Cassell's History of England, Vol. 2 (of 8) / From the Wars of the Roses to the Great Rebellion

by Anonymous

CHARLES SIGNING THE COMMISSION OF ASSENT TO STRAFFORD'S ATTAINDER. (See p. [603].)

After the long breach of the law that the king shall not levy taxes without consent of Parliament; after the long exercise of the arbitrary power of the Star Chamber and the High Commission Court, where Magna Charta was utterly set aside; after the brandings, the lopping off of ears, the slitting of noses, and the fining and imprisonment of the subject at the king's pleasure, these assertions show how utterly regardless of truth this king was. He then admitted that Strafford was guilty of great misdemeanours. "Therefore," he said, "I hope you may find some middle way to satisfy justice and your own fears, and not to press upon my conscience. My lords, I hope you know what a tender thing conscience is. To satisfy my people I would do great matters, but in this of conscience, no fear, no respect whatever, shall ever make me go against it. Certainly, I have not so ill-deserved of the Parliament this time that they should press me on this tender point." He proposed that Strafford should be rendered incapable hereafter of holding any place of trust or honour under the Crown.

But the very declarations which he had made in this address were so untrue, that every one must have felt that as long as Strafford lived there was no security against his return to power. The Commons, however, took up the matter in another manner. On their return to their own House—the king had not recognised their presence by a single observation in the other—they instantly passed a resolution, declaring the king's interference with any bill before either House of Parliament, a most flagrant abuse of their privileges. This was Saturday, and the next day the ministers, Scottish and Puritan, took up the subject in their pulpits, and roused their hearers to a sense of their danger, only to be averted by the death of the arch-traitor. On Monday the population poured out in a vast concourse, and directed their steps towards Westminster. Six thousand infuriated people surrounded the Houses of Parliament, armed with clubs and staves, crying out for justice on the prisoner.

At this moment Pym was haranguing the House of Commons on the discovery of the plot to debauch the army, and informing them, moreover, that there was already a strong body of French troops assembled on the opposite coast, and that it was declared to be their intention to take possession of Jersey and Guernsey, and to land at Portsmouth. This was so far true that Montague, a favourite of the queen's, had been despatched to the French court, a fleet had assembled on the coast of Brittany, and an army in Flanders. Montreuil had endeavoured to convince the popular leaders, through the Earl of Holland, that the army was destined for the war in the Netherlands, and the fleet to protect the coasts of Portugal. Their being so near this country, however, was sufficient to justify the popular suspicion, and the public excitement continued to increase. Montague was advised to seek his safety by flight, and the queen was so terrified that she ordered her carriages to Whitehall to flee to Portsmouth. The Lords, however, prevented this by a remonstrance to the king, and thereby probably saved the queen's life from the enraged mob; for it was now that the disclosures of Colonel Goring of the Army Plot became public.

Pym seized the opportunity of this occurrence to press on the Commons a resolution to the effect that the seaports should be closed, and that the king should command that neither the queen, the prince, nor any person attending upon his majesty, should leave London without the permission of the king, acting on the advice of his Parliament. This was passed, and Pym then called on them to make a solemn Protestation, after the manner of the Scottish Covenant, which should be taken by the whole House, binding them by a vow, in the presence of God, to maintain and defend his majesty's royal person and estate, as well as the power and privileges of Parliament, the lawful rights and liberties of the subject, the peace and union of the three kingdoms against all plots, conspiracies, and evil practices, and that neither hope, fear, nor any other respect, should induce them to relinquish this promise, vow, and protestation. It was instantly signed by the Speaker, and by every member present.

The Commons next addressed a letter to the army in the North, assuring them that, notwithstanding the attempts to corrupt them, Parliament relied on their fidelity, and would take care to furnish their pay. They ordered the forces in Wiltshire and Hampshire to advance nearer to Portsmouth, and those in Kent and Sussex to draw towards Dover, and declared any man advising the introduction of foreign troops to be an enemy to his country. These resolutions they despatched with the Protestation to the Upper House by Denzil Holles, calling on the whole House to subscribe to the Protestation. The next morning, being the 4th of May, the Lords desired a conference with the Commons, and informed them of a message from the king, desiring that the intimidation of the mobs might be withdrawn, that the deliberation of the Parliament might be free; and as the peers proposed to take the Protestation unanimously, Dr. Burgess, a popular preacher, was sent out to inform the people of this, and to desire that they would peaceably withdraw to their own homes. The crowds, on this assurance, melted rapidly away. The Protestation was then sent out to be subscribed by the whole nation, as the Covenant had been in Scotland, and with the intimation that any one declining to adopt it should be looked upon as an enemy to his country. To complete their security, the Commons passed a Bill that Parliament should on no account be dissolved without the consent of both Houses.

The next day, on a false alarm that the House of Commons was in danger, the train-bands, headed by Colonel Mainwaring, marched with beat of drum to Westminster; it proved an unnecessary caution, but one that convinced the peers and the king that any resistance to the Commons, backed by the public, was useless. The very next day the news was circulated in Parliament that six or eight dangerous conspirators had fled, amongst them Jermyn, the queen's favourite, and Percy, both members of the Commons, and that the queen was still bent, if opportunity could be found, of escaping too. On the following day, May 7th, the peers voted by a majority that the fifteenth and nineteenth charges against Strafford were proved, namely, that he had quartered soldiers on the peaceable inhabitants of Ireland contrary to law, and had imposed on his own authority an illegal oath on all Scotsmen living in that country. Thereupon they consulted the judges, who unanimously decided that Strafford deserved to suffer the pains and penalties of treason. The Catholics kept away from the House because they would not take the Protestation, and therefore bore no part in Strafford's condemnation. The Bill was passed by a majority of twenty-six to nineteen. The following morning, May 8th, the Bill of Attainder was read a third time and passed; and, at the same time, the Lords also passed the Bill of the Commons against the dissolution of Parliament.

Charles was now reduced to a pitiable condition. On the one hand, he had solemnly pledged himself, both to Strafford and to Parliament, never to consent to the earl's death; but, on the other hand, the two Houses had pronounced against him, and the public was waiting with impatience for his ratification of the sentence. He had lately seen the ominous assemblage of the people, and the march of the City bands to support Parliament; the Scots still lay in the North, waiting with fierce desire for the fall of their enemy; one signal, and the whole country would be in a blaze. The Bill was passed on Saturday, and perhaps never was a Sunday spent by any man, or any house, in so dreadful a state as that passed by Charles and his family. The only alternative left him was to summon his Privy Council, and submit to them his difficulty. But from them he derived very little comfort. The members in general urged on him the necessity of complying with the demand of both Houses of Parliament, and the manifest desire of the public, who were again loudly declaring that they would have either the head of Strafford or the king's. The bishops strongly urged the same arguments; the terror of the Parliament and the people was upon them.

Williams, the old bishop of Lincoln, who had been treated with stern severity by both Strafford and Laud, told the king, when he talked of his conscience, that there was a public as well as a private conscience; that he had discharged his private conscience by doing all in his power to save the earl, and he might now exercise his public conscience by conceding to the decision of his Parliament; that the question now was not about saving Strafford, but about saving himself, his queen, and family. Juxon, Bishop of London, alone had the courage to tell him boldly not to consent to the shedding of the blood of a man whom in his conscience he felt to be innocent. Ussher of Armagh, Morton of Durham, and another bishop, advised him to be guided by the opinion of the judges. The judges being then asked, repeated their judgment that the case, as put to them by the Lords, amounted to treason. Thus borne down by all parties, Charles reluctantly gave way, and late in the evening, though he would not directly sign his assent to the Bill, he signed a commission to several lords to give the assent. Even in this last act his friends endeavoured to console him with the assurance that "his own hand was not in it." It was a miserable subterfuge, for the deed was equally valid, and he executed it with tears, declaring the condition of Strafford happier than his own.