attempt. He engaged that if Hotham would but let him in he would bring with him no more than twenty men. Hotham, who knew that, on account of the Royalist feeling of the population, it would be as easy to get him out again with 300 as with 20, positively refused. Charles called on the heralds to proclaim Hotham a traitor, and rode discomfited away. It was a matter of course that a long and vehement paper war should arise out of this incident, that the Houses should declare that the King's efforts to get possession of Controversy opened. Hull were actuated by a desire to obtain a basis of operations for a Civil War, and that the King should declare that Hotham had simply committed an act of treason. The real interest of the situation lay elsewhere. That King and Parliament could not leave their quarrel much longer to the arbitrament of amicable discussion was by this time a foregone conclusion. The only question of real importance was whether Charles would find an army to back him. His first attempt did not seem likely to be crowned with success. On the 30th a large number of the gentry of Yorkshire with the high sheriff at their head appeared to present a April 30. The King's demand of the Yorkshiremen. May 5. Prohibits the levy of the York petition to the King repudiating the action of Sir Francis Wortley. Before the petition was presented Charles asked them whether they would defend his person from violence, and would advise him how to vindicate himself from the affront which he had received at Hull. They replied that they would always be ready to defend him from violence, and that the best way to vindicate his honour was to follow the counsel of Parliament.' Charles was obliged to content himself with the issue of a negative order to the high sheriff requiring him to prohibit the levy of the trained bands of the county except on a summons from himself.2 On the same day the Houses at Westminster having heard that Charles dinance is to had positively refused his assent to his own Militia be executed. Bill on the pretext of the alterations which had been 'made in it, issued a declaration of their resolution to fall back shire trained bands. Declaration that the militia or L. 7. v. 36. D'Ewes's Diary, Harl. MSS. 163, fol. 101 b. 2 Rushworth, iv. 574. VOL. X. upon the ordinance, and required all persons in authority to put it in execution. At the same time they despatched Committee sent to Yorkshire. a committee to Yorkshire to watch over their interests there.1 It was not in Yorkshire alone that Charles met with a 1buff. In Scotland, too, he had been asking for more support than he was likely to get. The proposal of going to Ireland had been in all probability of the Queen's suggestion. What she wanted was that he should join the army of the Catholics there. Charles preferred to wage war under forms of peace. At the same time that he had announced to his English Parliament his intention of going to Ireland, he had made a similar announcement to the Scottish Privy Council, informing them that he intended to take Edinburgh on his way. He even hoped that Scotland would support him in his contention against the English Parliament. No hope could have been wilder. He had, it is true, a considerable party in the Scottish Council. But Argyle stood firm, and Argyle's will was not to be resisted. On April 22 the Council drew up a recommendation to the King to abandon the Irish expedition and to come to terms with his Parliarnent. Scotland refuses to help the King. April 23. Sentence on the At torney There Whilst Charles was beating about for support, the Commons acted on the supposition that he intended to make war against them if only he were able to do so. On the 23rd Parliament struck at the King through the Attorney-General. Sir Edward Herbert was sentenced to imprisonmer.t for his conduct in impeaching the members. was nothing vindictive in his treatment, and in little more than a fortnight he was set at liberty.3 On the 30th the Kentish petition at last reached the House. Two The Kentish of the principal gentlemen who brought it were at petition presented. once committed to prison; Bristol had been released some days before. On May 7 a peremptory order for the General. April 30. 1 L. J. v. 46. 2 Declaration, April 22. L. 7. v. 53. The Queen to the King, 15 Letters of Henrietta Maria, 66. Forster to (havigny, April Arch. des 25' Aff Étr. xlix. fol. 83. 3 L. J. v. 11, 58. April 25, May 3 removal of the Hull magazine was issued by Parliament, and on the 10th a review of the London trained bands, 8,000 strong, was held in Finsbury Fields in the presence of both Houses of Parliament.1 May 10. Review in Finsbury Fields. The King at The King's prospects appeared more gloomy every day. On the 8th the Parliamentary commissioners arrived at York. As might have been expected they found but a cool reception from Charles, who warned them not to tamper with his subjects there. He had invited the gentry of the county to meet him at York on the 12th. On their arrival he unfolded his wrongs in their presence. "You see,” he said, “that my magazine is going to be taken from me being my own proper goods-directly gentry. against my will. The Militia, against law and my consent, is going to be put in execution; and lastly, Sir John Hotham's treason is countenanced. All this considered, none can blame me to apprehend danger." He was therefore resolved to have a guard for the protection of his person, and to this he asked their concurrence. May 12. The King s appeal to the Yorkshire their answers. The assembly was much divided. The next morning four several answers were returned, ranging from complete acquiesMay 13. cence in the King's demand to a curt advice to him Diversity of to hearken to his Parliament. In the end a committee of twelve was appointed to draw up a reply; whilst a large number of freeholders complained bitterly that they ought to have been consulted on the matter as well as the gentry, and urged upon the King the importance of coming to an understanding with his Parliament.2 The committee of twelve could come to no agreement. Six were for doing as the King wished, and six were for a negative answer. Charles took the matter into his own hands. On the 14th he issued orders that the gentry May 14. The King orders a guard. of the county were to appear in arms at York on the 20th as a guard for his person.3 The next day a regiment of the Yorkshire trained bands was bidden to meet in arms on the Salvetti's News-Letter, May 23 Clarendon, v. 139. 2 Rushworth, iv. 615. 3 Ibid. 621. 17th. At the same time Charles sent directions to Skippon, the commander of the City trained bands, to come to York, and ordered the Lord Keeper to remove the Law Courts from Westminster to the same city. May 15. Sends for Skippon, and orders the removal of the courts. May 17. Resistance of Parliament. On the 17th the Houses resolved that the removal of the courts and the order to Skippon were both illegal, and directed the sheriffs to suppress any levy of men made without their authority.' On the 20th they expressed the opinion that the King intended to make war against his Parliament, and summoned from Parlia him to desist from his purpose of raising troops. If ment. he did not, they would be bound to use their utmost endeavours to secure the peace and quiet of the kingdom.2 May 20. Summons May 21. guard. Charles had already made up his mind to summon round him what forces he had at his disposal, His Yorkshire guard would not have been sufficient to secure him. The The King's regiment of trained bands called out by him was quartered at York, and on the 21st about 200 gentlemen of the county rode in to place themselves at his disposal. He had invited the Lords and Commons who were willing to support him to place themselves by his side, and one or two lords had already responded to the call. The Lord-Keeper, timid and indecisive, yet unable to resist a Royal Flight of order, had been the first to slip away and to bring Commons. the Great Seal to the King at York. Hyde quickly followed, and for some time there was a continual stream of noblemen and gentlemen making their way northwards. On the other hand, Warwick's ships fetched away the stores from Hull before the end of the month, and safely lodged them in the Tower. All this time the paper war had continued as hotly as ever. At last on June 2 it was brought to a head by the Nineteen June 2. Propositions sent off on that day by the Houses teen Proposi. to the King. They were a new edition of the They claimed sovereignty. for Parliament in every particular. The King's Council, the The Nine tions. Provisions of Oxford. King's officials, the very judges of the land were to be selected by Parliament. The Militia ordinance was to be accepted, all delinquents to submit to the justice of Parliament, the King's guard to be dismissed, and the fortresses placed in the hands of persons approved of by Parliament. The recusancy laws were to be put fully into execution. The children of Roman Catholic parents were to be educated as Protestants. The Church was to be reformed according to the desires of Parliament, and no Peers subsequently created were to be allowed to sit in the House of Lords without the consent of both Houses.1 racter. It is impossible to deny that these propositions carried with them an abrogation of the existing constitution; yet with Their cha- the exception of the clauses directed against the recusants, and those which related merely to matters of temporary importance, there is scarcely a word in them. which is not in accordance with the spirit of the constitution of the present day. What we do indirectly through a Cabinet which maintains itself in power only so long as it is secure of the support of the House of Commons, our forefathers proposed to do directly by an immediate vote of the two Houses. Sovereignty, they held, must be lodged in Parliament which represented the nation, and not in a king on whom no man could depend. Such a view implied a great step in advance. Pym's greatness lies in the clearness with which he substituted the notion of the civic duty of loyalty to the corporate body of the nation for that of duty to a single person. So far the argument sounds well enough. Its weakness lay in the fact that this special Parliament did not at this time any longer represent the nation as a whole, nor did it claim to content itself with representative functions alone. Where thought is free and religious and scientific liberty is secured, a representative assembly may well claim to be but the mirror in which the national purpose is reflected. It does not claim to force future generations into a form which it has chosen for them. It leaves the wind of spirit and intelligence to blow whither it listeth, and makes no attempt to crush down the ... L. J. v. 97. |