1641 The Scottish Commissioners. A CATHOLIC MARTYR. 411 Commissioners were at this time drawing near to Charles. The English Parliament had shown itself unwilling to discuss that commercial union which was so important to the poorer nation, and it is possible that this may have had some influence with them. Yet, even if the Scottish Commissioners were drawing to his side, Charles must have known by this time how complete was the submission which he would have to make in Scotland. Stewart of Ladywell, whose evidence had been adduced by Montrose as bearing out his charge against Argyle, retracted his accusation under the influence of fear. Argyle, he said, had not talked of deposing King Charles, but only of deposing kings in general. His retractation profited him little. Stewart of He was condemned to death for leasing-making— Ladywell. the crime of sowing disaffection by false reports between the King and his subjects. The sentence was carried out, and the death of the unfortunate man served as a warning that, for all practical purposes, Argyle was king in Scotland.1 Execution of a priest. In England, too, the King was no longer master of his mercy. The persecution of the Catholics had again begun. The first victim was an old man of seventy-six, July 26, Execution of William Ward, who had in his youth been one of Allen's pupils at the seminary at Rheims. To those who offered to seek the Queen's intercession he replied that he was ready to die. Thirteen years before he had been with a comrade who had been executed at Lancaster, and his dying friend had then predicted that he, too, would glorify God in his death. At Tyburn he spoke bravely of his faith. Not even the King or the Peers, he said, could be saved without the Roman faith. At this the people, who had hitherto listened sympathetically, drowned his voice with their outcries. The hangman allowed the old man to die on the gallows before the bloody work of quartering began. An enthusiastic French lackey dashed at the fire in which the martyr's heart was being consumed, and, snatching it from the flames, rushed with it through the streets, followed by a crowd of pursuers, till 1 Napier, Memorials of Montrose, i. 296. he could hold out no longer. The relic he prized was brought back and thrown into the flames. The Spanish and Portuguese ambassadors were present at the execution, and the latter brought with him an artist to sketch the lineaments of the dying man, that the Catholic world might know that there were heroes still on the earth.1 a political party. Henrietta Maria knew nothing of this miserable slaughter till it was past. When she was informed she said that if she had The Catho- been told of it she would have pleaded for Ward as lics feared as she had pleaded for Goodman. The risk to herself was no greater now than it had been then. It was not to be expected that she should have discerned that her own intervention on behalf of the suffering Catholics was in truth their greatest danger. It was only recently that the Commons had had before them evidence on the Catholic contribution of 1639; and the knowledge thus acquired, impressing them, as it did, with the belief that the Catholics had been acting as a political party, must have hardened hearts which were hardened enough already to the dictates of pity. They were too much afraid to be merciful. Essex to command in At the end of July, Charles, waiting still for the message which Loudoun was to bring from Edinburgh, appeared to be July 28. in a yielding temper. Possibly he merely wished to keep his adversaries in good humour till he was able the South. to act against them. Possibly his shifting mood dwelt for a time on the hope that personal gratifications might win over men whose conscientious opposition he entirely failed to understand. On the 28th, when Charles announced that he 1 Rossetti to Barberini, Transcripts. July 30 Narrative of Ward's execution, R. O. 2 "The change of the Lord Chamberlain was a thing my Lord of Essex did not at all sue for, and would not have accepted it, but that he saw the King was resolved the other should not keep it, and that if he had refused that also, after so many other things which were put upon him, the world might have thought that the high hand he carried in Parliament was not so much for to maintain the liberties of the subjects as out of spleen to the Court."-The Elector Palatine to the Queen of Bohemia, July 28, Forster MSS. Evidently the notion that he had acted 1641 July 29. Rumours of THE TWO HOUSES. 413 had resolved to leave for Scotland on the 9th, he coupled his announcement with an intimation that any forces which might be needed on the south of the Trent should be placed under the command of Essex. In well-informed quarters it was believed that a general elevation of Parliamentary leaders to office was really impending. This time Saye was to be Treasurer, Hampden to be Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Pym to be Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Brooke was to have a seat in the Privy Council.2 official changes. security of If these changes were seriously contemplated the idea was soon abandoned. A Bill had been sent up to the Lords for imBill for the posing the obligation of signing the Protestation upon all Englishmen,3 which, as Protestants of every shade religion thrown out. had agreed to accept it, would serve as a new test for the discovery of Catholics. Those who refused the Protestation were to be held to be recusant convicts without ment between further process. They were to be incapable of holdthe Houses. ing office. The Peers who objected to sign were to Disagree be excluded from their seats in the House of Lords.4 On the 29th this Bill was rejected by the Lords. The next day the Commons ordered the impeachment of thirteen bishops who had taken part in the imposition of the new canons, and they voted that all who refused the Protestation were unfit to bear office in Church and commonwealth. They further ordered this last vote to be printed and sent down by the members to their respective constituencies.5 The Peers August 2. through spleen to the Court was one which he had found brought against him. 1 L. 7. iv. 331. 2 Nicholas to Pennington, July 29, S. P. Dom. 8 Diurnal Occurrences, 317. 14 4 Rossetti to Barberini, Aug. R. O. Transcripts. 24 5 Moore's Diary, Harl. MSS. cccclxxix. fol. 114 b. D'Ewes was absent during these days, on account of his wife's death from small-pox. There is a touching cyphered entry on the 3rd: "Heu! heu! post dulcissimæ conjugis obitum, heu inexpectatum, ego plurimis diebus absens eram a Comitiis, et heri cum hic eram quasi stupidus sede. Hodie virilem assumens animum et Deo me subjiciens publica non neglexi.”—Harl. MSS. clxiii. fol. 418. took umbrage at this proceeding. They asked the Commons whether the paper in circulation was in reality theirs, and whether it had been printed by their orders. In the Lower House the questions thus put roused a spirit of resistance. Culpepper took the lead in complaint. The House avowed its vote. They wished, they said, that their August 4. vote should be 'a shibboleth to discover a true Israelite.' The majority of the peers were of opinion that the circulation of the paper was a breach of their privileges, and of the rights of the subject to have no qualification for office imposed otherwise than by the law of the land. So far had the Lords gone when a secret intimation from the King warned them to desist, 'until his return from Scotland.' Can it be doubted that he hoped by that time to have force on his side? 2 For the sake of this the opportunity of supporting himself upon the House of Lords in a good cause was deliberately thrown away, as it had been thrown away in the days of Strafford's trial. Charles had now made up his mind to take his own course. Nothing more was heard of ministerial changes. On August 3 Loudoun returned from Scotland. The Houses were by this time at issue on other points besides the obligatory signature of the Protestation. Aug. 3. Loudoun's return. Aug. 4. Impeachment of thirteen bishops. sence. On the 4th the impeachment of the bishops was formally laid before the peers. There was by this time a division of opinion as to the best manner of supplying the King's place in his abThe Commons would have had a Lieutenant of the Kingdom appointed, with power to pass bills. The Lords, who were afraid lest the Root-andBranch Bill should be urged upon them if there were any chance of its passing into law, wished to have Commissioners appointed who would merely be empowered to pass a few bills specially named. Both Houses were in accord in striving to avert the King's departure so long as the two armies were in the field.3 Aug. 7. The King again asked to stay. 1 L. J. iv. 337, 338. On Saturday, August 7, the last 2 Dover's Notes in the House of Lords, Clarendon MSS. 1603. The French ambassador thought that the King still relied on Mon 1641 A SUNDAY SITTING. 415 opportunity of protesting appeared to have arrived, as he was to start on Monday. On Falkland's motion he was asked to defer his journey.1 The Ship money Bill and the The King On that day the King gave his consent to two Bills of no slight importance. One of them annulled the proceedings relating to ship-money. The other limited the boundaries of the forests. At the same time Charles anForest Bill. nounced that his resolution to proceed to Scotland was irrevocable. He had, he said, received information by insists on his journey. Loudoun which made further delay impossible. What that information was he did not say. It stood out before the imagination of his hearers, as implying a new and terrible danger. Till ten at night the Commons prolonged their sitting, fruitlessly discussing measures to avert so great a peril. It is said that words were spoken-it is hardly likely that they were uttered in open debate-declaring that the King had forfeited in the Com- the crown.2 In the end, it was resolved to sit again on the following morning, Sunday though it was. No stronger evidence need be sought of the overpowering sense of danger which had taken possession of the Commons. There were early prayers at St. Margaret's, followed by a Aug. 8. A Sunday sermon from Calamy.3 A fresh appeal was made to sitting. the King, and a message was sent to the Scottish Commissioners begging them to approve of the proposed delay. Charles sent another message begging the Commissioners to disapprove of it. Their reply to him was all that he could wish. They were ready, they said, to risk their lives to restore him to his authority. So far had they been brought by their jealousy Excitement mons. trose. He was not aware of his dealings with the other party through Rothes and Loudoun. "On croit qu'il y aura un tiers parti en Ecosse, et que les Catholiques et ceux qui ne sont pas armez s'ennuyent du pouvoir de ceux qui gouvernent, c'est ce qui donne envie au Roi d'y aller. Le Parlement le connaît bien et n'y consentira point."-La Ferté's despatch, Aug. Arch. des Aff. Étr. xlviii. fol. 346. ང 15' 1 D'Ewes's Diary, Harl. MSS. clxiv. fol. 2 b. 13 23' 2 Giustinian to the Doge, Aug. Ven. Transcripts. 3 Diurnal Occurrences, 333. |