CHAPTER IX. THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION AND THE COMMONWEALTH (1603-1658).
JAMES I.—James VI. of Scotland, and I. of England, was the son of Mary Stuart and Darnley. Scotland and England were now united under one king. He was not wanting in acquirements, and plumed himself on his knowledge of theology. A conceited pedant, he was impatient of dissent from his opinions. In Scotland, among insubordinate nobles and the ministers of the Kirk,—who on one occasion went so far as to pull his sleeve when they addressed to him their rebukes,—he had hardly tasted the sweets of regal power. The deference with which the English clergy treated him deepened his attachment to their Church. He had high notions of the divine right of kings. "No bishop, no king," was his favorite maxim. Early, in the Hampton Court Conference between the bishops and the Puritans, over which James presided, he showed his antipathy to the Puritans. It may be here stated, that a suggestion there made led to the making of the Authorized Version of the Bible, for which previous translations, especially the translation of Tyndale, furnished the basis. The king's severity to the Catholics was the occasion of the "Gunpowder Plot," a project that failed, for blowing up the Parliament House by means of powder placed under it, to which one Guy Fawkes was to apply the match (1605).
IRELAND.—The Earl of Tyrone, an Irish chief, fell into a dispute with the English authorities, and, with another Irish earl, fled to Spain. The best of their lands in Ulster were given to English and Scotch colonists. Only what was left of the land was granted to the Irish, many of whom were dispossessed of their homes. The Ulster colonies were industrious and prosperous; but among the natives, seeds of lasting enmity were sown by this injustice.
JAMES'S FOREIGN POLICY.—The nation became imbittered against the king. One grievance was the sale not only of patents of nobility, but also of monopolies to companies or individuals. This was a continuance of an old abuse. The trial and conviction of Lord Bacon, the Lord Chancelor, who was impeached on the charge of receiving presents which were intended to influence his decisions as a judge, was one evidence of the corruption of the times, and of the displeasure occasioned by it. Instead of aiding his son-in-law, Frederick V., the Elector Palatine, whose dominions had been seized by a Spanish army sent to aid his enemies, James busied himself with schemes for marrying his son Charles to the Infanta, or Princess, Maria of Spain, the sister of Philip IV. As a part of his truckling to Spain, he caused Sir Walter Raleigh to be executed. Raleigh, who had no love for Spain, had long been kept in the Tower on the charge of treason; but the king, who wanted gold, had permitted him to go on a voyage to South America to seek for it. There, without his fault, some of his men had a collision with the Spaniards, up the Orinoco. Not having procured any treasure, he was disposed to attack Spanish ships; but the captains with him would not consent. On his return to England, he was again thrown into prison, and brought to the block. At length the marriage treaty with Spain, to the joy of the nation, was broken off. Charles, it was agreed, should marry Henrietta Maria, the sister of Louis XIII., the king of France. The king came to a better understanding with Parliament, which had constantly opposed his policy and withstood his arrogant assumption of absolute authority.
CHARLES I. (1625-1649).—Charles I. in dignity of person far excelled his father. He had more skill and more courage; but he had the same theory of arbitrary government, and acted as if insincerity and the breaking of promises were excusable in defense of it. His strife with Parliament began at once. They would not grant supplies of money without a redress of grievances and the removal of Buckingham, the king's favorite. War had begun with Spain before the close of the last reign. An expedition was now sent to Cadiz, but it accomplished nothing. Buckingham was impeached; but before the trial ended, the king dissolved Parliament. A year later he went to war with France. He was then obliged (1628) to grant to his third Parliament their Petition of Right, which condemned his recent illegal doings,—arbitrary taxes and imprisonment, the billeting of soldiers on householders, proceedings of martial law. A few months later Buckingham was assassinated by one John Felton at Portsmouth. Certain taxes called tonnage and poundage, Charles continued to levy by his own authority. A patriotic leader and a prominent speaker in the House of Commons was Sir John Eliot. The king dissolved Parliament (1629), and sent Eliot and two other members of the House to prison. No other Parliament was summoned for eleven years. The king aimed to establish an absolute system of rule such as Richelieu had built up in France. Two ministers were employed by him in furthering this policy. One was a layman, Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, who exercised almost unlimited power in the northern counties. The other was William Laud, Bishop of London and then Archbishop of Canterbury (1633), who undertook to force the Puritans to conform to all the observances of the Church. Two courts—the High Commission, before which the clergy were brought; and the Star Chamber, which was made up from the king's council—were the instruments for carrying out this tyranny. Grievous and shameful punishments were inflicted on the victims of it.
JOHN HAMPDEN.—There was need of a fleet. Charles, without asking any grant from Parliament, undertook to levy a tax called "ship-money" in every shire. John Hampden, a country gentleman, refused to pay it. The judges gave a verdict against him, but he won great applause from patriotic Englishmen.
BEGINNING OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT.—In 1637 Charles embarked in the foolish enterprise of endeavoring to force the English liturgy upon Scotland. This called out the Solemn League and Covenant of the Scots for the defense of Presbyterianism. For eleven years the king had governed without a Parliament, but he needed money. The "Short Parliament" was assembled; but, as it refused to obey the king, it was quickly dissolved. The invasion of the Scots in 1640 made it necessary for Charles to assemble that body known as the Long Parliament, one of the most memorable of all legislative assemblies. Strafford and Laud were impeached. Strafford, by a bill of attainder passed by both Houses, was condemned and executed (1641). It was enacted that the present Parliament should not be dissolved or prorogued without its own consent,—an act which Charles reluctantly sanctioned. The Star Chamber and High Commission Courts were abolished. A great Irish insurrection broke out in Ulster. It has already been related how Henry VIII. established in Ireland his ecclesiastical system; how, during Elizabeth's reign, there was fierce and incessant war with the Desmonds, and other Anglo-Irish families, who resisted Protestantism; and how James I., robbing many Irish of their lands, planted in Ulster numerous English and Scotch Protestant settlers. These were now massacred in great numbers by the Irish, who almost succeeded in seizing Dublin. Parliament would not trust Charles with an army to use in Ireland, fearing that the troops would be used by him to defend his arbitrary government at home. The king came to the House of Commons with a body of armed men, and made an abortive attempt to seize five members on the charge of resisting his authority, among whom were John Hampden, and John Pym, who was one of the most influential orators on the popular side. A bill was passed excluding the bishops from the House of Lords, where a majority were for the king. To this Charles consented, but he refused to allow Parliament to control the militia.
The CIVIL WAR: SUCCESS OF CROMWELL.—In July, 1642, Parliament appointed a Committee of Public Safety, and called out the militia. Soon Charles raised the royal standard at Nottingham. In the civil war, on one side were the Royalists, who were familiarly styled cavaliers (that is, horsemen, or gentlemen), and on the other were the Parliamentarians, who were nicknamed Roundheads, for the reason that the Puritans did not follow the fashion of allowing their hair to fall in tresses on the shoulders.
The Earl of Essex, the Parliamentary general, fought an indecisive battle with the king at Edgehill. Charles then made Oxford his headquarters. Early in the war, two men of spotless character fell,—Hampden, on the popular side (1643), and Lord Falkland (1643), who, not without hesitation, had joined the Royalists. The cavalry of Charles, under a gallant but rash leader, Prince Rupert, son of the Electress Palatine, and grandson of James I., was specially effective. Charles made peace with the Irish insurgents in order to get their help in fighting Parliament. Parliament united with the Scots in the Solemn League and Covenant, by which there was to be uniformity in religion in England, Ireland, and Scotland.
PRESBYTERIANS AND INDEPENDENTS.—Presbyterianism was now made the legal system; and about two thousand beneficed clergymen in England, who refused to subscribe to the Covenant, were deprived of their livings. The Westminster Assembly met in 1643, and organized a church system without bishops and without the liturgy. But Parliament did not give up its own supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs. There was no "General Assembly" to rule the Church, as in Scotland. Another party, the Independents, were gaining strength, and by degrees getting control in the army. Of their number was Oliver Cromwell, a gentleman of Huntingdonshire, who had been a member of the House of Commons, where he spoke for the first time in 1629.
CROMWELL: NASEBY.—By many of his adversaries, and by numerous writers since that day, Cromwell has been considered a hypocrite in religion, actuated by personal ambition. The Puritan poet, John Milton, who became his secretary after he acquired supreme power, gives to him the warmest praise for integrity and piety, as well as for genius and valor. Of his religious earnestness after the Puritan type, and of his sincere patriotism, there is at present much less doubt. As to the transcendent ability and sagacity that lay beneath a rugged exterior, there has never been any question. He raised and trained a regiment of Puritan troops, called the "Ironsides," who were well-nigh invincible in battle, but whose camp was a "conventicle" for prayer and praise. With their help, the Royalists were defeated at Marston Moor (1644). The army was now modeled anew by the Independents. The Self-denying Ordinance excluded members of Parliament from military command. Cromwell was made an exception. He came to the front, with no other general except Fairfax, who had replaced Essex, above him. Laud was condemned for high treason by an ordinance of Parliament, and beheaded (1645). The Royalist army experienced a crushing defeat at Naseby in June of the same year.
TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF CHARLES.—Charles surrendered to the army of the Scots before Newark (1646); and by them he was delivered for a ransom, in the form of an indemnity for war expenses, to their English allies. The king hoped much from the growing discord between the Presbyterians, who favored an accommodation with him if they could preserve their ecclesiastical system; and the Independents, who controlled the army, and were in favor of toleration, and of obtaining more guaranties of liberty against regal usurpation. In June, 1647, the army took the king out of the hands of Parliament, into their own custody. He negotiated with all parties, and was trusted by none. In 1648 he agreed, in a secret treaty with the Scots, to restore Presbyterianism. There were Royalist risings in different parts of England, which Cromwell suppressed. He defeated at Preston Pans a Scotch army, led into England by the Duke of Hamilton to help Charles. Cromwell's army were now determined to baffle the plans of the Parliamentary majority. Col. Pride, with a regiment of foot, excluded from the House of Commons about a hundred members. This measure, dictated by a council of officers, was called Pride's Purge. The Commons closed the House of Lords, and constituted a High Court of Justice for the trial of the king. He refused to acknowledge the tribunal, and behaved with calmness and dignity to the end. He was condemned, and beheaded on a scaffold before his own palace at Whitehall, Jan. 30, 1649. By one party he was execrated as a tyrant, whose life was a constant danger to freedom. By the other party he was revered as a martyr. His two eldest sons were Charles, born in 1630, and James, born in 1633.
THE COMMONWEALTH.—The monarchy was now abolished; and England was a free commonwealth, governed by the House of Commons. A council of state, under the presidency of Bradshaw, who had presided at the trial of the king, was appointed to carry on the government. In Ireland, a rebellion in behalf of young Charles, son of the late king, was organized by Butler, Marquis of Ormond (1649). In nine months Cromwell subdued it, treating the insurgents with unsparing severity. There was a savage massacre of the garrisons at Drogheda and Wexford. The massacre at Drogheda was by his orders. Soldiers of Parliament were settled in Munster, Leinster, and Ulster. The country was reduced to complete subjection. In 1650 Charles landed in Scotland, subscribed to the Covenant, and was proclaimed king. Cromwell fought the Scots at Dunbar, and totally routed them. Returning to England, he overtook Charles and his army at Worcester, and defeated them (1651). Cromwell called this victory "a crowning mercy." Charles escaped in disguise, and, after strange perils and adventures, landed in Normandy.
WAR WITH HOLLAND.—England, under its new government, engaged in a contest for dominion on the sea. The new order of things, contrary to the expectation of Cromwell, was regarded with hostility in Holland, where the Orange family were in power. In 1651 the English Navigation Act, requiring all goods from abroad to be brought in, either in English ships, or in ships of the countries on the Continent in which the imported wares were produced, struck a heavy blow at Dutch commerce. War followed, in which the great Dutch admirals, Van Tromp, De Ruyter, De Witt, found more than a match in the English commander, Blake. The terms of peace were dictated by Cromwell, and Holland had to attach itself to his policy (1654).
THE LORD PROTECTOR.—There was a growing discord between the unworthy remnant of the Parliament—now called the "Rump Parliament"—and the army. In 1653 Cromwell used his military force to dissolve the assembly. By the "Little Parliament" which he called together, he was constituted Lord Protector, with a Council of State composed of twenty-five members. Later he declined the title of king, out of respect to the feelings and prejudices of his party. But he reigned in state, and exercised regal functions. His attempts to restore the old forms of parliamentary government, in an orderly form, with two houses, were baffled by difficulties beyond control. He insisted on a large degree of toleration, so long as "religion was not made a pretense for arms and blood."
CROMWELL'S GOVERNMENT.—Under the Protector, England once more took the proud and commanding place in Europe which she had not held since the death of Elizabeth. Cromwell made his power to be everywhere respected. Blake chastised the pirates of the Barbary States, and punished the Duke of Tuscany for attacks on English commerce. In 1655 Jamaica was wrested from Spain; and, two years after, Blake burned the Spanish treasure-ships in the harbor of Santa Cruz, in Teneriffe. Cromwell efficiently protected the adherents of the Protestant faith in Piedmont, and wherever they were subjected to persecution. In the last year of his life, in conjunction with the French, he took Dunkirk from the Spaniards.
POWER OF CROMWELL.—Cromwell's power was not diminished in his closing years. Macaulay, who pronounces him the greatest prince that ever ruled England, says of him, "It is certain that he was to the last honored by his soldiers, obeyed by the whole population of the British Isles, and dreaded by all foreign powers; that he was laid among the ancient sovereigns of England with funeral pomp such as England had never before seen; and that he was succeeded by his son, Richard as quietly as any king had ever been succeeded by any Prince of Wales." (1658).
The talents of Cromwell, and the vigor of his administration, deeply impressed those who heartily disliked him. A strong illustration of this fact is presented in the character of the Protector as depicted by Lord Clarendon, in the History of the Great Rebellion; and by the poet Cowley in his essay or Discourse.