CHAPTER V. JAMES II. SECTION I. JAMES'S REIGN OPENS DOUBTFULLY. 1. James's satisfactory promises are ill sustained. 1685. Immediately after the death of his brother, James met the council, and made a speech which was printed, and being put into circulation, tended to quiet the fears of the nation. The following sentences have great importance when compared with subsequent events: "I shall make it my endeavour to preserve the government, both in church and state, as it is now by law established. I know the principles of the Church of England are for monarchy, and the members of it have shown themselves good and loyal subjects; therefore I shall always take care to defend and support it. I know too that the laws of England are sufficient to make the king as great a monarch as I can wish; and as I shall never depart from the just rights and prerogatives of the crown, so I shall never invade any man's property." This speech drew forth loyal addresses from the bishops and clergy, the universities, and other public bodies. But notwithstanding these promises, the first public act of the king was to levy, by his own authority and contrary to law, those duties which had expired on the demise of the crown. FEBRUARY 6, 1685-DECEMBER 11, 1688. The principal advisers of the king at the commencement of the reign, were Clarendon, Halifax, Sunderland, Rochester, and Godolphin, the three latter being most in the king's confidence. But besides these, the king formed a secret council of Romanists; Talbot, afterwards Earl of Tyrconnel, Jermyn, afterwards Earl of Dover, Petre, a Jesuit, the lords Arundel and Belayse, and subsequently the Earls of Powis and Castlemaine. The bolder measures pursued by James, are said to have been at the instigation of Sunderland and Petre. 2. Romanism appears at Court. 1685. On the second Sunday after the death of Charles, the king attended mass in the queen's chapel, and under circumstances designed to attract notice. The church immediately took alarm, and the pulpits of the Establishment spoke out fearlessly on the subject of Romanism. James summoned the prelates, and threatened them with the withdrawal of his promise of protection, if the intemperance of the clergy were not stopped. The king could not however restrain his zeal; he came to the decision that it was necessary for him to go in state to the chapel, and expected the officers of the court to enter the chapel with him. Rumours of these proceedings tended to create considerable uneasiness, which was further increased by the king's order to discharge from prison those who were confined for refusing the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. This benefited only the Romanists and Quakers, for persons imprisoned for offences against the Conventicle Act were not released. Negotiations were opened between the courts of England and France. Barillon the ambassador represented to Louis, the designs of his brother of England for the restoration of the Catholic worship. Louis hesitated, and James sometimes begged and at other times affected to appear indifferent; ultimately Barillon paid him £60,000, and by order of his master, kept £100,000 in hand, for the purpose of corrupting the members of the House of Commons. Negotiations were also opened with pope Innocent XI. but even from Rome itself came a caution against immoderate zeal for the Roman Catholic faith. 3. The Scottish parliament passes severe laws against the Covenanters. 1685. The Scotch parliament at its meeting (April 23) proved most obsequious to its former regent, and made a declaration of abhorrence of "all principles and positions contrary and derogatory to the king's sacred, supreme, sovereign, and absolute power and authority". A revenue was settled on the king for life, and still further to please James, they imposed the penalty of death on preachers and hearers at field conventicles, and made it treason to give or take the two covenants. An act of security and indemnity was also passed for the benefit of the council, the secret committee, judges, military officers, and commissioners hitherto employed in the prosecution of those denominated rebels and assassins. The soldiers under Graham of Claverhouse, still distinguished themselves for the zeal with which they hunted down the Covenanters, and inflicted death on the most obnoxious. The effect of the extreme measures was to inflame to a greater degree the minds of the disaffected, and to lead to a general desire to shake off the yoke of James. It was the knowledge of this state of things in Scotland, that greatly influenced the movement shortly afterwards made by the numerous exiles in Holland. 4. Severe punishment inflicted upon Oates and Dangerfield. 1685. Of the principal persons who came forward as witnesses to a popish plot, Bedloe, Dangerfield, and Carstairs were dead, but Oates and Dugdale remained to satisfy the revenge of the prince they had wronged. At the accession of James, Oates was in prison for debt. Two bills were preferred against him for perjury, and being tried in the King's Bench, he was found guilty, May 9. The sentence passed was cruel, and evidently intended to put him to death by legal torture. Oates was to be degraded of his clerical habit in Palace-yard, to stand in the pillory at Westminster and the Royal Exchange, to be flogged from Aldgate to Newgate, and two days later from Newgate to Tyburn, and five times yearly, should he survive, to be exposed on the pillory in different parts of London. The flogging was inflicted with terrible severity; on the second day, a person present counted seventeen hundred lashes. Surviving this punishment, Oates was released at the Restoration, and though the House of Lords refused to reverse the judgment, he enjoyed a pension till his death in 1705. Dangerfield was tried three weeks later, for having published a particular narrative of the Meal-tub Plot, containing as was now maintained defamatory statements against the king and other Romanists. For this libel he was sentenced to be flogged from Aldgate to Newgate, and from Newgate to Tyburn. After this punishment, as he was returning to prison, Francis, a gentleman of Gray's Inn, struck him in the face and injured his eye. Dangerfield died, and the government thought it convenient to lay his death on Francis; to appease the indignation of the people, he was therefore hanged for murder. 5. Meeting of James's first and only parliament. 1685. In the king's address to the parliament which met May 19, he took occasion to say that his declaration to the council was not made in excitement, but after long and mature deliberation. Having asked for a permanent revenue, under threat of his displeasure, he informed the House that Argyle had landed in Scotland with hostile purpose. The parliament proved more liberal than the king expected; additional duties were laid on various articles, producing altogether a revenue of £1,900,000. Afterwards the House resolved itself into a Committee of Religion, and passed two resolutions-one expressive of their fervent attachment to the Church of England, the other calling on the king to put in execution the penal laws against all persons not being members of that church. The king was angry, and the Commous to propitiate him, reversed the resolution of the committee, and at the same time gave expression to their confidence in his Majesty's gracious promise to protect the church as by law established. The Lords in the meantime ordered Danby and the Romish peers committed to the Tower in connexion with the popish plot, to be brought to the bar of the House and discharged. A bill was also brought in for reversing the attainder of Lord Stafford, but the breaking out of the rebellion in the West, and the subsequent events of the reign putting the Catholics in bad odour, nothing was done; nor was the attainder reversed till so late as 1824. Monmouth soon after his landing was attainted by a bill, which was passed and received the royal assent in one day. In connexion with the rebellion, a further supply was granted to the king of £400,000, and a bill proposed for the greater security of the royal person. The Houses now adjourned, James requesting the members to repair to their homes, to watch over the public tranquillity. SECTION II. REBELLIONS OF ARGYLE AND 1. Many refugees in Holland from England and Scotland. The despotic rule in England and Scotland, in the latter period of the preceding reign, had driven many persons to seek an asylum in Holland. Of these the Scotch were both more numerous and more active, especially since the death of Charles, as they were led to suppose that Scotland, now that James had become king, was ripe for a revolution. Two noblemen in exile appeared by their station to be the proper persons to take the lead in the movement contemplated. Monmouth after he had withdrawn from England had resided at the Hague, but the accession of James obliged Willian of Orange to desire his removal, he accordingly took up his residence at Brussels. When a deputation from the exiles laid before him their project, he at once left for Rotterdam to take part in the scheme. Argyle, encouraged by his correspondents in Scotland, had already made some preparations when the project of the exiles was opened to him. To prevent jealousy between such rivals, it was agreed that each should bead a separate expedition. There yet remained a difficulty, which proved in the end the occasion of the failure of both invasions; neither Monmouth nor Argyle were to be free to act as they pleased, but only under the advice of a kind of council, this was particularly true of the latter. To preserve some unity in their twofold operations, it was arranged that Ayloffe and Rumbold, two of the Rye-house party, should accompany Argyle; and Fletcher and Ferguson of the Scotch party, be attached to Monmouth's expedition. 2. Argyle lands in Scotland, fails, and is executed. 1685. Argyle left the Texel with about three hundred men; reaching the Orkneys, two of his officers landed and were made prisoners, this revealed the whole affair. The Earl proceeded to Scotland and distributed his proclamation, declaring his object to be-the restoration of the true Protestant religion, and the per petual exclusion of popery. He met with little encouragement, and few persons joined him; his council had different views and ultimately demanded to be led into the western counties. Having lost his vessels and stores by capture, he sought to reach Glasgow, but the roads were well guarded, and the difficulties of the byeways reduced his followers from two thousand to five hundred. The Earl himself now sought to secure his safety by flight, but fell into the hands of the royalists, by the ford of Inchinnan. He was conveyed to Edinburgh, and executed June 30, on the judgment passed against him in 1681. Rumbold the owner of the Rye-house was wounded and taken, and being near death was executed at Edinburgh. Ayloffe was brought to England and executed before the gate of the Temple. Severe vengeance fell on the followers of Argyle. Many of the Campbells were hanged without a trial, the country for thirty miles round Inverary was wasted, and along the coast, the nets and fishing boats destroyed. More than three thousand were transported to the Plantations, many of them being first deprived of their ears, and the women branded in the cheek. 3. Monmouth's Rebellion. (1) MONMOUTH LANDS AT LYME IN DORSET, June 11. It was intended that Monmouth's expedition should sail a few days after the other, but a month passed before it left Holland. A landing was made at Lyme with a force of only eighty men, besides some servants. The mayor and principal inhabitants left the town, and Monmouth setting up his flag in the market-place, read to the common people a proclamation drawn up by Ferguson, to the effect that he and other noblemen appeared in arms, "for the defence and vindication of the Protestant religion, and the laws, rights, and privileges of England"; further, it charged the Duke of York with the burning of London, the confederacy against Holland, and the support of the Catholic plot; and since his wearing the crown, with converting the fences against tyranny into the means of establishing despotism; and further, that James had poisoned the late king; wherefore Monmouth, in revenge of the horrid and barbarous parricide committed upon his father, will pursue the said Duke of York as a mortal and bloody enemy. The people came in to join the invader's standard, but no persons of estate. About three thousand men were organised into four regiments, and at their head the Duke left Lyme. In the meantime the cause of the rebels was damaged by a quarrel about a horse which Fletcher attempted to take from Dare, one of Monmouth's adherents; making resistance, Dare was shot dead. So great was the indignation raised by this passionate act, that to quiet it, Fletcher the assassin, though the only valuable officer in the expedition, was |