Pym, Holles, Vane, Cromwell, Hyde, Falkland, were the leaders in the Commons; Essex, Warwick, Bedford, Broke, and Saye In the Lords. The great merchants of the City of London, which was already perhaps the greatest place of trade in the world, were on the same side.
Intentions of its leaders.No one had the least intention of upsetting the throne of King Charles. But in civil matters all were agreed in wishing to purify the Law Courts and to restore the ‘ancient constitution’, by which they meant the control of Parliament over the Crown, as it had existed before the Wars of the Roses. The ‘strong government’ of the Tudors, they said, had been necessary at the time; it was no longer necessary. The King of England ought to be a ‘limited monarch’, not an ‘absolute monarch’, and Charles must be made to realize the fact.
Work of its first nine months.So, in about nine months, the whole fabric of the civil government was thoroughly overhauled. The King’s one honourable and clever minister, the Earl of Strafford, was sent to the Tower and at length beheaded. Archbishop Laud was sent to the Tower. The judges who had twisted the law to please the King were removed, and provision was made against their twisting it in the future. Several new law courts, which had grown up in Tudor times, were taken away; the power of levying any taxes without full consent of Parliament was taken away; and it was decided that henceforward Parliament should meet at least every three years.
A rift in the nation.All this was done with the most thundering applause of the nation, from Tweed to Tamar, from Kent to Cumberland; for, as I have said, all men were agreed as to the ‘civil’ causes of complaint against their King. But it was another story when questions relating to religion
