London and the Kingdom Volume II Part 5

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In September Mansfield was again in England asking for men and money for the recovery of the Palatinate, in which he had been a.s.sured of the co-operation of France. This a.s.surance, however, was only a verbal one, and nothing would induce Louis to reduce it to writing. James on his part was willing to make every concession, provided that the matrimonial alliance on which he had set his heart could be brought to a happy conclusion. But as these concessions involved broken pledges, he feared to face the Commons, and thus the parliament, which should have re-a.s.sembled this autumn, was further prorogued and never met again until James was no more.

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It was to James's last parliament that the City was indebted for a statute,(269) which at length insured it quiet enjoyment of its lands free from that inquisitorial system which had prevailed since 1547, under pretext that it had concealed lands charged with superst.i.tious uses which had not been redeemed. In 1618 a commission had been appointed to enquire as to the waste grounds of the city, on pretence of concealment; but upon representation being made by the mayor and aldermen that the City had long enjoyed the lands in question by ancient grant, proceedings had been stayed.(270) Early in the following year (1619), however, the livery companies were called upon to make a composition to the attorney-general of 6,000 for arrears of superst.i.tious charges claimed by the king.(271) On learning that this money was to be paid to John Murray, of the king's bed-chamber (whether to his own use or that of the king is not quite clear),(272) the mayor and aldermen pet.i.tioned the king for a grant of letters patent, securing both for the City and the companies quiet enjoyment of their possessions, lest in that "searching age" other defects might haply be found in their t.i.tle, to be followed by further inconveniences. To this the king readily a.s.sented, and instructed the attorney-general to draw up letters patent embracing such matters as the City desired.(273) The letters patent were no sooner drawn up by Sir Henry Yelverton, the attorney-general, than he was charged with having introduced certain clauses(274) "corruptly and without warrant." The new charter was ordered to be brought up. The whole matter formed a subject of investigation for three days in the Star Chamber; Yelverton was dismissed from office, and the City compelled to draw up a formal doc.u.ment disclaiming and cancelling the letters patent.(275) At length, on the 23rd February, 1624, a bill was brought in for the "general quiet of the subjects against all pretences of concealment whatsoever," and read the first time; and on the 7th April the bill was pa.s.sed.(276)

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The question how to supply Mansfield with men as well as money necessary for his undertaking in the absence of parliament was answered by making application to the Council of War. On the 29th October orders were issued for pressing 12,000 men for the service, and on the same day James himself wrote to the mayor for 2,000 men to be pressed in the city to a.s.sist in the recovery of the Palatinate.(277) Two days afterwards (31 Oct.) followed a letter from the lords of the council(278) directing the mayor to see that the men were of able bodies and years, but not taken out of the trained bands, which were to be left entire. They were to be ready by the end of November to march to Dover under such officers as the Privy Council might select. As the amount of conduct money, which was usually a half-penny per mile, would vary owing to the difference of localities where the men lived, it was thought best to allow them their ordinary pay of eightpence per day from the time they were handed over to the officers.

The mayor was further directed to demand of the collectors of the subsidy sufficient money for the charge of coats, conduct, armour, etc. On the last day of November the lords of the council wrote again informing the lord mayor of the names of the officers appointed to conduct the men to Dover by the 24th December. He was to see that the men were delivered to the officers by roll indented, to be subscribed by himself or his deputy-lieutenants on the one part and the captains or officers on the other part.(279) The service was very unpopular; many deserted, and it was with difficulty that the rest could be got to the sea-coast. The city contingent was ordered to a.s.semble at Leadenhall on the night of the 18th December or by the next morning at the latest, in order to set out on their march by Monday, the 20th. The full complement of men was to be made up and the bail of deserters estreated.(280)

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There was little to hope for from raw levies such as these were, transported into a hostile country under the leadership of a foreigner.

"G.o.d speed them well whatsoever they do or wheresoever they go," wrote an eye-witness;(281) "but it is beyond my experience or reading to have such a body of English committed and commanded by a stranger, to say no more."

On their way to Dover the men carried out a system of pillage as if already in an enemy's country; and as soon as they found their pay was not forthcoming they mutinied.(282) The promises of the French king proved fallacious and Mansfeld was forbidden to land his forces in France. This prohibition, however, was little to him, for he had already determined to act in direct opposition to the wishes of James and to carry his army to Flushing. Before he set sail from Dover, which he did on the 31st January (1625), it became necessary to recruit his rapidly diminishing forces by the issue of new press warrants. The City was called upon to furnish 1,000 men in addition to those already supplied.(283) The mayor's precept on this occasion directed the alderman of each ward to seize in their beds or otherwise all able-bodied men, and especially "all tapsters, ostlers, chamberlains, vagrants, idle and suspected persons," and to convey them to Leadenhall or Bridewell. Those who had previously been pressed and had absconded were to be particularly sought for, whilst those who had in their charge two small children were to be spared.(284) At Flushing, where Mansfeld landed his forces (1 Feb.), the men were soon decimated by want of food, the inclemency of the season, and sickness, so that, at the time of James's death (27 March), out of a force of 12,000 men there were barely left 3,000 capable of carrying arms.

CHAPTER XXI.

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The commencement of the reign of Charles I, like his father's, was marked by a recurrence of the plague, which greatly affected the trade of the city. Matters were made worse by an application from the Lord High Treasurer for a loan of 60,000 to the king within a few weeks of Charles ascending the throne. He promised that the money, which was wanted for fitting out the fleet which the late king was busy preparing at the time of his death, should be repaid in six months. Interest would be allowed at the rate of eight per cent., and Charles would give mortgage security for repayment of this as well as of the sum of 100,000 borrowed by James.(285) After mature deliberation the Common Council agreed (16 April) to accede to the Lord Treasurer's request, and appointed two representatives of each ward to consult with the mayor and aldermen as to the mode of raising the amount, as well as to consider the nature of the security offered. On the 20th May the Common Council received the committee's report on the matter.(286) It recommended that the money should be borrowed and taken up by twenty aldermen and one hundred commoners nominated for the purpose; that five commoners should be allotted to each alderman, and that they should stand bound for the sum of 3,000. Any alderman or commoner refusing to be so joined was to be forced to lend 1,000 on his own account. The a.s.surance of the king's lands was to be made in the names of such aldermen and commoners as the Court of Aldermen should appoint. A week later (27 May) the Court of Aldermen, in antic.i.p.ation of the money being raised, ordered an advance to be made to the king out of the City's Chamber of the sum of 14,000.(287) On the 2nd June the king's mortgage was executed;(288) and there being no longer any necessity for keeping the bonds entered into by various aldermen for the payment of interest due to contributors to the loan of 100,000, they were ordered to be cancelled.(289) In November the lords of the council wrote to the City for an extension of time for the repayment of the 60,000.(290)

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On the 1st May Charles was married by proxy at Paris to Henrietta Maria.

When the news of the marriage treaty between England and France reached London in the previous November the citizens showed their joy by bonfires and fireworks.(291) They forgot for a while the danger likely to arise from the heir to the throne allying himself in marriage with a Catholic princess. On her arrival in the Thames in June the citizens gave her a hearty welcome, whilst the fleet, which was about to set sail-few knew whither-fired such a salute as the queen had never heard before.(292)

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In the meantime (1 May) Charles had issued his warrant to the lord mayor for levying 1,000 men-"part of 10,000 to be raised by our dear father's gracious purpose, according to the advice of both his Houses of Parliament, in contemplation of the distress and necessity of our dear brother and sister."(293) He thought that if he could only gain a victory it would serve to draw a veil over his delinquencies. The City was to be a.s.sisted by the county of Middles.e.x in raising the men,(294) and an allowance was made for "coat and conduct money" for the soldiers at the rate of eightpence apiece per day for their journey to Plymouth, the place where they were to embark (400), and four shillings a coat (200), the pay of a captain being four shillings a day.(295) The mayor's precept to the aldermen to raise the men enjoined them to search all inns, taverns, alehouses, "tabling-houses" and tobacco-houses, and to press, especially, all "tapsters, ostlers, chamberlains, vagrants, idle and suspected persons."(296) By August the condition of the troops at Plymouth was pitiable. No money was forthcoming for wages, and the soldiers were forced to forage for themselves in the neighbouring country. At last the fleet set sail (8 Oct., 1625). Its destination proved to be Cadiz, whither it was despatched in the hope of securing West Indian treasure on its way home. The expedition, however, turned out to be as complete a failure as that under Mansfeld in the previous year.

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The citizen soldiers returned to find their city almost deserted owing to the ravages of the plague. In July the sickness had been so great as to necessitate the adjournment of parliament to Oxford.(297) The colder weather, as winter approached, appears to have made but little difference.

Dr. Donne, the Dean of St. Paul's, estimated that in November there died a thousand a day in the city of London and within the circuit of a mile.

"The citizens fled away as out of a house on fire," he writes,(298) they "stuffed their pockets with their best ware and threw themselves into the highways, and were not received so much as into barns, and perished so, some of them with more money about them than would have bought the village where they died." Donne himself removed to Chelsea, but the infection even there became so great that "it was no good manners to go to any other place," and Donne therefore did not go to court. As early as September the want and misery in the city was described as being the greatest that ever any man living knew: "No trading at all, the rich all gone, house-keepers and apprentices of manual trades begging in the streets, and that in such a lamentable manner as will make the strongest heart to yearn."(299)

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The new year brought relief, and Sunday, the 29th Jan. (1626) was appointed a solemn day of thanksgiving to Almighty G.o.d for his mercy in "stayinge his hand."(300) The civic authorities, however, were scarcely rid of one trouble before they found others springing up. Towards the close of the last year a committee had been appointed by the Court of Aldermen to devise measures for relieving the City from the burden of supplying military arms and "other like services" such as they had recently been called upon to perform.(301) The committee had not been long appointed before the City was called upon to look to its stock of gunpowder, prepare the trained bands,(302) and furnish the king with five ships towards protecting the river. This last demand was made on the ground that they had furnished vessels for the same purpose in the reign of Elizabeth.(303) The Court of Aldermen objected. Times were changed since Elizabeth's day, the lords of the council were informed in reply; the galleys then furnished by the City were only wanted for a short time and when the country was threatened with an invasion; but even then considerable difficulty was experienced before the Common Council pa.s.sed an Act for supplying the vessels. At the present time, when the City was in a far worse condition than then, there was little or no hope of a similar Act being pa.s.sed.(304)

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The disastrous expedition to Cadiz increased the necessity of summoning a new parliament, and on the 16th December the lord keeper was directed to issue the necessary writs. The enforcement of the recusancy laws, wrung from Charles by the last parliament, had in the meantime been carried out, and fresh proclamations were issued as the day for the meeting of parliament (6 Feb.) approached.(305) As soon as the Commons a.s.sembled they chose Sir Heneage Finch, the city's Recorder, for their Speaker.(306) The new parliament was not a whit more inclined to subject its ancient privileges to the control of the Crown than its predecessor had been.

Buckingham himself, the king's bosom friend and most trusted adviser, was impeached; and the Commons declined to vote supplies until they had presented their grievances to the king and received his majesty's answer.

This was more than Charles could stand. He summoned them to Whitehall and commanded them to cancel the condition. He would give them "liberty of counsel, not of control." To the urgent entreaty of the Peers that he would grant a short respite he replied, "Not a minute," and on the 15th June the parliament of 1626 was dissolved.(307)

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If the war was to go on it was necessary that money should be found with or without parliament. Application was made to the City by the lords of the council, at first verbally, afterwards by letter, for a loan of 100,000, and a deputation was ordered to wait upon the king at Greenwich on Sunday, the 25th June, with the City's answer.(308) The answer given was to the effect that the City was unable to advance the sum required, and it occasioned no little disappointment to the king, who referred the matter back to the mayor and aldermen once more. It was not that Charles had not offered sufficient security for the loan. The money could not be raised. At length it was agreed (30 June) at another special court that the aldermen themselves should advance the sum of 20,000 for one year on the security of the petty customs.(309) In such haste was this trifling sum required, in order to guard the coast against a rumoured attack from Spain, that the mayor and aldermen were requested by the lords of the council to part with the money before the exchequer tallies could be made out.(310)

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Not only was money wanted, but men and ships. A demand made on the 15th July by the lords of the council for the City to furnish 4,000 men for the defence of the Isle of Sheppey(311) was quickly followed (4 Aug.) by another for twenty of the best ships in the river, to be fitted out and victualled in order that the war might be carried into the enemy's country.(312) To the first demand "there was made a double demur, one because the letters came from some of the lords and not from the king; secondly, for that by charter they are for the defence of the city, and not to go further than the lord mayor goes, unless it be for guard of the king's person."(313) To the second the mayor was instructed to reply to the following effect, viz.-that (1) the City was ready to share with the rest of his majesty's subjects in a matter which touched the state and defence of the whole kingdom; (2) that inasmuch as the City had been called upon in 1588, when the enemy was upon the coast, to furnish only ten ships, and that each of the twenty ships now demanded would, from its larger burden, cost treble the amount of the former ships, the citizens humbly desired to be relieved of so great a charge, in respect of the city's decay in trade and commerce, and its impoverishment by the late visitation and otherwise; (3) that the ships could not be furnished and victualled in the time named; (4) that the city merchants would be the more willing to adventure their lives and means against the enemy if they were allowed letters of mark.(314)

The Lords expressed the greatest dissatisfaction at this answer, and insisted upon the ships being forthcoming. It was in vain that the City offered to provide ten ships and two pinnaces; nothing less than the full number of vessels would suffice, and the City had eventually to give way.(315)

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In order to fit out the vessels the sum of 18,000 had to be raised.(316) Much indignation was caused by this further tax on the purses of the citizens. Many stoutly refused to pay; and the constables whose duty it was to distrain in such cases manifested great reluctance to proceed to extremities. When they did make an effort to carry out their instructions the people rescued one another. The result was that the Chamber of the city had to make up a large deficiency.(317)

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The Duke of Buckingham, the king's favourite, whose extravagant projects had ended in nothing but disaster, had rendered himself most unpopular, and one day in August his coach was stopped by a band of sailors, men who had served in the ill-fated expedition to Cadiz or in the ships which Buckingham had sent to a.s.sist the French king in suppressing the Huguenots of Roch.e.l.le-who clamoured for arrears of pay. The duke put them off with fair words, and so escaped with a whole skin; but for long afterwards the streets of the city, and even the confines of the royal palace, were infested with disaffected seamen, and special precautions had to be taken to prevent riot.(318)

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Having failed to raise the necessary supplies by a free gift or benevolence of the nation, Charles betook himself to a forced loan. The sum to be raised was fixed at five subsidies. Commissioners were appointed in September, 1626, to summon before them all men rated in the subsidy books. At first the scheme was confined to the five counties nearest London. Opposition was met by imprisonment. The City for awhile was left untouched. It was unwise to try the temper of the citizens too much. It was found that the nearer the City the greater was the opposition shown to the commissioners; and the inhabitants of the Strand and the Savoy offered a more determined resistance than those of the parish of St. Margaret, Westminster, or St. Martin-in-the-Fields.(319) On the 7th October a proclamation(320) appeared setting forth his majesty's "clear intention"

in requiring the aid of his loving subjects by the loan. It was not to be made a precedent, and a parliament should be called as soon as convenient and as often as it should be necessary.

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Just at a time when privy councillors were about to set out for the more distant counties to collect the subsidies the judges suddenly p.r.o.nounced an unanimous opinion against the legality of the new loan. The report of their decision quickly spread, and increased the opposition of the country gentry, many of whom were content to suffer imprisonment rather than yield to the demands of the commissioners.

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On the 10th November the committee appointed to take in hand the preparation of the citizens' fleet reported to the Common Council that the lords of the council had made a request that the City would provision ten out of the twenty ships for a further period of two or three months, in order that they might join two of his majesty's ships and fifteen Hollanders in a descent on the Spanish coast. The court, after due consideration, directed the committee to wait upon the lords and inform them that the City was prepared to spend 1,200 on further victualling, provided the ships were commanded by officers of the City's choosing, and were sent to sea alone "to be at their own liberties and directions without joining or being consorted with any others whatsoever." The City was, moreover, to be provided with letters of mark, and to be allowed to enjoy the benefit of all prizes.(321) The result of the interview was reported to the Common Council on the 14th November, when it was clearly pointed out what the lords of the council were ready to concede and what not.(322) After more haggling,(323) the ships were at length got ready and placed under the command of Captain John Pennington, a cousin of Alderman Isaac Pennington, of whom we shall hear more later on. Pennington had but a poor opinion of the fleet; the ships were badly manned and unfit for men-of-war; "with two of the king's ships he would undertake to beat the whole fleet about which so much noise had been raised."(324)

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In 1627 war broke out between England and France, and payment of the forced loan was more strictly exacted. On the 14th June the lords of the council wrote to the mayor reminding him of the king's urgent need of money. The greatest part of the kingdom had well expressed their affection and had sent in their moneys to the Exchequer. Because London had been found so slack their lordships had been commanded to call upon the lord mayor to send in forthwith the moneys already collected towards the loan, and to call for all moneys promised.(325) Many of the citizens declined altogether to contribute, and fourteen were committed to prison.(326) Writs of _habeas corpus_ were obtained on their behalf-but not before November-and Counsel, of whom the Recorder was one, were appointed for their defence. They were eventually set at liberty without trial.(327)

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Whilst a small force, to which the City contributed a contingent of 300 men,(328) was sent to a.s.sist the King of Denmark, a fleet was despatched (27 June, 1627) to the Isle of Rhe, under the Duke of Buckingham, with the object of relieving Roch.e.l.le. The expedition failed in its purpose and Buckingham had soon to ask for reinforcements. In August the City was called upon by the king to furnish 100 men towards making up the losses sustained, for which the Chamberlain was authorised to disburse 50 in impress money.(329) In October Charles asked for 250 soldiers in addition to those already raised, and these were found without drawing upon the trained bands.(330) In spite of all efforts there was great delay in forwarding to Buckingham the reinforcements in which he stood in sore need, and in November he was forced to return home, baffled in his enterprise, and with a loss from war and disease of little less than 4,000 men.(331)

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The time had now arrived for some arrangements to be made for discharging the king's debt to the City.(332) After protracted negotiations an agreement, known at the present day as the "royal contract," was drawn up and executed (3 Jan., 1628) whereby the citizens covenanted to advance the king a further sum of 120,000 by instalments of 60,000 at an interval of six months, whilst Charles, on the other hand, covenanted to convey to the City certain lands, tenements and hereditaments.(333) The City at once set to work to raise the money required among the livery companies. The Merchant Taylors were called upon to contribute 6,300, the highest sum.