"" as ence with the commons; at which they complained to consult, and receive orders from those by whom of these tumults; and told them, "that such disor- they were to be disposed. A meeting of this kind "ders would be an imputation upon the parliament, being about the time we speak of in Southwark, in " and make it be doubted, whether they had free-a place where their arms and magazine for that "dom; and so might happily become a blemish to "those many good laws they had already passed, well as prevent the making more: and there"fore desired them, that they would, for the dig"nity of parliaments, join with them in a declara"tion, for the suppressing such tumults." This was reported to the commons; and as soon laid aside, "for the handling of other matters of more importance.' The tumults continued; and their insolences increased; insomuch, as many dissolute and profane people went into the abbey at Westminster, and would have pulled down the organs, and some ornaments of the church; but being resisted, and by force driven out, they threatened," they would come with greater numbers, and pull down the "church." Hereupon the lords again sent to the house of commons, to join with them in their declaration; and many members of that house complained, "that they could not come with safety to the "house; and that some of them had been as"saulted, and very ill entreated, by those people "that crowded about that door." But this could not be procured; the debate being still put off to some other time; after several speeches had been made in justification of them, and commendation of their affections: some saying, "they must not discourage their friends, this being a time they "must make use of all friends;" Mr. Pym himself saying, "God forbid the house of commons should proceed, in any way, to dishearten people "to obain their just desires in such a way." 66 دو In the end, the lords required the advice of the judges, "what course was legally to be taken, to suppress and prevent those disorders;" and thereupon directed the lord keeper of the great seal, to issue out a writ, upon the statute of Northampton, to the sheriff and justices, to appoint strong watches in such places as they judged most convenient, to hinder that unlawful "conflux of people to Westminster, to the dis"turbance of their consultations." Which writ issuing accordingly, the justices of the peace, in obedience thereunto, appointed the constables to attend at the water side, and places near about Westminster, with good watches, to hinder that tumultuous resort. This was no sooner done, than the constables were sent for, and, after the view of their warrants, required to discharge their watches. And then the justices [were] convened, and examined; and albeit it appeared, that what they had done was in pursuance of a legal writ, directed to them under the great seal of England, by the advice of the lords in parliament, without so much as conferring with the lords upon that act of theirs, the setting such a watch was voted to be "a breach of privilege:" and one of the justices of the peace, who, according to his oath, had executed that writ, was committed to the Tower for that offence. 66 Upon this encouragement, all the factious and schismatical people about the city and suburbs assembled themselves together with great license; and would frequently, as well in the night as the day, convene themselves, by the sound of a bell, or other token, in the fields, or some convenient place, borough was kept; the constable, being a sober man, and known to be an enemy to those acts of sedition, went amongst them, to observe what they did he was no sooner espied, but he was reproached with disdainful words, beaten and dragged in so barbarous a manner, that he hardly escaped with his life. Complaint was made to the next justices; and oath of the truth of the complaint made: whereupon a writ was directed to the sheriff, to impannel a jury, according to the law, for the inquisition and examination of that riot. 66 This was complained of in the house of commons, as an act that concerned their privileges: for that it was pretended, "that meeting in South"wark had been by godly and well affected men, only to draw up and prepare a petition against bishops; and that the constable, being a friend "to bishops, came amongst them to cross them, "and to hinder men from subscribing that wholesome petition." And upon this discourse, without any further examination, an order was made by that house, "that the under-sheriff of Surrey "should be enjoined, not to suffer any proceedings "to be made upon any inquisition, that might concern any persons who met together to subscribe a petition to be preferred to that house." By this, and other means, all obstacles of the law being removed, and the people taught a way to assemble lawfully together, in how tumultuous a manner soever, and the Christmas holidays giving more leave and license to all kind of people, the concourse grew more numerous about Westminster; the people sometimes, in their passage between the city and Westminster, making a stand before Whitehall, and crying out, No bishops, no bishops, no popish lords, would say aloud, "that they would have no more porter's lodge, but "would speak with the king when they pleased:" and, where they came near the two houses, took out papers from their pockets, and getting upon some place higher than the rest, would read the names of several persons, under the title of disaffected members of the house of commons; and called many lords, false, evil, and rotten-hearted lords. But their rage and fury against the bishops grew so high, that they threatened to pull down the lodgings where they lay; offered to force the doors of the abbey at Westminster, which were kept locked many days, and defended by a continual guard within; and assaulted the persons of some of the bishops in their coaches; and laid hands on the archbishop of York, in that manner, that, if he had not been seasonably rescued, it was believed they would have murdered him: so that all the bishops, and many other members, of both houses, withdrew themselves from attending in the houses, out of a real apprehension of endangering their lives. These insurrections by this means were so countenanced, that no industry or dexterity of the lord mayor of London, sir Richard Gourney, could give any check to it [them]; but, instead thereof, himself (with great and very notable courage opposing all their fanatic humours, both in the court of aldermen, and at the common council) grew to be reckoned in the first form of the malignants, (which was the term they imposed upon all those they meant to render odious to the people,) insomuch, as his house was no less threatened and disquieted by the tumults, than the house of lords: and when he apprehended some of those who were most notorious in the riot, and committed them to the custody of both the sheriffs of London in person, to be carried to Newgate, they were, by the power and strength of their companions, rescued from them in Cheapside, and the two sheriffs compelled to shift for their own safety. And when it was offered to be proved, by a member in the house of commons, that the wife of captain Venn, (having received a letter from her husband to that purpose,) who was one of the burgesses for London, and was known himself to lead those men, that came tumultuously down to Westminster, and Whitehall, at the time of the passing the bill of attainder of the earl of Strafford, had with great industry solicited many people to go down with their arms to Westminster, upon a day, (that was named,) when, she said, her husband had sent her word, that in the house of commons they were together by the ears, and that the worser party was like to get the better of the good party; and therefore her husband desired his friends to come with their arms to Westminster, to help the good party; and that thereupon very many in a short time went thither: they, who offered to make proof of the same, were appointed to attend many days; but, notwithstanding all the importunity that could be used, were never admitted to be heard. take upon him to say to others, whom he would trust, what the king desired, or to whom they who wished well could resort for advice and direction; so that whilst there was a strong conjunction and combination to disturb the government by depraving it, whatever was said or done to support it, was as if it were done by chance, and by the private dictates of the reason of private men; the king resolved to call the lord Falkland, and sir John Colepepper, who was knight of the shire for Kent, to his council; and to make the former secretary of state in the place of Vane, that had been kept vacant; and the latter chancellor of the exchequer, which office the lord Cottington had resigned, that Mr. Pym might be put into that office, when the lord Bedford should have been treasurer, as is mentioned before. They were both of great authority in the house; neither of them of any relation to the court; and therefore what they said made the more impression; and they were frequent speakers. The lord Falkland was wonderfully beloved by all who knew him, as a man of excellent parts, of a wit so sharp, and a nature so sincere, that nothing could be more lovely. The other was generally esteemed as a good speaker, being a man of an universal understanding, a quick comprehension, a wonderful memory, who commonly spake at the end of the debate; when he would recollect all that had been said of weight on all sides with great exactness, and express his own sense with much clearness, and such an application to the house, that no man more gathered a general concurrence to his opinion than he; which was the more notable, because his person, and manner of speaking, were ungracious enough; so that he prevailed only by the strength of his reason, which was enforced with confidence enough. His infirmities were known only to his nearest friends, or those who were admitted into his most intimate conversation. All this time the king (who had been with great solemnity invited from [by] the city of London, and desired to make his residence nearer to them than Hampton-court) was at Whitehall, where, besides his ordinary retinue, and menial servants, many officers of the late disbanded army, who solicited their remainder of pay from the two houses, which was secured to them by act of parliament, and expected some farther employment in the war with Ireland, upon observation, and view of the insolence of the tumults, and the danger, that they might possibly bring to the court, offered themselves for a guard to his majesty's person; and were with more formality and ceremony entertained by him, than, upon a just computation of all distempers, was by many conceived seasonable. And from these officers, warm with indignation at the insolences of that vile rabble, which every day passed by the court, first words of great contempt, and then, those words commonly finding a return of equal scorn, blows were fastened upon some of the most pragmatical of the crew. This was looked upon by the house of commons like a levying war by the king, and much pity expressed by them, that the poor people should be so used, who came to them with petitions, (for some few of them had received some cuts and slashes, that had drawn blood,) and that made a great argument for reinforcing their numbers. And from those contestations, the two terms of roundhead and cavalier grew to be received in discourse, and were afterwards continued for the most succinct distinction of affections throughout the quarrel: they who were looked upon as servants to the king being then called cavaliers; and the other of the rabble contemned, and despised, under the names of round-fore appeared signally in the house to oppose those heads. The house of commons being at this time without any member, who, having relation to the king's service, would express any zeal for it, and could The king knew them to be of good esteem in the house, and good affections to his service, and the quiet of the kingdom; and was more easily persuaded to bestow those preferments upon them, than the lord Falkland was to accept that which was designed to him. No man could be more surprised than he was, when the first insinuation was made to him of the king's purpose: he had never proposed any such thing to himself, nor had any veneration for the court, but only such a loyalty to the person of the king as the law required from him. And he had naturally a wonderful reverence for parliaments, as believing them most solicitous for justice, the violation whereof, in the least degree, he could not forgive any mortal power: and it was only his observation of the uningenuity and want of integrity in this [parliament], which lessened that reverence to it, and which had disposed him to cross and oppose their designs: he was so totally unacquainted with business, and the forms of it, that he did believe really he could not execute the office with any sufficiency. But there were two considerations that made most impression upon him; the one, lest the world should believe, that his own ambition had procured this promotion; and that he had there proceedings, that he might thereby render himself gracious to the court: the other, lest the king should expect such a submission, and resignation of himself, and his own reason, and judgment, to his com another officer, who did disserve him notoriously, mands, as he should never give, or pretend to 66 66 It was a very difficult task to Mr. Hyde, who had most credit with him, to persuade him to submit to this purpose of the king cheerfully, and with a just sense of the obligation, by promising, that in those parts of the office, which required most drudgery, he would help him the best he could, and would quickly inform him of all the necessary forms. But, above all, he prevailed with him, by enforcing" the ill consequence of his refusal to take the office, which would be interpreted to his dislike of the court, and his opinion, that more would be required from him than he could honestly comply with, which would bring great prejudice to the king: on the other hand, the great benefit that probably would redound to the king, and the kingdom, by his accepting such a trust in such a general defection, by which he would have opportunity to give the king a truer information of his own condition, and the state of the kingdom, than it might be presumed had been given to him, and to prevent any counsels, or practice, which might more alienate the affections of the people from the government; and then, that by this relation he would be more able to do the king service in the house, where he was too well known to have it believed, that he attained to it by any unworthy means or application. And in the end, he was persuaded to submit to the king's good pleasure, though he could not prevail upon himself to do it with so good a grace, as might raise in the king any notable expectation of his departing from the severity of his own nature. 66 And so they [he and Colepepper] were both invested in those offices, to the no small displeasure of the governing party, which could not dissemble their indignation, that any of their members should presume to receive those preferments, which they had designed otherwise to have disposed of. They took all opportunities to express their dislike of them, and to oppose any thing they proposed to them. And within few days there came a letter out in print, pretended to be intercepted, as written from a Roman catholic to another of the same profession, in which he gives an account, "That they had at last, by the interest of their friends, procured those two noble persons" (who are mentioned before) "to be preferred to those offices, and that they were well assured that they "would be ready to do them, and all their friends, "all good offices." Sir John Colepepper thought fit to take notice of it in the house, and to make those professions of his religion, which he thought necessary. But the lord Falkland chose rather to contemn it, without taking any notice of the libel, well knowing that he was superior to those calumnies, as indeed he was; all of that profession knowing that he was most irreconcilable to their doctrine, though he was always civil to their persons. However grievous this preferment was to the angry part of the house, it was very grateful to all those, both within and without the house, who wished well to the king and to the kingdom. The king at the same time resolved to remove "be conferred upon him at that time;" and he 66 66 66 66 By what hath been said before, it appears, that the lord Digby was much trusted by the king, and he was of great familiarity and friendship with the other three, at least with two of them; for he was not a man of that exactness, as to be in the entire confidence of the lord Falkland, who looked upon his infirmities with more severity than the other two did; and he lived with more frankness towards those two, than he did towards the other: yet between those two there was a free conversation and kindness to each other. He was a man of very extraordinary parts by nature and art, and had surely as good and excellent an education as any man of that age in any country: a graceful and beautiful person; of great eloquence and becomingness in his discourse, (save that sometimes he seemed a little affected,) and of so universal a knowledge, that he never wanted subject for a discourse: he was equal to a very good part in the greatest affair, but the unfittest man alive to conduct it, having an ambition and vanity superior to all his other parts, and a confidence peculiar to himself, which sometimes intoxicated, and transported, and exposed him. He had from his youth, by the disobligations his family had undergone from the duke of Buckingham, and the great men T who succeeded him, and some sharp reprehension himself had met with, which obliged him to a country life, contracted a prejudice and ill-will to the court; and so had in the beginning of the parliament engaged himself with that party which discovered most aversion from it, with a passion and animosity equal to their own, and therefore very acceptable to them. But when he was weary of their violent counsels, and withdrew himself from them with some circumstances which enough provoked them, and made a reconciliation, and mutual confidence in each other for the future, manifestly impossible; he made private and secret offers of his service to the king, to whom, in so general a defection of his servants, it could not but be very agreeable: and so his majesty being satisfied, both in the discoveries he made of what had passed, and in his professions for the future, removed him from the house of commons, where he had rendered himself marvellously ungracious, and called him by writ to the house of peers, where he did visibly advance the king's service, and quickly rendered himself grateful to all those who had not thought too well of him before, when he deserved less; and men were not only pleased with the assistance he gave upon all debates, by his judgment and vivacity, but looked upon him as one, who could derive the king's pleasure to them, and make a lively representation of their good demeanour to the king, which he was very luxuriant in promising to do, and officious enough in doing as much as was just. He had been instrumental in promoting the three persons above mentioned to the king's favour; and had himself, in truth, so great an esteem of them, that he did very frequently, upon conference together, depart from his own inclinations and opinions, and concurred in theirs; and very few men of so great parts are, upon all occasions, more counsellable than he; so that he would seldom be in danger of running into great errors, if he would communicate and expose all his own thoughts and inclinations to such a disquisition; nor is he uninclinable in his nature to such an entire communication in all things which he conceived to be difficult. But his fatal infirmity is, that he too often thinks difficult things very easy; and doth not consider possible consequences, when the proposition administers somewhat that is delightful to his fancy, and by pursuing whereof he imagines he shall reap some glory to himself, of which he is immoderately ambitious; so that, if the consultation be upon any action to be done, no man more implicitly enters into that debate, or more cheerfully resigns his own conceptions to a joint determination: but when it is once affirmatively resolved, (besides that he may possibly reserve some impertinent circumstance, as he thinks, the imparting whereof would change the nature of the thing,) if his fancy suggests to him any particular, which himself might perform in that action, upon the imagination that every body would approve it, if it were proposed to them, he chooses rather to do it, than to communicate, that he may have some signal part to himself in the transaction, in which no other person can claim a share. And by this unhappy temper he did often involve himself in very unprosperous attempts. The king himself was the unfittest person alive to be served by such a counsellor, being too easily inclined to sudden enterprises, and as easily amazed when they were entered upon. And from this unhappy composition in the one, and the other, a very unhappy counsel was entered upon, and resolution taken, without the least_communication with either of the three, [who] had been so lately admitted to an entire trust. The bishops, who were, in this manner [before spoken of], driven and kept from the house of peers, and not very secure in their own, could not have the patience to attend the dissolution of this storm, which in wisdom they ought to have done : but considering right and reason too abstractly, and what in justice was due, not what in prudence was to be expected, suffered themselves implicitly to be guided by the archbishop of York, who was of a proud, restless, overweening spirit, to such an act of indiscretion, and disadvantage to themselves, that all their enemies could not have brought upon them. This bishop, as is said, was a man of a very imperious and fiery temper, Dr. Williams, who had been bishop of Lincoln, and keeper of the great seal of England in the time of king James. After his removal from that charge, he had lived splendidly in his diocese, and made himself very popular amongst those who had no reverence for the court; of which he would frequently, and in the presence of many, speak with too much freedom, and tell many stories of things and persons upon his own former experience; in which, being a man of great pride and vanity, he did not always confine himself to a precise veracity; and did often presume, in those unwary discourses, to mention the person of the king with too little reverence. He did affect to be thought an enemy to the archbishop of Canterbury; whose person he seemed exceedingly to contemn, and to be much displeased with those ceremonies and innovations, as they were then called, which were countenanced by the other; and had himself written and published in his own name, and by his own authority, a book against the using those ceremonies, in which there was much good learning, and too little gravity for a bishop. His passion and his levity gave every day great advantages to those who did not love him; and he provoked too many, not to have those advantages made use of: so that, after several informations against him in the star-chamber, he was sentenced for no less crimes than for perjury and subornation of perjury, and fined in a great sum of money to the king, and committed prisoner to the Tower, without the pity or compassion of any, but those, who, out of hatred to the government, were sorry that they were without so useful a champion; for he appeared to be a man of a very corrupt nature, whose passions could have transported him into the most unjustifiable actions. He had a faculty of making relations of things done in his own presence, and discourses made to himself, or in his own hearing, with all the circumstances of answers and replies, and upon arguments of great moment; all which, upon examination, were still found to have nothing in them that was real, but to be the pure effect of his own invention. After he was sentenced in the starchamber, some of his friends resorted to him, to lament and condole with him for his misfortune; and some of them seemed to wonder that, in an affair of such a nature, he had not found means to have made some submission and com 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 Nor position, that might have prevented the public" unquestionably declared innocent; there being hearing, which proved so much to his prejudice no crime or misdemeanour proved against him in point of reputation, as well as profit. He "in such a manner, as could make him liable to answered them with all the formality imaginable, censure they all commended his resolution of "that they had reason indeed to wonder at him submitting to the king, as soon as he had made upon the event; but when they should know "his innocence to appear; and they all advised "how he had governed himself, he believed they "him to pursue that method. This, he said, had "would cease to think him worthy of blame." swayed him; and made him decline the other And then related to them, "that as soon as publi- expedient, that had been proposed to him." "cation had passed in his cause, and the books This relation wrought upon those to whom it were taken out, he had desired his council was made, to raise a prejudice in them against the (who were all able men, and some of them very justice of the cause, or the reputation of the eminent) in the vacation time, and they at most council, as they were most inclined; whereas leisure, to meet together, and carefully to look there was not indeed the least shadow of truth 66 over, and peruse all the evidence that was taken in the whole relation; except that there was such on both sides; and that then they would all a meeting and conference, as was mentioned, and "attend him such a morning, which he appointed, which had been consented to by the bishop, upon 66 upon their consent, at his own house at West- the joint desire and importunity of all the council; "minster: that they came at the time appointed; who, at that conference, unanimously advised and "and being then shut up in a room together, he desired him, "to use all the means and friends "asked them, whether they had sufficiently pe- "he could, that the cause might not be brought "rused all the books, and were throughly in- to hearing; but that he should purchase his "formed of his case? To which they all answered, " peace at any price; for that, if it were heard, "that they had not only read them all over to- "he would be sentenced very grievously, and gether, but had severally, every man by him- "that there were many things proved against self, perused [them] again, and they believed "him, which would so much reflect upon his they were all well informed of the whole. That "honour and reputation, and the more for being "he then told them, he had desired this con- a bishop, that all his friends would abandon "ference with them, not only as his council, by him, and be ever after ashamed to appear on his "whose opinion he meant to govern himself, but "behalf." Which advice, with great passion and as his particular friends, who, he was sure, reproaches upon the several persons for their pre"would give him their best advice, and persuade sumption and ignorance in matters so much above "him to do every thing as they would do them- them, he utterly and scornfully rejected. "selves, if they were in his condition. That he indeed was it possible, at that time, for him to was now offered to make his peace at court, by have made his peace; for though, upon some "such an humble submission to the king, as he former addresses and importunity on his behalf, was most inclined and ready to make; and by some persons of power, and place in the court, "which he would make the next day after his in which the queen herself had endeavoured to cause was heard, though he should be declared have done him good offices, the king was inclined "to be innocent, of which he could make no to have saved him, being a bishop, from the in"doubt: but that which troubled him for the famy he must undergo by a public trial; yet the present was, that the infamousness of the charge bishop's vanity had, in those conjunctures, so far against him, which had been often exposed, and transported him, that he had done all he could to enlarged upon in several motions, had been so have it insinuated, "that the court was ashamed "much taken notice of through the kingdom, that "of what they had done; and had prevailed with "it could not consist with his honour to divert "the hearing, which would be imputed to his "want of confidence in his innocence, since men "did not suspect his courage, if he durst rely upon the other; but that he was resolved, as he "said before, the next day after he should be vin"dicated from those odious aspersions, he would "cast himself at the king's feet, with all the humility and submission, which the most guilty man could make profession of. It was in this point he desired their advice, to which he would, "without adhering to his own inclination, entirely conform himself; and therefore desired them, singly in order, to give him their advice. He repeated the several and distinct discourse every man had made, in which he was so punctual, "that he applied those phrases, and expressions, " and manner of speech to the several men, which they were all taken notice of frequently to use; as many men have some peculiar words in discourse, which they are most delighted with, or by custom most addicted to: and in conclu"sion, that they were unanimous in their judg"ments, that he could not, with the preservation "of his honour, and the opinion of his integrity, "decline the public hearing; where he must be It had been once mentioned to him, whether by authority, or no, was not known, "that his peace should be made, if he would resign his bishopric, and deanery of Westminster," (for he held that in commendam,)" and take a good bishopric in Ireland;" which he positively refused; and said, "he had much to do to defend "himself against the archbishop here: but if he "were in Ireland, there was a man (meaning the "earl of Strafford) who would cut off his head "within one month." This bishop had been for some years in the Tower, by the sentence of the star-chamber, before this parliament met; when the lords, who were the most active and powerful, presently resolved to have him at liberty. Some had much kindness for him, not only as a known enemy to the archbishop of Canterbury, but as a supporter of those opinions, and those persons, which were against the church itself. And he was no sooner at liberty, and brought into the house, but, [as has been before mentioned,] he defended and |