[250] Parl. Hist. iii. 68, 94; Clarendon; May; Whitelock. If we believe the last (p. 68), the king, who took as usual a very active part in the discussions upon this treaty, would frequently have been inclined to come into an adjustment of terms; if some of the more war-like spirits about him (glancing apparently at Rupert) had not over persuaded his better judgment. This, however, does not accord with what Clarendon tells us of the queen's secret influence, nor indeed with all we have reason to believe of the king's disposition during the war.
[251] Life of Clarendon, p. 79. This induced the king to find pretexts for avoiding the cessation, and was the real cause of his refusal to restore the Earl of Northumberland to his post of lord admiral during this treaty of Oxford, which was urged by Hyde. That peer was, at this time, and for several months afterwards, inclining to come over to the king; but, on the bad success of Holland and Bedford in their change of sides, he gave into the opposite course of politics, and joined the party of Lords Say and Wharton, in determined hostility to the king.
Dr. Lingard has lately thrown doubts upon this passage in Clarendon, but upon grounds which I do not clearly understand. Hist. of Engl. x. 208, note. That no vestige of its truth should appear, as he observes, in the private correspondence between Charles and his consort (if he means the letters taken at Naseby, and I know no other), is not very singular; as the whole of that correspondence is of a much later date.
[252] I cannot discover in the Journals any division on this impeachment. But Hollis inveighs against it in his memoirs as one of the flagrant acts of St. John's party; and there is an account of the debate on this subject in the Somers Tracts, v. 500; whence it appears that it was opposed by Maynard, Waller, Whitelock, and others; but supported by Pym, Strode, Long, Glynn, and by Martin with his usual fury and rudeness. The first of these carried up the impeachment to the House of Lords.
This impeachment was not absolutely lost sight of for some time. In January 1644, the Lords appointed a committee to consider what mode of proceeding for bringing the queen to trial was most agreeable to a parliamentary way, and to peruse precedents. Parl. Hist. 194.
[253] Parl. Hist. 129.
[254] Parl. Hist. 133, June 20; Clarendon, iv. 155. He published, however, a declaration soon after the taking of Bristol, containing full assurances of his determination to govern by the known laws. Parl. Hist. 144.
[255] Clarend. iv. 192, 262; Whitelock, 70. They met with a worse reception at Westminster than at Oxford, as indeed they had reason to expect. A motion that the Earl of Holland should be sent to the Tower was lost in the Commons by only one voice. Parl. Hist. 180. They were provoked at his taking his seat without permission. After long refusing to consent, the Lords agreed to an ordinance (June 29, 1644) that no peer or commoner who had been in the king's quarters, should be admitted again to sit in either house. Parl. Hist. 271. This severity was one cause of Essex's discontent, which was increased when the Commons refused him leave to take Holland with him on his expedition into the west that summer. Baillie, i. 426; Whitelock, 87. If it be asked why this Roman rigour was less impolitic in the parliament than in the king, I can only answer, that the stronger and the weaker have different measures to pursue. But relatively to the pacification of the kingdom, upon such terms as fellow-citizens ought to require from each other, it was equally blamable in both parties, or rather more so in that possessed of the greater power.
[256] It is intimated by Clarendon that some at Oxford, probably Jermyn and Digby, were jealous of Holland's recovering the influence he had possessed with the queen, who seems to have retained no resentment against him. As to Bedford and Clare, they would probably have been better received, if not accompanied by so obnoxious an intriguer of the old court. This seems to account for the unanimity which the historian describes to have been shown in the council against their favourable reception. Light and passionate tempers, like that of Henrietta, are prone to forget injuries; serious and melancholic ones, like that of Charles, never lose sight of them.
[257] Baillie deplores at this time "the horrible fears and confusions in the city, the king everywhere being victorious. In the city, a strong and insolent party for him."—P. 391. "The malignants stirred a multitude of women of the meaner and more infamous rank to come to the door of both houses, and cry tumultuously for peace on any terms. This tumult could not be suppressed but by violence, and killing some three or four women, and hurting some of them, and imprisoning many."—P. 300.