Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T17:15:26.977Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Could Charles I Be Trusted? The Royalist Case, 1642-1646

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2014

J. W. Daly
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The followers of King Charles I in the Civil War, long among the whipping boys of English history, have been receiving better treatment since the Whig interpretation of the seventeenth century lost its pristine vigour. This is particularly true of their constitutional position as set forth in the great outpouring of manifestoes and pamphlets during the war. Edward Hyde, perhaps the key figure in this aspect of royalism, has recently profited from a capable defence of his opinions and policy. Similarly, pamphleteers such as Henry Ferne, Dudley Digges, and John Bramhall are now fairly well known, thanks largely to J. W. Allen's pioneering study of their writings. From work like this it is clear that the royalist spokesmen accepted the increased importance of Parliament, the end of prerogative courts and nonparliamentary taxation, and the supremacy of common and statute law. Like their armies in the field, they were defending the monarchy as overhauled in 1641, not as the Tudors left it, much less as James I may have conceived it. Indeed the classical doctrine of the mixed or balanced constitution, glorified by Blackstone and widely accepted until nearly 1830, is now credited, not to Philip Hunton, but to the royalists. Such rehabilitation has done much to remove the patronizing label of “wrong but romantic,” which was once the best which they could hope for from historians or the general public.

Allen and those who followed him naturally concentrated on the legal and constitutional analysis of the origins of authority, the veto power, sovereignty, nonresistance, and so forth.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , November 1966 , pp. 23 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1966

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Wormald, B. H. G., Clarendon: Politics, History, Religion, 1640-60 (Cambridge, 1951)Google Scholar.

2. Allen, J. W., English Political Thought 1603-1660 (London, 1938), I (1603–1944)Google Scholar, Pt. 7, leaves little to be said on the subject, and it has been treated only twice since in any detail. Judson, Margaret, The Crisis of the Constitution [Rutgers University Studies in History No. 5] (New Brunswick, N. J., 1949)Google Scholar, devotes a chapter to Ferne's and Digges's views on sovereignty. Salmon, J. H. M., The French Religious Wars in English Political Thought (Oxford, 1959)Google Scholar, deals with one aspect of royalist controversy. Neither of these books breaks much new ground, though Salmon does point out that Allen underestimated the impact of French ideas on both sides.

3. Weston, C. C., “The Theory of Mixed Monarchy under Charles I and After,” E.H.R., LXXV (1960), 426–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Hunton's inflated reputation is bound to shrink, despite his undoubted ingenuity in seizing on the royalist theory put forward in the King's Answer to the Nineteen Propositions and turning it to parliamentary uses.

4. Hexter, J. H., The Reign of King Pym (Cambridge, Mass., 1941), p. 206Google Scholar.

5. Earl of Clarendon, History of the Rebellion, ed. Macray, W. Dunn (Oxford, 1888), II, 11Google Scholar, Answer to the Houses' Declaration of Mar. 22. Hyde was trying to associate the parliamentary claims to emergency power in 1642 with those of the royal lawyers in 1637 in the Ship Money case. This too became stock royalist ammunition.

6. An Apologie of John Earl of Bristol, pp. 41-44, listed in Catalogue of the Pamphlets, Books, Newspapers, and Manuscripts … collected by George Thomason, 1640-1661 (London, 1908), II, 171Google Scholar, hereafter cited as Thomason Catalogue. This pamphlet gains in value from being produced by a man who was more than a writer or scholar; he was at the heart of royalist planning at Oxford.

7. Digges, Dudley, An Answer to a Printed Book [by Henry Parker] intituled Observations upon some of His Majesties Late Answers and Expresses, p. 23Google Scholar, Thomason Catalogue, I, 196Google Scholar. A Complaint to the House of Commons, pp. 3-6, Thomason Catalogue, I, 216Google Scholar. The latter is a fair example of the type of short incidental pamphlet which has been crowded out of the historian's purview by larger, and duller, productions which are often less valuable but which are associated with some school or trend of constitutional interpretation.

8. A Letter To A Noble Lord At London From A Friend at Oxford, p. 10, Thomason Catalogue, I, 274Google Scholar. Digges, , An Answer to a Printed Book, p. 8Google Scholar. A Declaration, or Resolution Of The County Of Hereford, in Webb J., and Webb T., , Memorials of the Civil War … as it affected Herefordshire (London, 1879), II, 343–44Google Scholar. Nottingham Resolution, p. 3, BM E. 109 (23).

9. Clarendon, , History, II, 5Google Scholar, Declaration of York, Mar. 9, 1642.

10. The stratagem of giving the King credit for popular acts while excusing him from unpopular ones is also reflected in one of the few pamphlets which discussed the Short Parliament. This abortive assembly might have successfully avoided the Long Parliament's extremes, and the anonymous True Informer wished that those who had advised its dissolution “had been then in Arabia, or beyond the Line, in their way to Madegascas [sic], who nevertheless have got to be in high request with this present Parliament.” This was a drive at Sir Henry Vane the Elder, a Secretary of State in 1640, but a prudent supporter of the Houses in the war and father of a far more devoted rebel. Both Sir Roger Twysden, the Kentish royalist lawyer and antiquary, and the courtier Sir Philip Warwick also blame Vane. The True Informer, p. 14, Thomason Catalogue, I, 251Google Scholar. (This is a single royalist pamphlet, not to be confused with the London newsletter of the same name.) SirTwysden, Roger, Certaine Considerations upon the Government of England, ed. Kemble, J. M. [Camden Society] (London, 1849), p. 145Google Scholar. SirWarwick, Philip, Memoires of the Reign of King Charles I (London, 1813), p. 159Google Scholar.

11. Rushworth, John, Historical Collections (London, 1659–1701), V, 40Google Scholar.

12. BM, Angliae Universalis Dementia, Lansdowne MSS, 213, fols. 400-01. This is not the place to reproduce this lengthy selection in full; a short extract will show the author's command of the subject. The arguments were about “monarchy absolute, and limited; limited, and mixt; between a power radically limited, and not only in the use and exercise of it.”

13. Ibid., fol. 401.

14. Nalson, John (ed.), An Impartiall Collection of the Great Affairs of State (London, 1683), I, 730Google Scholar, Speech of Jan. 19, 1641.

15. Bramhall, John, The Serpent-Salve; or, A Remedy For The Biting Of An Asp (1643)Google Scholar, in Works [Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology] (Oxford, 1842–1879), IIIGoogle Scholar; 299. Larking, L. B. (ed.), Sir Roger Twysden's Journal [Archaeologia Cantiana] (Canterbury, 1858), p. 187Google Scholar.

16. Digges, , An Answer to a Printed Book, p. 16Google Scholar.

17. An Answer to a Seditious Pamphlet, Intituled Plain English, p. 20, Thomason Catalogue, I, 234Google Scholar. Doughtie, John, The King's Cause (Oxford and London, 1644), pp. 20–21Google Scholar.

18. Ralph, P. L., Sir Humphrey Mildmay: Royalist Gentleman [Rutgers University Studies in History No. 3] (New Brunswick, N. J., 1947), pp. 150, 156Google Scholar.

19. BM, Salvetti to the Signoria, May 14/24, 1641, Salvetti Correspondence, Add. MSS, 27962, IX, fol. 234.

20. SirBulstrode, Richard, Memoirs and Reflections upon the Reign and Government of King Charles I (London, 1721), p. 59Google Scholar.

21. Hallam, Henry, The Constitutional History of England (New York, 1886), I, 516Google Scholar.

22. The True Informer, p. 18.

23. Heylyn, Peter, A Letter To a Gentleman of Leicester-shire, p. 27Google Scholar, Thomason Catalogue, I, 260Google Scholar.

24. Digges, Dudley, The Unlawfulnesse of Subjects taking up Arms against their Soveraigne, in what case soever, p. 150Google Scholar, Thomason Catalogue, I, 305Google Scholar.

25. The Declaration of the Oxford Assembly, March 19, 1644/5, pp. 24-25, Thomason Catalogue, I, 315Google Scholar.

26. BM, Angliae Universalis Dementia, Lansdowne MSS, 213, fol. 399.

27. Griffith Williams, The Discovery of Mysteries, chs. i-v, Thomason Catalogue, I, 272Google Scholar.

28. Williams, Griffith, Jura Majestatis, pp. 4, 72 ff.Google Scholar, 156-57, 164-67, 187-98, Thomason Catalogue, I, 354Google Scholar, and Vindiciae Regum, p. 69, Thomason Catalogue, I, 229Google Scholar.

29. Symmons, Edward, A Militarie Sermon, Thomason Catalogue, I, 325,Google ScholarA Loyall Subjects Beliefe, Thomason Catalogue, I, 262Google Scholar. Quarles, Francis, The Loyall Convert (Oxford and London, 1644)Google Scholar.

30. SirSpelman, John, Certain Considerations upon the Duties both of Prince and People, in Somers Tracts (London, 1809–1815), IV, 316Google Scholar.

31. Ferne, Henry, The Resolving of Conscience (Cambridge, 1642), p. 3Google Scholar.

32. Rushworth, , Historical Collections, IV, 535–38Google Scholar. Clarendon, , History, II, 11, 136.Google Scholar

33. Rushworth, , Historical Collections, IV, 480–82Google Scholar.

34. Ibid., IV, 707-08, Answer to the Houses' Declaration of May 19, 1642.

35. Apologie of Bristol, p. 53.

36. Quarles, , The Loyall Convert, p. 2Google Scholar.

37. Considerations Upon The present state of the Affairs of this Kingdom, p. 10, Thomason Catalogue, I, 214Google Scholar.

38. Povey, Thomas, The Moderator expecting Sudden Peace or Certaine Ruine, p. 6Google Scholar, Thomason Catalogue, I, 234Google Scholar.

39. The True Informer, p. 29.

40. A Discourse Upon the Questions In debate, p. 2, Thomason Catalogue, I, 169Google Scholar.

41. Certain Materiall Considerations Touching the differences of the present times, p. 9, Thomason Catalogue, I, 231Google Scholar.

42. Ibid., p. 37.

43. Apologie of Bristol, p. 54. Charles, I, The Workes of King Charles the Martyr (London, 1662), I, 207Google Scholar, Message to the Houses, Sep. 11, 1642. Calendar of State Papers Venetian, 1640-42, p. 281Google Scholar, Giustiniani to the Doge, Jan. 14/24, 1642. The words are Bristol's.

44. Pearl, Valerie, London and the Outbreak of the Puritan Revolution (London, 1961), p. 133Google Scholar.

45. A Letter From Mercurius Civicus to Mercurius Rusticus, Aug. 15, 1643, in Somers Tracts, IV, 591Google Scholar.

46. Heylyn, , A Letter To a Gentleman of Leicester-shire, pp. 3–5Google Scholar. Povey, , The Moderator, p. 19Google Scholar.

47. Apologie of Bristol, pp. 56-57. This attempt to make the King strong enough to bargain for peace is exactly what Wormald sees as Hyde's policy in the spring of 1642. Wormald, , Clarendon, p. 100Google Scholar.

48. Ferne, , The Resolving of Conscience, p. 38Google Scholar.

49. An Answer or Necessary Animadversion, upon Some late Important Observations Invective against his Sacred Majesty, p. 6, Thomason Catalogue, I, 146Google Scholar.

50. A Letter From Mercurius Civicus to Mercurius Rusticus, in Somers Tracts, IV, 587Google Scholar. This pamphlet dealt at some length, and quite amusingly, with the rumour-mongers; the Remonstrance referred to is of course the Grand Remonstrance.

51. Calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1641-43, pp. 338-39, Abstract of proceedings from Nov. 3, 1640, to June 10, 1642. This was an anonymous paper of strong royalist bias.

52. Heylyn, Peter, The Rebells Catechism, pp. 24–25Google Scholar, Thomason Catalogue, I, 313Google Scholar.

53. Pym's predicament lay in the conviction that if he did not go forward and seize all power, the King would recover and destroy all reforms. The flaw in this battle plan is that it forced the King to do what Pym feared, appeal to arms. Thus each antagonist played the role in which his enemy had cast him and could not compromise for tear of losing all. Besides, there was real ambition in Pym's camp and obtuseness in the King's. Very acute analyses of this imbroglio are found in Judson, , Crisis of the Constitution, p. 370Google Scholar, and Allen, , English Political Thought, I, 380Google Scholar.

54. A Complaint to the House of Commons, pp. 8-13, 15 ff. A Remonstrance of the Commons of England to the House of Commons, in Somers Tracts, IV, 521–23Google Scholar. A Letter From Mercurius Civicus to Mercurius Rusticus, in ibid., IV, 593. Mercurius Aulicus, Jan. 25, 1643, Thomason Catalogue, II, 374Google Scholar. This last was the entertaining but factually unreliable royalist newsletter edited usually by Sir John Birkenhead.

55. An Answer to … Plain English, p. 3. The extraordinary effect of this one measure is described by Gardiner, S. R. in his History of the Great Civil War (London, 1904), I, 17–18Google Scholar.

56. A Discourse Upon the Questions In debate, pp. 4, 14.

57. J.W., , Suppositions, With this Humble Request And Advice Of Many Thousands, To the Right Honourable The Houses of Parliament, pp. 2–6Google Scholar, Thomason Catalogue, I, 146Google Scholar. Povey, , The Moderator, pp. 7-8, 20-21, 23–24Google Scholar. Considerations Upon The present state of the Affairs of this Kingdom, pp. 14-15.

58. Digges, , The Unlawfulnesse of Subjects, p. 72Google Scholar.

59. Ibid., p. 73.

60. A Copy Of a Letter, writ from Sergeant-Major Kirle to a friend in Windsor, in Webb, J. and Webb, T., Memorials of the Civil War, II, 353Google Scholar.

61. BM, A Plain Case, or, Reasons Sufficient to convince any … which side to take in this present war, Harleian MSS, 424, fols. 167-69.

62. C.S.P.D., 1641-43, p. 512, the Bishop of Exeter to the House of Commons, possibly in 1643.

63. Rushworth, , Historical Collections, IV, 633Google Scholar, Answer to the Houses' Petition, June 17, 1642. Apologie of Bristol, pp. 12-13. Ferne, Henry, Conscience Satisfied, That there is no warrant for the Armes now taken up by Subjects, pp. 19–21Google Scholar, Thomason Catalogue, I, 253Google Scholar. Digges, , An Answer to a Printed Book, p. 50Google Scholar; The Unlawfulnesse of Subjects, pp. 73-74, 144-45. It is indicative of the immensely altered position of the monarchy after 1641 that its defenders in the war could thus grasp what historians almost unanimously identify as the two great enemies of absolutism — dependence on the gentry for the carrying on of local government (that famous “self-government at the king's command”), and the increasing poverty of the Crown vis-a-vis the community represented in Parliament.

64. BM, A Plain Case, Harleian MSS, 424, fol. 168. The Earl of Bristol's Speech in the House of Peers, June 11, 1642, BM E. 897 (6).

65. A Discourse Upon the Questions In debate, pp. 5-4.

66. Rushworth, , Historical Collections, IV, 712,Google Scholar Answer to the Houses' Declaration of May 19, 1642.

67. BM, A Plain Case, Harleian MSS, 424, fols. 167-68. Ferne, , Conscience Satisfied, pp. 22–23Google Scholar. An Answer or Necessary Animadversion, p. 29. Jenkins, David, Lex Terrae; or, Laws of the Land, in Somers Tracts, V, 98–114.Google Scholar

68. Hobbes, Thomas, Behemoth, in English Works, ed. SirMolesworth, William (London, 1839–1845), VI, 309Google Scholar.

69. Letters of Queen Henrietta Maria, ed. Green, M. A. E. (London, 1857), p. 143Google Scholar, to the King, Nov. 2, 1642.

70. Unfortunately anonymous, Thomason Catalogue, I, 257Google Scholar. It is dated May 4 and so came out just after the Oxford Treaty had failed.

71. The degree to which propaganda rather than fact prompted this line may be indicated here. J. H. Hexter has noted that, with the well-known exception of Wentworth, every man who refused the forced loan and later sat in the Long Parliament became a Roundhead. See Hexter, , Reign of King Pym, p. 83Google Scholar. Thus the pamphlet portrays only a fictional personification of conventional royalist attitudes.

72. A Letter From A Grave Gentleman, p. 6.

73. Ibid., pp. 10-11.

74. Ibid., p. 18.

75. Hallam, though a paragon of Whig history, gives a surprisingly sympathetic reading of the King's situation in 1642, and Gardiner's strong Puritan bias did not prevent his doing the same, in much greater detail. Wormald's study of Hyde's tactics is of course one long essay on it. That infallible indicator of historical fashions, the school text, gives an even better example. The latest to deal with this period presents the royal conduct in a most favourable light: Lockyer, Roger, Tudor and Stuart Britain 1471-1714 (London, 1964), pp. 270–73Google Scholar.

76. Allen, , English Political Thought, I, 407.Google Scholar

77. Wormald, , Clarendon, p. 42Google Scholar.