CIVIL WAR IN ENGLAND.—When King James died (in 1625) he was succeeded by Charles I, under whom the old quarrel between the king and the people, which had caused the downfall of the London Company, was pushed into civil war. In 1642 Charles I took the field, raised the royal standard, and called all loyal subjects to its defense. The Parliament of England likewise raised an army, and after varying fortunes the king was defeated, captured, tried for high treason, found guilty, and beheaded (1649). England then became a republic, called the Commonwealth.
THE CAVALIERS.—While the Civil War was raging in England, Virginia (largely because of the influence of Governor Berkeley) remained loyal to the king. As the war went on and the defeats of the royal army were followed by the capture of the king, numbers of his friends, the Cavaliers, fled to Virginia. After Charles I was beheaded, more than three hundred of the nobility, gentry, and clergy of England came over in one year. No wonder, then, that the General Assembly recognized the dead king's son as King Charles II, and made it treason to doubt his right to the throne. Because of this support of the royal cause, Parliament punished Virginia by cutting off her trade, and ordered that steps be taken to reduce her to submission. A fleet was accordingly dispatched, reached Virginia early in 1652, and forced Berkeley to hand over the government to three Parliamentary commissioners. One of them was then elected governor, and Virginia had almost complete self-government till 1660, when England again became a kingdom, under Charles II.
MARYLAND, THE FIRST PROPRIETARY COLONY.—When Virginia became crown property (1624), the king could do with it what he pleased. King Charles I accordingly cut off a piece and gave it to George Calvert, Lord Baltimore. [11] This Lord Baltimore was a Catholic who had tried in vain to found a settlement in Newfoundland. He died before the patent, or deed, was drawn for the land cut off from Virginia, so (1632) it was issued to his son Cecilius, the second Lord Baltimore. The province lay north of the Potomac River and was called Maryland.
[Illustration: MARYLAND BY THE ORIGINAL PATENT.]
By the terms of the grant Lord Baltimore was to pay the king each year two arrowheads in token of homage, and as rent was to give the king one fifth of all the gold and silver mined. This done, he was proprietor of Maryland. He might coin money, grant titles, make war and peace, establish courts, appoint judges, and pardon criminals. But he was not allowed to tax the people without their consent. He had to summon a legislature to assist him in making laws, but the laws when made did not need to be sent to the king for approval.
THE FIRST SETTLERS.—The first settlement was made by a company of about twenty gentlemen and three hundred artisans and laborers. They were led and accompanied by two of Lord Baltimore's brothers, and by two Catholic priests. They came over in 1634 in two ships, the Ark and the Dove, and not far from the mouth of the Potomac founded St. Marys. In February, 1635, they held their first Assembly. To it came all freemen, both landholders and artisans, and by them a body of laws was framed and sent to the proprietor (Lord Baltimore) for approval.
SELF-GOVERNMENT BEGUN.—This was refused, and in its place the proprietor sent over a code of laws, which the Assembly in its turn rejected. The Assembly then went on and framed another set of laws. Baltimore with rare good sense now yielded the point, and gave his brother authority to assent to the laws made by the people, but reserved the right to veto. Thus was free self-government established in Maryland. [12]
TROUBLE WITH CLAIBORNE.—Before Lord Baltimore obtained his grant, William Claiborne, of Virginia, had established an Indian trading post on Kent Island in Chesapeake Bay. This fell within the limits given to Maryland; but Claiborne refused to acknowledge the authority of Baltimore, whereupon a vessel belonging to the Kent Island station was seized by the Marylanders for trading without a license. Claiborne then sent an armed boat with thirty men to capture any vessel belonging to St. Marys. This boat was itself captured, instead; but another fight soon occurred, in which Claiborne's forces beat the Marylanders. The struggle thus begun lasted for years. [13]
THE TOLERATION ACT.—The year 1649 is memorable for the passage of the Maryland Toleration Act, the first of its kind in our history. This provided that "no person or persons whatsoever within this province, professing to believe in Jesus Christ, shall from henceforth be any ways troubled, molested, or discountenanced for, or in respect to, his or her religion."
END OF THE CLAIBORNE TROUBLE.—The nine years that followed formed a stormy period for Maryland. One of the parliamentary commissioners to reduce Virginia to obedience (1652, p. 49) was our old friend Claiborne. He and the new governor of Virginia forced Baltimore's governor to resign, and set up a Protestant government which repealed the Toleration Act and disfranchised Roman Catholics. Baltimore bade his deposed governor resume office. A battle followed, the Protestant forces won, and an attempt was made to destroy the rights of Baltimore; but the English government sustained him, the Virginians were forced to submit, and the quarrel of more than twenty years' standing came to an end. Thenceforth Virginia troubled Maryland no more.