Reign of Charles I. (Continued.) page 3

There were many speculations as to who had induced him to take this fatal course. Some said the queen had urged him to it, exclaiming, "Go, you coward, and pull the rogues out by the ears, or never see me more!" But Clarendon attributes the advice to Digby. who, since he opposed his party about the bishops, had been shunned by them, and had gone over altogether to the king, as Hyde had done also for some time, though he still kept it a secret, and thus was able to give the king intelligence every night of all that passed amongst the reformers in the day. Digby, he says, first advised, and was the first to condemn the deed, when it had so signally failed. There was but one opinion of the act amongst friends and foes. It was the grossest violation of the privileges of parliament that could have been imagined, and Charles soon saw and felt the irremediable blunder that he had committed,

The commons, to testify that they no longer felt themselves safe in their own house, betook themselves to the city, where establishing a permanent committee to sit at Guildhall, they adjourned till the 11th of January. The next day Charles, taking his usual attendants, but leaving behind his reformations and blustering bullies, went into the city, and at Guildhall demanded of the lord mayor and aldermen that they should hunt out and deliver to him the accused members who had taken refuge amongst them. His demand was coldly received, and after dining with one o the sheriffs he returned. His passage through the city was attended by continued cries of "Privilege! privilege of parliament!" And one Henry Walker, an ironmonger and political pamphleteer, threw into his majesty's carriage a paper bearing the words, "To your tents, O Israel!" Scarcely had Charles reached Whitehall, when a deputation from the corporation waited on him, complaining of the Tower being put into unsafe hands, of the fortifying of Whitehall, the wounding of citizens on their way to petition parliament, of the dangerous example of the king entering the house of commons attended by armed men, and praying him to cease from the prosecution of the six members of parliament, and to remove both from Whitehall and the Tower all suspicious personages.

As Charles still persisted by proclamation in endeavouring to get possession of the five members, and as a hundred stand of arms, with gunpowder and shot, had been removed from the Tower to Whitehall, a thousand marines and boatmen signed a memorial to the committee of the commons sitting at Guildhall, offering to guard them on the appointed day to their house in Westminster. The committee accepted the offer, which was immediately followed by one from the apprentices. Seeing that the city, the seamen, and everybody were of one mind in condemning his violent invasion of the national sanctuary of the house of commons, Charles, on the 10th of January, the day previous to the meeting again of parliament, quietly withdrew with his family to Hampton Court, and the next day removed thence to Windsor. Little did Charles imagine, deplorable as was his retreat, that he would never enter his capital again till he came as a prisoner in the hands of this insulted parliament. Yet his feelings at this moment must have been melancholy in the extreme. "In this sad condition," says Clarendon, "was the king at Windsor; fallen in ten days from a height and greatness that his enemies feared, to a lowness, that his own servants durst hardly avow the waiting on him."

On the morning of the 11th, the committee of the commons, attended openly by the lord Kimbolton and the five accused members of the lower house, entered barges at the Three Cranes, and attended by thirty or forty other boats and barges, manned by their trusty guard of seamen, with cannon on board their vessels, and well armed otherwise, and with nags flying, and every sign of triumph, proceeded towards Westminster, the trained bands marching along the river bank as additional protection, and intending to stand guard round the two houses of parliament. The humbled king sent them a message from Hampton Court, in these words: - "His majesty, taking notice that some conceive it disputable whether his proceedings against the lord Kimbolton, Mr. Hollis, Sir Arthur Haselrig, Mr. Pym, Mr. Hampden, and Mr. Strode, be legal and agreeable to the privileges of parliament, and being very desirous to give satisfaction to all men, in all matters that may seem to have relation to privilege, is pleased to waive his former proceedings; and all doubts by this means being settled, when the minds of men are composed, his majesty will proceed thereupon in an unquestionable way, and assures the parliament that upon all occasions he will be as careful of their privileges as of his life or his crown."

That was humble style for a king, extremely penitent compared with the forced entry of the commons' house some ten days before: but it was too late. Already there had come riding up out of Buckinghamshire four thousand horsemen, knights, gentlemen, and freeholders, each with a copy of the parliamentary protest in his hat, praying the house of lords to co-operate with the commons in defending parliament against any fresh attack on its privileges, in carrying on the work of reform, and in bringing to punishment all evil counsellors. They also presented, through a deputation of the commons, a petition to the king in favour of their countyman and member, Mr. Hampden. Charles, impressed by this significant reminder of four thousand horsemen of the folly of his late proceeding, again assured the two houses of his having not the least intention to infringe their privileges. On their part, the commons took measures to convince him that it could not be done with impunity. They had already arrested Sir William Fleming and Sir William Killigrew and their helpers, who had sealed up the houses and papers of the six members, and they now impeached Sir Edward Herbert, the attorney-general, of high crimes and misdemeanours, by violating the privileges of parliament by presenting the accusation, and sentenced him to be rendered incapable of sitting in parliament, of pleading before it, or of holding any office in the state except that of attorney-general, which he then held; and moreover, to be imprisoned at the pleasure of the house.

On the 12th of January the house was informed that lord Digby and colonel Lunsford were at Kingston-on-Thames< where was the magazine for arms for the county of Surrey, and were collecting soldiers. They immediately ordered the train-bands to disperse these forces, and impeached Digby and Lunsford of high treason. Digby escaped abroad, but Lunsford was lodged in the Tower. The house issued orders to every part of the kingdom to the same purpose. Magistrates were to disperse any musters of soldiers, and governors of forts and fortified towns to hold them for the parliament. The keys of the Tower were taken from Sir John Byron, and a guard placed over it, under the charge of the city authorities. Colonel Goring was commanded to hold Portsmouth against any demands or forces of the king; Sir John Hotham to observe the same measures at Hull; and a committee of public safety was appointed, which was to take all necessary measures for putting the kingdom into a condition of defence. Orders were given through the Dutch ambassador that no arms or ammunition should be shipped from the Dutch ports to England or Ireland without the approbation of parliament, to which the government of Holland expressed its full consent. Both at home and abroad it was clear that parliament was now the ruling power in England, The earls of Essex and Holland were commanded to attend to their duties in parliament, though the one was lord chamberlain, and the other groom of the stole to the king, who forbade their attendance. Obeying parliament, the king dismissed them from their offices.

At this crisis Charles perpetrated another most impolitic act. The Scottish commissioners offered their mediation to settle all differences betwixt his majesty and parliament. Charles; snubbed them for intermeddling in his affairs, and the commons thanked them; the consequence was, that the Scotch were made still more the fast friends of the parliament, and immediately agreed with them to send two thousand five hundred men into Ireland, to aid in putting down the rebellion.

The house of commons now urged Charles to proceed with the impeachment of lord Kimbolton and the five commoners. He had assured them that he should let the impeachment drop; but they were desirous to discover who had been the advisers of the measure, and therefore sent him this challenge. Charles declined to proceed, but desired the house to give him a statement at once of all the grievances that they had to complain of, and they should find him one of the most complying of monarchs. They were too well acquainted with the king's habit of promising what he meant only to concede for a present purpose, to make their statement too easy, as he would have deprived them of all power of proceeding by nominally granting them everything; but they put down their chiefest of grievances, the want of confidence in his assurances, and demanded as the guarantee of all arrangements that the government of the forts and the command of the army and navy should be intrusted to officers nominated by parliament. Startling as was this proposition, for it, in fact, demanded a surrender of his last prerogative, Charles declared himself ready to grant all for a time, provided he might nominate the officers, which the commons, of course, regarded as a mere subterfuge.

All this time Charles and his court were favouring the Irish insurgents, partly, it was supposed, through the queen's interest in the catholics, and the king's dislike to the presbyterian protestants, who were as much puritans as his own troublesome subjects. The king was found to have withdrawn the ships which were ordered to guard the coasts: great numbers of the catholics who had served in the army of the north hastened over and joined the insurgents, and others were known to be assisting them with arms and ammunition. The commons applied for a loan of one hundred thousand pounds to the city of London, to furnish the necessary supplies for the Irish army against the insurgents but they had not paid the money already borrowed, and whilst they reminded the house of it, they complained that these expenses were occasioned by the bishops and popish lords, who favoured the Irish insurgents. The commons, therefore, issued orders to all justices and sheriffs to prevent these treasonable attempts. They also sent Mr. Pym up to the peers, who told them that if they would not heartily join the commons in saving the kingdom, they would go on and save it without them; and the commons thanked Pym for his plain speaking.

But on Pym's speech being printed by order of the commons, Charles greatly resented it, and demanded to know on what authority he had declared him to favour such designs. The commons named commissions given to lord Delvin, Sir George Hamilton, a known papist, a son of lord Nettlefield, to colonel Butler, a brother of lord Minyard, arid others. Charles denied or explained, and this correspondence was drawn out, Charles afterwards reached York at the end of March, when he called on the house to declare publicly that they had accused him on insufficient grounds. But about the same time a letter was intercepted from lord Digby to the queen, and read publicly in the house, informing her that unless the king betook himself to a place of safety, and took rigorous measures to protect his servants, he himself should prefer remaining abroad; and he offered to do the king service abroad, and correspond with the queen in that service in ciphers.

This produced great alarm at court, and the queen, apprehensive of an impeachment, made haste to escape out of the country. The commons assured her that they had no such intention, and she professed to be satisfied; but not the less did she resolve to escape, and a most favourable opportunity now offered. The princess Mary, who had been some time betrothed to the prince of Orange, though she was yet a mere child, only about ten years of age, was to be delivered to the Dutch court, and nothing was more natural than that her mother should accompany her. Even the stern reformers, who had forbidden her twice before leaving the kingdom, could find no excuse for forbidding this maternal office. On the 9th of February Charles and the court returned from Windsor to Hampton Court, and the next day the royal party set out for Dover, where, on the 23rd, the queen and her daughter embarked for Holland. The prince of Orange received her majesty with all kindness, which he indeed owed her, for she had always taken the part of him and his country against Richelieu; but the civic authorities were not so glad to see her, fearing that she might embroil them with the all-powerful parliament of England. They entered her presence with their hats on, seated themselves in her presence, and took their leave without a bow or a word. But Henrietta restrained her disgust better than her husband would have done, for she had great interests at stake, and succeeded by her flattering courtesies in so melting the Dutch phlegm, that she eventually succeeded in borrowing of the authorities of Amsterdam eight hundred and forty-five thousand guilders, at Rotterdam sixty-five thousand, of the merchants at the Hague one hundred and sixty-six thousand, besides pawning her pearls for two hundred and thirteen thousand, and six rubies for forty thousand, thus raising for her husband two million pounds sterling.

Whilst the king was at Canterbury, waiting for the queen's departure, the commons sent to press his signing the two bills for the removal of the bishops from parliament, and they and the clergy from all temporal offices, and for power to press soldiers for the service of Ireland. He passed them, the second bill to be in force only till the 1st of November. The commons expressed their satisfaction, but still urged the removal of all privy councillors and officers of state, except such as held them hereditarily, and the appointment of others having the confidence of parliament; they then returned to the subject of the militia bill, which would put the whole force of the army into the hands of parliament; but there Charles made a stand. He sent orders that the prince of Wales should meet him at Greenwich. The parliament, which watched his every movement, and no doubt were informed of his intentions, sent a message to the king, praying him to allow the prince to remain at Hampton Court; but Charles, complaining of these suspicions, ordered the prince's governor, the marquis of Hertford, to bring him to Greenwich. On Sunday, the 27th of February, some of the lords went to Greenwich, to endeavour to bring the prince back; but Charles would not suffer it, declaring that the prince should accompany him wherever he went. He removed to Theobalds, and there again a deputation followed him, urging him to grant the matter of the militia, or that the parliament would feel compelled to assume it for the safety of the kingdom. They also renewed their request for the return of the prince, Charles expressed much surprise at these importunities, and refused them both.