From Fraser's Magazine. THE STORY OF THE DEATH OF THOMAS, EARL OF STRAFFORD. A.D. 1641. As our story is not based on mere surmise, or on the comparison of one received account with another, but is what may be called "self-contained" and selfsupported, we shall not contradict, step by step, the statements of our predecesshall we venture on a minute investigasors, or show how they are misled; nor tion into the King's motives as regards Strafford. First shall be exhibited - and Ir needs some courage to tell again the oft-told story of the death of the Earl of Strafford; by an easy stretch of memory twenty-two narratives describing the closing months of that statesman's life may be reckoned up. And though these many story-tellers vary in ability, from Macaulay to Oldmixon, and though according it must be at some length - the true poto some Strafford was both "good and sition occupied by the popular party great," and to others "that wicked Earl," between November 11, 1640, and May 12, still all so far agree, that they ascribe his death to the overpowering authority of execution; then it will be shown that the 1641, the dates of Strafford's arrest and Pym and his associates, all ascribe the Attainder Bill but increased the chances passage through the House of Lords of of his safety; and then, that the King's the Attainder Bill to threats from a Lon- actions, dictated by Strafford's enemies, don mob; all aver that Charles I. did overthrew all prospect of his escape, at what he could to save his minister. In- the very time when his acquittal was constead, however, of attempting another fidently expected. version of Stratford's trial, and with absolute indifference about his guilt, we propose to show that these two-and-twenty narratives are throughout untrue, that the impeachment of Strafford was a failure, his Attainder Bill a blunder, and that his condemnation by the Upper House was due solely to the King; that he, and he alone, brought death on his faithful servant. a about the opening scene of this tragedy. A false impression has been created King Charles, it must be remembered, renewed in 1640 his attempt to force the Scottish nation to a conformity in Church tempt must be recalled: the royal army government, and the failure of that atEnglish frontier wholly unguarded, the being stationed in Yorkshire, and the Our story is not a pleasant one; it is small body of our troops at Newburn, ocScottish army advanced, defeated not agreeable to an Englishman to tar-cupied Newcastle, and all the northern nish the renown of the "popular party" counties. This took place in August. in the Long Parliament, or to add gloom September was spent in negotiation; the to the shadows upon the character of Long Parliament was summoned; and Charles I. It is distressing to think that on the 26th of October a cessation of such a man as Strafford fell before the arms between England and Scotland being intrigues of those "old subtle foxes "he agreed to, the final settlement of peace justly called "the Court vermin." Still was adjourned to London. During this this is the impression forced on us, almost lull in public events Strafford returned against our will, by a long-continued to his Yorkshire home-"Old Wentstudy of all the authorities at the Rolls worth Woodhouse." He was full of genOffice and in the British Museum, both eral anxiety, he noticed the "rare art in MS. and in print, relating to the years and malice" of the Eart of Bristol and 1639-41; and arising especially from the his other associates, and their evident examination of diaries which Sir S. D'Ewes and his brother note-takers in Parliament scribbled on their knees, descriptive of events which took place before their eyes.* Among these authorities I include "A Brief and Perfect Relation of the Trial of Thomas, Earl of Strafford." Though published in 1647, evidently this service. This Relation is the stock from which the pamphlet was written in 1641, and by one in the Earl's compilers of the State Trials, and of Rushworth's and Nalson's Collections, drew their narratives: passages from it are inserted in Heylin's Laud, and Ratcliffe's Memoirs of Strafford; this Relation is, in fact, the sole origin of all the descriptions of the closing scenes of that statesman's life. Reference will be made to it as, Narrative, 1647. intention to make him the scapegoat for And so again, to create the impression the wide-spread misery of the year 1640. that unthinking haste and over-masterful He also was aware of the fierce malignity power governed Parliament at the very of his enemies, and apprehensive about outset of Strafford's trial, we are told that "the great matters" against him they ex- Pym, rising suddenly from his seat in the pected to hear "out of Ireland; " and House of Commons, the doors being though unwilling to leave Yorkshire, not locked, drove them, by a long-continued because he dreaded quitting the shelter blast of invective directed against the of the army, but because he wished to Earl, to accuse him of high treason: and fulfil the duty there entrusted to him; that the Lords were surprised, by equal still, according to his own description, he rapidity of action, into his committal. was "hastened up" to London, by fellow- The Commons, in truth, acted on procouncillors whom he evidently distrusted. ceedings extending over four days, and But he never, it would seem, shrank from on the report of a select_committee.* meeting his adversaries; certainly he was They even prefaced the impeachment at not ordered up from Yorkshire by the the bar of the Upper House by a previKing. He was sent for to correct a blun- ous message, "touching things against der made by the Lord Keeper, told "that the Earl of Strafford." Nor had that there was a great want" of him at West- charge been justified by an enumeration minster, and that if he "had been there of his "high and imperious actions in that folly had not been committed." And England and Ireland," and his "passionhis last impression was one of cheerful-ate advices:"‡ that was expressly reness, he thought that "to the best of my served. The accusation was founded on judgment, we gain much rather than lose. "my Lord Mountnorris his cause, and ... The Irish business is past, and papists suffered in England to increase better than I expected, their proofs being scant. . . . All will be well, and every hour gives more hope than the other."* under arms."§ These were the sole charges: the first was an act of severity, perhaps of injustice, committed in 1635 upon a subordinate in the Irish Government; the second, as might be expected from its vague character, was set aside " in Westminster Hall. 66 These are Strafford's words and feelings, expressed in a letter written the very night before he quitted Yorkshire for London, to his intimate friend, Sir. G. Ratcliffe; and they make it impossible to Strafford, then, was, on the 11th of Nobelieve the statements of the sham-con-vember, 1640, impeached of high treason, temporary chronicler, who asserts that on the deliberate verdict of Parliament, the Earl was forced by the King to place for actions which, supposing they were himself within the power of his enemies, crimes, certainly were not treasons. But and that he journeyed to London expect- these petty charges were only the excuse ing certain death, trusting for safety to for his arrest. He was, in truth, placed his monarch's solemn pledge. This gives at the bar that day as the author of the a far more picturesque idea for an open- quarrel between the King and his people, ing chapter in Strafford's impeachment of the dissolution of the Short Parliathan the reality, which was that he quit-ment, the injuries caused by the preparated the army reluctantly "but not very tions for war with Scotland, and of the unwillingly;" that he came up in good disasters of that war. On him was hope, merely on the call of his official charged England's disgraceful defeat by colleagues. The object of the invention, however, is plain: it is to create the feelSo little was secrecy attempted, that Sir W. Pennying, that from the very beginning Straf-man, an intimate friend of Strafford's, was placed upon ford foresaw the scaffold, and looked to MSS. (162), 4. this Committee, November 7, 1640. D'Ewes, Harleian the King alone as his protector. * Letter to Sir G. Ratcliffe, begun November 5, and ended Sunday, November 8, 1640. Ratcliffe Correspondence, 214-223. † Nov. 11. 1640. D'Ewes, Harleian MSS. (162), pp. Clarendon, ed. 1838, p. 73. 5, 6. § November 11, 1640. D'Ewes, Harleian MSS. (162), 4-7. the Scots, the shame that this disgrace | seizure only some letters, and Pym a rested unavenged, and the triumphant oc- trunk full of parliamentary journals cupation of our northern counties by a "which can do him little hurt"; † still hated and despised invader. Vane had committed a breach of parliaBut if Straford came to London trust-mentary privilege, punishable, perhaps by ing that nothing more would be heard a fine, certainly by imprisonment. And, from Ireland, not fearing a capital charge, "as Mr. Speaker had the warrants," ‡ and not relying on any special promise of that punishment might be both swift and protection from his master; and if, when heavy. At any moment Vane might be he appeared in the House of Lords, he taken from the Treasury Bench in the was suddenly arrested on the charge of House, and placed at its Bar; and then high treason, a charge based on no proof where would be the "daily diet" from at all, but entertained because he was the Court he drew for his household, as odious to the community, then it will be Secretary of State, and his fees and offifelt, that as time went on, when the tale cial gains? And hence arose that teof all his evil acts and thoughts against nacity of memory, as well may be supour three nations had been told, that the posed, which enabled Vane, unlike the fate of that "wicked Earl" was certain. rest of his fellow-councillors, to prove at This is the natural expectation: the con- the trial Strafford's suggestion to the trary, however, was the fact. He was in King-that by the Irish army England March "favoured by not a few" among might be reduced to obedience. the men who impeached him in November on such trivial charges, and by a "great party in the Upper House;" and he was regarded by a large and influential mass of his fellow countrymen with admiration and regard. Such was the power of the man, and the force of cirThe attack on him was foiled the blow directed against him returned upon his accusers. Their strength, and then their weakness, to place this fact before our readers, must be estimated with precision. And this estimate, as it has never been attempted before, must be set out in full. cumstances. Willing helpers, also, to the work in Westminster Hall, were found among Strafford's subordinates in the Irish Government, greedy to profit by his downfall. They furnished, accurately penned, the charge that he quartered soldiers on peaceable subjects, to starve them into submission to his decrees. This offence ultimately secured his conviction; the exulting words of the draftsmen on their completion of that article, "now the bird is our own,"§ were fully justified. And from some members of the House of Lords co-operation against Strafford might be expected; for their pecuniary Strafford's accusers, at the outset of interest was bound up with his fate. To their "great business," derived assist- stay the advance of the victorious Scots ance from that blast of popular wrath during the last September, an immediate which sent him to prison; and then turn- loan from the City of 200,000l. had been ing to more material aid, they had under required; and the Earl of Bristol, and a their thumb that most important witness, few other members of the Great Council Sir H. Vane, the Secretary of State. In of Peers, were constrained to give the sethat capacity, obeying the King's com-curity of their bonds for repayment of mands, immediately after the dissolution the loan. || Whilst Strafford was in prisof the Short Parliament, he signed war- on they were free from anxiety; but he rants, under which messengers searched at large, amid the altered circumstances the rooms, even the coat pockets of Pym and Hampden, and carried off their papers. And though Hampden lost by this Earl of Strafford Characterized. Written during April 1641. Somers' Tracts, iv. 231; May's History of the Parliament, 62. *Lambeth Library was thus enriched by MSS. No. 1030, 108. Bishop William's Remembrances to Mr. Hampden. ↑ Newsletter, May 12, 1640. Rolls Office. Clarendon, ed. 1839, 77. Com. Journ., ii. 26. Ratcliffe Correspondence, 232. that might arise, those bonds would certainly assume a most unpleasant aspect. And it is a singular conjuncture of events to find that the Commons voted a resolution pledging the State to repay that loan for which the Peers had bound themselves, on the very day which witnessed the passage of the Attainder Bill through the Upper House.* bore then, nor will the justice of that name be doubted now, after a description of the forces which opposed them. As the very groundwork of their policy, they were compelled to draw on themselves odium, to resist popular instincts, even to inflict injury on their countrymen. For they were driven to make common cause with the Scotch invaders; For help outside the walls of Parlia- and to procure the postponement of their ment, Strafford's opponents would rely claims till after Strafford's trial. On on that "sink of all the ill-humour of the these terms alone could be obtained the kingdom," the City of London. Were it protection of the Scottish army, and the needed, an effectual hold was placed on checkmate which it placed on the royal the then Lord Mayor, because he, as forces afforded the sole chance of obSheriff, was mixed up in one of the worst taining the offender's trial. But this was cases of oppression committed by the a policy offensive to national feeling, and Star Chamber Court; but the hatred of productive both of serious danger, and his community against Strafford needed of positive injury to the country. To no stimulus. The bench of aldermen did keep the Covenanters in England, peace not forget their appearance before the could not be concluded between us and King's Council during the previous au- Scotland. We had to endure the sight tumn, or who it was that "burst out" of a victorious enemy upon our soil, livwith the proposal "to hang up some of ing on us, threatening us, humiliating us, them." And the whole City was moved and causing protracted anxiety during a by the alarming change that had come most anxious time. And this debatable over the Tower of London. Hitherto time of strife was full of imminent risk; unarmed: now "sakers and basiliscs the conquering army had to be opposed pointed from the battlements against by our army, the one stationed over London Bridge and Tower Street; case against the other; temptation to outand round shot lay heaped on the bat- break of hostility was constant, a ready teries; soldiers kept guard behind earth- field was opened to the intriguer against baskets and planks set with pikes, with the State. "granadoes, dark-fire beacons, spoons, and lynstocks," ready to hand. Even while Parliament was sitting, the men were seen "training cannon " and mounting "many other guns " upon the Tower walls.§ These ominous appearances were ascribed to Strafford; and rumour played its part to confirm this impression. Somebody declared that he heard that London would shortly be battered down, and another that his master Strafford "would subdue the City." And the City could make its resentment felt; as sole money-holder it was an estate in the realm equal in power to Parliament. All the helpers on which Pym and his associates could rely have been mentioned save two; the King was one- the other, themselves; they were "the inflexible party," this was the title they May 8, 1641. Com. Journ. ii. 139; D'Ewes, Harleian MSS. (164), 1,003. † Dr. Leighton's Case, orders for his reparation. Com. Journ. ii. 124. Rolls Official Minutes, October 10 and 20, 1640. Office. $ November 11, 1640. D'Ewes, Harleian MSS. (162), 5. Somers' Tracts, iv. 210; D'Ewes, Harleian MSS. (162), 5. Much pecuniary injury, also, was inflicted by that policy upon us. As neither army could be disbanded till Strafford was dispatched, the cost of 80,000l. a month † must be incurred for the pay and maintenance of those "foreign contemned" troops and of our own army, hardly less obnoxious; and this, though the king's debts were "huge,” the military arrears daily on the increase, and the royal navy absolutely non-existent, though panic of foreign invasion then was rife, even beyond our power of fellow-feeling. These distracted times, also, had paralyzed the industry of England; the condition of the northern counties was pitiable, owing to the brutality and pillage of our troops, and to exactions from the hungry Scot. And the cry of a distressed people naturally provoked the demand to get rid of the invader either in peace or by war; a proposal that destroyed the prospects of the "inflexible party." Nor could they, in place of the tempting hope of seeing "wholesome days again," or of the gratification of re Strafford Characterized; Somers' Tracts, iv. 232. † Clarendon, ed. 1839, 113. venge, set Strafford at the bar of trial. This they could not do; time every way fought against them. In the first place, that sight was prevented by the "great concurrence of business" in Parliament, concerning "the very being of three kingdoms." To us, an over-burthened Legislature is an accustomed evil. Not so to Englishmen of 1641. Parliament, then, was a wonder-working machine, able to do everything all at once; and they demanded instant judgment on many an offender besides Strafford, and instant attention to many a matter besides his trial. Obedient to their command, the Commons called before their bar, one archbishop, and two bishops, one lord-keeper, and six judges, one Secretary of State and many minor officials. That band of human locusts, the "thievish projectors," was dispersed, who withheld from thirsty English souls their wine, blistered women's fingers by execrable soap, and who, by monopolizing the sale of cloth, hides, salt, gold lace, and even pins, had "marked and sealed the people from head to foot." Monstrous inflictions, like the Courts of High Commission, and the Star Chamber, were abolished, and reparation made to the victims of those tribunals. The Commons, also, were obliged to meet that ever-growing difficulty, the supply of money, to protect the State by passing the Triennial Parliaments Bill and to conciliate those most importunate suitors, the men of Scotland. And this mass of business, obstructed by party passion, dead-weighted by formalities, was also delayed by that odd uncertainty of action inherent to any large collection of men. Then, as now, the Commons made holiday when work was most needed; and one day's "discourse" was stopped because "the Earl of Strafford came in his barge to the Upper House from the Tower and divers ran to the east windows of the House, who, with them that sat by, looked out at the said windows, and opened them; and others quitted their seats with noise and tumult" and another sitting was in like manner broken off, in the very crisis of national anxiety, because "such numbers preferred "the play-houses and bowling-alleys" to the committee of Supply.* Much delay also arose from the very na ture of the impeachment. Strafford was accused of high treason, on the ground that he had attempted the overthrow of the Constitution itself; and the proof of this charge lay in showing that his words and actions, during fourteen years of public life, tended to that end. But of the chief portion of his career, his accusers absolutely knew nothing. Nobody could leave Ireland without official license; and so the women his officers maltreated to enforce his system for the manufacture of yarn, the farmers pillaged by his soldiers, and the landowners he had ousted, could not make heard their wrongs till the ports were opened. And consequently the articles of impeachment were modelled and re-modelled; and though the draftsmen met early, and sat up late, the book of 200 sheets of paper containing a catalogue of Strafford's crimes was not delivered to the House of Lords until January 30. And even then, eight weeks passed away before the trial began. The defendant's replies were received and considered; repeated conferences took place to settle both the essentials and formalities of procedure, such as the legal aid allowed to the accused, an important question whether or no the Commons might wear their hats, or be uncovered, and the time and place for the tribunal. * Before the trial began, delay — and the irritation and anxiety it provoked — soured the minds of men. "Impatient people" were turned against Parliament, and the House of Commons against the Lords; whilst Strafford's friends became "insolently confident." This discontent was the more bitter because that delay had not been anticipated. Dispatch was to the interest of the nation, therefore the dispatch of Strafford, the dispersion of the armies, and the pacification of the Scots, were events expected in quick succession. Baillie, their Commissioner, at the close of February hoped to see Kilwinning "in a little time "; and Uvedale expected a relief from the unpleasant post of Army Treasurer to a bankrupt Treasury, at the very beginning of that month. And so reasonable a hope was hard to extinguish. When the trial at last began, "some thought that the process would be short," § but the mere hearing of evidence *Mr. Pym's Statement. D'Ewes, Harleian MSS. (162), 178. † Baillie's Letters, i. 309; May's History, 64. Baillie's Letters, i. 300; Uvedale to Bradley, Feb February 17, and April 27, 1641. D'Ewes, Har- ruary 2, 1641. Rolls Office. leian MSS. (161), 233; (164), 991. § Baillie's Letters, i. 313. |