CONQUEST OF IRELAND.—After the return of Essex from Ireland, where he had done nothing well, Lord Mountjoy was sent to conquer Tyrone, the Desmonds, and other Irish chiefs. It was a long and fierce contest. He succeeded in subduing the country; but the effect of his conquest was a terrible famine in the North, where the food had been destroyed. At the end of Elizabeth's reign, all Ireland was subject to England.
THE PURITANS.—Uniformity in the forms of religious worship was ordained by law in England, and the queen was bent on enforcing it. A Court of High Commission was established to punish heresy and nonconformity. This policy early brought on a conflict, not only with the Roman Catholics, but also with the large and growing class of Protestants who were called "Puritans." These wished to carry the Reformation farther than it had been carried by the Tudors in England, and to make the English Church more like the Calvinistic churches in Scotland and on the Continent. They disliked surplices and other vestments worn by the clergy, which they pronounced "badges of popery," the sign of the cross used in baptism, and like customs retained in the Church as established by law. Many of them became opposed to the whole prelatical organization. They did not admit the supremacy of the sovereign, as Elizabeth claimed it, in things having to do with the Church and religion. Many of the Puritans conformed to the existing system of Church government and worship, but under a protest and with the hope of seeing it changed. Others were nonconformists; that is, they did not formally break off from the English Church, but avoided taking part in the forms of worship of which they disapproved. This class was numerous. A third and smaller class, the "Independents," separated from the Established Church, and disbelieved in national churches, or a national organization of religion, altogether. They formed religious societies of their own. Thus English Protestants were divided among themselves. Upon both Puritans and Roman Catholics—upon the latter, partly on political grounds—severe penalties were inflicted. Churchman and Puritan, while they agreed substantially in theology, stood at variance in regard to Church government and modes of worship.
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.