The discovery of "Waller's Plot."
Now that all hopes of a peaceful settlement had gone, Charles took measures to gain over as many Londoners as he could to his side. He had previously (16 March) caused a commission of array to be drawn,[pg 188] addressed to Gardiner, who was still Recorder, and others, authorising them to raise a force on his behalf in the city.[596] This commission he had retained at Oxford until he could find an opportunity for conveying it safely to London. It was now entrusted to Lady Daubeny to carry to London. She succeeded in her mission and handed the document over to a city linendraper named Chaloner, who, in his turn, transferred it to Tompkins, a brother-in-law of Waller the poet, who was also implicated in the design which on that account came to be known as "Waller's Plot." Tompkins endeavoured to conceal it in a cellar, but it did not escape the prying eyes of parliamentary searchers. Early in the morning of the 31st May Tompkins was arrested, and in the course of time both he and Chaloner paid the penalty of their rashness by being hanged in front of their own houses, the one in Cornhill and the other in Holborn. Waller was also taken and flung into prison.[597]
Day of thanksgiving, 15 June, 1643.
Thursday, the 15th June, was appointed to be kept as a day of thanksgiving for deliverance from the plot,[598] and on that day the new parliamentary vow or covenant, binding those who took it to support the forces raised in defence of parliament against those raised by the king, was generally accepted in the city.
Royalist successes, June-July, 1643.
In the meantime Essex had besieged and taken Reading (26 April), but his troops became affected with disease, and he made no attempt to advance on Oxford until June. Before his arrival Hampden had[pg 189] received a mortal wound at Chalgrove Field (18 June). On the 5th July the royalist forces under Hopton worsted the parliamentary army under Waller in the west, whilst a similar success was achieved against Fairfax in the north (30 June). The king had reason to be elated as he rode into Oxford (14 July) accompanied by the queen, from whom he had been separated for fifteen months, amid the shouts of men and the ringing of bells.
Scarcity of coal in London.
Newcastle to be reduced if possible, May, 1643.
Parliament and the City, on the other hand, had reason to be dejected. On the 17th July Charles issued a proclamation for seizing all merchandise on its way to London. The trade of the city became paralysed.[599] Nor was this all. For some months past the citizens had been suffering from a scarcity of coal. Ever since the appointment of the Earl of Newcastle as governor of the town of Newcastle in June, 1642,[600] that town had been held for Charles, and a refusal to allow its coal to be supplied to the supporters of parliament had brought the city of London and the eastern counties into great straits.[601] It thus became a matter of prime importance that Newcastle should be captured. How this was to be accomplished was set out in a series of propositions drawn up (25 May, 1643) by the Common Council of the city to be laid before parliament.[602] A monopoly of the trade in coal, salt and glass with the north of England was to be held out as an incentive for persons to adventure their money in the reduction[pg 190] of the town. A committee, of which one-half of its members was to be nominated by the Commons and the rest by the City, was to have charge of all the money subscribed and to direct the undertaking. The propositions were well received (26 May),[603] and on the 10th June the Common Council nominated three aldermen and seven common councilmen to join with a like number to be appointed by parliament in raising a force by sea and land for the reduction of the town.[604]
Royalist cavalry in the neighbourhood of London, July, 1643.