1640 STRAFFORD'S ILLNESS. 139 The strain was too great for the weakly body in which that will of iron was enshrined. In Ireland, during his last visit, he had been racked by gout and dysentery. On his His health gives way. return he had been borne to London in a litter. When he found himself once more at the centre of affairs, he had shaken off his weakness. He had stepped without an effort into a commanding position in the Council. He had organised the House of Lords in resistance to the Commons. Then, when the dissolution came, it was he who had taken the lead in the high-handed compulsion which was to gather up the resources of an unwilling nation to be used for purposes in which it took no pleasure. A week after the dissolution the excitement of the conflict had told upon him, and he was again suffering. Then came the bitter disappointment of failure. On the 15th, the day on which the aldermen were released, he was forced to receive the Spanish ambassadors in bed. Two or three days later, his life was in imminent danger. In some few the knowledge called forth expressions of bitter sorrow. One royalist poet, ignorant of what another year was to bring forth, called upon him to live, not for his own sake, but for the sake of his country.2 His personal friends were broken-hearted with grief. Wandesford, left behind as Lord Deputy to rule Ireland in his name, passed on the bitter tidings to Ormond. "The truth is," he wrote, "I am not master of myself, therefore I cannot enlarge myself much. If you did not love this man well of whom I speak, I would not write thus much." Then came days on which hope returned, and on the 24th the King visited him, to congratulate him on his convalescence. In the presence of the king, Strafford had no eyes for the vacillation of the man. To him Charles was still what Elizabeth had been to her subjects, the living personification of government, at a time when government was sorely needed. True to his cere May 24. His convalescence. 1 Velada to Philip IV., May 15, Brussels MSS. Sec. d'Etat Esp. cclxxxiv. 258. This curious poem, probably the work of Cartwright, has recently been printed in the Camden Miscellany, vol. viii., from the MS. in the library of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. monious loyalty, the convalescent threw off his warm gown to receive his Sovereign in befitting guise. His imprudence went near to cost him his life. Struck down again by the chill, it was only after a week, in which the physicians despaired of recovery, that hope could again be spoken of to his friends. It was not thus that he was to pass from this world of toil, of error, and of sin.1 Before Charles of his hesitation. May 20. Scotland Difficulty of collecting ship-money, 2 visited Strafford, he had already repented The forces which he had called to his aid sufficient to prevent any repetition of the On the 20th it was resolved in Council persisted in. that the proposed negotiation with Scotland should be abandoned. A violent attack written by Baillie, against Laud and his system, which had just reached the King's hand, made him more than ever averse to an accommodation. But the difficulty of finding means to conduct the war was as insuperable as ever. By the end of the month the amount of ship-money collected barely exceeded 20,000l., less than one-tenth of the sum required,3 and every letter to the Privy Council from the country carried news of the impossibility of obtaining more. Constables refused to assess, and even when this difficulty had been surmounted those who were assessed refused to pay. If distresses were taken, the articles seized were either rescued by violence, or were left on the hands of the officers because no one would buy them. In many parts of the country the levy of coatand-conduct and-conduct money was equally unpopular. Somemoney. times it was directly denounced as illegal, and where this was not the case, payment was refused on the score of poverty. and coat Against this spirit of insubordination, the Council which met on the 20th took such measures as were in its power. A special committee was formed to watch over the enforcement 1 Wandesford to Ormond, May 26, 29, June 4, 7, Carte MSS. i. 197, 199, 200, 203. 2 Ladensium avтокαтáкρiσis, an answer to Lysimachus Nicanor, by whom the Covenanters were charged with Jesuitry. Rossingham's NewsLetter, May 26, Sloane MSS. 1,467, fol. 112 b. Account of ship money, May 3, S. P. Dom. cccclv. 92. 1640 THE LAST CASE OF TORTURE. 141 of ship-money,' and orders were given to prosecute in the Star Measures of Chamber those amongst the sheriffs who were held the Council. to have been more than ordinarily remiss. Equal severity was to be used to gather in coat-and-conduct money; and five deputy-lieutenants of Hertfordshire, who had expressed themselves doubtfully as to the legality of the imposition, were summoned before the Board.2 How much remained to be done may be gathered from the fact that, out of 2,600/. demanded from Buckinghamshire, only 87. 10s. had been collected; and, though this was an extreme instance, other counties were not far in advance.3 May 21. The riots declared The day after these resolutions were taken, one of the leaders of the Southwark tumults was tried before a special commission. The judges laid it down that the disturbances amounted to high treason, and suptreasonable. ported their decision by a precedent from the reign of Elizabeth. The prisoner, a poor sailor, was therefore sentenced to be quartered, as well as hung, and the May 23. Execution of sentence was carried into execution at Southwark, though the authorities mercifully allowed him to hang till he was dead, before the hangman's knife was thrust into his body. a rioter. John Archer was less fortunate. His part had been to beat the drum in advance of the crowd which marched to the attack upon Lambeth. A glover by trade, he had been May 21. Torture and execution of pressed into the King's service to go with the army Archer. as a drummer, and, for some reason or other, it was supposed that he could give information against persons in high position, who were believed to have instigated these tumults. Orders were accordingly given to put him to the torture. The last attempt ever made in England to enforce confession by the rack was as useless as it was barbarous. Archer probably had nothing to disclose, and he was executed without making any revelation.4 1 Rushworth, iii. 1184. 2 Rossingham's News-Letter, May 26, Sloane MSS. 1,467, fol. 112 b. 3 Crane to Crane, May 29, Tanner MSS. lxv. 78. • Warrant to torture Archer, May 21, S. P. Dom. ccccliv. 39. Jar The excite out. These stern measures were not without effect. For some time extraordinary precautions were needed. On the 27th a placard was fixed up in four places in the City, calling ment dies on the defenders of the purity of the Gospel to kill Rossetti. The King was insulted even within the walls of his palace. Some one scratched with a diamond on a window at Whitehall: "God save the King, confound the Queen and her children, and give us the Palsgrave to reign in this kingdom." 1 Charles dashed the glass into fragments with his hand. There was, however, no further disturbance in the streets, and after some little time the trained bands summoned to the aid of the Government were sent home or countermanded, and the capital resumed its usual appearance. continues During these days of disturbance, Convocation had been busily at work, in spite of the dissolution of Parliament. It May 9. was none of Laud's doing. The Archbishop shared Convocation the general opinion, that the end of the Parliament sitting. brought with it the end of the Convocation, and applied to the King for a writ to dismiss the ecclesiastical assembly. To his surprise, the King answered that he wished to have the grant of subsidies completed, and that the canons, the discussion of which had been begun, should be finally adopted. He had spoken to Finch, and Finch had assured. him that the continuance of a session of Convocation after the dissolution of Parliament was not prohibited by law. Laud expostulated in vain. He was irritated that the King had conferred with the Lord Keeper rather than with himself, in a matter which concerned the Church, and he had reason to fear that the proceeding would not be so well approved of by public opinion as it was by Finch. When the King's mind was made known in Convocation, some members of the Lower House expressed doubts of the legality of the course pursued, and Charles laid the question formally before May 13. dine's Reading on the Use of Torture, 57, 108. Rossingham's News-Letter, May 26, Sloane MSS. 1,467, fol. 112 b. May 29, 1 I retranslate from Rossetti's Italian. Rossetti to Barberini, June 8, R. O. Transcripts. 1640 May 14. THE NEW CANONS. 143 a committee of lawyers for their opinion. The opinion of the lawyers coincided with that of Finch, and on The lawyers the 15th, the day on which the King was giving in pronounce it on everything else, it was announced to the two Houses that they were to meet on the next day legal. May 15. for business On the 16th Convocation took into consideration a precedent of 1587, when their predecessors had granted a benevoMay 16. lence to Elizabeth in addition to the subsidy which Six subsidies had received Parliamentary confirmation.2 They, benevolence. therefore, renewed their grant of 20,000l. a year for six years, only, instead of calling it a subsidy, they called it a benevolence, or free contribution. granted as a The new canons agreed on. The canons on the cere monies. Having thus expressed their loyalty, the Laudian clergy published, in seventeen new canons, their manifesto to a disloyal generation. Those canons, indeed, were not wanting in that reasonableness which has ever been the special characteristic of the English Church. They do not simply fulminate anathemas. They condescend to explain difficulties, and to invite charitable construction. The canon relating to the ceremonies began with a declaration that it was 'generally to be wished that unity of faith were accompanied with uniformity of practice . . . chiefly for the avoiding of groundless suspicions of those who are weak, and the malicious aspersions of the professed enemies of our religion.' It went on to say that the position of the communion-table was 'in its own nature indifferent,' but that the place at the east end being authorised by Queen Elizabeth, it was fit that all churches 'should conform themselves in this particular to the example of the cathedral or mother churches, saving always the general liberty left to the bishop by the law during the time of the administration 1 The committee consisted of Finch, Manchester, Chief Justices Bramston and Lyttelton, Attorney-General Bankes, and Sergeants Whitfield and Heath. 2 Nalson, i. 365. Laud's Works, iii. 285. Strype's Life of Whitgift, i. 497, iii. 196. Parliament was still sitting when the grant by convocation was made in 1587. |