mitted him to do so, entirely upon the loyalty of his English supporters. May 20. Charles Scottish Council for help. It was this that Charles at last resolved to do. Yet even now, if he for a time took the right course it was rather because his intrigues had failed him than because he had made up his mind to abandon his intrigues. The news which reached him from beyond the limits of England in the first fortnight of June was not encouraging. Early in May he had made a fresh peals to the appeal for help to the Scottish Council.' He called on all the members of the Council on whom he could rely to attend at Edinburgh in order to cast their votes on his side. They came according to the custom of their class and nation with armed retainers at their backs. The rumour spread that Argyle was in danger. At once thousands of sturdy peasants flocked over from Fife. Edinburgh and the Lothians declared for Argyle. On May 31st a deMay 31. putation, with the Earl of Haddington at its head, summoned the Council to keep peace with the English Parlia ment. The Council dared not disobey the popular cry. On June 2 an answer was returned to Charles vaguely worded, but conveying an unmistakable intimation that if he quarrelled with the English Parliament he had no assistance to expect from Scotland. June 2. Refusal of Scotland. News from Still less hopeful was the news from the Hague. The Dutch ambassadors for England had indeed been nominated, but it was understood that they would offer no methe Hague. diation unless it were agreeable to both parties. Frederick Henry, finding that the stream of public feeling in his own country was against him, had withdrawn his countenance from the Queen's projects. Denmark and Bavaria, France and Spain showed no signs of helping her. For a time Henrietta Maria had clung to the hope that something might come of the King's journey to Ireland, and had proposed to join him there. That journey to Ireland was, however, now definitely abandoned, and the Queen remained at the Hague chafing at her enforced The King to the Scottish Council, May 9. The King's Declaration, Petition to the Council, May 31. The Council to the King, June 4, Council Act Book, Registry Office, Edinburgh. May 20. inactivity, and wondering why it was that all men did not rise up in support of her righteous cause.1 Under this discouragement Charles at last discovered that it would be better for him to show confidence in his own subjects than to put his trust in foreign aid.2 He now strove to assure those who surrounded him that he would stand solely on the defensive. On June 13, he announced that June 13. The King's declaration. he would maintain the liberties and the just privileges of Parliament, and 'that he would not, as was pretended, engage them or any of them in any war against the Parliament, except it were for his necessary defence and safety against such as did insolently invade or attempt against his Majesty or such as should adhere to his Majesty.' To this Engagement the Peers at York replied that they would stand by of the Peers. the King's just prerogative, and would not obey any order respecting the militia which had not the Royal assent. June 15. Charles and the Peers protest that they do not mean war. Two days later Charles called on the Peers to join in a protest that no aggressive war was intended. They at once responded to his call. "We," they said, "whose names are underwritten, in obedience to his Majesty's desire, and out of the duty which we owe to his Majesty's honour and to truth, being here upon the place, and witnesses of his Majesty's frequent and earnest declarations and professions of his abhorring all designs of making war upon his Parliament; and not seeing any colour of preparations or 1 See Rossetti's letters, and Zon's despatches for April and May. 2 After describing the Queen's failure in the words printed at p. 177, note 4, Rossetti continues as follows: “Onde il Rè d'Inghilterra considerando bene la presente consideratione degl' interessi del mondo, scorge da ogni banda di poter poco sperare; ma se pure da alcuna delle predette parte potesse ricevere qualche aiuto di gente, pensarebbe questo essergli di desvantaggio più tosto che di profitto, attesa l'avversione che quei popoli hanno naturalmente a forastieri, et anco per esser questi troppo dannosi, dubitandosi che i medesimi del partito del Rè, quando quelli l' introducessero nell' Isola, fassero per alienarsi da S. Mtà,. per le quali cagioni ha deliberato di procurare con le forze naturali del Regno, e per via di negotiationi co' Principali dal Parlamento d' andar estenuando la fattione Parlamentaria e con la forza destramente mettersi in autorità et in atto di potere comandare."---Rossetti to Barberini, July 3, R. O. Transcripts. 13 counsels that might reasonably beget the belief of any such designs, do profess before God and testify to all the world that we are fully persuaded that his Majesty hath no such intention, but that all his endeavours tend to the firm and constant settlement of the true Protestant religion; the just privileges of Parliament; the liberty of the subject; the law, peace, and prosperity of this kingdom." To this were subscribed the names of thirty-five Peers, and also those of Falkland, Nicholas, Culpepper, Sir Peter Wych, and Chief Justice Bankes.1 Foundation of the Royalist Constitu. The acceptance of Charles's declaration by the Peers was an event of no slight importance in English history. It laid the foundations of that great party which, under the management of Hyde, ultimately brought about the Restoration settlement, and which struggled in vain tional party. to maintain it after time had proved its hollowness. For the time Charles and his supporters were bound together by the strongest of all ties, a common hatred. The immediate effect of the protestation of the Peers was absolutely nothing. No war was ever staved off by the declarations of both parties that they intend to stand on the defensive, if it were only because neither party is ever of one mind with the otner upon the limits which separate the defensive from the offensive. The very day after the protestation was signed it was resolved to put in execution the Commissions of executed. Array, and it was certain that Parliament would consider this a direct act of offensive warfare. June 16. The comnissions of array to be Condition of Leicestershire. It was resolved to make a beginning with Leicestershire. The Parliamentary Lord-Lieutenant was the Earl of Stamford, an incompetent man of large estate. The leading spirit amongst the King's Commissioners was Henry Hastings, a younger son of the Earl of Huntingdon. In the greater part of the county the feeling was in favour of Parliament, but the Mayor of Leicester and some members of the Corporation sided with the King. On the 16th Hastings arrived at Leicester, hoping to get into his hands the county magazine of arms and munitions. Clarendon, v. 342. Henry Leicester. June 22. To his disappointment he found that it had been removed to Stamford's house at Broadgate. In the absence of Hastings at the sheriff he persuaded the under-sheriff to issue warrants for the execution of commissions of array. He then went back to York, but returned on the 22nd, bringing with him a hundred armed miners from his collieries in Derbyshire, and as many other persons as he could persuade to follow him. He found that the county was against him. Scarcely a man of the trained bands would answer to his summons. When he entered Leicester he was confronted by Palmer, the high sheriff, who denounced his proceedings as illegal. An audacious messenger sent by Parliament to arrest him attempted to carry out the orders which he had received. Hastings, however, was rescued by his friends, and ultimately left the town.' June 17. Newcastle seized. In Leicestershire the King's Commissioners were in what can hardly be described otherwise than as an enemy's country. In Northumberland Charles was in no such difficulty. On the 17th the Earl of Newcastle took possession of Newcastle for the King. Levying soldiers amongst his own tenants and the trained bands of Northumberland and Durham, he secured Tynemouth Castle and erected fortifications at Shields. Charles had at last a port where he might receive supplies from Holland.2 His supporters were jubilant. The King, wrote one of them, was now 'the favourite of the kingdom.' His enemies would doubtless raise an army against him. It was all the better. They would do enough to `entail on themselves the forfeiture of their estates, which would then be bestowed on the King's good servants.3 Such was the spirit which was rising alongside of the constitutionalisms of Culpepper and Hyde. At York all men were busy in preparing for that war which was now seen to be inevitable. If money and plate were pouring in at Westminster, the King's principal supporters entered no less zealously into an engagement to furnish him with 1,935 Nichols, History of Leicestershire, iii. App. 22. L. J. v. 131, 142, 3 Wilmot to Crofts, June 22, L. J. v. 169. 164. to furnish horse, and to pay them for three months. Such offers would not, however, constitute an army. By separating from June 22. Engagement London and his Parliament, Charles had cut himself horse for the off from those financial resources which were still left the King. to him by the law. When he left Greenwich on his Northern journey, he had no more than 600/. in hand. That he had been able to maintain himself at all during the past months had been owing, not to the scanty resources of the public revenue, but to the munificence of a single Catholic peer. The Earl of Worcester, the Lord of Raglan Castle, was possessed Worcester. of an estate valued at 24,000l. a year, a rental equivalent to more than 100,000l. at the present day. As a Catholic he was exposed to especial risks in the impending conflict, and if he had been himself indisposed to assist his sovereign, he could hardly fail to be dragged away by the impetuous zeal of his eldest son. The Earl of Lord That son, Lord Herbert, far better known by his later titles of Glamorgan and Worcester, was a man of genius. He who divined the steam-engine a century before the days of Watt, now threw himself, with all the ardour of an enthusiast, into the cause of the King. Over him Charles exercised that wonderful charm which sprang from his gentleness and the consideration which he exercised towards those who accepted his sway. From time to time during the first weeks after the King had left Greenwich, Herbert supplied him with no less than 22,000l. from his own and Supplies Charles with his father's resources. Then, when open resistance to money. the Parliament seemed, to a Royalist so decided as Herbert, the only honourable course-in all probability in the early part of June-the heir of Raglan was busy in gathering all the money that it was in his power to collect, and June 30. at last found his way to York, to pour no less than 95,500l. into the exhausted treasury of his astonished master, whilst 5,cool. more followed in July. Thus, and thus only, was Charles enabled to prepare for the field. In the end of June, the activity of the Royalists was more 1 Engagement, June 22, S. P. Dom. 2 Dircks's Life of the Marquis of Worcester, 54, 330. |