XXVI

KING CHARLES I. AND HIS EARLS

1640-1641

WHEN Parliament ruled England in the reign of the Lancastrian Henry VI. the suffrage in the counties was restricted to a limited number of freeholders, and the qualification of a member of Parliament was made prohibitive for all except the moderately wealthy landowner. Before this restriction the packing of Parliaments had been effected by the magnates by means of their retainers; after the War of the Roses the power of the barons was at first so shattered that the danger to the Crown from the existence of two oligarchic houses was not felt. A new body of magnates was, however, created under the Tudors and Stuarts who inherited not only the ancient titles but the old tendency to resent royal interference. These were at first fed sumptuously in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. from the plunder of the Church, and being well fed, for the most part remained quiet, and co-operated with the Crown in sending to the block those who wished to resist the will of the monarch. The confiscation of abbey lands placed large areas under the control of laymen, who thus were

able to influence the limited number of electors even more effectually than the old feudal barons.

In the reign of Henry VIII. one of the Russells obtained the forest of Exmoor and the town of Tavistock with thirty manors in Devonshire, Cornwall, and Somerset which had belonged to the Abbey of Tavistock. Ten years later, under Edward VI., to these lands were added Thorney, with several thousand acres in Cambridgeshire, the abbey of Woburn in Bedfordshire, and the title Earl of Bedford. The Bedfords were staunch Protestants, and the fourth Earl, he who obtained the contract for draining the fens near his Cambridgeshire lands, was regarded as the leader of the Puritan party. One piece of property which the Bedfords acquired, that near Covent Garden, once Convent Garden, became very valuable during the decade of Charles' personal reign owing to the growth of London; and, although Laud's rule protected the ecclesiastical property and royal rights from spoliation, Bedford and his associates were not treated badly even in the matter of the fens. By the Huntingdon decision they were entitled to receive lands of the annual value of 60,000l. in return for a capital outlay of 100,000l., but they had hoped for

more.

When Lord Bedford died in 1641 the leadership of the Puritan party devolved upon the Earl of Essex. The first Earl of Essex was created by Queen Elizabeth too late for the plunder of the monasteries. He undertook the planting of Ulster, selling his English estates and receiving grants of Irish lands. He conducted an unsuccessful campaign in Ireland, and

became notorious for his cruelty to the native Irish. After his death in 1576 his son was one of Elizabeth's favourites. The second Earl also failed in Ireland, and this failure and the execution of the Earl for treason have been already described. In 1604 the attainder was removed by Act of Parliament and the traitor's son succeeded to the title. This was the Earl who led the Puritan nobles after Bedford's death. Clarendon describes him as a man who nursed the grievance that his talents were not adequately recognised by the King. His pride was wounded in early life when his wife divorced him and married Somerset, the favourite of James I. The failure of the attack on La Rochelle when Essex was in command seems to have increased the Earl's bitterness. When a favourable moment arrived Essex amply avenged himself on Strafford and the King's advisers who had neglected him.

To Algernon Percy, tenth Earl of Northumberland, more than to any other magnate, Charles owed his ruin. Of Northumberland Clarendon wrote: "If he had thought the King as much above him, as he thought himself above other considerable men, he would have been a good subject; but the extreme undervaluing those, and not enough valuing the King, made him liable to those impressions, which they who approached him by those addresses of reverence and esteem, that usually insinuate into such natures, made in him." He came of a family of Border lords, who looked upon their rank as almost royal and to whom treason appeared to be merely the assertion of their ancient privileges. The first earl was created by Richard II.,

and repaid his benefactor by taking a leading part in the King's deposition and the election of the parliamentary king Henry IV. Before long, however, he was again a rebel, and died fighting against the sovereign he had helped to place on the throne.

Henry V. restored the earldom and estates to the grandson of the first earl, and the second earl and his son who succeeded him fell fighting for the parliamentary kings during the War of the Roses. The son of the third earl swore fealty to the victorious Edward IV. and thus regained the earldom. He fell fighting for Richard III. at Bosworth; but his loyalty was so doubtful that Richard was obliged to place a close watch over him during the battle. His son, the fifth earl, was suspected of using a royal badge when harrying the Scotch, and just before the death of Henry VII. he was fined 10,000l. for an encroachment on the King's rights. This earl was, however, never actually guilty of open treason; and his son, the sixth earl, was loyal to Henry VIII., though his brothers and his mother joined in the rebellion called the Pilgrimage of Grace. The sixth earl left no issue, and by the execution of his brother the earldom lapsed. It was, however, revived by Queen Mary in favour of the sons of the Percy who had taken part in the rebellion. These sons engaged in conspiracies against Elizabeth. One was executed as a traitor, and the other committed suicide in the Tower before his trial. The ninth earl, son of the suicide, was found guilty of complicity in Gunpowder Plot, in which one of his kinsmen played a prominent part, and spent nearly sixteen years in the Tower. He died in 1619, and was

succeeded by his son Algernon, who avenged the deaths of his ancestors by largely contributing to the ruin and murder of Charles I.

The difficulty of governing the North of England without the aid of the Percies doubtless prompted England's rulers to forgive their many acts of treason, and the same motive probably had weight with Charles when he showered favours on the tenth earl. Charles made him a Knight of the Garter and Lord High Admiral. Northumberland was thus one of the council who were responsible for the government of England during what is called Charles' personal reign. The campaign against the Scotch which ended with the disastrous treaty of Berwick exhausted the royal treasury, and when the Scotch made use of this treaty to attack the royal authority in Scotland, Charles' fate depended on his being able to raise funds for a new army. Negotiations were pending for a loan from Spain, when a Spanish fleet took refuge in English waters from a superior Dutch force. By what some contemporaries regarded as Northumberland's treachery the Dutch were allowed to attack the Spanish, and Charles was unable to obtain financial relief from Spain. Although Northumberland's subsequent conduct encourages belief in his treachery, neither Charles nor Wentworth, who was recalled to England to advise the King in September 1639, a few weeks before the destruction of the Spanish fleet in the Downs, seems to have doubted Northumberland's loyalty.

To raise funds Wentworth advised the King to summon an English Parliament whilst he returned