyde, it was arranged, was to remain at Westminster, to watch the proceedings of Feb. 27. He accepts Hyde as his secret counsellor. Parliament, and to send notice to the King of all that it was desirable for him to know. He was also to accompany every message which left the Houses for the King with a secret despatch containing the answer which he judged most fitting to be given. Charles was to copy the proposed answer with his own hand, and to address it to Parliament as if it were his own.1 Charles's acceptance of Hyde as his unofficial adviser marks a new departure in the constitutional system of the English monarchy. Hyde's great achievement was to throw Hyde's constitutional over the doctrine which Strafford had inherited from Their per manent views. the Tudors, which taught that there was a preroga tive above the law, capable of developing out of itself special and transcendent powers to meet each emergency as it arose, whether Parliament approved or not. The King, according to Hyde, was to work in combiration with his Parliament; but he was not to allow the House of Commons to force its will upon the House of Lords, still less was he to allow both Houses combined to compel him to give the Royal assent to Bills of which his conscience disapproved. That such a conception of the constitution could under any circumstances have been permanently adopted is absolutely impossible. It did not even attempt to solve the question of sovereignty, which Strafford had been prepared to solve in one way, and which Pym was now prepared to solve in another. It was the idea of an essentially mediocre statesman. It was based on negations, and provided so elaborately that nothing obnoxious should be done, that there was no room left for doing anything at all. Strafford and Pym were men of real, if limited, insight. Hyde removed no difficulties; he awoke no enthusiasm; he welded together no divergent elements. weakness, Yet, with all this, Hyde had at least a marvellous temporary 1 Clarendon's Life, ii. 24. success. and temporary success. He gave the King a party, and that party, though defeated in the field and doomed to many years of proscription, rose again to embrace almost the whole nation for a time. The explanation of this success is not hard to find. Hyde's policy of negation was welcome to those who were indisposed to change, and in 1642 nearly half the nation, and in 1660 nearly the whole of the nation, was indisposed to change. All who feared the intolerant rule of Puritanism or the interference of shopkeepers and artisans in the affairs of government welcomed a theory which acknowledged the right of the King to stop a legislation which was not very likely to take the course of which they approved. Other causes, no doubt, combined with this pure conservatism. Hyde had on his side the traditional reverence for the King, combined with the more honourable reverence for the law, and it was tempting to dispense with the toilsome labour of investigating what the law ought to be in favour of the far easier task of accepting whatever existed as the perpetual rule of life. The Civil nearer. Undoubtedly Hyde's connection with Charles brought the Civil War nearer than it was before. He could gain for him a party. He could not gain for him a nation. If he War brought could not quite separate him from his old belief in his prerogative as something personally inherent in himself, or from those insane appeals to forces which never proved to be really on his side, he could at least render such attempts more infrequent, and could cover them, when they occurred, with the decent veil of constitutional argument. Men seemed to be listening to the voice of the law itself when they were only carried away by the sonorous eloquence of a pleader. Charles's plans. Even now, indeed, Charles had something very different in view from the formation of a constitutional party. He had promised the Queen that he would listen to no terms of accommodation which did not imply the submission of the Parliamentary leaders. With the Prince in his hands, he would go to the North and throw himself upon the known loyalty of his people there. Hull was to be seized, or, if the attempt failed, Newcastle or Berwick should be occupied Feb. 28. answer voted a denial. to keep open his communications with the Continent. Charles had still hope of assistance from Scotland. With these projects in hand, the negotiation with Parliament became but a secondary object. "I will not differ from you," he said to Hyde's proposal that his reply should take a less offensive form, "for now I have gotten Charles, I care not what answer I send them." 1 That answer stated that, though Charles was ready to place the militia in the hands of the persons nominated, they must receive their commissions from himself, and those The King's commissions must determine whenever he saw fit.2 As this arrangement gave no security against himself, the Houses voted that the answer was equivalent to a denial of their request. Charles's movements were even a greater reason for alarm than his words. Parliament begged him to remain in the neighbourhood of Westminster. If he did not, it must needs be a cause of great danger and distraction.3 "For my residence near you," he replied, "I wish it might be so safe and honourable that I had no cause to absent myself from Whitehall; ask yourselves whether I have not." 4 It did not follow that, because he was uneasy at Westminster, it was necessary for him to go to York. Yet, on the day after the reply was given, he started on his ill-starred journey for the North. The Houses beg him to continue near Westminster. March 2. Charles's reply. The kingdom to be put in a posture of defence. 5 The Commons felt that there was but one course to pursue. They voted that the kingdom should be 'put in a posture of defence by authority of both Houses,' and this resolution was at once accepted by the Lords. By the 5th an ordinance had passed formally appointing the March 5. new Parliamentary Lords-Lieutenants, and conveying to them authority to command the militia for the suppression. of all rebellions, insurrections, and invasions.' 6 In sheer self defence, as they deemed it, the Houses had seized upon the sword 'Letters of Henrietta Maria, 52-65; Clarendon, Life, ii. 27. 2 An Exact Collection, 90. 3 Ibid. 92. The King's Answer, March 2, L. J. iv. 641. 5 C. F. ii 464. L. 7. iv. 622. L. J. iv. 625, 628. March 9. On the 9th the King was at Newmarket. A Parliamentary deputation waited on him to present a declaration of their fears and jealousies, pointing out the many surprises to Declaration which they had been subjected from the first Army jealousies. plot to the attempt on the members. Charles could not understand that they could have any reasonable suspicions at all. "That's false !" "That's a lie!" were the expressions which burst from him as the declaration was being read. The King's of fears and answer. The next day he returned his answer. "What would you have?" he cried. "Have I violated your laws? Have I denied to pass one Bill for the ease and security of my subjects? I do not ask you what you have done for me. God so deal with me and mine, as all my thoughts and intentions are upright for the maintenance of the true Protestant profession, and for the observation and preservation of the laws of this land; and I hope God will bless and assist those laws for my preservation." In vain Pembroke begged Charles to come nearer his Parliament, and to say clearly what he wanted. "I would whip a boy in Westminster School," replied the King, "that could not tell that by my answer." Might not he, Pembroke suggested, grant the militia for a time? "By God!" was the fierce answer, "not for an hour. You have asked that of me in this, was never asked of a king, and with which I will not trust my wife and children." No understanding was any longer possible. The evident sincerity of both parties kept them asunder. Charles believed at the bottom of his heart that Parliament was plotting to strip him of his lawful authority in order to destroy the Church. The Houses believed in all honesty that Charles was plotting to set up an arbitrary power which, whether he intended it or not, would redound to the advantage of the Pope.1 He absolutely refuses the militia. No under standing possible. Charles's reference to Ireland. "The One more word Charles had yet to speak. business of Ireland," he said, "will never be done in the way that you are in. Four hundred will never do that work. It must be put into the hands of one. If Rushworth, iv. 532. |