Introduction of the Service Book. foreign Church." Thus, by the year 1636, everything had been done to excite discontent. The powers and privileges of Parliament had been tampered with by the King's presence, and in the election of the Lords of the Articles; the royal prerogative had encroached upon the freedom of the nation, by the publication of the Canons on its own authority; a forced submission to the English Church discipline had hurt the national feeling; ritualism had shocked the religious prejudices of the Presbyterians; the nobles had lost much of their ecclesiastical property. The introduction of the new Service Book was the spark which lighted the conflagration. Service Books had not been unknown in Scotland. Knox himself had issued one; but the use of such books was now rendered imperative; and not only were English forms introduced, but in the Communion Service changes were made which seemed to tend towards Popery. The new Service Book was to be read at Easter 1637. It was unwisely put off till July, during which time opposition grew stronger. The reading of it in St. Giles's Church in Edinburgh produced an uproar. A stool was thrown at the reader's head; the Bishop was with difficulty smuggled to his house. The opposition to the book was universal. By most of the clergy it was given up; but the Bishop of Brechin, we are told, did contrive to read the service, surrounded by his wife and servants, all armed, with locked doors. On coming out, however, he had to run for his life. The opposition took the form of supplications or petitions against the book. These were innumerable. At length a reply came to them, punishing Edinburgh by removing the Government to Linlithgow, and ordering the expulsion of all strangers. The effect of this was to make the excitement stronger. The Town Council was besieged; the Bishop of Galloway attacked; Lord Traquair, the Treasurer, hustled. At last, so great was the disturbance, that, by the consent of all parties, an organization called The Tables was arranged. The Tables or Boards consisted of four representatives from each of the classes-nobles, lesser barons, burgesses and clergy, and being representative, it was virtually a Parliament, while the usual parliamentary balance of parties was wanting, as it consisted entirely of members of the opposition. The Tables and the Council entered into a constitutional struggle. Every proclamation of the Crown was met by a protest, which in Scotch law is held to postpone, at all events, the validity of the document against which it is directed. A game of hide and seek, ridiculous enough but for the important point at Uproars in The Tables. 1638] RENEWAL OF THE COVENANT Renewal of 1638. 639 issue, was played between the Council and the Protesters, who made a point of being present with a protest whenever a proclamation was read. At length, on the advice of Hope, the King's advocate, and of Johnstone of Warriston, it was determined to renew the Covenant, which had been originally drawn up in the Covenant. Elizabeth's reign at the time of the Catholic crisis. The document was accepted in its old form, with all the vehement language due to the critical time in which it had been written.1 It was first signed in the Greyfriars' churchyard, and then sent through Scotland for signatures. People crowded to the churches to accept it; some, we are told, in their excitement keeping their seats there from Friday to Sunday. granted to Things had reached such a pitch that the King thought it necessary to send a High Commissioner. Hamilton, the King's cousin, was chosen. The Covenanters demanded the abolition of the Court of High Commission, of the Service Book and Canons, a free Parliament, and a General Assembly. The Commissioners required an entire renunciation of the Covenant. After a lengthened struggle, to the surprise of all men, the King suddenly surrendered. All the claims of the Covenanters were granted, and a General claims of the Assembly was summoned to meet at Glasgow, in which Covenanters the Bishops were to be brought to trial. The meaning gain time. of this sudden change of policy was, that the King had determined to appeal to arms, and had desired Hamilton to gain time by any means in his power. In 1637, the outbreak of popular anger against the Service Book had occurred in Edinburgh. In April 1638 the unsuccessful issue of Hampden's appeal to law against the ship-money had been made known. In October of the same year the Tables had been organized, and the Covenant accepted by Scotland; and now, November, the General Assembly met at Glasgow. course of that Assembly was grand and orderly. The bly of 1688. Tables had contrived that there should be a considerable number of lay members present in it, and these drawn from the highest ranks of the nobility. It thus became virtually, although not in name, a Parliament. It busied itself, however, as was its duty, with ecclesiastical matters. Hopes were entertained that Hamilton, the Commissioner who held it, would remain till it had completed its work, and give it a show of legality. He remained while the preliminary work was being done, but when the Assembly proceeded to its real business, and declaring itself competent to inquire into the conduct of the Bishops, prepared to hear charges against them 1 See pp. 496, 534. The in General Assem Assembly dissolved, but continues its sitting. he withdrew, and made public declaration that the Assembly was dissolved. In spite of this, it continued its work, found all the Bishops guilty of Popish practices and immoral conduct, annulled all the Acts of preceding Assemblies from the year 1606,1 thus abolishing the Five Articles of Perth, condemned the Service Book and the Canons, and closed its session with declaring that Episcopacy and the acceptance of the Five Articles of Perth were contrary to the Confession of Faith. Preparations for war. 1639. It was plain that war was inevitable, and the Tables had been engaged in preparing for it. Nor was the risk in truth very great. Scotland, with the exception of the country round Aberdeen, which was under the influence of the Marquis of Huntly and shared in the views of the Court, was united, and at this time stronger than England. The country was full of experienced soldiers, who had returned from the Thirty Years' War, and were glad to find employment in their own country, under the command of Field-Marshal Alexander Leslie, who had returned from abroad, and had been appointed commander-in-chief. An army thus organized was certain to be vastly superior to the raw levies of England. Moreover, although the ship-money trial had given a fallacious appearance of triumph to the Crown in England, and supplied it with a revenue sufficient for time of peace, the Scots were not ignorant of the real feeling of the bulk of the English nation. Their objects, and those of the English Reformers, were so much alike, that it was impossible but that there should be sympathy between them. They had also applied successfully to France, where Richelieu was glad of an opportunity of revenging himself upon Charles for his former support of the Huguenots; for having more lately thwarted his plans in the Low Countries against Spain; and for having afforded asylum to Mary de Medici, the particular object of Richelieu's dislike. It was therefore with good heart that the Covenanters entered upon the war, with a formidable and well-drilled force of 22,000 foot and 500 horse. The numbers of this army, enormous in comparison with the population, show the general interest in the cause. France helps the Scotch. Charles had consulted his Council, and determined on war also. Strafford, indeed, conscious of the superiority of the Scotch discipline, recommended a war of defence, with the army occupying a threatening position on the Borders. But Charles, misled by the appearance of tranquillity in England, believing that Resources of England. 1 See page 606. 1639] WAR WITH SCOTLAND 641 the national dislike of Scotland would come to his aid, and with a ridiculous misconception of the strength of the Scotch, was inclined for stronger measures. A large army was to meet at York. Hamilton, with 5000 men, was to join Huntly at Aberdeen. Antrim, with the Irish Scotch, and Strafford, with the Catholic army he was organizing, were to attack the West of Scotland. But the whole preparations were a sham; of Hamilton's troops scarce 200 knew how to fire a musket. Montrose had already decoyed Huntly into his power, and captured Aberdeen, and the temper of England began to be evident when the Lords Brook and Say refused to sign a declaration which the King offered them, asserting that the Covenanters were rebels. The Scotch advance was admirably managed, the commissariat was well supplied, and in the drill and arrangements the knowledge of Leslie and his old soldiers left nothing to be desired. The Covenanters still wished not to drive matters to extremity. They obeyed a proclamation which forbade them to approach within ten miles of the Leslie at Border, and took up a position on the Hill of Dunse,1 Dunse Law. commanding all the roads from Berwick into Scotland. The King found them so formidable, and had become so conscious of his own weakness, that he thought a treaty would be desirable. Indirect means were taken to convey this news to the Scotch; and before long commissioners appeared in the tent of the English general to discuss a pacification. During the first meeting (June 11), the King himself made his appearance among them, and from that time onwards conducted the negotiations in person. This was a characteristic error on the part of Charles; it rendered any subsequent Treaty of disagreement a personal attack upon himself; and such Berwick. a disagreement very speedily followed. The main points of the Pacification were, that a free Assembly and a free Parliament should be held, at which, if possible, Charles himself should be present; that meanwhile the royal castles should be restored, and the forces of the Covenanters disbanded. But though the Articles had been reduced to writing, there was a great deal of verbal matter not very clearly defined between the negotiators. Before the Scotch commissioners left Berwick, their view of the whole bearing of the treaty was drawn up in a paper and distributed among the chiefs of the English army. This paper Charles declared to be full of falsehoods, and caused it to be burnt by the hangman in London. made it evident that the Pacification was not a real one. Such conduct 1 The Hill of Dunse was within the ten miles, still the halt there may be regarded as a real obedience to the command. on their part, hesitated to give up the royal castles, and, while disbanding their army, kept together their experienced officers. The Assembly and the Parliament were in due course held, but the King was not present. As the Covenanters well knew would be the case when they made the Pacification, these Assemblies only ratified completely the work of the Assembly of 1638. The Parliament, before the completion of its session, was prorogued by Charles, but resumed its sittings in spite of this order. set their conduct right with Charles, they had despatched two commissioners to London, one of whom was Lowdon, afterwards Arrest of To Chancellor. They were refused admittance to the King, and ordered to return, but were afterwards brought back to London, and Lowdon was there arrested. The cause of this arrest was a letter which had been intercepted, recommending a certain Mr. Colville as Scotch agent to Richelieu. Lowdon's name, with some others of the Scotch nobility, was appended to the letter, and there is indeed no doubt that negotiations were going on with France. All these things showed the hollowness of the late truce. The King again determined upon war; but his money was now exhausted. He hoped for a moment to procure £150,000 for protecting a Spanish fleet which had been driven by the Dutch to take refuge in the Downs. But De Witt and Van Tromp forestalled the completion of the bargain, and attacked and destroyed the Spanish ships in the presence of the English fleet, which lay idly by. Charles was too weak to resent the insult, and accepted the apology of the Dutch. Disappointed of this means of recruiting his exchequer, he could find no resource left but an appeal to Parliament. Both the King and his Council seem still to have believed in the general goodwill of the country, which he hoped still further to excite by the production of the Scotch letters to France. He had no intention of governing in a constitutional manner, but hoped that the spirit of England was sufficiently broken to enable him to use the Parliament as a means of obtaining supplies. The spirit in which it was assembled (April 13, 1640) is shown by the fact that the illegal exaction of ship-money and Privy Seals was continued without intermission. But when the opening for which they had been longing was once afforded them, the leaders of the popular party had no intention of allowing the oppor Short Parliament called in expectation of renewed war. Parliament, tunity to slip. No sooner was the Parliament opened, than Pym began the old tale of grievances. In vain the King begged them for subsidies, in vain did he offer |