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

by Leopold von Ranke

The King considered this an important advantage, and Strafford as the only man whose advice he could follow. He said to him that he had more confidence in him than in all the Privy Council together, and the Queen spoke of him as her husband’s most capable and trustworthy minister.

With renewed hopes of a favourable issue, especially as the Lords had explained their views at full length to the Commons, the King had his proposal again brought before the latter House a few days afterwards by the Treasurer of the royal household, Sir Henry Vane. In the sketch of the message to be submitted to it, very strong expressions were originally inserted with regard to the delay of the grant, which was represented as unprecedented in such a case; the King, however, for fear of making bad blood, had struck them out with his own hand. The Treasurer merely represented in the most urgent terms the necessity of the grant, without which, he said, the honour of the King and of the State would be in danger; delay in this matter was no less pernicious than A.D. 1640. a refusal[176]. The subject was again taken into consideration at once; it continued to be the unaltered feeling of the House that the removal of grievances in Church and State must first be taken in hand; its answer however was still kept back.

At the court it was thought that a grant might still be obtained, at all events by the offer of concessions; and the King had a declaration made that he would give up ship-money if twelve subsidies were promised him. It was not the sum which people would have had to pay that kept them from accepting this offer. The Speaker, Sergeant Glanville, who rose to address the House, (the debate was being carried on in Committee,) calculated, judging from his own case, that the tax would not fall very heavily on each individual, but he did not for that reason advise Parliament to accede to the offer; for, as he affirmed, this would be to acknowledge the payment of ship-money as binding, and would indirectly be authorising it. Glanville was regarded as one of the greatest authorities upon legal questions; and a deep impression was made by his declaration that ship-money was against the laws, if he understood anything about them. Others suggested other motives besides, but the legal point was decisive. Sir Henry Vane, when he came out of the House, told the King that he ought not to reckon upon obtaining any grant.

That this was in fact the case is not quite certain; but such was the impression which was made by the proceedings. The government thought they had tangible proof that Parliament would grant the King no subsidies, or, at all events, would grant them only under such conditions as ran counter to his system of government. It would not content itself with any mere removal of grievances by the act of the sovereign, for it thought that the interference of Parliament was necessary for the cure of national evils: the King was A.D. 1640. to be pledged for ever to abide by parliamentary procedure. The King found himself not merely forsaken but threatened with further demonstrations; he did not hesitate, before such demonstrations were actually made, to declare the dissolution of this Parliament, as he had that of others[177] (May 5, 1640).

This was a decision of all the more importance inasmuch as no resolutions of Parliament, properly speaking, had yet been arrived at; and another decision of no less consequence, with reference to the resumption of the Scottish war, immediately followed. In the Commission appointed to consider the subject attention had indeed been called to the insufficiency of the means available for the support of an offensive war; the question was asked, whether it would not be better in the first instance to leave the Scots alone. But, as we know, the leading men had already prepared themselves for an unfavourable issue of the deliberations of Parliament, and had determined not to allow themselves to be thwarted on that account. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland encouraged the King to proceed boldly. He said that a merely defensive attitude would diminish his reputation; that he would exhaust and weaken himself, and would stand, as it were, between Saul and David; that no long time could elapse before England rose to support him. He said that an offensive war had been already decided on; that the King should undertake it; that, as Parliament refused its assistance, he was justified in the sight of God and man if, under the pressure of these circumstances, he should seize every other means which lay within the grasp of his power; that he had an army in Ireland of which he could avail himself; that Scotland could be subdued in a single summer. Were it his own affair, he added, he would make the venture; he would either carry it through or lose everything in the attempt. Archbishop Laud supported the views of the Lord Lieutenant; he said that every means had been tried, and all had failed; A.D. 1640. that if people would not grant the King what according to God’s law was his due, he had the right to take it. Cottington not only warmly agreed with Laud, but also added as a general reason for action that the House of Commons looked forward to getting rid of the monarchy as well as of the Episcopal Church[178]. If he meant a definitely entertained design, there was as little truth in his statement as there was in attributing to the King the intention of becoming a Catholic. Men on either side, judging from what has occurred, attribute to the opposite party the intentions which are most offensive to themselves.

On this the principle of parliamentary and military, or, which is much the same, of limited and absolute monarchy, once more came into conflict with one another in the King’s Privy Council. The latter obtained a complete ascendancy.

The alliance between Scotland and a foreign power was thought to remove all doubts regarding its treatment; it was therefore to be attacked by sea and land at once, from the side both of England and Ireland, with all the strength which the Crown, unaided by Parliament, had remaining to it. The militia of the country had already been called out for that object. It was intended that part of the expense should be defrayed by the contributions of the Lords, which proved very considerable, and by those of the clergy[179]. Two days after the dissolution of Parliament the assembled Privy Council embraced the resolution of calling the High Sheriffs of eight counties, among which were Middlesex, Yorkshire and Essex, to account for having improperly neglected to collect the ship-money; they were to be dealt with straightway, without regard for their rank, and to be treated according to their deserts. A command was issued to the Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk to punish with imprisonment all A.D. 1640. men of any position who had shown themselves contumacious during the levy and on the march of the troops. Fresh negotiations were begun with a view to obtaining a loan from Spain. It was also suggested that the silver lying in the Tower might be coined to more advantage than before. Strafford laid before the Council a memorial about the French practice of raising forced loans from the wealthy, and advised imitation of that practice.

Can we be surprised if the opinion gained ground that the war against Scotland, which was not in itself necessary, was intended to serve as a means of introducing absolute monarchy on the French and Spanish model into England also. Without doubt men like Strafford, Laud, Cottington, and the King himself, thought of realising, despite of all opposition in England and Scotland, the ideal of a monarchy resting on a spiritual basis.

A document is extant which indisputably sets forth this intention. This is the Book of Canons, drawn up in the Convocation of the clergy, which held its deliberations at the same time as the Parliament. In this book a theory as to the royal authority, not very unlike the views which Richelieu and his adherents were then contending for in France, was strongly asserted as the doctrine of the Church. It is therein said that the monarchy is the highest and most sacred Estate, is of divine right, is expressly instituted in the Old and New Testament for ruling over every one, of whatever rank and position he might be, and is entrusted even with the supreme government of the Church. Whoever wished to set up a power independent of the King’s, whether of Papal or popular character, thereby placed himself, it was said, in opposition to the Divine ordinance[180]: it was consonant with the law of nature, the law of nations, and the law of God, that people should repay the protection which they enjoyed from the King with tribute, tolls, and subsidies: for them to bear arms against the King, not merely in order to attack him, but even A.D. 1640. in order to defend themselves against him, was to resist the ordinance of God. These views, which condemned the resistance of the Scots, as well as the agitation of the popular spirit in England, were proclaimed as the doctrines of the Church; and an oath in keeping with them was imposed on the clergy and on the graduates of the universities.

The ecclesiastical ideas of Laud, and the political ideas of Strafford, were in complete harmony with one another. Though it was perhaps still possible to unite a form of parliamentary government with the monarchy, such as they would have made it, yet the former could only have been such as would have been unconditionally subservient to the views of the crown, and would have regarded their promotion as its own province.