POLITICAL HISTORY 



by the king's own warrant. It was not likely the Royalists would suffer this 

 tamely ; accordingly, Lord Strange, coming from York armed with the king's 

 Commission of Array and accompanied by the king's sheriff. Sir John Girling- 

 ton, and Lord Molyneux, moved from Lancaster, where he secured the 

 magazine to Preston, where the sheriff summoned a meeting and read the 

 Commission of Array. The sheriff then raised a shout among his followers 

 that those who were for the king should follow him and his party. ^" 

 Mr. Alexander Rigby, the member for Wigan, being present, together with 

 a few others of the Lancashire Parliamentary Committee, raised a counter cry 

 of ' For the King and Parliament,' and this remained afterwards the noble 

 watchword of the Parliamentary party in the county, to the no small irritation 

 of the Royalist leaders.^"" 



Fearing Lord Strange's designs, Mr. Rigby hastened to warn Mr, Asshe- 

 ton at Manchester to secure the magazine there for the Parliament."" That 

 of Liverpool "' had already been seized by Lord Strange's orders for the king. 

 But for their close communication with the Parliament the Lieutenancy would 

 have been hard put to it to sustain their part. By 3 July, however, they had 

 raised 7,000 militia in Manchester,"' and when Lord Strange came to the 

 town next day and demanded the magazine they felt themselves strong enough 

 to refuse him. A slight skirmish ensued which was spoken of as the begin- 

 ning of ' Civil War, being the first stroke that hath been struck and the first 

 bullet that hath been shot.' "' 



On the 15th of this month Lord Strange again attempted to seize the 

 magazine ; and a party of the townsmen favouring or fearing him invited 

 him to a banquet in the town. He came in an overweeningly arrogant 

 manner, accompanied by Lord Molyneux and other gentlemen, and with 

 a troop of his own horse, between whom and the militia, directed by 

 Colonel Birch, Captain Holcroft, and Sir Thomas Stanley, a skirmish ensued. 

 Lord Strange took 2,000 men from the town, and assembled other thousands 

 by his Commission of Array at Bury, Wigan, and Knutsford, and by the 

 end of July, 1641, was said to have gathered a force of about twenty thousand 

 men from each place to his muster. 



At this point a strong blow for the king might have effected great 

 things and might have secured the county. That it was not so secured was 

 the fault of the king's own advisers, who, possibly jealous of the power of 

 Lord Strange, urged Charles to disclaim these musters as tending to over- 

 exalt the power of the king's lieutenant and to threaten his own."" No more 

 suicidal policy could possibly have been adopted, but Charles, with his 

 customary ill-fortune and vacillation, took the advice of his council, allowed 

 the musters to be dispersed, divested Lord Strange of his lieutenancy of 

 Chester and North Wales, and even proposed to divide with another his 

 lieutenancy of Lancashire. The loyalty of few men could have stood such 



'°* Civil War Tracts, 13-14, and Rigby's Letter to the Speaker of the House of Commons quoted ibid. 



325-30- 



"^ See earl of Newcastle's protest to Manchester, ibid. 144.. 'I cannot but wonder while you fight 

 against the King and his authority, you should so boldly offer to profess yourselves for King and Parliament,' &c. 

 Manchester replied : ' The honour of the King in all Regal Rights and Prerogatives and Privileges of Parlia- 

 ment, and the true and native liberties and privileges of the Subject by Law established,' &c. 



™ Ibid. 16, June, 1642. '"' Ibid, and 1 1 1. 



"" Ibid. No. vii, p. 20. '"' Ibid. No. viii, p. 26. Doubt has been cast upon the truth of this report. 



"° Seacombe, Memoirs of the House of Stanley, 76. 



235 



