[446] “Instructions for members of Parliament summoned for March 21, 1681, and to be held at Oxford.”
[447] North, Examen 100–102. Reresby, Memoirs 204. S.P. Dom. Charles II 415: 37. Answer of the Earl of Essex, January 27, 1681. 66, The Earl of Craven’s proposition, February 14, 1681. “About the disposing of the king’s forces.” 126, Information of Mr. John Wendham of Thetford against Wm. Harbord, M.P. 156, Quarters of his Majesty’s forces, March 22, 1681. Luttrell, Brief Relation i. 70. Ralph i. 562, 563. Sitwell, First Whig 144, 145. Klopp II. 308. And see the trial of Stephen Colledge 8 State Trials 549–724.
[448] Barillon, January 13/23, 1679.
[449] Barillon, passim. There was however talk of the negotiations in diplomatic circles. Brosch 452.
[450] North, Examen 104, 105. Barillon March 28/April 7, 1681. Beaufort MSS. 83. Reresby, Memoirs 207–211. Ralph i. 570–580. Parl. Hist. iv. 1298–1339. Airy, Charles II 257. Ailesbury, Memoirs i. 57. Luttrell, Brief Relation i. 72. “Some are pleased to call it the Jewish Parliament, it being dissolved on the eighth day, alluding to that people’s manner of circumcision on the eighth day.”
[451] Lord Grey’s confession 12, 13, 14. North, Examen 105.
[452] It is remarkable that every one thought he understood Charles and that most who opposed him paid in the end the penalty of their mistake by failure. Only the most acute indeed were able to realise the strength of the character which they began by thinking weak. Thus Courtin believed that Charles could do nothing but what his subjects wanted. Jusserand, A French Ambassador 150. Barillon, with the possible exception of Gremonville, the ablest of Louis XIV’s diplomatists, whom Ranke compares to the Spanish ambassador Mendoza of the time of the League, thought when he first came to England that he could in every instance measure Charles’ weight in the balance. Before the Popish Plot had ceased its course, he perceived that he could not. He writes on January 15/25, 1680: Il est fort difficile de pénétrer quel est dans le fonds son véritable dessein. Again on September 9/19 of the same year; Le Roi de la Grande Bretagne a une conduite si cachée et si difficile à pénétrer que les plus habiles y sont trompés. And again on January 13/23, 1681: Je ne puis encore expliquer aver certitude à V.M. l’état des affaires de ce pays-ci. Ceux qui approchent de plus près du Roi d’Angleterre ne pénètrent point le fonds de ses intentions. See too Burnet II 409 n. 3, 467 n.
[453] If Pemberton is counted.
[454] Pilgrimage of Grace; Insurrection in West; Kent; Wyatt; Rising in North; Essex; Penruddock; Booth, 1659; Venner; Monmouth.
[455] See the evidence of Lord Ferrers against Southall at the trial of Lord Stafford. 7 State Trials 1485.