The prisoner was allowed but three clear days before he was hanged at the corner of King Street and Cheapside, within sight of the Guildhall which he had so often frequented as an alderman of the city, and on which his head was afterwards placed. He met his end with courage and with many pious expressions, but to the last maintained his innocence with such vehemence that his enemies gave out that he had "died in a fit of fury."[1571] The injustice of his sentence was recognised and his conviction and attainder was afterwards reversed and annulled by parliament (22 June, 1689).[1572]
Execution of Mrs. Gaunt, 23 Oct.
Of the three others who had been tried with Cornish, two were reprieved (one was afterwards executed), but the third, Elizabeth Gaunt, was burnt at Tyburn the same day that Cornish suffered (23 Oct.) for having harboured an outlaw named Burton and assisted him to escape beyond the law. He had been implicated in the Rye House Plot, but with the aid of Mrs. Gaunt, who lived in the city, had contrived to avoid capture. In order to save his own skin the wretch did not hesitate to turn king's evidence and to sacrifice the life of his benefactress, a woman who is described as having "spent a great part of her life in acts of charity, visiting the gaols and looking after the poor." She too died with great fortitude, arranging with her own hands the straw around her, so as to burn the more speedily.[1573]
The revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Oct., 1685.
Parliament began to be alarmed at the favour shown to Catholics, and this alarm was increased by a report from France that Louis XIV, with whom James was known to be closely allied, and on whom he depended, like his late brother, for pecuniary support, had revoked the Edict of Nantes granted by Henry IV in favour of his Protestant subjects. The report was soon confirmed by the appearance of numbers of French Protestants—refugees from persecution—in England, and more especially in the city of London. What Louis had done in France James, it was feared, would carry out in England by means of his standing army commanded by Roman Catholic officers. Hence the alarm which pervaded not only parliament, but also the city and the nation at large.
Session of parliament, 9-20 Nov., 1685.
Hence too it was that when the Houses, which had been adjourned during the campaign in the West, met on the 9th November,[1574] they remonstrated with him for the favour he had shown to Catholics in direct contravention of the law. Finding himself unable to bend parliament to his will, he determined to do without one, and accordingly, after a brief session, it stood prorogued (20 Nov.),[1575] never to meet again during the present reign.
James and the Catholics, 1686.
Without a parliament James could act with a free hand. By a piece of chicanery he managed to get a legal decision acknowledging the dispensing power of the king.[1576] He established an Ecclesiastical Commission Court, with the infamous Jeffreys at its head, the first act of which was to suspend the Bishop of London for upholding the Protestant faith. He removed the Earl of Clarendon (son of the late Chancellor), who had recently been appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland,[1577] and appointed as lord deputy the Earl of Tyrconnel, a Roman Catholic of low character, who had gained an unenviable notoriety as the "lying Dick Talbot." The country was over-run with Papists from abroad. All the laws against the exercise of the Roman Catholic religion were set at defiance. There was no disguise. Mass was publicly celebrated at Whitehall and Roman Catholic chapels sprang up everywhere, giving rise to no small dissatisfaction and tumult. The agitation in London was great, but greater in the city, where men had been less accustomed to the[pg 517] sight of the Romish ceremonial than those who lived in the neighbourhood of the court. Riots in the city were of frequent occurrence, more especially on Sundays, when the Roman Catholics were more in evidence than on week days. A Roman Catholic chapel had recently been erected by the Elector Palatine in Lime Street. An ineffectual attempt had been made by the mayor and aldermen to stay the work. They were summoned to appear before the king and reprimanded. The work was accordingly allowed to go on and the chapel was opened. On Sunday, the 18th April (1686), the priests attached to the chapel were followed by a mob into Cheapside, and matters would have gone hard with them had not the mayor and aldermen appeared on the scene with a regiment of trained bands. James again sent for the mayor and told him that if he could not keep better order in the city he should himself send some "assistance."[1578] Nevertheless another riot broke out on the following Sunday. A mob entered a Roman Catholic chapel and carried away a crucifix, crying out they would have no "wooden gods." A cross was set up on the parish pump and mock obeisance made to it. The priests were insulted, but no violence was offered them. When the mayor appeared to quell the tumult the crowd affected to disbelieve that his lordship was in earnest. "What! the lord mayor of our city come to preach up popery! too sure, it cannot be!" When the trained bands were ordered to disperse the crowd they declared that in conscience they could not hinder them in their work.[1579]
The camp at Hounslow opened, 28 May, 1686.