citizens on Charles's side. Although the recent expression of the wishes of the Common Council for the expulsion of the bishops was not of favourable The wealthy omen, the wealthy citizens were now drawing towards Charles. There was the natural distrust for political disturbance felt by men engaged in wide-reaching commerce, and there was doubtless a contemptuous dislike of the petty tradesmen and apprentices who were crowding to the meetings in which illiterate members of their own class expounded the Scriptures in a wild and incoherent fashion. The new Lord Mayor, Gurney, was a strong Royalist, and the great majority of the aldermen were of the same way of thinking. When, therefore, it was announced that the King would do honour to the City by passing through it on his way to Westminster, it was resolved that he should be welcomed at a magnificent banquet at Guildhall. Organisation monial. November 25 was the day appointed. The reception prepared for the King was not to be one of those spontaneous outbursts of enthusiasm with which the present age of the cere- is familiar. The municipal authorities were accustomed to organise their ceremonies as they organised everything else. The attire of members of the City companies, the truncheons and the torches of the footmen, the tapestry to be hung by the householders upon the walls, the bells to be rung, and the bonfires to be lighted, were all prescribed by order.1 Yet it is probable that even without these directions there would have been enthusiasm enough. There was a fund of loyalty in the hearts of the citizens; and the compliment paid to London for the first time in the reign would have made Charles popular in the City, if it were only for a moment. Charles was well prepared. To gain the City, he had been told, was to dethrone King Pym, as the Royalists were now beginning to call the great Parliamentary leader. Let him assure the citizens that he would voluntarily abandon to them the forfeited lands in Londonderry, and that he would do his utmost to discountenance the hateful protections given by the Lords, and 1 Common Council Journal Book, Nov. 19, 23, 24, vol. xxxix. fol. 245 b, 246 b, 252 b. they would spontaneously rally to his side. The command over the army in Ireland would fall into the King's hands.1 entrance. It was not much that the King had to offer; nothing but what the Commons had been ready to do. Yet he played his The King's part well. Bringing with him the Queen, who had joined him at Theobalds, he was met on his entrance to the City by a stately cavalcade. Amidst loud and enthusiastic shouts of welcome, he assured his hosts that he would give back Londonderry and everything else which they desired. He hoped, with the assistance of Parliament, to re-establish that flourishing trade which was now in some disorder. He had come back with a hearty affection to his people in general. He would govern them according to the laws, and would maintain the Protestant religion as it had been established in the times of Elizabeth and his father." "This," he added, "I will do, if need be, to the hazard of my life and all that is dear to me." Charles In these words Charles took up the challenge of the Remonstrance. What Nicholas had been ordered to circulate privately amongst the peers was now announced in open day. takes up the There was to be no surrender, no attempt to concilichallenge. ate opponents, no place for Puritanism in the English Church. Yet even in this definite call to battle words were heard ominous of failure. "I see," said Charles, "that all these Thinks that former tumults and disorders have only risen from the meaner sort of people, and that the affections of the better and main part of the City have ever been loyal and affectionate to my person and government." It was cha the better sort are on his side. These unsigned recommendations are amongst the State Papers, written on the same paper with a letter dated Oct. 23, but evidently themselves written after Nov. 8. They contain the first mention that I have found of the phrase "King Pym." If the City is gained by the King, it is said, it will be 'engaged to stand by him against the Irish Rebellion; and whereas King Pym will undertake the Irish war, if he may have the disposal of all the English Councillors and Officers of State, His Majesty may refuse those propositions with safety, having now gained the City; for if any such bargain should go on with King Pym, he cannot undertake anything without the City, and, by the way the King is, hath enabled himself to do the work.' racteristic of him to rest upon the organisation of society rather than on the spiritual forces by which society is inspired. The applause of the citizens. That day. at least, no shade passed over Charles's self-satisfaction. The Lord Mayor was knighted, and rose up Sir Richard Gurney. Amidst shouts, perhaps heartfelt enough at the time, of "God bless and long live King Charles and Queen Mary!" the Royal pair were conducted to Guildhall. The conduits in Cornhill and Cheapside ran with claret. At last the stately procession reached its destination. There was a splendid banquet and another gorgeous procession through the streets, amidst fresh acclamations from the crowd. That night Charles slept again at Whitehall.' 1 Nalson, ii. 674. According to the verses by J. H., printed with King Charles, his Entertainment (E. 177), the King's partisans expected from him three things; the lowering of the pretensions of the majority of the Commons, a check to Popery, and the overthrow of the sects. "Those demy powers of Parliament which strove, In our King's absence, to express their love Brownists, Arminians, Separatists, and those Or else a relic of the Pope. All these shall have their wishes, they shall see The Church now cleansed from all impurity." 6 The line threatening a regal judgment and a legal grave' has special significar.ce. It would show, if nothing else did, that the plan of impeaching the Parliamentary leaders was already floating before the minds of Charles's followers. The whole passage is worthy of study. In my opinion it expresses the mind of the King's party far better than the The King Parliament ary guard. Nov. 26. Nov. 27. Charles's first step was to dismiss the guard which had been placed round the two Houses, under command of Essex, whose commission had expired at the King's return. At this dismisses the the Commons took umbrage, and induced the Lords to join them in a petition requesting that the guard might remain till they had time to give reasons for its retention. The King replied that 'to secure them not only from real, but even imaginary dangers,' he had ordered Dorset to appoint some of the trained bands to guard them for a few days, to give them time to prepare their reasons. If he were then convinced, he would continue this protection to them, and also take such a course as might be fit for the safety of his own person.1 Dorset's guard. the Militia Bill. to arms. Nov. 29. orders the Before this answer reached the Commons the House was deeply agitated. Strode, ever impetuous, had moved for putNov. 28. ting the kingdom in 'a posture of defence, and for The germ of the commanding of the arms thereof.'2 Mutual distrust had already produced the thought of an appeal The idea of that Militia Bill on which the breach finally came, was already to be traced in Strode's words. In the temper in which men were, a collision sooner or later was inevitable. It almost came on the evening of the 29th. A crowd of Londoners thronged Palace Yard, armed Dorset with swords and staves. They shouted "No bishops!" guard to fire. at Sir John Strangways, and called on him to vote against the bishops. Dorset angrily bade his men give fire. Fortunately the order was disobeyed, and the crowd dispersed without bloodshed. The next day there was grave complaint in the House. To one party the behaviour of Dorset seemed utterly intolerable. To the other the insolence of the mob seemed no less intolerable. with inviting Strangways and Kirton charged Venn, one of the members for the City, with having sent for citizens to come armed to support the popular members as long ago as the 24th, the day on which Palmer had been called in ordinary talk of constitutional historians, about changes having gone far enough. L. F. iv. 452, 453, 455. Nov. 30. Venn charged the nio to Westminster. 2 D'Ewes's Diary, Harl. MSS. clxii. fol. 191 b. Suspicion question. It is by no means unlikely that the charge was true. It was met by the countercharge from Pym, 'that he was informed that there was a conspiracy by some members of this House to accuse other members of the same of treason.'1 that mem hers were to be charged with treason. Chillingworth accused. Measures which to one party seemed to be imperatively required in sheer self-defence seemed mere unprovoked aggression in the eyes of the other. Chillingworth, to whom for the moment the supreme danger would be that which was to be dreaded from the intolerance of Puritanism, was charged with spreading a rumour that the 'party who were against Mr. Palmer would be questioned for so great a treason as the Earl of Strafford.'2 In truth, it was easy to persuade Royalists that those who were assailing the fundamental laws of the Church were as guilty as he who had assailed the fundamental laws of the State. reasons for demanding a Pym replied in a long array of reasons by which he proposed to support the demand for a guard in which the House Pym's could confide. He spoke of the design formed in Scotland to kill some of the Members of Parliament, guard. and of a similar design in London. To this, he said, the more credit was to be given from the discovery of the former plot to bring up the army against Parliament. Then, too, there was the conspiracy in Ireland, and the rumours that this, too, had branches in England. There were also reports from beyond the seas that there would soon be a great alteration in religion, and the necks of both the Parliaments will be broken.' Scarcely had these reasons been presented to the House when it was ascertained that Dorset's men had been withdrawn. The Commons at once took the matter into their 1 D'Ewes's Diary, Harl. MSS. clxii. fol. 200. Compare a statement in the Clarendon MSS. (1542), I suppose by Hyde, of what he was ready to prove. He says that Venn's wife showed a letter brought unto her by one of the members of the House from her husband, and that he had witnesses to prove his assertions, who were many days attending at the door to justify' his statements, but they never would call him in, although I moved it often.' 6 2 D'Ewes's Diary, Harl. MSS. clxii. fol. 199 b. |