of late, and still was in imminent danger, both from enemies abroad and from faction at home; that, in this case of extreme danger, seeing his majesty's refusal, the ordinance agreed upon by both houses for the militia ought to be obeyed according to the fundamental laws of the kingdom; and that such persons as should be nominated to take the command should execute their office by the joint authority of the two houses. The lords agreed; and the lieutenants and deputy-lieutenants of counties began to organize the militia. On the 18th of March Charles was at Doncaster; on the 19th at York, where he began to organize a separate government. On the 26th the Lord Willoughby, Lord Dungarvon, and Sir Anthony Ereby, arrived at York, to present to him the parliament's justification of their late Declaration. This document accused him of being the cause of all the troubles by resisting the Militia bill; told him that his fears and doubts were unfounded; besought him to remember that the government of the kingdom, before the beginning of the present parliament, consisted of many continued and multiplying acts of violation of the laws; "the wounds whereof were scarcely healed, when the extremity of all those violations was far exceeded by the strange and unheard-of breach of law, in the accusation of the Lord Kimbolton and five members of the commons' house," for which they had as yet received no full satisfaction. With much thankfulness they acknowledged that his majesty had passed many good bills, full of contentment and advantage to his people; but truth and necessity enforced them to add, "that ever in or about the time of passing those bills, some design or other had been on foot, which, if successful, would not only have deprived them of the fruit of those bills, but would have reduced them to a worse condition than that in which this present parliament had found the nation." They threw back his offer of a pardon with cold disdain, telling him that it could be no security to their fears and jealousies, which arose, not from any guilt of their own, but from the evil designs and attempts of others. They ended by advising and beseeching his majesty to return to his capital and parliament with all convenient speed, where he should find dutiful affections and earnest endeavours to establish his throne upon the sure foundation of the peace and prosperity of all his kingdoms. In his reply, Charles assumed a haughty and sarcastic tone, telling them that they need not expect his presence until they should both secure him concerning his just apprehensions of tumultuary insolences, and give him satisfaction for those insupportable scandals that had been raised against him. He, however, again protested that he neither desired nor needed any foreign force to preserve him from oppression. The fact was, that he and his parliament were now scrambling for arms and warlike means, and, having failed in getting possession of the Tower of London, Charles had his eyes fixed upon Hull, as a place, Willoughby, and "some other persons of honour," but without any armed force, to see the town of Hull. These visitors were respectfully received and entertained by the mayor and the to own both his name and his errand. The mayor, | person, which was to consist of 2000 foot and 200 aldermen, and townsmen of Hull, foreseeing the horse, all to be armed from his magazines at coming tempest, and knowing that the parlia- Hull. He added that he had sent despatches ment had resolved to leave the government of into Scotland to quicken the levies there making their town in the hands of Sir John Hotham, re- for Ireland, and that he hoped the encouragement solved upon a petition, to beseech his majesty to be given to adventurers would facilitate the raising pleased to agree with his parliament in this busi- of men and money for that service. Charles ness, that so, without breach of fealty or incur- was perfectly aware that the commons would opring the displeasure of either king or parliament, pose with all their might his entrance into Hull. they might know in whose hands they were to Days wore away, and he received no answer to intrust that strength of the kingdom, and their this his last message. On the 22d of April he own lives and property. The king took no no- sent the young Duke of York, his nephew the tice of this petition; but the House of Lords in-prince-palatine, the Earl of Newport, the Lord stantly summoned the Earl of Newcastle to at tend at his place in parliament. Charles, it appears, then requested the townsmen to keep Hull themselves, with their mayor as sole governor; and the earl and Captain Legg bestirred them-governor, Sir John Hotham. They spent that selves among the people: but all was of no avail; the courtiers were driven out, and the younger Hotham was received in the town with three companies of train-bands. The authorities freely surrendered into his hands the magazines and block-houses, and shortly after Sir John Hotham arrived with more companies of the train-bands of Yorkshire. The garrison of Hull was thus raised to about 800 men. From the 19th of March to the 22d of April, Charles resided at York: a court was formed around him; a crazy, tottering, timid ministry was put in action, and nights as well as days were spent in deep deliberation, and in the drawing up of declarations, protestations, and other state papers. On the 24th of March, the day on which the act granting him tonnage and poundage expired, Charles issued a proclamation, commanding the continuance of the payment of that tax or duty, and charging all his customers, comptrollers, collectors, searchers, waiters, &c., and all justices of the peace, mayors, sheriffs, bailiffs, constables, head-boroughs, and others, his majesty's officers and ministers, to take care that the proclamation should be fully executed and the orders performed. Upon the very same day the lords and commons published an order, retaining to themselves the entire control of that source of revenue. On the 8th of April Charles sent to acquaint the parliament with his resolution of going into Ireland for suppressing the rebellion there. He assured them, and all his loving subjects, that he would earnestly pursue the design for the defence of God's true religion, not declining any hazard of his person; and he called God to witness the sincerity of his professions, and the further assurance that he would never consent to a toleration of the Popish profession in Ireland. He then lamely introduced the great subject of Hull, telling them that he intended forthwith to raise, by his own commissions, a guard for his day in viewing the beauty and the strength of the place, and partaking of a banquet prepared by the mayor and aldermen of Hull. On the morrow, the 23d of April, being St. George's Day, they were all invited to dine with the governor; but a little before dinner-time, Sir John Hotham being busy in discourse with their highnesses, was suddenly saluted by Sir Lewis Dives, the brother-in-law and correspondent of the fugitive Lord Digby. Sir Lewis delivered to Sir John a message from his majesty, purporting that his majesty also intended to dine with him that day, being then within four miles of Hull with an escort of 300 horse and upwards. Old Hotham was startled, but, perceiving what was intended, he hastened to consult with Mr. Pelham, a member of the House of Commons and alderman of Hull, and with some others who were equally pledged to the parliament side. These gentlemen presently decided (there was short time for deliberation) that a messenger should be sent to his majesty, humbly to beseech him to forbear to come, forasmuch as the governor could not, without betraying his trust, admit him with so great a guard. As soon as this messenger had returned, and had brought certain information of the king's advance, Hotham drew up the bridge, shut the gates, and commanded his soldiers to stand to their arms. This was scarcely done when Charles rode up to Beverley gate, called for Sir John Hotham, and commanded him to open the gate. To that frequently repeated command Sir John's only answer was, that he was intrusted by the parliament with the securing of the town for his majesty's honour and the kingdom's use-that he intended, by God's help, to do this duty-that his majesty ought not to misinterpret his conduct into disloyalty—that, if his majesty would be pleased to come in with the Prince of Wales and twelve more, he should be welcome. The king refused to enter without his whole guard. The altercation began at eleven o'clock; at one o'clock the Duke of York, the Elector-palatine, and their attendants, were allowed to go out of the town to join the king. Charles stayed by the gate till four o'clock, when he retired, and gave Sir John Hotham one hour to consider what he did. At five o'clock Charles returned to the gate, where he received from the liament, and, being without due process of law, was against the liberty of the subject and the law of the land. On the same day that these last resolutions were carried they drew up a petition against his majesty's going over to Ireland, telling him plainly that they could never consent to any levies or raising of soldiers to be made by his majesty alone for this his intended expedition, or to the payment of any army except such as should be employed and commanded according to the advice and direction of parliament. And all this was accompanied by an energetic declaration, in which they insisted that their precaution in securing Hull had been necessary to the safety of the country; and that it was the king and his adherents, and not Sir John Hotham, that had transgressed. This petition was delivered to his majesty by the Earl of Stamford. On the 4th of May Charles gave a long answer to the petition and to the declaration of the two houses. He began by complaining that his message demanding justice for the high and unheard-of BEVERLEY GATE, AND FORTIFICATIONS OF HULL.-From Hollar's Map of Hull. affront offered to him at the gates of governor the same answer. Thereupon he caused two heralds-at-arms to proclaim Sir John Hotham a traitor; and then, disappointed, enraged, humiliated, he retreated to Beverley, where he lodged that unhappy night. The next morning he sent a herald and some others back to Hull to offer the governor a pardon and tempting conditions if he would yet open the gate. Hotham replied as he had done the day before; and Charles then rode away to York, whence he despatched another message to the parliament. On the next day (the 25th) he sent another message to parliament, and a very gracious letter to the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses of Hull. Both were worse than useless. The lords and commons declared instantly that his stopping up the passages between Hull and the parliament, and intercepting of messengers employed by parliament,' was a high breach of their privileges; that the sheriffs and justices of the peace of the counties of York and Lincoln, and all other his majesty's officers, should be called upon to suppress all forces that should be raised in those counties, either to force the town of Hull, or to stop passengers to and from it; that Sir John Hotham had done nothing but in obedience to the command of both Houses of Parliament; that the declaring Sir John a traitor, he being a member of the House of Commons, was a high breach of the privileges of par 1 Charles had laid scouts to intercept all letters passing between the parliament and Hull.-Whitelock. Hull by Sir John Hotham had not been thought worthy of an answer, but that, instead thereof, parliament had thought it fit, by their printed votes, to own and avow that unparalleled act as being done in obedience to the command of both Houses of Parliament. He claimed an entire right of property in the towns, forts, and magazines of the kingdom. "And we would fain be answered," said he, "what title any subject of our kingdom hath to his house or land that we have not to our town of Hull? Or what right hath he to his money, plate, or jewels that we have not to our magazine or munition there? . . . . We very well know the great and unlimited power of parliament, but we know as well that it is only in that sense as we are a part of that parliament. Without us, and against our consent, the votes of either or both houses together must not, cannot, shall not forbid anything that is enjoined by the law, or enjoin anything that is forbidden by the law." He said that Lord Digby's intercepted letters, wherein mention was made of his retreat to a place of safety, ought not to hinder him from visiting his own town and fort; and, quitting this ticklish point with the fewest words possible, he protested with all solemnity that his heart bled at the apprehension of a civil war, and that, if any such should arise, the blood and destruction must be laid to the account of parliament, his own conscience telling him that he was clear. He re-asserted the notorious falsehood, that he had offered to go into Hull with twenty horse only, his whole train be- | neous notion being infused into princes that their ing unarmed. As for Hotham, he said, "We kingdoms were their own, and that they might had been contemptibly stupid if we had made do with them what they would-"as if their any scruple to proclaim him traitor. . . . . And kingdoms were for them, and not they for their that, in such a case, the declaring him traitor, be- kingdoms"-was the root of all their invasions ing a member of the House of Commons, should of their subjects' just rights and liberties; and be a breach of privilege of parliament, we must that so far was the notion in question from being have other reasons than bare votes to prove." true, that in fact their kingdoms, their towns, the He had rather happily quoted before from Pym's people, the public treasure, and whatsoever was speech on the trial of Strafford, and he ended bought therewith, were all only given to them in his answer with another extract from the same trust: by the known laws of England, the very "great driver:""We conclude with Mr. Pym's jewels of the crown were not the king's proown words: 'If the prerogative of the king over-perty, but were only confided to his keeping for whelm the liberty of the people, it will be turned to tyranny; if liberty undermine the prerogative, it will grow into anarchy.'" the use and ornament of his regal dignity. The remonstrance of the two houses went on to affirm that they had given no occasion to his majesty to declare with so much earnestness that their votes would be nothing without or against his consent; that they were very tender of the law themselves, and so would never allow a few private persons about his majesty, nor his majesty himself out of his courts, to be judge of the law, and that, too, contrary to the judgment of the highest court of judicature. They then returned to Lord Digby's intercepted letter. "We appeal," said they, "to the judgment of any indifferent man that shall read that letter, and compare it with the posture that his majesty then did and still doth stand in towards the parliament, and with the circumstances of that late action of his majesty in going to Hull, whether the advisers of that journey intended only a visit of that fort and magazine?" They told the king that it was a resolution most worthy of a prince to shut his ears against any that would incline him to a civil war; but they could not believe that spirit to have animated those that came with his majesty to the House of Commons; or those that accompanied him from Whitehall to Hamp On the 26th of May the parliament sent him their remonstrance, or declaration, in answer to his declaration concerning the business of Hull. The royal declaration, which, like most of these papers, is supposed to be the composition of Hyde, was considered by the two houses in the light of an appeal to the people, and a declining of further negotiation between the king and them. "Therefore," said they, "we likewise shall address our answer to the people, not by way of appeal, but to prevent them from being their own executioners, and from being persuaded, under false colours of defending the law and their liberties, to destroy both with their own hands, by taking their lives, liberties, and estates out of their hands whom they have chosen and intrusted therewith, and resigning them up to some evil counsellors about his majesty, who can lay no foundation of their own greatness but upon the ruin of this, and in it of all parliaments, and in them of the true religion and the freedom of this nation." They announced, in the highest and most intelligible tone, their conceptions as to the king's right of property. Referring to Char-ton Court, and appeared in a warlike manner at les's assertion that he had the same property in the town of Hull, and in the magazines there, that any of his subjects had in their houses, lands, or money, they said, "Here that is laid down for a principle which would indeed pull up the very foundation of the liberty, property, and interest of every subject in particular, and of all the sub-blood from themselves, declaring that they stood jects in general; . . . . for his majesty's towns are no more his own than the kingdom is his own; and his kingdom is no more his own than his people are his own: and, if the king had a property in all his towns, what would become of the subjects' property in their houses therein? And if he had a property in his kingdom, what would become of the subjects' property in their lands throughout the kingdom? or of their liberties, if his majesty had the same right in their persons that every subject hath in their lands or goods?" They went on to observe that the erro Kingston; or those that followed him to Hull: or those that, after that expedition, drew their swords at York, demanding who would be for the king; or those that advised his majesty to declare Sir John Hotham a traitor. And then they imitated Charles in casting the weight of acquitted by God and their consciences if those malignant spirits should ever force them to defend their religion, their country, the privileges of parliament, and the liberties of the subject, with their swords. To this long paper Charles returned a still longer reply, and both were printed and published in the form of pamphlets. The two houses again took up the controversial pen shortly afterwards; but their rejoinder was of such a length as to appear very tedious, even to the patient and long-winded Rushworth. Charles issued a proclamation, stating that, for some months, his town and county of Kingston-upon- than Charles had wished, and Sir Thomas FairHull had been withheld from him, and his entrance traitorously resisted, by Sir John Hotham, &c. But not hoping to gain so important a prize by a proclamation, the royalists had recourse to stratagem and bribes. But Hotham counterplotted, and outwitted them, and the ruse entirely failed. The parliament voted thanks to Sir John Hotham for this good service. Seeing that the king's troops were daily increasing at York, and that they were bent upon the capture of Hull, Hotham, for his own security, and to prevent any practices of bribery within the town, exacted from the inhabitants a solemn protestation or oath that they would faithfully maintain Hull for the king and parliament and kingdom's use. The greater part of the inhabitants took the protestation willingly, and those that refused it were expelled from the town. As the great aim of Charles was to get possession of the magazines, Hotham, by order of parliament, sent all the great ordnance and most of the arms and ammunition back to the Tower of London. Charles now issued a proclamation, forbidding the muster of any troops or any militia without his commands and commission; but several days before this (on the 5th of May) the parliament had issued a declaration, in which, after condemning the king's refusal to give his assent to an amended bill for settling the militia, they stated that they should forthwith carry into effect their own ordinance respecting the militia, and required all persons in authority to put the said ordinance into execution. The lords-lieutenants being named for their several counties, nominated their deputy-lieutenants, subject to the approbation of parliament. Thus the Lord Paget being named in the ordinance for Buckinghamshire, he named Hampden, Goodwin, Grenville, Tyrrel, Winwood, and Whitelock as his deputylieutenants; and these gentlemen, being approved by the two houses, entered upon the command of the Buckinghamshire militia.' St. John, Selden, Maynard, Glynne, Grimston, and many other members of the House of Commons, accepted the like commissions, and turned their attention from oratory and debate to drilling and tactics. The king declared that there was now no legal power in the houses to do what they had done, commanded all men to refuse obedience to the parliament's "pretended ordinance," and summoned a county meeting at York for the purpose of promoting the levy of troops for his own service. But there were more men attended this meeting 1 “The Lord Paget, not long after this, began to boggle and was unfixed in his resolutions: and upon the king's publishing of his commission of array, and declaration against the ordinance of parliament for the militia his lordship's heart failing him, and being unsatisfied with his judgment, he revolted from the parliament and went to the king."-Whitelock. VOL. II. fax boldly laid upon the pummel of the king's saddle the warm remonstrance and petition of the lesser gentry and farmers and freeholders of Yorkshire, who asserted their right of being present, and desired the king to agree with his parliament. Even the aristocracy of the county were divided, and all that Charles obtained was one troop of horse, composed of gentlemen volunteers, who were nominally to be under the command of the boy Prince of Wales, and a foot regiment formed out of some of the train-bands. This paltry gathering at York was no sooner reported in parliament than the three following resolutions were hurled at the king and his throne:-1. That the king, seduced by wicked counsels, intended to make war on the parliament. 2. That whensoever the king made war upon the parliament, it was a breach of the trust reposed in him by his people, contrary to his oath, and tending to the dissolution of the government. 3. That whosoever should assist him in such war were traitors by the fundamental laws of the kingdom. After this the houses published another remonstrance, exposing the king's misdeeds, and explaining their own privileges and intentions. Charles answered, and they rejoined, and then they ordered that all sheriffs, justices of the peace, &c., within 150 miles of that city, should stop all arms and ammunition going to York, and apprehend the conveyers, and also suppress all forces coming together by the king's commission. The ordinance of parliament was more effective than the proclamations and summonses of the king. In London alone a little army was raised. In the month of May the train-bands had a general muster in Finsbury Fields, where Major-general Skippon appeared as their commander, and where tents were pitched for the accommodation of the members of both houses. Eight thousand men were under arms. These were divided into six regiments, and officered by men hearty in the cause. 66 The king, it is said, had given offence to the English sailors by calling them water-rats;" and whether the story be true or not, it seems certain that his government was unpopular with the navy. It will be remembered that the houses had commissioned the lord high-admiral, the Earl of Northumberland, to put the fleet into a warlike attitude. This nobleman, who enjoyed the confidence of neither party, was, or pretended to be very sick. The commons voted that he should be desired to appoint the Earl of Warwick to the command of the fleet, and requested the concurrence of the lords. The lords scrupled and hesitated, objecting that the appointment required the sanction of the king. But thereupon the commons, without the consent of the lords, and 171 |