A Child's History of England

by Dickens, Charles

  pay. So, the King triumphed (as he thought), by making Hampden the

  most popular man in England; where matters were getting to that

  height now, that many honest Englishmen could not endure their

  country, and sailed away across the seas to found a colony in

  Massachusetts Bay in America. It is said that Hampden himself and

  his relation OLIVER CROMWELL were going with a company of such

  voyagers, and were actually on board ship, when they were stopped

  by a proclamation, prohibiting sea captains to carry out such

  passengers without the royal license. But O! it would have been

  well for the King if he had let them go! This was the state of

  England. If Laud had been a madman just broke loose, he could not

  have done more mischief than he did in Scotland. In his endeavours

  (in which he was seconded by the King, then in person in that part

  of his dominions) to force his own ideas of bishops, and his own

  religious forms and ceremonies upon the Scotch, he roused that

  nation to a perfect frenzy. They formed a solemn league, which

  they called The Covenant, for the preservation of their own

  religious forms; they rose in arms throughout the whole country;

  they summoned all their men to prayers and sermons twice a day by

  beat of drum; they sang psalms, in which they compared their

  enemies to all the evil spirits that ever were heard of; and they

  solemnly vowed to smite them with the sword. At first the King

  tried force, then treaty, then a Scottish Parliament which did not

  answer at all. Then he tried the EARL OF STRAFFORD, formerly Sir

  Thomas Wentworth; who, as LORD WENTWORTH, had been governing

  Ireland. He, too, had carried it with a very high hand there,

  though to the benefit and prosperity of that country.

  Strafford and Laud were for conquering the Scottish people by force

  of arms. Other lords who were taken into council, recommended that

  a Parliament should at last be called; to which the King

  unwillingly consented. So, on the thirteenth of April, one

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  thousand six hundred and forty, that then strange sight, a

  Parliament, was seen at Westminster. It is called the Short

  Parliament, for it lasted a very little while. While the members

  were all looking at one another, doubtful who would dare to speak,

  MR. PYM arose and set forth all that the King had done unlawfully

  during the past twelve years, and what was the position to which

  England was reduced. This great example set, other members took

  courage and spoke the truth freely, though with great patience and

  moderation. The King, a little frightened, sent to say that if

  they would grant him a certain sum on certain terms, no more ship

  money should be raised. They debated the matter for two days; and

  then, as they would not give him all he asked without promise or

  inquiry, he dissolved them.

  But they knew very well that he must have a Parliament now; and he

  began to make that discovery too, though rather late in the day.

  Wherefore, on the twenty-fourth of September, being then at York

  with an army collected against the Scottish people, but his own men

  sullen and discontented like the rest of the nation, the King told

  the great council of the Lords, whom he had called to meet him

  there, that he would summon another Parliament to assemble on the

  third of November. The soldiers of the Covenant had now forced

  their way into England and had taken possession of the northern

  counties, where the coals are got. As it would never do to be

  without coals, and as the King's troops could make no head against

  the Covenanters so full of gloomy zeal, a truce was made, and a

  treaty with Scotland was taken into consideration. Meanwhile the

  northern counties paid the Covenanters to leave the coals alone,

  and keep quiet.

  We have now disposed of the Short Parliament. We have next to see

  what memorable things were done by the Long one.

  SECOND PART

  THE Long Parliament assembled on the third of November, one

  thousand six hundred and forty-one. That day week the Earl of

  Strafford arrived from York, very sensible that the spirited and

  determined men who formed that Parliament were no friends towards

  him, who had not only deserted the cause of the people, but who had

  on all occasions opposed himself to their liberties. The King told

  him, for his comfort, that the Parliament 'should not hurt one hair

  of his head.' But, on the very next day Mr. Pym, in the House of

  Commons, and with great solemnity, impeached the Earl of Strafford

  as a traitor. He was immediately taken into custody and fell from

  his proud height.

  It was the twenty-second of March before he was brought to trial in

  Westminster Hall; where, although he was very ill and suffered

  great pain, he defended himself with such ability and majesty, that

  it was doubtful whether he would not get the best of it. But on

  the thirteenth day of the trial, Pym produced in the House of

  Commons a copy of some notes of a council, found by young SIR HARRY

  VANE in a red velvet cabinet belonging to his father (Secretary

  Vane, who sat at the council-table with the Earl), in which

  Strafford had distinctly told the King that he was free from all

  rules and obligations of government, and might do with his people

  whatever he liked; and in which he had added - 'You have an army in

  Ireland that you may employ to reduce this kingdom to obedience.'

  It was not clear whether by the words 'this kingdom,' he had really

  meant England or Scotland; but the Parliament contended that he

  meant England, and this was treason. At the same sitting of the

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  House of Commons it was resolved to bring in a bill of attainder

  declaring the treason to have been committed: in preference to

  proceeding with the trial by impeachment, which would have required

  the treason to be proved.

  So, a bill was brought in at once, was carried through the House of

  Commons by a large majority, and was sent up to the House of Lords.

  While it was still uncertain whether the House of Lords would pass

  it and the King consent to it, Pym disclosed to the House of

  Commons that the King and Queen had both been plotting with the

  officers of the army to bring up the soldiers and control the

  Parliament, and also to introduce two hundred soldiers into the

  Tower of London to effect the Earl's escape. The plotting with the

  army was revealed by one GEORGE GORING, the son of a lord of that

  name: a bad fellow who was one of the original plotters, and

  turned traitor. The King had actually given his warrant for the

  admission of the two hundred men into the Tower, and they would

  have got in too, but for the refusal of the governor - a sturdy

  Scotchman of the name of BALFOUR - to admit them. These matters

  being made public, great numbers of people began to riot outside

  the Houses of Parliament, and to cry out for the execution of the

  Earl
of Strafford, as one of the King's chief instruments against

  them. The bill passed the House of Lords while the people were in

  this state of agitation, and was laid before the King for his

  assent, together with another bill declaring that the Parliament

  then assembled should not be dissolved or adjourned without their

  own consent. The King - not unwilling to save a faithful servant,

  though he had no great attachment for him - was in some doubt what

  to do; but he gave his consent to both bills, although he in his

  heart believed that the bill against the Earl of Strafford was

  unlawful and unjust. The Earl had written to him, telling him that

  he was willing to die for his sake. But he had not expected that

  his royal master would take him at his word quite so readily; for,

  when he heard his doom, he laid his hand upon his heart, and said,

  'Put not your trust in Princes!'

  The King, who never could be straightforward and plain, through one

  single day or through one single sheet of paper, wrote a letter to

  the Lords, and sent it by the young Prince of Wales, entreating

  them to prevail with the Commons that 'that unfortunate man should

  fulfil the natural course of his life in a close imprisonment.' In

  a postscript to the very same letter, he added, 'If he must die, it

  were charity to reprieve him till Saturday.' If there had been any

  doubt of his fate, this weakness and meanness would have settled

  it. The very next day, which was the twelfth of May, he was

  brought out to be beheaded on Tower Hill.

  Archbishop Laud, who had been so fond of having people's ears

  cropped off and their noses slit, was now confined in the Tower

  too; and when the Earl went by his window to his death, he was

  there, at his request, to give him his blessing. They had been

  great friends in the King's cause, and the Earl had written to him

  in the days of their power that he thought it would be an admirable

  thing to have Mr. Hampden publicly whipped for refusing to pay the

  ship money. However, those high and mighty doings were over now,

  and the Earl went his way to death with dignity and heroism. The

  governor wished him to get into a coach at the Tower gate, for fear

  the people should tear him to pieces; but he said it was all one to

  him whether he died by the axe or by the people's hands. So, he

  walked, with a firm tread and a stately look, and sometimes pulled

  off his hat to them as he passed along. They were profoundly

  quiet. He made a speech on the scaffold from some notes he had

  prepared (the paper was found lying there after his head was struck

  off), and one blow of the axe killed him, in the forty-ninth year

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  of his age.

  This bold and daring act, the Parliament accompanied by other

  famous measures, all originating (as even this did) in the King's

  having so grossly and so long abused his power. The name of

  DELINQUENTS was applied to all sheriffs and other officers who had

  been concerned in raising the ship money, or any other money, from

  the people, in an unlawful manner; the Hampden judgment was

  reversed; the judges who had decided against Hampden were called

  upon to give large securities that they would take such

  consequences as Parliament might impose upon them; and one was

  arrested as he sat in High Court, and carried off to prison. Laud

  was impeached; the unfortunate victims whose ears had been cropped

  and whose noses had been slit, were brought out of prison in

  triumph; and a bill was passed declaring that a Parliament should

  be called every third year, and that if the King and the King's

  officers did not call it, the people should assemble of themselves

  and summon it, as of their own right and power. Great

  illuminations and rejoicings took place over all these things, and

  the country was wildly excited. That the Parliament took advantage

  of this excitement and stirred them up by every means, there is no

  doubt; but you are always to remember those twelve long years,

  during which the King had tried so hard whether he really could do

  any wrong or not.

  All this time there was a great religious outcry against the right

  of the Bishops to sit in Parliament; to which the Scottish people

  particularly objected. The English were divided on this subject,

  and, partly on this account and partly because they had had foolish

  expectations that the Parliament would be able to take off nearly

  all the taxes, numbers of them sometimes wavered and inclined

  towards the King.

  I believe myself, that if, at this or almost any other period of

  his life, the King could have been trusted by any man not out of

  his senses, he might have saved himself and kept his throne. But,

  on the English army being disbanded, he plotted with the officers

  again, as he had done before, and established the fact beyond all

  doubt by putting his signature of approval to a petition against

  the Parliamentary leaders, which was drawn up by certain officers.

  When the Scottish army was disbanded, he went to Edinburgh in four

  days - which was going very fast at that time - to plot again, and

  so darkly too, that it is difficult to decide what his whole object

  was. Some suppose that he wanted to gain over the Scottish

  Parliament, as he did in fact gain over, by presents and favours,

  many Scottish lords and men of power. Some think that he went to

  get proofs against the Parliamentary leaders in England of their

  having treasonably invited the Scottish people to come and help

  them. With whatever object he went to Scotland, he did little good

  by going. At the instigation of the EARL OF MONTROSE, a desperate

  man who was then in prison for plotting, he tried to kidnap three

  Scottish lords who escaped. A committee of the Parliament at home,

  who had followed to watch him, writing an account of this INCIDENT,

  as it was called, to the Parliament, the Parliament made a fresh

  stir about it; were, or feigned to be, much alarmed for themselves;

  and wrote to the EARL OF ESSEX, the commander-in-chief, for a guard

  to protect them.

  It is not absolutely proved that the King plotted in Ireland

  besides, but it is very probable that he did, and that the Queen

  did, and that he had some wild hope of gaining the Irish people

  over to his side by favouring a rise among them. Whether or no,

  they did rise in a most brutal and savage rebellion; in which,

  encouraged by their priests, they committed such atrocities upon

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  numbers of the English, of both sexes and of all ages, as nobody

  could believe, but for their being related on oath by eyewitnesses.

  Whether one hundred thousand or two hundred thousand

  Protestants were murdered in this outbreak, is uncertain; but, that

  it was as ruthless and barbarous an outbreak as ever was known

  among any savage people, is certain.

  The King came home from Scotland, determined to make a great

  struggle for his lo
st power. He believed that, through his

  presents and favours, Scotland would take no part against him; and

  the Lord Mayor of London received him with such a magnificent

  dinner that he thought he must have become popular again in

  England. It would take a good many Lord Mayors, however, to make a

  people, and the King soon found himself mistaken.

  Not so soon, though, but that there was a great opposition in the

  Parliament to a celebrated paper put forth by Pym and Hampden and

  the rest, called 'THE REMONSTRANCE,' which set forth all the

  illegal acts that the King had ever done, but politely laid the

  blame of them on his bad advisers. Even when it was passed and

  presented to him, the King still thought himself strong enough to

  discharge Balfour from his command in the Tower, and to put in his

  place a man of bad character; to whom the Commons instantly

  objected, and whom he was obliged to abandon. At this time, the

  old outcry about the Bishops became louder than ever, and the old

  Archbishop of York was so near being murdered as he went down to

  the House of Lords - being laid hold of by the mob and violently

  knocked about, in return for very foolishly scolding a shrill boy

  who was yelping out 'No Bishops!' - that he sent for all the

  Bishops who were in town, and proposed to them to sign a

  declaration that, as they could no longer without danger to their

  lives attend their duty in Parliament, they protested against the

  lawfulness of everything done in their absence. This they asked

  the King to send to the House of Lords, which he did. Then the

  House of Commons impeached the whole party of Bishops and sent them

  off to the Tower:

  Taking no warning from this; but encouraged by there being a

  moderate party in the Parliament who objected to these strong

  measures, the King, on the third of January, one thousand six

  hundred and forty-two, took the rashest step that ever was taken by

  mortal man.

  Of his own accord and without advice, he sent the Attorney-General

  to the House of Lords, to accuse of treason certain members of

  Parliament who as popular leaders were the most obnoxious to him;

  LORD KIMBOLTON, SIR ARTHUR HASELRIG, DENZIL HOLLIS, JOHN PYM (they

  used to call him King Pym, he possessed such power and looked so

  big), JOHN HAMPDEN, and WILLIAM STRODE. The houses of those

  members he caused to be entered, and their papers to be sealed up.