tions upon the daughter of Henry IV. of France, whom he married shortly after. It may easily be supposed, that these mismanagements were seen and felt by the people. The house of commons was by this time become quite unmanageable; the prodigality of James to his favourites, had made his necessities so many that he was contented to sell the different branches of his prerogative to the commons, one after the other, to procure supplies. In proportion as they perceived his wants, they found out new grievances; and every grant of money was sure to come with a petition for redress. The struggles between him and his parliament had been growing more and more violent every session; and the very last advanced their pretensions to such a degree, that he began to take the alarm; but these evils fell upon the successor, which the weakness of this monarch had contributed to give birth to. A. D. } These domestic troubles were attended by others still more important in Germany, and which produced in the end the most dangerous effects. The king's eldest daughter had been married to Frederick, the Elector Palatine of Germany; and this prince revolting against the Emperor Ferdinand the Second, was defeated in a decisive battle, and obliged to take refuge in Holland. His affinity to the English crown, his misfortunes, but particularly the protestant religion, for which he had contended, were strong motives for the people of England to wish well to his cause; and frequent addresses were sent from the commons, to spur up James to take a part in the German contest, and to replace the exiled prince upon the throne of his ancestors. James at first attempted to ward off the misfortunes of his son-in-law by negotiation; 1620. but this proving utterly ineffectual, it was resolved at last, to rescue the palatinate from the emperor by force of arms. Accordingly, war was declared against Spain and the emperor; six thousand men were sent over into Holland, to assist Prince Maurice in his schemes against those powers; the people were every where elated at the courage of their king, and were satisfied with any war which was to exterminate the papists. This army was followed by another, consisting of twelve thousand men, commanded by Count Mansfeldt; and the court of France promised its assistance. But the English were disappointed in all their views; the troops being embarked at Dover, upon sailing to Calais, they found no orders for their admission. After waiting in vain for some time, they were obliged to sail towards Zealand, where no proper measures were yet concerted for their disembarkation. Meanwhile, a pestilential distemper crept in among the forces, so long cooped up in narrow vessels; half the army died while on board, and the other half, weakened by sickness, appeared too small à body to march into the palatinate; and thus ended this ill-concerted and fruitless expedition. A. D. 1625. } tertian Whether this misfortune had any effect upon James's constitution is uncertain; but he was soon after seized with a ague, which, when his courtiers assured him from the proverb that it was health for a king, he replied, that the proverb was meant for a young king. After some fits, he found himself extremely weakened, and sent for the prince, whom he exhorted to persevere in the protestant religion: then preparing with decency and courage to meet his end, he expired, after a reign over England of twenty-two years, and in the fifty-ninth year of his age. A. D. 1625. } FEW CHARLES I. NEW princes ever ascended the throne with more apparent advantages than Charles; and none ever encountered more real difficulties. Indeed, he undertook the reins of government with a fixed persuasion that his popularity was sufficient to carry every measure. He had been loaded with a treaty for defending the prince palatine, his brother-in-law, in the late reign; and the war declared for that purpose was to be carried on with vigour in this. But war was more easily declared than supplies granted. After some reluctance, the commons voted him two subsidies; a sum far from being sufficient to support him in his intended equipment. To supply the want of parliamentary aids, Charles had recourse to some of the ancient methods of extortion, practised by sovereigns when in necessitous circumstances. That kind of tax called a benevolence, was ordered to be exacted, and privy scals were issued accordingly. With this the people were obliged, though reluctantly, to comply; it was in fact authorized by many precedents; but no precedent whatsoever could give a sanction to injustice. After an ineffectual expedition to Cadiz, another attempt was made to obtain supplies in a more regular and constitutional manner than before. Another parliament was accordingly called; and though some steps were taken to exclude the more popular leaders of the last house of commons, by nominating them as sheriffs of counties, yet the present parliament seemed more refractory than the former. When the king laid before the house his necessities, and asked for a supply, they voted him only three thousand pounds; a sum no way adequate to the importance of the war or the necessities of the state. In order, therefore, to gain a sufficient supply, a commission was openly granted to compound with the catholics, and agree for a dispensation of the penal laws against them. He borrowed a sum of money from the nobility, whose contributions came in but slowly. But the greatest stretch of his power, was in the levying of ship-money. In order to equip a fleet, (at least this was the pretence made,) cach of the mari-、 time towns was required, with the assistance of the adjacent counties, to arm as many vessels as were appointed them. The city of London was rated at twenty ships. This was the commencement of a tax which afterwards, being carried to such violent lengths, created such great discontents in the nation. War being soon after declared against France, a fleet was sent out, under the command of Buckingham, to relieve Rochelle, a maritime town in that kingdom that had long enjoyed its privileges independent of the French king; but that had for some time embraced the reformed religion, and now was besieged with a formidable army. This expedition was as unfortunate as that to the coasts of Spain. The duke's measures were so ill-concerted that the inhabitants of the city shut their gates, and refused to admit allies, of whose coming they were not previously informed. Instead of attacking the island of Oleron, which was fertile and defenceless, he bent his course to the isle of Rhe, which was garrisoned and well fortified. He attempted there to starve out the garrison of St. Martin's castle, which was plentifully supplied with provisions by sea. By that time, the French had landed their forces privately at another part of the island; so that Buckingham was at last obliged to retreat, but with such precipitation that twothirds of his army were cut in pieces before he could re-embark, though he was the last man of the whole army that quitted the shore. This proof of his personal courage, however, was but a small subject of consolation for the disgrace which his country had sustained, for his own person would have been the last they would have regretted. The contest between the king and the commons every day grew warmer. The officers of the custom-house were summoned before the commons, to give an account by what authority they seized the goods of the merchants who had refused to pay the duty of tonnage and poundage, which they alledged was levied without the sanction of a law. The Barons of the Exchequer were questioned concerning the decrees on that head; and the Sheriff of London was committed to the Tower, for his activity in supporting the custom-house officers. These were bold measures; but the commons went still farther, by a resolution to examine into religious grievances, and a new spirit of intolerance began to appear. The king, therefore, resolved to dissolve a parliament which he found himself unable to manage; and Sir John Finch, the speaker, just as the question concerning tonnage and poundage was going to be put, rose up, and informed the house that he had a command from the king to adjourn. A. D. 1629. The house, upon this, was in an uproar: the speaker was pushed back into his chair, and forcibly held in it by Hollis and Valentine, till a short remonstrance was framed, and passed by acclamation rather than vote. In this hasty production, papists and arminians were declared capital enemies to the state; tonnage and poundage were condemned as contrary to law; and not only those who raised that duty, but those who paid it, were considered as guilty of capital crimes. In consequence of this violent procedure, Sir Miles Hobart, Sir Peter Hayman, Selden, Coriton, Long, and Strode, were, by the king's order, committed to prison, under pretence of sedition. But the same temerity that impelled Charles to imprison them, induced him to grant them a release. Sir John Elliot, Hollis, and Valentine, were summoned before the King'sBench; but they refusing to appear before an inferior tribunal for faults committed in a superior, were condemned to be imprisoned during the king's pleasure, the two former to pay a fine of a thousand pounds each, and the latter five hundred, and to find sureties for their good behaviour. The members triumphed in their sufferings, while they had the whole kingdom as spectators and applauders of their fortitude. In the mean time, while the king was thus distressed by the obstinacy of the commons, he felt a much severer blow by the death of his favourite, the Duke of Buckingham, who fell a sacrifice to his unpopularity. It had been resolved once more to undertake the raising of the siege of Rochelle; and the Earl of Denbigh, brother-in-law to Buckingham, was sent thither, but returned without effecting any thing. In order to repair this disgrace, the Duke of Buckingham went in person to Portsmouth, to hurry on another expedition, and to punish such as had endeavoured to defraud the crown of the legal assessments. In the general discontent that prevailed against this nobleman, it was daily expected that some severe measures would be resolved on; and he was stigmatized as the tyrant and betrayer of his country. There was one Felton, who caught the general contagion, an Irishman of a good family, who had served under the duke as lieutenant, but had resigned on being refused his rank on the death of his captain, who had been killed at the isle of Rhe. This man was naturally melancholy, courageous, and enthusiastic; he felt. for his country, as if labouring under a calamity which he thought it in the power of his single arm to remove. He therefore resolved to kill the duke, and thus revenge his own private injuries, while he did service also to God and Man. Animated in this manner with gloomy zeal, and mistaken patriotism, he travelled down to Portsmouth alone, and entered the town while the duke was surrounded by his levee, and giving out the necessary orders for embarkation. While he was speaking to one of his colonels, Felton struck him, over an officer's shoulder, in the breast with his knife. The duke had only time to say, " The villain has killed me!" when he fell at the colonel's feet, and instantly expired. No one had seen the blow, nor the person who gave it; but a hat being picked up, on the inside of which was sewed a paper, containing four or five lines of the remonstrance of the commons against the duke, it was concluded that this hat must belong to the assassin; and while they were employed in conjectures whose it should be, a man without a hat was seen |