Charles I replied that he was astonished at this message: his answer had contained all that he could grant in reason, justice, and honour. After a few days Lord Pembroke once more put the question, whether he would not, at least for a short time, surrender to Parliament the right of control over the army. The King answered, not for an hour: things had been demanded of him which had never before been asked of a King. He was now against any temporary concession.
Parliament however paid no further attention to him. They adhered to the fiction that the agreement of the two Houses implied the royal will, even when the King in person had in the most decided manner expressed an opposite view. After receiving his answer the Lower House passed a resolution that the kingdom should immediately be put into a state of defence under the authority of Parliament, in the manner already fixed (March 2). Some few lords of ancient name, such as Lindsay, Grey, Seymour, Capel, offered some resistance: but the majority agreed to the conclusions of the Lower House, and action was taken immediately according to their tenour.
The King was on his way to the North, when he received a declaration stating the reasons for these resolutions: he did not delay a moment the issue of a counter declaration (Huntingdon, 15 March) in which he repeated the contents of his last message; at the same time he called attention to the fundamental laws of the realm, one of which was that no subject was bound to pay obedience to any act or command to which the King had not given his consent. He stated that he required obedience to the existing laws, and simply forbade any compliance with orders not ratified by A.D. 1642. himself; both generally, and in special relation to the army, no ordinance was to be carried out in which he had no part[321]. He did not stop, it will be seen, at the immediate circumstances of the case, but raised conspicuously the great constitutional question which Parliament had decided for itself, or treated as if already decided.
The Parliament was not misled on either point: this time the majority of the Upper House took the initiative. On the evening of the 16th arrived the message from Huntingdon: on the evening of the 17th first the Lords and then the Commons adopted the resolutions, first, to adhere to their earlier declarations in relation to the army[322], secondly, that the Lords and Commons in Parliament possessed the full right of declaring what the law of the land was, and that to dispute or deny this, or to issue an order that any such declaration was not to be attended to, was a breach of the privileges of Parliament. Whoever advised the King, added the Lower House, to send this message, is an enemy to the peace of the kingdom.
This is the moment, if we would fix it exactly, at which reconciliation between the King and the Parliament became impossible. Hitherto the opposing manifestoes had always assumed the possibility of a reconciliation, although they obviously risked a different result: but the gulf between the King’s declaration on the 15th, and the answer of Parliament on the 17th, could not be bridged over: the two powers now stood most distinctly opposed to each other, both in their general claims and in their specific demands. The latter in fact implied the former: they formed a kind of summary of the whole dispute.
From this point the dissension, which hitherto had been confined to the constitutional authorities, spread over a wider field. King and Parliament together had formed the authority which every one was bound to obey: what was to happen when these issued contrary orders? The question A.D. 1642. to which of the two they would render obedience was set first before the commandants of certain fortresses.
In the first days after the King’s departure, when Digby and Lunsford were stirring, it was remarked in the city that arms and ammunition were being brought out of the Tower, and an unusual quantity of provisions carried in. Not only was this immediately forbidden, but also, in order to make it impossible, a levy of militia, under the command of Skippon, was stationed in the approaches to the Tower, and information immediately conveyed to the Common Council. The Lieutenant Constable, John Byron, was greatly astonished when the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex informed him of this arrangement. He declared to them that it ran counter to the privileges of the Tower, which he had received orders from the King to maintain. They referred to the commands of the two Houses, in which the royal will was contained, and threatened him, if he did not obey, with open force and a formal blockade on the side of the river. John Byron was the first to give utterance to those feelings of chivalrous loyalty, without any stain of factious ambition, which still survived in a large part of the nobility and gentry. He wrote to the King’s secretary that he would take care that, in conformity with his Majesty’s commands, he gave no valid cause for dispute: but he said that they were seeking occasion against him[323]. If they cut off his supplies, and attacked him with open force, he certainly could not promise, in the condition he was in, to hold out long: but they should purchase both the place and his life as dearly as he could make them[324]. It was not however to come to such extremities. The Commons preferred at once to request the removal of Byron: the King begged to know their complaint against him: they answered that in times of imminent danger the advice of Parliament was a sufficient reason. Charles I did not in fact dare to resist: for these were the A.D. 1642. days before the departure of the Queen, when he sought to avoid a formal breach. Byron was present at the sitting at which the King’s answer in the affirmative was announced. He said that only one charge could be made against him, of having been appointed by the King and being faithful to him and only begged to be allowed to resign the place into the King’s own hands. With the King’s consent the Tower was now finally handed over to a governor of the Parliamentary party, named Conyers.
Similar sentiments were expressed by Colonel Goring, commandant of Portsmouth, who this time did not flinch. He was summoned by Parliament to Westminster to give advice about arming the country: he delayed to appear for some time, and when no other pretext was available, declared plainly that he saw that Parliament was entering on an illegal course, and refused his obedience. He made his garrison take an oath of this tenour, and admitted within the walls of his sea-fortress none but undoubted adherents of the King.
A direct and typical conflict between the views of Parliament and of the King in relation to military authority took place at Hull.
Kingston-upon-Hull, which had grown from a fishing village to a considerable town, through its favourable situation for the northern trade, had been carefully fortified by Henry VIII, who devoted to this purpose some of the spoils of the monasteries. Strafford had placed a military magazine there to serve for the war against Scotland: since the disbanding of his army, the block-houses, castle, and magazine had remained under the charge of the magistrates and inhabitants of Hull. The attention of Parliament had long ago been directed to this place: the mayor had been requested to disarm all recusants in the city and its neighbourhood, as danger was apprehended from them. Now however that an open breach had taken place, the danger was grown most serious, particularly as the court at once turned its eyes on Hull. Parliament resolved to secure the place by a governor who could be fully trusted, Sir John Hotham. Hotham had taken part in the German war in the service of the Elector Palatine, and had been promised by the King the reversion A.D. 1642. of Hull, but afterwards had attached himself decidedly to the dominant party in Parliament, of which he was a member. He was a rude soldier, violent and ambitious, and had a very good idea of how to combine his opinions with his interests: he immediately sent his son to take possession of the post to which Parliament had appointed him. Meanwhile Lord Newcastle had also entered the town, though under another name, in order to win it for the King, and introduce a Royalist garrison. The mayor and aldermen of Hull were in the utmost perplexity; for the moment they admitted neither force, and prayed Parliament, through the representatives of the city, to come to an understanding with the King about the introduction of a garrison: but under the influence of the elder Hotham, Parliament spurned any such evasion of the difficulty[325]. In the city itself the magistrates were mostly for the King, but the greater part of the citizens inclined to the Parliament. Under these circumstances Hotham gained his point, and entered Hull with orders to admit none but Parliamentary troops.