CHAPTER II.-CIVIL AND MILITARY HISTORY.-A.D. 1661-1675. CHARLES II. Act of uniformity enforced upon the Presbyterians-Ejection of their ministers on the anniversary of St. Bartholomew-Declaration of indulgence in behalf of Papists-Sale of Dunkirk-Opposition of Charles to the triennial act-The conventicle act passed-Its oppressions-It is turned in Scotland against the national church-Scottish persecutions by Lauderdale and Sharp-War with Holland-Naval engagements with the Dutch-Further oppressive acts of the high-church party-Fresh naval encounters with the Dutch-The fire of London-Opposition to the court commenced-Insurrection of the Covenanters in Scotland-Their defeat at the Pentland Hills-The Dutch block up the Medway and the Thames-Peace concluded with HollandPlot against the Earl of Clarendon-He is deprived of the chancellorship-His impeachment in parliament— He secretly withdraws to France-The council called the Cabal formed-Its proceedings-Secret and treacherous treaties of Charles with Louis XIV.-Charles obliged to relinquish his scheme of toleration-His mistresses-His design to change the national religion and government-His combination for that purpose with Louis XIV.-Infamous treatment of Sir John Coventry-The bill called the "Coventry Act"-Account of Colonel Blood-His attempt to hang the Duke of Ormond-His behaviour before the king-Charles and Louis XIV. go to war with Holland-Nefarious attempt to capture the Dutch Smyrna fleet-Its failure-Indecisive naval battle with the Dutch at Solebay-The Dutch assailed by the French by land-William, Prince of Orange-His character and abilities-He obtains the chief command in Holland-His able resistance to the French invasion-Meeting of parliament-Unsuccessful attempts of the court to win over the Nonconformists -Bill to suppress Popery called the "Test Act" passed-Parliament prorogued-The Cabal succeeded by the Danby administration—Peace between England and Holland-Court and cabinet intrigues-Debates in parliament upon the bill to prevent the danger which may arise from persoas disaffected to the government-Troubles in Scotland—Attempt to assassinate Archbishop Sharp-Slavish conduct of the Scottish parliament. S the anniversary of St. Bartho-lord-general (Monk), the Duke of Ormond, the lomew approached, the Presbyte- chief-justice, the attorney-general, and the secrerian ministers, threatened with taries of state. "The bishops," says Clarendon, deprivation, reminded the king of ". were very much troubled that those fellows all they and their party had done should still presume to give his majesty so much for his restoration, and then im- vexation, and that they should have such access plored his majesty to suspend the execution of to him. They gave such arguments against the the act of uniformity for three months longer, doing what was desired as could not be answered; by his letters to the bishops, by proclamation, and, for themselves, they desired to be excused by an act of council, or in any other way his for not conniving in any degree at the breach majesty should think fit. Charles made them a of the act of parliament, and that his majesty's positive promise that he would do what they giving such a declaration or recommendation (for desired; and this promise was solemnly given to the three months' respite) would be the greatest them in the presence of Monk, who was still wound to the church, and to the government considered as leaning towards the Presbyterians thereof, that it could receive." As a matter of through his wife. But Clarendon stepped in and course, the crown lawyers sided with the bishops; urged the absolute necessity of enforcing obedi- and so, "upon the whole matter, the king was ence to the act of uniformity without delay or converted; and, with great bitterness against that connivance; and he told the king that it would people in general, and against the particular pernot be in his power to preserve from deprivation sous, whom he had always received too graciously, those ministers that would not submit to it. concluded that he would not do what was desired, This is Clarendon's account, almost in his own and that the connivance should not be given to words. He tells us, indeed, that he was very any of them. The bishops departed full of satistender of the king's honour, and told his majesty faction with the king's resolution." Accordingly, that, having engaged his word, he ought to per-upon the day prescribed, which the suffering Presform what he had promised. But Clarendon knew that Charles never regarded his word, and he had given him a strong inducement to break it. Some of the bishops were then summoned to Hampton Court, and the question was debated in the presence of the king, the chancellor, the byterians compared to the great St. Bartholomew Massacre of the French, the act of uniformity was enforced in all its rigour. Some complied with the terms for the sake of their families; but upwards of 2000 ministers refused, and were thrust Life. 2 Ibid. out of their livings. The Long Parliament had | old dread or detestation of the Roman church. assigned a fifth of the revenues of the church for Charles, however, influenced by his brother the the support of the Episcopalian clergy whom they Duke of York, by Bristol, by Secretary Bennet, dispossessed; but now the Episcopalians allowed and by other avowed or concealed Papists, put nothing of the sort. "This," says Burnet, "raised forth a declaration of indulgence.' Whatever were a grievous outcry over the nation. Some his motives, this was indisputably Charles's best few, and but few, of the Episcopal party, were act; but we shall presently see that the bigotry of troubled at this severity, or apprehensive of the part of his subjects did not allow him to mainvery ill effects it was like to have. Here were tain it. very many men, much valued, some on better grounds, and others on worse, who were now cast out ignominiously, reduced to great poverty, provoked by much spiteful usage, and cast upon those popular practices that both their principles and their circumstances seemed to justify." But it was not merely the Presbyterian ministers and their flocks that suffered; all the Nonconformists (which now had become the general term, as that of Puritans had been formerly) were visited by a sharp persecution, their conventicles being everywhere suppressed, and their preachers and many of themselves cast into prison as men guilty of the double sin of heresy and disloyalty. Hoping nothing from the laws or the parliament of their country, these men projected extensive emigrations to Holland, to New England, to other plantations beyond the Atlantic-to any spot where they might be safe from the "prelates' rage." Upon this, the Earl of Bristol, the rash and eccentric Lord Digby of the Civil wars, and as rash and eccentric now as ever, conceived a plan into which the leading Catholics entered very readily. This plan was to procure, under cover of indulgence to the Protestant Nonconformists, whose departure from the country would be most mischievous to trade and industry, a wide and liberal toleration, which should include all that did not con- | form-and themselves, as Papists, with the rest. The project pleased the king, and did not displease the minor sects; but the Presbyterians were averse to sharing in a toleration with the Papists; and the bishops and the high-church party, who were for a strict conformity on the part of all sects whatsoever, had abated none of their fell with exalted zeal upon the king's declaration of It is dated the 26th of December, 1662. Clarendon attributes the blame of it to Ashley Cooper (Shaftesbury), who had passed, by turns, for Presbyterian and Independent, but who, like his master King Charles, had neither bigotry nor any strong attachment to any religion. The chancellor also informs us that, to crown all the hopes of the Papists "the lady "-that is, Castlemaine, the king's mistress, in whose apartment half the business of government was transacted-"declared herself of that faith, and inveighed sharply against the church she had been bred in."-Life. But he says nothing about the conversion of his own daughter, the Duchess of York, which took place soon after. 2" Whether it would really have been of great advantage to England, had it been preserved, may be doubted; as, though, from its situation, it might have afforded a shelter for our privateers instead of those of the enemy, a retreat for our fleets if beaten, or a safe landing place for our armies; all these advantages would apparently have been fully balanced by the very large expense attending its preservation. These, however, are the views which a more enlightened system of policy has Nearly at the same time, the whole English nation, without any distinction as to sects or parties, was disgusted by the sale of Dunkirk—that place which had been acquired by Oliver Cromwell, and which had been held of such importance even by the Convention Parliament who called home Charles, that, several months after his arrival, they had passed a bill annexing it to the imperial crown of this realm, being encouraged thereto by Clarendon, who, on several public occasions, both before and after the vote, dwelt with pompous rhetoric on the subject. When Charles made up his mind to "chaffer away" the conquest of the "magnanimous usurper," there were three bidders in the market-Spain, from whom the place had been taken; Holland, that wished to secure it as a bulwark against the now encroaching and powerful French; and France, that longed for it as an extension of frontier, and a beginning to the occupation of all Belgium, and Holland to boot. All three bid high; but Charles expected more services from the growing power of France than he could hope for from the fast-declining power of Spain, or from the cautious government of Holland (he and Clarendon were actually engaged in a secret negotiation with Louis XIV. for a French force of 10,000 foot and some cavalry to subdue what remained of the liberties of England), and, after driving a long and hard bargain, Dunkirk was given up to France for 5,000,000 livres, payable in three years by bills of different dates.3 A.D. 1663. The parliament re-assembled on the 18th of February, and presently taught the world. In the days of Clarendon they were very much unknown. It was then thought that establishments on the Continent of Europe were of the greatest importance to England, and were to be preserved as the most valuable append ages of the British crown. Hence the despair of Mary at the loss of Calais: hence the anxiety of Cromwell to obtain Dunkirk as an equivalent for that loss: and hence the universal cry of reprobation through the country when the latter place was lost to us for ever."-Historical Inquiries respecting the Character of Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, by the Hon. George Agar Ellis (the late Lord Dover). 3 See Mémoires d'Estrades, the French diplomatist who negotiated the sale; Œuvres de Louis XIV. Clarendon's State Papers and Life. A recent writer, of strong opinions, seems to think that the sale was very justifiable, and that it was justified by the long acquiescence of the parliament. But if that parliament, which was as base as the king, said nothing of the subject for several years, its calculated silence was not imitated by the nation. Everywhere the people denounced the sale; and the indulgence; and the bill to give the crown a dispensing power without consent of parliament was abandoned in the lords, where the bishops were vehement against it; and it was deprecated in both houses, which joined in representing to Charles the alarming growth and increase of Popery and of Jesuits in the kingdom. The commons, however, voted him a grant of four subsidies; and then, their best work being done, he was about to prorogue the parliament, when the Earl of Bristol delayed that measure by suddenly impeaching the lord-chancellor. But, with the help of the judges, who declared against the legality of the charges, the matter soon fell to the ground. Bristol absconded; and the prorogation took place on the 27th of July. During the long holiday which followed, the court pursued their old course of revelry and riot; and a very insignificant insurrection took place at Farnley Wood, in Yorkshire. It appears that the government, if it did not actually foment it, was perfectly well aware of the existence of this ephemeral plot, which was promoted by religious persecution, but which did not include a single person of any rank or consequence. On the re-assembling of parliaA.D. 1664. ment, on the 16th of March, Charles made a great deal of the affair of Farnley Wood. He told the two houses that that plot was extensive and dangerous; that some of those conspirators maintained that the authority of the Long Parliament still existed in the surviving members; and that others computed that, by a clause in the triennial act, the present parliament was, by lapse of time, at an end several months since, and that, therefore, as the court issued no new writs, the people might themselves choose menbers for a new parliament. He said that he had often read over that bill; and though there was no colour (as, indeed, there was not) for the fancy of the determination of the parliament (that is, its ending in three years), yet he would not deny that he had always expected them to reconsider "the wonderful clauses" in that bill, which had passed in a time "very uncareful for the dignity of the crown." He now requested them to look again at that triennial bill. He said that he loved parliaments—that he was much beholden to parliaments—that he did not think the crown could ever be happy without frequent parliaments; "but assure yourselves," said he, in conclusion, "if I merchants of London offered, through the lord-mayor, any sum of money to the king so that Dunkirk might not be alienated. And we are disposed to believe that, but for the hopes he enter tained that Louis would afford him the means of making himself as absolute as his most Christian majesty, Charles would have turned aside from the unpopular measure, and contented himself with some large annual allowance from the merchants, These wonderful clauses, that were wormwood to the king and all the absolutists, were to the effect that, if the king did He should think otherwise, I would never suffer a parliament to come together by the means prescribed by that bill." Charles was aware that the Hampdens and the Pyms were no more. knew the baseness of the present parliament, which had been already nibbling at the triennial act more than once, and which now, without a murmur, annihilated that bulwark of liberty. This was so grateful to Charles, that he went in person to the House of Lords to pass the repealing bill, and to thank them. He told them that every good Englishman would thank them for it; for the triennial act could only have served to discredit parliaments-to make the crown jealous of parliaments, and parliaments jealous of the crown-and persuade neighbour princes that England was not governed by a monarch. Such is the account of this momentous transaction as given by Clarendon, who, in his tenderness to royalty, forgets to mention that the king assured them he would not be a day more without a parliament on this account, and that the repealing bill contained a provision that parliaments should not, in future, be intermitted for above three years at the most. But, as an eminent modern writer has observed, the necessity of the securities in the triennial act, and the mischief of that servile loyalty which now abrogated those securities, became manifest at the close of the present reign, nearly four years having elapsed between the dissolution of Charles's last parliament and his death.* In this same session was passed the infamous bill called the "Conventicle Act." It forbade the Nonconformists to frequent any conventicles or places of worship not of the Establishment; and it imposed a scale of punishments, ranging from three months' imprisonment to seven years' transportation. The execution of the act was not only committed to the civil authorities, but to militia officers and the king's forces, who broke open every house where they knew, or fancied there were, a few Nonconformists gathered together to worship God in their own way. The close, unwholesome prisons were soon crammed with conscientious victims-with men and women, with old and young while others were ruined in their estates by bribing and purchasing the insecure connivance of the most corrupt and rapacious of the myrmidons of the court. And when (as now and then happened) a few enthusiasts were driven to madness and insurrection, they were strung up on the not summon a fresh parliament within three years after a dissolution, the peers were to meet and issue writs of their own accord; if they did not within a certain time perform this duty, the sheriffs of every county were to take it on themselves; and in default of all constituted authorities, the electors might as semble, without any regular summons, to choose representatives. 2 Bills had been brought in for the repeal of the triennial act on the 3d of April, 1662, and the 10th of March, 1663. 3 Clarendon, Life. Hallam, Const. Hist. gallows a dozen or more at a time-this good- | courts, and in all the departments of government, natured king rarely or never exercising the prerogative of mercy in their behalf. In the middle of the month of May, Charles, "after giving such thanks to them as they deserved," prorogued parliament till November.' In Scotland, where there were few or no conventicles or sects, the whole force of this conventicle act was turned against the Presbyterians, whose faith was decidedly the national religion. "All people," says Burnet, "were amazed at the severity of the English act; but the bishops in Scotland took heart upon it, and resolved to copy from it: so an act passed there almost in the same terms."2 Lord Lauderdale, who had supplanted Middleton, and made himself supreme in Scotland, which he governed for many years like a Turkish pachalic, forgetting his old Presbyterianism, at the passing of the bill expressed great zeal for Episcopacy and the church; and the voice of the Earl of Kincardine, an enemy to all persecution, was drowned in the plaudits of the timeserving majority. By another act, the Scottish parliament made an offer to the king of an army of 20,000 foot and 2000 horse, to be ready, upon summons, to march with forty days' provision into any part of his majesty's dominions, to oppose invasions, to suppress insurrections, or to do any other duty for the authority or greatness of the crown. The Earl of Lauderdale wished by this to let the king see what use he might make of Scotland, if he should attempt to set up arbitrary government in England by force of arms. The Scots, according to the reasoning of this able and resolute but unprincipled minister, had not much money to offer, but they could send him good and hardy soldiers. Invigorated by the Scotch conventicle act, Archbishop Sharp "drove very violently," establishing what proved to be a high commission court-one of the worst tyrannies cast down by the Civil war-and persecuting his former brethren of the kirk without pity, and without calculation of the personal danger he was thereby incurring. The prisons in Scotland were soon crammed like those of England, the prisoners meeting with still worse usage. Sometimes they were fined, and the younger sort whipped about the streets. Troops were quartered throughout the country to force the people to respect the bishops, the Liturgy, and the new-imposed Episcopalian preachers. These troops were commanded by Sir James Turner, "who was naturally fierce, but he was mad when he was drunk, and that was very often." The proceedings in the law resembled those of an inquisition; and yet Archbishop Sharp was never satisfied, but complained, like Clarendon, that there was not vigour enough. He accused Lauderdale to the king; he intrigued to bring Middleton into business again; and when he found that he could not succeed, that his plot was discovered, he fell a trembling and weeping before the mighty and choleric pacha, protesting that he meant no harm, that he was only sorry that Lauderdale's friends were, upon all occasions, pleading for favour to the fanatics. The English parliament re-assembled on the 24th of November, with cries of foreign war, and anticipations of victory and plunder. The Duke of York, as lord high-admiral and governor of the African Company, had ordered the seizure of some Dutch settlements on the coast of Guinea; the Dutch had retaliated, and captured a number of English merchantmen. The king, hoping to appropriate to himself a good part of the war-money that should be voted, fell in with the popular humour; peaceful negotiations were broken off, and both countries prepared their fleets. The commons, by a large majority, voted a supply of £2,000,000, the king protesting that he was compelled to enter into this war for the protection, honour, and benefit of his subjects. The city of London furnished several sums of money. As soon as the war broke out, a A.D. 1665. most terrible plague broke out also in the city of London, and in the course of five months it swept away about 100,000 souls. The anguish and despair, the wild recklessness and profligacy which characterized the progress of the plague in ancient Athens, as recorded in the pages of Thucydides, were upon this occasion repeated in the metropolis of Christian England, and the loud wail and lamentation over the whole of London was strangely mingled with shouts of jollity and madness. In many cases, it seemed as if men had set themselves in earnest to "curse God and die!" When the visitation approached its height, those who could escape fled from the city, leaving their all behind them, while those who were unable or unwilling to flee, remained as the certain victims of the evil. At length, the public haunts, whether for business, religion, or pleasure, were deserted; the lonely streets were covered with grass; and not a sound was heard but the warning bell that accompanied the death-cart in its visits from house to house, and the cry of the undertakers, "Bring out your dead!" answered by the melancholy cry from the opened windows, "Pray for us!" In the more crowded parts of the city, also, almost every house was visited with destruction, and had the warning plague-spot marked upon its door in the form of a red cross, with the accompanying inscription, "Lord, have mercy upon us!" "All the king's enemies," says Burnet, "and all the enemies of monarchy, said, here was a manifest character of God's heavy displeasure upon the nation; as, indeed, the ill life the king led, and the viciousness of the whole court, gave but a melancholy prospect." On the 3d of June, off Lowestoft, the Duke of York encountered the Dutch fleet under the command of Admiral Opdam. The battle was terrible: Opdam was blown up with his ship and crew, three other Dutch admirals and an immense number of men perished, and, in all, eighteen Dutch ships were either sunk or blown up; the English lost Rear-admiral Sansum, Viceadmiral Lawson, three captains, the Earl of Falmouth, and some other volunteers of rank; but their loss in seamen was comparatively inconsiderable, and they decidedly had the advan SHIPS OF THE TIME OF CHARLES II.1 tage. But in the evening, instead of attending to the pursuit of the retiring Dutch, the Duke of York went to bed, and Lord Brounker, a gentleman of his bed-chamber, went upon deck and told Penn, the commanding officer, "as if from the duke," that he must slacken sail. To the amazement of the fleet this order was obeyed, and all chance of overtaking the Dutch was lost. The duke and his courtiers returned from sea, "all fat and lusty and ruddy by being in the sun;" and these gentlemen gave out that the victory was The larger figure exhibits a first-rate ship of war, as delineated on the seal of the lord high-admiral, James, Duke of York. The figure on the right, showing the stern of a smaller war-vessel, is from a print of the period. 2 Pepys, Diary. VOL. II. a great victory-that a greater had never been known in the world; but the English people had not forgotten Blake, and they were very critical upon the whole affair. The duke was rewarded by a grant of £120,000; yet it was thought expedient to remove him from the fleet, and to intrust the command to the Earl of Sandwich. This earl got scent of a Dutch fleet from the West Indies very richly laden, which had taken refuge in the neutral port of Bergen in Norway. The King of Denmark, the sovereign of the country, having some grounds of complaint against the Dutch government, and being tempted by the value of the fleet, agreed to allow Sandwich to capture it in his port, upon condition that he should have half of the rich prize. But Sandwich wanted the whole of the spoil; and in spite of the warning of the governor of Bergen, who said that he could not let him enter without an express order from his court, ordered Captain Teddiman to dash into the port with twenty-two ships and cut out all the Dutchmen. Teddiman encountered a tremendous fire, not only from the Dutch ships, but also from the Danish castle and land batteries: five of his commanders were killed,and he was obliged to retreat with disgrace and loss. As the plague still raged in London, the court had removed to Oxford, and there parliament re-assembled on the 9th of October to vote a fresh war supply. The high-church party that now controlled the cabinet, and that were all-powerful in the House of Commons, continued to insist that the king would never be able to establish a truly regal authority unless he permitted the clergy to coerce the consciences of his subjects; and at Oxford they introduced and carried the memorable "Five-mile Act," which rendered it penal for any Nonconformist minister to teach in a school or come within five miles of any city, borough, or corporate town, or any place whatever in which he had preached or taught since the passing of the act of uniformity, unless he had previously taken the oath of nonresistance. Next, this high-church party brought a bill into the commons for imposing the oath of non-resistance, not merely upon ministers and schoolmasters, but upon the whole nation. This bill they lost, yet only through a majority of three. Though the bill was lost, the bishops and clergy preached and acted as if it had been passed, and 191 |