Henry Leicester. To his disappointment he found that it had been removed to Stamford's house at Broadgate. In the absence of Hastings at the sheriff he persuaded the under-sheriff to issue warrants for the execution of commissions of array. He then went back to York, but returned on the 22nd, bringing with him a hundred armed miners from his colJune 22. lieries in Derbyshire, and as many other persons as he could persuade to follow him. He found that the county was against him. Scarcely a man of the trained bands would answer to his summons. When he entered Leicester he was confronted by Palmer, the high sheriff, who denounced his proceedings as illegal. An audacious messenger sent by Parliament to arrest him attempted to carry out the orders which he had received. Hastings, however, was rescued by his friends, and ultimately left the town.' June 17. Newcastle seized. In Leicestershire the King's Commissioners were in what can hardly be described otherwise than as an enemy's country. In Northumberland Charles was in no such difficulty. On the 17th the Earl of Newcastle took possession of Newcastle for the King. Levying soldiers amongst his own tenants and the trained bands of Northumberland and Durham, he secured Tynemouth Castle and erected fortifications at Shields. Charles had at last a port where he might receive supplies from Holland.2 His supporters were jubilant. The King, wrote one of them, was now 'the favourite of the kingdom.' His enemies would doubtless raise an army against him. It was all the better. They would do enough to entail on themselves the forfeiture of their estates, which would then be bestowed on the King's good servants.3 Such was the spirit which was rising alongside of the constitutionalisms of Culpepper and Hyde. At York all men were busy in preparing for that war which was now seen to be inevitable. If money and plate were pouring in at Westminster, the King's principal supporters entered no less zealously into an engagement to furnish him with 1,935 Nichols, History of Leicestershire, iii. App. 22. L. J. v. 131, 142, 164. • Wilmot to Crofts, June 22, L. J. v. 169. to furnish Such offers would horse, and to pay them for three months. not, however, constitute an army. By separating from June 22. Engagement London and his Parliament, Charles had cut himself horse for the off from those financial resources which were still left the King. to him by the law. When he left Greenwich on his Northern journey, he had no more than 600l. in hand. That he had been able to maintain himself at all during the past months had been owing, not to the scanty resources of the public revenue, but to the munificence of a single Catholic peer. The Earl of The Earl of Worcester, the Lord of Raglan Castle, was possessed of an estate valued at 24,000l. a year, a rental equivalent to more than 100,000l. at the present day. As a Catholic he was exposed to especial risks in the impending conflict, and if he had been himself indisposed to assist his sovereign, he could hardly fail to be dragged away by the impetuous zeal of his eldest son. Worcester. Lord That son, Lord Herbert, far better known by his later titles of Glamorgan and Worcester, was a man of genius. He who divined the steam-engine a century before the days of Watt, now threw himself, with all the ardour of an enthusiast, into the cause of the King. Over him Charles exercised that wonderful charm which sprang from his gentleness and the consideration which he exercised towards those who accepted his sway. From time to time during the first weeks after the King had left Greenwich, Herbert supplied him with no less than 22,000l. from his own and Charles with his father's resources, Then, when open resistance to money. the Parliament seemed, to a Royalist so decided as Herbert, the only honourable course-in all probability in the early part of June-the heir of Raglan was busy in gathering all the money that it was in his power to collect, and June 30. at last found his way to York, to pour no less than 95,500l. into the exhausted treasury of his astonished master, whilst 5,cool. more followed in July. Thus, and thus only, was Charles enabled to prepare for the field. Supplies 2 In the end of June, the activity of the Royalists was more Engagement, June 22, S. P. Dom. 2 Dircks's Life of the Marquis of Worcester, 54, 330. Hastings returns to Leicestershire. the county.1 July 1. Parliament ary troops to be sent. vigorous than ever. On the 30th Hastings was once more in Leicestershire, with an armed force and the notorious Lunsford in his train. At Ashby-de-la-Zouch, he announced his own appointment as High Sheriff of "We must look to our safeties," said Pym, when the news reached Westminster. The feeling of the House was that force must be met by force, and that troops must be despatched to Leicestershire. "This," wrote D'Ewes in his diary, was a sad morning's Feeling of D'Ewes. work. . . . I, seeing all matters tending to speedy destruction and confusion, had no heart to take notes that afternoon." Again and again during the past month he had expressed in his written self-communings the horror with which he regarded the approaching war, and his distrust of the fiery spirits, as he termed them, who were persuading the House to defy the King, and to lay down principles of government which he knew better than anyone else to be very different from those which had been accepted in earlier centuries. Yet it was not mere timidity which kept D'Ewes fixed at Westminster. If his reverence for law and precedent drew him to the side of Charles, his Puritanism fixed him reluctantly by the side of Pym, and with him, as with so many of his contemporaries, the religious motive was the strongest. More startling news than that from Leicestershire awaited the Houses. Northumberland informed the Lords that he had Northum berland dismissed. Is Warwick or Penning ton to command the fleet? been dismissed from his office of Lord High Admiral. An ordinance was at once prepared, directing Warwick to continue in charge of the fleet in the Downs. Charles, indeed, had made arrangements for confiding it to Pennington. Letters had been despatched to the captains simultaneously with the order dismissing Northumberland, directing them to obey Pennington and not Warwick. Pennington set out from York to assume the command, and travelled hard till he was near the Downs. Then he hesitated and waited for further information. On the 2nd Warwick came on board the flag ship, and July 2. The fleet accepts Warwick. 1 C. F. iii. 646. D'Ewes's Diary, Harl. MSS. clxiii. fol. 252 b. summoned the captains to accept him as their Admiral. Five only stood out, but their crews gave them no support, and before the day was over the fleet had placed itself at the disposal of Parliament.1 Hastings' As Pennington had failed in the Downs, Hastings failed in Leicestershire. He wished to possess himself of the county magazine at Broadgate, but the popular feeling was failure in too strongly against him, and he was compelled to shire. content himself with proclaiming as traitors those who detained it from the King.2 Leicester July 4. Appointment of a committee of safety. Charles's attempt to get possession of the fleet and of the magazine in Leicestershire was accepted at Westminster as a declaration of war. At the request of the Commons, the Lords concurred in the appointment of a joint committee to take into consideration whatsoever may concern the safety of the Kingdom, the defence of the Parliament, and the prevention of the peace of the Kingdom, and opposing any force that may be raised against the Parliament.' In this committee, composed of fifteen members, five lords, Northumberland, Essex, Pembroke, Holland, and Saye, were joined with ten commoners, of whom the most conspicuous were Pym, Hampden, Fiennes, Holles, and Marten. In this committee of safety Parliament had at last the rudiments of a Government. It was evident that its first occupation would be of a military nature. On the 5th it was known that a small vessel from Holland had brought to the Humber arms and ammunition from the Queen. The first thing to be done was to secure Parliament from interruption near at hand. Lord Mayor Gurney, who had actually An army to published the King's commission of array in the City, was impeached, and by the 6th a vote had been agreed to by both Houses for raising, from London and the neighbourhood, a special army of 10,000 men for active service. July 5. News from the Humber. Impeach ment of the Lord Mayor. July 6. be raised. 1 L. J. v. 169, 178, 185. Clarendon, v. 376. 2 D'Ewes's Diary, Harl. MSS. clxiii. fol. 255 b. 3 L. J. v. 178. C. F. ii. 651. The other five were Sir W. Waller, Sir P. Stapleton, Sir J. Meyrick, Pierpoint, and Glyn. 1 L. J. v. 182. VOL. X. P The ordinance for organising the militia for the defence of each county was no longer deemed sufficient.1 all men. D'Ewes asks for an The spectre of civil war was visibly there before the eyes of To the horror which its aspect created D'Ewes gave expression. "In respect of civil affairs," he said, “I dare be bold to say that the liberty and property of the subject were never so clearly asserted to them as they are at present. The main matter then which yet remains to be secured to us is the reformation of religion, and I desire that we may come to particulars in that. If a monarchy continue. amongst us, there must of necessity remain a confidence from the subjects towards the Prince. For the town of Hull itself, I desire not that it should be delivered up to his Majesty, but that we might humbly supplicate his Majesty to appoint Sir John Hotham governor there, till other things were peaceably composed between his Majesty and us, and that he should not deliver it up but by his Majesty's command, signified to him by both Houses of Parliament." Reception of posal. No wonder that cries of "Well moved!" were heard on every side. No wonder too that a proposal which commended itself to the feelings of the House was rejected by its intelligence. It needed but little acquaintance with human nature to know that the King would never accede either to a Puritan Reformation of religion, or to the appointment of Hotham to the command of Hull. No one cared to answer the benevolent antiquary, and the House quietly passed to the consideration of matters of more practical import. ance.2 On the 8th news came in of increasing Royalist activity in the Western Midlands. Herefordshire had declared July 8. News of strongly against Parliament. In Worcestershire the fresh Royal- sheriff, backed by Lord Coventry, was prepared to execute the commission of array. It was known on the following day that Lord Northampton had announced ist move ments. 1 C. J. ii. 653, 654. 2 D'Ewes's Diary, Harl. MSS. clxiii. fol. 259. I quote this speech in preference to Rudyerd's, which seems to have been delivered soon after it, because D'Ewes goes more to the root of the matter. |