B R I T A I N. 





marries 

 mrieiu,. 



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lurned 

 icciamt 



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<ust 12. 



ter a new colony had been settled in James's reigu, 

 there were n< t .dive more than M):i eolonits n. Ilil k 

 But by the culture ot t> 1- y soon acquired 



wealth, and extended their numbers to other places. 



Charles I. succeeded to thir wine lavouritc, the 

 same ministers, and council, which hi'- father had pos- 

 sessed, and unhappily inherited the same principles 

 in government. It was not improbable if James had 

 lived, that Buckingham, whose mflynce had tor some 

 time fastened rather i.n the weakness than on the af- 

 fections of the old king, would hive hi. n dismissed ; 

 but his power was established by the ascension of 

 Charles, at the time when his temporary popularity, 

 obtained by the rupture with Spain, began to decline, 

 or rather was changed into the most inveterate dis- 

 like on the part of ttie nation. 



The marriage treaty with France had been con- 

 cluded in James's lifetime. It was solemnized at 

 Paris with great magnificence, where the Duke of 

 Chevreuse performed the part of proxy for the king 

 of England. Buckingham was sent over to France 

 to conduct the queen home. She arrived at Dover 

 on the 12th of June, and the marriage was consum- 

 mated next day at Canterbury. On the 16th, their 

 Majesties entered into London ; and the new parlia- 

 ment met next day. Charles inherited a scanty 

 treasury and revenues, which had been inadequate 

 even to support a peace establishment. The uar, 

 though produced by a freak of his own or of Buck- 

 ingham's, had been sanctioned by the voice of the na- 

 tion and of the parliament. The new parliament itself, 

 chiefly composed of Puritans, never pretended to ad- 

 vise pacific measures, and must have been conscious 

 that the king could neither recede from war with 

 honour, nor prosecute it with advantage, without 

 their advice and assistance. To support this war, 

 for which the nation had clamoured for so many 

 years, to enable Charles to wrest the Palatinate from 

 the victorious Ferdinand and the mighty armies of 

 Austria, and to cope with Spain, the richest monarchy 

 in Europe, they gave to his earnest intreaties a sup- 

 ply of 1 12,000 pounds. The excuses that have been 

 alleged for this insulting parsimony, are the public 

 hatred at Buckingham, and the discovery of the war 

 having been produced by the artifices of that tavourite. 

 This apology is insufficient : if the war was found 

 impolitic or unnecessary, the commons should have 

 openly told the king to abandon it. If it was neces- 

 sary, they ought not to have avenged themselves for 

 a lesser grievance, by inflicting upon the nation a 

 greater. 



Charles was obliged, by reason of the plague, to ad- 

 journ the parliament for a few weeks m the summer, 

 but he re assembled them at Oxford, and implored 

 them to assist his necessities. Besides his German 

 warfare, he had a subsidy to pay to his ally the king 

 of Denmark ; and, independent of debts contracted 

 by himself and his father, the expenses of the war, in- 

 cluding the defence of Ireland, amounted annually to a 

 million and one hundred thousand pounds. Though a 

 fleet and army were lying at Portsmouth in want of 

 pay and provisions, the commons refused further aid. 

 James had betore his death, promised to lend the 

 king ot 1'rauce one ship ot war and seven armed ves- 

 e!s. They were borrowed on pretence of being em- 

 2 



.571 



i against the Genoese, who, as the allies of Brmia. 

 Spain, were sufficiently i -j ' 



such an use of them popular. Louis after- *-'" 

 wards persuaded Ch;i;les to be allowe '. ],,y 



them as i I, and they were sent under vice- 



admiral Pennington to 1 , assist against ' 



HugODOtl 1'. nniii^UMi being him elf iinwillin/ for 

 the sirvice, gave way to the resolution of his crews 

 not to serve against Protestants. On ri-turiiin-r to 

 the Downs, he was persuaded again to sail for France, 

 on pretence ihat the French king had made p.-acc 

 with the Hugonots ; but the fleet finding thems'-lvei 

 deceived, deserted him. When the news reached the 

 commons at Oxford, they applauded the conduct of 

 the sailors, forgetting that if they meant to be at war 

 with Spain, they were fighting the battles of that 

 power, by assisting the Hugonots, who were in secret 

 alliance with his Catholic majesty. They renewed 

 their clamours against popery, demanded the punish- 

 ment of Catholics for assembling to celebrate the rites 

 of their religion, and remonstrated against some par- 

 dons lately granted to priests, who had been convict- 

 ed of that offence. They also enacted laws for the 

 stricter observance of the Sabbath, (as it was now. 

 puritanically called,) and petitioned the king for re- 

 placing such able clergymen as had been silenced for 

 want of conformity to the church. The king availed parliament 

 himself of the appearance of the plague at Oxford, to diuolved. 

 dismiss a parliament, who gave him nothing but com- 

 plaints, and by dissolving, instead of proroguing them, 

 he marked his displeasure at their conduct. 



By issuing privy seals for borrowing money, the Fruitlew 

 king was enabled to equip a fleet of 80 ships, with an expedition 

 army of 10,000 men. Cecil, Lord Wimbleton, sailed. 10 Cadiz - 

 with these to Cadiz ; but cither finding it impossible, 

 or neglecting to attack the valuable ships of the 

 Spaniards in that harbour, he only landed the army. 

 After storming a fort, where they found a store of 

 wine, the men got intoxicated, and were obliged to be 

 reimbarked. They would have proceeded to inter- 

 cept the Spanish galleons on their way to Spain, but 

 the plague breaking out on board the fleet, it return- 

 ed to England, and the issue of the expedition served 

 as another cause of public discontent. 



Obliged once more to have recourse to a parliament, 

 Charles thought of diminishing the number of popu- 

 lar leaders by the artifice of making four of them. Sir 

 Edward Coke, Sir Robert Philips, Sir Thomas Went- 

 worth, sheriffs of the counties ; a situation supposed 

 to be incompatible with a seat in parliament. This 

 measure, without attaining its object, exposed the 

 weakness of the court, and put the commons more 

 upon their guard. They voted the king a supply of 

 two subsidies, but by removing the passing ot that 

 vote into a law till the end of the session, they held 

 out an undisguised threat of withholding it, if their 

 demands should not be satisfied. The first exertion 

 of their power and resentment was directed against 

 Buckingham. 



The orders of Charles to the Earl of Bristol, not Arbitrary 

 to attend in parliament, had not induced that spirited pnxard. 

 nobleman to comply with so arbitrary an injunction ; l: >,'> f 

 and i he king, provoked at his refusal, directed hi* 

 attorney -general to enter an accusation ot higti trea- 

 son against him. Bristol, by way of recnminatior. } 



