the army were too great to be permanently supplied thus, and if England was to be defended recourse must be had to one or other of those extraordinary measures which had been so often talked of.

The first plan attempted appears to have been suggested by Hamilton. For some years the King had derived profit Proposed from a percentage upon the coinage of Spanish bullion, which he afterwards transported to Dunkirk. the Tower. This bullion was now seized in the Tower, to the amount of 130,000l., on promise of repayment six months

seizure of bullion at

later.

July 6. Protest of the Merchant Adventurers.

Such a blow startled every merchant in the City. Those who had money or stocks in foreign cities dreaded reprisals, which would put an end to commerce. The great Company of the Merchant Adventurers took the lead in protesting. They sent a deputation to call Strafford's attention to the mischiefs which were certain to result. Strafford told them bluntly that it was the fault of the City of London that the King had been brought to such a pass. The remonstrances of the merchants, however, were too well founded to be thus dealt with. The Council was told that if the King's faith were broken so flagrantly, all the profits which both he and his subjects had derived from making England the bullion-mart of Europe, would come to an end. At last a compromise was arrived at. The merchants agreed to lend the King 40,000l. on the security of the farmers of the customs, a security which they justly considered to be better than his own.2

More than this was needed, and it was now proposed to

18

The Spanish ambassadors give this as a rumour (Velada, Malvezzi, and Cardenas to the Cardinal Infant, July, Brussels MSS. Sec. Esp. cclxxxv. fol. 32), but it is borne out by Strafford's disclaimer of having been the originator of the idea.

16

26

2 Rushw. iii. 1216. Straf. Trial, 589. Montreuil's despatches, July Bibl. Nat. Fr. 15,995, fol. 97, 99. Salvetti's News-Letter, July Giustinian to the Doge, July 1, Ven. Transcripts, R. O.

19

10

1640

July 11. Proposed debasement of the

coinage.

DEBASEMENT OF THE COINAGE.

171

find the necessary resources in a debasement of the coinage. The officers of the Mint were directed to produce shillings the real value of which would be threepence each, and which were to bear as a motto in Latin the confident words, "Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered." These coins the officers declared they would be at once able to turn out up to the nominal amount of 14,000/ a week, and after a little preparation they would be able to turn them out up to 30,000l. a week. Strafford recommended that the soldiers should be paid, at least for some time, in good money, but that all other payments out of the exchequer should be made in bad money. As soon as the project was known there was a loud outcry. The citizens declared that nothing would induce them to accept the rubbish to which it pleased the King to give the name of shillings. The officers of the Mint asserted that their men would not work if their wages were to be paid in the new coins. Strafford could only answer by threatening the workmen with the House of Correction. To the citizens he had already replied, by telling them that Frenchmen were worse dealt with than they, and that the King of France had recently sent round commissioners to search the books of the Paris merchants in order to levy contributions on them.3

Roe's oppo.

Even in the Privy Council, the miserable scheme met with warm opposition. Sir Thomas Roe, who had recently been added to the Board, argued forcibly that it would be sition. as disastrous to the Crown as to the people. Strafford had now ceased to have eyes for anything save the immediate present. He broke out into a rage, and rated Roe soundly for his meddling. The King announced that the debasement was unavoidable. The Attorney-General was

Exurgat Deus, dissipentur inimici.

Notes of the proceedings in the Committee, July 11, S. P. Dom. cccclix. 77.

Rushworth, Strafford's Trial, 596. Strafford here is described as sick, so that the question was probably first mooted earlier than it came openly forward.

directed to draw up a proclamation on the subject, and orders were given to prepare the new dies at the Mint.1

July 13. Northumberland's opinion.

Every day marked Strafford more clearly than before as the author or supporter of all violent and ill-considered actions. Men with less burning heat in the cause could see what he could not see. "The keeping of disorderly and new raised men," wrote Northumberland, whose languid interest in the struggle enabled him to cast his glances around him with the impartiality of a mere spectator, “and the coining of copper money, are shrewd signs that money is not so plentiful as it ought to be at the beginning of a war.. I pray God those that were the advisers of it do not approve themselves more ignorant in the ways of governing an army than they would seem to be." 2

July 12. Murder of Lieutenant Eure.

The disorders of the men on the march were still continuing. On the 12th the Devon men, halting at Wellington, in Somersetshire murdered Lieutenant Eure, a Catholic officer, who refused to accompany them to church. The population of the town and neighbour hood sympathised with the perpetrators of the crime. Not a man would stir to arrest the murderers. Even the neighbouring magistrates gave no assistance. The appointment of Catholic. officers had not been by any means the source of strength which Charles had expected it to be. An indefinable feeling of uneasiness and suspicion was spreading through the ranks of the ignorant peasants on whom Charles had rested his cause. Mutiny at At Daventry, five or six hundred Berkshire men Daventry. broke out into mutiny. Some of them said they would not fight against the Gospel. Others declared that they would not be commanded by Papists. The determination not to serve under Catholic officers threw whole regiments into disorder. In a force intended to serve under Hamilton on the east coast of Scotland, a full half of the officers were Catholics,

1 Montreuil's despatch, July, Bibl. Nat. Fr. 15,995, fol. 99. Rushworth, iii. 1217. Straf. Trial, 591.

2 Northumberland to Conway, July 13. Northumberland to Astley, July 14, S. P. Dom. cccclix. 97, cccclx. 3.

1640

SCENES ON THE MARCH.

173

and it was only by calling out the trained bands to seize the mutineers, and to thrust them into the House of Correction, that order was restored at all.'

July 11. Young Windebank

Amongst men so ignorant and unruly it sometimes happened that a clever officer gained an ascendency which raised him above suspicion. Windebank's son heard that the men of his company had sworn to murder all and his men. Popish officers. He at once ordered them all to kneel down and sing psalms, told one of his subalterns to read some prayers, and ended the scene by serving out beer and cheap tobacco at his own expense. The plan was perfectly successful. "They all now," he wrote to his father, "swear that they will never leave me as long as they live, and indeed, I have not had one man run from me yet in this nine days' march; but other captains of our regiment which marched a week before us, are so fearful of their soldiers that they dare not march with them on the way; their soldiers having much threatened them, and have done much mischief in all places they come, by stealing and abusing everyone, their officers. daring not to correct them; but I thank God, I have all my men in so great obedience that all the country as I go pray for me, saying they never met with such civil soldiers." 2

The King irresolute.

Under the evil news which came so thickly upon him, Charles's resolution waxed and waned from day to day,3 whilst he was listening to counsellors of war or peace, as indignation or fear predominated in his mind. On the 19th news arrived from the North that the Scots contemplated the seizure of Newcastle. Once in possession of the collieries there, they would be able to dictate

July 19. News from Scotland.

1 Gibson to Conway, July 14. Byron's relation, July 14. Byron to Conway, July 20. Deputy-Lieutenants of Devon to the Council, July 21, S. P. Dom. cccclx. 5, 50, 52.

2 F. Windebank to Windebank, July 19, ibid. cccclx. 46.

"Ad ogni modo provocata la M sua dall' ardore della propria indignatione in vedersi ogni giorno più offesa da nuove cause, confusa nell' istessime risolutioni, viva piena di perplessità in appigliarsi all' ultimo partito, per non sapere il migliore." Rossetti to Barberini, R. O. Transcripts.

July 24

Aug. 3'

July 23. Cottington

and Vane in the City.

their own terms, as London could not endure the deprivation of the supply of coal. Charles saw in this intelligence the means of working upon the Londoners through their interests. On the 22nd the Lord Mayor was ordered to summon a Common Council for the following day. On the 23rd Cottington and Vane appeared in the City, the bearers of a letter from the King, in which assurances were given that if the long-asked-for loan of 200,000!. were now agreed to, nothing more should be heard of the debasement of the coinage. Leaving the Common Council to discuss the demand, the Privy Councillors amused themselves by strolling through the Cloth Exchange at Blackwell Hall. The owners of cloth gathered quickly round them. They hoped, they said, that they were not to be compelled to sell, for copper, goods for which sterling silver had been paid.

The loan again refused.

After a debate of an hour and a half Cottington and Vane were re-admitted, to be informed that the Common Council had no power to dispose of the money of the citizens.

ment of the

coinage to proceed.

Charles was highly displeased with the stiff-necked obstinacy of the City. He at once ordered the officers of the The debase- Mint to proceed with the coinage. A scheme was prepared by which it was hoped to obviate the worst consequences of that measure. For the sake of the poor, all payments below the value of half-a-crown were still to be made in good silver. One-tenth of all payments above that sum were to be made in the new copper money. As soon as this arrangement was announced men engaged in business drily remarked that in that case there would be a general rise of 10 per cent. in their prices. Again Charles hesitated, and the plan was once more thrown over for further consideration. He reaped all the unpopularity of his proposal without any of the advantages which he might have derived from prompt and unscrupulous action.2

Whilst Cottington and Vane were pleading to no purpose

Fenwick to Digby, July 15, S. P. Dom. cccclx. 14.

2 Rossingham's News Letter, July 27, ibid. cccclxi. 32.