[192] Sanderson to Laud, Sept. 13: ‘Multitudes of churchmen not only of the precise sort whose dislike is less to be regarded, because they will like nothing that is not of their own devising, but even of such as are otherwise every way regular and conformable.’ He laments ‘the disaffection which is already too great in most of our people to all public proceedings.’
BOOK VIII.
THE LONG PARLIAMENT AND THE KING, DOWN TO THE OUTBREAK OF THE CIVIL WAR.
In a sense quite different from that in which James I thought to achieve the union of the two crowns and kingdoms, was that union destined to be accomplished; and already everything was smoothing the way thereto. The special object of the first two Stuart kings was to complete, on Tudor principles, the institutions of Church and State in England, and to extend the same to Scotland. But they had thereby awakened in the land of their birth a spirit of resistance at once aristocratic and religious. In direct opposition to the King, the Scots took up an attitude of ecclesiastical and political independence, which never was paralleled in any other monarchy. The King hoped to crush the Scottish movement by the strength of royal influence in England; but the consequences were the very opposite, for the movement spread into England also.
When the Scots entered England their first and chief demand was that the King should settle the home affairs of Scotland; but they added two other demands which concerned England as much as Scotland. They pressed for the punishment of those who had caused the troubles, that is to say, of the chosen counsellors of the King in matters both spiritual and temporal, and also for the summoning of an English Parliament, in which peace might be arranged.
They thus fully expressed the wishes of all the domestic opponents of Charles I: no further extension of them was necessary to imply the overthrow in England also of the political system that had hitherto prevailed. On the question how far the King would yield depended the future of his government, of his own life, and of the two nations.
CHAPTER I.
SUMMONING OF THE PARLIAMENT.
It seemed to be going back to an ancient long-forgotten state of things, when in the English Privy Council, which continued its sittings in the King’s absence, and was anxiously discussing means of escape from existing difficulties, the Earl of Manchester, Lord Privy Seal, a man of great age and strong sense, though somewhat too fond of precedent, proposed to renew at this juncture the old institution of the Magnum Concilium, which had preceded the formation of Parliament[193]. He recalled the times when the advice of the peers, as the born counsellors of the King, had roused the nation to great efforts. The objection was urged that no assembly of the kind had taken place for fully three hundred years: moreover that it would merely be leading indirectly to what the Scots had demanded, the summoning of a Parliament. Archbishop Laud did not like the prospect, but, considering the probable results of calling a Parliament, declared for the assembly of peers. The King without hesitation accepted the proposal, and on September 7 issued writs, whereby he summoned the Peers of the realm to York, ‘to take counsel with them about weighty and serious matters touching the condition of the kingdom.’
The nation however was not satisfied; and the first cry for the immediate convocation of a Parliament arose from among the nobility themselves.
The government was somewhat alarmed to find that without their previous knowledge a considerable number of peers about this time assembled in London, most of whom were A.D. 1640. known to be bitterly hostile to the existing régime. There were the Earls of Bedford and Hertford, whose forefathers had won their fame by the share they had taken in forwarding the thorough reformation of the Church (what had become of the bishops, if the ideas of Protector Somerset, the ancestor of Hertford, had maintained their ground?): there were Essex, Warwick, the brother of Holland, who fully agreed with them in general political sentiments, Lord Mandeville, the son of Manchester, but belonging to a totally different party from his father, Say and Brooke, who had been the first to show that their views were opposed to the King. After a short consultation they agreed on a petition, in which they repeated the general grievances of the last session of Parliament, and with special emphasis insisted on those which had first come to light since then, such as the newly imposed oath[194]. They laid great stress on the dangers arising from the military preparations. The recusants, said they, are forbidden by law even to have weapons in their houses, and now high commands in the army are entrusted to them: what misfortunes would happen if any Irish troops were brought over to England—a fear which had seized on men’s minds in consequence of the known views of Strafford, long before his expressions had been thus interpreted. The Lords declared that there was only one remedy for all these evils, namely the immediate assembly of Parliament, which was necessary in order to remove the grievances of the people, to punish the originators of them for their several offences, to end the war without bloodshed, and to unite the two kingdoms against the common enemy of religion. It will be seen that these A.D. 1640. Lords, who had been named to the Scots as guarantees that they would meet a favourable reception in England, now, as might be expected, urged as their own the chief demands of the Scots.
On the very day on which Charles I issued his summons for the Magnum Concilium to meet at York, the two Earls of Bedford and Hertford appeared in London before the Privy Council, laid their petition before it, and moved for its concurrence in their prayer. The Earls said that they themselves were ready to pay true obedience to the King under all circumstances, but that they could not answer for the friends by whom they were commissioned, and that if their request was rejected, they would not be held answerable for the mischiefs that might ensue[195]. The obvious question was asked, who were their associates: and they replied, many other lords and a great part of the gentry in all parts of the country. The news of the summoning of the Great Council was communicated to them: they received it without attaching much importance to the fact, remarking that this council durst not take any steps towards the granting of money, nor allow any injury to the commons and their rights. Lord Arundel referred to the religious portion of their petition, saying that they seemed to wish to join the Scots for the purpose of effecting a reform in the Church[196], but that the result might be, under the pretext of liberty and religion to make England a prey to the Scots. The two Earls were asked if there was not already in England an association similar to the Covenant: but this they denied.