The King had by this time (March 19) come to York: he had been inclined to return to Scotland, but the country gentry, as well as the inhabitants of the city, displayed so much devotion to him that he determined to remain. Both the interests of the county and his own required the occupation of Hull. There was no doubt that Hotham would reject every other measure: but would he have the face to oppose the King himself? Charles I, who in spite of so much contrary experience, was always persuaded of the vast influence of royalty, deemed this impossible, and resolved to go in person to Hull, and obtain entrance into its fortifications.
Towards the end of April the Elector Palatine, and the King’s younger son, James, arrived one day in Hull for the purpose, as they said, of inspecting the fortifications of the place in company with the governor. They were still busy with this, when the King sent word that he also meant to A.D. 1642. and that accommodation must be provided for him and his suite: he might have some three hundred men with him. But Hotham knew that if he admitted only twenty, he should no longer be master of the place, where there was still considerable number of Royalists. His resolution was instantly taken: he raised the drawbridge and informed the King who was already at the gates, in the humblest language, but still in direct terms, that he could not admit him without violating the confidence reposed in him by the Parliament.
The speech is extant in which Hotham justified his conduct to the inhabitants of Hull[326]. He declared that it was his duty to die for King and Parliament, but when there was hostility between them, he must obey the latter; that Parliament was entrusted by the King and nation with power to order everything that concerned the common weal: if it noticed dangers anywhere, it was bound by its duty to obviate them, and no one could then refuse obedience to it, without breaking his troth to the sovereign. He took credit to himself for what he had done, and said that he did not think to renounce his loyalty to the King in proving his obedience to Parliament for an example to others.
Thus was accomplished in a striking manner what had long been pending: the authority of Parliament as representing the nation, in military matters as well as all others, confronted the personal power of the crown, and that with a claim to superiority. The King was refused admission into one of his fortresses, in the name of the authority represented by the two Houses of Parliament, in which his own title was comprised. Charles I had to retire from Hull without achieving his object. He declared John Hotham guilty of treason: but Parliament replied by resolving that such a sentence on a member of the Lower House, especially without any A.D. 1642. judicial proceedings, was a new breach of the privileges of Parliament, and an illegal act on the King’s part.
Thus was one legality opposed to the other, one obedience to the other, one conception of the supreme power to the other: and the great question now was, which of the two would gain the upper hand in England.
There were still numberless persons who would not listen to the argument propounded by Hotham at Hull, but professed a doctrine totally opposite. The Lower House, they said, is elected by subjects, and represents only subjects: no sort of authority over princes can be conferred on it by them. Parliament appealed to the fundamental laws of the realm; but we must first know what is their true meaning: it seeks to give effect to the protest passed and sworn to three years ago, but in that the honour of his Majesty was reserved. The King has conceded all that can fairly be asked, perhaps too much: Parliament is openly usurping the whole executive power, and desiring to wield it at its pleasure: but there cannot be two swords in the kingdom. Certainly in obeying the King we have no idea of neglecting the duty we owe to the kingdom.
These opinions prevailed at York[327], whither the King returned from Hull: and once they were manifested there unmistakeably. In an assembly of the county gentry Charles I explained what had happened, adding that he would rather lose his three crowns than leave such an insult unpunished[328], and asked them to form a guard for his protection. What the King said of his own position was greeted with joyful assent, but what he let fall about the intentions of Parliament roused expressions of disapproval. In a second assembly, at Heworth Moor, near York, the freeholders and tenants also took part. The King appeared at the head of his newly-formed guard, both horse and foot: the nobles and gentry constituted the first, the militia A.D. 1642. the second. A proclamation was issued in which the King professed his adherence to the Protestant religion and the laws of the land, and claimed the support of the assembly in maintaining them. The Cavaliers waved their hats: the people cried ‘God bless the King’: yet even here there was not complete unanimity. There were still some Puritans and adherents of the Lower House in York who were encouraged to express their sentiments by the presence of some commissioners of Parliament. At the meeting Thomas Fairfax placed a petition of this nature on the pommel of the King’s saddle, who refused to receive it, as coming from a single man: it seemed to him sufficiently rejected by the joyful acclamations of his partisans. A devoted mob, of perhaps 20,000 men, attended him back to the city as if in triumph. The Cavaliers had the upper hand in York as decidedly as the Roundheads in London. The ancient nobility, such as the Savilles, who were now again firmly attached to the King, set the fashion which was followed by most of the city and county. The York people would scarcely endure the Londoners who were settled there in business: they regarded them as accomplices of those who had transgressed against the King. Three knights brought to the King as a present a charger splendidly caparisoned in the ancient style: the velvet which covered it reached to the ground[329].
Similar exhibitions of chivalrous and popular adherence were made in Derby, Lancaster, and other northern counties.
The thirteen counties of Wales unanimously rejected the requests made to them by Parliament, and assured the King of their entire devotion. The sheriff and gentry of Nottingham entreated Parliament not to expect them to make war on the King, to whom they were bound by the oath of allegiance and supremacy. This address is also remarkable, because it touches on all the questions which at that moment the men who had not yet committed themselves to a party were most anxiously deliberating. The theory of what might be considered lawful in England was discussed A.D. 1642. at length: the view taken is, that as the King and Lords can make no law without the assent of the Commons of England, so this threefold cord may not in any way be separated: the Commons with the Lords are equally incompetent to make laws, so that what the Parliament called laws were merely declarations of opinion, to which no one was bound to pay obedience.
From this point of view others sought to define more closely the relations of the three powers. The union of monarchical, aristocratic, and democratic forms in the English constitution, contrived by the wisdom of antiquity, was, they thought, endangered by the demands of Parliament. The object of the monarchical form was that the country under one head might be able to repel foreign attacks and quell internal tumult, and for this it was indispensable that the head of the state should possess the right of making peace and war, as well as the nomination to the military and great civil offices: he must have the power to enforce the laws. The House of Commons was not intended to take part in the government, or to nominate those who were to conduct it, though it possessed the initiative in the imposition of taxes, and the right of impeaching those who might misuse the power entrusted to them by the King. The function of the Upper House was to hold the balance between these two powers. The absolute power which ruled the country was composed of the union of the royal prerogative, the judicial power of the Lords, and the legal privileges of the Commons[330].