The sheriffs disputed the validity of the warrant for Stafford’s decapitation and requested the advice of the House of Commons on the following questions: “Can the king, being neither party nor judge, order the execution? Can the lords award the execution? Can the king dispense with any part of the execution? If he can dispense with a part, why not with all?” To the ingenuity of Sir William Jones was due the studied insult offered to Charles in the answer of the House: “The house is content that the sheriffs should execute William, late Viscount Stafford, by severing his head from his body.”[765] The excitement which prevailed in London was intense. Throughout the trial Stafford had been hooted in the streets on his way to and from the Tower. Angry brawls arose between the witnesses and the crowd at the doors of Westminster Hall. When Dugdale swore that the prisoner had offered him £500 to kill the king, a savage hum arose in the precincts of the court itself and drew a severe rebuke from the Lord High Steward.[766] On December 29, 1680 Stafford was led to the scaffold. From the place of execution he read a lengthy speech, which was published in print on the same afternoon, asserting his innocence and vindicating his religion.[767] His words fell on deaf ears. A vast crowd was assembled to witness his death. Almost all historians have repeated the assertion that the spectators were touched and answered with cries of, “We believe you, my Lord; God bless you, my Lord.”[768] The story is a mere fable. Lord Stafford died with howls of execration of the bigoted London mob ringing in his ears. The cries with which he was met testify relentlessly that the belief in his guilt was firmly fixed in the mind of the nation.[769] The Popish Plot was not yet a thing of the past. But the result of Lord Stafford’s trial was not altogether what was expected. Shaftesbury and his party indeed gained a temporary victory, but the ultimate triumph was to the king. His steadiness, restraint, and readiness for compromise contrasted favourably with the intolerance and unconciliating attitude of the Whigs. Their game was played for the crown and, when their rejection of all offers short of that made their motive plain to the nation, Charles had the nation at his back. The violence with which they attempted to force the king’s hand alienated public feeling. He was able to dissolve the Oxford Parliament in safety, and the Whigs were driven to plan open rebellion and the treason of the Rye House Plot.
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A
Longleat MSS. Coventry Papers xi. 393
April 29, 1679. Dover. Francis Bastwick to Henry Coventry.
This day I received advice of one Col. Scott coming from Folkestone to take horse here for London, and on his arrival I seized him and sent for the Comm. of the passage. His examination I send you enclosed, upon which we found cause to commit him (which was accordingly done by the deputy mayor) into safe custody until we had further orders from one of his Majesty’s principal secretaries what to do with him. He owns himself to be the same person we have had orders for several months past to seize at his landing. Col. Strode, deputy formerly, had an order to seize Col. Scott as I remember from Mr. Secretary Coventry, but I am not certain but Col. Strode or his deputy are at present in the place.
I am your most humble servant Fran. Bastwick. I desire your speedy answer when you have acquainted my Ld. Sunderland. Col. Scott has been found in many contrary tales, and went at his landing by the name of John Johnson.
Coventry Papers xi. 396
From the examination of Colonel Scott at Dover, April 29, 1679. That he is a pensioner to the prince of Condi, and hath formerly commanded the prince of Condi’s regiment of horse in the French service. And that the said prince of Condi sent him over in September last in order for the surveying of several parcels of lands and woods in Burgandie and Picardie was the occasion of his going over.
That the occasion of his return is to see his native country, and his profession is a soldier. The said Colonel offered to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy and the test.