A history of England principally in the seventeenth century, Volume 2 (of 6)

by Leopold von Ranke

On one of these days a friend writes to Admiral Pennington: we have here no fewer storms than you have at sea, and perhaps even worse and more dangerous. We are here near to ruin, says another letter: the liberty of the press, the factious preaching, the licence which unruly people have assumed of assembling without regard to the laws, all this has destroyed obedience to the King as with a slow poison. The Puritan faction, it is observed in a third letter, together with the schismatics, are so strong in the city and country, that no one can foresee the result, unless the King and Parliament are reconciled.

This however was now become impossible. The Commons met the unsuccessful steps of the King with the most determined and vigorous opposition. Already on January 5 they had resolved to adjourn the sittings at Westminster till A.D. 1642. the 11th, as they could not attend to business in safety there, so long as their violated privileges were not re-established, and meanwhile to appoint a committee, which should sit at Guildhall, and before everything else devise means for the restoration of security[310]. On the 6th we find this committee already at Guildhall: a deputation of the common council in their chains and gowns of office welcomed their appearance. The first decision of the committee was, that the impeachment of the five members was illegal, and a breach of the privileges of Parliament. On this was based the second, in opposition to the King’s new order of arrest, that whosoever should attempt to obey it should be treated as an open enemy of the commonwealth. But if all that had been attempted against the five members was declared unlawful, there was no ground for depriving them of their share in the proceedings. On January 7 in Grocer’s Hall, for the common council could no longer spare the room at Guildhall, the committee resolved to summon back the five accused members to its deliberations, without regard to the King’s decree. Thus the deputation representing Parliament included in its own body the men whom the King designated as traitors, and in so doing had the full support of the capital. In the common council, through the influence of the newly elected members, even before they had formally taken their seats, the party opposed to the King had now the upper hand: the notion was fully accepted that the city was pledged to defend Parliament and its privileges. The common council appointed a committee, which, in concert with that of the Commons, resolved, on the ground of the attempts that had been made, to form a guard for defence against them. The city thought it necessary to take precautions for its safety against such a commandant of the Tower as John Byron; it was determined to raise an armed force under an officer in whom Parliament and the city should have full confidence. Such a leader they found in Captain Skippon, a man of Puritan opinions and a A.D. 1642. supporter of the Parliament, who had learned war in Holland, and had raised himself from the lowest rank: he was placed as major-general at the head of a guard, at first of eight companies, which was immediately formed in the city and its neighbourhood. No one was admitted into it who had not taken the oath of protest. And without scruple they faced the possibility of thus coming to open war with the King. In the seventh article of the resolution Skippon was expressly authorised to attack as well as defend, in case violence was offered to him: and this service, said the twelfth article, was to be counted as legal, and as rendered to the King, the kingdom, and Parliament—for so long as it was in any way feasible they observed forms. The sitting of the 10th was the first in which the five members again took part: we see what an importance its conclusions had. Nor were they contented with this alliance between Parliament and the city: they accepted an offer made by Hampden in the name of some thousands of his Buckinghamshire constituents, to live and die in defence of the rights of the Lower House. Thus completely did the impeachment of the five members, in which Charles I thought to find deliverance and safety, and his attempt to seize them, result in his discomfiture.

The King held his conduct to be valid and lawful: Parliament declared it in the highest degree unlawful, both the scheme itself and every separate step. We will not undertake to decide this controversy, but we may remark that it touched the very core of the pending questions. All the claims of the Lower House depended on its representing the commons of the country. As the individuality of the members would be shown in the discharge of this high duty, so it was protected by the very idea. The House which for ages has maintained a certain jurisdiction for the preservation of internal order, is alone possessed of the right to judge of the misdeeds of its members within its precincts, or even of the charges which are brought against them. Without this an external power would be able to interfere with the conditions of its internal action, or directly to disperse it by repeated accusations and arrests. The assembly forms a moral person, which alone acts, so long as it is in session: only if it assents and surrenders its A.D. 1642. members, can they be brought to justice. On this foundation depend its privileges: the members are thereby raised personally above their natural position as subjects.

On the other hand the King maintained that the entire supreme power, and the care for the general interests, were entrusted to his hands. In cases which implied a danger to the whole state, he would on no account abandon the right of arrest in order to prevent such dangers. Every day’s experience showed that this power was exercised in the great neighbouring monarchies without any reserve whatever, and powerfully contributed to their strength and stability. Now, as before, Charles I regarded members of Parliament merely as his subjects, and would exercise the inherent rights of his office against them as well as others. What he now treated as a crime in them was the attitude of political hostility which they maintained; he thought to be able to punish it as treason against the crown. The Parliament on the contrary saw in every infringement of their inviolability an attack on the institutions of the country: to have taken part in them it declared to be treason[311].

The King succumbed in this contest chiefly because the capital, carried away by the religious sympathies of the populace, sided with the Parliament; deeming itself pledged to protect the privileges of Parliament, whatever sense might be put on them by Parliament. The armed force which it might have been expected that the King would raise for himself, received, under the guidance of the city, an impulse against him.

He had gone back to Whitehall, as has been said, thinking the city was favourable to him. When nothing but hostility and contempt was displayed towards him from thence, he could not wish to remain longer in the neighbourhood. Moreover the Queen found her stay unendurable. She one day called the attention of the Dutch ambassador to certain persons whose presence in the palace was not to be avoided, but who, she said, were there merely to spy her actions and A.D. 1642. those of the King. Her oldest friends of both sexes were in this category: the most detested of all was the French ambassador, her brother’s representative. There seemed also to be danger if Parliament, as was reported, came back to Westminster with the civic guard, there being no means for repelling an attack on the palace. The Queen thought that the least she had to fear was being separated from the King[312]. Under these circumstances the King and Queen resolved to quit Whitehall: they first returned to Hampton Court, though no preparation had been made there for their reception, and soon afterwards, not feeling safe enough there, repaired to Windsor.

Meanwhile the sittings in the Lower House had been resumed on the appointed day amid great popular rejoicings. Two or three thousand mounted yeomen had come in: the sailors of the Thames occupied the river with numerous barges: the militia and guards were drawn up in their ranks: the young men from the stalls and workshops appeared with flags and pikes, and poles on which printed inscriptions announced their troth and devotion to the laws, liberty, and religion. Then the Committee, which hitherto had sat in the city, with the five members and Lord Kimbolton, entered a boat at the Three Cranes, which was joined by a great number of others: amid salutes of artillery and hearty congratulations they were conducted back towards Whitehall hard by. The King had fled: the chamber occupied by the Commons might be regarded as the supreme seat of authority.

A momentary embarrassment may have been caused, through the nature of the parliamentary forms, by the King’s having departed. But it was already usual, at least on one side, to require obedience to decrees issuing from the Lower House only. In order to obviate the counter effects of the King’s personal commands, they devised the formula that only those orders of the King which should be issued with assent of both Houses, were to be fulfilled. This was A.D. 1642. used, so far as I can discover, for the first time in the nomination of Skippon: his dismissal could only be effected by a royal order expressed through the two houses, that is to say, not by the King’s command but according to the opinion of the houses. On a similar principle the commandants of the chief places received instructions to admit no reinforcement of their garrisons without a royal order backed by the assent of both houses.

Immediately after the resumption of its sittings, Parliament renewed its complaints about the bad advisers of the King, about the favour shown to evil-minded persons, and the neglect which others experienced: but it now went further than ever before. A commission appointed to consider ways and means for the restoration of peace reported that the greatest of all evils was ‘the influence which recusants, priests, and other malignants have over the Queen, the influence which these possess in the State, the great influence which she has over the King.’ It is obvious that nothing would content the Parliament but an administration composed entirely of their partisans, and the absolute subordination to it of all personal authority.

There was no longer a word of any opposition from the House of Lords. Energetic expressions employed there against the proposals of the Commons sufficed to give rise to a formal accusation against them. One day, after an unsatisfactory conference with the Lords, Pym declared that the Commons would be very well content to have their help in saving the country, but if not they were determined to do their duty alone: but surely it would not come to be recorded in history that the Lords at a time of so great danger had taken no part in saving the country. Through various concurrent circumstances it came to pass that what had been the minority of the Lords now constituted the majority. The Upper House, on February 5, assented to the bill by which the bishops were deprived of their voice in Parliament.