ENGLAND. 22 I 



abilities, president of the council of the North, and lord-lieutenant of 

 Ireland : and he was generally believed to be the first minister of 

 state. Straflbrd had been a leading member of the opposition to the 

 court ; but he afterwards, in conjunction with Laud, exerted himself 

 so vigorously in carrying the king's despotic schemes into execution, 

 that he became an object of public detestation. As lord-president of 

 the North, as lord-lieutenant oi Ireland, and as a minister and privy- 

 counsellor in England, he behaved in a very arbitrary manner, and 

 was guilty of many acts of great injustice and oppression. He was, 

 in consequence, at length, on the 22d of May 1641, brought to the 

 block, though much against the inclinations of the king, who was in 

 a manner forced by the parliament and people to sign the warrant for 

 his execution. Archbishop Laud was also beheaded ; but his execu- 

 tion did not take place till a considerable time after that of Strafford, 

 the 10th of January, 1645. In the fourth year of his reign, Charles 

 had passed the petition of right into a law, which was intended by the 

 parliament as the luture security of the liberty of the subject. It 

 established particularly, " That no man hereafter be compelled to 

 make or yield any gift, loan, benevolence, tax, or such like charge, 

 without common consent by act of parliament j" but he afterwards 

 violated it in numerous instances, so that an universal discontent at 

 his administration prevailed throughout the nation. A rebellion also 

 broke out in Ireland, on October 23, 1641, where the protestants, 

 without distinction of age, sex, or condition, to the amount of many 

 thousands, were massacred by the papists ; and great pains were ta- 

 ken to persuade the public that Charles secretly favoured them, out 

 of hatred to his English subjects. The bishops were expelled the 

 house of peers, on account of their constantly opposing the designs 

 and bills of the other house ; and the leaders of the English house of 

 commons still maintained a correspondence with the discontented 

 Scots. Charles was ill enough advised to go in person to the house 

 of commons, January 4, 1642, and there demand that lord Kimbolton, 

 Mr. Pym, Mr. Hampden, Mr. Hollis, sir Arthur Haselrig, and Mr. 

 Stroud, should be apprehended ; but they had previously made their 

 escape. This act of Charles was resented as high treason against 

 his people ; and the- commons rejected all the offers of satisfaction 

 he could make them. 



Notwithstanding the many acts of tyranny and oppression, of which 

 the king and his ministers had been guilty, yet, when the civil war 

 broke out, there were great numbers who repaired to the regal stand- 

 ard. Many of the nobility and gentry were much attached to the crown, 

 and considered their own honours as connected with it ; and a great 

 part of the landed interest was joined to the royal party. The parlia- 

 ment, however, took upon themselves the executive power, and were 

 favoured by most of the trading tpwns and corporations ; but its great 

 resource lay in London. The king's general was the earl of Lindsey, 

 a brave but not an enterprising commander ; but he had great depend- 

 ence on his nephews, the princes Rupert and Maurice, sons to the 

 elector Palatine, by his sister the princess Elizabeth. In the begin- 

 ning of the war, the royal army had the ascendency ; but in the pro- 

 gress of it, affairs took a very different turn. The earl of Essex was 

 e general under the parliament, and the first battle was fought 

 at Edgehiil in Warwickshire, the 23d of October, 1642. Both par- 

 ties claimed the victory, though the advantage lay with Charles ; for 

 the parliament was so much distressed, that they invited the Scots to 



