Of even greater significance was the initiation of bills by the King. Charles wrote Culpeper that whereas certain laws had been recommended to him in Council of which he approved, "these bills we have caused to be under the Great Seal of England, and our will is that the same bills ... you shall cause to be considered ... in our Assembly of Virginia ... and to these bills you do give and declare our royal assent." One was an act of general pardon, one an act for naturalization, and the other an act for raising a public revenue.[44]
This was accompanied by an attempt to deprive the Assembly of the right to initiate legislation. Culpeper was commanded to send to the King a draft of such bills as he and the Council should think fit to be passed, so that he could go over them and return them in the form he thought they should be enacted in. "Upon receipt of our commands you shall summon an Assembly and propose the said laws for their consent."[45]
As though this were not enough, Charles demanded the sole power, heretofore exercised by the Governor, of calling sessions of the Assembly. "It is our will and pleasure that for the future no General Assembly be called without our special directions, but that, upon occasion, you do acquaint us by letter with the necessity of calling such an Assembly, and pray our consent and directions for their meeting."[46]
The King struck a fatal blow at the control of justice in Virginia by the people, by depriving the Assembly of its privilege of acting as the supreme court of appeals. "Our pleasure also is that for the better and more equitable administration of justice in our said colony, appeals be allowed in cases of error from the courts ... to our Governor and our Council there, and to no other court or jurisdiction whatsoever."[47]
Although Thomas Culpeper had been too young to fight in the Civil War, he donned a suit of armor with breastplate, shoulderpieces, and brassarts, to have his portrait painted. But the face is not that of a warrior. It is draped by the flowing hair of the Cavalier, has a prominent nose and a weak mouth with the trace of a sneer. Culpeper had followed Charles into exile, and with the Restoration had expected compensation for his losses. But since there was not enough to go round among all the hungry Cavaliers, the King repaid him at the expense of his subjects in Virginia, first with the Arlington-Culpeper grant, and then by making him Governor of Virginia.
The outlook for the colony was gloomy. The King was determined to override the people's rights and make himself absolute. Culpeper was interested in filling his pockets. The Green Spring Faction were still seeking to make good their losses at the expense of the rebels. The common people were suffering from the high taxes and the low price of tobacco.
The King had as much trouble in getting Culpeper to sail for Virginia as he had had in making Berkeley come back to England. My Lord had no desire to exchange London for the forests of Virginia; he had little interest in carrying out his instructions. All he wanted was his salary and anything he could make out of the Northern Neck. At last, after two years of dillydallying, the King told him that unless he sailed at once he would remove him as Governor. So in February, 1680, he left the Downs with the tobacco fleet.[48]
On his arrival at Jamestown, the members of the Council and other leading planters flocked around him, eager to give their version of the troubles in the colony and to secure his support. When the Council met, Culpeper was assured that the King had been misinformed on many points by Moryson and Berry. Philip Ludwell was a loyal, honest servant of the King, and should be restored to his place in the Council. Injustice had been done to Colonel Hill, and they begged the new Governor to intercede for him.[49]
As for the King's rebuke to the Assembly for questioning his right to seize their records, the Council advised Culpeper not to present it. To do so would "unravel and disturb the good and cheerful settlement we are now in by your Excellency's great prudence and conduct."[50] So they induced him to suspend the rebuke until the King should order to the contrary.
Culpeper seems to have brought a degree of peace to the contending factions. The act of pardon ended the plundering of the estates of the former rebels, and the aggrieved loyalists were encouraged to seek redress through the Assembly. Colonel Spencer wrote that the "late different interests" had been "perfectly united to the general satisfaction of all."