17th Century England

Lesson 6: 1641 - The Second Half

The Edge of the Precipice

With the King gone and possession of the London Trained Bands remaining with them, Parliament orders recruitment to swell their ranks. By the end of the month, they had already ordered Sir John Hotham to garrison Hull for them and hold it against the King.

Sir Edward Dering startled Pym in this moment of triumph by publishing all the recent news from Parliament and adding a moderate postscript to it all. He is ordered to the Tower and his protests burned by Parliament.

Very soon the Queen and her eldest daughter had sailed for Holland, followed along the cliffs by the King, riding along the cliffs until her ship disappears over the horizon. Later that month the King grants assent to the Bill, which bans Bishop's from the House of Lords. He then moves north to York again, hoping to consolidate his position.

As Charles journeyed north, two peers, Lord Holland and Pembroke, pursued him. Pembroke dared ask the King to assent to passing control of the military over and Charles hotly replied,
"By God! Not for an hour! You have asked that of me, was never asked of any King."

Pembroke had not learned and he pressed the point by stating the King's answers were unclear, getting an equally hot reply,
"I would whip a boy in Westminster School who could not tell by my answers!"

By March things had spiralled and no longer did Parliament seek to pass laws with the King's assent. In this way, they passed the control of the military to themselves through a vote in Parliament. This and other severely extreme measures push the House of Lords into great opposition to the House of Commons.

As seen in The King's Peace, Charles replied by issuing the ancient Commissions of Array, a document calling the trained bands to the defence of the Monarch. It had not been used for centuries and now stood in direct opposition to Parliament's claim over the military.

Soon enough though, despite Charles's attempts to build up the navy, it went over to Parliament through the ministrations of its Lord High Admiral, the Earl of Warwick, who was a supporter of Pym. Thus a valuable and important resource was lost, but it showed that there was stirring of possible fighting and both sides began an arms race, which eventually had no option but to spiral into the chasm of Civil War.

  1  2  3  4  5  6