[151] The Venetian ambassador reckons them at this number. Cp. Thysius 239.
[152] We learn from an intercepted letter of Leicester that he entirely approved of this: ‘s’il est reconnu je ne pourrois être soupçonné d’en être la cause.’
[153] Chavigny replied to Leicester’s complaint: ‘Le roi ne pouvoit pas faire moins à un prince, qui vouloit passer par la France incognito.’ Cp. Puffendorf, Rer. Suec lib xi. 59.
CHAPTER IV.
RENEWED DISTURBANCES IN SCOTLAND.
The French nowhere found wider scope for this policy than in Scotland, where the Pacification of Berwick had not only not led to peace, but had stirred up yet more violent dissensions.
From the first moment different opinions were formed among the Scots with regard to this measure. Even among the Covenanters there were many who hailed it with delight. For what, they asked, must have happened if the King had continued obstinate, and they had been obliged to fight against him? Among the English, at all events, they did not find so much support as had been expected; even among the Scots the old divisions were reviving; many of the Covenanters felt their consciences smite them when they thought that they would be plunged into a bloody conflict with their King. But on the other hand it was remarked by others that the literal meaning of the conditions did not offer them any adequate security. They saw the camp broken up with feelings of dissatisfaction: for they thought that without such an army they would be obliged to submit to every dictate of the King. They complained that the agreement had been concerted in far too great haste by some few, without the concurrence of a sufficient number of nobility, gentry, and clergy.
Even at the moment when the Pacification was being concluded, these differences had made their appearance. The King had expressed himself in conciliatory and soothing terms A.D. 1639. about some clauses which gave offence by their severity[154]. These expressions were taken down, and passed from hand to hand: at the same time it was thought expedient to append to the King’s proclamation, which was made known in the camp, a remark upon the sense in which it was to be understood. People would have been glad to have procured a further written declaration to this effect from the King himself; but he would not allow himself to be persuaded to give this, just as he persevered in maintaining a somewhat proud and rigid attitude in general. Men like Argyle, when they appeared in the royal camp, could not congratulate themselves on meeting with a particularly gracious reception. Between the nobles who attached themselves to the King, and those who belonged to the other party, unpleasant discussions broke out in the King’s presence. The Covenanters were discontented and full of suspicion when they saw the sovereign to whom they wished to restore a certain, even if not the old traditional, measure of power, surrounded by men of high temporal and spiritual rank, whom they regarded as their enemies.
But meanwhile the people also were thrown into a state of excitement, mainly because the strongholds wrested from the King’s garrisons were again to be restored to them. In Edinburgh especially it was thought insupportable that the Castle of that town should again receive a garrison such as had formerly held it, and, what was more, with Ruthven for its commander, a man who, as well as others, had fought in the German wars, but was known to be a decided Royalist. Popular disturbances broke out, in which the King’s servants were insulted,—Hamilton especially, who had hastened thither in order to enforce in person the conditions of peace, which, for the most part, had been suggested by him. A number of the Scottish nobility, whom the King had ordered to come to his camp with a view to further negotiations were prevented by force A.D. 1639. from going thither. It is probable that they were not sorry for this, even if it cannot be proved that they had themselves provoked it.
When the King promised to attend both the Assemblies in Scotland in person, he cherished the hope of reviving his power, to some extent, during the proceedings, and by means of them and of preserving the old forms of the constitution intact in their most important particulars. Hamilton now came back from Edinburgh with the impression that this was impossible, and that the King could expect nothing there but fresh losses. A full month had not yet elapsed from the conclusion of the Pacification; yet he already declared a fresh war to be inevitable. In making representations on this point, he raised a number of questions that had a wide application: for instance—whether the King could procure money for such a war without an English parliament? and if not, whether he was willing to summon a parliament, and to leave himself to its discretion[155]? No one decided these questions; but all had made up their minds to witness further complications, when the King unexpectedly announced his resolution to return to London. The two Assemblies were not on that account given up; they could not but take place; but they appear only as attempts at a further pacification, the results of which were to decide whether after all recourse must be had once more to arms. Hamilton declined to appear at them as the King’s Commissioner. The Earl of Traquair, whose views at that time more nearly approached those of the Scots, undertook this office. On August 12th the General Assembly was opened at Edinburgh.
According to the terms of the Pacification the Scots refrained from demanding a formal ratification of the resolutions of the Assembly of Glasgow. But as to the substance of them, they declared to the Commissioner that they would cling to it as long as the breath of life remained in their bodies. They would not recede a hair’s-breadth from the A.D. 1639. assertion that the ground on which they stood was the only legal ground. In open opposition to the King’s opinion, they again enacted that the proceedings of the last Assemblies of the Church which had been held under his father were null and void: if the King would at any rate, under present circumstances, allow a new Assembly to be convened within a year’s time, they on their part were ready to make a permanent statute, prescribing that the Assembly should be held once every year, and if necessary still oftener. The Commissioner on his part could not refuse to permit the abolition of Episcopacy: this was the principal concession made by the King: a dispute however arose about the wording of the resolution, which concerned indeed only one expression, but at the same time affected the main point of the controversy. The King had consented to the measure, on the ground that Episcopacy was contrary to the constitution of the Church of Scotland; the Assembly laid down that it was absolutely unlawful. At last Traquair assented to this expression, but the King showed great indignation, for he thought that what was contrary to the constitution of some one church was not therefore absolutely unlawful[156]: and he was afraid that the expression, if not moderated by a limitation to Scotland, might be applied to the English Church, which, like the Scottish, was a reformed Church. He censured the Commissioner in harsh terms for his compliance.