Before the end of November the army, now at Windsor, had entirely lost patience both with king and parliament, and on the last day of the month issued a declaration to the effect that it was about to appeal "unto the extraordinary judgment of God and good people." The existing parliament must be dissolved to give place to a succession of reformed parliaments. Those members who agreed with the army were invited to leave the House and join the army to form a kind of provisional government until elections for a new parliament could take place, when the army would willingly disband.
Letter from Fairfax. Is coming to London, and demands the sum of £40,000, 30 Nov.
That same night (30 Nov.) whilst the mayor was going the rounds inspecting the city watches a letter was put into his hands by a trumpeter of Fairfax, addressed to the lord mayor, aldermen and common council.[903] Strictly speaking, the mayor had no right to open a letter thus addressed. Reynardson, however, who had not long been in the mayoralty chair, and who afterwards displayed strong royalist proclivities, thought otherwise and broke the seal; a proceeding which received the approval of the Common Council specially summoned for the next day (1 Dec.)[904] The letter announced the general's intention of quartering his army on London, and demanded a sum of £40,000[pg 294] out of the arrears of assessment to be paid to the soldiers by the following night.[905]
The letter of Fairfax laid before Parliament, 1 Dec, 1648.
The council at once decided to lay the letter before both Houses, and in the meantime took steps for the immediate payment of an instalment of £10,000 to Fairfax, to whom a deputation was despatched to assure him that the City would do its utmost to execute his commands.[906] Both Houses assented to Fairfax being provided with the money demanded, the Commons giving the City liberty to communicate direct with the general by committee or letter as they should think fit.[907]
The army returns to London, 2 Dec.
In spite of a request by the Commons that he would keep at a distance, lest his approach should involve danger, Fairfax entered London with his troops on Saturday, the 2nd December, and took up his quarters at Whitehall. On Wednesday, the 6th—the day on which Colonel Pride administered his famous "purge" to the House of Commons—a letter from the general was read in the Common Council in which he desired that 3,800 beds might be sent to Whitehall by ten o'clock the next morning for the use of the soldiers, and also sufficient furniture for lodging. The beds and furniture were to be afterwards returned.[908]
The City's reply to the demands of Fairfax, 6 Dec.
The Common Council immediately nominated a committee to go to Fairfax and to beg him to excuse the City furnishing the beds as desired. The committee was further instructed to inform his lordship that if he would obtain a warrant from the Committee of the[pg 295] Army to the Treasurers at War for the payment of £10,000, the City would be prepared to pay over the whole sum of £40,000 (which ought to have been already paid over) by the next day (7 Dec). There was one other matter. A rumour had reached the city that it was intended to arrest Major-General Browne, who at the time was serving as one of the sheriffs of London, and the committee were directed to point out to his excellency the "inconveniences" likely to arise from such a proceeding.[909]
Arrest of Major-General Browne, one of the sheriffs, 12 Dec, 1648.