1640

A LETTER TO LOUIS.

93.

France with a second letter asking for the mediation of Louis in the name of the ancient league.1

To this letter Montrose's signature was appended. If he was tending towards Charles, he had not yet gone over to him Montrose's altogether. It was necessary to keep up appearances, position. and in December he had been compelled by popular clamour to refuse an invitation to Court which had reached him from Charles himself. Yet it would probably be unjust to ascribe his conduct simply to a wish to keep up appearances. It may very well be that Charles's reluctance to throw the bishops frankly overboard had its effect upon Montrose as well as upon others. How much Charles's hesitation on this point contributed to give strength to his political opponents is evident to all dispassionate inquirers. Sir Thomas Hope was one of the most fanatical of the Covenanters. "My lord," Hope's conversation he said one day to Rothes, who had assured him with Rothes. that the King meant to restore the bishops, "let no reports move you, but do your duty. Put his Majesty to it, and if it be refused then you are blameless. But if on these reports ye press civil points, his Majesty will make all Protestant princes see that you have not religion for your end, but the bearing down of monarchy."3 If Charles expected to derive any strength from the monarchical sentiment which was still living in Scotland, he must agree quickly with the Presbyterians.

The Scottish

ers heard.

Unluckily for Charles, it was to England rather than to Scotland that he was looking for help. In his discussions with the Scottish Commissioners he showed no alacrity Commission to win the hearts of Scotsmen by any plain declaration on the subject of Episcopacy. After some preliminary fencing, he took up the position that 'the supreme magistrate must have authority to call assemblies and to dissolve them, and to have a negative voice in them as is accustomed in all supreme powers of Christendom.' 4 He

March.

'The Covenanters to Louis XIII., Feb. 19, Bibl. Nat. Fr. 15,915, fol. 410. The instructions printed by Mazure, ii. 406, refer to this mission. 2 Montrose to the King, Dec. 26, Napier, Memoirs of Montrose, i. 228. 3 Hope's Diary, Jan. 14, 115.

4 Rushworth, iii. 1035.

felt truly that the proposed acts contained nothing less than a political revolution; but he had nothing positive to offer. Even when the Commissioners observed that, after all, the Bills had not yet passed the Articles, and were consequently still open to revision, he made no attempt to seize the opportunity by announcing his readiness to assent to the Bill for repealing the Acts by which Episcopacy had been legalised. No wonder the Commissioners were left under the impression that his reservation of the negative voice implied a purpose to restore Episcopacy on the first favourable opportunity.1

for war.

These discussions, meaningless in themselves, were carried on in the midst of warlike preparations. On February 24 arrangements were made for pressing 30,000 foot February. Preparations from the several counties south of the Humber,2 the northern shires being excused as having borne the burden heavily in the last campaign. At Edinburgh an appeal to arms was no less imminent. On the 25th some in Edin- ill-built works which had been erected as a defence burgh. to the castle, fell down, and the population of the town refused to allow Ettrick to carry in the materials needed to repair the damage. A few days later the Earl of Southesk, Sir Lewis Gordon, and other noted Royalists were seized and imprisoned.3 The struggle for sovereignty in Scotland was evidently about to recommence.

Occurrences

March.

sets out for Ireland.

One gleam of hope shone upon Charles's path. On March 16 Strafford crossed the Irish Sea, suffering, as he was, from his March 16. old disease, the gout. "Howbeit," he gaily wrote Strafford as he was preparing to embark, "one way or other, I hope to make shift to be there and back again hither in good time, for I will make strange shift and put myself to all the pain I shall be able to endure before I be anywhere awanting to my master or his affairs in this conjuncture; and therefore, sound or lame, you shall have me with you before the beginning

1 Rushworth, iii. 994, 1018.

2 Nicholas's Minutes, Feb. 24, S. P. Dom. ccccxlv. 6.

Ettrick to the King, March 2, 11, 25, ibid. ccccxlvii. 6, 89, ccccxlviii. 81. Spalding, i. 260.

1640

STRAFFORD IN IRELAND.

95

of the Parliament. I should not fail, though Sir John Eliot were living."

Meeting of the Irish Parliament.

" 1

Strafford kept his word. On the 18th he landed in Ireland. The Parliament had been already two days in session. A body so equally divided was always at the disposal of a strong ruler. With his little phalanx of officials well in hand, he could throw the majority in the House of Commons on which side he pleased. In 1634 he had thrown it on the side of the colonists of English birth. In 1640 he threw it on the side of the native Irish. Predisposed by their religious ties to dread the victory of the Covenanting Scots, the Irish Catholics would be ready to follow Strafford at least so long as he could convince them of his power. When he left England he had intended to ask for six subsidies, a grant which was estimated as equivalent to 270,000l. On the recommendation of the Council, however, he contented himself with asking for four, or 180,000l., on condition that the Commons would supplement it by a declaration that, if more were required, more should be given.2

March 23.

Four subsidies voted.

The demand was made on the 23rd. Never was there a greater appearance of unanimity. Abhorrence of the Covenanters expressed itself in every word which was uttered. The King was thanked for not having taken what he needed by a simple act of the prerogative. He was assured that his Irish subjects would supply his needs if they left no more than hose and doublet to themselves. When the vote was taken, not a single negative was heard. Hands were stretched aloft and hats flung into the air, in a burst of enthusiasm. Those who witnessed the scene declared that if one part of the assembly was more vehement than another, it was that in which the native Irish were to be found.

1 Strafford to

(?), March 16, Strafford Letters, ii. 303. The editor gives this letter as written to Secretary Coke, though Coke was no longer Secretary. I suspect Conway to have been the recipient.

2 The King to Strafford, March 2, 3. The Irish Council to Windebank, March 19, 23, Strafford Letters, ii. 391, 394, 396, 397.

to Conway, March 31, S. P. Dom. ccccxlix. 47.

Cromwell

This exuberant loyalty found full expression in a declaration by which the grant was accompanied. Its phrases sound unreal enough now. Yet they were doubtless not altogether unreal to those who uttered them. The zeal of the Irish Catholics, at least, was quickened by a lively anticipation of future favours. If they took the lead in the overthrow of the King's enemies, what could possibly be denied them?

March 24. An Irish army to be levied.

In Strafford's eyes the declaration was a simple act of confidence in himself. The Irish, he wrote, would be as ready to serve with their persons as with their purses. By the middle of May he would be ready to take the field at the head of an army of 9,000 men, if only money were sent from England to enable him to make the first payments before the subsidies began to come in.2 The session was speedily brought to an end, and the Lord-Lieutenant recrossed the sea in hope to be as successful at Westminster as he had been at Dublin.

The English elections were held in March. The returns were not to the satisfaction of the Court. Suspicion was doing The English its work among the electors and the elected. Men elections. spoke of the cavalry which was being raised for the Northern war as if it were intended to keep Parliament in check. When the members arrived in London, it was evident that they did not quail before the danger. Their talk was of limitations to be placed on the prerogative, and of calling in question the ministers by whom it had been unduly exalted. The work of the Long Parliament was already in their minds.3 On the other hand, counsellors were not wanting to urge Charles to be prepared to resort to force, and, in the belief of those who were likely to be well informed, he cherished the idea as at least a possible resource in the not improbable event of a refusal of supplies. As if to give warning of coming danger, he appointed a consider

The King advised to use force.

1 Journals of the Commons of Ireland, i. 141.

2 Strafford to Windebank, March 24, Strafford Letters, ii. 398. Salvetti's News-Letter, March

20

30

+ Giustinian to the Doge, March 13, 20, Ven. Transcripts R. O.

23, 30'

1640

THE LETTER OF THE SCOTS.

97

able number of Catholics as officers in his new army, whilst all who were tainted with Puritanism were sedulously excluded.1

He expects much from the letter of

He

It was no immediate blow that Charles contemplated. placed great confidence in the effect likely to be produced even upon the new House of Commons by the revelation which he had in store. On the back of the letter the Scots to which Traquair had brought him was an address Au Roi. It was evident to Charles not only that the Scots had committed treason in addressing Louis as their King, but that every reasonable person was certain to come to the same conclusion. The opinion of the House of Commons would in this way be gained over to his side.

Louis.

April 11. The letter communi

A copy of the letter was first sent to the King of France.2 Louis, of course, disavowed having ever seen it before; and, as the letter which he had seen was a different one, he was able to make this disavowal with at least literal truthfulness. Richelieu congratulated himself that he had kept clear of all negotiation with the "By this event," he wrote, "M. de Bellievre will see that we have been more prudent than he."3

cated to Louis. Scots.

Committal

Of those whose signatures were appended to the letter, one only was in Charles's power. Loudoun was one of the Scottish Commissioners in London. He was at once comof Loudoun. mitted to the custody of one of the sheriffs, and the other commissioners shared his fate, though they had nothing to do with the letter. It is probable that Charles's real motive was to be found in his anxiety to cut off all communication between them and the members of the English Parliament. At all events, Loudoun was soon removed to stricter confinement in the Tower.

In spite of the hopes which he founded on the effect of the letter which he had in his hands, Charles was depressed and