Commons would now be better satisfied with the king's administration. In his speech to the houses (Feb. 19, 1624) James dropped some hints of his cause of complaint against Spain, and he graciously condescended to ask the advice of Parliament, which he had ever before rejected, with regard to the conduct of so important an affair. Buckingham delivered to a committee of Lords and Commons a long narrative, which he pretended to be true and complete, of every step taken in the negotiations with Philip; but, partly by the suppression of some facts, partly by the false coloring laid on others, this narrative was calculated entirely to mislead the Parliament, and to throw on the court of Spain the reproach of artifice and insincerity. The Prince of Wales, who was present, vouched for its truth; and the king himself lent it, indirectly, his authority, by telling the Parliament that it was by his orders Buckingham laid the whole affair before them. Such, on the threshold of manhood, was Charles's initiation in insincerity. The narrative concurred so well with the passions and prejudices of the Parliament that no scruple was made of immediately adopting it, and they immediately advised the king to break off both treaties with Spain, as well that which regarded the marriage as that for the restitution of the palatinate. The people displayed their triumph by public bonfires and rejoicings, and by insults on the Spanish ministers, and Buckingham became the favorite of the public and of the Parliament. The Commons voted a sum of £300,000, which, at the king's own proposition, was paid to a committee of Parliament, and issued by them, without being intrusted to his management. Advantage was also taken of the present juncture to pass the bill against monopolies, which had formerly been encouraged by the king, but which had failed by the rupture between him and the last House of Commons; and the Commons corroborated their newly-revived power of impeachment by preferring one against the Earl of Middlesex, the treasurer, who was found guilty of accepting presents and of other misdemeanors.

§ 16. All James's measures, and all the alliances into which he entered, were now founded on the system of enmity to the Austrian family, and of war to be carried on for the recovery of the palatinate. An army of 6000 men was levied in England and sent over to Holland, which had renewed the war with the Spanish monarchy. A treaty was entered into with France, which included a marriage between Charles and the Princess Henrietta ; and as the prince, during his abode in Spain, had given a verbal promise to allow the infanta the education of her children till the age of thirteen, this article was here inserted in the treaty. In the spring of 1625 James was seized with a tertian ague, and aft

A.D. 1623-1625. DEATH AND CHARACTER OF JAMES.

387 er some fits expired on the 27th of March, after a reign over England of 22 years and some days, and in the 59th year of his age. His reign over Scotland was almost of equal duration with his life. No prince was ever so much exposed to the opposite extremes of calumny and flattery, of satire and panegyric. His generosity bordered on profusion, his learning on pedantry, his pacific disposition on pusillanimity, his wisdom on cunning, his friendship on light fancy and boyish fondness. His capacity was considerable, but fitter to discourse on general maxims than to conduct any intricate business. Awkward in his person and ungainly in his manners, he was ill qualified to command respect; partial and undiscerning in his affections, he was little fitted to acquire general love. Never had sovereign a higher notion of the kingly dignity, never was any less qualified by nature to sustain it. He spent much of his time in hunting, and in the coarse and vulgar sports of cock-fighting and baiting bulls and bears; and the manners of his court were disgraced by buffoonery, drunkenness, and debauchery.

Obverse of pattern for a Broad of Charles I.

HI: REX.

CAROLVS. D: G MAG BRIT: FR: ET. Bust of king to left.

CHAPTER XXI.

CHARLES 1.-FROM HIS ACCESSION TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CIVIL WAR. A.D. 1625-1642.

§ 1. Accession of Charles. Proceedings in Parliament. § 2. Expedition against Spain. Second Parliament. Impeachment of Buckingham. § 3. Illegal Taxation. War with France. Expedition to the Isle of Rhé. § 4. Third Parliament. Petition of Right. Struggle between the King and Commons. § 5. Assassination of Buckingham. Surrender of Rochelle. § 6. New Session. Tonnage and Poundage. Religious Disputes. Dissolution of Parliament. § 7. Peace with France and Spain. The King's Advisers. Laud's Innovations in the Church. Arbitrary and illegal Government. § 8. Ship-money. Trial of Hampden. § 9. Discontents in Scotland. The Covenant. Episcopacy abolished. Scotch Wars. § 10. Fourth English Parliament. Riots in London. § 11. Scotch War. Rout at Newburn, and Treaty of Ripon. Council at York, and Summoning of the Long Parliament. § 12. Meeting of the Long . Parliament. Impeachment of Strafford. Great Authority of the Commons. Triennial Bill. § 13. Strafford's Trial. His Attainder and Execution. § 14. Court of High Commission and Star Chamber abolished. King's Journey to Scotland. § 15. Irish Rebellion. § 16. Meeting of the English Parliament. The Remonstrance. Impeachment of the Bishops. 17. Accusation of Lord Kimbolton and the five Members. The King leaves London. The Militia Bill. The King arrives at York. § 18. Preparations for a Civil War. The King erects his Standard at Nottingham.

§ 1. Soon after his accession, Charles, now in his 25th year, completed his marriage with the French princess Henrietta. He had espoused her by proxy at Paris, and on the 22d of June, 1625, Buckingham conducted her to England. On the 18th of that month a new Parliament assembled at Westminster, and Charles not unnaturally expected that at the commencement of his reign they would display their affection by granting him supplies adequate to conduct a war which had been undertaken with the apparent approbation of the people. But the House of Commons was almost entirely governed by a set of men of the most uncom

A.D. 1625.

PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMENT.

389

mon capacity and the largest views: men who were now formed into a regular party, and united, as well by fixed aims and projects, as by the hardships which some of them had undergone in prosecution of them. Among these we may mention the names of Sir Edward Coke, Sir Edwin Sandys, Sir Robert Philips, Sir Francis Seymour, Sir Dudley Digges, Sir John Eliot, Sir Thomas Wentworth, Mr. Selden, and Mr. Pym. Animated with a warm regard to liberty, these generous patriots saw with regret an unbounded power exercised by the crown, and were resolved to seize the opportunity which the king's necessities offered them of reducing the prerogative within more reasonable compass. The end they esteemed beneficent and noble, the means regular and constitutional. To grant or refuse supplies was the undoubted privilege of the Commons; and with these views they voted only two subsidies (about £140,000) to meet the expenses of the formidable war into which Charles was about to plunge. Not discouraged, however, by this failure, Charles, though he was constrained to adjourn the Parliament by reason of the plague, which at that time raged in London, immediately reassembled them at Oxford, and made a new attempt to gain from them some supplies. But, though he laid bare to them all his necessities-though he showed that upward of a million a year was necessary for the conduct of the war and for the defense of Ireland, and even condescended to use entreaties, the Commons remained inexorable. Besides all their other motives, they had made a discovery which inflamed them against the court and against the Duke of Buckingham. The French court, not without the connivance, it was suspected, of Charles and his ministers, had attempted to employ against the Huguenots of Rochelle some English vessels which had been sent to Dieppe on pretense of serving against the Genoese. When, on discovery of his destination, Pennington, the commander, had sailed with his squadron to England, Buckingham, lord admiral, had compelled him to return; and the contemplated enterprise was frustrated only by the mutiny and desertion of the crews. The king, finding that the Parliament was resolved to grant him no supply, took advantage of the plague, which began to appear at Oxford, and on that pretense immediately dissolved them (Aug. 12). To supply the want of parliamentary aids, Charles issued privy seals for borrowing money from his subjects. The advantage reaped by this expedient was a small compensation for the disgust which it occasioned: by means, however, of that supply, and by other expedients, he was, though with difficulty, enabled to equip his fleet, which consisted of 80 vessels, and carried on board an army of 10,000 men, under Sir Edward Cecil, lately created Viscount Wimbledon.

§ 2. Cecil undertook an expedition against Cadiz, which proved a complete failure, and increased the complaints against the court. A little prudence might have discovered to Charles the folly of persisting in hostilities which he had not the means of carrying on without the surrender of his dearest pretensions, and from which he had an opportunity to escape, as war was not actually declared against Spain till after the dissolution of his first Parliament. But his evil genius, and the violent counsels of Buckingham, urged him on to his destruction. The abortive attempt upon Cadiz increased his necessities, and obliged him to call a new Parliament (Feb. 6, 1626). But the views of the last Parliament were immediately adopted by this, as if the same men had been every where elected, and no time had intervened since their meeting. The inadequate supplies which they voted were coupled with the condition that they were to proceed in regulating and controlling every part of government which displeased them, to which the king's urgent necessities obliged him to submit. The Duke of Buckingham, who became every day more unpopular, was obliged to sustain two violent attacks this session, one from the Earl of Bristol, another from the House of Commons. The Earl of Bristol had mortally offended Buckingham in the affair of the Spanish marriage, and was consequently obnoxious to Charles. When the Parliament was summoned, Charles, by a stretch of prerogative, had given orders that no writ, as is customary, should be sent to Bristol. That nobleman applied to the House of Lords by petition, and craved their good offices with the king for obtaining what was his due as a peer of the realm. His writ was sent him, but accompanied with a letter from the Lord Keeper Coventry, commanding him, in the king's name, to absent himself from Parliament. This letter Bristol conveyed to the Lords, and asked advice how to proceed in so delicate a situation. The king's prohibition was withdrawn, and Bristol took his seat. Provoked at these repeated instances of vigor, which the court denominated contumacy, Charles ordered his attorney general to enter an accusation of high treason against him. By way of recrimination, Bristol accused Buckingham of high treason, and proved that he was the author of the war with Spain. The lower House also, after having voted that common fame was a sufficient ground of accusation by the Commons, proceeded to frame regular articles against Buckingham. They accused him of having united many offices in his person; of neglecting to guard the seas, insomuch that many merchant ships had fallen into the hands of the enemy; of delivering ships to the French king in order to serve against the Huguenots; of being employed in the sale of honors and offices; of accepting extensive grants from the crown; of