This was tender ground, and Sir John Finch the Speaker, who was a regular courtier, immediately said he had a command from his majesty to adjourn the House till the following Tuesday week. Several members declared the message to be vexatious and out of order, for that adjournment was a function of their own; but since the Speaker had delivered the message and that was sufficient, they would settle a few matters, and do as his majesty desired. Sir John Eliot produced a remonstrance addressed to the king against levying tonnage and poundage, and desired the Speaker to read it; but he refused, saying the House was adjourned by the king. Eliot then desired the Clerk of the House to read it, but he also refused, and so Sir John read it himself; but the Speaker refused to put it to the vote. Selden then told the Speaker that if he would not put the question to the vote, they would all continue sitting still. The Speaker, however, declared that he had his majesty's command immediately to rise when he had delivered the message; whereupon he was rising, but Holles, the son of the Earl of Clare, and Valentine, who had placed themselves on each side of him for the purpose, held him down in his chair. He made a great outcry and resistance: several of the courtiers rushed to his assistance, but Holles swore that he should sit as long as they pleased. The doors were locked, and there was a scuffle and blows, but the Opposition members compelled the Speaker to continue sitting, notwithstanding his struggles, tears, and entreaties.
JOHN SELDEN. (From the Portrait by the Elder Mytens.)
Selden delivered an address to the imprisoned Speaker on his duties and his obedience owed to the House which sat under the Great Seal, and had power of adjournment as the king had that of prorogation. Sir Peter Hayman told him that he blushed at being his kinsman, that he was a blot on his family, and would be held in scorn and contempt by posterity; and concluded by recommending that if he would not do his duty, he should be brought to the bar of the House, dismissed, and another chosen at once in his place. Mr. Holles proceeded to read the following set of resolutions, which were loudly cheered, and assented to by the House, namely:—1, That whoever shall seek to bring in Popery, Arminianism, or other opinions, disagreeing from the true and orthodox Church, shall be reputed a capital enemy to this kingdom and Commonwealth; 2, Whoever shall advise the taking of tonnage and poundage, not being granted by Parliament, or shall be an actor or instrument therein, shall be reputed a capital enemy to this kingdom and Parliament; 3, Whatever merchant or other person shall pay tonnage and poundage, not being granted by Parliament, shall be reputed a betrayer of the liberties of England, and an enemy to the same.
Whilst these extraordinary scenes were acting, the king had come down to the House of Lords, but not finding the Speaker there as he expected, sent a messenger to bring away the sergeant with his mace, without which there could be no House. The doors were locked, and the messenger could get no admittance. Charles then sent the Usher of the Black Rod to summon the Commons to his presence, but he could no more obtain an entrance than the messenger. On hearing this, in a transport of rage, the king ordered the Captain of the Guard to break open the door; but this catastrophe was prevented by the House just then adjourning to the 10th of March, according to the king's message.
On the 10th of March the king went to the House of Lords, and, without summoning the Commons, proceeded to dissolve Parliament. He then addressed the Lords, complaining grievously of the conduct of the Commons, which compelled him at that time to dissolve Parliament. He expressed much comfort in the Lords, and conceded that there were in the Commons many who were as dutiful and loyal subjects as any in the world, but that they had some "vipers" amongst them that created all this trouble. He intimated that these evil-disposed persons would meet with their rewards, and bade the Lord Keeper do as he had commanded. Then the Lord Keeper said, "My lords, and gentlemen of the Commons, the king's majesty doth dissolve this Parliament;" though the Commons, with the exception of a few individuals, were not there, nor represented by their Speaker.
This question of the right of the Commons to determine their own adjournment, and to deny to the king the right of preventing the Speaker from putting any question from the Chair, was a vital one, and hitherto undetermined. If the king could at any moment adjourn the Commons as well as prorogue Parliament altogether, and could decide what topics should be entertained by the House, there was an end of the existence of the Commons as an independent branch of the Legislature: it sunk at once into the mere creature of the Crown. There was a great battle for this as for other popular rights, and the determined conduct of the members showed that things were coming fast to a crisis. But at this moment Charles was as resolved to conquer the Parliament, as Parliament was not to be conquered.
No sooner did this unprecedented scene with the Speaker take place, than he adopted measures to punish those most prominently concerned in it. The compulsory detention of the Speaker took place on the 2nd of March; on the 5th he issued warrants to arrest the "vipers"—Eliot, Selden, Holles, Valentine, Hobart, Hayman, Coriton, Long, and Stroud—and commit them to the Tower or other prisons. Stroud and Long were not immediately caught, but on the issue of a proclamation for their apprehension they surrendered. The houses of Eliot, Holles, Selden, Long, and Valentine were forcibly entered, their desks broken open, and their papers seized. On the first day of Michaelmas term they were brought into court, and ordered to find bail, and also to give security for their good behaviour. They were all ready to give bail, but all positively refused to give security for good behaviour, as that implied the commission of some crime, which they denied. They were then put upon their trial, but excepted to the jurisdiction of the court, being amenable only to their own high court of Parliament for what was done therein. But they were told that their conduct had not been parliamentary, and that the common law could deal with all offences there by word or deed, as well as anywhere else. This was another attack on the privileges of Parliament, which, if allowed, would have finished its independence; and these were not the men to surrender any of the outworks and defences of Parliament. They were then sentenced as follows:—Sir John Eliot to be imprisoned in the Tower, the others in other prisons at the king's pleasure. None of them were to be delivered out of prison till they had given security for their good behaviour, acknowledged their offence, and paid the following fines:—Sir John Eliot, as the ring-leader and chief offender, two thousand pounds; Holles, one thousand marks; Valentine, five hundred pounds. Long was not included in this trial, but was prosecuted in the Star Chamber, on the plea that he had no business in Parliament, being pricked for sheriff of his county, and by his oath was bound to have been there. He was fined one thousand marks. This, however, deceived nobody: every one knew that the offence for which he suffered was for his conduct in Parliament. The prisoners lay in gaol for eighteen months. Sir John Eliot never came out again. His noble conduct had made deadly enemies of the king and his courtiers, and even when he was dying, in 1632, after three years' confinement, they rejoiced in his melancholy fate and refused all petitions for his release.
Charles called no more Parliaments till 1640, but went on for eleven years fighting his way towards the block, through the most maniacal attempts on the constitution and temper of the nation. Laud was in the ascendant, and Wentworth, lately a member of the Opposition, who had now changed sides from motives that it would be absurd not to call conscientious, gave his great talents to the Court party. Laud was as much a stickler for the power of the Church as Charles was of the State; their views coincided, and Charles, Laud, and Wentworth, worked shoulder to shoulder in governing without a Parliament. They invented a cant term between them to express what they aimed at, and the means by which they pursued it. It was "Thorough."
Laud had introduced a passage into the ceremonial even of the coronation, which astonished the hearers, and showed even then that he aimed at an ecclesiastical despotism: "Stand and hold fast from henceforth the place to which you have been heir by the succession of your forefathers, being now delivered to you by the authority of God Almighty, and by the hands of us all, and all the bishops and servants of God. And as you see the clergy to come nearer the altar than others, so remember that, in all places convenient, you give them greater honour," etc. This haughty prelate now promulgated such absolute doctrines of divine right of king and priest, and began to run in ceremonies and Church splendour so fast towards actual Popery, that the daughter of the Earl of Devonshire being asked by him why she had turned Catholic replied, "Because I hate to travel in a crowd. I perceive your Grace and many others are making haste to Rome, and therefore, in order to prevent being crowded, I have gone before you."